Determination

"AAAAAh!!!!!!"

At the same time Babel spoke, a feeling of pain as if being cut by a thousand swords rose from the depths of Canaan's consciousness, making his body abruptly freeze, his mouth letting out a scream of incredible pain!

[AAAAAAAAAARGGHHHH]

There was no time to react, all that Canaan knew was that his soul had suddenly erupted with pain equivalent to the stabbing of a thousand needles.

'What's happening!? What is she doing to me!?' Canaan thought just as the hellish pain intensified immediately, instantly shattering his thoughts.

His screams began louder and much more disturbing. Canaan had definitely suffered more pain that most beings could in a million lives. However this pain was greater than what should have been possible.

Incomparable to anything he had ever suffered before. And what was even more terrifying, just when he thought this torture could not possiblybecome any crueler, it intensified by several times.

'Why does it hurt so much?'

'As if an axe repeatedly cleaves my mind?'

"Little master does it hurt?"

Canaan's mind was a field of glowing crimson, and yet when Babels strange hypnotic voice travelled to him, he could feel a deep desire within his bones to fall into her embrace like he had done in the past.

Nothing and no one should have had this effect on him, and yet he could not resist the calll of her voice.

Canaan slowly turned his gaze, It was a grueling incomparable difficult motion that took several minutes, and when he finally succeeded he....froze.

She was just as beautiful as he remembered.

As he gazed upon the woman's form he was temporarily freed from the pain. A skin milky chocolate skin as inviting and tantalizing as a dew drip. Crimson eyes that shimmered gloriously like the rising sun, and impossibly perfect facial features. It was heresy for such a beauty to exist, it was unfair to all other creatures.

And under her beauty, a devilish sensuality reared its head. She wore a pitch black robe that wound tightly around her large shapely breast and perfect, round buttocks. She possessed a truly prefect hourglass shape that could induce the most sinful desires in the purest of minds.

"Ah…Ah" Canaan soullessly muttered in desire as his mouth quite literally dried up and his eyes wizened.

"Mn" The woman let out a sensual moan as she stretched her svelte figure. Her bosom enchantingly shook within the confines of her robes, causing Canaan's blood to boil once again.

"I did not think that amongst my sisters i would be the one to find you. I suppose this is good as well, after all they hate you so much they might have done something unsoghtly the moment they laid eyes on you." As she mused to herself with her angelic voice, an especially shrill scream tore itself out of Canaan's throat, causing her calm gaze to fall upon him as he writhed on the ground.

"Your screams are just as delicious as I remember, unfortunately you did this to yourself when you peft us and stole the Devil empress's treasure. So now you can only obediently allow the slave mark to take root into your soul!"

"You….implanted a slave mark in my soul?" Canaan barely managed to let out a string of words before another impossibly horrifying pang of torture gruesomely slammed into his mind.

"Your will is also just as astounding as it haa ever been, to think you are actually able to speak during this process." Babel's voice furiously stoked the evil fire within him, even under unimaginable levels of pain his eerie body screamed in desire for her.

'To think when i finally saw her once more it would be under the threat of losing everything I am?' Adam thought under the pain.

'She spoke of a slave mark?'

'Heide wishes to make me her slave?

The part of his voice that was free from distortion was filled with rage and rancid disgust

The slave mark was the cruelest curse thay could be inflicted on one's soul.

Once infected with it, the afflicted person would feel bottomless devotion and worship towards the owner od the leave mark. They would live and die for them, all while feeling as if it was only natural.

All emotions memories ans desires the person had before being afflicted were entirely irrelevant.

Canaan felt an intense, bottomless rage and hate amidst the terrifying pain.

He ignited the fires of his will as his struggles became more intense. The pain magnified exponentially when it sensed his resistance. Instantly his screams became the most horror inducing sound in the world. Pure agony expanded out of throat in terrifyingly visible waves.

Anyone with the slightest humanity would have felt their soul being stirred, however the strange woman watched silently with an eerily warm smile. "Canaan, resisting is a really stupid idea. After all it will only amplify your torment!" Babel said in an irresistible voice.

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGH]

Another gut wrenching scream tumbled out of his lips. His cries became more and more pitiable in the face of the ever increasing pain. After watching him writhe for a while with a pleased expression the Babel spoke softly in a languid tone. "All you have to do for the pain to end would be to stop resisting and allow the slave mark to take root in your soul. As scary as that sounds, at least you won't feel this terrible pain anymore right?"

'If I stop resisting?'

'Will the pain end then?'

Canaan thought as his will wavered, and slowly the dark energies of the slave mark crept sunk deeper and deeper within his soul.

But then the painful memory of Lothal being chained appeared within his mind. In his rage, he had shaken Babels influence on his mind as his memories began to return.

Two names: Talai and Lothal especially glowed the brightest within his memories.

'No' His mental voice was suddenly fierce again. 'If I lose myself now in such a pathetic manner, I would have simply left him to his fate.

Talia was the first soul to stretch oit her hand to me in this dark word? How could I allow a mere slave imprint to prevent me from seeing her smile again?'

'No, even if my soul implodes and my mind is torn to shreds I will never yield it to another!' His resistance exploded with unmatched ferocity, and at the same time the pain attacking his min also increased exponentially.

The shrillness and despair of his voice naturally multiplied as well. His increasingly hoarse screams continued for 5 minutes.

Then ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

Thirty minutes.

.....one…..hour.

Just when it seemed that the necklace had found victory, Canaan would erupt with strength he drew form somewhere unknown. After all this time, not even the slightest bit of the slave imprint had touched his mind, rather the abyssal light swirling around it had dimmed to two thirds of its previous intensity.

Babel had lost herself to the immense shock resounding from her very soul, her beliefs shattered as she realized. 'The 'slave imprint' cast from the lady's power is actually being defeated!?'

She was even more shocked than under the pain of the 'slave imprint's devourments attacks, there was an existence that was actually able to resist, let alone persisting under the hellish torture to this extent."

'Under the torture of the slave imprint, even her, a devil goddess who inhabited a realm of power below only the primordials, would quickly give in….then how could Canaan who currently had the strength of a mere mortal conquer the primordial artifact of death?'

"Canaan! You will only continue to damage yourself more at this rate, why don't you just-"

Her tirade was interrupted when the cries of agony Adam released ceased. His eyes which had been shut from the immense pain suddenly opened and stared deeply to hers.

Her soul suddenly trembled deeply.

Through gritted teeth and with a trembling voice Canaan finally spoke for the first time in long while.

"You.....know as well as I have, that under the hands of that witch I had suffered enough tortures to make ten thousand ghouls repent. Tortures even you are incapable of imagining. And yet you want to return me to thay hellscape!? Babel as recompense for all the kindess youve shown me, let me give you my answer; I'd rather die!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

Canaan let out a primal scream that shook the dark world around him and the expression on Babel's face abruptly changed. The aura of determination and persistence around him was almost tangible, and although this did not bode well for the her she couldn't help but remark quietly in a warm nostlagia.

"As espected of him."

[SHATTERRRR]

With a final despairing roar the slave imprint was shattered by the sheer force that erupted from his soul.

And from this liberation rose a a dark presence that spread throughout the chamber.

Around Canaan, the form of a deep pitch black beast rose.

A devastatingly powerful and deep soul presence came into existence around him.

The soul roar of the dark illusory beast that formed around him still sounded throughout the entire Land of Arzul, and violently shook the heart and soul of everyone for miles to come.

"This… This…is impossible… his devil emperor soul has awakened?!"

Canaan slowly raised his gaze to meet Babels, and as he did a pair of deep eyes that were as dark as the void faced her.

Babel's whole body was trembling. Her expression instantly became stiff and frantic, then this was followed by a strong feeling of fear. Hers pupils showed rapid shrinking, and even her body appeared to be trembling slightly…

Babel was a dream spirit, a devil god race created directly by the devil empress Heide to serve her.

Babel was the first of her kind and was followed by five other enchantresses.

As their origin they shared a strange tether with Heide and an instinctive love.

They gravitated toward her naturally and serving her gave them a sense of fulfillment.

Now Canaan who could be said to be Heide's male doppelganger possessed a remarkably similar origin power, what's more he was male! The potential attraction of the enchantresses to him would be stronger by several times.

Within her servants he could provoke a much stronger attraction, Heide knew this and so she had sealed not only his devil power, but his soul origin and natural devil emperor aura.

However under the threat of yielding to the slave imprint Canaans soul origin had broken though in his defience!

As It filled every bit of the chamber, Babel felt a primal and irresistible suppression, but more than thay she felt a deep excitement.

"What's happening to me!?" Her rational mind screamed as it sensed the changes within her body.

The area in between her thighs had also become wet at this time.

Canaan fell into a larger agitation as his awakened soul sent his blood into a chaotic surge.

His rampant desire which was normally suppressed by his will exploded, burning any remaining dregs of his rationality.

His eyes trapped Babels willowy figure like a predator...