The Light Born In The Darkness (CH 52)

A/N: This story is rated M for mature content not suitable for children.

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Chapter 52: The Inversion Gambit

Bael Territory

“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Naruto thought frantically as he sensed Trihexa's power tearing through the shadow dimension to reenter the Underworld. This would lead to the collapse of the shadow dimension, which was as boundless as the beast itself. He could see the shadows of himself and those around him contorting and deforming under Trihexa’s influence. “What should I do? If I confront Trihexa alone, there's no assurance that I’ll come out victorious.”

Naruto wasn't overly worried about the shadow dimension since it would restore itself on its own. However, he had less than a minute to devise a strategy to confront the Apocalypse Beast, especially now that Lord Lucifer had been overtaken by its strength.

Naruto took a moment to steady his thoughts and considered his choices. One option was to free the pillar devils and request their assistance in battling Trihexa, the shared adversary that threatened to annihilate everything. "As if I would turn to those traitors for help," he mused, finding it somewhat amusing given that he himself had once betrayed Lord Lucifer. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that the pillar devils would ultimately betray him as well.

The alternative was to allow Trihexa to rampage through the territory of the pillar devils while he evacuated his people and departed for Earth. After that, he would drop the barrier, allowing the pillar devils, fallen angels, and other residents of the underworld to confront Trihexa.

Naruto contemplated, "I doubt that even if the entire underworld joined forces after my faction departs, they could handle Trihexa," as he observed the creature's tremendous power seep into the world, reducing everything it touched to nothing. "What should I do now?"

Naruto reflected on the situation as Mio and Maria approached him. Zekram Bael arrived and sought counsel from Lord Balial, while Magdaran remained off to the side. Their fight had paused due to the looming danger posed by the beast, which threatened to wreak havoc across the underworld. All the skirmishes had ceased, as everyone sensed that something ominous was imminent.

"What's happening?" Maria inquired, trembling from the unsettling energy emanating from an invisible source. "What is generating all this sinister force?"

Naruto quickly explained, "That's Trihexa, the Apocalypse's Emperor Beast. Lord Lucifer gifted Lord Bael a devil gear infused with his soul and the beast's power. Now, it's taken control and the destructive monster is on its way after breaking through the shadow dimension."

"What are we going to do?" Mio exclaimed, clearly distressed. She understood that battling one of the Apocalypse Beasts was a death wish; Naruto had only been able to defeat Ophis because she had become careless, along with a bit of luck. "It's all the pillar devils' fault! Why do we always have to clean up their messes? They should take responsibility for their own problems."

Naruto consented to the idea, but most of the Pillar devil faction was confined within the territory of the extra demon faction. As he contemplated this, a devious plan formed in his mind, accompanied by a sly smile.

"Ophis," Naruto called out as he made a magical circle near his ear to talk to his little dragon. "Can you teleport everyone in your barrier to my location?"

Ophis is an eternal entity, much like The Great Red, known as the dragon of dreams, and Trihexa. Any confrontation between them would typically result in a deadlock; however, with the right allies, it is feasible for one creature to triumph over the other.

"I have the ability to control everything within my perfect cube," responded a monotonous female voice. "Would you like me to proceed with that now?"

"Yes, bring everyone within your barrier and bring them here now," Naruto commanded. Almost immediately, he found himself encircled by all the devils from the pillar houses that was within the barrier. "That’s not what I intended when I said to bring them here."

Sirzechs, Ajuka, Serafall, and Falbium observed Satanchia along with his spouses, but just as they were about to launch an assault, Trihexa escaped into the underworld.

"Looks like it's time for us to go," Naruto remarked, swiftly teleporting away with Mio and Maria, leaving the pillar devils to handle Trihexa. Meanwhile, he was mentally strategizing the most effective way to defeat or contain Trihexa without giving the pillar devils an opportunity to turn on him.

With Naruto absent, Sirzechs and the other Satans, along with their forces, prepare for an epic confrontation—one that will cost many lives.

Naruto, Mio, and Maria reappeared in a silent flash of Dark-magic, materializing miles away from the Bael territory. The air was already heavy, tasting of ozone and something anciently sour.

"The power of that thing is terrifying," Maria murmured, her voice quaking as she gazed at the horizon. A swirling mass of raw, chaotic energy was ripping apart the fabric of reality where they had just stood. They were indeed at war, but wouldn't it make sense to set aside their conflicts and unite to confront that beast?

"I'll leave it to the leaders of the Anti-Satan Faction to take care of things for the time being," Naruto said in a monotone voice, observing the distant disaster as it unfolded. "After all, it's their responsibility to safeguard their faction."

"But they won't succeed! And once they fail, it will be our turn!" Mio argued, her earlier anxiety resurfacing.

"You're right. They can't win," Naruto agreed, his eyes narrowing. "That's the point. My plan wasn't just to dump them there; it was to force them to expend their full power. They are arrogant, but they won't let Trihexa rampage unchecked. They will fight. They will bleed. And they will show me everything I need to know."

Just as he spoke, the monstrous form of Trihexa finished pulling itself from the collapsing shadow dimension. It was a grotesque, ever-shifting mountain of flesh, eyes, and maws, wreathed in a crimson-black aura that didn't just burn the land—it erased it.

"That's... disgusting," Mio breathed, horrified.

"That," a monotonous voice said, "is its true form. Limitless, chaotic, and without will." Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon, had appeared beside them, her small form belying the infinite power she radiated. "It is just 'existing' and its existence is annihilation."

Far in the distance, the fight began. Even miles away, the power was staggering. A torrent of pure Power of Destruction—Sirzechs's signature—lashed out, vaporizing one of Trihexa's massive limbs. But the limb regrew instantly, and the beast didn't even flinch. It merely swatted in Sirzechs's direction, and a wave of nullifying energy forced the Satan to teleport frantically.

Ajuka's Kankara Formula flared, creating complex geometric patterns in the air, attempting to analyze and redirect the beast's aura. The formulas cracked and shattered almost immediately; Trihexa's power was too primal, too chaotic to be calculated. Serafall's continent-freezing ice attacks turned to steam before they even made contact.

"They're ticks on that behemoth's hide," Naruto observed, his Divination sight active. He wasn't watching the Satans; he was watching Trihexa. He saw the flow of its power, the way it moved, the way it reacted. "It's not fighting them. It's just... swatting."

"Naruto, what is your real plan?" Mio asked, sensing his terrifying calm. "You can't mean to just watch things play out and do nothing."

Mio and Maria were indifferent towards the Anti-Satan Faction but since they attacked them their home they would return the favor but letting all the innocent devils fall to this beast seem wrong, also they recognized that they might require their assistance to overcome Trihexa.

"Ophis," Naruto said, ignoring Mio for a moment. "You said that it you, The Dragon of Dreams and it (Trihexa) are its equal. But 'equal' isn't going to bring us victory. We need to be more to win."

"It is limitless," Ophis stated simply.

"You're right about that but I still defeated you," Naruto replied, pointing to himself. " But all of this stems from the arrogance of the pillar and the devils of Satan clan; Lucifer unleashed a monster that will ultimately threaten my people. I plan to put a stop to it, but I will do it my way."

He turned to Mio and Maria. "The Satans are showing us how it's attacking habits, but more importantly, they are making it focus on them for now."

Trihexa, aggravated by the Satans' persistent assault, unleashed a deafening roar that shook the entire Underworld. It focused its energy, and a dozen eyes swiveled, locking onto the distant, potent aura of Ophis and Naruto. It recognized them as the real threats.

A beam of pure, incandescent annihilation—a power that didn't burn or wound, but simply erased—lanced across the sky, aimed directly at their location.

Ophis moved to block, her own power flaring.

"No!" Naruto commanded. "This one is mine."

"Naruto, you can't!" Mio screamed. "Your magic—"

"Won't work," he finished for her, his Divination flashing a fatal outcome. BEAM HITS. INVERSION FAILS. NULLIFICATION. COMPLETE ERASURE. "Inversion can't convert 'nothing'. You can't heal from being erased."

Instead of blocking, Naruto activated his Balance Break. The obsidian Dragon Eater's Grasp armor covered his arm.

"BOOST! BOOST! BOOST! BOOST!"

Naruto didn't wait for the cooldown. He poured his magic into the gear, shattering its internal limits for a momentary, colossal spike in power. He didn't meet the beam. He raced it.

The Satanchia vanished from the rampart and reappeared in the sky, a black comet streaking toward Trihexa. He angled his approach, letting the edge of the annihilation beam graze his shadow-teleport, using its energy to slingshot himself even faster.

He burst through the beast's ambient aura, the Dragon Eater's Grasp on his arm roaring with a primal hunger, recognizing its ultimate prey.

"You are a beast," Naruto snarled, his voice a shockwave. "And the Dragon Eater has come to feast!"

He plunged his fist deep into the monstrous, shifting flesh of Trihexa. He didn't aim for a vital point; there were none. He aimed for the center.

"White Dragon's Bane!"

The primal dragon poison, the ultimate venom from his Devil Gear, flooded into the beast.

For the first time since its emergence, Trihexa screamed. It wasn't a roar; it was a shriek of genuine, agonizing pain. The divine, dragon-slaying poison was bypassing its nullification aura, attacking its very concept.

And it reacted.

It forgot the Satans. It forgot everything but the thing causing it pain. A hundred massive, physical tendrils, composed of condensed, physical matter rather than null-energy, lashed out from its body, aimed at the source of its agony.

Naruto, still embedded in its flesh, looked up.

Divination: IMPACT. PULVERIZATION. ATOMIZATION. COMPLETE PHYSICAL ANNIHILATION. DEATH.

"Got you," Naruto grinned, a bloody, manic expression on his face.

He let go, braced himself, and took the full, combined, physical counter-assault of the Apocalypse Beast.

BAM!

The sound was absolute, a thunderclap that dwarfed all others. Naruto's body was instantly crushed, his armor shattered, his form obliterated by a force that could shatter worlds.

...For less than a nanosecond.

Inversion Magic flared.

The "pulverization" was converted. The "atomization" was reversed. The "complete physical annihilation" was inverted into complete physical restoration and empowerment. The "death" was transformed into life.

A sun of pure, solid black energy exploded outward from the point of impact. The light of the Underworld was snuffed out, replaced by Naruto's absolute darkness. The shockwave sent Trihexa, a beast the size of a mountain range, reeling backward.

Naruto floated in the epicenter, his body not just healed, but remade. His aura was so vast, so dense, it dwarfed even Trihexa's for a second. He was overflowing with power stolen from the beast's own attack.

"You... you wounded yourself to...that..." Sirzechs stammered from miles away, clutching a ruined arm.

"He's a monster," Ajuka breathed, his calculations finally showing a result: ERROR: INFINITE.

Ajuka experienced an unusual feeling of pride knowing that his biological father possessed a strength greater than any other devil. He began to understand why his mother was so captivated by him; his immense power was absolutely mesmerizing.

"Ophis! NOW!" Naruto roared, his voice now the only sound in the suffocating darkness.

The Ouroboros Dragon appeared above the flailing, poisoned beast. She raised her hands. "Perfect Cube: Infinite Prison!"

Her power, the essence of the infinite, slammed down, not as only a cage, but as a compressor. The cube formed around Trihexa and began to shrink, forcing the beast's limitless mass into a finite space.

Trihexa thrashed, screaming as it was poisoned from within, compressed from without, and now, faced by the void-black god it had just created.

Naruto raised his hand. The Dragon Eater's Grasp reformed, no longer just armor, but a massive, spectral, draconic maw of shadows, dripping with the White Dragon's venom and burning with the Red Dragon's boost.

"Lucifer was a fool for attempting to take your power," Naruto proclaimed, his voice resonating with newfound strength from the apocalyptic assault. "Now, I'm simply here to claim it for myself."

Naruto thrust his arm forward. The spectral maw lunged it bypass the cube Ophis created, clamping down on the wound he had created. It bit into the beast, and the siphoning began. Trihexa's power, its very essence, began to pour from the wound, a river of crimson-black energy that flowed directly into Naruto's Devil Gear.

The beast shrank. The ground stopped eroding. The chaotic aura faded.

The Satans, bloody and beaten, could only watch in stunned silence as Naruto Satanchia, the traitor, the extra-demon, single-handedly and with impossible, suicidal cunning, began to devour the Emperor Beast of the Apocalypse.

Naruto let out a groan as the overwhelming force of Trihexa surged within him. The power was immense, and unlike Ophis, whose energy felt empty, Trihexa was driven by a destructive instinct. However, Naruto managed to harness his will to keep those urges at bay. Suddenly, he became aware of a shift in his environment.

Mindscape - Trihexa Soulscape

Naruto surveyed his surroundings, finding himself in an expanse of pristine white light. In front of him stood a figure that resembled a boy, but he was far from human, sporting horns and wings that combined features of various beings, ranging from devils and angels to dragons.

"Great, just great," Naruto muttered to himself as he recognized what lay before him. The powerful magical energy radiating from it made it clear—it was the core of Trihexa. "This is exactly what I was afraid of: the core of the beast has shifted to this body, leaving its sealed form behind."

Trihexa's true form remained bound by the biblical God, and the body it currently possessed originally belonged to Lord Bael. This body was subsequently overtaken by Lord Lucifer, who was then dominated by the power of the Apocalypse Beast.

Naruto understood that if the core completely transferred to this new body, the battle would become significantly tougher. Therefore, he needed to prevent it from fully manifesting at this moment and eliminate Lord Bael's body to ensure that Trihexa would not be incarnated in the world.

Chapter End

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A/N: In the upcoming chapter, Naruto will confront the core of Trihexa within its Mindscape, while externally, the four Satans are forced to battle the creature's physical form as it instinctively seeks destruction. I appreciate all your support, and until we meet again!