An immense consuming void draped the withered and broken soul. Aimlessly he shuffled in a null body of black and white, feeling the crushing weight of his surroundings. It was like being compressed in a binding ocean, where the water instead of filling the lungs would flood the mind and drown the soul.
"Come, Come here and end this…"
"When I hand you the baton make sure to take it properly, promise you will?"
The echo of voices made his heart ache, they were familiar, he knew them but what were their names? He wanted to find them, he needed to know them again. Their voices and silhouettes were there but not entirely, not enough. He forced himself further, the figure of his own body felt loose and malleable to him yet restricted to one shape at the same time. He fought the disorienting feeling, he ignored his physical frame and set his focus on the comforting words that haunted him. Pushing on he found his efforts to be in vain as the shadowed outlines began to fade in front of him.
"No wait! Don't go, please!" he cried.
"You became weak after becoming human, you can't kill this girl, can you?"
"Admit it, you're one of us, you can no longer deny it!"
He shot up alert hearing the new voices ring around him. Anger instantly coursed through him now as the images began to fill out. The bearers of these voices had faces. His stare creased as he recalled the battles he fought against these very demons in his past life. He growled and rushed at them. He wanted to strike them, to feel their blood drip from his claws, his fangs to rip their skin. The faster and harder he ran the further away they became. He was stuck running in place, like he was trapped in some ghastly nightmare. He thrashed and snarled desperately trying to move forward, to seek his revenge, but his environment restricted him.
"Humans are weak, their extinction inevitable…"
"Why would I cry? The weak ones die."
The Devilman's features became ferocious as he then witnessed the full figure of the new being standing ahead of him. His heart plummeted into an icy chill as the heat of his rage boiled in his veins. The archangel Lucifer materialized before his very eyes and mocked him with his voice.
"Ryo!" he knew his name and spat it out.
The flush of fury he felt sent him into a spiral, he stormed forth with bared teeth and resentful eyes. Dishearteningly he found himself caught in the same place, unable to advance towards the figure. Frustrated and pained he writhed in his spot, he screamed and roared like a wounded animal up to the waning apparition. Then the Devilman felt as though he was beginning to fall further from his target, and his wings regardless of his actions could not catch him. He reached his hand up and curled his fingers wishing to grasp the angel in his fist, but to a hopeless endeavor. All he could do was sit there and seethe as he slowly watched the creature he loathed more than anything slip away.
"I will kill you; I will kill you; I swear I will kill you!"
In a flash the Devilman felt as though he had plunged to the ground and came crashing back into reality. He stared upward laying on his back on a soft, grimy ground. His head was still spinning as he looked up at the ceiling, it was like staring into an endless trench. His moment of recuperation was soon stolen from him as the sound of maniacal cackling resounded throughout the cavern.
"What? Did Devilman finally have the fight knocked out of him! You sure are a sore loser!"
He grimaced heaving his body back up for battle. He glared at the deformed demoness Sirene, her body still fused with that of Kaim's from their former brawl.
"Sore loser? You're the one that never let it go Sirene, I beat you fair and square! I'm the one that killed you!" he said, taking a defensive stance. She frowned and prepared herself to plow over him, kicking her foot into the muddy ground.
"Enough of this! You ruined me! You took everything from me! My life, my beauty, Amon, and Kaim! I could never let that go!" she stampeded forward.
Devilman held his position, "You ruined yourself! You were so set in your vengeance you selfishly took Kaim's life! How could you do that to him, he loved you!" he barked.
Sirene's eyes constricted and let a wicked scream escape her lungs, "Silence!"
Once she was only a few strides away from him he stuck his wings out from his back launching him over and around her.
"That old trick again, please!" Sirene spread the wings atop her head and followed after him in the air. A green glow sparked at her tusks and illuminated the grotesque grin she wore. The Devilman watched diligently and when the green bolt emitted from the demon, he spun his body behind one of the massive stalactites that gripped to the roof. An explosion of dust and rock chunks pelted the both of them. Sirene hectically lifted her antenna as she could no longer view her opponent. Her attempt didn't matter, he instantly attacked from above, slicing his talons down her back just as she had caught her bearings. She shouted and was drug back down, being slammed to the floor.
He pinned her to the ground as she continued to grapple with him relentlessly.
"Give it up already Sirene, you can't beat me! Not back then and not here either!"
She turned back to look at him with her crazed eyes, "Damn you Devilman! Damn you! Damn…" Realization glossed over her expression before it was once again overtaken by malice.
She chuckled that steadily grew to a crow of madness, "You know what Devilman? We've talked plenty about me and my sin, but how about you, huh? After all we're all in this pit together, aren't we? How does it feel, how does it feel despite you fighting so hard for your precious humanity, you're down here in Hell just like the rest of us demons? You're just as much of a failure as any of us!"
Devilman's guard faltered for merely a moment before an adrenaline-fueled wrath came back to tense his body and warp his features.
She ate up his reactions, "That's right, it kills you! I might not be able to beat you, but I will make you suffer!"
"I'll show you suffering!" He stabbed his claws into her body and flew them to hover over a boiling caldera nearby. The flare of heat from the pool of lava below them was suffocating. Sirene's tusks began to spark once more as she strived to break loose of his hold.
"Let's see Sirene, how should I throw you in? Headfirst or feet first?" he toyed.
"You think you can kill me so easily!" she taunted as she sent her detached arm to zip by and slash the Devilman across the chest, causing him to lose part of his grip. He yelped watching her electricity build up to its full capacity. In a split-second decision he clutched her by both wings and stuck his foot to her back. When the lighting cracked and shot threw him, he recoiled and propelled himself backwards with the force, taking her blood-soaked wings with him. The shock temporarily paralyzed him, but he had managed to aim his trajectory just right that he landed on the rim of the bubbling crater. Sirene wasn't as lucky. With her wings plucked from her head she hurtled like a stone into the vat of molten magma. An inhuman screech pierced through anything in ear shot as she wrestled through the thick and unforgiving lagoon. Her flesh was burning and melting around her unveiling parts of her skeleton before she finally began to crawl her way out.
Devilman was starting to feel his body again, it throbbed from the electric shock. He steadily lifted himself up to view the miserable demon hauling its charred figure to the cliffs. A buzz of gratification lit his spirit.
"You accursed bastard!" she wailed. "I'll get back at you Devilman, you horrible son of a bitch, you just wait!"
He scoffed, watching her teem fervidly. She hobbled his way with the glint of abhorrent disgust exuding from her face.
"Passing by and seeing you again filled me with such hate. My resent towards you overshadowed my progress toward rebirth. I can no longer waste time on you! I will make it to the Cocytus of Hell, and when I do both I and Kaim will return stronger than ever and this time we won't lose! I will take great pleasure in torturing you…"
The image of the smelted demoness cackled as she turned tail and disappeared further down into the depths of Hell.
The Devilman stalled in place until he let out a long and heavy sigh, "Good riddance, crazy bitch…"
He came to his feet and returned to the dreary wandering he had the displeasure of becoming so used to. The ground squished beneath each of his steps, and the screams of the damned were ceaseless in his ears. He reached the edge of a high setting cliff only to overlook the heinous landscape that imprisoned him. Fire exploded like a slew of geysers across the ground and just above that, tucked beneath a rocky bed and blanketed in suffocating smog, housed the skies, highlighted by endless streaks of lighting.
He couldn't stand such a view but there were worse things to see here. The image of sinners, of frail souls helplessly being devoured by this realm's monstrous inhabitants repulsed him. Cerberus lapped up the powerless human spirits and defecated them back out creating the sludge coating the floor. Their torment never ends there though, for death doesn't exist in Hell. From the sediment, the forms of the poor souls slowly begin to retake their shape only to be eaten alive by the denizens of Hell again and again. He furrowed his brow with a heavy heart watching them pop back out of the muck like worms only to relive their cruel fate eternally.
He took his gaze off the atrocities wrapping his wings tightly around himself in what little comfort he could muster. He leaned against the stony wall-side just to rest for a minute. But he was taking a risk, setting with himself, leaving his mind to wander, and he knew it. In Hell it's never ending survival, the strong will continuously fight to preserve what messily barging they have left. But of all the most savage demons and beasts that roamed in Hell, none were as scary or exhausting as one's own straying thoughts. He'd grown to despise thinking, it hurt worse than any punch or bite, but he just couldn't help it. What Sirene had said just then he couldn't get it out of his head.
"The Cocytus of Hell? Rebirth? As if anyone could escape this mess. She's went completely mental, there's no doubt about it." He huffed. "Why would anyone want to go back anyway? What's there to return to anymore?"
He closed his eyes, but in the pit of his being he felt something fragile yet profound whisper to him. Something that was so faint he could hardly recall it, and yet he couldn't help but constantly notice it. He tried to brush it aside and drown it out with reason, but it was still there ever present.
"That's a promise, you are the anchor after all…" He jerked his head up. His body was shaken and his face desperate. A yearning twisted him up inside, he could have cried but he hadn't done that in a long time.
"A promise…?"