1 A deal with the devil

"Do you want to live?"

There is nothing quite as bad as those seconds that seem to stretch for hours to no end, while the pressure in you chest slowly builds and you feel your body shut down. The coldness slowly overtaking your limbs as you understand what is happening, and while your last thoughts are begging to your muscles so they move, so they obey, they choose to ignore you.

"Do you want they pain to end?"

A feeling of dread rose as, in from of me, a 'thing' appeared. It's appearance resembled that of a lovecraftian monster, though instead of tentacles covering its body, it had eyes, countless eyes, distributed unequally over its strange form. The only other aspect of its appearance that was worth noting was its brains, which were splattered all over its shoulders as if someone had shot it in the head.

"Do you want a new opportunity?"

I finally understood what was happening, and to whom the voice belonged. The pain in my body grew as I felt the last moments of consciousness I would get vanish.

I died.

I am dead.

So why am I still here?

"Afterlife is a funny thing, because there isn't," said the monster, and between the countless eyes on its torso, a semblance of a mouth appeared. Crooked and sharp teeth, occasionally being passed over by a tongue so disgusting it resembled a black tentacle more than anything else. "When people die, their soul stays in their body. They remain there, anchored to what they once used to live, for the rest of eternity, with the feeling of how they died still fresh until the universe ends, or perhaps after that as well. It is particularly funny to see people get cremated, because their souls shatter into millions of ashes and are then ripped apart when they scatter, kehehahahaha!"

No. Imposible.

The feeling of asphyxiation I had, the coldness I had, and the newly acquired claustrophobia thanks to the monster's words... was I supposed to stay like this forever? Impossible. I'll go insane in the next five minutes, never mind what will become of me if I wait in this pain until the end of time.

"Exactly," replied the monster, a grin forming on its face as its eyes began to glow in an oddly beautiful colour, one that very much resembled a rainbow. "You will stay like this forever, unless... you form a contract with me."

I see, so a deal with the Devil huh?

"Indeed," replied the Devil. "Though I am not The Devil, I am simply a devil."

Huh, so there are more devils... great. Is that why the world is so shitty? Sigh, never mind... we both know it is us that make the world shitty...

The grin on the devil's face stretched further, and from within its mouth, which was now directly above my head, I could see countless eyes open, showing up in the inside of its body, and all with the same rainbow-like colours that were constantly changing, almost like a kaleidoscope. 'Wait... you aren't Zelretch messing with me, are you?' I wondered.

"No, I am not that annoying magus," said the devil, successfully confusing me. "If you had to call me anything, then I would say that I am the Parallel devil. The fear people have over parallels is what gives me strength, regardless of wether it is parallel world, which some paranoid geniuses are terrified of, or parallel lines, which some weird people are also terrified of. If it has the concept of parallels, it is mine to command, in a way."

I see... I don't understand.

"It doesn't really matter, what matters is the contract I am offering you," said the Parallel devil.

I couldn't help but curse in my mind. The pain remained, as the devil said it would, and I wouldn't be able to stay sane much longer. On one hand I wanted this to end, I wanted the pain to go away, I wanted to stop feeling my heart stopped. On the other hand, well... the saying of 'never make a deal with the devil' must exist for a reason, right?

"Let me tell you the contract, and then you can decide for yourself, alright?" said the Parallel devil.

That... I could agree to that. Hearing the contract and deciding later made sense.

"Good," it commented. "You will let me live in your left eye and whenever you die we will go to a different parallel world, and in return I will give you one power and stop this pain you are feeling right now by bringing you to my world, where you will be reborn."

An opportunity to travel through worlds endlessly instead of experiencing pain endlessly... I like that. I have no doubts that I would eventually come through the troubles of immortality, the feeling of nothing mattering and all that, but I would rather encounter those troubles and deal with them than stay trapped in this body for the rest of eternity. I would be kind of immortal either way, except in one of the choices I don't have to go insane with pain and get to try new things and go to new places. I like that part. The problem comes from the first request... what would it mean to live in my left eye anyway?

"You would never be able to see through your left eye again," it replied. "I will see through it instead, and likewise I will live in there as well. Basically I will travel with you while staying in your left eye."

That... didn't sound so bad. Sure, having a devil in my eye wouldn't be something I call perfect, but its better than staying here. Wait... could it use it to take over my body?

"If I could take over bodies and use them to travel through parallel world like that, I wouldn't be coming here to get you," it replied. "In order to get control I would need to form a contract specifically requesting to be able to take control, or I would need to ask for your body instead of simply your left eye. I can't exactly fully leave my world, because that would mean that all other parallel worlds around it would collapse over it, so your eye would act in a similar manner to a window, letting me see and experience what is out there without the need of carrying my entire existence out of my world."

That.. made sense? Well, I already know I will end up agreeing so lets focus on the other things. What about my power? Do I get to choose?

"No," it replied swiftly. "A devil can only give a power form its own domain, and I already know what I will give you."

What will it be?

"You will see," replied the devil. "I have to specific powers that I use to counter pretty much everyone from my world, those powers being 'Parallel body' and 'Parallel mind', both of which are sub-skills from my op ability 'Parallel existence'. You will get 'Parallel mind', which can also be called 'Parallel thoughts', or maybe 'Parallel processing'... honestly, you can call it whichever way makes more sense to you. I can't really put it in words for you meagre mortal to understand it, but you will eventually see how the ability functions... well, if you don't become an idiot of course."

Alright, if it is what I think it is then that is a solid ability. Not something I would call op, but not bad either.

"Sure, sure," commented the Parallel devil, the glow of its eyes reaching an almost blinding level. "So, do yo agree to the contract?"

I do.

Blinding light encompassed me and I felt the pain slowly vanish as I left the body. Now I stood in front of the Parallel devil, its appearance changing into something more... humane? Until it finally stopped shifting, settling its body in one identical to mine, with the exception of the two beautiful eyes.

"Right, I suppose it would be best to clear the air, so to speak, before anything else happens," said the devil, with an awkward smile.

"What do you mean?" I asked. It would be a lie to say the devil didn't make me nervous, and comments like this certainly didn't help.

"Well, we will be working together and I can already tell that you will not want someone else to go through an eternity of death, which means you will avoid killing and that will be annoying," explained the devil, and I agreed. I didn't want people to die, and knowing what came after only made that feeling strengthen. "Well, I lied."

"Huh?" I muttered dumbfoundedly.

"I lied about what happens after you die so I could get you to make the contract," he said calmly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I actually used my own energy to keep your soul inside your body. The whole pain you were feeling was just phantom pains, product of... well, your traumatic experience of course."

No words left my mouth, and I could feel my entire brain just freeze in its place. My thoughts simply paused and my mind stopped functioning.

"Anyway, let's have fun from now on!"

And with that, I felt the pressure of coming out of a womb.

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Author note: Yeah... never make a deal with the devil kids.

Anyway, this is the story, eventually it will be a multiverse fic, and I do have a couple of worlds that I am seriously considering, but until then... welcome to the world of Chainsaw Man!

I was thinking of Worm (Para-humans), Game of Thrones, among others.

The mc would basically be summoned as a devil, so if you have a character who you think would do great with a devil supporting him or her, feel free to let me know. I know Cersei, or Emma Barnes from Worm, would be really interesting choices.