Looking at the Demon Fire Worm run off in two directions, I was suddenly reminded of a joke from Earth.
One boring day in the ho of the earthworm family, the little earthworm had an idea to split himself into two for a round of badminton. The mama earthworm found it a great idea and decided to split herself into fours to play mahjong with herself. A while later, the papa earthworm turned himself into minced at to which the mama earthworm asked, with tears in her taphorical eyes: Why are you so dumb, dont you know that you will die when you split yourself so finely? The papa worm weakly answered: I suddenly wanted toplay soccer
Soccer? Well, its worth a shot.
I pointed at the worm which looked half dead by now and signalled for Big 4 to act: Split it into tens and see what happens.
Understood, Master.
Even though he didnt understand why I wanted to harm the worm even further, he enacted it without question. Realizing that Mo Na might get a little spooked by the sight of us harming little animalsI turned around out of concern and found her actually watching with glee. Perhaps the thought of seeing it split up like that seed interesting to her.
I guess its just overthinking things again, like a devil would get spooked by little animals getting hurt
Devils werent like humans at all. Simply put, they were a higher existence who possessed an inherited pool of knowledge that saved them a lot of learning ti. They were born with an innately strong constitution and the ability to regrow limbs. Once they gained the blessing of an original sin, their fire resistance would rise to a certain degree. Furthermore, it caused their body to evolve from a very basic lifeform to that of a more advanced species.
No matter how one looked at it, devils were clearly stronger than humans and yet they never managed to conquer the human realmthus humans could not be underestimated as well. Though they were born weak, they possessed infinite potential.
However, all that was a story for another day.
Having been quartered, the Demon Fire Worm lost the ability to crawl. After it was turned into minced at, it was clearly and beyond any shred of doubt, dead. It was an interesting set of results to be sure but the overall outco was that it proved how strong their survivability was. Moreover, this trait might just be a common ability of those living in Purgatory.
Theres no soul? I asked, clearly shocked. Every living creature had a soul, and this worm shouldnt be an exception or so I thought. Upon dying however, the expected soul didnt appear and instead, a husk of a soul could be seen dissipating into the air.
Dont tell their regeneration ability had sothing to do with their souls as well?
In order to figure the whole case of the disappearing soul, I had No.3 and Big 4 make another trip back to the lava river to catch another worm. Naturally, they were free to catch whatever fascinating lifeform they encountered on the way as well.
It had to be said however, lest I be confused for so sicko, I wasnt doing this out of sheer boredom, rather it was in order to learn about the environnt in Purgatory. Perhaps the two might have sounded unrelated but they were most definitely not.
In order to adapt to their environnt, living creatures would change to et the challenges they faced. For example, pesticides, when used often and without change, might lead to the pests evolving resistances to said chemicals. Those who couldnt survive would be wiped out and this would continue till, finally, the pests adapted.
Logically speaking, that should apply here as well, on that worm for example.
It didnt take long for No.3 and Big 4 to return, having done the sa not too long ago. As expected, they managed to catch another lifeform for to experint on. No.3 had two worms while Big 4 had in one hand, a worm, and in the other, he held a dark red fish and a salamander.
Master, we caught sothing new. Big 4 raised the fish and salamander as he called out to : While we were catching the worms, we so happened to stumble upon this fish chasing after a worm so we caught it.
The fish in question was most likely a Fire Devouring Fish. It was roughly half a ter long, had a giant mouth full of teeth that made it look like a piranha from Earth. Unlike those carnivorous fish however, the Fire Devouring Fish had a sturdy set of scales protecting it as if it was wearing a shiny set of armor.
The Fire Devouring Fish were the nesis of the Demon Fire Worms, and treated them as their staple source of food. Based on their outer appearances alone, I concluded that these fish most likely had a powerful attack of so sort.
First, I want a worm quartered. That job was handed over to No.3 becausethey truly disgusted .
No.3 imdiately set about doing his job. Stomping on one of the worms to prevent it from escaping, he then ripped the other worm into quarters.
Just like the previous worm we quartered, it slowly lost its lifeforce and just as it was about to die off, I spotted fragnts of its soul dissipating into the air.
Was the reason because it was split up into too many sections?
Bleed the other worm dry, I want to see if it will die.
It went without saying that it would die in the end; that wasnt the point of the experint however. The mont the last drop of its blood left its body, the worm died as expected and an intact soul popped out of its body.
Looking at the intact mass, I roughly had an idea of what was going on here. However, just to be sure, I had No.3 continue the experints. No.3 fetched the last surviving worm from Big 4 and then I had them bifurcate it before bleeding it dry.
Upon dying, the worm produced two souls. Unlike the first soul, they were slightly smaller in size and significantly weaker. Judging by their faintness, any further damage to them would most likely result in dissipation.
So thats how it worked, their soul split along with their body and that soul can only support one splitting before dissipating because of its weakness.
With that, the worm experints ca to an end and all that was left was that fish. Being an offensive oriented creature, what was most likely a Two-stars Fire Devouring Fish, imdiately started off by baring its teeth at as if it was threatening .
Big 4, I want you to see how hard are its outer scales.
Mhmhelp hold this. Big 4 handed over the salamander who had never once given up on struggling before grabbing the Fire Devouring Fishs tail with his left hand. Using his right, he clawed its scales directly. Imdiately, the sparkling scales shattered under his razor sharp claws, revealing a pinkish layer of at along with crimson-red blood.
With its scales broken, the Fire Devouring Fish started wiggling about violently in a desperate bid to bite the devil who injured it. Unfortunately for it, that was all for naught. It didnt even take the Four-stars Big 4 much effort to dodge all its clumsy attacks.
Master, the strength of its scales are about the sa as your shields. Big 4 answered as he fingered so of the torn off scales.
The results of that hardness test was shocking, to say the least. Its strength was actually comparable to my exquisitely crafted shields?!
Place that piece of scale you got in your hand into its mouth and see if it bites.
Acknowledging the order, Big 4 did just that and the brainless fish bit down as I had expected, without any hesitation whatsoever.
Upon contact, the first bite left a serious scratch on the scale. After a few more bites, it actually broke the scale in half!
These fishes truly had a strong set of choppers! Those scales of theirs arent too shabby either.
In conclusion, my experints had shown that Demon Fire Worms had regenerative abilities and were able to split themselves. Their attack power wasnt high but they were great at running away. The Fire Devouring Fish possessed an astonishing bite strength and sturdy set of scales, making them the perfect nesis for the Demon Fire Worms.
The worms splitting and regenerative abilities were most likely a result of the Fire Devouring Fishes hunting them down. One bite from those deadly teeth would most likely kill them. Thus, in order to survive, they adapted those two defensive abilities where one half would stay behind to distract the enemy while the other half ran away and recovered.
Truly, this was a case of survival of the fittest: unless one adapted, one died.
Kill that fish.
Big 4 imdiately stabbed his right hand into the fishs belly and ripped out its innards. However, even after such a grievous wound, the fish refused to die and instead it bit down viciously on Big 4s hand. Unfortunately for that struggling fish, there was no way it could ever win in the first place.
Five seconds later, the fish was officially dead and its soul popped out in response.
Mo Na, you can have these souls. Rubbing the little scamps noggin, I smiled at her gently and continued: Thats if you still have room for them of course.
Mo Na still can eat so more! With a free al placed right in front of her, it would be remiss of her to reject it and thus she happily gulped down the souls with a grin on her face. Having finished the al, her eyes closed slightly, a look of pure satisfaction written all over her face. Mama, those things were really tasty.
As long as you like them, there will be more to co.
Then can I eat this as well? Asked the ever curious little scamp as she pointed at the corpse of the fish discarded by Big 4. That looks tasty.
Youll have to pass on the at, the souls are ant for us. Raw fish? My baby girl, arent you disgusted by it at all?
Kay.
We ca to this foreign land known as Purgatory by accident instead of our true destination, Abaddon. Till now, we still werent familiar with this new environnt; it wouldnt be a stretch to call us blind at all. Furthermore, there were no signs of devils nearby and the harvesting rate of Red Lotuses werent ideal either. That ant that in the long term we would have to establish relations with the local powers in this place. Thus, this day of experintation ca about. Knowledge was the key to victories after all.
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