Chapter 34

I was unable to sleep, the agonizing pain was preventing me from relaxing, and so I sufficed myself with closing my eyes and waiting things out. Time would pass ever so slowly. The pain resistance skill kept on rising, slowly but surely, it rose, now at 12%. The pain I was feeling was less intense than last time but it was still too much to bare.

Bell woke up from his slumber, yawning like he had slept for a year. This only served to piss me off more, as he must certainly be doing this on purpose, enjoying my suffering, while he slept like a baby.

He looked at me feigning worry, and said.

“You still look to be in a lot of pain, I can really help. Trust me.”

I looked at him, this time with careful consideration, and said

“What is the catch?”

“Catch?” he said

“Yes, asking favors from devils usually involves a contract or a pact, no devil gives help without receiving benefit from it, so what is it that you want or need from me.”

The devil looked at me, this time with a serious face.

“Nothing, whatever I could want from you, I could get it myself. I just thought that you were in need of help so why not help? Why do you link my race to my nature?”

…this is the same thing Abigor said, a devil is this thing’s race, and not his nature, he may be one of the demonic ones, but this doesn’t mean that he is malevolent, still. Trusting him will be stupid, though I could just try…

“Then how can you help when you are stuck there in your cell.”

“Who said I was stuck?” said Beel while appearing within my cell. He somehow teleported into my cell while I was looking at him, I didn’t blink but something must have happened for him to move from where he was to where I am.

“Interesting,” I said “So you can really leave this place…”

“Well I cannot be trapped” smilingly said Beel. “This form cannot be trapped.”

Form? Does this mean he has other forms, perhaps he meant the one that he changed into; the mist of flies…

“Then what can you do for the pain, and can you set me free?”

“Well, actually for the pain part I lied, I really can’t do anything for that. As for the possibility of letting you leave this place I help. Here hold my hand.” He said

I hesitated at first, especially after seeing that creepy smile of his, but I had nothing to lose. So I did.

And once that happened I found myself in a different room.

A square room, lit by red torches, was what I could see, and in the middle of the room was a rectangular boulder that had a small red cube hovering above it. The cube’s sides were emitting a beam of white light that was piercing through the room’s walls.

“Where are we?” I said

Beel then, who had his eyes glued to the cube said, “The treasure room!”

I inspected the cube to see what it was.

Item name

Description

Item usage

Third keystone of Solomon.

Rarity

(Celestially unique)

Solomon the wise, ruler of Djhin created the heavenly seal and key, the key was broken into four parts and squandered over the worlds.

Third keystone grants control over all demons below the user’s level, with the exception of boss class, devils, and above.

Item requires Three more objects to Show its true potential.

First keystone of Solomon

Second Keystone of Solomon

Iron bracelet of Solomon.

What is this doing here? Isn’t this thing really dangerous??? I looked at Beel who was almost salivating now.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Quest Update.

You have located one of the keystones of Solomon.

Third keystone: seal of hell.

Your intrusion to the chamber of power has been noticed.

The disciplinary forces of the death stalkers are on their way.

Stolen story; please report.

What?

“We need to hurry” said Beel.

“What do you mean hurry? What the hell is going on? We just left the room and we are already being hunted.”

“There is no time to explain, grab that item”

I looked at the cube and said

“No!”

“What do you mean no! We need that thing if we want to survive this! Get it.”

“Like hell if I would! Why don’t you grab it?”

“It has a death curse upon it, if touched by one of demonic nature it will instantly kill them, you will not be harmed I swear.”

The walls began to crack and a light from the outside washed over the room.

There is no helping it

I went for the item and the moment I touched it.

My hand felt warm, a soothing sensation that slowly washed the pain away from my hand. It was slowly engulfing me embracing me and promising me comfort. The moment I pulled the cube from its gliding space, the lights emitted from it dissipated.

You died!

Rise if you would, for that is your curse!

I died? Is it possible that the curse was not only set for demons but anything that interacted with the item?

I rose slowly back, while the walls were being opened I saw the faces of enraged death stalkers.

The red cube was near Beel’s feet, he slowly went down, and touched it with his pinky. Sensing that no harm was done, he proceeded on grabbing it with his right arm and admiring the sight of it.

Once the doors were open, Beel made a graceful bow, and disappeared…

I should have known that I was going to be used…why the hell did I even trust him, I always said that I will trust no one but still end up doing the same thing over and over again.

I really need to learn from my mistakes bow the lesson will be taught to me the hard way.

The death stalkers entered the room, they looked hideous, they were humanoids wearing black rags, littered with spikes and chains, their bodies were wretchedly aged with faces resembling wolves with freakishly long snouts, the lower fangs on their jaws were protruding up like tusks of a wild boar while their black eyes could thirst no more for death… these guys are bad news.

            Amon then soon appeared from within them. Carrying a large club in one hand and looking all over the place before his eyes rested on me.

“You are in for enormous pain cursed one…Asmodeus does not like it when anyone steals from him, and especially now that you brought that bastard and stole his most valuable possession, the thing that has most value in this place…”

Shit, I have been had…

One of the death stalkers came closer to me, he stank more than rotten cheese that was put to ferment inside the stomach of a two week old corps of a camel.

Yet the moment he tried to grab at me, a light soon appeared inside the room, it was Beel.

He then said

“Oh, sorry there, I was so lost admiring the thing I forgot to take you with me.”

And then the whole scenery changed. We were now back in where we were imprisoned, yet this time we were not inside the cells, but there was someone else…it was Asmodeus.

Roaring with rage and wrath, Asmodeus was banging on the doors of walls of the prison that did not give way.

I thought he was the one that created them, so why isn’t he able to break them? This statement was said a bit loud that Beel heard it.

“This is thanks to this cube, it is used to empower barriers like this if one knows how to shift the magical pressure within It.” said Beel while holding the cube.

I then looked at him and said

“I have no idea how your sense of humor works, but leaving me there with those things was not funny…”

“Really?” he said, “But I really did laugh!”

This idiot…

He then threw the cube towards me, something I never thought would happen, I really thought he would take it…

“I don’t really need this anymore. This is payback for imprisoning me back at the fifth circle, I hope you rot in there. Not even Amon can save you from that prison.” Said Beel addressing the raging supreme devil…I could only shudder at the thought of him leaving that place…

“Now where to?” I said “I really need to get to the lower part of this dungeon…

Beel then looked at me and smiled

“It’s easy” he said and we appeared within another room.

It was probably the throne room of Asmodeus…I have been visiting too many throne rooms lately…I wonder what is going on back at Annwn’s palace of bones...

The room had many chandeliers where light from candles was illuminating the space, I took a look at the room to find that many death stalkers were fused to the walls. They were still alive but could not move…

I soon understood what was happening. Turning to Beel I said

“You can shift and move space…”

“Spot on!” he said

This is why he was able to move from place to place, moving us from location to location…quite an interesting ability he has.

He walked closer to the throne in the middle of the room, a throne that was adorned with skulls.

He pressed on a skull that was positioned on the right hand rest of the throne, and a wall behind the throne opened.

We went through, and headed directly downstairs, the walls had some kind of symbols written on them. I tried to inspect them, but nothing worked.

“These runes nullify magic, don’t try to use any spells it will just stress your mind.” Said Beel without looking at me.

It actually makes sense now, if there were no runes he would have just shifted space to appear here…

Once at the bottom of the stairs we found a small circular room with a well in the middle. The well was almost overflowing with water, yet it never seeped outside of its rims.

“This is the gateway to the final floor, clear it and you will be able to leave this hellhole. And if you do, make sure to properly use that cube. It can help us immensely…”

I placed the cube within my inventory and looked at the well, Beel remained silent for a moment then he disappeared. It seems that he needed to be somewhere else.

I pressed my right arm inside the well, and amazingly the water did not seep out. It seems that the well will stay in balance no matter what is placed inside it, I think Archimedes will go crazy if he ends up near this thing…

I dived in, not caring what will meet me on the other side, and truthfully scared if this was a trick from Beel. But I weighed it down to the fact that if he wanted me dead or in pain he would have left me then and there. There was no need for him to come back so I dived in, not trusting Beel for being honest or right, but trusting myself to being able to handle whatever it is that is thrown at me.

Congratulation on clearing the sixth circle

Accessing the final circle

Circle of truth.

On the other side of the well I was ejected onto a giant room. The ceiling was the cosmos and the ground was littered with sand and gold and skeletons. Looking at the sides I saw sand falls. Huge cliffs were pouring sand unto the ground, to which the sand was eaten away almost instantly by the flour.

This place felt and looked strange and frightening.

I kept on walking until I saw something that made me want to curl up in a ball and hide.

A being was sitting on a stone made throne, the throne was old and ancient, yet it was being carried by people, hundreds of thousands of people carrying the throne, where the being was sitting on.

The being was so enormous that his head was reaching the skies, this being could easily dwarf mountains.

He had red infernal skin that had cracks within it, these cracks were radiating a flame like ray, which made the being feel like if he was an ignited ember. It was hard for me to see the details of his head, due to the distance between us. I inspected him and saw

Kronos

(Lord of Time)

Titan

Level

???

************

Guardian of the dungeon of circles

Kronos, lord of time, its start and its end, the personification of time itself created this being, to which many feared and more respected, a being that cannot be killed nor can it be destroyed.

In the presence of this being nothing age.

“Cursed one, the time has finally come for us to speak…” said the being, his voice booming so loud that the falling sand vibrated from its effect…why does it seem that everyone wants something from me…