Steve has died twice. One at the hands of his friend, the other at the hand of an enemy.

He used to think that, maybe if he died a few more times, he could consider himself used to death. To no longer fear those who do not carry the wrath of the heavens.

He was lying to himself. Any living being, even a sinner such as Plaze, could not conquer the fear of death.

As his soul was recreating his body, he could not even scream as he could feel his broken flesh mend itself together. Feeling every muscle as it forces itself to reform. Feeling every broken bone twist itself together to fit him once more. The electricity shocks him like thunder as his body is repowered.

He hates it.

He's in pain, but he can't even scream.

He's suffering, but he has nothing to grab onto, as his soul has yet to give him control over his body.

It's Hell.

There was nothing good about it. Not a single thing.

Plaze dreamed of becoming successful. Every sinner did. To be prideful, to be strong. But at the lowest point in his life, his dreams and ambitions were swept away by a man much stronger than him, he could not even sleep.

What is an unattainable dream, but a delusion?

Yes, he was delusional. Absolutely! He was…

…He wanted to create a game. Multiplayer. He wanted to play it together with Mehira.

What foolish thoughts, why was he having these thoughts now?

He self-deprecatingly laughed. No one could hear him. He could barely hear himself over his screams.

His screams?

He was in pain, he was screaming he was-

Falling.

Memories of his first death came to mind as he was engulfed by flames.

Was Steve dead? Did Plaze replace him? Or did Vox kill Plaze, leaving an unnamed soul?

Who was he?

His eyes came back to him, allowing him to gaze into the world that was his punishment.

He was on the ground in such a familiar place…

…But he couldn't get up. He couldn't face it.

He didn't want to think of it. How could he? It led him to ruin.

He wasn't completely aware of how long he laid there. Maybe it was for a few minutes, maybe an hour, could've even been a day.

A few people walked by him. He's certain that someone at least saw him. Maybe they recognized him as a failure. Maybe that's why they let him loiter on the floor for so long.

But he didn't hear anyone speak. At least not until-

"Plaze," A familiar voice spoke out to him, calming his emotions and reigniting the little life he had in his heart.

He hated his eyes. He couldn't move them at all. He had to readjust his head to be able to find her.

Mehira stared down at him with pity in her eyes. Reaching out with her hand, she said, "Do you need help?"

Wordlessly, he takes her hand, rising to his square feet.

He hated his body. It was an ever present reminder of the fact that he was no longer human. He was a sinner. His life in Hell is and always will be a punishment for his sins on Earth.

Carrying his arm over her shoulder, Mehira walked him towards the THE bar. The place where he declared he would be Overlord.

It was empty inside. A small mercy.

Taking their seats at the bar, the succubus asked, "So, do you want to talk about it?"

No, he didn't. But he had no other choice.

His voice, although fully healed by now, was pathetically quiet as he wanted to know, "How long was I dead for?"

"2 days," Mehira leaned on the counter, "Vox really did tear you apart, didn't he?"

"...Yeah," He admitted, the events of that day replaying over and over again in his mind, "I… It wasn't a close fight… I lost everything…"

His company was practically gone now that all of his employees went over to Vox. His power was gone as all of the souls he owned probably went off to someone else. He had no more allies except…

Staring at Mehira, he was calmed by her smile, "Not quite everything. You still have me, right?"

That's right… That's right…

She was still with him. That's the truth. She's saying so.

He still had a chance.

Completely enthralled by her, Plaze desperately asked, "What do I do now? I- I can barely even think right now…"

Mehira put her hand on her chin as she thought out loud, "It's a hard life down here, isn't it? Are you sure you want to be an Overlord anymore?"

…What was she saying?

"After all, the moment you rose above your stations, those more powerful than you immediately cast you back down," She said with disgust in her voice, aimed at Vox, "It's a tough life. If you tried again, it's more than likely he'll just kill you for sure next time."

Yes, that was true. But still…

With that, she cast her gambit.

Standing up, Mehira reached out to him, "You want to be comfortable, right? So why don't you give me your soul, and you won't have to worry about it anymore?"

Standing up with her, Plaze looked down at her hands, trembling, "What… What are you saying?"

The Witch smiled as though she meant no harm, it was a familiar face, but now he could see the daggers, "It's clear that this failure got to you and it's tearing your mind apart. I hate seeing you like this, so why don't you let me handle your burden? Just support me, and I'll reach our dreams for us."

…Oh, that's right.

She was a demon.

He was the stupid one for accepting her around him. Anyone could've seen this coming. What demon would have shown him kindness?

But…

…It was so tempting, just to accept it.

He hated this feeling of defeat. He hated this feeling of failure.

He wanted to hand off his responsibilities to someone else, to feel like a child again.

Slowly, Plaze raised his hand. Mehira eagerly took it.

But no deal took place.

"No," Plaze declined her offer, staring directly at her shocked expression, her face filled with disbelief, "You're right. This is getting to me, I hate it. I lost everything I built over the course of months in the span of 30 minutes. I think you're a piece of shit trying to take advantage of that, but I get it. And really, I do want to accept this."

Letting go of her, he continued to explain, "But… No matter how much I hate this feeling, I can't back down now. My life is meaningless without my purpose. That purpose is to…"
What was his real goal?

He wanted to create a massive library of games, so that when he retired, he would never grow bored.

But that was never the end goal. It was just a way for him to say this without being embarrassed about the cliche.

"...Live life my way. Not decided by anyone else, but to be able to take my future into my own hands," Plaze declared, cleansing himself of any and all doubt, "I love games. I'll continue to create them. I also want to be powerful. I'm a sinner, I'm a terrible person. I want to be able to look upon what I've created and control and be proud of myself."

Turning his back on her, he made his final decision, "I will be the Gaming Overlord, and I'll claw myself to Vox's level and tear him down, even if it means the end of me. That's who Plaze is. That's who I want to be."

Letting it all go, he felt a sense of catharsis.

Steve is dead. Plaze replaced him.

His ideals are clearly laid out, and he has no doubts about him.

His entire purpose is to live, not be alive.

Hearing the aim of an angelic rifle, Plaze feels dread running through him.

"It's a wonderful thing…" Mehira slowly said, aiming her angelic sniper rifle at him, her tone remorseful, "...But it's not what I want."

Looking back at her, he pointed out the obvious, "You've gone through this song and dance with other people, haven't you?"

"You're the one who got the furthest," Mehira said, confessing that he was right, "So I do like you a lot more than the others. They led themselves to short ruin. You were forcibly brought down."

Chuckling, Plaze only had one thing to ask, "So why? What's your end goal?"

Mehira doesn't answer.

That was enough.

"You want to be an Overlord too, right?" Plaze guessed, but upon her indifferent look, he realized he was wrong, "No… You want to be something more than that. Explain it to me. I don't think you've told me enough to figure it out on my own."

"What does it matter to you?" She asked, declining his attempts to dig into her past, "There's not much you need to know. Just accept my deal, and we can go on like normal. I'll support your revival as the Gaming Overlord."

Under her thumb? Not a chance.

He spoke easily and plainly, "Mehira, if you don't tell me at least some of your reasoning behind trying this, I'm not going to be able to speak to you truthfully."

"Who says I want that?" The succubus aimed more clearly with her gun, "I'm a demon. I'm sure you remembered it when I started to threaten you. I could've been lying to you all along-"

"You're a shit liar," Plaze interrupted, "You've got something in your past that made you want to walk this path. So tell me."

She hesitated, her aim weakening.

"At the very least, share the memory with someone else so that at least someone else will remember them," He said, thinking of his own experiences on Earth.

Some of those people deserved to be remembered. He knows Mehira likely felt the same way too.

It worked, as Mehira began to speak, "I… Well, in our society, a lot of a demon's life is determined by what they're born as and where. I'm a lust ring succubus, so I was essentially destined to be some type of entertainer. I thought that's what I wanted too, but…"

She couldn't aim as she was telling her own story, smiling at the memories, "Some idiot wearing a witch's costume calling herself Aurora somehow busted into my school and ended up accidentally kidnapping me."

He wanted to know how someone accidentally kidnaps someone, but he knew it wasn't the time for that so he let her speak.

"She was an imp from the gluttony ring," She sighed upon remembering her habits, "It was also evident in the way she acted too. Aurora ate too much, and asked for a lot anytime she wanted something. So when I tried to leave, she always told me that she wanted a student, and I would be that student."

At this point, Mehira put her gun down completely, holding onto her hat, "So, I became her student. She couldn't use magic at all, since imps usually can't. But somehow, she managed to teach me just fine. But more than that… She showed me that we deserved to be able to choose our destinies."

Sitting back down, Mehira looked down with a regretful tone, "But we were both dumb and naive. We wanted to turn this caste system upside down. We knew it was an impossibility, but we tried it anyway. We went ring to ring, doing anything we wanted. Helping people who needed it, ticking off a few upper-class demons, but then we made our way to the pride ring…"

Her tone perked up as she told the next part of the tale, "I was fascinated by the culture you sinners created here. It was a world where it didn't matter where you came from or what you did. As long as you had the drive to make a better life for yourself, you could do it. Even the other hellborn in this ring took this idea, even when they created things like Imp City where it was mostly just imps. It was the perfect place for my master and I to stay."

"Until, of course, our actions caught up with us…" She looked murderous as she retold this section of the story, her hands growing claws and digging into the wooden counter, "We messed with the relative of someone from the Ars Goetia a long time ago. They're known to hold grudges for hundreds of years, so when they found us, they sent us to Pandemonium to be sentenced by them."

She was on the verge of tears, but she held them in and steadied her voice, "We were sentenced to death, obviously. No demon sent there could ever be considered innocent. But my master managed to convince them that I should be spared because she was the one who kidnapped me and filled my head with foolish ideals."

Holding onto her witch's hat, she managed to say, "In the end, only she was executed. Her last words were "I have no regrets. I did everything I wanted my way." I was able to take her hat from her head, and now it's my only item I have from her."

Standing back up, Mehira suppressed her emotions as she repointed her gun at him, "So now you know. I'm carrying not just my idiotic dreams, but my teacher's dreams as well. It's a stupid dream that I know will never work, but I have to try. So… Just accept my deal."

Ah, now it was all coming together.

The reason why she was so reluctant in telling anything about her past was because it both had an unhappy ending, and she thought that, at its core, her dream was a fool's endeavor.

But she still remembered Aurora anyway. She still chased after her dream anyway.

She was still trying.

Smiling, Plaze gave his earnest opinion of her, "Mehira, what you are trying to do is to become the queen of Hell…"

She looked shocked that he would just say something so callous like that, but he wasn't done yet, "But your teacher gave you a small little lesson that you seem to have forgotten. You can't do that alone."

Grinning, Plaze was almost hysterical as he explained to her, "Why did you think she took you in instead of just dropping you back at your school or whatnot? Because she needed someone else to help her. Everyone wants someone to be with. That's how we get past our darkest hours and into the future. You want to destroy the foundation that Hell is built on? That's fine by me! We're both aiming for the top, maybe you're aiming higher than I am, but I'll adjust my aim! So, Mehira, quit trying to climb alone! Let's work together, bind our souls together!"

What is life without challenges? His initial goal was just to create games and be strong. Then it turned into overthrowing Vox. Now, he's willing to overthrow the systems that govern Hell itself.

Was it stupid? Of course it was.

Would it work? Hah, obviously not.

Would they try anyway?

Absolutely.

"Why would I want to bind my soul together with you?" Mehira inquisitively questioned, bordering on denial, "I've gone this long without anyone else. I can… I don't need to lead anyone else to ruin. After I die, you're all free. Not associated with what I'll do."

Still smiling, he asked, "Why do you think your teacher took you in? She knew where she was leading you, but she still took you along. That wasn't something evil, it was out of love. So, I'll follow you, and you'll follow me. We'll both chase after our dreams… Even if we have to die for it!"

He had not conquered the fear of death. All he had done was make a simple realization.

He would rather live like this, than die doing nothing.

Mehira looked straight at him. After a few moments, she stated loudly, "This is stupid."

"This is Hell. Do you think we care?" Plaze rhetorically asked, stretching out his hand to her, "We'll live the way we want to. Who cares about titles or logic?"

Scoffing, she raised her own hand, not yet taking his, "I want to warn you again. If we're owning each other's souls, that's something we can't really ever take back. We're going to do everything I want to do."

"And we'll do everything I want to do," Plaze smirked, "That's the point of an equal partnership, yeah?"

Returning his smile, Mehira nodded her head, "I guess it is. I hope you don't disappoint me, Plaze."

Slowly, they shook each other's hands, their souls binding together to form a contract. They would own each other's souls for the rest of their lives.

The room was marked equally between the green buttons and cogs of Plaze, and the purple symbols and potions of Mehira.

AN:

Paragraph Overlords strike again. Maybe I should've just done a flashback in this chapter lmao.

I was planning on them getting off on the wrong foot and having the deal be more "Well, this sucks."

But I didn't want to write that arc of them getting along, so I just let them have this one.

Anyways, technically they're married now but they don't really realize it yet.

I probably should've added more for Mehira's side of the relationship but oops. We'll just have to make it up later.

Written December 26th.

[No I did not reread this chapter before uploading it, because I was busy being a lazy bum who didn't want to read or write.]