"On your feet, you maggot!"
A baritone voice blasted into the area, causing pulses of seismic wave to ripple through the ground and air.
With such description, one would think the owner of this voice was speaking to some powerful deity of some sort; or at least, someone leagues away from him; but no, the unfortunate soul he was trying to deafen was just a few inches away from him.
Ryujin felt his ears nearly shred to pieces as he was forced to stagger three steps backwards, with absolute shock covering his face.
As for what warranted his shocked expression; perhaps, it was the fact that the voice had been powerful enough to actually throw him off balance and force him to retreat; or perhaps, because of the reality playing out before him.
Regardless, Ryujin knew he had a more potent and imminent threats to deal with; and these were his ringing eardrums, squelching brain and thumping palpitations.
His vision swam as he began to wonder how he had managed to arrive at his current plight; however, with his head close to imploding off his neck; he was barely able to take in a few information from his surroundings.
Tragically; the first information his senses receive didn't help his plight at all; in fact, it made it worse and nearly made Ryujin think of dying once again.
'Dying once again?'
Ryujin thought to himself, as he finally turned his gaze towards his tormentor and begin to deduce his current situation.
This figure stood at almost 10 meters tall; it had a thick leather-like skin that gleamed with a metallic sheen, and rippling under-muscles that nearly made it look like it was borne out of an obsidian mine.
Ryujin felt his "heart" lurch to a halt... His swimming vision cleared like a scrambled channel connected to a 5G network...
Reflexively; he sprang to his feet, retreating faster than his jumbled mind could keep up with.
He slipped and landed on his butt, before scampering backwards like scurrying rabbit that ran into a massive viper.
"A-a a demon???"
He stuttered in utter shock and disbelief; horror painting his expression like the self-made make up session of a two year old.
The demon however, simply stood there with it's expression hidden beneath its skull-shaped half-mask that left it's fangs and pitch-black lips in full display.
Occasionally, this demon's eyes would blaze with a fiery yellow, accompanied by a thick billowing steam from it's nostrils; prompting Ryujin to realize that it was overly pissed at him,.
And He, for one; was lost on the probable reason or method with which he had pissed off the looming monstrosity; thus creating an unexpected standoff.
The moment Ryujin's obliviousness activated the subtle standoff, an eerie silence pervaded the entire area; it was almost as if the grim-reaper had finally decided to make it's first speech.
Several gazes simultaneously landed on Ryujin; the sheer pity, fear, and languish that were transmitted through them crawled atop Ryujin's skin like it was raining thin needles.
His body reflexively itched and tingled as if each and every pore on his body was a miniscule volcano undergoing eruptions.
With no attention to his physical state, Ryujin felt his body burn red in reflexive fear; his mind blaring at him that he had done something stupid, and not long before the warning began, a blur suddenly appeared in his vision.
Ryujin was left with no room to even react, let alone evade; and the only reason why he was even able to see the blur in the first place was because the gazes of others around him had given him some pre-emptive warnings.
Whappa!!!
Ryujin felt his body jolt before his mind could even register what had happened; and then, the searing pain arrived.
Ryujin thought his waist had been severed through, despite not feeling that he had been bisected.
However, in the next moment; his senses were doused awake by the searing red-hot painful sensation that shot through his nervous system.
Ryujin spasmed; his imaginary red-hot body nearly dimming by half. He looked up from his sprawling position, seeing the weapon of mass destruction his tormentor had just used on him.
It was a whip! One that seemed to have been made from series of leathery ropes made out of the flesh of a leviathan, and then woven into the likeness of the whips of ancient greek armies.
It was this part of the whip that nearly bisected Ryujin a few moments ago; however, what really caused his pain was the flames billowing from the whips.
The whip had a glossy kind of texture; shiny even, prompting Ryujin to realize that it had been coated with the oily fluids of some sort that kept the billowing flames burning.
These oily gloss was kraken black, and it seemed to have mutated the color of the whip's flames, giving it a sick yellow base and pale-green tip.
Despite the natural hotness of Ryujin's environment, and the added spike coming from the demon's flaming eyes; Ryujin could tell that the flames on that whip was the most dangerous out of them, as it felt like it had stolen something from him rather than just hurt him.
His soul felt sapped, and his thoughts seemed to have gone a notch slower
-------------
Should he take his gaze off the demon for a split second, then he would come to regret it for a lifetime.
However, curiosity indeed killed the cat, and it only took a second before Ryujin found himself looking around the area, wondering where he was, what was going on, why he was here, and how any of the happenings around him were related to him.
At first glance, what greeted Ryujin's vision was the sight of several souls lined up in a straight file, almost like a military drill, however, with nothing other than fear born out of utter domestication.
The five meter tall demon who had been staring daggers at Ryujin finally felt its patience wear thin and snap before taking action.
Ryujin had barely registered the scene playing out around him when he caught sight of a flaming blur rapidly magnifying into the corner of his vision.
He barely had the time to see what it was before his soul began to instinctively tremble like a million year old celibate having their first orgasm.
The assault didn't even give room for the most nimble of beings to react, much less evade; thus, the blur landed before Ryujin even realized he was being assaulted.
Wha-Pa!
One lash... It was just one lash, but Ryujin could have sworn that the brightness of his soul dimmed by half.
His soul shuddered like a blanket in strong wind, as a soul-wrenching pain sunk into the core of his very being.
Arrghh!
Ryujin trashed around like a worm swimming through a bowl of salt.
His vision went into low resolution, turning everything around him into a jaded background with moving shadows.
His muscles spasmed like up in no time; leaving him with the sight of nothing but the moving shadows all around him.
However, the biggest shadow around him moved, Ryujin swiftly scampered to his feet ignoring his pain and fears; his instincts warning him of the possibility of another impeding lash if he wasted any more time.
With gradually clearing vision, he looked towards the long queue of souls that were being herded towards an unknown destination, and quickly joined the line.
Upon seeing Ryujin's reaction, the demon looked at the flaming whip in its grasp and nodded with a smirk of approval.
It had inherited the whip from its ancestor and it was relatively old; however, it felt that with each lash he gave any misguided soul, the whip's ability to restore people's concentration improved significantly.
As his clarity returned, Ryujin began to scan his environment, trying to make sense of his current situation.
He noticed he had lost any memories he had prior to this moment, and all that he was left with were his instincts and intuition.
However, at the moment, the most active of his instincts was one that desired to make observations and assess the plight of his current situation.
He committed every sight and sound to memory as he brooded in stride, trying to understand what had happened to him, where he was, and why he was here.
He would hear occasional whiplashes and a few miserable shrieks, and on fewer occasions, total silence; which could only mean that some miserable souls had met unfortunate ends.
However, compared to his recent experience, he couldn't help but think that the demon had somewhat gone easy on him.
He looked over, and coincidentally saw the latter gazing back at him with a fiendish grin that could make any child develop a phobia for sleep.
Swiftly returning his attention to his front, Ryujin quickened his steps, putting some much needed distance between himself and the fiend.
'Is this hell?'
He thought to himself in stride; shaking his head just as quickly as the question had popped to mind.
'That's not right... There are no billowing flames, and constant torture in sight.
Though we are being beaten, it's just to ensure that we don't deviate from our path and keep striding.'
He continued in his thought; his brain overclocking in speed as he tried to make sense of the situation; an endeavor that left him drowned in an ocean of incoherent information.
Days swiftly passed, and weeks flowed into weeks, before Ryujin's focus returned to his environment.
He looked around and realized he had lost track of time; at some oblivious point, he seemed to have been sorted into a new group of souls; all of them white in color.
As he calculated the timelapse between then and now, his intuition told him years had passed; however, another newborn instinct kept telling him he had only been here for a day.
As he stewed on in the dilemma, a deep booming voice suddenly broke his concentration.
"Ryujin?" The voice called out with a tone suffused with a sense of urgency.
Ryujin looked towards the source of the noise in irritation; however, the moment he laid eyes on the latter, his irritated expression swiftly warped into one of petrifying cowardice.
Standing above a patch of dark clouds was another demon that was twice the size of the one that had nearly killed him with a single whiplash.
This demon was even more terrifying, possessing eyes that was blazing with purple flames and a skin that was bordering upon looking obsidian.
The mere thought of the being whipped by the demon alone was enough to crippled his mind with palpable fear.
"Who amongst you is Ryujin?" The demon asked once again in a voice that boomed even deeper.
The dark patch of cloud it was standing rumbling in a disgruntled fashion; almost as if it was portraying the demon's discontent at the lack of response.
Then Ryujin's gaze mistakenly landed on the demon's.
"Ryujin?" It asked in a menacing tone.
Frightened by an impending lash, Ryujin nodded stiffly, prompting the demon to waved its massive hand at him.
Ryujin flinched in anticipation of a soul-rendering pain; however, even as seconds passed by, he felt nothing.
He opened his eyes and realized that he had been caught up by the demon.
Being in such a close proximity riddled Ryujin's mind with an overwhelming sense of utter helplessness.
The sheer amount of bloodthirst seeping out of the demons presence was enough to make anyone wet their pants; especially when one gazed at the purple colored runed tattoos spiraling all over its body.
However, contrary to Ryujin's expectation, the demon simply picked a direction and zoomed towards it with a level of speed that stretched his vision like an elastic band.
The other souls watched on in desolation as they began to wish they could swap places with him, despite having no clue about the kind of fate that may await him at his destination.
Unfortunately for them, the demon with the flaming whip quickly noticed the lack of movement, and thus, several whips and shrieks later, they all resumed their endless exodus.
-------
Ryujin stood on the patch of cloud, mute and petrified, as the black patch of cloud rose higher and higher the more they gathered momentum.
Then a few moments later, he felt something phase through him; or more precisely, he felt himself break past a barrier of some sort, prompting him to turn his attention towards their destination, and right there, hanging mystically on thin air was a massive golden palace radiating a warm beckoning glow.
It started out as the size of an egg, but as they blitzed their way towards it, it expanded just as fast, and a few moments later, they were finally standing before it.
Its walls seemed to have been made out of a cross between ivory, steel and jade; it seemed sturdy, looked grand, and radiated an ancient scholarly aura that had no hint of pressure whatsoever.
Ignoring the awestruck bumkin standing beside it, the demon stretched forth its hand, and the moment its palm touched the palace gate, it rippled slightly before swirling into a portal that gave way to its interior.
Upon emerging from the portal, Ryujin's face was brightened up by the warm glow being emitted by his environment.
Now he was able to truly appreciate the full glory of the palace.
Not only did its architecture look like someone had impeccably merged three mansions into one grand super mansion, its surroundings was also serene, and upon the arch of its doubledoor was a plaque that read; Palace of First Order.
Then the demon moved as the doubledoor made way in a welcoming manner; however the moment they entered, Ryujin was once again stunned speechless.
The interior of the mansion totally debunked his expectations, leaving his mind in a jumbled mess.
Not only was there no red-carpet corridor awaiting them, there wasn't even a throne room in sight, talk less of an actual throne.
Instead, what greeted his vision was the sight of several souls scampering around in a mad rush, bringing in, sorting and leaving with piles of scrolls, manuals and books of all kinds, sizes and colors.
The place looked like a large admin office, with an unorderly traffic of souls that looked too much like scampering stockbrokers during active market hours.
The demon's expression didn't even flinch at the sight in front of it; instead, it simply dove straight into the messy traffic, maneuvering its way through with a level of speed that gave no consideration to the safety of the scurrying souls.
As they moved past the chaos, they arrived before another doubledoor that was currently ajar.
From his vantage, Ryujin saw a similar sight to the chaos they just left behind; however, this one was quite orderly and neat, as each of the souls within the room sat at its desk with its attention deeply embedded into whatever it was doing.
But just as Ryujin thought they were going enter, the demon suddenly grabbed the handles of the doubledoor and pulled it shut, confusing him further.
Then it whipped out a token which it slotted into a lock that had been carved into the doors frame.
Turning the token like a dial, the demon pushed the door open once again, and this time, any view of everything pertaining to an office had mysteriously vanished, and in its place was a huge library.
This time, upon entering, the demon didn't rush or whisk its way around, instead it carefully began slowly skirt its way around the towering bookshelves scattered all over the place, giving Ryujin an ample time to make some observations.
At first glance, the towering bookshelves numbered about a hundred, and each of them seem to be housing about a thousand books each.
Then upon closer inspection, Ryujin realized that the bookshelves weren't actually scattered around, but rather, they were in fact moving, albeit very slowly.
After maneuvering its way past the rows of towering bookshelves, the duo finally arrived at what could only be described as a quiet study.
It was a small circular opening created by series of bookshelves arrange in a circular fashion.
The study seemed simple and plain, housing just two sets of furniture; a reclined resting chair in front of a tea table with an open game of domain, and a desk stacked with books of various kinds.
"Your highness!" The demon went down on one knee as it greeted curtly.
Narrowing his gaze, Ryujin looked through the gaps between the pile of books, trying to make out visage of the person who the demon was greeting.
However, in that same moment, the said person walked out from behind the stack of books with his face buried in a checkered green-grey colored book.
It was a middle-aged man draped in golden robes, and Ryujin's first impression about him was, Middling.
The middle-aged man was neither too tall or short, too slender or athletic, and despite donning an attire that portrayed royalty, his presence denoted nothing of that sort; in fact, the only aura wafting off him was one of books.
"You may leave, I will take it from here."
The middle-aged man waved off the demon, who gave another bow before leaving Ryujin behind.
Ryujin apprehensively waited for the man to say something; however, the latter barely spared him a glance and seemed to have no intention of paying him any attention anytime soon
As a result, Ryujin began to look around, observing the entire study and the shelves of packed books.
The first thing that caught his notice was the fact that each of the bookshelves surrounding him were all carrying the tag;
'Office of the Supreme Judge'
At first Ryujin was shocked, then surprise, and when he took a sneak peak at the middle-aged man, he was left speechless.
'How can someone so middling be a king or supreme judge?' He muttered to himself in disbelief.
However, in the next moment, a realization suddenly dawned on him.
'Wait. Why has he summoned me?'
The moment the thought popped into his mind, the man finally shut the book in his hand, capturing his attention.
"Oh my, aren't you one curious traveler." The man said with a sigh.
Ryujin was stunned by the reaction.
'Wait. Can he read my mind?'
He thought to himself, and when he saw the amusing smile on the latter's face, his question was answered.
Ryujin scrutinized the man's appearance further, trying to figure out what was amiss; however, no matter how hard he tried, the man was totally obscured from his senses, leaving him speechless for the umpteenth time.
It was as if, anytime he caught onto something definitive about the man, a mysterious force would suddenly muddle his perception, throwing him completely off discernment.
Then out of sheer frustration, he subconsciously blurted in disrespect.
"My apologies... But who are you?"