《It will end badly》 Prologue: a new mission The time was early spring. As if The cold wind hasn''t noticed the warm sun and hasn''t forgotten the cruel and long winter. Unobstructed by the blue sky, the wind howled and send shivers down the spines of the occupants of the royal palace. foreboding the horrible event that is about to take place. An old man furrowed as he noticed that the atmosphere wasn''t as it was yesterday nor the day before that... His name was Maximilian heindrich the 3rd. The king of this grand kingdom. It seemed as tho it was just yesterday, scratch that, It was yesterday, when everyone in the castle were jubilant as children before the happenings of the harvest festivities. That was thanks to the archmagus which announced that he will be able to acquire the divine blessing that they could bestow upon their most promising youths. It was a difficult proceedure that his difficulty could only be rivaled by the difficulty of finding the materials. "The hero" blessing. Double their growth rates and strengths. Allowing them to access elemental magic of all kinds. Aura skills and other bonuses. He could bestow it upon no less then 12 young men and women between the ages 16-20. All strong by their own right. The king was certain that With the ceremony they will surely succeed. It was the day before the divine announcement. Before all the denizens of the world, the gods will announce the challenge of this century. The entire morning was spent with talking to his son. One of their twelve chosen. He bestowed upon him the legendary sword "abyssal core" that runs in their family since the foundation of their kingdom. Attained by the first king when he succeeded in his mission. The mission that allowed a small dukedom to become one of the strongest standing kingdoms to date. Every century the gods will announce a mission that they had to accomplish. Simple right? The task was issued for all of humanity to perform, thus it will be accomplished without any difficulties. Humanity as a hole that is. The individual nation had to compete against the other nations on what nation will complete it first. The "rewards" for the victor were as one can expect from a mission bestowed by the gods. But that wasn''t all. The Victor''s kingdom would enjoy some privileges aswell. bountiful harvests, a shield from epidemics but the most important aspect was that The nation will grow stronger. But You won''t see middle aged gentlemen suddenly flexing biceps that rivaled their forms in their prime. The next generation will be stronger. Although it would only effect the future births for about 25 years. In these 25 years you''ll be able to build an army that can rival all nations. It was so absurd that a small dukedom could defeat a kingdom several times it size. it was the main reason all kingdoms, nations ,empires around the world wanted to raise the strongest party that could take on the god''s challenge. It was also why so many young and promising men died by the hands of their so called "comrades". But enough about the rewards. The rest can come later. What about the mission? What do the gods are so eager to accomplish so they go to such lengths? The church preach that they are guiding humanity towards salvation. Proclaiming they are allowing humanity to choose the most fitting to lead the fight against the other races. Tempering them against the other races and even against themselves. The other races have intelligence which rivals humanity. They constructed societies, developed their own culture and so on. Some will even argue that they are smarter and are more fitting to rule the land then Humans. The many races include Elves, dwarves, beast men, mermen, demons etc. The rest of the world didn''t wish for humanity to succeed or to put it in other words they had missions as well. so each race would participate aswell But usually their goals were contradicting the goals of the rest of the races.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. And so, like Maximilian, every other kingdom, every other palace Would conduct their own form of preparations. And on this uncharacteristically cold day, with this cold wind howling in each capital. The preparations were complete. ------------------------- Thus without further adieu let''s return to present day. It was still early spring but the cold wind was no where to be found. All the citizens of the world are celebrating the rare occasion of a new mission and praying for their success. *11:59am namuch kingdom. Maximilian set on his throne, by his side his wife. As she smiled and looked at him he noticed how beautiful she looked over the scenery. Adorned with the finest jewels made by the finest artisans, set on a similarly adorned throne as his. He grasped her hand and whispered "let us enjoy this day, regardless of the outcome". She looked at him with an expression that said "Of course, dear." Maximilian glanced towards the entrance and the newly arrived guests. The archmagus led the majority of the nobles which all took seats at the edges of the hall. Afterwards welcoming the 12 heroes the kingdom was able to produce, lead by his son. He looked like a figure of legend with his blue steel eyes that conveyed the will to conquer all that is before him. Maximilian met his son''s eyes and smiled with pride, the warmest kind a father could. The son returned his father''s smile with a grin as if implying "why are you acting so emotional and wierd today". Understanding how it might have looked Maximilian decided to proceed with the sceremony as soon as possible. He stood up and following him the rest of the nobles stood up as well as a show of respect. "Welcome my chosen". The 12 bowed down before their king. Even if they were this country chosen and by default they were entitled nobles of at least baron rank. They still knew their place. " I have chosen you children for the sole purpose of supporting this kingdom and yourself. I hope that you will succeed in your journey and find salvation for our beloved kingdom..." One of the bishops was so overwhelmed by his majesty''s speech he almost began to cry. But don''t blame him for his antics. He was truly moved by the almost fanatic speech of the king. Gods this, gods there. The church of the 4 god''s was the official religion of the kingdom. Thus the king needed to act the way so the church will still support him. Never the less It still made quite a few of the spectators'' eyes to role. The speach was so full of praises towards the gods and the church. That everyone could have sworn that their king was the devout follower of the "four gods church". They would have sworned so if they didn''t know their king. "...thus we reached this most holy of days and had the luck and good fortune to celebrate almost 400 years of our great kingdom..." It was 13:00 pm as the heavens opened and a beautiful voice of a woman echoed. This is believed to be the voice of the mother of all humanity that gave her life in order to save her son and daughter from the clutches of the demons. There were even several nations that worshiped the voice but Namuch wasn''t one of them. They only worshiped the "four gods." Yet they couldn''t argue that the voice was enchanting. But the contents were beyond disturbing. " Denizens of our world, the gods have decided the missions for you. The human gods have given humanity the following mission: Kill the demon apostle Azazel. Prevent the birth of the Demon god. Mission status: ongoing If you succeed all will remain as it was and we shall proceed to flourish. If you fail then the reprecautions will be unimaginable. Humanity might potentially be wiped from the face of the earth. I wish you luck my children." Everyone in the throne hall went silent. Never had the gods wished to kill someone. Even someone of the other races. And never they said the outcome might lead to the annihilation of the entire human race. The other races faced the same mission by their respective gods. Also expecting potential anihilation in the case of failure. The hall was silent then the croud started to murmur. A noisy bishop started to scream in the prays of the gods. That''s right. Scream. "The blessed Gods have decided to prevent the rise of another demon god!!! It is the war between the demons and the humans that was prophesied by the ancients!!! It is only natural for them to grow tired of the blasphemous race, We must...." "Shut it!" The angered king bellowed. The murmur quieted down in an instant as all didn''t dare to disrespect the king. Maximilian thought of what he should do. There was no way that humanity can afford to make this mission a race. The first thing that takes priority is the complition of the task. Thus a unified task force be established. But what if there might be traitors amongst the heroes. All nations want the rewards and this event is no exception to the rule. But that can wait for later. "First we must contact the neigh..." But before he could end his sentence he was interrupted. "The system has detected a change in the target. The new evil god "Avadon" has descended. The new evil god "avsalom" has descended. The new evil god "heresael" has descended. Killing the evil god''s was deemed impossible to mortals, thus the gods shall provide assistance. Kill Azazel no matter what." A few months pasaed by. The gods have descended to battle against the evil gods. And yet time moved on. The races started to grow accustumed to the new situation. " A new tier of being has been discovered. An evil high god. Evil high god "&-(484(_(-+&+&¡ê" has descended. Mission status: Failed All hope is lost." 1 second. 2seconds. The human capitals. The deserts of the beast men. The oceans of mermen. entire continents errupted in pandemonium. Havoc spread across the world because of the tantalising news. Everyone were on the verge crying even grown men as they hugged their sons and daughters not knowing what the future entails for them. Well... Everyone except the demons. They were quite happy with themselves. Chapter 1: A Sunny day The sunshine enveloped the streets of london. It was the end of summer yet the capital wasn''t laibored by the heat. It was a refreshing change from the constant grey and the civilian papulace took this chance to have fun. The children were in summer break, so the parents took the opportunity to enjoy the beaches. Couples were walking together hand in hand. And and you could see speeding cars rushing to the workplace. The city took the colours of life. On a grey sidewalk were 2 people walking leisurely. One of them was a charismatic young man in his late teens. His outer appearance could be described as the epitome of a "badboy". He was muscular , had a strong jawline and a sharp look in his eyes. Yet this young charismatic man isn''t our protagonist. Our story revolves around the one who walks beside him. His name is John Irewood. He was born in the dying years of the second millennium. Less then a decade before the world welcomed the 2000th year AC. a tall and gentlemanly grandpa. When he was in his 50s he could still be considered a strong intelligent and success full man. Now... Not so much. His strong build was gone as if someone sucked his vitality. His tall stature crumbled as his back grew a small hill. Or was it his tired neck which couldn''t support his head. Honestly that was negligible. What he cared about most was his mind. It started to fail him. Once when he could easily memorise entire pages of complex arrithmatic equations. once, he could quickly find his answers and started to come up with a solution. He laughed that the Paperwork was practically flying of his dask and the answers were returned to the recipient before the recipient could even send his question. Even tho he was just a humble electrical and electronics engineer, he took much pride in it. He took much pride in his job, his intellect, his looks and even more in his wife. 5 years ago they had their golden anniversary. They started a family together and grew old together. 3 years ago his health that could be considered above average for someone his age started to plummet. Sharply plummet. He glanced at his grandson, James Irewood. He reminded him of himself. Yesterday James started his 2nd year in university and they talked about how John used to work in a big successful company. It was now a big company but when he started to work there, there were less then 5 engineers. Now, worldwide there about 200 engineers. And each one had many employees that worked alongside them or under them. A total of a few thousand employees. In the future James would like to work there as well. It wasn''t difficult for John to arrange him a job. Even tho he was in pension he could still do as much if not more.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He took much pride in his job. And everyone took pride in him. For example his son Andrew named his firstborn James because he simply wanted his son''s name to sound familiar to his father''s. He did it subconsciously but he did it none the less. It became more apparent when the second son was born and was named Jack... Currently they were on their way to the hospital. John had a scheduled appointment. A simple scheduled appointment. The appointment ended with Dr. Harris finding nothing wrong with his lungs. And so his grandson took him home. " See gramps, you and the old man were worried for nothing. It was probably just a sore throat from all the time in the air conditioning." Dr. Harris didn''t find anything with his lungs. He thought maybe the heart could be the cause for the ache he felt in his chest but they did an echo and ECG check only a year ago and found nothing. So he dismissed the notion. "James, when you are going to find a nice girl to bring home? I would love to meet the one you are currently with." James reminded him of himself when he was young. Strong, handsome, intelligent But above all he was a prideful ass. Just like him before he met her. Evangeline White. Or how she was named after the marriage. Evangeline Irewood. Eve. His Eve. He noticed the change in his grandson a few weeks ago. He was less an ass and when he texted he had a calmer look. Almost peaceful, like everything was fine now. James thought of the notion of bringing her before his parents. Before his grandfather and what it simbolised. He had a few girlfriends but just one that his parents met. And that was just an accident. He looked at his gramps and said "Sure, I''d like that". They both parted and John went home. Had a bath. Went to bed. And had an heartattack. He had a very healthy heart 3 years ago. But in these 3 years gradually his heart... It grew weaker. Next to his tombstone was another. The person next to him died 3 years prior to this date. And so. He was buried next to Evangeline. The birds were chirping, the flowers looked nice lively. They still looked colorful as if they were still nurturing from the ground. after all the were just freshly picked this morning. Irewood was planted in the ground still kinda looking as if he was alive just like the flowers. But he is going to norture the ground while they will remain above, drying in the wind. The ceremony was lovely. It was a Sunny day. Everyone left. and Andrew stared at his father''s grave. Chapter 2: afterlife There was darkness. As I woke up I realised I couldn''t breath nor move. The pressure on my body was immense and the surrounding area was burning hot which wasn''t helping. I wasn''t in my room of that I was certain. Where am I? how I got in such a horrendous situation? will I get out? I wasn''t sure. I tried to get up but couldnt. The only thing that comforted me and enabled me to not lose hope was that with every big push of my legs. With every pained flailing of my arms I could feel the surrounding somehow fall under me and I moved upwards. At this point I realised I was drowning. I paniced and swung faster, pushed harder and struggled more frantically, more desperately then ever. I once almost drowned. It was when I went with my father, more then 70 years ago. In that time I was only 6 years old and the boat flipped over and the sea sucked me in. Like a monster from a nightmare, it tried to push me under the surface into its stomach. Luckily I didn''t reach the bottom. Me panicking and moving around kept me afloat enough for my father to realise that i wasnt next to him and find me. I started to get tired and take in sea water. But dad rescued me in time. I will never forget the taste of those waters for the rest of my life. Even with my old age making a mess out of my head, I can still remember that salty bitter taste clearly. This water was worse. Far , far worse. The water was bitter and i wished I didn''t have to taste it, this makes the sea water of back then to taste almost sweet . I wished i wasn''t here. As the air had trouble getting in. My eyes started to water. But I don''t think it''s just because of that. The stress and the fear of death were overwhelming. I don''t remember the last time I cried so much. Wait a moment. I remember, it was just 3 years ago. As I cry, struggle and fight for my life i wonder from where all this strength comes from. Somehow I feel.. different. I noticed something peculiar about my hands. Wait What the hell is wrong with my...!!!! Right when another disturbing thought came to my mind I felt the surface parting and my hand came out of the hot sea. I reached out and touched something that wasn''t that much cooler. What welcomed me was scorching hot air. Soldering hot air. I couldn''t make anything out of it. I couldn''t make anything out of what i saw. Maybe I''m in the hospital. unconscious and having a nightmare. I hope my family isn''t too worried. The visage that welcomed me looked as if it was carved out of the preachings of a mad priest. Blabbering about hell this, hell that. You are all going to burn in hell if you don''t accept jesus as your savior. All the fire. The burning sea that I just emerged from looked like... Lava. I remember my mother taking me to church. How I loved it and would gaze at the nice nuns and took every word of the priest. Like a man on the verge of dehydration take a glass of water. Not allowing a single sylable to escape. I remembered how it would mean the world to me as a child and even as I grew older.And how irrelevant and senseless it seems to me now. My mother was so infuriated by the fact that I stopped going and didn''t take her grandchildren to church. We didn''t talk for 4 months after that. I was when I was 34. It was after that happened. It was a nice sunny day, in the middle of August. That I stopped going to church. She forgave me and told me. " Do as you see fit". But still tried to lecture me when she visited. Convince me every time I was visiting her.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I really miss her sometimes. I seem to remember more lately. Old memories of an era that was no longer seemed to matter resurfaced. Details that were once covered in the dirt of time and old age seemed to return anew. Wait. I''m sidetracking again. I''m in Hot lava that flowed on the ground as if it was a river and demons were emerging from it and swimming towards solid ground. Let''s put aside the demons for a moment. The flow of the lava was intense, indicating it''s temperature. the lower the temperature the more solid it becomes.Atleast for most cases. Or so I tried to rationalize. But I touched it and nothing occured to me. Except for the horrifying sight of demons swimming. I felt fine. Infact i felt much better then usual. Alert and energised. Sharp and fast. Just like my old self again. Till this point I avoided my reality almost perfectly. I didn''t even glance at my hand and how it came in contact with the soldering liquid. I Reminisced the past just not to look at what is Infront of me. Unfortunately, several points were too strong for my mind to ignore. Point A. The demons. They emerged from the lava the same way I did. Which leads me to point B. The first breath I took sounded like a tiger''s roar just a bit deeper and lower. All the demons that emerged sounded like me. Which leads me to point C. If I was like them then it makes more sense as to how I survived. If I was a frail old man I wouldn''t be able to dig my way out of the earth. I would have died. I looked at my hand. Red. Red as the blood of the bitch. I think I didn''t woke up yesterday. I died. Died. I died. Oh god, I died!!! James ,jack. What about Andrew. My daughter Eli... Sweet little Anny. Grandpa is sorry.... Fuuuuuuuuck!!!!!!!! The sound that came out of my mouth wasn''t anything that any man could make. It''s only natural for me to end up in hell. I was a piece of shit in my youth. Then there was that. It''s most definitely that. I knew that I deserved to burn In Hell. But what surprises me is the fact that there is a hell to burn in. why I''m a demon? The demons are depicted as beings that their sole purpose in life is to make the damned miserable. Then why me, a supposedly "damned" currently having the same form of the demons? Perhaps the rest of the damned also share this form? Very unlikely.... Sigh I was saddened by my death. I knew that I had to say goodbye to them but I didn''t think I''ll need to "live" without my family. As I tried to distract my mind from the thought of my death. I didn''t get the chance to say goodbye. Was it to much to ask? Huh God? WAS IT?! Still sad, hurt and wrathful but more accepting towards my fate. I took a closer look at one of the demons next to me. He was only 5 meters away and strangely enough it didn''t seem to react to me. And I didn''t fear it. The thing before me could only be described as the textbook definition of the word "demon": horns ,tail, red skin and sharp teeth. The only stupid original thing is the face. There is no skin. And there isn''t a nose. Instead there are 2 thin slits, like those of a snake.the yellow pupilless eyes didn''t add to his charm either. I made a remark about the teeth haven''t I? They are sharp ,pointy and they are everywhere. The front, canine and back teeth are equally shaped and constructed. The only exception are the canines, they are larger. It is a maw that was made to tear apart flesh Although I''m not too certain. I think I would describe the surrounding demons as imps. I guess ,myself including... Why would I give such a whimsical description to such horror you might ask? It''s just because of the short limbs except for that, there is no other reason. There was something that doesn''t sit well with me. This situation... Something is wrong but I can''t seem to put my finger on it. Why am I not burning in hell. I deserve it. I''m not even going to argue. I am immune to lava. Currently I''m bathing in it and it does nothing to me. Suddenly I froze. A thought came to me. If I''m here, Where is she? Where is my Eve.i can only assume she is in heaven. I guess She took " my angel" literally. Will I meet her? What will she say when she sees me? While i was submerged in the thoughts of my wife and no longer cared for the reason of me being here, I got a friendly reminder of my location. A huge roar errupted and a giant emerged. It was more then 3 meters tall as we were about less then 1 meter tall. The giant had 2 long horns that grew from his forehead. We had 2 sharp protrusion on ours. It was obvious that he was at a different league.probably because of the horns. I just got the feeling that he was better... Probably a new demon thing. I frowned as I thought how I seemed to know that. The nearest 3 to him died instantly. A kick here, a fist there and they became meat paste. honestly it was horrible, imagine skinless demons screaming and crying as they are reduced to nothing more then squashed meat patties. Bones and everything. After witnessing such gruesome sight the rest started to run. Some tried to overpower him with number but it was pointless. This thing knew what he was doing and knew what we were Capable of. And that wasn''t much. So i did what any other sane person would do in such a situation. I ran to the hills. Chapter 3: The dead cant die. Currently im losing consciousness. breath away from dying inside a dark cave inside hell. Crazy I know. How did it come to this you ask? For that let''s return back in time -Half an hour earlier. I ran from Sir. Squashallot. It''s so fun running. It could have been better if I would just have been going for a midnight jog, I haven''t done one of those in a long time. You know what, running for my life isn''t so bad. Better yet ,what are the odds that he will decide to go after me. I looked back and immediately regretted doing so. Why? Our eyes connected as he went after me. I wasn''t near the rest of the imps. The majority ran in a different direction. Seeing as he could overpower so many of them it should have been an easy pick to run where there was more prey. Why choose 1 imp. Then I realised the feeling I gave of and the rest of the imps was a bit different. I can''t describe it in words but I seem to differ from them and the demon. I slow down and see a cave on the side. It''s a small crack on the side of the mountain just wide enough to allow me to go threw. And so I went inside. I went as deep as I heard muffled sounds of him trying to get inside. Impossible. I chose this cave for a reason. It was too narrow for him to squeeze himself. Forget him, I have very little maneuver space. The demon could only get inside at the first 10 meters deep. That would be difficult and he would need to crawl on all fours. After that he would be stuck... Stuck. I grinned as a thought flashed. I have enough weapons to kill him if I land a good hit. I''m reffering to my claws and teeth. My claws are less then an option tho, as they are to short. I guess i''ll have to depend on my maw. The rest of the demons couldn''t do much to him because he was too strong and fast for them. But if he was stuck it was a different scenario alltogether. I crawled slowly to take a quick glance at him. He was really stuck. He looked at me with a cold look in his eyes as I grinned and drew closer. Something seemed off. He is too calm. I didn''t dare to come closer any further and froze. I looked at the walls. And then on the ground. The entire process took only several seconds. Several seconds to many. He took a step and then another. I fucked up. I realised I fucked up the moment I looked at the walls and the floor and resumed running deeper in the cave. The mother fucker played me. I was played by an oversized ape. I should have anticipated this. I should have kept running. I knew he was intelligent. There were a few things that indicated it. In the beginning I saw that rest of the imps acted like animals. Apes to be precise. The way they walked on four, the growls and savagery in their attacks. All indicated that they didn''t put an emphasis on strategy.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The giant on the other hand walked on two and every attack was precise and hit its mark. Hit with a finess that could only be seen in armed combat between professionals. He moved silently with the least amount of wasted moves. It was very disturbing to just watch him coldly glancing at the imps as he slaughtered them. I realised he probably had a human level of intelligence. Or at the very least something acking to it. I thought that he wasn''t hunting us for food. He already got more then enough meat in the first minute of the massacre. So i projected the only other reason that someone will go on a hunt. Like humans. He might just be doing it for sports. Saw in it a form of entertainment and when he will see the majority of the imps go south he will go south. Not north the same way I was headed. At this point things went bad and then worse. After I saw the cave I thought that he will see it as a cramped space and give up. How naive of me. Then the final nail in my coffin. It tried to attract my attention and for me to think he was stuck by making all that ruckus. He just wanted to save all the headack of following me in the cave. I under astimated his mind and then I under astimated his strength. The atrocity was strong enough to carve his way through the cave. Hence the debris on the floor. I , in my Hybris thought that I caught him when in fact he caught me. I realised it but it doesn''t make a difference now. The distance is too short. even when he needs to carve his way through the cave and widening the hall he was still faster then me. Running away won''t save me now. I need to act. It''s not wrong that the cave is more advantagous to me. It still somehow slows him down. He can''t use his speed like he did there in the open. But he still has the upper hand... Upper hand... He likes to hit things with his fists and kicks. Then why not let him. I waited till he was about to reach less then a meter then me then I changed my direction and went right under him. I slipped between his legs. Because of the momentum of his fist and because he had to crawl on all fours he couldn''t act to stop me from reaching his back. Because of the restricted way it took him a while to face me again. By the time it took him to spin In place i jumped and lashed at his neck with my teeth. Barbaric, I know but it did the trick. I bit him so hard that a piece of his neck came off and blood was everywhere. While I was still trying to let the half torned neck out of my mouth he hit me. I vomited a huge portion of blood and I knew I broke several of my ribs. The pain was more then anything i ever experienced in my life. I had difficult time breathing. The giant fell on the ground and tried to crawl his way to me but he hit me to hard. He sent me flying to far away. Mid way he died. Even demons can die in hell. Even the damned can bleed. But can the already deceased die a second death? If so is it the final death? I don''t know. I''m too scared to think about it. I got lucky enough to kill him off. I don''t think I''ll be able to survive internal bleeding. For fucks sake I need to find my wife. I can''t die ye... That day I passed out without noticing how the entire siruation unfolded. That unholy son of goat didn''t die instantly. He didnt die because of the blood loss like you might expect a human would. He bled his soul out. Later on I would find out how demons. That only have the intelligence of monkeys at the start and to develop coherent human like thoughts when they are very strong. But how do they become so strong, so smart. If it''s an ape it might understand that 1+1=2. 1+2=3. But no matter how hard you try it won''t understand why 1+1+1=3. Never. They don''t have the equipment for that. Another point is i bleed ,have internal organs and finally became an imp then why am I still capable of human like thought when such thing should be impossible. If your intellect doesn''t depend on your brain then on what? It would take me a lot of time to find the answer. The answer is the soul. Chapter 4: a monster was born What is this abomination? A new batch of newborns came out. I could sense the distinction of a powerful soul. It''s to strong to be that of a newborn faceless. Hell it''s to strong to be that of a 50 year old great ogre. What in the world came from the sacred lava fountain!? I was a bit intimidated by the fact that something like that came out of the fountain. Currently it''s swimming towards the shore. It just stood there and started roaring. And then he abruptly stopped. Was I mistaken? He seemed numb skulled and stupid like the rest but that aura... If he is this strong why is he spreading it. He seems like he returned to his former thoughts. I get it. Probably one of those dark old Magus wanted to extend his lifespan but failed. Human Magus'' have several ways to prolong their lives. Although they''re usually reclusive I had the good fortune of eating one. Some of his knowledge was a bit lacking but if he was stronger I might not have been able to defeat him... He knew that there was a way for a great Magus to reincarnate himself. Even to other races. This might be it. By the aura of his soul he is definitely a very famous great Magnus with hundreds of years of knowledge and experience. Yet he decided to be reborn as a simple little faceless imp. Hahahaha... This is a golden opportunity that comes once in a lifetime. I''m quite fortunate. I just might... But first I have to wait if he kills this batch of imps to recover some of his former power. If he does it means he is capable of using his old magic but if he was a Magus of a certain element and didn''t get that affinity then he is good as dead. Several minutes went on and he still seemed to be stuck in his thoughts. Finally he sighed and glanced at his brothers and sisters. He failed. He failed!!!!! Now is my chance. As I came after him several of the others younglings thought of killing me and splitting my flesh between themselves. although I was also born in this very same fountain of red. It was 50 years ago. They are acking to my siblings. If you look at that for this point of view. But all that in my way must die. And so i killed all the little ones that were between me and the reincarnator. He saw me and fled towards a slim crack on the side of the mountain. Rock won''t be able to stop me.I struggled deeper but he seemed to hide somewhere. I need to bring him out and thought of a proper plan to bring him out think what a powerful Magus would think.. he would want to kill me because it is insulting for someone of his stature to flee from a simple demon. I only need to lay play a victim and he will somehow charge. I only need to make it believable. And like magic, once he took notice of my mayhem, he slowly but surely came closer. Just a bit more and he is mine. He stopped and formed a frown. I didn''t wait and went after him. I can make it!!! He went right on that corner. But there won''t be a next avoidance. he is fin... I messed up... That son of a Protestant whore... I fell on the ground. I hit him but wasn''t able to kill him instantly. He used the most basic of attacks. Which all demonic aligned beings are capable of. I tried to stop the flow and put a fight. It seemed we are tied. I only need to put him out of his misery While avoiding losing this ropetag competition. As long as I keep this up this fight is good as mine. Soul devourer. The most powerful attack that someone can hit with someone with a weaker soul. He knew in what aspect he had an advantage over me. The only aspect he had an advantage over me. It''s a solid strategy and trying to confine me so he can give one clean bite is very cunning of him. It is probably the only way out in this messy situation he got himself in. But a stronger soul isn''t nearly enough. He might have hundreds of years of experience in magic but this is my game. I was a demon much longer before he he was reborn with this ability. Also This scratch at the side of my neck is nothi.... *Tug* John''s soul gave a small pull and the ogre''s soul came out flying. He died in that moment in the middle of his way towards John. Not knowing what happened and not even realising his demise. The difference in a soul isn''t everything. The knowledge as to how to use the skill is also important. Till now he was correct. But if your opponent''s soul is too strong then you can do nothing as you watch your soul being devoured.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. A demon''s natural abilities are terrific. Some demons can have their entire blood drained and decapitated but that will only prevent them from moving. Their hearts will still beat. And they will replenish their blood over time. Even a small imp can fix a few broken ribs and an internal injuries in a matter of hours. This brings us back to John. Which is currently having a nice sweet dream. "You think you can just take my work like that and claim it as your own? Answer me bitch!" I gazed with my most menacing look towards Jennette. A colleague of mine. One of the first five engineers of the company. Me and her are fighting on who is going to be the next vice head engineer. I was 34 years old and even tho I was quite young I had many promotions. A rising star. It just so happened that the vice head engineer was currently vacant as the former died at the age of 67 not to old and a likable guy. My heart was with his family. The former guy had many accomplishments regarding a few of our key products. Being his replacement or his successor if you will is a huge deal. Seeing as I was still young if I could net this job I might become head engineer. One day and the prospect enticed me. I joined the company when she just started and was able to go up the ladder before the real competition began. Lately I was doing quite good and made real progress with a single aspect of a major project. When I thought I finally got the big bosses to like it. This cunt showed up. Jennette Bennington. At a forced glance she looked like a nice women. She had 3 kids and was expecting her first grandchild. She was only 52 and a bit young for a grandma. I only had Andrew which just stopped peeing in his diepers. She was much older then me and frankly speaking I looked up to her. Being an amazing angineer herself while still having time for raising a family couldn''t have been simple. Her work was simple yet elegant And most importantly it was functional. That was until she claimed ownership over my work and badmouthed me Infront of the heads. If it was only defeating me fairly I might have considded the seat to her and even congratulated her. she made it so not only she took my work she even tried to get me fired. She didn''t succeed. That said, it left a mark. Everyone at the workplace thought that I took a half finished plan that she started developing and just made it happen. She became the victim and I became the villian. I tried to tell everyone but no one listened. So I did the only thing I could do. I broke into her office and stole the work that was originally mine. Including the official dates of when the files were made with my signature in them. She couldn''t erase it as it would erase the entire file. There was no way she could make a new file from scratch in such a short period of time, so I presumed and I hit the mark. I was on the seventh plane. In my joy I didn''t notice her coming behind me. She probably forgot something and returned to her office. Just happened to find the door open with me in it. A disc-on-key in my hand. And so she tried to grab it. I didn''t let her. This led to that. I''m a big strong man while she is an aging small women. The outcome was obvious. Blood pumping threw my veins. The adrenaline focusing me to hit her with my best strike. She was unlucky. While she passed out she hit the door handle with the back of her head. It opened splendidly. At first I paniced and tried to check if she was ok and how hard she hit her head. I like to think she didn''t suffer much. She just passed out never to wake again. Sometimes I can still feel the warmth of her blood on my hands. The entire thing was blurred by the shock, the adrenaline and because my view was filled with tears. All I remember that unlike Jennette. My luck was exceptional. One of the security guards was asleep and I was able to get rid of the corpse. Tick here and there and the security records of that part of the building were unfortunately lost. I wiped the floor with bleach. Buried her and went home. The next day I showed the superiors my proofs. They said that they will compensate me ,fire Jennette while helping me sue her. But Jennette vanished. Even her husband didn''t know where she was. And like that the story died down. I became the brilliant poor sap that was tricked by the evil bitch. Everyone felt bad about taking her side and believing her and I smiled at them. Of course I never trusted another human being in that god forsakened company again. By the way I didn''t get the seat. There was never a competition over it. It was just my and Jennette''s assumption. The head engineer brought his niece''s husband. A useless ass that I don''t even know how he got threw highschool. The following Sunday: "honey, we will be late to church". Eve woke me up. I looked at her and said "I''m not going love, sorry". "Are you all right?" "I''m fine Eve don''t worry". I kissed her on the lips and saw little Andrew walk in. With his small feet making those adorable little sounds. I smiled and as I reached my hands to Andrew I saw the blood on my hands and remembered the shocked expression over Jennette''s face. A few seconds passed and I was frozen solid. Andrew with his little hands in the air, made a small whine Not understanding why I didn''t lift him up as I usually do. My wife looked at me strangely, noticing my pale face. "Are you sure you are fine dear?" I came about and blinked a few times realising I was looking at my son''s face. I smiled at him, lifted him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. He giggled because my unshaved face tickled him. "Of course love. I''m perfectly fine." I gave her one of my widest smiles and she gave me her''s. I looked at the door handle and saw blood dropping from it. My tainted bloody hands were warmly holding my son. All I could think about was how Jennette threatened my job and hence my ability to provide for my family. She threatened my family. She deserved to die. She deserved to die. She deserved to die. She deserved to die. She deserved to die..... Chapter 5: devour the soul ??? It''s good to wake up. Ever thought of going to sleep and never waking up? Well I have. let me tell ya, It''s unpleasant. More so when you re-live some of your worst memories. The first moment after you wake up you try to recall where you are and if you are still inside a dream. It''s seems even more surreal after you survived a punch from a 3 meters tall asshole that could carve a fucking cave In hell? Well I have. Let me tell ya. It''s fantastic. I''m alive! And I''m glad to be alive. I''m alive and This shit hole isn''t hell. Just another world. There are people here. Demons ,elves and all the kind of bitches you just might want to tear apart. I should have thought of it sooner. I just thought that I was given the option to breath so I can suffucate, Blood so I can bleed my life out. In hindsight it was quite silly of me. What is a point of giving the dead blood? Making them breath. Bestow them lungs. The kind that function. I still kinda think this is some kind of a sick twisted joke of karma as I saw myself as a demon. From that day that is. I saw myself as a monster and now... I really am one. This isn''t a cause totgrieve, but celebrate. The day I realised what the fuck I am. "I. Am. A. Monster!!!!" What came out of my throat was a low growl. It sounded old and rough but better then the first time I talked here. But the most astounding thing was that I seemed to have grown taller. Bigger. Stronger. If I need to make a guess I''m at the height of an average human being. "You. Can. Suck .my huge .demonic. Cock. Jennette". Hahahahaha!!!! "Buwahahahahahaha" I looked down and examined myself from my toes up. Red skin, buffed up, I would need to get used to this big fella. Its even bigger then old johnson. My manner of speech has changed as well. I don''t seem to care for curses as much as I used to... why didn''t I curse more often in my old life? I frown but don''t mind it as much. Maybe I should look what I got except for a new body. As I close my eyes I open them 2 minutes later. A knowing smile plays on my face. I see how it''s going to go. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Not John: I am not Vorse i have his memories but not so much as of John''s . Who is Vorse? The mid rank ogre, the shitty red gorilla that tried to kill John. I''m neither, I guess. I''m me! Vorse is probably dead. You can''t describe me as his old ego. But I don''t feel like John either. I am I and only I can be me. And the rest are history. When john took in that demon''s soul and some of his knowledge came flowing but not just the knowledge or memories. some aspects of his ego merged with those of john''s. The downside for that is I''m not really a part of John but just an appended ego that is functioning thanks to relying on his soul. So iI migh be considered a parasite, a new thing that grew in these few hours. Currently the real me is not independent so I have to rely on many of john''s soul parts. This doesn''t sit well with me. I should find a way to make my ego the main one and so I went outside. I should hunt some of my brother''s and sisters. It didn''t take me long to find some of the imps. Their souls were delicious. It was great. The hunt was fun, Exhilarating even. Since I started to devour the soul instantly the changes were expected to be instant as well but it wasn''t the case. The more I ate the more powerful I became but my soul refused to grow. I started to strengthen my body in accordance with a body strengthening technique or some bullshit along those lines. thanks to the soul of Vorse I learned a lot of new neat stuff. The problem is I''m getting tired very fast. So very tired... Something isnt right here... A sound of something falling was heard. Soon after snoring filled the vacancy. John''s point of view- I was awake the entire time. I could see hear and even understand thought that weren''t my own. That was unpleasant. The thing that took control of me can be described as nothing more then a cancerous tumor in my soul. I had some time to think and analyse what was happening to me and so I used the new knowledge imparted by the demon named Vorse. My soul looked like a sphere where 2 tiny globs were appended to it. One was dead. Nothing more then a bunch of memories but no activity. The other one had almost nothing but kept on increasing in size and showed alot of activity. Cancer. A bunch of cells that keep on multiplying without pause. Destroying the serrounding tishue in the process. ThisTwas the soul''s equivalent.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. It was still small but I don''t want him to fight back so I gone to "power save mode" and ran a process to pause the cancers development and even reverse it, in the meantime my soul will feed on him. I intentionally made it a slow process so he won''t notice and once he does it will be already too late. I have weakened his hold on me enough so I can take back control. Soon he became tired and fell asleep. I turned power save mode off and my soul returned to normal activity. I quickly disposed of the cancer using a spell... Technique.... Whatever it was it did the trick. I quickly made short work of what ever was left from Vorse. I was now completely fine and yet i felt something is wrong in the soul. I gazed at the darkest spot of the soul. The part pertaining to the memory that I killed Jennette. This is... This is almost poetic. Murder corrupts the soul. I don''t think it will be this literal. I knew that in the old world what I did was wrong but it was necessary for my family. Scratch that it was selfish and necessary for myself. Even when I stopped minding it in recent years it was because I realised that if you won''t look up to yourself no one else would. I remembered Jennette every day. Even cherished the pain because I knew it was an indication that somewhere deep inside I was still me. Which surprisingly is more accurate then I thought. I apologized and asked for forgiveness too many times. I asked for that which I didn''t deserve from someone that couldn''t forgive. I kept doing that and even went to church. Praying to God a final last time as I waited for a miracle. I remembered it took me sometime to realise it. A few years to be exact. Enough time to see a daughter being born. I realised that it was an accident. That I didn''t deserve to receive forgiveness and as such I should stop asking for it and make peace with what happened. That although she didn''t deserve to die. I didn''t deserve to either. Perhaps it could have ended differently but that no longer matters. I wasn''t a murderer, wasn''t a monster. I just fought you in a war you started and allowed to escalate when you saw that stupid disc-on-key. A sigh resounded. Tho it sounded more like a lion purring. The cancer opened an old wound that long ago healed but left a twisted scar. A soft spot.and then took root there. Well...a demon that thinks that he can take advantage of that is a dead demon. I decided to keep it and sworn to never allow it to corrupt me again. I needed to remember for it what led me to the person I am now. More accurately speaking despite that memory I fought on and became the person I am now. The spot remained as dark as it was. The demon. I was able to kill that ass. I felt weaker yet stronger then ever. I felt free like I could accomplish anything that I wanted. Tears of joy flowed down my face. It was hard, painful. I felt so violated. I ate his fucking soul it seems almost hilarious for me to say I felt violated. I think I know what happened. As I devoured the old demon I didn''t know what to do and further more I lost consciousness. I couldn''t properly digest the soul and I seemed to swallow it whole. I didn''t chew and didn''t digest it properly so some of its characteristics and personality were integrated in my own soul. That became the dark infection that soon spread across my soul. Or to put it more accurately they''re the reason the small infected area that started to appear earlier spread so rapidly. If you purify or "digest" the soul properly you can avoid these problems. It''s quite easy when you get the hang of it. That said there are several ways to become stronger. You can increase your body strength and mass. Like Vorse did. You can increase your soul mass, brilliance or whatever it''s made of, by using soul devourer. The problem is that you are polluting your soul with others'' soul. You won''t be the same individual. Those that practice this usually see a massive increase in power early on. But if I got it right the soul destabilises and self destruct. Not recommended. Few of the demons had enough knowledge pertaining to the soul. I got it threw the system. And so time ticked by. I continued to strengthen myself threw some of the teachings that Vorse knew. Some were fundamentally incorrect. I went to Vorse''s lair and started to rumage threw his stuff. I was not disappointed. Some of the things that he took over the years were very helpful. Books in languages that I didn''t know but soon gained knowledge pertaining towards them. Slowly I learned how to read and write in this world''s tongue, and perform magic. I grew stronger every day. Imps were my standard hunt. Or Some other poor demon. I came across a process to make myself stronger or superior to other demons. An evolution of sorts. The majority of my options were standard. Some were better then the others since they suited me better. Only 2 had what I wanted. But neither were humanoid. I found them quite disgusting really. The first option was something that looked like a something taken from a child''s nightmare. It had 2 short legs that could support him standing upwards. 2 long twisted arms that could reach the ground when he stood on both of its legs. Several horns sprouted from its head that formed a crown shape Around the head. It was a very strong demon. Probably my strongest option. The problem? it has two heads and it can no longer evolve further because his soul is so twisted it can no longer grow. It won''t self destruct but it''s function is very limited. I don''t want to live the rest of my life with that thing. Worse, the other head might do something I regret. The second option was a bit un assuming. A small imp with a normal face. It had elongated fingers and a strong connection to magic. It''s specialty is the soul and making deals. It depended on making deals to steal the souls of mortal men and strengthen his own. Very high potential. It was the weakest option but with the most potential. Its having a good affinity towards magic was also a plus to me as it will help me with developing a way to go find my wife''s soul. Wherever it may be. I shrank to 1.5 meters tall. My horns grew sharper and my body changed a shade to white. The fingers were the length of my entire forarm. I used a spell to look at mhself from a different angle. My face was that of a younger me. I wonder how it worked. If you had a form of your face the system grants you a face to match? I don''t know but it''s a small bonus. Also I got quite a few new spells. Spells are nothing more then complex algorithms that can be formed inside your body. Using your Innate mana and the soul. to manipulating the mana that surrounded you. If you have more control you can accomplish a stronger effect of a stronger spell all together. The soul uses these algorithms to effect reality with its power. The aura that surrounds your soul is the natural mana that stick to you or the mana that your soul produces. Basically a stronger soul equals a stronger control, more mana and higher process thinking. It all boils down to the soul. I need to make it bigger. _____________________________________ In the distance a shriek could be heard. A faceless demon died, falling to ground without any life in him. Another demon was standing over the corpse. It was none other than John. Currently I was devouring and purifying the demon''s soul. Then I ate it, absorbing it threw a spell i derived from several books. I studied the purification process so what happened yesterday won''t happen again. Today''s meal was a standard faceless demon. I really hope that cannibalism won''t have effects in the long run but I guess a guy needs to eat. Well... Bon appetit... Chapter 6: lonely On a burning continent that had far too many active volcanoes. There was a white demon. His black horns contrasted his white almost pristine colour. His eyes were blacker then the abyss. Where he once had wings that were undeveloped he now had nothing. For he forsakened the will to fly. His short height and hairless face gave him a youthful charm. He was not content with his outer appearance and wished to return to a more dignified form. Something that he long since grew accustomed to. A greying hair and a full beard. With that, this wasn''t the most pressing issue. The man grew homesick and wished to see his family. He missed his son and daughter. His grandchildren and even his old friends. Would they be overjoyed if he came out under the bed and ask "did you miss me? Look I''m no longer dead! Hahahaha!" Or would they be scared of his sharp teeth. Mortified by his strange elongated fingers. Or perhaps the terrifying black pits that he called eyes would end them the same way he left the world? A heartattack and a one way ticket to the next life cycle. The man... I mean demon, sighed. He felt perplexed. How is he going to mingle with humans and make his family believe him? They saw him being buried with their own 2 eyes. Maybe if he can talk to them and make them listen he will have a chance but with that appearance he was more likely to attract the attention of the FBI and other foriegn agencies. How did his line of thought always ended with his family being afraid of him...assuringly he thought that When he will be able to accomplish world travel or dimension travel he will surely be able to master an illusion or two. He tried to cheer himself. But there was some minor matters that all ways ,prevented that... "Don''t come near me!!!! STOP!!!!! Please stop,please..." A dead imp. Fell as John ripped his soul. Another down only 5000 more to go. Death. More death. A mountain of dead imps. he wasnt even trying... Let''s go back a few days. before imps and other lesser demons started to cry and talk to him. They just happen to come running towards him. Maddened by something... He didn''t have clue. So he proclaimed. He could only guess. Was it his white unnatural skin that attracted them and pissed them off... He crossed that option 2 weeks ago. A few days after the Vorse accident. He noticed how he was attacked by everything that came across him. He tried to attract his aura... his mana signature... He even tried to squeeze his soul. The outcome? Stronger demons emerged... Currently only small fries tried to attack him. As to why when he tried to suppress his aura it only did the opposite. it was probably that his aura repelled all that were capable of sensing it. Yet he couldn''t pin point the exact thing that pissed them off. Once he suppressed himself he still met only the weaklings but the day after he met someone else and had his first conversation in this world. "¡ê&+&¡ê/30485+¡ê(¡ê#¡é=^¡ã|{`}£¤}¡é[??". Or so it went. before he tried to fire something at him. He could sense the atmosphere change and the spell took form. If a normal Magus would look at it he would be stupefied. For it was a spell of the 4th tier. And the demon quickened it. But it was still to slow. As John felt that this could threaten him. He stopped suppressing his soul and his aura emerged. The terrified gentlemanly demon wet his pants and John took his soul. The spell fell apart and a huge amount of mana errupted. Indeed it was quite dangerous if he caught him by surprise. After that he stopped suppressing his aura. He wasn''t ready for this, he preferred to just stroll around without encountering any danger and devour anything that might come his way. Although the imps didn''t present any new knowledge but it still strengthened his soul. That until he met Mr fancy pants. Indeed he perhaps devoured dozens if not hundreds of imps by now but he didn''t feel that much stronger, yet once he devoured a single soul of a high tiered demon he was thrilled. This soul of a high tiered demon that might have lived for hundreds of years could only increase his soul by a meager amount. He purified the soul. Ate it and felt nothing different. Dr He guessed that the reason why he was able to get a higher form is because his soul was originally stronger. hence his power somehow affected his body. He deduced. He thought that knowledge is a key to the strength of the soul. And the soul was the key to a being''s intellect and processing speed. He wanted to experiment on the connection between the soul and the body but he needed a suitable guinea pig. He once tried to force an imp to use devourer on another imp. It went like he expected it to happen while he didn''t see any physical changes to the corpse. Further experimentation is needed and more suitable guinea pigs are needed. During these 3 weeks he didn''t seem to grow in strength. No matter how much imps he killed or how many souls he devoured.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Another demon was running... And with a "plop" it fell. Lifeless. "How do human mages grow stronger". I need to learn how to speak the demonic language and then ''ask around''. His efforts of interacting with the system continuaslly failed. He thought there might be something as useful as a menu that allowed him to acquire any language that he wished for or better yet any magic. Of course there wasn''t. The system was placed in order to monitor the inhabitants of the planet and perhaps guide a select few so they would do as the gods wish. It was never there to help. Only to impede all that could threaten the supremacy of the gods. It''s been well over a month. Let''s see what our hero has been up to. John''s point of view: currently In front of me was a crying hot babe that screamed. I am a dignified gentleman so it''s not what you think. Honest to god. More importantly then me being a gentleman, I still had Evangeline in my heart. Lets return a few days ago. I saw that the classy demon had clothes and I figured that I could take his shirt at least. Or maybe his hat. Why? Because I was still nude and I started to resemble a human being. I had nothing covering my privates and it was embarrassing to walk like that. Imagine, all day long for the past weeks now I was nude and hunted like a savage. Perhaps even worse. At least they have those loincloth. I slept in the occasional cave. Killed the occasional imp and scared the living hell out of everything that seemed like it had more then 2 cents in its head. Seeing huge ogre''s screaming like pathetic little girls could send shivers down the spines of the bravest and calmest of men. Anyways I thought I could snatch his shirt seeing as he no longer needed it. I saw that when his corpse vanished so did his clothes. His corpse vanishing isn''t new. As seeing as we demons are 100% magical beings. The mana that is no longer bound dispersed and the small amount of ashes simple flies in the wind. The clothes are apparently similarly constructed. Btw the physicue technique that Vorse had just allowed him to condense more mana in his body. Thus making it tougher. This aspect also allows demons can posses living beings but I don''t know how to do that yet. We can''t posses objects. And we can''t go threw walls. So if you want to wear clothes you can but you can also wear what I like to call ,mana clothes. Yesterday I finally made fabric out of mana. As I only needed to picture it ithought it will be easier. After about short 50 embarrassing fails I made myself black pants. The shirt is a complex object...it took me well over 100 tries to make it. I decided to forget about the shoes. It wasn''t worth it. Today after more then a month I lost my tail and my fingers are normal now. Except for the horns and eyes I might look like a human teen. A very pale human teen. The most important change is my power. I could store alot more mana in my body allowing me to create larger and more complex designs for my magic. While having a stronger body to boost. It seems that my process of information capabilities grew with it. Magic wise and reflexes. I could probably go in a frontal colition with some of the smaller supreme. With all this power I still feel chained. I wanted to experiment creating small black holes. A nuclearexplosion and other modern concepts. But I don''t seem to have enough power nor control. I thought that if I''ll evolve again to this "holy apostle of destruction" I''ll have access to some neat magic. It''s fun and all and my space and time magic seem to be around the corner of the next evolution. But this current form seems a bit... Off. I said something about a babe haven''t I. She accidentally flew over in my direction. And started speaking in the demonic tongue. I asked her politely if she could speak English. Perhaps not politely. You see... Not speaking to anyone except to my dear imaginary audience didn''t do me any good. Physically im completely healthy. psychologically... Now:" WHy Can''t yoU speak English?!?!?!" "?&¡ê)&+_+¡ê)&+_(/@" "WHY!!" It''s not like its a dead language." She tried to get up. Firing a spell at me. By the aftermath of it I could establish that she was stronger then an imp. Maybe even stronger then Vorse. I don''t know and francly I don''t care... I didn''t even feel the need to dodge it. An explosion that wouldn''t make a naplam bomb embarrassed... She seemed shocked by the fact that I''m standing complety fine. Bitch I''m a demon what did you expect! I was born from fucking lava... I gazed at the beautiful flames as I approach her. It''s a nice spell, ill memorize it. I think it was the same rank as the spell that fancy pants made earlier. I restrained her with a bit pressure of my soul. I don''t want to kill her. Seems my aura also became stronger. Her terrified look just made me angrier. "ANSWER ME BITCH WHY" "38_+_8¡ê9485!!!!!!" "STOP TALKING." I smiled to her whike trying to make a nice impression. ...she started bawling and lost her strength. She couldn''t stop crying.. MY. NAME. IS. JOHN. WHATS. YOURS?" She shet herself... I stopped as the stench reached my nose. It woke me from my desperation. "I''m sorry". I let her go and turned around. Ashamed. She ran. flew away at high speed.
Chapter 7: demon folks The sun still shined. The birds still chirped yet humanity saw this as the end of the world. Evil gods have descended. nobody in this world has ever came across the term "evil god". The demon folks worshipped the demon gods and those divinities were always considered as the root of all evil. Which wasn''t true. They were just associated with evil because demon folks in general were considered vile and evil. With the presentation of true "Evil gods", the world was confused. Let''s talk about those vile demon folk and the atrocities they have committed and why the world seems to have them. The demon folks were a mixed race of several humanoid races and some intelligent demons. No one knows in what era they came to the world but they aren''t that new. Probably just a few tens of millennia after the first men walked the earth. They were found alongside the new and hostile continent. Which then came to be known as the demon continent. Although it was the demon folks that discovered the rest of the world. (They had the first longe range flight magic ) that part in history was splendidly altered. As to why they are so hated let''s say they possessed horridly humanoid figures. Had the audacity to develop their own culture and hirarchy. Shamelessly Talked laughed and mostly.... but mostly didn''t bother anyone... ...none of the other races saw them as their equals even tho The demon folk were stronger ,faster and smarter thanks to their abilities which they inherited from their demonic ancestors. Some even thought that the female demon folk are usually much prettier then the majority of the other races. Seems right as they have some succubus blood. Indeed, across the generations they have gathered an excellent gene pool. Then begs the question why no one seems to stand them. Envy pride freed or just old fashioned racism... As rediculoues as it sounds . Thats because of the gods. Usually humanity and every other race blames the gods for some very weird things but this time it''s different. The demon folk didn''t have some of the limitations that the other sentient beings had. Which made them inherently far scarier. Feari g from a potentially stronger divinity. The gods didn''t accept the demons folk and put some limitations on them. Thus they were considered as below human. Which all come to accept so naturally. They''re nothing but goods. The humans thought. Pests. the elves snirred. Good for nothings. The only thing going for them is their Immunity to heat and cheap uptake. The dwarves proclaimed . Soon all thought that demon folk are a race that came to the world in order to service the rest of the races. With that the peaceful days of the demons came to an end. The demon folk had one short coming. They were fewer in numbers in comparison with other races. Even against the elves. If you pin them against humanity... They are very lacking. They were oppressed and enslaved for more then 200 years. Some demons were able to spend their entire lives in slavery. They had life expectancy of 150. That was the state until a certain demon folk reached a king class and a few of his collogues were kind enough to join him as he liberated all. They did most of the job. He was charismatic enough but was injured very shortly after the first battle started. For his defense and pride demonfolks might have been still inslaved to this day if it weren''t for him. In the future he attained godhood and the demon folks were able to live freely... But they had no land in the lightened continent. So they returned to their motherland. The demon continent. For their origins. Condoned for their capacities,. Feared For their culture. Mocked. They were ostresized. Practically banished to that godforsakened place. Literally. As no other sentient being wanted to live there the demon continent remained mostly unpopulated. And the demon folks could claim the land. Even tho technically it was their land of origin. They wished to settle in different places that offered more. They wanted a place with more greenery and prosperity. They started to envy the other races but they could do nothing but escape their inslavers. It is quite lucky that the demon folks diet relies heavily on mana. They can survive up to a week without food or water by only relying on mana, on the other hand humanity and the rest. Not so much. The demons only need food or water in extreme cases of a heavy injury also if they had no mana to absorb and etc. Their gods are called the demon gods. Usually they were Demon folks that had a strong demon blood running threw their veins and were able to become stronger thanks to that. None of them were pure blood demons. Always demon folks. There was no pure blood demon that reached the realm of divinity. No one knew why that is but some asked the question of what if one of those intelligent monsters known as demons reached devinity? Or what they''ll even be like. Currently no one paid much attention for such a silly notion. They had bigger problems. The entire world is wetting their pants as The declaration that new gods have descended is nothing short of a catastrophe of biblical proportions. To understand why. It''s story time... In a land far far way.... Wait, it''s the same continent.... Ahem. Once was an empire so prosperous that all envied them. From their peaceful elven neighbors till their fellow humans. They had mountains of gold and precious stones. A high density of mana which Allowed for stronger mages to thrive even Advanced technology and complete military superiority over all nations in their vicinity and more. The emperor saw his prosperous capital and thought. Won''t my empire be more powerful if there was a larger and cheaper workforce... he thought that his empire only lacked for slaves. So he took them. Greed possessed the emperor and the populace and so they decided to conquer their surroundings. The neighboring nations decided to gang on them and subdue them with numbers.unfortunately, they failed. The elves were the first to fall. Then fell the beastmen. And last but not least. The humans. Only one human country was still standing before the might of the grand empire. They fought the hardest for they saw the condition in which the slaves were. The last standing nation''s king decided to make a temple for the goddess of war. All in order to save his remaining populace.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The king of Avalon decided to summon the goddess so she can save them. The goddess of war that was notorious for her love for bloodshed and battle but more then all, justice. refused. She told the king "I don''t wish for what you can offer. I don''t take joy in this. Ask your main god." And so the king asked. In the temple of the god of life and light. His apostles asked and were answered. "In order for a god to descend you need to offer 70% of your kingdom." 70% was a large amount. His nobles begged him not to do it but he lost all reason. It was the only way. He performed the forbidden ritual. Yet no god wished to accept it. They were even angry at the king. Didn''t he feel pain? Was he incapablel of sympathy? The stupid king didn''t understand. If he gave the god more then half his country won''t the god be glad. Yet they kept declining. The apostles tried to see if they are sending the massage in the wrong way or inferring the massage of the gods wrongly. yet they found nothing. All the massages said the same: "I won''t accept 70% of your kingdom and I can''t descend with less. Thus it won''t work." All the gods said that he was heartless. They even threatened to smite him if he shall contact them again. And so, no god was willing to accept 70% of this small kingdom. In the end the peope couldn''t escape their borders. The empire expanded and surrounded them. In his despairation King Avalon wanted to offer his lands to acquire better arrangements for his populace. The empire scoffed at him and paid it no hid. Finally a week passed and his cities fell one after the other. The king was devastated. In that night he had a dream. The god Aa''mon revealed himself to him. He told him he won''t reject his offer. The king woke up. It was in the middle of that same night that he ordered that the temple will be built. Aa''mon wasn''t a popular god. He couldn''t offer a big harvest or better luck in battle. Not even a better fortune on the roads. It was a god that was feared by all and people worshiped him at times of big plagues. For he was a god of death. It says that when he is displeased he will send pesterance to kill humanity as a means to vent his anger. It was horseshit. He was just a minor god that was linked with death for his specialty in dark magic. As a minor god that couldn''t get much. He found the situation of the kingdom of avalon, to be... Beneficial for him. That very night the temple was complete. The most powerful earth mages worked on it so it was only natural. Completely not the frantic work of mad men that were forced by the king. Necromancers , a total of five of them were summoned and were forced to go threw the ceremony. Even they knew that awakeningthatgod isn''t worth it. How did they know you ask? Seriously... It''s a temple that specifically made for him. If the huge statue couldn''t testify for the god of this temple. Nothing could. That night over 80% of all the civilians of the kingdom died. It was 70% of the kibgdom before the attacks. Their enemies are now the strongest empire the world has ever known and it was only natural for so many to be captured and slaughtered... Yet it didn''t come even close to what Aa''mon got. More then 2 million were offered to Aa''mon. That night Aa''mon descended. As the summoner of Aa''mon the king of avalon had the privilege of asking for one thing. The deaths of so many of the papulace weren''t enough for this god. He knew what he was about to be given. He only looked for an excuse. So the other gods that the empire worshiped wouldn''t have justification to kill him. The king was the one that summoned him and so he had to respect his wish. The empire fell in a single night. All died. The slaves weren''t spared. Even the cattle laid down in the fields. The ants stopped helping in their little tunnels. Cats stopped meowing. If someone paid attention to the street. Just where the children used to play hide and seek. They will find one sleeping in a bush. The other behind the street food stand. The other with his face in the wall. Still counting. They slept so soundly. You couldn''t even hear them breath. That night what someone think. They didn''t even have a scratch on them. How could they have died? the emperor that governed over this sleeping street in this sleeping empire. He was lying in his bed. In the arms of his concubine. Thinking perhaps who will he invite to his bed tomorrow he had a smile that seemed content with himself. None knew that they will die. None could even say goodbye. That night king Avalon offered his life to Aa''mon. At least that''s what Aa''mon claimed.and that''s how the story went down in history. The world decided to abolish slavery and make it illegal. In that same assembly they made a rule that summoning gods is illegal. The treaty was called avalon''s call. If the country was desperate enough the world will help. Thanks to those that slept that night in the empire. The world became a better place. Until now. Present day: They saw the descent of so many gods. But for what purpose? Who could have do such a horrible thing. Why would he do it. That day the world cried for they didn''t know what was to come. A month passed and no news came of what nation secraficed so many of its people. Some news should have reached them by now. That was the conclusion everyone were thinking. Another month passed and life went on. The news of 2 months ago are now forgotten. No one knew what these gods were. What that high god was but if they were planning to do something terrible... No one could stop them. So if 2 months passed they were probably safe... The demonic continent. The capital of Hades. People with red skins were walking about. Some had horns. Some had small. Some had bigger. Few had tattoos that showed their lineage. And from what tree family they came from. These were the demons. Or the demon folks. Some reffering as "spawn of monsters". Others as "intelligent demons". And some even teasingly laughed "fake red monkeys". The demon folks weren''t that defferent from the humans in their outer appearance. Only the horns. And some had piculiar skin tones. But if you looked past that they were human as you and me. But the world hated them. Loathed even. And they were forever banished on the borders of the demon continent, nurtured by the strong mana and eating the few animals and plants that were able to live at the edges of the continent. Where the climate wasn''t so hostile. The center of the continent belonged to the demons and the demon folks couldn''t fight them. Even the weakest of the weak. The imps were stronger then most adults. The bigger ones were something that was only felt by the elite. Ogre''s were left to rule in piece. Every ogre. Even a smaller one had the privilege to rule over a part of land that he could call his own. The stronger ones. Let''s leave that to a different time. Lets return to our protagonist. Or more accurately speaking where the protagonist was located. At the edge of the continent. Hades "Welcome. If it isn''t Mr ire. You look healthy as usual. How can I help you today". I''m at a city and currently having a pleasant conversation with the librarian. Ms Eversa. A lovely middle aged women. She seems to have been here for 57 years. Middle aged by demon folks standards. She seems to be over 75 and she isn''t planning on leaving the library anytime soon. Truelly awe inspiring. The people of these lands look a bit like the demons only.... Human like I suppose. They have pupils. A nose. And normal teeth. Not my sharp fangs. They can actually eat things that aren''t meat. Why i am mentioning their appearance... I had a small accident a few weeks ago. Thus I shapeshifted to a humanoid form. My humanoid form isn''t that different then my form when I was middle aged man. Its almost funny as I currently look very similar to when I was in my 40s. "Mr Ire?" "Sorry. I was only charmed by your smile ms eversa." I returned a pleasantry and a smile. "Oh please you dog. I just might end up misunderstanding you." "That will truelly be a disaster. Hahahaha" "Hahaha" we both laughed. She is one of my firstacquaintances that I made on this world. I usually spend my time here in the library during the mornings.and working during the noon. I don''t need much so in accordance. I don''t need to work. It''s peaceful. She helped me with some of my research. I study magic formulas in order to advance my dimension and time magic. Usually when new books arrice she tells me and I add them to my list. Tho it''s getting shorter and shorter. It all started a few months ago. I stopped trying to meet people and killing demons. Concentrating to advance my power and see what is wrong with me now... I''m getting sick of this... I realised that this soul devouring nonsense is unhealthy for my soul. In order to calm my rampaging soul I Should try to sink in solitude. Find myself and all that nonsense.... Buwahahahahahaha! You almost bought it. No. I''m going to do something that will actually be beneficial for me. I already know who I am and i know what I''m supposed to be like. Restoring my mind to its original calm is my priority. All the aspects that i got enhanced thanks to soul devourer means jack if I can''t utilise them properly. Now the main question is what is different. It''s obvious that Soul devourer is still not healthy for me. And so I decided to go on a different path. But first I needed to kill the first asshole that came to me while I didn''t mask my aura. It can be considered a top predator on the entire continent. A greater devil. Chapter 8: evil gods and Azazel I tried to make sense of all that know so far. My most powerful aspect is my soul. My most powerful attack is soul devourer. My soul originally became this strong because of all my knowledge and experience from my previous life. Then it grew in mass and purity thanks to soul devourer. That''s at least my theory. To see if it''s correct I tried to learn new things. And see if my soul grows. What I saw made me suspect that my theory is correct but I got a new question. Why does my soul grow when I eat a soul differently then when I learn new things. I looked at my soul during mealtime. Another imp. This time I didn''t purify the soul and allowed it to retain its characteristics. I found something interesting. The darker particles tried to stay away from my core and tried to letch at the weak points. I purified the recently devoured soul and thought of something. Maybe my soul grows in size the same way but the things that grow alongside it are fundamental my different. When I study my core grows. When I eat my outer layer grows. When I don''t purify it. The corrupted soul tries to corrupt my outer layer. What if I try to feed my core? Hmm...? Space distorted and from it a man emerged. His soul was darker then a black hole and light feared him as if he was as such. Mana was constantly feeding him. As if he was a bottomless pit. I noticed 2 black horns that weren''t to different then my own on top of his head. But unlike me he was complete my black with red glowing eyes. The other difference was that he stood 10 meters tall. Is this a joke? His soul. It larger then my own. It''s also constructed a bit differently then my own. His core is larger while his outer layer is almost none existent. I teleported away. Or at least I tried but space was locked. "¡ê)&+&((#)#)&&@?" He spoke in a calm, soothing voice with a tinge of a question mixed in. I couldn''t understand him. I talked to him and his face looked a amused when he headed me. "We can understand each other if I use soul communication." I could hear or to be more precise I can feel his words and intentions resounding in my head. "My name is Azazel. Are you the berserk devourer that roaming my domain? I came here in order to get rid of it but... You seem a bit off. Calmer and less berserk then it usually." I analyzed all that he said and figured a few things. First why everyone seemed so afraid when they saw or sensed me. My soul aura is also fundamentally different then his. My soul looks different then his. Everything is wrong. I messed up. " I''m a bit curious. How did you retain your ego?" "...I purified the souls that I ate. Your core... How do you grew it to such a size"? "My core? You mean my soul..." "No I mean. The center of your soul. The outer layer of your soul is thin almost none existent." "I see so that''s your mistake". He looked at me as if he saw something absurd. "You enhanced your soul without practicing a soul technique. Well that doesn''t matters anymore." He smiled while looking at me. Proudly and none chalantly he drew a sword from thin air. I looked up at the incoming sword. I realised even tho it was coming at me in normal speed. I was locked in space. Seeing as my understanding towards space is almost none existent. My teleportation spell is only the most basic of them all. I was desperate so... I nuked him. My outer layer is very thick. Which gave me one advantage. My control over matter is almost the same as his. But what he didn''t understand is that if i split an atomor even a few I can unleash alot of power.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. He screamed. I screamed. We all screamed. But not for ice-cream. He fell and I didn''t. His head was way north. With all the pain I could still smile. I can always fix my body as long as I live. The thockwave was painful but the radiation was worse. The heat wasnt there. The distance between us was only 50 meters but.. he got nuked in his face. He didn''t expect it. For if he did he wouldn''t have died so... His soul is still here! Hispinky twitched. Then his thumb and finger. He... He... This is insane. Damn you. I nuked his head again. Repeatedly. Well that still ended well. His soul started do finally dissipate. That was the end of my little skirmish with the boss of this domain. -in the local palace. A few days later The different maids and butler''s still worked hard to maintain it. Some were demon folk but the majority were real demons that were able to have rational thought and a humanoid enough form. In a big hall. Enough to fit the greater devil. On a small padestrial set a beautiful demon folk. She was the mistress of the castle but she didn''t enjoy the luxary that was Infront of her. Jewels of vary kinds adorned her. From a delicate diamond ring to a white necklace and dark red crown. Made of adamantine and contains several enchantments that provide the user with more strength. Health that could make a horse envy them and a special feature. The ability to watch the surroundings. Of the castle The queen was able to locate her husband''s corpse but instead of pain and sorrow to adorn her face her eyes sparkled brighter then the diamonds that adorned her neck. You might think that she might have loved Azazel. At the very least she would feel gratitude towards him for he bestowed her with many things and large amounts of power and authority. She wasn''t. Azazel was roaming the desolate central part of the continent. She was an adventurer of the highest calibre. She was married to a young man by the name of Arsan. Arsan Fiten. She was milvarg Fiten. Azazel located them but they couldn''t sense him. He thought of eating the both of them. He didn''t relish the taste of demonfolk for quite sometime. But when he saw her he was entranced and decided to take her as his concubine. He killed Arsan and ate him Infront of her. The worse of it all he made her watch as her husband cried while being eaten alive. The screams, the blood the pain forever hunted her and her hatred towards Azazel only grew with each passing day. He loved seeing her. He might have truelly thought that it was love at first sight In His own sickening way. She swore that one day he will pay for what he had done to Arsan. But years passed and if anything Azazel only grew stronger. He reached the apex of what a demon could reach. He became an apostle of a demon god by the name of Ahmun Din Ara. Ara is his title. evil one. She wanted to kill him so badly for so many decades. But she wasn''t even in the same league as him. She was crying tears of joy. Crying vehemently as she thought of her dear husband. Her real husband that she married with a smile on her face. Finally he can rest in peace. His murderer lies headless. She wanted to see who killed him but couldn''t find him. She realised that Azazel died after she got the system''s massage. How lucky of her. As the only lucky remaining concubine she got the ''privilage'' of being the mistress of this estate. The chains that bound her to this ground disinterated, the spell broke as his master is no longer of the living. She ran free. Our current lead: As the one of the demons he should have tried to protect Azazel but during the fight he couldn''t pay attention to the system nor did he cared who will win. He usually didn''t pay much attention to it as it didn''t offer much except for the occasional need for info on the next evolution. This is why the mission failed. No one of the races killed Azazel. It was one of the demons that did so. The first person that I was able to talk to tried to kill me. What a dick.... I''ll go and reassemble my soul. At least he was helpful for something. I couldn''t send anything to my core and only sensed minor improvements in that regard. Now I know how to make it balanced. As I was walking to a cave I already started to disassemble my outer layer. The reserve and body layer. The memories were slowly copied to my core. And my mind became sharper faster and finally I attained a new league of power. The devil from earlier couldn''t make a higher form of a soul because of an impede generated by the system. My soul on the other hand is different. It wasn''t created in this world so I didn''t suffer any handy cap. I don''t need a soul cultivation technique or such nonsense. A grinn spread over my face. This feeling of control. Of absolute power. It''s intoxicating. I grew to the size of the same devil. I seem to be called greater devil of destruction. Variant. I don''t want to be a devil. This form isn''t very useful. I shapeshift and retract my aura completely nothing can sense me. The outer layer used to leave marks of the nature of it in the air. With enough knowledge that the souls of this world are born with. They are raised to hate these signs. I didn''t even know that the soul could leave such... Physical proof of its existence... Slowly I sense that I no longer give off that aura. I no longer attract the attention of the other demons. Finally i start my journey towards civilisation. I''m very grateful. Azazel. *On a different part of the continent* The wind of spring blew. The green leaves rustled. The looming moon shined over a the sea and under it the sands laid unperturbed. The ground broke as a person came out of the ground. He smiled and said "glugglugglugglug". Kidding. he tried to say "I''m finally free". The taste of sea water was the first taste he got after countless of millennia. He didn''t mind it. Even that was a pleasant thing that he missed. The man went out of the water. Followed by others. The evil gods are here.