The Chimera Alchemist: Volatile Bonds Book 2: A Litrpg Monster Harem Fantasy Cultivation Adventure by Kaelan Rhysmoor

Author:Kaelan Rhysmoor [Rhysmoor, Kaelan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2026-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The air got thinner, but the poison got thicker.

Kaelen Thorne dug his boots into the loose, volcanic scree, hauling his massive frame up the steep incline. His breath hissed through the Violet Moss mask, sounding like a leaky bellows.

Every step was a negotiation with gravity. The ambient Qi of the Serpent Isles pooled in these high valleys, creating a localized pressure that made his bones ache. It felt like walking on the bottom of a deep ocean.

"Check the cargo," Kael rasped, pausing to wipe sweat from his eyes.

He patted the burlap sack tied to his belt. The Thunder-Toad inside gave a sluggish, muffled croak. It was alive, but barely. The altitude was getting to it.

"Syl?"

Sylara was ten feet above him, clinging to a sheer face of basalt. She looked ragged. The wire-cuts from the Tracker’s net were oozing green hemolymph, staining her new, obsidian exoskeleton. She paused, tapping the rock with a serrated leg.

Hot, she signaled. Ground bites.

"I feel it," Kael muttered.

He looked down at his chest. The Jade-Heart was going crazy.

Ever since it had devoured the Tracker’s shield in the ravine, the crystal had been buzzing. It wasn't a pulse anymore; it was a vibration, a high-frequency hum that rattled Kael’s teeth. It was full. Gorged on magic. And now, nearing the volcanic vents, it was reacting to the geothermal energy of the mountain.

It felt like carrying a nuclear reactor that was leaking coolant.

"We have to dump this energy," Kael said, gripping the straps. "Or I'm going to cook from the outside in."

He crested the ridge.

The wind hit him—a hot, dry gust smelling of rotten eggs and copper.

He looked ahead. The jungle had stopped. The trees here were gone, replaced by jagged spires of black glass and pools of yellow sludge.

"The King's lawn," Kael whispered.

He stepped onto the flat plateau.

He stopped.

He wasn't alone.

Scattered across the plateau, standing silent in the mist, were figures.

Dozens of them.

Kael drew the Shiv instinctively, crouching low.

"Don't move," he hissed to Sylara.

They waited. The figures didn't move. They didn't breathe. They didn't blink.

Kael crept forward, his curiosity warring with the Garrick-Instinct screaming at him to run.

He reached the nearest figure.

It was a Titan-Centipede.

It was reared up on its hind legs, mandibles flared, frozen in the middle of a strike. But it wasn't flesh and blood. It was grey. Stone grey.

Kael touched it.

It wasn't carved. It was rough, porous.

[ MATERIAL ANALYSIS: CALCIFIED BIOMASS. ] [ CAUSE: RAPID MINERALIZATION. ] [ AGENT: HIGH-DOSE NEUROTOXIN. ]

"It's a statue," Kael realized, pulling his hand back. "It got sprayed."

He looked around the garden of the dead.

There was a Tiger-Drake, curled into a ball, turned to stone while it slept. There was a flock of Spore-Bats, falling out of the sky, shattered on the ground like dropped pottery.

And there were people.

Kael walked over to a human-shaped statue near the edge of a sulfur pit.

It was a scavenger. He wore rags similar to Kael’s old clothes. He was reaching for his belt—probably for a weapon or a water skin. His face was a mask of absolute terror, mouth open in a silent scream.

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