The Deities of Hell

Having reached the island, Ria and Kanata approached Pomkichi who had planted himself down with caution.

“Are you alright?”

“I am the Dead from Hell! Pomkichi!”

“Aside from his head, he seems okay.”

“But you did the same, Ria…”

Pomkichi made a face that didn’t seem like he was thinking of anything and jumped onto Ria’s back.

“The snail is going outside. Let’s go inside this building and then up.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them said, but the building seemed to be over 40 stories.

It wouldn’t be that easy to climb up.

“Let’s go.”

“O-okay.”

Kanata followed Ria while trembling, and they entered the building.

In contrast to the outside, the inside was dim.

“Wait! Don’t walk behind me! Walk in front!”

“B-but… It’s scary. Aren’t you scared too, Ria?”

“I’m not scared! Don’t be so timid! Walk in front!”

Ria forcibly pulled Kanata’s arm and made him walk in front.

Kanata had meekly refused, but then reluctantly walked ahead.

Pomkichi jumped onto his back.

“Hey, Pommie! Why are you going to him?”

“What? I thought I’d stay vigilant for Kanata since he’s walking in the front…”

“Come… Come here.”

“Maybe… You’re scared?”

“I’m not scared!”

Ria pulled on Pomkichi, then hugged him so he wouldn’t go to Kanata.

“I’m embarrassed!”

“Anyway, Kanata, what do you have on your back?”

The bow and arrow fastened on Kanata’s back looked strange to Ria.

Even though the luggage would get in the way, he still carried it with him.

“S-since I was in the archery club… When I came to the Sanctuary, I was holding it.”

“Is this what Robin Hood uses? Let me try it later!”

“That’s fine, but don’t talk so much inside this building… We’ll be discovered by the devil.”

“I got it. Promise me?”

“I promise.”

The inside of the building was badly collapsed and filthy.

While some stairs were climbable, others had crumbled, so it wasn’t possible to reach the roof solely by the stairs.

“We can’t go up any further.”

“What! Is there no other path?”

After ascending the stairs for 15 min, they were at last blocked.

However, when Kanata saw a rope that had fallen to the ground, he got an excellent idea.

“Pomkichi, can you take this rope and tie it to the steel frame?”

“Leave it to me!”

He gave the rope to Pomkichi who was climbing in the air and tied it to the steel frame of the sixth staircase.

“First, lift me up a little.”

“Huh? O-okay.”

Kanata hesitated as he let Ria climb onto his shoulders.

Ria sat down on his shoulders, then caught the rope and began to climb it.

“S-still not up?”

Growing impatient, Kanata looked up.

However, when he did, he saw under Ria’s skirt and immediately looked down again.

“I’m up!”

Ria looked down from the staircase and reached out for Kanata.

Kanata was finally able to climb up.

“Isn’t something dripping down from above?”

“Water?”

A liquid dripped down little by little from the ceiling.

The two looked up when they noticed it, but because the surroundings were too dark, they couldn’t see it that well.

However, Ria conjured a small sun in the palm of her hand that lit up the inside all the way up to the ceiling.

“Wow! The sun is… In your hand…”

“Can’t you do this, Kanata?”

“I can’t.”

“I see.”

The two said while looking up.

“W-what’s that?”

Snails, larger than normal, stuck to the ceiling.

There were dozens of them creeping around.

“Stand up! We’re running away!”

Panicked, Kanata took Pomkichi’s and Ria’s hands and ran out.

Ria set loose the sun in her hand and it automatically followed her.

The large horde of snails creeped after the two of them.

“Ah!”

One of the snails dropped down onto Ria’s back.

“This little–! Pompunch!”

Pomkichi punched a snail that had fallen onto his back as well, but it looked at them unperturbed with its long eyes.

If anything, the snails fell from the ceiling onto Ria as soon as they got the chance.

Ria attacked the snails with the sun and burned them.

“Stop it! Let me go! Stop! Help me!!!”

Ria tried to burn the snails to death, but there were too many to attack them all.

Pomkichi and Ria both tried to resist, but ended up drawing all the attention to them.

“Woah!”

“Ria!”

Kanata stopped running and tried to reach for Ria.

However, he reluctantly withdrew his hand, trembling.

“I-I have to save her… Save her…”

Kanata muttered, turning pale, but his shaking body stepped back.

His mind and body didn’t sync and it didn’t move the way he wanted it to.

“The contract… If I don’t save her, I’ll die. But… It’s not like I’ll die from that…”

Kanata didn’t think the contract he made with Ria was the real deal.

He saw it as a verbal promise between people and that the dying was simply an attitude.

More so since Ria was a second-year middle school student.

“It’s like promising to swallow a thousand needles if you lie… Besides, I can’t save her.”

Kanata slowly put distance between himself and Ria who was swarmed with snails.