Nightmare System - Volume 1 Chapter 49 Are You Cain?
“Are we there yet?” Hell complained.
“Soon, my barbaric King,” Miur replied with a sarcastic tone. “Just another half a day.”
They kept walking, but as soon as Hell happened upon a lake, he stopped.
“We are already a few hours ahead, aren’t we?” he said. “We’ll rest here.”
Annette walked up to Hell and shared some of her concerns. “This place is too out in the open, King Hell, I believe we should send some of your soldiers for reconnaissance first. I’m willing to-”
“Ah, I can’t wait for them,” Hell interjected, creating ten copies out of thin air, shocking the lizardmen Hell took with him even further. He was a fickle man, after all. As well as impatient.
“They’ll just kill everything near us and even bring us dinner. Now, you!” Hell pointed at one of the bulky lizardmen. “Find some big leaves and cool me down a tad.”
“Yes!” lizardman agreed and tried to climb one of the trees to get the leaf. He quickly noticed that climbing with vampire claws was a lot easier. All lizardmen felt stronger and faster, too. Very few were dissatisfied of the changes. The indignation they felt slowly washed away and eventually was fully replaced by fear and awe.
Hell’s copies had killed anything they thought would be edible and brought it back. It soon turned into a feast. Even as they ate, Hell was still holding onto the Sword of Blood. Jack finally turned to Hell and spoke.
“Why did you stop making the sword disappear, are you anxious?” he asked, and added after meeting Annette’s accusing gaze: “I mean, my King.”
Hell bit into a rather juicy steak and after swallowing his piece, he replied: “It’s for another reason,” but didn’t elaborate further. It’s not that he cared about keeping it a secret, rather, he just couldn’t be bothered with catching everyone up about it.
Hell had figured that letting go of the weapon would automatically break the mental connection between himself and the sword. Granted, he no longer felt any pressure in his mind. The one he usually felt was as if someone was knocking on a figurative door in his mind. Although the feeling was gone, he still somehow felt Asmodeus was being tortured by those spirits.
Hell had beaten them, so it was likely he would, too. But they hadn’t congregated into such a force when Hell faced them. If he could peek inside to see what was happening, he could.
Hell had a pretty good guess, but he didn’t truly know what was happening inside. Asmodeus, the one who even faced Player Killer at one point, was now being torn apart by flimsy demons and djinns who hadn’t even developed an actual consciousness yet. He was being torn apart by malicious spirits.
Of course, they couldn’t do a thing to anyone physically, but if they were overcharged for years inside a small box and then unleashed upon someone who temporarily occupied someone else’s dream space, that was the sort of torture that Hell couldn’t consciously create. It was just unlucky for Asmodeus that he tried to probe into one such mind.
Even Hell’s copies ate in the feast. After felling many ferocious beasts and cooking them, not even the tantalizing smell could seduce other smaller beasts into the area. As Hell watched his army eat and converse, two men appeared in the distance, waving at Hell and his group.
“Hello traveller friends!” one of the men yelled. He had a haggard beard and brown hair. He didn’t seem put off by a small army of feral vampires nor by the sight of large slain beasts next to them.
Two lizardmen approached the duo. The other man seemed to be covering his face, but he seemed to have dark skin, something between navy blue and black.
“This place is off-limits. Go away now!” one of the lizardmen chimed as the other stood beside him.
“We are in nature here, all of us are travelling. How can a place be off-limits?” the man with the haggard beard asked and then yelled out to Hell: “Hey, friend, would you spare some meat for us, too?”
Hell considered killing the two using his copies, especially now that they were just about to run out of time, it had been almost an hour. But still, he wanted to see how just two guys could survive in the middle of nowhere, in this never-ending jungle by themselves. There must have been more to them.
“Sure,” Hell yelled. “If you can kill those two.”
The two lizardmen weren’t anything special, but they were stronger than regular vampires. In terms of strength, the two could be compared to Porter before he died.
Hearing this, the lizardmen suddenly turned to the two travellers. “I must kill you!” one of the lizardmen said and tried to puncture the haggard bearded traveller’s throat with his claws. The bearded traveller didn’t move from his place while the other traveller whose face was covered moved into action, breaking the lizardman’s arm and quickly following up with a punch to the chest which caused a small depression, causing the lizardman to fall on the ground and try to recover.
The second lizardman tried to flank him but without even turning back, he stabbed him with a small dagger he had been hiding in his robe. And with a quick motion, turned the dagger inside the lizardman, separating his heart from his body in one quick motion. The body fell on the ground, and then he followed up by pushing his dagger into the heart of the remaining lizardman who could only squirm in the ground. The traveller turned to look at Hell who has been chewing on his juicy steak still, awaiting some sort of response.
“Go on, then,” Hell spared a glance and said. “No food for you otherwise.”
Annette looked at her King who couldn’t care less if two of his soldiers died. Of course, she wasn’t too bothered by it, either, but they were still their underlings. Their lives should mean something.
“Bastard,” the dark-skinned traveller mumbled under his breath and finished off the remaining lizardman.
“Good for you, guys! Sit, sit!” Hell congratulated the duo. The bearded man sat right at the opposite side of Hell while his friend sat next to him. They started eating the meat in silence, no one was really speaking, but Hell could see the bearded man eyeing his sword from time to time. It was quick glances, but he had caught him. After a few minutes, Jack was the one who broke the silence, looking at the dark-skinned traveller.
“Want to go for a round with me, too?”
He looked to be excited, rather than angry. But the dark-skinned man still asked: “Do you mean to avenge your friends?”
“Calm down, Jack, I want to hear more about these guys before they die.”
“Can you glimpse into the future, friend?” the bearded man asked.
“No, no. But I can talk to ghosts.”
“What are the ghosts saying?” the bearded man asked once more, chewing a piece of meat.
“That our meeting here wasn’t a coincidence,” Hell said with a rather creepy tone. Miur slowly backed into the shadows while Annette tensed up. Jack was always ready to fight, but he and the other vampires still didn’t understand why everyone else was acting so serious.
“I preferred meeting in a more casual place, see what kind of man you are,” the traveller said as he caressed his beard. “They call me Cain.”
“Oh, aren’t you the bastard brother-killer?” Hell asked. “You must be really old.”
Cain’s amicable aura as a traveller vanished, replaced by another that could rival Hell’s Bestial Aura. The difference was that this was no ability, but his mere presence was seeping outside in torrents with absolute wanton. “And how do you know that?”
“I read about it,” Hell answered, unfazed by his serious face and threatening presence.
“You read about it?” Cain asked himself and then started boisterously laughing. “You came from another world, haven’t you?”
“I am not alone, either,” Hell casually replied.
“Are they the ones” Cain stopped mid-sentence, looking at Hell’s two Knights. “No,” he corrected himself. “Impossible that they’d be the ones accompanying you.”
“Why?” Annette asked. “I would follow King Hell anywhere!” Her voice was slightly louder than she wanted it to be, causing Jack to facepalm himself and Cain to compose himself after a slight giggle.
“Well, the reason is to be disclosed later. I would not want to create a rift between lovers now.”
“No, no, you see, I already have a Queen.”
“Don’t we all?” Cain loudly laughed as he got up. “We’ll go ahead and wait for you at the Ancient Mountains for official talks.”
“I may have a nap first,” Hell yelled behind Cain, but received no response. The weather was great for a nap for sure, he slowly closed his eyes after such a good meal, and drifted into sleep.
He could hear the noisy breathing of someone as Hell started lucid dreaming again. There seemed to be hundreds of corpses around, far more than the demons he sprang on Asmodeus. The smug demon was the one noisily breathing.
“I am done,” he said. “I won’t possess your body.”
Ahh, did I fall asleep holding onto the sword? Hell thought to himself, seeing the lethargic look on Asmodeus’ face.
“You did a really good job,” Hell replied, examining some of the corpses dissipating away. “Are they actually gone, forever?”
“I don’t know,” Asmodeus caught his breath and started speaking. His body was covered with both his blood and the blood of whatever he killed. “They kept coming, and I kept killing.”
“Good, good,” Hell said with a casual tone. “Did you figure out what I am, yet?”
“I no longer care,” Asmodeus said.
“What do you think about the Player Killer?” Hell suddenly asked. Simply his name caused Asmodeus’ hair to stand on their ends as the flames covering his body returned even stronger.
“Are you trying to get me furious, kid?” Asmodeus asked. “Because you pretty much did it.”
“See, I somewhat signed a contract with him.”
Hearing that, the serious air around Asmodeus lessened as he broke into a burst of laughter. “Idiot! Now he has full control over your soul!” After making fun of Hell, he also started sweating somewhat. “That would also mean I would be struck down the moment I fully possessed you what a wretched man.”
“Do you know a way out of the contract?” Hell asked. He felt somewhat pressured to sign it at the time. Furthermore, the bonus he got as a result was quite amazing, as well, thanks to his Devourer ability, allowing Hell to plunder skills and mana from his targets.
“I might.” Asmodeus grinned. After his tragic circ.u.mstances, it finally seemed that the ball was once more in his court. However, what he didn’t know was that Hell was never quite the weak side in this space.
“Well, since I am here and all,” Hell said, slowly exhaled and focused his mind. He casually swung his hand in the air while Asmodeus watched in interest. As soon as Hell completed his slow motion in the air, an immense pressure hit the demon and sent him flying through emptiness for he didn’t know how long.
“You want a fight, is that it?” Asmodeus yelled, his voice was amplified, echoing in this empty space.
“Not this time,” Hell whispered, but his words were heard clearly in Asmodeus’ mind. Hell snapped his fingers and the demon was teleported right in front of himself. Before Asmodeus could retaliate, however, Hell snapped his fingers once more, which resulted in two marble columns suddenly appearing to crush Asmodeus from both sides, leaving only his head outside.
“You want to kill the Player Killer, right?” Hell directly asked. “Can I get rid of the contract if he is dead?”
“Maybe, depending on what kind of contract it was,” Asmodeus barely got the words out, his organs were already being crushed by the weight, and it didn’t seem even his immense power wasn’t enough to move the columns. He could also create things in this space, but it wasn’t to this extent.
“I will give you that chance in the future, then,” Hell said. “But I can’t have you be hostile to me in the meantime.”
Asmodeus tried to speak but no words would come out anymore, blood was gushing out of all his orifices. Hell then restored his body and waved the marble columns away. And as he guessed, Asmodeus did not attack this time. Not only was Hell not sure he could still exert this much strength in his dreams again if he tried, but he also didn’t want this to drag out into a never-ending battle. After all, he couldn’t stay asleep and fight forever.
Breaking the spirit of an ancient and strong demon was his plan. Calling this plan foolish wouldn’t be reaching, and was not one many would try. But he had done it, to an extent, it had still come at the cost of his small box filled with spirits.
“How about a contract, then?” A sinister smile crept up on Asmodeus’ face. Truly, this was a demon through and through. However, after seeing Hell was about to snap his fingers again, his faade fell, and he interjected with fervour.
“Wait!” Asmodeus was trying to catch his breath already. He couldn’t do what Hell could, so he didn’t want to fight futilely, either.
“I’ll take your horns next time, if you keep playing around,” Hell berated the powerful demon.
Asmodeus held the horns on his head as if he was unwilling to part with them and finally spoke again: “You need his blood,” he said.
“That’s it?”
“Of course, just draw a large “X” on the contract with his blood and it should be cancelled.”
“You aren’t messing with me, are you?”
“No!” Asmodeus yelled. “I am leaving this place,” he added and disappeared from view. Hell let him go back into the Sword of Blood. He felt he would have to confirm this method somehow, but it was always good to be one step ahead of your enemies. Even if the Player Killer was truly a kind-hearted soul with no malicious intentions, Hell still wouldn’t like someone having some power over himself.
“I will hunt him down,” Hell said. “No one can have power over me.”
Of course, Hell decided that he wouldn’t bring something like this up especially when he had the Sword of Blood out since Player Killer could use it as a medium to communicate with himself. He didn’t know if he could listen in on his conversations.
Hell snapped his fingers again and the scenery changed into that of a green pasture and a sweet wind blowing in his face. He let himself fall on the green grass. Just as his head touched it, he woke up.
“My King, is there an issue?” Annette was the first to respond to Hell waking up. She had been watching over him as he slept.
“How cute,” Hell unknowingly said. He clicked his tongue. “Of course I’d wake up as soon as I tried to relax a tad.”
“How long was I sleeping for?”
“Maybe half an hour?” Annette answered, right by Hell’s side still. “Would you like some water?”
Hell slowly got up and patted Annette’s head. “Did you watch over me as I slept? Thank you.”
Annette’s tongue was tied as her face flushed once more. She silently nodded and let her King pat his head.
After a short exchange, they took off again on the way to the Ancient Mountains. Hell stored the Sword of Blood in his inventory again. His arm was tired of carrying it anyway.
“How long until we get there?”
“Still half a day,” Miur answered.
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