"My appetite is as endless as a hungry beast… and right in front of me, is a garden filled with bad fruits, yet I want to devour them"
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Kahal's sorcery is a unique type. The kind of sorcery that takes from the earth and all living things surrounding him, including himself.
After sparing a passing glance up towards the red sun which suddenly seemed brighter than it was earlier, the spark ignited…
The spark which becomes visible to all once a sorcerer begins to use their sorcery, it ignited a second before crimson colored flowers began to sprout along one side of Kahal's hair.
His hooded scarlet eyes shot forward toward aphira, who with curved lips, glared at Kahal with an expression that would strike fear into the hearts of anyone.
Slowly, Kahal raised his arm as though reaching out toward the demoness, but was instantly met with a resounding pain in his own head.
Letting out a muffled grunt, Kahal pressed his fingertips against his temple. At the same time, the flames engulfing the burning tree grew larger.
Before kahal could form a coherent thought, he suddenly began coughing.
Spots of blood stained his chin as he inhaled the rising red spores. The first thought that crossed his mind was the idea of the red sun operated.
Based on it's power to sap the spirit energy of whoever's lured in by the fruits that the seven circles of Hell have to offer, it was a plausible assumption that the red sun was also affecting the flow of Kahal's spirit energy.
All this moment did was confirm his earlier thoughts.
And despite knowing what the cause of his powers being blocked was, the pain only intensified by the second.
Blood continued to trickle down his chin and stained his tattered clothes. Aphira simply sighed, and took a few slow steps past Kahal until she reached the crimson cocoon which was now pulsing with a faint glow.
Her eyes were fixed on Aaliyah's slumbering face as she Traced her palm across the transparent cocoon, Aphira spoke in a voice that sounded as a soft tune.
"Your daughter is so beautiful when she's asleep… right now, she looks like an infant inside of its mother's womb."
Despite her graceful voice, Kahal felt his stomach turn as he listened to her words. He strained his muscles enough to look over his shoulder, and witnessed the sight of Aphira casting a gaze at Aaliyah's sleeping face.
The strain on his body was too intense for him to form any words.
Knowing how powerless he was in this moment, all he felt himself wanting to do was plead for the demoness to spare the life of his daughter.
Slowly turning her body enough to see the sorry state of the man who once effortlessly slaughtered the seven hell lords, Aphira simply sighed and said:
"Do you know what upsets me about both humans and demons?"
With hooded eyes, Kahal strained his blurred vision to look up at Aphira. Noticing the lust inscription on her cleavage which began to glow.
"What upsets me is how little you all value what you have. You were all born from the benevolence of a goddess and yet it was you sorcerers who tainted such a beautiful world into what it is today…"
"The soil of the world you walk on was paved with the blood of thousands, all because you all weren't satisfied with what you had. I will never understand how people could be so greedy."
From the surface of the cocoon, Aphira suddenly felt a tingling sensation that sent a shiver through her transformed body.
"Ah… is this what it felt like when you made that deal with my mother?"
As the sight of the burning tree began to set in Kahal's mind, he gritted his teeth.
He could clearly understand what was now happening, that the assimilation was almost complete. In the long moment, he began to regret all decisions he'd ever made that led up to this moment.
His deal with the devil, the malediction that plagued the world, and even his earlier decision that he thought would be helping Aaliyah.
But another thought tethered Kahal to what little sanity he had left. If there was one way to describe this moment, it would be the eleventh hour before something catastrophic could happen.
His heart suddenly began slamming against his chest, faster than he could even think. With shivering lips, he suddenly shouted:
"Get your asses in here now!!!"
The demoness raised an eyebrow. Looking over her shoulder, a few seconds passed, and then the crimson gateway flashed a bright light for a split second.
***
Once the remaining members of Hell's foreign inhabitants stepped through the second circle's gateway, they were all momentarily blinded by the bright wildfire engulfing the burning tree.
Waves of heat slammed against them.
Raising their arms in front of their faces in a futile attempt to relieve themselves from the heat, they each felt their throats dry.
Selene who was the closest to assimilation had it worse than the others. As the light of the red sun casts its sights onto her, she felt an unbearable burning sensation in her skin.
Asami along with Yaku and Kojiro shared the same expression as if reading Kahal's thoughts.
There was no time to ask him why he had them enter before the red sun descended from the sky, the situation before them was the bigger priority.
The pulsing cocoon sounded off a loud hymn, which grew louder and set off shockwaves that rippled through the air, pressing down on everyone.
Kahal gritted his teeth. Staring the demoness down, he didn't fail to notice the lust insignia on her chest, burning brighter than ever before.
Feeling a sudden unbearable heat filling his body, and an aching sensation in his head, Kahal forced himself onto his feet. Rushing toward the demoness, he shouted to his companions:
"Stop standing around and kill this bitch already!!!"
The graceful general, Kojiro was the first to act, and moved like a sheet of paper in the aggressive winds trying to push him back with the coming shockwaves.
his body warped into pixels as he grew closer to the demoness, his glassy eyes flashed like a camera.
'This red sun is rapidly eating away at our spirit energy… not only can't we use our soul spaces, but I can't use any big abilities either'
Between his fingers, a black paint brush took form.
Swiping the brush through the sky, splashes of ink laid bare on the surface of the air. The ink resembled a ferocious woman swiping her long katana down swiftly.
In the next second, Asami appeared in place of the ink and just above the demoness. For a split second, the two locked eyes before the bloodthirsty general cut right through the two arms of the demoness… but all Aphira did was let out a sigh of what seemed like pleasure.
From the stub of her destroyed arms, a pair of new ones grew before Asami could even blink.
"Pfft. Please."
In that moment, all hell broke loose.
Sounds of multiple small scale powers were all that Selene could hear through her muffled ears.
Despite the battle happening in front of her, Selene's darting eyes were focused solely on the crimson cocoon. A battle of thoughts waged in her mind, sure she should assist everyone in killing Aphira…
But she knew that she wouldn't be of much help, since Hell's prison had deprived of her of her sorcery.
But in this very moment, the growing tension that took over all of her senses wasn't in the battle happening just next to her… it was solely on the cocoon.
All sound around her grew muffled.
And the feeling of her heart slamming against her chest barely registered in her mind. For some reason, she felt a warm and tingling sensation growing in her eyes… her voice shriveled up as she spoke in a broken tone.
"Ma?…"
Step after step, the pain in her deteriorating body grow more unbearable. Hot tears and sweat flowed down her pale face as she gritted her teeth and willed herself to reach her mother.
Kahal, whose sorcery was the only thing keeping Selene conscious, glanced at his limping granddaughter. For just a split second, the battle became background noise which only wrapped itself around his already thunderous heart.
Seeing the strain she pushed herself through, and hearing the shivers in her cries sparked something inside of him.
Suddenly, tears of his own flowed from his devilish eyes. If only he hadn't made that desperate deal with Hell's Queen… if only he hadn't tried to speed up his daughter's true Essence awakening…
If only…
In a desperate moment, it happened once more.
The spark that ignited only when a sorcerer used their sorcery. Four strings of black tendrils wrapped around Kahal's torso, and once that happened, Selene suddenly felt as though her body was being infested with a rush of spiritual energy.
Taking one short glance back at her grandfather who cursed at her, shouting for her to get her ass over to the cocoon, she knew that he was burning through a portion of his own life force to combat the red sun's assimilation process on her body.
With that extra bit of energy, she managed to reach the cocoon and frantically scratched at its slimy, red surface. But no matter how much she clawed at it, it kept growing thicker.
Selene's breaths grew quicker, running on fumes as she felt a wave of despair flash over her heart. She punched at the damned cocoon as hard as she could, again, and again.
"Mama! Get up!… please!"
Her cries fell on deaf ears. But she could feel it. The eleventh hour was at its last few seconds…
With everyone groveled in the field of flowers, the demoness levitated in front of the red sun. The lust insignia on her chest burned away into ashes.
Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and once the last second passed. Something in her changed…
…She was met with a beating sensation in her chest. And her veins were suddenly pulsing with a flow of spiritual energy.
With tear filled eyes, Selene looked up. And saw what looked like human skin hastily replacing aphira's demonic body.
Slowly, the hellish looking second circle of Hell that surrounded them, now looked to Aphira as a garden which could only be described as paradise.
It was only then that the red sun descended from the sky, which said a lot without saying anything…
The assimilation was complete.
Suddenly, the ground shook violently as though Hell's earth began to quake in response to something happening outside of the second circle.
Kahal immediately looked over to the cocoon which preserved Aaliyah's body. But nothing was inside.
In a voice that could barely pass as a whisper, he said:
"No…"
***
All that now filled the silence was a sudden voice that sounded across the seven circles. Announcing something that filled Hell's foreign inhabitants with broken dread.
"A new hell lord has been born."
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Continued in chapter 118: Prelude
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