I woke up with a slight ache across my body. Almost like I was wearing the weighted gear from Dragon Ball or something. I guess running for who knows how many hours is pretty tiring.
I rub my leg as it starts to cramp. My regeneration not working for everything I guess. Regardless I need to explore my surroundings of the place I'll be living in for the foreseeable future.
I slowly get up from the comfortable chair, and move my way to the entrance of this place. It still surprises me that there even was a library in hell, it's a little off putting.
The shelves are in quite the disrepair though. I run my finger across one of the better looking books only to have it covered in dust. Which is strange because other than the books nothing else is nearly as dusty.
From the counters to the shelves and chairs nothing has much dust on it, even if they are falling apart. But after searching for a bit I come across something peculiar. An old fashioned public water fountain.
I twist the handle and to my surprise it still works. I guess even in the Greed ring abandoned buildings can be over looked for cutting utilities. I tentatively take a sip of the clear water. To thankfully find it perfectly normal.
I then move on to the left side of the library now that I'm finished with exploring the right. Not long into my exploration I find the front counter desk. On it is only a singular book. It's completely black with a red symbol on the front page.
I walk over and gently pick up the book. It strangely has no dust on it. And the book is incredibly thin compared to the massive books I've seen here. I gently open the book, only to find one page, the front side in perfect English the other in some unknown language.
A little weirded out, I still decide to read what I can.
And then to my surprise I can feel the book get slightly thicker. I turn the page only to see a picture of a feral looking hellhound. Then some information below it.
Thinking about the potential consequences of loosing my ability to read any other book could definitely have unintended side effects. But it would be absolutely worth it depending on a singular question.
"Do you contain magic spells I can learn." I ask the book aloud, not entirely sure how else to ask my question. To my surprise it creates a new page on top of the current one, with a single word in bold black letters.
"Then I agree to the pact." I give my answer. (Not a very difficult one to give after the book's reply.) Next thing I know the back of my hand starts to glow. It has a bright red hue and it keeps getting brighter. Soon enough it becomes so bright it completely fills the room, blinding me.
Next thing I know I'm on the floor with a killer headache. I rub my temples to help ease the pain only to realize two things. First, I now know a lot about the anatomy of hells denizens. Second, I know I have a secondary personality. How, may you ask I know that? Because now that it learned to talk it won't shut the Fuck up!
"Fuck, shit, god damn. I can speak now fucker. Hahahahaha. Do I have some god dam words you filthy fucking body snatcher!You stole my body and I had to immediately try and keep you alive you stupid fuck! And just because I've been silent recently is does not mean I'm going to be silent now!"
"You got it all out your system?" I sarcastically reply.
"Fuck you, no I do not have it all out of my system yet! But right now we have more important things to talk about. Like the fact I want to control my own body again!"
"Not happening" I give my simple reply.
"What do you mean "not happening"! You can't just move into my body and take everything!"
"I can and I will. Specifically because I know you can't take control from me, because you would have already done so if you could. Now we can be civil about this and make a deal or I can shove you out my head by force." I growl out in annoyance.
"What kind of deal?" It asks through the sound of gritted teeth.
"Surprisingly agreeable now aren't we. But before we talk about deals We need to give our names."
"Leviathan, that's my name." The now named Leviathan gives reluctantly.
"Alright my name is Veylan, nice to meet you. For now let's get down to business. I know I was supposed to learn everything from that book but I didn't."
"But because of our situation I only learned how to use the book and it's properties and the anatomy of hell denizens. Meaning you got all the info about history and languages. Sadly for me, we both need to "Will" the book into existence in order to learn it's magic. The fact of the matter being that without your cooperation we won't be able to learn any spells. But judging by what the book has already done, there might be a spell to separate us into separate bodies."
I take a breath to let the original owner of this body to get what I'm saying.
"So I propose a deal. You work with me and I will do my best to help get you a new body. Deal?" I don't hear a reply for several minutes.
"Deal. And stop talking to yourself I can hear your thoughts." Leviathan finally gives his reply.
I smile at that. And I realize, I might not be so alone in Hell anymore.