the infinite corridor (chapter 34)

Chapter 34

"Can you close the portal?" Belmont asked Saint Germain. "Well, not easily, but I will try," Saint Germain answered as the portal released a large amount of air, pushing them back. Cain stepped forward, "Yeah, this is a heaven," he said out loud, referring to the amount of XP he could gain.

"Has he gone mad?" Belmont asked as Sypha replied, "Probably, but you saw what he can do." Suddenly, the crucified monsters spewed out more soul-filled energy, empowering the portal as more demonic creatures appeared. Among them was a creature with tentacles for a mouth, a lion creature with two bent legs, and more weird demonic entities. "You got more of those dragons of yours?" Saint Germain said as he backed away. Sypha and Belmont were preparing to fight, only for Cain to lift up his arm and shake his head.

"They are all mine," and three more duplicates of him appeared. They started spewing a non-stop barrage of arcane blades and ice waves from their hands. Not all of these creatures were Darkseid; they couldn't shrug off seas of floating arcane blades and tons of ice waves, getting mowed down like blades of grass. Cain gained another level, restoring his mana charges back to full. "Another spell," he thought to himself as he unlocked another ability.

The duplicates disappeared, leaving only one demonic creature—a strange red-skinned demon that shot fireballs. Cain deflected the fireball before a bright dot appeared on top of his fingers, releasing a pulse. As it washed over the demon, its skin caught fire, and it was forced to the ground before being crushed. "That is quite neat," Cain thought, glancing at the night creature bloated with souls that he couldn't kill before. It was being healed by the large number of souls it had ingested, and it was the one maintaining the portal.

"Should I go in?" The mere thought of fighting hordes of demons, earning heaps of XP, and unlocking spells made him smile. "Yeah, he has definitely gone mad," Sypha remarked. "No, not now," Cain shook his head. "I haven't prepared enough. I don't know what type of food is there, if there is any, and most importantly, I am not strong enough yet. Who knows, maybe there is an actual devil there," he pondered.

"I will wait until I am level 30 before going in there," he sighed, as if that would make any difference. Soon, he would find out it wasn't. He then turned to Saint Germain, "Would it be possible to maintain this portal?" he asked, only to remember the amount of souls it took to open it for a couple of minutes. "Never mind," he sighed, already knowing the answer. Saint Germain jumped into the creature's head and used a rainbow orb, changing the destination behind the portal to one with weird stairs in different geometric shapes. Just as he was about to enter, a semi-transparent sphere appeared, centring from Cain.

This slowed down time for him to the point where Saint Germain was falling at a snail's pace, allowing Cain to take the rainbow orb from him, which the saint used to track the infinite corridors. He then canceled the spell as Saint Germain fell into the portal before realizing something after getting up, "my-" as he was about to continue, the portal closed as Cain had already sent the pebble into the stone talisman.

Just as Belmont was about to kill the creature, Cain stepped in and finished it off, "that was my kill!" Belmont yelled at Cain as the basement started to collapse, even though it was already half destroyed, and now the rest followed. As they all left, Belmont and Sypha talked to the dying judge, while Cain was thinking about his next move, "What are you going to do next?" Sypha asked Cain after she was finished with the judge. "I am going to Syria," Cain answered.

"The city ruled by four vampires," Sypha said in surprise. "Camila," Belmont said as Cain sprouted leathered wings before he took off. "That is it? He is not going to say goodbye or anything?" Sypha said in confusion as they watched Cain flying off. "Well, we barely know him, and the first time we met, we did try to kill him, so," they both shrugged at the same time.

-scene change-

In a universe far, far away, standing on a familiar beach, Diana could be seen, staring into the open ocean, expressionless as the sea breeze brushed against her long black eyelashes. That is when someone gently landed beside her, that person being Jason, her brother. "How are you doing?" he asked as Diana still maintained her expression. "I am fine," she said, although that was clearly a lie. "I heard what he said before he left," Jason said.

"Do you know where he ended up?" Diana sighed as she shook her head. "Then do you trust him?" Jason asked as Diana replied without hesitation, "With my life," causing Jason to be surprised for a second before smiling. "Then trust him enough to find his way back to you," he said as he placed his hand on her shoulder, which was tense for a while before relaxing, "wow, you really are series about him aren't you?" jason asked as diana finally chuckled, "definitely, defiantly" she said, reassuring herself as she remembered his smile, even missing his weirdness.

[ some unknown time later ]

In the middle of the night, in a lonely fortress in the mountain, the fortress walls were crumbling down, like something punched it to dust. Floating above it was a figure, clad in a grey fur robe with a hood covering his face. Suddenly, the man raised his hand, revealing a lean and pale hand that conjured up a small glowing orange orb, the size of his fingernail, before throwing the orb down into the fortress. That is when several figures emerged from the fortress, all from different ethnicities; some were monsters, mostly night creatures, and others were humanoid.

However, the one thing they had in common was their pale skin and large canines as they hissed in unison. Only for the glowing orb to flash in a blinding light before an explosion occurred. The explosion was so vast that it consumed the whole fortress, the mountain, and a 50-mile radius surrounding the fortress as it created a mushroom cloud. "Automatic bolt could actually create such a devastating effect, no wonder it costs the same as the dragon spell," the man, whose hoodie was blown away by the sheer force of the explosion, thought as his face was revealed.

He was, of course, Cain, who was currently hunting as many creatures as he could, leveling up as fast as he can. " five more levels until I reach level 30," he thought with a smile as he unlocked yet another spell, which actually caused him to smile hard as he thought, "Ah, this spell has quite the potential, and it doesn't require a mana charge." He smiled as he liked the new spell.