Chapter 299: The Demon.

"...Why?"

That was the only question Blaze had from the man who ruined his life. 

"huh?" The man was obviously confused. 

From the time he had been kidnapped, he didn't understand anything that was happening to him. Suddenly being asked 'why?' without any prior context only helped to complicate the situation.

Blaze noticeably shook in anger at the fact that this man didn't even recognize him after turning his life upside down.

With his cold eyes staring down at the middle-aged man who shivered unknowingly at this act, Blaze slowly took off the piece of cloth he had tied on his forehead to hide the crown of crystals embedded in his skin.

Years had passed, but he had never taken off this cloth in the presence of an outsider. Without a doubt, he knew that he would have to silence anyone who knew about this.

After all, even when they were now in the middle of the Mainland where people from all the corners of the continent gathered, he hadn't met a single person who was born like him.

But these worries only lasted until they weren't strong enough to protect themselves.

Now that Ozul was even able to kill one of the only Rank-10 Mages, he felt no fear of attracting attention to himself from the whole world much less this priest in front of him.

The crown of crystals glinted in the sunlight as if they were precious jewels.

It was especially true for the middlemost crystal which was more than twice the size of the rest. If one concentrated enough on that crystal, they might even be able to notice the tiny strands of bluish whiffs of energy particles forming and then disappearing in an endless cycle. 

Staring at those crystals would make just about anyone lose their sense of time and make them completely engrossed. Blaze's birth was a miracle in itself.

Even now, if anyone were to look at those crystals, they would most likely feel that it was Blaze who had done it to himself for unknown reasons.

But that was only if it was someone else.

The priest in front of Blaze was more than familiar with those crystals.

The moment his eyes fell on the crystal crown, multiple images flashed through his mind at an instant. He might have forgotten a cyan-haired man such as Blaze, but he could have never forgotten those crystals.

"Y-you!" The priest shakingly pointed his finger towards Blaze. 

It had been so long since he had seen those crystals and had almost lost all hope of ever seeing them again. He didn't expect to find that kid from years ago like this now.

But just as he remembered everything, the situation suddenly hit him. He finally began to understand why he was in this position right now, all beaten up.

For a moment, the priest didn't understand what he could do to get himself out of here. Even so, the murderous aura surrounding Blaze made it seem a bit hopeless.

Before he could think of anything to escape his doom, Blaze took a step closer to him. The priest didn't know if it was an illusion, but for a moment, he might have even seen Blaze's eyes turning just a little blue.

"S-s-stop! Stop right there! Don...t come any closer-!" 

As if he had perceived his impending doom, the Priest hurriedly backed away. Though he couldn't run away when a giant ice spear came protruding out of the ground and aimed at his back.

"I will ask you again. Why did you declare me a demon?" Blaze questioned. 

After all, there should have been no reason for this priest to call him a demon just based on the crystals embedded on his forehead. Although those crystals were unusual, it shouldn't have been strange enough for him to be called a demon by even his own family.

It was a magical world and anything could have happened. Not every out-of-place characteristic should have been directly related to being a demon.

Unless this priest was just a half-witted lunatic, there should have been a different reason behind his actions.

Either way, Blaze was going to get his revenge.

"I..." The priest, though, didn't dare to look straight into Blaze's eyes. 

For a second, he didn't know what to answer Blaze. It looked as if he was contemplating his options.

However, his thoughts were forced to come to a halt when he felt the area around him turning colder by second. 

"D-d-don't! I... will tell you..." the priest finally understood that he didn't have the luxury to hide anything. 

The cold was already getting unbearable for him. Not to mention, he had also noticed the small needles of ice that had started to form out of thin air.

"Y-you... will you l-l-let me g-...o i-" whispers came out of his mouth.

"EeK! Arck!  Stop! STOP!"

The priest involuntarily let out a cry of pain and yelled for Blaze to stop when several needles of ice penetrated his feet and hands at the same time.

It was quite evident that Blaze had started to lose patience. The fact that he hadn't killed this man was already testing his limits.

"It wasn't me! It wasn't my fault! I swear! It was all on that Bishop! He did everything! Let me go please...?"

The priest began to shout frantically. He didn't want to die yet. There was no way he would give up on his life here.

His behavior caused Blaze to frown in annoyance. However, he still controlled his urges and asked the man with an even colder tone, "Tell me everything."

For the priest who was even below Rank-6 as a Mage, those words sounded like a royal decree that he couldn't reject no matter what.

"At... at that time, I..."

The priest slowly began to explain what had happened back then.

"...I came across you when I was strolling through the cities in search of potential candidates for the church..."

"...Your case was strange. I didn't know why there were crystals on your forehead... but with the Ice Elements surrounding you, anyone could tell that you had a rare talent in it..."

"I couldn't make a decision on my own... so I brought this case to the Bishop. It... it was he! He told me to declare you a demon to the whole village! So when everyone leaves you..."

Blaze listened to the whole story, stopping himself from killing this man at any moment. His aura began to get colder the more he listened.

The priest had supposedly turned the whole village against him so he would have no one else left in this world.

In his moment of desperation, the priest was supposed to find him again and help him. The church would have then manipulated him into thinking that the church had no part in his suffering. 

Even though everyone who joined the church of light would have to have the Light Element, they would have still been able to groom him and make use of him in the shadows.

It was all supposed to go smoothly but the priest hadn't anticipated that instead of leaving the village, Blaze would start to destroy everything in sight after he had enough of everything.

That day when the priest had declared him a demon, Blaze was only a child. 

He also didn't expect him to remember him by the time he had grown up and fallen into despair because of the attitude of the village towards him.

Unfortunately for the priest and the church, Blaze was unusually aware of his surroundings even when he was just a child.

After the priest was done with his story, he immediately went to his knees and started to plead for his life.

"...It was all because of the Bishop! I couldn't disobey his orders! I... even told him that we should have pity on you... but he didn't listen!"

The middle-aged priest didn't care about his appearance right now when death was in front of him.

He had planned to flee now that there were only two of them here, but the giant spear of ice behind his back and the needles in his hands and feet made him drop the idea immediately.

At his ugly display of pleading, Blaze only looked down at him with indifference. 

How could Blaze not detect the priest's lies mixed in with the truth?

The priest's pleading thus fell on Blaze's deaf ears. 

"It doesn't matter if the church was behind you. On that day, it was you who turned my family-... no... those people against me." Blaze paused before he spread his hands and countless icicles began to form behind him.

"Even if you are innocent... aren't I a demon? Why would I spare an innocent man?"

"NO! Plea-"

URGH!

"N-NO!"

ARCK!

The priest cried each time the icicles penetrated his body, splashing his blood everywhere. 

What pained him the most was that each icicle that pierced his body somehow missed his vital organs.

After a while, the priest gave up on begging Blaze to live.

"K-khill m-ee already!"

Unfortunately for him though, Blaze had no intentions of killing him so early.

Years of living with Ozul and Raven might have softened his nature, but he was still the same Blaze who had annihilated his whole village and killed his own family after he was fed up with everything.

He was the same Blaze who was found sitting around the pile of corpses of the villagers, of children and elderly alike.

He was the demon chosen by Ozul, the Devil's Spawn.

He was given this name to set ablaze everything on the path which Ozul was to walk on.

Now that he could finally take his revenge after years of waiting, why would he let the priest die so easily?

So instead of giving him an easy death, Blaze froze his wounds to stop the bleeding and continued on with the torture.

And it continued on until the priest's mind finally couldn't take any more pain...