He passed out the second he grasped the sword. The sleep came immediately. It hadn't slowly crawled up his arm, filled him with an sense of tiredness, slowly drifted him away, but it had struck his head like a sledgehammer. Putting him out cold.

He wasn’t necessarily sleeping. It wasn’t so much that he was somewhere else, dreaming and resting. It was similar to sleep, he saw only black, and his sense of time was warped, but the occasional conversation crossed the veil and planted itself firmly within his memories.

It went like this:

“It was quite some fucking time since somebody received a damn item. Last fucking time it was cursed, could be this time too. Many red-shits decided to come today. What do you imperial fuck-wits say about this? Ahh, silent as always, your chief didn’t tell you about this did he? Don’t blame him, almost never happens. Ẁe’ll have to take it into our own hands then. One of you two pridy little shits will have to take him and get him inspected.”

“I can do it, if it’s okay with you boss.”

“No, I will.”

“You’ve already got so much on your plate, let little old me come in here and help.”

“Diatros. I will take him.”

“No, no, I insist. I’ll take him. Giorno.”

“I said. I will take him.”

“And I told you to fuck off.”

“Enough! Giorno, I’d give it to you, but I need somebody to take care of the kids who weren’t cursed, and that’s far too important to hand over to the fucking child next to you, but let me be clear Diatros, if you fuck about with this, I’ll have your fucking head. That’s a promise.”

“Thank you boss, I won’t disappoint you.”

***

Noah felt the most horrible headache. It felt like somebody drove nails through the meat of his brain, repeatedly and without mercy, caring little for the pain it brought about. He screamed with everything in his lungs but realized that he was gagged.

“Look at that, sunshine’s woken up,” the tall, white-haired man from before leaned over him. Behind him, there was no ceiling, but the sky with its stars. Noah saw the stars and the moon, but the pain was too much for him to make anything about it. He wasn’t sure where he’d gone, or how long he’d been out.

After a few seconds, which to Noah felt much longer, the pain stopped, and Noah let out a sigh of relief. He’d never thought laying down gagged and chained to some sort of table, could be so comfortable up until now. His panic ruined that though as he worried where he’d come and why he couldn’t move.

“So doc, is it a demon?” The white haired man said.

“Certainly.”

“Ahh, that’s what my gut told me.”

Demon? What is a demon? Noah’s eyes jerked around the space. He saw trees at the edge of his sight, and realized that he was laying down on some sort of stone table. His wrists hurt as he fought against the chains holding him down. He had a suspicion over what they talked about, and the last thing he wanted was a spear through his chest. Please no.

“Do you want me to kill him?”

“No, if it gets to that I can do it.”

“Diatros you’re meddling with things you shouldn’t.”

“Ahh, preach to me doc.”

“Last time it ended in a dis-”

“You don’t have to remind me of what happened last time. I should know better than anybody.”

“I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

“It’s fine, anyhow do me a favor and get this kid ungagged and take off his shackles. Look at him, pale as a ghost.”

Noah could see the hair on the doc’s hands as he fumbled with the cloth that gagged him. It tightened before releasing all of it’s pressure. He spit it out as quickly as he could, and took a couple of deep breaths. The shackles holding his hands down fell shortly after, and he sat up.

It was only then that he realized he was naked, something that he found happening too much. He realized how cold it was and wanted to shiver, but at the same time he thought it would make him look weak in front of the two adventurer’s ahead of him.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“So kid, I’m Diatros,” the white-haired man said. “What’s your name?”

“Noah. Where am I? Why am I naked? What happened?”

Diatros pushed his head back so that he faced the sky and laughed. “Good questions, but I’m afraid those are going to have to wait. What’s more important is what you’ve got right here.”

Diatros said it as he raised the sword which had appeared at the initiation. It looked much duller than he’d remembered it being. Diatros’s arms also seemed to be strained as if he could barely manage holding it upright.

“Take it,” Diatros said and tossed it to Noah who instinctively reached up and grasped the handle. The sword seemed to shift in his hands, growing sharper and loosing its rust. That’s strange.

“Is this my tattoo?” Noah asked.

“You could say that,” Diatros said. “It’s a tattoo in the shape of an item. In this case it’s a sword but it could really come in all types of shapes. Although, the benefit to having an item, instead of a tattoo, is that it’s not apparent wether its a demonic item or a godly one, that’s what saved your life.”

“There’s a demon inside of this?” Noah said as he dropped the sword. It hit the stone table he laid on before falling down to the ground below them.

“That’s right,” Diatros said as he leaned down and picked the sword up. “There’s a demon inside of it, at the moment a particularly weak demon, about the same strength as you, but a demon nonetheless.”

“Shouldn’t I be killed?”

“I guess so but those shitty imperial soldiers don’t know much about anything to be frank. They’re trained to be the perfect puppets. They’re worse than the knights in that regard, and that says something. Anyhow, they weren’t instructed what to do if an item appeared, so naturally, it became our responsibility. Now, I’m supposed to kill you.”

“So why don’t you?”

“Think of it like this. One day, somebody gives you… Let’s say a potion, and they tell you that if you drink it you’d gain god-like powers. It’s suspicious, so you wouldn’t trust them would you? But you wouldn’t just throw the potion away. That could be a huge blunder. Instead you’d probably have it tested or something along those lines. That’s how I think of you.”

“So you’re saying you want to have me tested?”

“Spot on. See most people think demons are inherently bad. They are, but they offer power. Great amounts, and if you can control that power, then you can control your demon. I’m giving you a chance to control it.”

“And if I fail you’ll kill me.”

“There’s more to it, but yeah that’s about how it goes.”

“He’s a madman,” The doc said. “Don’t try to understand him.”

Diatros laughed and handed Noah his sword back once again. He also threw him a pair of clothes which seemed to have materialized out of nowhere. Does he know spatial magic?

It was one of the rarest magical types, but it was also one of the most well-known types of magic. It was capable of teleporting somebody a long range, and of dealing decisive blows.

“Put on those clothes whilst I tell you more about your demon,” Diatros said. “So unlike tattoo’s, the item won’t morph your body, which is good as you really want to keep this a secret. The sword will grow gradually in strength as the demon within does, and it will even share that power with you, but occasionally, it will test you.”

“Test me?”

“That’s right. I’m not sure to the specifics but it will suck you somewhere, where it will challenge you to some sort of duel. If you win, you’ll get greater control of the demon’s power, but if you lose, you’re dead.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad. I’ve just got to keep winning then. Didn’t you say that the demon and me were on the same strength level?”

Diatros giggled. It was the type of laugh you’d give when somebody said something stupid without quite knowing it. “Well that’s where it gets tricky. The challenges get exponentially harder as time passes. It doesn’t quite care about how strong you are. It’ll keep coming, and that means that you’ve got to get exponentially stronger. That would be impossible, if you didn’t have a demonic weapon.”

“Umm… What does exponentially mean?”

“I forgot that you’re some village kid from the middle of nowhere. Think of it like this. On the first day, you get the first test, which might be carrying two stones. Not to bad right? Then those two stone join together and duplicate. Now you’ve got to carry two smaller boulders.”

“Then those smaller boulders join together before duplicating, and you’ve got to carry them, and that process repeats itself. Within a couple of tests, you’ll be forced to carry mountains.”

“That sounds impossible.”

“Now you’re getting it, but its not impossible, you’ve just got to keep pushing yourself, even when it hurts. Although you can’t do that alone.”

“If I can’t do it alone how am I going to do it?”

“Say hi to your new teacher.”