Combat Maid Harem

He was biased toward Lawrend since he was the one that had the first contact with him. He saw him when he was still weak and was able to witness his explosive growth from afar.

He didn't think that Lawrend was a vicious person anyways. The other contenders should be safe, as that was the only concern for him going down there.

Lawrend sped downward at unbelievable speeds.

100 meters

200…

300…

400…

500…

600…

700…

He quickly passed by Inferno and Veronica.

"Father!"

"What!?"

Inferno and Veronica exclaimed in surprise after feeling his mana ripple beside them and quickly disappear. They couldn't help but realize how great the difference between them and their father was.

Lawrend faintly smiled. It was fun showing off to his kids.

He easily reached 1000 meters. The pressure here was insanely high, and the temperature was trying to cook him off.

Lawrend turned into a phoenix, surrounded himself with an aerodynamic fire mana shell, and used the fire mana from the magma around him directly without relying on his own fire mana.

This trifecta allowed Lawrend to continue his speed even at the depth he was at.

1100 meters…

1150…

1200…

1250…

1300…

Lawrend slowly slowed down. He didn't want to slow down, but the magma here was similar to hard rock. It was impossible to move here unless he spent a great amount of energy.

Although it wasn't that bad, as it was the perfect opportunity for Lawrend to look around. This place was huge, and he needed to find his mother-in-law's body.

It was not only a mission for Lawrend, but it was also his desire. He wanted to meet the mother who birthed Ember, who was so magnificent and beautiful.

It was fairly easy to notice anything out of the ordinary at this depth. The magma around him was homogenous, meaning they were all similar to each other. If there was something slightly different, it was probably Ember's mother.

"A corpse!"

Lawrend noticed a corpse right below him. He hurried towards it and created an air bubble to surround it. His body glowed with his All-Elemental magic as a simple wind magic wouldn't be powerful enough to resist the surrounding pressure.

"Who is this?"

Lawrend stared at the skeletal remains. He didn't know how to read skeletons.

"Wait..?"

Lawrend suddenly noticed something close to it. There was another corpse!

Lawrend moved towards it and created a bubble around it. It was another skeletal remain of someone. This time the bones were bright red in color.

"Huh!?"

Lawrend suddenly realized something as he stared at these two skeletons. The bones didn't move away from each other as if they were still attached to muscles.

There were no skeletons at the higher depths, but there was a lot here.

"So the skeletal remains of the people above were burnt to nothing while the ones that could reach this deep stayed here with their skeletal remains…"

Lawrend was horrified at this realization. He let the skeletal remains go and continued heading deeper. He made sure to check up on each of the skeletons he would encounter.

The deeper he went, the stronger the Ignis bloodline he could feel within the bones. So many great personas died here and left their remains here.

"This place is also perfect for improving the bloodline," Lawrend muttered to himself.

He could sense the blood within his body jumping in excitement. It wasn't a few hundred meters above. He assumed that it was because the depths above weren't able to improve his bloodline.

2000 meters.

Lawrend was basically swimming through solid rock. The skeletal remains he encountered increased by several times.

2500 meters.

But at this depth, the number of skeletal remains dropped significantly.

And then, at 2666 meters below, Lawrend encountered a skeletal remain that felt particularly familiar to him. He took it inside an air bubble and laid them on his feet.

"Is this her?"

Lawrend felt weird because he could sense Ember in this skeletal remains. Her bloodline signature was the same, which made Lawrend almost think that she died.

"What is going on?"

Lawrend was sure that this was Ember's mother, but the similarities between the two of them were uncanny.

"I hope you have a good rest, Mother-in-law. I will bring you with me," Lawrend said and gently took the skeletal remains inside of his storage ring.

Lawrend continued deeper.

He still encountered some skeletal remains, but they were very few. Their skeletons were practically golden in color as the pure phoenix bloodline changed their bones.

3000 meters.

At this depth, Lawrend could feel his body isolated from the whole world. He could only feel the fire mana coming from below him. If his senses weren't strong enough, he might've actually gotten lost here.

There was practically no mana from the other elements here left. At this depth, Lawrend fully turned into a phoenix.

"Wow."

His blood wanted to jump out of his veins in excitement.

But this wasn't the deepest Lawrend could go. He was sure that he could go deeper, so he went further.

Lawrend covered himself with a thick layer of mana from every element. This allowed him to continue resisting the powerful pressure at this depth. It wasn't enough to simply use his phoenix form.

3200 meters.

Suddenly, a small group of skeletal remains appeared in front of him.

He examined the bones, and they were all pure white in color.

"These bones have an even purer Ignis bloodline than I do," Lawrend muttered to himself as he ran a finger on one.

Lawrend took them all within his storage ring. He didn't care if it was disrespectful. Those bones were too good for him to pass up. They would help him greatly when he tried to make Amene's bow.

3333 meters.

At this depth, something changed.

The thickness of the magma around him decreased. Lawrend continued moving ahead, and then to his surprise, he entered a pool of pure fire mana.

The liquid fire mana was like water, so Lawrend was able to swim around like a fish.

"This is incredible!" Lawrend exclaimed. "Unfortunately, I'm not a pure Fire Earth Mage."