Chapter 9: 9 Volcanic Rebirth
Bright light flooded his vision as John entered the testing portal. The light slowly began to fade, leaving small white spots floating in his vision. Before him sat an elderly man with a long white beard and the top of his head had not a single hair, but instead two long horns. A large staff stood next to him, as he stared at a file in front of him. He grunted as he sensed John's arrival, pointing for him to take a seat. He chewed on the pipe in his mouth as he took a long puff from it. Without looking up from the file in his hand he began to speak. "Use the athame on the table to make a small cut on your finger, letting a single drop of blood fall into the bowl of water on the table."
On the once immaculate table a bowl and a ceremonial knife appeared, both within a large inverse pentagram carved onto the table. John had heard of these inverse pentagram before, they were often used when making deals with the outsiders called demons. They were not evil, as the old stories of Christianity would have you believe, however they did demand a price for their services. This price could be anything from money, magic, or years of your life force. You wouldn't even know what price they demanded until it was too late. This could be considered evil by some, but really it was just business. And the price was always worth it for the services you received.
A small cut appears on his finger, as he gently rubbed his finger over the knife, blood began to trickle from his wound, but he followed the demons directions, dripping a single drop into the bowl of water. With a splash the blood began to stain its watery surroundings red, ripples began to spread through the bowl, causing the water to splash against the edges. The bowl disappeared, reappearing in front of the demon.
"Interesting" the demon murmured around, most likely to himself, but it could still be heard by John. "I can sense the aura of that brat who accompanies Lilith from your blood. Perhaps he was your father? No, your uncle. I should have known, after all you do have his eye." The demon cackled to himself at his own joke. "But you don't walk his path of darkness, even if that spider gifted you a stealth technique. But I will take care of that, trading it for something that matches the path you walk. I owe Lilith far more than that. This is interesting, Magic path? Even though that fool of an uncle of yours has little talent it seems to blossom from you, it burns like a fire in your very soul." The demon cackled again "I know just what to do with you, send my regards to your aunt the next time you see her kid. Half of the cost is on me. " the demon was coughing up blood, his face very pale seeming as if he aged a few decades in a moment. Soon he disappeared from my sight, the room shifting into something different. Something far more hot.
The smell of brimstone filled the air as John was dropped into the depths of an active volcano. Soon, the scent of his searing flesh mixed with the scent of sulfur ad his body slowly sank into the lava. Pain became the only sensation he could feel as his flesh began to melt from his bones. He screamed as the agony began to fill every crevice of his body. His fleshy body soon vanished, leaving behind only a small spark of a soul. If one looked closely they could see a small pistol shimmering inside the flame like soul.
True to its shape, the soul began to swim through the lava, like a fish in the sea. It slowly began to absorb the scorching mana filling the depths of the volcano. As it absorbed the mana it became increasingly visible, growing more and more material. Soon the topmost layer of the lava was not enough to satisfy the young soul, as it dived deeper into the liquid fire abyss. All the small soul could see was an endless field of red around it as it swam deeper into the lava, the temperature slowly rising as it went deeper.
It would stop when the heat became intense, slowing absorbing the fiery mana as it swam around in the scalding liquid. Its form wavering and regrowing as it was melted down and reformed, over and over. Time passed without meaning for the soul, as it repeated this process, progressing deeper into the fiery pit.
Red turned into orange and the flames grew hotter. Each inch the soul fought for became harder as its ethereal body was repeatedly broken down, getting rebuilt again and again. The orange burned hotter as the soul dove deeper, its ethereal body beginning to boil as the temperature rose, it began to cook from both the inside and outside. But the soul did not stop, it had yet reach its limit.
Orange became yellow, and the souls began to change. Its once flame like body had reached a state of perpetual boiling. As the essence of its body began to drift away into the endless pool of lava, it would absorb mana to rebuild, but the process was hard. Its body no longer had a "solid" state, but more a "liquid" state. It no longer had the time or energy to truly rebuild itself as it melted away, and could only gather enough mana so that it did not lose mass.
The soul did not try to go deeper, it knew that it had reached its limit. The yellow lava around churned as the souls began to absorb what it could, before it melted away. In the deepest part of it's being the soul began to condense the fire energy, mixing into it's being. A small fiery core began to form, as the two mixed. Slowly growing larger as it condensed the liquefied soul into a small round ball. The fiery mana of the lava pool began spiral into a vortex as more and more mana was absorbed into the core. The ball did not get bigger, as a person would expect as the mana and liquefied soul were pulled in. Instead it got smaller, more condensed, like a miniature black hole that sucked in the fire mana around it.
Time passed, and the vortex slowly stopped moving, the churning lava began to slowly solidify as the small fire soul absorbed the mana around it. The souls began to ascend, rising up through the hardening lava. Slowly a fleshy body began to form around it as it rose through the lava. The solidifying lava merging with the soul to form bones and flesh.
The scattered ashes of the souls former body absorbing into the soul as it manifested its flesh. Soon a flesh suit had formed around the soul, remarkably similar to its former appearance. However the once thin youth had fleshed out, muscles rippled under it's new form. The hair that adorned the top of its head had grown longer, and carried a deep red appearance. His eyes shown with a yellowish light, seemingly burning as they stared out at the now hardened platform he was standing on.
John clenched his hand as he felt his blood circulating through his veins like the lava he had just emerged from. Steam slowly rose from his body as he felt the relatively cooler environment around him. He smiled as he walked over the obsidian floor, a doorway could be seen on the far end of the volcanic crater. It was glowing with a scarlet light as he approached, sucking him into the portal.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone