The heat came first.
It pressed in from every direction—not the sharp burn of fire, but the deep, dense weight of something ancient, something elemental. It didn't sear his skin. It pressed into his bones.
Thane inhaled slowly.
The moment he opened his eyes, the Archive changed again.
The stone floor under his feet dissolved into dark mist, and the world tilted forward. He didn't fall. He shifted—relocated—transported to the edge of a massive, circular basin glowing from below like the inside of a volcano's heart.
He stood on a narrow ledge of cracked obsidian.
Below him, lava churned.
Bright orange. Thick. Alive.
It moved in slow tides, casting molten shadows up the jagged walls. The heat here wasn't decorative. It was real. Immediate. It clawed at his lungs and made sweat bead along his arms and spine.
He stepped forward once, squinting into the haze.
A single platform floated above the lava, barely wide enough to stand on. Far beyond it, across a river of heat, rose another floating disk. And at the center of that final platform was a pedestal.
Atop it: a sphere.
Faintly glowing.
He didn't need the Archive's voice to understand.
Get there. Or burn.
He raised his hand and summoned the screen, steadying his breath as his mana responded, pulsing faintly behind his eyes.
[STATUS]
🧍 Name: Thane🧬 Race: Human🌍 Origin: Unknown Plane❤️ Vitality: 4💪 Strength: 3⚡ Agility: 5🧠 Intelligence: 6🔥 Mana: 3 (30/30)🔁 Passives: • Law of Absolute Repetition(Active) • Quiet Casting • Flow Casting • Magma Affinity – Dormant • Poison Resistance – Lv. 2 — EXP: 4 / 25🎒 Skills: • Firebolt – Lv. 1 — EXP: 22 / 100 — Mana Cost: 10 • Flame Arc – Lv. 1 — EXP: 6 / 100 — Mana Cost: 12 • Burning Chain – Lv. 1 — EXP: 4 / 100 — Mana Cost: 14 • Flame Ward – Lv. 1 — EXP: 0 / 100 — Mana Cost: 8 • Flameblade – Lv. 1 — EXP: 3 / 100 — Mana Cost: 10📈 Level: 1🧪 EXP: 30 / 100
His skills were growing.
But nothing he had prepared him for walking across lava.
He looked ahead again.
The first stone platform hovered about twelve feet away. It wasn't still. It rocked gently over the glowing surface, like a ship adrift in a molten sea.
Farther out, the others floated at increasing distances, each more unstable than the last. The final platform barely held together, its edges cracked, as if daring him to try.
He didn't wait.
He backed up, took two short steps, and jumped.
The landing was harder than expected.
The stone shifted under his weight, dipping sharply before rebounding. He dropped to a crouch, caught his balance, and stood again—eyes fixed on the next jump.
Then a sound cracked across the basin.
A sharp hissss.
He turned toward it.
A fissure in the lava had opened nearby, and from it, a burst of steam and fire shot skyward.
Another burst erupted ahead of him.
A warning.
You don't just cross. You adapt.
He leapt to the next platform, knees bent, body low.
As soon as his feet hit the stone, another blast of lava hissed up behind him, barely missing his heel.
He sprinted toward the next stone, heart pounding.
These platforms weren't just obstacles—they were triggers.
He landed again.
The stone cracked beneath his boots.
He dropped to one knee.
The edge glowed bright orange.
It was breaking apart.
He had seconds.
Flame Ward.
The fire wrapped around him, a shimmer of heat blurring his shape as he lunged forward, leaping to a half-solid stone just ahead.
The ward softened the heat's bite as lava surged below.
Another burst erupted beside him.
He turned his head just in time to see the third stone sink into the molten sea behind him.
No turning back.
Ahead, a wider platform waited. But it wasn't just stone.
It shimmered red, as if layered with barely-cooled magma.
He stepped toward it slowly.
The crust underfoot bent with each step. A sticky, semi-solid surface that bubbled and hissed beneath the weight of his boot.
Too soft to hold for long... too hot to risk standing still.
He backed up and summoned Flameblade.
But not to strike.
This time, he reversed the grip and stabbed it straight into the magma crust.
The blade sank in... and something responded.
The heat twisted.
The crust thickened underfoot, just for a moment.
The screen flashed.
[Magma Shaping: Initiated] • You have interfaced flame through semi-liquid stone • Stability: 11% • Result: Marginal • Prototype Skill: Lava Step
That's twice now.
The first moment back in Trial Five, and now again.
His Flameblade wasn't just a weapon anymore.
It was a key.
He walked forward slowly, the crust firming beneath him just long enough for five strides.
Then it cracked.
He cast again.
Lava Step.
The surface responded.
It wasn't perfect.
The crust warped under his heels, and the heat licked at his shins, but it held.
He made it to the next platform.
Collapsed to his hands and knees.
Then looked up.
The final stretch floated before him—three narrow obsidian plates drifting across a lake of active lava.
The pedestal pulsed at the end.
His prize.
But nothing in the Archive came without cost.
A roar echoed across the chamber.
From the lava, a shape rose.
Not a monster.
Not quite.
A form—vaguely humanoid, made entirely of living magma. Long arms, no face, dragging limbs of glowing rock and molten veins.
It stepped onto the first of the three plates and stood silently between Thane and the crystal.
He stood slowly.
Every part of his body ached.
But he smiled anyway.
You want me to fight fire... with lava.
He reached for the blade on his back.
It pulsed in response.
Not hot.
Not violent.
Ready.
He stepped forward.
And the molten creature charged.
Thane didn't hesitate.
He activated Flameblade, then cast Lava Step mid-motion, hardening the path beneath him as he sprinted.
The creature's fist came down.
He rolled, spun, and slashed across the molten arm.
The flame hissed.
The sword connected.
The creature flinched—not in pain, but acknowledgment.
This was a test.
Not of power.
But of acceptance.
He drove the blade into the platform, cast Lava Step again, and leapt past the creature as the hardened stone held just long enough.
He reached the final disk.
The pedestal shimmered.
He touched it.
The lava pulsed.
The creature vanished.
And the platform began to lower.
The screen returned.
"Trial Six Complete."
"Magma Affinity: Activated."
"Lava-based spell casting unlocked."
The lava below no longer threatened him.
It respected him.
The Archive had opened another door.
And Thane had passed through with blade in hand.