Chapter 21: Hate
No matter how Izaya looked at it, that heap of stones, trees and ice covered by bits of clouds at the very top looked very much like an average mountain anyone could find on earth.
"The mountain? By itself?" Izaya repeated what Shizuo had said and the demon nodded.
"It's actually not the mountain that moves, but the crab. It just so happened that the demon Zitadelle was built upon it while it slept, I think."
A giant-
Multiple questions at once arose in Izaya's mind as he looked at the monumentally sized animal in the distance. He had suspected it, somewhat, in the back of his mind. Because there was no way he had misjudged the mountain's distance so hard that it appeared further the closer they got.
But his enlightenment took a second to take roots.
"While it slept." Izaya repeated in a moment of stupor, trying to wrap his mind around the sheer size of that crab. Because this was a mountain.
A fucking mountain.
A crab large enough to hold an entire geological phenomenon on its back, how huge was that? If that mountain was on average four thousand meters tall, then one eye, the smallest part of the crab, would still be seven hundred meters tall. It would be a small hill in itself. It would own an ecosystem reserved to itself only. Birds building nests around the cracks of its body. Hellish creatures too.
Being told now that a creature that massive was moving seemed to explain the way the landscape had been torn.
A simple shrug was all that was given by the demon.
"It was keeping some kind of hibernation."
Hiber-
And at that point Izaya couldn't quite hold his laughter anymore. Hell had been fascinating in every single aspect so far, but a crab hibernating long enough to have an entire fortress built upon its back was just a new level of demonic explanation.
It was fitting the realm, really, but in ways Izaya would have never suspected.
"Ah and I guess it's moving wherever in search of food?" he concluded in his own string of logic and was actually not surprised when he found Shizuo agreeing.
"I think so, but you would have to ask him?"
Ask-
Wheezing, Izaya tried to keep his breath even and his words straight.
"He can talk?"
Not only that- in search of food Shizuo said- crabs were carnivores as far as Izaya was aware. What kind of carnivore diet did this monster live upon inside hell?
The demons that Shizuo called critters? Izaya suddenly felt very much out of place as he realized the monsters he met so far were mere insects in the eyes of both demons as well as flora and fauna. The absurdity and danger that Izaya had managed to avoid until now revealed itself like a blanket pulled off a buffet. Shizuo had been right, he had no idea what he was dealing with.
"Your guardians don't?" Shizuo asked, referring to his question about their capability of speech and Izaya felt just that much smaller.
Guardians of hell?
What on earth did demons require protection from? What was their size? Their purpose?
"We don't exactly have giant crabs running around, no," Izaya shook his head and hesitated for a second as he thought about the mysteries that remained in their own world. "Except underwater maybe," he added, "Marine life has barely even been grazed on its surface."
This place was crazy. Had been for a while, but now receiving all the answers Izaya had sought he slowly started to grasp just how different this world worked compared to any he had ever known.
He expected questions on Shizuo's part. Because as much as he was aware of hell's structure he had no idea about Izaya's world, but the questions in his mind came to an abrupt halt as the tip of his horns glimmered in light red.
As if cue Shizuo turned his head to the right. To the spider monster's body, to be precise and for a second Izaya stilled, thinking that for some hellish reason it might still be alive.
But no.
It was dead.
As dead as a beheaded animal could be.
And still there were suddenly hands around Izaya's body and Izaya whelped as he was thrown across Shizuo's shoulder like a piece of wet laundry.
Harsh blows of air backhanded his face and took his ability to breathe for just a moment as the ground below their feet rapidly moved into the distance.
The disturbing sound of stone being crushed by force entered his sensory system next and before long his surroundings stilled with as much force as they had changed.
Feeling his guts do a backflip on their own, Izaya's palm covered his lips at the speed of lighting. He did not want to vomit across Shizuo's back. He didn't understand why they moved, why Shizuo had picked him up and thrown him across his shoulder without warning. He wanted to know but couldn't ask as the breath that had forced itself out of his lungs upon the inhuman speed had troubles to return to his chest.
Shizuo wasn't exactly informative either and so a few seconds passed in which his personal demon just stayed still. Only upon regaining a bit of his vision and original state Izaya noticed that they had arrived at the top of the hill they had been climbing earlier.
A stone pillar made by human, pardon, demon hands, stood at the very top of what appeared to be some sort of temple. More pillars, eight in total, circled an area made of stone. Emerald crystals sat above each of them and inscriptions decorated their sides from top to bottom.
The inscriptions beneath Shizuo's hand had been destroyed as they had dug inside the stone like a knife into butter.
He was holding onto the pillar and looking down the hill. Propping his elbows up on Shizuo's back Izaya tried to do the same and craned his neck.
And then he saw it.
The reason Shizuo had acted without announcement.
At first Izaya thought it was a breeze of air that was moving the flowers and plants on the ground, but then he saw the slit eye and his heart sank just a bit further.
A giant snake.
Moving its body with the grace of death, the head of the size of the entirety of the creature Shizuo had slain earlier, emerged from a row of budding blossoms.
Patterns of black and beige curled into demonic shapes across the creature's scales and an array of moss and plants grew on top of its back as its size exceeded that of ordinary reptiles by far.
Feeling his own grip on Shizuo tighten in reflex, Izaya swallowed shortly.
"What is that?" he whispered as quietly as possible.
They weren't exactly close to the creature, but considering Shizuo hadn't taken it on straight like all those other monsters it was an entity even he didn't want to fight.
Clawed onto the highest point of the pillar the demon's eyes had turned to slits himself as his tensed body read the snake's movement.
"The serpent. He probably smelled the corpse," he answered equally quietly to Izaya as they watched the danger sneak onward.
As if on cue the serpent's attention shifted towards the spider-like creature as if it had only spotted it right then and there.
Lifting its head and accelerating faster than Izaya liked the serpents suddenly rose from the ground before lunging its death bringing teeth inside the corpse.
Shizuo was right. It came to devour the dead creature.
Sounds of hardened skin cracking and legs chopping off the serpents giant jaw served quite the disgusting sight while its body moved in slow, but even shapes.
The landscape it traversed was flattened beyond recognition and Izaya cringed at the disgust the sounds evoked.
Without warning Shizuo suddenly let go of the stone pillar and jumped down.
The momentary idea of approaching the creature came to mind and Izaya's heart stopped for a millisecond, but gladly enough Shizuo's goal didn't seem to be a fight with the serpent.
Having moved right into the middle of the temple they had damaged upon entry Izaya got a glimpse of its actual insides.
Various inhabitants of nature had taken over the stone that was used to build the walls. No ceiling, just walls made the circle that seemed to protect a single pillar at its center.
Colors of turquoise and blue mixed in a floating orb that resembled a massively oversized water drop. It was dancing just above said pillar and Shizuo approached it with quick steps.
The setup reminded Izaya of some sort of shrine and the water drop appeared to be some kind of rare relic.
Before he got to ask what this place was, Shizuo surprised him yet again by biting his own wrist.
Dark blood dripped to the ground in seconds and he curled his fist above the relic to wring out more of it as he doused the turquoise glowing color in the darkest red.
"What are you doing?" Izaya asked instead, but his question was answered quicker than he liked as a pulse brought the relic to life.
Quite like a heart beating at the center of a body the water orb resumed similar motions with accelerating speed.
Izaya had noticed a few lines on the ground depicting the same color of the relic, now they had turned red and the entire inside of the shrine slowly but surely started to resemble the inside of a body. The lines turned to veins, the pillars fed with blood suddenly moved closer to each other like a flower blossoming in reverse.
"The serpent doesn't really differentiate between life and deceased food," Shizuo suddenly announced and confirmed the suspicion Izaya had held.
"Is he dangerous? For you?"
A short glance was given and it told Izaya all he needed to know to fear that serpent for what it was.
"Depends, his poison is strong. If he surprises me he might stand a chance. He is this area's guardian after all."
Guardian.
So that was what Shizuo associated with a word that was meant to serve protection.
The giant crab resting peacefully in the distance suddenly struck Izaya as less of a hellish creature than the one sliding down below.
Putting Izaya down gentler than he had picked him up before he finally found himself back at his feet while Shizuo moved to the pillar closest to them.
A thin membrane was sprouting from all sides encapsulating the space within a few seconds. Obstructing their vision vastly Izaya could barely make out the serpent from their current position.
"Is this a barrier?" It struck him as such considering the way Shizuo had retreated into this shrine immediately upon noticing the guardian.
"Somewhat, yeah. It keeps away demons and creatures alike."
It were just a few steps that Izaya had taken to approach the demon, but it seemed the demonic blood traversing his veins had still not settled down as he immediately regretted the action.
Dizziness assaulted his vision by blurring what was left to be seen and he shortly winced in an attempt to get rid of the fog in his brain. It was when he rubbed his temples with both hands that Izaya noticed Shizuo's stare.
He was following his motions with more attention that Izaya deemed necessary.
"What?"
The slightest hint of guilt seemed to settle in the demon's eyes as he averted meeting Izaya's eyes.
"Sorry," he mumbled and a certain type of awkwardness seemed to accompany his apology.
"For saving me?" Izaya sighed, deeming the ground as a much better and faster option to recover and let his back thud against the pillar as he sat down.
A shrug was given and the demon joined opposite to him in his own cross legged fashion.
A guilty demon.
Really.
"I would much rather enjoy some pain than to die, so you don't have to feel guilty for a bit of nausea and discomfort," he snorted, and it seemed Shizuo understood Izaya was not holding him accountable for his current state.
After all he had entered hell by himself, with close to no information on a spur of necessity. There had been no real plan, no precautions, no time to even think about any side effects this journey could bring. If anything Izaya was glad he met a demon that was willing to give him his antibiotic blood.
A simple nod was given and Shizuo sighed for a second before closing his eyes.
"... it's been a while since I talked to anyone. Kind of a downer to know I put you in pain the second you talked to me."
Izaya's gaze softened at that. This demon was awfully gentle. Much more than his earlier actions of tearing creatures apart without batting an eyelid would have suggested.
"Why though?" he asked, and Shizuo seemed to not quite understand what Izaya was talking about.
"Don't get me wrong, I know you are a demon and all, but most living things down here are, right? There must be others who are capable of speech and logic," Izaya elaborated and somehow that idea seemed to have struck a nerve.
"There are," Shizuo answered truthfully, but somehow he seemed less delighted over that fact than Izaya would have guessed. "But they wouldn't dare approach me."
A peaceful sigh sat on Shizuo's lips almost as if Shizuo were glad about that fact and Izaya realized he had been reading this demon wrong.
"Because of your strength?" he asked and Shizuo seemed quite fond of his insights.
"It's scary how accurate you are, did anyone tell you that?" Amusement swayed in his voice and Izaya duly noted that he had misinterpreted Shizuo's earlier words.
This demon was suffering from neglect of intelligent interactions, but he wasn't doing so by external means.
"I'm just good at predicting what my opponent is about to say or do," Izaya shrugged, displaying the same confidence he always held himself with as he analyzed the pieces of information that had been given so far anew.
"Really?" Shizuo hummed, "Then tell me, what am I like?"
That was the question circling Izaya's mind.
What was he like?
Living for a millenia, killing millions of people, catching a heart, refusing to kill human souls upon touch and helping Izaya out despite thinking he was a demon- all of these details served an awfully curious cocktail of personality traits.
"You seem awfully lonely," Izaya started with what he had discerned upon first glance.
Twitching slightly the demon seemed to approve the first assumption without knowing. "Do I?" he repeated and somehow Izaya could tell that Shizuo was waiting for a certain explanation as to why. A wrong one. But Izaya was smarter than that.
"But by choice."
Expected surprise glimmered in Shizuo's eyes and he brought his palm to his face to rest his chin upon.
"Clarify."
He had been right. Izaya knew the second he looked at Shizuo's face and his intrigue only tripled.
"You are easy to talk to. Even easier to get along with. For a demon you own just a few too many characteristics I would call decent," Izaya elaborated, and paused as a soft smile spread across his lips and an eyebrow rose. "My best guess is that you differ from other demons in that regard."
Because no matter how he looked at it.
The way he killed those demons on sight without even as much as a shred of remorse, the way he seemed so fed up with Izaya walking around smelling like what he presumed was his last consumed human meal and the way he seemed adamant to protect human souls suddenly seemed to come together to one solid conclusion.
This demon- as curious as it was, actually hated hell.
to be continued~
I finally got my inspiration for this story back xD And I outlined the next 20 chapters hahahah so now I hope I won't have to delay any more updates xD