His reply made the demon god laugh. It roared in his head with laughter of derision. "You? You believe that you can become stronger than me? You?"
Ragnarok didn't reply. But his silence is answer enough.
Then the demon god yelled in his head. "Stop daydreaming you ignorant boy. Do you think you can acquire my level of power just because you try or have talent? You must be delusional."
It was CARNAGE's turn to feel insulted.
"Do you know what I had to do to reach where I am now? I will tell you. I started killing right from the moment I was born. I killed every day of my life. For every step that you have taken in your life, I have killed 10 people. I killed a plane's worth of beings and then consumed them to reach where I am."
CARNAGE is truly insulted. It didn't acquire its power through a bloodline and it didn't get any help from anyone. It was born in a hostile environment. Everyone around it was its enemy. It wasn't born special. Every demon is born the same just with different marks of sin. It grew up level by level through killing. It became a demon king of Carnage and then became the first of them to become a demon god.
CARNAGE is a unique existence in the abyss. There is no other demon god like it. And it is all due to its effort over hundreds of Origin cycles. Trillions of demons died whereas it succeeded. It has many reasons to be proud. But some mutt in some plane who has not lived for up to a thousand years believes that it can acquire his power.
It said with disdain, "As for you, you will be incredibly lucky to become an Origin god. And I eat Origin gods as snacks. So why don't you wake up to the real world? You are about to die. Do something to stop that. If you die now then you will never achieve your lofty dreams."
Ragnarok wasn't affected by the mocking laughter. He replied calmly, "I have potential. You can't deny that. I can become anything. I can become great or end up mediocre. But becoming your slave or subordinate, as you call it, will lead to the death of my potential. I will never be great. It is the same as dying to me. So I don't care if I die now to the child of the plane. I would rather die than shackle myself willingly to you."
The demon god grinned menacingly. It said, "You know, I am very curious about how you know about Origin gods and demon gods. You seem to know a lot about them for someone who has never left a backward settlement. It probably has something to do with your powerful soul. Are you the clone of some Origin god?"
"No, that doesn't make sense. The clone of an Origin god can't be this weak. You could be a special enigma. But why do you exist and what could be so special about you? These are difficult questions. Fortunately, I will be able to find out if I assimilate your soul forcefully. I should do that now since you don't care about your life. I might have lied earlier about not being able to do anything forcefully with you. I am a demon, after all."
The demon god ended its musing with a threat.
Ragnarok snickered. "Don't try to threaten me like that. It won't work on me. You are a demon god so you are not benevolent. Everything you do must gain you some kind of benefit. You haven't forcefully assimilated my soul and it can't be out of kindness. Your abstinence must be related to some kind of benefits or you simply can't do it."
The demon god sneered. "Is that so?"
Then it asked, "Do you want to find out?"
Ragnarok ignored the question. He went on to strike while the iron was hot.
"It could be that you are holding back because you won't gain much if you forcefully assimilate my soul. You will destroy my soul in the process. You know that, and I know that. So it is better for me to accept the assimilation willingly. You will be able to get more then. I will even have to answer any question you ask me."
"It could be that you can't assimilate my soul forcefully and have only been bluffing. Besides, even if you can assimilate my soul forcefully, you are not desperate enough to do so. If you were that desperate and willing to lose me then I need to be in actual danger."
The voice in his head was strangely quiet. But that didn't stop Ragnarok.
"For that to happen, you won't make your forces fight the child of the plane. You will let her get to me and actually threaten my life. Only then will you forcefully assimilate my soul. Assimilating my soul is a desperate move that a smart person like you will only do when you have tried and failed at everything to pressure me to accept assimilation willingly."
The demon god fell silent. Then it said, "You are too smart for your own good."
Ragnarok snickered. "That is something that both of us can agree on."
"Being smart is not always a good thing. And it surely isn't the solution to the problem that you are in. Mark my words mortal, I will have my way one way or the other. I always do. I will not be denied my prize."
Ragnarok scoffed. Then the two of them became silent. The sounds of explosions rocked the world around them. But even with danger so close to them, Ragnarok's mind and thoughts are somewhere else. He has so much to think about.
He isn't as carefree as he is behaving. He has been shackled with the heart of Carnage for more than a hundred years now. He was hoping for a miracle to free him but the window for miracles is coming to an end. He is running out of time. So he is testing the boundaries of the demon god and trying to see the limits of its abilities.