Chapter 13: Symbol of pride

After Ryuga has proven his loyalty to Vox he was trusted with some freedom, but was still only considered as a simple henchman. Ryuga now regularly carried out some deals for drugs, protection money and on rare occasions even weapons. The future was beginning to look bright again at the end of the tunnel, but Ryuga didn't want to wait until he got to the end of the dark tunnel, he wanted to see the light as soon as possible. He effortlessly searched after a possibility to get stronger, he was barely able to win the fight against Uriel and that was with Alastor's help. If he wanted to do something of worth he needed all the power he could possibly get. In his frustration he searched the internet of hell.

After a few hours of researching:" Finally!" , he found something. It was more like a documentary than a dark web spy video.

"Good day, hell I am Katie Killjoy. And today we are visiting the Vault of pride. Thanks to a special permission of hell prince Stolas we are getting a special tour, so that the citizen of hell can take a look at the most secure place of the ring of pride."

Ryuga:" The most secure place of the entire ring? And it's also a Vault. Let's see what you are holding so dear."

He continued to watch the documentary. It showed a real fortress of guards, guns, traps and whatever psychological torture hell has to offer. But up to the last few minutes, there wasn't a single word about what it was that needed this kind of protection.

Katie:" Now, before we end our little tour our viewers back at home surely want to know what you guys are protecting." She said to a fancy man standing right by her side.

Fancy man:" That is very simple, it's the symbol of pride. A split part of the power of god himself. It is impossible to control for a normal human. And all hellborn are not allowed to have it. This rule was made by our lord Lucifer himself. I would advise your viewers to forget about stealing this, the last and only person who attempted to get it was put into the last ring and their suffering now powers all the cities in hell."

Katie:" There you have it, dear viewers. That was a complete tour of the Vault of pride. I hope that none of you get any shitty ideas about this. Not even Satan himself would be able to get to the symbol. And with that we are ending our documentary. Now back to Tom Trench in the studio for sex, murder and weather."

Ryuga paused the video and had a shitty idea. He wanted that symbol, no matter what it takes.

"Split part of God's power could mean thousands if not millions of possibilities. Money, fame, universal power, one's own galaxy. And if there is one in the circle of pride, that means that there should also be one in every other circle. Greed, envy, wraith, lust, gluttony and sloth, each with their own split power. Even for the weakest of imps that would mean basically infinite and unrivalled power, enough to shape existence at their will. Without consequences a new world could just be created, a perfect world."

Now came the big problem. He needed to get into this vault and grab the symbol of pride for himself. But that thing is such a fortress that no one could just sneak in or fight his way through. Everyone who tried would be shot and most likely arrested by Satan's troops. That shit would be the entertainment program of the month. That's when it hit him. `Of course. A demon trying to break into the Vault of this thing would go viral. Everyone would be looking at them. That means no one will see the tiny innocent guy sneaking in through the back door.`

Ryuga remembered the area 51 raid in 2018. A bunch of different people got there because of a joke. One of them even got inside. If he would be to do something like that it would be a huge distraction. And since people in hell are way crazier and not afraid of death a lot more people will come. This is the perfect idea. Now he would just need to set it up.

For days Ryuga used every free second he had to learn the layout of the vault and plan his route. He advertised an event for all the demons and made sure the message spread over all 7 circles. He even talked to Vox about it, who immediately turned him down. Even though it surprised Ryuga, he ultimately didn't need Vox. Just like he never needed Alastor or Charlie. He was more than convinced that the only person he will ever need is himself.

And so the weeks went by. He had now created a viral internet trend that was the casual daily joke. The number of people who said they'll come was estimated in the billions. But Ryuga figured the people who actually have the balls to come would be no more than 10.000 people. After devoting nearly all of his free time preparing for him breaking into the vault he knew the entire layout from start to finish. He was ready to get the pride of God.

As a last preparation he got himself some guns just in case he needed them. He used one rapidfire full automatic light pistol and a hunting knife so he could be both stealthy and fast unlike the mob outside of the building. He looked at the clock on his phone. "5:45 pm. I should get going." He said. He opened the door of the garage, where Vox's employees kept all of the cars. There was always a guy who watched over it and made sure no one stole them. So Ryuga tried to sneak up to him and wanted to stab him with his knife. Right before Ryuga stabbed him the guy turned around and blocked the attack. He punched Ryuga in the face and made him fall to the ground, he took the knife and wanted to stab Ryuga with it. But as he was in the stabbing motion Ryuga grabbed his arm and pushed with all of his strength to keep the blade away from him.

Unsurprisingly Ryuga couldn't match his strength. Slowly the blade got closer and closer to Ryuga's face, nearly touching is eye. During this fight Ryuga used his tail to grab the guy's neck from behind, he pulled him back making him fly through the air where he dropped the knife. Ryuga didn't waste a second and grabbed it. He practically jumped towards his victim and stabbed him in the chest and the legs. He couldn't let him die, he would just fall from the sky again and tell Vox. So Ryuga grabbed him and put him in the trunk of a car. He took the keys and drove with that car to the vault of pride.

As he approached it Ryuga realised something. There were much more than 10.000 people. He got out of his car and climbed on its roof. He overlooked an ocean of demons, each with weapons and most of them drunk or high. "These have to be millions of people. I really underestimated how crazy people here are." He couldn't go any further with the car, he had to walk the last bit by foot. He got out his wings and flew right to his entrance point. Turns out there were a lot of demons that had the ability to fly. The sky was blended out and blocked by different kinds of winged beasts. Ryuga's sight was blocked by so many uncountable idiots.

Suddenly a hole in the swarm of demons war created, and another one, and another one. He looked around himself ad many demons were falling down. It was the vault, they were shooting demons down with anti-air weaponment. Ryuga made a dive to avoid being hit now he just really saw the mess down below. It was a mass bloodbath. Every living being in that crowd was already firing at the vault and it's guards. And all the guards were shooting back at the seemingly unending horde. Now this was an all-out war. Ryuga still tried to follow his route and get the symbol before anyone else would be able to.

He hung by the side of the building, right at a vent that was barely big enough for him. As he opened it other demons already tried to get in there before him. He hurried to get through that section as fast as possible. When he was about halfway through the vent crashed out of the ceiling because of all the extra weight. Immediately there were gunshots and blood. Ryuga just sprinted through the hallway in a neck breaking speed, he used the size of the guards to his advantage. They were big and bulky so they couldn't move as fast as he could. Ryuga used all the routes available to him. The ceiling. The space between their legs. The heads of the different demons. It was an absolute chaos.

He was finally able to escape the crowd and get to a vantage point. It was a control tower in the main hall. He looked at the entrance and saw all of the demons breaking the doors and getting inside, overwhelming everyone who tried to stop them. Ryuga did his best to get to the symbol of pride first, but his competition was more than just a pain in the ass. They were right on his tail and all around him.

As they broke into the middle defence line Ryuga spotted a bunch of explosives he could use. He made a low flight and set the box they were in on fire. It didn't take long for them to explode and block most of the path. Now he only had a few demons with him. And as they approached the inner ring they were going against heavy fire. Ryuga has been hit in the shoulder but he wouldn't give up, he couldn't he needed that power more than anyone else. He got his gun out and began shooting the guards from cover. But after a few magazines the ground under his feet started to vibrate and to crack. Seconds later it broke. Ryuga was able to use his wings to keep himself into position. But nearly everyone else fell down. Now deep in a hole he saw it. The symbol of pride.

He and some other demons shot down as other followed. It was like a tsunami flooding into a chamber. Many held their hands out to grab the symbol trying to get it for themselves. All that was to be seen was a mountain of demons all stacked on top of each other. And then…..darkness.

A massive explosion blew all of the demons, guards and ruins through the air as some kind of monster was forming. Black tentacles were ripping themselves out of the black mass and started to destroy everything around them. They weren't just massacring everyone in the hallways, but also all of the people outside. The black tentacles broke outside of the building. They grabbed different demons and squeezed some, they threw others around and smashed some of the rest. After seconds of destruction the tentacles were pulled back into the building and silence filled the area, supressing even the screams of the people.

Then suddenly the silence was broken, and something rose from the ruins of the building. It was Ryuga's dragon form. He busted out and flew up into the sky with an enormous speed, it barely looked alive. When he was high enough for everyone to see him he spoke." KNEEL! Before your new king." But opposing to his demands nearly none of the demons kneeled. Most were scared and ran away. ´Of course they wouldn't just randomly follow some random monster. Those imbicels need one of their kind to follow.´

Ryuga already had a plan how he would do that. The power seemingly came with a good chunk of extra intelligence as well. He flew to Valentino's porn studios, and already knew what he was gonna do with the triple V.