Long ago. Long, long, long ago. After the age of Ascension came the era of Darkness. A turbulent time that began when the Immortal Demon King took the throne. Young and burning with ambition, The Demon King conquer countries one by one. It was only a matte a time till the world would’ve been consumed if it wasn’t for the arrival of a man name Prometheus.

It is said Prometheus wielded an undying flame which he used to create our very sun to chase the Majins back to the Dark World, thus ending the era of darkness.

Chapter 24

Prometheus, The First Flame

It’s a stupid fairy tale parents tell their kids to help them sleep. I never believe the story when I was a kid. Now, after everything I saw and been through, I wouldn’t be surprised if I were fighting someone that can create a literal sun.

“Behold! The first flame!” The noble lifts his hand over his head. I bent my knees in preparation to dodge in any direction. The noble hurl his ball of flame at me. I throw my entire body weight to the floor. The fireball flew over me, smashing into the door before violently exploding.

“So, you manage to dodge that? Let’s see if you can do it again.” Another ball of fire formed in the palm of his hand. I place my feet on the nearby chair and kick myself away from the fireball. I curl myself into a ball and roll until my back slam into a chair. Another ball of fire was flying towards.

I grabbed the armrest and flipped over the chair. Giving me no time to rest, the noble continues to hurl balls of flame at me. I hop backward, jumping from one chair to the next until my back was to a wall.

Shit, it’s hard to move around with all these stupid chairs and narrow aisles. Why the hell did they choose a theater for us to fight in?

“Finally, got you.” The noble flash me a wicked grin as he formed another ball of fire in the palm of his hand.

“I guess I have no choice but to fight.” I pull my knife from it sheathe.

“Oh, and how will you fight me?”

“Simple, like this.” I threw my knife at the noble.

“What?!” The noble jumped backward to avoid my knife, but my blade still manages to hit its target: his fireball. The ball of flame enlarged, shallowing the noble’s entire body before exploding.

After seeing his ability in action, I figure they’re set to explode when they come into contact with anything. But I never imagine it be this effective.

“Strange. I don’t feel anything even though I killed someone.”

“That’s because you didn’t kill me.”

Suddenly hearing the noble’s voice made me jumped backward. The smoke vanishes, revealing that the noble was completely unscathed.

“How are you unharmed?”

“You’re really not that smart if you think could harm me with my own ability, did you?”

I figure fire couldn’t hurt him. He wouldn’t be able to use his ability if it did, but it looks like he’s immune to all heat-based attacks, including explosions.

“Now, back to where we left out.” Two fireballs formed in the palm of his hands.

More fireballs, huh? You think he changes his strategy after seeing I can dodge his attacks. Is throwing fire the only thing he’s capable of? Still, even if that’s the limit to his ability, he can easily set all my escape routes on fire. If I had to guess, his powers probably have the same restriction as aura. Once the flame leaves his body, he can no longer control them. It explains why he hasn’t created a wall of fire or change the direction of the fireball in midflight. It’s either that, or he’s underestimating me. I guess I’m just going to have to find out.

“You seem to like calling people an idiot. But it’s clear to me that you’re not that smart if you think you can hit me with those weak little flames of yours.” I flash the noble a confident smile, hoping to piss him off.

“You’re right. You’re quite agile. Half-assed attack like these won’t work on you.” The flames in the palm of the noble’s hand vanish along with the intense heat emanating from his body. “What’s your name, girl?”

“Why do you care?”

“My evaluation of you went up a bit. Before, I thought you were just a weak little kid, but I guess some competence is to be expected from someone who made it this far.”

Is he complimenting me or not?

“Your name, kid.” The noble asked in a more demanding tone.

“I’m not a kid. And the names Catherine.”

“Well, you certainly looked like a kid.”

“And you look like an ass. Act like one too.”

“Careful, what you say, peasant. You’re speaking to Maximillian Phoenix, the rightful heir to the House of Phoenix!” The noble puffed out his chest full of pride.

As much as I want to say, I never heard of him to destroy his pride. I, unfortunately, know that family name all too well. Anyone born in this country should know that name.

Phoenix is one of the founding families that created this country. Obviously, they possess fame and money and holds a lot of influence in this country. Sadly, this results in many people using their name to intimidate people or get a taste of that good life.

“Do you have proof that your member of the Phoenix family?”

“Of course, I do.” The noble kid raises his right hand showing off a silver ring with beautiful ruby embedded into it. On the side of the ring was a symbol of a bird surrounded by fire, the insignia for the Phoenix clan.

That ring looks incredibly expensive. This means he either stole that from the Phoenix family, or he’s actually legit.

“Be proud, Catherine. For I’m about to show you my true power.”

Ignite, Prometheus!

Flames erupted around the noble’s body shallowing him whole. The fire spiral upward breaking through the ceiling reaching far into the heavens.

Small child-like hands emerge from the spiral of fire. The hands spread apart creating a small path inside the pillar of fire. A little girl with long fiery red hair stood alongside the noble in the inferno. The little girl wore a short red dress. A sliver tiara adorns her head. A red jewel that looks identical to the one in the noble’s ring was embedded in the center of her tiara.

An intense heat radiated from her body,, and flames sporadically formed and dance around her tiny frame.

“So, what do you think of my spirit?”

That little girl is a spirit? Just like Minos?

“Fufu.” The little girl place both her hands on her hips and puffs out her chest.

“She, she’s cute!”

“W-What?” Both the noble and his spirit’s face became red from embarrassment. “Prometheus, why don’t you show her our strength.”

“Fu!” The little girl puff her cheeks out and pointed her finger at me like it was a gun. Fire shot out of her finger and flew right past me. The small fire easily sears a hole through the wall.

“So, you think my spirit is still cute?”

“Yep, I still do. However, I am terrified now.”

That attack was far faster and stronger than all fireball the noble’s been throwing at me. And to make matters worse, it looks like she can shoot fire without any warnings.

“Fu!” The girl pointed her finger at me. I dive to the ground to avoid her attack.

“She’s not the only one you need to worry about!” The noble hurls a ball of flame at me.

“Shit!” I toss a coin at the flame. The ball of fire exploded right in front of me, blasting me off my feet. A swarm of fireballs flew through the black smoke. I kept low and crawl underneath a chair.

The barrage of fireballs continues to endlessly pound the area where I was standing until nothing remain of the chairs and walls.

This is insane! It’s bad enough dealing with one person throwing fire at me, but now I got two. Not to mention their attacks are far faster and stronger than before. How am I supposed to beat someone like that?

Focus, Catherine. Focus.

I followed Dante’s advice and took a deep breath to calm my panicked mind.

I will now teach you. How to kill a spirit

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1 Month Earlier

Looking back. One way or another I would’ve eventually ended up down this path. Almost like I was destined for this. Running away was never an option. If I fled, the Crooked Man would burn down the only place I ever called home. I can’t ask anyone for help since soldiers are either paid to look another way or simply don’t give a damn. My only option is to fully join his gang and lose what remains of my heart and soul, or fight and break free from his grip. The path I chose wasn’t an easy one, but when has anything ever been easy?

“Yea, when have it ever?” I lift both my arms and took a defensive stance.

“Are you sure you want to continue?” I can see the guilt in his eyes as he looked at my badly bruised body.

“No. I’m in so much pain that I just want to curl up into a ball and cry. But there isn’t time to do any of that. So, let’s keep going. I’ll endure.”

“You heard her, Minos.” Dante step to the side. Standing behind him, like it was his shadow was a beautiful woman in a white robe. I would’ve called her angel if it wasn’t for her black wings and halo which gave her a somewhat sinister appearance. “Don’t hold back, Minos. She can take it.”

“...” Minos nodded her head and then charged at me. Even though she wore a blindfold, her attacks were fast and accurate. Before my mind could register what was happening, my body was already in motion. I raise my arms and block her sheathed sword.

“Ha!” Somehow, I manage to force a smile even though I was in a lot of pain.

Minos continues her assault. Thanks to getting one-sidedly beaten by this angel for a whole week, I finally can block her attacks. But I won’t be able to keep this up for long. Every single one of her attacks was heavy and powerful. I can feel my arms becoming heavier with each attack I manage to successfully block. It was only a matter of time before I lose all feeling in my arms.

I jumped backward and putting some distance between us.

“First Round!” Minos immediately back away from me when she saw aura gathered around my right hand.

“What’s the matter? Too scared to fight me when I can fight back?”

“…” Minos extended her wings and placed all her weight on her right leg.

Yea, I knew you do that. This is your answer every time I use this technique. According to Dante, my aura is abnormally powerful. Most people who see it will either try to escape my attack range or counter with an equally powerful attack. Meaning, I can force people to take predictable actions when I use my technique.

However, knowing her move doesn’t make anything easier. Because she’s Dante’s spirit, she can move at blinding speed too. This is why I allow myself to take a beating all this time so I can memorize your attack.

“C’mon! I’m ready!”

Minos kicks herself forward, creating a large dust cloud. With a single flap of her wings her speed increase to the point she was only a blur.

Okay, maybe I’m not ready. But still, I’ll stop your attack no matter what!

I clap my hands together. Minos’s sheath sword appears in between my hands.

“I did it! I caught i- ah!” Suddenly, I felt something cold go through my body. Sapping me of all my strength. I look down and saw a tip of a sword sticking out of my chest.

“You died.” Dante pulled his blade from out my body. I gasped and placed my hands on the wound in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. However, there was no blood, nor was there any wound. Instead, I can feel the dull pain and fatigue weighing me down subsiding.

“Please, give me a warning before you heal me. I nearly had a heart attack.”

“Catherine. You’ve made three mistakes in this fight.” Not caring that he might’ve given me a mental scar, Dante began his report on my training.

“Your first mistake is you’re not taking advantage of your talents.”

“Talent? What’s my talent?” The only thing I can think of is stealing, but I don’t see how that’ll help me in a fight. I seriously hope he doesn’t say anything cheesy like ‘your talent is you never give up.’

“You possess incredible reflexes and agility.”

“I guess that’s true.” I have always been able to outmaneuver even the most trained guard back during my thieving days. Even as a kid, I was good in pretty much every sport. It’s one of the reasons why the other kids didn’t like playing with me. Ugh, why did I have to remember that shitty part of my childhood?

“You also seem to possess an acute sixth sense. Have you ever dodge an attack without being aware of it? Or felt like you were in danger long before you actually were?”

“Yea. sometimes.” I touch the back of my neck. Every time I felt danger, I would feel a chill crawl up my spine, or some voice in the back of my head warning me of danger. Although it rarely happens, so I never thought much about it.

“If you train your talents more, you’ll be able to overwhelm most opponents. This is the exact reason why I didn’t bother teaching you how to use a sword or any advanced hand-to-hand techniques because I know you would obsess over learning them instead of improving what you’re good at. Which brings me to your second mistake.” Dante held up two fingers before continuing his explanations.

“You tunnel vision quite a lot whenever you find a goal to work towards. While in most scenarios this can be seen as a positive trait. In a fight, this will lead you wide open to a surprise attack. As you saw. You were so focused on getting used to Minos’ speed that you completely forgot I was your opponent.”

“It already hard enough to deal with you and your speed, there’s no way I can fight both of you at once.”

“And that’s your third and final mistake. You fell for the trap most spirit users employ. They use the fact they have an extra person to overwhelm their opponent and make them panic even though they have a glaring weakness. Which is both the spirit user and the spirit share the same body. Taking out the spirit will paralyze the spirit user and prevent them from using their ability for a short time. This phenomenon is called ‘Soul Shock.’ Alternatively, attacking the spirit user and giving them a concussion will weaken the spirit if not outright destroying it. Apparently, the brain influences the powers gifted possess, although researchers still don’t know exactly how.

“Question!” For some reason, I raise my hand like an obedient kid at school.

“Go ahead, Catherine.”

“If the spirit is such a massive weakness for spirit users, why do they even bother summoning them? Can’t they use their ability without summoning their spirit?”

“Yes, they can. And in most scenarios, they’ll try to defeat their opponent on their own. But against a strong foe, they’ll have no choice but call upon their spirit. Since they’ll only be able to use their power at forty percent efficiency without calling their spirit.”

“Wait, Dante, you’re a spirit user, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“So, you’ve only been using forty percent of your strength this entire time?”

“That’s true.”

“Question!” once again, I raised my hand like a school kid.

“Go ahead, Catherine.”

“Are you really human?”

Dante took a step back and looked at me like I hurt his feeling. “I appreciate if you didn’t look at me like I’m a monster.”

“Kind of hard to see you as human. Even someone like me who’s new to fighting can tell you're invincible.”

“I’m far from invincible. There’s plenty of people in this world who can defeat me in battle. You can become one of them too if you keep training hard.”

“Yea, I doubt that.” No matter how hard I try, I can’t imagine someone beating Dante, especially not me.

“Ah, that reminds me.” Dante suddenly kneeled next to me and looked directly in the eyes, and said, “Your fourth mistake…”

“Huh, four? I thought you said I only made three?”

“You only made three mistakes in the fight. However, the fourth one is a mistake you constantly make even outside battle.” Wearing a gentle smile on his face, Dante places his hand on top of my head.

“You have a good head on your shoulder, but you have a bad habit of using it to put yourself down. I know telling you to stop looking down at yourself won’t change anything. So, I’ll say this instead. Whenever you start to doubt, yourself remember, I have faith in you.”

“Why?” I’m just a no-name thief. How can you have faith in me?”

“You’ll see.” Dante’s eyes became distant, like he was looking through me and looking somewhere far, far away. “When you get to the capital, you’ll see how strong you are.”

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Ever since I got here, I have only seen how much stronger everyone else is. But still, I won’t give up now. Not when someone else has faith in me.

“!” My neck suddenly started to tingle. I immediately rolled from under the chair. A moment later, the chair was enveloped in flames.

“Fufu!” A little girl jumped out from the wall of fire and landed on top of the burning chair.

“I’m sure you notice now that you can’t keep running forever.” The noble emerge from the wall of flame wearing his usual cocky expression. “Eventually, one of my attacks will get you.”

“I guess it’s a good thing I have no intention of running away.” I snagged my knife from off the ground with my tail and tossed it back into my hand. “My counterattack begins now.”