Meanwhile, the advocate was looking over another’s haul. The fiery-haired girl from earlier brought back a loup-Garou. A giant wolf-like creature with black fur and glowing red accents raced along its body while alive.
“Well done. No damage to the body and the meat is of exquisite quality.” The advocate says with a wide grin that causes creases in his fat to form throughout his gelatinous body. With a single scoop of his jaw, he devoured it whole, taking in some dirt as well.
“Absolutely splendid. Well done, you may advance.” He says as a gate alights behind him.
As she walks past the advocate to the gate, she hears rumbling coming from the forest, watching as tree after tree is mowed down. A giant white figure burst through the forest, headed straight for the advocate. His body began jiggling nervously as drool began leaking from his mouth like a leaky hose.
“Ho!!! Ho!!! 100% Fresh meat!!!” The advocate shouted excitedly. His jaw unhinged as he extended his mouth wide enough to catch the entire worm. The worm continued to fly into his mouth, extending his stomach far beyond the size of his body. Almost 10 seconds passed by before the entirety of the worm was engulfed by the advocate. In his post-meal euphoria, he looked over to see Seiren and Mera lying on the ground after having jumped off of the beast.
“How was that for a meal?” Mera asks before coughing up blood. Seiren helps her to her feet and sat her down on a nearby tree stump.
“That meal was the best I’ve had in many many years. Death worms have some of the most delectable flesh.” He says. “The two of you are free to advance.”
Even if we managed to clear the floor, I doubt either of us is in any condition to move on immediately. Seiren thinks, realizing Mera passed out. He could feel his own vision fading as well before he also passed out.
“My my. It would seem that they’ve tuckered themselves out. After bringing me such a good meal, I’ll do them a service.” The advocate says. “You with the orange hair. Can you please take these two with you to the next layer?”
The orange-haired girl walks over to them and smirks.
“Normally, I would’ve said no. But these two have caught my attention with a haul like that.” She says. She throws Mera over her shoulder and holds Seiren up by the back of his hoodie as she walks over to and through the gate. The advocate remains as the gate darkens once more.
The ground and walls were all made up of sandstone and were pale in color. In the distance, there was a room full of people standing together waiting. Seiren and Mera however awoke inside of a cell and found they had been resting against giant black bars of metal.
Where are we? Seiren wonders.
“Ugh, my head is pounding. This must be what a hangover feels like.” Mera lets out. “I just might throw up.”
“Please don’t.” Seiren mutters.
They sit up in the cell and collect themselves.
“Our injuries have completely healed.” Mera notices.
Come to think of it, they did. Seiren notices. Did someone heal us?
As Seiren looks around he notices there are other cells around them. In the cell to their right, a woman sat alone. Wearing a raggy cloak that covers her body, and a hood to cover her face. Her arms and legs were bound in heavy-looking chains. The woman’s hair slightly hung down from the hood revealing it to be a light lavender color. She looks over at them, revealing her beautiful amethyst-colored eyes.
“Who are you?” Mera asks as she rises to her feet.
“I don’t really think it matters.” She says.
“Okay… Well, Maya do you have any idea where we are?” Mera questions.
“This is the layer of Wrath.” She says while remaining with her arms around her legs.
“Thanks.” Mera says while walking back to the center of their cell. “Well, there you have it. We didn’t get eaten by the advocate. And this isn’t some strange dream.”
Seiren walks over to Maya and kneels down.
“Did someone heal us?” He asks.
“No, you both did that yourself. Since you’re both Hellraisers now, you’ve become semi-immortal.” She says.
With all that blood I lost earlier, I thought I was sure to die again. From what she’s saying we’re technically not human anymore, are we? He thinks.
“Can you elaborate on that?” Mera cuts in. “What do you mean by semi-immortal?”
The woman sighs.
“What I mean is that with the bodies you have now, you’ll be able to shrug off all manners of critical injuries, like blood loss, heart destruction, and even brain destruction.” She explains further.
“There’s no way this is true.” Mera says. “It sounds too far-fetched.”
The fact that we have powers now kinda makes it hard to doubt. He thinks.
“What you believe is up to you.” The woman states.
“Then if we’re that durable, what’s the point of being careful in combat?” Seiren questions.
“It takes time to regenerate, and during that time, you’re much more vulnerable. But beware of attacks that target the soul. Those are particularly dangerous.” Maya says.
“How?” Seiren asks as he leans in more.
“Your soul is the thing empowering you and keeping you alive. It’s also where your hell flower takes root. If it’s completely destroyed you’ll be erased, which is true death for a hellraiser.” She explains.
Mera hears this out of earshot and comes back over.
“You seem particularly knowledgeable about our physiology. How did you get this knowledge?” Mera questions as she grabs the bars.
“I’ve been around for quite a while.” She says.
“Right… Seiren you shouldn’t completely trust her. There’s a reason why she’s chained up.” Mera says coldly.
The woman merely sits in silence.
“At the very least, I’ll hear her out. I don’t wanna just dismiss her.” Seiren says looking back at Mera.
Mera sighs.
“Alright, just be careful.” Mera says as she goes back over to the other side of the cell.
“You seem like a nice person, so let me give you a tip.” She says. “You can’t afford to lose here.”
“Huh?” He questions.
Before he could ask any more. A small creature approached their cell and opened the door. With a big round head and small body, its tail was like a spear. Seiren only watched as they left the mystery woman behind. They followed behind the little demon as it led them to a room full of other people. The room was large and only had two exits, the other being a large walkway to a brighter area.
“Welcome to Wrath, chimps.” A hulking demon says. His body was bright red, and muscular far beyond normal levels. All sorts of horns and sharp protrusions extended from his back.
“Here you’ll all be fighting for my amusement. You’ll all be grouped into pairs of two.” He states. “And to make it interesting, you’ll all be wearing a soul-crushing shackle.”
Like we’d want to wear something called that. Seiren thinks.
“If you stray too far from your partner while wearing these, you’ll start to suffer. Let’s just say you don’t want to experience it.” The advocate explains. “There’s also gonna be a penalty each round you advance for fun. I’ll let you all figure out what it is!!!”
The advocate has demons put the brace on everyone in the room and prepares the bracket. Meanwhile, everyone was left to converse amongst each other. A fiery-haired woman comes over to Seiren and Mera and slaps them on their shoulders.
“That was a hell of a stunt the two of you pulled last layer! You’ve both got balls!” The fiery-haired girl says.
“Uh, who are you again?” Mera asks.
“The names, Rekka. I was actually the one who carried you both to this layer.” She explains.
“So that's how that happened,” Mera says.
I didn’t expect someone to take us here. She seems like a nice person, but her clothes don’t even look like they’re from this era. Maybe that’s just her style? Seiren thinks.
“Which one of you came up with that idea?” Rekka asks.
“It was all her,” Seiren says, pointing to Mera.
“Well, the whole operation hinged on me!” She says arrogantly.
A vein appears on Seiren’s head.
“It was a group effort.” He adds.
“But it was my plan.”
“That we executed together.”
“What are your names? You two seem like an interesting duo.” Rekka asks.
“I’m Mera and he’s Seiren.” She introduces.
“Well, I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys have got for the tournament,” Rekka says.
As Rekka walks off, Mera starts stretching.
“So they’re gonna pit us against one another, to see if we have what it takes to move on. We’ll have to bring our A-game.” She restates.
“Yeah.” Seiren agrees.
“ALRIGHT LET'S GET THIS STARTED!!!” A voice booms throughout the entire colosseum.
Demons approach from behind prodding the humans with their sharp tails, toward the field. The field was almost empty aside from rocks and debris scattered about at regular intervals. As they stepped out, they were surrounded on all sides by thousands of demons in the crowds. Standing at the center of the raging crowds was the advocate. Slamming his foot on the sandstone railing, he smirked. With a snap of his fingers, everyone disappeared in a flash of light and was separated into two pairs over several sealed segments. Every four fighters had their own mini arena. When Seiren and Mera next opened their eyes. They were greeted by two unfamiliar people.
A man and a woman stood next to one another. The man walked forward and slammed his fist into his hand. His hair was dark green and he wore joggers with a graphic tank top.
“Sorry, but how about the two of you forfeit now? Up against someone like me you stand no chance.” He says.
“Zydel stops your overconfidence, it’ll be our downfall.” The woman says as she holds her hands together. “Lord gives us a sound victory, so I can wipe out the devil in thy name.”
“Yeah, yeah. Theresa,” Zydel shrugs.
The woman was on the older side and wore a nun’s attire. Several tufts of blonde hair poked out from under her habit.
“Well, here we go, Seiren,” Mera says before getting into a battle-ready stance.
As Seiren blinked, Zydel appeared right before his eyes bathed in mysterious green lightning.
“You’re slow.” He says, before punching Seiren and knocking him away.
Mera watches as Seiren is struck, but the sound of a whip cracking snaps her back to her own fight.
“Please pay attention. Children .” She says.
“I’m no child. In fact, I was supposed to start college next month.” Mera says as she readies her water pistol.
“Please. We’re all the lord’s children.” She says, with a flip of her arm she cocked the whip back and struck it toward Mera. Mera dodges to the side with a quick hop. And aims her water pistol, firing off three shots. They flew straight toward Theresa, and as they reached her they exploded as though they came in contact with something, much to Mera’s surprise.
“What is that, some kind of invisible shield?” She questions.
“You ought to know by now that a woman has her secrets,” Theresa says.
Mera groans and rolls her eyes.
Meanwhile, Seiren was bearing the brunt of Zydel’s assault.
“C’mon pick up the pace!” He says.
It was like Seiren was being struck everywhere at once, once he’d protect one location, another would take a hit.
My senses are too slow to keep up with him. At this rate, I’ll lose before I can even get a hit-off. Seiren thinks.
Punch after punch Seiren slowly starts to get fatigued, and the damage was racking up, soon he wouldn’t even be able to stand.
“Ya’know I just wanna get back to my girlfriend waiting at home,” Zydel says while keeping up the attack. “After I get back I might just propose to her.”
“Good for you,” Seiren mutters as he struggles to hold his guard up.
I need space. Seiren thinks.
In the blink of an eye, several spears erupt from the shadows beneath them, causing Zydel to jump back in surprise and sit on a rock in the field.
“Woah, I guess you do have some fight in you. Why do you want to get back?” Zydel asks, putting a palm to his cheek.
“My mother.” He says.
Zydel lets out a low groan as he gets down from the rock.
“A parent huh? I’m not too fond of them. Are you sure that she’s worth getting back for? I’d say my reason trumps yours. Parents aren’t worth a damn.” He says.
He rushes in toward Seiren again, standing face to face with him.
“They place all these high expectations on your shoulders and when you fail, they abandon you because you can’t live up to their ideals.” He says.
“Sorry you feel that way, but your experience is not universal,” Seiren says as he attacks with his spear. Zydel manages to dodge Seiren, pausing in between his attacks to speak.
“Is talking all you can do? Because you’re nowhere near fast enough to hit me.” Zydel says before he bounces from in front of Seiren to around the entirety of their area.
He’s right, I'm not fast enough. But he’s blatantly showing off and abusing his speed. I can take advantage of that. When we were in that cave. I was able to react fast enough to dodge that worm. It wasn’t just my own senses that we're able to pick it up, but I could tell where it was going because all the shadows of that cave were connected to mine like a network. Things that I can’t see or feel, my shadows can. Seiren thinks.
Seiren closes his eyes and stands still.
“It’s looking like you’ve given up!” Zydel shouts as he rushes straight toward Seiren. With the light from above, Seiren’s shadow was stretched out across the ground, connected to the shadow of the boulder and thus overlapping with Zydel’s.
As Zydel closes in he hears a shout.
“He’s planning something!” Theresa shouts.
“Huh?” Zydel says while stuck in motion.
The feeling of that motion reverberated through the shadows and into Seiren. Using the shadows he created a small hook, catching Zydel’s foot, and causing him to fall toward Seiren. Seiren dragged his foot back, twisting his body in the process. Using the momentum of his turning body and Zydels own forward momentum against him, he blasted forward with a powerful thrust with his spear.
Theresa threw her arm toward Seiren and Zydel like she was directing something.
“Seiren look out!” Mera shouts.
Seiren turns to see Theresa aiming her hand at him, but at that point, he could no longer change position.
“I’m not going to make it in time!” Theresa shouts.
Mera aims her water pistol while Theresa is preoccupied and fires three shots, catching Theresa in the head with all three right as the spear went through Zydel’s stomach. He groaned in pain as he gripped the spear with his hands.
“Not bad,” Zydel says, coughing up a pint of blood.
Theresa pauses as the blood rolls down her forehead.
“Not even divine intervention can protect you from your own mistakes,” Theresa says before she collapses.
Mera let out a deep breath as though she was calming herself. Meanwhile, despite the injury Zydel received they were still at a standstill.
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