Berrick was kneeling in the great white throne room of the Judge. Around him at a great distance were thousands of other souls, constantly arriving and departing as the Judge gave each their verdict individually. Berrick’s mouth gaped open as the Judge pronounced his sentence.

“Your destination is hell.”

“Im.. impossible! I’m a hero!” Berrick sputtered.

“Your destination is hell.”

Berrick managed to stand up. He looked down and saw that he was not in his body. Instead, he looked like a ghost.

“I have fought demons in hell myself, I’ve saved kingdoms and villages from terrible fates countless times. For what am I being sentenced to hell?” Berrick spoke to the Judge.

The Judge didn’t move but responded. “You speak of your greatest moments, yet your motives have never been pure. Always you longed after power. Power to rule. Power to control others. When you thought you had that power, you used it against those weaker than you. You betrayed those who trusted you. You abandoned those who depended on you. Your place is in hell.”

Berrick’s face changed from a confused expression to anger. “When did I do these things? I have always helped others! So what if I desired power? Who doesn’t?”

The Judge answered again. “Phillip, the Marion, son of Farrol. You beat him to death in an alley because he stood up for a woman you harassed at a bar. Robin, the Sillian, daughter of Millton. You promised her the money to heal her brother of a wound he received after they helped you fight the basilisk in Sillia. Instead, you gave them only five gold pieces of the thousand you received as a reward. Not nearly enough. You ignored her cries when you left them tired and broken. She sold herself into slavery to try and make up the cost, yet they both died before earning enough. Chalcie, the Marion, daughter of Caeria. After promising your love to her in order to have her sleep with you, you left the city the very next morning. You didn’t even know that she was with your child.”

Berrick fell to the ground again, despair on his face.

“Carl, the Porot, son of Faline…” The Judge continued.

“Stop! Stop. Please…” Berrick cried out from his place on the ground.

The Judge stopped, then spoke again. “These are hardly a portion of the victims of your crimes. However, due to your other circumstances, you will receive a special benefit in hell.”

Berrick’s face began to turn back to hope.

“Rather than enter hell as a soul to be punished, you shall be reborn as a demon. You will lose your memories from your time as a human but retain your ability. You may choose any type of demon, outside of the nobility, to start as in your new life.”

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Berrick’s heart jumped, then he entered into deep concentration. Obviously, the best choice would be the nobility, but those were disallowed. No one would choose to be an imp, and only a fool would become a hound or a warrior. The more educated might choose to become an abomination or even a dragon. Berrick knew more about demons than the average person due to his time in hell, and he realized there was one choice that stood above all others. Few demons, even, knew of their existence and even fewer humans.

“I will become an Egg Guardian.” Berrick said.

“So be it.” Thundered the Judge, and Berrick was gone.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

As the Judge continued to deal with all the other souls he had been communicating with concurrently, another voice reached his ears.

“Why did you do that?” the small, but firm female voice said.

“Do what?” Asked the Judge.

“Berrick was the scum of the earth. Despite his power and influence in the mortal realm, he deserves the punishment of hell. Only because of his few good deeds, I could see you reincarnating him to give him another chance, but why would you reincarnate him as a demon?” The voice responded.

“Hell has grown stagnant. Berrick is just the right type of scumbag to make things interesting there again.” The Judge said.

“I’ll be watching him.” Said the voice.

“Please do.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

In hell, Marflinda, The Asura, watched with eggs in each of her six hands as another began to emerge from the distributor. The distributor was a long stalactite, hanging from the high ceiling of hell, which ended in an opening marked by four teeth-like protrusions in a circle shape. Below the distributor was a stone pedestal reaching up from the ground with the top curved upwards in a small semicircle. Resting on the pedestal was another egg. Each of the seven eggs was at least the size of an ostrich egg, some were larger, and they were all sorts of unusual colors with strange designs.

Marflinda was about ten feet tall, with six slender, but muscular arms. Her face was ovoid, with a long chin and forehead. Her eyes were long, and she had brown hair up in a pony-tail. Her face, including her eyes, was solid white, but the rest of her skin was a pinkish red. She wore a long, oriental style dress that came down to her feet where she wore pointed, black shoes.

She examined the eggs she was holding, the egg on the pedestal in front of her, and the bottom of the new egg appearing, then nonchalantly tossed one of the eggs from her hands over her shoulder. The white egg with pink spots cracked open, and a large purple lizard emerged and wandered off, avoiding the pools of lava.

“Damn, all that time just for an abomination.” Marflinda said and used her now empty hand to pick up the egg from the pedestal.

In a few moments, the newest egg fell from the distributor and landed on the pedestal. It was solid black and larger than any of the eggs she held. It immediately began to crack.

“What? It can’t crack while it’s on the pedestal! That’s impossible!” Marflinda panicked, nearly dropping the eggs she held as she mentally summoned an Overseer.

By the time Asarius, Lord of Sludge, arrived, Marflinda was staring at a smoky, human-sized apparition which floated near the pedestal. Asarius, a twenty-foot tall mountain of yellow sludge with one giant eye near the top of his body, looked between the two of them.

“What is this?” Asked Asarius.

The smoky being turned to look at Asarius and said, “I am the Egg Guardian, Berrick.”