Seth's vision was covered by a long-awaited pop-up. Seth's hopes skyrocketed, he would finally gain something after the system had been silent for months. Seth's mouth stretched into a joyful grin. When he saw what it said, however, his grin instantly disappeared.
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New mission: stop the Prince of Hell, Beelzebub from swallowing all of the elements in the land
time limit: none
rewards: 5,000,000 points
penalties: 25,000,000 points
note: this mission has already been accepted as it is a requirement for the world to not be permanently damaged or destroyed
note: if you fail this mission this world will likely be consumed by the Prince of Hell, Beelzebub
---
Seth finally realized where he had heard of Beelzebub from. Beelzebub was the Prince of Gluttony, he had been a popular character in a few books Seth had read in his early years. Just the thought that such a being was possessing his brother scared him. Seth also knew that no matter what, he had to complete the mission. Seth knew what the repercussions would be if he failed this mission. Not only would it stunt his growth massively by taking away his chance to get the next Starter Package, but it would also destroy the whole world?
Why would not stopping Beelzebub from consuming a small number of elementals cause the world so much damage? To Seth's surprise, the system actually responded to his question for once.
---
Prince of Hell, Beelzebub's [Heaven Swallowing Sutra] allows him to violate the universe's laws and steal energy from this side of the universe, causing an imbalance in the two sides. If the imbalance grows too great, one side will overpower the other and both worlds will be destroyed and merged together. All life on both sides will be eradicated and it may even cause a large impact on both sides of the universe.
---
This blew Seth's mind. This information dump was way too large for just three sentences. Not only had Seth learned that Beelzebub was able to overcome the system and the universe itself, but he was possessing his brother! He was even stealing energy from the universe, except there were two universes? Seth felt kind of like the system was speaking in tounges, it was just too much crazy information. Everything Seth thought he knew was wrong.
Seth lay in his bed, shocked out of his mind. Without warning, Seth felt his hand move without him moving it. It had been so long since it had happened that he had forgotten all about it. Seth's body was back, and it was not relinquishing command. No matter what Seth tried to do, or how much pressure he exerted on his body, he couldn't regain control. Seth picked up a toy block and infused it with elements, he used three elements this time as his elemental control had increased by leaps and bounds.
The elemental infusion worked, Seth held the block tightly in his hand as he walked out the door. Seth murmured uncontrollably as he slowly tottered his way towards Augie's room. It was honestly a creepy sight, any guards or maids that walked upon the sight, turned and left without a word. They had heard a little bit about Seth's "episodes" and they didn't want to experience them in person.
Seth had become somewhat of an enigma to the castle's inhabitants. They had heard about his great strength and his nightly escapades, almost killing tens of people at times. When people heard his name, their eyes shone with a small amount of fear. Seth was seen as someone not to mess with because you don't know when he will snap and come for your neck. A few of the inhabitants had actually asked for Seth to be locked in rooms of the castle or sanctioned a part of the castle that he will be unable to leave. Arthur had, of course, denied these requests but told a few of his personal guards to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble.
These personal guards were silently following behind Seth, ready to take action in case he made a rash move. They watched as Seth awkwardly staggered in Augie's direction, hoping that it wasn't as they thought. When they saw Seth come upon Augie's door, however, their fears were realized. Seth kicked down the door with tremendous force, breaking down the wall along with it. The personal guards weren't slow to act though, as they ran to stop Seth from getting close enough to Augie to harm him.
The guards had not expected Augie to also be dangerous though. As they ran to Seth to stop him, they were thrown away by a huge force from Augie. One of the guards, that hadn't landed on their back, looked at Augie in fear. The guards had been caught in the crossfire between two monsters that were way above their level. As the guard watched Augie, his fear just grew even deeper as Augie's figure began to twist and distort as a shiny black carapace grew around his body. The guard seemed to see a dark glint in Augie's eyes. At that moment, a warm liquid dripped onto the floor from his leg.
Augie paid the guard no heed as he slowly transformed into a large bug-like demon. He fluttered his wings and dashed over to Seth, knocking him into the wall. Seth, who had caved the wall almost to the point of breaking, hopped up ad injected magic into his block. The block lit up with multicolored light and seemed to grow slightly in his hand. Seth sprinted up toward Augie and tried to shove the cube in his mouth. Augie sidestepped the strike and punched Seth in the stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of him.
Seth flew back from the punch, but in the air, he formed wings from some of the few air elementals left. Seth flew up, not wanting to allow Augie to continue to swallow the castle's elementals. To Seth's dismay, Augie didn't take the bait. Augie just looked up at Seth and spit out a glob of red, almost bloody, liquid. Seth dodged the shot, as he didn't know what the spit would do to him. The spit flew in a tall arc and landed on the roof of a room in the castle, Seth heard a loud sizzle and screaming.
The spit had gone through all of the floors, killing tens of maids and butlers. Seth's plan changed instantly, he flew back to Augie and tried to get the block in his mouth. Augie was too fast now, he probably had Seth beaten in all stats now, by a lot too. Seth remembered though, he had Strength, his Strength stat was ten times that of the rest of his others. Seth used his Strength to his advantage as he stopped trying to race Augie and instead tried to have a real fight.
If one were to look at Seth's face now, they wouldn't see the normal wide grin that he usually wore when fighting. Instead, they would see a calm, unchanging expression, almost as if his face was just a mask. Not only was his expression different, but his demeanor was as well. Seth did not seem like he was enjoying the battle, he seemed to not even care as he was hit around. Seth's calm demeanor seemed to be infectious, causing some of the guards that were shaking in fear to calm down. The guards looked to Seth and Augie then calmly walked away from the fight.
Now that most of the close bystanders were gone, Seth tried to think of a way to make Augie become human again. He needed to stop the demon form and hopefully exorcise Beelzebub from Augie. Seth came up with an idea, he would strip the carapace off of Augie and try to see if Augie's human form still existed. Seth wasn't too optimistic about Augie's human form but it was worth a try. Seth remembered how the carapace covered Augie. It had started from the spine, close to the tailbone, where the tail would be if he had one. The carapace had flowed like a liquid rather than grown around him like crystals, this meant that the carapace could liquify.
Seth tried to think of any weaknesses, but the carapace was completely smooth, it was just one piece. The carapace was shaped to look like it had segments in the joints, like a bug, but the joints were not truly unprotected. They were formed around a small child's body, thus its limbs were made completely out of its carapace.
Seth took the dagger his master had given him out of his inventory for the first time. As he held the dagger, he felt as if his mental clarity had improved. Seth gripped the dagger in one hand and the block in the other as he started to circle Augie. Seth felt much faster than before, had the dagger increased his stats? Seth didn't have time to check, so he just assumed it hadn't. That was the safest way, it was better to be unconfident than overconfident. Augie seemed to not care about Seth's new weapon as he opened his mouth to devour more elementals, indirectly decreasing Seth's strength.
Seth could do nothing but watch as the elementals were eaten, his wings losing some of their form as they were engulfed. Seth's sight was slowly getting weaker as well, as it was based on the elementals that were being swallowed. The only reason Seth could see Augie's figure was that all of the elementals he had eaten seemed to turn into some sort of elemental-based power that was infused into his very being, his carapace seemed to be made completely of this power. The odd power didn't manifest itself in particles like elementals, but rather waves.
Seth felt that it was odd for a substance of particles to turn into a wave and he even felt the same kind of energy from it and elementals. Seth didn't have time to think though, as Augie charged at him. Seth parried the blow with his dagger and threw out a punch with the block. Seeing as Seth had a weapon now, Augie seemed to want to even the odds as his carapace started shifting. Augie grew sharp blades on his arms, when Seth saw the blades, he was reminded a little of the shows and games with elbow blades he had seen on Earth.
Seth had played a few video games on Earth, he had liked playing Immortal Fighters, and he knew a few weaknesses of the esteemed elbow blades. The blades were very hard to control and they were very hard to attack with. They had a short range and the angle they were at made attacking even harder. Because the blades were on the outsides of the arms, attacking from the sides may be harder, but the chest would be unprotected.
Seth tried something new this time, he wanted to distract Augie with something, but he didn't want to waste his block. Seth's block was the equivalent of his only grenade, if he failed to use it well he would have wasted a big weapon. Seth gathered what few elementals he could and formed a lookalike, he injected as much magic as he could into it and threw it at Augie's face. Augie looked at the block and punched up. Seth watched in horror as Augie's arm blade flipped out, perpendicular to his arm, and sliced the block in half.
The two sides of the block clattered to the ground before turning to dust as Augie sucked in all of the elementals and magic that had made it up. Seth was speechless, these weren't the elbow blades he remembered. Since when had they decided that elbow blades could be controlled by the user as if it was another limb? Seth realized he had thought of the carapace wrong all along as time stood still.