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“Phew~ Finally managed to escape.”
Erika was overjoyed.
She knew that if she had relied on normal means, she would never have been able to shake off Gwen.
To prevent getting caught, she had carefully prepared a teleportation spell in advance.
At the perfect moment, when Gwen was still regaining her senses, she activated it instantly!
Fortunately, when Professor Victor first arrived at the academy, he had taught her the proper way to use teleportation magic.
Although she couldn’t teleport dozens of kilometers away like a third-tier mage, she could still manage a few kilometers.
“Gwen probably thinks I’ve teleported far away by now.”
Instead of teleporting to the mountain peak, Erika chose to cross a few kilometers mid-mountain, effectively reaching the other side of the volcano.
The surrounding landscape was still barren, with little difference in appearance.
Erika began heading toward the volcanic summit. The higher she went, the more she could feel the temperature rising.
Before long, she was already feeling the unbearable heat.
The surrounding rocks emitted steam as the moisture in the air evaporated due to the high temperature.
As she continued upwards, she even saw various rocks that had cracked due to the extreme heat.
Looking at the desolate scenery around her, Erika felt uneasy but pushed forward despite the intense heat.
At the same time, she didn’t forget to cast a few heat-resistant spells on herself.
As a mage, she knew that this phenomenon was caused by the intense fire elemental concentration on the volcano.
“I knew it. This isn’t just a simple volcanic eruption.”
“A normal eruption wouldn’t generate such an immense magical energy field.”
Erika confirmed her suspicions—only by reaching the summit would she be able to see the full picture.
Meanwhile, the old mages only focused on blocking everything with magic barriers, never considering addressing the problem at its source.
“Stubborn old mages.”
She muttered under her breath, then suddenly thought of Victor, who was also a third-tier mage.
The youngest third-tier mage, a record that no one had surpassed to this day.
‘Could the volcano’s anomaly really have been caused by Victor?’
Crack—
As she pondered, the sound of a stone shattering behind her snapped her attention back.
“What was that!?”
She swiftly turned around and saw a red hedgehog burrowing out of the ground, its body wrapped in faint flames, charging straight toward her.
“A second-tier magical beast! A Fire Hedgehog.”
Without hesitation, Erika formed a magic circle and aimed at the creature.
[Second-tier magic: Water Cannon]
A large sphere of water rapidly spun in her hands before launching forward in an instant.
The Fire Hedgehog was blasted back dozens of meters, landing on its back with its legs up in the air.
The flames on its body completely evaporated, leaving it charred black.
Clearly, it was dead.
A second-tier magical beast was no match for an elite mage who had trained for years.
A one-hit kill was only natural.
“That was easy.”
Erika could hardly believe it—this was her first time defeating a magical beast in the wild.
So, she wasn’t weak after all.
She felt proud of her courage.
Vesuvius Volcano was indeed a dangerous place.
Fire-type magical beasts were common here.
The higher she climbed, the more beasts appeared.
And not just in number—their strength increased proportionally as well.
At first, she could handle them easily, but as she progressed, the battles became more difficult.
The closer she got to the summit, the stronger the monsters became.
Erika could still barely manage, but something felt off.
“I recognize these creatures from academy lessons, but why are they much stronger than what we were taught?”
Another Fire Hedgehog jumped out of the ground, but this time, Erika had to use several spells to defeat it completely.
Compared to the previous one, its claws were sharper, and the flames on its back burned fiercer.
Naturally, its attacks were also much stronger.
“Have these magical beasts… been strengthened?”
The thought flashed through Erika’s mind.
“The concentrated fire elements around here have made them more powerful.”
The intensified fire element concentration wasn’t a coincidence.
She was determined to go further, believing that the summit held the answers she sought.
However, the scorching heat was beginning to make her feel dizzy, and the increasingly powerful monsters made her hesitate.
Even her magic was struggling to resist the relentless heat.
Erika stopped in place, deciding to rest and think of a way to reach the summit.
Suddenly, she remembered the last remaining bottle of magic potion in her bag.
She looked at the potion, then up toward the peak.
A spark of inspiration struck her.
“I have a plan!”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain…
Gwen sprinted toward the summit, despite the suffocating heat causing sweat to pour down her face.
Her silver sword, as cold as ice, sliced through the magical beasts blocking her path one after another.
“First Victor, and now the Duke’s daughter.”
“Why do they both insist on making trouble for themselves?”
Did she want to find Victor?
Of course, she did—she was nearly going insane from the desire.
She wanted to confront Victor face-to-face and demand whether he was responsible for the volcano’s anomaly.
And if he admitted it, her fist would immediately land on his face.
However, she had orders to follow—she had to protect the mages and the civilians.
“Victor… you better be ready.”
Gwen cut down another beast in her path, moving forward like an unstoppable force.
Before long, she encountered an obstacle.
Before her, molten lava surged up from the volcanic cracks as if the volcano itself was bleeding from a wound.
With the lava blocking her path, she had no way forward.
The heat radiating through her armor became unbearable, forcing her to take a few steps back. She stared at the summit, contemplating a way to proceed.
“It’s heavily injured… it’s definitely heavily injured.”
Vega muttered in shock.
Before him, the shell of the Calamity of Fire was shedding, its wounds pouring out an astonishing amount of lava.
That was the blood of the Calamity of Fire.
“What a terrifying creature.”
Vega kept muttering, but his eyes were fixed on Victor.
[Third-tier magic: Raging Storm]
[Third-tier magic: Sandstorm Mudflow]
Magic formations of different colors spun in the sky, each continuously unleashing spells.
The volcano beneath them roared with surging magma, causing the surrounding cliffs to crack.
Victor relentlessly cast spells, stacking multiple debuffs onto Gulldon.
As the damage accumulated, Gulldon’s movements became sluggish. Even the chance to graze Victor no longer existed.
This battle was altering Vega’s perception of reality.
Then, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived.
One side entered a weakened state.
But it wasn’t Victor.
It was Gulldon—the so-called invincible calamity that no human could defeat was now being pushed to the brink by a single man.