The fumes from the smoke rose into the air, staining the clear blue sky a sickly black.

High up in the sky, a silhouette was barely visible, hidden by the dark smoke. The person was a woman, her blonde hair filled with black marks due to the smoke, and her clear azure eyes, staring down , as if the world were her plaything.

Her gaze was fixed on one boy, who ran like a madman, in the streets filled with death. His face was filled with snot and tears, everything running down his distraught face.

“How unsightly.”

The woman, Sylvia Zoltive the Pegasus, muttered, gazing at the boy.

“Truly, we are smart. Our idea was just too genius. Master would have praised us were he to see this”

She praised herself, flipping her head to get rid of the smoke, and continuing to stare at the boy.

‘To think such a disgrace obtained the royal blood of the Grandmaster, what an unfair world. And to think this child would grow so impudent that he would dare deny the offer we presented to him, to help him rise from this infernal place.’

She grew bored, and kept playing with her hair, all the while not taking her eyes off the boy.

Pegasus, irritated when the boy declined her offer and tried to get away, immediately put him under a strong spell, in order to keep him in the illusion while she figured out how to bring him.

Kidnapping him would be all too simple, but without his acceptance, the Gureis kingdom would be alerted, since they had officially registered him; albeit without his knowledge, as a citizen of Gureis. So forced kidnapping was a no. Her master had told her not to attract attention.

The next thing to do would be to get him to leave Gureis on his own. And the only way to do that would be to make sure he doesn’t have a place to return to.

And the end result was this.

She used one of the ‘Infernal Storm’ spell scrolls she had been gifted, keeping the boy and herself in the eye of the storm, in order to wipe out the slums.

After that, she waited for him to wake up, and since she was bored, she performed the Ancient dark dance ritual, which needed one to place several sacrifices in specific postures, and to create an offering of a 1000 bodies, with the Spear of Dreyfascul, impaling the bodies of five newborns to attract the Evil god to this place. A barbaric sight for some, but an offering to a holy existence for Sylvia.

‘We are too smart for our own good’

She kept praising herself, and kept up surveillance on the impudent boy. She couldn’t kill him, since ‘The Professor’ wanted him alive.

Then, her crisis perception tingled, signaling her of an approaching presence.

“The Gureis kingdom? What a flimsy kingdom, to take action after one day of this happening. This is why humans don’t deserve to rule the world.”

She muttered, disappointed at the late actions of the humans. She surveyed her surroundings, and finally caught sight of the disturbance. A ball of fire, rapidly approached, growing in size as it drew closer.

‘Fireball? No, Elementification. Tch, Emperor ranked?’

She thought to herself, recognizing the move heading towards her.

The fireball, which burned golden, approached, and suddenly, a circle with inscriptions scrawled across it appeared, and the fireball passed through it.

The fireball rapidly changed shape, becoming more and more humanoid, until a man of flame stood before her.

“Foul demon, how dare you perform your offerings in this sacred land?”

The man, whose flames were dying, spoke to the woman, in a throaty voice that made one’s scalp tingle.

“Humph”

Sylvia ignored his comment, and remained on guard.

“So be it! I, Arthiras the second, holy warrior of the Rufius church, shall deliver the God’s will upon you!”

He yelled, and the flames expanded, dispersing into the air.

From the remains of the golden fire, emerged a man, his chestnut like eyes filled with hate towards Sylvia. His auburn hair, fluttered about in locks around his cheeks. His straight nose and handsome face would make any woman fall for him, but Sylvia was unimpressed. He wore armor which shined in the sun’s bright rays, with its should plates curved like a sickle. He drew his sword, a greatsword, which shined in sync with the sun’s rays.

“That sword….Liugee’s sword?”

“That is right! Lord Liugee himself has bestowed this upon me, in order to hunt you!”

“Apostle?”

At her words, the man faltered, as if struck by her words.

“Big words from a fake who’s not even an Apostle. And here I was worried. I should have expected as such from such a ‘small’ man”

She spoke, gesturing at the man.

The man was truly one who could charm any lady, but his stature was that of a child. A dwarf. The dwarfs excelled in the crafts, their dexterity far surpassing others. But their short stature and stubby legs would always make them weaker than the other superior races.

Sylvia's guard dropped quite a bit, seeing a dwarf before her. After all, she was a retainer of the Demon Lord himself. A mere dwarf, that too a holy warrior, cannot even scratch her. Even with Liugee's sword, they will be weaker than her.

“But what a surprise. A dwarven holy warrior? Are they running out of humans now?”

“Shut your mouth, demon! I shall strike you down now!”

Arthiras swung his great sword in an arc, sending a wave of light speeding towards the woman.

She parried it, with a flick of her finger. Angered, Arthiras readied his sword like a lance and charged.

“DERYA!”

“Oh~to!”

She grasped the edge of the sword with her fingers and flexed her arm, sending him flying into the sky, waving his arms around.

“Tch. That damn sword”

She muttered glancing at her hand. On it, golden flames were burning, greedily eating her flesh.

She clenches her fist, and a dark torrent of energy covers her fist, dousing the bright golden flames.

“Ouuuu!!!!”

Arthiras charges back, this time with more vigor.

She ducks under his charge, and plants a fist on his chest. Something cracks, and he’s sent flying again. But he quickly stops it, by sending out a stream of blue energy from his back.

He runs at her, seemingly walking on the air, and swings his sword again. She ducks, and tries to hit him again. But, he shifts his trajectory, and brings the sword down on her neck. She quickly turns, using her energy to propel her, turning and twisting her neck out of the way. In the same motion, she brings her leg down on his head, to drop him to the ground. Suddenly, the same blue energy shoots out from his chest, and he pushes himself away from the lethal kick.

Aware of a stinging pain, she touches her cheek, and is made aware of the flames burning on her face. Even though her dodge was perfect, she couldn’t avoid the perfect turn of the sword completely, granting her the wound. A black energy wraps around the wound and shuts the flames.

“I see. I’ve underestimated you, dwarf”

He humphs, and keeps away, planning his next course of action.

“Maybe I’ll take you a little bit more seriously?”

Sylvia raises her arm, and even more of the black energy gushes out, covering her raised arm. It slowly takes shape, into an armguard, with a curved blade covered by a murderous aura on the side of the black armguard.

“Soul armament?”

“Bingo~”

She kicks the air and accelerates, finally beginning her attack. Arthiras slashes, to take down her charge, but she kicks the air above her and moves down, kicking again, accelerating diagonally upwards.

She raises her arm to her side, aiming at the dwarf’s short stubby neck. But in an unexpected move, a golden aura expands out, smothering her.

“Urgh!”

She groans in pain, as the golden flames burn her leg. She managed to dodge at the last moment, and stopped most of the flames with her armguard, but her knee was caught in its rapid advance.

Arthiras doesn’t give her respite, and pushes in, slashing and kicking. She couldn’t douse the flames, and they kept growing, threatening to burn her leg off.

Slash parry parry slash. She kept up the monotonous works, unable to keep her displeasure in. Arthiras grins, and drives his sword in, the moment she raised her displeasure. The sword drives into her chest and flares brightly, covering her in a bright light.

“Ugyaaa!”

She screamed in agony from the light covering her. She regained her composure in a second and began chanting in a foreign language.

“Come, Bolthiras”

In a flash, a dark bolt of electricity came from the sky and covered them, dousing the flames completely. She pushed the blade out of her with the dark armour covering her, and kicked off, retreating.

The sword, covered in her blood, began corroding, and a battle of light and dark began. Unperturbed, Arthiras kept on the offensive, to finish the demon before him.

Sylvia parried with her newly gained foot blade, which covered the dark boot she wore in a sweeping kick.

But her parry was too weak, and both of them understood it. He twisted and brought the sword to her neck, in order to finish the fight.

*BOOOOM*

A flash brightened the dark sky, and the sword was stopped by the dark pulsing armor. Barely.

But Arthiras kept at it, digging the sword into the armor, bit by bit. He exuded the holy aura of his now shining armor to keep Sylvia’s armor at bay, and tried to lop her head off in one fell swoop.

But in the last moment, Sylvia turned her head, and drove her hand at the dwarf’s head, to cut it off with her armor’s blade. The blade fell short, and Arthiras grinned with confidence.

Sylvia also smiled, and opened her hand.

Out of it, a spike of dark malicious energy shot out, impaling the dwarfs’ head.

The dwarf, unable to process this sudden move, dropped to the ground, 100 meters below them.

“Haaaah….Haaah…”

Sylvia dropped her body, her raspy breath entering her ears. She looked down on the horrible wound on her, the price she had to pay to kill the holy warrior.

The sword had been diverted, its blade cut off the cloth covering her face in half, and kept moving, which then lopped off her left arm, and buried itself onto her thigh, glowing as if it were glad.

Grunting, she pulled out the sword, and focused her energy on the holy sword.

Her energy covered it, and with her blood, the sword quickly became dark, getting corrupted by the inflow of darkness.

The boy was long gone, and Sylvia stood there, without an arm and covered with golden flames threatening to kill her.

She released a torrent of energy and doused the flames, then sat in the air, to take a breather. She surveyed the area, for the boy, and instead spotted something better.

‘Ah? Is that new prey?’

Her eyes caught sight of a person, wearing an odd hood with animal ears.

‘Perfect. A slave of those idiot Gods. Face divine judgement’

She dove down, missing an arm, on the sister who was kneeling in front of the corpses, praying.

“She’s keeping Dreyfascul from finding my offering?! How dare she!”

She descended in front of the sister, who had her eyes closed in deep prayer.

“Foolish mortal”

Sylvia’s cold voice resounded throughout the slums, and the sister opened her eyes. It widened in shock, seeing the angel standing before her.

Sylvia was without a doubt, a beauty.

“God…God has sent his angel to see this humble servant?”

She muttered, entranced at Sylvia’s beauty.

“Die, believing in your fake god”

Sylvia opened her mouth and devoured the sister, like a black hole which was opened. In a second, the entire body of the sister was gone.

Sylvia’s thigh wound closed a bit, and she smiled pleasantly, like a true angel.

The moment the sister died, a curtain of darkness fell, covering the slums. The spear of Dreyfascul glowed, and in a moment all the bodies vanished.

Sylvia knelt on the ground and folded her hands, and gazed up at the sky with teary eyes.

“Lord Dreyfascul..”

The dark sky pulsed, as if in response, and another bolt of darkness came down, covering Sylvia. When It dispersed, her arm was whole again, and her leg completely healed.

“Thank you…Lord Dreyfascul …”

She muttered her thanks, and with a final pulse, the dark sky cleared.

Sylvia released her killing intent, which would make even a holy warrior cringe at it.

“Now…to hunt that boy!”

But suddenly, her crisis perception tingled again, alerting her of the large amount of forces heading towards her.

"Haha... More offerings for our Great God!"

Sylvia smiled fearlessly, postponing the capture of Nexus for a while.