I Have No Home

In the wasteland border, a hundred miles from the volcano, a monstrous castle had appeared. This bizarre legend was spreading like wildfire through the frontier towns.

In a small town's inn.

A group of grimy miners regaled workshop workers with tales of what they had seen from afar. Their words mixed genuine observations with exaggerations and imagination.

The inn's warm glow made it the liveliest place in town after nightfall.

People always fear darkness, yearning for light.

"That swamp is dark and eerie. You can often hear bloodcurdling howls. Atop the cliff, in that castle, dwells the most terrifying king of monsters," a miner gesticulated wildly. His body language and voice, combined with the dim lamplight, sent shivers down everyone's spine.

"What kind of monsters are they?" someone pressed, fear and curiosity mingling in equal measure.

"Sometimes they're transparent, other times they turn into flames."

"They're the embodiment of fire, a malevolent curse."

The miner's body shook as he spoke, pausing to take a sip of water.

He had truly seen these monsters, though at the time he'd been paralyzed with fear.

"Anyone who dares approach that cursed land will be burned to ashes."

"You can't see them, and you never know when they'll appear beside you."

"And when they do," he added ominously, "you're already engulfed in flames."

The miner's sudden shout and jerky movements startled everyone present.

"They eat you from the inside. These fire monsters burrow into your body and devour your organs bit by bit."

Others chimed in with stories they'd heard – or perhaps invented.

One man leaned in, his voice hushed. "I've heard they're cursed monsters, imprisoned there for eternity by God Himself."

Unease settled over the inn and the town. They could sense that these weren't entirely fabricated rumors.

That mysterious ancient castle and its terrifying monsters.

They were not far away.

In a corner of the inn, a figure in a black robe – clearly someone of importance – stood up, drawing everyone's attention.

"Is this what the monster you saw looked like?"

He unfurled a silk scroll revealing an image of a fire demon.

"Yes!"

"That's exactly the monster!"

The miner cried out, stumbling backward and tripping over a stone bench.

The black-robed man rolled up the scroll and left the inn.

The patrons whispered among themselves. Their small town had never seen such an elegantly robed dignitary.

Such a person should be in a city castle or temple, surrounded by attendants, not alone in the borderlands.

"Did you see the symbol on his clothes?"

"He's a priest."

"You've seen one before?"

"I saw one in the city. Though it's different, anyone with that kind of symbol must be a priest."

The black-robed man left the inn, heading straight out of town.

He gazed into the wilderness ahead, beyond which lay lands no longer part of the Yinsai Kingdom.

Or rather, no longer under God's protection.

A look of sadness crossed his face. As a childhood friend, he could guess at Haru's thoughts.

"Haru."

"Have you ceased to consider yourself a citizen of Yinsai?"

The newcomer was none other than the Food Priest Lan.

Since Haru had defeated Elena, no one had been able to find his trail.

Lan had scoured every corner of Yinsai in search of Haru. Finally, in this border town, he'd caught wind of his old friend's whereabouts.

He discovered that Haru was no longer within Yinsai's borders. Instead, he had crowned himself king of monsters in the wild lands beyond.

In the canyon swamp.

Food Priest Lan, riding atop a Sugar Crystal Giant, traversed the swamp to its depths. The deepest mire swallowed the giant up to its shoulders.

In the darkness, Lan heard strange noises.

They were newly born little fire demons, observing Lan from the shadows.

Lan had noticed them too, though they would flee whenever he approached.

"A new race, a completely new form of life."

Lan felt both amazement and concern.

He couldn't predict what changes this race, born with such powerful abilities, would bring to the world of Trilobite Men.

Would it be good?

Or bad?

At the far end of the canyon swamp, the sky suddenly cleared. Moonlight bathed Lan in its ethereal glow.

The Sugar Crystal Giant vanished, replaced by floating Noodle Brain monsters. They transformed into steps, alternating to allow Lan to ascend the sheer cliff.

At the castle entrance, fire demons revealed themselves. A dozen terrifying monsters cast vicious glares at Lan, but he seemed not to notice them. Under their watchful eyes, he passed directly through the flame-wreathed pillars into the castle.

"Puff!"

A gas lamp suddenly lit up, followed by two rows of lamps spreading deeper into the castle, illuminating Lan's path.

The flames in the lamp shades flickered, and he again heard those whisper-like sounds.

This time, tiny flame heads peeked out from each lamp, watching him.

Lan walked straight ahead, entering the great hall.

"Haru!"

"You still like living up high, don't you?"

Haru sat on a stone throne, his monstrous, blazing body leaning forward to look at Lan.

"So you've come at last."

After a brief pause, Haru asked,

"Lan."

"Have you come to kill me?"

Lan looked up at Fire Demon Haru, his mouth opening as if to say something.

An accusation? A challenge? Or something else?

But in the end, only silence prevailed.

Neither had imagined that their reunion after so many years would be like this – one still a Trilobite Man, the other transformed into a fire demon.

And what brought them together was not a renewal of youthful days, but the death of their teacher Sandean.

Though Lan knew that Sandean's death wasn't Haru's intention, it was indeed by Haru's hand that their teacher had died.

And Haru knew that no matter how he tried to deceive himself.

In the end, his heart could not forgive itself.

"Haru."

"The teacher didn't blame you in the end. He asked me to bring you back."

Lan's gaze at Haru was immensely complex. He heaved a long sigh.

"The teacher wanted me to tell you that both you and he were wrong."

"What you and he found wasn't the correct answer or future. There was never any secret art of immortality. It was all just the delusional fantasy of mortals."

"In the end, the teacher found the method to break through to the fourth level. That is the correct path."

He raised his head: "Haru, come back!"

"I'll help you find a way to regain your body."

Hearing these words and his teacher's name, Haru felt no comfort.

Instead, he reacted as if his deepest taboo had been touched. He suddenly stood up from his seat, roaring at Lan.

Flames spewed from his mouth, stretching across the castle hall.

"So you came all this way just to tell me this?"

"The teacher died, I abandoned my body, we paid such an enormous price, we dared to touch taboos."

"And in the end."

"All we got was a joke?"

Haru's eyes bulged with rage, his orange flame eyes distorting: "You don't get to decide what's right or wrong."

How could he accept that after paying such a huge price, all he'd obtained was a wrong direction?

Lan's gaze remained unchanged. Once people like them made up their minds, it was hard to change: "Haru, the teacher asked me to bring you back, so I must bring you back."

Haru's voice rose, filled with defiance. "Lan! This is my kingdom, a realm of monsters!"

The fire demon's voice emerged, becoming violent and uncontrolled: "This isn't your Ice Temple."

Lan said nothing more, but giant puppets appeared inside and outside the ancient castle. Transparent giants rose up behind him,

Swamp-like monsters emerged from the ground, while in the sky floated creatures with tentacles resembling brains and skulls.

He gazed at Haru, his expression calm yet determined.

Haru understood Lan's meaning, which aligned with his own thoughts.

He laughed loudly, his fire demon body suddenly growing so tall that the hall could no longer contain him.

"Then let's prove whose power is truly the strongest."

Haru refused to accept his mistake, while Lan was determined to fulfill their teacher's last wish and unwilling to see Haru become a monster.

At this moment, they couldn't reach any consensus. Only battle remained.

With a tremendous crash, the castle's roof was torn off.

The ever-expanding fire demon walked out of the castle. More third-level fire demons broke free from their pillar constraints, appearing on the cliff.

Hundreds of little fire demons also emerged from the lamps, surrounding the third-level fire demons.

The great battle began, though it hardly resembled a fight between two individuals.

It was more akin to a war between two monster armies.

Chaos erupted instantly. Explosions rang out everywhere, accompanied by rippling impacts against the mental barrier.

On the ground, Haru's enslaved fire demons and the Food Paste Slimes battled fiercely.

The Food Paste Slimes clung to the fire demons like sticky mud, constantly extinguishing their flames. The fire demons, in turn, spewed out fierce flames, trying to evaporate the slimes.

The two sides became entangled, soon fusing into giant mud shells with magma flowing inside.

The scene resembled giants with uncoordinated limbs wrestling on the ground, rolling about wildly.

At the center of it all, Haru engaged in battle with Lan's Sugar Crystal Giant.

"Haru!"

"This is the power of the fourth level, and the correct path."

Seeing Lan transform into an army, Haru grew increasingly agitated and angry.

"Correct?"

"Who decides what's correct? Why are you definitely right?"

"What gives you the right to think you're definitely stronger than me? This is the power of fire demons, the secret of immortality."

Despite Haru's denial, the vast difference between the third and fourth levels became glaringly apparent.

Haru's fire demons could only follow his orders, like scattered sand. Lan's puppets, however, were like extensions of himself, as easy to control as his own limbs.

Haru's fire demons were merely fusions of Wisdom Ability bloodlines through mental pressure, while Lan's mythical blood had undergone transformation and possessed a fourth-level mythical organ.

Lan's mythical brain organ emitted a glow, its mythical power directly enveloping the cliff.

He was like a net, connecting all his puppets, constantly pressuring Haru.

After an intense battle, Haru was repeatedly isolated and divided.

Finally, his dozen third-level fire demons were tightly sealed by the Food Paste Slimes, while the hundreds of little fire demons in the sky were blocked by the Noodle Brain monsters' mental barriers.

Even Haru himself was surrounded by Lan's three Sugar Crystal Giants.

Haru found this hard to accept.

He kept retreating, backing up to the edge of the cliff.

He desperately launched attacks against the Sugar Crystal Giants, his flames taking various forms.

However, the core of the Sugar Crystal Giants was mythical blood. Even if shattered or melted into a puddle of syrup, they could immediately reform.

Like immortal, indestructible beings.

Without the ability to defeat them at the level of mythical blood, these fourth-level puppets couldn't be completely destroyed.

This was the fundamental difference between the third and fourth levels.

"Why?" Haru cried out in disbelief. "Such power, the secret of immortality, undying monsters... How could I lose to you?"

Food Priest Lan noticed something off about Haru's appearance. His face seemed to cycle through joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and other faces could even be seen.

Lan's expression grew grave. He even felt Haru's voice had become somewhat unfamiliar.

It was as if he had become another person entirely.

"What's going on?"

"Haru, what's happened to you?"

Hearing Lan's voice, Haru finally stopped.

He stood at the edge of the cliff, turning back to look at Lan. With a tone tinged with reluctance, he spoke words of surrender.

"Lan," he said, his voice heavy. "The teacher was right. I was wrong."

"You're right too, there was never any secret art of immortality."

"Everything," he continued, his voice breaking, "was nothing but our greedy delusions."

Haru heaved a long sigh: "How could the secrets of God be so easily glimpsed by mortals?"

The hidden dangers of Haru's reincarnation technique had been somewhat mitigated by his choice to use self-created fire demons, but they had finally erupted.

Haru had long known the severe consequences.

He just hadn't wanted to admit it, or perhaps by this point, admitting it or not no longer mattered much.

Often, once a choice is made, there's no turning back.

Lan sensed something was wrong. He controlled the Sugar Crystal Giant to step forward: "Haru, you've lost."

"It's all over. Come back with me!"

"All the mistakes, all the failures, I'll bear them for you."

"Haru," Lan pleaded, his voice softening. "The teacher is waiting for you to come home."

Lan's mention of their teacher only drove Haru further into madness.

The moment he heard that name, a bitter smile crossed Haru's face.

"No!"

"I have no home anymore."

"The teacher is dead. This is my home now."

Haru laughed wildly: "I am a fire demon, and this is my kingdom."

He looked towards the canyon swamp, his words filled with anticipation, or perhaps mad ramblings.

"Ah!" he cried out suddenly. "Look!"

"This is another world, where I will be reborn."

He leapt into the swamp, instantly igniting the vast amount of fire element permeating the lowlands.

"Boom!"

Enormous flames erupted from the canyon, a fire dragon stretching for miles, turning the night sky crimson.

The entire dark swamp was set ablaze, an unending inferno.

The place where Lan stood immediately suffered the strongest impact.

"Divine Seal Giant."

A giant dozens of meters tall enveloped Lan within its body. It had a hat and eyes made of noodles, a torso of sugar crystals, and Lan's food paste flowing through it like blood.

The explosive force was cushioned by the elastic noodles and food paste.

Lan suffered no harm.

But the dozen third-level fire demons Lan had restrained earlier broke free from his control, transforming into gas and bursting into the sky.

Hundreds of little fire demons scattered like meteors, continuously surging out from this place.

This wasn't all. More little fire demons existing in the canyon swamp were also corroded and ignited by Haru's power, bursting forth from the fire dragon.

A large portion of them rushed towards the borders of Yinsai.

"This is bad!"

Lan knew he had to stop these frenzied and out-of-control fire demons.

This place was right on the edge of Yinsai. The sudden appearance of so many fire demons threatened to bring catastrophe to the border towns and the Trilobite Men who called them home.