230 Dick fan club (2/2)

Helial had decided that once the matter of the Prince of Darkness and the war had been settled, he would end her golden captivity and take her with him to explore the nation of Fiercelake, and then the whole continent.

Finally close to the ground, a few meters high, a long ramp of flames appeared above Helial's feet. As if he had a snowboard under his soles, he drifted and made another jump, which cushioned the fall after a series of daring somersaults.

Now his Mental Energy was practically gone.

He had used Perfect Background in mid-air, trying to find its full potential. The effective range was ten meters. Further than that, several imperfections began to arise. Furthermore, Mana consumption was tremendously high.

Helial got up, cleaned his clothes from dust, and then, speaking to clean air, said, ”Master.”

Srrrrrrrrr

The noisy sucking of a straw broke the pleasant silence of the forest.

Turning around, the young man saw in front of him a boy, lying on a beach bed with a coconut in his hands and a plate with pineapple floating beside him.

After so long, Helial had learned that it was better for his mental health to ignore the weird behaviours of that thousands-year-old Devil with the appearance of a harmless child.

”I want to take the path we have already talked about,” he began.

Without paying much attention to his disciple, Iblis continued to enjoy his cocktail and bathe in the sun rays.

You're always so pale, why don't you tan a bit? These words kept echoing in his head.

”I've been sunbathing for a whole era, why don't I ever tan?” muttered Iblis, completely ignoring that he was an incorporeal soul.

Helial's master seemed to have a strange fixation for sunglasses and suntan. Yet, since Helial had known him, his skin had remained the same pale shade as ever.

”If you want your foundations to surpass those of every living and not living thing, including the great monsters that marked the Ages of this shitty universe, you must be ready for sacrifices,” said Iblis.

”I'm ready,” nodded Helial.

Millions of images suddenly passed into the eyes of the Devil. His parted lips evoked a power beyond the limit of human understanding. After a couple of minutes of silence, the boy shook his head.

”If you intend to proceed on this path, the blood of your enemies will continuously wet your every path, but it will not be just that. If you chose to continue on a normal path, to accept everyone's foundations, even the same ones I had, it will be different; you will live a full life and your loved ones will always be with you. You will have everything you need, but absolute power will always be too far from you, an opportunity lost forever.”

”I don't care to live as I have lived before knowing you and be forgotten after a wave of violence,” said Helial firmly.

”You don't even know what you're saying. If you want to chase perfection, you won't be the only one to pay for it. I can't say anything specific, because of some universal rules. Still, I can tell you that if you chose the Perfect Foundations, you better get ready, because there will be much to suffer. Once you have made this choice, you cannot go back.

”Glory, power, greatness. Become the strongest: they are all things at hand, but the other side of the coin is a sea of blood and suffering. If instead you chose the path of all the other people, you will become strong much faster. Right, here's what I was forgetting. If you were to go down this path, your progress would be much slower. In the beginning, it would be much more difficult to protect your loved ones. Although the Perfect Foundations can allow you to become stronger than anyone within your own Phase, there are physical limits imposed by the various Phases. With Second Phase Meridians, you would soon reach a bottleneck.”

”Will Lumia die if I make this choice?” Helial focused his dark blue eyes on Iblis's pitch black ones.

Iblis shook his head and remained silent.

It was not a real answer, but it was enough for Helial, who removed the upper part of his tunic, showing the toned muscles underneath.

”We can start then.”

Thousands of black needles appeared all around Iblis, while the Devil watched the starry night above them.