Chapter 194: Push and Pull (1/2)

“Mama, I think they aren’t gonna attack us anymore.” Mo Na stowed her darkness whip before pointing at the ring of fire elementals ahead, still in the midst of their meeting. Curiosity piqued, she asked: “Mama, what are those things?”

“They should be fire elementals.” I tenderly rubbed her little noggin and hugged her with my other free arm. “I’m not sure what caused this situation but from the looks of it, they seem open to talks. I don’t understand their language though…hopefully one of them knows the language of the devil.”

Just as I strongly wished for a chance to communicate with them, a fire elemental with comparatively more distinct features, stepped out and stopped roughly 50 metres ahead of us after which came a haughty, questioning voice. Because he spoke in the tongue of the devil, I heard every single word of his clearly.

“That devil over there, state your purpose, why have you come to the Raging Flames Lake?” The voice wasn’t grating on the ears but neither was it pleasant either; mostly, it was an average-sounding voice.

The one who spoke was a fire elemental roughly 170 cm tall (5’7) with a balanced, mostly humanoid physique and no particularly defining features except that his facial features were a lot clearer than the other elementals. At the very least, his nose had a bridge and nostrils unlike the other elementals who merely had two holes for a nose or just nothing at all. The elemental had nothing identifying his sex but because his voice tended towards that of a man’s, I assumed he was man.

“We’re just passing travellers, we have no motives in coming here. If you feel that we’re intruding on your space, we’ll leave right this instant.” Having said that, I quickly threw a glance at No.3 and Big 4, signalling for them to leave this place post-haste.

“Don’t even think about leaving! Do you think this is a place you can come and go as you wish!? State your affiliations and motives, or else!”

I honestly intended to make a break for it there and then but who knew that the haughty elemental would be so unwilling to let us go. However, there was nothing we could do about his bully tactics either because of his overwhelming numbers advantage. “I said so already, we’re just travellers with no affiliations whatsoever, neither do we have any special motives.”

“Still you lie! This place hasn’t seen a devil appear in 80 000 years, the fact that you suddenly appeared here must be part of some conspiracy.”

‘Ah, it’s that kind of person, isn’t it? The kind of blockhead that never listens no matter how much you try to explain yourself. Looks like we’re in for a fight then, but how do we handle a crowd of this size…’

‘…for the sake of our safety, I’ll give it another try.’

Suppressing the exasperation in my heart, I replied in a calm voice: “Either way, I do not wish to fight you all so we’ll leave right now, alright?”

“Hmph, you’re just scared of us, aren’t you?” The haughty elemental folded his arms and then threw his head back, pointing his nose right at the sky as he did so. “I bet you’re worried that we might gang up on you.”

“I just said that we came here by unwittingly, exactly how do I make you believe me?”

‘Hmph, you may be right about that last part but there’s no way I’m admitting to that.’

“We hail from the Prison of the Dead, our original destination was Abaddon but because of some unexpected hiccups, we ended up in Purgatory. Having come here, we found no traces of any other devils so we had no choice but to wander around aimlessly in hopes of finding a method to enter Abaddon.”

“You say you’re from the Prison of the Dead?” The elemental had his fiery eyes open wide in shock as he evaluated us.

“That’s right.” I put on my most earnest look in hopes that it would be enough to convince him of the veracity of our claims.

Naturally, all that earned me was a scornful laugh and a raise of his right hand in what looked a rallying signal to surround us. “This might’ve been the territory of the devils in the past, and like you said, the entrance of the Prison is near here, but do you know how long the Prison of the Dead has been sealed up? 80 000 years, that’s how long! For 80 000 years, no living creature has been able to leave the Prison of the Dead! Do you honestly think I will believe your nonsense? There’s no way any devil can leave that forsaken land!” Was his reply, delivered in the most scathing of tones as we well.

‘Ahh, why is it so hard to communicate with this potato, I guess we really have to duke it out then. I just hope they are a lot weaker than they look…hmmm, best if they just keel over from one hit.’

“No more excuses? Hah, I knew right from the very start you guys were lying. Bunch of audacious fools, I see those 80 000 years were enough for your race to forget the painful lessons they received.”

Somehow, my silence ended up becoming all the proof he needed to confirm our guilt —moron.

The intellectually handicapped elemental then pointed at us and yelled, in the most arrogant voice possible: “Well, what other excuses do you have?”

“…”

“Don’t bully my Mama!” Seeing that elemental point at me so rudely, my little baby immediately flew into a rage and took up a battle stance. Then, without wasting another word whatsoever, she swung her darkness whip at the offending elemental.

“You dare to strike me?! Everyone, stay back, I’ll be the one to handle these foolish devils!” While he might have said that, the whip didn’t actually hit him thanks to his impressive dodging skills. Clenching his right fist, he swung his fist in Mo Na’s direction and fired off a ball of raging flames with a whoosh and a sizzle. As the ball of flames pierced through the air, it seemed to suck in the air around it and grow bigger with every meter it flew.