Chapter 2330: Shedding Waste

As the darkness faded away, Agnar’s elemental expansion shattered like glass, and Kageru found himself back on the ground, gasping for air. He had just talked with a nightmare far above all nightmares, a creature so powerful that it could remotely invade someone else’s elemental expansion through dimensions.

He looked around and could see the fight had ended. The Coagulated Gasp was already destroyed, and Cerberus lay on the ground, injured and bleeding as countless burns marred its skin. Kita herself was unconscious on the ground, with Yuwaku stepping on her with a smile; from the look of it, she had just been face-stomped to sleep.

Yuwaku looked at him with a faint smile and closed his eyes. "The fight is over. I’m pretty sure my father told you so." Arad didn’t just show up for Kageru, but for everyone else. He was probably the one who turned the fight around.

Kageru lifted his hands and shook his head. "Yep, he did. My job is now to keep you all safe here in hell, right?" Shaking his head, he carried the unconscious Agnar and stood. "But how in hell’s flames did you come to be? He didn’t just spawn you out of his darkness, did he?"

Yuwaku shook her head. "How rude. I got a proper mother, and my father is much gentler and more caring than you think." But Kageru didn’t look like he believed her. All he could do was see Arad as an endless sea of pure darkness that only knows how to consume and dominate.

"Your mother had to be crazy to tame that monster." He shook his head and laid Agnar down. All they had to do now was wait for Abel to be back.

"Well, I won’t argue against that. Mother can be quite crazy at times." Yuwaku giggled as she started gently slapping Agnar’s face to wake him up.

"Mind if I ask who she is?" Kageru asked as he tried to wake Kita, and Yuwaku just replied with a passive face while trying to wake Agnar. "Zephyr, a Wind Spirit Queen."

At that moment, Kageru’s eyes opened wide as his hand froze. "Zephyr?! Zephyrus Anemoi Enlil of Mei? Focalor’s daughter?"

"You know her?"

"Who doesn’t know? She just fucked up a layer of hell a few years ago! And even before that, her father is as infamous as hell itself. He’s been sitting quietly for a while, yes. But that doesn’t change how much of a monster he was." He then started thinking. ^Yeah, this might make a bit of sense. That bastard won’t let his daughter get on with anyone normal.^

At that moment, Abel finally returned, and he looked to be perfectly fine, except for the horrifying amount of blood on him. "What is going on? Did you come to an understanding?" He asked, and Yuwaku replied. "Yes, Father interfered."

Hearing her reply, Abel frowned. "He did? Isn’t he supposed to be hibernating? How did he even help?" As he asked, Theresa glared at him with an offended frown.

"Our Blood Lord is all-powerful, all-mighty, all-observant, and all-reaching. It doesn’t matter if he is asleep or not, if he is weak or at full power. He’ll reach all." She sounded more like a crazed fanatic than a little girl, and Abel found that extremely creepy, as he couldn’t sense a single shred of hesitation in her eyes, the same way Lydia talks about Amaterasu.

"Fine, let’s just assume he could do that." He threw a glance at Kageru and Kita. "That doesn’t make those two any less dangerous. They could turn on us at any moment. I don’t need to explain how deceitful and twisted devils can be. You can’t trust them."

Yuwaku was about to speak, but then Kageru was the one to talk. "You... speak as if you know him, but you don’t at all. How could you think like that while knowing the kind of monster you’re talking about? Or... do you not know the extent of nightmarish terror you’re working for?"

Abel smiled. "No, I do know what kind of man I’m talking about. But trusting you two is a whole other matter." He shook his head and then looked back toward the city. "He can kill you and do whatever he wants, but if you two betray us and cause damage, revenge won’t undo what happened."

Kageru looked back at the forest, and then growled. "They are all dead." He shifted his gaze right back at Abel, and the smug devil looked back at him with a smile. "I’m scary as well, in a far nastier way. To me, getting rid of you two would be a much cleaner way, if you want to fight."

Kageru sighed as he looked at the unconscious Kita. "If you managed to kill them all, then I can’t defeat you while trying to protect her." He then smiled. "And they’ll revive in due time. This is hell; they won’t permanently perish. Unless the Emperor of Nothing gets them." He then shifted his gaze toward Yuwaku. "Is it true that he can kill the residents of hell?"

Yuwaku smiled. "The chains of hell that tie the sinners down and prevent them from staying dead are the same source of power that keeps the devils alive. Father can shatter those chains with ease, so not even death would save you from him. He’ll shatter those chains, consume your soul, and either force you into slavery, turn you into a mindless dark husk, or just disintegrate you for energy."

"The word monster doesn’t do that thing justice." Kageru shook his head.

****

Back at the private quarter, deep within the lightless darkness of Arad’s stomach, inside a secluded meteor that housed a sizeable mansion, a little girl sat alone inside a room, nestled in the arms of a horrifying spider-like monstrosity of human limbs and faces.

Her blue eyes flickered with magic, and then one of them turned red. She stirred and lifted one of her hands, looking at the endless flood of darkness leaking out of her skin like thick tar. She could feel it across her entire body, in her bones and flesh. Every cell of her body twisted and tingled as the strange dark power flooded her veins.

"A God of Beasts, the darkness has expanded yet again. First it was his blood, and now his flesh." She stood and walked toward the door as the darkness of the room faded and was pushed back by the light of the hallway, and when she stepped outside, her entire body froze.

She looked around and found that the door behind her had disappeared, and the two ends of the hallway were filled with roiling living darkness. "Arad Orion, such control over the void. Are you sure this isn’t enough?"

The darkness encroached upon her until she could almost touch it. While the darkness didn’t speak, Poppy could read the ripples on its surface to decipher and interpret Arad’s will. The darkness wanted her body and soul, and Poppy immediately smiled.

"Don’t you have your wives? Why come to me, an imprisoned criminal?" She giggled, but then took a step into the darkness. "But I don’t mind being used as a tool. And besides, the power you offer is just too good to refuse."

As her feet sank into the darkness, she could feel the thick and viscus like magic crawling up her legs and then engulfing her whole body. Then, in the next second, she was already pulled into the deepest void of Arad’s stomach, a place where none beside him could reach.

At this moment, Poppy was probably the only one to understand the true scope of Arad’s evolution and what was happening to his body. He was shedding, getting rid of all impurities and noise in his own power.

First was the Blood Lord title that he would need to discard, and now the Beast God title, which he had just created. While many desired those titles, and many sacrificed their entire lives in the hope of holding just a fraction of the power those titles provide... to Arad, they were nothing but filth, waste filling up his body that he needed to expel.

Poppy smiled as she felt the darkness merging with her bones. ^Ah, am I not lucky? To be the only other pricolici around to carry this power in his stead? It hurts a bit to know that I’m basically just eating your shit and waste, but when that shit is divine authority, I doubt I could refuse.^

****

Inside the Private Quarters, Capsella and Akasha, alongside all of the vampire paladins and nuns who went to retrieve the mast, knelt in front of Eris in her private room. In front of them, Eris and Zia were both half-naked on the bed, with Zia brushing Eris’s hair, as the two had just come out of the bath after they had spent hours fighting each other in the training ground.

"About the Blood Lord title." Eris spoke, looked across everyone, and then sighed. "You all know that Arad can read the minds of all vampires connected to him through blood, so he already knew about needing to discard the title." She leaned back, stretched her legs and arms. "Do you know what I suggested?"

No one replied, so Zia spoke. "It was my idea... I suggested that Lady Eris tell His Majesty that Alcott is most suited for the title. He did agree and sent the request to Alcott..." Zia shook her head. "Both Alcott and Ginger have refused the title."

Eris leaned forward. "That’s why I’m the one responsible for picking a suitable candidate. By the way, I already told Arad to take Poppy as the vessel for his lycanthropic powers, as she is the strongest werewolf around, the only other pricolici." She threw a glance at Zia. "And Zia here also rejected the Blood Lord title, since she wants to be by my side."

Zia nodded with a smile.

Eris then shifted her eyes, looking toward everyone. "Arad isn’t getting weaker, but stronger. When he gives those titles away, he wouldn’t lose those powers. He is ascending to a higher class of existence than those titles provide." She pointed at one of the paladins, and the paladin stood with a large smile on her face. "Yes, my lady."

"You’re a Higher Vampire, a regular vampire. What if you could give that title away to a regular human, making them a high vampire so you can become a Vampire Lord? Arad is in the same position." Eris then smiled. "You’re the one who stood up to the Medusa and was first possessed by Arad’s will. What do you think of Arad abandoning the Blood Lord title?"

The paladin thought about it for a few seconds, and then shook her head. "I do not know. I want to call him a Blood God, but that’s Divine Akame’s title." She threw a glance at Akasha, and Akasha shook her head with a giggle. "He isn’t on mother’s level."

The paladin nodded. "Yes, I do believe that our Lord is of a higher class than the gods."