There was still about two hundred meters to go, but another hundred meters further was the limit—steel would melt there, let alone flesh and blood. It might even turn into steam.

His ice ability couldn’t create Arctic ice, so it couldn’t compete with the magma. What was strange was that the magma was so close to the surface. Usually, doesn’t it stay deep underground? Could it be due to the crystal stone’s magnetic field?

“Cough, cough… damn it!”

Xie Cheng felt helpless. Using his ice ability in a place like this was no easy feat. The dense fog alone was choking, and soon he felt his strength fading.

Helpless, he could only climb back up with a sense of despair, but climbing up was clearly much harder than descending, especially when he couldn’t see the flames erupting from behind him. At any moment, his back could be burned…

Of course, the main concern was not to let the flames reach the vines. Even though the vines near the volcano could withstand high temperatures, they couldn’t handle being both roasted and burned.

Although being cautious, Xie Cheng was still almost choked by the smoke while dodging a burst of flames. His mind grew unstable, and his physical strength was drained. His ice ability failed instantly. In less than a second, he felt his body surrounded by intense heat, as if he were inside an oven!

He quickly focused his mind and tried to use his power again. He felt a bit better, but then he saw another fire already burning on the vines. He realized the situation was bad, but it was already too late. His physical strength had been exhausted, and the ice power couldn’t put out the fire on the vines. The flames grew stronger and stronger, and it wouldn’t be long before it snapped, causing him to fall…

“Damn!”

Xie Cheng gritted his teeth and tried to climb higher, but he could already hear the sound of the vines cracking from the fire. No matter how hard he tried to calm himself, it was useless.

This time, he was doomed, he thought, his mind filled with images of his family and his brothers who had lived and died with him.

“Crack…”

Finally, a crisp sound rang out, and Xie Cheng felt his body lose weight and begin to fall. Looking up, he saw the volcano’s rim getting farther and farther away. He decided to rip off his goggles and take one last look at the pure sky that he would never see again on Earth.

He hoped that those on Emperor Star would show some mercy to the Earth government, considering he had died.

“Whoo, whoo, whoo…”

The sound of hot air rushing by filled his ears. With his eyes closed, Xie Cheng could clearly feel himself slowly approaching death, even smelling the scent of his own hair burning. It was a strange and subtle feeling—he no longer feared it. Closing his eyes, his mind became eerily calm.

“Roar…”

Suddenly, a deafening roar drowned out the sound of the wind. With half-closed eyes, Xie Cheng saw a massive shadow fall from the sky, like a dark cloud that covered most of the volcano’s rim. Then, a pair of claw-like talons grabbed his shoulders, and his body, which had been falling, was pulled upward, slowly moving away from the intense heat below.

In that moment, Xie Cheng felt an intense survival instinct surge inside him, and his mind became chaotic and anxious. Indeed, humans tend to expose their most primal weaknesses when confronted with hope—greed for life and fear of death.

“Ugh, cough…”

As he inhaled the cool air, Xie Cheng realized he had been saved. He didn’t know who, or rather, what had saved him. After all, the sensation of being firmly gripped as though by steel told him that the one who had saved him was definitely not human… Could it be Ada and the others?

“Ugh… cough, cough… ugh…”

But even though he had been saved, he wasn’t sure if he would survive. The unknown claws suddenly squeezed harder, making it difficult for him to breathe. Soon, his vision started to darken. He thought to himself, Please, don’t let this be a twisted way to die. To see hope in despair, only to fall back into despair in the face of hope—there was nothing worse than this. No matter who the hero was, could they at least be a little more serious when saving someone?