Chapter 708 - Runes of the Nine Circles

Eisen was confused as the right notification didn't pop up in front of him yet. He didn't have a proper chance to look at the quest information before, but he was pretty sure that he figured it out anyway when he fought these five souls.

And as the old man heard the footsteps of Satel approaching him from behind, Eisen opened the quest information and asked, "Hey, do you have any idea what's going on? I thought I finished the task in this realm now." Eisen said bluntly, turning around to look at the Guide-Devil.

But as Eisen turned around, through his own movement, the blade that Satel was pressing against the center of the old man's chest penetrated his skin. Immediately Eisen grabbed the thin sword with his hand to stop it from being pushed through his heart as Satel clicked their tongue.

"Of course it wouldn't be this easy... For both of us. You think that being forced to fight those five is enough to demonstrate 'Treachery'?" Satel asked with a loud laugh, while Eisen stared back with a deep glare, turning his head over to the side to look at the quest notification properly.

[New Quest – Treachery of the Companions]

[Description] In order to be acknowledged by the Gods of Hell, you have started to make your way through the nine circles of hell. On your first stop, you reached Limbo. On your second, you reached L.u.s.t. On your third, you reached Gluttony. On your fourth, you reached Wrath. On your fifth, you reached Greed. On your sixth, you reached Heresy. On your seventh, you reached Violence. On your eighth, you reached Fraud. And finally, on your ninth, you reached Treachery – Your task in this realm is to defend yourself against the attacks of those that you trusted, and kill the traitor.

[Conditions] Kill the traitor (0/1)

[Rewards] Treachery's Acknowledgement

[Penalty] None

"Y-You... You are the enemy I'm supposed to fight? Aren't you just a guide to get me through these realms?" 

"Yeah, but I'm not some one-trick devil, you know? I have another side to me, and even hobbies. Did you know that I like to dance?"

Eisen glared at the Devil as he slowly used his strength, which was something that he was clearly superior in, at least when it came to raw power. The old man ground his teeth as his hands became covered in a layer of incredibly dense, compressed metal. He heated Satel's blade up as much as he could within this small area, as if creating a miniature forge fueled by Eisen's magic, and brought it to the point where the sword started to become malleable. 

It fused with the metal on Eisen's hand, which in turn did damage Eisen a bit, albeit only to a negligible amount. It was less than the damage that Eisen would take if he were to pull the sword out with his bare hands. And like this, he didn't have to worry about the blade slipping out of his hands.

Eisen pushed the blade away from him and pulled it out of his chest, causing himself to start bleeding immediately. The old man made his other hand burn and burnt this wound shut so that he wouldn't bleed out, before covering it with a protective layer of rock, activating his Draconic Demon King transformation.

"Be careful with your words, Satel. You know that I will not hesitate to kill you." Eisen growled as he looked at the Devil, who just shrugged in response, "I know. And I won't hesitate to kill you either. The only difference is that I will stay dead and you'll wake up again."

"So why are you still doing this? Do you want to die?" Eisen asked angrily, as the two of them were stuck in a moment of 'fake competition'. They were both pushing on the sword, Eisen doing so to get it away from his chest while Satel was trying to stab it back into the old man's chest. Either of them could easily do something else to make this fight proceed beyond this, but neither of them did while they were talking in this manner. 

It wasn't because either of them underestimated their opponent, or because they were being overly careful. It was really just to finish this conversation, and that was it. Both of them were waiting to continue this fight soon enough.

Satel smirked back at Eisen, responding in a cheeky tone as if this situation was something to laugh about, "Are you an idiot? Why would I want to die? I don't want to spend the rest of eternity in one of these shithole circles!" The Devil exclaimed, making Eisen even more confused, "Then why would you fight me? Are you that confident you'll win?"

"Well, not really. But I'd like to find out if I could win." With that, the Devil rapidly pulled on their blade, trying to mess up Eisen's balance. But of course, since the rock and metal that Eisen infused himself with also considerably increased his weight, that clearly wasn't possible. Sure, Satel pulled the old man's arm forward, but he was still standing steadily in one spot the whole time.

Satel sighed loudly as they let go of the handle of their sword, realizing that they wouldn't be able to pull it out of Eisen's hand anymore, "Nevermind, I guess that's not an option. Not like that's the only card up my sleeve." 

With a wink, Satel spread out their own wings and quickly flew back as dark red energy gathered around their hands. Satel slowly moved their hands around in the air in front of them, creating different runes that just stayed floating there as they cast a spell. Since Eisen didn't know what exactly this spell was going to be, realizing that he would be too late in trying to stop the Devil at this point, the old man took up a stance that would allow him to easily dodge, jump, or fly away instantly.

And then, Satel spoke, "Runes of the Nine Circles, Limbo." The runes that Satel magically wrote into the air started to glow in a bright light as they enveloped Satel.

Slowly, the Devil's body was changing just so slightly. Their Devil-features became more pronounced, and if Eisen had to say, they seemed generally more monstrous than before.

Satel stopped flapping their wings and fell toward the ice underneath them at high speeds. But they were positioned in such a way that they would be able to land safely, seemingly even preparing to jump forward the moment they hit the ice.

Eisen proceeded to swing his blade toward Satel at the place where they would land, just to dodge last second by twisting their body around. Instead of their feet, they landed on their hands, and twisted their body around to jump onto the blunt side of the old man's sword.

Satel jumped off from there with madness deep in their eyes, as Eisen understood at least part of Satel's abilities. They now became a being that deeply signified what Limbo was. A wild, unrestrained being that acted upon their emotions instantly, without hesitation.

And what Satel wanted to do was to kill Eisen, although the old man was able to fight back relatively easily. However, Satel's body kept changing and becoming more monstrous, until the Devil's body was not that of a true, beautiful humanoid anymore, but rather that of some sort of beast-faced bipedal creature, something that fit the word 'Devil' a lot more than the way they looked before now.

After a short while, the transformation stopped, and Satel stopped for a moment. They held their hands in front of them again, where the same dark red energy appeared as they wrote more runes into the air.

This time around, Eisen didn't let them finish this spellcasting, and jumped toward Satel with the support of his wings. But when he cut through the Devil, all that remained was some sort of afterimage, as if they weren't there at all.

"Runes of the Nine Circles, L.u.s.t." The moment that the Devil's echoing voice, that now sounded like someone scr.a.p.ed their fingernails over a chalkboard, said this out loud, Eisen noticed the ice underneath their feet slowly break.

It was pushed up high into the air, creating walls that seemed to stretch infinitely high, turning this whole area into a frozen maze. It was possible to slightly see through the ice, but there were plenty of monsters obstructing a clear view frozen inside of these ice walls. However, now Eisen was sure of it. Satel was somehow able to make use of the essences of the nine circles of the underworld to their advantage.

Eisen placed his hand against the ice, heating his body up. He proceeded to melt the ice, letting him walk through the wall with ease. The old man could still see Satel's mana, so he was able to close in on them easily.

However, the moment that Eisen actually reached a corridor where he would have been able to reach this monstrous Devil, Satel manipulated the ice to cut off the corridor in front of Eisen.

And while the old man was able to melt the ice, it did take him some time. On top of that, since Eisen didn't want to risk somehow freeing any of the monsters frozen in the ice, he had to be extra careful and make sure not to randomly make any of this ice collapse any free the monsters. He didn't know how dangerous they might be. Sure, he was able to beat most monsters here rather easily so far, but he didn't know if this would be the case here too. He wasn't supposed to fight them, after all. And Eisen really didn't want to risk it at all.

The old man continued through the maze, continuning to chase Satel through this place, soon catching up to them in an area that was a bit larger than all the others Eisen had been in before within this maze.

And when Eisen got there, Satel was already at the end of casting the next spell after writing the runes into the air.

"Runes of the Nine Circles, Gluttony." Satel exclaimed, before the ice underneath their feet cracked open again. This time, there was a monster that burrowed through it, appearing right in front of Satel. It was somehow similar to Cerberus that Eisen fought in the third circle before, just a lot smaller and only with a single head.

And instead of being the one that devoured, this monster was the one being devoured as Satel dug their claws into the fleshy mass in front of them, ripping parts of bloody flesh out of the monster to feed on it, growing in size themselves.