The demon pushed back his hood, revealing a face that looked almost elven in its sharp symmetry. However, it was marred by a wicked scar that stretched from his eyebrow, down his cheek, and to the corner of his mouth. In addition, the demon’s elven appearance was further sullied by the presence of small, curved horns – maybe an inch in length – covering his head. And finally, his skin was purple, with white markings that Zeke took to be tattoos.
“Natural,” Eveline said. “I’ve seen his kind before. Be wary. They usually specialize in telekinetic skills.”
“Noted,” Zeke replied in his own mind. Then, aloud, he asked, “What makes you think I intend to allow myself to be used?”
“It speaks! Until this very moment, I thought you were an automaton!” the demon said, grinning broadly. His scarred face elongated his mouth, revealing more teeth than normal.
“And yet, I’m not. Tell me, demon – why shouldn’t I destroy you the same as I killed the bugs?” Zeke asked, gesturing with his hammer at all the dead monsters. He’d yet to loot them, so they would remain as they were until something ate them or they rotted. Given his location, Zeke expected it would be the former.
“Do you know who I am?”
Zeke shrugged. “Not really,” he admitted. “You look very scary, though. Truly. The scar really brings the whole look together. The entrance was a little theatrical, but it still worked.”
The purple demon narrowed his white eyes – they glowed subtly – then, after a few seconds, burst into laughter. “Of course! One never gets a second chance to make a first impression. I’m sure you understand that. But as you assuredly already know, Mal’canus is a big place. You can clearly survive well enough, but I should warn you that you will certainly wander in circles, spending untold centuries searching for whatever brought you to Hell. I can help you avoid that fate. All I require is a tiny bit of your soul.”
“Ezekiel…”
“I know,” he replied inwardly. “I’m not giving this idiot my soul.”
“Good,” she said, relieved. “You sometimes make bad decisions.”
“But I am considering his offer,” he stated.
“What? I thought you just said –”
“I need a guide, Eveline. I was thinking about giving him something else in lieu of my soul. And failing that…well, there are other ways to get what I want,” Zeke said.
“He’s not far from the peak.”
“I can tell. But I feel pretty confident, especially against some random…bandit I found so soon after crossing over into Hell. What are the chances that he’s one of the most powerful demons in the realm? Not high,” he explained. Aloud, he responded to the demon’s offer, saying, “I kind of like my soul just where it is. Perfectly willing to trade something else, provided you can actually come through with your claim.”
He clutched his chest. “I am hurt. Truly. I am the most trustworthy demon in the realm,” the demon said. “Everyone says so. Right, boys?”
Just then, Zeke saw a flicker of motion atop one of the buildings. A second later, that movement resolved itself into a four-armed demon. And they weren’t alone, either. All around Zeke’s position, hundreds of demons suddenly rose to their feet. Some were atop buildings, but others were in the alleys between the ruins. He stopped counting at a hundred, but he wouldn’t have been surprised if the final number of demons exceeded four digits.
“Interesting,” Zeke said. “What are you doing here?”
“Ah, well, we heard there was a portal here. We decided to try our luck on the other side. Chances were, we’d end up choking on all that pure air, but there’s always a chance a few of us would’ve survived,” he explained. “Then we see you step out, and before we know what’s going on, the portal closes. I’m guessing you had something to do with that, eh?”
“I might have.”
“Tell you what, future ally,” the demon said, stepping forward. “I don’t want your soul. I’ve eaten plenty over the years. What I really want is to see what all the fuss is about on the other side. You get me there, and I’ll show you all the sights. The fiery Fields of Despair, the Corpse Forest, the vaunted Soul Well – don’t get too close to that one, or you’ll lose whatever bits of your soul you have left. Or we can visit one of the cities, though I don’t suggest it. Dodgy places, even by demon standards. One wrong step, and you’ll lose more than a bit of soul, if you know what I mean. Those monsters will eat you alive, then heal you up just so they can empower some fel ritual.”
Zeke decided to broach the subject he’d come to Hell to address. “What about the Pit?”
“Which one? There’s a kranim pit only a few hundred miles from here,” the demon answered. “Ornery little demons. You go in there, they’ll tear you to pieces. Millions of the things with these sharp, little teeth. Grotesque, but if that’s what interests you, who am I to judge?”
“The Pit. Not a pit. I want to descend to the next circle.”
“Oh,” the demon said. “That’s different.”
“Is it?”
“What does a topsider like you want with the Pit, anyway? Can’t you just ascend like all your angel friends?”
“I’m no angel. And you didn’t answer the question. Where is the Pit? If you don’t want to guide me, then just point me in the right direction. I can find it on my own.”
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“I’m not the only one refusing to answer questions. Tell me why you want to go to the Pit, angel. And then we’ll figure out the rest,” the demon stated.
Zeke frowned. He was getting very tired of the exchange. Talking with the demon was like talking to a used car salesman. No straight answers, too many questions, and a refusal to give any actual information. It was both frustrating and infuriating, and Zeke wanted nothing more than to simply smash the demon with his hammer. The only thing holding him back from doing just that was the fact that he very much did need a guide. Eveline didn’t know the location of the pit because she’d never intended to descend.
And besides, it tended to move – an especially big issue when one considered that she hadn’t been in the loop for hundreds, if not thousands of years. So, as much as he hated the idea, Zeke needed the demon.
“I want to descend to the next circle,” Zeke said. “The Pit is the only place to do so. I have enemies up there.” He pointed to the sky, hoping that the demon would understand the gesture. “Some of them will be waiting on me if I choose to ascend. This is safer.”
The demon stared at him for a moment, then burst into harsh laughter. “Safer? Descending through the Pit? Are you mad?!”
“Maybe,” Zeke acknowledged. “So? Will you take something else in trade?”
“I don’t need coins, gems, or slaves. So, unless you have a hoard of natural treasures, then I will have to decline,” the demon said with a bow. “Which leaves us in a bit of a tough spot, if I’m honest. You see, I brought these boys here for a reason, and they get a bit antsy when they’re not allowed to do the job they love so much.”
“And what job is that?”
“Killing, obviously. You want to keep your soul intact. I understand that. But here’s the thing – you’re worth a lot of experience,” the demon stated. “Nothing personal. You seem like a nice enough angel, but –”
“Like I said – I’m not an angel.”
“You keep saying that, but I’m fairly certain you stepped out of a portal to Heaven. Only angels come from there.”
“That’s just inaccurate.”
“Maybe. Let me see your true form, and I might just believe you.”
“How do you know this isn’t my true form?” Zeke asked.
“There are no titans on this plane.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I am,” the demon stated without hesitation. There was clearly a story behind that, though Zeke wasn’t certain what it might be.
“Fine,” he said. Eveline objected to what he was about to do, but Zeke knew he’d need to take a couple of chances to get what he wanted. Besides, he could easily resume his titanic form whenever he wanted. Not to mention that he had plenty of other tricks up his sleeve.
He let himself shrink back to his cambion form, then said, “There. This is me. Happy?”
The demon was now almost a foot taller than Zeke, but as his eyes flashed with an inspection skill, he still took a step back. “You are a cambion.”
Zeke shrugged. “Guilty.”
He stammered, “Please. I meant no disrespect, my lord. I didn’t know what you were.”
Zeke narrowed his eyes. “You know what’s going on here?” he asked Eveline.
“I think it’s obvious. It seems that cambions are well-regarded in Hell. Must be a new development, because I don’t remember that being the case. Well, new as in the last thousand years or so.”
“By no measure is that new, Eveline.”
“New to me.”
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, saying aloud, “It’s fine. Now, will you agree to guide me? I will pay you. Natural treasures will have to do, though.”
After that, he asked the demon what he preferred. Turns out he wanted a mixture, so Zeke grabbed a variety out of his storage – he had plenty after raiding so many cities in the Imperium as well as Westport. “Take your pick.”
The demon sorted through them, finding a handful that he needed. Meanwhile, the other demons had become restless, so Zeke raised his voice and announced that they’d each receive a natural treasure as well. That seemed to delight them, so it wasn’t long before he reached an agreement with the leader.
Once that was taken care of, he asked, “What’s your name, anyway?”
“Ah. I’m Mixik. And you, my lord?”
“Call me Zeke.”
“Zeke. Interesting name.”
“It works for me. Let’s get going.”
With that, the demon gang gathered together, and they moved off. It wasn’t long before they left the city behind and passed into a desolate wasteland. To Zeke’s surprise, the demons worked well together, killing anything they could find. Partially, their actions were a matter of safety, but they also clearly hungered for power. After all, Hell’s denizens were a lot more overt in the pursuit of strength above all else.
It was almost refreshing, knowing that they didn’t even pretend to care about anyone else. The second they thought killing one another would give them a leg up, they’d do it. The only thing holding them back was shared interests, the safety of numbers, and the possibility that they would fail.
Still, not all of them were terribly intelligent, as Zeke discovered when one tried to stab him in the back. The dagger – which was made of jagged, black metal that hissed with corruption – never even made it through his skin. In response, Zeke whipped around, grabbed the demon around the neck, and ripped his head clean off. It only took a second, but it clearly made the point that Zeke was not to be messed with.
“Subtle,” Eveline remarked sarcastically as he dropped the head. “But effective.”
After a few days of moving through the wasteland, they reached a different biome. This was just as empty, but instead of a sweltering sun, it featured driving rain made of what appeared to be sharpened diamonds. To combat this, the demons all donned special talismans meant to protect them from the environment.
They worked well enough, but Zeke didn’t have one. Nor did he need one, especially after resuming his titanic form. However, he did find the constant clinking sound of diamond on metal to be annoying. Thankfully, that only lasted a few days before they reached another biome.
This one looked more like what Zeke had expected from Hell, with raging lava flows, the smell of sulfur, and black, volcanic rock. It was also home to tiny, fat-bellied imps that attacked by running at people and exploding when they got close. Zeke saw one of the demons disintegrated by one such attack, and soon after, the imp that had orchestrated the explosion reformed.
From then on, they never let the imps get close. They also hurried through that biome, reaching another desolate wasteland soon after.
On and on they went for almost two months, finding one odd setting after another, until, at last, they reached something new.
“A city?” Zeke asked.
“Indeed, Lord Zeke,” said Mixik. “One of the greatest in Hell. Called Tenebralis. There, we can get directions to the Pit.”
“Wait, you don’t know where it is?” Zeke asked. He’d already given Mixik a dozen natural treasures, which wasn’t a lot compared to his stockpile, but it was more than nothing.
“I know a direction. We can get an exact location in Tenebralis. Trust me.”
Zeke did not, but he had no choice but to go along.
“Well, you have plenty of choices. You could kill everyone here, then set off on your own,” Eveline suggested. She clearly didn’t care for Mixik. “But that would be counterproductive, as cathartic as it might be to destroy that uppity demon.”
“Fine,” Zeke said aloud. “But if you try anything in there, I’m going to go on a rampage. And I don’t think anyone in there can stop me.”
“Of course. I would never dream of betraying you,” Mixik said, virtually ensuring that he would do just that. Maybe not in Tenebralis, but at some point. When he did, Zeke intended to be ready.