The Golden Throne

Liu Feng harrumphed and took out his most familiar weapon, the normal sword. This was the one weapon that he had actually brought with him in his own luggage. He was that confident in it. He spent all his childhood using this weapon after all. He unsheathed the sword, and pointed it at the demon.

"I see that you are acquainted with quite a few weapons. But that just means that you are a jack of all trades and a master of none. Oh, this is surprising. You have reached the level of a demon captain. Just barely, but that commands my respect. You ran away to break through. Talent like you should not just die. I will give you my offer once again. Join the demons, and your life will be spared."

"Join you? Interesting. What do you mean by that. I am interested in it now. You are so powerful, yet you are in such a low position in the army. What can I get if I join you?", Liu Feng asked the demon.

"What? What are you doing Liu Feng? Do you wish to betray the hands that have fed you for close to ten years?", Pyrus raged.

"Calm down hot headed idiot. Just think about it. He is at a disadvantage. He is stalling.", Aquous said.

"Stalling? Stalling for what? He is just a demon captain! Just a sixth order demon. How difficult can it be, cutting him in half?", Pyrus shouted. Liu Feng just banged his ear a few times to clear it. All of that noise was causing him quite the disturbance.

"You are considering the offer, human? Fine, it is very simple. You must absorb a devil stone and pledge your allegiance to the demon king. Once that is done, no power in the world will allow you to betray him.", the demon said.

"But what will I receive in return? I need something in return for betraying the spirits, betraying my country and the continent.", Liu Feng shouted back.

"You want something in return?", the demon chuckled. His expressions were very visible and could be interpreted very easily because of how humanoid he was. "How about life? I will let you stay alive for a few more years, and then we will see how useful you actually were."

"I shall... think about it. Please give me some time.", Liu Feng said.

Liu Feng slowly breathed. As there was only one demon, the mana around him was not corrupted yet. So, he was quietly absorbing the mana to fill his own core.

The demon seemed to have noticed this. Liu Feng could understand the demon\'s expression, and he figured that it was angry.

"How dare you human! I give you leniency, I give you grace, and this is how you behave? Looks like all the humans are this despicable. I have no idea why the general wants you people as pets. Well, too bad. He won\'t have you.", the demon snarled. The demon started exuberating the corrupted mana in a much stronger rate than before. However, Liu Feng was not as suffocated as he was in the phoenix territory. Maybe that was because there was a much more powerful demon fighting right above them.

The demon attacked him almost immediately. He jumped forward, and disappeared like before. Expecting the exact same move as before, Liu Feng knew that the demon was moving in the same line, and he was too fast to evade. So, Liu Feng put his sword in front of him to block off the attack.

Bang!  Liu Feng fell back and crashed into the tree behind him. This time though, all of the wounds were superficial. Liu Feng did not cough out any blood, and he did not have his internal organs shaken from their core. Liu Feng got up with a renewed vigor, because he knew that now, he had a fighting chance. The demon, though, was clearly a veteran fighter, because he did not give Liu Feng a chance to even catch his breath.

The demon rushed forward, but not as fast as before. It seemed that the attack was more of a one hit wonder. The demon raised his fist and punched forward. Although just a fist, it felt as if a mountain was bearing down upon Liu Feng. Liu Feng fell back.

Liu Feng used the sword to slowly cancel out the attack of the demon. He was using ten sword strokes to slowly decrease the power of the attack. He then attacked the wrists of the demon. The sword hit there perfectly, but it did not cut the skin.

"Did you really think that a normal weapon would pierce my skin? You really underestimate the power of a demon captain. Since you are not taking my offer, I have no reason to leave you alive.", the demon shouted out with anger.

The demon suddenly burst with dark mana, and a column of darkness appeared out of the blue from the ground to the sky. It was quite distinct in the place that Liu Feng had ran off to, because the demons still had not gotten there yet. In the clear blue sky, not the dark sky of the phoenix territory, there was a clear column of black. Liu Feng\'s expression changed. This was clearly the demon\'s trump card, and he was fighting for his life now, not playing around with Liu Feng anymore.

Liu Feng got serious, because he felt that the demon was far more dangerous than before. The demon moved, and so did Liu Feng. All that could be seen to a normal eye was blurry streaks of black, red and green. Liu Feng was attacking the demon with his fire magic, because it was what had the most plentiful mana. He could use it without any constraint.

After a few hundred rounds of combat, both of them stopped momentarily. Both of them were tired, and were panting. Liu Feng knew that he couldn\'t drag this any further, as he had to see how the phoenix was faring. 

He started chanting a spell, and all the mana in his core started boiling. Yes, boiling. The mana behaved like water, and came out in a continuous stream, and surrounded Liu Feng.

"Ha! You are finally using this spell! I was wondering when you would use this. I thought that it would be years before you had enough mana to use this spell.", Liu Feng could hear Pyrus shouting with excitement.

"Enough of that, and start helping me out. I cannot cast this spell alone. I need the fire spirit to give the mana momentary sentience and actually become true fire.", Liu Feng told Pyrus.

All of the steam, or the mana that was around Liu Feng, started coming together to one point.

It then went up to the air. The mana went up through the clouds, and it was nowhere to be seen. The demon looked at the mana which disappeared, and he looked at it with grave concern.

"You forced me to take this drastic measure.", the demon said as he started chanting himself. The huge pillar of corrupted mana started coming down from the sky and solidified around the demon, like a sort of a shield.

"Coward", Liu Feng spat down. The demon heard this, because he trembled with rage.

"You dare call me a coward!?", the demon raged. The mana around him changed form, and it became a hand of sorts. "You shall witness my true power.", he shouted.

Screech! A sound could be heard. The mana that went up to the clouds had descended and took the form of a phoenix. It was quite literally burning, and dived towards the demon. The demon shouted again, and the hand went forward to confront the phoenix. There was a blast, and both the demon and Liu Feng fell back a few meters. The huge place became covered with mist and dust. Soon though, the dust cleared, and both Liu Feng and the demon looked at each other.

"Haha! So you are out of mana too. It is a pity. You got me this far, but you lost because you did not have enough mana. Well, it is a shame that you will have to die because of the constraints of the human body."

The demon rushed towards Liu Feng and was about to hit him, when Liu Feng chanted a spell.

The demon sneered, "What can you do without any mana?"

But, Liu Feng did not use any of the magic that he learnt from Lucas, but rather used the spells he learnt in school. He cast a fireball using the mana in the air, and directed towards the demon. The fireball was not normal though. It had a dark red color with dark spots on it. 

"How are you able to use even the corrupted mana in the air? Only those approved by the demon king should be able to do that.", the demon shouted, as he confronted the fireball. The fireball swallowed the demon whole.