Setting: Written to be a surprise, I'll post it at the end.

This story uses Essence CYOA. details at the end.


Fire and Brimstone.

Chapter 1


I wake up to the scenery of a lightly snowed forest, with the remains of the conscience of the person I used to be screaming in agony in my mind. It gave me an enormous headache.

Annoying.

I grumbled a smoky breath and shifted my weight on the throne of wood and splinters that used to be a tree, but it didn't make any more comfortable against my naked ass.

With my head pounding away my focus, wood biting the skin of my ass, and useless thoughts like 'who I am', 'where I am,' and what it's going own' ringing in my head by a rapidly dying part of myself, I decided to just leaned back and go back to sleep.

Those deep existential questions could wait for later when my mind was less tangled.

The second time I woke up, was by the pecking of a goddamn woodpecker blasting in a nearby tree like a fucking Gatling gun.

Oh hey, things are much better now, I can actually concentrate and-

The fucking bird went on again; it was like a jackhammer was going crazy in my head.

God. Damn. BIRD!

I glared at the general direction of the thing- and the world was overtaken by fire.

What the!?

At the moment I flinched back in surprise, the fire stopped. An entire wall of pure flames flicked away in an instant, leaving only an impressive trail of destruction left in its wake.

I watched in confusion as the ash started to decent to the ground like snowflakes, some of the trees that have been partially burned began to lean to their burned side and break apart, falling to the ground in loud crashes.

Damn, did I do that? That's neat…

Whatever, the bird is finally gone… among with every other animal nearby, and trees finally stopped falling, so the only thing left was sweet, sweet silent. My sensitive head sent it's most heartfelt thanks.

Now, back to sleep.

The third and last time I woke up was by a girl.

She appeared on top of the hill before me, running down as fast as her fancy clothes could allow. Not even in the middle of the ravine, the inevitable happened; she tripped, and the rest of the way was traversed in a painfully sounded roll.

She was the most exciting sight I ever saw, granted I hadn't had a very long life, but the sight of her squirming in pain on the ground filled me with amusement.

She was young; not an adult but not a child anymore, she was wearing what seemed like many layers of an elaborated ceremonial kimono, which now was ruined by the dirt and mud. I could see that she had a head full of puffy blonde hair that used to be tied in an elegant style, but now it looked just messy.

The wind blew over for a moment, and I finally noticed her sweet, sweet aroma; the virginal innocence tainted by primal fear, along in tasteful hints of physical aches and emotional despair.

It, quite literally, made my mouth water.

The girl whined and attempted to pull her aching body up. I could see that the roll did a number on her. Not only her kimono was ruined, but she also had scratches and bruises all over. The light injuries and torn clothes revealed some of the growing curves hidden beneath, and I could see that she was greatly blessed in this aspect.

The girl's pretty face was marked with effort as she finally stood. She must have hit a rock on the fall because there was a trail of blood descending from her forehead, along with two, almost symmetrical, scratches on each side of her cheeks.

With waning breaths, she cast an anxious glance behind her, before start urgently limp away — the injuries forcing her to hop instead of walk.

Hehe, She looks like a bunny.

The girl moved about six steps before she finally directed her eyes forward, coming face to face with me.

"HIIH!" She squealed, falling to the ground in shock.

Make sense, I don't know exactly how I look like now, but if the crimson skin of my burly arms along with the black spots at the extremities were any indication, I don't look much human anymore.

The new wave of fear from the girl was starting to seriously affect me now; I could feel bolts of excitement traversing across my body, to one member in particular.

She looks really, really tasty.

The girl stifled a gasp, and instinctively tried to crawl back, her wide lavender eyes staring fixedly on my form the entire time.

Hum, she doesn't have pupils, interesting; I wonder how she can see…

Then, our heartfelt first meeting was interrupted by samurais.

I'm not even kidding; they came from the same direction the girl came from, their well-trained horses easily traversed the steep hill and surrounded us. There were eight of them, and most were understandably freaked out by my presence and quickly pointed their spears at me, barking something in Japanese.

Language barrier, great, you'd think literally becoming Satan would take care of pesky things like that.

The girl took advantage of their distraction and tried to run. But the leader, and I knew it was the leader because of the fancier helmet, rapidly descent from his horse and pinned her to the ground.

Angry men with spears, I didn't know what they were saying, but I could easily guess, and nothing on that scenario was really interesting to me, so I focused on the struggling girl instead.

And boy was she struggling, and early traces of fear seems to be gone from her, replaced by righteous female fury, she was squirming, cursing and screaming like a banshee on the guy's grip. He, for his part, said something back in an almost respectful tone, and then started to tie her limbs with a rope.

"立ち下がり、不!" One of the samurai-looking motherfuckers got in front of me, blocking my vision.

I grunted, testing my new pipes from the first time. The sound reverberated throughout the forest and silenced everybody else with the ominous feeling that accompanied it.

Then I moved.

The men almost pissed themselves as I slowly stood from my wood throne and let my shadow gradually rise over them. I must be three, or even four times their size, so I reckon it must have been quite intimidating.

But more importantly, I could see what was happening with the girl again. The samurai leader has realized that standing in the presence of a giant red demon can't be a good idea, and was fighting to put the struggling girl on top of his horse. The girl, for her part, finally focused back on me.

She shouted something, shouted something that brightened my whole world and set my nerves on fire. I could feel the reactions her words made on my core. I could somehow understand what they meant, language barrier be damn. They opened a beautiful can of infinite possibilities and left me euphoric for what was about to happen… even though I had no concrete understanding of what was going to happen. It didn't matter; my instincts were on fire.

I was in an almost trance-like state of pure instinct when I made my response.

"And what would you give me in exchange?"

My first words were uttered, and Fate itself screamed in agony as the carefully constricted path it made for this world just got turned the world upside down.

The girl gulped, the words triggering the same supernatural understanding that happened with me. She took a moment to breath back some of her tears and then shouted back.

"物事!"

Raw, uncontrollable glee exploded deep inside my chest.

That was all I could ask for.

"It's a deal…"

The samurai closer to me let his fear get the better of him, at that moment his fight and flight instincts took over, and he chose to fight. His spear pierced the air in my direction with a well-practiced move.

My open palm met his face and kept going.

It was quick and straightforward, like spattering a meaty water balloon. The helmet only provided slightly more resistance, but they obviously failed in their primary purpose.

The body of their companion falling to the ground seems to shake the rest out of their stupor. They made their appropriated set of battle cries and advanced.

Pathetic, they all were, they were moving in slow motion, and their spears barely left a mark on my skin as they bounced off, some of the men noticed that and dropped the weapon in favor of their katanas.

The result was the same.

Shaking my head in disappointment, I made my move and slaughtered them with barely any effort. It was more like testing the new movements my body could make than a fight. Their armor, their weapons, their bodies, all crumbled against the casual flings of my limbs.

Surprisingly, it was not boring, no; it was rather fun actually. Watching their meat and bones molting to the breaking point under my touch, seeing their expressions as all their years of training abandoned them in their last moments and they became like scared children, feeling their lives fading away and seeing their soul slip away from their meat prison and float around in anguish; it was fun, it was uproariously entertaining even.

The soul part is curious though. It seems I could grab them… and eat them apparently, very tasty.

Whatever, I still have a job to do. The samurai leader still has the girl, and they are leaving the area in quite a fast pace.

Alright then.

I crouched a little, tensing the muscles of my legs; they almost tripled in width and thickness by the display. Then I burst out dashing in their direction.

Thank god I had supernatural instincts helping me control my strength; otherwise, I could have blasted through them quite literally, that or launched myself to the skies.

The samurai's horse reeled when the red blur passed beside it, and suddenly a big red devil was directly on its way, but the rider was quick to take back control and directed- directed it toward me? What a well-trained animal.

I grabbed the horse by its neck, as it was about to trample me, raising it until it's hind legs left the ground. The rider quickly pulled the girl over his shoulder and leaped away. He landed at a distance with his katana already draw.

I ignored him for the moment and focused on the thrashing animal in my hand. It was a good horse, well trained, muscular, and clearly used to battle. Sure, it was freaking out right now, but who could blame it?

I already tested my body in the physical sense… let's try the spiritual one.

Reaching deep inside, and trying to remember the feeling that caused that fire from early, I instantly connected to the bubbling sea of energy inside me, I didn't even have to try that hard, it was like the thing was begging to be used.

But that still a problem, because while I, apparently, could easily access and manipulate this energy, it didn't come with an instruction manual telling how I could use it properly, so I was at lost in what to do.

Eh, let's just try it out.

With the briefest exertion of will, I let the energy travel up my arm and enter the horse through my fingers.

The effects were instantaneous. The animal let out a painful squeal as it's body boated and bulged, it's bones began to break and shift inside the layer of rapidly mutating skin, some of them popping out as jagged spikes. Red, raw flesh revealed itself as the inside came to the outside, and a series of rapidly growing bulbs began to take over the entire creature. It was like its body was suddenly dropped into an invisible blender, going from solid to pasty to solid again, all while founding in on itself.

I let the shifting mass fall on the ground, but the lack of direct contact did nothing to stop the grotesque transformation. I could still feel my own energy moving inside it, prompting, stimulating, corrupting the once mundane flesh. It didn't take long before the horse became a gurgling pile of living tissue.

"Dear God…" The samurai was kind enough to remind me of his presence; he was watching everything with a horrified look on his slightly green face.

Hum, I could understand him now. How the fuck did that happened?

Whatever, I still have to deal with him. Now how should I approach this? Just bashing his face in sounded too dull. I could do the same thing I did with the horse to see how my energy reacted in a human but…

Suddenly there is a surge in power coming from my side, and I lost the senses of my detached energy as it was absorbed by something else. The pile of meat began to gurgle more violently; it's shape changing again, this time into something more concrete.

A grin slowly appeared on my face as the figure twisted itself to a taller height than me. It was still a horse-shape, but now it was on my proportions. Its rich brown fur was now pitch black scaly armor, so dark that seems to eat away the surrounding lights, it's tail and mane were much longer than before, reaching almost to the ground, the tail itself was impressive, it was long, thick and flexible, but covered my longer droopy silvery hair the same color of its mane. On its cranium, two antelope horn sprouted on top, along with a pair of long, almost life-like whiskers further down the muzzle. The Beast dug deep trenches on the ground with its metallic cloven hoofs, and mightily buffed its first breath like it was announcing its existence to the world; they hit me with almost physical impact.

My smile was hurting my face as I passed my hand over its long muzzle. It was like me now, I could feel it; a being freed from its old inferior shelf to a much superior one, I could sense the kinship and adoration in the intelligent eyes of the new demon.

I know what I wanted to do with the samurai now.

I pointed my finger at the still shocked man. "Kill."

The beast obeyed instantly.

To his credit, the man recognized the situation he was in, and valiantly branded his sword to meet the beast, but it would be useless in the end.

I passed the warriors locked in an epic, but soon to be brief, battle and walked to the girl.

She was watching the battle with what appeared to be a sense of detachment. Only my approach made her react.

"Ah! Wa-Wait!" She shouted with a tin voice and started to crawl back, seeing a big red demon with his monstrous member already at half-mast coming closer would do that to anyone. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! STOP!"

Her reaction just turned me on more.

"We had a deal girl," I said, enjoying the way she squirmed under my voice. "Time to honor it."

"D-deal?" She drew a loud, panicky breath, her back finally bumping against the tree. "Wait, no, no! No deal!"

I crouch down before her; even in the new position, I loomed over her entire form.

"There was a deal." I said through a warm breath, "I'd help you, and you would give me 'everything'. I helped you didn't I?" I watched as she lowered her eyes to my hardening member and let out a tearful whine. "Time for my 'everything'."

"Nono wait Stopstop!" She finally managed to yank her hands from the hastily made knot on her back and tried to push me. "Deal- the deal! The deal is not fulfilled!"

"I supposed you right…" I conceded and then waited for the crushing sound behind me signalizes the samurai leader death. "Now it's fulfilled."

"No no, it's not!" She shouted a bit hysterically "I…I…I didn't ask you to help with them!"

I open a mocking smile. "Too late to wiggle out of it now girl-"

"It's true!" She screamed. "I wanted you to… I wanted you to help me save my mother!"

"…Is that so?"

"Yes!" figuring a way out seems to bring some of her confidence back. She attempted to put on a brave face, and to my surprise mostly succeeded. "N-Now listen up, you ero-oni! The deal was for you to help me save my mother and liberate my country! Nothing less than that, dattebaze!"

I stayed utterly still with a deep, stoic expression, gazing the girl's trembling face as she tried to keep the facet up.

"… You are altering the deal." I mouthed slowing, going over the words in my head.

"That's right-I mean, that's what the deal was in the first place!"

Funny, very funny… technically she could do that, the terms of the deal were vague enough to allow for interpretation; I could even feel the loosen hold the metaphysical bond between us changing to match her new specification.

A thick, humbling series of chuckles escape my chest; what a clever, clever girl…

"Well then, I suppose that if I do my best to help you liberate your country and save your mother, you will give me what you promised…" I said, solidifying the terms even more.

She sagged and lighted up at the same time at her apparent success.

"YES! Yes, that's right!" She added in a relieved breath, her confirmation turning the deal into stone; no escape now girly…

I can deny I was feeling kinda peeved, what kind of demon was I? Butchering a simple contract like that. I'd really ashamed of myself if I wasn't able to salvage it. What a disastrous first time.

… But perhaps it's better this way; as much as I would enjoy ravaging this innocent little thing right here and now, how much more enjoyable it would be to poke, nibble, and very carefully twist this innocence around to see what happened, surely that would feel much sweeter than immediate satisfaction. Plus it gives me something to do while I figure out this whole demon thing.

Yes, the more I think about it, the more I liked the idea.

"Very well." I slowly rose to my feet, lazily passing my arm around the horse demon's neck as it comes to lean its head over my shoulder. "I suppose that I'm at your service little bunny."

The girl looked much, much better now that she didn't have a big red demon looming over her. "Don't call me that ero-oni!" She argued as she rose to her feet and tried to fix her dirty kimono, the relief in her voice lessened the impact. "I'm a high-class lady you know!?"

"Oh, and who am I speaking to then?"

"HN!" She puffed her chest and placed her hand on her hips. "My name is Shiome, the next high priestess of the land of demons! And you'd better remember that dattabaze!"

Oh, those shining lavender eyes and wide, honest smile~ my mouth is already watering for the fun I going to have.

I could hardly wait.


Setting: Boruto Next Generation.


Essence of the Demon Emperor:

You gain the form of a demon emperor, ruler of Hell with a design generally up to you. This form is supernaturally powerful and outstrips almost any mortal or immortal for that matter in raw attributes and a host of other abilities up to you based on the form you take. Regardless you could beat gods to a bloody pulp as you are now.

Perfect memory with infinite storage as well as agelessness.

Gain dominion over the seven deadly sins, can use them in a variety of ways including conceptually.

You are a font of pure corruption, a walking source of impurity, disease, pain, misery, all the evils of the world are at your disposal. You are able to twist, corrupt, taint, and pervert anything you get your claws into to your hearts content. As a side effect you are immune to corrupting or purifying effects.

Able to create and summon all sorts of demons to serve you, whether they be Imps to the lords of hell themselves. These demons are oathbound to be loyal. You can corrupt others into demons and resurrect the dead into demons. Other demons and demon like creatures will see you as something of profane divinity on an instinctual level.