Chapter 321: City of Holy Fire
[Timeline: One Month Earlier – The Surface World]
[Location: Outskirts of the Holy Capital, Kingdom of Light]
Time goes back to a month before Damien and his family made it out of the abyss
The wooden wheels of the merchant wagon groaned in protest, kicking up clouds of golden dust as it rolled down the sun-baked King’s Road.
Inside the canvas-covered transport, the heat was stifling, but the three occupants were accustomed to far worse.
Lukas sat cross-legged near the tailgate, the sleeves of his dusty tunic rolled up to his shoulders. His hands, or rather, the heavy, black Magitech Gauntlets that replaced the function of his burned nerves hummed with a low, dangerous frequency.
Click. Hiss.
Small, metallic needles extended from the inner lining of the gauntlets, digging deep into his forearms and connecting directly to his mana core.
He winced slightly at the familiar sting, then raised his right palm. A tight, focused orb of superheated blue plasma hovered inches from the metal.
He held it for exactly 1.5 seconds before extinguishing it, testing the cooling cycle of the Dwarven tech Prince Hephaestus had built for him.
"Still running hot?" Alaric’s gruff voice called out from the driver’s bench.
"Just calibrating," Lukas replied, wiping sweat from his brow.