With the lava approaching us, we had no choice but to run into the heat to avoid being swallowed and burned alive. But the closer we got to the "Exit" the warmer the environment got.
'If we don't get burned alive by the lava, we'll be burned alive when we reach the end of the hall.' That's what I was thinking, but I had no choice but to keep running.
After a few meters, finally, a light had appeared, and also hot steam came from that place, almost burning the hairs on my body. The heat was so great that the water in our bottles started to evaporate quickly.
Our skin was starting to burn from the heat, and the finer hairs were burning.
It was like we were being cooked.
And with this heat, we were sweating a lot, we would end up dehydrated in no time.
"We're almost there, run." The lava was still behind us, so I encouraged the adventurers to keep running, but many of them couldn't take it anymore, they were about to pass out.
But I have to keep encouraging them all.
And after less than a minute, we finally made it out of the hallway, the first feeling I got was like I was jumping into a pot of boiling water, my skin started to burn.
All the adventurers who left the corridor would instantly start screaming in pain.
"Make it stop, use water magic, quick."
"Please splash water on me, I can't take it anymore."
"I'm going to die, help."
I kept holding back from starting to scream desperately because of the pain I was feeling, as I couldn't despair here and leave them all helpless.
If the person in charge can't stay sane, this will turn into even more hell.
"All right, whoever can use water magic. Get everyone's body wet, and take off their shirts to protect their face." I removed my armor and then immediately removed my shirt. I rolled up the shirt over my head, leaving only a part of my eyes out.
All adventurers started doing the same thing right away.
Some adventurers continued to use water magic to cool our bodies. Removing the armor had also done a lot to contain the heat.
The iron armor some wore was practically serving as a pot to cook them alive.
"Okay, now we need to get out of here as soon as possible. We're almost out of the water and we're going to dehydrate quickly. And don't even think about drinking the water produced with magic, it will only harm you even more."
Giving the warning, I turned to the front and looked at that large room in front of me. A huge room made completely of a dark stone very much like coal, but it was much darker.
Small volcanoes were all over the room, where a large amount of lava kept being thrown into the air as it fell into a large river of lava that was in the center.
In addition to the big river, there were also smaller lava pits all over the place.
It was just volcanoes and a river of lava, there was no sign of life in this place.
The walking places made of that dark stone were also hot, even our shoes couldn't contain the heat. Some shoes even started to melt when we started walking alongside the huge lava river.
All the while, we continued to use water magic to cool our bodies, but it wouldn't continue to work for long.
We walked for a long time, it was a big room, maybe it's even bigger than the capital, how can that be possible? Did I enter another world or something?
The river of lava was bubbling, and the rising heat made us dizzy.
"Menjo, what are we going to do? There's nothing in this place, just rocks and lava, we have to look for a way out."
"I don't know what to do now, I feel like I might pass out at any moment, the others are also reaching their limit." I looked back and noticed many adventurers already starting to feel short of breath and dizzy.
It was torture to be in a place like this.
It was like I was in the worst city on the demonic continent. I don't think even there they have places like this.
"We need to think of something, we're going to die if it goes on like this."
"I don't know…" The only thing I could come up with next was to keep striving to walk through that place and find a way out, but I don't know how long we'd be able to do that.
A few steps later, I looked back and a C-RANK adventurer was lying on the ground with his eyes closed.
"Shit, are you okay? Hey, don't do this to me, hey man." One of his companions approached the unconscious man and tried to wake him up while crying desperately, but he was no longer breathing and his heart stopped beating soon after.
Hic~~ The man sobbed as his tears turned to steam when they fall to the ground.
I looked at my arm, and my skin was already starting to turn dark red, my skin was being burned little by little, it was hurting a lot.
All the adventurers were suffering at the time, and every few meters we walked, another adventurer fell to the ground unconscious, the group of adventurers was getting smaller and smaller.
I had already given up hope of getting out alive.
Everywhere I looked, I could see only rocks and lava pools.
"Hahaha, looks like it's over for us."
"Hey, Menjo. Don't say that, we have to make an effort, if we die here we won't be able to tell anyone what we saw, and I don't want to die now either. I just had an expensive daughter." Theod stood in front of me and gripped my shoulders.
His eyes were filled with tears, I could see the despair on his face as well as all the adventurers behind me.
Casri was looking at us dejectedly, he also seemed to have given up a long time ago.
"Okay, let's get out of here, shall we?"
"Yeah, we're going to get out of here and let everyone know how amazing this place is." Theod forced a smile and then released me.
But I didn't want to tell him that those hopes were useless at the moment, haven't they realized we're only alive because that thing wants to?
####
Looking back, that thing kept following us. Maybe it was an exaggeration to say we're alive because she wants to, but this creature is really strong.
It was a small red man, he had no face and his body was covered in lava. He was chasing us while hiding behind the big rocks had around the place.
'This thing is powerful, it can kill them all quickly.' Maybe only I can face this thing.
I just kept walking and waiting for that thing to attack. We couldn't get away from this thing if it decided to attack us.
We would have to fight.
And so, I tried to ignore that thing was there and move on, but things were getting more and more complicated. People who could use water magic had already passed out or died.
The few people left were already at their limit.
Besides, we hadn't found anything either, no way out or anything we could use to get rid of the heat. If only there was some water for us to drink.
Our water is gone, we had nothing.
"Hm? Look over there." Casri who was beside me said as he pointed his finger towards one of the lava pits, he was looking at it with his eyes shining.
"What?"
"Can't you see? A pond." Casri had a smile on his face, since I met him I've never seen him this happy. But... What was he talking about?
"Listen, there's nothing like that... Hey." Before waiting for me to finish, Casri started running towards the lava pit desperately.
"Water, we finally found water."
"Casri, wait!"
"This is not water!" I ran after him, but I didn't have that much strength in my legs at the moment.
Before I could get close enough to Casri, he dove towards the lava pit and was slowly swallowed as his body was burned. He didn't even scream, he died in silence.
I confess that I felt a little like throwing myself inside this place and dying quickly.
"Shit, we're doomed.." Theod, who had previously been confident that we could find a way out, had finally fallen into complete despair.