Chapter 691 - Feeding

Eisen wandered through the halls of the realm of L.u.s.t, with strong winds pushing against him in random directions. And the wind was too strong for Eisen to do anything about it at all. Even if he were to try and move along with the direction of the wind, it was changing directions far too erratically for Eisen to be able to move at all.

He really didn't know what Satel was talking about when they said that he would be able to grow used to these winds. There wasn't even any sort of change in the environment. It was basically just an incredibly large maze that he was walking through, with no exit or entrance anywhere. Sometimes it would seem like there was some kind of open space at the end of a hallway, but it would always be just some sort of optical illusion created through lights that reflected off of random pieces of metal scattered around.

However, all of these things weren't what worried Eisen the most. The discomfort he felt from all of these details combining wasn't even comparable to what he felt when thinking about the fact that he didn't see anyone, or anything, else beside him here.

Eisen was pretty sure that the Circle of hell 'L.u.s.t' in Dante's Inferno wasn't one where people had to live in solitude. So it would make sense for him to encounter someone here. And well, sure, there wouldn't be people here, but he should still be able to find some monsters.

But just as Eisen was thinking this, he noticed a disgusting, rancid smell hit his face, carried through the hallways of this place randomly through the strong wind. He couldn't be sure where exactly it came from, but he was pretty sure that the scent came from ahead of him. He was at an intersection of these hallways right now, so it was a bit unclear to him. Otherwise, it would have been rather obvious where the source of the smell was going to be.

Eisen continued running through the hallways of the realm of L.u.s.t, and soon ended up finally hearing something. Feet that were being dragged over the ground. The old man rushed over to the place where he had been able to hear the sound from, and the moment that he turned around the corner, he saw the creature that created the sound.

It was short, maybe three or four feet tall, and had unhealthy, dirty green skin. It was completely n.a.k.e.d and was so thin that Eisen was able to see basically all of its bones through its skin. Eisen was a bit worried that its ribs would pierce through its skin if it tripped over, even.

Its eyes were basically completely turned into its head so that Eisen was only able to see their whites, although even then, not all too much of them. Its eyes were barely open at all. One of them more than the other, though, and one of them was constantly flinching. Eisen knew exactly what was going on here.

This monster, this Goblin, was one of the monsters that were sent here after death. As far as he could tell, it was neither able to eat nor sleep. The former because there simply wasn't any food here, and the latter because of the strong winds.

Eisen had momentarily tried out to sit down and even lay down, but no matter what he did, he was unable to properly rest in any possible way. It seemed like it wasn't even possible to log out right now, since you needed to be stationary for a few moments to do that. But since Eisen was constantly being pushed around due to the wind, this obviously wasn't possible.

The old man looked at the Goblin that was seemingly forcing itself over the ground, trying to fight against the winds that were pushing it around. But then, when it finally noticed Eisen, it stopped for a moment and wasn't paying attention to the winds anymore. And that caused it to immediately fall over and hit its head on the wall.

It cracked open and blood started to flow out of it for a few moments. But after a few seconds, the blood simply flowed back into the Goblin's head, as if time had been reversed to an extent, and the Goblin tried to push itself off the ground with its weak arms.

Of course, it wasn't able to die anymore. It would have to keep suffering like this forever and ever and ever, until the end of time. And just then, the old man felt something from his sword. It seemed to have changed quite a bit within Limbo after absorbing all that Unholy Energy that was twirling around it, that Eisen was constantly trying to have the Demonic Sword absorb through any way possible.

The blade already had a rather strong Ego to begin with, but now, it seemed a lot wilder than before. As if it wanted to devour more and more that was around and in front of it. And part of which it wanted to devour was this soul, that was filled with grief and anger at its own suffering. It was basically a gourmet-dish when it came to Negative Energies.

"Are you sure that you want it?" Eisen asked as he looked down at the blade, and it seemed to just try and pull Eisen forward even more, "Well, it's not the first time that I'm using souls in this way. If it can help you improve, it wouldn't really hurt."

The old man stepped up in front of the Goblin, and even activated his own demonic transformation. Not for a particular reason, honestly. It didn't give Eisen any sort of benefit. It just seemed like it would be fitting.

"Don't worry. There's no need to suffer anymore." Eisen said with a light, weirdly bitter smile on his face as he sliced through the Goblin's exhausted body and cut it in half with a certain purpose behind this cut.

Instead of just 'killing' the Goblin, which wasn't possible here to begin with, Eisen's purpose was to feed his blade. And so, instead of the Goblin's body repairing itself, it was slowly falling apart into black, smoke-like particles along the cut that was spreading out to the rest of the Goblin's dead body.

All of these particles were being absorbed by the black demonic blade, and Eisen could tell that it was satisfied. But at the same time, Eisen noticed something else. For just a moment, maybe two or three seconds, there wasn't any wind affecting him. But then, it returned into its normal state and continued pushing Eisen around. Just like this, he managed to figure out a way that he would be able to not only strengthen his Sword with the energies that were coursing through the circles of hell, but he should also be able to finish the task that he was given here in this Circle of L.u.s.t.

He wasn't actually able to confirm whether or not this was true yet, though, all he knew was that the wind stopped for a few moments. If that time would be extended the more of the souls he killed wasn't something he was entirely sure of. But it definitely wouldn't hurt to just try. If nothing changed after Eisen got rid, or rather 'absorbed' a couple more souls, then he could still always change his approach to things if he needed to.

Before then, Eisen would still need to find another monster in the first place. But it was good that he managed to find one, at least. That might mean that he's going to encounter a couple more monsters from now on.

And that sort of thought-process was exactly right. Soon after finding and killing this goblin, Eisen found another monster. It was an Orc sub-species that had a layer of rock growing on its skin. But that didn't matter much, since it was in a similar state as the Goblin. It was so weak that it wasn't even able to flinch in response to Eisen's sudden appearance in front of it, followed by a lethal attack. Once more, the wind stopped for a few moments, but then started up again. Eisen wasn't entirely sure, but he thought it had stopped for a little while longer than before. But he had to keep going to make sure.

After Eisen found this Orc, he continued along and then sooner or later found the next monster. And then the next, and then the next. He managed to track down dozens of them that were walking around solo, and at some point he managed to find some that were in groups as well.

On top of that, they seemed to keep getting stronger the longer that Eisen went on and on. But at the same time, the wind would stop for longer and longer periods of time as well. At some point, he managed to stop it for a couple of minutes, which coincidentally was enough to find the next monster, which he used to extend his unaffected time even further.

For hours on end, Eisen rushed through this infinitely large labyrinth with walls covered in only stone-bricks and nothing else. The old man continued fighting, and then suddenly, he stopped when he wasn't inside of the labyrinth anymore.

It came as more than just a surprise. It was shocking, rather. But just as Eisen left, and the sun out here blinded him, the wind started to hit his skin again. But it wasn't strong wind. It was more like a natural, rather pleasant breeze.

And in front of him on a grassy hill stood a table, where a young woman was waiting for Eisen. The old man approached her, and the moment that he was close enough, the woman held her hand toward the chair across from her.

"Please, take a seat." She said with a smile, and Eisen sat down as she suggested, before a Devil appeared out of nowhere and poured him a cup of tea.

With a wry smile and a quiet laugh, Eisen took a sip of the tea, "Honestly, why are you gods so obsessed with tea-parties?" The old man asked, slowly waving the notification that he had finished this part of the task to the side to get rid of it.

And the woman in front of him, a Goddess of the Underworld, softly smiled, "Oh? I didn't even get a chance to introduce myself yet, and you act as if you know me already."

"Well, you're L.u.s.t, aren't you?" Eisen asked, and the goddess quietly laughed with a quick nod, "Indeed. Then I guess this will be quicker than expected."