Garden Of The Abyss

There was only one, inevitable outcome that could await such a meeting of two opposing forces.

It feinted a retaliation, going in for a swing before sidestepping around Ren--dashing past him as it retrieved its previously discarded axe.

"Oh? Do you think that will turn the tides back in your favor? Be my guest."

A swing of the three-meter long axe, riddled with spikes at the edge of the blade, failed to hit its target as Ren simply stepped to the side, allowing the weapon to crash into the cobble below. Pressing his foot down on the blunt side of the war-axe, Ren lodged it into the ground, holding his persistent smile that brought an air of utter superiority.

"Allow me to show you what makes me the sole being worthy of honor. It is the transcendence of human emotions, the authority to bend them to my will, to nullify and to amplify--that is "Heaven". Witness it, complete and utter despair."

A simple snap of his fingers flipped a switch on Asterius' brain, sending the beast into a frozen haze as his eyes stared a thousand yards away.

Invoked with despair brought to heights beyond normal comprehension, the beast drooled from the mouth, letting out a continuous groan as it was left in a trance of horror.

Trapped in its own mind, witnessing whatever atrocities to the mind Ren had conjured into it, tufts of fur shed from its body, some of which grew white from the immense stress.

Another snap relieved the minotaur from the mindscape prison he had been locked in. Seeing the dumbfounded expression plastered on the beast's face as saliva continued to drip from its mouth, Ren let out a chuckle that crescendoed into boisterous laughter, overcome with hedonism with the new power he held.

"Are you angered by my actions? It is only natural to envy the strong, is it not? You may scorn my strength all you'd like, but know that this is a privilege earned by being the sole honored one in this world of impurities. It is my strength and mine alone, cultivated by none other except myself--which is why, I have every right to do with it as I please. If I wish to burn you, I shall burn you, if I wish to rend your flesh, I shall rend your flesh, all of this is in accordance to my pleasure and displeasure."

As he spoke so fervently of his own status, Ren's eyebrow twitched, gripping his own hair for a moment before taking a deep breath. For a moment, a look of disgusted horror overtook his expression before returning to his previous smile.

Facing such an arduous situation, the minotaur let out a world-shaking cry, roaring out into the labyrinth as his deep, bellowing voice carried out through every crevice of the expansive dungeon.

"Huh? Was that an attempt to scare me...Wait, I see!"

Ren turned away from Asterius for a moment, honing his sense of hearing as the sound of dozens of footsteps met his ears, coming from all directions. Stretching almost ear-to-ear, the smile he held stepped beyond benevolence or frivolity--it was pure sadism.

"Calling for reinforcements? I'm ready!"

The thick branches that acted as a ceiling for the grim labyrinth retreated, giving room for whatever was coming to enter the domain of Asterius. Raising his arms as if welcoming the approaching monsters, multiple, thundering clomps rumbled through the ground caused a slight widening of Ren's gilded eyes.

"...You didn't hold back, did you? Bringing in the big guns, I see."

Side-to-side, he cracked his neck, looking back to notice Asterius had disappeared in his moment of distraction. Before he could pursue the man-beast, the creatures summoned by its rallying crawl began to set into the wide-spanning throne room.

It took only a single swipe of his divine eyes across the room to count every creature that poured in, yet even that wasn't sufficient as they never seemed to stop growing in number. Arachnids of varying sizes, some holding brown fuz, some baring just their slick, black armor, these oversized spiders made their way in from above.

The source of the massive steps that made the ground jump under their weight became known as giant, pudgy humanoids wielding primitive weapons set in. From their facial features, they somewhat resembled goblins but possessed stone-like gray skin.

"I guess I'll have to level the playing field a bit."

Pressing both of his palms together, Ren allowed a prolonged breath to travel to his lungs, briefly shutting his eyes before parting them once more to reveal his ethereal gaze.

"I am Ajita, heed me as the honored one of the Lotus Sutra. Come, Vajraparamita! Come, Fugen! Come, Jizo!"

For a moment in time, all had stopped, only the words that emitted from the heavenly lips of the enlightened man were heard. Following his call, mystical energy unlike mana sprouted forth from him, rising into a pillar of radiant gold, crimson, and verdant.

The mass of divine energy split, forming into the shapes of colossal beings, each possessing an extra set of arms that remained in a praying and meditative form. They remained bound together, back-to-back to form a three-sided sentinel, looking down upon the approaching fiends with their unchanging expressions.

As the energy settled, the ethereal beings took on a form that stood between physical and energy, manifesting as heavenly spirits as they began to slowly move, the sound of massive quantities of metal moving as their statue-like bodies prepared to attack.

A simple pointing of the golden spirit's palm, Vajraparamita, evoked an invisible force that sent forward a pressure, crushing the approaching arachnids into condensed balls of natural armor as their verdant blood spewed out. The dirty stone beneath the attack's radius had been decimated, crushed into dust as nothing was left in the path of Vajraparamita's palm.

Witnessing the futility of the arachnid's attempt to harm him, Ren released another howl of laughter, watching as another of his conjured sentinels swiped its arm through a group of goblins, bisecting them as if they were insects.

Each time the tri-sided colossal spirit moved their many arms, death followed, freeing the monsters from life. Air gave way to the honored limbs, parting space to allow for movements that surpassed the boundaries of reason. Speed itself became but a simple concept, so easily unraveled by the heavenly spirits as the very intent for them to bestow harm was enough to secure it into destiny.

Leaving the summoned spirits shackled to the spot of summoning, Ren leaped into the air, falling towards a group of the giant gray-skinned monsters. As heavy-set as they looked, the oversized monsters definitely weren't all fat as he had thought at first glance. Beyond the many rolls of blubber that protected their sensitivities, rock-solid muscle lined their physique.

Opening their mouths, rows of decayed, cavity-filled, black teeth filled their gums as a putrid stench of tainted garlic and mildew emitted from their crevices of consumption. Teeth weren't the only things decrepit about their bodies, as many infected scabs crawled across their skin, which now he questioned if it was naturally of a gray complexion or it became that way from decomposition.

"So slow."

Their reactions and the movements that came from those insights all came at a snail's pace compared to his own swiftness, lashing out with a swipe of his hand, pointing his fingers out like a blade.

For a moment, he had forgotten how weak other creatures within this hellscape were compared to Asteirus, as that singular movement of his hand erupted the towering, blubbers-formed creature's flesh, exploding out from its torso.