[The requirements for the skill [Soul Imprisonment ] have been met ]
[Soul Imprisonment ]
[ A skill that once belonged to the Monster King. It allows the host to consume a portion of a monsters yet to be assimilated essence to borrow their original strength and fighting prowess. The amount of essence required depends on both the host and intended monsters level. ]
It took only a moment for Cabal to understand the meaning of the skill , and despite his grief, he smiled. "You won't have to wait for long Renova. I'll get you your revenge now , " he said as he started walking towards the barrier with murder in his heart.
.....
The moment the Soul Manipulating Collar stopped functioning , the Matthew Lockheart sensed it. In the midst of his intense duel with the elfking , he suddenly growled as he realized too late their plan.
Almost at the same time , he recalled her threats to him , and wqs overcome by fear. His first and only thought being to quickly make his way to the warp gate and get away.
Conjuring several fire specter to use as shields against the elfkings arrows, he glanced at his comrades.
Erick and Selene were generally doing well, considering who their opponent was , but it was obvious that they were outclassed. The duo wouldn't be able to last much longer.
As for the vice sect masters of the Skyless guild , Matthew was honestly disappointed in them. Despite their many years of training and grooming , they were only in this level.
Then again, they were facing the Phoenixes people. If they weren't at least this strong , they'd be a joke.
A quick plan of retreat swiftly formed in his mind and he quickly moved onto execute it. If the monsters had snuck in someone to undo the chains on Renova , it wouldn't be long before she recovered her strength and came after him.
"[6 tier flame magic: Judgement call ] "
With a stomp of his cane, a massive magic circle appeared in the sky, hovering like a bright star as it charged up.
"Erick , Selene , Tom and Monique, try to buy me as much time as possible. It'll take sometime before I can properly use this spell. We can't allow this battle to drag on for much longer. "
The four aforementioned people nodded and readied themselves.
Tom , a tanker , and the strongest out of everyone , was dealing with Mongrel, so Selene , who fought with the dwarf king alternated between protecting the Skyless guildmaster and dealing with Dwarvens artifact powered attacks.
The elfking continued to rain down attacks upon Matthew Lockheart , but the strength of his attacks begun to diminish. Looking at the situation , Matthew inwardly grinned. It seemed that the elfking hadn't realized that his master was free , and so was trying to prepare to deal with his spell in the sky.
It was exactly the kind of distraction he wanted.
Almost like clockwork , while his comrades were protecting him , the elfking prepared a counterarrow , and shot it at his spell. The resulting a explosion from the clash of the two spells was so blinding that everyone shielded their eyes. Everyone but Matthew.
The moment his spell detonated , he planted a fire clone in his place , and shot towards the distance. If he wanted to leave unharmed , he had to be smart about this. Wait until the Queen came out and slaughtered his companions to sate her bloodlust.
Once she left , he could just reconstruct the warp gate. Even an imperfect one would be perfect as long as he left this damn place.
There was the sound of shattering glass , just as everyone was reeling from the bright light , and the form of the Phoenix Queen burst out in a rush of flames and ash.
The moment he saw her , Matthew felt his knees go weak.
Even as everyone recovered their sight, they could already sense the danger before them , and had shifted their attention from one battle to another.
.....
[Skill : Soul Imprisonment has been used. ]
[Target : Renova the Phoenix Queen. ]
[Amount of essence required : 25% of her total essence]
[Synchronization starting. The spirit of the Phoenix Queen is waking up. ]
[ Due to the low level of the skill, a time limit has been imposed. ]
[ 00'10'00 ]
Cabal felt dizzy at first as his body took on drastic changes. The rock hard exoskeleton that made up his body melted like molten rock and reshaped itself.
It expanded , grew and was enhanced , as strength, so much of it that it made him dizzy, filled him.
Is this what being powerful meant. The strength to shape your own destiny , to speak and act yet influence nature around you.
This authority was way beyond that of any ruler , president or influential person he knew from his past life. This authority came with the privilege of the strong.
As these changes took place, he felt as though his mind was pushed aside. He wasn't kicked out of his body , but rather , he felt like a passenger in his own car , rather than the driver.
Then he felt her mind. That same mind that he'd momentarily connected to through his trace ability. The ancient and chaotic mind. One full of equal measure of violence , death with a hint of kindness.
For a moment , he was stumped thinking that he had somehow fused their souls together. This had never happened before to the other monsters he'd eaten.
But then again, they were all dead when he consumed them.
If Renova could live through his body , that was much better than dying. He could live with that. Plus with her there , he'd have personal guidance and grow stronger , much faster.
But when he tried to talk to her , he felt nothing. Much like the way his mind had sought her out through his trace ability , he reached out for that foreign consciousness he felt in his body. Tried to talk to it .... and felt nothing.
There was nothing there. What he felt and saw was merely a phantom copy of the original invoked by his skill. She was really dead.
With that realization came rage.
With a roar , he urged the Phoenix copy to do its thing. Rain down hellfire on his enemies.
With a single flap of its wings , it burst through the dome surrounding them, to face his enemies , even as memories , her memories started trickling into his mind.
He watched as Renova grew up. Watched all the deaths she'd suffered, and all the lives she'd taken. Watched her grow fed up with the living , with life in general ,multiple times. And he felt he got to know her better.
Meanwhile , his body was on autopilot and turned towards the humans that had led it to its death automatically.
With a yell the humans instantly attacked once they recovered their bearings. The other monsters silently withdrew , knowing the extent of their Queens rage.
The humans wouldn't be able to fit out of here alive.
Matthew manifested several massive fire specters, alongside multiple fiery weapons. Spears ,lances ,Swords. Any weapon meant for stabbing or impaling , he called them forth.
Erick used an expansion technique to increase his size. Wielding his mace , he and Tom charged forth to take her on face to face.
Selene and the other vice guildmaster kept releasing spells. Icy projectiles , crackling bolts , darkness constructs and the like.
But all of it was useless.
It was only now , that Cabal truly understood the phrase 'In front of absolute power , all things are nothing. '
With a single flap of her wings , the Renova phantom released a wave of fire that not only pushed back the two charging humans , breaking several of their bones at the same time , but also shattered any magical attack sent her way.
With a sudden flex of her body , several of her feathers flew out like flaming spears , moving at such speeds that it was impossible to dodge.
At the last moment , Matthew managed to get a magical shield up.
Selene built one for herself and Erick too, but Tom was pierced through. Riddled with several holes.
Monique managed a teleport to get out of the way , but even she wasn't fast enough , and suffered damage , having lost her leg in the process.
Like a flaming meteor , the Renova phantom charged at Matthew , focusing mainly on him. Everyone else was secondary.
With a curse, the guildmaster surrounded himself within a flaming tornado and shot towards the sky with it. Up above , he flicked his staff , causing the runes lined up in it detach themselves to form a magic circle.
"[ Fire star :Revolving embers ]
Eight massive fireballs appeared around him in a set sequence before flying out together for a massive bombardments.
They formed a tornado like attack, as they rained down upon the fiery figure that was focusing its rage upon him.
Cabal mentally berated the guy. You can't fight fire with fire. Especially not if your opponent is literally the living embodiment of flames.
With a loud screech, all the fireballs were sucked into the Phoenix's mouth to empower her next round of attacks. She shook herself, and hundreds of tiny flames sparks spread in the environment. Each one detonated the moment it came into contact with something. In that round, Monique perished, following her partner into the afterlife.
Right before the attack hit her, Selene performed a strange type of magic. Her once black, lustrous hair visibly withered and greyed and with a folding of the air, she disappeared with Erick, vanishing to gods knows where.
Left all alone, Matthew turned towards the Phoenix queen. His fighting spirit was already quenched.
Seeing no other way out of the situation, he went on his knees and started pleading. " p-please . I beg of you. D-don't kill me. I was forced. Turn your anger towards the supreme queen. She orchestrated all of this. I'm just an underling. P-pl_ "
Cabal ended his speech with a simple thought, whilst memorizing that name and storing it in his heart. By then, he'd learnt some tricks on how to direct the thoughts of the fiery bird that he currently was, and with a simple urge, the phoenix phantoms head fell and gobbled the gulidmaster up in one bite.
Not quite satisfied, he proceeded to eat the remaining corpses on the battlefield. As he enjoyed the fruits of his hard earned labor, whilst at the same time reliving the experiences of his dead oatron, he reached the point where he finally understood the gravity of her last words to him.
The spell that the Monster king placed on his generals that allowed them to communicate with each other had turned into a means by which they could spy upon one another after his death. The only thing keeping them away from each others thoughts and memories was their own individual willpower. Without that, they'd have access to their knowledge of recent events. The spell worked like a database storing information on another server. Without the Phoenix queens willpower shielding her thoughts, the others now had full access to her experiences, at least of the last few years.
If none of them were coming for him at the moment, that'd be a big understatement. From Renovas knowledge of them, he was sure that they were racing each other to reach him first, and given their current power, it wouldn't be long. He had to into hiding. And looking towards the flickering portal that was the warp gate, Cabal knew exactly where to go, not only to hide himself, but to get stronger quickly.
The elfking approached him with eager steps, and Cabal was heartbroken to reveal the truth to him. He recounted the events to the queens subordinates as the time limit for the skill expired and he slowly returned to his original form.
The man took the news surprisingly well for a guy who had basically served his entire life. The only thing he said when Cabal was done speaking was " At least you avenged her. That's the only thing we could've done for her."
The former scientist wasn't sure because he didn't really know the guy, but he could sense the sorrow in his words.
"Now go. It doesn't look like the portal will be open for much longer. As the only living succesor of our mistress, its only fair that you protect yourself. And we can't offer that type of protection for you here. Not against the other Generals. Go. I'll explain everything to the rest."
Cabal bowed once again as a sign of respect before sprinting towards his destination. The human world and all the wonders it held for him.
A thought crossed his mind as he stood before the closing portal. When he returns, would he be as strong as Renova was.
Then he took a step forward, towards a new destiny, and towards a revenge that he would pursue.