Demon Leader, Sarman

Jonathan's team turned the once silent mountain base into a full-blow battlefield. Jonathan's body trembled, firing the hwacha. Everything exploded into pieces. From the sky, Cyclone used her powers to throw out the mercenaries who were near the exploding war machines. The mercenaries tried to fight back, but they lost the machines to Jonathan, Mini, and Jumbo's hwachas. They kept raining arrows down until there were no war machines left. Many mercenaries groaned on the ground. Although Cyclops saved them from the explosion, they were injured when she threw them away to save the others. Seeing the commotion, the mercenaries in the distance rang the alarm bell to alert everyone.

"Into the mountain!" Jonathan shouted. His team immediately followed his orders. While the mercenaries were in disarray, the team rushed into the mountain through the cave entrance. Jonathan led the team as Ian entered the mountain last. To the team's surprise, Ian waved his staff after they entered the mountain. A bright beam of energy shot out from his staff and hit the entrance. As a result, the ceiling collapsed down, blocking the entrance.

"Gray Wizard!" Jonathan shouted using Ian's hero moniker.

"Trust me, it's for the best," Jonathan noticed a strange resolute in Ian's eyes. At that moment, Jonathan saw no use in arguing with Ian. At Least the booked entrance would keep the mercenaries away from the team. After a while, they slowly navigated through the labyrinth of paths. The inside was dimly lit with torches. Still, they could barely see what was before them. Once again, Ian waved his hand as a white sliver of smoke emerged from his state. The smoke folate before them.

"Follow it," said Ian. The team followed the sliver of glowing smoke.

"Are those bones?" Cyclone asked.

The team paused for a moment and stared at the place Cyclone was pointing at. Just as she said, they were bones indeed. When Jonathan looked closer, he identified a human skill, femur, and rib cage.

He squatted down beside the bones and took the skull in his hand.

"Judging by this, it must be here for a year or two," said Jonathan.

"Must be one of the mercenaries," said Mini.

"Probably," Jumbo nodded.

The team resumed their journey through the dark paths. The deeper they went, the darker it became. Everything became deathly silent. They only heard each other's footsteps. They would be completely black if it wasn't for the glowing smoke.

"Look at these," Mini noticed strange engravings on the walls. The team tried to make sense of the engravings, but they couldn't, except for Ian. He noticed engravings of hundreds of humans carrying a casket somewhere. There were some other strange symbols that even Ian had no idea of. However, he knew it must be an ancient language. As for what it said, no one knew. They continued on their path while staring at these engravings on the way.

No one uttered a word, even though they really wanted to break the eerie silence. They feared a simple distraction would cause them to get lost inside the mountain. Wherever they looked, they only saw walls and darkness. It was impossible for them to escape without a mage or a map. Eventually, almost thirty minutes later, the narrow path they were walking branched into a spacious hall. They took a deep breath as the air felt fresh.

"Why is it so hot here?" asked Mini. he broke into sweat. The temperature in the air was several degrees higher than outside.

"We are directly above the volcanic lava river," said Ian. Mini almost jumped in fear.

"Hey, look," Cyclone's words quickly drew their attention. They walked toward Cyclone and saw the ground with no dust or sand. Instead, a metal plate was fixed on the ground and had several engravings. Just like on the wall, the metal plate had several strange symbols.

"Demon's grave. Do not disturb," Ian was able to translate these particular words because it was written in a language he knew.

"Is that what it's saying?" asked Cyclone.

"Yes," Ian nodded.

"The eternal flame should be here according to our source," Jonathan creased his brows. He looked around the spacious hall yet couldn't find anything. The hall was empty.

"Look around," Jonathan ordered. He had a feeling he would find something here.

"If the eternal fire isn't here, where is it?" Jonathan asked Ian in a husky voice after the teammates moved away.

"There's a possibility the mercenary leader has found the eternal flames before us," said Ian. As much as Jonathan hated to admit it, he knew it was the only explanation.

"What about the gifted one in your dreams? Do you think he may have a hand in it?" asked Jonathan.

"I don't know," Ian shook his head.

The superhero team searched the hall for clues about the eternal flame.

"By the way, what does it look like? The eternal flame," asked Mini.

"No idea," Ian said, surprising everyone. They expected a mage to know more about magic stuff, such as the eternal flame.

"What do you know about it? Anything you say might help us find it quicker," said Cyclops.

"Just whoever gets their hands on it would harness the power of fire,"

"Sounds cool," said Mini.

"No. Someone buried it here. All those engravings, they are saying something. Probably warnings. So there must be a reason why they buried it," said Jonathan. They all knew his words were true. There was a strange eerie feeling that lingered in the mountain.

"Guys," Cyclops raised her voice. The team walked towards her. She was standing in front of a wall. On top of the engravings, the team noticed a deep claw mark on the wall. In addition, the wall looked scorched.

"I am not a fire expert, but that's definitely a scorch mark," said Mini.

"I hope it has nothing to do with the eternal flame," sighed Cyclops, although she knew it was highly unlikely.

They all looked at Jonathan and Ian for their next orders. Jonathan was about to order the team to find a way out of the mountain when the place trembled. Dust crumbled down from the ceiling. Cyclops and Mini leaned on the fall to balance themselves.

"What's happening?" asked Jumbo. The tremor became worse by the second. Soon, they fell down to the ground. To their surprise, a dark red spot appeared on the ceiling directly above them. The ceiling melted down as a figure descended through the hole.

The one that appeared before them was a hairy red beast with two horns. He looked more like a demon than a human. With a muscular body and flaming eyes, the beastly man looked intimidating.

"Rodents," he said in a demonic voice. The team was surprised by the man's appearance.

"Who are you?" Ian shouted. He sensed frightening demonic energy from the man.

"You may call me Sarman before you die," said the demon-like man.

"Did you take the eternal flames?" Jonathan raised his voice. As a veteran leader and a superhero, Jonathan could tell how powerful Sarman was. Judging by the sheer energy radiation, they would be lucky to fight and escape from him.

When Ian inquired Sarman about the eternal flame, Sarman's whole body lit up like a Christmas tree. Dark red flames enveloped his arms as the temperature in the cave rose by several degrees.

"I take nothing. It belonged to me," said Sarman.

"I will let one of you crawl back to your organization and warn them not to step onto Sinith ever again," The flames around Sarman's hands burned brighter and hotter. Every member of the team prepared themselves for a fight.

"It's corrupting your soul. You have to let it go," Ian shouted.

However, Sarman burst into laughter.

"Corrupting my soul? It has cleansed my soul," Sarman raised his hands as the flames brushed past his face. He touched his face with the flame-covered hand. Yet, nothing happened to him. He grinned devilishly.

"But you have the corrupted souls. Your kind has slaughtered my men in cold blood. This is payback," said Sarman. Before Ian or Jonathan could talk him down, Sarman raised his hand as hot streams of fire shot out of his hand.

Ian quickly waved his staff as a glowing shield appeared around him. The others leaped out of the flame's way. Everywhere the flame touched turned into charcoal. The wall's slowly melted down like candles. The team was terrified of Sarman's power.

"GO ALL OUT!" Jonathan shouted. He knew they wouldn't survive the battle if they held back. Hence, he ordered them to use all their powers.

"Thought you would never say that," Mini chuckled. Soon, Mini disappeared from where he stood. Anyone who knew about Mini's powers would know he didn't disappear but shrunk himself. At that moment, Mini and an ant would be the same size. Following Mini's transformation, Jumbo leaped forward at Sarman. While he was in the air, his body grew several larger. In a blink of an eye, his size grew from six feet to twelve feet.

"You just made yourself a bigger target," Sarman snickered. Jumbo threw his giant fist at Sarman. However, Sarman just disappeared from the air. The team did not expect Sarman to vanish into thin air. They all stared left and right. For a few moments, silence fell over the area.

Sarman suddenly appeared right behind Jumbo.

"JUMBO!" Jonathan shouted to warn Jumbo. Unfortunately, it was too late. Sarman shot a stream of fire right through Jumbo's back. Jumbo's giant size did not help him at all. The scorching hot flame penetrated through Jumbo's heart like a hot knife through butter.

Jumbo let out a growl before his giant form hit the ground with a loud thud. The entire place trembled once again.

A few minutes after Sarman's appearance, they lost a member of the team.