Devil's Business

Realm of Conflict

 Second day of drought is coming to town, reaping away the spirit of every human from the early morning of their daily objective of living. Skyscrapers are mounting their rigid pressure to the unwanted visitors beneath by reflections of sunlight from their flock of mirrors on board. In addition with the menacing season of the month, the heat of Tuesday is always upsetting as ever. The city's public thermometer hits 35 degrees celcius since 8 o'clock. As a result, perspiration is suffice from the dejected individuals on pedestrian walkways. Moans of hundreds to thousands of people were piling up on the street, especially from those who were stuck in their office for a long time and having themselves going out for lunch.

However, the tale of grief was not there for the successful tramp on the middle of the business lane. He runs within a brand-new sport car of the year, Auda 8, the next-in-line for being the most-priceless luxury in the world. It is limited in design, rare in quantity, but elegant and niche in its quality. Anyone would murder a person for a slice of this car, even its front logo worth a million per piece.

And the tramp obtained the car with only a single swipe of his evilish pen.

“Wohoooo! Look at me, man! I am rich!” Shout the former sidewinder of the city, mocking everyone with their lower status and degree. He is not the driver, however, for him to be active on the road and spreading mockery to the outsiders from the shotgun-side car window. One of the girls from the back, being ill with her boss-man’s smug for his newfound riches, patting his back for a suggestion of her mind to the front.

“Don’t speak ill of everyone, Juno. You don’t know what they would bring to you later on.”

It appears that the leader of the pack, one man standing of the flock and his sneering grin, were not happy with disgraceful attitude of his call-girl. He shook his head repeatedly, mincing his thoughts with his index finger as it is twirling left and right for slight negation to her disapproval of his manners.

“No, NO! I’m not renting you out for that sort of advice, w***e! You are there, sitting down the expensive chairs of mine, for s*x, Okay? Pipe down your mouth or I’ll kick you out of here real quick.” He insulted the woman behind him without throwing his glance to her directly. As the result, the woman behind him felt discriminated  by his misdemeanor and trying to contort him with her mindful fist, all before the other women from the rear attempting to stop the effort and easing her off from the heat of anger afterwards.

“So, boss-man, where to?” Said his personal driver in refined tone. He has trained in specific for this sort of attitude, speaking bland and mindless of anything from the passenger’s seat for the mechanical role of his duty. He speaks only when needed, stated his qualms only to the road and its congested traffic when appropriate, and asking for destination towards the boss of his when they have to move somewhere within a limited period of time.

“Please, let’s go back home, and dispose these women out from my lawn.”

“With pleasure, boss.”

He stopped at the nearest sign right after the order to “cleanse” the trouble from the back. The driver then rolling out from his seat and opening the door for his “girls” to leave forever from the boss-man’s sight.

”You know the drill, w***e. Get out from here and look for someone else to blow.”

None of the women responding to his request nor applying their own rejoinder for his removal. They were already disgusted by the dominant attitude from the rich-boy of the wealth estate and feel in grief with their colleague’s woe of late.

“Bye, pesky pets! You are not wanted by me anymore! Feel that one, huh, morality b***h?” Said the man for his taste of trouble, as he feel the utmost freedom to snort his cold nose before one of the women and granting them the rejection that he wished to share from the beginning.

“Whatever floats your boat, shady but nice pocket-man. Can’t believe you have to hurt one of my friends that easy.” Stated the leader of the women’s gang to the gloating personality inside the car. On the other way around, He doesn’t mind with her laments and continues to dig down the nose for another sniffles that blocked the breath of his for some time.

“Don’t care, don’t dare, shout out to the milky way for my blissful pray.”

“Nice rhyme, boss.” Praised his driver to Juno’s talented phrase.

“Right? I have studied that one special for Je-llo and his club. They wanted to have some fun, ya’know?!”

---

An hour of their travel made them arrived at his expansive house on the hills. It’s the mansion of the rich, one of his recent buy-out clause of his boundless cash from his pocket. It is located in the middle of plywood areas, jet-set cluster for many men and women with high-class status. Most of the top-ranked celebrities and well-famed personality has resided within this special territory for a long time to socialize and mingle with peoples of their stature. Juno, as he immediately sets up for the apogee of his ladder, choose to live here for fun and games while joining forces with the livelihood of wealthy person on the block.

“So, what else should I purchase? I have allocated more than 100 millions of my pocket for this week. The Demon was not appearing to this day... I wonder what’s with the ‘challenge’ back then.” Muttered Juno to himself as he portrayed the objectives from two weeks ago. The demon had fettered him with the task to empty the Hell’s bank with his own personal account, who were designed solely for his disposal and usage on the earth grounds. The contract bound him with irrevocable signature and unfathomable decree over the top side of the whole contract, and the demon had mentioned of the challenge, but Juno has no idea of what it should be.

“Call for names, and he shall be summoned for the deal.”

The demon is entering his mansion in a single poof.  It was not invited or even called in person, but it let itself in nonetheless.

“Have you ever visited Hell by yourself, Juno?” Asked the demon to the host of the house, who were surprised by the sudden encounter with the person that he had talked about. On the event of the demon’s query, Juno responded with a shrug of his shoulder.

“Nah, Don’t wanna. Do I have to, though?”

“You must.”

“When? Do I have to pack something for the trip?”

“Now, since It’s been two weeks already, You have to relate towards the reason of this challenge.” Stated the demon firmly towards the man for his  nonchalant answer to his question. Before Juno has anything to reply, the demon flicks his finger and applying his magic to their surroundings.

(Snap!)

The glistening red magic of the demon teleported them to the foreign land, somewhere out of the blue from his immediate transfer. It has red weather all upon the sky, signs of a place with unknown credence towards its nature. Floating rocks and desolated grounds were scattered around their vicinity, marking the land with eerie sensation of unknown region to the ground’s current visitors.

“Welcome to my country, Juno. This is the land of endless heat, or hell for human tongue.”

“Why are you doing this to me, demon?” Sneered Juno to the unwanted request from the demon. His leg is trembling, not because of his fright, but more into the natural earthquake who were occurred right before their arrival.

“I have to. This is your mission, after all.” Said the demon to Juno’s scorn.

When the earthquake subsided, a castle-city is emerging from the realm of nothingness before them. In the event of the city’s appearance, the red from the sky were faded away and shaped itself to be more blue-ish in color.

“This is the starting city for adventurer like you, Juno.” Stated the demon ahead of the city’s main gate. The whole structure of its wall were constructed in concrete and molded in a red flare nuance. The gate were bustling with ornamented skulls and flame, who were enveloping the entire steel with its heat. Juno felt unsettled with the horrendous style of this intangible city, reflected by his reaction towards the gate and its decoration.

“Do not be afraid. The flame is not sweltering enough to melt you down right away, Juno.”

“But, it’s still fiery, as always. I have seen a magic like this up-close, and it’s not pleasant at all.” Muttered Juno in reluctant manner, as he seemed unsettled with the debris of fire before him.

“Come on, puny mortal. Do not waste my time here. Touch it as if nothing were there against you from the first time.” Shout the demon to the man for the enforcement of its will. When Juno’s unprotected hands were touching the flame directly as foretold by the demon, a small gap were created in circle of his palms. He carefully dragging it down to the handle and the vacant spaces were following his movement accordingly.

“Wow, how can it be?”

“Magic, it is.” The demon stated its declaration of obvious clarity to the man and his doubt. For the matters of being the host,  the demon was going a little bit earlier than Juno in front for the walk inside of town and bring guidance to its client behind. On the scenery of the city, Its residents were teeming down the road and doing their usual behavior. Some of them were bargaining for better price on meat, while several would be rash under the overwhelming tags of its worth. Most of the city’s residents has similar physique to the demon, despite the fact that they were all wearing clothes for their daily activities inside the city.

“So, I have to brief you out for the starters. Your money in this realm were situated by how much you could spend the money on earth. You’ll have randomized ability, and it was decided by how well you are on achieving goals of the month from me.”

“What? Please, pardon me for asking, but..” Juno paused for awhile as he sees a fully-naked beggar on the corner side of the city’s market,”I have money in this city? For what?”

“To become their hero, Juno. This is the true objectives of yours. You’ll have to beat me in the final battle of this universe in the future.”