The journey throughout the Thunderspike expanse was brutal, as they moved forward, they had one again run into groups of Gorgons, but they easily dispatched them.

Still, the further into the Expanse they travelled, the harsher the environments became. At this point, it was perpetually storming, lightning tearing through the sky and crashing down near them.

Albedo had to constantly make sure he was not being hit by potential lightning strikes all the while keeping a solid pace. The lightning strikes would also shift the terrain, causing rubble to crash all over, needing Albedo to constantly dodge.

They continued to descend into the valley, sharp gusts of wind nearly knocking Albedo off his balance more than one. They moved cautiously but quickly, until a sudden burst of static snapped in the air.

~CRACK!~

A flash of violet light streaked through the sky, and from the nearby crags, a trio of beasts lunged out of the shadows.

Thunderfang Drakes.

Low Gold Rank monsters, barely sentient but highly aggressive. They resembled sinewy wolves with scale-covered bodies and thunderbolt-shaped horns curling over their heads.

Lightning arced between their fangs, and their bodies crackled with lightning. They all exploded forward like vicious beasts ready to devour Albedo and Ember at a moment’s notice.

Albedo raised Ruin and fired two Graviton Slugs, the compressed gravity rounds distorting space around the drakes, slowing their charge just enough for Ember to move.

She galloped forward like a storm given flesh, unleashing a wave of blue-white flame that surged in a crescent. The frontmost Drake tried to leap away but caught a blast across its torso, collapsing as its scales corroded instantly, the flames swarming it venomously.

The second tried to pounce on Albedo’s blind side, only for Albedo to sidestep smoothly and fire Infernal Mode into its open mouth.

~BOOM!~

The Infernal shot exploded on contact, crimson apocalypse flames quickly devouring the Drake’s body until it turned to ash.

~BOOM~CLAP!~

The black clouds from the sky all began to rain down tyrannical lightning that caved in various paths in the surrounding area, kicking up a large path of debris.

Albedo had to dodge one of the Black Lightning strikes just in time, but due to the last second adjustment, he found himself directly facing the largest Drake of them all, who promptly howled and gathered a violent storm sphere between its horns, preparing to unleash a deadly burst.

Albedo immediately moved around, his ‘Mirage Body’ activating, various illusions of hims spreading out in all directions, pulling the attention of some of the remaining Drakes.

As for the one that was attacking Albedo, Ember immediately understood the situation, vanishing in a streak of fire and approaching beside the beast, rearing up and slamming her hooves into its chest.

The blow ruptured its core, and the unstable energy within detonated with a sharp KRA-KOOM!

Flames devoured the creature before it could scream, and Albedo had already moved onto the other Drakes who were distracted by his mirages.

~BANG~BANG~BANG~BANG!~

Albedo immediately unleashed a barrage of bullets from Havoc and Ruin, the former in Infernal and the latter in Graviton mode.

Ruin’s shots pulled all the remaining Drakes closer together, while the Infernal shots ignited them all, the crimson apocalypse flames immediately swarming all over their bodies.

Ember also shot highly concentrated bursts of her corrosive flames towards the gravity well, corroding them and combining with the crimson apocalypse flames to burn the remaining drakes to ash.

Once all that was finished, the silence afterward was immediate. Albedo immediately scanned the horizon, not spotting any more movement.

He collected any of the remaining Thunderfang cores he could find and stored them quickly, immediately moving forward.

Their continued journey was still tough, mostly because the expanse was just an intensely dangerous place, even without being swarmed by monsters.

The deeper they descended into the Expanse, the more twisted the world became.

Albedo stopped atop a narrow stone ridge and glanced skyward.

The clouds churned unnaturally, pulsing with fractured veins of black, violet, and electric blue.

Mana surged visibly through the air, wild and unstable. Static lifted his hair. Ember stomped anxiously beside him, her hooves releasing rhythmic bursts of flame as she felt it too.

Then,

~KRRAAA-KOOM!~

The sky split open, and a bolt of chaotic lighting crashed down not far from them, detonating an eruption of blue white fire and mana shockwaves.

The ridge they were standing on buckled beneath the force, and Albedo immediately shouted, “Move!” his voice nearly drowned out by the wind.

He dashed forward, Ember beside him in perfect sync. Another lightning bolt fell, this one shimmering with prismatic colors.

It didn’t strike the ground, instead imploding mid air, releasing a sphere of mana distortion that warped space around it, sending fragments of rock spinning upward and sideways, as if gravity no longer obeyed the rules.

Albedo leapt through it while Ember surged forward, her celestial flames flaring wide to shield herself as the distortion swept past.

They landed on a lower ledge just as more strikes lit up the skyline, continuously smashing down and shifting the landscape.

A Storm quickly came, mana falling in rain-like droplets, sizzling wherever it touched. A drop struck a boulder nearby, and the rock exploded like it had been hit by a bomb, causing a mini-earthquake.

Albedo raised his arm, triggering a defensive mana barrier as he pressed forward, “Don’t stop!”

Ember galloped just ahead, avoiding the burning mana droplets with fluid, balletic grace. Her flames flared outward, shielding Albedo where his barrier couldn’t.

They swerved around another incoming bolt, this one cracking the sky in half. It slammed into a hilltop behind them, reducing the entire slope to a sea of glowing molten stone.

Albedo grit his teeth.

“This place really wants us dead…”

They reached a cavern mouth, half-buried by rock, just as another bolt detonated behind them, sending a shockwave that slammed the cliff wall.

He dove inside with Ember right behind him, the mana storm still howling outside.

Both of them stood there for a moment, steam rising from Ember’s mane, his armor singed along one side.

They were alive.

But just barely.

“…Let’s not do that again,” Albedo muttered, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow.

Ember shook her head, as if in complete agreement.

The duo sat there for a couple hours, not able to move with such a tyrannical chaos storm raging. Only once the storm had finished were they finally able to continue their journey.

As they crossed into a more narrow gorge, the terrain abruptly shifted. Here, the rocks turned dark and wet, as if soaked perpetually in some kind of metallic fluid. The air buzzed—not with thunder, but with illusion.

Albedo paused and immediately sensed more incoming changes.

~FWOOOOOSH!~

Without warning, the wind screamed, and their surroundings began to warp.

~SHRIEK!~

From the ‘sky’ above, translucent wraiths descended, Phantom Wind Serpents. They had no true form, just glittering snake-like bodies of razor-thin pressure and sharp air currents.

Albedo counted five.

He swapped Ruin to Mana-Drain Mode and fired.

The slugs tore into the nearest serpent, destabilizing its form and feeding his mana pool as it hissed and dispersed into wind.

Two others coiled around Ember.

She reared and erupted with a burst of defensive flame, her mane igniting in full. The serpents tried to constrict, but their bodies melted against the corrosion of her breath.

The final two struck Albedo directly. He turned, allowing his armor to absorb the brunt, and summoned Havoc in his off-hand, discharging Infernal Mode at point-blank range.

~BOOM!~

Both vanished in a shriek of wind and heat, trampling to nothingness. They continued onwards, the sky darkening way beyond natural, the clouds literally writhing as if they were alive.

“Mana Tempest,” Albedo whispered, “This is where it gets serious.”

They crossed into a plateau. The terrain opened, exposing them to the full fury of the storm. Lightning streaked down like swords from heaven, striking randomly and with no rhythm.

One bolt slammed mere meters away.

The resulting explosion sent both Albedo and Ember skidding. He only barely activated his Ethereal Silk Armor’s defensive rune in time, taking the blow across his side with a muted grunt.

He needed to move, running forward while he spots the rifts developing.

“Time for Execution Mode.” He muttered, Havoc and Ruin merging into his hands.

The swirling clouds locked onto his soul energy. Four shots shimmered at the edges of the weapon. He aimed not at the lightning, but at the spatial rifts where the mana was condensing.

~CRACK!~

The first shot broke apart a forming thunderstorm, dispersing the mana before it could trigger.

~BOOM!~

The second shot tore a clean hole in the black clouds, allowing a sliver of light through.

~FLASH!~

The third shot collided mid-air, redirecting an incoming bolt into the side of a cliff, away from him and Ember.

Only one shot left.

Then, something new appeared. A mass of violet clouds condensed directly above them. The storm warped.

A Thunder Wraith.

It was a being formed purely of violent mana. Roughly humanoid, with jagged arcs of lightning acting as limbs, and a single, burning core where its heart would be.

It dropped with a roar.

Albedo didn’t hesitate.

He fired the final shot.

The Execution Round tore through space, curved mid-air, and pierced directly through the core of the Thunder Wraith.

~KRAK-BOOM!~

It exploded in a bloom of distorted pressure and shattering sound. The tempest broke. For a moment, the skies cleared.

“Damn… I forgot how much that takes out of me…” Albedo muttered.

Ember stood protectively beside him, flames flaring in a wide defensive circle.

The satchel pulsed again. The Leviathan’s mana was still faint, but steady.

“We’re close,” Albedo murmured, slowly rising to his feet, “The Mirage Zone is coming up soon,”

They moved on, slower now, the calm between storms lingering like the last breath before another descent.

And as the sunless sky shimmered faintly above, Albedo and Ember continued forward, one step closer to the Mirage Zone, and by extension, the Black Thunder Pool!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep