As I lay upon the altar, I take in my surroundings. Near me there is another altar with a figure that is clearly not human by the horns protruding from their head, I cannot see much more than that because another person is chanting over the other person. The one near me finishes his chanting and directs his attention fully towards me. He takes a jar of some type of liquid and using a brush slathers it across my chest. Immediately I notice a tingling from the area, and he tells me that it’s to numb the pain. When I open my mouth to ask what pain someone above my head inserts something and tells me to bite down on it while the one that was chanting grabs a knife. I glance to my right and see that the other figure is doing the same things over the horned creature. The man over me starts chanting again and time seems to slow down. The knife descends and pierces my chest. The numbing agent does not seem to do anything, I can feel as he tugs the knife downwards. He then breaks my ribs and takes up the knife again. I cannot see what is going on but feel tugging in my chest cavity. The pain is so intense I bite down on the object in my mouth hard enough to break it. A few seconds or eternity later the man in my chest come up with my heart in his hands, he turns and trades places with the figure that was over the horned creature. As my sight fades to black, I see that he is holding another heart in his hands moving towards my chest. At this point, I lose consciousness for an unknown amount of time.
I suddenly find myself back in my pod with my chest hurting badly. I am really freaking out now. I open the pod and run to the bathroom, and there is nothing there, no wound. No scar. Nothing. I sit on the toilet taking comfort in the racing of my heart, slowly feeling the adrenaline leaving my system. When I finish calming down, I head to my computer and do a search for Everlife Warlock. There is only one thread on a forum. Its contents first line is: Don’t do it. You will regret it. It then goes on to detail the ritual, but this guy was smart enough to log out and delete the character before his heart got chopped out. I respond to the post adding my experience as well. Thinking back Hestia did tell me it required a sacrifice. This was kind of ridiculous though. I now had to make a decision. After what I went through should I delete the character, or assume that this was the worst of it and now it would be payback time. It was 12:45 when I first logged in to create my character, and it was now 2:30 in the morning. I was definitely behind everyone else, but it would be worse if I started over. I decided to stick with my character for now, and if there were anything else like that to occur, then I would definitely delete it. I wondered who the hell designed the class this way.
I got back in the pod and closed it with trepidation. I had no idea what to expect. I pressed the button to start the integration and faded back into the login screen. My character was there with a question mark for the name, and I realized I had not gotten to choose one. I chose login and waited as my view went to darkness. I then felt like I was waking from a dream. I slowly opened my eyes and took in my surroundings. I was in a rock chamber that appeared to be a cave of some sort. I stood up and examined myself. My chest had a scar on it that looked like the surgery if you want to call it that happened long ago, I could also feel a strange pulling sensation. I am not sure which direction I was being pulled to, but it was noticeable.
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I searched the chamber I was in for some clothes, and all I could find was a faded black robe with frayed edges. I went ahead and put it on and walked out into a larger chamber in the cave. Torches burned on the walls and candles covered a desk that was against the far wall. At the desk, a man was sitting going through papers on the desk, as I walked towards him. Somehow he detected me as before I got a quarter way there he turned and faced me. I immediately became wary and started backing away as this was the person who had removed my heart. I would never forget this face. He noticed my actions and held up his hand giving me a wan smile. “I am sorry for our abrupt introduction, but before you entered this world, we were sent a message by the gods letting us know that you were to be a warlock and to immediately perform the bond, then proceed with training.”
When I looked confused he said “You feel a tugging in your soul now do you not? That is the direction your bond mate is in. You can feel your heart beating in her chest as she feels her heart in yours. We decided to separate you two for the time being until we can get you some information about our ways. From what the gods told us you know very little and will need help to become acclimated to your new life. First off call me Instructor Willis and tell me what you know of demons. Also, tell me what you want to be called. Normally when someone undergoes the ritual, they choose a new name for themselves to represent being a new person.”
I thought about a new name. He was right. After what I went through I did feel different. This was no longer really a game, this had consequences. I told him I wanted to be called Darcolithe. I then informed him that I knew very little about this world, but in my other world demons were angels that had turned against God and been cast out of the heavenly horde along with their ruler, and that they were the cause of torment and temptation upon our world now.
He shook his head and told me “It’s very different here. Here we know that demons are evolved forms of fire elementals that gained darkness aspects. Ironically we also have angels, but they were fire elementals that gained light aspects before they changed forms. Naturally, this caused some enmity between the two factions. Similarly, fairies are blends of earth magic that gained wind aspects and so on. Most magical creatures are actually evolved elementals that gained a second aspect of power. Eventually, they can evolve further if they gain another aspect of power as well.”
Once he made sure I understood the true origins he instructed me about why we were hated. We were no longer human, we had corrupted ourselves with shadow and fire. We gave up part of our humanity for power. No matter how we acted, we were second-class people because we rejected our humanity. There were other reasons, but that was the major reason. He went through more history telling me about this world and its inhabitants and how warlocks originated. He then dropped the bombshell on me. The bonding I went through was a marriage ceremony. Demons as elementals were genderless, but the introduction of my heart was altering my bond mate to best suit me. The demon I was now bonded to was actually over one thousand years old. She had spent over five hundred years as an elemental, then become an imp for one hundred years before amassing enough power to become a lesser demon. With the addition of my heart, she would be undergoing another transition phase. Once that was done we would be brought back together. In the meantime, I was to be learning spells after getting some real sleep, not the healing sleep I had been put under to adjust to my new heart.