In the present

Helial coughed up a mouthful of blackish blood as his body increased his strength once again.

***

Siche stood back up. The wound on her forehead was gushing out blood relentlessly. Her jade-like face was stained in crimson blood streaks.

Iblis shortly shook his head. He took a step forward. He put his hand on the little girl’s forehead. He gently brushed his fingers against her skin, which instantly healed. Truth is, the new strength Siche acquired would have easily let her heal any wound by herself. That gesture though was her way to show her master her full gratitude. Thanks to him, she had won her life back as well as her love.

At that point, Marte snorted. He was now ready to fight. “Let’s cut the crap. Come here! There’s no real progress one can achieve in a matter of seconds. This whore is faking it!”

Qinguang furrowed his eyebrows and cast Marte an icy glare. Then, he sent him a telepathic message. “Kill her. We will take full responsibility for this. We can’t let such a threaten roam free. Otherwise, one day will have to face two monsters instead than Iblis alone.”

Unfortunately for the Forces of Life, none of them had the slightest idea of the extent of Siche’s change. Only Amaterasu’s senses were sharp enough to let her perceive some deep uncomfortable feeling. She felt a new incoming disgrace.

Marte slowly nodded as his eyes got bloodshot.

Skill Activated:

Lord of War Throne

Marte’s Aura erupted. The crimson shades it glistened in could not but arouse a reverential fear in the heart on any looker. He had crafted that Skill himself. It made one of the most powerful Attack Buff Skill in its kind. Lord of War Throne would increase his attack and defence exponentially without any particular backfire.

It clearly was no coincidence if Amaterasu had chosen to take him as a pupil. That man could boast a greater potential than it met the eye.

However, before two eyes profound as the hell’s far ends as those of Iblis, that Skill was but kid stuff. With a single twist of his mind, Iblis could have come up with a Skill ten times as powerful as that one.

Siche stood still. She was turned on her opponent giving him no face. However, even in her new state she felt some kind of bafflement in her heart at the Skill unleashed by Marte. During their previous fight, Marte refrained himself. This was the true strength of an Immortal from the Forces of Life.

Siche0s arch immediately materialized in front of her in the crack of a thunder. The girl grabbed it. Then she turned towards Marte, examined him carefully then said: “You pose no opponent to me.”

With a swift gentle wave of her arm, Siche put her weapon away. She joined both hands behind her back, one palm against the other. She didn’t seem willing to fight.

A large blue vein bulged on Marte’s forehead. Her arrogance made him lost his temper.

Amaterasu and Qinguang kept quiet. Meanwhile, a battered Kirin was approaching them with slow steps. Finally, he walked back to his place by Qinguang’s side.

No one actually believed that Siche could defeat Marte, let alone that easily. They all concluded Siche wanted to spare herself yet another humiliation.

And yet, those malicious gazes only made Siche shake her head in a sigh.

“If you’re so confident you’d win this deathmatch, why are retreating against me?” Marte icily snorted.

Siche calmly nodded.

Iblis stared at his pupil in satisfaction. This was the same girl who would ask for his advice before every move she took, never making a decision without his support. While now, she hadn’t hesitated in the least before deciding she would rip Marte’s life out of his chest.

Siche was finally worth being defined as Iblis’ first disciple. She was now a real gold standard for the forces of Destruction in behalf of the Devil.

It was indeed the first time that Siche wielded such power. However, this did not drag her into a vortex of doubts on what the outcome of the match would be. A second had been enough for her to estimate she could extinguish Marte’s life as easily as the light of a candle. Siche wouldn’t waste one of her precious arrows to kill some random Life sidekick. Iblis himself would frown upon such waste. As Siche just promised herself, her life would now be devoted to making her master proud of her.

Now that the knot in her heart was finally untied, once she took her revenge, every single moment in Siche’s life would be spent to serve her master as best as she could.

She knew that Iblis was planning a crusade. She would be appointed his first general, no matter at what cost.

Finally, Marte unleashed his full strength in an eruption of power. With both hands, he clutched a huge longsword crimson red.

God Wrath.

It was a legendary weapon handed down generation after generation through the Clan of Life. Only the weapons of the Clan Seniors and Ancestral Creatures like Qinguang and Kirin respectively could be possibly considered more powerful than that one.

As soon as he unsheathed his weapon, space seemed to solidify around Siche. It seemed like some invisible pressure just sealed it up.

In an ordinary situation, such an Aura would surely pose a problem to the opponent. However, Siche didn’t seem upset in the least. Unlike what she would feel like up to aa few moments before, her attitude looked now undisturbed by the threat posed by Marte.

“Mpf! You arrogant!” Marte growled. He swiftly led his wild Mana from inside his body to the tip of the longsword.

Skill Activated:

Scarlet Requiem of the Empyrion

Marte was indeed considered the new God of War of the Forces of Life, since every Skill he cultivated was an highly fierce and aggressive one. Their attributes were similar to those of the Bloody God, which were by far more powerful though. The Bloody God was a supreme expert unrivalled in the ancient times. Unfortunately, his Legacy had long been lost.

Often times, Marte would be compared with him. This had played a heavy role in making him become a proud and extremely arrogant one.

“By eliminating the girl, we’ll take away one more weapon from that monster,” Kirin snarled furiously. He was holding a heavy grudge for the blows he had received a few moments before.

That was the most powerful attack Amaterasu’s disciple could struck. Qinguang and Kirin nodded to themselves in satisfaction. Marte was incredibly talented and would soon become a precious resource for the Forces of Life to rely on.

Iblis caught the thoughts of the two seniors and shook his head. “That arrogant brat won’t see the light of a brand-new day, that’s for sure,” he whispered. These words though didn’t reach the ears of the Life members.

“Die!” The growl Marte let out was followed by a sardonic laughter.

In that moment, Marte looked like a demon while Siche looked like a defenceless little girl. With what seemed to be an extremely slow movement, this defenceless girl raised a hand in front of herself. She blocked the blow astonishingly easily. That was a swift one! Marte himself was left speechless.

You’re quick, huh? But no matter how quick you are when space is sealed up. No way out of here! Marte gritted his teeth and once again rushed towards her.

HE!

CLANG!

All around them, the atmosphere turned from dark and gloomy to instantly back to normaL. It seemed as if Marte never attacked. Marte was at such a high level that his every slash could easily raze a planet to the ground. But this wouldn’t seem to be the case.

God Wrath was a terrifying weapon.

War Lord Throne was a matchless Buff.

Scarlet Requiem of the Empyrion was the most powerful Skill Marte had.

Then, why would his Longsword be blocked by two of Siche’s fingers as if the little girl had been pinching the cheek of some friend?

Everyone froze immediately.

Time itself seemed to freeze.

Then, Siche smiled.

“Run!” The voice of Amaterasu suddenly spread throughout the planet. Her disciple heard her and immediately turned to give her a puzzled look. Her words though didn’t prove to be enough to truly alarm her disciple. Amaterasu herself rushed forward at breakneck speed to save him.

Unfortunately for her, Siche had already raised the other hand. She stretched out her palm as well as her fingers. Around her loomed a terrifying Aura as if Siche herself had just turned into an arch whose hand made for the essence of an arrow.

PLOP

Without employing no Skill, Siche used her own arm as an arrow which thrusted Marte’s body. His Soul was pulverized. His life vanished as if it had never existed.

Fwoosh!

The blow was so swift Siche’s hand had hardly a trace of blood on it.

“YOU!” screamed Amaterasu as her hair glided through the air in a golden dance.

“You take another step and the first thing I’ll do after getting Siche somewhere safe is wipe your Clan away,” Iblis calmly threatened.

Amaterasu landed on the ground and furrowed her eyebrows. “What should I say to his children? What will I tell his wife? Should I reveal them that a teenage psychopath slayed him to please her master?” Amaterasu blurted out. It was the first time she showed her utter shock. She knelt down and held the lifeless body of Marte in her arms. Her grievous gaze fixed on his fierce yet pale face.

Amaterasu put immense effort and care into raising Marte. Despite his arrogant attitude, he was a good man. Often times he would help mortals get through their troubles. He had always stood up for justice. Only when fighting the Forces of Destruction would he get so fierce and furious. This happened due to the grudge he held towards Destruction, by whose hand all his Clan and family had died.

Amaterasu had found him by chance. He was alone, surviving in a village whose only inhabitants were corpses. She had made a great warriour out of him, the strongest practitioner among Life warriors, so that he could fight the evil and dismantle injustice.

All that was lef tof that warrior was now the shell she held in her arms. This young warrior was dead on a whim of some girl.

Iblis stayed silent. One more lost life didn’t mean anything to him.

On the contrary, Siche looked at Amaterasu up down and took a step forward.

“A psychopath killed that idiot to please her master. Exactly. You can totally say this to his family, slut.”

BANG

Siche violently slapped Amaterasu’s graceful face. The woman was so taken aback she could hardly react. That hit really had been to quick; as quick as an arrow was fired off an arch.

Being off guard while holding Marte in her arms, Amaterasu had no way to intercept and block such a firm blow.

Iblis gave a bored sigh. Siche was immediately surrounded by the members of Life who had just appeared out of nowhere to avenge the outrage. Therefore, the Devil approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Get home, little one. For now.”

A space-time tunnel just created by Iblis sucked Siche away barely leaving her time to reply.

Iblis was now standing alone before Amaterasu. A red mark was left on her face. A few terrifying Auras were looming over him threateningly. Iblis spread out his bat wings as a pitch-black longsword flashed into existence in his right hand. Meanwhile, a few Skills began to condense on his left hand.

He slightly tilted his head left and right. His bones faintly crunched.

“Once again, dogs got fed up of the carrot and beg for the stick.”