New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

He was reluctant to do this, as he still wasn't sure who this voice belonged to. But the prospect of getting back at Gaius sparked a taste for retribution inside him that he couldn't ignore.

He was mad at the god for many reasons, the most recent being that he disintegrated Luna. If she hadn't been a soul manifestation, that would have been the end for her.

And the thought of losing her to a fickle god who couldn't manage his anger? That set him off.

But there were other reasons, too. Like the fact he was hunting for Psyche, or Nemus, as she was now called, and Nemus was his ally.

In addition, now that Gaius had seen how close his essence was to hers, there was no telling when he would decide that Astaroth was too much of a threat, and come back down here to put an end to him.

Or worse. Go on Earth and kill him.

Astaroth let the voice guide his actions, listening to her commands.

'First, you will need to make contact with his soul. It's part of yours, but it remains an individuality inside yours. So you can still have access to it.'

Astaroth grinned at the imp, who suddenly felt shivers run down his spine.

"Why are you lo—ARGGHH!!!! You insane motherfucker!!!" the imp started saying before howling in pain as Astaroth's hand pierced into his chest.

Astaroth could have taken a gentler and more roundabout way to grasp the imp's soul, but this was much more fun.

He grabbed onto the soul and asked the voice, 'Now what?'

'Now, you power it up.'

Astaroth's grin turned flat, his thoughts freezing momentarily.

'Excuse me? Make it stronger? Why the fuck would I want to do that?' That is the opposite of what I want,' Astaroth argued.

'You can't save him if he vanishes from inside you. And at this pace, he'll burn away before you can stabilize him. You need to make him stronger if you want to save him. You don't have to make him stronger than you. Just strong enough so he stops burning.'

Astaroth growled in disagreement, but he proceeded.

"You'll feel your strength growing. I need to do this to save you. If you act out, I'm crushing your soul directly. Understood, you little red shit?" he asked the imp, who was still wailing in pain.

"I don't care what you do, but keep me alive and take your hand out of my body!" the imp replied, his eyes bloodshot.

It was strange to see the red cracks join the red iris in his pitch-black sclera, but Astaroth had no time to observe the phenomenon.

The demon's legs were already starting to disintegrate.

He injected pure Aether into the demon, pouring into his soul, and the difference was immediately apparent.

The demon's legs regrew; his horn as well, and he started growing in size, reaching the same height as Astaroth.

The wails of pain turned to grunts, and he stopped complaining.

Astaroth stopped powering him up when the demon's skin stopped sizzling on contact with his own and the ground.

'That's enough. What's the next step?' he asked the voice.

'You should strengthen him more. It'll make the next part easier.'

'I said that's enough. Tell me the next step, or I will crush the demon's soul. You have given me only reasons to distrust you, whoever you are, and I am no longer playing your game. What's the next step?'

There was no reply for a few seconds before he heard a sigh.

'Fine. You don't need to hold his soul anymore for the next step. But you will need to mark him with something that represents you. This will bind him to you, and then we can start the sealing process.'

Astaroth wasn't sure what the voice meant by the sealing process, but as long as the demon couldn't fuck around with his body, he didn't care if it was locked forever.

Thinking about how to brand the demon, only one way came to mind. He pulled his hand out of the demon's chest and slapped it over the wound.

"This will hurt. Lash out, and I take away all that power and watch you burn."

The demon clicked his tongue.

"Stop threatening me and do it already. My skin still itches from being in here," it replied.

The next moment, Astaroth burned a sigil under his palm, directly into the demon's skin. And he burned it with Aether, making the skin unable to ever regenerate from the mark completely.

That wound would forever brand him.

Pulling his hand away, Astaroth grinned.

The letter A was now burnt into the demon's flesh, with a small star inside the A's top part, to signify his Ash Elf heritage, the children of the stars.

The demon looked down at its chest and grunted.

"Lame. Couldn't you have thought of something better?" it complained.

"Shut up. I'm not done with you yet."

'What's next?' he asked the voice again.

'Next is the part that this creature will hate the most. You have to seal a part of its demonic essence and replace it with ours. It will fundamentally change its nature and make it resilient to the divinity of your soul without taking away its powers.'

Astaroth almost burst into laughter at the statement.

Now he knew for sure the voice wasn't a subterfuge from the demon. A demon's pride would never allow itself to be tainted by divinity like this.

Whoever or whatever this voice belonged to, it did not have the demon's interests in mind. Only its own.

However, Astaroth wondered how he would seal away a part of the demon's essence. He had no idea where to start from.

But then, it struck him like a thunderbolt.

The flame hovering over its head.

Astaroth had seen it flicker in battle, or get stronger when it enraged, both in his dreams and when he first released it. It reflected its power spikes and dips, meaning it was a part of his essence.

Grabbing the demon's horns, Astaroth looked into its eyes. It was disturbing that the demon looked exactly like him, but he moved on.

"Hey! Let go!" the demon complained.

"I said shut up. I'm not done. Or do you want me to take back the power boost and let you burn?"

The demon growled but let Astaroth get to work.

But when the sealing began, the pain immediately became unbearable. To the demon, it was like Astaroth was tearing its soul in two, and the pain, both mental and physical, was not something anything could bear.

It screamed and howled for a moment before going limp.

"Finally. Some quiet."

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