章節 36: Hellish Fiend 1
'A low-level being that can use fire attacks? It should be a low-level demon,' Liam thought as he climbed onto a nearby house to get a better view.
'There's a river behind the murder scene, the rift shouldn't be there since water would have extinguished whatever came through.' He surveyed the area. 'To the right is a park, behind me is a busy road, and to the left is an old factory. No additional reports about this creature have been made, so it didn't come from the road, as it would have been seen and reported. There would also be burned leaves or trees if it had come through the park. That just leaves the old factory.'
Liam headed towards the small factory. 'According to Google, this factory is old but still in use by a small company with only around eight people.' He frowned as he remembered this detail. 'There haven't been any reports to the police about a murder or strange creature in this area.'
As he got closer to the factory, he noticed some burnt grass about 200 meters away from the factory. 'As expected.'
Reaching the factory, he saw the large sliding door lying broken on the ground. 'This certainly wasn't done by a small creature; the sliding door was smashed off its hinges, and there are molten areas here, too.'
Liam looked inside the factory and saw cracks on the floor and more molten lava patches. 'This confirms my guess, this creature either gives off heat or is partially made of magma.'
'There are only three low-level demons that match this description: a Cinder Imp, a Hellfiend, and an Abyssal Beast.'
Liam entered the factory. At first, he saw nothing, so he continued walking, following the creature's tracks. After a few minutes, a foul smell hit him. 'As expected, how unfortunate. The people working here are probably all dead.'
He walked forward to a left turn leading to a slightly larger area. He didn't enter immediately, instead, he peeked around the corner, hoping to see something. 'The next factory hall must be about 40 by 40 meters.'
Suddenly, he heard something snap, followed by the sound of munching.
Liam cautiously stepped forward and looked into the hall. 'Rock-like body structure, around eigth to ten feet tall, cracks filled with molten lava running through the rocks. It must be a Hellish Fiend.' Liam thought as he looked at the left side of the hall.
As Liam finished studying the fiend, he noticed what it was doing. He couldn't help but feel angry and disgusted. 'It's eating someone… or rather, what used to be someone.' The fiend tore off another arm from a headless, limbless corpse, leaving only part of the body's chest and a single leg. Blood was splattered around everywhere in that part of the hall.
Behind the fiend, Liam noticed a dimensional tear, the edges showing pieces of this dimension breaking apart, with an orange-red glow coming through.
'This isn't good. Low-level demons near dimensional tears drain energy from their surroundings. If left alone, the tear will grow larger, allowing more powerful beings to come through.' He remembered the creature's known abilities and weaknesses from the dimensional creatures book. 'Its weaknesses should be its slow movement, limited intelligence and water. It can spew lava from its mouth and it can harden specific locations on its body when attacked.'
Liam analyzed further. 'I need to end this quickly. After finishing that corpse, it'll likely hunt for another victim. I can't afford to wait. Incursio's armor should handle the heat from a low-level fiend, given the low damage it caused at the murder scene.'
He continued assessing. 'I doubt it was holding back, considering how low its intelligence is. It didn't even need to use its lava against ordinary humans. Its physical strength alone should have been enough, while it may not be on Captain America's level. With its size and power, it should be more than enough to overpower some ordinary people.'
'While I could use water from the nearby river, fighting it head-on would be a good way to test my current abilities. Being non-organic, it can regenerate if I attack the wrong spots. I'll need to hit its core points—the shoulders, upper legs, chest, and head. These points are where its power circulates; once broken, it won't be able to flow energy there again.'
With this plan, Liam stepped forward and summoned Incursio's armor and Neontote. He deliberately made some noise to attract the fiend's attention.
The Hellish Fiend, hearing him, stopped munching and turned around. It screeched at Liam as molten lava dripped from the top of its mouth.
Both charged forward. The fiend reached out to grab Liam with one hand and opened its mouth, preparing to spew molten lava. 'There it is,' Liam noted, sidestepping the hand and using his spear to create distance.
The fiend spat molten lava, but Liam's distance gave him time to dodge. As it closed in, it swung a fist at him. 'Let's test this hardening ability,' Liam thought, bringing his spear down on the incoming fist.
Upon impact, the fiend's right fist cracked, revealing more molten lava inside. Enraged, it swung its left fist, forcing Liam to jump back. The fiend screeched at him, even angrier, and began throwing molten lava from its cracked hand in his direction.
Liam continued to dodge while closing the distance. When he got closer, the fiend opened its mouth again. 'This time I won't dodge,' Liam thought, advancing as the fiend spewed out more molten lava. Its accuracy was terrible, but since Liam was close, some of the lava splattered onto his armor.
'It's hotter than I thought,' Liam muttered to himself, lightly cursing, 'but at least my armor wasn't broken by some lava.'
The fiend swung its cracked right hand at Liam again, hoping to melt him with the lava flowing from the cracks. Liam pulled Neontote back and thrust it forward toward the center of its palm.
The already cracked hand was no match for Liam's thrust and shattered completely. Liam continued with another thrust towards the left shoulder, breaking the energy core that was in it, making sure it would not regenerate its left arm again.
As the energy core in its left shoulder was broken, its entire left arm fell off. 'That makes sense, if it can't circulate its energy, it can't keep its body together.' Liam thought.
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章節 37: Hellish Fient 2
After the right arm fell off, the Hellish Fiend began spewing more molten lava in all directions. Liam didn't dodge the lava anymore, and as the fight progressed, he barely felt the heat. 'Incursio is adapting to the high temperatures,' Liam confirmed.
Liam dodged the fiend's remaining left arm as it swung at him and brought his spear down toward its now-exposed right side. His spear cut deep but didn't reach the middle core. 'To reach its middle core, I'd need to attack from the front or back,' Liam noted. 'If I can break the middle or top core, its entire body will fall apart. Now, with one arm down, it should be doable.'
He pulled his spear back from the side, dislodging chunks of rock from the creature where he had struck. The stones quickly reattached, but the cracks remained. 'While it can pull the stones back, it can't fully heal the cracks without time. This keeps the parts I damage weak even if they regenerate.'
The fiend kept spewing lava and swinging its remaining fist. 'Its armor is strong, but it fights without any real form, it's purely relying on its instincts.'
'Since it's so slow, let's go from behind,' Liam thought.
Liam started circling the fiend, who, despite being slow, was just quick enough to turn its body halfway. It swung its arm at Liam, but he slid under the arm and, pushing off the ground, gained enough momentum to thrust his spear toward the fiend's head. The spear pierced the head slightly before Liam pulled it back, exposing the yellow energy core within.
The fiend retaliated with a swing of its fist, aiming at Liam who had still not landed on the ground. He raised his spear to block the blow, succeeding but still feeling the impact. Since he wasn't grounded, the punch sent him flying back a few meters before he landed on his feet. 'One more hit, and the head's core is done for,' Liam thought.
Sensing the danger, the fiend began backing away, instincts warning it of imminent death. It turned and started to sprint towards the dimensional tear. Understanding its intent, Liam raised his spear, pulled it back, and hurled it with all his strength. The spear hit its target, slicing through the fiend's cracked head, shattering the energy core completely. As the fiend's body crumbled, it stumbled forward, reaching for the dimensional tear. Without the main core, the other cores stopped rotating energy, and its form collapsed into rumble.
'That's that, then,' Liam thought, looking over the remains. 'I came as fast as I could, but I couldn't prevent these deaths, even if I'd wanted to.' He gazed around at the the corpses and a few scattered heaps of bones he hadn't noticed before.
'Anyway, time to deal with this dimensional tear,' Liam remembered the struggles he'd gone through to learn this magic.
"Wait, before that, I almost forgot," he muttered, moving closer to the tear.
As he approached, he felt attracted to the energy coming from Hell. Liam sat down, collecting his thoughts. 'People would call me insane for trying this.'
He re-equipped Incursio and summoned Neontote, beginning to draw in some of the energy from Hell. Suddenly, an ancient beast's roar echoed in his mind. "Argh!" he screamed, hands pressed against his ears as he lost control of the energy intake. 'I knew it. I should have never gone for Hell energy!'
The energy intake increased, flowing directly into his spear, Neontote began to transform under the energy. Liam heard metal sizzling as he looked toward his weapon, noticing changes in its appearance. The fire energy was sharpening Neontote's edges, and something else was taking shape in the center. The original blade split down the middle and both sides shifted back to the sides of the circular symbol, which was transforming also transforming itself. The circle gradually took on a new shape, looking like a dragon's head with open jaws.
As Neontote's transformation completed, the roaring in Liam's mind stopped. He examined the changed spear, wondering what had just happened. When he picked it up, he felt an unfamiliar feeling. the ability to channel energy into it. Testing this, Liam send some energy into Neontote, causing flames to erupt from the dragon's open mouth.
"What the fu… That's awesome," Liam said, excited. 'I never expected this to happen.'
He channeled more energy through the spear, causing an even larger burst of flames. Pointing it at the wall, he watched as the wall began to melt under the intense heat. 'How does it return to its normal spear form?' he wondered.
To his surprise, as he thought about it, the spear transformed back: the dragon head changed back into the circular symbol, and the spear blades shifted forward again. 'That's even better.' He switched back and forth between the normal and new mode a few times, feeling like a kid with a new toy.
"Okay, okay, I have to stop now—I still need to close the dimensional tear," Liam said, refocusing. 'I had to learn Sanskrit just to perform this spell. It took forever to memorize, and I still don't know all of it, but I know enough for this spell.'
He thought of the Ancient One, who had demonstrated this spell for him during their training. 'Since this tear is from the Hell dimension, I'll need a more complex, soothing type of healing. Knowing the energy type is important so I can adapt the spell accordingly.'
Liam began casting, moving his hands in deliberate, slow gestures. As he spoke, he felt his energy compress into thin threads, directing them with the final words of the spell toward the dimensional tear. 'It's starting,' he thought as he watched the threads stitch together the tear in his dimension. 'The Hell energy is pushing back, but the energy of this dimension is resisting it.'
"Time for the final step," Liam muttered, raising both hands to send additional energy towards the closed tear, helping his dimension's natural healing process. After a short while, he noticed the tear had completely healed.
'Now I need to clean up the fiend's body and cover up this scene,' he thought. 'How should I cover this up, though? Multiple deaths have occurred.'
He pondered, 'Though its extreme and very unreasonable, the best option might be to make it look like an explosion. That way, the missing people will be eventually be accounted for, and their families will have closure.'
"This is messed up on so many levels, but what choice do I have? If I start telling people that creatures from other dimensions invaded and ate their family members corpses after killing them, they'll think I'm crazy…or worse, they'll lose all will to live," he murmured to himself. "Besides, the Sanctum wants to keep magic a secret and I can see why."
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Really enjoyed writing this chapter, I hope you all like it too.
PS: Don't worry about Liam's regular form, he will get an actual evolution in a specific way too :).
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