u/AnemialShackles

After traveling for several hours, Ul and Enzel entered a sinister-looking rocky zone. Withered trees, covered in scabs of scorched stone, stretched toward the blackened sky like charred fingers. And yet, among that dead landscape, surprisingly green and healthy vegetation sprouted, vibrant in a contrast that felt almost unnatural.

—“Huh… I didn’t know plants could grow in a place this… dead,” Enzel said.

Ul gave him a tense look.

—“Yeah… That’s not a good sign.”

—“What? Why?”

—“Abnormally healthy vegetation in a dead landscape… It’s a sign of Scorched territory.”

—“Scorched?”

—“Demons whose bodies seem to burn in eternal combustion. They’re incredibly resilient and agile. Even for us, fighting them isn’t simple.”

Enzel puffed out his chest.

—“I see… then I just need to stay alert and give them a good beating if they get close.”

—“Eh… They move in groups of three. No matter how… capable of ‘absorbing hits’ you are, fighting several at once is a guaranteed recipe for defeat. Rather, you’d need to tell me if you see one… so we can decide whether to fight or run.”

—“What? You think I can’t take them?!”

—“That is exactly what I’m saying, yes.”

Enzel huffed indignantly as they continued forward.

Suddenly, the sharp whistle of something cut through the air, and a projectile struck the vehicle’s frame with a dry clank.

—“AHH! What the hell was that?!” Enzel exclaimed.

Ul picked up what looked like an arrow and examined it calmly.

—“Look, more trouble. Seems like a Lancenumjinji is trying to hunt us.”

—“A what?”

Ul raised an eyebrow.

—“Do you seriously know nothing about demons? Were you crawling through Hell surviving without seeing anything?”

—“Ehh… no! I fought with ferocity and rage! I had no time to examine the carcases”

Ul held back a laugh.

—“Sure. Lancenumjinji are serpentine, skeletal demons capable of launching the spines on their backs like arrows. Their venom is potent: it paralyzes and incapacitates. They’re excellent hunters… although…” Ul turned the spine in her hand. “Well, most of the time.”

Enzel tensed his fists.

—“Oh, yeah? Let’s see how good a hunter he is when he faces my claws!”

Ul calmly raised the vehicle’s defenses.

—“That would be a waste of time. They hide so well that seeing one is considered good luck.”

—“So we can’t do anything?”

—“Not particularly. If it fails to hunt us down in a couple of days, or if we enter an area that’s too open, it’ll leave.”

—“Days?!”

Ul shrugged.

—“Annoyingly persistent.”

The metallic defense wrapped around the vehicle, softening the occasional impacts of spines launched from the shadows. However, the environment began to change: the air grew denser, a reddish smoke started to embrace everything, and dry crackling echoed in the distance.

—“Hey! I saw something move! Something huge, flying!” Enzel warned.

Ul switched on a light in her visor.

—“Hmm… We may have caught the attention of a Scorched. Get ready.”

—“Even if there are several of them, together we can defeat them! I myself could take on a hundred alone”

—“Great because you’ll handle it alone.”

—“What?!”

—“These demons are formidable. It’s a good moment to teach you how to fight… properly. After all, your attempt to kill me left a lot to be desired.”

Enzel frowned, remembering with disgust the incident under New Lucifer’s control. Before he could think of a strategy, a demon emerged from the mist. Perched atop a stone column, its body looked like a living brazier, exhaling burning vapor with every breath. It remained there, staring straight at them.

With a deafening roar that shook the air, the Scorched spat a stream of lava in front of them, drawing an incandescent line across the rock.

Enzel swallowed. It was only one. And yet, his instincts warned him that this fight would be different.

—“Wait. There’s something strange about this one…” Ul muttered.

—“Eh? What’s wrong?”

—“Three horns. Larger than normal. Its color is deep red instead of orange… its muscles look like living embers. And I’ve never seen one spit lava before.”

Enzel tensed.

—“What does that mean?”

—“It’s probably an exceptionally strong mutant.”

Enzel hesitated for a moment, but finally stepped forward.

—“Just tell me how they fight. What should I watch out for? ... Nah, you know what? I’ll handle it myself.”

—“If you say so. Don’t forget to scream if you want me to save you.”

—“Shut up.”

Enzel took a deep breath.

He crossed the line of hardened lava, and the Scorched did not move at first… It looked somewhat confused. Its gaze shifted toward Ul; it seemed to expect both of them to challenge it. Then it looked back at Enzel and began examining him from head to toe. A jackal usually would not be much of a challenge: they were hard to kill, but they did not have much strength. Though Enzel did seem considerably larger than a normal one.

The demon smiled and took a stance, as if preparing for a race. Its muscles crackled like branches catching fire. In the blink of an eye, it launched itself like a living spear toward him.

Enzel barely managed to dodge. The impact against the ground was brutal: the rock split apart in a shockwave of burning fragments.

Before he could react, the Scorched sprang back up in an instant and launched a brutal kick, striking Enzel in the hip. The impact sent him rolling several meters, the air escaping his lungs in a dry grunt.

But Enzel, stubborn as ever, got to his feet, shaking off the ash.

The Scorched briefly shifted its gaze toward Ul, as if considering attacking her. She raised her mechanical arm without any expression.

—“I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

The demon leapt to strike her, but on impact, her arm flared with light, and the Scorched was repelled like a broken doll, heavily crashing several meters in the opposite direction.

—“How the hell…?!” Enzel blurted out.

—“Impressive, isn’t it? Before Christ, some warriors received blessed weapons that no enemy could pierce. I combined the designs of two of them into my arm. If I block with this, nothing can harm me.”

—“You had blueprints for that?”

Ul smiled faintly.

—“I memorized their designs… watch out!”

Enzel turned just in time to see the Scorched rushing toward him at terrifying speed, a burning silhouette that seemed to pierce through the air. Instinctively, he moved aside, and the demon slammed full-force into a stone pillar, splintering it into a rain of incandescent fragments.

Without losing momentum, the Scorched rose from the rubble and came down on Enzel like an unleashed beast. This time, Enzel crossed his arms and shielded himself from the impact with his scales at the last second. The blow resounded like thunder, but to his surprise, the pain he expected never came.

His scales, which had always been his first and last defense, had evolved. They resisted the impact with unbreakable solidity. What had once only softened blows now seemed to absorb the enemy’s brute force completely.

Surprised, but encouraged, Enzel used the momentum and threw a powerful punch at the Scorched’s head, sending it several meters back. The demon staggered, clearly shocked that its opponent had not only survived the impact, but had also counterattacked with force.

—“ŗ̸͑͗ȅ̵͍̠̽s̷̬̑͌i̸̟͌s̸̡̜͆t̸̖͍͂s̴͔̍̅…”

From a distance, Ul watched attentively.

—“Good. Take advantage while it’s confused.”

Enzel, regaining his composure, quickly thought about how to throw it off balance. Meanwhile, the Scorched straightened, flexing its body with a grotesque crackle. It took an offensive stance, drew one arm back, and with a sudden motion, launched three fireballs straight at Enzel.

Enzel dodged to the side, but one of the spheres grazed his arm, burning him superficially. He let out a grunt of pain, though his scales resisted most of the damage.

Without stopping, the Scorched jumped to another position and fired a new volley of flames. Enzel took cover behind a pillar, shielding himself from the scorching rain.

The demon glanced sideways at Ul, calculating whether it should change targets. She only pointed to her metal forearm, like a silent warning. The message was clear even to the creature: don’t try it.

The Scorched landed in front of the pillar where Enzel was hiding, and its voice rumbled in a distorted murmur:

—“A̶̘̘̍͠p̵̯͂͠p̵͙͐̔ẽ̶̬͝â̵̞̙͝r̷̗̗̃…”

Its hand glowed with barely contained, latent heat.

—“I̶̫̿ ̶͍̊c̶̹̿a̵̚͜n̸̙̐ ̵͉̈s̶͎̀e̷̼͌e̸̛̞…”

The Scorched circled the pillar, searching for Enzel’s arm, which was clumsily sticking out. It advanced with confidence… until something lightly touched its head.

The demon turned its face to the right, bewildered, but before it could react, Enzel threw a handful of dust and dirt directly into its eyes.

The Scorched stumbled back, roaring, rubbing at its face, momentarily blinded. Enzel wasted no time: he charged in with a blow to the skull, followed by another quick strike to the abdomen. However, before he could land a third, the demon reacted on instinct and caught his arm.

With brutal momentum, the Scorched shot into the air, dragging Enzel with it. They rose dozens of meters and began to descend with force. The whistle of the wind deafened them both as they plummeted.

—“Turn it! Get on top!” Ul shouted from below.

Just before they crashed into the ground, Enzel acted. He grabbed the demon’s neck with his free arm and twisted his body as best he could, positioning it as a shield in front of him.

The impact was brutal.

A cloud of dust rose like an explosion, and fragments of rock flew in every direction. Enzel came out battered, but quickly got back up, panting. The Scorched, on the other hand, was left partially buried in a newly formed crater, releasing a guttural growl of frustration.

It slowly rose, a hateful grimace deforming its scorched face.

At that moment, something whistled through the air: a spine launched from the distance.

The Scorched caught it mid-flight effortlessly, turning its head toward the forest it had come from. Something moved among the bushes… and retreated.

The demon turned its attention back to Enzel… and smiled.

The flames around its body intensified like a silent roar. It raised its fist… and struck the ground.

A crack opened beneath its feet, advancing like a straight arrow toward Enzel. He jumped to the side to dodge it, but the moment he touched the ground, the Scorched appeared like lightning and delivered a direct kick to his face, sending him flying several meters and crashing violently into a pillar.

In pain, Enzel pulled himself back up just in time to see an enormous rock being thrown toward him.

With no option to dodge, he crossed his arms to shield himself and took the impact head-on. But while he was still staggering, the Scorched appeared right after it and struck him violently in the stomach, launching him like a doll toward a rocky formation.

The demon rose into the air and descended like a flaming spear, trying to crush him. Enzel managed to move aside at the last second. Wasting no time, he threw a punch at the Scorched, but it caught his fist, pulled him in… and delivered a brutal headbutt.

Enzel felt the impact vibrate through his skull. The demon lifted him as if he weighed nothing and slammed him into the ground.

Dazed, Enzel blindly felt around the terrain and grabbed a small rock. With a desperate motion, he smashed it against the Scorched’s head, managing to make it loosen its grip.

He used the opening to unleash a precise claw strike across the demon’s chest, tearing away a large portion of charred flesh and exposing the pulsing muscle beneath the flames.

Ul shouted from a distance:

—“Their bodies resist blunt impacts, but not sharp attacks! When you fight, test everything you can until you find your enemy’s weakness!”

—“AND YOU’RE ONLY TELLING ME THAT NOW?!” Enzel shouted back.

With sarcasm, Ul replied:

—“You told me not to tell you anything.”

The Scorched rose into the air, and Enzel, alert, recognized the pattern of its movements: it was about to unleash another rain of fire.

The demon released a storm of incandescent magma. But this time, it was not aimed at Enzel. He responded by throwing stones upward, deflecting part of the attack, while the Scorched climbed higher and released a great blaze toward the sky.

Then it descended violently, tearing a stone pillar out by the roots. With one arm, it carried it over its shoulder as if it were a simple staff.

Enzel, thinking quickly, made a provoking gesture, challenging it to attack. The Scorched did not hesitate: it swung the enormous pillar like a hammer, crushing the ground where Enzel had been standing seconds earlier.

But Enzel did not counterattack.

He waited.

The demon struck again, destroying another chunk of rock. Each charge was slower than the last, and the pillar creaked dangerously. Enraged, the Scorched rose while spinning with the pillar in a devastating motion.

Enzel stayed still.

He waited until the very last instant.

The pillar struck… but shattered on contact, exploding into fragments.

From the rising cloud of dust, Enzel emerged like a shadow and launched a powerful kick straight into the demon’s lower jaw. The blow thundered, stunning it briefly.

Enzel did not waste the moment. He lunged with fury and delivered two brutal claw strikes to the Scorched’s arm, tearing through flesh and bone. The arm was left hanging, limp and useless.

The demon staggered back with difficulty. Suddenly, the sky turned a fierce orange. Enzel looked up: the blaze it had launched minutes before was beginning to descend, wrapping the landscape in a rain of fire.

The temperature rose brutally. The ground burned beneath his feet. The plants ignited like living torches.

—“Take this!” Ul shouted, throwing him a thick piece of cloth. “Cover yourself and tie it quickly!”

Enzel covered himself as best he could, protecting himself from the flames now falling like burning rain. It was not perfect, but it was better than nothing.

—“s̴t̸r̷̴o̵̷n̶̶g̷̷…”

The Scorched hunched over. Its body began to crack in an unnatural way. From its charred flesh, new flesh began to sprout, grayish and grotesque.

Its arms deformed, turning into membranous wings. Its jaw stretched, and two enormous fangs emerged. With a roar that shook the earth, it rose into the air.

—“Careful! In that form, they’re much stronger, and they can’t be damaged!” Ul warned.

—“What am I supposed to do, then?!” Enzel shouted.

—“Just endure! It won’t be able to hold that form for long.”

The demon descended like a comet. Enzel intercepted it, stopping its open jaws with both hands. With a titanic effort, he threw it away.

The Scorched returned almost immediately, attacking with its enormous claws.

Enzel dodged by instinct, counterattacking whenever he could. He managed to tear through the soft tissue of its wings, but the wounds closed almost instantly, as if the fire itself were weaving its flesh back together.

The battle dragged on. Minute after minute, Enzel held his ground, but his stamina weakened under the scorching heat. Meanwhile, the Scorched began to deteriorate: the flames around them, which it had unleashed itself, were starting to affect it.

Finally, the surrounding flames died out.

The demon descended heavily, its flesh charring again. With a dull cry, its body ignited in fire and collapsed back into its original form: smaller, more compact… more weakened.

The arm it had lost had regenerated, although its energy had visibly diminished.

Enzel, exhausted and panting, was still standing.

The Scorched smiled… a crooked, dangerous smile. Its body began to shine intensely.

—“Don’t let it get close!” Ul shouted.

Enzel looked at it, bewildered.

—“What, is it going to burn me?!”

—“That’s not it! They can detonate a layer of their skin! You won’t survive an explosion at point-blank range!”

Enzel looked back at the Scorched, which was still smiling. The demon launched itself toward him. Enzel did his best to dodge, but its speed was too much. Then he saw an elongated piece of rock in the distance and began running toward it. The Scorched lunged. Enzel jumped right over it, pushed off its body, and shoved it hard into the ground. He landed near the piece of rock and grabbed it.

—“Hey, idiot, why haven’t you caught me yet? Am I too fast for you?”

The demon charged in fury, grabbing Enzel, and began to glow with intensity, ready to immolate itself. But before it could explode, Enzel drove a powerful headbutt into it, throwing it slightly off balance. When its grip loosened a little, he took the piece of rock and drove it into the demon’s stomach, pushing it away just enough to then swing it like a bat, launching it as far as he could. The demon exploded in midair.

When the dust settled, Enzel saw the Scorched crash heavily to the ground, charred and battered. Even so, with difficulty, the demon rose, staggering.

Its face was expressionless… but it smiled.

—“N̴͕͆e̷͚̓w̷̢̌ ̴̱͝l̴͈͒i̴̗̇g̵̝̀h̸̩̄t̵̯̾.̴̟͆.̸̞̽.̶͙̈ ̷̦̿Ȋ̷̟ǧ̶̣n̴̜̊i̸̦͘z̶̥͌ ̴͚́ȓ̷̜e̶̡͝s̵͔̈́p̴̽͜e̴͇͝c̶̛͕t̶͉͂s.”

The Scorched bowed its head with one hand over its chest and immediately took flight, disappearing into the gray sky.

Enzel blinked.

—“What the hell did it say?”

Ul let out a small laugh.

—“Something about… light and respect. I think you have a fan.”

Enzel snorted.

—“I’d rather not…”

Sore, but still in one piece, Enzel staggered back to the vehicle and collapsed into the passenger seat.

—“Well done,” Ul said.

Enzel smiled weakly.

—“T-thanks…”

Ul took some gauze and bottles filled with a strange liquid from the vehicle. She began treating his wounds. When he felt the first touch against the burned areas, Enzel let out a muffled groan.

—“Sorry…”

After a few minutes, and a few enchanted phrases, Enzel was back in shape, though still aching.

—“That was fast… but why didn’t you use your magic from the start? You know, the healing thing.”

—“It has limitations. There are things I can’t heal or repair; it depends on the type of damage. Also, I have to be precise. If I cut the flesh carelessly for my prosthetics, my magic won’t even work... probably because I don't really practice it”

—“Do you think we’ll see that guy again?”

Ul shrugged.

—“It’s possible. Especially considering this place wasn’t his territory.”

—“How do you know?”

—“Scorched have an obsession with plants. During fights, they always move as far away from their gardens as possible.”

Enzel leaned back in his seat, exhausted but satisfied. The vehicle’s engine roared as they resumed their journey.

-----------

Hope i nailed with writing a fight.

kinda hard.

The trail of gold kept stretching like a shining serpent through the cracks of Hell. Ul and Enzel followed it cautiously, crossing gray fields where shadows trembled and heat rose like steam from the depths.

Around them lay piles of coins, fragments of liquid metal, and scattered jewels, as if someone had thrown the wealth of a thousand empires onto the ground with no order or reason. As they advanced, the landscape became more opulent… and more unstable.

Eventually, the path led them back to Cocytus. There, rising imposingly like a spear buried in the earth, stood a gigantic tower, so tall its peak seemed to scrape the ceiling of Hell.

“Oh.”

Enzel looked up at the structure.

“Had you been here before?”

“Not really. I’d only seen it from a distance, standing out among the ruins… but since we’re here, I suppose it’s time to find out what it actually is.”

The Tower of Golden Ivory rose like a monument to desire. Its walls, plated in sheets of gold that reflected the crimson light of the infernal sky, shone like a false promise. Every inch was decorated with reliefs of demons in pleading postures, sculpted from solid gold. Their eyes were empty and their mouths open, as if they were eternally begging for something they would never receive.

Once they were close enough, Ul turned off the vehicle’s engine and they both stepped down. They walked over ground covered in scattered jewels and pools of liquid gold that gleamed ominously.

Enzel approached one of them cautiously.

“What is this liquid?”

“Careful. It looks like gold. If it is, it’s probably extremely hot. And even if it isn’t, it’s still liquid metal.”

Enzel stared at the pool skeptically.

“Uhh… if you say so…”

At that moment, a demon came running out of the tower’s entrance, panting, with a pile of jewels clutched against his chest. But something was wrong. With each step, his body took on a golden shine from the feet upward. His skin hardened, and his gait became slow and strained, as if the weight of his loot were dragging him toward his damnation.

Within seconds, he disappeared among the rocks. They did not need to see him to know what would happen: he would surely end up turned into another golden statue.

“Is it really worth turning into stone over a couple of objects?”

“Many are easily seduced by gold and gems… though honestly, they’re useless outside of a society.”

Enzel turned to look at her strangely.

“Gems?”

Ul stared back at him, incredulous.

“…Yes.”

Leaving the conversation behind, they approached the enormous entrance doors. They were covered in inlays of sapphires, rubies, fragments of corroded Verita, and plates of molten Auferun, all arranged as if someone had tried to build a fortress out of the wealth of the world… without truly understanding how to use it.

They pushed the doors open. They creaked with a deep sound.

And what they saw on the other side was grotesque.

The interior was vast, far larger than the outside of the tower suggested. An impossible space. The floor was covered with frenzied demons writhing among mountains of coins like beasts in heat. Some bit into the jewels, others licked them or clutched them to their chests. Some laughed, others cried. All of them were… empty. Every time one jewel vanished, another appeared to take its place.

“Wow… I guess I must have looked like that once too. Ugh… I’m not falling for something like that again.”

Ul raised an eyebrow.

“I doubt it, honestly.”

She crouched down and picked up a small capacitor half-buried among the coins.

“Though… some of these parts would actually be useful for my work.”

Enzel raised an eyebrow when he saw what she was holding.

Beyond the collective madness, there was not much else to see on the first floor. At the back, two staircases of dark marble led to the next level. Without much discussion, they started climbing.

The moment they stepped onto the second floor, the stairs behind them collapsed, swallowed by a structural trap.

Ul, unfazed, grabbed one of the demons crawling nearby and threw it over the edge. It crashed into the floor below with a scream… but nothing happened to it.

“I thought it would petrify or something. This is not a real obstacle.”

“I guess it’s just there to make you not want to go back down.”

The second floor was different. Cleaner. Less beastly. The jewels were no longer scattered at random, but arranged in neat piles. Chests were stacked in the corners, and in the air there lingered a faint smell of ozone… of technology.

Ul stopped short.

On top of a polished stone table rested switches, capacitors, transistors, fragments of circuitry, and even a relatively recent-generation CPU. They were parts she recognized immediately, some better than the ones she carried with her.

“Ohhh… all right, now this has my attention. The parts here are very high quality, and we have not even gone up that far… though I am concerned about who could have made something like this. I do not know anyone out there capable of manufacturing technology at this level.”

Her voice sounded different. More alive. Almost excited.

Enzel watched her cautiously.

“Uhh…”

“We need to go higher.”

Floor after floor, the tower seemed to multiply its opulence. With every step upward, the walls shone more intensely, and the decorations stopped being merely gaudy and became absurd. First polished infernal stone, then dark marble, then ivory veined with crystal, burnished silver, gold, diamond, and finally liquid platinum. The materials seemed to be competing with one another to see which could dazzle more.

At times they crossed paths with demons lost among the riches: ignaxumjinjis covered in impossible ornaments, or kerlamites embedding colorful materials directly into their bodies.

The air grew heavy. Sweet. Almost sickening, as if breathing itself became harder in the presence of so much wealth.

Ul walked ahead, picking up technological parts at every step. Her fingers, usually steady and methodical, now moved with compulsive haste, as if she feared everything would vanish if she did not grab it at once.

Enzel watched her in silence. For the first time in a long while, he did not understand what he was seeing. Not because he lacked the knowledge… but because Ul no longer seemed like herself.

The upper floors no longer held stone or ordinary metal. Everything was unreal. It shone too much. It almost hurt to look at. The walls breathed luxury, the floors were carpeted with golden filaments that seemed to move with the light, and lamps of infernal crystal floated on their own beneath ceilings that imitated false skies.

And the statues.

There were more and more demons frozen in poses of euphoria, greed, or grief. Some stretched their hands toward invisible chests, others clutched their own legs as if regretting too late what they had taken. At times, as they moved forward, one of them would transform right before their eyes, turning into pure gold while trying to cling to one more jewel.

Many crumbled at the slightest touch, as if the gold they were made of was not metal at all, but fragile dust disguised as glory.

At one point, they noticed something unsettling: the demons coming up behind them seemed to be floating through the air right where the stairs had collapsed. Another illusion. The stairs were still there, only invisible.

Meanwhile, Ul kept trying to assemble the parts she had gathered. Small motors, motherboards, energy cores… but nothing worked. Her face remained calm, though Enzel could already see the tension in every movement.

By the time they reached the twenty-fourth floor, the components were so advanced that even Ul did not fully understand how they worked. And even so, something in her instincts told her where each piece belonged, how they fit together… yet they never functioned. They would not start up. They did nothing.

“Damn it… what am I doing wrong?”

“Ul… maybe you should rest a little. Leave those things alone.”

“Shut up. Make yourself useful and bring me that huge engine.”

Enzel followed the direction of her finger.

“You mean… that?”

“Yes, damn it. Hurry up!”

Confused, he dragged the heavy device over to her.

“I don’t get it… what is it for?”

Ul suddenly grabbed him by the snout.

“Are you an idiot?”

Her eyes were burning.

“This is an Auferun-alloy engine with six crossed cylinders, counterweights to prevent vibrations at high RPM, bearings coated with antifriction material, and a double camshaft! And that’s just the basics!”

Enzel blinked slowly.

“…No.”

Ul let go of him abruptly and went back to assembling parts compulsively. Enzel watched the process. Everything seemed logical, the parts fit together, the design made sense… but when she finally activated the machine, it collapsed in on itself.

Scrap. Nothing more.

Ul let out a scream of frustration, deep and almost childish, like a little girl being promised something impossible to reach.

Without a word, she kept climbing. Enzel took a moment to react before running after her.

The pattern repeated again and again: every new floor offered better parts, brighter promises, more sophisticated mechanisms… and every single one of them failed without exception.

Until they reached a floor unlike any of the others.

There was no machinery there. No parts. Not even movement.

Everything was crimson red.

The walls, made entirely of polished gold, seemed to melt toward the edges. The view faded only a few meters ahead, swallowed by a black mist that allowed nothing to be seen beyond it. Everything was dense. Unreal. Like a dream turned into a prison.

And at the center of that scene… there he was.

A colossal demon, with a rounded silhouette and grotesquely comfortable presence. His body was wrapped in garments of the highest quality, embroidered with threads of gold and jade ornaments. His cloak, a deep emerald green, seemed to move in rhythm with his breathing. His smile, wide and almost sincere, revealed teeth of solid gold, polished like blades.

His skin was covered in tattoos: gems, coins, rings, and ingots engraved directly into his flesh. He did not seem to suffer from it. Rather… he seemed to enjoy it.

He sat atop a mountain of coins so tall that his throne looked unstable, as if it might collapse at any moment. Around him, mountains of jewels rose like sacred pillars. Impossible minerals piled up in the corners, and enormous sapphires floated around him as if the air itself had surrendered to his wealth.

Or at least… that was what Ul saw.

“Welcome to the Golden Ivory. Here, new collectors are always welcome… This tower has been my greatest work, and very soon we shall reach Heaven to take the marvelous artifacts of that forgotten realm.”

Ul and Enzel stopped, stunned by the demon’s presence.

Enzel frowned.

“Who the hell is this guy?”

“Mammon… or rather, a siren pretending to be Mammon. Though I must admit, his body is in… incredible condition. If I didn’t know the real Mammon died in the war, I would think I was looking at the genuine article.”

Enzel looked back at the creature, but what he saw looked nothing like Ul’s description.

Before his eyes, there was only a walking corpse covered in filthy, ragged cloth. It was missing one arm and half its head, exposing the face of the siren demon hidden inside the body. Its abdomen was open, as if it had been violently torn apart; charred remains hinted at wounds made by divine fire… probably the way the original Mammon had died.

Enzel cleared his throat.

“Ul… it’s affecting you.”

She did not even turn to look at him.

“Nonsense. I trained specifically to resist siren mind control. Besides, there aren’t any left anymore, outside of the Sins and that control-obsessed maniac in the capital. The old ones couldn’t even affect me.”

She ignored him completely and kept walking, passing by Mammon to continue toward the next floor as if nothing Enzel said mattered.

Enzel gritted his teeth and cautiously approached the demon. His intention was to interrogate him, though the disgust on his face was obvious.

“You. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Heh… heh… heh… I am trying to reach Heaven. To take its riches. There must be something there… something I can truly possess.”

“I don’t care about that. Why are you controlling Ul?”

Mammon let out a wet laugh.

“Oh, but I am not controlling her. If she is being affected by my presence… then it must be because something inside her responds to my power.”

Enzel frowned.

“Sure. Lucifer controlled me too. I couldn’t think clearly until he let me go.”

Mammon slowly descended until he was face to face with him.

“But I am not Lucifer, little lizard. My power is not born from control. It rises from the devotion of those who venerate me. The more riches I accumulate, the more my tower grows… and the more it grows, the closer I come to divinity.”

Enzel looked around with contempt.

“Riches? You mean all this garbage?”

“Garbage to you. To my followers, they are priceless treasures. And when a demon hoards enough… they end up becoming part of the treasure. The same happens to those who keep climbing. They melt into the tower. Into my kingdom.”

Enzel let out a dry laugh.

“None of this has any real value. And yet you keep piling it up… How little control do you have to end up like this?”

Mammon tilted his head slightly.

“Oh… and you have enough to boast about it?”

“More than you, clearly. What’s the point of all these ‘riches’? What emptiness could they ever fill if you’re never going to be satisfied?”

Mammon was silent for a moment.

“Mmm… your words resonate with me in some way. Not their intent… but something within them. Though tell me, little lizard… what if I offered you something?”

“Something like what?”

“It is said Heaven possessed weapons more powerful than any other. Imagine the power we would have with them. We would rule Hell as kings, and if you only—”

“I’m not interested. How exactly do you plan to reach Heaven?”

Mammon smiled, showing his golden teeth.

“There is a crack up there… caused when Astaroth struck down a seraph. My demons build toward it by instinct. They long for what I long for. And with more than six hundred floors… soon we shall reach it.”

Enzel stopped listening to him. He turned on his heels and ran up the stairs. He had to reach Ul before she kept climbing.

He finally found her on the forty-fourth floor.

“Wait, Ul!”

She barely turned, indifferent.

“What do you want now?”

Enzel stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

“You’re being affected. You’re acting the same way I did.”

Ul narrowed her eyes.

“You’re the only one being affected. Look around. These parts aren’t appearing out of nowhere. This is advanced technology. Do you know how hard it is to find materials for diodes?”

“That guy told me. His power is different. He doesn’t control people like the other sirens… he distorts what you desire. He makes you see value where there isn’t any. That thing in your hand is garbage, Ul. You’re the only one who sees it as valuable.”

Ul lowered her gaze for a second to the parts she was holding. Then she looked away, clearly irritated.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t fall for something so… obvious.”

But her voice faltered. A small crack opened in her argument. Something inside her was beginning to fracture.

Even so, she ignored him and kept walking.

Enzel ran after her and grabbed her by the leg. Ul reacted by instinct, launching a brutal kick that sent him falling backward. Enzel got up immediately and threw himself at her again, grabbing her tightly and making her lose her balance. Both of them fell to the floor.

They struggled violently.

Ul tried to free herself, furious. She drove a knee into his stomach, forcing him to let go, then grabbed him by the snout and slammed him against the floor. Enzel landed on his back, dazed, but before she could pull away, he managed to grab her arm and yank her down. Ul fell on top of him, and Enzel trapped her in an improvised hold.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! Let go of me!”

“No! Not until you’re thinking clearly! Not until you’re yourself again!”

Ul drove an elbow into his ribs, but Enzel kept speaking between struggles.

“Ul… as much as it pains me to admit it, you’re better than me. You’ve lived more, seen more, know more. Do you really not notice that this is different? You said it yourself. There’s no one out there capable of making things like yours. None of this is real, and you know that better than anyone! You know how machines work!”

Ul went still for an instant. Her hand trembled slightly.

“You don’t need anything here to create what you make. Why would you want to imitate what others covet when you build things others actually need?”

Ul’s fist slowly lowered.

Her eyes moved across the floor and finally settled on the piece she was still holding: a broken casing covered in golden grime. Nothing useful. Nothing she could not make better herself.

She stayed silent for several seconds.

“No way…”

Her fingers loosened, and the piece fell to the floor with a dull clatter.

“It was affecting me…”

Enzel slowly let go of her and dropped backward, panting. Ul sat beside a wall, resting her arms on her knees.

“Are you okay?”

She looked around with an exhausted expression.

“I think so…”

Now that greed no longer clouded her mind, the scenery had changed completely. The mountains of electronic parts, the glittering jewels, and the shining objects that had once seemed priceless were nothing more than junk: rusted fragments, cracked crystals, worn-out cloth, and scraps of old paper. A garbage dump disguised as paradise.

Ul exhaled heavily.

“I need to design some device to protect us from types like him…”

“I don’t doubt you can do it… but maybe we should get out of here first.”

Ul looked up at the stairs leading to the next floor. Even though the Sin’s influence no longer weighed on her, she still felt a faint curiosity; a persistent whisper inviting her to keep climbing.

But now she knew it was a trap.

She stood up.

“Yes… you’re right. But first, I want to interrogate that demon.”

The two of them began to descend, pushing junk aside to find the invisible steps. Floor after floor, they made their way down until they returned to the level where New Mammon was waiting for them, reclining among mountains of false riches and watching them with that twisted smile.

Ul brought an improvised knife to his neck. Her expression was not threatening, but irritated.

“All right… what the hell were you trying to do?”

Mammon smiled, unmoved.

“Heh… heh… heh… as I explained to the little lizard, I did nothing. You walked upward of your own will. If you fell under my influence… that says something about you, does it not?”

“Uh-huh. And you’re not going to stop us? Attack us? You’re not worried we might hurt you or sabotage your… tower?”

Mammon merely shifted among the coins.

“Do so if you wish. I have already explained the only thing I seek… the riches of Heaven.”

“Right. Then tell me something useful. How do the powers of the other New Sins work?”

Mammon shrugged.

“I do not know. Heh… heh… heh… We do not speak to one another, nor do we cooperate. When we found the original corpses, we fought over them like dogs over a bone. That is all. We hate each other.”

Enzel frowned.

“If you’ve already been to Heaven, why didn’t you take what you were looking for? Or how did you come back?”

“Back then, I was not… this. My obsession appeared afterward. And I do not remember how I reached that place. Everything is… blurred.”

Mammon stared into nothing with a strange, empty sadness.

“I know these things are worthless. But something inside me forces me to keep searching… as if there were something I could truly possess. And yet… I cannot enjoy this greed. Besides… I feel that something is wrong. I do not know how long this tower will remain standing.”

Ul slowly lowered the knife.

“Hmm… I’m starting to see a pattern.”

She fell silent for a moment. For an instant, she considered shooting him, raising the weapon again… but after a few seconds, she lowered it once more without any expression.

Then she looked at Enzel.

“I gain nothing by killing him. We’d better leave before we end up turned into statues.”

The two of them descended through the last floors and finally stepped out of the immense tower. The air outside was colder and heavier, as if they had been short on oxygen the entire time they were inside.

Ul cast one last look at the golden pools outside. Now they only looked like thick tar with a yellowish gleam, something that could only seem valuable through self-deception.

They stood for a moment, watching the top of the tower. Up there, tiny silhouettes of demons were still building new floors.

“That guy said there were more than six hundred floors… but I don’t see more than fifty.”

Just then, the demons finished their work. The first floor began to sink slowly into the earth, as if Hell itself were swallowing it. A new entrance emerged at ground level, identical to the one they had passed through when they entered.

Ul watched the scene for a few seconds.

“There’s your answer.”

They walked to the vehicle. Ul took the driver’s seat and began activating the systems while Enzel settled in beside her.

“By the way… there’s something I didn’t mention earlier.”

He pointed at Ul’s right leg. From the hoof to the heel, it was completely covered in solid gold.

“Ah…”

Ul looked at the limb with a mix of annoyance and resignation.

“I’ll have to fix that. Though I suppose my kicks will be stronger now.”

“Is gold resistant?”

“Not particularly. But it is heavy… Ah, wait. It’s pyrite. Yes, this is completely useless.”

They both let out a small laugh, the kind that comes after surviving something uncomfortable.

Ul set the vehicle’s course. Little by little, they moved away from the Golden Ivory, leaving Mammon and his tower of illusions behind.

After a few seconds of silence, Ul spoke without taking her eyes off the road.

“Enzel.”

“Hmm?”

Her voice came out softer than usual.

“Thank you.”

Enzel did not answer. He only nodded.

The engine roared, and the vehicle advanced toward their next destination.

-------

im not ignoring the previous chapter but to not confuse myself im gonna ignore the number

The star rose again, illuminating Hell once more.

Enzel woke slowly, blinking against the reddish glow around him. The first thing he thought about was how well he had slept. His body felt more rested than usual. As he sat up, he noticed something curious: the ground where he had been lying was still warm, as if it had been carefully chosen for his comfort.

He turned his head and saw Ul driving the vehicle toward a strange rocky area.

The terrain was full of deep fissures, like open scars winding across the ground. Some looked like caverns, others like the dry pits of ancient lakes. Constant steam rose from within them, and if one looked closely, faces could sometimes be seen beneath the surface. Traces. Marks of what once had been.

“This place has always given me chills… What are we doing here?” Enzel asked.

Ul turned slightly when she heard him.

“Hmm? Oh, you woke up. Well, this place has a useful mineral I need.”

“Didn’t you say when we left that you had plenty of those… things stored away just in case?”

“Correct. But I already used up my entire reserve of that mineral.”

“Huh? On what? I didn’t see you build anything.”

Ul raised her arm and flexed it briefly, showing him her new limb with complete nonchalance.

“…So…”

He smiled smugly.

“It wasn’t that useful, huh?”

“Silence” she replied

As they moved forward, a few eyes peeked out in the distance, hidden among the shadows of the rocky formations. None of them dared to come closer, but it was clear they could not afford to lower their guard.

After a few minutes, they reached a massive entrance leading into a cavern. Ul stopped the vehicle and stepped down naturally. Enzel followed her, observing everything carefully.

“So… what you need is in here.”

“Usually, yes. I’m looking for Andaramium.”

“I have no idea what that is.”

Ul began pulling tools out of the vehicle. Some had such strange shapes that it looked like she had built them herself that very morning.

“It’s a rare metal. Not very resistant. In fact, it’s fairly weak.”

She handed Enzel an enormous cylinder with spiral spikes. It was a drill, but he had never seen anything like it. Enzel stared at it suspiciously.

“Then what’s it good for if it’s so weak?”

Ul touched the edge of one of her eyes, and an orange light came on with a faint hum.

“Despite its fragility, it has a unique quality. It produces infinite energy. You could connect it to a building, and it would keep it running forever.”

She paused.

“Of course, there’s a limit. The amount you can extract per unit is minimal, so you need quite a bit of it to make a functional battery. But beyond that… infinite energy.”

Enzel tilted his head, confused.

“…Uhhh… what’s a building?”

“…Never mind. I’ll find it using the sensor in my eyes. They can see the energy it emits. You’ll handle the digging wherever I tell you.”

They went deeper into the cavern. Along the sides of the passage were rusted metal beams holding up the structure. Eventually, they reached a wooden platform. Ul pressed a button on the side panel, and they began to descend.

It seemed this was a place she visited regularly.

When they reached the bottom, they walked through several uneven tunnels. Ul moved her head from side to side, scanning the surroundings with her eyes. Enzel examined the drill she had given him, as if trying to guess where the buttons were. He had no idea how it worked.

Finally, they reached the end of a tunnel. Ul pulled a small box from inside her arm, now more compact thanks to the fact that she actually had a hand inside her gauntlet, and placed it on the ground. The box unfolded like a small mobile machine with a circular space in the center.

Ul motioned for Enzel to place the drill there.

When he did, the machine activated with a sharp hum. The drill began to spin, breaking through the rock in front of them in a perfectly straight line.

“Hey… are there demons that can pass through walls or something?” Enzel asked.

“Why do you ask?” Ul replied.

Enzel pointed at one of the walls. If one focused, they could see faces imprinted in the stone, as if they had been absorbed into it.

“Ah, that. This place used to be the Circle of Wrath. Before, all of this was a river. The damned fought in it without rest. Over time, it turned into stone… which does not make much sense. Under no circumstances should that have happened. Those faces are traces of what they once were. Humans.”

Enzel barely had time to process that before something bit his foot.

“OUCH! What the hell—?”

He looked down and saw a tiny creature hanging from his foot. He tore it off and held it in his hand. The bug squirmed. It looked similar to a ladybug… but with two huge fangs in its mouth.

Ul looked at it closely.

“Hmm… I’ve never seen one of these before.”

Suddenly, the drill stopped with a sharp metallic screech. Ul quickly moved it aside and saw that another one of those bugs had blocked the way, completely unharmed. Enzel released the one in his hand, and it ran toward the nearest wall, biting into it and creating a small tunnel as it moved away. After Ul removed the one blocking the path, the drill struck another, then another. They were completely stopping it.

After a few adjustments, Ul managed to get the drill moving again. Each time it hit one of the bugs, the drill launched it backward like a projectile.

Soon after, the machine broke through a thinner wall and revealed a hidden cave.

Ul smiled faintly.

The sensor was marking several concentrations of Andaramium.

The cave was wide, though not enormous: about 57 meters across, with a natural dome of black stone and uneven ground. Inside it, several of those tiny creatures were moving around. Apparently, the entire tunnel system had been made by them.

“Hmm… interesting. These things weren’t here the last time I came. Maybe they migrated here recently.”

She leaned down and picked up one of the bugs. It only squirmed, trying to wrench itself free with abrupt movements.

“I name them… red digging bugs,” Ul said.

“Seriously? You couldn’t come up with something better?” Enzel asked.

“They’re just bugs.”

Thoughtful, Ul crossed her arms for a moment. Then an idea crossed her mind.

“What are your food standards?” she asked.

Enzel looked at her with distrust.

“Uh… that it tastes good, I guess.”

Ul shoved the bug into his face.

“Eat them.”

Enzel pushed the bug away with his hand.

“What!? Not a chance!”

“Remember what I told you? You have the rare gene. This rock is extremely hard, and these bugs break through it like butter. I’m sure that if you eat enough of them, you could become stronger.”

“Ehhh?! And how do you expect me to chew them? Not even that thing managed to pierce one!”

“True… Hmm. Swallow it.”

“Are you insane? For all I know, it could bore its way out through my stomach!”

“One second.”

Without another word, Ul went over to the drilling machine and took out a hammer. She added weight to it and a tiny spike, then took one of the bugs and struck it hard. The exoskeleton cracked instantly. She gave it another, more direct blow to the head, killing it completely.

“All right. You shouldn’t have any problem eating the insides.”

Enzel took the split-open bug, frowning.

“Egh… Fine. If you say this will make me stronger…”

He brought it to his mouth and swallowed it down. Surprisingly, the taste was not bad. In fact, it had a pleasant salty flavor… but the texture was horrible. Its organs seemed to be filled with jelly.

“Bluuugh… it tastes good, but… it’s like swallowing snot! It makes me nauseous. Besides, I don’t feel like it made me any stronger.”

“One alone isn’t going to cause any noticeable changes. But if you eat many…”

“Wait, wait…”

Before he could finish, Ul forced another bug into his mouth.

“DAMN IT, WA—!”

And so it continued. For the next few minutes, Ul force-fed him 89 red digging bugs.

“Wait, no more—! I can’t keep eating! I feel like I’m going to burst!”

“Hmm… well, we’d better stop. There aren’t many left in this cave.”

“Hold on… I need to… lie down for a while.”

He fell onto his back, panting. His abdomen had visibly swollen from the absurd number of gelatinous bugs he had consumed.

Ul watched him, and for a second, she felt guilty. Maybe… just maybe, she had gone a little too far.

She sat down beside him, crossing her legs.

“You know… my sisters and I dig quite a lot in search of minerals. We definitely would have noticed if these things had been here before. But this is the first time I’ve seen them. The last time I came down here was two months ago, shortly before I met you.”

She fell silent for a moment.

“Sometimes I wonder if the things my sisters and I did for Evacuon had repercussions in Hell…”

Her mind drifted for an instant to one of their riskiest experiments. One that had nearly ended them.

“Aaaagh…” Enzel groaned.

Ul nodded.

“Indeed.”

A few hours passed before Enzel recovered. When he was finally able to stand, Ul led him toward a large rock embedded with shining minerals.

“This is Andaramium. This rock is very strong… The drill is made of Verita, by the way. I don’t know what it is about condemned souls, but this fossilized river became extremely resistant over time.”

She turned to look at him.

“Those bugs could break through it easily, so perhaps you can too now that you’re… strengthened.”

Enzel positioned himself in front of the rock. Confidently, he threw a strong punch.

CRACK.

The sound did not come from the rock… but from his claws, which split immediately.

“AGHHHHHHHH!”

Ul treated him quickly, applying improvised bandages while Enzel writhed.

“…Maybe it wasn’t strength. Maybe it was the bugs’ biology. Their jaws must be specially designed to dig through these rocks…”

“YOU THINK?!” Enzel groaned.

“Calculation error. Sorry. But look, you did actually crack the rock a little.”

With the drill active again, they began collecting the Andaramium. Despite the enormous rocks, what they extracted was barely a fine powder. Valuable, yes… but scarce.

Ul had already collected a good amount, but she began to grow a little greedy. She installed support beams throughout the cave, carefully securing the ceiling to avoid collapses.

And then she saw it: a fragment of Verita embedded in the rock. Without thinking, she placed the drill directly over the spot. Meanwhile, Enzel was trying to store the fine metallic powder in a metal box Ul had given him. The drill roared as the Verita broke free.

Then, the ground trembled.

Ul realized the mistake immediately. The Verita fragment had been acting as a natural support inside the rocky structure. The entire cave began to creak.

“Enzel… I fucked up.”

“What??”

“I broke a structural support! We have to get out of here right now!”

Both of them ran toward the tunnel they had come through, but a huge rock fell right between them, separating them. Before they could react, more rocks started crashing down. One blocked the entrance, and others fell on top of Ul, trapping her. She was not crushed, but she was sealed inside a small air pocket. Enzel, though unharmed, was also left without an escape route.

“Ul! Are you okay?!” Enzel shouted.

^(“Yes, but I can’t move! The rocks are crushing me!”) Ul answered, her voice muffled.

“What?!”

^(“I SAID I CAN’T MOVE!”)

Enzel tried to move the stone blocking the passage, but it was far too heavy.

“Can’t you use your visor to find a weak spot?”

“Yes! Well… if I can manage to move my arm…” Ul replied, struggling from where she was pinned.

After a few seconds of straining, she managed to bring her hand close enough to her visor and activate it… only to discover the worst.

“…Damn it.”

The visor did not switch to the sensor display. Ul tried several times, blinked, reset the focus. Nothing.

“You’re going to have to find another way!”

Enzel looked around desperately. He tried to use the drill, but he did not know how to turn it on. He wanted to ask Ul, but he could barely hear her. Then he saw the hammer she had used earlier. He grabbed it and struck a rock hard, but the vibration triggered another tremor. The cave was on the verge of collapse.

“Perfect… We’re going to die in our own personal tomb.”

Meanwhile, Ul, unable to move, was breathing with difficulty. She tried to shift one more time… and failed. The rocks had her completely pinned. With her sensors useless and no visible way out, she began to accept the possibility that this might be how she died. She stayed silent. She did not complain. She thought about everything she had done up to that point, all the mistakes she would never be able to fix. And then she simply waited.

...

Hours passed.

Then, from one side of the rocky pocket, a tunnel began to open. Claws carefully cleared away the stones until Enzel finally appeared, panting and covered in dust.

“Hey… huff huff… how’s it going.”

“For once… I’m happy to see you.”

“…Thanks??”

Ul followed him through the newly dug tunnel. To her surprise, the passage was not only perfectly traced, it also had support braces placed strategically throughout it. Some had even been carved directly from the rock.

When they reached the surface, Enzel handed her the box with the Andaramium. Ul, still dazed, smacked the side of her head to shut off her visor and manually reset it.

“How did you do this?”

“I saw one of those bugs digging. Their jaws vibrated really fast. So I copied the motion with my claws… and let me tell you, my hands hurt LIKE HELL.”

“Vibrations, huh. So it was that simple…”

“I also remembered how you placed the wooden supports earlier. I used small stones and carved them to hold up the tunnel the same way you did.”

Ul was silent for a moment.

“…That’s very clever. Good work.”

Enzel smiled.

“Thanks.”

The two of them left the cavern. Once outside, Ul organized the tools and the powder they had collected. She finally managed to reboot her optics, though the recalibration left her blind for a few minutes. Once they were ready, they went back to the vehicle.

Ul tossed an electronic board into Enzel’s lap.

“Eh?! What is this thing?”

“I realized that not knowing how to use our technology puts you at a disadvantage.”

She sat across from him, her tone almost teacher-like.

“I’m going to teach you the basics… Starting with this: a motherboard. It’s the most important part of any machine. All the circui—”

…

After an brutally dense lesson on mechatronics, Enzel lay sprawled among wires, motherboards, CPUs, and capacitors, curled into the fetal position, in full Yamcha death-pose style.

“Ahhh. All right. That’s enough for today.”

They continued moving through the ruins of the Circle of Wrath. Then something unexpected caught their attention.

It was a statue.

Or at least, that was what it seemed to be.

A demon made of solid gold, standing motionless in the middle of the wasteland. But the most disturbing part was its posture: it looked like it had been running… trying to escape from something.

Both of them got out of the vehicle, intrigued.

“Huh… interesting. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Who leaves a statue in the middle of nowhere?”

“The detail on this thing is incredible… it almost looks like it used to be a real demon.”

As they kept examining it, they noticed a trail of melted gold behind the statue, forming something like a path.

They looked at each other without saying a word.

And they began to follow it.

Without knowing what was waiting for them.

------------

guess who forgot to post on schedule, that's right hideo kojima

anyways here's the next chapter