Creation began on 04-11-24
Creation ended on 04-20-24
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: Clearing out the Underworld
A/N: Harbinger, when he's unable to find who he's looking for, settles for what's next available where he's looking.
Thud! A mid-tier devil falls before Harbinger, its head busted open like a watermelon, in front of the other devils that bore witness.
"I'll ask again," Harbinger tells the others. "Where is Astaroth?!"
They backed away from him, terrified.
"Aaaaurgh!" He hears a devil from above yell at him, sensing his power. "You're mine, Harbinger! Mine!"
Pierce! A tendril of bone shot out from Harbinger and went through the devil's neck, stopping it in midair, leaving it dangling around.
"Another high-tier devil," Harbinger sighs, "and this one possesses a demonic version of Earth Magic. I guess you'll serve as an appetizer. Haaaaarugh!"
The devils below watched as his maw opened expanded as the defeated devil was dispatched into his inner depths. All that remained of the devil was its right leg. As the digestion and assimilation process began to take place, Harbinger fell to his knees and claws, looking like his body was trying to expand and contract due to the foreign body he just devoured.
"Oh, yes," he utters as he rises back up, dark red veins manifesting around his face and claws. "Demon Earth Magic: Chasm of Despair!"
In front of him, the ground under the mid-tier devils opened up, forming a large hole with jagged spikes everywhere. The devils felt their demise was imminent, but they couldn't get away; their wings wouldn't move them to safety.
"You mediocre demons have a choice right now," Harbinger tells them. "You can either serve me…or die and be forgotten about. The time to decide is now! Choose!"
With no other choice, the mid-tier demons above the hole that represented their doom all lowered to their knees in front of Harbinger, submitting to him.
"What is thy command?" One of them asks him.
"Where is the Time Magic Devil Astaroth?" He demands.
"Astaroth? He should be at the very bottom of the underworld where he reigns supreme over all devils. We haven't seen or heard from him in centuries. But maybe Lucifugus knows where he is; he knows the location of every devil in the underworld."
"Lucifugus, hmm? Very well, then. With that tidbit of knowledge, the rest of you get to live. Spread the word to the lesser devils: Harbinger is taking over."
The chasm filled up with dirt and the devils that submitted to Harbinger were back on solid ground, after which they flew off to alert the others of their new master.
"You," Harbinger hears a female voice say to him from behind, and he turns to see two androgynous-looking devils, one giving off a chilly vibe, the other giving of a heated vibe. "You don't belong here!"
"You don't belong here!" The other devil utters, its wings fanning out wisps of flame. "Submit or die! Decide now!"
"Ah, Lilith and Nahama," he greets them. "I think you're the only two deserving of this designation as the Devil Bitches of the Underworld."
"You dare to disrespect us?" They question him. "You will kneel before us!"
They unleashed a barrage of fire and ice at Harbinger, but he simply stood there.
Blast! He was encased within a sphere of ice with fire surrounding it.
Crack! The ice sphere fractured and shattered into bits, releasing Harbinger, who was unscathed.
"You two are such low-grade fighters," he tells them, protruding bone lances from his claws and back. "Here, let me show how it's done! Ha!"
He thrust his claws forward and shot the lances from his palms at their foreheads, piercing them through, causing them agony they didn't expect to receive.
"Gaaurgh!" He grunts, pulling them back because the bone lances were still connected to him, retracting and pulling them towards him. "Demonic versions of Ice and Fire Magic! Interesting! I guess I'll take those, too!"
Lilith and Nahama look at each other and knew what to expect; if this creature was capable of stealing magic from devils and using them at will, they were simply next on his hit list.
"Die!" Nahama yells, firing a stream of flames at him. "Burn in the depths of Hell!"
While the flames enveloped Harbinger, he still stood, as though the attack wasn't harming him at all. And then, the flames dissipated, leaving him unscathed.
"Gravity Magic," he utters. "Forsaken Pressure!"
SLAM! An invisible force propelled Lilith and Nahama down onto the ground, leaving fractured indentations of their bodies.
Harbinger walked over to them and looked down.
"Some pains must eventually be endured in order to experience the pleasure one craves in the future," he says as more bone tendrils emerge from his back. "But one of my pleasures is the pain of others, same as yours."
-x-
"So, Harbinger found a way to access our domain, did he?" A devil asks another devil, hearing the commotion about a foreign creature causing trouble in the underworld.
"Yes, that's right," a devil covered in small sacs or scales expresses. "He's on a spree down here, going after the high and highest-tiered devils; he left the mid and low-tiered devils live if they gave him their allegiance, the treacherous scum, meaning he'll be looking for us."
"Then let him come for us. We'll be his reckoning."
"Lucifugus, he has devoured several devils of the high and highest tier, taking their magic power from them to use for himself. It is said that he can wield Gravity Magic. Only Lucifero could wield Gravity Magic down here. Lucifero, Beelzebub and Megicula, they all fell to Harbinger, along with their human vessels they were contracted to. Even without the magic taken from their humans, he has grown immensely powerful in such a short time. If he were to devour either of us, there is no telling what he'd be capable of."
"He would…"
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" They hear a devil shrieking.
"He's here," Lucifugus expresses.
"Already?!" The other devil questions, opening its wings to float away.
-x-
A high-tiered devil, or rather what remained of one, was thrown aside and left for the remaining high-tiered devils to witness as Harbinger stepped in front of them, now wielding two pairs of wings wreathed in fire and ice, a sign that he had claimed the power of two more devils from the Tree of Qliphoth. As he looked at the high-tiered devils, each one wielding a sinister form of magic that would make them insanely difficult to contend with if they were ever to step foot in the mortal realm, Harbinger bared his fangs at them, causing them to recoil in fear. He raised his claws up and generated spheres of blood that circled around him.
"Shall we begin our game?" He asks them.
He counted at least forty-seven high-tiered devils…and each of them were full of dread. They didn't know whether to resist or persist…until one of them made a choice.
"Rrrraaugh!" They roared, charging towards him. "I'm gonna kill you! Kill you, Harbinger!"
Swat! One of his blood spheres struck the devil in its face…and removed its head completely from its body, followed by a tendril of bone striking the body and pulling it towards Harbinger.
"Aw, this one possesses a sinister form of Steel Magic," he expresses. "I can make use of that."
Using the tendril, he raises the headless devil up in front of himself and devours it as he had devoured several others in front of the other devils, absorbing its power into himself, taking its sinister Steel Magic for himself.
-x-
"Oh," Julius Novachrono shudders, nearly knocking over a glass of water on his desk.
"Is everything alright, sir?" Marx asks him.
"Just a sudden chill," he claims. What was that? It felt like…a great suffering was unleashed upon someone. A lot of individuals. Somewhere.
The feeling he felt was great, but it made him feel uneasy, as though someone without any sense of remorse had committed a terrible series of atrocities against multiple lives.
"Tell me, is Rika Ikari currently in the capital today?" Julius asks.
"No, sir, she's currently visiting the Diamond Kingdom to aid in the reclamation of lost land and its restoration of resources."
While the Magic Knights that had survived the Diamond Kingdom mission were currently investigating this mockery of a city that Shinji Ikari had once resided in, Rika Ikari was involving herself in the rejuvenation efforts of a neighboring kingdom in the hopes of establishing peace between the two like with Clover and Heart, eventually leading to the restoration of Spade once the situation with Harbinger was resolved. But because Harbinger was a creature unlike any they had ever faced before, and only seemed to be getting more dangerous, it was unknown, even to Julius, how long it would be before any from all four kingdoms…or the rest of the world, for that matter, would see the return of peace. And as he now had the power of three devils and their former human vessels of the Dark Triad, Harbinger could attack Clover whenever he wished with little resistance from those that didn't possess Anti Magic methods to use against him.
But so long as he's crippled because of his Anti Magic injury left by Guardian, Julius thought, he can't fight for prolonged periods, and he can't heal it without the power of the Time Magic Devil.
-x-
Splat! Devil blood was sprayed against a stone wall as Harbinger severed the head of another high-tiered devil and devoured them to take their power to add to his accumulated stockpile of magic attributes.
Lucifugus, pinned to the ground by a series of bones using Gravity Magic, could only watch as this unknown creature consumed another devil to grow stronger.
"Rrrraurgh!" He growled as he ripped through the devil's flesh. "Rrrrahh! Demon Water Magic! Now, I possess demonic powers relating to all four elements of life! Water! Earth! Fire! Wind! But it's still not enough! It's not enough!"
He tossed the remains of the defeated devil away and looked down at Lucifugus.
"I grow tired of this," he tells the devil. "Where is Astaroth?! Tell me or face the consequences!"
But Lucifugus looked up at Harbinger and showed defiance against him; even if risking being devoured, this highest-tiered devil refused to submit to this lowly creature.
"You may devour us all, but you'll still fall," Lucifugus tells Harbinger. "You'll fall and fail!"
"So be it," Harbinger responds, opening his mouth to reveal his fangs. "Rrrrrrraaahh!"
-x-
The middle and low-tiered devils watched in collective silence as their new master stood before them, possessing the power of many devils from the high and highest tiers, unmatched by any of them, even as a whole.
"I have never experienced power of this magnitude before until now," they hear him say as he levitated into the air. "Their power, their strength, their pain…all for me."
They knew that, with the exception of Astaroth, the devil they hadn't met at any point in the past, Harbinger had effectively taken down the entire Tree of Quilphoth. Each devil among the branches and levels associated with the tree had been disposed of, leaving only the tenth and last devil to be accounted for.
"Who are you?" A low-tiered devil questions him.
"I am the Harbinger of Death and Destruction."
"All hail Harbinger!" The devils submitted without question. "Harbinger!"
Harbinger smiled a deviant smile; he had devoured over eighty-seven devils from the high tier alone in just a few hours, and that excluded the devils from the Tree of Quilphoth. Even though he still lacked the power of Astaroth, he was now the lord of the underworld in place of all the other devils associated with the tree. He had solidified his position as the overseer, the shot-caller, the boss of bosses…and he had to admit to himself that he was proud of his success. As humans would eventually learn of and use in special circumstances, he was an enemy to be proud and for his success to be enjoyed.
I am on par with the members of the noble House of Ikari now, he thought; with his possession of multiple magic attributes, he possessed abilities similar to those from the Ikari family that held possession of the Infinity Affinity, affording him a variety of magical options to expand upon. But I still need Astaroth…and I will find him. He can't hide forever. A devil that hides is a devil to be ashamed of.
To be continued…
A/N: What do you think about Harbinger now? He has become more dangerous than the devils he went after, but he's still unsatisfied with his progress; until he locates and devours Astaroth, he feels vulnerable and unable to get revenge against Guardian of the Void, who holds back other powers that make him more dangerous. Even with the power of multiple devils at his disposal, he still can't heal the Anti Magic wound he received from his greatest enemy. With only the devils of the lowest and middle tier left alive, the power order has become less chaotic than it was before now that Harbinger has taken control of the underworld.