<h4>Chapter 563 Chapter 562: Tearing Out the Heart</h4>


    Mana spilled from my fingertips as I sent apressed beam of ice straight towards the Crystal Mimic, shing against its heat and covering its crystalline body in a thinyer of frost that inhibited its movements, buying Leone the time she needed to crack open the crystal spire and tear out the heart of this ind.


    While water would counter the mes sputtering off of its body easily, the ice was doing more than enough to counteract the heat that the Crystal Mimic tried to bring forth with its various spells.


    Additionally, the slow that my frost applied to the monster was what I was truly aiming for with this spell, hoping to keep it slow and chip away at the crystals thatprised its body, my theory of the continual shifts of temperatures to damage the monster one that I hoped was true as well.


    After all, when something solid shifts between the high heats of being consumed by fire to the deep chill of being frozen, most of the time that causes quite the damage to that solid''s structures, especially something that is as frail as crystal can be.


    While I kept the original Mimic back, Anput, Jahi and Nirinia fought against theirs with vigor, their des shing against the Canine and Demoness Mimic''s weapons as they held the two Mimics back with their superior techniques and ability to utilize their own magics, while the Mimics fought solely with their desperation and reliance on physical capabilities, which were above ours.


    I could hear Leone behind me chopping away at the crystal spire, the Vampire grunting as she created a weak spot on her own before switching herpressed de to a rotating drill bit, deciding to crack through the crystal with her magic.


    Considering we had no real idea on what would happen if we destroyed the heart from range, we didn''t want to risk just sting this entire area with high explosive magic since there was no guarantee that the crystal spire would break nor was there a guarantee that the heart would be damaged, so we went for the more likely option of just tearing the heart out.


    It would seem that this safer, more guaranteed option held a longer required timeframe to work as we stood our ground for another minute, the Mimics growing more and more crazed as they watched the Vampire slowly make her way through the crystal spire, revealing the beating fleshy orb that was the heart of this ind.


    Crystal littered the ground around her as she chipped through the spire, widening the opening and allowing herself to slip inside the crystal spire, observing the wrinkled orb for a few moments before resting her hand on it.


    The three Mimics all screeched in desperation as they watched her begin to imbue the heart with mana, overloading it and raising its temperature drastically, making it beat wildly before it eventually began to sputter out mes.


    Flesh tore apart beneath the onught of her mana, sputtering mes into the air and mixing with the reddish silver liquid that sshed onto the ground as the heart continued to be burnt and eviscerated from the inside out.


    Screeches mixed with the sound of the flesh tearing apart rapidly as Leone overflowed the heart with her Fire Mana, the whooshing of mes joining the cacophony around us as the entire fleshy orb burst into mes, the outside ckening under the heat.


    The flesh sizzled as everything began to burn, and with another drop of mana Leone took a step back, tracing out a spell in a second and hurling ance through the heart, piercing the flesh and allowing more of that silvery blood to stter on the ground.


    With the heart burning and now impaled by a mingnce, the Crystal Mimic and its copies fell to their knees, wing at their heads and screeching loudly as they slowly tore themselves apart, chunks of their crystalline bodies scattering across the ground as they died.


    Approaching the heart, Jahi raised her great sword and cleaved it in two, letting the halves plop to the ground and weep blood into the volcano''s stone, silencing the beating and allowing Anput and I to take a breath and rx our ears.


    But, we couldn''t rx long as the mountain began to shake, each of us looking around before we rushed back towards the entrance of this tform, looking over the edge of the pathway and staring down at the glowing pit below.


    Magma began to seep out from the bottom of the pit, returning to its chamber and sloshing around as it began to slowly make its way towards the vent, filling the magma chamber and cutting off our original path.


    "Alright, Anput, we need you to take us down the side of the volcano. Let''s make a beeline straight for the beach!"


    Without further adieu, Jahi scooped Leone into her arms and began to rush towards the edge of the tform, returning to our battlefield with the Mimics and scaling the walls quickly, looking for where the Gate was that connected this ind to the Empire.


    As we stared over the forest below, we saw mes burst from the ground and begin to burn the trees, while the Undead''s portion of the ind was already aze, the gases in the air and dead vegetation making it prone to catching fire quickly.


    Portions of the volcano were already crumbling away,rge boulders rolling down the side and crashing into the forest, knocking down trees and destroying the forest in preparation for the eruption toe.


    Looking around, we located the portion of the ind that we were familiar with and turned towards Anput, who was scanning the side of the volcano for the best ce to descend.


    Finding it, she sheathed her de and began to cast a spell, creating small tforms of rock that we jumped onto as we began to descend, the Jackalkin making tform after tform in mere moments as she guided us down towards the ground.


    We reached the forest without issue, and we began our rush through the trees as the ind continued to tremble and quake, while the earth burst open to reveal the magma underneath, burning the once lush vegetation and trees to little more than cinders in moments.


    Casting a spell of my own, I hastened our movements and rid the air of the acrid tang of smoke, making it easier to reach the beautiful beach that we hade to know over thesest few days.


    Waiting for us at the Gate was the Marquess and Cali, the two women standing beside the purple Gate and staring at the tree line with narrowed eyes,pletely serious as they waited for our return.


    Upon seeing us, the Marquess just nodded and gestured towards the Gate, while Cali grinned and slipped inside of it, disappearing from sight.


    And just like that, our time on this ind came to a close as we rushed through the Gate, not taking a second look back as we transported ourselves back to the Empire.


    Back to safety, and back home.


    Back to where our family waited for us.