“So, back to the main course?” Ben taunted, trying to keep the focus on him while at the same time, Abel dropped her hominid form to wrap the demon and secure him to the ground with her flesh. “Just couldn’t resist the succulent meal before you compared to the finger food?” “Doesn’t exactly matter in the end, I suppose,” he said back, able to break Abel’s hold on the ground below but not get her off of him. “This entire world’s going to be on my plate soon enough, what’s it matter where I start?” Newest update provıded by 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱 “Fair, but you know what? While I’ve got you, I’ve got a little question for you. What’s the end goal?” “I’m afraid I’m not quite sure what you mean,” he said as his body combusted, attempting to burn Abel away but failing entirely for the protection of her own armour just under her skin. “And I must say, I enjoy your work significantly less when someone else is using it.” “Ha, yeah, I’m not really a fan of having to go up against my own products either but what I mean is, you’re going to become a god for all of this.” “The most powerful god,” he clarified as he gave up on getting the girl off him in the moment in favour of a surprise attack, forcing Ben to jump up high in the air and hold himself there as worm-like structures with powerful, carnivorous jaws came bursting out from below his feet, the demon using Foast’s skill to grow parts of the shifter’s body through the ground to attack. “And yeah, I can almost get that but there’s one problem. Actually, a significant problem I’m hoping you can help me with,” Ben said, already knowing the other man couldn’t give him a satisfying answer but still wanting to ask in the hopes of what psychological effects would come of it, with the other playing along. “You demons have a single god.” “There’s never been another worthy of worship until now.” “But see, that’s the thing. Actually stop and think about that for a moment and you’re going to know that’s not true. You’ve got Foast’s memories, since you pretended to know us to try and lull us into a false sense of security when we ran into you, that much is clear so you must also know a few different facts about this world and its history. Even pre–system worlds occasionally had individuals who rose to godhood. The person you stole even specifically worshiped one who accomplished that.” “Saying I stole this doesn’t exactly seem fair,” he pointed out as he changed tactics, using what levels of air magic he held to create a high-pitched shriek, finally driving Abel off of him as her more sensitive senses left her to suffer for it. “He tried to take my soul and he lost. It's as simple as that.” “You know what? Maybe that’s even fair but that’s not the point here. Your people have Oaun and Oaun alone but you’ve also had the majority of planets in the galaxy for thousands of years at this point and if we go back before your people had the majority, you’ve still likely had thousands of worlds for tens of thousands of years. The math doesn’t work out, you should be able to see that. The demons should have dozens, maybe even hundreds of gods of their own at this point so where are all of them and why do you think you’ll escape their same fate?” A question that managed to get a reaction, forcing the other to freeze for the effect it had and letting both Abel and Ben get attacks in, the first jumping forward to eat the man’s head while Ben materialized saws to cut through his legs, with both growing back before either could do more and watching as he started taking steps forward. “You’re right, that is strange,” he acknowledged, his arms turning into long blades to try and swipe at Ben while battering away Abel despite her repeated attempts to slowly eat away at him. “There should be more, which means there must be something stopping us from reaching that height or getting rid of us after.” “Then you know it can only be one thing,” he tried, feeling his stomach drop as the conversation failed to go the way he’d hoped. “Yes, it would appear the god I worship has been killing us to avoid the competition,” he concluded far too easily. “But that doesn’t matter. If he’s going to kill me, then after I’m done consuming this world and eating your gods, I’ll go and feast on him too. Only one power is needed among the stars, and it’s mine.” Oh, exceptionally not good! One of the few things beyond violence, hunger, and bloodlust he’d seen in the minds of the sapient demons was a devotion to their deity, bred into them like so many other races in the world and had left Ben hoping the revealed betrayal would have had a greater impact but he was wrong. Either the thing’s demonic nature made it easier to deal with, its god being nothing compared to its own well being, or else it was the fact that it was no longer thinking with a demon brain, letting it bypass what sense of betrayal such a revelation demanded thanks to its new, alien state. And it also just let it slip that it is, in fact, thinking about eating the gods. Fuck! Okay, no, this is fine. Fifteen more minutes at the absolute latest but it should be sooner, we just need to hold out until then. Which was easier said than done. While Thera had created the largest barrier she’d been able to at the time using all of the free space they had, room was still limited and they were going to be just as trapped as it for that time, creating opportunities that only a shapeshifter could take advantage of as its flesh grew out and thin, violent spikes sprouting with it, creating gaps in the armour, just as it had been designed as the demon took the largest form it was able, its gargantuan flesh filling most of their free space and dripping noxious fluids and forcing him to call out. While she was maintaining the barrier around them, that wasn’t like it was the only thing she could do and using the same application of magic she brought forth more sheets of mana, crushing them against Foast’s flesh and breaking each violent protrusion that grew through his armour, a temporary measure but one that had the satisfying effect of removing some of the man’s mass. And even if we might be nowhere near that point yet, if we keep chipping away at his exposed areas, then eventually, he’ll need to shrink down. With the only problem being until then, he’d just made the space far tighter for them all, only needing to be able to roll over to at least take Ben’s life and driving forward a new attack of his own to prevent it. He understood why the demon went with spikes, they were violent and by combining them with its size and the confined space, they could be devastating. All it needed to do was find a way to construct them that Thera couldn’t break through and Ben’s odds in particular would become far worse, but there was a weakness to that method too, one which he could exploit. Thera, drop it! He yelled in his thoughts, feeling her release her attacking barrier and timed it with his own magic, creating pins of metal, enchanted and further strengthened with his mana as he guided them through the air and into the hundreds of stumps the demon hadn’t yet been able to regrow, taking advantage of the holes left in the armour for their existence to burrow through the arrangements of bone, chitin, and whatever other attempts it had made to settle in its flesh and muscle below, leaving the demon to scream as they started to work. “You! What have you done!” “Gotten creative,” he grinned. “Hard to put the sort of enchantments I needed on pins like that and harder still to put enough power in them but it looks like it was worth it. How does it feel having your flesh pulled and broken apart? You might have one of the best armours I could make, but I’m still the one who made it and trust me, I’ve already imagined all of its weaknesses.” Three enchanted effects spread across the various needles and were all simple in their goal. What had been Foast’s flesh froze, burned, and more significant of all, petrified. Not enough to turn him entirely to stone, that would have ruined Ben’s plans, but it was a big enough effect to spread beyond merely what each pin directly touched and when petrification met both the intense heat and frozen flesh it created the exact result he wanted, causing the extreme temperatures to make the created stone crack and crumble. Instantly the demon was reacting, ripping the pins out of himself and trying to shoot them back, Ben’s magic turning them to dust and destroying the enchantments they held before any harm could be done with them while Foast was left to deal with the outcome. Ben might not have been certain how good the man’s temperature resistance was going to be, Foast held enough forms that it was likely two of those attacks wouldn’t leave lasting damage, but the small points of petrification were different. Foast didn’t have the knowledge or skill to undo that bit of petrification and while he could likely shed that stone skin, until he could work it out, all of it would be trapped there in the armour. Like so much else, thanks to his skill, Foast had access to some earth magic meaning he’d be able to force that stone flesh out eventually but the armour Ben had made was designed to cling to him and that was exactly what it would do, pressing everything within it against the man’s flesh and held it in place, not only acting as a distraction but a limit to how the demon would be able to shapeshift until it was all removed, blocking the design Ben had added to accommodate for Foast’s power by severely limiting where new horns or limbs or quills could grow. Meaning the only thing left is to use this distraction for all it’s worth. He could already feel it in the other’s mind, a knowledge of what had happened and a need to get rid of it, the demon thinking it wouldn’t fall for such a thing again yet being just distracted enough that Ben could be more brazen with connect, letting him re-estimate how long he was going to need.