Chapter 123: City...

"...Honestly, every second we spend in hell, I get more and more surprised..." Nio murmurs, taking in the sight of a relatively large city. After Typhon walked for so long, the two of them finally reached an actual city.

Nio sees houses built in a strange way, while various spirits and other beings of diverse races wander through the streets. After all, hell ’welcomes’ any being of any race, so there’s much more than just spirits here — Nio even sees humans.

"Typhon, what the hell is this city made of?"

"The second floor has several cities. They’re made of materials generated by magic. I don’t know if you’re aware, but things created by magic don’t just disappear."

"If you create water with magic, it exists and keeps existing after the magic ends. Same with wood — you saw me use magic that generated wood and vines," Typhon says, setting Nio down on the ground.

"So—" Typhon stops talking when Nio quickly runs off, stopping in front of a small wooden structure.

"And then the princess and her friend arrived at the enchanted land." Nio catches a fragment of the speech as she looks at the person dressed in a black cloak. The person is putting on a puppet theater show, with two ’puppets’ fitted over his hands.

’What cute puppets... they look like two little fairies... oh, the hands move — how is he doing that? It looks like a sock puppet, but way more realistic. What’s it made of?’ Nio grows confused watching the man tell the story. Nio glances around at a few other people watching until Typhon stops beside her.

And then she turns her attention back to the man’s hands. Nio sees how his hands go in from under the puppets’ dresses, which makes Nio wonder how he moves his fingers inside the puppet to make the puppets move their hands so actively.

"Interested in that?" Typhon asks, wanting to know what catches Nio’s interest.

"Not really. Just curious why in literal hell someone’s doing puppet theater..." Nio keeps watching the man continue telling the story.

"Hell is boring. It’s not uncommon to find people like this. Ironically, it’s one of the few things that sells in hell, so you’ll see a lot of stuff like this, Nio."

"Theater?"

"No, entertainment. Entertainment is something very common in hell. You don’t need food, water, or anything like that, so one of the few things you can buy in hell are things to cure your boredom." Nio watches the man finish the performance and close up the theater while the people disperse.

"...This is strangely organized... look, there’s a sign here. If you pay, he comes out and performs for whoever wants to watch... it’s ridiculous how capitalism exists even in hell, hahaha."

"Being hell doesn’t mean everything’s a mess... but it’s not as puritan as it seems... look." Typhon steps closer and uses magic that makes the red veil transparent so the two of them can see and hear inside.

"Finally, payment. It took way too long to come this time. Tsk." Nio makes a shocked face as she sees the ’fairy’ that was on the man’s right hand talking. She’s sitting on top of a cup, lighting a cigarette while holding a strange black coin with her other hand.

"W-Weh..." Nio watches the man pull his hand out from inside the other fairy, who lets out a strange moan before panting, flushed, as the hand comes out completely from under her skirt.

"W-What the hell... th-they’re alive!? Th-Then where the hell was his hand stuffed?"

"Yes, Nio. They’re two living beings, and he literally had his hands shoved inside their intimate parts — that’s why their bellies looked slightly bulging. In hell, you can only have physical things if you know magic that generates something physical."

"In other words, most people improvise with what they have and use their bodies as a means of making money... seems like this puppet theater owner doesn’t have enough money to buy real material. Well, they’re lucky — he seems to pay well." Typhon observes the black coin before looking at Nio.

"..."

’This isn’t cute — it’s actually kind of disgusting... how did I not notice they were alive?’ Nio looks at the man’s hands covered in a viscous fluid. His hands look like they’re made of a bark-like shell, like wood.

’What race is he? He’s clearly not a spirit... doesn’t he feel disgusted doing this? And... these two girls seem so used to doing this...’ Nio looks at their expressions — they act like it’s just a normal job.

"Let’s go, Nio. This isn’t interesting. Maybe the door is in this city — I want to get to the next floor soon." Typhon starts leading Nio away, and Nio sees various small stalls with different kinds of entertainment.

"Is all the entertainment here something I should expect to have bizarre stuff too?"

"Yes."

"...Damn... and I was all happy that we got to a city..." Nio feels deep disappointment. She was hoping for something more normal.

"Being a city doesn’t mean it’s civilized. It just means a bunch of people decided to group together in a mildly safe place. Most of them are weak people who gathered here to avoid being captured by the tentacles. But there are no laws — look over there." Typhon points to a corner where there’s a woman being held by her horns while being forced to have sex with a man and a girl with wings like a bat’s.

"...Okay, I get it... no rules, no morals, it’s just chaos controlled by whoever’s strongest... Hey, Typhon, can we find gods in hell?" Nio tries to ignore the scene so she doesn’t see anything else horrifying along the way.

"Yes. They don’t fall into a special place or anything like that. You can find them on any floor, but it must be pretty rare since most of them can get out. After all, they’re gods — they usually have enough power for that."

"...That fairy was smoking. Where did she get—"

"First, she’s not really a fairy — she’s a Crytidian. They’re small life forms based on magic. They’re usually between thirty and fifty centimeters. Second, she didn’t ’get’ it. Don’t trust food, drinks, and illicit things in hell like drugs and cigarettes too much. A lot of that stuff is counterfeit."

"I already told you — there’s no food in hell. Either it’s made of magic, or it’s made of materials from hell disguised with magic... from the smell, that girl’s cigarette was made of flesh, and what she was smoking was horn powder from... an Oni, or possibly a low-level demon like an imp."

"...Every second, hell manages to surprise me negatively."

"Just stay close to me and pay attention to what I say. I won’t let anyone do anything to you. Most of the beings here don’t have the power to face me. Besides, we’re a duo — if anything happens, we can fight together." Typhon smiles at Nio.

"Yeah... I wonder how things are in the world of the living... w-wait... NO!!!" Nio lets out a scream, which doesn’t draw attention. After all, screams are the most common thing in hell — even in this city you can hear screams coming from random directions.

"Did something happen, Nio?" Typhon looks at Nio’s expression of pure defeat.

"My staff... I... I forgot about it... my staff disappears when I die... I-I lost it..." Nio feels a deep sense of defeat throughout her entire body.

"...That’s truly lamentable. The [Prismatic Blood Pentagon] was a fascinating weapon. I’m sorry, Nio." Typhon strokes Nio’s head, and Nio bites her lips.

"Shit... I hate that I died... I think that’s the most detestable thing of all... losing a secret-grade weapon is worse than falling into hell, honestly... those things were rare as fuck!! Why did I have to lose it!!!" Nio kicks the ground while Typhon looks at a tower.

"..." Typhon gives a dangerous look at a woman who was staring at them, making her back off and stop looking too much at the two of them.

"Nio, it seems we’re drawing some attention. Please avoid behaving like a child, okay? You end up looking like an easy target."

"Easy for you to say when you didn’t lose anything besides your life."

"...I don’t know what’s more idiotic — the fact that you think losing a weapon is more psychologically painful than dying, or the fact that you think someone dying is no big deal compared to losing a material possession."

"...Whatever, whatever!! I also hope everyone’s getting fucked over in the world of the living."