Lucivar looked at him, his stare now piercing more than ever, as he said with finality:
"You were chosen by me."
Those words were like a slab of iron hammering inside Daxon's skull, a deafening weight on his mind.
"Why in the world would the devil choose him? What happened to Elivar? Why didn't he choose him? At least from the knowledge he had gotten earlier, he knew that Elivar, though Lucivar's twin brother, was the good god."
Lucivar now walked closer to him.
"I know it is very hard to digest, but if you really think that you want to save Earth and all your loved ones, then you must accept the gifts I offer you. And you must do it of your own volition."
His tone had that strange, intoxicating sweetness, the kind that could coil around a person's will, erode their doubts, and leave them pliant. No wonder mortals always fell prey to him, and he was always able to manipulate them.
Dax just stared at him, lost for words. The truth being that he was not so pure anymore, had he even been pure? But then, he knew one thing very well: how to make bargains.
But should he really bargain with the devil.. himself?
After a long, crushing silence, coiled in deliberations, he spoke.
"My house was torn apart by these Parallax servers."
Lucivar looked at him. The response that followed Dax's statement wasn't what he had expected.
"The servers cannot be seen by mere eyes," he said evenly.
"Though your house might have been torn apart, to others it will appear untouched. But if those beasts had attacked while anyone was there..."
his voice sharpened,
"...it would have been catastrophic. They have the ability to unravel the mind. All they need do is make themselves visible, and anyone who sees them…"
He let the words hang, venomous and deliberate.
but then continued...
"... anyone who sees them…is gone. Not dead.... Worse.... Alive, but hollow, a vessel without a soul."
Dax stared at him in horror. His breath stilled.
They claimed it was the work of the Trinity to make sure that this Parallax servers was not able to cross the fragile seam between their dimension and ours. But yet, that beast had slipped through and had come directly at him.
He had seen it. Only the fact that he'd already been marked to join the Trinity had spared his soul. Without that? A single glance at the creature, even as eyeless as it was, it would have stripped him empty.
A chilling thought followed: what if his sister, his mother… even his father… had been there? they all would have been soulless, 'yes' alive, but soulless. They would all be breathing husks.
His anger finally boiled over.
"Why did they let it loose?" His voice cracked with fury. "For God's sake, anything could have happened! What if my family was there?"
"But they weren't, Dax. And I wonder how this is helping right now. Your house is fine, and your family as well." the devil replied softly.
Dax now hit his point. with clenched fist.
He might meddle with whatever he was faced, tolerate a thousand dangers aimed at him, but not them. but he couldn't risk his family along the line.
"I will accept your gift if you give my family immunity and protect them from anything from today onwards."
Lucivar stared at him, his crimson-ringed eyes glinted as an almost spectral smile unfurled across his lips. The bargain was clever. He liked clever, and he also liked the fact that Dax was a smart one.
"Not bad for a weak-willed, you know," Lucivar mused as he walked closer to him, so close Dax could feel the Devil's presence pressing against him like a storm.
Gently, he placed both his palms on his temple, and just then a bright crimson radiance ignited around his palms, searing the air.
Dax didn't know what happened next, but what he knew was that he suddenly felt an infernal surge rippling through him.
And the last fading words he heard were, Lucivar's final words, distant but absolute:
"Your family will be protected from now henceforth, I give you my word."
And at that instant, he was no longer where he was. He was no longer on the ground.
His head felt really heavy, throbbing under the weight of something new, and more knowledge now crumpled in, accompanied with memories. Memories that he could swear were not his. All unfolding into him.
His breath was now hitched, and he couldn't move about, not that he struggled to, but the sensation that engulfed him was something that he had never felt before. It was overwhelming, like being submerged in an ocean of liquid fire.
'Was this what was happening to the others? Or was this happening because I am receiving two gifts at a time, or mainly because the second one was from the devil?'
His eyes were still closed when the voice came back to him, and at that instant, like always, it came to his mind's eye.
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{{Daxon Smith; you have been awakened, you have been stirred, you have been marked and you successfully passed the harness}}
{{Prepare for appraisal}}
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At those words, he shivered. The words sent a chill through him so sharp he nearly lost it. He felt too numb to react to the voice, but then his eyes opened, and he realized where he had been.
At first, he thought it was at the dark space where he had met the Nexer, But no. This was different. Then he realized he was falling, very slowly, that it felt at times like he was just floating. Drifting through an abyss so infinite it swallowed the concept of distance.
Though, just like the place he had met the Nexer, it was dark and the darkness was endless. But here, the darkness was endless too, but he was not standing, rather, he was suspended in the air.
When he realized this, his heartbeat calmed down, at least it wasn't the Nexer's void. for he knew that he had offended the Nexer and he wasn't sure if the Nexer was still angry with him or not. He really hoped it was the latter.
He tried to imagine how it would look for the Transcended. If it would be dark…
"How could it be?" he pondered.
"It will be filled with light, I guess, and it will look like heaven."
He sighed, sneering inwardly.
'That will be pathetic, for they redeem those that are not worthy of redemption. People like Malfoy. How can they just forgive?'
Well, the thought of being a Transcended now seemed like filth to him.
'I'd rather be a Veilbound than be a Transcended.'
He wanted to wallow about but was too weak at the time. Whatever the devil had done to him was making him not to feel so good.
Calmly and gently, the voice returned again with its normal impact.
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{{Appraisal information assessing… Appraisal information assessed.}}
{{Daxon Smith ... this is your appraisal.}}
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