Is this really a Game?!



"Ethereon Demons," Liara said with an apprehensive expression on her face as she stared at the 8 new enemies that had appeared.

"So those are the Ethereon Demons, I have to admit, I expected them to be a bit … well, a bit more powerful." Reign said with a smile as he jumped down from the rock he was standing on.

His team was making its way over to him as they saw the 8 new demons appearing, only for Reign to bring his hand up and stop them.

"They're mine, make sure those guys are safe, and help Liara out if she needs it." Reign said before looking to the front.

"You think you can take the 8 of them by yourself, hahahahaha, you arrogant bastard, you shall see just how-" Before the demon was able to continue talking, he suddenly stopped as Reign stared at him with a cold smile.

"Don't worry, you will soon find out, you better pray that Liara kills you quickly and painlessly because the pain will be all you will feel after death." Reign's somewhat cryptic words slightly confused the demon who had no idea that Reign was able to manipulate souls, but that didn't matter to Reign who was just about to go meet the Ethereon Demons.

"Sir, please, let us help you." One of his teammates said as he stared at the 8 demons who were calmly walking over to them.

"No." Reign said as he took a step forward.

"But leader-"

"Sorry, but against those guys, most of your attacks will be useless, you will only slow me down and make the battle more difficult for me, trust me, I won't be defeated by those guys." Reign said as he glanced back at them before charging at the 8 demons who were now about 250 meters away from the battlefield.

It only took Reign a short couple of seconds to arrive in front of them, upon which the demons stared at him with mocking gazes.

"Look, a hero had emerged, so you are planning on sacrificing yourself to buy time for you men to escape?" The demon at the very front, the peak Tier IV demon asked before shaking her head slowly.

"A commendable plan, but a useless one, you will not be able to stop us all but do not worry, because of your brave efforts, I shall make sure to kill you last before taking your soul and – Argh!" The demon suddenly took a step back as pain assaulted her as Reign stared at them coldly.

"What a coincidence, I was just about to tell you, bastards, the same." Reign smiled with his purple eyes as the demons showed vigilance.

"I'll kill you the last, and I will gladly take all your souls and put them to good use." Reign said with a smile on his face before using his Soul Manipulation.

Tens of souls suddenly appeared around him, souls of Tier II beings, the souls of Tier III beings, and souls of Tier IV beings as well.

The demons stared apprehensively at the small army of souls that Reign had summoned and even took a step back. They were Ethereon Demons, their bodies were mostly ethereal and most attacks didn't work on them.

They battled using soul power, and even though they could attack physically as well, they rarely did that. Still, when facing enemies that can actually utilize soul power, they turned from arrogant demons that cared not about anything to scared weaklings who knew just how fragile their ethereal bodies were to soul-based attacks.

"Now, shall we dance, my ladies?" Reign asked the 8 demons, 7 of which were female, which made the last one a bit annoyed as Reign had purposely stared at him when saying that.

"Bastard, just because you can utilize soul power, doesn't mean you can go against us all!" The male demon said as he used his soul manipulation and attacked Reign.

The main difference between Reign and most other beings that could utilize soul power was the fact that he can quickly and easily turn the souls of those he defeated into souls that he controlled. Usually, one needed to spend quite some time before breaking the souls and transforming them in order to use them, but with Aethion's help, Reign had not only shortened the time needed for that, but he had made it much easier as well.

With a former Transcendent helping him out, Reign didn't need to spend a single second to change the souls as Aethion did that for him. He had already learned some of the tricks Aethion used to turn the souls into usable weapons, but he had only done it a couple of times to practice.

Aethion was much more efficient and faster, so Reign just left it to him, which didn't bother the old necromancer as it was quite good for helping him spend his time, and it also allowed him to hone his craft.

After all, he had grown a bit rusty when it came to soul manipulation, and by spending time torturing and turning souls, he had not only regained his proficiency in doing that but was also improving slightly.

As they said, practice makes perfect.

Out of the 8 demons, only one High-grade Tier IV, and the leader, the peak Tier IV, could do the same as Reign and turn souls into weapons, the others used their own souls as a sort of conduit to channel their soul power and attack.

Reign's army of souls crashed against their attacks, and the nearly invisible slaughter began. Compared to Reign, the two demons had less powerful souls at their disposal, and they had a total of 120 souls that they used.

Reign was currently using about 85 souls, which was still a far cry from the total number of souls he had in his disposal. Reign currently had hundreds of souls in his disposal, and if he used them all, he would have been able to destroy the enemy easily, but that was not an easy thing to do.

A hundred was his current limit.

One needed to spend soul power to bring the souls out and command them to attack. Mana was also needed, whoever, less of it was needed compared to using conventional ways of attacking.

The other problem was the fact that once the souls were out, they could easily be destroyed, and not just by soul power, but by other forms of attacks as well, which was why Reign didn't use them that often.

If he used over 100 souls to attack somebody, the strain on his soul would be immense and he could only do that for a short period of time before stopping, otherwise, his soul would start tearing apart.

He was also still not proficient enough with soul-based attacks, and even though they were an incredibly powerful weapon to be used, as they did attack souls directly, they were also dangerous to the user as well.

Soul power took longer to fill up compared to mana, and if one was to use too much of it at once, he could suffer nearly irreversible damage to his soul. The souls were another thing, if one used an army of souls, it was actually harder than it looked like to utilize them properly, not only did one need to boost them with soul power, but one also needed to constantly use mana to nourish himself and the souls, although the mana usage was low, one still had to concentrate on it as well.

Soul power and mana were vastly different forms of energy, but a soul was still something that needed mana to sustain itself.

Lastly, Reign simply felt a lot more comfortable with using mana and fighting in close quarters. His power was much higher when he fought like that, and even though he could attack the souls of enemies directly with his soul manipulation, he mostly used it as support.

His soul manipulation could only be fully unleashed when in his Nephilim state, where he was able to command an army of souls much larger than now, and with greater ease. But even then, he preferred using his other three abilities.

The souls clashed, and the demons were hard-pressed to defend themselves and win against Reign's army. They had more numbers, but Reign had higher quality souls in his army, not to mention the fact that Aethion was helping him out, which made it a lot less strenuous for Reign.

Suddenly, lightning flickered around Reign as lightning formed above him. Only 4 spears were created as that was the most Reign could do right now, but that was enough.

He launched the spears at the demons who were taken aback by his move. They believed that he was like them, hard-pressed to use the power he was using now and unable to do anything else.

The spears hit two of the Ethereon Demons and injured them. Reign wasn't only using his lightning, but also soul power that he placed in the spears, making them incredibly dangerous to the demons who stared in shock at him.