“Leave him be, Billy,” I cut him off and moved closer, “I won’t let you scam this poor kid like you scammed me.”
“What scam?” Billy asked, his voice sounding slightly strained. “We made a deal, and I honored my deal . . . unlike you.”
“And yet, here I am. Alive and well. My soul was not erased,” I countered. “Kid, this guy is about to offer to show you somewhere for a hundred tiny crystals. If you shake his hand, the system recognizes the deal. Then he’ll hide until you fail to pay him back in time. He’ll show up and demand ten times that amount. Fail to pay him, and you’ll be erased from existence.”
Billy looked angry but still managed to act affronted. “I would never. Why . . . you’d need to be truly demonic to do something like that,” he said, the last few words dropped a few octaves and I swear his eyes turned a ruby red for an instant.
Realizing, I still didn’t know just how strong Billy was and how much I was putting myself at risk, I was still stupid enough to press the issue. “It would indeed be demonic, wouldn’t it, Billy? And you know how folks around here feel about demons.”
Billy narrowed his eyes at me. “Sorry kid, I don’t really feel like showing you the way. Vicky here has put me in a rotten mood,” he said, turning abruptly and starting to walk away. “Oh, and Vic, I’ll see you real soon. We got unfinished business, you and I.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, feeling my heart hammering in my chest.
The kid looked at me suspiciously. “Was he really trying to scam me?”
“Yes, though he wasn’t lying about the guide. It is helpful,” I answered.
He asked, “Can you show me the way? My names Pete by the way.”
“Victor,” I returned the greeting. “Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
When I said, I would show him the way, I meant Asher would show us both the way. The flame wasn’t happy about it and complained the entire way there, mostly complaining about the time we could have spent inside Purgatory, grinding crystals and experience.
We wound through the town until we entered the same, mostly empty neighborhood I remembered. I didn’t realize my mistake until it was too late.
A knife cut across the back of my ankle so suddenly, bringing me painfully to my knees, my HP plummeted to 37/100 from just one hit, a familiar hit.
I felt someone pull me close then press metal to my throat. “I told you I would see you real soon.”
“Billy,” I growled angrily.
Billy chuckled. “I want so badly to kill you myself. But you see, Pete here has an initiation to complete. If he kills you, he gets to become one of the damned, just like me.”
Pete, the young man I thought looked so lost coming down that ramp now stood in front of me, grinning down at me wickedly. He held a dagger in his hand. “Can I kill him now?”
Billy laughed. “Not just yet. He needs to suffer more,” he said, pressing the blade he held against my throat until it drew blood.
I watched my HP dwindle as Asher yelled and screamed and cursed Billy and Pete both to the deepest darkest pits of the inferno. I watched him try to attack both men only to have no effect on them at all.
At 1/100 HP, I felt something get pressed to my lips before a liquid poured into my mouth, my HP starting to climb again.
“Can’t have you dying too soon, can I?” Billy asked sadistically. He was excited by the pain and suffering he was causing me. “I can’t believe you were so gullible. I thought for sure after our last encounter you would have learned not to trust anyone. But here we are again. The difference this time is there are no witnesses. I can take my time.”
I wanted so badly to hurt him. To make him suffer. The problem was, if I moved, he would slit my throat and I would die. If he could do this kind of damage to me without even trying then I had no hope of beating him, not as I was, and not outnumbered.
I was looking around desperately for help. Why was this street so deserted? Where were the vendors? Why hadn’t the girl just inside the shop with the divine call come out to stop this? Or was she incapable of helping?
“You’re going to burn for this,” I spat angrily, knowing there was nothing I could do. My mace and shield were in my inventory, and it wasn’t like I would be able to fight both of them off in my current condition even if I had them.
“Not if we win,” Billy whispered before he cut into me again, reducing my HP and nearly killing me.
“Hey, don’t kill him. You said he was mine,” Pete said. “I kill him, and I become one of the damned. That’s what you promised, right?”
Billy flinched then stilled. “That’s right, that’s right,” he repeated himself. “Can’t let you die just yet,” he said, forcing another potion into my mouth, something I let him do. I wasn’t ready to die and the longer I stayed alive, the better my chances were that someone would wander by and call for help . . . or wander back out and pretend they never saw me.
“That’s right,” Billy said again, almost sounding giddy. “You kill him, you become one of the damned. You can gain untold amounts of power.”
He was lying. He was trying to sell this boy a bill of goods. “He’s lying,” I said, gritting my teeth when I felt the blade at my throat press harder.
“You’d say anything to save yourself,” Pete said, not believing me.
“I won’t lie, that’s true, I would say anything to save myself. But it doesn’t mean I’m not telling the truth about this either. Billy is lying to you. He’s trying to trick you,” I said.
Billy tightened his grip. “Shut up. Don’t interfere. Pete is about to become one of the damned and earn himself a premiere place in hell’s army.”
“See,” I said with a pained laugh as the knife dug in deeper. “He’s afraid you’ll listen to me,” I said, realizing something for myself. Why hadn’t Billy killed me? What was he waiting for? He had plenty of opportunity. Why the elaborate plan? And then it all made sense. “I get it now,” I laughed. “He can’t kill me,” I said with a laugh only for my laugh to suddenly cutoff as the blade pressed tighter. My HP started to drain again until Billy let off.
I coughed a few times before I continued, “You aren’t one of the damned yet, are you? Do you see it now Pete? This is all a game to Billy. If you kill me, you become one of the damned and get a one-way ticket straight to hell. He gets you to do his dirty work for him and he gets to stay here where he can do it again and again.”
“Shut up,” Billy nearly screamed into my ear, he then kicked me in the back, planting my face down in the dirt. I felt him step on my back to hold me down. “I’m bored with him. Go ahead and kill him, Petey.”
There was a long silence. Pete broke it with a question. “Is it true?”
“Of course, it’s not true,” Billy replied, grinding his heel angrily into my back.
Pete was quiet again. “Then you kill him.”
I felt Billy’s heel dig in even harder to the point I felt my bones creaking and cracking. He pressed so hard that I no longer felt my legs. “Pete, you’re blowing your one chance at becoming one of us. Are you sure you’re willing to give that up? Just think of the power.”
Pete though seemed to have seen through Billy’s lie. “You’re so full of it, Billy. This is a trick. If I kill him, I’ll go to hell just like he said.”
Billy’s foot lifted and slammed down. He raged, “Damned you! I promise, I will see you dead. If Pete won’t do it. There will be someone else that will!” He stomped one more time, reducing my HP to near dead before he left.
“How did you know?” Pete and Asher asked at the same time.
Thankfully, my answer to each of them was the same. “He’s a liar. A conman. But if he wanted to kill me, he could have done it any time. He’s more than strong enough, more than skilled enough. For as much as he hates me, it just didn’t make any sense that he would allow anyone else to do it, not unless he stood to gain in some way. Or more likely, he had something to lose if he did kill me. I was a . . . kind of
salesman in life. I know when someone is pushing too hard to make a sale. And Billy was desperate to make that sale. He was like a military recruiter of some kind, trying to fill his quota.”
Asher’s flame dimmed as his eyes went wide. “He’s an infernal recruiter. He’s trying to recruit for hell’s army. That means . . . he’s not one of the damned. He’s an actual demon.”
Pete obviously didn’t hear that, or he might have run to catch up with Billy. I didn’t trust the boy. Even when he said, “Well, thanks . . . I guess. And . . . sorry about the ambush. I’m just . . . I’m gonna go. Good luck.”
“I think it’s time you found some people you can trust,” Asher said, watching Pete go.
I would have nodded, but I still couldn’t really move yet. My HP was only at 12/100. It would be some time before I recovered. “I think you might be right.”
Chapter 10 – Making Friends
“So, what do we do about Billy?” I asked, groaning as feeling suddenly returned to my lower half.
Asher didn’t answer immediately. When he did answer, I didn’t really like the answer he gave. “Nothing. There is nothing we can do. We do not have access to the Dominion of Purgatory. Whoever it is, is clearly not paying attention to what’s going on here. No, the best thing we can do is get past Purgatory and inform someone in the Heavenly Host that has the power to let the Dominion of Purgatory know.”
“What is the Dominion of Purgatory?” I asked.
Asher replied, “Not ‘what’, ‘who’. The Dominion of Purgatory is a Second Hierarchy celestial being. An Angel of the fourth rank.”
My scroll said something about hierarchy and rank, but I had never asked Asher what that was. I figured now was a good time. It would be another six minutes before I fully recovered anyway. I had time to burn. “What is this hierarchy and rank stuff?”
Asher sighed. “Sometimes I forget you’re uneducated and have zero religious background. There are four hierarchies. We just call them the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Hierarchy. Within each hierarchy there are three ranks. You are in the Fourth Hierarchy. You are ranked 12th, the very bottom of the hierarchy. We call those of the 12th rank Sinner. The 11th is Soldier, and the 10th is Templar.”
“What about the First, Second, and Third?” I asked.
Asher rolled his eyes. “Not that you’ll probably ever need to know. But the 9th is Angel, 8th is Archangel, 7th is Principality, 6th is Power, 5th is Virtue, 4th is Dominion, 3rd is Throne, 2nd is Cherub, and 1st is Seraphim.”
Part of his explanation confused me. “Wait, if Cherub is a higher rank than Dominion, why can’t we tell one of the Cherubim about Billy?”
Asher looked a little saddened by my question. “These Cherubim are a shadow of their real selves. Here, in this Sinner’s City, they have no real power. If a true Cherub were to descend to this realm, all Purgatory would be erased by their mere presence.”
Ignoring the fact that a true Cherub could erase all of us from existence, I moved on. I asked, “Right, so what about the Dominion?”
“Remember that feeling you had when you broke your deal with Billy? That was the Dominion punishing you.” Asher answered.
I frowned again, then asked, “Then why doesn’t the Dominion deal with Billy. The demon boy hasn’t done a particularly good job of hiding his activities.”
“I don’t know,” Asher answered honestly. “Billy may have a higher demon masking his activities. There is also the possibility that the Dominion already knows and is allowing the demon boy to tempt people. It’s sort of a ‘well, if you really don’t want to go to heaven then we don’t really want you anyway’ kind of thing.”
I could sort of understand his explanation and it was not good news. “Okay, Billy clearly needs to be stopped. What happens if I kill him? Do I go . . . you know, to hell?”
Asher huffed. “I don’t know. I don’t know how far-gone Billy is. If he has been completely corrupted, then no, you’re safe. However, if even a fragment of humanity remains . . . I’m not honestly sure.”
“Well, that’s awful,” I complained, finally deciding to sit up. I had recovered most of my HP. I was still achy but at least I wasn’t in unbearable pain any longer.
“Now, if you’re done lying around, let’s make better use of our time and get back to the grind,” Asher said. It wasn’t much of a pep talk but then again . . . it was totally Asher.
We managed to run through the balcony just four times before Asher called it an early day. I was about to join the line to return to my room when Asher stopped me. “You should get yourself a drink tonight. Try to meet some people.”
I wasn’t sure how up to meeting people I was feeling, not after Billy and Pete. Still, the idea of a drink sounded nice, though it did bring up the question, “Is drinking really allowed?”
Asher gave me a strange look. “Ever heard of ‘water into wine’?”
“Huh, fair point,” I replied.
The bar was . . . different from what I expected, yet also . . . normal. Men and women congregated, had drinks, swapped stories, and made general merriment. That’s not to say there weren’t more than a few serious drinkers and those who were clearly drowning their sorrows. I could understand how they felt, Purgatory was an unforgiving place.
I looked around to see if I could spot that short man I’d met after my second confrontation with Billy but didn’t see him or his friends. And since I didn’t know anyone, I went up to the bar and waited to catch the bartender’s attention.
The Cherub bartender asked, “What’ll it be?” I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the fact that a child, even if they were thousands of years old, was a bartender.
“Scotch on the rocks?” I asked, hopeful they served my drink of choice.
“Ten crystals a glass,” she said, looking me up and down as if deciding whether, or not I could afford it.
I nodded and paid, ignoring the glare from Asher. He was the one that said I should get a drink and try to make friends. If I was going to do that, I was going to have my favorite slow drink. Really, it was his fault I spent so many crystals.
I took a sip and closed my eyes, savoring the flavor. It was swill. I mean, it was probably the worst scotch in the history of scotch, but I didn’t care. It was like saying hello to an old friend after years of not seeing one another. That friend that you could pick up with as if you’d never been apart. It was . . . wonderfully indulgent.
I found a seat in an empty booth with a tall back that was up against a wall. I slid in so that my back was to the wall, and I could keep an eye on the comings and goings. I don’t know why I wanted to see the man that wielded two daggers again, but he was one of the first people that I thought was sincere in his offer to join him for a drink.
I supposed it didn’t really matter if I saw him again. I relaxed into the bench and sipped slowly at my scotch, terrible though it was.
I saw all manner of people come through the bar. People carrying large weapons and small. Some wore robes, most seemed to favor leather armor. It seemed heavy armor was the least represented, though it made sense. It was probably the most expensive armor available.
“Should I go with heavy armor?” I asked Asher, hiding my mouth with my glass. The din was loud enough I didn’t need to worry about anyone overhearing or giving me funny looks if they thought I was talking to myself.
Asher gave a thoughtful hum. “With your slower weapon and shield, heavy armor does make more sense. It will allow you to take more hits. If you can take more damage, you’ll have more time to swing your slower weapon.”
I know I brought up the heavy armor, but his mention of my weapon being slow brought up another question. “But wouldn’t the heavy armor slow me down even more?”
“Yes, but by the time you are ready to take on the heavy armor proficiency, you should have plenty of strength to compensate,” Asher answered. “If you really want to go with a lighter armor like leather, then a faster weapon would be better. That is part of the reason I g
ave you the opportunity before to change weapons. Wielding a slower weapon means you need to be able to absorb more hits. That means stronger, heavier armor.”
Again, Asher was making sense.
The ball of flame continued, “It’s a tradeoff. Faster weapons tend to deal less damage. Great for dealing with those little sloth leeches. Less appealing for dealing with those bigger lesser sloth demons. Eventually, you may end up facing demons wearing armor, when that happens, you’ll be glad for the slower weapon that deals more damage, damage capable of getting through that armor.”
I nodded along as Asher went over the finer points of different weapons and armor combinations. Things like balancing weapon speed with armor weight with the amount of defense the armor provided. Every combination had strengths and weaknesses.
It was about an hour later the short man I’d met days earlier entered with his two companions. I hadn’t looked very closely at him before. He was shorter than I remembered. His dark blonde hair was a bit wild, and his beard was scraggly. Both looked like they could use a trim.
“Do we need haircuts anymore?” I asked, glancing briefly to Asher, and interrupting his continuing explanation of weapons and armor that I had only been sort of listening to.
Asher gave me a look that spoke to his irritation for the interruption, “You don’t need a haircut unless you want one. Though it is recommended. Otherwise, you might end up looking like that fellow over there.”
Asher was looking at the same short man I was, and I chuckled. The man wore dark leather armor that looked patched and mended multiple times. It made me look down at my own clothes. They looked pristine, which was kind of surprising given the bites, cuts, and slashes I’d received from the monsters in Purgatory. For that matter, I should have been covered in blood and viscera, and yet, I was clean as a whistle.
“Why am I still so clean?” I asked, looking to my guide again.
Asher sighed, “The clothes you wear now are given to everyone and are self-cleaning and self-repairing. They provide no armor to anything but your modesty.”
Purgatory: The Devil's Game Page 12
