So, Kai had done what he had to do. He lured the Cursed Devil away, giving Jet a chance to take the Jade Palace.
And now, he was being chased by that ancient, fallen god.
Kai felt like he was suffocating.
The fierce Will of the white dragon tore at the world, shrinking the distance between the two of them. It made the winds assault Kai while supporting his enemy, weighed down his wings, and made him dazed.
But even if the white dragon grew closer, the air around Kai gradually growing unbearably cold, he pushed himself forward.
Faster, and faster, and faster still... as fast as was humanly possible, and then beyond that.
The Bridge flashed below them. Then, the vast sprawl of streets that had grown on the slopes of the volcano.
And then, the volcano itself.
Until Kai dove into the clouds of ash rising from its smoking caldera.
The white dragon had almost caught him by then...
But Kai did not try to leave the volcano behind or continue to flee.
Instead, he let out a quiet roar, folded his wings...
And plummeted down.
Kai fell like a black spear, piercing the billowing pillar of smoke as he plunged into the incandescent lava. The heat immediately assaulted him, making him feel like he was going to melt despite the protection granted to him by the [Dragonslayer] Attribute.
It was no ordinary lava, after all. The volcanoes of the mountain chain that protected the world from the cold encroaching from the west were mysterious and mystical, having been created by the former ruler of the Jade Palace — the Jade Queen — with the help of the Great Citadel. Still, even if he was suffering from the heat, Kai dove deeper into the lava.
Past the ruins of the ancient city carved into the interior walls of the volcano and through the roof of the magma chamber, shattering it. And deeper still.
Deeper, deeper, and deeper...
Into the molten depths of earth.
Into the unknown and terrifying realm of heat and fire, where the horrors from whom the inhabitants of the ancient city had been desperate to protect themselves dwelled. By then, Kai was not simply suffering from the heat...
He was burning. He was burning alive.
But that was not important.
Because the white dragon had followed him into the fiery depths.
Up above, the lava froze solid from the cold that emanated from the Cursed Devil. But the deeper they dove, the hotter their surroundings were.
And at some point, the white dragon did not sap warmth out of the lava anymore. Instead, it was lava that was sapping the cold out of the dragon.
And so...
Suffering unimaginable pain, Kai dove even deeper.