Sorry this was so late slept in for a long while. Also, I decided not to have any of the Damned in this chapter because I found all the souls in the second and third rings to be punished and I already punsihed a lot of people and I decided to have it so Attila is the Damned for all of Violence instead of just the first ring.
Chapter 11: The Screaming Trees and Burning Sands
"This…this is no forest." Lelouch said, looking at the dead trees, each of them looking like a human writhing in pain.
"I know that you probably don't want to go through here, but we have no choice." Diethard said, nudging Lelouch forward.
"What is this accursed place?" Lelouch asked, submitting to Diethard's nudging and moved forward into the second ring.
"As I said before, the second ring is violence against one's self. In short, the second ring is for those that commit suicide." Diethard stated grimly.
"That doesn't explain the scenery, Diethard." Lelouch said, walking pass a tree that had the body of a woman suffering fused into it.
"When Minos judges a soul to this ring, it is planted like a sapling and grows into what you see around you: gnarled, disfigured, and brittle trees that represent a twisted version of the person took their life. They possess no body only pain."
"Well, thanks for the explanation, no let's get-" Lelouch tried to continue as he continued forward, but Diethard stopped him from continuing. "What is it?"
"While they look dead, these trees still bear fruit, albeit rotting. Look." Diethard said as he pointed with his staff upwards and saw a bunch of branches from different tress merge together and from the merging point a large, flower-shaped structure hung.
"What exactly is so spe-" Lelouch tried to ask, but he saw something begin to glow red inside the flower and it dropped to the ground. The moment it did, black and red energy was released from it and screams, both male and female, of agony were heard for a few seconds before the energy vanished.
"That rotting fruit is a concentrated form of the souls' suicidal desires. Anyone who happens to be in the area of the crash down, which is as far as the black and red energy spreads out, they will be overcome with thoughts of suicide and they will…you know, commit suicide."
"Sounds like a pretty effective weapon, wonder if I could use it." Lelouch stated thinking up on the possible uses against the forces of Hell.
Diethard smiled and sighed while shaking his head. "You always try to use everything to your advantage; it's quite obvious how you made the Black Knights so successful and when you were emperor, defeated us so easily. Well, here's a fun fact: if used as a projectile, the suicide fruit will not affect the thrower, so you could throw it directly at your feet and nothing will happen. Just make sure I'm not nearby when yo do throw it, all right?"
Lelouch gave no response, he just climbed one of the trees, trying his best to avoid looking at the mangled-looking body as much as possible, climbed upside-down on the branch connecting to the flower, locked his legs around the branch, and put his hands under the flower. "They won't explode if they drop just a few centimeters, right?"
"No, but I suggest you take only a few, don't think we have enough room to take a dozen if that's how many you're thinking of taking." Diethard said as he pulled out a black bag with the silver Black Knight's logo on it. He intended to use this to collect souvenirs from each of the circles, but gave up on the idea after realizing that the best mementos he could collect are either hostile or too big to take in the bag. Diethard threw the bag to Lelouch who opened it and held it under the flower just as a fruit fell in.
"That's one. A few more and we'll leave. If these fruits can get the enemy to kill themselves, it will make my job a lot easier."
"But think of the viewers Lelouch! They want to see you do battle against tough enemies and barely survive, if not completely beat the crap out of them! What are you gonna do? Throw a fruit at Lucifer and be done with it?"
"I doubt Lucifer will be affected by such menial fruits, but what do you mean viewers? You make it sound like you're turning my adventure into Hell into a T.V. show." Lelouch asked as another dropped into the bag.
"I was thinking a movie, but why not? Leave the audience begging for more, that's what you did best as Zero."
"You telling me that founding a nation from the crumbling E.U. and stagnant Chinese Federation wasn't my greatest achievement?" Another fell in.
"Just saying." Diethard shrugged his shoulders as he said that. "Anyway, don't you have enough?"
"Like I said, a few more." The fourth fell in and after two more fell in, Lelouch tied up the bag and dropped down. "Like I said just a few more."
"Good, now let's move before the next fruit falls." Diethard said, looking at the flower.
Lelouch tied the bag to his waist and said "Agreed."
Both of them exited the forest and came across a scorching desert. "Is this the third ring?" Lelouch asked, seeing nothing but desert and ruined buildings for miles."
"Indeed, while you cannot inflict physical violence against God, you can still commit violence against him. In three ways to be exact. Violence against nature, the sodomites, violence against order, the usurers, and finally, violence against God, the blasphemers. Here they suffer, where the sand is hot, the rain burns with fire, and the wind stings with hot ashes." Diethard said.
"Does this place have a name besides being called the third ring?" Lelouch asked, thankful he's wearing shoes so he doesn't have to burn his feet against the sand.
"Of course, this place is called the Abominable Sands."
"Well, there sure is a lot of sand and the place looks pretty abominable, I think someone's running out of imagination for naming places." Lelouch joked.
"Hey, keep that up and you just might end up here for good." Diethard warned.
Lelouch shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure He doesn't mind, after all, if he was to condemn souls to this place just because of a few jokes against him, Heaven would probably be only a third or maybe even a fifth as populated as it is now."
"True, but just don't keep it up." Diethard said as both of them continued their perilous trek through the sands.
After some time passed of absolute silence, Lelouch saw something that interested him in front of them. "Diethard, why is that, of all things, here?" Lelouch asked referring to the stone-carved Christen cross.
"Among the souls wandering the sands are those who fought in the Holy Crusades, but as you can see here, their actions weren't as holy as they were unholy."
"They fought in the name of God, so shouldn't they be in Heaven?"
"Some, yes, but for the rest of them…they believed in the lies the Church told them that they would be absolved, and thus they fought for the god the bishops had them believe in. For denying the true God, they suffer here."
"Sad, that is…really sad, but that doesn't matter to me really." Lelouch said as from the sky dropped three humanoid creatures. They were the size of minions, but are a lot different in terms of appearance. Most of their skin and flesh seems flayed off and are wearing ragged robes wielded a sword and shield in their right and left hands, respectively. The sword looked like half of it was broken off and the part still attached was rusted somewhat. The shield looked like those classic medieval shields, but this one was green and had a white, upside-down cross on it. "Seems like they didn't take too kindly to my comment about them."
"The Damned Crusaders, if you want to do any good, frontal damage, I suggest you take out their shields. They look fragile enough to break from enough strikes anyway." Diethard said as he stepped back and Lelouch rushed them.
The Crusaders held up their shields, but Lelouch jumped over them and landed behind them. He swung his scythe as he turned around and while he cut one in half, the second one stopped the attack from continuing, saving the third one as a result. Lelouch shot some cross bolts at them, but they blocked with their shields, albeit the shield breaking apart slightly from the barrage. Lelouch noticed this and kept up the barrage until the shields broke apart completely and, like a hawk swooping in for the kill, Lelouch rushed at the two Crusaders before they could react and cut them in half.
"Well then, let's get a move on Diet-" Lelouch tried to continue, but seven more Damned Crusaders appeared in front of Lelouch. "These guys sure are persistent." Lelouch said as he prepared to pull out a Suicide Fruit when a booming voice was heard.
"Stop!" A commanding voice was heard and crashing down in front of the Damned Crusaders and facing Lelouch was a humanoid that was larger than a demon. It had tattered purple clothes covering its chest and legs and had a black, tattered cape starting at the shoulders. In its right hand was a massive sword that looked like a black double helix whose ends came together to form a blade tip. The humanoid and white hair that looked like it was seriously uncared for, the creatures face had slit-like pupils and jagged teeth. The humanoid looked at Lelouch and said "Hello son."
"Father…" Lelouch said coldly. "While I had my beliefs, I should have known for certain that this is where you would be in Hell. After all, given what you tried to do, I'm not surprised."
"This is your entire fault!" Charles zi Britannia shouted at him, flashing his jagged teeth. "The world we could've made would be perfect! No lies, no suffering, the dead rejoining the living, it was all perfect, but you, my favorite son, just couldn't see that."
Lelouch snorted. "I was your favorite, did a good job showing that, and like I said before banishing you to, apparently, Hell, your world is of the past, completely stagnant. The irony of the matter is that what you were trying to achieve was the exact opposite of what you boasted about all your life as emperor."
"This is no laughing matter, Lelouch. You failed to see how great things would have been if the Ragnarök Connection had succeeded, but you chose the future while Schneizel chose the present and I chose the past. Now, I want to see…"
"See what?"
"Just how strong your determination is to see the future! If you want to have a future with C.C., you will have to go through us!" Charles said as he pointed his pseudo-Ragnarök Connection sword at Lelouch.
"Gladly." Lelouch said as he threw a Suicide Fruit at his father and his Crusader troops. The moment the fruit exploded, they all started clutching their heads like they were going to explode, for two crusaders, it actually did.
Eventually, all the Damned Crusaders died, stabbing their sword into their hearts, but Charles remained steadfast and firm after clutching his head for a few seconds. "Nice try with the Suicide Fruit, but what you don't know is that the stronger the victim's will, the less likely the fruit will work." Charles said right before he grinned one of Lelouch's maniacal grins.
"Guess we'll have to do this the hard way." Lelouch said before he and Charles rushed towards each other. As Lelouch's scythe collided with Charles' RC sword (RC standing for Ragnarök Connection), they began to push at each other, trying to get the other pressured down. With Charles' massive size, he started to push Lelouch down, but Lelouch wasn't letting up though, baffling Charles at how his incredibly fragile son, who had enough trouble running 100 meters in P.E., was holding his own against him after he was turned into a demon by Lucifer when he was sent here.
"Don't think you can beat me just yet son, you're fifty years to early for that!" Charles shouted as he began to start pushing Lelouch down completely.
"Really now?" Lelouch smiled as he took at his cross and fired it when it was pressed against Charles' chest and fired. While it wasn't charged, it still sent him flying back a good distance.
"Using any means to achieve victory, even if its cowardly. You have too much of me in you, you know?"
"I know, sometimes I think that I'm too much like you, but that isn't what this fight is about, it's about whose beliefs are right."
"Exactly, now come Lelouch, Zero, Demon Emperor, show me the will that forced even God to submit!" Charles yelled before he rushed at Lelouch.
Lelouch didn't move, but held firm in a stance he remembered long ago. 'When I was young, there was no way that I was able to do the techniques Tohdoh taught Suzaku when we were kids, but in this body, I can do them with ease. I remember Tohdoh telling Suzaku that this technique is perfect against rushing enemies for evading and countering, let's hope he's right.' Lelouch thought as he took a deep breath and at the moment Charles was swinging down with his sword, Lelouch rolled under Charles' right arm and when he got up he quickly slashed his father in the back.
Charles stumbled a bit then fell to his knees. "Looks like you won."
"Yes, it does." Lelouch said as he sheathed his scythe.
"Do me a favor and when you see your mother, please save her, she doesn't deserve to be in Hell."
"Yes, and neither do you." Lelouch shined his cross on his father and he started to float up into light. "No matter how wrong your methods were, you still had good intentions. Like father, like son."
Charles then gave a genuine, wholehearted smile and said "I'm proud to have been your father." He then vanished into light.
Diethard appeared with a 'Good job' smile. "Well now, let's move onto the eighth circle shall we?"
Lelouch nodded "What's it called."
"The circle of Fraud. The circle your mother resides in."
For a heads up, I intend to cut Fraud into two chapters, each roughly five pockets of Fraud long.