Chapter 610: Dual Hearts

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

My personal world of Hell seemed like it was split into two halves: an ice mountain and a flame sea.

I had seen Conservation’s techniques many times already. There wasn’t anything new. However, Elisa’s abilities truly impressed me.

In all the dimensions, the sea would be the source of life for all normal carbon-based lifeforms. However, I’d never expected that a flame sea would be able to give birth to life in a world of fire.

As for those three gigantic beasts she controlled, even though they appeared quite fearsome, it was obvious that they lacked will of their own, and their power levels were much weaker than the originals’… If these beasts had identical power levels to the originals, then Elisa would have easily been able to defeat any Main God.

While those who knew nothing would simply watch the show, those in the know would look to see what was truly going on. What truly astonished me was the flame sea itself, despite its unassuming nature.

Magma slowly flowed underneath the flame sea. However, all the fire elemental creatures that jumped out were living creatures with their own souls.

A suddenly arrived phoenix streaked through the skies. The feathers it dropped all exploded like bombs. This phoenix’s size rapidly expanded to the point where it was four or five times larger than when it was born. Its energy level had multiplied by more than ten times.

There was also a pack of fire wolves that self-destructed. But, in an instant, more than double the number of fire wolves jumped out from the flame sea.

“Creation magic? At this level, it’s pretty much no different from wielding the Concept of Creation…”

Back in the day, Elisa had gone down quite a different path when studying magic. In order to resist her inborn demon instincts of being drawn to flames and the Chaos Abyss, Elisa had also studied ice magic. She was skilled at using ice to create animals, plants, and weapons. These ice items would serve as physical attacks alongside her ice magic attacks.

Now, perhaps she had given up on ice magic in the end after finally answering the call of her inner nature. However, her astonishing creativity and talent had transferred to creating fire creatures.

To her, this flame sea was the source of life itself. She raised her hands and squeezed the air, causing the flame sea to give birth to new life.

Perhaps her army had been suppressed by Conservation, who appeared to have limitless mana. However, in terms of combat techniques and magic ability, Elisa was equal to Conservation, and the latter’s fighting style was evidently set in stone. It would be difficult for Conservation to improve further.

When considering the great difference in age and experience between Elisa and Conservation, it was quite obvious that Elisa had achieved even greater things. Additionally, reaching the realm of Creation with her abilities was truly ridiculous. Even I was unable to predict how much further Elisa could power up still.

“…I think that’s enough of enjoying the show. We should swiftly deal with her now.”

In a way, Elisa revealing her true power level helped me to relax.

Not only had Elisa showed me her true power, she also helped us to learn more about Conservation’s fighting style and abilities. All of us sitting here while sipping tea and chatting were veterans. Although we appeared to only chat and rest, we were actually using our own ways to gather information on a powerful enemy. Once we went out there to fight, we would understand everything about Conservation and put it to good use against her…

“Oh, I can’t drink anymore, I truly can’t drink anymore. Heehee, you want me to drink more? Do you have designs on me…?”

Cough, cough, that was Little Red rolling around while laughing and talking in her sleep. She definitely wasn’t trying to slap my face! It was just a coincidence, a coincidence! We should all forgive such an irresistible species like a loli. Just take a look at Adam over there, he had such a serious expression as he studied the information in his hands!

But in the next second, Adam’s foolish face appeared right in front of me. He had a mysterious expression as he showed off the precious item he’d obtained down here in the Chaos Abyss—a colored special edition magazine.

“Roland, this magazine is truly outstanding. I truly don’t know how the fairies accomplished it. The moon elves’ half-naked festival, female panthermen in bikinis, the gnomes’ cute hotpants, fiery, passionate succubi in leather clothing… Margaret, what are you doing, please don’t aim Little Red at me! Aaaah!”

I was rendered speechless as I saw how comical things were as always. By the way, Little Red was still asleep despite all of this? That was truly amazing as well.

At this time, I didn’t need to do anything. Margaret swiftly suppressed the scene as always. For veterans like us, combat preparations wouldn’t take long.

Adam was the first to be tossed out to act as the tank for us like always. Judging from his jumping and gliding speed, he was actually even quicker than before.

When he passed by the flame sea, the flames enveloped him as he transformed into a fiery large bird. He then flapped around the flame sea and enlarged himself even further.

“…He reobtained it?”

Even I was rather astonished to see the current scene before me.

He had given the phoenix heart to Annie, which meant giving up all of his previous accumulation. While the thunder element Titan heart wouldn’t be any less powerful than the phoenix heart, his Concepts and martial arts as the previous “Red Lotus Hero” should have all become useless.

Of course, I believed in Adam’s abilities. It would likely only be a matter of time for him to cultivate a set of abilities to go along with his Titan’s heart. But, considering that he would need to cultivate from the very foundations again, that would be the equivalent of having an author learn how to write in an entire new language. It would be quite difficult to achieve the same power level without several years or even several decades.

“…Why wouldn’t he be able to reobtain it? We’re no longer the weaklings who had to risk our lives just to obtain a phoenix heart.”

I paused in surprise after hearing this. Indeed, we had worked so hard fighting the phoenix back then, hunting and being hunted down for several thousands of kilometers, fighting it so many times until finally forcing it to be reborn in order to steal its phoenix heart. But now, there was no need for this at all.

“We had the Mage Country’s Truth Symposium help us, along with the Hell Gods as support. We purchased an old phoenix that was almost about to be reborn from the Nature Faction, and then we had one of our teachers help us with a surgery… Adam is now a man with two hearts.”

“…He has two simultaneous cores? Isn’t he truly about to become capable of literal multitasking, then?”

Although I was saying random things, I was truly shocked. Although it sounded simple to have two hearts with differing elements, the difficulty and trouble involved would be unimaginable.

Phoenixes were incredibly exotic divine beasts. Purchasing such a precious creature from the fanatical druids would be incredibly difficult.

Besides, even if Adam obtained another phoenix, the safest method would be to remove the Titan’s heart and use the original blueprint to give him a phoenix heart again. Why keep the Titan’s heart? There would be so much clashing and pain from having two hearts of different elements. This was no generation where more powers were better. Only a power suitable to oneself would be the best.

Margaret glanced at me… fine, I felt that she was viciously glaring at me.

“He said that he felt there was a need to become even stronger.”

I suddenly understood, but didn’t know what I should say.

Humanity’s strongest warrior? The hero who saved the world several hundred years ago? It was likely that Adam’s current abilities would still be quite insufficient in front of our powerful future enemies. No, his abilities wouldn’t even be enough in front of the powerful Gods and Main Gods.

While phoenixes were of the fire element, phoenix fire contained Concepts such as Indestructible, Rebirth, Reincarnation, Revival, and so on. These Concepts would be particularly suitable for tanks. The destructive attack power of flames would also be quite high. However, there would also be many shortcomings. The most obvious shortcoming of all would be one of the most obvious weaknesses of tanks—short range.

Perhaps a phoenix’s ability to fly would be quite practical. However, a phoenix’s flight would still be insufficient on the highest-level battlefields. Adam’s phoenix wings would be far too insufficient when compared to an Immemorial Red Dragon flying at full speed.

As for the thunder element, without even mentioning the other traits of thunder, just the fact that thunder would improve reaction time and speed would make any warrior desire such abilities.

If Adam possessed a Titan’s heart and phoenix heart simultaneously, with dual cores powering him, his strength, speed, and revival capabilities would reach the peak. Perhaps Adam really would become the theoretical perfect warrior.

“It’s too difficult…”

“‘Roland even managed to accomplish keeping four different powers in balance. I only have two different powers here, so it’ll be fine.’ Didn’t you set the example for him?” Margaret imitated Adam’s tone in her lilting voice. I finally understood why Margaret was glaring at me.

However, my case was completely different from Adam’s. I had accumulated a great deal of experience over many lives and self-cultivated my abilities. The foundational reason for my success was that I was dual-job-classing as both warrior and mage. Meanwhile, Adam was a pure warrior who was unable to naturally use the power of the elements.

Adam had forcefully obtained a powerful bloodline through surgery. Even if he could use his former power to suppress the phoenix heart, the clash between two different elements would be the equivalent of placing two constantly exploding bombs within himself. It would be a daily occurrence for his internal organs to be damaged. Until the two elements completely achieved a harmonious balance, he would be experiencing extreme pain on a daily basis even with the phoenix’s power of rebirth to protect his life.

“I self-cultiv—”

I only finished half of my words before I realized that anything I said would be meaningless with how calm Margaret’s expression was.

Adam, Margaret, and the others had all been powerful for many years already. Of course they would understand such things. Adam had already resolved himself to bear all the consequences before he made this decision.

Both of us knew that Adam was telling nothing but excuses. The real reason was that he felt he wasn’t strong enough, so he wanted to become stronger.

Everything said before was useless. For a pure warrior, there was only one reason necessary—wanting to become stronger. Margaret was purely blaming me for his actions.

If Adam overcame the clash between his two elements, and created his own thunder element martial arts and Concepts, then leveled up his new phoenix heart to the old one’s level, these would all be difficult steps that no ordinary warriors could complete in their lifetimes. But, since this was Adam, perhaps he would one day foolishly smile and say that his martial arts had now been completed and were undefeatable… wait, why did this style seem so subtly familiar?

The phoenix form Adam in the sky was now enveloped in thunder. The undying phoenix put on thunder feathers, allowing it to fly even faster in the sky, just like an unstoppable lightning bolt.

I could only shake my head helplessly. Since even the tank was self-aware enough to charge in, I probably shouldn’t waste time anymore.

Also, Little Red had already vanished unnoticed some time ago, and judging from the countless fireballs that the phoenix suddenly spat at Conservation, I had been quite slow to act.

“When did Little Red jump on him?”

Judging from how Conservation’s magic attacks against Adam suddenly vanished, Little Red had already mastered the ability to devour magic in her new energy-devouring red dragon job class.

Meanwhile, Margaret floated up towards the sky as her rainbow-colored Philosopher’s Stone floated in the air with countless magic spells jumping out.

“Accelerate”, “Star Armor”, and other such support buff spells were cast on our party, while “Decelerate”, “Curse of Misfortune”, and other such debuff spells were tossed onto our enemy. As a Great Saint, Margaret would know at least more than one thousand magic spells.

“…It really is just like the old times.”

I had already dared to challenge the Main God power level Conservation even though I hadn’t known about Elisa’s true combat strength. The foundational reason was because we had so many people… err, I meant that we had all cooperated for so long over the years already, so our combination was far more powerful than even 1+1 > 3.

Adam blocked the powerful enemy, Margaret observed and gathered information while giving targeted support, and Little Red would take chances to suddenly sneak up on the enemy. As for me, since I was an all-rounder, I would typically do whatever was needed in battle, and in the current battle, what I needed to do the most was…

My golden wings shone with golden light as I lifted up my right arm which was covered in Holy Light. My Dawn holy sword was glittering with blinding light. This powerful holy sword even attracted the attention of the Hell Gods.

And then, I reached out…

“Holy Light!”

Holy Light shone on Adam’s body as I milked him… err, I meant healed him.

Cough, since our party had a tank, a DPS, and a support, we just lacked a healer. Since I was capable of using Holy Light, didn’t it only seem natural that I stood in the rear and healed everyone?

Hey, don’t underestimate the healers. It was precisely because of healing job classes that we humans could use small parties to challenge super bosses far more powerful than the party’s level. This was human intelligence!

As long as the tank could persist and the healer could keep up, and as long as nobody died in the long battle of attrition, we would always win one day. Even the most vicious boss was nothing more than a helpless boss in front of a raiding party! Also, healing would be the foundational reason why any party could win a battle of attrition against a boss.

“Every Holy Knight has a heart that desires the DPS role, but most will have to take the role of the healer due to practical reality…”

Most adventuring teams would lack healers more than any other job class. It was common that only the most novice priests who needed experience would join adventuring teams. This was why Holy Knights became the first choice for any team to help their injured companions. Due to the practical situation, many youngsters who wanted to become heroes in the Holy Knight job class unknowingly turned to becoming full-time healers. Their sword techniques gradually became worse than their healing techniques, and they wouldn’t even know what to do on the frontlines anymore. They would then spend their entire lifetimes without even realizing it as healers…

This definitely wasn’t my personal experience or anything like that!

Cough, ahem, but at least my healing was quite effective.

With the buff effect from my holy sword, my Holy Light healing was incredibly effective. Adam, who already had powerful regenerative abilities of his own, instantly recovered from any injuries he had. Little Red also constantly devoured Conservation’s magic attacks, and Margaret was supporting him. With us three protecting the tank, Adam had already gotten close to Conservation.

Any pure mage who allowed a warrior to get into melee range would typically meet death!

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