Chapter 5 Part 3

Christopher blinks from sight in an instant. Before he could even blink, Christopher has a blade to Beerwolf's throat. "Didn't think it would be so easy to catch you unawares." he whispers. Christopher blinks away once more before Beerwolf could retaliate.

"Bastard, you're not playing fair." Beerwolf whines.

"When you've mastered teleportation, like I have. It can be difficult for an opponent to get a hit in." Christopher taunts, picking the muck out of his nails with his knife.

With his frustration growing, his hellfire starts to build in his throat. "Stop toying with me! Fight me like a man!"

"Ugh, that toxic masculine energy you're giving off is so twenty years ago. Fine." Christopher's knife vanishes and his staff takes its place. He swipes the staff in front of him, leaving behind a wall of opaque Spatial Magic. With his free hand he thrusts the wall forward pushing his foot into it. The ground cracks from the impact.

The wall of no more existence hurdles its way forward at the speed of sound. Beerwolf dodges the attack and looks back at it, watching it collide with a massive dead tree, turning it to ash.

"That is just the start of the power I can wield. It's not wise for you to continue this fight." Christopher advises.

Beerwolf's frustrations overflow and in a burst of flames completes his Hellhound transformation.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot your a variant." Christopher says.

Christopher smiles wide as he takes a stance, preparing himself for an incoming attack. "Say, Tari. Here's a test to see if you've been paying attention. With a Wolfman Hellhound transformation, what is sacrificed in order to give a boost to the other attributes?"

Beerwolf breathes blue fire at Christopher with a growl while the Narrator answers.

(Narrator) Let's see. Cognitive reasoning, agility, and the good in the soul.

"Correct. In exchange for those sacrifices he gains increased speed, strength, and access to The Tortured Flames Of Hel." Christopher says, blocking the Hellfire with a mana absorption spell.

Christopher taunts the Hellhound, teleporting to random spots, poking him with a tiny needle.

(Narrator) What are you doing?

"I'm trying to fuel his anger."

(Narrator) Why?

"Ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer, Tari."

Beerwolf roars and the fire burns hotter. It makes a noise one could mistake for tortured screams. In an instant Beerwolf becomes the flame, his flesh melted away. Not quite realising it soon enough, Christopher burns his hand, he retreats faster than the eye could reliably track. His hand has been charred black in the instance of contact. He begins a healing spell but the flame is already changing him down.

Christopher continues putting distance between them. Trying his best to heal during the time's he can. "My passive defence didn't activate. Meaning his body is still organic matter, just in a changed state of some kind. Has a Hellhound ever been pushed this far before?"

"Not since the first Alpha of our village." Beluf says.

"Do you have any information on this state?" Christopher asks.

"Yeah," Beluf starts to say.

"Great, tell me after this." Christopher says. "It's time for us to work together again other me. No killing this time!"

Christopher taps his chest and a black aura envelopes him. A foggy form appears ahead. They smile and the two simultaneously bump forearms, causing the mist man to sink beneath Christopher's skin, drawing black lines over his entire body. His horns grow and his tail appears but the transformation has been improved thanks to communication with the shadow in a previous incident. So no size increase.

"You're not the only one who has a transformation!" Christopher says, a slightly lower voice can be heard beneath it.

"Heather, is this ok? It didn't go very well the first time it happened." Haider asks.

"Let Christopher explain later." Heather replies.

"Let's see. Why don't we do fisticuffs, while using Instant Heal?" Christopher says. "It's a good plan, sounds like fun. But how are we going to punch a flame?" A lower version of his voice says.

"This is weird. I don't understand what's happening here." Viridiana says. "It's like two people are talking and moving in the same body."

"That might be exactly what's happening here." Heddwyn says.

"Wrap the Spell Mana Absorption over our hands, that way with every hit we take some of the mana fueling the fire." Christopher says. "That will work. But we need to be careful with how much mana we are using to heal too. It could take a bit of power to keep repairing injuries." The other him answers.

With the Hellhound Flame right on top of them, they jab into the fire. It weakens slightly and Christopher teleports away. He looks at his burnt hand, watching as the injury dissolves. "It's gonna hurt like a bitch, but we got this."

As the Hellhound chases after them again, Christopher puts his palm out, and the see through black shell covering it forms into a ball ahead of it, its radius expands tenfold and it covers his entire body. He punches the flame once again but it keeps moving forward, engulfing him whole.

The flame instantly shrinks to half the size as Christopher's Mana Drain dissipates. He gets onto his knees and exclaims. "Radiance!" a swirl of black and white falls from the heavens Healing Christopher and extinguishing the fire. After a few more seconds of healing, Christopher stands. Beerwolf's Hellhound core in his palm.

"The plan was reckless. We're rusty." Christopher says, his voice doubled once again.

He throws the marble on the ground inside a pair of jean shorts. And waits patiently as the Wolfman's body regenerates. He sits on his knees and bows to Christopher. "I submit to you, Master."

"We will sort out the issue of your slave crest at another time. I don't know the spell for it so I'll have to do some research." Christopher says. His horns and tail retreating inside himself and the tattoos fading away.

"Yes, Master." Beerwolf says, lifting his head to look at his superior.

Beluf walks over, a look of disgust on his face. "I told you so. I guess I should call you a slave bitch now, huh."

"Why did your relationship sour so much?" Christopher asks, wiping his hands with a cloth. Beluf simply gestures at Beerwolf as if the answer was clear. "Ah, same thing happened with Heddwyn, didn't it?"

"What's more important is you explaining what happened just now!" Haider shouts, walking over with sass.

"You mean the transformation?" Christopher asks, putting the cloth away. Haider nods. "Well that, turns out to be the Demon Seed. Or as a more literal definition, the manifestation of all my negative emotions and actions. In other words, an evil me. Since he was freed from that dragon magic, he tried to manifest on his own, gaining a physical form whenever negative emotions build up enough. We had a talk at some point, and we came to an agreement. He still gets to fight and kill things, in exchange for cooperating together. That was the original agreement as it stood. Of course it evolved as we experimented with it. And now he can manifest upon my direction." Christopher explains. Pulling on the circle on his chest, manifesting them once more. They wave before going back inside Christopher.

"I think we're missing some details here." Heather comments.

"If I told you everything, we'd be here for hours."

(Narrator) Quite literally hours.

"Yeah, I think we get the gist of it." Haider says.

"The more prevalent issue is the fact Ajattara is after you because of the Demon seed." Heddwyn points out.

"We have an idea about that." Christopher says. "I believe The Demon God wishes to use me to replace Christopher." The shadowy version says.

(Narrator) Right, Christopher. You need to name the Demon Seed. It's doing my fucking nut in!

"Name them? I mean, it's still me. Just all the 'evil' bits." Christopher says.

(Narrator) It's a pain trying to distinguish which one of you is talking in the records.

"Fine…How about Sephicroth?" Christopher says.

"Sephicroth? Isn't that an anagram of your name?" Viridiana asks.

"Yeah. Why, is it bad?" Christopher asks.

"I love it. I would look into trying to give them their own body though." Heather says.

"I don't mind the name. Sounds better than your name at least." Sephicroth says.

(Narrator) I don't care as long as I can differentiate you two.

"Ok guys, back to the party. it's still my birthday you know." Christopher says, shoving everyone back through the gate leaving him and Beerwolf alone for a moment. "Act like yourself for now but be polite. I'll have Haider make you an appropriate outfit for you. Like a butler or something. It's better for public image that way. And it would still make sense if you call me your master that way too."

"Understood, Master." Beerwolf says.

"Now go enjoy yourself." Christopher says.

Beerwolf heads through the gate and Christopher closes it behind them, leaving him on his own in the dead forest.

"I know you're here, Demon. Let's talk." Christopher and Sephicroth say.

A 9ft Goat Demonoid teleports in, a ways away from them. They are half goat half humanoid with goat-like digitigrade legs covered in thick fur and hooves and a goat's head with curved horns. They cross an arm over their shoulder and bow slightly. "Pleasure to meet you."

"At least you have manners, unlike Sheogorath. That bastard has no elegance at all. What is your name?" Christopher asks.

"Ralgormath, High Rank Demon of The South Goljovu Regimen. At your service." I'm not typing Ralgormath every fucking time. Why don't we call him Ralgor.

"Why are you here? And how did you know I would be here?" Sephicroth asks.

"I was hoping to convince you to come with me. Sheogorath failed in his attempt, so I thought I would try a diplomatic approach. And this happened by chance, I saw you come here three years ago. It seemed like a perfect place to duel, so I figured you would choose this place at some point." Ralgor says.

"Diplomacy isn't something you demons can attain from any of us. Your servants of Ajattara. You kill and slaughter innocents in her name. How can you possibly stand there and think you can talk me into an agreement?" Christopher asks.

"Because she offers you an appealing proposition." Ralgor smiles. "You come and join us, and in exchange, she will stop her invasion on the outer nation's and leave your continent in peace."

…

"What is your answer?"

…

Christopher says nothing and walks over to the Demon, slowly. Ralgor offers his hand as Christopher stands two feet away from him.

He takes the Demon's hand looking up at him with a straight face. His face morphs of one of pure hatred and disgust. "Consume." Sephicroth says, and the Demon named Ralgormath disappears.

"What was that?" Christopher asks, waving the demon's arm in his hand.

"Ralgormath shit himself, that's what happened. All I did was say a word. Ahahaha." Sephicroth answers.

"But Consume is a real spell, so why do we have his arm?"

"He must have cut it off."

"Well you might as well consume it now. It's got pure evil in it so it should give you a boost at least."

Sephicroth repeats the spell and the arm disappears in an explosion of Blood, which also gets consumed like a liquid through a straw.

(Narrator) Watching you do that made me very uneasy. We should get your research done asap.

"Sorry about that Tari. I'm not very fond of it either. But with Seph feasting on any and all evil. It keeps me stable and pure. Of which I am very grateful to have been blessed with." Christopher says.

"I'm flattered." Sephicroth says. "We must be on high alert. I expect we will see more Demons coming after us."

"I agree. We've been gone for long enough, let's head back to the party." Christopher says, opening a new gate.

Christopher walks through the gate, on the other side, a gallery of worried faces greets him. "Before anyone asks, I'm ok. I just needed a little time to myself." He lies.

"Oh thank god. I thought something bad had happened." Viridiana says, hand on her bosom.

Christopher laughs and Jasyn joins his side. "You should've told someone. We were terribly worried." Jasyn says, locking his lips with Christopher, slowly parting them.

"I'm sorry. Let's just continue having a great time everyone. If you're curious about what happened after we left, there are plenty of people to ask. Just let me rest for a little bit." Christopher says.

Jasyn takes Christopher off to a freestanding white painted ornamental wooden Gazebo. Red and white Rose Vines climb the pillars and weave through the trellis, making it private. A white Garden Swing is placed in the back. It gives the Gazebo a romantic aura.

The bench swings gently as the two snuggle. Jasyn has his arm round Christopher's neck as he nestles into him, his hand on his lap and his feet up on the remaining portion of the bench. "It's been quite an eventful day, hasn't it?" Christopher muses.

"I'm sorry that Beerwolf ruined the celebration." Jasyn says.

"Don't be silly. We got ourselves a free butler because of it." Christopher jokes, patting Jasyn's leg.

"That's true. I just wish that you didn't use that Demon." Jasyn says.

"It's Sephicroth now."

"Huh?"

"I ended up naming the other me Sephicroth. Just so it's a little easier when you talk to them."

"Ok, I'll do my best to remember that." Jasyn says. Pulling Christopher in tighter, resting his head atop his.