Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 185

Unsure what to expect next, we all tense up, and an overwhelming silence follows as we wait for Irditix or the Demon Lord’s next move.

The Ox opens his snout to speak, showing fang as he does so: "However as much as the idea of stealing it pleases me it would be unwise and ungrateful of my part to answer my freedom bringer with his death... nor would I wish to carry any sense of responsibility or guilty in this matter, so how about I pay you with what you need and what I wish to do dearly?"

I feel my throat close under the intense gaze of this beast as I swallow dry to ask: "And what would that be?"

He smiles and now I can see he has two pairs of fangs on the upper and down lips that are too big to fit just right in the middle of his snout, resembling crocodile teeth, but bigger.

"My, wouldn’t it be the death of this one?" He gestures towards the Demon Lord who, in return, twistes the forgotten tornados of fire towards him with incredible speed, destroying everything on its path but, to my surprise, Irditix simply backslashes it away with the back of his hand and sends it flying to the opposite wall from us, disintegrating with the impact in a cloud of dust.

Shock starts settling in as I think that me and Ethan put together could barely pass the one hundred level mark, and the more one evolves the more difficult it gets to gain another level, so it is not farfetched to say that it would be as if we were mere mortals trying to face a god.

It is odd, to say the least, and quite disorientating and eerie to see the one that gave us so much trouble, the one who fought two against one and still pushed us back, throwing flames and attacks at this been and being received as a kid throwing peddles.

His flames would touch, but because Irditix did not care to dodge, the flames going out without even burning his rock skin and fur, as if simply absorbed or put away with a puff of air.

"My, my, such naughty youngling, your kind never learns do they? You cheat and lie and kill and all for naught, in the end you will just perish for the same cycle to start anew with others... I guess he was right, there is being too old."

"Although I am curious to see what this world has become while I was locked away... and to be surely disappointed by it, nonetheless, it will be better than this boring prison he left me at."

At that he raises his pawed hand and says a single spell.

"Purifying Flames." A white wisp flickers to life and floats on his hand, a ghostly ball of fire licking up, too bright and unnatural and sending chills down my spine.

That’s when he lets it float towards the Demon Lord, and it almost seems like a joke for how slow it goes, until he says next: "Cleanse this sinner."

Next it is as if what I had seen was an illusion, and the calm floating ball of light ignites in fury and slashes at the demon, and all I can do next is watch in petrified silence as the Demon Lord becomes a shadow outline when the white flame engulfs him, and no matter how much he screams and rolls around, his arms up in a frenzied, the pain does not stop and the flames keep burning and biting at his flesh and bones with ferocity.

The red tiger ox does not seem fazed by it. "Ah, it seems to be a fitting end, indeed, you see, these flames burn and hurt just as much as the sins inflicted by the target, and you, child killer, seems to be full of it..."

It is strange that, even amidst the piercing screams of his victim, that I could hear the beast’s voice so clearly over it all, a raspy deep sound that only stated the fact and took no joy or regret from it.

"What is going on? What is happening to him?" Ethan asks while putting pressure on a new slash wound across his arm as I wonder the same thing as the flames drag out and yet the demon still seems to be there, burning up and yet with a body to be consumed.

"His sins are burning up, only that, at some point the soul itself is so tainted that there is no way to separate the flesh from the corruption, they glue and mix and what is only left is a tainted soul. It is burning it all."

But then what will be left of him? I dare not ask and bring that beast’s attention back to me.

The fire, as if answering my question, subdues moments later when the screams turn into a hollow husky gasp only for the shallow breath to give way to the even worse vision of what was left of him.

And I see the worst version of the glimpse I have had the first I met the demon, an older wrinkled dry version of the Demon Lord, thin and bony, with only a few puffs of hairs here and there like a mad man, but it is the eyes that change the most, hollow and empty, staring at the void, whistling a unhealthy breath but otherwise gone as one still breathing could be.

But I could see, above else, a single tear rolling down his wrinkled cheeks, the last we would see from him if what the ox told us is true, and he had just burned his life away to a crisp.

Looking at the scene though, I can only stare petrified at what I had done, and truly worry if I had just freed a wicked evil to deal with the demon and got the situation to a worse level than it was before. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

And after fighting the demon we had already exhausted our energies and resources, barely surviving the encounter, anything beyond that would be... more than deadly.

It would be devastating.