Standing Alone

All Helena could feel was unending fire and pain, racking her body over and over. Constant torture that dug cinders into her mind, leaving behind embers that seared her soul, over and over.

It was the worst agony she had ever felt in her life.

'FOCUS HELENA!' She mentally yelled, trying to will her body to heal. The natural regeneration of a vampire was fearsome, especially for her, a Pseudo-King Class vampire.

The searing beam that dragon had sent out was far too powerful for her defenses to handle. She had managed to dodge the brunt of the attack, but even the damage from just the air around it was too much.

The beam of fire the Transcendent Flame Dragon had spat was made up of pure, concentrated Fire Energy, derived from the Law of Fire. It was an attack one could use only if one had obtained complete mastery of a Law, the bar for entering the King Class.

A bar that Helena had been trying to surpass for a decade now, and constantly failed. The biggest failure of her life.

Over and over the pain washed upon her soul, smashing into her, burning her, trying to make her give up. Her strength of will began to waver, tears forming in her eyes as the world began to transform into blackness.

'No… please no…' Her voice began to lose its edge, becoming small.

'Please… I cannot fail now…' Memories began to flash through her.

Memories of her growing up in the Aurelius Family. Of her loving parents, two relatively normal vampires that served as bookkeepers in one of the Family headquarters.

Memories of them dying before her eyes during the Invasion of Light by the Shade Commune, more than 40 years ago. Her pitiful weakness, unable to so much as raise a hand to protect them.

Memories of being alone, of being captured, taken to be a slave.

Memories of her hero, Highlord Marcus, saving her, but suffering a terrible wound in return.

His gentle smile as blood spurted from a horrid slash on his chest, a wound that was cursed to never fully heal.

Memories of the constant years she had trained, over and over, never letting herself slack off. All for the chance to redeem herself, to protect the man that would give up everything to protect her.

And now… in the end…

She could not even protect herself.

She had failed.

Guilt, shame, rage, anger, despair, loss.

A plethora of emotions washed over her as darkness began to take over.

The world began to close itself off from her.

And, once more…

She was alone.

'Please.'

As her consciousness began to fade, she sent out one last, quiet call, begging.

'Please help me.'

Silence greeted her.

'…'

'…'

'…'

'Come.'

Just as she'd lost all hope, a voice appeared in Helena's consciousness. An honest, powerful voice, full of confidence, care, and sadness, the emotions in it visible to Helena. It rocked her to her core, flowing through every fiber of her being.

Like a beam of light in a sea of darkness, this voice called out to Helena, echoing through her soul.

'Come to me.'

Helena's eyes opened up, a burning light appearing in them once more.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

-

Ifrit - Growth Stage: (4/4) Elder Ifrit -

Growth Progress - 0/0 -

-

His forced emergency transformation had allowed him to fully grow his bloodline, in addition to skipping the soul adaptation period, though risking death in the process, as well as forcing him to fall unconscious in a few minutes. If he hadn't just swallowed a natural treasure, he had no doubt that such a risk would have ultimately killed him.

Dorian pushed the information to the side as he blinked, looking forward.

The world around him had transformed into a maze of steam. White fog that littered the sky, obscuring his vision.

That fog rapidly faded, however, as an enormous, gaping meteor of flame slammed into the ground in front of him and began hurtling toward the city. Bright streaks of orange fire exploded off of it, rippling in the air.

Dorian stared up at the giant ball of flame, his eyes calm as he analyzed everything.

His senses had grown stronger in his new form. In particular, his ability to sense energy.

He could tell that this vast meteor of flame had been weakened, its attack power reduced by roughly two-thirds of its peak.

Despite that, if the ball of fire was left unchecked, it would blast into the city, and devastate it, wiping out hundreds of thousands of lives.

He had approximately six seconds to react.

He took a deep breath and stepped forward, his fists clenched.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .

Probus threw himself forward, his body moving so quickly it was a blur. The sharp Aura that surrounded him cut the air in front of him, allowing him to reduce the tug of friction, and vastly increase his speed.

It took him only a split second to appear next to the downed Helena, and the creature that was attacking her.

His eyes were cold as he slammed down, cracks appearing in the earth due to the force of his landing.

The attacker appeared to be some type of humanoid, with pitch black skin. It was oddly built, with a mass of flames coming from its head, arms, and knees.

It was emanating a dangerous air, but, for some odd reason, stopping its attack on Helena, and instead looking up at the massive ball of fire that was rushing towards them.

'Trajan couldn't stop it?' Probus was temporarily shocked as he came to the realization.

Trajan's Empyrean Rain Net was a King Class spell that was incredibly powerful. Its strongest use was in sealing the energy of a creature or object.

Their original plan was for Trajan to seal the Anomaly, and for him to slice it apart. Trajan's net would reduce the defenses of the beast to virtually nothing, while his blade strikes would literally rip it apart.

A simple plan, but it is often the simplest of plans that succeeded.

They had killed two other King Class opponents using this method. His own pure, physical might combined with Trajan's tactical spells made them an incredibly potent duo, albeit one with completely different focuses.

Right now, however, their plan had been thrown into chaos due to the appearance of the creature standing near Helena.

No, he realized, as his mind processed all these thoughts in a split second.

Even if this humanoid hadn't appeared, they still would have failed. Trajan's spell somehow failed to seal the attack of the Anomaly, meaning the net wouldn't have landed on it anyway. Some sort of colossal mistake must have taken place.

The city was lost.

His sword technique was powerful, but he had no confidence in splitting an attack of this scale.

He needed to save Helena and get out of the way.

First, though, he'd take care of her attacker.

His hand rested on the hilt of his blade as he turned towards the distracted creature, his eyes cold.

Just as he was about to strike, he felt a hand latch onto his foot, tugging him backwards.

He looked down in surprise as he saw the still recovering face of Helena shake her head fiercely, blood spurting from her lips as her body trembled.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

'It broke through my net.' Trajan stumbled backwards, his eyes fogged. His body shook with exhaustion as he looked up at the fireball headed towards the city, his mind ablaze with a single thought.

'How?'

His Empyrean Rain Net had never failed him. It was an incredibly complex spell, but one that perfectly matched the Law of Rain that he studied, a Law that branched off from the Law of Water. It was extremely powerful, and its strongest ability lied in Sealing things.

His senses were incredibly intuned with his net when he cast it, the spell under his complete control.

He had commanded the fully charged net to descend, intending on Sealing the Fire Energy in the Anomaly's attack and using it to help power his net to trap the great dragon. This would leave it vulnerable, for a brief period of time, to Probus' Blank Slash Sword Style.

The plan should have been foolproof.

Yet, at the exact moment that his net had made contact with the gaping ball of fire, something odd had happened.

The rampant energy in the huge blaze had seemed to shift, slightly.

A good deal of that energy collided with the net and was subsequently Sealed.

But at least a third of it somehow managed to slip through, and continue unabated.

It was something that should have been impossible.

His net was by no means perfect. He considered himself a master in using the spell, and was able to, on average, seal 98% of the energy of any being or object. If he was extremely unlucky, it was possible he'd only seal 95% or 94%.

But, somehow, his net had seemed to almost willingly miss a massive part of the energy, Sealing only around 67% or 68% of it.

Somehow, through sheer luck or fate, roughly 32% to 33% of the energy in the attack had managed to slip through, completely undeterred.

As he looked at the fireball blaze by, his hands fell to the side, listless.

He had failed, for the first time in his life.

The ever-present gleam of mirth he always shared with Probus seemed to fade from his eyes as he watched the attack fly towards the city, towards the unwitting civilians, unable to come up with a response.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Three seconds had passed.

In that time, Dorian had activated his Condense Ability and dashed forward, charging towards the fireball. It had been launched down at an angle, and was now blazing along next to the ground towards the city.

His Ifrit form was powerful, and had a mix of Fire Energy and Life Energy running through its veins. Using the Condense Ability had a similar function for if he used it in his Lesser Throne Demon form.

The raw Elemental Energy running in his veins Condensed, vastly increasing his power.

-

Increased Energy Level: 54,027

-

A small notification appeared in his mind, informing him of how strong he roughly was in this Condensed form.

Far stronger than he had previously been, his body containing a huge level of strength.

The Energy Level of a creature was a good estimate for the raw power it held. For virtually all beings, this included the power of Law that they infused into their attacks and soul.

The physique of a being could only become so powerful, after all. This was the commonly accepted belief in the 30,000 Worlds.

Only by using the power of Law could one vastly increase the power of their soul, their Soul Spell Matrix, and their strength, usually through magic or mystic martial arts.

Dorian's Energy Level represented the maximum amount of raw, physical strength he could output, without borrowing energy from the laws of the universe. He currently was unable to use the power of Law, having never gotten the chance to actually take the time needed to study it.

As he analyzed the notification, his face remained neutral. His Condensed form was strong, but barely half as strong as the female warrior that had gotten nearly destroyed by the dragon with ease.

Two seconds remained till the massive fireball reached him, the time slightly lessened due to him rushing towards it.

He currently stood roughly 800 meters away from the city wall, his feet firmly planting into the ground.

He took a deep breath as he looked up at the giant blaze, his heart steady.

When he had gained this form, the body of an Ifrit, and the instinctive knowledge that came with it, Dorian had instantly adapted his plans, knowing what he needed to do.

Ifrits, in terms of physical prowess, were not particularly mighty Demons among the mostly extinct Demon Race.

Their natural physical growth put their strength, at maximum, to around the Early Lord Class. Compared to other Lord Class or even King Class Demons, they were quite weak.

That said, they did have a specialty, an aspect that set them apart.

Their mastery of Life Energy gave them incredibly powerful regenerative capabilities, as well as innate ability to learn Life Magic and its related fields.

But, more specifically, their incredible mastery of Fire Energy gave them virtual immunity to fire based attacks.

And, even more then that, it gave them incredible control over the element of Fire.

In the past, hundreds of years ago when Demons still walked the 30,000 worlds, the mighty Ifrits of old were known by a different name to some.

The Rulers of Flame.

A second passed.

Dorian raised his armored hands upward, fiercely feeling the devastating heat in the flames that were crashing towards him.

His concentration didn't waver as he bent his knees slightly, and took one final breath.

The last second faded.

The world seemed to stand still as the gargantuan meteor of fire slammed into the proud figure of a single Ifrit, standing alone in the face of death.

.