My Enchanting System

After walking for a while, the first nomad devil village appeared. Lightly walled with stones, the houses were simple tents made of patched monsters and sinners’ skin. Even as gross as it seems, this was the nature of Hell.

There is an animal/human dynamic here where humans easily dominate and use animals as resources. There are only two types of creatures, Sinners and devils, each of them is an animal to the other. Even the monsters here are simply sinners or devils who went insane from the constant pain and suffering.

“Who are you?” A lower-rank devil approached them with a spear in hand, to him they looked much like sinners in funny outfits.

“Should you really be talking like that?” Cain stared at him and pointed toward Alice.

A single glance at her face was enough to drain the blood from his face, he was too focused on protecting the village that he failed to notice the devil standing between them.

There was no mistaking it, an upper-rank that should be living in the lower circles had made it to their doorsteps.

“Listen here, let’s talk.” Cain grabbed the devil by the shoulders and dragged him away for a few moments.

…

“Let’s talk here for a moment,” Cain said.

“What do you want?” the devil was scared to the point his legs were shaking.

“We’re not here to cause trouble so calm down, we just want some information. That’s it.” Cain said with a smile.

“What kind of information?”

“About the woman trying to claim rule of Avernus, also about the resistance. And, have you seen a sinner girl proficient in cold magic, I know such a soul exists in this layer, and the higher up at the lower circles want her.” Cain said with a smile, “You better tell us what the village knows before she gets angry. You hear the explosion earlier, those were some stupid sinners who refused to speak.”

“Fine, no need for threatening, we want no trouble with an upper-rank.” The devil replied with a shaking voice.

“The woman never said her name, she only sends her Abishai servant to grab food and kill whoever opposes her rule, and she never bothers herself with us weaklings. As for the resistance, I don’t know much besides they never stay in one place for long. The village chief would be able to tell you more than me.” The devil explained.

“Fine, got get us an immediate audience with him,” Cain said thinking.

As the devil was about to start running he stopped and looked at Cain, “This might not be important but, you look similar to one of her messengers. But unlike you he has four horns and a devilish tail and wings, his face is dotted with black scales.”

“What do you mean by look similar to me?” Cain got triggered immediately, even in hell, this was clearly something that demanded his full attention.

“You have the same high, white hair and blue eyes, you also have a similar voice but I could be mistaken about that. You two have a totally different vibe after all.” The devil turned toward Cain. “He had the aura of an upper-rank while you almost have none, guess you’re a sinner?”

“Yeah, I never knew of such a devil. I need all the information about him as well.” Cain said and went back to the girls.

“Have you got anything?” Farryn asked as she saw Cain approach them.

“Some information, we will get more when meeting the village chief. Alice, you’re our leader, it’s better to seem under upper-rank guidance.” Cain replied. Alice was their leader in name while Cain is the one leading.

After a few moments, the same devil came rushing in. “The chief is ready to meet you now, please do follow me.” He said pointing toward one of the big tents inside the village.

As they were walking, they saw the other devils in the village hiding. Most of them were nothing above lower-rank devils. As weak as they get and hardy able to get by.

Their fear of Alice or the newcomer woman was justified, they don’t have the power to oppose them.

“Also…” He said with his voice shaking, “Are you hungry, can we bring you anything to eat?” Cain could clearly see the man’s lips shaking.

“Just worms, no need for you to go through that,” Cain replied.

Alice was a devil so they can present her with worms or sinners’ flesh, but for Cain and the rest who seemed to be sinners to them, they can only present them with devil flesh. In a village this weak and fragile. They have no way of hunting monsters so their only chance is to sacrifice one of their own to entertain the guests.

Some will say it’s fine, they will just get some death peace, right? Well, if killed like this, they revive immediately in a pool of acid or magma. As if hell was intelligent, the resurrection was regulated to cause suffering in all possible circumstances.

A person could create a decades-long master plan to create an enemy, fight him and die to get some peace. Hell is smart to even ruin such a plan, this place never lets its residents get a moment of peace.

Neither Cain nor the others would find it amusing to eat such a thing, especially since Alice was a devil.

“Are you sure about it?” The devil turned so face he almost broke his neck.

“Of course, please don’t serve any devil meat. The lady won’t find it amusing even for a joke.” Cain said with a serious face.

The devil, with a happy face, signaled to the other devils in the distance that the meal is canceled.

Inside the chief’s tent, Cain sat in the front followed by Alice, Sofia, and Farryn who just followed them. The other girls sat just behind them since they preferred to let Cain handle things.

The chief bowed deeply, “You can call me gruup, and I’ve been leading this village for centuries. I have the information you requested.”

This was an expected treatment, as normally when a messenger comes, they start killing and torturing everyone for fun and slowly get their information. Having such a peaceful approach was an extremely rare case and the chief would die before messing it up and causing a disaster.

“But first, we can’t let our guests sit like this.” He said and two devil women entered carrying food.

One of them was carrying a tray full of fist-sized larvae (Soul worms) and the other one had bottles of acid and metallic goblets (Acid was the only thing available to drink in hell, they just chose the weakest one and serve it)

The two women put the try before Alice as she was the only devil between them.

Alice looked at the tray with a confused face, those ugly fat larvae/worm thingies looked disgusting as they wiggled around. And the acid didn’t look that pleasant to drink as well.

The chief looked at her with a smile on his face, as if waiting for her to get comfortable eating so he can start talking.

She looked at Cain, was it absolutely necessary for her to eat that? He was certain she can since this was devil food, but, it didn’t look that appetizing.

Then as if out of nowhere, Sofia reached with her hand and picked one of the worms. For some reason, to her, they smelled nice. (Sofia was in her human form, the devils still haven’t seen her half-dragon form)