Enemy of the Inferno (Disgardium Book #8): LitRPG Series

by Dan Sugralinov

  “May Scyth-san forgive Hiros for so impertinent an intrusion…” the ninja said.

  “Yes, Tommy?”

  “Scyth-san needs to die so that his soul may float off to the Underworld? Do I understand the task correctly?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Allow me to demonstrate…” Hiros bowed for the millionth time that day.

  “Go on then,” I said carelessly.

  Astral Fury: for 30 seconds, your soul absorbs all the capabilities of your body and you switch to an immaterial form of existence, retaining only unilateral interaction with the real world.

  “Alex?” Crag asked, his eyes widening in concern. “Where are you?”

  Bomber grabbed the ninja around the neck and roared threateningly:

  “What did you do to Scyth, Tommy?!”

  “Scyth-san allowed Hiros to demonstrate!” the ninja wheezed.

  I lowered my eyes, looked at myself, my arms – my body had turned transparent. I saw its outline only thanks to the edge separating my flesh from the air. It was like I’d turned to glass.

  “I’m fine, guys!” I shouted. “Everything’s okay!”

  The timer counted down the final ten seconds, and I tried all my abilities under Astral Fury: Flight worked, Hammerfist tore through the fabric of space just like usual, and the grass even bent beneath my feet. I left the group, stood before Crag and said:

  “I’m right in front of you. Try to hit me!”

  The warrior hesitated, and then Crawler put down a Firewall right where I was standing. The flames crackled, hungrily sucking in oxygen, but I felt nothing.

  In my final seconds of incorporeality, I stepped out of the fire and moved behind Bomber, who still had hold of Hiros.

  “Boo!” I yelled in the warrior’s ear under his helmet. “You can let Tommy go.”

  The warrior loosened his grip. Hiros slipped out, coughing. Bomb shook his shoulders:

  “What? He should have warned us!”

  “Will that do it?” Crawler asked me.

  “It might work,” I nodded. “Seems to make the body disappear from reality, leaving only the soul behind. But I need a plan B in case something goes wrong. The portal won’t be open for long.”

  Approach, Initial, Tiamat’s voice said in my head.

  I looked at the temple, saw her, turned back to the boys:

  “You guys grind without me for a while. Looks like the Sleeper has an idea.”

  Once I was standing before her, the goddess said nothing. A system message spoke for her:

  Self-Sacrifice

  Class skill.

  At a critical moment, the Herald can take the path of self-sacrifice in the name of the Sleeping Gods. After activating this skill, the Herald instantly dies, but all his health is converted to Faith.

  “The Sleeping Gods do not take sacrifices,” Tiamat said quietly. “In abdicating life, even in our name, part of the Initial’s soul is lost.”

  “Could your previous Initials revive like I can, Sleeping Goddess? I’m undying, after all.”

  “I do not remember,” she smiled. “Each dream is like a new life. The old ones are shrouded in mist. I implore you: do not sacrifice yourself unnecessarily. The Faith obtained through this method is violent, unstable. It causes spite and kills all that is good within us.”

  “Is that why the dark gods are so evil?”

  “Exactly.”

  Tiamat’s avatar disappeared, and the enormous red dragon appeared above the temple again. By the time I reached the boys, happily plinking away at a new pack of barakatas, the dragon had disappeared too.

  With the technical details of getting to the Inferno ironed out, now we had to find Nettle – the human who had sold his soul to demons.

  Dawn was breaking in Cali Bottom, and everyone was exhausted from farming. I waved my fists drowsily, perking up only when I leveled up and got new stat points to spend. Bomber just went and sat down off to one side at one point, claiming to want to level up Crossbows. Tired of waving his sword, Crag followed his lazy fellow warrior’s example and did the same. Crawler kept yawning widely, which interrupted his casts; he had to speak his spells aloud for them to work. Only the indefatigable Hiros kept up the same enthusiasm as ever.

  We fought silently, too tired even for banter.

  You leveled up! Current level: 700.

  5 free attribute points available!

  Reached level 700!

  Rank seven is now available to your skills, abilities and crafts!

  I was seeing results not only in my character level, but in my skills too. Unarmed Combat was up to 42, and just when I was starting to think that Synergy couldn’t level up at all, it finally gained a level:

  Synergy level increased: +1! Current level: 2.

  Multiplies all the stats of all allies in the group by the number of group members.

  Maximum multiplier at current skill level: 4.

  The skill had only leveled up once, but when you multiply hundreds of thousands, even a slight improvement has huge effects. The barakatas stopped dealing any damage to me at all, unable to pierce my defenses.

  I reported the Synergy level-up to the others. Bomber exchanged glances with Crawler and nodded toward the temple:

  “There’s a Dig Site there. Let’s bring Infect over?”

  “He’s not online anyway,” Crawler answered, yawning. “Sleeping, probably. And the Synergy multiplier isn’t over the number of people in our group yet.” Suddenly, he perked up. “Hey, guys! I’ll hit level seven hundred soon, but I still don’t see the mobs’ level. Just question marks. Same for you, Scyth?”

  “Yep. They must be over one thousand.”

  “No doubt about it,” the mage agreed. “But not by much. You noticed how our leveling speed has dropped?”

  “Uh-huh,” Bomber yawned. “We were getting a level each per pack before, but now it takes a few.”

  The experience was flowing in slower, but still quickly enough that I hoped to reach 800 before Isis’ Blessing ended. In addition, realizing that Unarmed Combat almost wasn’t leveling up at all since I was giving all the kills to the others, I started using Hammerfist more often and got to rank three in all but name:

  Unarmed Combat level increased: +1. Current level: 108 (rank II).

  Accuracy and damage of strikes dealt without a weapon increased by 1045%.

  Spirit: +100. Total: 10,800.

  For fun, I leveled up Archery to 56 and Stealth to 22 – both rank-one skills. I managed to add a couple of dozen levels to Ghastly Howl, too, which had been so useful in the Games…

  For all those hours, I wondered where the crocodile beast god Sobek had gone. I started to think that the ancient monster had taken one look at us, sensed our strength and decided to go and hide…

  Then trees cracked in the distance and a bloodcurdling roar rolled toward us – like I’d mentally summoned the crocodile.

  Apparently, the beast god Sobek was drawn to the place of power, but today he’d been roaming far away and it had taken him a while to arrive. The boys exploded with enthusiasm when he appeared.

  “The celestial crocodile!” Hiros whispered in awe, falling to his knees. “Kurokudairu!”

  Sobek crawled toward us, smashing a broad path through the stone forest. His titanic body gleamed, his skin venting acrid steam. Opening his mouth wide, the beast god snapped his jaws. Hiros nearly fainted with excitement.

  “Hey, Tommy!” Bomber shouted. “We don’t bow to beast gods in our clan, we fight them!”

  “Well…” I chuckled. “In your case, feed them!”

  “Har-har,” the warrior answered. “Very funny! Look, Hiros is about to pray his way into the beast god’s favor!”

  The ninja had forgotten all about us. I got the impression that the kid was a big fan of huge monsters… I suddenly remembered the time my ancient dinosaur had spoken to Apophis. Maybe he could do the same here?

  I summoned the Montosaurus and pointed him at Sobek:

 
; “Can you talk to him?”

  Staying in his smaller form, Monty chirped something and headed toward the crocodile.

  “Are you sure, Scyth?” Crawler tugged at my arm. “This local beast god is far stronger than Monty, and Monty doesn’t have his divine abilities as your pet. Careful he doesn’t get gobbled up!”

  The Montosaurus stopped five yards away from the enormous crocodile, looked upwards:

  “Trra! Ra! Raa!” he said. It sounded like someone blowing into a trumpet in fits and starts. “Rra! Kra!”

  Sobek darted forward and snapped his jaws in front of Monty. My dinosaur was blown away as if in a gust of wind, rolling across the earth. We went into combat, and Sleeping Justice and Nergal’s Fury activated. The Montosaurus grew ninety feet tall, deftly jumped to his feet and took a step toward the ancient crocodile. The earth shook.

  “Well, Scyth?” Crawler asked, elbowing me. “Do we fight the beast?”

  “Wait… What if we can tame it?”

  Now the Montosaurus was three times taller than Sobek, and the crocodile retreated. The dinosaur stopped before him, bent down, extended his neck and roared right in the crocodile’s face.

  I wondered for a moment whether to summon Sharkon and the other pets, but discarded the idea. There was no point in getting them involved in the two beast gods’ argument. That might ruin things. Or they might die, losing experience in a fruitless attempt to attack the ancient crocodile.

  Sobek struck the ground with a mighty foot and my dinosaur’s column-like legs buckled. He stayed standing, but backed off and returned to me, bending down and dragging his tail.

  “Like I said,” Crawler sighed. “This beast god is stronger than yours, Scyth.”

  “Fine,” I said, nodding, casting Spirit Shackles at my feet and turning back to my friends. “Stay here. I’m going to try something.”

  The acid spittle dripping from Sobek’s upper fangs slowed, then froze in the air. The flickering rain stopped. I could see every drop. I flew toward Sobek and hit him.

  You dealt critical damage to Sobek: 3.7m!

  Health: 26,999 bil / 27 bil.

  Sighing in disappointment, I launched a full Combo at the grinning face, then flew back to the safe zone. I didn’t have enough spirit to kill a beast god with so much health and defense! Judging by the barakatas, the damage was cut down by twenty.

  I exited Clarity in front of the boys and only then heard Sobek’s enraged roar. The Montosaurus, who should have aggressed on him some time ago, roared in response, but had enough sense not to go and fight him. Remembering that Monty was mortal, I recalled him.

  “Is that the thing you used at the Games?” Crag asked, trying to shout over the crocodile’s roar.

  The beast god was furious, stomping this way and that, plowing up the ground. Uprooted trees flew toward us. Sobek couldn’t enter the place of power, but had no problem trying to spear us with the gigantic heavy trees, so we moved back.

  “It is,” I answered. “But I need to level it up a lot more. Did you see how much health Sobek has?”

  “Sure did,” Crawler answered, frowning. “How are we supposed to grind now?”

  The beast god moved along the edge of the place of power to get closer, and was now opposite us. He’d stopped roaring, but was stubbornly crashing his body against the barrier that barred his entry. Not knowing what I was hoping for, I cast Lethargy on Sobek. No effect.

  Bomber lit a fire and we sat down in a circle around it.

  “Looks like our farming is over,” Bomber said wryly. “I’m level 635.”

  “647,” Crawler sighed. “Nether, I really wanted to get to 700 and play around with Alchemy!”

  “Hiros is 612,” The ninja beamed, smiling so wide that his eyes turned to narrow slits. “Hiros must visit the trainer!”

  “Us too,” Crag chuckled. “With a transformation potion, of course. I hit level 622. Half a year ago, we could have won the Arena without even fighting. Our enemies would have just quit the tournament as soon as they saw our levels. I’m not certain, but I think now we can survive an Armageddon.”

  “Armageddon? You mortals strive only for mutual destruction.”

  The voice came from above.

  “Uh…”

  “Who said that?” Bomber jumped up, threw his head back and looked around.

  We all leapt to our feet, preparing for battle. I glanced at the temple, but Tiamat wasn’t there. Anyway, why would she talk with a male voice?

  “Who’s there?” Crawler asked, his voice tense. “You playing a prank on us, Hiros?”

  “No, it is not Hiros the ninja, the Astral Diver,” the voice laughed. “And not Bomber the warrior, who chose one of my little animals as his patron saint.” The tone turned harsher. “And not Crag the warrior, puppet to Nergal! And certainly not the mage Crawler, who controls the flows of mana better than any of you…”

  “Then who? Scyth?” the gnome asked. “He’s the only one you didn’t name! Scyth, is it you?”

  I was too stunned to answer first.

  “Herald Scyth? No, of course not him. The Initial of the Sleepers has far too many powers to name them all.”

  “Come into the light and name yourself!” I demanded.

  “Easy to be brave, Fortune’s Favorite, when luck is on your side.” The voice gave a laugh. “But all the same, you are only mortal!”

  Shadow covered us. The earth began to subside, knocking us off our feet. Throwing our heads back, we saw two mountains towering above us. We were in a gorge between them, pressed against each other.

  “Nge N’Cullin is the name that the First People gave to me,” the voice in the sky rumbled. “Sobek, little one, you may enter. I give you my permission.”

  The mountains of the giant’s legs rose into the sky and crashed back down into the forest one after another a mile away from us.

  Snapping his jaws, the beast god Sobek crossed the border of the place of power and headed straight for us.

  Chapter 9. The Watcher

  SOBEK, WITH THE PERMISSION of his master or senior god, entered the zone of the place of power, froze for a moment to look around, then stomped toward us, working his legs unhurriedly.

  The crocodile looked like a ninety-foot-long hill the height of a three-story building. His ancient scales were like flagstones covered in lichen. Creatures of some sort scurried between them, apparently immune to the seeping acid that fell to the ground in yellow droplets, hissing and filling the air with acrid smoke.

  This was so strange – why the huge difference in health between the two beast gods? The Montosaurus had sixty million, but Sobek had almost five hundred times that. I met the dinosaur when I was a noob in the sandbox… The beast gods’ power must be calculated dynamically depending on the enemy. A way for the developers to give them survivability. But that wouldn’t save Sobek if he attacked first.

  “I need to put myself in front of him,” I told the boys, moving toward the beast god. “Stay behind.”

  I mentally rubbed my hands in greed at the thought that no matter how the battle unfolded, nobody could take away the skill levels I’d gain from it. My hand reached on its own for some zombie rat chitterlings. In the meantime, the warriors shouted battle cries and Crawler cast shields on me.

  I glanced to the side, saw that the giant Nge N’Cullin wasn’t moving. As long as he didn’t wade in to help the crocodile…

  Sobek was in no hurry. The earth trembled beneath his heavy footsteps. His scaly belly scraped along the ground, overturning boulders.

  When he was around thirty feet away from me, the beast god sped up, jumped as high as his agility allowed, snapped his jaws, but I jumped back; the crocodile’s maw was bigger than the Montosaurus’s even when the dinosaur was in battle form. Sobek would just bite me clean in half! Nonetheless, I couldn’t escape the strike from his foot; a monstrous claw pierced right through Cold-Blooded Punisher and my chest beneath it. My health increased almost a hundredfold thanks to the multiplier from Sleep
ing Justice and Nergal’s Fury.

  A notification popped up to tell me that my rank-four Resilience had grown to level 36. Good news, another three levels just for… Ugh! My eyes dimmed in pain. The beast’s claw had cut through not only my internal organs, but also my ribs and my spine. I slowed down time.

  Growling and groaning in pain and working my arms, I started trying to pull myself off the claw hanging in the air. Clarity let me see Sobek’s neck slowly extending toward me, his jaw open – the beast god was about to grab me in his teeth. I saw the boys reflected in his reptilian eyes. Crawler shouted something, his arm outstretched and wreathed in flame; Hiros fired compact crossbows from both hands like a hero in a western; Crag and Bomber moved round in a circle to stick their blades into the beast’s side.