"Conflagration Palace..." Sia murmurs, thinking she mimics Jio's habit of naming his attacks and hating herself for doing so.

Inside her hell-like domain named "Conflagration Palace," Sia has complete control of the magic flowing inside. The fire that only burns the enemies, growing and shrinking; absolute control, authority to fire, the Goddess of Flame.

"Whuhahahaha! That's a good name! The stronger the food, the sweeter they taste!" Jio menacingly declares, punching the blazing wall of Sia's domain just to find out that his shadowy hands evaporate and shouts in agony.

Jio turns to black smoke looking for an exit like an evil spirit flying around Sia's domain. While in the air, he notices magic gathering around the walls like polka dots. Without warning, the walls sprout solidified fire spikes, piercing Jio's gas-like body.

"You think a mare domain can stop me from destroying the village?" Jio shouts angrily at this point as he tries to destroy the spikes penetrating his gaseous-like body.

Every time Jio destroyed one spike, two or more spikes impaled his body until he became the Conflagration Palace's chandelier that looked like the sun that brightened the land. Sia watches Jio evaporate and starts to shed tears made out of lava, thinking she almost lost everything to a demon.

"Ku... Ku... Ku... Whuhahahahaha!"

The chandelier in the center of Sia's domain darkens like a black hole sucking everything around; even light can't escape its nightmarish strength.

"Devil's Castle!"

In a state of shock, Sia watches her blazing domain turn darker, like the chandelier in the middle but at a slower rate as the whole domain produces black smoke. Sia tries her best to disable her domain, realizing she doesn't have control anymore and sees Jio descend. The atmosphere inside the domain dramatically changes, and the concentrated Dark magic suffocates Sia and passes out.

An hour later, Sia wakes up and sees Jio practicing with his sword. She tries to get up and use her power but is too weak to do so.

"Save up your energy, your exhausted," Jio casually let out and continued swinging his sword.

"..." Sia looks at Jio, trying to figure out what he is planning, and wants to know what happened to the village after she passes out.

"Good job on unleashing your domain. Your control over your power is superb!" Jio complements and sits beside Sia and continues, "I acted like a psycho to bring your full potential. I know it's inhumane, but it must be done if you want the strength to protect those you care about the most."

"Do you even know what you made me go through!?" Sia protests as she shivers from terror and pain at the thought of losing everyone.

*Powerless against the beasts who devoured the people I know and love. The whole village... Run, my mother said... Maybe, I understand how you feel* Jio thought without sharing his past with Sia.

"I hate you!" Sia bitterly shouts.

"Remember this feeling of powerlessness. Get stronger! You know deep in your heart that you needed this, and I know this won't happen again!" Jio announces with confidence.

"..." Sia looks down.

"You now can protect everyone!" Jio declares.

Sia punches Jio's shoulder and starts crying, not knowing whether she will get mad or scared of him, but also thankful since she learned how to control her power. Jio hugged Sia to comfort her and made her feel safe, like how he felt when Mr. and Mrs. De Vil found him.

After Sia finishes to gather her thoughts, they went back to the village silently.

"Thank you..." Sia sincerely lets out.

Jio nods and walks around the village to find Amir to ask how everyone's doing and ask if they need more insight or words of encouragement.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Every day the same routine happens in the village except for Sia, who practices alone after what Jio makes her go through.

In the middle of the night, when everyone is fast asleep, Lala wakes up, sensing people outside the village. She wakes up and alerts Jio about the situation with her armor morphing that would easily blend into the night.

"Are you sure about it?" Jio looks into Lala's eyes, asking to confirm if she's telling the truth.

"We can see them outside! Our eyes are awesome! You, you know that, right?" Lala confirms as she grabs Jio's arms and leads the way.

*Yup, she's not wrong! I do feel someone using Shadow magic* Jio thought.

"Thank you, thank you," Jio smiled and ended up on the roof.

"See? Over therr!" Lala points her finger around like she knows exactly where the enemies are hiding.

"I see them! Good job Lala! When we stop at another city or village, just tell me if you want something, I got you!" Jio promises to Lala as a reward for detecting the enemies sooner before any death occurs, "Can you stay here, Lala? Make sure they're okay."

"You can count on me, Geo!" Lala confidently answers.

Twenty invaders are sent to finish everyone in their sleep, and a hundred more are on standby to attack when necessary. Jio's body turns to smoke, blending the night as he moves towards the closest enemy—The hunter becomes the prey.

Killing three magicians in an instant upon reaching them and twin warriors who alerted their group before they found their end in Jio's hand. Jon morphs into a handgun based on Cloud's design and aims it high at the night sky. He pulls the trigger, and a whistling sound echoes like wraiths hunting for souls, which gives chills to anyone who hears the screams. A bright white ball of light illuminates the land like the sun. He shoots another round into the air and explodes to wake everyone sleeping in the village.

Waking up from the explosion, the villagers immediately armed themselves, ready to fight, and saw Lala with her wings facing the light.

Amir commands everyone to be in position and hold the line. He approaches Lala and looks at the light in the sky with a stunned look on his face.

*Is it magic? So beautiful... Where are the enemies?* Amir thought.

"Lala, do you know where's Jio and the enemies?" Amir shouts to Lala.

"Youuu don't have good eyes, Old man! You just can't," Lala answers with her armor glimmering under the ball of light in the sky.

*Jio, you monster! This little Goddess is slowly turning into you* Amir thought, holding his chest as it pains him.

"Is that the enemies?" Amir asks as he looks in the distance.

A man in a robe, holding a scythe, and when Amir finally sees the man's face, a skull with black flaming eye sockets that would scare anyone who is caught off guard— the Angel of Death. Forty-one magicians and fifty-nine warriors follow the man in a robe, ready to overrun the village with destruction and violence.

"A Lich with his legion of death!" Amir shouts and tells everyone to charge.

Lala charges and surprises everyone with her incredible speed.

"Geo! You brought the enemies with you!" Lala let out and was not impressed and noticed something, "Jon looks different."

"Forget to tell you," Jio answers, letting Jon touch Lala's armor and cast protective barriers around them.

The magicians bombarded the two with magic but didn't understand how the barrier stayed still.

Jio creates a barrier, uses Jon to absorb thirty to forty percent of the attack, and uses the energy to keep the barrier active. When Jio finished upgrading Lala's armor, it morphed into a white dress and moved like an actual dress.

"Look at you, so cute!" Jio complements and continues, "And your control is amazing!"

"I know!" Lala confidently answers as she turns 360 degrees to show it to Jio fully.

"You look like a little princess!" Jio happily lets out as he struggles to control the barrier around them.

The two fall onto the ground and immediately dashes to the enemies. The Elder who commands the invaders is at the back, commanding everyone not to leave any survivors.

Even when the ball of light disappears, the spell and powerful attack from everyone makes the place glows beautifully like a Christmas tree.

What the invaders don't understand is how the villagers keep charging without regard for their safety and assume that their weapon is made out of plutonium.

Plutonium- the only type of metal that repels magic.

Without any warnings, the villagers return their attack in a simpler version and slightly weaker since they're not as skillful as Jio's magical control. The invaders are taken aback and in shock, thinking about how they cast simple spells casually when the villagers are known to be warriors.

"Don't get fooled by the enemies! Their weak attack means they recently learned magic!" The Elder shouts as he slaps a fireball out of existence, proving a point.

While Jio and Lala take anyone they face, Jio slowly blends around the chaos and turns to shadows with a mission to bring the strongest combatants and invaders' commander to their demise.

When half of the magicians are charged up to unleash a powerful attack, and the sticky metallic object is placed on the villagers secretly, the invaders start to retreat and gather around the Elder in defensive formation. Amir commands everyone to hold their positions and assumes the enemies' withdrawal is a trap of some kind.

"DIE, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!" The elder shouts with his right in the air like his controlling the ominous clouds that the magicians conjured.

Everyone stops after a loud, frightening thunder followed by rumbles echoing throughout the horizon. The sticky object in the villagers' bodies starts to spark, and a brief flash of light from above targets all the villagers.

A pillar of electricity from the Cloud above branches halfway to the ground, hitting every villager. Invader magicians fall from the sky one by one after the Elder used their life energy to compensate for casting the spell "Heavenly Tree of Destruction."

As the Elder celebrates and laughs menacingly, along with the remaining invaders ready to plunder and burn the village to the ground, Jio appears behind the Elder with black smoke made out of Dark Magic.

"You made a grave mistake..." Jio coldly lets out with his scythe on the Elder's neck and continues, "Watch!"

Behind the smoke screen, everyone noticed human figures standing as their body started to produce glowing tattoos. Few villagers died in the process, but those who survived were overcharged and needed to release all the power from their bodies or die in the process.

Soul Possession: An ability to be the weapon and adapt most or all the weapon's ability or effect for a short time. The villagers' weapon's Black Stone design glows and moves to the villager's body, becoming one with their weapon.

Jio grabs the Elder's collar and flies to view the approaching slaughter fully.

The Elder notices a girl ascending behind the villagers and transforms into the Fire Goddess, ready to incinerate all their sins. The villagers start to charge toward the invaders discharging electricity from their skin.

A beautiful sight to behold and extremely deadly to the invaders as the Elder watches in terror, thinking about how the villagers get so strong in a short period of time. Slowly looking back, he saw Jio covered in black smoke with a skull head and black fire in the eye sockets.

"Times up!" Jio let out in an unnerving voice.

"You! You did this!" The Elder shouts after realizing Jio's action to help the small village caused him everything as he sees his headless body, and eventually, everything turns dark.

To be continued,