With a flick of his wrist, Theef threw naught but a flickering spark of the flame of Harmony at the horde of imps.
Without even bothering to wonder about the effects of the new gray flame, he snapped his fingers as the spark reached the first imp.
Before anyone could react, the tiny spark erupted into a raging inferno that consumed every single imp there was without fail.
Fwoosh!
Instead of merely burning them, the flames took it a step further and purified them into nothingness.
That was it.
No ash. No bones. Nothing was left to mark the passage of hundreds— if not thousands— of imps in the nearby vicinity of the fallen city.
That was not to say that there was not something gained from the gray flames as the connection Theef had to the flaming treasure gifted him a small bit of energy gathered from the massacre.
Just as the purgatory flames turned its prey into pure essence, the flames of Harmony took it a step further with the addition of the holy flames to establish a sacred connection that directly harnessed the consumed energies and channeled them back into the dual-flamed treasure.
Naturally, this new method of purification provided a different energy that differed from the demonic essence allowing for a being not originating from the Demonic Realm to still obtain a boost of power.
Now that the demonstration was over, Theef reluctantly handed back Edmond's treasure, "Pretty sure that's just the basics, but I think that went well for a first performance."
Edmond nodded, "Fantastic effort! You truly are one to fear given the proper devices."
"Nope. It's still you that should be feared," Theef was still slightly shaken from the previous help he had in raising Edmond to Transcend.
Even more so after witnessing just the basic power he possessed after a little test.
Theef knew that he could use abilities better than the original owners could sometimes, but he had no doubt that Edmond could command an even more terrifying feat if he put his mind to it.
It was pure instincts that told him that.
Edmond was just a different breed in terms of understanding his personal rule.
Unlike the others, Edmond had had enough time to experience the vicissitudes of life and explore his personality before his inevitable passing.
He knew exactly who he was from the moment he killed his first victim.
He was comfortable with murder, but he sought change.
Eventually, that led him to follow in the steps of the helpful teacher that tried their best to fight for him.
He would not stand for others finding themselves helpless against bullies and thugs like he had.
And that's how his life changed for the better.
He lived his life willing to redeem himself for his past transgressions as he shed the bad from himself and focused on more positive goals.
He was practically disowned by his harder family, but he cared not to be apart of a ruthless bunch of heartless monsters.
Ruthlessness.
It all boiled down to ruthlessness when it came to the obstacles Edmond had to overcome.
He could have easily sank into the depths of depravity and toughened up alongside his family.
Or he could have completely denounced them and chose the morally righteous path and stand up to those who tore him down.
Unfortunately, his moral compass did not point straight as it twisted until he felt the need to get revenge on those who kicked him off the right path.
This forever tainted his soul despite his hard work forgetting his past and trying to manifest a better future.
It was a vital part of him.
Since he now had someone to protect, this core aspect of his personality warped his already skewed perspective into that of a slightly deluded savior complex.
After all, he knew of Evangeline's current position in the Angelic Plane so that pushed him to find the way to her through slowly accruing power from those he turned into demonic essence.
Now though, his strength had risen by several times and in turn deepened his connection to his beloved beyond the realm.
'I wonder if my flames were influenced by this connection between us.'
In the first place, it was likely bizarre that flames with holy properties would come from anything in the Demonic Realm.
With the demonstration ended and the treasure returned, the crew now idled by as the atmosphere settled down.
Klein still wanted answers to his questions and Z'oelo desired to return to his efforts in understanding a Universal Rule, but Null stopped them when he spoke.
"It could be just as easy for you guys to comprehend a Universal Rule if you just gave me some time to help you out."
They both looked at each other and smiled wryly upon remembering some of his last experiments.
"I'd rather do my utmost to study the Universal Rules and develop mine naturally!"
"Yeah! Come to think of it, I've already got one in mind!"
Null took their responses as a sign to better prepare himself before messing with their bodies and the like so that he could be seen as reputable in the future.
'Well, you can't really blame them. You nearly exploded your former teacher not long after meeting him,' Ego reminded.
'That was because of an outside influence! I can't be the only one who sees the value of the Cosmic Authority, can I?'
'"Only when it applies to yourself, freak," says the bum huffing my byproduct.'
Putting that aside, Null grew more curious about the Universal Rules.
'I wonder if the Cosmic Structure would have a role in the generation of Universal Rules since it sort of dictates the powers of the cosmos itself.'
Ego piped in, 'You never took one of the treasures to study yourself. Why don't you ask the one with multiple treasures if you can borrow a few?'
'Sounds like a plan.'
"Hey Theef," Null took him to the side, "How many of those treasures ya got?"
"Ohoho! Wouldn't you like to know, big guy," Theef showed his usual smirk.
Null sighed, "Just spit it out."
"Seven."
"Yeah, yeah," Null turned to Barter's Ruler, "Hey, Goldie, how many Transcendents did you guys take down while I was gone?"
"In total? That would be seven."
"Seven?! Doesn't that mean you're the strongest of the crew now?"
"Ha! Listen to that Goldie! This kid thinks that I'm the strongest now just because I nabbed a few treasures."
"What do you mean? Is there something I'm missing? Do some of the treasures have some sort of flaw?"
Theef had his tendril spit out two of the treasures, "I figured I'd become the strongest when I had stockpiled tens or hundreds of these things, but as it turns out I can only use one at a time. So, no matter how many powers I have at my disposal, it only takes a minor lapse in judgement, and I could be screwed before I even got the chance to switch abilities."
He demonstrated by absorbing the two treasures.
One of them was the transparent treasure and the other the one with the symbols of the senses.
It only took a moment after absorption that Theef's arm turned invisible before the eyes of the crew.
"This is the perk of Desire," he said during the demonstration.
Then, he returned his arm to its visible state while lifting one leg and bending backwards suddenly.
"And this..., " he said while remaining upright with seemingly no issue, "This is the perk of Perception."
He then attempted to turn his arm invisible again and when it happened, he busted his ass on the floor, "Y'see. Can't use 'em both at the same time."
As soon as he wanted to keep chatting about the rest of his treasures, he was hit with the sudden sense that more creatures were closing in on the city.
"We got more coming," Theef said as he rubbed his aching butt, "And this time it's not just a horde of weaklings."
He asked Barter's Ruler to take him up via the flying carpet since he had yet to obtain an ability that allowed him to fly.
Then, with his enhanced vision he scoped out the entirety of the opposition.
There he saw a tide of every type of hellspawn in the Demonic Realm all rushing towards them as if they were drawn to them.
"Like moths to the motherfuckin' flame."
It did not take much for Theef to put together that the Devil played a part in the gathering of the demons.
Alas, he was not worried in the slightest about the impending battle that would ensue.
For the more unrelenting the tide, the more chances he had to try out Edmond's Harmony.