"It is done," Atrox heard the demon's voice, distant like a faraway chant.
"Congratulations on being the new Lord of the Eternal Pyre. I hope we meet again in a more favorable environment. I will leave you a gift, and you'll owe me no debt for it."
Then like the absence of the sun, the presence vanished. Atrox made moves to stand, to lift his head and watched the strange demon depart but his body won't listen —his body felt like mud. But inside, he was raging. His essence was slowly returning to its place. Yet now, he had fewer sub-essences in his core. Before, there were five; now there were only three, and he felt their absence like a gnawing hunger.
The remaining essences were:
- Infernal Fire
- Pactbinding
- Infernal Imprisonment
The other two—Shadowforge Creation and Nightmare—had been transferred to Tiber and Slya. Essentially, Atrox was now their construct, the source of their new powers.
