Chapter 28: Ishtar

Chapter 28: Ishtar

This chapter has slight gore.

~

In the ghostly plain, two figures were moving at an incomprehensible speed. These figures could not be seen by the naked eye.

*Swoosh!*

A silver-haired boy was dancing in the air with an ethereal blade in his hand shining in the night, being the only light as if it were the moon.

*Drrrrrrr!*

Numerous roots were growing from the ground, trying to chase after the silver-haired boy, every time a root came close to him in the sky, he would elegantly use it as a foothold and do acrobatics.

If all of this wasn't in fast motion then people would think that he was actually dancing. Not a single speck of sweat was on his body, instead, he had an excited smile upon his jade face. n-)O/(v-/e(/L-/b/-1).n

Shi, on the other hand, was sweating hard, for him his all his elegant movements were hard to counter.

It was surprising that a swordsman could be so flexible. Mages were supposed to have an advantage but this kid was instead making his disadvantage an advantage!

All his moves were profound and refined to the maximum, if Rael wasn't a child demon then he would have thought that he was an old monster who had lifetimes of battle experience.

"What's....the secret to your art?" Shi stuttered while asking, he didn't even realize that he asked such an embarrassing question when he was the one boasting earlier.

Although for Rael it was swordplay, for the others it was a dance, technically not wrong. His swordplay was delicate exquisite and beautiful that it could be seen as art.

Rael who was still doing acrobatics wanted to laugh hard but controlled himself, nevertheless, a smile crept onto his face which enraged Shi.

Shi misunderstood and thought that the brat was overestimating himself and wanted to beat him to a pulp.

"So what is it?"

Rael gave a gentle smile and the aura in the air changed a little.

It was not overwhelming or dominating but instead was filled with tranquility, it was peaceful and made Shi for once forget about everything in the world.

"Wow....."

"If you become my disciple, then maybe I could teach you..." Rael said with an evil smirk.

The tree roots swirled around Rael but he jumped into the air doing a flip and froze the root with ice before breaking it.

"Bastard tell me!"

Rael shrugged, he quite liked the idea of having a loyal disciple who would be in a high-profile agency, it was purely strategic.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Lightness...."

Shi looked at him confused, both of them were still playing a game of catch. It is said that battles help you to understand the person you are fighting with better.

"Lightness?"

"Yes, Lightness. All my techniques, footwork, and sword skills, are depended on extreme nimbleness and flexibility. The principles of my techniques are to be 'lighter than a feather' and 'elegance in every movement."

"I see..." Shi nodded his head,

"The one who made these techniques must be a wise person who has had many battles to perfect something to such an extent..."

"Not really, these techniques are not perfect, but instead, with every execution it keeps on becoming more refined, nothing can be perfect in this world."

"You know you sound like as if you are the old man who made this technique, judging by the haughtiness in your voice..."

"Would you believe me if I told you I am the old man?" He asked with a smile.

Shi did not answer.

Rael shook his head, he was indeed the one to make it.

It was his life's greatest compilation. All his martial techniques are in one technique.

A technique skill set with unlimited potential, to perfect it even after death, was no more than a blessing.

He was not a chunni, but he was a sword dancer, and every person who wields the sword has a goal.

The ultimate goal of every sword user.

To perfect a technique to such a level, a level that would only use one strike.

One strike to split the sky in half.

One strike to split the heavens in half.

One strike to create life rather than destruct it.

"So what is the name?" Shi asked curiously, by far he had never seen such skills in the 400 years of his life.

Rael simply ignored him with an evil smirk on his visage.

[GHOST PHANTASM!! First form!! Ghostwalk!]

At that moment, Rael disappeared from his eyesight.

He suddenly closed upon Shi, who was in the core of the tree roots vortex. A huge amount of frost energy exploded, turning all the roots into ice and ultimately breaking all of them.

The roots just like snow started to rain as ice particles. It was a beautiful sight, although the ground was broken and ruined.

[Third form!! Shadow walk!!]

He appeared behind Shi, he turned around to look at the Rael who was behind him. The back was the place where most people would show up, so he was on guard.

Unfortunately for him, he was trolled.

He turned around to strike him but to his surprise when he hit him with his staff, it simply passed through his body.

It was as if his body were thin air!

He turned around once again, and he couldn't believe what he saw. He saw about tens of Rael in front of him disappearing and appearing again like after images.

Not only that, but he struck everyone with his roots, but to even more surprise all of them were mirages.

'Weird! Why isn't any of them real?? Shouldn't the real one be among them?!"

*Plop!*

He fell onto his butt, he looked up in surprise and saw Rael's face in front of him giving a mocking smile. He gave out his hand forward to help him get up.

Shi annoyed slapped the back of his hand, he knew that the silver-haired boy was doing it deliberately to mock him.

"How did you do that?" He asked once again, ashamed, but he really wanted to know.

His fighting style was very peculiar to him.

Rael winked, one of his long fingers on his lips as if shushing a child.

"Unless you accept my previous offer..."

"Disciple my ass!" Shi yelled, how could he let his elven pride down to this shitty kid.

The first form of Rael's technique skillset, Ghost Phantasm, Ghostwalk enabled him to disappear from the opponent's view which gave the idea that he was invisible or simply too fast.

In the third form of Ghost Phantasm, Shadow walk helped him to create multiple images of himself giving out the idea that he was simply too fast or that it was an illusion technique.

Shi thought that the real Rael was among the illusions, but instead, the real one was invisible and walked towards him lazily while he was dealing with the illusions wondering which the real one was among them.

Then he simply kicked on his leg with enough force to make him fall.

"Well, you did not use your last resort...." Rael said while looking at the Shi to comfort him who was slapping his butt so that the dust which got stained on his pants would get removed.

Shi looked baffled, "How did you know?"

Rael rolled his eyes. Everyone has a last resort. All important characters.

Shi chuckled, by now he knew that the kid in front of him was by far a normal one.

"So are you also heading towards, where the mana is coming from?" Shi asked him in a serious tone.

Rael nodded.

"I have a feeling that my disciple is stuck over there."

~

"D.. don't you dare!!! You will regret this!!" The King of Valeria screamed.

The ice-cold Ishtar looked at him as if he was an insignificant being.

"You are a headache! Just give me the fucking ring!"

"You... b*tch!"

"What did you just call me... " She gave out an innocent smile filled with intense miasma.

"I will count till 3, so pass it over to me..."

The King had fear embedded in his eyes as he looked at the visage of the psycho in front of him. He started to dig into his pockets.

"1..."

*Swing!* *Swoosh!*

The sound of the air getting cut with the surprising sound of something falling.

*Plop!*

A head fell down and rolled towards the Queen of Valencia. She looked at the head, for a few seconds, and then recognized that it was her hubby's head.

"Kyaaaaaa!"

She almost fainted if it wasn't for the killing intent emanating from Ishtar.

"Oops, I forgot I had to count until three...sorry my bad."

She started to giggle while looking at the human in front of her, who was grieving.

"Lady Ishtar... I think you should stop that..." Griles said as sweat formed on his forehead.

She looked at him with a cold gaze before she snorted and looked away.

'Master had told me that she doesn't like couples....it appears that she was betrayed by her man and has a backstory....' Griles shuddered as he thought and was relieved as he didn't have any woman in his life.

He gulped his saliva and turned his gaze away from her, 'Anyone would betray her....psychotic bitch!'

"I have a feeling that you are thinking of something rude..." The woman clenched her fist and showed it to the red-haired devil.

"N-No ma'am"

She looked at the human queen with disdain, she felt like spitting on her ugly face, but then she reminded herself that it would be a blessing for her then, so she cut that idea out.

"So, are you going to give me that ring?"

The woman hurriedly took out the ring from her husband's pockets with lifeless eyes. She knew that escape was impossible....she would also end up like her husband.

Better to die now, at least she would be able to meet her hubby in the afterlife.

She took out the ring and passed it to the woman in front of her. The woman snatched the ring from her hands and looked at it as if it were a treasure.

She wore the ring on the ring finger of her left hand and turned her gaze towards Griles.

"You people from the Lower World would not know anything about this ring!"

She started to giggle creepily, she was messed up, even a normal person could most probably see that.

She turned her gaze towards Griles, the three bodyguards, and the family leaders, who were all frowning deeply.

"YOU ALL WILL NEVER REALIZE THE TRUE POWER OF THIS RING! Although the legacy isn't much worth to me, at least I can extract the soul fragment of the Supreme-Nirvana-Ancestral-Monarchial-Absolute God-Emperor, Mahir El Navah..."

All of them were looking at her with fear, their calculations went very wrong!

Griles had made a colossal mistake, he should have suppressed her from taking action a long time ago but like a dumb person he kept on letting her take the lead which ended up fooling him.

All the family leaders looked at Giles with a confused expression and Ishtar with shock!

The bloodlust she was releasing was suffocating them all! Wasn't she on their side? What was exactly going on?!!

"You fool....you all are simply ants in my eyes... Did you really think that you could suppress me by using a slave contract? NAIVE!

Especially that devil king of yours....what was his name again....tsk... I forgot."

She giggled as she started to float into the air.

She was like an empress looking down at all of them like as if they were chess pieces only meant to be used by her.

Her eyes were cold, devoid of any expression, but her face wasn't, she had an evil grin that was hidden behind her black veil.

One could only see her eyes and her jade-like skin.

Everyone wondered how she looked, but that was before she released her killing intent.

"Insolent worms!" She snapped her fingers and a gigantic pressure came upon all of them.

All of them fell onto the ground, gasping for air.

The Ring of Solomon started to shine brighter and brighter until it closed upon the entire sky like a mini sun.

The sun turned the surrounding cold and slowly started to turn into black color until it became back like the abyss.

[DOMAIN!]

The entire ruined field was replaced with black ground which looked like an endless shadow and there was no light, only gray surroundings only including the people inside.

The people in the domain looked at her with anger in their hearts, they were all still stuck in the begging position.

The woman descended like a goddess and placed one leg of hers on the red-haired devil, Griles'a head.

She used a bit of force and crashed his bead into the hard, cold ebony floor. Tears sprouted from his eyes, the pressure was soul-crushing, but he still endured it.

Seeing him able to resist it a bit...she increased the intensity more.

*DHMMMMMMM!!!*

"Arrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"

He screamed in pain, and the abyss-like floor just like a marsh swarm started to absorb the others.

"What is going on?!" All the clan elders and leaders started to scream, frightened.

They were all getting absorbed by the floor as if it were a marsh swamp!!

"Noooooooo!!!!!"

Everyone wailed and wailed and looked at the beautiful woman with hate in their eyes.

They started to curse aloud looking at her.

"Bitch! You will die a painful death!"

She simply smirked, it wasn't the first time she was gotten cursed by a person before they were dying. She had killed zillions and zillions of people, such a meager amount was nothing to her.

If those curses would actually work, then she would have been dead long ago.

Hate creates more hate and sometimes even kindness creates hate...then why not simply kill them without mercy?

If you leave them out of your kindness, then they are sure to come back and take revenge.

Instead, just eradicate them all, leaving no existence alive until the last bloodline!

This was the principle Ishtar followed!

Now the only one left in the entire domain was Griles the devil.

"Wasn't it your Lord? Who dared to have the audacity to put a slave contract on me?' She asked him in a grim tone, almost teasing him.

Seeing the man not answering, she grinned even more.

This was her chance!

Numerous amount of humanoid shadows were raised from the abyss-like floor.

A hill started to form and stop it was a throne where she floated and sat atop.

She controlled his life and death, his soul was claimed by her....his God wasn't the Devil King who wasn't even there....his God was only one person and that was the beautiful black-haired woman sitting atop the throne with her legs crossed.

"Maybe if you beg to me to let you go... I might release you..."

The red-haired man bit his lips, ignoring her...he could never betray his realm!

The demoness simply smirked, she loved it when the most stubborn-willed men fell prey to her!

After all, isn't it always fun to see the most loyal dogs breaking apart? The regret they would feel afterward would shame them their entire life.

She smiled gently, "Don't worry, nothing much will happen to you....just a little bit of pain...okay?"

The shadow soldiers poured some kind of liquid on his back!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHGHGHGGGGGGFGCVFGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Heal him" She commanded the soldiers.

*Fwoom!*

All the burns and his skin and flesh that were falling apart got healed.

"Do it again! This time on his cock!" She looked at Griles's expression while smiling.

"Noooooooo! Anywhere but there!"

The shadow soldiers stripped him apart and some kinds of black strands of chains came out from the abysmal floor binding him.

The chains laid him on a black bed, and he was strapped from every side like as if he were going to get raped.

"You have a pretty small one...I can see why you were ashamed..." She chuckled.

Griles was in no mood to get flustered, he could only think about the pain which was about to come.

"Pour it!" The lady ordered with a devious smile on her face.

*Swoosh!*

"AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Tears started to flow from his eyes but he still didn't give up.

Ishtar was now going into her full sadistic mode!

"Cut it!"

*Shing!*

"Argh!" It was not a lot of pain this time because it was just cut, but that was enough to make him cry even more. No man would like to see himself without a penis.

"Make him swallow it and then heal his cock again!"

His eyes got wide open as he looked at her with fear.

"Noooo no noooooooo!!!!!!" He yelled and yelled, but ultimately, he was forced to swallow his pride.

He had to chew it, he felt like puking, but he couldn't.

"Now why? You men don't feel ashamed when you put that disgusting thing into our mouths?" She asked with a bit of rage in her voice, it seemed like she truly had a backstory.

"And no need to overreact as if you can't speak, yours was anyway small!"

He wanted to cry, but he couldn't!

'Just what did I do wrong?...'

'Maybe I should beg...why do I feel loyalty towards my realm??'

'Do I really have to follow his order??...'

'Yes! I will follow them regardless of what!'

Ishtar simply smiled from her throne, she was thoroughly enjoying breaking the pitiful guy.

"Repeat the entire process."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

She looked somewhere else not paying attention to the devil, her domain had broken a little, and a figure entered.

He had black hair and luminous eyes, and an aura of mana around himself. He was carrying with him a soft round blob.

Furthermore, he seemed confused, it seemed that he entered unintentionally.

Ishtar shook her head while looking at him as she kept one hand of her on her chin shaking her head in dismay.

"Now...now... why would a lamb come on its own to get slaughtered?"