Chapter 55:

Vanessa gritted her teeth in frustration as she stared at the old man before her. Despite his relatively light armor, the man was still imposing thanks to his massive frame; his broad shoulders looked steady enough to hold mountains and the scars littering every inch of exposed skin spoke volumes of battles once fought. 

Truly, just standing there, he cut a picture-perfect representation of what a valiant hero looked like. Seeing this, Vanessa spat out the blood coating her mouth in derision. 

Groggily, she stood to her feet, the winds ruffling her torn clothes and messy blue hair. The hate in her eyes did not die down, and she once more began to cast a spell. 

The valiant-looking old man saw this and, instead of reacting, he sighed. “Vanessa, my child. You’ve grown splendidly; at such a young age you’ve already formed your core and stabilized it. Your mother would be proud.” He said as he swung his massive sword with astonishing speed. A loud sound erupted as the sword intercepted a wind blade that suddenly appeared before him. 

“Don’t talk about her, you bastard!” The rage in Vanessa's eyes grew to unprecedented levels as she riled up her Origin reserves. Her core spun with a frantic rush and, almost instantaneously, a vast amount of Origin gathered at her back. 

“{Soar}!” Magically, a pair of pristine wings colored a most breath-taking emerald appeared behind her back. They unfurled completely, each and every feather shimmered with an ethereal glow. 

The valiant old man, however, did not have time to admire them; just as the spell was completed, Vanessa disappeared from her location. He lowered his stance and prepared for impact, all the while his face showed no emotion other than a gentle, slightly sad smile. 

“Riley!!!!” Vanessa’s tone however was anything but gentle. 

A boom sounded out as Riley used his massive sword to block Vanessa’s attack. Her fingers, now coated with an emerald shine, bore down on the sword, threatening to crack it while the wings on her back flapped to increase her momentum. 

Riley was ultimately unable to completely stop her and thus he was pushed back, his feet digging up the dirt around them. Sensing that his sword was near breaking, he lowered it and shifted to the side in hopes of disrupting Vanessa’s momentum. It seemed to work and he took advantage of this by swinging his blade in her direction aiming at the wings on her back. 

Unfortunately, the attack was destined to fail. Like a fish in water, Vanessa’s body curled to the side mid-air and she dodged the blade. Following through with her momentum, she stretched her wing out and swung it against Riley. 

This attack did succeed and the warrior was flung backward, his insides churning in pain. “Nice attac-” he wanted to praise her, but he was stopped by a barrage of feathers that Vanessa flung at him. Despite their appearance, these feathers were sharper than blades and twice as deadly. Riley gripped his sword and swung it wildly about as he mercilessly cut each and every feather down with blinding speed. 

Seeing that her attack was ineffective, Vanessa once more decided to charge at him. 

The furious exchange continued as Vanessa wildly attacked Riley while the latter calmly defended himself. 

“When will you learn to let go?” Riley asked, his voice filled with sorrow and warmth. 

“Shut up!” Vanessa screamed as she lashed out even more. 

Riley sighed, but soon his eyes grew resolved for he knew it was time. 

“Alright, enough,” Shortly after he spoke those words his sword began shimmering in a faint light. Aura. 

Vanessa took in a sharp intake of breath as she quickly let go of the sword, no longer daring to touch it. 

Using this opportunity, Riley smashed down at her with an overhead slash. 

A sense of imminent crisis rang within the former’s mind and she summoned everything she had left to dodge. Fortunately, she did just that as her body narrowly missed the sword. But just as she was about to counter, her eyes widened in shock, the descending sword abruptly stopped before quickly moving horizontally. This all happened within the blink of an eye and thus Vanessa failed to dodge. She shrieked as she felt the sword slice away one of her wings which in turn shattered into millions of little glass-like pieces. 

That was not the end. 

A rough, aura-coated hand grabbed her other wing, holding it in place. “Sit still for a bit, I could accidentally hurt you,” Riley said as he, with a pained expression, viciously ripped the other wing from Vanessa’s body. 

She wanted to scream but couldn’t. Fatigue overtook her and she fell powerlessly into his embrace. With her spell now broken, the last bit of her Origin dissipated and mental exhaustion dulled her mind. 

Throwing his sword to the side, Riley sighed before he gently held the falling Vanessa in his arms. 

Looking toward her eyes, Riley suddenly felt much older. “Vanessa, what happened with your mother…” 

Even though her vision swam about and dizziness prevented her from grasping her bearings, when Vanessa heard his words, her eyes blazed with fury and her body convulsed. 

Riley tightened his hold, fearing not that she would injure him, but rather herself. “It had to be done,” He now spoke in a whisper. “The resistance polluted her mind, had I let her be, she would have encountered a fate worse than death. I had to kill her,” Tears were now streaming down his face. 

Vanessa stilled. Her eyes staring into Riley’s tear-stained face.

“Baby girl…” Riley whispered as he tightened his hold even further as if fearing she too would leave him. “I just did wha-” Riley was forced to stop when his daughter spat at his face.

Riley’s heart twinged in pain. He kneeled before gently resting her onto the ground before him. Just as he was about to order his men to protect her, his eyes turned fierce and he looked up before making a grasping motion with his hand. 

Just as his hand closed, an arrow came barreling toward him. Catching the arrow with his bare hand, he scoffed before crushing it. “Who are you?” He asked the masked man from whom the arrow originated.

                                                                                                     …………………………………………

 

Rine smiled viciously as he reveled in the frightened expressions of everyone nearby. With a casual laugh, he tossed his house-sized attack at the ground beneath him, and instantly a crater formed before it was filled with a sea of fire. The entire battlefield shook and screams of pain rang out. 

Standing in the middle of the carnage, Rine laughed as he watched various adventurers run about trying to squirm themselves out of the fire.

After a few moments of enjoying his work, he kicked away a nearby corpse, one of a dozen, and made his way toward one of the floundering adventurers who tried their best to put out the fire burning away their clothes. 

Upon arriving, Rine tapped the man’s shoulder. 

Startled, the latter turned around while swinging his sword wildly. 

Rine calmly raised his hand and a miniature shield made of flames appeared as it blocked the man’s attack with ease. 

“Instacasting…” The man on fire muttered possibly forgetting the danger of the situation he was in. 

Rine was kind enough to remind him as he struck a fist toward the man’s abdomen. 

Though the punch was by no means powerful, it was enough to aggravate the man’s injuries causing him to vomit a large amount of blood which accumulated as a puddle by their feet.

“Y-you” The man tried to speak but an intense wave of pain prevented him from doing so. Looking down he was shocked to discover a ball of flames materializing from within Rine’s closed fist.

 ‘Double casting!’ The man thought in shock as the severity of his situation dawned on him. The man before him was an utter monster rivaling magicians who had already formed their cores. No, in some aspects, this red-haired demon had already surpassed them.  

The fireball tore into his abdomen leaving a hole behind. 

Now half dead and on fire, the man knew that he stood no chance and dropped listlessly onto the ground. His face landed squarely within the puddle of his own blood and he pathetically began choking on it.

Seeing this, Rine smiled before lifting his foot. 

Minutes later, the man drowned. 

Laughing uproariously, Rine took amusement in the fact that a man drowned amid a sea of flames. 

Soon, he grew bored and thus moved to find his next victim.

“{Dragon’s Breath}” 

But before he could even take another step, he was forced to conjure a shield as a fierce beam of fire assailed him. Instantly, the shield broke but Rine scoffed and two more took its place before the beam could even touch Rine. 

“Impressive speed there,  junior,” A haughty voice spoke as from within the flames, a well-dressed man with combed-back hair appeared. 

Rine merely sneered as he lazily flicked a fireball toward the man. Along the way, the initially small bundle grew exponentially before finally reaching two meters in diameter. 

But rather than be scared, the well-dressed man calmly laughed before dispelling the beam he sent toward Rine. With break-neck speed, he chanted, materializing a shield of his own; one that seemed even sturdier than Rine’s. The shield easily took the attack without suffering so much as a scratch. 

Seeing this, Rine decided to test the man’s shield and began flinging multiple balls of flame toward him. 

The man calmly smiled as his shield seemed to absorb the attacks without issues. 

Rine finally frowned as he felt himself making no progress. He moved to approach the man but was stopped when a fierce blade made contact with his shield.

Out of the sea of flames, a woman with jet-black hair appeared. Her face was completely and utterly average, so much so that Rine could see her blending nicely into a crowd. In fact, the only distinguishing feature to her would be the mask she wore on her face. It covered her mouth and nose and was a bright red in color. On one side, the fire palace’s symbol was etched onto it in black. 

The plain young woman said nothing as she forced her sword deeper into Rine’s shield. 

Just as Rine opened his mouth to mock her weakness, he suddenly felt a great force erupt and his shield instantly broke. 

Under the shattering Origin of his spell, Rine could see a sword coated in flames dart its way toward him. 

Aura!

Two more shields appeared, one blocking a fireball just thrown by the well-dressed man while the other blocked the mysterious woman’s sword. 

Both shields instantly cracked before being utterly destroyed. Just as the blade pierced his stomach, the fireball blasted him sideways. The result was great agony as the blade nearly tore him in half due to the added force of the fireball. 

His blood began gushing out of the wound on his torso and pain rocked his senses, but Rine knew that he couldn’t afford to rest. The masked woman chased after him, intending to finish the job off, but just as she closed the distance, her face was met with an outstretched palm. 

“{Dragon’s Breath}” Rine’s oddly high-pitched and feral voice sounded. 

A beam of flames erupted from his palm, threatening to engulf the masked woman in her entirety. The beam was a perfect copy of what the well-dressed man had just shot, if not, a hair weaker. 

The masked woman grimaced but she managed to deflect most of the flames with her aura-coated sword. 

Just as she was about to push forward, clapping sounds suddenly appeared. 

Rine turned toward the well-dressed man who was sporting a beaming smile. “Excellent! Truly excellent. Rookies these days sure are something. I mean look at you, you’ve yet to form a core yet you withstood an attack from me and Bladeless,” The man said as he slicked his hair back “Unfortunately, you're still a step away from forming your core meaning you're no match for me. Let me show you then, the difference between us, junior.” 

Suddenly, intense heat began to radiate from the man and the surrounding origin began to wildly funnel toward him. Even the sea of fire surrounding them was not safe as it too began to gather toward him.

“{Molten Throne}” The well-dressed man’s tone turned sinister.