Chapter seventy-seven - Regretful Demon

Unlike what his actions showed, Malphas' avatar wasn't amused.

Since Eradan's seal had been created, it was impossible for demons to cross to Earth, for demons, the only way they could still get the delicious human souls was by being summoned by humans, yet only small demons could cross to this world with their whole bodies, strong demons like him were forced to use a rather irritating method, they were forced to split their own soul into pieces and send an avatar.

The issue that made creating an avatar irritating was the fact that this avatar would not be in constant contact and not under the control of the main body, the seal made that impossible. So the demon was forced to endow his avatar with a consciousness of its own, although most avatars were loyal, once in a while the avatar will became too conscious and turn in a enemy of the main body, sometimes even devouring it, so creating a conscious avatar was a gamble.

One of the ways to suppress this possibility was to use more of their own soul to create the avatar, the more of their soul they put into the avatar, the closer to the original their consciousness would be and, consequently, the more loyal they will be.

The reason why a demon did not want to divide his own soul was quite simple, in Hell, everything was linked to the strength of they soul, demons were always at war, whether against other realms or against themselves, to weaken his own soul was to run a big risk, after all, you never knew when some other demon would attack you from behind.

Luckily for Malphas, he was a builder, the best of builders in the Hell, his talents in construction were highly prized by the greater demons, who liked extravagance and always wanted to be superior to others, but still he wasn't foolish enough to believe anyone could resolve to attack him when he was weakened.

The reason why Malphas, despite his cautious nature, had sent this avatar was very simple, he had no idea how the cultists had managed it, but somehow they were very close to creating a large passage that ignored the seal, even though this passage was not to Hell, but to another dimension that he had no idea, he was very interested in getting his hands in this method, the number of souls he would get with this information would be unprecedented, he would fall into the graces of the highest ranks and maybe he even got enough to move up in rank.

So he accepted the bet, playing high he had created this avatar with half his soul, putting in more than enough to ensure that the avatar's personality would be a perfect copy of his, in fact, it was impossible to tell which was the original on this point, both bodies were fully Malphas.

When Malphas arrived he found himself delightfully surprised, to his deep delight he discovered that the enemy he was called to fight was none other than the son of one of the greatest enemies of Hell. Eradan, The Black Dragon of Conquest, invaded Hell years ago, causing enormous damage among the unholy hosts, he single-handedly destroyed one of the seven kingdoms and destroyed its king, Vine, and all of its legions. Eradan was only stopped when all the other kings banded together and faced him with all their armies, but the battle caused extensive damage throughout all Hell.

When he learned of Locke, the demon's eyes sparkled with excitement as he imagined all the profit he would have if he captured this soul, all Kings would be willing to pay a fortune to get one more chance to get revenge on one of they greatest enemies, the Hell Auction would definitely beat they record, the number of souls he would win would be enormous.

The problem is that, although the avatar could wield as much power as the original body, it was still heavily affected by the seal, which acted like a powerful poison, fighting the alien existence like an antibody fighting a bacteria, not only that, but the more power he used, the more violent the effect of the seal became.

At first Malphas wanted to get this over with quickly, he pretended to talk to Locke while preparing one of his skills, he could see that Eradan's son was still inexperienced and was very happy when he didn't even realize he was stalling with the desire to activate his territory, he went into ecstasy when he suceed, knowing there was no longer any way for the young dragon to flee.

The territory was an ability of the transcendents, something like a mini pocket dimension where they could fully exercise their abilities and fully manifest their power, the territory also imposed a debuff effect on the enemy, decreasing their forces and increasing their spending of mana, it was said that only a true transcendent could manifest a territory, that was the limit from a lower transcendent to a true transcendent.

To the surprise of Malphas, who hoped to finish off the little dragon in seconds, Locke was holding up pretty well, somehow the boy seemed to be completely immune to the debuff effect generated by his territory, and the demon was forced to increase his attacks, increasingly the expending in his strength to finish the boy off, consequently shortening the time he could keep this avatar.

Although his mouth was smiling and he was making jokes as if he was excited, Malphas was actually getting worried, this body wouldn't last much longer in this world and half his soul here would soon have to return to Hell, before the seal began to corrode his soul too, which would cause him serious problems.

His worries began to escalate when he realized that Locke undid his own armor and began to concentrate all of his mana while dodging his attacks, but his choosing to ignore it, even though the boy's strength was relatively decent was far from something to worry about. , undoing the armor was a silly move and he focused on destroying this boy at once.

Malphas continued to increase the strength and speed of his attacks, causing more and more damage to the avatar's body, he felt he was close to the point where he would have no choice but to go back to Hell.

'Sh*t! Damn b*stard!' The demon thought a little annoyed. 'You are lucky, boy! Even if I can't get your soul right now, the information should be more than enough for me to make some profit…" He was ready to give up and return when Locke disappeared from his place.

The demon was surprised, but soon realized that Locke was now in front of him, inches from his avatar. He opened a machiavellian smile, he felt that Locke was preparing a big attack, but this was also his chance to finish the boy and even if Locke's attack hit, as long as his soul was intact he would be safe, so he tried hit Locke with his hands, even if he wasn't a melee expert he was still a transcendent, and his strength should be more than enough to put an end to the boy.

The demon's hands streaked through the air, trying to grab Locke's neck, ready to end his life, but that was a big mistake.

Locke opened his mouth, unlike his normal attack in the form of a blast of black mana, the mana he had accumulated had been compressed into a fist-sized sphere, a sphere so black it looked like an infinite void with no light. As the sphere was released, Locke's body underwent a massive change, his dragon scales shattered like glass, his wings disappeared and his body shrunk, escaping Malphas' hands which now passed a few inches past his head, where before his neck was, Locke fell from the tower to the ground, both of his hands making ugly signs to the demon as he fell with a smug grin on his face.

The demon was ready to chase when he realized that the small sphere was now in his chest, to his surprise the sphere didn't explode, just stood there, standing in the air, touching his impeccable purple suit. The demon couldn't understand what was happening and tried to move, but his body seemed stuck to the sphere. He tried to use his mana to hit Locke, but to his surprise his mana didn't respond, he then felt a strange sensation, a sense of danger like he had never felt in his whole life.

"What the f*ck is this?" was the only thing the demon could speak.

The small sphere began to expand, the demon was pulled towards it as the sphere's size increased, the sphere began to destroy the tower and the demon's body, shattering space itself as it grew more and more like a black hole, the power of the sphere was strange and violent, and the demon could feel that its territory was being obliterated and consumed at an intense speed, the black mana was vicious and looked alive, the sphere soon lost its shape and arcs of black energy were launched all around the place while the black mana devoured more and more.

Locke hit the ground, absorbing the impact with one swift movement and a series of rolls, he drank a potion and felt his mana slowly recover, he watched intently as his black sphere continued to grow like a raging beast, he never had tried this 'one-shot cannon' in the real world, and even when he used it in practice he had a lot less mana back then, even he was surprised by the result.

The demon's body was stuck to the surface of the violent mana, unable to separate itself, the mana sphere, which now no longer had a sphere shape and looked more like a violent mass of solid and angry mana, was pulling Malphas' avatar's body and slowly consumed him, not only he but all his territory. With no choice, the demon opened his mouth and spat out a small ball of dark purple light, which took the shape of a raven, it was Malphas' soul that wanted to escape.

But before Malphas' soul could escape the black mana moved as if it were alive, an arc of black light separated from the expanding mass of mana and struck the purple crow, which screamed spectacularly as it was pulled into the center of mana mass.

'No! This is impossible! This is impossible! My soul! My soul is being consumed! Only a demon can consume a soul! But this... this is different! This is... This is Destruction! The true destruction! How can this be? Souls are immortal!" The demon was in disbelief, his raven form was being shattered.

Malphas was right, only demons and a few beings were able to consume the souls of other beings to become stronger, but even they were unable to completely destroy a soul, even if they absorbed a part of the soul's strength a part always she would escape, being taken back to the origin of creation, but what was happening to Malphas was different, this black mana was destroying his soul completely. As he struggled through the sea of ​​black mana that devoured him, Malphas' consciousness slowly began to fade.

'How? How is this happening? This mana... this strange mana! What is this? What is this?' the demon was still in disbelief, with half his soul destroyed he had no idea what would happen to his other body, he tried to understand until the end, regret was the only thing he felt, he should never have come to this world, nothing was worth the cost he was paying now, with the last shred of conscience he had an epiphany.

'This is... The end?!?'

Malphas soul was completely destroyed.