Devil's Business

Revival

Selena was holding Juno’s hand to their hidden shelter of the sandy grounds. As they strides over the daunting dusk of the red desert, some Kudeluma appears to be hungry and wished to eat them alive. While Juno’s abilities handily ceased out the threat in short, The two siblings has their own combination attack to promote.

“Lightning blast!”

(Charge------)

When Zeke pulls the arrow upon the bow, Selena charged her elemental magic to the wooden stick of the bow for additional shock to their enemies. The attack is surprisingly powerful and sufficient to decimate two Kudelumas in a single burst. Juno could not bear but to compliment them both by giving them leeway to kill the remaining two of the invaders of their defensive stance.

“Home sweet home! Ah, this feels great!”

At last, they could enter the twin’s private chamber in the middle of the no man’s land. The architecture looks pretty decent for two-bed rooms, despite there are no spring bed to indulge themselves upon.

“Here’s the food, old man.” Zeke throws a pack of ration from their rusty shelf on the wall,”Oh yeah, what’s your name?”

“Just call me Juno, Zeke.” He answered with a mouthful of bread inside,”Uh, this is fantastic! Oh, no, I’ve become as filth as Betty now.”

“Who’s Betty? Anyway. Mind to take a look on that one, sir? We need an onlooker to watch the rear of our base.”

Zeke pointed across an old periscope-like appliances adjacent to the spot for them to sleep. However, the lenses is pointing down to the underground rather than upwards, fairly different than what Juno has known about. Zeke appears to read Juno’s mind as he followed the old man’s lead over the device,”That one is our concealed terrain surveyor. Are you aware that the terrain underneath is not actually a ‘terrain’ at all, sir?”

Juno got himself baffled by Zeke’s declaration and raising his own doubt to the statement. The meaning of ‘terrain’ itself is intriguing to behold, but impossible to discern thoroughly.

“As far as my knowledge does, There are 7 layers of hell. Is this connected to the anecdotal presumption of yours?” Asked Juno to the young man. Unsurprisingly, he nodded and confirming the wrap-up conclusion from the man,”Yes, sir. There are huge spaces below us, which contains a bunch of scary monsters- and three cities.”

Juno got goosebumps over the confirmation of the layers that he mentioned. His journey is far from finish and need to be done in less than 3 years. Not to count over the amount of cash that were burdened against him, the abundant money that he can not invest or save throughout. It was a fun game, indeed, but the danger that persists are seemingly hindered the demon’s generosity hereafter.

To the periscope that he has to secure, Juno laid his interest over the two sparkling lenses for his eyes to rest upon. The gleaming stones are scattering amongst them and inviting him to assess it more in profound manners.

And yes, he has to, since it is his duty for the time being.

When he positioned his eyes over the periscope’s screen, the red aura of the lower ground of hell wildly emanating up to his vision. There are undiscernable herds of monsters, much bigger and fearsome than the one he had to pursue on the front line of the two cities before. Three-headed dogs are hunting a demon, skewering his guts once they got the chance to feast over the man.

From the north-eastern side of the reachable grounds from the magical periscope, He could perceive a humongous gate on the side-end of the whole death arena. It inscribed with numerous demonic pattern and a familiar figure on its center. The face of Lafath, a demon king of hell, is there and locking the way into the next challenge that he has to encounter in the future.

“Leaning more into these thugs down there and I am already shuddered by the pressure.” Stated Juno to Zeke as he moved away from the scope.

“Yeah, and we can’t force ourselves much far away than Selima City, unfortunately.” Zeke answered while pushing some buttons from the periscope to turn it off.

“By the debt, I wonder?”

The two siblings felt the buzz by Juno’s assessment of their trouble. Selena could barely hold her shiver on the bed, in spite of her trying to sleep and leaving the problem as she lost herself in a dream. Zeke, on the other end of the bed, has nothing to say but affirming the query by a slight bob of his head.

Zeke then speaks out while attempting to pamper his sister to slumber,”Yeah, all because of that nasty golden key from the demon. We can switch our wealth count over here and out. Have you got it, though, sir?”

Juno seeks into his pockets and let the steel out from it to show his own key to the vault.

“This, you mean?”

“Yes. Due to this key’s prowess, I and Selena could access the wealth increase system down here. We could even transfer the monthly challenge to this realm entirely, and that periscope was also our first expensive purchase from the role.” Zeke stated. However, he then frowned a little to the following issue that he wished Juno to have,”But we can’t leave this forsaken grounds for six consecutive months as the part of the compromise.”

Juno could not help but wander off his own thoughts for awhile. The demon is definitely a malevolent entity, to which he agreed on the job and its benefits, but this is also quite troublesome to relate for him. What about the whole assets of his from the earth? Does it vanished when he decides to generate the profits in this realm?

He then appeared to be bright on something,”But how could you be more into living in this lambasted grounds rather than being alive on earth? Do your parents search you two out there?”

Selena’s whimper is now clearly visible, showering the flat bed with her tears.

“We are a loner, sir. Our conclusion happened simply because of our interest in living as a hero, but we never think of the consequences after it does actually running up.”Zeke implied, now with his head looking a small bit downwards to the floor.

Needless to say, Juno himself has the dubious issue over his own identity, as much as the trouble that the two persons had entangled with. He could never retrieve any memories from his past. Maybe the demon has it for the reason of him to embrace a fight with the beast in the deepest ground of hell, or it just wiped out into clean slate position.

“Okay, sir. Time to rest. We have to get to the vault sooner or later. You wish to be there, right? We are, too.” Zeke Nestled himself inside the blanket immediately, not waiting for no answer from the other guy, yet he jumped out once more to set-up the alarm a few seconds after.

---

A lapse of hour later, the morning light of hell is peeking into the small indent of the home base of the twins. The red dust from above sprinkled the three human inside and tickling Juno’s nose, forcing him to sneeze for a patch of wake-up call. As Juno peeked across the bedside, he found the alarm has gone idle. Someone clearly has knocking it out and beating the snooze for another run of their slumber.

Rather than waking them up, Juno choose to take a leak outside as there are no personal toilet inside the base. When he cracked the base’s door to make a small gap, he got so astounded by the sudden change of the surface above their underground lair that he failed to grasp the ladder firmly, punishing his mistakes as he fell down upon the cold floor.

(Bam!)

“Oww!”

The abrupt thumping sound has awaken the two siblings and pushing them to hurry up. Zeke, as he keep vigilant under the sleeping realm, is trying to stay focus while trying to keep his eyes open. On the other hand, Selena constantly walking in all-four by herself over the run.

“What happened, Sir? Anything serious?” Asked Zeke.

Juno is pumping up and propping himself to talk amidst the muscle sprain of his back,”Take a look for yourself. You should be.” And sitting down to the ground as the pain growing a little stronger. While selena stationed herself to cure Juno, Zeke opened the hatch to see the issue.

Zeke smiled a bit by the sight upon him. Their home base has become the underground shaft of an emerged city of the dead. The Mooma City has returned, complete with its residents and any living beings under its wing. Even Mia’s inn is in service at the time.

“That’s common phenomenon around here, sir. All of the city are immortal and could be revived shortly after the catastrophe occurred.” Zeke explained, now with a bit of chuckle under his lips.

“I can’t grasp the idea, Zeke. Continue your story.”

“This is magical ground, and any living being around here is alive. Many magical events were left unknown over our period on this realm. However, one we know for certain is that all of the demon here can not be killed. “ Said Zeke. Selena then suddenly adding her own,”Yeah, I’ve seen those thief-man city got burned by a horde of ghouls, then suddenly back to the living world as if there’s nothing happened.”

Juno is pondering back again to what he earned from the demon. It said that he has to beat the creatures to gain level. But if they are all returning back, what is the point of him doing it over and over again? Why does he have to blast over the monsters’ head for free?

“You know, the demon has stated about us killing all of those goons-“

Zeke nodded,” Yeah, we have to be their hero, but I still can’t tell of why the demon keep telling us that fake stories all this time.”

---

The three wanderer can not pursue the road upon the door hatch, hence they picked the alternative way around. There is another exit, located in the end of the wormhole that the two made for any dangerous circumstances that could be happening over their own safehouse. The exit door swiftly brought them to the market’s alleyway, a safe spot for them to run out and make their way to Selima city afterwards.

“This is mystical door, sir. At one time, Selena’s supportive mechanics had this one, so she fabricate the portal for us to clear out from the site when needed.” Zeke explained to the old man as if he was started as a tour guide for the two. On the other end, Juno is nodding quietly, peeking across the market’s tumultuous situation for them to get out without being seen. After a small time to spy, Juno found someone interesting to speak off,“Hey, is that Mia? What is she doing over there?”

From Juno’s perspective, he could perceive the inn’s owner lurking in the shadows of the city hall. Any person under the shade of dark would be hiding something up, or so for a certainty of the first impression from the other side of the story. The other two behind Juno could not understand of what he said, but following his cue as Juno ordered them to come along.