Chapter 3 - First Steps - First Bumps On The Long Road Ahead

Only the unnerving sound of bones snapping could be heard as the creature proceeded to munch on the mangled body of Aziel, effectively killing him and ending his premature adventure before he could fully reach his adolescence…

As the creature finished with his meal and wandered away with a hint of satisfaction shining through with each of its steps, all that was left of Aziel, the once-proud Demon Lord was a singular puddle of vermillion coating of blood that gradually sank back into the fervent soil, further enriching the lush untainted environment.

…

Long after the bright azure blue skies have darkened, a strange, mysterious phenomenon began its lonesome melody. Drops of scarlet blood poured back up from the fluid as if expelled from yet another medium. The fluid slowly converged together and began to reform into a solid frame, that resembled the bipedal theropod creature, Aziel. His unique trait, [Essence Restitute] shifting into activity, it began to slowly restore his body using up some of the lingering essences found in the soil itself. At the same time, like always, it was also making sublime changes, effectively enhancing the bio frame, making it stronger, sturdier in the future.

The grotesque process took its time, restoring an entire frame from the ground up, it took a sizable amount of time, pushing the night closer to its peak before the reassembly was finally completed.

Opening his eyes, Aziel took a large gasp of the cool air, frantically recalling, remembering the events that led to his previous demise only a few moments ago.

"That vile beast..." Aziel scowled in anger at his own helplessness. "Just you wait... I'll pay back the humiliation tenfold!" He swore right at that spot to take his sweet revenge upon the creature that caused his suffering.

Sighing to move on from his frustration, Aziel took a moment to inspect his newly reconstructed body. Closing his eyes, he exhaled sharply as if to clear his mind and calmly inspected the inner state of his current vessel.

'Hmmm... There was a modicum of compensation from that shameful action...' He remarked mentally, slightly easing his heart at the insight of the gains.

After his body was reformed from the ground up, whilst his gathered reserves were almost halved, he felt stronger, sturdier than before. Though still sporting the same reptilian frame, his muscle strains seemed much harder, much more resistant than before.

Raising his clawed forelimbs, he tried clenching his palm, only to grow to elicit a small mental smile at the new sensation. He could feel a new sense of strength, a power he had not felt just a few hours before!

His earlier anger vanished almost entirely, his elongated lizardlike face revealed a hideous-looking, but at the same time, goofy smile.

"This feeling! Ah, I missed it so much!" He exclaimed in his mind, wanting to shout at the sky if he could!

To test himself, Aziel looked around trying to find a small rock. When he finally did, he grabbed it with his right clawed hand and began to exert some pressure, gradually increasing it along the way. Testing the limits of his newfound might and attempting to see what would happen.

*CRACK!*

As he was squeezing the rock, it began to visibly crack within his hands.

Seeing this Aziel used all of the pressure he could exert with his current frame.

*CRACK!* *CRUMBLE!*

The rock began to break apart completely, shards fell out of Aziel's hand.

He was speechless to what he was seeing, flabbergasted at how strong he became after just one passage of his [Essence Restitute] cycle.

But, before he could revel in his newfound strength, he sensed something behind him.

This uncomfortable feeling made him rapidly turn around facing the incoming threat. This time there was no fear visible anywhere on his face, his eyes were lit with determination.

From behind a bush, Aziel saw the creature that had chased him when he first arrived. Though he couldn't be certain, something was telling him that this was the exact same creature that engorged on his flesh just a few hours ago.

The realization that this was the very same creature made him livid.

"Oh... You will regret this arrogance of yours..." Aziel sneered in his mind, only releasing a guttural, hoarse growl through his jaws.

As he exclaimed the creature suddenly bolted from its cover, running at him, flashing its teeth and the claws that could tear apart any normal person. The creature was releasing a massive amount of killing intent towards Aziel.

Yet, Aziel did not back down, but instead, he planted his feet and ran at the creature with full force, ready to rip the filth in two.

He roared, startling the wildlife of the prehistoric jungle.

Both ran at each other at full speed, and when they collided.

*BOOM!*

An explosion of sound was released on impact, frightening the creatures, causing them to frantically escape from the source.

Aziel turned out to be the victor from their initial clash in the end! He tackled the creature and pinned it onto the floor. He began to tear into its flesh with no restraint, showing no remorse, no mercy to the overgrown lizard.

He continued tearing away flesh and skin without rest until it slowly began to deform from the force of impact behind each of his blows. Initially, the creature tried to retaliate by jamming its claws into Aziel's sides, but this was deemed futile as it only served to fuel the rage of its opponent causing its vicious attacks to speed up.

He kept on pounding and tearing long after as the creature was reduced to just an extremely deformed pile of fleshy mass, white silvery shards of the remnant fragments of its bones splattered all across the once-green lush soil.

Feeling satisfied by his victory, Aziel sighed contently and got up from the carcass of the creature just as its mutilated corpse began to liquefy and fuse into his body.

As this happened, Aziel's body began to heat up, and morph, his skin thickened, his teeth sharpened, his claws growing fiercer than before. Once again, his body felt more powerful than before.

A boiling primordial urge swelled up within him, he took a deep breath, looked up to the sky, clenching his clawed limbs and tightening his chest.

When the feeling finally became uncontainable, he closed his eyes.

"RAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!" he let out a roar so loud, the air began to violently vibrate in response to his call.

The sounds of animals could be heard in the distance, acknowledging the birth of a new predator.

*GRUMBLE!*

Aziel's stomach grumbled, the last chain of events had made him hungry beyond belief.

A new crooked, terrifying smile crept upon his face, as he continued his trek.

"Let's find something to eat."

...

Delving into what seemed to be the endless hunt for food, Aziel came across a large variety of creatures. Some small, while others so large that their steps alone could shake the ground. There were some truly massive creatures out there.

He couldn't help but be astounded by the sight of these massive giants, yet at the same time, a newfound excitement also began to take its root. Such new, unique life forms, so vastly different from Nova... Yet so rich and diversified! Maybe, just maybe there may be something to gain from his exile.

To pass the time, he went around hunting the smaller critters, consuming them to make himself just a tiny bit stronger every time he did so, as well as to gain the traits they had accumulated. He had eaten the first couple to quell his hunger, but he mostly stuck to assimilating them into himself.

He had benefited a lot from absorbing these creatures, gaining a noticeable speed boost; he had even adopted a more scaly appearance due to killing another one of those smaller predators he killed first.

One of the first few creatures he came across was a snake, however, calling that monster just a simple snake would be an incredible understatement. Despite its appearance showing it to be one, its sheer size alone contradicted that fact.

It was over hundreds of times the size of anything Aziel had come across in his more than 1500 years of existence!

When Aziel had first seen the monstrous creature, he was greatly intimidated.

After all, it was much different from that thing he had fought when he first arrived. The monster did not only dwarf it in size but in sheer strength as well! Fighting it was the last thing that was on his mind.

But, despite his unwillingness to face this thing, he had no choice as the damn beast looked in his direction and noticed him.

At first, it didn't move, but not too long after spotting its prey, it began to rapidly slither towards Aziel. This had startled him, and before he could do anything it wrapped itself around his small lithe frame, trapping him as it slowly wrapped itself tighter and tighter around his body, squeezing the life out of him.

Aziel was trapped, unable to move, barely able to breathe as it just kept getting tighter, he was becoming frantic, trying to shake himself loose. Sadly, this did nothing but speed up the inevitable.

As a last-ditch effort, Aziel tried using the claws hoping to carve a path towards escape from this vile creature's entanglement. This proved fruitless as the scales were too thick for him to puncture. He even used his fangs to bite into it in an attempt to get it to loosen its grip even if it was just a little.

*CRACK!*

Ultimately the sound of bones breaking could be heard.

To Aziel's dismay, the grip on him only tightened. He could feel his lungs collapsing, and as his heart was pierced by one of his broken bones, crushing him in the process, he breathed his last, leading to his second death in this new harsh world.

'F*cking hell...' He cursed inwardly just before everything turned dark.. Again.