Already? No... He must be bluffing.
I remained in a defensive position, just in case he tried anything.
Against my expectations, Jiren got off the floor and clenched the side of his stomach.
“You have proven yourself superior. I concede my *cough*… my position as lord of demons to you.”
He fell to one knee, bowing before me.
Luca lowered one of his hands to signal the match as finished. “As it was written.”
Jiren lowered his head in defeat. “As it was written.”
Luca put one hand on my shoulder. “I declare Anders... Or rather Andras, the new Supreme Demon Lord!”
“Andras?” I asked Luca. “What’s wrong with Anders?”
“Tradition entails every new demon should have their name translated into demonic. Anders translates to Andras."
That makes sense, I guess. “So, what now?”
Jiren, still clenching his side walked over to me. “What happens now is more or less entirely up to you.” he said, before placing a hand on my chest. “I’m transferring my demon form, and the energy it entails to you now.”
Green flames began flowing from Jiren, and into my chest. It felt similar to being possessed by Luca, yet vastly different.
The flames continued to... Eat my skin and replace it with the black material of the demons. As this was happening, Jiren started to lose parts of his body gradually, until he completely disappeared.
God, did he die or something?
“What happened to Jiren?”
“He lied to you about the premises of your duel. The consequence of losing a duel as a true demon... They don’t have alternate human forms they can revert to. As his conscience had nowhere to inhabit, it dissipated. Jiren as we knew him is no more.”
I looked down at my hands, seeing the demon energy he gave me ebb and flow on my skin. “So long, brave warrior.”
That was the last thing I said before the black material completely enveloped my head.
I couldn’t see anything.
I tried to yell out to Luca for help, but I found my mouth was no longer on my face.
“Listen to my voice. Stop flailing your arms around. As this is the first time you’re summoning your demon eyes, you need to chant in order to form them correctly. Keep focus on where your eyes should be on your head, and repeat after me.”
“-TRUE SIGHT-”
“Now you try to say it. Don’t worry about your mouth, we’ll get to that.”
I focused on what Luca had said and calmed down a little. Just say that line? I could do that.
‘-TRUE SIGHT-’
As I said, well, not said per se. It was more like I thought I said the words. Anyway, a tiny crack in my vision was restored. I could feel the ‘skin’ around my eyes flaking up, and I moved my hands up to my eyes to wipe it off my eyes.
“NO! Don’t touch your eyes! You will wreak permanent damage to your eyes if you do. Just repeat the phrase again.”
I froze in place. My hands were almost about to touch my eyes, and I lowered them back down to my sides.
“Yes, good. Now, repeat the phrase.”
‘-TRUE SIGHT-’
Another crack appeared in my vision. Okay, this works.
-
I repeated the phrase about ten more times, and my vision was finally back to normal. Well, I say normal, it’s more like the resolution of my eyesight was vastly improved. Think of it as going from a 720 display to a 4k one. The difference was massive.
Luca looked like he was going to say something, but he was interrupted by the sound of flames emerging from behind him. The flames glowed with a fierce blue color.
“Ah, it appears we have a visitor. Hello again, Heltana. It’s been a while.”
“Hello Luca. I take it this is our new boss?”
The woman that was now standing before me was simply huge. I had to look upward to meet her gaze, as looking straight at her left me at chest-height. Not exactly a good first impression to give.
“Indeed. This is Andras.”
The large woman bent down to get on eye level with me.
“How are you adjusting to your new form?”
I was going to answer but remembered I had yet to develop a mouth.
“Don’t expect much of an answer from him. He does not know how to form a mouth yet. I was actually just about to tell him the procedure when you arrived.”
Heltana tilted her head a little.
“Well boss, I have high hopes for you. You can’t be much worse than Jiren was, after all. Not that that’s a tall bar to reach or anything. I’m sure you’ll adjust just fine to your new responsibilities.”
I nodded in reply.
“Now, would you please leave us for a moment? He still has a mouth that needs forming.”
“Allright, you two have fun then!” She said, before straightening out her back again. “Ciao.”
And just as abruptly as she arrived, she once again vanished in a flash of blue flame.
Now, the mouth phrase.
-
A few rehearsals later, and I had a fully functioning mouth. I moved my tongue around and felt only sharp canine teeth in my mouth.
“Testing, testing, one two one two.”
My voice was much deeper and more menacing than what I had in my human form. I looked at Luca.
“A voice fit for a king! You’ll make a fine demon lord after all, you’ll see.”
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“Okay, but how do I retract my mouth like you guys can do at will?” I asked, mostly out of curiosity.
“Just close your mouth.”
I closed my mouth, and felt the blackish material weld the gap shut. As I opened my mouth again, the gap reformed seamlessly.
“Well, waddaya know.”
“Okay, now that we have the basics figured out, we can get over more complicated matters. For example, summoning and desummoning power from your reserves. Keep in mind, this will only work here in hell.”
“I understand.”
“Allright, since it’s your first time it’ll be easier to explain it if you stretch out your hand. As you practice more with the ability, you’ll find yourself able to do it without having any limbs extended, but for now just stretch out your hand.”
I did as he told me.
“Now, think of the general direction of upward inside your mind, and clench your fist. This represents the action of drawing more power from your reserves. For storing power in the reserves, simply think of the direction down and clench your fist.”
I tried drawing more power as he told me to, and green fire emerged from the ground around me and entered my body.
I could tell the amount I currently had inside me was near nothing compared to the incredible reserves Jiren had stored over the years.
“As demon lord and inheritor of such, you naturally have the most power of all demons in hell. Around 33% more than that of the second strongest, namely Heltana.”
Luca stood in thought for a moment, as if contemplating wether to tell me or not.
“Your status will also allow you to... Steal the power of other powerful entities. Unfortunately, this includes yours truly. A tiny amount of fear appeared in his voice. “I hope you will use this power responsibly... For my sake? Please?”
“Of course. You’ve done so much for me already; I would never be able to live with myself if I did. Don’t worry about it.”
He breathed out a sigh of relief. “Well, that's a relief!”
“Okay, enough of this. How about you teach me how to teleport like you seem able to do?”
“Of course, boss. Anything for you.”
-
Luca showed me how to summon and desummon pathways to the living realm, as well as anywhere within hell. “Unfortunately, we cannot teleport anywhere within the living realm.” I practiced the movement he showed me and drew a circle in the air with hellfire whilst thinking of Luca’s castle.
Moments later there was a flash of green flames, as I now found myself standing at the front door of Luca’s castle. Luca followed right behind me and appeared standing right beside me.
“Okay, now that you’ve done that, would you like to see your castle?”
The lord of demons’ castle? Now we’re talking.
“As you’ve never been there before, I'll teleport you there myself. Next time you want to visit it, just imagine how it looks just like you did to get to my castle.”
Luca, being more experienced with demon powers, didn’t need to do the circle motion to perform the ability, and instantaneously teleported us to the castle grounds.
If Luca’s castle was grand, this one was simply breathtaking. I don’t think I've even seen skyscrapers back in 2023 which were this tall.
Unlike Luca’s castle, this one was colored in black.
“Woah.”
That was all I was able to voice. All this was now mine?
“Woah indeed.” Luca turned around, looking away from the castle.
“In case you were wondering, We’re at the center of Hell right now. In the dead center we have the arena you fought Jiren in and spread out in a triangle formation are our castles. Yours, being the most important, is the one closest to the center.” He took a brief pause. “Mine is to your right, and Heltana’s is to the left.”
I turned around to see where he was looking. Sure enough, a pearly white castle floated above the lava lakes below, connected to this one via a cobblestone road. Straight forward was the Arena Luca had flown me to earlier, and to my left was a purple-colored castle.
“Yeah, don’t ask me. She has weird color preferences.”
“Anyway, I think it’s due time I revealed to you the greatest power you possess as Demon Lord. Let’s enter your castle.”
Luca put a hand on the front doors. “You have to verbally announce that I am your guest before I am allowed within your domain.”
Uh, sure, I guess. “I confirm that Luca is indeed a guest at my castle.”
I heard an audible ding coming from inside my mind, and Luca opened the doors to the castle.
“What an honor to be invited as a guest to the Demon Lord’s castle.”
Taking a look inside, it looked pretty much exactly like Luca’s castle, only more spacious. One thing was out of the ordinary though. In the middle of the foyer was a desk with a cube-like structure floating above it.
“This cube represents the dimension of hell. As Demon Lord, you can freely mold and shape any aspect of the dimension using this cube.”
“Wow, really? Using only that small cube?”
“Indeed. If you place your hands on it, your mind will be transferred to your builder form. Think of it as... playing God if you will. Everything you see outside can be freely formed and changed at your leisure.”
“The only things that are off bounds are the arena grounds, the roads which connect it to our castles and the castles themselves. The color of your own castle is the only thing you are allowed to change, once a year.”
“Dang, that’s huge news!” I paused for a moment. “But if it’s so easy, why didn’t Jiren fix this place while he was in control?”
“His tastes were... eccentric at best. He cared more for the look of this dimension than the wellbeing of the creatures that reside within, yours truly included. Jiren aspired to redeem himself in the eyes of God and be allowed another chance at his side as an angel. If you didn’t know, all true demons are fallen angels that once served under God in heaven.”
“Anyway. In God’s eyes, this dimension was made to act as punishment for ‘ill behaved’ souls that pass on into the afterlife. In reality, God flips a coin for every soul that passes on into the afterlife. Even if you live the best life you possibly can, there is still a 50/50 chance you end up here.”
“Really? Jeez. Glad you were there to save me from dying then. My luck is awful, and I'd probably end up here.”
“Well, I think that is enough pleasantries, no? How about you go test out your new builder form.”
I nodded at Luca and sat down at the desk. The chair was very comfortable.
“I’ll meet you at the arena.” Luca said, before vanishing in a flash of red flames.
Now then. This couldn’t be so hard?
I reached my hands out to touch the cube. It began to glow green before a tentacle made of green flame shot into my palm from the cube.
I felt immediately very tired and collapsed onto the desk.
-
As I woke up, I immediately noticed just how light my body felt.
I got up off the floor with extreme ease.
Looking down at my hands, I saw that the black material that made up my body was no longer there. It was only a frame of green flame, and nothing in-between it.
“Ah, there you are. How do you feel?”
I heard the voice of Luca. It sounded almost like he was speaking to me from under the water. I could barely make out his voice.
“I feel light.” My voice sounded the same way, as if I was underwater.
“That is because air acts as a liquid in this form. I should know, what with me being demon lord before Jiren took over.”
Huh, that explains why he knows so much about the position of demon lord, I guess.
“Wait, hang on a moment. Didn’t you say losing as a pure demon would banish them forever? How are you still alive then?”
“I’m not a pure demon. I was actually the first ever non-pure Demon Lord, and you would be the second ever.”
“Nice!”
“So, how do I... change the world? There isn’t exactly a readily available manual anywhere.”
“Well, first we need to go somewhere you can actually change stuff. This arena is sacred and can never be changed by a Demon Lord.”
“In this form, you have only one method of transportation. We call it propelling.”
I tilted my head in confusion. “Flying, you say? How would I do that?”
Luca pointed his hands backward before releasing a tiny burst of red hellfire, shooting him forward.
“Like that. In your builder form, inertia and air resistance is nonexistent and thus any movement you perform will propel you forward until an equal force is applied in the other direction, or you hit an object.”
Aha, I see. “So, like this...?” I pointed my hands forward before releasing some flames from my palms. Sure enough, I began moving backward.
“Yes, just like that. Now, fire some more so we can actually leave this place.”
I did as he told me and began picking up speed until I passed through the wall of the arena.
“Ah, I forgot to mention. Your body is entirely intangible, safe for the boundries of the dimension itself.”
That’s good to know. I turned around before shooting the other way, stopping me in my tracks.
Luca managed to follow me by firing a continuous stream of fire out from his feet. He looked like Iron Man.
“Now, do you see all this lava, the lack of vegetation and generally depressing look of this place?”
“Yeah, it’s kind of hard to ignore.”
“Well, ignore it. What you have to do in order to change this dimension is think about how you wish it looked, and act as if you’re molding the very atoms of the walls, floor and lakes in order to make your wish come true.”
I looked down at both my hands. “What do you mean by molding? Do I just...”
I stretched out a hand to touch the walls and found the texture of them to be similar to that of playdough.
“Precisely like that. Now, imagine how you wish the walls looked.”
I closed my eyes in order to focus. To start, I imagined the walls were simple rocks instead of the awful red color it now had.
When I opened my eyes, I saw that the piece of wall I had in my hand had changed form into that of a rock. “Woah! It actually worked!”
“Now, return the wall piece to its original position, and the entire wall will change form.”
As I slotted the rock back into its place, the texture began spreading from the rock. Soon enough, every inch of the once-red wall was now a nice, unchanging rock instead.
“Very good! It looks much better here already!”
I smiled at his comment. Much work remained if this place was to look like somewhere people actually could thrive.