Chapter 174 - #173 Training 2 (2/2)

His face immediately winced in pain but he remained still.

'It feels like my skin is turning red from all the heat...It's like a high temperature can't kill me but I can still suffer. The deeper I sink, the hotter magma gets, this pool is actually quite deep.' Akashi thought without moving an inch while he was slowly sinking deeper where the temperature was even higher and more unbearable.

Akashi looked down at his body and saw that his skin was slightly in orange color but ever since he came back to the surface, the orange color was slowly fading away.

'Fuck, I should have taken off my pants before jumping in...' Akashi cursed inwardly when he noticed that he was completely nȧkėd. He actually tried to protect his pants with his energy but it was something completely different from protecting it from his flames.

'Wait...clothes?!' Akashi's eyes shined for a split second before he jumped back to the pool of magma.

He continued training this way for 2 more days and whenever he came out of the cave to reassure girls, he always stayed a big distance away from them and always warned them not to approach him. The first time Mera saw him walking out without his pants and with only flames acting as a curtain around his private parts, she looked away with a faint blush but she didn't act in an awkward way. Taeko on the other hand acted completely normal if not a little confused at most.

The next day, 5 more days before meeting with Esdeath...

Akashi returned to the inside of the volcano and immediately jumped down to the magma.

'Just a few days and I can already call this surface of this magma cold...' Akashi thought while he was helping himself to sink faster because the temperature above was too cold for him.

He has yet to hit the bottom of this volcano and he even spent more than 30 minutes of slowly sinking down, today it was his goal to hit the bottom.

In less than 20 minutes get broke through his record and began feeling uncomfortable once gain but he completely ignored it. After another 20 minutes, he had to grit his teeth in pain as his entire body started burning in pain while he couldn't even collect his thoughts due to an immense headache.

When Akashi was thinking about going back to try again after a little break, he recalled the creature's words.

'...Hot-blooded, huh? FUCK YOU!' Akashi gritted his teeth even more as he sped up but instead of going up, he went straight down.

As he kept sinking deeper, he could feel his arms slowly changing in very painful manner, however, Akashi's body and mind grew almost completely numb of the feeling named pain. And before he knew that, his arms suddenly touched something more solid than just magma however he could feel his hands slowly sinking into it but he was absolutely sure that he wouldn't be able to ”swim” in that mass so he was finally able to return. Unfortunately, on the way down, he was completely numb to the pain but suddenly when he wanted to go up, he started feeling it again but it was at least 20 times worse than when he stopped feeling it.

He caught his head as he felt something ”connecting” with his upper face. He actually already completely stopped feeling pain in his arms but until now he just thought that it was due to them growing numb to it once again but he realized that he could move them without any restraint which wouldn't be possible if that was the case. Also felt something sticking out of his elbow.

He already ignored any heat which was enough to completely scorch the human's body within the milliseconds.

After around 10 minutes, the pain on his face subdued as he felt that something finalized connecting to his face and then he felt immense pain on his ċhėst as if something began growing there however the real pin has yet to come...

When Akashi felt as if something was drilling its way to his heart he actually no longer managed to keep his eyes closed as he opened them wide before narrowing them in pain. If he wasn't in such extreme pain he would have thought why he can have his eyes open without protecting it from the magma with his energy.

'This! There is really a hole in my ċhėst!' Akashi thought when the pain eased up a bit and when he actually put his hand on his ċhėst, he felt a small hole in it however he didn't dare to put his hand inside.

After that, the lower part of his legs and feet came to the turn but this pain compared what he felt a few minutes ago was completely nothing.

---The camp outside---

”Do you think Akashi is alright? He is there for already 3 days straight without coming back...” Taeko asked with a concerned expression while fidgeting around, it has actually been 3 days since Akashi went to the volcano.

”As of now, he should be alright since his Danger Beasts are behaving as usual.” Mera replied rationally while pointing at Kiyomi staring at the entrance to the volcano.

”But wasn't Kiyomi acting weird yesterday?” Taeko asked with a worried expression.

”Her microexpression actually didn't make any sense which made me worried for a bit but it gradually became better and now she just keeps staring at the entrance. I think that something major happened to Akashi but his life shouldn't be in danger judging how Kiyomi recovered so quickly.” Mera answered with a calm tone and expression.

”That's easy for you to stay calm, he isn't your boyfriend...” Taeko muttered with a resentful tone but she quickly regretted it.

Mera actually frowned before slightly sad expression appeared on her face.

”Just because I am keeping calm facade doesn't mean I am not worried...” She muttered while looking at the ground, hiding her expression behind her hair.

”?! I- Mera-sama, I am sorry, I didn't mean-” Taeko quickly wanted to apologize when she realized she overstepped her boundaries and when she decided to vent her frustration on someone close to her without any reason.

*RUMBLE* A ground started to shake but it was gradually increasing on its strength.

”?!” Both Mera and Taeko got to their feet as their eyes widened.

”Don't tell me it's going to erupt right now!” Mera muttered with an irritated expression while biting her lower lip.