Drak’ka, leader of the Dark faction in the demon world, T’Ghuuz, was still very much a mystery to me. The things she told me so far, especially about the prophecy, weren’t lies. Her red eyes didn’t exactly scream deception, so I didn’t think trust was the issue with her, but it felt like there was something I should’ve known that I didn’t know.

She smiled, “Having second thoughts about me?” Her smile turned to laughter, “It’s a little late for that after letting me stay with your family. Tacari is quite the charmer!” She stood up properly after leaning on the banister and walked around me slowly, dragging the tip of her index finger along my chest, “Or are you staring for another reason?”

“Why did you give up so easily? Even if you couldn’t win, I’m sure you’re strong enough for the fight’s outcome to not be obvious.”

“Hmm,” she folded her arms, “indeed, you are right. My eyes can discern how dangerous a being can be. Of all the beings I’ve seen since I met you to now, I can confirm that both you and your wild-haired friend, August, are entities that shouldn’t exist. Coming in third place is yours truly, and fourth would have to be given to my subordinate, Zernac.”

“Really? What about the holy warriors?”

“Hmm,” she shrugged, “powerful foes, but they fall a bit short. My eyes see danger, not power. If you were sleeping, and Tacari was awake, he’d be seen as more dangerous.”

Interesting. Eyes that can see danger, huh? And out of everyone in the summit, she saw herself as the third most dangerous being. Even if there are other variables besides power, it would still have to be able to measure power in some form in order to deduce how dangerous a being is. This can be useful…

“So, what do you have in mind?” she questioned.

I grabbed her by the waist and teleported to T’Ghuuz, back to where her throne was. T’Ghuuz didn’t exactly have a government per se, they just had different factions with varying influence. “I want to know more about demons.”

“You can do that with your mind magic, can’t you? Why come here?” she asked, knowing fully well that what I sought wasn’t simply knowledge.

“For help?”

“Well,” she giggled, “that’s a lie. What is it you really want?”

“Ren Fahzul, when he came back from stasis, and the demon took him over, he was crazed. Why is that?”

“Hmm, I don’t know why you’re asking or doing this, but I’m certain you will find your answer by walking amongst us. Come,” she put her hand out for me to take it.

We flew out of Hellsnare Fortress and into a densely populated area. Demons of all shapes and sizes looked at us in unison. Some confused, some excited, some nervous, and some angered. I could only imagine that they didn’t approach me because Drak’ka walked next to me. She had quite the serious look about her, “I don’t know if you’re a stupid whelpling or wise beyond your years, Eric Archibald. Still, I was pleasantly surprised that you viewed us not as mindless ghouls led by rage, but as beings just as self-aware as your own kin. T’Ghuuz’s dealings with the warlocks of Pargat spoke volumes about humans’ temperament, but it appears you are different.”

I laughed, strolling through the gatherings of demons. “A few years back, I massacred an entire city just because a friend was in trouble. It was impetuous and stupid. I wish I could undo it, and now, every time I am faced with the decision of violence, I think back on it and wonder if there wasn’t a better way.”

“And? Was there?”

I shook my head, “No. The path they had chosen was violent and would’ve ended in bloodshed anyway. And now that I am practising nature magic, I realise that every being has their own nature, their own tendencies and shortcomings.”

“The doubt expressed toward us demons in the coalition meeting, you now have that doubt, don’t you?”

I nodded my head, no longer ashamed to say that I suspected certain things of certain beings. One couldn’t hunt a duck and not expect it to fly away. “I want to believe that the demons won’t do anything I’d have to worry about, but I’d be a damn foolish leader to stick so closely to that belief that I endanger the lives of others by not putting a contingency plan in place.” I held her hand and had her look me right in the eye. “So, tell me, what is the nature of demons?”

“Blood,” she said, her carmine orbs peering right into my soul. “Death. Destruction. Power. Even now, knowing that you have my best interest at heart, I still have a burning curiosity to know what you’d look like being torn limb from limb.” She smiled right at me, and any fool could see she told the truth; Mana Perception was unnecessary to see that she meant what she said. “What I wouldn’t give to see you squirm in agony, in turmoil, and beg for mercy.” The calm way in which she said such frightening things irked me, but it also calmed me, because it was what I expected. “What about you? What is the nature of humans?”

I put a hand to my chin, “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s hard for us to fight avarice and greed. Currency can be the difference between having the worst life and the best life. Say, do you have something against me?”

“Against you?” she laughed, and spun around, as if wanting me to check out some new clothes she bought. “Not at all. In fact, I’ve taken quite a liking to your brash and frank ways; they’re quite charming.”

I was even more perplexed now. I couldn’t quite understand her methods of thinking, so I just somewhat blankly stared at her whilst she grinned slyly. “So, you wanna see me begging for mercy and in turmoil because you think I’m charming?”

She walked around me, making circles. “What’s with all these questions, Eric Archibald? The small talk can be fun but it’s getting to be a little annoying now. What do you really want to say?”

“Merge with me,” I said.

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She smirked, “No,” and replied flatly. “But perhaps you can change my mind by accepting a condition of mine.”

A clawed hand suddenly came swinging at me. I stopped it dead in its tracks by grabbing the wrist of my attacker and casting Discharge. The shock immobilised the scrawny demon and a little mind manipulation made its knees buckle. “And what is your condition?”

Drak’ka stopped in front of me and looked me dead in the eye, “Become a tyrant and rule over all demons!”

Her statement caught me off-guard. Sure, she said some messed up stuff about the nature of demons, but I didn’t think she’d be willing to have her kin be subjugated to someone else; nay, I didn’t think she’d want it to happen. My addled look had her continue her terms and conditions.

“T’Ghuuz needs an exemplar that embodies the very essence of a demon, so that they remember who they truly are. Centuries ago, demons rebelled against the first tyrant, the first overlord of the entire world of T’Ghuuz, and they won. An era of peace came soon after,” she shivered. My Mana Perception immediately activated, just to be sure she wasn’t lying. “Demons began exhibiting crazed behaviour, inexplicable madness and insanity. For days, weeks, the behaviour would endure, until they began dropping like flies. Many of the higher sentient demons couldn’t understand it, until it began happening to us as well.”

Drak’ka looked around at those that surrounded us in a piteous stare, “It took many years before we could figure out why, and fighting mania didn’t help quicken our revelation.”

“Well?” I prodded her to continue, finding that she paused unreasonably long. “What was the revelation?”

“Peace makes us deranged, we become lunatics. It affects us mentally at first, and then our bodies begin to succumb to it, like an illness. We realised this after the two strongest demons almost levelled the place, fighting for supremacy. The battle split the demon world in half. Those who wanted me to win were believers of the prophecy and–”

“You were one of the strongest demons?” I cut across her when I realised that she was speaking of herself.

“Yes. And the other was Zernac the Calamitous. Whilst I fought to unify T’Ghuuz against Apollyon, he fought simply to save demons from their own misery.”

I laughed, realising where this was going. “In the end, you both wanted the same thing, didn’t you?”

She didn’t reply, only sighed. “And now here we are. No one is seated at the top because of you, and T’Ghuuz will begin dying out again in a decade or two, providing Apollyon doesn’t wipe us out first.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” I questioned, slamming a wrathful demon sorcerer into a stone wall with Divergence; his spells were sent back to him with Reflect.

“Because I imagined you had some sliver of evil in you, enough to make you want to rule T’Ghuuz yourself. But your actions thus far have proved otherwise. It’s admirable, yet somehow disconcerting.”

Hmm, that’s a pain. I looked back upon Hethekk’s recommendation of simply using mind magic for my benefit, and discarding an ethical code of conduct when it came to the magic type. “Is Zernac still under your command?”

Drak’ka nodded with questioning eyes. She hadn’t seen why he was relevant to the topic of taking over T’Ghuuz.

“I wanted to ask him to merge, but now that I think about it, I’d need your permission, wouldn’t I?” I asked, sending out a bunch of clones and having them cast Enthral over the masses around us so they’d begin merging. “Why shouldn’t I just force it on you?”

She laughed, bending a little to observe one of my clones merging with a low-rank demon, “There is no rule that says you cannot.”

I looked down at her, and that more impetuous part of me from my younger years reared its head, but I stifled it. All of my accumulated experience thus far made me think twice about most of my decisions. Just as I was about to take a deep breath and let it go, time paused, and my entire scenery paused.

Ah, this place… I looked around, finding myself on a cliff that overlooked a beautiful ocean. The sunrise gave a soft gilded light, and an equally soft warmth that shunted the miserable cold from your pores and relaxed you. I’d been here before, in desperate attempts to bring my daughter, Aviana, back to life.

The god of death sat comfortably slouched on his throne. His wild hair danced to the wind’s mercy, and his piercing black orbs gave their full attention to the crashing waves below. With a flick of his finger, he gestured me to sit. A chair suddenly appeared, and I hadn’t even noticed when it did. He was impossible to read, and very, very different from Zanthia, the goddess of life.

I sat nervously, and stared out at the ocean, just as he did. How serene this place was, but why was I brought here? Just then, as if he was reading my mind, the god of death spoke. “The goddess of life has designated you to be a creature of special existence, and therefore, you have a role to fulfil.”

For some reason, my heart dropped at that statement. What was he trying to say? It was obvious the witch wanted me to succeed her, and the goddess of life approved it, even helping me. Why would he state the obvious? What was it that I was missing?

“Not every creature is born equal. Some are brought into fortune, whilst others are brought into misfortune, but they all have something in common with each other – life. The gift of life means that one has the power of choice.”

I couldn’t fully see him, seated as I was, but it seemed he hadn’t budged since he began talking. Yet, I could feel like his aura would occasionally shift, almost like he wanted me to notice it.

“Each choice made has consequences, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but most times a mixture of the two.” He paused for a while, and let the crashing waves wash over my ears and the salted breeze assault my nostrils. The call of a seagull swiped my attention for but a second, but that was enough for the scene to completely change. I went from sitting, to standing; we both were. He stood beside me, and we watched a scene unfold before us.

A frail man, shaking in his boots, wobbled toward a small shack, a seaside home. He wielded a pitchfork, and from the stifled screams coming from inside the house, it was obvious some form of injustice was being done. In but a few seconds, we heard the grunts of the poor man, and his lifeless body was thrown outside like he wasn’t even human.

Again, the call of a seagull could be heard, and this time, the soldier who threw the man out of what looked to be his own home, followed the sound with his eyes and found a trembling child hiding in an ox-drawn carriage. A grin formed on the soldier’s face, and he walked over to the boy who was much too petrified to move an inch. The little kid was dragged to the house and forced to watch soldiers violate his own mother, just like his little sister was also forced to watch. How unscrupulous. After they were done, they killed the woman. There was no silver lining in a deed such as this.

After a while, they released the boy, and he stood up, looking like his mind had fled completely. I wouldn’t be surprised, with something as traumatising as that happening to him. But then, something inexplicable happened – a strange weapon suddenly appeared in his hand. It was a glaive, with a blade that looked like an enlarged and elongated arrowhead. The kid swung the weapon, killing the first unsuspecting soldier. His strength was gargantuan, and he used it in conjunction with the weapon to clumsily seek revenge. The three soldiers laid dead, and the only remaining survivors were the boy and his sister.

“Our choices may lead to happiness, or they may lead to regret, but they still have to be made,” the god of death said. “When you have the power to make a choice that you want to make, then you make it. Fear not the regret that may come, for I know the greatest sense of regret is forged by the death of our loved ones, but death is not the end. No, death is merely a gateway.”

Finally, I understood why he showed me this. I understood why he was telling me these things. “But isn’t there a limit? How will I know when to stop? How can I tell,” I looked at him, “when I’m simply abusing my stre–”

I froze, upon noticing the weapon that was holstered to his back. H-he’s… He’s the boy!

Again, the scene shifted, and I returned to the demon world, T’Ghuuz.