There was no Guardian on Jered's way through the end of the tunnel. And as soon as he stepped out of the gate, a foul smell made him wrinkle his nose in disgust. The landscape was fairly similar to the Second Circle, but the gluttonous sinners were not battered by stormy winds. They wallowed on vile, putrid mire produced by the rain. It reminded him of a pigsty, but on a worse scale. The moans of anguish overlapped with screams of pain.
A growl alerted Jered of the three-headed dog mauling and flaying the sinners with huge, sharp claws. The underworld's canine was as big as Minos, with a serpent for a tail, and its brown fur matted with the blood of the overindulgent. Three sets of vicious, gilded eyes overlooked with barbaric pleasure the clump of torn limbs, flesh, and dripping organs around him. Cerberus. Jered easily recognized the mythological creature.
Cerberus also recognized Jered. Not as a sinner or a human. But as a Magician and as a trespasser.
The three-headed dog ignored the wailing sty of souls and galloped towards Jered. More souls were stomped and ripped apart by the monster's ferocious rush. Demi was slightly paralyzed by the onslaught of mana that came at them with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. She couldn't handle Cerberus' thick, magic density. Fortunately, Jered reared up a 'Mana Barrier' around her and spammed a volley of 'Fireball's at Cerberus. His spell sped forth so fast that the beast had no time to avoid. Thus, the three heads splayed their maws wide open and chomped down on the spheres of fire.
And swallowed them.
Jered didn't let his surprise mess up his spellwork. He quickly went in 'Soul Eater' mode and cast 'Turbine Slash'. The blades of wind whipped down on Cerberus, who nimbly dodged one slash by leaping to the side, and still managing to tank through the last one, unscathed. The gap between them shortened drastically, and Jered couldn't allow Cerberus to turn their confrontation into a melee.
He canceled the 'Mana Barrier' protecting Demi and stirred his mana pool into pumping more power into his spell. His finger lashed forward, and a blinding white beam whizzed out of the tip. His 'Giza's Gaze' was a ray of pure, concentrated fire. There was no way anyone could simply swallow it and still be fine. In fact, Cerberus knew he could neither tank, avoid, or eat it. Even his panicked attempt at skidding to a stop failed.
The beam easily carved through Cerberus' torso and cleaved the sinners behind him apart.
A shower of blood and sludge went up in rivulets.
Cerberus growled as he glared at Jered, limping back.
"I have no reason to kill you. I pray that you don't give me one now."
"..."
He didn't know what the consequences of killing a Guardian were. His unwanted presence there had already been noticed, and he didn't want to risk exposing himself any further—if possible. Cerberus' wound was constantly spurting out more blood. He focused his mana on closing the hole, and was only partially successful. The remnants of Jered's mana were overpowering his regenerative ability.
Cerberus knew the threat Jered posed, and made no moves to attack him again. Instead, he lashed out his wrath at being defeated upon the sinners. That resulted in a fountain of blood spilling all over the naked, squirming bodies on the fecal mud.
"Demi, don't get too close to Cerberus. You can devour the souls on that side," Jered pointed to an area where he felt like they could assert their jurisdiction over. He respected Cerberus' territory, and hoped the monster wouldn't overstep his boundaries.
"..."
Demi was reluctant to devour those souls due to the putrid stench.
"You used to smell exactly like that. And I still put up with you."
"..."
However, Jered was also stuck in a conundrum. He still needed water to survive, but the rainwater was dirtier than the naked sinners rolling in their own waste. So, what was he supposed to drink?
----
Upon a frozen lake—where the sinners guilty of treachery were trapped within—a woman, inconceivably pale, burst through the thin layer of ice and crawled out. Water dripped down her long hair, as black as the burnt, skeletal wings poking out of her shoulder blades. There was a magnetic glow about her, something that made her visible even in the utter darkness of the glacier cave. She had two goat horns on the sides of her head, and a red, scaly tail wrapped around her modesty.
With a perfectly sculpted, delicate face, velvety eyelashes, and two crimson gemstones for eyes. She was a synonym for perfection.
His father had created 'him' to tempt, so 'he' turned into a woman, for males were weaker to temptation. And seduction was his—her—business.
She wrung the rest of the water out of her hair.
All around her was silence. Not even the wails of the damnded could be heard, but that was still her home, so she dwelled there for as long as she could remember.
She was immortal, but she preferred hibernation over dreary eternity among the sinners. Thankfully, her father had made Hell fully autonomous, with Guardians to operate each circle. She had little to no work to do, besides looking cute on her throne and scaring the living crap out of Angels. Alas, she couldn't do that anymore. The war was over, and her father had told her to behave.
She? Behave? Ridiculous.
He did not create her just to behave.
And it had been eons since she last visited the human realm to buy souls. Innocent, uncorrupted souls.
However, that was not the reason she woke up from her slumber.
[An intruder has taken down Minos and entered the Second Circle.]
[An intruder erased over a thousand souls from the Second Circle.]
[Countermeasures have been taken.]
[Countermeasures failed.]
[An intruder has entered the Third Circle.]
Hell's own personal system, created with lost magic engineering and her father's lifeforce. The screens hovered in front of her, blinking with urgency. She was not concerned, though. Actually, she was rather curious about how someone managed to open up a portal and bypass Minos. She knew for a fact that it was not the Angels—it would mean that they wanted war, and those innocent, pure-looking bitches would rather die than rub their clitorises.
The Fallen Angels? Neither. They were allies in the last war.
The Devilings? Doubtful. Her brother had almost extinguished them in a fit of rage.
She dug around her memories for anyone, any race, that had a beef with her, or her father, or her brother.
None came to mind—none that was stupid enough to mess around with them.
With a crack of her neck, she stretched, her joints popping as a sense of relief washed over her. And with it, her dormant mana ramped up with a decisive burst and immediately cracked the frozen ground around her. The stalagmites overhead shattered and swirled down in glimmering, icy flakes. She looked down at the crimson, flaming mass of mana highlighting her body. The rolling power was more than enough to bring the whole circle down to the core of Earth.
Her wings unfurled, and with a strong flap, she shot up in the air.
"System, show me the tape of the intruder—from the moment they came here up until now. Cut out unnecessary scenes, and highlight the important ones."
A wide screen popped up in front of her, Jered's face zoomed in. She leaned back and sat down mid-air, one knee dangling over the other. So he was the one that was making such a racket? With him was a twisted entity, but she ignored her, for the spirit's power readings were below average. As for the young man? The mana wavelengths she registered were that of a quite powerful Elder Magician. Such an accomplishment didn't match his age, however.
He swiftly defeated Minos, who despite not being among her most powerful minions, still had hundreds of years of experience and knowledge. And he did that with the boost of a spell she knew very well. 'Soul Eater'. She was briefly shocked when he used 'Shadowport', another spell she had very close ties to. What initially started as a sparkle of curiosity now was full-blown interest towards the boy.
Then he entered the Second Circle. And she knew exactly what was his purpose in going there. She had to fast-forward through days, weeks, and months of him absorbing souls, mastering his spells, and doing calisthenics. She made sure to listen to his conversation with one of her most notorious sinners, Cleopatra, and learned a bit about the young man's life. And also his name. Jered.
An earthquake forced him to flee to the Third Circle.
Considering what she had seen of him, she didn't have high expectations of Cerberus putting up a fight. In fact, Jered, after failing the first combo of spells, overpowered his way to victory. And according to the system's calendar, that happened a few days ago. More souls were being absorbed, empowering him at a rate that would take average Magicians anywhere between a few months to many years.
She waved her hand, and the screen disappeared.
While Jered's power dangerously approached that of a Royal-Tier, she could still squash him with a swat of her hand. But depending on her evaluation of him, that might not be a necessary course of action to take. The boy held a fragment of a Shadow's power. And not just any Shadow either, but one she hadn't seen ever since she hibernated. She could see a bit of 'him' in Jered's features, and that was all she needed to spare him and find out the truth.
Her crimson mana coalesced further around her. And once the light shimmered out, she was clothed in black armor, leaving her cleavage and thighs completely exposed, though covered by stockings and knee-high armored boots. She smiled at her reflection on a sheet of ice, and with an eruption of smoke, she 'Shadowport'ed to the Third Circle.
----
Jered kinda regretted leaving the Second Circle, but he had no other option—unless he wanted to call an end to his training session, something he was very reluctant on doing. He had been there for almost a week, and he could barely go on any longer. The smell was unbearable. At some point, he cleared out an area of sinners and 'Cleanse'd the shit out of it. Literally. Demi fared a bit better, but she had already gone through hell once.
Cerberus didn't bother them, though, in Jered's mind, the three-headed dog was looking like a snack at the moment. While his hunger growled louder than the beast, at least he wasn't completely starving. Insects could still be found, albeit at a scarce rate.
His training progressed smoothly. Between absorbing souls and leveling up spells, Jered was riding on an unstoppable wave. Some of it was freely handed to him by Rainey, but he was putting in the sweat and the blood to make sure her expectations were exceeded. The fruits of his labor would allow him to protect his child, his sister, his mother, and Evelyn from whatever threat dared to tear them apart.
"Status Window."
[Name: Jered von Jacobs]
[Age: 16]
[Race: Human/? ]
[Class: Twilight Conjurer | Type: Magician]
[Title: Son of Shadows ]
[Rank: Elder | Unlocked Veins: 3]
[Magic Density: 3]
[Mana Pool: 1671]
[Soul: Mortal | Superior]
[Sin: - ]
"Library."
—Special—
[Soul Eater]
—Neophyte Tier—
[Mana Orb, Lv.72]
[Mana Beam, Lv.56]
[Everyday Charms, Lv.MAX]
[Mana Manipulation, Lv.99]
[Fireball, Lv.91]
—Adept Tier—
[Vizier's Light, Lv.50]
[Fire Wall, Lv.57]
[Giza's Gaze, Lv.61]
—Elder Tier—
[Mana Sense, Lv.25]
[Float, Lv.35]
[Telekinesis, Lv.64]
[Turbine Slash, Lv.23]
[Mana Barrier, Lv.37]
—Royal Tier—
[Pharaoh's Flame, Lv.1]
[Shadowport, Lv.1]
His 'Mana Manipulation' was close to maxing out, and he looked forward to it. He could feel that the level cap was not the end of it.
The door to Royal-Tier was within sight. All he needed was to find his 'Sin' and stir his fourth vein. Absorbing souls was not going to cut it. Admittedly, Jered could mimic the power of a Royal-Tier, but the magic density would be lower. He'd be strong, but never a true match against the likes of Vozremeth. He had to contemplate, enlighten himself, and unearth the answer from the depths of his soul.
However, as soon as he closed his eyes, he snapped them back open.
Something familiar had tickled his 'Mana Sense'.
He looked up, where the sexiest leg he had ever seen, gracefully stepped out of a plume of smoke.
Two crimson, slitted eyes pierced through the wispy, black screen, and stared at him. There was curiosity in those beautiful bloody pools, along with a tinge of surprise. And all of a sudden, it was a struggle to breathe properly. The magic density in the Third Circle had skyrocketed, altering the fixed weather, and splitting the ground with the slightest brush of her mana. Cerberus whined like a scared puppy and retreated inside a cave.
The rain turned crimson.
A scaly tail merrily wagged around.
Wings, skeletal and with burnt feathers barely hanging by, fluttered. The distance between them shortened to an inch, and the inertia of her speed blasted a small hill behind him to smithereens. A shower of rocks and dust rained all over them, but that hardly mattered. The woman in front of him was so otherworldly sexy that people might have thought of her when coming up with the slang 'hot as hell'.
Her power was so vast that should she decide to attack him, he'd never think of offering resistance. If she wanted him dead, he'd let her kill him.
She regarded him with an interested tilt of her head, and with a widening smile, she said, "Do I know you?"