As humanity waged a desperate crusade against the devil, a rift opened in the sky, the fabric of reality cracked and golden dust poured out of the cracks, the demon only seemed to get excited at the sight of the blessing falling on men, his eyes staring at the sky, with a voice that came from the depths of hell he spoke: "Come, you cowards, descend and fight me yourselves, it won't make any difference anyway because shortly I will rise and slaughter you in your own realm"
Zefiro had a strange dream that night: he was in the void; an infinite black space in which somehow he could see, breathe and walk, even though there was no light, air or surface.
In front of him was standing a man, he wore light black armor, he had red eyes, black hair and light skin, he carried a spear engraved in the shape of a blood red dragon.
The man suddenly turned towards him, and an incredible pressure descended on Zefiro, but the boy managed to completely ignore it knowing he was in a dream and that it was only mental pressure, the man raised his eyebrows and looked Zefiro in the eyes, the pressure increased but the boy still didn't pay attention to it.
The man and Zefiro looked into each other's eyes for a few minutes, apparently in a trance.
After they woke up a cold smile appeared on the man's face.
He spoke in a low and deep voice, which somehow generated an eerie echo:
"It is called Heart of Ruination, because there has never been a person who possessed it who did not die stupidly.
It was born and raised in your soul because of your stupid delusion of being special coupled with your arrogance.
You should pay attention to it, because it will lead you to make dangerous choices and fight those who are above you, but you already know that, just know that your intelligence and your luck aren't that great really.
If you ever get out of Hell, learn humility!"
Without giving Zefiro a chance to reply, black chains wrapped around him as he turned to dust.
Zefiro stopped thinking it was a dream when he and Astaroth looked into each other's past: the devilish man came from a fantasy like world called Eternium, he saw all his pain and suffering as a rogue coltivator and how he was finally close to ascending above the firmament, but was stopped by the gods, subsequently managed to escape in the form of a soul, cross the dimensions and arrive here, where by pure chance he chose his body as his next vessel, Zefiro however had in his soul a very rare thing that developed thanks to his past:
Zefiro was not seen as a genius, he didn't think fast or remember everything he saw.
However, he believed he was superior to all those geniuses.
Ever since he was little he was good at practical subjects, which didn't need study, he thought he was smart at the beginning, nothing more.
Growing up he couldn't understand why though, he was good: as far as he knew he didn't think faster than the others yet he managed to get to things first.
In high school he actively began to research the reason for this thing, finding a solution by observing the differences between Mathematics and Physics.
It was in understanding.
While Physics consisted of observing phenomena and writing what is observed in the form of formulas, Mathematics instead required an analysis of the logic behind it to be understood.
Zefiro develops a sense of difference from others, born out of the fact that he could see the logic behind things, which slowly turned into arrogance.
It was initially justified, being caused by what others call intelligence, but it soon turned into something else.
Zefiro had always considered himself lucky, not the kind of incredible luck like winning the lottery but not even the kind that he took for granted like being born into a wealthy family without any problems.
The kind of luck that allowed him to always get away with it, even if he hadn't studied or did something risky.
This sense of luck was in stark contrast to what he believed in however: having always been a man of science, even if he was from a religious family, he did not think that luck existed, this, added to his passion for reading fantasy stories led him to detach from reality and think he was blessed, a sort of chosen one, with practically no valid reason.
This, combined with his arrogance, led him to develop an innate sense of superiority.
An unshakeable but at the same time unfounded sense of superiority, which prompted him not to deny the existence of God, but his faith in it, since no one was superior to him.
It also pushed him to develop unshakable values, which could only be ignored if the people he loved were in danger.
And so his Hearth of Ruination was created on this false sense of superiority created by no one but himself.
From what he understood, the Heart of the Ruination was a kind of astral seed contained in his soul, fed by his arrogance, which allowed him to go against his instincts, such as fear and pain, and to tolerate the auras of people much stronger than him, but it also pushed him to go against stronger people and affirm his domain using violence.
Thanks to it, Astaroth wasn't able to annihilatie his soul, so he dislodged it from his body and swapped it for his own, sending it to the hell of the planet Eternium.