Many other beasts attempted to attack him, but he was able to swiftly 'persuade' them or dispose of them with relative ease. They ranged from large centipedes,cattle on fire, and the most unusual being a turtle covered in fungi. After a few more minutes of walking, he could feel that he was getting closer to the piece of the Mortis Dagger. Going into a slow jog, he eventually reached a large fence and stopped.
On the other side of the fence was a large volcano, towering over at least 5 kilometres . Examining the fence more carefully,it was around 4 metres tall and he couldn't see any other physical properties making it different from normal fences, but just to make sure, he picked up a rock and tossed it to it. Once the rock made contact with the fence, it bursted into flames and dropped to the ground. The flame was so hot that the outer layer of the rock started to melt. Grabbing another, he threw it over the fence and it landed on the other side safely.
Based on observations, he jumped into the air, over the fence, and landed on the other side safely and continued his path to the volcano. Inspecting the volcano once he got close enough, the only way he could see to get to the top was by climbing.
His thought was soon cut off when he had to dodge forward when a giant moth emerged from the ground behind him. He wasn't sure why he couldn't sense it earlier, but chalked it up to a creature that is able to mask their presence. Something he knew some dark side creatures could do. Quickly forming a saber, he threw it to the moth's wings, clipping them. The moth screeched in pain and when it started to fall, he used the force to summon back his saber through the moth, effectively killing it.
Looking back to the volcano, he took one step back and leaped into the air, grabbing the side of it and started to climb.
Satan, one of the 7 Princes of Hell, Ruler of the Wrath Ring, and one of Lucifer's closest allies. Like the usual imp, he had the black and white horns, red skin, a tail, and goat-like legs. But what really made him different physically was his height, being nearly 7 metres tall, much larger than the usual imp. He wore a maroon suit, with black and gold shoes that match with it perfectly. And a large emerald pendant around his neck to top it all off.
He was currently sitting on a couch in front of a fireplace, reading a book, until he heard a knock from a door.
"You may enter." Satan said
An Imp walked in, carrying a tablet." My lord, I believe this is something you should see."
Satan looked over to the imp and saw them holding out the tablet for him. Taking the tablet, Satan looked at it . What he saw surprised him, and raised his curiosity. One demon had made it nearly all the way up to the top of the volcano. Usually, anything that came near the lava balls would have caught on fire and died. But this being, in perfect range to be burnt to a crisp, was unfazed, climbing the volcano in preternatural speed.
"May I ask why I wasn't informed of this earlier?" Satan turned to the imp, eyeing him menacingly.
The imp, now sweating nervously, answered "Well you see, we usually don't report anything until they make it halfway up , so when they did so, I came here as quickly as I could, but the demon was faster."
" Why didn't you try calling me?"
"You have your phone muted sir." As soon as the imp said that, Satan checked his phone, and found that out to be true.
Sighing heavily. Satan stood up and straightened out his tie. "Prepare the guards. I will be at my throne overlooking everything."
Sighing in relief, the imp complied "Yes my lord" He said with a bow.
When the imp left the room, the entire castle started to shake. With the tablet still in his hand, Satan looked at the video feed and what he saw really caught his eye. You see, Satan's castle was inside the ball of lava as a safety precaution, and who would guess one to be in it. Even if at the slightest chance any normal demon found out, they would have no way to enter it. From the extreme heat, and the magical barrier protecting it, the only way you could enter was using a special portal that only other princes of Hell could use or one conjured by Satan himself. So when he saw the lone demon splitting the ball of lava in half, showing the entrance to his castle, he couldn't help but look with an awed expression.
Walking to another door, which also leads to the throne room, he took a seat on his throne. He thought of the many possibilities that could arise and one of them being allies.
He thought with a mischievous grin while crossing his legs. 'He could be one, but I shouldn't get my hopes up if anything goes 's wrong. Let's see if he can survive my guards'
Near the entrance of the castle, around 20 imps were behind cover. Aiming their guns at the entrance, waiting for their target to come in view.
"Any idea who's going to come through?" An imp, named Sepherdus asked his friend Encardo
"Not entirely sure, but I suspect maybe a telekinetic after seeing the video in the security room." Encardo replied.
"If they're telekinetic, what are bullets going to do? What's stopping them from reflecting our bullets back to us?." Sepherdus asked worryingly
"Dude, we own some of the best and fastest military grade weapons. And we also only saw them split a stationary object. I am pretty confident in our abilities, Plus we have remote explosives planted at the door if anything goes wrong. We'll be fine." Encardo assured his friend.
Sepherdus replied "Yeah, you're probably ri-" But was cut off when the castle started to shake. The entrance, cracking in the centre .
"Everyone!" Their squad leader, Svartas, shouted "Take aim at the POI and wait for my command!" While taking his own position on the snipers ledge.
With everyone now on edge, many of them had their fingers placed on their triggers, waiting for some- Then suddenly lava came rushing to the room. The front row of imps were instantly engulfed in lava, killing them instantly.
"Everyone! Fall back!" Svartas commanded.
"What the fuck! "Sepherdus shouted, while getting up, " I thought we were immune to fire!?"
"This is Hellfire dumbass!" Encardo said while getting up to follow his friend, "We're not immune to that shit! How do you not not know this!? This is like basic fucking knowledge."
While most of the remaining imps retreated with a sprint , the unlucky few that were stationed near the entrance were consumed by the wave of lava. Killing them almost instantly .When Sepherdus glanced to his back, what he saw raised his fear through the roof. In the middle of the wave was the lone demon from the security feed, supposedly lifting the entire wave. Slowly heading to their direction while seemingly unaffected by the heat.
Anakin, with a push of his hand, sent the wave over him and into the hallway where the imps were retreating to, distracting them. He then turned and went down another hallway, and followed the signature of the dagger. The hallway led to another open area, with a stair at the left and right side of the room, leading to an upper floor.
When a few imp's on the upper floor came into his view, he leaped up to them with a saber in hand. The unfortunate imp being the closest to him where he landed was instantly sliced horizontally, having no time to react. The rest of the imp's, six of them, raised their weapons in response. But Anakin was faster, dashing to a duo in preternatural speed, taking both of them down in a single slash. Using the momentum of his previous strike he then sliced another upwards ,and using both hands, brought an overhead strike on another without breaking his stride.
In less than a second. Anakin was able to deal with 5 imp's. When the remaining 2 imp's reacted to this, they did the only logical thing in this situation.
"We surrender!./Please don't kill us!" Both of them pleaded, dropping their weapons to the ground.
Deeming them not to be a threat or hindrance, he turned the other way around and headed down another hallway while picking up his stride. When he entered the hallway, he instantly knew it was a trap. When he was halfway through it, the walls and ceiling started to quickly close on him, but with a simple force push, he pushed them back, breaking their mechanisms as well. Continuing his walk, 5 guards of a larger size came from the ends of the hallway. Two in front and three behind, all wielding a set of swords.
When he slowly brought his free hand up, all the guards instinctively tightened their grip on their weapons and prepared themselves. But instead of using any of his abilities, he simply taunted them, waiting for them to make the first move. A few seconds passed before one of the rear guards decided to strike first, jumping in the air and bringing down his swords. Anakin reacted by dashing backwards and slicing upwards, killing the guard. When the body of the first guard hit the ground, one guard from each end went next with both of them going for his the swords were close enough, he bent backward close to the ground so that their swords clashed with one another. He quickly aimed for their legs and immobilized them.
He shot back up straight only to have to block an incoming strike in front of him. He expected for the sword to break in contact with his saber, only to notice that it didn't. this perplexed him for a bit, when he the noticed some small gold markings on the sword, raising his curiosity. When the other last imp came and attacked him from behind, he dodged to the side, disengaging his weapon with the other. The 2 guards accidentally crashed with one another, distracting them. Using this opportunity, he slashed at their heads, beheading them. When he was done, he continued his path, feeling the energy from the dagger piece getting closer.
He had eventually reached the throne room's entrance but sensed that it was guarded with a few dozen imps. All of them aiming their weapons, ranging from rifles, snipers and a few rocket launchers, at where he was going to come out from. When he went around the corner and into their view, he had to bring his hand up and redirect a rocket fired at him to the ceiling, causing a piece of rubble to fall down next to him. Right when the rubble landed, Anakin had to get behind it when more rockets and bullets started to fly at him, using it as cover.
Acting quickly, he sent the piece of rubble flying to the center of the imps with a force push, crushing a few of them, and dashed at them with his saber in hand at blurring speeds while they were distracted by it. With only a few of them noticing him, they opened fire on him. But due to his sheer speed he was able to dodge them all.
Drawing on the Force as he ran, he pulled an imp towards him and impaled them, then threw the body towards his shooters to disorient them without interrupting his sprint. When most of the imps recovered from his first attack, he had already reached them and started to hack them down one by one in rapid succession. The imps furthest away from him could only describe Anakin as red blur in their eyes, faster than anything they have ever seen before. While many of them attempted to shoot at him,with the few imps holding the rocket launcher needing to change to their secondaries due to their tight space, he easily dodged them due to his heightened reflexes and precognition.
With half of the imps remaining, one Imp started to flee with a few others following suit. When the leading commander saw this he turned his view away from Anakin and to his retreating troops." What are you doing! Come back here you cowards!"
"I'll give you all one chance," The commander froze upon hearing an unusual voice behind him. He quickly turned around and saw Anakin standing on top of the piece of rubble thrown earlier. " Surrender now, and you may live."
When the remaining imps started to open fire upon him, Anakin slightly redirected their weapons with a small wave of his fingers causing them to miss every shot with a bored expression on his face(?). Eventually their magazines ran out and when they attempted to reload, Anakin pulled the guns out of their hands and lifted all of them up into the air by their necks with a force choke.
"So be it." He took a moment to observe the hallway for any more imps before eventually snapping their necks with a twist of his wrist. Dropping back down onto the floor, he made his way to the entrance of the throne room and once he got close enough, it opened by itself.
Entering the throne room, Anakin was greeted with a slow but loud clap while he took in his surroundings. In front of him was the prince of the Wrath himself, Satan, on his seat looking right at him. He couldn't but just compare the view in front of him with Sidi- No, that thought was killed instantly.
The clapping continued on for a few more seconds before Satan stood up and started to approach him with hands behind his back.
"I must say, you caught my attention." Stopping in his tracks around halfway through the room. "Ah, where are my manners? My name is Satan, the ruler of this part of hell. But you must already know that." He said with a bow.
" I think it's your turn to introduce yourself." Satan said in a mocking tone. Keeping silent, Anakin attempted to use a mind probe on him. But when that had no effect, he raised his arm up and attempted to force choke him. For a few seconds, Satan initially felt the effects and brought a hand up to his neck, but in time the effects dissipated. While this caused Anakin to be mildly confused, Satan merely laughed at his attempt." Such power with such proficiency, especially for a Sinner. But your powers wont work on me."
" But right now I want to ask you a question. Why did Lucifer send you here?" Satan's tone changed to a more serious one with a small scowl on his face. Of course Anakin had no idea what he was talking about, so he let him continue his monologue. " It's very unusual for a Sinner to travel between rings. And if I recall, the only way I see them passing through the rings is if Lucifer personally sends them. And that is very, very rare. Even for his most loyal followers. So tell me, what does he hope to gain?"
"You have something I want." Anakin said while crossing his arms. ignoring his questions. Satan's only response to this was a growl in annoyance.
Anakin then noticed a small glint in the top right corner of the room. And after closer inspection, he saw that it was a camera. An idea formed in Anakin's head, but waited until he had the perfect moment to execute it.
"I can only assume it's this?" Satan said, while holding up his pendant." If so, why should I give it to you?"
"If you do, maybe I'll let you live."
"You're funny. You really think you can just break into my home, kill my men , and still demand from me, the ruler of this realm?!. "Satan said with a raised voice. "You must be pretty stupid to think you have a chance against me. "
" I think I'll fare against you quite well. After all, I still have to test this form….. fully." Anakin goaded Satan.
When Satan heard this, he thought ' Test? Did he recently die?' before finally asking a question he's been holding onto. " Who are you?"
With a head tilt and an almost mocking tone, "Me? Unafraid" taking a short pause, " of you." Anakin felt the anger radiating off of him.
" You know what? It's been a while since I yearned for a good fight. So let's see if you can live up to your words." Right before he lunged right at Anakin.
In a security room, two imps were watching what was happening in the throne room. If you could call it watching, when the two fighters were moving at such preternatural speed that they looked like blurs in their eyes. The only moments when they could actually see them normally is when they were contesting in craters formed in their battle.
The Imps watched the feed with bewildered eyes, until one of them(Let's call them Imp #1 and the other Imp #2 for now) spoke up." Should we report this?"
"To who?" Imp #2 replied, with neither of their eyes leaving the screen.
"Lord Lucifer seems to be the only option I guess."
" Let's do that later. I wanna see what happens."
" Then get the popcorn will ya? And who do you get your bet on?"
" The new guy's got skill, with what we're seeing right now." Imp #2 said while standing in front of a microwave, " But I don't think he can make it for long. No one's ever beaten Lord Satan. " while they inserted a popcorn bag, setting a timer, and closing it right before they went back to their seat.
Two blades locked with one another, one being made of pure dark side energy, while the other a red broadsword etched with black markings. While Satan fought aggressively, always on the offence, Anakin appropriately used a Soresu form to counter it so he could determine how he should act.
While it looked like Satan may have had the upper hand, using his height and weight to push Anakin to the ground, Anakin's durability to hold himself in place impressed Satan." I must say, not that many have lasted this long. You have certainly gained my respect just by even daring to stand up to me , even though you're a Sinner. " So Satan decided to change his tactic.
Right then and there Anakin felt something wrap on his leg, but before he could fully react and see what it was, he was thrown across the room and into a wall. While that immobilised Anakin for a short moment, Satan rushed at him and brought his blade up to deliver the final blow. But Anakin was able to get back up and block the strike.
When Satan attempted to do the same thing again, using his tail, Anakin saw this coming and quickly reacted by letting himself drop to the floor. Right before he touched the ground, he spun in the air and slashed at the tail and legs, cutting the former off but only grazing the latter. This caused Satan to shout in pain and left him wide open to attack, so Anakin took this opportunity to use the force to push himself back up while simultaneously landing a kick to Satan's face. When gravity started to pull Anakin down, he positioned his blade right above one of Satan's horns and slashed downward, cutting it off which also caused him to drop his broadsword.
Once he landed back into the ground behind his opponent, and without even taking a moment to rest, swiftly did a back kick. But Satan, equally as fast, grabbed onto his leg and threw him to the ground. He then proceeded to pummel Anakin into the ground with such strength that he was making the crater deeper with each strike.
While the first couple of strikes staggered Anakin, he was able to focus his pain and pull the throne towards him, and smashed it right into the back of Satan. This created an opening, so he used it by forming two sabres in his hands right before plunging them into the sides of his enemy. He then brought his knees towards his chest, and amped with the force, kicked Satan right in his… Crotch.
This caused Satan to fly backwards and crash into a wall. While Anakin stayed in his spot for a moment to regain some of his composure, he could also see that when Satan pulled out the sabres out of him, he could see his wounds starting to heal.
'Interesting,' He thought, while an idea came to he jumped out of the crater, he rushed to Satan with no weapon in hand as he opted for a more…. hands on approach.
When he was in striking range, he lunged at him and delivered a punch to the right side of his abdomen, where the wound was. Using his free hand, he grabbed onto the remaining horn to pull himself up, where he kneed Satan in his jaw, knocking a few teeth out. This also left Anakin open for attack, so Satan swirly grabbed him with both his hands, then smashed him into the ground, right before pummeling him back again but far faster than before.
Luckily Anakin was able to grapple one of his hands and used it as a ledge to pull himself up, narrowly missing another strike. He then pushed himself off it and, in one fluid motion, landed a kick to Satan's head. This created some distance between the two, but Anakin wasted no time and rushed at him again.
Satan, dazed from the barrage of attacks, saw Anakin rushing at him again. So he attempted to bring his arms up to block the incoming attack. But Anakin, almost as if he wasn't just now being pummelled into the ground, flipped over him and landed a kick at the back of his head. Satan was already tired from the previous attacks but the final kick left him in near exhaustion, and probably with some brain damage, then promptly fell over.
In a last ditch attempt, he tried to get up but failed to notice Anakin right behind him. And when he was able to get onto one of his knees, he was pushed back into the ground face first. When he attempted to get up again, a foot was brought down on his back, preventing him from getting up. He then heard Anakin whisper to him, right next to his ear.
" I have faced enemies far stronger than you. Compared to them, you are just a mere ant. But when compared to me, you are nothing. The only reason you're alive right now, is because I want to send a message. " Right then, he felt a force on his leg right before he heard it snap. He shouted in pain, and Anakin slammed his face into the ground again to shut him up." I can easily end your life right now. Explode your heart," He felt a pain in his chest, like something crushing….. his heart, " rip out your eyes" he felt his eyes being pushed out of it's sockets " without even using my hands. That's how insignificant you are. But I won't give you the pleasure of death. I want you to feel humiliated, broken down, by a 'sinner'. But don't worry, I'll make sure no one will know about that last part. But that camera right there will make sure of the other points ."
Right then he felt all of the forces on him disappear right before being head slammed into the ground once again and finally blacking out.
Anakin stood above his defeated opponent. Blood was splattered all over his cloak, some on his face, but wiped it off before it could dry He kneeled back down and ripped the pendant of its chain and placed it in his palm. When he saw nothing happen, he grabbed the other dagger piece and brought them together. Once they were in proximity, a large flash blinded him, but it subsided quickly and in his hand laid a larger, but not complete, dagger hilt. He pocketed it back into his cloak right before looking back into the camera.
"Send this to everyone ." He said simply, and loud enough that the microphone picked him up. After that he started to walk back to the entrance of the castle. Not seeing anyone else in his path. Many of them already saw what he did, so they decided to keep their lives and hide.
" Yeeeaaahhhh, I think we have to send this in now." Imp #1 said
"To who then? I don't wanna piss him off!" Imp #2 responded with a slightly raised voice, with clear fear in it.
" Let's just send this to Lord Lucifer first, then anonymously send it to Miss Velvet second. She seems to be the best option." #1 said while picking up a nearby phone and dialling a number.
This took soooo looong. Don't know how I feel about the fight scenes as they're not my expertise. But I hope I made it enjoyable.