Elliott Barns

Athira was standing between a scene straight up from a horror movie.

After Athira absorbed all the blood from the pool, his strength went up the limit of what the dungeon could handle. Hence his rise in strength was a short term.

Right now Athira's body was reverted back to his original form.

But the time in which he had his powers boosted, he took care of every single mage. The two who were in the worst condition were Juhie and Garrett.

Bones were broken, muscles were twisted, fingers were cut and a trauma equivalent to multiple times of the physical injuries.

That was the case for all the mages except for three, who were lucky enough as the sudden power lost made Athira stop his actions and concentrate on controlling the energy which was running wild inside his body.

The three who remained without a critical injury were Rey, Natalie and Elliott. Of course they were still collapsed on the ground with others nonetheless.

****

Elliott's POV ____

My consciousness was fading away slowly. All sorts of things were rushing into my mind.

'.....I cannot believe that I couldn't do anything when he tortured my friends one by one.....'

'.....I am so weak that I couldn't even break the skill that Juhie and Garrett did...'

'.....I just watched everything while standing here and did nothing....'

'....I could have prevented all of this, but I didn't....'

'Why?....'

I was only cursing my pathetic self for this whole time.

Maybe that thing can...

My rough breathing was now cold and calm. All the negative thoughts started disappearing one by one.

A clarity washed all over me. A newborn strength was given to my fainting body.

"Whatever!!"

"System, use essence overdrive."

[ Affirmative ]

_________________________

Essence element : Overdrive

Origin element : Chaos

Description : Overdrive element is an which breaks all the limits when used. The rank will be raised by three levels, all the stats would increase by three levels.

Use : Can only be used for 10 times.

Warning : If used more than 10 times or used more than once in a short period of time, the user's mind will be overtaken by Chaos and madness.

Immediate death will occur.

_________________________

[ Overdrive initiated ]

I picked up my sword, stood up and raised my foot. I was able to move now without any resistance from the shadow world skill. Maybe because of the level difference from before and now.

I glared at the demon who was circulating his essence, who still hasn't noticed me. Just watching him sitting without a worry was making my blood boil.

"Demon!!! " I couldn't hold back any more and shouted with all the anger and resentment buried inside of me until now.

{ Miracle Sword Art : Shattering of Glass } + { Wind Gale }

***

Athira took some time to realize the situation and gave the upper hand to Elliott.

Athira was slightly weaker than his form from before due to sudden explosion of energy inside his body. He never would have thought that among the three were left, one was this strong.

But amidst the fight Athira saw something and his eyes started glistening.

Demons are the beings who doesn't act on logic rather they act on individual desires. Athira was no exception to this. He only stuck with Lord Belphegor was due to the sole reason that to return to demon realm, he need to be with one of the seven kings.

But now when his life was in slight jeopardy, he used the blood stored for Belphegor without batting an eye.

That was the true nature of demons.

Trust was something they really never had from the day they were born.

The second peculiarity of demons was that they always prefer fighting with superior physical powers of a demon rather than using magic skills. They rarely used any magic during battles. That was not the case a century ago though.

Now there were some who used magic as their main form of combat. But they were almost extinct now as they were in the front lines of the war against the humans, who attacked their realm.

Demon was extremely talented in magic before the war, they were quite overly dependent on it. But that thinking was shattered during the war by humans.

This made the demon kings abandon their magic and focus on the physical attributes of the body.

This was an unspoken rule among the demons who followed the kings.

But Athira didn't think like that. He had already used his shadow world multiple times against weak humans to torture them.

But Athira saw something strange within Elliott while fighting and used his another shadow skill.

"{ Hall Of Shadow's Whispers }"

"Huh!..."

Elliott looked around with his senses on high alert.

A Black out had happened all over the room and Athira disappeared from the midst of the fight. No sound, No movement, Even the slightest trace of Athira had gone from the room.

"Where are you demon?? Come back!!"

-It's no use kid, you cannot find me nor see me. Only my whisper can reach you. Don't worry, I cannot attack you in this hall. We cannot see each other nor can we meet each other, only our voice can reach.

-So, lets have a chat.

If shadow world was a restriction skill to aid in attack then hall of shadow's whisper was a skill focused on gaining time. It can trap any one person with the user inside a shadow space, where no physical interactions can be done between the two but only their voices can reach other. This skill was used best when there is a need to negotiate or when you have to buy time for yourself. The time limit depends on the difference between both user and the targets level.

In Athira and Elliott's case, the time limit was no more than five minutes.

"What do you have to say? After what you have done today, a ceasefire is out of the question!"

-Of course. I want to kill you more than any one else. I just saw something and wanted to ask you about it.

Elliott's face got twisted as he heard the demon's voice. For some reason he had a feeling that this is going in the wrong direction.

-You use a system don't you?

Elliott's face distorted with fear and anxiousness. The fact that he had a system was his biggest secret and it shouldn't have been known to anyone, let alone a demon in a hidden dungeon.

"...."

-HEHEHEHEE!! Cat got your tongue huh?

"I don't know what you are talking about. I don't know anything about the system you are talking about."

-You are honest about that at least. Since what you are using is only half. This was the reason I couldn't detect the presence of the system yet. But when you started attacking me earlier, I can tell that the essence element you used was given by the system as reward or something. You cannot fool me any longer kid.

"..... I admit I am using the system but....what do you mean by half? And how can you tell that my essence element is from the system?"

At this point the expressions and the manner of speech of Elliott had changed drastically from an angry mage filled with an immense killing intent towards the demon to now a human desperate for answers.

Even Athira himself was taken aback by the sudden acceptance from Elliott. But this will count as his win as he holds the lead in the future conversations about to come.

'This will be long ten minutes..'

Elliott Barns was a good student throughout his childhood. As his parents passed away at very early stages of his life, Elliott has to always work hard in school and the high-school. He always used his good memory and quick learning abilities to his advantages and would always get good scholarships for his education. The Magic Academy Elliott enrolled in was the best in his entire state. Though his dream Academy was Grace, but that was just impossible for him.

He passed the Magic Academy with flying colors and got a degree in Magical Analysis. And started working for a big research facility.

Time passed and Elliott soon turned 45.

At this point, he improved at a very rapid pace. He was now the director of one of the top ten research firms. He also raised his Mage level. Elliott was now a D-Rank Mage.

But then the second war started between the Seven Demon Kings and their followers against the Humanity.

Humanity had many heroes and powerful figures who could go against all the Demon Army. They even successfully killed the Demon King of Gluttony Beelzebub and the Demon King of Lust Asmodeus.

The humanity was marching the war with very good momentum after taking out two out of the seven kings.

But it all went downhill from there.

The first major defeat was given to the humanity by the Demon King of Envy Leviathan.

A majority of the powerful mages who emerged victorious in previous battles were either killed or were taken as hostage.

The situation was looking bleak as the main driving force, the front runners for humanity took a huge hit and the momentum crumbled. The situation that occurred ten decades ago was now happening once again. Humanity facing the crisis of being wiped out and turning towards the gods for a miracle.

A miracle did happen. The ten Avatars returned to save humanity, who were on the brink of destruction.

The war concluded after another five years. The Demon Kings and The Avatars reached an agreement and signed a peace treaty.

The reason for peace was obvious, only two Demon Kings were left alive and Seven Avatars had fallen.

The numbers were on Humanities side.

But humans didn't idle their time when the war was happening. A lot of knowledge was gained from both avatars and the demons. The biggest haul for the researchers were the dead bodies of these legendary figures.

Elliott was among the lucky ones who got a chance to study the anatomy of an avatar along with many other demons.

During his study of anatomy, he made a rookie mistake and accidently cut the heart of the avatar. But something unexpected happened.

The entire lab exploded. And Elliott's journey ended there or so he thought.

He soon opened his eyes and was left stunned.

Elliott somehow woke up inside his own body but all the way back when he was just 17 years old. Around the time he would look for admission in the Magic Academy.

The other surprise he got was the System.

Since then Elliott worked hard like no one else and with his future knowledge, he obtained a legendary sword technique inside a dungeon, which was supposed to be found out two decades later by a Terrorist.

Elliott worked efficiently and managed to get the top spot in the entrance exam for his dream Academy.

After enrolling into the Academy, Elliott made great friends.

Everything was going fine, until they reached the hidden floor.

Then everything went crazy wrong.

Elliott was really started at the fact that the demon before him knew the existence of system.

And when he heard that he was using the system with only half of It's efficiency, he was truly very surprised.

"Hey Demon! Tell me my answers !!"

-You have missed a crucial thing before you gained the system.

"What thing?"

-First tell me, how you got your hands on the power of an Avatar?"

".....It was by chance."

-Hmm...you didn't find the case then did you?

"....Case??"

This was the first time in his life, he heard of the word case.

- Hahahahahaha!!! ....Then you are just a normal human with an advance system. You are such a fool. Case is Avatar's weapon of destruction. That is the strongest attack of any Avatar.

"I didn't find anything like that....."

-I can tell you about it if you want. But ...it comes at a price kukukukuku!!

Elliott was speaking the truth. He and other researchers never found any weapons along with the body Avatars.

So, the words of the demon came as a surprise to him.

Elliott knew that the demon was holding the lead of the conversation since the beginning and he was constantly on the receiving end.

Even the ten minutes were about to end.

Elliott knew that any more information would not be given freely.

He has to make a choice.

Then he remembered something from his past life which he discarded as a useless thing.

When Elliott was given bodies of Demons to research, the first one was a body of a young man with white hair and red eyes. But his body was so battered in the lower regions, Elliott discarded the material.

'I know this is far fetched but there is some similarities....'

"Demon! One last question?"

- Tsk. You really bore me kid. Ask-

"Are you Athira, the son of the late White Clan's leader Grakka."

-.....

At that moment, the skill's time limit was over.

Now, Athira with a stupefied face was staring at the smirking face of Elliott.

"How do you know my name and origin? No one should have known about it? How..."

Athira didn't attack but asked with a serious expression.

Elliott was waiting for this and replied with his own question-

"How can I find the case you were talking about?"

...

....

Both of them stared at each other. Each of them wanted something from the other.

~"If you want to know about Case, I can tell you!"

A young mage with platinum hair stood up and gave his offer.

Rey looked at Elliott with a nonchalant smile and pointed towards his earring on his left ear.

"This is my case!!"