"Anna?" Azalea called out. She had taken an awful lot of time in there, and even the flight spell was starting to waver. "Hey," he said, but there was no reply.
He frowned. It seemed they had found the original cave at last.
He willed himself forward, floating into the cave while skillfully avoiding the frozen stalactites suspended above. The cave was freezing cold, colder than the outside air. He closed his eyes and focused.
Fire.
Suddenly the tattoo on his hand flared to life. He imagined warmth spreading slightly, coating him in heat to fight the cold. This time he was extremely careful, using minimal ether, and it actually worked. The heat wrapped around him like a comfortable blanket.
"Now this is convenient," he commented with a satisfied nod. He kept flying deeper into the cave, and then he saw it.
"The book."
There it was, far ahead—a skeleton leaning against the far end of the cave, holding a book close to its chest like a precious treasure.
He looked around and spotted pink hair sprawled unconsciously on the cave floor. Some creature was embedded at the other end of the cave, and the whole place looked like it had been exposed to intense heat. The creature wasn't dead, but one of its arms had been chopped off. However, it still had three remaining arms.
"Sighs." He looked back at Anna's unconscious form.
"Hey, get up, or continue to sleep in absolute unbearable pain." Instantly her body adhered to his words and her eyes shot open. "AHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed, squirming in agony.
"Good," he said, then turned toward the creature. "FUCK YOU! I HATE YOU! ARGHH!" For the first time since he'd known her, she actually cursed properly. Not that he cared. "Now kill that thing. I don't have all day."
He pointed his finger at a nearby stalactite which looked slick with ice. He shot a thin beam of fire which bounced off the first stalactite, then the second, then the third, before hitting the creature straight in the forehead. It woke up immediately, and since the beam had come from her direction, it set its sights on her once more.
"ONE DAY YOU WILL PAY! ONE DAY!" She roared as the creature lunged toward her. She was already injured but there was no time to lick her wounds. She instantly stood up and dashed toward the creature, manifesting both a sword of fire and one of ice. In these few torturous hours, her control over her affinity had skyrocketed, but she didn't even notice.
"Pardon me, dead one," Azalea said, kicking the skeleton. The bones snapped, letting the book drop. He took it while still levitating, then rose higher into the air. Looking down, he could see she was fighting for her life. The creature seemed to be quite a high tier.
"Kill it in the next ten minutes or stop breathing," he said leisurely, opening the book and ignoring her curses. He flipped the first page, then his expression turned serious. "It really is it," he thought.
A treasure trove of alchemy knowledge he was only aware of because of his curiosity while playing the game, which had led him to explore uncharted territories in the game's vast map. "This is the first step..."
"Let's get powerful first... Goddess of life," he muttered. "I just hope you can kill me before I find you." He said wickedly, completely unaware of Anna's dire situation. She had barely five minutes left before her body began rebelling against her. She had to kill the creature, but it was no ordinary beast—it was a tier six evolved. She shouldn't even be able to touch a hair on this creature, but surprisingly she was fighting it on near equal ground. Soon, however, the scales of advantage would tip toward the creature.
"AHHHHHHH!" She collided with a wall after getting slammed by the extra arm of the creature, then caught a glimpse of the young man actually reading a book during her life-or-death battle.
"Haah... Haaah... haaah... Fine. If I'm dying, I'm taking you down with me." Her eyes were dark with murderous intent.
Suddenly her ether pool expanded tremendously. She forcibly extracted so much ether from her body that she was going to blow this whole place up and kill them all. At this point she had lost it—she wanted him dead.
But then...
...she saw him flying out of the cave peacefully without looking back.
"WAIT! STOP! COME BACK YOU BASTARD!" She tried to coalesce enough ether but she wasn't fast enough. He had already flown away leisurely.
She looked forward. The creature was already lunging, all arms aiming to tear her apart.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
BOOOOOOM!