Chapter 64: Welcome to Hell. Nice Place you got Here.

Chapter 64: Welcome to Hell. Nice Place you got Here.

A Devil dashed through the trees of a dense, dark forest. The nighttime light made it difficult to see, but he was still able to weave through the trees and obstacles scattered throughout the hilly landscape. He sprinted through, eager to find that place Aankin kept coming back from. He was coming from the same direction each time, so if the Devil just followed that same trajectory backwards, he’d find the place.

Part of him was annoyed that this dumbass was interfering with his plans, and the other part was furious that he had to go out of his way to protect those Humans after that Ripley Tenet woman threatened him to his face. The main thing those two parts of him agreed on was that he was angry. In his mood, he was eager to kill anything, not just Aankin.

And that wasn’t to mention the demotion he’d recently suffered. He had to admit that he’d thrown a bit of a temper tantrum about that, killing so many of the royal guards back in the throne room and acting so aggressively toward the king, but it’d all worked out in the end. Well, mostly. He sure would’ve liked to have some more powerful soldiers working on this job – then he wouldn’t have had to be chasing after this Aankin thing in the first place. He could’ve just sicced them after him.

But here he was, facing the consequences of his own actions.

Truthfully, he knew of many Demons that would seriously disapprove of him going out like this to fight Aankin. Just killing the intruder when he came to attack them was one thing, but now the Devil was actively seeking out a fight. As a Devil, he wasn’t supposed to be a fighter – that wasn’t what his race was meant for. So for him to go out and seek out a fight like this, it was borderline blasphemy.

But he wouldn’t think so. In a way, he was still technically fulfilling his management duties of the Arlan Nota case – just using a more hands-on approach. Besides, those stuck-up Demons that were above him didn’t know shit about his job, anyway. Who were they to judge his method of getting things done? If it accomplished the goal, it accomplished the goal. He was beginning to think that some of the rules and regulations put in place may not have been totally necessary.

His thoughts were interrupted by a branch thwipping him in the face. Stupid trees, he thought. Stupid nature, stupid Overworld, stupid fucking demotion. Stupid superiors dumping an entire divison’s worth of work onto a single Demon and expecting him to do it. Stupid underlings unable to pull their own weight. And stupid fucking Humans, making his already stressful job infinitely harder.

With hate in his heart and a scowl on his face, the Devil sprinted through the forest, glancing around for any sight of where Aankin might have been coming from. But as he was searching for Aankin, he found something just as interesting. He stopped in front of a set of imprints in the ground. Three pairs in total, for three people walking through the forest.

The Demons had long since collected all information they could find on Arlan Nota, and that included his footprints. They knew his foot size, his shoes, and his stride length. And, looking down at these prints now, the Devil recognized them immediately. Arlan Nota and his two companions had been here. And, judging by the direction they were headed, they’d been going in the exact direction the Devil had been – toward Aankin.

The Devil grinned. Not only would this help lead him to his Faerie opponent, but it was also an interesting addition of context. Just what was Arlan Nota doing over there? The Devil continued forward, now following the sets of footprints to his destination.

Within minutes, he found something – something that seemed exactly like he was looking for. A circular wooden palisade cropped up through the treeline and the Devil slowed to a stop. In front was a closed gate, guarded by nobody. In the dark night, he could see multicolored lights coming from inside the walls – blues and purples illuminated the area.

He walked up, examining the place from the outside. He didn’t hear anyone moving around or saying anything, so whoever dwelled inside must not have known he was there. That’d change soon.

He approached the log gates. There seemed to be a hand-crank that he could turn to open them. He rolled his eyes – who would ever need to use that? Rearing back, he closed his fist, and then struck. A devastating boom shook the land and the gates flew apart, scattering splinters everywhere.

The entire area bustled into motion, the sudden sound apparently waking up all the sleeping residents. There were primitive tents and huts dotting the pathetic village, out of which gross-looking monsters stumbled, blinking wearily and looking for whatever caused the explosion.

The Devil just rolled his eyes and shoved his way through. The diverse group of monsters quickly realized that he was the intruder, but they couldn’t really do anything about it. They certainly tried – they shouted at him in some language he didn’t understand, and when he didn’t react to that, tried to poke at him with spears and other toys, but he just kept walking.

He made such a scene on purpose. Whoever Aankin was, he clearly cared about his ‘home.’ And if he lived here, there was no way he’d let this go without appearing to at least see what happened. There was a big palace-looking thing in the middle of the village – maybe the Devil would go and check that place out to see if Aankin was hiding there.

But as he made his way over there, there was a stomping sound coming from the distance. He stopped and listened to the familiar sound.

“Oh?” the Devil asked. “Come to see me again?”

It looked like Aankin, acted like Aankin, and now the Devil could hear it sounded like Aankin. He smirked. “Hey bud. Nice place you got here.”

Aankin’s head snapped over at him, eyes wide. “Wha– you–” He glanced at the bodies surrounding him, and without further ado, charged at the Devil with a raging war-cry. He was obviously eager to chase the Devil away.

The Devil ran to meet him and Aankin raised his fist to slam it into the Devil. The Devil raised his fist at the same time, though, and slammed it into Aankin’s.

You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 997 damage using your fist.

The Devil destroyed Aankin’s entire fist and arm, but the Faerie still survived. Blood splattered across the room, sprinkling across the faces of the still-unconscious others.

“So, these are your other bodies, huh?” the Devil asked. “This is how you kept coming back?”

“Fuck. You. Asshole.” Aankin clutched his mutilated arm, breathing heavily.

“Interesting choice of last words,” the Devil chuckled. “If I kill the rest of these bodies, you’re gone for good, right?”

Aankin just stared at the Devil.

“Well, I suppose you won’t answer me whether I’m right or wrong, will you? No matter. I’ll just have to find out the old-fashioned way.”

You have struck Level 29 Faerie Champion for 4.11k damage using your fist.

You have slain Level 29 Faerie Champion.

The Devil took a breath and looked around the room. If he wanted to kill Aankin for good, all he had to do was kill all of these things, presumably.

He reared back and hit one of the bodies.

You have struck Level 11 Champion Vessel for 4.11k damage using your fist.

You have slain Level 11 Champion Vessel.

It flew back, completely destroyed by his strike. Still, none of the others seemed to react. He looked across the wide room, packed full with the creatures. It would take some effort to kill them all, especially if he didn’t want Aankin to come back. And he was going to kill that nuisance.

“Well, time to get to work.”