Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 5
(PART 2)
Bodies, thousands of bodies litter a fairly large city and blood flows down the street like a red river.
Every last occupant of this city has been slaughtered by two demons of Hell.
A three headed dog named Cerberus and a red haired man named Amon.
None of the humans had a fighting chance in this matter, they were either devoured by the dog or brutally slaughtered by the hand of the man.
“Well that was fun.. It's been a while since I've been able to take out some pent up frustration on humans.” Amon said while nonchalantly wiping the blood off his face.
“That was a good meal, but...” the man voice of Cerberus says.
Amon pats its side and finishes his sentence, “You want more.”
“Yes.”
“Well then, I wouldn't be a good master if I didn't give my pet what it wants.”
The woman voice of Cerberus angrily replies, “I am not your pet.”
Amon shrugs his shoulders. “That might be the case, but I am the only one you listen to. In turn I'd think that makes you my pet.”
“It's those damn eyes of yours, without those you have nothing over me.” the child voice hisses.
“Hahahaha well my eyes are part of my body, and I don't expect them to leave me anytime soon. But lets not sit here and argue about something like who's in charge of who, what do you say we go meet with the Angel of Death?”
“Will I be able to eat more?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then I'll lead the way.”
The group has gotten back on the ship and begin sailing away from the island they were on, it's a perfect sunny day and the gentle breeze sends them eastward. But this doesn't mean they are heading in the right direction, in fact they are sailing completely blind. As far as they know, they are heading in the opposite direction of where they need to be, and this makes them uneasy.
Rage is walking along the deck impatiently as these thoughts run through his head, he can feel the presence of the Gate but it is so faint that he can't be certain.
Phoenix sees him pacing back and forth and asks, “Are you stressed?”
Rage turns to the smiling Phoenix and answers, “I guess you can say that, I can't get a lock on the direction of the Gate.”
“Well that's troublesome.”
Rage clicks his tongue, “Do you know something I don't?”
“Haha, you've asked me this once before so I'll give you the same answer. Perhaps I do, perhaps I don't.”
Rage becomes annoyed at Phoenix's mocking tone when he speaks to him, he can't stand how calm the priest is considering his actual identity. It's as though he doesn't care what happens back on Earth and is only thinking of himself.
Rage takes a deep breath to calm himself down and orders, “Then tell me what you do know.”
Phoenix leans against the ledge of the boat and looks out to the sea. “To be perfectly honest, I don't know much about Purgatory, I've never been here before this. But what I can tell you is that there are a lot of people on this level who know of me and know of Earth.”
“What do you mean?”
“During the Apocalypse I was able to see the souls of the true believers, without that it would have been impossible to distinguish who I was to kill. Those believers were sent to Heaven in the Rapture or they were put in as soldiers of my army. The one's who weren't, well, they weren't.”
Rage still looks at him with a quizzical face so Phoenix continues.
“My point is, I can see the souls of the people around here who know of me, which means...”
“They are 'aware'.”
“That's right, if they are 'aware' that means that they know of the Gates.”
The two stare at each other in silence until Phoenix smiles and lifts his index finger.
“Wanna know a little secret?”
Rage again clicks his tongue at Phoenix's demeaning question but he really wants to know, so instead of giving him sass he goes along with it.
“What is it?”
“The pirates that we stole this ship from, I could see it in their souls that they all knew of me, which means that they all knew of the Gate. I couldn't help but think that there are a lot of pirates here, and where there are pirates there are treasures. I remember that pirates from way back when were infatuated with mystical treasures, and the one that comes to mind when thinking of similarities between those treasures and the prizes of the Gates, is the fountain of youth.”
Rage is not interested in stories of the past but he lets Phoenix continue.
“Wouldn't the thought of going through the Gate and coming back to Earth to obtain immortality be considered as some kind of fountain of youth?”
At this point Rage finally gets it, he understands where he is going and excitement begins to brew in his eyes.
Phoenix sees this and gives him a suggestion, “I recommend that we search the ship head to toe to find any kind of hint of where the Gate is. Who knows, we might get lucky and find a map.”
Rage immediately orders everyone to extensively search the ship and bring any kind of paper they can find. Phoenix sits on the ledge of the boat with a smile on his face but doesn't bother to help at all, he probably thinks that he has done enough already.
After searching the ship for an hour the group has come up with nothing, Rage is frustrated at this result and decides to take one last look in the Captain's room. There are a lot of treasures and other items scattered about but every piece of paper he finds has nothing to do with a map. Most of them are just grants and contracts stolen from military or government ships.
Though, for the most part there aren't many countries known in Purgatory. But that doesn't exclude the fact that there aren't small factions of people slowly developing their own nations.
The selection process in which people are sent to Purgatory is completely random, some levels have a higher population than the others. This one seems to have more people occupying it than the first level and there is no doubt that one of the final three will have even more than this one. As a result of such a dense population, it's only natural that countries will be formed.
Rage is about to give up and declare this search as a lost cause until he happens to catch a glance at a small treasure chest laying under the Captain's desk.
It has a lock on it but Rage easily opens the chest by flicking the iron lock with his finger.
Inside the chest is some expensive looking jewelry and a diamond covered dagger, this in and of itself seems to be a coveted fortune but it's what lies under these items is what gets Rage's attention.
It's a piece of paper that's rolled up like a scroll.
He takes it out and tosses the rest of the treasure aside like it was unwanted trash and quickly unfolds it.
Looking closely, it actually is a map, and a relatively new one at that, and on the most southeastern corner of this map is an x. Under that x there is a large word written in bold letters stating, 'GATE'.
Rage has to double take to make sure his eyes aren't fooling him. Then something odd happens, a smile surfaces on his face and he begins to laugh rather loudly, “Hahahahaha are you kidding me?”
He gets up out of the Captain's chair and heads out to the deck, there he finds Phoenix standing there with a smile that exudes the feeling of the priest saying, 'I told you so.'
Rage huffs air out of his nose and admits, “You were right. With good weather we'll be at the Gate in two weeks.”
“You know what, I'm seriously starting to doubt your nose Cerberus.” Amon says with a sour look on his face.
He is sitting alone on a boat drifting in the ocean. The sun is behind him and his shadow is cast over the bow, the freakishly large shadow is walking along the water and looks as though it is pulling the boat through the sea.
“My nose is never wrong.” the man voice of Cerberus responds in annoyance.
Amon picks at his ear and says, “But it's almost been two weeks since we left that city, I'm tired of being cooped up in this stupid boat.”
The shadow's six eyes glow red and the woman's voice rings, “You don't have the right to complain, this is much more difficult on me because I haven't eaten in so long.”
“Then wouldn't you want to get there faster if that's the case?”
“We'd be there already if the scent wasn't moving away from us.”
Amon sighs and leans back on one of the wooden seats in the boat. “I see, they're on a ship as well... We'll just have to wait for them to land somewhere, I wonder if it'll be at the second Gate?”
“None the less, we are closing in on them. I move much faster than their ship so we're only one step behind.”
“Alright then, I'm going to take a nap... Wake me up when we get there.”
Cerberus stops its walking and the child's voice speaks, “Is that wise? How are you so certain that I won't devour you in your sleep?”
Amon lays on his back and smiles, “Because I sleep with my eyes open.”
The three heads all give a “Che..” sound in anger.
Apparently Amon holds a power in his eyes that renders Cerberus absolutely defenseless. None of the Demons of Hell consider each other a comrade, if one doesn't like another Demon they would not hesitate to slaughter him. The same goes for the 7 Demons of the Hierarchy. As seen with Abaddon and Belphegor, they all have their own goals and want to rise the ranks to gain even more power, and if accomplishing that means killing one of their 'comrades' to do so, then so be it.
Amon laughs for a few moments and then falls asleep, just like he said, his eyes remain open, leaving Cerberus to lead the ship across the ocean in pursuit of Rage and the rest of the group.
“We made it..” Rage says as he looks out a couple miles ahead at a large island.
Things have moved very quickly and rather painless at that. This island that is about twenty minutes away carries the x that marks the spot of the Gate; excitement builds in the hearts of the group as they see their destination move closer and closer with each gust of wind.
“Time sure flies when you know where you are going.” Aria said in amazement of how things turned out.
“Yeah it went a lot smoother than the first level.” Cyrus agrees with a nod of his head.
Niera is standing next to Sora with a look of skepticism.
This catches the eye of Aria so she asks, “What's wrong?”
Niera thinks for a few moments and then replies, “Doesn't this seem too easy? I feel like there is something out there that should be stopping us...”
“Quite the optimist you are.” Xavier quips.
It's not as though Niera has a pessimistic personality, it's just that this is truly a felling she feels in her chest. Even she can't explain it clearly, but she understands that it's something that needed to be said to at least put them on alert.
“I really feel uneasy about this...”
“What good is worrying going to do? All we have to think about is how to handle the Gatekeeper.” Aria said confidently while flexing the non apparent muscles of her arms.
Niera shows a saddened expression at the fact that no one is taking her seriously, she sighs and walks away without putting up any more of a fight. She reaches the stern of the ship and stares out to the sea, none of them seem to understand why she is feeling this way and neither does she. She rests her head in her arms and shuts her eyes, but the moment she does, a light flashes in her head and a scene zooms into her vision like a fast forwarded black and white movie.
Watching this scene unfold renders her body unmovable, it's as though a jolt of lighting has stiffened her body like a rock. Once this movie like phenomenon ends she drops to the ground and gasps for air, a cold sweat falls from her temple and she covers her mouth to keep herself from throwing up.
(What in the world was that!?) she thinks to herself nervously.
She turns to take a look at the rest to see if anyone has seen what had just happened when she is hit with the sudden urge to rush to their side. Without thinking she runs as fast as she can and the voice from her heart seems to exit her mouth with the as loud as she can when she shouts, “We need to turn this ship 90 degrees to the left immediately!”
The rest of the group stare at her in surprise and have no clue what to think about this, the look in her eyes exudes seriousness and this catches them even more off guard. They hesitate and Niera once again moves her legs unconsciously, and in an instant she is at the helm of the ship turning the wheel as hard as she can.
Before anyone can ask her what she is doing,
BAAAAAAAANNNNGGG!!!
A loud noise slings to the right of the ship and into the water where the ship once floated; and the water from the explosion rocks the ship back and forth in its wake.
Rage looks towards the source of the attack and sees yet another ship with its cannons ready.
“Where did they come from!?” Rage asks himself aloud.
Niera runs off the helm and down the stairs that leads to the deck, she jumps onto Aria and pulls her to the ground. As soon as she does this another bang from a cannon is fired and the ball hits the sails of the ship and snaps a rope that holds an iron lift.
The iron lift snaps forward and narrowly swings over Niera and Aria's head and crashes into the railing of the ship, it was going at such a speed it created a three foot wide hole in the two foot thick wood.
If Niera hadn't pulled Aria down there is no doubt she'd be decapitated right now.
That fact didn't get by the girl who was just saved.
A few moments later the barrage of cannon fire halts and they can now assess the damage.
Aria gets to a kneeling position and looks at Niera with a pale face and shoddily asks, “H-How?”
Niera responds with a confused tone in her voice as well, “I could see it, I could see what was going to happen... It felt so real that my instincts took over and desperately tried to prevent it.”
Rage jumps in and grabs her by the arm and lifts her head up to his level. “You're telling me you could see the future?”
“Y-Yeah, and there is still more.”
“What do you mean more?”
Niera winces at the slight pain in her arm and with her free hand she points to the open sea behind Rage, he drops her to the ground and turns. What he sees surprises him, dozens of ships sailing toward them.
Rage then turns his back to those encroaching to see if their ship is surrounded; and just as he thought, they are.
Dozens of ships are out to the other side of them as well, but something feels off, they can't all be targeting their particular vessel, but watching them close in from each side adds to his anxiety. Rage rushes to the bow of the ship and raises his scythe to defend the ship from the incoming barrage of cannonballs, the black smoke begins to surround the ship but it's not near quick enough to cover it all in time.
Seemingly every ship in the bay of this large island fires simultaneously, all they can do is prostrate on the ground while they await the blasts.
A split second after the cannon fire, the expected jolt of the impact doesn't come, instead that ear shattering noise is heard from all around them. A couple ships from each side of them begin to smoke and then light on fire.
(They're firing at each other??) Rage thinks to himself as he watches more cannonballs being fired into the mass of ships.
Niera follows Rage onto the bow and says, “I saw that too, all of these ships are fighting each other. But we're not out of the clearing just yet, soon they will see us as an enemy and fire on us as well.”
Phoenix is leaning on a crate a few feet away from them and chimes in unworried, “All of those people are fighting for the treasure of eternal life. They are fighting to be the first to the Gate.”
Rage clicks his tongue and once again grabs Niera's arm, it's not like he is trying to hurt her but it's more like he is trying implant a sense of urgency.
“Can you use your new ability to find us a way through the cannon fire? We need to get on the island as quickly as possible.”
“Ability?”
“That's right, you have one now, so put it to good use.”
“U-Umm... I'll try.”
Not expecting it to work, Niera closes her eyes and the same feeling she had before arrives in her chest and the future scene flashes through her head. Without realizing what she is even saying she begins to shout orders only an experienced seaman would understand.
“Move four knots toward the northeast side of the island at a 50 degree angle.”
Rage runs to the helm and begins steering, turning the boat at that angle would slow down the ship to an almost standstill. But Rage follows her instructions and as soon as he does, a cannonball rips through the water where the stern of the boat was before they made that awkward 50 degree turn.
“Now set the sails at max speed and once we go a hundred meters make a sharp turn to the brunt of the ships on our starboard.”
Rage doesn't ask any questions and moves to her command, once again they narrowly avoid being fired on and sunk. Splashes of white wash pour onto the ship and soak them as Rage keeps following directions blindly and the scene becomes hectic. Smoke, saltwater, and fire reach the noses of the group and different colored lights flash before their eyes as the pandemonium unfolds all around them. They are in the middle of being attacked and are also in the crossfire of dozens of other ships attacking each other. But somehow they have yet to be hit, Niera's directions are loud and clear and Rage can hear her tiny voice through the ear ringing noise of weapons.
The boat goes through a big plume of smoke and once out, the sun is seen.
They have somehow sailed right through the middle of the battlefield without so much as a scratch on the ship, leaving the sounds of war behind they prepare to dock on the white beach of the island.
They all take a collective sigh of relief when they finally stop on land.
Aria runs up to Niera to praise her, “That was amazing Niera! You were so cool!!”
Niera tries to be humble but she herself knows just how incredible that whole thing was, she accepts her compliments and smiles happily.
Even Rage wants to praise her but instead he takes a deep breath and faintly smiles, what she did most definitely saved the lives of the rest because he wouldn't have been able to help in that situation. Being a couple miles from shore he couldn't use his cloud to carry them off because their souls would be sucked dry by being on it for too long. All he can do is be grateful at the timing of her gaining this convenient ability.
Phoenix still sits on the crate in the same position he was in before, only this time he is soaking wet from the white wash. He chuckles and says, “We just keep getting luckier don't we? I wonder what would have happened if she didn't stumble upon that power?”
Now that Rage thinks about it, Phoenix would have certainly been able to maneuver the ship through the battlefield with his flame cloth. He wonders why he didn't even lift a finger to help and becomes annoyed, he clicks his tongue and walks off, leaving Phoenix there to laugh to himself.
Once off the helm of the wheel and down on the deck, he snatches back his role as leader and says, “Everyone grab their bags and whatever you feel is needed, we got to get off this ship and head to the Gate immediately.”
Everyone scatters to go grab their supplies when
BOOOOOOM!!!
BOOOOOOM!!!
BOOOOOOM!!!
Three separate blasts hit the right side of the ship and sharp pieces of wood and orange flame fly upwards through the deck. Neira is knocked back into a pile of rope and Aria, along with Cyrus, are blown completely off the ship and onto the beach.
Xavier happened to be behind the sail pole at the moment of the explosions so the shrapnel from it hit that instead of his face, all he felt was the heat and the shock-wave that knocked him on his back. The meter thick sail pole was ripped apart and it starts falling downwards right on top of him, he scrambles to his feet to avoid it but it's obvious he won't make it in time.
The thirty foot tall pole falls but is blown far away into the water at the last moment by a moving red flame.
Phoenix is standing just to the left of him holding a massive fire ball. He wears a smile as he says in a joking manner, “I recommend we abort ship.”
The two run off the burning ship and onto land.
Rage looks toward the source of the explosions and sees a docked ship out in the distance with three smoking cannons on its side. Looking behind him as well, he sees even more docked ships with people rushing out of them and into the jungle of the island. This really gives off the feeling of a great race and any final pop shot on a docked ship is just another way to insure victory.
Feeling that the ship will collapse at any moment, he runs to the aid of Niera who is tangled in the rope and takes his scythe and rips the rope with his blade. He picks Niera up and gets ready to take her overboard when she begins to mumble in an apparent shock.
“I-I was careless...” Niera says, feeling as though she should have predicted this.
“Now's not the time to worry about that!” Rage replies.
The two ready to jump when they hear a faint voice saying, “...Help...”
This stops their movement in their tracks, who they see at the source of this frail voice is Sora. She is in a pile of broken wood and pinned so deep that she can barely be seen, there's no doubt the two never would have noticed her if she didn't say anything.
The two rush to her aid and pull her out only to find that there is an immense amount of blood on her, this sight almost causes Niera to faint.
Sora's stomach has a good sized shard of wood protruding from it, though she can't show pain in her facial expressions it is obvious that this has got to be excruciating. Rage clicks his tongue and unhesitatingly grabs the shard of wood and pulls it out, the blood squirts from her stomach and splashes on Niera's horrified face.
Left speechless and in shock, Niera just stands there as Rage helps Sora to her feet. The ship is going to capsize any moment and if they are caught in this mass of burning wood when it does, the chances of survival are very low.
“Follow me!” Rage shouts.
But when he gets no response from Niera he takes her hand and lifts Sora over his shoulder. As soon as he does this the stern of the ship collapses and in a domino effect, the middle of it does as well. The bow in which they stand is next to fall but Rage jumps off of it with the two girls in tow just in time before the ship quite literally dissolves into the ocean.
They land on the beach but are not out of dangers way just yet, the sound of bullets passing overhead rip their eardrums. On both sides of them are people running toward the jungle and firing their rifles and handguns at each other, and Rage and the two are caught in the middle once again.
It's not as though the guns all the pirates have are technologically advanced, if one were to give an estimate on them it'd be weaponry from around the late 18th century. Even though these guns aren't as dangerous as ones of a later date, one hit from these rounded bullets could result in a lost limb.
Rage knows the dangers of being fired at so instead of trying to find the others, he takes the two girls and runs to the cover of the jungle.
“Damn it, this is ridiculous.” he hisses in anger.
He's seen things similar to this in the past but not something at this grand of a level, there might be close to a thousand people on this island all trying to kill each other to get the Gate first. With the sun setting and the jungle of the island becoming darker, he knows that finding the others will be extremely difficult. To add to that disposition is the fact that there will be hundreds of people with guns all trying to kill them if they get a chance.
Rage clicks his tongue, he could probably kill every person on the island if he wanted to but having Niera and Sora with him is inconvenient, plus he can't afford to catch the others in his own attack.
He glances at Niera who looks pale with fright and she stares at Sora while muttering, "It's all my fault.. It's all my fault."
That's when he remembers that Sora is injured as well, he feels her blood roll down his shoulder and he sets her on her back, her face is even more pale because of the blood loss. This is not good, if she doesn't get help soon she will bleed out and die within hours, and even if she lasts longer than that there's a high chance she'll get an infection in this moist jungle.
Sora stares blankly at Rage while sweat rolls profusely down her face, she opens her mouth and says the exact thought that is rolling through Rage's head,
“...Not...Good...”
Night has fallen over the small boat that is being pulled by the shadow of Cerberus, Amon is standing and looking out in the distance at an island. Flashes and gunshots are seen and heard in the dark of the island and Amon can't help but be a little surprised.
“Whoa whoa, what's going on over there?”
“It looks like some kind of battle, I can smell the gunpowder and blood.” replies Cerberus.
“Hmmm, that's interesting enough, there's gotta be a good amount of people there. We just might have a little more fun than we thought.”
“As long as I get to eat.”
Amon chuckles a little and can't wait to land, but in the little boat's way are two ships that are firing cannonballs at each other. The light of the blasts shine the night sky and the two ships are engulfed in smoke.
“Take a look at that, they sure are going at it... Should I do something about it?”
The male voice of Cerberus voices his displeasure, “Don't waste our time, I'm hungry.”
Amon laughs, “Stop being such a needy bitch, this will only take a second.”
“Che.”
The boat heads straight towards the two ships, Amon holds his hand out and points in their direction. The air surrounding the front of his hand begins to become distorted and it's as though the dimension in front of him begins to swirl like the milky way. The transparent swirl grows larger and larger until it covers a hundred meters high and wide over the water.
With a simple push motion of his hand, the swirling dimension makes a loud noise like a giant balloon popping and zooms forward. The hundred by hundred meter object moving at such a speed leaves a massive wake behind it, it's as though the ocean itself is spitting in two.
The swirling dimension hits the two ships and the whole mass of the objects swirl and shatter, an intense wind noise is heard as the ship's shapes distort. After swirling for an instant, the swirling stops and the dimension explodes without a hint of a blast.
Debris scatters hundreds of meters away and splash into the water, an eerie silence falls over the once noisy battlefield and there is no doubt that everyone on those ships are dead. It's as though the form of the ships and the people in it had one of their three dimensions taken from them and the forms they take on as a result are mangled and destroyed remnants of what they once were.
“Was that really worth it?” asks the child voice of Cerberus.
Amon cracks his neck and simply answers, “Of course.”
Without explaining why he enjoyed it so much, the two of them sail to the beach of the island, once landed Amon pulls Cerberus out of his shadow and the two enter the jungle. Walking in the dark they hear the sound of voices from all around dictating what battle strategies to use and where certain enemies are.
The large mass of Cerberus causes it to struggle to move through such a dense jungle, it clicks its tongue in frustration when a root tangles with its paw.
Amon notices its troubles and starts to laugh, “Damn you're clumsy, I hope you don't get stuck, you'd be like one of those woolly mammoths that wandered into tar pits.”
“Don't compare me to an extinct animal, this is nothing.”
“Haha whatever you say.”
BAANGG!!
A gunshot rattles the area and a bullet zooms towards Amon's face, he hasn't even turned to look but before the bullet can reach, it flies into a swirling dimension surrounding his head. The iron ball turns into an odd shape and drops harmlessly to the ground,
Amon finally turns and sees two pirates standing beside a tree with a shocked expression on their faces.
“Hey now, don't you think it's kind of rude to shoot someone in the back?”
The two men can't believe what they had just seen, but without hesitation they attempt to reload their mussel shot rifles.
Amon picks his ear and waits impatiently, after what he feels like is a long time he addresses the men, “Take a look in front of you.”
The man on the right gets done reloading his gun and raises his head to fire, that is when he sees the odd looking transparent swirl floating a couple inches from his face. The swirl makes contact with his nose and the next thing he comprehends is the feeling of every bone in his body turning into gelatin.
His whole mass swirls disgustingly and the sound of this would make the most hardened man want to throw up. The man's body swirls into a churning ball and then explodes, sending blood flying all over the area and onto the other pirate.
The other pirate soils himself and takes a couple wary steps back, he then turns and screams as he runs away as fast as his legs can move.
“Cerberus.”
“Yes?”
“I think there are a lot of people like them on this island, what do you think about killing everyone we see on our way to Rage?”
“I'd like that.”
“Then go eat.”
Cerberus moves its legs and rips through the jungle effortlessly, it quickly catches up with the fleeing man and his final death scream rings through the trees before he is devoured.
Amon walks slowly to the site and catches the middle head of Cerberus chewing on the torso of the man, without thinking much about it he asks, “So how far are we away from Rage anyway? There will probably be a lot of people in between us and them if we are a couple kilometers apart.”
“I can still smell him...” the younger voice says, “They are only a kilometer and a half away.”
Amon is happy because they will be able to kill a good amount of people between now and then, he is about to say something but the woman's voice of Cerberus interrupts.
“Hmm? I smell something different about him...”
“What do you mean?”
The man's voice adds, “I smell the blood of a woman on Rage.”
“Do you think one of his comrades is injured?”
“I cannot say for certain, but the woman smells delicious! I must have her...”
Amon chuckles and repeats what he said just a few moments earlier,
“Then go eat..”
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