The mortally injured Phoenix-Fire Lion saw the way Nial approached them. Its cubs were struggling to sense their surroundings, open their eyes and get up from the ground.
They hadn't been born a long time ago and would need a few more days before their mind and body would be adapted enough to move and run properly.
Nial didn't say much after he made his proposal and he sat down on a throne manifested from compressed dark energy, waiting to hear the Lion's decision. He wanted to devilize the matured Phoenix-Fire Lion since it was a beast at the Mythician rank but he wouldn't force himself onto the Lion since that wasn't exactly helpful in terms of loyalty.
In the worst case, he would just devilize the cubs and turn them into his loyal subjects by raising them in a way that wouldn't leave them with any other choice but to follow him on their own accord.
Nial was ready to spread his dark energy and the Essence of Darkness through the severely injured Phoenix-Fire Lion which he showed quite clearly by creating the darkness domain in a radius of a kilometer around him. The dark energy that turned the ground pitch-black was trying to infiltrate the injured Phoenix-Fire Lion that resisted Nial at first.
"If you want to die, that's fine. I will take care of your cubs," Nial spoke in a rather nonchalant manner which made things more difficult for the adult Lion. It had no idea what exactly Nial would do with its cubs and it chose to accept the dark energy that had attempted to alter the cells inside its body.
The moment Nial sensed its willingness to change if that meant it could survive and raise its cubs properly, he released a tremendous amount of dark energy from his Sea of Darkness and the Heart of Darkness. More than half of his Essence of Darkness was merged with his dark energy that seemed to be pulsating as it flowed towards and inside the Phoenix-Fire Lion without any restraints, invigorating him.
The dark energy flooded inside the dying beast that could barely flinch when the eerily cold and ominous energy infiltrated every cell in its body. Nial quickly noticed that the dark energy focused on altering the Mana Sea of the beast, turning it into something slightly different than before.
It wouldn't be turned into a Sea of Darkness but bits of the mana released out of the Mana Sea would turn into bits of dark energy while the rest would stay around as it is. The brightly blazing flames of the Phoenix-Fire Lion's Mane were slowly turning dark and the same could be said about its yellowish-brown fur which began to change color starting out from its chest.
The Phoenix-Fire Lion's entire body was altered and a link was created between the owner of the Heart of Darkness and the new Devil that was being born.
It was the first time for Nial to create a Devil on his own but he felt that it was something very natural to him since the memories of the Late God of Darkness had revealed to him the ways how to create Devils tens of times.
The Late God of Darkness had many Devils, mostly created from unfortunate existences that had either been abandoned, betrayed, or nearly killed. Most Devils of the Late God of Darkness were miserable existences at the end of the day, and Nial could fully understand why that was the case.
He could feel that desperate existences were more willing to follow him since his powers would allow them to become much stronger than ever before. They could take revenge on those who had wronged them, even if the exchange was the loss of their freedom. However, that was hardly an issue as long as they had a good master, someone who wouldn't even think of abusing the rights of their superior tirelessly.
Nial didn't really abuse his powers in that regard. In fact, Kaeldur and Tyrant told him that they wanted to do more things and help him since it was way too boring to rest inside the Heart of Darkness all the time. It may be necessary to stay inside the Heart of Darkness to regain their old powers at a faster rate but that didn't mean they wanted to focus on regaining their powers 24/7.
Time passed slowly and a few Elvingar Elves at the Keltia rank had arrived next to Nial. He had sent Michael to bring him all Elvingar Elves who had joined the group to landscape the shelter and construct a few spots filled with nature and greenery all around in the shelter. Michael followed his command and brought the Elvingar Elves, who tended to the Phoenix-Fire Lion cubs to make sure that they would survive as well.
Meanwhile, the severed leg and tail of the adult Phoenix-Fire Lion was regrowing. Nial couldn't regrow the beast's limbs but he could create new limbs and body parts through the Devilization. It was a one-time thing and something that required a tremendous amount of dark energy and the Essence of Darkness to be utilized since it was far from easy to recreate a severed leg and tail from scratch.
Nial started with the recreation of the adult Phoenix-Fire Lion's tail which worked decently fine. The 'memory' of the adult Lion's body led to the recreation of the tail which ended up with the recreation of a similar tale to the Lion possessed before. A similar scenario occurred with its severed leg, just that the appearance of the new, regrowing leg was a little different. Dark hide covered the hind leg rather than fur, which was a stark contrast to the remaining body of the adult Phoenix-Fire Lion.
However, Nial couldn't really be bothered about that. He devilized the beast by tending to its wounds in the crudest possible way as this was his first experience doing so. He healed it by creating new flesh and covered the wounds with black hide that could be seen in more than two dozen different spots all over the Phoenix-Fire Lion.
It was a very interesting experience to devilize his first beast and he ignored his exhaustion as well as possible. Cold sweat trickled down his back, drenching his clothes just for a black flame to cover him all of a sudden.
The flame was searing hot but it didn't burn Nial or his clothes. He felt a soothing warmth spreading through his body while his sweat was evaporated in an instant.
Nial finished the devilization process and he spread out his range of perception to take a look at the changes that had occurred within the beast after it had been devilized.
'Increase in physical strength through the existence of dark energy in his body…its flames were also altered turning into…Eclipse Fire, and he is full of rage and vigor once again.' Nial concluded in his mind, while coming up with a new name for the Flames inside the Phoenix-Fire Lion whose entire genetics and DNA had been changed through the devilization.
Rather than a Phoenix-Fire Lion, it was now an Eclipse Fire Lion since Nial started to call the Fire as 'Eclipse Fire'.
"Looks like you've regained your strength," Nial dusted his hands as the Eclipse Fire Lion got up from the ground. The beast roared out loudly and stared at Nial for a few seconds before his gazes flicked over to his cubs that were being tended to.
"So, what's your name big one?"
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