Falling Into A New Life

I woke up with a shiver. I was laying on top of a pentagram that looked just like the one Fine made. I was in a dark, cold and damp cell. However, thanks to my new eyes I could see just fine. There was a comfortable bed over in the corner, and a toilet across from it.  After relieving myself, I laid down atop the bed, thinking about my situation.

(I thought demons were nobility and shit, so why am I in cell, albeit a very comfortable one. Dammit, why did I have to say yes. Was it just me being cocky? And why me in the first place. What makes me so special? Heh... maybe I'm just the only idiot who didn't say no.)

After a few hours, a guard finally came for me. He was a tall stallion with a brown coat and blue mane. His mane had a streak of white going through it, and he was wearing red armor with yellow markings. He seemed almost respectful as he approached me. "Excuse me sir, I have been asked to take you before the emperor."

"Alright than, I'll just follow you." (Looks like it's time to meet the big guy. I'm either going to die, or become his follower. What do I care anyway. This is the rest of my eternity. I suppose if I die i'll go straight to hell. I don't think they let demons into heaven.)

With a sigh of acceptance and defeat, I followed the guard. We went up many flights of stairs, and through twisting hallways and corridors. By the time we arrived I was extremely exhausted, even the guard I was with looked strained. From what I saw the castle had a very archaic design. If I wasn't in such a foul mood I probably would have enjoyed seeing it. Though, the fact the beings here seem decently advanced, with working plumbing and medicine, I have to wonder how long this castle has been here. As we got closer I was a little surprised. We weren't at some huge and impressive door, but just a simple wooden door with some pretty carvings in it. Maybe the emperor wouldn't be so bad. There was two guards on either side of the door. Their armor was much more impressive than the one who guided me. Their armor was black with a very intricate looking red design around it. It reminded me of something a demon would wear in a video game. Like dark souls or something. Looking between them it was obvious who outranked who. With a look at us as we arrived they just nodded and opened the door. As I walked in they shut it just as fast, and I swear I heard a lock. Though it might have just been my paranoia.

"Ahh, so you're the new feral, over here Shade."

As my gaze past over the room, I was beyond shocked. This wasn't a throne room, personal room, or any other type of room I would have guessed. This was a torture chamber. Every type of torture device you ever saw? It was here. There were even some I didn't recognize. Actually most of them were things I had never seen. And than I saw him, my new body was between 4 and 5 feet tall. The emperor was about 8. Almost double my height. He looked like a centaur, but with absolutely no hair, pale reddish skin, and muscles bulging everywhere grotesquely. His  body was bigger in some places and smaller in others, making him look like a stuffed animal nightmare that a child rightly beat.

(If demons are normally horribly hideous, than I want to see a mirror. Because apparently I had to be soulless and ugly.) "Uhh... hi."

"Well, I haven't gotten that response before. Please come and sit by me."

"Umm alright I guess." His voice sounded like a mixture between Morgan Freeman and a cat thrown into a fire. He was sitting on an upturned torture wheel. You know the one where they spin you super fast and throw knives at you? I don't care if its in a circus that is cruelty incarnate, no one should be made that dizzy. Bad memories aside I sat across from him on a stained chair. Im fairly certain the stain was blood.

"So do you like my toys?"

"They're... interesting."

"Relax, only those who anger me in some way are brought here. I find it to be a great stress reliever. Now you're probably wondering why I brought you here. You don't need to worry. You're going to be fine. This is what's going to happen. I'm going to see what your alignment is. That will tell me what class of demon you are. There is the slave caste, one of which you have met. They are incredibly weak demons, and are given a name based on what they do. Abboth means agreement, so that is the name of signing demons. Slave caste demons are referred to by 'Sir' by the empire's subjects. You can learn more about that from any slave caste demon you come to posses. Don't worry, you obviously aren't one. You are much to big to be, plus you can use magic. Next are the Lesser demons. They have a medium amount of strength, and have the potential to rise to be higher. I will tell you about that in a little while. You are most likely a Lesser demon, but don't worry, as I said you can still become Greater."

(Wow gee, all my dreams have come true. I won't remain a Lesser demon forever. Eventually I'll be an even GREATER DEMON! Wouldn't my mother be proud.) "That's good to know"

"Indeed. The subjects refer to Lesser demons as duke or duchess. Next are Greater demons, referred to as Grand duke or Grand duchess. They have a higher amount of magic and power, because they either managed to hold on to all of their emotions when they were born, or they devoured the power of other demons to rise up. The three ways to grow stronger as a demon, is to either learn and study your magic, get mortals to sell you their souls, or devour the hearts of other demons that were close to you or greater than you in strength. Now before you run off and kill some other demon, you should know we have rules in place for such things. We had a coliseum built to host these fights, because property damage was becoming quite severe. Now you either need to find someone who agrees to a fight, or just enter the coliseum and be put up against a random opponent. Trading for souls is also unavailable since all souls go to me. Now let us talk about what an alignment is. Demons are naturally aligned with a type of magic. Whether this is something simple like fire, shadows, or lightning. It can also be something complicated like time, space, or gravity. A Lesser demon will have one alignment, and a Greater demon will have two. However the slave caste doesn't have any, we don't really think of them as fellow demons because of this, hence the slave thing. Lastly is being the demon lord. A demon lord is a Greater demon that managed to conquer a universe, and trade for all its residents souls. There is nothing stronger than a demon lord. So before you ask, yes, I am the strongest being here and I could turn you to ash faster than you can register what I just said. Now than are you ready to test once again?"

(Wow... that is a ton of information to take in, and kinda terrifying. Thank god I'm not a slave demon. So basically I'm going to have to devour other demons if I want to rise in the hierarchy. Though I'm kinda questioning if I really want to rise in a hierarchy of demons. I guess it could maybe be worse? I just have to stay positive. He did say I can just spend my time learning magic right? That... doesn't sound like a bad eternity to me.) "Yeah, I'm ready, but can I know more about what will happen based on what I am, and why having emotions means being stronger?"

"Ha, I didn't mean that. The demons that are born Greater are stronger because they proved themselves strong enough to hold onto their emotions. Because they had great strength of mind, they are given great strength of body as well. Now, once we see what class you are, you will be sent to the academy for demons. There you will learn and study your alignment or alignments. Please come and place your... paw, here."

He directed me to what looked like a stone pillar, layered with flash balls and covered with ruins. On each glass ball there was a picture. When I touched the circle he pointed me to, two of the glass balls glowed. One had the picture of a snowflake while the other had the picture of a fire. (Guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I do have my emotions again.)

"Well, isn't that interesting. It seems you are a Greater demon after all. And quite the alignment to, ice and fire are opposites, so it's very rare to see somedemon with them both as alignments. Now before I send you off, have you been seeing two different versions of the world?"

"Actually I have. I was really confused about that but, I just thought I was going crazy."

"Hardly, you see a greater demon can see souls and imprints. What you saw was how the person's soul looks. Places that are travelled often will take a resemblance to you based on how those who traveled it felt. So a cemetery will feel and look especially gloomy. I asked because I wanted to make sure there wasn't a mistake with the machine. Any other questions before I send you off?"

"How many demons are there here?"

"That is a very good question, there is currently 1 demon lord, a few hundred thousand Greater demons, a few million Lesser, and no one cares about the slave caste."

"How... how big is the empire?"

"Why my dear cat didn't you hear me? This world is my empire. I emperor Frost Phoenix welcome you to my empire, and I bid you farewell."

His hand felt like decay smells. I couldn't help but shudder and blink when he placed it on my head, when I opened my eyes I was standing in another pentagram. I barely had enough time to glance around the room before I was being pulled out the door, by a very impatient looking demon.