Calridian’s reptilian face looks down at me. The cold air around us is still thick, but my breath no longer seems to leave me. I take the Crystal in hand, turning it over in my fingers. It’s warm, nearing scalding hot even, but it’s not a heat that can harm me. Rather than that, it fills me, flowing through the pores of my fingertips, seeping into my [Soul Crystal]. The power beckons me to absorb it all.

This is it. My reward, and not just any kind either. Gerim is gone, Hargoil and the twins are outside... this is for me, and me alone. This is a reward presented by Calridian himself.

Calridian himself...

I catch myself at the thought and the power-hungry side scolds my delay. But I have to stop and think. Why? Why is Gerim gone? Why is it just Calridian and I? Why is Calridian presenting it to me himself?

Something’s up.

I could be paranoid, but my paranoia hasn’t failed me yet.

I haven’t made any progress... any true progress.

The questions I’ve asked myself and many other Deaders still haunts me years after my liberation. I meet Calridian’s piercing gaze, sure he’s read enough of my thoughts to know where my goals lie, and yet he’s silent.

Is he testing me? See if I swallow power without any questions or guarantees?

I want to shake my head, but a scowl stretches across his reptilian face at my delay.

“What is it? Not good enough for you?” he asks coldly.

No, it’s exactly what I desire! I almost respond out loud as I turn my eyes to the power he’s offering me. It feels like life... like I could be reborn from nothing, given new strength and vigor... a change—a big one. I can feel my soul trying to take the offered gift, but my will pushes it back. I have to do this right, I know that now.

“No, it’s exactly what I desire,” I respond.

“But?”

“But what’s in it for you? Why isn’t Gerim here? Or Hargoil or the twins. Why have you singled me out?” I know there has to be a reason, a sort of test or even a trap.” Yes... a trap.

Calridian doesn’t respond the way I thought he would. Rather than fluster and become defensive, he nods and says, “Gerim is no longer here because Gerim is not here.” It’s spoken in a matter-of-fact tone, but somehow it still doesn’t ring true.

“You don’t trust him?” I say, and the look Calridian gives me makes my skin crawl. His eyes are full of malice, but the words coming from his mouth aren’t full of hate.

“This is not about him at all,” Calridian answers and turns away as if he couldn’t care less. As if Gerim being here or not wasn’t even worth mentioning. I swallow back my frustration, knowing it’s useless to try conversing with a Demon who’s probably read everything from my psychic leak.

The Crystal starts levitating out of my hands. “You should appreciate the gifts you’re given. And you will… once you’re… whole, more or less,” Calridian responds without looking at me, and I can’t figure out if he’s truly talking to me. Whole?

The Crystal flies through the air at his command, twirling a bit before it stops and falls toward me. When the Crystal hits my chest and I feel my soul being consumed, I have a moment where my mind becomes blank and then everything is still once again.

Somehow Calridian’s forced me to accept the Crystal’s power. It burns through my bone, skin, and body. The throbbing in my chest is both my heart and soul. And as the invigorating surge of energy takes hold, my whole body is on fire, my very blood flowing and boiling. My limbs feel heavy; I fall over backward into the sand as the sensation consumes me.

In the stark red light that is my vision, a woman, the same woman from many of my waking nightmares, appears. Except this time there’s no goblin in sight and we’re not in the kitchen where she died.

Birds chirp across the blue morning sky. She shakes out the clothes and spreads them across a long line, offering me a brilliant smile and giggling when the water splashes her face. I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face.

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Then the sky darkens, and she swirls away from me as the quiet afternoon in the backyard is replaced by tall, cobbled castle walls. The air here is stifling. My head is bowed and all I see is the dirt on my boot. So close to my crotch I find that I smell rancid, and I try not to wrinkle my nose as footsteps creep up behind me.

A man places a hand on my shoulder, but reality glitches and it turns into a sword. I find it in my hand before long, the tip sunk into some poor man choking on his own blood. The castle walls are gone; in its place is mud, gray skies with streaks of fire blazing across and soot falling like snow. I pull the blade out and stumble, tripping over another man slain in the same fashion. I take a spill and I’m on my back.

The battlefield is gone. Alcohol invades my nostrils as a woman straddles me, her breasts dangling in my face. I blink and Calridian comes into view for a moment before fading out completely.

More images flash through my eyes. I can’t keep up with the changes, and soon all I can do is scream. These aren’t nightmares but something about them scares me. There’s a swelling dread to them, each image leading to the doomsday of all. I shut my eyes and continue to scream.

Nil… Nil… NIL!

“No! Leave me alone! Not again! Not ever!” The words leapfrog out of my mouth in a deep panic—I can’t breathe. I want to open my eyes and see Calridian, to see something other than those images and the dread that accompanies them, but I know there’s nothing beyond this darkness.

Gripping my head, I let myself fall, seething and cursing deities, Demons, and Humans equally as I spiral.

Crystal Essence: [Crimson]- Lvl.5— 146.9esq

Trait [Psychic Resistance] Attained!

Ability [Essence Amplification] Attained!

This time the Blood Orange Crystal let me skip level four. I’m impressed, even more so with the new ability and new trait.

“Nil.”

I pause my moaning at his voice. A gentle hand cradles my head and I look up to find a man. Tears creep up again as I fear I’m in another waking nightmare. But his smile, the ceiling and walls behind him, not to mention the suffocating pressure of power he exudes, is all familiar.

“Are you alright?” Calridian asks, his Human form—no, Elven form—is that of a handsome young man in his forties or few hundreds, if what I know about Elves is true. He lends me a hand and I climb back to my feet.

“Does that happen often?” he presses, and I shake my head.

“It’s never happened like that.” I shoot him a mild frown, careful not to make my annoyance at his forceful overtures evident. He smiles, seeing through my hesitance with ease.

“It’s best you speak your mind. What you have to say may not matter at all, but [Psychic Resistance] will do you no good against me. You’re not even a Blood Orange tier yet.” He’s spouting his own version of “resistance is futile.”

Calridian moves away from me, gesturing over at one of his many shelves. A trio of scrolls levitate off the shelf and hover toward him. He unfurls and reads them as he addresses me. “You must have [Essence Amplification] now, you’ve gotten to that point.”

“Yes.”

“You will need it for my mission, Pink tiers will only give negative esq now, no use to you, is it?”

“No, it isn’t,” I say, a tad disappointed that I’ll have to cross out a source of esq. Even if it was a meager one, it was still a source.

“Don’t worry,” he says, reading the third scroll. “With your new ability you’ll be able to fuse and amplify the Essence in these Crystals with your own power. It’s one of the most common jobs for Crimsons.”

“Job…?”

The scrolls snap shut and Calridian lets out a charming chuckle. “You didn’t think everyone fought in the desert, did you? Some people just want a simpler life for themselves while others, like you and I, aspire for something greater.”

The scrolls hover over to me, but only two of them. They unfurl and I try to read the scribbled figures on the parchment, but the ineligible words morph into plain English before I can protest.

“Nil, you will find that magic is… a volatile power. It acts differently in contact with different things or people… or souls. There are several ways to go about casting magic. Some use charms and aids like staffs. Others use words, chants, and important Keys to activate their Spells’ desired effects. A Key is the easiest way to cast magic, and so you’ll start with that.”

Done reading, I look up at Calridian. “None of these Spells help me.”

“Who ever said they were meant to help you?”

I can’t refute that. I’m not sure why I thought he’d suddenly become a reasonable ol’ Demon just because he’s taken some Human-esque form. He’s still the strongest Demon in the city, the strongest Demon I’ve met, and the one I have good reason to fear.

I straighten up and put aside my troubles; this isn’t the being to seek help from. Answers, perhaps. Help? No.

“You are a special one, Nil,” he says suddenly. I can’t tell anything from his impression, as he gives none. “You’re lost in yourself, confused… you’re missing the key piece of the puzzle. But once you get that, everything will snap into place.”

The stress he places on some words, it’s almost like he isn’t even talking to me. He’s talking to the person he sees in me. I wonder who that is; whoever it is made this shapeshifting Demon take me in when I was otherwise just another useless spec in a desert of many Demons.

I have an idea of what Gerim’s intentions were for me. He’d said I could work as a Human because I look like one. If he’d had his way with me I’m sure I’d be missing limbs and have some kind of forced genitalia by now. All to fuel their industry of Essence, of power.

But Calridian… his eyes are different, and so are his plans. He’s certainly no savior and may well be as horrible as Gerim. But for now, I think our interests align.

“Mutual exploitation, am I right?” I manage a smile.