Devil's Business

Journey to the West

 It is the fifth day of Sata and the third day of Juno’s two-week journey within the realm of hell. He tends to leave the starting city of his adventure by noon, but incapable to rise up until the mid-day comes. Injuries from the voyage to the residence of the king of ghoul were the true offender of his delayed travel. Juno can not move an inch, constrained in his own stiffened muscles and just inclined himself for hours upon his bed.

On the left side of his pile of hay, Mia was sitting and helped him to regain composure before the next long journey to the second city of hell. She can not bear to see the man of her inn to be down with no one to take care of, especially to Juno’s dramatic entrance when she tried to close her bar last night.

As quick as he learned of the time and how late he has been, Juno tried to stand up and attempting to go to fulfill his own schedule. However, due to the pain, he has to drop down once more upon the bed and leaving the business behind for good. Mia, as she saw the effort from the guy, shared a laughter upon him with sincerity while tending the nearly-fallen off strip of bandages from his chest.

“Please don’t hurt yourself too great, big guy. You’re too incredible to fight with such endurance for long.” Complimented Mia to Juno’s unwavering wits. He smiled to the flatter in return before gazing back downwards in disappointment,”I think I could conjure the power for long by this remarkable stamina back then, but it appeared to be nonsensical for myself after awhile.”

Mia pats his head and caress Juno’s hair to bring his mood to the peak. Her eyes are met with Juno’s, gazing to his eyes with sure confidence given as her pupils dilated upon him,”It’s amazing for you to kill the king of ghouls under a month, though. Most of the heroes before you has had to swell over two.”

Hearing the former heroes and their capacity, Juno has grown up a speck of curiosity by the hovering eyebrows of his,”Really? Can you tell me details of their adventure? Did they also resting upon this inn?” Said Juno afterwards. Mia does not immediately responding to his question, rather focusing on her duty to spoon yet another scoop of lunch to Juno’s mouth.

“They were, Juno. That’s why I have noticed you from the very beginning. Well, likewise to this city’s residents over your presence. You have peculiar appearances than the rest of us, you see.”

Listening to her acknowledgement of the former heroes and possibilities of novel information, Juno’s eyes are beaming even more and gazing towards Mia to emphasize his interest. Mia could only repaid his attention by giving an awkward smirk, while keeping herself out of embarrassment by scooping a spoon of meal for the next. Nonetheless, the spark of discomfort that appeared from her eyes based upon his own enthusiasm has him shuttered for minutes, proceeded to set up minutes of silence inside the room.

“Anyway-“ Stated Juno to counter-act with the blushing dead sequence of the talk,“Because of your knowledge of me and my seniors, I want to ask you about someone.”

“Who is it?”

Juno rubbed his chin before shoving curiosity upon her mind, all upon his own conscience over the difficult question that he wanted to ask,”Okay, I’ll bring you to the essence-” Said him to Mia after a second of thoughts from his edge,”Do you know anything about the demon that escorted me awhile ago? Did it ring a bell to you?”

In contrary to his presumption of her own reaction, she gracefully nod to his copious question,”I don’t mind with the question, Juno. That’s the ancient high-demon of our world. The residents of this city, Beneno, are all call him as Luf, but you might also recognize him as Lafath by the human tongue.” She continues with the next scoop of soup upon her hand,”Well, he is the one that brought human to our land. You are all usually carried here in a form of soul, see.”

The piece of jigsaw from his own qualms towards the demon has finally comes to an end. It is truly Lafath the berserker, the highest demon of hell and the infamous deity of old. It appeared in many forms and called with various names upon the cultural heritage of civilization. Humans are contempted its presence of all omniscient deity that he has known about, but weakened by the mortal desire that offered to their life by its almighty prowess.

With the true identity of the demon, the unfavorable challenge has brought him to tremble. Juno has to defeat the top-brass of the demonic world. One that many people has debated whether its power matched with God and its servants, the king of death and terror. To top it all, his daunting business to empty the banks made him shuddered by the potential reason of the bargain.

The human hero is afraid. All of the luxury has been lifting his own life to the outstanding levels, surely changing his miserable destiny despite the memories that haven’t arrive into his head. Mia has felt the breeze of fear from the man, hence instinctively hold his hands to console the tremor from his body,”Don’t be frightened with any sort of trial that you have with the grand master, young human. He might be having several interests to summon you here, beyond the radar of your kin.”

“But I don’t have enough power to beat such godly power, Mia, what should I do?” He asked.

“Just do whatever you can, then, Juno. What would you have when you are supposed to do it if you have no spirit to finish the job?” Answered Mia while pounding her hands to Juno’s chest,”I will support you with any information that you seek for the job, don’t hesitate to pay a visit to this inn if you have time.”

---

Two days more over the presumed date of his departure and he finally has his power back. From what he had to handle over the previous sick days, these enormous stats would not pose invulnerability to his own humanity. Proliferated statistics of his could not be there for all the period of his tenure, despite the seemingly unlimited capability that belongs to him at the time.

In his last bath within the vicinity of Beneno, He checked upon the list of his stats once again. It appears that the powers weren’t last for a long time than what he had thought before. After a day passed, or 24 hours on the clock, the increased capacity of his stats were perished and returning to the ones upgraded by the level up mechanism. As for now, all of his stats are marked over 20 with agility at its peak among all by thirty-three.

“So, I presume that these abilities are not infinite at all.” He exclaimed after seeing upon the statistics for the second time.

He still has 200 million of money left. He allocated 150 of them for his recent equipments and transportation for the travel to the second city of hell. Based on Mia’s extensive knowledge, the second city is located at least 400 kilometers from the outerline border. He could sprint the way along to the border for minutes by the full speed of his stats if he wanted, but 400 kilometers are far too long to be expended.

He has exchanged the pocket sword with two longer steels. It was expensive, costs a quarter of his dispensable coins. The shopkeeper of Rumbia, however, had stated of how tremendous both of the swords would be with full excitement. He clamored the sword like this,”Even our almighty Luf has trembled against the aura of these bad boy, man! Two pieces for 100 pennies only!” then giving him both of the swords right on, in spite of the protests from his customer at the moment.

Juno’s means of transportation for the travel to the city is called as Svelor, a wagon tugged onto the spine of four tamed ghouls. It relies on the beasts ever since they are the only non-demon creature within the reach of their business. It is capable to carry more than 10 persons aloft towards the sandy terrain of the realm.

“Is this my carriage, master rider?” Asked Juno to the lash-holder. The demon confirmed it by whipping his rope to the ferocious beast up front. After paying 15 coins to the driver, with an hour of waiting for the loads to fill up, he finally could disembark from Beneno and proceeded to go to his desired destination.

---

There are two other demons alongside him for the trip. One of them is a female demon royals and her guardsman for their travel. Her horns are pointed up thirty centimeters long and decorated with a lot of golden bracelets encircled upon its hilt of the tusk. For marks of royalty and the association to the hell’s government, the horn’s length shows her status within. Her long and pointed-up horns denotes her position as the public officers of Beneno, or any neighboring cities to the starting region for the hero.

Of course, due to Juno’s peculiar physique, her guard has himself sneering towards him steadily. The female royalty, on the other hand, comprehended his presence as unimportant and laying her attention more to the barren sand outside the window.

“Stop it, master guard. I am harmless. My weapon stashed down your feet.” Juno exclaimed to the cautious guard before him. However, He does not mind to the reasonings and stood his restraints accordingly.

For the royals, it is all but the same, staring over the grisly terrain of the road all day.

While being awkward and tilting his head to the much carefulness of the royal’s sentinel, Juno then trying to approach his master for the talk. He could not move an inch, therefore made him have to pinpoint his thoughts to her by muttering his words from distant space.

“Hello, mistress demon. I am Juno, a human who’s stranded to this realm.” Said Juno to the royals. However, she still stuck to her own connection with the charismatic gravels of the street.

“Do not disturb, pest. She is sleeping.” Retorted the guard, responding immediately to his effort. His answer made him a bit distraught, since her eyes are opened in a whole, but then felt that it’s worthless to proceed much further with the issue.

(Shriek!!!)

All of sudden, the wagon speeding up after an ominous cry from the rear. When Juno attempted to sneak peek over the window, the driver shouts,”Do not see the monster out there! Close your eyes for your own safety!”