“Okay, okay, this one want’s a new name quick, Mama.” The little scamp cried with glee as she clapped her hands non-stop.
“A name…how about Mo Na?” Naturally her name would have to follow mine and since my surname was Mo, hers was as well. To be honest, I considered naming her Brigittte, Moirah, Chaikah, Lorel and etc., but after giving it some thought, I felt that Mo Na was more appropriate.
“Mo Na…Mo Na…okay, Mo Na is a great name, Mo Na likes it. As long as it’s a name given by Mama, Mo Na will like them all!”
Having received a name, Mo Na gleefully hugged my head and rubbed her face against my own. “Mo Na, Mo Na, Mo Na has a name, it’s Mo Na, hehehe…”
Her scampish ways however, caused me to nearly fall over from lightheadedness.
“ Ah…it’s dark…Mama, Mo Na can’t see a thing…” Suddenly, the rubbing stopped and the panicked voice of Mo Na filled my ears. Worried that Mo Na might have gotten into trouble, I hurriedly brought her down and then, laughed. It turned out that because of her excited swaying, the hood of her robes ended up wrapping around her…
The robe she wore was a hand-me-down from me and naturally fitted my body. While it had been crudely altered by me, the hood’s size remained unchanged and it ended up covering her entire upper half because of that.
“Alright, alright, stop moving, Papa will get it for you.”
Gently taking off the hood, I returned her back to the world of light. Upon recovering her sight, the little scamp immediately hugged my neck and pecked me on the cheeks: “Thanks Mama.”
“I said so already, it’s Papa…bah forget it, not like you’ll listen anyway.”
Now that the little interlude was over, we resumed our foraging c** exploration. As stated before, Purgatory was known for its scorching temperatures. But to a devil however, they were merely lukewarm and comfortable. In fact, the smell of sulfur wasn’t as bad as I had initially imagined.
From time to time, I spotted a few earthworm-like creatures floating about the surface of the lava lake. They were roughly the size of a fist and half a meter long. Because I wasn’t a Four-star, I still couldn’t bathe in the lava lake and thus I had no choice but to helplessly watch as those worms swam by me…ahem, honestly, I just didn’t want to eat worms.
Ever since we stepped into Purgatory, my memories gained a host of inherited knowledge which included the name of that worm, a young Demon Fire Worm. It was one of the main staple foods for low level devils in Purgatory. Apparently, its taste wasn’t all that bad but that appearance however…either way, I didn’t plan on eating worms no matter what people said.
Because those below the rank of Four-stars weren’t able to enter the lava lake, most lower levelled devils relied on tools to capture said worms. According to my inherited memories, a common tool was a netlike object crafted from the hide of a Demon Fire Salamander.
Demon Fire Salamanders were the evolved form of a Demon Fire Worm and were at least Two-stars, with the highest being a Seven-stars. There were no recorded sightings of any salamanders passing the level of Seven-stars. The more powerful the salamander was, the deeper they dwelt. In other words, those we saw on the surface were the most harmless members of their race. The further down one went, the more powerful and frightening the salamanders became.
The lava lake consisted of more than just Demon Fire Salamanders, a host of other strange and fantastical creatures lived there as well. For example, Fire Elementals, Demonic Fire Elves, the nemesis of the Demon Fire Salamanders, the Fire-eating Tuna, the Dark Flames Snails, etc.
Naturally, there were more creatures who lived in the lake but those listed above were the most representative of the ecology here. It went without saying that those of the Flame Demon evolutionary path loved living in the lava lake as well. At that stage, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that their bodies were formed of fire elements. Unlike the Fire Elementals however, Flame Demons were beings of flesh and blood and not pure elemental creatures. Strictly speaking, they were hybrids, kinda like Hanyos from Dogyasha.
Turning my gaze away from the lake, I found some foliage lying around the rock pillars nearby. Purgatory actually had plantlife, that fact alone shocked me. Truly, life was a miraculous thing but then, when one thought about it, living on the surface reall wasn’t all that when compared to those creatures swimming in the lava lake.
The plants themselves were roughly 20 cm rhizomes that grew upwards. Several dark red leaves sprouted off their tops which held a delicious looking red fruit the size of an orange.
According to my inherited memories, these fruits were an edible source of food as well, known as Red Lotus. They contained pure energy within them and were an excellent source of nourishment, both as food and as a material. Because Purgatory as a whole wasn’t conducive to growing life, such plants were rare and their fruits even rarer.
For there to be an unharvested fruit just lying there…that probably meant that no one was nearby.
‘Come to think of it, we arrived here from the Prison of the Dead and that had been sealed up for god knows how long. Didn’t that mean that this location was uninhabited for a long time as well? Unless something strange were to happen, I doubt we will even encounter a devil, except for the odd scout or two.’
Truth be told, the moment I came to that conclusion, I heaved a sigh of relief. Purgatory was a foreign land for me and there was no way the highest level in this region would be Four-stars like in the Prison of the Dead. So how many experts were hiding out in this new land? To me, Four-stars were already experts because I was just some Three-stars small fry. For a Four-stars however, Five-stars were the experts and for the Five-stars….
‘Ah, how annoying, somehow I’ve ended up at the bottom of the rung again…’
Suddenly, I started to miss the Prison of the Dead…even though that was a rather cowardly thought, at least the Prison was safe for me…
Having harvested seven Red Lotuses, I rushed back with Mo Na. No.3 and Big 4 were still heavily injured and these fruits would most likely speed up their recovery. On the trip back however, my worries grew as I suddenly realized that the Grimoire of the Dead was a little too quiet.
Up till now, the grimoire acted in an almost sentient manner. It would float of its own accord, pull some pranks and even block attacks for me at critical moments. However, when One-eye betrayed me, it remained silent throughout, not even floating about at all…
Giving a quick toss with my bone chain, I found that it was really inert…perhaps it didn’t take too well to the local climate?
I then experimented by opening up the grimoire and checking its content; they were the same as before, I could only flip up to the third page and nothing more.
“What’re you doing Mama?” Just as I was fiddling with the grimoire, the little scamp on my shoulders turned on her curious mode and bent down to ask me: “Mama, is this a book?”
Instantly, my mood improved. Although the silence of the grimoire left me rather sullen, the birth of Mo Na was nothing but a huge piece of good news for me. She reduced the sense of loss I felt towards the grimoire’s silence and as I ruffled her little head, I couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s right, that’s an important book of Papa’s.”
“Can Mo Na have a look, Mama?”
“Sure.” I handed the grimoire over without any hesitation.
‘My precious daughter, no matter what you want, Papa will do his best to give it to you as long as he has it.”
The moment Mo Na came into contact with it however, the grimoire actually freed itself of my bone chains before turning into a thick cloud of black smoke. The smoky mass immediately wrapped itself around Mo Na and by the time I reacted to that, it had already tunnelled itself into her via her nostrils and mouth…
“Mo Na! What happened to you? Mo Na?!”
I frantically reached out and hugged Mo Na, clearly spooked by the change in the grimoire. Her skin started to undergo a series of bizarre changes, from red to black, to green and sometimes to grey…
My heart leapt into my mouth as I watched the sudden changes unfold before my very eyes. What if something were to happen to her? Was the first thought that ran through my mind. Thankfully, nothing happened and after a couple rounds of color changes, her skin finally returned to its normal pinkish hue. Her heaving chest began to settle down and upon touching her forehead, I found her temperature to be normal.
‘Seems like she’s just asleep. At least, she should be fine now but the grimoire is gone…’
With nothing else to be done about that however, I had no choice but to return to No.3 and Big 4.
The two of them laid there on the ground just as I had left them. Given that their limbs were broken, they couldn’t move anyway. Thank the stars nothing happened while I was gone. I fed them the Red Lotuses, two each to be exact. Right away, their injuries began to recover at a speed visible to the naked eyes and soon they even started to evolve…
No.3 and Big 4 were already Three-stars, so another evolution would mean that they would become flame demon childes…why did it suddenly feel like I was losing out to my sidekicks…
“Master…” Unlike One-eye, the two of them didn’t try to revolt just because they were now of a higher evolution form, instead they knelt before me weeping: “We’re useless, we’ve failed the Master and even allowed the Master to suffer such a humiliation…*weep*…”
“Alright, alright, get up you two, stop kneeling.”
“Okay.” Seeing that annoyed look on my face, the both of them immediately got to their feet.
“Master, is the little Master asleep?” Asked No.3 in soft voice, eyeing the little scamp in my arms as he did so.
“You mean Mo Na…?” Now that he reminded me of that matter, I couldn’t help but suffer another headache again. “Probably…”
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