"I don't think you would want to do that…" Mason displayed the amulet hanging on his neck. "You see the only reason you were able to defeat them was that they underestimated your soul flames and hadn't made the necessary preparations, but with this, you are as good as a puny hero." Mason burst into a sinister laugh.

Soul flames are hard to deal with and dreaded by many because they ignored physical defenses and go straight for the soul, but once they were up against soul-protecting items soul flames were would be weaker than basic flames.

​​

"Haha, I always knew you were a retard but I never knew you had no brains, to begin with." Tears rolled down Taliesin's cheeks as he couldn't stop laughing. "Don't you think that the demigods that I burnt to ashes didn't have any form of soul protection?"

Taliesin's harsh words struck a nerve and Mason was about to flare up, but this not being the first time he had come in contact with Taliesin, Mason knew that Taliesin wanted to taunt him into doing something stupid.

"Nice try old man, you might be able to beat me even with my protections, but I am pretty sure you won't be able to do that before the others arrive..." Mason said with a smirk causing Taliesin to furrow his brows.

"I would have loved to play around with you since your uncle of yours isn't here to babysit you, but sadly I have to end this quickly." Taliesin's expression changed to a stern one when he heard Mason. He took out the golden cross pendant embedded with emerald gemstones he wore under his robe.

"The lord of chaos, Eternal flames that's turns everything to ashes, bestow on your faithful servant the power to turn all my enemies to ashes and fulfill my master's wishes." As Taliesin chanted, the emerald gems on the cross pendant glowed with increasing intensity, before bursting into emerald flames.

"Vermillion rood, shit!" Mason cursed when he saw Taliesin chanting. This wasn't the first time he had seen Vermillion rood in action, Taliesin didn't use the artifact often but whenever he did, he had the power to contend and overpower demigods even as a Hero.

The demigod realm is divided into 4 levels in order; nascent stage, ordained stage, prevalent stage, and perfect stage. With the help of Vermillion rood, Taliesin could contend with anyone in the ordained stage and if things were to go wrong he would be able to escape, but as for anyone below it would be a win for him.

The Vermillion rood gave the user the ability to exert double their potential when casting spells, therefore doubling the output of fire-based spells. It increased the magic penetration of fire-based attacks and also increased the resistance of fire spells to other elements and this meant that magical defenses would be less effective.

The artifact had 3 outstanding effects, but it also came with 3 drawbacks. The first was that it could be only used by those in the fire pathway and if it came in contact with those in other pathways their souls would be burned by flames at the level of perfect stage demigods.

Second, the more the artifact was used the more the user's soul is being consumed by rage, bring them closer to entering the berserk mode and closer to their deaths.

The third drawback was its ability to increase the user's potential in exchange for stronger spells. If the artifact was to be used by any other fire user it wouldn't be a drawback, but in Taliesin's case, it was different.

Just like a tap that had been opened to the max, the amount of water flowing out at once couldn't increase unless there was a factor that could increase the pressure and in the case of mages, the artifact was the factor. In Taliesin's case, for him to cast soul flames, he needs to lit it with a spark of his life essence, but whenever he used the Vermillion rood, not only did it increase the power output but also the amount of soul essence needed to produce the equal amount of output.

'Fuck me!' Blake cursed and quickly moved away from Taliesin when he noticed the temperature of the environment increasing at an alarming rate. Just a moment after the trio jumped out, the air around Taliesin became so hot that the surrounding air caught flames.

'A warning would have been nice!' Blake thought when he saw he would have been turned to barbeque by the emerald flames that had no friends except for the caster if he had remained in that spot.

'Damn how many artifacts does he have and isn't its abilities just too strong?' Although they had kept their distance, Blake could still feel the heat waves emanating from Taliesin.

[Not sure of the artifact's grade but from what I can see, I am pretty sure it's of top quality, but the side effects are of equal level. Take a look at their life essence.]

The system synched Blake's vision with it's. Everyone in front of him instantly changed to bright balls of energy. Those of the mercenaries were the size of a soccer ball, but when he looked at Mason he was almost blinded by the energy ball twice the size of a soccer ball with its light brimming vigorously.

'What the f*ck happened to him?' Blake asked when he looked at Taliesin. His life essence was smaller than those of the mercenaries and its glow had dimmed considerably.

[You already know about the disadvantages of soul flames, and with the amount of life essence he uses for his flame, he doesn't have much time left.] Soul flames were powerful, but they came with the price of shortening the user's life span.

Feeling the amount of power coming from Taliesin, Mason had begun preparing all his defensive equipment and spells, awaiting his attacks but the moment Taliesin was about to launch forward the clear sky became cloudy.