The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 44 – Turbulence (1)

Written by : Eleven

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Lucius and Roy both seemed unfazed by Hak and Asha’s arrival.

Hak and Asha were both incredibly nervous, but hid their emotional distress as they coldly stared at the boy who was arrogantly walking in front of them and the man behind him, standing with his arms crossed, as if just observing the situation unfold without any inclination to step forwards.

“What are you waiting for? Didn’t you come here with a purpose?”

Roy taunted the two of them by shaking his index finger in a provocative manner as if to come at him.

This wasn’t arrogance, but a calculative mental ploy by Roy.

But for Asha and Hak, they were aware of just how dangerous the boy was now at that moment.

Only Alar, the Demon King of the Serpentine Family had been able to notice Roy’s demonic energy and mana that he had been holding back in the Mareot Mountain Range from afar.

But now, Roy was unhinged and free to stop holding back.

‘A mere human child can cultivate demonic energy… and that much mana at that age!’

Asha and Hak’s thoughts were the same.

The boy in front of them was certainly weaker than them in regards to the quantity of demonic energy, but he had mana as well as the already surprising fact that a human was able to cultivate demonic energy.

Lucius was not surprised by this, as Roy had told his master about his powers that he had been training in cultivating with Ifrit.

The red earth of the entirety of the Demon Territory was stained in a deathly color and was uninhabitable by most humans that had not started cultivation of ki or mana.

This was due to the corrosive nature that Demonic Energy had on the land.

Thus, not a single human up until this point, had been able to ever cultivate, let alone wield demonic energy.

“Well… I guess it’s your loss.”

Roy stated the obvious.

He may be holding a sword and exuding demonic energy, but he was a magician to the core.

Giving a mage time to prepare, was tantamount to suicide.

Roy’s black hair started to become slightly incorporeal at the tips as black and red demonic energy seethed from his body and made his hair look like it was aflame at the ends of it.

Roy had already finished calculating several magic formulas in his head as soon as he saw his opponents as to which of his spells in his repertoire would deem useful against his opponents.

In the end, he recalled the several tips and advice Ifrit had given him after observing these ‘Demons’.

-Use manifestation. Your powers that stem from demonic energy are much purer in nature and have a better output. These copycats won’t be stronger than someone who’s entered a contract with a purebred.


[Manifest]

It was the technique that Ifrit allowed Roy to manifest Ifrit’s powers and borrow a certain amount of demonic energy from him as well.

Ssssssss.


A swell of demonic energy started to wrap around Roy’s body as his skin started to turn black and his face started to thin out.

His hands started to become more sleek; his fingers turning dagger-like.

Deletus, the saber of Roy’s in his hand, started to glow an eerie black and red.

Small little wisps of red fire and lightning burned around his sword.

That wasn’t all though.

[Enhance]

[Strengthen]

[Haste]

Immediate auxiliary spells were cast as part of Roy’s preparation.

The Greater Demons, Asha and Hak immediately felt a threat from the being in front of them and made their move.

Fwip.

Hak, the Greater Demon who specialized in Demonic Martial Arts, rushed forward with his body.

He was large as he was flexible due to the training he did with the Serpentine Family’s martial arts, which boasted a great strength in redirection of the opponent’s weight power on top of applying their own brutish strength that was applied inherently as Demons.

His image disappeared as it was suddenly bolstered by different buffs from Asha, a Demon Mage.

Demonic Energy could be used like mana as a supplement for spells.

[Haste]

[Strengthen]

Hak was quickly buffed with the same spells Roy was using thanks to Asha, but the buffs could not even begin to compare in terms of efficiency due to the nature of the energy being supplied as fuel.

Demonic Energy was wasteful to use for spells unless they were of Demonic Origin.

[Hell’s Abyss]

Asha then, after supplying the buffs, prepared her own AOE spell. (Author Note: AOE = Area of Effect)

Black chains made from demonic energy burst from the ground and made their way towards Roy’s body in an effort to restrict him as the ground cracked and lava started to erupt.

Roy watched the events unfold with sharp eyes.

His red irises broke down the movements one-by-one as he calmly looked for the flaws that were to appear.

‘So many… I guess Master wasn’t joking that this was an unparalleled technique.’

Roy admired Lucius for the hellish training.

Lucius’ training to make Roy learn of flaws, was nothing short of brutal for him and frustrating, but the rewards paid off quite dearly as finding flaws was something that was very difficult to do, even for most First-Rate Swordsman or Warriors.

It didn’t seem like the Demon approaching him knew of how many flaws were apparent, but Roy was inwardly impressed as the martial art that the Greater Demon was unfolding, was actually incredibly masterful and had very few flaws to find.

Nonetheless, if there were flaws, they would not be able to escape Roy’s eyes.

Vwoooosh.

Jumping up, the chains grabbed at empty air. Asha realized Roy had avoided them last minute and put more demonic energy into her spell in order to elongate the chains.

Hak smiled as he thought this was perfect as an airborne opponent was obviously lacking in mobility.

“Foolish boy.”

He condescendingly spoke to Roy as he really did not like the arrogant look this pair of humans had,

“Don’t be in such a rush.”

Roy replied as his figure disappeared once more mid-air, and his words seemingly felt as if they were spoken right next to Hak’s ear.

No- they didn’t seem like they were, they really did.

Boom!

Roy was next to Hak in an instant and before Hak could even react to the chilling speed Roy displayed, his body was flung back several meters.

Asha blinked her eyes in disbelief as Hak was flung back but as soon as she did, the black chains she had summoned through the abyss were dispelled and the earth started to revert back to how it was before the spell was cast.

“Impossible…”

“It’s not. Demonic Spells are just spells used with Demonic Energy, as long as you know the formula-”

Roy spoke as he appeared behind Asha in a flash.

[Blink]

“You can still revert the spell.”

Roy’s words sounded like an ultimatum coming down.

Asha ducked her head at the last moment, but Roy already saw through the movement and thrust his saber into her waist.

Bang!

Roy jumped back without any surprise evident on his face.

Hak had gotten up quickly and tried to strike the ground where Roy had just pierced Asha, but the saber had already done it’s damage.

“Hup-…!”

Asha spat out a phlegm filled with blood as her eyes turned vigilantly towards Roy.

The boy was incredibly dangerous.

Although the power in retrospect was nothing close to a Swordmaster, Asha didn’t think they would fare any better against the man standing behind Roy, looking at the scene with a pleased expression.

“Asha…”

“Shut it Hak, we need to do our job.”

Hak looked at Asha sympathetically, but was cruelly reminded of what fates were to await them if they failed to buy time.

These humans would escape and they would likely be beheaded or face a fate crueler than death at the hands of their ill-tempered monarch.

“Alright, but then what’s the plan?”

Hak asked Asha, regaining his wits.

“Luckily, I don’t think we need to hold on much longer.”

At that moment, presences, albeit very far and few in number, could be felt.

Among them, there was only few Demons in each family that could ever rise to such levels.

“The Royal Guards!”

Hak exclaimed.

“What, is that supposed to be your backup or something?”

Roy taunted.

He knew the demons approaching were strong. Stronger than the ones before him. In fact, Roy was already consuming large amounts of mana and demonic energy just by using manifestation.

Incredible power at an incredible price. The efficiency wasn’t great, but it was nonetheless optimal for going against foes stronger than himself and Roy already knew he wouldn’t be able to stand much of a chance in a battle of attrition against demons.

He was only human, and his opponents had much better stamina than he did.

Despite training diligently for two whole years, it was a tall order for someone who had near abysmal stamina before starting training, to suddenly be able to match up against Greater Demons as his first battle afterwards.

These Demons were unlike the ones he had met in his previous life when they fought on the same battlefield against the Dragons.

Sure, there were Seven Families, and not everybody was the same, but Demons were known to be characteristically belligerent.

These ones however, were wary, cautious, cunning even.

“Hmmm….”

Lucius groaned before deciding to stop the fight there.

Practical experience was needed for his disciple, but not if they were being pressed for time.

Not only that, Roy was not the only one diligently training these past two years.

Lucius, thanks to his disciple, gained a whole two years to train on his own, which was rare for Swordmasters, considering their weight in political and practical warfare that always left them busy with their time.

“I guess we’ll have to get going then.”

Lucius spoke as he told Roy to step down.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, the ones coming aren’t ones you can hope to face, and if we get caught up, it seems we’ll be falling into whatever idiotic trap these buffoons are trying to catch us in.”

Lucius only added fuel to the fire in terms of insults.

One might say it was truly arrogant, but considering just how many wars Lucius had been in, mental warfare was like his backyard.

Asha and Hak subconsciously gulped as they started to notice something off about the Swordmaster that was stepping forward.

‘Did he always have this much ki when he was training on the Mountain Range?’

They had been diligent in their reports and the two humans’ levels had improved, not by anything substantial, but nothing negligible either.

But the amount of ki that was being exuded from Lucius was completely incomparable to the reports.

“Were you hiding your strength for an entire two years?”

“Good question. Maybe you should be alive if you want to find that out though, don’t you think?”

Lucius smirked.

At the odd words, Hak felt confused and then blinked.

It had happened so quickly that neither him, nor Asha had even realized what had happened.

‘I thought we could at least hold them back…’

Those were Hak’s last thoughts before a line of blood split through the air and more than half of the entire mountain range was suddenly cleaved.

Bang.

It was an unrealistic display of superhuman strength.

Roy stared dazedly at the mass destruction caused by his master’s single swing that even he could not fully grasp the movement of.

“Just how much did you train?”

Despite being together for two years, Roy couldn’t believe it.

Lucius’ power was so casually thrown about, but it completely shattered Roy’s thoughts and expectations of his master’s assumed power.

‘At this rate, wouldn’t he be able to contend with the higher ranking Swordmasters?’

Roy had this brief thought before Lucius turned around quietly, not waiting for Roy to fall behind as they left the scene.

Chapter 44 – Fin

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