Chapter 13: Apotheosis Begins

Minutes pass, and the only thing that is certain is that it's deadly quiet. Then Harris opens his eyes and finds himself in the lap of a very sexy incubus demon rubbing his head. He then screamed out loud enough to be heard throughout the final ring of Hell, and then covered himself with a robe that was already prepared for him as he was naked. "Ah, sorry. You just looked so cute sleeping there. Like an adorable kitten. Anyhow..we're sorry you're here so soon, Lucifer is sorta on his way back from his temporary visit to the mortal realm." the incubus said. Harris smiled, overjoyed Oliver fell for the trap. But he soon felt the pain from the many injuries the fight gave him, and fell over. The incubus helped him back up and hugged him. "I hope you don't mind me saying this...but guys like you I find irresistible. I wish I could've been your lover first." he said, but Harris explained that he's actually polygamous, so it was completely fine. Then Lucifer fell back into the last ring like a meteorite, and looked completely dizzy from the impact. "Ah Harris, you're awake. Good. I saw your friends, they're all safe and sound. But doesn't this seem a little extreme? You've got three months, and I doubt you'll all be able to handle your godly powers enough when the time comes. What sort of god do you want to be anyhow? As a mortal becoming a god, you'll be able to stay in the mortal realm, and come into the God Realms whenever you please, but you have to be a god of something in order to start." he explained. Harris thought for a moment of what sort of god he wanted to be. He loved fictional things, and loved to imagine he lived in a fictional world sometimes, so he decided on it. "I want to be a God of Fictionkin. Fantasy Magic at my control, and I don't care what anyone says about it." he yelled out in triumph. Lucifer smiled at his decision as it was true to his soul, and then set up a diagram on the ground. "This is the Sephiroth, or the Tree of Life. Think of it as a Skill Tree in games, and when you reach the top, you'll fully become a godly being. However this task may break your mind, and from there, it's true agony. You shall start at the first point, Malkuth. And to fully master this point, you must meditate on the Earth itself" he said. Harris then sat and meditated, but as soon as he felt the scope of the earth, he was startled out of his concentration. The incubus held his hand to let him know he was there, and so he tried again.

In the Deva realm, Quason was sitting with Buddha, talking about the Apotheosis Magic System. "Essentially, it was a way for mortals to become divine beings. However the road to this is full of strife and pain, and too many people lost their lives to it. So the gods order it be forbidden to use without consent. Obviously this Oliver exploited the weakness that direct officials can gain access to such files. And for that we apologize for such a thing." he said. Quason said that he doesn't need to apologize because he was going to fix it. Buddha smiled and took him to a pocket dimension over the clouds. It was vast open skies, and just clouds to form the ground. "For this, you shall become the God of the Six Paths. That means you must take a portion of each of the six paths within your soul, and then form your new body. It shall be an extremely difficult task, but I trust that you shall overcome this. I pray for your victory in this endeavor." he said as he he went out of the dimension. Quason then started doing tai chi in order to limber his body, and focus on the first realm Naraka. he struggled to block out the screams of pain and torment from there, and saw the tortured souls that wound up in such a place. He then fell over panting, disconnected from Naraka, and had to start over again. He was determined not to give up, so he tried again. He had to remember that those people were true sinners that deserved to be there. Every cut and slash on them was their fault, because of their corrupt nature and need to see blood spill on the floor like it was a sick game to them. He ignored them all, not giving into their plights, and successfully absorbed a portion of the Nakara Realm's power. He was now able to summon the dead as skeletons with various powers, such as brute strength, throwing their flaming bones, or a massive skull that healed whatever it ate by eating their pain. He was getting good at using it and moved onto the Preta Realm.

In the Astral Realm, Ben met an Astral god who had multiple masks floating around it's face, a ghost-like body with long arms and legs, and clawed hands. It looked like it was a glowing person with long hair that seemed to be on fire, and it's eyes seemed to be closed. "Uh, hello? Are you asleep?" Ben asked. The being opened it's eyes and saw Ben there. "Ah, apologies. Call me Mask. I'll be forging you into a divine being, just don't blame me if you feel immense pain." Mask said as he began charging intense energy that seemed to weigh down the space around him a bit. Ben struggled to stay on his feet, but he managed to keep balance, and stood strong. Mask was impressed, so he stopped releasing his energy, and summoned strange astral bugs that just seemed like normal ones. "You'll be fighting these creatures for three months. The spirit energy you absorb will be of the divine sort, and integrate into your soul. As your soul becomes divine, your body shall naturally follow as well. Once it's complete, you'll be complete. Now, begin, and earn your victory just like your brother is doing right now." he said, and in the next split second Ben sped on and fought one of the bugs, which was a massive centipede. As Ben attacked it's joints, he made sure not to get stabbed by it's many legs or mouthparts. It tried to wrap it's massive body around him and sweat out acid drops, but Ben weaved his way around it and punched it through the head. It writhed around as it kept trying to fight him, but it ended up dying anyways, which let Ben absorb it's energy while it's soul reincarnated into an actual centipede. The next beast was a praying mantis, which was just as difficult due to it's sharp arms and 360 vision. So Ben made a spear to keep it at a distance, and kept hitting it in the eyes while it kept trying to grab him. The spear then reached one of the arm joints and the arm broke off, but the mantis still fought back. Ben then impaled the mantis through the head, and it died as well. Mask was impressed that he had a firm grasp on his powers even in death, and made a small wave of ants to fight. Ben readied a sword and was prepared to fight all of them at once.