8 First Blood [2] - Life Devourer

"Syra..." Lochras muttered as he crouched down to get on the same eye level as a 4-year-old Syra.

"Yes papa." Syra replied with her usual energetic tone.

"You see your brother over there?" Lochras pointed at an infant Silas, laying in his cradle and sleeping peacefully.

Syra nodded.

"Syra, you have a lot of potential. You are almost guaranteed to awaken your mana core, and when you do, I want you to protect your brother." Lochras' voice was stern and serious.

"From what?" Syra asked, a little scared by the way her father was speaking.

"There are a lot of bad people out there. You'll understand this better when you're older, but for now, make sure you remember my words. You have to protect your little brother, okay? If a kid tries to pick on him, you protect him. If someone tries to hurt him, you protect him until we get there, okay?" Lochras asked.

"But what if you don't get there?" Syra asked, her eyes tearing up slightly.

"Don't worry, we will always be there for you two." Lochras smiled, making Syra calm down and nod without hesitation.

***

'Protect your brother.'

Those words echoed inside Syra's mind, and before she could understand what she was doing, her body moved instinctually, grabbing Silas and placing him in the corner of the living room.

"Stay behind me. I won't let them hurt you."

However, those words weren't instinctual. They had come from the heart; from her perspective, they were a promise. A promise she would make sure to hold up until the end.

She was terrified, but she didn't move from her place, and she didn't allow a single tear to leave her eyes.

She didn't want to despair, but when she saw the man's attack coming toward her, despair was the only thing she could feel.

'I have to protect him.' Her eyes filled up with even more tears, and without an ounce of hesitation, she pushed the metal rod forward and closed her eyes.

And that's when she felt it. It was a feeling she had never felt before. As if something had finally clicked, and a missing part of her had finally returned, making her whole for the first time in her life.

The burst of silver energy shot forth and destroyed the incoming attack. Simultaneously, the shockwave of her awakening also pushed Silas back, causing him to slam into the wall.

A black substance began to secrete out of her pores while her mana output increased threefold.

Without a moment of hesitation, Syra charged forward with everything she had.

The wind element quickly coated the metal rod she was holding while enhancing her speed.

However, before she could even reach the hulking figure of the intruder, an axe smashed her rod into the ground before water pierced through the winds coating her body and slamming into her stomach.

Everything happened in a split second, and as Silas looked up after recovering from his hit, he only saw a glimpse of Syra blurring past him and slamming into the wall right next to him.

Blood seeped out of the back of her head, and her hands were fully burnt.

'The metal rod... She held onto it even when it was burning her.'

Syra's determination was beyond anything he had seen before, even from adults.

Something snapped inside him when he saw her in such a state.

Turning toward the two intruders, his green eyes staring into their souls as he raised his hand a pointed it at them.

His eyes were blank...

Yet, even they could feel the rage bubbling behind them.

"Die."

The mana inside Silas bubbled, yet instead of breaking into 4 elements before releasing the needed element, the mana simply sparked with silver, overwhelming the rest of the elements and changing his mana attribute to the wind element.

Within less than a second, a pentagram appeared before him, and 11 runes were instantly inscribed into them.

"Wind bullet"

The moment the tier 2 spell appeared, it shot forward and appeared in front of the woman faster than she could blink.

The next moment, she found her head being flung back while brain matter coated the walls behind her before her consciousness finally faded.

Now that his sister was unconscious, holding back was unnecessary.

"Jenna?" The man turned toward the woman, yet instead of seeing the happy smile of the woman he loved, he saw her laying on the ground with blood seeping out of the hole in her head.

Silas quickly sent out a second wind bullet toward the armored man, yet unlike his companion, he had enough time to react, allowing him to coat his head with Toki, blocking most of the attack's lethality.

"Tsk." Silas looked at the man with annoyance before channeling his mana through his body the same way the green energy moved through his body whenever he was hurt.

"You killed her..." The man looked at Silas with an uncontrollable rage.

His eyes quickly turned red before a deafening roar left his mouth as he swung his axe down at Silas with all the power he could muster.

The axe parted the air at unbelievable speeds, yet despite the power and quickness of the attack, Silas had already channeled the green energy toward his eyes, allowing him to see everything.

*Crack*

*Swoosh*

The boards under Silas' feet cracked the moment he moved.

Silas was like a blur, having instantly shot out of the axe's attack range and landed on the wall his sister was laying on.

The man saw a metal rod held within Silas' tiny hand, yet when he looked up to stare into the eyes of the thing that killed the love of his life, he froze.

From the moment Silas had killed Jenna, the man hadn't seen him as a human baby anymore, not that it would have stopped him from killing Silas.

However, now that he looked into Silas' eyes, he saw a completely different picture.

He saw the eyes of a grown man who had become numb to death. The eyes of a monster that no longer cared if the thing before it lived or died.

The eyes of a creature that destroyed an entire civilization right before his eyes

"What... What are you?!" The man screamed as he threw his axe at Silas at blurring speeds by covering his arm with toki.

"Gale wind." a magic circle appeared on the wall and beneath Silas' feet. A blast of wind shot Silas toward the ceiling, and once he had his feet on the ceiling, he repeated his last spell and launched himself at the hulking man.

The man raised both his arms and protected himself with them, making an X over his head.

However, instead of retreating, Silas quickly reeled his hand back and channeled all his available mana through it.

What he was doing wasn't toki, since toki was the manipulation of mana outside one's body to coat themselves with it and enhance their body and senses.

At the same time, a tier one magic silver magic circle appeared behind and shot his arm forward, making it look like nothing but a blur until it slammed into the leather armor coated with toki.

*Crack*

Silas felt the bones in his hands shatter, yet he didn't show any pain in his expression.

The man stumbled back a few steps, yet for some reason, there was a pain in his shoulder far worse than the pain in his forearms.

And when he looked over his shoulder to see what it was, he felt his heart drop.

A burning red metal rod was sticking out of his shoulder from between the gap in his armor.

Silas quickly landed on the surface of the metal rod and sent out a punch with his other hand toward the man's face, yet it was quickly nullified by the man's toki.

But that's what Silas was hoping for...

His fist bounced off the man's face, yet instead of retracting it, Silas opened his palm as a glint of killing intent shone in his eyes despite Silas having done his best to suppress it in the presence of his sister despite knowing that she was unconscious.

A magic circle with a pentagram appeared in front of Silas' palm, before the air in the room became extremely dry.

Suddenly, water began to form in front of the tier two magic circle, that looked like a pentagram.

The water spiraled around for a few moments before Silas finally spoke.

"Water cannon."

Water slammed into the man's face before instantly smashing him into the floor while forcing water down his nose and throat.

The man struggled for a moment, but he quickly controlled himself before throwing a punch at Silas, who was now standing on his chest.

Silas looked at the man with an expression that was filled with disdain. Extending his hand toward the incoming punch, Silas muttered-

"Wind slash."

11 silver runes formed out of thin air as the tier two magic circle appeared before his hand.

An arch of wind shot out of the silver magic circle, yet despite the man's hand being coated with toki, the wind arch cleaved into his wrist, stopping halfway due to the toki pushing it back.

"You call yourself a warrior?" Silas finally spoke. His words were fluent, while his voice was cold.

The man let out a blood-curdling scream when he saw his hand dangling off his forearm. He was no longer looking at Silas with the anger of a grieving lover, but instead, he looked at him with terror.

He felt true terror for the first time in his life, and it was directed toward a measly toddler.

Silas reached out for the metal rod with his now-healed hand and hovered the rod over the man's throat.

"Please... Please don't kill me!" The man pleaded in a last act of desperation.

"I can give you anything. Money, armor, equipment, you name it!" Tears flowed out of the man's eyes.

"Oh really? Anything?" Silas asked, a grin suddenly tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Yes! Anything!" The man nodded, finally seeing the light of hope at the end of the tunnel.

"Then... I want to kill the man who dared raise his weapon against my sister." Silas spoke, his face contorting into one of disgust as he raised the metal rod into the air, channeled mana through the blood vessels in his arm, and finally lowered it upon the man's eye.

"Wait. NOOO-"

*Splurge*

[You have killed 2 lesser humans]

[The sub-ability of your evolution blessing, "Life devourer," has been activated]

[You have consumed two life forces]

[You are evolving]

[Your resistance to the wind element had increased slightly]

[Your control over mana has increased]

{A/N: I don't want to deceive any of you, so let me make a few things clear. Silas' "system" is only here to keep track of his blessings, bloodlines, affinities, and race. He won't have quests, nor will he have a shop system in place. Its only purpose is to tell the reader what's happening and to inform Silas of the aspects or changes of his own body.}