HELLSCAPE

CHAPTER 8

"Infernus Ignis Imperium"

"Anima Scutum"

The man with the scar tossed a small fireball at Agent I and although she couldn't get her shielding ability up in time, the flames barely did anything to her, as if they were a warm breeze passing by her

"He can control the strength and potency of the flames when casting Infernus Ignis Imperium with his mind, I'm assuming, when casting it. That's the only thing that could explain how the same ability disintegrated the unnatural in Italy but is barely burning me here" Agent I made a mental note to herself,

The man with the scar and Agent I were in the training room, he was helping her practise her abilities,

"If I'm stuck with her, I might as well prepare her to be a good fighter" he thought to himself before they'd started training

"Can I practise Divina Temperantia on you? I feel like I could have contained the swarm unnatural for longer if I was more confident in the ability" Agent I asked her new mentor

"Sure" the man responded with a shrug

"That ability won't restrain me but you can practise controlling the ability while something is in rope form to get a better handle on it" he added.

"Divina Temperantia"

Agent I cast the ability onto her katana taking the man's advice as a challenge, hoping to restrain the man she tightened her grip around the hilt of the weapon and whipped it toward the man. The katana whip wrapped around the man and not even a second after it made contact, it retracted and reverted to blade form. With a confused look on her face, she looked at her trainer.

"That spell won't work on me because of the Hellfire shielding my body, if the katana had tried to restrain me then the flames would have burnt through the spell and destroyed the weapon" he explained

"What does he mean by 'hellfire shielding'...?" Agent I thought to herself,

"Although it does seem to me that the blade has some mental link to you. That weapon went exactly where your eyes were locking onto when targeting me and with so little effort" he added, expressing an interest in his new apprentice and her abilities.

"So can your ability burn through any spell?" she asked him

"Yes and No. The flames can burn through any spell but the stronger the spell, the stronger I have to make the flames when I cast them" he explained to Agent I, who had developed an even deeper curiosity for her mentor's abilities.

"Go again" he prompted the agent to cast another

"Divina Temperantia"

She cast her ability again but instead of aiming to restrain his body, she aimed the weapon at his leg and as it wrapped around his leg she pulled it back before the man's Hellfire could counter the spell. She had swept his foot from under him causing him to lose balance however the Hellfire had countered the spell before he could fall to the ground so as he regained his balance and the weapon made its way back to her, as it reverted to blade form it let out a shock that pushed Agent I back onto the floor.

"You pulled the weapon back and it reverted to the blade with a partially deconstructed Divina Temperantia from when it made brief contact with me. You should have either not made contact to avoid the spell being countered OR you should let the flames fully counter the spell. Pulling the spell back while it was unstable caused a negative feedback loop when it returned to you" he explained to Agent I giving his hand forward to help her up,

"It's important to know how your own abilities work but it's equally important to know how your opponent's abilities work so you know how to battle them without something like this happening" he continued before Agent I took his hand to pull herself up.

As she touched his hand she found herself in the midst of what looked like a city where a battle had just destroyed a large portion of it. She saw the man with the scar on the ground bleeding from his arm and the scar on his left eye as well a female that also looked like a Devil that was some distance away from the man, face to face with a demonic-looking human-like being, channelling a red flame, that stood in front of them both, the man-like unnatural had a sinister look on his face and had a dark red aura to him, almost blood-like.

"I'm sorry," the female agent said to the man as she cast an ability that Agent I couldn't quite hear. She raised her right hand to the sky and lowered her left towards the earth and from the sky, golden energy flowed down to her hand that was raised and from the ground, blue flames came up into her left. She combined both energies by placing her hands together and aimed her hands toward the unnatural and fired the energy towards it, as she did, the unnatural absorbed the energy into its flames and darted towards her-

Before Agent I could see what happened next, she was pulled out of the vision. Unaware as to what it was or how it happened.

"That thing you just did... don't do it again!" the man snapped at her with a shocked expression as if he had just seen what she had.

"I... I don't know what that was" she responded with confusion and fear of what she had just seen.

"It's none of your business," the man said as he walked out of the training room. Agent I thought to herself;

"What just happened..."