Chapter 247 Maria

"Mother, do shooting stars fall during the day?" A young girl with two little horns poking from her forehead asked innocently.

Her mother, a full grown demon with blood running down her right arm smiled. "No dear, they don't. Why are you asking that?"

"Because I want to know what that is." The young girl pointed in the direction opposite of the mother.

The mother turned back in terror to see a flam covered man shooting towards them. The city around the mother-daughter pair was already in ruins with a few people running around in terror.

'If only we had managed to get to the evacuation site on time…' the mother immediately picked up her daughter and hugged her to her chest.

She turned in the opposite direction of the flaming man and ran at full speed. It was then that she wished that she had a lightning or wind affinity.

"Mom, I am scared…" The little girl whispered before burying her head in her mother's chest.

"I know dear but don't be afraid. I am sure that our demon king will do something for us. We just have to get to a safe location." The mother reassured her child while trying to find a place to hide.

"I am afraid your demon king won't be able to help you escape death." An amused voice rang inside the woman's ears.

Her entire body froze in terror as she saw the flame-covered man landing in front of her. A humorless smile was visible on his face while flames danced around his body.

"It's a shame we were ordered to eliminate this city. You could have been a good follower for his majesty." He clicked his tongue in disappointment before raising his hand forward.

The woman clutched her left hand tightly around her girl and pointed her other hand forward.

A bird made from water emerged from her hand and directly charged forward.

"Oh you are a water mage? For trying to fight back, you at least deserve to know my name," The flame-covered man praised. "I am Valdez, one of the ten supreme commanders. Now its time for you to die."

Valdez created his own bird of flames and made it charge towards the water bird. The former evaporated long before coming in contact with the fire bird, leaving no obstructions in its path.

"Maria, run!"  The mother suddenly shouted as she tossed her child away and jumped forward.

Water surrounded her body in the form of a bubble as she charged towards Valdez. Somehow the bird turned around and charged back at Valdez.

"Well, that's surprising. Too bad I have seen this before." Valdez snapped his fingers.

A wall of flame erected right below the mother's feet, burning her up on the spot. Maria, her daughter, was left sitting on the ground with a stunned expression.

"Mom?" she asked in a low voice.

Valdez brushed the dust off his shoulders and looked at the girl with a tired expression. He slowly walked up to her and knelt on the ground on one knee.

"Your name is Maria, right?"

Maria nodded as tears started falling down her eyes. Valdez sighed loudly before placing a hand on Maria's shoulder.

"Your mother never existed in her real form. It was just a part of your imagination sprung up by the naiveness of the human mind." He said in a clear voice before lifting his hand off.

Maria's eyes glowed brightly once before returning to normal. She looked around with a confused expression and hints of terror visible in her eyes.

"Don't worry, Maria. Your delusion was just broken when I used my magic to cleanse your mind. Would you like to follow me and help me purify more souls?" Valdez asked with a smile.

Maria looked at him with a surprised expression before nodding. The horns on her hand suddenly vanished and her eyes soon changed color to a somewhat familiar shade of green.

"Oh by the way, from now onwards, your surname is Bloodthorn." Valdez added before grabbing her hand.

"Ok…" Maria nodded as the two of them vanished from their spot.

Inside her mind, she no longer remembered the scene where her mother was turned into ashes.

All she remembered was that her name was Maria Bloodthorn…

***

"What the fk!" Jason cursed as his eyes suddenly flew open.

He had felt a headache coming when he was training with May and had excused himself by going to the bathroom.

The moment he had entered it, a vision had forcefully overtaken his mind, making his witness the entire scene from a third person's perspective.

'I have to find out who this Maria Bloodthorn is.' Jason thought before splashing water on his face.

From what he could figure out, Maria was likely the name of one of his relatives from the Bloodthorn family.

The question was how did someone from the Bloodthorn family end up becoming one of the ten supreme commanders?

[ How are you sure that it was not something from the past? What if you just saw something currently happening at the demon continent? ]

'Call it a gut feeling if you want but I just know that it was from the past.'

Jason pulled himself out of the bathroom and took a deep a breath before heading out. Instead of going back to train May, he decided to ask Risa about it.

[ She is currently down in her lab. I think she wanted some alone time before the big fight. ]

'Maybe. There's a chance that she made some important breakthrough and decided that it was important to go research it instead of preparing for a war.'

[ For some reason, that sounds like something Risa would do. ] The system agreed.

Jason on the other hand activated the teleportation runes in his room and teleported directly to the laboratory.

Once he appeared there, he searched around for Risa and saw her sitting peacefully on a chair with her head resting in her hands.

"Do you want something?" Risa asked without lifting her head.

"Can you tell me who Maria Bloodthorn is?" Jason asked in a calm voice.

Risa immediately lifted her head and looked at Jason with a bewildered expression.

"How… how do you know that name?"