Matthew was not in a good situation. After the beast howled, it waited while other ones were converging on his position. Facing one opponent was not easy but it was at least doable with his newfound power. Multiple ones, it would be a whole other situation.

  The first thing to do was to prevent being fully circled around. He planted his stick behind him and started to raise it hoping to create some wall or maybe with luck a full cover. But it was hard like the earth was resisting.

  “Come on. Don’t drop me now, weirdly new power.” Matthew whined.

  Finally, a small rocky wall was behind him. But now, there were four beasts and more were coming. Two of them jumped together towards Matthew.

  “Shit !” Matthew yelled. He hit the ground with all the strength he had still in him. A thin wall raised quickly in front of him blocking both creatures before crumbling right before his eyes.

  “So that’s it… ” Matthew cried. He felt very empty. He knew this last wall was made with all that was left inside him. So Matthew closed his eyes and let himself fall over on the ground, dropping the stick. It was the true end, Matthew thought. Because he did not accept the Absolute, his soul, or whatever he was, was going to be devoured by beasts in Hell.

  When he hit the ground, he felt what was around him. He could almost see it. There was himself, lying here, the pack of beasts growing as more and more beasts were arriving, something far away was moving. He could not understand what it was but it was not a beast. But the most important thing he felt was the ground itself. It was radiating with power, waiting for him to take it. He let himself be submerged by the ground, absorbing all that raw and primal power. It was there and Matthew absorbed it.

  No, Matthew thought, it is not the end. He did not live his life away from his family trying to find calm and peace by rejecting their religious bullshit to be devoured by a beast in Hell. He will find an oasis of tranquility in Hell and he will have his calm. And if those dogs disagree, he will destroy them. He will destroy anything that will prevent this. After all, this is Hell, so he will be the hell of others.

  Matthew emerged from the ground with absolute fury in his eyes. He was standing, his right leg and his left arm in heavy armor made of rock. He took a wide look around him counting around twenty beasts.

  “You… FUCKERS !!!” Matthew shouted, stomping the ground with his left leg.

  Spikes quickly erected in waves coming from him all around. A bunch of beasts were not fast enough to dodge and got hit pretty badly, blood was flowing from their wounds.

  “Do you want me ? Then come !” Matthew continued. “I’ll make sure none of you survive”.

  It was now pure anger that was fueling Matthew. The hatred against these creatures, trying to eat him, the hatred against that system that sent him here, the hatred against the Absolute which did not have to create Hell but still did it, all that hatred was now what was moving rocks around.

  Beasts rushed him, yeah, they could try but Matthew was ready. He added more rocks around him, specially targeting his hands and then, he started to punch. In each punch, Matthew could feel bones of beasts breaking.

  “You really should have left me alone !” Matthew yelled. He raised his hands, putting a lot of small rocks above him, and then, he made them fall all around him, even accelerated them to maximize damage. The noise it made upon impact with the ground and beasts was horrible as rocks exploded due to the sheer speed he could send them.

  The pack of beasts was still there, even with probably half of them not capable of moving. They were clearly thinking how to attack him again. They made a wide circle around him. Then, they attacked. Some of them went by the ground, almost crawling, others went by the sky doing jumps.

  Matthew tried to push them away but, this time, they were too fast, too coordinated. In a last reflex, Matthew fully covered his body in rock armor. The tempest of claws and fangs was devastating, rock and dust was falling from him and then, he felt pain. Some of their attacks had penetrated his armor and started to wound him.

  “Argh !” Matthew shouted. His armor exploded, launching beasts away. He fell on his knee, his weight not supported by his armor anymore. He raised a small rock to keep him from just falling on the ground again. Matthew saw his stick, somehow still intact in spite of the fury that happened around it. He picked it up, and started moving it in circles around him.

  The earth answered and, soon, there was a tornado of rock rolling and flying around hurting the last beasts.

  “I’ve told you you’ll regret it, stupid beasts.” Matthew groaned.

  Half a minute later, he could not sustain his tornado any longer and rocks stopped moving around. He then saw a woman, covered in feathers, landing in front of him.

  “Impressive, young one…” She started. And Matthew fell unconscious on the ground

  ******

  Tianne was, indeed, quite impressed but also scared. Of the whole pack of hellhounds, only two were still standing. That newborn demon almost just berserked his way through the whole pack massacring it entirely if not for two lucky hellhounds. She let some of her power go loose around her, printing her strength in it. The two beasts could not resist it and ran away. She took a deep look at the young demon before her.

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  He was a male, a little tall, the usual little grey skin, not very muscular. In his black hair, there were some little protuberances on the front, he will have horns. Nothing on his back suggesting wing, that was sad but not surprising. He had pointy nails, but they will not develop into full claws.

  He was also covered in wounds, two of his members were not in a good shape, probably broken, he had a few scratches and two fang marks. He was bleeding but not nothing was urgent.

  With all that she saw, she was certain that the demon in front of her would grow into a powerful caster demon. If she had to bet, he would be a medium or high Primordial.

  She opened her little satchel and took out some bandages. She was applying them when some mechanical noise behind her drew her attention. The wheeler with his pilot finally arrived. The young driver got out of his transport and watched the scene.

  “So, what did I miss ?” Lucas asked cheerfully.

  Tianne smiled. Even after all this time, he still had some joy and innocence in him.

  “Nothing too rare, just a Primordial going wild and destroying a pack of hellhounds. I still had to scare the survivors away.” Tianne answered with a smile..

  “Come on, you’re messing with me. The only fact that this guy is a Primordial is already an event. At least, it explains the size of the comet.” Lucas said annoyed.

  She knew that Lucas was on watch the moment the comet carrying that demon fell and he was still surprised by its size. She had seen larger ones, even legendary ones but for a still young demon like Lucas, it was a nice spectacle.

  “Yeah, a big blue one. Not banished, he chose Hell. I wonder why.” Tianne replied. “Help me load him on your back seat. I’m definitely not carrying a Primordial with me in the sky.”

  “Fine. But if we lose the wheeler because he awakens and starts going wild again, you will explain to Crane why his precious baby is destroyed, right ?” Lucas asked, starting to drag the unconscious demon.

  “We both know that won’t be the case, Lucas. Stop whining and get him in there. I do not want to stay in the wild any longer than necessary.” Tianne ordered.

  Lucas strapped the new guy on the back seat, installed himself on the driver one and started to accelerate.

  “Tianne, you’ll cover me on the return trip.” Lucas said, half asking,

  “Of course, little Lucas. You know I watch on everyone. Let’s go home” She answered, taking off.

  ******

  Matthew awoke on a purple marble floor lying on his belly, the face against its polished surface.

  “Ouch, where am I ?” He asked himself as he was getting up.

  He felt he was back in his usual human body, with his beige skin, fully healed. His cloth was a simple long white tunic.

  The room around him looked like it came straight out of an old Greek history book about palaces. Fine carved red columns were supporting a high black ceiling diffusing soft light around.

  “Is anybody there ?” Matthew asked loudly. But no one answered.

  Walking around, he looked at the bas relief on walls. They represented battles between demons and angels. On the angel side, high above the battle was sculpted an entity easily distinguishable. Six hexagons in their back, a timeless and genderless face, a long coat of light, the Absolute was watching the battle. On the demon side, there were a bunch of what looked like corrupted angels fighting alongside demons. But one of them was less corrupted, standing slightly above, they could almost be from the angel army if they were not leading demons.

  Her face was sculpted with very fine details. Her whole body was painted without any wrong move. Her armor was almost shining in the room.

  Matthew approached the bas relief, taking a closer look at this figure. A perfect feminine human body with an angelic face and three pairs of wings in her back, she was not just leading the demon army, she was inspiring them, almost making them hope. Just seeing her on this wall was inspiring Matthew of freedom and peace despite her being in the middle of a battle.

  “It definitely was a good idea to personally inspire the artist” A feminine voice declared calmly behind him.

  Matthew jumped back, scared and turned his head.

  He saw the woman sculpted on the wall, standing right in front of him, leaning on one of the columns. Her wings were folded up behind her and instead of a heavy armor, she was wearing a simple red and black tunic similar to his own. She had the same round angelic face that was on the bas relief.

  “You, you, you are…”Matthew stuttered

  “Easy, young one, I’m not gonna eat you or dismember you or blast your soul or anything else priests came up with since I last interacted with them.” She interrupted him. “I’m just curious about you.”

  “You, Denaelle, the One who opposed the Absolute and the First Fallen are curious about me ?” Matthew said. “I don’t know if I should feel flattered or worried”

  Denaelle walked to him and put one finger on his torso. Matthew saw and felt a small talon at the tip of it.

  “Probably a little bit of both. The last Primordial to fall was not fun at all and I had to quickly stop him from destroying this place.” Denaelle said with a smile. “So, who will you be, young one ? A conqueror, a protector, a recluse one or one who has it all ? That will be up to you to decide. Oh, also since you are dead and reborn as a demon, you can choose your new name.”

  Matthew was speechless. All of this was feeling so unreal. Denaelle was real apparently but she was also looking to what he will do.

  “Well, our time together is coming to an end. Next time, will you tell me your name ? ” Denaelle asked before gently pushing him.

  Matthew fell through the marble and his world went black.

  ******

  Matthew abruptly awoke in some sort of rock bed and looked around him. He was back in the same injured body he had before. An old teenager was tinkering on a table in the room and called someone when he saw Matthew awake.

  “Mom, he is back with us.”

  “Coming.” A voice Matthew already heard answered.

  Five seconds later, the feather covered demon was standing in the doorway.

  “Hello young demon. Welcome with us. In Hell, you can choose your own name. It’s about freeing oneself, I’ll teach you details later. I’m Tianne and this is Lucas” TIanne said, indicating the young man. “When you will be ready, you will tell us. For now, follow me, let’s find something to eat.”

  Matthew got out of the bed and stood up despite the pain. At least that name thing was not an issue. There was one uncle of his earth life who inspired him, one person he would have been proud to call father. It was the one person who also sent him on his path to find the truth behind religions. Now, he will keep looking, here in Hell with his name, what is the truth.

  “Hey, name’s Peter. Thanks for saving me.” Peter said.