Ira Invidia (IX): A Hellevator And A Demon

--- Booker H. Freeman ---

He watched the shaking young woman in front of him for a moment before assuring her that, “I would assist you as best I can, as promised. If that means changing our current endeavor then so be it.”

(Lust: Yay!)

(Pride: Foolish.)

(Envy:…)

(Greed: Gah, should’ve ditched her and pocketed the profits for ourselves.)

(Sloth: Well, at least the help will be happy I suppose…)

Lydia stared at him for a moment as if shocked by what he’d said. “You… you really mean that?”

“Of course.” He may’ve been a monster, but he was a monster of his word. And, “I told you I would help you, and so I shall.”

With that established he started back the way they’d come from, before after several steps realizing, (Gluttony: She’s not following.)

He turned back to where Lydia was still standing, her eyes on the ground and her face scrunched up in a rather distasteful expression. “Lydia?”

The young woman continued to stand there for another moment before violently running her hands through her hair. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”

“Pardon?” He asked, taken aback by this outburst.

“I am so going to regret this…” Lydia whined, before looking at him with a resigned expression. “Fine. Let’s check out the stupid death building.”

“Are… you sure?” He felt the need to check.

“No, but… Just, let’s get moving before I change my mind.” Lydia grumbled as she started marching off without him.

(What was that all about?) He couldn’t help but wonder as he used his longer legs to catch up to his companion.

(Pride: I have no idea…)

(Lust: We just proved we’re a good friend!)

(Sloth: Loyalty begets loyalty?)

(Envy:…)

(Gluttony: Can we find something to kill now?)

(Greed: Or someone to rob?)

Once he’d caught up to her, Lydia warned him that, “Since this is your idea if something tries to kill us in here I’m running while it tries to eat you.” as her eyes drifted between the various corpses around them.

“That’s fair.” He smiled, before stepping forward and opening the door to their goal for her. “Ladies first.”

“And survivors last.” Lydia scoffed.

(Lust: Ooh, she’s sassy when she’s scared.)

“Unless the monster is behind us.” He pointed out, enjoying the way she became twitchy, her eyes darting around the corpse filled street.

“I fucking hate this…” The young maiden groaned before forcing herself past the door’s threshold. “There happy?!”

“Amused is more appropriate.” He thought as he stepped inside, sure to close the door behind him.

The room itself was large, but relatively empty with an elevator in front of them and a set of stairs leading upwards. Along the walls were a number of torn and faded posters and paintings, a number notably looking like they’d been ripped to shreds by something with claws strong enough to dig through concrete.

(Wrath: As they deserve showing off such a wretched ideology…)

“Fuck it’s dark in here… give me a minute…” Lydia told him as she began rummaging through her bag.

“Take your time, I can see well enough.” He assured her as he took note of the dark stains on the ground leading from the door to the elevator.

(Gluttony: Something’s bringing its prey home to eat.)

“Of course you can.” His companion grumbled before pulling out a flashlight and using it to cut a path of light through the darkness. “Oh, fun… This place is even more murdery than I thought.”

“I know, isn't it delightful.” He laughed, starting towards the elevator that he could now see was missing its guard gate.

“Uh, why don’t we uh, check out the stairs before getting in the Hellevator?” Lydia suggested, her light locked onto what was very clearly dried blood in front of the elevator.

(Pride: Hmm, this elevator has been refurbished. Look at the control panel, it’s been gutted and rewired to this lever for some reason.)

“Come now, this is clearly a path straight to our goal.” He told her as he grabbed the lever next to the elevator and pulled it.

“And what is our goal exactly?” Lydia asked, her light moved around the walls. “Because everything I’m seeing is saying this is where you go to get murdered.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll kill anything that tries and kills us.” He promised as the elevator proper came into view and the lever snapped back into place. “I’ll even make sure it suffers before it knows the mercy of the pale lady.”

“Yeah… No.” Lydia decided, immediately turning to the stairs as she caught sight of the elevator completely covered in bloodstains from the waist down.

(Envy: You do know if you leave her alone she probably is going to get murdered in here, right?)

(Sloth: Minions are supposed to give us less work not more…)

Unable to help but roll his eyes, he followed after the delicate maiden who apparently couldn’t handle a bit of blood before wincing as she briefly flashed her light at him.

“You, uh, you didn’t say what we’re looking for…” Lydia reminded him, her voice a touch softer as her light leapt away from him.

“Something magical.” He assured her, before clarifying that, “With all of those bodies out there there should be a Spell Anchor of some sort in here that will connect them to the Wall. I’m hoping that anchor will be a smugglers tunnel of some kind that we can use to escape this city.”

“Okay, okay, that… that makes sense.” Lydia nodded, her flashlight darting between several offices full of broken furniture. “Can you… do that thing you used to track the magic here?”

He listened to the world around him before-

(Lust: Okay, I like music but that’s too loud!)

(Gluttony: Skree!)

(Envy: There’s too much spell work here!)

-wincing at the deafening sound, and shaking his head. “No, there’s too much magic here. The Spell Songs are too similar to sort through.”

“Spell Songs…” Lydia repeated as they continued their search. “So, uh, magic is music?”

(Sloth: She’s asking because she’s scared and hoping you’ll distract her.)

“If unleashed upon the air, it will vibrate and generate sound often indistinguishable from music.” He confirmed before noticing a few dark streaks on the floor. “That said, humans aren’t built with an inherent sense for magic so if one attempts to observe it they’ll often receive a state of synesthesia as their mind tries to process it.”

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(Envy: We just hear it more than anything else because…)

(Lust: Music is its own magic!)

(Envy: Sure, let’s go with that…)

(Gluttony: Don’t forget you can still see, taste, smell, and feel the world around you. If you quit ignoring what Nature gave you you’d be able to see a world beyond magic and music.)

“Uh, Booker… is that what you’re looking for?” Lydia asked, her light shining past him and into an office ahead of him where he could vaguely make out something written on the wall.

“Possibly…” He answered as he made his way closer to what seemed to be a pair of circles with a star in the center, runic script written around the circle with a more complex piece in the center of the circle.

(Gluttony: It’s written in blood. Both old and new.)

(Yes, but what does it mean?) He knew it was a Spell Circle but beyond that…

(Envy: It’s a beacon relay. It doesn’t tell us what the spells are doing but this is likely a focal point connecting all of the corpses outside to something in here… There should be another one of these somewhere, or a few of them, with the core of the spell being at the end of the chain.)

“Shine your light around we need to find another one of these and then follow it back to the source.” He told Lydia as he backed away from the Wall before taking a look around the floor they were on. “Wait, up there. Above the elevator.”

Lydia shined her light where he said and revealed another Circle drawn, this one ever so faintly glowing in the light.

“Fuck…” His companion cursed. “We’re getting in the Hellevator aren’t we?”

“It would seem so.” He nodded, crossing his hands behind his back as he started towards the elevator, only to pause as he found a pile of desks in the way. “Though it seems this floor is blocked for some reason…”

“Great… Maybe that’s a sign that we shouldn’t get in the elevator?” Lydia weakly suggested.

He gave her a smile and a pat upon the head as he passed her by. “Now, now dear. You’ll never gain anything if you aren’t willing to take any risks.”

“I’m willing to take risks if they won’t kill me.” Lydia argued quietly as she followed him down the stairs and into the elevator, or rather she stopped just outside of it.

He tilted his head as he watched her staring at the elevator with no small amount of fear. “How many times must I remind you dear… There’s nothing to fear so long as I am near.”

Lydia closed her eyes before quickly marching into the elevator without opening them. “Just… tell me when we get off this thing.”

He gave her a soft smile even though she couldn’t see it before gripping the elevator’s control lever and asking, “Up or down?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. I just want this over with.” His companion told him tersely with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes firmly shut.

(Pride: Wait. There’s a lock on it. The lever won’t go further up than this unless it’s removed and this mechanism will require a tool of some kind.)

(I see…) “Then given how this is a place full of secrets… Let’s search the basement first.” He decided.

“Yeah, the murder basement where they bury the bodies of their victims, heh.” Lydia joked, sounding more than a little stressed at the moment.

“Oh, please. The basement is a terrible place to bury bodies. That’s just asking to be caught while also limiting the capacity of your home with each kill.” He scoffed as he pushed the lever causing the elevator to begin moving just before spikes erupted from the lever ripping his hand to shreds.

“What was that?!” Lydia cried, her eyes snapping open as her flashlight nearly blinded him.

(Sloth: She’s on the verge of running.)

(Envy: To be fair I think anyone would right now…)

“Nothing worth worrying about.” He assured her hiding both his hand and the lever from her view. (Why is it always my hands!?)

(Gluttony: They’re half the reason humans are on top of the food chain.)

(Pride: Whoever built this also designed it to mangle one’s hands once used so as to prevent it from being used twice.)

(Gluttony: Which means this is someone’s hunting grounds.)

(Lust: Ooh, Lydia was right! This is a murder basement!)

“Lovely.” He sighed as they were bathed in a crimson light from above.

“Okay, I’ve officially hit my ‘we need to run’ point!” Lydia told him. “Turn the lever and get us the fuck out of here!”

“Ah… there’s a slight problem with that…” He confessed, just a touch bashfully.

“Booker… Why is the control lever spiked?” Lydia asked. “And why is it dripping blood?!”

“Ha-ha, well, you see that is something of a comical story.” He chuckled, knowing full well that his companion would probably disagree with that assessment.

Which is why he found himself quite grateful that this was the moment the elevator opened to reveal a concrete hallway with another relay circle.

“Oh, would you look at that, we're going the right way!” He smiled, stepping out of the elevator and looking to either side, finding each way to be bathed in faint crimson lights every few steps.

“Booker!” Lydia called in a panicked voice.

(Sloth: Ignore her, there's no winning this.)

“Might as well keep that winning streak going.” He told his companion as he started down the right path, his eyes drifting towards the crimson lighting.

(Pride: Emergency lighting. I suppose if the elevator is active then it makes sense these are too, but look at the way they’re installed… They’ve been added in just like the elevator lever.)

“Shit, shit, shit!” Lydia cursed as she chased after him, refusing to be alone in this situation. “Oh, I knew coming in here was a bad idea! Why did I let you talk me into this?!”

“You didn’t?” He reminded her with a confused brow. “I was fully set to change our plans for your sake and then you changed your mind about coming in here.”

“Shut up! I’m only here because of you!” Lydia snapped with a (hideous) scowl as her eyes darted around and behind them, her breath coming out in short huffs as they made their way through the labyrinthian halls.

(Sloth: Just let her have this.)

(Envy: It is our fault she’s here…)

(Gluttony: Wait… To our left.)

He paused as he caught sight of a door, hidden by shadows as the crimson light in this section of the hall proved itself broken. “Hold on a moment.”

“Oh, what is it now?” Lydia groaned as she turned her flashlight on him.

The door opened with little fuss and as he stepped inside he switched the lights on with ease, revealing a rather mundane work room in perfectly normal lighting. Along the walls were several lockers lined up next to what appeared to be a restroom with a torn up couch and a small table on the other side of it. Across from these was a large machine with a number of glass panes climbing up the wall showing off images from across the building.

What made this room truly interesting however was the large Spell Circle drawn onto the ground, with a large nail driven into each of the star’s five points, and and several more circling it to contain the bright crimson glow even as the rampant magic caused the air above the circle to flicker black and white.

“I believe this is what we’ve been looking for.” He smiled as he walked up to the circle, never quite crossing its threshold.

(Envy: So much power and yet we couldn’t sense it… All of the relays, they’re designed to hide this. Flood the building in enough power that this is buried.)

(Greed: Meaning that whatever this is it has to be valuable, right?)

(Envy: In the right hands, very.)

“O-okay… I, I haven’t seen anything like this before.” Lydia admitted, her fear slowly being consumed by awe as she stared at the spell work in front of her. “What is this?”

His eyes roamed the runic script of the circle to try and translate it.

(Envy: Alright, this one is significantly easier to understand than everything else, it’s-)

“A battery.” He answered, finishing his otherself’s thought. “One containing… quite a large amount of power.”

Lydia licked her lips, her eyes darting between him and the static in the air. “Can you… can you use it?”

“If I can find the control point.” He grinned as he walked around the circle, only to have his cheeks begin to twitch because, “It’s not here.”

“What?” Lydia frowned, and as much as he hated it he couldn’t blame her.

“The control point. It’s not here.” He growled, the teeth of his smile grinding together.

“Where, where is it then?” His companion asked, looking somewhere between confused and frustrated.

(Envy: It can’t be far. The further you get the less stable it would become, even with the relays expanding that distance.)

(Pride: Then it’s most likely in the building somewhere. Check the cameras.)

(Where?)

(Pride: The wall of windows!)

Listening to his inner voice he made his way to the machine covered in glass and let his eyes drift between all of the windows, finding his teeth clenching tighter and tighter as he found nothing. “Where is it?”

(Sloth: The broken one.)

His eyes snapped to the only camera that was shattered. (But where does it lead?)

“Booker,” Lydia called. “There’s another circle above you.”

He looked up and found another relay before realizing, “Up.”

“Up?” Lydia repeated as he started towards the door.

“The battery is down here but the control is at the top of the building.” He explained. “We’ll need to adjust the lever on the elevator but if I can get the control then-”

A grumbling growl echoed down the hall just as he crossed the threshold to the room, seemingly causing the building itself to shake.

“That… sounds like a problem.” He admitted, before turning back to Lydia to find her looking the cameras over with a pale face.

“Oh, no. No, no, no!” Lydia cried as she backed away from the machine.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, catching her with a hand on her back before she could fall.

Lydia raised a shaking finger towards the screen as she tried and failed to answer, “It’s… it’s… it’s…”

His eyes quickly began to roam the glass panes in search of what had frightened her so badly. Eventually he found a massive shape moving across one of the cameras, before moving onto the next.

The creature on the camera could in no way be described as human, the monster crawling through the hall that just barely fit it as its claws scraped deep grooves into the walls to drag itself along them.

While he couldn’t make out much about the beast from the way it moved between the cameras, he was able to make out one detail that he’d have to be blind to miss.

Across the monster’s face was a visage of sharp fangs, each as long and dangerous as any knife, stretched out and arranged in a twisted shape that could only be called a-

“It’s the Smiling Man…”

(What?)