The Power of Exosia

"Where did you come from, child." Azrael asked the question he wanted to ask for quite a while.

"From my mom's womb." Liam answered nonchalantly while punching the air numerous time.

He was excited knowing the fact that he grew stronger.

At first, he wasn't interested in becoming strong or working out. It's just knowing that he could easily gain power with the help of his demon slave, why not put it to good use?

Plus if he could attain superpowers, then he can become a Hero himself.

Just imagining beating up Villains in every corner of the world made him smile silly. He didn't even notice Azrael who was fuming in anger.

"Child! Are you dumb? Did the pain made you crazy? Hello!" Azrael shouted in Liam's ear.

"What the fuck dude! Don't shout in my ear. Your breath smells bad too." Liam complained.

"Again, I'll repeat myself. Where did you come from?" Azrael frowned.

"Again, I'll repeat myself. I came from my mother's womb." Liam similarly frowned.

"I'm serious, child."

"Same here. I'm dead serious."

"What the heck is wrong with you?!" Azrael finally lost it.

In Hell, he was well respected. Every time he asks for something, attendants will immediately give him the answer. He never felt disrespected before. This was a first.

"I'm supposed to be asking you that. What the heck is wrong with you. You kept asking that question." Liam also lost it.

To be honest, he was an orphan. So he was uncomfortable when somebody asked that specific question. He felt hurt knowing he was adopted.

He was proud of his current parents. Liam treated them like his own family.

His parents told him he was adopted when he was just 15. He fully accepted it. And even though he didn't cry at that time, his heart was still broken. Now that Azrael hit his soft spot, he couldn't help but rage.

Azrael noticed Liam's change in demeanor. He wasn't an idiot, he finally realized what went wrong. He stopped asking the question and silently left him using the same portal.

Liam wipe a tear when Azrael left.

"Stupid demon..."

***

Liam looked at his watch and noticed that it was already 12 in the afternoon.

"Azrael, where the hell are you?" Liam shouted.

Just like always, a portal opened up and came the archdemon.

"What do you want, child." Azrael's deep voice echoed.

Liam removed his shirt.

"Care to explain this awesome tattoo?" Liam's bright eyes shined.

"Oh? That's an Exosia. You gain that when you killed Sisyphus." Azrael plainly explained.

"Awesome. But what's an Exosia?" Although Liam felt guilty about killing Sisyphus, he can't change the past anymore. So he shrugged his shoulders and listen to Azrael's explanations.

Azrael then explained what was an Exosia and what it can do.

"Simply said, each demon possesses only one magic or ability. Mine is opening warp gates. And the other abilities I showed you came from the Angels I've slain. Just like the invisibility, protection, shapeshifting, and powering up magic. We can freely remove an Exosia if its ability is not necessarily effective in combat. Also, you can only get an Exosia from archangels and archdemons. Lesser beings don't possess any ability. So you can't absorb any of their power since they have none."

Azrael explained every detail. He has no choice. Liam ordered him to. If he doesn't, he will face consequences.

"Then what does my Exosia do?" The boy blinked his eyes.

"I don't know. What I know is that Sisyphus possesses a wide variety of abilities. Angel and Demon alike hide their abilities so they can't be countered easily. We also need to hide our special abilities." Azrael replied.

"But you can try to experiment with it. This way we can know what it does."

Liam unconsciously touched his tattoo and felt overwhelmed.

'With this, I can absolutely be a Hero. I want to experience the point of view those Heroes see.' Liam chucked and faced Azrael.

"Hey, use that portal thingy and teleport us to the backyard."

"Lazy child. We could just literally walk for 30 seconds to get there." Azrael pouted.

"I order you to teleport me to the backyard using that cool portal." Liam rubbed his hands in excitement.

He wanted to see what it feel using that portal. He saw Azrael using that for a long time now. How can he let go of this opportunity?

"Fine." Azrael grumpily surrendered.

*Whoosh*

An ink-blacked portal appeared in thin air. Azrael entered it first. After that, Liam followed.

What Liam first felt was dizziness. It felt like he was being pulled towards the portal at the same he felt being pushed away from it. It felt weird and he doesn't have any way to land on his two feet. He also perceived two things that were impossible to happen in the real world. He was floating and falling at the same time.

Azrael looked at him and chuckled.

"Silly child. This portal was designed for the user itself. It's not for an idiot to use."

Suddenly, a black portal appeared in the Abad's backyard.

*Poof*

Azrael silently landed on the ground. While the poor kid was laying in the grass facing downwards.

"Damn. I will never use that ever again. F*ck you Azrael!" Liam was having a hard time standing up. His vision was spinning and he can't feel his legs anymore.

After five minutes of struggling, Liam finally went back to normal.

"So how should I start?" Liam asked.

Azrael thought about it. Honestly, using Exosia for a long time became something easy as moving his finger. Thus, he needed to think about how to put it in words.

"Concentrate on the exact spot where the Exosia resides. After that use your thoughts to activate it." Azrael smiled.

"Sounds easy!" Liam crossed his arms.

He concentrated on his left chest and he discerned something connecting the tattoo to his brain.

'Activate! Go! Shazam!' He spouted different words in his brain to activate the Exosia. Yet, nothing seems to work.

This goes on for another hour until Liam got the hang of it.

The connection between him and the Exosia became more apparent.

Azrael couldn't help but applaud the boy. He himself, when he attained his first Exosia, had a hard time using it. But it seemed this child exceeds his own natural instinct on using its power.

He kept observing him. This was the first human in history to ever activate an Exosia. That's why he was curious about both how he would activate it and what Sisyphus' Exosia was.

After another hour, Liam's aura changed. Golden hue enveloped him while the grass near him started swaying although no winds were blowing.

That's when Azrael noticed something strange. Liam was releasing an archangel's smell. His right eye suddenly turned golden for a split second. Azrael surely noticed this. But he shook his head. He might be pretty excited and imagined a few things. But he was still confused by Liam's aura.

It was a combination of a human and an angel.

'Maybe this is how it looked when a human use an angel's Exosia.' The demon told himself.

Suddenly, Liam shouted.

"Arghh!"

His shirt was torn off from the intense power coming from his chest. The golden tattoo in his left chest glowed brilliantly and covered him entirely.

After that, he emerged from it.

From his back, a pair of white wings slowly emerged. However, something weird happened. His wings started alternating colors.

From white to black. Then black to white. This continued for a long time. Liam noticed this and looked at Azrael.

Azrael was similarly confused. This was the first time he saw an Exosia that granted its user a pair of wings. That's because both angels and demons alike inherently have wings. It only differs in size, shape, color, and texture. But what really made his brain hurt was the alternating color. It's as if the Exosia was having a hard time identifying what being he was.

"The f*cks wrong with my beautiful wings?" Liam asked Azrael.

"I similarly don't know," Azrael replied.

Suddenly Liam's head starts hurting. An unknown voice was talking in his head.

"Are you an angel or a demon?" A voice similar to Sisyphus asked him.

"Me? I'm a human." Liam answered.

But the question only repeated.

"Are you an angel or a demon?"

"Are you deaf? I said I'm a human!" Liam starts getting irritated.

"Are you an angel or a demon?" It disregarded Liam's words and asked once more.

"Do I look like a demon to you? I'm a fricking handsome human!" Liam shouted.

But what he didn't know was that his simple remarks have already changed his fate.

"I see, a demon." The voice repeated.

Suddenly, Liam's wings stop alternating colors. It became full black just like Azrael's. But what differs it from Azrael's wings was that it has a hint of white feathers in it.

Just like moving his fingers, Liam realized that he could move and flapped his wings easily.

"So cool!!" Liam laughed.

"I can't believe it! I have wings!" He flexed it in front of Azrael.