Chapter Eight

 

As soon as Antithesis entered the fifth circle, he noticed an immediate change, for he stood on the edge of a green pool of some sort. As he looked up, he noticed the “pool” extended the farther his gaze reached. The green body of water resembled more of a sea than a pool. 

“Must be nice,” a gruff voice bellowed. “Given a perfect life while in the land of the living. Given a second chance at life. Being more powerful than nearly every being, cosmic or not, you come across.”

“Who--”

The spirit’s question would be answered as the ground shook and the water receded toward the center of the sea. He followed the rising eyes of an enormous sea serpent as it broke the surface of the green sea and reached the height of a skyscraper. This was a leviathan. The Leviathan, the archdemon of envy.

“I’m envious of what you’ve been able to accomplish, abandoned one,” Leviathan said. “So jealous, I will kill you out of… envy.”

Before Antithesis could charge head on at the beast, he noticed skeletons rise from the waters, clad in varying armors. They looked as if they belonged to several different warrior clans of ancient time periods, like knights, vikings, samurai, and ninja. 

Antithesis knew he’d be able to handle the hench-demons, but he did not count on Leviathan attacking him while he fought the skeletal warriors off. He readjusted his plan and used the archdemon’s attacks to do the work of re-killing the hench-demons for him, so he could focus on the beast. 

Leviathan used its head as a weapon and smashed at the sea while also breathing green, poisonous gas. The gas would prove a difficult obstacle for Antithesis, for as the spectre leaped into the air with Dimension Splitter in hand to deliver a finishing blow, he inhaled the green gas. When he did, the Leviathan disappeared and he could only slice at the air. 

The phantom fell through the air and plunged into the green sea. He resurfaced from the water and searched around for the serpent, but he felt the temperature of the water changing beneath him. He decided to dive under the water and in the jade-tinted darkness, he saw the glowing red eyes of the serpent whose body didn’t have an end, much like the Hell Dragon. 

The wraith decided to resurface for more air before diving to attack Levithan, but just before he broke the surface of the sea, the beast’s body coiled around him and dragged him further down into the depths. The spectre’s arms were wrapped, so he was unable to reach for Dimension Splitter or a Dagger of Deception. He tried using his super strength to force his way out, but he believes the gas weakened him. He was running out of air quickly.

Leviathan brought the phantom face to face with him and breathed even more toxic gas into the phantom’s face, taunting him even though the gas wouldn’t affect him further because the phantom held his breath. 

“I will do what none of my brothers and sisters before me could,” Leviathan said, opening his mouth. As he moved his head closer to Antithesis to eat him, he briefly saw a flash of whitish-gold before swallowing the spectre whole. 

Leviathan then slivered to the surface of the sea to check on the hench-demons. As he surveyed the area, he felt something kick in his elongated stomach. 

“No,” the archdemon said. “With the gas and water in my stomach, there’s no way he should have--”

Leviathan then roared as Antithesis burst through his stomach with a flaming fist. Leviathan, quickly recovering, tried to breathe more gas onto the spirit, but Antithesis lept at Levithan’s body again, forcing himself through on one side and popping out the other. Then, he turned around and went back through, higher up on the beast’s body. The spirit went in and out all the way up the serpent’s body, Leviathan letting out a roar with each protrusion, until he eventually punched through the head of the archdemon, killing it. 

Antithesis then swam through the water, emerging on the other side of the sea and looked back at the corpse of the deadly sin of envy before turning and entering the sixth circle.

The Circle of Wrath is exactly what Antithesis pictured it would look like. Everything on fire with a mix of orange and black, glowing hellflames. Souls moaning and screaming because they were on fire. And at the center of the torture, on an iron throne, sat Satan. Not to be confused with Decimus, the Devil. Satan, blue-skinned, large horns, dressed in revealing armor and cloth, was an archdemon. The archdemon of wrath. He smiled at the sight of Antithesis and rose from his throne, slugging a spiked hammer over his shoulder. 

“You lost, soul?” the archdemon questioned, pacing back and forth in front of the Heavenborne. 

“I assure you, I am not,” the soul responded. “I seek passage through to the ninth circle, archdemon.”

“Don’t try to flatter your way out of this,” Satan said, pointing a clawed finger at the phantom, who questioned how he was being flattering at all. “Calling me ‘archdemon’ won’t get you anything from me.”

“Are you not an archdemon?”

“I am.”

“Then explain how I flatter you,” Antithesis demanded. The archdemon smirked and snorted. 

“I always thought the back and forth of two about to duel, referring to each other as what they were, was flirtatious,” Satan said. “It’s verbal battling before the actual battling begins.”

“You view arguing as flirtatious?”

“I am a demon,” Satan said. “I welcome negativity.”

“Is that why you choose to face me instead of letting me pass?” Antithesis asked, still trying to avoid conflict.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Satan said. “Naw, I’m afraid I’m a huge step up from Leviathan.”

“I am prepared,” the wraith said, getting into a fighting stance with one hand at the ready to draw either Dimension Splitter or a Dagger of Deception.

“Oh, are you now?” Satan asked. He then bumped his hammer off his shoulder and it came crashing into the ground, shaking the entire circle. Antithesis stood his ground as Satan raised the hammer up to his own face and simply breathed on it, setting it ablaze with black hellflames. He then rested it back on his shoulder and pointed at the spectre.

“My hellfire versus your holyflames,” he said. “You do know what that is, don’t you?”

Antithesis ignored the archdemon as he ran at him with full speed. Satan barely reacted in time to deflect Dimension Splitter’s swipe with his spiked Hell Hammer. Antithesis then swung a few more times before unintentionally giving Satan an open opportunity. The archdemon swung his Hell Hammer and connected it to Antithesis’s ribs, sending him flying across the circle. 

The spirit struggled to stand once more, feeling pain coming from his side and seeing that the connected hit had not only broken his ribs, but set them on fire. Like his battle with the three archdemon sisters, he was unable to heal. Was he getting weaker the longer he stayed here? Or was it something to do with particular archdemons that had the power to negate his regeneration? 

As the archdemon of wrath sauntered toward him menacingly, he came to terms with the fact that his regeneration might not be available from here on out. Before Satan reached him, he fought fire with fire, and set his ribs ablaze with plasmic holyflames, cancelling out the black, eternally burning hellflames. His ribs remained broken for the time being.

Once within range, Satan reached out a hand at shot hellflames from his palms at the Heavenborne. Antithesis counteracted with his own flames before somersaulting out of the way as Satan’s hellflames conquered his holyflames. 

“Where you runnin’ to, spectre?” Satan questioned while turning to face Antithesis as the phantom sheathed Dimension Splitter and withdrew his Daggers of Deception. Before he could do any further, the archdemon exhaled, breathing flames at Antithesis. Instead of dodging again, the wraith decided to cover himself in holyflame to deflect it while he continued his plan. 

As the hellflames dissipated and Satan could see Antithesis still stood, he noticed the Chains of Sacrifice were wrapped around the daggers. 

“What’re you plannin’ to do with those? They as strong as your fancy sword, there?” the archdemon questioned. Antithesis didn’t answer as he stood motionless waiting for Satan’s next move, daggers and chains in hand. Satan then did what he least expected and leapt into the air.

Antithesis looked up, but could only see so far into the darkness. He tried to run out of the way and teleported a few different places with the open circle to be safe, but he wasn’t as Satan still tracked him and landed directly on top of him, crushing his body and rendering the spectre immobile.

“H-how?” Antithesis strained to say through gritted teeth.

“I teleported to a pocket dimension where I was able to keep the height that I jumped, and I waited there until you stopped movin’,” Satan explained. He leaned in close. “And now I’ve stopped you from movin’.”

He hears the struggled grunts of the Heavenborne.

“Tryna move? Tryna teleport? Tryna regenerate?” Satan said before cackling. “Yeah, that’s shit’s not gonna work against me.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause of how deep you are in the circles, spirit,” Satan explained, displaying his hubris. “You were empowered by the archangels, right? Well, the longer you’re here, the weaker you get. You lose connection to your roots.”

Antithesis continued to struggle.

“Ay, lemme ask you somethin’,” Satan said. “Why’re you fighting? How’d you end up in this shit?”

“I… the archangels gave me a second chance at life,” Antithesis said, losing hope. Satan chuckled.

“That what they called it?” the archdemon asked.

“One of your kind killed me and my family and I will not stop until I find out who it was and kill them!” Antithesis shouts.

“You think one of us did it? Do you even know the history behind those bastards?” the archdemon continued. “Michael lost the duel against Apothael for control of Heaven’s army. Apothael was obsessed with finding a weapon, a killing machine, to carry out the dirty work of eliminating all of us. Who’s really to blame is--”

“Lies!” Antithesis shouts. “Which one of you did it?!”

“I just told you--”

“TELL ME!”

Without moving still, Antithesis’s body became covered in his signature plasmic holyflames. Satan removed his foot from the spectre’s body as Antithesis had burned it. Then, by miracle, Antithesis stood to his feet, still covered in holyflames, able to move. 

“The hell?” Satan said. 

“You will be no longer a part of it,” Antithesis proclaimed and he let his daggers and chains, also covered in plasmic holyflames, fall to the ground. Satan took a step back in fear before taking a step forward and swinging his Hell Hammer at the Heavenborne. The Heavenborne whipped out a chain at it and knocked it out of the archdemon’s grasp. Satan then turned back to Antithesis, not even attempting to retrieve his hammer, and breathed hellflames on the spirit. However, they did not affect him and he continued walking forward through them. 

Satan then dug his arms into the ground and attempted to throw Antithesis off balance, but Antithesis shot out a heated chain and cut Satan’s right arm off. The archdemon roared and grabbed at the stump, heating it with flames to cauterize it. 

There’d be no point as Antithesis whipped out his other chain at the archdemon’s other arm, slicing this cleanly off as well. Satan looked up and roared into the darkness, and Antithesis took advantage of the exposed neck whipping out both daggers and chains into the archdemon’s throat. The archdemon could no longer make noise as it struggled to remove the chains, but couldn’t as he couldn’t touch them without being burned. The Heavenborne then tugged on his chains, removing them from Satan’s neck, but forcing the demon to slam his head into the ground.

As Satan waited to die, Antithesis sent his chain out and retrieved the Hell Hammer. He lifted it and swung at the archdemon’s face head on, knocking the archdemon’s head off and up into the air. Then, to finish it off, Antithesis shot a chain out at the head, connecting the dagger through the forehead, and set it on fire, therefore causing it to explode. 

He wonders how he’s even able to stand after being rendered immobile. Maybe it had something to do with him still being connected to his roots and not as far gone from Heaven as Satan taunted. Maybe the archangels watched him completing his journey right now and could not bear to see him lose. He could not find an explanation. 

As Antithesis looked at the dead body of the archdemon of wrath, he also wondered what came over him, as he’d never gone overboard like that before. He pondered the possible influence of the archdemon’s sin as he moved on to the Circle of Pride and Treachery.