PHASE 4 - ALARIC IN WONDERLAND

This is not what I imagined hell should be. But nevertheless, it is still hell.

I’m now inside a dark cavern. Everything has a red tint, just like the crimson blood moon of Yami. The source of those crimson lights is those rivers of blood that are glowing like a magma. Smoke comes out of it which releases the sulfuric putrid smell. The ground, it is pulsing. The ceiling is pulsing too. Even the walls and the stalagmite-like tentacles hanging around are heaving. It’s like I’m inside a humongous Godzilla stomach.

“Is this…”

“No, not yet,” Erylle said. The blonde woman who is calling herself The Outsider is beside me the whole time. She dematerialized her own version of her Heavenly Blade to specks of glowing dust. Then, she continued to explain. “This is just the outer part of Hell: The Hall of Sinners.”

“Hall of Sinners?” I tilted my head.

“Hall of Sinners is a doomed place where all the dead wicked souls gather before they are granted entrance to Hell. You’ll see for yourself what it looks like.”

We ventured through this beating flesh cavern that is so yucky in all ways. I smell rotten cheese everywhere. I can sense the aura of malice in the air as if I’m being eyed my hundreds of Eidolons. The hairs on my skin are in standing ovation because of the chills even though it’s pretty hot in here.

At last, we are finally out in the tight tunnel spaces. I’m a little bit claustrophobic especially when I’m walking through some kind of esophagus of a monster so I think I’ll be relieved after I saw a wide opening leading to a hall.

We have finally reached the most disgusting place in my experience. The smell in here became much worse. It’s like a mixture of poop, pee, sulfur, stale cheese, and mustard. The hall itself has a floor of blood-lava, and there are several people swimming in it, like swarms of sardines forced to be put in a tight small can. This is like a stampede in a disgusting overcrowded pool party.

I said people, but they no longer look like one. They look like malnourished zombies with decaying skin diseases, and the lava itself is slowly melting them in. Their hollow eyes are endlessly crying with black blood.

This hall is filled with inaudible cries of the poor souls in different languages. But even though I could not understand their words, I can feel that they have the very same purpose: To get out.

“Oh, so this is where flat-earthers, holier-than-thou feminists, die-hard K-Poop fans, and easily-offended Karens go?” I mocked.

“No, they’re not.” Erylle rolled her eyes. “You’re more likely to go here than them.”

I noticed that the souls are trying hard to reach the sole long rope that is connected to the hole at the ceiling of this hall. That hole out of this cavern gives a bluish-white light.

“What will happen if they managed to escape using that rope?” I muttered.

Erylle didn’t answer. She just looked at me with a “See for yourself" expression.

I saw some zombie-like soul climb the rope with his amazing spider-man skills. He is shouting “I am free! I am free!” in joy. Within half a minute, he finally reached the hole at the ceiling, only to realize that a big black worm with hundreds of teeth waiting for an ambush. It swallowed the poor sinner whole, making all the souls who witnessed such event horrified.

The poor souls are now hopeless as they saw their only way out to be a freaking nest of a nasty worm. They all panicked and hollered, not knowing what to do. Since it is a stampede pool party, several souls have been trampled over.

The worm slowly chewed the sinner, and then puked a big chunk of black flesh to the sulfuric blood pool filled with zombies. Some sinners got smashed by such gigantic things. Have you ever seen or tried balut? Just remove all the shells and that what the big black flesh looks like. It’s a big fetus.

Gigantic skeletal arm hatched from the said chunk of flesh. Slowly, a big zombie head that has the face of a goblin peeked out from the flesh cover. Its arms started to scoop all the sinners from below and mercilessly shoved them to its mouth, eating them and swallowing them whole.

“Aaaaaaah!!!” All the wicked souls ran in fear. But they can’t escape the pool of acidic blood. They can’t climb without the help of a ladder or a rope. They are trapped. They can only watch themselves eaten by such a horrific monster.

I can sense malicious energy coming from that monster. It is now identical to a Level 3 Eidolon.

“So that’s how Eidolons are made…” I held my chin as I savored myself in this newly-acquired knowledge. “Should we help them?”

“No.” Erylle shook her head as she stayed watching the Eidolons feed. I can see the dismay on her emerald eyes. “There is no hope for them anymore. They’ll become Eidolons no matter what. That worm only made his curse worse, making him a much powerful Eidolon than the others.”

<>

The Level 3 Eidolon nourished itself as it feeds on its co-sinners. It is clear that he no longer has any humanity left in him. He’s just a mindless killing machine that eats every soul on its wake.

“You see the blood lake over there?” Erylle pointed below. “That works like a flush. That is where we’ll enter. So you need to kill that Eidolon first.”

“Me?” I scratched my head. “Do I really have to go down and soak myself to that gross pool of blood on myself?”

“You don’t have a choice~” Erylle made a carefree smile. “As an Outsider, my interference to the worlds is limited. I can only aide you a handful of times, but not directly.”

“What a drag…” I disappointedly sighed.

If I wanted to go to Hell, get the Fragment and the Curse from Aeternos and save Tiara, I wouldn’t mind diving in that lake of blood. As Tiara said: With determination, I will never give up!

I jumped to the dirty pool, splashing all the blood to my face and coat. The acidic blood stings, but I can bear it. It only feels like ethyl alcohol being poured into a fresh wound, except that I feel it in all parts of my body.

“Hey, ugly face!” I shouted at the Eidolon, finally grabbing its attention. The monster curled its eyebrows and the goblin-face opened its mouth, revealing its shark-like teeth.

“F*CK YOU!!!” The monster shouted. Wow, this is the first time I ever saw a speaking Eidolon. Maybe I’ll try to converse him a little bit.

“No, you!” I angrily replied.

“F*CK YOU!!!” It shouted again.

“No, you!” I made the same answer.

“F*CK YOU!!!”

“No, you!”

“F*CK YOU!!!”

“No, you!”

“F*CK YOU!!!”

Okay, I’m bored. This guy is like a pokemon who can only speak a couple of words. And it’s mouth is full of profanity. Well, this is the outer part of Hell, so I don’t expect anyone to talk with me like a civil person. Everybody here is a demon.

“Time to finish this!” I shouted as I materialized a curved crimson katana with black linings in it. It is the sword that killed three of my friends. It is the sword from my arch-nemesis who once became my friend. It is Diadem’s sword.

“F*CK YOU!!!” The Eidolon roared again.

I closed my eyes and made a deep breath, focusing all the prana on my sword. I can feel flames swelling from my arms up to the tip of my blade.

Then…

As I open my eyes, the cross sigil on my irises glowed.

“!!!”

There was a blink of darkness, followed by a silver flame streak.

When the darkness faded, I already made my way at the back of the Eidolon. The goblin monster stayed standing still for a whole second, and then…

A slanting slash rippled. I have sliced the Eidolon’s head all the way to its body. Silver flames started to engulf the gigantic monster as it roared once again.

“F*CK… YOU!!!”

Then the sound of splashing water echoed. The Eidolon has been put down in one hit. Even if it was soaked with bloody liquid, its body continued to be burned by my silver flames.

I looked at the crimson katana that has been coated with fire. This spell, is the upgraded version of which adds flame magic to the quickest sword attack in existence. Diadem taught me this very spell, and now that I have mastered it, I am certain that nothing can stand my way.

Before I leave the scene, I looked at the dying Eidolon that is now being converted into black dust. A glowing Quintessence orb floated from its corpse, which I immediately caught with my hand.

And then…

“F*CK YOU TOO!!!” I stressed out my lungs.