I Was Sacrificed To A Demon-Lady Of The Abyss...

My parents were a humble man and woman. We farmed beats, wheat, and sheep for our sustenance and while my diet was monotonous, it was not lacking in nutrition or fullness, which many other children in our area DID lack.

However, in my 17th year, a dark shadow was cast over our entire region when the evil warlord, Vakar: the Herald of Damnation, seized the throne and called out of hiding all the secret cults of the demon lords of the abyss which had once been hunted and hounded by the Paladins of Sol-en-Victus.

In my home region, that cult was the worshipers of the Demon-Lady Kimberry, The Sea of Poisonous Burning, and for one of her most blasphemous rites you had to sacrifice a person that was both man and woman, yet also neither...

I had five brothers and sisters to protect, plus my father and mother would have tried to fight them and been killed, so, I went to the cultists and volunteered to serve as their sacrifice the coming year.

They asked what was in it for me, and I responded "ascension to demon hood". Now, this could have gone very very badly, except, I had secured a 'cursed' ring that made my aura appear to be as dark and undisciplined as their own. As such, they accepted my ambition for the status of demon and I was put through an intense training regimen for most of the next year in hopes I would become a Malrith.

At last the final night came, and I was led to the pit of sacrifice, a great stone pit about thirty feet across and its edges hemed with spikes while the bottom bubbled with heated acid, arcane ritual brands burned into my flesh like a living summoning diagram, then tossed in...

There was a blinding flash of golden light, and then...