I slowly pushed the huge stone door in front of me open. Revealing a long hallway that seemed to endlessly stretch in front of me. My steps echoed off the stone floor as I slowly made my way down. I leaned on the wall for support, as my head sat in my hand. The drinks were finally starting to catch up to me. Looking up I still couldn't see the end of the hallway. The dungeon passageway had patches of light and darkness in between the torches mounted on the wall. All of the sudden the floor began to shake underneath me. Rocks began falling off the sides of the wall. I could feel my stomach sloshing with the quakes. The ground under me opened up into a chasm and I was free falling backwards. I fell for what seemed like hours. Just floating backwards in the debris. Soon My fall began to slow. I was falling slower, it felt like some invisible force was lifting me up. Eventually I was still, and colors began to appear in the distance. Vibrant colors I had never seen, the lights swirled about into masterful pieces of art, moving around me, and then bursting into loud fizzles before dispersing. Darkness fell over me once more, but a small twinkling sound started in my mind. It slowly grew louder, until It felt like I was listening to the music of the universe itself. I began to feel a stream of water run by it. The stream soon turned into a torrent of water. The water spun rapidly lifting me higher. A light manifested far above me getting brighter, closer. Air blasted past my cheeks as I spun up towards the light that begun to occupy my whole field of vision. With a crack of thunder the light vanished. I was sitting in a chair in a field of fog. A sinister face without a body pushed through the mist. Its pale face seemed to be carved of wood, it was twisted and hideous. The face hovered right in front of mine. Its lower jaw cracked open and a hoarse voice fumbled out.
“I am Asmodais, of the four primordial evils. Tell me, human, do you seek my power?”
I could feel my stomach retch and a warm sensation as vomit blasted out of my stomach and all over the floating mask in front of me. Some of the vomit flew into its mouth, while the rest splashed off the mask and back onto my face. The mask remained motionless as I coughed up the rest of the vomit. I stared awkwardly at the mask. Which didn't take its eyes off me for a second.
“Ahhhh shit man, I've had quite the night. Little to many drinks, and then you know, all the spinning. Haha.” I said and tried to force a smile.
With a puff of smoke the face disappeared and so did my chair, causing me to fall on my tailbone. A large pair of ghastly eyes appeared in the air above me. The space around me began to rumble, then a voice that seemed to come from all around me echoed out.
“Great warrior, you have proved yourself by making it through my crucible. By slaying the guardian of my chambers, you have been deemed worthy of my power. I will-”
“Hey can I get my chair back, when you made it disappear I fell and it really hurt.”
The voice stopped, and the eyes looked visibly irritated. Nerveless a chair reappeared near me. I sat down and the voice continued as if nothing had happened.
“I will grant you access to the armaments of the underworld. Where you can choose one for my soul to inhibit. As I am one of the four original evils, this power will enable you to change the world in any way you see fit. I can't wait to see you conquer, or burn this world. I'll show you how to make the world an object for your satisfaction. The fires of your desire wi-”
“Dude, why did you have to make it so intense?” I'm not really trying to do any of, umm all that. Like, I'll take some treasure, sure that sounds cool. But I do-”
“SILENCE!”
The voice shouted out. Shaking the very fabric of space around me.
“I have been so patient with you human! I have been trying so hard to ignore everything that you have done! I would normally tear your soul in half and send it to hell for less! This level of disrespect is unfathomable.”
The voice sounded generally kind of sad.
“Oh, man. Um so I'm sorry about cutting you off and everything, like everything was super impressive. The lights and all. I mean you were probably just really excited to show off, because I'm probably like the first person here in centuries. And you probably feel like I ruined the whole show, like your big moment. That was rude of me, I'll listen to your whole story without saying anything.” I heard no response from the voice for a while.
“Why did you have to be the one to come here? How did you even get all the way here? I'm sure the guardian would obliterate you. Tell me the truth, human.”
I felt a strong pressure crushing my whole body, making me feel like I could pop like a grape at any moment.
“Choose your words carefully, because I can see your lies.” The misty eyes in the sky came closer and felt like they were looking through my soul. I felt the pressure get tighter so I blurted out.
“I fucked your guardian up man! Then I came here. Relax.” I felt the pressure leave, I dropped to my knees trying to catch my breath.
“Fine I don't know how you did it, but you're not lying.”
The pair of misty eyes returned to the sky, but stopped and stared at me.
“I won't interrupt, I promise.”
He began to tell a story about the history of the world, and ancient tales. But now that I think about it. His voice was really deep and echoey. It was actually kinda nice to listen to, almost relaxing. My eyes began to feel heavy. Man I was so tired, I began to roll my head back and then.
I awoke a little later, still on the chair in the foggy room.
“Damn I must have fallen asleep during his speech,” I groaned out loud. I genuinely felt sorry for it, but I was drunk as hell. There was a parchment suspended in mid air nearby, I picked it up and read. It was written in ink that sparkled as if there was a galaxy of stars within it. I shook my head to myself. This guy was pretty dramatic.
The note was short and simple, it read.
“I won't waste anymore breath in talking to you. Just go pick up a weapon and leave please.”
A trail of light began to reveal itself in front of me, so I made my way down. I walked down a path of light and took in my surroundings. There wasn't anything around, I was in a misty void. I was only walking for a bit when pieces of stone and wood began to materialize into floors and walls around me. The walls were decorated with things like hooked swords that had heartbeats, a bow that was strung with a human spine, armor that was shifting and ever changing. As I walked down this macabre museum I could feel eyes on me, several of them. I looked around and locked eyes with a shield. The shield was covered with eyes, unblinking, staring deep into my being. I shivered quickly and turned away walking several rows down. Something shimmering caught my eyes.
“Okay, now we're talking.”
I looked at the ornate jewelry set glimmering on the wall. There were earrings, rings, armlets and a necklace. I lifted the necklace off the wall, and held it closer. It looked like white gold, fully embellished by precious gems of many colors, the sparkle was like nothing I had ever seen. I didn't hesitate and put on the jewelry. After I put them on the voice came back.
“The Emperor's sin. A wise choice. These accessories boost your magical abilities ten thousand times over. Not only that, but it gives you access to the lost banished spells of this world. I would have expected something different from you, but this is fine.” Asmodais sounded pleased with himself.
“Now let the binding of our souls commence.” He said triumphantly.
“Hey, you should-” I was cut short by a large flash of light in the sky.
The space around me began to shake, all the walls decorated with weapons disappeared into smoke. The smoke began to fly around me at high speeds, changing color rapidly sending sparks into the air. The wind whipped up even more, I was in the eye of a vortex of color and smoke. Before my eyes I saw visions of the planet's origin. I saw the first plant grow into a forest, oceans rise from the earth. And four shadows emerging from deep within the planet, each claiming its own share of the world. Times of war, times of peace, I saw it all as if I was there. I gained knowledge that was forgotten to even the libraries of old. One shadow peeled away from the earth and came straight to me. It hovered in the colors of smoke, slowly merging with it, dying it all black. Then from the wall of wind a tendril of twisting black smog peeled away. It wriggled through the air like a snake, it reared its head towards me, and then in a rush of speed flew into me, filling my lungs so quickly I thought they might burst. The smoke began to be quickly absorbed by the jewelry on my body. The rest of the smoke followed the tendril and rushed at incredible speed into my jewelry. The space around me began to collapse, and absorbed itself into me. All of the sudden I was back in the hallway facing the large stone doors I came in through. “Hey Asmo? Are you still there?” I whispered to myself.
I could hear his voice reverberate in my head.
“Indeed, I have joined my soul with yours, my power enables you to use the artifact. Now even simple spells you cast can seem like cataclysmic events. The future of this world is in your hands. Even life and death are in your grasp with the world's forgotten spells.”
“I don't have any of that.”
“What?”
“I don't have any.” I responded.
“You don't have any, what? Ancient spells? They are imbued within the jewels, don't worry.”
“No, not ancient spells, magic. I don't have any.”
I didn't hear anything from him, but I could physically feel his frustration.
“Haha, human. Very funny, even farmers of old would use magic to water their crops. As I was saying-”
“The ladies say I'm magical, if you know what I mean."
I don't know if it's because we joined souls or whatever, but I could feel his anger explode. His voice boomed in my head, causing it to ache.
“Why did you choose the magical relic, If you have NO MAGIC!” His voice sent a wave of pain through my body.
“What do you mean why? Look at these!” I said while gesturing to my new jewelry.
“These are clean, like I feel iced out right now.” I said while appreciating the sparkle of my newfound treasure.
“You're telling me, you chose a relic from the armaments of the underworld, for vanity's sake!” His voice quaked out.
“Man! Now what the fuck did you want me to take, all that shit was creepy as hell, made with human parts and shit.”
“What you're wearing is the Emperor's Sin. The jewels and gold were mined with thousands of slaves, they were worked to death's door, and before they could die, they were sacrificed to power the relic. The sparkles that you see are souls of the poor slaves, forever in agony.” he said dryly.
“Damn, kinda sounds like my job. Well at least someone's appreciating all their hard work now.” I said with a smile as I admired the jewelry's shine.
“I'm sorry man, but no one is taking the eyeball shield over this.”
“You mean the Watcher’s Gift? The eyes on that shield can dominate any mind that it looks at, either making them your loyal slave, or breaking their mind beyond repair. The fact that you didn't even find out what each relic did is beyond my understanding.” He said with disappointment in his voice.
I started to feel kinda bad, he must have been super excited for someone to use these relics. I sorta feel like I've been messing up his plans.
“Hey so, I kind of took this one without thinking. We can go back and I'll pick a better one. If you want.” I said, but got no response.
“Oh wait, the whole ‘soul binding’ thing, means that it's like a permanent pick. So you're stuck in this relic with me until I die or something. Haha that would suck, right?”
“Human, just know that I hate you.” He replied. He didn't say anything else, his silence said enough. I started to walk out the hallway to the open door. As I reached the doorway I looked out into the open room in front of me. It was dark besides a beam of light that shone in through the cracked ceiling. The light rested on a throne, a girl who was sitting there perked her head up.
“Hey! That was pretty quick. Did Asmodais not talk as much as normal?” The girl asked with a slight tilt of her head.
Her long silky silver hair hung down to her shoulders. She leaped off her throne, her red and black dress that fitted her hourglass shaped body fluttered as she landed. Her ruby eyes scanned me up and down.
“Those look good on you, nice choice.” she beamed at me.
“At least someone thinks so," I responded.
I raised my hand and stroked her cheek. Her skin was pale and smooth, it reminded me of moonlight. She held my hand at her cheek and leaned into it.
"Could I have a bite again?" She asked.
I nodded in response. She gave me a warm smile that revealed her fangs. Gently she moved my pointer finger to her lips. Her tongue wrapped itself around my finger. I winced as I felt her fangs pierce my skin. She held my wrist with both of her hands as she began to gently suck on my finger. Her eyes seemed to gloss over as she got into it. She looked up to me with a hazy look, as she began to suck more aggressively. Her eye contact made my heart race, she was completely absorbed on the moment, her face was painted in pure pleasure as she drank from my finger. Slowly, she let my finger slide out of her mouth while maintaining eye contact. She and I were both breathing heavy, starting at each other. My whole body felt warm and fuzzy.
“Are we going back to your place now?” she asked.
“Yeah right away, I just need to figure out how to get out of here.”
I heard a familiar voice in my head.
“When you said you fucked my guardian up, you meant…”
I responded in my head to him.
“Yeah of course, can you blame me? She's bad as hell, you trying to tell me you wouldn't?” I could feel a crushing sense of disappointment from Asmodais.
“Human, do me a favor.” he said in a quiet voice.
“Please end your life.”
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