The Renown Almakhadie

Chapter 65 - Bottomless Pit

Barrages of explosions kept coming. Even if the demon couldn't die, it still felt as parts of its body were torn apart, only to regrow right back. Velios continued to launch explosion after explosion until eventually, something was different. The blue flames, no matter how magnificent they were, were still inferior to the black flame inherent to a demon. Shiva, the demon, who thought that he might actually die if Velios kept it up, noticed how the blue flame rapidly changed in color and heat as it grew darker by the second. Velios was compressing the fire to gather a bunch of energy before rapidly expanding it, releasing a ton of energy. All of that energy was being used to attack the demon without stopping. Let alone did Velios realize a few things. Because he was using mana-heavy attacks all the time, his mana reserves had grown exponentially during the last few days of training, but Velios wouldn't actually suffer the consequences of being short on mana. An accidental ultimate training technique.

The flame was now purely of a dark color, even managing to burn slightly hotter than the demon had when he first attacked. But Velios wasn't done yet. If the demon couldn't die no matter how much damage he did, then he could simply experiment as much as he wanted on him. "Hey, Shiva. Have you ever heard of magic circles? A form of magic not constricted by logical thinking to the same degree as normal magic. You, as a demon, must have already known this?" Velios asked but didn't expect an answer, so he continued speaking. "Through the use of weird letters, symbols, and patterns, you can create something similar to how 'spells' work in stories. Isn't that also precisely how seals work in this world?" Velios began to move slightly closer to the demon after every word he himself said. "That got me thinking, and I do want to hear your opinion on this matter as well. If normal magic is created by using logic and knowledge as its base, and magic circles are created using something illogical, truly fantastical, do you think either of them truly has a limit? And if there isn't a limit theoretically, why isn't circle magic more popular since it isn't limited by one's knowledge and brain capacity? Why isn't the magic where you could theoretically create anything the superior version? If you ever do find the answer to that, I would also like to know."

Velios stood just within arm's reach of the demon, who was still barely enduring all of the attacks that were still being launched. Velios stood there with a barrier around himself, capable of withstanding the attacks. Wow, this barrier sure is handy. Glad I learned it from the library. Instead of creating a perfect sphere, just create a bunch of small hexagons and stick them together. In that way, each individual hexagon will have the durability of a normal barrier, but it sure takes up more mana and concentration. Velios reached out his arm so that the palm of his hand came in contact with the left part of the demon's chest. The attacks also simultaneously stopped, and the mana dome was dispersed. The demon was left brought to its knees in pain. "W-What did you do to me?!" The demon shouted, sounding as if he had a sore throat as he couldn't properly speak. "Oh, me? Nothing special. I just planted one of those magic circles I was talking about into your heart. Since you won't die, it will be like killing you from within. Fun, right?" Velios seemed happy about his own achievement as he also didn't care for the well-being of a demon, the most vile monster there is.

"Oh, don't worry. I have decided to keep you alive for now. It's not like I could kill you anyway, and I wouldn't be so heartless as to keep the magic circle activated at all times. I'll only activate it if you deviate from any specific orders or rules that I will tell you to follow." The demon acted hurt but immediately tried to punch Velios, only to fail. "Fine..." The demon didn't know what to say or respond with. I'm being used as a lowly dragon's pet?! Me... a demon?! How did it end up like this? But, at least he doesn't know holy magic or I would have been dead. I swear... as long as I live, I will one day take over his body no matter what! Velios just watched as the demon sat on the side of a table that was half destroyed. "Hey, by chance, do you have a less conspicuous form? I don't think it will look good for me to have a demon walk beside me while I'm already being looked for by the dragons." The demon looked at him, surprised after hearing his last sentence. "Yeah, I can transform, but why are they looking for you? Are you a criminal or something? What did you even do to have them actively look for you, and why do you call them 'dragons'? Aren't you also one?" Velios just looked back at him, confused as well.

"Oh, you didn't notice? I'm not a dragon." Velios said it yet again so casually, but this came as a huge shock to Shiva. "H-How are you not a dragon with how powerful you are? T-That fire magic was so intense; I don't think the knights of this country back when I was alive were even nearly as strong. If so, what are you even?" Shiva thought that Velios was actually joking. Shiva had never really understood jokes, but in the situation he was in, that was the only thing he could assume. "The difference between us humans and dragons is that we are far smarter when it comes to general knowledge, and even when it comes to battle, I am still superior, so that's probably why." This sentence passed right over Shiva's head. He hadn't even begun talking before he realized what Velios actually meant by that. "H-H-H-Human?! Impossible! Simply impossible! Stop with the jokes! They aren't even funny." Shiva couldn't believe what he had just heard. "Enough about that, just transform already and let's get out of here." Velios said it, expecting some super long and complex process, but it was over within a second's time. Shiva had transformed.

"A cat? A black cat? Why did you transform into a black cat?" Velios asked curiously. "I-I only transformed into a cat for my own sake, okay?!" The cat walked away from Velios. "That just makes it sound more weird... and the exit is not even over there." The cat heard what Velios said and turned around to go the other way while not looking at Velios. Velios caught up to the cat and picked him up. "Hey! What are you doing?!" Velios decided that he wanted the cat to be on his shoulder for literally no peculiar reason. Little did Velios know that something like this was what the demon wanted. Haha! You fool. Don't you know that demons are masters at bending their body to their will? With this, I can simply enter your body and take over it, simple as that. Velios had forgotten that the demon wasn't actually being friendly but that he had dark intentions. The demon shifted its body once again to enter Velios' body and take over it, but what happened next was truly unforeseen.

The demon was met with something truly terrifying as soon as it had entered Velios' body somewhat. Two things, actually. One of the things was the massive amount of mana that Velios possessed. It was so terrifyingly huge that it was like he had entered a purely dark realm made of nothing but Velios' insane amount of condensed mana. The demon could see what would happen to him if he even dared to take a step further. He would get completely obliterated, consumed by the massive amount of mana the moment he would step in. You could only explain it as a bottomless pit. It was like he was staring death in the eye. But, the other thing he found was even more terrifying, something even worse than what he had seen just moments ago. Something worse than the cruel death he would face, or at least the immense pain. He was so scared of it he actually thought that he could die. What he saw was the marks left behind from one of the Sovereigns as it had been engraved inside Velios' soul. It was as if a voice told him, "If you dare set a foot in here, death shall only be the lightest punishment you shall receive."

Velios watched confusedly as the cat had disappeared from his shoulder. Velios looked around to see if he could find Shiva, but he was out of sight. Only seconds later did he see where he was. Shiva had only managed to scratch the surface of Velios' palm. He couldn't physically get further inside. Velios looked down at his hand, remembering that it looked the same when Shiva was trapped inside the book with his mouth and eyes being the only thing you could see from him. "Wow, how did you do that? You're inside my hand! This could also prove to be convenient. Now it might actually prove useful if I manage to control it." Velios had quickly transferred from talking to Shiva to talking to himself. Little did Velios know that Shiva was basically foaming from his mouth. W-What's up with this kid? ...I-It might not be so bad to stick around for a bit after all.