Ch 9

Areth dismissed the illusion and erased the children's memories. They were still staring at the cube in his hand, curious about its functions.

"How did you do that Areth?"

They all asked him about the cube and Areth simply brushed it off as some high tech, unexplainable object.

When he returned to his room, he saw something on his desk, a small person, about the size of a palm. It was a lady dressed in white, twirling around and looking at objects such as pens and laptops with curiosity. Her golden hair swayed gently as she moved around, her eyes were like saphires.

"Oh, you're back!" Leyfin happily greeted. "I regained my liberty! Look, only a a talented and gifted wizard such as me is capable of controlling the soul form skillfully."

Areth signed and nodded in understanding. "I'm glad you are able to regain your form master."

In fact, he had tampered with the ring recently, altering its restriction so that the soul would be able to detach from it and not dissipate, allowing the lady to roam around in a soul form. Though not comparable to a physical state, the soul form still fares better than being bounded to the ring completely. Now she was able to project sound as well.

"Are you not surprise at all?"

"I am." Areth said. His face devoid of expressions.

"Oh...you don't look like it at all. You are looking down at me now huh?!"

Areth then asked about what the demons are, what they look like and from what rift they came from.

Leyfin answered all his questions willingly, then spoke.

"Anyway kid, this isn't just your problem. Don't think too much about it and just think of a way to inform the authorities okay? Wait till you mastered my signature skill, Seraphic Flame, then it would not be a problem for you to take on Demon Generals. Until then, just study under me obediently."

"Got it." Areth already obtained the information he wanted.

Leyfin's soul was turning transparent. "Oh no, I can't maintain this form for too long." She disappeared and there was a faint light in the ring.

Areth held the cube in his hand. It was currently covered in restrictions. He couldn't create a decent virtual reality game out of this cube but it is still useful in a lot of ways.

Areth utilized the Absolute Rule and drew countless of tiny symbols on the cube's surface. The tiny symbols were precise, appearing all at once until all the surfaces had no more space for further engravings.

When he willed it, Areth entered the illusion, this time the grasses were replaced with a marble floor, the blue sky was replaced with a gray ceiling. The floor and the ceiling were connected by massive pillars lining up to the sides.

Further into the distance, once could see an altar elevated from the ground. Surrounding the altar were statues of warriors fully covered in armor.

The whole place gave off the feeling of grandeur and sacredness. If one were to describe it, one could say the ambience was similar to a temple.

Areth studied the illusion before leaving, satisfied. He set of several restrictions of the cube, preventing it from dragging anyone into the illusion.

On the next day, Areth saw his parents and gave the excuse that he would head out to play with his friends.

Before he head out to the usual gathering place, he went to a secluded area.

"I should be able to do it now."

A golden glow gathered in between his brows, forming a golden orb.

The orb not head out immediately, instead, it began to stretch and split. Areth's physical body was sweating.

After a while, the orb split into two, one returned to his body and the other one hovered in front of him, the split soul transformed to resemble his current body.

If Leyfin witnessed this scene, she would have fainted in shock. Separating the soul from the physically body was quite easy for wizards, casting a spell using a soul was also possible, but that would require not only talent, but the highest mastery of soul manipulation.

However, splitting a soul was unimaginable even for those who accomplished both. It's even harder than splitting a physical body and being able to grow two new bodies from the parts. Other than monsters and plants, no one could do that.

Splitting a soul means certain doom. No different than cutting oneself. Not even monsters dare to do this.

Areth effortless controlled his split soul, both of them raised their right hands at the same time.

Areth wanted to simply use astral projection to roam around, but it was still day time and this might worry his parents, he would be forced to prematurely return from an exploration of they attempt to wake him up.

Areth casted a powerful illusion on the split soul, turning into him. Every strands of his hair and even his clothes were copied perfectly. It could even deceive the sense of touch.

The split soul went to the usual place where the kids gathered. His real body disappeared and appeared on the peak of a snowy mountain.

The winds blowing were so strong, howling loudly to his ears. The snow beneath his feet kept piling up.

In front of him was a boulder covered in snow. It was full of cracks, and the largest of the cracks did not seem to belong to the boulder itself, but the space rather.

The edges of the rifts were mired with violent tint and a dense miasma.

According to Leyfin, this would be the general appearance of a rift leading to a demon world. After he learned about the demons from Leyfin, Areth had spent the entire night searching the world for them, and finally found this rift. So far it seems like there has been no demons appearing, but once they found this rift, a bunch of them would come to this place.

"I only want to confirm if that brat was speaking the truth. That seems to be the case."

Areth thought carefully. He was a retired old man and simply wants to live in peace as a cool receptionist, staying at the sidelines while both the villains and the heroes battle it out.

"Since I'm already here, let's see how strong these demons are."

Areth entered the rift without hesitation. Possessing unimaginable powers, there's barely anything that he doesn't dare to do; he even dared to mess with the Absolute Rule and voluntarily enter the Gate of Separation.

The moment he entered, the first sight that greeted him was the appearance of a giant foot. The foot was covered in black scales with reflective shine. At the tip were sharp claws. This massive foot blocked Areth's view.

Areth tilted his head up, it was gigantic monster with distorted body. Areth could not even make up what it was.

Though the monster was sitting still, it was blocking his view, so it must be removed.

Areth's gaze flickered. There was a slight electric current in surrounding, one string was indigo, the other other purple, both swam in the air from the opposite sides, their meeting point was the body of the monster.

The monster stirred slightly, but did not notice the danger even at the last moment.

As soon as the two currents collide, the place was bathed in the glow of sunset and a thunderous explosion rang out. The ground trembled, everything turned into ashes as dust kicked up to the air. The the huge monster did not even have the time to scream.

Soon the glow faded. Areth who stood at the epicenter remained unharmed but he was in the center of a huge burning crater.

He immediately teleported and appeared in the vicinity of the crater, admiring his own handiwork.

"I guess using 'that' is a bit of an overkill."

He went to inspect the world and noticed the absence of a star. There was a crimson illusory moon in the sky dying the ground in a bloody glow.

Massive ruins stood out from the distance, the buildings seem to be made of stones. Massive debris were scattered around, the only clean space was the large crater that recently appeared.

Aside from the ruins, Areth also noticed the creatures roaming around, they were in various forms, as though some god decided to randomly mix some creatures together. Their proportions were all messed up, body parts grew in an unsightly way.

Some were large, some were able to fly. Areth even noticed a creature that was shaped like a male phalus.

At this moment all the monsters were gathering towards the crater, walking around, roaring and hissing towards one another.

One of them was viciously pushed down towards the crater and fell. That creature immediately started writhing as boils appeared on its body, its form was further disfigured. After a while, it stopped moving, its skin sagged and turned to liquid.

Seeing that the monsters gathered without him doing anything, Areth decided to wipe them out all at once.

He warped to the sky, purple and indigo current met below and triggered another blast, the reddish glare was further accentuated by the crimson moon creating radiance m that could be seen for several miles.

The shockwave reached all the way to where Areth was, pushing his hair behind.

When Areth opened his eyes, he could see one massive crater, an area covering 3000 kilometers. There were no demons that was able to survive.

When he looked over at the distance, he saw a black wave approaching from the horizon.

A roar that shook mountains blasted from that direction, an evil gaze locked on Areth who was floating in the sky.