Alfred was just as confused as Elizabeth. What was Dante's Inferno doing here? Did they finally find a demon? Elizabeth just wanted to know if Marie was okay.
"You really gave me a fright Alfred." Elizabeth said. "I thought you were dead."
"I'm a bodyguard your grace." He opened his jacket up a little bit to reveal a bulletproof shirt. "I can take more than over a thousand punches."
"I hope Marie doesn't show that 'other side' of her to Raphael. It will give him the impression that she's turned into a brat." She pressed her hand against the barrier and felt an electric tinge dance across her finger tips.
Alfred put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure she's fine your grace. Satan would have given her the sword by now, because of that deal you struck with him."
She turned away and her gaze went dark. "But every deal comes with it's price, and you know full well what that price was."
"The destruction of a nation..." Alfred said, his gaze also turning dark.
"The one you were born in..." She finished.
Though Alfred had an English accent he wasn't from said country. He came from a more ancient civilisation. One that lasted for thousands of years but was brutally crushed, and Alfred was one of the only survivors. It was said that there were more out there but Alfred wasn't fully convinced.
"Please be alright Marie." She prayed. "Your blood is worth more than you know."
Meanwhile in the inferno, Phantom R was starting to discover what Remy meant about Emilie. They were in the sixth circle, Heresy, where the sinners were sealed into flaming tombs. An escaped sinner tried to attack Marie. He was completely blazing in flames from head to toe.
Emilie showed no sign of hesitation and jumped into the way. "You leave violin lady alone!" She screamed. Her foot slammed into the ground and something supernatural that bent logic happened.
Crackles of electric went surging through her body and her eyes went blank white. Some of the electricity could even be seen dancing on her skin. Her mood had flipped over entirely and she was aggressive and ready to fight.
She punched him as hard as she could and he fell down clutching his head, a surge of electricity made him unable to move. The battle was won but Emilie wasn't ready to stop just yet. She punched him again and again and again and again and again.
"Stop Emilie!" Marie grabbed the agitated little girl. "Please, no more!"
"Let go of me!" The electricity around her grew. "Let me go!"
"Emilie it's over! You've won!" She cradled her. "Please calm down Emilie, it's alright."
The little girl screamed some more and kicked her feet around. It looked like there would be no end to her tantrum.
"Oh, I give up!" Marie violently punched Emilie and knocked her out. Everyone gasped as the girl's limp body hung off Marie's arms.
"Wow. Even I wouldn't have the guts to do that." Satan checked Emilie over to make sure she was alright.
"Yeah?" She chucked her into his arms. "Well she was annoying me."
"I'll remember to keep Cleo away from you." Phantom R put his arm in front of her.
"You'd better, or I might just smother her."
Cleo yelped but was soon calmed down by Phantom R's tight hand. "If you do that, then I'll bring you to Abraham's feet."
"Don't you dare mention him again!" She weeped. "He's caused a lot of trouble and has been anything but a father to me!"
Only Phantom R and Marie knew what he did, the rest were clueless. Who was Abraham? What was he? What did he do? It was obviously something that upset Marie beyond measure.
"Oh yeah, I know what he did. I'm appalled by it too. But this was exactly how he was feeling towards Elizabeth, and I don't want you to become like him."
"Shut up.." Marie growled. "You don't know me!"
"I know you to be a violinist and a princess. But you're right, I don't know you at all."
"Then why..." She cried. "Why do I have feelings for you?!"
"Because he's good looking." Cleo drew Phantom R's attention to her. "You're a beautiful man, Raphael."
He stared at her and blushed. "Umm...thanks, but you're way more pretty than me."
"You do look feminine but I don't care, you're beautiful to look at."
Now Cleo was the one hitting on him. He looked down at the ground shyly. "Thank you. But...you really don't have to throw so many compliments at my feet."
"Am I seeing things right? Is Phantom R actually going soft and shy with this girl?!" Vergier abruptly blurted.
The group continued on before Vergier's question was answered. Marie and Phantom R stayed behind for a little while.
"Just what do you see in her anyway?" She whispered to him.
He just shrugged and replied: "She's cute." Then walked off to join the others.
The seventh circle was Violence. But it was divided into 3 separate rings. One of which was the suicide ring.
All those who had committed violence against themselves were turned into gnarled bushes. Phantom R broke a twig off one of them and saw red liquid dripping out of it.
'My name is Leonard Bonar.' The bush began to say.
"It's the fake Napoleon!" Phantom R gasped.
He heard the story all over again. He heard how the dragon crown was in their reach and how a troublesome boy stopped him and how he had almost finished his work. It was like déjà vu.
'But now I find myself lying on a cold metal floor with my plan foiled. But no matter, we still have the other plan, we can still revive Vlad.'
"Vlad?" But before he could listen anymore the bush wilted and turned into dust. Now with Bonar fully gone there was only one person he could turn to, his father. "Papa. What's your next plan?"
Isaac quickly checked his surroundings and came close to his son. "My organisation wants to revive some of the greatest leaders to help take over France, and then the world. They've got Napoleon, the next one they're going for is Vlad the Impaler."
"You mean the famous Romanian ruler?" He gulped. "The one that killed his own people?"
"That's the one. I think the 3rd one is Attila."
"Dracula was based off Vlad the Impaler wasn't he?" He pondered. "But at any rate, we can't let them bring him back to life. And we have to put Napoleon back to rest too."
"That's the son I know and love." For the first time, Isaac felt happy.
Phantom R hugged his dad. "I've really missed you Papa. Why did you go without telling me?"
"If I told you, they would have killed you. They said that if I ever made contact with you again they would hunt you down like a dog. I've already broken the code by telling you their plans."
"I won't let them harm you Papa, I won't let them!"
Jean Francois's dark laugh made the father and son look in his direction. "Good luck with that Raphael. You don't even know where we reside."
"Ignore him Raphael. I know you'll stop them, someday." He peered round at Cleo and smiled. "I can see that you've found someone to love yourself."
"Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce you." He went to Cleo's side. "Cleo, this is my father. Father, this is my crush Cleo."
"Hi." She waved.
"Hello Miss Valice." He waved back. "So you left your life of gold and splendour for my son?"
"Yeah, my parents aren't exactly the best people."
He laughed. "Well, my son loves you so he'll take very good care of you."
"Of course I will dad." He pecked her forehead.
"Just like I used to do with your mother." Isaac's smile quickly faded and was replaced with a melancholy frown.
"I'm sorry Isaac." Jean Francois said. "But I had to do it. If I didn't then Esmeralda would be..."
"We've both been there. We've both been threatened with the loss of something dear to us. I sadly lost one."
"You remember your promise don't you?"
A smile dawned on his face. "Of course I do. I promised you that once I sold the rest of those paintings off, I'd use the left over money to help your daughter. My son is the most important thing in the world, he's well, now I want to help your daughter and make sure her dream is accomplished."
They gave each other a friendly hug. It was surprising how good buddies could be found in the most unexpected of places. Marie was weirded out by her old guardian's niceness, it was so unnatural to her.
She still kept a miserable look on her face.
"Marie." Jean turned to her. "Please forgive me for what I did."
"How can I?" She sneered. "You threatened to kill me and Raphael."
"You can't keep that face on forever Marie. Even the strongest have to crack sometime soon." He spaced his hands out. "I have nothing on me that can harm you, see?"
"How do I know you're not lying? You could be hiding something under your jacket."
"Actually..." He searched through it and took out that strange object Phantom R saw him carry.
"Ha! I knew it!" Marie glared.
"Oh don't be confused. I grabbed this for good measure, not to cause harm to you."
"You have to be clearer than that Jean." Isaac said. "I know how you can get with your inventions."
"Honestly Isaac, I only brought this in case the constables tried to attack us. It might not look like much now but trust me, you'll thank me once I activate it."
"Whatever, you mad scientist." Marie pushed past him and stormed off.
Still she was furious with him. She refused to believe that Jean Francois was a nice guy now. He put her through a lot of misery and now he expects her to forgive him? In Marie's words, that was 'utterly preposterous'. No way could she forgive him. And who was to say that he wasn't lying about that 'Esmeralda'?
The 8th and 9th circle was on the other side of a steep cliff. These two circles punished those who committed acts of fraud and treachery. Geryon, the winged monster who carried the sinners to the single two circles, was an example of fraud. It had the face of an honest man and the beautiful scaly body of a dragon, but it also had the claws of a lion and the poisonous tail of a scorpion.
Phantom R was spooked by it's scorpion tail and shakily backed away from it. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm not touching that."
"Oh don't worry. He can't hurt you. Not while I'm around anyway." Satan assured. "Geryon, did you see where that princess went?"
Geryon scratched his head with his paws. "Uhhh...you mean the blonde one?"
"Yes, the blonde one."
"Oh. Uhhh...she fainted when she saw me, but I picked her up and took her to the 8th circle...yeah...that's what I did."
"You can be such an idiot sometimes..." Satan grabbed him and made sure he was paying attention. "What happened after? Where did she go?"
"Uhhhhh...I don't know...I left her there."
He tried to conceal his ever growing rage, he took out a pencil and put it in front of Geryon's face. "Ye see this pencil?"
"Uhhhh...yeah."
"If you don't take us down there, I'll stick it up where the sun doesn't shine."
"Uhhhh...Where's that?"
"It's basically up your bottom Geryon."
"Oh right. Uhhh..."
Vergier impatiently grunted. "Does he always have to say 'uhhh'?"
"He's an idiot and has no self esteem." Satan replied.
"Uhhh...okay. I'll take you down there."
"Finally, an answer." He breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay everyone, board Geryon gently. He's quite sensitive so be careful."
Phantom R kept his eyes locked onto the scorpion tail, and kept Cleo as far away as he could from it. "Just so you know...," He whispered to her, "I have a terrible phobia of scorpions. I came to fear them at a moment in my childhood."
"What moment was that?" She trod carefully on the scaly body.
"I'll tell you once we're on. Because truthfully, it's quite embarrassing."
Isaac overheard this and decided to sit near them to eavesdrop further. Raphael never told his father about why he was so afraid of scorpions, this was something new to him.
Geryon took off with the passengers on board and began descending the cliff to the 8th circle. The fact that there was even a cliff with a dark sky above in the deep underground was baffling to Emilie.
Phantom R turned to Cleo and crossed his legs. "Okay. It all started when I was 4 years old. I was at the zoo on a school trip. The teachers took us there to learn more about a certain animal. There were these people talking about it, but my young mind didn't care. I wanted to explore around the enclosures rather than listen. So I waited until no one was looking and slipped out. It was all going good. I saw all sorts of different animals that I can still remember today. But then, I ran into something dangerous. I was around the arachnids section and looking around at all the tarantulas, then I noticed the scorpion section up ahead. I foolishly walked towards it, unaware of what was about to happen. The scorpions were interesting no doubt. But then, I saw one cage that was open and seldom of any scorpion inside. I wondered in my little head where it had gone, and how it got out. I suddenly felt something on my leg, and looked down to see a black scorpion on it. I shouldn't have done it, but I yelped and threw it off me. It came at me at such a fast speed and attempted to sting me with it's tail. I screamed and tried to get away from it but my legs were too small and slow compared to the scorpion's. I knew I had to slow it down somehow, but I didn't know what to do. All I could do was keep running. I was so close to fainting, my heart was giving up on me. But, as if an ancient ancestor of mine was watching over me, something happened. I don't know if it was me, or a poltergeist, but one of the cages suddenly burst open and let out an array of snakes. I thought they were going to chase me too, but they didn't. They wrapped the scorpion in their coils and suffocated it. One made sure that it couldn't move it's tail to sting them, it was such an unexplainable moment. They took the dead scorpion back with them to eat. A single snake pounced on my back and bit me. I felt a burning sensation, like someone was burning a circle and other shapes onto my back. It then left and went back into it's cage with the others. I sat there in silence, silent tears streaming down my face. I looked down and realised I wet myself. I remember my dad telling me I had to be a big strong boy, I beat myself up so much because of those wet pants. The demonstration hadn't finished yet so I snuck back in with no problem. When the teachers saw that I peed myself I got told off and they went to fetch some clean pants. I've never been that scared in my life. Most of the time I was such a happy kid but then...that happened. I didn't tell this to anyone else because I didn't trust them to not laugh at it. It's hard to look at creatures differently when 'that' has happened to you."
"How come it's embarrassing?"
"It's the fact that I actually peed myself. You know how people like Michel can be, they would make fun of me if they knew that. I know I was scared, but I could have controlled that."
"So why didn't you tell me this?" Issac's voice made him turn around. "Your mother and I were wondering why you had different pants on."
"Sorry dad. I just felt so embarrassed and I thought it was better off that you didn't know."
He came closer. "Raphael, I'm your father. I will never make fun of you or tell you off for showing your emotions. You were afraid and couldn't contain it."
"Yeah, but you said-"
"Forget what I said Raphael. I was only telling you that to strengthen you up, not to conceal your emotions. You can't be brave with everything, there are going to be some things that you're afraid of." He pointed at Cleo. "You think Cleo would want to love a headstrong robot?"
"Huh? U-Ummm well..." He stuttered.
"The answer is no, Raphael. No one wants to love someone with no emotion." He paused. "In fact..." A huge smirk spread across his face. "I want to see just how committed you two are."
"Well...uhh.." A sudden kiss on the neck made her blink and flush.
Phantom R took her little head into his hands. "We're as committed as two hands on a clock."
She could see that he wanted to kiss her. 'No tongue.' She mouthed.
'No tongue.' He shook his head and mouthed back.
She trusted him, and they kissed once more.
Jean Francois had just now turned around to see what was going on, and was met with his own cousin kissing the art thief. Isaac smiled at his son and Jean Francois tried to explain how these two could have fallen in love in the first place. He was an art thief, and she was a normal hotheaded teenage girl. What drew them to each other? Maybe it was Cleo's eyes, or maybe it was something else? Either way, Jean Francois was angry that he couldn't explain it.
Vergier tried to look like he was chuckling at their naive nature, but in truth, he was envious. He truly did miss Emma, his wife. She was always encouraging him and giving him the will to go on. He loved her dearly. When she passed away he felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. He neglected Charlotte and spent most of his days staring off into space like a zombie. This was the reason why him and Charlotte drifted apart so much. Vergier worked non stop after that and swore to capture Phantom R in his wife's name. He thought that was what she wanted, he thought he would see her smiling at him once he did. That was all he wanted, to see her smile just once more. Seeing his archenemy wooing a girl made him slightly enraged.
They came apart and Cleo hugged him tightly, eyes still closed.
"Awww, you look so adorable." He laughed quietly and hugged her back. "You're like a little ball of cuteness."
"Are you just saying that?" The sharp glint in a Jean Francois's eye made it known that he was being serious.
"No." He made himself a little taller. "No, I'm not."
Jean backed off at this point. Phantom R was a carefree lad, but he knew when to be serious.
Geryon landed on the edge of the other cliff and let the passengers clamber off of him. Emilie waved goodbye to him, which strangely made him blush.
"Phew, that was an interesting ride." Satan brushed some stray rocks off his shoulders (Geryon had crashed into another cliff on the way there).
"Clumsy beast!" Vergier bellowed and jumped off him.
"Wow, you're harsh." Satan remarked.
He just gave him a look and walked over.
"Okay, onto the 8th circle. Hopefully the princess hasn't gone too far."
The 8th circle was fraud, and had ten ditches dedicated to different forms of the sin.
"You're kidding me." Phantom R said. "There's more?!"
Satan nodded. "Well, come on now. I'll also give a lecture on each one of them."
Everyone groaned.
"I'm going to show him...oh am I going to show him..." Marie muttered. She furiously walked through the inferno until she came across a huge lake covered in ice. She didn't even know which circle she was in, not that she cared or anything. Sinners were frozen in the lake. Some had only their heads above the ice while others were completely incased in it. The thought of being unable to move for an eternity made Marie shiver. She looked around for anyone to talk to, but the heads above looked mad and the people swallowed by the ice couldn't talk at all.
"What a dull place." Marie said to herself, sitting on the nearest object to her. "Well I'd hardly call this stable. Whoever heard of a place in hell where everything is frozen? It's simply.." Something beneath her started to move. "Huh? What?" Muffled words came from underneath her and she instantly stood up. "...Oh my-!" She gasped.
"...and so they were all placed here to remind them of their sins." Phantom R thought school hadn't started yet, but it looked like school was being forced upon him in the least place he'd expect.
Vergier was close to snoring. Pretty much everyone was.
"I'll tell ye a story. Once in my-" A loud scream in the 9th circle cut him off.
"Marie!" Phantom R sprung to the last circle.
"Wait! How do you know it's her?!" Satan and the rest ran after him.
He didn't pay attention to them, he knew it was Marie. Sure she did offend him a bit, but if she was in trouble he couldn't just leave her there.
He burst into a frozen lake and saw Marie staring at the ground, continuing to scream.
"Marie! What's wrong-" Then he saw it. "What the-?!"
Josette was staring back up at them with a pasty face. Frostbite had already taken affect and she was close to hypothermia. Parts of her face were being eaten away by the ice and consuming her life with every passing minute.
Satan came in and saw her in the ice. "What has happened here? This girl hasn't committed treachery!"
"W-W-What?" Josette faintly said.
"We need to get her out, now!" Phantom R tried to break the ice but Satan stopped him.
"Oh stop stalling!" Marie shouted. "My friend is dying here!" She got out Le Lunares.
"No! Don't!"
The sword was impaled deep into the ice and cracked the surface. She stabbed it a few times before Josette could get out. When they rescued the poor girl, she was shivering madly.
"We need to get off this lake."
"Why?" A huge crack answered her question. The lake started falling apart.
"This way!" He led them to safety before the icy waters could claim them.
The whole lake had fallen apart, with only lone pieces of ice floating. What became of the condemned traitors would always remain a mystery.
"Oh great." Satan angrily sighed. "Now I'm going to be up all night putting this place back together."
"So I'm guessing that was the 9th circle?" Emile asked.
"Yes, that was the 9th circle."
Vergier felt relieved. He could finally get out of this inferno. "So...what now?"
"Now I show you the core."
"Seriously?!" The group all said at the same time.
"You humans are funny, this way!"
How long was this supposed to be? Vergier was pretty sure that the 9th circle was the last one. But instead there was this 'core' that they had to go see. He at least hoped it would be worth his time.
Emilie was waffling on about how cute she thought Geryon was. She used the word 'adorable' too many times to describe him. Isaac was quite disturbed by this but he accepted it since he knew this was a little girl saying this.
Satan hushed them down and pressed himself against the wall.
"Mr Satan? Why did we stop?" Emilie tried to see what it was, but Satan quickly pushed her against the wall.
"I'm afraid we might be in for something big."
"What do you mean?"
The sounds of smashing glass and a demonic howl came from the other side.
"We have a problem."
End of Chapter 25