CHAPTER 27: Home.

Sirin opened his eyes and he was immediately greeted with the familiar landscape of hell. Only, he couldn't remember this particular place.

He sighed. He had probably misdrawn some of the runes, and now he was in a part of hell he'd never been to before.

Still tired of being sent here, he pushed himself off the ground and picked up the unconscious Spot. It would probably take a while before the animal woke up again, but otherwise it seemed healthy.

He left the temple-like building and began to walk in an unknown direction. Even if he didn't know where he was, he would come home sooner if he walked than if he stayed at the temple. And right now, he really wanted to go home.

Finally, he came to a group of ruins just like the ones near the dead forest. Only one of these was a lot bigger with towers and a wall that was surrounding it.

He decided it couldn't hurt to take a look around.

The buildings around the big one were not really special. Unlike the ruins at his home, these were completely empty. There were only some pans or blankets that could no longer be used here and there.

After wasting his time in the smaller ruins for a while, he walked into the big one.

The moment he entered the building, he noticed that the air was different here. or rather the feeling in the air. The room felt pure? It didn't have the same pressuring effect as there normally was in hell. Almost as if something or someone had completely scrubbed the whole room with holy water, only it wasn't strong enough to actually burn him.

He curiously looked around. The room was huge and empty except for a throne at the very end.

Carefully, as if he were afraid the floor would burn him if he put his foot down too hard, he walked to the throne.

The creature that would have been sitting here was at least a half a meter taller than Sirin. The armrests were not connected to the backrest, which would make it more comfortable for a creature with wings. Also the armrests had scratches in them as if something with claws had scraped the metal very often. The backrest also had scratches, which were probably due to a scaly tail or something similar.

It was almost natural that a demon had been sitting here. Although Sirin found this very strange. If a demon was so confident in its strength that it stays somewhere for years in a place that stands out very much. Then why didn't that demon go away to a place where this strange feeling wasn't present.

Unless that odd feeling didn't come here until later, or that it was why this place was deserted to begin with.

Sirin took a deep breath. The smells here were also strange. There was, of course, the usual smell of hell, but there was also something else, something he'd never smelled before. Only that smell stopped before the throne.

The throne itself still bore the faint scent of the demon that had sat here. It was vaguely familiar, it smelled a bit like himself, just different in a way he couldn't easily place.

He placed Spot next to the throne and began to explore the building further.

A collection of axes hung in one of the rooms. These all seemed to come from different worlds considering how different they were and how some carried more magic than others. A few without magic were even glowing.

Sirin thought this was quite absurd. He knew from his own experience that you only use weapons if you yourself were not strong enough to kill something or purely to collect them. And since this demon was strong enough to defend this building for years, only the latter case was an option.

Only axes were very impractical to collect. Unlike knives, they took up so much space. In addition, knives in general also looked nicer.

The rest of the building was mostly empty. There were some things scatered around, but nothing of value. Other demons would have probably stolen it alreaddy if it was here in the first place.

When Sirin had finished exploring, he took the still unconscious Spot with him to look for the dead forest again.

He walked through hell for what probably would have been a few days in any other world. But here it was very difficult to keep track of time. Of course, Spot had long sinse woken up at that time.

The animal wasn't happy to be alone with Sirin and being in a very unfamiliar environment didn't help. But in the end the coyote had no choice but to continue to be carried by Sirin as most of the creatures here were not very friendly and he did not dare to walk on his own.

Fortunately, their effort was not in vain. The edge of the dead forest soon came into view, and Sirin was at last relieved to be almost home.

With new joy, he ran through the woods and straight to Amanda. And even with the coyote under one arm, he managed to hug her so tightly he nearly broke her back.

After introducing Spot to her, he retreated to the cave where he fell asleep for the first time in at least two weeks.

Amanda had previously asked him why his shirt was broken and what he had done in the human world, but he had convinced her that it was better if he talked about it after he had rested. He still had to figure out the best way to explain everything.