Inside Death's Asylum
"Is that all?" A voice calls out to Jervaintus.
He struggles to awake from his unconsciousness,
"Huh…" He attempts to speak.
"A rookie mistake is what ends your life. How pathetic of the great Jervaintus." The voice mocks him.
"He is more powerful than I thought…" He wonders.
"Oh? Now you're doubting your abilities in combat?" The voice pokes fun at him.
"Who are you, anyway?" He asks her.
"Your mother." She says bluntly.
"Very funny. Now who the fuck are you?" He starts coming back to his senses.
"I am the manifestation of your vengeance, Jervaintus. And the reason why you're not rotting away in the deepest pits of the abyss." She explains to him.
He awakens to an ethereal realm where countless numbers of souls walk, and the howling winds of death blow across the lands. It is a depressing sight.
"So this is it, huh?" He takes a good look around.
"That's it?" The voice questions him.
"Huh?" He sounds confused.
"You're just gonna accept your death?" She asks him.
"I will not rest until I've beaten the living shit out of that demon lord." He gets riled up.
"Then fight." She instills power inside of him.
He opens his glowing, blood red eyes. He approaches a demon dressed in a guard's uniform. The demon halts him,
"No souls are allowed to leave the abyss." The guard points his sword at him.
Jervaintus disarms the guard and stabs him repeatedly and steals his armor. The alarm has sounded across the realm of death that a soul is attempting to escape.
Jervaintus runs along the lower levels going up, stealing better arms and armor as he slays through the endless platoons of demon guards.
"I'm guessing I didn't have a normal parent which explains me not fully dying here." Jervaintus tells the voice.
"What I can tell you right now, is that you're ancestors have a strong tie to this place." The voice explains.
The conversation cuts short as a demon approaches them. He wears a fancier variant of the guards' armor. He puffs out his chest,
"You will never get out of this place, mortal. I am the captain who guards these pitiful souls." He draws his sword.
"As you will found out, captain. I am no pitiful soul." Jervaintus' aura of vengeance become stronger.
"If you wish to stand in my way, demon, then prepare to be obliterated by my vengeance." His eyes stirs the fears inside the demon.
The guard captain trembles before him and gets decapitated swiftly from his sword. Jervaintus continues his journey out of the maze-like stairs of the abyss. He sees all manners of demons as on this journey. From giant flying eyes, to tentacle beings, to literal walking corpses of the recently deceased.
He makes it up a platform and sees a broken down castle ruin in the distance. He gets an uneasy feeling in his gut and instinctively heads to its direction.
He sneaks inside the place and looks down from atop a broken roof. A throne room where a familliar being resting on his broken down throne.
"So this is the dump where this sad excuse for a demon lord resides…" He thinks to himself.
"Time to deliver this demon your vengeful retribution upon him." The voice suggests to him.
"No. Something better." He rubs his hands together, eyeing the demon closely like a predator about to strike.
"Oh? What do you have in mind." The voice shows her intrigue.
"I will break him. I will take away his will to fight and govern this place. I will take his very being and crush it until none of it is left…and then loot whatever useful item he has." He settles on his plan as he finds the front entrance to the throneroom.
He kicks open the door to bits. The recovering demon lord is taken by surprise and his eyes widen with fear for the first time. Jervaintus drags his sword along the ground and walks with sadistic purpose towards him.
"I killed you…" He is frozen on his chair.
Jervaintus' posture changes into a battle hungry lunatic,
"And I've battled through the entirety of hell itself, to finish what we've started. You sad excuse of a son of a bitch." He taunts.
"This is my realm, mortal. Do not get too arrogant." He struggles to get up from his chair to defend himself.
"This is also where you die, demon. Do not get too arrogant." He mocks him as he raises his blade against him.
As the two prepare to square off, the demon attempts to blind Jervaintus as runs for it, melding into the shadows. This did nothing but started to piss off Jervaintus. The vengeful spirit within him causes him to grab the demon lord by the throat and throws him into the nearest wall. The demon lord scrambles to his feet before Jervaintus charges and impales the demon with his sword deep inside his chest. He twists and turns the sword into the demon's heart with a crazed look at his eyes.
The demon swats Jervaintus away, causing him to crash through a pillar. He is unfazed by this however, still standing straight and staring menacingly at the demon lord.
"I..am one of the proud lords of the abyss, you cannot kill me!" He stands up proudly and brandishes his war cleaver.
"You are wrong. You're going to my bitch. You're going to die here, and I will come back to the realm of the living." He bravely approaches the demon.
"And I will come back…for her." He thinks to himself.
"Ah, so you like the girl." The voice teases him.
"Shut up." He changes his focus towards the bleeding demon lord.
He runs up and knees the demon lord in the face, he was extremely exhausted, he fell easily and didn't attempt to stand up anymore. Jervaintus dissects him like an animal , cutting off each of his limbs and leaving his head in tact.
"If you do this, all the other lords will come for your head." He warns Jervaintus.
"Out of all the heads in this realm, you should be worried about yours." Jervaintus stomps on his face.
As he is about to defeat the demon lord, a pack of lesser demons approach them but hesitant to attack Jervaintus. He points his sword towards them,
"Let this be known as a warning to you pathetic creatures! If you attempt to invade my world again, I will come back here and destroy each and every one of you sorry pathetic excuses for godless creatures!" He says in a commanding voice, his aura of vengeance nearly cloaking him in darkness.
The lesser demons cower in fear as Jervaintus looks back at the now sobbing demon lord.
"I do not wish to die…please. I will give you all the power you want." He begs.
"I will not die until I am finished. Your soul is mine." His sword plunges deep within the demon's neck.
Jervaintus drags the sword across and decapitates the demon lord's head, finally claiming his revenge. He focuses his attention on the lesser demons. They slowly approach him and make attempts to bow down before him. He looks around confuse before the voice calls out to him,
"You have slain the abyss lord of shadows. These demons, by right of combat, now serve you." She explains.
"Great, I got an army of demon puppies now?" He shakes his head.
His armor transforms to something similar to the demon lord's. The voice explains to him that he has taken his place. Jervaintus' eyes lights up at the idea. He has complete command over the shadows, but he needs to hone his abilities to be able to control it the way the former demon lord does. He loots a black and yellow garb from the ruins and decides to use it as a scarf. He attempts to walk off on his own but the lesser demons slowly approach him, like a fearful dog to their master. He stops to think and hatches up a good idea.
"Take me to where I can get out." He commands and the demons carry out his command.
They traverse through even rougher terrain and fight many battles, which made Jervaintus stronger. The journey takes him several hours until they reach upon steep and crumbly walls. He sees a large, ornate black iron gate and a colossal skeletal being sitting on top of a pillar, looking over the gate as endless souls pass by.
"How should I address you, woman?" He asks the voice.
"You may address me as the spirit of your vengeance." She replies.
"Do you have any knowledge of that creature there? It's like a giant skeletal bird now that I look at it." He points towards it.
"That, my dear boy, is the gatekeeper of the abyss." She tells him.
"Is it dangerous?" Jervaintus gets his hope up, hoping for more battle.
"No, he has the brain of a senile old man. Once he hears what you did, he will have no choice but to let you back to the realm of the living." She says.
"To be honest, I don't want to go back yet." He sounds hesitant.
"Really? After that speech about your girlfriend?" She sounds off her disappointment.
"She's not my girlfriend." He says.
"I suggest you decide now, every hour in this realm is almost a week in the realm of the living." She says in a stern voice.
"I get it, now shut up." He eyes at the gates.
Plenty of thoughts are rushing through his mind in this instance. Why did Godfrey appear at their most dire hour? Did the Kingdoms recover? And what happened to his friends, especially Sirena? He grits his teeth as he prepares his decision.