Aron watched Hela's actions without a word.
Belath, Lord of Limbo, didn't want to believe what he was seeing, but the truth was unavoidable. Even Hela, the Lady of Hell herself, was now standing behind Aron. She was subordinate to him.
"You…" Belath spoke through clenched teeth. "It seems I truly underestimated you."
With a steady, heavy motion, he rose from the ground. He looked at his bleeding wings, then without hesitation, grabbed the right one and tore it out.
The asymmetry of his demonic body disappeared, and now his wings were balanced.
Aron tilted his head slightly. Even he was uncomfortable watching.
"Maybe… even I have limits when it comes to pain," he murmured.
Belath approached.
His massive, heavily wounded body still radiated threat. But there was no more strength in his posture, only the stubbornness of survival.
"I can give you power," he said. "But you and Hela must sign a soul contract with me. Without that, I cannot trust you."
He opened his palm. In it appeared a contract, not an ordinary demonic scroll, but a dense piece of parchment infused with magic, made from a mysterious substance, older than hell itself.
"Sign it," he said. "Give me your word. And you will get all the power you seek."
Aron smiled. Without a hint of doubt, he reached out and accepted the contract.
Belath felt a moment of relief. The tension dropped from his shoulders. Maybe, maybe this wasn't the end after all.
But at that very moment—
Click.
A black blade, dark as tar, pierced through the back of his head and exited through his mouth.
Shock.
In silence, blood dripped.
Hela.
She stood behind him, cold and precise. She had used the moment of his carelessness and pierced his skull.
"You…"
Belath's eyes were wide open.
He looked at the blade that had pierced his jaw.
Then he looked at Aron.
That look… was a question without words. Betrayal?
Aron looked him straight in the eyes.
"Didn't you say yourself… If I kill you, your energy will be mine?"
In his eyes, a challenge sparked. He returned his own words to him.
Behind them, Hela gently pulled her Night Sky Sword, quietly sliding the blade out of Belath's head. Blood gushed like a fountain.
"AAAAARGH!!"
Belath finally let out a scream of pain, his legs giving way. He was losing consciousness.
"I… Belath…" he murmured through his teeth. "Lord of Hell… a thousand years…"
Through the fog of death, he tried to gather the last of his strength. He reached out toward the darkness, exhaling with the last atoms of will.
"Mordo!"
His voice echoed from the depths of his soul.
"I curse you! You will die! And there won't be a land dark enough to take your body!"
The scream was a curse, an ancient spell of the hellish lords, spoken with his final breath.
But Aron didn't even blink.
He approached Belath, bent down, and whispered right into his ear.
"I'm sorry… but my name's not Mordo."
Silence.
Belath's eyes widened and then closed forever.
His massive demonic body collapsed with a dull thud. There was no twitch. No movement. Only silence.
In the next moment, a dark aura began to surge from the corpse.
Power.
Might.
The soul of the Lord of Hell was releasing from his decaying body.
Aron, without hesitation, raised his hand. The aura surged toward him, dark forces, demonic energy, hellish flames, all pouring into his body.
Absorption had begun.
And only then… a smile appeared on his lips.
"Darling? What are you doing?"
Hela looked suspiciously at the scene in front of her.
In her eyes, Aron looked like a freak standing over Belath's corpse with his hand raised, his face bearing an expression of pure satisfaction.
"You…"
Aron wanted to ask: Can't you see this energy?
But he quickly realized...
It seemed that none of them, from beginning to end, had paid attention to what was happening with the demons' corpses.
Those warriors from the underworld, who fought alongside him, just killed and moved on – they didn't stop nor did they notice the demonic energy that was being released after death.
"Is it possible that… they don't have demonic power in them, so they can't even sense it?"
He gave himself the answer.
But soon he stopped.
Something was wrong.
It made sense for ordinary warriors, but Hela? She was the Lady of Death. If anyone could sense demonic aura, it was her.
"Hela?"
"When people die… where does their energy go?" Aron asked as he continued to absorb Belath's power.
Hela looked at him suspiciously.
As if his forehead said: Don't you know that?
"Where else would it go?"
"It returns to the Origin Dimension," she answered indifferently.
At the very moment she said that, Aron finished absorbing Belath's energy.
[Ding!]
[Abnormal energy detected]
[System successfully completed purification]
At that moment, a wave of power shot through his body like a rocket.
Cosmic level?
Breached in a fraction of a second!
"Hm!?"
Hela's eyes suddenly turned toward him.
She stared without blinking, as if she was seeing something that shouldn't exist.
"Darling?"
Under her gaze, Aron's aura exploded – growing, rising above everything known.
A moment later… he had reached a level that could be called Subcelestial Father!
"This feeling…"
When he opened his eyes again, he felt his body brimming with energy.
As if with a single blow he could destroy an entire planet beneath him.
But Aron immediately stopped.
He knew it was an illusion, a false sensation caused by a sudden surge of power.
He remembered Baron Strucker, the man from Hydra, who arrogantly exalted himself after receiving a fragment of power. That's how he looked back then – inflated and weak.
"So… this is what it feels like to step one foot into Celestial Father."
He looked at his hands, feeling the energy circulating, pulsing.
Although he couldn't truly destroy a planet like the Celestials, an opponent like Belath...
...he could shatter a mountain or redirect a river without trouble.
"No wonder Belath couldn't look me straight in the eyes."
A smile appeared on his face.
The power he felt… was something he never wanted to give up.
Even he himself now couldn't imagine going back to his former strength.
Cosmic level? Now that seemed laughable.
"Darling?"
"Are you now… a step away from Celestial Father?"
Hela still looked confused.
She couldn't understand what had just happened.
Without any warning, without any ritual…
Aron just stood over the corpse and suddenly – boom.
"Wait…"
"Did you… just now place your hand on his body?"
She began to understand. She connected the pieces of the puzzle.
"Exactly," said Aron calmly.
"I absorbed Belath's power."
He had no need to hide it.
Anyone smart would have figured it out anyway.
"But… isn't energy supposed to return to the Source after death?"
Hela still had questions, but she kept them to herself.
Everyone has their secrets.
And Aron… now that he's stronger, he's still useful to her.
More power – more possibilities for war, conquest, domination.
"..."
Seeing that Hela no longer questioned him, Aron felt no need to explain.
But inside... he was thinking.
The Ancient One had told him earlier that the energy in his body was pure, almost identical to the original energy of the dimension.
So he wondered...
Could I absorb energy because… I am, in and of myself, the source of a dimension?
–––
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