Nightmare System

Hell woke up looking at a strange ceiling he wasn't familiar with, he was lying on a very large and comfortable bed. The pillows smelled of lavenders and he felt calm. His eyes wandered around the room and fell on the petite Annette. She appeared to have worried herself into a sleep, her head laying on the bed Hell was resting in.

"Slacking while on-duty?" Hell whispered, slowly petting her head. "It seems I worried you again."

A patch of shadow travelled inside the room from under the door and quickly materialised at the other side of the bed. It was Miur. But before he could speak, Hell shushed him. "We should really stop meeting this way," he whispered with a quiet chuckle.

Hell noticed he didn't have any clothes on, so he put on some u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r and a robe he found before leaving the room with Miur. On the other side of the door was a creature looked to be a mixture made up of the horns of a bull, large arms of a gorilla and the wings of an eagle. He had a sword in his belt. The creature took off in a rush as soon as he laid eyes on Hell leaving the room.

"What the hell was that?" Hell asked.

"A sub-demon. Gratock, these specific ones are called," Miur replied.

"How long was I out for?"

"It's been a day."

"Did I…" Hell asked with some worry in his eyes, "…lose?"

"Not quite." Miur then pointed at Hell's left arm which seemed to be in perfect condition at this point. "You activated the brand there. Don't you remember?"

"Somewhat. I am a tad groggy."

"That demon is bound to notify Cain in a moment. Let's proceed to the throne room," Miur suggested.

"We are in his castle, I see," Hell said and let Miur lead the way. They saw a few of those Gratocks in the corridors as well as some other types of demons. These sub demons looked strong, no matter how odd they appeared to be. They looked strong enough to tear a human in half using their b.a.r.e hands.

There were various paintings on the walls depicting things from Lucifer being cast out from heaven to demons massacring mortal villages ranging from greenskins to humans and to various monsters Hell had never seen.

After walking through the long corridor, they arrived at a place with large doors similar in design to the ones Hell had seen in the castle inside the Ancient Mountains. Right before they entered the room, they saw a Gratock which seemed happy to have seen Hell, frantically pointing him to enter the room.

"Inside," said the creature. It was likely the creature was sent to fetch Hell anyway, they promptly entered the large hall where a throne was located. Orvil, the envoy was also by his side as always. Cain was no longer wearing the clothes of a random traveller, but his ragged beard stayed the same.

"Welcome to my castle, King Hell. We haven't been expecting royalty so soon, but I hope everything has been to your liking thus far."

"Well, I haven't had a chance to experience the renowned hospitality of the demons, yet," Hell mused. "I am sure it is lovely."

Cain slowly put his hands on the armrests of the throne and spoke with a serious expression: "That was very reckless of you. You would have been dead had I not saved you."

"King Hell is still confused about the happenings right before he was knocked out," Miur replied with a slight bow toward Cain. "It is a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to be in the presence of the Demon of Pride".

"Let me explain, then," Cain said, getting up from his throne. He walked down the few steps below the throne and faced Hell. "You held your hand to his throat and his head fell on the floor. Your arm was also cut into two. It took a bit of work to fuse it perfectly."

"So, he's dead?" Hell asked, somewhat hopeful. As he heard what happened, things started coming back to him also. He remembered the sharp pain as his arm fell on the ground with a thud after an almost surgical cut separated it when he activated the brand.

"Cutting his head? That won't kill him," Cain said with a sarcastic tone. "He is the culmination of Medusa's centuries of acc.u.mulation, finally perfected into such a soldier. It is said that he was formed after 500 years of relentless work. It is said that he will not die, even if you rip his heart out. It is said that he is the first true vampire created across all realms."

"You mean you don't know?" Hell asked in return.

"Well, no one actually ripped his heart out or cut off his head before. There's a first for everything," Cain replied and summoned an ethereal parchment out of thin air. "Without further ado, if you please." Cain had already let such a dangerous person into his castle, he needed an immediate answer.

"Right, our contract," Hell said and tried to make sense of the parchment. It looked different from the one Player Killer made him sign. "What am I signing here?" Hell asked, somewhat proud of himself that he finally thought of asking this time around.

"You will have one week to kill enough people and summon me once you go back."

"You want me to massacre my hometown as soon as I go back?"

"I don't care how you achieve your goals. Start a war, incite a rebellion. You must kill enough creatures in the same area. The spell can be activated feeding off of the horrifying aura of war."

"That's quite all right, actually," Hell said, adopting his casual attitude once more and shrugging. "I never took to Onsville."

"That's it," Cain pointed the passage it was written on the contract. The contract seemed to be gibberish or some other unknown language, but you could read it if you tried, as well.

"What do I get?"

"I will loan you the forces you would need to kill Medusa. It won't win us the war, but it will allow you to achieve your goal. Or your mission, I suppose," Cain replied. His mouth turned into a smirk as he added: "But I would guess you wanted one other thing, too."

"Can you open up a portal to where I came from?"

"We can add that line to the contract right away," Cain said and snapped his fingers and the line concerning a portal being opened as per Hell's request was added. "Of course, there was no need to add it into the contract."

Hell read the very brief contract sitting before him, he even checked the backside of the magical parchment which caused Orvil to scoff at Hell.

"Looks good," Hell said and sliced open an artery on his wrist, letting his blood pour onto the contract. One almost expected blood to go through the ethereal parchment, but it was all congregated at a place and turned into a signature: Helleborus Reeveman.

Hell healed his wrist and replenished his blood with the Knight Demon's Vitality ability he had received from Claude, the self-proclaimed pathetic knight who had declared Hell was evil incarnate and himself the police of the safe zone. As Hell thought about how fun fighting him and his lackeys was, he somewhat realised Claude had a point there.

Cain has also done the same and the contract was sealed.

"Great," Cain said and turned to Hell with a smile. "Rest for today, I will have readied your forces by tomorrow. Enjoy our renowned hospitality in the meantime."

"I sure will, mister!" A very familiar shrill sound echoed in the room.

Orvil was taken aback and took a defensive stance against the walking black spot with four limbs right above Hell's head without any inclination. It was Nitio. He had suddenly appeared on his throne of flesh and blood, also known as Hell.

"Interesting," Cain leaned in to examine the creature. "You can summon familiars, too? Talk about versatile."

Hell was more surprised than anyone and he was about to swat the creature onto the ground with the force of a thousand suns, thinking it may have been a large bug.

"What kind of way is that to speak to my servant?!" Nitio raised his voice, striking his usual valiant pose for an uncomfortably long amount of time. "And my name is Nitio, learn it well!"

Hell reached out and grabbed the small creature with one of his hands and looked at it with a questioning gaze.

"Hey brat, I thought I left you back at Pandora's City. Where did you come from?"

Nitio huffed and crossed his small arms. "You should be respectful, I governed our city while you were gone for more than a day! Not to mention, I was bored!"

Seeing Hell still looking confused, Nitio added: "We have a contract now, I can come to you whenever I want!"

"Fantastic," Hell replied with an exasperated tone. He saw one of the sub-demon servants in the corner and threw Nitio at one of them. "Get him some fruits or whatever."

With Cain's nod, the servant quickly took Nitio away. "I'll come back again!" he yelled as he was taken away.

���That is certainly, well, a unique familiar," Orvil said, ridiculing Hell. "I am sure he has significant use."

"Indeed," Hell said, locking eyes with Orvil. "He talks so much that any enemy ends up killing themselves. Have a chat with him, he'd love you."

Orvil ignored Hell's mild snapback and stayed quiet while Cain seemed to be enjoying the play.

"Servants!" Cain suddenly yelled with a chuckle and ordered them to take care of King Hell's all needs. Hell was also somewhat appreciative, he felt his stomach growling with hunger.

"I can eat a horse at this point," Hell said and decided to follow the servants, leaving the room.

Hell was conflicted about how to go about killing Cain or Orvil. Since he could use Cain's ability to open portals to other worlds, it was probably easier to wait until Orvil had officially received the title of Demon of Pride and kill him.

"Let's go ahead and get a drink," Cain said and opened a portal to what seemed to be more like a bar than a dining room. Going inside the portal, they found themselves in a mess hall upon further examination.

The first thing Hell saw when he went inside was the demons and sub-demons inside turning to look at him, ceasing all noise. Cain put his hand over Hell's shoulder and told anyone inside that King Hell was an esteemed guest for the time being, that he should be treated as such. The soldiers, after a brief silence, acknowledged the order and continued their chatting and yelling.

"Now you can walk around the castle without being bothered," Cain said and sat down on a chair at the head of an ornate table, easily distinguished compared to other tables the soldiers sat on.

Before Hell could also sit, a large monster approached him, standing a few centimetres off Hell's face.

"You need something, big guy?" Hell asked and added: "Your breath f.u.c.k.i.n.g smells."

"How can a useless human like this be an esteemed guest here, Cain?" the monster spoke.

Cain, sensing the tension in the air, got up from his seat and introduced the parties to one another.

"Hell, this is Xehmall, a Devil General of Lucifer. Xehmall, this is Hell, our ally against the vampires for the time being."

Xehmall was a devil standing at around 3.5 metres, looking at Hell from above. One of his eyes was covered with a metal eyepatch while his other eye shone in pure white from behind his metal mask. He had two horns sprouting from his head bending toward his back. His battle-worn armour covered the rest of his body just the same as well as some metal spikes covering his shoulders. His sharp teeth were rotten and crooked.

Before Xehmall could answer, Cain spoke up again: "He will be leading the forces against Medusa tomorrow!"

"You think I, a Devil General of Lucifer, will fight for this disgusting small creature?"

As Cain tried to mediate the situation, Hell observed their argument and proposed a solution: "How about a bet? If I beat you, you will lead a force for me with all your might."

Xehmall's disgusting teeth were displayed in full as he started grinning. "And if I win, I will eat you and all your friends alive."

"Really, you are choosing live-barely nutritious humans over all this tasty meat I see on tables?" was what Hell wanted to say. "Sure, gather your bags," was what he actually said. He then sat on the table and started ordering whatever food he could think of.

"I will consume your very soul, foolish human," Xehmall said to himself as he left the scene, preparing an arena for their fight.

Xehmall has always been battle-crazy and bloodthirsty. What he enjoyed the most was when his victims realised there was truly no way to survive, that their end was coming as they were slowly butchered by his hands. The blood of the innocents he killed could form a river.

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