To the displeasure of the abyss dragon inside of Marcus sacred gear, once the sacred gear had saved. Marcus life and healed him, unlike most demons, who would of return to the fight he could feel the uncontrollable seething rage this dragon still carried. Even being dead and laid to rest in this sacred gear he now wore, and all this time it hadn't diminished the hatred of heaven or those beings. But also of devils and fallen angels as the dragon saw them all for what they started as and not what they are now. But what worried him more was the ideas he was sensing from the dragon that had to do with humanity and the stray sacred gears among them we could gather and use.
So, against the wish of the gear, Marcus flew deeper into the chasm and the abyss itself and soon found himself coming out in Cocytus the frozen waste land of hell. His wings soon became heavy, so he landed he could hear the abyss dragon scream vile threat in his head, but he laughed and only said.
"Yes, I very well may die in this icy grave, but unlike the abyss; your scaly serpent ass, this will be your home your tomb forever. No devils, no fallen angels or a not even angels come to this place at least alive and if they do they'll already be an icicle long before they can hear your offer. So, I guess keeping me alive a little longer might be a benefit for now even if it buys me time to learn how to master you."
The two learn in the ice as they spent time with one another each other there tell and soon how to know when one was trying to lie to the other. Of course, the Abyss dragon could care less at first as it only goal was to use Marcus to get it revenge on everyone and return the universe to the darkness before the light. At least what it thought when it began but as Marcus slept and the dragon gain access to Marcus's memories unfiltered it started to see what it's death brought forth and the more it saw, the more it found it rage began to leave, but it didn't know why.
It took nearly one hundred years in Cocytus in a sub zero embrace before sacred gear, and wielder final started seeing each other as equal but more as partners. But also, they learned that they weren't the only living thing in the realm not that the abyss dragon would want to merge with pit ice imps. This allowed for the two-build trust and to learn to use the gear.
"Shadow enslavement."
Marcus yelled this as a group of imps attacked causing a clawed hand gaunt to form around his right hand and arm of ebony black armor before a shadow appeared around all the imps. A then a few moments later the shadows started to twist and change into clones of the imps and began attacking them with their own type of attack until the real imps were dead. After their job was finished all the clones slowly started to fade away, and Marcus had to smile and say to the dragon.
"that is truly an awesome power…. I will never get used to it, and you say it will make precisely the same number of attackers."
Marcus was pretty sure he always heard the dragon mutter it be better if you use it on the three forces instead of imps and other lower life forms. But it would usually just say
"Yes, but with your improving speed and energy consumption, there may be a time where you can create larger numbers or even summon past clones of stronger creature to help you in a battle… So, can we finally go to earth? I mean you know you can trust me; at least there if we're dealing with humans. I promise I behave I just want you to eat some of those things again with the syrup so I can sense them for myself and any other human food that I might fancy since we agreed to share your taste buds to build some form of trust. An all of the roast imps is getting kind of how to say blandish for my taste."
Marcus raised an eye brow how did his dragon over little over hundred years get infected with so many mortal sins and want to try them out. At least he gave up on destroying mankind, for now, so he decides to open a gate to earth. He raised a hand, and a gate started open, and he soon vanish from Cocytus
