Crunch!
FSSSH!
"Hmmm… another failure. Truly, my luck has not been great as of late." A voice resounds throughout the lab. While one would believe that it is simply stating clinical fact, most would notice the most sadistic undertone.
The scientist then stares into the tube and sees the writhing mass of flesh that could barely be considered a devil. All that could be heard were painful groans as it attempts to take individual breaths, each one sounding as if it was inhaling glass.
The scientist walks over to the misshapen beginning and takes out an injector. Being just continues to groan in pain as its eyes seemed so out of focus yet all of them focused.
"You know, when my father told me that you were one of the few that survived his test, I found it hard to believe… a low-class devil like yourself surviving so much pain and torment. It was the perfect birthday present. Like clay, I can mold whenever I want. Even after that bitch Kuroka killed him, I was still able to save his research… however, by this point, I believe your usefulness is coming to an end…" The devil in the lab coat just looked down at the broken being before him. However, seeing that he wasn't responding, frustration began to show on his face, and as he summoned demonic magic up, a barrage of lightning began to strike the creature.
"AHHH..Ahh.hhh!" Screams that could barely be differentiated from the wailing of a banshee echoed throughout the lab. The skin of the creature, looking not too dissimilar to a rancid corpse, bubbled and burned in blood.
"You will acknowledge what I tell you, creature. You should be honored that low-class scum like yourself is even allowed to take part in such important research..ahh yes, I am ever so close to discovering a way to enhance myself.. soon I, Rola Naberius, will take my place amongst the likes of the great Satans themselves… now I'm going to leave you for the day as I need to attend a wedding. It seems that the Phenex Heir is getting married. It makes me wonder how he came so close to losing that rating game. It is almost embarrassing on his part… but then I remind myself that creatures like you exist, and how us high-ranking, pure-bloods truly are the chosen devils. Even our mistakes grant us nothing but opportunity." The statement is met by nothing but silence and the shifting and smell of electrified flesh.
The man in the lab coat then leaves the lab, but not before injecting his specimen with one of his favorite chemical cocktails. The formula itself is meant to maximize pain on nearly every physical level. However, the creature just lays there, his body broken, and in his eyes you could see the faintest flicker of intelligence.
As the lab door is closed, the creature is left to writhe in pain as each of his veins is filled with liquid bile, as the substance that was injected contained holy water. His eyes felt like they were burning out of their sockets, and his skin felt as if he was being exposed to the sun.
Yet the creature could not scream, as the remnants of a mouth could barely utter pronounceable words.
The pitiful existence, one not entirely unknown, as this was not the first time it had experienced such agony. The creature without a name had lived previously another life. Another time. Yet in both lives, the only constant was never-ending agony.
In his first life, he was sold to drug dealers for money, and throughout his years from childhood to his death, all he knew was the bite of a needle and the never-ending pain and humiliation.
When he died due to an overdose, there was a flicker of hope. Yet again, as soon as he opened his eyes, he found himself being placed into the hands of the former Naberius heir to be taken for research to create super devils, but eventually, it just spiraled into sadistic torture.
His mouth had been sewn shut, not enough so that it could not scream in agony, but just so that it could never speak, as specimens do not need mouths.
However, in the creature's mind, it just wondered not on the why, as it stopped asking that a long time ago, but simply how long. Every day, a new torment. Every night, suffering from the after-effects.
The creature remembered. He remembered the experiments. He wasn't alone, but he lasted the longest. He remembered seeing a cat that would simply watch along. He could never see it, as his eyes could barely function, but he simply wondered what it thought as it watched.
Then came the day the cat killed the owner, yet the suffering did not cease. No, it merely intensified as the son of the original scientist took sick pleasure in making sure that the last remaining test subject lived its remaining days in never-ending pain.
While the creature did not understand much and remembered very little, it understood that it wasn't even an experiment anymore. It was just torture, as the son could not punish the cat, as the cat had left and never came back.
The only reprieve from the suffering came in the form of parties and balls. The creature wondered what they were and why they were so important… it didn't understand what a wedding was and why he needed to go… yet any reprieve from the pain was welcome.
As the remnant of a living being sizzled on the floor, he watched as the record recording sigils showed the wedding… sometimes the son… Rola, would show him these strange events as a reminder of something…
The pain never seemed to cease, and as the creature looked towards the doors, he noticed that it was slightly ajar for a few moments. It wondered if it was hallucinating. It wouldn't be the first time.
So out of curiosity, the flesh dragged itself across the floor. Every movement caused cracking sounds to emanate from the body, as if every movement rearranged or broke bones.
Although all that was left in terms of movement was a single hand jutting out of the flesh, and so it dragged itself towards the door ever so slowly, and while doing so it looked towards the wedding, and he saw what looked to be a large hallway with people dressed very weirdly…
By the time it had reached the door, the final thing he saw was what looked to be someone wearing a red glove bursting through a door. After that, it cut out. As the creature slowly moved its hand towards the door, it pulled it away.
And on the opposite side, he saw stairs leading upwards, and with every excruciatingly painful movement, it grasped whatever it could with its single hand. The grip so weak that even trying to grasp the stone stairs caused it to bleed.
Yet as it hobbled and wondered what would happen next… what would be beyond the stairs? It took what felt like hours to climb those stairs. And as it reached the top and pulled open the door, he saw what looked to be an endless expanse of nothing.
The fleshy creature then looked upwards, expecting to see something in the sky, but all it saw were endless dark clouds.
As it exited the secret lab, it crawled towards the nearest tree, which was dead, and as it did so, it flopped against the tree trunk and stared off into the distance, barely able to make out anything with its ruined eyes.
But before long, a cawing sound could be heard, and as the fleshy mass looked upwards, it saw a swarm of monstrous birds, and as the birds took notice of him, it wondered how such things could live here. Yet the question seemed to answer itself as the swarm of birds launched downward and began pecking and clawing, drawing blood as easily as knives cutting through butter.
All it could do was try to run, yet its fastest speed was less than that of a snail. And with the concoction still in its veins and the birds pecking away at what was left, it stopped as the scientist from before returned from the party.
"I wondered what tripped my alarms… I must be getting careless if I let such an ugly thing nearly escape my grasp… but to be honest, this kind of saves me the trouble of having to dispose of you. However, I am quite angry…" The scientist then slammed his foot down onto the remaining arm, shattering it in one blow.
The next day, he kicked what used to be the creature's face. The scientist only received a guttural scream. The smile etched on the scientist's face said volumes, as he simply enjoyed the pain and suffering he was dealing.
Finally, after there was barely anything left completely solid, he picked up what was left using his demonic power and floated it towards a nearby chasm. The fall itself wasn't what the scientist was expecting though. No, it was the demonic beasts that made their homes in such dark places.
"Well, specimen 627, I would say it was nice knowing you, but I would be lying, and after all of our time together, you can tell that I'm not a liar… now get your disgusting visage out of the underworld." The scientist then dropped the experiment. On impact, the remaining bones that were left somewhat together were crushed in their entirety.
And as the specimen was left at the bottom of the chasm, it heard a growling sound, and as it looked over in the distance, it saw a malformed animal. The specimen just looked at it before the demonic beast ran towards the specimen, and as it lifted what was left into its mouth, it closed and began to chew.
Bite after bite, excruciating agony after agony, the specimen was finally able to close its eyes for the last time…
(A Space Beyond Worlds)
When the specimen opened its eyes, it expected to see truly nothing to be honest. It did not care for rage. It did not care for sight or sounds. It just wanted it to be over.
Without even realizing it, it crawled into a fetal position and laid there on the ground. The space around it was an endless hallway of white… the specimen made no sound, as it was used to doing so. The less sound it made, the less likely the torture would continue, as the scientist would get bored…
It couldn't feel warm or cold. All it could feel was silence….
However, eventually, the specimen felt itself being pulled away, and after all of this time and two lives worth of suffering, it didn't even struggle… and in moments, what was once an empty area was now a blinding light… it was so bright that the specimen wanted to close its eyes, yet it was so afraid that it would never see such a thing again.
And what was once silence was now full of sound. Around the specimen, it could hear chirping and the roaring of very distant beasts. The ground felt soft. The specimen wondered where it was. It tried to move, yet the feeling was so foreign it found it difficult.
As it looked upwards, it saw that it was laying on something or someone… its vision was still blurry, yet it could make out a figure looking down at it.
The specimen then began to see what looked to be water on whatever was staring down at him… and wondered if it was simply dreaming and it had never left the lab… yet again, it felt itself being pulled, but not like something bound by a rope, but something being held within someone's hands. Yet there wasn't any pain…
It felt itself being pulled towards something, and instead of cold steel or rock, it found something soft and warm.
"I am so sorry…" The words were so foreign that the specimen didn't even react. It just didn't want to be pulled away…..
For a few moments, it just enjoyed the sounds and the warmth, until the specimen realized that they were moving very fast, until they came to an abrupt stop. In front of them stood a gargantuan structure, like something out of a fantasy series. The door itself was larger than anything the specimen had ever seen… the being holding the specimen simply walked towards it, and without even pushing on the door, it opened as if realizing something was there.
The being that held the specimen quickly rushed through the home and towards an outside patio, and from there, the specimen saw a second person, barely.
"Welcome hom-....What is this?" The question was not meant for the specimen, but the person holding it, yet it could barely understand what the two were saying, only bits and pieces.
"-I don't know who did this, but it's in pieces… who would-… it's gonna be OK… fix… sorry…" The words barely registered to the specimen as it was laid down on a table, wondering if it was going to be cut open again. Yet there weren't any knives, and as it felt something touch its face, a single eye looked up towards the one doing so.
The person then began mouthing towards the specimen, "We'll fix you… stay with us, please…" The specimen could not understand the point. What was fixing? But before it could even utter a sound, it fell asleep once more, wondering how long the tests will last today.
(The First Of Many POV)
I have lived for eons now, and after all of this time, I can officially say that very little can genuinely surprise me and very little can truly anger me… but what I am seeing now brings me so much rage that I could not even remember.
I looked towards my wife, her eyes slightly watery due to the tears… I watched as she placed a hand on whoever this was. His mind is fractured. His soul is broken… it's not gone, just filled with so many holes. It looked like someone took a machine gun to a block of cheese.
I watched as she looked towards me with pleading eyes, and as I placed my hand on his head, I saw his life from beginning to end—or in this case, lives. In mere moments, I lived his entire existence. I watched… and as I slightly lost control of my emotions, the area around us turned stormy and dark…
This… this was an affront to everything I stood for… ever since the beginning of my journey, I have made it my mission to make things better. Even if my fellow coworkers think of me as a bit of an annoyance, they still haven't forgiven me for unleashing that harem protagonist Jumper…. But the devil's in the details and all that.
I used my powers to begin fixing him as slowly as I could, but it was like trying to put together glass as a normal person. My wife, Li Suo, then began helping me, trying to fix what mortality had broken. With a thought, I could erase that entire universe, but instead, I looked towards the scientist that had done this, and with a snap of my fingers, I time-locked the entire timeline.
As much as I wanted to make every single person or devil involved suffer the worst agony, I wasn't the one that was going to deal the final blow… no, it belonged to him. I just needed to get him through this.
Emilio would not fail today… not this time.
(??? POV)
I like dreams… they were nice. I imagine myself enjoying an endless amount of food, sitting surrounded by faceless men and women, all of which watching me with smiles on their faces.
Their words were garbled, but I reached towards them and found them slipping away…. I then found myself back in the basement of that drug den in my first life, getting ready to be injected with another experimental drug.
I could feel the liquid fire in my veins… I wanted to scream, yet I had no mouth…. The scenery changes again and I'm back in the lab, with endless injections and chemical rituals tearing me apart and putting me back together again.
All I could hear was laughter… why was he laughing?
As he raises his hands and blasts me with more lightning, I simply lay down, and as it strikes me, I feel no pain. Then everything freezes and begins to crack. Surroundings fracturing like a broken mirror.
And as everything broke around me, I found myself in the last bit of solid ground before half of the structure gave way. As I used my one good hand to hold on, I heard voices all around me. Their words were indecipherable, yet warm.
"-go…. let-…. let go!" I heard the voices say, and with nothing left to lose, I let go and begin to fall and fall…. until I stop, and in front of me are three vials, all of which look nothing like what I've seen before.
I was afraid to even look at them, as it looked similar to the injections… yet as the surroundings blurred again, I found myself on that patio. However, as both looked down at me, my vision began to clear, and for the first time in so many years, I saw a face clearly.
There was no light, and there was no sound—just the three of us in an endless void… the man then picked me up—or at least what was left of me—and as he walked me towards the three potions, I wanted to say that I tried to resist, but I couldn't.
The man then took all three of the potions and put them together, and as the woman walked over, she placed her hands on the final potion and muttered some words that I couldn't hear, along with the man doing the same, all while smiling down at me.
The potion then shrunk, and as the man opened it, he began to pour it down my mouth, and while I couldn't taste it, it felt good… and with every gulp, I felt so sleepy… but I didn't want to fall asleep again… not all dreams are good… yet as the man took his hand and placed it over my eyes, I fell once more… yet this time, instead of darkness or light, I saw me.
I stood in front of a mirror, yet as I looked into it, I saw someone different from myself. He was taller and he had hair and yellow eyes, and he had no wings. I remember my devil wings. I thought that I might be able to fly away from the pain, yet they were soon cut off.
The man in the mirror looked at me with a smile and pulled me close until I knew nothing….
(The First Of Many POV)
Thankfully, the soul surgery was a success. Mostly. The rest is up to him now. I watch as my wife cradles the developing form of whoever this is. It's strange—even throughout his entire memory, I never even found a name. One of the few debasements I could never forgive. Everything deserves a name.
Yet it wasn't over. Not yet. And in a moment, I summoned some items from the treasury that I've made a long time ago.
As all of the items appeared in my hand, I beckoned that my wife should place him back down, and as she saw the items in my hand, her eyes widened. But then she smiled.
As she placed him down, I released the items from my hand, and as they floated above the body, all of them glowed with an ever-encompassing light that shone throughout the entire world. And one by one, they entered the soul of this new creation.
Each one etching themselves onto the fabric of his creation. However, one was missing, and as I tore open the fabric of reality, I visited a neighbor of mine.
"AMAZO, I am in need of your services…" The gargantuan machine then turned one of its eyes towards me, and in a moment, I felt it scan the entirety of my realm. Truly, this guy is one that is always seeking to learn.
"I understand… give me a moment." And as the machine lifted one of its gargantuan hands, quadrillions of nanomachines then began to form what looked to be a large AI circuit board. But then it began to shrink and shrink and shrink until it was barely the size of a small seed.
And as the chip was being created, it was infused with every magi-tech and mystical property that it could. It began to grow and evolve at such a rapid pace that in the few minutes it was being created, it had already studied a fraction of its own creation.
Upon completion, the chip was placed inside of an energy field and passed through the hole in reality.
"Once again, I am in awe of your creative process, AMAZO." The machine then simply turned away. However, even I could notice that it had placed its own safeguards within the AI chip.
"Any work I do is the best and nothing else, nor nothing less… now if you will excuse me, I am currently attempting to improve my own base design. This newest creation has inspired me." The cold and clinical tone, reminiscent of that of a machine, echoed throughout the large and continuous industrial realm. But as the machine looked at where the AI was going, you could see its brow beginning to furrow.
"You have my thanks, as always… good luck, my friend. And do not worry—I shall explain at the next great council." AMAZO simply turned away and closed the tear in reality.
As the AI chip floated above the developing soul, it began scanning every single orifice of physical and spiritual matter, continuously reconfiguring itself, until it flowed into the developing being, fused with its very soul.
Li Suo watched and waited, continuously using her life-granting powers to make the process as painless as possible. Yet as she saw the AI chip combine with the new being, I saw her beginning to think of something behind those kind eyes. It's what attracted me to her in the first place.
She smiled at me, and then barely a second later, I understood. And as we placed our hands close together, we combined our energies into a new being—a seed of a new Genesis Tree—and as we gave it to the broken soul, it began to slowly heal… the two of us then sat and watched the process for the next few days, barely speaking, yet with our minds utterly and completely focused.
Soon enough, the soul was then mostly knit back together and began to form a body. The decaying skin and disfigured organs fell away and dissipated into nothing, and all that was left was a perfectly crafted being.
There was one thing that couldn't be changed—that being the white hair, the stress of its existence weighing heavily on it. I placed my ear to his chest, and as I heard his heartbeat, I smiled along with my wife as we embraced each other on a job well done.
"What shall we do with him now, husband?" my wife whispered to me while holding me close.
"Now we give him companionship. Someone to aid him… I believe you know what to do." Li Suo then turned her head towards the great forest nearby, and as she outstretched her hand, an egg formed.
As I looked over the egg, I smiled and slightly chuckled at her choice. "A Kitsuné, huh? Well, I hope our new friend enjoys the company."
The egg was then placed inside the new being, allowing his energies to nourish the new creation.
And at this point, we have done all we can. Sadly, the boy cannot stay here. The energies of this realm would tear him apart. The only thing keeping him alive was the recreation process and the energies from his new artifacts.
I saw a single tear leave my wife's eyes, and as I wiped it away, I smiled at her more seriously than I had done in a long time.
"You have my word that I shall watch over him until he is ready… it is time to let him go." My wife nodded, albeit sadly, and as the body finished forming, it was soon sucked away into a portal that formed below it, returning him to his new realm. A divine child has been created today. And while I was slightly excited to see what would happen, I just genuinely hoped that what was created could find its own way.
(Essences Used: Cultivator, Overpowered Xianxia Protagonist, Home)
(So yeah another new snippet just one I couldn't get out of my head. I apologize for the lack of writing over the past couple of weeks as I am currently in the middle of the moving process. In addition to my shifts being long and very busy I have had little time to writein the next chapter. We are going to focus on our actual main character, exploring his new realm. Let it be known he has no idea what he can do and what he has. This is essentially his third life let me know what world he should go to first. Also, if you need physical, referencing to understand how bad the main character looked before his recreation reference Uma from the Witcher 3 but worse. This is however, slightly inspired by the user champion collector as he wanted a story where a DXD devil would become a human and while this isn't exactly that I think it's close enough. The essence descriptions will be in the next chapter. I hope you all have a good morning. Good evening and good night.)