I finally did it. My body had returned, and I was back alive.


    Now I had to figure out what happened after I died. More importantly, I need to find my way back to hell.


    It seems that the ritual Andras had done to breach the barrier between Hell and the living realm has either been dispelled, or he’s dead. I might also just have died with all my power when I died in the war... That would mean Hell has a new second strongest demon.


    I can still siphon and control the souls of the living though, so maybe I can still get my position back. But if I''m going to do that, I need to solve the issue that I figured out earlier.


    I need to find an especially unique demon... Wasn’t there a grey demon in that war? I vaguely remember seeing someone like that.


    If I remember, he could make weapons out of his body. That sounds like the type of demon I need to talk to.


    But first I need to become less conspicuous. I’m too tall and... too demonic to just walk around in public. I need to find someone to possess.


    I looked down at the cobblestone roads below as I clenched my claws around the edge of the roof. There’s bound to be a woman who will suit my needs walking by here eventually...


    My vision changed to outline people by gender by coloring males blue and females green. There were a lot of women walking down there, I just needed to pick one...


    Then I saw the perfect host. She was tall for a human, but more importantly she had just the physique I was looking for. She''s the perfect host.


    I leapt off the roof and tackled the woman to the ground. They were surprised at first, but the surprise quickly turned to anger as they grabbed my hand with both of theirs.


    “What the hell?!”


    I smiled wide and clenched my hand around her neck. “You’ll make a fine puppet.”


    I smashed my larger body against the woman’s, forcing my energies to flow into her and occupy the flesh-space inside. Her soul was in there with me, but I needed her alive; else the body would simply die and become useless to me.


    “Let... Go of me!”


    As soon as the words left her mouth, I finished the demon bind. Perfect.


    Hello there. Now that we’re in here together, what do you say we get to know each other better? My name is Heltana.


    The woman I had taken control of lifted herself off the floor and then clenched her head.


    ‘Are you... in my mind?!’


    Yep.


    ‘What... what did you do to me?!


    The woman was speaking aloud, causing the crowd that had formed around her to step back in horror. One of the villagers broke off from the circle, likely going to get the city guards.


    Sorry sweetheart, I''ll have to explain this later. I hope you don’t mind if I take control of your body for a moment!


    As soon as I finished saying that I overrode the electrical impulses coming from my hosts brain and pointed her palms toward the ground, firing off some hellfire. As we started flying up into the sky, the woman I was puppeteering started speaking out loud again.


    ''This is not real. This is just a dream, and I''ll wake up soon. Just close your eyes and go to sleep.’


    I rolled my eyes and focused on where we should land.


    "So, you’re a demon.”


    “Yep.”


    "And why exactly did you choose me to be your host, again?"


    I had landed us on top of a mountain and gone outside of Helenas’ body (that was the name of my new host). We had been talking for a little while, as she understandably had a lot of questions.


    “The biggest reason was your physique, to be honest. As you can see, I sport quite the voluptuous body and when you merge with a human it is important to find a human sporting similar features.”


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Helena looked up at me from where she was sitting and snorted. “You got that right. You look like you purposefully made your body to be as sexy as possible.”


    I chuckled slightly. “Yeah, so? I mean, look at yourself. I could say the same thing about you.”


    I could see her cheeks flush red as she turned away from me with her hands crossed over her chest.


    I turned around to the horizon again and panned my gaze around the vast, open landscape. “Have you ever been anywhere outside your city before?”


    I could hear Helena stand up behind me and she quickly moved over to stand next to me looking at the horizon. “Not really… Why?”


    I furrowed my brow slightly. “There’s… a city we need to find. It’s called valentine.”


    Helena looked puzzled and looked back over to her own city for a moment before shrugging. “I’ve never heard of a city called that. But after you showed my entire hometown that I’m possessed by a demon now, I think I can’t return anytime soon anyway.”


    She let out a contemplative sigh. “I’ll tag along with you. My life has been so dull and boring up until now anyway, it’s high time I actually got to see the world.”


    I smiled broadly before patting Helena on the head. “Good girl.”


    (Just to be clear, Heltana is 2.60m tall, whilst Helena is 1.9m. How does Heltana fit inside Helena’s body? Well, Heltana can change her proportions at will, which (after her death) now also includes her height.)


    “So, where we headed?”


    I spent some time teaching Helena how to fly using hellfire. It took some practice, but the few times Helena would damage her body (through mostly colliding with trees or walls) I would simply heal the damage.


    ‘Okay… I think I got it.’


    Helena now hovered neatly above the small clearing I had spied in the forest below the mountain and was smiling happily.


    Yes, very good. Now, remember last time. Don’t go full speed right off the bat, increase the throttle slowly.


    Helena nodded and increased the flames slightly. ‘Like that?’


    Very good. Now, try to land safely on the mountain we stood on a minute ago.


    I watched passively as Helena increased the speed a little more, and we started ascending the cliff-face quickly. I noticed that Helenas’ heartbeat went a little faster than before, and that she had begun smiling. ‘I got it!’


    It didn’t take long for us to reach the top, where she stopped mid-air and hovered gracefully.


    Now you just need to land. Preferably without shattering your femur. Again.


    Helena nodded and leant forward a little, causing us to drift above the safety of the mountain peak yet again. (I had taken the liberty to preemptively flatten the peak to make it easier for Helena to land on.)


    Now, release.


    Helena picked up on my lie and smacked her lips defiantly. ‘Oho, you’re not getting me twice with that one.’


    I smiled broadly as Helena slowly decreased the throttle of hellfire, eventually causing her feet to tap against the stone floor of the mountain with softness akin to silk.


    ‘I-I did it!’


    I manifested my head outside Helenas body and smiled at her. “You did it.”


    Helena looked at me with a broad smile on her face, almost like a child. “That was… Wow, that was amazing!”


    I snickered slightly. I suppose if it was the first time I flew, I would feel the same way.


    “But… What do we do now?”


    My smile faded a bit, and I quickly let out a hum. “Our best bet is still to find Valentine. The only problem is… This landscape looks so foreign to me. Do you know the name of the largest city around here?”


    Helena sat down on the ground and put a finger under her chin. “I’ve never seen it myself, but my mom always spoke of our capitol when she… was alive. She told me it was the most beautiful city she ever visited… Never said the name though, only the directions to get there. It should be off somewhere east of my hometown.”


    Helena got on her legs again and pointed toward east, past some mountains in the distance. “She said it was right past those mountains there.”


    I nodded and pulled my head back inside Helenas’. Let’s go then. There’s bound to be someone who knows how to find Valentine there.


    Sorry about your mom, by the way.


    Helena sighed and kicked off the mountaintop before starting to fly. ‘It’s all right. It was a long time ago.’


    We flew from mountaintop to mountaintop. None of the mountains looked familiar to me, unfortunately. The winds must have carried whatever remained of my body very, very far away…


    ‘I think that’s the capitol down there, Heltana.’


    Helena pointed a finger toward the ground, right at a very large and pompous-looking castle. Good eye. Let’s land.


    Helena quickly stopped the hellfire, and we began falling toward the ground. It didn’t take long for us to reach the forest canopies, and before long we had reached the underbrush. Helena took care to soften the landing with hellfire.


    ‘If we had just landed in the middle of the city, people might ask questions. If we do it this way, we’ll seem like just another weary traveler.’


    I smiled. Good thinking. I’m not used to having to be so inconspicuous. When I was second strongest in Hell, it was a borderline necessity to show off. Having to be so… silent is not something I’m used to.


    ‘It’s okay, I’m here. Just follow my steps.’