Chapter 35: The Leviathan

Theriault expected to appear in some battle-styled room. Instead, they were floating in the clouds.

That's what he saw at least, but he could walk as if it were solid ground. "How peculiar..." He said before a large hand grabbed his arm.

"Damn it! You've doomed us, Theriault!" Cu Chulainn said, his eyes full of fear as Theriault felt an immense power wash over them.

"Test your might heroes!" They heard a deep voice boom as a man appeared in front of them, smiling as they heard a shriek from all around them.

"You guys are the first in a while to be chosen to battle the multiheaded sea serpent Leviathan, you must be the best of the best!" The man said, smiling brightly as Theriault saw the cloud above them flash and a serpent flashed through them, rushing down at them at impossible speeds.

The man teleported some distance away, watching as the serpent slammed full force into Cu Chulainn, who blocked the blow with Gae Bolg, gritting his teeth as his body was put under immense stress just to make sure Leviathan didn't kill them instantly.

"Damn it!" He yelled as he pushed against the beast. "See what you've done!" Cu Chulainn managed to grunt out as he looked back at Theriault, who clenched his fists a bit.

"Yeah my bad," He said putting a hand on Cu Chulainn's back. "Let me help you..."

Theriault smiled cruelly as he raised his hand, his eyes glowing brightly. The leviathan veered to the side, flying back up in the clouds.

"Huh... I guess he has intelligence, that's fine, always a better fight when they know how to fight..."

Theriault jumped up after the leviathan, grey-white light flowing from his hands as he burst through the clouds.

The Leviathan screeched, flying at him and slamming into him full force, sending the boy flying back down toward Cu Chulainn and slamming into the solid surface hard.

Therianolt gasped for breath as he sat up slowly, rubbing his head where he'd been hit by the monster. "Son of a bitch," He cursed, standing up and gritting his teeth.

"At least you're taking responsibility for your mistake... If we survive this we're gone understand?" Cu asked, brandishing his spear as The Leviathan zigzagged through the air down toward them.

"Fine, maybe Lucifer is stronger than I thought," Theriault said, his eyes glowing brightly as his huge scythe spawned in front of him. He charged forward, slicing the monster across its belly.

The leviathan let out a shrill cry as it fell off course, crashing into the ground next to them. "Well, that was close... Good thing his skin isn't crazy strong," Theriault said as The Leviathan's blue blood rolled off his scythe.

"Why do you not touch the weapon?" Cu Chulainn asked before jumping next to Theriault and grabbing him, sidestepping The Leviathan's next attack.

"If I touched the scythe... Well, you wouldn't survive," Theriault said amusedly, but he wasn't joking. Cu could see that clearly in the boy's eyes. His grip loosened as the boy turned to face the Leviathan again.

The Leviathan flew towards him at lightning-fast speed, smashing into him with incredible force.

"Guh?!" Theriault said, his scythe flying through the air toward him and barely taking most of the force as Theriault flew back, rolling and slamming into the ground repeatedly.

'God..." Theriault said as he jumped up, taking off his jacket and tossing it to the side. "Maybe I should have taken your advice," Theriault said, moving his hand and controlling his scythe to come to him.

The Leviathan slammed into Cu Chulainn, swerving toward Theriault quickly as the scythe reached him.

"Fucking beast," Theriault said as he dodged at the last second, stomping on one of the heads as the other head snapped toward him, blocked by a heavy hit from the handle of his scythe.

As the head moved past, Theriault swung behind himself, cutting into one of the necks. Blue blood spurted everywhere as the head thudded to the ground, dead.

He glanced at the Leviathan who was now trying to get out of sight, zipping away quickly as its wound closed.

"Damn, it can heal..." Theriault said, jumping forward after the Leviathan.

"Watch out!" Cu Chulainn yelled as he jumped after Theriault, Gae Bolg glowing brightly as another Leviathan flew out from the side, much larger than the one Theriault had wounded.

"Fuck!" The black-haired boy yelled as he twisted in the air, making the scythe fly to him immediately.

But it wasn't quick enough.

Theriault widened his eyes as the Leviathan reached him, its huge jaws opening wide.

"Pierce the heavens..." Theriault heard in his ear as Cu Chulainn reached his side, thrusting his spear toward the Leviathan. Its mouth opened wider, revealing a mass of golden flesh inside.

Energy flew off the spear, stabbing into the golden mouth, causing steam to rise from the spot it hit. There was no damage though as The Leviathan snapped its jaws down unfazed.

"No way," Cu Chulainn whispered, staring at the gargantuan creature in horror.

Theriault gritted his teeth as he took control of both weapons, pushing the scythe forward and pulling the spear out from Cu Chulainn's hands, stabbing it up as the scythe came spinning toward them, slicing through The Leviathan's mouth just as it snapped down on them.

"Fuck..." Theriault cursed as he held the spear between the jaw of The Leviathan, his hand on the wet top, keeping it from clamping down on them.

"Yo Chulainn..." Theriault said as he felt his arm snap, bone sticking through his flesh and blood splattering on his face, but he held true. "Get far... Far away," Theriault said as The Scythe appeared next to him.

In the next second Theriault kicked Cu Chulainn out of the opening and let go of the top of the leviathan's mouth, grabbing the handle of his scythe. "Fine... You win..." He muttered to the skeleton standing in front of his vision.

"Haha... Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHA!"

...

Cu Chulainn flew from the opening, slamming hard into the astral ground as he coughed and looked at the still airborne Leviathan.

"Damn it! What the hell are you doing kid!" The man yelled as he got up stepping toward the monster before a hand stopped him.

"You should worry about your own trial... I received word that this is a test specifically for the boy, you should stay out of it young man," The man from earlier said, smiling softly with a hand on Cu Chulainn's muscular chest.

"Fine." He sighed, walking backward until he was standing near a door. "What's going on here...?"

"I am simply helping a friend of mine give a challenge. You'll find that I'm very fair, so I won't attack you, but please refrain from interfering… You aren't the star of this trial…"

Cu gritted his teeth. "Yeah what a load of bullcrap, you can't stop me from helping-"

Cu flew back in an instant, his stomach feeling like jelly as he slammed and rolled and flipped on the solid air.

The man raised his hand, lifting Cu without touching him and slamming him down again into the solid air.

Then again.

And again.

By the end of it all, Cu Chulainn was a bloody pulp.

"You must understand, but this has all been planned out from the very beginning, my friend has been waiting for this boy to test him for a while now, so don't bother trying to interfere."

"Hah… Go to hell," Cu said, spitting blood on the solid air and standing up.

The man smiled, not a cruel or unusual smile, but as if he was telling a joke. "How funny… Since the moment you two stepped in the mansion and every time before that… You've been in hell."

Cu looked at the man in shock. "You… You're lying, that's impossible," He said, clenching his fists and gathering the strength to get up fully.

"Nope, the mansion is one of the gates to hell, all those people you saw? Lost souls traps in the never-ending loop of their last moment… Funnily enough, they died in an earthquake. Every single person you've killed in the mansion was simply reliving their last moments for eternity… That is the purpose is hell."

Cu couldn't believe the man's words. There was no way he'd killed that many people… But they had tried to attack him each time he tried to leave the room.

"A defense mechanism, they believe the door opening is the cause of their deaths, so they try and stop it, but it fails and they die from whatever they died in their actual lives… You've aided in torturing the souls of thousands of humans for hundreds of years now…"

Just as Cu was about to claim the man was still lying, a sudden unreasonable fear washed over him.

It didn't make any sense, he shouldn't have felt afraid, but he did, devastatingly so.

Just then The Leviathan's entire body burst, killing the huge creature instantly and revealing Theriault, his eyes glowing grey and steam coming out of his mouth.

Leviathans, dozens of them, flew out of the clouds toward the immense power that was Theriault.

And that's when Cu Chulainn understood his wife's hype around the boy, and also the boy's warning.

"If I touched this scythe you wouldn't survive." Theriault had once said.

And for the first time since he uttered that sentence, Cu Chulainn was starting to believe him.