Chapter Sixty Five - Death Star

The Hobgoblin struggled to his feet, in his hands he carried a strange heart-shaped object stained with green blood, He wiped it with a piece of cloth and hold the object with curiosity, it looked alive, although obviously is a non-biological thing, it pulsed like a real heart, it looked like made of stone, it beats were constant and measured, emitting a warm and comfortable glow.

"What the hell is this?" One of the Goliaths questioned, her huge size made it impossible for her to be the one to analyze the object in question, but both she and the other monsters around could feel the strong mana flowing through the object.

"I've never seen a relic like this before!" The Hobgoblin replied, he was analyzing the entrails in the 'heart' with a visible expression of admiration. "That's what was keeping that orc corpse alive, seeming to be some kind of relic... but this quality... it's definitely a high-level relic, too bad it's an attributed relic, if we could take possession of this relic we could create our own fighting machine..."

The Hobgoblin's declaration was followed by a surge of interest from the other creatures around, his eyes glittering with greed as they began to surround him, the green man noticed the greedy looks of his companions and smiled. "Hey, hey, hey guys! let's take a break! There is no reason to argue or fight! As I already said this is an attributed relic! As long as the original owner doesn't die, the controller's mana cannot be rewritten, the only use for this in this state is research!"

He waved his arms as if to calm things down, showing that he had no desire to keep that little treasure to himself, it was a lie of course, if he could have this treasure he was sure to take it, if he tried to sell this item at the dark auction he would earn an absurd amount of money, but he also knew there was no way to get past everyone else with this treasure in hand, so he was playing to take this innocent and friendly role, be friendly with whoever gets the object and wait for the right chance, then he would somehow manage to get away with the artifact. The other monsters looked around, it seemed that each one was waiting for the other to be the first to manifest.

"It is ours!" The Goliath woman spoke, the members of her tribe nodded in agreement. "If anyone else wants it, they'll have to duel for it!"

The other monsters were forced to give up the treasure, maybe they could take that treasure if it other races, but facing a dozen of Goliaths' would be the end of their species, they started to disperse, trying to forget about the missed opportunity.

The Hobgoblin approached the Goliath who had claimed possession of the heart with a wide smile on his face. "Hey ma'am, what are you going to do with it? It shouldn't be worth almost anything as it is, but if you want I can find someone to buy it! I know a great appraiser!"

The Goliath, a huge woman about four meters tall, with gray skin and black tattoos on her face and arms, looked at the Hobgoblin with contempt, did this little worm really think she hadn't noticed his intentions? She was ready to teach him a lesson.

"That's mine, thanks for saving it for me..." The voice suddenly rang out, the heart-shaped relic in Goliath's hands flew upward, where it was caught by a black figure known and feared among those monsters.

"YOU!" The Goliath woman screamed angrily. "You damn Bastard! You killed my fiance!" She screamed, she tried to lunge at Locke, swinging a huge axe.

Locke sighed, the golem's heart disappeared in his hands, being stored in his inventory, he easily dodged out of the ax path with the slightest movement to the side, his claw went towards the hilt and snapped it, leaving the gigantic woman with nothing, just that a broken piece of wood in her hand.

"I'm sorry big girl, but I support the gender equality!" Locke punched hard, The Goliath crossed her arms in front of her chest blocking the attack instinctively, but the force was greater than she expected, her arms flexed awkwardly as she was launched like a missile backwards, hitting the monsters in the path and leaving a trail of destruction.

The other monsters looked at Locke with a mixture of fear and anger, they were ready to pounce on Locke.

"You must be paid very well..." Locke sighed, black mana ran through his body and he released his aura of fear as much as possible, the air grew heavy and the monsters felt an intense feeling of fear, none of them moved, they not even sighed, cold sweat was running down their backs and they felt an intense sense of despair, each of them felt that they would die if they made the slightest move, it was like facing the face of death. "What you need to ask yourself right now is: Are they paying me enough?" Locke grinned widely, which on his dragon face looked cruel and evil, making their hearts run cold, Locke kept talking. "So, what are they paying or offering is enough to be worth your lives?"

The first one to run was a Goblin, he dropped the weapons he was holding and ran without looking back, he ran with all the strength and stamina he had. He wasn't the only one, as the little green creature left the field running for its own life, others followed his example without a second thought, most of them had no idea what they were up against and most of those who fled didn't want to not even find out.

Locke didn't care too much about who was going to run away and who was going to stay to fight him, he didn't have the time to worry about it now, the horrible feeling emanating from the building was getting stronger and so Locke knew he had little time, he simply concentrated his mana and attacked, after all, he couldn't miss the chance to gain some levels. He formed a multidirectional shield to block the attack of those who had chosen to stay while preparing one of his final moves.

'Are you going to use that?' Tia questioned. 'Are you sure? You have a lot more mana now than you did back then!'

"And that's why it will be even more effective!" Locke replied.

If you thought about it, it hadn't been that long since Locke had started to use magic, from his awakening to the time he used the first spell he went through a lot, but once he released his magical abilities, magic became something inseparable to him, something as natural as breathing, something inherent. But few times Locke can really use his magic to its fullest, this would be one of Locke's chances to realize how much he's grown up.

He was also crazy to test this.

Locke brought both hands together, his black mana began to run down his body, a sphere of flames formed between his two palms, and he didn't stop.

Locke continued to inject his magic, the flames compacted more and more as they swirled angrily, then they began to calm down, the fire had become so intense and concentrated that it was now a complete sphere of black heat. He could feel the flame getting heavier by the second, and he didn't stop, his body mana ran like an angry horse, diving headfirst into the black sphere.

The fire became plasma, dark and concentrated plasma, both Locke and the monsters around him could feel the intense heat and the absurd mana coming from the sphere, he inserted even more magic.

Stones around started to float, the small sphere of black plasma had become a miniature black star, it even had its own gravity, Locke felt it was getting close to going out of control, almost all of its magic had been inserted there, but it was more than enough for its purpose, he threw the sphere into the air.

The sphere didn't explode, but floated gently in the air like a huge shadowy balloon, the monsters couldn't help but look at the strange phenomenon with curiosity and awe. Locke grinned, with a single thought the plasma sphere began to erupt in a series of beams, black incandescent beams were blasted in all directions at small intervals, and each time they hit the ground they released an explosion of furious black plasma.

The little black death star was launching attacks at random, the amount of control Locke had over it was minimal, but this attack was perfect for situations like this, where he had enemies on either side, the gush of incandescent lightning was doing its job well and the monsters were being completely consumed by the explosions. The death star showed no pity.

When the sphere finally disappeared the landscape had drastically transformed, all the buildings around it had been reduced to dust, the asphalt was full of craters and there were charred bones everywhere, the only thing completely fine and standing was the building of the cultists completely unscathed to attack and Locke.

'I warned you! Using the death star was overkill!" Tia commented through her mental element.

Locke scratched his head and looked around guiltily. That spell was something he had created during training, it was nothing more than pushing pyromancy to the limit to create a crowd control spell, an artificial flame satellite that would fire off intermittent attacks until it went out energy, but he forgot to considering how much his mana had grown, intelligence and wisdom were really two very different things after all. The city had already suffered enough at the hands of ther monsters, but none of the monsters had managed to cause as much destruction as his current attack, and beacuse of that Locke felt guilty.

"From now on, let's try to avoid using this again..." Locke made a note to himself, while drinking an elixir, he had intended to regain mana on one of the streetlights but his attack had annihilated everything around him.

'I'm just glad you didn't try that other attack...' Tia commented.

"Well, the day is far from over!" Locke responded with a guilty smile.

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Chapter 65 Extra - The Church

The Church, or the Roman Catholic Church, it's the biggest religion in the world, they believe in Christianity and follow the bible, they're also responsible, behind the scenes, for keeping humanity safe from supernatural threats, taking a position very similar to that of the BPD.

Unlike the BPD, the Church refuses to use magic, but they have a power as strong as, or even more than, magic itself, the power of thaumaturgy, the ability to perform miracles. They are not against using modern equipment in fighting the "hosts of hell", but they don't have a tech department as powerful as the Bureau's.

For years, they took the step of totally purging any unnatural creature from the face of the Earth, as well as all those considered infidels, which caused great tensions between the Church and other groups, such as witches and members of other religions, this position of the Church. has been changed over time, with them taking a more apologetic attitude and even erecting an olive branch for the Sanctuary.

As already mentioned, the thaumaturgy is the church's greatest weapon, among the known miracles are the ability to heal, summon angels, create artifacts and, in rare cases, resurrect the dead. The thaumaturgy is not a power belonging to the church alone, other religions have their own means of performing miracles, but it is one of the only religions that do not require any catalyst or sacrifices to do it, although they can be used to further enhance the thaumaturgy.