Toz's fire spread through the fortress and climbed its walls to reach the ceiling. And if the Fortress of Death was caught up in flames, there was no way that the chamber Toz was in would remain intact. If anything, it was the opposite.
As the center of Toz's inferno, the Fountain of Death's chamber was almost entirely melted. Only a few beams of stone held out and kept remnants of the ceiling afloat, but they were quickly dripping to the ground and joining the pool of molten rock surrounding Toz and the Fountain of Death.
Toz was nearing his goal, but he wasn't quite yet satisfied, and he continued fanning the flames and pushing them to roar even more furiously. The flames avariciously devoured his mana, but Toz didn't care. He singlemindedly forced himself and his fire even further.
Eventually, Toz stopped thinking too much about what he was doing. He simply indulged in the world of fire that he had created. It didn't matter whether he had his eyes closed or open or if mana vision was active or not. All Toz saw, felt, and heard was fire.
He knew deep at the back of his head that there was something he had to do. He had set the world ablaze for a reason. But as he stopped thinking, that reason didn't seem as important as the flames.
The only thing that mattered in Toz's head and heart was the fire around him. He could feel it calling to him, and he could feel an urge to call back. So he did.
Toz tilted his head back with closed eyes and spread his arms wide as he used what remained of his mana to talk to the flames burning the world around him.
Immediately, the flames shook in tandem before abruptly calming down. The fire that had raged like a bear mother after losing its child stilled and came to an eerie silence. The flames clung to the remnants of the Fortress, only occasionally shifting around and licking the air.
The rampaging wildfire had turned as docile as the flame of a candle within a cottage.
Toz felt the fire await his request. It was like a dog patiently looking at its master. However, Toz had used the last of his mana to awaken the fire. Even if he wanted to order the fire to go wild, he couldn't do it. He could only helplessly watch the fire with his mana vision and try to learn as much as possible while it returned to its original state.
Toz was so busy trying to understand what he had done with the fire that he barely even recognized that it might be lucky that he couldn't urge the awakened fire to do anything. If he unleashed it upon the world, there was no guarantee he would be able to calm it down again or stop it from burning everything, including himself and the Fountain of Death.
Before Toz called out to the flames and woke them up, they had been in his control and would never hurt him. But after they woke up, Toz felt like they got a life of their own, and while they wouldn't harm Toz intentionally, there was no telling what would happen. The flames were wild and untamed. But they were also stunningly beautiful and alluring.
The flames caught and held Toz's attention in such a tight grip that he almost forgot what he needed to do.
Spreading the raging inferno through the Fortress of Death and razing it to the ground was only one part of his plan. And it had been a success. But as he expected, it wasn't enough.
The inferno had killed most, if not all, of the weaker servants of Death within and around the Fortress of Death. However, Toz sensed the existence of several powerful entities beyond the flames.
Although the fire still blazed throughout the Fortress and obscured his senses, Toz could still feel how much stronger those existences were compared to the hollow knight armors and robed death mages he had incinerated inside the Fountain of Death's chamber. The fact that they survived the inferno was more than enough proof of that, especially the inferno's finale, where Toz managed to awaken and bring out the flame's true nature.
When Toz succeeded in that, the flames calmed down and acted docile, but they did nothing to mask the soaring heat that was enough to make the molten stone boil.
The fact that there were some who survived that surprised Toz, but he was still prepared for it. He was almost counting on it. He would prefer if that burst of fire and heat killed every enemy within the Fortress since it meant he could take his time to recover before carrying away the Fountain of Death and finding a way to store it.
But since there were survivors, Toz had to go through with the second part of his slightly insane idea. And he probably had to do it soon.
The flames were quickly dying down, and the heat was escaping into the air. They would still be more than enough to make the likes of the hollow knight armors stay away. But they wouldn't last long against the remaining existences.
However, that was another thing that Toz was counting on. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell how strong the remaining enemies were or what their attributes were, which made it a little more difficult to calculate the timing.
But he didn't want to think too much when his brain was already starting to feel like mashed potatoes. Awakening the true nature of an element was taxing in a different way from simply using a lot of magic, especially the part where he felt the fire call to him and when he felt like he had to respond to that calling. It didn't so much strain his brain rather than simply exhaust it to its absolute limit.
Toz felt like a days-long nap would be perfect at the moment. But he also knew that indulging in that desire would lead to his death.
So, he decided to do something else that would hopefully not have the same odds of dying.
Toz sat down cross-legged and calmed down. He could tell instinctively that he should do it before the flames fully return to slumber, but he didn't know why. And instead of trying to understand his instincts, Toz just listened to them as he cleared his mind and opened his eyes with mana vision active.
He looked out at the world around him. At the mana and demonic energy swirling and clashing due to the overwhelming amounts of fire mana and fire magic stirring the atmosphere.
Since the mana was already moving around in such a manner, Toz didn't have to put the same effort he would have had to had the mana been mostly motionless. But with his tired mind, any amount of effort would still lead to a budding headache, so it didn't really matter.
The only thing that mattered was whether he would do it and survive, or not do it and die. Even if he did it, Toz might still die. But Toz didn't hesitate, and he spread his perception to the mana and demonic energy as far as he could see with his mana vision.
