Amon returned at once, tearing through space as he sensed the disturbance in the surrounding energy.
As he beheld the newly formed visage of the nameless demon, he smiled, 'Yes, it seems Fate itself is favouring us.'
"Your evolution is perhaps the most perfect one I have seen, especially for your first evolution. Can you try conversing in the Syavert Language now?"
The nameless demon fell silent for a while, 'Syavert? It was never mentioned what the demon language was called after all, and it felt like I was listening to the 'English' in Jace's memory.'
He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but garbled nonsense came through his maw, "☐☐☐☐☐☐☐."
He realized, although his first mouth was speaking regularly, the mouth within his throat was speaking in reverse.
"Ah/Ha."
Amon seemed satisfied however, "Good. Your evolution is as close to humanoid as it can get at this stage. Get used to your new body, and meet me back here after the third call of the cockatrice."
The nameless demon shivered mentally, 'Three of those screeches?'
As he left the room, he realized just how much...more, the world seemed to be.
Colours were more vibrant, shapes were more defined, and his perception had increased quite a bit.
He was also considerably taller than his previous, imp self, now standing around 2 metres tall.
He sensed a certain level of disdain from the beings around him, and now he could at least see just how powerful they were.
Even the most lowly shopkeeper was a Viscount rank.
He entered the training grounds, and took a random spear with him.
'The change from merely using the spear to becoming a Spear Initiate is drastic indeed.'
He thought to himself as he effortlesly twirled the large spear, the thing feeling like a part of his own body.
He compared his physical power to his previous state, and found it to be leagues ahead.
After some more physical tests and learning to balance himself once more with a new centre of mass and extra arms, he went to the more esoteric tests, conducted by a demon sent by Amon himself.
He found both good and bad news awaiting him.
The good news- He was significantly stronger than most demons of his rank, if not all.
The bad news- His body was now used to the extremely dense levels of demonic essence used by the Patriarch in his evolution.
Meaning, his natural regeneration was much slower in areas with less dense demonic essence, as well as leaving him feeling bloated and weakened.
His resistance to external healing was increased as well.
'Everything has a cost. But this one was much cheaper.'
He then felt the demonic essence around him vibrate, before the dreaded crow of the cockatrice arrived.
Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much as before.
And yet, he was still being vibrated from within, as dark, essence rich blood seeped from his mouth.
'How are these people not affected by this??'
As he looked around, he saw that everybody else was unaffected by the screech.
He was much better of this time as the crow ended, and he took off towards the Patriarch's office.
He arrived quickly, and requested the door to be let in, as the butler had in his memory.
The door opened and Amon asked, "You are finished already? Fine then, the earlier we get this done, the better."
The second crow began, but with a flex of willpower, Amon stopped the vibrations.
The nameless demon could still hear the cockatrice somewhat, but he wasn't harmed at all.
Amon looked at him, puzzled, before realizing, "Ah yes. Sometimes I forget you are a child from the First Layer."
"The cockatrice isn't particularly loud, it simply has an astounding range of consciousness."
"It manifests psychically, and causes these vibrations in the surrounding demonic essence and bodies of whomever it is manifested in."
"Those at the Sixth Layer are too 'heavy' existentially for the cockatrice to vibrate with it's meager will."
"You can simply solidify your essence beforehand and shield your mind, and it's effect on you will lessen drastically."
'Shield my mind? How?'
This brought up a glaring issue the nameless demon had had for a while.
'What exactly did it mean when the Evolution Tree said I would have my Mind increased?'
'I still couldn't resist the cockatrice's intrusion.'
He focused on his mind, and felt around.
'So this is my Mind.'
He was snapped out of his reverie by Amon gathering huge amounts of demonic essence into his fingernails.
The Patriarch tore a gap in space, and stabilized the forcefully created wormhole with his Authority.
"Come. It is time for you to meet your Lord."
The nameless demon and Amon entered the wormhole, and it closed as abruptly as it had opened.
......................
Unlike the Layers below it, the Ninth Layer of Hell was eerily still and hollow.
The nameless demon could feel absolutely no demonic essence in the air, the only source being Amon beside him.
They were facing a.....castle?
'Can that really be called a castle?'
It was a huge mass of dark matter meant to resemble a castle, as if a child had been sculpting it like wet sand, and then dozed off midway.
Amon said seriously, "Do not leave my side unless I say so."
The nameless demon complied, not willing to find out what else could happen without Amon's protection.
They entered the 'castle', and the nameless demon felt his head spin.
Everything was so confusing and senseless.
Simply living and thinking was hard.
It was best to simply....sleep.
The nameless demon was jolted awake by Amon flaring his demonic essence.
"Even the passive aura of Sloth is a deterrant to all creatures."
Amon explained as they moved forward.
They finally entered what was meant to resemble a throne room, but when the ceiling was drooping like slime and the walls were awkwardly placed, it's majesty went down quite a bit.
And then, just before he could lay eyes on the throne, Amon blocked his gaze.
"Do not attempt to look at her yet. You cannot withstand it."
He kept his head down, focussing on the inky darkness beneath him.
Amon cloaked the nameless demon in his demonic energy before approaching the throne.
He summoned a large hammer from the depths of space, struggle evident on his face.
Amon climbed the steps to the throne, and raised the hammer high up.
Before he swung it down, he said, "Child. Kneel."
The nameless demon did as he was asked.
Amon said, "It's time to wake up, my liege."
The hammer slammed into Belphegor's face, as Space collapsed, a rupture forming with Belphegor's head as the source.
Black Lightning, inscribed with countless unholy and infernal words struck at once.
The Laws encompassing the surroundings bent and twisted to harm Belphegor, or seeking to.
This process made no sound, for the air was quickly destroyed.
Belphegor's eyelid opened just a bit, barely a millimeter, and everything stopped.
Everything was frozen in place from her gaze.
The black lightning dissipated.
Space stopped trying to return to the formed rupture, leaving a twisted warp in reality.
The Laws in the surroundings stopped being enforced.
After all, Belphegor was awake.
......................
The nameless demon did not sense much, except that what was happening was far beyond him right now.
Amon regenerated his missing hands in the blink of an eye, before retreating and bowing before Belphegor.
Belphegor drawled out slowly, "C'mere."
Amon grabbed the nameless demon with his essence, and brought him before Belphegor, mentally telling him, 'Don't open your eyes, no matter what.'
The nameless demon would have nodded, but couldn't.
Belphegor raised her pale-white arm, and flicked her finger forward.
'PAIN!'
The nameless demon screamed in agony, as his very existence was being torn.
Pain flowed through his body, white hot.
His demonic parts were bring broken and torn, ripped and shredded.
He struggle not to open his eyes as he gritted his teeth, breaking them with how hard he bit down.
The second mouth in his throat was ripped out, his skeletal structure was shattered and rebuilt.
His arms were torn off his body like an insect.
His demonic essence left him, even the ones that made up his body, leaving just a writhing consciousness.
A small orb containing his 'demonic' parts was condensed, and stuffed into his soul, as Belphegor lazily waved her hand.
"Amel. Done."
She materialized and threw the soul towards Amon, who quickly caught it.
As Amon turned to bow, Belphegor was already asleep again.
With a helpless smile, Amon tore through space once more and returned to the Sixth Layer.
......................
Pain.
Agony, even.
Suffering, if you will.
Torment, perhaps.
Misery, one may conclude.
Anguish, you could argue.
Such was what the nameless demon felt.
Amon held the soul near a circle with mysterious and exotic symbols inscribed in it.
"Kill whoever you have to."
"Make connections."
"Become their hero."
"And then, destroy them."
"Thus, with the authority granted to me by Belphegor of Sloth, I name you...."
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.
.
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........................................