With barely ten seconds of "The One" remaining, El pushed forward with everything he had.
His fingers drove into the hollow where Mahoraga's eyes should have been, forcing raw heat deep inside in a desperate attempt to make it rupture from within but the bastard absorbed it like a bottomless well, devouring the sunfire even as it struggled to regenerate, its recovery barely stalled by the energy flooding in his body.
The next instant, the last barrier of earth broke as they arrived at El's targeted destination, a vast underground cavity.
The space itself felt hostile as raw orange mana waves surged through the air like violent currents, trying to repel their very existence.
Deep below, a deep red mana vein flowed like a living river, pulsing and shifting yet it wasn't lava, but pure, condensed fire mana… burning with an intensity that resembled the blood of the sun itself.
El's eyes wandered around, he wasn't looking at the vein but for its weakness, which he soon found.
At the far end of the hollow earth, a massive vortex of red energy twisted violently, a tornado of mana that tore at its surrounding air and earth spilling lava, constantly feeding on the mana vein below.
It clawed at the invisible barrier around the vein, preventing it from fully repairing, leaving behind a distorted, unstable tear.
That anomaly was his target.
Mahoraga thrashed in his grip, its body already knitting itself back halfway.
Locking onto the vortex, El vanished reappearing at its edge in the next instant. The pressure hit them immediately, the storm dragging both of them with enough force to tear their bodies apart in seconds. Still, El drove forward, forcing Mahoraga through the tear of the mana vein.
The tear resisted just like it did with the raging vortex above while the vortex above tried to push them inside.
Between El's strength and the hurricane's push, the barrier began to strain.
"Kirschhh—!"
Mahoraga roared, its strength surging as it tried to force itself back, its fully regenerated body violently resisted.
At the same time, El felt his power slipping.
The peak one minute had passed.
From here on, his strength would only decline.
"Cruel Punch."
Holding Mahoraga in place with one arm while enduring the crushing pressure of the vortex and the violent rejection of the mana vein below, El condensed his sunfire into a single point.
His fist ignited, wrapped in a blazing miniature sun as he drove it forward again and again, each strike hammering Mahoraga's head into the barrier behind it.
The pressure built and cracks began to spread on the surface of the tear.
Slow at first then faster until the tear widened.
The moment Mahoraga made contact with the exposed mana vein, everything changed. Its body began to corrode instantly.
The cursed wheel spun wildly above its head, desperately trying to resist but the pull was too immense, as if the vein itself had been starving for centuries.
It proved undeniably lethal to Mahoraga, a being composed entirely of mana, much like spirits and demons.
Mahoraga struggled, thrashing, trying to distance himself but above him El didn't stop hammering into his figure pushing him further inside. The current pulled harder, dragging it deeper as half his body was already gone.
Seeing his plan finally take effect, half of Mahoraga's upper body already gone, the rest moments away from being dragged in, El focused on his own escape, locking onto a distant point to teleport.
But in that same instant, Mahoraga moved.
As if sensing his intent, it stopped resisting entirely. Instead, it surrendered to the pull, letting the current take him in and in one final act, it hooked its leg around El's body, locking him in place and dragged him along into the mana vein.
The tear disappeared into the distance behind them as they were swept away at breakneck speed.
"Persistent bastard…" The thought flickered through El's mind as the world around him dissolved into chaos.
The inside of the mana vein was nothing like he had imagined. It wasn't a river, it was a raging storm, an uncontrollable torrent of energy, flowing faster than light, tearing at everything foreign within it.
The moment he tried to lock onto a location for instant transmission, the current shifted, dragging him inside again.
Ahead of him, Mahoraga still existed.
Even now, it tried to fight, its broken form lashing out at him within the stream. But its regeneration couldn't keep up anymore. The raging mana burned through it again and again, faster each time, until finally he failed to regenerate, dissolving into mana.
El felt no relief at that only mounting pressure.
The same force that had erased Mahoraga now pressed on him from all sides, His body endured it barely by the fading blessing of the sun. Without it, he knew he would have already been wiped out.
The current only grew stronger, faster and more violent with each passing second.
He tried to teleport again, the world twisted around him but all he managed was to appear few feet ahead slamming in the barrier.
The impact threw him right back into the current.
His ability was being suppressed. The spatial distortion inside the vein was too intense, overriding his control.
El's jaw tightened, he was being dragged somewhere else at light speed where the sun was setting as he could feel his strength weaken.
His divine form would last a little longer but once it ended, the backlash of using Escanor card would come along with the torrent of mana devouring him whole.
Only a few seconds had passed inside the mana vein, yet the heat was already beginning to take its toll on his blessed body. The assumption that he could survive here at least for a few hours started to crumble with each passing moment as another attempt to teleport failed.
His clothes were the first to burn when he entered the mana vein. Then his enchanted storage rings cracked and dissolved, unable to withstand the pressure, leaving him with nothing.
From within the collapsing storage, his possessions spilled into the raging current, treasures, a dull stone engraved with a single star, along with the two senzu beans he had saved.
His senses strained, searching desperately for an exit, for anything he could anchor to. His teleportation continued to fail.
But suddenly his eyes turned toward the One Star Dragon ball in the form of stone which was unharmed from the chaos around it.
Gritting his teeth, El forced himself forward, chasing it through the burning current as the mana began to scorch his skin.
Another failed teleport attempt brought him closer to the ball as he caught it in the flow.
The moment his fingers closed around the sphere, his expression froze, the stone had changed.
The dull stone surface began to peel away, revealing a brilliant golden glow beneath. Within seconds, it transformed completely into a perfect golden sphere radiating intense light.
It wasn't supposed to awaken yet as there were still fifteen days left.
But the moment it did, it began to feed on everything around it.
The dragon ball devoured the surrounding mana like a starving black hole, pulling in the chaotic current with terrifying speed. The raging flow twisted then bent inward, forming something akin to a vortex around it.
For a brief moment, the raging flow inside the mana vein eased.
And in that narrow window, El's senses finally found something an anchor.
He didn't question where it led.
Clutching the dragon ball tightly, he activated instant transmission.
This time again, though it met resistance, the spell worked, the world twisted around him, and in the very next instant, he was gone.
***
In a quiet public bath reserved separately for men and women at different hours a lone woman relaxed in the steaming warm water, letting the heat seep into her skin and wash away what little tension she carried.
Life on the small, peaceful island known as the Land of the Sun rarely gave her much to worry about, and this bath was one of the few places where she could truly lower her guard.
Warm ripples slid over her pale, unblemished skin as she leaned back, eyes half-closed, senses calm.
Then something changed, a chaotic presence locked into hers.
It brushed against her Ki like a passing storm. As a master of Ki, she reacted instantly, her body tensing as her senses expanded outward but she couldn't trace its origin.
Above?
Before she could be sure—
"Ahhhhhh—!"
A scream tore through the sky.
Her head snapped up just in time to see a figure plummeting straight toward her, an injured, naked man clutching a glowing golden ball. For a split second, her mind went blank over the absurdity of the current situation.
Splash!
The next second, He crashed into the water directly above her.
The impact should've been bone-shattering, but the water and her own body cushioned the fall. As El's transformation ended, he felt his senses slowly return to him.
El realized his face was buried against something warm and soft. His hand were pressed against a soft mound, a feeling he was far too familiar with, and as his head cleared and he looked above, the reality of the situation finally clicked.
The woman beneath him was flushed deep red. She was frozen, her expression a mix of shock, shame, and absolute fury.
"Kyahhhhh—!"
Ichika's scream tore through the calm of the bath and El instinctively backed away at once.
"Wait, wait! Pretty lady, I'm sorry! This is—look, it's a total accident, I can explain everything! Just... can you tell me where I am?"
The last thing he saw before the world went black was the pretty lady transform into a demonic figure clad in black armor, slamming her foot forward with the intention to end his life...
***
Author's Note: I know this chapter got a bit chaotic but please bear with me. I'm trying out a few ideas here, and it should come together nicely in the next few chapters.