Way of the Caged Soul: Demon Release

Stigma was covered in small cuts and bruises, but it was nothing serious that would affect his health, so he can still train. While he was with minor injuries, he took a peek if the Demon was fine.

The Demon had a haggard expression with beads of sweat flowing down its head, going down by its neck, he could see dried blood all the way to his suits.

Strangely enough, the damage it should had sustained during the fight had completely healed. Such as the wounds on its fist from constant thrashing on hard objects that should have shown torn tissues and even the stab wound on its neck was gone.

If he didn't knew any better, it had just gone through a party if you ignore the blood on his chest. But he was more curious and wanted to learn more about the cultivation he was going to use, since it sounded like the general terms were only explained.

"Hey, about the Cultivation..." When Stigma turned his head he suddenly saw a hand facing him, gesturing Stigma to stop the thought for a moment and listen.

"Do not worry Dear Sir, all will be explained and keep in mind, Demons who make deals always follow through them to the end...so for now, rest...."

The Demon sat in front of Stigma as it continued to rub its throat from time to time. Insinuating that it was still suffering from the 'Curse mark' Stigma had placed on it.

Like how most eastern cursing is described, object that are cursed become a symbol of misfortune to anyone who owns it or when people die their spirits would reside not just in areas, but including objects to cause harm anyone near its vicinity due to their strong lingering emotions.

Stigma was going to call this ability 'cursing or marking' as a general term[1] and use symbols as a marker. The reason was due to his Grudge energy being a substance that sticks to any surface it came in contact with and stretches when needed, then when mixed with other elements such as fire, it will be affected by the corresponding elements ability.

He had already seen how effective the combination with fire when he tried it on trees and beast. So he started calling the effect 'Scorch/Burn' similar to how it was in RPG games, and for now the chinese symbol of fire, is the 'Scorch curse'.

Albeit for now he can only do it in physical contact, ignoring the whole sacrifice people or using blood scenario, also the effects only last until Stigma releases or removes it himself. Though he wasn't sure he can do similar feat with other curses applied by other.

'But, if I can learn how to use it properly, maybe....'

While Stigma was busy with his future plans, he didn't notice the Demon was smiling at him the whole time. But it was hard to tell what it was thinking, questioning what plan it had on mind.

Stigma wasn't sure how much time had passed, but due to him absorbing all the beast souls natural vitality, he was almost fully recovered. However instead of leaving, the Demon told him to wait little, because it wanted to show something.

Moments later, the attendances revealed themselves from behind the trees, as if they were waiting for the right moment to appear. Stigma then turned to the Demon if it had an explanation, but his expectation were out the window when he heard it's next words.

"Now then...it's about time..." The Demon got up and smiled at him, then walked towards the attendances with a gleeful face. He also hid behind his hands looking like a gang boss, but seemed out of place due the height difference.

The sudden decision of the Demon had made Stigma clench his fist, he realized he made a great error. If he remembered correctly, the deal was that he had to kill it to win, but it had already surrendered to Stigma, so it can't harm him in anyway due to breaking the deal.

But that doesn't mean the servant's were part of the deal, so he ordered them ahead of time to surround and kill Stigma if it ever failed. The Demon wasn't planning to follow with the deal at all!

'Mother Fucker!' Gritting his teeth, Stigma stood up and tried to think of an escape plan. They had him encircled and from above, plus not only do they have the numbers but the terrain is to their advantage as well. Now he had to face all of them and somehow get way.

He saw that the faceless attendance numbered over fifty or so, he wasn't sure what they were, but he was sure he could take them one at a time if he had the chance. But with their hands hidden from behind was causing Stigma to worry, he would not get out unscratched if they had any long range weapons at hand.

If they ever decide to attack now, Stigma would be in deep shit, since he wasn't use to fighting groups as of yet. He can only prepare himself for what is about to happen.

As Stigma thought about his plans, the little Demon raised it long arms to his side while showing his bloodshot eyes, along with his over stretched out grin on his face. Making it look like a creepy performer, but instead of revealing beautiful show, it was about to release a horrible nightmare.

"ARE! YOU! READY!" With it's bloodshot eyes and heavy breathing, the Demon looked sinister.

Stigma was about to bolt when all of a sudden. The attendants brought out black robs and aimed at him, causing him to falter. If he ever survived this, he will put that 'piece of garbage' into a boiling pot of oil[2]!

He soon realized why the Cultivation was called: Way of the Caged Soul: Demon Release. He was going to be the Demon's prisoner as it source of food or worse a sacrifice!

Left with no choice he stood his ground and waited for the right timing to break the encirclement, however one of the attendance too he was baffled from suddenly being shoot at - with confetti and streamers.

*POP!**POP!**POP!**POP!**POP!**POP!**POP!*

All around him, he saw the attendance held devices that shoot confetti and streamers like those in parties. Hearing such an out of place sounds had gotten Stigma to leave his mouth wide open and his eye to twitch repeatedly.

"Congratulation, Dear Sir! You have successfully made a Cultivation breakthrough on your first try! Time for your rewards!"

The Demon was holding a bell in each hand, the attendance followed by revealing small drums or cymbals, then started playing with a festive mode like drum performance in China. Completely ignoring the fact, that they looked like they were going to kill Stigma.

"Hah!?!!!?!" Stigma's confusion was sounded, since the Demon had already shown that it can bend the truth or hold out on information, that is why he was lead on by the most misleading atmosphere that had ever happened in his life.

Seeing the previously serious Stigma turned completely dumbfounded, made the Demon laughed out of joy from his successful prank.

"Haa ha ha ha, don't be so scared Dear Sir, it's just a harmless jest. I already explained that you have already won so don't be so tens- Awk! Awk!" Without listening to its reasoning, Stigma went after it and started choking the little Demon with both hand, showing an extremely annoyed face.

He had never been so scared and embarrassed in his current life time, so he was quite pissed when the Demon made a huge misunderstanding.

"Die, you little bastard, die!" Stigma continued to gritted his teeth as he tried to choke it, but the Demon fought back by grabbing his wrist and tried to explain.

"Awk! - Please calm down Dear Sir, I mean no harm, I saw a memory of you enjoying a festival that used such methods so I thought it was a perfect time to used them. Also you are they type who was always serious so I thought it would be nice to smile once in a while."

Stigma relaxed his grip and took a deep breath. He didn't really plan to kill it as the prank was harmless.

"...Ha...Fine." Stigma was reluctant but he had to agree, since he had been working overnight in his old life, he barely had any time to relax and had only focused on self studying or saving money for his future expenses, it somehow became a habit after doing three jobs everyday.

Having seen the tense Stigma relax had made the Demon leap out of joy.

"Ha ha ha! Now then, as I had said before you have finally made a breakthrough to this trial congratulation." As he laughed the attendance had brought a replacement out of thin air.

After changing his new clothes, the Demon bowed his head along with attendance, it looked like they were greeting Stigma like he was a mafia or gang boss. He then gestured Stigma to follow him to the direction to the gates where they exited from a while ago.

Halfway he saw that there were more attendance standing in rows as they went through the gate.

After walking for a while, the Demon had lead him back to the lobby and went towards the staircase going down, the walls were changing from wood to stone as they went deeper, oddly enough when he entered he felt a familiar sensation around the air.

"As I had said before, my cultivation method is related to your skill 'Soul Eater', but you see master this cultivation need a set of requirements fulfilled as do other cultivations."

"You see Dear Sir, everything in this world, be it wealth, power, fame, needs or ability are not gained for free, if you try to forcefully take them, then consequences will follow..."

While the Demon was explaining about some ancient theories they were know walking in a long hallway with torches lighting the way, from a distance Stigma saw what they were heading towards. But had gotten him very confused as to what he saw.

Up ahead, he could see an overgrown tree covering the entire door, but due to the ceiling in the way he could barely see the exact height from where he was standing. He couldn't tell from the distance, but he could see some ornaments hanging on some of the branches but what type of design it had was still unclear.

When they reached the end, he finally saw how large the tree was, surely enough the tree was extremely old based on the width of the trunk it had, the branches stretched out far in wide but it had no leaves what so ever.

Looking up he could see the decorations he saw before - iron lanterns with no fire inside. He found nothing else around so was confused as to how it grew when there was no light.

While Stigma was puzzled to what he saw, the Demon then shuffled around in his tiny tuxedo and somehow pulled out a oversized hourglass that was over his height.

Inside Stigma could see the contents, instead of seeing sand like he had thought, he saw something like blue water that acted like mercury slowly pouring down by one drop.

It then had one the attendance lift the hourglass and followed behind him, gesturing Stigma to follow.

"Dear Sir there are three requirements to be followed to use this cultivation: tribute, spirit and sacrifice."

Pointing to the hourglass, the attendant stood still as the Demon explained it's function.

"This one is a measuring device, it is based on how much Zen energy you had sacrifice tributed as a form of payment, how much sacrifice is how long you can stay here. Because of your current level you can only last for about an hour."

'Huh? Then how come I'm still here though? It had been about four to five hours since I came to this world, so the Demon's explanation was contradicting from his current level. Unless...'

Stigma then checked his status and found out why he was still here. He previously had a stockpile of Zen energy by 260%, yet it had lost about 50% since he last checked. So going by the time he was here the conversion matches.

"You seem to get it, as I said before this cultivation is based on your 'Soul Eater' skill, so it would not be strange to see the skill give you benefits when you use this cultivations."

"Next would be Spirit." The Demon then turned to the tree and had Stigma use his 'Essence Reader', what he found had really made his jaw drop.

When he first saw it he already assumed it was dead, but when he activated his skill he had been proven wrong. He was immediately blinded by seeing a view of bright light arranged like christmas tree decorations.

The lanterns from before were now filled with different colored light of from primary to secondary. When he got closer he felt a familiar sensation as if he had experienced it from before.

"...Are these all the energies I have gained when I used 'Soul Eater'..."

"That's right, all the light you see above the tree represent all the energy you have stock pilled and have yet to fully formed and absorbed, and the lanterns represents all the souls you have gained. Bear in mind, without me you would have gone insane from all these beast souls acting up."

"These represents the spirits that you require for you cultivation, you were suppose to fight them one on one, yet to be fair I am going to be the one to use them all at once so you are fighting me all the time."

"The last one is sacrifice, you would have to give up some of your life force to commence the breakthrough. But do keep in mind this is also a reminder and a warning, as to not recklessly try to make a breakthrough as long as your life in on the line."

To most cultivators, doing a breakthrough was a serious gamble, it was not due to failing and going back to square one. If they do not fulfill a breakthrough they would lose some lifeforce, meaning they more times they fail, the more their life shortens.

That is why most organizations still have young cultivators, since they have experience veterans to support them, resources to help ease the danger to their breakthrough, and a backer that will protect them from wandering cultivators.

"By the way most clans follow the procedure of slowly meditating and accumulating the surrounding energies, their cultivation is a slow and boring process. Your's on the other hand immediately burns all the energy at once, since you will be sparing with me and this area continuously circulating all your excess energy."

"Huh! Wouldn't anyone be able use this method if I let them in!"

"Ha ha ha! That's impossible, because you would have to die to use this cultivation method and enter here."

....Huh?

[1] I was originally going to call this ability Stigma Curse, but it sounded redundant if I call the skill by its user since it was going to be confusing during scenarios. Plus calling it Stigmata would give a conflicting concept, since the term has a religious meaning.

The links here if your curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmata

[2] thrown in a boiling pot of oil - a cruel torture method or execution in mythology and history, it only means he is going to put the little Demon through hell later on, since it claimed to be able to revive as long as it is here.