Chapter One

I lost track of time. How long as it been? Years? Minutes? The only thing that is constant is the pain. Not physical pain, that would be fine, I could handle physical pain. I've had my arm severed, my leg blown apart and my lower half eaten. None of that holds a candle to the fury currently pulsing in my head. That fucking prick, Azazel, was using his godly power to generate the purest pain possible through magic. It was all in my head so I wasn't actually hurting, but you try this and tell me if that fact made a difference. Worst of all, my magic and abilities were currently bound by Azazel. "Shit shit shit, All I want is rest. I want my soul to pass to the afterlife and let me rest." God Hero. Hero of the Gods. A few titles among many, all of which meant nothing to me. When humanity was threatened, the King and his mages often summoned Hero's from another realm and they take care of the Demon Lord, or the Magic Beasts, or whatever the threat was. Hurrah. I was almost the same, except instead of any human King summoning me, it was Azazel, the current Reagent for the gods. Strictly speaking they weren't actually gods, but godlike figures. What's the difference? To humans or other weak races, these guys might seem like gods but there power is nothing compared to the One True God, or for that matter even the lesser true Gods that serve him. Nonetheless, they were strong enough to cause mortals to worship them, and from their point of view they were actual Gods. Oh but why would the One True God allow that? Freewill. Each and every living entity in this universe was endowed with freewill by the creator. If he were to step in himself, it would kind of defeat the purpose of freewill as he could literally rewrite past, present, and future. Paine coursed through my body interrupting my thoughts. I let out another scream that echoed out into the abyss. Now that Azazel is the God's Reagent, he is basically king of the most powerful godlike entities and that son of bitch used me like a slave. I was sent to thousands of worlds with a simple goal. "Eliminate my enemies. Spread my faith. Kill the Demon Lord(s)." Their dirty work. How many centuries ago was I a simple human? Defending the my country as a soldier then rising up as hero to defeat the Demon's that threatened us. And now what was I but a slave to these god pretenders. I should never have accepted the power Azazel offered me. He tricked me with honeyed words, that I was doing the ultimate good, that I would be welcomed in the after life as the the most revered hero.

Bullshit, being a Hero is crap. No chance for a family or friends, constantly sent to other worlds for one thing; battle. My brain was currently having needles shoved through it, or so it felt. "Damn that bastard is getting creative..." I muttered to myself. This wasn't the first time I've tried to escape Azazel's contract. Each and every time, he won. It wasn't that he was more powerful, but simply the contract I was under as the "God's Hero" didn't let me use my power against them. There was no end the contract except upon the death of Azazel or my death, but since Azazel controlled my Fate (once again thanks to the contract) I could not die by the hand of anyone weaker than him. "My oh my how terrible.." A voice rang out in the darkness. I opened my eyes and looked around. "Fuck you Azazel, isn't this torture enough?" The voice laughed. "It hurts me that you think I am that piece of trash." Suddenly a man materialized in front of me. "Who are you and why the hell are you interrupting my vacation?" I asked. "No respect for a godly figure huh? Perfect. I am a... freelancer shall we say, currently contracted to a certain someone and I have an offer for yo-" "No. I don't want anything to do with you, your organization, your sponsor, or whoever you work for. I got screwed once already." "Hahaha, you don't even want to hear the details?" "No, now please leave me to my paradise vacation, sponsored by my current employer." I said as the pain continued to increase. The figure had a wry grin on his face when he turned around and said "Well I guess I'll leave you to it...to bad, I really thought you would want to escape this torture and kill Azazel. Ah well, guess I was wrong." With this the figure began to fade away. "Fuck you." I yelled after him. "I AM NOT FALLING FOR IT!" Trust was something I had lost long ago. Betrayed by the King's who country I saved, betrayed by the very god that I thought was my only ally. Trust is a concept for the naive. But damn if his offer didn't hit me right in the...special place where things shouldn't hit. By now his figure had almost competently faded.

Stolen story; please report.

Making up my mind I yelled "Fine. I'll hear your damn offer." No sooner were the words out of my mouth that the figure had fully materialized in front of me. He had a monkey like grin on his face and his eyes were dancing with mirth. I hate this guy already. "Really? YOu sure? You seem to be enjoying yourself here." "Tell me your offer or fuck off." The man, clearly a god as his features were a perfection beyond that of mere mortals. "Oh goody goody. I'm so happy we could come to an understanding. You want to be free of your chains right? You want to kill Azazel more than anything in this or any world right? Well it just so happens my...employer, wants the very same thing! Isn't that grand!" "Then why don't-" "Now now I'm just getting to that." the man said with a crazy light in his eyes. "Killing him I could do yes? But it wouldn't fit my style and it wouldn't have the same effect as if YOU, a 'mere mortal', did it. Plus this avoids any nasty business with it being 'unfair' or that I was trying to usurp the throne." The man paused and rolled his eyes. "Anyway, so here's the deal. I am going to forcefully break your contract on the sole condition that you will kill Azazel and destroy his seat of power." "Wow this deal just sounds soooo good, how could I not accept!" I said, my voice dripping sarcasm. "Just what do you get out of it? Would I be killing this asshole so that a bigger once could replace him? If so no thanks." "Oh no no, my dear boy, you misunderstand me. Hmm I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but then again that is just my nature" the god cackled. His laugh and the light in his eyes made me shiver. My gut told me this god was absolutely insane and probably extremely powerful to boot. Oh joy. "I simply need someone to teach these young upstarts a lesson. So how about it?" You might think I had to consider and ponder for awhile, but truth is, even if the guy betrays me, its not like it would be any worse that being screwed daily by my current 'sponsor'. Almost immediately I replied, "Fine, but if you betray me, Azazel, won't be the only one I kill." "Hmmmm? Oh yes yes sure." The god ignored me like if I was a child throwing a tantrum. "I'm so happy we can work together. I'm going to go ahead and end the contract between you and Azazel" "Oh I forgot to mention, this might hurt a tad."