Click. Clack.
Footsteps echoed in the dark corridor, and a man wearing a long blood-red robe could faintly be seen walking over to the end of the corridor. The man walked, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he reached the end of the corridor, where he met with another dark-cloaked man, who seemed to be getting impatient by the second.
"Finally, what took you so long? The young 'lord' should not be kept waiting," The dark-cloaked man commented. "Is it the young 'lord' or is it just you getting bored of waiting," The blood red-robed man replied, looking over to the other man's leg, which was moving up and down at very high speeds. "Shut up! The young 'lord' is waiting," The dark-cloaked man said, pointing over to the huge golden door that he was guarding behind him.
The blood red-robed man walked towards the huge door, which opened automatically as if it had a mind of its own. Inside the room, there were many pillars, that depicted the tales of holy beings gaining victory over hideous creatures that one can only assume to be demons.
"You're late," A man, that looked in his twenties, sat on a pure reddish-gold throne, that complimented his eyes, which was brilliantly shining, slightly lighting up the dark room. The blood red-robed man quickly kneeled down. "I'm sorry, my 'lord'," The man quickly apologized.
"Whatever! What have you gathered?" The Lord inquired. "My lord, the boy is getting too strong. I believe he might actually-" The robed man was interrupted by The Lord. "Nonsense! I am the first, and the last demon to match the prophecy! For that boy to also be a part of the prophecy, he'd have to be trained by all the Generals or something outrageous," The Lord cried out. "B-but my lord, h-he is being trained by all the Generals..." The robed man shivered, ready to burst out of the room.
"WHAT!" The Lord yelled out in surprise. The robed man's shivering intensified as The Lord's voice echoed in the room. "Leave me alone at once!" The Lord exclaimed. The blood red robed man sighed in relief as he walked over to the door, but to his surprise, the door didn't open like last time. Thinking of it as some sort of defect, he tried to push it, but the door didn't budge. "You know what? I changed my mind," The Lord said, wearing a wide cynical smile, grinning from ear to ear. "No... PLEASE NO DON'T!" The robed man cried out but all of it in vain. Swish! A huge golden spike impaled the robed man, covering itself with the blood of its victim.
A peal of loud laughter echoed around the room, along with the slight trickles of blood that could be heard from time to time.
"Aaaarrrggghhh!" I yelled out. "Geez, what a way to repay my kindness," Sarah remarked. I squinted my eyes to adjust to the brightness and glanced around. "Ugh, my head hurts, probably because of just some random nightmare. What in the world happened?" I asked. "Well, other than you screaming like a little girl, Pride kicked your ass," Lavender replied as she walked over to me. How did I not see her? Did that fight mess up my eyes or something?
"But you were totally amazing! Like, the way you gave Pride that trashing! Pow! Boom! Swish! Ahhh I wish I had superpowers," Dan added, as he walked behind Lavender. I didn't see him coming either. Are my eyes really that messed up? "*Sigh* If you're thinking of your eyes being messed up, which I know you are, that's not the case, you idiot. We're teleporting in here. We can't enter without permission because of some weird safety rules," Alex commented, literally appearing out of thin air.
"Phew! There go my worries," I replied, as I awkwardly laughed. Shaking her head, Alex joined the others beside me. "Ah, I remember the day someone teleported in front of me. I was honestly thinking I'd gone insane with all this Heaven-Hell stuff," Jason said, as he teleported directly beside me. "Holy- gosh stop doing that!" I shrieked.
Pfft! Everyone burst into laughter and Dan even fell onto the floor, tears streaming in his eyes. After the commotion died down, I realized something was missing. "Faith? Where's Faith?" I asked. Poof! "Did you call for me Master?" Faith asked, causing me to jump. The others began suppressing their laughter, but some of them were unsuccessful, letting out a giggle once a while. Faith looked innocently at me and curiously at the others, wondering why they were trying to stop their laughter. "Humans are enigmas..." Faith thought to herself.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I walked over to the familiar never-ending ground, where he fought Pride. Brrr! That final fight still sent shivers down his spine. "Did you really think I wouldn't recognize my Lord's magic, kid?" Pride had whispered to me before he knocked me out. Does that mean Pride already knew that I used Lucifer's magic? Is that why he asked for a rematch? The more I thought, the more questions emerged. I began suppressing the questions as I walked over to the large crowd that was forming.
Most of the demons and demi-demons gathered here were obese, or in layman's terms, they were really big fat cows. As I walked into the crowd, I felt all their jealous eyes on me, checking me out from top to bottom. "Ugh!" I thought to myself, as I found myself in a quiet space and stood there, waiting for Gluttony to arrive.
Of course, my quiet space wouldn't stay quiet for long. I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. Instinctively, I turned around and took the chubby hand and dragged it behind their back, making them gasp and began begging for me to leave them.
The person who placed his hand on me was almost 5 ft 5 inches, just an inch taller than Alex. He had short dark brown hair, and a very, very, rounded body shape, and believe me, this is not an exaggeration!
In fact, the rounded body was the only noticeable feature, and no matter how much I tried to look at his face, my eyes were always dragged back to his extreme 'dad bod'. "Oh! Sorry for that. My reflexes got the best of me," I apologized to the poor guy. "That's totally fine! Any sane man would be wary of a stranger. I'm Orsino! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Orsino said as he brought his hand forth.
"Hey, Orsino! I'm Jay! A pleasure to meet you as well," I replied, and shook his hand. I couldn't help but notice his arm fat horribly wiggle as I shook his arm. "I shouldn't be judging a book by its cover," I thought to myself, but I still couldn't completely suppress my unbiasedness. I mean, even his name literally meant 'bear-like! "Damn! You're Jay? The demi-demon who got a shot to train under all the 7 Generals? You're awesome! Everyone's been talking about you," Orsino exclaimed.
"Oh, it's probably nothing. It was clearly just luck," I replied. "Hey now! No need to be all humble. No one gets to train under the 7 Generals with just luck," Orsino argued. "The 7 Generals possess great power, mostly because inside them, resides the spirit of the original 7 Deadly Sins! It's the sins that decide under which General you would get stronger efficiently," Orsino explained. "I never knew that..." I murmured to myself. "It's not your fault, you're a demi-demon, so you're bound to be clueless to things like this," Orsino tried to console me.
Thump! Thump! Loud footsteps could be heard, shaking the ground beneath us, most falling on their asses, some trying to hold their stand. After a few thumps and minor earthquakes later, I could see a very slim and muscular man, not as buff as Pride, but he's close. "Look at you, looking so thin and fragile, have you guys not been eating properly?" The man asked. The man clearly had some eye problems, how in the world is this called thin? If they put on any more weight, they'd probably die of cardiac arrest.
"Anyways, for those demi-demons who don't know who I am, Hello, and welcome! I'm one of the 7 Generals of Hell, Gluttony!" Gluttony exclaimed, raising his hand, expecting cheers and praises, but all he got was silence. Many of the demi-demons, including me, expected Gluttony to be like Orsino, but even fatter. "That's my brother!" Orsino exclaimed with his chest puffed out with pride. "You're kidding?" I joked. "No, I'm serious as a heart attack, he's my big bro," Orsino replied, with a serious face, but anyone could tell that serious face wouldn't last long. Orsino was a very jolly person, and couldn't keep himself serious even if it were a matter of life and death.
"Yeah, I believe you," I said, relieving Orsino from keeping his serious face on any longer. "But you look so-" "Different?" I was interrupted by Orsino. He knew I was indicating their body type. How can the elder brother be so handsome and slim, and the younger brother is so... well, you know. "My brother and I are the sons of Beelzebub, a member of His Majesty, Lord Lucifer's personal court members. In our family, a special bloodline runs in our veins, just like all the other families in His Majesty's court. The bloodline passes on a Unique Chant to the offsprings," Orsino quietly explained.
"I can't reveal the Unique Chant, but I can tell you what it does. It basically compresses all the fat and energy in your body and helps you store it and efficiently use it when needed, without changing the body, keeping it at its optimum. My brother has a more concentrated bloodline than I do, thus he can keep that slim body for as long as he wants, whereas I can just compress my fat for short periods of time, giving me temporary power," Orsino added. "Whoa!" I whispered. That truly is a very convenient chant, especially fitting for someone with Gluttony's spirit or just someone like Orsino.
"Now that introductions are over, let's get to business," Gluttony continued. Up until now, Gluttony had a carefree, and happy-going face, but the very moment he started with the second part of his sentence, the aura around him took a complete 180-degree turn. His carefree and happy-going face that previously put everyone at ease changed to a serious and ominous look that wasn't pleasant to look at. It felt as if he was peering into your soul and looking through your search history.
"Before I even begin training you, I need to know if you're worthy," Gluttony announced. The crowd was puzzled. They were already chosen by the spirit of Gluttony itself, so why did they need to get tested again? "All I will ask is a simple question. The one who can answer this will get this," Gluttony spoke and pulled out a golden cage-like apparatus, in which was a pitch-black egg, sprinkled with green, red, and purple spots. There were almost millions of green spots on the egg compared to the red spots, but the number of purple spots was so low, that if I wasn't as close to the egg as I was now, I probably couldn't even have noticed it.
"What is that? An egg?" I asked. "*Sigh* You really know nothing, do you? That's not just a simple egg. That is the egg of a familiar. Demons and demi-demons get their own familiars once they pass a test, but with the case of an egg, they can directly get a familiar without passing a test. There's even a chance of hatching a Purple-grade familiar!" Orsino replied. "But of course, the chances of a Purple-grade familiar hatching is as good as getting struck by lightning, getting farted on by a cow, getting dunked into a sinkhole all at the same time!" Orsino added, drowning my hopes of getting a Purple-grade familiar.
The crowd wasn't comfortable to shout when that sinister look was still staring right at them, but their hearts were thumping with anticipation, excited to be able to get a familiar egg, just by answering a simple question? Their happiness had no bounds.