For the first time, Ruwen realized even his Harvesting wasn’t enough, and he would fail. A failure that would kill seven hundred thousand people, including Hamma, forever. Even the Overlord struggled to contain the panic that Ruwen felt.
Ruwen couldn’t fight the six attackers and couldn’t retreat for help, which left moving the temple as the only option. If you could call the impossible an option. Despair pressed in from all sides.
Ruwen’s pinky warmed again as his fire immunity activated. Not much use in a shaft of water thousands of feet deep. Maybe he should fight Valora and her companions so he could get help from the Cultivators. If he got his Crazor close enough to the methane sacs, even underwater, maybe they’d explode. If nothing else, the Crazor would boil the nearby liquid doing a little steam damage. But he didn’t have the time to—
The word steam had sent an icicle through Ruwen’s brain. What connection had his Cleverness attribute noticed? He thought of all the recent times steam had come up, and three instances immediately surfaced.
The giant squid Tickles had protected its lake, and the realm-transferring flowers, in the Spirit Realm. When fighting the squid, Tickles had countered Ruwen’s Magma Lance spell with a column of water, and the explosion of steam had covered half the valley.
The second time had also been in the Spirt Realm. Ruwen had been learning essence forms when training underwater in Fractal’s lake. Rami had wanted to know which form Ruwen would try first: the healing, fire, or ice form. He had chosen ice because using fire underwater created steam, and his alchemy labs had given him a respect for the damage steam caused.
Ruwen had used that alchemy experience in his fight with Phoenix by creating a block of ice in front of the Cultivator’s fire attack. The resulting explosion of steam had thrown Phoenix a hundred feet into the air and slammed him against the Spirit ward that covered the arena.
The pressure on Ruwen’s body disappeared as his immunity ring cycled through water. He winced in pain as what felt like his brain freezing solid. But he had an idea. The smallest sliver of hope. Maybe there was a way to move the temple.
Because steam did more than burn, it also expanded.
Two minutes remained before the Cultivators below Ruwen destroyed the temple. As he thought through his idea, he realized to get past the Cultivators before they could react and stop him, he needed to wait for the water immunity to cycle around again. Which gave Valora and her companions time to catch him.
Rami, your durability is listed as Indestructible. I just want to make sure.
For anything you’re currently capable of, that is true.
Good.
Ruwen spoke to Elder Vachyl in Chat. Everyone needs to lay flat on the floor.
Relaying now, Elder Vachyl said.
Lir, I’m going to increase the pressure down here significantly in a minute. If you need to prepare, do it now.
Understood, Architect Starfield.
Ruwen spent the next forty-five seconds moving downward the bare minimum to stay ahead of Valora. As his counter hit fifty-nine seconds, the water pressure disappeared, and he funneled a hundred Energy through his Void Band. Without water resistance, he moved like lightning through the liquid, even with the small particles of sand it contained.
Ten seconds later, Ruwen passed the temple, and the darkness disappeared. Light from a large metal ring that encircled the temple reflected through the water. Traveling at an insane speed, he only glimpsed one of the creatures powering the glowing ring.
The twelve-foot tall creature had an elongated face, kind of like a dragon. But instead of scales, its skin looked like leather, and it had two sets of giant bat-like wings.
Forty-four seconds remained on the counter and the Revolving Ring of Immunity cycled into earth just before Ruwen slammed into the ground going over eighty miles an hour. Instead of taking massive damage, the stone stopped him and transferred all his kinetic energy down and away from him.
Ruwen found the tunnel that led to the distant ocean. Using Dig, he collapsed the tunnel as far back as he could reach, creating a nice seal. He didn’t want to lose any pressure. Using Dig with his remaining seconds, he pushed the stone under the temple to the side, creating an indentation. He sat in the depression and removed the Sublime Centipede of Solace and the level one Rune for Campfire Big D had given him on his Ascension Day.
Valora and her team came into view. They spoke with one of the creatures and they all looked down at Ruwen. The Stone Sculptor smiled, and everyone moved toward him.
The counter ticked down to twenty-nine seconds and Ruwen’s pinky warmed as the Revolving Ring of Elemental Immunity cycled into fire.
Ruwen held the Campfire Rune up for the approaching enemies to see. Then he created a size five thousand Mana rod, touched it mentally to the centipede totem hidden in his other hand, and visualized the essence recipe for his favorite spell: two parts Fire, one part Chaos, and one part Air.
Ruwen’s world turned white with heat.
The water at the bottom of the perfectly smooth shaft vaporized.
Then, with a frantic urgency to obey the laws of alchemy, the steam rushed toward the surface, carrying everything with it.
Chapter 82
Ruwen and the temple exited the shaft and continued to rise. Opening his Void Band, he used two blasts of air consuming a thousand Energy each and pushed himself against the temple. He immediately cast Mend Tool for twenty-five Mana, cementing himself to the temple’s side.
Crazors lit up the battlements, and it looked like the weapon had caused catastrophic losses for Naktos. The top of the shaft had been blown apart as they’d exited, destroying all the mobile baths Naktos had placed there. With such heavy losses, and no easy way to revive, they were doomed.
The city disappeared as they moved east through the sky and then began to drop.
Engaging stabilizers, Lir said.
The temple’s tip moved upward, and
