Chapter 5: A New Path.

With those ominous eyes still looking down on him from above and the pesky little things before him, Raizel was trapped on all sides. He was in no way out of options and he knew this but there was only one problem, his pride.

There was nothing either in heaven or on earth that could possibly force Raizel to unleash his hybrid form against minions, a dragon he may no longer be for now, but being a Devil more than made up for every right he had to be this damn prideful.

"Come on then, let's dance you insects" he taunted.

The multiple smaller ones vanished, coming at him from different angles, Raizel applied his kings domain and slowed down all of them just enough for him to attack as he wanted. He grabbed one by the arm and flung them into one side, then the others he destroyed in quick successive punches while walking at a pace comparable to a quarter of his top speed at the base level, the larva erupted every where as if it had just been hit with a nuclear weapon.

But his flurry of attacks stopped when one of the big ones came to him and swung it's heavy war hammer down on him at blinding speed, Raizel grit his teeth and met the hammer with his fist sending the big one along with the weapon a bit backwards.

The smaller ones attacked Raizel again the moment the big one was sent back and with the cover of the chaotic larva blocking his vision, they were not giving him the slightest breathing space. In fact right now you could confidently say that they had both this battle and Raizel in their hands and were actually playing with him.

Raizel who was also painfully aware of this was not pleased in the slightest, after destroying the smaller ones again he was met with two big ones this time. His king's domain wasn't strong enough to slow them or hold them down in place like he could to the smaller ones, their physical strength was far too great and nearly on par with his.

Raizel could do nothing but put his hand up for block and the sneaky bastards only faked him out as one of them grabbed Raizel by the head instead and flung him to the other who hit Raizel with his heavy weapon square in the face and with no mercy.

The larva erupted as a huge path was cleared for many thousand miles, then they vanished and one caught Raizel by the feet while still in mid air while the other gave a well connected punch to the gut then held Raizel by the head again.

But suddenly right before their eyes Raizel's body began fading and they looked around in confusion with their weapons at the ready for wherever he may pop out from.

≈I had my doubts it would work since I saw you as all as mindless Golems≈

Raizel's form appeared before them and instantly the rushed at him but he smirked and raised a finger, they instantly came to a halt, unable to move a single millimetre.

≈I'm glad I was wrong, blame the idiot who made you for making such an egregious error≈.

Somewhere far away a lip twitched in visible annoyance at what was just said about them, while the other guest smiled.

≈Time for you to switch sides≈ Right before their eyes Raizel's form grew much larger and he placed his palms on their heads then began their rewriting procedure.

Meanwhile in the physical world Raizel dodging for his life, his movements had become slower than before but his efficiency had more than doubled as he kept on slipping between, using and redirecting the force of the big ones against them while blasting the smaller ones away.

There was visible strain on his face as he was pushing himself far beyond his limits right now, although he had probably infinite physical stamina he couldn't say the same for his mental counterpart. Right now he was using everything he had to take control of those two, along with the fact there seemed to be no feasible way to kill these annoyances once and for all, at least not while using physical means alone.

His Devil side could devour them thereby ending them, his Angel side could easily stop them from regenerating or seal them but was he going to it? No, not in the slightest.

—"His stubbornness really will be the end of him someday"— she ‹tchd› in frustration.

*A little more, just a little more* Raizel repeated like an anthem in his head as he kept fighting like a mad man, but not all things last forever as he was finally hit by one of the big ones. He blocked but the force sent him a bit backwards disrupting his rhythm and balance which gave them the perfect opportunity as they all pounced upon him all at once, at least that was how things seemed on the surface.

*Gotcha!*

«THOOOMMM»

A heavy hammer swung down, obliterating every last one of the small one's and harming a handful of the big ones who flew back, Raizel set himself down comfortably on the chaotic larva and heaved a huge sigh of relief looking at the towering Golem standing before him.

The rewriting was complete, a second Golem came and stood on the other side of Raizel who was looking very attentively at something, he needed to confirm what he saw before wasn't a fluke but a perhaps a chance for victory.

A few seconds passed and Raizel saw no signs of regeneration from the smaller ones and even the big ones weren't exempt, no it would be more accurate to say the big ones were in fact regenerating but at an incredibly slow pace.

He smiled, his heart thumping in elation at this. During the first wave of attacks from the smaller ones he had witnessed one of them tear through a comrade by accident and his perceptiveness caught onto the fact that the golem was nowhere to be seen even til this moment.

He had been trying for another accident like this since the moment just so he could be sure but these things had 100% effective coordination, hence why he made a desperate move to gamble with the big ones. If it hard turned out they couldn't be brainwashed then his plan would have failed form the start, right at 0% and Raizel would have been even more royally screwed than he already was.

Although this was a breath of fresh air Raizel couldn't be lazy now as he was still not in anyway clear of the danger surrounding him, there were still 98 big ones compared to his 2, if he didn't fight as efficiently and precise as possible he'd lose his only hope of harming these guys *well, this worry of mine only works if I were to try taking on all of them with nothing but my normal state* he smirked.

Raizel scanned the battlefield, there were only about 30 smaller ones remaining and they weren't a problem, a single big one could blow them away in an instant which meant this was the perfect time to use it.

He unleashed his partial dragon form and almost instantly the Golems took a step back, for an instant it felt like they had seen their maker but the lack of familiar aura removed that instinctual fear from them as they got ready to attack once more.

He ordered a golem to shift the size of his hammer and hand it to him, the Golem complied and then made another for itself soon after. "I can't let you guys fight with your own sluggish instincts so I'll need to take full control here".

The smaller ones vanished and lunged towards Raizel who did something that blew them away..... quite literally, his left hand vanished and the next thing they all saw was the absolute destruction that befell them as Raizel swung the hammer with immense force.

Then the big ones soon followed suit and launched a coordinated attack on Raizel in tandem but all he did was just one simple move, a backhand. But the force from this alone blew away the bodies of most, then at the same time simultaneously swung at the remaining few with his hammer destroying them once and for all.

He controlled his two Golems to attack the reforming Golems and joined in the slaughter, all he had to do was keep punching over and over again and that was enough. His two brainwashed minions kept bashing them over again until they couldn't regenerate anymore and they continued as so until it finally came down to only three big ones left.

Raizel smiled as he had achieved exactly what he wanted, he ordered his Golems not to attack the three big ones as he had plans for them. Huffing out a heavy breath of air Raizel prepared himself mentally for what he was about to put himself through, he gave control back to his two Golems as it would be impossible to maintain full control over them while taking control of these ones.

His eyes took on a flowery pattern and glowed a deep starry pink in color, this was the eye of Hypnos being forcefully used at 1100% capacity. Seconds later his eyes began bleeding but Raizel kept going, seconds turned to minutes and then finally after a full five minutes of trying he was finally able to succeed.

The three Golems were finally under his control, Raizel collapsed on his knees, so mentally drained by how far he had been pushing his limits. He sat down and breathed in a sigh of relief and looked up at the sky once more, those two red orbs still looking down at him exactly the same.

"I need to find a way to keep you guys safe from this battle, else all my hard work would be in vain".

Raizel looked to one of the Golems bedside him "hmmm, shift yourselves into the form of a bracelet and you should turn yourself into the form of a ring". They complied with his instructions and four bracelets fell into his hands, he nod his head in satisfaction and wore the bracelets on his arms two on each.

Then the ring he wore on the index of his right "alright, now we're set" he looked up at those eyes again and grinned "apologies for having kept you waiting for so long, as repayment I'll devour you whole".

The huge monster finally made a move, it's head poked down from the clouds and it's size began adjusting to a more comfortable one. Raizel titled his head a little as he watched with interest what it was doing, the end result of its adjustments left him face to face with a 300 foot monster.

Something clicked and almost instantly Raizel felt like he had a huge weight lifted off his shoulders, he scrunched his brows as he followed his instinct to try something.

Raizel tried levitating and it was successful this time, "hohh, how nice" he smiled and tried teleporting but couldn't, "en, acceptable handicap" he shrugged.

In an instant Raizel was right in front of the the 300 foot monster, he unleashed his dragon hybrid transformation again and with all his might punched towards it's face. But the next thing Raizel saw was the monsters hand blocking his first, *fast* he thought.

The shockwave from the punch disrupted every area of this entire space, Raizel created some distance between he and the monster as he got to analyzing it again.

"Is it a counter-attack type monster, that couldn't be it because it was the aggressor when i first met it". It really was strange how up until this moment since the first time of before the monster hadn't made a single move on him.

"Okay, let's try this" Raizel's left arm became ablaze with his crimson flames and in this moment the monster had greatly surprised Raizel as it out of nowhere brought a lightning strike down upon him which hurt like literal hell *Dammit, what is this thing*

Then from all sides Raizel felt himself being crushed by an invisible field, filled to the brim with rage Raizel's body was enclosed in his crimson flames and a 4,000 feet pillar of fire rose into the sky and obliterated an unfathomably large area.

Those big red orbs met his slitted golden, the monster had used some sort of artifact on itself, it was a white veil that burned away seconds later. Raizel was sure now that his flames were a threat to this thing which eased much of his anger as his left arm was ablaze once more, the monster was once again clad in some sorta artifact but this time he completely vanished from Raizel's vision which sent his senses on overdrive as he erected another pillar of flames around him but much smaller and spread it out in a wave but he hit nothing.

Raizel raised his arm which was clad in flames and blocked the lightning strike, his flames snaked around the lightning to the very top in just moments and burned it all away then dispersed the flame pillar soon after and as he expected an attack came right at him.

He flew underneath the huge arm and grazed it with his fingers, almost instantly the arm was ablaze with his crimson flames but then it faded again before his eyes as a mighty great mental shock hit his mind which knocked him out for a moment, he had been wholly unprepared for something like this.

And right in that moment of unconsciousness, a number of successive lightning strikes hit Raizel's body and by the third one his body had already begun tearing apart, through grit teeth Raizel once again consumed the lightning with his crimson flames and flew out of the area completely.

"Hide and seek is over" he declared as his eyes took on a golden glow, he looked up above but the punch was already here and he proudly met it with a punch of his own. For a moment there was some resistance but Raizel was still greatly outclassed and he was sent flying down but he stopped it and flew back around to give another punch with his other arm in which he was sent flying again.

Although Raizel had been outclassed in strength it was definitely not as bad as the first time, this time all he suffered was the disfigurement of his bones and flesh which had healed already.

The monsters full form appeared before Raizel again only this time much smaller, near human size and clearly more dangerous as Raizel felt his body shiver just staring at it. *Does it get stronger the smaller it gets?* he guessed and quite accurately at that.

*Damn, my flames could end this in a moment but the artifacts on this thing makes it hard to do so, guess I have no other choice after all* his eyes gained a determined gaze.

But before Raizel could move another muscle he felt a little strange *huh?* was his reaction looking down at the side of his body which had been dugged out so cleanly and the realisation hit him. Another attack came again, this time his vocal cords had been shaved clean off, blood gushed like a waterfall from his gaping throat which healed in seconds as did his gaping sides.

He looked at the monster again for a moment before both his eyes were plucked out but it regenerated again, it's current speed was clearly too great for Raizel to deal with and he acknowledged this, right now Raizel was like an all you can eat buffet for this thing, no matter how many times it hurts or kills him he couldn't die.

It continued picking Raizel apart piece by piece and watching him regenerate over and over again, with how fast it was moving a minute hadn't even passed during the timeframe it began it's butcher. And if one were to ask what it had been doing with every piece of Raizel's flesh he's torn out, then the answer would be he ate them.

Every time it consumed a piece it felt it's power grow as did it's hunger, there was some great power it felt while consuming his flesh, it could tell the power itself resided not in the flesh but somewhere else and he wanted it. If small residues could give him such an euphoric boost then just how much could the main source give to him.

This was the main reason it hadn't killed Raizel yet although it had an ace up his sleeve that could, he just wanted more, much much more.

Raizel watched the monsters eyes become more and more overwhelmed by madness and hunger, it stared straight at him and he smiled "this should be enough, you've done well"

The air around Raizel took a complete turn, it felt like an indescribable chill had descended upon this very space itself. And for the first time while facing what it had regarded as prey all along, the monster felt threatened, the chilling air of rising danger forced it's body to tremble.

It stared straight into Raizel's eyes which had taken on a different hue, a starry blue. Right before it's eyes this entire space was turning into a complete ice age, the cold was so strong it had completely frozen the larva down below.

With the danger levels reaching extreme territory the monster made a move to stop whatever his prey wanted to do, it moved with the same speed as before and placed it's palm onto his chest. A white wave of energy spread over Raizel's body and far beyond.

Rays of light broke out from Raizel's body as it began cracking like porcelain, a huge white sphere enclosed around. It continued getting bigger and bigger, breaking through the skies and covering a large portion of the space they currently resided in. Then in a flash everything in sight was gone, overtaken by the light, the explosion was almost silent, like a whisper.

And this was because it wasn't normal, the technique didn't work this way and the ghastly look of despair that could be felt from the monsters face said it all. The light died out and there stood Raizel perfectly unfazed by the attack, his form had undergone a massive change. His snow white hair had taken on a crystal blue texture, his skin much fairer and colder to the touch, the crimson flame obscuring his lower half was gone and Raizel was now in his full nakedness.

His gaze seemed to be completely focused on the form he achieved, ignoring the monster which was right in front of him. The monster moved away from Raizel in fright, it's undefined face began wriggling and tearing as what could only be described as a horrible makeshift of a mouth formed.

It opened its makeshift mouth to speak but the only that came out was ear grinding ghastly sounds, Raizel finally returned his gaze to the monster before it and smiled, he just discovered another gift he still had.

«All tongue»

The gift of understanding language or the intent of it in whatever form it may present itself while also being understood by all, this included both the living and non-living. He had thought his fall from grace as a god removed his qualifications to still use this gift but who knew.

"Was that your trump card" he asked, his voice as cold as the space around them. Receiving no answer Raizel assumed the answer to that question "truly a shame then, if I wasn't a Devil then it'd have been impressive". The monster felt the ocean of disappointment oozing out of Raizel towards him and even with how scared it was the feeling of being insulted by something that was nothing but prey just some moments overrode that instinct.

Who did he think he was to feel disappointed towards it, was he calling it weak. A torrent of new chaotic emotions welled up inside it causing some drastic changes as a great aura burst forth from it's body causing drastic changes to the surroundings, the ice age Raizel had caused was gone and what replaced it was a bloody aura of doom.

"Hohh?" Expressed a mused Raizel with a smirk on his lips, this little thing was using the power it got from him to forcefully evolve. "As interesting as it would be to play with you after you're done, I unfortunately do not have the time to do so".

He raised his index finger and pointed towards the monsters head «Bang» he whispered, a small icicle manifested and shot right into the monsters head. Or so it was supposed to but a huge wave of power spread out and destroyed the icicle in moments, then continued onward towards Raizel who gave it nothing but a simple flick.

The wave was instantly frozen in it's tracks and shattered into many tiny blue light crystals, Raizel seeing the form of the monster knew it had completed its evolution. Two great horns had grown out of it's head, a ring of blue fire around it's wrists and ankles and a tail like that of dinosaur.

And at the end all he could do was raised an eyebrow "even I am not worthy enough to bear horns and yet you somehow got them from a tiny piece of me, you're even more trashier than I thought" his chilly voice was filled with ice cold poison. And the monster hearing the judgement of Raizel upon gaining it's new form roared in anger, it's voice shaking the entire the space they currently resided in.

"So noisy" whispered Raizel as he appeared before the monster and grabbed it by the throat, instantly crushing and ripping it's throat, frost aura almost immediately covered the gaping hole meanwhile the monster still had its eyes widened, unable to understand just when he had gotten here even with how much stronger and faster it had become.

Raizel then put his hand inside the monsters agape mouth and threatened to rip it apart but the monsters instincts desperately kicked in as blue flames spewed out of it's mouth and set Raizel's head ablaze, it's heat was so great it instantly burned the electric larva below to ashes even with how high up they were but it was instantly replaced and frozen once more on the spot.

Right now things were still bad for the monster, Raizel's hand wasn't letting go of its mouth, neither was it feeling any sort of resistance being put up to defend himself. Instead something amazing began happening, Raizel opened his mouth and like a magnet the flame was instantly drawn into it and they weren't stopping....they weren't stopping at all.

Panic and absolute terror filled the very depths of the monsters core as it realized it was no longer the one spewing the flames willingly, they were quite literally being sucked out of him and with every second this went it felt itself get closer and closer to Death.

So in its highest level of desperation it punched, kicked and smacked. Tried crushing him the same way it had before, a big ugly mouth opened up in its abdomen and unleashed a much bigger stream of flames upon Raizel's body but even then it did nothing, it all amounted to nothing.

The new stream of flames got drawn into Raizel's mouth quickening it's inevitable approach to Death, it's form began regressing and it's struggles became weaker and weaker, there really was nothing else it could do other than sit there and get devoured.

It questioned itself exactly who was the real monster here between the both of them and that answer seemed all too clear, death was now just a single step away from the monster but something happened. Raizel's form began fading and the devouring slowed down to a full halt, he let go of the little thing in his hand and it fell down helplessly into the frozen larva.

Raizel clicked his tongue in annoyance, he still wasted so much time after all but it didn't matter anyway as the battle was over. He looked down at the monster which lay without a single ounce of strength in it's body and flew down towards it, grabbing it by the neck and lifting it up.

"Even if you aren't useful to me alive, both your core and the corpse of your body which has been enhanced by my me can serve as good clothing material".

He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them, his eyes had gone back to the starry blue of before. Raizel raised his other hand and put it through the monsters chest, freezing it from the inside out and with his other hand which gripped it's neck he broke it.

The monsters bright red orbs turned dim as it went limp, he pulled his hand from it's chest and let go of it's body. Raizel's eyes went back to normal and he sighed, even with how weak the monster was if he tried to kill it without either of his hybrid sides then it may take an eternity hence why he needed the power of his ice demon to permanently put a stop to it and it's regeneration.

Some distance away the two of them watched as the battle came to it's final conclusion, things hadn't quite gone the way either of them planned or expected but this was acceptable for now. They would have more than enough time to figure out exactly why not once did it ever happen—

Raizel sat down to take a break on the frozen larva, he decided to use the time in going over everything he discovered today.

First was the all too important fact of how he had been going about taking control of his hybrid side, in his efforts to acquire the full thing he had forgotten the tiny pieces of power his Devil and Angelic cores had been shedding. They were very tiny pieces but once you gather enough of them it's quite useful, the pieces are also quite separate from the cores will but not completely cut off from it hence making it absolutely easy to take control of.

And after he realised this he gathered more than enough devil pieces to create an ice demon, one of the most special aspects about being a Devil was the freedom to create almost any type of demon you wished.

Flame demon, water demon, wind demon, earth demon, lightning demon, ice demon, gravity demon, time demon, space demon, the possibilities were endless. All you had to do was have an idea of something and as long as ones has the necessary mental and physical capabilities to hold it you can manifest it as a demon.

Although the possibilities were endless there was in fact a limit to how many demons could be manifested for a devil, the limit being six. Any further than this is impossible, to create another demon a devil must sacrifice one of their six demon cores.

But that limit was non-existent for the child of the Original Devil himself, just as he could create an infinite number of cores so could Raizel, he just wasn't anywhere near powerful right now.

His ice demon core was only just equivalent to a fetus at the moment, that's all his mental and physical capabilities could handle. He sighed and drooped his head, the urge to grow stronger burned even greater now.

But ignoring this for the moment, the «all tongue» was definitely the most incredible gift here, the true heights of what it could achieve was ridiculous to say the least.

"Seems this really is the end of the challenge huh, that's my cue to leave then" he picked up the monster by it's head and flew straight up into the skies, finally reaching into space.

He looked down at his former prison which he found to be quite small, "should be equivalent to half the original moon's size on earth, perhaps a little bigger". Raizel felt a small sense of shame in his heart as he had no Idea why he studied that.

Shaking the feeling away he looked up at the opened doorway right above him and flew into it.

EnD