The God of Light and Darkness 5 Elana Feuer 1

A single young looking woman facing off 15 fearless marionettes made of metal that were wielding swords, daggers, lances and a few other weapons.

"A fire element magic user..." Neo narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the fiery flames coming from both the sword and the girl. "Apprentice Fencer, from what looks like." Neo easily saw through her mastery of both magic and sword arts. "If it was in my previous world, she would have been considered a genius by being able to achieve this proficiency level this young."

He was currently playing around with a butterfly knife he found in one of the thugs' body. His golden eyes were cold and emotionless as he watched the girl slowly falling in disadvantage against the Demon.

...

*Cough*

Elana used her sword to support her body. She coughed some blood in the ground. "Dammit..." She cursed as she lifted her head to glance at the approaching ten marionettes. She just had destroyed five of them, but her situation only got worse.

There was a lot of rips and cuttings on her black clothes. The rips showed the smooth white skin beneath it, but the blood slowly dripping from the wounds covered most of the rips in the cloth.

{Flame Cloak}

She decided to get more serious and casted a Tier 3 spell, a spell that only Apprentice and higher magic user level are able to use.

Her entire body became covered with a thin surface of flames above her clothes.

A marionette tried to approach, but just as he got closer to Elana, the metal in his body started to shine with a orange light because of the high temperature that it was being submitted.

"Hm?" The demon was surprised as he saw what happened when his marionette tried to approach. "I forget how I'm in disadvantage when fighting against people of the Feuer family, fire really can damage my toys..." He commented in a low tone that only himself was able to hear.

Elana stood up with her back straight and lifted her sword back. She opened her mouth and started to chant again.

{Spirit of Fire}

With another Tier 3 spell, her face palled a little, but the intensity of the flames around her, and in the sword grew at least twice stronger.

She swiftly slashed with her sword at the closer marionette.

*Slash*

The marionette was easily cut in half by the sword, damaging the Soul Gem that was located in the heart area of the marionettes.

*Clank*

The metal toy fell on the ground, unmoving.

"How about this... Demon?" She lifted her eyebrow and asked in a somewhat cocky manner.

"Pretty good, I have to admit..." The voice said in a casual tone, as if he was not worried at all seeing 6 of his toys being destroyed. "I haven't expected the Ancardians sending someone with such solid foundation and strength."

"Well... I'm just getting started." She closed the distance between herself and the marionettes and started her attacks.

With only a few clashes with the marionettes she was soon able to realize something.

The lesser marionettes that were standing, the stronger the remaining ones became.

[When I destroy a marionette he can stop distributing his Mana to less of them and this will make the other stronger.] She frowned.

Elana had never faced against a puppeteer, so she didn't knew a efficient method to deal with the demon beside the most basic forward plan, go around destroying everything in the way until she gets to the mastermind.

She took a step back and at the same time the marionettes pressed on with swift and deadly attacks.

She dodged and blocked a few of them until a marionette took the opportunity and attacked from a blind spot.

*Clank*

Elana was able to parry the attack on time. She advanced and threw a punch at the metal marionette.

*Bam*

Her fist was able to pierce the chest and melt the Soul Gem of another marionette.

[One more down, eight more to go...] She glanced at the marionettes that stopped with their attack and slowly encircled her. [What are they planning to do?]

"Oh..." The voice echoed in the warehouse. "You're pretty good, I have to applaud you from being able to destroy seven of my toys without suffering a deadly wound, but..."

A dark aura started to spread throughout the entire warehouse.

"Who said I was only going to use my puppets when fighting?" The demon laughed.

Elana felt that there was something wrong and tried to retreat, but the marionettes didn't allowed her to escape.

Soon enough, pitch black tentacles bursted from the ground and formed a cage around Elana.

It happened so fast that she had time to react before she realized she was locked inside a cage.

*Slash*

She tried to cut a opening, but just as her sword was able to open a hole, the dark tentacles would fix themselves as fast as she was able to cut them down.

"{Spirit of Fire}... A pretty good Tier 3 spell that only the main lineage of the Feuer family's able to use." A figure slowly started to appear before Elana. "I wonder... Are you a direct descent or a bastard?"

Elana could hear the mocking tone that the demon used when he spoke.

Her eyes became frosty as she looked at the figure shrouded in the shadows, behind the marionettes.

She tried to infuse more Mana in her {Fire Cloak} spell, but it was useless. The cage was strong enough to support being submitted to very high temperatures.

"Dark element is pretty useful, isn't it?" The demon shrouded in a dark mist walked a little more toward the cage. "The only element that really can do serious damage to it, is the Light. Basically only someone from the Lumine family would have a true advantage against a dark element magic user."

{Great Fire Ball}

*Boom*

Elana tried to blow up the cage with a Tier 2 spell, but the regeneration of the cage was way faster than she thought. The use of the fire ball that was launched from her hands only served to make her even pale.

Her face palled and her legs grew wobbly. "What's happening...?" She glanced at the demon.

"It's a plus effect that my spell has on the prisoner." The Demon's face behind the mist had a smiling expression. "The cage can absorb the Mana inside a person and use it to fix itself when destroyed."

"That means-"

"That means that every damage you have done to the cage had been fixed by your Mana. That's why you are felling the side effects of overusing the Mana inside your soul."

"Impossible!" Elana looked at the Demon in disbelief. "Such a broken spell... Cannot exist."

"Broken spell?" The demon wierdly looked at Elana. "Your {Spirit of Fire} is way more broken than this little spell of mine. Doubling or even tripling the strength of the spells of the magic user without that much of Mana cost for him... Isn't it broken?"

"..." She thought a little and realized that was indeed true...

"Now... Let's stop with our chat, I have a meeting with a important person in 1 hour and I kind want to appear there earlier that later." The demon shrugged his shoulders. He raised his hand and pointed at Elana. "Sorry about this, but I'm going to take your soul... Not really, I'm not sorry at all."

"{Apprentice Demonic Cage}..." The demon lifted his head and looked at the source of the new voice. He had been in alert all this time, but he didn't felt the newcomer. "It's been a while since the last time I saw such devious spell... I can't complain at all, I have used it a lot of times as well."

"Who are you?" The Demon narrowed his eyes as he stared at the figure shrouded in dark mist that was slowly descending from the ceiling.

"It's going to make any difference whatever I tell you or not?" Neo asked the demon back.

"You're right..." The demon let out a cold smile. "After all, you're going to die right here and right now!"

With a wave of his hand, the 8 last standing marionettes all jumped toward Neo with their weapons ready to slash at him.

Neo grinned when he saw the approaching enemies.

*Clank, clank, clank, clank...*

The marionettes were soon suspended in the air with pitch black spears in their chests, coming from the ground beneath Neo.

"Demigod!" The demon's pupils shrunk. He saw that the newcomer was able to control his element without the need of chanting a spell.

Demigods are a little different from normal magic users because since they are blessed or were born, they already have the understanding of a Law of the universe that the God that blessed him, or is his parent, represent. The other major difference is the longevity of their lives. They can live almost as twice an avarage magic user.

Laws are what keep the universe on balance. Without Laws the world would be a chaotic mess. The Laws that govern the elements are the most basic of the Laws possibly to understand. Those that control a Law can freely control the element that the Law govern, without that much Mana expenditure and even spells.

"Wait a second..." The Demon soon realized that something was wrong. He glanced at the spears that were still piercing his marionettes. "Isn't that dark element...?" He switched his sights back to the newcomer shrouded in dark mist. "You're a demon as well, why would you attack a compatriot this way?"

"I'm no demon..." Neo casually smiled. "At least not in the true meaning of the word."

The demon squinted his eyes as he stared at Neo. Now that Neo had landed on the ground the demon was able to see that Neo's soul was the same as his, completely black. But... There was something different, something he was unable to quite see it properly.

It was common sense that once a human's soul became completely black the person would undergo a huge change in both body, soul, and mind. Strangely enough, he was unable to detect any of this changes in Neo's body.

[He's probably hiding them behind his dark mist...] The demon thought in the most acceptable explanation that went along with his common sense. "Who are you and why are you interfering with the work of other demons?" He asked in a serious tone.

"I'm not a demon, you know." Neo patiently said again. He was already used to it. In his previous life, a lot of people tried to hunt him down because they all assumed he was demon, this mainly happened because his soul is completely dark, just a like a demon's.

"Do you expect me to believe in you?" The demon's eyebrow lifted as he suspiciously looked at Neo. "Alright... Let's all just assume that I believe in you, now... Can you say what are doing here?"

Neo dismissively shrugged his shoulders when he saw that the demons didn't believed in him.

"I'm here..." He glanced at the demon and he unconsciously licked his lips. "Because I think I found a delicious soul."

The demon slightly trembled when his eyes met with Neo's line of sight.

He was able to feel the intense bloodthirstiness and killing intent coming from Neo. The same kind of pressure and killing intent he felt only in the old demons with thousands of years, and that killed more than million of living beings.

[Is this guy planning to consume another demon's soul!?] The demon took a step back. [Is him crazy? Isn't him afraid of what our superiors would do to him if they somehow found out about what could happen if he absorb a fellow demon's soul?]

"Satisfied with your answer?" Neo asked.

"Not quite, but I think it will do for now." The demon answered back. He rose his guard and prepared for the battle that was bound to come.

"Alright then... Since you ain't going to start, let me have the honor." The spikes that were piercing the marionettes right in their Soul Gem, started to dissipate into nothing.

Both figures shrouded in a dark mist stared at each other.

Chapter end