155 All Is Not Well
“Sure! Anywho…About the method of returning to the Artificial Devil’s domain…” Klaus scratched his chin, looking up.
Above them, the entrail-like ceiling, seemingly sentient and pulsating as crimson liquid continued to rain down periodically, it seemed to stretch on infinitely in all directions.
“How do we do that? It’s way up there,” he asked.
“I said I knew a way to escape, but it’s not exactly a “trail”, if you catch my drift,” Klaus told him as his white, thick tail swayed behind him.
“Huh…?”
He looked at the white-skinned, demon-transfigured man who left the bounds of the small island, beginning to walk into the crimson swamp again as he ushered for him to follow.
“Ah…Alright…”
A bit of hesitance came with reentering the grotesque, knee-high swamp, but he followed behind Klaus, using both the mystical cane and his spear as a means to aid his slimy step.
“About how we’ll get you out of here…” Klaus said.
Just as the benevolent demon began talking, an explosive sound echoed through the vast swamps, causing the hazel-haired adolescent to freeze and watch as various spots spewed upwards violently.
“Blood geysers,” Klaus explained, “Yeah, be careful of those. They’ll vaporize you on the spot! Ha-ha!”
“…I’m failing to see what’s funny here,” he said with chattering teeth.
The crimson geysers released a lofty amount of red-laced steam, blowing in from a distance as he could feel the residual heat still sting his skin.
“Yowch…It’s that hot even from here?!” He held his cheek.
Klaus laughed, uncaring of the brushing steam that passed by as blood geysers continued to give off in the distance, releasing periodic bomb-like noses.
Of the geysers’ existence, the crimson, foggy waters continuously rippled, making the slimy terrain even more difficult to walk in.
“You’re not affected by this heat?” He asked, already sweating profusely just a few minutes of their journey through the Blood Swamp.
Klaus shook his head, putting his hands behind his head as he walked casually, “Not at all. I guess it’s my new Hell physiology or something. I mean, it’d be pretty lame to be a demon who couldn’t handle a bit of heat, right?”
“Right…”
“Anyway…We’re looking for a Devil Train Worm,” Klaus explained, “That’s your ticket out of this place.”
“A ‘Devil Train Worm’? I really don’t like the sound of that…What’s that got to do with getting up there, anyway?” He asked.
He followed behind the snow-white demon man as they sifted through the knee-high swamp, passing by jagged, maze-like, brittle trees that extended from the depths of the hellish terrain.
“They’re native to the Blood Swamp. Well, they’re kind of like the Kings of the Blood Swamp, if you ask me, anyway,” Klaus explained, “–It’ll be easier to explain once we find one, though!”
“Err…okay,” he nodded with a trembling smile and a wry chuckle.
Crap…Is this really my only option?! Yeong-Un! Jeong-Hui! Show up, please! He pleaded to whatever nonexistent god was still on his side.
He continued trudging forward, moving his spear and hardened branch along each step amongst the crimson waters.
“I’ve got a question–if, err, you don’t mind,” he asked.
“Hit me with it!” The eccentric demon-man said, glancing back.
“You were a player, right? In the Armageddon Game, I mean. Do you know…what happened?” He asked.
Klaus was silent for a moment as the sounds of distant Blood Geysers sounded off, propelling fountains of the steaming, red liquid upwards.
“–Only vaguely,” Klaus answered.
“Oh, err, my bad,” he quietly responded.
The melancholic expression immediately shifted back, “I mean, it’s not all bad! After all, what’s there to miss of what I don’t remember, right?”
“Right…”
Though the snow-skinned demon laughed, it was clear he did hold some grievances of his own with his current situation.
It was another few minutes through the Blood Swamps, following the kind demon through its shallow stretch while the liquid ripples and geysers spewed.
“Err, Mr. Klaus,” he called the demon’s name.
“Just Klaus is fine,” Klaus told him.
“Right…Klaus. Why’re you helping me out, anyway?” He asked.
The demon scratched his chin, looking up before looking at the young man with a simple shrug of his shoulders, “I don’t know, honestly. It just kind of feels…right. Isn’t that odd?” Klaus laughed, “–I wonder…if I was the type of person who helped others.”
He looked at the benevolent demon with a small smile, “I bet you were a pretty awesome guy.”
“Ha-ha! You’re going to make me blush, kid! Anyway, let’s get moving on! I’m sure your friends are waiting somewhere around here!” Klaus ushered him to follow.
The deeper into the Blood Swamps they traveled, the more difficult it became to navigate through its vast reach; many of the brittle, lifeless trees sprouted and curved around, blocking a lot of vision as patches of rotten soil formed dozens of small islands.
“…Are these worms rare, or something?” He asked.
Klaus answered without looking back, “Well, most of the time you’d sure like them to be! Ha-ha! Well…Let’s just say these swamps aren’t big enough for many of them.”
“Big enough…?” He gulped. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Just how big are these worms, anyway?! He thought as he shivered.
Each step was taken cautiously as he was still deathly afraid of the hellish domain, holding onto his spear and makeshift cane as his lifelines as he trekked behind his guide.
Woosh.
Another steaming geyser of blood that reached high, unleashing a shock wave of steam that prompted him to raise his arms to defend against the heat wave.
“Hey, Klaus?” He called.
“Yeah?” Klaus looked back.
“…If you know a way out of here, why haven’t you tried escaping?” He asked, watching the snow-white, tattooed back of the demon-man.
“Hmm…” Klaus scratched his chin, “I told you, didn’t I? The only possibility of escape is returning to the Artificial Devil’s domain. The one who brought you here, anyway. As for me…I guess creatures like myself are just powerless to the will of the Artificial Devils.”
Klaus looked a bit sad, looking down at his hands that resembled claws, as if not in favor of the shape of his inhuman form.
“I see…”
“It’s not so bad down here, though! I’ve just been wandering. I think I might’ve been an explorer when I was human! Really–it’s just so vast here! There’s so many awesome places; the Blood Swamp is just one of many!” Klaus explained to him.
“–“
While he was silent, trekking behind the demon, who was able to naturally traverse the hellish swamps as if it were a smooth road, Klaus continued going on-and-on about the pros of staying down in the hellish realm.
“Sometimes I even come across nice fruit! There’s fish around here to catch as well–if you’re hungry, that is. And, the bad people only mess with you every now and then. But, that’s when being able to run fast comes in handy,” Klaus went on.
“Klaus…Sorry, but I’m not looking to stay down here,” he quietly told the horned once-human.
“Ah…” Klaus looked hurt for a moment but smiled, “Of course! I knew that!–I was just talking, no biggy!”
Though he could tell Klaus certainly seemed lonely; in the depths of the great subsidiary of Hell, the man must’ve been wandering for some time, all alone, through the bowels of Hell without knowing who he was.
I do feel bad, but…I’ve got my own problems right now. Gangcheori…needs me, I think. Even if they don’t…I want to help, he thought.
Clutching his silver spear, he looked up towards the far-above ceiling, watching as it shifted and pulsated.
Inside of his chest, the beating flame of fear continued to throb, but by this point in the harrowing day, he found stepping forward to not be such a tall task.
“Wait, what do you mean by that…?”
It was only a few moments after Klaus’ words that he responded like so, prompting Klaus to look at him–blinking a few times with his stygian eyes before smiling.
The pale-white demon’s tail moved swiftly, stabbing into the water as if latching onto something.
“Huh?” He let out, watching this in perplexion.
Klaus’ tail rose from the crimson swamp, revealing a bulbous, all-black fish with horns for whiskers, “–This is what I mean! Sin fish are pretty yummy, actually.”
“That’s not what I was asking about…” He sighed out.
“Oh?”
Klaus had already begun eating the pierced, hell-born fish, chomping on it and offering one half to the injured young man.
He looked at it for a moment, shaking his head nervously in his best attempt not to offend the man who had been nothing but helpful so far.
“No thanks…I’m good,” he rejected half of the fish.
“Your loss,” Klaus said, eating the other portion of the bulbous swamp-dweller.
“Anyway…I meant what do you mean by the “bad people” here? I thought, well…I thought ones like you were the only ones down here,” he asked, sifting his fingers through his own hazel locks nervously.
“Ah, well…Yeah, there are some real bad apples down here. It’s sorta Hell, afterall, isn’t it? Honestly, I’m in the rare camp of being one that retained some of my humanity…these others are almost feral; moving only with the instinct of spreading malice,” Klaus informed him.
This information made him weary, as the warning coming from a demon itself felt even more paramount.
“I see…” He gulped.
“Don’t worry about it though! It’s pretty rare to bump into anybody in these parts–ah, well, your friends are a different case, I bet! Don’t worry!” Klaus assured him, “–Irk.”
A ripple swiftly carved across the Blood Swamp.
Just then, it happened so fast that his eyes could barely processed what had just happened–
The white-horned demon’s head was taken straight from his shoulders by a sharply swung instrument–beheaded instantly without any sort of warning.
“Huh…? Klaus?” He mumbled in shock.
He now saw it: standing in front of the now headless body of the snow-white demon was a tall figure dressed in tattered, black robes, wrapped in bone-made jewelry that presented the decrepit heads of both humans and demons.
“Another for the collection,” the giant, massive-cleaver wielding fiend grumbled.
[“Artificial Devil: The Head Hunter” | Level 34]
“Huh…?”
He was still in shock, feeling his knees buckle from beneath him, quivering and looking forward as the headless body of Klaus spewed black blood before falling lifelessly over into the Blood Swamp.
“…Human. I knew I smelled something…so sweet,” The Head Hunter said in his gravelly voice.
The face of the robed, head-wearing devil was obscured, though its lengthy, spiraling horns were prominent; only its steam-exuding snout and beady, black eyes could be seen beneath its hood.
This was “Hell”; even if not the entire realm itself, it was clear that whatever domain he stood in was one that birthed little reprieve, and spewed out only malice.
What…is going on? Klaus is dead? Who is this guy? Level thirty-four? Huh? This isn’t fair, he thought.