Chapter 4

I decided to devour one soul in my usual way. I was strong enough to do the trick, and he resisted, but he didn't succeed. It's in the demon blood to take over someone else's body, but phoenixes can't do that. A wave of scalding heat ran through my body, quite bearable, even pleasant. Something in my dark, demonic soul was awakening, burning. It felt like an important part of me that had been missing had returned. It took some time and a day to find out, but now I can control fire like my yellow-eyed daddy did. Not at that level, of course, but I can do some minor tricks.

I thought long and hard about who to combine my essence with.

I didn't even consider the little supernatural creatures, I didn't need demons-I was one myself. The pagan gods are weak today, and I don't want to get a dependence on sacrifices. I thought about catching an angel, but I remembered about the Nephilim. I was thinking about catching an angel for myself, but I remembered that I had to go back to the nephilim. And their abilities are very useful.

Where to get them. And who can do everything, and who doesn't cost a lot of money. That's right, my new relatives are a subspecies of red-eyes. And a plan came up.

Steal a condemned convict out of prison, check! Give him a series of mental commands, check! Release him at night on the road with a box, with everything inside to summon a crossroads demon, check! Here I sit, waiting, wondering. Will it work or not, I wonder.

If not, the red-eye won't get away with it, and I don't need any witnesses.

- Who have we here? - asked a young girl who appeared out of nowhere. Ha, I can do that too.

- I want the names of all the Nephilim. - ...said in an emotionless voice, fellow serial killer... - I know the price.

What you can respect your current congeners for is professionalism. No stupid questions. Took a piece of parchment right out of the air, so that's how you influence reality through a contract. Sucked up your business partner and flew off on your demon business. And everybody's happy.

I get the list, the cons get the death penalty, and the girl gets a soul before her time. There's two names on the list to choose from. And I want the strongest, or the strongest of the bunch. Killing an innocent doesn't thrill me, but my future is at stake. Huh, a reflexive demon, funny of course, and it makes me happy. It means there's something human left in me.

And even more than I thought, it's been a week and I still can't choose. I don't want to kill an innocent man.

All this time I've been consuming demons, mostly the weak ones, but I've come across some pretty strong ones, too. Not Samhain-level, of course, but not very far. But there was no point in dragging it out, so I chose. If you kill, then with maximum benefit, the strongest Nephilim, a forty-year-old man from Russia. His daddy was clearly not a weak angel. And so it turned out.

The capture of my victim went off without any problems. The ritual required the blood of the creature with whom the union would take place, all blood. Bind the souls through the body, or something like that. Travel to his house at night, knock him out, take him back to the ritual site.

- It's beautiful. - I said, staring at the thirty-foot pentagram. - That there was only one man listening, and he was unconscious, did not embarrass me in the least.

Then I heard the clapping of wings from behind me.

- Let go of my son, demon! - Hmm, he showed up, and I wasn't expecting him to. My hunch that the angel was watching his child had just been confirmed.

Let's find out how strong I've become. I was barely prepared for the angel's arrival, so if I had to bail and start all over again, I'd be strong enough to escape.

- Okay. - I didn't argue, and threw the nephilim's body on a specially prepared spot painted with anti-angel symbols. It wouldn't work on the man, but it wouldn't get to the angel either. - Take it. I don't mind.

- I'll make you suffer, you spawn of Satan," the warrior of God shouted as he drew his angel blade.

- It's useful, I can take it when I kill you. - I calmly reply getting ready for the fight.

I don't know if I can do it, but I think I can't. I think I can't.

It's like a cannon shot. All I could hear was the crackling of trees being broken.

- It must have been raining. - I did not wait for the angel to rise, so I repeated the move and struck another blow, knocking it into the ground.

The angel's head was not in the air, and I could feel him behind me. The sodomite decided to come at me from behind.

I was able to react at the last moment, teleporting two meters forward and I was already facing the angel. The result was a deep cut on my back and a nagging pain coming from my soul.

So that's what you are, a weapon of angels.

I didn't wait for the feathery one to attack again, and a volitional effort and a stone the size of a basketball flew into his head. It was a crunch and blood spurted out, but the angel immediately began to heal his vessel, which gave me only a few seconds. And I took advantage of them: a quick jab with his own blade, which he'd lost after getting hit in the head with a rock, and here's a small cut on his throat. I had the grace of an angel in my hands. And an angelic essence is trapped in the body of an ordinary man.

After a little thought, I decided to try to absorb the angel after the ritual. The risk was not small, but the reward was worth it.

It takes more gold... power.

I was wounded, though strong, but an ordinary angel, and that is not good. All the preparations are almost complete.

It's time to get started.

Standing in the center of a huge pentagram, I read a long spell in who-knows-what language. In front of me hovered a body from which all the blood was slowly dripping into a large twenty-liter bowl of pure enchanted silver. Without stopping to mutter an incomprehensible rhyme I took out the souls of two phoenixes and two bright orange orbs slowly floated toward the bowl, changing their shape, and then turned into a fiery liquid and mixed with the blood. As I opened my veins, I watched with interest as the scarlet liquid flowed through the air into the bowl in beautiful streams that didn't fall to the ground.

Behind the blood went a piece of my soul. First the change would come with it, and when it returned, so would the rest of me. It was time for the final stage. Rip out the Nephilim's soul, spell again and it melts, drop it into the bowl.

A short phrase ending the ritual and all the collected liquid from the bowl poured into me through the cuts on my arms. As the last drop hit the inside they tightened. A part of my essence rose from the bottom of the bowl, and while it had been charcoal black with a small light ball, it was now bright orange with flashes of light flame. Here it is, the moment of truth. I connected the two parts of my soul and waited, preparing for the worst. But thank the ancestors, or whoever, everything went perfectly. I just exhaled in relief when I felt a slowly growing itch.

- Jinx. - I mumbled frightenedly, and I twisted. Trying to figure out what was happening to me was unsuccessful. I just lay there whimpering like a battered dog.

I don't know how long I lay there, but I ended up with a massive burst of energy. It's too bad, there's a good chance that someone will be interested and stop by, and right now I'm not a fighter at all. I'm not a fighter right now. Finished the angel, trapped the essence.

I burned the corpses, removed the pentagram with my telekinesis, and traveled all over the world, even peeking into hell a couple of times.

I felt like I'd been drunk for a week. I hadn't felt this weak since I'd become a demon.

It was time to see what I'd done to myself. Since I couldn't leave my body, I had to look into my subconscious. If before my soul was like a white ball surrounded by dark fog, now it had added orange spots. Little pieces that have sprouted up inside. If you watch for a long time, you can see how they slowly germinate.

At this rate, the union will be over in a year. Just in time for the events of the series.

But waiting a whole year, with the angels looking for me now for sure, is not the brightest idea. So after resting for a few days, I first absorbed the essence of an angel, with the remnants of his soul vessel, and then drank the trophy grace.

I got really stoned. I didn't risk much, though, because, after all, her former master was a part of me now. The process of transformation was powerfully reinforced. Just a few hours of angel doping, and now I was a new creature. A hybrid of Chelodemon and Nephilim. And the whole time I was in unbearable pain. I didn't notice any craving for masochism, only suicide.

The angel's soul simply strengthened my lighter half. The angel's soul simply strengthened my lighter half. For the rest I need access to heavenly energy, which I obviously don't have, but I didn't really want to.

I'm perfectly fine with Nephilim powers that work from their own souls, and I've got a lot of them now.

My eyes had changed again, dark sclera, orange irises with black pupils. The body's physical indicators increased by several orders of magnitude.

After a series of experiments, I learned a lot. Demonic traps don't hold me, holy water, salt and iron don't make me uncomfortable. The exorcism spell didn't work. Demons perceive my commands as before. I woke up with clairvoyance, only three minutes into the future, but that's not insignificant.

I had to go to the hospital to get the most out of this creature, but I had to go to the hospital to get the most out of this creature. I was also able to see that I had the ability to open portals between the worlds, and that I had the ability to heal, resurrect myself, and have a great physical strength, which is why I chose this creature in the first place.

I'm not sure how much energy the latter ability consumes, and I don't have enough to get out of this world just yet.

Lucifer's son is going to be one hell of an imbo. I poked myself with the angel blade at the end and almost burst into tears of joy, it didn't work.

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