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Bel couldn't believe the description in Obelyn's bounty when he read it, but even the words hadn't fully captured the image of the creature he'd come across. He wretched again as he remembered the battle from mere moments ago, his own demons long since having dismissed themselves after the beatdown, even Beelzebub hurking from what he'd seen. The tamer he'd found seemed normalish at first glance, if a bit slow...but when he'd approached, calling out to him, there'd been no response. He attempted to beckon him again, and that's when he noticed the large green blob at it's feet, following the trainer...perhaps a monster about to strike. He'd raised his hand, and shouted to warn him before it was too late...and that's when it happened.

'Tantor! Tantor, Tantor, Tantor!' The tamer turned, shouting over and over in a deranged rage as it attempted to lock eyes with Bel. He'd covered his face just in time, having received a warning from Obelyn, but...it defied the imagination. That awful call, that monstrous desire to lock eyes with him, before flinging themselves into battle...and hurdle into battle they had, Bel uncomfortably remembered. When he'd avoided making eye contact for several minutes, Tantor finally sprinted over to him, tackling him to the ground and prying his hands away from his eyes. He'd forced him to look Tantor dead in the eyes, see the utter soullessness of a pitch black void...it was like staring into oblivion! And then, he realized at last that the deformed green blob wasn't his attacker...it was his slave. The creature, so hideous it seemed as if its creation were a mistake, lurched across the ground like slime and rolled towards Bel in an attempt to attack on Tantor's orders. The creature was no wiser than the master, and uttered the same malicious thing over and over...

'Mrrshtaake...mrshhtakke..' It loyally rolled up behind Tantor, following its master into his unthinking oblivion, and Bel was finally forced to summon his demons. The battle that ensued was the kind of abyssal confrontation that human eyes could not witness, eldritch horrors falling on one another with brutal alienation and evisceration until one side was done. It all defied explanation, even one that Bel's keen and open mind could explain. And even though he received the money from Obelyn shortly after, the severed head of 'Tantor' placed on a pike nearby, it still didn't feel like it was over. It didn't feel like he won, but like he was still caught in the nightmare of the creature...its voice echoing in his head, its slimey paws forcing him to look into the void once again. He'd never forget Mr. Stake, for as long as he lived...

...and to think, people called he, and his demons abominations...

The Nihilo weren't the only faction in Iwadate now, and the Mantra and other leaders were sending their minions out to recruit those who were still indecisive, or beat down those who disagreed with them entirely. One such unlucky demon approached Bel, and acted as if it were cornering a powerless human, sneering and speaking from the shadows at first. But when it finally approached, it gleaned his true nature beneath his human visage, and began begging for forgiveness from the much more powerful demon. Bel wasn't in a forgiving mood though, and quickly snapped the poor creature's neck with all the disdain he could have for a being similar to an insect to him...and that was the end of that.

Okay, so Bel maybe sort of introduced himself to Soji as his son, and then explained that they were all from some sort of futuristic horrible world where everything went awry and while that normally would have caused someone to balk as if they'd heard something crazy, theeeeyy...were kind of in the middle of an apocalypse at the moment, which lent an insane amount of validity to Bel's (future) history lesson. Although the apocalypse he described was certainly different than what was transpiring now, and there were individual details that didn't match up, but...well, the two were bonding at least. Hurray for that? Hurray for father-son bonding times, even if one of those people happened to be lying about their respective relationships! [T]/

"You don't realize the futility of your lives until the very end, even when death is staring you in the face. Not surprising for some demons." Fire gathered above in the sky, falling down towards the battlefield with a wave that caused the clouds to part and the sky to burn like it was full to the brim with a sun. Finally, the meteor crashed into the center of the party of demons, and spread outward in a wave that eviscerated bodies en masse, clearing away the enemies of humanity like a purifying beam from the heavens. It was anything but that, and yet Bel could feel the presence of Iofiel somewhere nearby, cheering him on for the good deed he was doing...despite the fact that it was hardly intentional. Tch, nosey angel. This bit of overwhelming force was something no App demon could unleash though, and Bel wasn't showing what he was truly made of yet...just letting off some steam, on a horde that didn't know its place.

Hellbiker burned rubber up and down the street, clearing out a series of demons with one smooth, unrelenting attack. It was anything but the strongest demon in his arsenal, and yet it was far more powerful than most demons or tamers could imagine. This fiend was a good bar for him to use, to measure the strength of those who wanted to change the world, and while he was testing them they never truly grasped that he wasn't taking the fight seriously. Actually, that was proof all its own that they didn't know how to use their power, and that they weren't any of the many, talented humans who could reshape the future, but they were unaware of their own weakness and he felt it was his duty as a mentor to humans to enlighten them to the futility of their own strength. Perhaps then he'd spark something within them...but probably not. It was merely a whim, in the end.

Bel lifted the last few coins of macca from the ground, looking over the corpses he'd looted for money after the battle with the Mantra. They were mostly unrecognizable from the beating he gave them, but a few were so broken they couldn't even be looted, their macca and items broken to bits from his icy attacks. One demon remained cowering in the corner, the last he planned to eliminate of their cult's numbers, but first he took his time pacing around the street and collecting all the valuables, letting the fear sink in as he thought about what fate his comrades had suffered through; the fate that he was going to suffer through. Bel's hatred for the Mantra led him to commit cruel, hateful acts that no force of good could approve of, but that was the beauty of his role in the world. He wasn't a good guy...he would never even be accepted by the so called 'good guys' of the Law Faction. So there was no reason to repent...no penalty if he chose to give in to his blood lust...no reason for him to remain human. And yet, somehow he found himself holding back, and clinging to the last remnants of his parent's species, the human blood that ran through his veins...and he couldn't understand why.