Primordial Soul's Rebirth

Eric froze in fear the moment Alex's eyes landed on him, he couldn't move his body at all; it was as if there was a wall in front of him.

All he could do was stare at the scene playing in front of him with a despairing look on his face.

Much to his bad luck, the eventual scratch he used to feel on his left hand, was elevated to an absurd degree, irritating to no end.

*Swoosh*

He saw an ethereal white, shimmering portal open up in front of the demon lord, who seemed to be frowning for some reason, and then he saw the demon lord stepping into the portal with Ann in his arms.

The demon lord, Alex Matthew, had 'forced' Ann's head on his chest, making it impossible for Eric to see Ann's expression, but he was sure that Ann was crying right now.

The more he imagined the broken expression of Ann, the more he felt helpless, and the more he gritted his teeth as the itch in his arm had now elevated to an unbearable degree.

But unfortunately for him, he couldn't even move, much less scratch away the itch.

"Eric! Ann!"

Just then, a blonde came rushing into the room with her eyes wide open, only to see Alex stepping into the portal with Alex in his arms.

He didn't even spare a glance at her, but the next second, the sound of air being cut was heard.

*Woosh*

Before the blonde could even reach Alex or Eric, a flash past Eric, moving right at Alex, and everyone's eyes widened.

"Master!"

They exclaimed in surprise, as they could not tell who it was or who would have enough courage to take the demon lord head-on.

But before they could even catch sight of what had happened, they heard a new sound.

*Baam—Crack*

"Arghh!"

*Boom*

The sound of a punch landing on a hard, metallic surface was heard, followed by a cracking sound before they saw a shadow smashing into the palace's wall, breaking who knows how many of them.

*Boom*

*Boom*

…

..

.

They just kept getting shot farther and farther, and although they couldn't see anything clearly, just from the fact that Alex was still there, walking into the portal was enough for them to deduce who was shot through the concrete of the imperial castle.

"MASTER!!!" X2

Both Eric and the blonde girl screamed as their eyes widened in horror.

Eric's body trembled in rage and helplessness, and by now, his right arm had turned completely red, as if it were burning, causing him immense pain.

The blonde, on the other hand, froze as she saw her all-powerful master being flung away like a doll.

They weren't strong enough to notice the movements, or they would've noticed that although both Viessa, their master, and Alex were the same ranked statistically, Viessa was helpless in front of Alex, especially when his mood had just turned bad.

Viessa did rush toward Alex with her large claymore up in the air, only to widen her eyes as she saw Alex's fist coated with destruction energy—something that gave her the feeling of death—aimed at her abdomen.

It was at that time that she hurriedly moved the clamor in front of her to protect herself, and she did achieve her goal, but her sword was destroyed, and she was thrown back with a force enough to break every single wall of the palace.

"DEMON LORD—!!!"

Eric roared in fury and rage, not expecting anything from Alex, but the guy paused, causing his words to get stuck in his throat.

Alex, who was almost inside the portal, already stepped into the next place he was trying to reach, stepped back, and raised a finger.

*Fwoosh*

A small ball of destruction energy was shot toward Eric, who was now permanently frozen in his spot by Alex's temporal pause, but for some reason, he could still see things happening in the surroundings.

*Step**Step*

After that, Alex stepped into the portal without sparing a glance at any other person in the room.

"ERIC!!"

Sumire, who was woken up by her room's wall being crashed down by something, hurriedly rushed to this room, only to have her eyes widen as she saw the bodies of both Elizabeth and Eric paused in their spots and a mass of some scary element moving toward Eric.
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As for the scene related to Alex, all she saw was the shimmering white portal before that disappeared as well.

Sumire, however, rushed toward Alex, as if her body moving instinctively.

She could tell that if that red mass of energy touched Eric, that guy would die for sure; she had no doubt about it.

So, with no other thought in her mind other than wanting to save Eric, she rushed in front of Eric, ready to face the incoming mass of energy with her meager A-ranked powers.

'NOO!!!!'

Eric, unable to move, roared inwardly, his eyes trembling in dread and panic.

Sumire must've thought that she would be able to survive the attack or maybe divert it, but Eric, who was more versed with mana and its control, could clearly tell that she would die.

Yet she still rushed at the destruction energy, her fist coated with mana; she was a martial artist after all.

But the moment her fist came in contact with the mass of destruction energy, her eyes widened as she found the destruction energy slowly eating away her fist, leaving nothing but dust.

"What?!"

She let out a terrified exclamation as she tried to use her other hand coated with mana to remove the destruction energy from her other hand, only to realize a hard truth...

'Why…?

Didn't the master say that mana could dispel anything…?'

Despair shone in her eyes as the destruction energy latched onto her other fist as well.

For some reason, however, it was moving way too slowly.

*Crack**Shatter*

Right at that moment, the temporal pause that kept Eric and Elizabeth in their spots cracked, causing them to fall forward, but Eric was fast to get up.

"Sumire!"

With his arms trembling, he rushed to hold Sumire, only to stop the next second because...

"STOP!!!"

Sumire screamed with tears pooling up in her eyes.

She was still a child, and she knew that she was going to die, but for some reason, instead of panicking and screaming for help, she just sighed in defeat and accepted her fate.

Maybe it was the way of the world making the situation more emotional than reality-like.

"B-But..."

Eric tried to move forward and protest, but Sumire just gave him a sad smile.

"It's no use, silly."

The tears that were pooling in her eyes streamed down her face, but the smile still stayed there.

"W-We can still try!"

Eric, however, wasn't done yet.

"Eli, please!"

He turned to look at Elizabeth, urging her to use her ability, and the blonde nodded her head, her light blue eyes tearing up.

But again...

"NO! Don't!

This energy spreads through mana!"

Sumire, on the other hand, widened her eyes in panic, as she had just experienced that thing in real time.

*Fwishhh*

Her arms were now completely turned into ash, blowing away along with the wind that came in through the open window, causing Eric's whole body to tremble as the happy-to-go-lucky hero, for the first time, realized the cruelty of the world.

"J-Just... let me go..."

She muttered with a wistful smile, and Elizabeth, who found this too hard to look at, couldn't take it and she fainted.

Eric's despairing gaze, however, remained fixed on Sumire.

"W-Why…? Why did you do it?"

He asked in a broken voice, choking on the tears that were flowing down without restraint.

He could see the destruction energy almost reaching Sumire's neck as it was right next to her shoulders, so he just wanted to know one last thing.

"Because I loved you, dumm—"

*Thud*

Eric, frozen in stop, kept staring at the body and head of Sumire that had now fallen to the ground, slowly disappearing, as tears continuously poured out of his eyes like a broken dam.

It took him a while to realize what Sumire meant by her words, and the moment he did it, his tears turned into blood as he fell to his knees, his mind blanked.

His arms moved toward the only remains of Sumire left in this world—ash.

*Woosh*

But a fierce wind blew, blowing away even the smallest particles of her remains as if laughing at him.

Eric, who saw this, clenched his fist hard—enough for blood to flow out of it before he grabbed his blonde hair, staining them with blood before a guttural roar left his throat.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

The whole imperial capital trembled at that moment, and his right arm, which had now turned blood-red, blasted into blood and paste.

*Baam*

The next second, the blood in his arms turned into a shade of ominous red, combining together, forming the shape of a sword, Eric, however, just kept letting out screams of despair, pain, and injustice.

He didn't even realize that his arm was now getting regenerated at an alarming speed; the only one who saw all of this was Viessa, as she limped toward the wall to get support.

"What did they turn him into…?"

She muttered with a pitiful look in her eyes as she turned to stare at the ceiling.

The one responsible for all of this, Alex, on the other hand, was standing in the throne room of the demon empire, with a grim look on his face.

'Sophia, I want an answer. Right. Now.'

He growled inwardly while gritting his teeth hard enough for them to cause a light rumbling sound.