Chapter 30: Cyclops (2)

A bright light engulfed the entire village. It's white brightness, blinding the eye of every demon who stared right through it in close distance.

The bright light slowly lost luster, exposing the two beings in the village. One was a human, his hair was blond and had a charming face. The other, was a large demon with a single eye on it's head, a Cyclops.

Rio opened his eyes as the light lost brightness, he took a step back as he stared at the demon infront of him. He was pleased, and yet dissapointed at the same time. It was still alive, but heavily injured.

"Grah...!" The Cyclops howled in agony as it's eyes bled in pain. It's body was disfigured and messed up, with the bright light piercing it's skin, it's bones were exposed.

"What a weird and messy anatomy..." Rio commented as he looked at the bones of the demon. It was hard to describe. It was inhumane, an anatomy specially for a demon.

"Now what should I do..?" Rio muttered as he nervously looked at the demon. That move intended to kill the Cyclops, not just heavily injure it. Now that it failed to kill, he had close to 0 options left. With the amount of magic that is stored inside him, he couldn't use any large skills at the moment.

The skill basically costed him 70% of his stored magical energy. To top it off, his body is still processing from the sudden discharge of magic. At the moment, he couldn't launch a finishing blow to the Cyclops.

"Graaaa!" The Cyclops suddenly screamed as it ran towards him and tried to grapple him with two of it's arms. Contrary to it's previous attacks, this one was slow.

"Close one..." Rio said as dodged and leapt away from the Cyclops. Another good news was that the stone pillar the demon used was destroyed. As long as he could channel magic again, he would be able to easily kill it off slowly.

Rio looked at the windmill in the distance. He figured he should stay there and recover quietly. However, he needed to go there stealthily. The demon, while having no weapon, was still a force to be reckoned with.

"Gru!" The Cyclops grunted as it weakly thrusted it's right hand to the left, almost hitting Rio. It's right hand had no semblance of flesh and skin, only sturdy scarlet bones.

'What?'

Rio thought as he looked at the Cyclops miss his body. His senses processed the movement, but he knew the demon would miss so he didn't move. However how did it miss easily?

He smiled as he thought of such a possibility why.

The demon was blind. It's eyes were no longer functioning. That made sense, the skill projected a terrifying visor of light that destroyed the optical vision of the demon. He could use that to his advantage.

'If I'm correct then...'

Rio thought as he looked at the ground, spotting a pebble. He lightly kicked it to the left while staring at the demonic Cyclops. True to his predictions, the Cyclops attacked to the left instead. The Cyclops was relying on sound since it's eye sight was useless.

'The damage did more than I thought...now I don't have to retreat, I should just slowly kill it off...'

Rio thought as he took a step back and made several noises to distract the Cyclops.

The Cyclops didn't know where to react, the sounds were all over the place. It merely thrusted and grappled at where it's instincts tole it to.

This continued on and on, slowly tiring the Cyclops as Rio ran further. Rio looked at his body. The discharge was off, he could use his magic again. Now it was time to kill it off.

"«Angel's Thread»." Rio muttered quietly in the distance as he pointed the silver wand to the Cyclops. At the tip of the wand, a bright and lustrious rope manifested and shot towards the demon.

The Cyclops, ignorantly looking for the assailant that damaged it heavily suddenly sensed extreme danger in the surroundings. However before it could react to where, or identify what, it's body was once more constrained by a rope.

It was less of a rope and more of a serpent made of light. Like a serpant biting a being's body. The Cyclops screamed in agony when it's body felt the horrific torture of the power of light. It was already painful even when it's body was in full power, but when it was significantly weakened, the pain surpassed any logic or so.

"«Fire of Alucide»." Rio, once again, muttered as he stared at the demon while his silver wand pointed at the surroundings.

At that moment, a fire manifested in the demon's surroundings while it was constrained by the rope of light. The Cyclops panicked, hearing the charring noises of the embers, however it couldn't move even if it struggled.

The rope of light, or Angel's Thread, was too tight.

Slowly, but surely. Rio stared at the struggling Cyclops as the fires surrounding it slowly closed upon it's body. He wouldn't want to use it either, but it's the best skill he could muster without using all of his magical energy.

The charred noises of the flames resounded, slowly closing, until it finally came in contact with the struggling Cyclops. The flames burned, blazingly bright, as the bones slowly lost it's protection and crumble into ashes.

"Greeeeaa...!" The Cyclops screeched in agony as the flames slowly consumed it's body, slowly dying by the blazing flames with it's flesh and bones burning into ashes. Unable to even struggle with the rope constraining it's body.

The village turned silent after a few seconds. Rio stared at the Cyclops that fell in the ground. Waiting, and preparing for the worst. The good thing, however was that he had nothing to fear.

The Cyclops didn't come back to life and stood up again.

"Haaa..." Rio sighed in relief as he relaxed his body. That was a scary fight, any mistake could've killed him or heavily injure him.

He waited until the flames slowly dissapear before approaching the demon. The Cyclops, at close distance, was really large. Even larger among the tallest of the humans.

'As expected of Orcs, or Ogre...'

Rio thought as he stared at the body of the demon. Now it was time to take his spoils. He kneeled down as he desecrated the body of the demon. It's body didn't fully turn into ash, that's how durable it's flesh was.

He desecrated it roughly, without skill. Who could blame him? The best of his knowledge of flesh cutting and desecration was on fishes when cooking, however on humans, or beyond that Orcs? He had no idea.

Rio desecrated it's flesh until a bright red star appeared. He looked at and carefully grabbed it. He raised his hands to the air, staring at the bright red stone shaped star on his palm.

This was a corrupted spirit stone, or magical core. It was a magical core like what humans and beasts have, but unlike the normal one's. This one was corrupted to it's core. It's inside was maddened magical energy that wanted to devour everything.

Rio knew the origins of such magic. It came from an concenceptual entity that resided every demon in existence called, The Devourer. It was the concept of apocalyptical end. The concept of gluttonous devour.

He didn't know the entity's origins, however, there was one thing he knew. The Devourer was the final enemy of the main character's in the novel. It was like the demon king or evil god on a story that was behind everything, if he had to set an example.

Presently on the world there was no single being, whether human, elven, dwarven or orc that stood a chance againts it. He didn't have to mention demons. Demons were by-product of The Devourer, so by birth they can never surpass it.

The only contenders that could potentially stand a chance againts it in the future were, Eugene and Arcuied. However, right now they were weak as seaweeds.

"So, what should I do with this..?" Rio muttered undecided, as he waved the red star shaped stone.

He could sell it to the hub, it would easily make him about 500,000 Credits. However, on the other hand, he could use it to make something interesting.

The corrupted magical core, even with it's corruption wasn't entirely useless to humans. It held another use. That was—

"It was over here!" A voice suddenly echoed from the entrance as steps of other people followed.

"Are you sure?" A rough and husky voice replied.

"I-Im sure boss! The light came from here!" The voice responded meekly, as if threatened.

"You better make sure..or else.." The rough and husky voice threatened.

Rio snapped out of his daze as he put the red stone in his pocket. There were people arriving. To make it worst, more than 10 by the amount of steps he was hearing.

He looked at the surrounding, finding a place to hide. He couldn't allow himself to be spotted. He couldn't trust those people to be nice and not steal anything from him.

As he was frantically looking for a spot, he remembered the windmill that he saw earlier. He should hide there for the moment. That was the best position to hide.

Rio looked at the entrance of the village, catching the appereances of the new arrivals. He stood up silently as he retreated to the darkness.