Chapter 38: The Fourth Kalpa - Infernal Flies
In the pedestal room, four pillars waited for the candelabrum. Beauty, Majesty, Godliness, Knowledge. That took care of all the ones he got from the fiends. Unlike the earlier pedestal chambers, nothing happened except for the door being unlocked when he lit all of the candelabrum. The door back to the entrance was here too. "Anybody want a break outside the labyrinth?" Naoki asked his companions.
"Nah, we're good to go ahead," Raiho said, the other jacks agreeing with him.
"Let's go, that last level was easy-peasy," Pixie said. "Oh yeah, and, um Demi? I'm sorry if I caused you problems in my other forms. I was thinking real big and saw so many bad possibilities that I wanted to save you." Pixie shrugged. "Except not in a way you'd want to be saved, I know that now. It's a big relief to be back like this, actually."
"It's fine, you were affected by who you were at the time," Naoki said. The things Amaterasu had worried about were things to be careful of, especially with the kinds of decisions that lay ahead. Still, having her back to a pixie that left the thinking to him was a lot less stressful.
"Right! Oh, and I don't think I want to get fused or changed any more. Having been lots of other demons, even those who got fused into me, well, this just feels right. Plus I'm way more capable of helping you out like this." She twirled around, happy with who she was.
"I'm glad we agree on that," he said. Since he wasn't tired either, they headed on towards the Fourth Kalpa.
Lucifer was there in the parlor room to meet with them, as he has said he would be. Last time, Naoki had let him talk. He wanted to ask him questions and point out the problems he had with these plans. Right now, Lucifer still had the upper hand as the one who had granted him power, the one who was in control. Naoki was going to leave it that way this time as well. When the time was right, Lucifer would have to listen to him.
The parlor was quite nice this time, with framed pictures on the wall and bookshelves in the corners. It even accounted for the four extra demons, as a smaller table set up to be perfect to their smaller size was set up in a corner near the door onward. Lucifer even had some snacks and tea ready at both tables. "If you're going to press on, why not take a break now with me? In this place, we can take all the time we need."
"That'd be great, thanks," he said, taking the comfortable chair by the table. He might have been wary before, but this was a welcome break.
"Ooo, cookies," Pixie said, flying over to the patterned plate and taking a small sugar-encrusted cookie for herself. And it may have been small, but she could have used it for a shield.
"Hoo, wasn't expecting a place like this down here, it's nice," Raiho said, looking around.
"Thank you," Lucifer said kindly. There was a patronizing sense to him in speaking to Raiho and the others, but he kept that feeling entirely out of his words for them. "You're friends of the Demifiend, so you're guests here as well. But I need to speak with him; you may discuss your own plans if you like, over there."
"Sure, we're gonna turn Blackie into a hero!" Frost Ace said, flying over and taking one of the chairs for himself.
"No you're not!" Black Frost argued, going over with the other two. Lucifer smiled, amused by them.
Meanwhile, Pixie showed off her cookie she'd been nibbling on. "You should try one, they're great!"
"All right," he said. There was something familiar to the cookies, some kind of fond nostalgia. When he picked up one shaped like a clover, he recognized the pattern on that plate too. Wait, even this parlor, "The way you have this set up now, it's a lot like a place in my grandfather's house."
"He has good tastes," Lucifer said. Or, it was like the way he appeared as a frail old man now, using a wheelchair but keeping a familiar wooden cane in reach. It was going back in time, being back in his grandfather's house for the same tea, cookies, and conversation while his parents were away on business. If he hadn't just seen his grandfather's soul pass on, it might be disorienting seeing Lucifer here like this.
Naoki knew he shouldn't reveal that realization either. "I spent a lot of time with him, even to the day he died shortly before I started high school. I thought he was the wisest person on Earth because he could help me with any problems I had."
"You were fortunate to have known him," Lucifer said.
And he wants me to see him in the same way. While I shouldn't, I do feel that way about him. I know his flaws; I know how he could ruin me without a second thought, or even realizing it. But I still want to see him the same way I saw Grandfather. No… I already do.
Damn, he was so powerful now that nothing had harmed him in the last Kalpa, yet he felt so vulnerable sitting here. Naoki clutched the cookie he'd taken. "Yes, I am. Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you about."
"What is it?" he said without hesitation.
This wasn't the time for the big questions. Start with something small, a little related. "Well, it's that odd trumpeter Elzbieta. She had to go into hiding because Kagutsuchi discovered she was a Mormon angel. And when I had seraphs with me, they were suspicious of her too. Do you know anything about that?"
Lucifer nodded. "Ah, that makes some sense of things. Yes, I do know the story behind that now. The Mormons are a radical branch of the Mesian church, with beliefs quite different from the main theology. The Mesians were splintered many times over various interpretations of their beliefs. It's, hmm," he looked at the table and picked up one of the cookies. "This should suffice."
"The cookie?" Naoki asked.
"Its shape," Lucifer said, showing the three-leafed clover design it had. "The Mesians believe in one god, the one they believe is the only true god; they believe their Messiah is God's human representative on Earth. But different branches have different interpretation of their God. Some, like the Mormons, believed that the Messiah that they all wait for is also a truly divine being. In fact, that interpretation of God is as a Triumvirate, like this clover. It has three leaves but one shape; a triumvirate god has three beings as one whole god. They believe in the Creator, the Messiah, and a certain being called the Great Spirit. Others believe that the Creator is the sole God and that the Messiah is simply a human with divine blessings to act on God's behalf. And, still others believe that the Messiah is something completely different, that a Messiah is a fulcrum to the balance of the world, able to influence the direction that humanity will go.
"Now, the Mormons in particular are set apart because of a person known as the original Messiah. Most Mesians believe that the original Messiah came into the world once, died and then was resurrected three days later for a brief time, then ascended to Heaven. According to the prophetic books of their scriptures, the original Messiah will return to Earth once again at the absolute end of times to give humanity one last chance before their souls are split permanently between Heaven and Hell. However, the Mormon Mesians believe that the original Messiah had a second life in another land. In some worlds, that is true; in other worlds, it's not. They had many other beliefs that made them distinct, even splinters of their own group that believed in polygamy, baptism of the dead, eternal soulmates, and more. In most worlds, they were denounced as pagans or crackpots. Some of them were very interesting to deal with, unlike most Mesians."
"But Amala gives rise to many possibilities," Naoki said. "Like sometimes they're right. Then at least one world let the Mormons rise to being the main core of Mesia?"
"That's correct," he said, smiling a bit in approval. "But the God of Law is not satisfied with letting them be, even if they are technically Lawful. I know that His forces have overtaken worlds similar to that. As such, I would wager that this Elzbieta is from a world where the Mormons grew strong, and that the God of Law invaded their world. Her actions in this Vortex World are still curious, but at least we have a likely cause for them now. I do wonder, though, what she thinks helping you would accomplish for herself."
"Well she's an angel, so it's more of what her triumvirate thinks assisting me or you would accomplish for them," he said.
Lucifer broke off one of the leaves of the clover cookie and ate that. "Hmm. It might be that they have decided to strike back against their aggressor. In which case, I don't mind all that much. It could make for an interesting alliance. When you get the time, would you speak further with this Mormon angel and ask about all this?"
Naoki nodded; he knew a good time for that. "Sure, I'd like to know that too."
While Lucifer spoke more with him, much of it was things that Naoki had learned elsewhere. Like about the manikins. He even got in a few questions about Aleph, which made Lucifer reminiscent. "Ah, I would have to know which hero he is, because I've seen several possibilities of his story."
"He got cursed by the God of Law to record the entirety of the conflict of Law and Chaos," Naoki said.
Thankfully, that was enough. "I see, that must be the one that chose neither side. I could tell he was going to turn out to be an interesting person the moment I first laid eyes on him, potentially very dangerous. He was an artificial human, one created through science and raised in a way to bypass most of his childhood. While there were others like him, they were something like magical constructs. More like demons than humans, in my view. But Aleph was unmistakably human. The way he was raised, though, that wasn't healthy at all."
"Michael mentioned that Aleph had defeated him when he was less than a year old," he said.
"Yes, that truly happened. I tried to get close to Aleph since he had such an intriguing potential, and in a few worlds I succeeded. But with the one you met, he came to distrust me after a while. But even without me, he succeeded as a Messiah far beyond what anyone expected of him. He even brought down the God of Law Himself and killed Him for a time."
"He actually killed the God of Law?" Naoki asked, leaning forward in interest.
"He did, and that's why he bears such a devastating and impossible task. But you see, Naoki, as horrible as He is to humanity, the God of Law does fulfill a powerful role in the thoughts of all of you. People seek answers for things that are unanswerable; they want to believe that a higher being is looking after them, or assisting them in odds that are against them. And as you have learned in the tales of Aradia and Noah, belief is vital to a god's existence. As long as people desire Him, the God of Law always returns."
"And that's what makes this stalemate, huh?" Naoki asked.
Lucifer nodded. "Truth be told, I am in a similar situation. I hold a strong enough place in the psyche of mankind that I can come back from complete annihilation too. People want reasons behind things that seem chaotic and random, and the God of Law has branded me as a scapegoat for such answers that require evil, all because I was the first to dare question him." He then winked at him. "But you see, there's hope in this for us. And it has to do with Kagutsuchi."
"What about him?"
"I'll tell you that once you complete the Fourth Kalpa," Lucifer said. "Speaking of that, it's not been changed as greatly as the last, but I have informed someone there that you're more powerful than we predicted you'd be going in there. The Fourth Kalpa is split into several areas, much like the Second was. The difference is how they're divided. Past here is a place called the Twelve Meters of Eternity. You'll find that moonlight fills that area, giving it a passage of time much like what occurs in the Vortex World. The Meters will take you to different areas of the kalpa at different phases of the moon. You already hold the Star Key which is required to enter the pedestal room to the Fifth Kalpa. However, you can't enter the room to reach that locked door until you defeat that demon who created the cursed areas through all of the kalpas."
"Then I have to find the proper time to enter the Meters to reach that demon," Naoki said.
"Yes, I'll leave that to you to figure out." He glanced over at the smaller table where the four jacks had somehow gotten into a card game. "And you intend on taking on that demon with those four?"
It had to be Beelzebub who was blocking his way. "Yes. Even if you warned him, I'm still going to bring them along. After all, what better way to embarrass someone who thinks themselves powerful than by helping a group that seems weak defeat them?"
Lucifer laughed at that, as did Pixie but her laughter was muffled by the cookie she was eating. "Yes, this is going to be fun," he said. He paused a moment to think, then added quietly, "Most of those dedicated to Chaos cannot see any benefit to altruistic methods of dealing with others. But they also cannot realize that trust is a vital tool in getting others to listen to and rely on you."
And that would work both ways. Maybe I am vulnerable to getting lulled into trusting him. But maybe he could have the same vulnerability since he's counting on me. And he won't be able to realize it like I can.
"I see," Naoki said, nodding to that. "I've met demons like that. It seems like if you can present it in a light favorable to them or if you're just much stronger than them, you can convince them to go along with altruistic acts they wouldn't do themselves, like when I intimidated the nagas into releasing all the manikins in Kabukicho Prison."
"Yes, sheer power is a persuasive enough argument to many who believe in Chaos," Lucifer said. He paused again like he wanted to go on; Naoki made sure he seemed curious to listen. "Presentation is also an excellent tool, one that you should be aware of." He kept discussing such things with him for a while; it took the jacks getting into an argument over their card game to make him aware of how long they'd been talking. "Hmm, well perhaps we do have as much time as we like here compared to the Vortex World, but we are keeping someone waiting on you."
"Right, this was nice but we should get going," he said, getting up out of his seat. "Thanks."
"Anytime," he said with a nod.
At first, there was only Jack Frost. He had more of a fae form, not this cutesy snowman look. But some drawings of his current appearance started spreading; if I remember right, it was postcards at first. Then Pyro Jack emerged from beliefs around jack'o'lanterns and a soul accepted by neither Heaven nor Hell. They were weak fairies, nothing to be much concerned over. And now there are these unique souls that rose out of this Jack Frost family, all set out to defeat Beelzebub. They'd probably go after Naoki too if he hadn't charmed them first.
Human belief does funny things sometimes.
Down in Hell's Prison of the Fourth Kalpa, Naoki and his merry little band have come across Samurai Jack. I don't recall the world he sprang from; something seems very fuzzy in my mind when I try. I wonder what happened there. This jack has a blue and silver long coat, as well as a katana strapped to his back that's easily twice as large as he is. Is that supposed to be some fairy replica of Masakado's Katana? That's amusing.
"Ho fellow, I was worried about you!" Raiho calls out, waving to his friend.
Samurai Jack waves back. "Hi-ho! Sorry about that; I got so into exploring this heeho place that I lost track of where I was."
"You looking for the demon lord Beelzebub too?" Frost Ace asks.
"Dun dun duuuun!" Demonee-Ho calls out as some joke between them.
"Ho-yeah, and I found him!" Samurai Jack says, bouncing in place. "But I'd come with Raiho to fight, so I was waiting on him."
"I was looking for you in the kalpa above," Raiho says.
"Which of the Twelve Meters is our target hiding in?" Naoki asks.
"New Moon!"
Hmm… since he came in more powerful than planned, I had instructed the demons inhabiting the Fourth Kalpa to not give him any hint as to which phase of the moon to find Beelzebub under. The Twelve Meters of Eternity is a wonderful puzzle to get people lost in. Doors in one of the Meter's mazes will only open to keys in the others; solutions to traps and puzzles won't be given where they are. Although, there is always the problem of someone getting lucky and finding the first movements towards the solution at the start. Like he already has the Star Key, and now he knows the source of the curses that would prevent him from reaching the door to the Fifth Kalpa.
Maybe Beelzebub won't be too impatient with this luck, given that I was speaking to Naoki so long. Humans are simply such fun to talk to, since even I have to learn more about them to know how to direct them. Naoki especially, he was listening so closely. Some humans listen to me with hesitation and suspicion I need to get by; others listen with greed and lust that is almost boring for how simple it is to direct them. But he's neither way. There's sincere admiration in the way he watches me now, I know because I formed that in him so carefully. In that, I… I can't quite put my finger on it, can't put a word to it, but…
A faint warning comes to my mind; someone's working against me somehow. There seems to be no one here, but that means little. The most dangerous influences are those you can't see. "Who is there?" I ask.
There's no one here, but I get a feeling… Aleph? Naoki did put him in charge of the Amala Network. That does worry me, although they seem to be allies still. Is he trying to pull Naoki away from me? That rotten… I know that's one who decided to throw down me, Satan, and YHVH for the sake of humanity. I'm not about to let him take my Demifiend from me, not when we've come this far.
Although, if it wasn't for the insane angelic plots that brought Aleph into power, I would never have gotten the idea to recreate those plots in a saner fashion to bring a human who had surpassed humanity under my will. I knew he was an incredible being from the moment I first saw him. And, someone to rightfully fear. If he'd gotten to fulfill his true potential, Aleph could have easily overcome any other being in existence. But the seraphs sabotaged that potential almost immediately and any version of him got repeatedly cursed by the powerful beings that he ended up fighting against. Aleph might be able to reclaim some of that potential as the avatar of Amala, but it won't be anything like he could of been.
Instead, it's going to be my Demifiend, Naoki, who's going to claim what Aleph should have attained.
I should be thrilled at that. I am, and yet… I built his power to account for the Creator's curse that he'll inevitably end up getting inflicted with. That's simply the practical way to handle it. But what if He comes up with something that cuts Naoki down just like Aleph? I know I've accounted for it, but he could suffer greatly for it and I…
I close my eyes. What is going on with me? This isn't like me. The Demifiend is my weapon, the one to finally cut me loose from this balanced stalemate, to free me from my own curse. I should look after him, instruct him properly. That's the practical thing to do. But if he fails, I can simply raise another Demifiend until I find the one that succeeds. It'll be harder given what Naoki has done to make himself notorious. Still, I've learned much from him and I can apply that to another…
Yet for some reason, I really want Naoki to be the one who succeeds for me.
Naoki had managed to avoid going through the cursed areas of the Kalpa directly so far. But getting to Beelzebub meant going straight through a long hall that was dense with it. Not only did it make the area murky and difficult to see, it made it hard to get any of his senses through. It wasn't the jumbled up mess of the Second Kalpa. Rather, this was a cloud of gibberish that obscured a few important words and made him feel like vomiting in trying to find those words.
Although he was baffled by the chaotic mess buffeting his mind, the five jacks and Pixie were able to find a way through it. They didn't have as many senses as he did to get confused by. It was a relief to get out of it and into the large open (and most importantly clear of curses) room at the end of the hall. "Hang on," he said, keeping the demons from running ahead. "Let's get healed up; we're going to need it."
"Ho, I think you're right," Raiho said.
"This is totally a boss room," Demonee-Ho said, checking his gun.
He was right. This room was shaped like a huge teardrop, curved and leading up to a point far overhead. Red magatsuhi spilled down the black glassy walls like rain. Like with the room with the huge terminal shaft in Nihilo's base, the floor here hung in the air with just a few supports from the walls under the two doors in the room. It spread out into a circle in the center. Below, things got strangely dark and dangerous. Falling off this platform could be deadly. The room was eerily empty aside from them, and the faint buzzing of flies that couldn't be seen.
Once they were healed up, Naoki let the jacks lead the way to the battle platform. The buzzing intensified once he stepped onto it, drawing to a point across from them. A few black specks became a few thousand, then a humanoid demon with green skin and wild black hair. The necklace of human skulls he wore clattered as he looked them over. "What brings all of you here before the great lord Beelzebub?" he asked.
"Justice and honor!" Frost Ace shouted, making Black Frost shake his head.
"We're demon hunters out hunting you," Demonee-Ho said, twirling his gun. "And the Demifiend and his pixie are tagging along for the heck of it, I think."
"That's about right," Naoki said as Pixie landed on his shoulder.
"Whatever, so am I," Black Frost said, trying to be evilly aloof and cool. "Just along for the heck of it, and hopefully some good fights."
"Hmph, you fairies are all daring," Beelzebub said. "And dumb. If you think you can claim victory over me, I'll be glad to prove you wrong."
"Nuh-uh, we're gonna prove you wrong, demon!" Raiho called out. He and the four other jacks all prepared for a fight.
Beelzebub would have gotten off the first move, a devastating physical against all of them, had Naoki not sensed it coming and thrown up a Tetrakarn to bounce it back at him. Even for this battle, he was going to stick to a support role unless the others started falling. Beelzebub could probably defeat the jacks even as they were working together, given the power Naoki was sensing in the early part of this exchange. Frost Ace and Black Frost seemed the most powerful of the jacks, throwing about spells of ice and fire of equal intensity. However, Demonee-Ho with his gun and Samurai Jack with his katana weren't far behind them; the former kept back and shot wildly in Beelzebub's direction (most hit) while the latter used acrobatic jumping and dashing to wield his over-sized weapon. Raiho was taking on a support role too, casting Rakukaja and Tarukaja to empower the others.
Even with their efforts, Beelzebub would have been able to take them out in single blow, maybe two for Demonee-Ho considering his armor. Naoki had Pixie keep the jacks healed up constantly while he tried to bring down Beelzebub's power. It led to a lot of exchanges of Dekaja and Dekunda, but any time Beelzebub was using those was when he wasn't attacking. Slowly but surely, they whittled down Beelzebub's health. It helped a lot when Naoki advised them with Whisper that their ice spells were being resisted and should be avoided.
And in the end, with a flashy final blow from Samurai Jack, Beelzebub collapsed before them and reverted back to a cloud of flies that scattered away.
"Wooheehoo, we did it!" Raiho called, twirling around on the spot.
"Hah, that was a glorious battle!" Frost Ace said, posing in the air. "Justice always wins!"
"That was great," Naoki said, moving ahead to meet with them. He had a feeling this wasn't over, but, "What are you going to do now?"
"We should get back to the comic book world for a proper celebration," Demonee-Ho said. "This is a pretty cool labyrinth for an expedition, but it ain't exactly the best place for a party."
Frost Ace flew over and nodded. "Yeah, I've gotta go back to protect my homeworld. Sorry, but it's a superhero's duty!"
"That's fine, I'm glad I got to meet you all," Naoki said, then released them all from contract. That is, all but Black Frost who was keeping quiet away from the others.
While Demonee-Ho and Frost Ace set up a portal back to their home, Raiho came over and offered a little device that looked like a small handheld game console. "You hee-elped us out bunches buddy, so here, why not take this? It's a world analyzer if you ever decide to go world-hopping too."
"Oh yeah, that's a handy device there," Demonee-Ho said. "You get a makka to local currency exchange, some cultural customs information so you don't go insulting anybody with a wave or something, a world-alignment scale, and loads more hee-elpful stuff."
"You sure you want to give away something like that?" Naoki asked, surprised that there was such a device around.
Raiho nodded. "It's fine, hee-ho! Besides, it's easy to get things-that-can-act-as-plot-devices in a comic book world like where Ace is from. You just gotta find the local nerds and make friends with them. I can get another easy if we want to head out on another expedition."
"Thanks, it might come in handy for me," he said, accepting the world analyzer. Both Lucifer's and Aleph's plans could make this useful even with Aleph having full access to the Amala Network.
"You're welcome, I'm sure it's in good hands with you, Demifiend," Raiho said, then waved. "Well, good luck! Maybe we'll see each other again!"
"Sure, that's be fun," Naoki said, smiling and patting Raiho. "Good-bye, guys."
"Goodbye!" Frost Ace called, then zipped through the open portal. Demonee-Ho, Samurai Jack, and Raiho all followed him through.
Black Frost crossed his arms over his chest. "Hmph, good riddance to those goody-two-shoes heroes."
Curious about something, Naoki aimed the world analyzer at the portal to see if it could get a reading on the comic book world. Meanwhile, Pixie flew over to Black Frost's side. "You aren't going with them?"
"And go live with a bunch of heroes?" Black Frost asked. "Nah, I'm fine here. I might be able to tolerate the demon hunter guys, especially if I could corrupt them to Chaos. But with that Frost Ace there? No way."
The world analyzer did give him a lot of information even through the portal. Since it was a comic book world, there were some pages of info that might not show up for other worlds. Naoki crouched down to show Black Frost one of the data pages. "But look at this: that's a superhero comic book that has no overall supervillain."
"So?" Black Frost asked, not seeing how that mattered.
"That means that should someone with a completely darkened black soul get in that world, they would immediately be the most incredibly evil person on that world," Naoki said.
"Reeeeally?" he asked, interested now.
Nodding, he explained, "Frost Ace did say he came here out of boredom. He probably has no worthy villainous opponent to battle with. Given that it's specifically a comic book world, the fight between good and evil can never end or else the comic itself ends. Someone like you would make that world a whole lot more exciting for everyone. If you make sure that all evil plots within the world can be traced back to you, then you will never be truly defeated. A great supervillain can even make it so that any victory the superhero gains is an empty one, just holding back the tides of evil for a brief time."
"Ooo, that sounds really fun!" Black Frost said, bouncing in place. "And then everyone will acknowledge my great evil, not just in that world, but in every world the comic has readers in! Awesome! I'll make sure to be the most entertaining supervillain of them all!"
"That'd be great, I'll look forward to seeing some of your comics," Naoki said, giving him a hi-five.
"Good, and I won't ever forget about you as my friend, the one who helped me rise to greatness!" he said. "I'll find a way to make you a legend in many worlds too! Later!" They ended their contract and Black Frost bounded away through the portal right before it snapped shut.
"That was really nice, but why'd you do it?" Pixie asked. "He took one of your magatama and in the end, he's just another jack."
Getting back to his feet and sending the world analyzer away, he answered, "He can achieve his dreams of being a really great demon there, so why not? Besides, the analyzer said that world was really high on the lawful side, so I basically just threw a potent source of chaos into it."
Pixie startled to giggle, but was quickly drowned out by a deeper chuckle and the buzzing of flies. Now that it was just the three of them, Beelzebub reformed himself in a different form than before. His humanoid form was faintly cartoonish, fitting to fight against with the jack band. This was much more like a pagan god, a giant fly that brought along the stench of blood sacrifices and rotten souls. Even his necklace of skulls was more decayed and blood-stained.
"Good, as you should do," Beelzebub said in approval. "And having your legend spread across many worlds is quite a valuable gift."
"I figured this wasn't over," Naoki said, facing him without fear.
"You have some faults, but you're not as naive as some others that have come this far to challenge me," Beelzebub said. "Lucifer's even stopped playing around with you, so I should do the same to test you here. When we're asking you, born as a mere human…" a tremendous quake interrupted them, rumbling like thunder beneath their feet. Beelzebub gripped his staff, quickening his wings.
As it faded, Naoki felt a faint touch of radiance. "Is that Metatron?" he asked.
"Quite possibly," Beelzebub said. "Lucifer won't be pleased; we spent a lot of time securing this place after the last time he crashed in."
"I could just beat him this time," Naoki said. Maybe not with just Pixie even though he was going to try this fight with only her. But he'd end up fighting Metatron and other high-ranking angels like the seraphs anyhow. Might as well try now.
"Maybe you could," Beelzebub said, amused at his confidence. He thumped his staff on the ground. "In that case, it's more important than ever that I test you here and now, to make sure you are powerful enough to take on something like Metatron. Ready?"
"Ready," Naoki said, nodding.
"You'd better be," he said, then filled the entire room with his curse.
The noise and the stench and the phantom words: impatient traffic on a scorching summer day, a butcher's shop when all the meats had spoiled and blood was everywhere, hateful barbs, slimy come-ons, old criticisms. It was horrendous. Not only that, but flies were everywhere, bumping into him, buzzing around, and being generally indistinguishable from Beelzebub. Naoki did his best to focus in this. Where was Beelzebub himself?
Pixie reacted by blasting the whole room with Maragidyne, thankfully burning off about half the flies. 'Keep that up,' Naoki whispered to her, then followed up with Deadly Fury. It was inefficient, but until they knew which of these flies was their actual target, this would have to do.
Then the flies swarmed right at them, blackening their vision and deafening their hearing with all the buzzing. Pixie was outright killed by the attack; Naoki was simply hurt. He swapped in a healing spell in case he needed to use it on himself. However, he didn't have anything like Maragidyne. Gehenna had Magma Axis, but that was a single target attack, physical at that. Then Beelzebub attacked with the flies again, and again. Naoki had to settle for a pattern of healing, then Deadly Fury, then healing again. One time, Beelzebub used Megidoleaon instead, which nearly destroyed him.
However, he wasn't going to give up. He called out an orb of soma instead to heal up and keep energy for his own healing spell. As time went on, the cloud of flies thinned out. When the flies clustered together away from him, Naoki felt safe in switching over to Friekugal. The first didn't entirely hit Beelzebub, but it did annihilate most of the flies he had left. The second hit dead on and destroyed him. This time, Naoki was sure of it because of the smoky magatsuhi that scattered from the cloud of dying flies.
"Excellent work, Demifiend," Beelzebub said in a faint buzzing voice. "I will let others know that you deserve this glory."
"Sure," Naoki said. He still had to locate the door to the Fifth Kalpa, but as he went to check out the other door (it lead to some really nice treasure), he started thinking over how to take on Metatron, or whichever angel had invaded the labyrinth.