Prologue

  Howling Furnace. A land bathed in a sea of fire. A loud eerie howl can be heard in the sky as the heavy wind blows, made by various tall stone pillars with gigantic hole at its center that are scattered as far as the eye can see. Its height reaches way up the false sky. The Howling Pillars.

  There is no infinite sky in this land. The sky is made up of solid rock, covered in a fire that acts as sunlight that illuminates this hellish land called the Scorching Ceiling. Magma veins can be seen faintly pulsating at the sky, making up the stars at night once the fiery ceiling’s scorching flames calms down.

  It is said that the cause of varying intensity of the Scorching Ceiling is because of the Howling Furnace’s great beast, the Great World Dragon who is rumored to be sleeping eternally somewhere deep within the Howling Furnace for some unknown reason.

  The legend says that the Great World Dragon exhales for a total of 10 hours which creates the heavy wind and makes the Scorching Ceiling burn intensely. And the Dragon Inhales for a total of 10 hours, sucking out air from the Howling Furnace and makes the Scorching Ceiling burn weak.

  While the sky that should normally be vast and infinite is solid in this land. The ground that is supposed to be solid as the Scorching ceiling is the opposite as it is made up of molten rocks, making it impossible for normal land creatures to walk over.

  But despite this unstable sea of molten rocks, vegetation and wildlife are surprisingly flourishing. From Sentient and Non-sentient Plants that are seemingly not affected by the extreme temperatures of their environment to Wildlife with the strangest appearances that adapts to the environment they're living in, from an insect to a Colossal.

  In the middle of this land of scorching heat, a small boat is floating aimlessly over the molten ground. A figure of a girl with brown skin and short ash white hair that splits her long bangs in the middle into two exposing her forehead and thick white eyebrows can be seen wrapped in tattered cloth, sleeping.

  A small fiery creature, the size of a coin approaches the sleeping Girl. A Hell Angel. It has a glowing hourglass shaped body, with one spiraling horn at the center of its head, and two wings located on its back and belly as if it was flying sideways.

  The Hell Angel landed on the girl's brown nose waking her up with a stinging pain.

  “!!!”

  The girl woke up with a yelp. But she immediately calmed down after focusing her pearl white eyes, noticing the figure of the Fiery Creature in front of her who looked like was also in shock.

  “What happened, Brat!? If you're having Nightmares, at least keep your mouth shut! I'm trying to sleep!”

  A loud angry voice can be heard under the Girl’s tattered cloth.

  She raised her right arm and a figure of a beast’s head, a Wolf head to be exact, appeared out of the Cloth. It has jet black fur, six deep bloody red eyes and a pair of two Jagged Horns pointing forwards.

  The beast seems to be attached on the Girl’s right arm as if the girl was born with a beast for an arm. At close inspection, there is a metallic spiked collar around the part where the wolf’s head was supposed to be. A chain can be seen attached at the back of its collar, wrapping on the Girl’s arm all the way up to the Girl’s neck who is also wearing a collar with a similar design.

  “Unoh, don't be too harsh on the child. It's not like she meant to disturb you.”

  Another voice came out, but this time it's a soft motherly voice filled with kindness. The Girl raised her left arm and a figure of a wolf, similar to the previous one came out, but this time, Its fur is as white as snow, six eyes that have a deep blue color and a pair of two jagged horns pointing backwards.

  “Oh shut up with your filthy softness Doz. I'm heading back to sleep. You better keep that shitty brat from being a disturbance, or I'll shut her up myself. For eternity.”

  The girl tucked her right beast arm under her tattered cloth emotionless.

  “Don't mind her that much dear, he's just still mad about our situation. He won't do anything to harm you.”

  The white wolf named Doz said those words with a calm and reassuring tone.

  “It's not that we hate being with you of course, I enjoy your company and I am sure Unoh feels the same. Besides, It was my fault as to why we are in this situation.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Doz made an apologetic tone while saying those words.

  “You can go back to rest now, I will stay awake on the lookout.”

  As Doz tells her to go back to rest, the boat they're riding on starts to shake violently.

  “WHAT IS IT THIS TIME!!??”

  Unoh woke up furiously from the commotion.

  A triangular shaped rock can be seen circulating around the boat they're riding.

  “Dear! It's a Basalt Shark!! It's ramming our boat underneath! Our boat won't be able to keep up if this continues!”

  “Oh fuck off!! We're in no shape to deal with that swimming tough pebble. Isn't it said that this boat is indestructible because it's made from the Ashen Tree?”

  “It is indestructible, but only from scorching heat! not from physical attacks!”

  “Argh! Damn it!! Fine! I'll deal with it!” Unoh shouted, annoyed.

  “Oi Brat! Get your ass up and do as I say.”

  The Girl hurriedly stood up waiting for Unoh’s commands.

  “Lift your flimsy arms up and point me towards that good for nothing rock!”

  The girl lifted her arm, struggling to follow the Basalt Shark’s movement as she took quick glances at Unoh emotionlessly. Unoh assumes that the Girl is confused and wonders what he's planning so he explains to her what she should do.

  “Just hold your right arm up. If you see a distinct glow, that means that's where that bastard’s Life Core is located. Point me at that spot and let me do my shit.”

  The girl nodded and continued to follow the Basalt Shark as best as she could.

  It was then’

  “GROAAAAH!!!!”

  The Basalt Shark let out a thunderous roar and violently leaped to the air above the girl and her two beast arms, covering the light of the scorching ceiling. It’s aiming to sink the boat.

  The creature is about 60 feet long. It’s no exaggeration if someone might mistake it for a certain prehistoric Shark.

  The Basalt Shark’s body is covered with very tough rock-like black scales. Yellow light glows in between its scales, gills, mouth and eyes. One part in particular is glowing more intensely, it's the Shark’s chest.

  “There!! point me at its chest!”

  Unoh shouted while the Girl hurriedly pointed Unoh at the Basalt Shark’s chest.

  Crimson aura is manifesting on Unoh as he opens his mouth wide. A loud screech can be heard as the Crimson Aura that envelopes the Girl’s right arm started to flow like a river towards Unoh’s mouth until a Crimson Red Ball is formed inside his mouth.

  He violently bit on to it whole and it went quiet as if the loud noise earlier had not existed. A beat later, he opened his mouth wide and a beam of Crimson light escaped Unoh’s mouth giving out a thunderous boom and pierced the Basalt Shark’s tough scales, destroying its Life Core.

  The destruction of the Life Core caused an explosion, and thick black smoke billowed mid-air. The Basalt Shark’s scales got flung at a dangerous speed in all directions because of the explosion.

  The Girl instinctively crouched down covering her head with her two beast arms with no place to cover.

  “Doz!!!”

  “I'm on it!”

  Doz emitted a Bluish White Glow and created a faint translucent field around them.

  The Basalt Shark scales reached the field and seemingly stopped the moment the Scales touched Doz’s shield, as if time stopped.

  Doz let out an exhausted groan and dispersed the shield, scales falling down on them lightly.

  “...haah– hah. This form is… a really heavy burden for our… abilities. A simple Chrono Barrier felt like it sucked out all the power inside me.” Doz said, gasping for air.

  “...Stop whining, I was the one who used the most energy here.”

  Unoh said sternly, but it is evident from the tone of his voice that he also has reached his limit.

  The girl plopped down on their boat and let out a deep breath. Unoh recovered a bit of his energy and brought back his near full snarky attitude.

  “Scared your emotionless ass ain'tcha? You can thank your Fairy Godmother Doz for that! If I wasn't stuck in this shitty arm, I would've devoured that Shitty Rock whole!”

  Doz averted her gaze with a look of remorse.

  “I-Im sorry. Really.”

  “Argh! I'm going back to sleep, I'm too exhausted. If another one attacks us, I can't do anything about it anymore. Just pray to that all mighty Cosmic Red Panda or whatever his name is, and wish that he’d save our asses.”

  Unoh closed its eyes and stopped responding.

  “Dear, you can go back and rest now. I'll try to—”

  As Doz tried to tell the Girl to sleep and she'd be on the lookout, Doz lost every bit of energy left inside her and lost consciousness.

  The girl didn't show a look of worry as she's incapable of emotions, however she checked Doz’s breathing and confirmed that Doz just fell to sleep.

  The girl looked up at the blaze of the Scorching Ceiling which is now calming down. The surrounding has gotten dimmer and the faint magma veins of the Scorching Ceiling started to emanate a glimmer, glittering the solid sky with pseudo stars.

  The girl’s consciousness started to fall into darkness as her eyes gradually closed on their own.

  Thank you for reading this short Prologue of Fervor.

  This is my first time writing a story. Please give your honest thoughts, feedback and constructive criticism on this prologue and feel free to correct me If something needs to be corrected like wrong choice of word, Grammar, etc. I'm eager to learn!

  As for the schedule for Chapter 1. Im currently working on it, but no schedule yet. I'm still figuring out how I will fit this to my schedule. I have a Job and this Novel writing is a hobby and a passion project. I was inspired by ARIFURETA and Re:Zero to just go and write whatever idea I have in my head.

  This chapter only serves as a simple introduction to our Main Cast and builds up intrigue as to why the heck does our Nameless MC have Wolves for an arm and why are we in this weird Inferno.

  That’s all I have to say for now. See you in the next chapter!