BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
FWOOSH!
"AHHHHHHH!"
The sounds of explosions and the screams of the damned echoed throughout the hellscape. As the masters of this realm came to conflict.
Izuku and Zarathos clashed, their hands coming together as they tried to overpower the other one. Neither proving to be stronger than the other.
"RAH!" Izuku opened his mouth and spiked chains flew out, and dug into Zarathos face and arms.
"GRRR!" The chains wrapped around Zarathos's arms, restricting them, allowing Izuku to win the contest of strength, and throw the demon into the air.
Izuku formed a shotgun in his hand and shot the mid-air Zarathos.
KABOOM!
Smoke filled the air where Zarathos had been following the explosion, and a few seconds later, chains flew from the smoke down at Izuku.
He tried to dodge, but one of the chains wrapped itself around his leg.
Zarathos landed on the ground and yanked on the chain pulling Izuku off his feet and into the air.
The demon lord threw Izuku around in the, slamming him on the ground repeatedly, making huge craters each time.
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
Cracks in Izuku's bones healed almost as fast as they formed, and eventually, he manifested a chainsaw in his hand, and cut the chain, freeing him and causing him to drop and roll onto the ground.
Zarathos opened his jaw and let out a tsunami-like wave of fire that engulfed Izuku completely.
The blue flames of Zarathos soul, raged against Izuku's body, trying with all its might to smother Izuku's flames and turn his body to ash, but any damage it did was immediately nullified by his healing ability.
Izuku stood up and decided it was time to test a new ability.
The black skies of the hellscape slowly became unseeable, as grey clouds formed and blanketed the sky.
The clouds crackled with light, electricity crackling within them, and the thunder booming, the sound echoing throughout the lands.
And then, eventually-
KRAKOOM!
A massive bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and stuck Zarathos down.
"RAHHH!" Zarathos screamed as his body was being destroyed by the massive lightning strike, more from anger than pain, but it did make the flames stop.
By the time the lightning strike stopped, there were many cracks in his body and a huge hole in his skull.
These wounds were, of course, healed in seconds.
"This is pointless!" Zarathos roared. "Cease you madn-"
Before the demon could finish, Izuku shot out a chain that wrapped around his head.
Izuku summoned his motorcycle and sped off as he could.
Zarathos was dragged behind him on the chain, his bones getting ground across the stoney floor. Doing more damage to the ground than him.
Izuku yanked the chain as hard as he could, snapped Zarathos head right off his body.
He stopped his motorcycle and slammed the demon's bodiless head onto the ground as hard as he could, before reforming his shotgun in his hand, and blasting it.
BOOM!
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, all that was left of Zarathos was a small blue flame atop a pile of small pieces of bone and ash.
Of course, the flame grew bigger, and Zarathos quickly started to regenerate his body.
Hmm. If we can regenerate our entire bodies, I wonder...Izuku started speculating about the full capabilities of his powers.
Once Zarathos fully reformed his body, he lunged at Izuku, who in response, summoned his chainsaw, and jammed it right through Zarathos's head and ran it through his body, splitting the demon in half.
The two halves of Zarathos flew to opposite sides of Izuku, hitting the ground simultaneously.
And then, they both regenerated. Creating two Zarathos's.
Although, the demon seemed more surprised about this than Izuku, who seemed to have expected this.
As I thought, we can duplicate ourselves. Izuku watched his suspicions be confirmed. And Zarathos doesn't know the full extent of his power. Probably from either lack of imagination or lack of a need to explore his power. Or maybe he's just an idiot.
If Izuku could grin in this form he would have a truly devilish smile on his face. This was going to be fun.
The two Zarathos's ran at Izuku and in response, Izuku breathed fire at them.
At first, the demons were basically unaffected by the fire, with their regeneration far surpassing the rate at which the fire could damage them, but suddenly they both grabbed a surplus of hands.
Clones formed inside Izuku's flames, grabbing Zarathos and his clone, and keeping them in place.
Izuku stopped his attack for a moment and formed two hellfire Bazookas in his arms.
KRAKOOM!
When Izuku fired both of those at Zarathos at full power, it looked like a nuclear bomb went off. But instead of a mushroom cloud, it was a skull cloud...because it was a hellfire explosion.
Many of the suffering souls in hell were swept away by the hurricane-like winds that came from the explosion.
After several minutes, the explosion died down. And in a massive crater, were small piles of destroyed bones, and blue and green flames.
The bones flew up inside the flames, and the two fighters regenerated, without any of their clones.
Guess I should have used that at a farther distance. Izuku thought. Also, something was left of the original Zarathos and myself, but the clones were completely destroyed. I guess they're weaker than the originals.
"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Zarathos seemed to be getting more and more upset as the battle went on, and started growing in size until he was the size of a skyscraper.
Oh, so he does know how to do that. Izuku thought before he was stomped by Zarathos.
Zarathos repeatedly stomped on Izuku's, creating small earthquakes around him as he sent Izuku deeper into the ground.
But as Zarathos was stomping Izuku, the clouds above him started to crackle with electricity, and thunder roared once more.
KRAKOOM!
Suddenly a huge lightning strike touched down...barely missing Zarathos's leg.
Damn it I missed. Izuku thought in frustration.
Zarathos stopped stomping on Izuku and looked up at the storm clouds. "How are you doing such a thing?! I have forever been able to summon storms, but never control them! HOW!?
In response, Izuku started growing from under Zarathos's foot, until he reached the same size and pushed the demon's foot off him, and stood face to face with him.
"You could never control it!" Izuku shouted at him. Which was probably true. In order to use the lightning strike ability, it required rage and control. Allowing your rage to rise and fill the skies, and controlling it, pinpointing your rage and calling it down in the form of lightning.
Someone who rages at everyone with no target could never hope to use this ability.
Speaking of abilities, Izuku opened his mouth and out flew thousands of locusts that flew all around the giant Zarathos's head.
"RAHH!" Zarathos tried to breathe fire to destroy these insects, but he forgot one detail about these bugs.
BOOM!
They exploded.
Zarathos's head had been left with many cracks in it, and before it could regenerate, Izuku punched Zarathos through his skull, which shattered into thousands of fiery pieces.
Izuku pushed Zarathos's headless body to the ground and summoned a massive hammer in his hand.
SMASH!
SMASH!
SMASH!
Izuku brought the hammer down on Zarathos's body, smashing it into tens of thousands of pieces.
Seconds later, Zarathos was nothing but fire and bone fragments.
Then, he started to regenerate.
But he didn't regenerate as one big demon, but rather each one of the fragments of Zarathos regenerated as its own normal-sized Zarathos.
The demons crawled onto Izuku's massive body, climbing on him while ripping parts of his body apart.
Izuku tried to stomp on these clones, but there were too many of them and they kept crawling on him and tearing at his bones.
"RAH!" Izuku's body exploded into a beacon of green fire, destroying all the clones, leaving only the real Zarathos on the ground.
The light died down, and before Izuku could attack the demon again, Zarathos shot out chains at Izuku, wrapping them around his entire body, more and more chains flew out and covered Izuku until he was no longer visible beneath the metal.
Zarathos urged the chains to crush Izuku, squeezing his bones tight.
Then, the chains suddenly completely constricted, and from in between the chains, emerged the now normal-sized Izuku, who had shrunken down to escape.
Now that I think about it, I should be practicing ways to restrain people instead of destroying them. Izuku thought.
The chains were normally a good way to keep people down, but he remembered what happened with Muscular. He couldn't get out the chains, but he would have killed himself trying.
I need to find a way to restrain my strength, just enough to knock them out. Maybe I should use a weapon. Izuku pondered. What's a good non-lethal weapon?
Speaking of weapons, Zarathos formed a sword in his hands and ran at Izuku.
In response, Izuku formed a staff.
Izuku knocked Zarathos's sword aside, before hitting Zarathos on the head with the staff. He was restraining himself so much that it didn't do anything to him.
Would that be enough to stop a normal person? Izuku wondered. While fighting Zarathos would be a nice way to test many of his abilities without worrying about killing his opponent, it was hard to figure out what attacks would work on a normal person. Because any attacks that hurt Zarathos would kill a normal villain.
SLICE!
While Izuku was distracted, Zarathos sliced through his spine, cutting him in two and sending his upper half to the floor.
Zarathos went to plunge his sword through Izuku's skull, but Izuku grabbed the sword, stopping it right before it got to his head.
Izuku's legs grew back, and he kicked out one of Zarathos's legs, sending the demon to the floor as well.
He got up, and a chain flew out of his hand, wrapping around Zarathos's entire torso.
"RAH!" Izuku through Zarathos into the air.
He didn't fly too far, as Izuku was hoping to throw him just high enough into the air, where if a normal person dropped from that height, they wouldn't die. Still intent on using the lord of hell, as a training dummy.
CRASH!
It didn't seem like Izuku succeeded, as if a normal person fell so hard they made that sound when they hit the ground, they would almost definitely die.
"GRAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Zarathos roared, breaking out of his chains and getting up to attack Izuku.
Looks like my throat still needs work. Oh well. Izuku summoned his staff. I'll have plenty of time to practice.
One week later.
The battle had been raging non-stop, as both fighters were unkillable, did not feel pain, and possessed infinite stamina, the fight, in theory, could go on forever.
However, Izuku knew it wouldn't last, much longer.
Zarathos sent out a wave of locusts, and in response, Izuku made a mini-gun, and opened fire, destroying them all, and hitting Zarathos at the same time.
"RAHH! DAMN YOU!" Zarathos stopped his locust attack, and instead, ran through the hail of bullets, letting his regeneration keep him going as he got closer to Izuku, intent on ripping him apart.
It's time. Izuku thought.
He threw away the mini-gun and instead when Zarathos got close, chains came out of Izuku, which wrapped around both of them. Binding them together.
"GAHHH!" Zarathos roared as he struggled to get free, but Izuku kept making new chains as Zarathos kept breaking them.
"Enough! The fight is over!" Izuku shouted.
"You wish to cease fighting now!?" Zarathos roared with rage. "What was the point of all this!? You have been toying with me for a week! Telling me you could destroy me! Why!?"
"This battle was not pointless, all this practice will be useful in the future," Izuku explained. "And I wasn't lying when I said you would be destroyed. The battle was just a way to distract you, so he could get closer."
Before Zarathos could ask who "he" was.
His body was destroyed.
And everything went black.
?
Suddenly, Zarathos was no longer in the hellscape.
Now, the flaming skeleton demon was...at a school?
To be more precise, Aldrea High School. In Izuku's old classroom.
"Where am I?!" Zarathos howled in anger. "Izuku! What have you done!?"
"I did what I told you I would do." Izuku's voice came from behind him.
Zarathos turned around and saw Izuku standing there. In his human form.
Seeing this as an opportunity to hurt Izuku, Zarathos didn't hesitate and charged at Izuku.
But to his surprise, Izuku caught his punch, before dishing out his own blow, which landed right on Zarathos's head, cracking his skull.
The baffled demon stumbled back. And to his surprise, his wound did not heal.
"W-what is happening?! What have you done?!" Zarathos screamed.
Izuku gave an insanely gleeful smile, as everything went to plan. "I made us one."
"What!?" Zarathos asked.
"Our soul was fused together, but it was not one. It was still TWO souls fused together." Izuku started to explain. "We shared a body, we shared power, and our minds shared a space, but we were still two. There was still a Zarathos, and an Izuku. So, I had Overhaul fuse us together completely. Normally, he wouldn't be able to do that, but since he was in the hellscape where we were just soul manifestations, he could."
"Y-you...YOU MADE A DEAL WITH THAT SINNER!?" Zarathos roared out with rage.
The demon once again charged at Izuku to punch him, but Izuku ducked, and uppercutting the demon, cracking his skull again.
"I did what I had to. Trust me I have a plan for him." Izuku explained. "But you are a much bigger threat than him. And now it's time for you to vanish."
Suddenly, the cracks on Zarathos started to expand, and his fire started to leave him and was seemingly being absorbed by Izuku.
"W-what is happening?!" Zarathos questioned.
"Now that we are truly one. There can no longer be a Zarathos and a Izuku, one of us will absorb the other. Only the one with the stronger mind can prevail." Izuku explained.
"You lie!" Zarathos shouted as he was being absorbed. "My mind cannot be weaker than yours! You are weak! WEAK!"
"NO!" Izuku shouted back. "I have never been weak! I survived years! Of this!"
Izuku gestured around him. "Years of bullying! Years of being hurt! Years of people turning on me! Years of no one believing in me! And I still wanted to help people! I had the willpower to refuse a demon! To resist you! Sometimes...sometimes I was weak. I back down when I shouldn't. Didn't speak up. Or I didn't have the strength to fully hold you back. But I never gave up trying to help! Even my death was supposed to help someone...although my foolishness was a weakness too."
Izuku shook his head. "But that's not why you're being absorbed instead of me. To put it simply, your nothing."
He stepped closer to the crumbling Zarathos, glaring at him. "All you are is rage and power. And here, power doesn't matter. So all you are is rage. You know why I'm ok with doing this to you? It's because you are not a person, you're practically a machine. Whose only purpose is to kill sinners. I'm an entire person, filled with all the complexities that come with it, so of course, you're the one being absorbed, it's easier."
"Grrr!" All Zarathos could do was scowl angrily, his body had been mostly destroyed leaving him just a head.
"Goodbye Zarathos," Izuku told him as he kept absorbing what remained of his soul.
"You fool! If I am only rage, as you say, then you shall inherit that rage! That hate for those who sin!" Zarathos cried out. "You will become what you have hated! ME!"
SMASH!
Izuku stomped on Zarathos's skull, and as the last bits of his fire, his soul was absorbed into Izuku.
And then, everything went white.
Back in the hellscape.
When Izuku's consciousness arrived back in the hellscape. He felt the difference immediately.
Rage. Strong, fiery rage filled him. It was almost overwhelming, as the rage felt like it threatened to consume his very being.
His flames turned blue and became a geyser of fire, piercing the sky.
"RAHHHHH!" He screamed as he took in all the anger that had once been part of Zarathos.
But, that anger was directionless.
Zarathos needed no reason to hate. His anger towards sinners being ingrained in him since the start of his existence.
But Izuku was a(mostly) logical being. And while he didn't like criminals at all, he needed a reason to hate them, especially to this extent.
Anger without a target is destined to dissipate.
It took hours, but eventually, Izuku's flames turned green once more. And awhile after that, he felt calm enough to function.
"Are you done throwing your temper tantrum?" Overhaul walked towards Izuku, now that he was safe to approach.
"It worked," Izuku told him. "You will be free from here soon."
"Within the year." Overhaul said. "As we agreed."
"Hmph," Izuku growled at him. Unfortunately, when a demon made a deal, both sides must be fulfilled. Now that Overhaul had done this for him, he would have to bring him back to life...in a way. "I will collect you. But for now."
Izuku would leave this place. He wanted to be in the light once more.
Back in the real world.
In an abandoned meadow, far away from the city, a skeletal hand popped out of the ground.
Izuku pulled himself from the dirt until he was finally above ground.
He transformed back into his human state and looked up, smiling.
For the first time in a long time, he felt free, confident. Like a new man.
For the first time in a long time, the sun shined upon him.
Ok, time to explain.
Izuku absorbed Zarathos's being. So while Zarathos has technically ceased to exist, elements of him are still in Izuku. And this will have effects on his personality.
Can Ghost Rider bring back the dead? From what I hear, yes. Of course, I have to nerf this ability, so here, he can only bring back people he kills, under specific circumstances.
Oh and if you're saying he shouldn't bring back Overhaul because he's scum, don't worry, Izuku has a plan.
Now, expect Izuku to be different, both from his time in the dirt, and absorbing Zarathos.
Anyway, please review and see you next chapter.