#i couldn't bother to shade the gems in her necklace

[gowithasmo]

Mirror mirror in my hand

"I need to keep moving, but it'll be safer if they don't know it's me." MC nods quickly, trying to rationalize the choice to themselves. "Smaller and more easily hidden, you already give your followers gifts all the time so it wouldn't be weird. Put me into the jewelry or whatever you can and then give me to one of them."

Asmo takes a second to rummage through his closet before pulling out a necklace. It's a gold chain with a medium sized ruby pendant adored by a few black gold rose buds. He takes a quick selfie with it, sending the photo to forums with his most dedicated fans. He framed it as an "exclusive raffle" for only the most precious of his followers, the winner to be decided in 20 minutes to see who actually bothered to regularly check his status updates. Within seconds a hundred have joined the raffle so he turns his attention back to MC.

"It's a prototype from Majolish, they wanted to design something off of our demon forms." He explains, clasping the chain around MC's neck. He guides them to the center of the room and continues to explain as he draws the magic circle around MC. "Your consciousness is going to be in the gem itself, so it's okay if the chain accidentally breaks. Being sealed within the gem will obscure your magic, but it also means you can't cast any magic while you're inside. "

"Have you used this before?" MC fiddles with the chain, growing more nervous as Asmo begins to write out symbols they've never seen in class.

"No, not personally. But I've seen Satan cast it and others have cast it for me. It shouldn't be difficult for me." With the circle complete and the spell open on his phone, Asmo weaves his magic with MC's, counting off in his head as each symbol lights up in the correct order. With a soft hiss and a rush of warm air, MC disappears and Asmo catches the necklace before it can hit the ground.

He stares at the gem, a shade darker than before, and gives it a kiss. "MC, can you hear me?"

The gem returns to its former color and a murky image appears. Asmo twists the stone in his hands and when the light hits it just right, MC appears on the top. Their face wavers for a second before MC focuses on Asmo's face. They try to speak, but it comes out warbled, as if they were underwater.

"I'm sorry love I can't hear you, but are you okay? Do you think you can stay in there?" Asmo asks. MC glances around, and although they look a bit unsure, they give him a thumbs up. "Alright, then go back into hiding. We've got to get going."

He watches MC fade from the gem top and the stone go back to the darker shade. Asmo cradles it to his chest for a moment, trying to still his racing heart.

This was insane right? When he spent the night in the hospital yesterday and woke up to bad hair with MC basically comatose next to him, Asmo was sure this day couldn't get worse. And now he was holding their soul in his hand, having to trust their life to another. He kisses the gem, whispering, "I promise to get you back soon."

Asmo cusses when he checks his "exclusive raffle", well over a thousand people have entered at this point. He sorts through the names, looking for a few in particular that he had in mind from the beginning. There- a fire spirit he's known for a few thousand years now, kinder than most, a good fighter, and has helped him in the past. Asmo ends the contest and sends a message to the fire spirit, agreeing to meet them at the edge of the forest so they wouldn't have to walk all the way into town- thankfully he wouldn't have to go past the academy to get to her. They meet up and the exchange happens less than 10 minutes later. Asmo puts on a show for the delivery.

It's an exclusive item only for the most darling of his loyal followers! They can take selfies together but she can't post them, the others can get so jealous you know, and we wouldn't want them to feel un-special just because they weren't lucky this time. Of course she's invited to the next party he throws- bring a friend!

His patience is wearing thin, and Asmo notices he's missed the deadline so with one last kiss on the cheek to seal the deal, he rushes off to the Royal Academy of Diavolo.

The fire spirit is over the moon in joy. She doesn't even pretend to walk, instead floating and cooing over the necklace all the way home. She admired herself in the mirror, already looking for a reason to wear it out when the reason delivered itself to her.

[DUDE! Someone must have seriously screwed up! I haven't seen skies like these since I was in kindergarten! Storm party at Roman's house tonight, I'd better see your sexy self there 😘]

The fire spirit checked outside and her friend was right. The navy blue sky was now a darker red than the gem on her chest, the gales were deafening and it took all of her lower body strength and some invisible hands to be able to shut the door again. This kind of weather meant the demon prince and his butler were distracted so everyone could get rowdier than usual- storm parties are something you NEVER skip out on!

Whatever the prince was pissed about wasn't on her head, so she dolled up to the nines with the necklace as the main attraction. By the time she was done she had to use magic to get to the party, acid rain flooding the streets and would definitely muddy her heels.

The party is every bit the rager she thought it would be- bass drowning out the rain, vices crammed into every room, enough demonus to swim in, and just as planned, everyone ravished her with praise the entire night. All of her friends asked where she got it from, but Asmo's words rang in her head so she lied through her teeth.

"An early release from the brand my boyfriend works at! No I didn't win the raffle, did you? Ohhh, I'm so sorry! Maybe we'll win next time!" All the while feeling superior for having a secret only she and the lovely Asmodeus knew. The party went on well into the morning, every time she thought the demonus was gone and drugs were used up, someone managed to pull out more. When she'd finally had enough, her best friend brought her home and slept off the high with her. When they were both sober, the best friend asked to borrow the necklace- she had a really big date coming up and he wasn't paying enough attention to her. The fire spirit's friend made promises and kissy faces, begging for the necklace so the fire spirit let her borrow it. How could she deny her best friend this?

--------------------

Months have gone by, so many consecutive storm parties that the Devildom almost stopped functioning altogether. All of its citizens were either high out of their mind or getting bolder, acting out in ways they never could have gotten away with before. Classes at RAD had been suspended for an entire month- while the citizens had been partying, instructors and royals alike weren't seen in the public eye for a while. But the skies had finally cleared, slowly returning to a navy blue, the moon shining bright in the sky again.

After Lord Diavolo had calmed down some, Solomon had defended MC's case for them at great risk for personal injury to himself. It took a solid couple of weeks, but with Barbatos and a handful of powerful witches acting as unbiased mediators, Solomon and Diavolo came to an understanding. MC ran because they felt like their life was in danger, and Diavolo had over reacted. MC can come back and they would both apologize, all could be forgiven.

Asmo could finally conceal his wounds, which is more than he could say for his brothers. But today was finally the day! Asmo was going to get MC back from the fire spirit! He made sure to pack 4 goodie bags of gifts and personal notes that he hand wrote and kissed as an apology for having to take back the necklace. If that wasn't enough he was sure he could find some way to make it up to her- take her to dinner, invite her out for a week- after he'd gotten to spend time with MC of course.

Asmo greets the fire spirit with a big hug, apologizing over and over again for giving her a "defective" gift and taking so long to replace it. He handed over the bags and had to restrain himself from snatching the necklace from her hands. Gold chain with a dark ruby pendant and silver rose buds-

Asmo stops and takes another look at the necklace. Silver rose buds? He turns to the fire spirit and finally gets a good look at her. Her ears were pressed flat against her skull, tail wrapped around one of her legs and she wouldn't meet his eyes.

"What happened?"

The girl burst out into tears, throwing herself against Asmo and apologizing for being the worst person in the Devildom. She doesn't stay there long before Asmo rips her off, slamming her into the closest tree. She claws at his hand, too short to kick him, but Asmo's grip only tightened.

"That's not what I asked. What. Happened. To. My. Necklace?"

Through short- choked - sentences, Asmo finds out that she had lent the necklace to her friend and someone had stolen it off her. He leaves her sobbing on the ground, begging for forgiveness and goes to hunt down the best friend.

It turns out to be useless.

While the girl had gotten a good look at the person that stole the necklace, he'd already traded it to a friend. The friend? Sold it off.

Satan, Mammon, and Asmo were in the middle of checking every pawn shop in the Devildom when they made another unfortunate discovery. The first week of storms had ruined the business cycle of every store in the Devildom and everyone was desperate to make a profit. The necklace based on the prototype that Asmo put MC in had been released a month early, half of the designs with silver rose buds, the other half with black rose buds.

More than a thousand had been sold already.

Asmo racked up millions of dollars of debt within days, buying and taking version of the necklace he could get his hands on- Mammon stealing the ones that people didn't want to sell. Majolish couldn't stop the production fast enough- another 2 thousand sold and even shipped to the human realm franchises. By now, everyone knew that the demon of lust himself was obsessed with this necklace, so replicas began to flood the market as well. No matter how many necklaces Asmo bought, there always seemed to be 10 more he couldn't get his hands on.

After a few hundred odd years the search slowed and then stopped altogether. It was rare to see the demon lords or prince at RAD now. They've all taken up more official positions that kept them busy at all hours of the day. And in the streets, a new local legend passed through the mouths of the students.

A legend about a cursed necklace that would only respond to a spell now lost to time. 'It will grant you a wish!' some would say. 'It'll curse you to fail every exam until you kill someone!' claimed another. But it was just an old wives tale, and even if the necklace was real, the spell had been lost for so long that the necklace would never respond to anyone again.

#Ending 13: Diamond Castle #Word count: 2022 #om cyoa