The Broken Halo

[A/N: This bonus Chapter is once again thanks to PettyEnigma. Thanks a lot man.]

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The next beat of Simon’s Forged Heart sent power through places his old circulation had struggled to reach.

His fingers closed.

The movement felt almost weightless, but the strength behind it was not. His tendons drew tight beneath the Chaos Wraps, and he carefully relaxed his hand before testing anything else.

He had reached his physical limit as an Archfiend. Now, that limit was gone.

The breakthrough had strengthened his body, and he could still feel room for further growth.

’Comparable to a talented Half-Step Demon King.’

The judgement came slowly.

Not a Demon King.

Even after everything he had done, he would not confuse those two levels. The difference between Demon Lords and Demon Kings was too great. His present flesh had not crossed it.

Perhaps a Prime Forged Heart would give him enough physical strength to contend with a Minor Demon King.

If not, then Superior.

For now, that remained a possibility to test, not a victory to claim.

His demonic energy was another matter.

Simon followed a current of demonic energy through the seven patterns inside his heart.

It was denser than before, carrying far more force without needing a larger stream. There was also vastly more of it moving through him. His new heart did not merely tolerate a greater supply. It maintained that supply without the strain his old flesh would have suffered.

”That is ridiculous.”

By his estimate, both its quantity and quality exceeded a Minor Demon King’s.

No.

Even an average Supreme Demon King’s demonic energy fell below what he could now feel inside himself.

His crimson eyes narrowed.

A vast store of power did not mean his body could release all of it in one attack. His flesh remained a limit on what he could bring to bear at once.

But that was still an extraordinary problem to have.

Simon stood.

His aura settled over the surrounding stone, quieter than the pressure of his bloodlines alone, but heavier. Loose dust slid away from his feet.

Then his feet left the ground.

Demonic energy gathered beneath him and carried him upward.

Simon looked down.

One of the reasons why Greater Demons were more powerful and different compared to Archfiends is because they could interact with the demonic energy in their surroundings more directly. Flight was one use. Most did not bother demonstrating the finer applications against Archfiends and weaker demons when a blow or an elemental attack would end the fight sooner.

But learning that control normally took time.

Simon had barely reached for it, but the demonic energy in the air was already approaching him.

It gathered along his fingers before he completed the intention to draw it closer, accepting his influence with startling ease.

His small, dense Chaos Flame pulsed.

The surrounding energy answered.

As he looked at the demonic energy gathered around his fingers, he knew why the demonic energy was responding so readily to him.

He was now a True Daemon carrying two powerful lineages in his body, and his Chaos Flame had changed after coming in contact with the Chaos Wraps and Chaos Blade.

He pointed toward a drifting piece of stone.

Wind turned it over immediately. A crimson spark followed the movement, then vanished before touching the rock.

There was now less preparation and less resistance whenever he used his elements.

His Chaos reached into the surrounding energy as though finding a limb he had not known he possessed.

Simon almost smiled again.

Then something within his heart changed and his expression changed.

He lowered himself immediately.

The unfinished edge of Gluttony had begun losing its definition. Beside it, a pale-gold section of Greed flickered, disappeared, then returned less clearly.

Lilith released a soft sigh, then Simon looked at her

”You cannot hold them like that indefinitely. Complete them soon, or let them go and take the easier and safer path.”

Simon remained silent.

The remaining tribulation lightning crawled through the basin. Above it, the enormous dark clouds continued turning.

He had more power now, but not enough time to understand all of it.

He decided to ask one of the questions that had been in his mind for some time now.

”If I form another seed after it arrives,” he asked, ”will it become stronger?”

Lilith turned fully toward him.

For a moment, she simply stared.

”Is that what’s on your mind?”

Simon calmly looked at her.

”Will it?”

”Yes.”

His expression sharpened.

”But not immediately,” she continued. ”More strength takes time to accumulate here.”

Simon looked toward the clouds.

”The seeds provide a passage?”

Lilith’s eyes narrowed slightly.

”Yes. Their formation creates channels through which it can descend into this realm. More seeds in a Daemon gives it more of a passage for its power.”

She paused.

”And a Daemon possessing several seeds represents a greater danger to it.”

Simon absorbed that distinction.

More strength for the thing coming after him.

But not all at once.

There might be an interval in which his new power was complete and its answer was not.

”Was it safe to tell me that?”

”No.”

He looked back at her.

”It will narrow the search a little faster,” Lilith said. ”But you have already decided to complete them. That much secrecy will not save us now.”

Her expression became more solemn.

”Do not mistake understanding the delay for being able to use it. Forming two natural seeds so quickly was extraordinary. A third will not necessarily answer simply because you want it.”

Simon said nothing.

”The more seeds you possess, the harder others become to sense and form. You would also be attempting that while something is trying to kill you.”

A faint smile appeared.

”Then it should make certain it kills me quickly.”

Lilith’s face did not soften.

He glanced at the exposed cube beneath his sternum. Its nine currents remained steady.

”I would have preferred more time,” he admitted. ”To understand this body. Test what it can withstand. Prepare something better than a guess.”

”And yet?”

”And yet this is the time I have.”

Simon sat again.

He had delayed Gluttony because Devour would complete it.

Now, it was time for him to let it run free and devour the tribulation around him.

”Watch the sky.”

”That’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”

Simon closed his eyes.

Devour

Blackness spread between his fingers.

The crimson streams around him bent inward. Power that had resisted his careful purification began unravelling far more quickly beneath the familiar hunger.

Gluttony’s unfinished edge darkened.

Simon did not stop it.

He directed the usable power into his Chaos Flame, then through the seven interwoven patterns of his Forged Heart.

There was no flesh left to replace.

Now he had to strengthen the living crystal he had made.

Elemental Chaos pressed deeper through its structure. The fine silver boundaries between its layers brightened, carrying denser currents of demonic energy without letting one section develop ahead of the others.

The heart contracted.

Its walls held.

He drew more.

The cube distributed the returning force through his body. His wings stretched as their roots received a stronger supply.

Inside the heart, Gluttony approached completion faster than the refinement.

Simon reduced the speed of Devour, but not enough to stop either process.

Enough to keep one from finishing too soon.

He turned the rest of his attention toward Greed.

Freedom.

Power.

A life that could not be spent by somebody stronger merely because they found it convenient.

He had already understood what he wanted.

Now he stopped holding that understanding away from the seed.

’I have paid for this body.’

The pale-gold outline sharpened.

’I’m not finished deciding what to do with it.’

Outside, the lightning gathered around him in tightening coils.

Lilith watched its reflections move across his four horns.

His shoulders trembled once.

The crystalline heart was carrying more pressure with every cycle, but none of the joins separated. He had forged it in one uninterrupted process. Now that work held beneath the demand being placed upon it.

Simon increased Devour again.

The surrounding lightning thinned.

Gluttony’s last uncertain edge drew inward.

Greed’s pale-gold surface brightened.

A familiar rejection passed between them, stronger than before.

Simon held his Will around both without forcing their natures together.

Neither would be permitted to interrupt the heart sustaining them.

The black crystal contracted more deeply.

A heavier pulse gathered around the smaller Chaos Flame.

Simon felt the threshold.

He gave the heart the power it required.

BADUM!

The next contraction belonged to a Prime Forged Heart.

At that same beat, the final uncertainty vanished from both seeds.

Gluttony became a complete dark grain.

Greed settled beside it, pale gold and unmistakably solid.

Their rejection struck through Simon’s chest.

He braced it with his Will.

The heart kept beating.

A Prime Greater Demon.

Two completed Seeds of Sin.

All three changes had arrived together.

Simon released a slow breath.

Lilith looked upward.

One second passed.

Then another.

RUMBLE!

The sound came from above, but the ground answered it from beneath.

Simon opened his eyes.

The remaining crimson lightning lost its red glow.

Deep amethyst light spread across the clouds, the stone, the silver undersides of his wings.

It did not fall from anywhere.

It was simply there.

Beyond the basin, the distant horizon changed with it.

The world had turned violet.