“Well, this isn’t what I expected,” I say, standing up and observing the area around me some more.

While the “ground” I stood on looked and felt like black marble, with no edges or landmarks in sight, the sky looked like a crimson, red, murder scene, with three moons, each split down in the middle to reveal a single eye fixated on my being.

If my emotions didn’t feel unusually muted, I would have panicked.

“Ehm,” I heard a soft cough behind me. Turning around to investigate, a spot a… woman?

A lavender-skinned, silver-haired woman, she had six horns curving differently around her heads, some strands of her hair were braided and decorated with bits of jewelry, silver or copper, and a few semi-precious stones I couldn’t be bothered to remember the names of.

On her shoulders hang few large pieces of fabric in different states of durability, together forming a weird bastard child of a shawl, a poncho, and a scarf, hiding some of her arms, her chest, a portion of her abdomen, and her back. All while an intricate silk violet loincloth, held by a belt of golden rings covered her crotch.

Three slender arms and a dainty, spade-tipped tail came out from beneath the textiles.

All in all, I can safely determine that this was a devil.

She looked at me, even sitting, she appeared taller than me. Her pointy elf ears flicking up and down as a long Cheshire smile stretched the corners of her mouth open.

“Well well well,” She said, drawing out the words, one of her two left arms touching the ground, long nails making soft clicking sounds on the marble floor. “A fused soul, two… no, three elements, a fair and varied amount of talent, interesting~” her eyes gleam.

“To think that someone was brave enough to try and challenge fate, to bring you, of all people, here,” she grinned as her golden eyes examined me up and down, “Oh my, so much… potential, and your soul, how fascinatingly unusual,”

“… Krys’thaliana?” I stared, wide-eyed, at the being facing me.

I knew this woman.

Fuck, I created this woman, I fucking wrote her!

“What in the God Damn?” I muttered, even for my muted feelings, the surprise cut through the dullness like a burning knife through butter, emerging out in the forefront of my mind.

I felt a sharp burst of pain and a bunch of garbled memories surface along with the emotions, ones that weren’t my own, making me clutch my head.

“You know who I am, then this shall be more of a pleasant experience than usual,” She grinned again, mirth glowing dancing in her eyes as her lips split apart to display her pearly white, almost shark-like fangs. “Sit down, boy, I’ve been anticipating the arrival of one such as yourself, and I’d very much like to make a deal with you,”

My brain struggled to keep up with the flow of events, but the sheet of dullness once more appeared to strangle my emotions, this place’s magic once again working.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath.

‘Oh what the hell, I’m already dead anyway,’ I think, memories of the bleak, devouring, emptiness of the afterlife flashing in my mind.

I sigh, then sit down in front of the nine feet tall devil, legs crossed, eyes locked with hers.

A time-worn milky white sheet appeared, then Krys’thaliana reaches with her sole right hand under her weird outfit, and pulls out a small golden scale, and puts it right in between us.

She then pulls a mahogany pipe, and empties the content on the corner of the sheet, tapping the pipe six times on the fabric, each time making a small mound of ash fall.

She then puts the pipe in her mouth, and snaps her fingers, making a small white flame appear on her thumb, which she puts into the supposedly empty pipe, taking a deep breath, looking down on the sheet, and letting out a large cloud of lilac tinted smoke.

Her eyes let out a golden shine and the cloud starts swirling around the scale, lifting the six mounds of black ash and working its magic.

Despite my best efforts, I blink, for a split second I lose eye contact and the smoke and ash are gone, replaced by cards, a small deck in front of me, while she has six large decks in front of her.

“I trust you know how this works, right?” She asks, eyes still sparkling with pure mirth, some of the studs and jewelry decorating her horns glimmering ash she moves her head.

“I put my hands on the cards, and they’ll tell me what I own?” I ask.

“Exactly, and let me save us both time, boy, there’s only one thing I desire out of you, your knowledge,” her eyes shine again as if to extenuate the emotion behind her words.

“… Okay, take a break, let me get this straight,” I put my hand up and rub my face with the other, asking the demoness for a break, “I’m actually in the world of Aurelius?” I ask, eyes locking with hers again.

“…”

“…………”

“………………………….”

She looks at me, silent for a while.

Sigh

She releases a long, tired breath, all the eagerness gone as her shoulder slump.

“I apologize, it’s been so long since I’ve had to deal with a powerless mortal, consider the information free this time, human,” She says eyes fixated on the three moons whose eyes are still fixed on me, then looks at me, “Your soul is plucked from wherever shitty place, dimension, and or plane you were born in because you were able to view some of the greater threads of fate deeply intermingled with this world, and thus, you effectively possess very accurate knowledge of a large stretch of time concerning the future.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

And someone, someone powerful, wants you here, as your mere presence muddles up the threads of fate around the world, effectively changing the future.”

I open my mouth, but she cuts me off.

“You think that would make your knowledge useless, I don’t believe so, if a powerful being went so far as to bring you here, and hide your arrival from everyone but me, then I believe I am meant to receive this knowledge for a reason, and you are meant to bear my gifts,”

I close my mouth, hearing her response/monologue.

I was in the world of Aurelius; a story I wrote as a teenager, then rewrote when I was older, and a bit more experienced. The presence of the devil before me confirms this.

I was familiar with the monkey and the typewriter theory, which I think my current situation is, I also had a very good grasp on the rules the ancient devil facing me has to obey since I wrote them myself, from which the two most important sprang to mind:

1. When she’s in active trade, she’s forbidden to lie.

2. The scale will show the fairness of the deal, comparing the preciousness of the items.

I gently put my hand on my deck and closed my eyes.

The deck itself was a powerful tool, it can tell you exactly everything you own, and help you extract it.

And by everything, I mean everything: talents, emotions, senses, memories, gifts. After all, most people only ever truly own their souls, and everything attached to that, material possessions often aren’t precious enough to appear on this table.

Focusing on the cards, I felt the information appear inside my mind, it was a weird feeling, as it wasn’t written or told, but it was just… there.

Remembering all of them will be impossible, but I took my time to memorize the important ones.

“Alright, I agree,” I said, “You want knowledge of the future, I’ll trade you a copy of my knowledge of the general future events,” I lifted my hand from the deck, picking up a black card with a glowing golden border, on the center is a golden silhouette of a book.

I put it on one side of the scale, and it sunk, instantly losing balance like I put a solid iron weight instead of a card made of paper.

What I had was very valuable in this world, even if it’s a copy, and while my offer doesn’t contain details, it’s still an attractive offer.

“…” Krys’thaliana pressed her lips together looking at the scale, then gazed at me.

The ancient devil trader had underestimated me.

“Whose thread of fate did you witness?”

“That too, is valuable information, especially for someone like you.” I smile

“…” she looked at me, silent, considering her options, after all, she’ll have to match my offer for the deal to be successful.

“I will say that they are someone who will obtain something you desire, and you will eventually seek them yourself… Well, at least that is how it’s supposed to go,” I shrug.

She looks at me for a few more moments, then shakes her head.

“First, I believe this gift will be particularly valuable to the current you,” She pulls a card from her third deck from the right, it had azure borders with a silhouette of a brain on it, “I like to call this tranquil mind, you will be calmer, your mind run smoother, your memory clearer, and will be able to deal with stress better,”

She put it on the empty side of the scale, and the thing moved, not by a lot, just by a sixth of the way.

“My second offer, talent, 7th-grade affinity in an element of your choice,” She says, pulling out a hand of cards, each having a symbol for a different element… something which I know to be not as useful as the first, there were many ways to increase your talent.

Still, there were also many ways to obtain different abilities…

I purse my lips, considering my options, my hand on my deck as I passively skim through different “possessions” of mine.

“A merged soul,” I remember her saying.

I close my eyes, and focus more on the cards, trying to pull out my identity.

It comes out as a garbled mess, but soon clears out: Isaac Blackwood, son of Delilah Blackwood, Duchess of the Luveria kingdom.

Then something else came out, Leon Walker, Son of John Walker.

The two nuggets of information floated in front of my mind’s eye for a moment, before ‘Leon’ approached and swallowed Isaac, reducing two pieces into one, it sat there for a while, unperturbed, before turning into

Isaac Blackwood, formally Leon Walker.

I took a deep breath, the mental blanket on my emotions tightening, as the magic of this place once again calmed me down.

“Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore,” I sigh, quoting one, ancient movie, removing my hands from the deck of cards, opening my eyes to see the golden eyes of Krys’thaliana boring into me.

I opened my mouth for a bit, then stop, as I feel memories of both my life emerge, still garbled, but not painful anymore.

I take a deep breath, then lower my hand to my deck, and pull three cards, putting them on my side of the scale, which sank.

“Oh my, it seems that you decided, what do you wish for?” Krys’thaliana’s eyes gleamed again.

“The crimson king’s legacy, and the ability to bear its weight,”

Krys’thaliana said nothing, she just chuckled.

“And here I thought you’d be different from others, but it seems like greed runs through your veins as blood.”

Her fingers ran through the decks, picking up cards, looking at them, and putting them down.

“Touch of flame,” She picked up a card and put it on the ground.

After a while, she put down the second near the first

“Resilience of the soul,”

“Recovery,”

“And finally, enhanced life,” She grinned, putting the four cards together, taking a puff of her pipe, and blowing smoke on the cards.

The withered into dust, and a new one emerged.

“Hmmmmmmm, I’ll think I’ll call it cursed perseverance, a worthy name, I believe, for a gift meant to bear his cursed legacy.” She smiled, almost filled with glee.

She didn’t put it in the scale yet, instead reaching under her outfit, and taking out another card.

A pitch-black card, this time bearing no borders, but a crimson crown

“Ahhhh~ a shame to part with an item from my private collection,” she picked both cards up and put them on her side of the scale.

The scale sunk, quickly reaching equilibrium, and then moving past it.

“Oh my~, it seems that this little thing is really valuable to you, isn’t it?” she smiles again.

“…”

I remove another card from my deck, then gently put it on my forehead.

“A detailed copy of my knowledge of the future, and the condition that you do not attempt to interfere in my plans,” I say.

The first card on my side of the scale shattered into dust as the second came down.

The scale reached equilibrium once again, then fell to my side again, barely.

Krys’thaliana just smiled picked up another card and gently placed it down on her side, balancing the scales.

“And thus, our deal is concluded,” she just smiles and hands me the cards that are now mine, which I put in my deck.

“Yes, thank you,” I nod, finishing the deal with the ancient devil.

She takes the knowledge card and looks at it, almost as if she’s going through the info herself.

She then tilts her head and looks at me.

“I presume you’ll attempt to retrieve it instead of him, aren’t you?”

“… Perhaps, I have no plans so far, except attempting to enjoy my second life,” I shrugged, and the devil smiled, amusement etched all over her face.

“I will keep my eye on you, Isaac, may we trade again,” She smiled, taking a puff of her pipe, and blowing smoke on my face.

Then the world went black again.