The eyes began to shine even in the inventory, and it flew outside. It started to float mid-air and spin around softly like a presentation. After spinning for a while, the eyes shot into Iliane's eyes.
Iliane felt another strange energy flowing through her body when the eyes flew into her. She closed her eyes reflexively. When she opened them again, she saw the world differently than usual. Everything was enchanted, including every colour and texture of the trees. She could even spot an insect just crawling on a tree branch.
This was the power of the eye of the fire lord. As the name suggests, the fire lord is destined to be the lord of fire. That title means you have complete control over fire, even if an enemy initially controlled that fire or flame. They can't manipulate the only fires that can burn forever or have a destructive divinity.
There are a couple of fires they can't use, but some fire lords in the past could use a special type of fire that could even heal allies if desired. Iliane stood up from where she was sitting and began walking back towards the city.
Riverton was the city where she grew up and was raised. It wasn't a big city but had everything she could have wanted. But now, everything she had and loved was destroyed or on fire. The city that was normally peaceful was now in destruction. Iliane arrived at a mountain cliff with a clear view of the city.
Every building that stood there was now destroyed and not one stone was left unturned by the monsters in the city. The red monsters were no longer running wildly inside the city. Instead, they were at the centre of it and were building what looked like camps. There were also humans still alive, but they were prisoners and used by the red monsters. The men were building the camp, and when they were too slow, they would be slashed by one of the monster's claws.
The woman and the children were in a wood prison. They could escape but couldn't win against the monsters, so they were shivering inside the prison, using it as a defence instead of prison.
After seeing the state of her city, Iliane descended the mountain at a speed many people couldn't keep up with, but that was still within human limits. She arrived at the city entrance and sneaked inside, right by the monsters still in the houses. Iliane saw that a monster was all alone inside a home, and she decided that she would try to kill him.
The red monster was ravaging a house to see if it could find anything of value. The beast was standing inside the living room with its back turned towards the big window to the garden. Iliane was lucky because the monster had its back turned towards her. Iliane concentrated on her eyes and the instructions on how to use them, and when she did, the world of colour she was used to was gone, replaced by a world in black and white.
What she did see in colour was the monster before her. So, without hesitation, she used the energy inside her body and guided it towards her eyes. Her eyes, which had gotten a shade of red when she received the fire lord's eye, were now glowing red. She saw the energy being used and then saw fire particles in the air being guided towards the monster.
When the energy made contact with the monster, it was like an explosion had happened in its chest. The monster, whose body wasn't that much stronger than that of a human, died when the explosion went off. There were remnants of flames that could threaten to burn the house down, but with the intervention of her eyes, that was quickly prevented.
Iliane looked down at the remnants of the monster she had killed. It was the first time in her life that she had killed. Her mind was reading with emotions, but pride was the one that was shining through the most. She felt pride because the monsters that slaughtered her city were now just one fireball of hers away from dying.
Maybe all the traumatic events caught up to her and damaged her mentally, but what is the harm in that? If you don't change in due time, your surroundings will change, and you have to be prepared for it. If you don't follow, you are going to be left behind.
Iliane changed her mindset. She no longer wanted to hide in a corner and pray for someone to save her. She decided to be stronger so she didn't have to rely on anyone else but herself and her goddess. She wouldn't forget the favours Amaterasu had given her and wouldn't be eternally grateful for her.
Iliane walked back outside the house, looking for her next prey. After walking a couple of houses down, she saw another monster in the same situation as the last one—alone and in a house. She did the same thing, and instead of nothing happening like last time, a system notification sounded.
[ Your efficiency with the eye of the fire lord has increased. You now have beginner mastery. The eye of the fire lord will now give you access to all its power you could handle at the moment.]
As the system said, Iliane felt her eyes becoming hers again. It felt strange because there was no discomfort before, but now she felt like she could do anything. So, she hunted down more of those monsters alone. After killing ten alone, she became bolder and moved to two targets simultaneously.
While fighting, she only used her fire energy, but that doesn't mean she was neglecting her light magic. She would argue that she used her light more than her fire magic. She was currently using her light energy to make her faster. Light magic is really useful to be used like this. She had her feet covered in light magic to run when she wanted to.