The Demon's words hung between the two. Yet again the horrific spectre of hope bared its fangs at Pancthea as the Demon offered her a lifeline. "The vessel can choose to release an individual from the seal". She repeated the words in her mind trying to rationalise them. If the vessel could manipulate the seal then it was possible for it to repair the bindings on the Demon and free Pancthea. It also boded the apocalyptic reverse.
It shouldn't be possible. Technically speaking it was impossible. But the Demon was bound by oath to always tell the truth, if it had told a lie it would have come apart at the seams. Which meant it's words had to be true.
"Why are you telling me this", Pancthea asked although she already suspected she knew the answer. The Demon shrugged the motion made awkward and hard to see by the ocean of dark flames concealing the vast bulk of its body. It gestured one finger at the blank scroll hovering at the boundary between light and dark flames. "Call it a gentleman's offer", the Demons voice was soft and slick with barely concealed malice, "Come now what do you have to lose little godling", the Demon's voice broke into suppressed laughter, "It's not as though you have any one left who can die in your stead".
Pancthea's hand's curled into fists and her gaze turned absolutely furious, the Demon smiled coyly at the most emotion it had seen so far on the goddess face. It decided to twist the knife a little.
"Isn't it your duty to at least try little godling", the words whispered softly into Pancthea left ear and she whirled as the Demon's mocking face vanished back into the sea of black flames. "All those deaths, all that suffering", the Demon's face appearing again glided behind Pancthea whispering as the disembodied face disappeared back into the sea of flames just as bolt of white fire annihilated where it had been hovering.
"All that pain, all those sacrifices ... futile", "Enough", Pancthea growled at the wall of darkness surrounding her. The Demon ignored her, it was enjoying itself far too much to stop now. Words slipped hissed from the sea of flames indistinct and muffled. The sibilant whispers caressed Pancthea's ears like a forlorn lover and Pancthea felt a moment of true disquiet as the sounds resolved themselves into words. "Dantioc", "Regulus", "Atre", countless whispers resolved themselves into the names of the disquiet dead as the whispers slowly evolved into a hurricane of remembrance. Each whispered sound was the name of a fallen comrade, friend and companion. Each one was a life lost to the perfidy of the Demon.
"I said enough".
Pancthea's whisper tore through the screech of the hurricane in an eruption of force that shattered the storm banishing it and huge chunks of the wall of dark flame to the edge of the chamber. A bow wave of pure white fire erupted outward from the Goddess immolating the wall of dark fire that surrounded her for hundreds of metres. The screaming walls of fire clashed and thrashed each trying to unmake each other as they settled into a new equilibrium.
White flames hissed against black flames as the two forces settled into an uneasy balance, the room which had only a moment ago been consumed with dark flame was now perfectly divided between the two flames. The Demon it's form now revealed with the scattering of much of its power knelt resting its chin in one hand, its single cyclopean eye was firmly fixed on Pancthea and it emanated a subtle sense of boredom and disappointment that it had taken Pancthea so long to strike back.
"Are you finally ready", it whined mockingly utterly undaunted by Pancthea's display of power.
"I will hear your terms creature", Pancthea said begrudgingly, "What is this damnable contract you're so desperate to bind me to? I'll let you know now if one of your terms are that we forget how you begged not to imprisoned then I'll decline in advance".
The Demon made a visible double take letting out a gasp and placing a hand on its chest mockingly as though wounded, it let out a whine and pretended to swoon as though hurt by the words, it sniffled ruby tears leaking from its cyclopean eye. "Maybe I *sniff* don't want *sniff* to tell you now". More white fire gathered around Pancthea and the Demon quickly raised its hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright, gee don't get your kimono in a twist over a jest godling", Pancthea bristled at the repeated insult but said nothing. Seeing it would have no more fun unless it moved on the Demon began to explain it's plan.
"My pawn, our vessel, for reasons I won't disclose", "You don't know", Pancthea interrupted. The Demon ground its teeth for a moment but then continued, "For reasons I don't know but can make very good guesses at, our vessel has the theoretical ability to release one of us from the seal. But! It currently lacks both the raw power and understanding required to manipulate the seal in such a fashion. Until that time is reached I would like to propose a formal détente in our little disagreement, lets call it".
Pancthea let out a low chuckle at the word disagreement but said nothing, undaunted the Demon continued. "Realistically speaking the sheer power, magical capability and occult knowledge to manipulate the seal is beyond any mortal, my little pawn my have been able to very temporarily manipulate it but that was an unconscious action, one performed at the brink of death anyway". The Demon opened it's mouth, paused, hesitated, and falteringly closed it. Pancthea had never seen that emotion before on the Demon's twisted face and it put her on edge in a way words could not describe. Just what could be so difficult for the monster to say?
The Demon opened and closed its mouth several times before letting out a guttural curse that has no direct mortal equivalent but is somewhere between cursing your parents for birthing you and the universe for allowing such an event to occur.
"I need your help".
Pancthea felt the sensation of slack jawed astonishment spread across her face and the Demon cursed again and began speaking quickly. "Believe me, this hurts me much more than it hurts you, but since it's physically impossible for me to to a lie right now". The Demon let a long sigh and stared at the sealing unable to stare at its arch rivals shocked expression. "I doubt I would have the ability, or more bluntly speaking the patience to nurture this pawn into a being that could freely manipulate the seal and free one of us, preferably me of course. So, ... ,I need your help to strengthen our vessel to ultimately free one of us". Again the Demon closed its mouth and opened it several times before with a retching its sound it spat a word. "Please", it gagged a tremor passing through its form as it spoke.
The chamber fell into silence as the Demon's words hung in the air. The only sound that could be heard was the quiet crackle of flames as the world held its breath.
"Alright", "Now I know what you're going to say but, ... I'm sorry what?". "I agree to this contract in principle", Pancthea said simply her voice emotionless.
"You", the Demon pointed a colossal finger at Pancthea and then one at itself, "Agree, to work with ... me, willingly?!". Pancthea let out a low chuckle at the Demon's astonishment that was written all over its demonic visage. "I'd be a fool not to, like you said I have a duty to contain you and this is my best mechanism to salvage a horrific situation, besides". A sick grin spread across Pancthea's face as a feral and deeply unsettling look passed over her eyes, "The sight of the despair in your eye when you realise that this final lifeline is nothing more than a mirage will make it all worth it".
"Likewise", the Demon grinned right back as it stared bloody murder at its jailor, "Now, let's discuss terms".
"As with all of my contracts both parties may offer suggestions, but that suggestion does not become part of the contract until verbal agreement of both parties, yes?". "Yes", Pancthea replied watching words scrawl themselves across the once blank scroll.
The Demon nodded its head, "If you would allow me, I'd like to suggest that we both be granted a single right to veto the others suggestion and we will continue adding to the contract until requested to stop by one of contract participants". "I accept those terms" Pancthea replied deadpan watching new words scrawl across the scroll.
"My first suggestion", the Demon began. "The lives of those surrounding the vessel are inviolable, they cannot be killed as a deliberate consequence of our actions or targeted in a way that makes them unable to effect the host". Pancthea tilted her head in thought, "An interesting idea" she muttered to herself. Was the Demon's plan to place individuals near their vessel to help sway it to its cause? It wasn't a bad idea to slowly poison their vessel and make it voluntarily free the Demon Pancthea admitted to herself. Pancthea picked over the Demon's wording in her mind, clearly it was a rule designed to only offer enough protection to make it difficult to remove someone near the boy but not impossible. The specific wording of unable to affect the host was incredibly nebulous but that might work for her, that inbuilt wiggle room was a risk but also an opportunity. She knew both of them would try to bend the rules as much as possible so having a rule with a known weakness would be better than a rule with an unknown loophole.
"I raise no objections" she offered after thinking it over once more. The terms scrawled themselves across the floating scroll.
"Second", Pancthea continued, "We are limited to only be able to deliberately place two pawns by the boy's side". "Define pawn" the Demon shot back instantly. "Any individual or entity deliberately placed in a position that can influence the vessel's mental state that would not have been there naturally", Pancthea replied. The Demon grinned as it thought, it was an interesting rule that meant he would not be able to cultivate the vessel by simply surrounding it with dozens of his followers. Crafty bitch, it thought to itself. Whilst having the boy kidnapped and indoctrinating it was a boring strategy it was the one with the highest chance of success, Pancthea's rule made that stratagem unworkable.
However, when placed in tandem with the previous rule it meant any pawns, he introduced to the game would be protected to some extent from the goddess. Obviously, that applied to the goddess pieces as well, but it by limiting the number of pieces near the vessel would exponentially increase their value and would make removing the goddess pieces even more devasting. "I raise no objections" the Demon said after a moment. The sounds of writing filled the chamber for a moment.
"If it's my turn again then, the third rule, We must play fair".
Silence filled the chamber.
What is this creature playing at, Pancthea thought as she nodded her head her face a perfect poker mask. Play fair? "Define what you mean by fair" she asked after a moment.
The Demon unsurprised opened its mouth and said something very surprising.
"We must never act in such a way that prevents our vessel from siding with our opponent, ultimately the decision must always be the vessels no matter how much we influence it. That is what I mean by playing fair".
"Interesting", Pancthea muttered unable to stop a sick smile spreading over her face. What an interesting rule! It would mean that neither of them would be able to achieve a state of total victory, whilst it meant that it was impossible to be certain of victory it was also impossible to be certain of defeat. "Interesting!" Pancthea repeated to herself. She stared at the Demon the glint in her eyes matching the Demon's revealing her secret joy at the contest. "I agree to this rule on the condition this is the last rule", Pancthea spoke confidently to the colossal monster grinning down at her.
"Are you sure about that little godling, don't you want to try and weasel another rule or two into this contract". "Speak for yourself monster I am confident in my victory with just these rules, it couldn't be that your nervous that you didn't get the rules you wanted, now is it?". The Demon's grin spread wider and in response it placed one of it oversized thumbs into its maw and bite down on the flesh. Jet black viscera wept from the Demon's flesh as the Demon reached a bloody thumb towards the scroll which grew in size to accommodate the Demon's colossal size. The Demon pressed its bloody thumbprint onto the contract, the blood sizzled on the contract for a moment before the contract shrank and floated in front of Pancthea. "Still cocky then", Pancthea commented as she bit into her own thumb violet blood flowing down her arm. "Some things just never change right", the Demon laughed unashamedly. Pancthea placed her thumb on the contract leaving a twin thumbprint to the one Demon had left.
For a moment nothing happened. Then the words on the contract began lighting up one by one with brilliant white light, the air in the change began to race as vortex of power built around the hovering scroll. The great chamber rocked as a hurricane of energies surrounded the scroll the words on it shining bright enough to eclipse the sun.
"And may the best God win!", the Demon bellowed.