Back in the hazy red realm.
After spending a few minutes setting up a special… "treat" for the demon, Edol decided it was time to figure out just what was going on.
'So, I am hit by a school bus, then the driver thinks I am suicidal. Alright, nothing here that would result in me being thrown into hell, or wherever this is. What else… right, I heard a crashing noise! Did something else happen?'
'Maybe there was another car, and it hit the crazy bus driver? Then maybe some idiot angel was watching, thought I was somehow the reason for the driver dying, and decided to punish me by sending me here to fight this demon? Ah whatever, it's not worth worrying about. I'm here now, so I need to focus on the present. I have to kill this demon, then escape this place!'
Edol cast another glance back at the dirt igloo, then decided to explore this foggy red realm. Perhaps there would be potential allies or weapons somewhere hidden in the mist.
Everywhere the two had fought had a perfectly flat, hard dirt floor with no signs of grass or other life, but there could be something more elsewhere.
Edol put his back to the dirt igloo, then picked a random direction and started walking. The mist behind him swallowed up the earthen dome, and only emptiness stood in front of him.
'Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen..'
Edol counted his steps, trying to keep track of how far he was from the demon's dome, and to keep himself from getting lost. The ground was solid, and he left no footsteps, so it was important not to go too far and lose his way. An outside observer of his actions might be concerned for him.
Why would someone want to find their way back to a demon that had killed them forty times?
Was this the first sign of Stockholm Syndrome?
Edol looked up after he counted to fifty. The landscape in front of him was the same- dim red mist.
'Looks like there isn't anything yet, I should probably turn around. I can probably escape from here after I kill the demon, so tha-'
The ground in front of Edol disappeared in front of him, forming the jagged edge of a cliff. Craning his head over the edge, Edol could barely see the bottom of the cliff through the mist. The drop was at least five meters down, and the cliff was nearly vertical. There was no way to descend, at least for now.
Now with his only other escape idea cut off, the only thing left was to take down this demon.
'Ugly is probably sleeping right now, if demons need to sleep. It was eating earlier too, so I'm guessing that if something here isn't dying constantly, they probably retain their basic needs. There is no sun or moon here, so who knows how long Ugly will sleep for.'
Edol decided to rest while waiting for Ugly to awaken from his slumber.
What would happen if Ugly awoke first, and Edol lost his best chance for an ambush, when Ugly was still drowsy from sleep?
This wasn't a concern of Edol's. His present to the demon was a sort of… alarm clock. He wasn't worried about waking in the morning, and he would still have a great chance of ambushing the demon as long as he was ready to attack the moment he awoke.
Edol lay down on the hard earth a few meters away from the demon's dome. The dirt was hard and solid, preventing him from moving it around to get a bit more comfortable.
'Damn, I wish I had a jacket on before I got sucked in here. I could really do with a pillow right about now.'
Midterms back in Bristol were around the beginning of fall, so sometimes the weather would dip below what most people were comfortable with.
Unfortunately, the past week had been a warm one, and the only clothes Edol had were his t-shirt and jeans. As for shoes, he was wearing a pair of steel-toed boots. It wasn't his normal footwear, but he had gotten his sneakers wet and switched to the boots the morning of the bus accident. The boots made him less agile, but the steel toes might prove useful in fighting the demon.
The only blessing of this place was that it wasn't cold or hot. The temperature seemed to be a perfect room temperature.
Edol rolled onto his back, staring up into the foggy darkness that was the sky. He had yet to see even a spark of light from the heavens that had been filled with stars in his past world.
Confusion welled up in his mind as he watched the still and blank sky.
'Where am I? Why am I here… fighting against some demon? I don't think I did anything that deserves being sent to hell… I tried to be a good brother to my little sis, studied hard, and didn't fight with anyone… Maybe it's because I never worshiped any deities? That or that bus driver really did get hit by a car and I got blamed for it, but that would hardly be my fault! Why would I get thrown into hell if he got hit?''
His questions were only met with silence. If there was a god that put him here, it didn't seem to care about his thoughts.
Eventually, Edol drifted off into sleep. It wasn't a peaceful, calming one- he constantly fidgeted and rolled around, unable to get comfortable on the hard floor.
Hours passed before he woke again, but there was nothing in this dull realm to measure that time.
As for what woke him… it seemed that he had done quite a good job installing that alarm clock.