Hell Contractor: Rise of the Last God

Levyathan.

… Almost an hour before the tremor starts…

"What do you mean, you know where the mythical beast is?" Ayanda asked the chimera.

The chimera happily teleports behind Ayanda, nudging him to walk ahead, leading him into a strange cave which appears to be built into a small cozy cottage home. Inside, there is rustic furniture, a bed, a few scrolls as well as books on a shelf, and a strange robe made of blood red feathers hanging on the wall. Ayanda slowly walks into the well maintained abode, looking for anything important, but the chimera pulls Ayanda towards the feather robe, but not getting close to it itself. Ayanda follows it's gesture to pick up the robe, and finds that beside how transparent it looks, it weighs just as much as his academy issued suit that got destroyed earlier. Seeing Ayanda pick it up, the chimera became even more elated, then rushed right out of the cave, yelping happily. 

Ayanda is now left alone with the feather robe in his hands, so he instinctively tries it on. As soon as he slips the robe on, an unbelievable warmth wraps around his body, slowly merging and melting into his skin. for some reason, the robe has now completely turned invisible to the naked eye, but Ayanda can still feel the robe on his body. The way it wraps around his entire body, even his head, makes it feel far more protective than the suit he had before, even sturdier. But what's more astonishing, is that as he moves, Ayanda suddenly feels like he's become weightless, gliding through the air without any resistance. With this robe on, he feels like he can move at much higher speeds without worrying about any damage from his surroundings or enemies. 

Before Ayanda can get a chance to test out his new robes possibilities, the chimera teleports back to lift Ayanda onto its back again, and teleport to another vitality pool, only this one is filled with vast icy water, which is swirling into a dusky vortex. The chimera puts Ayanda down, and without even speaking, Ayanda realizes what the chimera wants him to do. He leaps into the water, and as soon as he dives in, the robe propels him through the water, with incredible speed, instantly pushing him in front of the vortex. 

As Ayanda gets closer, he suddenly feels the vitality being drained from his body at a frightening speed. The second he becomes anxious about if he'll survive the loss of vitality, he feels a strange dense energy bubbling deep from his blood, almost permeating from his soul. This energy bursts out, forcibly feeding itself to the vortex, which suddenly shrinks into the size of a basketball sized reptilian egg, covered in scales that look like they're made of stone. As soon as the egg has formed, it starts to hatch, and Ayanda feels an external surge of a consciousness merging with his own. 

"Finally, I, the mighty Leviathan, is free from those cursed God's. Ha! Those bastards never expected I'd be free again!" as a strangely arrogant voice rings out into Ayanda's mind, he suddenly feels like there is another dimension inside his soul, a completely dark void which he can look over all at once. Inside this void, is the same behemoth monster that has statues in the temple that the chimera was protecting, only now it's floating around the void, completely lost.

"You're the mighty Leviathan?" Ayanda asked, with his voice booming towards the beast.

"Who's that? Somebody dare invade my Soul Scape?" the Leviathan begins to become enraged, but in the next second, he looks around, and his confusion starts to show as he can't seem to pick up on who just addressed him.

"This is my Soul Scape. I'm the one who just hatched your companion beast egg." Ayanda responded. The Leviathan wants to shout in rage, but he soon discovers that he's truly powerless in this realm he's in, which most likely means that he's truly in somebody else's Soul Scape. 

The Leviathan begins to feel great shame and rage. He used to rule over the oceans and seas, but now he's been reduced to a companion beast to a human. But as much as he's disappointed, there's a silver lining to this. After millions of years of being sealed away, he can finally leave this cursed prison. As for how, he really doesn't have the luxury of choice for now.

"Human, what is your name?" the Leviathan asks arrogantly, as if he's about to bestow him with something great.

"Before I tell you that, I think I should come up with a better name for you." Ayanda responded, thinking earnestly.

"This punk!!! He dare give me, Leviathan, a name!" the Leviathan was thinking as he becomes infuriated, but suddenly, he can feel the Soul Scape rumbling.

"I'll call you you, Levy." and as soon as Ayanda muttered those words, he suddenly feels an intense rush from deep in his mind, linking to the Levy's mind. Their connection now suddenly brings strange changes in Ayanda's body, which is now producing more of the dark venom that was injected into his body before, along with small bits of the metal from Sipho's Tranquilizer Mark. All of these elements start to mix and fuse into Ayanda's physique, strengthening his bones, arteries and internal organs. His blood rushes much faster in his body and pours out of his body to form the shape of a crocodile monitor, looking like an iguana with scales that almost match the chimera's fur. 

As the crocodile monitor is formed, Levy's voice rings loudly into Ayanda's mind, "f**k the Gods! Why do I look like this?!?" Levy was clearly enraged by his current appearance. He's firstly lost all of his domineering and brutal form, but he's also had his power reduced to far less than he's ever experienced, even as a baby Leviathan.

"I think you look better like this, you don't stand out too much." Ayanda slightly chuckled to himself. He was worried that Levy would appear in the form he was in in his Soul Scape, but it seems that Levy isn't able to completely restore himself with only his blood. Ayanda's guess is that like most companion beasts, they have to grow with their master, so Levy has to start from the same point as Ayanda, and slowly regain his lost energy over time.

Ayanda picks Levy up, and places him on his shoulder, before turning to swim back out of the pool. The icy water has stopped swirling, and the temperature has risen, now making it more comfortable on Ayanda's way back. He steps out of the pool, meeting the chimera again, who is looking at Ayanda in awe as if he was a ghost. The chimera has known for as long as he's been in those mountains, that not even his former master was able to pick out that companion egg. Now that the egg has been taken, the chimera no longer needs to guard the temple.

Now Ayanda is being lead by the chimera to go back into the cave dwelling. Levy who's sitting annoyed across Ayanda's shoulder. He's still in an extremely grumpy mood since he's been reduced to this form, but is more or less relieved that he's finally out.

"Ayanda. That's my name." Ayanda says out loud calmly, looking ahead, not looking at Levy. Levy nods in acknowledgement, and the chimera growls happily in response. 

All three of them enter the cave and Ayanda continues to look around the scrolls and books left. He's browsing a strange diary which keeps a log of all the different vitality pools, but it's dated from at least a century before. The scrolls mainly hold information about seals and releasing ancient spells. Most of the information was split into many different ancient languages, which made no sense to Ayanda. One scroll he picks up is particularly interesting, as it's got no words written down, but instead has life like diagrams of a human figure bathed in flames, performing a moving dance piece, filled with vibrant life and spirit. The more Ayanda became lost in the scroll, intense phoenix flames begin to ignite on his feather robe, which becomes visible with the glowing heat. Ayanda is memorizing the dance as the images begin to come alive, and his heart locks onto the rhythm of the mystic dance being displayed. Ayanda feels as though if he were to perform this dance, the flames would be in harmony with him, granting him powers like a phoenix. The images on the scroll flash faster, and quickly sear themselves into Ayanda's mind before the scroll turns to ashes. The feather robe vanishes once more, but now is more like a thin film over his skin, which he can manipulate into a wider field if needed, and more than that, Ayanda can feel the weight of the robe has increased.

Levy has been watching Ayanda manifest the sacred art from the scroll, and his heart skipped a beat. "This kid is able to absorb that much vitality and mythical energy at once!" he felt that something was amiss. If he could absorb that much energy, how come he couldn't feel any change in Ayanda's vitality levels? But as soon as Ayanda had stabilized, Levy suddenly felt the same phoenix like flames enter his Soul Scape, forming the basic foundation for the Burning Phoenix Sacred Art scroll. Now Levy can absorb the skills and use them himself, which proves that Ayanda had just absorbed the sacred art. "Not bad. And it can even reach peak mythical state. He was quite lucky to find such a refined sacred art. It's a pity it has high vitality requirements, but it can work for now." Levy thought to himself as he allows the flames to circulate his body.

"Oi, I'm going to cultivate this Burning Phoenix Sacred Art now. Take me into your Soul Scape and I can help boost it's level." Levy demanded telepathically to Ayanda. Ayanda could also sense that he needed to cultivate his new sacred art, but now with Levy, he can chare the stress by having Levy push the cultivation within his Soul Scape. Ayanda knew that only high level companion beasts had that ability to share experience, but he didn't realize that Levy had that capability from his birth. This gave Ayanda an incredible idea; he could just absorb as many sacred arts as possible, and have Levy push the cultivation for him to boost both of their progress. Unfortunately for Ayanda though, was that sacred arts that come with the vitality needed to learn them are extremely expensive to start, but also rarer than mythical beasts themselves. But if he were able to, he would be able to master multiple sacred arts, making him one of the most powerful figures in The Dragon Province.

The chimera has been watching over Ayanda strangely, seeing him absorb the Burning Phoenix Sacred Art easily, and even perceive how Levy can already circulate some of the energy of the flames, made him slightly conflicted. He already was aware that he mixed his rare space element into Ayanda's blood, which should have taken away any other elemental affinity since the space element is a high concept to understand, and the chimera's venom was actually it's own blood that it condensed into a vitality to boost Ayanda's in order to release the lock on him, thereby unlocking his hidden potential. Now the chimera has calculated something beyond Ayanda's grand reasoning; if Ayanda is able to truly master multiple high concept sacred arts, that would undoubtedly make him the strongest powerhouse even in any state. The chimera runs up to Ayanda without teleporting, and pulls on his tattered pants in order to drag him somewhere. 

Ayanda instinctively follows the chimera, not doubting it's intentions anymore, and it takes him back to the vitality pools they were in before. The luminous energy is still wafting through the air, gently floating around Ayanda. For some reason, the vitality is much clearer than before, and it feels warm. As he breathes it in, he feels a rhythmic beat pulsating in his Soul Scape. 

As Levy is pushing the cultivation of the Burning Phoenix Sacred Art, the vitality seeps into Levy, boosting the energy being circulated. 

While this is occurring internally, Ayanda begins to witness something phenomenal within the vitality pools, a ghostly figure appears, burning in heavenly gold flames, and he begins to perform a dance, but only this time, the dancing is more holy, and sacred. Every step, every twirl, is filled with godly energy, sweeping up the vitality swirling around it and igniting it in the golden fire. Ayanda's eyes are completely glued to this vision, and suddenly his own body begins to flow, mimicking the ghostly figures moves like he's in a trance. Ayanda isn't sure why he's suddenly drawn in, but he feels as if he's adding something crucial to his Burning Phoenix Sacred Art, something that was missing from the scroll. He can't explain it, but Ayanda feels as if the feather robe has had it's color change from red to gold, and the shimmer is resonating with the energy from the vitality pools which are starting to evaporate.

As Ayanda continues to dance, the chimera is now in complete awe of Ayanda. This dance that Ayanda is able to copy is in fact his master's most powerful skill, The Sacred Phoenix Song. This skill is how his mater was able to tame him during their early years together. It's also due to the energy that his master left behind, that the vitality pools can flow and replicate his mythical sacred art in that area. The chimera had always been able to view it, thus learn high concept foot movement as well as parrying skills. The Celestial Phoenix Song Sacred Art was designed by his master to one day tame the sealed Leviathan, as he was an ambitious master who wanted to see how powerful he was. He was one of the great leaders of the Phoenix Sect, but is sadly a forgotten figure now.

Ayanda has been dancing for only a short while, but within the movements, time feels relative to him. Everything is slowed down, and he's able to take in every centimeter of the ghostly figure's stance. As the ghost concludes his dance, Ayanda's will returns to him, and he strangely senses that the ghost is at peace as it dissipates. 

The evaporated vitality pools start to suddenly c***k which spread up to the walls quickly, starting a deep tremor which starts to break apart the ceiling above. as the rumbling intensifies, the chimera quickly grabs Ayanda, and teleports into the crumbling ceiling above, avoiding any falling debris or injury. The chimera releases Ayanda as they teleport to return on top of the rubble, with smoke everywhere.

Ayanda's senses have become much sharper now. The moment he got out of the broken ground, he notices he's back in the inner chamber, beyond the entrance he was left as bait at. Now he can tell that there was a fight, and that the two people that brought him here, are the same two who are lying dead. He can faintly detect that Petal and the leader of The Twilight Vanguard company were just there, but now he's facing Sipho. He's dressed in a fancy green tuxedo, and is about to point his cane towards him. Before Sipho's golden chains can rush out, the chimera jumps in front of Ayanda and growls loudly, using a sonic wave to repel the canes effect.

"Argh!" Sipho is pushed back by the boom, but not deterred. He flips his cane and it transforms into a golden hobo nickel, that has a symbol of a playful looking monkey on it. He flips the coin quickly and it lands on tails on the ground, instantly morphing into an elephant sized golden gorilla. The golden gorilla seems to not be affected by the sonic waves, and rushes in to attack the chimera.

The chimera stops his sonic attack, turns to Ayanda to shake its mane and drop the terrifying tusk knife that Luka had earlier into his hands. He turns back in order to rush to the golden gorilla to engage it, by flying towards it now while using the Burning Phoenix movements. The chimera is doing a basic display of the quick, fleeting style it has, but it's also showing how well it's mastered it to such a degree that the basic skills are enough for it.

Ayanda grips the tusk knife, preparing to engage Sipho who's patiently waiting for the golden gorilla to finish up with the chimera, so Ayanda understands why he's been given such a knife. He has to kill Sipho, who's already been able to kill two highly skilled warriors, but now with his golden gorilla out, he's most likely having to divide his power in some way to manage the situation. If Ayanda can find a way to edge through, then even if Sipho takes his golden gorilla back, he'd have to deal with the chimera too.

Ayanda bursts forward, similar to the chimera, but Ayanda's rhythm is different to the chimera's. The chimera has the adaptability and natural space element to allow it to move without any issues, but with the space element, the chimera can't completely take in the flames which are meant to wrap around one's body fluidly. The moment Ayanda appears in front of Sipho, he thrusts forward with the tusk like a phoenix bird biting down at it's prey. 

At first, Sipho isn't alarmed at his speed, as Ayanda's movement hadn't escaped his vision. But what happens in the next second almost makes him not react fast enough. Ayanda somehow spins in the air and whips a roundhouse kick which is filled with raging flames, burning through the air. The kick is so fast that he can't counter, so all he can do is try to absorb the flames, but as soon has his arm blocks Ayanda's foot, he regrets sticking out his arm as the flame instantly burns his skin, then sends him rocketing out of the temple, right out the entrance.

Ayanda doesn't hesitate and rushes Sipho down before he can recover, when the golden gorilla tries to block him but gets taken out by the chimera who stomps on the gorillas head. Ayanda is like a comet, with the flame surrounding his body slowly building up as he flies, and he's closing in on Sipho who's pulled himself out of the mountain rock he was just planted in. 

Sipho spits out some blood, and suddenly has a golden shine wrap around his whole body. The golden glow becomes stronger and intensifies, with Sipho's suit disappearing. His body is slowly wrapped in emerald demonic knight armor with golden chainmail layered all around it. His entire body exudes a bloodthirsty rage which momentarily intimidates Ayanda, but he feels another response bubbling within his Soul Scape.

Levy has been struggling to complete the circulations for the Burning Phoenix Sacred Art, but after he had the Celestial Phoenix Song supplemented to it, his progress leaped to another degree. Not only has he reinforced Ayanda's base as well as his own, but he was able to also lay down a foundation to the Leviathan forbidden sacred art; Taboo Slayer Divine Art.