THE CORE OF SUFFERING

THE CORE OF SUFFERING

I took the Cruet of Sacrifice from Aluva when I was a young boy and she pursued me for the cruet ever since. Only after she realized I was the Incarnate of the Dark Angel that she put aside the question about the cruet, until now.

"Ermm.. The Cruet of Sacrifice is absorbed by my Sword of Malevolence. The cruet is one of its main ingredients", I told her who became disappointed with the news.

Even Eirot felt disappointed by my loss of the Cruet of Sacrifice.

"If we have the Cruet of Sacrifice, we can try taking the magmas from the pool", Eirot told me.

"Cheer up my love", I told Eirot as I brought out another Cruet of Sacrifice and gave it to her.

"That is my cruet," Aluva said to me excitedly.

"This is not your Cruet but the one that belongs to the Temple of Seven Deadly Sins", I replied to her.

"Give it to me then, you took mine", Aluva demanded from me.

"Stop taking human sacrifices with the Cruet of Sacrifice. I'm only going to give this to Eirot", I said to her as I handed the Cruet of Sacrifice to Eirot.

The Cruet was important to Aluva because it was the sacrificial relic that helped her steal lives from human victims.

"Aluva doesn't need the Cruet anymore. We don't do human sacrifices anymore", Eirot said to me while Aluva pouted disappointedly.

Eirot took my Cruet of Sacrifice excitedly while Aluva looked on jealously.

"Now can I absorb the Pool of Suffering with the Cruet of Sacrifice?", Eirot asked me.

"Are you sure you are doing this? We might lose the Pool of Suffering?" Lord Brathnok asked Eirot concernedly.

"There is no gain without a gamble", Ratatouille told us.

"There is no point in staying forever in one place. My mission is to rescue my children from every corner of Hell", Eirot replied to him.

Eirot held her Cruet of Sacrifice toward the Pool of Suffering and focused on the magic of the artifact.

"Wrooooommmmm"

Suddenly, the magma in the pool boiled over frantically and shot into the air like an out-of-control fountain. The magma from the pool swirled around the pool and suddenly rushed toward Eirot.

Eirot was unmoved by the threat of the magmas falling onto her which might kill her. She had faith in her Cruet and faith in herself.

Soon, the magma condensed into magical essences and flowed into Eirot's Cruet of Sacrifice. And the Pool of Suffering disappeared.

"Did you capture the magic of the Pool of Suffering?" I asked Eirot.

Eirot tried to link her magic to the Pool of Suffering but unfortunately, she failed to make a connection.

"I've lost connection to the Pool of Suffering", she replied to us worriedly.

"Oh no, the magic from the Pool of Suffering is gone because we took the magma in the pool", Lord Brathnok complained to us with a look that said, 'I told you so'.

"What are we going to do now that my pool is gone?" Eirot asked me.

"It's all your fault for suggesting the foolish idea to capture the magmas in the pool", Aluva blamed me.

I tried to think of a solution to this problem when I saw Alfred resting with his legs crossed and elbow leaning on the floor.

"Wait a minute, if you lost your Pool of Suffering, why is the guardian of the pool still here", I told them as I pointed at Alfred.

"You are right", Eirot said to me before she asked Alfred, "Alfred, what happened to the magic in my Pool of Suffering? You must know about it".

Alfred stood up and floated to Eirot to answer her troubling question.

"The magic of the Pool of Suffering is not gone. It is still inside the pool", Alfred told Eirot.

"But all the magma water is gone", Lord Bratnok asked the guardian.

"The Pool of Suffering is a connection to the core of Hell. Magmas are just liquid that oozed out from hell, its lubricants", Alfred told us to our surprise.

"So, I still control the magic of the Pool?" Eirot asked him.

"No, without the magmas in the pool, you cannot use its magic", Alfred replied to her.

"We are back to square one. We lost the Pool of Suffering", Lord Bratnok said to us again and grumbled.

"The gamble didn't pay off", Ratatouille said to us.

Then I noticed something at the bottom of the now emptied Pool of Suffering.

"What is that inside the Pool?" I asked Alfred as I pointed into a fiery eruption inside the pool.

"That is the connection to the core of Hell", Alfred told us.

"Wait, maybe you can reclaim the magic of the pool by connecting back to the fiery core", I told Eirot.

"Nobody has done that before, even the previous Savior never connected to the Core of Suffering directly", Alfred told us.

"I'll try", Eirot said to us as she focused her magic on the fiery eruption in the pool.

Soon, the magic that was used to capture the pool originally was cast again, but this time the magic was cast on the fiery Core of Suffering. Suddenly, the Core of Suffering rose into the sky as flame exploded out from it. 

The flame from the core rushed toward us.

"Do something?" Ratatouille asked me.

Immediately, a magical shield appeared before us. Hundreds of wolf heads were projected from the magic shield that rushed out to stop the powerful flame from the erupted Core of Suffering. The magical wolf shield was my other strongest magic which consumed a Valhalla Tesseract to complete.

"The Shield of Vukodlak"

"Wow, your shield has more heads than me", Alfred said to me.

"Damnit, my shield wouldn't last forever under this flame from hell", I said to them.

"My spell is not working", Eirot complained to us.

"Do you have any idea?" Avula asked Alfred.

"The only way to stop the Core of Suffering eruption is to return it to its realm, the core of Hell", Alfred told us.