A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6296

"But you..." Alaric said, his brow tightening.

"My chaotic force can devour any kind of power, including heavenfire," Jared said. "The Pyre Chasm isn't as dangerous to me as you think."

What he didn't say was that the primal fire-essence inside him was also yearning for that heavenfire.

That power of flame had been building since the Ethereal Realm.

It had slept all this time in the deepest part of his bloodline.

He could feel it. The moment the aura of the Pyre Chasm entered his senses, the primal fire-essence inside him started to tremble.

It trembled with anticipation.

It trembled with hunger.

Alaric held Jared's gaze and said nothing for a long while.

"Mr. Chance, are you certain?"

Jared nodded.

"Alright." Alaric didn't try to stop him again. "We'll wait outside for one incense stick. If you don't come out within one incense stick, we're going in."

Jared smiled. "Alright."

One incense stick later, Alaric personally led 300 Ghost Clan warriors toward the eastern reaches of the Nether Mountain Range.

Jared picked Lila up in his arms, then handed her over to the old woman.

"Lila, Uncle's stepping out for a bit. I'll be back soon."

Lila caught the corner of his clothes and refused to let go. "Uncle Jared, that's not true. They all said the Pyre Chasm is dangerous. Once you go in, you can't come back out."

Jared crouched down and looked her in the eyes.

"Lila, do you trust Uncle?"

Lila nodded.

"Then Uncle's telling you this. I'll definitely come back. And when I do, I'll tell you a story."

Lila held on for a long time before she finally let go.

"Then you have to come back."

"I will."

Jared rose to his feet, turned, and hurried after the group.

Behind him, Lila stood at the city gate with a rag doll in her arms, watching his back until it disappeared into the black fog.

*****

The Pyre Chasm lay in the eastern reaches of the Nether Mountain Range, about half a day's journey from the Moonshade Realm.

Alaric drove the group through the mountains.

The farther they went, the faster he moved.

And the more urgent it became.

His face grew darker and darker, because he could feel Lydia's presence weakening.

"Move!" Alaric shouted. "Faster!"

The Ghost Clan warriors gritted their teeth and ran with everything they had left.

At last, after they climbed over the final ridgeline, the Pyre Chasm came into view.

Jared's breathing cut off right there.

It wasn't a chasm.

It was a sea.

A sea made of flame.

Crimson flame churned, burned, and roared across the vast bottom of the chasm, swallowing a thousand miles of land in every direction.

The heat coming off it was monstrous. Even from the ridgeline, still dozens of miles from the edge, Jared could feel that scorching breath slamming straight into him.

The color of the flame kept shifting—crimson, orange-yellow, gold-white, ghostly blue—and every color marked a different degree of heat.

At the very center, the flame had already turned an almost transparent white, the kind of color that only appeared when the heat climbed so high even the light started to warp.

Something was moving inside the flame.

They were heavenfire beasts.

Their bodies were condensed out of flame, each one taking on a different form.

Some looked like dragons. Some looked like tigers. Some looked like birds. Some looked like fish.

They moved through the heavenfire and let out low, heavy roars, and the sound rolling off them made the ridgeline tremble.

Then, along the outer rim of the Pyre Chasm, on a stone platform near the north side, Jared spotted two familiar figures.

Lydia and Gwendolyn.

They were pressed against a massive boulder, with an icy blue radiant barrier sealed around them.

That barrier had been condensed from Gwendolyn's Frost God's power.

Under the burning assault of the flame, the barrier kept melting away, and Gwendolyn had to keep pouring fresh power into it just to hold it together.

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