"Hey kid, wake up"

"ugh..."

The boy slowly opened his eyes and he saw a soft grey light surrounded him; in the distance nothing else but darkness. His his blurred vision began to focus on the...devil!? before him and he heard the high pitched, shrill voice come from the thing.

"Hey wake the fuck up you lazy bastard."

"AH! What the hell are you?"

With his eyes finally clearing he assessed the small creature before him. It was pale-red with lizard like skin and wings and two horns atop its head though the right horn appeared to have been broken. Oddly enough it was wearing a black school uniform and had a intricate tattoo around it's neck.

"*SNORT* hell.." the demon whispered to itself before sticking out it's chest and loudly proclaiming;

"I'm Xing Xiaobo a Greater Demon Lord of the 8 circles of hell!"

"I thought there were suppose to be 9 circles?"

The demon's shoulders deflated.

"We lost the other one. That's not the point. Look the world is coming to an end and we need your help. Well, the Goddess does, and she got my ass on a leash, so it's my problem now too."

"EARTH'S GOING TO BE DESTROYED?"

"Earth? What the fuck? No. Well, I mean, yes it will, but who gives a shit about that back of the woods universe; it doesn't even have any natural spiritual energy. No, I'm talking about the keystone planet of the entire multiverse; Iset, named after the Goddess Asethia who created all of everything. The planet Iset holds all the universes together and in a few short years will, through a series of events, end up dying. It's a living planet, you see, and will end up getting very, very sick if we don't do something about it. Well, you specifically, I'm just here to tell you what to do."

"Wait. So I'm suppose to save the universe? Why me?"

"The multiverse, and because it can only be you...is what I want to say, but honestly with me around she could have picked anyone. Asethia probably has her reasons and if you meet her you can ask her."

"Hmmm. Ok. Next question. Where are we?"

"You're pretty easy going huh kid? We're Inbetween."

"In between what?"

"I don't know... in between... stuff."

A smile appeared on Xiaobo's face and it looked as though he was suppressing his laughter.

"Why, does it matter? The answer to that, is no, it doesn't matter! This is just a space where matter doesn't exist!"

The demon looked at the boy with expectation on his face.

"That was lame."

"Fuck you that was good. Kids these days have no taste. Anyways your soul is currently traveling to Iset and we'll be there in a minute or so. I don't have much time as you not laughing at my joke clearly wasted too much of it. My time that is. Not the joke. Though you did waste that too..."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The demon trailed off and the boy who had been floating felt a slight pulling sensation.

"I'm feeling some kind of pull..."

"Yeah you're going to be falling into your new body soon. What a lucky kid, your new body is the son of an emperor! It has outstanding talent and should be better than anyone else your age. Unfortunately he pissed of the wrong person and died to soul attack. Bad news for him, but good news for you huh? Now you'll get to go around and piss off the right people!"

"What? I don't want to piss anyone off though..."

"Not your choice kid. Only way to survive long enough on this planet is to piss people off and kill everyone you don't piss off."

"WHAT? I don't want-"

"Again, not your choice. If you're going to save the multiverse you have somewhere to be in 5 years and the only way to survive long enough on Iset is to act like you're the strongest motherfucker out there. If you don't then people will think you're weak and you'll end up dead or worse, and then I end up dead along with everything else...ever."

"So I just have to act like I'm strong?"

The demon's skin began to darken, it's size started to grow and it's eyes began to glow. A pressure was put on the boy making him feel he was under a mountain rooting him in the spot. The demon's voice began to deepen as he spoke and the pressure continued to increase.

"Not just strong, but arrogant. You have to look down on everyone even your own mother. If someone does something to offend you then you crush them and their whole family. If someone looks at you wrong then you better smash their fucking face in. You want to live? You want your fucking joke of a planet to continue to exist then you better understand; there is no fucking right or wrong now. There is no mercy. There is no weakness. There is only strength and arrogance."

The boy's vision began to fade and the pull from before began to increase, but the pressure from the demon kept him from being pulled away.

All the boy could see now was a large pair of glowing red eyes with hints of silver sprinkled throughout. With a growl that sounded as though a great beast had clawed its way out of the depths of darkness the demon spoke it's final words to the boy before he was pulled away.

"Why do you think the Goddess chose me? Because she doesn't know, but I do. I know that the only important thing in this world is me. The only weapon I have; my own power and the only justice that exist is my arrogance."

The pressure faded and the boy flew towards the direction of the pull.

The red eyes remained in that dark space, but then quickly faded and leaving only the demon's previous form.

Before following the boy, with it's high pitch and shrill voice, it muttered to itself.

"heh. I'm so awesome."