Chapter 445: The Birth of a New Hell Lord - Second Half
Envy cut that part of her power of self-sealing and a lot of self-inflicting curses, the Envy curse along with it. This degree of Envy would make whoever received this package of power periodically seal themselves every time they felt Envy toward someone or something. And with the severe curse of Envy she put in it, it would be a nice surprise for the thief!
With a weak smile, Envy prepared the severed power and cast it off. "Enjoy the present," she whispered before succumbing to unconsciousness.
— Louisiana - Frontline —
At the Louisiana frontline, the monster began to gather power. It still didn't have much intelligence, but it could instinctively connect to an unknown source. It knew that on the other side of this connection was an overwhelming power that belonged to it. The monster started to pull on this power with all its might.
There it was—the power! If it could pull out that power and merge with it, it would surely regain what it had lost!
As the mysterious connection worked its magic, part of the power from the other side, along with all its blessings and curses, entered the giant monster's body.
The giant monster gleefully merged with that power. The power quickly became one with its soul and being. It began to transform its body. All of the power from the massive body condensed into a small form, leaving only a dried shell behind. Within the outer colossal alligator-like shell, the essence of power drained and condensed into a humanoid form.
The condensed body, now containing foreign power and its essence, became a lizardman-like figure. It turned to look at its hollow shell.
"Grrrrr! Not enough! My power is still not enough! A thousand years! No, more than a thousand years! That human girl devoured my one and only soul fragment and used all my power for herself!
One day, I'll regain all of my power! ARggggggggggggghhhh!!" The lizard roared in anger, its body fueled with hellish power.
Its envy surged, causing its power to burst forth. Even Ragnar, Pride, Greed, and Lust, who were far away, could sense the hellish power. Even normal humans, like the soldiers, found it hard to breathe under the pressure of this power.
Suddenly, a seal appeared on its body. "What!? What is this!?"
The seal was a mix of hellish and holy power, the self-sealing power Envy had created to control her overwhelming envy and maintain her sanity. Of course, there was a way to control this power, to activate or deactivate it, but since this lizard was not Envy, it didn't know how to control it.
Envy had deliberately excluded the method to control this power from the power package she granted to the thief.
"No! My power!" The lizard started to feel its power being suppressed to its minimum state as its envy quickly subsided and eventually vanished.
"This is a trap! Human trickery! Grrr! You accursed human girl! AAAArrrggrhhhhhhh!!!" The creature roared in frustration as the seal tightened its hold, completely suppressing its power.
With a final flash of light, the seal solidified. The once imposing lizard-man had shrunk to the size of a baby alligator… No, it had completely become a baby alligator. It let out another frustrated roar, but only a baby hiss came out. Its rage was evident, but its small body made it appear quite cute and comical.
It then burrowed through the brittle husk of its former shell and vanished into the midst of the city's ruins.
On Ragnar's side, he quickly comes to investigate, accompanied by Pride. Although she can't use her space magic today due to its demanding nature on her mana pathways and physical strength, she can still fight and assist Ragnar to some degree.
Ragnar burst through the brittle husk of the giant monster, armed to the teeth with several enhancement spells and his special magic weapon. Standing inside its body, Ragnar began investigating the scene with forensic magic, looking for any trace of abnormality.
There were many traces of abnormality: magic, destructive magic, dark magic, and even frustration and great anger. But what Ragnar was searching for was a trace of hellish essence.
"Over there…" he muttered as the forensic magic pointed in a certain direction.
Ragnar and Pride followed the direction indicated by the forensic magic, the trace of hellish essence growing stronger and stronger until Ragnar stood above a spot where hellfire burned on the ground.
He crouched down and used tools to collect the dirt, soil, and dried monster tissue that had been burned by hellfire, storing them in a special container meant for containing hellish power. This sealed container was for magic research. He needed to gather all of these samples and deliver them to the laboratory back at his family estate to determine what had happened here.
From the investigation so far, Ragnar guessed that a Hell Lord had found a way to permanently walk on the mortal realm without repercussions and without resorting to opening the Hell Gate. The problem is… how did they achieve that, and which Hell Lord is it? From what he knew, two of the Hell Lords had been neutralized by Daniel.
Is it Asmodeus, the Hell Lord of Lust, or Beelzebub, the Hell Lord of Gluttony? They still needed to determine who this Hell Lord was.
"Let's get out of here," Ragnar said to Pride, the young witch, and she nodded. The two returned to the Mobile HQ.
At the mobile HQ, Ragnar and Pride returned with heavy hearts, uncertainty awaiting them. A Hell Lord is not an easy foe to fight. Other than Daniel, they didn't think anyone could easily combat a Hell Lord like him. Even if they wanted to rely on Daniel, the Hell Lords were not stupid; with two of them already perished, they surely wouldn't dare to face Daniel head-on.
"Ahhhh, what am I gonna do… f*ck… I'm too old for this shit," Ragnar complained, acting like an old man who didn't want to bother with troublesome matters anymore.
—
Within the still waters of the unknown bayou, a baby alligator floated motionless like a wooden log. This baby alligator was, of course, the former giant monster. He had used all of his stamina and magic power, now in a sealed state, to travel here from a nearby town, acting like a normal alligator.
Now, he has regained much of his memory. He was Leviathan, one of the 7 Hell Lords who ruled one of the 7 Hell Realms. His hell realm was full of fiery salamanders, fire dragons, and even basilisks. Yes, his Hell realm was a mix of dungeon and fiery pit, with his castle serving as both a wonder and the seat of his power.
It could be said that his hell realm was the most powerful among the 7 Hell Lords. Because of this, he often caused trouble for the other 6 Hell Lords, either by plundering resources or killing some of their minions to gather souls to replenish his own.
This led to war. The 6 Hell Lords allied and attacked his Hell realm. The fight was devastating, nearly destroying his domain. He fought bravely and managed to heavily injure some of them, but in the end, he was caught off guard, ambushed, and killed.
His corpse was disintegrated, and his soul fractured as the 6 Hell Lords tried to erase him. But fortunately, he was quick-witted and broke off a piece of his soul, sneaking it away to the mortal world. Unfortunately, in order to escape during the siege, the soul fragment he broke off needed to be small enough to go unnoticed. He succeeded in escaping to the mortal world.
Since his soul fragment was so small and lacked much hellish power, he could pass through the realm barrier without being rejected by the mortal realm.
In this weakened state, he encountered a dying human girl who had fallen into the sea where his soul had just arrived in the human realm. The girl was heavily injured and would surely die, so he thought of stealing her body, devouring her soul, and using it to prevent the mortal realm from rejecting him once his hellish power recovered.
Who would have thought that the dying human girl would have such a strong will to live? She even won against him in a battle of souls. His soul fragment was nearly completely devoured, leaving only a powerless remnant of his soul that went into hibernation.
That remnant was his last defense, sealing himself within the minuscule remains of his soul and power, hoping that one day the human girl would die and he would somehow be strong enough to retake the body and his power.
As time passed, he lost hope as his power merged further and further into that of the human girl. Even his soul remnant was corroded and turned into her power. Then, today, his wish came true. The unexpected happened, and his instinct told him he needed to use this chance to escape from the clutch of that human girl, and he did.
This brings him to the current situation. First, he needs to run away, find a safe place to regain enough power to defend himself, then find some enemies of that human girl and use them to weaken her. Then, he will kill the human girl, devour her soul, and regain his power!