"Ha ha ha, that's it! Embrace us! You will gain power beyond anything you've ever known! Come, come! Let us merge into one!"
"Shut up! Hethradiah! I'm the one who made the deal with him! You'll remain in this godforsaken, sunless place forever, while I will rise again! There can only ever be one Demogorgon—and that is me!"
"Die, coward! How could you possibly be Demogorgon? I am! I alone will claim the final victory! Die! Die!"
"Ahhhhh! What are you doing?! Damn it! Damn it!"
The instant Solam swallowed the crystal, the usual little drama began inside it. Then, amid the chaos, both voices fell silent. Since leaving Bechard's tomb, Solam had become used to the daily routine between those two lunatics. Whenever they woke up, they would start cursing and mocking each other, and it would inevitably escalate into a brawl until both of them had no choice but to go back to sleep.
Fortunately, even while attacking each other, they had not forgotten the important matter. They lent their power to Solam!
That was part of the agreement.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Solam had no mood to care about the dispute between those two bastards. They had been tearing into each other since the day they were born; it was not as if it had started today. Besides, they had never told him that accepting their power would be this painful.
To outsiders, Solam looked even worse.
All they saw was that after swallowing something, his entire body bent over like a cooked shrimp as he screamed without pause. Then, crack after crack began appearing across Solam's body. As the fissures multiplied, the outer layer of his skin shattered and peeled away in chunks like an eggshell.
As his outer skin fell away, blinding light burst from the cracks.