Chapter 24. S-rank mission. Part 6. Absorption of the demon.

- Eros, - Gildarts whispered excitedly, looking at Eros's gaze, which lacked intelligence, contained only one rage ... And this gaze was directed at the magician. Only from him alone, a herd of goose bumps went down the back of the senior magician, - Stop looking at me like that Eros, come to your senses, stop joking, - as soon as these words left his mouth, the titan was already standing in front of him.

Gildarts only thanks to his reflexes managed to substitute his hand and partially block the blow. Eros managed to hook him with his claws, at the last moment. But the demon in the form of Eros did not stop there, he again attacked Gildarts. Each blow made the ground tremble.

"Heck! What to do?!" - the magician exclaimed in his mind, he did not want to injure Eros, so he tried to use only one physical strength to block the blows and counterattack. But it saved very little, because the titan was faster than him and the strength was simply awful, - LET YOU COME TO YOURSELF! - he shouted in the face of the demon in front of him, but he only growled harder in response, - I can't hold out for a long time, so that's enough to play Eros!

Gildarts continued to block the titan's attacks, thinking about solving this situation, but one thing Gildarts understood for sure, Eros absorbed the demon of his own free will, which means that he has a way to fight him and only need to hold out until the titan takes over him. But how Gildarts was wrong at this moment, after all, Eros himself did not expect this.

*In the subconscious of Eros.*

Eros wandered in darkness. Everywhere you looked, there was only one darkness.

"It feels like I have returned to that place ..." - the titan thought with a slight trepidation, trying to concentrate on the magical power in his body, but he simply could not feel anything and this frightened him most of all. But still, he could restrain himself in his hands, because he was not the first time in such a place. Eros just walked forward without looking back.

And he himself did not understand how much time had passed since he got into this place ... And finally, he heard a sound that made him shudder ... It was the sound of steps and with each new step, they became louder and louder, as if "this" approached him. Not knowing why, Eros felt fear, he tried to run away from him, but he only became louder. And when "it" was already almost near him, the sound disappeared.

Eros himself did not notice how he stopped a long time ago and shivered like a real child, closing his eyes. It was only when the footsteps stopped that the titan was able to open his eyes. But there was simply no one in front of him or around him, only a white fog swirling around him. At that moment, he noticed movement to his right and, concentrating, the titan froze.

Directly behind the white fog stood a creature without skin, no eyes, instead of them there were only two holes. Although the creature did not have eyes, Eros was sure that it was looking directly at him. The creature raised its paw and tried to strike, but only when it came into contact with the fog, the paw began to quickly evaporate right in front of the titan's eyes, the next moment, the fog covered the entire body of the monster, destroying it. And when it disappeared, Eros was finally able to relax.

But this silence did not last long, the titan again heard the sounds of footsteps, but this time there were much more of them and with every second they were getting closer ...

And at that moment, the fog again made itself felt. He completely wrapped Eros and began to lift him up, and the higher he was raised, the more clearly he could see the whole picture. It seemed to the titan that he saw a real hell, these creatures were not dozens, not hundreds or thousands ... But much, much more of them could not be counted, and each of them looked at Eros and pulled its paws in his direction ...

Looking at all this, the titan was afraid of only one thing, that the fog might disappear and it would fall down to them ... And only God knows what they will do to him ... The titan closed his eyes and covered his ears.

After an unknown amount of time, Eros can finally feel the support and he opened his eyes ... A pleasant wind blew over his face, there was a bright blue sky above him, and grass grew under his feet. Titan has never been so happy in his life.

But feeling something behind him, he shuddered, turned sharply and froze. He saw a lake with a black thick slurry, white fog swirling above it, and a red barrier around it. But what frightened Eros was the eyes, a thousand eyes looking at him.

A black hand crawled out of the slurry towards the titan, but when it came into contact with the fog, it began to disintegrate. Seeing this, Eros was able to breathe a sigh of relief, but nevertheless he decided to go as far as possible from this place and take a better look at the world in which he found himself. The Titan decided to go one way ...

*Several hours later.*

Eros could say with confidence that at least 3-4 hours had passed, but he did not see any changes, there was only one large plain ... After a few more hours of aimless fermentation, he finally saw something new. It was a giant, dry tree, only above it was a small dark cloud, completely covering the sun.

Coming closer to him, Eros froze. The tree was hollow inside, and what made him freeze was that there was someone in the tree ... He hugged his knees and trembled, but the titan could not fail to recognize the very demon that fought Gildarts.

Hearing footsteps, he stopped trembling and turned around. But when he saw Eros in front of him, he trembled even more and pressed against the wall of the tree as much as possible, and in his eyes there was only one thing, this is fear, real animal fear.

- Monster ... - the demon whispered in a trembling voice, - Y-you are a monster!

- And the demon tells me this, - Eros stretched out sarcastically, - You better tell me where we are? - Taking a step forward towards Astaroth, he shouted.

- DO NOT COME TO ME! - and looking somewhere behind the titan's back, he became whiter than chalk, - You ... y-you brought it from-here ...

Eros jumped forward sharply and turned around, froze. Behind him was the same "lake" with a thick slurry, fog swirling over it.

- How? - shocked, exclaimed the titan.

- DO NOT COME TO ME! THIS FUCK WILL ALWAYS BE FOLLOWING YOU! THIS IS YOUR FUCKING INNER WORLD! - the demon exclaimed with fury, - AND THIS! - he pointed with a shaking finger at the slurry, - WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR POWER FROM? MONSTER! - clutching his head, he looked at Eros with a trembling, - How could such a monster swallow me ... Better death than to live in fear that I will ever be swallowed up by it.

Sensing something was wrong, Eros turned to the demon, but it was too late, he pierced his chest and tore out his still beating heart.

- Heck! The titan exclaimed in annoyance. He did not feel sorry for the demon, because he deserved a much worse death, the most unpleasant thing was that the demon knew a lot about this place ... And if he did not lie and this place really is his inner world. His body shook.

"How wrong you died at the wrong time!" - Eros looked at the demon's corpse and was surprised, because his body began to disintegrate, turning into a red fog, which rushed to the titan, he did not have time to squeak, as the fog flew into his chest.

Clutching his head, he cried out in pain, the amount of information that entered his head was enormous ... There were many formulas, spells, knowledge of artifacts, runes, rituals ... All this poured into Eros's head in an endless stream. This was the knowledge of a demon who had lived not the first hundred years, and even for a creature like Eros, there were too many of them.

While Eros was writhing on the ground, a round red sphere separated from the lake, namely from the red barrier, and flew towards the titan.

Approaching him, she first hung over his head and after a couple of seconds began to plunge into it. As soon as the ball disappeared in Eros's head, the screams began to subside, his twisted face smoothed out from pain and he peacefully snuffled. For the first time in such a long time, the titan had a dream ... In the dream there was his family, his mom and dad, and even his stupid brother was sitting next to him. Eros told them everything that happened to him in this world, about all the funny and sad moments, about Roni, Rick and Lily, about the good old man Makarov, about his teacher Gildarts and about the most reckless guild in Fiore ...

***

There was not a single living place on Gildarts. He was literally beaten, and the maximum that he could answer was to use only one physical strength, because he did not want to harm Eros. Perhaps his magic would not harm him, but there was no risk. Only one thing pleased the magician, that the titan did not use magic power.

But there was one thing that scared Gildarts the most, and that was age. If at such a young age he fought on equal terms with a magician of his level without using magic, then what will happen when he grows up. Is he creating a monster that even he will not be able to stop?

But these stupid thoughts he quickly threw out of his head when he saw the demon stop abruptly and grabbed his head. His scream was so loud that Gildarts had to cover his ears. This lasted for about a minute, until the scream turned into a wheeze. The titan fell to his knees and the next moment, the demon's form began to disintegrate, returning the usual form of Eros.

With a groan, Gildarts walked over to Eros' body and froze. After all, there was not a single scratch on that. Still, he had smacked the titanium well more than once to at least knock him out, but his skin was too tough. From the strongest blows, only small abrasions remained.

- Oh, you, you little asshole, - hissed the magician and the next moment he laughed, - Fuck you, okay, it's time to get out of here, - throwing the boy's body on his shoulder, he went to one of the walls and began to slowly make his way through it out ...