In the deepest part of the tomb, the entrance to the final room was guarded by a Griffon— a skeleton Griffon with black bones.
Lucifer: 'Accursed Necromancers-! They practise their unhallowed sorcery here as well-?! I now understand why those humans hunt those Witches. Kill the Witch, lad. And, eat her heart'
"Eat her heart…? I'm not too keen on eating things that look like humans…" I complained, "I trust you, but not all Witches are to blame here. I'll do what you say, solely because I hate the concept of Necromancy, but I won't listen to unjustified hatred towards possible innocent people. And, I still don't wanna eat the heart-".
Since the thing was just bones, I smacked it with just my fists, but it kept reviving. Better yet, it kept adapting to me. And so, I get an idea: Why don't I just eat it?
And so, I began snacking on it. It was quite the eerie and unsettling sensation. The taste could be described as acrid, with a metallic tinge akin to… blood, I guess; even though it doesn't really make sense. It left an aftertaste, an unusual, lingering aftertaste that hints at a peculiar amalgamation of charred wood and a faint, unearthly bitterness.
"Oh, this is horrid-!" I spat it out, "I should've just dissolved it, or consumed it with my ability…"; and, that I did…
"Let's see, now. How did you do it again…" my hand set ablaze with a demonic and grim aura. Corrosion, leech, and death… such were the properties of this aura.
And so, I trekked onwards, and opened the extremely thick, wooden door.
"Ahh… the envoy has come" I heard an old lady say, "Sore wounds much? Demon shite?". Man, I gotta tell you, this hag's a damn menace… to Gods and man alike.
I kept quiet and entered the room, slamming the door shut behind me. "Ohh, how imposing. What's a pretty looking young man doing, licking Errlartian's feet? You've more to live for than obeying an evil God".
Lucifer: 'The God's throwing a fit, lad. It's almost funny-'
"Quite the opposite, lady. The God has something for me" I walked towards her rocking chair, "It's nothing personal, so don't resent me too much…".
The room was quite compact. The walls were inlaid with crystals at equal distances. It was like a stereotypical cabin in the woods; a fireplace, pelts of animals, and a ton of wooden furniture. It made me question if this was even the actual target, but after reminiscing the path to this place, I was pretty certain that she was. I don't know anyone that keeps the skeleton of a Griffon as a pet.
"Hahahahah—I personally wouldn't look down on someone who sealed a God" she didn't mind my presence and kept rocking back and forth, "Aren't you confident in your power? Considering that you managed to kill Greyll, you're probably not a human, are you?".
"Tell me about Errlartian" I demanded, "Why did you decide to seal him? What is your motive…?"
Her rocking intensified, "Hearing that detested name truly challenges my composure… He is the Demon God; what makes you think that the God of those insignificant pagans that aren't even deserving of our killing, is up to any good? Fighting against Him and His tribe is neither war nor battle. It's just pest control-! Averting an eye to these inferior beasts and their insufferable God is shameful. Even if I were to dig my eyes out alive, it is a great sin… that cannot be made up for…!".
See what I mean? This woman's gone senile, and I'm not comfortable being in the same room as her, so I tried to speed things up a bit. "Tell me… what he was doing…" I ordered again.
"Raagh-! Youths have no respect for an old lady nowadays, do they?!" she stopped rocking and slowly got up with the help of a walking stick, "He and His tribe existed, and that was their downfall-! I declared war against Him, and now the pitiful God's sealed in that shite-drenched stone, luring younguns with false promises that if they kill the debilitated old Witch in the tomb, He'll grant them a wish—isn't that right?! Hah! I know you're here with this kid, hiding somewhere up in his arse, you thieving little shit-!"
…
Now, at this point, I just wanted to be done with this interaction and just get my reward for killing the woman: any wish granted.
Raphael: 'The Witch is preparing to attack you, boy'.
"I know, I know…" I sighed, "Are you sure you wanna do this? You won't have the time to regret your decision, so why am I even a-". Before even I was able finish my statement, the Witch launched her attack on me, swinging her staff—her walking stick.
…Nothing happened.
Silence befell between us. "Wha-" a giant claw pierced through my back and stuck out from the middle of my chest. "HAHAHAHAH-! YOU CAN SEND WHOEVER YOU MUST, DEMON GOD! I WILL DEFILE ALL OF THEM!" she shouted at the top of her lungs while cackling. I thought that the exaggerated stereotypical Witch laugh was just made for the shits and giggles, but I really didn't expect this.
I grabbed the jet-black claw and shattered it with little to no ease, sporting the same tranquil countenance on my face, unfazed by the injury—if that's what you call one. A creature wailed behind me. "Drat! Cyllirak, do your darn job, you fat dobber-!" she scolded the thing. The thing was a Dragon; this realm's version of one, anyway.
The dragon takes on an ethereal form. Its scales, the colour of smouldering amethyst, shimmer with an otherworldly iridescence, casting a haunting glow amidst the darkness of the night sky which should have been blocked by the ceiling of the tomb. Its eyes, twin orbs of flickering emerald flame. Around its sinewy neck, an intricate collar of obsidian and enchanted runes pulses with an eerie energy.
Not the most majestic creature when it's wincing in pain…
I wasted no more than a second before jumping off of my feet and manoeuvring around the slender neck of the Dragon, and trying to penetrate it with nothing but my hand and some applied ultrasonic vibration. To my surprise, its scales were stupidly tough, so I couldn't resist collecting them later on. Too bad that I can just pulverise its insides with blunt attacks. And, that I did. Shortly after dealing with the light manipulating lizard, I stored it in the realm that I created.
"How did y-" the old lady managed to utter before I decapitated her, not moving an inch from where I slayed the dragon. "Jeez, your voice is annoying, old hag…".
Lucifer: 'Her heart, lad; extract it without delay. It doesn't matter what you do with the rest of her. Only her heart is needed…'.
"Right, right" I extended my right hand in the air, from which a slime erupted that would cover the entire body of the old lady, dissolving and consuming everything into my body, save for the heart that I later stored, entrapped in ice.
"So, Errlartian… about that wish-"
--END OF CHAPTER 11--