---
The chaos of the battle had quieted, but the echoes of war lingered in the air.
Asher stood in the main hall of the battered mansion, the once grand interior now stained with blood, ash, and cracked stone. His cloak fluttered behind him as he watched Cassandra oversee the final evacuation of the wounded. Healers moved like silent ghosts between the injured, while Talon and Garek coordinated the gathering of the fallen.
But then, a voice echoed from the staircase—a familiar, firm tone belonging to Minister Virel.
"My lord," the aging man said, bowing, flanked by two other ministers. "We've completed an initial damage assessment."
Asher turned slowly to face them, still weary but composed.
"Well?" he asked.
"The main structure will hold, but the eastern wing is ruined. The upper floors are scorched, and the west tower's roof collapsed entirely. It will take at least four moons to fully restore."
"And the vault?" Asher asked. "The dungeon?"
At that, Minister Virel's expression darkened.
"That's… why we came immediately," he said, exchanging grim looks with the others. "There's something you need to see. Something no one understands."
Asher narrowed his eyes.
---
Moments later, Asher descended the stone steps to the deepest level of the mansion, flanked by two of his loyal guards and the ministers. Cassandra and Selena followed behind silently, a sense of unease thick in the air.
The scent of charred flesh and burnt magic hit them like a wall. Torches flickered dimly in their sconces, illuminating the narrow corridor.
The group halted at the final cellblock—the heart of the dungeon.
Asher's breath caught in his throat.
The scene was a massacre.
Guards, prisoners, even rats—everything that lived had been reduced to twisted corpses, some melted into the stone itself. The magical containment sigils had been shattered, runes blackened and cracked like dried blood.
And in the center of the explosion, two bodies remained.
One, Fin—the quiet young man with an innocent face who no one could Identify but was suspected to be part of the assassin group due to his outfit . He lay unconscious, skin pale, surrounded by a strange circular scorch mark that rippled with dormant energy.
The other was Tony—Fin's brother.
He layed unconscious a bit far from Fin, his shirt torn and stained with blood. But as they approached, Asher noticed something strange.
Tony's wounds were gone.
As if healed not by magic—but by something deeper. Something unnatural.
"Lord Asher," one of the ministers whispered. "We reviewed the security spells before they were disrupted. There was a surge. A massive one. It… it seems like this young assassin awoke something." While pointing at Fin. " And the other was..."
"He was caught in it," Cassandra murmured.
"No," Asher corrected quietly. "He was part of it."
He looked at Tony—still breathing, still stained in blood not his own. There a huge resemblance among the two me. Only, the youngest had a more cute emotional face with a short red hair while the older had a more stiff face and angry look with long red hair.
Then he looked at Fin.
A boy. Fragile. But whatever lay inside him now was anything but.
Cassandra stepped closer. "What do we do, Asher?"
Asher looked at her, then at Selena, then at the ministers awaiting command.
"We secure them," he said finally. "Reinforce this dungeon with layered anti-magic wards. Triple guard shifts. I want them moved to a new chamber with holy inscriptions and soul-binding sigils. No one is to interact with him without my direct approval."
"And if they wake up should we torture them to tell us what happened?" Talon asked carefully.
Asher paused. "Not yet put them under watch. Don't harm them."
He turned to walk away, but then stopped—glancing over his shoulder.
"And if either of them wakes up before I return…"
His eyes glowed faintly, the aura of his inner demon flickering behind his pupils.
"Tell me immediately."
Asher left the dungeon in silence, the storm in his heart louder than ever.
Because something had awakened that night—not just in Fin.
But in himself.
And the deeper he dove, the closer he came to a truth that could change the world.
Or destroy it.
He stepped forward and knelt beside Fin, brushing away the dust. The boy was breathing—shallow, but steady. A mark pulsed faintly on his chest, ancient and strange in origin.
Then, Asher's inner world pulsed with a hum, like a whisper scraping against the walls of his skull.
"DEVOUR HIM..."
The voice of his inner demon was clearer than it had ever been.
"ABSORB THEM, AND WE'LL KNOW EVERYTHING. ALL THEIR MEMORIES.THE TRUTH OF THIS STRANGE AWAKENED POWER AND HAVE IT FOR OURSELF.
Asher's vision darkened at the edges. He closed his eyes—and entered the inner mindspace where the demon waited.
---
It was a place of dark void and infinite sky, a void filled with intense demonic aura that twisted and blinked like eyes.
The demon stood across from him—a humanoid figure cloaked in moving shadows, its form ever-shifting, a grin carved from flame stretched across its face.
Asher stepped forward, composed but wary.
"I've seen what they did," Asher said. "But I want answers. And I want them now."
The demon chuckled, low and echoing.
"THE BOY ISN'T NORMAL. HE'S NOT JUST SOME WEAK PRISONER.WHAT WOKE INSIDE HIM IS OLDER THAN THE KINGDOM ITSELF___ A POWER SEALED LONG BEFORE YOUR FATHER AND BROTHES WHERE BORN."
" I MYSELF DON'T KNOW HOW LONG THAT POWER HAS EXISTED BUT IT IS LIKE A PARASITE THAT LATCHED ONTO FIN THAT PROTECTS HIM. AND BECAUSE HE COULDN'T HANDLE IT WHEN HE AWAKENED IT. IT CAUSED A MASSIVE LIGHTNING EXPLOSION."
Asher's fists clenched.
"Why are you telling me all of this and why do you want me to have that power?"
The demon grinned wider.
"SUCH POWER IS MORE ANCIENT AND OLDER THAN ME EVEN MY FATHER THE DEMON GOD WOULD BE YOUNGER THAN THE SOURCE OF THIS POWER EVEN IF YOU HAVE JUST A FRAGMENTS OF IT WE WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE."
Asher stood silently in the void, torn.
He knew the danger of such an act. Absorbing another person's essence wasn't just a moral gamble—it was a spiritual and mental risk. He could lose himself. Or worse… become something new.
"I will not absorb him because I don't want to fall into an identity crisis and neither do I want to have some ancient power which I do not know the source.
" YOU HAVE ALREADY CHANGED ASHER , YOU WERE ALWAYS CURIOUS TO KNOW EVERYTHING" the demon whispered in his ear. " YOU JUST HAVEN'T ADMITED IT YET."
---
Inside the dark, drifting space of Asher's subconscious, the infernal winds quieted as Asher stood before the shifting form of his inner demon—his eternal companion, his curse, and now… something more.
He stared into the glowing, red eyes that floated within the demon's undefined face. It flickered like flame but held a burning desire like hell itself.
" Like I said I won't absorb them," Asher said calmly. "Not like that. Not to steal who they are. That's not strength—that's surrender. I won't lose myself to a flood of stolen memories… to become a collage of others."
The demon was silent for a long time. For once, it did not grin.
Instead, it nodded, slowly.
"I GUESS YOU HAVE A POINT" it said quietly.
"You were about to tell me something," Asher continued, eyes narrowing. "Before. About your life. About… who you really are."
The wind inside the void slowed.
The demon's body settled into a more human shape, its voice lower now—not malicious, but pained. It spoke with the weight of centuries behind its every word.
"MY STORY IS ONE WITH UP'S AND DOWNS, I WAS BORN .... NOT HERE. NOT IN THIS WORLD BUT IN THE REALM OF THE HELL DOMAIN — A PLAC SOAKED IN BLOOD AND FURY. MY FATHER WAS THE TENTH DEMON KING OF GLUTTONY, RULER OF A BRUTAL EMPIRE FULL OF DEVOURERS. NOT JUST FOOD OR FLES— BUT SOULS AND NON LIVING THINGS. THE DEMONS THERE CONSUME EVERYTHING— LIVING, DEAD EVEN INANIMATE — JUST TO GROW STRONGER."
Asher listened silently, the echo of this hellish world forming in his mind.
" BUT I.... I WAS DIFFERENT.MY MOTHER WAS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS. SHE WAS BORN OF A FADING RACE— NIGHTMARE DEMONS THAT FEED IN PEOPLE'S FEAR AND MEMORIES; AND BOTH OF THEIR POWER'S RUN IN ME.
The demon looked down at its hand—its fingers reshaped, more human now than beast.
" BECAUSE OF HER I COULD FEEL WHAT I CONSUMED.THEMEMORIES. THE FEAR. THE LOVED ONCE. AND THEIR AMBITIONS. I GOT MORE CURIOUS ABOUT OTHER LIVING THINGS AND OTHER RACE AND THEN FINALLY GOT ATTACHED TO HAVING DEEP EMOTIONS.
DUE TO MY EMOTIONS AND LOVE FOR OTHER RACES APART FROM THE DEMONS I STOPPED FEEDING ON LIVING THINGS WHICH WAS BROUGHT TO US AS A SACRIFICE AND I TRIED TO SPEAK TO MY FATHER — TO SHOW HIM THAT WE DIDN'T NEED TO BE MONSTERS. THAT WE COULD BE MORE."
There was a long pause.
"HE CALLED ME A WEAK MINDED CHILD. SAID I WAS NOT FIT TO BE HIS HEIR WITH SUCH MENTALITY. HE BANISHED ME — AND IMPRISONED MY COMRADES... THE ONLY ONCES WHO DARED TO FOLLOW ME."
Asher's heart twisted slightly, his brows lowering.
"You had friends?"
"I DID," the demon said quietly. " AND I FAILED THEM. I TRIED TO SAVE THEM, BUT I WASN'T STRONG ENOUGH. WHEN I BEGGED HIM TO LET THEM GO HE DEVOUR THEM ONE BY ONE IN FRONT OF ME AS A PURNISHMENT."
Silence blanketed the void. The flames dimmed around them.
" THEN.... I WAS SUMMONED. INTO YOUR BODY BY FORCE.INTO THIS WORLD. AT FIRST, I HATED YOU. A HUMAN. BUT I STARTED TO SEE MYSELF IN YOU A FATHER WHO TREATED YOU HARSHLY AND HOW YOU WHERE ABLE TO OVERCOME HIM.... AND THEN GOT ATTACHED TO YOU. AND YOU CHANGED ME."
The demon looked up, its eyes glistening like cracked rubies.
"YOU DIDN'T JUST INHERIT ME. YOU REDEEMED ME."
Asher exhaled slowly, processing the truth, the weight of another soul shackled inside him all this time.
And yet… it wasn't just a person.
It was a demon.
"Then let's make a deal," Asher said finally, stepping forward. "If we're going to survive, I won't reject what I am—but I also won't lose myself."
He extended a hand.
"From now on, if we ever consume a soul—you take the memories, I take the power. But no humans unless we must. And in return… I'll help you take down your father."
The demon stared at the hand.
Its lips parted, as if in disbelief. Then… it smiled—not with hunger, but with relief.
" YOU'D DO THAT FOR ME?"
"I would," Asher said. "Because you're not just a demon in my head anymore. You're part of me. And no one gets to choose how their story ends… unless they fight for it."
The demon's shape solidified more—no longer just shadow, but something resembling a man of crimson aura, etched in black flame.
He took Asher's hand.
"THEN WE FIGHT TOGETHER. AND I SWEAR ON MY NAME.... STEIE' ZZ, SON OF THE GOD OF GLUTTONY.... THAT I WILL NEVER BETRAY YOU."
Their hands clasped—and the void around them pulsed with energy. A new sigil burned into Asher's soul, not as a curse—but as a bond.
The darkness faded, and Asher awoke in the real world, breath sharp, eyes glowing faintly with swirling crimson.
Selena was beside him, worry etched on her face.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
He stood slowly, nodding. "Yeah," he said with a calm breath. "Just had a long conversation."
"About what?"
Asher looked past her toward the dungeon doors, where Tony and Fin were still unconscious.
He clenched his fist and took strand of hairs from the two boys.
--