The young man who appeared to save Jonathan and his team was none other than Draven himself. He learned a superhero team was on their way through Sarah. When he learned this, he waited for the team to engage the mercenary leader. Unlike Jonathan's team, Draven knew the mercenary leader had absorbed the eternal flames and turned into a demon. He knew attacking the leader head-on would result in his death. Thus, Draven waited for the right moment. As a member of UFH, Draven knew how these heroes think. They were too arrogant to consider their foe would actually defeat them.
Draven waited in the same forest as Jonathan and his team landed. He waited for the team to make their first move. After they attacked the mercenaries, their leader appeared just as Draven expected. Since the leader and Jonathan's team focused too much on each other, they failed to notice Draven. Draven stayed in the hole like a spider, waiting for the right time to strike.
Even after Draven appeared, Jonathan's arrogant mind thought of Draven as another superhero. He failed to consider otherwise. Draven used Jonathan's ignorance to his advantage. He used them to distract Sarman long enough until he could strike.
Draven lifted up Sarman. His vitals were low after being stabbed by Draven so many times.
"Let me have a taste of his delicious soul," said Margoth. Draven grabbed Sarman's face and opened his mouth as Sarman started to quiver. A white puff of smoke slowly escaped his mouth and moved toward Draven's mouth. Jonathan was completely caught off guard. He had no idea what the hell was happening to Sarman. Sarman's Demonoid body trembled violently. He growled and roared but couldn't escape Draven's grab.
Under Jonathan's shocked gaze, Sarman's body shriveled. Draven slowly mummified his body.
[Absorbing Sarman's soul…]
Draven heard the system's voice in his head. Jonathan was confused. He stayed still, having no idea what was happening to Sarman,
[Soul Absorption finished…]
Margoth did not take too long to absorb Sarman's soul. In a few minutes, Sarman's body became emaciated.
[4000 Soul Energy has been absorbed from Sarman]
[Received New Power!]
[The Host had received the power to control fire by absorbing Sarman's soul…]
Draven clenched his fist. He received a new power to control flames, just like his power to control metals. With this power, he could now control two elements. The eternal flames corrupted Sarman's body. Thanks to the system, Draven absorbed the eternal flame's power without being corrupted by it. Although Draven could not manifest the powers Sarman did, it was worth the price of not getting his soul corrupted.
"What did you do?" Jonathan shouted. Soon, Ian slowly stood up, and so was Cyclops. The three of them stared at Draven with bewildered looks. They could not recognize the shriveled body on the ground.
"I did what you couldn't and wouldn't," said Draven.
"You murdered him," Jonathan clenched his fist.
Draven did not give a damn about Jonathan's tantrum. He wanted to leave Sinith and clean up the rest of the mercenaries.
"STOP!" Draven was about to turn around when Jonathan shouted.
Draven folded his arms against his chest and looked at Draven. His hatred toward the heroes and UFH glimmered in Draven's eyes.
"What? You're gonna stop me?' Draven said, tilting his head.
"Why don't you worry about getting his body out of this place?" Draven snickered.
Draven opened his wings. With a gentle flap, he ascended toward the air. Jonathan wanted to stop Draven because in his eyes, Draven was a murderer. When he dashed forward, his body suddenly stopped. Draven raised his hand as he clenched his fist. Jonathan felt his armor constricting him as though an invisible force pressed him from all directions. Blood trickled down from Jonathan's mouth.
But when Draven released his fist, Jonathan was able to breathe. Nonetheless, Jonathan collapsed down. His chest and lungs ached.
"Don't cause another life with your stupid moral codes and incompetence," said Draven before flying into the hole where he came through. He disappeared from their sight before anyone could decide what to do next. Ian quickly reached Jonathan while Cyclops went to check on Mini.
Most of Mini's body was burnt. Luckily, he was still breathing. Cyclops rolled him over,
"Mini," she shook his shoulder. He did not move an inch.
"I am fine. Go check on Mini," Jonathan mumbled to Ian.
Meanwhile, Draven exited the mountain through the hole and returned outside. Thanks to Jonathan and his team, most of the mercenaries were knocked out on the ground. They groaned, rolling around. Several mercenaries came running to tend to the injured. Another group went back and forth carrying wooden barrels of water to put out the fire on their fellow mercenaries and the war machines. They were too busy to notice Draven hovering in the air.
Draven closed his eyes, feeling the fires on the ground. He felt a strange connection with the fire as he does with metal. He slowly raised his two hands as flames burning the trebuchets slowly floated toward Draven. The flames danced around Draven to his will. Controlling these flames felt as natural and easy as breathing. He could even use etherian energy to make the flame hotter and bigger.
"Create a dragon," Margoth said excitedly. Draven clapped his hands together as the flames merged together, forming a dragon in the air.
"Look!"
"BOSS!"
"It's not boss,"
"What in the hell is that?"
The mercenaries noticed Draven in the air. The dragon was too big and bright to ignore. Looking at Draven and the dragon flame behind him, the mercenaries were both terrified and confused. Draven pointed his finger at the mercenaries on the ground. The dragon roared like a live one and flew straight toward them.
"ARGHHHHHH!"
The mercenaries screamed. They dropped what they were doing and tried to run away. However, the dragon was simply too fast. It caught up with them. The mercenaries cried in agony until they burnt to death. They dropped to the ground, emitting dark smoke. The dragon opened its mouth, swallowing a mercenary. He went into the dragon's mouth, and when the dragon left him, his bones crumbled down to the ground.
After taking down four mercenaries, the flame dragon vanished into thin air. Draven felt a bit tired. He realized controlling flames would take more toll on his body and soul than controlling metal. Although he felt like he had enough etherian energy in him to create another flaming dragon, Draven chose not to. Instead, he decided to save his strength if the heroes tried to fight him to save the mercenaries. Since Draven had killed Sarman, he doubted the mercenaries would regroup and attack him any time soon.
"Hey look there," Margoth's head appeared over Draven's shoulder. Margoth looked at the hwacha Jonathan used near the rubble. Luckily for Draven, there were also hundreds of metal arrows near the hwacha he could use to reload. Draven flapped his wings as he dashed toward the hwacha. He landed beside the arrows, quickly put the arrows into the firing holes, and climbed on the firing seat.
"Fire in the hole bitches!" Margoth roared as Draven cracked his neck,
Draven grabbed the handle, pressing the trigger to fire the arrows. His entire body trembled violently. Hundreds of arrows shot out of the hwacha piercing through the air. Draven's shoulders felt like they were about to dislocate.
"ARGHH!" Draven roared, raining arrows upon the running mercenaries. The hwacha jerked up and down with enough force to throw a grown man off balance. Draven's muscles bulged up as his face turned red. Draven's roar sounded as loud as the hwacha. The arrows skewered the mercenaries. Their bodies exploded into red mist. The air reeked of blood and filled with the screams of the mercenaries. They ran, jumped, and tried to look for cover, yet nothing saved them. Draven wiped off almost eighty mercenaries without a shred of mercy. At that time, the mountain base turned into a battlefield. Draven slaughtered the mercenaries, unlike Jonathan's team.
Finally, Draven's hands went numb. On top of it, he had no more arrows. Draven took a deep breath and climbed down from his seat.
"Shit, we could have absorbed their souls," Margoth exclaimed.
Instead of responding to Margoth, Draven stared at the mountain base littered with dead bodies. The trip to Sinith proved surprisingly fruitful to Draven. Not only did he receive a new power, but he also helped the people. He tried to make his mother's wish come true in his own way. Although he didn't know whether she would approve of him killing them in cold blood, at least Draven helped those people and gave them some sort of justice.
"We didn't have time for that. Plus, you just absorbed Sarman's soul," Draven rolled his eyes. Finally, Draven decided to leave the mountain base. His next target was the mercenary headquarters not very far from here. But first, Draven decided to regroup with Sarah to learn more about Jonathan and his team.
With a flap of his wings, Draven shot toward the sky. He disappeared into the dark clouds. Several minutes later, a golden portal appeared at the mountain base's bottom. Jonathan and his team stepped out of the portal. They were stunned by what they saw. Every mercenary they saved was on the ground, drowning in their own pool of blood. The air itself reeked of blood, burnt skin, and death.
"Good god," Cyclops mumbled, looking at all the death and destruction.
"We need to stop him, Ian," Jonathan clenched his fist. His initial mission was to secure the eternal flames, but now, he changed it.
"We have a supervillain in Sinith," Jonathan said with a new resolve to find Draven.