"You lost."

Lucian spoke with a bloodied grin on his face while his body dangled in the air from the demon’s grip.

The man’s hand around his throat was like iron, something he could not resist. Blood from the jar stained his lips, the rest of it was already inside his system. The empty glass jar had fallen from his hand the moment the man grabbed him and shattered on the ground.

"Do you even know what you just drank, boy?"

The man asked, his eyes burning with strong fury.

"Ackkk—khhhh!"

Lucian couldn’t even speak because of how strongly the man was holding his throat, but it didn’t matter, because as he looked at the demon, he kept grinning.

A crazy, bloodied, senseless grin of final satisfaction.

Lucian didn’t care about himself, he never tried to make it out of this situation alive in the first place, he knew he couldn’t win, neither could he run, his only victory was that this bastard would never get what he came for.

The man sensed what he was thinking, that grin of satisfaction on Lucian’s face made his mouth twitch in anger and frustration, he tightened his grip around his throat even further and—

"Don’t think you’ve won."

He spoke in a hoarse voice as his eyes began to glow.

"I will tear you open and rip it out of your stomach if I have to."

Those words, however, didn’t make a difference, in fact, it only made Lucian’s grin widen even as his vision was blackening due to lack of air.

"You... can’t do it..."

He let out in a thick, hoarse, difficult voice, like he knew that wasn’t possible, else he would have done it already.

The man’s face twisted in rage. To think he couldn’t get his hands on it just because a child did not understand what he was dealing with, it was... frustrating.

But...

Not everything went in Lucian’s way.

Because the pain had already started.

It began in Lucian’s stomach—a strong burning sensation that spread like liquid fire through his veins. His muscles locked up, his bones felt like they were cracking and reshaping at the same time, his skin crawled as if something was moving underneath it.

And his grin faltered.

The pain was... too unbearable.

Even Lucian, with a will as strong as his own, couldn’t hold himself together.

And the man noticed it, he noticed the change and his anger slowly turned into a cruel smile.

"There it is."

He began.

"I told you, didn’t I?

You did not win, boy."

The man grinned.

"What you drank was the blood of a High Incubus."

Lucian did not understand what those words meant, even if he did, his mind didn’t have the time to make sense of them.

The man continued anyway, as if he wanted every word to sink into him before he died.

"It was not some tonic for weak humans to get stronger,

It was Demon blood.

Normal demons take blood like that to grow stronger and even we take it after strong dilution, drop by drop."

The man looked straight into Lucian’s eyes and—

"And you drank all of it."

"Ackkkk...!!!"

Lucian’s mind was beginning to falter, he couldn’t understand half of what the man or the demon was saying, but he understood that he had drunk something he should not have, and that was the reason behind this agonizing pain he was in.

The demon grinned when he saw him struggling in pain.

"Now at best, you die here.

That would be considered fortunate."

"At worst,

You survive."

His grin widened.

"You will be corrupted.

Your mind will break.

Your body will twist itself into that of a lesser demon.

A mindless, violent, hungry, drooling beast that only knows how to kill and fuck while he suffers in pain all his life."

Lucian’s hands clawed weakly at the man’s wrist.

"You wanted to steal from me?"

The demon whispered.

"Then enjoy what you stole."

That was when it happened, the strange burning sensation that was spreading all over his body finally reached his bones, now, it didn’t just ’feel’ like his bones, muscles and insides were reshaping, they were.

Yes, Lucian’s entire body was... changing and the pain that came with it was—

"KKKHRRAAARRCCKKKKKK!!!!!"

It was something Lucian couldn’t bear, a raw sound that didn’t even seem like a proper scream came out of his throat, damaging his throat along the way.

Lucian’s own grin vanished, his body thrashed in the man’s grip, but the demon did not let go, he smiled.

"Yes, that is what happens when humans touch things above them."

"KKKHRRAAARRCCKKKKKK!!!!!"

Lucian continued to let out that shrill sound from his damaged throat, his eyes rolled back, his back arched violently, blood vessels burst in his eyes, his fingers twitched and spasmed, it was violent, almost... terrifying.

His thoughts began to scatter, his father’s face, his mother’s screams, blood on the floor, the jar, the demon’s smile, everything mixed together, pain grew too large for thought, grief or even fear.

His mind reached its limit.

And then—

It broke.

All thoughts vanished.

The only thing that remained was pain, rage and hunger.

Lucian’s head, which had fallen backward, slowly lifted, then, his eyes opened, the grey was gone, now, his eyes were burning with a strong, unnatural violet light, without a tinge of human thought in them.

The only thing that was left was a raw, violent need to consume and destroy.

The demon stared at his eyes, then, his lips curled even further.

"A lesser demon it is."

He muttered, pleased with the outcome.

Right then—

Lucian’s hand shot up and grabbed the demon’s wrist with a force that surprised even the demon. Lucian’s nails had elongated and turned black.

Demonic claws.

They dug deep into the demon’s flesh, drawing thick black-red blood.

The demon... was bleeding.