Since Mira was on a time limit, she decided to speed through the rest of the demons.
Her vitality might seem endless, but it certainly wasn't. With each lightning strike getting stronger and stronger and the rate at which they fell getting faster, it wouldn't be long before her body couldn't heal her injuries anymore. She'd also run out of Qi to block most of the damage before these lightning strikes stopped.
Luckily, she didn't need to waste any more energy than she already was by killing the demons, as the lightning that constantly surged around her was more than enough to turn them into dust. All she had to do was absorb their soul and move on to the next one.
***
After killing her way through 75% of the demons, another change occurred in the Gates of Heaven.
Mira heard a deep, rumbling noise coming from it as the gates opened up even more, but before they could open up completely, the gates stopped. Then, a bright golden-red light shone from within, vaporizing the smog that filled the air!
It shone within the sky like a sun, blinding Mira for trying to look at it and causing her to turn away. If she stared at the sun for too long, she might actually go blind!
However, that was only the beginning of Mira's troubles! The massive golden-red sun rolled its way out of the gates, and as soon as it did, it was as if this Hellish Secret Realm had awoken!
The volcano grumbled and trembled as if it were ready to explode at any moment! The lava pillars all around her shot up higher in the sky, except now they were tinged with gold, and the heat emanating from this was suffocating.
Mira felt the skin on her legs and feet melting off as the magma beneath her bubbled and popped, releasing heat so intense that it burned the very air she hovered on. She almost dropped from the sky a few meters because of that but quickly caught herself, preventing an unwanted magma bath.
Sweat poured out of Mira's body like a faucet as she tried to cool off, but the salty water drops were instantly vaporized upon contact with the outside world, leaving her skin to warp and become pliable, like how rubber would if someone put it in a fire for too long.
The lightning strikes continued to rain down on her body, and the pressure didn't stop weighing her down just because the Heavens added another factor, so she was forced to multitask!
Creating a suit of ice armor that completely covered her body, Mira attempted to block off the heat and cool herself down at the same time, but she still underestimated the Gates of Heaven too much!
Mira sighed, feeling some relief from the heat as her ice armor protected her, but before she got too happy, it melted, not even leaving any water behind. She didn't need to see to know what was going on.
The Gates of Heaven had shot down a pillar of fire at her!
'Ugh!' She bit her lip and grunted as the flames threatened to turn her to ash. Mira circulated her Qi and formed another set of ice armor, except this time, she added a layer of Yin Fire on top of that.
Mira wasn't quite sure whether her Yin Fire would be strong enough to stop the Heavenly Flames, but it was the best chance she had. Yin Fire was technically the antithesis of normal, yang flames, which seemed to be the kind of fire the Gates of Heaven were generating.
The characteristics of her Yin Fire were that in exchange for the massive, uncontrolled destruction that normal fire had, it was more precise and had corrosive properties.
The best way to describe it was this: Her Yin Fire was the water element superheated to levels beyond that of lava and magma and then transformed into the shape of a flame, yet it was neither water, magma, nor a flame. It was a combination of all three.
That made it less like a process, which normal fire was, and more like a tangible object that can be manipulated. That's why, more than her ice, which normal fire countered, her Yin Fire was her best bet at protecting her.
When the Heavenly Fire came into contact with her Yin Fire, it stalled for a second. The Heavenly fire tried to destroy Mira's fire with brute force and overwhelming power, but her Yin Fire was like glue as soon as the two touched. It resiliently resisted the incoming force and tried to consume the fuel which empowered the flames.
However, the Gates of Heaven wasn't called that for no reason, and it wasn't long before the power behind those flames was more than what she could handle and burst through her Yin Fire!
Mira silently cursed, but now that she understood that her idea worked, she could try and further improve her defenses! Before the Heavenly Flames destroyed her ice armor, Mira created another layer of Yin Fire. Right after, she formed a few small Singularity Strikes (black holes).
The Singularity Strikes sucked in all the nearby light, heat, and even fire, allowing the Yin Fire to do its job better. With all these things working in tandem, including her ice armor, Mira almost felt like she wasn't on fire anymore!
Almost…
After about 10 seconds, the Singularity Strikes fizzled out, causing the Realm to return to normal, but Mira was more than satisfied with that.
'I can kill a lot of demons in just 10 seconds. With my Qi reserves and the cost it takes to keep my Yin Fire active along with those Singularity Strikes, I should be able to kill all of the demons and make it to the volcano before I reach half of my available Qi. I might also be able to decrease that consumption by adjusting my power output and testing out other abilities. And if things get too bad, I can always rely on my tails.' Mira thought. However, she was very hesitant to use her tails.
Not only were they her trump cards, but she couldn't use them that often. More than likely, if she were to use any of them once, she wouldn't be able to use them again in this trial.
'Well, let's not waste any more time and finish this damn trial before I end up as a cooked fox!' Even though Mira's eyesight was completely blocked off by the lightning, light, and fire surrounding her, she could sense the presence of those around her.
She immediately located the next demon and lunged toward it. It only took her a fraction of a second to reach the demon, and before she could even attack, it burst into flames and disintegrated! Mira didn't show any surprise on her face and just reached out her hand, touching the white wisp that was left behind before moving on to the next one.
All of this only took her a fraction of a second!
***
After Mira had killed an endless number of demons, probably somewhere in the hundreds of thousands range, she finally eradicated them all, or at least what she assumed to be them all, and took her first step onto the volcano!
It took her a bit longer and a bit more Qi to reach this point, leaving her with around 25% of her reserves left, but there wasn't much she could do in this situation. She tested out other combinations of her Ice, Yin Fire, and Darkness affinities, but none were as good at keeping her from dying as the ice armor, Singularity Strikes, and a layer of Yin Fire.
As soon as Mira took her first step onto the volcano, she paused.
"..."
Things were quiet…
WAY too quiet…
The sounds of lightning crackling, fire raging, and the ground rumbling still entered Mira's ears, but usually, she'd hear the screams of the damned as well.
However, now, there was none of that.
To make matters worse, even after she killed all the demons, the Gates of Heaven hadn't made another move.
'Did I forget one? Is there still a lone demon hidden in this Realm?' Mira thought before shaking her head. She had used her [Earth Sense] ability to look for any hard-to-find demons and had already taken care of them all.
From what she knew, she had killed everything in this place.
'Then…' With her eyes closed, Mira glanced up at the peak of the volcano. By the time she reached this point, Mira wasn't that far away from the top, maybe a few hundred meters at most, but that space seemed much longer than even the tallest mountain to Mira right now, 'Is it waiting for something?'
Her eyelids trembled, and a chill ran down her spine. Mira tried to ignore it by lifting her foot and taking another step up the volcano, but…
For some reason, a sense of foreboding overwhelmed her, and her body wouldn't move. It was as if she would die if she took another step.
Right now, Mira completely forgot about the attacks raining down on her as the silence in the air penetrated every pore in her body, causing her hair to stand on end.
Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, Mira forced her body to move and took another step forward!
