Six goat heads couldn’t get their eyes off the apple in Aaron’s hand. They spoke with measured words, issuing an order:

“And now, hand it over to us.”

Aaron squited. He observed every expression on their faces and asked:

“Why don’t you just come and take it yourself?”

“Don’t mess with us! Throw the apple over here!” Tarisel roared, slithering around Aaron in a circle yet still not daring to get too close.

“You … are afraid of this radiance it gives off, aren’t you?” Aaron asked, the corner of his mouth curved up.

Tarisel lunged forward. One of the goat heads stretched out in an attempt to bite Aaron. However, the moment it touched the barrier of light produced by the apple, it was repelled and pushed far away.

“Wonderful!” Aaron cheered with a mix of relief and excitement.

“Don’t celebrate so soon, brat. This so-called impenetrable protection will only last ten minutes. After that, we swear we will skin you alive and toss you into Phlegethon,” Tarisel growled with a low and resentful tone.

“You think I’ll believe a single word you say?” Aaron shrugged.

He started moving around the area, trying to search for a way out, while Tarisel hovered just behind him, a shadow looming at his back. Five minutes passed before Aaron came to a halt. He sighed, and his expression was full of reluctant acceptance. The glow surrounding his body had already dimmed, now just half as bright as before.

It seemed that the demon had been telling the truth.

Damn it! Useless spell!

Aaron came up with another plan. He spoke:

“Hey, you once said that if I retrieved this heart for you, you would let me return home. Now open the gates of Hell and send me back. If you refuse, then I’ll smash this apple to pieces.”

“It doesn’t matter. Go ahead and destroy it. Afterward, we will devour the very ground beneath your feet, no different from biting into the apple itself. The divine power within it will not fade so easy,” Tarisel replied.

“Then what if … I eat the apple instead? Would the Heart of Everlasting Light inside me be able to digest its energy?” Aaron asked.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Tarisel’s furious roar made the entire space tremble as if in an earthquake.

Their body grew even larger, their six goat heads rising high like towering spires, all of them glaring straight down at Aaron.

Ah ha! I’ve found your weakness!

Aaron began to bargain:

“I could give it to you. But before that, you must open the gates of Hell and send me back to Earth. Once I return home, I will toss the apple through to you.”

Tarisel fell silent for a while, then responded:

“We cannot do that.”

“Stop bullshitting! Then how were you able to drag me from my bedroom?” Aaron retorted.

“Because it happened on the blood moon night that fell on the Day of the Departed. That was the moment when the boundary between life and death became the most fragile, and that was the reason why we could manage it. But now the gate is closed, and only those who bear the power of a reaper can open the way into the Underworld at will,” Tarisel explained.

“So you’re not a reaper yourself?”

“Not every divine being in Hell is a reaper. There are two types of them: those who are born with that power, and those who are granted the authority by the Great Flow. They are among the rarest kinds of holy entities. Now, the one path for you to return is to let us escort you upward through the upper layers of The Abyss and exit through the main gate. Give us the apple, and we swear we will take you home,” Tarisel said.

His voice was almost convincing.

“I wish I could believe your words,” Aaron said. “But from the moment I first looked upon you, I felt it - an unending malice flowing from you. And since this apple came into my hand, that feeling has only sharpened.”

His voice turned hoarse, heavy with the weight of the revelation:

“You never had any intention of sparing my life, did you?”

Aaron looked straight into those horizontal, rectangular pupils.

“Then even if I have to die, you will never get your hands on this.”

He then raised the apple to his mouth and sank his teeth into it.

The golden apple, no larger than half a fist, was devoured in just three bites. It had an incredible sweet taste, unlike any mortal food Aaron had ever known. It was as though a sense of fulfillment had seeped into the very depths of his soul, altering and transforming him.

So yummy. At least before I die, I got to taste something this good. Aaron felt a slight sense of comfort.

Tarisel went mad with rage. They tried again and again to attack the radiance around Aaron, but it was all in vain. By the time Aaron swallowed the final bite of the apple, the protective glow had vanished without a trace.

“Well, well, well, it was so delicious! Too bad you’ll never get to taste it yourself. Ugly bastard,” Aaron tried to taunt Tarisel one last time.

He pressed his eyes shut.

Goodbye, Mom and Dad. Perhaps he’ll devour me whole to recover whatever energy is left from the apple. Hopefully, it won’t hurt too much. Please don’t chew too hard.

But a long moment passed, and nothing happened. Aaron opened his eyes in a weary motion and saw Tarisel still standing there staring at him. The demon’s goat heads were grinning with a twisted sense of delight.

“You know,” Tarisel began speaking, their voice cold but also amused. “The heart of Orpheus has been burning for more than six thousand two hundred years, and it has caused most of its divine power to be wasted away. To eat the apple outright would grant us little to no benefit. Compared to eating it outright, there is a much better way.”

No … no way! Aaron's eyes widened.

“And that is to let an unawakened Sunkindler eat the apple, not by force, but by choice, inherit all the power inside it, and bring forth a Heart of Everlasting Light anew: pure, unspent, and young. The foremost condition is that the person must choose it of their own free will,” Tarisel said. “There was never any impenetrable protection to begin with!”

The goat heads laughed out loud.

Aaron’s face turned pale, even though he was now only a soul.

So that was it. From the very moment he obtained the golden apple, Tarisel had been leading him along a path that ended with him eating it by his own decision. He had fallen into a trap so elaborate that he could never have imagined.

To be honest, it was hard to blame him.

If a fifteen-year-old boy, in a passive and powerless situation, with no knowledge whatsoever about the magical world, could outwit a cunning demon that had lived for thousands of years, it would be nothing short of a miracle of fate.

“It will take seven more days for your heart to complete its transformation. Enjoy your last moments while you can,” Tarisel said.

They reached into the throat of one of the goat heads and pulled out a glass orb. Then they placed Aaron’s soul inside it, ensnaring him and leaving him unable to shift even a finger.

Random pieces of knowledge about magic and divine beings surfaced within Aaron’s head after he ate the apple. This was the inheritance left behind by Orpheus.

Inside his mind, Aaron scoured the vast knowledge in desperate search of a way to escape.

Yet as time went on, his despair grew ever deeper. He had no physical body, and even his soul could not budge an inch.

What’s worse, when he saw Tarisel flying upward, only then did Aaron realize the sheer might of the creature before him.

In The Abyss, there were two kinds of beings that dared to move through the sky: those who wished for death, and those of power beyond measure.

According to the records, none but archdemons, or stronger creatures, ventured to fly above the skies of Hell without restraint. Across the entire cosmos, all beings who reached the arch level shared the same resounding title that echoed throughout history: demigods.

Tarisel returned to their massive stone dome. They coiled their centipede body onto the throne of bones and set the orb containing Aaron at the very center. The six goat heads stared at the boy, drooling, waiting for the day he would be fully awakened.