"Ahhh!"
The blue flame let out a terrified scream, then turned around and vanished from sight.
The flame seed was still running.
Even Professor Ratio's expression became a little strange.
How many times had this been?
He thought about it for a moment. That little flame had already appeared here and screamed before running away one hundred and thirty-eight times.
The famous scholar from the Intelligentsia Guild couldn't help frowning as he turned to look at the white-haired boy nearby.
The child had found a box to sit on and looked completely relaxed.
The result spoke for itself. There was no doubt that the child's plan had worked perfectly.
And it seemed his group of fans had already sent word back that all the researchers who had been teleported away had been found.
Still, even standing on the opposite side, he felt that the little flame had been put through something a bit too miserable.
Of course, the professor didn't disagree with Nero's idea. He just felt that this child was a little too good at tormenting people.
For a brief moment, Ratio even felt that, in this regard, the boy before him could be his teacher.
For that little flame, this experience was one of despair and helplessness, like falling into a pitch-black pit and sinking into a silent sea, there was no questioning that.
It fled for its life again and again, only to return to the same place every time. Every time it looked up, the people chasing it were already waiting there.
It tried every method it had, but nothing worked. No matter what it did, it couldn't escape, as if it were trapped in some strange endless loop.
How could that not make it despair?
Thinking of this, Ratio looked at the Fright Maze again.
This Curio's ability to manipulate space really was powerful. Within its range, space itself was like a toy.
It blocked off every other path, preventing the Spirit Flame from escaping there. It couldn't interfere with the rescue team, nor could it even sense the researchers who had gone to save people.
At the same time, it constantly adjusted, shifted, and changed the structure of the space here. Even a being like the Spirit Flame, which possessed related abilities, couldn't detect those subtle changes. That was probably the effect of its illusion-making ability.
From the flame's point of view, every move it made was correct. It believed it was getting farther away from them.
But in reality, under the Fright Maze's control, it was only running in circles. After making two loops, the Fright Maze would send it right back here every time.
"See that? Did you see how scared it looked just now?" Stelle chatted away beside the Fright Maze.
"Nero wasn't wrong when he said you weren't very good at scaring people before. Look at you now. You listened to him. See? You scared that Spirit Flame Seed into this state!"
The Stellaron girl proudly lifted her chin, looking so pleased with herself that anyone who didn't know better would think she had done it.
The Fright Maze didn't answer, but it shook excitedly. It felt as if a whole new world had opened up before it.
After a while, the little flame came back again.
This time it didn't run. It just stayed where it was without saying a word. Though it was an energy lifeform, it somehow looked mentally drained and completely exhausted.
It was hard to say whether it was tired. More likely, it had simply fallen into despair and no longer had the will to run.
After exhausting every trick it had, it still ended up back here. It knew there was no way out.
Ratio curled the corner of his mouth.
"Heh. It's over."
Even though it knew escape was impossible, it was still a fragment of the Lord Ravager's flame. It couldn't simply sit there and wait to be captured. Even at the end, it wanted to go down fighting.
Perhaps the Lord Ravager sensed something here, or perhaps it was only a trace of consciousness left inside the flame.
Either way, that voice spoke again, "The ignorant fool blindly chases the flame, never realizing that Destruction's blessing has already fallen at his feet.
"No wonder even our Lord's Legion failed to purify this place when it came in person..."
Before the Lord Ravager could finish speaking, he saw Nero and Stelle exchange a glance. They both looked over at him, grinned, and said in unison, "How did you know I'd been blessed by Destruction?"
The Lord Ravager, "..."
The little flame instantly fell silent.
In the quiet that followed, everyone knew this fire demon, who had tried so hard yet had never once earned Nanook's gaze, must have been thinking about many things.
Then Nero wagged a finger.
"One more thing. The Antimatter Legion did come to the space station, but please don't avoid mentioning how they lost.
"No matter how much you worship Nanook, you still have to face the fact that the Antimatter Legion was defeated while invading Herta Space Station. The Voidrangers were smashed to pieces, and the Doomsday Beast had its head crushed. We did that."
As he said the last sentence, the boy pulled Stelle over beside him.
When facing an enemy, the boy never cared about being polite. Tearing open someone's wounds and making them look at them themselves, he showed absolutely no mercy. Even Lan would probably advise him not to take things to such extremes.
"Oh, and here's the second thing. You should know that Lord Ravager Phantylia was defeated on the Xianzhou, right? I did that too. I was the one who beat her and captured her. She's still locked up in the furnace at my house. She doesn't dare throw a tantrum anymore."
The Lord Ravager, "..."
The silence continued.
The Lord Ravager began wondering whether, if everything this child was saying was true, wasn't his own idea of dying together with them just a joke?
After a long silence, the Lord Ravager finally spoke again.
"Hmph. For now, I shall admit that I acted rashly."
He was still refusing to admit defeat.
"But next time, I will come personally. I will offer your sinful souls a funeral with true flame."
Listening to the Lord Ravager, Professor Ratio frowned more and more deeply.
If this fire demon were his student, he'd be eating chalk nonstop.
The professor took a deep breath. He suddenly felt a headache coming on.
Nero blinked.
He had thought saying all that would provoke the fire demon into coming personally.
And this was all he got?
The child sighed in disappointment, then waved his hand.
"Just go already. In the end, you still don't dare come yourself. You're only good at talking big."
"Even Xianzhou children aren't as stubborn as you. Weak but always pretending. No real ability, yet your ego's sky-high. Your methods aren't even as useful as your feet. That's all you've got."
"And with such a grand title like Lord Ravager of the Everflame Mansion, you end up acting like a scared little quail. This is all you'll ever amount to."
As Professor Ratio listened to Nero's merciless evaluation that left the Lord Ravager not a shred of dignity, his eyes lit up brighter and brighter.
'Excellent.'
'Very well said!'
'This child truly understands me!'
Feeling the sudden silence, Stelle and Fuyan grew excited inside.
'Here it comes.'
'It's happening again!'
'This is it!'
Perhaps Nero's words had stunned him for a moment. It took the Lord Ravager quite a while to react. He was furious, yet all he managed to spit out was one angry word.
"You..."
"Alright, stop. I get it. I understand. Little skill, huge temper. Ambition higher than the sky, fate thinner than paper. No brains to win, no strength to take."
"Full of yourself while making a complete fool of yourself. Acting all noble and superior without realizing you're nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well, an ant trying to shake a tree."
"No one's afraid of you. What's the point of making empty threats? You'd be better off leaving while you still can. At least you'd save a little face. Otherwise you'll just end up exactly like now, getting cursed out and insulted until you're worth less than nothing."
The Fright Maze trembled beside them, as if it had suddenly remembered its former self.