Desire for Life

*Snap* *Click*

Marick felt the final residual transformation energies leave his body, snapping his broken leg back into place and instantly healing it. He held the generic long steel sword and pointed at the assortment of demonic beasts before him. With the long sword in his right hand, he held it aloft with a single arm, while his left arm unhooked the secondary dagger from his belt and held it as a secondary guard.

*Huff* *Huff*

*Huff*

Sweat began to form on his brow after only spending a few moments moving here. The strange 'gravity' of this layer of eternity was like moving through a viscous liquid, much like trying to move underwater. He studied the demonic things in front of him carefully, until one of the larger ones stepped forward with a broad smile on its face. It held a whip composed of lava in one hand, while its other was a claw of obsidian black.

"Human, give your [Behelit] to me." The large bull demon smiled. 

*Huff*

Marick didn't answer nor move from his position as his heartbeat calmed. The searing pain of the heat underneath his feet was already causing some blistering. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus on finding a solution to his current situation. 

When took a fighting stance, he gaged his actual speed in this place... and it wasn't good. He was certain he wouldn't be able to outrun any of these evil things, as it looked like this place did not even affect their movement. He glanced to the nearest contorted human figure and began to draw a few conclusions and deductions. He needed more information.

"Why?" He questioned, his breathing calm.

The bull demon smiled a wicked smile as it licked its teeth.

"Power."

The demons didn't give him any more time to analyze the situation for himself before the bull demon led the charge at him. They swung horrid weapons made of barbed white hot metals of the cave and some extraordinary weapons of pure fire, like the lava whip held by the bull demon. He focused and tried to dodge the grouping of demons, but he was far slower than them. If they weren't treating tormenting him like a game, he would already be dead.

*TSSS*

"AHH!" Marick recoiled in pain as the lava whip managed to slash across his face, blinding him in his left eye.

The flesh instantly cauterizes due to the extreme heat of the lava whip. But he didn't have a second to recover as another demon's 'Barbed club' smashed into his side, sending him through the air, and breaking a few of his ribs. 

*Drip* *Drip* *Drip*

His blood fell from the tattered gaps in his iron chainmail and his black cloak was now tattered with holes in it. 

Despite the overwhelming situation, Marick forced himself to get back up. He couldn't afford to let the pain overwhelm him here. He had just escaped death from the void and he wouldn't let hell take him just yet. 

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

"Amazing~, Haha." One of the demons laughed at him as he stabilized himself.

The expressions on the demons were of utter glee of a sadistic nature as they watched him.

*Swish* *Crack*

"Ahh!" Marick screamed as another white metal whip struck his standing back, melting through his chainmail armor.

But it seemed that this was only the start, as other demons seemed to catch on to the first one's idea. Those that had white metal barbed whips, took them out to replace their usual weapons, hoping to prolong the torture with less fatal strikes.

*Swish* *Crack*

*Swish* *Crack*

*Swish* *Crack*

*Swish* *Crack*

"HAHAHA, WELCOME TO HELL, HUMAN!" One of his tormentors laughed as his face twisted into a bestial smile of delight.

The pain was getting to be too much for Marick and as each whip cracked against him, his conscience would shake. It wouldn't be long before he fell unconscious due to the overwhelming pain. But he couldn't fall, because if he did, he knew he would lose everything.

'I-I didn't want this. I never wanted this. I just wanted to live! ' He thought in his mind.

'If only I had another chance.' He thought sadly.

*Swish* *Crack*

*Swish* *Crack*

The bull demon stood in front of him as the whips ceased for a moment.

"I look forward to tormenting you, human." the demon commented, reaching its large clawed hand towards the Behelit on Marick's neck.

Marick felt a sense of crisis overwhelm him and things slowed down again around him, the same phenomenon at a moment of life or death. If it managed to take his Behelit, he knew he wouldn't be able to move any longer. His Behelit was already screaming silently at this moment, but its eyes turned and focused on Marick's desire intently, waiting for something.

'I want to live.' Marick thought powerfully out of fear.

Then, his Behelit changed.

*Woosh* *Oaaaa*

The surroundings changed and unfolded around him as he stood in front of a decorated altar of a large sacrificial pyramid. All around him was the swirling abyss of souls, looking like he was in the center of a gigantic whirlpool of water at the bottom of the ocean. The demons who had once been attacking him, now stood at the bottom of the pyramid looking up at him. They wore expressions of fear and surprise.

"This should be impossible."

"It should have already spent its use when he arrived." The bull demon muttered in confusion, its expression of delight vanishing.

Marick limped forward slowly, glancing around as he moved. It would seem that the god's hand was not summoned, but he didn't know what this could mean. Was it because he was using a key of eternity inside the realm of eternity? His gaze moved back to the altar in front of him, he wasn't keen on losing his humanity, so how should he handle this?

With slow shaky movements, he placed his ordinary steel longsword on the altar.

*REEEEAAAAAAAAA*

The Behelit on his neck screamed louder than it ever had before it adopted a furious expression on its face. 

The demons below had marks on their foreheads and began to panic. Power began to leave them and their forms shrank smaller and smaller. A flow of black-green liquid condensed in the air from the demons and entered Marick's ordinary sword on the altar, changing it forever with the elements of the Deep Astral.

*Creak* *Clack*

The sword twisted and churned, morphing into something different, something new.

*Swish*

The white metal whips that once struck Marick's back with torture, floated up from the demon's hands, turned into a white liquid, and poured into the reforming sword.

Finally, part of the purple Behelit itself dripped off like liquid and was added into the mix, leaving a large long sword on the altar. In the middle of the blade's guard, was the face of his purple Behelit, its eyes closed calmly, while the rest of the sword was Purple with white outlined at the edges and underneath. 

He picked up the sword tiredly as the pyramid's surroundings collapsed, leaving the original environment of the hot cave floor of eternity in front of him. The demons in front of him were small now, barely reaching to his waist in height.