Corrupt Creations

Seth stood up and channeled his Mana into his darkness element, making it cover his entire body. He seemed just like one of his Specters of Darkness. 

Meiyi was already standing in front of him, watching with curiosity the skills he was showing. She has never seen a dark attribute skill before, so she was entranced by that black fog covering his skin surface. 

While she was mesmerized by that skill, Seth put a hand on her shoulder from behind. 

"AAAHHH!" 

Meiyi was scared by his action. She was intently watching his body, that was right in front of her, but out of nowhere, a hand comes and touches her shoulder from behind. She looked towards the figure that just touched her and saw that it was Seth. 

He had "comboed" his skills, creating the perfect distraction. First, he used his darkness element to cover himself with a black fog, then he created a Specter of Darkness, while at the same time, activating the second stance of his Shadow Walk, to instantly move behind her. 

While Meiyi was looking at his Specter of Darkness, he put his hand on her shoulder, almost scaring her to death again. 

Meiyi kept looking at him and then at his Specter of Darkness and finally, she realized something. 

Her mood sank as a realization dawned upon her. That sudden change on her mood didn't pass unnoticed for Seth. They were Soul Linked and really close right now, so he could feel those changes through the link. Seth was about to ask her what have happened, when he heard her question first. 

"Why? Why did someone like you, chose someone like me?" Meiyi asked in a low voice. She believed on his words when he said he was the person he said to be, but only after watching his darkness abilities, did she realize that they were leagues apart. He was practically the heir from a Higher Ground, while she was your everyday common girl. 

However, she failed to notice that she was an incredible person. Her beauty alone was leagues ahead of any other of those important and rich ladies, her exquisite features made her be at least on par with Lilian. Her talent was pretty good and on top of it all, she was graceful and sweet. 

Seth looked at her, making direct eye contact. He seriously answered her: "You are wrong. I did not choose you Meiyi." 

"!" Meiyi got surprised by his revelation. 

"You were the one who chose me. If it weren't for you opening your heart for me, I would have never met one of the most incredible people of my life. I should be thanking the Gods, to give me the opportunity to have you as my girlfriend, so, never again, think that you aren't worthy of me just because of a useless status." Seth went forwards and held her close. 

Meiyi's heart melt and her mood brightened after hearing his words. She felt fortunate to have a person like him, caring for her. 

Seth continued: "If I could choose, I would rather not be going back to that place. There is a single thing that I care inside that entire territory and if it wasn't for it, I would love to keep making you company." 

"Hm? Just one thing? I bet it must be a woman." Meiyi said while looking at him with a strange expression. However, she was puzzled, since it meant he didn't have a family. 

Seth feigned ignorance on her guess. Inwardly, he was thinking: 'Even you? First it was Lilian, now even Meiyi seems to be developing a sense for that. They keep making keen guesses, what the hell?! Is it the food they're eating that is giving them these hidden skills?' 

Seth opted to change the topic, since he learned his lesson to not talk about other girls, while interacting with one. 

"Meiyi, I'll be leaving tomorrow morning, so how about going on a date around the city today?" 

"Alright, let's go. Where will you take me to?" She asked with a happy smile. 

"You can decide about that and you don't need to hold back anything while choosing the place, since I can pay for everything." 

Seth and Meiyi took a tour around the Blazing Phoenix City, visiting the famous places and buying some souvenirs. 

. 

. 

. 

The next morning. 

Seth left Meiyi's house and went to the place he combined with Valic. He found the man already waiting for him there and he seemed discontent. However, Seth didn't give a shit about that. 

"Let's go, or else we will be late." Seth proposed. 

Valic felt the urge to shout at him. 'Whose fault do you think is it?' 

They immediately started to run towards the Demon Territory. They would be traveling by feet, since their speed as Mana realm practitioners would be way faster than going with any other means of transportation other than teleportation. But there were no teleport channels connecting a human city to a demonic city. 

Seth had his bracelet on, but he limited the energy frequency to block it around the Mana Perception middle-stage realm, so Valic thought he was using his full cultivation to run, while in reality he wasn't. 

Valic smiled, thinking about the humiliation Seth would feel after being left behind by a servant. He sped up, running at maximum. If they could maintain that speed, they would get to their destination within the time limit without a problem. 

Five days passed by and Valic could not believe he wasn't able to leave Seth behind even though they were leagues apart on their cultivation. A jump from the middle-stage to the peak-stage on the Mana realms, was so huge, that a peak-stage practitioner could easily defeat a middle-stage one within a few moves. 

Valic used every single bit of his reserved Mana, to increase his speed even more. A day later he found out that his efforts were useless. He was inwardly screaming for a stop, since he was feeling spent already. 

Seth faked some drops of sweat and a tired expression to deceive Valic, which made Valic believe that he was almost able to accomplish what he wanted, making him go faster and faster. In reality though, Seth could at least double his speed and run at that speed for at least a month without breaking a sweat. That was the difference from a Mana Perception realm cultivator, to a Mana Control one. Every bit of Mana was inside his grasp, making the difference between them ridiculous. 

When they finally arrived at the Demon Imperial City, Valic dropped down on the floor, feeling that his life was hanging on a thread. He was so spent, that Seth could kill him with a sneeze if he wanted to. However, even though it was his wish to do that, he wouldn't dare to, not before he wasn't strong enough to bear with the consequences. 

The Demon Imperial City. 

The atmosphere around the entire city war dark and heavy. Not because it was filled with malice and bad things, but because it was filled with dark attribute practitioners. There were countless demons walking on the street, moving slowly or with haste. Some were pale and had red eyes, signaling that they were from the Prue Blood Clan branches, while others had animal or demonic beast parts around their bodies. 

There was an incredible mixture of demonic beings inside this city and none of them seemed to bother with appearances at all. What mattered the most inside the Demon Territory was power and background. 

Seth looked towards the horizon and saw a huge black castle standing on top of a huge dark mountain. There were some thick and black clouds covering the top of the castle towers, but if one were to look closer, they would discover that it was a condensed mass of dark energy. At the place where the castle stood, there was not a single time of the year that it wasn't night. The dusky and gloomy environment there was what Seth saw every day for at least six whole years of his life. 

He exhaled in a sigh after coming back to this place once again. He thought of the only thing that mattered to him here and braced himself as he infused a bit of energy on the lifeless body, laying on the floor beside him. 

"Cough!" "Cough!" "Cough!" 

Valic finally could breathe again. He quickly stood up and bowed towards Seth. 

"Thank you, Young Master, for saving this useless servant's life." He thought on how shameful would his death be, if he died with exhaustion, because he ran for an entire week and spent all of his energy. 

His family would have to bear the responsibility of his death, since it would be a joke on the Demon Emperor's eyes. He was from a branch of the Demonic Shadow Clan by the way. His skin was the medium from his skills, giving him the appearance of a dead person, but in reality, he wasn't one of those undeads from the Undead Clan, but a shadow user, like Seth. He had a lot of shortcomings, since he wasn't a master of the darkness and was a demon, not a devil like Seth. 

Even though they were both at the Mana realms, comparing them right now, was akin to comparing a small river with the great ocean. But still, Valic naively thought he could have won against Seth in a running.