Ch. 318 Customs of Hell

Hell.

The homeland of demons, the ultimate destination for fallen souls.

It is said that all wicked individuals, upon death, would descend to Hell to experience eternal torment, thus undergoing a process of redemption.

However, in reality, not only wicked souls find their way to Hell.

Inside Hell, a significant portion of the souls are lured there by the devilish residents, using various sweet words or cunning schemes.

Yes!

It's the devils who pride themselves on being just and fair.

To lure enough souls into falling into Hell, the devils within would employ various methods to entice humans and other intelligent beings on Earth to succumb to temptation.

If they couldn't entice humans and intelligent beings to fall, the devils would resort to their trump card, luring them into unequal contracts and tricking their souls into Hell.

Initially, devils from Hell could easily visit the mortal realm to entice souls of their interest. However, with the signing of secretive agreements, the passages from Hell to the mortal realm were sealed shut.

In Hell, the devils mostly rely on humans and other beings willingly summoning them over.

Just like Doom had summoned the demon Paris.

Upon arriving in Hell, Russell didn't immediately cast protective spells on himself. After personally experiencing the harsh environment of Hell, he then applied various defensive and stealth magic to himself.

In myth and legend, Hell was considered a forbidden zone of life.

Apart from devils, no creature could withstand the harsh environment of Hell.

However, in reality, as long as one's constitution was robust enough to resist the erosion of Hell's aura, the harsh environment of Hell wasn't all that bad.

Compared to Earth, Hell was essentially just a bit more desolate, hotter, and with more chaotic and evil underlying rules.

Besides these factors, the environment in Hell wasn't particularly severe.

High temperatures? Earth's deserts were just as scorching.

As long as one could withstand the erosion of Hell's aura and possessed the power to resist most demons, Hell could be considered a different kind of tourist destination.

After surveying the Hellish environment, Russell turned to Doom and asked, "We're in Hell now. What's your plan?"

"It's quite simple. We'll first cause some trouble for the devils, let Mephisto know we've arrived in Hell. Once Mephisto knows we're here, he'll naturally come looking for us," Doom said in a calm tone.

"Alright," Russell replied. Although he hadn't dealt with Mephisto before, he trusted Doom's judgment.

Moreover, since they had come all the way to Hell, it wouldn't be right not to meet the natives of Hell and see what it was like.

With that in mind, he approached the demon Paris and asked, "You came from this place to the mortal realm. You should be familiar with the surroundings."

The demon Paris didn't speak but nodded in silence.

Returning to Hell, feeling the all-too-familiar aura of Hell, the demon Paris once again contemplated the idea of running away.

Hell was the home turf of the devils.

Here, they faced no restrictions and could unleash their full power.

If described in terms of data, in Hell, every devil's strength was boosted by at least three points.

The demon Paris's mind raced.

Then, he made a decision.

Don't run away!

Don't cause unnecessary trouble!

Just obey Russell's orders!

Although the demon Paris didn't understand why Russell and Doom had come to Hell to find Mephisto, one thing was certain: Russell and Doom, who could cause trouble for Mephisto, were opponents he couldn't contend with.

Even if he was back on his home turf, he didn't think he had a chance of defeating both Russell and Doom.

"What is this place, and where is the nearest devilish town?" Russell continued to inquire.

"This is the Wasteland of Bones, and the nearest town is Blood Valley, located three hundred kilometers to the northwest," Paris helpfully converted the distance into earthly kilometers.

"Lead the way."

"Of course, master."

Without hesitation, the demon Paris moved his wings to fly. Seeing this, Russell and Doom also activated their flight abilities, following closely behind Paris.

When they had just arrived in Hell, Russell was somewhat curious about the environment. After all, scenes like magma everywhere and active volcanoes were nonexistent on Earth.

However, after a short while, he felt that it was monotonous.

Yes, monotonous!

The environment he saw upon arrival in Hell was the same after flying hundreds of kilometers.

Hell seemed like a monochromatic and monotonous world, with colors dominated by orange, black, blood-red, and earthy yellow. It easily induced visual fatigue.

In fact, after realizing that the Hellish environment was mostly the same everywhere, Russell simply ignored his surroundings, let his thoughts wander, and followed the demon Paris toward Blood Valley.

Three hundred kilometers, not too far, not too close.

After flying for a little over an hour, they finally arrived over Blood Valley.

Upon arriving in Blood Valley, Russell saw a strange town in the valley.

How should I put it?

The devilish town in the valley seemed like a fusion of various architectural styles and eras from different civilizations.

There were modern concrete buildings alongside medieval stone houses within the town. In addition to these earthly structures, there were many extraterrestrial buildings that were clearly not of Earthly origin.

These buildings, representing different aesthetic sensibilities and lifestyles of various civilizations, were forcefully mixed together, giving off an indescribable feeling of awkwardness and peculiarity.

"Did you build these structures yourselves?" Russell asked the demon Paris.

"No," He replied promptly. 

"These buildings appeared out of nowhere. Although the passage from Hell to the mortal realm has been blocked, buildings from the mortal realm occasionally appear in Hell as projections. When a place starts having projections of buildings from the mortal realm, it quickly becomes a town. Once the town is fully formed, we move in. These towns might not conform to the devil's aesthetic, but they are comfortable to live in. At least, it's much better than caves and lava pits."

Russell raised an eyebrow after hearing Paris's explanation.

They could do that?

Aren't devils supposed to be lawful evil creatures?

Engaging in frequent wars, this sounded more like the chaotic evil demon style!

After a few seconds of silence, Russell continued, "Has Mephisto never tried to establish a universal order in Hell? He's the Lord of Hell, and if he wanted to, he should be able to enforce it."

"No!" Paris quickly responded to Russell's question. 

"Lord Mephisto did try, but it was completely futile. As you can see, this place is too dull and monotonous. If we don't find something to do, we'll go crazy."

'I see.'

After hearing Paris's explanation, Russell didn't say anything further.

He looked at the town below, raised his right hand, and snapped his fingers.

A golden magical aura began to manifest around him. With the surge of magical aura, a blood-red cloak appeared on him.

"Let's go!" Russell said after putting on the cloak's hood. Although he and Doom had used magic to conceal their human aura, their appearances still had some distinctive human features.

Doom was fine. He was wearing armor, had a metal mask, and even a green cloak.

Although this was still not the common attire for demons, it was better than Russell's complete lack of disguise.

So, Russell used magic to temporarily create a cloak and slightly alter his appearance.

As for a mask, he didn't like wearing one, so he used magic to create a crimson smoke that concealed his features.

Seeing that Russell had the idea of exploring the town below, Doom raised his right hand and cast a spell, making the cylindrical barrier floating around them invisible. Although it was just a visual effect, it was sufficient to confuse lower-ranking demons.

When they had just arrived over the town, Doom had cast a perception spell to get detailed information about the demons in the town.

There were no high-ranking demons in the town. The highest-ranking demon was only a mid-ranking demon like Paris.

Soon, the three of them descended to the town center.

Although it was called a town, there was no ruler here, no so-called lord.

However, Russell quickly noticed something interesting.

While there was no ruler, there were shops and taverns.

Seeing these shops and taverns, Russell didn't beat around the bush with Paris and asked directly, "Do demons also need money?"

"Yes, master."

"But our currency is different from yours; we use soul coins."

After saying this, the demon Paris cast a few rare spells and pulled out a blood-red soul coin from thin air, which looked like a coin.

"Who invented soul coins?" Russell asked curiously.

"They were invented and popularized by Lord Mephisto."

"According to the number of souls within soul coins, they come in three types: gold soul coins, purple soul coins, and red soul coins."

"Red soul coins contain only one-tenth of a normal human's soul, purple soul coins contain a complete soul, and as for gold soul coins, they contain a hundred souls."

The demon Paris patiently explained.

"How many soul coins do you have now?" Russell continued.

"I have eight purple soul coins and over three hundred red soul coins," The demon Paris replied somewhat embarrassedly.

"You're really broke!" Russell said quietly upon hearing Paris's answer.

Although Paris's strength wasn't very high, he was still a mid-ranking demon and had even mutated. With that kind of rank, having so few soul coins was beyond poor.

"Since you're the only one with soul coins here, you'll be footing the bill later," Russell said, heading towards the nearest tavern.

Although they hadn't come to Hell for tourism, Russell didn't mind experiencing the local customs of Hell before facing Mephisto. Hell wasn't a place one could visit casually. If he missed this opportunity, who knew when the next one would come?

Moreover, Doom didn't seem to be in a hurry right now, so why not take the chance to experience Hell's customs?

Perhaps because demons in Hell generally had a larger stature, even the seemingly ordinary tavern had a door that was seven to eight meters tall. Although this was still somewhat short for Paris, it was sufficiently tall for most lower-ranking demons.

The tavern was quite large, but there weren't many demons inside. As they entered the tavern, a small demon standing less than a meter tall with wings approached them. He spoke in demon language, "Three esteemed guests, I am Claw169, a waiter in this tavern. May I ask what you would like to drink?"

As he spoke, the demon led them to a seat suitable for Paris's massive frame.

Just as Paris was about to speak up, Russell used standard demon language and said, "Three glasses of your tavern's best-selling specialty."

Hearing Russell's standard demon language that sounded like he was a native speaker, both the demon Paris and Doom looked at him somewhat surprised.

"Don't look at me like that. Since we're coming to Hell, I have to prepare," Russell replied calmly.

Although demon language was quite a rare language, there were still records of it in the library of Kamar-Taj. Otherwise, Russell wouldn't have been able to understand demon script.

As for why he could speak standard demon language, it was simple. He had sent a request to Vishanti, the guardian of Kamar-Taj.

Although he rarely used Vishanti's power, he was still a sorcerer of Kamar-Taj's. Vishanti didn't refuse his request and helped him comprehend demon language.

Soon, the demon who introduced himself as Claw169 brought "spirits" to their table. The glasses in front of Russell and Doom were normal-sized, but the one in front of the demon Paris was an oversized tankard, almost the size of a small barrel.

Seeing the hot, faintly glowing green spirits in the glasses, emitting an eerie green light, Russell and Doom exchanged glances.