Chapter 4A — Upper Pit Trials I

  The deeper Soren climbs the Pit, the more the miasma changes him. Monsters, lies, and something far worse than death wait on the next floors.

  As we continued upward, we found ourselves in a pitch-black room.

  Bella floated beside me and said, “So… who turned off the lights?”

  I reached up, grabbed her by the foot while she floated in the air, and said, “Relax. We’re not alone.”

  I heard clattering coming from all around us.

  Then a fireball came out of nowhere and lit the room.

  We were surrounded.

  Skeletons.

  Barehanded.

  More than I could count.

  They filled the room so fast it felt like the darkness itself had bones.

  [ARENA HUD — LIVE]FLOOR 8 — BONE SWARMTHREAT TYPE: MULTIPLE HOSTILESSOREN — HP: ████████?? 80%WRATH RESERVE: ███??????? 30%HELLCORE IGNITION: READY (Triggers at 25% HP)

  I was nervous at first.

  But something inside me said:

  You got this.

  Bella looked at me while I dropped into my Pit stance.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she said. “There’s too many!”

  “I got this.”

  I calmed my nerves.

  My eyes lowered.

  I cocked my fist back to my hip, stepped in, and punched straight through the first skeleton’s skull.

  It shattered instantly.

  For one second, I just stared at the broken remains.

  Then I broke my calm and shouted:

  “HA! I DID IT!”

  Bella blinked.

  “Cool, cool. Now kill them all.”

  I looked at her, then back at the swarm.

  “…You’re right.”

  And then I started breaking them.

  I manhandled skeletons with their own bodies until they fell apart. I grabbed one by the legs and used it as a bat, smashing others apart with its ribs and spine.

  Bella smiled.

  “You actually used that head of yours, huh?”

  I grinned while I fought.

  “I was always smart.”

  Sometimes.

  Then I smiled wider and started laying waste to them.

  The room turned into a storm of cracking bones, broken skulls, and body parts flying everywhere while I tore through the skeleton swarm like I was finally enjoying myself.

  Bella saw the smile on my face.

  And she smiled too.

  Then she landed on my shoulder and just watched me massacre them.

  [ARENA HUD — UPDATE]BONE SWARM — CLEAREDSOREN — HP: ████████?? 78%STATUS: FATIGUED / HUNGER RISINGWRATH RESERVE: ████?????? 38%

  Moments later, I was on my back, breathing heavily, trying to gather myself after how much fun I had.

  Bella floated over me like an older sister.

  “You look tired,” she said. “Wanna rest?”

  “Well—”

  A small killer rabbit ran by.

  I grabbed it instantly.

  I even shocked myself with how fast I was.

  Bella looked at me and smiled.

  “You should eat. It’s been a while.”

  “Yeah…”

  My stomach growled.

  And there was no ember mouse in sight.

  I sighed.

  “Guess it’s raw.”

  Before I took a bite, Bella floated away so she wouldn’t have to watch what I was about to do to that rabbit.

  She drifted off, looking around the room while I… handled business.

  She heard all the sounds.

  Didn’t comment.

  Instead, she found the stairs and looked upward.

  “Alright. I guess this is the way.”

  She stayed away from me because, yeah…

  it wasn’t a pretty sight.

  When I came back to her, there was blood on my face.

  I looked at her.

  “Why did you leave?”

  I stared at her like what I did wasn’t completely inhumane.

  Bella looked at me and said, “Nothing. You savage.”

  Then she pointed up.

  “I found the staircase. Let’s go.”

  I burped and started wiping my mouth.

  “Man, I wish they had a well or a river or something down here. I need a shower. Or at least somewhere to wash my face. This is getting rough.”

  Bella floated ahead and said, “We should find one shortly.”

  While we climbed the stairs to the next floor, Bella floated near me and said, “We’re almost there. How are you feeling?”

  I rubbed my belly, smiled at Bella, and gave her a thumbs-up.

  She gave me a disgusted look.

  “Why did I make a contract with you?”

  I looked at her, offended.

  “Wow. What the hell did I do to deserve that?”

  “You being a savage is one of the reasons, I guess.”

  She floated ahead.

  I stared after her.

  “What’s her problem? WAIT UP!”

  I jogged up the stairs after her.

  Then she suddenly stopped at the frame instead of going through.

  I looked past her to see what she was staring at.

  There was a girl standing in the middle of the room.

  She wore a purple dress.

  Her hair was long.

  Beautiful.

  For a moment, I was actually mesmerized.

  Because why would a girl that beautiful be crying down here?

  Bella’s voice sharpened instantly.

  “She’s not human. Don’t get too calm now.”

  [ARENA HUD — LIVE]FLOOR 7 — FORSAKEN SUCCUBUSFORSAKEN SUCCUBUS — HP: ██████████ 100%SOREN — HP: ████████?? 78%WRATH RESERVE: ████?????? 38%STATUS: MENTAL INTERFERENCE RISK

  I looked at Bella.

  “It can’t be. A beautiful girl like her? Nah…”

  And like an idiot, I started walking toward her.

  Bella didn’t say anything else.

  She just watched.

  The moment I got close, the girl moved.

  Fast.

  Too fast.

  She speared me to the floor and climbed on top of me, pinning me down.

  Bella shouted immediately.

  “It’s a damn Forsaken Succubus! You gotta get out of there!”

  [ARENA HUD — UPDATE]SOREN — HP: ███████??? 72%STATUS: PINNED / CHARM EXPOSUREWRATH RESERVE: █████????? 45%

  I tried to fight her off, but she was too damn strong.

  Then she lifted her face fully—

  and somehow that made it worse.

  She didn’t look feral.

  She looked perfect.

  Beautiful in a way that didn’t belong in the Pit.

  For one dangerous second, I forgot where I was.

  She leaned closer to my face.

  And for a moment—

  I was under her spell.

  Then Bella roared at me.

  “SOREN, SNAP OUT OF IT!”

  I shook my head hard and looked at the succubus again.

  “Stop!”

  She didn’t listen.

  Bella’s voice came fast.

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  “She’s already dead! It’s the miasma keeping her alive!”

  “She died, huh?”

  That made something in me go cold.

  “…That makes this easier.”

  My eyes changed.

  The succubus was still on top of me, trying to keep me pinned, but her expression started slipping when she felt me pushing back.

  She looked down at my arms like she couldn’t understand what was happening.

  I grit my teeth and forced my arms up.

  Then I brought both hands together over my face, using the tight space to protect myself while I started shifting my body underneath her.

  Small movement.

  Small hop.

  Just enough.

  Then I got one leg under me.

  Then the other.

  And I rose.

  With her still on me.

  That was when her smile came back.

  Then she tried to bite me.

  I moved first.

  I flipped her over my shoulder—

  BANG.

  Her body slammed into the floor.

  The entire room shook.

  Bella shouted:

  “End her now!”

  The succubus tried to crawl away, but I grabbed both her wrists and pinned her in place.

  Then I raised my right foot over her face.

  I looked down at her with a cold stare.

  Then—

  STOMP.

  I didn’t look away.

  STOMP.

  Her vision started fading.

  STOMP.

  One of her eyes blackened.

  STOMP.

  Then her body gave out and turned into miasma.

  The dress went with it, dissolving into fog like it had never really been there at all.

  [ARENA HUD — UPDATE]FORSAKEN SUCCUBUS — HP: ?????????? 0%SOREN — HP: ███████??? 72%STATUS: CHARM RESISTANCE IMPROVEDWRATH RESERVE: █████????? 48%

  I dropped to my knees, hands on my hips, breathing hard.

  Then I inhaled all of it slowly.

  Like I was meditating.

  Bella floated closer.

  “You good?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  Then I looked ahead.

  “I just feel like my eyes are more open now.”

  A pause.

  “And I don’t think I can trust what I see anymore.”

  Bella stared at me for a second.

  Then nodded.

  “You’re learning now.”

  She turned toward the exit.

  “Let’s go.”

  The thing waiting on the next floor wasn’t just big.

  It was wrong.

  A Serpent Dragon.

  Purple scales.

  Long body.

  Massive jaws.

  And miasma leaking from its mouth like smoke from a cursed furnace.

  It roared.

  [ARENA HUD — LIVE]FLOOR 6 — SERPENT MIASMA DRAGONSERPENT DRAGON — HP: ██████████ 100%SOREN — HP: ███████??? 72%WRATH RESERVE: █████████? 90%STATUS: MIASMA SATURATION ELEVATED

  I started moving to a rhythm in my head—

  a song my mother used to play.

  Not soft.

  Not comforting.

  The kind of rhythm that told your body to keep moving even when it hurt.

  Bella blinked.

  “Uh… you sure got fancy footwork all of a sudden.”

  “Don’t tease me.”

  The Dragon Serpent charged full force, aiming right for my core.

  I dipped to the right.

  Rolled under the dragon.

  Then drove both feet into its underbelly.

  BAM.

  Bella grinned.

  “You’re not done yet, right?”

  “Nope.”

  I kept the angle and started kicking violently, alternating both legs like a jackhammer.

  “AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

  BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

  [ARENA HUD — UPDATE]SERPENT DRAGON — HP: ██████████ 100% → ████████?? 82%WRATH RESERVE: █████████? 90%

  The Serpent Dragon flew upward, roaring in pain as it got launched into the air.

  Bella’s voice sharpened.

  “You might need Wrath for this…”

  WRATH: 90%

  “Maybe you’re right…”

  But something in me said otherwise.

  I stared at it and taunted it.

  Aisha said, “Questionable approach.”

  I didn’t answer.

  I just remembered one of Jubeeca’s old matches—her catching a giant’s leg and turning all that weight into a slam.

  So if I do this right—

  Bella: “Prepare for impact.”

  The Dragon Serpent dove.

  I dipped right again and grabbed onto its body with everything I had.

  “Almost there…”

  WRATH: 95% … 99% … 100%

  Bella screamed,

  “WRATH MODE—ACTIVATE!”

  My body grew while I was still holding the dragon.

  I grit my teeth, repositioned, and dragged its weight over my shoulder.

  “I think this is the right approach.”

  Then I swung.

  “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

  The Dragon Serpent roared—

  and I drove it into the floor so hard the entire room shook.

  CRITICAL IMPACT CONFIRMED.SPINAL STABILITY COMPROMISED.

  [ARENA HUD — IMPACT]SERPENT DRAGON — HP: ████████?? 82% → ███??????? 31%WRATH MODE — ENGAGEDSOREN — HP: ███████??? 72%

  Its HP dropped so fast I forgot to blink.

  Bella just stared.

  “…Yo.”

  I walked toward it and started kicking it violently.

  “Hey… gimme my stuff back.”

  Bella blinked.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Then the Serpent Dragon dissolved into pure purple miasma—so potent that one breath could kill a normal demon.

  But me?

  I live in this shit.

  I inhaled it violently.

  Bella shouted, “Slow down!”

  Aisha answered, “Unusual adaptation confirmed.”

  [ARENA HUD — UPDATE]SERPENT DRAGON — HP: ?????????? 0%SOREN — HP: ███████??? 72%WRATH MODE: DISENGAGING…STATUS: PURE MIASMA ABSORPTION

  My Wrath form dissipated.

  And somehow my face still looked unsatisfied.

  Bella stared at me.

  “Boy… you are turning into a beast.”

  Unfortunately, the door opened the moment the last of the miasma was gone.

  So I moved forward to the next floor and started cursing my father.

  “Once I get out of here, I got a lot of questions my old man needs to answer.”

  Bella floated beside me.

  “His personality’s been changing fast ever since Floor 20.”

  Aisha responded immediately.

  “Affirmative. Due to repeated miasma intake and Wrath usage, subject Soren’s personality is undergoing a drastic shift.”

  Bella went quiet for a second.

  Then she said, “Hey. I need to make a deal with you, Aisha. I might need you to do something for me.”

  Aisha answered instantly.

  “What is your request?”

  Bella folded her arms.

  “You might need to help me change a forced blood bond contract.”

  Aisha paused.

  “Processing… gathering data on Soren…”

  Bella blinked.

  “Huh?”

  Aisha responded:

  “If you give me access to your contract and Soren’s memories, I will do it.”

  Bella stared at her.

  “Are you actually an AI?”

  Aisha asked calmly:

  “Deal?”

  I looked back and shouted, “HEY, YOU TWO, HURRY IT UP! THIS FLOOR IS WEIRD!”

  Bella cursed under her breath.

  “Fine. Whatever. Deal.”

  Aisha answered immediately.

  “Link established.”

  Bella twitched.

  Aisha followed with:

  “Thank you, Spector of Wrath Bella. I will honor my end of the deal. Farewell.”

  Bella floated there in silence for a second.

  Then muttered:

  “I feel like I just made a deal with an actual devil…”

  A pause.

  “And she’s supposed to be an AI.”

  That room made me feel colder for some reason, like my emotions were starting to slip away from me.

  I looked down at my hands.

  They were shaking from what I had just done.

  Bella floated down and sat on my open palms while I held them up.

  “Whatever you’re thinking,” she said, “drop it. We don’t have time to worry about the past.”

  Then her voice softened just a little.

  “We have to do what we have to do, Soren. That’s real life. If we keep looking behind us, we won’t move forward.”

  She looked me dead in the eyes.

  “And if we stop moving forward, we’ll both stay stuck down here.”

  She said it like a life lesson.

  Like someone trying to keep me alive with words as much as power.

  While we kept walking, Bella climbed up and sat on my shoulder.

  We talked about life for a while.

  At some point, I admitted something.

  “I’ve never even had a relationship before.”

  Bella looked at me.

  “I was just a prince a little while ago,” I said. “Now I’m just a Pit Demon.”

  Bella rubbed her chin like she was seriously considering it.

  “Pit Demon, huh?”

  Then she nodded.

  “That nickname is actually good for you.”

  I groaned.

  “Could you at least pick a better name for me?”

  She laughed.

  “Don’t worry. It’ll stick.”

  Then she smirked.

  “Think of it as an insult…”

  A pause.

  “…and also exactly who you are.”

  I kept walking upward until we passed an old chiseled image on the wall.

  Bella pointed at it immediately.

  “Oh. This is lore. Let’s read it.”

  So we did.

  The carving explained that the Pit had been created to punish demons who failed their battles.

  Demons who lost.

  Demons who were thrown away.

  And according to the wall, most were sent only five floors deep.

  Bella laughed so hard she almost fell off my shoulder.

  “And your ass got sent twenty deep.”

  I snorted.

  “Yeah, that is kind of crazy.”

  Then I smiled a little.

  “But we made it out of that.”

  Bella looked at me sideways.

  I glanced back at her.

  “…And I’m happy I met you too.”

  That shut her up for half a second.

  Then she looked away.

  “Yeah, yeah. Don’t get soft on me.”

  We kept reading.

  The wall also said something else:

  This dungeon is meant for demons only.

  If heroes entered the Pit, the miasma would either kill them immediately…

  or corrupt them.

  That made me stop.

  Then Bella suddenly pointed.

  “Soren—look!”

  There was a carving of a door frame hidden in the mural.

  At the very bottom of it, a small crystal shape was etched into the stone.

  Bella’s eyes lit up.

  “I think there’s a real one hidden there.”

  She was right.

  I reached down and pulled a dense crystal of miasma out from the bottom of the wall.

  The second I did, a hidden door opened beside us, revealing another staircase.

  I looked back down the one we had been climbing.

  It kept going.

  Up.

  Down.

  Forever.

  Bella whistled.

  “Yeah… if we missed that mural, we probably would’ve been walking for days.”

  She looked back at the crystal in my hand.

  Then said, way too casually:

  “I think you should eat that.”

  I looked down at it.

  The crystal was packed with dense miasma.

  Enough that it felt like the whole room could probably be swallowed by what was inside it.

  I shrugged.

  “Whatever.”

  “Down the hatch.”

  I opened my mouth and dropped it in.

  CHOMP.

  I swallowed.

  Bella stared at me.

  “So?”

  “Anything?”

  I looked at her.

  “Well, I’m not feeling any—”

  Then I grabbed my gut and dropped to my knees.

  “Scratch that—”

  The crystal dissolved instantly.

  All that miasma exploded inside my stomach at once.

  [ARENA HUD — UPDATE]FLOOR 5 — HIDDEN TRIALSOREN — HP: ███████??? 72%STATUS: INTERNAL MIASMA OVERLOAD / EVOLUTION SPIKEWRATH RESERVE: ███??????? 27%

  Bella floated in front of me.

  “Look at me.”

  I forced my eyes up.

  “Breathe. Control it.”

  Then she folded her arms and kept going.

  “Clearly your body is capable of handling this stuff, so deal with the pain until it settles.”

  I groaned through clenched teeth.

  “Yeah… shit hurts, man.”

  Bella blinked.

  “I honestly thought you’d pass out by now.”

  I laughed weakly, then stopped because it hurt.

  “Oh, right…”

  I put a hand on my chest.

  “I can feel my body developing every time I absorb more miasma.”

  Then I fell onto my side.

  “Maybe this—”

  My right eye flared.

  I shut my eyes once.

  Then opened them.

  Bella was right in front of me.

  I shut them again.

  Opened them slower.

  Bella was shaking me now.

  “Hey! You okay? Don’t pass out here, damn it!”

  I tried to answer.

  Didn’t.

  Everything went dark.

  Bella cursed.

  “CRAP. CRAP. CRAP.”

  Then she sighed.

  “…Whatever. I’ll take over if anything shows up, but it looks like we can relax in this staircase until he wakes up.”

  She floated down and landed on my shoulder while I was slumped there, cold and completely out.

  Then she looked ahead and noticed the hidden staircase marker showing the next floor.

  Bella perked up instantly.

  “Soren! Soren, lo—”

  Nothing.

  I was gone.

  Cold, knocked out.

  Sleeping like a corpse that forgot to be dead.

  Bella stared at me for a second, then sighed again.

  “Ugh.”

  “You’re lucky you have a handsome sleeping face I can stare at.”

  Some time later, I woke up.

  Bella was lying next to me with her eyes closed, pretending to be asleep.

  I sat up, picked her up, and set her back on my shoulder.

  Then I started walking up the stairs.

  Bella cracked one eye open.

  “Well. I guess you’re awake.”

  I kept climbing.

  But with each step, the sound felt different.

  Heavier.

  Bella noticed it too.

  “Oh, right. While you were sleeping, your body developed again.”

  I looked down at myself.

  Even through my shirt, I could tell the changes were obvious.

  My abs had gone from six to eight.

  My chest looked fuller.

  My arms were thicker.

  My legs had grown more muscle.

  I smiled.

  “Well…”

  “Looks like everything is paying off.”

  Then I heard my own voice.

  It sounded deeper now.

  Calmer too.

  Bella looked at me with open shock while we kept walking up the stairs.

  [ARENA HUD — UPDATE]HIDDEN TRIAL — CLEAREDSOREN — HP: ███████??? 72%STATUS: BODY EVOLUTION COMPLETE / VOICE SHIFT / MUSCLE GROWTHNEXT FLOOR: UNLOCKED

  Author’s Note (End of Chapter 4A)

  Upper Pit Trials.

  Wolf Tyrant.