The Demon hung its talons fully outstretched hanging barely a centimetre from Pancthea's face. It colossal maw was wide open revealing circular rings of lamprey teeth interposed with colossal fangs that made a mockery of biology. The maw stretched for dozens of metres seemingly capable of devouring the whole world without chewing from Pancthea's diminutive perspective. Rancid breath caressed her face making her want to grimace as a slavering tongue caressed needle sharp teeth in anticipation.
Pancthea blinked once unimpressed. She let out a sigh and rolled her eyes at the Demon. "Are you done?", she asked in a bored tone. Ironically it was easier for her to deal with the Demon when it was behaving as a Demon, rather than as a fool.
The Demon waggled its fingers slowly centimetres away from Pancthea chuckling slightly at the way Pancthea subtly tracked each bladed talon. "So close", it muttered quietly to itself, "And yet so far". The tableau held for a long moment as two strongest beings in creation stared murder at each other.
The silence in the chamber was broken only by the straining of chains and the quiet creak of colossal pillars as the prison fought to contain the monster in front of Pancthea. Pancthea narrowed her eyes as she watched a bladed talon pointed directly at her face ever so slowly crawl towards her.
She stared at the talon easily three dozen metres long and half that wide and let out a snort of scorn, she refused to allow herself be intimated by such petty taunts. Responding to her rising fury blue flames sparked into life around her ankles and hands, they danced and lapped around her before being snuffed out as the chains binding the Goddess began to glow softly.
Letting out another dark chuckle jet black fire began to drip from the tip of the Demon's talons, it moved sluggishly like an oozing liquid rather than flames and hissed where it splattered onto the flawless floor of the cell. Pancthea watched the dark flames as they hissed and crackled but said nothing.
Slowly the flames began spreading out, like a tsunami they spread throughout the room, they crawled up the colossal pillars binding the Demon, they danced along its chains and caressed the ceiling with flickering fingers. And ever so slowly they began to surround the Goddess from all angles.
Pancthea watched the slowly advancing flames silently, she stared at the Demon's glowing chains that were desperately fighting a losing battle to contain the creature's malevolence. Blue flames flickered around Pancthea as she called on her own power preparing herself for whatever the Demon had planned, but just as before the chains binding her glowed and her flames flickered and died. She tried again, flames of vibrant yellows, blues and the occasional whites roared into life around her but just as before flickered and faded. Pancthea stared at the slowly approaching cataclysm and braced herself.
Walls of abyssal black flame slammed into a perfectly circular barrier of blue, white and yellow flames.
The Demon guffawed loudly at Pancthea's defiance and slow as a glacier withdrew from Pancthea, as it retreated backwards its form became increasingly indistinct from the background of roaring black flames until its titanic form completely vanished from sight.
Pancthea stood like the eye of a dark hurricane surrounded by a sea of destructive immolation. Her small barrier of flames provided the only illumination in the colossal chamber that was now completely and utterly consumed with dark fire. Dark shapes danced in the flames, like the shadow of an aquatic predator they glided in menacing arcs around Pancthea . She could feel the dark fire pressing against her hurriedly erected barrier, probing for any weak spot, any crack in her defences to unmake her. She refused to allow any such weakness.
"So", Pancthea spoke into the sea of darkness that surrounded her, her voice was clear and demanding unshaken by her opponents barely thwarted attack. "I take it you're done with your farce of humanity then", an echoing chuckle sounded out from somewhere in the sea of flames. Pancthea tried to focus on the origin of the sound but it sounded as though it was coming from every direction. "Clearly you think too little of me if you believe such petty tricks will unbalance me", the Demon responded with another echoing chuckle that sounded like it came form everywhere and simultaneously nowhere.
"A mortal once said to me, that you have to set the tone before you begin negotiations", the Demon's voice full of laughter echoed to the right of Pancthea who resisted the urge to turn her head towards the sound. "I thought you despised mortals", Pancthea replied as she tried to pin point the Demon's location but the flames made every direction appear the same and Pancthea had no way to ground herself to orientate herself towards where the Demon's chained body would be.
"Why would you think that?", the question echoed to Pancthea's left and she resisted the temptation to sent a bolt of white fire at the origin of the sound. "I have nothing against mortals little fool, how could the sun hate a fly? By the time I would have bothered to pay attention to them they would have expired naturally anyway". Pancthea made no comment to the Demon's statement but changed the topic.
"You could have escaped, when the seal was damaged before I moved to contain you there was an opportunity for your mind to have overtaken that boy, yet you chose to return to this place, why?". Silence answered her question. Pancthea wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not but decided to strike whilst she held the momentum, " Or was the mind of this host too much for you to overcome, were you routed here and forced to huddle in the dark licking your wounds and salvaging the scraps of your pride?".
"Why does the sun rise in the west and set in the east?", the words echoed from her right and Pancthea's eyes shot to the origin of the sound. White fire danced around the palm of her hand as she hunted for the source of the sound, "It doesn't", she replied and was greeted by another peal of echoing laughter.
"You see with such surety the answer to the wrong question".
Pancthea whirled chains snapping taught as she turned behind her a blast wave of white fire erupted from her hands and annihilating a section of the dark flames. More laughter echoed around the chamber, "That seems a little bit of an overreaction now doesn't it", the words caressed the back of her ears just like they had a moment ago, Pancthea could feel the Demon's rancid breath on the back of her neck. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she had to fight down the instinct to turn and launch another wave of white fire towards the sound.
"I grow weary of your games", Pancthea spat the words through clenched teeth as her sphere of flames grew increasingly vibrant, roaring with power the sphere thrashed against the wall of dark flames. The oppositely charged powers thrashed as they clashed immolating each other, Pancthea felt the seal tremble under the weight of trying to suppress the two god like creatures power.
"Ah, but we have barely begun this game little godling", the Demon's voice came from directly in front of Pancthea. Unlike before it was devoid of mockery and had the solemnity of a graveyard, "I plan to draw this little game out for a very, very long time, consider it my thanks for the eons I have spent here!".
Fury rose in the Demon's voice as it spat the last few words, Pancthea felt a visceral sense of satisfaction at the fury in the monster's voice and stared at the source of the sound a small smile tugging at her lips. "If all you wanted was someone to play with you, you should have just asked", she said with mocking sweetness.
A rumbling gut deep chuckle echoed throughout the chamber again and Pancthea had to resist the urge to attack the Demon again, striking now would gain her nothing and cost her strength she would need if the Demon attacked. She felt her barrier fluctuate under the pressure of the Demon's assault and knew that not even the Demon could keep such an assault up for much longer within the restrictions of the seal. If it was going to do something it would come shortly. Pancthea braced herself for the assault.
A singular drop of saliva fell from the ceiling and slapped into the ground in front of Pancthea.
Pancthea's eyes widened as she resisted the sensation to look up. "Tell me little godling", the voice came from above now and Pancthea had to fight the ever increasing urge to look up. "Do you want to play a game?", the Demon's voice was cooing and suffused with barely contained malice that would have killed a mortal out right. "Do I really have a choice?", Pancthea responded the faintest trace of sarcasm present in her voice.
"You always have a choice godling, even the lowest mortals in their mayfly lives will always have a choice, before you chose not to listen, you stoppered your ears with ignorance, you filled your mouth with arrogance and your heart with foolishness, I wonder what decision you will make this time?".
The Demon's word's hung in the air between the two as a long silence descended on the chamber.
Pancthea closed her eyes taking a deep breath, she turned her head and stared upward, "Get on with it", she said to the colossal face hanging barely five metres above her body. The Demon's mouth contorted into a smile as it stared down at Pancthea, slowly its face withdrew into the flames and reappeared directly in front of Pancthea at the edge of her roaring shield of flames.
Still grinning it began to speak.
"Do you know what an oath of existence is?", Pancthea felt her brow furrow at the question, of course she knew what it was, an oath of existence was self-explanatory, it was to make an oath using your soul as collateral. If you swore an oath of existence on yourself and broke it your soul would fall apart, but if you entered a pact with another individual and broke it your soul would belong to the other party.
But why would the Demon, Pancthea's thoughts were cut off by the Demon's next words. "I first borne of creation, master of the sea of souls hereby swear upon my name that no deceit shall leave my lips until I am free of this cell".
Pancthea felt her eyebrows rise involuntarily in shock, her thoughts raced with a mixture of confusion and no small undercurrent of fear. The Demon was a creature of deception and yet now it had taken the greatest arrow out its quiver, the Demon could tell no lie, none, not deliberately or even accidentally without its soul falling apart. But why? What did it gain from this Pancthea though desperately as the Demon began to speak again.
"With the universe as the witness and Pancthea of the celestial realm as my witness I swear this oath, ... now", the Demon's maw already curled into a grin somehow warped into an even larger smirk. "This seal consists of three elements", Pancthea felt her stomach drop and let out an involuntary gasp, "You're insane", she breathed.
The Demon merely smiled in response as it's eye stared into hers. "The first inner layer suppress the power of any individual the seal deems to be a threat, the second outer layer prevents any object from the outside material universe from interacting with the first layer". Pancthea stared horrified at the Demon as it spoke, "You're insane", she whispered again.
The Demon under oath could not tell a lie, whether it was deliberate or accidental if it told any lie then its soul would be forfeit. And the psychopath was using that guarantee to learn about the seal imprisoning it! If it couldn't lie then whatever it said had to be the truth, it was using the oath of existence to test it's theories about its prison! The lunatic was walking a tight rope between existence and immolation!
"The third element is the anchor that holds the two layers together, the mortal vessel that the seal resides in". The Demon paused as if checking to see if it still existed, seeing as it still did it continued, "The seal was originally imbedded in a vessel that had no ability to influence the other two layers but the current vessel does have the ability to influence the seal". Pancthea felt her breath catch as implications bloomed behind her eyes, "No", she whispered in a horrific realisation.
"Yes!", the Demon mocked and spoke the words Pancthea was terrified of. "The mortal vessel, the boy, has the ability to directly interfere with the function of the seal to the extent that he would be able to directly free my physical body".
Silence filled the chamber.
The Demon roared with terrible laughter as Pancthea sunk to her knees in shocked stupefaction. "You want to know why I didn't flee this place little godling! Why would I run when I can tear this place apart using the very tools you designed to imprison me!", the Demon roared the words the triumph of victory suffusing its every word. "Oh what delicious irony! To twist the bars of my cell into the tools of my salvation!
For the second time in her immortal existence Pancthea experienced the curious sensation mortals called shock. Bile spilled from her lips before she voided the contents of her stomach on the floor. It was an unconscionable thought, the Demon escaping the seal would be catastrophic enough but if it's physical body were to escape as well ... It would be apocalyptic. No, Pancthea thought, it would literally be the end of the world.
How could she have missed something this colossal!
She had always observed the Demon, she had been certain that it had been concealing something and so she watched it relentlessly eon after eon, she hadn't thought once that the Demon had simply been biding it's time! Waiting for the one in a trillion chance the seal would pass to a vessel that could and would for some unknowable reason manipulate it. It was a plan that required patience on a cosmic scale, it could have taken millions of years, by the constellations it could have taken billions of years!
"It appears we are both finally up to speed on our circumstances", the Demon mocked after it had finally tired from its roaring laughter. It snapped a finger and a scroll parchment appeared between the two prisoners. The document hung in the air where golden and black flames intersected utterly unperturbed by the heat.
The Demon spread its arms expectantly and stared at Pancthea. "What fresh hell is this" Pancthea whispered to herself before suppressing her revulsion, "I would like to propose a bargain", those words made Pancthea's disgust spill over and she spat on the floor surging to her feet to spit invective at the Demon.
"The vessel can use the seal to differentiate between prisoners".
Pancthea froze at the Demon's words. "The vessel can choose to release an individual from the seal and", the Demon stared into Pancthea's shocked eyes.
"The vessel can choose to keep an individual trapped inside the seal or release them".