Purgatory: The Devil's Game

by M. A. Carlson

  It was nerve wracking. I could hear the beasts roaring and the sound of flesh impacting flesh, claws on stone, and often the moan of a dying demon, but nothing ever came. After nearly an hour later, everything turned quiet.

  I was relieved when nothing came after me. But also worried about what I might find in the cistern. Slowly, I made my way back, freezing every time I heard anything slightly out of place. When I reached the final bend in my path, I carefully peered around to see what awaited me. Nothing was there . . . well, no bodies anyway. There were a few bloody spots and a few slime trails but that was it. Whatever came out, didn’t manage to live very long and whatever killed it, didn’t leave much behind.

  “Well, now we know,” I said, more to myself than to my guides.

  The next sewer tunnel held more slimes with another metal slime at the end. I got plenty of core fragments but nothing more interesting. Giant bats and more rats occupied the next path. Era easily cut the bats out of the air for me to deal with and the rats were the same as all the other rats.

  The sewer path after that was the worst. Wild dogs or hell hounds as Asher and Era called them. I didn’t care what they were called, they were still dogs. I liked dogs, even dogs that drooled liquid fire. After nearly getting a foot melted off, I changed my mind about these things. They weren’t dogs, just four-legged demons. Their mini boss was a two-headed, four-legged demon that shared a very slight resemblance to . . . it was a demon. I fought it, it died. The loot made me a little sick to my stomach. It was an essence imbued necklace that looked like a dog collar. Much to Asher and Era’s annoyance, I refused to wear it.

  Another slime tunnel followed with another metal slime. More scavengers filled the next tunnel, which seemed to be the theme of this floor. They were all carrion creatures, feeding on the dead, not that they were incapable of killing, but nothing was left behind.

  After clearing the eighth sewer off the cistern, I was left feeling confused. There was no way out. It was like I had stepped into a giant trap. I was a little careless as I walked back to the cistern. I should have known that clearing all eight of the side paths would cause something to happen. I was not prepared for the extremely massive half-cockroach, half-praying mantis that had settled into the center of the cistern. I quickly backed into the tunnel before it spotted me.

  Fleeing all the way back to where I fought the last mini-boss, I looked to my guides and asked, “Think it’s safe for me to apply my experience now that that thing is the only thing left to fight?”

  “I would do it regardless,” Asher said. “If that thing comes after you down here, its movements will be confined. And if it doesn’t, then you have the time you need to apply your points as you see fit.”

  Era looked like she wanted to argue but couldn’t find anything to argue with.

  I opened my inventory and took out my scroll. I quickly applied the experience points. It was just enough to get one more point of body, though just barely. I wasn’t sure that one additional point was going to make much of a difference, but every point counted, right? I put the scroll back into my inventory. It was time to face the floor boss . . . and probably die a horrible death.

  I checked my HP & EP to make sure they were full then started a slow and deliberate march toward the cistern and the waiting nightmare inducing insect from hell . . . literally from hell.

  The mantis thing was staring intently at the tunnel I was marching out of. Clearly, opening my scroll had attracted its attention, but it was smart enough not to get itself stuck in the sewer tunnel. Knowing there was nowhere else for me to go, I said, “Era, chill it as soon as I hit it once.”

  I didn’t wait for Era to respond. I just attacked. Rushing in shield first, I deflected the mantis like arms with their scythe blades into the ground. I quickly pulled my shield back and struck out with a shield slam, looking to stun it. The monster halted for a couple seconds but it was enough for me to get a little closer. I slammed my mace into the beast with as much strength as I could, hearing a metallic clang as the weapon met carapace.

  I cursed at the lack of significant damage and braced myself for the counterattack I knew was coming. One of the scythe bladed arms swung for me, I raised my shield, intent on deflecting the blade upward while simultaneously lowering my head and shoulders to duck below the strike. That was when a gust of cold air flew over my head. I grinned as I saw the mantis’ attack visibly slow. Instead of trying to deflect the attack, I was able to completely duck below it.

  “Aim for the joints and segments,” Asher yelled.

  I attacked the joint of the arm that just tried to cut me in half. The mace impacted with a metallic clang again but the chitinous plates separated slightly, exposing flesh. I would have struck again but the other arm was swinging for me. Thankfully, Era was paying attention. Two wind blades slammed into the joint, cutting deeply into the arm. Not enough to cut the arm off, but enough to hurt the demon.

  “Good job, Era!” I shouted as I moved to dodge and deflect the other scythe bladed arm. I struck for the joint again and Era followed right behind me. Once again, we caused damage, but it didn’t seem to be anything significant.

  The demon reared back and swung down with both blades, forcing me to back away quickly. I wasn’t expecting the head, mandibles wide open, to follow me down. If the demon hadn’t been slowed, it might have been able to bite my head off with that one attack. As it was, I barely got my shield up in time to deflect part of the attack as I felt it bite into my shoulder. I howled in pain and swung my mace for the side of its head. I swung over, and over again, destroying the beast’s eye, trying to fight through the pain as the mandibles continued trying to bite through my armor. That was about the time I felt something burning and heard sizzling. The demon was bleeding acid from its damaged eye.

  Feeling the urgency of my situation I struck fast, trying to break its bite. It wouldn’t be long before the acid weakened my armor enough for the monster to be able to bite through it. I screamed and swung my mace wildly. At some point my aim went wide and I struck one of the antennae, a gift from its cockroach side. The demon suddenly released me and screamed in pain and started thrashing about wildly.

  I quickly moved away, barely avoiding getting skewered by the rampaging monster. I checked my stats and wasn’t pleased by what I saw. My HP was down to ‘53/500’ and my EP ‘31/300’. Thankfully, the HP was quickly increasing but that did nothing for my EP. I chose to wait out the wild thrashing and recover as much as I could.

  “Era, as soon as the thrashing stops, I need you to slow it down,” I ordered.

  Era snapped back, “I know that.”

  It took about a minute for the beast to calm and when it did, it looked exhausted, like it had burned all its energy in its freak out. Still, I approached cautiously. The demon turned its one good eye towards me and watched me approach but didn’t move. Even when I got into striking range, the only thing the demon insect could do was stare at me.

  “Sorry, but it’s either you or me,” I said, attacking once again. This time I struck at the exposed base of the skull. Separating the chiton for Era to strike. It only took a few strikes that way and the beast was dead.

  Asher scoffed, “Well that was a little anti-climactic.”

  “A win is a win,” I countered, watching the mantis-cockroach melt into black blood and absorb into the floor. It left behind a pair of swords with a reverse curve to them and a pile of crystals. It all went into my inventory. I didn’t ask Asher or Era about the stats on the swords, I didn’t have a use for them, and I didn’t want to be tempted by another weapon, not when I had a weapon capable of growing stronger. Besides, it would sell regardless.

  After putting away my spoils, I looked around for the exit. But there wasn’t one. No stairway appeared. No doors opened. Nothing happened . . . at least, not at first.

  At first, I just heard a rumbling sound that quickly grew into a thundering as water suddenly started spraying from the hatch in the ceiling, the one I orig
inally entered through.

  I barely had time to curse before the ceiling began collapsing down around me, dropping stone and water. I ran for one of the side tunnels, holding my shield over my head, protecting me from falling debris. It only took a few moments before the room above me was back in view. The stone that fell created a rough ramp. More importantly, the ramp went above the room I came from and into another room.

  “More?” Era complained.

  I sighed and nodded, “More.”

  I made my way up the ramp, making sure my footing was solid with each step. The last thing I needed was for the ramp to give way or to create a landslide that might have killed me.

  At the top of the ramp, I was displeased to see another door. It appeared to be made of metal and was held closed by a pressure crank, like it was meant to hold back water. I tapped at the door with my mace just to be sure it wasn’t another sloth demon in disguise. It wasn’t.

  It took all my strength to turn the wheel that held the door shut. When it finally opened, there was a spray of water that was quickly increasing in pressure and volume. I gripped the wheel as tightly as I could as the door swung free, letting out all the water that had been trapped behind it. It didn’t take long but when it finished draining, the water level below me had risen to the top of the ramp. Once again, there was no going back.

  “It’s like the floor is consuming itself the further we go,” I commented, feeling annoyed by the feeling of being herded.

  Asher grunted, “That is the essence of gluttony. It’s not just about food but about consuming everything. Gluttony leaves nothing in its wake.”

  That sent a small shiver down my spine.

  Satisfied there was no way back, I looked forward and through the now open door. It was a long hallway filled with door hatches, eight door hatches to be exact. That resounded in my mind because the cistern we had just left had eight tunnels.

  “Here we go again,” I grumbled, moving into the hallway and toward the first door on the left. I needed to muscle the door wheel to unlock the door. It groaned loudly as the rusted metal hinges swung open to reveal a slime, gold in color. Not yellow like the electric slimes I’d fought earlier but gold.

  I suddenly felt like I was looking at death and ducked back from the door. My impulse to move saved my life as a laser beam of all things was shot from the slime. It would have killed me in a single hit.

  “Era, kill it already,” I said, looking to the living ball of air.

  Era looked at me aghast, “Me?”

  I nodded. “Move quickly, fire your wind blades, then move back before it fires on you.”

  Era repeated herself, “Me?”

  “Yes, you,” I confirmed. It needed to be done. If the slime moved toward the door, I would be able to deal with it in melee range.

  Era looked put out by the order but moved anyway. It was interesting seeing the ball of air glide along the wall and peek around the corner then immediately duck back. “I think it saw me. Oh well, you better handle this.”

  “Era, I need your help here. If it comes out of the room, I’ll take it. If it doesn’t, I need you to hit and run until it dies,” I explained.

  Era fretted a moment longer then spun into the open air in front of the door and fired, then spun back into cover. The slime never even fired.

  “See, that wasn’t so bad,” I said.

  Era wasn’t convinced. “I nearly died. You don’t know how close I came to being vaporized by it.”

  Thankfully, Asher took the brunt of this one. “It didn’t even fire at you. Plus, you missed. So, let’s try that again. Don’t forget, even if you do die, Victor can bring you back.”

  “Oh . . . do be quiet,” Era snapped at Asher. She huffed a few times before trying again. This time, she spun into view of the slime and aimed her shot. Two direct hits. She was back out of view before the slime could even charge up its attack, or that was my guess anyway.

  “See, just keep doing that and it will be dead in no time,” I reassured her. And I was right . . . mostly. It took nearly thirty minutes for her to kill the gold slime that way. The gluttony demon dropped crystals, a chunk of gold colored core and a scroll with the proficiency for pierce.

  As Asher explained, the proficiency allowed an attack to ignore armor. It was good for bladed weapons and bows and arrows but didn’t do enough for me to use it, even with my recurve bow, a weapon I barely used anymore.

  The door on the right side of the hall was offset from the left. If it hadn’t been, the laser shooting gold slime would have opened that door for us.

  An aquamarine slime sat in the middle this time. It slung water blades large enough that I couldn’t have blocked it if I tried. Era got to deal with that one as well. More crystals, another chunk of core and another proficiency scroll, this one soul proficiency for water cutter. It was just as the name suggested.

  All eight doors contained a unique and interesting slime. Each of which Era dealt with after a lot of coaxing from Asher and me. It wasn’t like she ever took any damage. It just took an exceptionally long time. But it was worth it. Every one of those slimes dropped a proficiency scroll. It was like the greed floor all over again.

  A dull gray colored slime used a gravity proficiency that nearly pulled me into the room. It almost pulled Era into the room as well. It left a soul proficiency for a slowing field. A large area of effect proficiency that slowed down everything caught inside it except for the caster. A blood red slime had a drain life proficiency that got me once when I was initially inspecting it, draining away HP and growing larger as it did. It dropped a soul proficiency called syphon that could be used to drain HP, EP, and SE from a single target. A slime that looked like it was made of wood was able to create vines that secreted acid. I had no choice but to fight off the vines while Era killed it. It dropped a soul proficiency called entangling vines that was meant to hold a target in place. On and on it went, and not one of the proficiency scrolls that was dropped was usable with my build. A metallic blue slime dropped a sword proficiency. A black slime that spawned little exploding slimes dropped a remote detonation proficiency for traps. A purple slime dropped a poison gas proficiency, and metallic green slime dropped a spear proficiency. All those proficiencies and not one I could use.

  As soon as the last slime died, the wall at the end of the hall slid aside revealing yet another door. Once again, I was forced to muscle the wheel to turn it to unlock the door and then put my back into it to push open the rusted metal door.

  Ahead of me was a large round room. There wasn’t much of note except for the slime in the middle. It was large. Very, very large. Far larger than any slime I had seen to date. And it was multicolored. In fact, I counted eight colors making up the amalgamation. Eight colors that matched the eight slimes I just fought, and Era killed.

  “Nope,” Era said immediately, floating away from the door only to be stopped when she reached her maximum range from me.

  “We can do it just like all the others. I’ll deal with the vines if any come this way,” I promised.

  Era protested immediately, “I don’t have the SE for this. Sorry, no.”

  “Era, we can’t do this without you,” I tried pleading with her.

  Era still didn’t react.

  “I’ll level you up to your next proficiency,” I offered.

  That seemed to have gotten her attention. Era rotated slightly in the air to look at me out the side of her eye. I saw her eyes briefly flit to Asher and a devious grin momentarily cross her face before it was wiped away, “But not Asher?”

  “Hey, what did I do?” Asher demanded.

  Era turned on Asher and answered immediately, “You are already several proficiency levels ahead of me. You don’t need an upgrade. I do.”

  I looked to Asher, and he just sighed. “Fine, fine. One proficiency is not going to make that large of a difference.”

  “Whenever you’re ready to start, Era,” I said, readying myself to beat back whatever might come thro
ugh that door.

  Era huffed one more time then fired, striking the giant kaleidoscope slime. It was hard to miss so she was able to bob in and out of the doorway, firing at will. Meanwhile, I dealt with vines and the little black slimes, crushing the explosives before they could go ‘boom’. Though both the vines and the explosives were tougher than their counterparts. Eventually, I concluded that this was going to be a war of attrition. I did everything I could to conserve my EP, struck as efficiently as I could. I let the vines catch me and deal a little damage so Asher’s burning armor would deal with them until my HP went below a hundred points. I put a little more strength into my attacks on the explosive slimes, so it cost a little more EP, but they were dealt with in one attack as opposed to two. Meanwhile, Era continued firing away until she was out of SE. Then it was a matter of waiting for her to regenerate her EP before she could resume her attack.

  It was slow. It was deliberate. And it took hours. The slime died, not in an explosion of goo but more like the air being let out of a balloon.

  “I’ve never used wind blade so many times in a row in my life. You owe me for this,” Era said haughtily.

  I could have argued with that. I appreciated how hard she was working but she was still too much like Asher when he first joined me. Era though far too highly of herself still. I would need to talk to her like I did with Asher. It wasn’t going to be an enjoyable conversation either.

  The slime dissolved into black goo and sunk into the floor. It left behind the expected crystals and an almost intact multicolored core. And of course, it left behind a proficiency scroll.

  “What is it this time?” I asked, knowing that it was probably going to be something I couldn’t even use.

  “Call divine guide,” Asher said, staring unbelievably at the scroll. “What is going on?”

  Era looked skyward and asked, “Hello, Father, are you trying to tell us something? We can do better. You don’t need to replace us.”

  “I don’t think that’s what this is about,” Asher said, twisting left and right. “I think someone has a pl-” His voice was cutoff, not by a suddenly silencing but more akin to being strangled.