Chapter 19

Theodore obviously tried again. He sucked in a deep breath and a column of fire shot onto Eugene's figure, bathing him in healing fire that should've fixed up his wounds, but no matter how many times he used the skill, the injuries were still there.

"What's going on? Why isn't he healed?" Merlin's brows were tied into a knot as he stared worryingly at Eugene.

"I don't know…" Theodore could tell though that at the very least Uriel's Blessings had abbreviated the pain since Eugene was fast asleep and doesn't seem to be in agony anymore.

He turned his head to look at the mess around them, more specifically, he was staring at one of the skinny monsters.

<<Teenage Demon

HP: 0/2700,000

Lvl. 70

Rank: B+

Subspecies Name: White Stinger

Yield: 0 [Dungeon monsters do not give EXP.]

Chance of Victory: 200%

Strength: The White Stingers are a variety of the Stinger Demons which utilizes their whip-like tail in a battle, while each Stinger has different specialties, the White Stinger in particular have deadly venom at the tip of their tail, the gland that produces this poison is extremely small yet it can produce enough of the substance to put down a hundred regular humans.

Weakness: Because of their pale skin, they're extremely vulnerable to sunlight, their bodies are also frail since they utilize their poison and agility in a battle, they don't fare well against those with armor or those that can hit extremely hard. However, when put under stress, they will try to close in on their target and violently assault them with their claws and fangs.

Description: [Hidden as per requested].>>

'System, give me the details of the poison.'

[The level of the Personal Attribute 'Gaze of Wisdom' is too low.]

'…System, please.'

[I cannot give you the information.]

Anger rose in his chest. 'Someone is about to die here, just this once, tell me how to make the antidote.'

[…]

'System.'

[…]

"Oh for f*cks sake!"

Merlin was startled by the sudden shouting. "What's wrong? Is Eugene going to die?"

"Not if this stupid system listens to me!" Theodore looked at the werewolf for a moment before taking a deep breath, calming himself down. "Okay, fine, have it your way. I won't complain anymore, just tell me what I need to do."

[You have unlocked a new quest.]

<<Main Quest #2

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but this is also your opportunity to get stronger! Behind that gate lies a powerful monster, a creature so powerful that you might not make it out alive, like tugging at a sleeping dragon's tail, however, that's just a part of the risk—Are you willing to go that far to save a friend?

-Kill and Consume '???' (0/1)

-Reach Level 40 (0/1)

-Awake a new Bloodline (0/1)

Time Limit: Until Eugene Brooks' death. (3 Hours.)

Rewards: Accelerated evolution (1 Use. Obtainable when killing '???'). A choice of a new Personal Attribute, Skill, and Bloodline Skill. 20 Skill Points.>>

Theodore would've been mad if not for the amount of rewards that this quest could give him, the timing was ever so slightly inappropriate but that can be ignored, besides that, he could potentially get a skill that could save Eugene, it's a win-win as long as he wins the fight with whatever was behind the gate.

The large metal door had beautiful yet ominous patterns carved into it using a red substance, it has a golden frame while on either side of it were large torches being held up by intricately designed stone pillars.

Theodore didn't want to waste anymore time, he turned towards Merlin before speaking. "Eugene has three hours left. Don't worry, I have a plan, you stay with him here until I get back."

"Back?" Merlin sounded concerned. "You're going through the gate?"

"I have no other choice, Eugene would die at this rate." With that, he crawled closer to the door.

[The ■■ Gate has responded to your presence.]

The large gate slowly parted, revealing nothing that Theodore could see just yet, however, as soon as his entire body had passed the threshold of the door, another system message rang in his head—but not in the voice he was familiar with, it was a female's.

[Reading the Challenger's data…]

[Welcome Theodore Varon, you will now be teleported to the 'Eternal Purgatory'.]

.

.

.

When his vision returned to him, Theodore began looking around, his surroundings were different from what he'd pictured the 'Ancient Cavern' to be, but then again, that person had said that he was going to end up in some place named 'Eternal Purgatory'.

The room had no ceiling, revealing the dark, starless sky above, the walls seemed broken and old with vines growing on them while the windows were still intact and curtained shut.

He was currently standing on top of a thick, red carpet leading up to an elevated floor that supported a pure black throne dotted with shimmering jewelry and gold.

In short, he was in some sort of throne room.

On top of the seat was a man. He was beautiful—mesmerizing even—he had long, pale blonde hair and a stern face. His red eyes gleamed fiercely, illuminated by a soft scarlet halo floating loosely around his head. His body was slightly muscular, lean yet powerful, he was dressed in a nice black suit while he rested his chin on top of his fist that was decorated with expensive-looking rings.

His most prominent feature despite his handsome face was the pure white wings on his back.

"…State your business, serpent." The man spoke in a hoarse tone, he sounded British, reminding Theodore of how Merlin used to speak when they first met.

"I'm here to kill something." He was hesitant about speaking at first, the air radiating from the man was exactly like the one he'd felt outside, meaning that he was the source.

"Kill what exactly?" The other party narrowed his gaze.

"Who else?" Theodore's human self would've smiled. "You."

As soon as he finished his sentence, three magic circles appeared in front of him. Cold air radiated from them as spikes of ice swiftly shot forward towards the man.

[Frost Spear]

[The Bloodline Skill 'Coldest Death' is strengthening your ice magic!]

[The Fragment of the Original is assisting you! The Bloodline Skill 'Embodiment of Chaos' has been activated!]

[The Bloodline Skill 'The Great Cycle' is being used!]

The handsome man frowned while holding out his hand. "Foolish beast, how dare you challenge me on my own ground?"

The man's extended hand was suddenly engulfed in a dark red aura before multiple crimson spikes shot forward and counteracted with Theodore's magic, causing the ice to disappear along with his magic circle.

Theo wasn't surprised that his skill was destroyed so easily.

'Now that I've confirmed he's tough, I need a plan.'

He opened his attribute window and glanced at his mana points.

<<MP: 1,075/1,175>

When his focus shifted back towards his enemy, he activated 'Gaze of Wisdom'.

[Error! The target's information cannot be appraised!]

Not knowing what sort of monster he was fighting made him hesitant, but there was no going back now, he needed to quickly finish things off. "Hey, would you mind telling me who you are?"

The man raised an eyebrow, his hand still in front of him and prepared to attack at any given moment. "Does that information matter to a corpse?"

Immediately, more dark spikes emerged from his hand and were headed straight towards Theodore's head and heart, wanting to kill him instantly in one move. Of course, the latter weaved to the side and managed to avoid all the attacks while he prepared another spell.

"Great Lord of the Arctic! May your presence freeze all that is not yet your domain. Descend and cast this land into eternal winter!"

[Devouring Winter]

[The Bloodline Skill 'The Great Cycle' is multiplying the spell!]

[Casting +2 'Devouring Winter']

<<MP: 75/1,175>>

The winged man seemed surprised by what Theodore had just casted as well, he got up from his seat and the hint in his eyes showed that he was going to take the fight more seriously now. "How can you use that?"

The temperature around them dropped significantly as Theo's most powerful spell was being casted three times. Ice and frost covered the entire throne room and snow began falling from the sky.

Despite the magnitude of the spell, the man didn't seem fazed. "No matter, The Sacred Wind of Boreas is nothing that I can't handle."

The inescapable ice chains began crawling from the ground and they instantly moved towards the man in an attempt to capture him.

However, with a flick of his wrist, columns of deep crimson flames burst forth and melted the ice chains away, not even one among the dozens had managed to get close to him.

Theodore was shocked by the sudden development, he glanced at his mana and gritted his teeth. 'F*ck…It didn't work?'

"So you want to know my name?"

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted as he felt a sharp sting on the side of his body, and before he could even register what'd happened, he had already crashed into a wall.

Blood ran down the wound on his body and head, his vision was blurry and spinning, making it difficult for him to get up. He wasn't underestimating his opponent but he never thought would suffer this much damage. He struggled to even lift his head as he listened to the man's next words.

<<HP: 210,000/305,000>>

"I am Lucifer, The Great Demon King of Pride." Lucifer was now standing on the spot where Theo used to occupy. "What makes you so special that you dared to challenge me? You can't even react to my physical attacks."

Theodore was finally able to stand, he lifted his gaze and looked at Lucifer with an expression filled with rage. "You need to die, so my friend could live."

The demon king chuckled. "But I was just minding my own business, you're going to kill an innocent man just to save someone else?"

"You're not innocent."

"Because I'm a fallen angel? The humans sure had done a great job at tarnishing my name." Despite what he said, his voice didn't display anger, in fact, he sounded amused. "I don't plan on having a conversation with you any longer, I'll end this at this moment."

The dark aura from Lucifer's hand now surrounded his entire body and a sword suddenly manifested into his palms, as soon as he had a good grip on the weapon, he immediately rushed towards Theodore, preparing to cut his head off of his neck.

Despite still being in a daze, Theo had Ouroboros assisting him, so he barely managed to take control of 'Devouring Winter' and summoned more ice spikes and chains from the ground.

Lucifer's sword managed to cut through everything that stood in his way, when he was close enough to the snake, he unfurled his wings and jumped, the blade aiming for his head.

Theodore turned just in time, he opened his mouth and a burst of flame struck the demon and blasted him backwards.

"Still have some tricks up your sleeves?" Lucifer landed on the floor while some spots on his body were still on fire, the color of the flames were a pale yellow.

[The Bloodline Skill 'Divine Blaze' has given the skill 'Flames of Pride' the 'Holy' element!]

[Your confidence has increased! The level of the skill 'Flames of Pride' will temporarily increase by one!]

"Yeah, and I still have more." Theodore shook his head and got himself together, he ignored the aching all over his body and focused on using his skills.

One thing that he didn't get to use much is the Devouring Winter's second effect: His ice magic will now cost 0 mana to cast as long as the field of ice is still active. Now that he'd multiply the effects using the Great Cycle, he wouldn't have to worry about his low mana at the current moment.

Theodore summoned more ice chains, but now that Lucifer had begun taking things more seriously, his attacks weren't effective at all.

The demon king avoided everything and slashed through his spells, although they were still stuck in a stalemate because of Theodore's divine fire, when Lucifer tried to close the distance, he simply used the holy flames to ward him away, causing the fight to drag on into the hours.

…

"Give up!" Lucifer spoke through his gritted teeth. "Your mana reserve is running low! You can never win against me!"

The effects of Devouring Winter was about to end, the ice around them began melting and the snow became scarce.

Theodore still shook his head despite it being obvious that the demon king was speaking the truth. "I will never give up, I can't die yet…Not until I drag Rhys to hell with me!"

"Revenge? You're seeking revenge?" Lucifer laughed. "Fool! That path is rough and tiring, what has that person done for you to go this far?"

"What else? He killed me!" Theodore replied in a tone filled with annoyance. "Now he even kidnapped my father! It's not just me that he'd wronged, many died because of that f*cker! How can I ever forgive him?"

"…" Lucifer lowered his sword. "I was once like you."

Theo didn't expect the demon king to continue speaking, it caught him off guard, but he immediately stood his ground and prepared to cast another spell.

Though he was interrupted by Lucifer's next words.

"I wanted His domain, I turned against him and that'd gotten me here."

"What?"

"But I've learned now, and taking revenge would lead to nothing but more suffering for yourself, you should back down while you still can."

Theodore didn't know what Lucifer was on about, but he took this as a chance to attack, he dashed forward until he was close enough and breathed holy fire onto his target.

Lucifer reacted faster though and the flames only managed to barely scratch his left wing. "That's rude, I was speaking."

"Fine, you really want to challenge me? So be it." With a single beat of his wings, Lucifer was flung into the sky, he stopped and looked down onto Theodore while gathering dark red aura onto the palm of his hands. "Do you want to know why this place is called Eternal Purgatory?"

A large black magic circle suddenly appeared on the ground beneath Theo, it spreaded outwards until it covered the entirety of the throne room.

"They said purgatory is the last place a damned soul goes before finally descending into heaven."

Theodore didn't have the time to reply or ask any questions, he immediately used 'Scales of the Serpent' and surrounded himself in green translucent armor, preparing to take any incoming attack.

"But this place is different from that." Lucifer continued as pillars made from a pure black material rose up around Theo and suddenly he would feel immense pressure pushing him down, immobilizing him. "This place…Is 'my' purgatory, the path to heaven is right in front of me but is eternally unreachable, an Eternal Purgatory."

Theodore forced himself to look up as Lucifer released the ball of dark energy, it came falling towards him like a falling meteor and there was no way to avoid it from this range, especially with his moments restricted at this moment.

'F*ck…Is this really the end?'

What if 'Scales of the Serpent' wasn't strong enough to block this attack? Lucifer took a lot of time preparing the spell, so there was no doubt that it must be powerful.

Combined with the fact that he'd been fighting a losing battle, he knew all his efforts were futile and he'd been doing nothing but struggling against certain death.

'Sh*t…I still need to—'

"That's what happens when you deny your own existence."

'BOOM!'

The black ball crashed directly onto him, he could feel immense pain coursing through his body and the sound of something shattering rang in his ears, everything turned dark red for a few seconds before finally, all his senses disappeared.

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.

.

[Wake up!]

[Hey!]

[Theodore!]

He was startled awake by the sound of someone calling his name, he looked around and noticed that he wasn't at the Eternal Purgatory anymore. "What's going on? Am I dead?"

[Ha! You're still alive!]

Theodore realized that Ouroboros was the one speaking to him, he let out a sigh of relief before asking. "Do you know where I am?"

The floor glowed a soft dark blue as glitters dotted along the surface, he tried moving and found that he made no sound at all, it felt as if he was gliding through the sky. There was nothing above him, just a dark and seemingly endless space occupying the ceiling.

[This place seemed to be a god's domain.]

"A god's domain? Like the space I met you in?"

[Correct, but I can't exactly say whose this is, I don't have many friends…I've never been to another god's domain before.]

Theodore didn't say anything about it and decided it would be best to start finding the owner of this space. 'What could this god possibly want with me?'

He has a theory that the place belonged to the same person that'd reincarnated him, but he couldn't say for sure since the god had been anomalous this whole time and it makes no sense for them to show up right now.

'Maybe it's because I'm actually dead?'

His question would soon be answered though as suddenly someone showed up next to him. "Hello."

"Ah!" Theodore flinched back with surprise. The middle-age man that'd appeared out of thin air has curly brown hair and shining golden eyes, his beard was trimmed short and he wore a pure white toga showing off his muscles and fair skin, around his waist was a scaly green belt and hanging from it were multiple small pouches, he doesn't wear any shoes but around his wrist and ankle were golden bracelets.

"Oh, I'm sorry that I startled you." The man spoke with his hands held up in front of him. "We don't have much time though, so could you please hear me out?"

Theodore didn't exactly have a choice, he took a deep breath before speaking. "Okay…But first can you tell me who you are?"

The man seemed eager to answer him, he bowed slightly with a bright smile. "I'm Asclepius, and I've summoned your soul here for an audience."

"What…?"

"Ah, don't worry, if I send you back before time's up then you'll still be alive."

"Okay?" Theodore sounded worried. "But what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Straight to the point I see!" Asclepius clasped his hands together, his smile grew wider as he spoke. "I want to help you!"

"With what?" He tilted his head.

"Well, with whatever you need! I've heard that you wanted to get revenge right? I can help you with that!"

"Wait, but aren't you a medicine god?"

"Yeah? So?"

Theodore paused for a moment as he pulled his tail closer to himself. "I mean, I thought you were supposed to be good? Like…you would be against harming others?"

"Oh to hell with the stereotypes! It's fine!" Aslepius waved. "Besides, I have someone I want to get my revenge on too, so how about we help each other out?"

"Who…Who is your target?" Theodore was curious, but then he shook his head and spoke frantically. "You don't need to tell me, of course! I'm just a mortal and you're a god! It has nothing to do with—"

"Zeus."

Theodore stared at Asclepius in disbelief. "Huh…?"

"Oh, you don't know who Zeus is? He's basically the biggest jerk in the universe—"

"No, no. I know who Zeus is, but you're going to take revenge on him?"

Asclepius laughed, as if seeing the conversation as nothing but a joke. "Yes! That's what I said!"

The god took a few steps closer to Theodore before pressing him softly with an index finger. "You and I have a lot of things in common, Theodore Varon."

There was a slight stop in the sentence as Asclepius looked up at Theo. The next words that the god spoke were filled with anger unlike the calm and cheerful tone that he'd used before.

"Because I was also unjustly killed."