Heaven, Earth, Me

After learning how to fly on their own, Yasenia led everyone to the island they had spotted before. That island before the split magma waterfall was slightly far, but nothing they couldn't reach. 

"And… Here we are-oh!"

Yasenia's feet gently touched the stone, but right as she did so, she raised her feet again with an exclamation, floating a few centimeters above the stone while looking down. Everyone looked at the dragoness curiously. Andrea asked, chuckling slightly. "Why did you do that?"

Yasenia blinked and commented. "It burns quite a lot. I wasn't expecting the high temperature. Protect your feet before you land." Then, she placed her feet down on the black stone again. 

Fulo, who was being carried while being held by the waist by one of the dragoness's arms, asked with a whisper-like tone. "So… Um… Can you let me down, Lady Yasenia?"

Yasenia looked at the young man and smiled under her veil. "If I do so, you'll jump back into my arms right away."

Fulo coughed and said, his face serious. "While I do have some fancy towards you, Lady Yasenia, I am still a man! Being carried by you is a bit… humiliating."

Yasenia's eyebrows raised, but she didn't get angry at the comment. Instead, she smirked and suggested to the little man. "Oh~? Well, place your feet on the ground then."

Fulo was confused as to why Yasenia was still holding his waist. However, before saying anything else, he did as Yasenia spoke. 

The second his feet touched the ground, a sizzling sound reached his ears, followed by a terrible pain. "OUCH!" 

He raised his feet, and thanks to Yasenia holding him, he didn't fall again. The dragoness smirked and commented. "So… Do you want me to put you down?"

Fulo's face heated up out of shame. "I… Sorry. Please, carry me."

A laugh escaped Yasenia, and she looked back to see how the rest were doing. Everyone was standing without problems, so she nodded and looked toward the magma waterfall.

The gigantic flow of searing and molten material was quite a sight to behold. In the middle, a protrusion parted the magma, creating an opening right in the middle that led into some kind of cave. Yasenia squinted while asking. "Clara, Cecile. Do you see anything?"

Clara answered right away. "Young Miss, there is a large door at the end. It seems that checking this place was the right call." 

The dragoness hummed. "Let's not rush things. How about we check for traps first? To mark the stones below us…" The dragoness's tail flicked and hit the rock.

BOOM!

Sparks flew when she smacked the rock below, leaving almost no marks. "... Considerable strength is needed."

Everyone's faces became slightly more serious. They could feel that Yasenia had used a very large part of her strength to hit the rock. That strike would've probably split a mountain in half, yet there were negligible scratches on the rocks. 

"I'll go check, Young Miss." 

Yasenia saw the slightly tanned woman with gorgeous, long, white hair jumping ahead and smiled. "Be careful, Clara."

Clara answered energetically. "Understood~." 

She then jumped forward and approached the magma waterfall. The surroundings were relatively silent, with only the sounds of the bubbling, searing fluids moving around the place, reaching her sharp ears. Even then, Clara didn't lower her guard. The beasts in the Deadly Magma Caves were experts at camouflaging with the surroundings, as they had shown many times over. 'Hm… there are no marks inside of here. Only outside.' 

This was slightly unusual. If there were fight marks on the outside of the cave, the people fighting there might've wanted to use the cave as a chokepoint and defend themselves. Even if the occurrence didn't happen often, saying that it had never occurred was too unlikely. 

Her silver eyes scanned everything meticulously, and eventually, they landed on the door deep inside the tunnel. 'I don't want to enter, just in case something triggers when you cross the magma waterfall. However, I can't really analyze much from this distance…' 

She shook her head and sighed, turning around. "Young Miss, I haven't seen anyth-"

Clara saw Yasenia's face changing as she shouted at her. "CLARA BEHIND!"

'Behind!?' Clara's senses burst with danger, and she quickly stepped sideways.

Right as she did so, a stinger pierced the place where she previously stood. 'Woah! That was close.' 

The large stinger that would've impaled her in the chest was as thick as a thigh. Clara's silver eyes and sharp senses followed the sting to its origin and noticed that it came from the magma of the waterfall. 'It's inside the falling magma!?'

These thoughts flashed in her mind in an instant. Outside, nothing but a millisecond had passed. As the stinger returned to the waterfall, a gorgeous bow materialized on Clara's hands, and she raised it while pulling the string.

"[Moon Shot]."

A silver arrow materialized on her bow. Then, even before the stinger hid, Clara released her tensed string. 

Moon Energies swirled around her bow before they burst together with the attack. 

BOOM!

The magma waterfall exploded, the liquid parting in a circular manner and revealing the strange creature hidden below the magma flow. The arrow sadly had missed. 

On the other hand, the beast's body was entirely revealed for everyone to see. It was a mix between a lizard, a fish, and a scorpion. It had arms at the front but two large fins extended sideways behind its body. The dark red body, covered with a hard carapace-like armor, had a tail arching behind it, which is what ended in the sting. 

Clara blinked and thought. 'What an ugly beast.'

The beast was surprised that it had been revealed. It quickly pushed against the solid wall and launched itself across the air toward the magma sea. 

However, as it fell, it saw a woman with long, raven black hair and a long sword looking up and floating between the magma sea and itself. Her slender body and red eyes had a hint of derision on them as she spat. "Do you think we'll let you hide? Go and have fun with my girls. [Abyssal Strike]."

A black crescent filled the sight of the creature, instantly striking it.

BANG!

Struck by the attack, the creature felt as if his entire body was going to burst from the inside. Because of the hit, it streaked through the air, accurately landing on the platform where the girls were. 

The girls didn't even give it an instant to relax. 

"[Moon Freezing Catastrophe]."

Her face chilling like a thousand-year-old iceberg, Cecile tensed her bow and created a massive phantom bow behind her. The bow shot three powerful elemental arrows carrying space, wind, and moon attributes. The attack combined the arrows, breaking through space and striking true on the beast's back.

BOOM!

The spatial, moon, and wind energies ripped the carapace apart, creating large gashes. 

SCREECH!

The beast screamed in pain. Yet, that was all it could do since the rest had arrived by its side. 

With a body nearly fifty meters long, all the girls had enough space to attack different sections of the creature.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! 

A massive rain of blows befell on the poor creature, ending its life in a few moments and spilling its guts all over the place. 

Clara was the one who dealt the finishing blow, impaling its head with an arrow. She humphed. "You almost got me, little beast! Tsk, tsk."

Cecile looked at her and asked, her usual indifferent tone laced with a hint of worry. "Are you okay, Clara?"

Clara looked over and smiled with a large smile. "Don't worry, Madam. I don't have a single scratch on me!"

Cecile nodded once, showing a hint of relief. Clara was her personal maid, so she had a deep attachment to her. 

Now that the beast was gone, Yasenia asked. "Other than the beast, have you seen anything interesting, Clara?"

"Nothing at all, Young Miss! The caverns inside of the waterfall are completely empty. Of course, there are a pair of large doors at the end. A strange detail I noticed is that there is not a single battle mark in the cave, unlike what we can see on this platform. I wonder why?"

The dragoness hummed and looked around. "What if the beasts here are asleep until someone awakens them by proximity? I think that finding food in these areas is too complicated."

Andrea blinked and commented. "Then, shouldn't we hurry? We weren't exactly silent when we battled that beast."

The dragoness nodded, agreeing with Andrea, and spoke to the rest. "Let's cross the waterfall as close together as we can. We can't risk the thing closing or something after we cross."

"Understood!"

Everyone answered as one. Then, without an extra moment of hesitation, they all rushed forward. When Yasenia, who was leading the charge, crossed the magma waterfall, the magma curtains separating the entrance started to close down very rapidly. The dragoness snorted. "Typical."

Everyone crossed without problems, and then, the magma waterfall closed behind them.

Yasenia looked around, just in case, checking that everyone was here. "Hm… No one is missing. Great."

Tatyana laughed. "If someone didn't make such a short sprint, I would honestly be surprised. You sometimes worry too much."

Yasenia raised her eyebrow and smacked her butt with her tail. "You sometimes worry too little!"

"Ouch!" Tatyana looked at Yasenia and blinked twice, rubbing her butt. "That was a little bit stronger than usual."

The dragoness paused and frowned. "Was it?"

Tatyana crossed her arms and hummed. "We'll have quite a nice time when we return, it seems~."

Yasenia rolled her eyes and looked toward the large doors. Unlike other large doors, these ones were quite simple—grey-colored doors with a black edge and an altar at the side. The altar, or rather, large bowl on top of a pedestal, was rather inconspicuous. Andrea hummed. "What's that for?"

Yasenia answered, guessing. "It should be what helps us open these doors…"

The rest of the group agreed with her. Still, no one knew what to do with it. Clara waved her hand and asked. "What if we placed the beast core of that creature on it?"

Yasenia hummed. "Go ahead and try." She looked at the glowing red core and rubbed her chin. "We have nothing to lose."

Tatyana grinned, wanting to tease the cranky dragoness more. "What if it breaks?"

Yasenia answered, giving her a side-eye. "You'll give me one hundred of them." 

As Yasenia and Tatyana discussed, Clara approached and placed the core on the large bowl.