Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
ONE WHO DEFIED
A cold sweat broke out in both the demon and angel. They didn't, nay, couldn't turn around even if they wanted to. The cause for all of the tension that was currently hanging deep in the center of the crater was all because of a singular man.
"So, I see my successor couldn't quite beat you, Mr. Demon."
GULP
The demon slowly inched towards the portal to hell that it had opened only a few seconds ago. It didn't want to even be on the same plane as him, much less right next to the mad-man.
Its dream of leaving the area was quickly shut down when the portal that was in the ground disappeared. The same situation unfolded before the angel as well, which had its exit blocked off by a sky full of chains.
"I want a rematch, set one up."
His words were simple, but what he actually wanted was something that didn't even resemble the shell of the word simple.
"Y-You . . . we fought a twenty year war, and casualties were suffered on both sides. That should be enough for all of us."
The angel finally dared to turn around and address the man before it. Although it once had a faint hope that the voice and pressure was just similar, the second it saw the chains blot out the sun, it realized the hope was but a fanciful dream.
Now that it was actually looking at the person, the truth was only confirmed even more. Before it stood a man that instilled a feeling of nervousness into even Satan and god themselves . . .
"Been a while since a person besides Dionysus here looked at me. Although, that's a whole different Dionysus. Now, how about that rematch?"
. . . the Chained King stood before the angel.
"You must be absolutely insane if you think you'll get close to the ultimate being, God."
The angel tried to sound confident, but its voice faltered before the Chained King. In fact, how could it not fail?
This was the man who single handedly forced hell and heaven to unite and fight him.
"I didn't ask to get close or anything, I asked for a rematch. In fact, if you're that afraid, I have an offer for you both!"
Although the Chained King seemed slightly disappointed at first, he quickly cheered up once he thought of a solution to the predicament.
At this point, even the demon had fully turned around and was acknowledging the Chained King's existence.
"W-What is this offer?"
Not only had the demon acknowledged the King's existence, it also talked to him.
"Let me explain it in full. First of all, let me explain why I'm here. My body has physically been absolutely obliterated after the final battle of the last war, so I'm residing as a soul within this ma-"
WHOOSH
The demon rushed at Dionysus' body like a starved beast.
'If I can get rid of the source of it all, I can put an end to th-"
SPLISH
Before the demon could cross even half the distance, its body blew up, sending many bits flying everywhere. The angel, which was also covered in blood, was both mortified and terrified.
"What an insane dumbass, right?"
The Chained King poked an elbow at the angel, which let out a forced laugh as to not face the exact fate that the demon was presented with.
'This . . . I thought he was only a soul? How could he have killed a demon?'
The angel was lost within the depths of its mind. It couldn't find an answer to any question.
Or, at least not any desirable answers.
"Anyhow, as I was saying, this young man is my host and successor. If he dies, I'll be forced back into the abyss. I, myself, can't really fight, as I don't have a physical body. I could attempt it, but I'd stand a better chance at humping a horse and not getting kicked away by it."
While saying all of this, the Chained King was acting all cheery and smiling all the time, which slightly creeped the angel out.
'It wasn't a lie, the mortal really did lose his mind.'
The angel had heard rumors that the Chained King truly had succumbed to the darkness and fell apart, but it didn't believe them as it itself remembered being on the frontlines and watching as anything that got close to him died.
"So, my successor will finish the war for me."
At these words, all the cheeriness and smiling disappeared, and the eyes of the Chained King peered straight through the angel and saw everything that it represented.
Even though it seemed that the Chained King was getting serious due to his change face wise, the angel couldn't take him seriously.
The reason for that was because he said, with a straight face, that a weakling that lost against a single demon would finish the war.
The angel lost all fear in its voice, and stepped forward. In its mind, it had already condemned the Chained King as insane and senile.
". . . You've become quite the dimw-"
SPLASH
"I don't need to take your shit, only Satan and God are worthy of even confronting me anyway."
After saying this, the Chained King, who stood at the center of the crater, looked up at the sky and cackled. With his back bent backwards and his body shaking, he cackled at the sky.
"After all, both you and Satan have probably already heard me anyway, right?!"
BOOM
Lighting struck the Chained King, who was slightly singed. However, more than he was singed, he was excited. The excitement could be seen on his face as he felt all the negative emotions build up from both heaven and hell.
'That's right, nobody in this corrupt universe is free of these emotions . . .'
He looked at Dionysus as he thought of this.
'Not even the future that I desire to protect.'
He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, and then again, and then again.
And then, with a grand shout . . .
"IN THREE YEARS, THE SECOND MATERIAL WAR WILL BEGIN!"
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
. . . and a lot of lightning . . .
. . . a second war was declared to begin soon.
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
"So, what'd you think of my performance?"
The Chained king was currently in the private realm that both him and Dionysus were bound to. He was back on his throne of chains, while Dionysus lied in front of him.
"AGHHHHH!"
Three chains had fully captured Dionysus, who was constantly screaming in pain. No matter how much time passed, Dionysus couldn't get over the pain that he was experiencing.
"Time here moves a hundred times faster than the material realm. While we won't physically age, we're cursed to continue living here instead. I suppose this can be considered a form of immortality, though a cruel one at that.."
The Chained King smiled at the true Dionysus, who still couldn't even acknowledge anything besides the pain. Afterwards, the Chained King sat on his throne and began to tug on his own chains that bound him to this dimension.
Lich, I summon you.
The Chained King waited for a while. At first, nothing was happening. After some time passed though . . .
WHISH
A portal opened, and the very lich that Dionysus never got to confront appeared. It stepped out from the portal, clad in full knight's armor. It took off its helmet and revealed its zombified flesh.
"You summoned me, my liege?"
He dropped onto one knee while saying this as to represent how deep his loyalty for the king went. Of course, he also made sure to lower his head.
"Organize a trial within the native tribes for Dionysus. It'll be a test of everything he has within him."
"Heh, of course my liege."
With a slight chuckle, the lich stood up and disappeared through the portal, which left right after him. The Chained king looked over at Dionysus and his partner, the silhouette.
"Hmm . . ."
The Chained King had a leash on the true Dionysus, and understood just how far his motives, powers, and so on went. However, no matter how much he inspected the silhouette that refused to leave his side, he couldn't find anything that concerned it besides Dionysus.
'What is the two's connection? Have they been linked somehow?'
It was, most definitely, an oddity for the Chained King to not know about something within the world. Yet, right before him stood a being that he couldn't decipher the meaning behind.
"Well, whatever."
The Chained King put his face in his hands, and abruptly fell asleep.
--- SEQUENCE 3 ---
"Is he stable yet?"
"Get the succubi, quickly."
It all felt blurry. It was painful, to say the least.
'Where the fuck . . . am I?'
Not only did it all feel blurry, it most definitely was all blurry. Dionysus couldn't make anything out except for a bright light that made him feel like going back to sleep.
COUGH COUGH
Dionysus coughed some blood out onto the side of the bed that he was currently lying in. Afterwards, he turned over in bed and went back to sleep.
Yet, not in time for one of the nurses to not notice.
"D-Doctor, did the patient just move . . .?"
She stared intently at Dionysus, who was currently turned over and snoring.
"We were told he was a resilient one. I don't know to what extent the lich meant, but expect him to heal faster than other patients."
The doctor continued to look through the papers on his desk while sitting behind it. Behind him lay a window in which the ocean spread out before it. The sun was currently setting, and it was quite a clear day, considering that there were no clouds.
"Ok"
The nurse listened to the doctor and left the room.
". . ."
The doctor stood up to also leave, but while walking by the bed that Dionysus lied in, he looked down at him. He analyzed the body of the young man that lay before him, and could see that he was recovering at a phenomenal pace.
'His inner organs are regenerating . . .'
This was something that no normal human could do. Usually, once an organ was destroyed, they either had to get a new one or just completely abandon it. Yet, not only was he getting a new one, but it was quite literally growing within him.
"Interesting."
With that, the doctor walked out of the room, leaving Dionysus to get all the sleep that he could ever desire.
--- SEQUENCE 4 ---
You've slept enough, awaken.
'Huh?'
Dionysus opened his eyes and saw a lot of darkness. He looked around, and it was still completely dark. However, as time passed and his eyes adjusted to it all, he realized that he was in a bed within a room.
"Is anyone there?"
He waited for around a minute or so, but a reply still didn't arrive. Coming to the conclusion that he was all alone in this room, he hopped out of bed and began to walk around.
'This is odd, why am I all alone within a room?'
The last thing that Dionysus remembered before blacking out would be him and the demon dive bombing the center of the capital they were in. After that, everything went dark.
'The amount of negativity wasn't nearly enough for me to survive the impact from that. Even if I did survive, I would, at the very least, have nearly everything within me broken, resulting in my death soon afterwards.'
Dionysus couldn't understand his current predicament. Not only was he not in the middle of a crater, like he thought he would be, he seemed to be in a location with almost nothing happening.
'Is this hell or something? Did I actually die?'
At this point, Dionysus was beginning to think that he actually had died and this was just him going through some memories, or something of the sort.
'Wait, there's a door.'
After wandering around the room for a bit, he finally realized there was a door next to his bed. He walked up to it and opened it, briefly peeking his head out to look at what the surroundings were.
'A hallway . . .'
He was within a room in a building. He stepped out into the hallway, and looked left and right. It was lit up by many torches, so Dionysus could see well enough. There were plenty of benches and windows as well, so Dionysus could imagine people just sitting around and enjoying themselves.
"Oh, I see that you're awake."
"Yeah, what of it?"
Dionysus heard a voice behind him, but he just assumed that it didn't belong to someone that was going to hurt him. He whirled around to see that there was a man wearing the attire of a doctor. He also had a large amount of facial hair and hair up above, both of them a deep black.
"After all, if you were going to hurt me, you would've done it in my sleep."
Dionysus put a small grin on his face, to which the doctor laughed. This slightly set Dionysus off, resulting in the following events . . .
"What's so funny?"
Dionysus tightened his fist.
"Nothing much, but should all your attention be focused on me?"
WHACK
Dionysus felt a throbbing pain on the back of his head before the floor began to get closer to him.
'Wait, no . . . I'm falling.'
THUMP
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Glypsumduke
Glypsumduke I forgot to upload this until 4:30, and apparently you can't upload at 5:00 PM at that time, so this just came out a whole five minutes late, sorry.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone