Hell Against Hell

“Captain Belogun!”

“We have to lock it down! The entire dungeon!”

The head of the dungeon guards strolls into the King’s holding cell, and kisses his teeth in frustration. As he walks over, he picks up the empty chains that once held the King’s frail arms, and inspects it for a few seconds. Soon after, he turns around to face each of his men.

“Listen to Orion, and lock down the dungeon. He couldn’t have gotten far…”

“Sir!”

“But be on your guard. You’re not just facing a weakened King…”

Belogun holds up the chains, which have now been mixed with bits of flesh from the King’s hands, along with thick saliva. The chains themselves appear to have been gnawed on, and chewed up before being spat back out.

“Someone else is here. And unless they have a jaw made of titanium, I can assure you we’re dealing with an avatar wielder.”

“What?!” The guards scream out in fear.

Orion steps out from the crowd of prison guards, “We can leave them to you, right captain?”

Belogun grins.

“...of course.”

***

“Will you please just slow down?!...” Kayin desperately asks, “I can barely feel my arms and legs, but there’s still pools of blood leaking from them!”

“Be quiet!” Kimiko quickly responds, “Neither of us are making it out of here alive if you keep making so much noise!”

It was your noise that caused this mess in the first place!...

Kimiko runs down the thick stairs of the dungeon halls freely, while two of her demons drag Kayin along, side by side. With thousands of guards running along those same halls, the four have had to constantly evade being seen, stuck aimlessly in what felt like an endless set of guards, halls and cells.

“What’s the deal with this dungeon anyways?!” Kimiko grits out in frustration, as she crouches by another corner to hide, “I’ve heard that it was built to be inescapable, but this is far beyond that!”

“It was a dungeon built to hold even the most powerful of avatar wielders across the land. Built through hundreds of years by the empire’s most skilled craftsmen. What made you think getting out would be easy?”

“Sneaking inside wasn’t that difficult, though?!”

“That’s the trick, genius.”

Kayin points upwards, bringing Kimiko’s attention to the center ring shaped like a large gear, constantly moving in a counter-clockwise direction.

“You see that ring? It’s the heart of an ever-evolving spherical mechanism that moves to bring things inside, but also makes sure that there is no escape once you’re locked in.”

“That…makes no sense.” Kimiko responds with a blank expression.

“It’s hard to explain, but think of it like thousands of Venus flytraps connected together. At the center of it all is the root. But beyond the root and stem lies the traps, allowing free entry, but no easy escape. And even if you manage to escape one of the traps, you are only left jumping into another trap. Meaning you’ve never truly escaped in the first place.”

Kayin then points to the cell directly behind the both of them. Directly inside the cell stands a few prison guards, slowly turning around to view the four outliers that stand directly in front of them. In the hands of the prison guards are the chewed up chains that Kayin had escaped from, leaving only one answer in Kimiko’s already frustrated mind.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

The prison guards rush out from the cell in order to capture the outliers; but before they can manage to do so, Kimiko swiftly strikes her sword towards their direction, and large oni appear from the shadows of the cell to swallow the prison guards whole.

The raw screams of the prison guards immediately alerts Belogun, who had already moved away from the crime scene in order to put an end to the chaos at hand.

“Captain! I believe that was in the direction of the King’s cell!”

Were they somehow still hiding in the cell? Or is this the power of the dungeon at work?

“Let’s move!”

“Sir!”

As many prison guards continue to flood in from the corners, Kimiko is forced to cut down one after another, as well as have many of her oni swallow those in her blind spots.

“Why didn’t you mention the dungeon’s mechanism before?!” Kimiko shouts, “You’ve had me wandering around aimlessly for the past half-hour!”

“My apologies…I was too busy writhing in pain after my feet and hands were eaten by your demons!”

Kimiko kisses her teeth, and calls off her oni.

“Besides…what good would it do for you?! I already asked you before…so why won’t you just kill me?!”

“You’re not dying until I find out the truth!” Kimiko shouts back while pointing her sword towards Kayin, “Whoever your so-called sister is! Whatever it is that forced you into the state that you have been in!”

Kimiko’s eyes glare with a sharp red tint, “I will know everything! And I will have my vengeance!”

“If vengeance is what you want, then kill me! I am the king! I am the one responsible for your kingdom’s destruction!”

Kimiko pauses.

Tears fall from the empty eye sockets of the king.

“You…and I…from the moment either of us entered this prison…we were destined to die. What point is there to fight against it?”

Kayin holds out his handless right arm, and points it to his neck.

“At the very least…before you die…this is all I can offer you."

Kayin's handless arms shakes.

"Take it. It's the head of the king. Don’t let your sacrifice be in va-”

slap!

Kimiko’s palm burns red, as she returns her hand to give the king another…

slap!

Outside of the chaotic noise of prison guards rushing through the dungeon halls to apprehend the jailbreakers, the scene around the two of them falls silent, as Kimiko glares down towards Kayin.

“What is this?...Is it possible for a king to be this pathetic?”

Kayin pauses.

“As if I would ever fight for a pathetic child like you…”

“I don’t care if you die now or later. I’m not doing this to save you, and put you back on the throne. If anything, I wish your father had remained on it forever.”

“Do you wish to know our mother’s last words?...Before she killed our father?!”

“If you want to die, do it when I’m through with you. If not for our current situation, I would have already wrung the answers out, and fed you to my friends whole!”

“I can’t have you doing that, Miss Foreigner.”

Kimiko sharply turns, but only meets a sharp weapon resembling an ankh heading directly towards her face. In the nick of time, Kimiko places her katana directly in between the ankh and her face, but is pushed back intensely by the strike. Slamming against one of the dungeon walls, Kimiko coughs out a bit of blood, before eventually falling to the ground.

“Otherwise…the new queen would have my head on a platter.”

This voice…it’s Belogun!

Belogun, captain of the dungeon guards, saunters over towards the weakened king, before patting him on the head three times.

“Our mighty ruler. Surely, you wouldn’t think of leaving before our special night, right? Perhaps you’ve forgotten, but I’m the one who has the honor of chopping off that lovely head of yours.”

Kayin smiles, “Sorry. Seems my head’s already booked.”

In a flash, four large oni emerge from behind Kayin and lunge out towards Belogun, grabbing hold of both his feet and arms. The oni immediately attempt to bite off Belogun’s arms, each aiming for the specific part they had grabbed.

Belogun smirks.

Before the oni can sink their teeth into Belogun’s arms and legs, dozens of mummies suddenly appear and rip off the oni from their master. Shocked but focused, the oni remain locked to their target, and continue to rush towards Belogun. With their advantage in strength and bloodlust, they are easily able to mow down plenty of the mummies that stand in their way. However, no matter how many they mow down, only more continue to stand in their way, until the oni find themselves pinned to the ground and forced to wrestle against numerous wrapped corpses.

“I think I’ve heard of you…” Belogun says, as he looks through the ongoing chaos.

Kimiko manages to stand up once again, and faces her opponent while holding her katana in striking position.

“Priestess Kimiko, correct? From the Tenka Kingdom?” Belogun bows, “My condolences. I heard all about what happened to your people a month ago.”

Unable to remain composed after hearing Belogun’s words, Kimiko immediately rushes towards Belogun through the hall. The oni quickly clears a path, allowing Kimiko to swiftly slice through the crowd of mummies in between her and the dungeon’s head guard.

“DIE!!!” she screams.

thwip!

As Kimiko reaches Belogun, she’s only met with two fingers as a defense, forcefully stopping her blade in its stride. Kimiko’s strength remains unable to move the blade any more forward, causing her to panic internally.

…what…is this?!

“Demons against mummies. Hell against hell. By all means, this should be a bad matchup for either one of us.”

Belogun opens up his index finger and middle finger, allowing both the sword and Kimiko to finally move forward. However, he quickly moves his head out of the way, and stretches his neck forward, while moving his face as close as he can towards Kimiko’s.

“I guess it all comes down to whose hell has more weight to it…and from what I’m seeing…”

Belogun smirks, creeping Kimiko out.

“Yours isn’t very deep…is it, priestess?”