Valentine's body walked through a red bright gate, his consciousness totally aware of everything, but unaware of controlling his own body.
It ended soon though.
The moment the gate closed, he regained control of his body.
"..." His first thought wasn't to inspect the clearly gigantic gate that showed itself in front of him, like the entrance to a kingdom?
The weather was as hot, no... hotter than that forest they had been at.
The red sky covered everything on its might, and the black clouds permeated all over, but there was no rain.
Two yellow moons could be seen hanging up dimly giving the place a very eerie feeling.
Words spoke all around him, words that he could understand and also... Some he couldn't.
He looked to the side, and there were... People?
No... Not just people.
Demons...
The horns on their heads, their colourful skin, some had wings.
'This is ridiculous' He couldn't help but think inwardly, this is like being in a fantasy book.
The creatures that humanity so adamantly denied, were right in front of him, confirming what was henceforth undeniable.
Demons exist, hell exist...
And that means... God exists, Heaven exists... And, the Devil...
"Valentine!" His thoughts were interrupted by a voice that resounded behind him, the voice he had been expecting to hear, thankfully they weren't separated.
"Faye!" Turning around he got nearly tackled down by his lover.
"I thought we would be separated!" She yelled, clearly she had been scared through the whole ordeal.
"Yes, I did too for a while, we need to recompose, look..."
...
"Oh? How cute~ A couple from the trail ground... I wonder how long they will remain together~" The two were momentarily stumbled by a voice, not even noticing when Vera came out of her own portal and yelled their names.
"Valentine! Fayette!"
The girl hugged the two of them in exasperation and they answered her feelings, truly content that they managed to end together, but the duo still held their gaze onto that devilish and alluring voice from before.
A tall figure, taller than even Valentine with a pair of spread wings and a battle attire, walked through this tiled passage, she ignored them after finishing her words and kept walking with three demons behind her, their gazes staring at them in apparent disgust.
'Demoness...' Fayette gulped heavily, that woman... She's hot as fuck!
'Is that what they call a succubus?' Vera's widened eyes stared at the demoness that walked far away.
There were many other demons and even humans in here, all of them walking out or from the passage.
But none looked as domineering as that demoness that just passed!
'She must be quite strong' Those were Valentine's thoughts when he regarded that demoness.
A proper evaluation of this place is needed, but so far, it only looks like a city.
They gave the trio either a disgusted or condescending gaze, totally aware of their circumstances.
"Hey... You just arrived, do you need help?"
!!!
The trio turned around with the knives in their hands and suddenly the world seemed to stop!
Gazes from all over the place focused on them!
!!!
"Who are you!? What do you want!?" Fayette pointed her knife at the human that just talked to them, he looked like some kind of vagrant!
"Stop! Point down your weapons, you can't use violence in here!" The vagrant said but they were relentless.
"You see how they're looking at you!? If you use violence, you will give them the right to use violence against you! Stop!"
Valentine grit his teeth, truly concerned about how all the gazes stared at them, even that demoness from before had turned around and regarded them with a sharp glare!
"Lower your weapons." He ordered and the two women heed.
The moment he lowered his weapons, the world seemed to have turned back to normal as everyone kept going their own way.
The vagrant sighed in relief, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding!
"Listen, no matter what, unless you're a kilometre away from this city, you're not allowed to use violence, do you get it!?"
"..." The trio nodded and it was then that the vagrant presented his arm.
"...?" They stared at one another, not understanding.
"My payment... I just gave you a piece of very valuable information, they could have killed you if you kept on, so, where is my payment?!" The vagrant yelled as if offended that he hadn't been paid yet!
"We don't even know what you will accept as payment." Valentine frowned at this man attitude and stood between the women and him with clear hostility.
"What do you have? I will see from there~" The vagrant's gaze became devious as he stared at the fur bags they were holding, in one, he saw how a sharp claw protruded from the bag and his eyes shone briefly, but he didn't show it for long...
The women didn't notice that, but Valentine did.
"I only have a single black stone... Nothing more." That was his answer that he proudly gave with a kind 'smile' and he immediately received a glare from the vagrant.
'That's all I 'have' take it or leave it. You can also choose to fight for it.' Valentine's wicked smile was more than obvious.
He didn't know if this vagrant had company... If he dared to leave and fight them despite the numeric advantage, he knew this is not a brawl to meet.
'He's a clever bastard.' The vagrant thought inwardly and smiled.
"Then I will take that 'black stone' as a payment for this information... And I can teach you a lot more for... A better reward." He 'seduced'.
Valentine took out one of the black stones, but his hand stopped before he released it on the vagrant's hand, the man's visage changed instantly, don't mess with a man's pocket.
"How about you tell me what this, 'Black Stone' is as well as their usages?" Valentine took advantage.
"That will cost you another stone my friend, but... I'm afraid you might not have anymore~"
"Oh? look at this~ It seems I have another... I'll give you the two of them if you explain their usage." Valentine joked and took two more stones out of the bloody pouch.
"... Very well, follow me, it's better to change locations." The vagrant who resembled the hunchback of Notre Dame, walked away from them as they followed.
"This is a very hostile environment despite the looks", Fayette commented, not having left the man's body out of her gaze for even a minute, if he dared attack, she'd behead him that very instant.
"It's as if everyone's on edge", Vera added, gazing around as they followed the vagrant.
As they kept walking in silence, suddenly they saw something that unnerved them!
!!!
"W-Why!?" Fayette yelled, she wanted to draw her knife at that moment, but Valentine stopped her.
In front of them, a demon had a few strings tied to his hand, and these strings were used to restrain his 'pets'.
But the pets... are humans.
What's most impressive is that there were several other humans walking normally around them, wearing different attires, some of them looked tired, some healthy.
But none of them even glanced at this as if it was unnatural, not even the vagrant!
The demon felt their gazes and huffed out some smoke!
"Got a problem!?"
The trio grit their teeth, only showing the two women that acted as pets, a pitiful glance, they were mashed all over, clearly hurt... Naked.
Their lifeless eyes stared at nothing.
"No... there is no problem." Valentine said nonchalantly and continued, forcefully pulling Fayette and Vera's arms.
"You've got a nice pair there... unworthy one... How about you sell them to me?~" The demons' voice devoided of feelings spoke with myriad wickedness and depravity, as if he was already envisioning the things he would do to Vera and Fayette!
"Fuck... Off..." Those were Valentine's sharp words that left no room for negotiation.
Fayette and Vera were about to argue as well when suddenly the two humans crawled and started licking the man's foot!
"Master, don't leave us, please!"
"W-We will perform better tonight, please, don't abandon us!"
The trio was left speechless and rather followed the vagrant with faces full of disgust.
'So this is the value of humans in here…?'
He could more or less imagine how they got themselves in that situation… if you don't have the means to survive, what else can you do?