The Laughing Swordsman

The snowflakes gently falling in the air began to swirl. At first, it was slow, but in just mere moments, it became violent.

As though they knew what was coming.

Despite bleeding from countless tears in his skin, Lucifer kept his finger pointed high. It was like he couldn't tell how badly his body was being destroyed.

Gusts of wind raged around Lucifer. A tornado gradually began to form, circulating Lucifer.

The countless gemstones, both big and small, began to glow faintly. Small streams of blue mana seeped out of them, wildly swirling along with the streams of wind around Lucifer.

Maya's eyes gradually widened, then looked up at him.

Suddenly, a tiny wisp of flame formed at the tip of Lucifer's finger. It was so small, maybe even a candlelight would be larger. That flame whipped in the wind and was nearly put out on several occasions.

However, no matter how many times it seemed like it would die, the flame burned once more.

It did so weakly, but stubbornly.

If that flame was a person, it would be someone that was at the very bottom of a pit, but had the confidence to soar past the clouds.

And soar past the clouds it did.

Suddenly, the tiny flame burgeoned as though it was actually flowing water. It became the size of a basketball, but contracted right after to the size of a baseball. Soft, but sharp crackling sounds filled the air as the tongues of flame danced uncontrollably.

The small vortexes with the gemstones in the air began to rotate rapidly and glow even brighter.

The cracks in Lucifer's body began to shine with a bright blue due to the massive amount of mana he was taking in. Then, his eyes and mouth followed suit, making him look more like an elemental being rather than a human.

The flame rapidly expanded once more, nearly becoming the size of a hot-air balloon. It continued to burgeon and contract erratically, as though letting the world know how unstable  it was.

Yet, despite this instability, the flame remained just above the tip of Lucifer's finger.

The winds became even wilder, while large streams of blue mana appeared within the gales, almost like the northern lights.

Maya forgot to breathe for a moment, staring at the beautiful colors.

Under normal circumstances, mana would be invisible. The only times it could be seen, is if it were compressed heavily, which usually occurred in the process of casting a spell.

However, the gathering process was different.

For normal mages, it would be unbelievably hard to compress the mana they gathered unless it was in very small amounts. Not to mention, there wasn't much of a point.

The only advantage was absorbing mana faster. However, most weren't able to use all of the mana they gathered immediately, so why even bother?

Yet to Lucifer, it was like the mana was far too sparse for him.

Large quantities of invisible mana along with compressed visible mana forcibly entered his body.

Occasionally, there would be large amounts of blood spraying out of Lucifer's skin, as though moving out of the way to let even more mana inside.

Maya watched all of this happen, and gradually came to realize something.

Lucifer was a constitution mage, the same kind of mage Maya was.

  These kinds of mages had the reputation for not only being able to cast very few spells, but unable to cast any higher level spells. This was simply because they had to damage their body in order to cast anything.

Maya's mother had told her many stories, so she was acutely aware of this fact.

So what was this sight in front of her?

Suddenly, Maya was thrown up off her feet.

Without warning, the ground under Lucifer broke apart, sending out spider web-like cracks throughout the floor. Many tiny and large fragments of dirt and rock flew up into the air, further adding to the chaotic scene.

Maya fell onto her back and had the wind knocked out of her.

She opened her eyes to see a massive fireball. One that had expanded to the size that seemed to be as big as the city itself.

The smaller gemstones in the air all shattered one after another into tiny fragments, unable to produce any more mana. As for the fireball, it continued to burgeon fiercely, not willing to stop expanding despite reaching such a size.

Lucifer began to smile, looking especially ethereal because of the mana shining from his eyes and mouth.

Once all the smaller gemstones broke apart, the larger ones began to follow suit.

Suddenly, the massive fireball compressed violently, until eventually reaching the size of a ping-pong ball.

Then, exploded outward with a new grandeur.

Maya watched the flame gradually fill her entire vision. Just being near it made Maya feel like she was in a pool of magma. This was despite her improved constitution from both the strange black fruit Lucifer gave Maya and her current demonized form.

Maya moved her head to the side, trying to catch the end of the fireball. However, she could only see it seemingly disappear into the horizon.

Maya felt like the fireball was at the size of a planet itself, if not infinitely large.

Lucifer simply stood still the entire time as though he were a statue. The fireball gradually stabilized. It appeared as though orange magma was swirling within it, not unlike the sun.

The movement of the magma calmed down as well, gradually becoming lazy.

The violent storm of wind around Lucifer died out as well, causing several fragments of rock and dirt to fall to the ground. He had finished making the fireball, but was in no rush to throw it.

For a few moments, there was an eerie silence.

The kind one would feel in the eye of a tornado.

Although it was calm and peaceful now, that was because it was a prelude.

A prelude to disaster. 

Lucifer's eyes and mouth were still shining with a bright blue.

Yet, he forced out his voice anyway, distorted greatly by the mana.

"Burn."