Chapter 369 - Uninhabitable

Victims were unfortunately were left behind and the townsfolk escaped this dangerous place. Well, most escaped, the Grand Masters were down there when this disaster happened, now they want to analyse the situation. Unfortunately, they had to witness 5 people boil in Lava, all of them felt so useless due to the fact that they could not help them.

They want to figure out what is happening here and if they can fix this bizarre unheard of situation, Eric jumped down here to look for the Grand Masters, he could fly down but he blew a lot of his Stamina while saving those people and it is uncertain what could await them next do he needs the Stamina.

Dropping down the Lava, Xalk saw him but had no motivation to say the special phrase he always does when Eric jumps in. He swam out of the Lava without taking damage, the Blue Lava is still over 10 meters deep.

"What do you plan to do here Kazer?" Eric asked in anger, in a way blaming all of this on Kazer for insisting just to wait and see what happens, well the saw what happened god damn it, and it wasn't nice. "All of us own Grand Master Xalk an apology."

Afterwards at a pure set of anger, even with a tear dropping because of those innocent people dying, when he turned around and could notice some of their bones still burning in the Lava, he gave in a large rageful shout and afterwards blasted a Fireball against the Lava.

It will likely not damage the Blue Lava here but it doesn't really matter even if it did, those lives are gone and this place has practically become uninhabitable.

"Shooting at the Lava won't help!" Kazer expressed, angry himself but not enough to start a fight with the Golden Blood, his loyalty to this town doesn't allow him too.

"Well neither did standing and waiting as you see!" He shouted once more, and pointing at all four of the Grand Masters in a lower tone he added. "Those lives lost are all over your shoulders, Xalk was right!"

"Yelling won't fix anything and it is just wasting us time." The Grand Master could of course yell back, but his tone remained delicate. He has beaten his own Inner Demon of Self Control over a Century ago, all Grand Masters did. "Every second we waste now, could be used to our advantage."

As he finished that sentence, the usual ray of light that the Lava used to let out, was quick to dissapear. It was replaced by a dark blue light of which barely illuminated the place!

He turned around, took a glance at what is happening and was quick to notice that the regular orange Lava has completely disappeared and has been replaced by Blue Lava, spreading like a vicious unstoppable disease.

The six people here were left speechless, unable to say a word and feeling like they have lost entirely. Afterwards they saw a ray of mild orange light, but it wasn't caused by Lava. Mogranius, Dilli and Osira have flown all the way down here.

"What the hell is happening?" Mogranius asked. They flew down here to get Eric but were quick to notice that the Blue Lava doesn't burn as much as the Orange Lava did.

They reached all the way down here to the Grand Master's dens. No non Grand Master or non Golden Blood would be able to do this without burning up, this shows how much the Volcanic heat has been reduced.

"We don't know." Kazer answered calmly, while Eric was using the dim illumination to hide his tears. Angry about the lost lives, angry about failure.

As if this day hasn't been disastrous and confusing enough, they heard sounds much like crackling stone and they could see the illumination dimming rapidly until it became completely dark.

Subconsciously, the four fire manipulators busted a small fire ball above their palms to illuminate the place, and the first thing that managed to catch their eye is the semi dark stone standing flat where the blue lava previously was.

Well at least in most places, this rock was spreading from each side and a large crack close to where Eric was standing, still having a bit more blue lava, took little time to dissapear. Meaning, the crack sealed up, connected.

"The whole place has turned in to stone." Mogranius pointed out the obvious, the most shocked here even though he saw more (By Quantity) bizarre cases in life.

"Then it means we can blast lava over it, at least for illumination." Kazer specified, unhappy with the current amount of illumination.

Afterwards with his body arched forward and his right arm stretching out, he burst lava from his own palm and threw it to the left direction and afterwards to the right.

The Lava stretched about a hundred yards long on both sides individually, and provided a lot more illumination than the Fire Manipulators could.

"At least Blue Lava isn't connecting with this one." Dilli pointed out, but afterwards remembering why they got here she added. "But Eric, we need to get you and everyone else out of here. Commander Alia demands it!"

"What he hell is that? Is it a Demon?" Osira shouted and pointed out right ahead of Eric, this thing was probably a bit over 200 yards away.

"A demon is the last thing we need right now." Dilli Added, being ready for battle and shooting directly at it.

The illumination of which this 5 foot wide fireball provided, helped them figure out this situation a bit better. The thing over 200 yards away, isn't a Demon. To be frank it isn't even moving nor did the Fireball damage it.

Stepping on the dried Volcanic rock, Kazer stomped on it after and was able to determine that this whole mass body of Lava is dried out shut. "We need to check it up close, but I don't want for anymore lives to be lost. Joining me is voluntary, all of you can choose to get out of here if you want to."

Right after he walked towards this thing that appeared almost in the middle of the Volcano, trying to analyse it more. He didn't bother to look back, and mostly focused on assuring that every step he takes is secure.

But how would ego let anyone of them back out? They all followed him Race regardless. In the meantime, Mogranius started to become a bit paranoid. He stopped seeing every ghost or spirit in the area, before he could see many even though his paranormal vision was massively reduced when the Ghost Tree Branches were cut down.

After careful tip toeing over the semi hot Volcanic rock, they finally reached the thing that has appeared right in the middle. What they found did not at all meet what they expected to see here.

A god damn tree! Yes, a tree. Well more like a trunk. This is no ordinary tree and it isn't the average way of life. No tree can grow over half a kilometer long in 10 minutes.

"Do not touch that!" Mogranius instantly noticed its bad twisted qualities. "I swear it will drain the soul out of your body."

Eric noticed it as well, although it took a few seconds more for him to realise it. "By the Source and what's beyond it, how on Earth did the Ghost Tree reach all the way here?"

"Ghost Tree?" Kazer asked, blazed in confusion. He never heard of such a tree before and what it is capable off.

"Yes it is a Ghost Tree." Mogranius answered and was swift to explain, "It traps any soul and devours it to grow bigger."

At the same time when he described this characteristic, most of them could see several branches growing out of the tree in a fast matter. It took a few seconds for each branch to grow.

"As you can see, its Radius was large enough to drain every free loading soul around here. Perhaps even the souls of the few Victims we just lost, which explains why so many branches grew out so quick." Hearing him out, Kazer straight up thought that Mogranius is talking fiction, but how would someone know it to this exact detail without bothering to think about it?

"Can we destroy it?" Kazer asked the most important part.

"It reached all the way here, travelling for over 500 Kilometers, somehow sensed the large quantity of souls and spirits here, unleashed blue lava and dried it all shut, do you think that anyone could stop or destroy this Ghost Tree?" Upon numbering its dangers and successes, it became quite noticeable that there is no hope.

To break their spirits completely, Mogranius added. "Face it, this town has become uninhabitable!"

A fact hard to accept, I'm aware but what's done is done and there was no stopping it. Throw Lava over it, it will eventually unleash more Blue Lava and dry the whole thing all over again. The best decision now is to seal this place shut, and leave this town possibly forever. There is no saving it.

Eric as the King, taking this huge loss in to consideration added. "We should talk to the townsfolk, we all will be heading to Gaster Kingdom!"