Corrupt Creations

Barghest looked down on all the massive destruction his ability had caused, thinking that Seth would be in a tough condition down there, or maybe even heavily injured. 

There was no way for him to know, that Seth was totally immune to fire, be it small normal-looking flames, or an ocean of hellish purple flames. When he spent Mana and turned it into fire, he was practically throwing his Mana away. 

When he was still looking, trying to find Seth's figure amidst that burning hell of purple flames, a shadow swiftly flew from there, moving towards him so quickly, that Barghest wasn't even able to react to it until it was right in front of him. 

"Heh! Your puny flames can't hurt me. I'll show you what real flames look like!" 

Seth's body was already covered in fierce looking flames as he pointed his hand at Barghest direction. All the flame energy still burning on the ground below suddenly flew backwards, swiftly accumulating right in front of Seth's hand and creating a highly compressed flame that was not burning in purple color, but in a bright red. 

Barghest felt the blazing heat hitting against his skin and realized Seth's skill would cause him severe injuries if he were to release it. In his anxiousness, he stepped forward top stop him from attacking, but Seth was already fully ready to strike. His crimson flames were merciless and would not give Barghest any time to react. 

"Linear Conflagration!" 

Swoosh! 

All the energy Seth accumulated, was shot forwards in a single second. A destructive compressed wave of flames hit Barghest head on, dragging his body towards the distance as if a constant laser cannon was being shot at him. 

The flames previously burning a great part of that area of ten thousand meters, had been concentrated on that thick cannon, that was burning every single thing on its way. The crimson flames were so tyrannical, that they were rivaling Barghest Profound Mana and eating it away very quickly. 

Barghest was trying his all to resist that skill. He was using a lot of Mana while trying to stop that huge wave of flames, because he realized Seth had meticulously chosen the direction, he shot it. Right behind him, there was the hidden entrance cave where the Cerberus Clan facilities were. If the skill were to hit there, he couldn't imagine what would be the extension of the damage. 

However, when he looked directly at those crimson flames, he felt not only his arms burning, but even his soul was burning in pain. 

"AAAAARRRRGH!" 

Those crimson flames were nothing like any other flame he had seen before. He used all the Mana he could muster to stop it, but it seemed to be impossible. When he thought the whole base would inevitably suffer a huge explosion, Barghest quickly crushed an object, sending signals for Zertis to release the "Crimson Agent". 

However, his complexion paled when he felt Zertis Mana Control late-stage aura approaching him very quickly and using all his Mana to resist the skill together with him. 

He instantly understood that the man wasn't able to release the incomplete version of that creature, since he was a perfectionist and loved to see the complete version of his pets. Instead of following the orders, he simply came to help by himself. 

Bang! 

Zertis body heavily impacted against that flame annihilation that Barghest was trying to control and it finally showed signs of stopping. However, it didn't mean they had nullified the skill, but were only able to hold it from advancing. But it was indeed an impressive sight, how two small figures were using their Mana to hold the entire ocean of crimson flames that tried to submerge them into hell. 

Zertis was using all his reserves of Mana to contain that skill, while Barghest was relatively safer, since his Mana pool was way vaster; however, it kept draining at a very rapid speed. 

But unfortunately for them, that was what Seth wanted. If they could see the smile on his face, they would rather let go of that skill. He suddenly willed and the highly compressed flame energy that was still stored inside that conflagration, ignited. 

BOOOM!!! 

As if that was the epicenter of a crimson star, the Armageddon seemed to have descended in that area. Everything blew up into the air in just a single second. Zertis, Barghest and everything else was thoroughly consumed by the raging flame that destroyed whatever it came across. 

The impact was so strong that Lan Xue decided to move farther once again. She was genuinely amazed by how strong and fierce that fire was. Inwardly, she was already thinking it would probably make even a cultivator like her suffer some damage. 

The entrance area that led to the base Barghest and Zertis tried to protect, exploded without letting any remnants behind. 

In the midst of that all that fire energy, Zertis body disintegrated in a million of particles, that were further burned down to ashes. When the crimson flames hit him, he felt a searing pain on his soul that made him regret making those choices. 

Barghest used all the Mana he could, to protect himself at the last moment, avoiding his death. But he lost his left arm on that process. It was burned to cinders while defending the rest of his body. 

When dust and sand settled back some minutes later, the whole ground was just a huge crater. Impressively, through the huge hole on the floor, Seth and Lan Xue were able to see some of the facilities partially destroyed down there. They realized that the whole base extended a lot deeper underneath them. 

What they weren't able to notice, was that at the deepest parts of that laboratory, the cylinder that contained the red crystal giant started show some thin cracks. It was caused by the huge force of that explosion. 

Seth used his Soul Sense and he was impressed when he realized Barghest wasn't defeated yet. But now he was cornered to a dead end. With a severe injury like that, his chances of winning had decreased a lot. 

However, what happened, made Barghest see Seth in a new light. He wasn't fighting a mere human, but a true monster. Nothing he used seemed to take any effect, even though his Mana was theoretically stronger. 

Now that Zertis wouldn't be able to release the last trump card they had, he only had one thing to do. 

Barghest suddenly, placed his right hand on the severed part on his left arm, making it drench on his own blood. His Mana quickly drew a summoning circle in the air and he poured everything he had left of Mana in that, trying to activate it. 

Zang! 

Barghest offered his blood, putting it inside the summoning circle with a lot of efforts and said: "I offer you my blood in exchange of your loyalty." 

Grrrr!!! Ooof! Roar! 

Three different sounds resounded in the whole area, as a huge torrent of Mana started to pull something out of the summoning circle. Right in front of Barghest, a hellhound with three huge demonic heads spawned. 

It was a huge purple hound that exuded an overbearing aura of a Profound Mana late-stage Realm beast. At the moment it spawned, even the day seemed to have turned into night. It was not only majestic, but full of muscles and horns. A real massive demonic beast that would send chills down the spine of everyone it decided to target. 

The moment it materialized, a silver chain coiled around Barghest right arm and a silver leash full of sharp silver spikes appeared around those three fierce looking heads. Impressively, the links uniting that chain were invisible and not even Seth's Soul Sense could see them, since they were being connected inside the underworld. 

Bang! 

Not even waiting for another second, the Cerberus hound suddenly jumped towards Seth in an attempt to bite him to death. The intense force it applied on the floor with those muscled legs, created a blast sound. 

Seth didn't expect that Barghest would still have energy to keep fighting, but it seemed he left his contracted beast for the end. 

With the speed the Cerberus was moving, there was no way Seth could normally evade from the attack, so he decided to use his Shadow Walk to escape from it. 

Bang! 

The Cerberus hound descended, destroying the area Seth was preciously standing with the force of the impact it created. Seth had mysteriously vanished, appearing on the other side and making the beast waste all its efforts. 

But while he was still hiding in the shadows, he noticed the Cerberus hound had suddenly turned towards his direction and started to charge. Seth had seen it before; it was just like what had happened with the Blackwind Panther. Those beasts had a super strong sense of smell and their energy scan were a bit better than normal, making his first step of the Shadow Walk, useless. 

Since the second step of that technique was an instant movement in a relatively small area, it would still work as intended. But even so, it meant Seth would have to battle head on against a muscle bag in the form of a giant hellhound. 

While talking about physical strength, Seth would never retreat. His body was enhanced not once, but twice by the tyrannical energy. 

Just like the beast, Seth charged towards it, ready to strike with everything he got.