Hell Contractor: Rise of the Last God

Beyond the Taboo.

Outside a bustling military encampment in a grey sand desert, filled Bedouin tents, there is a pure white Berber tent set up with St. Valentine seated crossed legged in a meditative posture. Surrounding her are abstract artefacts, as well as organs from wild mythical beasts. Right outside this strange array, is Professor Nhlanhla preparing cups of tea for two people, slowly pouring out an aromatic brew.

"You actually gave one of my student's a daemonic sacred art?" St. Valentine slowly regained consciousness, ignoring the tea that was poured for her.

"Of course. He seems promising." Professor Nhlanhla replied cheerfully.

"And what if he becomes demonized?" St. Valentine asked in a cold tone.

"There's less than a 5% chance of that happening." Professor Nhlanhla confidently answered.

St. Valentine was shocked, "How are you so sure?" she asked.

"His blood." the professor said simply.

"And what about his blood makes you confident?" St. Valentine was beginning to get annoyed.

"I'm not exactly sure yet. But, at the very least, he won't become demonized. That's the only reason why I know." Professor Nhlanhla explained.

"Are you saying that you're lack of understanding is what's guiding you?" St. Valentine was displeased and concerned.

"Partially. Based on all the other tests I could do, his overall physique and constitution is still developing while being dormant. That factor alone gives him the greatest edge." the professor didn't seem shy in admitting this.

"So that's why you helped me reach my cathedral with your Cosmic Projection?" St. Valentine politely picked up a cup of tea to sip  slowly.

"I was hoping you'd make sure nothing too serious happened. That Ayanda feels like a promising student, If he can help me with my research, then maybe The Dragon Province will finally consider introducing the practice of daemonic sacred arts." Professor Nhlanhla spoke with a dreamers daze.

"Forget it. As long as demonization is a high possibility, then the Phoenix Sect would rather leave it to the Banish Empire to embrace daemonic sacred arts." St. Valentine spoke casually now.

"We'll see." Professor Nhlanhla responded in a soft but calm manner.

A soldier comes rushing outside the tent, screaming loudly, "Professor! Principal Valentine! The team have uncovered the rest of the ruins. We're ready to enter the Spirit Gate.

Back at Dark Dragon Academy, Mr. Han is walking with Ayanda, as they make their way back to their apartment. They're walking quietly, with Mr. Han unconcerned with Ayanda's current state, which looks bad only on he surface due to his clothes being in tatters. They get to the apartment area, but Mr. Han walks over to the private training area next door, while hesitating to gesture for Ayanda to follow him.

"I have neglected my duty as your guardian. Although you were safe today, you were unable to protect what was important to you, so now I'll teach you a fighting style that will allow your attacks to become more unpredictable, and twice as deadly." Mr. Han said to Ayanda as he took a serious posture, with his left palm ready to attack.

Ayanda assumed a defensive stance. Mr. Han rarely ever practices any fighting with Ayanda, as everything before was done as a simulation since Mr. Han was far too strong to spar against. Even with his near victory with Nez, Ayanda knows he doesn't have the right to think about taking on any of their teachers, especially Mr. Han. Ayanda feared that Mr. Han would attack first, but to his surprise, Mr. Han remained where he was standing.

"Attack!" Mr. Han instructed loudly.

Ayanda gritted his teeth, then decided to start with Taboo Slayer Divine Art. In order to maximize his resonance with understanding how to be fluid with the feedback and responses required to exceed his physiques limits, Ayanda wants to gain a mastery of the base level technique, which if he can promote could make him a superhuman fighter with that sacred art alone. If Ayanda can reach a level where he can even allow his senses to become unlimited, or even boost his recovery speed, he can sense that there is a lot of potential in investing in focusing on his Taboo Slayer Sacred Art.

Ayanda starts to circulate his Taboo Slayer Divine Art, and launches himself towards Mr. Han, but Mr. Han has already counterattacked, but stops his palm from striking Ayanda's throat.

"Too slow. You're thinking too much." Mr. Han retracted his palm, retreating quickly to the same spot he was in before. 

The distance he covered to reach Ayanda was remarkable, even God Blood Lightning Sacred Art wouldn't keep up. But things were different now, a burning fighting spirit started to ignite within Ayanda who now had a new goal set before him. As someone who's been used to figuring out how to move quickly, he want's to be able to reach the speeds that Mr. Han can with only his Taboo Slayer Sacred Art. His other sacred art cultivations provide him flexibility, but they're limited by their vitality. Taboo Slayer Divine Art requires almost no vitality from Ayanda, since it relies on breaking through the limits of one's current state. Levy created his sacred art with the idea of breaking out of his seal, but even with a near infinite amount of power, he was trapped in Purgatory within God's Prison with no way out. 

Ayanda continued to attack and stopped by Mr. Han, and after two hours, Ayanda was drenched in sweat, barely able to stand up, and Mr. Han is still the same as before, he's not even out of breath at all. Mr. Han calls it a day with the training, but sets a routine for Ayanda to follow as punishment for not being strong enough. It's a series of routines designed to increase his muscle density naturally, while providing him with more stamina and better breathing techniques. The final exam is just over four weeks away, and Ayanda has to catch up to reach a better physique that will be beneficial for him during his examination. The testing criteria is essentially looking to expose a students capabilities in the field, under various circumstances, as well as how well they have cultivated their sacred art. The companion beast battles will display a student's true spirit, which is why Ayanda needs to improve, in order to boost Levy's progress as well.

Mr. Han has planned out Ayanda's entire daily life now, with him being in exam preparation. he has to have some sort of order. When Ayanda looks over his calendar, he notices some days which are scheduled off campus, but they're to make trips to pick up special ingredients for the meals Mr. Han will prepare, providing Ayanda with a new diet that will supposedly add to his body's growth. Ayanda isn't particularly buff, just skinny but muscular. Mr. Han on the other hand looks small, but truthfully is extremely muscular, with a low body fat count. Ayanda doesn't have an extreme physique like his since he hasn't been in the field as much, but now Mr. Han will train him into becoming as sharp as a soldier.

While Ayanda began his new daily life where he had rigorous training in order to push him to be better equipped, Bright was still in recovery, and news about Nez was scarce after they brought him back. As far as they knew, he was still being watched over by the Palace Guards while in the principals cathedral. As much as Ayanda wanted to deal with Nez himself, he was also caught trying to harm another student, so he's also on thin ice. For now, St. Valentine has decided to overlook Ayanda's actions due to the situation, and the principal is trusting that Professor Nhlanhla is right about what he's said.

Bright has been recovering and training in isolation now. In spite of surviving, she cannot allow herself to be defeated like that again, so she wants to promote her God Blood Lightning Sacred Art to a higher level before the final exams. Bright's routine has completely changed, with her being given more guards and protection if she plans to travel. Bright has been taken out of Dark Dragon Academy until the final exams for now.

The days are slow for Ayanda now, as he has to focus on training with Taboo Slayer Divine Sacred Art everyday, then moving on to reading the daemonic text whenever he has free time. Mr. Han has left Ayanda to his own devices since it's also practical training for the real world. Ayanda was never coddled by Mr. Han, but was never given any specific direction in terms of what he should go after, Mr. Han has always allowed him the freedom to make his own choices, but he also has to face the consequences. Ayanda had the option to pursue a different life, but continued to go against the grain considering how almost every other child was normal and could contract a companion beast, except for Ayanda of course.

Levy would also train along with Ayanda, after gaining an enormous amount of vitality from the statue of the chameleon, Levy wants to push his own growth, by remaining summoned as long as he can, creating his own routine of preparing for the companion battles. Ayanda can't really order Levy around like other companion beasts, as his contract with Levy makes them more like equals rather than master and companion. Levy wants to adjust his own way of thinking, so he can be able to fight on his own without Ayanda needing to help him. As a crocodile monitor, he doesn't have much natural lethality with his body, but with the addition of the neon fireflies sharing their vitality, now Levy has also gained some of their abilities at projecting images and camouflaging skills too. Now Levy is developing some illusionary skills to add to his Taboo Slayer Divine Art, which requires vitality from the temple inside Ayanda's Soul Scape.

The temple hasn't had any strange reactions since Ayanda has acquired it. What he's noticed though, is that the more he circulates different vitalities in his body, the temple starts to undergo small restorations and slowly begins to not seem as ruined as before. Now the temple is just slightly shabby after a few days of training. Ayanda will trust in the mysterious person since he doesn't want to risk allowing the temple to further deteriorate, plus he must make the most out of the temple, as he no longer has issues with maintaining his vitality, or even switching sacred arts. Ayanda must now master his sacred arts and powers before the final exam, in order to not be ambushed or caught lacking like before.

The daemonic text took some time for Ayanda to finally gain more of a basic understanding, which was starting to enlighten him more to what Mohini was attempting to pull off, while allowing her son to step into the realm of mastering two worlds. Now Ayanda has inherited Mohini's Amrita, which begins to teach him about the basics of daemonic vitality, as well as Daemon Rites, including the customs and teachings of a Daemon Lord. Ayanda was learning the daemonic language fluently while gaining more circulation of daemonic vitality through his Hell Scroll Sacred Art. The only difficult part of his training of his Hell Scroll Sacred Art, was that there were multiple sets of weapon skills to understand, with little to learn about martial art skills.

"It seems like Hell Scroll Sacred Art is an all out attack sacred art that disregards defending." Ayanda was contemplating while reading the daemonic text during a break on one of his training exercises. From Mohini's Amrita, Ayanda could only sense that the purest form of the daemonic sacred art lies in fully absorbing the daemonic vitality, risking demonization just like Nez had experienced. Ayanda could tell from Mohini's Amrita, Nez's demonization wasn't as extreme as St. Valentine had thought it to be.

"It seems that way." Levy was keeping an eye on Ayanda to ensure that he doesn't become too influenced by the daemonic vitality, "Make sure you understand the entire daemonic text before trying to promote the Hell Scroll Sacred Art. There's far too many weapon intents for you to master. Only rely on your knife skills for now, your killing intent is stronger with your knife intent." he gave Ayanda good advice to follow based on his understanding of daemonic sacred arts. 

Humans wouldn't have stumbled across daemonic sacred arts if it weren't for the daemon race waging war against humanity, and then being forced back to their original domain. Over the ages, daemons have made their own place in the world, with the Banish Empire being formed to establish a hold for the daemons in preparation of war again. The Abyss Sect is the most prominent sect that rules over the Banish Empire, with Abaddon as the dominant Daemon Lord who has ruled the longest. Daemonic sacred arts are the pride of the Abyss Sect, so they have become known as cold-blooded assassins and thieves who target high profile requests that will provide them with the materials they need.

Currently, there are no impending threats from the Abyss Sect or the Banish Empire due to the observed peace between the Four States once all of the borders had been decided by the survivors of the last war, who designated their own areas for themselves. These respective clans have changed leaders and organizations numerously over the centuries, but what remains still is the agreement between the Four States, that they shall be allowed to govern themselves, and also have control over their own respective military. 

The Dragon Province relies on it's people to cultivate as many different types of sacred arts, with the Phoenix Sect maintaining strict control over the Burning Phoenix Sacred Art, as it is a sign of nobility and proof that you share a close bond with the ancestors who established The Dragon Province as a state. The Phoenix Sect has long held pride in their mastery of mortal sacred arts, the most basic but proficient in combat. Certain figures over the ages have found ways of improving the overall cultivation potential of The Dragon Province, but compared to the north which is patrolled by Rapture's Army, or even the Banish Empire to the south, The Dragon Province hasn't been able to have more of a presence among the Four States, though the west remains uninvestigated due to the high number of deadly, and unknown wild mythical beasts which roam those lands.

With Ayanda focusing on his overall performance and promoting Taboo Slayer Divine Art, he's starting to gradually feel the improvements to his physique. Mr. Han's diet gives Ayanda more energy, and soon he has to make a trip off campus to look for a rare grains of Platinum Sorghum, which is only grown at the peaks of the Neon Bridge, a well preserved mountain village to the south west of The Dragon Province. This trip will be relatively safe as Ayanda will only be picking up Mr. Han's order, which has been paid for, so hopefully the trip can be more of a training regime for him. Ayanda wants to use his Taboo Slayer Divine Art to run on foot all the way to Neon Bridge. The trip would normally take 2 days if he stays the night there as Mr. Han instructed, but if Ayanda can be faster than that then he could spend time practicing his other sacred arts in between, as he hasn't been training that much with his Immortal Phoenix or God Blood Lightning Sacred Arts.

Ayanda leaves his room early in the morning after making his preparations, then summons Levy as he rushes off campus. Ayanda starts circulating his Taboo Slayer Divine Art, and instantly strides into a steady pace, which may not be faster than God Blood Lightning Sacred Art's movement techniques, but for a human to be able to run as fast as top of the range sports car is unheard of. To the unsuspecting eye, one would think he only has a low cultivation of his sacred art, but if an expert looks at him, they'll be able to realize how there is a minuscule amount of vitality circulating in Ayanda's body, which is already the maximum for Taboo Slayer Divine Art. 

As Ayanda is rushing along the path that leads to the towns in between Dark Dragon Academy and Neon Bridge, Levy was observing more of the different areas Ayanda is crossing, acting as an inconspicuous companion beast that's lazy. Levy is mostly allowing Ayanda to now focus on circulating Taboo Slayer Divine Art, since the temple within Ayanda's Soul Scape has been undergoing some interesting changes recently. At first, the temple seemed to simply be restoring itself magically, but soon Ayanda realized that the real cause was actually time reversal. Some type of inverting of the deterioration was occurring, but when Ayanda paid closer attention with his Taboo Slayer Divine Art, he could sense the etchings of the equation carved into the temple walls becoming much more detailed, and clear. Soon, whenever Ayanda circulated Taboo Slayer Divine Art, the reversing of the aging of the temple would become faster, with the equation beginning to illuminate Ayanda with epiphanies when it comes to his understanding of the daemonic text or beginning to absorb the weapon intents from the Hell Scroll Sacred Art as he practiced more with it.

"Why do I get the same feeling from Mr. Han when you're using your Hell Scroll Sacred Art?" Levy asked out of nowhere, almost breaking Ayanda's focus as he was maintaining his knife intent.

"What? What do you mean?" Ayanda asked while he tried to regain his rhythm from before.

"Mr. Han's palm technique feels similar. The intent is vast, like a river or lake." Levy spoke seriously.

"Vast..." Ayanda muttered, as the temple in his Soul Scape began to shine with a bright glow, then slowly seep into the equation that's carved onto the walls. 

Soon, the light lifts the carvings out, the entire equation then condenses into a solid light in the center on the temple, with the entire environment beginning to slightly morph into an island, with the reversal energy creating a much bigger area inside Ayanda's Soul Scape. As the changes are occurring, soon Ayanda is grasping the intents of the different weapons rapidly, as well as pulling off Mr. Han's movements, with Ayanda creating a phantom of Mr. Han in his mind that he's been facing. The ghost becomes more alive to Ayanda, who is able to feed it his own vitality to now become a true spirit he is facing, injecting it with his past experiences sparring with Mr. Han. Ayanda is facing the phantom at first with some difficulty, but as he absorbs more of the weapon intents, Ayanda's techniques become more powerful.

Inside the Soul Scape, an ancient city has formed on the island, now with a stone grey metallic pyramid set as the temple, with a mystical engraving upon it, "NINGIZIMU". Within the metal pyramid, there is a chamber where weapons begin to form, and dance in battle against one another; one on one contests which occur while each weapon intent is being absorbed by Ayanda, then becoming manifested through the temple. These dancing weapons are simply the ideal forms to Mohini's Amrita which she had forged long ago.