Chapter 203: True Pandemonium.
“...and that’s how the dead angel can help you evolve,” I finished explaining to Arx. “It’ll be poetic! The inhex reborn the death of their oppressors!” More poetic than it’d be for me, perhaps. A demon reborn by consuming an angel! It would’ve been so cool…
“Are you sure I can just take this, though?” Arx asked as we stared at Evel’s corpse hanging from a meathook. The angel was suspended within a vat of cold preservant liquid. “It’s your angel, and you also need to evolve…”
“I want to evolve,” I corrected, but not to downplay my sheer greed. It was just the truth. There wasn’t the fate of an entire species riding on my shoulders, yet I desired power all the same. “But yes, you can take it. It’s not my angel anyway. Not solely. It was a team effort.”
“Oh… well, thank you! Really, it means a lot.” He breathed, in his equivalent of a sniff. “But I don’t need this one precisely.” He pointed at the dead angel. “There’s still a long time yet til I’m ready to evolve, if I even can… No. I’ll do it. I’ll definitely do it! But there are 4 angels left, and 2 archangels too! So I’m sure we’ll be able to get another one for me before I actually have need of it.
I raised a brow, snorted, and then started guffawing. “Another angel? We’ll kill another angel? Aaaahhhh, that’s a great idea! Let’s fucking do it!” I was planning on it!
“YEAH!” He pumped his frontal claws up to the air! “Wooo!”
~~~
“Whoa! So this is what the Duarchies are like up close,” Arx stared in wonder as we stepped into the Winders City of the Jilders Duarchy. “I’ve never actually seen them like this, despite having lived in these mountains for decades! I’m so glad I can examine them like this now.”
“Yeah. They’re a lot of fun!” Elfrafim agreed, and then promptly began to run and parkour her way to the top of the towers. There, she opened her enchanted glider, and began to maneuver through the obstacle course built into the buildings. She remained one of the highest level people here, but she could still lose to those an evolution below her, for my friend was even less of a natural flier than me.
That didn’t stop her from having fun, of course, and I soon joined her in the air. Flying was so freeing and joyful. Even Moonwash indulged, though she was the worst of us at this. Arx could only watch as we frolicked with the harpies, but I was glad that he seemed happy enough just to take it all in.
~~~
“Amazing!” Arx almost vibrated from sheer excitement upon seeing the grand construction that was the Jilander City underneath their massive mountain. He almost bumped into some wagons and dwarves for he was too fixated on the carvings along the floors and ceiling. We dragged him towards the nearest artist square, where he admired the works of masters and children alike. It inspired my friend to try his own hand at it, though he didn’t seem to have a good knack for sculpting or engraving. The dwarves allowed him to display his work anyway, and a sparse few gave him some words of encouragement. I did the same, for if he enjoyed making art, then there was no reason he couldn’t just continue. It didn’t matter if no one else liked it. He didn’t need a deeper reason to do what he wanted. He was free.
“That’s what you’re fighting for, isn’t it?”
“Yeah…” he choked up. “Yes it is.”
~~~
It’s a good day for revenge!
I spread my arms wide in our courtyard, with a scowling smile on my face. I snaked my tendrils of curse magic into my new set of armor, and forged a deeper connection with its very essence as the weave finished its embrace of the construct large enough to fit me. Now, I felt it even stronger, that today was the day where I avenged the death of my grandfather! Everything I’d suffered! All the people Edngar had trampled! The inhex especially! Surely they wouldn’t complain, to suffer the same fate themselves!
I did not actually do any of that.
Instead I sat down on the ground to meditate, on both the good and the bad. Of the curse, of the pain, of my sheer existence. Of the good that came of it, the power, the happiness I managed to seize, the friends that I could protect and love. I understood the greater sense of urgency my new set of armor conveyed to me, its sheer spite. It was made from the remains of the Angel’s Demise that… basically did kill themselves to give my team our Soul Feats. This one was specifically built from the carapace of the hero-ranked one among them. All their remains were more saturated with power than normal, likely owing to their abnormal demise. Their makeup required a greater change to our formula for cursemetal, and this was a problem that would only keep getting worse. The power in the remains of creatures, and even the inert materials mined out of the ground, would become in a way unique due to the sheer amount of power they contained. Soon enough, the better the Materials we had access to, the more unreliable whatever specific formula we’d come up with would be. A new method would have to be invented for every new piece of armor we sought to acquire.
Moonwash did not see this as a problem at all. She was downright excited, and she’d said as much. Now she was finally stepping foot into the ‘workshops of the best,’ as her Creator Smith friend Heartnail put it. And I would be there to help her.
“YOU!!!”
My eyes snapped open. I felt the sudden and familiar press of danger. My reflexes shocked my body into motion. My hooves pushed me upright, and I charged.
I heard the voice just before impact.
The angel swung his axe towards me, and I didn’t manage to fully dodge. I saved myself, but my whole right arm was gone!
“Urg…” It was not me who grunted, but my uninvited guest. Adamo had immediately suffered from the retaliation of my vengeance magic. His axe-hand showed a few scrapes, and then the rest of his arm suffered deeper cuts across that twisting skin.
Devilcalibur was drawn to my remaining left hand. I drew out my Resentment, for this angel who dared to attack me in my own home! My wings snapped out to let me regain some distance and regroup. Adamo charged towards me with groundbreaking speed, but walls of stone, bone, and cursed metal suddenly rose up to meet him. They were each crushed and torn apart in short order, but they bought me enough time. My right arm had regenerated, and it was time to bring this fucker down.
“HAELLLLLL!!!!” He shouted with such unstable anger.
“PANDEMONIUM!” I shouted too! I needn’t have asked. All manner of debris and objects rose from the ground to envelop the prey that had so foolishly wandered into my den. This arrogant mutt who thought he could attack me in my own home and survive. Adamo crushed all obstacles with contempt, but then I was right in front of him with my greatsword swinging down. He countered with his axe, and I was predictably pushed back hard. My enemy pressed the attack, and I once again had to stagger back after experiencing several great numbing blows. This was even worse than with Evel, as Adamo actually had natural weapons fit for close combat, and he wasn’t terrible at them!
This isn’t working. I gnashed my teeth. My new arm already felt like it was about to fall off, as well as the other. The ground worked against my enemy, and walls of different kinds rose to impede him, but it was still all I could do to survive, and even that was uncertain. I needed more power.
“No!” I shouted to Pandemonium once it’d informed me of my parents coming to help. My friend dissuaded them from interfering.
I cleared my mind. Thought gave way to greater emotion. I felt the Mark of The Beast on my chest, still visible through my dark cursed armor in a silvery hue. A symbol shared between me and Pandemonium. A bond that could be strengthened. I drew upon that resonance and moved with greater power.
Adamo met my swing, and I still lost, but at least I wasn't entirely put off balance this time. His other axe-hand came, and I once again found myself in a difficult situation. He had two weapons to swing around, and each were stronger than my only one. But I could cope. I summoned my magic, and it enveloped him. Adamo screamed as the rot and hellfire clung to his ever regenerating flesh. He lacked focus, he lacked resolve, and for this he suffered Devilcalibur’s wrath when he really should have been able to evade.
A heavy weight hit my chest, and a whole lung was pulverized. I forced my cursed body to keep on moving well before the wound was healed over. The jaws of Pandemonium closed around the giant angel in an endless cycle. One particular fang, a tentacle of flesh and stone, suddenly disgorged a severed demon arm.
“Retribution of The Abscised!”
Flesh and bone and blood exploded like a bomb. Hellfire hotter than even our previous barrage, curses that seeped deeper into his body, and blood magic meant only to empower my vengeful ritual! Just like how my curse could exacerbate all ‘debuffs,’ so too could my blood magic expand the appropriate rituals!
“AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHH!!!” He melted, from both heat and decay. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”
“No. I’m not done yet.”
The storm of magic around us grew in fervor. Pandemonium poured its own power into my spells, and our combined efforts broke all limits. The very terrain chained and shackled Adamo, and his frantic struggles only broke open his defenses further. Flesh was scraped away by a thousand curses and a dozen impacts. We poured hellfire into the bones and organs exposed. All the pain only made him more unstable. I slowly stripped away even his ability to heal.
Pandemonium created a flat surface nearby. Adamo flailed, and my body remained perpetually thrashed and bleeding, but I stood undeterred. The blood kept flowing, all of it under my control.
“Curseflame Shot.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” The black flames added to the hellfire and curses he already suffered. Adamo left himself defenseless, and I took full advantage of his weakness. Ribs cracked, legs grew weak, and I reached for his skull to take out one of his skulls!
“Stop! STOP!” He staggered back. He covered himself with his axes. He shouted for me to stop, but I never listened.
Adamo flapped his burning wings and flew away.
A talisman stopped right before his path.
“Lightning-Blast.”
Moonwash gave the verdict without mercy.
The angel fell from heaven, and violently crashed into the ground.
I made it so that he could never fly again.
“Purge my wings and desecrate the source. Purge your own and do the same.”
Adamo staggered back to his feet as his wings disintegrated. My blade ripped through one of those very wings, and forced him back to his knees. Devilcalibur rose yet again, like the judgement of a guillotine, and Adamo could only stare at it, tired and uncomprehending.
“No, WAIT–”
I did not wait. I executed his other wing too, and cut off his last avenue of escape. Even his anger was dead. There was only dread. I felt only contempt.
“ARRGGGG!! STOPPP!!!!” He cried again as I did not take a moment’s rest and almost managed to cut off his head after the angel had just obediently allowed me to take a crack at it. “You can’t… You can’t! You can’t kill me too!”
“I can and I will,” I replied as Adamo swung his axe wide, and missed. That arm was only hanging by a thread now, his entire body had been eaten through underneath all the magic that we continued to pour. He had deteriorated to the point that I actually properly dodge his attacks.
Adamo turned around and ran away.
An angel, more highly evolved than me, ran.
Pathetic.
I gave chase. The walls of Pandemonium thickened and rose into many layers. Adamo banged his breaking axes unto those barriers, and they predictably gave way, but so did his body as I caught up and savaged him from behind.
“No… I’m an angel… You can’t do this…”
“Yes I can,” I repeated, so that he may finally understand.
Adamo puked out his now golden-black blood. Chains bound his failing body tight, and constrained his every move. I shattered his spine, and then crushed it again before he could heal. The once glorious angel fell to his knees, and then onto his face. I plunged Devilcalibur past what’s left of his spine and ribs, to pierce right through his heart. I twisted the blade, and then swung it down to his mangled guts.
“I… Rek-ragh-acK! Urgh! ACK!”
He tried to say something, but I cared not for his final words.
I slammed Devilcalibur down his neck. As many times as it took! Until finally his head rolled, and I could CRUSH IT under my hooves!!!
I breathed, and spread my arms wide in exultation.