Chapter 13: The Devil

"What a twist of fate! Should I finish what I started? Don't think you can get away this time." Rick sneered.

"Rick, you snake. You would kill me for a girl that doesn't even like you?" Samuel's anger began to burn.

"Oh, she'll come around. Once she finds out that I'm related to Quan Group, she'll be all over me. But enough about Angela. Uncle Bo. Kill him for me." Rick pointed at Samuel and ordered.

Mr. Bo simply nodded.

"Sorry kid. This is what happens when you resist the Quan Group. No hard feelings." Mr. Bo disappeared from view before reappearing in front of Samuel and slamming the end of his staff into Samuel's stomach. With Mr. Bo's superior strength, Samuel was lifted off the ground and tossed to the side. Samuel couldn't even react to anything at all.

He quickly glanced at Mr. Bo and a white glow shone in his eyes.

[Analysis]

[Name: Bo Quan]

[Title: None]

[Aspect: ???]

[Race: Human]

[Mana Cultivation: Level 3]

'So little information?' Samuel remembered that Mammon said people with higher willpower will be able to resist the effects of his Eyes of Truth. It was showing now with the mana cultivation being the only information visible to Samuel.

Judging by the fact that Samuel couldn't see how Bo had approached, his agility must be higher than 30. There was simply no way that Samuel could compete with this man. Even with his hell armor, his stats were only one level higher. He couldn't even run away.

His only chance was to use his hellfire to light the area on fire. The forest was burning but for some reason it wasn't spreading as fast anymore. He'd need to speed it up manually.

First, he materialized his arm. The flames flashed across his shoulder and his right arm appeared. From there, he immediately snapped his fingers and threw a hellfire flame at the ground in front of him. He couldn't risk having Bo deflecting the flame into the air and rendering his mana wasted. Once the flame exploded, Samuel was struck again by the staff.

"How is this possible?! You have so many abilities?!" Rick was horrified by the sight of Samuel growing his right arm back. He assumed that the strange black armor and the fire were part of the same ability, or at most two abilities. But seeing the arm appear made him realize that they were most definitely two different abilities. If Samuel wasn't killed here while he was still weak, Rick knew he wouldn't be able to survive.

Even though he was technically backed by the Quan Group, what use was that support if he was dead? Earth followed the law of the jungle in the present age. It was kill or be killed.

Unfortunately for Samuel, the beating was still one-sided. He simply could not react to the attacks. It was clear that Bo was a veteran at melee combat. As soon as he realized that, he began to just cover his body with his arms, blocking as much of the strikes as possible. The one good thing about this was that he was practicing his reaction time and blocking.

But one thing that was obvious to Samuel was that Bo was still avoiding the fire. The hellfire seemed to be the one thing that he was wary of. Samuel could take advantage of that and fight within the fire.

'Or…?' Samuel thought of a better idea. Rick was just standing there with a slight frown on his face. He had taken no efforts to protect himself, expecting Bo to finish the fight quickly.

Samuel moved towards Rick before quickly activating his explosive booster feet to dash to him. Claws outstretched, Samuel aimed to skewer him. If he was going to die anyway, Rick would die with him.

Bo wasn't expecting the switch in targets, so he was a millisecond too late in his defense. Obviously, Rick had no way of reacting and on his face was an expression of pure terror. Samuel's claws inched closer and closer to its mark.

Rick's expression switched to a mocking grin and Samuel heard a whoosh of energy and an electrical clang. The tearing of flesh and blood spatter that he expected was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Samuel's claw had bounced off of a transparent, blue layer. Rick's body was completely surrounded by this energy field, which stuck closely to his armor.

"You thought you had me. Too bad." Rick mocked Samuel. Actually, Rick had nearly pissed his pants. He hadn't expected Samuel to get such a huge burst of speed and aim for him. Luckily, he had a protective talisman that could project an energy shield on top of his armor. This was a magical talisman that his cousin had found and gifted to him. Unfortunately, it was one-time use and could only protect against second-level attacks at most. He hadn't expected to have to expend it here.

When the attack failed, Rick had also used his Snake Eyes to temporarily freeze Samuel in place. Bo took the opportunity to finish him off. The staff glowed with mana before a blade extended out from the tip, creating a corporeal spearhead. He originally didn't think he'd have to use this spell, as Samuel was very weak. But as soon as he had threatened the life of his nephew, all hesitations had flown out the window. The spearhead skewered Samuel's chest, piercing the armor and coming out the other side.

His last-ditch attack completely failed. He exhaled ragged breaths, the sharp spear twisting his chest and causing immense pain. Blood dripped from his body onto the ground, staining the grass red. The light began to fade from his eyes, the only thing that kept him awake was sheer anger. There was no acceptance. Samuel was furious.

'Fuck. I can't accept this. I can't die like this. I won't die like this. Not without killing Rick first. This dirtbag needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth.' In his last moments, Samuel was unwilling to die. He glared at Rick, watching his smug look with slitted eyes. Even as the life slipped out of his body, the anger fueled him.

Deep inside his soul, something was stirring. A three-dimensional image of a black book, bound with chains and fire levitated in an ambiguous vacuum of space. This was Samuel's Aspect, The Infernal Guide. The magical manifestation of his existence and the entity that granted him his powers. An ominous black smog began to exude from the book. The fire burned more intensely and the chains wrapped around the book began to unravel.

The Infernal Guide snapped open, the chains whipping off before hanging limply from the book's spine. Pages began to flip before it stopped on a specific chapter. The Chapter of Wrath.

When the pages stopped turning and the book settled down, a demonic roar sounded out from the book and the black smog shot upwards. The smog formed a face with red eyes and a jagged smile.

'I'm free! Samuel, you weakling. Your body is mine now. I will squash your enemies as a gift before I devour your soul.' The face laughed maniacally, becoming more distinct. The black smog spewed out of the book, filling up the space completely. The face grew larger and larger, until nothing else could be seen.

On the outside world, Samuel had already fainted from the turmoil occurring in his body. His soul had just experienced a chaotic force that threatened to extinguish his life. Skewered on the spear, Samuel began to convulse. Steam began to rise from his skin, forcing itself out of his armor and cracking it on the way.

Rick and Bo were horrified at the sight of Samuel's body as it began to crack and contort. His skeleton grew larger and taller, reaching around two meters in height before stopping. The steam changed into the same black smog that was inside his soul, surrounding his body and lifting him off of the spear. The wound began to heal, rapidly closing up. His hair billowed upwards, growing longer and slowly changing from black to blood-red. A pair of black horns sprouted from his head, curling around like a ram's.

Samuel's tan-yellow skin also began to change, quickly recoloring itself to a pure white reminiscent of snow. The hell armor completely fell off, leaving only a torn pair of dress pants on his legs. Finally, the arm Samuel was missing grew back completely, leaving no sign of it ever being gone.

The black smog that surrounded slowly let him onto the ground before receding back into his body. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Rick saw black sclera and two different pupils, one dark-red and the other burning orange. A devilish smile, filled with sharp teeth formed on Samuel's face.

"Ahhh. Fresh air. A little too earthy for my lungs, but I won't complain." A deep, hoarse voice came from Samuel's mouth, completely different from his normal voice.

Alarm bells were ringing in Bo's head. He felt immense danger from this creature in front of him. He immediately slashed out in front of him, aiming to slice into its neck with his blade.

The blade came to a halt on impact, emitting a sound like a metal hitting stone. Not even a scratch could be seen on the skin. Bo's eyes widened.

"Samuel, you died to this little thing? So pathetic. I'll make better use of your body." The creature clicked his tongue. He grabbed the spear firmly with one hand and snapped his other hand's fingers. A pitch-black spike emerged from the ground, shooting up towards Bo's chin. It moved extremely fast but Bo let go of his staff and leaned to the side. The black spike grazed his cheek, tearing a gash open that ran vertically across his face.

"Oh? You dodged that? I must be rusty from all that waiting around. Next time—" the creature disappeared from Bo's sight "—I won't miss."

A white hand with black claws had punctured through Bo's chest, holding his heart. Even though Bo was wearing a flexible armor, it had been torn like paper from the attack. The hand squeezed roughly while Bo's eyes looked on in astonishment. As his heart burst open, his eyes rolled backwards.

The now blood-covered creature retracted his arm, letting the corpse fall to the ground. He looked towards Rick with his never-changing smile. Rick fell to the ground, a wet spot forming on his pants. He stared in fear at the demonic creature. His uncle's body was lifeless in the grass and black fire was burning all around him. The creature opened its mouth.

"Looks like you're next, human."