The Third Trial PT 4

Pain.

Pure, agonizing PAIN!

That was what coursed through every cell in Nico's body the exact SECOND that he fell into the river Styx.

The moment that he had, the male had been bombarded with this pain that assaulted him from every angle, filling up his nerve endings like a bowl being filled wot piping hot boiling water. That had been for the first few seconds or so however, before it exceeded to the levels he went through during the birth of Urthemiel, his first time obtaining a Satanic Treasure, then the first time he obtained an Archdevil Arm, even more than that slight 'graze' he got from that Soul attack Mundus did to him back in Leanbox.

No, if he were to summarize the pain he was in right now, it'd be a mix of all of those things whilst trying to bathe naked in the centre of an active volcano's lava with none of his resistances helping him.

So yeah, it hurt like a freaking 'bitch'!

'URGH, FUCKING HELL! THE FUCK, SHIT! SHIT, THIS FUCKING BURNS! WHAT THE HELL, THIS BURNING FEELING... WHY THE HELL AM I EVEN FEELING IT?! I SHOULD HAVE GREAT FIRE RESISTANCE, GODDAMNIT! ITS WHY I'M ABLE TO USE HELLFIRE FOR GODDESS'S SAKE!' The teen thought to himself, screaming like the Banshees he fought long ago in his mind as he fell deep inside the River Styx itself, his surroundings nothing but a murky golden color. He could hardly see the surface above his head at this point, not even the lights of the other crystals that dotted the cave. After his hitting the river's surface, it felt like his body became completely paralyzed, unable to move even the tiniest muscle. So even though he found himself in some severe pain that could have killed him a thousand times over, his features remained calm with his Kakugan remaining open.

That only made the pain initially worse, and it intensified even more the more his form fell towards the depths below. Like, the more he fell, the worse it got.

And he was supposed to stay here for 30 minutes?!

'This pain... calm yourself, Nico! Focus on my voice, got it?!'

'Huh?! Biko?' Nico thought to his Demon Persona whilst his form, which as spread out like a star, fell downwards gradually. What the hell, the male wondered, why did Biko's voice get fainter and fainter every word he said? Was the connection dying out? Was that what was freaking happening? Mentally performing a check on himself, Nico found that the link between them was still as stable as it could have ever been. No problems with it existed whatsoever, so what the fucking shit was going on?

Soon enough, the male could no longer hear his Demon Persona, the pain he was in combined with whatever was happening to their link drowned him out completely leaving the teen to suffer alone. He couldn't even feel the ranting and raving of his Ghoul Persona anymore, something which he honestly didn't find any more appealing than he did the rest of his situation.

Not to mention the fact that he felt something... off. He didn't know what it was exactly, but whatever it was, it was being funneled into him beneath all the pain.

It was almost like there was something alive and foreign, almost alien trying to ENTER him, a stark contrast to that time with Urthemiel trying to ESCAPE him into the outside world. A stark contrast indeed.

Nico began to feel faint, the pain slowly overcoming his senses. The male began to see black spots dancing across his vision as his form, as pain settled in, descended ever so gradually. It almost made him want to scream and shout if it were at all possible. The more seconds passed, the more spots formed in his vision. The ones already formed gradually got bigger and bigger, and Nico soon began feeling the grip of unconsciousness start to try and take him.

It felt so good, so refreshing...

A safe haven from all this pain, all this torment...

Perhaps he could...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Oh, FUCK THAT!

Memories of the second test he had taken returned to the male, and if it were possible right now his Kakugan would have narrowed. A white hot burning desire, burning greater than the pain trying to shut his system down, ignited within his chest, filling him with a strong sense of purpose. He remembered that feeling, it came to him shortly into his second attempt to complete the trials of samsara, as well as the aftermath of the failed first attempt. Roaring like a dragon in his mind and soul, Nico pushed through, shoving both the grip of unconsciousness and the pain aside as he retook control over his mind. He ended up pushing away the thoughts of unconsciousness and retreat out of his existence.

Nico refused, he REFUSED to fall to something as meager as something like this! He would NOT allow himself to have something like this deter him! He'd vowed to himself not to let what happened on the second test to happen again, and he would make damn well sure that he kept that vow! Nico, DEATHSTROKE, whatever name he used, he ALWAYS kept his word, ALWAYS. Something as small and minor as this pain he was under would never equate to the amount of bullshit he had gone through over the years.

If he fell to something like this, he could never hold his head up high again!

And so, Nico persevered. He endured the pain, he allowed it and whatever had came with it to do whatever it pleased with his body. By the time 30 minutes would pass, his regeneration would take care of the damage his body would be going under. He'd get his Devil Arms back, and he'd be on his way to finishing this damn Trial. At this point, all he cared about was showing whatever this pain was being caused by, most likely the River, that it would NOT beat him in a battle of endurance. He had TOO much riding on this, the life of one of his weapons was just THAT important to him, after all.


By the time 15 minutes passed, Nico found himself gazing downwards to what he assumed was the river's floor. The only reason he could tell, was thanks to his Gene Seed implants, as if he didn't have them then he doubted his Ghoulish vision would have been able to interpret it nearly as clearly. Not to mention the fact that his body had started descending at a slightly faster rate... until he found himself adjusted as if an invisible force was moving his body to a vertical position, and then he landed on the bottom of the river's floor.

The moment he did so, Nico suddenly found whatever was controlling his body before, keeping it from moving, reduce its hold on him till it had the same weight as any other time one would be under water. Nico raised his hand and swished it about,watching as bubbles and waves accompanied his arm's motion. 'Well, at least the physics of being underwater are accurate, so I can at least focus on that...' he thought to himself. When in great pain, it was best to focus the mind on matters other than the pain, so it could endure it better. Nico had done that for the last 15 minutes or so, thus the male had found himself getting used to the pain a little. Not to mention that when he saw his arm, he saw how it kept getting redder and redder at one point, then the redness would decrease the next, which proved that his regeneration was still working.

That was something, at least.

'Well, lets see if I can at least get a bead on where I am...'

Now that he could somewhat focus a bit, Nico decided to check more on his surroundings, even if the male was to not get much, getting any sort of information would be crucial. Plus, it would help him get used to this pain. Looking around, Nico didn't really get much of a clue as to where he was, only that this River obviously had a large deep end that went across the entire thing. Part of him wondered if there were anything that could have lived here, and if so would he be encountering them in the future? Nico hoped not, he didn't know what kind of life could live in something like this or what kind of strength they had. In addition, he felt sure that he wouldn't be able to fight to his full potential, as whatever had paralyzed him before now limited him to just his human strength and skills. At least he still had his Large Building class strength as his base strength now. Perhaps Nico could see if his Ghoul side allowed him to go to multi large building, small town or large city class in the future...

Food for thought.

'So... now what?' the male wondered as he pushed through the pain once more. Well, it was always there, constantly filling every cell in his body like overfilling a bath. Therefore, he should have really said that he was constantly pushing through the pain. The male decided to try and reach for his SP reserves (something he hadn't done for a long time now), to try and enhance his body with it. It wasn't something usually done, but if he could help his body adapt to this pain via his Ghoul side's RC Cells and his Bio Boost from his DPU powers, perhaps then things might start looking up for him. 'Wait... perhaps I can do THAT! Hey, Amon, can you hear me?'

'(Of course I can hear you, you're in one of my tests after all. What is it? Oh, you're at the bottom already, that's surprising. With the last trial, I had expected you to give up by now)'

'Charming,' Nico responded with sarcasm laced between each letter in his thoughts. Really, who did this guy take him for, a coward? Well, in his defense, Nico did fail one of the tests, so perhaps he had some leeway. 'Well, anyways, i'd like to talk to you for a bit, since i'm going to be stuck here for another 15 minutes.' he replied.

'(Oh? Interesting, I did not expect you to ask me that. I had half expected you to ask me more abut the test, which would not have been possible.)'

Yeah, Nico figured something like that had to be the case. Even whilst this pain coursed through him like blood, the male still kept his thoughts steady as he sat in a meditative position on the river's floor. 'Well, I figured that out based off prior experience. Anyways, I just wanna talk to you, to well, know more about you. You're my guide, but I hardly know anything about you. I'd honestly like to change that, since you haven't really had much malicious intent from the start of these tests.'

'(Hmmm, it has been a while since someone last wanted to talk to me. However, I feel like this would be an impolite way of communication. Hold on.)'

After hearing Amon say that, Nico began noticing a figure manifest itself in front of him, creating a physical body out of the fiery currents beneath the river. It took on a vortex like form at first, that lasted a second before it turned into a crimson colored figure. The figure eventually formed completely, and in the end Nico found himself sitting before the form of a genie-like being. As in, the being lacked a lower body but a ghostly tail instead, whilst having a humanoid upper body. This being took the form of a bald, bearded old man. He wore a white cloth that covered his back and arms, with his hands having long claw-like nails and a third eye on his forehead.

Nico quickly guessed who this being was, however. "I'll go on a whim and guess that you are Amon?" he questioned, earning a nod from the old man looking Genie, his eyes closed yet he still got the feeling that he was looking at him.

Yeah, Nico gave Amon a gender, deal.

"(Yes, this is my physical body. Thanks to that improvement that... thing you carry, did to your mind maintaining that connection between us was gradually getting increasingly harder. This way, we can talk face to face. However, it should be a two way street, so if I talk about myself, you talk to me about yourself. Deal?)"

"Sure."

And so, began the talk between the redhead and the Genie.


As I finished resting I brought closer to me the body of the three times damned bird. I must start processing it now and hope it works, if I manage to obtain even 3 or 4 drops of divine blood from this creature this whole thing will have been worth it.

Seeing the entire creature I can only be glad I am in this place and any droll evaporate instantly or anyone looking would see me drooling all over it. Calm down, me, you need to calm down and be rational. This thing will not be fast to process so I need enough time for it.

First I put down my time dilator field, as I feel it activating I gave a slight smile before creating some smaller bounded field around me to keep away the flames and the heat, anything to make sure that nothing would happen to potentially damage the ritual I will be doing.

I have never done it before, but I have studied it and everything I could find that could help me grow stronger even if just a bit, everything in my desperation to be able to help those I ought and want to help, and this is exactly why I know some of these more obscures rituals such as this one.

First, I created a small knife using some of the ores around here (the fact that sun crystals are the most suitable for this specific ritual must mean that the old bastard wanted to help whoever came here, or just laugh if the person didn't know how to take advantage of this sort of present and wasted it away) and delicately I cut open its head.

When I finished opening the skull I took out the brain and put it into a smooth superfycy I hastily drew a circle using some of the creature's own blood. After this part, I went to the main part of the body and removed the following parts in this specific order: Heart, Lung, Liver, and the spine (taking care to take with it as many nerves as possible.

As I finished this part I collected all the blood I could get from it, enough to make sure that I got most of it. with me for this.

In the end of this process, I had about 30 liters of blood, this should work well enough as I start using some of it to draw an even bigger circle in the ground. There are hundreds of small details that must e absolutely right for it to work and even some drawings of a Vermilion Bird dancing across the sunset was all put into the circle.

And everything is ready now, I put the pieces I collected and the blood into the center of the circle, deactivated both the time dilator field and the bounded field to repel heat and flames while I also started purring in all energy I could get into a constant wave of magic energy.

Normally, this process would take about a few days or even a week to get done but this environment I am in is a great help. The ritual I am doing is called Vermilion Ascension Ritual and the circle's main function is to work as a transformer of energy into heat and flames that can somewhat emulate the actual flames of a Vermilion bird. It is highly inefficient as most of the energy I pour into it is wasted and the flame generated is a pale and pathetic imitation from the real deal, but it is enough to do the ritual. Thankfully, due to the fire already here I could take advantage of it and transfer the excessive heat and flames to this circle to help the process.

Now, instead of days I will only need a few hours.

As the vermilion flames soured to the sky I could only hold my breath as sweet rolled down my body. My magic circuits, for as resilient they might be now, still have an upper limit and keeping close to top performance for more than 5 hourst apparently is beyond that. Thankfully, I have so much experience in abusing my circuits to beyond what I should that I am still hanging on, even if just barelly.

The flames around me are mostly gone by now, this world of perpetual burning is close to stopping burning for good as the ritual is one step away from being complete. I can see a blurry figure of four small points appear in the center of the fire, all the flames are being condensed in those spots as it was close to the finishing touches.

Now I only have to be extra careful, any misstep can end this whole thing for go-

"Have you ever watched The Good Place?" Zelretch said to my side as he simply appeared on my side.

Huh? Why is... shit!

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT?!

The fire started changing rapidly and losing control due to this distraction! Fuck, if I don't do something to stop it now everything will have gone to waste!

No choice, I have to bet it all!

My energy started going haywire as I started purring more energy into the circle, hoping to haste the ritual enough for it to still work. The excessive burst of energy is such that despite my best efforts I ended up coughing my blood into the ritual when it was close to be done, but thankfully it didn't seen to influence the results as I managed to get the drops of blood.

Phew, this was WAY to close.

Turning angrily to Zelretch I was ready to berate him for this when he simply disappeared from that spot.

I, I want to say this is a surprising behavior, but I can't. Sigh, I guess I should start the assimilation now.

Turning back to the position I was before I must have my eye twitching as I see Zelretch sitting on a sofa there, a beer in hand as a tv was turned on in Netflix while he started browsing for something to watch.

"So? Do you recommend it or not?" He asked.

"...Sure, why not?" I said, resisting my burning wish to attack him. He almost costed me the entire ritual I spent the last hours doing, only to ask for a recommendation.

I guess I should have expected this, it IS Zelretch after all.

Seeing that he started the series I decided one thing, it is better to ignore him and start to assimilate this blood into myself now. Even if I moved away from him it is likely that he would simply pop up out of nowhere and startle me.

Setting up the time dilation field again I activated it before I drew a new ritual circle, this one is called Vermilion Rebirth and it helps to assimilate the divine blood of the Vermilion Bird.

I put down quite a few sun crystals of high purity, some rubies charged to the brim and full of fire energy, and ground some of the bones of the Lesser Vermilion bird, everything to help this circle to reach higher levels. I need everything to be as perfect as possible for this.

And so, taking a deep breath, I put all four drops of blood in my hand, that might I add feel at the same time like molten lava and the heat you feel when holding the hand of a beautiful girl, and put this blood directly on my chest.

Right above my heart.

The effect was instantaneous, the blood pierced my skin and started wrecking havoc inside my bloodstream. The drops were hot enough for me to feel like they were trying to melt my body whole, but I also felt they were not fighting as strongly as they could against my own blood. I guess it makes sense, in the end, my blood too is quite amazing as it is world energy concentrated, but it still isn't the same.

But, don't get me wrong, I said it wasn't as bad as it COULD be, it doesn't mean it isn't TERRIFYINGLY PAINFULL! I mean, have you ever burned your finger accidentally by touching a pan while cooking? Now imagine that multiplied by 10 thousand and put it into your entire body inside out. It just isn't as bad because for most it is the same as 20 thousand times, I am 'lucky'.

And so, another tortuous experience started. This one will be in my blood vessels that are being burned and restored quickly enough before being burned again, everything to make sure that my body gets more adapted to fire as it would already be used to the burning, kind of like when you break a bone the fixed place grows stronger than before but in this case it is in the whole body and it is more like a few hundred times.

After this is done my body will not only be able to handle heat and fire much easier than before but I will also be mostly immune to any fire bellow a certain level. Also, the flames of the Vermilion Bird work as a nemesis to demonic energy so if I were to face any devil I would get a distinct advantage over them.

It would be perfect, if the suffering wasn't so fucking terrible.


"Heh, finally started the process. I think he owes me one for saving his ass." Zelretch said as he looked to the side to see Castiel already in the middle of the process of assimilation.

Zelretch sudden appearance might have seen random, but there WAS a reason behind it. The blood of the Vermilion Bird carries a blood inheritance that is quite strong. Normally, if anyone were to take it they would be able to use the techniques to some degree but if Castiel were to take the normal blood it would hardly be that effective.

It would clash with the corrupted fragments of the grail inside him, it would be a disaster that could potentially damage his body and soul enough to make him forever incapable of reaching the Leader-class unless he were to get many divine materials to slowly fix the problem and even then it would take hundreds of years for it to get back to how it should be.

But, if during the process of formation of the blood some of Castiel's own blood that already experienced the evil energy and was the condensed form of the world's energy got mixed in it would be enough to stop the rejection of this new blood and his own body. Also, the techniques would be modified a bit to make them connected to his own power more easily. If it would be stronger or not than the original was anyone's guess, but, it would be different.

'Well, at least this series is quite good. The Good Place, what a interesting series this is, and funnily enough its description of heaven is not so far from the actual thing in most dimensions out there. Maybe I will invite Ophis-chan to watch it with me later, she would probably enjoy it and maybe even stay to watch the kids' facing these challenges as it is quite entertaining.' Zelretch thought as he saw that a new episode was launching, making him completely and utterly forget about Castiel and everything else.

He wanted to see what will happen next!


"(It appears that it is finally complete.)"

Amon spoke up after a long moment of silence. The red colored Genie looked around the watery flames around them, his eyes looking like they were literal calculators with the gaze that he sported. However, it wasn't like he was looking at anything that wasn't different, for everything around them had become a dull version of the gold that the River Styx didn't have before. The flames didn't flicker as wildly as they used to, no it looked more like they were on the verge if dying out. The river itself seemed like it had become... well, tired for lack of a better word. Like something had sucked the life out of it.

Judging by what facts Nico had, he found a VERY likable cause of these events. Amon's words only confirmed it in his mind.

As for that Genie, Amon had told him a lot of things, most of them Nico would have found difficult to believe if he hadn't experienced similarly messed up situations. Apparently, Amon was called a Djinn, not a Genie, and he came from a world where the energy of the earth could be accessed by people called Magi,whereas normal humans used the powers of the Djinn in things called metal vessels to gain power. Not to mention they could use the energy of the world, but not to the same extent as a Magi. From Amon's description of them, Nico figured them to be similar to shepherds, or in this case royalty shepherds. Since they directed those who had the potential to become kings.

'Emiya would love to meet those kinds of people...' Nico had recalled himself thinking, and if Amon had heard him he didn't make it a point to show it.

Djinn resided in dungeons, similar to the ones that Nico had in his world from what he was told, where those guided by Magi would venture into, conquer and then retrieve the Djinn for their powers. Sealing them within an item they hold most sacred so they can harness the Djinn's power. Nico honestly didn't like that part, cause it sounded way more like slavery to him, taking something against its will and using its power for their own ends. Even if the tests proclaimed that the Djinn would have to chose the conqueror as a Master, it still had those elements in it, and THAT didn't sit well with him. It was similar to how Nico had discovered the ability to create monsters of his own, spawning armies from his power alone. Not something Nico wanted to do, cause it made him feel more like his predecessors... something that he didn't want to happen the more he learned from them.

In Amon's case, the King candidate he had been bound to at one point was a man named Alibaba, and he had been (through some manipulation of the flames around him to show various images), a noble, considerate candidate who had his own insecurities. Nico ESPECIALLY liked how he got one of his future companions out of slavery, that person ending up being a badass CQC fighter. He'd have loved to fight her somehow, though that wouldn't really be likely now would it? Nico also learned a bit more about Amon himself, about how him and the other Djinns had once been normal people until this guy called Solomon created the Dungeons foretelling a major disaster would ocur.

Judging by how the Djinn had sounded, Nico didn't doubt him.

Of course, true to his word, Nico had talked to Amon about himself, his world and stuff. He talked about Gamindustri, about Abnormals, about the Spec Ops Program, and what he was doing back on his world. He told the Djinn about how he had been fighting for most of his life, to the point where it pretty much became ingrained into him as a part of his true nature. To him, fighting was the sea he swam, the air he breathed, and Nico found himself all the more monstrous for it. He talked about his Ghoul Side, his new (in comparison) DPU powers, and that he too was facing a potential disaster, though if he were to consider the scale of the ones Amon and himself were familiar with, Nico wouldn't be able to say which one was bigger. Therefore, he'd kept that little thought to himself. Though, he swore he heard a bit of a debate going on between his other aspects inside his mind, along with a familiar-sounding feminine voice... He really was going insane, wasn't he?

Though, then again when was he really sane to begin with?

However, that wasn't important to him right now, what WAS important was the fact that Amon had spoken, and if his mental calculations were correct, something which felt completely how it should be for him even though he was still inside a flaming river, then it had something to do with the Trial. "So... does this mean I pass?" he asked him.

The Djinn, for a moment, said nothing. Perhaps he had been waiting for something, Nico wondered as he just floated there with a blank expression on his face. No, it almost looked like he... wasn't really there, sort of. Though, Nico soon figured out why when he saw one of those screens appear before him:

The screen that stated he had cleared the Trial.

With that in mind, Nico swiftly checked the rewards section and checked to see what he'd gotten:

Rewards: Absolution

Tome - Star God's Broken Shadow

'Star God's Broken Shadow? Why do I get the feeling that, unlike the Great Way of the Buddha I got on the first trial, this one focuses more on speed than strength? Now that I think about it, I haven't actually used those tomes, huh? Whelp, I'll have to look into them when I get the chance.' Nico thought to himself, frowning in contemplation.

"(Alright, it should be complete by now.)"

"?"


Before Nico could comprehend what happened, he suddenly found himself back in the centre of the red room. However, the moment that he did so, Nico IMMEDIATELY noticed several things that were off about himself. Not so much externally, but internally would be a whole different story. Nico noticed that his body felt WAY better than before he got into that river. He felt... clean, refreshed like a newborn baby. Now that he thought about it, that pool he went into with Castiel back in the first trial had a similar serenity to it, but why the hell was he feeling this way now?

Just then, Nico narrowed his eyes (his Mask had been put back in his Void Storage when Amon had insisted it would be ok to do so) in realization. 'The River...'

'You'd be right, I looked over your body whilst you were in that river, and it was indeed doing stuff to you... multiple things, actually. Our body has gained a MAJOR overhaul in power, Nico.'

"(Your friend there is right.)"

"?!"

"?!"

Instantly, Amon materialized before them, looking as stern and disciplined as usual. His eyes cast their gaze down on the male DPU/Ghoul Hybrid, who looked like a sheep caught in a den of wolves.

"(The River Styx has entered and judged you, boy. It looked through your soul, it looked through everything you've done and it found you worthy of its gifts.)"

"Gifts?" Nico questioned, arching a brow in confusion. What he did get was that there were changes made to his body, and Amon DID confirm that it had installed those changes in him.

'I see... unfortunately, I lack the knowledge to ascertain what these changes are, unfortunately.'

Biko spoke this from within his mind, and like before, Amon simply spoke about it.

"(I cannot explain them in detail, as that would break the rules. Therefore, let the system do it instead.)"

Just when Nico made to respond to that, A screen appeared in front of him, remarkably like the one he used himself to scan his body when he got the GSI's. Taking a look, the male saw a list of things on it, each of them being... quite unexpected and eye-opening.


RIVER STYX PERKS

BERSERKER PACKAGE - Multiple Skills associated with the Berserker class:

- Berserk (A) - A combination of the perks Mad Enhancement and Bravery. These perks allow wielder to negate mental interference such as pressure, confusion and fascination. It also has the bonus effect of increasing melee damage.

- Magic Resistance (A) - Only the stronger of Magic-based attacks will have any effect on the wielder. Lesser magic attacks will simply disperse on contact, with a sixth sense identifying the standards of each attack.

- Aptitude for Slaughter (Tools) (A) - The Wielder is now capable of greater damage against human opponents with whatever implement that they carry, be it a weapon or a non-weapon.

AVENGER PACKAGE - Multiple Skills associated with the Avenger Class:

- Memory Correction (A) - The wielder will never forget the feelings they have experiences in their lifetime, and will be able to manually replicate them.

- Avenger (A) - Wielder has a greater ability to draw in negative emotions and turn them into either physical or magical power.

- Presence detection (A) - An ability of high class, wielder is capable of detecting anything via the Earth from other beings no matter their nature, to water sources clear across more than ten kilometers. If used on things at close range, an equal or lower rank of Presence Concealment ability can be nullified.

EIGHT PETAL IMMORTAL ORCHID ESSENCE ASSIMILATED - BODY IMPURITIES REMOVED

HELLFIRE MANIPULATION DETECTED - FIRE RESISTANCE ADMINISTERED

NOTE: A - advanced case of Perk.


'What...the hell...?'

Confusion racked the redhead's brain as he tried to make sense of these 'perks' that had been applied to bis body. He could understand the essence of that herb being used to cleanse his body of the accumulated impurities it had as he'd seen more than a few trails of black dust coming from his form before they disintegrated from the heat of the River Styx. Then there was the fire resistance thing, as whilst he had flame-based abilities before, his body had grown a notable resistance to it as an adaptation. Now though, it felt like his Fire Resistance had gotten close to being maxed out, not a bad deal if one asked him. However, the rest of these perks confused the hell out of him.

'Even with this knowledge, I do believe the terms 'Berserker' and 'Avenger' do fit us rather well, Nico. In the last few months, we did have moments where we either lost ourselves to madness like against that Ghoul, and had the desire for vengeance like in the Hellverse Dungeon. This may end up irrelevant, however it is something I nonetheless noticed.'

Biko spoke, a slight note of curiosity and wonderment in his tone. If he could see his Demon Persona right now, Nico had his suspicions that Biko would be looking like a detective thinking hard about a murder case. Still though, what he said indeed made some level of sense. Nico could see himself as an avenger, either for the wrongfully damned, his comrades or even himself. He recalled a few times were he desired such things against those who wronged him, and there were a few times where he'd gone crazy and destroyed his surroundings.

Not to mention that these perks didn't seem like abilities that could be activated, but more like those permanent buffs one sometimes got from consuming specific items in MMORPG's. Not to mention, each Perk fit him in some way, they fit him almost inhumanly well. Looking towards the Djinn, Nico questioned him about that. "Could I be right in assuming that this River Styx not only burned away my body's impurities, but also chose these perks based from what it saw in me?" Nico queried.

"(You would be correct. Each Perk received has been geared towards your nature in one form or another. Due to the potency of those aspects of your nature, each Perk had to be elevated to an appropriately high ranking, meaning you got an overhaul in terms of upgrades. Now then, you must prepare for the final test before you may fight the final boss of this Trial. It will take a couple moments, but please remain here whilst I prepare it.)"

After answering his question, Amon vanished in a vortex of flames. Nico watched this happen, then stared at the spot where the Djinn used to be for a moment, before looking down at the screen again. Nico eyed each perk, reading their descriptions over and over again. Each time he did so, the teen couldn't help but let a smile slowly break out onto his face. 'I may not know how it is that the River Styx got that ability, maybe it's an experiment made by that weird guy... actually, that seems more than likely. However, I will not be complaining about these results...'

'HAHAHAHAHAHA, NOT GONNA DISAGREE WITH YA THERE, KING! THESE THINGS LOOK LIKE THEY'RE SICK AS SHIT!'

The male sharply tensed when he heard his Ghoul Persona speak for the first time in a long while, before he slowly relaxed. Though, he could share the sentiment that these perks opened the doors to some interesting possibilities here. Especially the Presence Detection Perk. If he could detect as well as it said he could, then he'd definitely be able to track down rogues, assassins, items, and a whole bunch of things within ten kilometers. That was the way that the description had been worded to imply, and he liked that idea. He liked it a whole hell lot.

Now that he had gotten most of his weapons back and would have to wait till the last test to retrieve the last one, Nico wondered what it might be. This last test may be the hardest one yet though, as the male's last weapon was just like Erebus, an Archdevil Arm that he had mutated from Alastor, his former Lightning Devil Arm. That weapon he had just gotten recently, and it had unlocked some of his DPU powers too. He could only imagine what these guys had in store for him, though Nico would be lying if he said he wasn't excited for the prospect.

Maybe that was his Ghoul side talking to him, but meh.

'Nevertheless, it would be advisable for us to test these perks out. We have an elongated amount of time for this if you come into your Inner World. We'll use our training methods to evaluate each perk, get a feel for their uses.'


As the trial got finished in it's preparations, the testing itself proved quite fruitful.

For Berserk, it oddly enough reminded him of Neptune's Soul Calibur with's its dual nature. On one hand, this Skill had a side to it that buffed his physical abilities, enough so that if he had any doubts about his strength being capable of destroying large buildings, they were gone now. Potentially, he could destroy multiple buildings, so Biko estimated that their strength would be between large building class and small town class. Destroying large town, or to be more specific an entire city would only be possible if he had his Ghoul side activated. Then, his DPU form's power would be enough to destroy multiple continents. On the downside however, Nico and Biko had discovered how it also boosted one's own madness and insanity, limiting their mental faculties or stripping them of them entirely. That apparently had been what the Bravery part, the other half, was for. It was meant to negate the cons of mad enhancement by reinforcing one's defenses against mental defects.

To be frank, this seemed so similar to their Berserker Mode that it was almost scary. Though, they always made sure that power was carefully monitored ever since they got the Red Rage Ring. Not to mention their other power amplifiers that they had, they didn't want to use that form unless absolutely necessary, not to mention there were changes being made to it, changes that neither of them knew much about thus they kept it under tight bravery part though, they wished that had been applied to their Berserker Mode, then perhaps they could control the insanity that came with that particular package.

For the second perk granted to them by the 'Berserker Package', Magic Resistance had been a little harder to experiment with, and by little, they meant VERY difficult. This was usually thanks to the fact that they sucked at magic, due to Nico's body not having anything to do with Mana but SP instead. Thus, Nico had simply attacked himself with an SP Skill, thus saw how the Skill literally disintegrated into nothingness the moment it touched his body. He'd even had this 'awareness' which told him that it wouldn't have affected him either. That had confirmed the fact that common magical-based attacks didn't affect him anymore, though he'd like it if they could spar with Castiel again just to confirm it. Though, that would likely not be very feasible considering the nature of their relationship right now.

The third Perk though, now THAT one Nico especially liked. He could say that aside from Berserk, this Aptitude for Slaughter (Tools) Perk apparently did boost the amount of damage he could do against human opponents, as when he sparred with Biko and his Ghoul Persona at the same time, because their forms resembled that of a human the perk had activated. Thus, Nico's strikes managed to damage them more than they had in previous spars, something EACH of them took note of (the fact that Nico had been able to watch his Ghoul Persona run around whilst his ass was on fire just felt like some additional brownie points. He got a few laughs out of that one).

Humans can be the worst kind of monsters at times, Nico would know this.

For the perks from the Avenger Package, Nico personally liked the fact that he could replicate the feelings of anger and hatred with this Memory Correction Perk, then amplify them with the associated power amplifiers. This strength could do WONDERS for his DPU form, and he shuddered at the thought of how much damage Soul Edge could do hen under that much concentrated rage. It had become multi-continental at full power, so if it got amplified even further... yeah, the results definitely scared him. Hell, if he amplified it when he was using it's weaker form, could he possibly make it so that form could release levels of power comparable to its true form? It certainly seemed possible with this perk.

He may not like destruction, but Nico could see how useful suddenly amplifying his power output if only for a brief moment could work in his favor. It can catch the enemy off guard, not to mention how it reminded him of that time with the guy who wore that orange gi got stronger when he took off his clothes which had training weights on them. You know, that guy that takes so freaking long to power up and screams a lot.

Speaking of powering up, the second Perk known as Avenger... Nico felt like this one should have applied more to his DPU form, but experimentation showed it worked with his human one too. Not only could he convert negative emotions from the atmosphere, as in ANY negative emotion no matter how small or big, could increase his physical or energy based abilities. For example, if he took in enough negative emotions, he could convert them into power for a punch that could destroy an entire forest with one thrust, he knew this cause he checked. The amount of potential to this Perk honestly staggered him.

As for the last Perk... need he say anything? Whelp, Nico and Biko had discovered the description had been incredibly accurate as no matter what his Ghoul Persona did Nico had been able to tell his exact position from anywhere within 10 kilometers in any direction. He even tried suppressing his presence, only for Nico's senses to pick him up anyways. He'd also sensed books when Biko had placed one randomly within the desert and had used his Warping ability to appear there for confirmation, pretty much proving his original theory of being able to sense the presence of items. If he somehow combined this with the Pesquisa technique he inherited from Osiris, just what else could he do?

His thoughts got broken when he saw multiple things: A, the last test cave entrance opening, and B: Amon's form appearing before him in all his stern glory.

"(The last test is ready. Be prepared to fight for your life, boy.)"

Nico needed not be told twice, and simply nodded before proceeding into the entrance whilst wondering what this test would be like...


...Now, he regretted asking.

"RRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Why?

Whelp, it went like this.

The moment that he had appeared, Nico had found himself in what he could only assume to be an island-like area of some kind. It had craggy, rocky plates of various elevations, as well as flowing rivers of lava that both surrounded as well as gone through the plates, somewhat like a lava paradise since some rocks dripped with lava like they were waterfalls. A full moon had been seen against a clear sky when Nico had looked around, and an ocean is visible in the distance. Though, his battle-honed instincts quickly made him deploy his Armour over his form (believe him, deploying it had never felt so good since he felt like there had been restrictions placed on it until now. It didn't seem to have changed appearance wise either). At first, it had been a rather safe, serene experience which would go against the way it looked...

But then, it happened.

The enemy he was supposed to fight (apparently, as Amon had told him through their link) dropped down from the skies above to land before him.

Nico could not even BEGIN to comprehend the creature he had been sent to fight, and likely kill, his breath kept hitching in his throat and his form sweated bullets at the sight beneath his Armour. Also beneath it, his skin lost all color, and he felt a strong urge to turn and go 'fuck this shit, i'm out!' Though, he never did that as he examined the thing that he needed to fight:

A Fatalis...

A CRIMSON Fatalis.

A Normal Fatalis resembled a traditional black dragon, with a long, serpentine neck and tail, along with a pair of large wings. Its body is covered in rigid black scales and lined with white spines. Its head featured four backwards-facing horns and a row of enlarged bottom teeth. However, a Crimson Fatalis was a Fatalis whose shells and scales have become a reddish-crimson color after generations of exposure to the Volcano. One of its four horns, accurate to the recordings by the Spec Ops Agents, looked extremely overgrown in comparison to the rest.

The instant that he saw it, he found himself imagining the old undead Mage giving him a thumbs up whilst yelling 'TROLOLOLOLO!'. It... made him want to seriously try to kick his ass for this. If Nico didn't think Zelretch had been a sadist, he fucking did NOW! The Fatalis were part of a family of dragon-like Abnormals called 'Elder Dragons', and had been proven to be some of the most dangerous motherfucking Abnormals there were. Of course there were countless Abnormals with similar levels of power throughout his world, but still. The Fatalis however, had been recorded to be able to lay waste to entire kingdoms in a single swoop, it's massive hatred for humanity shining through its deeds. Usually they were as black as night itself, with immense control over fire that it wasn't even funny. Nico's own Hellfire likely wouldn't even faze one if he had been able to face one.

And this was a CRIMSON one. A Fatalis which had been living in a volcanic area like this for a goddamn long-ass time, enough for its scales to turn from black too a mix of black and lava-like orangish red thanks to adapting to its environment. Now, the damn beast had o much more firepower that it literally gouged out city-sized chunks of land PER SECOND with its fire breath attack, its heat would rival that of a full-powered true Hellfire blast, and if he hadn't gained a strong fire resistance then he likely would have been charred to a crisp by its aura ALONE.

Nico had almost not time to think more on this subject, as the beast had unleashed one roar that rocketed the landscape, sending waves through the Lava and making the rocky plates tremble.

Hence, his current predicament of trying to avoid countless meteors falling from the skies upon the Fatalis's will, amongst other fire breath-like attacks that, whilst he could survive them with his resistance and regen, they would hurt a whole hell lot.

Once again for old times sake...

'DAMN YOU, ZELRETCH!'

He almost swore he heard the man's laughter echo in the distance.

Whelp, it wasn't a completely hopeless cause though, Nico mused to himself, the Perk Bravery soon removing the influence of his emotions from his rationality. It also boosted his strength, something he found absolutely necessary as he jumped out the way of a meteor before it fell on him. He then jumped upwards above the creature's lunge, and would have summoned a weapon had he not had to cross his arms so that he could block it's whip-like Tail in time. The result, was that he had been sent flying across the arena and slammed into the Lava hard enough to cause a major splashing noise.

Though, it wasn't long before he jumped right out and used Hellfire to burn the lava off him. Once he landed, Nico snarled at the creature as it charged towards him, roaring all the while. He'd not placed a Marker on the beast the moment it smacked him with it's tail, as there had been no time to do so. That thing moved crazily fast, he'd seen, and so the male quickly made to halt it's charge. He did this by raising his right hand and shooting a small puff of Hellfire towards the ground it approached. The moment it hit though, it erupted like a fiery volcanic eruption, surprising the creature and catching it off guard. Just long enough for Nico to throw his other hand out and summon Erebus.

This battle would also serve to give him a chance to see how well he can use this new Archdevil Arm's power, which felt like an apt thing to do since the last reward for him was his sole OTHER Archdevil Arm, and one that had great importance to him. Well, all his weapons were that important to him, so that wasn't saying much. Still, as he held the Scythe in his hands, Nico quickly felt the Boons it possessed activate as well. Shadow Gauntlet activated in the form of covering the arm that held Erebus in a dark aura, whilst Darkness Sight formed as a miasma covering his mind, he felt this one more than saw it though. Pointing the Scythe at his opponent, Nico quickly proceeded to activate Despair to lower this creature's physical and mental abilities.

Though, considering how long this thing has likely lived, Nico felt like this boon may not work as much as he wanted it to. Even so however, the moment that the Fatalis got engulfed in Erebus's aura, he quickly noted how much power got sapped away from it. His senses estimated that it lost about 50% of it's total power, and for a beast like the Fatalist that was quite a lot. An impressed whistle escaped the redhead teen's lips as he saw this, eyes shining with appreciation for this Scythe's power. 'Geez, girl... you sure have some sharp claws, don't you...' he mused, glancing down at his Archdevil Arm.

{Awwwww, you're gonna make me blush, you know. For shame, tut-tut,}

Soon enough, Nico heard the familiar voice of Erebus echo throughout his mind, though unlike the first time he heard his other Archdevil Arm speak to him when he summoned it, the teen didn't flip out. Actually, he kind of guessed this would happen. When summoned to the world of reality like this, an Archdevil Arm not only activates its boons, but it also gets the ability to speak to its wielder through the same kind of link he had with Biko and his Ghoul side. This marked a stark contrast to the brutally animal-like sounds from his Devil Arms and the Archdevil Arms, the difference in sentient intelligence. Whilst those traits persisted inside the Archdevil Arm, the sentience it had would become much more prominent. 'Hey there, Erebus. Sorry its been a bit longer than you would have liked for me to summon you into battle. Bet it was pretty cramped in there.'

{Oh, don't you fret my dear, your white half is very wild company. Ufufufufu, I could just EAT HIM UP with his cuteness.}

The teen could only sweat drop... whilst suddenly getting the feeling he should feel sorry for his Ghoul Persona for some reason. Even so, Nico shook his head as he held his Scythe in a ready stance, eyes narrowing behind his helmet whilst he eyed the wary-looking Fatalis. 'Well, i'd love to chat some more with you, but this fucker here is wanting to have some good thrashing. I trust that would be alright with you?' he asked the voice of his Archdevil Arm.

{Of course, dearie. Do be a good sport and show this PUP what it means to bite at his superiors for me, will you?}

Nico only chuckled, before swinging his Scythe at his opponent and firing what looked like black homing rays of Darkness, much like his ATOMIC INFERNO Skill he used for Soul Edge. However, this one felt quite superior, in that instead of just a couple dozen, this one launched THOUSANDS of rays at his opponent, said enemy being the Fatalis which quickly took to the skies to avoid them. Nico didn't let it escape though, as the rays continued to pursue the Crimson Fatalis no matter where it flew with the intent of utterly devouring it. When he saw that the creature was getting close to being out of sight, Nico quickly morphed his Rinkaku Kagune into their wing forms, before taking flight and shooting off after it.


Up above the island, Nico looked around for the sight of the Crimson Fatalis, and soon found it flying through a large canyon to try and lose the homing rays. Upon counting them, Nico saw only a couple dozen, similar tot he number Sou Edge released, remaining which meant that the others had hit something other than the Fatalis since he saw few wounds on it. 'Although, I do feel small remnants of darkness flowing through it, pretty much acting like poison to its system. However, its body seems to be reheating itself in an attempt to suppress the poison of the darkness.' Looking around, Nico once again found areas that had been filled with Darkness, Darkness and shadows that rapidly expanded to conceal all forms of life from view... plus, likely devouring it all as well. 'Entire landscapes, huh...?'

This reminded him of when Erebus awakened, with how it pretty much formatted the entire red room into a Darkness nightmare during its evolution into its Archdevil Arm form.

Even so, Nico noticed the Fatalis quickly flying up into the air above the island before halting there, using its Wings to keep itself afloat while batting it's Tail towards the remaining rays. Each one got sent back into the canyon, which now looked pretty much overrun with Darkness at this point. The Elder Dragon took one look at the redhead Armoured male, it's eyes burning with immense fury and malice towards him. Nico didn't blame it, he HAD just corrupted parts of its home with Erebus after all. It then unleashed a mighty roar, and following after that a HUGE shower of meteors, each one the size of a human, falling onto the island.

Having to Warp around to dodge them felt like a pain at first, however he then recalled Erebus's powers, and shrouded himself with it's Darkness, thus the Meteors simply passed through him.

Problem solved.

Though, he did get the feeling Erebus was laughing as he thought that...

Meh.

Nico quickly realized what the creature did however, when he saw flames start to spread throughout the entire island as well, some flames even colliding with the darkness areas which began to battle each other. He could see constructs formed from fire and darkness charging at each other and entering a full on turf war below them, determined to win the island for themselves. 'Fire vs darkness... light vs darkness. Oh the irony...' Nico couldn't help but think to himself, chuckling slightly at his thoughts while twirling Erebus in his hand. He twirled it a full 360 degrees multiple times, before firmly grasping the Shaft.

Instantly afterwards, Nico swung Erebus after gathering more power into it. The result, managed to be a large wave of Darkness that cut through every spec of air between it and it's target. The Crimson Fatalis responded by launching a large fiery blast. Both attacks slammed into each other like great weights clashing with each other, resulting in a mix of fire and Darkness erupting into an explosion. Following that attempt, Nico swung Erebus several times and sent homing rays at it,, before unleashing it's power of creation to form a cage around the airspace the two shared. The cage itself looked like one of those one would see in the gallows, and since the thing was made from Darkness it would be difficult to get rid of due to it's absorption properties.

Nico phased through it however after avoiding several Fireballs the size of a small island by the Crimson Fatalis, and then hovered above the cage. His eyes narrowed as he held Erebus above his head, it's form heavily bathing itself in Darkness. "Now... clench it, Erebus! Show this fucker what it means to FEAR THE DARK!" he bellowed straight towards his Archdevil Arm, which cackled in glee through their link as it responded to its master's will. In that moment, the cage began to shrink at high speeds, attempting to trap and devour the Crimson Fatalis still inside of it. At the rate it shrunk, Nico theorized that the beast would have but a few more seconds before darkness would claim it.

Those few seconds though... turned out to be everything that the beast needed.

One moment the cage was shrinking in Nico's eyes, the next though the teen almost got blown away. The reason, a tornado of fire erupted out from the shrinking cage, completely obliterating it whilst enlarging to the size of the island beneath them. Heat and flames roared from the torrent like a newborn phoenix, proudly and boldly displaying both it's fury and glee at having broken free from the cage that he had entrapped it. Nico guessed that the cage of darkness had only about a couple seconds to remain so before it had been destroyed... and this beast had generated such flames to destroy it... he could see how this thing could have destroyed entire kingdoms on its own...

Nevertheless, Nico allowed Erebus to pour its Darkness into the atmosphere above them, faint black wisps rising from the back of the blade being the sole hint to what it was doing. Those wisps however, had an immediate effect on the atmosphere, so quick that it hadn't even been funny. The skies immediately began to darken as clouds of Darkness covered them, blocking out and devouring any sources of light. That would be no problem for him though, thanks to his Gene Seed Implants being able to let him see in even these conditions. The flames burning within the Fatalis not only gave away its position, but also allowed it vision in this darkness too.

According to his senses, Nico estimated that so far, Erebus had only used about 40% of its total power, there was still a whole bucket load of energy to go through. Even as right now when he channeled the power of Darkness within it to generate a whole shower of Darkness balls above his head and sent them to his enemy, Nico felt that it didn't even reach the weapon's half way point. Not to mention the fact that the more he used it, the more attuned the male found himself becoming to it's power. It had been similar to his previous Archdevil Arm, too. As the blade lit up with fumes made by Darkness, Nico made to charge forwards when he saw the Crimson Fatalis having destroyed the previous attack he made, his next one aiming more towards it's exposed stomach, when...

'OI, KING! HOLD UP A SECOND!'

'Huh?! What now, you?!' Nico exclaimed in his mind, almost jumping when the mad shout from his Ghoul Persona tore through the silence that was his mind. Not to mention the fact that Erebus's Darkness Sight didn't feel the need to block him or Biko out. Guess Erebus liked those two then, if he thought back to the previous instances between it and those two, hence why it allowed him to hear them still. 'I'm in the middle of something here!'

'NOT MY PROBLEM, KING! BUT WHATEVER, YOU GOTTA THINK! IS KILLING THIS THING REALLY THE BEST WAY TO PASS THE TEST?!'

...

...

...

...

...

Did he just hear that right? Nico almost didn't even try to believe what he just heard, so surprised he had been that he'd even stopped Erebus's next attack. The only reason the Archdevil Arm didn't show any frustration at that, had been because it too heard his Ghoul Persona's question and wanted to know more. Did it just say what they thought he said? That this was the best way to go about this test? Was his head loose or something?

Well, wait maybe it was.

'UGH, SHOULDA EXPECTED THAT, BUT C'MON KING, AREN'T YOU MISSING ONE 'PECULIAR' DETAIL ABOUT YOUR GHOUL SHIT?! LIKE, HELLOOOOOO, THIS THING'S A POWERFUL BEAST, YEAH? AN ELDER DRAGON AT THAT! AND WE'RE A GHOUL, A CREATURE THAT GETS STRONGER EATING OUR OWN KIND OR OTHER ABNORMALS! I THINK YA CAN GET THE PICTURE THERE!'

As he heard those words, Nico blinked owlishly as he surrounded himself in Darkness, allowing himself some form of protection whilst the Crimson Fatalis tried to attack him to no avail. Physical attacks remained useless, and the fire attacks it launched merely got devoured... thus, it stopped attacking and waited for Nico to make the next move.

'What the hell is this guy's mindset? I mean, he's said it himself he's instinct personified, so he literally shouldn't be thinking anything complex at all...' Nico wondered inside his Darkness. It was only because of Erebus that he wasn't being devoured by his own Darkness, since it controlled said element. Still, this fact didn't really register inside Nico's head as he continued to ponder...

Until an idea hit him.

Could...

Could his Ghoul side be talking about THAT?

Back in Gamindustri, Nico sometimes had to sate his hunger by hunting other Abnormal or other Ghouls. The problem with his Ghoul side was that it had a ravenous appetite, an appetite that it couldn't sate with just humans alone as a diet. Therefore, other monsters had been the way to go, and whilst it was an acquired taste his Ghoul Side eventually began finding monsters more delicious than humans. Although humans still tasted like a five star hotel's full course meal to him, monsters started tasting better.

Though, they also had other benefits too.

Not only did devouring monsters sate his hunger, restore his RC Cell reserves and increase their quantity thus increase his appetite for them, but they also enhanced his RC Cells to make them stronger. To make them better, more resilient and more versatile. It was theorized to be how his Kagune began to develop new traits such as it's invisibility or its projectiles, hell even the powers that his third fangs now had were a viable result of devouring Abnormals. There had been just something about eating Abnormals that resulted in Nico getting stronger and stronger the more he ate. Therefore, the Guild along with everyone else in a position of power aside from the CPUs who knew about him, decided to restrict his feeding habits to a few Abnormals only, with strict rules regarding them which forced Nico to return to devouring the humans he was 'sent' after.

But back to the Abnormal devouring thing, Nico LOVED eating them, in fact eating that meat he'd hunted thanks to Castiel in the first trial reminded him heavily of those times. But in none, NONE of those times had be been fortunate enough to consume an Elder Dragon. There had been a time when a Chameleos, which could be considered an Elder Dragon, had wandered into his path which then resulted in his Kagune getting increased vibrations to the point where it eventually DEVELOPED invisibility, but yeah. Aside from that, he had been forbidden from eating such monsters as it had been theorized that the power-up his Ghoul side would achieve would be 'too dangerous' for them to handle.

Tch, bastards just didn't want their 'dog' to break their leash.

Well, considering that he had started using more of his Ghoul Side at this point, plus Zelretch HAD once told him between trials (sneakily he might add) that he would be 'free to do whatever', why should he stick to that rule here? Not like those guys would find out anyways, since this WAS a different dimension. 'Heheheheheheee, I like the way you think...' Nico couldn't help but remark to his Ghoul side, a dark grin slowly spreading out across his lips beneath his helmet, his eyes slowly blazing to life.

'HEH, DON'T GIMME THAT SHIT, JUST GO 'BON APETIT' ALREADY, YA FUCKTARD!'

And with that, his Ghoul side's Persona vanished back into the recesses of his mind... only for Biko to take his place.

'Nico, whilst I do still dislike that guy, I do admit he has a point. Eating this Fatalis will definitely enhance your Ghoul side, and perhaps it may even get you one step closer to completing THAT form. Not to mention it'll give you some other benefits as well. In addition, I sense something within it that may help us.'

Nodding inside his shell, Nico allowed the connection to cut itself, and he swung Erebus to disperse his cover. When he did so, a hundred or so ideas popped into his head with this information, ideas that soon formed into a concrete plan of attack. 'Alright, if I want to do this...' Nico began, though he paused his thoughts so that he could Warp out the way of a Fireball to the face. He reappeared, then Warped again to avoid a fiery claw as well, caused by the Crimson Fatalis as it turned around and breathed another Torrent towards him. Sensing that his Magic Resistance Perk wouldn't be able to handle such a concentrated attack, Nico quickly engulfed himself in Darkness, allowing him to let the attack harmlessly pass through him.

'I'll have to ground it first, then I can focus on the main Course. However, I can't get too close as this thing's been recorded to be able to excrete explosive gases everywhere around it, gases that detonate. Though, if it does, I do recall records saying that it takes time for that gas to be replaced, since it doesn't just fill the entire battlefield with it. If it sees me trying to get onto it's back, I bet THAT would be what it will do...' the teen thought to himself, before an idea struck him. 'That may work!'

With his idea in mind, plan fully forming Nico quickly swung Erebus and pulled out a large portion of it's power. He guessed he;d used 60% at this point, as a massive dragon of Darkness formed behind him that looked to be shaped just like the Crimson Fatalis itself. Only, where red would have been purple took it's place, and it's eyes were made from violently blazing fumes. The black dragon roared at the Crimson Fatalis, which roared back in challenge before, under Erebus and Nico's command, the being of darkness charged towards it.

Of course, the Crimson Fatalis responded by blasting it with flames, however thanks to the absorption Nature of Erebus, the Darkness being didn't receive any damage from the flames, passing through them with ease. At this, the Crimson Fatalis narrowed it's eyes, contempt and arrogance seeping from it's being as it kept itself from charging at it's opponents. Instincts and experience combined told it not to let that thing touch it since it was made from the very thing causing it so much trouble in the first place. Its suspicions on this being screamed at it to be wary of what it might do...

Those suspicions quickly became apparent when the entire thing just up and exploded, covering the Crimson Fatalis's face and vision with Darkness soot. The Creature wildly thrashed and flailed about, quickly trying to get the soot off it as it felt the power it had begin to work it's magic. Flames began to generate across it's body, seeping through the cracks that the soot didn't cover before it unleashed it's gas. A gas that detonated soon after, blowing away all the Soot so it couldn't hinder it's vision anymore. Howling in victory, the Crimson Fatalis looked around for it's opponent, determined to gloat about how it's puny darkness didn't manage to hurt it...

Only, it couldn't find it anywhere.

"SURPRISE, BITCH!"


Calling that out had never felt so good in that moment.

Nico could only think that as he slammed into the creature from behind, having appeared behind it by jumping through the darkness that the beast he made generated when it exploded before engulfing himself in a meteor shaped from Darkness to slam into the creature's back. The moment he had done so, Nico saw hos his Darkness quickly began eroding away at the Crimson Fatalis, every hit from that darkness so far had been weakening its defenses against Erebus's power, and at this point it wouldn't last long until the Darkness would be able to get a proper foothold within it's body. After all, every time Erebus hit it with either physical or Dark attacks, a portion of the enemy was absorbed by it, letting the Darkness get better accustomed to devouring beings of that magnitude. Its like climbing up a hill, gradually the Darkness would finally be able to get inside the Crimson Fatalis and, despite the flames within hammering away at it, the Darkness would reach it's heart to corrupt and devour it.

Though, that wasn't his goal...

No, his goal was MUCH different.

The moment he slammed into it, Nico quickly released his Bikaku and stabbed each of the four Tails into the creature's body, rooting himself in and securing his stability all the while. Even as the Crimson Fatalis tried to flail about and wrench him off it, Nico's Kagune managed to keep him strapped securely onto his back. Though, this would be the risky part of his attack plan, since thanks to this position Nico wouldn't be able to dodge the gas if it excluded it at this time. Maybe Warping could work, but he didn't want to leave even a bit of his Kagune behind to do so.

Therefore, Nico instantly acted on his next move, raising Erebus and gathering the Darkness around them. This included that which was on the Fatalis, and it resulted in him forming two eel-like demonic heads attached to Tendril-like extensions from his upper back, their size more than rivaling that of the Crimson Fatalis's head. Guessed those ere the Demon Heads Erebus had told him about via the transfer. Each one however, gripped the beast's wings tightly in their jaws, their grip colder than ice as their nature began to eat away at the Crimson Fatalis's defenses. Said beast roared and howled in pain at the feelings that grew within it from its wings, a rising fear becoming present within as it realized that it's defenses were slowly failing it.

Noticing that the beast was beginning to release the gas as evident by the fumes Nico spotted around them, the redhead teen quickly made his next move. 'This better work!'

Upon his command, Nico made the heads pull themselves backwards, calling upon all the power that he could muster, as he put in every bit of Demonic Power, RC Cells and SP into his next move. The perks and boons known as Shadow Gauntlet, Berserk and Avenger worked overtime in using their effects, as well as the various Satanic Treasures that he had collected such as the Red Rage Ring, the Green Hatred Ring, and the mark on his chest known simply as the Sin Amplifier. All that energy, all that power, it went straight into the Archdevil Arm known as Erebus, which almost flt like someone high on drugs as it eagerly lost itself in the power coursing through it like blood... whilst funneling it into the demonic looking Eel heads.

In the end...

SQUELCH!

Nico's demonic Eel Heads tore the wings right out of their sockets with dozens of squishy noises accompanying it.

"GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A loud roar of intense agony enveloped the Crimson Fatalis's maw, forcing itself out into the open air as the Elder Dragon, stripped of its ability to fly, spiraled down towards the ground like a falling rock, soon slamming into the ground with enough force to replicate a powerful earthquake that caused the entire island, which still had been hosting the battle between Fire and Darkness, to tremble down to its roots.


Down on the ground...

Nico had to do all he could to stop himself from coughing as a huge smokescreen blanketed half the island from the impact. It didn't surprise him, not only was that thing large, but Elder Dragons could be considered S to X Ranked Abnormals since their very presence causes natural disasters to take place. They came in many shapes and sizes too, something which Nico had experience with himself thanks to fighting a few of them. Never before had he, aside from that Chameleos, devoured one whole like this. If he HAD done so, then his Ghoul Side would be WAY more than a match for his DPU powers, its buffing prowess would definitely be closer to continent class than his current state's base strength.

Even so, the teen had little time to waste as he used his Rinkaku and Bikaku (the Demon Heads, had already receded into him at the moment of collision) to disperse the smoke. The Fatalis had been known to have immense regenerative capabilities. One time when one met its end by the hand of a Spec Ops Agent and had its corpse made into an Armour, that Agent lost himself to the Armour as it took over and reformed the Fatalis, with the human inside it who only died when the process completed. Not to mention that the Fatalis usually screw humanity over in the worst way possible by picking up defeated Agents and sticking them to its boy, using the flames within to melt them (those alive would be screaming during the process) onto its body to make its own Armour. This one seemed to have been here for a long time, so he didn't see any remnants of Armour on it (thank Goddess).

Therefore, the redhead needed to get a move on before the beast regenerated its wings.

Looking to his prey, the male saw it lying on it's side next to him, winded from the recent loss of its appendages and staggered by the slamming into the island. His senses told him that remnants of Erebus's Darkness had entered it and disabled it's mobility functions by corrupting and eating away it's nerve system. Not to mention that it devoured it's spinal column to make sure it couldn't escape. They had landed right where Nico had first appeared coincidentally, and the heat did not do its wounds any favors. Even so, Nico noticed how the wounds were rapidly healing, and would take a couple milliseconds to close. In addition, the stumps where its wings had once been were already bubbling, they'd take at least a millisecond to start regenerating right now. Its healing capacity would definitely surpass his right now... though the possibility of gaining that regeneration boost nearly made him drool with eager anticipation.

With that in mind, the redhead male eagerly dismissed his Armour and launched himself at the Elder Dragon, cutting a hole inside it's chest with a few quick Bikaku slashes and unleashing hell upon its insides with his Rinkaku, strapping Erebus to his back and shielding himself with Darkness to ward off the flames. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't be able to touch things like this since the Darkness wouldn't let it, but Erebus allowed him to at this moment since it wanted to see him grow stronger from eating through the Crimson Fataliss's future corpse.

CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP, CHOMP, CHOMP, SCHULUCK, SQUELCH, SQUELCH, CHOMP, GULP, SLURP, CHOMP, CHOMP SLURP, GULP!

Not only did Nico's mouth work overtime, but he also formed extra mouths with his Rinkaku, mouths that eagerly dug into his prey and began feasting upon it with the Crimson Fatalis unable to respond. All it could do was lay there as it's life began to die and get consumed by the predator that had attacked it... oddly enough, this situation seemed starkly similar to the habits of how a Centipede would eat it's prey. Many mouths descended upon it with the intent to leave nothing remaining, not even the faintest drop of sweet, mouth watering blood. All of it would soon go into the belly, then the eagerly waiting body, of the young One-Eyed Ghoul which had begun feasting upon it.

One Predator had finally triumphed over the other.


By the time Nico finally finished his meal, the teen rubbed the last specs of blood from his recent meal off his face with his forearm, then licked it all up with his tongue. His eyes held a look that could only be explained as that look one gets when truly reaching the pinnacle of satisfaction, glazed over with moans of delight escaping his lips. A sweet, content sigh soon followed suit as he fell onto his backside, using his hands as supports by placing them behind him and leaning backwards on them. By the time that he had finished, Erebus had already vanished back inside him, inside his soul where the Archdevil Arms preferred instead of his Void Storage. The redhead male then looked up at the Skies above, his eyes looking upon the clear skies that came from him having dispersed the Darkness there with this battle.

His Kagune had already receded into him, but boy did that meal taste fucking GREAT! It had been some of the best meat he could ever have tasted, absolutely high quality stuff right there. Devouring an Abnormal as exquisite as that had been one of the few times where Nico truly appreciated the taste buds his Ghoul Side made for him, as he felt almost godly in terms of contentment. Not to mention that he had to use his Kagune to make more mouths to devour the Crimson Fatalis with, nothing had been spared not a single drop of blood or the useless wings that he'd pulled from it. In all honestly, they were more like the end desert of a full course menu...

Not to mention the ADDITIONS that had been made to his Ghoul Side and the rest of his body!

Standing back upwards, though he did nearly stumble from the amount of eating he'd done, Nico spent a moment regaining his balance before he internally checked his body out... and honestly, he couldn't help but jump and down like an excited schoolgirl (the urge to squeal like one also felt prominent, but Nico resisted that part) when he found out what he did.

To start, Nico saw through his inner eye how the RC Cells had adapted to the new surge of meat, making huge improvements to his body. The Fatalis's blood cells merged with his RC Cells, expanding their vitality, endurance, speed, power, attack strength, defense, the works. Not to mention he now had that thing's healing abilities stacked onto his own regeneration. It would be nigh impossible to truly kill him even with the thing about a DPU's soul never dying due to multiple plane milarky. It's bone marrow fused with his own, strengthening that too whilst his skin felt as hard as dragon scales. Though it retained it's human appearance, Nico could not say that he hadn't felt any changes to its hardness when he ran a finger over his arm. Not only that, but when he looked at his blood by cutting himself with one of his nails, he had seen how the redness that his blood possessed seemed to glow a vibrant crimson color before it receded into the wound which healed over. Like he had thought, his regeneration for minor injuries was instant now.

Now to see if his Kagune looked any different.

Unleashing his Rinkaku and Bikaku, Nico circled them around him so their tips pointed at his face, allowing him to look them over. It didn't seem like anything had changed about them appearance wise at first, but when he let the Rinkaku show itself, the male saw that instead of pure, organic flesh, the Rinkaku showed itself as being made from hardened, abyssal black dragon scales. Not to mention the increased parameters for his RC Cells could be detected within them, the male thought as he once again cloaked his Rinkaku. Looking to his Bikaku, Nico noticed similar internal changes, and when he experimentally released a talon projectile, he INSTANTLY noted how it tore a clean hole through a cliff face before proceeding on it's flight course. He even saw it make a slight twinkle in the skies like those three guys who constantly get blasted away by a 10 year old.

He had no clue on what his third fangs got from that meal, but he certainly felt like it got similar power boosts.

'Not to mention the fact that you now have absolute fire immunity, Nico. The crimson radiance from your blood all but proves it. This creature, it possessed a powerful core which you devoured, one which allows someone to become perfectly immune to any type of fire or heat based attack. I would have never heard of such a thing if we did not notice it whilst we were getting books about swords before the second trial. I implore you to look into that market once again when this trial is finally over, so we can find out what other treasures we can acquire. Not to mention that by devouring it whole, your body gained some... unexpected treasures.'

The moment Biko said those words, the male arched a brow whilst wondering what the fuck he had meant by that. That is, until Nico felt a weight on his left leg, and when he looked down there... Nico's eyes bulged, nearly flying out their sockets cartoonishly. "Wh-Wha?!"

There, clinging to his leg, was a Spirit Bone. It was shaped like the leg of the Crimson Fatalis whom Nico had devoured, and glowed a similar shade of orangish-red that the creature did. It constantly oozed malice and rage through it's aura, a rage that Nico quickly attributed to the rage Khornate Demons possessed whenever they fought.

'I saw it attach to you whilst you were inside devouring that Elder Dragon, though you were otherwise preoccupied. Apparently, it must be something akin to a Spirit Beast of considerable age for the power I sensed. According to my investigations, it offers two abilities: Meteor shower - the user to summon meteors from the skies like it's original form once did. The size and power of a summoned Meteor depended on the level of energy put inside the Spirit Bone, and the user can target certain areas or everywhere around them. Then, there's Gas Eruption – The Spirit Bone releases a cloud of highly flammable gas, which the user can detonate at will. The quantity and range of which depend on the user themselves.'

'Huh, I see... so that thing was a Spirit Beast, huh? Well then, that would make a lot of sense, and honestly part of me thought to make it's corpse into something useful for the girls back home, but honestly that would have been a bad idea. It could have destroyed them whilst reforming the Crimson Fatalis, or reduce their minds to insanity. It was for the best that I eat it the way I did... at least now, it won't have a chance to ever regenerate and my power can keep it from coming back.' Nico thought as he gazed down at the Spirit Bone. He could feel the evil and sinister power within it, a testament to the Fatalis's rage. No way did he want something like THAT anywhere NEAR Neptune or the girls, he'd clobber any who tried to do otherwise no questions asked.

Just then, a screen appeared before him, showing the signature sign that the trial had been passed and that he had earned a reward. Looking almost expectantly, Nico smiled when he saw the reward that he had gained:

REWARDS:

Ouranos

Ouranos... the first ever Archdevil Arm he had ever gained, and one of the greater achievements he'd gotten too. This Archdevil Arm, well, it had WAY more of a connection to him when it was just a Devil Arm, as this thing had powers that opened his eyes to just how dangerous the Devildimension really was to him. Through it, he'd seen many things, many horrors on a planet-wide scale that he didn't even want to think about. Though, he didn't regret seeing them even if they were nightmare material, cause it showed him just how good a being Sparda had been by sealing Gamindustri off from the rest of that war-like Dimension. So many OP bad-asses existed throughout the space outside the sealed away Gamindustri, and he wanted to fight them all. To refine his skills enough so that he could fight on equal grounds against Mundus.

Therefore, Nico welcomed the Archdevil Arm back into its soul with a massive grin on his face.

That was when another screen popped up in front of him.

Hey there, emo kid.

Thanks for getting rid of that pest for me, i'd captured it while on a bit of a stroll through worlds and put it here as a toy, but it may have been a bit too insane for even my tastes (it would ruing my mood dealing with that, I am watching The Good Place and dealing with that would eat away at my TV time). All that rage inside it probably turned its brain to mush (not that it had much to begin with, even though it is a poor idiot for losing the intelligence it should have for his age), but even so that rage turned it into a 100,000 year plus Spirit Beast that would have been too much of a pain to put down myself, then I thought 'why not let the emo kid have a crack at it?' Anyways, since ya got your powers upgraded, its time to get this trial's last boss revealed! So, don't leave your seats folks, cause this is gonna be a doozy!

Oh, but you got to wait on Castiel as he is dealing with some... stuff.

Zelretch the awesome, badass dead apostle! #smiley face#

... To be honest, Nico wasn't even mad at this point, he'd expected it to be something like this. That, and he had been in too good a mood to care about how Zelretch had basically used him to do his dirty work. Hey, it got him some neat power-ups, so it wasn't completely worthless. Part of him wondered if the expression 'a method to the madness' applied to that guy... then that part got snuffed out, as OF COURSE it applied. It was a dumb question that needed no answer, since they had experience to prove it.

These were his thoughts, before Nico found himself teleported away from the now barren Island.


Now, the male found himself back in the red room... only there was a slight difference.

Instead of many small entrances, there was one big one in front of him, one that comically had a big sign next to it saying 'go through here!' Nico could only sweat drop, whilst Amon appeared before him with his arms crossed. Though, his features did soften slightly when he appeared, so maybe he was getting somewhere with this guy?

"(Looks like you have completed the test, boy. I'm impressed, you actually hung in there, after that second one, I had half expected you to wuss out. In any case, the last enemy of this trial awaits, however you have to wait for your companion before you can proceed. Therefore, this entrance shall lead you to the one that leads to the boss area. Go there, and wait for your companion, do whatever you please in the meantime.)"

'Huh, so Emiya isn't finished yet then... Well, I'll wait for the guy, its the least I can do for him since the second test incident. Maybe I could look for something that could help him or his companions out on the market shop thing this dimension has. There should be something there, and I have more than enough points to spare too. Plus there might be something the girls back home could use too.' the redhead male thought to himself. In any other circumstance, he'd likely be pretty annoyed for having to wait on someone else, but right now he perfectly accepted it. He'd been an idiot and made Castiel waste his time helping his stupid ass, so something like this should be fair in exchange. Plus, it wasn't like he couldn't do anything whilst he waited either, so that was a thing. Perhaps he could see about looking into those tomes he got for those Great Way of the Buddha and Star God's Broken Shadow techniques, plus those Osiris Techniques too, while he waited.

Ideas flowed endlessly through his mind.

With that, Amon vanished and Nico began walking into the entrance.


Castiel POV

As the ritual ended I could only sigh in relief. This was probably my top 4 worse pains ever, which the list goes:

1 - The whole thing with Kokabiel, including the battle with him and the subsequent boiling of my right eye while I still had my original one;

2 - The use of the Buddha Heart Lotus of the Nine Ressurections and the subsequent breaking and restructuring of all my magic circuits that, by the way, are directly connected to my soul;

3 - My fifteen birthday where the girls decided to house a surprise party with only homemade dishes... Now that I think better this one might beat the other two, I am just not sure because I passed out on the middle of the 'party' because one of them mixed what was supposed to be salt and what was ferment, and when she realized she decided to fix it by putting salt there even though what she actually put was sugar. That was on a turkey that for some reason had the filling of mayonnaise that I believe was rotten (after that I forbid any of the girls from even trying to cook);

Anyway, I got to admit one thing. This Divine Blood is freaking awesome! I can feel the power coursing through me right now and boy is it strong.

I think this flame I now have is enough to make my flames from Airgetlain at least ten times hotter and with the added attribute of being the bane of demonic powers. It is just a shame that I don't have enough time to properly study these flames and try to make techniques that use them properly or my power would sky-rocket even further.

Now, it is time to go and see that last trial again. With my current affinity for fire and heat I don't fear that trial nearly as much as before, perhaps I can even use it to learn more about fire and try to learn whatever I can from it.

"Astaroth, I am ready for that other trial." I said to the empty air, but the entity appeared just the same before me.

'If you says so then we ought to get going. No point in staying in this place when it doesn't even have the fire energy it had some time ago.' He said as he put his hand in my shoulder before teleporting me back to the place where we can select the challenge. 'Out you go, remember that as long as you manage to stay there for 10 minutes you pass the test' he said before adding 'Oh, and I will guard what is left from the Lesser Vermilion Bird's corpse. No point in carrying it around when fighting there.' he said.

"Thanks, and nice haircut by the way." I said cheekily as the fire snakes that formed his hair started nodding in approval and smugness. It is sort of cute, if only ruined by how they are connected to a guy that is as jacked as possible.


Entering the trial place again I no longer felt the heat I felt before. If anything it was just like a warm morning to me, my body now used to much hotter flames and much more adept to dealing with heat than before.

I turned to the sky, and sure enough, meteors started falling from the sky one after another, one faster than the other with the smaller ones being a tad faster than the heavier and bigger ones.

Disrupting the rhythm as the meteors fell I continuously moved from one point to another, analyzing where the meteors would fall and how they would impact things around me. But, the more I managed to watch it the more shocked I am. It is like there is a certain rhythm and, at the same time, it completely lacks any sort of law of how it works. It just keeps trying to annihilate everything, everything the fire is doing is trying to consume everything, even itself as many of the meteors hit one another consuming and growing more and more all-encompassing.

However, as I moved from one point to another I could spend more time analyzing it as I no longer feared the fire here, just the impact that the meteors created.

This, this is how fire is then, this search for destroying everything, to consume all, this is what fire is all about. However, even though the destruction was everywhere I also saw how the destruction build in itself, as if it grew with time and made things more whole.

I was entranced, the divine blood in me helping me understand what was happening as my understanding of fire and its variations and uses deepened with time. This would have endless benefits for me as I continued learning here about fire and its infinite variations. I was making a foundation for me to grow later, to be able to truly use fire as I see fit to either save or destroy my enemies.

I continued admiring and studying all that I could from this scene that could only be thought off as a 'end of the world' scenario, I cut down meteors and waves of magma that approached me while I continued trying to deduct and learn about everything. Like that, time passed without I even realizing, my understanding on how to use fire increased by the second as I learned and simulated more and more about what was going on. I learned in special how fire can be explosive and how it can carry 'weight' despite the fact it be pure energy.

Lost in time I simply forgot the fact there is a time limit for me to complete this trial, I simply lost myself in deductions as I continuously learned more and more as the fire and the power here grew more and more potent.

I only stopped when I was hit by a meteor that was at least a few hundred meters in size accelerating at extreme speeds while covered in very destructive flames.


'I see that you finally came out of the trial grounds.' Astaroth said as he looked at Castiel who had an empty gaze as he continued moving his mouth as if he was reciting something, not that he was actually as he simply was trying to fixate everything he learned deep within his mind for latter studies. After about one minute he finally snapped out of it and quickly turned to Astaroth.

"You said before that I have a total of three chances there, I will go in again." Castiel said as he stood up while already moving towards the door, ignoring the dumbfounded look Astaroth gave him.

'He already passed, heck he managed to stay there for a whole 18 minutes! Why did he decide to go in there again?' Astaroth asked to no one in particular as he saw Castiel entering the trial ground again.

What Astaroth didn't understand is that Castiel was now in a state where he is trying to understand everything that he possibly can about fire. At this point in time what he wanted to be able to learn more about fire was exactly what was in that trial he just re-entered.

Pressure, the danger of getting close to dying being the key for him as he wanted to force himself to learn anything and everything. For him right now this was more important than any reward, this was a chance to grow stronger and pave the way for him to be strong enough to protect those he cares about.

And, this desire to grow stronger to protect is exactly what will make him truly shine in the future.

So, a total of thirty minutes passed before Castiel was expelled out of that world of destruction. His body was covered in wounds, bruises, and he was covered in magma on many places, but his face continued mostly blank as he continued learning more and more. His understanding deepening by the second as his control over fire and fire magic grew exponentially.

If he were to use his Cruel Star as he used on Nico during their spar right now the results would be a crushing and absolute victory by comparison. The fragmented star power that resided in Airgetlan was growing more and more complete as Castiel used his own knowledge and power to fill in the blanks and make its power grow to something completely unique to himself. Just based on this alone he already could be called as being one of the 'strong' ones in his world, and while his powers still remained as ultimate-class his accumulation to reach super-class was reaching scary levels.

He was strong, and was only growing stronger.


After meditating/assimilating everything he could from what he saw in this trial Castiel was taken to the final one. He now had just one more trial to face, but before he entered this trial (which he had a BAD premonition when he saw the door) he had something else he had to do.

Claim his reward.

"So, did I get anything for that one?" Castiel asked, not really hoping for much as he had already got plenty with his previous victory against the Lesser Vermilion Bird.

'You do, this one may be one that you will appreciate in special as you do seem to love learning.' Astaroth said with a slight smile, he also liked learning and people that relentlessly searched for knowledge to help those he cared about.

Astaroth then took out a stone. It was black, damaged, full of very small runes that were paced together extremely close but with extremely rough lines, and gave off an ancient and powerful aura but if you were not sensitive enough you wouldn't even notice.

Castiel gaped when he saw this stone, it was something so valuable that Castiel has only read about it and didn't even think about one day obtaining one for himself.

This was a Chaos Stone, a stone created when a universe was born and that was naturally engraved with many unique mysteries of the universe and how it worked. Any centimeter² of this stone carried in itself more knowledge than all the books on Earth combined!

The number of things that was possible to learn by studying this sort of natural treasure of the universe was impossible to define. And, the piece he received was almost 2 m³!

It was enough for him to study and learn for hundreds of years and still not get everything.

It was something that would help him in many ways, he just needed time for him to study it carefully as it was a very time-consuming thing since the knowledge was all chaotically put and it was hard to understand. However, the benefits that this sort of thing could give him on the long run were simply incalculable.

Castiel carefully touched the stone, he did not dare start studying it now as he knows that when he does start he doesn't know how long he will stay lost studying it, but he had a feeling that the least amount of time would be five months straight.

Thanking Astaroth he turned around to his last trial, hoping that it would not be too crazy.


He had to have thought that, he just had to sign a red flag.

"So, this is who that moronic idiot sent to face me?" A human said this as he looked down at me.

He had waist-length hair with shoulder-length bangs framing the sides of his face, covering most of his right eye. He had a crimson armor with numerous metal plates, forming protective guards along his chest, waist, shoulders, and thighs. He had a non-folding fan that was almost his size and a scythe in hand.

But, the most striking thing about him was his eyes, they were red, with three black tones in them.

Yep, uncle Zelretch managed to go well and beyond with this one. He actually managed to either create or find UCHIHA MADARA to face me on this trial!

I can only hope he can't use magekyo and wood release, otherwise I might as well just give up right here and now.