Purgatory: The Devil's Game

by M. A. Carlson

  “If she is an angel and you kill her anyway or leave her here, the people upstairs won’t be happy about it,” Asher advised.

  “However, if she isn’t an angel and you try to save her, you could be killed. And if you’re killed, you’ll need to do this all over again. Something, by the way, I would very much like to avoid,” Era added.

  I sighed. “Better to do this all over again than risk the wrath of God.”

  Asher and Era both bobbed in agreement.

  I went over to the injured angel and kneeled next to her. I checked her over. She seemed mostly fine . . . you know, except for the broken neck. “If I try to save you, are you going to kill me?”

  The angel looked at me with terrified eyes, though that could have just been what I wanted to see.

  I repeated myself, “If I try to save you, are you going to kill me?”

  “N, n, no,” she stuttered.

  Not sure if I could believe her, I decided to take a chance, though not without giving her a clear warning, “Now, I can’t heal your damage, that’s not in my list of proficiencies. What I can do, is bring you with me down the stairs. However, if you bite me. I promise to come back and kill you over, and over again. Understood?”

  “Y, y, y, yes,” she stammered, still looking rather terrified.

  I ever so gently worked to pick her up. She was much lighter than I thought she would be, even with the giant white wings dangling from her back. I made sure to brace her head as best I could, I didn’t want to injure her further.

  I carried her in my arms down the stairs. I was very grateful she didn’t try to turn me into a beverage.

  Chapter 34 – Trial

  I knew what was supposed to happen when I walked down those stairs. I was supposed to wake up in the room I called the morgue. I wasn’t supposed to continue walking in a darkness that strongly reminded me of limbo, nor was I supposed to stop, frozen in place. I was unable to so much as twitch.

  I started hearing something all around me. There were people and they were whispering though it took a minute to be able to pick out what was being said. I wanted to turn and look for the source, but I couldn’t move.

  A voice whispered in the dark, “Is he the one that saved Priscilla?”

  Another voice asked, “Is it even possible to save a fallen?”

  “He did it, or so they say,” a third voice added.

  I tried to speak but found myself unable to utter a word.

  “Whoever heard of an inmate saving a guard? Preposterous, I say,” yet another voice said.

  I heard the click of the tongue from somewhere nearby followed by a harsh critique, “That Priscilla, I told them she was promoted too fast. But no one ever listens to me.”

  “You haven’t thought anyone was worthy of becoming an angel in over ten thousand years. Your judgment is already suspect,” someone else countered the naysayer.

  Suddenly a hush filled the room and the whispers stopped. I still couldn’t see what was going on.

  “Forgive the darkness,” a new and much more commanding voice said. “If you were to look upon us in your current state, your soul would burn away near instantly. You still bear a lot of sin.”

  What did that mean? For that matter, look upon who? And why could I still not speak.

  “Victor Goodspeed,” the commanding voice started. “I am the Archangel Michael, leader of the armies of heaven and commander of the heavenly host. You have been called here to give testimony in the case of Priscilla Embry, former fallen angel.”

  Testimony? Was this a trial of some kind? Was I in trouble? Or was Priscilla?

  “Allow me to reassure you, you are not in trouble. In fact, you will be suitably rewarded for your efforts. However, we do have questions. We are hoping you will answer them. Once you have, you will be returned to Purgatory,” the voice of Michael explained. “Are you willing to answer our questions?”

  Without any control over my mouth, the answer came unbidden to my lips, “Yes.” I was miffed by the question. Why bother asking if I was going to be forced to answer anyway? What was the point?

  And then Michael smiled. I don’t know how I knew he smiled given I couldn’t see anything, but I knew he did. It was like I could feel it . . . and it irritated me, “That is good. Tell us how you encountered Priscilla Embry.”

  Once again, words came unbidden to my lips. “I entered a new floor of Purgatory. It was a castle held by vampires. In the door of the castle the vampire lord stood waiting for me. He held an angel prisoner. She was bound in chains. She was terrified . . . and beautiful. It was a lust floor.”

  There was a titter of laughter from some of the unseen people around me. It might have been a little embarrassing to admit I thought the girl was beautiful. But it wasn’t like I could control what I was saying. I was more annoyed by the scoffs.

  Michael cleared his throat and the room silenced. “And you’re certain she was a prisoner?”

  “As certain as I could be,” I answered, the statement leaving a sour taste in my mouth, both due to the lack of control, and the hint of doubt my statement may have caused.

  Michael hummed then asked, “What happened next?”

  “I fought. I fought a lot. I spent weeks learning the tower and figuring out where the paths lay that would take me to the top. At the top of the tower, the vampire lord waited along with four fallen angels. Lorelai, Adelaide, Mary, and Priscilla, though I didn’t know their names until he sent them to attack me,” I explained. “I fought all four of them. I killed three and was able to break Priscilla’s neck, taking her out of the fight but not killing her. With those four out of the fight, the vampire lord attacked.”

  Michael grunted. “And after you defeated the vampire lord.”

  I answered against my will, not that the answer was necessarily a bad thing. “I saw Priscilla. Her wings had changed back to bright white. I assume the death of the vampire lord freed her. Still, I waited to call on Asher and Era to confirm. I decided to take a chance after giving her a stern warning. Then I carried her down the stairs.”

  A female voice demanded, “Did you ever see her harm an innocent?”

  “No,” I answered, though the answer surprised me. She certainly tried to harm me. Or does someone in Purgatory not count as innocent? No, I was certain I wasn’t innocent.

  I was getting annoyed with the compulsion and the darkness. That was when I heard someone shift, and then the same female voice asked, “Ramiel, Purgatory is your Dominion. How did fallen angels end up inside?”

  Finally, I heard a much more familiar voice when Ramy answered with a heavy sigh. “Gabriel, the demons are able to exert some influence on Purgatory . . . for a cost. Sacrificing three fallen angels and a captured angel is a small price to pay if they value Victor’s soul. Such temptations have swayed men in the past.”

  Did he just say hell was trying to win me over by offering me a harem?

  “Lust is very dangerous,” Michael agreed. “Where it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in brute force. It offers you brief passion and the pleasures of the flesh. It feeds on your desire. Let us be glad this man was able to resist such a temptation. More so, that he was able to bring one from our flock back home to us.”

  “Home, true she was brought home. But broken, she fell, that is not something so easily recovered from,” the woman said. I think Ramy called her Gabriel. “And if she fell once, what is to stop her from falling again?”

  Michael cleared his throat again, “We will continue this conversation after the soul of Victor Goodspeed has been returned to Purgatory.”

  I heard a sniff of annoyance and distinctly female, “humph.”

  Michael then addressed me directly, “Victor, thank you for your testimony. I wish you luck in ascending beyond Purgatory. The armies of heaven could use a man with your skills. Ramiel will provide your rewards when you awaken. But . . . before you depart, I have a small bit of advice that may help you. You are not sent to Purgatory just to fight the demons. Think
on that.”

  One moment I had been standing in that dark place and the next I was sitting up with a gasp. I was back in the morgue. It was something of a relief to be there. I didn’t care for that darkness or the idea that there were angels watching me, but I couldn’t see them. Though, I suppose that was better than having my soul burned away for looking upon them. That was something else I needed to think about. Michael said that I still carried a lot of sin. Did that mean that my sin would burn my soul if I looked upon an angel? Or was it that an angel, such as the Archangel Michael, was so pure that my soul would burn away by simply being in unshielded proximity? What was the threshold?

  “Well, that was interesting,” Ramy said, reminding me that he was there. I immediately noted that an angel of the dominion rank was not so much that my soul would be destroyed. Or was that another perk of Purgatory in that it muted even his purity?

  Remembering Ramy was waiting on me, I tried to let go of my confusion over the soul burning issue. I asked, “Was that real?”

  “Very real,” Ramy confirmed with a nod. “And very much something you should never talk about. Understood?”

  I nodded, then with a small laugh, I asked, “Who’d believe me anyway?”

  “There are always a few,” Ramy answered. “Anyway, shall we get started.”

  I nodded again and asked the same question as always, “How’d I do?”

  “Pretty good, it was an expansive floor, the largest you’ve faced yet,” Ramy said. “However, it wasn’t much of a challenge for your current stats. I’m sorry to say there are no rewards for completing the floor, at least, not in the stat department. You do have a reward coming your way for saving an angel, but we’ll get to that later.”

  “What’s going to happen to her?” I asked.

  “It is still being decided,” Ramy answered with a sad smile that didn’t fill me with confidence about the girl’s fate. He moved on with the timed rewards. “For completing the fifth floor in less than six months, you are rewarded ten million experience points and one proficiency level to be applied to the proficiency of your choice. For completing the fifth floor in less than three months, you are rewarded fifty million experience points and three proficiency levels to be applied to the proficiency of your choice.”

  I really liked getting the free proficiency levels, that put me up to twenty-three free levels. That could make a big difference in the future. I doubted I would ever get enough to take Raphael’s blessing all the way to level 100 but a guy could dream.

  “Now, personally, I think Michael might have gone overboard with your rewards. A low rank angel is not worth this much of the divine. But . . . he’s the boss, so,” Ramy complained, holding out two scrolls and a small sack. “Good luck earning enough soul points to use both of these.”

  “Is this where I suddenly get ridiculously overpowered?” I asked, looking for Asher only to find out he wasn’t there.

  “Not really . . . maybe,” Ramy answered, shrugging. “Anyway, I should be going. Good luck with all that.”

  “Thanks,” I said, not sure what else I could say. As soon as he vanished, I called Asher back into being.

  “What happened?” Asher asked as soon as his fireball form finished materializing.

  I would have told him the whole story but then I would probably end up repeating it for Era. “Just wait a minute for me to call Era back and I’ll tell you both.”

  Asher didn’t argue, instead he stared intently at the two scrolls with his mouth slightly agape.

  I ignored him and waited the two minutes I needed to recover enough SE to call Era.

  “That was so rude,” Era complained as she came back into being. “I dislike being dismissed like that. Please don’t do it again.”

  “It wasn’t me,” I replied defensively. Then I started explaining the whole thing to Asher and Era, though Asher was still more focused on the two scrolls.

  Finally annoyed by the fact he wasn’t paying attention, I asked, “Okay, Asher, what are the scrolls?”

  Asher looked at me then back to the two scrolls. “How is this even possible?”

  “What?” Era asked, finally looking at the scrolls, then her jaw dropped as well. She looked from the scrolls back to me and looked like she wanted to say something then looked back at the scrolls.

  “Would you please just tell me what I got?” I demanded. The tension these two were giving off was absurd.

  “Call divine spirit armor and call divine spirit shield,” Asher answered. “I’ve never heard of someone below-” Once again, he went silent as something he was going to tell me was restricted.

  “You’re silenced,” I said, getting him to stop talking and frown.

  Naturally, Asher felt the need to voice his complaints, his body rotated to face the ceiling, “That’s not even that sensitive of information. You’re just being . . . rude.”

  I could appreciate his annoyance. The information was probably useful to me and now I had no access to it . . . at least, not for now. “So, which do we start with?”

  “Armor or shield, take your pick,” Asher said. “Both will need to be leveled up. The only thing to consider about the armor is that you might not have enough strength and speed to manage it just yet.”

  “So, we start with the shield,” I said. Then I put both scrolls into my crowded inventory. Then I picked up the bag and opened it. There were crystals as expected, and a pair of glowing red fangs that I assumed belonged to the vampire lord. More interesting was the little box looking thing. I pulled that from the bag and examined it in my hand. It was a miniature safe.

  “What’s with the safe?” I asked.

  “Ooh,” Era cooed. “That is a storage device for your bunkroom. If I’m reading the description correctly, you just gained forty extra storage slots.”

  That was great. I could finally move all the demon parts and essence powders out of my inventory. I quickly put the tiny crystals, demon fangs, and my new safe into the nearly full inventory, intent on unloading all of it as soon as I got back to my room.

  Looking at the two new proficiencies taking up space, I sighed. I couldn’t help but think about what it was going to take to get enough unused points to be able to use them. For now, it was time to go back to my room and rest. I’d been in Purgatory far too long already.

  After returning to my room, I immediately picked a spot on the open wall and placed my safe. It was kind of fun to watch it expand until it stood almost as tall as I was. There was no combination lock or wheel to spin, which was very strange. It didn’t even look like the door would open. Then I touched it and the door opened with a hiss of pressurized air.

  “Okay, that was cool,” I said, grinning like an idiot. With the safe open I started transferring everything from my inventory over. The only thing I held on to, were my Scroll of Body and Soul, my recurve bow, and a few thousand tiny crystals.

  I had one more thing that I needed to do before sleep claimed me. I took out the scrolls and had Asher tell me which was for the shield. Once that was identified, I added it to my soul and immediately leveled it up to twenty to match my mace.

  Call Divine Spirit Shield: Heater

  Level: 20 (+22 Free)

  Experience to Next Level: 69,389

  SE Cost: 200

  Call a Divine Spirit Shield in the form of a heater shield to aid you in combat.

  Block Absorption: +25-45 Damage

  With my remaining experience, I started pumping points into Body. I know I should have put some into Soul to increase my resistance, but there were two issues with that. First, based on the current experience requirement, I didn’t have enough experience points for even two points of soul, let alone the three I would need to increase my demonic resistance. Second, if I continued putting points into Soul, my Body was going to fall even further behind than it already was. No, I needed to try and even things out between the two.

  Name: Victor Goodspeed

  Highest Floor Cleared: 5

  Exper
ience Earned: 0

  Hierarchy: 4th

  Rank: 12th

  Title: Sinner

  HP: 500/500

  EP: 250/250

  SE: 300/300

  Body

  Experience to Next Point: 3,111,545

  Unused Points: 8

  Strength:

  25

  Reflex:

  30

  Constitution:

  50

  Recovery:

  25

  Soul

  Experience to Next Point: 30,754,947

  Unused Points: 0

  Faith:

  30

  Spirituality:

  30

  Righteousness:

  60

  Fortune:

  30

  Applied Statistics

  Health Regeneration:

  50

  Energy Regeneration:

  24

  Spirit Regeneration:

  50

  Attack Power:

  50

  Divine Power:

  60

  Speed:

  15

  Accuracy:

  53.00%

  Perception:

  10

  Block:

  32.50%

  Block Absorption:

  25

  Critical Strike Chance:

  1.50%

  Demonic Resistance:

  60

  Luck:

  0.30%

  Satisfied, I climbed into bed and got some much-needed shuteye. Purgatory would still be there in the morning. That night, I dreamed of the angel I saved. She beamed a beautiful smile, kissed my cheek, and thanked me before flying away on her pure white wings. It was a nice dream.