The cerberus' claws failed to dig through my abdomen. I almost laughed at how incomparably weak this ars goetia member was and slapped its paw away.
Fiercely, I delivered an uppercut to its middle head, knocking it up into the sky once more. I flew up, aiming to shoot right through its abdomen, but the cerberus simply turned into a cloud of smoke that I passed through.
When I looked down, he had rematerialized and was ready to fire an attack at me. It was a pillar of black fire, which I barely managed to dodge. Unfortunately, some of my feathers were burnt off and I was left flying wonkily.
Once it landed on the ground, all three heads started to prep up attacks as well. They fired of three different forms of fire attacks. One was crimson red, the other was pitch black and the last was an eerie grey that seemed to be screaming.
I was lucky enough to dodge the grey and red, but my arm and left wing got caught up in the black fire. I spiralled into the ground, creating a crater. The cerberus didn't allow me to rest though, as it pounced on me almost immediately.
I rolled out of the way and waved my arm and wing about, hoping to put out the fire, but nothing was working.
<<That is Hell Fire. It won't go away unless you chop off the limb>>
'That so?', without hesitation, I ripped off both my wing and arm. For some reason, I couldn't feel a thing in this place. I threw both at the cerberus, hoping he would get hit by them and eventually burn to death.
Of course, this was mere hope and reality could never be so easy. He burnt the limbs to a crisp with his red fire, then disintegrated into the cloud of smoke from before. He tried to swarm me, but it was too late. My wing had already grown back and I was up in the sky.
I took in the healthy sulphuric air then released a breath of white-hot fire at the smoke cloud. Burning the ground beyond what the magma had down and dispersing the smoke.
'So I can use some skills that devils can use, huh?'
<<Of course. Being a devil yourself, you should naturally be able to use devil skills in hell>>
'Does the smoke skill that devil's using have a weakness?'
<<[Shadow Mist] is a skill that involves the host separating their particles and given it a different less cohesive form. Should the particles divide too far however, recovery would be nigh impossible and death 100% confirmed if the particles missing were key organs>>
'Oh? What kind of stupid drawback is that?'
Without another thought, I flew in close and started to flap my wings about furiously, hoping to part his body. He caught on quickly and reformed himself before any part could be lost, but I had been waiting on that one moment.
I stuck my protruded claws into the cerberus' chest, then enlarged my hand, causing the claws to come out of the other side. Oddly enough, I couldn't feel my hands touching his heart. Unsure about it, I decided to simply claw upwards. At least that way I could destroy all three brains. To prevent the cerberus from suddenly dispersing, I had my wings at the ready to blow him away.
It was a risky gamble, but the cerberus bit one of my wings as I was striking upwards, and just before I could reach one of its heads, it dispersed.
I thought it was pointless since I had more than one wing, but the bastard used some sort of paralysis poison on me and it managed to escape safely.
From a relatively safe distance, it barked at me, throwing my paralysed body quite the distance away. I skidded on the ground for some time before coughing out the poison then turning to charge at the cerberus once more.
It glared at me and I knew that it meant to kill me with this one strike.
'I guess play time's over then.', we charged at each other, our claws at the ready to rip the other to shreds.
"W-WAIT!", the other devil came in between us. Both I and the cerberus halted our attacks just before it could hit him. The devil was panting heavily, very much aware of just how close to reincarnation he was. I took the chance to observe him properly.
He was a lean devil with blood red skin. He wore a very stylish black tuxedo with a sword hanging at his waist. The devil's arms were gloved and his feet were bare oddly enough, showing his untrimmed nails.
One look at his face and I was shocked. He had two short black horns growing out of his forehead and a barbed tail growing from behind. His dark purple eyes looked at me fearfully as well as with some level of awe. Aside the horns and red skin, I'd say he had the perfect face for a guy with his build. A perfectly chiselled chin, flat cheeks and a little goatee.
The more I looked at his perfectly chiselled facial features, the more I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before.
"A-Are you… la-lady Hinotori?", with his one question, the image clicked in my head. His face, although muddled in my head, somehow clicked with this one and I could tell in an instant who he was.
"Are you Shisui?"
<<Shitsuke>>
"Shitsuke!", I made no mistakes whatsoever! I heard nothing from no one. This was simply my own mind reminding me of his proper name.
Once I mentioned his name, he crumpled to the floor with tears in his eyes. He looked at me with revering eyes while sniffing.
"I knew you wouldn't abandon us here just like that."
'Us? Does that mean that cerberus is…'
"Kuro?", I asked, pointing at the three headed monstrosity that gave me quite the fight.
All three heads of his just looked down on me from above before bowing.
"It would seem even after all my fighting in hell, I was never ever to surpass you, rival."
'Rival? What nonsense is he talking about?'
"Oh, Lady Hinotori. When Tsuna was sent back to the World of the living, I just knew that she would tell you and so we've been waiting for you. It was hard at first, being bullied. We ranked amongst Greater devils because of our strength from when we were alive and were made to be mere torturers of the damned…"
He started to recount of their somewhat difficult journey in hell. As devils, they couldn't really die so they were beaten till they respawned by other high-ranking devils. Kuro couldn't handle it so he chose to acquire strength quickly by feasting on the weaker devils. In no time, he acquired strength and forced Shitsuke to do the same.
Long story short, they went through a lot of stuff and eventually claimed the seats of some members of the Ars Goetia. Shitsuke was ranked 70th and Kuro was ranked 61st. I couldn't help but be proud of the two monstrosities I had taken under my wing.
'Can't believe they managed all that in little over a month.'
<<There is a time dilation between all realms. 1 month in Elecryea does not equal one month in hell>>
'Is that so? Cool.'
"Are we returning immediately?", Shitsuke asked, clearly sick and tired of hell already. I patted him on the head then pointed towards the Golden City.
"Naw, I've got to finish something first. When I'm done, then we'll be heading out."
"Is that so? Then we shall accompany you.", he stood up and fixed his hand on his sword while looking at the walls.
"We haven't entered the Golden City before. I heard the 20th rank rules the city. This sounds like fun.", Kuro, the more battle hungry amongst the two, was itching to explore the city of high-ranking devils.
Although I said this, I wasn't particularly sure how to take both of them out of hell with me.
"First, could you free those two?", I asked, having noticed that both Pai and Malius had been captured by them. It was a shock when I felt their presence, but after having been given this 1 in a million chance to meet Kuro and Shitsuke, nothing could surprise.
Shitsuke untied them and they both ran towards me and hid behind me.
"T-That's right! Listen to what the boss says!", Pai ordered with trembling legs. Malius on the other hand couldn't even let out a squeal.
"How'd you guys get here before Atlas and I?"
"They're Ars Goetia. They can summon sheols anytime they want. It's one of their privileges as Ars Goetia members!"
"So can they sheol to the ninth floor?"
"No. That's only for the princes. But Ars Goetia can go anywhere else. Anyway, could you please let us follow you for a bit?", Pai pleaded with me.
"Eh? Why? Atlas is on his way back."
"Don't worry about that. I just remembered there's something I wanted to do in the Golden City too."
'Um… is it because she's too scared to return to their destroyed lair?'
<<Possibly>>
Well, I couldn't blame them for feeling too scared to return. If being a greater or lesser devil got one bullied, I could fully well understand just why they had the barrier and robots set up. Now that all of that was gone, she was probably seeking protection for as long as they could get before returning there.
'Putting most of the job on Atlas, eh? I like that kind of leadership! Fellow corrupt leader, I respect you!'
"Good job, soldier. Keep up the good work.", I saluted Pai. As if she understood me, she saluted me back. Everyone else just gave us confused eyes, but the masses weren't ever going to get it.
"Let's go!", I ordered, then one of Kuro's head grabbed me and placed me on his back. He also grabbed both Pai and Malius and sat them next to me before sprinting towards the city.
Shitsuke was surprisingly able to keep up with Kuro's insane speed as we blitzed our way pass several metres of land and magma.
"By the way, how is Tsuna doing? The others as well; Oki, Yuuna, Taiku and Nukeme."
"Oh, uh, they're all fine. They've grown stronger as well, so you can rest assured that they won't be getting into trouble any time soon."
He had a satisfied grin on his face. I wondered if Kuro would ask about his sister and his clan, but he didn't even seem to ponder about it. He was definitely certain that his sister and clan were thriving easily. I wasn't sure whether his confidence came from pride or trust.
We arrived at the gates in no time.
Now that I was here, I couldn't help but feel disappointed in a sense. The gate was large for sure. So big you could fit at least two large castles through the gate at the same time. On both sides, there were glass panels that separated a bunch of enslaved souls from us. These souls were all clawing at the glass in order to escape, but it was to no avail.
The more I looked at the time, the more I noticed that their structures were off. Some portions of their bodies had melted off or were patched up with rusty nails or mismatched body parts. They were chained to conveyor belts that took them into some big room and the amount of screams coming from the rooms alone were more than enough to make anyone try to claw out of there.
'What's going on there?'
<<The souls are being refined over and over again till they attain a perfect shape or structure. Once they attain this form, they are shoved into the rusty walls to strengthen the defences of the city. I guess the people in charge simply like to torture them rather than actually do their jobs. Oh well>>
'Don't 'oh well' me! Didn't you come up with this?'
<<Yes>>
I gave after its immediate response. The group quietly waltzed into the city.
'It's strange that you wanted to give this city so much protection, yet you couldn't even afford to get guards for your gates.'
<<Huh? Why would I need guards for a city full of Arch devils and above? If anything, anyone entering would need guards! There are several means set up to deal with those who won't obey my rules>>
'Huh.'
The moment we crossed through the gates, I could feel something wash off my skin. Like clothes I was wearing had just faded off my body,
'That was odd.'
<<Oh no…>>
'Huh?'
<<I forgot that the Golden City had a veil on it that cancels any sort of blessing or divine element on your body>>
'Um… why did you have that?'
<<To stop certain higher beings and their subordinates from wrecking my city as they please>>
'And how is that a problem?'
<<One of the benefits of being blessed by the system master was the fact that Curses had no effects on you.>>
'… Are you saying I have a curse?'
<<Yes. A curse given to you by one of Hell's 9 original Monarchs. The Dark Lord, Makrov, gave you the curse of [Hell's Damned Monarch]>>
'Ah. Doesn't that just make every devil scared of me? Isn't that beneficial in this situation?'
<<No. It alerts both the King of Hell and Devil King of your existence, which the system master has been hiding ever since we fused>>
'Excuse me?'
Just as I asked, the clouds of the city darkened. And like thunder booming, the sounds of two very pissed off men came through.
"Makrov! You dare set foot in the Underworld after your banishment!?"
"Stupid fat cat! Come for a beating!"
