49 A very funny story (2/2)
”Again!” screamed the master as he spread his wings fiercely.
”I already told you! I don't care about putting my hands on power!”
ROAAAAAAAAAAAAR
The terrifying Devil roared so loudly she risked having her eardrums exploded. Two rivulets of blood started dripping down the girl's ears.
”You don't want? They killed him, Shithead, killed him! Look at you! Your talent, your knowledge… they could take you so much farther on your Dao of Mana, but they won't! Because YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT PUTTING YOUR HANDS ON POWER!” The Devil's chest kept raising and falling furiously. The girl in front of him was covered in wounds from head to toe. ”I chose to be your master to help you get rid of this bullshit. And you're saying you don't want power? We all do! We all want to step over everyone else's head.” The Devil insisted: ”I'll ask you one last time. How high do you want to go?”
The girl clung on to her bow tight and whispered: ”Please, master… stop this.”
”Stop this?!” The Devil wielded a huge black sword and pressed it against the girl's throat. ”Stop this?” this time he scanned every single syllable. ”Let's try this way,” said the Devil as he gazed at the tiny white flame above the girl's head. It didn't get any bigger even after the girl got severly beaten. ”Do you know the reason why he died?”
Tears started welling up in the girl's eyes.
”Please…” she begged with teary eyes. ”I left…”
”Exactly!” the Devil shouted. He moved the blade aside and grabbed her by the throat. ”Look at me in the eyes. Look at me and tell me you would let him die like that again. Without one last chance to say goodbye! Without fighting for him! Tell me you refuse the power that would enable you to save him! Tell me you don't want to wipe that Clan out!”
The girl held her slender hands around the Devil's arm and suddenly felt all the Mana seething inside his Meridians.
”Can you feel that? Now answer me!”
A mysterious spark glowed its way out to the girl's eyes as her Soul started absorbing Mana relentlessly, draining it away from the whole planet.
Boom!
A shockwave pulverized the surroundings. The Devil was standing unharmed. He smiled.
Before his gaze was an ocean of crimson red flames. He looked up at the sky and saw those flames engulfing the universe.
Like his, those flames were now swallowing everything up. They only spared one single recess in the depths of space.
Looks like ambition is bound to be restricted.
The Devil let her go and heaved a sigh: ”I had to come to terms with this too. Ambitions doesn't necessarily originate from ourselves. It could spring from a desire, from love, from pain, from fear. You'd better keep in mind, girl, that there's no power without ambition. And you'll never be able to seek revenge if you don't wield any power. Don't forget this feeling and cling to it.”
…
”Now imagine someone is about to execute your sister”, the Devil began.
Fury instantly flashed into Helial's eyes as his expression showed a hint of madness.
The little black and white flame erupted. The planet caught fire.
This little?
The Devil didn't allow him to answer and quickly went on: ”What if one day Caesar will be getting set to kill you sister? Wouldn't you want to possess his power? Wouldn't you want to be the strongest man alive?”
Helial's pupils shrank as he clenched his fists.
”Power” Helial sighed as he relaxed his fists and his flame quieted down, ”still ranks second to me. I'd rather get freedom instead.”
As his words dispersed in the vacuum of space, the flame that had just got smaller suddenly flared up with unheard of violence. It started spreading at breathtaking speed.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
”I'd rather be free to fly, free to choose whether to be weak or strong,” the flame widened with every word he spoke, while petrifying explosions went on devouring entire galaxies.
Fwooosh
A gentle Mana whirlwind soared up, as if the guy's Soul were bursting all around them.
Helial looked at the Devil, a smile on his face.
”Ambition, right? I'm not sure that's the right term. But still,” the Mana suddenly flew into a frenzy of chaos and violence, ”if one tried to steal a frail life like Lumia's, I would tear the sky apart to stand in their way.”
The flames had almost reached the universe's ends. They hardly lost out to the Devil's ones.
”Not bad,” the Devil started off. He swept his bangs from his forehead and straightened his bats-and-devils-patterned apron, ”I'd say this is enoug-”
He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes wide open. He had just caught sight of something astonishing.
The black and white flames had taken shape into concentric rings that reached his own flames' size. Actually, they looked slightly bigger.
Like the circles of hell of Sanjiva, those concentric rings had something mystic and mysterious. The Devil furrowed his eyebrows; he couldn't grasp the reason behind that particular array.
Just like an Ouboros, the white flames were engulfing the black ones while the black flames were engulfing the white ones. It was a seemingly endless spiral.
The Devil focused and noticed a never-ending cycle of white flames following the black ones and vice versa, as they blazed dazzlingly throughout the entire universe.
”My appetite for strength has never been induced by someone else. You said… you said that destiny will have me face the person I'll love the most in my entire life. You said she'll make me experience the purest happiness, and then make me fall off to the depths of pain. That's fine. As long as I breathe, though, I won't step forward on any particular Dao of Mana. Keep it in mind, Devil: I won't follow any path. I will create one instead,” Helial smiled, ”because by following one already traveled by, I'd just let destiny play along with me. But I am free. I've always been free despite my weakness, and my choices will always belong to me only.”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Helial's ambition went suddenly beyond the limit of the Devil's. It spread through the universe and spared no inch.
The Devil stared at that strange phenomenon, an enigmatic light flashing in his eyes.
Those flames… I wonder what's their Dao of Mana. I'd never seen anything like that before. We're gonna have fun here!
”So, how did I do?” Helial asked. He couldn't see anything while he was going through the test. The stern glare of the kid wasn't helping him get a hint, either.
”Well, I guess this is the beginning of a very funny story. Of a long, painful, desolate path, but full of love and greatness as well. Okay then, let's get started!”