"Phew~ I've finally managed to escape successfully."

Erica was overjoyed.

She knew that under normal circumstances, she would never be able to shake off Gwen.

To prevent being caught, she had deliberately prepared a teleportation spell well in advance.

Waiting for the moment when Gwen wasn't paying attention, she activated it instantly!

She was very fortunate that Professor Viktor had taught her how to use teleportation magic correctly when he first came to the academy.

Although she couldn't teleport dozens of kilometers away like a third-tier mage, she could still manage a range of a few kilometers.

"Gwen probably thinks I've teleported far away."

Instead of teleporting to the mountaintop, Erica had moved several kilometers across the mountainside, essentially reaching the other side of the mountain.

The surrounding scenery was still somewhat desolate, with little change.

Erica began to walk towards the volcano's peak. As she went higher, she could feel the temperature rising significantly.

She hadn't gone far before feeling unbearably hot.

The surrounding rocks were emitting steam, as the moisture in the air was being evaporated by the high temperature.

Further up, she could even see various rock fragments that had burst due to the extreme heat.

Looking at the scenery around her, Erica felt apprehensive, but she continued to climb the mountain despite the scorching heat.

At the same time, she didn't forget to add a few heat-resistant status effects to herself.

As a mage, she knew this phenomenon was caused by the abundance of fire elements on the volcano.

"I knew it, this isn't a simple volcanic eruption."

"How could a normal volcanic eruption bring out so many magical elements?"

Erica confirmed her suspicions. Only by going up the mountain could she see more.

Her father and the others only knew how to use magic to isolate everything, without ever thinking about solving the problem from its root.

"Those old mages with their rigid thinking."

She muttered to herself, then suddenly thought of Viktor, who was also a third-tier mage.

The youngest third-tier mage, whose record no one had been able to surpass until now.

'The volcanic disturbance... Was it really caused by Viktor?'

Crack——

As she was thinking, the sound of a stone being crushed came from behind her.

"What's that!?"

She whirled around to look. A red hedgehog had burrowed out of the ground, its body wrapped in faint flames, charging straight at Erica.

"Level two magical beast! Fire Hedgehog."

Erica casually conjured a magic array, aiming it at the creature.

[Second-tier Magic: Water Cannon]

As she spoke, a huge water bullet began to spin rapidly in Erica's hand, then burst forth in an instant.

The Fire Hedgehog was knocked back tens of meters, landing on the ground with its four legs in the air.

The flames on its body had completely evaporated, leaving it looking like charcoal.

It was clearly dead.

Naturally, the strength of a level two magical beast was no match for an elite mage who had been training for years.

An instant kill was to be expected.

"That was so easy."

Erica could hardly believe it. This was her first time defeating a magical beast in the wild.

It turned out she wasn't weak at all.

She felt proud of her bravery.

Mount Vesuvius was inherently a rather dangerous place.

Fire-type magical beasts were quite widespread.

The higher one went, the more numerous the magical beasts became.

Not only that, but their strength also increased in proportion to their numbers.

At first, she could handle them easily, but later on, it started to become more challenging.

The closer to the summit, the more powerful the monsters became.

Erica could barely manage to defeat them, but she felt something wasn't right.

"I recognized all these magical beasts from the academy, but why is there such a big difference between their actual strength and what we were taught in class?"

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Another Fire Hedgehog sprang out of the ground. This time, Erica had to use several spells before she could completely defeat it.

Compared to the previous magical beasts, its claws had become sharper, and the flames on its back were more intense.

Naturally, its aggressiveness had also increased.

"These magical beasts, have they been enhanced?"

This thought flashed through Erica's mind.

"The dense fire elements in the surroundings have made them stronger."

The increase in fire elements wasn't a coincidence.

She wanted to climb further up the mountain, as Erica felt that she would find the answers she was looking for at the summit.

However, the terrifying temperature was starting to make Erica feel dizzy, and the increasingly powerful magical beasts were also making her hesitant.

Even her magic was gradually failing to withstand the high temperature of the flames.

Erica stood still, deciding to rest and think of a way to reach the summit.

Suddenly, she remembered the last magic potion left in her bag.

She looked at the magic potion, then raised her head to gaze towards the summit.

A flash of inspiration struck her.

"I've got an idea!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain.

Gwen was sprinting non-stop towards the summit, even though the surrounding temperature was so hot that she was sweating profusely.

The silver sword in her hand was as cold as ice, cutting down one magical beast after another that tried to block her path.

"First Viktor, and now the Duke's daughter."

"Why do they all like to cause trouble?"

Didn't she want to find Viktor?

No, of course she did. To be precise, she wanted to find him so badly she was almost going crazy.

She wanted to find Viktor and confront him face to face about whether he was really the cause of the volcanic disturbance.

If he said yes, her fist would land on Viktor's face the next second.

However, Gwen had to obey orders. She had to protect all the mages and the residents.

"Viktor... you just wait."

Gwen swiftly cut off the heads of the magical beasts blocking her path, running towards the summit as if there were no obstacles.

Soon, she too encountered a barrier.

In front of her, astonishing amounts of lava were gushing out from the cracks in the volcano's surface.

It was as if the volcano was wounded and bleeding.

This made it impossible for her to continue forward.

The scorching heat of her armor was unbearable, forcing her to step back and look at the summit, pondering for a solution.

......

"Severely wounded... It must be severely wounded."

Vega kept marveling.

Before it, the shell of the Fire Calamity had fallen off, and an astonishing amount of lava was flowing out from the wounds on its body.

This was the Fire Calamity, with vast amounts of lava flowing out from within its body.

That was its "blood".

"What a terrifying creature."

Vega kept exclaiming.

It was referring to Viktor.

[Third-tier Magic: Torrential Rend]

[Third-tier Magic: Sandstorm Mudflow]

Various magical arrays swirled in the sky, with five arrays continuously outputting magic in the air.

Below, the volcano was constantly churning with lava, and spots of magma were bursting out from the surrounding rock walls.

Viktor kept casting spells, adding various negative enhancements to Guledon's body.

After the damage accumulated to the point of severe injury, Guledon's movements became extremely slow, and even the chance to scratch Viktor no longer existed.

This battle was enough to change Vega's perception.

It didn't even blink its eyes, ignoring its burning feathers.

"It can't be, is he really going to win?"

If Viktor won, Vega would be willing to call him the strongest human it had ever seen.

No, that's not right.

Even if Viktor didn't win, his strength was already beyond imagination.

To be precise, what he possessed wasn't overwhelming power.

The gap between Guledon and Viktor was like an unbridgeable chasm.

Guledon's form was enormous, so powerful that it only needed to hit Viktor once to kill him completely.

However...

It couldn't do it.

Even though Viktor needed to defeat it countless times, it only needed to win once.

Yet in this battle with such a huge disparity, Viktor had turned the impossible into possible with his own hands.

After nearly three days and two nights of intense fighting, Guledon had only managed to scratch Viktor once.

As for Viktor?

In battle, he was as calm as a stroll in the park, completely at ease.

Guledon's attacks seemed to be in slow motion in his eyes. For some unnecessary attacks, he didn't even need to teleport to avoid them.

Just a few steps were enough to dodge them perfectly.

The damage he had taken earlier didn't seem to affect his condition. Instead, it had ignited his fighting spirit.

In the time since he was injured, his magic use had become even more fluid!

Finally! Someone fell into a weakened state first.

The weakened one wasn't Viktor, but Guledon.

The Calamity, which humans were supposedly unable to defeat, was for the first time driven into a corner by a single human.

Its health had dropped to thirty percent, an absolute state of weakness.

Its shell no longer glowed, and its power and speed had decreased significantly.

Vega was dumbfounded. In that amazing state earlier, it couldn't even scratch Viktor.

And now, it has fallen into a weakened state.

Doesn't this mean Viktor was sure to win?

Vega looked towards Viktor, but found that he didn't seem to think so.

Not only had he not relaxed, but his expression was solemn, on high alert.

He was even muttering to himself.

"That attack is coming."

That attack? Which attack?

Vega was stunned. Then, a terrifying tremor resonated in the air, almost causing it to lose control of its body balance.

The volcano shook violently, and even the ground began to tremble.

The earth gradually disintegrated, the lava slowly ceased to flow, and a giant object began to surge upwards from beneath the layers of magma in the volcano.

The entire volcano teetered on the brink of collapse, and Guledon's eyes shone like two suns, emitting scorching light.

A pillar of fire broke through layers of lava, melting rocks, covering the sky and the earth.

Countless fiery rocks wrapped in lava fell everywhere, like a shower of meteors.

"[Wrath of the Flame Rift]."

Viktor knew exactly what this was and slowly spoke the name of Guledon's final move.

Vega, while dodging the rapidly falling fiery rocks in the air, looked at the pillar of fire that was about to break through the constraints of the volcano's crater diameter, and cursed:

"Fire Calamity! You fucking sore loser!"

How could anyone dodge this?

"Dodge?"

Viktor sneered.

He had never thought about dodging!

Almost at the last moment, Viktor's eyes lit up with an astonishing azure color.

Terrifying magical elements enveloped the entire base of the volcano!

In an instant, a massive phantom castle appeared in the sky, as if it would completely suppress the entire mountain mouth.

The castle lit up with multiple enormous magical arrays.

Hum—Hum—Hum—

One... Two... Three!

A total of three barrier arrays began to construct rapidly. The arrays interconnected, and the patterns of the three layers gradually intertwined, forming a heaven-reaching ark at the center of the giant array, like a sacred tree bud suddenly blooming.

The endless power made Vega feel the danger even from mid-air above the volcano.

The sun-obscuring array slowly descended, breaking through layers of gloomy clouds. For a moment, it seemed to reveal a vast expanse of azure sky.

A powerful pressure enveloped all creatures except Viktor.

The gigantic Guledon's feet sank into the ground, its head barely able to lift.

Vega was also knocked down by this pressure, coincidentally landing on Viktor's shoulder.

"War magic!? Damn it, when did he set this up!?"

Vega looked at the enormous array falling from the sky.

Those fiery rocks carrying lava vanished instantly like pebbles in the face of the war magic.

Once again perched on the shoulder, it could no longer utter a word.

It could only inwardly grumble: 'Isn't war magic supposed to require a group of mages to cast?'

'This freak can cast it alone, isn't that too much?'

The next second, the pillar of fire rising from the ground collided with the ark from the sky.

As the two world-destroying attacks clashed, Vega could no longer hear the surrounding sounds.

There were only dazzling light waves and a sky-piercing momentum.

The powerful collision of attacks even tore the sound apart completely, and the airflow shattered the mountain body, causing it to collapse frantically.

In a daze, it seemed to hear Viktor's chant entering its ears.

"[Magic Imperial Capital — Fall of the Ark of Apocalypse]"

Zing——!!!

A white light shot into the sky, enveloping everything——