Dante descended into the fourth circle of Hell, his footsteps echoing on the worn stones as the environnt around him drastically changed. Unlike the chaotic winds of lust or the fetid mud of gluttony, this circle was a barren landscape of rocky desolation and darkness. A faint glow emanated from the ground, illuminating just enough to reveal the details of the tornt before him.
Mountains of gold, jewels, and wealth were piled around, but there was no beauty or order to them. They were chaotic heaps, grotesque representations of greed and prodigality. Tornted souls, thin and miserable, pushed enormous circular weights, spheres of stone or tal, with endless effort. The sounds of groaning and screams echoed through the heavy air, while other souls, equally condemned, pushed against them in the opposite direction.
Dante observed for a mont, noticing the repetitive pattern. "They're trapped in an eternal cycle," he murmured to himself. "Pushing, struggling, but never reaching anything. The weight of their excesses in life, now their chains."
A grotesque figure erged from the shadows, interrupting his contemplation. It had the form of a man, but with long, disproportionate arms that ended in sharp claws. Its back was hunched by the weight of a grotesquely large crown of gold, seemingly embedded in its skull.
"You who walk among the dead," the creature growled, its voice deep and resonant. "This is the realm of the greedy. Here, the weight of covetousness can never be relieved."
Dante raised an eyebrow, his gaze cold. "And who exactly do you think you are, speaking to like that?"
"I am Plutus, the guardian of this circle," the creature replied, straightening up as the jewels on its crown glead with a sinister light. "And you, stranger, do not belong here."
Dante sighed, uncrossing his arms as he looked at the being before him. "I belong nowhere, and yet, here I am. If you're the guardian, then stop , if you can."
"I have no ti for that... Just leave," Plutus replied, sothing Dante didn't expect... "I can just... leave?" he asked, confused. He could have sworn... Well, he was ready to kill another demon to move forward.
Plutus huffed, his expression marked by a mix of boredom and disdain. "Do you think everyone here wants to fight you? That all the guardians of Hell want to prove sothing?" He gestured with one of his claws toward the souls condemned to push their eternal burdens. "Look around. Most are trapped in pointless cycles. And I? I'm tired of it all. Tired of seeing the sa despair, the sa greed."
Dante crossed his arms again, now intrigued. "You're saying you're not going to stop ? That I can just pass?"
Plutus took a step forward, the stones beneath his feet creaking. "I said leave. If you want to dive deeper into this abyss, who am I to stop you? I tend to this cycle, but I have no interest in wasting my ti with soone like you."
Dante narrowed his eyes, suspicious. It was rare to find soone in Hell who didn't want to destroy or test him. "This seems... too easy. Where's the trick? You're the guardian of this circle, shouldn't you try to stop ?"
Plutus let out a rough laugh, as though Dante had told a particularly bad joke. "Oh, kid, do you think I'm like Minos or Cerberus? A trained dog to jump at command? I protect this circle because it's my duty, but honestly, what would you do here? Steal the suffering of the souls? Absorb the sins of greed? Go ahead. Maybe you'll even like the taste."
Dante frowned, discomfort evident. He didn't trust Plutus, but at the sa ti, the guardian's indifference seed genuine. He took a few steps forward, expecting so kind of trap or surprise attack, but nothing happened. Plutus just stood there, watching.
"You really won't stop ?" Dante asked again, still incredulous.
"No, go away," Plutus replied, a touch of weariness in his voice. "But if you insist, I might change my mind."
Dante let out a sigh of relief mixed with frustration. "You're... the strangest guardian I've ever t."
"And you're the most annoying intruder I've ever encountered," Plutus retorted with an ironic smile. "Now go. Before I change my mind and decide to knock that arrogance out of you by force."
Dante gave one last glance at Plutus before moving forward, passing the cursed piles of wealth and the tornted souls. Still, he couldn't help but glance over his shoulder. Plutus remained standing, motionless, like a statue, his eyes fixed on the condemned souls.
"Curious," Dante murmured to himself, casting one last look at the demon before continuing. Plutus remained behind, a stationary and enigmatic figure in the dark horizon of the fourth circle. Sothing about that interaction unsettled him, but he chose not to linger. Hell had its own twisted logic, and Dante knew trying to understand it was a futile exercise.
He began walking, his firm steps echoing through the distant lants and the constant grinding of the condemned souls. Ahead of him, a procession of tortured figures dragged enormous weights, their objects shining with the tallic gleam of earthly riches. The ground was marked with deep ruts, carved by the endless effort of these souls in their eternal task.
Dante walked toward the direction from which they ca, his eyes scanning for any sign of danger. The atmosphere was suffocating, heavy with the scent of oxidized tal and the sound of chains binding the souls to their burdens. He passed piles of gold and jewels, mountains of riches that seed to silently scream their stories of betrayal, greed, and death.
"How many lives have been destroyed by these useless things?" he murmured, kicking a chain that blocked his path. The tallic sound echoed, but no soul lifted their eyes or reacted. They were completely subrged in their tornt, pushing, pulling, advancing only to be pushed back to the starting point.
Dante stopped for a mont, observing the scene carefully. The winds from the previous circle still seed to haunt him, but here the tornt was quieter, more insidious. There were no explosions of rage or wild screams; only deep exhaustion and a pain that seed eternal.
"If this is what greed ans," he murmured as he started walking again, "then maybe so of them deserved this fate." But his voice carried a hint of doubt, as if he himself wasn't entirely sure of that.
As he continued, Dante noticed the ground around him beginning to change. The scattered riches and the souls dragging their burdens beca more sparse, as if sothing was running out. In the distance, a dense darkness appeared, a black curtain that separated the next stage of his journey.
"What the hell is...?" Dante didn't have ti to finish the sentence. A spear, strangely familiar, cut through the air toward his head. He leaned to the side, narrowly avoiding it. The impact made the ground tremble, creating a massive crater before the spear returned with impressive speed, almost striking him again.
On the horizon, a figure appeared. Floating, a towering man with golden hair and piercing blue eyes, clad in armor so bright it seed to reflect all the light around him. "The son of the one who killed ," the man's voice resonated with strength, as though carried by the wind.
"Look at that... the God who died..." Dante murmured with a mocking smile. "I thought you'd gone to Helheim when you died, but it seems this sector of Hell swallowed you up quite nicely, huh?"
The figure, with its undeniable presence, began to multiply, green, pulsating energy emanating from his body. The tension in the air beca palpable.
"You... know about my holand?" The man murmured, his voice filled with apprehension.
"Of course I do," Dante replied, keeping his provocative smile. "After all, your dear daughter is with ."
"Fenrir...?" The man whispered, his eyes narrowing with a mixture of anger and fear.
"Ah, so you rember her..." Dante said, his voice laced with cruelty. "How ironic, coming from the father who abandoned her. Isn't it, Loki?" He let out a low, mocking laugh, savoring every second of the provocation.
Loki, the God of Mischief, seed to lose his composure, the tension on his face growing. His gaze, once confident and arrogant, now overflowed with contained rage. The figures multiplying around him, like exact copies of his image, began to group together, creating an aura of uncontrollable power. The green energy emanating from him made the air vibrate, weighing down on everything as if reality itself was distorting around him.
"You... don't know what you're saying," Loki spoke in a hoarse voice, as though trying to conceal the pain he felt. "Fenrir... my daughter... I did what I had to do, what was necessary. Don't co at with your lies and provocations."
Dante took a step forward, undeterred by Loki's overwhelming presence and his copies. He was enjoying the discomfort he was causing, like a hunter who knows he's about to make his prey fall into the trap.
"Lies?" Dante said with a cynical, defiant smile. "No, Loki... I'm not lying. I'm just reminding you that it was you who left her behind, you who abandoned her, even knowing what she would face. Now, she's under my control, and you're trapped here, pathetically trying to recover what you lost."
Loki made a sudden gesture with his hand, as if attempting to disintegrate Dante with a single motion, but the copies began to disappear, dissolving into the air as if being pulled into another dinsion. The pressure around them seed to lessen, but the hatred in his eyes didn't fade.
"You will pay for this," Loki threatened, his voice now calr but filled with silent fury. His eyes glowed with a rage that could incinerate everything around him. "You will regret this bitterly."
Dante let out a low laugh, a sneer forming on his lips. "Oh, don't make that face, little god without powers. You're here, right? You're dead. You're no longer who you were... And I'm the master of this world now, greedy being." He waved his hand dismissively, as if brushing away sothing insignificant.
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With a simple gesture, the ground beneath his feet cracked, and a wave of black Miasma surged upwards, shaping itself into twisted and grotesque figures. An army of the dead, made of pure Miasma, erged from the earth. Their eyes were empty, their forms distorted, but their presence was palpable, like an imnse tide of shadows.
"Go ahead," Dante continued with a deadly calm, his words carrying a subtle threat. "I'll wait... after all, we have much to discuss, don't we? You caused great trauma in the mind of MY VALENTINA, and that... that will not go unanswered." His eyes glead with a cold intensity. "I will avenge her, Loki. And every second of it will be more pleasurable than you can imagine."
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