Chapter 269: Sinful Eye.

Cain's face crumpled...

'That... Doesn't sound very welcoming.'

"Garden of Self-Refection?" Cain said with narrowed eyes.

The mirror image grinned, "Indeed. You see, this forest was created from the eye of Og-Solath, the Devil of Madness."

Cain's eyes shot up when he heard this. He had heard this name not too long ago from Susan. A deep, ominous feeling suddenly washed over him.

"The Sinful Eye of Og-Solath, one of the primordial devils. Any being that stumbles upon the ill fate of gazing into his eyes would be consumed by the madness of their own making."

Another step...

"The Soul of a creature is a marvelous place, you see. It is the birthplace of its nightmares. It holds its greatest fears and weaknesses as well. Og-Solath was so powerful because he was the embodiment of these things."

Cain immediately concluded he had heard enough. Should the creature take another step, he would escape with all he had.

However, for some reason, the creature didn't take another step. Instead, its eyes gave off an eerie radiance as it stared straight into Cain's eyes.

"Your soul..." The mirror image said in a strange voice.

Cain felt a sensation of mad hunger and greed suddenly assault him. However, this hunger didn't come from his body. Instead, it poured out of the mirror image.

"Give it to me!"

The creature lunged forward with speed that was many times greater than Cain's. Although Cain was shocked, he had been prepared after all.

Cain immediately bellowed at the top of his voice,

"Seal!"

Cain found out that whatever restriction the creature had placed on him was a man's based restriction. As such, it could be deactivated with {Seal}.

Azure flames burned across his flesh as he activated {Azure Burst}. Without even wasting a second, he turned on his heels and ran like he had been possessed by a thousand devils.

Cain kicked against the forest floor and flew like a torpedo. His legs kicked against the ground as he ran with all his might. Thanks to the powerful body he was slowly cultivating with the help of {Draconic Transfiguration}, he was able to apply his agility much more efficiently.

He crouched down slightly and cut through the wind, increasing his speed even more. After running for a while, he abruptly grabbed onto a tree with a sturdy stump. His forward momentum turned into a horizontal one as his legs immediately became airborne.

He dove sideways for a while before he finally landed behind a tree. Cain held his breath for a few seconds, silently studying his surroundings.

He had not felt the creature pursuing him, so maybe it had lost its tail. Cain let out the breath he had been holding.

Suddenly, a deep sense of danger overwhelmed him. All the hairs on his body stood on end. He exclaimed loudly and jumped away from where he had been sitting.

In the darkness of the forest, an arrow made from coalesced water mana shot through the thick stump of the tree Cain had been sitting behind.

'Shit!'

Cain's role on his back numerous times. His eyes shifted rapidly as he quickly activated the {Eye of Clairvoyance}. He then saw a shadow swiftly approaching his location.

He summoned the {Hand of Stingè} from his inventory and jumped out of his hiding place.

As soon as he clashed with the creature, he felt blood rise from the back of his throat as he shot backward like a cannonball.

"W-what..." Unbelief spread across Cain's face as his back turned a tree into splinters.

His mirror image grinned ferociously as it dashed at him, a familiar azure flame glowing on its body.

Cain realized he didn't have any space to think. His body was immediately enveloped with the familiar crimson and black glow.

'Rakshasa!'

His mind was overwhelmed with many emotions— but confusion and fury were the most dominant ones.

His body turned into a red streak as he clashed with the creature. It had long since summoned a weapon that had an uncanny similarity to the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame}.

The edge of the blade was sharper than Cain had ever seen it. He had no doubts that he would be immediately split in two if it made contact with his body.

Gritting his teeth, Cain balanced the blades in his hands and struck out. Two streaks of sword energy flowed along the blade and slammed against the surface of the larger blade, but they were easily deflected.

The creature utilized a strange footwork. It disappeared from Cain's field of vision causing his eyebrows to shoot up in panic.

Suddenly, immense pain coursed through his body as he was slammed against the ground.

"Ahh!"

Letting out an incensed yell, he swung backward wildly, but his aimless blades were quickly knocked to the side. The sharp edge of the blade was closing in on him rapidly...

BANG!

Cain gritted his teeth as he poured all the strength in his body into the handles of his swords. He looked into the eyes of the much more powerful imitation of himself.

'Calm down. Assess the situation...'

Although it was difficult, he tried to force himself to calm down. He had long since determined the true essence of the creature before him.

If what it had said before was true, then this creature was the embodiment of traveling his weaknesses to him. The creature was a much more perfect version of himself. The way it fought, the way it used the least amount of energy to execute devastating attacks, the terrifying footwork that became the reason he nearly lost his life...

The execution of skills and energy flow. It was better at everything. Cain knew right then that he had no chance of beating it. And since it possessed all his skills, as well as all his weapons, then he couldn't escape from it.

'I'm dead.'

Cain wanted to laugh at the irony of the situation. He was about to be done in by himself.

The feature suddenly switched...

Its body became enveloped with the familiar darkness of devil essence. However, the devil essence surrounding it suddenly surged into the air, overpowering the crimson Ki.

"Incredible. To think a mere human is capable of unlocking such sacred power. No... It just is because of that." The creature murmured to itself for a while before turning to face Cain.

This was the first time he saw how he looked when he activated {Abyssal Dragon Blade Technique: Rakshasa}. To say he was terrified would be downplaying it quite a bit.

'Do I really look this scary?'

A true malevolent demon. However, the darkness of the devil essence that surrounded the creature seemed much more powerful than anything he could ever hope to muster.

"Human, you have done well. If this had been a good day, I would have let you go without taking your life. However, the appeal of your soul is just too much to pass up on."

Upon saying those words, the creature suddenly disappeared...

And reappeared behind Cain. Its speed was so great it was although it had teleported.

'Crap!'

Cain immediately activated all his defensive skills. Halos of golden light enveloped his body, and a pair of vermillion wings wrapped around his body.

However, the sharp edge of the devil essence infused {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} cut through all his defenses like a knife going through butter.

Cain was shocked, but he was still prepared for this. Dancing around the edge of the blade, he placed his hand that contained a rather frightening ball of rapidly spinning flames.

The big ball erupted with a loud bang, making that portion of the forest a bright orange. Cain knew he didn't do much damage, so he summoned even more magic circles whilst chanting another spell.

Orbs of flames materialized around him and zoomed through the air, exploding as soon as they made contact with the mirror fiend.

Cain gritted his teeth as he completed his chant,

"Heavenly Blue Lightning..."

Above the canopy of leaves, a cloud filled with rolling lighting and thunder was created below a magic circle that radiated pure blue light.

Four thick bolts of lightning penetrated the crown of trees and struck at a particular spot.

Cain let out a sigh as he dragged his hurting body further away from the spot where the lightning had struck.

The black smoke cleared away to reveal a being of darkness that had not even been scratched by the lightning bombardment.

"You've got to be fucking with me..." Cain let out a breathless sigh as the creature disappeared from its initial position and appeared right before him.

He barely had time to cross his hands to guard against the blow and activate {Burning Spirit} when the heavy blow was released.

The sound of twigs snapping echoed in the forest as his body flew once again like a broken rag doll, this time, breaking through a dozen trees before coming to a stop.

Cain felt as though he had gone to heaven and back. His lungs were hurting, and he was sure he had broken more than a dozen bones. The bones in his arms were most likely shattered as he could no longer feel them.

'Damn... Damn it!'

Cain gritted his teeth as the energy in his body boiled violently. The latent power stored within him raged like an inferno and the latent power of {Draconic Transfiguration} was activated.

In the blink of an eye, he was completely healed. However, a familiar sense of ginger suddenly filled him up.

Cain slowly stood to his feet, now properly filled with rage. His eyes burned like hot coats of fire as he stood to face the creature responsible for his anger.

"You bastard..." Cain growled as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Not only is your soul powerful, but your Ki is also something like this? The only being I have ever seen with such opportunity Ki is that bastard, Skyrim. However, you are like a pitiful ant compared to him."

The creature then slowly raised the now jet-black sword...

"Thanks to you, I am somehow finally able to access devil essence. You shall now witness the true might of a-"

"Shut the hell up."

Silence...

Cain's eyes became consumed with flames...

"Shut the hell up. I will kill you now." Cain let all his rage leak as he uttered every single word slowly. He was now past the point of no return. His mind had been consumed by the rage.

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His bones creaked, and his flesh burst apart under the tyrannical explosion of power.

The {Golden Body} skill was truly oppressive in nature. For the first time, the creature before him showed signs of hesitation.

"What type of skill is this? And... It cannot be-"

Cain wasn't interested in listening to the creature before him. All he wanted to do now was to kill it as fast and as brutally as possible.

He had swapped the {Hand of Stingè} for the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame}. The blade in his hand was like a dark phantom as its mountain-like weight was completely neglected as though it didn't exist.

Cain twisted his body mid-dash and threw his blade at the creature with full force.

The creature snorted derisively as it swatted the blade away, "Amateu-"

Its words hadn't even left its mouth when Cain's armored fist came crashing down like a derailed train.