Saint in Hel

podescending down the inky darkness felt like being at the bottom of the ocean where you can be crushed by insane pressures and loss of sight due to the being no light and no sound. For Semiramis this didn't unnerve her, in fact, the woman felt at peace, safe, and secure.

After what felt like an eternity of being there she finally came out the other end. She hit a hard surface. Slowly Semiramis got up, the slight pain being nothing she couldn't handle. 'That hurt.' she thought to herself while dusting her clothes off which consisted of simple white robes, although now some portions seemed to be stained in black.

"My you made it." a voice that can only be described as power personified said. Semiramis looked up to see who spoke.

In front of her was a throne, one that was made of pure darkness and feathers. On the said throne sat someone, a woman of unparalleled beauty, with shadowy black hair that seemed to move like a waterfall down her back. Ash pale skin and heterochromatic eyes, one a void of red and the other blue. twin embers of fire and ice looked at her. Her attire seemed to also be made of shadow.

"Who are you?" asked Semiramis but the woman merely smiled cruelly.

"my such a delight, to think one of his fervant followers would not enter. Tell me child why did you not enter my brother's domain?" Asked the woman and Semiramis opened her mouth unwillingly and answered.

"It felt like an insult after,... after what happened," she said her voice cracking a bit.

"But you would have lived a life of luxury, of pure tranquillity should have just entered the gates." spoke the woman.

"Maybe but I wouldn't have been able to seek my revenge, I would have been forced to live without being able to gain closure. Plus it was his temple, his followers, doing it in his name," spoke Semiramis before glowing out in the end. Eyes smoldered with resentment and anger.

"I see do you blame my brother for this?" Asked the dark woman.

"No, I do not but you could say I'm shaken if someone can allow his followers to do such things I believe they should be aware that they too are portrayed in a horrid light," replied Semiramis.

"I understand. Now then what will you do?" asked the dark woman.

"Seek vengeance, end crush that entire country to the ground," spoke Semiramis. The dark woman smiled

"I see, very well then. But do you know what to do in order to do so?" Asked the woman.

"I'll head to the deepest part of the underworld and use what is there to revive myself," said Semiramis and the dark woman seemed to nod.

"I see, do you know the trials you will face?" Asked the woman and Semiramis nodded determination clear in her eyes. "Very well, go on Hero, and let us see how far you will get," she spoke.

Semiramis became skeptical, "You're not going to try and stop me?" she asked.

"Not at all I genuinely desire to see what the defender of men will do to those who've scorned her. I could offer you power but I'm certain you won't agree to it. So once you're done I'd love to see the look on brother dearest's face when he sees you standing as my second in command and storming the gates of his holy city." spoke the dark woman an excited look in her mismatched eyes.

"I have no desire to join you or storm heaven. once the kingdom of Sahara is reduced to nothing but ash I'll be happy to take my place here in hell," responded Semiramis.

"We'll see my dear we'll see. No go on, have fun. Remember, look for the keys." she encouraged Semiramis who nodded and walked off entering a portal that was opened by the dark woman.

Once gone thunder immediately boomed and a figure appeared in front of the dark woman golden flames flickering around them. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Where is she?" growled the figure who was male. possessing transparent hair that seemed to refract light into rainbow colours. He was fair-skinned and was wearing white robes that seemed to be made of light.

"She just descended to the first circle of hell. Truly a shame, you should have seen the poor child. She felt so betrayed by you brother dearest." spoke the woman. The man growled.

"You influenced them didn't you, those people were your followers." accused the man his golden flame aura rising.

"not at all, please I have no need to resort to such tricks to best you brother. You forget though, many in your court wish to see you fall. Who's to say it's not one of them?" Asked the woman and the man frowned then he leaned forward.

"Know this Hela should anything happen to her, I'll have your head." spoke the man. The woman frowned and the light in the room seemed to grow dark.

"Foolish little brother, do you forget who is the supreme ruler of the heavens, I am the one and only ruler of this world, a newborn like you has no power, no authority over me." growled the woman in return as the light the man was emitting seemed to dim down as the woman absorbed it in front of him. He merely snarled and disappeared. Then the woman smirked, "How amusing, to think he'd care so much for a mortal. I wonder though will he find out the truth or not?" the woman asked herself as she looked at the void of darkness in the ceiling.

.OoOo. The first circle of hell- Limbo.OoOo.

Walking through the dark path that led to the first ring Semiramis decided to manifest her armor. She might have only been a spirit but she still had access to all her power since that was the source of it all. 'Now that I'm not bound by my body I should be able to exert all my force without any reparations.' she thought. Finally, she walked through the darkness and entered a white landscape.

"This looks like the Arctic, calm peaceful," she said to herself as she walked in and found a tranquil land, no icy winds, no blizzards. All that was there was just an icy wasteland with tall mountains and hills but nothing that will indicate that this was hell. Well aside from the people buried underneath the ice.

Semiramis knew that this was, the territory of sloth, the deadly sin of laziness. "It's said it's here where lazy souls are sent to laze around for a reincarnation cycle. Fitting that you actually do nothing." spoke the woman to herself as she continued to walk. Then the land started to change, and rose bushes started to appear, each one wrapped around a soul who was smiling but the tears in their eyes showed that they desired to move more than anything else to do something. The black flowers prevented that from happening.

"They desire to do something when they did nothing in life, quite the contradiction is it not?" asked a voice man who suddenly appeared next to her. Semiramis's hand quickly fell on her side where her sword was.

"I guess, but are they conscious?" she asked pointing to the frozen people under them.

"Quite, since they decided to laze around now they can laze around all they want." spoke the man. Semiramis then looked at him. He was feminine in appearance, possessing long black hair that covered much of his face, but underneath one could see glowing blue eyes. He was dressed in a white Yukata and had no shoes or socks.

"Sloth," she muttered.

"Belphegor, a pleasure to meet you," he said with a nod.

"I'm looking for something called a key," spoke Semiramis.

"I know, not many people come here for fun, but I can't give it to you," spoke Belphegor. Semiramis frowned.

"Why?" she asked.

"I'm sure you we're not told. *Yawn*" muttered the man before releasing a tired yawn.

"told what."

"A key is the core of a sin's existence like myself. So not existing seems like it could such so no I can't give it to you." said the sin with a yawn at the end of his words. Semiramis frowned, she didn't want to end the existence of someone like Sloth, his existence served a purpose in the world.

"So will the realm of Limbo collapse?" asked Semiramis.

"No, things will continue as normal but you know I'd rather not die," spoke Belphgor. Semiramis's closed her eyes, then images flashed in her mind. Horrid memories of her people defiling her, of the citizens she fought hard for, then the last one of her being burned alive. Her heart grew cold, as cold as the land around her.

"My apologies but I need that core, I know it's not fair to you that you'll die for this," said Semiramis somewhat sorrowful.

"I understand, I'm a sin after all so I advocate for one to follow their desired indiscriminately," spoke Belphegor as he started rising to the air. "But don't think I'll make this easy for you." spoke the lazy man as he snapped his fingers |March of the front giants|

Then the mountain of ice came to life. Each one was massive, standing at a height of over 20 feet and possessing various structure types, like insects, animals, or humanoids. Semiramis wasn't sure how many there were but much like Belphegor said, this army was about to march. With each step, the ground rumbled. Semiramis tensed and drew her rapier, the world seemed to slow down around her, as her processing speed increased.

Then she shot forward, knowing that when fighting monsters like this, momentum was important. Reaching striking range for one of the monsters she leaped after letting an icy flaw of a wolf slash at the ground, then she slashed removing the limb. When the ice monster recoiled Semiramis kicked off the air and flew for its head, a single slash removed it. Then she leaped off the body of the monster which was crushed nigh immediately by the hand of another.

Seeing this danger Semiramis held a hand to the side where magic energy gathered. |Holy flare| she said and thrust a hand forward where a small orb of energy flew forward and crashed against the ice monster and turning it to nothing but snow dust.

Now that she was in the air she could see the number of monsters's made. 'Over one thousand, to think the sin of sloth would make me work so hard. He wants to drain my stamina it seems. Fitting I guess.' thought the woman as she looked down at the monster that where hobbling for her.

While in the air she also noticed fast approaching or at least what was supposed to be fast-approaching ice birds. 'I faced the demon lord, these small fries are nothing to me.' thought Semiramis as she gathered her energy.

|Over blaze| she called and golden fire wrapped around her, then she descended like a missile. Each slash or thrust of her beautiful sword took out a dozen giant in an instant, reducing them to nothing. A minute later she stood not even winded in the middle of a serene wasteland once more.

"How dull, to think you'd kill them without breaking a sweat. Guess you are not a saint for nothing. But you still have your work cut out for you." spoke Belphegor.

Semiramis watched as more ice giants, joined by whisps and other creatures that populate the underworld pop up. 'He's using the summoning skill to summon more minors. I guess even a Sin has his hobbies.' Thought the woman as she activated over blade once more and her stats increased. The skill over the blaze, a holy art that boosted speed, strength, and over physical stats and offered a decent defense against unholy beings and metal, wind, ice, and earth attacks via the suit of fire wrapped around her.

Semiramis moved continuously slashing, thrusting, stabbing, punching, and kicking. This went on for about an hour but in Semiramis's perception of time, this battle seemed to have been going on for a full year. Now here she was breathing heavily as the last of Belphegor's over 10 million strong armies fell. Then she stood up straighter after heaving a breath.

"Are you done? Come on face me yourself," spoke Semiramis clearly irritated.

"Man this sucks," muttered Belphegor as he materialised once more. "Fine, you want my core so much fine." muttered the devil then his energy surged around him an Icy aura formed. Then he disappeared in a blur of pure speed.

Semiramis dove forward and rolled. Her instincts had saved her from a whip that flew and sliced the space where she stood. Rolling to her feet Semirami looked at the man. He raised a hand and energy colored much like the rainbow gathered. Then swing his hand.

The energy shaped like a whip flew for the girl and she dodged. Then gathered magic power in her hand and she blasted it toward Belphegor. The devil used his whip and when the two energies touched hers holy flare was trapped in place, unmoving much to her shock.

'What's that, why did the attack stop?' asked Semiramis to herself. Belphegor wasn't kind enough to stop the attack through he just continued to launch his attacks on the woman. Semiramis was skilled enough to dodge the attack opting not to dodge seeing the effects of the attack.

After a few seconds of dodging Semiramis gathered her energy and shot forward getting close to Belphegor. When in range she struck with her rapier but Semiramis found her body becoming sluggish and slow.

Then Belphegor kicked and Semiramis was sent skitting back on the ground. Acting quickly she rolled away and a whip crashed where she was less than a second ago. 'Why did I slow down like that?' Semiramis asked herself while looking at Belphegor who raised another hand and created ice spears and sent them flying.

Semiramis slashed called, |Aura slash| A crescent slash flew from her sword and cut through the ice spears with ease and flew for Belphegor who sidestepped before sending his whip as a counter.

Semiramis leaped to the side dodging the attacks. Then she shot forward once more sending a slash for Belphegor's side but the Devil seemed to move at impossible speed to dodge the attack and using a flick of the wrist caused ice spikes to rise around Semiramis who acted quickly by jumping to the air.

Belphegor looked at his attacker and once more created Ice spears but these ones were around 100 in number, before sending them flying.

In the air Semiramis summoned up over Blaze and raised her sword, |Divine cutter| She cast the art and started to descend quickly and either dodged, blocked, or ran along the spikes. Less than a second later she was above Belphegor ready to take his life.

Once more Semiramis felt as if she was slowing down and the man countered by side-stepping the sword and drawing a dagger at the same time. 'I fell for his trap' Thought Semiramis as she noticed this.

The dagger was about to cut through her but she unleashed a baleful amount of energy. Blasting both herself and Belphegor. Both rolled along the ground and came to stop in opposite directions.

Semiramis got up slowly her body muttered with burn marks and clothing slightly destroyed. Belphegor was relatively fine, scuffed here and there but fine.

'hmm.' hummed the woman had noticed something. Then she raised a hand and energy formed, |Flame Javelin| called the woman and like she ordered energy flew forward took shape then ignited into a fire javelins 10 in number. Belphegor quickly dodged them with ease, but the attack continued to follow him.

He jumped, ducked, sidestepped, and leaned to dodge the homing attack. Then after getting some distance he summoned an ice wall. One struck the wall and exploded but the others flew passed the steam created. Belphegor sighed and struck with his whip, stopping the attack in place.

'So whatever his weapon touches stops and around him the seems to be a field that slows down attacks as well.' thought Semiramis as she analyzed this. Then she used Aura slash once more and the man dodged.

Some time passed like this, a back and forth. Attack and defend. A stalemate of Belphegor trying to land that one blow he knew would end the match for him and Semiramis dodging and attacking, analyzing and assessing the powers of her opponent.

She found that Belphegor's powers overall didn't actually revolve around ice. He used water and wind and ice magic to capitalize on his main power which is deceleration, to slow things around him down to the point of complete stop at times.

Semiramis found it slightly difficult to get around this but she believed that she found a way. A way that she was going to try out now to end this battle in one stroke. She gathered her energy and began gathering an attack. Blasting forward she dodged the various whip slashes the man had thrown her way. Then getting in close range she felt the slowing down effect of his defense, then she slashed. But this attack wasn't a spell, it was an art, an attack not powered by mana or magical energy. But by prana energy that didn't create physical phenomenon like magic but an attack that used pure energy and information to attack. One example was Aura slash, which was just using one's own aura or information to attack.

This attack was magnitudes above aura slash. |Divine slash|

The attack didn't slow down, it traveled at the speed of light to end her opponent. Belphegor died before he could even react.

end of chapter