Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 5

(PART 2)

Out of the dust cloud shoots Belphegor at immense speed, he is flying forward with his hand surrounded by a blue light pointing at Rage.

Rage lifts his scythe and Belphegor's hand slams into the handle of it, Rage thinks that he has stopped the full brunt of the force but he still finds himself blown backwards past his onlooking comrades and he crashes violently into one of the houses carved into a rock.

"Gbbbhhh!"

He winces and as soon as he opens his eyes he sees the light of Belphegor's hand just inches in front of his face, Rage ducks to the side and narrowly avoids a strike that demolishes the solid rock house directly behind him.

Swinging his blade upward it nips a few strands of Belphegor's messy hair causing him to back away. Belphegor takes a deep breath and his cheeks become quite large, once at its maximum air capacity, he lets out a blast that matches the color of his eyes.

Rage lifts his scythe and raises his black cloud from the ground to shield himself, only to have it blown away when both forces seem to negate themselves.

Once visibility was returned after the light of the blast, Belphegor is once again inside Rage's guard. He uppercuts his blue light covered hand into Rage's gut, causing Rage to cough out blood and literally fly hundreds of yards away.

The blue light surrounding certain extremities of Belphegor's body fades and it now seems that he is relaxed when he yawns and stretches out his arms.

With a loud sigh he says, "Huuaaaaahh man.... This kind of thing is such a bother."

To the left of him is a large piece of broken building that in his eyes actually looks comfortable, so he takes a seat and glares at the onlooking humans.

Cyrus and Sora guard the group with their swords out, and Belphegor finds this amusing. "Do you guys actually think you'd be able to do anything to me?" He stands and takes a couple steps toward them and says, "Don't you find pointless effort to be tiresome? It would be much easier if you'd just sleep."

Once again, he is using that same twisted logic to try to convince them into giving in, allowing him to collect their souls. Of course, just by saying this the chances are that most people wouldn't take him seriously, but it truly is just like the hypnotizing tactic that Sora had thought. His words can send a person with the slightest thought of taking the easy way out into a trance, and they end up agreeing wholeheartedly until they reach a death similar to the people in the destroyed town hall.

Out of all the humans, one is caught in this trance, and it is none other than one most weary of this entire ordeal, Xavier.

"Yeah it would be..." he says as he walks to Belphegor.

"What are you doing?" asks Luke with a face full of concern.

His words fall on deaf ears as Xavier keeps moving forward.

"Grab him!" Phoenix shouts.

Luke jumps to the act and attempts to do so, but Xavier seems to weigh a ton and he is doing no good in stopping him.

Belphegor laughs as he holds out his hand and gestures his index finger like one would if they were asking someone to come, this motion seems like it has an effect on the young prince like a hooked fish on a fishing pole.

"Very good, I can give you peace at mind, I can free you from all of this boorish effort, just unload that weight onto my shoulders kid."

Looking closely, one can see that Xavier is starting to dry out and shrivel, if in this state much longer, he will surely die. Both Luke, Phoenix and Cyrus are holding him with all of their might but to no avail.

Sora knows that she must do something immediately so she decides on a daring move. She rushes Belphegor and swings both of her blades toward his neck, he lets it get so close that he can feel the wind hit him and as soon as it does he smiles. Sora is blown back viciously and she lands in a pile of rubble that causes a large plume of dust to rise.

Aria, who is still in shock tries her damnedest to regain her composure when she realizes that the pile of rubble her friend just landed on has numerous sharp objects just waiting to skewer someone. She shouts out Sora's name but there is no answer through the dust, all Aria can hope for is that Sora just doesn't want to talk like usual.

"What am I doing?" she asks herself when she assesses the dire situation they are in.

Rage is likely still flying in the air, Sora is likely seriously injured, Niera is likely down for the count because she is still passed out, and Xavier is more than likely about to turn into one of those disgusting corpses. That is, unless she does something about it, she stands and thinks, (I'm the only one who has the ability to fight!)

She leans to the ground, lifts a large rock and throws it at Belphegor's feet.

He pays no mind to this, thinking that it is only yet another desperate attempt at halting the capture of Xavier. But when he looks away, a flashing light stuns him.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Under his feet comes an explosion that knocks everyone including Aria herself over and the plume of smoke and flames reach up more than a hundred feet.

Xavier is released from his trance, he is just a little out of breath and he wonders what had just happened while everyone takes a simultaneous sigh of relief. Aria is breathing really hard, she put all of her energy into that blast and for the object's size, she made the biggest explosion she possibly could.

After catching her breath, she runs to where Sora is and finds her laying on the pile of rubble seemingly unscathed; she is sitting extremely lucky in between three jagged metal poles that point outward. One is in between her legs, the other is just left of her side and the last is only a few inches to the right of her head.

Aria starts to laugh a little and says, "Wow, I guess it really isn't your time to go."

Sora sits their with her usual straight face, if one looked at her closely enough it would seem that she is trying to smile though she definitely isn't.

The aftermath of the explosion leaves a long trail of black smoke that is floating into the air, without a doubt no one could live after being exposed to the epicenter of such a shock-wave.

Luke walks up to Aria and grabs her hand, with a face full of relief he says, "Thank you Aria, my brother would have been a goner if it wasn't for you."

She smiles and thinks about Strauphius, she can relate to the emotion he is showing her. She is about to say something in return when she is interrupted by a voice saying,

"If you aren't strong enough to put me to sleep then you are a useless."

This voice comes from the black smoke and it is certainly the voice of Belphegor. In the smoke can be seen a blue light shining as if lighting his way through the darkness, and to everyone's dismay, the demon steps out.

He looks extremely angry at the fact that he has just lost his prey. Normally, one person's life would seem insignificant to a demon of his caliber but Belphegor survives on the sins of others, so much so that each person can give him immense strength if he or she is filled with enough of this exact 'Original Sin'.

"Interesting ability you got there girl. It's just a crying shame that this is the exact type of thing that cant harm me." He coughs and black comes out of his mouth, he cracks his neck and looks displeased for some reason. He takes a step closer to the frightened group and keeps up his laid back attitude when he asks, "You wanna know why?"

Aria jumps in front of the rest in a protective mode, she is incredibly scared and her knees are shaking. Though she is trying to hold up a brave demeanor, she knows that she is in dire straits because that explosion she sent to him was all she had.

Belphegor proceeds to walk dangerously close, "I'm sure you know that fire needs oxygen and nitrogen to ignite right? Well, I can control them."

"What? How is that even possible??" she asks as if not wanting to believe him.

He stretches his arms and sighs, "The perfect form of sleep can only be contained by the dead, and in this sleep, oxygen and nitrogen isn't needed. I give people the perfect sleep by controlling the oxygen and nitrogen in and around a human's body."

(That would explain why those people were so shriveled.) Phoenix concluded to himself. He sighs and sits on a chunk of rock and reads his bible as if nothing is going on. He smiles and says under his breath, "This is going to be interesting."

Because Belphegor can virtually manipulate air to a certain extent, he is capable of taking away the two elements needed to make a fire grow and explode, thus making her attack end up more like a harmless light show. Aria understands this and is frightened to her core, this means that no matter what she does it will be pointless.

Belphegor scratches his head and says, "Now that I've explained that much to you, don't you think it would be better if you just gave up? There's no point in putting any effort into a futile cause, so how about letting me help you?"

He takes another step closer and the breath from Aria begins escape her body.

She has let doubt fill her subconscious and Belphegor is taking advantage of it. Aria can't breath and she falls to her knees in exhaustion, her eyesight begins to fade into darkness and her body is so weak it feels as if her only strength is coming from her bones.

This feeling is exactly what the human body is like if it has been deprived of oxygen, everything but the bones in the human anatomy consists of certain things in which oxygen is absolutely vital. If it were to be taken away, the blood will clot and dry, and along with it the brain, eyes, skin and the rest of the organs, and these horrifying results are exactly being felt by Aria, who is literally having the life sucked out of her.

Belphegor starts to smile when he says, "You are almost free little girl, just a little mor------"

GAHGAAAAAAAAAAAASSHHHH!!!!!

A maddening black explosion engulfs Belphegor, once again interrupting his speech. From the sky, Rage floats down on his cloud just in the nick of time.

He points his scythe down and says, "So you can control the air huh? I never did know that, but that would explain why I flew so far away when you hit me."

Though he wasn't in attendance when Belphegor explained himself, Rage figured it out through the brute force of his attack. When one is hit there is a shock-wave of air that is created throughout the body in a natural reaction to the initial blow, that is the result of air being pushed through the creases of that area. What Belphegor does is accelerate that air to the extent where there are thousands of pounds more pressure and force to it.

Out of Rage's scythe comes a black beam of energy that relentlessly plows into the plume of smoke before allowing him to recover. This results in the rest of the group being knocked back onto the ground. However, Phoenix is still sitting on the rock, and shielding his face from the wind with his bible.

The lingering sound and other effects of Rage's attack begin to dissipate as they wait for the smoke to clear and see if the enemy is still standing, and of course, once it does they find that he is. But this time is different, he is bloodied and his gray pea coat is torn, he is standing in the same position he was in when he was trying to temp Aria as if nothing had happened.

"Well now, that's twice..." he says softly, but his voice was full of frustration.

He lifts his head up to look at Rage who is floating a little more than twenty feet above and frowns. He then lifts his hand up and the familiar blue light forms around his arm.

"Get down here."

He clinches his fist and the air around Rage's feet pulls down hard and it sends Rage spiraling violently to the ground.

"I've grown tired of playing with all of you... This troublesome job has long since worn on my patience, all I want to do is go back to sleep..."

Belphegor lowers his head and his hair covers his eyes, his shoulders tense up and he shouts, "BUT YOU PEOPLE OF EARNEST VALUES ARE GETTING IN MY WAY!!!"

He jumps up into the air and floats, he points both of his hands toward the ground bound group.

"IF YOU DON'T WANT TO ENJOY SLEEP! THEN YOU ARE ALL BETTER OFF DEAD!!"

A blue wall of light forms in front of him and is pointing ominously down at them as it grows larger and larger with each passing second.

Rage struggles to get out of his own crater and he shouts, "Every one, run as fast as you can! If you stay you'll die!"

The able bodied members of the group run away, Cyrus grabs Niera and flees, but both Aria and Sora are downed due to the injuries they had just sustained. Aria is breathing extremely hard as she tries to replenish the oxygen levels that are needed for functionality thus making a quick movement such as running impossible. Sora isn't too badly hurt but she is dreadfully stuck in the pile of rubble, she has a straight face on but there is no doubt she's nervous as to what is coming.

"Damn it all!" shouts Rage in frustration.

He runs in between the two remaining girls and raises his scythe.

"How about I give you some of the weight that the troubled people have given me throughout the years?" Belphegor says calmly with a wide smile.

By now the blue wall is so large that even the fleeing group of royals will perhaps not make it.

Belphegor throws his hand down and shouts,

"HELP YOURSELF!!"

As though his voice was a trigger, the blue wall comes falling to the ground.

BBBUUAAAAAAAAAASHHHH!!!

Once it hits it digs into the turf much like it would if an anvil is dropped into soft sand, the crater the intense weight creates is the exact size of the wall itself so around a hundred yards width and a hundred yards length. It is more than fifteen feet deep and everything that was once there is as flat as a piece of paper.

"Buaahahahaha! Now you know how much weight I am burdened with!" Belphegor yells as he laughs, he floats down to the now smooth surface and begins to look for the dead bodies.

He walks along the boundaries of the perfectly square crater and sees that there are many different body parts scattered across the ground, he figures that they are more than likely the remains of the deceased towns people. They are so flat that it literally looks like they are fake, much like a toy made of cardboard.

"Tch... There's probably no way I'll find them like this." he says as he clicks his tongue, "Well, I guess all that's left to do is to take care of the others and then I can get to sleep."

He sighs and begins to float upwards when he feels a sharp pain enter his back and out of his stomach.

Belphegor looks down and sees that there is a scythe protruding through his gut just above his naval, he coughs up blood and says, "What the fuck?"

It is none other than Rage who is the one who inflicted this wound, Belphegor is utterly puzzled as to how this is happening.

Rage can see this look on his face and explains, "You look shocked, did you not think that it was possible that I could do the same thing as you?" Rage pulls the scythe out of his body and kicks him, causing him to jolt forward and slide onto the ground. "The weight of that attack was the exemplified weight of the souls you have collected right? Well, I simply counter balanced the souls you needed for the wall with a circle of the souls I own. So when the two collided, all it did was make another crater under yours that kept us safe from your attack."

Belphegor coughs and says, "Sneaky bastard..." He struggles to stand as blood waterfalls from his wound. "But I'm not done yet."

He points at Rage and attempts to steal the oxygen from his body just like he had done with Aria. But nothing is happening, he tries even harder but it is once again failing.

"Why the fuck isn't this working!?"

Rage has a stern look on his face when he asks, "Are you trying to force me into a perfect sleep?"

Belphegor jumps back as he continues.

"That's what you did to the others, and now that I know what your power consists of, I understand how you did it, and what for." Rage takes a step closer and finishes, "A perfect sleep can only be obtained in death... Are you stupid Belphegor? I AM DEATH."

He swings his scythe and rips a black wind into Belphegor's chest, causing him to fly back and hit the crater wall at an intense speed.

"Here Sora, let me help you." Aria says as she pulls Sora from her stuck position in the rubble.

Though she doesn't say it, she waves her hand in thanks.

They crawl out of the circled crater only to find that they are in another one. They look around and see Rage walking toward Belphegor who is embedded in the crater walls, from just above where Belphegor is sticking, on the surface comes the rest of the group, excluding Niera whom Cryus had laid to rest in safety far away.

"Everyone's okay! That's great! It looks like things are finally turning our way. Right Sora?"

Sora analyzes what is happening and softly responds, "...Right..."

"There isn't anything you can do that will affect me Belphegor." Rage said in a scolding tone of voice.

Belphegor is showing his first signs of weariness at Rage's each passing step.

"I-Is that so?"

He shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath, with this, the wound in his stomach starts to clot. He is depriving certain points of its oxygen so he doesn't bleed out.

He pulls his head out of the hole and hears footsteps along with a voice from above him.

"Hey! Are you guys okay!?"

This shout comes from a worried Cyrus.

Belphegor smiles and the pupils of his eyes shrink. "Is that so!?" he shouts, "I think I have something that will change your mind!"

From his eyes come a horrifying black blood and it falls down his face, it's as if the blood carries the sound of people crying as it drips and connects with the wound from Rage's scythe. The blood from there turns black as well and the sounds of moans and screams of agony are heard as loud as if someone was yelling in their ears.

"What is this!?" Rage asks in surprise.

Aria and Sora, including the rest of the group on the surface all cover their ears to these piercing voices but it still causes them to prostrate on the ground.

Belphegor starts to laugh wildly before saying, "If you don't appreciate sleep enough to want to reach out and grab it yourselves, then how about I force it down your damn throats!?!?"

To all of them, the surrounding areas like the sky, the ground and surrounding environment all seem to melt like an abstract painting or a multicolored oozing liquid. This in and of itself is very disorientating, but there is an added effect to this when it feels that all of their hearts are being grabbed at by thousands of little hands.

Only a moment later, everything is black and the maddening screaming and moans completely stop, every last one of them including Rage is stuck in this atmosphere.

"What's going on?" Rages asks to himself as he tries to look around, this is the definition of an out of body experience and it is something that he is certainly not used to.

This is making him nervous, he doesn't see anyone else around and fears that they could be attacked and killed if he doesn't get out of this place, little does he know that the rest of them are in the same predicament.

Rage tries to walk but he holds no friction and cannot move, "Damn it! I have to get out of here quickly."

As if on cue with his words, the black that surrounds him disappears in a blink of an eye and he falls. He lands on what seems to be a thin metal floor due to the loud thud he caused once he landed, before he can open up his eyes he can hear five more similar thuds behind him. He turns to look but his attention is first grabbed by where he is, he is in a four by four metal room and each wall has a door in it.

"Oww my butt.... Where are we?"

This voice comes from Aria, who is rubbing her behind as she looks around and sees the windowless blood stained and rusted walls that surround them.

Rage stands and tries to assess the situation but even he is beyond confused, the whole group and himself have been brought to this odd place, they were in the outside environment just seconds earlier.

"Well I guess there's only one way to find out." says Rage as he reaches for the door handle on the north side of the wall.

He turns the handle and decides to open the large door as quickly as possible, and as soon as he does the same familiar and horrid screaming is once heard, but this time it is amplified as if coming from a loud speaker at point blank.

The mere sound makes Xavier throw up in the corner, but the sight is far worse than anything imaginable. There are four main colors that can be seen all in darker tint, black, brown, red and gray. Cages, cells to be more precise, line in an endless fashion for as far as the eyes can see, there is no sky but only a flickery lighted gray roof. There are no windows, just ten stories of bloodied cells on each side of this endless room. With a closer look one can see thousands of people hanging from ropes, sharp hooks and other objects of torture and death from the railings and ceiling, they are dripping blood all the way down and splashing on the blood soaked floor that bathes the thousands of sluggish people who lay limbless and thin.

This is a scene purely from Hell, and Rage honestly thinks that they have been sent there for a moment until he realizes that he'd know the feeling if it were so.

He slams the door shut and turns to the rest, hoping that they did not witness any of that and to his relief, he sees that they are once again prostrated on the floor. This is a good thing because that kind of environment would make even the most hardened man go mad, if these somewhat innocent people saw it they would easily break down mentally.

The sound of the screams completely disappeared with shutting of this thin metal door, this makes Rage even more confused as to where they are.

"Are you okay Xavier?" asks Luke while rubbing his own temples trying to relieve the headache the moans had just caused.

"What kind of freakish noise is that!?" Xavier yells with tears in his eyes as if he had just been punched in the nose.

(I hope the other doors aren't half as bad as that one...) Rage thinks to himself, he knows that they sure aren't going to get out of wherever this place is without going through one of these doors. The light flickers as he ponders which door to go through when it hits him, (This place... It's probably where Belphegor stores the souls for himself...)

He leans on the wall and intentionally bangs his head into it in frustration.

"We're in Belphegor's world now..."

"Huh? What do you mean?" asks Cyrus.

Rage takes a deep breath and replies, "This is the place where Belphegor sends the tempted souls after he collects them, which means we are in a place that only he can access."

Aria's shoulders shake when she asks, "Can we get out?"

"I don't know, but I think we can... I'm sure that we are the first ones that he had sent here with their bodies still intact. I would guess he would do that with everyone if there wasn't any downside to it, so I think we are an anomaly in this case."

Luke sighs and says, "That's good to hear."

Rage frowns and sternly says, "But there is one big problem."

The rest of them jolt as the fear level in their chests rise exponentially.

"This place... Is an unlimited power source to him, he will be ten times stronger here than he can ever be somewhere else."

Their hearts skip a beat as they think back to how strong he was before and how much more dangerous he'll be even now, they can't help but feel hopelessness in this situation. But they know that this must be done and they show faces of determination.

After coming up with a temporary game plan, they are all ready to venture into this world of Belphegor's and are standing by the east door.

Rage hold the handle and asks, "Are you all ready?"

Cyrus pushes up his dark glasses and answers with a smooth, "Yes."

Luke nervously smiles. "Y-Yeah."

Xavier cracks his fingers and puts on the front of a tough guy to hide his own fear from himself. "Yup!"

Aria swings her large sword in front of her. "Ready."

And Sora, "....."

With this they are all prepared to leave and Rage takes his first twist of his wrist on the doorknob when he feels like he is missing something. He halts and thinks for a second, it is not something, but someone, and this someone should most certainly be here if even Rage was caught.

He turns around to the group and sees that they are all looking at him in confusion as to why he hasn't opened the door, he frowns and with a tone full of seriousness asks,

"...Where's Phoenix?"

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