The Demon Against the Heavens 98 Memories

An elegant girl with the noblest bearing faked a frown. "Wasn't there a reunion of the Congregation, today? What are you doing here?" she crossed her arms slightly under her breast, forcing a serious expression out of the smile that appeared on her face. She really had a hard time keeping a frown in front of Vidio. Her eyes couldn't help glisten with a dazzling light. The more she tried to resist him, the fiercer the feelings tearing her apart.

"Hey, hey! I was busy today, you know?" Vidio winked at her as he noisily slapped on her rear end.

Cori went furious. She raised an arm to slap him back, when suddenly the master appeared behind her in a silver flash, squeezing her rear end with both hands.

"Ahhhh!" Vidio heaved a sigh, "how much I've missed it!"

"You dirty swine, take your hands off me or I'll call my fat-mhhh!"

Vidio had Cori turned around and was pressing his lips against hers. He kissed away those fake threatens he was so into. For how much he loved her though, his beloved really did chat too much. Every once in a while she might as well shove her damned virtue up her ass and just get lai-

"You know what would happen If my father knew!" Cori exclaimed as she left her lover's lips. "I'm promised to another, Vidio, I can't be with you!" Cori's words whispered their way down to a descending climax which ended in what seemed a feeble weep.

Helial wound up in what looked like an Illusion.

"It's not an Illusion, Shithead. These are memories. The blood you've just seen was Vidio's. The memory I've extracted belongs to him. When I examined his life, I found something that you might find useful. However, I have no idea how long you can stay here. Bear in mind that whatever you do, none here will be able to see you, nor can you change the past."

Helial bit his lip as the young Vidio kept harassing Cori, who seemed more and more yielding with the master's every blandishments.

Vidio's features exuded the greatest pride and vigor. His facial lines were sharp and manly. They still weren't plagued by misfortune. Helial had hardly recognized him at first. He looked so different than the Master he had met. And yet there he was, just before him…

Helial groaned, his throat dried out: "When did you take his blood?"

"Just before he died. I took his blood Essence, the one containing his very Mana. I had sensed some strange technique inside his body, but it seemed sealed somehow. So I've sneaked inside his memories and, well, I did find something…"

The Devil's words resounded through Helial's head. They caused an instinctive shiver down his spine.

Sometimes it just slipped Helial's mind how strong that kid was. The Devil's looks didn't help for sure; a little boy with a bowl cut and bat pattern clothes isn't really what you would expect an extraordinary creature to look like. However, it was in moments like this that Helial was reminded of the absolute power the Devil could wield whenever he chose to. With his actual body, what would a creature like him rank in the universe's hierarchy?, Helial could not help but think.

The scenery before his eyes suddenly changed. Now Vidio was alone, training.

"AH!"

You acquired a new Skill:

Lightning Dance!

Vidio looked like a lightning indeed. Without having reached the First Phase yet, he was moving at full-speed through a legion of monsters infesting a forest.

Every blow he struck drenched the trees in blood.

"This was Snowflake's speed before him acquiring his strange Skill…" Helial mumbled.

It was truly unconceivable for an ordinary human to reach such high speed-specialized levels as to match those of a divine beast.

Skill Activated:

Lightning Dance

Skill Activated:

Lightning Blow

Vidio slaughtered its way Quest after Quest, endlessly hanging between life and death. The risks he tirelessly took were tempering his body. Eventually, Helial couldn't help exclaiming: "He's already overtopped the Vidio I knew!"

How was it possible? Not only had Vidio stopped levelling up, but he had also lost some of his power and strength. The Vidio Helial was presently witnessing was only in the First Phase Late stage, but looked already far stronger than the Vidio he knew.

There was something terribly fishy about this. Helial had a weird feeling. There was something he was unaware of.

Helial couldn't figure this out.

If Vidio was so strong and dedicated to training, why would the Master he had stumbled on in Floralivory City be stuck in the Second Phase?

Things were getting dodgy.

New sceneries followed. Helial saw Vidio play Romeo with Cori until he finally seduced her. He saw him spend his life in the Capital day after day; chase after Cori, be rejected, snoop on her through the windows, admire her stunning beauty, and treasure these memories for his next travel.

Helial blushed in front of the raciest scenes and felt his heart melt before the sweetest ones. Vidio wasn't the flirty man he had always thought him to be. Quite the contrary. The one he was looking at was a man capable of love.

Helial had never experienced that kind of love. But if he had to picture it, he would definitely think of something that looked like that.

The setting changed once again.

It wasn't a clearing, this time. It was a grey rainy day inside the walls of the Capital.

"What happened to his man? I look at him and see a strong happy man full of life. Even if they exiled him for possessing some terrifying Skill, why wasn't he in the Second Phase Intermediate stage? It doesn't make any sense. He should have still been able to level up, even if extremely slowly. If he hadn't stopped training in Floralivory, one day he probably would have been able to go back to the Capital. I mean, he's a freaking monster. By training just as consistently as this, even despite the Master tasks he had to complete in that rat-hole, he would still advance faster than many others… What did that pervert do to lose his strength the more with every day?"

Helial's train of thought was running at wild speed. The boy was racking his brains out to find out what could have happened to his Master. But in vain.

Vidio was now leaning against a palace wall. The rain poured down drenching his clothes and hair. He was holding a bottle. From time to time he would take a sip. Since he was only in the Second Phase Early stage, he still hadn't the Divine Sense. His senses though were sharp enough to let him perceive what was going on inside the palace.

"Your father has ordered to keep you in your room all day, My Lady! Did you hear me?!" a middle-aged woman with a stern face cried to Cori.

Cori fell silent, a complicated expression on her face. "I've already spoken with my father. I won't be secluded in my own home. I have no intention to pay mind to this folly. Leave me alone now, please."

As these words fell out into the air, another voice from another wing called her: "My Lady! Young Master Beritius is here to pay visit."

Cori furrowed her eyebrows and stood up, straightening her dress. Her future husband had just came out of nowhere and she must welcome him, willing or not. Her father would never lay a finger on her, but he wouldn't have trouble sending her in some faraway god-forsaken wasteland to help her clear her mind, either. She had better not push it too much.

Cori wore an helpless smile. There was nothing she could do. "I was born a weak…" she whispered.

Vidio took another sip, two sparkles shining on his right hand.

"Beritius, huh?" he groaned something, and then went back to listening.

Helial tried to recall who that Beritius might be. From what Vidio had told him, and from his Master's memories themselves, Beritius must be Cori's future husband as well as the heir of one of the two biggest Clans of the Mana Congregation.

Cori welcomed Beritius: "To what do I owe this visit?"

Beritius wore a warm smile and said: "I talked to your father. I'm allowed to see you."

"Great spirit of enterprise, really. You're a lion heart, aren't you?" Vidio sneered.

Helial could not help but burst into laughter at his Master's words. Vidio had always been like that, apparently. Helial did miss him. There was no burden Vidio couldn't lighten. Maybe Helial really needed someone like him in his life.

Cori e Beritius had a formal exchange of words as Vidio yawned noisily outside the palace, taking a sip every now and then.

"Nobles. They're a bore," Vidio yawned again, "how many brooms would I need to shove up my ass to sound like one?"

Helial ran a hand over his face. Vidio's obscene language upset him.

Apparently, Beritius was already in the Sixth Phase Last stage. What level has he reached by now? Helial wondered.

Beritius bad farewell to Cori without his finger even brushing against her. Vidio smacked his lips. A great pressure had just dropped on his shoulders. His expression though remained unchanged.

Once walked outside the door, Beritius walked towards an adjacent alley. "Good evening," the man whispered, surprised, as he met Vidio's gaze. A mighty killing Aura covered the Master. Beritius would appear to know something, or suspect it at least.

"Evening," Vidio yawned, "to what I owe this reach-about?"

A large blue vein bulged on Beritius' forehead. "My future bride fucking lives here! More like, what the fuck are you doing here?" These words though didn't leave Beritius' lips. "Just passing by," he resolved for a cold scornful smile. "I've heard that Episcopous will take the test to become a Master pretty soon now."

"Huh," Vidio said half-heartedly as he garishly scratched his pubic zone.

Those barbaric manners disgusted Beritius as fierceness flashed in his eyes. "Oh, by the way, since you're here, I have something for you."

Vidio raised an eyebrow as he hastily let all of his Mana flow through his Meridians. Despite the abysmal gap between them, Vidio and Beritius were both fellow members of the Mana Congregation. Neither of them could kill the other too easily, or the Mana Congregation would sentence them to death.

The Congregation had indeed as strict rules as great benefits to offer. Vidio had joined the Congregation precisely so as to defend himself from people like Beritius. The name of the Mana Congregation was enough to dissuade anyone from planning to kill him.

Slowly, Beritius dug out a scroll from his Interspace Ring.

Meanwhile, an unaware Cori was weeping inside her room. Two swollen rivulets spoilt Cori's flawless face. She was so beautiful that people often caught themselves wondering whether she must be a Goddess rather than a woman. And yet she was so frail…

Cori's throat was burning with her intense hatred towards herself. She couldn't do much to get out of that situation. If she had been stronger, braver maybe, then she would have rebelled against Beritius, and her father, and her current situation.

Helial furrowed his eyebrows, his expression betraying a slight disgust.

"This woman is the reason why Vidio was exiled and then met death…" Helial snarled. "Is weakness a valid excuse to hide behind? Weren't we all born weak? So what's that resigned gaze for? Why would she only rely on Vidio instead of herself, causing him to die? Why would she?!"

Helial was losing his temper. It was difficult for people to share Helial's feelings, but it was twice as difficult for him to relate to theirs.

Weakness? Misfortune?

In his life, Helial had always stood back upright even after losing everything he had. He had dug its way out of pain by matter of blood and sweat. His talent had helped for sure. Without having spared no efforts all his life, however, he would have never got the chance to get back on his feet.

Helial could not but despise whoever hid behind mere excuses like fate or weakness, be them men or women. To be born weak meant nothing to him. It was the choice whether to live as such or not that made a difference.

The Devil sensed his mood swing and gave a sigh. His pitch-black eyes arched through the cloudy sky, from which the first shining stars were peeping out. "Everyone loses at a certain point, Shithead, and you'll make no exception. The day will come for you too to feel weak relatively to someone, or something. The day will come for you too to feel that this time, you can't win…" The kid with the black bangs paused briefly and heaved a sigh. "Willpower can't make a guarantee for victory, not always. In fact, when you want something too much you're actually likely to fail. Even if wanting something too much can pave your way to success too. Victory and failure are scattered down the same path. Some decide to stop after stumbling on one failure, but what if there's just one same road? What are they giving up to, after a single failure?"

An uncanny light glimmered in his eyes as he said these profound words.

"Victory," said Helial as he clenched his fists.

"Victory, exactly. Your willpower can bring about both victory or failure, but only by stepping forward you give yourself the chance to either win or fail. Make your best treasure of it. Because this chance is the only thing that makes a difference between the strong and the weak."

Chapter end