"You there, honey?" my mother asked me.

We were home.

I raised my hands to my face. Both of them were still there.

"What are you daydreaming about?" she asked.

I slowly scanned the room as I backed up in knowing contemplation.

My grandfather looked up from the dinner table. Along with Alex and even my grandmother.

"What are you?" I asked as I felt my hand reach behind my back and wrap around a kitchen knife that sat in its countertop sheathe.

My mother smiled. "What are you talking about?"

I shook my head in an all too serious manner and felt my heart pumping.

"It's over," I said. "You've messed up whatever sick game this was."

I watched the emotions play out over my mom's face then. For a moment, it almost looked like it was considering keeping up the charade, before it's face began to frown and then almost snarl.

"You just couldn't sleep in a pretty, little dream world, could you?" the not-Cassandra said.

It's snarl turned deeper as its face rearranged to grow and shift to accommodate it.

Its back began to hunch as it approached me and its skin grew ragged. All the while, clumps of hair fell from its head.

"You weren't even supposed to have any memories," it said. "He said you were a child."

A textbok slowly sprawled out over the thing's head.

[Infant Dominator Demon, Level 1 Fiend]

[HP: 10/10]

"What are you?" it asked as its finger cracked and bent.

"Not someone with a head you want to be in," I said; my hand gripped the knife. "Mostly because I don't want you here."

It started to laugh. "Oh, I know, so much pain and mess up there."

"It's pathetic," it's spittle flew across the room at me. "I gave you paradise and all at the cost of one, little body. What is there for you out there, in a world without anyone you care about?"

"You didn't give me anything. You just lied," I replied. "I guess demons are the same in every world."

It lunged and I just barely kept its newly grown claws from ripping my face off. My dodge was sloppy. I was tired though. Mentally drained from relieving the worst of my life.

[You lost 4 HP.]

I felt my cheek start to bleed. I reached up to touch the wound. I could feel the chunk of flesh that just a slight touch of the thing's claws had taken from me.

Level 1 my ass.

My own statblock slowly spread out at the top of my vision.

[Castian Stoneheart, Level 3 Pilgrim]

[HP: 17/21]

Okay, at least I had more health than this thing.

But, then again... I looked to the rest of my family who were slowly starting to stand.

"You really should've just stayed happy, son," my grandfather said; I didn't have to wait long for his body to began to change as well.

"Such a bad grandchild," my grandmother said as her back cracked up into a hunchback.

Their statblocks came next.

[Demonic Apparition, Level 0]

[HP: 5/5]

"Could've just let me give us both what we want," the demon said and jumped forward violently once more.

I glanced back behind me and a plan began to formulate.

The creature's growing claws, which had shifted and widened out from what had been masquerading as my mother's hands, had become massive, ugly mittens of twisted flesh.

The long, thick nails collided with the faucet pipe of the kitchen island, which I'd purposefully backed up against. Water spewed up everywhere and slammed into the face of the Dominator Demon.

"You could've just made it believable," I mocked. "Or figured out what I really cared about."

The abomination shrieked and swatted at the burst of water that smacked it in the face, before turning towards me again.

"I was getting there," it hissed and shoved a finger at me; liquid rolled from its point-toothed maw.

For a moment, the rage abated and it smiled.

"Dad?" it said, but in a voice that was far too close to home.

"Don't you dare--" I said.

It took a step towards me. Its face didn't seem able to quite become human again, but nonetheless it shifted and took on what could only vaguely be said to resemble my eldest daughter's. "You wouldn't hurt me would you, daddy?"

It jumped again. I admit, I was a little taken aback.

It's claw hit me hard across the stomach. I couldn't stop it in time. It was faster than it looked.

[You lost 5 HP.]

I did miss my daughters, but, more than that, I was furious it would mimic one of them.

My fist collided against the demon's face and sent it staggering back.

[You dealt 1 Unarmed damage to Dominator Demon.]

A hiss came from the side and what had once been Alex collided with me.

She didn't seem to have the claws of the Dominator Demon proper, and her face wasn't quite as warped, though her teeth were still razor sharp and her eyes all too black.

"What's wrong, baby?" the not-Alex asked as it pinned me against a wall.

It cackled a laugh and then put on a pouty, sultry face. "Didn't you like our kiss?"

Much in the way the Dominator mimicking my daughter had enraged me, seeing this thing look like the woman who had become my wife, after we'd eventually reunited, did much the same.

My forehead collided with the creature.

[You lost 1 HP.]

[You dealt 1 Unarmed damage to Demonic Apparition.]

Where I'd hit the thing, it's face began to warp and break off into black mist.

One point of damage wasn't going to cut it, but this thing wasn't the ringleader--and it was stunned for the moment.

I bolted to where its master was still coming for me.

"Don't hurt me, daddy," it said as I lunged.

I caught it just in time to slam my knife into its stomach. If it had been anything but my daughter's face, I would've enjoyed the look of shock on its smug and twisted guise.

It howled and dropped the use of a human sounding voice altogether. With a swipe of its claw it separated my hand from my wrist.

[You've lost 10 HP.]

[You've been dealt a critical wound.]

[You've acquired the Bleed status effect. You will suffer from 1 HP of damage every 10 seconds.]

My health bar started to quickly tick down to nothing.

[Castian Stoneheart, Level 3 Pilgrim]

[HP: 6/21]

The pain blinded me long enough for it to grab me.

I tried to stop it, but it had me by surprise and I felt it bite into my neck with its fangs.

[You've lost 3 HP.]

My vision blurred. My mind grew distant.

I only had 15 seconds of life left, maybe less. I was going to die.

If I didn't act.

I felt myself scream in pain as my body acted of its own accord.

With all the strength I had left I charged forward against the demon, shoving it towards the kitchen island, and then hefted it up with all my might.

Its teeth were ripped from my neck as it was pulled off of me by gravity and impaled upon the slashed open kitchen faucet.

I watched as the Dominator demon, wearing the face of my eldest child, burbled blood from its mouth.

[You've reduced the Dominator demon to 0 HP.]

[You've reached 0 HP.]

[Rolling for death.]

[Exception noted.]

[Mindscape spell terminated.]

The demon looked up to me with hatred in its black eyes. "I will not die. If you won't give me your body, I will take it."

The kitchen faded into black smoke.

My statblock faded from the screen as the world around me became a blank, wispy void of ill-defined matter.

My body slowly lost its features as well. The same smoke billowed off of me and took my physical features with it, as if they were also just an illusion of the demon. Leaving me as only a familiar and glowing, half-elf shaped figure.

But, I sensed movement from the corner of my eye.

And then that movement collided with me.

[Soul of Infant Dominator Demon, Level 1]

The thing looked just like I now did, except it was all black, and there was no light whatsoever coming from it.

Its hands wrapped around my throat, but they seemed almost weak somehow.

"Even if you win now, I won't leave your body. I've been placed here by Him. No mortal magic will be able to take you from me," it said.

It leaned forward and its foul breath entered my formless nose. "I'll just wait until you're weak and then we'll try all of this again."

I grabbed the thing back and rolled on top of it.

Now that it wasn't wearing the mask of someone I loved, I didn't even have to think twice. My fist slammed home hard against its face.

There was no blood.

I didn't care.

I punched it again. I could hear it whimper as the blows kept coming.

I still... did... not... care.

It deserved this.

My fist collided.

It toyed with me.

Again my hand came down.

It reached into my most private moments.

Again it flinched under a blow.

It took the faces and voices of those I loved.

I hit it again. And again. And again.

It reminded me that I might never see them again.

Eventually, it stopped moving altogether.

I kept hitting it.

Until I didn't.

I honestly couldn't tell you for how long I assaulted the monster that shouldn't have even existed.

A small textbox appeared before me.

[You have dominated the soul of the Dominator demon. Do you wish to take its essence: y/n?]

My chest heaved in exertion. "What does that even mean?"

[If you do not absorb the demon, then it will remain inside you. You will become a demonhost. This may grant you powers and privileges, but it will also come with drawbacks. The demon may attempt to assert power again in the future.]

"And if I do?"

[You will do to it what it wanted to do to you, only in reverse. Its soul will become a part of yours, but it will lose the entirety of its sapience and agency. You will unlock skills and class trees unique to the demon race.]

I looked down to the still unmoving creature.

"Can't I just kill it?"

[Absorbing the essence of a demon is one of the few ways to truly "kill" it. Most lesser forms of destroying a demon merely banish its spirit to its assigned plane. These options are closed to you; a higher power has made your mind the plane of residence of this demon.]

The textbox hovered.

[Do you wish to take its essence: y/n?]

It looked like I didn't have much choice.

This thing had tried to take what should never be in question at all: my free will. I thought back to the all too happy world it had made for me. I felt hate for it swell up inside.

It deserved to die.

I selected yes.

The world changed one final time. The black smoke began to swirl... towards where I stood.

I stood up, but by this time the Dominator demon was already turning into just more of the black fog below me, and everything was beginning to happen very fast.

I realized that I couldn't escape the mist that literally made up all of reality here, wherever here was.

"Shit," I said.

I saw where this was going. The smoke was the demon. What I'd seen had just been mental projections, however that worked.

And then the black fog, the essence of the monstrosity, rushed into me.

It entered my eyes, my skin, my mouth. Everything.

It wasn't painful, I realized, but it was overwhelming. It was energy and malice made into soul. Not the greatest of afternoon snacks.

It went on for seemingly forever and, eventually, my mind simply stopped functioning.

[You've successfully acquired the Fiend class.]

It was the sound of clapping that brought me back to reality.

I looked up to see what could only be described as... unexpected.