Elemental Cats

Toz felt a few wisps of flame sneak inside the orb right before he closed it. Thankfully, he managed to control and put them out before they could touch anyone and cause damage. However, he couldn't get rid of the heat that easily, and the orb turned into a makeshift sauna.

But even when the inside of the orb was dizzyingly warm, Toz and the others could still tell that it was worse outside. The others didn't know that Toz's void metal was even better at shielding them from the heat caused by the magical explosion than most other metals, so they only thought the heat was dangerous, but not shockingly so.

However, Toz knew how effective his void metal was when it came to blocking magic. He could also sense how much the explosion had worn away on the orb. But even if Toz was the only one who knew exactly how powerful the explosion was, it didn't mean the others weren't thankful for the orb.

The tornado of flames raged on outside the orb for a couple of minutes. And the temperature within the orb rose to almost unbearable levels. It was enough to make them want to get out of it. But they knew that the temperature within was like tea when compared to the lava that was the temperature outside, so they stubbornly held out and focused on not dying. At least there wasn't any death attribute demonic energy water within the orb.

Eventually, the firestorm began calming down due to a lack of mana and fuel. But Toz still didn't take down the orb. Instead, he made sure it isolated the temperature even more.

The others looked at him questioningly. With the firestorm gone, shouldn't it be alright to leave the orb?

"The explosion may have passed, and the flames may have mostly died out, but it's still hotter than a Spark Skunk's ass. I can handle it, but you five will turn into five pieces of burnt meat. So, sit still and wait patiently."

Toz words were spoken calmly, but they still made the others listen to them obediently.

Since no one felt like talking, the six of them sat in silence and waited until Toz judged the temperature had cooled down to temperatures bearable for the others.

Toz warned them that it would still be hot before he lowered the orb. He would have wanted to wait longer since the others would have to waste a lot of mana to protect themselves. But they had to get out of the Fortress as quickly as possible before they were surrounded by legions of soldiers of Death. They also had to make sure that the Fountain was broken and could no longer continue supplying the Tribe of Death with unending amounts of demonic energy.

The others took a deep breath and prepared themselves, even if they didn't think it would be as hot as Toz said it would be. The one who seemed to take Toz's words most seriously was Wyrie, and she mustered most of her mana to reinforce her body to protect herself against the heat.

Toz sighed and helped her by shielding her with his own mana. It was partly his fault that she didn't have enough mana to protect herself. Although some of the explosion's power was due to Wyrie's amplification magic, most of it was due to how much power Toz had used to fill his Fireball.

The others noticed Toz's actions and added some more protection to themselves.

Seeing that everyone claimed to be ready, Toz dispelled the orb of void metal and removed the only thing separating them all from the aftermath of the combined efforts of Toz, mifter, Seich, and Wyrie.

Several pairs of eyebrows were burned off almost instantly. Braxton's, Seich's, Mifter's, and Hal's skin began drying out, and their throats were parched after less than half a breath. They hurried to strengthen their mana protection, silently blaming themselves for not listening to Toz.

Seeing how badly affected the others were by the heat, Wyrie hurried to thank Toz. When she did, she noticed Toz's gaze and followed it with her eyes.

The others also composed themselves and looked around at what had once been the Fountain of Death's chamber.

The stone the pedestal was made from might have been an incredible material. But the rest of the room wasn't nearly as special. The attack had been concentrated on the Fountain of Death, but the rest of the room was far from intact.

The floor was still half-molten and showed how intense the explosion had been since waves had formed on the stone's surface.

The walls were in a slightly better state since they were merely scorched instead of melted. However, the earthen wall that Braxton had put up was gone. There were traces of it getting blown away to the other side of the hallway before dissipating.

However, no one cared about the open entrance to the chamber since the glowing red pedestal in the center of the chamber took their attention.

The pedestal stood in a pool of molten stone and was slowly tipping to one side. But the pedestal itself was mostly intact. The stone was scorched and glowing red, but it wasn't on the verge of breaking down.

But it wasn't continuously spouting liquid demonic energy anymore, so even if they hadn't destroyed it, they had still partly succeeded.

Unfortunately, they weren't done just yet. They could hear wailing and clanking armor coming from further down the hall.

"We can't leave it here."

Toz's words made the others, who had already started retreating to the archway, look back at him.

"What?"

"Damn it. He's right, Hal. The pedestal isn't broken. What if they repair it?"

Seich didn't think of the same thing as Toz. Toz wanted to take the Fountain since it was a treasure. But Seich was worried about what would happen if they repaired the chamber and it began spewing demonic energy again. If that happened, their mission would have been for nothing.

The sound of armored footsteps rapidly approaching rang in their ears.