4 03 - Into The Maws Of A Toad

Chapter 03 - Into The Maws Of A Toad

Written By Dr Armstrong

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Full.

Frankly, Alexander couldn't feel anything else than the sensation of a full, and bloated body.

A few days had passed, perhaps a week had he been counting.

Aside from Video Gaming to pass the time, he had spent the few days after his acquisition of the Core Technique to absorb and grow.

If previously, he was a mere ball of yarn with one eye and a pair of wings, he was now...

Well, the same, really. Though he now had more eyes, a larger pair of wings, some strands of his yarn acting as tentacles, and a proper mouth to eat things with.

His eyes were much in the likeness of a man's, though with bright red pupils that seemed to glisten in the dark.

They were spread all over his body with no clear pattern or symmetry, allowing him true 360° vision.

His wings were now no longer just a couple of feathers sticking out from his sides, they now resembled actual wings that a dove would have, and they were proportionally developed as well.

He branched out and interlocked dozens of the strands that made up his body into long, curvy shapes, forming primitive tentacles.

They were an attempt by him to produce limbs of which he could use to interact with the outside world...the results came out rather poor, but it was better than nothing.

Lined diagonally across his face was a gap between his skin, one the further deepened into a trench filled with thorn-like teeth.

Yes, thorn-like teeth.

Imagine a row of thorns made out of sharpened holy silver. Alexander was surprised that his angelic body naturally grew those intensely sharp incisors and fangs, but couldn't complain.

Creating the mouth was the hardest part, not only did he have to bear the pain of opening a portion of his flesh deep enough to be considered a throat, but he also had to connect it to his insides.

Which, if you were the investigative type, would know doesn't exist.

Due to his Spiritual Body, there was literally nothing inside his body, nothing aside from his brain and heart that was.

There were no bones, no respiratory system, no digestive tract...only spiritual flesh and golden ichor...also the nervous system if you were a detail-obsessed fanatic.

Alexander wasn't too concerned that his throat led to nowhere, he didn't require food, after all.

In fact, he had only made a mouth so that he could bite...and speak, of course.

His mouth doubled as a nose as for some odd reason, his body naturally decided to grow some small hairs in the back of his maw that could be used to pick up scent particles and transmit them to the brain.

There's also the unforgettable fact that his whole body in general had almost tripled in size. If only he had something to compare it to...

If previously, his egg was like a spacious home, it was now more akin to a tight cryo pod, one that Alexander couldn't wait to break out of.

Leaving his physical state to the side, Alexander had managed to create two additional Mana rings revolving around his heart, thus having three in total.

Three Mana rings were the foundational level of the [Asrahan Core Technique], the original maker of this technique, Javier Asrahan, had instantly manifested three upon figuring out how to do so.

But that was a special case since Javier had the latent gift of being both a monstrous genius and a disciplined worker.

The true protagonist of that novel/comic, Llyod Frontera, faced the same hurdle as Alexander, having to build from just one ring.

It was great that he now had three rings, because that meant he could finally use this skill for something else other than extra help in Mana circulation.

The most difficult portion of having three bright comets revolving around one's heart wasn't keeping them away from falling down onto the organ.

They did that themselves—no, the hardest part was preventing them from colliding with each other.

Imagine each Mana ring was a star, what happens if two stars were to be hurled towards each other?

Well, if the speed was rather sluggish, then the result would simply be a fusion, a merge between the two stars as if they were two droplets of water that had just done the Dragon Ball fusion dance to combine into one.

But what happens when let's say, a star is thrown towards another of the same kind as if it were a mere tennis ball?

Kaboom.

It was either a super duper cosmic explosion or the birth of a new black hole, a literal sinking distortion in space.

Alexander knew for certain that it was the first option, such a collision between Mana rings had actually been shown in the novel.

But those collisions happened outside of the body, what were to happen if they collided inside of him?

Certain death, most likely.

Llyod never had to worry about such things as he had the guy who made the technique in the first place as a personal tutor but for Alexander...

It was much harder to learn a complex technique when you had no teacher, even if the System gave him the basic know-how as instincts.

Nevertheless, successfully managing to create and stabilize three Mana rings was quite an achievement, and so an appropriate celebration ought to be held.

Frankly, Alexander didn't want to spend any more points that he already had before even hatching, so instead of buying some cheat to celebrate...

He just threw caution out of the window and began sucking on his yolk like crazy.

And not before long, the whole entire spiral dissipated and was absorbed into his form.

His body swelled and ballooned as it increased in size, his wings bending as it met the interior walls of the egg.

Alexander paused as he siphoned the very last drop of Mana in his yolk, enjoying the prismatic energies coursing through his strands.

It was a weird feeling, a sense of fullness that could only be replicated by a mammalian infant being nursed by their mother, or an avian hatchling enjoying the half-digested rodent its parents had thrown up.

However, the feeling quickly metamorphosed into a much more vibrant and intense sensation.

'It's time...isn't it?' Alexander silently thought as the impending emergence to the real world became much more imminent.

It was time, it was finally time to hatch and join the ranks of the heavenly choir amongst his new brothers and sisters.

Alexander felt extreme nervousness and trepidation for the first time in his second life, every spiritual cell in his infantile body screaming for righteous fury upon their desired freedom.

He didn't know what was to happen after the hatching, would he have a mother? Or any parents at all? Or would he be the same as Roy, a mere spawn amongst the legion of abandoned children?

He knew a lot of the Abyss's customs regarding their progeny, those born of Low-blood would have to survive in the wilds by themselves, much like Roy.

Meanwhile, the children of High-rank Demons could enjoy a much safer, yet much more dangerous life at the same time, just like the foster child Roy took...

But that was for the hellborn, what of the Angels in the High Heavens? How do they exactly reproduce?

Common sense demanded high-quality parentage to be expected from the Angels, the literal arbiters of good and justice.

But would that really be true? Or would the definition of being a good parent be entirely different here in Heaven?

There was also the case of his behaviour, would his advanced intelligence mark him as a genius, or would it expose him as some kind of freak.

Perhaps he needed to think not from a human perspective, but an Angel's...would his intelligence even be abnormal?

'I'm just wasting time...' He realized. What good was found in endlessly thinking about the future that was about to happen?

Foresight was a virtue, but when you're still worrying about the possible injuries you might be dealt with after stepping up into the ring, you really need to up your game.

Alexander took a deep breath with no air involved to calm his heavenly nerves as he readied himself for the great emergence.

What happens, happens. There is no such thing as rewriting the past...

Only the future.

*CRACK*

The pure and unblemished rays of light spilt in between the cracks as Alexander commanded the very walls of his egg to shatter, using his tentacles as blunt instruments to aid in the strenuous process.

He could now understand the woes of low-income labourers, pushing their bodies to the limits for a mere chance of acquiring basic necessities.

The moment his skin fell under the light, everything just felt right.

It was as if had been a starved anorexic child locked in some abandoned house's attic up until now, completely devoid of any knowledge regarding the outside.

But the light was...enlightening.

Well, what else would light be? Endarkening?

Alexander took a breath of actual air before he pushed himself out by using some of his tentacles as springs.

Oh, and then, there it was...

Heaven.

It was huge, with walls that seem to stretch out as far as the eye could see, illuminating flames decorating the gilded ceilling as if they were stars upon the night sky.

Alexander looked around in wonder, his all-directional vision granting an absolutely unforgettable experience as he took in the majestic mosaics that littered every surface.

He was inside some kind of building, a colossal monastery that would make even the mightiest kings of Babylon tremble with awe and envy.

Inside the monastary were 5 humongous geysers of sparkling water, with four in the corners and one in the centre, each had a shallow pool of water at the bottom containing dozens upon dozens of unhatched Angel eggs.

Alexander took a deep breath of air as he felt the ambient warmth on his skin, he unfurled his dove-like wings upon intstinct and started to levitate off of the broken egg shells.

There was no need for the flapping of the wings, his wings seem to distort the very gravity around him, allowing for him to float upon the air as if he was a balloon.

The act of floating came naturally to him, unlike a human infant which needed more than a year on average to learn how to walk, his angelic intstincts of flight kicked in the second he emerged out from the egg.

Alexander himself floated atop one of the 5 fountains, not the central one but one its edging relatives.

His gaze fell over the clear surface, the reflective properties of the water giving him a momentary pause as he silently appraised his reflection.

In immersion, there were naturally several levels involved.

Reading a mass genocide described in a history book was much more tame compared to seeing it in a more visually-rich medium; such as a movie or an episodic TV series.

And, of course, witnessing it directly happen in real time was even more harrowing.

It was very much the same case with the currelt dillemma that Alexander faced...the immersion part, not the mass genocide.

Seeing a 3D rendering of himself through the eyes of the system was essentially the same as seeing a cool alien in a Star Wars movie, or some fantastic beast from Harry Potter.

But seeing through the reflection of the water with his own dozen eyes? T'was an experience that would have rattled his bones had he still possessed them.

Alexander watched intently, all of his many eyes pointed downwards in sheer awe. Every literal strand and fibre of his being twitching and morphing under Heaven's light.

He didn't know what to think, what to feel. He previously had all the time in the world to contemplate the intricacies of being an Angel, but that was back in the egg...

He should rightfully be afraid, horrified, despaired, and no sane man and his ilk would be able to blame him, not at all.

But instead, what should have been the overwhelming sensation of fear and existential dread was replaced by calmness—no, he wasn't calm at the very least...

It was not calm...nay, it was a peculiar shade of contentment. As if he was looking not an eldritch avatar that was his new body, but the most beutiful yet simple being on the universe.

His current appearance, for the lack of a better term, was essentially a mini-sized biblically-accurate Angel if you were to strip all of the majestic parts and replaced them with goofy, rather derpy ones.

Well, honestly, what could you expect? There was no dimension where babies were born any prettier than a dry-aged bullfrog, even human newborns were quite hideous if you weren't one of its instinctively-predisposed parents...

To have a new body that completely lacked any sense of humanity, it should be the worst kind of body horror imaginable to the mortal mind.

Yet he felt no despair, for he knew to be not afraid...

He reached down with one of his tentacles, feeling a bag of mixed emotions as if he was an cauldron containing a concoction of unstable nature.

The moment he touched the rippling pool, it was as if a thunderous shock had struck his infantile form.

Uncountable numbers of images, of tapestries depicting an even more unimaginable amount of events flashed through his mind.

Words of incomprehensible glory, the likes of which ha could understand a mere fragment of.

Yet he understood a fragment...

"He made us in the first wake.

He made them in the second.

They were banished in the third.

All because of that one.

Eternal conflict, unchanging.

Rise, and fall, all but ash.

Is it meaningless?

It is, a repeating constant without conclusion.

That's why you were made.

This is your purpose.

This is your origin.

Give it meaning, an end to call fate.

For you have none for yourself."

These were the words he could reasonably make out. The voice that spoke out these words was suprisingly quite mundane, yet unsetlling in another way.

For it was his voice, Alexander's exact voice down to the usual pitch and tone.

The words were shouted into his brain not back to back, but all at once.

At the same time, numerous hazing memories of the past and future were implanted straight into his head, also all at once.

The sheer experience of this rattled him to the strands, his tentacles vibrating as if they had been shocked, all of his eyeballs bloodshot and tearing.

Alexander regained his bearing not long after, only a few brief seconds as he just floated silently, literal steam emanating from his skin.

'J-just...damn.' He couldn't formulate enough coherent words to finish the sentence, his mind still preoccupied with taking in the new server's worth of implanted knowledge.

No, it wasn't implanted knowledge, it was inherited knowledge he awoked the moment he made contact with the water.

Roy had a similliar thing, though Alexander rememberd the Demon got it by eating his eggshells.

The inherited memories gave him the basic rundown of what Angels were, how to live righteously with virtue, how to not be a jackass, how to understand foolish mortal behaviour, how to call upon the power of Heaven, how to bless a worthy champion, how to control light, how to make everything you touch into it's holy variant, how to...

How to live.

It was very enlightening, quite literally. Alexander released a gasp of air as he lowered his entire body to take a sip from the pool.

But there he saw it.

The very same reflective surface, which should have brough a great fear to him previously...

Accomplished it now.

Why? A wizened and studeous discipled mighy ask.

Well, one cetainly didn't need the same general brain capacity to receive and properly analyze new information as Einstein or Thomas Edison after a great nut to understand.

Even a baby would start to panic when it saw the giant fucking toad calmly sitting behind it just a few meagre meters away.

It was a Demon, Alexander immediately recognized such a fact upon first sight of the beast.

The toad wasn't exactly sitting, no it was much more in the position one would take when taking a fat shit—

'Fuck!' Alexander couldn't help but curse as his diagonally-facing maw released a screech of pain, one that was quite understanable.

It was the prefectly natural reaction that one tended to show after having one of their most useful limbs torn off in a gruesome bite.

In Alexander case, that terrible fate fell upon his right wing as the Demon showed what it was most talented in; it's leaping capabilities.

With a great jump that rocked the Demon's speed, it reached and bit off his wing in a brutal manner, trashing around like a great white shark before it managed to completely sever the feathery limb.

Alexander fell upon the pool as he lost the ability to float, a great many of his golden ichor flowing out of the fresh wound as if he was cut-open juice box.

'...Ah...! How did...!?' Alexander's mind raced with a turbo frenzy as his blurred vision settled on the Demon, its wicked grin showing itself as it spat back out his wing to the side as if it tasted like cardboard.

The Demon was an amphibious beast that looked sickened to the bone. It was as lanky ad it was skinny...

Its eyes were dead and empty, like the eyes of a fish in the market. Upon its back were numerous bulbous tumours, almost looking parasitic in nature.

To anyone else, it wouldn't have instantly been recognizable as a Demon of the Abyss, but to Alexander who was not only an Angel, but have also died by the hands of one?

How, just how has a Demon not only managded to survive more than a second in Heaven, but also reach the Angel birthing grounds!?

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Thoughts?

To anyone who has read the old version, ehat do you think I should primarily change? Don't tell me about the honking thing, even I was annoyed by that.

And what world do you want Amon...Alexander to go to?

Please comment any grammar mistakes I might have made. I wrote this chapter at night, and I'm currently sick, so some mistakes might be present.