"Welcome, adventurer, to your doom."
These chilling words reverberated in SheCyclones' mind. She felt that this was truly the end of her existence. She deeply regretted her decision to accept the invitation to the Vate Realm's Lords' feast. She had a strong hunch that it was a trap, but she didn't know that her hunch was actually wrong. The feast was in no way responsible for her current predicament.
Before her, seated on an intimidating, repulsive throne that was adorned with raw flesh and oozing blood, was a grotesque devil. The devil's skin tone was grey like mountain rock, its head-to-shoulder ratio was greatly disproportionate, and it bore a pair of massive goat horns. The devil was almost naked, dressed in a tight-fitting loincloth that had a prominent bulge in the centre.
The devil stared face-to-face with SheCyclones. It licked its lips menacingly with its tongue, sparking a number of unsettling thoughts in SheCyclones. She couldn't shake off the horrifying feeling that she was about to be sexually molested.
'What a shame that I am restricted. Had it not been for that, she would feel my wrath,' the devil mused, a cruel glint in its eyes.
"I suggest that you be careful with how you handle me. I'm backed by powerful people," SheCyclones tried to set boundaries with a desperate threat. She was desperate to survive, and she could only think of name-dropping powerful figures as her backers. She hoped to her stars that she was right.
The devil flinched back, feigning confusion and fear. It looked high up to the sky to its right and to its left. Then it returned its gaze to SheCyclones. Suddenly, it burst into an unsettling, maniacal laughter.
It successfully struggled to end its laughter. It said to SheCyclones, "I don't think they know what is happening to you. Lady, you trespassed into my realm, and you know, conventionally, trespassing into another person's property is a crime."
SheCyclones' heartbeat raced faster. How did I trespass into this realm? The last thing she remembered was wolfing down a huge turkey at the Vate Realm's Lords' residence. I knew I shouldn't have accepted that invitation. She kept kicking herself for accepting the invitation to the feast.
To make matters worse, her mage staff was nowhere to be seen. She didn't know if the devil before her had taken it away or if it was still in the dining hall of the Vate Realm's Lords' residence. Without her staff, she couldn't cast her AOE skill.
She cast two spells, launching two miniature cyclones that were seventy centimetres in size. The cyclones had a razor-blade effect when they came in contact with a surface; they could cut the surface like a chainsaw cutting wood. The cyclones hit the devil's exposed chest and face, quickly dissipating on contact. Apart from a small, insignificant cut on the devil's face, the cyclone made no other impact on the formidable creature.
"Laughable power," the devil sneered, unamused and angered. It rose from its seat, garnering palpable dark energy that manifested as ominous clouds around its being. "Now feel my wrath!"
"Please, please, don't kill me! I can do anything for you. Please, don't kill me!" the adventurer pleaded, bracing herself for the impending attack.
Little did she know that the devil was powerless against her. The impressive feat the devil had just pulled off was merely a show to intimidate her into making rash decisions. It was successful. A pleased, menacing grin spread across his face.
"I'm listening," the devil said, a calculating glint in its eye.
All these events transpiring in this devil's realm were happening within two seconds. This was an innate power a devil could employ when it wanted to tempt a target. For devils that were not of the top brass of the devil ranks, the act of temptation was limited to four seconds. They could significantly slow time, producing a disproportionate flow of time in comparison with the real world. Now, two seconds had passed; this devil, about to tempt SheCyclones, had two seconds left to successfully tempt her.
A contract paper manifested in SheCyclones' hand. She understood that she was about to make the fabled 'transaction with the devil'. She was on alert, ready to disagree with the contract if the terms listed were not suitable for her.
The condition for her to be granted freedom was that she had to agree that one of her adventuring colleagues would suffer a fatal affliction at the hands of this devil.
"What the heck, no! I won't agree to this. The only term I can agree to is apologising to you for attacking and trespassing into your realm," SheCyclones refuted ferociously, her spirit defiant despite her fear.
"Such a ferocious spirit," the devil said, feigning timidity before SheCyclones' 'ferocious' rant. "You have defeated me. I concede to your request."
The condition on the contract paper instantly changed: SheCyclones, the wind mage adventurer, must apologise to Lhilac, the grey-skinned devil, for trespassing into his territory and attacking them.
SheCyclones sighed in relief as she read the updated condition. Little did she know that she had been cunningly tricked. At the back of the paper, there was another hidden condition: SheCyclones, the wind mage adventurer, agrees to Lhilac's term that they are free to launch a life-threatening attack on SheCyclones and her adventuring party after they safely transfer her back to her body.
A third, insidious condition was: SheCyclones, the wind mage, agrees to a mystical intrusion on her memory in order to be manipulated to forget the details or anything tied to the event that happened in the temptation period staged by Lhilac, the grey devil.
SheCyclones hurriedly signed the contract, feeling that there was nothing to worry about. Upon completion of applying her signature, the contract paper vanished from her hands.
"Fool!" Lhilac guffawed maniacally.
SheCyclones frowned, sensing that she had been tricked, but she couldn't do anything. She was instantly transported back to her body.
SheCyclones' consciousness returned. She found herself staring at the fork that Am_I_Me had given her. She wondered why she was holding a fork. She couldn't recall what had transpired between her and Am_I_Me or what happened in the devil realm. She turned to continue eating her turkey, but it was no longer before her. She looked to her right and saw Am_I_Me voraciously forcing chunks of meat into her mouth.
SheCyclones retrieved her dish with a firm pull. She glared at Am_I_Me, who wasn't brave enough to meet the wind mage's furious eyes. Onelight, who had been watching, laughed with glee.
Suddenly, a system info panel popped up simultaneously in every adventurer's perception.
>>>>
Lhilac honours his agreement!
The grey devil's reckoning awaits.
Info: You will be transported along with your fellow adventurers into Lhilac's Abyss. There you will fight for your survival.
Description: Fight your way through the horde of demons, making your way to Lhilac's throne altar. The death of the lord devil will see that you adventurers will be free.
Reward: Your reward for clearing the Vate Prison realm will be tremendously increased.
The adventurers suddenly vanished one after the other, pixelating away. Onelight and Am_I_Me were the last to vanish.
Am_I_Me laughed sarcastically and said, "So, we were really going to dine with the devil."
Her words left a suspicious impression about her on Onelight.
The nine adventurers appeared in the hellish realm of Lhilac's Abyss. Terrifying demons flew around, carrying wailing dead souls to different pits for them to boil in anguish.