Trapped: Despair

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For some reason, Aquarina was also here. And before us, darkness emerged, an abyssal darkness that I've only seen twice before. Beelzebub and then… that one skeleton.

But where are my parents? What's going on? How did we appear here in the first place?

I don't understand what's happening… but the body I have now is my real body. If Aquarina is the same, then… I can't possibly let her be hurt!

"Aquarina!" I cried as I rushed towards her. The figure only glanced at us in indifference as I held Aquarina's hand and put her behind me.

"S-Sylphy-chan… I-I'm scared… is this a nightmare? Are we dreaming?" she asked, her tone afraid.

"I…"

"It's not a dream. You children, the future heroes that will slay our future lord, must be exterminated right now before you grow into a nuisance. I… Lord of Death, Hell, shall exterminate you two in the name of my King," the entity said, glaring at us with his empty eyes. Phantasmal flames soon appeared from the empty sockets of his eyes, as if they glared at our very souls.

"Y-You're… a Demon King's remnant?!" I asked.

"Hmm? So you know about us, little girl? I guess your parents, the heroes, have told you that much… indeed, you're really dangerous. And you two specifically hold great power within you. This is truly perilous. I cannot let you live even for another second. Let's end this swiftly. I dislike hurting children, but compared to the thousands of children that your parents had killed in the past… it's not even comparable, right?" the entity said in response, ending its statement with a question.

"T-Thousands… of children?!" I asked.

"Heh, you want to know more? Well, unfortunately for you, I cannot go on. I must fulfill my destiny and slay you. This will be swift for the two of you. Stay still!" the entity said. Soon, its entire body flashed at an incredible speed, rushing towards us. Then, the gigantic 4-meter-tall skeleton covered in shadows raised a scythe made out of phantoms, pointing it at us.

What do I do?

Am I going to die?

Yeah, I'm going to die.

But… I don't want to die!

No…

Aquarina's with me.

I cannot… let her die either!

What do I do-

"FLAMES!"

FLASH!

BOOM!

"Ngh?!"

I concentrated my mind at this very moment as I saw two seconds in the future through my ability of foresight. In those two seconds, we were attacked.

However, I stopped this future from happening as I infused mana into my Ember skill and multiplied it by a thousand in a split-second. In an instant, an explosion of flames soon appeared. It was big enough to impact this giant and make him retreat, even if it was just a few inches.

"Hah! Those flames of yours would have been dangerous if you were to grow older…" he said, crushing my flames by waving his hands. Soon, shadows suddenly rushed towards us in the shape of countless tentacles with sharp spear-like tips.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Come on, appear! My biggest fire wall!

TRUUUUMMM!!!

I concentrated my intent into the shape of the fire wall my father had taught me to make, which he had helped me perfect through our training and classes. I combined both my unique spell casting with conventional spell casting. Thanks to that, a massive magic circle emerged out of thin air in a split-second as a wall of flames was erected in front of me, reaching as high as 40 meters.

I felt an incredible stream of mana being siphoned from my body after that. My body felt the pain from it, and yes, it was quite taxing, but I had to push my limits. I have to use my infinite mana to its limit if we want to survive!

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

The massive shadow tentacles soon hit the flaming wall, raining it with powerful blows that began to send pieces of materialized flames from the wall flying.

Shit! It's not working?!

"Hahaha! Not bad for a stupid brat!" The skeleton laughed. I don't know why, but he suddenly changed his personality, going from incredibly solemn… to completely lunatic. I knew he was a monster, but only now was he showing us his true nature.

"W-What's happening?!" cried Aquarina. At this moment, tears were about to pour out of her eyes. Obviously, she was scared.

I have to protect her.

"Come with me, Aquarina! We have to escape! If this space isn't a Soul Scape, then there should be some exit!" I told her, holding tightly onto Aquarina's hand. After that, I ran away, as fast as I possibly could from Hell.

"You're not going anywhere!"

SLASH!

His scythe easily sliced my fire wall into bits as his speed completely outmatched ours. Unsurprisingly, he caught up to us in an instant. If it were any other time, I'd say he was incredible. I couldn't even escape from this monster.

But since he aimed to kill us… more… more fire. More flames… come on!

"FLARE CANNON!"

FLAAAAAASHH!!!

I combined thousands of Embers and my endless mana, as well as the power of runes that my father has taught me, all together into a massive beam of all-consuming flames. This was perhaps my strongest spell, and I already felt my entire body weakening to the point I could barely sustain my own feet. And that was all because I was infusing mana into my muscles, forcing myself to walk.

BOOOOMMM!!!

"GRUAH…!"

The skeleton actually cried out in pain this time as he was sent flying for a few meters. The beam continued to emanate out of my hands, consuming everything around me as I gritted my teeth.

"DIE!" I roared as the skeleton took the entire beam head on.

However…

"Gahaha… HAHAHAH! As expected of a Hero! Struggling will only make it more worth it!"

"Eh?!"

"Not bad! Let's see…! Can you resist the embracing power of death itself?! Death Beam!"

FLASH!

While he was being devoured by the flames, the skeleton pointed his index finger towards me. Then, a mass of deathly energy was gathered in a quarter of a second. The next quarter of a second, a beam of pure death pierced through my flames. It was so fast I couldn't evade it nor create a wall to defend myself against it.

BOOOMMM!!!

Unsurprisingly, the beam hit me directly. I felt like my entire body began to decay into nothingness thanks to it.

I was… dying.

"Not yet."

Suddenly, the voice of Theia resonated through my ears as Divine Protection kicked in. After that, a flash of bright yellow light emerged and covered my body, protecting me from this beam that would have disintegrated me into ashes in the first place.

FLASH!

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