They were just too exhausted to pay mind to Circe’s warning. They preferred to stop in front of the Dungeon entry to rest and try to recover some of the Mana that had been depleted during the strenuous fight.

The only one who seemed vigorous enough to hop around was Lumia. The little girl was glaring at her brother, with a hint of contempt in her gaze and a sullen expression on her face.

“A princess. I might have accepted it, if she were a princess. But the filthy whore wiggles her ass around as if the whole world were lying at her feet,” Lumia violently cursed. She sounded more like a stevedore than an innocent girl.

Snowflake, however, had already gotten used to this. He resolved for a shrug as he calmly listened to her complains.

Lulu approached them. She had just walked away from Frankenstein, whose experiments risked involving her in severe collateral damage. In moments like that, it was wise to stay away from Frankenstein.

Lulu gently took Lumia by the weave and told her: “Circe’s the second best talent in Orma. We have to come to term with this. There’s not much we can do, really.” Lulu hoped that tender physical contact and her resigned gaze could help Lumia, though it seemed to cause just the opposite.

“Talent? You call that talent?” Lumia’s eyes began to faintly glimmer with some strange divine light. Snowflake sensed a substantial change in Lumia’s Aura.

In that very moment, a hand gently touched Lumia’s head.

Helial looked at Lumia’s silvery hair as he closed his eyes and cast his mind back to the little baby in diapers who stared at him with sweet tender eyes.

We must all be free to make the decisions that will forge our future path.

Helial opened his eyes. He smiled at Lumia’s behavior. Circe was a powerful woman whose talent exceeded ordinary standards. Helial though had found new standards he evaluated the world by. Despite him not knowing the real extent of Circe’s strength, he knew it was only a matter of time before Lumia could compete with her.

All of a sudden, a black-banged kid with an overly bored expression on his face materialized in front of the group.

He walked next to Helial. Then he threw a punch at Helial’s stomach.

Helial’s pupils shrunk as he was shot through the woods like an arrow fired from a bow. The branches he hit against broke one by one.

“I’m kind of disgusted by that woman too. For now, you’ll get what I’ll willingly gave to her,” the kid with the black bangs said. Then he rubbed his hands to tidy them up under the shocked gazes of everyone.

Lumia’s eyes lit up. The little girl bowed at the Devil.

Iblis took notice of the respect paid to him by Lumia and gave her a benevolent smile as he said: “Shithead asked me to train you many times. But today, you have proved to be way more helpless than I thought. And you have already received some of my teachings. If you don’t want to weight this Shithead down, you need to work way harder than that.”

In order to defeat the pack of Infernal Seagulls, they had all fought strenuously. But eventually, that wasn’t a clean win. They were exhausted and covered in wounds. Snowflake was still bleeding from several injuries that stained in red his pearl-white fur. Frankenstein and Vlad had a lot of bruises all over their body. Lulu’s expression was disfigured by debility.

Iblis though promptly rephrased. “All of you but one,” said he as he gave Lumia a satisfied look. Then, he cast a glance at where Helial landed after the blow.

Meanwhile, Lumia’s racket had waken Vlad up. The sudden arrival of a little kid who had just humiliated Helial through a single blow, struck almost casually, puzzled him. The others though didn’t seem as baffled as he was. They must be acquainted with this kid’s manners. Lumia in particular seemed to deeply respect that little kid.

Vlad found himself staring at the scene in utter bewilderment as he kid began to list out the mistakes made by each member of the group, from Helial to Frankenstein, suggesting solutions to do better. He seemed to have analyzed the battle from above as if through a microscope.

Iblis talked to them patiently. He answered each of their questions.

Everyone could not but notice that his few words were by far more precious than a full week-long training. Helial’s master - the Devil who materialized out of nowhere - was a frightening creature with mysterious origins. Yet they were all sure that his power was boundless.

As everyone was hanging from the lips of the kid, Vlad grimaced in disgust at their devotion. Then he turned around to go back to sleep.

However, something unexpected happened.

Once turned around, he found himself to be staring in the eyes of the black-banged kid, who was staring back at him with curled lips and a complacent smug.

Vlad immediately gathered his Mana. Incoming death was looming over him. However, no drop of Mana flew through his Meridians, as if it were completely frozen.

In a split second, Vlad’s Aura turned scarlet. Then, the Devil stretched out a hand and gently touched his forehead, dissolving his Aura as if it were air.

The power that had let the ginger-haired boy be the Lord of Death with the Seagulls was but a grain of sand before that Devil.

Vlad finally realized the gap between the two of them.

Iblis gazed at him as inert Vlad desperately tried to evoke his Aura.

“Who are you?” Vlad hissed, staring at him in the eyes.

Iblis calmly raised a hand.

BANG

A devastating slap hit Vlad in the face, smashing it several centimeters in the ground.

“Do you think your meaningless capabilities are even worth my sight? Even the fucking God of Blood in person couldn’t lift a finger before me. This asshole of a planet has no right to think of my name. But this little bitch wants to play arrogant with me.”

“There’s nothing I want to learn from you. Leave me alone,” Vlad said through clenched jaws. He tried to stand back up. He failed.

Iblis drew nearer. He put his feet on Vlad’s head and pressed just intensely enough as to leave on his face a mark which would only go away after several days. The guy wouldn’t forget this outrage. “Damned senility. I’ve become too good. Once, I would just slaughter your kin as well as everyone who has been unlucky enough to ever speak with you. But you’re still playing arrogant. Do you even know how high the sky is?” Iblis stretched a hand up to the sky as he said: “I won’t ever teach you anything. Only those who desperately yearn for strength deserve to hear my teachings. You’re a weak. I don’t waste my time on the weak.”

“Weak?” Vlad said in shock. From what he had seen in the Dungeon, he was by far stronger than any of them. Helial was the only one he could challenge without getting too bored.

“Oh, I’m not talking about your current strength. You’re only larvae, as things stand. What does it matter which larva is best? Though, one day they will turn into butterflies. And by that time you’ll only be the smoking piece of shit as now. You have no ambition, or worse, you don’t think you need some. This is something you will regret.”

Having finished his educational and refined speech, Iblis snapped his fingers. Vlad’s eyes turned bloodshot. The fiery red-haired guy tried to stifle the scream worming its way to his lips as three nails still dripping blood glided before Iblis. There were still some pieces of flesh attached.

“Do you think to get away with that? One more word, you’ll lose a finger. One after that, you’ll lose a feet. After that, an arm. At the fourth, you’ll lose your life.”

As he spoke, the expression on the Devil’s face remained calm and peaceful, as if he were taking a stroll instead of torturing someone to death.

Vlad didn’t say anything more. Death was looming over him as closer as ever. He kind of understood what kind of person he was dealing with, as well as he realized that if he dared get on his nerves again, the Devil wouldn’t hesitate to make good on his promise. If that monster didn’t fear any repercussions from the Guild of Life and Death, it meant his power really was beyond Vlad’s imagination.

Also, Vlad was shocked by the fact the Devil knew about the God of Blood legacy he owned. He thought it best to preserve himself a little and shut up.

A bruised Helial re-emerged from the woods without a word. He ignored the sight of Iblis torturing Vlad. Helial had personally experienced how dangerous it was to be arrogant to Iblis. He was sure that if Iblis should be in the right mood, he could easily raze Orma to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Immortals?

Helial’s master was the most terrifying creature existing. One day, he would have to face far stronger opponents than Comodus, or even Aure. Helial was only at the beginning or his journey.

Iblis left Vlad lying on the ground. He gave the group the last instructions. He shook his head in disappointment at Helial. Then, he disappeared in a black beam inside his Soul. Helial could neatly smell what seemed like homemade jam. His Aure really turned into the Devil’s culinary experiments’ lab.

Everyone sat down to recover Mana while meditating on Iblis’ teachings. Their Auras changed drastically and grew visibly denser. Even Helial, who received Iblis’ suggestions from within his Soul, let his Soul undergo radical changes.

The only one who experienced no change was Vlad, who seemed to disdain the group just as much as before as he licked his wounds with his back against a tree.

***

After picking up as many Infernal Seagulls Feathers as possible, the group set off to Orma.

Frankenstein approached Helial with an uncanny worrying light in his eyes. Helial immediately caught his intention. “You can take all of those we don’t need for our Quest. Just, no more experiments inside the palace.”

Frankenstein furiously nodded as a flash of pure folly sparkled down his eyes. Infernal Seagull Feathers were fantastic material for his testing.

Frankenstein stepped back to the back of the group, talking to himself while analyzing aloud the data he had collected on Infernal Seagull Feathers.

The wounds staining Snowflake began to heal. The regenerative properties of a Heavenly Star Tiger body couldn’t compete with those of a Qilin or of a Black Turtle, though they certainly were the third best in the universe. His fur now only had some whitish scar which would probably disappear within an hour.

Suddenly, a terrible omen loomed over Helial as he recalled of something. “Circe said there’s someone following us.”

It may have been too late to worry, but it would still be wiser than not to.

Skill Activated:

Perception