Chapter 352: Half and Half

[What the hell do you want to know?]

"Now, now. I know you are a bit rushed, so I'll keep this basic." The entity replied with a hint of amusement. "My question for you is this. Were you born in this body or was it created for you?"

[...That's it?]

"I think we both know that you are not what you appear to be. The unusual shape of your soul is proof enough of that."

Mike thought for a moment, the question itself seemed serious. Especially since the entity clearly suspected his status as an otherworlder. He didn't know what the creature's origin was, beyond it's obvious demonic nature, but he could assume that such a being would have knowledge about the existence of other worlds and how individuals from those worlds ended up in Ea.

[Could I really agree to it? This is the definition of making a deal with the devil. But if all it really wants is that piece of information, couldn't I take advantage of this?]

He knew that a seemingly immortal being likely took a long view on things like this, and he'd read enough stories about temptation to know that this was likely an attempt to get him to rely on the creature's power in exchange for seemingly innocuous payments that got progressively more costly. However, so long as he maintained awareness of that principle, he could, in theory, make use of the entity once and then never again succumb to its wiles.

It would be dangerous, especially if there is another factor at play that he wasn't aware of, but he felt confident that it was something he could manage.

"You are running out of time, mortal." The entity interrupted. "It is of no concern to me, but did you not want to resolve this issue before the whole of vampire society arrives to crush you?"

Before he even had a chance to respond, he sensed a brief surge of pain and fear from Selene through their mental bond. Looking over he saw that her opponent had managed to disarm her, in more ways than one. Her right arm was missing just above the elbow, and he could see it laying a few meters away from her with her staff still clutched in its grasp.

The enemy vampire, knife at the ready, was advancing on her carefully while she retreated a few steps. If something didn't change soon, it was clear that she was going to be defeated.

As he moved to assist her, he was forced to dodge another wave of dark energy from Esemerelda. The vampire shouted up at him merrily. "It's fine if you want to wait around, but I'm not going to let you get in Noah's way."

He fired a few quick fireballs in her direction before rushing towards his embattled familiar. Unlike last time however, she showed no signs of even being phased by the attack and simply moved up to intercept him with greyish-black mist oozing from her hands.

[I can't help like this.] Mike thought while trading blows with Esmerelda.

While he was distracted, he could only watch as the male vampire surged forward to deliver a death blow. Fortunately, Selene was able to block with her other forearm and began dodging away from his continued assault. However, it was clear that she couldn't keep it up for long.

[Alright, you win! I wasn't born in this body. It was created for me.]

"Is that so?" The entity asked, obviously amused. "I take it that this is Selenica's work then? No need to answer. Very well, I shall lend you my assistance. Let me come to the fore, so that I might call my legion."

[...That wasn't part of the deal.]

"I suppose I could have mentioned it, but what do you expect me to do while I am trapped in this place? If you want me to help, I'll need to be sharing enough of your body to make use of my power. Since it clearly concerns you, I swear on my existence that I shall return to this prison once our business in this city is concluded."

[Once we've driven the vampires out, you'll go back?]

There was a slight hesitation in the creature's response, which somehow seemed to carry a hint of disappointment in his clarification of the vague terms of their deal. "Yes. I am bound by a contract once it has been struck, a limitation imposed by my nature."

Mike knew about the relationship between demons and contracts. In a similar manner to the literary figures of his old world, it appeared that these beings from another realm were bound by the power of contracts to a supernatural extent. However, he could only assume that the demons of this world would also seek to twist any arrangement to their favor.

Clearly, the entity planned on getting more from him than the answer to a question, and he suspected that what it wanted was related to the act of allowing it out of its current prison. He thought back to the time where he'd allowed it to influence his thoughts, remembering how easily it was able to distract him and direct him towards its unknowable goal. If it could influence him like that, even when trapped within his inner self in a manner that he did not completely understand, then he could only imagine the effect of letting it free would have.

And yet, he did not have the tools at hand to deal with the situation he found himself in. At least not in a manner that could lead to a satisfactory conclusion. While it would be one thing if his Limit Break wasn't on cooldown, he feared that even if he managed to win against the overwhelming odds, he'd regret the loss that would come with it.

It was a foolish choice, but he came to the conclusion that he could only take the demon's deal and do his best to mitigate the outcome. He would enhance his willpower as much as possible and trust in his resistance skills, which had improved dramatically over the course of the night. He also had an idea for a method of protecting himself, if those failed.

[No other option, I guess.]

As soon as he'd made his decision, he found himself standing in front of the corrupted pool of his meditation vision. The encroaching tendrils that seemed to represent the entity's influence were still present, but they showed no sign of expanding further.

Channeling his mana and using it to enhance his willpower to the utmost limit of his ability, he focused on the pool. Moving by instinct, he kneeled down at its edge and stretched out his left hand to touch its surface. He hesitated just before coming in contact with the inky, black fluid that had seemingly replaced the water. Did he really want to do this?

While he was still building up the resolve to continue, the surface of the pool rippled. A sense of foreboding overtook Mike and he tried to pull his arm away, but before he could a taloned hand dripping in black sludge surged forward and caught him by the wrist. As soon as contact was made, the dark corruption began to spread up his arm.

He tried to use Life Magic to reverse the process, but something was interfering with his channeling. Ordinarily, he would have begun to panic, but his willpower enhancement was still in place, leaving him coldly rational in the face of his situation. Using this detached state of mind, he quickly laid out a course of action to take. It didn't take much time since he'd somewhat expected this outcome from the start and had already established some contingencies.

Recalling his experiences of solving Reber's problems, he manipulated the structure of his soul, compressing its outermost layer into a kind of barrier that would keep it separated from the entity. Perhaps because it had not expanded its influence that far, he was able to do so without any problems..

As the dark tendrils of sludge began creeping up his face, seemingly aiming for his left eye he could hear chilling laughter echoing up from the pool. The entity apparently believed that it had succeeded.

Although the next few minutes would be a little rough, his would-be possessor was in for a surprise.

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Esmerelda stretched her neck a little without taking her eyes off the Dragonknight who was hanging motionless in the air. It would require a few days to get used to the newly cloned body. Luckily, she had a spare one prepared.

[As much as I hate to admit it, Noah was right to make me bring one. If not for his advice, I would have had to go back to my real body until I could create another clone.]

Still, it wasn't as if she were really satisfied with the way things turned out. Objectively, it could be called her loss. Even though she hadn't been fighting seriously, the Dragonknight had succeeded in destroying her previous body to a point that her vampiric regeneration couldn't repair the damage. As a result, she was forced to occupy the spare clone, which she hadn't had time to fully adjust to.

[Ah, I messed up. The others are never going to let me live this down. Why do I always insist on playing with my prey?]

She felt another mental fluctuation from her opponent, and once again focused her senses on the dangerous mage. As far as she could tell, he was still engrossed in some kind of internal debate. Was he trying to figure out what to do? It would have almost been cute if she wasn't aware of his capacity for mass destruction.

[Let's just hope that the civilians are enough to keep him from simply laying waste to his surroundings. I'm not sure how much of the nobility has arrived by now, but I can imagine they'd be a little adverse to fighting in a meteor shower.]

She was still considering what to say when the others had arrived when he suddenly changed.

It happened faster than she could track with her eyes alone. One moment he looked like a perfectly normal human, and then the left half of his body caught fire, or at least that's how it appeared.

The skin of the left half of his face and left arm was covered in bloody red lines that brought to mind cracked and drying earth, but were glowing like molten rock. A single, slightly curving horn erupted from the left side of his forehead. It was pitch black near the base, but gradually lightened into a pale grey near its tip.

Most striking was his left eye, which had become a solid orb of the purest crimson, seemingly bulging from its socket in a manner that left the rest of that half of his face strangely warped.

The strange amalgamation being grinned lopsidedly and muttered with a deep, gravelly voice. "Yes! Finally, the fool let his guard down. Now this body is...wait, what is this? WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE!"

Suddenly the right side of his face grinned as well, "I figured you would try something like this, which is why I came up with a countermeasure. Still, it didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped. At least I can control this arm."

To prove his point, he promptly proceeded to wave his right arm in the air.

"How?! This shouldn't be possib-" The demon half started to say before being interrupted by the human side's hand poking him in the eye.

"Whoops, sorry about that. Still trying to get used to the mechanics of all this." The Dragonrider's original voice explained apologetically.

"ARRGGHH!"

"Now, now. No need to get hostile. Especially since you haven't fulfilled your side of the bargain yet. Speaking of which, shouldn't you be working on that?"

The demon half grimaced and raised its arm into the air. "...As I have given my word, I have no choice. But know this! I will not rest until I possess you in your entirety."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

Finally tired of feeling lost, Esmerelda yelled to get their attention. "Hey! What are you trying to do?"

Glancing down at her like he'd forgotten about her, the human half shrugged. "Well, since it's probably too late for you to do anything about it, I guess I can explain."

The air over the city began to scream as dozens, no hundreds, of glowing rifts were torn into the fabric of reality. From them began pouring all manner of demonic horrors.

"Correction," the man continued, "it's definitely too late for you to do anything about it."

"What...what have you done?" She asked a little breathlessly, already thinking about the kind of devastation such a horde would wreak.

He shrugged again. "Since you all decided to bring an army, I thought it was only fair to do the same."