Chapter 6 – Why We Hate Infernals
[Lilly POV]
[C Gnoll Warlock killed!]
[D Gnoll Grunts killed x6!]
[Level up!]
I can’t help but smile at yet another level! I have to stop myself from fist pumping, which would no doubt look odd considering our surroundings.
We finally found a road, along with a carriage that appears to be mostly functional! However, there’s quite a few dead bodies scattered around. A lot of them look like they’ve been blown up. Likely because of the warlock they were facing.
It’s weird, I’m looking around at the very grizzly scene. There’s a dude ripped in half over there, an elf guy with his face singed off, and a dude with a spear stuck through his chest and a tomahawk in his face. But all it makes me think is that this stuff is gross.
In my past life I was pretty sensitive to this stuff. My girlfriend in highschool tripped and scraped her knee. When I helped her clean it off, my hands got shaky at the sight of blood. Now, I feel completely calm, just a little grossed out. Taking a glance at Lulu, I can tell she feels the same. Maybe being demons shifted our mentality?
While looking at Lulu, something catches my eye. Peeking her head out of the carriage is a girl that looks to be around nineteen years old. She’s got long, beautiful, golden, curly locks of hair that flow from her head. A bit of blood drops down her forehead, creating a line down to the corner of her lip. She looks at me with a stunned expression.
I can honestly say she is quite beautiful. Though to be honest, she has nothing on Lulu. From the way, she blushes at my glance I can tell that she must be thinking the same thing as me. Considering I look like Lulu, I don’t blame her.
Suddenly, a voice interrupts my thoughts. This voice is low and gravelly, quite similar to if the All-state guy had a slight Scottish accent.
“Ah… Uhm… Thank you, ladies.”
Looking down, I see a man standing about 4’10”. He wears thick metal armor and wields a hammer reminiscent of Mjolnir. I fight off the urge to shout rock and stone. I shake my head and talk in my practiced customer service voice,
“Not at all. We happened to hear your fight a little late. I’m sorry we didn’t get here sooner.”
While listening to the dwarf speak, I can see a female elf clad in dark leathers behind him, along with another male elf dressed in bright, shiny scale armor.
“‘Tis unfortunate, but all of the weaker members of the party are dead.”
The dwarf shakes his head in disappointment and melancholy. He looks down at the human man whose leg is currently being crushed by a dead horse. I glance back over to the carriage and notice the woman inside has stumbled out. She looks incredibly shaken up and pretty exhausted, which is understandable considering what she’s just been through. Even so, she manages to waddle her way toward us almost in a drunken manner. The dwarf walks over to help her stand, while she begins to speak to us,
“Thank you so much for saving our lives. Had you not been here, we would have died, no doubt. My name is Alice Drakea, would you mind telling me yours?”
She speaks in a very prim and proper manner, giving off the feeling of nobility. Though, it comes off as a little bit forced.
“Sure, I’m Lilith Fellgrim. This is my sister, Lulura Fellgrim. It’s really no problem. After all, we got the experience from the gnolls anyway.”
She shakes her head and says,
“I cannot let you go without proper compensation. Unfortunately, I don’t have the coin with me right now as I’m on my way to seal a deal for my father. If you wouldn’t mind traveling with us, I shall repay you double what I paid the guild for these adventurers.”
For some reason, what she said felt a little rude. To discredit the people here who gave their lives to protect her by offering someone she just met double their pay. Maybe that’s just a me thing, though? I look over to the dwarf who simply shakes his head,
“I know what yer thinking. She’s right. This quest was only rated for D-ranks, but the monster you two killed easily is a C-rank. You deserve double our pay. Ah, the name’s Grendel, by the way.”
The female elf speaks up next. Her voice is melodic, and most definitely fit for singing,
“True. Though, in my personal opinion, you two deserve triple. You may have snuck up on it, but those attacks you used were obviously quite high ranking. A red fireball that’s still as hot as even a blue one has to be at least a B-rank skill. Not to mention that wide range poison attack you used on them. You two are clearly very high level.”
Sure. Let’s go with that. Well, I’m not gonna pass up free money, and a ride. It’ll be good to get to a town before the night rolls in. I nod at Alice and say,
“If you insist. I assume you guys will need some time to take care of the bodies, correct?”
Grendel nods his head and says,
“If we don’t take care of ‘em before nightfall, the bodies will turn into undead. I’d rather not see companions, no matter how short our time together, turn into a damned moon-blessed.”
I cock an eyebrow at that. Is that this world’s term for undead? As Grendel goes to start collecting the dead, the female elf comes up to me. I get a view of her face under her hood. She’s quite pretty, but I can tell she’s not my type. She looks down at me, as she stands at about 5’9”, while I and Lulu stand at a mere 5’2”.
“Don’t mind Grendel. He’s a follower of The Way of Stars. They believe that the moons are evil gods who cause corpses to become undead at night.”
Lulu moves closer to me, pulling my arm closer into her chest and slightly hiding behind me shyly. I gotta wonder how she built up the courage to act like she did when she first woke up. I reach my hand over and start patting her head comfortingly. She leans into it, closing her eyes like a cat,
“Well, if it brings him comfort and doesn’t hurt anyone, I say he should believe what he chooses to.”
The elf gives me a small smirk before saying,
“I agree. Better than those Leandrite scum, in any case.”
I look to her and think up a backstory for me and Lulu,
“Honestly, Lulu and I have never really been away from our house. Our parents were very… Strange… For lack of a better word. They never really mentioned anything about any religions. What exactly is a Leandrite? Also, I never caught your name.”
She looks at me with a bit of surprise before saying,
“You two do look a little young. I didn’t imagine you’d be the children of exiles, my apologies. My name is Kenella Gracewin. That resplendent bastard over there is my husband, Luriel Gracewin.”
I nod my head with her as she continues on about the Leandrites.
“The Leandrite church has been a thorn in the side of every race aside from humans for going on a century. Their founder, Core Tenant Hirock, set up a temple at the closest point possible to Hero’s end. The continent to the north where Leander Flambrin slayed Morgaroth, the Deadly Sin of Sloth. It’s called Hero’s End because he, obviously, died. The attack he used to kill Morgaroth was a Legendary rank skill, according to the cult, which took his own soul to power.”
Kenella and I notice Luriel moving to help Grendel with the bodies. She starts to walk towards them to help as well before saying,
“Basically, the Leandrites worship the hero. Their core tenant is that humans are superior to all other races. They suck.”
I nod my head,
“Got it. Avoid the cult people.”
With that, Alice, Lulu, and I all load into the carriage while the adventurers deal with the bodies. Alice helps by using magic to create a deep enough hole that they could bury each of the human bodies. Apparently, they’ll just be burning the bodies of the monsters. Soon enough, they manage to get some of the other horses hooked up to the carriage and we begin to move after Alice says a prayer for her maid who was killed by the initial blast.
—-------------------------------
[A few hours later…]
The ride has been rugged, breezy, and all around uncomfortable. Lulu, Alice, and I all crammed together on the one side of the carriage. Which, actually, is not all that tight because of how small the three of us are. Hell, altogether we probably barely reach three hundred pounds.
I find myself sandwiched between the two girls, with my arm squished between Lulu’s soft chest. I can feel my dick beginning to get hard again, threatening to tear through my panties. Realizing that Alice likely wouldn’t question it, I reach down over my dress and adjust in my seat, slowly sliding my dick out of the left side of my underwear.
As I grab and move my dick to a comfortable position, Alice talks to me again.
“I overheard your conversation with Kenella. You two were raised by elven exiles? That’s quite rare. Most elves choose not to leave the shade of the World Tree.”
I think for a second before coming up with further story for us.
“Yes, my mother and father’s marriage wasn’t exactly accepted. They’re both elves, but their statuses were very different. And… Our mother was known for dabbling in the infernal.”
At the mention of the infernal, I can see the bridge of Alice’s nose crinkle in disgust. She looks at me with a bit of sympathy but also seems to slightly distance herself. She shakes her head and says,
“The infernal is nothing to trifle with. Even the lowest of demons is a vile, violent, disgusting being that wants nothing more than the destruction of the world.”
Ouch…
“I can see how that would get your parents exiled, at the least. Did your mother continue with her research later on?”
I feel a little offended at this disgust she feels. I mean, Lulu and I are infernal, and we’re here talking to her. I have no feeling of wanting the destruction of the world or anything of the sort. I can’t help but get curious about why she hates the infernal so much.
“Why do you hate the infernal so much? I don’t mean to sound like I’m condoning her actions, I just don’t know why it’s hated.”
She distances herself more at my words, but then sighs and comes back a little closer to me. She holds a hand up to her forehead before saying,
“The infernal are the reason taboos exist. Legends say that the first demon to descend onto the world rose to become an evil god. The Way of Stars knows her as Vorathia, the Crimson Herald. She’s the only evil god to have been acknowledged by the God of Stars, earning her place in the night sky. She’s the one who created taboos, from what the legends state. Apparently, she thought this was a boon to the world.”
She looks up out of the hole in the front of the carriage, right as we exit from the forest. She points forwards up at a shining, red star sitting ominously in the sky. As I look into it, I can feel a deep sense of reverence throughout my body. I have to fight off the urge to kneel, and only manage to do so by looking away. Alice notices this and says,
“Disturbing, isn’t it?”
I nod my head before saying,
“She… Became a star?”
Alice nods her head before shaking it and saying,
“Your parents really taught you nothing, huh?”
I nod my head in fake shame, looking down towards the splintered wood below.
“Assume that the both of us know nothing about pretty much anything.”
She nods her head,
“Well, I suppose I could have some fun being a teacher while we make our way to Rauterdale. So, all of the stars you see in the night sky are representations of the gods. That bright blue one there is for Eleria, Goddess of the ocean. That dim orange one is Harkon, God of Embers. The brighter a star is, the more important the thing they represent is. The brightest star in the sky would be the one that illuminates our planet during the day. That is the God of Stars. There is no name for them, so most simply refer to them as the Stargod.”
She turns to me and asks,
“Do you know the story of the hero?”
I nod my head,
“Kenella told me a little bit of the story before helping with the bodies, but it was rather vague.”
“Well. The hero, Leander Flambrin, was a human. Specifically, he was a high human. Ah, a High Human is a human that has the blessing of a god. It evolves us into higher beings, unlike High Elves who are born as such. The Hero was blessed as a preemptive measure to the awakening of the ancient dragon Morgaroth, the Deadly Sin of Sloth. Morgaroth was awoken by Vorathia in response to the blessing of Leander. It was practically a self-fulfilling prophesy. Morgaroth proceeded to drive the world of man to near extinction. He destroyed the old kingdom of man, and razed the capital which at the time is theorized to have had well over ten billion inhabitants of various races.”
I follow along with her story with rapt attention. I feel incredibly interested by this story, and the fact that it likely did happen in this world.
“The most major reason why people hate the infernal so much is because of the actions of Vorathia. She betrayed the Goddess of Souls and killed her. Thankfully, this action became the undoing of Morgaroth. Her star fell a few hundred miles away from the dwarven kingdom of Dreskiir. The King of Dwarves, Thrane Stoneforge, took the divine iron left by the dead goddess and created a spearhead from it. After affixing it to the top of a splinter of the Fae Tree, or world tree as we know it now, he successfully crafted the only Legendary rank item known to ever exist, the Spear of Heaven and Earth.”
She then sighs and says,
“The hero then slayed Morgaroth with the spear and died in the process, utilizing his own soul as power for a Legendary rank skill. The remnants of his attack still exist to this day. The forever frozen land of Hero’s End has a strip of land a few thousand miles long that is so hot even those with Fire Immunity will die after a mere minute. Apparently in the holy capital, Celestial Concordance, they have an enchanted telescope that allows you to view the Spear of Heaven and Earth, still embedded in the skull of Morgaroth.”
I can’t help my thoughts escaping from my mouth,
“Holy shit.”
She chuckles and nods her head,
“Holy shit indeed. Now, for the reason we hate the infernal so much: The goddess killed by Vorathia was the reason people’s souls left their bodies after death. Before that time, there was no such thing as experience or levels. Nor was there such a thing as undead, or moon-blessed. Now, we gain experience through the system of leveling, rather than honing our craft, and the bodies of the dead must be buried before nightfall or else they’ll attack any living thing around them. So, I’d say people have two major reasons to despise the infernal. One, the existence of taboos, and two, the death of the Goddess of Souls.”
I look out the front of the carriage and notice a few lights in the distance. The clear showings of a city, no doubt. I look over to Alice and say,
“Thank you very much for sharing with me. That helps out more than you think.”
She shakes her head,
“Not at all. I should do all I can to help my saviors. Now, when we arrive at Rauterdale, the gate guards will likely bring out an enchanted slab of stone that will display your status. So long as you don’t have any taboo titles, you’ll be allowed entry. I assume neither of you do?”
I feel Lulu tremble slightly at this question. I wrap my arm around her and start to rub her side while answering,
“No, we don’t”
I lean over to Lulu and whisper in her ear,
“Our clothing set hides our infernal statuses. We’re safe, baby girl.”
She nods her head at this and nuzzles up against me. Alice looks over at us with a warm smile before saying one last thing,
“Now, I have to warn you. Human twins themselves are rare, but elven twins are probably one in one million. Humans only live up to two hundred years, and give birth within the same year they get pregnant. Elves live for thousands, and give birth after a decade of pregnancy. Not to mention the fact that elves rarely get pregnant to begin with. You’ll likely receive stares everywhere you go, and you may be targeted by slavers. But, seeing your strength, I don’t think you’ll have to worry too much about that.”
She looks ahead, seeing that we’ve about arrived at the gate to the city. It’s not an actual wall and gate that you’d expect in a world like this, but instead a wooden fence with a wooden gate about the size of two people. One of the two guards at the gate holds up his hand and yells out the word halt while walking in front of the carriage. Kenella steps off from the remaining seat at the front of the carriage, while the two men hop off their horses. Alice motions for us to disembark and opens the door on her side. All of us stand before the guard who holds in his hands a grey piece of stone with runes carved into it. A single black crystal sits at the top, while an indent made for a normal human man’s hand is embedded into the stone. First, Kellena puts her hand on the stone. A bright light appears from the stone and shows a very watered down version of a status board.
[Kellena Gracewin | Elf | No Titles]
Is that… All that it shows? If that’s the case, Lulu and I should be fine. I’d be a bit worried if they were able to see our stats and levels, but this should be fine. Her status board showed me her race as being a high elf as well.
Sure enough, when I put my hand up there, this shows up,
[Lilith Fellgrim | High Elf | No Titles]
The guard doing the status scanning freezes at seeing my race. Ah fuck. Alice did say that even a pair of human twins is rare… Elves are one in one million… We’re probably the only pair of “High Elf” twins anyone is ever gonna see.
Well… Shit.