Chapter 32: Every Good Deed Has Its Price

  In the dark crypt, illuminated only by the flames of burning candles, an absolute silence reigned. The three young boys were cadets from the local military academy, well aware of the requirements of the summoned devils. Not only the church of justice, but all holy books emphasized that a devil would only help in exchange for one's soul.

  Of course, these stories rarely held a grain of truth but in this case, there was some essence to it as each summoning was strengthening the domain of Lord of Hell.

  "We want the fame of our deeds to last for hundreds of years!" said one of the frightened cadets. The second nodded, clearly agreeing with his colleague. The third, who had soiled his trousers earlier, did not seem particularly talkative.

  "What are your names?" Justinian said in a demonic voice, outraged that there were people willing to sell their souls for such nonsense. He had already planned to ensure their request would be fulfilled more than they could ever wish for.

  "Jacenty, Zibi, and Mietek," the first cadet answered.

  Justinian, in the form of a grim judge, nodded.

  "So it shall be," he said, and using the power of his four-stripe cultivation, he vanished from the cadets' sight. The only trace he left behind was the sound of the metal crypt gate suddenly opening. This sound convinced the cadets that the evil powers had already begun to work and their wish would indeed come true.

  In a sense, they were right, because Justinian had indeed started to act. What they could not have expected was that this action was... writing a report on them and taking it to the local church.

  Of course, the boy had no idea where he was, but he was sure that by making a proper spectacle – for example, by leaving a large inscription on the wall saying "A DEVIL WAS SUMMONED HERE" – he would attract the right kind of attention.

  After making several such signs and feeling a sense of a job well done, he decided to return to the hellish dimension using a previously prepared spell.

  The whole process went off without a hitch, and soon he was once again breathing the low-quality hellish air.

  'That'll teach those bastards to take dealings with devils seriously,' he thought, shaking his head.

  He spent the next few days on Greedius's mountain in a similar fashion. Besides writing reports, he also focused on training, and by pondering the nature of justice in a survival-of-the-fittest scenario, he achieved the fifth, final stripe of Ki Gathering.

  Two Weeks Later

  "Strange rumors about the human world have been circulating lately," Aldona told him at breakfast.

  "Meaning?" he asked, frowning.

  "Apparently, there have been some unforeseen changes, and the number of devil summonings has dropped!" she said, intentionally modulating her voice a bit more than she should have.

  Justinian, spending more time on training, had less for his companions.

  'Especially with that Belisara constantly hovering around him!' the noblewoman thought with a grimace.

  The current conversation was one of the few they had the chance to have in private. That's why she wanted to make the most of it.

  "Really?" The boy seemed surprised, but also... smiling?

  The she-devil noticed a glint in his eye and wasn't sure how to interpret it.

  'Is he also trying to spice up the conversation?'

  Of course, she couldn't know that he was pleased about something entirely different. The news from Aldona simply confirmed that his plan had started to work, and so he couldn't help but smile.

  Then he remembered something.

  "Greedius wants to break free from Boruta's leash regarding the pilgrimage requirements soon."

  "Why do you think so?" Aldona asked, surprised.

  "Belisara told me," he replied without much thought and... immediately regretted it.

  For reasons incomprehensible to him, the two she-devils did not like each other and often one would complain to him about the other. Then they would pressure him to behave in a certain way, which of course he had no intention of doing.

  The noblewoman frowned.

  "How many times do I have to tell you not to talk to her in private!? She's suspicious!" Borowiakowa fumed unreasonably.

  Like all she-devils, she was very territorial and saw Belisara's actions as a clear attempt to steal someone she liked.

  Justinian could only sigh inwardly. Of course, he felt attached to both of his companions. Although he had spent more time with Aldona, his first memories of hell were connected with Belisara. He didn't want to favor either one.

  "Haha, I think you're exaggerating with your disputes. Really, you two should make up," he replied with a forced smile.

  The noblewoman's indignant reaction was not long in coming, and soon she stormed out of his grotto in a huff.

  Justinian himself, failing to see that his own behavior was leading to the escalation of the problem, decided to focus on training and summons. For the first time in a long while, it seemed he hadn't created any disaster, and his conscience could finally rest a little.

  At the same time, Felix was sitting in Greedius's grotto, feasting on local apples and drinking excellent quality hellish beer. After a full day of hard training, it was now time to indulge in building connections and pleasantries.

  "D-do you want anything else?" the lord of the mountain asked with concern.

  A keen observer would have noticed that this concern stemmed from the visible fear in his eye that his guest would eat all the delicacies he had selected for the day.

  Felix was undoubtedly such an observer, so he could only smile ruefully.

  "No need, this is more than enough for me."

  "You can eat m-more if you want," the devil said, but it was clear his heart was aching.

  Nevertheless, he had no intention of complaining more than usual. Felix was the greatest talent of the 66th hellish dimension, and even Greedius recognized his exceptional potential.

  'Who knows, maybe I'll be able to use this in the future?' he thought, looking at Eusebius's adept.

  "Do you really want to stop the summonings?" Faustus asked him, changing the subject.

  After all, his mountain was known for it – besides its brutal conditions, of course – and it was a rather unusual gesture. The pot-bellied devil, however, nodded.

  "Something strange has been happening in the human kingdoms lately. The number of people willing to summon is dropping, so maybe we need to introduce a bit of mystery," the devil explained, then hesitated for a moment. "Besides, damn Boruta and his double standards! We have to go on strike somehow!"

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  Felix, of course, knew what he meant. Eusebius and Greedius were not happy with Maleficius's special treatment while the demands on them were constantly increasing.

  "Do you think it will do any good?" the adept asked.

  "Who knows? You have to try, otherwise it will only get worse and worse."

  Felix nodded, and a silence fell, during which Greedius eagerly devoured a huge meal. At a glance, it was 10 times larger than Felix's meal.

  "And what about the talents on the mountain?"

  "Not the worst," the lord stated, greedily munching on a piece of roasted goose thigh. "The best one is training in seclusion, far from the chaos here."

  His interlocutor raised his eyebrows slightly.

  "Unusual for you."

  The fat devil laughed loudly.

  "Even I can appreciate such a talent!" he said, wiping his mouth with his hand. "He may not be good at scheming, but I haven't seen someone so good at cultivating a demonic body in a long time."

  Felix thought for a moment.

  "Sounds quite good, but it's still just Ki Gathering."

  Greedius agreed with this statement.

  "There is another promising adept. Perfect for my gift, and in the last few months, he has gone from the first to the breakthrough of the fifth stripe."

  Faustus was impressed. It had taken him years to reach such a point, although, of course, his training had been intentionally prolonged to create a magnificent foundation.

  "Impressive speed, and what about his skills?"

  The lord of the mountain smiled slightly. Then, he looked around his grotto and, in a conspiratorial gesture, leaned towards his guest.

  "This is the best part," he whispered. "He has acquired the power of shapeshifting, and besides that one technique, even I don't know what he is capable of."

  When Felix's eyes widened, Greedius was very pleased. He had finally managed to impress this famous adept. He celebrated it with a huge swig of his favorite beer.

  "But don't worry, not all my investments are this good."

  "Meaning?"

  "That little she-devil who accompanies you... Belisara?" he asked, trying to recall the name.

  Faustus nodded.

  "What about her?"

  "Initially, I had high hopes for her, but I was sorely disappointed. Three stripes, some stupid abilities allowing for observation of the surroundings instead of powerful magic." Here the fat devil shook his head as if he truly regretted the case. "If I had known it would turn out this way, I never would have given her a chance."

  Listening to him, Felix shrugged. Such cases happened.

  Over the next few weeks, the boy continued to answer calls to the human world and practice with his saber. Of course, with each summons, he made sure that every request made to the "devil" was also accompanied by an appropriate report.

  "How good it feels to finally do something truly good..." he savored one morning in his grotto.

  He felt really good about it, and his soul had revived somewhat after the sufferings he had faced in recent months. At least, that's how it was until... soon his peace was shattered by a tremor that ran through the entire mountain!

  'What's happening?'

  Terrified, he immediately ran outside, where he met the rest of his companions. Of course, they were no less disoriented than he was.

  Soon, the powerful voice of Voivode Boruta pierced the air:

  "The lords of all mountains are to report immediately to the Mountain of Mists. The Inquisition has begun to run rampant in the human dimension, causing a massive wave of migration towards us!"

  Of course, indignant voices of devils immediately rose up.

  "Those damn humans again?! Our brothers are jobless, and we have to support these freeloaders!"

  "There's no room for another migration in this dimension!"

  The hellish fiends expressed their dissatisfaction, and Justinian had to ask his companions what exactly was going on. In a rare mood for him, Felix looked him seriously in the eyes:

  "Apparently, the church in the human world has recently tracked down many attempts at devil summoning, which has led to the creation of a special inquisition to combat heresy."

  "W-what?" The young man turned pale at these words.

  "Now, entire villages and towns are being burned at the stake, causing people to flee to us by the hundreds of thousands!"

  "This is a serious problem, we have neither the space nor the resources to take in more people here," Aldona interjected, moved.

  Even Belisara, who usually wasn't very fond of the she-devil, had to agree with her on this.

  No one knew what to think, and soon everyone returned to their grottos.

  Justinian was left alone outside, the scale of the catastrophe he had caused only just beginning to dawn on him.

  'I only wanted to help...'

  The situation calmed down somewhat in the following days when Maleficius found a temporary solution to the problem. In a rare display of power, he caused the entire dimension to shake, after which... the gates connecting it to the human kingdom closed!

  This temporarily forced the migrants to retreat, but no one knew how events would unfold and whether they would find a way to bypass the blockade.

  General caution was advised everywhere, although it seemed that the mini-games for resources on Greedius's mountain would be able to take place without hindrance. It was also announced that this year, exceptionally, the pilgrimage would not include the mountains of Maleficius and Ignatius, "In light of their contribution to resolving the crisis."

  Unofficially, it was said that old Boruta had once again capitulated in a confrontation with the mysterious Maleficius. Interestingly, on the day of this announcement, a very special guest appeared on Greedius's mountain.

  Justinian sat in front of his grotto, observing the landscape in the distance. When he listened with sufficient attention, the screams of the defeated and the clashes of steel against steel sometimes reached him.

  'Upon entering the third level of Ki Gathering, I decided that my justice would be absolute. I was not to be satisfied with compromise, striving for the world I always wanted to believe in,' he thought, looking at the contrast between the beautiful nature of the rugged mountain and the corruption that had arisen from devilish practices.

  'Without a doubt, I have failed. Wanting to weaken evil, I led to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. In the 66th hell, small children are taught in schools how cruel I am and how never to follow my example...' he analyzed coldly, comparing his intentions with their accompanying consequences.

  'Regardless of everything, all these effects have nothing to do with justice. They actually make the world even worse.'

  An unpleasant wind blew particles of mountain dust in his face as he pondered all this.

  "Don't sit like that, or you'll catch a wolf,"* Belisara interrupted his solitude as she emerged from the grotto.

  The boy smiled at her without enthusiasm as she sat down right next to him. They spent a few minutes in silence, listening together to the sounds of death carrying from afar.

  "Not the nicest neighborhood, huh?" she finally started.

  "I've been in better," Justinian confirmed the obvious, lost in thought about his earlier problems.

  The conversation didn't seem to flow, perhaps influenced by the fact that the boy could sense Aldona watching them from behind. Belisara, however, was weaker than her, so she couldn't have known.

  Soon she moved on to the topic she wanted to address more directly.

  "You've stirred up a bit of trouble."

  "That's a bit of an understatement."

  The she-devil looked at him. After a moment of thought, she sighed lightly and concluded that it would be best if he confessed his feelings himself.

  "What do you think about everything that has happened?" she asked the boy.

  Justinian stared into the distance, as if absent. Finally, he shrugged.

  "I didn't want a dimension-destroying madman to grow in power through ridiculous follies. As it turns out, however, the world cannot tolerate even such an attempt to do something good." Here he hesitated. "I cannot regret what I tried to do. I do, however, regret my naivety in thinking I could change anything."

  For a while, only the gust of wind answered him, once again blowing dust in his face. Belisara seemed to be pondering something, while Aldona in the grotto clenched her fists. She remembered how his heroic intervention had saved her life, she remembered how his refusal to accept the absurd hellish customs had given her the courage to believe in turning her own situation around.

  She wanted to leave the grotto and say something when Belisara spoke.

  "And what if I told you that you've already changed something?"

  "Meaning?"

  The she-devil smiled, which, combined with her extraordinary beauty, created a unique sight.

  "For the first few months on this mountain, I believed that strength was the answer to everything. That it was the natural order of things, and my abilities were the answer to everything," she said quietly.

  Justinian nodded – from what he had noticed, this was a typical view in this dimension, so it didn't surprise him.

  "However, after meeting you, after our cooperation in the tournament, I began to think about all this differently." Here she paused for a moment. "Is all this death really necessary? Can we really not make better use of our lives?" she explained, looking him in the eyes.

  This was exactly what Justinian had been wondering about. It was also what Aldona had wanted to say to him earlier, though perhaps in a more chaotic form.

  "It's thanks to you that I know there is another path and that it's worth fighting for. You have an ally in me, and don't you change," here she averted her eyes, as if blushing, and stood up hastily.

  "Hey, wait," the boy stopped her, but the moment was interrupted by something.

  The field in front of the grotto suddenly became strangely dark and cold. The adepts turned around in surprise, only to see the guest who had also visited Greedius's mountain as part of the pilgrimage.

  It was none other than Septima, who was moving into the grotto next door, sending Justinian a seemingly indifferent, yet hostile, gaze.

  Her aura was much more terrifying than before.

  The night was incredibly quiet, as if all the mountain's inhabitants were waiting in suspense for the resolution of the mini-games organized by the mountain's lord.

  The birds were silent, the wolves did not howl at the absent moon in the sky, and Justinian, as usual, was tormented by nightmares about the death of his family.

  "Never... lose faith... in justice..." Sister Teresa whispered before closing her eyes in her cruel death.

  The boy held her cooling hand in silent pain when he realized that... instead of fingers, he had claws!

  Terrified, he wanted to scream, but only a disgusting, sinister laugh escaped his throat. Looking at himself, he noticed that his entire skin was red... just like a devil's!

  "W-what?"

  Then he felt someone shaking him, a woman's voice was shouting something at him, but he didn't understand any of the words. He couldn't turn around either.

  Then suddenly everything disappeared, and he was alone. There was only him and his devilish form. And in his head, Belisara's voice echoed.

  "Don't sit like that, or you'll catch a wolf..."

  Slowly, he felt everything he was crumble into a powder as black as tar.

  Then he woke up, drenched in sweat. He was breathing heavily, trying to recover from another nightmare in a row. His face, however, wore an expression of surprise for a completely different reason.

  "Those words... but wolves... don't exist in hell!" he gasped.