Waiting to get a reaction from his mana again, Astaroth thought hard about how to reach the cabin. He could tell by how the demon was trying to breach into it, this was where Kloud's mind had locked itself.
The mind and the soul were so strongly connected that it was hard to corrupt one, without corrupting or controlling the other, as well. Astaroth didn't know how Kloud locked his mind like this, but he had done well.
As his mind received the feedback he had waited for, another whip of black flames lashed out at him. But this time, he didn't dodge it, keeping his mind on the cabin.
As the flaming whip lashed across his back, leaving a burning streak on his armour, Astaroth ignored the pain and damage number floating up on his interface.
His mind locked on the cabin, feeling like it was suddenly closer.
'Hmm?'
Another flaming whip lashed across the air, this time striking him in the chest. As the whip streaked across his armour once more, Astaroth sensed the cabin getting closer.
He stayed focused on it, not wanting to lose sight of it again, all the while keeping his eyes closed and his mind clear.
A third whip streaked across the air, aiming at his face.
A cut appeared on his left cheek, deep enough to see a part of his cheekbone and muscles. A lick of flames was also slowly burning his flesh, dealing minor damage continuously.
But Astaroth was grinning. The pain barely registered in his mind as he confirmed his thoughts.
Screaming at the top of his lungs, he provoked the demon.
"Do you call that an attack?! I thought a demon who could take control of my friend would be at least two–no–three times stronger than this. You're weak!"
The eyes that formed in the fire surrounding the cabin squinted at him.
The voice resounded around him again.
"You act big, mortal. But soon enough, you will be dead, and I will take control of this man's body and mind, and kill everyone in here."
"Hah! You couldn't kill me if you tried. You are much too weak for that."
Astaroth could feel the demon's anger from all this distance away. It seethed in anger, whips of flames appearing everywhere around Astaroth.
"Let's see how long you can maintain your false bravado, mortal! Die!"
Hundreds of attacks started raining on Astaroth. Although the damage was negligible on every attack, the accumulation was nothing to scoff at.
But he already had a solution to this problem.
Melding with White, he let the passive health regen kick in, as it cancelled almost all the damage he was taking. The whipping intensified shortly after, the demon probably sensing his target wasn't weakening.
But this was exactly what Astaroth wanted.
He could feel the cabin getting closer in his mind, with every strike he received.
The demon didn't seem to be aware of the distance shortening between him and the mortal, as he kept lashing out at Astaroth. Astaroth was laughing mentally at this weak show of force, thinking it was so easy to taunt demons.
Of course, he knew that smarter demons existed, of which some of them lived in Solomon's Signet ring. But the lower-rank demons seemed to all be vain and prideful.
Every attack brought the equivalent of a footstep closer to his objective.
After taking this onslaught for the full duration of White's melding time, and then some, Astaroth could finally see the cabin with his eyes. It was at that moment that the demon realized what he had done.
But it was too late.
Grinning like a madman, Astaroth dashed forward, closing the distance between him and the flames in a single step. Once he was standing right in front of them, he could discern where the flames originated from, and thus found the demon.
Grabbing a handful of fire, the flames suddenly condensed around Astaroth's hand, forming a skinny obsidian demon with two small horns and a tail swishing around behind it.
The demon stared wide-eyed at Astaroth, surprised the mortal found him so fast.
'Huh. He looks like the imps from cartoons. It's almost comical.'
But now that he had his hands on him, he could do what he came here for.
"You're coming with me, little fella."
Concentrating, Astaroth pulled out of Kloud's mind-space, grasping the demon's soul and consciousness tightly.
But instead of heading back into the world, Astaroth had other plans.
The surroundings changed, going from a white void, to another white space, but this one was slightly different.
Seeing the space change, the demon thought he was being pulled out into reality for a moment, until he recognized the energy around him as another mind-space.
He started laughing loudly.
"Shishishishi! You fool! You brought me into your own mind while trying to extract me from your friend! Now I get to invade you just as easily as I invaded your friend!"
But the demon couldn't break free from Astaroth's grasp.
'How strong are his mind and soul?! I should have broken free from him already!'
Noticing the grin on the mortal's face, the demon had a bad feeling.
"This isn't my mind. And you'll find that the person who it belongs to doesn't have much to fear from a wimp like you."
Already, the demon could feel a pressure pushing down on his mind, like someone was pressing on his brain, slowly but inevitably.
A voice came from behind him.
"Why did you bring this trash in here, young man?"
When the demon turned to see who the voice belonged to, he noticed another of his kin standing behind an old man, its attitude docile. But the tame attitude did not fool him.
The aura washing off of the tall and slim black demon was overwhelming.
"I thought it might be good sustenance for some of our servants."
The old man looked at the minor demon, pity flashing in his gaze.
"I wonder if such a small thing even has enough power to feed the weakest of them. Nevertheless, I'm sure they will be happy to absorb something else than mana, for a change."
Snapping his fingers, the imp in Astaroth's hands disappeared. It reappeared in a dark space, with nothing but darkness around it. But it quickly understood it wasn't alone.
Solomon looked at Astaroth, chuckling.
"Demons usually reform in hell after a while when they are killed, unless something divine kills them. But this one will never see hell again. Demons rarely cannibalize amongst themselves. But when they do, the eaten party becomes essence for them to grow, disappearing forever."
"Good," Astaroth said, nodding his head. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have my hand inside a friend's stomach, and would much like to go fix that situation."
Solomon nodded at him as the Ash Elf vanished from inside the ring.
'What a ruthless plan. This young man is much crueller than I had first expected.'
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