Chapter 148
“Oh… Is that my femur? How have you been! Ahaha! It’s been a while, you rascal!”
The guy was chattering his jaw in admiration.
Unlike the first time when he only had a skull, he was gradually regaining his bones, looking more like a skeleton.
“Were you perhaps someone extraordinary on the surface?”
“Maybe.”
I casually tossed the bones I found in the bone graveyard to him.
Finding his bones in this place full of bones wasn’t that difficult.
Only his bones contained magical power.
The guy was assembling the bones I brought onto his body one by one.
The reason I was helping him was simple.
He agreed to help me escape this place.
“If I regain the throne, I’ll make sure to treat you well!”
“No need.”
“Such humility! I like you even more!”
It seemed the guy also had a grand dream of escaping this place and reigning as the King of Hell again.
To anyone, he looked like a senile skull… but still.
“Hmm. Maybe it’s because I’ve aged. My bones have all rotted away.”
“How old are you?”
“Age? I forgot that long ago. Not just my age, but my name and past too.”
The skull spoke bitterly.
“This Endless Hell is such a place. If you stay here long enough, your memories fade, and soon you forget everything. In the end, you even forget your own existence and vanish.”
“Yet you still remember being the King of Hell.”
“Hmph. That’s easy. Since I survived here till the end, I’m immortal and the King of Hell, right? Ahahaha! Even the Endless Hell couldn’t kill me completely!”
The self-proclaimed King of Hell laughed loudly.
It was quite bizarre to see a skull laughing in a girl’s voice, but strangely, I didn’t dislike him.
The skull, fitting an ankle bone, asked.
“But what crime did you commit to end up here alive?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Of course. No one ends up in Hell without a story. Ah, no. Why are you looking at me like that? I mean, I understand your grievances, which is why I’m helping you escape, right?”
“……”
“Ooh. Good. The bones are almost all in place. Thanks to you, I can stand up for the first time in hundreds of years.”
The skull brushed off its pelvic bone and stood up.
It looked exactly like a monster, a skeleton.
Excited to have a body, it started hopping around.
“No time to celebrate. Lead the way.”
“Sure, sure.”
The cheerful skull walked ahead.
Every time it moved, there was a creaking sound.
Maybe it was the sound of bones being stepped on.
“…This Hell is different from what I imagined.”
In the original work, Hell only existed as a setting.
Hell is a prison-like place to confine demons.
Demons trapped in Hell by the hand of God suffer there eternally.
But here, there were no demons, only bones.
“Hmm. It can’t be helped. This is the ‘garbage dump.'”
“Garbage dump?”
“Hell has its ranks. This is a rankless Hell. Those who suffered in Hell for so long that their souls shattered, those who came here to forget everything after running away… This is where they end up. The Endless Hell.”
In short, it seems to be the final destination for all sinners.
Probably the forgotten souls who suffered for so long and were discarded here.
Even I, a setting enthusiast, was excited to encounter the backstory of the work, but only for a moment. If I died here with only bones left, what good would it do?
“To get to the surface, we need to go up. What’s at the top of this Hell?”
“Who else but ‘them.'”
“Them?”
“The flowers of evil… no, have you heard of the origin of black?”
I have.
The highest rank in the demon hierarchy, the black ones. Commonly called the ‘flowers of evil.’
Unlike other demons, they are born as demons, noble bloodlines reigning over other demons.
In short, they are the nobles among demons.
“Hell has been under their rule for a long time. All interactions with the surface are only possible through them. Those who fall into Hell are all judged by them and sent to different Hells to suffer according to the results.”
Like judges of Hell.
I didn’t expect demons to judge demons… but no matter how I think about it, it doesn’t seem like a fair trial.
“Hmm! But don’t worry. If I regain control, Hell will change! I’m different from them! If you help me regain the throne, I promise to send you back to the surface!”
“That’s a kind offer…”
The self-proclaimed King of Hell clattered his jawbone and confidently shouted.
Would demons even listen to a lowly skeleton?
Thinking that, I followed him, but his steps stopped in front of a pile of bones.
He started clearing the piled bones without hesitation.
“Oh… thankfully, it’s still here!”
From the pile of bones emerged a rusty iron door.
Though yellowed with rust, I could tell what it was.
It looked exactly like something I’d seen in reality.
“…An elevator?”
“Elevator? I don’t know about that, but this is a passage used by demons. I hid it here. You can go anywhere in Hell with this.”
“I see…”
But it’s so old, I’m not sure if it’ll work.
When the guy pressed the dust-covered button, the elevator groaned and vibrated.
At the same time, the rusty elevator door opened with a spine-chilling screech of metal.
“Come on, get in. This will take us to the upper levels in no time.”
To think we could escape so smoothly.
Admiring inwardly, I got into the elevator with the guy.
The inside was dusty, probably from disuse.
But since the door opened and the B-??? light was on, it seemed to be working.
But…
“Now we just have to wait until someone on another floor calls the elevator.”
“…?”
What?
When I asked with my eyes what he meant, the guy tilted his head.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“Why aren’t we moving? Why are we waiting?”
“Ah, that’s because we don’t have the authority to operate it.”
No authority…?
“Do you need authority to operate this device?”
“Indeed. Only demons can operate this device. So we just have to wait for a demon on another floor to call it.”
Wait a minute…
“…Do you remember when it was last operated?”
“Hmm… I think it moved about 200 years ago.”
This crazy guy?
I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to endure the headache.
He made such a big deal about having a way to go up, but it’s just waiting? And with no guarantee?
I barely resisted the urge to blow his head off.
I don’t have time for this.
I randomly pressed one of the dusty elevator buttons.
It was a meaningless action, more out of frustration.
Thinking about all the time I spent finding his bones, ‘wrath’ surged within me.
I wanted to crush his bones into pieces right then and there, but instead, I just pressed any button.
Just as I nervously pressed the bottommost button, an unknown message appeared.
[?? Ru??ta confirmed. Confirmation? Complete??.]
[?Approval?]
The only word I could make out among the broken letters was ‘approval.’
“Huh? Uh…?!”
The skull’s jaw dropped as it watched.
“Ah… what, what’s this?”
The skull, reattaching its fallen jaw, shouted at me.
“It, it’s working?! What did you just press?!”
I just pressed anything and it worked… but that sounded too cliché.
I answered in a voice full of ‘pride.’
“…To think the self-proclaimed King of Hell would be surprised by such a trivial matter…”
“N-no, I wasn’t surprised! I was just curious! That’s all-ugh?!”
Groan-.
The elevator, buried in bones for ages, shook violently.
The upward arrow started blinking.
I carefully grabbed the handrail beside me. And that choice was correct.
Bang-!!
The skull screamed from the sudden surge.
“Ahhh?!”
The guy, who just got his body, collapsed as his bones crumbled from the impact.
As bones flew around inside the elevator, I suddenly thought.
‘But… did I press the right button?’
*
At that moment.
“Do you have any last words?”
Nial, the demon in charge of the trial, asked the criminal while eating a white soft-serve ice cream.
“…Fuck you.”
The criminal who answered was a woman covered in wounds. Covered in mud and blood, she glared at Nial with eyes full of hatred for the world.
“Heheh. You can go fuck yourself!”
Nial, the girl eating ice cream, sat on the high seat and sneered.
“Hey. Let me ask you something. If you became a demon, shouldn’t you at least stamp your face on us? Did it feel good to suck honey on the surface? Huh?”
“……”
“Don’t live so cluelessly. You’re a dream demon, right? Then you should’ve just had fun in dreams. That’s why you ended up in Hell.”
“Shut up…”
“Heheh. You’re the one talking nonsense.”
Nial chuckled and spoke to the demons around her.
“Heehee… still no good! Take her away. If we mince her a few times, she might learn some manners.”
“Just wait! Just wait!”
“No! I won’t wait!”
The demons, following Nial’s orders, approached the dream demon with spears.
“Don’t come! I’ll kill you if you come!”
That’s when it happened.
A massive shadow appeared in the air above the dream demon, thrashing like a wounded beast.
“…?”
There was no time to be surprised.
The moment the dream demon opened her eyes wide at the shadow that suddenly appeared, ignoring mass-.
Crash-!
A terrible sound followed as a large lump of metal crushed her.
Everyone present was speechless at the sudden turn of events.
And then…
-Ding! Arrived at the destination!
The mysterious lump of metal opened.
It turned out to be an elevator.
When someone stepped out, Nial couldn’t help but shout.
“What the? Fuck?”
