As the light finally faded, Raze found himself staring at a figure standing inside the library with him. His heart almost jumped out of his chest when he realized who it was.
The demon from the image in the book.
It stood exactly as the illustration had shown it. One hand resting on a massive sword propped casually against its shoulder. The creature posed with such confidence that it almost looked like it had been waiting centuries just to make this dramatic entrance. Its eyes slid slowly across the room until they t Raze’s, and it tilted its head slightly, as if saying look at and admire greatness.
A low growl vibrated from its chest before it fully turned to face him.
"Are you the human that brought here?" the demon asked in a loud, regal tone like it expected trumpets to follow its words.
"Yeah. That’s ," Raze replied, trying to keep his tone level despite the chaos inside his mind. He definitely had not expected that filling out a book would summon an actual demon.
The demon stared for a few breaths, then broke into a wide, sinister smile. Raze braced himself for an attack.
Instead, the sinister grin instantly shifted into a cheerful one.
"Oh, that is great," the demon said suddenly in a friendly voice, walking past Raze like soone who had just been released from a week-long nap. "Thank you. I have been trapped in a suspended state for a very long ti."
Before Raze could react, the demon dragged out a chair, sat down, leaned back, and rested both arms on the table. He looked completely relaxed, while Raze stood there trying to process reality.
"What the hell is happening?" Raze asked.
The demon nodded as if that was a fair question. "Right. My apologies. I have not introduced myself. I am Beelzebub, a demon king."
Raze blinked. "A demon king."
"Yes. A demon king," Beelzebub repeated casually, as though announcing he worked at a bakery. "From a world that is most likely not the sa as yours."
Raze rubbed his forehead. "I still don’t understand."
"Let explain properly," Beelzebub said, lifting one finger like a teacher. "I was killed. Before my true death, I offered my soul to this library. The library sealed in a book in a suspended state until soone summoned again. That soone happened to be you."
"You offered your soul to the library?" Raze asked.
"Yes. I did not want to die. A strange woman ca to at the mont of death and offered a way to live again, even if only inside a book. I accepted," Beelzebub explained calmly.
Raze lifted both hands, signaling him to stop. "No. Wait. This is too much. I need more details"
Beelzebub nodded. "Fair. If you want the rest of the information, you must undergo what the book calls the trial. Anyone who summons receives my blessing, but ypu need to but undergo the trial, which ans, you live through my life. My struggles, my pain, my victories, everything. If you survive it ntally, you gain my blessing and all the answers you want."
He stretched his hand out toward Raze.
"All you have to do is shake my hand."
Raze stared at the hand like it might explode.
"No. No. No. I am not shaking anything until I understand what is going on." He glared around the library. "Library, explain. Librarian, where are you? Soone tell what this is."
But the library stayed completely silent.
Raze looked back at Beelzebub, who continued smiling as though all of this was perfectly reasonable.
And Raze felt it again. That pressure. That eerie sense that the being sitting across from him was powerful. Extrely powerful. Possibly beyond even Fey.
Luckily for Raze, the librarian descended from above in a gentle drift of light. It turned toward Beelzebub, who was still seated casually in the chair like he owned the place. Then the librarian floated to Raze’s side.
"Seems you have completed the first page of the book I gave, this is the result," the librarian said calmly. It pointed at Beelzebub. "He is alive within the library. His purpose is to allow the current user of the library to gain experience and strength without needing to live it physically."
Raze looked at Beelzebub again.
"You may obtain his blessing by undergoing a trial," the librarian continued. "The trial places you in his mind, showing you his life from beginning to end in a fast-forwarded stream. Surviving it ntally ans you gain his blessing. That is the reason I gave you the book. It will allow you to summon otherworldly beings and gain power from their experiences."
Raze stared at the librarian for a long mont before releasing a deep, slow breath.
"So let get this straight," Raze said. "You are telling that this being is a demon king from another world. He was supposed to die, but the library saved him. And his job now is for to relive his life and gain experience from it?"
"That is exactly what I said," Beelzebub replied, still seated comfortably. He rose to his feet with a confident stride. "All you have to do is step into my mind and walk through my mories. See what I saw. Feel what I felt. Understand what shaped ."
Raze folded his arms. "Fine. How long did you even live?"
"Close to a thousand years," Beelzebub answered casually.
Raze’s eyes widened. "How in the world do you expect to go through a thousand years of mories like it is nothing? Am I supposed to stay trapped in your life story forever? Humans barely live a hundred years. I would die of boredom before I die of old age."
The librarian shook its head. "No. Barely ten seconds will pass in the real world. Inside your mind, it will feel longer, but still fast-forwarded. The mind accepts information at an accelerated speed. You will experience the entire sequence in monts. You should be done before you even collapse to the ground."
Raze looked at the librarian, then at Beelzebub, who smiled like this was all routine.
"I still do not fully understand this," Raze muttered. He thought for a mont. "But the library has never led down a bad path. Not yet, at least."
With a steady exhale, he stepped forward and stretched out his hand.
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