Novel Full Chapter 711 - Back Home
As Satel's body dropped onto the ice, their black blood spreading out onto the translucent, frozen lake and their head kept sliding for a few more meters, Eisen saw a few notifications appear in front of him in succession.
[Quest Completed – Treachery of the Companions]
[Description] In order to be acknowledged by the Gods of Hell, you have started to make your way through the nine circles of hell. On your first stop, you reached Limbo. On your second, you reached Lust. On your third, you reached Gluttony. On your fourth, you reached Wrath. On your fifth, you reached Greed. On your sixth, you reached Heresy. On your seventh, you reached Violence. On your eighth, you reached Fraud. And finally, on your ninth, you reached Treachery – Your task in this realm is to defend yourself against the attacks of those that you trusted, and kill the traitor.
[Conditions] Kill the traitor (1/1)
[Rewards] Treachery's Acknowledgement
[Penalty] None
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[Quest Completed - Acknowledgement of Hell's Gods]
[Description] You have entered hell and are trying to be acknowledged by the gods. You encountered, the Guide-Devil Satel, who will lead you through the Nine Circles of Hell for the challenges that you are to face.
[Conditions] Be acknowledged by the Gods of the Nine Circles of Hell(9/9)
[Reward] <Acknowledged by Hell's Gods> Title
[Penalty] None
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[You have received the title <Acknowledged by Hell's Gods>]
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[Congratulations! You have completed all tasks connected to the title <Golden Eyed Demon>! You will be able to proceed the next time you sleep!]
"..." The old man looked at the notifications silently. He didn't care that much about the quest notifications. All that he really cared about were the last two notifications. The fact that he was now officially acknowledged by the Heaven's Gods, and the fact that he would be able to proceed further with his Demonic title later.
He felt like this was a rather hollow victory, considering the situation, but at the very least he was able to complete one of his long-time goals... That was good, right?
Eisen waved his hands to the side and placed his Demonic Greatsword away as he turned around to look at Treachery, "Was this really necessary?"
"Hm? Was what necessary?" The God asked, clearly confused what Eisen was talking about, but the old man just grumbled quietly to himself, "You know exactly what I mean."
"Sorry, but I don't. Well, not that I actually care all too much. But hey, let's talk about what's really important here! You got the title you came down here for, isn't that great?"
"It's not particularly great, no. But it doesn't matter to me anymore. Can't you just send me right back to the mortal realm?" Eisen asked bluntly, something that treachery didn't particularly like, "...If you say so. I thought we could speak for a while, but I guess you would want to head back and meet your 'friends' again while it lasts."
Hearing this god's words, Eisen furrowed his brows and glared back at him, "What do you mean?"
"What do I..? Oh, you're not aware?" Treachery asked, before starting to laugh in a voice that showed how sickly hilarious he found this situation, "Once you regain your memories, you will realize once more that things like mortal companionship is utterly useless. You will inevitably turn their back to them. What else would I mean?"
"You don't know me, Treachery." Eisen said, deep anger pouring out of his throat as he spoke, while Treachery simply continued to laugh, "Oh, but I do... I know you a lot better than you might think... Our relationship was more 'intimate' in the past than you may think..."
Eisen silently stared back at Treachery before rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Did I fuck everyone around here, or does it just seem that way?"
"No comment." Treachery laughed, before waving his hand to the side to take Eisen's wish into account, quickly creating a portal that Eisen would be able to use to get back to the overworld.
The old man grumbled quietly as he turned around, looking at Satel's dead body, "Do you mind if I take them with me?"
"Why'd you want to take a dead body with you?"
"...You know I'm a craftsman. I'm sure you can make a few good potions using a Devil's body." Eisen said bluntly, as if it was an answer he already prepared in his mind. Treachery seemed a bit suspicious, but he didn't really care at the end of the day, "Sure. But don't tell too many people about it, I guess. I don't want them to think they can just take anything they want with them after getting here. Not that there are many that can get here in the first place, but you get what I mean."
"Mhm, sure I do." Eisen said bluntly, before he walked up to Satel's dead body. He picked it up and placed it into his item storage safely, making sure that they wouldn't be damaged from anything inside, and placed their head on top of their body as well. The old man closed his item storage and then walked up to the gate, that seemed to connect to just an incredibly long tunnel.
"Come back soon!" Treachery exclaimed, but Eisen ignored him and stepped through the gate in front of him immediately. He just wanted to get out of here as quickly as he could.
And the moment he did so, he found that instead of being a normal tunnel, this space in front of him was rather below him in the form of a hole.
He fell and fell, through a good number of different areas that affected him in a similar way as before, when he first came to the Underworld by dropping through that hole. Not too long after, his lungs were filled with fresh air in the first time in a good while. The scent of the ocean pushing into his nostrils.
He was back in the mortal realm, and quickly transformed into his Draconic Demon King form and started to fly through the air, glad that he was able to return to Prototype soon.
The cool breeze hit his face as Eisen continued to fly. Right now, he wasn't able to see any difference in his Demonic form, nor in his abilities. Maybe he really just had to sleep for anything to come into effect at all.
But for now, although Eisen was rather tired, he had to head home and meet everyone, and take care of something else. Eisen could see that Jyuuk was currently online, and as far as he knew, he was in Prototype a lot lately, simply experimenting on a lot of things together with Xenia while the others went around expanding the territory of Asgard.
Soon, the island came into view, starting with the garden behind the castle. Eisen could already see a few oversized flowers there, a sign that Caria was hard at work while the old man was away as well. She was probably sleeping right now, so Eisen slowly landed at the tip of the rock there and slowly walked forward.
He walked through the tree-sized flowers and soon reached the exit of this small forest-patch, before he heard some sounds from right behind him. Soon, he felt quite a bit heavier as thin arms were slung around his torso from behind.
"You're back!" A familiar voice yelled out, and Eisen immediately knew who it was, "I'm back, Caria." The old man said with a broad smile on his face, rubbing the top of her head as she rubbed her face on the old man's back happily.
A few moments later, it wasn't only Caria holding onto him, but two more young folk were as well. Right from above, Melissa came dropping down after flying toward Eisen, and he of course caught her, and Sal seemed to have slung himself forward out of the top of one of the castle's towers to reach the old man as well.
"I'm happy to see all of you guys as well, but at least give me a chance to take a breather, will you?" The old man laughed, truthfully feeling ecstatic to see these three again. He even nearly felt tears welling up in his eyes at this point, "I literally wen't to hell and back, you know?"
The three of them slowly let go of him, "Sorry, it was just a bit exciting to finally see you again..." Sal apologized with a wry smile, while Melissa didn't care in the slightest and kept snuggling onto the old man. She had the physically youngest form, so Eisen guessed it was fine for her to act a little more childish than the other two, who were more like teens physically.
"Don't apologize, I get how you guys feel." The old amn laughed quietly, before he walked a bit further forward, until three figures suddenly appeared in front of him through a slight mist.
They knelt on the ground in front of Eisen, greeting him with light smiles on their faces. The three Core Guardians that were stationed right here, Girland the Country Core Guardian, Serio the Town Core Guardian, and of course Constant the Core Helper that was in charge of this Garden.
"Welcome back, your Majesty." The three said at the same time as each other, something that felt rather out of tune for at least two of them, "I'm back... But I said so before, didn't I? You don't need to call me 'Majesty'. It feels a bit stifling."
"Hah, I figured you'd say that!" Constant exclaimed as he jumped up with a broad smile on his face, "Now then, shall we-" The Core Helper was interrupted in his speech as he felt a deep glare from Girland right next to him that made it feel like his paint was about to fall off of his body.
Eisen smiled wrily as he stepped forward and made his way through the garden, getting swift updates on the state of the town. For one, there was a huge increase in citizens through multiple reasons. For one, immigrants from the other islands that have been taken over recently, immigrants from the mainland, and at last, even players started to migrate here and set up their bases.
There were a few incidents with the monster-citizens of this city, but they were slowly being settled and getting fewer by the day. Most players even started defending the monsters that some others were roughing up, and even partied up with the Monster NPCs to get through some of the tougher areas that were being opened up on the different islands as well as withing Fafnir and Sigurd's Dungeon.
Everything seemed to be falling into place pretty well, so Eisen was incredibly happy about that.
"We did face a few diplomatic issues as well, but those can be taken care of at another time." Girland explained without saying much else, as if it was unimportant, but Eisen squinted his eyes slightly as he looked back at her, "What diplomatic issues are you talking about..?"
"Just a few measly nations attempting to threaten us with war if we do not become part of their land. Nothing too abnormal."
"...What kind of stuff happened back when the former Eisen was in charge?"
"Well, your Majesty happened to bring a country or two to ruin back then when he was in a bad mood."
"...Right."