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***
Past
They had time for a full meal and were just sitting around a makeshift fire, replaced by a magical firefly.
«In fact, there is a great legend that begins like yours, my dear friend," Emeric gave his voice a touch of mystery.
In order to get a full rest, he decided to give them a leisure break over a couple of stories. A couple of stories should brighten her less than rosy mood.
«Well?" she made a bored face to make herself look cooler, but her shaking hand gave away her mood. Legends of great heroes who defeated big, scary monsters were her favorite. Especially if her mom told them to her. Or rather, it was only her mother who organized such pastime for her. And now, her new friend had decided to tell her a new story, she hoped.
«The king of a distant kingdom sacrificed his life to imprison a great monster inside his newborn son. But it was not for nothing that Jason Statham himself once said that with great power comes great responsibility....
«Who's that?
«This is the greatest philosopher of our time," he nodded sagely and continued. - The little boy was not loved in his homeland, but he was never discouraged and never gave up! He always pushed forward and swept away all his enemies!
Valerie held her breath. This story was right up her alley. Great power and dislike in childhood.
«His dream was to become the most respected member of his homeland - to become the Hokage!
«SO YOU WERE TELLING ME THE NARUTO STORY?! - Valerie exploded.
«Oops," he looked away embarrassed. - Heh-heh-heh...
Apparently the impromptu story didn't go well. It seems that even the children of the Old Lords are allowed to watch various battle cartoons to stimulate their imagination.
«Let's go with some other story. Once upon a time, there was a grandfather and grandmother...
«Interesting start, do you mind if I listen too?
A new voice in their cave caused the young couple to rise abruptly to their feet, turn to face the new face and activate their abilities.
Were they so engrossed in the conversation that they didn't notice the approach of a new character? Or was it the person himself?
The new protagonist sat at the opposite end of the "bonfire" and was a painfully thin figure who was dressed in an old and tattered cloak. In place of a face was a dark void, an unnatural dark void that made one suspect some sort of magic. No presence was felt from the stranger, nor any form of aggression. The figure had no weapons with him, and it seemed as if they had met some lost phantom.
«Who are you? - The usual directness has evaporated from Emeric's voice.
The ghost figure, as it seemed to them, hummed thoughtfully and began to answer.
«I am a humble wanderer, in the darkness of the abyss,
Eager to hear the darkness of the story.
Amidst the shadows, in the depths of my soul, I cry out,
Where the centuries wind their way, buried in memory," their new interlocutor began to put his words into verse and answer them in this strange way.
«Yeah, cool," Emeric commented awkwardly and looked over to Valerie.
We need to put the situation in perspective. Emeric and Valerie, through the fault of the former, find themselves in some forgotten place, even in Hell. A place where a bunch of people are literally boiling in boiling water. And then some random traveler shows up out of nowhere? What are they supposed to do now?
Having roughly assessed the traveler, and estimating that he probably wouldn't attack them right now, Emeric decided to answer his interlocutor in the same coin.
«In a dark hole where fear is light,
The stinky one's sneaking up on us.
I don't understand what a mess this is,
What the hell, huh, Donald Duck? - he finished even more awkwardly.
Valerie looked at him with an unspeakable expression and put a hand to her face. She realized that her new friend not only had a problem with navigation, but also with his head!
But Emeric was genuinely indignant at her reaction. He, you know, he's talking, trying to make the first contact, and she turns away in embarrassment? What an ingrate!
«Ha ha ha ha," the phantom began to chuckle merrily as if reacting to his answer.
«Ha ha ha ha," Emeric echoed him.
«Ha-HA-HA!
«HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
«Shut up, you retarded morons! - Valerie ended their impromptu struggle with a shout.
With my first encounter with Emerick, the amount of madness per square meter around just started to go off the charts.
«Oh," the traveler sighed. - Well, young man, I admit, it's been a long time since I've been laughed at like that," the phantom stood up, ignoring their matched fighting stances, and turned to the exit of the cave, looking into the gray, sunless sky. - It's hard to find interesting conversationalists in this place...
Emeric and Valerie carefully walked over to him and looked over his shoulder. It was still the same gray sky, and if you left the cave and walked a little further, you could see the main 'feature' of the place.
Emeric realized that the person in question was a potential way home.
«Señor, are you, uh, local? - Emeric took the bait.
For demons, foreign languages really have no difference, but they understand the connotations and meanings on an intuitive level. That's how Emeric came to the conclusion that their new acquaintance was Italian, and quite old. The phrasing and construction of his sentences could indicate a residence in Italy before the fifteenth century.
If you add up all the facts that Emeric had already managed to put in his head, you can draw some very, very interesting conclusions.
«What do you think, young cavaliere? - he took up Emeric's game.
Their whole company came out of the cave and looked at the disappointing sights of the agonizing people.
«It's, um," Valerie shook her head at his unspoken question as he looked in her direction. She had no idea where they were. - Malebolge, isn't it?
«Truly so, young cavaliere! - The phantom opened its arms before the sky, as if trying to embrace the whole landscape. - This is Inferno!
Emeric immediately picked up on exactly how the nameless phantom had named the place.
«Malebolge? - Valerie asked in bewilderment. Despite her excellent combat training, the rest of her education raised many questions.
«Malebolge is one of the most famous and mysterious places in Hell. The vast majority of demons can never get here, or rather, most demons don't even believe in its existence," he noticed how the phantom was listening to him attentively and continued to explain. - Malebolge is on the deepest levels of our native dimension, as well as Purgatory, Limbo and Cocytus," he pretended that he wanted to get a closer look at the species, but in fact he took the chance and tried his best to show Valerie signs with his hands behind his back. Emerick liked what was happening less and less. - Legends say that Malebolge is a place where sinners of all kinds are tortured until the end of time," he looked at the phantom with a lingering suspicion. - But if I'm not mistaken, there isn't a single sentient being who claims to have been there....
«Don't doubt it, my young friend," the figure's otherworldly voice dripped with fanaticism. - This is the true face of all Hell! - he pointed his hands at the rivers of martyrs. - Those sinners you can see are condemned to eternal boiling because of their bribe-taking and their bribery ...
Emeric passed into a greater and greater realization of what was happening.
«Sinners drowning in that river,
Under the water in the cauldrons frothed upwards,
And the clanking of tight joints behind his head.
His verse made the phantom simply freeze in place. It was clear that quoting this incomprehensible passage had loaded the unknown phantom heavily.
«Hmm," the phantom began to turn slowly toward him. - Ah, you, young man," his voice no longer held its past friendliness. - Do you like classics?
«That's right, señor, that's right," he nodded for Valerie to come slowly toward him. When she realized that something out of the ordinary was happening, she summoned her Sacred Mechanism and slowly walked towards him. However, without turning her back on the phantom. - How can one not know the Divine Comedy, my liege? Or, it would be more accurate to say," Emeric stared into the black hood's sagacity with deadly seriousness. - Signor Alighieri?
«Alighieri, hmm," the phantom paid no attention to their activated powers, but rather seemed to ponder the surname, rolling it around on its tongue. - Young cavaliere, I must give you credit, that was a marvelous observation! - The phantom began to clap his hands dramatically. - Simply marvelous! But please, young sir, satisfy my curiosity, how did you guess?
Emeric didn't comply with the request, but simply put all available power into his attack and directed the power of destruction at the phantom. The black, red tinged, toxic magical power instantly devoured the skinny figure of the phantom. Where it had been standing, an unnaturally flat patch of earth remained. It was as if it had been cut away with a huge knife.
Emeric wasn't celebrating his victory. Intuition, which had never shut up since their last teleportation, howled even harder.
«It's no use, young cavalryman.
The second wave of his annihilating power also passed through the nearby phantom that had appeared.
But this attempt was just as unsuccessful, for Alighieri reappeared ten meters away from them. He didn't care how Emeric destroyed him. After a while, the phantom simply materialized again.
«You are in my Divine Comedy," the figure waved his hand indicatively.
Emeric and Valerie abruptly felt the ground go from under their feet. As they flew up, they realized that the former hill had dissolved and become part of the general tangle of rivers made up of sinners. The huge hills obeyed the phantom as if he were their god. The numerous martyrs raised their hands to their figures, which froze in the air as if asking to take them with them.
«We have plenty of time, all eternity ahead of us," Alighieri leveled himself with them in the air. - So why don't you satisfy my curiosity?
«King," Valerie called out to him. - What the fuck is going on?
«Before you is the father of all religious fiction. Dante Alighieri, one of Italy's greatest writers of the Middle Ages, creator of the Divine Comedy," he looked at the phantom with great apprehension. - Apparently also the owner of the long-lost Longinus, the Clarity of Innovation, or otherwise the Miniature Garden of Blue Innovation," he looked around at the many kilometers of horrible landscape and shook his head. - It's not a real Maledbolge, but an elevated simulation of the Sacred Mechanism. And its master is right in front of us.
***
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