Alex slowly opened his eyes; his vision was blurry at first but gradually came into focus. He was lying on a bed in a dimly lit room, and as he tried to sit up, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see Rose, the healer, tending to his wounds.
"How do you feel?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Better, thanks to you," Alex replied, a faint smile on his face.
Rose nodded, her eyes studying him intently. "I've never seen healing powers like yours before. You healed much faster than I anticipated."
As Rose finished treating his wounds, Alex took a moment to collect his thoughts. He was grateful to be alive; he remembered the power he had inherited from the primordial lust dragon, and he knew that it was that power that had saved his life. He didn't mention this to Rose, though. Instead, he thanked her. After he started feeling better, they decided to check the room the old demon was guarding.
As Alex and Rose entered the room, they were greeted by darkness. The only source of light came from the small crystal that Rose held in her hand. It illuminated only a small portion of the room, but it was enough to see the three pillars.
One of the pillars was larger than the other two and had a glowing core at its center. The other two were shorter and had objects on top of them. On one of them was a black metallic ball, and on the other was a sword that seemed to radiate energy.
Alex observed both objects, trying to sense their energy, and felt drawn to the globe. He could sense that it had some space elemental powers, but it was also mysterious. Rose, on the other hand, couldn't sense anything from it.
"You can have the sword," Alex said, handing it to Rose. "I'll take the globe."
As he picked up the globe, he noticed an old, rusted sphere on the ground near the large pillars.
"Hey, be careful with that thing," Rose warned. "It could be dangerous."
"I'll be careful," Alex replied with a grin.
This was the same strange attraction he felt before, and he picked it up to examine it. It was covered in unknown symbols, and he couldn't make sense of them. He decided to keep it, and he put it in his space ring along with the metallic globe.
As they continued to explore, Rose informed him that the large pillar held the core that powered the ruins. They approached it cautiously, and Alex could feel the energy emanating from the pillar.
Suddenly, they heard a loud noise, and Alex reacted fast and placed the core inside his space ring. Then they turned to see some figures emerging as the smoke cleared. They were confronted by a group of demons and elemental users. There were eight demon people in total, with four elemental users, one of whom was an adept, while the others were novices. Additionally, there were three martial cultivators at grandmaster rank, making for a formidable opponent.
Alex and Rose stood frozen as they stared at the group of demons in front of them. The leader, a tall and imposing figure, stepped forward and introduced himself as Lash Rygun, the fifth prince of the demon kingdom.
"Hand over the treasure and the ruined core, and we might spare your lives," he said, his voice laced with malice.
Alex knew they didn't stand a chance against this group. Rose was an adept elementalist, but Alex was only a novice, and his skills as a martial disciple were not enough to take on these grandmasters.
"We don't have any treasure," Alex replied, trying to sound confident.
The prince narrowed his eyes, clearly not believing him. "Very well. Then we'll have to take it by force."
Without warning, the demons launched their attack. The elemental users sent waves of fire, ice, and earth at Alex and Rose, while the martial cultivators charged forward with their weapons drawn.
Alex and Rose fought back as best they could, but they were quickly overwhelmed. Alex's wounds from his previous battle made it difficult for him to move, and Rose was outnumbered and outmatched.
As the fight continued, Alex watched in horror as the prince grabbed his sword and attacked Rose, tearing her dress and cutting her body, making her bleed. The demon prince started to enjoy this the most and began to harass her. Rage boiled inside Alex, seeing this, and he knew he had to act fast.
"Get away from her!" he shouted, his voice booming with power.
With a surge of energy, Alex summoned an arrow that he had before and poured all of his elemental power into the lightning arrow, which is the strongest and rarest element that Alex normally can't use, but now that he has an elemental arrow that works with the elemental energy of thunder, he pulled the arrow string hard and shouted, "Rose, use your earth element to cover."
Rose quickly understood what Alex was trying to do, and she summoned a massive boulder to protect herself. Alex released the arrow, and it struck the boulder with incredible force, causing a massive explosion of thunder and lightning.
The blast was so powerful that it knocked everyone in the room off their feet, including Alex. But as the dust settled, Alex slowly got up, his eyes fixed on the demon prince. He had killed before, but he had never felt such a burning rage as he did now.
The demon prince was lying motionless on the ground, his body charred and smoking from the blast. The blast was so powerful that it instantly killed the Prince of the Demon Kingdom and the other enemies.