Mammon’s wounds were a lot worse than he had initially thought. Although his flesh had mended with his transformation, the energy he had expended in that earlier skirmish was taking a lot longer to recover. Thus, he had told Wren that he wanted a day off to simply enjoy the comforts of the moral world as an excuse to lie in bed. The boy had bought the lie easily enough, being so naive that the thought of the demon lying to him was something completely alien.
The demon had originally resigned himself to do little else other than rest the next day, expecting nothing exciting to happen as all the things he had planned were slated to occur the following night, but something unexpected did happen. At around half past four the following day, Mammon felt a surge of energy enter his body. It was subtle, almost imperceptibly with how gentle the force was, yet it was a feeling that he recognized. The demon grinned as he felt a fundamental change occur with his Soul-Seed. He felt renewed strength fill his body, but the source of this new strength was significantly different than the infernal powers that he was used to.
Mammon grinned. He was hoping to see the fruits of his labors pay off, and he guessed that Mav must have finally told his followers about what had transpired the night prior. If the demon had to guess, Mav's information was what led to a spike of Greed in the other minions. It was easy enough to imagine the ambitions swirling as all of them were hungry to take advantage of this new opportunity and the perceived weakness in their old boss. All of this chaos was the perfect environment for the demon's soul to be nourished and he had eaten up some of that ambient Avarice.
With a deep breath, Mammon forced himself to calm down. He started to meditate again, like he had on the first day, and looked inward at himself. In that strange space between, within Mammon’s own psyche, he saw that the tiny seed of a Soul had sprouted. As Mammon thought, there was a fundamental change, like an evolution of sorts. The dust-sized speck that had taken root prior was now about one or two meters tall, the size of a small shrub, but more importantly, Mammon could distinctly see the shape of his new Soul.
The plant analogy he had used before wasn’t just for show, his soul, unlike the amorphous souls of the humans around him, was shaped like a small tree. Or perhaps it was the Tree, the one their leader had used to kick those humans out of Eden... or maybe Mammon was just looking into it too hard. Either way, the small plant had seven developing branches, with the lowermost stem holding a golden fruit. Mammon moved closer to the soul, gazing at it in excruciating detail, and saw that although the branch with the strange fruit object was still growing at a visible rate, the other six were almost completely lifeless.
It was clear that the growth of Mammon’s strange Soul wasn’t completely straightforward, but the novelty of it was a nice distraction for the ancient demon. He’d have a lot of time to ponder over his Soul, but for now, Mammon’s attention was on the oddity. There was only one object that seemed so out of place on that plant, and upon closer inspection, it did seem like there was abundant room for others like it to grow on the stem. The demon could even see new sprouts begin to form, and it was feeding on the ambient Greed that the demon had created.
In fact, after double-checking, there was no doubt that the fruit itself was some kind of concentrated, physical manifestation of Sin, and in its mature form, Mammon could instinctively tell that this was the source of his new power. But what ability was that? The CEO of Hell shook his head and exited his meditation, focusing his gaze back on the real world. Taking another deep breath, Mammon felt for that warm energy emanating from the Soul Fruit and forced it to the surface, concentrating its alien energy on his dominant left hand.
Mammon looked on in marvel as the tip of his fingers turned a beautiful shade of gold, that sheen spread to his hand until it enveloped his entire arm. The demon tapped the strange transformation with his other hand and saw that its texture and feel were exactly the same as the precious metal. His entire left arm had transformed into malleable gold. The durability and increased strength that came with the change was nice, but Mammon was certain that such a boon was just a nice prelude to the real benefits.
The CEO of Hell tried to see what else he could do with his strange golden form, but it wasn’t until he placed his arm back on the desk that he saw the unique properties it had. Mammon almost laughed out loud when he saw the wooden surface slowly transmute into pure, sparkling metal where his arm touched its surface. Just like the old King Midus of old, Mammon had somehow stolen that mythical figure’s infamous ability.
Unfortunately, the change wasn’t permanent, and the wooden surface returned to normal a few minutes after he changed his arm back, but the demon couldn’t imagine having a living organism’s body turned into gold, even for a short time, could be anything other than fatal. The only problem was how slowly the golden plague spread, and the physical touch needed, but if this was just the start of Mammon’s new abilities, then he couldn’t wait to see what new goodies awaited him in the future.
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Mammon spent the rest of the day testing out his new abilities, and it wasn’t until Wren came back in the evening that he snapped out of his experimental trance. He had even forgotten that the boy had gone out to take care of some personal issues earlier that day. Wren had said he had to go out for a short while to ensure that no one would seek him out after disappearing from his usual haunts.
The demon hadn’t considered the boy’s life prior to their meeting, or about the private lives of any humans now that he thought about it, but he supposed that it made sense for the boy to have someone who would be concerned if he were to simply disappear.
“I’m back, Mona!” Wren greeted as he entered the house, “I bought us some dinner as well.”
Mammon looked up and smiled at the boy. “Good job, lordling, I was starting to feel a little peckish.”
The boy put the assortment of street food on the kitchen counter and started to make the table for the two of them. Wren was surprisingly capable of housework given his upbringing, and although Mammon supposed that a future leader shouldn’t bother with such menial tasks, he couldn't deny that it was a helpful trait given their current situation. He’d have to stop the boy from doing such things once the servants arrived in the coming days, but for now, he allowed Wren to do the work.
“Did you get everything you needed to do completed?” Mammon asked absent-mindedly.
“Yes, Mona,” the boy answered, but Mammon could see that he was hiding a frown. The boy needed to learn to lie better, that’d be an important skill to have in the future.
Mammon shook his head. “You can tell me the truth, lordling, you have to remember that I’m here to help. We elementals can tell lies easily enough.”
Wren looked down in shame before muttering, “Oh, um, I'm so- uh, I mean, I didn't tell you because I didn’t want to ruin your time here with all the tiny problems I had. It’s just my old leader…”
Good, he didn't apologize, it appears he was learning well. “He’s not happy about you leaving your pickpocketing operations?”
Wren nodded. “Yeah… I even had to give him some of the money you gave me so that he’d leave me alone.”
The demon frowned, almost allowing a tiny flare of his anger to show on his features before he composed himself again. Now Mammon might not care about the boy in the ways that humans did for their children, but he was the CEO’s first contractee in this dimension, and the demon would not allow his charge to be taken advantage of. More important, however, was the fact that someone, some random nobody, had dared to steal his money. No one stole from the Archdemon of Greed, even if that wealth was transferred to an underling.
“I see,” Mammon said slowly, “Don’t worry, Wren, I’ll have a chat with this old leader of yours and get it sorted out.”
The boy looked up. “You don’t have to, Mona. The boss doesn’t really listen to anyone, and I don’t think he’ll listen to you.”
The demon chuckled, reminded again of just how naive the boy was. “Don’t worry, my lordling, I have my ways to convince people. You’ll find that us elementals are a lot more persuasive than the humans here, so don’t you worry.”
The boy thought for a moment before nodding. “Okay… um, I can take you to where the boss lives when you have time if you want.”
Mammon thought for a moment before shaking his head. He could still feel the intimate connection between the coins that he had given Wren and himself, and it wouldn’t be a problem to follow that connection to its source. No one could hide from the demon once they’ve touched his wealth, not even when he was diminished in ability.
“There’s no need,” he continued, “I can find him myself.”
“If you say so, Mona… you have to tell me about the elementals more sometime. I still have a hard time understanding all the cool things you can do. Um, if you have time that is.”
The demon smiled as he gestured for the boy to eat. “Well, I have some time right now. Why don’t I tell you all about the elementals and what it’s like back in my home while we eat? How about it?”
Wren’s eyes lit up and he nodded quickly. And so, for the remainder of that night, Mammon imparted upon the boy many fanciful tales derived from old Earth folklore and fairy tales in turn, all the while imparting his own morals in the stories that he told. He made it abundantly clear to the boy that in order for the heroes in these stories to succeed, they needed to do anything in their ability to gather more power, to accumulate resources without end, and to never become complacent with what they already had.
After all, as the old adage went, money was what made the world go round, and Mammon saw no reason why this wouldn’t be the case even on this strange new planet. Better yet, the boy Wren was like a naive blank slate for Mammon to work on, he trusted the demon to a fault, believing anything and everything he said as the absolute truth, and the kid’s mind was surprisingly nimble for one without a formal education.
And so, for the rest of that uneventful night, Mammon was able to truly relax as he regaled his charge with more and more outlandish tales of heroes and folktales. The child was so deprived of a proper upbringing and entertainment that it wasn’t until almost one in the morning that the two were able to separate and go to their respective bedrooms. Mammon, loathe as he was to admit it, did still require rest after sustaining those injuries, and he had a big day ahead of him.
Unless human nature had disappeared in one night, Mammon expected a lot of resistance and trickery when he went to greet his new underlings, which made for the perfect venue to test his interesting new abilities. Mammon also needed certain questions about the nature of this world and its strange magicks explained to him, and that was a core reason to be excited about, but at this moment, lying on that soft bed, the CEO of Hell only had one question he really wanted answered: just how would the human body react to pieces of it turning into gold?
Mammon closed his eyes and smiled. He’ll have the opportunity to find that out soon enough, and more besides. The demon chuckled one last time before the strange sensation of sleep took him once more.