9 years ago /// Ebony Earth, the 4th Grand Sector – Southern Shaded Continent.
The 4th Grand Sector, Ebony Earth, a dark, dangerous world shrouded in a thick, supernatural haze. Towards its south is an even more dreadful land, the Southern Shaded Continent, often referred to as the Nadir. It was a vast continent with an unforgiving environment capable of posing a threat to both mundane and supernatural creatures, a place where it was constantly nighttime. The continent was still inhabited by countless people, many of which were wandering supernaturals who had gone there for power regardless of whether they were weak or strong.
One of those people was currently resting in a not-so-cozy cave, lazily watching the thick fog outside while pondering about his life choices.
Balid had went to the Nadir due to a half-suggestion half-mission given to him by one of his sponsors, Parsifal Vorgrim, and he had already begun to hate every part of his trip.
Balid sighed ran his hand through his long brown hair, getting frustrated as his fingers got stuck on the tangles in them.
His sponsor was an old and powerful supernatural who undoubtedly held immense knowledge. He had told Balid a few weeks earlier that the Southern Shaded Continent in the 4th Grand Sector was where a special Power Nature containing an Innate Trait was located. Upon questioning, Balid was disappointingly given exceedingly vague and misrepresented information.
Makes things less solid? What does that even mean? How would that even help me out in any way?
Balid's abilities were centred around attacking hard, solid objects, as his specialty was piercing armour. If this Innate Trait were to make things less solid, that would only diminish his capabilities during a battle.
Perhaps he meant it makes things softer? That still doesn't work… brittle? Why didn't he just say it like that-?
Balid sighed once more, rubbing his dry hands on his face before turning towards the campfire, the only thing keeping the Phantom Haze out of the cave.
The Phantom Haze was the Uniqueness of the 4th Grand Sector, a supernatural fog which held countless monsters – not beasts – monsters. It was kept away only by light sources such as fires. The thicker the fog, the stronger the creatures that dwelled in it. Currently, the fog outside was especially thick, not that would be much of an issue to him anyways, he was an Interim after all.
In the Tiers of the Supernatural, there were four levels: low, mid, high and top. The first three levels each had three tiers while the last one had two. Balid belonged to the last level, an Interim, the second highest tier that a supernatural can achieve. He was still wary though, since supernaturals attracted other supernaturals, and the daily life of an Interim was especially unpredictable.
Seeing the fog begin to dissipate, Balid ceased his thoughts and began to prepare for departure, never once unsummoning his unadorned, pitch-black lance.
...
Balid, now wearing his Lunar Silver armour and holding a map, was now marching towards the goal of this expedition while simultaneously muttering to himself in frustration.
'Ugh! If Ebony Earth sucks already, then what kind of creature possessed me to come to the Nadir then?'
Looking up from his map, he swept his gaze along the frigid, gothic expanse of the wasteland in front of him. For what appeared to be miles there was nothing that stood in front of him except hills made of black rocks and ink coloured grass. Of course, it was hard to ignore the occasional monster that appeared on the wasteland, but they had been dispatched with ease, both thanks to his own skill, and thanks to his new armour.
If Parsifal hadn't agreed to make me this set of armour, I would have long given up on this stupid task…
Lunar Silver – apart from being one of the most valuable and powerful supernatural metals one could ask for – had the Godsent ability of strengthening both itself and its user during nighttime, which was nothing less than a blessing in the Nadir, where it was constantly nighttime.
While thinking of this, Balid was suddenly alerted by a slight, almost unnoticeable rumble in the ground, which he had only noticed thanks to his Trait "Echolocation". He instantly knew it was a monster heading his way and subconsciously guessed the creature's distance to be 600 metres away.
Instantly, Balid wrapped his map back up and placed it into the pouch hanging next to his waist. He then spun around and saw the creature running at him from the left side as he drew his lance from his back and got ready for battle.
His lance was forged by him personally, made of medium quality Stygian Steel which had the unique property of being able to absorb and perfectly insulate heat.
The monster appeared to be a bulky, six-legged combination of a rhinoceros and a mountain. It had two large obsidian-like horns on its snout, one roughly two thirds the size of the one in front of it. The outside of its body was covered not by skin or leather, but instead by grey rocks which probably acted as armour for its body. It was at least 6 metres tall and 17 metres long, intimidating without a doubt.
Despite this, Balid was not scared, in fact, he was smiling. This was because the monster in front of him was exactly the kind of opponent that he perfectly specialized in fighting against. His lance was enchanted to be stronger against armoured opponents, perfectly built for piercing through armour such as the one around the beast's body.
He gauged the monster's power to be similar to a Champion or perhaps a weaker Elite, which was at least one rank below him. Thanks to all of these factors, he was almost certain of his victory, yet he stayed vigilant, like all Interims should be. This was because for Interims, there were far too many unknowns and far too many unpredictable variables that could pop up at any point; it was not rare for an Interim to die due to unforeseen circumstances that appeared out of the blue.
The monster was closing in at only around 480 metres away now. Balid, wishing not to waste any more time, also began to charge at the towering creature, except much faster than the monster itself, within seconds he had reached a speed of 90 metres per second, and even sooner, he was upon the monster.
Although the monster had been stunned for a moment at the speed of its adversary, that did not stop it from taking the initiative and unleashing the first attack.
The ground under Balid's feet shook, then burst and crumbled as if something had exploded beneath it. Balid's ankle bent, making him lose control of his velocity for a split-second right in front of the monster.
The monster lowered its head, preparing to impale Balid in its sable horns, but in the last moment, Balid used his bent ankle to launch himself to the left, narrowly avoiding the creature's horns. He pushed himself off of the monster's snout, landing 20 metres away.
The monster, realising Balid's move, attempted to do the same, raising the ground from its left side and using two of its legs to push itself to the right. Using its momentum, the monster once again charged towards Balid, attempting to impale him before he regained balance.
Balid, who had just landed, once again saw the monster rushing at him. This time, instead of simply dodging, he ducked down and pushed himself under the beast, once again avoiding its attack, but he did not counter yet.
Balid instead stood up quickly and activated one of the enchantments on his lance. As he poured his essence into the lance, the weapon began to spin in his hand, quickly reaching speeds fast enough to create winds around itself. He then used essence to create a forcefield around the spinning lance, enlarging it by a few inches in length.
By the time he finished his preparations, the monster had already turned around and once again begun to charge at Balid. As it rushed at him, the ground beneath his feet once again begin to rumble, but this time, it did not crack.
Balid smiled slightly as he watched the monster's eyes widen in confusion.
The first exchange that Balid and the monster had confirmed his conjectures, the beast indeed wielded power related to the earth.
Praise God for making this matchup so easy! Balid was not extremely pious, but he was extremely overjoyed for being given such an easy encounter.
Balid himself was a decently proficient user of Geokinetic spells! Regardless of his skill with them, the power difference between the two made it awfully easy to nullify the monster's attack using Geokinesis.
Balid short forward at the creature, closing the distance between them faster than the blink of an eye.
The monster lowered its horns once more, attempting to impale Balid.
Balid jumped onto the monster's horns pushed his lance forward into its brain with all his power.
The effect was immediate. The monster's protection shattered like clay and the flesh under twisted and tore as it was simultaneously pierced by the lance. Its brains got blended into soup, being thrown around and mixed inside of its head as the monster lost balance and toppled over.
Once the corpse stopped moving, Balid pulled his lance out of the monster's head - which was quite easy as there was a large hole in its skull – but did not place it on his back again. This was because the enchantment which caused the lance to spin like a drill had also caused it to heat up due to friction. Due to the properties of Stygian Steel, the lance itself was probably hotter than most mundane fires, yet it would not release any of it into the environment naturally.
Balid bent down and stabbed the lance into the ground and then poured his essence into the steel in a horizontal pattern, the perpendicular to the direction in which the metal was hammered. Instantly, the earth around the lance began to melt into lava. After around five seconds, Balid pulled the lance back out of the ground, made sure there was no lava on the lance, and placed the weapon on his back once more.
He looked at the monster, contemplating whether he should wait for its Power Nature to appear.
Nah. The faster I finish this expedition the better.
He turned towards the battlefield and frowned slightly upon seeing the uneven and crumbled earth.
Damn… I am not walking through that.
He jumped over the battlefield. Upon reaching the other side, he pulled out the map from his pouch and continued his travels.
…
After roughly seven hours of travel, Balid had finally reached a key point in his expedition, a vast taiga with trees that appeared to be over 60 metres tall, making Balid feel as tiny as a mouse. Balid was by no means short, being roughly 190 centimetres, but constantly being under the companionship of Parsifal had made him forget that fact for the most part.
His sponsor was, from his eyes, a behemoth. Standing at around 2.07 metres, Parsifal was an imposing figure with a chiselled body and handsome face. Upon first glance, Balid thought that the man might have been a violent berserker, but after spending time with the man, he realized that the man was instead a very amiable and diligent person. This was surprising as Parsifal the Great was born during the Dark Ages, making him over 18,400 years old. Balid could not even imagine living for that long and still managing to have a positive demeanour.
Balid walked into the forest as he continued to ponder, simultaneously glancing at his surroundings which were filled with countless bushes, trees and other plants which made it really frustrating to travel through them all.
At least Tharol isn't- He didn't even need finish that thought before realizing that he was comparing the wrong things.
Tharol, his second sponsor, was a dwarf whose height was around 1.45 metres tall. The dwarf, although short, friendly and kind, was an absolute nightmare when it came to teaching Balid sorcery, making him shiver at the thought.
'THAT'S NOT HOW YOU-' traumatic memories of Balid failing to properly write runes in Ancient Sharifyt script and being yelled at by the Machine Heart began to replay in his head, prompting him to cease his pondering and making him glad that he'd be returning to the 6th Grand Sector after this expedition, not the 8th Grand Sector where he'd constantly cower in fear inside the residence of a Being of Authority.
He jumped over a large rock without realising that it was right next to a slope, so he ended up sliding down at least 30 metres on his buttocks while screaming.
Damn. How the mighty have fallen.
Getting up, he decided that it was now time to look for a place to stay, as the Phantom Haze would probably return in a few hours.
He surveyed the area, looking at the trees and bushes before setting his eyes on a small hill in the distance and slowly began to make his way toward it before realising that he ran out of firewood.
Looking around, he spotted a dead tree to his left and began to walk towards it instead. When he got there, he bent down and began to 'lightly' punch the log, which quickly turned out to be a bad idea as mounds of sawdust rushed to his face, catching him off guard and causing him to inhale some.
'WHAT THE FU-' his words were cut short as he began a frenzied coughing fit consisting of rolling on the ground, slamming his fist against his chest and feeling like he was about to die.
When he was done, he spoke with slow contempt, 'How the mighty have fallen huh?' He knew that if he had died from such a thing – even though he knew it was impossible – his mentors would have cringed and laughed at the embarrassing way he died instead of shedding any tears.
'An Interim dying of- hahaha- of- of sawdust? HAHAHA-' He could imagine Parsifal's deep voice and his mocking laughter as he bent over with tears in his eyes. He didn't even think about Tharol.
After shaking himself violently to get the sawdust out of his hair and clothes, he went back to the log and instead began to rip piece off of it. '… seven, eight, nine…' after collecting 12 pieces as large as his forearm, he placed them in his pouch and prepared to leave.
'Ahh, spatial manipulation, oh how much I lov-' his blathering was interrupted suddenly by a loud noise.
'RAHHHHHHHHHH' The loud noise made Balid flinch as he looked back in the direction of the noise, feeling a bad premonition. The roar must have come from at least 3 kilometres away, yet it was still extremely loud. It sounded vaguely humanlike, yet Balid could not help but think that it sounded more like a bear. However, it was not the sound which distressed Balid.
'That's where my objective is…' Indeed, the sound had come from the exact direction that Balid was meant to go to, and roughly the same distance. 'S#*t'.
Parsifal had told him that he'd just need to travel there, get the Power Nature and return, nothing complicated! And although there had been many variables that hadn't been explicitly mentioned by Parsifal on the way, the task did not include anything that Balid wasn't already made aware of by his sponsor. Until now.
'No matter. I'll just rest tonight and continue the expedition tomorrow. Hopefully, whatever beast made that noise has nothing to do with me.' He whispered to himself.
With that, he turned around and began to head towards the hill. The hill was quite small compared to others, only around 40 metres tall, but Balid had vaguely noticed a cave entrance when scouting for shelter. When he finally got to the hill, he confirmed the cave's existence.
The cave entrance appeared to be a crack in the hill, and the inside of the cave was claustrophobic. There was at most space for 6 people if they had no items and did not light a fire. Despite these conditions, the cave floor was smooth, and the entrance was large enough to let smoke leave the cave.
Sitting down, he brought out the firewood from his pouch and set them next to each other by the entrance. He then pulled out his lance and used the spinning enchantment, creatively named 'Drill' and pushed the lance into the side of the cave, making an obnoxiously loud, high-pitched sound, causing him to grimace as he pulled his lance out after a few seconds. He then prodded the wood with the tip of his lance, causing it to light on fire.
Stygian Steel was one of the most powerful and valuable supernatural metals in the entire Grada, being produced only on a single planet in the Cosmos named 'Grada Okkorbis', which in Sharifyt translated to 'Golden Planet'. He would never have been able to obtain such an item of not for his sponsors being some of the wealthiest people in the world.
Stygian Steel's ability to insulate heat inside of itself meant that even if he currently held his finger a millimetre away from the lance, he would not feel the slightest bit of heat, but if he actually touched the lance, his finger would instantly suffer burns, though it'd just heal in a few minutes anyways.
Pointing his lance outside, he poured in his essence in a horizontal pattern, releasing the heat outside in a way slower than before, careful not to burn the surroundings.
After putting away his lance, he once again reached into his pouch and pulled out some thin pieces of frozen meat and a metal pan which he placed lazily onto the flame. Watching his meal begin to cook, he began making his plans.
'I won't sleep tonight.' That wouldn't be a problem, after all Interims could go without sleep for multiple weeks, and although he wanted to preserve energy for tomorrow, he decided that he'd be on the lookout for danger tonight.
As he finished that thought, he pulled out a piece of parchment and began to read the details of his objective.
The Power Nature that he was looking for appeared to be… a rock. More specifically, it was a palm sized grey rock that supposedly shined with a silver glow.
Looking out of the cave into the gloomy landscape, he realised he could physically see the ocean of fog drowning the taiga outside. Just a few seconds before it reached his cave, he looked up at the shiny silver moon, the only thing which lit up the continent forever shrouded in darkness.
Turning back towards his parchment. He continued to read the rest of the information, which wasn't that much. He knew that Parsifal had held back information from him on purpose, as he wanted Balid the Earth Piercer to improve himself without constant support.
Reaching the final paragraph, he read: "This Power Nature contains an Innate Trait (for you, Nature Trait) which I believe will aid you more than you can imagine should you obtain it. It synergises almost perfectly with your specialties and abilities, and I truly believe that you'll succeed in getting it."
He folded up the piece of parchment, had his meal, and began to wait for 'daytime' which meant waiting for the fog to clear up.
…
'F#@k.' That was the only thought going through his head and the only words leaving his lips at this point.
When the Phantom Haze had finally left, Balid had packed up everything he needed and left towards his destination, and upon arrival, he had been met with very unfortunate news. The Power Nature which he was meant to pursue was gone. Not gone as in destroyed or dissipated, gone as in consumed.
Consumed by who? One might ask. Consumed by the 50-metre-tall behemoth which stood just 700 metres away from Balid.
The… Balid wasn't exactly sure what it was, but it was terrifying. It looked like a mix of an ape and a Titan, except smaller. The abomination appeared humanoid, with dark brown fur and a mouth that held two rows of sharp teeth. It would occasionally scream, sending chills down Balid's spine. If the nightmarish look that the creature held was not enough.
A Quasi-Prime?! It was a Quasi-Prime, the strongest level of power that an Interim could achieve. It was half a rank higher than Balid, and not only that, but it also didn't appear to have any armour.
What is it? I doubt it's a Titan, they are meant to be way further south than here, and they aren't meant to appear so unique. I doubt it's a beast, perhaps a monster? His thoughts trailed off before he continued his theories before finally ending up on a conclusion. It's a Devil. It has to be.
The creature- no, the Devil appeared to be very intelligent according to Balid's observations. It was not a beast, he could tell it wouldn't be possible to tame or reason with it, and it couldn't be a monster, simply because it had consumed a Power Nature with an Innate Trait, and monsters could not have Innate Traits.
The only thing that made Balid feel confident was the fact that the Devil had probably been weakened from the 'night' before as it clearly did not have any light source.
Well, I don't have any other choice… or do I? I could just run away, no need to risk my life fighting this Devil. Balid was neither pessimistic nor optimistic, always taking things as they were, rarely leaving things to chance. He would have already left if not for the fact that he was both petty and greedy. He had already come all this way, just to do what? go back? His pride could not tolerate such disrespect.
Balid turned to his lance and poured his essence into it. Instantly, the lance began to bend, widening and thinning into a more 2-dimensional shape. In a few seconds, his lance had turned into a pitch-black claymore.
Balid took a deep breath, shot out from behind the rock where he was hiding, and began to sprint at the Devil.
The Devil noticed him instantly, turning to face him before quickly dropping to its knees and putting its hand on the ground. As soon as its hand and the ground made contact, its hand seemed to combine with the earth, and after a second, the Devil pulled its arm out, instantly decimating the ground in front of it and forcing Balid to halt his rush.
Before Balid could even react, the Devil whose arm was in the air, bent its body, and it was only then that Balid noticed the enormous rock that was seemingly attached to its arm.
The boulder flew towards him at a blinding speed, forcing Balid to push himself left with all his might to attempt and dodge the boulder.
The titanic rock crashed into the ground behind Balid, shattering itself and the ground around it into smaller rocks and stones which flew out like shrapnel and causing the surrounding trees to crumble. A few of the smaller stones managed to connect with Balid's body but caused no damage.
By the time Balid managed to dodge the boulder, the Devil had already begun to pick up yet another one, but Balid was unfazed. He used the momentum from his sudden dash to once again begin sprinting, but this time in a spiralling manner around the Devil, accelerating faster and faster as the abomination finally picked up another boulder.
The reason why Balid was so adamant about gaining momentum was because of his weapon's enchantment 'Momentum Proportional Growth' which made it so that the more momentum he had when he attacked, the stronger the attack would be.
The Devil once again launched the boulder like a missile, even faster than before. The boulder once again crashed into the ground, this time sending a deep rumble through the earth on top of the prior destruction.
As Balid began to close the distance between him and the Devil, he noticed a weird phenomenon.
Is it merging with its surroundings? The Devil's body, starting at its legs began to turn into stone as it bent slightly and swung its left arm at Balid like a whip.
Balid jumped at the last moment, using his arm to push himself further up towards the Devil's face and swung.
The blade of his claymore clanged against the rocky fur of the Devil, sliding off leaving only a scratch.
I can use this! Balid thought.
As his momentum carried him away from the Devil, he noticed the Devil's left arm was still moving, obliterating the trees on its way while heading straight toward Balid.
Balid instantly tensed his body, pouring essence into strengthening his body, armour and weapon as he put his claymore between him and the Devil's arm.
The impact was devastating, sending a powerful shockwave through the forest and causing Balid's bones to rattle.
Balid was launched at least 2 kilometres away like a bullet, crashing through some trees and stopping only when his body collided with a large rock, obliterating it completely.
S#*t!
Balid tried to shake off the concussion that he had received from the exchange before diving forward with all his strength to avoid yet another boulder.
He used the momentum from that dive to break into a sprint before realising that he still had his claymore in his hand, completely undamaged.
God bless you Parsifal! God bless Stygian Steel!
The Devil let out a deafening roar which made Balid feel dizzy, making him black out for only a fraction of a second.
When he looked up, he realised that the Devil had moved away from him by a few dozen metres as there wasn't enough earth around it to make more boulders.
Balid once again began to speed up as he beelined towards the Devil, realising that its skin and fur were still similar to rock.
This can't go on. Balid thought, he knew he could not survive a lengthy encounter against this Devil, he had to kill it now.
The Devil used both of its arms to pick up an even larger boulder.
Seeing this, Balid began to transition his claymore back into a lance. Once the transformation was done, he activated the Drill enchantment and created a forcefield around his lance. The lance spun faster and faster every moment that he poured his essence into it.
The Devil finally managed to lift the boulder above its head and did not waste any time in throwing it directly at Balid.
Balid felt fear, but only for a moment.
He used all the momentum from his sprint which had sped up to over 180 metres per second to jump forward with all of his power, thrusting his lance forward to meet the boulder.
The moment that the two collided, the lance dug into the boulder like a drill, causing cracks to spread out over it.
In the next moment, cracks in the boulder became more pronounced and a subtle glow escaped from them before finally, the boulder shattered into pieces.
The Devil opened its eyes wide in surprise, clearly not expecting the human to survive the attack in such a manner.
Balid lost minimal amounts of momentum from the impact with the boulder and was currently flying towards the Devil at lightning-fast speeds.
The Devil attempted to raise its arms to defend itself but was too slow to react.
Balid slipped past the Devil's defences and tried to pierce its head with his lance, but the Devil resisted.
Its skull was way harder than Balid expected, his attack failed to pierce the Devil's skull!
Balid did not back down, manually pushing the lance into the Devil's head, attempting to drill a hole.
The Devil had become aware of Balid's initial failure and had begun to reach its arms towards Balid with a sinister smile on its grotesque face.
Balid felt the lance struggle to drill through the Devil's skull, vibrating and shaking uncontrollably in his hand, until suddenly it stabilised.
Balid smiled as he realised what was happening while the Devil now held a terrified expression.
The friction created by the interaction had been absorbed by the Stygian Steel in the form of heat! The Devil's skull was melting!
Balid used all of his strength to push his lance deeper into the Devil's skull as its arms approached Balid, threatening to crush him, but he wasn't fast enough.
No, no, no! Shit! The gears in Balid's mind turned at speeds impossible for a mundane human until he ended up with an idea meant for a madman.
Right as the Devil's arms were about to descend upon him, Balid suddenly let go of his lance and jumped away from the Devil's head.
The Devil's arms landed on its forehead, suddenly pushing the lance deeper into its skull with terrifying force.
The Devil let out a low growl similar to a whimper as its limbs suddenly lost strength, its body going limp and toppling over in what appeared to be slow motion.
'Phew' Balid said anticlimactically. 'That wasn't that bad!'
Balid regretted saying that in the next moment as his adrenaline ran out and countless aches appeared across his body, prompting him to lie down. That one hit really got me good huh?
After a few minutes of recovering his strength, he opened eyes, staring up at the pale white moon that never left the sky. It was weird really, the rest of the 4th Grand Sector had two moons, but the Southern Shaded Continent only had one.
Balid groaned as he got up from the ground, ruffling his long, wavy brown hair slightly.
'Maybe I should cut it sometime, long hair is really annoying to take care of as a supernatural.' He was then reminded of Parsifal, and the incredibly handsome man's long, luscious hair. 'On second thought, maybe the hustle is worth it…'
He had long unsummoned his lance, so he didn't have to worry about finding it in the rubble. What he did have to find in the rubble though was the Power Nature that would have condensed into shape outside the Devil's body, probably in the wound that killed it.
Reaching the top of the creature's corpse, he walked towards its head which now held a large, human sized hole in its forehead.
'I'm going to have to dive into brain matter… ugh.' Not only that, but the Power Nature also would have been corrupted after being consumed by a Devil. On top of that, the Corruption was notorious for consuming everything from a Devil's Power Nature upon death, so the only thing Balid would gain from this would be the Innate Trait since the Corruption could not consume them.
After around 10 minutes of ripping out chunks of the Devil's brain and emptying the brain juices, Balid finally had his hands on the Power Nature, which was now covered in dark purple growths due to the Corruption.
He was in a great mood, after all, his expedition was over! For the most part, he still had to return after all.
...
2 weeks later.
It had taken Balid a week to return to the 6th Grand Sector thanks to a gateway, and Parsifal had personally congratulated him on his success. Upon learning of the corruption, Parsifal told him that he'd get a friend to take a look at it.
Balid had then spent a week in Parsifal's house in the Hazy Sierras, eating all kinds of food and resting to heal his wounds and recover strength.
Today was the day that he'd consume the Power Nature after it was cleansed of the corruption, and he now stood in the living hall next to Parsifal, looking as what appeared to be a frail old man entered.
The old man was around 1.75 centimetres tall, although it might have been due to his posture. looked half (of completely) dead. The man had brown skin and long white hair. He wore beige, yellow and brown coloured robes and attire, along with slippers. The most noticeable thing about him though, was the gaping hole in his chest, inside of which Balid could clearly see a flame burning.
The man walked up to the two and slammed his peculiar cane onto the ground. The cane looked like it could be used as a lantern or a mace.
The old man smiled and spoke: 'Parsifal.'
Parsifal replied with a bright grin of his own, 'Mad Philosopher!'
The Philosopher chuckled and spoke once more 'why must you call me by that name every time we meet?' He turned to Balid 'Regardless, so you are the one who killed the Devil Duke of Might?'
Balid appeared confused, 'That was his name?' He asked.
The Philosopher's smile turned into a grin, 'You have killed a Devil Duke, and you don't even know his name?' he stayed silent for a moment before bursting into laughter.
Balid, still confused, looked up at his sponsor just to see Parsifal just barely holding back from bursting into laughter himself. After a few moments he asked: 'Aren't we meant to cleanse the Power Nature?'
The other two slowly ceased their silliness upon hearing those words.
'Yes,' the Philosopher said, 'give me the rock.'
Balid complied.
Upon obtaining the ball, the Philosopher suddenly burst into flames. The flames were a golden yellow, and just looking at them seemed to drive Balid mad, so he looked away.
He's an Eldritch?! Of course, Balid had realised almost instantly that the Philosopher was an Eldritch, and the madness he felt from the flame was the passive effect of his Eldritch form.
After a few seconds, the flames disappeared and Balid was handed back the Power Nature.
The Philosopher then walked past the two, heading upstairs towards the guest rooms.
'I'll stay here for a today, I have some things to do south of here anyways.' He spoke.
'Alright!' Parsifal yelled behind him before turning to face Balid. 'This Power Nature is different from the others, to consume it, crush it in your hands until you see liquid leaking out, and then swallow it.'
Balid appeared doubtful but did as he was told. As soon as the Power Nature went down his throat, Balid fainted.
Looking down at the unconscious Balid, Parsifal revealed a sinister smile. 'HAHAHA-' He laughed loudly for a long minute before he wiped his eyes and spoke, 'I knew something of this nature would happen, but the guy fainted instantly! HAHAHA-' He resumed his laughter for another few minutes.
THE END