Gula Invidia: Black Market (XII): An Infernal Pit And The Sin Within

  --- Booker H. Freeman ---

  The cheers of the crowd roared forth in his favor, their meaningless clamoring barely dimming as the guards removed the minotaur’s remains, and only redoubling when another contestant entered the cage with a knife.

  A knife that without his intervention found its way into Booker’s heart. For most this would prove a fatal wound, but for him… he didn’t even feel it beyond the cold numbness that crawled across his skin.

  Just as he felt nothing as he grabbed his foe’s arm before breaking it, removing the knife, and relocating it into the man’s neck where he proceeded to saw the sinner’s head off in brutal execution.

  More cheers echoed even as he gave the crowd a cold shoulder, as the pattern began to form, as the pit did its best to break him. Their growing desperation becoming more and more apparent with every execution, every judgement delivered upon the sinners.

  After his third victim they quit collecting the bodies, instead letting them pile across the cage’s floor.

  Upon finishing the fourth they began sending them two at a time. Adding another with each round in the hopes of burying him under the mountain of bodies that began to surround him.

  His foes used weapons of all sorts, blades, bats, and more in their attempts to break him.

  But he endured.

  The began unleashing magics upon him, fire, lightning, and curses galore hoping to find something that would stop him.

  But he endured.

  And with every foe that crossed him, he returned their every slight tenfold over. Making a violent spectacle of every kill, be it ripping his victims limb from limb, or holding them against the cage until their hearts gave out. He executed them all in a gory fashion that the wretched crowd of Sinners applauded with every death, a casually callus coldness that he was more than familiar with.

  Eventually though a hush fell over the crowd as rather than a small horde of sinners rushed the cage, instead a single one came forth. One that was clearly intoxicated based on the faint sway to his steps and the bottle in his hand.

  (Pride: Has this man no shame?)

  (Sloth: They must be nearing the end of their rope. Might be stalling for time to act.)

  (Envy: Something about him is…)

  (Wrath: You feel it as well.)

  (Lust: No, it’s something else…)

  Booker gave the drunken man before him a once over, his face had long dark sideburns and scruff that covered his head. The clothes he was wearing were an old white button up with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of faded black pants held up by a set of suspenders.

  While his intoxication was a surprise, what was more surprising was the fact that he had arguably the fewest animal features of all the wretches Booker had fought this night. The only thing that made him stand out as a fighter was the fact that his flesh was covered in both scars and muscles.

  “Made one hell of a mess in here…” The man noted, taking in the many many corpses littering the floor.

  “Truly? Because in some ways it feels like I’m taking out the trash.” Booker confessed.

  (Gluttony: They were just lambs to the slaughter~)

  (Wrath: No, rabid dogs to be put down.)

  “Fair.” The scruffy man admitted, before putting the bottle to his lips and finishing off its contents. Once the bottle ran dry, he shook it trying to get out a few more drops before carelessly tossing it to the side and taking a boxing stance as the glass shattered. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Let’s.” He agreed, stepping up to his foe.

  The drunken man blearily blinked up at him as he got closer, a faint glaze to his brown eyes. “Oh… you’re a rabbit man…”

  He took a moment to look at the bloodstained white fur on his hands, having not even noticed his own transformation. “So I am.”

  (Envy: Our magicks may be fractured, but they’re still bound to the same core soul.)

  (Gluttony: No matter the colors we wear, we’ll always be the same beast within.)

  “Explains… why they made me come in.” The man slurred.

  “Oh?” He asked, giving the man another unimpressed once over.

  “Yeah…” The man nodded as his eyes turned a violent violet.

  (Envy: Oh no…)

  Faster than Booker could react, a massive clawed hand grabbed onto his skull, before picking him up and slamming him into the ground, cratering it around him.

  He endured of course but… he actually felt that through the cold.

  A clawed hand wrapped around his leg before Booker found himself being swung off the ground, and thrown into the electrified cage.

  (Wrath: This is nothing.)

  The cold kept him from feeling the cage, but it didn’t prevent the daze that washed over him as he blinked at the man who had tripled in size. Turning into a mountain of muscular flesh, now wrapped in dark fur and a faint violet haze that he could hear the magic of thrumming through the air like an old blues song.

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  (Lust: Oh…)

  (Envy: That’s a problem…)

  From above a grinning elongated maw full of fangs, a pair of glowing violet eyes looked down on him. “What? You didn’t think you were the only one capable of really using Sin did you?”

  --- Lydia ‘Smith’ ---

  The last few minutes had been tense, waiting for Booker’s signal while trying to keep the serving girl calm and everyone else from realizing they were sitting with two dead bodies.

  Which is why it was such a relief when Beez’el said, “Hey, something is going on.”

  Looking up with a frown, she saw several muscular men covered in tattoos, talking to each other before moving towards a doorway that led further into the club.

  “Do you think that’s Booker?” While he’d told them they’d know their signal… she actually didn’t know if this was supposed to be that signal.

  “Where does that door lead?” V asked Ser’ren, hoping the serving girl would tell them.

  “That leads to a few place but… the big one is the Cage where Sinners fight, and if they don’t have Sinners… they send Inferni…” Ser’ren explained with a pained expression.

  “Then that’s where Booker went.” Lydia pointed out. “And if he’s drawing the guards that way then…”

  “We get this shitshow moving before we end up with an even bigger clusterfuck.” Beez’el nodded as he hopped off the couch. “Mini-bitch, grab the other guy and I’ll grab this one.”

  She couldn’t help but grimace as she looked at the man that she killed. “Why do we need to grab them?”

  “We’re going to use them as an excuse to sneak into the back, say we’re looking for a place for the assholes to sleep it off since the tunnel ‘s infested with Hellbeasts.” Beez’el answered, his body already half carried. “Fuck this guy need to lay off the doughnuts.”

  Unable to come up with a better plan she tried to pick up the guy before finding that, “I… I can’t lift him… He’s too heavy.”

  “Just because Sinners can come back doesn’t keep their bodies from being deadweight.” V sighed, before grimacing at the body, and throwing the other arm over her shoulder. “I’m going to need so many showers after this…”

  “You three are insane.” Ser’ren told them. “I-if anyone finds you three roaming in the back they’ll catch all of you.” The Inferni turned towards V. “Especially when they realize you’re not wearing a collar!”

  “True…” V admitted before digging through her purse and pulling out a tube of lipstick. “This shade was such a nice contrast with my skin…” With that last comment V began to smear the lipstick across her neck, creating a vaguely collar looking mark upon her skin. “That look passable?”

  “With the black lights yeah, fifty-fifty in regular lights though.” Beez’el frowned, before fiddling with Lydia’s hoodie on his head. “Think I should put some on me, or will that sell the whole fake hume thing.”

  “The… the male Inferni are only allowed out for the pit or… for guest services…” Ser’ren grimaced, an expression they all matched.

  “Yeah, he may be fuckboi but…” V’s twisted face shook. “No, you’re better off faking a half-pint hume.”

  Ser’ren’s eyes frantically dashed between all of them as they stood up with the pair of dead bodies before putting her head in her hands and letting out a low pitch whine.

  “Uh, you… alright?” Beez’el checked, glancing unsurely towards V and Lydia.

  “Do… Do you really think you can get us out of here?” Ser’ren asked, looking up with a desperate expression.

  “I…” Beez’el took a deep breath before gaining a serious expression. “Things won’t change unless we make them change. I can’t promise we’ll get you out of here but… I can promise things will change tonight.”

  Ser’ren stared into Beez’el’s eyes for a moment before slowly nodding. “Alright… I’ll… I’ll get you to the other Inferni… After that though… I can’t do anything else.”

  “That’s more than enough.” V assured the serving girl. “You show us the way there and we’ll… we’ll figure out the rest.”

  Ser’ren nodded, before standing up. “F-follow me…”

  Carrying the bodies between them, with Beez’el occasionally grumbling about ‘drunken assholes’ whenever they passed by another group, they followed after Ser’ren. The serving girl leading them through a fabric divider and into the back rooms of the club where the lights shifted from blacklights into something more common. (You can tell this part used to be an abandoned subway…)

  The white tiles and brickwork covered in fading paint, torn posters, and graffiti looked distinctly less elegant than the rest of the club. (But I guess this isn’t the part they want people to see…)

  More than once they had a close call where they had to hold back as the sound of hurried footsteps rushed past them, all heading in the same general direction. “I… I don’t know what your distraction is doing but they’re gaining a lot of attention. I… I’m not sure how many guards are left over here.”

  “Well that’s what happens when you bring a VIP Contractor.” Beez’el smugly declared.

  “That’s not important.” V argued with a roll of her eyes. “What’s important is that Smiles is doing his job. How much further are we from the prison?”

  “It’s… it’s just ahead…” Ser’ren admitted, only to stop at a door a few moments later. “This… this is it…”

  “There’s no guard?” V frowned, looking around with no small amount of suspicion. “Smiles couldn’t have done that good of a job drawing everyone.”

  “Why bother with a guard?” Ser’ren sadly chuckled as she tapped her collar. “It’s not like we can leave.”

  “You can.” Lydia told her. “We’re going to make sure of that.”

  “Sure you are…” Ser’ren scoffed, her eyes glancing at the door before looking away. “I… I can’t follow you in there… Not, not after everything I’ve done to not be in there…”

  Her mind drifted back to everything that she’d been willing to do to get out of Ira Invidia, the things she’d been on the verge of doing before Booker had found her.

  “W get it.” V assured the other Inferni with a soft smile. “You’ve done plenty. Try to find somewhere safe, I’ve got a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better.”

  Ser’ren nodded. “I’ll try… and… thank you…”

  With that the Inferni left them, standing in front of the door giving them all an ominous feeling.

  “This is going to suck isn’t it?” Beez’el sighed.

  “You know the answer to that…” V grimaced, before letting out a sigh of her own. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Pushing forward they found themselves in a large dark room filled with what looked like a couple dozen animal cages and a scent that was the twisted mix of unwashed bodies, waste, and rot.

  Tossing the bodies they were carrying to the side, Beez’el and V both pulled out their phones while holding a hand over their noses and mouths before using them to light up the room.

  With the faint light, illuminating the darkness before them and somehow making the whole room worse as they were actually able to make out the people looking out from the cages. Many of them covered in a number of injuries and torn clothing, and all flinching away as the light found them.

  A reaction she felt was completely justified given the dark stains on the concrete floor leading further back into the darkness, where she was sure she could hear the buzzing of flies.

  “Shit…” Beez’el softly cursed, his hand grabbing V’s, the other Inferni unable to give a response of her own as she stared on in shock.

  As for Lydia, as she took all of this in, she felt something inside of her snap as she understood what Booker had been trying to tell her earlier during his lesson on magic. Which is why she swore, “We’re going to burn this place to the ground.”

  She would accept no other reality.

  Scene Consequences

  -Lydia has leveled up Dark Kit.

  What is Lydia’s group doing? (Besides freeing everyone.)

  []-Try to convince the prisoners to rebel. (Hard)

  -[]-Write-in An Argument.

  []-Look for that security room.

  []-Regroup with Booker.

  []-Just start setting things on fire.

  And how is Booker going to handle that Bear of a Sinner?

  []-Write-In.

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  Lydia has leveled up [Dark Kit] now what's her group going to do? (Besides freeing the Inferni.)