Chapter 9.2 : Masochistic training methods (Patreon)

The Pits

–Magdaran Bael–

He sighed as he felt the strain of flying in the area, and dropped down on the ground, noting the slight slivers of holy energy that had seeped deep into the ground. Just a few years ago, it would have at least itched, but now? Now he didn’t even feel it.

The Pits were one of the most dangerous places in the Underworld for a regular devil, but they could also be a good training opportunity for the right devil. He didn’t even know it was possible to train against the holy light weakness that was hard coded in their DNA or soul.

Maybe it wasn't supposed to be possible, but now that the Big G was dead, and Michael was running the system, some bugs like these were commonplace. Just like the whole Balance Breaker thing that was never supposed to happen, or the Church slowly turning into a lawless, unethical, military machine that only saw the end result and nothing else.

Maybe the last bit was not Michael’s fault but the byproduct of inducting humans into their hierarchy. Humans were messy things, and as such, things like Valper Galilei creating the Holy Sword Project, something that, by definition, should have been impossible. Alas, human nature trumped all.

As he mused on all the information he had about the Church and its Ugly secrets it would love to hide, he reached the place. After all, the familiar tingle of holy light hitting his senses would bring anyone out of their thoughts.

This close, he could feel the light trying to burrow into his body, as if Demonic Energy was its sworn enemy. Something he hadn’t felt many times before. He supposed that the intent of the user had seeped into the Holy light, allowing it to act on the caster’s intent long after the battle was over.

A flex of his Demonic Energy was enough to erase the Holy Light around him, as he finally stepped over the ledge and looked at the sight of the battle. It was bright, unnaturally so. Even after centuries, this pace still held relics of that battle, full of Holy Light. Whatever the battle was, it would seem that the Holy Light user had come out on top, because there was no trace of Demonic Energy whatsoever.

Covering himself in his PoD, he stepped off the ledge and dropped straight down, landing on land that came alive with Holy Light and immediately began attacking him. Ignoring that, he began walking to the center, increasing the output of PoD as the concentration of Holy Light increased the closer he got to the center.

If one applied common sense, then a dangerous place like this, especially for devils, should have been long since sealed off and the area purged of Holy Light by the likes of Ajuka and Sirzechs. They could easily do it. If he could withstand it, they could take a day off and clear the entire Pits if they so wished, except the areas with the Dimensional Gap leaking over.

But even excluding those areas, clearing the rest would have been a huge help and removed a security risk for any unsuspecting devil who might stumble upon such a place accidentally and find himself performing a self-exorcism by the power of an Angel who was probably dead.

But nooo, the Pillar Devils were like, you can’t do that. The Demonic Beasts that came out of this place were a source of money for many businesses. Plus, no devil was unaware of the dangers of this place, so coming here by accident was out of the question. That left one other use that the Pillar Devils almost certainly made use of.

And that was getting rid of devils, silently. After all, many people ventured out into the Pits, some licensed, most not, and many of them do come back, but some don’t. Nobody cared to investigate the some who did not come back. A perfect way to get rid of people you don’t want alive, but can’t be bothered to do it yourself, in a way that could be traced back.

All in all, a place that should be regulated was not, and that was to his benefit. After all, where else would he get the experience necessary to nearly kill himself and come back stronger?

Wincing as he finally reached the center of the Holy hole, as he had taken to calling it, he finally sat down and began the arduous process of doing a balancing act that quite literally could decide his life and death in the middle of nowhere.

No one knew he was here and what he was doing, and most probably wouldn’t even care if he died here. Which was a sad thing to think of, but moving past that, he did the thing he came here to do.

He had covered himself in his PoD to make sure that the Holy Light did not reach him and poison him, a task that had grown increasingly harder the closer he was to the center, requiring a significant amount of energy to maintain.

The angel who did this was most definitely atleast a ten-wing or maybe even a twelve-wing. The Holy Light advantage allowed weaker angels to damage higher tier devils to a degree, so he couldn’t rule out an eight wing angel based on damage, but when he factored in the fact that this Holy Light remained here for centuries after?

Yeah, this was the work of an Archangel.

Bracing himself, he let a portion of the PoD armour he had donned shrink, and immediately, the Holy Light began its assault, trying to burrow into his skin. It was as if it were a parasite that knew how best to do its job. External damage could be healed much easier than internal damage. He let the Holy Light be there for a moment, trying to burrow its way past his skin.

He winced seeing the skin turn dark purple, then light purple, before he purged the light and closed the path for the Holy Light. Breathing a sigh of relief, he looked at the injured leg and began using the PoD in a different manner.

Outside his body, it acted as armour, doing its job of keeping the Holy Light at bay, and inside the armour, he concentrated on his power to heal himself. He had once tried to erase the concept of Holy Light, but that had drained him completely dry and left him in a very vulnerable state for days.

He had spent days hidden inside a crevice he had dug with his own hands, because he had been stupid enough to do something stupid with his measly Ultimate Class reserves. He learned from that incident, and since then, he has never tried erasing something as fundamental to the Big G's system as Holy Light.

The system might be throwing out bugs, but it was not dead yet. It would never allow for something that essential to be erased, conceptually.

So, he tried a different angle. He worked on erasing the concept of Holy Light Damage. That single word made all the difference, allowing him to use his power to heal himself. Maybe others could be healed as well, but he didn’t trust anyone to use it on.

Once again, a sad state to be in, but he would pick sad over dead any day.

After only a few seconds, his leg was back to normal, with the pale skin looking completely pristine. 

Being a devil meant his body slowly took the ideal shape in his mind, which meant no hair anywhere and pale skin. Not having hair anywhere on the body was nice, especially since it took into account his wishes, so he had a nice hairline, dense volume, but only on his head. If, in the future, he wished to have a glorious mustache, that would be arranged by his body as well.

No wonder devils were vain creatures.

After enough time had passed, he repeated the process, with the hope that one day, he would not be affected by the Holy Light of this place, so he could move to the show stopper, the one place where life thrived in the Pits. The last time he tried to map the route to that place, he was stopped by the Holy Light miles away. Even looking at the distant light had been damaging enough.

He was pretty sure that the Big G was responsible for that, and maybe the Dimensional Gap in some way. 

I can’t wait to find out!