Book 6, chapter 19

With a jolt, the back door to the drop ship swung open, revealing a volcanic rock. Layers of soot and ash covered the ground like snow, creating lighter patches on the dark landscape. From what they could tell, this was a dead world, one recently spat from the cosmic river back into the much calmer currents of the endless storm. 

The constant spatial storms and harsh energies of the cosmic river caused extreme tectonic shifts in the world's crust, creating a volcanic world. The extremely chaotic energy of the cosmic river had already stripped away its atmosphere, and no breathable air remained. 

They would have to rely on environmental collars the whole time, adding one extra danger. 

The ramp fully lowered, and a suffocation wave of heat assaulted her senses. Not even the protections of her environmental collar could block it all out, and she immediately started sweating. 

"Well, this is a bust. Let's move on to the next place on our list," Malden said. 

"Don't be a baby Maldy, this is the perfect place to nurture a supreme natural treasure attuned to fire," Allison said, practically skipping down the ramp. 

"You're not the one with thick fur," Malden grumbled, begrudgingly following after her. 

Zee could understand Maldens' sentiment. Already overheating, she exited the drop ship, stepping onto the ash-covered volcanic rock.

There was no sunlight here, the only light being in the storm around the planet and the bright lava trailing down the mountains in the distance.

Based on the information crystal she had purchased, they only had a few weeks to search this planet for riches. The ravaged planet was being dragged back deeper into the storm, towards the cosmic river itself. Small planets like this were quite common in the endless storm, worlds that had been dragged in by its gravity and current. 

The extreme environment inside the cosmic river usually stripped of its former occupants, leaving the world a shell of its former self.. The planets were usually turned into a desolate wasteland, but in some cases, the native monster adapted to survive the harsher environment. As it turned out, this planet was one of the latter cases.

Not a few hours in, a solitary cave-dwelling crustacean attacked them. Its black and gray shell blended perfectly with the environment, making it a perfect ambush predator. 

Zee didn't sense its presence until right before it struck. A moment's hesitation would have cost her life, but years of life and death battles had honed her instincts to a razor's edge.

Thick mandible slammed together right where her torso had been moments ago with bone-crushing force, narrowly missing her. The centipede-like monster contorted side to side, frantically searching for its prey. 

Too bad for it, Zee had used her mist form, going straight up, right above it. Without hesitation, she threw Dern downward. Rapidly swelling in size, Dern slammed down into its back, with its thick carapace crunching loudly under the heavy impact. 

The monster tried to retract back into its tunnel, but a wave of sand slammed into its side, throwing it and Dern off their feet. Dern clung to his glaive, which was firmly lodged in its back as they both tumbled head over heels across the rocky crag.

"Watch out Dern," Malden warned, a house-sized hammer made of sand appearing above the two. The hammer radiated an ominous power, slamming down with earth-shattering force.

The ground shook as the hammer crashed down, sending up a plume of rock and dust, the force rattling Zee to her bones. The injured monster hadn't even had time to put up defenses before it had been crushed like a bug by Malden's finisher skill. 

A silver and blue mist drifted from the dust cloud, sand and ash as rocky debris shower the area. It shot over and melded into her body.

"That oversized house cat needs to watch the friendly fire," Dern complained. 

"He did warn you," Zee said. 

"Warn me? I didn't have time to do anything, his attack was already falling," Dern complained. 

With the heart of fire still drumming loudly in her chest, Zee scanned the rocky plateau in case of any more threats. "OH, don't be such a baby. It's not like having your form destroyed actually hurts you," Zee said. 

"That's beside the point. Having such a slow lumbering body is such a pain," Dern said. 

"You probably won't be stuck in that form for too much longer. I hear the D grade offers summoned companions a lot more flexibility in what form they can take," Zee said. 

The reminder seemed to mollify him a bit. "I guess I can endure this inconvenient form a bit longer," Dern grumbled.

"Do you really want to go back to being a sentient cloud?" Zee asked dubiously. 

"Of course I do! My original form is much more convenient than being a stupid suit of armor. Being forced to use fingers and legs is terribly inefficient," Dern replied. 

"If you say so," Zee said, turning to listen in as Allison addressed the others.

"Good job team. Malden, you should really give Dern a little more warning next time. Zee, can you send out Kur Zul to scout the area?" Allison asked.

They both nodded, with Malden taking the rebuke with a serious expression. Allison gestured toward the crushed centipede. 

"How did such a large beast king get so close before it was detected?" Allison asked.

Zee grimaced, flushing at the accusation. "The ambient energy is too thick, so I couldn't sense it at all until it was upon us," Zee replied. 

As the one with the best senses in the group, it was Zees' job to warn of oncoming threats. 

"Very well," Allison said. "From here on, we will be a bit more cautious. I do not wish to be eaten by an oversized centipede,"

After harvesting the corpse of anything of value, they headed deeper into the volcanic hellscape. Ever since leaving their drop ship cloaked by arrays in a hidden crag, the heat had only gotten worse. Even with the protection of their environmental collars, the heat felt like they were in an oven. 

Flooded by dense flame attuned energy, the world river itself threatened to set their pathways on fire. 

Even after a grueling day of staying on her toes, and fighting territorial centipedes, she didn't get a break from the heat. 

Even with arrays to dampen the environment, she was low in energy, and had to recover her reserves. Cultivating felt like she was drawing in scalding water into her pathways.

Judging by the pained grimaces of the others as they cultivated, they too were running into the same trouble. 

The only one who seemed to be enjoying themselves was Allison, who looked like a bonfire to Zees' senses. The environment was like poison to Zee and the others, but, for Allison, it was nourishment. Allison cultivated the concepts of tinder and ash, which were subordinate concepts to fire. She was striving to merge them, and having such abundant flame attuned energies in the environment would go a long way to making that happen. 

The craziest part was, they hadn't even reached the base of the nearest volcano. There were seven towering peaks, with rivers of lava rolling down their sides. The brightly lit peaks were the only source of light in an otherwise pitch black landscape. 

Zee hadn't realized just how much light the currents of the endless storm gave off until 

clouds had rolled in to block out the sky.

Now, the only thing lighting up the sky were the occasional eruptions from the volcanoes in the distance. 

It was actually quite beautiful, for a desolate hellscape. Her quiet introspection was interrupted by a distant flash of light, as one of the volcanoes exploded, shooting rock and ash miles into the sky. 

For a moment, the distant light show skylined a figure crouching low in a nearby rocky crag. It wasn't an intruder, but Greg, his horned bow knocked and ready. The large Armenian might not be the most social person, but he was reliable. 

As her mind wandered, Zee idly drew in more energy from the world river, her body steaming as she separated and released the dense fire attuned energies back into the air. 

Even doing so, she felt like she was being cooked from the inside. This was the problem with visiting places not alined with your affinities. 

The ambient energy was extremely high, and yet she could only use a fraction of it, making her recovery and cultivation extremely slow. In such an incompatible environment, she didn't even bother trying to open her next inner gate. 

Recovering her reserves, and nurturing her inner world was all she could stomach. With each pulse of pure energy from her shard, the lake of spiritual fire in her inner world sent waves that crashed into Zul's tower. Casting a dark shadow, the abyssal star showered the inner world with intense waves of spatial energy. 

The inner world was something an E-grade cultivator shouldn't have, and yet, she did. Feeling the calming waves of spatial energy buffet her mental projection from the abyssal star, and listening to the lapping waves calmed her mind. It was a pleasant distraction from the outside world. 

All of a sudden, her tranquil dream state was disturbed by a splashing sound and a child's excited laughter. Her mind focused on the base of Zul's tower, to the rock at the edge of the spiritual lake of fire. 

Defying all common sense, a human child around five or six was knee deep in the flames, splashing around like it was water. Zee wasn't sure how Raina got inside her inner world, but since the lake of spiritual fire wasn't hurting her, she saw no need to interrupt Raina's fun. Poor kid deserved a bit of joy after being stuck in an endless dream for got knows how long. 

How or why Raina could escape the dream was still a mystery, but Zee had hopes things would improve. It seemed that Raina was becoming more corporeal by the month, able to leave that dream space and enter the real world more often. 

"Mommy always says staring isn't nice," Raina said aloud, sitting on a rock and dangling her feet in the flames. 

Zee raised a mental eyebrow, forming a mental projection of herself next to the child. 

"I wasn't staring," Zee said. 

Raina beamed up at her as she appeared, her smile bright and cheerful. 

"Do you and uncle grumpy wanna swim with me, the water is really nice," Raina asked, splashing some in her direction.

"Who is uncle grumpy?" Zee asked, raising an eyebrow.

Raina's childlike face scrunched up in a thoughtful expression.

"Umm... He is da metal person that gets grumpy whenever I want to play with him," Raina explained. 

Zee couldn't help but laugh as she realized who Raina was referring to. With a gesture she conjured Dern next to them in his small form. 

Raina immediately pounced, scooping Dern up in her small hands and spinning, swinging him around her. 

"Yay!"

"Hey! Unhand me!" Came Dern's startled mental voice. 

Raina didn't listen, pulling him in for a hug like he was a doll. 

"You are so cute," Raina exclaimed. 

Despite Dern's objections, Zee was surprised when Dern didn't struggle to free himself. He could have expanded his body, and yet he didn't, instead letting the kid manhandle him like he was a toy. 

"Can I have a ride?" Raina asked. 

"No. Put me down," Dern replied. 

"Please..." Raina asked, stopping twirling him and giving him the most adorable smile. 

As it turns out, not even Dern could refuse that pleading look. 

'Fine, ill give you one ride, just put me down," Dern said. Raina excitedly set him on the shore, where he expanded in size to his full eight feet tall, hoisting the child onto one shoulder. 

"Yay!" Raina shouted. 

Dern then proceeded to run around the base of Zuls tower, Raina laughing and shouting all the while. As it turns out, uncle grumpy had a bit of a soft spot. 

After a while, Raina ran out of steam, and fell asleep on Dern's shoulder. 

"You know, you are pretty good with kids, uncle Grumpy," Zee teased. 

Dern gently cradled the sleeping Raina in both armored arms, glaring over at Zee. "I don't like Raina. She is just a bit more tolerable than most of you," Dern corrected. 

Zee smiled.. "Whatever you say," 

Dern could deny it as much as he wanted, but the obvious care he took not to reawaken the child was evident. 

As expected, before long, Raina's body slowly faded away back to the dream, though this time she had lasted much longer than usual. Being able to emerge from the dream for longer periods of time seemed like a good thing, but Zee was still concerned about it. 

The endless storm was not the place for a child, even if said child was an incorporeal spirit. Especially since that troublesome child ignored things like common sense, logic and did whatever she wanted. Zee could only let out a worried sigh. 

Hopefully Raina didn't get a desire to sneak out and pester a monster when she wasn't looking. Just the thought had Zee stirring from her fitful rest. 

Her tranquil state faded, replaced by the suffocating heat and darkness of the lava fields. 

The others were already up and about, preparing food and packing up the camp. They should reach the base of the first volcano today if they pushed it. And since the ambient energy would only rise the closer they got, that meant it was going to be a grueling day.