Smoke rolled off of me in waves, but other than that I seemed to be fine. The emperor however seemed to be confused as all hell.

I raised an eyebrow. "Mind if I ask what you're doing to me?"

He didn't answer, instead he simply rushed towards me, causing the ground to crack with the force of his steps.

I couldn't follow his movements and in the next instant I felt a rush of wind go by me and a giant wall of plants falling to the ground with a clean slash across its center.

It seemed the spear didn't need my exact input for every little thing. Which was helpful. The emperor, however, was looking a little shocked.

"You're not human! What manner of beast are you?"

Suddenly his eyes widened as if he'd come to a realization. He turned towards the sky and began to shout towards it.

"You think I'll let you get away with this? I gave you a simple set of rules to follow and you can't even do that! You know what happens now! Don't you dare say I didn't warn you!"

I glanced up, but there was nothing there.

"Uh, you can please stop doing...whatever that was. I'm as human as they come. More or less anyways."

He turned his gaze back toward me and once again raised his sword.

"You seem to be outside of time. Ageless like the dragons. I hate your kind the most."

The smoke billowing off me began to come off in greater amounts, and only then did I notice the plants around me withering and dying.

I cursed, and in the next instant he was upon me, but his blade only met air as I retreated back into the earth as countless roots shifted the dirt from my path to help aid my retreat.

I tumbled downwards and the hole above me quickly began to cave in just as quickly as it was made, but the emperor didn't let me escape.

His blade slashed through the collapsing walls of earth as he propelled himself towards me.

I urged the spear to protect me and roots shot from the walls to impale him, but they corroded long before reaching him. They'd barely even managed to slow him down.

The pit I fell through quickly began to turn into a slope and I was sent tumbling down through the dirt and not ten seconds later I came to a stop at the bottom of the slope and the Emperor stood behind me.

This time the smoke emanated throughout all of my surroundings, and I felt the connection to my plants disappear.

He loomed over me, sword poised to stab into me, his armor letting off a deep red glow.

"You're a slippery one. You should've just taken the deal when you had the chance."

I looked towards the man for a moment and began to laugh,

"Stop pretending. Your army isn't here, there's no need to lie. I was a dead man the second your army came across me."

After a short moment of deliberation Edward sighed and spoke to me the way you'd speak to an ignorant child, "Yes, you're completely right, but you could've prolonged your life for at least a month. That's the earliest I could've made you disappear without drawing eyes. You threw that month away, and that's on you."

…

"Well, I respect the honesty at least, but there's something you didn't account for."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"That."

I looked off into the far corner of the tunnel, and the emperor's eyes followed my gaze, where they met the gaze of the lifeless, half eaten head of the gorgon staring back at him.

He cursed and quickly averted his eyes back towards me but found nothing but a lifeless statue sitting in my place.

Patches of stone quickly began to form over the emperor's skin as he hastily reached into a small pouch at his side and with shaky hands downed the potion within.

Patches of stone continued to appear over his skin for several seconds before slowing and flaking off, leaving large empty patches of exposed flesh covering the man.

He looked back towards my statue, which currently had a shit eating grin plastered across its face, which he proceeded to smash it to pieces with a single swing of his sword.

I died.

---------------------

Water was steadily flowing over me when I once again opened my eyes, and it took me a few seconds to realize I'd just revived, but once I did, I shot to my feet and frantically looked around my surroundings.

I was standing in a shallow creek in a forest, and not three feet to my right was David sitting on the ground rubbing his temple.

He heard me stand up and turned towards me and scoffed, "I take it you died."

"Always the perceptive one aren't ya. Yes, I died. I assume you did as well; did the beatles get you?"

A smug look crossed his face, "Actually, I managed to escape the beatles. The army is another story though."

"I figured as much."

I took a moment to stretch and then picked up my spear. I wasn't entirely sure what happened to my bodies upon death, but at the very least it should be safe to assume that the emperor thought I'd died.

Which worked perfectly for me. There are very few things more preferable to facing an enemy that knows nothing about you. One of them is fighting an enemy who's batshit scared of you. Morale plummets, men desert and large groups surrender without a fight.

I'd just mixed the two together. Cherry picking the best aspects of both.

I'd killed at least two thirds of his army before he'd managed to off me. Which was more than enough to leave a lasting impression. And while the emperor may have obtained some information on me, that worked both ways, and the value of our information was incomparable. His strength had likely stagnated at this point. Whereas I had a large amount of room to grow.

"I'm pretty sure I know what that black smoke does."

"Is that what killed you as well? Once I'd managed to escape the beatles the accursed stuff poured from my body. The next thing I knew I was here."

A grin crossed my lips, "Yes, and what happened to you moments before you died?"

"Well my body grew weaker, more frail, and then I began to wither. It's not something I'd wish to experience."

I nodded along, "I believe he has a time related ability. Specifically the ability to make things age rapidly. It'd explain how he killed the plants, the beatles and of course you, and would also explain why it didn't work on me."

"You can't age?"

I chuckled, "I wouldn't be much of an immortal if I did."

"Figures, well then what now? You've lost your precious path, so where do we go?"

I turned to him with a disappointed look.

"Why do you think we were on that path to begin with?"

The Wendigo's eyes narrowed, "Don't treat me like a fool, it was to find civilization."

"Yes, because humans are predictable. They build in specific places suited to survival, and this my friend-"

I gestured to the stream that stretched deep into the forest behind me.

"-is a much more reliable path. I'd even go as far as to say fate was on our side when we landed here, if I believed in something like fate that is."

I looked up towards the sky.

"Thanks for the assist, demon. I'm glad to see that you're coming around to me."

---------------------

Far off in a space between dimensions, floating amongst a great nothingness stood a manner of incomparable wealth. Only two beings resided within it, a demon who loved to make deals, and his loyal retainer.

And for the first time in years laughter echoed throughout the empty halls.

The demon stood before a wall of illusions displaying thousands of unique people following his trials, but the demon's eyes were glued to one in particular.

The person who he considered closest to actually killing a god.

The demon called loudly an unpronounceable name, and in the next instant his retainer was there by his side. It took the appearance of a well-dressed elderly man and bowed slightly towards the demon.

"One of our contractees just struck a blow to the God of Time's army!"

"Oh?"

The retainer walked up beside the demon and watched the illusion just as a petrified body was shattered by the emperor of Baal.

"I suppose he did more than could be expected of him."

"He'll continue to do more, the gift he chose was immortality."

The retainer raised an eyebrow, "Would you mind if I take a look at his contract?"

"Go right ahead."

He snapped and the giant pile of papers manifested before the retainer who quickly began to read through them at an alarming speed.

…

…

…

"Sir, you did- you did actually read his contract, right?"

"Of course I did. Do you take me for a fool? I used magic to understand its meaning in an instant!"

The retainer moved to say something, but stopped himself and just sighed instead, "Sir, I've told you again and again to actually read the contracts. The humans sneak in subtle changes that the magic doesn't pick up."

The demon dismissed it with a wave, "It's of no major concern, and it's not what I called you in here for. Read me his file. I wish to see why he's more capable than the others."

The retainer reached into an empty spot in space and pulled out a file.

"Let's see here. Marcus Keane, age fifty-two. Head of a major criminal organization and a successful politician. He killed the previous head of the organization at the age of twenty and apparently has a personal goal to rule his world, which in my personal opinion, should actually be quite possible once you've given him his complete power."

The demon continued to watch the illusion, a smile on his face. The army was in shambles, with branches, roots and vines impaled through the majority of the soldiers. The expression on the emperor's face was one of pure rage, blood dripping freely from his many wounds. This was enough to convince him.

"Make sure he's placed somewhere good when he revives this time. He can consider it a prize for pleasing me."

"Very well, my lord."

With that the retainer left, and the demon went back to watching the ever-shifting illusions, a smile present on his face.

"With this, there's now two trial takers of actual merit. Excellent."