I Hate Systems

"You…monster!" A middle-aged lady clutched the corpse of her son and glared at the devil-like being hovering in the sky before her. "We should have killed you before!"

"Maybe you didn't understand," The girl hovering in the air, Nefear spoke emotionlessly, "It's because of your actions that I was born."

"And now, you're simply reaping the consequences." Saying so, she condensed a tiny ball of fire on her palm, jet black in colour, squirming with faint bluish tendrils. The ball of fire transformed into an arrow that slammed into the middle-aged woman, causing her to writhe in agony as her body began to rot in response.

A putrid stench wafted out as suddenly, her skeleton burst out of her body, ripping apart all the flesh covering it as it now stood before Nefear. Faint, nerve-like lines ran throughout its body, leading from the toe and all the way into the skull where a jet-black flame with bluish lines flickered incessantly.

The Devil's Tool of Authority—Soul Fire!

The Soul Fire extracted one's soul and amplified all the negative emotions of the owner, creating an energy medium capable of a variety of activities.

The Devil's Symbol of Authority—Horned Skull!

As the symbol was a horned skull, Nefear could fuse that with the Tool of Authority, and hence create an undead skeleton that could fight on her behalf. But, that was only limited to skeletons, as the Symbol of Authority was only limited to skulls.

"Hmm?" Nefear noticed in confusion as the skeleton thrashed about for a couple of seconds before collapsing to the ground to form a pile. The bluish lines covering the entire skeletal frame vanished as the Soul Fire died out.

Indeed, her application of the authorities was wrong. The technicality came into play here, preventing her from substituting a horned skull with a regular human skull.

After a moment of thought, Nefear looked around, "I remember the sheep was somewhere…got it!"

She arrived in the barn of a house, gazing at the four sheep bawling in fear within from all the commotion. Nefear repeated the same process—as with the middle-aged woman—on the sheep, successfully transforming one into a skeletal entity.

But, she wasn't content with it, for it was a quadrupedal creature. After thinking for a moment, she flew away and returned with a survivor, extracting his Soul Fire that she dumped into the skeleton sheep, observing minor changes to its Soul Fire. "It seems possible."

"What seems possible?" The Devil, Invaderon appeared before her, startling her for a moment at the suddenness of his arrival.

"Your Lordship!" Nefear bowed in response and spoke, "I was trying to find a way to create a strong warrior skeleton."

"You fused my Symbol of Authority with my Tool of Authority, right?" Invaderon let out a knowing smile upon seeing her nod in response, "But, you made a small mistake, which led to your failure."

"Please enlighten me, Your Lordship," Nefear asked.

"Use all three." Invaderon said as he plunged his index finger into the forehead of a nearby sheep, seeping in a drop of his blood, "Blood is my Mode of Bestowal. So, through my blood, I share a small fragment of my power, and voila!"

Baaa!

The sheep roared in pain as bone-crunching sounds erupted from within its body. A couple of seconds later, its skeleton burst out of its body while the remainder melted into a puddle.

The skeleton sheep attached the remaining two sheep and opened its mouth, unleashing a thin stream of Soul Fire that slammed into their heads and extracted their Soul Fire.

Gulp!

The bodies of the two sheep collapsed to the ground and turned into a puddle immediately, leaving behind their skeletons. The skeleton sheep appeared before them and touched their skeleton once, remaining still for a few seconds before it munched on them, surprisingly devouring the two skeletons.

It then exited the barn and sniffed its way around, roaming through the village for a few minutes before entering a house. It crashed through a door, eliciting frightful screams from the child that had hidden there.

Bam!

It rammed into the child and wounded him critically before sucking in his Soul Fire and skeleton. Immediately, cracking sounds resounded from its body as its joints morphed, allowing it to gradually get up and move like a bipedal creature.

The skeleton went around the village, sensing the Soul Fires of any surviving humans before proceeding to kill and devour them. Gradually, its body was upgraded more and more.

Soon, the village became a ghost town as both humans and animals in it had been devoured by the skeleton.

Invaderon patted its head and absorbed the drop of blood he had poured into its body, saying, "Now, it's unable to absorb the Soul Fires of other creatures. You understand now?"

"Yes, Your Lordship." Nefear nodded in delight, "Basically, by sharing some of my blood, I can create a powerful skeleton that can evolve on its own. And once it hits its limit, I can reclaim the blood and focus on creating another skeleton."

"Since I had imparted a portion of my strength through my blood, it's a loss of strength. So, once its purpose has been achieved, I need to reclaim it." She made a complete analysis.

Invaderon nodded, satisfied with her growth, "As my Apostle, you have been bestowed with ten percent of my power. That's a permanent reduction in my strength. So, you need to recruit more followers to raise the overall amount of power I possess."

At present, Invaderon was only at 90 percent of his whole as Nefear had inherited the remaining ten percent. That was what making an Apostle meant. And similarly, there were believers lower in the hierarchy than the Apostle, with each inheriting a small portion of his strength.

Normally, it was a loss to give out his power, but it had to be noted that it was a percentage decrease. Meaning, as long as the number of followers increases, the amount of power contained in each percent of his strength would continue to increase.

And each follower could wreak havoc and gather fear towards the Devil while also recruiting fanatics for the cause. "There should be those in similar circumstances to you in other places too."

Invaderon grinned as he patted Nefear, "Go and recruit them to our cause. If you find them worthy, give them a portion of your power. I will judge their usefulness through you."

It was easy to do so, as he, Invaderon was able to sense the location and give or take power from his followers, for his Mode of Bestowal was just blood. Indeed, depending on one's three Authorities, the route of growth they take varied drastically.