In the gloomy atmosphere, the little Humans began to deliver fierce kicks to the helpless Goblin. Their eyes were sparkling with extreme brutality. The pale light the moon shed upon them revealed their intent to kill him on the spot.

The images flashed speedily in Helial’s pupils as he gazed intently at the facial features of those kids. It surely wasn’t the first time he witnessed an episode of violence in the outskirts of some city; the suburbs of Floralivory City were spoilt by misery as well.

Pseudonym was gazing at them too. Unlike Helial’s deadpan expression, his was disgusted. He snorted and brushed his fingers against the hilt of his sword.

“What leads a bunch of kids to become tiny sinful demons? How can an Immortal whose Divine Sense scoops the whole country pay no mind to any of this?” these words came out of Pseudonym’s pitch-black armor and shattered the tense silence.

It was a sound question indeed. The reasoning behind it was pretty simple. Why wouldn’t the Immortals who did have the power to prevent these incidents happening step in to save the life of an innocent creature, and stop kids from becoming such bloodthirsty monsters as those?

The dark knight slightly shook his head. He was ready to unsheathe both swords and put an end to the abuse. Then his gaze flew to Helial, just to discover that Caesar’s pupil wasn’t there anymore. The Orman champ furrowed his eyebrows and widened the range of his senses until it covered the bunch of kids.

Helial wouldn’t answer his question. He had disappeared instead.

Fwooosh

Helial materialized next to the agonizing Goblin. He sat down cross-legged, one hand on his chin stroking his face. He was deep in thought. One corner of his lips suddenly curled up in cold smile. He spoke, and the youths suddenly froze. “His Aura is about to dissolve. You’re killing him. Whatever it is he did, the punishment was harsh enough, wasn’t it?”

The building around them were in a pretty bad shape. It looked like they would crumble anytime now. Nonetheless, the light of some burning candles gleamed from some windows. There must have been someone inside. Someone who wouldn’t seem to care about the cries, someone who would just go on living their life. After all, it was late. Besides the partying nobility, people were already sleeping except for some random insomniacs. Still, those who weren’t in the grip of sleep were shutting their eyes to and ears to what happened in the neighborhood. In that area, before a scene like that one people would just look away. The best option was steer clear of anyone to avoid being involved.

The Human youths were baffled for a full thirty seconds. Then they cast a wary look to the guy appeared out of nowhere. They exchanged a look, without knowing what to do. It felt as if a tiger had jumped in the middle of a pack of wolves. Helial really came out of nowhere and was now sitting half a meter away from them next to the Goblin they were beating. They didn’t see him while approaching, which probably meant he was stronger than all of them altogether.

But the advantage in number gave them courage. Thinking they had right on their side, the brawniest of them, with a number of wounds on his face, spoke: “The bastard stole our food. Then he lied. He deserves to die!”

Helial’s gaze intensified. He laid his eyes on him. The guy felt a pierce in his heart. He took two steps backwards. It was an beastly gut reaction. There had been no thinking involved.

Those kids grew up in utter despair, like unruled animals. As such, they just senses the presence of a wilder beast than they were.

“What are we doin, Bam?” one asked to the brawny kid who led the mission to destroy the little Goblin.

Bam cast a look at them and caught sight of their insecure expressions. Even though he wasn’t ten years old yet, it wasn’t like he was a naive one. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived that long. He was the head of a little gang of orphans who stole and committed all the little crimes what would let them grab some food.

“Let’s go. The bastard will pay, sooner or later,” Bam hissed. A murdering light flashed in his eyes.

They would wait for Helial to leave Suburra. Then they would finish this off. They couldn’t afford to let the matter unsolved. Everyone in the neighbourhood would know. They already must beware of adults; if they had had to be careful about the little kids laughing at them too, their life would be ten times as hard. Such defeat would bring along countless revenges from the other baby gangs.

The kids began to slowly back off, still looking to Helial, who was staring back at them with an enigmatic smile on his face. Those kids were criminals, but it wasn’t a good reason to kill them. Once the distance between them and Helial was a few meters wide, they suddenly turned and ran away. They scattered in every directions and dissolved into the darkness.

Helial then gazed down at the wounded Goblin, who wouldn’t seem to lie unconscious.

Skill Activated:

Perception

Helial scanned the faint Aura of the Goblin. It was probably about to die out. Perception was now much more powerful than before and let Helial examine the Goblin’s condition keenly. The young Goblin’s Meridians were wasting. The contusions had torn them apart in many spots. He had some major organ damage. His body was suffering from internal bleeding. Even without the knockout blow of those Human kids, the Goblin wouldn’t survive until dawn.

“I still haven’t answered your question, Pseudonym,” Helial said as he stretched out a hand towards the wounded leg of the kid.

Skill Activated:

Flame of the Qilin

Flame of the Qilin was a divalent Skill. According to the general public, the strongest flames were those of the white type, which possessed the principles of both Life and Destruction. Helial’s Skill was no ordinary Flame of the Qilin, because it had originated by the flame of Kirin himself, the most powerful one in the whole universe. Despite the imprecise definition - Jeanne’s flame was, after all, more powerful than that - the statement had solid grounds.

Hell, Jeanne’s Black Flame, had an unparalleled destructive power. It had no Life particle within. That flame was the result of the total detachment of a phoenix’s flame, whose Life properties were even stronger than those of a Qilin, from the most powerful principles it had. Instead of weakening her, the refusal of her own origins had bestowed her with a terrifying power.

On the contrary, Flame of the Qilin was distinctively a Life flame. It did have an outstanding destructive power, but it wasn’t the only property it boasted. White Flames had unmatched healing properties, whose versatility was highly better than that of Destruction.

Helial grabbed the Goblin’s leg by the ankle and maneuvered Flame of the Qilin to channel it into the Goblin’s Meridians. Meanwhile, he took a refined control of its strength. The power of Flame of the Qilin had been restricted by Helial himself. And therefore, the wild flame which could turn to ashes a creature in the Second Phase was now emitting a faint warmth gently worming its way into the Goblin’s bones.