"—GRAAA!"
The howl pained cries of the beast along with the soul wrenching explosion of the attack blended between each other and resounded loudly, wildly shifting the darkness.
Woosh—!
For a moment, bright colorless light enraptured the place. But the light quickly vanished as soon as it appeared.
The dust cleared and the light darkened, the demonic beast who was sleeping peacefully, was now awake and blown away to a small cave.
In the midst of all that, Lucas took off his invisibility and appeared in the demonic beast's previous position.
His hands were placed on his back while he stared at where the demonic beast was previously sleeping at.
"Interesting. The dark 'spirits' were corrupted and absorbed by its body upon contact."
Stomp—!
While he was thinking, the demonic beast had already gone up and returned, but this time looking… wildly different.
Lucas raised his head and stared at the beast with a smile.
Now that he had got a good look at the beast, he recognized some similarities between the demonic beast and some beast in his previous world.
A large, intimidating body with two sharp spiky horns on the forehead. A rhinoceros, or perhaps more commonly called rhino. The difference was that the beast in front of him was dark red.
Darker than anything but the darkness, akin to a void of existence. Closely, Lucas could see its maddened, furious red eyes that released murderous intent.
But most notably was the egregious injury all over its body.
As though the demonic beast was burned, sizzled and fried, smoke drifted around its figure as the red scales on its back appeared to be disintegrated into dust.
A large chunk of its bones protruded from the large gap of flesh missing to cover it.
Undoubtedly, Lucas had blown off the beast towards the acidic pond.
As both of them came into a stand off, Lucas took action first.
Not wasting any time, Lucas masterfully controlled the aura inside his body, creating a colorless, pale white sword on his hand.
Aura had magical uses aside from just reinforcing the body. It was also called the internal energy of the body.
While it cannot be operated like the magic of the legends, such as controlling elements and reality, it had the ability to forge inanimate objects into thin air.
But such ability was not used or prioritized by aura users.
Firstly, to be able to do such a thing—forgery of aura—required immense experience in controlling aura. In short, you needed to be a master.
Normally, a Knight or a beginner of aura wouldn't be able to do such a thing as they just began controlling aura…
But Lucas was an expert amongst experts, it was as easy as stealing candy from a baby for him.
Secondly, a reinforced weapon was much stronger and easier to control than a forged aura weapon.
A forged aura weapon not only needed masterful control over aura to properly create, it also needed precision and expertise to use.
Overall, it was just not worth investing in. It was acknowledged by many as a party trick at most, magical and extraordinary but not useful in the slightest.
But Lucas didn't follow the normal way of thinking. Due to his long voyage throughout the continent, an apparent problem on his journey was the constant deterioration and destruction of weapons and armory.
As such, when he learned to control his aura to forge weapons, he continuously mastered and improved of it, making him survive in a couple of occasions.
Back to the situation at hand, the colorless sword shone of purity.
Lucas stood before the large beast, his right hand holding a colorless sword as he assumed a stance.
"—ROA!"
The demonic Rhino growled, seemingly recognizing the human figure. Its raged distinctive scarlet eyes turned even more furious upon discovering its prey earlier was the one responsible.
Woosh—!
In what appeared to be like a flash, the demonic Rhino leaped towards Lucas, displaying incredible speed in contrast to its large massive body.
Lucas, as if expecting it, indifferently stepped to his side.
Thud—!
A loud thud resounded, the demonic Rhino dropped and made a mess of the ground.
The demonic Rhino turned to him and suddenly spat out a dark orb from its mouth. The orb emitted immense pressure, darkness seemingly gathering near it as it blasted towards Lucas.
Woosh—!
'There it is again…'
Lucas' eyes widened slightly. Upon closer look, it really wasn't aura. But a different kind of energy altogether.
Most likely, the so-called "soulforce" energy that was used in soul arts.
Using all his speed, he dodged. The dark orb landed close to his position, exploding the instant it fell.
Boom—!
Smoke erupted from the ground. Abyssal darkness devouring everything near. The demonic Rhino stared at the dark smog unflinchingly.
After a few seconds, a colorless blade could be seen moving through the pale fog, dispersing it.
Lucas came out of the smoke, seemingly covered with a pale white aura, his left hand patted his clothes, shoving the dust away.
"Quite interesting." Lucas smiled. "What a fascinating entity."
Lucas held up his chin, observing the void Rhino calmly. The attack earlier was not aura; but a different energy entirely. Aura was colorless. But the orb earlier was dark.
They were similar, but entirely different.
It was not a secret he was a knowledge seeker. If there was something that he didn't know, he would strive to find anything about it, no matter the cost.
The void Rhino turned around and prepared to leap again…
Woosh—!
…But before it could react, a sudden force came crashing down its body. A pale, colorless blade came crashing like a meteor.
Shng—!
The demonic Rhino couldn't react in time, dark blood spurting from its forehead.
As though feeling something was missing, the demonic Rhino's eyes wildly shifted.
"Looking for this?"
Lucas held a dark spiky horn in his hand.
"It feels… strange. As though holding something that shouldn't belong here. Foreign. That's it… your body feels foreign."
The demonic Rhino trembled in fury.
"Interesting. A very interesting reaction… It seems you can understand my words?"
Lucas held up his chin, fascinated.
"Or perhaps it's just an instinctive feeling of humiliation?"
Then in response, the demonic Rhino ran to his figure, utterly lost in rage.
Lucas had a feeling its answer was a mix of both.
Each time the void Rhino attacked, Lucas dodged cleanly and countered with his own. Perhaps due to its mindless state or weakened body, its movements were predictable and messy.
As time went on, Lucas patiently and slowly tore the void Rhino apart. He discovered a lot of things about it; for example, when the dark blood of the Rhino invaded a part of his skin, the flesh turned 'corrupted'...
It was hard to express in words. But the moment the dark blood invaded his skin, he was paralyzed for a second while a part of his flesh darkened.
The darkened skin felt numb; crippled or unusable. But after the dark blood corrupted a small part of his skin, it went cold and stopped spreading.
Similarly, the paralysis vanished. At that time, he almost got hit by the void Rhino's assault. It was lucky he was in a safe distance, managing to dodge at the last second.
"The blood is poisonous… the moment it touches the skin of another living being, it infects that part of that skin and paralyzes it. Or more appropriately, that part of the skin decays. Similar to a virus, it spreads throughout the body… but due to my strengthened immune system it was easily canceled out. Hm, rather than poison it is more eerily similar to corruption."
Lucas muttered. He had never encountered such an entity before. It was a good thing he opted to enter the second stage of Body Refining before coming back, or else the blood might have corrupted him unknowingly.
"Gra…ra…gh.."
The demonic Rhino growled weakly, its body staggering from the accumulated injuries it received. It tried to spit out another attack, however it simply couldn't do so anymore.
Its formerly terrifying monstrous appearance was gone, dissected and toyed with by Lucas. Its sharp, threatening horn was broken into pieces, akin to mere trash. Its scarlet red eyes rolled quietly, falling from its blank, hollow eye sockets.
Even its hardened armored flesh was not spared as its bones protruded, displaying a grotesque and mortifying sight.
While it was slowly dying, the demonic Rhino's eyes shifted, as though feeling something terrifying about to occur.
From its front, Lucas stepped out with both of his hands on his back.
"You're already dying? That's unfortunate," Lucas commented. "Then again. Since you're about to die anyway… I suppose I can help you die faster."
As though enacting something, he raised his left palm.
"You know, there's a similar technique in aura to the dark orb attack you manifested earlier. It's called [Aura Overload] a technique using aura in one massive attack. In fact, I just used it to you earlier, when I blown you off to the cave."
On his palm, aura seemed to gather—only to abruptly vanish.
"...But the difference was that yours uses a different energy. And a much stronger one too. Thanks to that, you gave me an idea."
Then, a different energy gathered around, replacing the aura. The energy was dark. It was like void, darkness at its purest and most natural form.
'So… this is Soulforce, huh?'
Lucas thought to himself while staring at his own hand. It felt.. extraordinary.
The void energy, unlike aura, was calm as water as it gathered around his palm. It structured itself into an orb.
And similar to the dark orb attack of the beast, immense pressure radiated off the void orb.
As though noticing something, the Rhino's eyes shifted slightly.
Lucas smiled, covering himself with aura before releasing the void orb to the beast.
"For that, gratitude."
Woosh—!
***
As death came for the demonic beast—oddly the last thought on its mind was not anger, but relief mixed with an unfamiliar unsettling fear.
Its anger was overpowered by the fear it felt.
Fear of an entity more nightmarish, more demonic, and more… evil.