City of Sinners

Chapter 11

A Sinner is about to eat me. Alive. 

Ever since I have found myself being inside this ferocious place, never have I realized that I will ever come to be in this kind of position: to find myself about to be devoured by a horrible monster. I was too proud and looking high of myself. Since I was young, I know that I am strong and stubborn, and I could easily defeat any enemy in my own way, as long as I am not flustered. 

But I just realized that in this place, in this demonic circles of hell … my courage and pride would not always work. 

It would not always save me. 

The way how the monstrous Sinner opened its mouth had gave me an indescribable feeling of fear. Inside its mouth are—if I am to calculate it—almost a hundred sharp-glaring teeth. Some of them are still white, some are black and rotting, and some are full of left overs of the food it had eaten before attempting to eat me. What’s more terrifying to that creature is its physical attribute. Never in my life had I ever experienced seeing a creature who has a severed head, but has a big mouth found directly at his stomach.

I never imagined any creature that kind is existing. Only this time. 

I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. The creature was holding my body with the use of its sinewy arms—one more brutal grip on my body and I am about to run out of air to breath from. 

“H—Help,” but at least I was able to mutter a single word despite of the fear. But … would that be enough? Would someone be able to hear what I have told?

There is. 

When I thought I would be hopeless that I am about to be eaten and killed by a Sinner, I already closed my eyes. For a brief slap of time, I have accepted that I am going to die. It was all thanks to my ego and pride and stubbornness to show off my self, that is why I am in this situation. 

But then the Sinner, instead of eating me, has started to scream. Because of that, I immediately opened my eyes to see what was happening. Because I recognize that kind of scream the Sinner gave: scream of pain. 

That’s when I found out that someone was helping me. 

At first, I thought it was Valour. He was my companion as we plunged into this first circle of hell. Also, I know for a fact that he can help me. Somehow.  

But then I was surprised when a silhouette of man completely different to Valour was almost flying in the air, as he attacked the monster’s sinewy hands that was gripping me. Though I know for a fact that he is not Valour, I knew that he was familiar to me. It’s just that, the red blazing of the heaven was really making me hard to see who he was, making him only a figure that is built of shadows. 

Seconds later, I found myself falling. The man had successfully ripped off the arms of the sinful creature that was attempting to eat me, but the problem is that I was rapidly falling and unable to move. I have used up all of my energy that is why I cannot move my own body—add the fact that I have been gripped by the huge Sinner to the point that I thought my bones were already crushed, I am a complete immobile mess.

But someone caught me mid-air. 

“Are you okay?” he asked. 

I recognize who he was. “Valour?”

Valour nodded. We fell safely on the ground as he was carrying me on his arms. Then, another scream of the gigantic Sinner opened through the surrounding. In our front, the man who helped me had already finished the giant Sinner. The Sinner who was about to kill me earlier was the one who was now screaming in pain as the man who was fighting it, had stabbed the left part of its chest, directly from its heart.

Sooner, the surrounding has went back to its usual silence. The earlier howls and growls of the unfound dogs were now gone. The waves of Sinners who had erupted from the graves of the people inside this cemetery has blasted back into ashes. The silence—that kind of silence for the peace of the dead—has come back.

“Here, drink this,” Valour said after a while. He offered me the same vial that I have just drank earlier. The vial for healing. Without any hesitation, I immediately drank it. I am too weak and helpless, and I feel my bones were crushed and broken because of the Sinner’s depressing way of holding my tiny body. 

Then, he gave me another vial. This time, the liquid inside it was blue in color. 

“What is this?” I asked him.

“Energy potion. Vial so that you can gain back your strength,” he answered. 

“How were you all able to find the effectivity of these vials?” I asked. “If these were drops from Sinners, wouldn’t it be more suspicious and dangerous to drink?”

“Gaston told us about this. He said there was a peculiar system for food and other things in the legend that is quite incomprehensible in the story. Though the epic poem of Dante Alighieri, ‘Inferno’ does not include that kind of system, Gaston said that in some references, there are similar ways that is like of this vials and food looting system. At some point, her grandma told him that the survivors on the Circles of Hell during ancient times were chewing different kinds of leaves to gain back their energy and relieve their exhaustion and heal their injuries. That is quite doubting hearing from Gaston especially when he said that the vials may have been the upgraded system of those ancient kinds of leaves, but when one from the Crows tried it because he has an injured leg, everyone started to believe him.”

“I didn’t know about that.” 

“Gaston must have forgotten telling you about that.” 

With the silence of the memorial park, I started to gulp the blue liquid from the vial that Valour has given me. Just like the healing potion, there were no sparkly effects that has occurred or erupted on my body. But the feeling of gaining my energy back to its usual state was noticeable within me. And I found it really interesting.

Quickly, I stood up, leaving Valour sitting on the ground. I made a boxed jumping stance to warm up my body. “Let’s get going,” I said, already warmed up, and ready to wander around this place—with extreme caution and fear, of course. I have already learned from the previous mistake I have done. 

“We couldn’t leave yet.”  

I stopped my warm-up stance when I heard a cold voice from my back. Quickly, I looked at who the owner is. And I found Solomon. 

His ash-cold eyes were looking straight at me, directly at my eyes, as if he was directly staring at my soul. At my vulnerable soul. 

“Wh—What? Why are you here?” I asked. Flustered from his sudden appearance. 

“Wouldn’t it be good if I heard even a small ‘thanks’ coming from you?” he asked. Though I know that his voice was cold and somehow harsh, I can sense the mocking and irritated vibe on it.  

I was about to ask why, but then when I looked at the sword that he was holding on both of his arms, I immediately realized what he meant. 

“Oh. Right. Thanks.” I said, fixing my gaze on the ground. I felt embarrassed. He was the one who saved me from the giant Sinner earlier.

“It’s alright,” he said, “I would do my best to save anyone who is in danger just like you.” 

I cleared my throat to clear off the embarrassment building in my chest. Because, I need to ask him something. 

“Thanks again. By the way,” I said, attempting to change the topic of our conversation, “what do you mean we should not move immediately? What if others were in danger and they need someone to save them?”

“We will,” he said. “But for now, let us just wait for a while. We have killed almost a hundred Sinners right at the bat of the first Circle.” 

“Then?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

Solomon looked at me, puzzled. “We don’t know what are the things waiting for us along our way in the Circle of Hell. So we should not waste the opportunity of earning the loots that those Sinners are dropping. We just need to wait at least half an hour to get it.” 

Ah, right. The loots. Why am I getting stupid that I quickly forgot that things like that in this place is existing?