King Midas was just as impressed with gold in his old life that gold was everywhere around him. His chains were all made of gold. From his neck down to his upper arms down to his forearms Metal straps lay across his upper torso, another across his waist, and all the way down both legs.
The king was bound in hell and forced to be its judge. Sorting the damned into their appropriate circle of punishment, he felt a huge rumble and knew immediately where it came from. “Come now, you three, go and see what the ruckus was about”. He hoped that none of the upper demons were coming to exact their revenge.
The demons that were sent gathered in the foyer. One was slender; he looked like darkness had completely taken over his body, and parts of his body had red glyphs emitting from his body. He had on a light brown detective coat, and his hands extended from the arm sleeves like claws. The fattest demon had four horns, two on each side, and ring piercings on his leg and upper brow. His face was bloated, and he had a double chin. The obese demon also had two rings on both nipples. long, fat legs with three hooves on each foot. The demon was also dressed in a female schoolgirl outfit. The third demon was stocky with muscles that had been carved; he was violet in color, and his green eyes glowed fluorescently. Wings span about four to five feet across. His left side had green markings that looked like tattoos. His wings span out to give them a nice stretch before taking off.
“So who do you think is here”? The detective said
“Maybe it’s wrath coming for his new souls" Jumping up and down while talking in a girlish, manly voice.
With his wings spread out, the muscled demon said, “Then let us see who is at the gate”.
The three of them opened the door and stepped out to find that the gate hand had been destroyed. The rubble and dust flew everywhere. Pebbles landed next to them, while chunks of stone crumbled to nothing near the entrance.
Some of the rubble began to shift and fall to the right side. Alex coughed, and with the shear will that was left in him, he managed to pull himself out of the pile of rubble. The three demons looked at the human and immediately charged at him.
Alex was getting out of the rubble, wondering if the portcullis had just had enough force to cause the mortar to violently vibrate and crumble. He was dusting off the rubble when he heard the flapping of wings and dodged the attack; the other two charged in the weapon’s draw. Alex managed to look up in time and dodge the incoming spiked mace. He hit the demon with the mace that looked like a fat little school girl. The second demon came in hot with a claymore. Alex managed to escape the weapon, but in doing so, he left himself open for an uppercut from the fat school girl. He took the punch straight in his gut; the impact drew all breath from his lungs. This left him stunned and unable to breathe.
The demon who had flown up in the skies was free-falling; his wings were tucked in, and his body was as straight as an arrow. Alex didn’t see him coming; the demon made contact with his head and knocked him unconscious. When he felt he had made contact, the demon flipped his body, and the three encircled him and saw that he had been knocked out. Placing their weapons away, they placed black metal shackles around his wrists and legs, and the material leeched itself to his skin. The black barbs could be seen through his subcutaneous skin. Alex was dragged by his growing hair, which is almost enough to pull his unconscious body apart.
Virgil and the centurion had been in an empty storage room when Alex accidentally destroyed the front gate of the castle. He and the rest had seen a demon fly up into the sky. He could see it flying. The two other demons came in to surprise God. It was only when they caught him off guard that they were able to defeat him. He and Arella called Seraphina and Dina over. Seraphina has six wings and silver armor that is becoming darker. Her armor was a full suit; the metal was some of the lightest, and only Seraphim could use the armor; it was similar to that of Mjölnir. Her six wings were pulled back and tucked away at the moment. Dina was a high-level angel, but she was in a different choir. She had two wings and was short yet athletically inclined. She stood at five feet five inches, with brown hair and shoulder length. She was dressed in full gold armor and had a red cape flowing from the armor. The back of the cape had her regiment unit embossed on it.
“You two take and escort Virgil to see King Midus”. She breathed a heavy sigh. “Hopefully they don’t torture Alex too badly”.
The three demons took turns dragging Alex onto the stone floor. Alex could feel each one of the stone blocks. It didn’t exactly hurt, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either. He could feel the barbs securely digging into his arms and legs with each passing stone that kept hitting his ass. His first thought was to escape such simple situations, but deep down somewhere in his subconscious mind told him to stay within the restraints. There wasn’t much he could do; the pain was more of a burning sensation that just felt like the skin was detaching from the very fibers the muscles had kept in the subcutaneous tissue. The metal then would begin to interact with the muscles in his body, and in turn, the temperature of his body would increase, making the metal heat up to a blistering temperature. The cool thing about the increase in temperature on the metal is that it never changes color to indicate that it is getting hot.
After about fifteen minutes of them dragging him behind them, they came to what sounded to Alex as an amphitheater, but he reminded himself he was in a castle. The demons threw Alex down in front of Midas and made him kneel. King Midas was twenty feet tall. He had his legs and arms bound by gold bands that secured him to the wall. Even his torso was bound to the wall. Little creatures could be seen crawling all over his body. The pure anguish the old King of Phrygia gave Alex was not of pain but of pure envy.
“So what is a soul doing, wondering freely in the first ring of all of your eternity?” he laughed wickedly. “Let’s see what level you should reside in”. Closing his eyes, he concentrated and felt not a damn thing. He tried again, furrowing his brow and leaving more creases in his forehead. Nothing again; he barred his teeth. “Who are you? Because your soul cannot be read,” he continued, “I have only met one other with a presence like yours. He was the Son of God; now again, who and what are you”?
The three demons all backed up, not because they feared him but because they wanted some room to fight if it came to it. King Midas tried to pull himself from the rungs, but they were too securely fastened.
“My name is Alex, and anything else you will have to torture to get out of me,” he said, looking up at the mound king. The metal cuffs burned even hotter. But not a single burn or smell of burnt flesh was present.
“Leave us, you three; he is now in shape to fight, let alone stand. If I do need you, make yourselves present”. He told them.
They left King Midas and walked to their part of the castle. He looked down at Alex “So tell me, was it you who destroyed my front gate”? He questioned him, "Well, answer”.
"Why, what’s it to you? Why should I answer your question”? He said it sarcastically.
“Enough with the jokes; take him to the dungeon and torture him”. Midas yelled.
They took Alex to the dungeon, where they threw his bound, unconscious body in a black, empty, bitter place. It was surprising to him that something like this was possible. The sound of metallic clinks locking into place softly sounded in the air. He heard the retreating footsteps of the demons in the distance. The metal barbs had sunken deep into his arms. They had crawled all the way to his biceps. His left arm looked like it had been mangled; with each barb shot, he threw his left arm. The bones had broken, and now the metal tendrils had gone between the broken sections and kept them from reforming and healing. He was just glad that the self-heating was not scorching the marrow in his bones.
After sitting for a few hours, he tried to listen for the demons. When he was sure they had gone, he ripped his right arm free by using his legs as leverage and pulling in a different direction than his legs. Slowly ripping the metal spikes flesh, blood, and parts of muscle along with a severe burning sensation when the now exposed fresh meat was exposed to the air. The dirt and dust that had layered the floor of the dungeon were now flying through the air, landing on every exposed muscle or piece of fresh tissue it found. The metal on his left started to react to the exposed metal that had been embedded in his arm. Instead of burning and immobilizing Alex, it moved completely to the left and completely encased the broken, mangled arm.
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The metal around his ankles had gone half way up his legs. With his right arm and hand grasping onto one of the spikes that had been sticking out, he wrenched the metal from both legs, ripping muscles and skin. Blood ran out of the opened wounds. He chucked the metal away from him, and it clanked and banged against the wall. It hurt like hell, but at least he could freely move his legs. Blood had pooled where his legs lay. The bleeding had stopped, and now the open gouges in his arm and legs began to heal. From inside his thoughts, he heard a voice. You will never be as good as your father! He looked around the cell. Not a soul could be found. You may die here in Hell, New God. A cold chill crawled down the entire length of his spine. He noticed that the metal was now crawling closer to his shoulder. Behind him, the metal had reached his spinal column. The sensation began to burn his whole spine. The sensation felt like it had caught fire. It looked as though the metal was encasing itself in the god's bones. Each metal barb drove its tentacles of metal needles into the bone and into the nerve. The pain made him pass out, but the metal had safely integrated with his skeletal spine and left arm. The metal allowed the arm to heal itself.
Alex lay on the cold, dirty floor for what seemed like three hours. He had no memory of what had happened. He remembered that his arms had been restrained as well as his legs, but they were few now. Alex walked to the bar doors, keeping him inside. He noticed that the bars were on metal hinges. He grabbed the metal, and nothing happened. He let go and looked at his hands. He placed his hand close to the metal, and the metal did nothing; it didn’t try to send its bars to him; it just stayed. He chalked it up to him just being paranoid. He, with his godlike strength, poped the hinges off of the pins and bolts holding the metal door in place. There was a loud metallic screeching sound, then Pop Alex caught the door and gently laid it next to the wall. He poked his head out and saw nobody around. What he did see was red bedrock, and at the far end of the hall was a blue door. He ran to it and lightly turned the handle. It clicked open, and the door opened slightly. Poking his head out, he peered from around the door and saw a small room with another door straight ahead. He ran for the door and again checked the door handle to see if it was locked. Again, the door knob clicked open, and the door swung towards him. He cracked the door slightly and peered in. The room was pitch black, and he used his godly ability to concentrate and heighten his eyes to be able to see in the dark.
In the dim light that his eyes created, he saw the fat, heavy-set demon in the girl's school. He quickly closed the door. He hoped the demon didn’t see him. He thought for a minute, then tore the door from its frame and chunked the door towards the thing. The heavy wooden door flipped and twisted as smaller pieces flew off it; it slammed the demon in the back. Toppling it over a wooden spear must have broken into pieces with one impaling him straight from the back.
Alex carefully walked to the body. Purple blood was spewing from the impaled corpse. The smell from the blood was noxious; it made Alex want to retch. He backed away, seeing that the body was not moving. He kicked the body; unfortunately, he didn’t control his strength and ended up making the body explode into a few chunks of dead meat. The purple blood was now painted on the wall floor and him. He stood there for a few minutes to compose himself, but it was mostly to curse himself out for now controlling the kick.
As he walked down the poorly lit hallway, he saw artwork depicting the creation of Hell Lucifer’s battle with his brother and tons of demonic portraits all hanging on the walls. The floor had a red throw rug that extended the length of the hallway. On the red carpet, there were two gold lines running on either side. Three chandeliers were hung, with five candles each lit on all three.
Alex looked at the art work he studied; he noted how close his notes were to the battle; he had gone to great lengths to acquire the true knowledge of God's celestial family tree; and he thought about how lonely it must have been all those years. What most people didn’t know was that almost every religion or myth was one and the same.
He shook his head and continued to walk the hallway. When he came to another hallway that led to the left, It too was depicting more artwork, this time of different demons, all of which he could only make out. The painting showed a demon who looked almost six feet tall, with curly black hair and a long nose with a point. He wore an old Victorian suit. The suit itself was torn, yet it was still tucked in and looked professional. He had a pet that almost looked like a crocodile. He only recognized him because he had met the son-of-bitch when he was alive. He was the one to help him find very old parchment texts, along with scrolls, manuscripts, and dozens of other things. He took his fist and plunged it directly into the painting. The noise it made echoed through the hallways. He cursed himself for letting his anger get the better of him. He began to run through multiple hallways and came to a double door that stood eight feet tall. He opened the doors with a forceful push. Virgil and two female angels had three sets of wings that were tucked out of the way, and the second female had one set of wings also tucked out of the way. Two demons stood on either side of the three, and the five all looked back behind themselves.
“We’ll speak of the devil, and he will show up." Virgil commented, “Now as for the exact location of Lucifer”.
“That is something I cannot give away; not even the top generals know the exact location”. The giant king explained.
Alex walked up to the two angels and quickly noticed his left arm. They jumped back and drew their weapons. Alex held up both arms in surrender.
“Hold up, don’t attack; it’s me." He shouted out, “What hell is going on”?
“Your presence is different from before; what happened”? Dina said it stiffly. “And what metal are you talking about? I see none on your arm”.
He looked at his hand and turned around. He ripped off his pink tunic, and on his back were small black metal nods. Each node was aligned with his individual vertebrae.
“You see, when I woke up, I had some feeling on my back. I didn’t take much notice of it”. He turned around and tossed the torn tunic to the floor. "Anyway, when you said something about it, it clicked in my head, and then I heard a voice saying that Lucifer wasn’t located in any circle; in fact, it said that Lucifer was in a tenth circle; this circle was specifically built to house and keep him imprisoned". The king’s expression was going from calm to worried. “He sits there with chains bound to him; old Enochian writings are etched into them; they keep him from reaching full strength, if I’m not mistaken, from what I gathered with this mysterious voice: five sets of chains going four on the outside of hell's self and one massive chain going from the center of the second circle all the way through to the tenth”.
The look on King Midus was anger. He tried to wrench himself free from the gold bands but only managed to creak the wall behind him. The two angels drew out their weapons. Virgil took his staff, whipped it around himself, and stopped it in a front-forward stance. The two demons ran away; their screams and yells could be heard down the hallway.
King Midus angrily used his rage to enhance his strength and ripped himself from the wall. The rungs crashed to the ground along with parts of the wall, making a loud noise as they hit the floor. Alex saw a spot where he could see the fight between the two angels and Virgil against the gargantuan king. He picked up a large hammer that instantly turned to gold. He swung the weapon with his right hand at the two angels, and they used their wings to jump out of the way. Pieces of the floor exploded, leaving small fragments of the floor as projectiles. A large creature was left when he picked up the weapon. He looked to both sides, trying to find the two women, but he completely forgot about Virgil.
As the dust settled, he saw Virgil leap into the air, spinning his staff over his head and landing a solid connecting hit to the right side of his face. The impact knocked the giant out of balance and sent his huge body to the far right of the room. The wall crumbled when he hit it. The two angels appeared behind Virgil as he fell to the ground. Seraphina used the scimitar to stab him. At the same time, Dina came in from the top with her right arm back, flail in hand, and the chain's weapon with the spiked ball arched over the chain taut. She brought the weapon down on him, and he blocked the ball with his left hand as the spikes drove his palm. The ball and chain began to turn gold.
Seraphina’s scimitar stabbed him in the gut, and he merely laughed. It, too, began to turn gold. Both women let go of their weapons and jumped back.
"Ladies, I think it’s time for my turn”. As Vigil walked up, he took the wooden staff and pointed it at the King. “Your gold-enchanted body will not affect my staff. It was caved from the tree of life itself”.
He jumped towards the king, driving the weapon straight to his forehead. He managed to incapacitate him. As he retracted the weapon, he spun it in his hand, and with the combined momentum, it slammed hard with a loud crack to his neck. He sent his head flying off the king's body. Liquid gold began to pour profusely from his now-bodilyless body. Virgil picked up the severed head and tossed it to the corpse. It was also covered in gold.
After what seemed like twenty minutes, the body began to solidify. Alex walked to the three and whistled, "Wow, you three were pretty awesome. I'm just kind of disappointed that the fight didn’t take that long”.
"Yes, I am kind of disappointed, and to think that I was only warming up”. He looked at the gold statue that now decorated the empty castle. “What can you expect? He was a low-level demon”.
Seraphina just now remembered her and her sister's weapon. Both weapons had also become part of the statue. She slammed her hand against her forehead and looked at him with an angry look.
"Easy, sis; if it wasn’t for him, then we wouldn’t be alive; we could be statues.” She interjected. She walked to Alex and examined his back. She poked the metal, and it tried to launch small tendrils at Dina. “Wow, that was close; does it hurt, does it burn, and what exactly happened? I’ve never heard of anything happening like this”. She slapped him on the back, and the four of them walked around the castle to try and locate a map of the underworld. They managed to locate his katana, the map, and a soul he had not seen in a long time. He fell to his knees and hugged the soul; she was five feet, four small, with black hair that grew to the middle of the back. Her eyes were almond-shaped, with a deep brown hue to them. Her arms and legs had black dirt that covered her fair skin. He called the two angels, and they helped her to her feet.
The five of them exited the castle, and they saw the bodies of two dead demons on the ground next to the ruble that was the front gate. The centurion stood over them. They all went to attack mode the minute Alex was visible. Everyone froze. Seraphina and Dina jumped to intercede; they called off the attack and ordered them to stand down. They were all hesitant but did what they were ordered.
Arella walked up to Alex and looked into his eyes. It happened to you too,” she said sympathetically. She walked a few steps back, and her wings came untucked from her robes and outstretched themselves. Her black wings were also covered in black metal. “You see, the metal is alive. What that means is that the metal itself is a living entity. It is neither good nor bad. It simply is. Originally, the metal was meant to keep the inhabitants of hell in, but Lucifer corrupted the metal; now it’s cause the metal to attack anyone who tries to touch it”.
“But that still doesn’t explain why it attached itself to you and me”, he said.
"Yes, if you let me finish”. She kept going, “The metal that was embedded in my wings was before the corruption. I’m guessing some remnants of consciousness must have still been present when it sensed you. It felt your godly power and just tried to live. Have you heard any voices in your head”?
“Now that you mention it, yes, it said that I was not worthy,” he recalled, recalling the memory that had escaped him from the dungeon. “I immediately passed out after, and when I came to, I had forgotten”.
“If you want, I can teach you how to use the metal to your advantage”, she said. “If my guess is correct, then your body could help heal the metal from the influence of Lucifer”.
"Really, that would be great, but are you sure that I could control the metal”, he asked. “What if I lose control and end up destroying hell”?
"Well, then you will have succeeded in killing Lucifer”? She joked and turned to the group when she noticed the soul. “And who is this woman? Come with me, little one”. She took the soul with both hands, and the group was ready to depart for the second circle of hell.