Book 3: Chapter 76
Zayde
We were in hell now, but it took 3 portal hops. He did that because I’m so big, that he didn’t want to accidently leak Tarteron’s energy onto Urth…
But this place… As familiar as it usually feels… it felt… hostile.
“After Contradiction fought the master’s grandchildren, a bit of a ruckus was down here for the Lady’s sake.” He said casually. “It doesn’t concern us, and we won’t be going above Layer 4. We get the energy, and we’re leaving.”
“Yes Sir.” I said like a soldier, and he patted my nose.
“If you didn’t lead a coven, I’d have asked to get you.” He said casually. “I could mold this flesh into something new entirely… and I Hear you. Fusing you with Grahkes is a *waste* of potential.”
….
“You’re probably the scariest elf I’ve ever met.” I mumbled.
“Why thank you.” He said sarcastically. “I take pride in the terror I bring. It makes life peaceful, being surrounded by generals who could reorganize my innards in about … 2.1 seconds on a whim.” He said as if he were thinking. “I don’t know… It’d depend on what they do. Eternya could roast me in about .8 seconds…. Kusare’s venom concentrate is instant. I’m rambling. Let’s go.”
Lord Eskaal knew where he was going, steering me by sitting on my nose. I had no control over myself, but I trusted him. I am a subject of the old master; he would not cause dispute between father and son.
“You’re right.” He beamed. “Once we go through this last portal, we’ll be at the energy refinery.”
“Alright.”
Through one last portal to fit a behimoth later, we were sent to a Layer I’d never gone to.
I didn’t know where we were, but as soon as we were on the other side of the portal, he made me dive slowly. We were high in the air… in Tarteron, but I didn’t know where. This place had blue flames below, though the screams weren’t really… like deafening or anything.
The master’s probably pissed at that.
The souls were in Hellmart vests, and the demons held whips. They were mushrooms with little horns… I always thought they were cute, but the little imps were anything but. I knew about them in my studies… This was the Layer of Sloth.
Their spores hurt like jellyfish stings, and they coat their whips with it.
Get whipped to many times, and those slashes birth more of them. It’s as painful as it sounds.
Those who get too far out of line might get a fertilized spore on their back, so a baby demon Will grow out of them for a week or so…. But that kind of punishment was for anyone who outright refuses to do their job or thinks their nobility is supposed to save them.
I didn’t feel sorry for them either.
This is *hell*. They literally belong here because these were the evil men who got fat off slaves and surfs. They were the kind of people to order someone to put a spoon to their mouth, wipe their ass, or carry them for miles in palanquins.
Granted, as a king or ruler, there is *some* entitlement to indulgence. One cannot expect them to be all charity and benevolence.
These are the ones who cross the line, because they brought outright suffering to entire populations for their own gain….
They who relished the suffering of the poor, and actively kept people in the worst conditions end up here. Those who ordered them too much, and worked them too hard, without consideration that they were mortal too.
These are the kind of men and women who beat their slaves and surfs to death, starved them to death, and used them until they had no spring in their joints. Those who Beat them to death while they ported tons of stone… sold their families, other dramatic, unnecessary oppression are down here as well, if not in Aggression, Greed, or Murder… In life they *loved* what they did, and the life they felt they were entitled to.
In death, they Work fulfilling hell’s orders for their stores in Repentance City. They build the gadgets and stoke the fires of the down refinery.
Anyone who purposefully made the lives of others around them hard, so theirs could be easy… *and* did so on mass, carry this particular sin. A man with a slave or two might not end up here, unless he was a particularly nasty sack of shit.
To be here, is to *really* fucking try to be.
So now… they Work.
They work as they did the slaves, servants, and peasants. All Worlds contribute to this in some way. Of course, people should work for their bread, but those here would order the bread to be made, eat in front of the starving, toss the scraps in the sewer, laugh at the hungry, and then complain that they’re ‘whining’ about being hungry when they Could help, but won’t.
“This is the Tarteron Furnace and Electricity Distribution Sublayer, It’s location is at the base of Sloth.” He shouted.
The large square building had no windows, but I could see the large entrance that had no doors. I might be able to just walk in there if not for the inferno well. They were tossing souls in from *outside* the building, so that might not be possible.
“…. You want me to rain hellfire on them?” I asked.
“Not yet. Only a specific spot, the Furnace as you can see is malfunctioning, and until the technician fixes it, production is down for Repentance. In a month or so, power outages might start up too, so you’re going to do the master a favor, and ignite the soul well inside the base of it.”
“I KNEW IT!” I shouted.
“What? That the Hellmart Franchise Below is owned by the Lord of Sloth? I thought everyone knew that.” He snorted a laugh. “Above, the Lord of Sloth was inspired by mortal factory work, and their monotonous suffering. Long hours, overtime, awful managers…. Down here, they’re paid in time off their sentence, and some DO learn from their evil ways, and go to Repentance City. Those who don’t work until they feed the furnace.”
“You can’t get any better than that.” I mumbled.
“Aye. See that large square?” He pointed.
The thing was at least 3 thousand feet high…. Great three hundred foot demons with mighty shovels threw souls in… but it wasn’t roaring like it should.
“This Makes So Much Sense Now!”
Like how we got packages in Yellow Diamond… without roads.
He kind of steered me like a car from there. I don’t know why I was surprised, knowing he rides Grahkes.
I breathed fire… with no control over my body. That was the surprising part… I thought he was just directing me.
“Oh, sorry.” Said Eskaal. “Fire!” his aim was perfect, igniting the furnace, and the screams picked up. Now this sounded like a Layer of Hell.
“You already did it!” I complained, but I must admit… firing up the furnace was Cool As Fuck!
Each level of the furnace glowed red and I poured all I had into that fire. It impressed the demons below, since many thought a regular bahimoth would come to do this.
When the building finished lighting up, a beam of pure energy came out the center, going straight up. With the snap of his fingers, Eskaal wrapped the pure energy in fiber optic cables.
“There. Now it shouldn’t overload itself.” He said holding a large jar of molten energy. The glass should be melting, yet, it inertly hummed.
“Wow.”
“Good, that should be enough.” He hopped off the tip of my nose, and teleported back on it within seconds. “Alright, let’s go to the next place.”
With a wave of his hand…I was in a giant bubble, at the bottom of the ocean.
“What is this my lord?” I asked, flapping as if I was flying… through water.
“Just don’t tell anybody we’re down here. Technically, to get a shed scale of Leviathan, we have to ask, but he’s kind of dead at the moment, and Posidion is in mourning.”
“….oh….” so if we get caught, he’s going to do more than kill us… he’s taking his frustration out on us too. Lovely.
“Lovely indeed.” Smiled Eskaal. “There’s one.” He pointed to a glowing solid sterling silver scale.
“I’ll dive down.”
“….Damn it I want that black pearl, but if we take it, I know that will ruin our stealth.” He hissed.
“I say let’s leave it alone. The gods are upset, and the oceans are stale… It would be bad for all the masters.”
He pursed his lips. “It’s literally like that as a temptation. This is bullshit.”
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