Chapter 2: Battle of Wills
With a blade sharper than any on Earth pointed directly at his skull and a ferocious demon beast with its super-heated jaws aching to take a chunk out of him, Nova put of a bright smile as his body flew through the blood-soaked air like a rifled bullet shot from a cannon. Beyond the glass in front of him was surely to be certain death, but in that moment all he could think of was cleaning that hideous smile off that Devils face and ending its life immediately after that. Survival was no longer the first thing on his mind nor was the Devil just another being after his and any other humans life, the Devil had become a personal obstacle that Nova needed to overcome, a barrier that stopped him from moving forward, but also a force that drove him to greater heights of strength. The Devil had become his rival, his nemesis, and he was going to kill him.
The two sinisterly smiling beings exchanged one last look before Nova curled up into a ball in the middle of the air as he launched himself through the glass, shattering the entirety of the structure on impact, sending shards of the sharp objects soaring in all directions. Glass quickly sliced through his clothing and skin, tearing his sleeves from his hoodie and creating deep gashes in his forearms and legs, but he completely ignored pain, instead focusing on the katana that was about to pierce his skull. However, moments before the blade reached him, Nova intuitively managed to maneuver himself flat in mid-air, just barely sliding underneath the Devil's bade but still allowing it to cut a deep gash against his chest so he could continue all of his built-up speed, power, and momentum into a kick directly to the Devil's head.
Nova waited till the last moment to extend his feet like he was doing an aerial dropkick, and, in that instant, two steaming hot rubber soles slammed into a metallic jaw with the force of all of Nova's will. The force of the kick crushed the Devil's blackened armored skin, crinkling, chipping, and destroying the Devils protected face in mere instants, but as the rest of the force connected with its body the sword demon was no longer able to stay on its mount. The Devil went rocketing through the air, flying far off its mount, uninterrupted by any concrete obstructions over the Olympic pool, and slamming a massive crater into the bloodied wall with its jaw hanging off its face by a thread of rotten flesh. Once the Devil's body slammed up against the bloodied wall, the sound boomed through the silent room, echoing endlessly of the walls while its body was stuck in the center of the crater of spider webs.
Nova's body continued to fly through the air, only coming to a stop after skipping across the water once and splashing into the deepest end of the massive blood red pool. He hit the water hard. All the sweet air and blissful energy that filled him before quickly dissipated from his body, however, he managed to stay conscious even amongst the pain that was brought back to his nerves, so with all the strength he could muster, he swam through the corpses of those that had already passed on to the surface. As he broke through the water tension, he took a large breath of blood scented air before immediately looking around for the Devil to see if he was out of commission while also looking for the Behemoth to ensure his own temporary safety.
What he saw was his former enemy plastered up against the wall, seemingly unconscious, and directly next to the Devil was the dragon-wolf, working to wake its master from the Devil's stupor. The current situation created a few different thoughts in Nova's mind as he slowly began swimming through the floating corpses towards the pool's wall closest to the parking garage. "Since the beast is sitting right next to the Devil, and I'm not in any condition for a fight, I can't kill either of them now which is unfortunate, but at the same time since their out of the picture for now I can easily escape." Quickly recalling the events that just passed, he thought, "I learned a lot from this and plus it looks like I got some new power of some kind that lets me enhance my own body, run faster, hit harder, and sense a helluva lot more shit. And I leaned that I could hurt and kill the Devil so if I give this ability a bit of practice and heal up, the next time we meet it'll be on more equal terms."
He finished those first thoughts as he reached the water's edge, painfully pulling himself up out of the water with all the strength and quiet he could manage, the entire time he kept his eyes on the Behemoth that was eyeing him down with every movement. As Nova sat up from the water's edge, the beast took a single step forward to follow him, but Nova stood his own ground, scarring the dragon into submission, or so it seemed. As the man slowly back his way through the open entrance to the garage, he made sure that his eyes never left the Beast and the crater, backing them both down with his sight lone. "I kinda wish the Devilman dropped its sword when I kicked them, it would've been very useful to get an OP weapon like that at the start." As he finished that thought, Nova swiftly backed away out of the pool area, stepping over numerous corpses as he entered the parking garage, but with eye contact being broken with the Dragon-Wolf, the beast quickly made to follow him.
The instant Nova backed into the parking garage, the first thing he noticed was the unbearable stench that suffocated his lungs even more than the scent of blood that he had become used to. His nostrils were overfilled with the stench of gasoline and when he turned to face the rest of the garage he understood why, it seemed as if everyone who managed to somehow escape the original horde of Demons got into a car accident on the way out. Vehicles were flipped on there sides, gas filled the ground in thick puddles that flowed from car to car, tank to tank. He virtually couldn't take a single step in the garage without having his shoes drenched in spilled gasoline and he quickly understood exactly what that meant. "This place is an accident waiting to happen! It's a miracle that none of these cars sparked up already and blew this place to high heaven, and this floor is oddly lacking in air flow, so a single spark could end everything! I gotta hurry up and get the fuck outa here!"
Even in his injured state Nova was able to pick up his pace, jogging his way to the quickest exit out of the ticking time bomb, but then he heard the sounds of bones being crushed and flesh squelching, and he immediately recognized what the noise was coming from. Nova immediately turned around and forced all of what was left in his will into his throat and eyes, in that same moment the flaming hot Behemoth turned the corning, making its presence more than clear. Nova immediately starred the beast down and barked out a demonic, "Fuck Off! If this fucker drools on the floor or stands in this garage for long enough then this bitch will explode!" Nova's roar struck fear into the heart of the beast, and it didn't take a single step forward, instead it actually lowered its head in fear and backed way slightly. Everything looked to be clear, but unfortunately the intelligent man had miscalculated slightly and as the Behemoth lowered its head, its jaws opened ever so slightly, and the instant the red-hot steam exited the Dragons mouth and flowed into the garage, it was all over. "You gotta be fuckin kidding m-"
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Earth. The bright blue orb of life that held the mass of the knowledgeable humans inside of its warm bosom continued its revolution, showing it's gorgeous face unto the Sun yet again. With the face of the Sun came its direct gaze of loving warmth that was sure to bring joy to the Earth's inhabitants yet again, bringing sunlight to those formerly in the darkness, and bringing them one step closer towards the future. Among these incredibly knowledgeable inhabitants, only one had truly taken a leap towards his destiny and today would be the day that he would reach the checkpoint. The glowing sun rose over the horizon, greeting the Earth's superpowered savior the same way it always did and would no longer, shinning it's blinding light into the rapidly shifting eyes of this conscious man. The Sun's rays shot expeditiously through the blinds of the powerhouse's apartment, filling the room with its bright presence, and revealing the state of ware that he lived in, but would no longer. However, the rise-and-shine properties of the Sun's gaze were ineffective on this driven individual, allowing the Sun to rest easy as Nova was ready to do was he was called to accomplish.
Beeeeeeeep
"I'm going to rip the head off of that dumbass fucking mount and Imma slice the Devil in half!" Nova suddenly leaped out of his bed, not even taking a moment to feel the sleep that he had the night before. He was wide awake without a single ounce of fatigue in his muscles, eyes, or even mind, and as he walked over to stop the beeping of his phone, he accidentally crushed it after using too much strength with his single finger. For a moment he was a bit salty about it, figuring he couldn't send Jess the money anymore, but then he just shrugged his shoulders thinking that he'd find another way. As he walked to the bathroom, he slid off his underwear and entered the small room completely naked, taking the time to view his body in its entirety before leaving to kill the Devil and his pet. Once he reached the mirror, he suddenly asked, "who the fuck are you? No, your definitely me, but goddamn I kinda look good" he said to himself.
Continuing his examination, he noticed that his skin was perfect without a single marking, his hair had grown extremely long seemingly overnight, and his body was… well… chiseled would be an extreme understatement, even to say that every single muscle had been perfectly sculpted by a master would be a sever understatement. He was extremely lean without having seemingly any fat in his body, but the entirety of his form was pure athletic perfection, it looked as if a higher power had chosen Nova and built each and muscle individually and enhanced everything far beyond human ability to create the most optimal, powerful, and efficient human on Earth. As he looked at his own form in the mirror, it seemed as if the Devil himself didn't have even half the body of the man in the mirror, and that thought made him smile, but smiling was a mistake since he caught himself off guard with how immensely bright white his teeth were.
However, he continued his morning routine, albeit much faster than before, brushing his teeth, showering, and further analyzing his bodily changes in that shower. As he felt around his arms and legs, he noticed that all of his muscle were ridiculously tough, but the wildest change was the sickly-sweet scent and taste that he inhaled with every breath. It felt amazing just to breathe in this sultry air and he felt as the blissful breaths fill every ounce of his body with vitality, but even his breathes were no longer the same. He inhaled insanely slow, but his lungs always felt like they were filled comfortably with air. It was a very weird, but welcomed, sensation. His heart beated slowly, but strongly, pumping invigorated blood throughout his body, providing each and every cell with supernatural energy that Nova identified as his will. As he steadily breathed inwardly, the sweet, scented air flowed into his core condensing itself then expanding into every muscle fiber in every muscle group, strengthening them far beyond what is humanly possible. After his quick shower, he hopped out and dried off, heading into his room to clothe himself to head to his school building determined to ensure the safety of a chosen few individuals, all the while he thought of a plan to kill his opponents.
Before leaving his apartment, he grabbed his usual school bag and emptied out all the things he determined that he didn't need and started filling it with items he deemed more necessary. First, he went into the small kitchen and rummaged through drawers to collect all the kitchen knives, metallic silverware, and other sharp objects he felt he could use. Then he went back into his room and opened the bottom drawer of his dresser to find exactly what he was looking for. In the bottom drawer, dubbed the 'junk drawer', there were 6 multicolored lighters that Nova scooped up and added to his bag of random assorted items. Once he finished with all of that, he took a single look around the room before saying a small goodbye to his apartment, heading out into the Sun to finish a job that he had recently started.
The Sun energized her favorite human as he stepped out of his apartment and watched over him lovingly as he speeds walked down the road towards the building where he used to go to school. As he walked, all around him, people were stopping their group talks and turning to stare at the beautiful man that walked through the campus, awestruck magnificent form. He ignored the looks that he was receiving and walked confidently up to the memorial desk that had numerous flowers and pictures of the professor that had passed away, and as he approached the desk he watched as Jessica and her friends stared deeply into his enamoring eyes. "So, what are you guys doing over here? Are you raising money for something?"
"Huh?" Jessica responded, her cheeks began to slowly redden as the gorgeous man that stood in front of her looked at her even though he was addressing the entire group, and her friends quickly pushed Jess forward whispering for her to talk to him. "Oh! Uhm, yeah! Right, sorry about that! So, uhhh, h-hi my name is Jessica its nice to meet you" Jess stammered out with flush cheeks.
"Nice to meet you Jessica, my name is Nova" he responded with a smile.
"It's really nice to meet you Nova, I really like that name! Oh right, back to what we are doing. So, like, me and my friends are collecting donations from people to help fund a funeral for one of the Professors that passed away this weekend. It's a bit complicated as to why all this is going down, but if you really wanna hear about it I can let you know, but if you can't donate its really ok!"
"I really would love to help, but I don't have any cash on me and my phone kinda broke this morning, but I still really wanna help. The only thing I can really do to help is let you know that the best place to collect donations right now really isn't the front of the building, a lot of students are in classes right now and this isn't really the biggest commercial part of campus, so you won't get too much traction. I'd recommend going to the library actually, you know in the east hall, apparently a lot of classes are meeting their toady and I'm sure the students and teachers would be willing to donate to the cause."
Jess's face lit up in excitement and she got into Nova's personal space as she yelled, "really?!"
"Yeah, for sure" he said backing up slightly.
"Oh my god, thank you so, so, so, so much! Actually, can I give you my number or something, so we can like get coffee or see a movie or whatever, wait I forgot you broke your phone. Sorry, I've been told I'm kind of a ditz, but thank you so much anyway!"
"No problem, glad to help out, and if I ever see you again, I'd be happy to hang out at some point. I'll see you later jess" Nova said as he swiftly walked away from the group, not taking notice at the excessive giggling, and entered into the building, quickly flashing his ID before heading straight up to his classroom. He continued his way towards his classroom, climbing the steps up to the seventh floor, all while ignoring the various comments like 'Omg who is he,' and 'He's so hot.' Once he reached room 717, he noticed that the professor was walking down the hallway as well, so he turned his attention to the man and spoke, "I was kinda an asshole yesterday, telling the whole class that they were all gonna die and everything, maybe I can try saving them as well. Good morning professor."
"Good morning to you as well Mister…. sorry young man, it appears that your name is leaving me, I guess age is really catching up quite fast isn't it" he said with a hearty chuckle that his student reciprocated.
"Oh yeah, my name is Nova Pollux, I kinda sit in the back of the room and don't say much if anything, so I didn't really think that you knew my name or anything like that" Nova said with a smile, extending his arm in a handshake that the professor shook in return.
"Well, this seems pretty out of the ordinary for you then Mr. Pollux, do you mind me asking what made you want to break out of your shell a little bit and talk with me directly?"
Nova scratched his neck sheepishly and then said, "well, actually I wanted to ask if we might be able to move class to the library today, the reason being that there were some girls outside in the heat trying to raise money for a former professors funeral and they couldn't take the heat, so they needed to move to the library instead. I think it'd be nice if our classes and maybe a few others to head to the library to up the possible donation amounts since there would more of us in there, but if that wouldn't work out with the lesson plan that you have set up then I understand."
As the Professor finished listening to his students request, a warm smile grew across his lips and he said, "I'd think that would be a phenomenal idea. I had known those young ladies were going to do something after they asked me for picture frames of my wife, but I didn't think that they'd go as far as to help with the financing. Thank you so much for letting me know, I'll make a quick PSA to all the classes to see whether or not they will join us as well!"
"Of course, I'm glad I could help! I'll meet the class down in the library, I said that I'd be seeing Jessica again if I managed to see this through" the student responded with a smile.
"Alrighty then, I'll try my best not to arrive to late and I'll see you again soon Mr. Nova, you have truly earned my respects" the professor said, stretching out his arm again to allow them to shake once more, this time in a much firmer manner. "Thanks again young man" he said, patting Nova on his shoulder as he entered the classroom.
The exchange left a bit of warmness in his heart, and he internally thanked himself for deciding to come all the way back to the classroom to attempt to save his former classmates before facing off against the Devil once more, but there was soon not much time to waste, so he ran down the steps from where he came and exiting the building to see that Jess and her friends had finished uprooting their setup from the outdoors. Seeing as both of those events were cleared, he then jogged his way towards the Flash Center with a clear blue sky above him, and once he reached the main Street crosswalk the sky remained clear signifying to him that he had more than enough time to complete what he came to do.
Sprinting his way up to the top floor of the building, Nova hardened his will with each step he took and focusing on manipulating the energy across his body, and once he completed his battle preparations, he felt confident in his ability to take on the Devil himself. As he completed his trek to the top of the building, he looked up to admire the no longer blue sky as he kissed goodbye to the Sun that had treated him so well on this fateful day. The various fractures, cracks, and fissures along the sky opened up slightly like portals, allowing red light to seep in, turning the sky fully red as if a filter had gone over the Sun's rays themselves. The fear inducing sky distortions continued their transformations and the fractures portals grew open like mouths with pitch black outlines that only helped to darken the already nightly red Earth, and one large portal like mouth opened to reveal a blood red, tar-like ooze glopping off the massive crack like the buildup of water off a leaf.
The massive pool of 'Blood' hit the concrete with a hard thud, yet it didn't splash at all, instead it instantly took up a mass of space as it spread itself across the roof of the parking garage. Out of this dreaded 'liquid' crawled a beast none like anything any human, except Nova, had ever seen. Its paws had three long, dagger shaped claws that dug into the concrete, helping it heave itself from the depths that it came from. Across the surface of the beast were black, metallic scales harder than iron that boasted impenetrable defenses, and as it continued to pull its way to the surface, its fangy maw began showing its terrifying form. The beast had the massive head of a dragon, with all sorts of bone like appendages protruding from its form, the most noticeable of which were two long, demonic horns that sat atop its dragon like head right above its fiery red eyes. To back up the impenetrable defense, the beast had almost never-ending rows of teeth sharper than any man-made blade, and tougher than any steel. Forcing its way out of the pit through sheer force were its two powerful back legs that were angled to perfection; the angle allowing the dragon-wolf to accelerate on a dime, but also change directions at incredible speeds. The long spiny tail, packed full of muscle, swayed maniacally back and forth showing just how blood hungry this beast was when it came to hunting down its prey. Simply by standing, its body radiate infernal heat through vent like structures located in between large dark grey scales placed down its neck and underbelly. With its two reptilian eyes glowing like a raging crimson inferno, and its towering size of ten feet (three meters) at shoulder length, there was only one name that this monster could be identified by. Behemoth.
As if hearing its name be called, the atrocity let gape its gargantuan maw forcing out a deafening roar that simultaneously shook and heated the very building it was standing on, spreading its radiating aura across the entire battlefield. However, on its back, sitting tall, was the most powerful being ever seen on this planet and the only other being that came close was the man that stood across from it. By aura alone its malicious existence could kill millions. This beings presence was so strong that even an average person could easily feel it before even laying eyes on its horrifying figure. This Demon's body was perfectly sculpted to accentuate every muscle fiber needed to destroy any enemy and was only topped by the optimized human that stood before him, but even so the Demons combat prowess spoke loudly in its figure alone.
Fused together with its masculine form was armor harder than any metal from the Earth and the Demon wore it as its skin, inseparable from itself in every way. Gripped tightly, and quite possibly fused to, his hand was a long, curved blade, with the appearance of a katana, that seemed to be forged from the very concept of malice and bloodshed themselves. Around its armored body were spiked protrusion meant to intimidate anyone that stood in his path, declaring victory before that battle had even been fought and it had been clear that this being had never experience a loss in the entirety of its existence. The Demons head was bulbus and inhumane, its 'hair' was made up of metallic strands that were slicked to the back of its hardened skull and was terrifyingly connected directly to its eye sockets that were completely void of all light. Below those vacant holes meant for eyes was the single most defining part of this demonic being. Its smile. It was the most putrid, vile, atrocious thing ever seen and it decorated its face without lips or context, always smiling as if it had seen the horrid deeds that it would and did commit at all times. The Demons demented smile, spoke of maniacal misdeeds, atrocious atrocities, and maleficent massacres, and it was this smile that truly created the being only known as The Devil.
"The first to arrive and directly on top of the parking garage, I wonder if it follows me around or just naturally spawns here, I guess that's not important since I'll be ending it here. Honestly, I never expected the Devil himself to come looking for me and a really never thought that I'd have a chance to kill the fucker to get my revenge, but I guess I'm just lucky or somethin." As the Devil's voided eye sockets locked on to Nova's vibrant eyes, they both immediately prepared for the fight of their lives. The Devil gripped the sword that was fused to its hand even tighter and Nova could feel as his heart started to beat rapidly, forcing the reinvigorated blood through his entire body to enhance his already superhuman abilities. He could feel his senses heightening to the absolute limit, sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, and an unknown sixth sense went into battle mode, and because of these enhancements time seemed to slow to a crawl as the Devil and his target zoned in on one another. Unbeknownst to him, Nova's eyes became filled with glowing Pink light as he rapidly focused harder and harder on the enemy that crawled up from the abyss. Nova slowly crouched down into a track stance, pushing his fingers into the concrete floor and crushing the ground below him with his feet, and with his eyes never leaving his target, the two parties stood still, waiting for any signal of an attack.
Nova's body began shacking uncontrollably in his stance, rumbling the concrete beneath him and energizing his body even further than he had before. Was he nervous? No. All the energy and will that Nova had been building up in his stance was creating an intense overload of power that needed to be release, but the man held the will in his muscle for as long as he could before releasing it. He waited and waited and waited, but the moment he saw the Behemoth flinch slightly all of the will that had been compiled in his body was released in an instant, crushing the concrete beneath him. He flew like a bullet through the air, quickly shifting his body to cock his fist back, and watched as he was upon his target in what felt like an instant. The beast couldn't react to Nova's insane movement speed, so it was forced to take the full force of the man's attack as the man cocked his fist back and shot it forwards directly on the Behemoth's nozzle.
The beast's legs were forcefully lifted off the ground and his body quickly went air born, speeding through the red sky landing harshly on a formerly large truck at the far end of the roof top. The speeding mass met the vehicle with a resounding crash of bending metal and shattering glass, crushing the truck into a pancake and leaving the Behemoth out of commission. Nova had no time to relish at his handy work, since he was almost immediately forced to dodge the blade that was swung down in a vertical slash threatening to cut his body in two. As he swiftly dodged back with a quick step, he rushed back in for a counter punch to the Devils face, only for his fist to be met with a hard metallic clang and unflinching demon. His fist connected with its target, but it had no effect what-so-ever. Quickly realizing his mistake, he jumped backwards to create some space between the two of them, moving before the Devil was able to punish him for his mistake.
"Shit. I gotta actively divert this energy into my arms and hands if I want to do any damage to him, but that leaves me open to a counter while my speed is lowered. I don't really know how many cuts I can take from that sword either." His mind moved rapidly, coming up with multiple different strategies in seemingly an instant, but nothing his mind could come up with seemed adequate enough to ensure his own survival and the defeat of the Devil. "Fuck it. New plan. Dodge, counter strike, and don't get hit. Simply put, don't die." With his new strategy formed, Nova rushed the energy back down to his feet and shot forward once more, crushing the concrete beneath him. Midair, he redirected the energy up from his feet into the muscles in his right arm and hand, reinforcing and powering up the appendage for his strike. The Devil was unable to react in time to his target's insane movement speed and he was swiftly punished for his lack of ability with a hard punch directly to his gut. As the hit connected, his armored skin gave way to the fist, cracking under its heavy pressure.
The attack was strong, but not strong enough to move the Devils firm Stance, allowing the Demon to quickly retaliate with a horizontal slash to his opponents waist. Nova, seeing the attack rapidly approach, made to dodge by leaping backwards out of the range of the swing, however he wasn't quick enough. The sword, aiming to bisect Nova at the waist, cut shallowly into his abdomen, splitting his clothing and letting free hot crimson blood from the wound. Ignoring the pain, Nova stepped forward into his opponent's guard and attempted to deliver a devastating punch to the Devils face in retaliation, so Nova then accumulated even more power into his punching arm and struck at the Devil. However, the Devil easily ducked the slow, but powerful, fist causing Nova to fully overextended his attack. The Devil, taking full advantage of the extension, dipped his blade low and then raised his sword upwards with lighting speed aiming to sever his opponent's arm from his body.
Seeing no escape from taking damage, Nova leaned forward into the attack, allowing the blade to insert itself deeply into his abdomen, directly above his pelvis, the sword then rose slicing easily through muscle tissue, making its exit through its targets right shoulder. Blood erupted from the gash as intense, agonizing pain radiated through Nova's body. His brain suddenly froze, unable to think of anything but the pain that made its course through the massive wound and spread through his entire chest, but he quickly recognized that he was still in a deathmatch with the Devil. Nova racked his brain back to consciousness and rolled desperately away from the demon, gripping his gash as he took a quick breather. He stood fast, eyes rapidly moving to see if his enemy had made any sudden movements, but the Devil still stood tall waiting for Nova's next move.
The Devil was confident, not pressing its advantageous state on its opponent, instead standing and waiting for Nova to force the being to exert more energy than the demon had, but our hero was still attempting to collect himself over the agonizing gash. "FUCK! It hurts so fucking bad!" He screamed in his head, taking in a deep breath of the sweet air to calm himself down and do to his mental fortitude, he began being able to talk himself through his predicament. "Calm the fuck down" he breathed deeply again. "This guy has nothing on us. When we're at max speed he can't touch us, and when we're at max strength his armor crumbles under our fist. We can do this" he spoke to himself, dropping his now bloodied hand from holding his gash and propping himself upright, staring down the Devil who refused to move or wipe the smirk from its rotting face. "I can do this." He spoke calmly to himself, raising his mental game immensely and bringing himself back into the fight.
With his renewed mental state of immense focus and painlessness, Nova began to do the unthinkable. Slowly, monotonously, and with all the calm in the world, Nova began walking forward, leisurely, towards the fully equipped Demon. Step by step he closed the distance between himself and the Devil, knowingly stopping just short of the katana's range. The Devil's sinister smirk widened as he poised his blade vertically in a striking stance, daring the target to enter the deathly range. Nova, with a cold, straight face staring beams into the hollowed husks of the Devils eye sockets, took a single slow step forward, placing the tip of his toe within the Demon's range. Before, his foot could even reach the ground, the Devil swung down with all its strength onto the man, hoping to end his life right then and there. Instead, with the utmost finesse, Nova's body moved almost instinctively to the left, just shy of the Devils slash. He then dipped low, bawling his left hand into a strong fist, and slammed it in an uppercut motion into the Devil's gut.
The demon was immediately lifted off the ground due to the immense force of the impact, gaping his lipless mouth wide open, and forcing a steaming black substance to rise from the depths of its core to leak from its open mouth. The battle-hardened Devil quickly regained its composure, swinging downwardly, again, at his target with a quick diagonal strike. Nova fluidly leaned into the swings arc, dodging the strike and closing the gap in between the two of them in the same motion, and with, seemingly, all the time in the world he charged his right fist fully of will and sent it forward. The speeding, full powered strike rocketed in a strong right hook on the Devils side, devastating the armor and flesh beneath the blow.
The Devil reeled in pain that it hadn't felt in an eternity and at the same time its eye sockets lit red with rage, and the Demon began swinging wildly at its opponent, but with each uncalculated swing, Nova effortlessly counter back with various hooks, jabs and uppercuts, chipping away at the Devils immense vitality. With every dodge Nova breathed deeply, with every exhale he threw a powerful counter, and with every hit his euphoria grew. That same sensation that filled his body in his previous life came back in full force during this fight, but something about it was different, and he knew exactly what it was. He was in complete control. Every heartbeat, every enhancement, every sensation, and every muscle twitch were done by his own doing, fully orchestrating his own body to the highest of skill levels. Sidestep into right hook, step back into a right jab left-hook combo, duck low instantly followed with a right uppercut. The fight for his life was beginning to unfold itself before him like a movie, a movie that he was directing.
The Devil telegraphed all of its attacks to him and Nova read the demon like an open book, so he easily saw its next move before it even occurred, and his body would seemingly automatically calculate, and then execute, the punish with horrifying accuracy. The Devil suddenly wizened up from its rage only after taking substantial damage from the barrage of strikes from its opponent, plotting a devastatingly quick faint into a piercing strike aimed at the human's heart which would inevitably be the end of its enemy's life. Unfortunately for the Devil, to Nova, the Demon's metallic black body was an open book, and he was fan of reading. Nova easily saw through the faint before it even came, and he immediately charged every last bit of energy into his right fist. While the faint came and went, the Devil attempted to follow with the pierce, but with the strike coming, Nova rammed his fist into the Devils ugly smile, tearing the Devil's jaw clean from its bulbous head and rotten face with terrifying speed and power. The punch sent the Devil flying backwards across the concrete, bouncing, and rolling like a skipped stone scarping harshly against the hard stone until its body crashed into the bordering concrete wall on the far side of the parking garage's roof.
"I gotta go over there and make sure that fucker is dead" he thought to himself, prepping his legs to launch over to the slumped Demon and finish the job, but before he was able to fully rocket over to his target, the air surrounding Nova suddenly got super-heated. His entire body was being cooked and the heat was only increasing, but before anything could collide with his body, he managed to react in time to leap from his stance, just barely evading a speeding ball of red-fire that came soaring in from behind him. "What the fuck was that!?" The ball of flames flew by him, just barely missing his flowing hair, and only stopped its insane speed by meeting a large Volkswagen and immediately causing an explosion of massive proportions.
One moment the vehicle was there the next it wasn't. In the cars place was an expansive flaming crater still burning brightly with red and orange flames, and the only thing that managed to not be vaporized on impact were the now molten metals that seeped into the cracks of the infernal crater. "Holy Shit! I cannot let that thing hit me!" Looking in the direction that the death ball came from, he saw the fully recovered Behemoth, its body venting off an insane amount of orange-reddish steam presumably caused by that massive fire ball that had erupted from its depths. Nova turned his attention to the beast, focusing back into his previous state of mind that allowed him complete control over his battle with the Devil. The euphoric energy quickly made its way back into his body, filling each and every cell with his immense will and allowing Nova to feel back in complete control. Once the Behemoth fully let off the excess heat from the fireball, the beast began charging at the human with its jaws wide open, showing off its massive fangs and emanating an insane heat. The attack was obvious, in fact, he needed no energy at all to predict exactly what was going to happen and Nova quickly calculated that a simple leap back out of the beasts' dangerous jaws would put him in a prime spot to put the Behemoth out of commission, permanently.
As the beast quickly approached, Nova prepped his energy for a mammoth killing blow, filling his legs with just enough energy to dodge the strike, but containing the rest in his arms and fists so he could easily kill the dumb beast. However, in that same instant he sensed an extremely dangerous presence appear behind him and, with his expanded senses, he saw the Devil disappear from its slouched position on the crushed barrier, leaving a red streak in its trail. Nova felt the glowing red trail lead directly behind him and he sense the Devil suddenly rearing its ugly, jawless head, placing its long katana in a skillful stabbing motion ready to pierce straight through the Demons opponent's chest. Sensing the extreme danger, immediately stopping his attack and forced his energy into his legs allowing himself to speedily roll out of the way, barely avoiding the massive jaws of the recovered Behemoth and just missing the blade set to pierce his heart.
"Shit They're both back up." He thought as he quickly rolled to a stop in front of the two beings that fell from the sky, taking half of a second to analyze the positions of both powerful individuals. The Behemoth bit a fat chunk of concrete out of the ground, crushing some of the material in its jaws with the rest simply melting from the insane heat. The Devil on the other hand recovered near instantly from his quick attack and was already prepping to dash back at him with the katana poised to strike. Nova's immediate thought was to create space by getting out from in between the two of them, but that thought was quickly stuffed by the sword that came his way; he dodged slightly as he did before to counter the devils wild slash, but the huge claws of the Behemoth came crashing down into him directly after the katana, forcing him to roll away yet again. This began a nasty battle of defense for Nova as he was forced to continuously dodge every single attack that the two threw at him one after another, and the longer this went on, his stamina, that felt limitless before, was quickly beginning to drain.
"I have to get an opportunity to launch one of these fuckers out of play so I can focus one on one again." Biding his time for an opening, the Devil and his mount barreled towards him yet again, but this time something felt off. The Devil was clearly aiming for a large slash that covered lots of space forcing him to jump backwards and it was clearly an easy attack to get out the way of so that wasn't the problem. The issue came the Behemoth, he was charging a full speed, as it always did, towards him, but Nova felt the beast had no intent on attacking. Not having enough time to fully analyze their plan, he simply took the easy route and leaped backwards, easily avoiding the Devils swing. However, as soon as his feet left the ground, a horrifying image befell his eyes and senses. Yet again, silently, a red streak appeared in his line sights and suddenly the Behemoth was no longer in its previous location.
The long red streak trailed from the beast's previous spot in front of Nova, directly through his body, and stopped at its new position; directly behind the airborne human where the beast raised its massive claws prepping for a devastation attack. Even amongst the incoming devastating attack, a single thought managed to reverberate through his mind. "They can both teleport?!" This single thought was the only one that came to mind as the razor-sharp claws dug deep into the flesh of his back, gouging out the blood and meat of his body as they quickly entered and exited his form. The intense attack forced a volcano of blood to erupt from his body, drenching the roof with his crimson bodily fluid as it rained down from the sky. Agonizing pain on an entirely different scale yet again filled his body, crippling his entire body from the intensity of the pulsating sensations, but, mentally, he remained unaffected by pain. His focus stayed completely on the battle that unfolded in front of him as the force from the claw sent him flying forward, skidding harshly across the rough concrete.
Sensing the Devils rapid approach, Nova pushed himself off the ground mid roll, flipping his body back onto its feet in an incredible feat of acrobatics. "Fuck! I need to get away!" Nova was being pressed offensively and needed a moment to escape their ongoing offense, so he didn't have the luxury of time to think of an elaborate plan. The Devil and his mount forced his hand, making him opt for the easiest option of creating space in between him and his oppressors, this may by him enough time to think of an elaborate plan of attack that would leave him victorious. So, as the Devil rapidly approached with its weapon at its side, this time, Nova attempted jumping fully out of the range of both of his enemies, pushing the energy back into his feet and springing high into the air evading the Devils in coming swing, and putting him outside the range of the Behemoths jaws. Or so he thought.
Looking down towards the Earth at the beast as he slowly rose away from the ground, Nova instantly realized he made a major mistake that may cause him his life. The Behemoth opened its massive maw as wide as it could and in the same moment the large spaced out grey scales on the Dragon's underbelly opened wide as they began absorbing all the air and energy they could from the surrounding air. The body of the Behemoth was shroud in a vortex of air currents making the details of its body unrecognizable and at the same time a massive ball of blood red flame quickly formed in its already super-heated jaws, spiraling rapidly as it began to take shape. Even from his spot in the air, Nova still feel the intense inferno radiating off the ball of energy. Once the vortex of blood flame completed its star like form, the infernal scarlet fireball shot out of the Behemoths jaws, speeding forward towards Nova's airborne, defenseless body. All our hero could do was protect his face and core from the infernal heat of the flames and immediately curled up into a fetal position, holding his forearms and shins out in front of himself, protecting his face and body from the incoming attack. Nova then forced all his will into his forearms and shins, enhancing them to the absolute limit before beginning to hope for life.
The flaming, blood red orb of infernal heat flew into Nova's floating body like a bullet train, immediately causing an atomic explosion on impact. The heat of the ball seared his body with horrendous burns, burning through his clothes as it approached, scorching through his skin on contact. As soon as the flaming inferno collided with his defensive form, a force like nothing he had felt before shot hit to the ground like a lightning strike, it felt as if the weight of the Earth had compressed itself into a human sized object and just fell directly on top of him, shattering his bones, tearing his muscles, and crushing his organs all in one instant. The force of the atomic explosion forced his guard open, breaking him from his protective cocoon, and causing him to speed towards the ground with his arms and legs sprawled out like a starfish. His body crashed onto the top of a large SUV, completely flattening the entire vehicle to the point where one might even question if it was a car in the first place, and even underneath the car the thick concrete caved as if a meteorite had crashed down from space, creating large crater where Nova now presides.
Nova's body was completely numb from the fireballs impact. He could no longer feel his hands, arms, legs, body, or even his own face. The clothing outfit that he wore was completely in tatters and it was a true miracle that everything hadn't burned completely into ash. Three long claw marks exposed his bloody back, the Devils sword cut clean off the right side of his hoodie, and his forearms and legs were completely exposed due to the heat of the fireball, and those forearms and legs that were now exposed to the elements were completely burned black and he was honestly surprised that he didn't see/feel bone. The smell of blood, gasoline, and burning flesh laid heavy in the air, as laid there, still, on top of the flattened vehicle, his eyes barely open staring at the sky he now loathed so much.
The gaping mouths of the endless red sky began drooling black ooze, making Nova crack a small smile, but in the moment, tears threatened to run down his bloodied face as he lay in a vegetative state somewhere in between death and comatose, his mind forcing him to stay conscious. If there was ever a time to die, to call it quits, to give up on something better, or even hope for another life after this one it would be right this very moment, but for whatever reason his mind just won't let him quit. Even with his body completely numb, he could still feel his will to fight back, to overcome this challenge, to prove the impossible possible, to become something greater than he was before, to do exactly what he is destined to do.
Inhaling slowly, his body started to wake back up, bringing the feeling of excruciating pain and ache shooting back into his system, the feeling of being slow-roasted over a hell flame was new, but Nova just grit his teeth even harder. The pain was immense and intense, it was pure agony and if anyone else were to experience what he was going through right now, they would more than likely beg for death or just flat out die immediately, but this pain reminded him that he was still alive, and he still had a reason to keep fighting. Nova kept inhaling more and more air with each breath and slowly but surely, that sweet scent was welcomed back into his nostrils, and with every further inhale, energy surged back into his body. The sweet euphoric sensation slowly came back to him as he forced his body to sit back up and face his enemy one final time, giving his all for this final exchange. He brought himself to his knees and began crawling towards the top of the crater. His slow crawl soon turned into a broken walk, but that broken walk quickly faded into the image of an undying warrior who stood tall in the worst of situations.
Nova stood tall in the ditch and step by step, he slowly climbed from depths of the crater to the edge of the hole, and once he reached the peak, he thought deeply for a quick moment. "I've been focusing so much on survival, running from all of my problems for so fucking long. I didn't even bother to take a moment to help someone else who I knew I had the ability to assist. At least this time around I managed to help a few people, but none of that shit matters if I die right now!" He took another step out of the pit, "I'm done running, I'm done doing nothing, I'm done being nothing! I'm going to kill this stupid pooch and then Imma kill that sack of shit, and then Imma hit up that Jessica girl, she seems nice enough I guess" he thought with a small smile, chuckling slightly at his thought.
"Well, maybe not that last thing, but Imma definitely do some shit, maybe I'll help clean up the Earth that is now full of monsters, either way Imma do some legendary, important ass shit." Nova took one last step to rise from the massive crater that he was shot into, staring across the parking garage's rooftop at the Devil and its pet, all with a small smile on his face. "I wonder if I would've decided to keep going if I knew that if would get me here. Stuck in a ditch, covered in blood, burnt like bacon. Heh, probably not, but that doesn't matter now, I guess. What happened happened, and I can't change that shit no more." No longer seeing the need to introspect, Nova opened his mouth and yelled, "aint that right Devilman!" The badly injured Demon and its equally as hurt mount stood still, neither of them reacting with words, but the Devil did slowly draw its katana in an incredibly similar posture that he had seen two times before.
Standing side by side was the Devil and his guard, still in the same location they were in when the hero was shot down from the sky, but even as he rose from the ashes, they didn't look at him, they looked passed him like there was something more important they had to accomplish; looking at Nova the same way a person would look at a single ant crossing their path. However, the Devil then slowly, tauntingly raised the long katana high above its head, pointing directly to the sky, and without a jaw the Demon spoke, "EnO eHt Si eH." The Dragon-Wolf next to the Devil immediately began drooling the liquid metal from its jaws, crouching low preparing to sprint at its target. The Devil then brought his blade down as he pointed directly onto Nova's forehead and declared his command, staking the Demons predetermined victory. "MIH LLIK!" At the Devil's command, the Behemoth charge at Nova, bulldozing his way to him. Running at an unstoppable speed, the beast tossed around vehicles like they were toys, stomping large claw prints into the concrete with every bound. Its jaws opened wider than they had ever been before, showing its impressive collection of bladed teeth, with spear tipped endings to each of them.
As Nova watched the Devil's antics and saw the Behemoth rapidly approaching, the previously calm and content man's emotions suddenly switched on a dime, and his fists clenched, his eyes twitched, and he grit his teeth even harder than they had been when he was bearing the pain. "Are they looking down on me?" He asked no one in particular. "I mean yeah you both got a couple good hits in, but I was fucking destroying the both of you the entire fucking fight!" Nova's fists clenched even tighter, and he took a large step towards the Behemoth that was now rapidly approaching, saying aloud, "it took both of you fuckers ganging up on me to land a solid hit! If we were running fucking ones, then this bullshit would've been over in my second life!" Nova began chuckling maniacally, a sinister smile growing across his lips, rage building at an insanely rapid pace. "You think you have the right to raise that FUCKING sword in the GODMAN air and declare your win and send your little SHITTY mutt at me to do your FUCKING work!" Nova was practically foaming at the mouth, taking more and more steps towards the freight train that is the approaching 'mutt' without caring of the dangers. "I'VE BEEN THROUGH HELL AND HIGH FUCKING WATER TO GET TO WHERE I AM NOW! AND YOU FUCKS ARE LOOKING DOWN ON ME!" Hatred. Pure HATRED began coursing through Nova's veins as he was being belittled, looked down upon by this bulb headed freak that couldn't even off a simple human by his lonesome! The sweet scent and blissful sensation that came with it was completely gone from the air, and in its place was the intense, illogical, overwhelming sensation that forces people far beyond their former strength and leads them to destroy everything that is in their way. Permeating each and every inhale and exhale that built up incomprehensible energy in Nova's body is PURE, VISCERAL, RAGE.
Chapter 3: Hell on Earth
As Nova watched with an enraged mind and balled fists as the Behemoth charged through numerous vehicles and concrete borders to get to him, and with every bound the beast made the previously calm and content man's rage only grew further. Blinded by rage and fueled by hatred, Nova took meaningful determined steps towards the approaching doom, hoping that the beast might meet him with its jaws and forfeit its existence over to him. He didn't have to wait long as the Behemoth and the human met one another a few yards (meters) away from massive crater that Nova had risen from, and the beast wasted no time, immediately diving down on its target with its super-heated jaws wide-open.
As the Behemoths massive jaws opened wide, shooting forward, and completely engulfing Nova's standing form, and in an instant bladed teeth sharper than spears and molten saliva hotter than melting steal, closed with immense strength onto the humans already beaten and bloodied body. It had to be over, the Behemoth completely encapsulated its target in the flaming iron-maiden that was the beast's jaws. The muscles of the Behemoth's powerful maw flexed hard, bulging and pulsing rapidly as they worked to close shut, the beast clenching its jaw with all its might; however, something was keeping the iron-maiden from shutting. The beast's slitted crimson eyes began rapidly twitching around, peering in every which direction as if the answer to its silent question was somewhere to be found in the sky or around the parking lot. But, in truth, the answer the beast was looking for was located within the super-heated, daggered maw of the Behemoth itself. Standing tall, with red and black energy flying off him in waves, was a man like no other. Arms stretched wide, muscles bulging with power, body steaming with heat, and a maniacal grin plastered on his beautiful face was THE Nova Pollux.
With pure strength, Nova had his hands gripped tightly around two massive teeth, one on the bottom jaw the other on the top, in the interior of the beast's flaming maw, holding its jaws wide open, keeping himself from danger. The molten saliva from the beast's mouth dripped and drooled all across his body and the bladed teeth cut deep gashes into each of his hands, but the pain from simple cuts and burns had long since left his body. With an excursion of insane force and power, the enraged super-human yelled, "FUCK OFF!" With the rage induced roar, Nova forced his feet into the concrete below him, crushing the durable material, as he lifted the massive Behemoth over top his head, holding the massive Dragon high in the air with its jaws still opened wide. The Devil's mount stayed suspended in the air for what felt like an eternity as Nova held the animal like a trophy, proof of his immense strength and worth, all the while he stared down the Demon across the parking garage. Nova's piercing glare was an intense message that the Devil received instantly, 'fight me one on one', and with the Devil's warrior pride on the line, the Demon reciprocated the message by putting its katana down to its side and waiting for the human to end the life of its beast.
Once the exchange was completed between Nova and his nemesis, the enraged hero gripped the Behemoth's jaws tight enough to crack its bladed teeth, and then with all the built-up power and energy that had weld up inside his body, Nova slammed the Dragon=Wolf beast down into the crater that he just risen from, shattering every scale on its body on impact! The already crushed and hardened concrete instantly buckled under the mighty force, shattering the entire crater, and quickly giving way for the Behemoth to fall through to the floor below the roof. However, Nova held on tightly to the beasts jaws, lifting the Dragon into the air once more, and slamming the Behemoth atop a line of parked vehicles, crushing the cars, and forming another crater, creating a stone coffin for the beast to finally die in.
The Behemoths body was a mess of broken scales leaking black blood, broken horns, snapped claws, and shattered bones. Its breath slowed to a crawl and steam no longer blew from its maw with each exhale, and the hell spawn laid barely clinging onto life, in wait to reach the afterlife. Luckily for the Behemoth, Nova was feeling merciful enough to ensure that it didn't have to wait for death, and the rage driven man took a step towards the dying beast and took hold of the top and bottom of the beast's massive jaws. After lifting the massive head slightly off the ground, Nova then twisted his arms in a counterclockwise motion with incredible speed, wind kicked up intensely from the rapid motion and the quick action causing the Behemoth's head to twist a full 180 degrees on its axis. The vent scales on its underbelly cracked and shattered releasing a fume of orange steam that engulfed the area in its heat, black steaming blood erupted from every exposed orifice on its neck, and this dastardly act caused the Behemoths neck to snap with a sickening crunch, instantly ending its life. "Fuck you" the man spat out at the corpse of the formerly powerful beast, unceremoniously kicking the dead body in anger before opening its jaws.
After killing the animal that toasted him alive with a brutal neck snap, he entered the corpses now open jaws yet again, this time looking for something specific, and once he found what he was looking for, he grabbed hold of both objects strongly with both hands. Nova then tore two large, hard, and sharp fangs from the Behemoths enflamed carcass, ignoring the shooting black blood that sprayed out after his action. Once he acquired his new weapons, Nova leaped out the concrete coffin, landing angrily in front of his nemesis, with the dagger like fangs in each of hands. As he stared at the Devil across the parking garage, the veil of rage began growing into a calamity of clashing dark reds and powerful blacks, and Nova's bright red eyes stared holes straight through the Devil. Feeling the weight of his enemy's bloodlust, the Devil shifted his stance from one of comfortability, into another poised to kill, and the battle between the two demons was about to end.
The two gazed at each other, standing perfectly still for a quick moment, before Nova launched forward with an angered roar, booming his voice across the campus, as his body began absorbing the aura around him and converting it to rage energy, he used to fuel his next strike. With his newly acquired rage-based energy, Nova dashed directly into the Devil's slashing range without care. The Devil wasted no time, instantly cut downwardly in a lightning-fast strike, planning on ending this fight with a decisive first, and fatal, blood. However, the Devil's sword clanged loudly against a metallic dagger, as the katana was parried upwardly with unrivaled strength by Nova's fang as he swung upwardly with his newly acquired weapon. Immediately following the parry, the Demon was attacked by a second fang that rapidly approached its vulnerable side in a hook like motion. The left-hand fang, carried by an enraged Nova pierced through the air and stabbed deeply into the Devils right side, causing the jawless demon's rotting face to scream with pain. Feeling searing pain for the first time during this battle, the Devil leaped backwards trying to gain some breathing room from his opponent, but Nova was far too strong and fast. As soon as the Devil jumped back Nova was already in hot pursuit, slashing at him rapidly before he even had a chance to land, attacking relentlessly, swing after swing the Devil barely had time to defend let alone prep a counterattack.
With every hard right swing the Devil defended, an even faster left stab immediately followed, and with every stab he received his strength drained, leaving the demon even more vulnerable to further attacks. The Devil simply couldn't defend against the bombardment of powerful, speedy swings with the blade like teeth, and the situation only continued to worsen for the demon. Slash after slash, some defended better than others, the Devil's wounds become more and more gruesome. The gashes on the Devils body were bleeding black blood profusely and the wounds were only becoming more numerous, and showing through these wounds, was the true form of the Devil. The black armored exterior of the demon was not just fused with its body, it is the Devil's body. The previously mentioned armor was acting as the Devils skin, underneath the skin armor was a conglomerate of black and red muscle that flexed, morphed, and bulged with every movement as the Devil worked to remain alive for moments longer. These exposed flexed muscled suddenly insighted the Devil to attempt a counterattack in hopes of turning the tides of battle, and instead of blocking the thousands of slashes that bombarded its body one after another, the Devil allowed Nova to land a mighty overhead stab that struck the Behemoth fang into its upper shoulder, jabbing deep into the space where its neck connected to its body, a devastating, but non-lethal, blow.
Blood shot from the wound and excruciating pain instantly spread throughout the demon's body, but the Devil ignored the unguarded strike, bringing its long katana across its body rapidly, slicing speedily in a horizontal motion hoping to finally end the Devil's weakened nemesis. However, as quickly as those hopes rose, they died almost instantaneously, as his blade was stopped just short by the second tooth that Nova held firmly with his left hand. Nova face flashed with a maniacal grin as he tore out the tooth that was lodged in the Devil's shoulder and redirected it into an upwards stab that viciously pierce the Devils stomach, but he wasn't done and Nova began dragging the fang upwardly through the Devil's exposed chest, starting to tear the demon's chest wide open. The Devil began panicking as his mind raced for any solution to come out on top, but before anything came to mind, Nova began his preparation for his final strike, and he packed his arm, hand, and the left tooth full of his rage and rose it from its position defending the katana. Nova then swiftly switched his grip on the fang to thrust the blade in an overhand stab, aiming directly for the Devil's forehead and brain. His motion began violently, and his enemy was perfectly in his sights, the dagger sliced through the air with immense speed, and it seemed as though there was nothing that would stop the fang from reaching its destination, however right before the fang could connect with the demon's head, the Devil suddenly disappeared in a red streak.
The Devil opted for an escape using its signature teleportation ability, disappearing from Nova's clutches, and teleporting far away from the enraged man, landing itself a little in front of the Behemoth's lifeless corpse. Nova's body filled to the brim with rage greatly surpassing all the anger he felt before, seeing the Devil disappear from his grasps using the same technique he used to best him multiple times sent the man far over the edge! He refused to let the Devil get away, he refused to allow his nemesis to escape, he refused to let the Devil remain alive. Nova utilized all the strength, power, and speed from his overhead strike, instantly spinning his body around as he continued the momentum of his piercing stab and aimed the long fang towards his relocated target. "Not today You FUCKING BASTARD! DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!" Nova used all of his built-up momentum, energy, will, and rage to launch the fang through the air at an unmeasurable speed, spinning the dagger like a rifled bullet, rocketing the weapon directly at the Devil's head. The Devil managed to widen its eye sockets a nanometer before the rifled fang penetrated deeply into the demon's skull, stabbing directly through its armored skin and the hardened bones beneath it, piercing directly into the mushy flesh that was defended by the layers of armory. The demon's feet flew from underneath it and the Devil's body was launched backwards, soaring through the air, from the immense force of the fang connecting with its body, and landing the dying Devil crashing harshly into the Behemoth's concrete coffin.
Breathing heavily from the exertion, Nova put his hands on his knees as he tried to recover any sort of energy his body provided him before, but it was nowhere near as easy coming as it was previously. His body no longer felt invincible, all the gashes, scorches, and bruises began throbbing in pain yet again as if they had never left. The agony of each wound was tens of times worse than before due to him aggravating them with his ferocious assault and the final attack, but at least it seemed to be over. "It has to be over. No way that bitch can survive all that" was all he managed to think as he began walking over to the, hopefully, corpse of the Devil, but as he took his first sluggish steps, he looked up to see the sky opened up and began raining a tar like substance all over the roof top. The pits quickly pooled up all across the roof of the parking garage, and out of all of these tar pits came, not monstrosities, but numerous red and black orbs that seemed to hover in the air for a moment before gravitating to the coffin that laid to rest the Devil and its beastly companion.
For half a moment the sight confused him, but he quickly realized exactly what was occurring and that revelation shook him into action. "Oh fuck! This can't be happening" he yelled out loud, his walk quickly turning into an injured sprint towards the stone coffin. "I have to hurry up and double tap this bitch before these orbs reach them!!" Nova began sprinting as fast as he could towards the pit that the invisible, glowing orbs were floating towards, but unfortunately it was far too late. A massive shockwave of blood red energy exploded out from the pit, forcing Nova tumbling backwards, rolling across the ground, completely helpless to stop the phenomena that had occurred within the depths of the stone coffin. Nova laid silently on the hard concrete ground as he stared at the pit where the energy bursted from, waiting nervously and with bated breath for something to appear from the coffin, and it didn't take long for another horrifying sight to appear yet again. Out from the pit rose something that Nova had yet to see, the Devil appeared yet again just as beaten, ravished, and bloodied as before, but the demon was riding a top a beast that was clearly not the Behemoth.
This new mount was nowhere near as intimidating or massive as the last, but it looked just as fierce and quite possibly even more hot. The mount appeared to be a wolf that looked as if it was born from the mating of a volcano and the hot magma that flows within it, and from this conception formed a 6-foot-tall (2m) infernal wolf that drooled magma. Instead of fur it hard stones that looked to be coal that covered its body and in between each of these stones showed hot lava that flowed through the rocks like blood through veins. With each step it took, concrete began to melt under its retracted clawed paws and sitting atop its back was a badly injured, near-death Devil. The demon had wounds covering its entire brutally battered, near armor-less body and each of these wounds cried tears of black-blood out of their orifices. Riding up its chest was a fang that had clearly gouged out a mass of flesh that was dangling from its body and the weapon was shoved so deep inside its body that only a small fraction of the tooth could even be seen, and to top all of that off, protruding from its bulbous head was a large, flaming, white-fang that appeared like a horn, making the demon look like a true Devil. The mount and its master stalked slowly up to the laying form of Nova, looking down upon him yet again, and watching him slowly bring himself back to his feet. "He has more pets! How is that even possible. This guy is too damn powerful!" Nova thought as his life seemed to be coming to an end yet again.
"tcepser ym evah uoy taht rof dna ,selbuort fo stol em nevig ylurt evah uoY"As the demon spoke, its mount got closer and closer. "EfIL RuOy PeEk Ot EvReSeD dNa TaBmOc Ni Em DeTsEb EvAh UoY" At this point, Nova was crouched on his knees looking up at the Devil and the flaming wolf, listening closely and intently as the Devil continued to speak. "LeUd RuO eKaSrOf TsUm I nOsAeR tAhT rOf Os ,TpEcCa NaC i GnIhTeMoS ToN sI eRuLiAf ,ReVeWoH" In the distance a loud crash could be heard as The Devil repeated the same motion, he had all those times ago, and as the demon did so, Nova stood confidently on the tips of his toes. Seeing this, the Devil continued with, "!eRoFeB eNoD sAh GnIeB rEhTo On TaHt GnIhTeMoS eNoD eVaH uOy Sa LlAt DnAtS ,tHgIr S'tAhT" With that shout, the demon pointed his sword to the sky and yelled, "!NiS gNiK nOiGeL eHt NeTaEb EvAh Ot EnO EhT eRa UoY" then bringing the katana down heavily to the Earth, landing its tip on the forehead of its victim.
"!hTaEd S'rOiRrAw DnArG a UoY tNaRg WoN lLiW i TcAf SiHt Fo EsUaCeB .eM dEsSeRpMi ...UoY nAmUh CiTeHtAp A rOf ,DnE yReV eHt Ot YlTnAiLaV tHgUoF yLuRt UoY" Time moved to a crawl as the nemeses stared each other down, the Devil with the eyes of a sorrowed victor and Nova with fiery eyes of determination, but this moment of acknowledgement between warriors lasted for only an instant as the Devil ended it all with a simple command. "MIH LLIK!" As soon as the Devil shouted its command, the demon's newest pet opened it flaming jaws, revealing its short sharp teeth and drooling magma that slithered in between its teeth, but before the wolf could eviscerate its target the entire parking garage building that they stood on shook violently with the force of a powerful earthquake. "It's about damn time!"
As soon as Nova saw the wolf's legs buckle slightly from the sudden violent quake he quickly dashed as faster as he could, launching himself off the tips of his feet, and immediately jetted towards the north side of the trembling, 10 story parking garage. The instant the Devil saw Nova move to escape, it immediately ordered the wolf-beast to give chase, but it was far too late as the wolf's legs gave way to the immense vibrations of the collapsing building. The wolf-beast toppled over with the Devil on its back, forcing the demon to watch helplessly as its opponent sprinted as fast as his legs would allow him to towards his safe haven. The massive Olympic sized pool building.
On the bottom floor of the parking garage a cataclysmic chain reaction began as the vehicle closest to the structural pillar closest to the entrance of the Pool building suddenly exploded violently in a ball of flames and burning shrapnel. The flaming heat and rocketing debris flying off the intense explosion ignited the air and caused the vehicle next to it to explode with even more intensity. This duo of immediate chain reactions caused that structural pillar to quickly collapse, destroying one of the structural supports that kept the building standing. Across the entire bottom floor of the garage this chain reaction happened repeatedly and with insane speed, forcing car after car to explode, and pillar after pillar to collapse until the entirety of the bottom floor could no longer support the immense weight of the numerous floors above it. The massive structure rapidly gave way after the pillars on the bottom floor collapsed, and the second floor of the building fell fast, directly onto the first.
On the top floor, The Devil tried to force his mount forward to catch up to his prey that was escaping, but the animal was not fast to its feet, and once it had gained back its footing and started to give chase, it was already too late. With a leap of faith, Nova flew from the roof top, his survival no longer up to him but to the whims of gravity and the forces of Earth as he slowly began his 100 foot (30 meter) descent. The Devil soon realized that killing the enemy was now a lost cause, so the bloodied being quickly tried to find an escape route to allow it to survive, however it was far too late for that as well.
Suddenly the floor beneath was no longer stable and the Devil and the lava wolf, began falling quickly to the floor below them that wasn't even a floor at all since that floor had fallen to the one beneath it as well. Concrete fell heavily on top of various vehicles, crushing cars with insane force and pressure causing them to explode violently, sending even more flaming concrete, metals, and other debris flying around in all directions, which in turn caused even more cars in the full garage to explode with even more violence. These reactions continued happening one after another until they seemed to hit a critical mass, as the entirety of the collapsing building suddenly flare up in explosive flames. The world was still for a moment, before the mass of rupturing concrete turned nuclear and all it took was one last spark for the whole of the toppling building to erupt like a volcano. The former massive parking garage turning into a flaming, active volcano and with the numerous explosions happening simultaneously, a gargantuan atomic like explosion sent debris everywhere at ridiculous velocities and insane temperatures, leveling the structures surrounding it and turning the area into a massive ball of flame. Nova's free falling body was not immune to this reaction, as his body was forcefully ejected forward, sending him soaring through the air from the intense force of the explosion. In defense, he quickly curled up into a ball, protecting himself as much as he could, and in his protective state, he began thinking over his violently explosive plan to send his enemy to high heaven.
As Nova entered the garage, he had plenty of time to get to work; so, he zipped open his bag and grabbed two of the six kitchen knives that he packed inside, and with one in each hand he stalked the floor for his targets. On the base floor of the parking garage, Nova went underneath various cars located in main structural points of the building, mainly the pillars, and cut open the gasoline tanks located in the rear bottom of the vehicles. This was fairly easy since the entire garage was filled to the brim with cars and there were no open spaces for parking, this meant that the garage was essentially closed until any of the current guests left. This left the entire ten floor building was completely barren, giving him more than enough discretion to execute his plan. Not only did he go around slashing gas tanks, being very careful to not let anything spark, he placed his various lighters and remaining kitchen knives and silverware underneath the rear tires on numerous cars that had cut fuel tanks, more specifically the ones near the entrance to pool building got the lighters and the cars further back in the garage got the extra metalware.
After setting up the main event, the smell of gas very quickly filled the entirety of the garage and gave Nova only one more job to complete. Stall for as much time as possible when fighting the demon and his partner, if it's possible to kill it then do so, but if not just ensure that battle last as long as possible. The idea was simple, in his last life after the invasion began and he doubled back to the garage trying to escape, the base floor of the parking garage was a complete wreck, a literal catastrophe waiting to happen. Crashed vehicles, spilled gasoline, and human corpses littered the level, and it was a miracle that none of the cars sparked up in any way or it could've been a huge disaster. Obviously, the Behemoth managed to spark it by opening its mouth, but up until then it was miraculous that the building hadn't exploded. All Nova had to do was undo that miracle and make the entire building go boom boom, and at the same time he would escape via the massive pool.
The lighters would easily ignite the leaking gas under the chosen cars as soon as the driver unknowingly drove over them in the panic and a similar thing would happen with the knives, and silverware except it would be caused by the intense sparking of metal scraping against the ground. This would cause massive explosions and eventually have the ground floor of the garage collapse in its entirety, and after the ground floor collapsed, every floor thereafter would do the same, leaving the Devil, simply put, dead as fuck. His que for knowing when the explosion was about to occur was the loud crashing of glass as the monstrosities broke into the pool and the mall that originally caused the people to stampede in the first place. Everything had gone perfectly for the most part, however, what Nova did not expect was the volcanic eruption that all of the cars would cause after blowing up at what was essentially the same time.
Nova's free falling form soared through the sky, rolling rapidly as it made its rapid decent towards the ground, all the while flaming concrete slabs of massive proportions flew passed his body, just barely missing him with every rotation. In his cocoon, he silently hoped for his safety as the hard ground got closer and closer and pretty soon, he was going to crash harshly against an incredibly solid floor. His rotation suddenly stopped when his body made hard contact with something that felt much harder than concrete, the thing his body crashed against slapped the exposed parts of Nova's body with insane force, knocking the air from his lungs. However, the solid tension of this insanely hard substance broke fast, giving way to incredibly cool, nursing, soothing sensation that instantly began nurturing his many wounds. Water. He had landed perfectly in the deepest area of the pool, slamming hard against its surface and quickly hitting the bottom of the 16ft (5m) deep pool. As his feet crashed harshly against the tiled floor of the pool, Nova opened his eyes in the blood red water and a wash of relief covered his body as he held what was left of his breath in the amazing feeling liquid. But his body quickly began pleading for air, so he used the rest of his energy to swim his way back to the surface, unhindered by concrete, corpses, and any other debris that surrounded the pool water but remained unobtrusive to him.
Once he broke through the waters tension once more, he took in a massive gasp of the charred, metallic, smoldering air, allowing the horrible tasting and smelling oxygen to fill his lungs and refresh himself with oxygen. Nova then quickly wiped the red water from his eyes so could look at the mass of destruction that he caused, and what he saw frightened him slightly. The building, no, the volcanic mass of ruble that actively exploded, crumbled, and rumbled in front of him left words far from his mind. It was in every way, a man-made volcanic eruption and the mass of rubble piled up high with red and orange flames covering its entire form was the proof of that. Hell was once what he used to describe the look of the invading force that came from the sky, but that was now just an afterthought, the true hell was unfolding around him. The reddened sky was now just a backdrop, the structure in front of him was officially the center-piece, and he was the cause of it all. Burning flames, melting metals, active explosions, a never-ending smog of black smoke, and the numerous hordes of charred corpses that could be seen everywhere he looked, it was pure chaos, but somehow, he managed to survive.
Amongst concrete slabs falling from the air like meteorites and all the destruction that surrounded him, all Nova could think about in that moment was the Devil and whether that demonic entity had truly kicked the bucket. "I don't care if it's the last thing I do. I am going to double tap that fucker!" With that mental declaration, Nova used every ounce of strength left in his body to swim his way to the edge of the pool, easily avoiding the rocks, corpses, and other debris that consumed the blood red pool. He quickly pulled his way out of the water and slowly began making his trek up the flaming mountain. The intense heat of the pile of rubble had no effect on him as fire no longer felt hot enough to even so much as singe his skin, the black smog the filled the air did nothing to effect his lungs, and pain was a simple afterthought after he received his first near fatal blow, at this point the only thing that could stop him from reaching the top of the mountain was the Devil himself.
The mass of concrete was easy to climb, Nova rapidly pulled himself past jagged rocks, kicked away flaming corpses, dodged the various small explosions, and evaded the falling rocks as he quickly made it to the top of the wreckage. Looking over the top, he was able to view exactly what became of the roof of the parking garage and it was truly a sight to behold. At the very top of the mass, the center of structure suddenly caved inward, creating an arena like concave that was smoldering with flames, car-parts, and, most importantly, black blood. The entire ground looked like the body of the Wolf mount he saw early, except the ground was mostly grays instead of blacks, and the flames were flowing like lava instead they were just being rapidly stoked by the surrounding air and fuel that kept them burning. However, as the survivor continued peering over the arena like divot, Nova's eyes suddenly widened as he saw who crashed in the center of the flaming pit. "Devilman?"
Fear had long since left his body as Nova approached the Devil that had been sprawled out along the flaming ground, appearing to be very much so dead, but Nova remained cautious as this being could easily pull out another attack that he had yet seen. As our hero strode towards the body, he also noticed the wolf beast not too far from the Devil's 'corpse' and its body was worse for wear than the demon across from it. Nova decided to first confirm the death of the beast, and more importantly, confiscate any weapon that may have been protruding from its apparent corpse. "Ooooohhhhhh. Damn" he said as he approached the body. "You're dead as fuck!" The corpse of the Wolf beast was littered with oozing magma that it appeared to bleed, and the entirety of its form was also mangled beyond recognition, its legs were either completely torn from its body or twisted and broken in so many different ways that you would probably want them to be gone. Its head was smooshed flat, so there wasn't a fang he could take, and the only things that was identifiable from its head was a single tooth that stabbed back inwardly through its own body. "You really did get the short end of the stick lava-wolf, sorry about that bro" he thought, turning his attention back to the main attraction.
Nova stalked forward towards the other body located in the center of this volcanic structure, deeply analyzing each and everything about it before he completely made his approach, and what he saw put a smile on his face. The Devil's body was absolutely demolished. The demon's armored black skin was almost completely gone, there were a few bits and pieces of its metal like skin in random spots, but overall, the devil was completely skinless. Its body was a mess of black veins and red muscles that still pulsated with life, making Nova wonder, "How are you still alive?" The Devil was sprawled out in a starfish pose, black blood pooling underneath its arms and legs, and Behemoth teeth still lodged in its forehead and chest. However, still fused to its hand in a solid, unyielding grip was the Devil's katana. The both of them knew that this beast was going to die soon, it was inevitable, but the fact that this demon managed to survive through an explosion of that caliber was insane and for that feat alone the entity gained a little respect from the human.
Nova walked over to the dying demon and squatted himself over the Devil's clenched right hand, and as he stared into the vacant eye sockets of the Devil he softly said, "I'm sure you don't mind me taking this." Instead of simply grabbing the blade from the Devil's iron grip, Nova placed on of his hands over the fist and the other on its wrist, and with all the strength he could bring to his body, Nova pulled to separate the Devil's hand from the rest of his body. As Nova pulled harder and harder the demon groaned in pain, but that didn't stop the revenge driven human from continuing his tug, and soon the sounds of tearing flesh grew louder than the bellowing flames that surrounded them. The Devil's muscle tissue spread thinner and thinner until it gave under the intense strain, spurting its steaming blood into Nova's tight grip but he still kept pulling, and quickly the last remaining obstacle that kept the demon's hand attacked was a powerful black bone that connected the two. "This one might hurt a bit" with a bellowing CRUNCH, Nova snapped the bone in to, finishing off his delimbing with a quick pull, releasing the Devil's hand from its body. As the hand was removed, the Devil groaned loudly, but that's all the reaction it could manage, it became rapidly apparent that The Devil was already just barely clinging on to life, and Nova quickly realized this.
"Woah, hold on Devilman, don't die on me just yet, hang in there a bit longer." Now that the demon's hand was separate from its body, Nova easily pried its fingers from the crimson hilt of the katana, holding the blade within his own hands and taking a few practice swings soon after. "Wow, this thing feels amazing, I can definitely see why it's your go too weapon of choice. Although, for some reason the hilt is burning the fuck outa me, but it doesn't really hurt much" he said while he repositioned himself by the feet of the Devil's body. Once in position, he stood over the soon to be corpse with a deathly smile on his lips, and with both hands firmly attached to the Devil's blade, he raised it high into the air, pointing perfectly towards the heavens. Clearing his throat, he began "You ordered the Behemoth to take my life on three different occasions, and two out of the three were successful. One when I was a bitch and another when I was a rising star, although I believe that I had originally won that encounter of ours."
Nova held the blade with insane amounts of confidence and he could feel the strength returning to him just for the purpose of ending the life of the demon before him. "I didn't like dying at all and because you caused it, I am going to kill you. Brutally. You have caused me more pain than I could have possibly imagined, but at the same time you pushed me to heights unimaginable. So, in a way I guess I should be thanking you, so for my thanks I'll be granting you a death by my hand. Your welcome. However, I hate your fucking dragon, I hate your fuckin sword, and I really, really hate you! I don't know how to put these into words that you'll understand but I'll try my best… !OUY KCUF" Nova then brought the blade down with an incredibly powerful swing, the blade cut right through the fang implanted into the devil's forehead allowing it to insert itself deeply into the skull of the demon. The tip of the blade touched the concrete underneath the devil's corpse as it made its way complete through the now lifeless body. The swords speed did not waver even for a second as it slice from head to crotch, completely bisecting the devil right down the middle in spontaneous fashion.
As soon as the deed was done Nova's body began to feel insanely heavy, it was as if all of the fatigue, blood-loss, and intense burns were starting to eat away at his body, and the numbness that he experienced, after the fireball, launched itself back into his body, causing his legs to crumble underneath him. Even amongst the numbness, he gripped hard onto the katana that he killed the devil with, and his body fell hard on its back, pointing his face up at the sky. Nova watched as the fractures and cracks in the sky began to slowly dissipate, closing the large red mouths, letting cracks of blue in through the blood red sky, allowing the Sun to shine down on him once again. Once the Sun appeared through the disappearing cracks in the sky, a small smirk made its way across his lips, as he thought, "welcome back" greeting the Sun on its return. Nova them began chuckling slightly, although it his body would barely allow any noise to escape his closed lips. "Did I just save the whole world, on accident? Shit, that's kinda crazy, I wonder if any of the other monsters died as well. It would be kinda nice if they did because I don't think Imma be making it out of this one." The feeling of his life slipping away started to set in yet again as he laid back on the burning concrete and with each passing second death overwhelmed his mind.
"I really don't think Imma make it back this time, it doesn't quite feel the same way as it did before." The thought that his life was truly leaving him had begun to set in, "I guess I'm really just gonna die here, not being able to really do anything with my life. 18 years on this planet and for what? 10 years that I don't remember and 8 more spent in isolation. A shitty ass, nothing, trash, fucking life." As that thought crossed his mind an unusual smirk grew across his numb face, "well that's not entirely true. I accomplished what I came to do, I killed the literal Devil and a Dragon, and trampled over, decimated, and straight-up fucking conquered the biggest obstacle that anyone could ever face! On top of that, I saved the fucking world! Your welcome Earth-chan, your boy had your back. Plus, I had the most action-packed adventure out of anyone that has ever lived on this fucking planet, and even if no one knows about it, that's not important. What matters is that I did it. On my own, by my lonesome, I picked myself up time and time again, and I never gave up on the objective that I set for myself. Lowkey, I'm the Fucking best." And with that thought, his body was no longer functioning, his heartbeat began to slow, and each breath he took was further away from the last. His eyes got extremely heavy, and his head got woozy. Nova could feel it coming, for he had experienced this twice before, but this time it was different, this time it felt permanent. Death was knocking at Nova's front door and he had no choice but to let him in. Life slowly slipped away from Nova's fingertips, as Death opened the door taking his soul one final time.
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"Huh?" An all-encompassing endless black void with the only form of light being a Pink that illuminated the space around Nova, this was the sight that he awoke to immediately following his apparent death, or 'death' rather. "Is this heaven?"
[Congratulations!]
You Defeated: Legion King Sin!
*Kill Completion Rewards*: Essence of Animus | Race 'Awakened One' | +1,000,000 Exp | +100 Attribute Points | + 100 System Points | +10,000 Avatar Crystals | + $100,000 Augmented Gold Coins | 100 Skill Points
*New Titles Acquired*: Mentally Untouchable, Beast Master, Unbreakable, Berserker, The One Last Standing, Unkillable, Unshaken by Agony, Immovable by Flame, Speed Demon, Mana Expert, Mana Flow Master, Sixth Sense Master, Limitless Potential, King Slayer, Beast Slayer, Savior of Earth, Awakened One, Killer Instinct, Bare Knuckle Master, Weapon Crafter, Improvised Weapon Mastery, Body Strengthening Master, Natural Evader, Martial Prodigy, Intellectual Prodigy, Master Mind, Adonis!
Quest: 'Awakening' Completed
Quest Rewards: A new life awaits you
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