Faust slowly walked toward the town. He could see the wooded walls that surrounded it and the fields of wheat that announced the arrival to human civilization. He was tired, his mind was filled with disturbing knowledge that caused him to hear whispers from beings he shouldn't have been in contact with. The constant energy he was using to suppress himself from either uttering taboo names or breaking into praises for these beings was surprisingly great.
"Excuse me, is there a place where I can rest for some time?" He looked towards the old man in front of him. He was dressed in rags and covered in grime. While Faust was out of touch with the world, he still rearealizedat the man wouldn't know anywhere like that. "Just for a nap. I am awfully tired and I can pay." This caused the man's eyes to grow larger. He sized up the boy, he looked young but the man was still cautious.
He didn't like how the boy's eyes looked at him. However, that all changed when the boy pulled out a small intricate ring. It had a ram's head engraved on it and was shiny. "I know of a place, follow me." The man looked around and saw his fellow vagrants looking at him, green with envy. They had also seen the ring, the boy hadn't even tried to hide it. They, however, didn't come closer.
"What's your name boy? Mines Collins." The question was asked in passing, to allow the boy to become comfortable with him. He knew the place he was taking him is wasway from the town gates so, he needed the boy to willingly follow him.
"Faustus. It's getting pretty dark." Collins could hear the reluctance in the boy's voice, he knew that he wouldn't follow any longer. " I heard a story once, a small and ignorant man made a deal with the devil." Collins let out a small chuckle as he turned to the confused boy. "The devil guided him into the dark an,d with each step he, came closer and closer to death." Collins couldn't believe his luck. He looked at the small boy before him, shorter than most but he knew that wouldn't matter.
"Hand over the–" He didn't get to finish his demand. A deep red knife, curved at the end and filled with a serrated edge was driven into his stomach. Fear and confusion filled his mind. He looked down and his nose inhaled deeply. His lungs were filled with the smell of burning meat, smelt a little like pork before the smell faded into a disgusting rotten one. His hands reached for the wound but touched the knife that had caused it, the fingers were burnt with two being cut from the hands.
"Why, what are you?" Collins asked no one in particular but all he got was a snort. It was at that moment that his mind, fractured by the pain and fear of death finally pieced the moment together. The small flash he had ignored, the boy getting closer to him and the way the eyes of the boy never seemed to have any fear even in the dark an aba,ndoned corner of the village.
He looked into those blue eyes, they didn't have any ripple in emotion as they watched him slowly die. He could feel it, while the wound had been closed by the heat of the weapon, he could feel it moving inside of him.
The pure child-like hands of what was to be his victim reached for his pants. 'I just wish that I could have–' The tight was cut short when the knife was stirred faster inside of him. "Are you really thinking of what you could have done to me? Now of all times." His eyes finally had a ripple, curiosity. "You literally have a knife through your abdomen and your insides are being fried, and you have the time to imagine what you would be doing to me." The question sounded so innocent when he asked it. Collins would have even thought it was from a normal child.
Faust looked at the weird man. 'These people are strange, and they act like devils are the only ones ruled by their desires.' He finally stopped turning the knife when he felt no more resistance from the body. Collins was dead.
He placed him down, lying flat on his back and spread his arms wide while he pushed his legs together. Now the man seemed to have been crucified on the earth. Around him, he drew a layered circle. Inside each layer he inscribed words praising the abyss, the language was the same one he had been forcefully fed.
In a few minutes, the circles were filled with foul language that praised the abyss and the Monarch of the devils. Above the body marks started appearing as Faust fed his spirituality into the ritual circle. This caused the marks to light up, slowly at first but soon they started moving around. Like they had a mind of their own.
The small corner they were in, hidden from all but the sun started being filled with a liquid like mist they slowly formed into the silhouette of the man before the mist was sucked back into the circle. With the mist gone, he found that the circle had also faded. "This takes too long to make." He started at the position the circle was first at. The only remains were the body and a small ball of mist. He picked up the mist while delegating the task of finding a solution to Shadow. "From now on, I work and he thinks." He muttered to himself as he looked at the ball of mist. It was like a glass orb that was filled with mist inside, wasn't too large, almost the size of his palm but inside it was nearly empty.
While he was looking at the orb, he saw numerous cracks appear on it and before he could react, the orb burst releasing the white mist inside which entered his nose. Faust felt violated, but he didn't complain as new memories started to file inside him. He knew that they weren't harmful, since from the encounter with the Abyss he had realised Shadow worked as a buffer.
Filtering information so that it didn't break his mind. When it was orderly shadow would feed him the information back since if he didn't they would leak into his mind with time breaking it.
In the memories, he found that while the man Collins wanted to do some honestly depraved things to him, he also wanted him to see their Lord. As he searched through the memories, he found an interesting legend.
In the crossroad that connects the mountain, village and the road to the nearest city, the people in this village believed there existed a demon. One that could give anything the heart desires in exchange for your soul. "Probably a devil that caused this."
Faust smiled as he walked away from the body. He might have just found the way to earn souls for the Abyss.
When he appeared at the other side of the alley, away from the market that greeted every one who entered the town. He found himself in a destitute place. Houses close to falling apart, some had parts of their walls missing while others wouldn't even have the right to be called houses. He remembered the beautiful houses that lined the sides of the market. "I hope this works." Faust remembered Shadow's idea of digesting the subsequent potion before consuming it.
His unwinged angel potion had already been digested in the time he spent on the alter now he was aiming at the next sequence, Serial killer. For this, the digestion was simple. Kill a lot of people, which he was planning to do. Have a recognised method, his cursed flames and the absence of souls in the bodies woukd act as his marks. Finally he had to not get caught.
Looking over at the state of living of these people, he was sure they wouldn't be missed by the people of this city. "They might even thank me." He let out a small chuckle .
Faust knew that now wasn't the time to start killing. No he first had to secure a place for himself to sleep. Most ideally a corner somewhere abandoned. While the police wouldn't be able to connect the murders that were about to take place here to him. He knew there existed a pesky group that used means we'll beyond him and if they found him, well nobody ever paid attention to the dissapearance of a homeless man.
He walked towards a nearly destroyed house, it had a part of it's roof destroyed and it's walls were damp. No one stayed here and for those who did, they had fallen ill and died from unexplainable circumstances.