Evolution

"..."

"..."

"Wow...you're really pathetic, aren't you?"

"...what...?"

In Adonis's subconscious, it was a black vast space except for one thing that stood out. This monster-like creature was there, it had long limbs, a horrifying face with an even more horrifying smile, and it looked like it was made of scribbles, making it look formless.

"Who..are you?"

"I'm you or at least, I'm the thing that haunted your past self."

Adonis was even more confused by what this thing is and what it means.

"You can say I am an accumulation of everything shitty that happened to you."

"Are you saying...your my demons?"

"Sure, you put it like that~"

The Demon's smile grew larger, which made it look impossibly big.

"But, that's not what I'm here for."

"I am here to tell you how pathetic you are, and that you are doing the world a great deal by dying."

"The fuck do you mean by that?!"

Adonis raised his voice at that.

"I mean you expected death so easily, despite you going on about "I'll never let this chance to be stronger pass by me" like you had the determination to fill that ambition."

"So~ if you are just going to die so easily, why not let me have your body then?"

Adonis didn't even have any words for what his Demon just said.

"I mean it's not like you want it anymore, so why not let me have it? It'd be such a shame if such a strong body just got eaten like it's an animal's dinner."

"So give it to me. I promise I'll take good care of it-"

"Fuck off"

"Huh?"

Adonis was never felt such resentment for an entity before. Maybe it was because this thing was his Demon, maybe it was because he talking down to Adonis like he was still some trash. Whatever it is, Adonis was not get let his Demon do what it wants.

"I said, FUCK OFF!!"

"LIKE I WOULD EVER GIVE MY CHANCE TO BE STRONGER TO ANYBODY!!! MUCH LESS SOMETHING LIKE YOU!!!"

"Oh c'mon, calling me 'something' is a bit harsh you know~"

"Like I give a shit!!!"

These were only Adonis's thoughts, but if he was saying this in his physical state he would have veins bulging out of his head by how pissed he was.

"I am not letting this chance go to waste. I will become strong. I will rise to the top of the world by climbing from the bottom! I will never die until I fulfill this."

'...there you go...'

The Demon thought,

'Become stronger Adonis, so when you do rise to the top of the world, I'll be able to die or take over your body as my own.'

'Either way, it'll be all good for me~"

The Demon started to disappear as Adonis's subconscious was filled with a golden light.

.

.

.

"I..won't...die..."

Adonis said weakly, as the Shadow Lion was about to take a bite his head off.

"I'll...keep living...!"

"I will fulfill my dream!"

"I will stand at the top!!!"

"AND EVERYTHING THAT GETS IN THE WAY WILL BE DESTROYED BY ME!!!"

Adonis lifted his head, his yellow irises shining a gold now, his pupils during a glowing white, and his sclera turning a dark black. His messed up body started to regenerate by itself.

The Shadow Lion didn't know what happened until it was thrown all the back to the other side of the cavern.

*BOOM*

The Shadow Lion hit the wall hard and it emitted more dark magic, to the point that the only thing the dark magic wasn't covering was the head.

The Shadow Lion looked at Adonis and felt as if he staring at someone blessed by god, or worst, is a god.

The process Adonis was going through was called Evolution. This was a rare phenomenon in the world where if a person is put into a near-death experience, or has endless ambition for a goal, Mana itself starts heeding their commands and making their Mana and Core stronger by circulating itself throughout their entire body, making their Mana more abundant and purer.

Adonis was going through this process but with Anima instead of Mana. This was able to give Adonis a certain ability that other people going through Evolution couldn't.

Forcibly evolving all his techniques to the next level.

Adonis knew this as if Anima itself was telling this to him.

Adonis put out his hand and fire started to form on his hand. He then said the name of the evolved form of 'Flame Pillar'.

"Inferno"

A huge torrent of fire blew out of his hand, making 'Flame Pillar' look like child's play compared to it as it blasted toward the Shadow Lion.

The Lion shocked by this, let out a long blast of Dark magic out of its mouth to counter the Torrent of Fire.

A power struggle formed, one so devastating that it shook the entire cavern. Adonis seeing this put a bit more Anima into his fire, making the fire start to devour the Dark blast.

The Lion struggled even more as its Dark magic emission covered its eyes. The two blasts went into a stalemate again.

Adonis decided to do something different, something that he couldn't do in his normal form. He gathered Anima into his left hand and raised it toward where the two attacks met. He gathered the Anima in the atmosphere toward that place and said one word that made the Anima bend to his will.

"Collapse"

The Anima struck the two attacks and canceled them both out with a shockwave. Adonis ignored the pressure of the shockwave and evolved 'Flame Blade' into...

"Ifrit's Sword"

Fire condensed itself into a bastard sword and had no imperfections with its creation. The core of the sword was blazing white and the further you get to its edge the more red it got, until the edge of the blade became a fiery red.

With this new power that Adonis yielded he started to approach the Shadow Lion and the Lion became more afraid as a god was approaching him, with every intent to kill it.