Purgatory: The Devil's Game

by M. A. Carlson

  I looked to Asher for confirmation, but Era interjected before I could even ask him. “Don’t go looking to him. I am your guide. I know what is best. Do what I say and be quick about it.”

  “Do you want me to be quick or careful?” I asked, getting annoyed with the call.

  Era looked put out by the question for a moment before asking, “Are you saying you can’t do both?”

  I liked her less and less with each passing moment. “Asher, what do you think?”

  Asher beamed with pride “There is a risk to just opening the door. It could be trapped. However, there is equal risk that if you knock, you’ll alert all the demons you’re here. Both scenarios are bad for you. Still, try opening the door first. That way, if you die, it’s not the end of the world.”

  “I would have thought the possible traps were obvious, and clearly our caller is no dullard,” Era commented.

  I mumbled a small prayer asking for patience. I called on my mace and strapped my shield to my forearm. As soon as my SE regenerated, I applied Raphael’s blessing. With that, I carefully approached the door. I tried turning the handle but it was locked tight. I tried a few times to make sure it wasn’t just stuck. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t moving.

  “I guess we knock” I said. I pulled back on the knocker, half expecting the little gargoyle to try to bite me. Thankfully, it didn’t. As soon as the knocker contacted the door, the lock clicked, and the door swung open.

  As the doors parted, it revealed a courtyard embroiled in battle. Men and women fought against each other with a desperation I had never witnessed except in movies. I stayed back and tried to observe what was going on. It looked like two human groups were fighting, but upon closer inspection, one of the ‘human’ groups bore reddened eyes that had a faint glow to them. Then I saw one of them deliver a killing blow, their opponent going limp at the knee. I watched as the demon grinned revealing fangs as hunger seemed to fill the demon’s eyes. The demon let the man fall then grabbed ahold of his helmet and wrenched the head to the side, exposing his neck. The demon bit in and grinned with absolute pleasure.

  “Vampires, disgusting, the lot of them,” Era complained with a snort. “Thankfully, cutting off their heads kills them rather effectively. Now, stand back. I’ll show them what the breath of God is truly capable of.”

  Before I could protest, the little orb floated through the door. It was as if something grabbed ahold of me and pulled me through as well. Emerging into the courtyard, I finally got a look at what I was dealing with. A large castle loomed opposite where I entered. It was larger than any castle had a right to be. It must have towered twenty or thirty stories tall.

  I didn’t really have time to appreciate the castle. Apparently, my being forced inside seemed to have triggered something. The main doors to the castle slammed open, and a wave of darkness swept over the field, freezing all those fighting, human and demon alike.

  That was when a regal figure emerged from the door. He was tall, clean shaven, and . . . probably the sexiest man I’d ever seen in my life. I liked to think I was comfortable enough in my sexuality to admit that. Still, I was decidedly uncomfortable looking upon this man. Then he spoke and the rich dulcet tone of his voice nearly made me drop my weapons and my clothes. It was even more uncomfortable. “Finally, you have come, hero!”

  I was pretty sure he was talking to me, but I couldn’t say anything. I was too stunned by the man’s magnetism.

  The man laughed loudly. “Do not fret your inability to speak. I understand your fear of me, of my castle. After all, the only thing awaiting you inside is your death.”

  I don’t know how, but somehow his taunt managed to snap me out of my daze, I mumbled, “I’ve heard that before.”

  The man laughed again. “But you’ve never heard it from me. Still, come if you dare. If you do not . . . well, I’ve heard angel tastes wonderful.” With that confusing statement, the man tugged harshly on a chain I hadn’t seen before, forcing a woman into view and she was . . . stunning. She was perfect in every way, from her body to her long blonde hair to her pouty lips and perfect nose. Even her downy white wings were beyond- Once again, it snapped me from my daze. She had wings. She was an angel, just as the demon holding her chains had said.

  “Save me,” the angel pleaded, getting struck by the demon, knocking her to the ground where she wept and tried to cover her face with her bound hands.

  I wanted nothing more than to kill the demon right then and there. More than that, I wanted to protect that angel, to keep her safe. I would have done anything to keep her safe. To make her mine. Again, something triggered me, and I shook my head, clearing away that desire.

  The demon holding her chain laughed again. “Come save her . . . if you dare.” He whirled, his cape billowing out behind him, because of course the cliché vampire lord was going to have a cape.

  As soon as he left, the door slammed shut behind him and everything in the courtyard came back to life. They only seemed stunned for a mere moment before the battle resumed.

  “What was that?” I asked, still not sure what just happened.

  “It’s a scenario,” Asher and Era answered at the same time.

  “You were put into this world . . . scenario to fill a role, in this case, that of the hero,” Era explained.

  Asher glared at her but picked up where she left off. “Your goal is the save the angel from the villain. But to get there, you’ll need to fight your way through the vampire hoard and probably several mini-bosses before you can get to him.”

  Era interrupted, continuing the explanation, “And you can’t just go directly to him. You need to defeat the mini bosses as Ashly put it. They will have keys that will open a path to the next floor or to another mini-boss room. It’s very cliché. I’m surprised the Dominion of Purgatory still has such scenarios.”

  “Don’t call me Ashly,” Asher snapped irritable.

  Era ignored him and kept going. “It is honestly not going to be much of a challenge. My wind blade proficiency can easily deal with any vampire, weak things that they are. You just sit back and let me handle this.”

  I was going to protest. I had more questions about this scenario thing, but Asher flew in front of my face and twisted left and right, his version of a head shake. Then he smirked. “Yes, Victor, just leave it to Era. She’ll have this floor cleaned up in no time.”

  Era preened happily. “At least you know my power.”

  Asher grinned . . . almost evilly.

  Era targeted the closest vampire and cast her spell . . . proficiency. A glowing white blade formed in the air, then a second blade formed just behind it. The pair of blades suddenly shot forward, hitting the closest vampire in the neck, and cutting into the flesh . . . but not cutting off the head.

  “There, you see, easy as pie-aaaaaah,” Era was boasting before she screamed as the vampire ignored the human it was fighting and lunged for the ball of condensed air.

  Asher cackled madly as Era tried to float away only to hit an invisible barrier that was her tether to me.

  “Help me!” Era cried out as she turned suddenly and rushed back toward me.

  I smacked the vampire with a shield slam, simultaneously stunning it and knocking it to the ground. Then I brought my mace down on the stunned demon’s face. My upgraded mace was . . . a lot stronger than it used to be. One solid hit to the face of the vampire crushed the skull, sending brain matter, black blood, and bone fragments flying. Once again, Purgatory reminded me just how disgusting fighting to the death could really be.

  Era was panting behind me. “That was way too close. Victor, you need to engage sooner next time. I nearly died.”

  Of course, Asher couldn’t let that go. “I thought you said you were going to show us how it was done? Weren’t you going to clean up this vampire problem in no time? What happened?”

  Era glowered at Asher. “It would seem these . . . lower beings . . . are a bit stronger than I remember.”

  Asher just grinned. He
was getting way too much enjoyment out of this.

  “Era,” I started, taking her attention from the triumphant fireball. “You’re back to level twenty. You’re not at your pinnacle anymore. It’s going to take time to become that strong again. So, in here, we need to work as a team. And teamwork in here, means I attack a target first and get it to focus on me. Once that’s done, you can cast your wind blade to your heart’s content.”

  “I do not ‘cast’ anything. I use my proficiency. ‘Cast’?” Era finished with a ripple of disgust running through her orb.

  I sighed. “I don’t care what you call it. Did you hear anything I said about our teamwork?”

  Era rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, I heard you. You attack, then I attack.”

  I really hoped she understood what that meant. “Now, before we continue. I had more questions about this scenario thing. Was that a real angel?”

  “Not sure,” Asher said. “If it is, that means she was cap-” he suddenly went silent, his lips still moving but no sound came out. I understood immediately that he had started saying something he shouldn’t.

  “Asher, you’re silenced,” I said, stopping him from continuing his silent recitation.

  Asher growled. “That wasn’t even sensitive information.”

  Era just laughed. “You should know better. We’re not allowed to speak of what’s beyond.”

  “Okay, back to the angel. When I saw her . . . I felt this desire. It was unnatural but . . . very powerful. Was that her? Or was that the vampire lord, who by the way, has the same kind of aura to him?” I asked. It was like the lust aura I’d felt on what I thought was the greed floor, just more intense . . . a lot more intense.

  Asher bobbed, “So, it’s the lust floor. Hopefully, this time, it’s the real lust floor and not another trick. For now, focus on clearing the courtyard. I imagine once all these vampires are dead, the first mini boss will emerge.”

  “Though do be careful. Wouldn’t want to get me killed so soon in our partnership,” Era added.

  I nodded. I had no intention of getting either Asher or Era killed. I didn’t have time for that. Instead, I targeted the closest vampire. She was attacking a young man in full armor. It was the first time I had really looked at the human side. Purgatory really liked to find new ways to mess with my psyche. The human didn’t have a face. It had a human shaped skull covered in flesh but that was it. There were no openings for eyes, nose, or mouth, and if it had ears, they were hidden under the man’s helmet. I couldn’t say the same for the vampire. She was abnormally beautiful, not on the level of the angel, but still very attractive. I almost felt bad breaking her face. It didn’t feel much like a fair fight considering she was distracted fighting the soldier.

  My newly upgraded spirit mace was significantly overpowered. Most of the vampires died with a single hit to the head. The stronger ones barely survived two hits. The strongest on the field barely made it to three hits. As the last one died, a cheer rose from the mouthless soldiers . . . which was very creepy. Then the door slammed open and two new vampires emerged. One wore long flowing robes and carried a staff while the other was clad in heavy armor. I didn’t get much of a chance to observe them after that as the soldiers turned as one and mobbed the heavily armored vampire.

  I only watched for a moment. When the first of the soldiers died, the robed vampire lifted his staff in the air and mumbled something unintelligible. The body on the ground didn’t exactly explode but was suddenly drained all its the blood in less than a second. The blood formed into fist sized orbs that floated toward the wizard. There it formed into a spike. Seeing as I knew what was going to happen next, I didn’t follow the trajectory of the spike. I sensed that another soldier was about to die.

  Instead, I marched on the blood mage who wasn’t paying attention to me. I swung my mace, hoping for a quick kill with the overpowered weapon. I hit . . . about two inches away from the body. The air was filled with a spiderweb of cracks that glowed red. Of course, he was going to have an energy shield, or blood shield, as it turned out in this case.

  My attack, while brilliant in my mind, had an unintended side effect. I’d drawn the wizard’s ire.

  “Attack faster,” Asher warned. “He’s already trying to form another blood spike.”

  I struck again, getting more spiderwebbing. A third strike filled the air with what sounded like breaking glass. That was also about the time I was forced to duck behind my shield as a blood spike shot through the air intent on impaling me.

  Unfortunately, I failed to block the spike with my shield. Fortunately, the wizard mostly missed, only slicing painfully into my shoulder.

  I struck again. This time my mace didn’t meet any resistance as it collided with the vampire’s chest cavity, successfully breaking several ribs, and knocking the vampire to the ground.

  I would have finished him off, but a warning from Asher stopped me, “Look out, on your left.”

  In my periphery, I caught sight of the armored vampire charging through the soldiers, batting them away as if they were nothing, desperately trying to get to me. Asher’s warning came just in time for me to jerk back out of the way. The other vampire interposed himself between the spellcaster and me. He was larger than the other vampires, bulky like a body builder. He also carried a massive two-handed sword that looked like it belonged in a cartoon and not in real life. The only thing I could see of his face were a pair of glowing red eyes.

  “Era, finish the wizard,” I said, grunting as I raised my shield just in time to absorb some of the damage from the large two-handed sword the vampire was wielding. I tried to counter but the massive demon parried the blow. Despite the weapon and its owner being ridiculously large, it moved deceptively fast.

  I dodged a big overhand swing, using a quick strike to hit the overextended arms, only managing a glancing blow, leaving a nice large bruise but not breaking the limb.

  I took the next blow from the sword off my shoulder armor. It failed to cut through the chainmail, but the hit was so heavy, it still managed to break my arm.

  With my shield useless until Raphael’s blessing repaired the damage, I focused on dodging attacks. I was not as good at dodging attacks. I took two more hits on the broken arm, breaking it even further and delaying the time needed to heal it. Thankfully, the blade wasn’t very sharp, or I would have probably been missing an arm.

  The demon stopped mid swing, suddenly dropping to his knees. His red eyes suddenly turning black and lifeless. The sword dropped to the side and the demon fell forward. It was dead and I was confused. Up until that moment, the large demon was handling me with relative ease.

  “What happened?” I asked, looking around for an answer. A few feet away, the spellcasting demon was dead. The only guess I could make was that their HP was somehow linked. Or maybe the big demon was a summoned or controlled mob of some kind.

  “I killed it,” Era boasted. “Just like you asked me to. I killed it. The NPC’s helped a little, but I dealt the finishing blow.”

  I nodded. “Good job. But why did both of them die?”

  Thankfully, Asher was able to give me an answer. “The big guy was a called zombie warrior. He could only exist so long as his caller existed.”

  Purgatory had definitely upped the ante. I would have put money on it that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

  “Yes, yes, zombie call, but did you see me kill that thing?” Era asked, practically gushing with excitement. “I haven’t had such a challenge in . . . well, a very long time.”

  Asher snickered. “She wants to say millennia.”

  Era harumphed. “It has most certainly not been that long. And besides, a lady never divulges her age.”

  I sighed. These two were likely to kill me before Purgatory did. Ignoring the bickering, I collected the crystals then picked up a gnarled staff that belonged to the wizard. I didn’t have a use for it, but someone else might. I put in into my inventory. Lastly, I added a pair of large vampire fangs to the small but grow
ing pile of fangs in my inventory. I would need to see what these could do for me once I was done for the day.

  “Well, shall we continue or reset?” I asked.

  “Continue,” Era said.

  “Reset,” Asher said.

  I sighed. It was going to be a very long day.

  Chapter 32 – Day of Rest

  “Die human scum,” one of the many vampires I’d fought recently yelled as it leaped at me from the shadows. I hit it with a shield slam while it was still airborne, stunning it and knocking it out of the air at the same time.

  “Honestly, they really are stupid. If the fool had just kept his mouth shut, he might have actually gotten the drop on you,” Era complained, sending four wind blades into the vampire’s neck, finishing the demon off.

  Vampires had a very simple weakness. If you cut off their head, they died. Era had gotten very good at cutting off the heads of vampires. Unfortunately, we’d learned very quickly that the vampires liked to target her as soon as they saw her use a wind blade. If she couldn’t kill one on the first attack, it was almost guaranteed she would be the one dying. Naturally, I would try to get the vampire to focus on me but without some kind of taunt, it was useless. We adjusted. I knocked them down and she finished them off. I was working on a solution, one that hopefully would be resolved after today’s grind.

  Unfortunately, the vampires weren’t worth much experience. The . . . ridiculous amount of experience points I spent after setting the floors baseline had come back to haunt me. All those boosted skills made dealing with the vampires easy. The side effect of that was it made things far too easy.

  I ground through most vampires with ease. The mini bosses were the only challenges I’d come across. They used various proficiencies that turned them into spellcasters, rogues, warriors, archers, and a plethora of other combat styles. Fortunately, as soon as I learned their patterns, they died rather easily as well.

  And that was how I grinded through what we assumed was the lust floor of Purgatory. There wasn’t much lustful about the floor other than some of the vampires, male and female alike, trying and failing to seduce me. None of them had the beauty or appeal of that angel or the final boss vampire. It was those two I was most worried about. The angel could have been real but was more than likely a trap. I knew that in my head with absolute certainty. But there was this . . . feeling of desire that flooded my body whenever I thought about her and it seemed like the more time I spent on this floor of Purgatory, the more time I thought about her. For that reason and that reason alone, we chose to grind out experience instead of rushing through to the end. We wanted to boost my demonic resistance at least one more time. It wouldn’t be good if I got all the way to the end only to get killed by the angel in some manner of ambush.