Shop Owner VS Demon God Incarnation

The Incarnation of the Demon God laughed heartily at the sight of the countless souls before it.

Indeed, if this were still a ritual and it could devour these souls, perhaps the process of its return to Kastia would proceed smoothly.

Unfortunately, it lacked the ability to consume these souls this time. Its connection to its original body beyond the planet had been severed.

Absorbing the essence of death from these souls would be of no use to it now.

In fact, quite the opposite was true. It felt that a fragment of its soul in Kastia would be harmed by these souls.

This was something that couldn't be ignored. Thus, even though the Demon God Incarnation appeared to be laughing heartily, it was actually quite anxious.

Fighting against millions of souls wouldn't be able to kill it. However, those souls could injure its soul, not its physical form. This couldn't be allowed, as harm to its soul greatly affected its overall strength.

Cien directed the millions of souls to attack the Demon God Incarnation.

Essentially, the living and the souls couldn't directly harm each other. Why? Because their dimensions of existence were different.

The living and the souls couldn't interact with one another. But those who possessed mastery over the element of death could create a bridge between the two worlds.

And that's exactly what Cien did. He used himself and his manipulation of the death element as a bridge for the souls to enter the mortal realm.

This was why the millions of souls could be seen by those who didn't possess control over the death element.

By doing this, the souls were now able to launch attacks against the living. Furthermore, these soul attacks were especially dangerous, as they could harm the souls of their enemies.

The Demon God Incarnation then attacked the approaching souls with black laser magic emitted from its horns.

Bruaarrrrrrrrr!

A massive laser beam bombarded the ranks of soul soldiers, aiming all the way towards Cien. Yet, Cien easily withstood the powerful laser using Woodbelisk.

Once the attack ceased, the Demon God Incarnation furrowed its brow and flew slightly farther away. It observed the outcome of its attack. Only a small fraction of the souls had been eliminated by its laser beams.

It should have affected thousands of souls, yet only a few dozen had seemingly vanished.

"It's not effective."

The Demon God Incarnation murmured, reminiscing about its past confrontations with the God of Death.

Among all the elements in Kastia, Death was the most mysterious and troublesome.

For the Demon God Incarnation, aside from the God of Creation, the God of Death was an opponent it might not be able to defeat if not for the seal device it employed.

Death controls the spirit or soul. Not only because their attacks were dangerous as they directly injured the essence of life, but even those spirits or souls were difficult to attack.

Physical attacks didn't affect souls. Magic could injure them, but its potency was severely diminished. Perhaps only one-fifth of the original magical strength would truly be felt by those souls.

And that was what was occurring now. The power of the laser, equivalent to Rank 10, should have been capable of annihilating numerous souls. However, the majority of the souls survived without harm.

"Could you be the Death Proxy?"

The Demon God Incarnation inquired, while simultaneously chanting an incantation.

"Unfortunately not," replied Cien, who stood controlling the souls to attack the Demon God Incarnation.

At this moment, Cien had a fatal weakness. He couldn't move or shift away from the center of his magic circle.

If he did, the flow of mana to him would be disrupted, and his control over the souls would be lost.

That was why Cien had been attempting to keep the Demon God Incarnation away from him.

Clap!

The Demon God Incarnation then clapped its hands after completing the incantation. Both of its hands were suddenly enveloped in dark bluish flames.

Cien, witnessing this, was taken aback. "Underworld Flame."

With beads of sweat forming on his forehead, Cien grinned broadly.

To effectively combat spirits, there were several approaches. Apart from using the Death Element, other methods included techniques that could harm souls, like Kirana's [Frozen Soul]. Lastly, utilizing various elements from the Underworld and Nirvana.

Examples were Cien's Netherworld Flame and the Underworld Flame currently emitted by the Demon God Incarnation.

Both of these fires could be controlled by those who mastered either the fire element or the death element.

From the Demon God's case, Cien was confident that the demon could wield Underworld Flame through the path of Fire Magic.

"I don't fancy this fire much, as it consumes too much mana. Unfortunately, it's the only thing that can harm you, the Death followers! [Soul Crusher]!"

Bam!

One punch created a projection of a large fist, burning dozens of souls nearby.

Dozens of souls writhed in pain before eventually being consumed by the flames.

"Gyahahaha! Come here, you wretched spirits!"

Attack after attack of the dark bluish flames continued, incinerating hundreds to thousands of souls at once.

However, for the Demon God Incarnation, the power of its flames wasn't sufficient to annihilate all the souls simultaneously.

It didn't have full mastery over its Underworld Flame. It had only used it a few times, such as when battling the God of Death, and apart from those instances, it had rarely utilized it.

Throughout history, there weren't many followers of the God of Death. Hence, those who could wield the Death Element were quite scarce.

Even the first two humans didn't master the Death Element to fight against it. And the Demon God Incarnation itself couldn't use the Death Element to enhance its Underworld Flame.

So, at this moment, the Demon God Incarnation was growing somewhat frustrated. It had to employ its weakest power to battle an ordinary human.

Boom! Braar! Doom!

The Demon God Incarnation raged on. As time went by, it drew closer and closer to Cien's position.

For it, fighting millions of spirits seemed to be a waste of energy and time. It preferred to cut the root of the problem directly, which was Cien.

Of course, Cien didn't remain passive. Realizing that his soul soldiers were powerless, he had to think of another approach.

Cien looked up, gazing at the overcast sky that still hadn't shown a sign of raindrops falling to the ground.

'Not enough yet…'

Cien thought, who then started racking his brains.

"Fighting fire with fire."

Cien murmured to himself and immediately ordered several monster souls to approach him. He didn't want to taste the disgusting sensation of consuming more souls, but he had no choice.

He took one spirit, devoured it, and a pale bluish flame enveloped him. Then, Cien spread his Netherworld Flame to all the spirits facing the Demon God Incarnation. The pale bluish flames covered his soul soldiers.

"!"

The Demon God Incarnation was taken aback as it struck one spirit shrouded in the pale bluish fire. Its blow failed to obliterate the spirit entirely.

While the spirit remained wounded, it didn't perish.

Cien's strategy was akin to equipping his controlled spirits with armor to withstand the Underworld Flame of the Demon God Incarnation.

The armor didn't make them invulnerable, but it made the spirits more resilient, preventing them from being killed in a single blow.

The Demon God Incarnation grew even more frustrated.

"Damn it!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The battle raged on.

Explosions of blue flames continued to clash, and amidst the fray, Cien commanded his spirits to attack the Demon God Incarnation. Although you can't see it, actually the soul of the Demon God Incarnation had started to show signs of damage.

This development made the Demon God Incarnation somewhat panicked.

It would prefer its physical body to be defeated and killed rather than its soul being injured. The state of the soul affected its entire power.

The Demon God Incarnation couldn't believe it was being played by a single human.

It could easily destroy a city, slaughter thousands of humans with a mere gesture.

But Cien? Its attacks were ineffective to this one human. Even using powerful magic had no much impact on Cien and his souls.

This frustrated the Demon God Incarnation. It was a god! A being that should be at the pinnacle of Kastia's power.

Even though, right now it's just a small incarnation, it should be dominant. Yet here it was, struggling against its first opponent.

If only its entire body and power were here. Cien's tactics would be useless.

Amidst its frustration, the Demon God Incarnation suddenly noticed the sky darkening. Surprised, it looked upward.

"!"

It wasn't the sky but a massive wooden pillar hurtling down towards the Demon God Incarnation's location.

Meanwhile, Cien, at a different location, swung his Woodbelisk and activated [Giganta], aiming to crush the Demon God Incarnation.

The demon was momentarily distracted by the thousands of spirits, and Cien took advantage of this.

BAMMMM!!

The impact and thunderous crash of the colossal staff hitting the ground shook Marina once again.

Those who were evacuating in the north screamed hysterically, feeling as if the end of the world was upon them.

Cien and his soul soldiers stood in silence, watching as the Demon God Incarnation was pinned beneath the Woodbelisk.

Cien returned his staff to its original size and observed the aftermath of the impact.

The Demon God Incarnation remained standing, albeit with several wounds on its body.

"Bastard!"

BOOOMMMMM!

A shockwave radiated outwards from the Demon God Incarnation's position. The shockwave obliterated the surrounding landscape and vegetation, creating a new crater.

Marina, which had just recovered from the previous tremors, was hit by yet another earthquake.

Cien quickly employed Woodbelisk as a shield, successfully protecting himself from the shockwave's impact.

But when he returned the staff to its original size, he was surprised to find the Demon God Incarnation standing in front of him, delivering a punch towards his head.

Cien didn't sense the punch coming, but his reflexes were swift. He managed to dodge the attack, surprising the Demon God Incarnation, which had assumed the blow would land successfully.

Cien then manipulated the souls like a powerful current of water, driving them towards the Demon God Incarnation. The souls collided with the demon, pushing it forcefully into the ground and injuring its soul.

The Demon God Incarnation rose again, somewhat impressed by Cien's ability to evade its lightning-fast strike from close range.

Swooosh!

"Hm?"

Once more, the Demon God Incarnation felt something strange in the sky.

It looked up, and the previously cloud-covered sky now revealed a massive water sphere, like a curtain being drawn aside to unveil a stage. Or rather, not a sphere, but a colossal meteor.

"What is that? I don't sense any magic from that water ball."

The Demon God Incarnation was taken aback, sensing a significant threat if the massive water sphere were to fall.

"Because it's not magic. It's just rainwater accumulated."

Cien's voice rang out, and he lowered his hand, guiding the water sphere in the sky to descend and strike the Demon God Incarnation.