Rion stood still at the heart of the crater, his eyes closed, and the golden aura swirled around his body as if wanting to join the battle going on around him.

Gusts emitting from the collision of Haden and the flame monster hit him, but he stayed focused on achieving control over the conceptual firmament of freedom.

He inhaled deeply and murmured, "Free..."

Golden radiance poured from his back, and his whispered words twisted into something he could not truly comprehend. A moment later, the conceptual firmament of freedom manifested, but as soon as his will brushed against it, it shattered like fragile glass.

Rion attempted again, but the result was no different. Repeating the same action without greater understanding was pointless; however, doing so allowed him to gain the fragment of insight he needed to advance.

Each failure gave him something; if it wasn't the answer it told him the questions that he needed to skip over.

Time seemed to stop for him. He no longer felt annoyed or irritated at failure; instead, he accepted them and moved on with his next attempt.

Attempt after attempt followed in succession, and Rion disregarded everything else.

He completely forgot about the battle raging around him because he no longer needed to recall it. His success in mastering the conceptual firmament of freedom was the sole path to victory. Forcing progress would not only slow him down, but it would also cost countless lives that could have been saved through patience.

Even so, he did not pause or decelerate to explore the countless possibilities of the conceptual firmament of freedom. He focused only on what was essential.

Around him, Haden and the flame monster clashed against one another.

Even though Haden wanted to keep the flame monster down, it was simply impossible.

The flame monster possessed no physical body; he could only affect it through his aura.

Unfortunately, his aura reserves were low due to his battle with The Remnant and his efforts to escape the dark hell that had imprisoned him. Because of this, every attack he made had to be executed with absolute precision.

The flame monster was far faster than The Remnant, and its strikes were far deadlier since it had no limit to the energy it could expend. It felt no physical pain, and exhaustion did not exist for it… It could continue fighting endlessly.

The flame monster was simply the worst enemy to everybody.

Haden drove his aura-cloaked spear into the flame monster's abdomen, sending it hurtling away.

He pursued immediately, and just as it was about to crash into the ground, he swung again — but the monster abruptly split itself into two, and Haden's spear cut through nothing but empty air.

The flame monster rebuilt itself beside him, an aura skin formed around him, and it punched right at his chest.

The moment the blow landed, its fist expanded and detonated.

Haden's aura skin fractured instantly, and he was blasted backwards.

Just like Haden, it followed after him, purple fire trailing in its wake as it moved so quickly it appeared to vanish.

Haden plunged his spear into the earth, pivoted around its shaft, and landed firmly on the ground.

The flame monster appeared before him and swung its fist.

He yanked the spear free, spun it, and struck the monster's hand, deflecting it away.

Its fist detonated once more, but Haden was unharmed. He cloaked his hand in aura, seized the monster's other arm, and spun it before hurling it skyward.

The flame monster soared toward the boundless sky as a vicious red aura gathered at the tip of Haden's spear.

He planted his feet and thrust upward as the flame monster plunged downward.

AZURE ASCENDING SPEAR — DRAGON'S ASCENT!

The aura transformed into the image of a red eastern dragon and surged toward the flame monster, its massive horns gleaming brilliantly.

The flame monster gazed upon the aura dragon with ravenous eyes, released a piercing shriek, and descended toward it with enormous flames blazing around its fist like a purple sun.

The red dragon and the purple sun collided, and a violent shockwave erupted, causing the red and black mountains to quake.

The flame monster fell onto the ground with barely a quarter of its body intact. Purple flame burst outwards, and its body began to rebuild itself, but before it could, Haden appeared beside it.

He grabbed it by the wrist of his remaining arm, tossed it off the ground and swung his spear at it with all of his might.

The heel of Haden's spear smashed into the flame monster, the air booming as it was hurled into the crater's edge. Haden appeared before it again, seized its leg, and spun it like a toy before throwing it in the opposite direction.

The flame monster tore through the air, and Haden followed. But just as he reached it, it burst into countless purple flames and reformed at a distance.

Haden dashed after it, but the flame monster suddenly turned toward Rion and lunged.

Aura surged through Haden's leg. The ground beneath him shattered as a thunderous boom echoed, and he shot toward the monster.

However, the flame monster was far faster.

In a single instant, it reached Rion and slashed at him, its enormous claw wreathed in licking purple fire.

Rion's focus shattered immediately, yet he was still midway through his next attempt, so the words escaped before he could stop them, "Be free..."

The blazing claw drew close to his head, and the uncontrolled conceptual firmament of freedom surged toward the flame monster.

It passed through the fire, slipped into the Corrupted Abysmal Flame, moved beyond the black wisps of corruption, and reached the amalgamation of trapped souls in an instant.

Just as the flame monster's strike was about to land, it froze.

Rion froze as well.

For a brief moment, he felt the regrets, pain, anguish, and dread trapped inside the Corrupted Abysmal Flame, and a heart-wrenching sob of a man escaped from the flame monster's body.

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