As the gate shut behind me and the mana coating flares to life, I send out a pulse of mana on reflex to scan the level. By now, I'm easily able to sense what must be hundreds of miles of terrain, though it's hard to tell because of the Underworld's bleak landscape.
'A few hundred Mid-rank devils, thousands of Low-rank, and a High-rank at the bottom. Should be easy.'
Though I wasn't here to exterminate them, should the devils become too aggressive in their attempts to stop me, I didn't really mind wiping them out. I snorted at the thought of going all the way back to the top, just to clear out everything living as I made my way back down.
Opening a portal, I felt the mana signature of the High-ranking devil sweep over me and the gate, likely confused as to why it opened. I ignored the pulse, since the devil probably wouldn't be able to stop me even if I didn't use Space Magic.
Things went smoothly after that. Teleporting as far as I could see was pretty easy, plus I was experimenting every once in a while with my various magics, trying to be more efficient in mana usage as I snacked along the way.
I think the best part about the Space realm I had was the fact that none of the food I'd put in there had rotted. It was all fresh and bloody, though I did cook it before eating, I do have standards after all.
As the miles went by and I could faintly feel the mana pouring off the final gate to the 7th level, I felt the mana signature of the High-ranking devil appear beside me for a split second, before I disappeared into the portal.
Surprisingly, the devil was able to lock onto me in that short period of time as I felt the attack catch up to me. I turned and raised a hand, swatting the orb aside as it splattered against my skin.
'Huh, that feels weird.' I thought as my hand started to tingle, I pushed more mana into the limb, but the feeling didn't go away. Ignoring it, I turned to get closer to the gate as I decided to fly the last bit of distance, feeling strange as I did.
'Surely the gate must be closer by now, unless the tingling is a spell at work.' I flew for what felt like hours as the gate remained at a distance, infinitely close, yet strangely far away.
I canceled the flying spell as soon as I landed and inspected the affected limb. My fingers and joints worked as usual, but the tingling was still there. I tried again to flush it out with mana, but nothing happened. I then looked up as the High-ranking devil finally caught up to me.
"How peculiar, to think you noticed my curse at work. I will enjoy dissecting you." The devil looked human adjacent, as all High-ranking devils seemed to be. It was distinctly female, but appeared very young. Her skin was flawless, but felt wrong, like something trying to imitate the human form, and had almost done it.
The third eye in the middle of her forehead certainly didn't help, as I could feel mana pulsing within it.
Since I'm more focused on removing whatever spell she's put on me, the devil pouts a little but continues speaking as I half-listen to her ramble.
"Don't bother trying to remove my curse. It's quite a special one, the curse of Infinity. No matter how far or fast you move, you never leave the spot you started from. It's that interesting!"
"How do I remove this?" I ask since it looks like I might have to kill her, as she giggles. "I just told you, it won't come off unless I remove it. And why would I ever do that?" She grins as her form takes on more devilish traits.
Two sets of horns sprout from her head, as a tail and wings emerge from behind her. Tentacles sprout from her back as I decide it's time to use that magic to get rid of this stupid curse.
I ignore the devil as she starts talking about how curses work or some other stupid thing, as I call upon a power I didn't think I would need in this world. To my surprise, it mixes well with the Devouring Magic I already have, as the curse keeping me in place disappears.
The devil stops laughing as it goes very still. I call forth my wind wings as I take to the air, now eye level with her. "How did you remove my curse? I can't sense it anymore." She says, and I shrug, not like I'm going to tell her.
She frowns at this as I can feel the gears turning inside her head. "Curse-Warding Magic: Decay." She says suddenly, as a purple orb of magic shoots out at me, I smile as it hits my chest. She watches as it takes effect, and my skin starts to decay as I feel it spread throughout my body, only to disappear as I remove it the same way I did the last.
"How peculiar. Your mana even got slightly stronger when I hit you, and again when the curse disappeared." She says, as I get ready for a fight, nothing stays this calm for long, I've got dragon's teeth to prove it.
As she ponders some more, I make a mad dash for the gate, not even worrying about finding the key, as I push my mana sensing to the brink to force through the gate. I hear her catching up as something behind the gate pushes back, not letting me through.
Several curses hit my back, but I ignore them as they disappear within a few seconds, as I turn and kick things off with a massive tornado. The devil calmly tears it apart with a curse before lunging at me again.
For the first few minutes of fighting, I was worried this curse-wielding devil would find some work around but it seems not, as all she is doing is throwing different spells and curses at me, almost like a scientist as she observes more than fights.
I, for one, am fighting as I'm constantly having to eat the curses she's throwing at me, getting a few spells of my own off as she either dodges or destroys them with curses.
"How strange, you are the first devil who has been able to take a hit from one of my curses and not be affected. Even the Supreme devils try to avoid getting hit, other than Him, that is. But you are only High-ranking, you should be a puddle on the ground by now." She says as she smashes through a bolt of lightning.
"I will take you away and experiment on you. What fun!" She yells before extending her arm towards the few drops of blood on the ground. They raced towards her as she channeled her mana and formed a massive whip of blood.
I swear as the whip lashes at me, I cut through it with flaming claws, but it reforms a moment later as more bloody weapons form to strike me. The fire and lightning surrounding me help, but I'm starting to get overwhelmed as curses and blood spells fly at me.
The female devil starts to fight more seriously, aiming more for capture than killing as whips lash out to bind my limbs, as chains try and wrap around me. I don't stop moving for a second, teleporting around and flying fast as I smash and burn anything that gets too close.
"Why do you fight so much? It's not like I'm going to kill you. A little experimentation never hurt anybody." The devil asked as I cut through another whip, and ate three more curses. Getting no response seemed to annoy the devil as she called out.
"Blood Magic: Bloody puppet!" My body suddenly writhed in pain as I felt my blood start moving in ways it shouldn't be. I could feel it twitching and responding to something other than my heart and body as the devil laughed.
"So that's all it took. I should have done this sooner, it's so much easier to control test subjects when I just control their blood!" I trashed around as my spells lost power and I fell like a rock.
"This could all have been avoided, you know, if you had just come quietly." The devil giggled as she floated nearby. I wasn't paying attention as I poured as much mana as I could into my body, managing to get back control of one arm, as I fired off several spatial vortexes.
"What?! How can you possess that magic!" The devil screeched as she flew to the side. Her focus broken, I felt my body return under my control as I cast every spell I could.
Tornadoes and massive tsunami waves went in every direction as a pair of magma hands burst through the earth, reaching for the devil to tear her apart as she yelled for me to stop.
One of my hands started to shake as it tried to obey, but I cast even more spells as lightning strikes boomed around me. The ground shook as the gate's mana flared, agitated. We didn't pay any attention to it as the she-devil brought out massive blood monsters, and covered her body in what appeared to be steel.
As the fighting reached a fever pitch, neither devil noticed the gate slowly losing mana, as it creaked open, and two new devils arrived from the seventh level of the Underworld.
They watched as the two devils tore the surrounding area apart. Magma boiled in a small lake as hands lashed out at the female. Tornadoes and tsunamis turned on each other as curses did their work.
The two culprits were now locked in a vicious struggle for control as they fought for control of each other's blood. Seeing a glimpse of the two new arrivals from the corner of her eye, the female devil broke off with a shout and raced towards them.
"You can't be hereeee! Go back down and leave me with my new test subject!" She whined as the two devils glared down at her.
"The entire seventh level is shaking from your battle, Megicula, you know better than to disturb us like this!" One of the devils snarled as the other waved a hand. "Calm down, Beelzebub, I'm sure little Megicula has a good reason for disturbing us." He grinned down at Megicula as she pouted.
I panted hard as my body returned to my complete control. I'd fought with monsters and vampires controlling blood before, but never something that could control the blood in my body.
It was something new that I should have been ready for since magic can do the impossible when pushed to its limits. For now, though I cancelled all the spells I'd cast as the female devil, Megicula, I heard them call her, argued with the other two devils.
As they shouted and talked, I sat down and absorbed as much mana as I could. That helped a little, but the wounds inside were still not healing properly as I called upon the spark of magic that had slowly gotten brighter the longer I fought Megicula.
As I did, I listened as close as I could to the conversation, as I tried to figure out the names of the devils that had just arrived.
The female one was Magicula; she was currently being chastised by a large devil. It appeared male and was covered in dense black fur. He had two pairs of horns jutting from his skull, and a pair of wings behind him.
His name seemed to be Beelzebub, at least that's what the other devil, trying to calm him, kept saying. The other devil felt heavier, as if gravity was being affected by his very presence.
This devil is much taller than the others. Like the others, he seems almost human, but the four massive bat wings behind him say otherwise, as do the four giant horns coming out of his head.
Despite being taller, he is also thinner, as his hands end in wicked, sharp claws. Beelzebub and Magicula keep calling him Lucifero.
As they keep arguing, Megicula starts to point at me, but Beelzebub ignores her as Lucifero glances at me for a moment. I keep my head down as the spark of Megicula's magic ignites deep inside.
I channel my magic, pouring as much as I can as I extend my senses towards the three devils talking about me.
I can feel their blood pulsing deep inside. Flowing steadily as their hearts beat like war drums, I reach out and, with all the mana I can muster, tear the blood right out of their bodies.