Hell Contractor: Rise of the Last God

A Fate Restored.

Mr. Han stared at Levy, then turned to finish making his tea and left Ayanda to continue cooking. Levy felt like he was exposed for a moment, and had to find out who that person really was.

"Was that the Mr. Han guy you mentioned before?" Levy asked telepathically in a whisper. This was the first time it seemed like he was on his guard against someone.

"He's not some "guy". He practically raised me." Ayanda answered back in his mind while leaving Levy out. Now that Mr. Han and Bright have seen him without asking a lot of questions, he figures he might as well let Levy be out when they're at home as much as possible.

"Do you know where he's from?" Levy asked telepathically in a serious tone.

"He said he used to be a research assistant from the north, but his home was attacked by bandits from the Banish Empire. They sold him as a slave to some noblemen who eventually had to flee the Banish Empire, but then warriors from The Dragon Province and the Phoenix Sect were able to kill all of them and free the slaves. Mr. Han was lucky to be one of the slaves who ended up becoming pretty famous here now." Ayanda recounted what he knew about Mr. Han. This story was well known by many who truly knew Mr. Han and were around during the dark days of the State Wars between the different factions.

"He seems evil. Like he was the master, never the slave." Levy wasn't willing to sugarcoat his comments even for Ayanda. He could tell that Mr. Han was far more sinister than he let on.

"Well what do you expect? As slaves, they were forced to obey cruel orders and even kill one another in desperation. Mr. Han said that there were things he had seen that traumatized him forever." Ayanda was annoyed by Levy's suggestion.

"Hey, when he's got you strapped to a torture table, don't come crying to me." Levy replied telepathically, choosing to limit anything else he wants to say for now, being worried about how much Mr. Han can truly perceive.

Ayanda prepares an entire full menu of a dinner, which Mr. Han does enjoy while ignoring to bring up Ayanda's reckless behavior before he left. Mr. Han barely even touches on the topic of what kind of companion beast Levy really is, which put Ayanda at great ease for the rest of the night. Mr. Han tells Ayanda that he's leaving for the rest of the night to finish up his administration for some test results, and directly leaves the house after eating.

Ayanda cleans up the kitchen then proceeds to his room, then takes out the sealed plastic envelope given to him by Professor Nhlanhla. The flap to open the plastic envelope is sealed tightly, so Ayanda has to cut open the envelope, but when he tries with a normal knife, he finds it impossible to even leave a mark on it.

"What the f**k?" Ayanda muttered under his breath. "Did I wear myself out earlier?" he worriedly thought, but instead tried a pair of scissors but the result was still the same. As Ayanda was becoming more frustrated, he decided to summon Sango to ask him about this plastic material.

"Do you know what this is?" Ayanda spared no pleasantries and interrogated him right off the bat.

"This is Spirit Wax envelope. Spirit Wax is a rare multipurpose raw material that comes from a Honeycomb Candle spirit beast. They're said to be used to seal in spiritual vitality and valuable information. Only people that have practiced spiritual sacred arts can open them." Sango answered Ayanda, since to him something as simple as a Spirit Wax candle was truly trivial.

"How can I open it?" Ayanda asked calmly.

"Circulate the God Blood Lightning Sacred Art and focus the vitality into the envelope." Sango replied.

Ayanda slowly circulated the vitality from the God Blood Lightning Sacred Art and let it flow into the envelope. The envelope instantly melted, revealing a strange set of thick papers. They felt like stone even though they looked no thicker than cardboard. What was even stranger was that the papers seemed to burn away the unsuspecting appearance of a copy, and now seemed like white metallic slabs filled with a strange kind of vitality. Ayanda stared into the slabs as they slowly began to swirl like pools of water in a pond, then reveal a mirage of cataclysmic visuals of a cosmic battle, which pull Ayanda's consciousness into it and he takes the form of a human slave. 

In this surreal vision, Ayanda is a slave to a cruel Daemon Lord who is aiming to s*******r his superiors, flashing quickly through this humans life in short lapses. He witnesses this Daemon Lord almost succeed, but he's killed by another Daemon Lord, a young woman who takes the slave in in order to teach him about the ways of the daemon, blacksmithing as well as a rare daemonic sacred art that she was attempting to pass onto humans. The only issue was that in this vision, the slave became demonized, which caused his body to break down and he died shortly after attempting to master the intermediate level of the daemonic sacred art. The young woman wept for his death, and sealed away her daemonic sacred art into those white metallic slabs, hoping they would never harm another human again.

"Such sorrow." Ayanda was able to resonate with the young Daemon Lord's pain, and for some reason, he could almost feel her anguish. Ayanda decided in a heartbeat that he will not allow her pain to continue, and Ayanda started to pull the vitality from the metallic slabs into his Soul Scape, along with the memories of the young woman. 

Levy was startled at the sudden rush of spiritual vitality rushing into Ayanda's Soul Scape, which was fluctuating with an eerie vibe that was completely different to any sacred art that's come into the Soul Scape.

"Oi, kid! Be careful that's a lot of daemonic energy you're bringing into your body!" Levy tried to yell out to Ayanda telepathically, but quickly felt that something was blocking his connection. But even without being able to communicate, the moment Levy saw a white sacred art cultivation base beginning to form, he knew that he had to focus all of his ability in circulating the daemonic vitality into the cultivation base so while Ayanda is focusing on drawing it into his Soul Scape.

"Hell Scroll Sacred Art." Ayanda heard the name of the sacred art from the Daemonic Lord as it entered his spirit and invigorate it with flames of countless daemonic beats who served her. It was as if he could call upon an apocalyptic army of monsters that will follow his will. Ayanda also felt that this sacred art now expanded his dexterity with weapons, as he suddenly could feel the shapes of numerous weapon hearts beating; spears, swords, dual blades, chains, axes, even throwing knives. Ayanda felt as if he could become a weapon master that can never be in any disadvantage in a fight.

Ayanda suddenly felt very agitated, like he was itching to take on a wild beast in order to let his blood cool down. His temperament hadn't changed, but he feel a hunger for something he couldn.t explain.

"Have I become a demon?" Ayanda asked himself, quickly summoning Sango to inspect the sacred art he's cultivating now. But who would have imagined that as soon as Sango came out, he instantly hid himself back into the ring, squealing like a piglet. All he could do was talk to Ayanda telepathically like Levy, but only when he is summoned.

"Why do you have the vitality of a daemon!?" Sango was petrified as he asked, fearing that Ayanda had become demonized, spelling a disastrous outcome for Sango right now.

"Relax, it's some spiritual sacred art I got from a professor at the academy." Ayanda quickly tried to quell Sango's distress by responding calmly through their link, "Why does daemonic vitality feel different to normal vitality?" Ayanda asked.

"Of course there's a difference! There's mortal, spiritual, daemonic, heavenly, and even divine vitality. humans are usually in the spectrum of simply mortal and spiritual, but you may actually be the first person to step into the daemonic ream!" as Sango was astonished in Ayanda, he couldn't help but ask himself where Ayanda came from. If he could have seen someone with such a physique coming into existence, he wouldn't have even bothered with finding mythical companion beasts; he would have possessed Ayanda when he was younger in order to cultivate his God Blood Lightning and merge it with daemonic sacred arts in order to have daemonic power. But such thoughts are useless as Ayanda has already gotten a fourth sacred art, something not he he may have even managed.

"So this vitality is unsuitable for humans? Then why can I use it?" Ayanda was beyond puzzled, as with this fourth sacred art, he's begun to wonder what will happen if he continuously absorbs various sacred arts that require different vitalities. Considering his current cultivation bases, Ayanda needed to sort them all out in head mind in order to see what vitality he needs to focus on the most.

"Levy." Ayanda summoned Levy who had been listening in on them. Since this issue relates to their sacred art cultivations, Ayanda had Levy looped into the conversation early.

"The ghost isn't lying. With Hell Scroll Sacred Art, your body now can circulate a third type of vitality. To be frank, I'm not sure how you've done it, but basically you have your Immortal Phoenix Sacred Art which is your mortal vitality, God Blood Lightning Sacred Art which is your spiritual, and the Taboo Slayer Sacred Art was your divine ace-up-your-sleeve. Now Hell Scroll Sacred Art has added daemonic vitality into the mix, which could be a good thing..." Levy trailed off as his telepathic deduction put everything in order for Ayanda. Levy himself was curious about something else though, "If this kid forms five different bases in order to use all the known vitalities, then... Bah! that would be impossible! He'd be a celestial being above the God's then!" Levy convinced himself to not speculate on this theory further. He had to come up with something to help Ayanda.

"Since you got this weird sacred art from that professor, why don't you get him to explain it?" Sango suggested. His mind had similar ideas to Levy, but he didn't have any rejection to the thoughts, "If this kid can... Maybe the God's won't be so happy when they see me again." Sango secretly thought to himself, hiding his feelings from Ayanda.

Although it's late at Dark Dragon Academy, Ayanda knows about a few of the faculty members who stay in other parts of the campus, so he heads over to the main staff living quarters for the teachers who remain on site. These quarters are very advanced and have much more strict protocols to follow compared to where Ayanda and Mr. Han live, but Ayanda hasn't felt as if he needed to stay there. Mr. Han has offered, but Ayanda has always felt more comfortable in a less restricted environment growing up.

Ayanda made his way towards the reception area and asked for Professor Nhlanhla's residence, as was directed by the watchmen to the professors residence. The professor stayed on the top floor of his own private floor, but this floor was also a gigantic library filled with Professor Nhlanhla's research throughout his life, he was willing to donate most of his works to institutions that provided him with further room for his work. There are thousands of scholars who wish to for a chance to work side by side with Professor Nhlanhla, but sadly nobody would understand that the professor is not comfortable working with students, and more importantly, Professor Nhlanhla is obsessed with his work. He becomes so fixated, that he used to go missing for semesters when he was initially hired, but once everyone became enthralled by his intelligence, they allowed him full freedom in schedule. His library is the backbone of the Theory and Research Department, which nurture's brilliant minds to improve their mental fortitude in order to become intellectual's who tackle the larger issues of the state.

At Professors Nhlanhla's floor, Ayanda wondered around for a while observing the different types of books and layout of the professors library. Ayanda wasn't exactly sure why, but he felt as if there was something strangely peculiar about Professor Nhlanhla's layout of the library. There was a feeling as if the entire space was hiding something within the space it was built. The Star Shadow Chimera's blood was resonating with something that triggered this feeling in Ayanda, but he wasn't adept in the space element, so he wouldn't be able to fully perceive what it is.

"Ayanda!" Professor Nhlanhla's voice magically rings out from behind a bookcase in near him. This startled Ayanda, who couldn't tell that the professor was there, but didn't react in an obvious way.

"Professor. That sacred art you handed me earlier..." Ayanda sounded guilty and worried about how to phrase his request. If he openly reveals that he has already absorbed the daemonic spiritual vitality, he's not really sure that Professor Nhlanhla won't lock him up in one of his labs.

Professor Nhlanhla puts his hand up to stop Ayanda from speaking as he has already gotten down from the ladder he used and is walking towards him.

"I can already tell that you've absorbed it. I'm very surprised that you were able to accomplish that, but my guess was right about you." Professor Nhlanhla remarked clairvoyantly as if he had read Ayanda's thoughts.

Ayanda was at a loss for a moment before the professor continued without missing a beat.

"Right now, your in the hypothesized state of a true daemon. Daemons are companion beasts that differ wildly from others since there are no such things as "wild" daemon beasts. All daemons are essentially reliant on daemonic vitality, which varies to some degree when it comes to level, but nonetheless remains the daemon's core energy." the professor calmly went into an elaboration that was setting up Ayanda's mind frame for his curiosity.

 "Now, since you're a "mortal" being in the sense who has attained a "daemonic" cultivation, there will be certain flaws you would have to train yourself to overcome. But if my guess is right, you already have the means to mitigate the likely shortcomings." Professor Nhlanhla stated plainly, leaving Ayanda speechless.

"I already have the means? How?" Ayanda asked.

"You're current sacred art cultivations would most like be of the mortal, spiritual, and between heavenly or divine. I wasn't sure if my guess was right, but the fact that you've absorbed the daemonic sacred art, it's confirmed the base of my suspicions." Professor Nhlanhla walked towards another bookshelf that had ancient scrolls to pull out an old article of his research.

Ayanda was startled by the professors insight. He was able to deduce that much from simply one test, that his handing over of the daemonic sacred art truly posed little risk, much less than what Ayanda had assumed. If Professor Nhlanhla wanted to do something harmful to Ayanda, he probably wouldn't have been so upfront, he practically exposed his whole plan as if it was a simple read.

Professor Nhlanhla turned around to hand over the scroll to Ayanda.

"This is old daemonic text. Hopefully it will be helpful in interpreting the full daemonic sacred art. Sadly, I was only able to find a way to transport the recording. Considering how the contents were meant for humans, I'm glad to see how far you can take Mohini's Amrita, the legacy of the first Daemon Lord who united Hell." the professor told Ayanda solemnly, giving him a deep stare.

Ayanda didn't exactly know about what an Amrita was, but as far as Professor Nhlanhla's words go, he understood what it meant to carry something like a Daemon Lord's legacy. Professor Nhlanhla briefly described his daemonic sacred art as an incomplete cultivation since it was almost lost by the daemons, but never absorbed by anyone else due to the fact that it was developed by Mohini, the Daemon Lord who Ayanda saw in his vision, to teach humans how to have their own daemonic vitality. Ayanda now feels that Mohini's intentions may have been to attempt to bridge two different worlds, but the only human she taught the sacred art to couldn't handle the daemonic vitality, so she gave up on the idea of allowing humans to absorb daemonic vitality. 

"You're body's state at the moment is reeling in from circulating daemonic vitality. Daemonic and spiritual vitality are highly similar in some ways, but in a simple comparison, they are like oil and water. Both are liquids, but their different properties allow them to only react in a certain way." Professor Nhlanhla stared at Ayanda with a glint of fire in his eyes, "But if someone were able to absorb both "liquids", they could probably alter the overall composition of the two naturally opposing vitalities, and instead merge the two into a fusion of unbridled spiritual vitality! One would posses the ability to ignite said liquid into a more immense energy to fuel sacred arts!" as the professor lost himself in ecstasy, he holds himself back from leaping for joy.

"Professor, my spiritual vitality is already low and I'm struggling to find ways to cultivate more. Isn't this daemonic sacred art going to make my need to spiritual vitality more aggressive?" Ayanda asked with serious concern as he didn't want to strain his body, or risk being demonized. Ayanda is starting to go back to his initial feeling that the professor may not think with much concern.

"Don't worry, once you study the daemonic text, you'll gain an understanding of daemonic cultures and daemonic vitality cultivation. As they were a different species to humans, demons have different stages of life. As a human, you will most likely need to complete a set of daemonic rites before you can improve your daemonic sacred art's level, and slowly store more daemonic vitality." Professor Nhlanhla explained, but now seemed to be preparing himself to leave by taking out a travel bag and a few strange jewel like beads from a jar on a desk. The beads emit a dense glow, as if they could explode at any moment, but Professor Nhlanhla casually tosses them into his pockets.

"You're leaving?" Ayanda was confused, the professor was preparing to leave as if he had anticipated Ayanda's visit.

"For now. You're success with Mohini's Amrita has made me wonder about heavenly and divine vitality. With your physique, it would only be a matter of time until you are ready for a sacred art that can help you absorb either vitality. Since I've always wanted to research both, I'll take some time off to look into some ruins in the north." Professor Nhlanhla checked for other small necessities and packs the book he had taken down earlier from the bookshelf.

"What, will you be safe?" Ayanda was concerned, but only felt like he needed to be reassured since he felt as if the professor could probably handle himself.

Professor Nhlanhla chuckled softly, "It's fine. I've got a few friends in Rapture's Army, so I won't have any issue's travelling." he stated, and then teleported away instantly.