Chapter 10: Welcome to hell

Izaya had been cursed a lot of times in his life. Had been told to go to hell, drop dead or catch a brick head first- people got quite creative when it came to coming up with cruel ways for a character they despised to cease existing.

Izaya may not remember who these people were nor what they looked like, but he remembered the malice in their words. The seething hatred that dripped from every word they spoke and couldn't help but smile.

Hell.

Humans had created all kinds of stories around this place. Some said it was a place full of flames burning your flesh every second spent in here to atone for sins committed while living. Others said it was more of a psychological torture, that you were going to be tied up and shown your mistakes all over on repeat.

There were theories that spoke of various dimensions and circles all leading to one big escape that was a samsara. Demons, or rather the devil himself was said to take charge of torture along with his servants. Church let alone any religion depicted those demons as lustful monsters that raped anything on sight in the most gruesome ways.

If anything in their vast creativity, they all agreed on one point.

Hell was hell.

A place made to suffer. A place no one wanted to be in.

And yet what unfolded in front of Izaya didn't ring true to that at all.

Touching the unexpectedly soft sand underneath his body he scooped up a handful. It was gray. Incredibly light too. It resembled ash in a way, but a marvelous kind. Soft as nothing Izaya had touched in his life before it dispersed between his fingertips as a warm breeze brushed across the landscape.

A warm breeze, mind you.

Not the scorching hot kind that would melt the flesh of your bones, no. It was more like a fresh autumn breeze, serving as a welcomed sensation in a warm setting.

Plants, something no one would have probably ever imagined, were growing left and right.

Izaya found himself in nothing but a small clearing. Ferns, quite large in their appearance, made up most of the bottom section along with something that might as well have resembled cattails. Fluffy and white they stuck upon lithe sticks and danced at every chance they got. Thistles the size of trees made up the majority of this forest's environment and for a second Izaya was close to redeeming his opinion thinking he was viewing something prickly and maybe dangerous.

After all, just because the air wasn't burning up and the ground was soft to the touch didn't mean that all of these plants weren't dripping with poison or the intention to kill anyone nearby.

But no.

Looking to the top of the plant and its sharp leaves, Izaya suddenly spotted a creature. A long fluffy tail and skin spread from one arm to the other made it resemble a sugar glider- a sugar glider with four eyes.

Turning its head with utmost curiosity the small creation of cuteness jumped from one leaf to the next- and the leaves bent.

Those were no spikes made to impale anything that dared to get close, they were just leaves, soft to the touch and harmless.

The flower's head's seemed to serve as a second home to the creatures as Izaya suddenly spotted a couple more of those four-eyed sugar gliders, shoving their head forth from the large, deep magenta petals they curiously licked the tips of their noses as they were covered in nectar. He could even spot a mother carrying a baby on her chest and before Izaya knew it he was breaking into full blown laughter.

This was hell?

A paradisic forest with a ground so soft you couldn't even try to hurt yourself with, and creatures that would make the top million views on any social media platform?

The next time someone told him to go to hell he should probably say, thank you and take it as a compliment instead of an insult.

At least from what Izaya could see so far, hell was the opposite of what people had been telling rumors about. And there was one more reason that rang true to it.

Everything was reversed.

The light.

Somehow now that Izaya looked at his surroundings it made sense. After all, seeing how priests at church always ranted about heaven and its light and purity that shone above everything it made sense that hell owned no sun.

Because there really was none. The sky was dark as a pitch black canvas. There was no cloud in sight, no flying creature either, no dragons or devils or witches riding on brooms, no moon either. Simply, nothing.

So why was he able to see?

Because everything was reversed. It was the ground that provided the light.

The ash was sprinkled with the smallest blotches of pulsating turquoise. They radiated with soothing warmth as they casted delicate shadows across the scenery.

The plants too.

The fern, the thistles, the cattails, hell even the tweaked sugar gliders- they were all giving off a soft tinge of light.

Almost as if someone had taken a screenshot of this scenery and inverted the colors on his computer. But it wasn't an unpleasant light, by no means.

Varying in colors as well as intensity it was arguably a soothing sensation. Like the small light mothers installed in their kid's bedroom so that they wouldn't have to sleep in complete darkness and had no chance to fear what might sit in it.

Gathering what must have been all of this little creature's courage, one of the sugar gliders made its way all the way down into the ash.

Soft stripes of gold marked its eyes like fine eyeliner and its tail mimicked the pattern with a slightly brighter light as it whipped around from left to right.

Extending his palm slowly Izaya tried to show his pure intentions. He wasn't here to harm the creature, and it seemed to understand, because within a hot second that sugar glider moved over.

Unbelievably soft and fragile, Izaya found the furry body crawling its way up his arm and before he knew it, it was sitting on top of his head.

The smallest whiskers sat on top of its nose and from the corner of his eyes Izaya could spot its small palms as it brushed its tip. Izaya had never possessed a hamster or any animal of that sort, but now feeling the soft movement on his head and watching the creature go about its daily cleaning routine he quite regretted never having thought about getting one.

Ignoring the little fare dodger on his head, Izaya got up from the ground.

With his old body back and his surroundings being what they were he was facing almost perfect conditions.

A last assuring glance was sent all around, but no.

The goddess wasn't here.

As expected of a place called hell- Izaya had never heard of demons intruding into heaven so it made sense that the goddess had no means to come here.

Which meant he was safe.

Incredible relief washed through his veins as the pressure of time and location finally sheathed off his shoulders.

This was something he could work with. The demon lord's rising, judgment day and the goddess that was to be worshiped seemed like an awful misinterpretation on the maniac's part.

No, the whole of humanity actually.

At least when it came to this realm, time span, or whatever it was that Izaya had dropped into, then they were heavily mistaken about what they should worship and what not.

The glorious idea of the goddess being the true demon lord and judgment day being the state all those people lived in came to mind and Izaya smirked.

This might as well be "heaven" as he viewed it compared to these stupid idiots.

Startled slightly, Izaya shortly spasmed into an awkward laugh as the creature had decided it was time to leave its new tree and climbed down Izaya's back.

Quick as a weasel it ran towards one of the great thistle trees and dashed up its way into the crown.

Eyes glued to the thistle Izaya smiled.

Alright.

It was time to look for the "demon lord" wasn't it?

Carefully calculating his steps Izaya made his way forward in the unfamiliar forest. Stones striped in trippy colors and shrooms the size of car tires added to the vegetation he had already seen as he made his way up a short hill. Of course he was careful not to touch any of the vegetation around, because looking at the colors and their harmless appearance they might as well contain the most evil kind of poison.

And Izaya wasn't really one to use himself as a test subject for that. Obsidian stone surfaced from the gray sand every here and there and provided more stable footing along with purple ivy lathering the former in every opening it got.

Climbing up one of many Izaya found his parkour skills coming in more handy than he would have ever thought. Running and jumping from stone to stone he quickly made his way forward.

A particularly high location not too far was his destination as it was not only going to provide a good overview of the surrounding landscape, but also might give a clue about where he was going to find actual lifeforms.

How did demons even live?

Did they build cities? Did they live in tribes? Was he going to see a fireplace from afar? Or maybe a hovering castle in the sky?

Black magic was a thing in this world, so anything was imaginable and curiosity only set his speed on fire as he proceeded up the stones.

What was he going to see? What were they going to be like?

It was exciting beyond anything he ever had known and within a couple minutes he reached his desired location.

Soft pants left his lips and his eyes darted around in quick succession.

He was standing next to one of the tallest thistles.

Growing sideways from the stone Izaya was standing upon, it acted like an umbrella, shielding from rain or possible sunrays.

Not that Izaya knew if rain was even a phenomenon that existed in hell. A handful of sugar gliders had followed him from his location like faithful companions and now settled in its bud.

Curious eyes glazed the area.

And Izaya saw a lot of things, really.

He saw a large river for one thing. Glowing pure white mixed with a slight hue of green it was cutting the landscape quite vastly. Like a tree's root it dispersed in many places and fed its surroundings with the blessing of water.

He could also see a mountain, or rather a couple of them and steep ledges in the distance.

It seemed he had landed in a spot below sea level as every path away from here seemed to climb upwards. Large areas shone in different colors as various forms of vegetation fought for dominance in their surroundings.

But apart from a large variety of plants and geographical discoveries there was nothing to be found.

No city, neither settled in the ground nor flying, no people, no fireplaces, no movement.

It was as though Izaya was the only living being down here.

Sitting down on top of the stone Izaya let one leg dangle freely while the other propped up to let his chin rest on it.

… what now?

His hopes had been high that he would spot at least some form of live sign. Without one his options were quite vast as well as useless.

He could wander this area and just continue walking until he stumbled into another person. Or rather… demon?

The problem of that idea was that he had no idea of the dangers that might be hiding. Every place had one.

Be it poisonous insects, carnivore animals or weather phenomena, there was sure to be some danger that Izaya was unaware of.

Take the sugar gliders.

They might not be the kind that lived up on earth, but from the way they had developed the ability to fly and live in trees there was only one conclusion to be made.

They were preyed on by something that lived on the ground.

Something that survived by eating those small animals and Izaya felt his hair stand on ends at the obvious conclusion. Whether that was some form of wildcat, snake or worse was open for negotiation, but what bothered him more was the fact that he might as well be viewed as a decent meal as well.

So walking around for too long without a guide or any sort of information really seemed like a risky action.

Sighing softly, Izaya tilted his head back to look at the sky. It was funny. The sky was dark black, yet he somehow could tell its distance. Slight hues of gray streaking across the horizon told him about it and he tilted his head.

It was then that a soft sound caught his attention.

Rustling.

Somewhere to his right he heard it. At first he thought he had imagined the noise, after all it was quite quiet in this area. And except for a casual breeze here and there there were almost no sounds to be perceived at all.

Tilting his head upwards he looked towards the spot he had last seen the sugar gliders in.

And his blood froze.

Because they were gone.

All of them.

He didn't even hear them leave, didn't even see them, and his breath came to a standstill as he jumped to his feet.

Faster than his legs were able to carry him he slid off the rock and into the sand. To the left- faster-

Because whatever it was that had caused the rustling sounds in the forest was what was hunting these animals for dinner.

Grunting noises and chirping squeaks suddenly filled the air and Izaya broke out into a cool sweat as he realized the sound was following him-

Fast, faster, his dash accelerated as he chose the route he had come from- Another turn was made, another dash leapt to the side and suddenly it was there.

A shadow.

Larger than anything it raced across Izaya's body and before he could even do as much as react the hunter of the forest met the ground with indescribable force.

An arachnid of the size of a truck was sitting in front of Izaya. Head and abdomen were separated into nine parts and a set of death bringing jaws, similar to the chelicerae of spiders dripped with salvia and poison, diluting the ash gray sand upon mere touch. Clacking sounds of hard shelled body segments clattered into each other and rang through the air as those dangerous body segments moved-

Izaya had no time to react, not even a second to scream as the far end of them crashed into him with one massive impact.

Harsh pain of having his shoulder forced against stone robbed Izaya of the ability to think as a harsh wave of indescribable pain shot through his mind.

Body dropping to the side like a limp towel he choked on ash as he tried to gasp for air.

Cradling his shoulder, like a mother's child, Izaya tried to ignore the seething lightning of pain jabbing his mind repeatedly as his eyes focused on his surroundings.

Away-

He had to get away-

Fast-

But his body didn't move. Or rather it did, but compared to the demonic creature he was unbelievably slow. Izaya saw the movement. Saw it approach.

He saw the way it lifted its tail anew to beat the rest of his life out of his body- and then it screamed.

Faster than Izaya was even able to make sense of what was happening the creature's body was forced into the ground by an indescribable impact. The ground sunk by a meter at least almost as if a meteorite had generously decided to drop right then and there to save Izaya's ass.

A shriek louder than anything Izaya had ever heard pierced the landscape and a fist was raised.

Yes, a fist.

Blowing the creature's head off in what appeared to be nothing but mere child's play, words of indescribable annoyance reverberated in the air.

"You damn bastard, that's mine."

There was a guy.

Markings of black wound their way up his skin, his arm, his shoulder, his chest. As if to show off their pattern his clothes of black silk aligned only where none of the symbols were to be spotted. Golden glowing eyes, slit like a snake's narrowed with anger as they glared at the now dead monster with utmost displeasure.

Heaps of blood had soaked the guy's bright blond and slightly glimmering hair as he descended into the dead body.

Not a second of disgust was displayed on his face as he dug into internal organs and broken bones alike. But none of these features stood out more than the huge pair of circled horns sitting left and right on his head. Spiraled like a blackface ram's, but thicker and shorter in size they throned on his head quite like a crown.

This was no guy.

It was a full fledged demon.

Within a second of astonishment Izaya found his conscience again and moved. This demon was definitely a hundred times more dangerous than the creature.

And the best part? Izaya was of such unimportance to him that he hadn't even noticed the human yet.

Quiet as if his life depended upon it, which was probably the case, Izaya rose from the ground. His shoulder thanked him with the harsh sting of radiating pain and Izaya drew blood from his tongue at the strength he bit it with to suppress any sound.

There were a couple fern not too far, he just had to move over there and hide before the demon spotted him.

Blood splattered in a gush of falling rain and the demon suddenly emerged from the corpse's guts with a victorious smile. Something that seemed to resemble a crystal made of blood laid in his palm and Izaya realized the only reason he survived this creature's attack was because it had been stupid enough to steal this object from the demon.

Looking at the desired object the demon smiled- and then his gaze turned and Izaya's breath choked.

Jerking heavily in his skin, Izaya froze on the spot, as if not moving would be enough to lose the demon's attention because right now he was looking straight at him.

This guy was a demon, and considering how easily he had killed that creature… a damn powerful one.

to be continued~

Finally this story turned from Izaya to Shizaya xDDDD How do you like your fellow hot demon neighbor? Hella strong, good looking, horned and ready to slay whatever comes into sight? I feel like it doesn't differ a lot from his human form lmao