Chapter 10 - Overflow

Ashe woke up in his bed, still tired he checked his phone. It was 9 in the morning meaning he either slept only around 4 hours or 28. But with how tired he was he could comfortably guess which one it was. What also caught Ashe's attention were multiple notifications from different people.

The first was from Emily.

< hey Ashe what's happening? You just disappeared yesterday and we're all worried.>

Ashe got taken back home after hearing about his brother's death but he never got the chance to inform anyone, not that he wanted to tell his friends about it. Ashe just ignored the message, for now, promising himself that he would reply later.

The next message was from his mom.

<I'm going to be back in 2 days with Roy. We have some bad news.>

Ashe was taken aback by the message. It wasn't clear to him if the bad news was for him, or for him to deliver to Roy. Ashe already went through a lot in the last 24 hours, and he didn't want to think about the possibility of it getting even worse.

To silence any negative thoughts, Ashe started to concentrate on his breathing and tried to not think about anything else. Just like last time, he felt the strange energy and he began moving it around his body as a form of training. Ashe started going about his morning routine while moving the energy between his two arms. After taking a shower he made breakfast and sat down in the living room.

While eating he tried producing a flame like Sap taught him. It took a minute but he managed to make a small flame.

'So it's all real, I really mutated.'

'What do I even do? I don't have to go to school, but I don't have anything else to do either. Do I just wait around till I get sleepy?'

Ashe was wondering what to do for his two days off, he really wanted to go back to Hevell but he couldn't sleep for two days straight, or could he? An idea suddenly appear in his head that was quite risky but he just had to try it.

Ashe quickly ran outside and headed towards the nearest pharmacy. Once inside he bought some supplements and more importantly sleeping pills. He left with his purchase and bought some protein bars in a convenience store on his way back.

After making his way back home Ashe closed all the blinds in his room and put all of his purchased items on a table. Then he got multiple glasses of water from the kitchen and placed them on the bedside table.

With everything prepared Ashe took the first sleeping pill and got in a position to sleep. It took a couple of minutes but Ashe could feel the pill taking effect, and before he knew it he was back on his training rug.

He looked around and found the same bell sitting next to him, without much hesitation he rang the bell. The owl demon could be heard landing right behind him.

"You've come back so soon, how considerate." The deep raspy voice said.

Ashe turned around to see Sap holding a piece of paper.

"Is that the contract?"

"Correct." Is all Sap said in response, it held out the paper which contained the previously made agreements.

"All you need to do is put your flame right there," Sap said while pointing towards a small spot on the bottom of the page.

Ashe started gathering his energy and created a small flame on his fingertip.

"Right here?" He said while pointing at the spot. He got a nod from Sap and pressed his flaming finger onto the bottom of the page. Sap did the same except with its claw.

At that moment the red flames consumed the paper in seconds, leaving only ash.

"Is that it?" Ashe asked

"Yes, we are now bound by the agreement." Sap responded. "As for that information I promised, I'll give it to you in a couple of days. For now, you need to focus on gathering more demon energy."

"Why? Are we in a hurry?" Ashe asked confused by the sudden emphasis on hurrying.

"I am not, however you will definitely want to get as strong as possible in the next 9 days."

Sap said while readying his wings for liftoff.

"What! Why?!" Ashe asked loudly, worried that the demon would fly away without answering him.

"I told you. I will tell you in a couple of days. Now meet me upstairs." As Sap said those last words, they flew onto the top floor of the library. Ashe hurried up the stairs to meet the demon. On the top Sap was waiting by the exit and when it saw Ashe arrive at the top it exited the library.

Ashe followed Sap through the exit hole, going back to the room with the entrance to the whole burrow.

"Where are we going?" Ashe asked upon entering the room.

"A place we call Tunnels of Beruthiell, there you will gain more demon energy." Sap responded while heading outside through the long tunnel. Ashe had to get help from the demon as he couldn't climb out on his own.

"Who's Beruthiell?" Ashe asked when they both arrived at the surface.

"Let's not waste time, I'll tell you on the way." Said Sap while walking away. Ashe followed suit and they were now walking next to each other.

"Beruthiell was an ancient demon. It controlled the negative emotions of all beings. Long story short, it died and its power and body filled the land. For example, the mountain range in which I have my library is its spine, and it stretches for almost the entirety of Hevell. Every lesser demon that lives here is a side effect of Beruthiell's power overflowing an object. The place we're going, the Tunnels of Beruthiell, are actually the veins of Beruthiell's body. The veins still have a strong flow of demon energy because of Mortem's interference. So we'll use this to our advantage."

"Wait, so we're all living on Beruthiell's corpse? How big is it?" Ashe asked out of amazement.

"Yes, but more importantly the fact that Beruthiell's power flowed into the land means that the demon energy here has Beruthiell's power infused in it. So you'll be able to use some of its abilities."

"Really?!" Ashe couldn't believe his luck.

"Yes, everyone in Hevell can. Which is why it's so hostile to outsiders, they don't want to give away their powers." Sap responded. An awkward silence appeared. Ashe mostly forgot that he wasn't welcome in Hevell so the sudden reminder killed the mood.

As they were walking on the edge of the forest, Ashe looked around the foreign land and noticed the beautiful sky.

"Hey, why does the sky look like that?" He asked his guide.

"What do you mean specifically? We are on a different planet so of course, it's going to be different."

"But isn't Hevell like the underworld? If it is just a different planet then why do human souls come here?" Ashe asked again. Now more confused than before.

Sap just groaned and stayed silent for a bit before speaking again.

"Do you know why mutations happen on earth?"

Ashe stayed silent only shaking his head in response.

"Well, it's because of an energy we call 'soul'. Just like the planet we are on right now has demon energy, earth has soul energy."

Sap stopped speaking to check if Ashe understood and with the expression on his face looking more curious than confused, Sap continued.

"The soul energy type is incredibly rare and valuable because of its ability to mutate and create new things. So most planets like ours, that have non-soul energy usually take something from earth to be able to make something new. For example, offsprings must have some soul energy or they become mindless creatures." Sap then stopped speaking again. Ashe saw this as the perfect moment to ask questions.

"But how do you get human souls?"

"I personally am not privy to that information however I do know that Mortem originally created a gate between earth and here. I'm just not sure how or where."

Before Ashe could ask any more questions Sap quickly changed the subject.

"We're here! Let's focus on the task at hand, shall we?"

They had arrived at a big hole inside a steep hillside. The hole was rigid and was large enough to fit a train inside. A gentle breeze was flowing from the entrance of the tunnels, when it touched Ashe's face he started to flare up.

"Has it already started affecting you? Splendid." Sap said while looking at Ashe.

"What's happening? What do I do?" Ashe shouted in a panic.

"Just try to hold on to as much of the energy as possible. We need to teach your body how to hold large sizes of energy." Sap instructed.

The energy was flowing into Ashe, previously he had only enough energy to fill his eyes with. But now he had enough to almost entirely fill his head.

His hearing was extraordinary, he could hear the feathers from Sap's cloak moving in the wind. His smell was also enhanced allowing him to differentiate and recognize any smell from 2 meters away. His mind would usually be overflowing with information at this point but it was also working considerably faster, allowing him to visualize his surroundings seamlessly.

With the sheer amount of foreign energy inside his body, Ashe started overheating. His head was incredibly hot because he was concentrating all his energy there. He realized his mistake and quickly dispersed the energy throughout his body. This didn't help much as it only stopped generating heat in his head but Ashe already felt a lot better.

Unfortunately, the energy didn't stop entering his body and it was only a matter of time before Ashe was going to overheat his entire body. 'Am I going to die because of this?! No that's ridiculous, I should just call for help'

"Sap how do I stop this!" Ashe shouted while looking to where Sap was standing. However, the demon was nowhere to be found.

'Shit, what now?!'

Ashe's mind was racing and he decided to transfer more energy to it to help him think straight. This helped Ashe calm down and look for a solution. While thinking of what he could do with his overflowing energy he remembered that he could start a fire.

All of Ashe's concentration went into his hand and it quickly started to swell up and turn red.

'Just let go! Just like last time!'

Ashe tried starting a small flame but his whole hand burst into tall flames. A sharp pain erupted along with the flame, it felt like the pressure of the flame ripped his skin open. Without thinking Ashe closed his palm trying to cover the wound, which also subdued the flames. Ashe was now on the ground holding his hand from pain, the energy seemed to stop entering his body but his hand was still warm.

Ashe looked at his hand trying to see his wound. To his surprise, his hand wasn't hurt at all, but the strange thing was that a

crystal-like sphere had appeared in his hand. Ashe was still very lightheaded from this situation so he didn't care much for this mysterious ball. All he did was lay on the ground and rest.

Unfortunately, Ashe let his guard down and when he closed his eyes the fatigue got to him and he struggled to open them again. He tried calling for help so Sap could wake him up but his lips wouldn't move.

"You did well." Was the last thing he heard before falling asleep.