WOAH!
I'm still conscious? How?
Oops, sorry. Akira speaking here! This might be sudden, but I'm just as surprised as you are.
Most of my skills shut down when I'm evolving, especially the ones that involve conscious thinking. Basically, [Supreme Wisdom Council] shouldn't be active and I shouldn't be able to talk.
"Oi, you're awake too?"
What? You too, Kira!? How?
"M-Me too."
Woah! Akkun too? I am so surprised I can only stare at them with wide eyes.
This… is beyond odd. All I remember is fighting Mine and almost being choked to death.
"Yeah, let's not do that again."
Right?
"W-Where's Tori?"
Huh… now that you mention it. Where's that stupid birdbrain?
"You do realise you just called yourself a birdbrain, right?"
Shut it, Kira!
"Whatever. This is too weird. And why can't we see anything."
"I-It's too dark."
Everywhere I look, all I see is darkness and us floating in it.
"What do you 'Desire' most?"
Eh!?
"D-D-Did you h-hear so-something!?"
"Who said that!?"
"Tell me what you wish for so dearly! Riches, lovers, fame, power? What is it?"
Again?
"U-Uwaa!"
"Show yourself whatever the heck you are!"
At Kira's request, the voice chose to present itself. A golden palm formed underneath our feet. Its claws grew up around us like a cage. Following the palm, down the forearm to its thorax then head, all that I saw a giant golden phantom.
It had no true form. I could simply make out its white eyes on its head.
What's with this feeling of danger?
"Danger?"
"Pfft. I think he means this feels too good that it could be dangerous."
Kira was right on the money. Oddly enough, rather than feeling terrified, I felt empowered as I looked at this thing. It was honestly so odd that I couldn't help but feel like there's something off about this.
As the oldest one present, of course I have to make the first move.
Who are you?
"Avarice!"
Oi! No need to yell. You'll reck my brain ear drums!
"Make your choice, O' sinful one!"
Choice? What do you guys think?
"I-I'm not s-sure…"
"Tell us what you are first."
"Avarice!"
"I need more than that!"
"I am one of the Primordial Sins! He who carries authority over Avarice! Now, state your desires so I may grant it!"
Sounds kinda-
"S-Sketchy?"
Yeah… That.
"Buuutttt… I hear primordial~"
Huh? So?
"Y-You mean, like the primordial g-gods?"
Primordial gods? As in the big honchos?
"Exactamundo, my compadres. If something on that level is promising us something, why not take it?"
Eh? You want to trust that thing? What about you, Akkun?
"I-I don't see a p-problem."
Huh? I can't be the only one seeing that this is far too convenient to agree to.
"What? You scared or something?"
What? No. All I'm saying is, maybe we shouldn't make this kind of decision without Tori since sh-
"Huh? Why can't we make this decision without Tori? It's not like she's our boss."
She is though.
"G-Guys…"
"Do you really think just cause she's in charge of the body she's the boss? She can't even function without us!"
Huh? Are you actually stupid? She's the first and oldest, so of course she's the boss.
"What kind of useless logic is that? We're all the same age."
"Guys…"
No, no. She's the first, I'm second, Akkun's third, you're fourth and the last guy is… speaking of which, where's that guy?
"Don't go off topic. We all have the same birthday, we've all been alive the same amount of time whether we gained consciousness at a different point in time or not. Don't go disrespecting the rest of us cause of some stupid hierarchy you've imagined for yourself!"
Stupid hierarchy? How's it stupid? She's out there taking everything while we're in here helping out. We're simply support and she's the main. Is your pride so much it won't allow you to admit that?
"Pride? That's rich coming from you who takes pride in being above all of us. Then again, it seems you like second place so I might be wrong about you having pride."
Oi, oi. Watch your tongue you little shi-
"GUYS!"
What!?
"What!?"
"Eek! S-Sorry… b-but, T-Tori probably won't b-be here t-till long. I th-think we s-should just t-take this decision ourselves."
"See? Even Akkun gets it."
Tch… when you put it that way.
I honestly wanted to ask why he said "Even Akkun" when Akkun had proven himself to be one of the smartest mes. Something wasn't right with Kira.
"Have you made your choice?"
Avarice asked once more. We all looked at one another, then away. Of course, we already had the same choice in mind.
"We want…!"
"W-w-we w-ww-want…!"
We want…!
After following Malius and running away with the group of devils, Malius led me to a Sheol which then sent us spiralling to the 6th ring, the Greed Ring.
Sheols are sort of like random gates that pop up in hell that lead to different parts of it. The sheols give a weird message that allows you to know which ring they lead to. There's probably a certain way to manage these gates, but I don't know. I was too busy trying not to vomit whatever remains of my breakfast I had in me.
Wait… then again, since I wasn't in my body, I shouldn't have any remains. Either way, I just didn't want to barf out whatever it was my new stomach had.
Malius was panting to my side, as if he just ran a marathon. But the distance wasn't something even a lazy bum like myself could acknowledge.
I decided to pat him on the back, but that just made matters worse. He fell to the ground, then slowly turned around. When he saw my face, he yelped and fell back.
"You're still here!?"
He cried out as if I'd have gone somewhere else when I didn't know anyone else. I didn't respond to his question, but rather chose to look around. What I saw this time was a barren field. We were basically in a desert with red sand all around us.
Confused by how vastly different this place was from the 8th ring, I couldn't help myself but look further into the distance, but all I saw was desert. It was oddly exciting to be stranded in a desert.
I flew up and went about in a bunch of circles for a bit, but still, nothing. I returned to my original position where I saw Malius and his friends running quickly towards the East. There must have been an emergency or something dangerous was happening close by. Since I didn't know the rules of this place.
When I landed next to him, he must have thought an enemy caught up to him, so he yelled and fell down once more. His fiends just laughed at him the moment they realised it was me. I offered him my hand, but he didn't take it.
Slowly, he sat up and sighed.
"I-I see m-milady would like t-to follow me?"
I nodded to his question, surprised that that wasn't obvious to him. He stood up and dusted his clothes then looked at his fiends.
"Oi, go back home and tell Pai and Alto to get ready for a guest."
After telling that to the fiend, he squashed it in his palm, causing it to disappear.
"Did you just teleport him to your home?"
I asked, since if he could do that, there'd be no point in us walking over there.
"No. I just killed it. But the hideout is its marked rebirth point, so I guess it sort of works like teleportation, I think."
'Oh? So basically devils get to keep checkpoints like in video games?'
"How many times can a devil die?"
I asked, while following closely behind him and still looking around for anything possibly eye catching.
"Huh? Uuh, a devil can be killed an innumerable amount of times, but they will resurrect at their marked point. Except…"
He put his hand to his chin, thinking a bit, then shook his head.
"No, it's nothing problematic for a devil as strong as you."
"Eh? That so? Cool."
After that, we walked on for hours on the desert. We didn't encounter anything, but I did manage to find out more about where I was. This entire desert was called The Lush Forest. Looking around, I couldn't help but appreciate the irony of the name.
According to Malius, there were 9 rings of hell. And for 7 of these rings, they were separated into 3 layers. Outer layers, Middle layers and Inner layers. The high ranking a devil, the closer they were to the centre. Thing's worked differently for the 9th and 1st rings – Limbo and Hades respectively.
The ring we were on – the 6th ring, was also known as the Greed Ring. Malius lived in the outer layer, also known as the Lush Forest. Sure, it was a desert, but I had to take into account that Hell wasn't a place for devils alone. Souls were also damned to be here.
To the souls, all they could see was lush greeneries, riches and everything they could have wanted. Unfortunately, it was only a desert in reality. So, if they ever touch something like for instance, water and it turned out to be sand, a devil would appear to torture them for quite some time, making them live in fear. The worst part is that the souls have been told that there actually exists one of everything in this place and that if they get it right, they'll be allowed to enjoy it.
That used to be an actual rule apparently, but it would seem the new management didn't want to entertain a chance of the damned getting some sort of reprieve. At this moment, there was absolutely nothing except for desert, meaning even the devils have nothing to nourish themselves.
Nothing but the souls of the damned that is. Which brings us to a major thing I noticed.
I couldn't see or sense any souls at all. To think that there was a scarcity of souls in a layer of hell. Malius had a theory that souls were being hoarded in the middle to inner layers for the higher ranked devils. He also assumed the 9th circle had something to do with it, but as a low-ranking Baphomet, there was nothing he could do about it.
After a bit of walking, I could make out a lonely hut in the desert. It stood out so conspicuously that it felt way too sketchy.
"That is my hideout."
Malius pointed to it with a smile and begun flying towards it. I followed closely after him, happy to have found somewhere to rest. Not that I was feeling tired, but walking in a desert gets boring after the first 5 minutes.
Then, something odd happened when I reached about 150 metres from the hut. An invisible barrier rejected my entrance and blew me back. I recovered quickly and looked there curiously where I saw Malius looking at me.
He was saying something, but I couldn't hear him. The barrier must have shut out all the sound. I could have tried reading his lips, but I had more concerning things to focus on.
The sound of machines whirring filled my ears as I looked around. Clumsily standing up from the cover of the sand, were these odd machines. They looked like walking ball cannon-scorpion hybrids. Their red LED eyes appeared to be glaring at me, like some sort of intruder.
There were about 5 of them and they slowly circled around me, scanning me from head to toe. After a few seconds, they all launched a simultaneous attack at me. Some milky white orbs that contained…
'Holy magic!?'
