10.

X.

So you remember me after all this time?

What changed?

“Could you please shut up, Astaroth?” He had been pestering me ever since we got back to Le’uthara. I put him to sleep after I mastered the shard. And he was mad, very mad. I abandoned him immediately I was done, although in my defence, I beat him into submission, and he was my slave. I had every right to do anything I wanted, right? Apparently not, cause he kept yammering away in my mind. He, the great king of the Seventh Circle of Hell, was stuck with me. I remember Lucifer laughing his balls out as I dragged . Astaroth away. Ah, good times. When I was a young and daring adventurer, and didn’t have the fate of potentially the entire multiverse resting on my head. When I didn’t think of crushing my father’s windpipe every passing minute. Good times indeed.

Why should I? You left me on ice for how many years? I can’t even...you think I’m a tool to use? I was your partner! “Partner is a strong word.” I shot back, rather annoyed now. “You are a demon god that I won in a duel and was bounded to me by contract, and nothing more.” So what, all those memories we made? The battles we won? You say those weren’t a partnership? This guy...what angle was he playing now? I never trusted demons, they reminded me of M’gethir. I even suspect M’gethir to have some sort of demon bloodline. That sly snake. A few weeks after I left the Gentry, I fell into the hands of a group of lesser demons, travelling the cosmic highway. They immediately tried to steal every thing I had. They all lost limbs, obviously, and from that day I never trusted a single demon again.

“Being my partner would mean I actually trusted you, which I don’t.” A gasp of feigned hurt, then a sniffle. I’m hurt, Xassin, I thought we we're something special. A pause, and then his energy shifted to a more malicious one. Ah, he noticed, finally. I don’t have the shard anymore. What happened to your shard, Xas? His tone was hard as steel now and I felt the demonic energy slowly spreading through me. He was trying to possess me. The Index pulsed and repelled his energy. His energy grew tumultuous now but I matched him and put him down every time. “Oh, you know... I let it go?” His energy suddenly died down. You let it go? What’s that supposed to mean? You just don’t drop something like a world destroying artefact, right? His tone kept growing more and more sinister. The implications of me losing my shard were a lot, he realised and he could... In that case, I’ll be taking my leave then, nothing binds us anymore. A dark shadow left my body and he disappeared through the wall. Goodbye Xassin, I hope I never see you again.

“In three, two, one...” The dark shadow appeared again beside me. “What in Heaven did you do?! Rage filled his voice as he rushed towards me. He tried to hit me and fiery chains bound him, burning his form. He screeched and fell, still squirming.

“For a demon god, you are really dumb. I never bound you to my shard, I bound you to my soul, dumbass. And here I was about to acknowledge you as my partner”I said, mockingly as I flicked him back into my body. I lay back on the bed, satisfied. That took care of one problem for me. I listened inwardly, but he was silent. Tony was out, buying food and probably looking for girls. I thought about Cathy and was about to call her when I realized it would probably be weird if I called her while my double was also beside her. Also, calls wouldn’t work. Right. 

I stared at the ceiling, tried reading a book, but in the end I found myself thinking about the fight. It was my father, no doubt. But I knew he was far from dead. From what Tony told me, that was probably a projection. A projection that was able to face me with ease. That disturbed me. I’ll be facing him again. In that time, without my shard, I must get stronger, and kill him, for real this time. I wouldn’t know peace until I did.

But how?

I levitated the Rubik’s cube I was currently holding and separated it into tiny cubes. I was no good at solving riddles so I did it my own way. Assembling it was easier than actually solving. Soon enough I was looking at a cube with the same colour on each side. If only it was this easy to solve my life’s problems, I mused. A sudden flash of lightning told me that I was about to be summoned by Zeus again. I didn’t return to the meeting after what happened. I didn’t owe them an explanation, but I knew they would keep on pestering me. This was the fourth time today and I was getting bored, so why not?

“I’ll be right out”, I said, after Zeus announced, very annoyed, that they were waiting for me in the court. They shifted the location after my...outburst. I also might’ve injured some Arch-mages, too. Not that I care, if Arch-mages can be injured by a simple annihilation spell, then this universe is in more trouble than I thought. They should use me as a benchmark for the Arch-mage trials. Ko’vren opened the hatch and I jumped down, into the palace and in front of the court building.

It was bigger than the throne room, and wider too. It was used for large scale sentencing and occasionally executions. The memories of being here as an accused hit me as I walked in. Again, all eyes were on me, but none carried hate or malice in their eyes. They all had fear. The hall was silent as I walked in and remained that way afterwards, until M’gethir spoke, his green eyes visibly dimmed now. ‘Explain to me what the hell happened Xassin, now”

His hands were shaking, I noticed. Any Arch-mage I made eye contact with quickly looked away. Eistibus looked uneasy and fidgety. What’s going on?, I wondered. Then I realized that the demon god energy was still pouring out of me in torrents. That thing scared gods, and the lower circles made primordials uncomfortable. These ones could drive mages mad and cause death sometimes. Yeah, scary stuff. I was starting to see the aftereffects of having a shard are beneficial. I still had my immunity to the effects that they had on mortals. They finally calmed down, but were still apprehensive after I dialled it down. “Sorry about that.”, I offered. No response.

“Get on with your explanation, Xassin”, M’gethir spoke again. The girl wasn’t behind him this time. I guess she was still shook up from being exposed to the full brunt of the demonic energy. Hope she’s fine. Then I straightened up and announced something I didn’t want to talk about for years, but now it came looking for me, something that terrifies and enrages me to the core.

“That man is my father”