God of Hell - Chapter 36 - Man Must Be Prepared For All (Patreon)

Klaus’ new home was a prison, this wasn’t the first time it had happened, but it might very well be the last. It turned out that whoever built the Seal really had a hard-on for keeping the people within it… well, within it.

He sat in the cafeteria- a swarmed room surrounded on all sides by Grays, trying and failing to enjoy the sorry excuse for food the Seal had decided to feed him today.

It tasted like shit, and he was only half sure it wasn’t literally that. Watery, brown and visibly housing more than a few maggots. Klaus forced it down anyways, because he was hungry and didn’t think they would be offering him anything else if he refused today’s meal.

He’d left Luxuria because he wanted easier, safer jobs. Yes they’d pay less, but it meant less of a risk of death. This one was supposed to be a a simple robbery, smash and grab, but someone had known, they’d been expecting them. The bank was filled with Knights the moment they entered, angry blades chasing him and his crew.

The chances of them getting out were slim, slimmer still if someone hadn’t hung back and kept those gray bastards busy while the others escaped.

In the end he was the one to be sacrificed. 

Oh the perks of being a leader.

So here he was, spending the morning forcing what he hoped was not faeces down his throat. It was certainly a lesser task than being a gunslinging outlaw, but far less entertaining in his humble opinion.

He emptied the bowl, tried and succeeded in managing not to hurl its contents out of his stomach and onto the table. Klaus didn’t know if that would count as victory or failure, and he didn’t much care which.

He staggered to his feet and headed for the restroom, he needed to take a piss.

The cafeteria was tight with bodies, so much so that Klaus’s only source of direction regarding  the restroom was his memory, and not line of sight. Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t tell when someone was following him.

He wasn’t born yesterday after all.

It could be anyone, he’d made quite a number of enemies here in his incredibly brief stay. That wasn’t his fault though, everyone just sucked and he simply didn’t, there was just no changing that.

Still, he should be ready for a fight, he didn’t have much in the way of weapons, he was sure he could have gotten some from smugglers here and there but he was still learning his way around the Seal.

Unfortunate time to gain enemies then.

But again, not his fault.

He quickened his pace, he just needed to get to the restroom first and ambush them the moment they walked in to follow him.

The good thing about fights was that they were often decided by who started them, so Klaus had resolved to start as many fights as he possibly could.

Today it seemed, would be no different.

He got to the restroom door, shouldered his way into it and found five angry looking men waiting for him.

“Hello.” He greeted, but they didn’t respond.

Well, they did look familiar. 

Oh, yes, two of them approached him on his first night and demanded his shirt and shoes. He’d told them no and when they rudely insisted he’d replied by promptly ripping one of their eyes out and biting the other one's ear off.

That explained the bandages.

“I’ve been waiting for you-” The one eyed man began, but unfortunately for him Klaus had already started the fight.

He buried his thumb into his one eye and ripped it out of its socket. He clearly didn’t appreciate the gift of vision strongly enough to stay away from him after their first encounter, so Klaus decided to relieve him of it entirely.

The one eared one came next and Klaus slammed his skull into the man’s face. He tried and failed to remove his other ear because his friend was pulling him away a moment later.

The other slammed heavy fists into his chest, leaving Klaus coughing when he was done.

He drew out a small runed blade and stabbed it at Klaus. Klaus grabbed the man’s arm and stabbed it into the other one, dragging him backwards.

He was let go a moment later and proceeded to twist the blade out of the man’s grip then open his throat with it.

The dying idiot gurgled his sentiments on the matter at him, but Klaus found himself far too busy to listen at the moment. 

There were more people to kill.

The now-zero-eyed man was on the ground, screaming and writhing in agony. He wouldn’t be a problem from now on.

There were two left however, the one-eared one and the one who’d dragged him off of him.

They came running at him, each from opposite directions.

Klaus threw the dead man’s blade and it lodged itself into the one eared man’s skull, dropping him to the ground like a stack of bricks.

He caught the last man by the arm, swung him over his shoulder and slammed him into the ground. He was still coughing when Klaus dislocated his arm and silenced his scream with a stomp on the neck.

“Well, that’s done with.” He panted and then the door came swinging open.

A man stepped through and Klaus started the fight before he could.

He charged ahead, caught the man with a kick to the chest, sent him stumbling back and falling against the wall, shock etched into his enemy’s face.

Klaus’ fist came next but the bastard caught his shoulder, swiped at his feet and sent him to the ground.

Klaus was rolling back onto his feet but the enemy caught him with a terrible knee to the face. His head snapped back, he gripped his enemy’s collar through the pain and brought his skull slamming into their nose.

Klaus was about to bite the bastard’s lips when he was thrown across the room.

He hit the wall hard and fell on the ground. Klaus coughed and clawed his way onto his feet. He drank in the man’s features; brown hair, brown eyes and a height that put him a cut above most in Damnation.

He was the one he’d spotted following him, Klaus didn’t know what he had planned, but he didn’t intend to let him see to it. The runed weapon protruded from the corpse by his feet, he would grab it, leap at the man and open him up.

“I came here…” The man began panting in-between words, fists raised. “To get you out of here, not kill you. But I’ll do the latter if you leave me no choice.” His eyes were hot, angry and filled with desperation.

“Keep on talking.” Klaus prompted him, of the many things the man could have chosen to say, that was an interesting choice.

“Jion and Erlo sent me.” He continued. “My name’s Nero, and you’re going to follow me to Stradale.”

Mercury rode through the streets of Dolore and found it wanting. Wanting in beauty, in life and in discipline. 

Its Knights, were poorly outfitted, wielding cheaply runed blades, its Crimsons lounging around, many without their full plate on and few with only the blades to signify their status.

To think these were the hands of Demon-kind amongst humanity. 

As much as he wanted to blame them, he knew much of it was the fault of their Demon Lord. Over the course of two thousand years he’d come to accept the simple fact that his people did not understand the balance between domination and control.

Mankind were their serfs, sent to Damnation to serve. Mercury’s slitted eyes fell on a huddled family, sickly diseased, with bodies so frail that they could barely lift a sword or hoe. How could they serve? The answer was simple: they couldn’t.

The only thing they could do was consume space, scavenge resources and then, when the time was right, rebel. And when that time came, the underqualified Crimsons and Grays would put them down, but then they would rebel again, be put down again, over and over, until the Knight’s ineptitude and the people’s hunger were enough to tip the scale in humanity’s favour.

And then it would be his problem.

If only all humans could be thralled like the Damned.

Regardless, today it wasn’t his problem, Dolore, for now, was still well under the thumb of their Demon Lord, and it was that very same Lord Mercury had to meet.

He urged his fresteeed forwards and watched as the humans scrambled faster away from him. Many had never truly set eyes upon a Demon up close before, their Lord was likely holed away in their manor, rarely seen.

They stared up at him with terror, women clutching children and covering their eyes, as if simply locking gazes with a Demon might spell doom for them. How could a populace so convinced their rulers were so senselessly barbaric have any sense of direction?

But their Lord probably didn’t want to give them direction, only to break their spirit. Well, Mercury could only hope she wasn’t tempering them.

I wonder if they know just how much they outnumber us.

Sometimes he wondered if even his own kind knew that, considering the complacency with which they ruled their domains. Nowhere else was this more prominent than in Tayalnisyan, the first circle of Hell and its most unruly.

He approached the mansion and watched the Knights scramble to open the door. Quickly he was guided in and brought into a luxurious living room to sit.

There he waited, back pressed against the beautiful red sofa and eyes set on the crackling fireplace.

He wasn’t left waiting long however, as soon enough the door swung open and the Demon Lord of Dolore entered the room.

“Lord Mercury.” She greeted. “What can I do for you? We already sent the requested troops to Stradale.” Lady Defrid did not smile, she was not pleased to see him and she wanted him to know it. 

Her scales were black, and the visible flesh underneath them pink. Her horns protruded from the sides of her head, unlike  Mercury’s own which emerged from his forehead.

A beautiful woman, and from the way she looked at him, one quite used to getting what she wanted. Most Demons were however, after all they spent much of their time surrounded by terrified cattle.

“Firstly, I crossed paths with the approaching force, it was eighty percent of what I requested.” He started.

“It was one hundred percent more than I should have given you, and now my city is that much less protected because you need a horde to subborne a town whose petty Lord was foolish enough to allow a rebellion.” She shot back, forked tongue burning with heat. “You already lost me a Crimson in your attack on the tower, and then you delegated another to hold the town and five to lead the assault. I had eighteen, you have now reduced that to eleven..”

“Regardless, that is not what I am here for.” He sighed. It was always wise not to press the issue, the Circle looked out for Demon kind and Demon kind looked out for themselves, there would be no use in trying to explain the importance of sending a message, the need to compensate for the lack of experience in her men.

No, all she would hear was that her resources were being spent on something else.

The only reason most Demons even listened to the Circle was because they provided them with the Summoning items which allowed them to bring the Damned into Hell.

People from the human world, while far less likely than native humans to possess Might and Magic, did so to a rather impressive degree when they did. This made them valuable resources and Mercury had yet to meet a lord who didn’t love their resources.

They’d order their Damned into wars, and unlike serfs there was no risk of them running away or giving it anything less than their all. 

It made them valuable, so valuable in fact that not a single one was conscripted into his army.

“What are you here for then?” The woman asked sharply.

“I’m here looking for the Light Breather.” He told her.

The woman raised an eyebrow, then giggled at the realization that he was not making jest. “Really, an agent of the Circle quests after Imp tales?”

“I do.” He said, keeping his seriousness. 

In fact, it’s only because of me that he wasn’t stashed away with the Inquisition already, but you wouldn’t know that would you, what with your head so far up your ass?

She tensed at something and Mercury realised he must have been glaring. That was rude of him.

“I… s-sorry.” She said hastily, eyes downcast. “I’ve heard no news of a Light Breather.”

“And what of the Death Rattle?” He asked immediately after.

“That I can help you with.” She said promptly. “We captured their leader, and have him locked up in the Seal as we speak.”

“I see.” Mercury rose on his feet. “Take me to him.”