1 Prologue (1)

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH," Sebastian laughed. "What are these black flames? I've nev—haha—never seen something like this."

The man known as the butcher of Exidia had a weird grin on his face as he unleashed an inferno around him.

The Luttrell manor was in ashes. Flames were raging, tearing down everything around the only two people alive in that inferno.

They danced wildly, devouring everything in their path. Smoke billowed into the night sky, showing the charred corpses strewn here and there. The bodies of those Sebastian killed when he attacked the manor.

Amid the roaring, infernal tempest, where tongues of orange and crimson fire voraciously devoured all in their path, splotches of absolute darkness and pristine whiteness mingled, performing a dance that seemed to absorb the very essence of light from the surroundings.

These obsidian shades were tongues of fire. Erika Luttrell, the matriarch of the Luttrell family, was using them to kill the roach in front of her. The same roach she and the others tried to kill for 30 long years.

The Butcher of Exidia, the son of Argus Wells, the only man Erika Luttrell and the other leaders of the four sacred clans ever feared.

His son, the guy in front of her, has been a thorn in their side for many years, and now, just because he reached the sixth compression level, he dared to challenge her.

"Those are the very black flames that will devour you, Sebastian Wells."

To that Sebastian could only laugh. However, that was the laugh of a maniac, a lunatic already deprived of everything, whose sole purpose was revenge.

"I will throughly enjoy hearing you scream while you burn!" the man said.

Sebastian then channeled mana. After having reached the sixth compression level, he found some kind of clarity that made for him easier to cast the skills the system so graciously gave him.

Then something exploded. It was the effect of Sebastian's skills, Pyroclasm Burst. He got it by the system when he reached the fourth compression level, and it was among his favorite ones. Only followed by Cinder Blast.

He loved the feeling of grabbing his opponents' heads and setting them on fire while he heard them screaming, the result of the Cinder Blast.

As the shock-waves rippled through the inferno, the already beleaguered manor groaned in agony.

The conflagration turned everything into ashes. The fiery tendrils that were already consuming everything in their path were momentarily quenched by the blast.

For a second, the flames subsided, and the night air was filled with smoke and embers.

The explosion created a tempest of debris, sending splinters and charred remnants soaring through the darkened sky.

But that wasn't enough to Kill Erika Luttrell, Sebastian knew that well. In fact, the woman made a shield of black fire.

"Weren't you a Pyromancer? As a colleague, I recognize the skills you are using, but the bl—haha—ack fire?"

Sebastian's eyes gleamed with madness. He couldn't help but laugh like a maniac, a laughter that echoed through the smoky air like a cacophonous symphony.

Then a psychotic grin spread across his face, the flames flickering in his gaze.

"Pray, reveal to me, thou female of ill repute, bitch of all bitches, what manner of flames are these?"

The woman had a weird look on her face. However, she was completely unscathed and unaffected by the powerful spell Sebastian unleashed.

"You really are crazy. Just because I feel kind enough tonight, I will tell you this. If you came a little later, maybe you would have had that knowledge. I'm not fool enough to tell you how I'm doing this."

In response to Sebastian's attack, the woman used a skill, an eerie black variant of the pyromancer's skill, Fiery Tempest.

With a deft wave of her hand, she conjured a swirling vortex of black and white flames, an abyssal tempest that swirled and twisted like a spectral whirlpool of flames.

The maelstrom absorbed the light into the surroundings and devoured everything in its path. The flames left an eerie darkness in its wake as it consumed the very essence of everything it touched.

The surroundings grew dimmer as the inky whirlwind surged forward, its shadowy tendrils reaching out hungrily.

Sebastian jumped. He knew how to fight. His body was stronger than the average Thespian. But there was something in that spell that made it particularly strong and fast.

It was like the mana used by the woman was more than the skill required. But how could that be?

Weren't the skills managed by the system? Didn't this mysterious yet mighty entity decide how strong they were and how much they consumed?

The man barely avoided the attack, but as he got up, he grinned again.

He then used his Phoenix Ascension's skill. By drawing the power of a phoenix, his flames grew in intensity. The destruction they caused increased several times, but that wasn't going to last forever.

Sebastian then threw some Flame Darts to the woman, but she used that black flamed variant of the Blazing Shield skill and all his darts got absorbed.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Cool! That is fucking cool. Oh mighty wench, teach me! Bestow upon me, I beseech thee, the treasury of thy knowledge!"

Erika sighed. "I heard you were mad, but I can't believe how really mad and psychotic you are."

It was at that moment Erika used the variant of the same skill Sebastian used earlier, The Pyroclasm Burst.

With precision and intent, she unleashed the skill, calling forth an explosive burst of fire that radiated out in a terrifying radius around her.

The spell, as potent as it was, required careful mastery to avoid causing widespread collateral damage, but since her manor already got destroyed, and most of her family members died years ago, killed by the same man that was trying to kill her, there wasn't any reason to hold back.

Yet, what set Erika's Pyroclasm Burst apart was its ominous flames. As she channeled her power, the dark tendrils that erupted were the same black and white flames she wielded before.

Erika's Pyroclasm Burst struck Sebastian with devastating force, propelling him several meters backward.

His front was completely scorched, melting in front of the approaching woman, who had a devilish grin on her face.

Meanwhile, Erika observed Sebastian, her eyes fixed on the man's gruesome condition.

Sebastian's legs had been obliterated, the wounds cauterized involuntarily, preventing blood from pouring out.

His face, a nightmarish sight, lacked lips, eyelids, and even a nose, revealing scorched bones in a grotesque tableau before the woman.