"..."Devil Prince Rumin was speechless when he sensed the deaths of his two most trusted subordinates.
Speechless, frustrated and fuming!
He wheeled away from his sky-rending battle with the woman before him and licked the black blood flowing from his wounded right arm.
Then he broke off the arrow shafts that were still stuck out of his lean but muscled body.
Angular and square jaw, imposing but not overly strong features, sharp sword-like eyebrows and piercing, s.h.i.+ning eyes.
If not for his blood red eyes and the small horns protruding from his temples, Rumin looked exactly like a human male.
One that would instantly leave women smitten with his otherworldly good looks!
He was dressed in flowing purple and black robes which now looked worse for the wear - torn and ripped where he had received wounds from the Duke"s artefact - The Windforce Bow!
"d.a.m.n it all!!! It must have been Morrow interfering with my plans...!" He cursed at his fellow Devil Prince with whom he had a less than pleasant relations.h.i.+p.
He was also certain that his "ally" who had sent 4 Devil Lords for this joint operation had betrayed him!
Else, how could two mighty Devil Lords nearly at the peak Legendary stage fall to one early Legendary man and his World-cla.s.s teammate?
And where would a world shaking powerhouse like that near-Mythical mage appear from, if not because of Morrow"s scheming?
"Curse you, Morrow, curse you!!! If I can"t get the Void Worm... Then neither shall you!!!"
"Woman!" Rumin called out to his opponent, but her only answer was for the runes on her two arms and forehead to light up as she nocked a silver arrow that materialised by itself on her bowstring.
Runes of Agility (Pa.s.sive) and Strength (Active), one boosting her speed slightly but without costing her any mana while the other absorbed her power to give her a boost of strength.
Along with her Runes of Mana Regeneration (Pa.s.sive) that she probably had secreted away somewhere on her body underneath her flowing cloak and wyvern hide armour, the peak Legendary human could just barely cross into the beginning Mythical stage!
Though to Rumin, their battle right now was just a farce, a play-acting that would only benefit their common enemy, the dastardly Devil Prince Morrow!
"...You don"t have to treat everything I say as provocation, do you...?"
"SHUT UP!" The woman roared in anger, not giving him a chance to speak as her exquisite face twisted in rage.
The gorgeous woman shouted in rage even as she released the arrow with a resounding sonic boom - the arrow soared through the air so fast that the winds it whipped up even shattered the nearby windows and structures!
But her attack merely slid past Rumin"s neck as he leaned aside slightly to avoid the projectile. At this distance, all she did was make an empty threat.
Though Rumin certainly didn"t understand why the woman seemed so enraged at him - all he did was invade her city, right? Wasn"t that par for the course in the perennial struggle between the planes?
He chuckled as he admired his opponent, even as he continuously dodged more arrows, fiery darts and lightning bolts that the Duke hurled his way.
He spoke between movements and made an offer of truce.
"Why don"t we call our battle to a halt...? Anyway, I have no interest in fighting anymore, and while we struggle, there are four more Devil Lords and countless pests infesting your city!"
He avoided a triple salvo of shots and then waved his hand to cover himself with a layer of purple corrosive liquid, just a paper thin sheen of it. But when the arrows struck the air before him, they immediately melted without even any remnant or slag left over when they touched the uncrossable barrier.
Then he continued, "...And, you"re exactly my type, a unique beauty who is ravis.h.i.+ng, stunning! Why don"t we continue this conversation some other time, say, over a cup of G.o.d"s Tears?"
He suavely complimented her, and casually mentioned a wine that could only be brewed by slaying a divine existence - a decadent luxury that exceeded extravagance!
But at those words, Duke Leanne de Caldis" face turned black and her scowl grew so demonic that even Rumin felt afraid.
Had he just said something wrong? Maybe she was sensitive about her appearance?
But she truly was a sight for sore eyes, beautiful and stately. If not for the slightly discoloured wine stain birthmark on the left side of her face, she would be a galaxy-shaking beauty!
But she burned with anger and suddenly went all out within just a breath"s time - without any warning!
Little did he know that it was because she hated handsome and flirty men!
"Soul-Imprint: Concept of Distortion... Soul-Ability: Perversion!" She cried out as she pulled back her bowstring, this time without any arrow prepared...
But the moment the bow reaches its maximum arch in her hands, Rumin coughed in pain.
His heart was pierced?!?
Without the woman even nocking or releasing an arrow?
What madness was this?!?
"Cough cough... Lucky for me that this is just a phantom body..." Rumin plummeted for a while as he fought to regain control of the corporeal form he had taken to enter this plane.
Without a sufficiently powerful portal to cross over with, no mighty beings could make the jump across worlds or planes!
Sensing that this body was near the end of its lifespan, Rumin frowned in frustration, then sighed in resignation.
"Morrow... You d*ck... I"ll let you have this round..."
Then he sneered at an idea he had.
He burnt the last remaining mana, life force and devil force left in this astral body and shot out all his power.
Straight at two of the still standing bloodfield formation totems, the pillars of bone, flesh and blood that held up the suppressive formation to prevent the laws of the world from weakening the devils.
"Enjoy losing your four kids, Morrow! Muahahahahah!!!" He cackled in his mind as his soul faded away from this plane and his consciousness returned to the devil realm, where he sat in his study.
* * * * *
It just happened that he saw traces of the other compet.i.tion contestants along the way and had stopped to question them. From there he found out that Charley was heading in the west south-west direction, roughly headed towards the closest formation pillar to where the Gorun Stadium was. Despite being familiar with the boy"s aura, his feeble strength also made it difficult to locate him. It was like trying to find a ringing bell in the middle of the ocean - unless he could zero in on a certain spot, it was impossible no matter how well he could identify the objective!
He ran through the streets swiftly, sometimes jumping to speed through the air, crossing over many buildings instead of traveling around them.
Along the way, he easily dispatched of various minor and mid-leveled devilsp.a.w.n, some with a flick of his fingers while for others, all he needed to do was to stare slightly hard at them for their heads to pop before his concentrated aura!
He made it a point to help when the citizens were clearly overwhelmed and unable to save themselves, but he did not get involved in every struggle he came across along the way. He needed to move quickly, locate and save Charley then head over to make sure Natalie Sarouneh was safe!
*BOOOOOOOOM!!!*
"What was that?!" Lars" eyes widened in surprise as he felt a wave of devil energy lancing over from far away and blast apart the bloodfield pillar that he was headed for.
And the moment the totems began to collapse, he felt the bloodfield fading and the Abyssal energy in the surroundings quickly leak away. Accompanying this was also the clearing of the ominous black clouds from the sky, giving way to reveal the now clear night sky.
Along with its collapse, Lars also felt a sense of relief, as if a burden had been lifted off of his shoulders. His mana regeneration seemed slightly smoother than before, now no longer hindered by the miasma of devil energy in the atmosphere. But he shrugged. Regardless of whether there was that suppression or not, he could easily take on all but the strongest of the invading forces. It would just change to be easier now that the stronger members of his enemies would receive the world"s backlash for their presence in the corporeal plane.
And so he sped quickly through the streets and back alleys, the scenery turning into a blur as he quickened his pace to nearly the maximum.
But when he was roughly two thirds of the way to the area where he had sensed the boy"s presence, he saw an unexpected sight.
In the midst of the chaos ravaging the city, what he saw disgusted him and turned his stomach inside out with revulsion.
It was not a scene of devils slaughtering humans or depravity committed by monsters that a.s.saulted his senses.
It was atrocities committed by people... Against members of their own race!
...Against children!
He saw a large building that, on the outside, looked to be a long discarded factory compound. However, one of the sections of the walls looked to have collapsed in the aftermath of the explosions rocking the city. As a result, the nightmare within was unveiled.
Squalid metal cages, cubes which were roughly 1.5 metres in height, width and breadth were stacked up until nearly the ceiling of the 30 metre tall building. And the cages filled almost the entire building, save for walking s.p.a.ces between the cages.
And within the filthy, rusted and s.h.i.+t-filled cages were people.
Three to four children per cage.
Either naked or only clothed in loincloths, unprotected from the cold.
Some of the children in the cages were not adolescents but already teenagers, while others looked to be as young as 3 to 4 years old.
There were hundreds of them, totaling maybe five to six hundred children all locked up - and abandoned to their fate as the building began to catch on fire from the fallout of a far-off battle raging through the streets! Their captors looked to have left long ago - there was one room cordoned off from the sight of the cruelty where a kettle was still boiling, the fire beginning to spread and consume the packs of playing cards, clothes and furniture in that guardroom.
The children were already surrendered to perish - fated to die from suffocation, smoke and roasted alive...! Or captured and ripped apart flesh from bone by the devils...
Even worse than everything he had seen so far was that, some of the children in the cages had already turned into rotting corpses, yellowed and gangrenous, swarming with flies around them. From the looks of it, the cages had not even been cleared for days based on the dung, urine and filth that stained the base of each cage.
Lars did not want to imagine what happened to the cages at the bottom of the piles when those on top defecated day after day and it overflowed down to the levels below...! There were no drains nor sluice channels to allow the excrement to flow, leading to... He shut off his consciousness from thinking about it.
Lars" mind was tremendously shaken, his heart pierced and shredded apart with great compa.s.sion for the poor children, despite his heart being hardened through the fields of wars and life and death battles in the Arena of Valour.
Worst of all, the most horrifying and appalling of everything was one fact.
Many of the children were already bleeding from their private parts. Signs of terrible, heinous acts already having been committed unto them, be it boy or girl.
Perversion. Depravity. MONSTROUSNESS!!!
"Children! I am here to save you all! Fear not! I will set you free and bring you to safety! Whoever is behind this will be dealt with, punished publicly for all to see! I"m going to open your cages now, follow my instructions carefully! And as soon as possible, I"ll deliver you to the authorities... And I will guarantee your protection and the safe return to your families!"
Lars" heart exploded with rage as he flung out his arms and sent gales of fresh wind and water was.h.i.+ng through the area of the cages. Additionally, he heated up the air around the area to keep the water and winds from being too cold and harming the kids" const.i.tutions.
First he needed to clean things up. As a mysophobe who had a phobia of dirty things, he could not bring himself to even approach the building, no matter how much compa.s.sion he felt for them!
And so he washed the children, the cages and the area clean, not sparing his mana and concentration as he carefully focused to make sure none of the children were harmed during the cleaning.
This was met by cries of astonishment, fear and shock - but also some of grat.i.tude and comfort as they were given a bath and a fresh environment after days if not weeks living in the squalor of the h.e.l.lish cages!
Next, Lars warmed up the air a tad more before sending drying winds through the building, filling the nearly naked, s.h.i.+vering children with warmth, a stark contrast from the cold evening winds their unprotected bodies were exposed to.
Lars then flung his arms out above his head, summoning dozens and then hundreds of magic missiles and moulding them into tiny motes of burning energy.
Then he warned the children, "Stay back from the walls of the cage! I"m going to set you free - be careful!"
And the hundreds of bullets of light shot out like glowing keys, breaking free the captive children.
He made sure to carefully summon buffets of wind to lower the children to the ground gently from the higher cages, while he shouted out for the children to not rush, to be careful and not to push.
But regardless of his words, the desperate and panicking crowds still could not resist and succ.u.mbed to their emotions, sobbing as they ran towards their freedom!
Irritated at the irrational behaviour of the kids, Lars poured more of his mana into forming walls of wind and prevented them from fleeing.
He ma.s.saged his temples with his hands as he drew near to the now clean area and spoke to the children slowly, trying to calm them down.
Rescuing them was going to be a major headache...
But he smiled - this was a headache he was more than willing to have.
Yet to his surprise, the children were still fearful and s.h.i.+vering even as he drew near. It was not cold, so why the s.h.i.+vering?
"Hi there... No, hey, don"t be afraid, I won"t hurt you. See?" He conjured a display of lights on his palm and made a little pink unicorn surrounded by bubbles of water that rose and popped one after another.
The pre-teen girl tried to hold herself still as Lars spoke gently to her, and then she steeled herself and nodded. Then she stuttered as she spoke.
"S-sir... P-please... Please don"t hurt us... Mary will do whatever sir wants... Mary will answer sir"s questions... And f-follow... Follow sir"s instruc... Instructions..." Tears began to well up in her eyes and her voice broke as she spoke, her terror and anguish evident from her face and tone.
At the sound of her crying, the children around too began to whimper in fear and despair, which confounded Lars.
"Wait, girl... Are you okay? Why are you crying? I"m from--" He thought about who he was aligned to and then decided to claim to be from the palace and city guard. That should work to rea.s.sure them, right...?
But when he told them that, they were terrified!
A stumped Lars continued to try to communicate with them, before he frowned in frustration and just decided to incapacitate the few hundred of them and bring them along forcefully, regardless of how much it drained his mana!
And the boy was subjected to hundreds of crying, sobbing and whimpering childrens" voices even as he tried to save and keep them safe from further pain and danger!
Only later would Lars discover the reason for the childrens" fear and consternation.
Discover that the perpetrators of these great atrocities were the very authorities and guardians of the city he had claimed to represent - the Duke"s palace and the Four n.o.ble Families!