Estefan launched himself towards those who were mistreating and trying to rape a woman. He did so for the sake of justice, but he was a fool. "It's a trap!" He shouted the moment he saw the Prisoner tilt a bit revealing the woman with a blade on her hand.
He was flying towards the blade but he twisted his body to the side to avoid getting struck. The woman was good at it because she managed to slice the skin of his waist at its right side.
Estefan crashed but it wasn't that bad except for an unnecessary wound which came due to his own mistake.
He leaned back on a tree while holding the wound, he looked at his hand which was covered in blood due to the bleeding. "Stupid, wasting your life for a woman and getting tricked again." Estefan murmured out of spite as he looked up and faced them.
The prisoners, they weren't wearing the collars with rune which he failed to notice showing how weak he was still. Maybe due to lack of experience but it only made Estefan more spiteful about himself.
"hah, we are unlucky." One of the fake Prisoners yelled, "Shit a kid.. we wasted our time acting for this shit." Another one commented about it.
The woman stared at Estefan "Well boys, at least we got something. Tonight we will have some meaty bones for dinner." She chortled, clearly pleased with herself for getting a prey wounded.
She pointed the blade at Estefan, "Don't be sad, you are all criminals anyways. It's better to die and go into our belly than to meet that demon." She sneered at him. But Estefan grumbled "Fuck off!".
"Aww he is mad." One of them mocked Estefan while others laughed and made more such comments while the woman joined them in disrespecting him, "Considering your appearance and age, would he be some noble kid betrayed and sent here?" One of them blurted which surprised Estefan because did they know or are they dumb? Is what he was thinking.
But the woman said, "Nah! Even if he was, he is practically useless considering he was sent here meaning his family probably doesn't want or need him anymore. Plus what would we demand for him considering they won't even let us leave this place. We should be thankful that we get to eat noble meat." She exclaimed while having a gleeful expression as she was checking his body out for meat.
Estefan knew what was about to happen to him but he needed more power, he closed his eyes and placed one of his arms on top of his chest. "He closed his eyes! He is scared." They laughed at him.
Estefan entered his inner sanctum, the world where his energy existed. But it was an infinite void, with a single blue orb a bit larger than him. He went straight towards it and placed his hand on it, not that warm but still he felt it, the care of his Godfather. After touching he focused on taking a bit of the essence and controlling it's flow throughout his body till it reached where the wound was so the healing can be done quickly.
It did in fact heal the wound and also reinforce the area with stronger skin due to the energy, if he manages to absorb the remaining essence, his body will be more stronger and capable of handling stronger attacks.
The sudden healing of his wound startled the woman "A soul essence user, kill the brat now." They all charged at him to kill him.
He needed to wake up and face them but suddenly he couldn't wake up, time was very slow outside compared to what time is spent inside the inner sanctum. But Estefan felt it, the strong heat.
He was inside what seemed like space, an infinite void with a single light source that was the blue orb until he turned around and saw it.
The large sun-like thing, it was so vast that he couldn't see its edges. The heat was too much, he placed both his hands in front of his face to defend himself from the heat but his skin was being burnt away. Suddenly he felt like being pulled into the heat, the flames were getting brighter and bigger as he got closer.
The flames were burning him into ashes but he raised his hand, facing the sun like thing. His fingers inch by inch turning into ash, he did not know what to do, all he could feel was the tears which came out of his eyes but those turned in vapour way too faster than he could do anything.
"No!" He said "I won't let you take me!" He yelled while his eyes shined brightly which shocked the people who were trying to kill him.
He also raised his hand outside of the inner sanctum which faced the enemies who wanted to kill him. "Purge!" That was the word which came out of his mouth while his eyes were tearing up due to the pain as a large amount of flames unleashed out of his left arm.
It went through his enemies in a straight trajectory, burning, melting everything away and leaving nothing behind, the flames representing his pain, his rage, his revenge and his loneliness.
He looked at his palm, it was burnt and in a bad state. He screamed in pain because he was a ten year old boy who had no idea what just happened.
Screaming in pain, "Focus! Focus and heal it, you can do it." He told himself while crying and screaming in the pain. Estefan held his wrist of the left arm while steam was coming out from his palm due to the wound. "I can't use this power if I cannot absorb the power given by Godfather Ulf, or else it'll kill me while I kill any enemies."
He focused on and diverted a bit of the essence given by Ulf towards his palm and the healing process quickened but it wasn't fast enough to subside the pain. Estefan slowly stood up and faced the damage he caused.
It was devastating, a large part of the forest simply disappeared. He looked at the opposite area where he came from but he was quite far inside so they shouldn't be able to spot him at all or this destruction he brought forth. But it was definitely mana instead of soul essence.
"How can I have such a large amount of mana inside my body?" He questioned because Mana was normally found everywhere but not inside someone like Soul Essence. Mages simply manipulate the mana around them although he doesn't know how since he never learnt to be one but his mother was and he does remember her feeding him some potions every time.
Maybe she is the reason why such a large source of mana was inside him, which made Estefan wonder. What if he can use both powers? But for now, his aim was to escape the region to not be found for what he had done. He must train and heal up rather than pondering over such things for now.
Estefan slowly made his way through but suddenly he felt a pressure, or something heavy was preventing him from moving. He stopped, he could move anywhere, it was a strong pressure. Something he never felt yet, Estefan was suddenly pushed on the floor but he held his ground using hands but the injury made it painful.
He suddenly felt the pressure growing stronger, "Ulf?" A voice, a strong deep voice belonging to a man but it was disturbingly distorted at the very end, as if he had been discovered by a demon.
He couldn't turn around but the person or being or whatever was behind him, "I see... You inherited his essence... No wonder why I sensed his energy but you don't look like you are related to him." The being spoke, "Wait, you are the son of the Duke." It laughed so loud that Estefan had to close his ears because it felt like the eat drums would explode at any point.
"I was told that he'll send his son, I didn't expect him to actually do it. All because you were her son, how unfortunate because you seem far more powerful than your father. I suppose he wants to nip the bud." The demon was more like taunting him with such information, the intention to break Estefan from the inside but he already knew that his father disliked him anyways but what was odd was the fact that the demon knew about the fact that Estefan was going to be sent here.
The demon was walking around him, Estefan couldn't raise his head to see the demon because the pressure was too strong for him yet he managed to not fully fall into the ground showing his strength. "You see, I was told to kill you, eat you but leave your head by your father." The demon crooned at Estefan to make it sound very sad but then again it didn't matter much for him.
"But why should I?" The demon yelled, "Honestly I would have but seeing how you inherited that bastard's strength. I wonder how strong you'll be if you manage to cultivate it. So I am giving you a good chance you cannot reject, take all the time you need. Train and absorb then come face me." The demon demanded.
Estefan found this moment to be absurd, he faced some crazy villagers then suddenly met the demon who he was supposed to kill to reclaim the City but he couldn't even move around in front of the demon. Now the same demon wants him to train and face the demon because the demon knows his Godfather, what kind of a predicament was this? This is what Estefan thought to himself because it was very unbelievable.
But the Demon continued "Ulf was the only human who could face me while I used this body, this human body allowed me to use at least twenty percent of my true strength and for a human to match it was an incredible thing but old age prevented him from continuing after three days of battle. That is why I spared him because it was my reward for the enjoyment." The demon said while walking around Estefan, "I hope to experience similar things with you. Since you are his successor now, train and come to me at the City where we shall battle."
The demon laughed at the idea of that battle which gave me more joy than the body of a pure human woman but he then pointed to the area in front of Estefan "Go there, there is a hill and a cave where those pills you carry are gathered under my orders by the humans here. You can take decades or even centuries but I want you to train, get stronger and come face me. Nothing else and if you leave I'll kill you." It was a clear warning from the demon and before he left the demon removed the collar by a single swipe "You do not need that anymore." Those were the demon's last words before it disappeared.
Estefan was surprised, not only he met someone or something stronger than anything he had ever witnessed, but he was let go for the sake of getting stronger, which was also his plan in the first place.
Estefan stood back, he looked at the rune collar as he realised that the soldiers would think that he died but it didn't matter since what mattered was getting stronger.
He walked forward towards the hill to train but he had no idea how far away it was, he had to travel nearly 50 km non-stop before he ended up in front of a not that large bald hill, it had the cave the demon suggested to use as well.
Meanwhile back inside the wall, "Sir, the boy is dead." A soldier reported to the Captain who ordered the information to be sent to the Duke immediately.