Gestation by John Gold (love books to read .txt) 📗

belt at the bottom of an enormous pool of blood. Actually, it’s more like a lake of blood, just with a passageway to the next belt where the bottom should be.

∞ ∞ ∞

Current location: Seventh Circle of Hell. Second Belt. Suicide Forest.

Copse

My guess was that I was going to be dropped into a city, but I turn out to be in a forest with trees growing out of the bodies of still-living sinners. Flaming dogs chase those of them who are still able to run. Up in the trees, there are harpies sitting and giving me unpleasant looks.

I’m not even counting the number of demons I’ve killed here. In fact, I only stop killing them when they stop coming after me. Harpies are weak opponents, though they’re much nimbler than what I’m used to. Of course, their agility doesn’t stand much of a chance when I stun them in midair. At one point, it’s practically raining harpies, and killing them when they’re stunned is easy. I’m also happy to be hit by lightning. I haven’t taken any electric damage in four months.

The trees are odd here. They have faces. Maybe, they’re relatives of that walk-tree. Just to see what will happen, I shoot one of them with weak healing. The misery being experienced by the man under the tree stops, though the tree itself comes after me. I don’t bother burning it, instead chopping it in half and breaking off some branches. These will be a great present for father to replace the branches he gave me. I gather some of its fruit and decide to take revenge on the harpies for attacking me. In the neighboring grove, there’s a few dozen of the evil creatures, so I stun them, drop a seed on each, and shoot an arrow with weak healing. Huh, the trees take the face of their victim, complete with their death grimace!

What’s the first rule of any circle of Hell?

Always head to the center.

∞ ∞ ∞

Current location: Seventh Circle of Hell. Third Belt. Flammable Sands.

Desert

For the second time in this circle, I take thermal damage. I’m in the middle of a desert. All around, sinners burn, while a fiery rain pours down from the sky. I’m burning, too, though I don’t really mind. The damage is minimal. If it were lava, that would be different, but a little fire rain doesn’t bother me.

The closer I get to the center of the circle, the stronger the downpour. Right at the edge of the border, the fire is blue, set against blood-red flashes in the sky. Beautiful!

And there is the hole leading to the next circle of Hell.

∞ ∞ ∞

Current location: Eighth Circle of Hell. First Belt. Eternal Crossing.

Path of Pain

The entire eighth circle is boring after the chimerology and necromancy tricks I pulled. The only thing worth mentioning is my encounter with Geryon, a fight that took a whole day. The death machine’s only weaknesses are his sluggishness and nine-meter height. In close combat, he’s a Level 700 monster with six arms and six legs, the kind that’s impossible to beat. Three shields, three spears. I have to keep running away and shooting back at him with my bow, and the only reason he dies is because I’m able to shatter one of his shields. I get the other two in with the loot. When I first saw him, I thought I was going to die. Actually, my very first thought was that he was a statue. But the way he waved those spears around… He hit me, too, though I was able to block the hit and mitigate the damage in my demon appearance.

It takes me two weeks to get through the tenth belt, what with having to deal with innumerable diseases. I take 75000 damage to both my physical and mental bodies at the same time, and that’s just from the shroud.

The belts get so narrow that I can see the other side after just six hours of running. Between them, there’s a shroud full of air, thick with the stink of decay. If it weren’t for the guards, I would stay here longer.

This is where I first see the classic devils armed with pitchforks. It takes me a while, but I’m finally able to “convince” a pair of them to boost my resistance by combining our health pools. Their Level 600 is almost too much for me, though blood magic and seals tip the scale in my favor. In other words, one ritual goes to help the other. Stun spikes work on the devils, though they don’t last very long at all.

I spend the whole two weeks in the shroud boosting my mental and physical damage resistance to 1100000. It’s just a good thing that there isn’t any poison here, or I’d die without even noticing it.

Geronimo!

∞ ∞ ∞

Current location: Ninth Circle of Hell. Lake Cocytus.

Bank

Suddenly, I’m reminded of Death. It gave me the same sense of power.

There’s somebody I don’t know dressed in odd clothing and standing at the very center of the lake. The distance from the shroud to the center of the circle is actually so short that I can see him immediately, and that means that I feel his power, feel him watching me. We’re ten kilometers away from each other, though I can still tell that his eyes are fixed on me. What strength!

He looks human. He’s wearing something like a t-shirt and a light vest, and the shorts fit in well with the look. But he feels like an enemy, and I’m afraid he’ll kill me if I come any closer.

I don’t see an aura crystal in this circle. It looks like the guy over there is the origin of the power. The air quivers, snow falls, and space is distorted. And I can sense all this from ten kilometers away.

I’m grabbed by an invisible current and drawn toward him. As I go, I see pits between us, not to mention Level 900 titans that stand a hundred meters tall. They watch