The Dark Dragon's Vessel: Throne of Ash and Shadow

Friends Till The End

His first friend.

Netami stood in front of him, the only difference was that his eyes were one of a demon now.

"How pathetic. I can't imagine how you didn't figure out that this boy was playing and using you all along."

'I did. But I didn't want to believe it. Childish isn't it?'

Max smiled at the demon.

...

Demons. They are entities without a physical form, thus they create contracts with other beings. In truth, it's rare to see other creatures except humans make such arrangements. Maybe due to jealousy, pride, or a desire for power. But a large majority of humans do this.

When negotiating a contract, you can wish for whatever you want, love and beauty, power, and many more but these are the most common. This is also where outlawed powers come from.

Although outlawed powers are illegal, entering into one of these contracts is not. Humans do not have the ability to make it illegal. If they did, they would be crushed by the dragons, who are allies of the demons.

By marrying, the dragon king Axel and the demon queen, their species became allies.

Now, in exchange for your desire, you must become a demon vessel. This means you must be willing to allow a demon to take over your body whenever it wants.

Max has always considered this a bad deal because there were so many loopholes for the demon side.

And it seems he was right looking at the demon that was in control of Netami's body.

Max knew something was wrong since the first floor. Now that his suspicions were proven correct he had an idea of what happened.

The haunted mansion was most likely his family's, which was most likely one of those that specialized in demon contracts. This explains why Netami was so knowledgeable about the beasts, how he recalled the path out, and how to open the door.

Seeing that the demon was using a similar drive to his, this confirmed to Max that he was the one who defeated the kidnappers that day. Netami's family, who most likely had ties to them, were informed of what had occurred.

Netami, hearing of a person with such a rare drive, most likely desired it, but he didn't want to settle with the usual outlawed one, he wanted it to be similar to the ancient one he had just heard about. So he went to Max's house, planned a scenario to let help utilize his drive, and then took a sample through the door.

This explained Netami's lack of surprise and his compliments on Max having the ancient drive. And why he wasn't there at night.

He probably went to make the deal, wishing for the demon to give him the outlawed darkness but to mix it with the sample.

He did this thinking he could overpower the demon and not let it control him, but it seems like it didn't turn out that way.

"You know, you shouldn't show people such a rare power. Who knows how they will react to a child having this drive? No record of it has been shown in a while. Makes me wonder why you have it."

'Im not sure myself. This is all going too fast.'

The demon sighed.

"It's sad that I have to kill such a rare being."

Max reached for the wooden sword he had concealed in the scabbard from the haunted house and assumed his regular combat posture.

Right foot in front, the arm that clutched the sword in the back, waist turned slightly to the right.