Back in the lava cavern, I floated up on my observation platform, rising several thousand feet until the narrowing cavern walls came together in a point. Solid rock blocked the way, forming a ceiling in the narrow space. That stone ceiling might only represent a tiny stone plug before opening into the mountain's cone, or the entire top of the mountain might be solid rock.

Didn't matter. I could work with what I had. Lowering my hovering platform until I judged the total distance about right, I expanded it. The platform had a maximum size of 20 yards, and I picked a spot where the cavern was only a little narrower than that. My expanding platform stretched to fill the entire space.

There were still some minor gaps, since the cave wasn't square, but it only took a few minutes to carve out a nice, square shelf of rock into the walls all around using Scalebiter. The description of the rare blade did not say it was limited to attacking living things. Sure enough, as I slashed the ebony, curved blade against solid rock, it quickly stacked enough penetration power that stones shattered with every blow.

I still cringed with every swing of the beautiful weapon. Smashing a good sword into stone was a great way to break regular weapons, but Scalebiter was rare tier, and it proved to have epic toughness.

With that carved-out shelf forming a nice square, I extended my platform to fill the entire opening. The edges stretched into the hollowed-out shelf I'd carved with my blade, forming a solid floor between the top of the cavern and the lava pool far below.

Above me, the cavern rose another 200 feet or so, narrowing slowly from the 20-yard diameter where I stood to a final point at the top. Math came so much easier with my elevated Intelligence stat. My platform was nearly 3,600 square feet, with the walls of the cavern rising in more of a pyramidal shape than a smooth, rounded cone. I estimated roughly 200,000 cubic feet of space up there, maybe enough to fill 2 or 3 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Hopefully it would be enough.

That giant pool of bubbling lava down below lay really close to the edge of the mountain. How it could end up that close without breaking the integrity of the mountain, I had no idea. Some rules of physics didn't seem to apply on Arasha, and that was before factoring in the insanity of magic. I was just glad I had a pool of molten death on hand to help me deal with my little Colossus problem.

Well, big Colossus problem, I guess. Either way, the lava in its current state couldn't help me. I needed to get it out of the mountain, preferably with a lot of force. That meant giving it a push.

One thing I'd learned while working fast food when I was a teen was that cold water and hot oil didn't mix. Tossing a couple ice chunks into the fryer vats full of hot oil when the manager's back was turned would generate some pretty impressive mini explosions.

Should work pretty well with lava too, especially if I magnified the experiment many thousands of times. I pulled out the Tidal Nexus and unleashed it, imagining a giant wave of water rather than the focused laser beam I'd used against the spider. With a clone cube in the giant lake and a second in that underground river, I should have plenty of water to work with.

The front face of the Tidal nexus gaped wide and an astonishing wave of water gushed forth, shooting across the cavern and splashing against the far wall. Within seconds, the entire observation platform flooded, with water rising to my waist. I kept the Tidal Nexus wide open and soon I had to tread water as the level quickly rose toward the ceiling.

Once I flooded the entire space to the pointed roof, I turned off the Tidal Nexus and swam down to my platform. With more then a little nervousness, I took a deep breath underwater to test my new Iron Lung ability.

So weird. I felt the water pouring into my lungs, but I didn't gag or cough or drown. To me, it felt like I was breathing some of the best air I'd ever tasted.

Cyrus had promised my platform could hold a lot of weight. Sure enough, it managed the immense weight of water without sagging or straining. Gotta love magical engineering. Now I had nearly 3 entire Olympic-sized swimming pools full of water hanging suspended several thousand feet above a giant pool of lava. Total recipe for success.

The water felt chilly, but I wanted the best bang for my buck, so I triggered a scroll of ice blast. Maybe not the smartest thing I'd ever done, unleashing a blizzard of ice into a giant pool of water while standing submerged at the bottom, but sacrifices had to be made, and I wanted the results to be epic.

Ice radiated out in every direction and cold seeped into my face and limbs. I was immune to heat, but apparently that did not mean I was also immune to the lack of heat. I guess magic didn't have to follow the rules of physics.

I closed my eyes against the freezing chill but did not release the spell until most of the pool was frozen, leaving only the outer edges a chilly slush. I'd forgotten that water expands as it turns to ice, and that added pressure finally bowed my platform noticeably. High above, the roof plugging the passage up into the cone shattered from the pressure. It hadn't been that thick after all.

Even better, more water gushed down through the gap. Arasha had only been made recently, but somehow an entire lake of snow melt filled the volcano's cone, and I'd given it an outlet. The pressure intensified and my platform groaned as it flexed under the weight.

So I banished it.

Uncountable tons of water and ice erupted downward and I blasted down with it, a human icicle in the midst of the torrent. My eyelids seemed to scrape my eyeballs as I forced them open. My limbs felt sluggish, caked in ice and mostly frozen, but I banged myself in the side of the head to help shake loose the ice sheathing my face.

The ice broke free and I peered through the hazy dark waters just in time to see bright sunshine streaming in through the tunnel to the outside just as I plummeted past. Instantly, I set my tether and triggered Tether Slide. The ethereal chain sliced easily through the downrushing water and latched onto the inside edge of the tunnel wall.

I did not. The pressure became intense as Tether Slide yanked me up through the torrent. I felt like one of those barrels attached to Jaws that got dragged deep underwater, just in reverse. Tons of water tried to impede my progress, and the pool-sized ice chunk in the heart of the flood actually clipped my shoulder, bruising bones right through my protective layers.

Ow. Still, the pain was worth it as I erupted from the water and stumbled into the open passage. Breathing came easy, and I didn't even have to vomit lungs full of water from sucking it in for the past couple minutes. Good, because time was fast running out. Sprinting for my life, I couldn't help laughing with the thrill of riding the absolute edge of destruction.

When I reached the end of the tunnel, I launched into open space over the valley and soared like a flightless bird far out over the 10,000 foot drop. At the apex of my flight, I summoned my platform again, once more shrunk down to barely 5 paces across. Crashing down onto it, I willed it to rise with every bit of speed possible even as I crawled to the edge to hang on and watch the show. This time I remembered to activate my goggles' head shield as well as my new embersteel pin helmet.

A deep rumbling sounded within the mountain, then dense, acidic gas blasted from the tunnel I'd just escaped. Way down in the valley, the Colossus shot away from the wall, sliding across the valley between the huge trees like a runaway train.

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Not nearly fast enough.

The entire wall of the cliff facing the valley exploded in a blast that ruptured my eardrums right through both layers of my head protection. I should have thought to use another Ear Muff potion. The shockwave tumbled my platform away like a leaf in a hurricane. I whooped and clutched the platform with all my strength as it somersaulted over and over in the superheated air.

Stones as big as cathedrals blasted from the cliff face, along with untold tons of rocks and rubble, tearing through the forest like a child kicking over towers of loose blocks. Then came a wall of screaming steam that blanketed the scene in a deadly cloud. When it boiled up to roll over me, I laughed and laughed. My One With Flame ring granted me immunity to fire and heat, so the deadly cloud of superheated steam only pulsed against my skin like a soothing warm shower.

My layered protections held off the acid too, keeping it from burning my exposed skin. Thank god for that. I hated the feel of melting eyeballs, especially since I did not want to miss a nanosecond of the cataclysmic eruption I'd unleashed on the Colossus. Energy began pouring into my Tesla Coil bracelet again. The Colossus was taking damage.

That cliff wall the Colossus had created to block me from retreating down the valley disintegrated under the barrage, releasing a flood of devastation and lava to pour down the long miles me and Nigel had fought up in the past couple days.

Nigel! How had I forgotten about my adorable murder kitten? He'd escaped the valley, but might still be in the area. Focusing on his collar, I willed him back to my castle, just to be safe.

After tumbling 72 times and bouncing off 2 separate mountains, my battered observation platform finally settled into a mostly-steady hover a couple miles away from where I started. I had to give it to elite lords. They built their toys well. I stayed on my stomach, eyes glued to the valley below as I ordered the platform to slowly descend. The roiling turbulence continued to shake and batter it, but it managed to stay mostly level as we dropped.

After the initial blast, lava still poured from the gaping wound in the side of the mountain, but steadily slowed. Thankfully, the mountain was so vast, even a hole that big didn't trigger a general collapse. Taking out the Colossus just to get buried in a falling mountain would have been idiotic.

As the noxious acidic cloud of steam dissipated, the full picture of the devastation of the top of the valley became clear. The entire space was piled with debris from the mountain and the shattered trunks of the majestic Ironwood trees. Lava pooled deep around everything, even as it slowly drained into the lower valley.

And propped against a stone the size of a skyscraper, flanked by a tangle of mangled trees, was the Colossus. Its pristine ironwood hide was melted and torn, one entire arm gone, while gaping holes in its chest were filling with lava. Its head still moved and it looked like it was trying to climb back to its feet, but it had clearly been badly hurt.

"You tough son of Amadeus," I muttered.

The thing had to have Constitution a hundred times greater than my own to still be alive after getting blasted in the face with an eruption. Even with its power tripled within the ironwood forest, that was insane. I could respect strength like that, but I wasn't about to give it the chance to heal and regenerate. I didn't have another mountain to explode.

My platform had ended up way out of position, so I couldn't just drop on the Colossus's head. Unless pushed by external forces, the platform could only ascend and descend. So I summoned Switchblade, swung on my hover bike, then banished the platform. Gunning my hover bike, I shot down at a steep angle toward the unsuspecting Colossus.

A hundred yards above its head, I triggered Shattercore ballista. Perfect hit, right in the biggest hole in the monster's chest. The energy bolt exploded with beautiful savagery inside the Colossus's chest and a secondary thunderclap sounded when a jagged crack ripped down from that hole, all the way to the monster's midsection.

I leaped off Switchblade, banishing the bike, and triggered Tether Slide, with the one tether point set in the center of its head. My spell doubled my previous speed, yanking me downward like a living bolt of lightning.

Shouting a wordless battle cry, I pulled out the giant ax I'd taken from that troll. I swung the huge weapon with all my strength and momentum, stacking another hit of Cascading Force and triggering Eminent Domain, my once-per-day extra 25% maximum damage per title from my Alexander title. With 14 titles, that magnified the power of my strike by 350%.

2000 pounds of final judgment slammed down onto the half-melted head the Colossus had already needed to regrow once that day. The impact was so brutal, the ax head shattered.

So did the Colossus's head. And the top of his chest split open, peeled apart by the catastrophic hit. Rattled to the core by the insane impact, I tumbled down into its chest cavity and slammed headfirst into a hidden chamber.

Shaking off the impact, I bounded to my feet, ready to trigger Phantom Step, but stopped to stare. The little room I'd ended up in was circular, only about 3 paces across, and filled with slender rods of ironwood, reaching out from every angle to connect in the center, forming a tiny sphere of wood about the size of my two fists pressed together suspended there.

I'd crashed through several of those wooden rods, which had ripped off part of that central sphere, revealing a dazzling blue light blazing within.

"Hello, monster core."

Even in its empowering forest, this monster's tenacity was totally over the top. As I got my bearings, new ironwood rods started growing from the walls. Within minutes, they'd plug that gap in the wooden sphere around the heart.

"I don't think so," I growled, drawing Scalebiter and setting to work, hacking at the other rods supporting the central sphere. In seconds, tiny scratches grew to gouges, then sprayed chunks of wood as Scalebiter's penetration doubled, then doubled again. I'd carve the heart out of the beast in less than a minute.

As I sheared through the tenth rod, the end connected with the heart sphere fell away, making a gap in that inner sphere. A beam of pure blue light shot out and struck me in the face. The impact blasted me back against the outer rim of the chamber and pinned me to the wood.

Tendrils of wood crept out around my arms and legs as a titanic pressure slammed into my mind. Without my high mental resistance, that first mental punch could have obliterated me.

Gritting my teeth against pain tearing through my brain, I activated the Indomitable aura from my Hercules title, boosting my mental defenses by another 50%. That eased the pain enough for me to think and move again.

Except I was stuck to the wall. How long had it held me prisoner there? It had felt like only a second, but my arms and legs were almost entirely sheathed in ironwood. Growling, I heaved against the restraints, but couldn't budge. Ironwood was seriously tough stuff.

I could have freed myself if I could focus only on that, but the beam of light intensified, trying to drill back into my brain again. Despite my bolstered defenses, a fresh wave of agony seared through my mind.

"Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has captured Soul Ravage. Time remaining to re-cast the spell: 15 seconds."

"Unkillable giant Colossus gets a mind killer spell too? Really?" I growled, then cast Soul Ravage right back into the Colossus's face, or jeweled heart thing.

Cyrus answered, his voice excited as a beam of intense colorless light erupted from my eyes and collided with the Colossus's blue beam. It drew deep from my Convergence mana, and through my mana sense, I could feel my mana eating away at the Colossus's power, even as our two identical spells fought for dominance.

"A great twist, right? We couldn't let you get bored with such a simple challenge."

"You call this simple?"

"Well, perhaps not, but why not reach for greatness at every turn?"

I channeled my annoyance at the AI into pushing harder against the Colossus, pouring in more of my mana. We'd reached an impasse, but that was not going to win the fight for me. More ironwood was creeping up my limbs toward my torso. What would happen if it totally encased me? Nothing good.

So I triggered Mana Beam.

"Mana Beam. Unleash a focused beam of convergence mana to interrupt a target's mana. 50% base chance to overwhelm a target's mana pool. 40% chance to transform that pool to convergence mana you can control, and 30% chance to detonate that mana pool. Chance of success adjusted based on difference in mana pool sizes."

A second beam of colorless light blasted from my chest and drilled into one of the open gaps in that wooden sphere. The blue light inside flickered for a second, and the blue beam of Soul Ravage winked out, allowing my spell to plunge in through that second hole.

For a second, I connected with the Colossus, it's mind or soul, or consciousness, or something. It was like dipping a finger into a deep mountain lake, tiny ripples giving me a sense of the surface but unable to plumb its depths. The monster's soul was as vast as its physical body and I didn't need an announcement from Eva to tell me Mana Beam would not overwhelm that monster's mana.

I sensed its implacable intent to dominate, its absolute confidence in its preeminent might, and its endless rage at suffering such grievous wounds. It would tear me to pieces, then rampage across the land, destroying any and all life forms similar to mine.

Well, that made the math easy. "I'm going to rip out your glowing heart, big guy."

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