The Return of the Darkness (3)

"Le-let him go away." The boss was freaked out at how Neo was able to easily dominate over his henchman.

"Why would I do it?" Neo flashed a bright smile at the boss and indifferently asked.

"Be-be-because I'm telling you to do it!" The boss glanced at henchman on his side and saw that he was shocked beyond belief as well. Realizing he had the advantage of numbers he puffed his chest out. "Do it or else..." He arrogantly spoke and took a step forward while cracking his knuckles.

"Oh?" Neo slightly exclaimed and then chuckled. "So you found enough courage to step up..."

*Crack*

Blood gushed out from the thug's hand that was under Neo's grip.

"AHHHH!" The adult screamed even harder as he saw the blood dripping from the flesh mess that was once his hand.

The boss and the other henchman stopped in their tracks when they saw that.

{Tier 1 Dark Spell: Soul Absorption}

A black mist rose up from Neo's hand and swiftly enveloped the adult's whole body after he chanted a Tier 1 spell.

Neo's smile widened as he saw what happened. This remembered him of his time in the Nether Realm when was nothing but a small and weak soul that had to go around absorbing other souls to get stronger.

"What the... Fuck is that!?" The boss trembled in fear when saw such strange and creepy phenomenon.

After a few seconds the mist dissipated and the person that was within, disappeared into nothing...

The boss felt a chill down his spine when he saw this creepy scene.

"I remember that you guys enjoyed beating me up... Why don't you try again?" Neo's face still had his wide grin, but now, for the boss the other henchman, it looked way too creepy and mysterious.

"Fuck this shit!" They turned around and started to run away.

"Running away?" Neo frowned in displeasure. "This is so boring. I thought they would have some balls to back their bully behavior, but now..." Neo helplessly shook his. "Kolvar, you're free to have your snack."

With Neo's words, a black wolf enthusiastically jumped from his shadow and started to chase the running thugs.

Neo watched this being unfolded while he waved his hand around shaking the blood away from it.

The boss turned around, but the sight behind him made him even more scared and creeped out.

All he saw was a black beast with its red eyes glued at them like it was watching the prey, chasing them down.

"Noooo!" He saw that the beast had swiftly caught up with them and tried to chase it away by waving his arms.

"AHHHHH-"

Neo heard the screams in the distance for only a second before it was cut off.

He walked toward Kolvar. When he got closer he was able to see his wolf eating the flesh of the henchman. The boss was already inside the wolf's stomach.

The wolf's mouth was covered in blood. It looked way more ferocious and dangerous now that a few parts of its fur were covered in blood.

Neo took a closer look at the henchman's soul that had popped out from the body.

"A dark gray soul..." Neo grinned. "You sure have a lot of sins behind your back."

Since his birth Daemon had this gift that allowed him to see the other people's soul without the need for a spell.

Looks like his gift was kept with his reincarnation.

The darker the soul of a human, the more sins they had committed.

Once the soul became completely black, the person goes through a transformation and become a demon, it's what the magic users call "Demonification".

A creature made by pure evil, with the sole intent to create chaos, death, and destruction. They are not stupid, on the contrary, they are very cunning, only that their intelligence is focused solely on creating chaos and corrupting other living beings.

"Finished?" Neo glanced at the wolf.

The wolf nodded its head and licked the blood outside of its mouth with delight.

Neo chuckled and patted its head. "You have done well. But I think such weak souls will never be enough to increase your strength."

The wolf closed its eyes in enjoyment for while.

*Whoof*

The wolf's eyes flared open, looked at a direction and lowly barked.

"I can feel it too... A magic user and a demon." Neo narrowed his eyes when he looked at the direction. "Return... Let me see what this is about."

The wolf let out a small, unhappy growl but still dived back at Neo's shadow.

Neo started to walk toward the direction he felt the fluctuations of a strong soul.

He flashed a dark and mysterious smile.

...

Elana frowned as she looked at the warehouse in front of her.

She was hidden behind a bush. Staring at the situation that was happening not even a few meters away from her.

The people moving around were unable to see her because she was wearing tight black clothes that blended with the dark night.

The clothes covered her entire body but her enchanting, fiery eyes.

"How many of them we got today?" A guard of warehouse asked the other at his side. They were both wearing the same military camouflage uniform with a gray Kevlar bulletproof vest.

"About 20 or maybe 30." The guard was holding a rifle with one hand and a cigarette with the other. "There's just a lot of beggars around this place. People that live in this hellhole would be more than glad if they disappear."

"So we are doing a favor for them..."

"Pretty much. We could go and ask for a payment from them." The guard said unhappily while puffing out a cloud of smoke.

"Do you think they have enough money to buy our services?" The guard said scornfully. He clearly looked down on the people of the slums.

"They can offer their bodies..." The guard said while a smile slowly creeped out from his. "That's a pretty good idea, don't you think?"

There was only silence after he finished speaking.

"Hey..." The guard curiously turned around, wondering why his friend was so silent, but... There was no one beside him. "What the-"

A black blur appeared from behind the guard and slit his throat while coverings his mouth.

"UMMMM!" The guard tried to scream, but only a muffled sound came from his mouth that was covered by his assailant's hand. Blood trickled down from her dagger.

"Two down." Elana glanced at the two dead bodies lying on the ground on their own pool of blood. "10... No, 15 more to go."

Her eyes stared at the wall of the old looking warehouse like she was able to see through it.

[They are kidnapping beggars, but for who and what would they do with them?] Elana frowned. She had been requested by her family to go on a mission to investigate the cases of people mysteriously disappearing in the countryside.

If it was just people disappearing, it would never get the attention of an Ancardian family, but there were traces of Demons in every place these incidents happened.

Now that demons were involved, Ancardians families would take over the case and ensure that knowledge about the magic society would remain a secret.

She tried to look for a possible demon, but she saw nothing that indicated that there was such creature in the facility.

[Strange... I can feel a demon in there, but I can't see him...] Elana moved toward the rusted metal door of the warehouse and tried to open it.

*Clank*

[Locked...] Elana looked at the doorknob. She gripped the knob even stronger and chanted something in a low voice.

{Tier 3 Fire Spell: Fire Palm}

Her hands started to shine with a bright red color just as she finished activating her spell.

*Tssss*

The heat in her hand kept going higher until it started to melt the iron knob.

She moved her hands around and melted the lock as well.

[Done...] Once everything melted off, she stopped her spell. Her hand was still in the melted parts of the door that was in high temperature, but Elana acted like it didn't even bother her.

Elana opened the door and silently entered the warehouse and glanced around.

There was someone close to the door, but even with the light and noise coming from when she used her spell the person didn't move at all...

In fact, any one of the 15 people she saw through the wall didn't move at all.

[Strange... What's happening?] She wondered as she approached the person from behind.

Once she got closer, she felt that something wasn't right. The person in front of her was standing straight, unmoving.

She took her dagger and directly went for the assassination by cutting his throat.

*Clank*

"Hm!?" She exclaimed as her dagger had hit something very solid and metallic.

She forcibly turned the man around.

"What...?" The thing in front of her wasn't a person, but it was, in fact, a marionette made of metal. The metal had a carved human face, but it looked more creepy than anything else.

She glanced at the chest of the marionette, she opened the shirt the marionette was wearing and soon was able to see a shiny gem laying on the chest.

"Soul... Gem!?" Her expression immediately took a turn. "It's a trap!?" She looked around, searching for the enemy's next movement

The power that allowed her to see souls also allowed her to see Soul Gems that were basically the same as souls, but in a physical manner. The process to create a Soul Gem is extremely complex and hard to do, only a few people would have the resources to create this Gems in large quantity.

"Hehehehehe..." Elana turned around when she heard a creepy and inhuman laugh behind her. There was no one there.

"I can smell... Feuer family's smell." The voice sounded again, but this time it was coming from her right side.

She turned around, but... There was nothing.

"Are you the Demon commanding this... Operation?" She asked while her eyes scanned everywhere, looking for the person that was talking.

"Maybe yes, maybe no. Who knows?" The voice chuckled. "I don't think you will survive to know about it."

"Oh... Really? I think that I still have a long life ahead." She placed the dagger back in its sheath and proceeded to unsheath the sword on her back.

The sword shone with a bright red light as it started to catch fire.

"Oh...? A Sword Artifact?" The Demons exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, and..." She locked her sights at a certain location, a pile of wooden boxes that were at the corner of the warehouse.

She bent her knees and then sprang forward with the flaming sword in her hand.

"Got you!!" She slashed at the humanoid figure behind the boxes.

*Clang*

"What!?" Elana exclaimed when she saw that she had with another metal marionette, but this time the sword was able to easily cut the head of the marionette off.

[The voice was coming from this place, what happened?] She crouched and inspected the marionette.

"Surprised?" The voice's chuckle echoed throughout the warehouse. "This marionettes of mine are also Artifacts. I can use them as speakers for my voice while I'm very far away."

Elana frowned when she realized the situation she was in. [The marionettes are Artifacts... That means he has 15 Artifacts!? How is this possible?]

Elana knew how difficult it is to forge an Artifact since she's an Ancardian, so she was very surprised to know that the Demon had this much of them in his possession.

Artifacts are simply tools used by magic users to improve their strength or to create a unique style of magic, like in the case of this Demon. Elana had never heard of someone spending so much effort in creating marionette Artifacts.

These tools are made by using materials from Hell, the Demonic Realm, or Ancardia, the Magical Realm. Magic materials are very expensive and hiring a blacksmith with enough talent to forge what the user wants, is even more hard and expensive.

[They are Mortal Artifacts since my sword was able to at least cut a part of it with relative ease.] She glanced at marionette on the floor.

"Now... How about we enjoy a good dance?" Just as the voice finished speaking Elana was able to hear some clanking noise coming from all sides of the warehouse.

She looked around and was able to see that all the 15 marionettes had started to walk and were going toward her.

Her eyes narrowed as she readied her sword that gleamed with a fiery fire.