The Lush Forest, Outer layer
In an underground chamber, littered with machine parts, wires and screens, there were several life forms running about. Out of these life forms, there were two particularly odd ones.
"How are the scorpios faring?"
The first one asked while tinkering with a device.
"Scorpio divinium core functioning at 52%. Target is on the defensive and hasn't retaliated yet. Possibly not hostile?"
The second suggested, but the first snickered.
"There's no such thing as a hospitable arch devil, Atlas. Intensify the attacks and switch up the patterns to make the scorpios unpredictable."
"Understood… Scanning complete."
"Good. Bring up the target's file."
As soon as the voice commanded, the screen before him lit up. The description presented to them was unbelievable.
"D-Devil Peer status?"
"In the outer layers? T-that's impossible."
PING! PING! PING!
"Scorpio 1 down! Scorpio 2 down! Scorpio 3 down! Deploying the mech fiends, grades 3 and 4. Scorpios 4 and 5 down!"
"Prepare the 'Patlas' as well. And full power to the forcefield!"
___________
I was scared for nothing.
These scorpion-like machines could fire of holy magic, but the attack was so weak I actually couldn't feel a thing. Just to be safe, I decided to dodge the rest of the attacks while looking.
Malius was already flying towards the hut. From the looks of things, he set me up. I guess that's just how things worked in hell. I just needed to beat these guys and break the barrier, which sounded easy enough.
Ok, maybe breaking the barrier was going to be hard, but the scorpios shouldn't have been so difficult.
I closed in on one and gave it a good old kick. It shattered into several pieces; shocking even me.
'Maybe the metal used for the construction isn't good enough?'
I moved to the next one. Their movements were odd and I think if I wasn't able to perceive things at a high rate, I wouldn't have been able to tell what they were doing, but to me they were basically snails. I kicked the second one and the same result.
'Uuh, maybe my kick's too strong?'
I punched the next one in an effort to not shatter it as well. The sound of metal pieces falling to the ground echoed in my ears.
'Gaah! These things are actually just super weak!'
Feeling like I was wasting my time by being cautious around these things, I just moved to quickly destroy the remainders.
But they were the least of my worries. Once more from the sand, odd creatures popped up. They were fiends, covered in rusty armour. Or rather, they were robots that had the physique of fiends. There were two types I spotted.
Two very small one and about a dozen large ones. The large ones were packing with heavy looking guns and had mean glares on their faces, whereas the tiny ones flew about, scouting me out. Again, I was surrounded with laser lights all on me.
'This feels like the wrong genre all of a sudden… I've fought a mecha bull, but that somehow fit better than this.'
I internally complained while looking at them. Immediately, I jumped at the closest fiend I could get, but it somehow evaded my attack and another one hit me with a very fast laser blast.
'This one also has holy magic? What the hell is going on in hell? Hehe, used 'hell' twice.'
It didn't hurt, but it did sting. The annoying type, kind of like a bee sting. I tried to punch the one that hit me but that one rolled away and I hit air and got all the others to hit my back with a laser blast. Confused, I looked back and saw that they were all moving about in a seemingly disorganised way, but it was way too clean for me to not have been able to hit them.
My eyes then settled on the two tiny fiends that were flying about.
'They didn't attack me…'
I noticed. Maybe they carried a powerful charged attack that wasn't ready yet? I mean, you wouldn't just throw in only two of them if you didn't think they were enough, right?
'I'll just destroy them in case.'
I jumped in to snatch one of them, but it easily escaped me while observing me keenly. I could hear whirring, like a moving camera so I squeezed my eyes to get a better look. The tiny fiend didn't appear to have any weapons, just a camera and wings, but that wasn't enough for me to let my guard down.
If the fiends moved fast, I simply needed to move smarter.
I charged at the other tiny fiend quickly, and it hovered there for a bit, as if baiting me.
'Nice try, but my target is…!'
I switched directories at the last second and got in close to one of the larger fiends that was charging up his attack. I grabbed it and aimed the blast to the other fiends, destroying about 2 of them before crushing it, then I threw it at one of the tiny fiends.
Easily, it avoided it and I noticed that the bigger fiends started to surround the smaller fiends and were trying to create a distance between us.
The more I observed, the more the tiny fiends felt like they were simply commanders incapable of fighting.
'Huh? Is that what it does?'
They scanned me, gave directions to the large fiends, then observed me for the optimal battle strategy. Who in the hell could build things so advanced in this kind of world?
'The only one I know like that is Kaleb Zen, but there's no way his technology fell into hell… right?'
That was besides the point. If the tiny fiends weren't capable of fighting, I didn't have to think too much about them. They were fast, but the larger ones weren't as fast.
One by one, I destroyed the larger ones then eventually managed to get the tiny ones in quick succession.
'What's with these bots and getting one-shotted?'
I clicked my tongue then looked towards the hut. The barrier surrounding it seemed to have been intensified with lightning arcing on in it.
I touched it and it felt like a vibrating table. I squeezed to see just how dense the barrier was, but it wasn't dense at all. Something like this wouldn't be able to protect anyone.
'What a waste of technology… is this guy even serious?'
It was sort of frustrating, since they managed to figure out the technology Kara had been working on for quite a while now, but weren't doing anything profitable with it. Or maybe, they simply didn't have the resources and were getting by with what they had?
I took a good look around. Desert as far as the eye could see. Then I looked at the scrapped robots.
'Ah… it's a miracle they built anything. Now I feel kind of bad for destroying the bots. But I don't take kindly to betrayal!'
A little squeeze was all it took to shatter the barrier as well. This… all of this was too unnatural. Way too cheap. It didn't even make any sense. I wasn't physically strong, but these things were just getting one -shot.
'Work on better security, you idiots! Anyone could just waltz in and kill you at this rate.'
Fuming, I took my first step past the barrier. What I got was a metallic punch right to the body. I didn't really feel it, but it was like the force of a truck hitting me right in the face.
I sat up and got a better look at whatever the hell struck me. The simplest way to describe it was a giant mechanical camel robot but with a bird-like head. Specifically an owl.
"OOOOHHH! It's that camel thing from Star Wars! OOOOOOHHHH! What was it called again? Eighty-eighty?"
While I was trying to figure out its name, two cannons protruded from under its head. It then fired off with that same "pew-pew" effect Star Wars used.
Kicking up a lot of sand all around me and reducing visibility. The attacks never really touched me and rather just caused a smokescreen. Maybe the aftershock was supposed to blast me away, but it didn't.
'I see the targeting is just as good as it is in the franchise.'
"This is a warning to you, devil peer. Go back or face the full force of the Patlas!"
A slow, tired voice said through the eighty-eighty's comms. Yeah, I'd given up on finding the actual name of the camel.
"Patlas? Is that what you call the eighty-eighty?"
PEW! PEW! PEW!
Without answering my question, they fired off more blasts that only kicked up sand and got dust in my eyes. Annoyed, I swiped the dust away and snorted.
"Stop that, it's annoying."
I got in close to the Patlas. It tried using one of its legs to kick me again, but this time I stood my ground and tried to tank the attack. The kick was completely stopped and I didn't budge a single inch.
'Eh? Did they decide to not fight me agai-!?"
Before I could complete my sentence, the eight-eighty collapsed. I jumped back, narrowly avoiding it. Once the dust settled, I had had enough of this.
These guys had been bothering me for absolutely no reason at all and in the most ineffective way imaginable.
"Come on out, you little shit! I'm beyond pissed now!"
I yelled, but whoever was inside didn't obey. I grabbed the owl head and pried it off the body. Two devils rolled out of it and onto the ground.
"Eek! D-D-Don't touch us!"
One of the devils shyly ordered, while hiding behind the other. It was tiny, about the size of an 8-year-old. Covered in bandages from the neck down, a cloak over the body and a hood covering their head. They wore a mask with eye holes, all of which glowed a dim yellow.
The other one had the appearance of an owl. A fat owl with four eyes on its head and extremely thin and long legs. This brown-feathered owl glared at me without showing a single hint of fear.
'Eh? I thought it was Malius in there.'
I dropped the 80-80's head then walked over to the two. If this was the best they could do, I couldn't take them seriously.
"Who are you guys?"
I asked while still observing them.
"Want a piece of me you, amorphous shit-stain?"
"Ah… my feelings."
Amorphous shit-stain? What'd I do to get called that? As far as I could tell, I wasn't amorphous in anyway. The old me would have immediately grown self-conscious, but I simply didn't care now.
I lifted the owl by the beak even though it tried to peck me.
"When I make you into spilled jam on a pavement, we'll see who's the shit-stain."
A simple revenge for insulting me. I could try to lie and say that this was because he attempted to kill me on multiple occasions, but it wasn't worth it. A lesser devil had no right to disrespect one as great as myself.
"M-Milady!"
Just before I squashed the owl to death, Malius returned, panting heavily.
"What is it?"
"T-These are my allies. They simply assumed I was in trouble and came to save me. My message must've not translated well."
He explained, causing me to look at the owl who was clearly shaken but trying his best to look unfazed. Then the masked man was still lying down on the ground in fear. Then back to Malius.
"I see."
The owl fell down with a thud once I let go. Then I moved towards Malius and patted him on the bed.
"I think you need better security then. Even the wind could blow those things to smithereens."
