Char examines what they have brought back from the palace of Hell after a near-death experience.
"What have we got?"
"There are like five things, didn't you catch them in the confusion?"
First there was a bottle with a sticky red liquid in it, which Shire picked up and walked to the window, where it looked thick in the moonlight.
"What is this? 'asked Shire.
"A powerful poison, extracted from some living thing, let's call it red poison."
poison
"The poison in your collection must be very powerful."
"Not necessarily, it may be collected by children at random. All I know is that it can kill."
"How does that work, you don't know when it will work, you don't know what marks it will leave on the body, and maybe even a smell will work..." Char had a wild thought.
"Of course it has great characteristics, this poison does not belong to your world, which means that its effects are completely untraceable, it is impossible to find the source of this poison, and it does not cause the same symptoms as poisons already in this world." Use it to murder your enemies."
poison Harm to Hide poison in food, hide poison in water... This was not what Char was good at, and he gathered his thoughts, hid the canister of poison in the cupboard, and examined the other things later.
He picked up what looked like a strange instrument, with strings tied to a long bar of black stone, with a wide, fan-like base, as if it could be used for picking, unlike any other instrument Shire had ever seen.
"You are a genius. Of all the powerful treasures, you have returned with a banjo." Graddiu complained.
"Does it have any magic or special effects?"
"It's just an ordinary piano. It must have been found in some jungle world."
Char plucked the string with a particularly crisp sound that broke the silence of the night, and he quickly stopped his hand so as not to disturb others.
There were three things left, and Charles picked up a bangle-like object. It was very beautiful, made of black mineral, with cracks of bright gold and grey, and the work was more delicate than Charles had ever seen.
"This is a Shisheng stone bracelet." "Graddiu said.
"Ten wins Stone?"
"You put on the bracelet and you wiggle it."
"Don't fool me."
Charles put the bracelet on his right wrist and tried to shake it. The rock glimmered and an upward lift appeared in his hand, slowly lifting his hand upward. Charles tried to put it down and struggled with the bracelet, but the bracelet lifted Charles's hand so persistently that he felt his body almost suspended by it, and now he had to hold his right hand high, a very different position.
"What power is this..." Shire some helpless, the right hand is so elevated, has been unable to put down.
"Don't worry." "It doesn't store much energy. After a while it turns into ordinary black stone bracelets."
"Tokatsu Stone... Can it float?"
"It's a gravity-defying stone, common in hell, not in your world."
"What does anti-gravity mean?"
"Gravity is a force that attracts your feet from below and prevents you from jumping too high and flying."
"So, antigravity is the force that makes us fly and jump." Shire suddenly realized.
"How happy are the simple minds."
In any case, these do not seem to be particularly powerful treasures.
"You have bad taste." Graddiu scoffed.
"It's your collection that's weird."
"Nonsense."
When the power in the ten victory stone was exhausted, Shire was able to put down his high hanging right hand. He picked up the important charred ring and put it on his finger. The bottle of poison, the harp, the bracelet of ten triumphs, the charred ring, Gladdius said there were five treasures, and that there should be one last one, but Charles did not see it.
"It's avoiding you." "Graddiu said.
He looked intently over the bed, most likely because of the lack of bedding, and soon noticed that a small amulet on the board was moving at an insignificant speed, in the shape of a disc, which could sway by itself in a shifting form. A moving amulet? Char couldn't help picking it up.
He picked up the living amulet like a small animal and placed it in the palm of his hand, and it desperately tried to escape Shire's hand, Shire swore that he did not force it, but it was able to move gently in his hand, a little bit towards the edge.
"What the hell is this?" Char clutched the amulet in his hand, lest it should escape again.
"A corundum amulet from a conquered world."
"... The world destroyed by demons..."
"Yes, I remember it was a cold magical world, still taking shape, where people had developed some considerable culture, and their resistance was sweet, and what a pastime it was. The devil opens the doorway between worlds, and hundreds of millions of demons rush in, with predictable consequences."
"It's moving."
"There is a timid, mage-like creature who hides his soul in this stone to avoid the pain of being killed and to avoid being devoured by demons."
"Why do you keep running away..."
"Of course, it fears you, you have my breath in you, and the devil is what it fears most." We have brought so much pain to that world that the 'sea of corpses' is a joke compared to what has happened to that world. They made a lot of efforts, they had a lot of great attempts, great leaders and heroes. What they think is their lack of ability is actually bad luck. We need souls. It was a good time, I had a lot of things to cut, I would deliberately let them find some chance to win, and then when they were so close to winning, they would kill their hope. If we continue to have false hopes, the pain of total failure will be multiplied tens of thousands of times." Graddiu described happily.
"Is there really a soul in there?" Charles picked up the amulet and observed it in the moonlight. The whole round amulet was made of a material similar to corundamite, delicate and flawless, and had a structure similar to a clasp on it, which could be firmly hung on a belt or clothes.
"After the passage of about thirty thousand years, the hidden soul has disappeared, leaving only the traces and instincts of the original soul's sojourn. Alas, the idea of eternal life is a joke even on the time scale of ten thousand years. In the world discovered by the devil, intelligent life will only die in battle, and everything else is no different from ordinary annihilation. Oh, Shire, what use do you think such an amulet would be?"
Char thought, the amulet trembling slightly on his knuckles, and he raised the palm of his hand to his eyes.
"Let's cooperate. I hunt demons for a living." "Shiver to warn me when the devil is near."
"You're talking to white Corundum, you're a fool." Graddiu scoffed.
The amulet, however, did stop shaking and rested calmly on the Shire's finger, seemingly able to understand the meaning of the Shire's words. Maybe some time ago, the soul that disappeared in a certain moment, still did not give up the idea of fighting the devil.
Char pinned it to his waist and focused on the last treasure, the charred ring.
He stroked the stone wall of the church, pointed at it, and slowly learned how to use the black charcoal ring. As if using a magic rope, he focused his attention on the finger, focused on staring at it, constantly trying to release the power it contained.
Hissing --
There was no fire, only a great deal of smoke escaping from it, which made the man cough, spark from the ring, and a series of crackles.
"Won't this burn my fingers?" The place where the ring was worn has begun to warm.
"Maybe, you haven't really begun to release. But the place is so small that if you don't want to blow up the place you're going to live in, you'd better try another day."
Shire agreed.
When it was over, he lay down on his bed and prepared to rest.
"Ready to rest? You're a lazy bastard."
"We need sleep."
"There are interminable hours of work throughout the night." "We shall go again," said Graddius, "and I shall regain my strength, and you shall become more skilled." We'll be going back and forth in hell and this world, thinking about what we can do, I can cut through the world's veil, think about it, Char, I'm..."
Char's eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Perhaps because of Graddiu's excessive chanting, Charles sank into the demon's consciousness in a half-dream.
The blade appeared.
It's a concept that when people talk about sharpness, people talk about a knife, something that has a blade, and its purpose is to cut through things. And so everything that goes with it comes together into some kind of desire, and in order to cut through an enemy, or in order to open up some kind of fruit, a creature in the real world evolves a sharp limb, and at the same time, the original blade demon is born in hell, and it carries the ideal of cutting things open. There seems to be a pattern of logical reasoning, first encountering obstacles, then wanting to destroy, and the knife can multiply power. The force of the same component, with the assistance of the blade, can be concentrated in a line, increasing the power by several times.
So Graddiu devoted himself to cutting things.
Charles saw Graddiu cut and cut in the hell, the stone wall cracks under the action of the blade, it kept chopping and chopping, in one direction, kept attacking, did not stop when it met the magma, did not stop when it met the ocean in hell.
At that time Hell was divided into several disconnected voids, between which were inhabited by different demons, who could not communicate with each other, because in the middle were endless stones, made of the original material of the world.
So the demons asked him:
"Please use your knife, Graddius, to cut through the walls of hell and connect the Spaces."
It didn't matter to Graddius, who didn't care what the other demons thought, so he swung a knife and randomly connected two or three huge holes of hell along the way.
The rift Valley it created permanently affected many things in Hell, and demons could now meet each other, but this was not in the interest of all demons. Some demons have been strengthened in battle, some have been destroyed, some have been angered by the destruction of their territories, and some have had their palaces completely destroyed.
Then the demons forced Graddius to stop his work and said to him, "You cannot do this, you must do what we want you to do, you will open the passage to hell for us."
Graddius arrogantly rejected all demons, and the demons no longer bowed to him, but cursed him loudly, refused to associate with him, and beat him when they saw him. Graddiu, in spite of this, continued to cut and whittled as he wished.
"What do you see?" Graddiu found the Shire sinking into its consciousness.
"Nothing at all." 'said Shire.
"Don't poke around in my memory, you idiot."
After Charles saw what had happened, there were other demons who could do similar things to Graddius, and they followed the advice of the demons, connecting hell, changing the shape of hell, and breaking the state of isolation everywhere. So the demons could communicate with each other and build homes according to their preferences, and many holes in hell became prosperous. They ostracized him and forced him to live in the most desolate rock pits of hell, the ones they had been to, the barren caves, where everything was cut and ground from the round stones of hell, and where only the most hated demons lived with him as neighbors.
"Graddiu, I have taken over your territory." Char hears the fire Lord's voice. When is this memory? Just now? "I have burned your army, your commanders and your confidants, your fortresses, your sharpeners of which you are most proud, your kindred and subordinates. I have forced your followers to kill each other, and where my flame has passed, all that you once held dear is gone, and you have no need of it, and you are gone, and you have left me behind, and do not people light fires to forge blades?"
Graddiu replied with a laugh almost insane, which struck the Shire unendurably and echoed like a thousand winds in the valley.
He can only wake up.