42 - Death or Ascension

When I went down to the 6th circle, I spent a while traveling around before hearing a certain rumor.

'Challenging all the demons in the 6th circle? He wasn't that reckless before. Is it really him?'

Nonetheless, I rushed to his location, only to be dumbfounded by the sight.

In front of me were thousands of greater demons of the 6th circle in the air on one side, and Ixtra in his 1st Release on the other.

This must've been a significant proportion of all the greater demons in the 6th circle.

Maybe it was all of them. Well, I doubted that, but it must've been in the tens of percents.

Ixtra didn't see me, so I cast illusion magic on my face and body and hid somewhere.

'What's he doing?! Is he serious? If I wasn't here, he'd be done for.'

Ixtra took a step forward in midair and, to my great surprise and shock, the giant army of greater demons took a step back.

As he approached them, they lost their tereifying stature, and suddenly I felt like maybe Ixtra could do it.

Alas, as the battle started, he was immediately at a disadvantage. In just a matter of mimutes, he was on the verge of death, yet he only fought more and more ferociously the more cornered he got.

I wanted to help, but I decided against it.

I knew why he was doing all this. I'd only help him at the true last moment. Until then, I had to make sure he didn't know I was here.

There was only so much the demons could do to sync up attacks. However, some of them who knew arrays were able to make some arrays to combine their power.

It didn't reach the level of archdemon, but it was close.

If I had to face that giant army with all their tricks, even I'd have a hard time.

Well, I could always run away, at least.

Ixtra finally was on his last stretch, and as I thought it was time to help him, he got stabbed through the heart by an enemy.

This wasn't enough to down him though, and he killed the enemy in front of him swiftly and accurately.

More attacks rained down, and I began movijg to help, when suddenly, I, as well as every other demon on the battlefield, felt a suffocating, all-devouring, destructive energy flood out onto the field from where Ixtra was situated.

More than anything, the energy felt powerful, like it wasn't meant to belong in this low tier fight. And make no mistake, this was not a low tier fight.

The air around Ixtra turned a blinding scarlet red, crimson and bloodlike, forming a bright crimson sphere around him. Suddenly, this sphere expanded, and eventually the entire greater demon army was encapsulated inside.

The sphere was over a hundred kilometers wide.

I was caught in it too.

Suddenly, the sphere began closing in, and everywhere it passed, demons died. Those that knew teleportation magic managed to teleport out, but most didn't, so that one attack took care of essentially all the weaker greater demons.

Which was most of them. Only aroukd 300 remained.

These were all greater demons who could use high level magic and had some degree of equipment themselves.

However, all the arrays and array cores had been destroyed as well by the prior attack of the crimson sphere, so now it was just them with their magic and weapons and no additional buffs, nor all the weaker greater demons for support.

Meanwhile, I ran much further away.

Suddenly the sphere collapsed and the crimson red energy transformed into spears.

Each spear shot out at one of the remaining 300 greater demons, one for each of them, and try as they might, none of them were able to resist.

All of them were impaled through the chest in one hit.

This wouldn't normally be enough, but this time, the crimson energy spears shone with a bright light and all simultaneously exploded.

When the light and dust settled down...

There was only Ixtra left standing.

***

In the moment of death, Ixtra grasped it.

For just a split second, a miniscule fraction of a feeling.

He reached out to that feeling, desperately, needily, and willed that feeling to give him strength.

It didn't respond.

Suddenly, the world slowed down, and Ixtra watched himself slowly begin to die in slow motion, all while that feeling remained unresponsive.

Wrathfully, he thought,

'WHY EVEN BE THERE IF YOU'RE NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING FOR ME?!'

He was indignant, unresolved, and spiteful.

Yet, right then, he changed his mindset.

On death's door, less than a second away from it, he began to think differently.

Ixtra's brain and soul began to develop new circuitry that grew and developed at a rapid pace.

And with it, his thought process changed. His entire outlook on life changed, in that one moment of life and death.

'If you don't want to help me. I'll make you.'

And that was all. He didn't know how he was going to do so. He didn't have some grand plan or any new ideas. He was just as put of luck as before.

Yet somehow, due to that change in perception, due to his absolute desire to impose his will on that energy, despite not knowing how he would do so, that energy finally responded back in kind.

It talked to him, but not through words, but emotions.

Those emotions told Ixtra all he needed to know.

It went a little something like this.

[If you want to use me...you need to disregard my opinion on the matter. Claim this energy as yours as though an emperor, and so it shall be done.]

In that same instant, the name of that energy appeared in Ixtra's mind: Scarlet-Crimson Essence.

The Scarlet-Crimson Essence heeded Ixtra's command and launched the next 2 attacks, and so ended the fight.

However, Ixtra lost that feeling. He kept the essence, but lost the feeling that had given it to him.

The method for creating this new energy, which was to latch onto and force that feeling into submission through one's will and resolve, was lost, and the feeling was gone.

And Ixtra didn't know when he'd feel that feeling again.

Bringing the rest of the remaining Scarlet-Crimson Essence in front of him, it was about a bucket's worth when condensed.

Ixtra decided to devour it with his demonic energy, and all at once too. This wasn't for storage but true absorption.

He wanted to eat it. Or, well, drink it, I guess.

The moment he did so, he felt a feeling of something unlocking and unwinding in his body, blood, and demonic energy, and he let his instincts take over.

He let out a giant cascade of demonic energy into the surroundings, and closed his eyes.

As the feeling of opening locks and unwinding became stronger and stronger, more and more intense, soon, Ixtra omce again felt that feeling.

Latching onto it, and knowing what to do this time, he forcefully willed it to become his, and it obliged. As it did, he devoured all the Scarlet-Crimson Essence that was created, and the feeling of unlocking amd unwinding grow mor and more, faster and faster, until eventually, it happened.

The feeling reached a climax, and Ixtra felt a kind of lockimg mechanism come undone near his chest and heart. Then, his demonic energy began swirling in a vortex around his heart, and expanded to around his body, and continued expanding its range of rotation.

The demonic energy in Ixtra's body "unwound" itself into a reverse vortex that gushed out of his body in a spiral fashion, and shot out from him before spreading vertically, touching the ground and reaching the sky ceiling.

Demonic energy was forming a pillar from ground to sky in a 1km radius around Ixtra.

Suddenly, Ixtra felt a second locking mechanism come undone near his heart, then another, and then another still.

After a 5th came undone, Ixtra felt an intense pain and screamed at the top of his lungs in agony.

After a few seconds, he grit his teeth together and tried to withstand it, but was unable to and let out another roar of torment.

As he did so, he grew a second set of horns on his head, different from the first.

The first set were vertical, going up and back from his forehead. This set was horizontal, and looked very different, more draconic than the first.

They were a pure dark blue, and that dark blue color seeped into his eyes, turning his irises from bright red to a deep azure as well.

On his back grew two large, towering demonic wings, grey and grim. Then, runes began appearing all over his body, and rearranged themselves into magic circles carved into his skin and exoskeleton.

The wings had magic circles etched onto them too.

When the process finished, there were 2 circles on the bottom of his feet, two on top, two on top of his hands, two dark red rings around his calves, two rings around his wrists, an intricate tattoo on his thighs and upper arms, a unique pattern on his torso, and a mark on his face right beneath his eyes.

His wings had all sorts of intricate patgerns on them too, while his tail and horns had simpler ones.

The pain subsided, and he regained control of himself. The feeling of unlocking and unwinding completely died down, and he stopped emitting all that demonic energy.

Takimg a deep breath in, he heaved a huge sigh of relief and, finally, smiled a smile of great joy.

He had finally become an archdemon.

Looking from far away, Merca looked on with a mixture of fright and shock, before focusing his gaze.

That smile on Ixtra's face. It was one he had rarely seen, every so often. It meant he was truly happy.

It looked quite cute on him, if you ignored the giant wings growing out of his back and the 4 horns, and all the tattoos and...ok, listen, he didn't really look that cute anymore in his 2nd Release, ok? But...his smile still was.

At least Merca thought so.

Walking out and up to him, Ixtra noticed Merca walking up and became vigilant, before calming down once he saw who it was.

Looking at him, Ixtra realized he had regained his strength, and looked dumbfounded for a second, before bursting out in hearty laughter.

"Hahaha. Of course. I had to go through all that but you flat out died and went to Hell and still managed to become so strong once again. Oh, the world really is unfair."

Despite saying this, he was still smiling brightly. Nothing could bring him down right now.

After getting a handle on himself, Ixtra gently stopped laughing and lightly sighed.

"I assume you want to make a contract again?"

Hearing him say this, Merca also chuckled.

"A contract? No, I just came to say congratulations. And, if it isn't too much trouble, perhaps we could stay as friends? Traveling the worlds together, doesn't it sound nice, Ixtra?"

Widening his eyes, Ixtra shook his head while smirking foolishly to himself.

'Of course. This is who he is. He's not a demon, like me. Just a few years in Hell and I already forgot what kind of man I once served.'

"Sure. Friends, then. Although, I'll have to warn you now, I've never had one of those, so I don't know if I'll make a good one. And I'll backstab you in a heartbeat if I can benefit greatly from it."

Hearing his words, Merca grew a large grin on his face.

"Of course. Likewise."