The abyss' demon

OCTOGON VILLAGE (at the same time)

Eline was looking behind her at these large stone walls surrounding this village ten times bigger than her own. She didn't really remember her stay here, too occupied in practicing The Art, making a plan worthy enough to make Alix come back.

"As I thought, I can't learn any more in the Aka region, even the Elders of Octogon village were surprised and didn't seem to understand when I made the final runic at the competition. There wasn't even competition for me to begin with, to think I was not sure to be qualified in coming here..."

Wearing a beautiful red dress, the symbol of her knowledge in the Life Emanation, she looked stunning, to say the least. Countless young men tried to approach her during her time a the gathering of the twenty villages. She had to turn down them gently every time, for fear of creating an incoming catastrophe on her village ranked last every year.

These male teenagers tend to act on their emotions, quick to anger and vengeful. She had to swallow the humiliation to be unable to say what she had in mind, forcing her to be gentle and passive against men who didn't want to accept her rejection, telling her beautiful bird's name.

"Fortunately I'm a graduate now, I can do what I want outside these villages, time to understand the beauty and the vastness of the world! My Art is now at the apex of what I can learn here, I must not waste any more time and go to Almach City!"

During the competition, Eline made his investigation to know where she could go to learn more about The Art. It was actually her Teacher Willow that while sighing, give her the clue she wanted.

"I knew Ol'tree village would be too small for you, like the Aka region, your little trio of genius was not made to live in this small world... Go to the East of Octogon village, the trip is dire and long, approximately a week to arrive at the village around the Almach region, three more to enter Almach City! If possible, go with a little group, it will be easier for you, but the difficulty is actually a little less than for us to go to the Octogon village from our tribe..."

She remembered his word of wisdom, but she wanted to go alone, she had her pride. Perhaps a misplaced pride, but compared to Alix's one, it was just a little arrogance. She knows she must let Restar make his experience alone, only like this could they climb to the top!

"My time is counted, I mustn't let my most promising period of learning The Art go away! I should depart now!"

Teacher willow had indeed accentuated four times that they took students until their sixteen years old birthday. He would sometimes forget to recall important parts to only repeat it a good number of times when it was too late...

Her dress floating in the wind she turns and began to walk without looking back anymore, a resolute gaze illuminating her face, her hand trembling a little in anticipation. She had her twin daggers in each one of them, always careful of what could happen.

Her mind was gathering Life Emanation as she began to accelerate her pace. Golden glows were emerging from plants, earth, little insect or small mammalian.

She could not gather from bigger creatures for the moment, her Teacher would often go on, on the fact that Life Emanation was one of the most powerful Emanations existing on this planet, and the instant she would be able to gather from human or bigger existence, she would be closed to invincible.

Remembering the matrix to create illusions, she twists it a little to adapt to the form she wanted to be, transforming in a little ape to the eyes of the wilderness' creature living here. Illusion's matrix was not the most simple, and the concentration required was quite big and must be stable. The counterpart was its unlimited potential and power to resolve difficult situations without too much difficulty.

Learning it a the age of five, she had to always repeat the same construct in her head for a day and after trying in reality with real energy. The lines were complex and esoteric for someone who didn't have the knowledge of The Art. Actually, it was a logical construct made of energy line nurturing or limiting each over resulting in a kind of automatic system, answering to a given situation with a given response.

Illusion Art was difficult because of the number of situations need to be taken in the equation to obtain a working mechanism. It consists of twisting the light emitted by an object or a life form, giving it a new shape, changing its appearance for the eyes of others.

Eline was a natural, instinctively understanding the dimension, place, forms and energy level required to achieve this. Even if she mastered a portion of it, she knew her limits and especially the threat of using foreign energy. Never should she let it touch her body for fear of letting it take control or blowing it.

The energy level required for a simple construct as lighting a fire was sufficient to burn a whole house even more if it was a human body. They experimented with this unforgettable event when they were young, even if sometimes she thinks she was the only one to learn her lesson.

"It's not really important after all, I'm the sole user of The Art in the trio... Well, the duo for now..."

Passing in the wilderness as if a ghost, nothing would stop her in her illusion. She would sometimes change it depending on the landscape but the threat comes when she didn't have Mind Energy anymore to shape others Energy.

When these times came she would hide in a hole or a cave, waiting for it to pass. It was the primordial Emanation contain in each thinking life. She used it to manipulate other kinds of foreign Emanation, in her case, mostly Life Emanation.

As she waled and the day passed, beasts would sometimes see through her illusion, in particular with the help of their smell sense. When it came to it, she would instantly release the powerful cutting matrix in her head, slashing them in two without letting them see their death coming.

The construct was easier than for an illusion, and much more frightening, it consists of a grid taking small particles in its way and dividing them into smaller parts, making it one of the sharpest weapons on this planet.

This powerful girl walking alone in the wilderness was slowly making her way to achieve the greatness that no one could foreshadow for the moment.

__________

IN THE DEPTH OF THE NEVER CANYON (one month later)

"SLASH"

A Big Eyes was dead without knowing what had come. A creature of the same height was approaching as if savoring the death of the creature. Two disproportionate claws from each side were hanging from what appeared to be, arms.

These two arms where black mixed with green, pulsing as if alive finishing in a pair of hand-like claws, the finger hooked, dripping with green blood obviously not the owner's blood. His gait was a little crooked but elegant, as if reminiscing of a past long gone.

"Ahah, another one, such pitiful creature, just waiting for me to harvest their lives. They used to pursue me, how could I have been so weak and useless ?"

Ripping open the Big Eyes with its finger, he began to feast, head first on the still hot carcass. The creature, Alix, was enjoying his journey very much, killing Big Eyes, Bulkys, sometimes Spikys, he was their nightmare, killing firstly for nurturing himself, then for revenge and now for fun.

After a short hour, nothing was left of the Big Eyes, even the bones had been crushed to nothing in between his powerful jaw. With the accumulation of green blood in his body, his strength had been multiplied, increased again by the Darkness he was absorbing now even when he was walking.

His hunger followed, his body needing lots of energy, he could now digest a whole Big Eye in an incredibly short time, converting its meat into energy and life force. Running like the wind, he disappears in the tunnels, searching for other victims.

During this long month, Alix had hunted to survive each day, consuming abyss flesh whenever he could, traveling far in the canyon in an attempt to explore it. He discovered a nearly unlimited number of tunnels, taking his time to explore them.

There were actually several levels of depth in the Canyon. First, the closer to the surface was the main canyon, where he felled at the beginning. After, when taking the Bulkys tunnels came another level, much deeper this one. Alix had taken approximately twenty days to come here where Darkness Emanation was everywhere.

The more in-depth he was, the more powerful the abyss creatures were, even if he didn't meet with other species as he thought he would. He was more and more taking joy in successfully killing them, allowing him to become more and more powerful. He had just one thought in mind right now, to go down, to eat more terrifying creatures!

Just yesterday he actually discovered another going downward tunnels, a sign of a possible third level. he was anticipating his soon-to-be hunting in there. Looking around with great clarity, he could actually see as clear as day now, even in the second level, he noticed that there was an ambushed Spiky waiting for him a hundred meter afar.

"It should think it's cleverly hidden but I see it as the nose on your face, such pathetic creature, thinking they are at the peak of the food chains hey? Hehehe..."

Closing on it in a few seconds, he jumped before the Spiky could begin its attack, landing on its neck, hitting it with a palm. The creature retreat in yelping, clearly injured of this surprise attack. Its neck was aching, a pulsing sensation was slowly invading its body.

Alix was now taking pleasure in increasing the difficulty of its hunts, resorting to his Kata to kill even a Spiky. He would have slashed it in one go should he have used the two Spiky's claw or the Darkness Emanation.

"TUMP"

A loud sound was made when his fist connected with the rear lamb of the Spiky, making it turn over, with anger and fear in its eyes. Dodging, running around, Alix was like a fearful demon, elusive like a ghost, frightening like the reaper.

Deciding it was time to finish, he quickly hit on the throat with jabs, palms and to finish a powerful uppercut perfectly connecting with the trachea echoing in the tunnel.

"CRAK"

The noise was a testimony of the broken vertebra. The Spiky collapsed on the ground, never having any chance whatsoever. Alix was just a little breathless, but without wasting time, he slashed open the now dead body of this Spiky, letting it fall to the same treatment as the previous Big Eyes.

He wasn't able for now to eat all the bones of a Spiky, neither its claws or spikes, but it would come, he was sure of it.

Blood dripping from his chin, he wiped it with his hand full of blood too, making his face covered in green drying blood. "One more day before I try this tunnel to go even deeper! If things go awry, I could just blow everything around me and escape. Nothing can beat my powerful escape skills, hehehe..."

Vicious green eyes shining in the dark, Alix went hunting again, greatly enjoying his newfound power, never letting him be as weak and powerless as before, he learned his lesson the hard way! His mind was slowly corroded, his sarcasm less and less heard in it, focusing on becoming more powerful, destroying his weakness one by one.

He slowly lost the reason behind his thirst for strength.