Chapter 138: Fodder.
[Clockwork (stacked)]
[Fireball: Imaginary-tier]
[Less than one percent of mana has been consumed, magic combination achieved]
"Forced Sun." Sol gave his new technique a name as he released it, it was small because of the fact that he used clockwork on it which caused it to stop growing, it only grew to the relative size of a small room.
The sheer power behind the imaginary-tier technique in comparison was devastating, he already knew from observing the mana in Saleos that he could handle the attack, so he considered the destruction he was about to cause a minor grievance at best as the ball of fire forced him and the demon apart in recoil and then exploded.
After falling to the ground Sitri had remained on her hands and knees shaking; the feeling of having every ounce of mana leave her body in an instant felt as if she had died all over again, it brought her to that corner she had been trapped in when she fought Sol and the heroes back on Arkadia.
When [Forced Sun] exploded, it quickly grew to the size of a nuke standing in the air for several long seconds.
Saleos was sent back toward the army in an uncontrolled crash, and Sitri who was directly beneath the explosion was being blown away, but she was caught between her breasts by the crest of her armour by Sol who stood weightlessly in the air riding out the cosmic winds of his attack with a passive stare as he held on to her.
He waited patiently, whilst she stared dreadfully at his eyes unable to look away as her death was sure to become the next reality.
"Do you know the girl who's body you stole?" He asked as soon as the winds died down. "I remembered her after I saw you again, even though you changed her body so much, you still have her likeness..."
"Well?" Sol asked when seconds elapsed and she remained mute.
"N-no, I never knew her." She barely spoke aloud.
"Her name was Sage, seventeen years of age, she was one of the waitresses in a restaurant I used to frequently visit." Sol stared at her while her horror only grew from his words. "She was a good kid; innocent."
"Similarly..." Sitri's expression became pleading. "There are demons who have nothing to do with the-"
"Yeah, I'm a hypocrite." Sol pulled her closer and smiled at her fears coming to fruition. "I don't give a fuck about anything that is or could be considered innocent while being a demon!"
[You have been cursed, all mana has been sealed permanently]
[You have been cursed with immortality]
[You have been cursed with hyperawareness]
[You have been cursed with hypersensitivity]
[Your pain limiter has been broken, in the event of you normalising any pain your tolerance will drop hundredfold endlessly]
[You have been cursed with pain awareness; even the slightest touch is equivalent to a stab wound]
[You have been cursed with restlessness and anxiety]
[You have been cursed with schizophrenia]
[You have been cursed with fear]
[You have been cursed with paranoia]
"Please... d-don't... wait... let me change -I promise I can change, I will do better, I can be better, I swear it on my soul!!" Sitri started recalling more horrors as a portal opened up beneath her feet, while the sensation of pain from Sol's knuckle touching her sent her into droves of spasms as she started screaming, experiencing more pain the more she flailed.
[You have been sentenced to a clone dimension of observed memories in the Nightmare Prism; Atla 2.0]
"Goodbye, Sitri." Sol released her into the golden portal, and there she fell while screaming before smahing against a hard surface and painting it deep maroon.
Sol stood over the entrance and watched as she recovered from the clear deadly drop and began screaming again from simply touching the ground before she was attacked by a burning sword demon which impaled her and raised her by her collar bones and began cackling as it stripped her of her clothes.
Surrounding that sword demon were thousands more, and then bile demons, and Syth demons, and finally thousands of Dagon behemoths.
"Suffer like she did, trillionfold, never losing your sanity, experience more pain than any other being in existence ever did." Sol closed the portal and then opened his palm again causing a hexagonal tesseract to appear in his grasp. Inside of which he could hear Sitri screaming as she was subjected to unspeakable horrors.
[Imaginary tier: Immortal Prison (unbreakable)]
"You will live forever, and die forever simultaneously." Sol leaned his torso and flung the small tesseract with all his strength watching it rapidly leave the atmosphere and soar into the void of space. "When everything and everyone is dead and gone, even after the end of observable time, you will remain in this dark universe, suffering in the ruins of a shattered dimension."
"By the gods..." Arla stared at the prism soaring through space via the system window. "Did it say, Atla what kind of horrific thing could have happened on Atla then?" She asked, but found no response as Dina had gone speechless and Ikaris had been left too shocked to even begin to be speechless.
"Jun... experienced such horrors, because I turned my back...?" Ikaris stared at the prism, using administrative authority to view what was happening on the inside of it, she held her stomach in disgust. "So many of my people did..."
"Ikaris?" Dina looked at her reaching out, but recoiled in shock along with Arla when they both witnessed for the first time in her life as Ikaris leaned over and groaned in pain, crying and sobbing before she started vomiting on the rooftop.
"What the fuck is happening to you?" Dina caught her and pulled back her hair as she continued crying.
"This is why he never told me, this is why he hated divinity so much!" Ikaris cried heavily before throwing up again. "Jun... Griffon... everyone else, what is this horrible- uurgh!" She stared as memories she had previously not had access to came flooding through her mind via her strong connection to Sol and by alternation Atla which she had left behind.
"What's happening to her?" Arla joined Dina, placing her hand on Ikaris's back and trying to soothe her with [minor heal] but Ikaris only continued to cry and gag.
"You said it didn't matter anymore, but you have been shouldering this horrible truth by yourself, drowning in this guilt and self-blame!" Ikaris looked up to the skies watching the prism floating away.
"Sol, how could you have ever forgiven me for leaving, this enters the realm of damnation, not even I would... why, how did you?" She asked.
"Because, you gave me the chance to heal, you gave me peace I have never dealt before, and the chance to fall in love again." Sol started walking again, he answered passively, and to everyone else it sounded like he was speaking out of context, but Ikaris and the others paused; them looking at her and her looking at him.
"Is that all?" She asked, hugging herself and shuddering as she was overcome with sorrow like she had never felt. "I failed you, I failed all of you."
"Stop it." Sol scoffed. "None of them hated you, even the priest, your most devout follower never once utter a single bad word against you, and Jun..." Sol paused as he saw a multitude of demon-gods converging toward him, being guided by Saleos.
"She suffered, but she died a happy woman, I do not blame you, and I do not want you to blame yourself either, as I said on the day you brought me back to earth, I am grateful for the second life, and I will live it to the fullest of my abilities." Sol's expression became the embodiment of evil as the demon-gods closed the distance in an instant.
"It just so happens that the fullest I can live it to, is taking revenge for everything that happened!" Sol launched himself toward the multitude, taking deep wild breaths as his pupils shrunk into dots and vanished in the white of his irises. "I will slay everything before me, and rest my grievances once and for all!"
"Ikaris..." Dina looked to the goddess next, leaning her head and pointing to the system window. "Is it something you are able to share?" She asked, and Ikaris shook her head, wiping her mouth and looking up.
"Absolutely not."
"It's that bad?"
"I wish I never knew," Ikaris stared at the window again as Sol collided fists with a demon-god with the head of a bull, causing the creature to explode into chunks of meat and entrails, and then used those entrails to catch another by her throat and swing her into a trio before releasing an inaginary-tier fireball in their faces and incinerating them and a multitude more, before emerging and stepping through the head of one who had escaped the explosion and tearing him into two halves.
"Are these weak beings actual demon-gods?" Sol mused.
"Compared to Sitri and the other one, these are nothing but fodder."