Demonic Devourer ch. 101

Angelic Tower — Root

“You can’t just drop a bomb like that and walk away!” Adrian protests.

“Yes, I can,” Kirin replies. “Watch me.”

At least he isn’t very fast. Kirin clearly still needs Adrian, because he’s not running away. Adrian knows he isn’t running away because even he can run faster than that, and his only movement skills involve deluging himself with water.

“You’re talking about collapsing a hell,” Adrian says. “How? Why? Aren’t the hells unchangeable?”

“That’s what they teach,” Kirin replies, huffing out an angry sigh as he slashes out with the Angel’s Vengeance. A lance of white light explodes out of its tip, though Adrian is prepared enough to cover his eyes this time. When he’s able to see without spots in his eyes, a swathe of forest large enough to drive a train through has been reduced to ash. “It is also not entirely correct.”

“Then it’s at least partially right,” Adrian says, storing his own blade at his side. He’s ready to fight any monster in his way, but he suspects that Kirin is going to trivialize the rest of the encounters here. “What’s the difference?”

Trekking through the tower with Kirin is entirely different from going it alone, Adrian realizes. Beyond the obvious, Kirin’s weapon is several Categories higher than any of the monsters around them. That means the aura the angel fragment exudes is so violently powerful that nothing is attacking them.

On his own, Adrian had to actively seek out shelter. In the tower, the mere presence of foreign life (like humans from the outside, for instance) draws aggression. Now, with Kirin, he can’t see a single enemy that doesn’t scamper off immediately.

“Around a thousand years ago, the gods broke,” Kirin says. “It was then that—“

“I’ve heard this before,” Adrian grouses. “Also, could you stop scaring away the bosses? I need to evolve my class, and that means I need to level up, which means that I need to kill shit.”

“Oh.” Kirin puts the angel wing behind his back, where it promptly vanishes. I need a skill like that, Adrian thinks. “Apologies. As I was saying.”

“As you were saying.”

“The hells were formed around the time the pantheon collapsed,” Kirin continues. “What fewer people know is that the Coalition came into existence not after the fall but before.”

Adrian arches an eyebrow. “Didn’t know that. Why’s it relevant?”

“They existed when the gods fell,” Kirin says patiently, as if he’s explaining basic addition to a toddler. “That means they have data on what the hells are. Which means they have countermeasures. They always do.”

“Alright, I can believe that,” Adrian concedes. “But what are we supposed to do about it?”

Kirin grimaces. “You’re not going to like this answer.”

“Hit me with it.”

“I, at the very least, plan on diving into the hells. You do not have to come, but that is all that can be done.”

“Oh.” Adrian breathes a sigh of relief. “I thought you were going to say something actually crazy.”

“This isn’t?”

“You must not know Evelyn very well. Or Sierra, for that matter.”

Kirin shrugs. “As it stands, I’m barely powerful enough to exist on the shallowest hell. I doubt you’d last three seconds before your body ignited from the inside out.”

“And I assume that’s why you’re here,” Adrian says suspiciously. “Going up instead of down.”

“Godsdamned newbies,” Kirin mutters loudly enough that he has to know Adrian will hear him. Louder, he says, “Yes. The Angelic Towers, as the name suggests, are created by angels. By climbing them, I get a chance at an angelic boon. More importantly, angels are inextricably linked to the hells. Climbing high enough in any tower can and will reveal methods to enter the hells without the necessity of a diving platform.”

“Great, so your plan is to incur the favor of the angels and jump straight into a hell,” Adrian says. “Which is a completely normal goal to have for someone who isn’t at all invested in the survival of the people who actually got tossed into the hells.”

“I had no investment,” Kirin stresses. “Now, Clearwater has interfered not only with others’ life but mine. It’s hard not to be invested in the game when you’re on the board. You better believe I’m not on the side of the woman who used my body like a fucking puppeteer.”

That… is a pretty reasonable argument.

“Well, if you have a better plan on how to keep a hell from falling on their heads, I’m all ears,” Adrian says.

Kirin looks at him with distaste, eyes glossing over as he accesses his system. “You malformed your ascent to Category 2.”

“I did. It was that or die to a proto-Titan’s ability.” Adrian feels oddly defensive about this, probably because it’s one of the few impossibilities he’s pulled off that come even close to the utter bullshit Sierra and Evelyn can do. “What about it?”

The other operator sighs. “We’re going to have to re-evaluate your domain as we climb. Come on. We don’t know how long it’ll take the Coalition to dive into the same hell that your friends are in. Ideally, we’ll have a boon by then. We need to be on their tails as soon as possible, so we’re going to have to climb fast.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Adrian says.

“Oh, I assure you, it won’t be. This is suicidally stupid. If it was me alone, I’d guess a one in a hundred chance I manage to get through this alive, let alone more powerful. With you…” Kirin lets the sentence hang. “Come on. Let’s go kill some monsters.”

Adrian wasn’t planning on doing anything else. It’s an uneasy alliance, but he has to admit he’s glad for the company.

This time, it’ll be different, he thinks. This time, I won’t be the one dragging them down.

The next boss he kills—a living tree faintly reminiscient of the one under Ravendale—dies without much fanfare, overwhelmed when he breaks its skin and Dehydrates it, using its watery sap as a weapon against it.

It seems like too easy of a fight to have true advancement from, but he does nonetheless.

XP threshold met. Level threshold met. Action threshold met.

You may choose to evolve or advance your Warrior class to level 51.

You have gained 1 stat point.

Triggering class evolution.

This part, he’s ready for.

But the system doesn’t stop.

Friend of Titans, we witness you.

Now advance.

The Ninth Circle

As the system message comes, the hells freeze around us. Just like the class evolutions.

It’s really kind of sad that this has happened enough for me to not even be surprised by the shift in perception. Given the blinding, burning sand of the Ninth Circle, there isn’t much of a sign of time slowing down, but my perception is sharp enough that I can see individual grains of sand slowing down.

When everything is still again, the system speaks once more. Except the system isn’t just a system, is it? I’ve known since the beginning that the whispering cacophony of dead gods drove the system, but it’s only now that I have the kind of power to stand amongst them that I realize that they might not be so dead. They are, after all, an amalgam as well. One that’s been following me this entire time.

And every fiber of my being wants to kill it. Whatever half-life the gods in the machine live, they’re screwing with my progression just to deliver a message. They’re enabling the other Titans.

Which means they’re in my way.

The two of you have far exceeded expectations.

Just like my first, unbroken class evolution, I can move. Unlike that first one, I know the voice speaking to me.

And unlike the first evolution, I’m not alone.

“Show yourself,” Sierra orders. “Who are you, and why are you in the hells with us?”

A horrible screeching noise pierces the air, and it takes me a moment to process that this is what a god’s laugh sounds like.

The voice is different the next time it speaks. This time, it’s higher pitched, though still somewhat masculine.

We’ve been watching your progress, prospective Titan Carnelian. The Jade child is a welcome addition, though unexpected.

The voice changes again. Are multiple Titans talking to us?

Sierra takes that harder than I do. When I turn to glance at her, she stands there agape in shock, eyes widened in an expression that looks halfway between fear and awe.

“Broken gods, this is actually happening,” she mutters. “What the fuck is this?”

Oh, right. She hasn’t had many run-ins with this type of thing before.

“Remember that time I got possessed in Ravendale?” I ask. “Plus the dozen times my system’s malfunctioned since?”

“Oh,” Sierra says, putting two and two together. “Shit. This is what you’ve been dealing with?”

Another amused sound from the Titans. The network feels closer than ever, but I still can’t reach through my power to communicate on my own. I lack the raw power, and so does Sierra.

I need to kill more of you. That’s the only way I can be strong enough to twist their power for my own.

But I’m not strong enough yet, am I? That’s how it always is. For Sierra and I both. We’re Hexed. Nothing can ever come easy.

Demon girl. Jade child. You stand at the beginning of a journey that can benefit us both.

If I was feeling murderous before, the newest voice practically throws me into a blind rage. It’s only the grounding sensation of the warmth of Sierra’s hand in mine that keeps me from throwing myself at something, anything that’ll die.

“Leave me alone and die, Sapphire,” I say once I’ve regained some level of calm. “The world, and more importantly, my life, would be a much better place without you.”

Testy, aren’t we?

The rest of the Titans fall away to one side, making the purpose of this farce transparently obvious. She’s trying to steer us. Again.

“What do you want?” Sierra asks. She sounds slightly less pissed than me, which isn’t saying a lot. “Come here to gloat after you put us here?”

I sent one to the hells. The other came of her own volition.

“Die,” I say. “And feed me your body so maybe you can serve a useful purpose for once.”

I am offering you everything.

“Offer me your body and soul and maybe I’ll consider it,” I say.

This conversation is pointless. I refuse to give Sapphire what she wants, and so does Sierra. For some reason, she wishes to keep us alive, so the only remaining possibility is that we wait here until one of us breaks.

The second time I attempted a class evolution, I waited eighteen years before it even began. Isolation doesn’t bother me.

You would become gods. With the pantheon restored to its righteous glory, the two of you would be powerful beyond measure.

“Your offers mean nothing to me,” Sierra says dismissively. “Less than nothing.”

Then SEE.

Reality shatters, and we see.

We see scenes of divinity. Of greatness. Of the before. Before the—before the fall, my amalgam answers. We watch ourselves mold the world like clay beneath our hands, strike down armies in half a breath, shred the heavens apart without even trying.

I can give you this, the images promise, and I believe them. I really do. Sapphire has so much bullshit up her sleeve that I’m sure it’s entirely possible she has a way to ascend to godhood. Hells, she’s just revealed herself as a Titan—or at least someone who can access the network—which would shock me much more if I wasn’t so angry.

But I am more than the directives I was born with. I advance, I kill, and I protect, but I am more complex than three simple truths.

Power given to me by Sapphire is no more real than the borrowed skills I gain from corpses. Strength that comes with strings attached; abilities that will fade away, whether it’s because of my own Devour’s limitations or the very nature of the woman offering to make me more than what I am.

“No,” I say.

“No,” Sierra agrees.

“We’re doing this our own way.”

I reach out and Devour the visions.

So be it. This won’t be the last time I try. Say hello to Marie for me.

Before either of us can question her, reality speeds back up, and the presences of the Titans lift all at once.

#

A flash of memories, lost to time. A being that hides itself by nature of its existence. Resistances, bypassed in their entirety.

#

I blink. My soul feels off-kilter, like the level-up’s damaged me somehow. Worried, I check the status of my soul, but it looks intact. I have not, in fact, managed to destroy it while in the process of leveling up.

“You alright?” Sierra asks. She winces.

“Mostly,” I say. “A little unbalanced. You?”

“The same.” She taps her forehead. “Headache. Weird. I’m going to go pass it off to the next creature we see.”

This won’t be the last time I try.

I blink again. Where did that come from?

Antimemetic Resistance flares, brief and bright, and a sharp realization lances through me.

“Feels like I just had a bad dream,” Sierra says. “Urgh.”

“Not quite a dream,” I say.

I don’t know what memories Sapphire has just taken from me. I’m not entirely sure why my system feels so odd.

What I do know is that I’ve advanced, and I’ve regained one of the skills I temporarily had control of in my Equalized proto-Titan form.

If the hells stand between me and the half-elf I swear to kill, I will Annihilate them all.

“Come on,” I tell Sierra. “We have a domain to break.”

___

Author's notes: Back from the break! Kind of. School started again, and my creative brain is apparently in a coma, so the schedule may be slower. Sorry, y'all! Hope you enjoy anyway.