When I awoke, I had a massive headache. If you’ve ever had a hangover, imagine that, but with the pounding amped up to 11. With every pulsation, I genuinely worried that my brain would explode. God, why was it so bright? That made everything so much worse. Wait. Bright? I shot awake, completely alert, and full of morning panic, shouting:
“SHIT, MY ALARM DIDN’T GO OFF, I’M GONNA BE LATE FOR WORK!!!”
I stood up, eyes wide, and realized….I had no fucking clue where I was. As far as the eye could see in all directions, there were nothing but trees and hills. Did I just get stupidly drunk and fuck off into a park or something? No, that couldn’t be it, I didn’t even drink last night! I know I had offered one to the demon but….
The Demon!!!
As far as I can tell, there are two possibilities. The most likely one, is that that entire encounter was some sort of drug or fever induced hallucination or dream, and I got myself really fucked up somehow and ended up in the woods as a result, and for the other..
“The first word of your new life is ‘Shit’, huh? I suppose I should take offense to that.”
A woman’s voice rang in my head. The same voice I had heard before I passed out last night. I looked around for the demon, though something told me they, or I guess she, wasn’t actually physically there. A giant pillar of flame isn’t exactly subtle after all.
“You are the demon right? Or should I call you Miss Demon? I had no idea you were a woman. Also, sorry about that, force of habit.”
“It’s fine, and you may call me Desire’s Flame if you wish, or if that is too formal, simply Sophia will suffice. Is my being a woman a problem for you?”
“No, not at all. Just surprising is all. Your whole flame body thing had me thinking that you were something like a being of pure flame, rather than a being with a defined sex.”
“What you’re thinking of are elementals. You’ll definitely meet one someday, but yes, demons are in fact physical beings with defined sexes. There are very few creatures that exist outside of those bounds.”
“Huh, neat. But like also, on a slightly more currently relevant note, what the hell happened last night, where am I, and what went down with the contract? I kinda don’t remember anything.”
“What do you mean you don’t remember?!? After everything that happened, everything we said and went through, you mean to tell me you forgot it all?? Was it truly that unimportant to you?”
Fuckkkk. I messed up. Shit. What the hell did I say?!? God, if I can’t remember now, I’m just a huge asshole. I start apologizing, when I’m interrupted by a choked giggle. As though the demon, Sophia, was trying desperately not to laugh.
“You’re just fucking with me aren’t you.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She let out one last giggle and a puff of air. I could almost picture a pouting face. “Damnit, I almost had you fooled. Next time I’ll get you for sure!”
I let out a chuckle of my own, accompanied by a sigh of relief that I was not in fact a dick. Well, at least no more of a dick than I usually am.
“So back to the question, what happened?”
“Very well. After you confessed your desires, I went ahead and used those to form a contract. Fortunately, many of your requests could be consolidated, allowing me to only really do two things for you, so it wasn’t all that difficult to arrange. I used the drop of blood you shed in the ritual to sign the contract for you. Given that I didn’t do anything to intentionally screw you over, I figured you wouldn’t mind. As for where you are, do you remember how I told you that Heaven, Hell and Earth all occupy the same 3 dimensional space but are separated by the 4th dimension of magic? Same for this world. I’m not quite sure what the locals call it, but Angels and Demons refer to all the mortal worlds as Earth. Contrary to your previous world, however, this one has access to magic, which every mortal uses. Access to magic though, while powerful, has also slightly hindered them as they have never experienced any particular need to advance technology. Necessity is the mother of all invention as they say, and when you can already accomplish much of what you desire with purely your imagination and some mana manipulation, what’s the point of inventing things, y’know? Also, there are many other beasts and intelligent races living here, so constant conflict keeps the population under control. As a result of these two, much of this world remains undiscovered by man, perfect for you to explore and adventure as you see fit.”
I promptly decided to ignore the mild fuckedupness of signing a contract for someone else, and chose to instead focus on the cool stuff that happened to be within my control. A new world, magic, monsters. Shit she had even mentioned other intelligent races, so maybe even elves and vampires and shit are here too!!
“And as for your requests for companionship, sadly, I cannot use my power to compel others to feel a certain way about you, or force them to stick around. However, you had also expressed the desire for enough power to stand on your own two feet and explore, so I was able to combine the two. You are now what is commonly referred to in Hell as a Warlock. A human who has contracted with a demon and bound their souls. As such, you now have access to a small portion of my power, and as you grow stronger, you will be able to access more of it. Naturally this relationship goes both ways, and should you match or even surpass me, I will then be able to borrow power from you. This is what I get out of our contract. When you reach a certain level, progressing further becomes rather difficult, so I decided to place a bet on you. I hope you don’t take offense to this arrangement, it was just the only way I could think of to grant your requests…”
An odd tremor had entered her voice at that last sentence. Almost as if this powerful potentially immortal demon was…. Worried about my reaction? That I’d be angry with her? I don’t think I was reading that right, but responded as though I was. Immortal extremely powerful demon or not, she’s still a girl right? I’ve found that while men tend to want people to respond to the words they say, women tend to want people to respond to the emotions they’re expressing.
“Offense? Not at all! I mean sure it’s a little bit odd to play around with some candles and somehow end up being soulbound to a demon and in another world, and it is slightly concerning that you basically kidnapped me, but…. It’s still way better than having to go to work every day. I’ll be counting on you to take care of my dumb ass, okay partner?”
An audible relief filled Sophia’s voice as she responded, “Sure thing partner. Oh, and speaking of which, I never actually got your name.”
I scratched my head a little sheepishly. “Yeah, bad habit. I’ve never really felt that attached to my name, so I don’t generally give it out to people. If they ask, I’ll just make up a name on the spot so it ends up changing day to day. That being said, a new beginning right? May as well come up with a new real name to go with it.”
Sophia was quiet for a while, then asked, with inherent confusion in her voice, “Why do you not just go by your original name? Do you not like how it sounds?”
I laughed awkwardly, before sighing “No, it’s not that. I just have a… really bad relationship with my parents, and kinda my whole family in general. Shit, I’ve only really spoken with them twice in the past 6 years, the last of which was 4 years ago, when my dad had hunted me down. Rejecting my name is my way of rejecting the family I decided to leave behind y’know? I’d rather not have anything reminding me of them, so I’ll choose my own name, for this fresh start. Unless you got a good one?”
“Hmm. I see. In that case, you should pick a name representing what you want to be, and what you want to do with your new life. Who are some famous adventurers from your Earth?”
I thought about it for a moment, but could only come up with one good one. “Ponce De Leon. The man who explored South America in search of the legendary Fountain of Youth.”
“In that case, how about Leo?”
I smiled and agreed. “Nice to meet you Sophia, my name’s Leo. Pleasure to be working with you.”