The colossal pure-fire elemental stirred a fragment of memory in Wayne's mind.
Hovering mid-air without legs, its lower body formed a conical shape from fiery tornadoes. Above that, an improbably slender waist contrasted with its dozens-of-metres-tall frame, leading up to a burly torso clad in stone-forged plate armour bristling with spikes – the ruler of this world, the Firelord.
Its beating wings whipped up violent gales, though instead of wielding a hammer, its hands remained empty.
A psychic message flashed into Wayne's consciousness:
Translated, it meant—What the hell are you?
Wayne promptly responded with intelligible intent: "I've come for the plane's core."
"Roar!"
The Firelord instantly erupted in fury, its roar accompanied by overwhelming pressure radiating in all directions.
The Fire Elemental Plane echoed its master's rage – solid rock began melting as temperatures surged yet again.
Rather than alarmed, Wayne felt pleased. Had this 'Ragnaros' reacted calmly or with confusion, it would have meant ignorance of the plane's core. Instead, this fury confirmed it knew about the core, possibly even possessed it.
"Die!"
With this final psychic shout, the Firelord attacked.
A thunderous boom echoed as countless molten pillars erupted skyward, twisting like living serpents toward Wayne.
A sapphire glow coalesced in his hand, materialising into a longsword. With an overhead slash, he cleaved the fiery realm in two, dramatically cooling the area.
Using ice against fire here was undoubtedly irrational – but who could match Wayne's boundless magical power?
He intended to overwhelm the Firelord through sheer force.
Innumerable ice spikes crystallised around Wayne, shooting toward the Firelord at high velocity. Bellowing, the demon emitted scorching flames that vaporised the projectiles instantly. The resulting steam condensed into fog under pressure from subsequent ice spikes, then blew directly into the Firelord's face by a fierce gale.
Though quickly evaporated again by its own intense heat, the elemental opposition made Wayne's act feel like having filth smeared across its face.
This drove the already enraged Firelord to utter madness. Its building-sized form charged forward.
It would crush this insect with its bare hands!
Yet midway through its charge, the Firelord froze abruptly.
Behind the 'insect', a spatial vortex had appeared, now gushing endless torrents of water. The entire area became shrouded in thick mist as the Firelord retreated continuously, firing flames desperately against the unceasing deluge.
This is fucking disgusting! – The Firelord nearly lost its mind.
First the filth, now bringing the entire latrine?
"Treacherous insect! You've thoroughly enraged me!"
With this declaration, its form shrank by half, growing more condensed and potent.
Suddenly, the accumulated water on the ground transformed into magma, and the falling temperature soared. Wayne frowned, recognising this as the release of a Domain.
The situation here bore some resemblance to the Heaven Divine Realm, but the elemental concentration was even higher, granting the Firelord's Domain a tremendous boost in power.
Seeing his conjured water merely turning to magma, Wayne also closed the spatial channel.
"Let flame purify all!"
"Feel the Firelord's blaze!"
As these domineering lines were uttered, a legion materialised.
Hundreds upon thousands of elite fire elementals emerged from the lava pools, charging at Wayne from all directions, while the Firelord grinned viciously and raised his massive hand once more.
"Let's see you dodge this time!"
Within the tyrannical fire elemental Domain, all power was mobilised; even swift movement produced earth-shattering explosions.
"A single element, nothing more. What upheaval can it possibly cause?"
Wayne drew his wand, employing his ultimate Domain in combat for the first time—the Stellar Domain!
The sun brings light, light brings heat, and heat brings life.
The origin of life lies in the stars; stellar power nurtures all things, and, naturally, it can also end them.
The Firelord's fist was within reach, yet it couldn't advance a single inch further. The fiery hues gradually faded, replaced by breathtaking starlight.
But this starlight was akin to a deadly poison to his minions; all fire elemental life touched by the starlight disintegrated, returning to their primal state.
He struggled to break free, but the compressive forces from all sides pinned him in place, immobile. The starlight, carrying the intent of mass extinction, finally descended upon him.
The Firelord realised in horror that his sturdy armour was dissolving, and his elemental form was melting away.
A blazing orb appeared in his chest—his elemental core. If destroyed, he would perish completely.
"I was wrong, I surrender!" the Firelord pleaded, utterly spineless.
"You don't know you were wrong; you only know you're about to die." Wayne remained unmoved, continuing to erode his core, ignoring all the Firelord's desperate pleas.
"I know where the plane core is. I can take you to it."
"Foolish. Once you're dead, can't I search for it freely?"
"I'm faster."
"No matter. I have ample time."
Amid their back-and-forth, the Firelord's body shrank until it was smaller than the elite fire elementals he had summoned.
"Spare me, I beg you. I can serve you, become your subordinate."
"Hmm?" Wayne finally paused slightly.
That was rather tempting.
After all, he was a Legend rank elemental lord. Even if he weren't as powerful on the prime material plane as in the Fire Elemental Plane, his strength was still not to be underestimated.
Most crucially, this fellow held considerable potential.
With further growth, he had a high likelihood of ascending to a Demigod-level elemental monarch.
Seeing Wayne's interest finally piqued, the Firelord voluntarily exposed his core.
"You can control my life; then you needn't fear betrayal."
"I would have done so regardless of your suggestion." Wayne imprinted his magical power and spiritual energy upon it, enabling him to annihilate the Firelord with a mere thought.
With this completed, Wayne dispersed his Domain.
The Firelord hastily returned the core to his chest, weakly sinking back into the magma to replenish his energy.
Fortunately, the core hadn't been damaged - he could restore his original strength after absorbing energy for some time.
"Take me to get the plane core," Wayne commanded.
Not daring to delay, the Firelord obediently led Wayne forward. After half an hour of travel, they arrived at a constantly burning sea of fire.
"The core is inside. I can't break through the barrier here, otherwise..."
The Firelord didn't dare to finish his sentence. If he could have controlled the plane core, how could he have lost earlier?
Wayne condensed his Stellar Domain around himself, forming an absolute defence, and disappeared into the sea of fire.
The flames here were even more terrifying than the Firelord's Domain; no wonder he didn't dare to enter. But for Wayne, it didn't pose much of a problem.
As long as his Domain remained intact, no external temperature could affect him.
Another day passed. The Firelord still waited outside, but in his heart, he prayed ceaselessly for that demon to die.
However, a figure slowly emerged from the sea of fire, greatly disappointing him.
Now Wayne had no protective magic around him, yet the sea of fire couldn't harm him in the slightest. Clearly, he had successfully refined the plane core and gained control over this world.
"You seem quite eager for me to die in there?" Wayne saw right through what the Firelord was thinking.
"N-no, not at all."
"Whether you did or not doesn't matter," Wayne revealed a demonic smile. "Even if I were to die, I'd take someone down with me first."
The Firelord nodded his large head dejectedly.
Wayne stretched out his hand, and the fire element power throughout the sky surged wildly toward the Firelord. His body rapidly grew larger, and his destroyed armour reappeared.
In mere moments, injuries that would have required half a year of recuperation were completely healed.
"Thank you, master!"
The giant excitedly expressed gratitude.
"Return and gather your subordinates. Don't take the weak ones - subdue those just one or two levels below you," Wayne issued another command.
In terms of top-tier powerhouses, the Fire Elemental Plane couldn't compare to the current main world, but there were plenty of secondary elemental creatures, making them a formidable fighting force.
The Firelord nodded blankly.
What exactly constituted two levels below him? He couldn't quite grasp the concept.
He decided he'd simply beat up anyone he encountered - those who didn't die would qualify.
...
Returning to Hogwarts, Wayne had no immediate plans to connect the Fire Elemental Plane with the main plane.
The best approach would be to connect all four subsidiary planes simultaneously, thus maintaining the world's energy balance and preventing chaos.
He checked on the developments in various regions over the past few days. The Tribe had merely purged the countries under their control once more, with the impact limited to the magical community and minimal interference in Muggle society.
In the eyes of many ancient wizards, Muggles remained weak even with their various powerful weapons.
They were only interested in the diverse foods and novelties, so they didn't care about truly controlling the entire society.
There was also good news - the Olympus Divine Realm and Asgard Divine Realm were successively establishing schools.
Once they were completed, Wayne would go and take them over.
Wasn't this a win-win situation?
In high spirits, Wayne hummed a cheerful tune as he found Cho and taught her an idiom: 'A day without seeing you feels like three years apart.'
A few days later, both Dumbledore and Grindelwald successfully broke through to the pseudo-Legend level. Before they could even fully control their surging power, Wayne dispatched them.
Grindelwald was sent to North America to assist the Magical Congress of the United States in clearing out Scourers and capturing ancient wizards.
There was also a touch of mischievous amusement in his heart.
Aren't you North American wizards the ones who hate Grindelwald the most? Well, I'll send him to be your saviour.
This distasteful approach successfully earned Wayne five thousand points.
As for Dumbledore, he went to negotiate with the Tribe in his capacity as Alliance Secretary-General.
The main conflict zones were now Egypt and the Aegean nations, and with Dumbledore's skills, maintaining stability wouldn't be a problem.
With both tools in place, Wayne suddenly felt much more at ease and gradually turned his attention to the school and the young ladies.
But the good days didn't last long. Crouch, who was already acting on behalf of the Ministry of Magic, came to see him again.
"The Tribe's delegation has arrived in Britain, led by Athena."