Robert Vlaho
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[DEVILICH] Chapter 23 - Human Spirit, Wicked Urges
🕑 Added 2024-04-11 13:38:16 +0000 UTCYou have acquired a new skill!
[Soul Prison]
Some deeds can not be forgiven. Yet, purging a soul is the way of the damned. Make them suffer. Make them toil for their redemption. Capture the souls of [Evil] entities. Produces a daily amount of ether based on the number and power of souls imprisoned.
You have imprisoned 1 [Evil] soul.
Souls captured: 1 (+1)
Ether generation: 0.0094/day (+0.0094)
Another flash of pain burst through my being as I used [Resurrect], but this time, the backlash was far lower than it had been before. Instead of blowing my entire arm off, I only felt a zap, as if I’d been lightly electrocuted.
The man’s body lay limp, as lifeless as it had been a mere moment ago, but now it felt… vacant. Empty. It was as if truly nothing but a mere, decaying corpse remained.
I could feel a new space within my soul. It was akin to the [Inventory], but I could not access it, as if a greater power was denying the permission to even take a glance within. It didn’t feel like someone was stopping me from taking a glance, but more like it was just fundamentally impossible, like trying to peek behind the event horizon.
It was a chilling sensation, and within, I could feel… a pleasant feeling, like the touch of a grain of sugar on my tongue. It was suffering. Agony. Torment. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it.
Only when the sensation grew old and I grew bored of watching, was I able to finally turn my attention back to reality.
I opened my eyes and breathed out. “Wow.”
That was… something.
The power did not feel evil in the slightest. It felt just and morally right, yet that did not at all clash with my nature as a devilich. I cared not for the punishment. Truthfully, I held no resentment against this man or what he may have done. But boy, did I love the idea of watching him suffer—making him suffer.
It was an intoxicating sensation, a feeling that made me feel giddy and joyful. For the first time since I arrived in this world, I felt like everything was right. The pang of annoyance and frustration that hung in the back of my mind faded away, like the nervous jitter of a cigarette addict pulling in a breath of sweet, nicotine-filled smoke.
And, just like that, my mind was cleared.
I looked around me, observing the desolate forest and the corpse leaning against the tree. Spotting no danger, I focused within, observing my new skill.
The first thing I noticed was that it wasn’t a “new” skill. It was just a feature of [Resurrect] that I hadn’t used until this moment. That being said, [Soul Prison] wasn’t the only new feature I unlocked.
You have acquired 2 new skills!
[Ether Battery]
Stores ether generated by [Soul Prison]. Current ether: 0.00000017
[Imbue Ether]
Imbues stored ether.
The first one worked as advertised, doing nothing more than storing this new “ether” substance. The second one was the interesting one. The description was simultaneously extremely barebones and 100 percent accurate.
It just imbued the ether. All of the ether I had in my battery would be consumed if I used the skill, and I could imbue it into… anything, it seemed. Anything substantial, at least. From living creatures to items, hell, I could even consume the ether for a singular attack, whether I used it with a skill or without. I wasn’t exactly sure what it did, though, but it didn’t take a genius to deduce that it was some sort of empowerment.
I pulled out the [Frost Staff], focused on the uncommon item, and used [Imbue Ether].
I felt an incredibly minuscule dash of something ethereal pour into the staff. For a brief moment, the frost permeating the staff grew almost imperceptibly stronger, and then it reverted to its usual self.
Hmmm…
It seemed to improve the effect of the item, with the length and power depending on how much ether I had available. But the effect had been temporary. I made an educated guess that the skill could achieve a permanent effect if I used it on [Create Item] instead. But as it was, I had far too little ether to test my theory.
I pondered what to do with the corpse. As I looked at it, I felt something strange. An unusual weakness appeared in the back of my throat. Then, the feeling got way worse.
Instantly, I buckled as my knees fell out from under me, and I threw up on the ground. The food I had forced down my throat earlier that day came flowing out, spilling onto the grassy floor.
I didn’t get it. Why was I puking? What exactly was happening?
I tried getting up to my feet, but my knees still felt shaky. My arms shivered and I started getting angry, frustrated at the feelings that were bubbling up—annoyed at my human soul for its protests.
But I couldn’t walk forward. I couldn’t move past it.
After all, I had just killed a man. Even worse, I hadn’t been looking to give him an easy death. Hell, I fucking relished at the thought of tormenting him. What the fuck was wrong with me!?
Finally, my outer shell cracked like a layered crust that had hardened over the past few days, and my human soul burst out from within, flushing me with a rush of emotion.
My arm clasped my mouth as the urge to puke overwhelmed me again.
“Holy shit…” I yelped. “Oh… fuck… Oh, shit! What am I doing…?” I asked, begging myself to give a proper answer, craving an explanation that wasn’t just: you’re a monster, James. You’re evil.
I didn’t want to be evil. I didn’t want to be this!
Suddenly, the urge to puke overwhelmed me again. But this time, it felt different.
Horror washed over me as a toothy tentacle crawled out of my mouth. I watched in utter bewilderment as the fleshy appendage lunged at the corpse, opening its maw like some sort of fucked up snake and taking large bites out of it, swiftly consuming the whole thing.
As soon as it was done feeding, it crawled back inside, leaving me standing there, shocked, my eyes shot wide open. A sudden anger overwhelmed me. I knew what that was.
My [Shapeshifting] flared as I undid my human form. The storm of emotions that had been overwhelming me just a moment ago vanished entirely as my true nature floated up to the surface.
I looked down, watching the fleshy mass around my spinal column. It fit pretty neatly with the rest of the dried flesh that covered my body, but I knew that this wasn’t the same thing. It was the cancer. The [Archdemon Cancer Cell Biomass], to be more exact.
With my claw-tipped, bony hands, I reached for the fleshy mass around my exposed spine. I tugged on it, peeling it off. It began writhing, squirming as it fought my attempts to remove it.
It had been quiet until now. It had never moved or attracted attention to itself. But now, as it squirmed and fought my attempts to peel it off, I could feel its emotions flowing through our [Symbiote] bond. And what it felt was loud and clear—a burning, furious desire to live.
“You want to live?” I asked, my voice chilling. “What are you willing to do for that right?” I inquired, feeling a sinister sense of superiority over it.
Its life was in my hands.
And I hated it.
I despised this thing for the years of suffering, the decade of paralysis it had inflicted upon me.
By all means, it was the culprit behind my fate. Without it, at that moment, I could have been a married man visiting my parents on a sunny weekend, my children playing with my nephews while my brother-in-law and I had a cold one, chatting about mundane, everyday topics while steak sizzled on a grill next to us.
If I were still in the form of a human, where my soul could keep throwing its tantrum, I would barely be able to hold myself back from shredding it to pieces. But at that moment, my humanity was nowhere to be found.
As not eyes but empty eye sockets gazed down upon the helpless creature, I saw not a nemesis I had to purge. I saw a tool—an existence capable of imbuing much suffering.
I could tell it had no true ego. There was no soul in there, no mind that cared about petty things like freedom or dignity.
The dried flesh around my skeletal mouth shifted, pulling my sharp jaw into a wicked, serrated grin.
You have offered an [Oath of Loyalty] to [Archdemon Cancer Cell Biomass].
Comments
Kronos
Lmao nice
LolGamez
What's does it mean to say he's a lich? His status, especially before his realignment, seemed pretty standard for an arch devil. He's a devil AND a lich. But I didn't see many undeath abilities beyond the rot affinity. Does he have a phylactery? Will he be able to raise corpses of the damned? What about the aura of death that devil said he had?
