Chapter 424. End of the Challenge One
Inside the vast sinkhole that lay at the heart of Veins Peak Island—a massive crater carved from the top of the towering Veins Peak Mountain—Temptress descended deeper and deeper into the unknown.
Lily Gomes, now donning her pirate identity as Temptress, was slightly rattled from the earlier ambush by the mysterious blonde girl. But her focus had returned, sharp as ever. With each meter she dropped, she scanned the shadowy interior of the sinkhole, sweeping her divine sense across every cave opening, crack, and crevice in the stone walls.
Even in the chaos, her instincts remained flawless. Every suspicious fluctuation in the air, every trace of energies – nothing escaped her notice. But there was one thing she hadn’t expected.
"...Why is it getting so damn hot?" Temptress muttered, her sultry voice echoing faintly off the stone.
She floated downward, her eyes narrowing.
"There aren’t any volcanic formations on this island, right?"
The Veins Peak had never been known as a volcanic mountain. But now, the temperature had surged unnaturally. The air shimmered with heat, her breath steamed even in midair. It wasn’t uncomfortable for her—she could handle extremes—but it was strange.
Roughly 300 meters from the bottom, she finally spotted what seemed to be the "ground." Except, it wasn’t ground at all.
"...Water?"
It shimmered beneath her like a mirror of molten silver—an underground lake or reservoir, but bubbling violently like a cauldron. Steam rose in thick waves, and the surface rippled and hissed.
"Boiling?" she murmured. "Just like a geyser near a volcano... but this place isn’t volcanic. So what’s heating it up?"