72 Epilogue - Door greeter to the First Circle of Hell (1/2)
Hena exited the portal to find herself in an ashen wasteland. The sky was fire, and the earth broken red surrounded by pools of flaming sulphur.
Exhausted already, she spared her two humanoid arms to shield her eyes from the bright blasts of molten magma, while positioned her two crystalline claws to defend against any sudden attack.
Instead, she found a demon in a blue corporate suit and holding an umbrella to shield her from the ash.
”Hello Ma'am, what business have you on company property?” The demon said as it tightened it's tie and squinted hellfire filled eyes.
”I'm looking for someone called Darrio. Heard of him?” Hena rasped as she stalked forward quite ready to tear out this creature's throat at the slightest provocation.
”The CEO? Well, I'ver certainly heard of him. He'll be at company headquarters, where Gausighkt the Devil Knight's castle used to be. Mind if I ask what business you have with him?” The demon might have spoken nicely, but his aura swelled with power and the veins beneath his blue corporate suit were bulging with raging lines of demonic magic.
”We're part of...well you'll know it as the 18 the doubt. Gravitas, is another name for our group,” as Hena finished the demon's aura deflated to that of a rabbit's, the poor fellow bowing as low as possible while gesturing down a basalt road.
”Then this way - please hurry, the CEO hates those who come late. Best we go now - no - I'll use this,” taking out a little Saphire harp, the demon lightly pulled a claw across the strings to make a sweet chorus of notes. Above exploded a vortex of vermillion coloured magic, a pair of demonic bats screeching within came flying out with a trail of skyblue cinders.
”Take this one to the CEO at Gravitas Ltd, you know the address,” the greeter to hell snapped, the bats flying in a little loop before snatching Hena by the arms and carrying her off through the air.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please clickfor visiting.
Soaring over a hellscape being radically crushed under the foot of economic development, Hena got a good look at what this realm was becoming. Huge roadways flanked by neatly arrayed basalt buildings were stretching out as part of a swarm of construction from a distant peak where a half-finished skyscraper sat.
A thousand demonic workers were pulling along gigantic sleighs filled with raw resources, while across the constructions frontier Hena spied flashes of flame and the constant movement of demons back and forth. Like ants, they moved down in long lines and returned with raw resources, demonic artifacts and demons bound in heavy chains.
On lakes of flaming Sulphur set sail crude container ships, leaving from ports hewn out by demonic fishmen and carrying crates of manufactured goods being supplied by massive pits that belched out an endless stream of smoke. It didn't really surprise Hena that Daario had kept himself busy, but starting a company in Hell?
That was something only the 1st was capable of.
Approaching the basalt sky-scraper, Hena was taken in by the sheer enormity of it. At the tower's feet, a bustling series of buildings along with newly created roads were filled with movement of every demonic monstrosity imaginable. The tower itself rose like a titan sized brick right into the air above.
Upon landing, Hena was moved along with impeccable speed.
She was offered tea by crimson skinned devils, asked if she were hungry by Succubus waiters, and escorted through several security screenings conducted by obsidian armoured creatures with long lancelike spears that would have made a mammoth quake and unblinking eyes filled with pits of soulless horror. The Obsidian Guard, as she was told, seemed to similarly scare the regular demons with their strange soulless aura, although it wasn't just their aura that frightened Hena.
She had only met eight thus far, but each felt as if the final boss of some dungeon. She could feel it in how their mere presence sucked the life from the air and those bottomless eyes promised a fate far worse than death for the slightest transgression.
”4th! Hena, baby! Good to see you,” Grinned a fellow with bright blood red hair, sparkling crimson eyes and a body designed for war. Racing along his arms was red lightning, currently sparking madly as his broad chest shook with mirth. ”When the pawns told me it was you, I barely believed it!”
”Ranarium...” Hena grimaced, then again those who enjoyed the 3rd's company were few and far between. ”I'm guessing it was you who did that foolish thing with the Cathedral...why do you always have to be such a colossal idiot? What was the point in riling up the kingdom like that?”
Despite his boorish personality, Hena stayed on guard. Ranarium the 3rd had no allegiances to anything but power, would not hold to a deal that did not benefit him and had quite literally sold his own mother in the past to prove a point. The man was a psychopath, and only the respect he held for Daario had kept him loyal to Gravitas until now.
Then there was his infuriating obsession with her.
”Dearest, sweet little Hena, I wanted to turn the heat up is all. The other of the 18 are...weak. This way they will be hunted, and either grow strong enough to find us, as you have, or find their place in the gutters. But come, darling, let us take you somewhere private where we can-”
”I want to speak to Daario,” Hena snapped, ”so get lost Ranarium. Whatever your scheming, I want no part.” Hena began spinning a portal blade in her hands, while Ranarium's body suddenly flared with chaotic lightning as his grin widened.
”Oh baby, you know just won't get's my blood flowing, don't you?” he teased, crackling chaos armour snapping around his arms as he raised them into the stance of a boxer. Knowing full well that Ranarium had reduced a cathedral to rubble at lvl 1, she had no doubts of the destructive capacity he would be capable of by now.
”Enough! Both of you stop at once. Hena come this way,” a Fallen angel with a supernatural level of beauty said, with three raven black wings sprouting from his back and silver armour scrawled with the tales of lust and conquest in equal measure.