As the violent mana coating the gate dissipated, I forced the door open and slid through the small gap before slamming it shut. A moment later, the mana coating returned as the gate vibrated in rage at my proximity.
My spine shivered, so I quickly moved away from the gate, double-checking that I had everything as I started walking. So other than the spatha, spear, and knives my magic made, I now had a pair of dragon tooth swords and daggers, and I'd shoved its two horns inside the backpack to make into spears later on.
All in all, it was a pretty good haul as I shifted the weight on my back and froze. 'Something is watching me closely.' I shrugged off the pack as I drew my spatha; no use breaking the dragon tooth ones before I was able to enchant them.
I cautiously stepped forward, feeling eyes boring into my skull as something glared at me from a hidden position. I stopped and turned in a circle, looking for anything out of place. There was nothing, just a bleak sky, a few rock outcroppings, and bare earth. I was about to just turn back for my stuff when a voice came from above.
"How pathetic, I thought you might be worth something if you were able to kill that freak on the other side, seems I'm to be disappointed again." A surge of mana forced me to move as I suddenly felt lighter, and my shoulder screamed in pain.
"Oh? Not bad, you only lost an arm and not your head. You might be interested after all." I hissed in pain as I cauterized the wound, not wanting to lose any more blood as I stared up at the devil floating above me.
It looked human, but much closer to the real thing than any other I'd come across so far. 'A high-class devil, a strong one at that. What did it hit me with?' I wondered as it raised its hand, and a shimmering dark circle appeared, no a portal!
I hit the ground as space tore apart above me, and the devil cackled from up above. "HAHAHA, this will be fun after all!" I got up and sent a lance of water at its face. It just sneered and opened another portal, as the lance was spat out behind it, uselessly hitting the ground.
"Oh, surely you can do better than that, you did kill the freak after all. Come on, impress me." The devil grinned as I called forth a tornado. It yawned as a flick of its finger sent a rotating portal to dissipate the tornado.
"Boring . . . every wind user always resorts to tornadoes, no class, honestly." I grit my teeth as I formed wings and took to the air, forming a spectral flaming arm as I reached for its neck. Right before I reached it, the devil disappeared in a flash as a portal took its place, and I hit the ground hard.
"HA, even worse than before. Honestly, if you wanted to die so badly, you should have just let the freak eat you. But at least you'll have the honor of dying to me!" The devil sneered as I hissed, "Who even are you?"
It looked mildly offended as I descended a hair to glower at me, "How rude, to not have heard of ME? I guess even the trash of the upper levels deserves to hear my glorious name." I had to force down a surge of anger at the devil's tone. I had a plan, but couldn't spring it until it got closer.
"My name is Aldwin! Rejoice, for you have been blessed to hear my beautiful name, an honor that your low-born compatriots can only dream of having!" Aldwin laughed as I sneered despite the pain and fury inside. "What a stupid name!"
The devil froze, eerily calm as it looked me in the eyes. "Repeat that." It said softly as I got ready to run and fight, "What. A. STUPID. Name." The world seemed to tear itself apart as Aldwin shook in fury. If before he'd seemed human, now there was nothing but a furious monster left as his teeth grew longer, and his fingers bled oozing black blood as claws erupted from within.
"You will PAY, with your LIFE!" He screeched as he dove down after me. I called down a lightning bolt that slammed him to the ground as a hand of magma burst from the ground to drag him under. 'Well, I certainly got his attention.' I thought as I watched the magma get erased from reality. No more words were exchanged as spells started flying.
Far below in the lowest realm of the Underworld, several Supreme devils were observing the fight with detached interest. "Hmm, to think something was able to actually kill that beast of yours, not bad. You might one day join us." A dark, overbearing voice said as a smaller, more feminine voice answered. "It's a shame my experiment died like that, but maybe its killer will be fun to fight."
A raspy voice, like grating bones, rang out angrily, "I hope it kills that idiot Aldwin. He gets a little bit of magic and suddenly thinks he's better than ME!" It finished with a shout as the other voices cackled at his rage. "Keep quiet, don't wake Him." A much softer voice said as the other went quiet for a moment.
They waited silently, then resumed speaking. They cheered on the fight from afar, picking either side at random depending on their mood as they watched various elemental spells and constructs get shredded by spatial magic.
They also enjoyed watching Aldwin get more agitated as he failed to land a solid blow like the one that tore off the other devil's arm. As the cheering and arguing continued, another devil silently watched the fight up on the 4th level for only a moment before returning to his work. 'He will succeed, I have seen that much. The rest is up to me, but I will reign supreme."
I retched as blood poured out of my throat; the devil had got me good. I rolled to the side as the blood-spattered ground was removed, and a nice new trench carved itself into the ground. "STOP RUNNING AND FIGHT!" Aldwing screamed as he chased relentlessly. For almost an hour now, we've been fighting nonstop.
I was certainly running on fumes, but this freaking devil seemed to run on spite and anger the way it kept chasing me. After I'd insulted the devil, he'd been pretty pissed and hadn't stopped chasing me for a while. I'd been fighting back, though, as he had a few bruises and a cut, not much but enough to show I COULD kill him.
I needed to turn that 'COULD' into 'DEAD', since this thing was getting more dangerous the calmer it got. At first, he'd taken stupid hits and just charged straight ahead; now it was blocking hits with portals and sending them back at me, while monologuing again for some reason.
That was good, exactly what I needed. Though I could use more monologuing than magic since I felt like my chest was about to split in two. The earth armor had been the only thing that saved me, since the devil had been able to shove me through a portal and almost tear my heart out if not for the armor.
But I'd returned the favor with a sucker-punch as we returned to the game of cat and mouse. I was losing terribly; if the bloody marks all over my body were anything to go off, then it happened. "Well. Well. Well. Looks like you don't have anywhere left to run."
I looked up to see the gate I'd entered from not even 3 meters away, its violent mana coating seething as it felt us get closer. I lay in the dirt and acted hurt, which I was, as Aldwin started to gloat as usual.
"Looks like you aren't as big as your mouth is, a common trait among the useless lowborn." Didn't like that word. "You see, you weak beings have no other purpose in your useless lives other than to prostrate before your betters, like me!" Really didn't like that word. "All you useless vermin deserve nothing other than death."
"Say that to my face, I dare you!" I spat as the devil froze from his perch in the sky. Common sense cautioned this might be a trap, but vanity won out in the end as he descended like an angel from on high. "If that is how you wish to face death, I shall grant it." He said with mock gravitas as he touched down, stepping closer.
As he stomped over, I bit my tongue to fight the grin trying to form as he grabbed me by the neck and slammed me back down to the ground once before lifting me eye level as I glared at him. "So weakling, how does it feel to be eye-to-eye with greatness?" He said as I spat in his face. Aldwin smiled, then slammed me back down to the ground, over and over, and I felt my head spin.
This went on for almost a minute as Aldwin roared in my ears, "YOU VERMIN! WHAT A USELESS CREATURE, HOW DARE YOU SPIT UPON MY BLESSED VISAGE!" He finally stopped and caught his breath as a spinning vortex of spatial magic loomed overhead. "Any last words?" He hissed.
My head lolled to the side as I nodded at him, beckoning him closer. He leaned in, clearly expecting some apology or for me to beg; all he got was a .44 caliber round right in the jaw.
He released me with a scream as he fell thrashing on the ground, and I jumped up and ran over. He tried to swat me away, but I was too fast as a water lance formed in my hands, and I shoved it down his throat.
His eyes bulged as the water threatened to pop him from inside, but I wasn't done yet. "MAGMA FIST!" I screamed as the flaming arm I had been using sputtered out, and a massive hand erupted from the ground, squeezing Aldwin tight as his screams reached a fever pitch.
I stood back and watched the magic happen as the magma burned through his skin and reacted violently when it hit the water inside. I grinned as the screaming stopped, and the hissing of water vapor entered my ears, not stopping for almost twenty seconds before the mana holding the two constructs ran out, and they dissipated.
Walking over to the corpse, I kicked it once for good measure. "That's why villains always die, talking too much." I then tore out the heart and ate it before Devouring magic could take over as the surge of mana revitalized my body. I groaned in happiness as the warm feeling of mana entered my body.
Well, not warm since the mana in this place was cold and felt more than a little sadistic, but you know. I smiled as the mana healed all the injuries I had gotten from the fight. I smiled even wider when my arm grew back, as I flexed the arm to make sure everything was in order.
I then went looking for my backpack and found it torn to shreds, though the things inside were mostly intact. Cursing the space devil for attacking me, I flexed my mana and tried to make something that had been useful in literally every world I'd been to, a special room.
It took a few minutes, but I got it done and was pleasantly surprised to see it manifest as a portal that I could enter. I went inside to find a room about 450 square feet. I briefly organized my things before leaving the room and testing out my new magic.
Space magic, my favorite as of now, since it basically gives me extra carry weight for whatever I want. I'd already figured out how to shrink the portal to hand size and was working on pulling things out without looking to make grabbing weapons easier.
It was a work in progress, but it shouldn't take too long. The next thing was figuring out how to use this magic to kill. I'd accidentally figured out the teleporting, just open a portal and go through. For now, I seemed to be limited to where I had been, and by how far I could see.
I then tried something else, I made the portal for transport, then slowly started to rotate it, building speed before releasing it. The portal dropped and started to roll like a loose wheel as it carved a trench along the ground for several meters until it ran out of mana.
Sweet, now I just had to do that faster and be able to throw it. For now, though, it was time to get moving as I made liberal use of my new teleporting spell. The rest of the 4th floor sped past, and once I reached the gate, I forced my mana past it until I could barely sense the other side, then I teleported over into the 5th level.
Just like the 4th, the 5th level was a blur as I teleported across the horizon to make it to the next gate. Dozens of devils tried to stop me, but none could catch me or even see me before I left them behind. The gate was a lot different, however, as it was much more ornate than before.
On the previous levels, the gates had all looked like they'd been planted to withstand any and everything the devils behind them might throw at them; a few had marks from where devils had tried to break through. All the gates were covered with mana that destroyed any who touched it, instant death for all, the piles of ash proved it.
Yet the gate before him was different; it still had the mana coating that seemed eager to zap him to death, but the gate itself seemed to have deliberate carvings on it. Taking to the sky with my wings, I hovered in the air as I looked upon the scene etched into the gate.
The shape was that of a massive tree, with hundreds of branches at the very top, and a thick, sturdy trunk. What caught my attention were the seven massive roots under the tree, each almost as thick as the trunk. 'Guess that means there are seven layers, since I'm about to enter the 6th.'
I then looked closer at the image and saw what appeared to be lifeforms in each of the layers of the tree.
The ones at the top looked almost angelic, with wings and halos above their heads. There were also a few creatures that seemed like humans but with pointed ears, 'Elves, I'm guessing.'
The trunk was the most diverse level. Humans were all over the place, along with what looked to be Dwarves, Elves, and dozens of different kinds of creatures. I even spotted what looked to be a dragon and other large creatures.
The last level was much darker. Devils filled almost every inch of the space given to them, as several devils in particular stood out. They were all marked with what looked to be a tree symbol. There were ten of these devils, one for each level other than the top and the bottom.
The top level had two devils, most likely Lilith and Nahamah, and the bottom layer had three. What that meant, I had no idea, but I'm sure I'm going to find out.
Maybe I was feeling a bit more solemn because of what was carved into the door, but I actually tried looking for the key to the door before just teleporting through it. I got frustrated several times and had to calm down, but I eventually found it and opened the gate. When it opened, it split right down the center of the tree, which was pretty cool, but I didn't stop to admire it as I went through and entered the second-to-last level of the Underworld.