"You see when there was a master I served. He left to roam the human world and I followed him but he met a great disaster and his life came to an end at the hands of it. I tried to run home but got seriously injured by this being. In order to preserve myself from dying I jumped out of my material body and my soul became a wanderer.
For redefinition of purpose and to help my master's resurrection. I need to have a material body. And I need your help for that."
"What gives you the impression that I can create a material body for you."
Beelzebub giggled.
"Don't play with me. You created a sun."
His counterargument said it all and made Raith speechless.
"Well..."
He wanted to speak but Beelzebub went ahead...
"You don't need to contemplate. There is nothing to contemplate. I know you have the capability to create for me a material body. I have been to the best of artisans and still none were able to create a body that can withstand my soul. My wits tell me that you are the one I've been searching for."
Raith scratched his temple. A few seconds later he sighed.
"I'm not promising you but I will think about it. I still can't trust you yet."
Raith replied.
Beelzebub chuckled eerily and looked at Balam.
"Then, I'll be expecting your reply. You can just talk to this guy here when you are ready."
He said and seeped back into the aura seeping out of Bastien who was now unconscious with his head bowed. Immediately Beelzebub was gone he raised his head with a large smile on his face.
"Is it settled? Am I welcome to stay."
"Go to your house."
Raith responded sternly and turned away. The demon still disgusted him and he didn't know why.
'Hmmmmmmmmmm'
"What?"
Raith muttered, replying to his sword, Bal who seemed to be so concerned about something.
'That demon is very familiar, I can't put my thoughts around it.'
'Well, he did mention that he used to serve Baal.'
Raith replied to Bal in his thoughts. Since they shared synchronized thoughts, it was as easy as thinking.
'Ah right... it's so lame that I can't remember my past. Fuck those blacksmiths that reforged me.'
'You must have gone through a lot.'
'Don't show me compassion. It's irritating.'
'Should I just have you reforged again so you can suffer more?'
'Pfft. Look at you, go ahead and try. Do you think any blacksmith can touch me now? I used that blacksmith to fortify my defense. Anyone that dares to touch me would be trapped in an infinite illusion of fear and struggles.'
"What do you think about helping him?"
Raith's gaze shifted to Balam who was on his left as they walked to the mainstay of the people which was still far away from the airport.
"Well, I don't know what to say. I can feel it in him. He seems to be a really powerful demon but he is not part of the 72 true demons of Felfhiem. I have never seen him. I have heard rumors of the servant of Baal. But I know little about it. As at when Baal existed at the top of the ranking of the true demons, I was nothing but a child."
"72 true demons?"
"Yes. Demons have a ranking, it is this ranking that is used to determine the sharing of power within layers. While those at the higher part of the ranking exist and rule the higher layers, those at the lower part exist and rule the lower layers and some demons such as myself are just wanderers, going here and there without a territory."
"I see... that is why you thought of using Therut for your territory."
"That was very stupid of me."
Balam said with a tamed tone, bowing his head away from Raith. Seconds later he continued the main point of the conversation.
"But I would advise that you accept the offer."
Raith stopped walking and Balam continued.
"I think he knows what he is saying. Your assimilation has been incredibly slow. The rulers' authority is very easy to master and contagious because they are sinners. It can only be hard for a righteous person and you are not a righteous person. Sometimes it feels as though someone is deliberately slowing down the process."
"You say it as if it is something that should automatically be moving."
Raith said, chuckling as he looked at Balam.
His chuckling demeanor was wiped off by Balam's icy stare.
"Wait. It is?"
"Yes."
Balam nodded and continued...
"The rulers do not need a catalyst of events, assimilation with their sins easily happen and when they are fully assimilated they grow a ruler seed within them when the seed blooms they enter a phase of evolution. The hardest part is blooming the seed. But after the seed is bloomed, the ruler overcomes his or her limits and gains new skills and other stuff associated with evolution and then they start to carry the weight of their sin. For the ruler of the sloth, it is sleep an uncontrolled level of sleep. Which is one of the things I wanted to report to you."
There were so many pieces of information to take in from what Balam said. If he was hearing correctly and thinking with the best of his faculties, wouldn't it be just safe to say that the abyss has been delaying his assimilation?
"Balam..."
"Yes, my lord?"
"Is it possible for assimilation to fall back?"
"No... assimilation is like merging with the sin. It makes no sense that it wouldn't happen."
Raith clenched his fist, his brows knitted into a sinister scowl. Streaks of red and black danced in his irises.
"I'll be right back Balam."
With a rigid tone, he spoke and disappeared, turning into a mass of black liquid, and that dissipated into thin air.
"Ah...He looked very angry. I hope everything is okay"
Raith found himself in a space of darkness. This was the zone of darker than black. Where he often retreated to before he was resurrected after being killed, being able to go there without dying was one of the perks he had also received upon waking up due to his new heart.
Generally speaking, his grasp over his power had increased amazingly.
"You know why I am here?"
He said, with a deep frown. He was facing the thick mass of palpable darkness.
Multiple voices sounded at once.
[HOW BOLD OF YOU TO WANT TO CLAIM THAT TITLE FOR YOURSELF]
[DID YOU FORGET?]
[WE GAVE IT TO YOU]
[WE WILL SEE TO YOUR GROWTH AS A RULER]
Raith gritted his teeth and lowered his head a little as he spoke.
"I thought that after a few hard times together. You guys and I have finally come to an agreement not to hide anything from each other. And yet here you are trying to put a leash on me."
[BLAME IT ON YOURSELF FOR MERGING WITH THE CRYSTAL OF CREATION]
[IT WAS NEVER OUR AGREEMENT]
"It was a pure coincidence. It wasn't as though it happened because I wanted it to!!"
Raith yelled at them. He was heaving and fuming.
"You know what. Do whatever suits you and I will do whatever suits me. If you claim that you will take all the power you have given me because things that are out of your control are beginning to happen in my life then so be it. I didn't come this far just to be controlled by a primordial that is too scared to step outside and face his war."
[WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!]
"I don't need to know anything. One thing you are forgetting seriously is that I am your vessel and I carry your essence within me. I might have been dumb until now but all the burdens and selfishness you carry, I can feel it too."
This too was an effect of the new heart. Having a grasp of all of the abyss in general.
All Raith probably needed to do was to sit down, meditate, and pivot himself through the load of information that filled his head.
But even now, the abyss found his words to be a bluff. But it was very bothering that Raith's body merged with the crystal of creation. It was completely out of sync with whatever plan the abyss was preparing.
And although the abyss tried its best. Put Raith in a deep sleep and for months was actively reducing the effect of the crystal on Raith's body and powers. It still wasn't enough.
But if it wasn't the abyss, Raith would be a thousand times more stronger. The crystal was so strong that even the gods coveted it, of course, they had no way of knowing it was possible to fuse one's body with it.
No one had ever done it, factually, this was not a possible thing and something that happened to Raith out of pure coincidence.
He now felt the abyss was being more of a burden than a blessing. The only thing he would probably regret was losing his death soldiers, he could also lose the power of death.
Raith shivered at the thought of losing the power of death... he quickly put himself together and wore a frown. He couldn't admit it.
But for now, he would focus on the assimilation. He would help Beelzebub and work on his assimilation as a ruler, and that would be the start of his rebellion with the abyss.
Whatever will happen will happen, something did happen.
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