Fallen on the sealing pedestal, Brock was in no mood to curse Origami Mane.
At this rate, he really might be burned to death right here by the residual flame.
The Forbidden Fire that had broken free from the seal continuously closed in on him.
The runic chains entwining the fire bit deep into the flames, trying to drag the Forbidden Fire back into the seal.
Brock wanted to turn and keep running, but the Forbidden Fire gave him no such chance.
The Forbidden Fire was not only madly powerful but also craved life, seeking to use it as fuel.
Now, the fire and the seal itself burned toward Brock together.
In the mere instant of contact, the fireproof suit on Brock's back melted away.
As if possessed of its own life, the Forbidden Fire blanketed his entire body.
The wood armor monster could no longer hold on; its lifeline was incinerated by the Forbidden Fire, forcing the summon to end as it reverted into a card.
Now, Brock was completely enveloped in the Forbidden Fire, every part of him subjected to its scorching heat.
The fireproof suit was utterly incapable of withstanding the fire's temperature and melted in large chunks.
The fire before him was nothing like the Forbidden Fire he had encountered previously.
Those had been merely residual Forbidden Fire leaking from the seal, weakened by its power.
But the mass before him was the true residual flame that had been contained within the seal.
Even if it was just a clump that had spilled over after Origami Mane's absorption, its potency was far beyond the residual Forbidden Fire that had leaked out before.
Even now, Brock did not give up hope.
No matter the circumstances, he refused to abandon his will to live.
In his eyes, life was paramount, more precious than anything else.
Enduring the agonizing burns of the Forbidden Fire, he raised a glass bottle and poured all the remaining Frost Magic Water down his throat.
In an instant, Brock felt a layer of frost freeze everything from his mouth to his stomach.
Burning from the Forbidden Fire on the outside while suffering another kind of frostbite on the inside?
That wasn't his goal; his intention was to resist the fire's incineration from the inside out with his entire being.
Enduring the internal torment of ice and fire, Brock activated his talent.
His talent for immense mana storage and high-speed absorption, conversion, and refinement!
The magic water in his stomach was rapidly and continuously converted into mana.
This mana surged through his body, precisely diffused to every part of him.
It was a desperate gamble.
He didn't slowly absorb or refine the mana; instead, he took it in crudely and sent it flooding through his system all at once.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been frozen into an ice sculpture in no time.
But right now, the frigid mana served as the perfect means to resist the Forbidden Fire's extreme heat.
However, Brock still underestimated the fire's power, even if it was just a splash of residual flame from the true Forbidden Fire.
The Forbidden Fire continued to burn, using Brock's life as fuel.
It even used his frost-attribute mana as fuel.
The very frost mana intended to resist the fire was being consumed by it!
It didn't seem like fire at all, but rather a tyrannical plant that absorbed everything as nutrients to grow!
Brock thought of a legendary, extinct magic plant: the Life-Extinguishing Vine.
Once the seeds of that vine sprouted, they would greedily devour everything as nutrients, absorbing all the nourishment and matter in an entire region until it became a wasteland.
Brock wasn't burned to death yet, thanks to the frost mana.
But the Forbidden Fire was burning vigorously; once the frost mana was exhausted, he would likely be reduced to nothing but ash.
The fireproof suit he had used to resist the high temperatures was now completely melted.
The pouch at his waist, along with the monster materials inside, was also entirely incinerated.
This included the precious materials dropped by the heroic gargoyles.
That is, until the Forbidden Fire reached one specific material.
It was a mineral-like monster material dropped by the two-headed gargoyle.
Instead of burning, this ore began to melt slowly, continuously absorbing the residual flame.
As if seeing a glimmer of hope, Brock worked frantically to convert the magic spring water he had drunk.
Even as his stomach and internal organs suffered constant frostbite.
Live. As long as he lived, there was hope!
The melted ore didn't fall to the ground; instead, it seeped into Brock's body.
Once all the residual flame was absorbed, the smelted ore completely integrated into his system.
Things didn't improve; this time, Brock was being burned by the Forbidden Fire from the inside out.
But the magic water he had consumed earlier now seemed to have a target, resisting the fire's incineration.
The Forbidden Fire, in turn, burned with all its might.
As the two forces collided within him, Brock's level as a peak first-rank mage actually achieved a breakthrough under the stimulus.
Normally, when a mage breaks through, their body automatically absorbs and extracts mana from the surroundings, significantly increasing their mana capacity.
But Brock was currently like a vacuum, madly sucking in the surrounding mana.
His already massive mana reserves grew at a frantic pace.
He even felt as though his body was about to be burst apart by the sheer volume of mana.
It was a terrifying sensation.
A mage about to explode because their own mana pool was too large?
What kind of mage in the world died like that?
Under the wash of massive amounts of mana, the molten ore containing the residual flame spread throughout his entire body.
The frost mana also diffused along with it.
In that instant, the Forbidden Fire was evenly distributed across Brock's body, only to be frozen by the frost mana.
If it were just the fire, it might not have been frozen.
But the flames had been absorbed by that special monster material, which in turn had been broken down into countless tiny particles by the surge of mana.
These particles were then frozen by the frost mana that had been flushed to every corner of his body.
This created a bizarre equilibrium.
Under this balance, Brock survived.
But he was not far from death.
His body was covered in both frostbite and burns.
He struggled to stay conscious, using Mana Sensing to feel his entire body.
Countless frozen particles permeated his body like cells—bones, flesh, blood, organs, and brain.
All of them were now laced with these Forbidden Fire particles.
This was the result of the massive mana flush from his second-rank breakthrough; the inconceivable amount of mana had led to this inconceivable situation.
At the slightest disturbance, these flames would instantly incinerate him; it wouldn't even take a tenth of a second.
He appeared to be alive, but the moment those frozen particles melted, his death would be instantaneous.
At this moment, Brock was a living corpse.
Yet even so, he struggled to maintain consciousness, continuously refining mana and injecting it into the wood armor monster card in his hand to keep his severely injured self from passing out.
For if he lost consciousness, he might never wake up again.
He had to live.
In such a hopeless situation, Brock continued to sustain his life with a terrifying will to survive.
Rate on N.U.
