It knew something was wrong when it awakened this early. Beelzebub opened its–her eyes, to locate the source of the danger. Its millennia of years' worth of experience had hardened its mind to take information in at breakneck speed and react accordingly. This was no different.

Beelzebub registered severe injuries on Alice’s body. Blood circulation was slowing, and her heartbeat was fading quickly. It calmly activated [Perseverance], letting the Skill ease the damage. Rummaging through Alice’s biology, it deduced how to efficiently send messages throughout the nervous system to move the body. It did just that, standing up a tad roughly.

The enemy—a common boar monster—appeared infuriated at the continued survival of its target. Beelzebub made Alice’s lips curve into a condescending smirk, baiting the beast. It worked, the boar letting out a warning roar before charging forward.

Beelzebub moved to dodge, but in its overconfidence came an error. It was used to its original body, with flesh more durable than any metal, reflexes superior to any monster, and eyes that could track a bird flying miles away.

It was not prepared to handle a twelve-year-old girl’s uncoordinated and physically frail body.

It overextended; having planned on leaping through the air and landing gracefully on its feet, instead, Alice’s ankle hit a rock and the body tumbled. Beelzebub landed on the ground unceremoniously, a tiny dust cloud caused by the impact and congesting Alice’s nose.

Peculiar. It was feeling pain. Pain was such an interesting concept to the creature, being a relative anomaly to it. In its long life, there had only been a scarce amount of weapons and people who could penetrate its defenses and cause it to feel ‘pain.’ The god who had struck it down and left it for dead was certainly one of those beings.

That had been an all-consuming pain, originating from the point of entry of the spear. Despite its best efforts, it had been unable to prevent the corrosive nature of the spear from radiating outward, infecting the rest of its body. More troublesome was the damage the spear inflicted on its soul. Beelzebub could shift out its current body under any other circumstance, but the special [Soul Decaying] skill made that an impossibility. It wasn’t merely Beelzebub’s body that was rapidly deteriorating, but its very existence was being wiped away.

The pain it was experiencing through Alice’s body was different all together. Only the front of Alice’s body hurt, sending light signals of pain through the nerve endings. It was easy enough to ignore, and served to humble Beelzebub, reminding it of its new circumstance. Beelzebub let the ache persist for a little while, enjoying the sensation without the accompanying threat of death, before forcibly severing this body’s pain signals.

Now it could dedicate its complete focus to this pest before it. The boar pounded the ground with its hoof, lowering the front frame of its body as the monster prepared to attempt another charge. Beelzebub shook Alice’s head, letting itself feel indescribable shame.

“To think she had problems with one as lowly as yourself. Is charging the only thing your pea-sized brain can comprehend? Very well then, you had your chance.” Beelzebub declared, flicking Alice’s fingers before her face, covering one of her eyes.

Its physicality may have changed, but the knowledge of the countless Skills, Techniques, and spells that Beelzebub had gathered throughout its long life was floating at the forefront of its mind. It needed nothing too fancy to deal with this mongrel.

//Accessing Manergy Core. Initiating Skill, [Anarchy Flare]. Rank A—ERROR. ERROR. Readjusting. Recalibrating. Current vessel does not possess a strong enough Manergy Core to attempt Skill [Anarchy Flare] Rank A. Fixing ERROR. . .solution found. Skill [Anarchy Flare] Rank A downgraded to Skill [Anarchy Flare] Rank D.

Beelzebub clicked its tongue. Unfortunate, but predictable. Consuming its flesh had done wonders for the human, advantages that she’d only come to figure out later on. However, there was no conceivable way to gain a Manergy Core equivalent to a God in a matter of minutes.

Black flames erupted among Alice's fingertips, crackling with the bare minimum restraint. No smoke trailed off from the flames, despite the heat. This was not a normal fire, created from the spark of nature. This was an abomination of that technique, gathered from the depths of the underworld and learned after corrupting its System. It was a unique aspect of the standard [Fire] Skill and one that couldn't be replicated without undergoing the same strenuous trials Beelzebub had gone through.

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The boar halted in its approach. Despite its minuscule brain and clear lack of foresight, there was no doubt the monster knew what kind of threat stood in its path. Beelzebub forced Alice’s lips into an uncharacteristic sneer, baring her teeth. The very essence, the Core of the monster, even the System was yelling at the boar to get away as quickly as possible. That something was very wrong and the only thing that awaited the monster if tried to fight was death.

Beelzebub relished the effect its presence had on the monster, watching it thrash in confusion and frustration. Its animalistic instincts yearned to break free and kill the seemingly weak girl in front of it. It was hungry and there was food so close. Why wouldn’t it go after it? A quirk of being trapped in this fleshing—perhaps the one benefit—was that the stench of weakness emanating off the humans perfectly masked Beelzebub’s own scent. From the physical viewpoint, this girl was truly just an underfed human with little to no threat value.

On a deeper plane of existence, where the gods and higher-level beings saw through, it was a different story entirely. Beelzebub knew that the boar’s system registered the human girl as both an unrelenting typhoon of power and a meek, flickering ember—and it confused the System to no end.

As entertaining as watching the boar struggle was, Beelzebub was on a time limit here. It lifted Alice’s hand up, leaning in to examine the fingers in greater detail. Beelzebub had thought it was a trick of the light, but that wasn’t the case. Although gradually, the raging fire was eating through the flesh, soft patches of pink muscles showing out of the holes. [Anarchy Flare] wasn’t a Skill willing to lay over for its master, regardless of the Rank it was at. It sensed flesh to feed on, and the fire would do everything in its power to strip everything away until only bones remained. Alice wasn’t its master, and it knew that.

Beelzebub clenched Alice’s hand into a fist, extinguishing the tar flames. After casting a rudimentary healing Skill, [God’s Light] Rank E to patch over the skin, Beelzebub contemplated its next course of action. Although only a couple of minutes had passed since its resurgence, the World had already detected its presence and was working hard to banish it. There was little time left before Beelzebub would have to slink back into the depths of Alice’s soul, using her Core to mask its presence.

Really, the World [Araga] was stirring too much trouble for the god. And it had been [Araga]’s plan to use Beelzebub to fix the world in the first place. Was it mad that Beelzebub’s journey had ended as soon as it began?

Snarling reminded Beelzebub of the boar’s presence. Leaning Alice’s head back and glancing at the boar out of the side of her eyes contemptuously, it spoke. “You’re still here?”

With the ominous aura that Beelzebub had been exerting gone, the hunger of the boar took over it’s mind again. The monster snorted, pawing at the ground.

“Really, if you’re only going to use the same attack over and over again, don’t give so much of an indicator before you do it. [Trance].” This time, Beelzebub lowered the rank in advance to compensate for Alice.

//[Trance] Rank E initiated. Converting Manergy, sending signal to TARGET: (Boar Monster). Clash detected. . .hold secured.

Light in the boar’s eyes dimmed, its control over its own body gone. The boar ceased its useless flailing and stood steadfast, its four legs locked in position. Its tail stopped flicking and other than the wind ruffling its fur, the boar didn’t move an inch. One would be forgiven to believe the boar was a statue if they happened to stumble across it.

Beelzebub had only seconds left before it lost valuable time. Activating [Area Search], Beelzebub scoured the surrounding wood for anything that could prove helpful to Alice. A strange sight caught Beelzebub’s attention, a cabin guarded with protective sigils to block prying eyes. Beelzebub tore through the runes with ease, and the dwarf sitting inside bolted upright, eyes widening and jaw becoming slack. His head snapped to the left, staring vacantly at Alice's general direction.

Beelzebub pulled out of the cabin, purposefully leaving a trail of Manergy for the dwarf to follow. After scanning through his history, he seemed a suitable candidate to teach Alice the ropes.

Beelzebub’s soul began to fray at the edges. Something entered the creature’s heart—not fear of death, but worry for the human. Whether she knew it or not, Alice would require Beelzebub’s aid in the upcoming future until she was strong enough to survive. Beelzebub could let go and truly become one with the World when that day came.

But not today.

Today, Beelzebub relinquished his wavering hold over Alice’s body and slipped into her soul, to his temporary home in a crevasse in her artificial Core.

Temporary. This was all temporary, a defense mechanism for Alice while she was still weak. Beelzebub sighed. Possessing Alice and wielding its Level 70 magic was too much for the sliver of soul attached to the human. Beelzebub could only help Alice a few more times before it left.

Beelzebub settled down, stilling its mind as it sent out an order to the boar. Then it fell into a slumber, ready to be awakened when the time came.