Frostfire Legacy

"WAAAAH!"

Aster jumped toward a corner, barely dodging something that was rushing toward him at blinding speeds. Of course, he didn't have time to rest, as he needed to get up to his feet and resume running.

"Stop fucking chasing me...!" He growled, checking behind him with a side glance.

There, a wall was moving toward him, faster than even a speeding car. If not for his speed and stamina trained by Ardra to the limit, he would've been caught up by it and died long ago.

Although he was roaring at the approaching "wall," he wasn't even sure if it was a living being, or just a trap that he triggered without knowing. All he knew was that it was nearly indestructible, and that getting caught by it and slammed against the wall would kill him.

How did he know it was near-indestructible? Of course, by attacking it.

He sent elemental sword slashes toward it the first time it appeared, but not even the slightest of scratches could be seen. All he got after it was a bruise to his shoulder after almost getting slammed by it.

From then on, for a full five hours, he had been running nonstop.

"Shi...!"

To add, he was nervous with every new turn he took. After all, if he encountered a dead end by chance, then his life would, with a high probability, end then and there. A literal "end of the road" situation.

He wasn't sure if he was just lucky, or if the paths were just largely interconnected, as he hadn't encountered a single dead end for the entire five hours, covering over 300 kilometers by then.

"..."

But right now, he was feeling even more livid. For a while now, the path he was following only turned now and then, but never branched off. A completely isolated path. From that alone, the possibility of it being a dead end shot up greatly.

*RUMBLE!* *RUMBLE!*

Although he wanted to stop, think, and even pray, the giant wall "thing" behind him wouldn't give him enough time. It was obviously accelerating; its speed was gradually increasing with every passing second.

Aster turned to the right once more, and then, saw the path ahead. His face turned pale, but his legs never slowed down. The entire path—roughly 300 meters long—leads to a closed end.

"FUCK!" He cursed.

Although he now had to stare despair in the eyes, he still didn't lose hope. His mind turned, thinking of anything that he could do, or use, to save himself from the current situation. However, his Spatial Fanny Pack didn't have anything that could destroy a large, tough wall.

'Do I have no other choice?' Aster thought, biting his lips.

The 300 meters, with his current speed, could be covered in less than 20 seconds, and that 20 seconds was all the time he had to think of a breakthrough to this situation.

His gaze went down, staring at the mark over his right hand, and he frowned. "Alright. It's do or die!"

He reached the end of the path and turned around, pressing his back against the tough wall, and faced that incoming "wall" chasing him. The distance between them was roughly five seconds, more than enough time for Aster to prepare.

The view through the anti-brainwashing mask allowed him to see traces of mana, and from his vision, he could see mana gathering in the middle of the giant wall, roughly 50 meters from the floor.

Three seconds.

Aster was already in the middle of casting his next attack, but his target was split between two. Will he risk shooting the part that was the center of the mana gathering within the moving wall? Or will he open a path right where he is, ensuring safety if, on the off chance, that his attack worked?

"... Fuck it!" In the end, Aster decided to gamble.

He aimed his right hand forward, his fingers folded into the shape of a double-barrelled gun. He carefully aimed, making sure not to waste his last chance—and fired.

*WHOOSH!*

A powerful, concentrated flame, roughly a meter wide, was sent along the path of his aim. The flame reached an astounding temperature of over 100,000 Kelvin, able to burn almost anything in its path.

Well, Aster did pay a hefty price to produce such a result—roughly half a year's worth of his meager lifespan. It was a necessary risk/sacrifice, as his other choice would be to lose all his life otherwise.

*VUOOOM!*

The heat expanded the air rapidly, causing a booming sound that made Aster feel like his eardrums were breaking. Although he felt as if he was going to become deaf, he still didn't move his gaze away.

He watched as the beam-like flame flew, and hit the giant wall's center... and quickly melted through it. As soon as that happened, he saw the mana that was gathered there disperse explosively.

He "killed" it! Aster was sure of that, and even felt a mix of relief and satisfaction.

"...!"

But still, there was one last problem—such a large object would need quite a distance before it could come to a stop. By the time Aster blasted at it, the distance couldn't even be 50 meters. Such a large object loomed closer to him, at a speed of 60 km/h. He would be like a flattened cake if he didn't move out of the way!

Of course, unlike earlier, where there's no path he could take, right now, there's one opening that could spell the difference between life and death. The "wound" that he opened with his attack! Stay updated via empire

'Can I reach it in time?!' Aster worried.

After all, the hole was about 25 meters off the ground. It would be hard to reach that high with just one jump!

"HASTE!"

Without delay, Aster prepared everything that he could. He activated Haste, improving his speed and reaction time. Then, he turned around, and jumped up, stepping on the face of the wall behind him, and running upward.

A wall run!

Of course, he couldn't run vertically up, as that would make him fall immediately. Instead, he ran diagonally towards the right, reaching the wall. The path was about 4 meters wide, so that means both walls were 4 meters apart, making his planned stunt barely feasible.

In just three small steps, he reached the right wall—and kicked against it, pushing himself toward the wall, diagonally again, leading to the left side this time.

Aster repeated this two more times, before finally reaching the same height as the hole. However, it was only 1 meter wide, and the distance between him and the moving wall was just a dozen meters now. He completely missed his timing!

"HUP!"

Having no choice, Aster took a leap of faith, aiming for the narrow hole. And then...

*BAM!*

...

"..."

"Ugh..."

Aster groaned in discomfort, pressing against his nose and forehead.

By luck, he managed to reach the hole before the moving wall slammed against the other side. However, since there wasn't enough space to maneuver, he ended up with his face—covered in the anti-brainwashing mask—slamming against the charred perimeter of the hole.

But thankfully, other than the slightly painful face-slam, he was relatively uninjured—a few scratches, along with a light sprain on his left leg, were the only notable injuries he received.

Aster tried to move, but his limbs gave out, causing him to fall forward. The tiredness from running for hours finally caught up to him!

"Phew..." He sighed as he turned face-up, closing his eyes lightly.

Right now, his position, being in the middle of the moving wall, was safe. Even if another wall came, he would remain untouched as long as he didn't let his limbs go over the edge. The wall was over three meters thick, after all.

He should take as much rest as he can, while he can. After all, he didn't have any idea how much longer the maze was before he could reach the end.

"Ah..."

Aster gasped, realizing that if he adjusted the angle to point downward instead, then he might've had a shortcut through the maze by now! Sacrificing another half-year for the same level of attack? No way.

"I was too tired; I couldn't even think of such a simple and efficient solution..." He placed a hand over his face, lamenting his lapse in judgment. "Well, what's done is done." But he didn't dwell on the matter for too long.

After that, Aster took a short nap, about 30 minutes, resting his exhausted body for a "brief" moment.

As soon as he woke up, he quickly checked the surroundings. Fortunately, another wall didn't come to disturb him. The path that he took before was clear, without a hint of danger in sight.

"..."

But for some reason, Aster felt that he shouldn't go down there. His instincts were shouting at him, that there was "something" down there that would make him regret going down.

'What could it be?' Aster wondered.

Even the mask's AR function didn't see anything present in the surroundings, only the thin mana that was flowing like air all over the place.

"Uh?"

But then, Aster realized the truth behind the feeling of incongruence he got.