Chapter 469 First steps into Hell

At mid-day, the preparation have ended and everyone gathered outside the gate.

Sofia, Selena, Alice, Gracie, Ellie, Mary, Hati, Farryn, Zaleria, and Nemmoxon. All of them lined up beside Cain while Marina and Chad watched from the distance.

“Keep safe, you can always get back if it got dangerous.” Marina waved her hand to them.

Chad approached Cain, “I have a feeling that I shouldn’t let you go, but at the same time, I don’t want to stop you. So, just don’t die.”

Cain smiled patting his father’s shoulder, “Keep this place safe until I return, it’s always nice to have a family to go back to.” Cain turned around and walked toward the gate.

…

“It isn’t as uncomfortable as I thought.” Farryn said taking a deep breath, “It smells weirdly nice.”

Cain waited for her about to take a second breath and disabled his scent enchantment.

Farryn lungs got instantly filled with the disgusting stench of hell causing her stomach to flip inside her. Puking to the side, she had never smelled something so horrendous even on battlefields.

“What happened?”

“That’s what hell smells like, my magic is protecting you from the smell, heat, acidic fumes, and the radiating cursed mana in the air. None of you should be able to live here without my magic except Alice.” Cain looked at her.

Farryn glared at him and pulled a bottle of water from her pocket, she was then surprised to find it empty.

“Water can’t exist in most hell layers, unless with my help.” [Sylph’s tiny hut] [Create water] Water could exist inside the hut as Cain used it to isolate the hell atmosphere and its magic.

“Can’t you treat me a bit more nicely?” she said as he was pouring her water.

“You tend to run on your own to fight, this so you remember that you can’t leave my side. Well, you can, but I won’t be stretching my magic toward you to keep the spell active. That would just make us an easy target to detect.” Cain said as he stood back.

“Cain…are you protecting me?” Alice asked with a confused look on her face.

“I’m not protecting you and Sofia, wanted to see how you will fare in hell alone. You seem to be taking it well.” He smiled.

“It feels weirdly refreshing, like smelling cheese,” Alice said. She is an upper-rank devil that is supposed to live in the lower and harsher levels, the first layer was easy for her.

“And you Sofia, how do you feel?” Cain asked.

“The acid fume and heat are doing nothing, the smell also isn’t something I can’t tolerate.” She replied smelling the air, to her, it wasn’t as bad as Farryn made it to be.

“Most people would suffer from at least one. Heat strokes, acid burns on the skin and lungs, and eyes, sickness from the cursed mana, and the stench. Alice is probably taking it all well but you might suffer a bit from the cursed mana so keep an eye out.” He said.

“You aren’t going to protect me?” Sofia glared at him.

“Dragons grow faster in extreme conditions, this way you can get stronger quicker.” He answered.

“Then what about grandma? Don’t protect her as well.” Sofia added, if all dragons were the same, Zaleria would grow stronger as well.

“Well, about that…” Cain released his protection on Zaleria.

For a minute of standing still, she seemed fine, and then she started occasionally scratching her arm. Every few seconds she snorts as if clearing her nose. Even her calm stance started to break and she start moving slightly.

Cain returned the protection after the experiment ended, Zaleria can’t tolerate the acidic nature of hell. She was doing far better than a human who would have been screaming in pain after a few breaths.

“Alice, heal her, Acid fume has gotten to her skin and body.” He said and Alice complied.

“I’m fine, I would get used to it,” Zaleria said with a proud stance.

“Acid would get into your body from each pore and hole, slowly corroding and rotting you to death. Your strength will only increase the time you spend suffering before dying.” Cain told her with a serious face.

“Should I really be here?” Ellie lifted her hand as if she was in a school.

“Yeah, vampires are affected here but as soon as you get stronger, I would expect you to be close to Alice’s tolerance.” He replied.

“Master, a group of nupperibo is sighted in the south and is approaching us. Should we avoid them?” Spindle called them out.

In the distance, a group of large, deformed humanoid monsters was approaching them.

“Sinners, they were humans who spawned here as worms after death. Grew back into humans and then hell deformed them into those horrendous shapes.” Cain said as he looked at them. “It all depends on their response, it will be nice to have guides after all.” He added.

“Can’t we heal them? They look mildly human.” Alice said with a sad face, she could hear them groan in pain from that distance.

“If you ruled hell you decided, do such people deserve your mercy or not? This might be the first circle of hell, but it’s still hell and those didn’t get here with flowers and saying hello to people.” Cain told her as he teleported toward the nupperibo group.

“Hello, can you give me a moment of your time?” Cain said as he appeared beside them.

The nupperibos got surprised and they stared at his strange clothes, they could remember them from the past but their memories were hazy and muddled. They have spent hundreds of years suffering there and their human brain was reaching the sanity limit.

“What do you want?” One of them replied in a strange language. Cain could understand infernal (The language used in hell) But the girls couldn’t, they instead got the meaning sent to them from Cain’s brain directly through [Message] and [Enchanting]

It was mystical how they could hear both the monster’s talk and Cain’s translation at the same time and them being clear. It even reminded Farryn of how she felt seeing Lilia use her magic to achieve wonders.

“Direction for the nearest settlement of sinners if you can,” Cain said with a smile, even though he knew he won’t get an answer.

“Information isn’t free, you have to pay.” The nupperibo said with a growl.

“Of course, what are you interested to be paid in? Food, or souls?” Cain said, even though he didn’t intend to pay them anything.

“If you have what to pay with…” The nupperibo growled, “Then we’ll take it with your corpse.” He wasn’t joking, in hell, Cain’s human-like body seemed no more than a meal to them.

The nupperibo grotesque stomach opened up revealing countless fleshy tongue-like tentacles that rushed to pierce and grapple Cain. With how fast it happened, a watcher could mistake it for the monster’s intestine bursting up.

But in the next moment, it really happened. BAM! With a loud blast, the nupperibo’s upper body got blasted to bits in a splash of blood. Cain remained clean as a barrier of magic protected him.

“This is hell, time to rip and tear until it’s done!” As Cain said. The other nupperibos were about to attack as well.

Two rushed in, one from the right and the other from the left.

And then, the two of them suddenly froze in fear. At the same time, in the blink of an eye. The left one saw Tiamat’s figure flying toward him, he knew that feeling, she had devoured him countless times and he knew the feeling of death at her claws. While the right one saw darkness only released by the upper-rank devils choking him, he could never miss what sinners hate the most.

Sofia’s foot pierced the left one’s stomach and Alice’s nails blinded the right one as she grabbed him by the face.

BAM! A fiery explosion to the left and a blast of Rot cursed magic from the right. The two monsters got obliterated.