Charon handed the decanter into my hands, but he had no intention of letting it go.

-Can you let it go?

- No. I have been appointed to be the keeper of this decanter; without my permission, no one can become a devil. This feature only works while I am holding the decanter, or at least touching it.

- What happens to the one who drank its contents without your "permission."

- Nothing special, maximum - he will receive small privileges in the form of superhuman strength or immortality with some restrictions...

Coincidence ? I don't think so.

- I think I know who emptied the decanter.

- Is it true ? Hmm, and who?

- My killer.

- Interesting...

- Wait, didn't you and the guards look through my memories? Haven't you seen him?

- That's not how it works. We see not memories, but the life of the present soul. Only what happened specifically to you; We don't see your surroundings.

It's clear, it means that that brave warrior with a machine gun also died and went to hell, but he drank the elixir and escaped. I wonder how he found it? Was he following Charon? He said that he visited this place 3 years ago, that is, by the standards of the human world, this is... 3 months ago? And what does this give me? That's right, NOTHING!

- By the way, you ordered me to bring all his blood, why?

-By filtering the blood, I can return the elixir consumed by your killer and return it to its rightful place.

Funny, Charon is very homely, "everything should be in its place" or something like this...

- Millennia will pass while you stand here like a stone, come on, drink!

I drank the contents of this wonderful glass while the boatman in a black cloak held it. As soon as I swallowed the last drops of the yellow liquid, pain fell on me. Pain that was impossible to bear. Now I am a soul and I cannot lose consciousness or die. All I can do is suffer and endure. After a few moments the pain subsided. I didn't feel any changes in myself, except that the smoke that was constantly coming out of my mouth disappeared.

- Well, how do you feel, imp?

- That's better, I forgot to ask, what kind of smoke was coming out of my mouth, and then it stopped?

- These are your good deeds for life. They remain forever in your mind and soul, constantly oozing with energy that comes out of you in the form of smoke. Now that you are no longer a human, but a hellish entity, good deeds are of no use to you, you are a creature that brings pain, chaos and destruction. Your good qualities from the past have simply been erased as unnecessary.

- I understand, but I don't feel any changes in my soul, am I really a higher being now?

- Why would you suddenly immediately be the highest, runt? Before you become a real threat, you need to constantly become stronger and first of all, you must reveal your essence to your "devil".

- What would that mean?

- You are still uncertain. You must first become the devil of something and only then will you gain power. Tell me what kind of devil would you like to be?

It's difficult to answer such a question, I didn't prepare for this at all... although, wait...

I took my two pistols out of the holsters behind my back. Surprisingly, they were transported with me.

- Can I become a gun devil?

- Quite, now you need to declare this essence.

- And how to do this?

- Kill yourself.

-...didn't understand...

-Your devil soul must understand what it must become. To do this, you must kill yourself with your essence. Shoot yourself.

- It's kind of strange, okay, let's try.

I put the right Desert Eagle to my temple and, gritting my teeth, pulled the trigger... Shot! Nothing happened... Stop, the pistols are gone!

- What happened?

- Congratulations, idiot, now you are the gun devil !

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- But nothing has changed...

- Try to concentrate on the target and the shot, and now look at your hands.

Surprisingly, I understood what he said; imagining a target, I wanted to shoot at it. As the boatman ordered, I looked at my hands. What the ?! My hands... they didn't look like themselves. Every finger on both hands looked like a Desert Eagle! (https://imgur.com/uPhleR2)

- Wow...

- I expected approximately this outcome.

- What is the outcome?

- Your ability as for the gun devil is to absorb weapons and then reproduce and modernize them inside your body.

- If I were on Earth now, I could cause such chaos...

- Good luck with that, once you fulfill our agreement!

- Okay, I understand you, bore. Where should I move?

- Do you see the sun?

- Yes.

- I'll break your perception, this is not the sun.

- ...

- What looks like the sun is actually the core of the underworld. It supports the existence of all living things. And the King's citadel is directly below it. And if you are thinking of destroying the core, give up this stupid idea, you simply don't have enough strength. Besides, our King does not have enough strength... So, if you go towards this core, you will most likely meet all the devils along the way, and in the citadel itself you will fight with our leader. Any questions?

- Yes, could you tell me more about the core? I just wonder what it is and where it came from.

- There's not much to tell about it. Even in the King's archives there is little information about it. This is a clot of self-generated energy that seeps through the outer shell of the core and fuels all hell. How and when it appeared is unclear. But there is a hypothesis that once upon a time there existed a great being - the Creator. He created all the worlds, including Heaven, Purgatory, Hell, and later - the "world of Aral" - your world where you lived. And to maintain these worlds, he left these cores. There are similar ones in Purgatory and Heaven.

The further into hell, the more interesting. What other interesting things are hidden in these places?

- Well, okay, bye, I have to go!

- Wait, Vector, here, take this ring.

Charon handed me an unremarkable ring. Silver, without any patterns or ornaments.

- This is a transmitter ring. With it I will be able to monitor your actions and, if necessary, provide valuable information. If you want to cantact me, rub it.

- Do I have to wear it?

- Yes, the contract has been concluded. Until you return to me what that sub-demon took, you are under my supervision.

Apparently there is nowhere to go. I returned my hands from shooting mode to normal and put on this same ring.

- What happens if I switch to shooting mode while the ring is on?

- Don't worry about that. The ring is reformable, it will adapt to any shape of your hand.

Comfortable. Easy. Great.

- Now free.

- Great, I'll contact you soon, maybe.

Coming out of the cave on the other side, I saw a path, trodden by someone unknown. It led directly to the core, so it was an ideal path, after thinking about it I went, gradually moving away from the only...demon(?)...with whom I could find a common language.

As I walked, I gradually became accustomed to my new abilities. I switched from shooting mode to normal and back. Each time it turned out faster, it's just great, you never know when you'll be attacked. Changing my body over and over again, I realized that weapons can be summoned not only from the hands, but also from any other part of the body, which is convenient. I also realized that compressed pieces of my own flesh are used as ammunition, but thanks to regeneration, not only do I not receive damage, I also do not feel pain from tearing off these pieces.

After walking a kilometer or a half, I noticed a small creature that looked like a rat. This means that hell also has its own fauna, not only demons and souls. A great chance to try out my new upgrade in action! Having formed trunks from my fingers again, I took aim at the rat. There is no point in shooting from 2 barrels anymore, I'll shoot them all at once. However, it was more like a shot from a shotgun than from pistols, I even moved 30 centimeters back. Points of impact: pelvic bone, lungs, lower jaw, right front paw, all others - miss. - Hmm, I haven't missed before... With constrained movements and punctured lungs, the rat ran at most a meter, after which it fell dead. Great, just what should I do with it now?

Rubbing the ring, I heard a voice coming from it.

- *Walked for an hour and already got into trouble? What kind of unadapted schmuck are you?*

- Can you be calmer? Better tell me, if I say I shot a rat, what can I do with it?

- *I don't know, put it in your mouth!*

The connection was lost. What an asshole, huh! Okay, I'll take it for now, I'll figure out what to do with it later. The journey was long and tedious. It's starting to get dark. It's just not clear why, there is no sun, the cycles should not change. The core still works and glows, but the light does not spread from it, how does this work?! Okay, I'll wait somewhere... For the shooter, the target should always be clearly visible. Having found a cave not far from my deployment site, I climbed in.

I found a place for myself, but I couldn't figure out what to do with the rat. Well, I'll try to pull off Charon's stupid joke. At the exit of the cave there were several dried bushes. I picked three of them and put them in a pile.

- But what to set these branches on fire with?

There are no matches or lighters, I don't smoke. Although I should have carried something like this with me when I was alive, you can get into trouble at any moment.After sitting and thinking for about five minutes, a brilliant idea came into my stupid head. I formed a pistol from one of my fingers, but without the outer shell. I saw the entire internal mechanism of the gun's fuse. I brought the inside of the pistol to the fire and fired, the spark from the striker hitting the bullet set the branches on fire, great!*(1)

The fire flared up, and having put the rat on a stick, having first pulled out the insides from it, I began to fry the little rat. After about forty minutes of roasting, I thought, is it still worth eating? But when I got ready, I took my first bite. Um, that's not bad! Somewhat reminiscent of stewed chicken. After finishing my meal, I became thoughtful. I don't feel hungry, right? I'm dead. Then why can I taste food? Apparently, devils can taste everything, but they have no need to eat.

My vision went blurry. For a few seconds, it did not bring any discomfort. But then...I began to see even better than before, strange. Wait a minute! I looked out of the cave and couldn't believe my eyes. Since when did the nights become so bright? I saw everything almost as if it were daytime. Rat. Exactly. When I ate the rat, I gained the ability to see better in the dark. I wonder, what kind of superpowers do other representatives of the underworld fauna have?

*Boom*

- What is this ?

*Boom*

What's that noise? I left the cave and looked around.

*Boom*

I turned around at the sound of the roar and saw a giant about four meters tall, standing about fifteen meters from me.

- I feel that it was not in vain that I ate a rat...