Dust fell upon . The ceiling crumbled. The sky was falling. The weight would crush . No it will not. I was more than strong enough to survive it. The many visages of drawn upon it were beautiful, even at their end. Not exactly my favorite sort of image, but I could not deny that it was poetic in a way, and I loved that shit. I should get out of the way anyway, even if I’d be fine. It’d be stupid to do otherwise.
The ceiling parted. The sky revealed itself, and the sun bead down from above. Pandemonium absorbed the ritual hall back into itself, to be reconstituted later.
At first I chuckled, and then I laughed, long and hard.
I cackled like a mad demon as I continued to lay there under the bright sunny day.
It was a beautiful afternoon. There were so many things I could do. I wanted to just stay here and feel the breeze. My body called to , so much power, new potential. Let wield my flesh for the slaughter!
I snorted. As if I need another mind competing for my attention. It would be worse if I didn’t have my Stable Personality Matrix.
I was one mind divided, yet united. Everything connected, in the sa way one brain might have different clusters of neurons, but also so much more than that. I supposed the best way to describe it would be a brain but with more lobes and such, and of different makes too. It was more like the brains of different sorts of creatures grafted together.
This is soo confusing.
I cursed this world. I wanted it to burn down. I thought of how to best go about that, what would be the best kindling. Another part of wished to just let go and enjoy the whole process of repeating the Burning of Gardine, but now on a worldwide scale!
I am a demon, and I succumb only to the temptations I like!
I grounded myself with my demon brain, and shared that sa resilience to the others. The load was shared, but not equally, as I figured out how to have my demon brain take the brunt of my turbulent emotions. And… the two other brains could help by keeping a better track of my ntal state and its many changes.
Fire! Curses! Space! Blood! Can I mix all four in a ritual!? I wanna try them all! What can space be used for? Shouldn’t I be much better at it now? I feel like I understand the elent much better than yesterday. I want to try it. Right now. See how people react when they’re expanded like a balloon. There’s so much of them out there. A whole city. And it’s my city, so can’t I do what I want with it? How about the Burning of Arisen, as sequel to the Burning of Gardine!
No. Absolutely not. I did decide already that I won’t do that anymore. Unless if it’s necessary. But this definitely does not qualify. There is no current threat to my loved ones. At least, there aren’t any that I know about, but a truly competent and powerful threat might not be known to at all. Maybe they’re hiding in my city right now, waiting for an opportunity. It’s too much of a risk. I’ll destroy Arisen now, and then keep everyone I care about in Pandemonium where they are sure to be protected. Or at least as sure as I can possibly–
No, no, no! Why do all my thoughts spiral to the sa terrible place? Still, one of these lines of reasoning is marginally better than the other. So alright, I can use my complex computational brain to objectively spot certain lines of thinking that correspond to so paraters I have set up beforehand.
It should help. I’ll do my best… to not have the Burning of Gardine happen again. Not on my na. Not on my deed.
~~~
_________________
Na: Haell Zharignan
Species: Devil
—Mutations—
Curse Heart: Level 80
Demon Brain: Level 80
Demon Skin: Level 80
Evil Eyes: Level 80
Demon Flesh / Demon Bones / Demonic Musculature(synced) : (All) Level 80
Demon Arms: Level 80
Demon Hooves: Level 80
Resentnt: Level 80
Demon Horns: Level 80
Mana-infused Blood: Level 80
Regen Heart: Level 80
Demon Wings: Level 80
Hellfire Heart: Level 80
Untouchable mory Core: Level 80
Extradinsional Demon Blood Storage: Level 80
Demon Tail: Level 80
Localized Dinsion Scanner Matrix: Level 80
Rapid Combat Nervous System: Level 80
Blood Heart: Level 80
Blood Eater: Level 80
Hell of Creation: Level 80
Devil’s Tongue: Level 80
Blood Eater: Level 80
Space Heart: Level 80
Stable Personality Matrix: Level 80
Ritualist Brain: Level 80
Complex Computative Brain: Level 80
Dinsional Weight Distributor: Level 80
—Soul Feats—
Reincarnator
Progenitor
Imp Progenitor
Progenitor II
Demon Progenitor
Demon Harbinger
Progenitor III
Archdemon Progenitor
Slaughter of the Astro Manor
Pandemonium
Mark of The Beast
Legacy of Cursifix
Curse of Cursifix
Birthless Demon
Progenitor IV
Devil Progenitor
_________________
“Fuck.” I groaned and got back up.
Night had passed, and the sun was rising from the far off mountains once more. It took that long until I was certain I could actually function. I didn’t want to instantly do sothing very bad, stupid, and irreversible because of a random train of thought.
I still wasn’t sure that was the case. That I was fully stable. I most certainly was not. But I had to move at so point. There was so much I wanted to do, so much more I could do. I was dying to unleash my new potential and paint another city in the fires of my soul!
I will not. What I actually need are morally unambiguous monsters who I can experint on to my hearts’ content!
“RRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!” I gave a warcry and sprung to my hooves. I looked around, the ground so much further away from . Everything was just a little smaller. I knew that I was now sowhere in between my dad and late grandfather’s height.
“Hey, Haell,” Moonwash greeted, looking up from her canvas as she sat across the courtyard. She’d been here the entire ti, and I was comforted by her presence the whole way. “Are you alright now?”
I paused for a second, three minds as one pondering the question.
“I will be.”
I walked over to her, and crouched down to see the painting. It was of , in my newly-evolved Devil form… and completely naked. Damn I look good. And damn she’s painting naked because I am.
I pointed my palm at where the ritual hall once was, and space mana stread out. I kept control of the magic, until it settled right around a set of garnts prepared for . Reality around it bent, and my change of clothes were dragged along.
It was too slow. I was certain I could do so much better than that. I focused on my senses, the weave of the dinsional fabric as translated by my Localized Dinsion Scanner Matrix. I analyzed this phenonon, this constant force of reality. Like gas as thick as water, the skeleton of a realm-spanning skyscraper mixed with jelly. It wobbled and weaved at every mont as the world itself moved. Neutral, impartial, a re fact of reality. It folded like a blanket around my change of clothes.
Now co.
My shirt snapped to my hand and a… wave rippled softly through the arm that received it, once I finally applied these initial epiphanies.
“Great!” I bead as I put on the light airy sundress, and then the tighter dark shirt that went over it. “Now no one has to pass the remote.”
“You look amazing,” Moonwash complinted.
“Thanks.”
My girlfriend quickly made so finishing touches to her work, and in the span of a minute, she finally put down her brush. “Let’s see what you can do now.”
I grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
The floor dropped from under us and we fell.
~~~
The fall was intentional. Pandemonium swallowed us up, before dumping us back at Moonwash’s extensive laboratory. It had only grown to assimilate more and more of the manor’s underground.
We landed on our ass after a long slide. I shook my fist at the ceiling jokingly, before turning my attention to the heavy set of armor waiting just for . It was a light grey in color, very sturdy for my level, but without much else going for it. Still, there was beauty in that simplicity. The important thing was that it actually fit. We’d prepared it ahead of ti, because a lot of the changes I made to myself as I evolved were obviously pre-planned. I didn’t go into it blind.
I picked up Devilcalibur.
I looked at it. I stared.
“This isn’t even a greatsword any longer. It’s just a sword! Not great!” I groaned, but dutifully holstered my partner-in-cri by my waist anyway. Afterwards, I cheated on my favorite weapon by picking up another!
It was a greatsword fit for my size this ti. Its body was beautifully engraved, made of a specially shiny silver that Moonwash labeled SharpiniumX8-P31.
…These nas were getting ridiculous. But it couldn’t be helped, as my girlfriend had beco increasingly more obsessed over alloys. She’d naturally gotten far better at making them too. We needed a good resupply of materials soon, and I was happy to be able to provide that once again.
No need… for a whole party behind . I was confident. I was now strong enough to delve through the core of Geonesis.
~~~
“You sure you want to co?” I asked Moonwash as we prepared for take-off.
“Yes. I trust you.”
I scratched my head with one arm. The other was holding the small woman tight to my torso, though she was actually quite large now relative to most people. Moonwash had been in between my mom and dad’s height ever since she got all Mutations across the Level 80 mark.
“Well… I guess I’ll just have to trust in the you that trusts in .”
“You should.”
I laughed before finally opening my evermore expansive wings. They cast a large shadow across the ground. My silhouette was one for nightmares, an existence they could only dream of becoming.
I swung the wings down.
A great wave of force and wind instantly flattened the grass. Air, gravity, the planet itself resisted my ascent, but it was forced to bow to my will.
I lifted off the ground, and shot right into the sky. I hovered there for a few seconds, before orienteering myself and shooting off towards the mountains. Arisen City disappeared from beneath , the scenery rushed passed. The air began to beg for rcy after only a few flaps. I pushed myself harder, until thunder bood in my wake.
I’d broken through the sound barrier.
And then I began to use my magic.
I accelerated. The explosions of sound grew louder. I felt the pull on my muscles trying to hold back, but I broke through those barriers over and over again.
This was freedom. This was my power. I was The Devil!
My mind was suffused with the depravations of mortal-kind as my body was enhanced beyond my normal limits. The curse was ever expanding, yet so had my minds grown stronger. I celebrated every violent thought, I comprehended the destruction I wished to wrought. The lifeblood inside , inside all of us, the way it flowed so violently through my veins. I applied that understanding to my magic, and I sped up again.
I left a vacuum in my wake. The atmosphere slamd back against each other with great violence. The clouds above parted, in deference to my power.
I reached the impenetrable barrier range in only a few minutes.
I breathed. I stopped. A growl rumbled through my throat. My mouth parted in a hungry grin as the echoes of my re flight continued to thunder through the mountainside.
I healed the wear and tear across my wings, and the few aches that managed to make it through my body. I hugged Moonwash tighter to , and then realized that she might’ve been hurt by that!
“Oh shit! Are you okay!?”
“I’m fine,” she claid.
“This is why I didn't want to take you with ,” I continued. “I'm at my most unstable and ignorant of my own powers right now!” Blood stread out of and flowed over her body to heal the damage that I did.
“Relax, Haell. I said I’m fine.”
“Are you!?” I stared at her, the tension in her body now gradually loosening. Her expression wouldn’t tell anything, but I felt like she wasn’t being entirely truthful.
“Yes. It’s just a little compression. And now I’m healed. Thanks.”
“See!? You did get hurt enough to get healed!”
“Only a little. Nothing that can’t quickly be fixed. I’m higher level than you, Haell. Don’t treat like I’m weak.”
This bitch.
She’s right.
How dare you!
“O-oh,” I stamred, shaking my head, though perhaps I should shake my entire body considering that my other brains were in my torso. “Well… okay. If you say so.”
“I do.” She looked in the eye. “That was aweso.”
I took another second to regather my thoughts–an eternity for those as smart as us–before finally allowing the broad grin to co through my face. “Hell yeah it was! I think so too. Fuck I’m fast!”
I dropped from the air, crushing right through the thick trunk of a tree, and cracking the ground below.
“You were very fast,” Moonwash confird. “Much faster than you or I assud. That exceeded all expectations for how strong you will be after your evolution.”
“What can I say? I surprise even myself with how great I am.” I took the ti to cackle, before continuing, “But it is true. I think we both underestimated just how much stronger my additional brains would make . It helps with any form of magic, not just with their specializations. I think…” I took a second more to gather my thoughts. “Well, a part of it is how different the brains are. Ritualist brain is naturally creative, so it should be inherently much better than my demon brain for magic. The complex computative brain is going to generally be worse at that, but it still has so things to contribute. Like better visualizing my blood flows, and understanding its intricacies. That does also have an effect, in the sa way that biomancy requires so much knowledge. Not to ntion that it should be even better than my ritualist brain at space magic.”
“I see. Can you go test your new powers now? I’m very curious.”
I glanced at the mountain in front of , the wildlife in between its trees strangely quiet and absent. But no, I knew they were still there; hiding, cowering, as if they already knew that an apex predator had arrived.
I grinned. “Alright. I’m sure I’m even more curious than you.”
My aura creeped out of , and the devil eyes reaped the lives of those foolish enough to remain in my sights. Pathetic, I hadn’t even started. My glare turned into a glower, its violent designs palpable. The trees shook from my misery, as if they could feel. Their branches began to sag, trunks darkening. Leaves fell from the canopy, the grass below rotting.
And then my eyes burned, and the world burned with it.
Trees spontaneously caught on fire. A thousand critters writhed, wishing to flee, but unable to even that through the hellish pain. The color of blood saturated the air, as my hellfire further crawled up the mountain.
I don’t want this.
A reminder, to myself.
A seed of rationality in my rapidly deteriorating ntal state.
I rembered the first ti I got infernal fire. It wasn’t even hellfire back then.
I fought a warsymbol. I burned a forest down.
I had a disagreent with Elfrafim. I promised to at least maybe try to not do this needlessly. I promised to at least think it over first.
Right.
I took a centering breath and leapt into the fray. I walked among my hellfire, the heat easily tolerable. I ripped the flas away from their al, finding the action so much easier than before. I held the hellfire in my palms, and made it substantially hotter with a re thought.
That was one property of my devil eyes discovered. They were much weaker than my regular magic.
I turned to the side and charged. Clods of earth exploded into the air, as if a mine had just gone off. The burning trees in my path disintegrated as I passed. Splinters flew every which way until I reached the edge of the spreading hellscape. My tail flicked, and then I turned again, now curving around the whole periter of the spreading hellfire as I strategically destroyed the plantlife around it.
It slowed the hellfire’s spread, although it didn’t outright stop it thanks to the dead plantmatter that remained in the ground. Not to ntion that my fire could keep burning in dirt, if for a much shorter ti.
“Hmmm.” I cupped my chin into my hand. I shrugged, and then just tore up the mountainside as I ran laps around the periter of the flas, siphoning more of it out with every lap, shrinking its territory with every passing second, until finally the last ember had gone out.
It was over in a minute.
I told Moonwash of my discoveries. Of how the spell was weaker when cast through my eyes, and cost more mana on top of that.
“What’s the chanism though? How is the magic delivered? It just teleports?” she asked as we stood on the ashes of my devastation.
“I don’t know. Let’s check.” My head snapped towards a nearby fox that thought itself clever, and then its body tore itself apart like a gory shapeshifter that wanted to commit suicide. “Hmmm. I’m still not sure what happened exactly. Only that my mana was drained, and then the effect that I wanted happened.”
“Do it when I’m ready and watching next ti. Let’s catch a test subject first.
“Aye-aye.” I did just as she asked, and promptly caught a few more monsters. Rabbits burned, wolves rotted, and bears bled from every orifice–only for the opposite to then happen, as its wounds began to heal.
Neat. I can heal with my eyes. And even without the flowing rivers of blood as a conduit. Then again, I can also heal people with blood magic just by laying a hand on them. It’s just far less efficient.
That loss in power was made all the more apparent by how the healing I was able to enact through my eyes was frankly just pathetic for my level.
“I think it’s a process kind of like the cursetaceans’ revenge magic,” Moonwash put down her notes for a mont, and gave her theory.
“Oh?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Yes. The way your eyes work might have a similar delivery chanism as the Angel’s Demise, or your own vengeance magic for that matter.”
That was an easy theory to test. I grabbed Moonwash, flew us around, and then found a warsymbol strong enough to gnaw on my arm and deal a good amount of damage to the limb if I let it.
Moonwash observed this spontaneous delivery of mana for a long while, before then asking , “Can I stab you?”
I furrowed my brows. “Uhhh, you sure? It’ll hurt.”
“It’ll hurt for you too. I need to feel this myself, because it’s hard enough to track how this mana manifests inside another body. It should be easier to feel inside my own.”
I stared at her.
“You know what? You’re right. I will get hurt too.” I presented my arm to her. “So fine. It’s your choice.”
“It is.”
She stabbed down.
I disregarded the wave of self-loathing that ca when I observed the wave of rot spreading across her hand.
Moonwash made her observations, and after so hours of this, we finally had an answer.
“The mana is indeed basically teleporting to its target. More specifically it spreads like how glass might suddenly crack, though with far less range. The effect is imdiately active, the mana generated that way. Although I guess it’s not really being generated from nothing, as it pulls from your reserves. The targeting is additionally weird, as you know, as external armor is able to absorb at least so of your vengeance magic or the magic cast through your eyes. But that’s true of many forms of magic. Armor can interrupt the immaterial mana, much more so when actually worn, than as re inert objects lying around.”
She convinced to try out my eyes on her next, though I only agreed after I’d made sure that I could contain the rot and limit its strength. That’s when we discovered a significant difference between my eyes and instantaneous vengeance magic. The latter generally pounced on the specific implents used to deal the damage, while my eyes preferred to apply the magic evenly across the surface of one or more entities. Though what counted as an entity was weird, as I could also target inanimate objects, including the ground. The spread would just radiate out from the specific spot I was staring at.
I then confird that instead of designating one person as my target, I could just designate a portion of it, like one arm for example, or even possibly just a portion of that arm.
I didn’t have the ti to master that, however, so I just withered Moonwash’s skin on her hand. It was definitely a more even process than my vengeance magic, and it was stopped by armor much easier. Unless if I used blood magic, or certain kinds of curses, which actually pierced through armor and resistances better if used by my eyes.
There was no hard rule to this, only general trends. That was the case for everything magic, I supposed. The theory about my devil eyes being the sa as my vengeance magic was clearly proven wrong here, but it was still fun and imminently interesting to discover where they differed and how they were similar.
Moonwash was a great help with that. I was glad to have brought her along. This was going much more smoothly than the last ti, where I tried to figure out a lot of my new powers on my own.
I ducked down to give her a kiss, which she returned with enthusiasm.
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