The Pact and New Beginning

Within what appears to be an endless dark void, a humanoid being made of bluish white light wandered through it.

The being seemed to have no purpose, and just floated around randomly.

The being of light in the midst of infinite darkness is the soul of a human being.

It's the soul of a human woman, to be exact.

She doesn't know how she got there or how long she's been wandering, but she knows that she is a soul, and that she is dead.

As she floated through the endless void, a great pressure suddenly fell on her, as if she were in the place of the giant Atlas, holding the world on your back. She couldn't move, and an inexplicable fear gripped her being.

''What's this? You were not disintergrated upon entering my Realm?''

In the midst of that void, a voice echoed. The voice was booming, deep and husky like nails scraping across a blackboard. The human soul immediately knew that that voice was not human, nor that of some angelic being, for this ancient, crackling voice could only be that of something evil.

''W-Who are you? And where is your voice coming from?'' The soul asked confused and afraid.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant black and orange vortex appears in front of her, and from within the vortex, a semblance of a black face, with red-orange eyes and a dangerously evil smile.

''I am the Fiend God, Adimonde.'' He responds, causing her to tremble with the power its voice produces, ''And you are in my realm. Observe what very few have fitnessed: The Fiend Realm.''

The soul feels the pressure around her disappear a little, letting her move, and as if a curtain had been opened for her, she looks down, and she sees waht she could not see before, a world of red, gray and black. She looks to the horizon, but that world seems to have no end.

After pausing to analyze all the new information, the soul calms down and asks, ''What do you want from me?''

The smile of the Fiend God grows even more, ''Do you feel this power? My power?''

The human soul didn't like to be answered with another question, but since she doesn't want to piss off a god, she just answered sincerely.

''Yeah....it's an overwhelming power. Just your presence seems to be crushing me....''

''Glad you like. Because I will share this power with you.''

The soul is dumbfounded by the Fiend God's answer, ''Why would you do that?''

''To devour.'' He answers without hesitation.

"Devour"? The human soul asks confused, ''Why would you need me to do that?''

''You see, despite my limitless power, I am bound to this Realm. I require a vessel to leave this place and consume other worlds,'' he responds with a sigh, as if this problem has been pissing him off for quite some time, ''Seeing as you have withstood the unbearable pressure of the Fiend Realm, It appears your body will do the trick.''

The soul looks at the god with suspicion, ''If I accept, what should I do?''

The God laughs, ''Oh, It's nothing complicated. I will give you a part of my power and in return, all I ask is that you grow stronger to conquer and devour worlds in my name.''

''Wait, if I'm going to have a part of your power, which is limitless, why should I become stronger?'' The soul asks confused.

''I will not give you my raw power itself, but the 'power' of knowledge. It won't give youany combat power, but it will help you get it.''

''Can't you just give me raw power?''

The Fiend God looks at the human soul with disgust, ''I can't, even a fraction of my power would be too much for a mere mortal soul. And even if I could, I wouldn't give you such power. Fiends, like me, naturally respect the strong. However, using a force that is not yours will make you the enemy of all my realm, including me.''

The human soul gets surprised and perplexed by this strange sense of respect in honest strength that the fiends have.

She nods in understanding, and the God continues, ''All you need to is take this Fiend Shard.''

As he says this, a strange piece of rock appears between the two. The rock is small, has an orange color with a reddish tinge.

''As long as you have this, you and the Shard will continue to grow. You will become an embodiment of my power. With my armies at your disposal, you'll be unstoppable!'' He ends with a thunderous laugh.

''Wait. Why don't you send your armies yourself then? Why do you need me?'' The Soul asks. Knowing that this God needs her, her fear of him has now greatly diminished, to the point of not fearing an argument in the face of such a being.

Adimonde's orange eyes have sharpened, and he looks strangely pleased.

''A cautious one. I like that.'' He smirk.

''Fiends lack organization and purpose. They are beings of pure destruction. They require leadership. They require an Archfiend. They require.....ME!''

The gigantic vortex around him glows and orange lightning shoot out from all sides. The vortex seemed to engulf the entire world, and in the center, Adimonde's evil, smiling face was like a harbinger of the Apocalypse. The soul watched the God in silence, awed by the overwhelming power he displayed.

After a moment, the death vortex calms down and the lightning stops, everything goes back to being static as before.

''You will take my place and lead them.'' He finishes.

The soul then becomes thoughtful. It wasn't a bad deal, and she had a goal herself; she didn't remember why, but inside her, since becoming a soul, she felt a strong thirst for revenge, this will for revenge was the only thing that made her sane in this cursed place. And if she needs to make a deal with the Devil to get out of this place and get her revenge, then so be it.

The God seemed a little impatient with the soul's lack of response, and says in a slightly irritated tone, ''So, do we have a deal?''

The soul looks directly to the Fiend God and responds with conviction,''If with your power I can take revenge.....so be it, I accept.''

The Fiend God laughs with satisfaction, ''Good! Very good!''

Without waiting any longer, the Fiend Shard quickly flies towards the soul and collides with her, but to the her surprise, there is no impact, the shard got inside her and her, once a bluish white soul, began to glow in reddish-orange.

Soon after the merging, she begins to feel strange, and its vision begins to blur; she loses control of her astral body and quickly begins to fall.

''I hope you reach my expectations, my Herald!'' The Fiend God says with amusement, and then disappears.

She quickly dropped, and a second before hitting the red ground, she loses consciousness.

.

. (Scene Change)

.

Somewhere in the Fiend Realm.

After an indefinite time, the one who was once human opens her eyes and a wave of pain hits her entire body.

'Urgh....shit...my head feels like it's going to explode and my body feels like it's been run over....'

'Wait, am I feeling pain in my body?' she thinks in surprise.

When she was a soul, she didn't feel pain, in reality, she didn't feel anything, except for her strange hunger for revenge and the fear she felt when meeting the Fiend God.

She felt her body lying on the floor, she slowly got up and rubbed her eyes with her hands, only to realize that her hands are not human.

'What the fuck...?'

She watches her hands in amazement as she closes and opens them.

Her hands have gray color, and they are small like a child's hands. The difference is that the hand is strangely muscular, and its nails are black, long and sharp.

She tries to say something, but only strange grunts come out of her mouth.

'I can't speak? What the fuck am I?'

<Answer: You are a Fiend Goblin, one of the weakest races in the Fiend Realm.>

'Wait, who just answered me?!'

She looks around in amazement but doesn't see anyone, instead she is even more amazed at the sight of where she is.

She is in what appears to be a place out of the fantasies of a mentally disturbed person. The ground is completely red, ash falls from the sky, dead trees with human faces crying blood, strange dark countenances walked and wandered here and there, and in the distance a river of a unidentified black liquid flowed.

There was no vegetation other than the strange trees, and she could smell a pungent scent of blood, iron and sulfur.

It looked like a semi-arid biome, but with a hint of madness in the mix.

'I....really should have thought twice before accepting that deal, where the fuck am I?'

<Answer: You are at the extreme edge of the Fiend Realm, where the weaker Fiend beings dwell.>

'Again, who the hell answered me!'

<Answer: Me.>

Hearing this enlightening answer, she couldn't help but wish to hit this supposed 'Me'.

'I'll rephrase the question, what or who are you?'

<Answer: I am the Fiend Shard.>

'Oh, that thing that got into my chest? Is that you?'

<Answer: Yes.>

'Is this what Adimonde meant by indirect help? What do you-'

<Warning: Danger Level One Entity approaching. Suggestion: Hide.>

Hearing the warning, she starts to hear strange noises that seem to be two solid things bumping into each other approaching the place where she is, and she quickly runs and hides behind a nearby rock.

The noise got closer, and soon it reached where she was. Curious, she peeks over the rock, and sees the being that was making the strange noise.

'Is that... a skeleton?'

In the spot where she was, a humanoid skeleton was standing, with a rusty sword in its bone hand. The strange sound came from his jaw that opens and closes with force.

<Answer: That is a low-ranking cursed skeleton. Danger Level One, similar to the Fiend Goblin.>

'On the same level as a Fiend Goblin? If I'm not mistaken, that's what I am according to you right?'

<Answer: Yes.>

'Oh great, so I'm a super weak fiend creature.....I better find a quiet place to get my head straight...'

Careful so the skeleton doesn't notice her, she sneaks out and starts looking for a safe place to stay so to she gets her thoughts in order.

She cautiously searched for a safe place for dozens of minutes, but I can't find any place she could use for shelter.

And during that time, she found several other skeletons, some with humanoid forms, others with strange demonic forms, but they all had one thing in common: they had weapons.

'There are no mountains here to have caves. Not even trees big enough for me to stay safe in their branches…..not that I would climb those scary trees. I guess I just have to create a shelter myself.'

<Suggestion: Dig a hole at the base of a mourning tree.>

'You say those bizarre trees with human faces?'

<Answer: Yes.>

Having no other choice, she follows the suggestion given to her.

Since meeting the first skeleton, her mind was on constant alert, not wanting to waste time looking for something to use as a tool, she quickly searched for a large tree and prepares to dig a hole right next to it.

She looks at her little hands and sighs, 'I hope those sharp nails of mine don't break.'

She starts digging, and her sharp nails easily penetrate the ground. Fortunately, her nails are tough enough to dig into that hard red ground.

After what seemed like an eternity to her, she managed to dig a hole for her body to fit snugly.

'It's not big, but it will do for now.'

She felt strangely cozy inside the hole, even though the ground was hard and sandy. The feeling of urgency she had has passed, causing her body to relax.

'Okay, time for some answers.'

She already had an idea that she would be reincarnated as a demon by the deal with the Fiend God, but she never thought that once she woke up the situation would be so strange.

Now that she's relaxed, she looks at her new body with curiosity and awkwardness. Her new body was small like a five year old and has a grayish color, and like her hands, her feet also have sharp, long fingernails.

Luckily she has five fingers on both her feet and hands, she thought.

Since she can't see what her head looks like, she closes her eyes and runs her fingers over her face, trying to imagine what it looks like.

Running her fingers over her face, she notices that her head is similar to a human's, then she runs her fingers to the side of her face and feels her ears.

'Pointy ears? Feels like bat ears, interesting.'

Finally she runs her fingers over her head, and she sighs in disappointment.

'Yeah, it looks like I'm bald...why the hell am I worried about this? Stupid me.'

She opens her eyes and concludes, 'So, basically I look like a five-year-old, but with gray skin, long, sharp black nails on my feet and hands, I have bat ears, and a bald head.'

After a moment of silence she shrugs, 'Not bad, at least I have a humanoid form.'

'Now, hmmmm.....Fiend Shard, you're there, right?'

<Answer: Yes.>

'First of all, I'm going to call you FiSha, calling you Fiend Shard all the time is going to be tiring.'

She got no answer back, so she continued, 'So, FiSha, I already have a general idea, but can you explain to me what exactly are you, and what your use is?'

<Answer: A shard of Adimonde's power, which contains his knowledge. Use: Fiend Encyclopedia/Advisor.>

'I see. So I want to ask you a question, why am I so calm in this situation?'

<Answer: Unknown.>

'No answer huh? I think it was to be expected.' She laughs, but the laugh comes out as a grunt.

'Hmm, right. I think that's all for now, all the tension from before is making me sleepy.....'

She feels her eyes getting heavy and exhaustion take over her, slowly she closes her eyes.

'Goodnight, FiSha.....'