The world seems so black, thought Damon. He tried to focus his vision on something, anything; however, he found nothing. He wondered if he’d lost his night vision, or perhaps he'd gone blind from the fight. In any case, his state didn’t favour longevity, to say the least. Ever so often he would regain some semblance of control over his body and when this time came, he couldn’t do anything but open his mouth.

Pythias propped up his head and poured water in his mouth. Damon did his darned hardest to swallow it, yet his throat swelled up, and most of the water poured out the sides of his mouth.

In this vegetative state, his consciousness remained in a pitch-black space where a black sun shone brightly, the rain poured heavily, or the moon hide desperately. He didn’t know whether he’d been in this state for a year or a day. And with time the anxiety of death set in.

Eventually, he started to feel a heavy weight press down on his chest. He tried to shove it aside. It suffocated him and wanted to snuff out his life, but Damon wouldn’t let that happen.

A grey shadow appeared above his head, and it seemed to look at him. However, it didn’t have eyes, nor a face, or a mouth. The wisp of smoke twirled around Damon’s head. Then it finally spoke.

“Can you see me?” asked the smoke.

Damon wanted to respond with, “who are you?” he couldn’t move his mouth nor his body. He didn’t have one in this space.

“Oh, you can?” answered the wisp. “I’ve been here for three days, I’m surprised you’ve just noticed me, but I guess you were too far gone.”

It must be telepathy thought Damon. “Who are you?”

The wisp twirled around above Damon, “hmm, asking me who I am, can you really see me?” Damon felt the weight on his chest once again.

“Stop, I can’t breathe.”

“Well, of course, I will,” answered the wisp and let out a small laugh. It couldn’t be described as a giggle since the noise tore at Damon’s consciousness. “Tell me, what do I look like to you?”

“A wisp, just some smoke.”

“Oh, is that so. Is your mana sense that bad? Have you not levelled up your dark spirit communication skill at all?”

To Damon, it seemed like the wisp covered its mouth in shock.

“Now tell me.” Continued the wisp, “how does a pampered boy end up in a village like this? Have you never sought any teacher of sorcery even though you have the skill?” The wisp seemed to press down even harder into his chest. “If I look like a wisp to you. It means you’ve never used magic, nor signed a contract with a dark spirit before. I’ll be frank with you. You have two choices. Either you sign a contract with me.” The weight on Damon’s chest doubled, “Or I'll kill you here and now.”

“Wait I can’t think with this weight, I’ll die.”

“I know.”

Damon tried to resist a second longer, “why do you want a contract? Why not—”

“Five, four, three, two—”

“OK, OK I’ll sign,” said Damon in desperation. Although the weight didn’t completely disappear, it became bearable.

“Good, I’m very glad to hear that,” said the wisp in a jovial tone. “Now, you just have to say I vow with my true name that I will make Stolas my familiar for all of this life.”

“I vow with my true name that I will make Stolas my familiar for all of this life.” When Damon finished the vow, the weight on his chest doubled once again.

“No idiot, say your true name, I can see you have one, don’t play dumb. It is faint, but it is there. Do you think I’d show up if you didn’t?”

Damon gritted his imaginary teeth and repeated, “I, Fréderick Marbleu vow that I will make Stolas my familiar for all of this life.” The weight finally let up and he could see an owl with what seemed to be a smile standing on his chest.

“Aren’t you a complete idiot?” said the owl. “You know I can’t kill you right. No spirit or demon can. To find someone with a true name and such an empty head, it must be the best day of my life.” The owl petted Damon’s head with his talons. “But it’s fine, I’m sure we’ll build a great relationship from here on out. I’m looking forward to the next thousand years. Serve me well.”

“Thousand years?”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s not easy finding people that fit all the right conditions like you.”

Damon felt a cold and incredibly sharp claw caress his cheek.

“When I do, I can’t let them go so easily, can I? I can double your lifespan without issue, if you are faithful, that is. Am I not marvellous? And you, the stars told me of your potential. It seems they weren’t wrong. Now that we are linked, I can see and confirm it, although the level 10 black magic potential was a given, you also possess level 10 potential in dark magic. Oh, the last time I’ve seen that must have been a human five hundred years ago, and you know how short-lived they are. You can’t get much done in that timeframe. But you, you’re special aren’t you my little black prince? I can only imagine the strength you’d possessed if you were born a vampire. But I’m not greedy. This is enough.” The owl flapped his wings and started to circle above his head. “Now, I’ll let you recover from those wounds. I’ll have to thank that bear later, or else I might have had to follow you for a century before you’d notice me. Well, I’ll be back when you feel better. Get well soon. Oh, and quite the audacious name you have there Mr. Asmodeus.” He flapped his wings, squawked, and disappeared from Damon’s black space.

Although the owl left, Damon didn’t feel much better. He managed to open his eyes a week later. The renewed control of his body made him feel a renewed sense of strength. Yet when he tried to sit up, he fell back down into the straw bed. Perhaps alerted by the noise, Pythias entered the room.

“You’re awake! I’ll get you some food and water.”

When Pythias came back a few minutes later with a tray full of food Damon, supported by Pythias brought a spoon full of wheat gruel to his mouth. It smelled foul, and he instinctively moved back.

Pythias looked at him with a pained expression, but he didn’t say anything. Damon decided to try the soup; however, it had the same foul smell. He then remembered his ability to smell diseases. He guessed that this smell belonged to him. It had permeated throughout the room. Although this ability seemed useful on paper, it didn’t help much in this case.

When he finished his food, he thanked Pythias. “How long have I been asleep?” asked Damon. The food had given him enough energy to think once again.

Pythias smiled. “Three weeks. You gave me enough time to learn how to control magic and cast basic spells. You’ll have to catch up now.”

Damon nodded and went back to sleep after thanking his friend.

Three days later Damon found the strength to get up. He left the church which still stank of disease and found himself outside for the first time in nearly a month. The moon shone brightly, and the wind revitalized his lungs. Although he didn’t have a shirt, the cold didn’t bother him for now. He decided to head to the meditation hill and lay down. He felt the scar tissue on his chest stretch and crack. He got back up. When he did, he saw an owl glide down from the sky.

“You’re awake I see,” said Stolas. He landed on the ground in front of Damon. The top of the owls’ legs arrived at the dark elf’s knees.

“So, you’re a dark spirit?” asked Damon.

“Use telepathy from now on. I’m linked to you so I should understand. But yes, I’m a dark spirit, specifically a demon. I would imagine someone with the name Asmodeus would recognize me by my name.”

Damon ignored the last comment, he knew some demons, but he wasn’t a demonologist. “What do you want?” “And aren’t demons different from dark spirits.”

“No, demons are just high-ranking dark spirits. Dark spirits lack intelligence and simply lend their power in return for the contractor’s essence of life. The essence of a living being is—”

“What do you want?” asked Damon once again before the owl could ramble on.

“Quite persistent aren’t you, eh? Well, that’s fine. I want nothing. I’ll simply teach you how to use black and dark magic. That’s all.”

Damon frowned, “A demon wants nothing?”

“Yes, nothing, I promise you that I’m not lying.” The owl came closer and awkwardly tapped Damon’s shoulder. “I just want to nurture a promising talent.”

“Can’t you bother someone else?”

“Someone else?” Stolas seemed to go into deep contemplation, “Hmm, let’s start our first lesson, I promise you that you’ll understand afterwards.” Stolas took flight and flew circles around the moon. “Tell me Fréderick Marbleu, how do you use magic.”

“Specific mana flow—schematics”

“Yes, but what is its limitation?”

“Size of the schematic?”

“No, no, no, that’s called blaming the tool instead of the user. The true limit is the size of the body. Tell me now with this knowledge, why are dragons oh so powerful, why do dragons get stronger with time?”

“They grow.”

“Yes,” said Stolas as he started to speed up around the moon. “Now tell me the most useful ability of dark magic.”

Damon’s eyes widened, “To become the shadow.”

“Yes, yes, yes. But the problem is that under level 10 you cannot move your body nor manipulate your mana when you become the shadow. And if you don’t have the potential of black magic under level 10, you cannot contract a demon. As such you, you are rare, not impossible, but very improbable. Now let’s finish the explanation. Tell me what is the largest shadow? What is the largest area without light? What is the largest continuous body in this universe?”

Damon’s heart skipped a beat, “Space.”

“Exactly, I will bring you up to be able to make full use of this power.”

“But wait, you don’t need level 10 black magic to use this ability,”

“Hahaha, you aren’t completely brain dead I see. Although people with level 10 dark magic might be able to mend into space. They still have the mana level of humanoids. Even if they reach level 500, which I doubt is even possible, they probably won’t have much more than two thousand five hundred mana points. But if you reach level 10 in black magic, there is a way to counter that.”

“What is that way? It doesn’t sound good.”

“Doesn’t sound good? Well, I can’t tell you the result without having you go through the basics now, can I? You’ll have to wait till level 10. Now go get some rest you’re still sick, I can smell it. Although I want to start your training right away, patience is a virtue.”

The wind started to strip Damon of heat, as such he didn’t mind his familiar’s recommendation. He left for his bed. He didn’t believe that the owl, a demon wanted nothing but his improvement; however, he’d already signed the contract and the owl didn’t seem like the most horrid of demons. Damon slipped into bed and decided to check his status before going to sleep. He wondered if it would show his condition, perhaps he gained a title, the usual in these kinds of worlds.

Damon Asmodeus LVL. 0 (17/520)

• All humanoid language acquisitions
• Arithmetic’s Lvl.6/7
• Black magic Lvl.1/10
• Dark magic Lvl.1/10
• Dark spirit communication Lvl.2/10
• Detect diseases and viruses through smell Lvl.3/5
• Earth magic Lvl.1/5
• Improved memory Lvl.1/5
• Medium disease tolerance
• Night vision
• Telepathy Lvl.2/5

It seems being sick is the best way to improve the detect disease skill, the rest of my skills didn’t really improve other than the dark spirit communication which went up by a point. It seems I got some experience for the bear, but it’s underwhelming. I just hope the level up give me a lot of perk points.

Damon soon fell asleep while thinking about why he decided to transmigrate to such a bleak world.