This area is... Confusing me. There is almost nothing I recognize.
Sure, the grass and tree leaves are green, but the trunks of the trees are white. I’ve never seen a white tree in my life.
There looks to be snow and ice everywhere around here too. Wherever i am, it must be much colder than what I''m used to.
Of course, I can’t feel that. My skin is perpetually on fire after all.
But the people of this place seem to dress the same as what I''m used to seeing at home. Nobody seems to be dressed in especially thick clothing.
Maybe they have lived, well, wherever this is for so long and been so isolated from other human societies that they have adapted naturally thicker hair, or something like that? Helena seemed to be pretty similar to humans I am familiar with though, so I''m not sure.
‘You’re quiet. Are you thinking about anything?’
Helenas’ words snapped me out of my thoughts. We were standing right outside the city gates now, and Helena had leant herself against a light post. There were people coming in and out of the city at a pretty consistent pace. This place must be a traders’ guild, or something of the like.
People usually don’t move in and out of big settlements like this, this frequently, unless they’re bringing or are out of wares to sell.
We’ll probably find someone who can tell me… us, where we are in here. Or at least, where we are in relation to Valentine.
Helena looked back toward the city gates with a small frown. ‘You’re right. I still don’t really know why you want to get there so bad, but it’s not like I have a choice…’
I’m not going to kill you.
‘That’s not what I’m worried about. I’m worried that once you find whatever you’re looking for, you’ll just abandon me and go on your merry way alone.’
Helena took a deep breath, and I could feel that it hurt her to say this. ‘I don’t want to be alone. Not again…’
Helena sighed melancholically and I could feel her thoughts. She was recalling something deep and traumatic.
Do you… want to talk about it?
Helena wiped the single tear which had rolled down her chin off and brought her head up towards the city gates again. ‘No, no. It’s fine. It was a long time ago.’
I wanted to learn more, but I didn’t want to pressure Helena into saying anything she wasn’t comfortable with sharing. I couldn''t leave her body now to give her a hug and tell her it’s all right either, because of the huge crowd which she had walked into.
Oh well. Maybe if I gain her trust a bit more, she will tell me about it. For now, I guess we both just have our little secrets.
We had gone through the city gates without much fuss. There was a city guard at the gates but apparently, they were only there to protect against robbers and raiders since we didn’t need any documentation or permits to enter the city.
Must be a drifter town, I suppose.
The people behind the stalls around us all yelled to get our attention. They were each offering their set of products or produce to sell, but Helena politely declined all their attempts. We’re looking for information, and material goods can wait.
Eventually we reached a tavern at the side of the road. It wasn’t a significantly pretty or notably worn-down building, just your run-of-the-mill tavern. There should be at someone willing to barter for information in there.
Helena opened the doors with a small shove. The people inside didn’t seem to react to our entry and continued their ongoing conversations without giving us much regard. The tavernkeeper seemed to notice our entrance however and greeted us with a hearty laugh when we entered the tavern.
“Hello traveler! Welcome to Bill’s!”
Helena walked over to the bar and smiled at the fat man behind the counter. “Hello. I take it you’re Bill, then?”
The chubby man laughed heartily again and nodded. “That’s right. Welcome to my humble tavern!”
He brought up an ale mug and started rubbing the inside of it with a clean towel. “Would you like a drink? There’s a party in town today, first one’s on the house.”
A party? That’s interesting.
“What’s the party for?”
Bill looked a bit puzzled at Helena and scratched his head. “You haven’t heard? A Hydra which was terrorizing our trade routes for years was finally put down today! Sure we had some losses, but getting rid of that monster will make life a lot easier for our little drifter town.”
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Helena seemed a bit disinterested and answered quickly. “That’s really something. By the way, Bill, have you heard of a town called Valentine?”
Bill put a hand on his chin and hummed. “Valentine? Oh, you mean that Valentine, yeah, that’s a far while from here. You’ll need to cross the ocean and go to the other island, I’m afraid.”
Island? That’s valuable information.
“Thanks.”
Well I’ve never. There are multiple Islands?
Does that mean there are multiple hells for each Island? When I had control of the book of souls in hell, I never saw anything which would indicate there are more Islands. There was always just our world…
Helena acknowledged my confusion and continued asking Bill. “How would one get to this… other island?”
Bill let out a tiny laugh. “You take a boat, of course. The nearest dock is about a week from our town on horseback.”
‘I suppose we can fly?’
Yeah.
“Where, if you could just point in a general direction, would this dock be?”
Bill shook his head and smiled. “Here. Just take this map. I’ll give you a compass too, so you don’t get lost. You seem like a decent woman, so it’ll be free of charge.”
Helena smiled heartily and took the map and compass from the man. “Thank you.”
Bill smiled wide and nodded. “My pleasure. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
We left the city and I had told Helena to find a random mountain nearby. I left her body as soon as we reached the peak, and I sat down in contemplation.
“I’m intrigued at what Bill said about multiple islands. I wonder if I can get to hell from here, I’ll just need about 2 bodies worth of blood.”
Helena’s face turned pale and she looked at me. “H-how much blood?”
I shook my head rapidly. “No, not your blood. And yes, it’s quite grisly. Summon Dorm is about the only way for us demons to get to hell now that the barriers between the living realm and it are closed again. When the war broke out – Never mind. What matters now is we have to find two random people, preferably some that won’t be missed.”
Helena nodded in understanding, yet also in slight fear. “I’m starting to get why they call you demons.”
I grimaced slightly and turned toward Helena. “It’s not like I chose to have the spell require blood. I’m just doing what needs to be done.”
I turned away from Helena and spoke under my breath. “It’s not like I chose to be a demon either…”
Helena chose to stay behind on the mountain while I scouted around for people fitting of the ritual. That was fine by me, I just need to stick to the shadows and try to remain unseen.
I had flown onto a roof of the drifter town I was at before, and I was looking down at the people going by just like I had done when I was trying to find Helena. There were some people traveling in groups, which are out of the question entirely.
I looked to my side and into a dark alleyway. There were homeless sitting there, apparently outside some kind of poverty home.
It really pains me to do this, but these people won’t be missed if they go missing. I grit my teeth and jumped into the alleyway, spooking the homeless sitting there.
“Sorry.”
I grabbed two of the people at random, instantly getting a solid grip around their necks. The rest of the people around me all stood up in defiance, but they were too slow. I had already gone off the ground and started flying toward the nearby mountain before the homeless even had the time to get up properly.
“Oh my god, I’m gonna die!”
The woman I had grabbed with my left hand appeared to be entirely stoic, almost as if she had accepted her fate. The man in my right hand, however, was screaming and crying for his life.
I couldn’t bare to say anything to the two and just continued onward until I reached the mountaintop. Helena looked petrified at my arrival and watched in disgust at what I brought.
“You… You just took these people.”
I let the pair go now that they had no chance to escape anyway. “I wish there was another way.”
The man who I had taken finally seemed to realise what had happened and stood up to face me. “Kidnapper!” He threw a punch toward my body, but it didn’t do anything. All that happened was that he charred his fist, and he recoiled in pain. “This must be a nightmare. That’s right, I just need to close my eyes and-”
Before he could finish his sentence, I plunged my hand into his forehead. I felt the wetness of his blood coat my hand as my fingertips emerged from the back of his head, covered in gray matter and skull fragments.
I quickly withdrew my hand after sucking out his soul and his body fell limp toward the mountaintop, lying to rest there on the stone. I paid my respects by closing his jaw and eyes before turning to face the homeless woman.
“I’m sorry.”
The woman seemed content. They were an elderly lady, if I were to guess, she was in her 70’s. “It’s all right. The life I’ve been living once I ended up on the streets wasn''t worth living anyway.”
She sat down in contemplation, almost as if in thought. “I’ve always wondered what the afterlife is like. Maybe you can show me.”
Helena stood stock still in my peripheral and looked at the corpse of the dead man I had slain. I sighed contemplatively and bent down toward the woman. “I’ll make it painless.”
Just as the words left my mouth, I quickly shot a ball of hellfire into the lady’s forehead. The fire did its damage, painlessly severing the brain from the rest of the body in a mere millisecond before burning the brain matter to ash from the inside.
“It’s done.”
The corpse of the woman limply fell toward the mountaintop and blood started leaking from the entrance hole the hellfire had made and mixed with that of the guy’s. Now on the mountain stood me, and Helena in a shallow pool of blood.
“You’re a monster.”