78 Insanity

'Star Leaf'

He could feel her presence, thousands of miles from his position. Instinctively, he concentrated on that particular scent: death. She smelled of death. The body of the black snake quivered for a single instant.

Silver sparks and killing intent exploded from his fangs trembling with rage. "Carelia."

His eyes moved towards the outer regions of the cave, and he gave another sniff to the air. Thousands of different scent bombarded his mind, so many that a common creature's neural system would definitely not be able to process them. However, he wasn't a common creature now.

He was a Devil and he found easily what he was looking for: Crazy Spirits. In fact, he found three of them.

Without waiting further, he used his tail to push himself in the air, darting toward the first one with an insane speed. He didn't try to go and fight directly with the traitorous false MAID.

He was enraged, not insane. After having seen what she was capable of, he didn't think that just becoming a cultivator would be sufficient to beat someone like that.

Yes, he was strong, but he didn't know quite well what he could and couldn't do with his newfound strength. What were his limits? Did he gain some powers that he didn't discover yet?

There were too many questions.

Plus he couldn't believe that someone that could open such a complex system of runes would be easily defeated by a frontal attack. Runes were made for people that knew how to prepare their defenses, warriors that relied on the hot blood of their enemies.

Carelia might be a traitor, but she knew how to use runes way better than him. Even if she seemed unable to move from her position, if she could she would have already done something to him, she could have scattered numerous traps around her.

Attacking her directly was the stupidest idea ever.

No, he would keep his temper under control and made her pay without even putting himself in the way of danger.

After a couple of dozen seconds traveling, Darkscale stopped on the top of a large oval rock and looked in a small hole in the earth underneath him.

"This one seems in some sort of hibernation"

He said, using Ghost Energy to make his voice echo loudly around for miles. Before, doing something like this would have been absolutely a waste of energy, but now he had so much of it that he could do it without worrying too much.

Plus, the energy he was using now he would recover in a few instants.

The serpent started to summon his own energy, drawing directly from his Devil Core. Silver lines of spectral and grim power began to flow out from his body, bringing with them the creepy whispers and strange sounds that were the signature of the Supreme Energy of Ghost.

The calm violet eyes of the reptile shined with shiny grey lights, while the now spiraling silver Ghost Energy was woven by invisibile hands into complex marks on the surface of the rock where the snake was standing.

In a few instants, an intricate array of runes hummed lightly on the solid white stone, emitting a wave of power invisible to most people. Darkscale felt it for a few moments, listening in silence to the slow and rhythmic humming of the formation.

Then, with the same neutral expression, he spat a chunk of silver energy and used it to connect himself with the rune.

"I'm ready, why you don't come out now?"

Again, the snake voice echoed all around for miles, carried by waves of Ghost Energy to anyone that was present in the area.

Whatever was hiding in the hole in front of the large rock, didn't seem to get the message. Nothing at all responded to the provocation of the serpent.

However, Darkscale didn't lose his patience. He closed his eyes for a second, sending his awareness inside his body. This time he didn't look for the rough-edged organ near his heart, the so-called Devil Core, where a sea of silver power laid in wait.

No, this time he sent his awareness all around his body. He kept his attention of the flow of his blood, until the sound of it was the only thing that he was hearing.

'There'

A strange, still unfamiliar power started to emerge from his body. It was different from the creepy Ghost Energy and the lifeful Blood Energy. Not in terms of strengths or domain. It was a more profound, basic difference.

Darkscale's eyes dyed in a lighter shade of purple, while a very peculiar aura started to emanate from his small body. A similar aura to those that he felt in the giant bones, in the Yellow Lake; a similar aura to those he felt on the dead bodies all around him; a similar aura that he felt on Carelia herself.

Bloodline Energy.

A low howl came from the hole in the ground, while two red eyes suddenly started to shine in the darkness of the opening.

Darkscale felt his blood boil and had to work harder than usual to keep himself calm and steady. However, after a brief struggle, he managed to do so.

While his eyes turned back to their normal color and the strange bloodline aura disappeared from around him, he spoke again with a wave of energy bringing his message to the ears that it was meant for.

"I've picked its interest it seems, you should start preparing yourself..." There was a trace of mocking tone in the calm and poised voice of the reptile.

The ground all around the rock started trembling. The rock kept standing solid, but the humming of the runes became stronger. Feeble white light began to sparkle from the complex lines that composed the formation.

Roaring in a crazy fashion, a dark colored and transparent body emerged from the hole. Cracks and rifts formed around the opening in the ground when the giant body of what looked like a lizard with a long spiked tail sprinted out from the bowels of the earth.

Not being intimidated at all by the mad glares that the frenzied spirit was giving him, Darkscale found time to send another enhanced message. "Ah, it seems like we found ourselves a big one... well, I count on..."

Suddenly, palpable killing intent fell on the body of the serpent, interrupting him. The madness of the spirit before him couldn't be compared at all to this one.

The spirits were lost being, Devils that fell and had insane and corrupted souls. They had no idea of what they were doing. Their ferocity was instinctive, like the one of a rabid dog.

This killing intent was different.

It was the fury of a wounded tiger, the anger, and hate of a giant being bullied to death by what he considered an insignificant ant.

"I AM GOING TO SKIN YOU ALIVE!"

A psychotic cry, followed by another push of solid killing intent, reached the serpent.

Darkscale couldn't help but grin, breaking for some instant his neutral expression. He had been right to not fall victim to his own emotions. She was still too much strong for him.

Maybe before his last transformation, the push of solid killing intent would have been enough to make him fall victim to the lizard. Now, however, his body was way too strong to be affected by a hit like that. He did tremble under the hit, but that was all.

The blow didn't even manage to get him off the circle of runes under his body.

His fangs snapping open while the giant lizard was already in the air, jumping towards him in careless madness.