Jezralslak

Suddenly, Jezralslak turned his head. His gaze locked onto the red dragon's avatar, endless cold radiating from his deep eyes. "What... are you looking at?" Roaring gales howled through the void, and chaotic mists surged like torrents. Behind his emaciated body, a massive, twisted, winged phantom seemed to materialize. "Ruin!" "Chaos!" "Vengeance!" Overlapping, resonating roars echoed from the void. That gaze seemed to pierce through the avatar, crossing the channel connecting the Material Plane and the Astral Plane, plunging Cassius into bone-chilling cold. Stripping away that hypocritical veil revealed the true power of a former demon lord—a mere glance from such an entity was enough to drive mortal creatures mad. Cassius reinforced his mental barriers as best he could, gritting his teeth. "Merely observing your power, to see if you even qualify to work with me." The churning chaotic energy around them instantly dissipated. The demon adopted a gentle, urbane demeanor once more, as though everything that had just happened were merely an illusion on Cassius's part. "My dear partner, I would be delighted to share everything with you, but that will have to wait until after we sign the pact. Prying into another without permission is rather impolite, a shameful act even in the Abyss. I trust creatures of your Material Plane would not be so discourteous. "I can see that quite a few secrets lie behind you as well... "Still, we have plenty of time ahead of us. We can converse and exchange openly—a solid cornerstone for our partnership, is it not?" Suspended in midair, Jezralslak nodded slightly, seemingly apologizing for his momentary rudeness, yet also as though provoking the red dragon before him. Far away on the Material Plane, the scales across Cassius's true body flared slightly, puffs of white smoke venting continuously from his spiracles. It had been a long time since he had felt such overwhelming pressure. Even Cassius found the sheer fickleness of this Lord of Vengeance difficult to handle. Demons were creatures like that—one second sharing drinks and laughing with you, the next slaughtering your entire family over a pretext as absurd as not eating beef. And the demon before him was issuing a warning, warning him not to use that mysterious power at his back to pry into him. At the same time, the demon was wielding that terrifying presence to force him into subconscious submission, seizing the upper hand in these negotiations. Cassius himself used to love employing such tactics; he had never expected to find them turned against him. *Dealing with demon lords truly is...* *A hassle,* Cassius thought. Jezralslak spoke again. "Have you given it thought? Feel free to ask any questions you have. Toward an intimate partner of equal standing, I will hold nothing back." His tone remained thoroughly earnest, his posture almost excessively humble. Any ordinary mortal cowed by the earlier display would likely have been overwhelmed by this sudden sincerity, stumbling straight into the demon's verbal trap. Yet Cassius did not let his guard down in the slightest. Cassius pondered for a moment, then spoke again, his gaze burning bright. "Jezralslak, I have already witnessed your might. But with power as formidable as yours, why bother cooperating with me? Purely because of so-called 'destiny'? "From what I know, you demons are creatures of chaos and disorder. You would never bow to some predetermined course." Jezralslak chuckled calmly and shook his head. "Tsk, typical stereotypes held by mortals of the Material Plane. Contrary to those foolish records, demons are actually the beings that best conform to the trajectory of the world. In this regard, we are more committed than any human, dragon, or even deity." The demon looked up into the void, yet those deep eyes seemed to be gazing into the Abyss itself. "The world always moves from order to chaos. That is the destiny running through the cosmos from beginning to end. When the Abyss created most demons, it endowed them with traits best suited for spreading chaos and evil, and a burning drive to do so. "Through demon actions governed by pure chaos, the Abyss can achieve its long-desired goal: the destruction of all things, mortal and immortal alike, evolving into an entirely new cosmos whose existence will be utterly devoid of order or any intention whatsoever." Cassius pressed further. "Then why should I help you destroy everything, including myself? I'm not some fool like Koman, blinded by vengeance." "No," Jezralslak said. "You can become a new king alongside me." Cassius caught another flaw in his words. "Heh, then why wouldn't you simply become the sole master of this new cosmos? Because you don't feel like it?" The demon sneered again. "Tsk, scathing as always. Still, I like working with clever minds. Collaborating with fools is pure torment. "If you possess any common knowledge of demonology, you should know that whenever a demon is slain outside the Abyss, its essence returns to the primal chaos of the Abyss. "Tens of thousands of years ago, I tore open an abyssal conduit, intending to invade this Material Plane by way of the Astral Plane, only to be discovered by a god. "That deity was well aware of the nature of abyssal demons. Instead of killing me outright, they destroyed my physical body and imprisoned my 'essence' here within this astral void. Even if I broke free of the seal, I could find no mortal vessel capable of bearing my power. I could only wander the endless void until—your appearance, Cassius." Only then did Cassius notice that the emaciated form was faintly translucent, clearly condensed from pure chaotic energy bearing a will—far closer to a soul than flesh and blood. The demon continued, speaking as though reciting a grand epic. "So... have you made up your mind? Bear my chaotic power, merge into one with me, and together we shall become the destroyers of all things, the architects of a new world." His voice grew deeper, like a gaze emerging from the Abyss itself, intoxicating, bewitching, even maddening. Yet Cassius withstood the encroachment of that abyssal will, uttering each word with deliberate weight: "No. Still not enough. "The chips you've put forward aren't enough to make me risk becoming an enemy of the gods to work with you." In his past life, Cassius had lacked an interface panel, yet he had still grown precipitously within a mere ten years into a colossal dragon nearly thirty meters long. That could never have come from the power of a vengeful demon alone. That fact proved only one thing—Jezralslak was definitely hiding something else. "Hahahahahaha!" The demon suspended in midair shuddered violently, suddenly bursting into uncontrollable, frantic laughter. That eerie laughter echoed through the astral void, churning countless chaotic mists, warping them into gruesome scenes from the depths of the Abyss. Jezralslak lowered his head and murmured in a low voice: "A red dragon through and through—greedy to the extreme. "However... you truly guessed right."