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Chapter 1: Prologue

*Boom!

An explosion rang out in the skies above The Cackling Miasma Forest. A dragon was sent crashing back to the ground, destroying numerous trees in its passage.

*Raaaaar!

It rose to its feet with a loud roar, the intent fused into the roar stopping the hearts of many beasts in its vicinity.

It trained its eyes to its foe, a majestic white Pegasus that shone with a white light, as it charged up a powerful fire-breath. The Pegasus flapped its wings slowly, hovering on a single spot. It looked disdainfully at the dragon as it patiently waited for it to move.

The dragon didn't rush, it carefully charged up its attack to the very limit before compressing it and then releasing it. When the pillar met the white halo, it quietly fizzled out of existence.

*Ba-dump!

The dragon's heart thumped loudly as it activated its dragon will, an awesome aura spread out, planting terror in the hearts of lesser beings. Its scales caught fire as it flapped its wings and charged towards the Pegasus. The halo seemed to shake slightly as the dragon entered its bounds, the flames covering the dragon disappeared altogether. The Pegasus raised a single leg, allowing the dragon's face to greet its hoof.

*Boom!

The dragon crashed into the ground directly below the Pegasus. The Pegasus flew quietly above as it turned to face the east. A bright yellow light rose above the horizon like a dim sun. The light rapidly approached the Pegasus' position, the heat lit the forest aflame, the dragon-will stopping the hearts of any creature unlucky enough to survive the fire and the beating of the hundred-metre wings(wingspan) toppling trees and spreading flaming gusts of wind.

*Raaaar!

A dragon whose size put to shame that of the one writhing on the ground. It roared menacingly as it charged up a breath attack, one infused with dragon will. The dragon buffed itself repeatedly before it compressed the attack, it didn't forget to infuse wind magic to the attack before releasing.

The Pegasus seemed to nod approvingly at the sight of that ominous pillar, it watched calmly as the halo brightened to the point that the Pegasus' form could not be seen.

The pillar met the halo. The pillar fizzled out of existence while the halo dimmed to its original brightness.

The dragon was surprised but not discouraged. The flames covering its scales trembled menacingly as arcane magic circles appeared on each of its eight claws. The mana perfused in the air around for several kilometres came alive and gathered as eight different elemental constructs formed around the dragon. Dragon-will fused with the constructs and the constructs got many times stronger.

The Pegasus watched quietly. It watched as the eight constructs plus one and a half dragon attacked simultaneously. It watched quietly as eight different attacks approached.

Then its wings flapped.

Its hoof then greeted the head of a rather large dragon.

Finally, two explosions sounded through the night sky.

The Pegasus flapped its wings quietly, making sure to not damage the arcane magic constructs. The things took too much energy to prepare, it had to ensure that's its playmates didn't tire out too quickly. An even bigger one should be arriving in a couple of seconds; it could sense a fourth one, but it wasn't sure that one would come.

This time there wasn't any loud noise, no bright fire and no dragon-will. Just a really big red thing that looked pretty similar to the other two.

The ancient dragon flew quietly and despite its almost one-kilometre wingspan there was almost no wind.

It arrived on the scene, raised a clawed hand, and slapped away the little shining thing.

The Pegasus was sent flying for hundreds of metres, but when it was about to crash into the forest floor, the ground seemed to run away from its halo. The Pegasus cared little about this. It merely gathered itself before neighing loudly, it was excited. It could play a lot with the new guy.

.*

.*

.*

An abandoned temple had stood for millennia in the depths of the forest. Neither nature nor time had succeeded in claiming it yet. All its walls still stood; the murals easily discernible. The stone pillars still held it up. The eleven towers still looked over the forest. All these protected by a magic barrier that could still be seen shining dimly on moonless nights.

Yet on this moonlit night, the barrier failed. The walls started to crack. Seven towers fell. Some of its pillars failed to hold it up for the first time since they were made millennia ago. Sections of its buildings fell. And a white halo disappeared with a roof.

With a splatter, a draconic blooddrop the size of a dog reached the ground. With a flash of white light, all the blood was drawn into a magic circle carved into the floor. The magic circle brightly glowed red.

The clash in the sky continued and destruction continued to spread in the forest. The temple wasn't spared and the cracks on its walls got larger.

The magic circle lost its resplendent light as it slowly used up the draconic blood.

*BOOM...

Another explosion rang through the forest, sending a small black animal flying in the direction of the temple. It landed with a heavy thud with numerous wounds and a few broken bones.

With effort, the four paws pushed against the floor as the little thing limped forward, with blood steadily flowing out of its wounds it became the first being to walk through the temple halls in thousands of years.

*BOOM!

A shockwave joined it in walking through the temple halls, throwing the little creature forward. After a while it stopped tumbling, it tried to find purchase. The little movement caused blood to flow out of its wounds. The blood dropped onto a dim magic circle that glowed red.

The intensity of the light exuded by the magic circle peaked once more but this time with a purple light. The light bound the animal to the magic circle. It drew in the mana permeating through the forest and the light grew brighter until a purple box appeared in front of the animal.

[Pet summoning initiated...]

It didn't care about the box that had appeared many times since the night began.

[Looking for suitable pet...]

It couldn't read.

[Calculating Master adequacy | Adequacy calculated: -9 of 10...]

But it was happy.

[Looking for weak lost soul...]

It couldn't feel the pain anymore.

[Lost soul found...]

But it was also scared.

[Initiating reincarnation...]

It couldn't move.

[Reincarnation successful]

It felt strangely drained.

[Pet summoning successful]

It passed out.

[Set conditions for pet...]

[Master's state inadequate for setting conditions]

[Default conditions set until master achieves adequate intelligence]

[Pet name: None]

[Race: Determining]

[Pet freedom: set to minimum]

[Enslaving Pet]

[Pet soul owned by Master]

.

.

.

The purple box was replaced by blue one.

[You have stolen a soul from the Underworld]

[The Underworld has noticed you]

[Title obtained: Soul Thief]