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Chapter 116: Rose Of Death I
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The man couldn't help but let out a sigh, "More questions than answers... As usual."
"What might be troubling you, my dear? I may be able to help..."
An uninvited guest showed herself, but she seemed to be an inhabitant of the hell realms, so technically, Ian was the one to come uninvited and cause so much destruction in a battle that shall be known as the invasion of the fiend, ironic, isn't it?
Ian faintly eyed the approaching demon, and what a demon she was, fine red wine he could describe her as, but if you take an even small breath of that wine, you will smell it, the scent of seas of poisons within.
Her skin was red like fine red wine. She was adorned in a royal purple dress, tight and seductive, showing much of her ample assets, barely holding her bountiful mountains back.
Her hair was long, silky, and inky black. Befitting of a demon of hell, she had a pair of horns spurting from her head, making her appear more royal but even more of a temptress, almost like a succubus able to suck the souls of even the most strong-willed of men.
Seeing Ian just gazing at her without an answer, the demon released a charming smile, "Excuse my rudeness. You may refer to me as Lady Blaze. Would you like to visit my..."
Her words remained stuck in her throat, speechless as much to her dismay, Ian just shook his head, seemingly considering something else entirely before vanishing.
"In the middle of my spe... You do not even want to hear me out!? Bastard!!!" Despite the overwhelming anger she felt within her, she quickly hid it and calmed herself down lest he hears her somehow.
She was afraid, but still an opportunist enough to approach. Still, the more she looked at the ashes not far from her, the more fear she felt, but also the more desire and greed... What if she can have such a man for herself? She wondered... Alas, he's gone.
He was far away by this point, constantly teleporting through the realms of hell until he found an isolated area, a death zone of sorts, and of course he saw it as a perfect place to rest.
Strangely, along the way, he barely came across any demon at all, almost as if he was being avoided.
Ian simply couldn't believe the cruelty of hell, leaving him all alone, but he can understand.
A lot of high demons, he made a deal with, and one of the deal statements was that they cannot be involved in any way or another in his death or even harm unless he attacked first.
Such a restriction was actually not that hard to loop around, especially since he's in the realms of hell now, but who's to say that they want him dead? No, they want him away, as far away as possible.
They not only couldn't kill him because that may start a war across all hell realms, but they also had to keep him alive... Until they realized he can not die.
Such an important piece of information was verified once even Ian's close friend, Constantine said as much. The shame they felt of being tricked by the fiend to such an extent was overwhelming, to say the least.
Still, they could do nothing about it but watch the battle though some of them may not be as accepting of the circumstances.
The noblest of demons naturally have their ways, but... Ian has just become more of a fiend.
He found a lair for himself, just a cave in the middle of the death zone with flames of hell spurting from the depths of the ground without stop.
It was hot, extremely hot, but he felt nothing, no pain, no discomfort despite his missing limbs and his miserable state.
His focus was entirely on his newly evolved Death force. The staff of all things was hovering behind him, radiating a blurry light.
He was fully delving into his newest evolution as he sensed a sea of holy energy pouring into his body through the blurry tattoo on his back.
'A tattoo of a petal, and other petals are already showing signs of forming. The end design should be a Rose. Ian Rose... Is it a coincidence? No, it's most certainly not. Someway, somehow, everything correlates to the answers I desire.'
"Rose Of Death," Ian murmured, naming his newest evolution without much hesitation. He then focused on controlling the holy energy to flow throughout his body, to his every cell, and even to his soul.
'Interesting, controlling it feels so much more natural than manipulating through the staff.
If I had to speculate, I'd say that with the Rose Of Magic, It'd take me only about ten minutes to perform some of the hardest spells when it would've taken more than thirty minutes before.'
He let the holy energy flow to all of his wounds, slowly but surely healing him, and getting rid of Etrigan's darkness. It was miraculous.
A genuine smile surfaced on his face, one of pure happiness almost like a kid who has just gotten the toy he dearly desired for so long.
Ian had finally gained some sense of real power, one that belongs to him alone. He can finally feel himself bathing under the warm embrace of light. Whereas to Etrigan, that light was a virus, to Ian, it was the opposite.
The only limitation he saw to this new evolution was the fact that he can only use it on one power at a time. He chose to refer to the form as Rose of said energy.
Now, he was in the form of Rose of light while before at Etrigan's last moments, Ian had Rose of speed force active which led him to a wonderous discovery... The speed force was able to affect his brain, accelerating his thought process massively.
Ian considered his reaction time to be his most notable limitation because it keeps him in the realms of humans, peak human but still a human nonetheless.
Now, however, that was no longer a limitation, but then again, everything is relative, so while his newly heightened reaction time was monumental for him, there are beings out there that don't consider time a thing.
"Hahahahaa... Phew, so fucking happy!" Ian didn't mind showing his good mood as laid back down, eyeing the crimson rock of the cave as if it were the most precious of materials, or he was seeing through it, far into the future.
'The potential is... I can finally use the staff vessels to their full potential.' He may be limited to activating one form at a time at the moment, but he still uses the other forces through the staff, so he could still see no negative effect of the recent evolution.
'The only unfortunate thing is that the speed force doesn't seem to affect my Death force generation... I guess I am wishing for too much.' Too much would be an understatement.
He went on to contemplate the prerequisites of activating the Rose of death because he doesn't feel like he can do the same with the black Rose dimension, at least not yet.
He does however sense such a connection from something else other than his staff, something lying dormant in his dimension since long ago, already corroded by his death force.
'Hmm, so it should work based on energies. The Rose of death may need energies to establish such a connection, but more testing is required.'
His attention soon returned to his current state, better than before due to the holy light, but still a miss.
He was healing very quickly though to the point even his limbs seem to be healing albeit at a much slower rate, seeming like it'd take days to weeks to fully restore.
"Is it stacking?" Ian murmured with a weird look. He was naturally giving away his death force to activate the Rose of light.
That could only mean one thing, he was stacking his healing abilities because he can heal by giving away his Death force and by the holy light, and that gave him a bit of inspiration.
"Magic stacking! That sounds like a brilliant idea... Wait, what if I stack magic stacking with magic spam? Holy fuck I'm gonna faint..." The possibilities were too much for his exhausted brain.
However, he couldn't stop thinking, seemingly obsessed, "And I should go get some souvenirs while I'm at hell. I'm sure Etrigan wouldn't mind giving away a bit of charity... Well, I guess he wouldn't mind giving away everything, so why not? I will at least remember you."
Ian nodded at himself, exhaustion finally catching up to him. He was certainly not exhausted physically as Death force resists that, but mentally, he was losing it, remaining at his peak focus for three days straight was certainly taxing.
And so, Ian entered his dimension and fell dead asleep...