Black Box

I'm currently in front of one of the golden light's angled border, and there was a large black pillar that stood from which the light seems to come out.

Curious, I held out a finger and shot a Marble Sphere.

*pzzft*

It got absorbed, and only looked like a drop of water fell into a lake. What's the deal with this barrier?

I took out my Origin Blade from my back and attempted to slash the pillar. I copied one of Aunt's techniques, the Half-Star Slash.

Before the edge hit the pillar, some kind of invisible and hard object deflected my movement, and I could feel the rebound from my hand to my whole arm vibrate as if I just whacked a thick steel plate.

"Kuh...!"

I tried to keep the pain in to keep silent, but the pillar suddenly flashed, and from the place where I hit it, a golden light shot back towards the right, as if directly reflecting back the exact same force it had absorbed.

"So solid objects get deflected, but magic gets absorbed?"

Next, I made a red Origin Screw, and spun it until I heard a screech before it was released from my control.

Just like an actual drill, it continued to spin in place before it vanished. Within that moment, I saw a burst of light that reflected the force made by the drill before it got destroyed.

"So it reflects all absorbed damage within a few seconds?"

Using Origin displays my white orb and keeping on doing that might get me caught.

"It's time I destroy this pillar and get in then."

White light gathered on my palm and an image of a chick was formed. I threw the chick onto the barrier, and I could see it get absorbed just like how the Marble Sphere disappeared into the barrier.

"It didn't work?"

That was supposed to... nevermind. The barrier's golden light dimmed for a bit after that one chick, and using it drains me a bit so I won't use it again.

Towards the side I can hear footsteps, and there were children that ran and played tag.

The game rules seems to be different, and the 'it' is the one that's being chased, then I saw him go over the barrier without resistance. I heard the kid loudly announce 'I win!' before going back towards the lot of them.

".....Are you kidding me?"

Not daring to be negligent, I still can't trust if I could really go over without issues, so I deformed my Origin Blade and all of the stuff I made before going in.

"So much for preparation."

Once every Origin structure I made formed back into a wisp and gradually entered my body, I used my side of the foot where the pinkie is to try to get in.

My shoe entered normally, followed by my foot's pinkie finger going over the barrier. Of course I know it's the pinkie, it has to be there, right?

Gradually, I tried to get my whole foot in, and I heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

"That's cool. We should play like that instead." I didn't notice that another kid was observing me. Did some kid really go near without my notice?

He tried to put his foot in too, but it got blocked by something. He banged on the barrier as if it was some kind of wall before finally shrugging his shoulders.

"Seems demons can't enter, huh?"

I felt my back turn cold and I immediately went inside the barrier before I turned towards him, only to find out that he's already gone.

That was dangerous.

But because of him, I discovered that besides from Origin, even demons can't enter. It looks like the barrier only repels anything magical...but it's strange how I was able to enter considering my entire body is somewhat layered in Origin.

From Yona's training, I discovered that my body only resumes its mortal properties when I truly run out of external Origin. I become pervious to blades and all sorts of damages if I actually ran out, so that's why she made me do that blue zone thingy to increase the amount my body can take.

It's also a way to increase what she called as 'Soul Control' which determines how much one can control source spirit. But unlike source magic, Soul Control is applicable to me, which is unexpected even for Yona. Overuse of it also makes the mind fatigued, and it was the main reason the Origin Screw drains me much more than my ordinary Origin skills because the control of spinning requires a lot of concentration.

Soul Control is also something that can somehow be used to sense one's surroundings, but I wasn't able to fully utilize it since I could only control Origin back then.

It's like making your mind touch everything around, causing me to feel things within a certain radius.

It meant that that kid earlier somehow managed to bypass my radius without my notice, which only means he's at a Master-level of power too.

Speaking of power levels, my white-imbued origin Origin is considered as Master-level, as Yona said after a few tests. The purple one however, only reached halfway of the Master-level. The black one is probably the Grandmaster-level, and there's still a way to go.

After determining that the kid was nowhere, I carefully remade the Origin structs I deformed earlier and put them on their pockets.

Since the outer security was not that light, I bet it's even tighter here.

I could only avoid the open pathways that led to the other sides of the barrier to check where Aunt had went to, before we proceed to the centermost of the area. Simply avoiding where decorations where placed, I finally found Aunt who was currently choking a Civil Corps guard using one hand on the ground before the guy got knocked out.

"That was quite the warmup." Aunt let out a heavy exhale as she grasped and lightly stroke each of her shoulders.

"Aunt, have you found something?"

"Oh, Kaff. I just tried to ask them where we could find your friend but one of them insisted on giving a kiss on my cheek. Well, you know what happened afterwards."

Poor you. I bet all of these men that dropped on the ground like flies were attracted to her like a sweet flower. I can't blame Aunt's beauty, but these guys are also partially at fault for being aggressive.

"This last one however, told me that the wedding's about to start within a few hours into the night. They're not sure how the parade will go though."

"There's a parade?"

Thinking about it, it's already strange that a large barrier was erected here to repel demons.

I thought it was only me they were vigilant about and forgot about other things. Remembering that kid before I entered the barrier, I felt a bad premonition from my gut.

"We should hurry."

This side of the city had more people as we went near the center, and almost no one recognized me. There were a few Vates and Civil Corps along with a few armored knights, but none of them were highly alert and were mostly idle on guard. A lot of them were also turned towards the routes that led to the inner area, which made me think---

---They're probably watching out towards the inside, and not from the outside.

Deeper in the district, there was a large square platform that's estimated to be a hundred square meters, and there were a lot of seat and tables, all with black tablecloths and and gold-outlined black chairs. On the center there was an circular elevation that had two black thrones laded with a blue ribbon. There was also some kind of large black box which served as a room.

Since coming to this world, I really feel like there are a lot of strange customs here. So far I haven't seen any kind of wedding or ceremony which required everyone to wear black except for funerals. This Hamion guy, is he secretly edgy? Considering his alchemical background as I was reminded of Yona's tale, I can see why he's put gold into his color scheme, but black?

"We got ahead, right?" Aunt tilted her head and looked around the vicinity, but there were barely any people here.

"If the ceremony will start later tonight, this lack of people kinda makes sense."

We walked towards the platform and jumped on it, before a voice came out from within the black box room. I couldn't hear it properly because of how low the volume was, so I willed my soul control to somewhat sense what was inside, and there were two people inside.

"WHO'S THERE!?"

Yikes.

A bearded old man with a black robe came out in a flash and floated towards us, and from nowhere, a red wooden staff came into his hand.

The other one was a boy that was probably a fewer years older than me, and he had an inner armor that reflected the sunlight before it got hidden as he also stopped in midair. Looking carefully at his red hair and contemptuous gaze towards me, I finally realized as he too, reacted and pointed at each other.

"This brat!"

"This guy!"

At the same time, we erected barriers of contrasting colors, his golden and mine white, before Aunt and I floated above the platform and wielded our weapons.

"You... you've really become demon!" The old man's irises thinned as if seeing a ghost, along with a hint of expectation from his face. His eyes followed the white orb that orbited around and above my head.

"Since this demon child actually came to our doorstep, let's kill him off before the others take his bounty!"

"No! Stop!"

The old man reached his hand towards the guy before he gritted his teeth and followed along him as he started to cast something that made his red staff glow.

Aunt sighed before telling me, 'I'll take care of the old oaf for you,' before emitting a white aura that slowly flared from her body as she went out my barrier.

She was so fast that she reached their backs within seconds, and slowly slashed towards the old man. The two became alert and the old man immediately took out a metallic plate and brought it in front of him, blocking Aunt's incoming slow sword.

There was no sound but when the two objects hit each other, there was a spark of white and gold, and Aunt beckoned over the old man as she floated backwards.

"Since you want this old man so much, I'm going to give you a proper 'lesson.'"

I can see the old man lick his lips as she stared at Aunt's overall figure, before he also flashed in a streak of golden light towards Aunt on the side. The red-haired kid also got lost in attention because of Aunt, so I immediately spun and sent out a red Origin Screw to test his level of power.

*clang*

With the sound of metal hitting each other followed by glass shattering, the screw I sent off vanished amid a burst of golden light that brightly radiated for a few seconds, before it dimmed and finally lost its glimmer, showing its source. I can see that his silver necklace shattered and vanished after the light disappeared.

"You...you're a Master-level demon?"

"Demon? Call me that if you want."

Seeing my initial killing blow was blocked, I can't expect for it to work again. This time I flew towards him and brandished my Origin Blade and he met it with his own arm.

*fzhssht*

A weird sound was made as a few magical circles appeared on the arm that he held up, and I can see his other hand about to charge up golden light for an attack, so I stepped back a bit before going down the ground.

"What is he doing?" I can hear him murmur as he finished his setup, waved his hand towards me that fired a golden light that looked like a bell.

I dodged the bell and as expected, the platform was durable. I can't bait him into destroying the stage so I decided to go up once more.

"Is that your strongest attack?"

Taunting always works for young people, even me so I even stuck my tongue out and pulled on my other eyebag.

Veins started to form on his forehead, and his face scrunched that it made his common-looking face become ugly.

As he started to charge more golden light in his incoming attack, I sheathed my blade and instead made a stable Origin aura that enveloped my whole body. This is one of the benefits of Soul Control, I can now fortify my armor as it becomes more closely to my body.

He fired his attacks one by one with few seconds of delay each, and I positioned myself lower than him so that I could send the furniture below into pieces. It seems that his rage narrowed his vision and kept on firing even when the circular platform on the middle got blasted into pieces from his own attacks.

Just like how long it took for water on kettle to boil, he finally reached his limit and looked like his head was already hurting.

Slowly looking at his own hands shaking, he must have realized that the venue already got destroyed.

"You.....destroyed my special DAAAAAYYYYY!!!!"

After letting out a long scream that only served to hurt my ears, he let out a sigh and looked at me with uninterested eyes.

"Keh. I thought I would be able to kill my first demon."

He took out some dark green oval gem and crushed it within his hands. The pieces turned into light and sent themselves somewhere off the distance.

The light seemed to point towards where this long black carpet led to, and this is the second bad feeling I already got for today.