The Deities of Hell
Chapter 29 - The Devil of Pride Part 1
The area Ritsu was heading for was a townscape, looking like a big valley.
The large buildings lined up looked like a shopping mall, and their wide roofs had become the ground.
Below, collapsed buildings and personal objects looked like dropped trash, and didn’t seem like something he could walk on.
A deep fog obstructed his vision.
Different from the area of the Pig Bastard, it was dark and dirty everywhere.
However, stars were glittering in the sky that were illuminating Ritsu and Pomkichi.
“Ritsu! Ritsu!”
“What?”
“I’ve been calling you for a while. Are you spacing out?”
Pomkichi was concerned about Ritsu.
“Well, Kaori’s marshmallows are unforgettable. It was the first time in my life that I touched a woman’s chest. Maybe she noticed my erection when she hugged me.”
“How nice. I want to be touched, too.”
“Don’t worry about it, PomPervert. Anyway, she had such a nice scent.”
While Pomkichi was jealous, Ritsu walked on with a happy expression.
“That reminds me, why did you cry when she hugged you?”
“Why? Uh… I don’t really get it, but I might have been a bit relieved. Everything here has made me tense, so when I was relieved, I started to cry.”
“I see… Then you can hug me tight, too.”
“Even if you’re dying, I won’t hug you. I’m way past the age to hug a plushy.”
“What!?”
The two continued prattling like always.
Ritsu was deeply regretting not bringing Kaoru along, but, at the same time, he was elated by his lust.
“Hey, hey. There isn’t anyone who can fly higher than me.”
“There’s a new devil! It’s flying in the sky!”
The entrance of a new devil came without delay.
It had the body of a bat and the face of an ogre.
With an ogre-like face, the four eyes were those of an owl, rolling in their eye sockets.
Despite being a bat, the body was enormous.
“Let’s name it. That fool is the Bat Bastard! I will exterminate the monster who’s threatening Kaori!”
“As expected of you, Ritsu! This handsome champion of justice isn’t just for show!”
“Ha! My secret technique! Hide-and-seek!”
Ritsu said, trying to look cool while hiding behind a wall to not be discovered by the devil—the Bat Bastard.
“What!? Won’t you exterminate it?”
Startled, Pomkichi looked at Ritsu and, being flabbergasted, collapsed in a heap.
“What is it doing? It stopped… It’s like it’s holding something.”
The Bat Bastard paused at a roof high enough to be the top of Tokyo’s Skytree1.
It was like it was holding onto something.
Then, multiple doors to the roofs opened, and something was trailing out.
Because Ritsu was hiding near a door, he was startled when the door opened and braced himself with his sword to strike whatever was coming out.
“Huh?”
“A p-person?”
People were coming out the doors.
Unremarkable people you would see anywhere came out the doors to the rooftops.
Without noticing Ritsu, they entered the rooftop and stood in a line.
Ritsu and Pomkichi were both dumbfounded.
“Wha–, what are humans doing here? Why! T-this… Living humans…”
There were hundreds of people in total.
Even on the rooftops further in had people lining up, and they were all looking up at the Bat Bastard on the Tokyo Skytree.
The people prostrated themselves before the Bat Bastard by pressing their heads onto the ground.
Then, they all muttered something strange, as if it was an incantation.
“ευγνωμοσύνη! ευγνωμοσύνη!2”
It wasn’t in Japanese.
They faced the devil, saying something Ritsu couldn’t understand.
It was like a religion.
“What are you doing!? Lower your head!”
“What!? O-okay.”
A man near Ritsu yelled at him in a low voice.
Because Ritsu was sitting down, dumbfounded, he was forced to lower himself to the ground.
“Εντάξει!3”
The word the Bat Bastard spoke gave off a strange feeling.
It still wasn’t in Japanese, but it sounded like a mechanical voice rather than from a vocal cord.
At the word the Bat Bastard spoke, people stood up and returned to the inside of the buildings.
Ritsu was mixed among them and stayed at the back to not be found out.
Pretending to close the door behind them when inside, he checked his surroundings and closed the door from the outside.
Confused, he returned to the rooftop and looked at the Bat Bastard.
“This isn’t normal… What is this area?”
The Bat Bastard confirmed that there were no more people out and flew away.
Seeing that it was safe, Ritsu faced Pomkichi with a troubled expression.
“What was that just now?”
“That was the Devil of Pride. It’s the devil that might become the king of this sanctuary.”
“The Devil of Pride? What’s this nonsense? Or are you being serious?”
Ritsu asked Pomkichi.
“I’m serious.”
“Why do you know this? So the other devils have names, too? Nicknames like that… Pride?”
“They do. The Pig Bastard is the Devil of Gluttony.”
“Why… do you know this?”
“I don’t know the reason why I know. But, I have some vague memories.”
“I don’t get it…”
Ritsu showed an exasperated expression to Pomkichi and crossed the bridge connected to the building further in.
