Purgatory: The Devil's Game

by M. A. Carlson

  “I’ll try, but she moves faster than my proficiency, well before it is able to take effect,” Silas replied.

  I expected the ladle to come from the left, so I was surprised again when the queen turned sharply and smacked me with her shield, staggering me a few steps back. I didn’t even have time to move back in to attack when the queen spewed green acid at me. If not for speed boost, I never would have been able to avoid the widespread attack that undoubtedly would have done some significant damage.

  I used my twenty-seconds as effectively as I could, I hammered a couple more crushing blows into the cauldron, finally splitting the armor open. I tried for a fourth attack, but the goblin queen was able to move her shield into my path again. At least I could be glad that my fourth crushing blow cracked right through the pot lid and broke her arm at the wrist.

  That was about when my speed boost ran out and everything around me felt faster. Like the ladle swinging for my head yet again. I both ducked and moved my shield to intercept the attack, sending it skipping off my shield. I finally had an opening to the bulbous egg filled belly sack. I struck with another crushing blow. Everything inside the belly seemed to explode. Pops sounded off as eggs burst into pieces. The queen screamed in pain, dropping her ladle and grabbing her severely damaged belly.

  I almost felt bad, but then I remember the all-consuming horde she would unleash if I didn’t stop her. I attacked one of the legs that supported the belly, once, twice, three times before the limb gave out and the boss dropped to the ground.

  The queen tried to push herself back to her feet, but the limb wouldn’t support the weight. She settled for glaring at me with tear filled eyes. This time I did feel bad, demon or not, this was a hard pill to swallow. That was when four air blades impacted the queen’s face, head, and finally the neck, severing the head from her body and putting her out of her misery.

  “Now, you just need to destroy all the eggs and we can consider this a win,” Era said, sounding really pleased with herself.

  I was not pleased. I was . . . sad. I didn’t like feeling this way. I understood why the goblins needed to be destroyed. But why make me feel . . . remorse? I would be demanding answers from Ramy if he ever bothered to show himself again.

  That was about the time the bonfire snuffed out and everything went dark.

  I sat up with a gasp, I was back in the morgue and Ramy had finally bothered to show himself.

  I was about to lay into him when he said, “I’m sorry.”

  Those two little words took all the wind out of my sails. I still wanted answers but now I was curious. “Why are you sorry?”

  “Purgatory is . . . unfair. Sometimes you will be forced to make hard decisions,” Ramy answered.

  “But why? Why did you force me to kill a . . . mother. Monster or not, that was . . . it was just wrong,” I argued.

  “Let me show you something,” Ramy said.

  Suddenly, I was back in that cavern but from above. I was watching as I stood over the downed goblin mother, but it was slightly different. I hesitated again, but unlike the first time, Era’s attack never came. Instead, the goblin queen sudden tore away the belly and lunged for me with her mouth open wide. She bit my head off . . . literally bit my head off. Everything went black again and I was back in the morgue with Ramy sitting across from me.

  Ramy spoke before I could. “You sought out the source of the gluttony. You did everything right and you stopped it at its source. It is natural to feel some remorse for killing in that situation. However, there was more for you to learn, so I showed you. Now, tell me, what have you learned?”

  “Would she really have torn off part of her body to try and eat me like that?” I asked. I already knew it was true, but I still needed confirmation.

  “She would,” Ramy answered simply.

  I nodded to myself. It was the answer I expected. “Demons are not to be trusted or pitied. Gluttony only has one goal, to consume everything just as sure as she would have consumed me.”

  “No demon should be allowed to live. Some demons must be exterminated at all costs. It is a harsh lesson, but one I expect you will never forget again,” Ramy said, then vanished as if he’d never been there at all.

  I sighed. I hoped that meant I’d cleared the gluttony floor.

  Chapter 43 – Pride and Lust

  I had indeed cleared the gluttony floor. More interestingly, I had also cleared the greed floor, despite taking that one vial with me. I could only guess that my act of generosity made up for it. Of course, Ramy was never around for me to ask why that was. I was left with Pride, Lust, and Envy. Three floors that seemed to completely lack a solution.

  I tried everything I could think of. I cleared them fast, I cleared them slowly. On the pride floor, I tried getting the crowd to cheer for me. I thought maybe having a little pride was not a bad thing. It didn’t work. On the lust floor, I tried seducing the vampire lord’s concubines . . . I died several times trying that. I even tried killing the vampire lord mid speech, or I would have if I could have moved during that nonsense. On the envy floor, I tried attacking everything, I tried waiting . . . for years. I warned Theo and my friends about that plan. Still, it failed.

  “Okay, attempt . . . what attempt is this?” I asked.

  “I believe this is attempt one hundred and five,” Silas answered helpfully.

  I sighed. One hundred and five attempts at the pride floor and I felt like I was no closer to solving the riddle of the floor. I kicked the lever opening the gates and stalked out on to the sand where I waited for my first opponent.

  A dredge, as Glorior called it. It was still a chimera, just like him, though weak and pathetic.

  The demon charged across the sand and sighed in boredom. It was always the same with these demons. Nothing ever changed. It would charge and thrust its spear. I would deflect the attack and counter with a crushing blow that would crush the demon’s skull, ending the fight. I didn’t even need to pay attention to end the fight that quickly.

  Just as always, I deflected the spear jab then swung my counter blow, hitting the demon in one of its horns, shattering the horn and sending the demon limply to the ground. I blinked a few times as I looked at the still breathing demon. That was strange. Usually, it only took the one hit. I didn’t think the difficulty was any different than it had been the last, however many times I’d been through it. So why was it still alive?

  “Sir, I do believe you forgot to use crushing blow,” Silas answered the unasked question. “You have merely rendered it unconscious. Let us finish it and move on.”

  I sighed. It was a mental error, simple though it was. I moved to stand over the unconscious demon to finish it. I hefted my mace into the air and . . . lowered it to my side.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Glorior demanded. “Kill him.”

  I shook my head. I was tired of this. “Glorior, this is pointless. I could kill everyone one of your gladiators, as well as you, without breaking a sweat. I’ve done it many times already. I don’t know if you know that or not, but it’s true. So, can we stop all this. Open the gate and let me pass. We’ll call it mercy for you and yours. And who knows, maybe next time I’ll be in the mood to slaughter all of you again.” I wasn’t being prideful when I said it. It wasn’t something I was proud of. It was more . . . confidence. I knew what I was capable of. I knew exactly the kind of challenge this floor would give me. I was completely confident that I could slaughter every one of the demons and not take a hit.

  Glorior glared at me and questioned, “Mercy? You would show demon’s mercy?”

  I shrugged. “Normally, no. Today, I’m just . . . I’m tired. You must know it’s like leading lambs to the slaughter when you force them to fight me. So . . . yeah, I guess today I’m offering you mercy.”

  Glorior looked from me to the unconscious dreg and back, his gaze never softened as he glared at me, “So be it, but should we ever meet again . . . I will feast on your flesh. Now go!”

  I bli
nked in surprise. I hadn’t expected that to work. I was still surprised when the gate at the far end of the arena slowly began to open. I was a little hesitant to move forward. With every step, I expected Glorior to change his mind and send out all the gladiators at once. But they never came. I was never attacked. I just . . . moved on.

  My eyes opened but I didn’t bother sitting up. I knew I would be alone. I knew that I would leave Purgatory soon and reenter, intent and going another round or two before the day ended. I closed my eyes and relaxed.

  “You are determined,” Ramy said, startling me so much I rolled off the morgue table and landed on the ground next to it with a painful ‘oof’. “Slow but determined.”

  I grunted as I pushed myself back on to my feet, I growled, “Ramy, long time.”

  “A few years by my calculations,” Ramy agreed.

  “So that was it, mercy was the solution to pride?” I asked.

  Ramy shook his head. “No, it wasn’t about mercy, it was about confidence. You knew with absolute certainty, with confidence, that you would win no matter what was thrown at you. There was another way through. You could have challenged Glorior immediately.”

  “Your rules are terrible,” I complained. “Do this, but don’t do that, unless it’s under the specific set of circumstances. Do you think I could get you to write them down somewhere?”

  Ramy chuckled. “I wish it were that simple. Unfortunately, there are no hard firm rules. Every floor here is meant to teach you a lesson. Whether you learn them or not is entirely up to you.”

  “And here I thought I was done learning when I graduated college,” I said sarcastically then sighed. “Any chance you want to give me a hint on how to deal with the other two?”

  Ramy paused, as if he were listening to something that only he could hear, which was probably exactly what was happening, though I couldn’t help but curious as to who was speaking to him. He nodded, “Lust is not just about sex nor is envy only about jealousy.”

  “Is that really the best hint you can offer?” I asked, feeling tired of the indirect answers.

  “More or less,” Ramy replied. “Anyway, well done. Good luck.”

  I sighed. Once again, before I could ask him for more, Ramy was gone.

  “Now what?” Era asked.

  “Now,” I started with a yawn. “We go back to town and take a day off. Spend some time extracting and purifying essences.”

  Era and Asher both groaned while Silas hummed happily.

  I smirked at their reaction. Over the last few . . . had it really been years? Anyway, I’d spent a great deal of time extracting and purifying essence. My mace was . . . well, it was much better than it used to be.

  Call Divine Spirit Weapon: Mace

  Level: 50

  Experience to Next Level: 192,869

  SE Cost: 500

  Call a Divine Spirit Weapon in the form of a mace to aid you in combat.

  Mace: 95-180 Damage

  Sloth Touch: Chance on hit to afflict target with Sloth, slowing attacks, proficiencies, and movement speed.

  Irrational Pride: Impacted enemies will feel an irrational need to attack you to prove their superiority.

  Glutton for Punishment: Chance on hit to punish target and absorb HP and EP.

  Lusting Damage: Chance on hit to charm target to fight on your behalf.

  Weapon of Wrath: Increased weapon damage.

  Five different imbuements had made my mace a force to be reckoned with, though I can admit to being unsure how I felt about the glutton for punishment imbuement. I didn’t like the idea of stealing life and energy from a demon, still, it was a nice benefit. I would have like to do more but until I could level up the weapon further, there was no point.

  Pushing away thoughts of my mace, I left Purgatory behind and went back to my room and got to work. I had plenty of purified essence related to the seven deadly sins from my floor clearing efforts. I had only gotten a little essence from the fire imps, not enough for a full imbuement. I had taken to scouring the markets for demon parts. I didn’t have any plans for it yet, especially since I didn’t have nearly enough to do any enhancing, either for my armor or my shield, both of which I wanted very badly to improve.

  And there were some really interesting imbuements available to me now.

  Fire Imp Demon Essence

  Purity: 12%

  Weapon Imbuement Effect: 0.12% chance to afflict target with Burning

  Shield Imbuement Effect: 0.12% chance to burn target with successful block

  Armor Imbuement Effect: Reduce Fire damage effectiveness by 0.12%

  Jewelry Imbuement Effect: Increase Fire Proficiency Damage by 0.12%

  I was really tempted to share it with Theodore, the soulcaster was something of a pyromaniac from what I’d learned of him. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough of the stuff to be able to imbue anything for him and I had yet to find any fire imp demon parts in the market, or if there was, no one was selling it.

  Far and away, my favorite demon part so far was from an iron bull. I found someone selling a horn chip to a vendor and bought it from him for twice the price.

  Iron Bull Demon Essence

  Purity: 29%

  Weapon Imbuement Effect: 0.29% increased blunt damage

  Shield Imbuement Effect: 0.29% increased block absorption

  Armor Imbuement Effect: 0.29% increased armor rating

  I’d been hunting the markets ever since, looking for more of it. That was an imbuement I absolutely wanted to add to my spirit shield and armor. If I could, I would add it multiple times. No one had been able to tell me if imbuements could stack and I wasn’t willing to waste resources to find out.

  As promised, I spent a day extracting and purifying demonic essences, much to Asher and Era’s irritation. Silas seemed to find the process fascinating and encouraged the pursuit. There was nothing too interesting to be found in the results. Still, I kept at it, one never knew when one would find the next iron bull demon essence.

  The next day it was back into Purgatory and trying to solve lust and envy. When I entered lust, I waited before knocking on the knocker. I repeated Ramy’s clue, terrible though it was, out loud, “Lust isn’t just about sex.” So, what was lust? Lust was passion. It was carnal desire. But was lust only about people? Couldn’t a person lust for an object? I remember being in high school and wanting this classic car so badly . . . I lusted after it like I did my favorite cheerleader, I might have wanted it more than I wanted her, which was good because her boyfriend was the captain of the football team. My point, lust wasn’t just about sex. So, what in the vampire filled castle wasn’t just about sex. The vampires were all attractive, but I didn’t find myself irrationally drawn to them the way I was to the angel. Assuming the angel was an anomaly, what was in the castle for me to lust over? More specifically, what was I lusting for? What am I so driven to do? The answer to that was simple. I wanted to be done. I wanted to never need to enter Purgatory again. Did that mean I was going about this the wrong way? No, there had to be something deeper.

  I had an idea, a crazy idea, but an idea. I knocked on the door and it swung open. I entered, listened to the boring monologue from the vampire lord, waited for the fight to begin, then instead of joining in, I sat down.

  The vampires and faceless men fought and died. The boss came out and fought with the soldiers. I thought for sure the soldiers would lose and die to the last man. Thought that maybe if I didn’t engage, the vampires would come to me. But the soldiers won. They fought and won. Then they kept going, storming inside the castle, taking the fight to the vampires. And that was when it struck me. I wasn’t lusting because I only wanted to be done Purgatory. I was lusting because I wanted to be the hero. I needed to be the hero. I needed there to be a reason for everything I’d gone through. I was lusting for purpose, and there was nothing more tantalizing to me than being an honest to God hero. I didn’t just want to leave Purgatory quickly, I wanted to leave as a hero. Someone to be admired and loo
ked up to. It was lust, and greed, and pride, and so many of my faults all rolled up into one tiny package. The truth was . . . I didn’t need to be the hero.

  As if my realization had been heard, the world turned black, and I awoke in the morgue, laying on the cold stone slab. I was still processing my revelation. Throughout Purgatory, I was fighting so hard because I wanted to get to heaven . . . no, I wanted to get to my great granddaughter. Someone who knew my son or at least, had a connection to him. But I couldn’t just show up and expect her to say, ‘great grandpa, I’m so glad to meet you’. No, I needed to be more than that. I needed to come in as a hero, larger than life. That was what I’d been pushing myself for. That was what I’d lusted after. But I didn’t need it. I just needed to be a good man.

  “Well done,” Ramy said, enticing me to lift my head. I looked to where he usually sat waiting but he wasn’t there. He’d already departed.

  “Jerk,” I called out into the room but got no answer, not even a snort of amusement.

  “Six down, one to go,” I said, more for myself than anything.

  Chapter 44 – Promise to Keep

  There was only one floor left to conquer. Envy had truly stymied me. Nothing I did helped me move forward.

  Walking through town after another clear of Envy, I kept an ear out for the barkers, hoping to catch wind of some interesting demon materials. That’s when I caught a snippet of conversation. A girl went missing and her name was mentioned in conjunction with Billy and it made my blood boil. After years of working to finish my time in Purgatory, it saddened me to hear that Billy was still around, still ruining people. It was something I knew in my heart that Billy would continue doing so long as he remained in Purgatory.