Feeling my body get ready to hurl again, the demon quickly flicked the sphere away and pressed the hand’s mouth to mine. What followed next is something I never wanted to do ever again. Something thick…. and bitter… and vile with all the kinds of wrong mixed into it came up out of my mouth. The demon’s mouth sucked it up and gulped it down as fast as my body could bring it up, keeping me from seeing what it was.

  Over and over the process went until I could no longer taste it on my tongue or feel it passing through my throat and mouth. I heaved a few times after that out of reflex and the demon waited patiently for it to past with his hand hovering in front of my mouth just in case something did. Nothing did and the whole ordeal left my insides feeling raw and abused.

  Apparently, the demon had a fix for that too. After my body was done with the heaving, the tongue from his hand mouth slipped past my lips and wormed its way down my unresponsive throat. I felt it go over my insides and I didn’t know what he originally intended to do in there, but I felt the pain go away. It was gone by the time he pulled it out and I felt weak with relief after all that had happened. As well as cold and feverish.

  “How are you feeling, Samuel?” He asked me gently.

  “Better. Lighter. What was that anyways?” I asked in turn, my voice ragged from what I just been through before suppressing a shiver into a brief tremble.

  “Something I should have done earlier instead of what I did. It was a mistake on my part, and I am sorry.” He told me.

  He unhooked his claws from me while he talked and helped me to lay down on the flat, padded thing we were sitting on. I didn’t really want to, but my limbs felt about as stiff as cooked instant ramen noodles after that ordeal. I could only watch as he set me on my side prior to lifting my legs to join the rest of me so I could lay flat on my back. Then he summoned forth a blanket for me in a similar manner as he had done with his clothing the first time, I had seen him.

  “It’s fine. You didn’t mean to, you fixed it, I’m alive, and I’m all in one piece. Also still awake. I’d call that a win compared to what I’ve been through for the past couple of days.” I assured him as he covered me with it and tucked me in. I saw the faint traces of a smile on his face from my words before he finished and turned to lean against the flat thing.

  “Thank you for that. It is good to finally at least hear you are feeling better even if your body here is not.” He replied.

  “You’re welcome. So, what are you going to do now that bit of nastiness is over?” I asked him. I felt his slight smile fade into a pensive frown.

  “I believe I will do what I was planning on doing before… that particular problem came up. I am going to work on the other skills I can grant you because these problems have come up, starting with my most powerful one. The Abyssal Maw.” He told me, tapping his chest where the lines of teeth met.

  “That…” I said, scrunching my face up at what was implied.

  “I know, it does not sound very pleasant, but it is my most powerful ability. I do not intend to give you any form of access to its full capabilities any time soon though, if that is what concerns you. I do, however, want to give you partial access to a much weaker version of it that you can use with my permission. It may be… something you may not like but I do have a need for you to be able to use it and be familiar with its power as there are things in this world that cannot be dealt any other way.” He explained.

  “I’m not looking forward to that….” I muttered at him in annoyance.

  “It is what it is. Considering how… complex the forces are behind it; I would rather have the modified version of it well on the way if not fully functional before you really need it. I will also work on the other, lesser skills you might need that are related to your already modified abilities of this Fate.” He added.

  “I guess you have a point there.” I replied grudgingly and shifted under the blanket. The…. ‘not-cloth’ had felt good against my feverish skin and I was starting to feel better under it.

  “I usually do. You are free to rest here until I am done. I should have a ‘prototype’ ready for you soon to practice with in here before you leave. Hmmm… I should take care of that first though.” He told me before reaching over and plucking the glowing orb from earlier out of the air.

  It had been floating nearby ever since the demon had flicked it away to help me with my other problem. Without that distracting me, I could see what looked to be a blue glowing toy sized version of the ground thumper monster that almost killed me inside of an orb the size of a grapefruit. It looked rather panicked in there and there were faint black wisps coming off the sphere. The demon pressed a few fingers into the orb while I watched and gave the creature a few gentle strokes while speaking quietly to it.

  After a couple of minutes of him doing that, the creature seemed to settle down and go to sleep, curled up within the confines of the orb. Once it had, he lifted it up to his face and opened his mouth to pop it in. It fit in there easily with how large his maw was naturally, and I saw his tongue curl around it before his teeth closed behind the orb. There was an audible gulp as he swallowed it down whole, and I watched as a glowing bulge far too small to hold it go down his throat. I heard his insides gurgle slightly as it reached his stomach, and he place a hand over where it would be in a normal person. He tapped at it idly with a finger before noticing that I had been watching.

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  “Hmm…? Oh that was the soul and the representation of the Soul Vessel skill I had given to you. I will be keeping them both for you until I either fix the skill or you complete the quest. Either way, I suggest you pick up some kind of spirit channeling spell before you do try and complete it. You might be able to find a mortal equivalent skill or spell in the System’s ‘Karma Store’ for the Soul Vessel one we demons naturally tend to have.” He explained to me, and I nodded mutely, not quite understanding what all that meant. He noticed and gave me a light, comforting pat.

  “Just rest for now if you need to. You have been through lot. I will be here if you need anything.” He told me before walking over to a wall of nothing.

  “Can you give me anything if I needed it? There’s not much in here.” I pointed out him with a slightly amuse look on my face. He glanced back at me and just gave me an odd shrug in response before turning back to what he was doing.

  “I can always try. The reason why there is not much in here is because you have only just received your Fate. Not all fates are the same though and only the ones with powerful enough skills to warrant them, will have a space like this. Those same Fates tend to have over seers like me as well.” He told me as he placed one of his mini-meat hook claws to the wall and pulled down on it. The wall parted to revel a sort of storage space beyond it. There were a few familiar items in there as they had been my most recently consumed items while the others were weapons as far as I could tell.

  The first he took from that space was something that looked like a giant meat cleaver with a four-foot-long blade that was wide as my hand was long. Its slightly curved blade was made out of a dark, reddish gray metal that had lines the red-black color of clotted blood crisscrossing its surface like veins that gave it a rather ominous look. Its long handle, if you could call it that, was oddly normal in comparison with shaped hand holds meant to accommodate Gluttony’s long fingered hands. There were spots for both of his hands on the foot and a half long handle but, from the way he held it as he checked it over, it was clear that he could easily have wielded it with one. When he was done with it, he swung it over a shoulder and pressed the flat of the blade against his back where it hung slightly cross wise to his body with no apparent attachment to it.

  Eyes wide in disbelief that something could do that, I almost missed him pulling more 'oversized knives' from the storage space he had opened. They looked like a matched set this time being the same length and general shape with blades as long as my arm and eight-inch, one handed handles. They both had blades with mostly straight spines with angled cutting edges that gave the giant knives a base as wide as my hand. The cutting edges started almost parallel with the spines and slightly curved up along their length to give both knives a wickedly sharp point at the other end. Both blades had mostly silvery coloration to them with lines of dark gray weaving cross their width to make them look like they had teeth like Gluttony did with a narrow strip along their spines that were more scale like in appearance.

  The handles were much the same to each other with leather cording wrapped around the grips while what looked like actual meat hooks were used for the pommels. The differences came to the other additions to the spine of the blades. One had a series of curved spurs along it that were shaped into small hooks with the inside edge of them ground into crescent shaped cutting edges. The other had the cutting teeth of a saw built into the spine, most likely making it a very efficient cutter of bone and other hard items.

  He did a bit more with these, swinging them around and flipping them in his hands with a slight smile on his face. He did this for a few minutes as if he was enjoying the feel of them in his hands before letting the one with saw teeth go to float in the air. It wandered around the space we were in while I turned onto my side to make it easier for me watch him. Meanwhile he used the other to pull the massive heart from the ground thumper into the… ‘not-room’ with us. He retrieved the shell piece and the half-eaten desert lion from the space after that and closed the space.

  He then worked to take the heart apart with the two he had, dissecting the organ with the skillful use of the two he had kept on his person. It was interesting to watch how easily the two parted meat and connective tissues. After a while, I realized he was separating out the individual muscles and trimming the fat and other connective tissues before cutting them up into 8-10 lb. chunks of pristine meat. I watched him carefully the whole time, thinking I might have to do this later myself if only at a much smaller scale. It was also interesting to watch in general too and there wasn't much else I could do in my weaken state.