novelraw Chapter 516: It Has Come
Chapter 516: It Has Come
Even if demon flesh was charred almost to a cinder, its taste was impossible to mask.
It was hard to say which was worse: the meat itself or the undigested remains in one's vomit.
Having found a temporary safe haven and a food source, Richard began to expand his area of exploration. To avoid getting lost and to find other "living" beings in Hell, Richard built numerous stone towers around the meteorite crater.
Ten days passed.
A large portion of the demon's carcass remained. In Hell, things could only burn, never rot. Thus, it was still relatively fresh—though the heat had almost turned it into jerky.
Richard no longer wanted to languish while waiting for death. He felt himself turning into a beast, so after waking up today, he spent his time carving up the demon's carcass, making jerky.
When he woke "tomorrow," he would take a couple of kilograms of jerky with him and venture to the other side of the mountain range, then go as far as he could.
"You're a hard man to find."
Suddenly, a familiar, human whisper sounded from behind him.
Richard, who was sitting by the fire and slicing the demon carcass with a stone shard, abruptly tensed and froze, looking up.After a few seconds of silent staring, Richard erupted into manic laughter. "You died too, hahahahaha! Let me guess, you couldn't resist the temptation of the Ancient God's shell in the end? Or did something happen outside that killed you... Do you see now that you were wrong?!"
At least, judging by his words and behavior, Richard was still "normal," showing no signs of turning into a demon.
"I'm not dead. My soul has simply entered Hell through spiritualism," Lu Li replied calmly.
Richard currently looked like a wild man. Lu Li's gaze swept over the demon carcass he was carving, then settled on the marks Richard had etched into the scorched earth covering the meteorite's surface.
Perhaps each mark represented a day he had spent here.
But did Hell even have nights?
"Spiritualism? Dammit..." Richard was clearly annoyed, glaring at Lu Li with ill intent. "Hey, it's very lonely here. If I were to keep you here..."
Aside from the thin layer of his soles and the burnt holes in his clothes, this guy looked better than him in every way, which deeply irritated Richard.
And what was the probability that he was actually planning to keep Lu Li here?
501... 502... 503...
Lu Li suddenly frowned slightly and looked at the back of his hand, where the inverted pentagram was glowing red.
The Devil was close. There was no time to reminisce.
"I came to ask you something," Lu Li said, ignoring Richard's provocations and getting straight to the point.
"What do you want to know? Oh, and by the way, there are no damned succubi in Hell! Only lava and these ugly monsters! If you find the people who wrote that Hell has succubi, feed them to the evil spirits for me!" Richard blurted out, suddenly erupting into a tirade.
"Perhaps you just haven't met them," Lu Li answered. Both he and Richard had confined their movements to the canyon and the foot of the mountains.
"Why should I help you!" Richard suddenly changed the subject, his whole demeanor screaming refusal to assist Lu Li, a logic impossible for a sane person to follow.
"I am the only one who knows about your obsession. We share a common goal."
Richard sneered at Lu Li's eloquence. "That's useless. You know I just want to be the savior myself. If it's not me, what do I care if someone else saves everyone?"
Ssss...
Lu Li suddenly covered the back of his hand, from which a hissing sound emanated. The bright red light of the pentagram was now difficult to conceal, shining through his fingers.
Richard's gaze fell upon it. He saw the patched hat Lu Li was holding, and his crazed expression gradually calmed.
"...Have you seen the children?"
"Yes."
Lu Li, enduring the intense pain in the back of his hand, looked around, searching for the figure of the Devil.
"Are they alright...?"
"I settled them in a vacant house on Elm Street. The sewers are too dangerous."
"Don't think I'll help you just because of that!" Richard suddenly roared at Lu Li.
Lu Li ignored him, raising his head slightly as his gaze fixed on the direction he had come from.
Outside the meteorite crater, a figure in an aristocratic frock coat, completely out of place in this environment, was slowly approaching.
Flames trailed in his wake, and an indescribable aura of suffocation emanated from his body. Countless spectral hands appeared around him, entangling souls.
536... 537... 538...
There were less than three minutes until his scheduled awakening, but the Devil was already here.
Lu Li noticed that the hands were not a manifestation of the Devil's power—they were constantly appearing, pulling at the Devil's body and limbs, slowing his advance.
That was why the Devil had arrived so late.
Lu Li knew what they were.
"I have to go," Lu Li said.
He couldn't fight the Devil in Hell.
"What do you want to know? For the sake of those children!" Richard suddenly said, gritting his teeth.
Lu Li, watching the Devil descend into the meteorite crater, asked, "What is 'the Door'?"
"The Door? What nonsense are you talking about? Be more specific!" Richard urged, looking even more anxious than Lu Li.
"When you were pretending to be Marcus, you gave me a case: to protect a group of people exploring the sewers. There, I encountered 'the Door' and received a curse more terrifying than the Bloody Tentacles."
"I don't know what you're talking about! I didn't even know you back then!" Richard's answer was unexpected for Lu Li. "I desperately needed money at the time, so I found you because you were the cheapest and most naive. I had no idea who you were until you broke into the asylum, where I caught you, and then you escaped. Only then did I realize it was you, you bastard, who ruined my plan! You damned bastard!"
Richard roared, once again descending into madness.
Lu Li gazed at the approaching, malevolent figure in the frock coat and frowned deeply.
If Richard wasn't lying... then was his encounter with "the Door" just a coincidence?
"There's another possibility!"
Richard suddenly shouted again. "Listen, my memory could have been altered. You know these monsters, they're practically omnipotent. Shoving tentacles into your head and scooping out a piece of your memory like it's pudding—it's child's play for them."
"And then what?"
"Maybe it's also a test!" Richard said hurriedly. "A test that only you can pass. Others can't even learn about it; their memories will be altered!"
Only a paranoid madman like Richard could come up with such a hypothesis. But from a logical standpoint, Lu Li couldn't find any flaws in it.
Because there had been no word from the Investigators' headquarters, who should have also had information about "the Door."
This aligned with Richard's hypothesis.
"I'll think about it."
Exhaling the murky, sulfur-scented air of Hell, Lu Li stared intently at the distant figure.
"And now, it's time for me to go."