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The Confrontation

"Scared you to bits, huh?" said Belial when he noticed the silence. "Can't blame ya. Not many can stomach that kind of violence. It's pretty common down there, so you get the picture."

There was an uncomfortable silence during their travel, mostly because they refused to talk about Belial's violence. They knew that Infernals, one of several wrath demons, were known to be very violent, but they had just seen how violent they were. It was really the right call for both Belial and the others to keep him in that suit: who knows what would happen if he was set loose.

Still, it did not come with the fact that he was an uncontrollable monster. He seemed to know what he was doing, and even asked them to restrain him after the fight's over. It was as if he was trying his best not to be feared. There might be a reason for that, but for now, the fear of his actions caused the silence. It was good enough that Belial was aware of it.

After a while, Zardes, who did not seem to be greatly affected, asked Malkar to take on the carriage's wheel while he climbed back. Ammon joined Malkar at the front, continuing their lessons in Common language.

"I'm surprised you're not actively trying to get into a fight," said Zardes.

"Why not? I love some good fights." He sighed. "Although to be honest, I'm bored with all the deaths, the violence, and the backstabbing. If I have a chance to get out of it all, I'll take it. Hell, I even give up my throne for it, but I am not ready to give it to someone who takes it without even defeating me."

"Are you really that old?"

"Doesn't look like it, huh? Some of my subordinates are as old as I am. My generals are even as old as dear father. Or mother. I don't know. Maybe even both."

"So, you're running away from your responsibilities."

"No, I'm trying to help my people with the Infernal Texts. It's not the same."

"Alright, then, if you say so," said Zardes. "What's the significance of the Infernal Texts? It could just be one of your subject's journals."

"Isn't it obvious? I'm an Infernal, so those things piqued my interest. Also, the fact that those Texts exist needs some checking."

"Something tells me you already know what's inside."

"Why do you say so?"

"Well, for starters, you're far older than any of us. Also, I don't think the Ashen Kingdom was older than you."

"That is where you're wrong," said Belial, surprising Zardes and Malkar who was also listening. "I don't know the whole story about it. Let's just say that I was not aware of the existence of the Kingdom."

"You're...not aware of it?"

"I don't know about its existence, and when I am aware of it, it's already dust."

This made the group fell into silence again, except Ammon, who asked about a term in Common. There was a new mystery for them to solve, and it came from a centuries-old Infernal prince who did not even know the existence of a lost kingdom.

Before long, the carriage reached a small town named Axhal, again populated mostly by hellhounds. It seemed to be a hunter's town, given how most shops were butcher shops. Zardes even saw someone carrying a weird-looking Underworld creature and dropping it in front of a butcher, who thanked him while proceeding to cut its head while still talking with the hunter. It did not bother Zardes that much, given how Belial's stunt seemed to be the most extreme thing he had ever seen.

The town did not seem averse to newcomers, especially since they weren't the only newcomers there. It seemed that many hellhounds who had been exhausted by their travels stopped there for a rest. Some, including them, would try and ask for directions towards their destinations. Many could give them the direction they wanted, and it was easy to understand the directions.

What surprised the group, however, was the fact that they were alright with an Infernal. Belial's presence in that town did not seem to cause any talks or unnatural reactions like suspicions or fear. This, however, did not account to the fact that they were not the only peculiar group in that town.

Knowing very well that they would draw problem if they were seen in the open, they kept to the stores, talking with the keeper about the town and anything that had happened for the past days, before talking about the rowdy and rude groups of hellhounds outside, along with some wearing black clothes and seemed mysterious.

"(Oh, one's a troublemaker, but the other seems fine. I don't trust them if I were you, though)," said a butcher when Zardes asked him. "(They have been around these parts for a couple of days. To be honest, they don't seem to be that aggressive, well, except the fact that we're protecting Gehen)."

"(Gehen?)"

"(One of our tanners in town. Very shy and soft-spoken, though the moment you caught his scent, he's clearly a weird one. He's the only one we knew with an ashen gray fur and bright blue eyes...)"

Upon hearing the words 'Ashen gray fur and bright blue eyes', Zardes quickly interrupted the keeper by saying, "(That hellhound! Where is he?)"

"(It's no use trying to force your way to us, you know)," said the keeper with intense glare.

"(Sorry. That hellhound's one of the Ash Hounds from the neighboring lands. We want to get there through the port. These hounds are being harassed and attacked by a couple of hellhounds not so different from the ones outside)."

"(Oh, well...that's new. Just so you know, we are keeping him safe. Gehen had been a kind hound, but he suddenly became terrified when he heard these people talking about him. We all talked to each other to keep him safe, but I know sooner or later they'll resort to escalating violence and this town's done for)."

"(Before that happens, I think it's best to take Gehen out of town)," said Ammon. "(I can help convince him)."

"(I'm sorry, but you are...?)"

"(I'm an Ash Priest. He may not know me personally, but he knows that I'm trustworthy)."

The keeper seemed convinced about it, but he was still suspicious as to Ammon's intentions. The keeper, however said, "(You can meet him...after all the stores are closed)."

As so the four of them waited, trying to stay out of sight, given that they also had Belial, an Infernal, in the group. Their carriage was parked in a side of town where it was not conspicuous, so they could just get inside and waited until all the stores in the town were closed.

While waiting, Ammon resumed his lessons with Malkar while Zardes started talking to Belial again, though this time it was nothing more than small talks as the Infernal did not seem to like Zardes asking about his actions before the incident in Drundas.

They sometimes looked out to check if anyone caught an interest on their carriage, and to see the stores closing their doors for the night (though it was hard to determine when's night down there). It seemed that hours had passed before someone approached their carriage and said, "(Follow me)."

They followed him, half suspicious of his intent. The hellhound, however, seemed to understand their suspicions when he said, "(Don't worry. If I'm one of them, I'd not know the code)."

"(Is it really necessary for all these precautions?)" asked Malkar.

"(You'll know why. Come on. Time is short)."

The four followed the hellhound a short while until they reached a cellar door near where they parked their carriage. Belial, who looked at the stairs, said, "(Oh great. Underground holding area. Very original)."

Ignoring the Infernal's remarks, they descended to a hardly illuminated cellar devoid of any furniture and very dusty, as if it wasn't used for a very long time. It seemed to connect to the building above it through a door on the other side of the room, apparently made of wood despite of the heat in the Outer Ring could burn it down to cinders.

Suddenly, to the others' surprise, Belial grabbed the hellhound escorting them by the throat and said, "(Now then. Care to explain why you're leading us into a trap?)"

"(Belial, what the fuck are you doing?!)" shouted Zardes as he pulled out his knife.

"(Are you really that oblivious? This is an unfurnished, dusty cellar, this hound is going towards his gun, and the cellar door behind us is closed)."

Belial seemed to know what happened, for the hellhound did pull the gun on his hip and the cellar door closed behind them. But, instead of the expected ambush and the hound shooting Belial in the face, the hound threw the gun away.

"(Let me go, Infernal)," demanded the hound. "(I will explain why)."

Belial did so, dropping him to the dusty ground. He coughed and stood up after cleaning his coat.

"(He's the answer)," he said while pointing towards a nearby dust clump.

As if by magic, the dust started to swirl around despite of no wind or obvious air pressure changes. It made a swirling spiral pattern, as if it was covering an inactive portal that came on just a moment ago, just without the usual light. Then, as the swirling dust pattern rose up, a figure revealed themselves like magic, before it became apparent that the figure was a male hound. He was not just a regular hound, however. Both Zardes and Malkar knew what kind of hound he was, with striking blue eyes and ashen white fur color covering his entire body, along with the usual black horns and long, fur-covered, prehensile tail of a hellhound.

"(So, you're Gehen?)" said Malkar while he approached the ash hound. "(You don't look like what I imagined)."

Gehen did not reply. At first, Malkar thought he said something wrong, until the ash hound smiled and made finger movement and gestures.

"(He said 'what do you...)"

"(...Think of me, then?' Well...I imagine you'd be dressed like him)," said Malkar as he pointed towards a surprised Ammon.

This surprised the rest of the group in two ways. First, they just found out that Gehen, the Ash Hound they were looking for, was a mute. Second, Malkar understood sign language.

"(Malkar, you...?)"

"(My cousin's deaf since birth)," he said. "(I taught myself how to interpret sign language, so I can communicate with him. He's a nice hellhound. We might visit him one day in Dusdolf)."

Gehen then made signs again, which Malkar interpreted as, "(Good decision, except you might not know this)."

Then the hound behind Malkar said, "(This is not your usual sign language)" as Gehen made incomprehensible gestures.

"(Interesting)," said Malkar. "(I might want to study it a bit)."

Gehen's expression turned serious. He then made signs saying, "(I suggest you don't. This is between me and Damos)."

Assuming that's the hound's name, Malkar turned to Damos, who said, "(Yes, that is true. Just like you, there are others out there who can understand sign language)."

"(Why the secrecy?)" asked Zardes.

"(Because our enemy is resourceful)," replied Damos. "(And they will try and get Gehen with everything they got)."

"(Why)?"

"(Because...)"

"(Hey)," said Belial, who was standing near the stairs leading out of the cellar. "(He's important, right? Get him out of here. Now)."

Belial stood in front of the stairs as the cellar doors were suddenly torn open by a demon. The Infernal asked Zardes to let him fight, which the hellhound did so. The demon charged in and Belial stopped him, but then became surprised when he saw the demon.

"Oh, fuck," was the only thing he could say before he was thrown across the room by a bestial-looking winged demon, who let out a weird-sounding terrible roar that seemed to illicit terror to the others intimidated by his appearance.

Belial stood up, cleaned up some dust, then ran towards the winged demon. He did not seem to be hurt by the surprise attack. He then punched the winged demon in the stomach, which seemed to knock his wind out, but did not went through him like when Belial fought the cannibals. The surprised winged demon fought back, but he did not factor the fact that Belial could counter his attack and threw him down the floor.

The Infernal went in for the kill when the winged demon breathed out fire that blinded Belial momentarily. He then proceeded to grab the Infernal by the horns and threw him to his back. He groaned in pain but did not seem to stop. In fact, he seemed to like it.

Zardes brandished his big knife to try and protect the others, while Malkar brandished his gun in front of Damos, Ammon, and Gehen. He did not see Gehen signaling Damos what to do. The hellhound understood and said, "(Get closer, swordsman)."

Zardes did so, assuming that Damos was not keen on the destruction the two fighters caused. Suddenly, the scenery changed right in front of his eyes. A moment ago, they were in the cellars. Suddenly, they were in a dusty storage room.

"(What the hell?)" said Zardes when he assessed the surroundings.

Gehen grabbed Zardes's shoulder and made a gesture to shut up. He then pointed out towards the window nearby, where Zardes could see what happened outside.

They were teleported across the street to a storage building where they could see what happened. The hellhounds who earlier that day were trying to find Gehen were now surrounding the building where the cellar was. The group's carriage was on the side of the building, apparently not disturbed, though the townspeople were. They were all woken up by the commotion in the cellar, and their curiosity caused these hellhounds to start harassing them.

Knowing very well that Belial's fight would cause collateral damage, Zardes said, "(I'm going out there. The rest of you, get out of this building and find someplace safe)."

"(What are you going to do?)" asked Malkar.

"(Making sure that our demon gets all the need he gets.)." Zardes then pointed towards the shady hellhounds watching the fight. They seemed to be trying to ambush the basement while the demons were fighting, but they did not expect the group to be teleported behind them. Zardes knew that this was a chance to kill his enemies.

"(I'll back you up)," said Damos. He then pulled out a rifle he strapped behind his back. "(I'll make sure to confuse them)."

"(Right. Get into position)."

Now, Zardes knew that, as he was technically in hell, he did not require to fight valiantly like a true hero. He knew that the hellhounds' backs were turned against him. For Zardes, challenging them directly was stupid and unnecessary. He had an opportunity to stab their backs, and that was what he would do. Zardes sneaked out of the building and crept up behind a hellhound before stabbing him by the back repeatedly. He did so for a couple of them before someone noticed the muffled screams behind them and turned towards him.

Fighting against a bunch of battle-trained hellhounds would be a disadvantage for him, even with Damos's sniper backup. But, what they did not have was Zardes's special kukri knife. They quickly found out what it was capable of when it cut a hellhound's head clean off like knife cutting a butter. It showed its unnatural sharpness when it cut a giant iron heap of a blade as if it was paper, along with the fingers of the hellhound swinging it around.

Of course, despite of being able to cut through the hellhound horde, he was still one hellhound. If it wasn't for Damos's superb marksmanship, he would be taken in by surprise. He could not react fast enough when a hellhound managed to get behind him and tried to stab him, but he was quickly killed when a bullet went through his head. Zardes did not see this as he was preoccupied by another hellhound in front of him, whose attack he dodged by falling to the ground, letting the blade crossed over him harmlessly. He then countered it by pulling his leg, then stood up and stabbed him through his head.

The fight became gruesome when Zardes cut a hellhound into two with his kukri knife. With a pair of menacing eyes, the rest of the hellhounds started to adopt a defensive stance by pointing guns towards him. Zardes knew it was dangerous, so he quickly took cover behind a nearby building as Damos shot some of them down before his position became known. Half attacked Damos's position while the rest attacked Zardes.

The hellhound held on while thinking what if Itresi was with him there. It would be a short fight since her sheer size and thick scale plate could withstand most attacks. This was the reason why dragon riders (and to an extent, wyvern riders) were a formidable opponent of their own. They had been trained extensively in the arts of fighting and combat, along with trust with their draconic partners. Still, he needed to be able to fight alone when situation demanded it.

And thus, the ingenious idea of giving each dragon and wyvern riders special unusual weapons was adopted. Inspired by Richard Andaluvia's dragon treasure that he used in tandem with his dragon partner, the Order gave each dragon and wyvern riders to make a weapon that suited their combat style. It helped them push back their enemies and made them a formidable army of their own merit.

Zardes's kukri knife was originally a regular kukri knife he bought from a traveling merchant. While it was not sharp, he liked the way it looked and how to use it. Unless he was using a shield, the knife was optimized for a highly offensive attack. To maximize the lethality of this combat style and taking advantage of a hellhound's natural agility, Zardes chose to modify his weapon with a special enchantment that was as deadly as a hellhound could be. It was a simple sharpening enchantment, but it had a twist. Whenever Zardes connected a blow with the weapon, it would sharpen itself exponentially to the point where it could cut steel into two. It was the embodiment of Zardes's unorthodox fighting style and the hidden brutality he could not express without horrifying his peers. (The knife was also useful in chopping trees. The gradual sharpening was useful to keep it in top shape while it cut down trees)

Just as Zardes cut down his enemies, the wall behind him crumbled as the winged demon who Belial fought for a while came out flying from the building. He was bloodied and bruised, but the fight was far from over. From within the building, the Infernal wearing skin-tight black featureless suit came out of the ruins of the (apparently still standing) first floor of the building, not injured in parts of his body except his face, where it was bloodied and bruised.

"This is one of those fucking times," he said among exhaustive breathing. "When I appreciate being put in this suit."

"Belial!" shouted Zardes. "You alright?"

"Of course, I am!" he shouted. He turned his gaze towards to the winged demon, who was still standing, but it was clear that exchanging savage blows with Belial had made him weakened.

"Really wish I can use my claws, but there is satisfaction of hearing bones cracking," said Belial while cracking his fists. "And this guy gives me one hell of a workout."

The winged demon then said something in an unknown demonic language, one which Belial understood. The Infernal casually walked towards the demon, stood over him, and said, "Yeah. You did not say anything about rules."

He then raised his fist, and with renewed brutality, started pummeling the Infernal many times, face showing a maniacal grin. It was made worse with the fact that his face was that of a goat, a true opposite of what one would expect a 'benign' herbivore of the surface world (maybe so if it wasn't for their horns).

The brutal pummeling came to an end when Belial saw that the winged demon was unconscious. He then said, "Fucking Asmodian. You got nerves trying to fight a prince."

Belial turned towards the remaining groups of hellhounds, who were clearly unnerved by his brutal beatdown on what supposed to be their most powerful weapon.

"I guess you're thinking, 'how the fuck did he lose? He's supposed to be a circle demon!' Well, one, I am far stronger than he is. And two..."

Belial touched the winged demon's face and said something in an unknown demonic language.

A pentagram circle formed around the demon's unconscious body. Slowly, the body disappeared as it burned, showing a naked hellhound with similar bruises and injuries sustained by the winged demon, including the brutal beatdown Belial inflicted upon him. He seemed to be alive, though unconscious.

"Try using a better summoning ritual next time," said Belial. He then saw the terror on the hellhounds' faces. The expression of fear did not seem to make him glad. In fact, it disgusted Belial. He then growled and said, "Fuck off."

That remark was mildly threatening, but it clearly got throught. It caused the rest of the survivors to become completely unnerved. They sheathed their weapons, some throwing it away, and ran for their lives. Belial seemed to be ready to kill every last one of them when Zardes stood in front of him.

"They've lost. It is not necessary to kill them," said the hellhound.

Belial scoffed. "Well if you say so. They'll be back for sure."

"What did you do to that demon?"

"I broke his summoning contract. I'm a prince, so all fifth circle demons, whether they are Infernals or not, follows my call. If I say, 'come to me', they will come. If I say, 'Go home', they will go home. In your term, I kicked him out. It's harder if he's not possessing a host, since there's no contract to break."

"So, an exorcist who happens to be a demon prince?" Zardes shook his head. "This world can be crazy sometimes."

"I'm more concerned with the Asmodian possessing the hellhound. I don't know what's his plan, but this is fucking stupid."

"His plan?"

"The race's namesake. There is no way his kind would allow a low-level summoning like this."

"You're not talking sense, Belial. What do you mean by low-level summoning?"

"Asmodians are tricky to summon. If my kind represents violence, his kind represents wickedness. Pretty much an asshole, in layman's term."

"Well, I can see that you're a violent trash-talker, but I think he represents violence as much as you are."

"If you can't fight down there, consider yourself eternally drowning in boiling shit. No kidding. It's like a fucking gutter down there. Imagine thousands of years of waste thrown down there, liquefied and..."

"That's fucked up."

"That's hell for you. Or, just imagine walls of fire and eternal fires if it bothers you," he said. "At least they're clean."

As Zardes feared, the commotion and destruction were enough to cause several deaths due to collateral damage. The hellhounds were quick to blame the fleeing hellhounds and regarded the group as their savior. However, Zardes knew that in time, the hellhounds would think differently, as the group was equally at fault, anyway.

Before that happened, the group decided to leave the town. Armed by the knowledge of the direction to the port town, they slowly walked back towards their carriage and started their engine when Gehen and Damos came to them.

"(Wait. Take us with you)," said Damos. "(Please?)"

"(Why? It's safer if you stay here)."

"(Not for these townspeople. They may be a close-knit community, but they cannot fight against a horde of those demons. Look at what that fight caused. Gehen is their target, not these kind hellhounds)."

"(I also need to know why they target me)," said Gehen, as interpreted by Damos.

Zardes looked back towards the others. Ammon simply said, "(Why not? At least I'm not the only Ashen around)."

Belial just sighed, and Malkar shrugged. Knowing that the two would argue about the town's safety, Zardes sighed and said, "(Hop on. It's kinda small, but you'll fit. Pack lightly)."

Gehen smiled and made a sign signifying "(Thank you)" before he and Gehen walked back to the town to take their stuffs.

"(They look like they are inseparable friends)," said Malkar as they waited. I wonder what kind of history makes them inseparable)."

"(Well, whatever it is, it's enough for Damos to be his personal interpreter)," said Zardes. "(And quite reliable, too)."

Malkar smiled, and said, "(The more the merrier, right?)" to which Zardes smiled back.

And so, the journey continues...