Unacceptable.
To be reduced to this pitiful state and bring disgrace to his father's creation was something Bael could not tolerate.
Not only had this accursed god invaded his father's world, and killed thousands of his younger brothers, but he had also dared to steal from him!
This affront could not be ignored, let alone forgiven!
Worse still, all this was only happening because of Luciel's negligence, being too cowardly to act when necessary, and disobeying his father's orders.
It was up to Bael, as the eldest son, to take responsibility and deal with this problem.
Unfortunately, he wasn't powerful enough and would have to break yet another rule to go further by doing something he'd never dared before, thus following the example of this damned invader.
After all, not even the corrupted essence of his slaughtered younger brothers and the divine flame of this god was enough to even the battlefield.
Desperate times called for desperate measures.
The power to devour and assimilate were the aspects behind his creation as true darkness existed to consume everything.
This made Bael, in theory, a being without limits.
The only problem with this was that he was unable to permanently retain the power gained through what he devoured, otherwise he would have surpassed Luciel a long time ago.
In fact, even what he had gained through the essence of his lesser brothers was already beginning to fade back into the nature of this world... and been stolen by the enemy.
That couldn't happen, especially now that Bael needed power more than ever to face this damned invader.
Truly, this weakness was something he despised with every fiber of his being, especially since it was one of the reasons his father had cast him aside as a failure and created his other siblings.
For alone, Bael would never be enough to help destroy the God of Light.
What a humiliation that was!
So much so that at one point, Bael tried to rebel and even devour Luciel to reclaim his rightful place as heir to the God of Darkness...and almost got destroyed in the process.
If it hadn't been for his durability, an aspect in which he could boast of surpassing his brothers, Bael would have died that day.
Instead, he was used as an example to establish and realize Luciel's sovereignty as heir.
Now that Bael thought about it, something he avoided doing for obvious reasons, the way he was defeated that day was very similar to what this god from another world did to him.
Cutting him into a thousand pieces.
This memory only served to fuel his resentment and motivate him to continue with his plan, no matter how reckless it was.
Time to put an end to this. Bael made up his mind as the pieces of his body began to put themselves back together. No turning back!
Because in the end, he had to survive to regret it.
With that, his concept and deep connection with the natural essence that makes up the world itself gave life to a spiral of power with his being as the epicenter.
Bael would devour everything he could while trying to avoid becoming a permanent part of the world, and only then would he have a chance to fight this god on equal terms and take his great divine power for himself.
Everything he had ever wanted was within his grasp!
As for Sasuke, he watched these changes in silence, his eyes focused on analyzing what was to come.
Damn regeneration. He couldn't help but curse what was beginning to become a trend among his enemies, starting with Naruto years ago. The irony.
Although Sasuke hated this ability, he also benefited from it, even if only to a certain extent.
The wound he had received on his palms from this thing's unsuccessful suicide attempt had already closed completely, at a much faster rate than expected, surpassing even when he had absorbed Orochimaru, without leaving even a mark behind.
This was the result of having Hashirama's cells in conjunction with the Natural Energy of his Six Path Mark. Even so, this level of healing seemed paltry when compared to what was happening right in front of him.
Just as he had theorized, this thing's regeneration was so absurd that it could well be considered immortality.
As if Kaguya wasn't enough already. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, frustration getting the better of him to stir up the mark that was spreading more and more over his exposed skin, but only until he realized something else. Or that could be a good thing.
Theoretically speaking.
Obviously, the fact that all the Natural Energy in the area was converging, accumulating, and absorbed in a way very similar to what Kaguya had done during her rebirth, but less so, would complicate this fight and put a lot of people in danger. At the same time, however, it created a unique opportunity for Sasuke to find ways to destroy that goddess by using this inferior version as a guinea pig.
In that case, he would do something unthinkable at any other time and not try to stop it.
Certainly a stupid decision on his part and one that could well have serious consequences, especially considering that Neo and Winter were nearby, but Sasuke wasn't exactly in the right state of mind, especially with the Six Path Mark active with full power and constantly trying to influence his emotions.
However, the mere notion of something in this world being able to replicate even more of what that Goddess could do motivated him to keep at it.
After all, who knows how many of these things are out there?
Probably Ozpin. Sasuke couldn't forget that man. Based on the type of energy he has, being very similar to that of this Grimm, Ozpin must know something.
You can't be the leader of a nation and an organization that specializes in fighting this darkness, without knowing about the existence of a threat of this level.
In fact, maybe even Winter, considering her position, knew something.
Questions for later. Sasuke would keep that in mind for the next time he saw them. That's if I can't get everything I need to know out of this thing.
In any case, he intended to destroy all these Grimm and cause some kind of revolution in this world, so it didn't matter if there were more enemies of this level lurking in the darkness waiting to attack.
Let them come. Sasuke invited each of these things to try their luck against him. But this one comes first.
As if in response to his silent provocation, darkness exploded like waves of ominous energy that felt like a winter breeze compared to what he himself could exhale at his worst moment against Danzou. Then, from the hole in which he was standing over the edge, seven copies of the Grimm he was facing emerged to surround him.
Of course, he can create clones... Sasuke had to hold back the urge to roll his eyes. Lately, it seems that everyone can.
Talk about a trivialized ability.
Unlike Naruto and Neo, this thing hardly used this ability to cover up its loneliness, but rather its weakness in being unable to contain all that absorbed Natural Energy within a single body.
At the same time, it showed that this thing was adapting to its flaws and evolving.
Problematic. Sasuke took a deep breath and prepared himself for what was to come. At least this thing is determined to kill me instead of trying to run away.
That saved him the trouble of having to hunt it down.
Considering how much stronger this thing was now, where Sasuke could feel even his own power serving as an anchor to keep all this Natural Energy stable, the level of threat posed to those around was proportional to this growth in power.
What's more, the shape of this thing had also changed, with the number of mouths and eyes on its body decreasing considerably along with its size, probably having been distributed among its copies, and it was now the same as a regular human and its shape was much more defined.
"What's with that look?" Bael smiled as he flexed his claws, fully satisfied with the amount and density of his new power that he had to fight to keep under control within his body. "Surprised that I'm also able to create copies of myself?" His smile grew and his copies began to laugh to create an ominous echo through the hospital corridors, full of disdain. "Or maybe it's because I'm still alive?!"
The lack of an answer made his smile change to something more feral and his Magic began to leak out to make the air heavy with negativity.
"Too bad for you! Unlike my little brothers that you destroyed, I'm like a part of this world!" Bael was burning with fury, madness taking over his mind with every passing second as he was stared at by this cursed God with such indifference. "I can't be killed so easily!"
Otherwise, he would have been dead eons ago!
Sasuke said nothing, too busy weighing up the size of the problem he had on his hands by having to fight so many opponents of this level while taking into account the well-being of the people around him.
But just then, Sasuke received some good news as he felt all the people present in the building suddenly disappear and reappear in the streets below.
The Reserve Summoning had worked perfectly!
That changed things.
Now Sasuke could let loose a little more.
Certainly, he couldn't overdo it as there were still people nearby, but at least he could fight without worrying about the inside of the building.
"Is that so?" Sasuke finally answered the Grimm and let his emotionless mask fall to show a twisted smile, soon creating a black lightning sword with his Six Paths Yin Chakra. "So, what do you say we put your supposed immortality to the test?"
Having said that, he moved without waiting for an answer and practically disappeared from sight, leaving only electric sparks behind.
It would be over in the blink of an eye again.
To Sasuke's surprise, however, the result of his attack was practically the same as the first time and the main body of this arrogant Grimm managed to dodge his blade, avoiding being decapitated by a hair and losing only one arm in the process.
How?! he could hardly believe his eyes. Has his level gone up that much?
Even if he hadn't gone all out, Sasuke had still moved just as fast as the last time, when he had cut this thing into a thousand pieces without it being able to understand what had happened!
The shock of this unexpected result was enough to make Sasuke regain some of his common sense clouded by the mark on his neck and realize the mistake he had made.
Letting this thing absorb all that Natural Energy was a mistake he needed to remedy immediately.
As for Bael, although he was feeling excruciating pain in his severed arm, only euphoria came from it.
I could feel him! He still couldn't keep up with this God's speed with his eyes, but now that he had almost become one with the world and absorbed some divine power, he could feel everything that was happening around him as if it were an extension of his body! I can react to his movements!
Unfortunately, while he avoided being decapitated on the spot and lost an arm, the same couldn't be said for two of his copies whose heads rolled through the air.
He was so fast that he attacked me several times with a single swing of his sword! Bael hated the fact that he was admiring the power of this God, even more so when he noticed the sword of black lightning that he was holding in his hands. Exactly the same kind of power that Father and Luciel have!
This definitively confirmed this invader's divine status, to the point of feeding the seed of fear planted inside him, and for good reason.
This God, if he wanted to, could even kill Bael permanently with that kind of power!
Suddenly, the notion of continuing to fight seemed pure idiocy, not to mention a suicide attempt.
The idea of running away without looking back was rapidly taking shape in his mind.
No! I can't retreat now! He pushed any pessimistic thoughts aside and forced a smile as he tried to ignore his instincts that were screaming at him to run. I don't need to win! I just need to make him use more of his divine power and force Luciel to help me!
That damned little brother must have been watching all this. In fact, it was almost certain that all his siblings were and he couldn't let himself be humiliated any further!
It was time to exploit this god's weakness and put his plan into action!
Sasuke was about to attack again, this time without holding back when he felt a violent surge of power right next to him.
The two clones I cut down?! Mangekyou Sharingan and Rinnegan flickered the moment he realized what was about to happen. Those things will self-destruct too!
Considering the massive amount of Natural Energy present in their bodies, those explosions would be even stronger!
Fortunately, Sasuke wasn't completely unprepared like last time and wouldn't fall for the same trick again.
"Susano'o!" He made purple flames burn around his body and a pair of giant bony hands appeared to hold the shattered bodies that were about to explode, but only then did he realize something. No, this much alone won't be enough to hold it all together!
Sasuke needed a more powerful version of his Susano'o!
In the next second, time practically stopped before his eyes as his power pulsed with intensity to transform the bony hands of his spiritual avatar all the way into the third armored version, the only one that could fit inside this enclosed space and stand a chance of withstanding an explosion of this magnitude.
In a way, Sasuke managed to achieve his goal, but not completely.
The entire building shook again with nothing but a residual shockwave from the muffled explosion that passed through the gaps between the pair of ethereal hands, being more than capable of sending debris flying through the windows and targeting the people outside.
Considering that Susano'o's armor had been destroyed along with much of its skin and muscles to show cracked bones, this could have been much worse.
As for the debris that flew out of the building, his clone would be more than capable of dealing with that inconvenience and keeping everyone who was evacuated perfectly safe.
If it had been three clones exploding at the same time, however... Sasuke felt cold just imagining the result in the form of a pile of rubble from countless buildings and the lifeless bodies of innocent people. This thing needs to die.
Forget testing ways of killing a theoretically immortal entity or obtaining information, none of that was worth more than the lives he had under the protection of his wings.
Slowly, Sasuke was beginning to hate this mark on his neck for being able to influence his decisions even when in control.
With that, it was obvious that the Six Path Mark should only be used in emergencies, especially if he couldn't find a way to purify the absorbed Natural Energy.
A problem for later.
For Bael, however, his problems were much greater and immediate as he saw the card up his sleeve being easily contained in less than the blink of an eye.
Unconsciously, he couldn't help but be fascinated by the magnitude that this God's powers could reach, being fully capable of rivaling his father.
Indeed, Bael was very naïve and greedy in his actions.
There was no victory to be achieved on this day, only permanent death awaited him at the end of it all.
I need to get out of here! Bael could feel his end approaching the moment those cold eyes fell on his body and fear gripped his being. "No... not like this!"
He had to do something!
With a mental command, all his copies turned in opposite directions in an attempt to disperse and make use of this god's weakness.
As long as one of his copies could get its hands on some of those humans, Bael would have a chance of escaping!
Or so he wanted to believe.
Flapping his wings as he shot towards the top of the building, Bael didn't get very far before his body came to a halt in mid-air, gripped by an invisible force similar to the one that had been used to disperse his darkness earlier.
"You're not going anywhere!" Sasuke had his hands outstretched and his Rinnegan glowing with power to make use of the Deva Path's gravitational control. "Universal Pull!"
Bael could only watch in shock as each of his copies suffered the same fate and felt cold in the center of his being as he was dragged toward the god he had made the grave mistake of provoking.
Too late to regret it.
"Damn it!" Bael shouted as he struggled with all his might to try to get rid of this invisible power. "Let go of me!"
As if it were an instinctive response to his desperation, darkness exploded out of his body to devour this mysterious power and break free just in time to avoid certain death.
"Inferno style!" Sasuke turned the purple flames that circled his body into black ones and blood dripped from his Rinnegan. "Honoikazuchi!"
Spikes made of Amaterasu pierced the four copies with deadly precision, missing only the original who managed to escape at the last second.
"Hah, hahahaha!" Bael laughed like a maniac as he saw his golden chance and tried to change the outcome of this battle! "Explode into a thousand pieces alongside the humans you love so much!"
God or not, at this distance, and without that purple avatar to protect him, he wouldn't come out unscathed!
In the best possible scenario, this god could even die!
Contrary to that thing's sick expectations, Sasuke hadn't lured those bombs near him without good reason.
"Six Paths Sage Art!" The black flames surrounding his body gave way to lightning of the same color to fill the entire room. "One Thousand Birds Stream!"
Immediately, the copies stopped moving along with the Natural Energy inside their bodies, being completely paralyzed as they were electrocuted.
This was the same technique that Sasuke had used with Naruto to try to seal Madara.
If it almost worked against that monster, a mere Grimm had no chance of escaping!
"M-my copies?!" Bael was shaking now, having to cover his eyes and flap his wings to get away from the black lightning taking over the whole area in front of him. "S-so much power!"
For a moment, his desire to try to devour was there, but only until he realized that he had lost all connection with his copies, which should have been impossible.
Those copies were literally a part of him!
Even when they were destroyed, part of their essence would return to him with memories, but that wasn't happening with the copies caught by the power of this foreign god.
It meant that they had been destroyed for good and...Bael was next.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" He flapped his wings with everything he had, desperate to get out of this place and disappear into the darkness of the night where he would be safe. "I'm not going to die!"
Bael couldn't die before proving his worth and regaining his rightful place as the true heir to the God of Darkness!
Sasuke didn't fail to notice the cowardly thing's desperate attempt to escape and wasted no time, immediately joining hands in a seal to create more snakes, but these were black because they were powered by the Yin Chakra of the Six Paths and used them to seal the immobilized copies.
He would deal with them properly later.
This took no more than a millisecond and in the next millisecond, Sasuke made use of the Deva Path to launch himself and literally fly towards the Grimm, shattering the floor beneath his feet and closing the distance between them almost instantly!
Before Bael could react, the foreign god grabbed him by the throat so fast that he couldn't even feel, let alone react, and slammed his body into the structure of that building, floor by floor, all the way until he exploded outside and only came to a stop thousands of meters above the city, hovering in the air in front of the broken moonlight.
"Gah!" he choked in pain under the iron grip threatening to break his neck at any moment. "Y-You...monster!"
Who would have thought that such a formidable being could appear in this world?!
I-I have to do something! Bael used his only arm to grab the hand that was strangling him and tried to use his power to devour but stopped when he felt something that made all his red eyes widen to their limit and his pupils shrink in fear. "Y-You...are stealing my power?!"
How was that possible?!
No, no, no, no, no, no!
This couldn't be happening!
Bael was the one who took from others, not the other way around!
"I wanted your soul, but it seems you don't have one." Sasuke increased the force behind his grip to the point where his fingers pierced the thing's skin, made it flinch in pain, and intensified the Preta Path. "In that case, I'll take everything else you have until there's nothing left!"
Starting with the fragment of the old doctor's soul... which was nowhere to be found.
That managed to make Sasuke anxious.
From inside the thing, he could feel thousands of different energies, signaling that Argento wasn't its first victim, but that was all it was, energy and not souls.
Meaning that this thing had already digested and assimilated everything that had been devoured to obtain this power, including what Sasuke was looking for.
"You bastard!" He made his Chakra burn with hatred, lifted the thing upwards as his fingers pierced deeper into its neck, and extended his left hand backward, ready to create a Chidori. "Something twisted like you shouldn't exist!"
Time to erase this monster from this world!
Just as Sasuke was about to end it all, he felt his clone's Chakra suddenly spike and launch a massive fireball in his direction.
"What is he..." he began, questioning in confusion, but stopped when he saw that the Jutsu wasn't aimed at him but at something behind him! Another enemy I can't sense?!
Sasuke turned just in time to see the Great Fireball, which was more than capable of lighting up the night sky, disappear without a trace moments before it hit this new figure floating just a hundred meters away from him.
Even if it was only for an instant, Sasuke was able to see every detail of this new enemy's appearance perfectly.
Its form was humanoid to the point that it could be mistaken for one if it weren't for its purple color and lack of facial features, clothing, and apparent gender. In addition, there was also a pair of extremely long and pointed horns on the top of its head along with...twelve long bat-like wings coming out of its back.
While its appearance was different from the thing in his hands, what made Sasuke freeze for an instant was the massive amount and type of power condensed in its form.
"Six Path Chakra..." he muttered in disbelief, unable to believe his eyes. "That shouldn't be possible."
How could a Grimm, of all things, have that kind of power?!
It didn't make sense!
Unfortunately, Sasuke didn't have time to delve into this doubt before a massive explosion happened just below, sending out shockwaves capable of making the entire kingdom tremble!
"The Jutsu from before?!" he could recognize his own Chakra anywhere and boiled with rage as he understood what had happened. "Manipulation of space and time!" His eyes fell on the Grimm still standing motionless before him. "You did that!"
While Sasuke wanted to go down there immediately to check on Winter and Neo, the real threat lay before him. Besides, his clone was more than capable of protecting them from something of that level.
The only problem was the innocent people nearby. Depending on the method the clone chose to use in that split second, many people could have died as a result.
Or nobody, in the best-case scenario.
"No, you did that," Luciel replied after a moment's consideration, his voice sounding in a tone of morbid monotony. "I only returned the magic that copy of yours used." His eyes focused on the reason he was there in the first place. "As for my foolish brother and whether or not he should exist, that's not something an outsider like you has the right to decide." With a simple wave of his hand, Bael's defeated form appeared at his side in the same instant. "Only Lord Father can."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, his Chakra growing more and more agitated as he clasped his hands together and prepared himself.
It seemed that now, he had two monsters to kill.
I really like this chapter, so I hope you guys enjoyed it.
That's all for now, so don't forget to leave a review, and if you want to support me and read ahead, take a look at my P t r & on (slash) Bertoti
The next one comes out on the 15th.
Until then.