Ouch.

That hurts.

Wait, what happened? Where am I?

I attempted to gauge my surroundings, only to be met by darkness.

The lack of light was a double dose of deja vu.

And based on the shifting and shaking, I’ve been kidnapped. 

Make that a quadruple dose.

It’s getting annoying at this point. 

If not anything else, I’m going to get stronger just so I can’t stop getting knocked out and taken captive.

Speaking of getting abducted, I wasn’t alone. It’s probably a good idea to check on the others.

Turning on my soul scene, I took a look around again. This time I saw past the darkness…in a vague sort of way.

The easiest way to describe it is probably infrared for the soul. It also gives you a rough reading of your target's vitality based on the glow of their soul. Which sounds rather useful in lots of situations, does it?

I thought so too, but according to my golden teacher, it's apparently super hard for most people to use soul sense even on themselves, far less on others.

And to that I say, sucks to suck…suckers.

I shoved my smug thoughts away and activated my sense. 

‘One…two…three…and four. And they all seem…okay from what I can tell…but what’s…’

I quickly located and accounted for each of my companions as well as something else interesting.

Each of the orbs corresponding to one of my travel mates was attached to the back of a…body?

These beings showed up as glowing silhouettes in my soul sense, instead of some centralized core. It was like their bodies were their souls.

Combining that observation with the strong gusts of wind that literally blew us off a cliff, as well as the rumor of this circle…it wasn’t that difficult to guess.

Our captors were probably the wind spirits under the command of the judge of this gray land.

Seeing that no one was seriously injured from my soul scan, and frankly, I was kind of interested in seeing this judge.

It should be fine since I’m apparently the ruler of everything, but especially hell. I'm pretty sure that makes this judge my direct subordinate.

I wonder if they would even recognize me as such?

Malacoda and the rest knew when I was just a snake…and the Lost ones could tell in both of my humanoid forms.

So it should probably be okay? I’m a bit worried still…

And I can’t say the way they’ve been conducting things gives me any more confidence, if those rumors are true…which seems to be if our kidnapping is any indication.

It’s a superior’s job to admonish their employees, but I’m not sure what exactly they were commanded to do…so I’ll probably hold my tongue.

Of course that all go window if my soul search was wrong and someone is hurt. 

In that case, there's hell to pay for a certain judge.

—⁕🎕⁕—

Holy soil that holds the Roots.

Minos was screwed. 

Honestly, that didn’t really get the sentiment across, but he wasn’t really sure if there was a word or phrase that did.

Caught in a disaster.

Hitting his downfall.

Inching towards annihilation.

Running toward ruination.

Doomed?

‘Doomed works well enough… let's go with that.’ He absently thought as the magnitude of the situation set in.

The blonde girl sitting before him, who simultaneously he wanted to protect and seek protection from, was a very important person.

In probably most people on the planet, and definitely all of the denizens of hell, she was the most important person.

Actually, whether people thought so or not, she was undeniably the most important being in the universe.

And the reasoning behind that claim was simple, without her the universe as well as the people hypothetically refuting wouldn’t exist in the first place.

She was the reincarnation of the All-Tree.

The Ruler of Any and Everything.

But arguably most important in Minos’ case…she was his master, to who he swore his eternal fealty.

Yet as karma goes, his wrongdoings would be his undoing.

Not only had he commanded the kidnapping of his master, but he also was responsible for the injury of one of her party members.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out she wasn’t pleased.

One of her apple-red eyes burst into flame, quite literally showing her burning with anger.

The courtroom shook and rattled in response to her power, which Minos found to be significantly weaker than it had been in the past. Which was odd.

Putting aside those now useless thoughts, Minos let out a resigned sigh.

‘Hopefully, she directs all her rage on me. It is my fault after all. I just wish I could’ve said goodbye before…’

The air shifted as the power shifted and molded itself.

A faint whisper could barely be heard as Minos’ liege spoke the words to her spell that would presumably be the end of him.

He closed his eyes and waited for his demise.

But it never came.

—⁕🎕⁕—

Burning rage. 

A flame of a consumed me as the cloth blocking my vision fell away and I took a look around.

My companions were all unconscious.

But my soul sense was wrong. Mama was hurt pretty badly.

There was huge gash bleeding profusely from her forehead.

Taking my eyes off her, I trained them on the being sitting on the judge’s bench.

A massive man with skin the color of gravely sat, with eyes full of surprise. He was wearing a judges attire, but the robes couldn’t cover the massive tail snaking behind him.

I instinctively knew he was the mastermind.

I couldn’t contain myself as my vision turned red, and the words to a spell came flying out my mouth.

While I wasn't sure exactly what I was saying, I could feel that the incantation would end the judge…but it felt like I wouldn’t get a away from it scotch free either. 

But that didn’t matter. The one who hurt my mother had to die, no questions asked.

As I neared what felt was the end of the spell, I closed my eyes in concentration.

My words were halted as a pair of hands grab mine, jolting me out of my rage induced trance.

I mentally winced as a smoldering feeling engulfed my left hand, but ignored it.

I opened my eyes to see my mother in front of me, blood still staining her face, but the cut quickly closing.

A shaking of her head got her message across clearly.

The air defused as my spell completely dropped.

Still, I couldn’t just let it go.

I took another look at the judge, who had closed his eyes and spread his arms, cautiously open them, as if what he was bracing for missed him.

“So Mr. Judge,” I started. “I think you have some explaining to do.”

—⁕🎕⁕—

Ugh.

I feel a bit bad now. 

After speaking to the judge who name is Minos, I couldn’t help but feel a little conflicted.

Much of the situation was my fault…well past me’s fault.

Apparently much of the rumors were true. Minos and his staff did kidnap explorers who made it to the second circle. But they didn’t enslave them as sex slaves or outright kill them. 

He would often match make these captives with single members of his staff, with consent from both sides of course. 

More often than not, the pair would be quite compatible and the traveler would settle down in hell with their new beau. 

In the cases in which the match didn’t work or the kidnappee wasn’t interested, he let them go.

If they failed to report back to the guild, Minos assured me it was them losing their lives in another circle. 

This segued into why he started the whole shebang in the first place…his job.

Apparently when he was assigned his position originally, there was no schedule. He was to work twenty-four-seven for eternity. 

Obviously this didn’t allow much time with his family…which I found out consisted of his wife slash secretary succubus Crete and his child. 

He was able to see Crete because they worked together, but they literally never had time off to enjoy being together.

His child turned out to be the Minotaur I encountered in one of the lower circles…which was a big plus for me. I was rather fond of the Minotaur from my interaction with them as a snake.

He hadn’t seen his child in millenna, and it’s my fault. Past me was a bad boss.

So with the promise of creating an actual schedule, as well as lots of vacation days to make up for the last eternity, my group got ready to set off.

“Might I suggest something?” the massive judge asked.

“Mhm?” I responded ,intrigued.

“It may be presumptuous of me, but I noticed that your group is traveling to the lower circles. I’m actually rather apt at transporting people to most of the circles pretty quickly.” He said, gesturing towards his tail.

“Is that safe?” I questioned. 

“Absolutely,” Minos' chest puffed with pride.

“Well in that case…”I started, taking a look back at the rest of the group for their opinions.

Lulla

Hey there! Thanks for reading. Not much to say here, but woo! We made it on Trending two consecutive days, which is absolutely amazing! And were coming up on having as many readers in this story than I had favorites on my first attempt at writing...which is honestly surreal. But enough of that, I really appreciate you guys support! That being said, I thought it be interesting to leave the decision on what circle the gang travels to...to you guys! So there's a poll right under this that allows you to chose just that!