The journey to the mountain peak's caldera took time, as the sheer elevation forced them to navigate narrow switchbacks cut directly into the scorched basalt.
Rhys focused his wind mana to wrap tightly around his boots, creating pressurized air pockets that absorbed the downward momentum and propelled his feet with explosive bursts, granting him massive, leaping strides across deep sulfuric ravines.
Mira followed suit effortlessly.
Channels of dark crimson fire erupted in controlled, rhythmic pulses beneath the soles of her boots, launching her athletic frame in wide, sweeping arcs as she leaped clean across the bubbling acid pools of the swamp and bounded straight onto the burning basalt slopes of the lava-infested foothills.
As they climbed higher, the terrain transformed into a suffocating, hostile wasteland.
