Chapter 15 - Whip Me Harder, Baby!

They soon reached the ground, and the baby faced Geryon waved goodbye to them with its lizard arms and bit the head of a shade on its way back to the waterfalls.

They were standing on jagged and uneven rocks that looked like how ribs would be, giving the sensation the ground itself is moving as the place 'breathes'.

They were at the mouth of a funnel-like shape. Daniele looked below and narrowed his eyes into the deep darkness. "Brother..... Is that an amphitheater?"

"It's not an ordinary amphitheater, my dear." 'Leandro' frowned and took his hand protectively. "This is the Malebolge, the Ten Evil Ditches. Each bolgia holds a different type of fraudulent and malicious sinner. We must tread carefully and not fall to one of these ditches."

When they got near the first bolgia, they heard shouts and the loud cracks of whips into supple flesh. Daniele watched as people marched back and forth, being hit by horned demons repeatedly without mercy.

"Move faster!"

"Isn't that body of yours the only good thing about you? Learn to use it and walk faster!"

"You've sold your daughter as a slave, so learn to be a good slave like her!"

Daniele listened to these scathing remarks and had a sense of what kind of people this bolgia holds. He asked 'Leandro'. "Are these people..... related to the business of selling bodies for pleasure?"

"Seducers and panderers. The homewreckers, the prostitutes, and the masterminds behind them. You can say it all, it's not like they can take any offense. They are already being punished for their crimes."

'Leandro' pointed at the scantily dressed people. "Those who sell others or sell themselves willingly in order to gain benefit. Tempting people to exploit them. Some even causing the rife and discord of houses and even kingdoms itself in a larger scale."

The horned demons overheard this and looked at them with greedy eyes. "Why, what good looking gentlemen you are! With those looks, you may be interested in selling yourself for pleasure! You must make good bed servants! "

(What in the nine hells, man??? Did they just say we look like we could be hoes!?) Zhe Chouhen was really annoyed even he was merely playing a role.

"We are honorable men, demons. Especially my companion here." 'Leandro' said evenly, eyes blazing with murderous intent. "Satisfy yourselves with scourging the guilty all you like. But do not dare insult my Daniele by liking them to those filth."

"Leandro, don't get so furious with them!" Daniel held on to his arm. "Let us just keep moving."

"Yes, if you are so offended, could it be that that boy is your bedmate after all???"

"Go and listen to your boy toy! Run before we scary demons hit you with our whips!"

"Leandro." Daniele was trying hard to convince him and pull, but he's too heavy to drag and kept his foot on the ground. "Don't listen to them. They're speaking nonsense which is not true. They're demons after all, don't let them get to you."

'Leandro' took a moment to give them the another menacing look..... then reluctantly joined him.

"Alright."

But with hands behind his back, he used his tendrils to whip one of the horned demons' back!

SMACK!

"Hey, who did that!? Was it you, bitch!???" The horned demon asked one of the sinners.

"It's not me! I don't have a whip!" The sinner reasoned. "Please stop hitting me!"

He turned to his fellow demons. "Then one of you fuckers did it, huh!? Alright then, have some of this!"

He whipped the one nearest to him, and before they knew it, a whipping fight ensued. The horned demons are now hitting each other as well as the humans, plunging into chaos.

"What's going on back there? Why have they gotten even noisier?" Daniel asked up ahead the rocky steps in between the first and the second bolgia.

"Nothing, the demons just started to play amongst themselves during their break time." 'Leandro' reasoned with a crooked smile. "Whipping humans is quite tiring and demons get relief when they whip each other."

"I-Is that so?" Daniele was baffled. First the baby faced Geryon and now this. "The more we travel the Nine Circles, the more peculiar it becomes for me.... I don't think I can take any more strangeness."

[Scum Meter raised to 30%]

(Hey, what was that for!?)

[You used your magic for petty revenge and lied to Daniele. What else do you expect to happen?]

(They deserve it. Accusing us of being bed servants!? I don't mind it if it was just me, but Daniele who looked so pure like the whitest of jade? Are they blind!?)

[Why are you so triggered for Daniele, anyway? Do you care about him?]

(Of course, I do.)

Panda: ... <narrows eyes>

Zhe Chouhen remembered the rule and then added. (As someone older than him! As a compassionate reader with empathy! As a basic human being!)

Daoist Panda gave a wry smirk with his chibi face. [Hmm, are you sure there's nothing else? I smell something fishy.]

Zhe Chouhen waved him off. (Must be the next bolgia full of poop. What I wouldn't do to dunk your head in there right now.)

Panda: Eww no! (@o@) <puke sounds>

Just as they said this telepathically, Daniele covered his nose. He saw people swimming and fighting, like in the River Styx at the Circle of Wrath, but instead of a green swamp, they were in brownish-black muck.

"W-What is this? Why does it smell so...."

"Better for you not to know, Daniele." 'Leandro' used his magic to block the scent. "These are the Flatterers, whose words are just as good as..... The things that come out of people on their rear end."

Daniele realized what this meant and almost vomited. He only got queasy and held his stomach. "Yes.... Best that we got of here as soon as possible."

The third bolgia was not as revolting as the second nor as loud as the first. That's because it was merely filled with people stuffed heads down on burning baptismal fonts. Their feet also rested in flaming coals.

"That would be the Simoniacs, those who sell church favors and exchange what should have been their holy duty for money." 'Leandro' explained. "They 'cleanse' people through baptism to gain coins, and so that baptism is not of God, but of greed and false clergyman. Now, they are also being baptized through a flame to cleanse their dirty souls."

"Oh.... How unfortunate that such leaders of the Church existed." Daniele said.

(You have no idea. It's even worse in our modern era.) Zhe Chouhen said in his mind.

They managed to pass by this without a problem.

Zhe Chouhen mocked himself. (I sound like a tour guide to hell. Maybe I should get into that industry, I know quite a lot about history and geography so who knows if it'll work out for me.)

[Why didn't you become a tour guide then?]

(Because I'm good at memorizing historical and geographical facts..... Of fictional worlds. )

Panda: ...

(And besides, too much human interaction is taxing, I'd rather stick with a single cute human than be with a boring crowd.)

Panda: [Ah, now that's something I can relate to.]

'Leandro' cleared his throat, gesturing to the next bolgia. "And the next one would be sorcerers—"

He felt a pain in his neck, like his throat inside was twisting!

"Are you alright, Leandro!?" Daniele asked worriedly as his stepbrother started to cough. "What's wrong?"

'Leandro' covered his mouth with his handkerchief as he still feel the muscles, joints, and bones inside his neck were turning ever so slowly. He coughed and there was blood, then quickly hid it from Daniele.

"I'm fine.... Let's keep moving. I'll explain this bolgia later. I'll be fine, it must have been the stench from the second bolgia or the weariness from travel."

They passed the ditch and Daniele wasn't able to see clearly because he was too focused on his brother, but he did catch a glimpse of the sinners in the fourth bolgia. He turned back and stared at it.

The people were staring back at him, walking backwards. But then he realized that he was wrong....

They were actually walking forwards, it's just that their face is twisted 180° and on their backs! Blood red tears streamed on their eyes but they couldn't wipe them away, because their hand can't reach them.

"I promise I won't look anymore.... I won't peer into the future anymore..... So please, help me!"

"I won't make predictions from the stars anymore! Oh, how I wish I did not live a life for astrology!"

"I would give up all the magic I have learned if you would just fix my head back the right way! It really hurts!"

Zhe Chouhen also heard this and stopped for a while.

(This is another case of 'Leandro's' supposed punishment going to me when I'm not guilty of it, huh? Is it really that he's still inside of me, that's why I receive the punishments internally but not externally?)

[Maybe.]

(Damn it!)

Daoist Panda sighed. [Look, I'm not sure, alright. Maybe it's the other way around. Maybe you really are guilty of these deeds and because you are merely residing in Leandro's body, the punishments are received internally.]

(Me? A sorcerer?)

[I don't know for sure who you are in real life, so who knows if you really are a lustful, gluttonous, wrathful, violent sorcerer? You could be lying all this time to appear like the good, gentle gong.... when in truth you are actually something far more sinister.]

(That's the stupidest theory I've ever heard. I'm a freaking normal person, you're the one who's abnormal so don't project your abnormality to me.) Zhe Chouhen waved him off.

His throat felt a whole lot better when they reach the 5th bolgia, indicating that it really was a punishment for being a sorcerer.

That experience really hurt like hell, along with all the getting tossed like a plastic bag into the air, bitten by a big dog, drowned into dirty slimy water, then getting your innards boiled.

Once he got home to the real world, he really would track where this freaking Daoist Panda lives and have a nice little chat with him.

Panda: [Let me prepare some tea then. I rarely have guests.]

Zhe Chouhen: ... Go die, you scum author!!!!

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