In an unknown facility off the coast of the Neoptolemus Empire was a large fort in the free states. It was one of many the Empire had set up as a line of defense for potential demon or military defense. Unlike the others there was hardly any traffic from the Imperial Forces of Free Traders. In fact, this area was occupied by few ships and its borders were heavily guarded and fortified by constant patrols all wearing the crest of the Empire.

Since it was not only occupied but managed by the Empire, it was more of a base than a border crossing. Yet, from every angle there was a guard post to monitor any signs of activity from one of the many border island crossings. In the past it was used as a staging area for intercontinental wars, but now it was occupied for a new purpose, to test out a new theory under the supervision of the Archduke himself.

The Archduke Pascal Melia had been observing from his highest towner on the gate, the progress of his most devoted researcher. She was young, but a prodigy he had shown an interest in for years and now she was showing her latest project. Duplication was the highest level of grand fire mage craft, an advanced form of Refraction and Reflection to create another copy to disorient the enemy. The young woman decided to create five copies of herself, a group of clones of her own image, wearing the exact armor, or shining white, even wielding the same Asterite sword. They both moved as one in circle dancing against each other like a well coordinated troop. When they were all at equal distance they raised their swords in the air and called out to the troop of soldiers around her.

“Release!” The echo of her voice amplified five folds echoing from their ethereal bodies.

The Archduke raised his hand to the soldiers on the floor to lift a great steel gate. Behind the gate were three sets of glowing red eyes burning with rage. From out of the cavern a starving creature emerged, a demon hybrid of goat, lion, and snake, known as the Chimera. It was feared and revered as the ultimate Fire Create just below that of legendary Red Dragon, which was incredibly rare, but still very dangerous. As she stared down its eyes with her five swords at the ready, each clone held their swords at a defensive stance.

ROARR! The heads of the mighty beast spewed fire from their mouths as the five women, but the flames did no harm. In fact they seemed to be consumed by their illusionary bodies from the tip of their swords. It was then, they charged into the heart of the fire, and started attacking the great beast in all the important areas.

She struck five cuts to the left leg rendered it immobile, 5 more to the right leg bringing it to its front knees. The beast tried to strike, stab and bite at the attacks but only got caught in the flames of its own fire. Their bodies were little more than living lights swatting by its heavy claws. While immune to its own attacks it was practically helpless against the invincible army of 5 fighters together in a series of coordinated and concentrated strikes. Then 5 more strikes was all it took to take it down completely. One strike to the lion’s head, one strike to the snake’s head, one strike to the goat’s head and two strikes to the demon’s heart.

Riddled with stabs like a pincushion the creature’s eyes grew pale as the last image it saw was of five warriors vanishing amongst the flames. When the flames died down, a single woman walked into the ring carrying her Asterite sword. She smiled that the creature had been taken down so easily, when she had not even truly stepped into the ring. A slow clap began to be heard above in the tower, as the Archduke built up a grand bravado. By the time he had got down from his part of the tower, the claps had stopped but her smug smile had not faded.

“Well done Ms. Erebus, you’ve done what a whole platoon of Fire Mages could not do!” He said as he stepped to the woman kneeling in front of the slain beast.

He looked at the slices and stabs on the creature closely with extreme curiosity, using a monocle to gain a closer inspection as she was doing the same.

“Tell me, how do mere illusions cause this much damage to a Chimera?”

“It’s a new technique, my lord.” She got up from her knees and bowed. “I don’t know what to call it yet, but it utilizes the Holy Light that can’t be seen. The Duplicates were merely a distraction while I used the sword to amplify my natural ability but as you can see it perfectly replicates both stabbing and slicing with the right amount of power.”

“An Invisible Light?” He asked almost in disbelief. “This is more than just the rank of Grand Master, dare I say we might just have to create a new rank entirely for you.”

“It’s still not good enough.” Helene criticized her own techniques. “I can only utilize it with the help of my father’s sword.” She pointed it down the ground. “It’s a magnificent catalyst for improving the technique. If I can one day master it without the sword, I may not even need the illusion. I could channel the energy directly with the point of a finger.”

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“Helena, when you signed on for this project it was to improve the very fabric of mage craft, you’ve managed to do more than anyone in your family.”

“That’s not what I’ve been hearing about my sister Vera.” She shrugged. “I heard she’s been improving new theories in Elemental Synergy, all because of that grant from brother. They might even rank in the same category as yourself one day.”

“It’s a minor inconvenience, they’ve barely managed to break out of the other fifth circles.”

“I’ve heard about her accomplishments even here on this remote island.” Helena rubbed her head. “Water Mages moving through darkness with ease, Wind Mages able to reinforce bone growth, Earth Mages learning how to accelerate the maturation of plant decomposition. Ha, that’ll make fine wine one day.”

“How is it that you heard of these things, when the Rite of Crusades forbids interference.”

“Your Mages staff bring me news from the continent, they love to brag about how the Nomiki Institute has been getting a lot of attention in recent years with their discoveries. Their techniques would be good for camouflage and medicine, but hardly suitable for frontline combat.”

“Even a gardening shovel can become a spear if it’s sharpened.” He protested. “She’s an Erebus like you, if you can discover these techniques what’s to stop her from doing the same?”

“With the exception of my youngest brother, the Erebus bloodline is strong and innovative, but I’m working in leaps while they’re working at a crawl. There’s a chance they could use that new magic in a militaristic way, but by then I would have already figured out a counter measure.”

“Ms. Erebus, if that were true, wouldn’t it make more sense then to make your findings public as she, I could get an audience with the Empire himself if he knew this type of power were achievable for a prized mage like youself.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my family is that new ways can become old ways as soon as they’re made public. In the arms race to obtain my power, I must be more powerful than anyone else. That's why I must not only invent this new technique but perfect it. I must become a mage, a supreme being amongst others, unchallengeable, unatched, only then will I be satisfied...” She turned to Archduke seeing that her true ambitions were slipping. “...Of course this is for the good of the Empire, once I’ve perfected this ability, I can teach a whole platoon of Fire Mages. By the time we reach the battlefield, it wouldn’t be demons we’ll be fighting on the battlefield. It would solidify the Empire’s stance as the one true power of the world one day.”

“Of course Ms. Erebus.” He did not take her eyes off the sudden shift of character. “You’re always thinking leaps ahead of the short sight. I’ll keep this discovery in confidence with the exception of the Emperor about your growing progress.”

“So long as you keep the specimens coming, I can assure you that won’t be a problem.”

“Very well.” He clapped and an attendant immediately arrived on the grounds. “Have the carcass removed and set up another demon.”

“My lord, as things stand we barely process the remaining specimens that Master Erebus has already dispatched with.”

“Then stop processing the weaker ones and concentrate on the bigger games. Tell the resource division, ‘I need powerful specimens,’ remove stones from the weaker ones but leave the rest to the bottom of the sea.”

“Sir, that would be incredibly wasteful and dangerous. Even a weak demon corpse can turn into powerful...”

“Did I ask for your opinion or command you to do as instructed?” He stared at the attendant with eyes of fiery red.

Not wanting to upset a man as important as the Archduke of the Empire, the attendant simply bowed his head and walked away.

“If you’ll excuse me Ms. Erebus, I must inform the Emperor. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know that a new era in fire power is currently underway.” He nodded his head and walked out of sight.

It took an entire squad of custodial mages to remove the corpse of the great Chimera. They pulled it past the processing room, with giant meat hooks and ropes to an open gate outside the walls. It was left among other rotting corpses of various demons that had died by Helena’s hands. From Harpies, to Gorgons, to Tarandos, and Khalkotauroi, along with numerous low class disasters now mutilated beyond recognition. Practically every species of common demons were present in the potter’s field.

They were all decaying and dripping their rotting fluids saturating into the earth as black bile. The field was not so much a field but a giant pit off the side of a cliff, where many beasts rested and carrion beasts nested beside rotting toxic fumes of the once great terrors of the mainland. As their blood oozed into the ocean shore and the tides below, the waters turned black and red sweeping in the puddles of ooze washed into the depths of the sea foam. As it dripped down into the abyss below causing small fish and plants to die, it attracted a new and unfortunate bottom feeder into the depths.

The Typhon was considered the major disaster of the sea, rivaled only by the might of the great Sea Serpent. It was a humongous savage creature with several snail coils like an octopus and two arms like a man. Its body was like a raging shark that was known to eat entire ships whole. However, since it was a bottom feeder it rarely surfaced except when desperately seeking food. With the number of dead fish and plants flowing into its trench it was content to stay at the bottom of the ocean, at least until its food supply was completely dwindled. Because it was also a demon it could not only live in the toxic sea but also thrive in it. With the amount of poison leaching into the ocean from the rotten demon corpses, it showed no signs of wanting to leave.