Danmachi: the Great Devourer

C168: Soul Reaper

Alt Title Teaser: Sacrifice

Overall Word count = 2690 on 12/8/2024. 

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While Gaius is not down for the count, the previous stab did greatly injure him that his power had heavily dropped. It took a great amount of his energy to purge the rampant spirit energy in the hollow's body. Once it could do that, Gaius could then escape from the metallic storm but the storm contained within its chest is gradually expanding, chipping away at his vitality with rampant disabandon.

SWISH

The explosion was actually contained all within its chest and the only exit being the piercing hole from the spiraling katana tip. With that hole as a marker, the metallic essence traveled towards it, ripping apart Gaius' chest but he contains all the energy and gradually devours it, or at least tries to but the sharp essence is protected by the [Spirit Energy] which prevents any unfortunate mishap or reinvigorating the Arrancar back to full strength. 

SWISH

SPLURTttttt (drip drip). As such it was relegated to simply healing the injured areas and then compressing the malicious metallic essence so he could eject the energy through the smallest hole it could make in its chest. Which once implemented, only left behind a single 5 inch hole that releases drops of black-blue blood. 

Yet in this entire minute that Gaius had been injured and attempting to recover, Axel was not simply watching in relaxation. With every swing of his sword, the wind reacted to his swings with a 'swish' as a new sword orb was made every second. As such, there is now what most assume to be a collection of 60 or so orbs around Axel. 

Yet that is not the case as Axel had been merging some of the words together to make larger ones. Leaving him with only 20 orbs surrounding him. If someone from a certain world was here, they would think he was the Jinchuriki of the 6-tailed beast, Saiken. Axel suddenly swings his blade horizontally this time around as the katana styled Rhongomyniad collides with the released orb containing the metallic essence. The orb is shattered and the metallic essence re-applied to the katana. Yet there is something different about the blade now. 

Longer term exposure to both Axel's spirit energy as well as the Gaius' Reiatsu and flesh, had contaminated the metallic essence with both spiritual energy as well as blood. Allowing Axel to merge in more laws that share common boundaries with either of those two new features. With Spiritual energy, Axel is able to nurture his Rhongo's own spiritual nature through the various worldly laws.

Meanwhile the blood attached to the metallic essence allows Axel to nurture multiple laws with the first and foremost being the concept of sacrifice. Sacrifice is a Greater faith-based human law about old practices using rituals to obtain blessings from gods or other spiritual creatures that they didn't understand back then. 

Of course that is only the primary function of the law due to its potency, the greater concept applies to all life, from abandoning something for another (a simple choice) to even parents raising their children. The sacrifices in terms of money, time and all other aspects that the parents had to sacrifice to give their children a proper upbringing is all filtered into Sacrifice. Of course there are good and bad sacrifices, but Axel's Rhongo is a combination of Artorias original Rhongo and the fake reverse Rhongo, an enigma of negativity which allowed Axel to bring both good and bag halves together for the true greater Sacrificial law. 

The overarching law itself is bound to many other aspects such as larger bits of blood, death, souls, and life Laws but even small bits of probability, yet Axel is not strong enough to influence those forces…yet. 

Of course such power comes with a price. Thankfully the price had already been paid, The blood and soul essence ripped off from the hollow disappears from the metallic essence without removing the traces of it that still bind it to Sacrifice but a powerful aura envelops Axel which even he did not expect.

Afterall, he is not aware of how the One eyed Black Dragon had become like this except a sudden transformation before he was kicked out of the memories. How could he know that an entity much stronger than either Axel or Gaius combined was watching and amused over how it's blood which was flowing through the arrancar's body was used to power-up it's other toy.

A smirk crosses this figure's face as he rubs his chin, "not bad. Good idea", then a moment later his expression changes to be more malevolent as he states,"but borrowed power will not be enough to amuse…..me?" The cloaked figure's harsh tone turns into a question as even he was surprised by what Axel does next. 

As Axel is being enveloped in the ever growing aura of Sacrifice, he is suddenly told something by [Raphael] and another figure as the wounds on his body are sealed, no longer showing the bits of flayed flesh but the picturesque form he made. 

["Law absorption complete. Healing wounds, deconstructing internal law walls, Analysis complete on origin of aura manifested from Sacrificial laws. Using memories related to world of 'Bleach' to categorize information]

[origin: hollow-??? -Vasto Lorde-insufficient data but closest known categorization is phase 2 Resurrecion Ulquiorra, Origin appears stronger than this as such, hypothesis was derived to be either a further stage such as a phase 3 or 4 resurrecion, or alternate timeline where this hollow had gotten the complete Hogyoku and completed greater evolution.]

[Additional information found: Energy trace found to where the original figure is. 15km away (9.3 miles). Also figure seems to be the foreign energy detected through {Heaven's Feel} ]

[Query: Utilize {Great Devourer} to subsume the sacrificial aura as a boost to hosts Physical, spiritual and magical power. Minor access to early hollow forms but requires soul absorption to further evolve and gain complete access.]

'Yes' Axel answers the query as the Rhongomyniad sword continues floating by itself as Axel deforms back into a slime, only to expand and cover the entire radius of the rapidly expanding aura and energy.

The sword is already a part of Axel so it just vanishes, leaving the aura all by itself as it's all devoured. Of course Axel had also sent some of the larger and more volatile sword orbs towards Gaius to stall for time or just injure it more. [Raphael] assists in aiming the orbs before helping Axel take in the new set of powers. 

"AAARRRRGGHHHHH" Axel yells out in pain as his soul itself is once again changed but the change is more forceful than before since he was bestowed a new form while this time around, he is modifying his soul himself this time around to take on the monstrous form of a hollow but still remain as a Slime due to its natural superiority and that fact that his slime form is just a reformed version of his own shattered soul. Hollows are purely soul beings while as a slime he remains a living being. 

"AWOOOO GRRR" Axel can barely spread his consciousness out to his reality marble to find the doggy reaper howling at him with hostility. A mind link is briefly established with the incarnation of death 

[Aroooo, wooo wooo, roooo, Woof] The reaper still howls as it continues sharing it's thoughts with Axel after it asked what is Axel doing, [Raphael] quickly shared the information about the soul changes going on, this clearly shocks the doggy reaper as it explains a bit more about what it knows about Hollows before proclaiming this, "I will share my essence with you, this should help you become stabilized and stronger"

"Won't that weaken you? This is not part of the contract, you don't have to do this." Axel only offers a brief response as he is struggling with the pain of his current transformation.

The dog god only states that it's a bit illegal but after explaining itself to its council, it would become more acceptable since there is precedent for this happening before. It also has to do this as otherwise the contract would be voided anyways due to Axel becoming its natural enemy. Axel falls mute as he can't offer any sort of counterargument for the skeleton dog's proposed action. [Raphael] takes over and sends the dog out in front of Axel. 

The skeletonized doggy death god summons its stereotypical scythe within its bony maw before that scythe begins to reform into a pair of hand sized sickles that attach to its paws in a sort of lego hand reverse grip. The reaper stabs Axel's 'heart' with it's dual scythes. A release of soul power occurs as the dog shares it's spiritual power with Axel, severing the connection between his body and soul. 

[Raphael] drags the newfound hollow powers along with Axel's soul body. This speeds up the assimilation of the hollow powers.

When the light of transfer is over, Axel remains hovering in the air as he stores his physical body within the reality marble. The soul of Axel is a chibi version of himself in a white shinigami robe with a black blank haori. The size of his soul does not allow him to grow to a full sized adult, as such he is only as tall as a 5 year old or so.

His clothes a realization that he became hollow first and a shinigami second, the Zanpakuto at his side is the miniature Rhongomyniad. An equally small sized white skull mask hangs at Axel's hip on the other side of his sword. [Raphael] once again transferred the weakened dog reaper into the reality marble where it can rest and recover its spiritual energy. 

Axel processes all the new changes to his soul and body at a rapid pace as he draws the Rhongomyniad from its sheath. The sword seems more illusory due to the greater soul aspect of its current form. 

(Shifting perspective to Gaius)

Gaius who had retreated out of the now disappearing clouds of law energy is in a bad mood. First it failed to ambush Axel, then it was annoyed by the human small fries, nearly dying multiple times. Then it found that Axel himself was even more annoying than it believed, afterall, his soul is so weak, but its flesh is so strong that it can keep up with its current changes with ease. 

He is especially distraught by the fact that 'the human named Axel' was able to succeed in absorbing the rest of the energy around them whilst still fighting him. Its new moves regarding these bubbles are especially annoying to it as it can only keep running and dodging.

But these changes and fights had been minor before what he senses now. When the human had taken back the shards of metallic energy that it had originally stabbed into it. It was shocking to see the monstrous aura emanating from him and his sword. Yet the fear it had experienced was more due to the realization that the aura feels the same as the figure who had caused it to become what it is now, a hollow, a wandering beastly soul with a seemingly insatiable hunger, yet as it fought, the hunger lessened until it reached what it is now, an Arrancar. 

One of it's first thoughts was that Axel was the one who had caused 'his' transformations but then realized that Axel is too weak for something like that. It's second thought was 'oh shit, flying orb, dodge'.

As he watches the human do something strange by turning into a ball of water? Expanding unnaturally and then covering the entire leaking crazy aura. Axel shrunk back down into the water ball shape before retaking a human form and yelling out in pain. It had planned to go forth to interfere with Axel with whatever he is going through since it sensed that his soul was unstable for a while. But the newest barrage of 'flying orbs' stalled it, then that small figure with a powerful soul appeared and stabbed Axel. The transition of power was obvious to Gaius as it unleashed a barrage of Cero's to destroy the remaining orbs before rushing at Axel. As it reached Axel, the small figure and Axel himself disappeared, only for another Axel to appear. With no other option, it attacked this new stronger Axel in black-white clothing. Every part of Axel's body is now releasing a dense Reiatsu which applies pressure onto 'his' body but not enough to make him kneel. 

It also doesnt hold back his current attack on account of Axel's current tiny form as he attempts to cover his hand with the energy of a Cero to make a dragon claw type attack. Yet as the swipe comes at Axel, he leisurely takes out his sword and with such quick movement, it angles the sword so it stabs into the palm of 'his' hand. Gaius wasn't able to slow his hand dodge to go around the blade as he was stabbed too quickly. 

(back to Axel)

WHOOOM

A pulse is released from where Axel had stabbed the sword into the hollows incoming hand, He had even brought out an old Shade trick, concentrating his [Great Devourer] along the length of his sword and his own whole body, he can now freely regain his energies while absorbing his enemies through a pulse through each attack he lands.

Both Axel and Gaius' figures blur as Axel chases Gaius around, the hollows giant claws initially collided with Axel's blade to injure him but soon found that it was rapidly weakening with every collision, so it has taken to dodging while lashing out minor wounds on Axel. These all rapidly healed under Axel's healing factor but much slower than Gaius'. 

Axel suddenly releases a pulse of energy that knocks Gaius away by a few feet as purple gravitational energy surrounds Axel while he twists his body. Gaius finds that Axel is surrounded by a space time bubble. Taking the hint, he attempts to simply move away, coming back to fight another day. Only to find that Axel is already right next to him and the bubble is gone. 

Upon the bubble disappearing, Axel rapidly began to spin at supersonic speeds as the sword based Rhongomyniad began to act like a meat grinder with Gaius' body being the meat. Using the space time bubble, Axel was able to accelerate his spinning force exponentially. The technique is a replica of Radahns that Axel copied for his own use. 

With his small size, Axel does not actually do alot of damage, only about as much as the metallic orb had done when it was inside Gaius' chest. Yet the situation is different now as Axel has been releasing pulse after pulse with every touch he has with the hollows body. 

The original version by radahn would have at most caused a total of 20-40 strikes and the hollow would have been weakened but primarily fine. Yet under the effect of the space time bubble, Axel unleashed over 300 attacks on the hollow, each one releasing a weakening pulse while Axel got stronger and did far more damage.

As Axel slows down and is quite dizzy, he unleashes one last horizontal strike that bisects the dragon hollow from straight through the middle of it's waist. Once the hollow is split in two, Axel mana bursts above the dragon to stab down through it's upper chest and then through the lower half waist, pinning both ends to the ground as [Raphael] takes over on devouring it's remaining essence. 

Axel soon explodes into a fountain of blood as he had overdrawn himself by spinning so hard. With the last bit of consciousness, he summons his physical body and enters it before passing out. 

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Alt Title: Greater Sacrifice law, Best Doggo?, The True Great Devourer

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