Jace and Catherine were on the bed covered by a sheet with Catherine laying on top of him. After a mutual climax, both were breathing heavily with some sweat on their faces.
Catherine moved to get off Jace and sleep beside him, but she was stopped as Jace put his arms around her waist and stopped her from moving. Catherine didn't mind, so she rested there on top of him just like that.
A few moments later, she couldn't help but ask, "Earlier you said it's 'almost' impossible to make a demigod a marionette for you. Tell me how it is possible and how it's impossible."
Jace thought about her question for a moment while caressing her waist under the sheet. "Well, demigods are different. If I try to control their spirit body threads—they would without a doubt know about it in an instant. It doesn't matter which pathway they are, they would figure it out..."
"And when they do, all they have to do is show a little resistance, and I wouldn't be able to even move their spirit body threads. More than that, it is likely that I'll even receive some sort of backlash for trying to control the threads of an individual with godhood," Jace explained as Catherine listened.
"Of course, if I myself were to be a demigod, I wouldn't have any trouble trying to control the threads of other demigods," Jace continued as he sighed.
"As for how it's possible... it's possible if the demigod doesn't show any resistance, meaning he should be unconscious or Psychologically immobilized. Of course, another option is to make a demigod lose control, and without any rationality, they likely wouldn't show any resistance as I gain control over their spirit body threads."
Catherine thought for a moment about what Jace said. "It seems like you've thought about this a lot."
Jace chuckled as he softly grabbed her ass in his hands. "Of course I have."
"Do you think I would be able to defeat another demigod when I become a Sequence 4 myself?" Catherine asked as she raised her head and looked at Jace.
Jace smiled. "I'm positive you can. When you become Sequence 4, not only will you have your current abilities of the Arbiter pathway—which would be at a demigod level—, you will also have all the powers of the Lawyer pathway up to Sequence 4, which you will receive upon your successful advancement..."
Jace softly kissed Catherine, who was looking at him. "You will be one of the most unique demigods, and you'll also have me. At that point, I'll likely have collected a few proper Sequence 5s as my marionettes. I should be of some help to you..."
"Forget about that. What about you? Are you prepared for your advancement?" Jace asked her hesitantly.
"Mm, within 2 months now..." Catherine answered lazily as she laid her head back on his shoulder.
A few minutes later, she got off the bed, taking the sheet with her to cover herself. She held the sheet to her chest as she went to the dressing table and looked through a drawer.
Meanwhile, Jace felt a bit awkward laying on the bed naked with nothing to cover himself, so he got off and started wearing his clothes.
A few moments later, Catherine walked back and sat on the bed with a small black box in her hand.
Jace had already put on his pants; right now, he put on his shirt while looking at Catherine.
He had to say, the sight of Catherine sitting there on the bed looking at him with only a white sheet around her body looked really tempting.
Catherine smiled, noticing Jace's attraction to her.
"Is that what I think it is?" Jace asked as he gestured towards the box in her hand.
"And what do you think it is?" Catherine answered his question with another question, with her one eyebrow raised.
Jace thought for a moment. He already knew what it was, but he answered the other way around, "Catherine... I like you a lot, but I already told you, I'm still too youn—"
*Catch*
It looked like Catherine still didn't much appreciate his humor, seeing how she threw the box at him.
Catherine rolled her eyes. "It's the artifact you had made for me," she said.
Jace chuckled as he looked at the small box in his hand. He leaned down and kissed Catherine softly. "Thank you," he said.
Catherine didn't say anything; she just waved her hand dismissively.
"I'll see you later." Jace snapped his fingers and disappeared from the bedroom, leaving Catherine alone.
Since Catherine was still tired given how she had stayed awake all night, she just slept on the bed.
——
Meanwhile, Jace got back to his house and now stood in his basement.
He looked at the small black box in his hand. Before going on his journey of advancement, he had given the Sequence 6 Devil characteristic to Catherine and asked her to contact the Artisan she knew and have the characteristics made into an artifact according to his needs.
And here it was, in his hands.
Jace flicked the box open, which revealed a dark ring inside. It was made out of a dark, silver-colored metal with deep engravings on it; also, the engravings were mismatched in the middle due to a line in between, as if split in the middle.
Yes, Jace had it made in a ring-type artifact. After using the Polymath Ring and the Prometheus Ring, he had been a fan of having artifacts as rings.
He also had the Devil's ring made like the Prometheus Ring, having the mechanism of turning it on by turning from the middle.
Taking the ring out of the box, he put it on his finger on the right hand. In the box, there was a piece of neatly folded paper. Jace pulled it out and unfolded it.
It was basically an information manual for the artifact.
According to it, the ring had many powers.
The first was the Devil's danger premonition—or rather, 'malice perception'—yes, malice perception sounded much better.
As Jace already knew, this power could be used to sense danger approaching him from powerful people who had thoughts about harming him and would likely acts on those thoughts, with this jace could make arrangements to avoid such things.
This power was not much useful to him considering not many people knew him; his path in the Beyonder world was quite normal considering the only things he did were act, digest, and advance, so he didn't have any enemies. But this power was too interesting to pass on nonetheless, and who knows, it just might be useful one day.
Other than that, he could also use the language of foulness with the ring, like 'slow', 'death', and 'corruption'.
Not only that, it also had spell-like abilities like poisonous 'sulfur fireballs' and 'flame cage'.
The most interesting thing about the ring was the fact that he could summon the 'sword of lava' with it!
It was a simple artifact with useful powers.
The side effects were manageable as well.
While using it, it made the user cold-blooded and cruel, and it also increased the desire to act on their dark thoughts; this state might last for a while even after stopping the usage of the ring.
Using the artifact for extended periods of time was not recommended, as it might make the user lose sight of themselves and might need a Psychiatrist to treat them.
Again, the side effects were manageable. As a Sequence 5 of the Seer pathway, Jace had good control over his emotions and actions; he could easily differentiate his actions in case the ring actually affected him to that extent.
On the other hand, he could always have his marionette use it, as such things did not affect a marionette.
Jace looked at the ring on his finger, turned it on, and used the 'malice perception' power... he felt nothing.
Well, that was expected; he didn't have any enemies.
Jace turned the ring off. He wanted to check out the 'sword of lava,' but he was currently too tired for that shit.
But he was pretty excited now that there was another amazing artifact in his collection.
For now, he went into his bedroom and slept peacefully.