Fire! There was fire all over the place!
The town was burning, everyone was shrieking, evil beasts were roaring, and there was black smoke fuming out of the ground; the whole town was engulfed by black smoke and fiery fire.
The boundaries of the abyss were enveloping the town. The devil climbed out of the abyss and devoured everything then and there.
Men, elderly, children, women, as well as fathers, mothers and sisters were ignited in the flames. They were in despair as they were devoured by the devil; even their souls weren’t spared; all had become the food of the devil or was degenerated into the abyss.
“No! That shouldn’t be the case! No!”
“Dad! Mum! Molly!”
“I don’t know it’ll be like this, I don’t know!”
Bart had never imagined that he would accidentally obtain a Devil Manual, which he acted according to the instructions on the manual, in the hope of gaining power from the demon.
But he didn’t expect that he accidentally ignited that Devil Manual, and with that Devil Manual, he had opened the doors of the abyss, he offered the whole town as sacrifice, as he prayed to the demon for strength.
“Ha-ha-ha! My most faithful follower! I’m very satisfied with your sacrifice. Delicious. It’s really delicious!”
“Let the agony begin, suffering can exchange for more power and strength. You’ve received what you’ve asked for!”
A freak, like a worm or even a snake, stood up as if it had learnt the act of a human being. He was dressed in a bloody robe. A horrible image carved onto Bart’s mind and soul. The intense flame inflamed Bart’s body, and the black devil’s fire fused into his conscious and soul and transformed as part of him.
Later, Bart realized that the Devil Manual he got was part of the legendary Book of the Devil. The legend was written by a devil monarch of the abyss and it recorded all kinds of devil species in the abyss. Every page possessed powerful power and was enhanced by the evil power of the demon warlocks of past dynasties. It had the power to communicate directly with the Devil Lord of the abyss.
He was only an ignorant amateur who longed for supernatural power. In that incident, he commenced a sacrifice to the devil which included his own home; he offered all his friends, parents and relatives to the devil!
When Bart was on his way to Istan City, he looked at the people walking on the road, and for no reason, he suddenly remembered his hometown and the scene which was ingrained deep in his mind, it was the first step of his life’s turning point and also the source of his strength.
This place was like his hometown, it was a remote and inaccessible city, where the lives of the people still maintained the ancient customs and practices. They didn’t even have gas stoves and pipes, and could only buy coal and firewood for daily uses.
Bart came to the Heating Factory with the alchemical boilers. The huge three-storey boiler was a little shocking. Every alchemical boiler provided heat for Istan City so that they could feel warmth in such a cold weather.
“Without alchemical boilers, I’ll see how you can sustain!” Bart’s pig nose twitched twice as if he saw everyone dying in cold and hunger.
He waved his hand and there was an instantaneous explosion of an alchemy boiler, the violent steam and explosive force caused the entire Heating Factory to blast opened. Several factory workers screamed, dashed out from the hot steam, and at last they dropped to the ground.
Bart blew up another alchemy boiler, then he left quickly, but he didn’t expect that just after turning a few corners on the streets, he was discovered. But Bart, the demon warlock, was a very cautious person; when he encountered that situation, the first idea wasn’t to start a fight, but to quickly find the route of escape and get out of the crisis. Those people blocked him from all corners thus Bart turned around from the street until he reached the main road and left from the city gate.
“No, they’re afraid to fight with me in the city and wanted to lead me out of the city!”
When Bart realized their plan, 20 or 30 professionals had encircled him and trapped him in a snow forest outside the city. Snow covered the land and trees, and the cold wind whistled, but the trees were still bearing leaves and special fruits. The forest was full of Snow Maple which was unique to the North; it had white leaves all year round and produced special maple fruits, it was the food source and common timber for the Northern people.
He was surrounded by professionals from the Faith of the Sun’s divine system, 20 Holy Knights, eight Sun Priests, and one Arbitration Knight. That Arbitration Knight was especially salient to him, he who had been pursued by members of the Arbitration Knights for more than 200 years. Even with his eyes closed, he could smell the unpleasant smell and presence from that body.
“Demon Arrest Warrant, the second in sequence, number 27, boar-people, Demon Warlock, Bart!” Miles pulled out the Sword of Ibu, the Divine Sword at his waist, he looked intently at Bart; his opponent was a Level Four Demon Warlock.
It wasn’t first time that he was confronting with a Level Four. Although he had encountered with a Level Five professional before, there were many members of the Arbitration Knights and clergymen when he was in the Arbitration Knights Team. They were the elite fighting force of the Faith of the Sun, and they also had various powerful combinations of divine incantation and props of the divine incantation to be used. Moreover, he was merely a sidekick then. Even so, the destructive force of the Level Five Wizard made his hair stand even on recollection.
“Arbitration Knights Team! Enemies often cross each other’s path!” Bart gnashed his teeth in anger when he remembered the times when he was surrounded by those Arbitration Knights; he had to run around the world like a drowning dog, and the scars inflicted onto him then were seemingly painful now.
When they had nothing to talk about, the opposing sides took out their weapons and fought; one of them must perish!
Although Bart would choose to escape most of the time, his actual combat experience was also very rich. He faced head-on with a divine incantation named Vehement Sun but it was instantly swallowed by Bart’s Devil’s Fire. Dozens of attacks smashed across from his opponents’ swords, it tore through the air, but all was transformed into a Devil’s Shadow by Bart; he escaped all attacks.
Bart flew up into the sky at once, and his appearance changed into a devil of more than two meters in height, he was massively muscular and he even had a pair of flesh wings growing out behind him.
“The Hammer of Chaos!”
Bart waved and the palm of his hand was akin to a devil’s claw, it was as if he had grasped hold of all the air around him and he pushed his palm downward. The strong pressure forced everything around him over a hundred meters of the perimeter, as if it had been hit by a huge hammer; the trees broke and flew, and it had initiated a whirlpool of snow which dyed the whole forest to white.
Just then, Miles held up the Sword of Ibu and used the divine incantation, the Shield of Divine Light, to block Bart’s evil magic.
And Bart took a glimpse of Miles’s abnormal state. His soul and body was radiating a white brilliance, as if he had another shadow behind him. His eyes had no pupils, instead it had turned golden.
“Summoning the Holy One, how can you summon the Holy One, you’re only a Level Three Arbitration Knight!” Bart was incomparably panic, the Holy One was the existence from the Divine Kingdom; at the minimum it had to be the one favored by god or the highest ranking of the church in order to become the Holy One after death, such as the last generation of Patriarch, or the Patriarch from the last two generations!
Miles had now swung up his sword, and the two Level Two professionals followed on the sideline and darted forward, they fought fiercely with Bart in the sky.
Miles, with the help of burning his own power and the power of the Holy One, coupled with the help of more than 20 professionals, he pursued Bart with all his might, hunted and flew for three days, and did everything he could to keep him there. Bart must never be allowed to return to Istan City. Only in that way, Bart couldn’t return to the devil’s altar he lay out in Istan City and the door of the abyss would close and disappear.
In the end, Miles, by virtue of the power of the Holy One, he used the divine incantation of the Seal of the Holy One of Tiridan, it penetrated into Bart’s body and sealed all the devil’s power within Bart. At the same time, the power of the Goddess of the Sun would also constantly dissipate and wear away his devil’s power and let Bart die gradually in pain.
Miles looked at Bart, who had fled after been badly wounded. His devil’s power was dissipating. As time passed, he couldn’t even fly. He could only limp and fell to the ground and ran far away in despair.
Under a world of ice and snow and with the damage brought about by the Holy Seal of Tiridan, Bart could never survive, nor could he sustain to the moment when the sacrificial ceremony to the devil was completely successful.
“Is that all? If that’s the case, I can at last be at ease!”
“The old man here, if I can die in the battle against evil, it’s the best end for an Arbitration Knight!”
Miles, along with more than 20 professionals who accompanied him in the exorcism, was forsaken on Amos Icefield.
——————————————————
After seven days of hunting on the Icefield, Helen brought her prey from the seaside and headed over to Istan City. She missed her younger sister Agatha very much. She drove the ice bear which was dragging her sleigh and darted fast on the snow. But when she was half way through her journey, she saw one lying in the snow, covered in blood and ragged clothes, his clothes was only left with strips.
“It’s him! He’s still alive!” Helen immediately discovered that the man was the odd man they met before, that boar-people with a fierce face.
“That’s great!” She tried and found that the other party was still alive. She immediately put on her cotton-padded clothes on him, stuffed him into her sleeping bag and dragged him on the sled; she took him back to Istan City.
When she stopped at night in a tent under a cliff, Helen noticed that the man was burning hot and was having a high fever. She didn’t know whether the wound was inflamed or he really had a fever. She dressed and cleaned up all the wounds for him, but she found that they were getting worse.
Pssh! Bart felt a sharp pain in his waist. He struggled to jump up, but was firmly pinned down by Helen. He found that the woman was burning his wound with a red iron stick.
“Don’t move! Don’t move! I haven’t prepared any medicines, so I can only use this method!” Helen clasped Bart’s neck in fear of his struggle.
“You rude and impolite woman!” After a long time, Bart lay down with sweat all over and he looked at the girl who was dressing his wound and feeding him with hot water. However, Bart’s body was increasingly hot, and he was a little muddled from the high temperature.
Helen suddenly remembered something and picked out a small maple fruit in her big backpack. “My dad said that when the unripe maple fruit is roasted, it’ll cure your illness if you eat it!”
Bart was sweating, but he still looked at Helen with disdain, “It’s the rumor of a country fool. Eating that roasted ordinary fruit has no effect for me. Besides, my injury is in a hopeless state. You can’t cure me!”
Bart could feel the Holy Seal of Tiridan in his soul, it was constantly burning him at the moment, it was making him dizzy and he wanted to howl because of the torment.
“Don’t give up, my mother said to me, every life is blessed when they come to this world, it’s at least the blessings from my parents and relatives. Hence, don’t give up easily!” Helen was still roasting her maple fruit, as if she had treated the hearsay as a truth.
“That’s a childish and silly idea! You’ve never been out of here. You don’t know what the outside world is like!”
“You never know how sinister a person’s heart can be, and never aware of how ugly everyone is in their innermost being!”
Bart scorned Helen’s childish remarks. He was an old monster who had lived for more than 300 years. He didn’t need a kiddy to teach him a lesson, let alone a humble mortal.
Helen paid no attention to Bart’s speech and handed him the roasted maple fruit, “Eat it!”
“Why, it’s not hot, I’ve cool it!” Helen blew softly for another two more times, and then she looked at Bart expectantly, as he was really able to get better in a minute after eating it.
He didn’t know why but after eating that maple fruit, Bart really felt a lot more comfortable.
“Smells good!”
Bart couldn’t use any supernatural power. He was weaker than Helen in terms of soul and body. The next morning, when the sled was traveling forward, it suddenly broke. Helen could only let the ice bear drag her prey and the box.
Helen, on the other hand, carried Bart on her back. Although Helen looked slim, she was powerful. Is it because she’s a woman from the orc?
It was windy all the way up. Helen covered and sheltered Bart and she looked back at him from time to time with a worried expression on her face. Bart didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt warm, just like how he had felt more than 300 years ago. At that time, he had that same feeling too.
At that time, he wasn’t alone. He had family and relatives.
What nonsense are you thinking about? It’s merely because she looks good and you’re interested in her, right! Bart bit his tongue and drove the weird ideas out from his mind. As a powerful, cruel and hard-hearted demon warlock, how can such a fragile idea come into mind?
Is it because I’m really dying?
No, no, as long as I hold on, as long as the sacrificial ceremony to the devil has begun, I only need to sustain for another 15 days, the doors of the abyss will open, and I’ll survive!
Before that, I’ve to make good use of this woman!
In the distance, the trace of Istan City was in sight. She had walked all day until evening, and they finally arrived.
Helen turned her head happily over to Bart and said, “Hey, here we are. We’re going into the city now and we’ll find you a doctor in a minute!”
“No, a doctor can’t cure my disease, only professionals have a way, as long as there’s a place to rest, I can slowly think of a solution!” Bart found a reason to lie to Helen, he hoped that she could hide him in her home and survived the crisis.
“By the way, what are you wearing around your neck?” Bart suddenly saw the big pearl Helen had on her chest.
“Uh, are you talking about this? This is the gemstone I picked this up when I was a child. Isn’t it very beautiful? It’s my lucky charm. When I have it with me, I’ll be lucky in whatever I do!”
“Foolish country woman! This is a lousy glass bead! And you’re treating it like a gem!”
Comments