Although the amount of slaughter happening in Baator was not inferior to Abyss, the way the devils implemented it was more systematized and always following specific codes and unspoken rules.
When Zitu, the first Devil Lord that Zatiel defeated, marched to Xenia's city to butcher it, he had obtained permission from his Duke and bribed his opponent's backing.
That was the way in Baator, a place with organized massacres and where those above always had their part.
However, this day an indiscriminate massacre was happening in a small city in Avernus.
A young man with three eyes and black scales fought against six Peak Rank 4 Devils in the sky.
If it weren't for the evil aura in the young man, he would certainly appear like a legendary hero fighting against the giant devils.
He had a golden sun made purely of light behind him. A golden aura filled every cell of his body, and he had a bow on his hand.
The man was so fast that the Rank 4 Devils had a hard time following his movements, and his arrows were even quicker.
The devils were burning with rage as the battle progressed, and their wounds became worse. However, they were not demons and would undoubtedly have escaped if it wasn't for the five giants in black armor who released a force field made of Mind Force around them.
A Spiked Lizard attempted to take the young man by surprise and attacked his back, as he was fighting another devil. Unfortunately, when his claw was a meter away from striking the young man, this one transformed into a beam of light and disappeared from his sight.
Before the devil could even begin to seek the young man, four arrows pierced his extremities.
The projectiles were so fast and carried such immense kinetic force that they pulverized everything around them. In an instant, the Rank 4 Spiked Lizard lost his extremities, and things only grew worse from there.
The young man appeared right in front of the Spiked Lizar's face. He was smaller than the devil's eye and fired one final arrow made of Mind Force.
The arrow did not cause physical damage but invaded the devil's soul dimension and paralyzed the True Soul.
After the first Rank 4 Devil fell, the rest followed him. The young man managed to capture all of them alive.
The young man and the Brain Golems took the defeated Rank 4 Devils and returned to the city.
There were thousands of lesser devils around them, but none of them moved, and their eyes were empty. The reason was that tadpoles had parasitized their brain, and although they were technically alive, they had lost the ability to think for themselves.
Dante's face was pale as he assessed the city and the prisoners. The fight may have seemed easy, but the truth was it exhausted the Neo-Demon.
Usually, for a Neo-Demon with a Tier 2 Law Bloodline, it should not have been so hard to defeat a group of Rank 4 Devils, but due to the way he was born, Dante's bloodline purity was affected. He still had the Daybreak Bloodline, but the battle power enhancement was only equal to a Tier 4 Law Bloodline. The good news is that he can increase the purity, and the bad is that the resources needed are very hard to obtain.
The Neo-Demon did not let that affect him. Even if his bloodline was worse, a well developed True Doomsday Body is not inferior to a Law Bloodline.
Dante had chosen the Superluminal True Doomsday Body, the fastest True Doomsday Body. Theoretically, this body could challenge the Shooting Star Bloodline once it reaches the peak.
The Superluminal True Doomsday Body only allows the body and not the spells or other attacks to reach a supreme speed.
However, Dante broke that rule. Using the Law of Creation and Law of Life, he made so that his arrows would contain his flesh, blood, and traces of his life force.
Dante looked to the distance when he felt a powerful presence and saw a mighty dragon.
The creature had dark red scales, large spikes on his spine and tail, enormous wings made of fire, earth, and darkness. He was the perfect representation of a devil dragon.
The moment the devil dragon reached the city, he transformed into his humanoid form, showing Rax in his devil disguise.
Rax looked at the defeated Rank 4 Devils and nodded to Dante before waving his hand and bringing out another four Rank 4 Devils from his space ring.
"These are the devils that were the nearest to our current location. I made sure to spread your parasite in the lesser devils, and no one saw me."
"Good, with this, we can begin." Dante made ten tadpoles appear and sent them to the Rank 4 Devils.
These parasites were a unique strain named Soul Parasites. They not only controlled the brain but also the True Soul of a victim.
The price to create any of them was equal to a Peak Rank 5 Artifact, and the victims must be in the same world or plane that Dante is, or else the True Soul may free themselves from the parasite power.
The Neo-Demon knew he could not just kill Rank 4 Devils and take control of their domains, but what he could do was to control them and be a puppeteer in the shadows.
He had obtained knowledge about a meeting between Rank 4 Devils and had chosen to attack it. And with the devils Rax captured, he could use all the Soul Parasites he had available.
"I will send one of these Rank 4 Devils to visit a Devil Lord and see if they can go unnoticed. We should hide in this city in the meantime and move again when I get another batch of Soul Parasites."
Their mission was to gather information and establish a foothold, so Rax agreed with Dante's plan.
The duo and the Brain Golems disappeared inside the city.
The next second, all the lesser devils and Rank 4 Devils moved again. They showed anger, happiness and schemed against each other, but the truth was they were all puppets.
....
Two years had passed since Zatiel started his secluded training. He modified the Dream Dimension Technique in less than six months and spent the next year and a half making tests and experiments.
Expanding the dimension inside his Rebirth Eye to his brain was an incredibly complex process and involved two essential organs for the Neo-Demon, so there was no room for mistakes.
The first step was to change his brain's composition so it could be better suited to contain that purple dimension.
Slowly, he extracted threads of purple energy from his Rebirth Eye and sent it to his brain.
The process was delicate and painful, but the Neo-Demon's concentration did not falter.
After a few days, Zatiel's brain began to vibrate, and a high fever assaulted the Neo-Demon.
Zatiel was bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth as pieces of his brain were melting and replaced with new ones charged with purple energy.
Cracks formed in the walls in the soul dimension as the process continued. The True Soul and True Will had to use their power to keep it stable.
It took Zatiel a month of constant destruction and creation until every cell in his brain evolved.
The Neo-Demon rested for two weeks since the change in his brain left him with great pain, and he needed to get used to the new organ.
Zatiel only continued once he was in peak condition.
"This is the last part. I cannot fail, or else there will be severe repercussions for my Rebirth Eye." The Neo-Demon's eyes were filled with resolution as he began to inject Origin Power into the purple dimension inside his right eye.
The dimension was not meant to be trained that way, and it started to tremble the moment the Origin Power entered it.
Zatiel felt immense pain in his right eye, but he did not stop and kept feeding it Origin Power until this one finally exploded and left chaotic purple energy.
The Neo-Demon's entire body shook when that happened, and the pain was so great that he almost lost consciousness. Using all of his willpower, he remained awake and immediately expanded the chaotic purple energy to his brain.
