Chapter 15

"... Mortal... you are MINE!"

Holding it's scythe at the ready for an attack the Skeleton lunged forwards towards him with a diagonal slash to his left shoulder blade, an attack which Shiro caught with Kurogane's blade then angled it down to the ground beside him. He then launched a thrust with the rear end into where he guessed the being's jugular would be, managing to get it to stagger back while holding that area in one hand… and the Scythe in the other.

'Tch, wanted to disarm him…' Shiro thought to himself before getting into his stance again. That changed in the following moments though…

CLANG!

When the male set about blocking a follow-up swing from the Grim Reaper who then vanished in a swirl of black fog, Shiro sensing killing intent behind him so he slammed a couple of Rashomon threads into the ground to propel himself into the air, as well as over another Scythe swing whilst also entering a position where he could bring his the back of his right foot's heel down onto the Skeleton's skull, earning a distorted hiss from the damn thing as it floated backwards.

Landing on the ground while retracting his threads, Shiro took held Kurogane in one hand and jumped forwards, swinging it down onto his opponent in a diagonal manner, then used the momentum when the creature dodged by strafing backwards to follow up with a rearing back of Kurogane before thrusting it forward with the blade in its jaw form. When it got close enough to chomp, Kurogane got blocked by the Skeleton's Scythe shaft before it held the shaft with both hands, then tossed it to the side to disarm the male of his Spear.

However, Shiro wouldn't let his hands be weaponless for long, since he then summoned his bow and began shooting Arrows at the being's face, making it twirl its Scythe like helicopter blades in front of it to block them. He then summoned Rashomon in its beast head form, making it launch itself at the enemy and start striking at it from multiple different angles while Shiro himself strafed around, peppering the enemy with divine energy arrows. His goal had been to get close to his Spear so he could re-equip himself with it, yet after recalling how that Vampire Lord (Shiro couldn't recall his name, that's just how unimportant he viewed him) Shiro had deigned it necessary to distract his opponent so he had the opportunity to do so.

A strategy which so far seemed to be working.

That is, until just when he had entered a close enough distance where he could have reached out to grasp his Spear, for the enemy simply vanished into a bunch of black fog. 'Huh, so he can somewhat teleport that way, huh…?' Shiro wondered, before he quickly sensed danger behind him and, thus, sidestepped a rear-launched thrust from... a spear? 'No, it's the same weapon, but it's blade seems to be able to shift itself into a spear-like form and a Scythe one at will...' the Beast in Black thought in realization as he turned around and saw the weapon return to normal in the skeleton's hands. 'Seems like I underestimated that thing's versatility then, it seems somewhat similar to Rashomon in that respect. In that case, I-'

Shiro quickly halted that thought process when he saw the Scythe shoot forwards with it's shaft seemingly extending like a spring, the male quickly leaning backwards so that his body wouldn't get impaled, as well as resembling an arching bridge in a sense. He would have responded by firing a few more arrows so he could retrieve Kurogane, or maybe even sent Rashomon at him, however the being didn't let him do anything else thanks to it appearing right in front of him, grabbing him by his neck causing the male to gasp for air. His hands, after dropping his Bow, shot to the skeleton hand robbing him of his air supply, all the while the robed Skeleton hissed in his face, black smoke escaping its mouth alongside one of the WORST cases of bad breath Shiro had ever smelled. Part of him wondered if that was what Xuanzang had been complaining about back in the village.

"Mortal... let your soul, be MINE!" It declared, slowly levitating higher and higher…

"Rashomon… MURAKUMO!"

Until Shiro summoned Rashomon as a claw-tipped appendage from one of his coat's sleeves, launching it at the enemy and having it slice across the area that had been its face. The skeleton shrieked and cawed like a bird as it floated backwards, hands over its wounded face while Shiro fell onto all fours, retrieving his weapons while dismissing his Bow in favor of his Spear.

Readying Kurogane in his right hand, the tip now its blade, Shiro jumped forwards to capitalize on the opportunity Rashomon had provided, its clawed appendage having sunk back into his coat. He struck by swinging sideways towards its face, of which the Skeleton barely managed to perceive the strike and return fire by swinging its Scythe in a reverse upward swinging motion. It caught Kurogane by the tip and tossed it upwards, away from him before it vanished into smoke, appearing 5 meters away from Shiro, rearing it's Scythe back and tossing it at him like it were a rotating Disk. However, Shiro deflected it through Rashomon's devouring space ability, then turned around to face off against the being.

Once again, the being used its teleportation ability to get close to Shiro again, swinging at his head to slice it clean off. This ended up forcing the male to bend himself backwards then use Kurogane to block the following slashes from the damn thing, and he would have retaliated again had it not vanished to reappear on top of him with a downward slash going to the back of his nape. Shiro however, barely managed to dodge it by getting onto all fours, the Skeleton sliding forth in front of him.

After hissing at its miss, Shiro saw the Skeleton rear it's Scythe back for a swing, then Teleport in front of him with a swing already being launched at him. Shiro reflexively swung his Spear to counter it, its Scythe's blade locking itself with that of Kurogane which caused the Skeleton to chuckle ominously, making Shiro arch a brow. He soon got his answer to why that was the case when it swung it's Scythe away, tossing the Spear out of Shiro's hands once more, the weapon impaling the ground near them.

"You must REALLY like disarming people, huh? I know you have no proper arms, but jealousy is unbecoming of you."

"You will not need it... where you will be going..."

After quipping back at the white haired male, the Skeleton teleported out the way of a few Rashomon threads that had been meant to impale it in multiple areas, before appearing behind him with a diagonal swing being launched at him, to which Shiro defended against by leaning forwards and then side flipping, hopping away and in the direction of his Kurogane while grabbing onto its shaft before the enemy could do anything.

When he sensed an attack coming, Shiro slid to the left, avoiding a spear-like lunge from the Scythe, pinning it using a bunch of Rashomon threads before yanking them back, a means of pulling its wielder forth in a rather abrupt mannerism, which also allowed him to rear Kurogane back, form its jaw and then chomp down on the creature's chest. He couldn't resist the sadistic grin that formed on his lips when he heard the Skeleton hiss and shriek in agony thanks to Kurogane's grip, its jaw came primarily from a portion of his Sacred Gear after all, so it had similar properties regarding being able to quickly devour stuff to it.

"ENOUGH!"

Unfortunately it couldn't finish the job in time, for unable to take this humiliation anymore, the Skeleton shouted loudly as a burst of crimson energy exploded out of it like a 360 degree sonar wave, not only setting it free from its restraints by dislodging Shiro's Kurogane, but also sending him flying close to the platform's edge, just a few inches away from being tossed over himself.

'Ugh Shit!' the descendant of Karna thought as he collected himself just in time to notice the enemy already swinging it's Scythe to impale him again. However, he reflexively formed Rashomon in front of him to block, then flicked the beast head-like appendage outwards, throwing the Scythe's slash away from him before he thwacked the Skeleton with the head, knocking it back.

Getting to his feet, Shiro then switched up with his Nightingale, unloading a bunch of energy arrows that the enemy strafed away from him to avoid. Not perturbed, Shiro jumped forwards, flipping through the air to avoid a Scythe swing when the enemy had teleported to his front before planting both feet onto his opponent's face and using it as a springboard to propel himself closer to the platform's center.

After Shiro had righted himself and landed on all fours, the Skeleton snarled like a feral beast, fury coursing through its veins at the situation that it had found itself in. Though his hits had been few, this mortal's actions had indeed somewhat damaged it, especially in its pride. It refused to allow this, nor would it accept this outcome, since humans were supposed to FEAR the end, not outright fight it like this. If its brethren heard of this, then it would never hear the end of it from them, it'd be one of the most humiliating experiences it had gone through in millenia!

Thus, raising its Scythe the Grim Reaper quickly threw it wheel fashion towards Shiro, intending to bisect him in half... only for it to be a feint for it to grab the weapon out of mid air just as he had gone to block with that beast head of his, teleporting behind him and launching a Spear thrust towards the centre of his back.

The male quickly cursed at this, stabbing Kurogane behind him to which he sensed the tip meet with the Scythe, allowing him to redirect the strike to the ground next to him. This allowed him to yank the Skeleton closer to him, so he could hop into a spinning roundhouse kick which slammed the back of his right foot into the side of its head, knocking it to the ground with a loud screech.

Of course, Shiro then made to follow it up by launching some Rashomon threads forwards, but then the creature quickly acted by releasing a similar shockwave to before, only this one came out as a cone shaped wave with it's reach being only in front of it. This resulted in the wave being more... condensed, resulting in Shiro sliding backwards from his opponent.

"Your soul is MINE!"

"Yeah-yeah, got anything new to say, shit-for-brains?!" the descendant of Karna retorted, growling in frustration with this enemy's seemingly one track mind. He didn't have time for this, in the nine circles Brihanna was hurting so he HAD to get her out of there, no matter what! He'd fulfill his preaching about going as far as possible for her safety!

With that in mind, Shiro rushed forwards, seeing the Grim Reaper shift it's Scythe into its spear mode and repeatedly launch thrusts at him. Using some quick zigzagging motions to avoid them, Shiro manifested a pair of large jaws from his coat's back which then proceeded to chomp down into the Grim Reaper's shoulders so much that it reflexively dropped it's Scythe.

It also ended up screeching in agony, gripping the outside of the two jaws with it's skeletal hands as it tried to snap them off or at least pull them out from it so it could teleport.

'Oh no you don't...!'

Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Shiro decided on collecting the debts that this thing owed him for wasting his time. He did this by, after dismissing Kurogane for this one, grabbing onto the Scythe's shaft and using it as if it were his own, stabbed it through the chest and repeatedly thrusting forwards multiple times. By the time the last one came, Shiro pushed the creature away before he looked at his new Scythe, eyeing it for a couple seconds before he jerked it slightly, allowing the tip to return to normal with an... almost sweet-sounding metallic CHINK sound accompanying it.

Perhaps it was due to his general love of cool weapons, but Shiro couldn't help but grin like an evil yet excited child in a candy store right now.

Oh, the FUN he would have with this!

Seeing the way Shiro grinned on its side though, the Skeleton would have paled if it had normal skin as in its eyes, that grin rivaled those of the more sadistic members of its brethren.

"L-Let me help you...!"

Hearing it's slightly panicked voice, Shiro chuckled evilly. Oh, how he LOVED it when karma comes knocking like a vengeful bitch, but enough of that. Quickly closing the distance between them, the ma;le began getting a good 'feel' for his new weapon by hacking away at his opponent like a mad man on a sugar rush, almost swooning when he heard the sweet sound of the blade digging through the enemy like a piece of paper mache.

A short few minutes later, and the formerly arrogant-sounding being had fallen onto his knees, to which Shiro quickly realized meant that he had been weakened enough for the final blow, and a final blow he would deliver.

He started off by swinging diagonally upwards from the right, slicing through the being's chest before twirling around and following up with a horizontal slash, one which dug into the Skeleton's chest. Interestingly enough, Shiro noticed that instead of trying to teleport again, it instead tried to float away whilst trying to pull the Scythe out of its chest, though it failed miserably thanks to him keeping it in there.

"N-No! No! Please don't...!"

Almost like a vampire, Shiro drank the creature's fear with pleasurable joy, cackling internally (Rashomon and his inner beast mirroring these actions) as he swung the Scythe into a downward diagonal swing, slamming the Grim Reaper into the ground behind him. Sensing that the time had come, the white-haired male quickly jumped forwards with the Scythe poised for a vertical downward slash.

"H-Help me...!"

"Sure, how about I help you GO FUCK YOURSELF?!"

With that declaration, the Skeleton found itself on the receiving end that likely so many souls it had collected over the millennium had been in upon meeting it. Shiro brought the Scythe down with the blade impaling the creature in the face. Not sure how, but it still released a loud screech of immense agony as the male grunted in exertion, dragging the blade further and further down the creature's body until, with one last jerking via a smack on the top of the weapon's shaft, Shiro had cleaved the Grim Reaper in two. The screech died out when this happened, eventually settling into silence whilst the two halves fell to the ground, their whole self finally being defeated.

"(PANT)...(PANT)...(PANT)." Shiro painted a bit before noticing something from the reapers corpse, countless large white orbs burst forth from the creature's remains and entered the atmosphere, forcing the boy to cover his eyes by holding his free forearm in front of his face, turning his head away as well. The sight had been so bright for him that instinctively he had known that if he had tried to look then his eyes would likely have been melted completely from his sockets, and he quite liked the ability to see thank you very much. He wasn't willing to trade that for anything.

By the time that the light show died down, Shiro lowered his arm to check and see what had happened, seeing only the corpse of what had once been a formidable adversary before looking at the discarded Scythe. Looked like that weapon wouldn't be leaving this world like he had once assumed, then, Shiro mused when he recalled one time having asked Karna what happened when Reapers died. Apparently, their Scythes fates were unknown, since Hades had deemed it necessary to keep that info a secret. Guess this was why, and if he were to think about it then Shiro would have understood why. These weapons were able to attack souls with their edges, so the possibility of others possessing them wasn't a good prospect for him.

Well then, he doubted they would mind one, plus he had won it from his opponent, so he'd take it as spoils of war.

Grasping it and yanking it out of the ground, he spun it above his head like a helicopter and then spun it behind his back, before flipping it into his other hand while continuing to spin it before stopping it as it made an audio CHLINK!

"Hmmmmm." For a moment, the male pondered about whether to abandon the weapon since he already has one which is good enough, but then he recalled how but his ancestor told him that a weapon can't last forever, sometimes it breaks or wither outs. "Ah fuck it, I'll might as well keep this thing." he said shaking his head before putting it on his back. He looks at the front before running to the edge of the floating platform, jumping and then skydiving into the space below.

Falling through the depths whilst struggling to keep his swan diving position, Shiro slowly lost track of time, feeling like over 5 hours had passed and during the 3-hour mark, he had lost that feeling of his skin separating from his body that usually happened when someone fell. One of the things that stayed constant was the comforting weight of the Scythe on his back, however, he could STILL tell that he had still been in freefall by looking around him and seeing various Zombie-like monsters falling unceremoniously around him like droplets of rain, various groans moans and ghostly wails echoing around him... wails which didn't cease at ALL.

Ugh, if this was going to be a regular thing he would have to find some way to get earplugs or something, cause that shit would get on his nerves and destroy his sanity REAL fast!

Luckily, or unluckily depending on whose perspective one asked, Shiro didn't have to think about that for long since he started to notice a rapidly approaching platform down below him that Simon himself would be crashing into according to his calculations. He couldn't make out much else because the light down there (which seemed to consist solely of torches), only concentrated around that platform.

Bad design choice he would say... although good if the makers wanted to promote a creepy unknown atmosphere. Shiro had the uncomfortable feeling that it was more of the latter.

Thus, the male then opted to quickly flip himself forwards, not caring much about the faint whiffs of smoke which rose from his form and sometimes took the shape of elongated, groaning skulls as he descended towards his makeshift 'landing zone'. 'Glad I don't have to yell anything like 'move it, you're in the splash zone!' or anything...' Shiro thought...

CRASH!

... Before his impact with his pseudo landing zone as he slammed into it with enough force to cause a small indentation on it, twisted and jagged cracks formed and spread out a bit upon his impact. Shiro himself meanwhile, landing in a crouching position with both hands on the ground beside him, his head hanging low for a few seconds before he raised his head then stood back up on his feet, quickly proceeding to check his surroundings to see if any ambushes were awaiting him.

He landed with his hand on the floor kneeling before getting up. Shiro looked around and saw what describe to be the most foulest and despicable thing in the world.

The male found himself surrounded by a ring of torches and pillars, each pillar looking like it was being held up by stone statues shaped like... people, Shiro wasn't completely sure there. Not only that, but the platform seemed to extend into a larger one which had various spikes surrounding it, almost like he was in the palm of a sinister, demonic hand. Around him, were walls that looked to be made from living flesh and blood, considering how they were shifting about like they were all... alive, possessing living hearts with the beating sounds he kept hearing from them on occasion. Not only that, but he heard constant groans and moans of agony close by, and when he looked to the source the male found many... people, he wasn't sure since he could hardly call them people anymore, were seemingly BEHIND the walls or at least a part of it, screaming while letting their hands out as if trying to get out, swarming down like a river.

"Indra was right, this is EASILY one of the most dangerous and cruelest places there is." Shiro muttered under his breath, before shaking his head and looking around for a bit before noticing another floor next to him. He ran to the edge and jumped, using Rashomon to grip the wall before pulling him up as he was on the floor.

While he walked along his merry way, Shiro soon saw something coming out from the ground next to him, rising to a human height. It soon took on a wholly physical form, well mostly since the bottom looked like those one would see from ghosts in anime and manga. But for the rest of it, it took the form of a humanoid ghostly blue being, wearing what looked like robes with a shepherd's staff in his left hand.

Remembering what Indra had told him about the residents in this place, Shro reached behind his back to grasp his new Scythe by its shaft, and was about to unsheath his new weapon...

"It is not wise to attack an unarmed soul." The soul spoke without looking back, stopping Shiro from finishing those actions before turning around and looking at him. "But it is good to be cautious."

"Hmph wise guy you are I'll give you that." Shiro remarked while he scoffed at him, lifting the Scythe off his back and then pointing it at him. For added effect, he switched it from Scythe to Spear Mode too, so the blade would be inches away from the 'soul's face. "Tell me soul, why shouldn't I make you disappear?" he sarcastically asked him with every intent on causing pain should he not like what he heard.

However, to his internal surprise the soul before him didn't change his expression, the fact that it was male Shiro having figured out from the body type he had, the Soul showing how he was unaffected by the Scythe in front of him. Seemed like this guy was either incredibly ballsy or stupid, since he HAD to have felt the deathly aura this Scythe still possessed despite no longer being wielded by its original user.

"Not anyone has come here willingly, except you it would seem. You must have something to do here, don't you young man?" the soul asked as if knowing the intention of Shiro as he narrowed his eyes at it.

"That's none of your business. However, since you didn't attack or stop me, I'll leave you alone." he said before putting the scythe on his back and commenced walking past the soul who watched him.

"You won't make it out here alive or even find a way through here, young man." the soul remarked at Shiro as he continued to walk.

"I'll find my way, I always do." he replied to the soul without looking back.

"That may have been, if your intent for coming here in the first place was simple, but that's not it. You came here to rescue someone, a young girl to be specific, didn't you?" the soul questioned him, to which his words made Shiro freeze in place.

Seconds later, Shiro slowly turned around and looked at him with anger. "How… the fuck do you know that?" he growled at the soul which floated on over to him.

"Let me show you." he put a finger on Shiro's forehead before Shiro's pupil grow before experiencing a vision

Flashback, the soul P.O.V

Here I was, looking at the agony of the people who committed sins in their life. I sometimes pity them but their sin is far too great to even leave unchecked. It's the reason why they were sent here to the nine circles, to be tortured for eternity.

It was then I felt foreign energy coming from Limbo which made me curious since rarely any gods from another pantheon would come here. I floated to the area where the foreign energy was. I saw three floating people with cloaks covering their whole body while the other had the girl limping as one of them gripped both of her hands which made my eyes widen.

'She isn't dead, but why was she sent here?' I thought before hiding around the corner while making myself invisible as an extra cautionary measure.

"Alright we're here finally. This place is still the same as ever, it seems... Let's get this over with before I lose my mind here!" one of them whispered in a hushed manner, but to me they may as well be locked in a shouting match.

"Agreed but what about the girl? Should we leave her here or somewhere else? We may be following orders, but even I feel pity for bringing her here." the other questioned, and from his tone I could tell that he truly meant those words, he really DID feel pity for the living girl.

The first figure shook his head at this. "Orders from lord Hades, we bring her here and leave her. Don't worry, she'll be dead anyway since no one is able to even survive one second here." one who was holding the girl which made my eyes widen.

Hades? The god of the underworld? Why go so far in bringing this young woman here? Has she done something to offend him?

"Now let's hurry up before-" one of them was about to speak before he stopped as not only he noticed something, but also and other grim reapers but I myself as well. Something which caused no small amount of chills to crawl down my spine as I struggled to maintain my invisibility.

HE was here!

"Hmhmhmhmhm what do we have here?" A shadowy figure appeared before them with a human figure.

"(GASP) oh no! He's here guys!" one of them exclaimed with fear while shaking at the presence of the shadowy figure.

"An alive girl, but not only that, a pure soul! How rare indeed." it said as it looked down at the young girl, running its gaze up and down her form. "I'll take that girl off your hands if you don't mind Hades minion?" it asked them but it sounds more like a demand as if he showed his power at them as they shake.

"S-s-s-sure! Why not take the girl will you?!" the one holding the girl said as he gave the young woman to the shadow figure as he waved his hand before he used Telekinesis to make her float as he put a hand on her cheek, she unconsciously shivered at his touch.

"Y-Y-you got what you want right? Lets go guys!" the grim reaper said as they quickly nodded.

"Hmmmm you did give me what you want…..but now you have no use for me." he put his hand forward before he made three beams which then launched at the three of them before they went through their heads. He looked at the girl before he made an evil smile.

"Finally, you will be the key to my escape." He said before disappearing with Lucifer not before I heard her quiet voice.

"Shiro…...help…...me."

End Flashback

"(GASP)!" Shiro gasped before he put his hand on his heart for a moment before he looked down at the limb, which trembled visibly… that is until he then gripped at it. The more seconds passed, the more the vision he had seen repeated itself like a fan stoking a bonfire's flames, which only served to make him replay the scene more resulting in an endless cycle. His teeth gnashed together as fury once more reared its fiery head within his body, utter OUTRAGE at what he had learned about the reasoning behind Brihanna's abduction.

Hades… the God of the Underworld was behind this. He was the one who attacked the home he never realized he had, HE was the reason why Brihanna's life was currently at risk instead of being safe within the Hindu Pantheon. HE was the reason why he had to stomach all the demonic filth in this place.

Unforgivable… unforgivable!

His eyes glowed brightly with untapped malice, the memory of those Grim Reapers etched into his mind. "Hades… I swear….!" he said with unimaginable anger which he let out a burst of divinity.

From around him rocks started to melt and the souls below them began to scream from the extreme heat. Several trails of smoke rose from Shiro's form up into the atmosphere while his hands looked like they would ignite into white hot flames at any moment. It even reached a point where even the soul before him had to float backwards a bit to stave off the heat, which was NOT something that the other wailing lost souls could do to their dismay.

"I do not know why Hades would send her here to the circle but my guess is, it must be to lead you here." The soul said to him, internally stunned at what he had sensed just now. This boy, he must have been either a demigod or an extremely powerful descendant, something that was quite rare as well as unlikely to have gotten as powerful as this one. Descendants were on a level below direct children of deities in terms of power scaling, but in this boy's case… it felt more like he was a direct child of a fire deity than a descendant. The only reason the soul saw him as a descendant was due to how… far the energy felt from him for lack of a better adjective.

Just what kind of trials had this boy gone through in order to gain this power?

Shiro looked at him as his eyes were on the verge of becoming full white. "If he wanted me, then let him come to me! I'll fucking crush his skull into powder and burn it so he won't exist anymore!" he bellowed up into the rest of the area, his fury-laced voice reaching far and wide. Within him, Rashomon seemed to agree with him with the amount of snarling and growling that he heard within the back of his mind, with the faint sounds of claws scraping across something metallic.

"Then you will have to hurry before it's too late, young man. That girl still remains one of the living, which if she stays here for too long will definitely change for the worse. To get past the circle to the ones below is almost impossible, but I can help you as a guide." The soul said to him, pointing to the path which Shiro would have to travel down for his journey.

Upon hearing this, the gears within his brain halted alongside the growls, snarls and thoughts promising bloody murder within his mind as Shiro narrowed his eyes at the soul. Did he hear what he thought he did? Why would this thing want to help him? What would it gain from that? Thoughts like these assaulted his mind and filled him with a sense of caution, especially since those words also reminded him of a time back in his village when he… he had been FAR too trusting, and as a result had paid the ultimate price.

Caution and anger laced the following words that left his mouth thanks to these assumptions and experiences. "Why should I let you help me? For all I know you'll betray me the moment you get the chance?" Shiro questioned the soul, warily.

Meanwhile, the soul himself gave Shiro a look which the male wanted to sock him in the face to get rid of it. "I may be a stranger to you, but what choice do you have? Forgive me for saying this, but the nine circle isn't easy to get past. Not only are there nine of them with each of them being very well their own dimension due to how this place was made, but each one follows a specific cardinal sin with a 'lord' who embodies that sin. Thus, you will have to fight them as well as their many legions of Demons in order to pass through even ONE circle… and it is likely you will have to descend through them all to reach the bottom, where the girl is likely going to be held. But with my help, I can lead you through those obstacles, as well as give you better advice about how to proceed through the more… complex areas." The soul explained.

On his end, Shiro can tell he is not lying with his unique skill, which meant that everything he had said was the truth, including the stuff that would be in his future endeavors through the circles. Just the thought of that stuff built up the frustration within his heart by no small amount, especially the whole fighting lots of Demons stuff. Normally that sounded like a good time, but right now he had a time limit and it was one he could NOT afford to dilly dally on. Additionally, getting lost on his journey there or having his way impeded by obstacles wasn't something which he would look forward to, it almost sounded similar to what he had gone through back in Jinako's mind.

Shiro thought about all that, weighing the pros and cons in his mind, for a seemingly eternal moment before he made a decision. "Fine, I will let you help me soul. BUT, one sign of betrayal towards me, and you will be nothing but oblivion." Shiro threatened the soul as he nodded at him.

"I promise young man, you have my word." the soul said to Shiro as he nodded at him.

"Good, I suppose you have a name don't you?" Shiro asked the soul since he can't keep calling him that since it's similar to saying Kuro, the Nargacuga.

"Ah yes, I do. My name is Virgil, the great poet of Roman." He said after naming himself.

"A poet huh? Sounds interesting. You wouldn't reckon to know who the shadowy figure is do you?" Shiro asked Virgil as he nodded.

"I do but there isn't any time to waste, let us be off. The first circle we currently reside in is called Limbo. It is the place where the wretched souls are being led to the judge of the damned for transportation to the appropriate circle. They are being carried by someone you might know in ancient history." Virgil explained, ending the discussion before pointing to the clear area where the clear sky of the underworld was. Shiro narrowed his eyes before nodding, he began to run the direction Virgil said.

Walking around the cave-like path was a short experience, but Shiro soon found himself standing before what looked like a rectangular platform which was close to a large bell-like tower. Though, surrounding that tower was what looked like some sort of vast smokey area over what he BELIEVED to be some sort of ocean... with burning bodies constantly falling around it like rain. One of them even fell onto the ledge of the platform he would be going on, but fell off the side after the impact down into the abyssal depths below.

"Heh, bad tourist destination…" The male muttered under his breath. Though he did wonder what that Bell Tower was for, what purpose it served and how he could use it to his advantage… he soon got his answer when it started ringing and a loud voice boomed throughout the cavern-like area he had found himself in.

"Through me o the city of woe. Through me the way of everlasting pain. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

'Wow, a REAL nice stroke of sunshine, isn't he?' Shiro thought to himself dryly, sweat dropping at the 'attempt' at intimidating the voice had tried to sound. Though, he managed to figure out where it came from, and THAT was what caught him by surprise: a large Ship, docked in what looked to be a shipyard made from unstable-looking wood. One where creatures similar to the ones he'd seen in the walls started walking across one of the walkways down there that led into the Ship. As for where the voice came from on the ship, it came from the... the thing attached to it's tip.

In any case, it sounded like the Ship would be departing soon, so perhaps he should get on himself. That would probably be the way for Shiro to descend into the next Cirlce and get the fuck outta this place, but in order to do so, he likely would have to disrupt that Belltower and stop it from ringing, Shrio figured this due to the Ship only starting to increase it's activity when it started ringing earlier. 'Alright, now that we have THAT sorted...' he thought...

That is, until he sensed danger coming his way as a bunch of arms burst out the stone ground beneath his feet. 'Annoyances…' he thought, threads emerging from his back while he prepared to attack.

Once they were fully out there, Shiro found himself looking at 5 zombie-like monstrosities as well as a couple wasp-like monsters staying at a distance around the platform. Hence why Shiro targeted the ground forces by shredding them using the Threads, and shooting down the Wasp-like beasts with Nightingale. More of each demonic type arrived as reinforcements, but Shiro swiftly dealt with them.

That battle (read: one-sided butchery) done, the white haired male started to trek his way forwards, he proceeded towards something he had noticed: a lever, and once beside it Shiro reached out and pulled the lever back to activate whatever mechanism it was attached to. Turned out to be a good thing he did, for a bridge slid out his side of the platform when the lever was pulled, locking into the other side easily and making the bridge he needed to get across.

Silently, Shiro walked across the bridge and wound up on the opposite side of the belltower roof's rim. After dispatching a Guard there with Rashomon, Shiro turned and kneeled down, peering down the hole on top of the Belltower to see another lever down below, one guarded by a horned humanoid demon with a large curved sword.

A hungry growl escaped Rashomon in the back of his mind, telling Shiro EXACTLY what it wanted to do, something which he found no doubts about complying with. Thus, after manifesting Rashomon's beastial head form, Shiro jumped down and landed behind the demon. The demon sensed Shiro behind him as well as Rashomon's head rapidly approaching it with jaws open wide. Thus after it quickly rolled to the side to avoid it, it went and pulled out its weapon while stomping its feet, making the ground shake a bit before breaking into a mad sprint towards Shiro, said male drawing Kurogane and blocking the attack it launched at him. The demon tried to overpower him, but Shiro broke the deadlock and jumped back. The demon screamed in anger as it tried to swing its weapon at Shiro… but ended up being chomped down on by Rashomon's head, the remains disappearing into smoke.

More came as there were two more horned Demons appeared, escorted by a small group of those zombie creatures which all ran towards Shiro. He killed the first five with his Kurogane by swinging his weapon at them in wide arcs, and once he had decapitated the lot of them he jumped back to dodge one of the two horned Demons which had tried to ram him, but instead got itself stabbed before being cut in half. Afterwards, Shiro retracted the head into his coat before he unleashed Rashomon's many threads at the other Demons who had appeared after the initial bout. Seeing that their deaths were imminent, the Demons hurriedly turned tail to try to get out but instead were pulled towards Shiro who promptly killed them, their corpses disappearing in black smoke.

Upon sensing no more enemies, Shiro swung Kurogane to the right, getting rid of the blood stained on his weapon. Afterwards, he looked to see the lever he had spotted previously appear in the middle of the room, having sunk under the platform upon his first attack. Seeing that it was his way forward, he went to it and attempted to pull it, but it didn't budge. He then opted for pushing the lever, and this time it succeeded since the lever slid away from him, mechanical sounds accompanied the floor while it ascended upwards. That is, before Shiro noticed a stone cracked which made him stop pushing the lever which makes the floor start descending, which also informed him of his limited timeframe.

Thus, he quickly jumped up into the air and destroyed the cracked wall and landed behind the hole he made, showing that there had been a door behind it. He went to the door and kicked it open, he walked out of the room and saw he was close to the boat.

'Looks like I'm almost there…' the male thought to himself as he overlooked the massive shipyard-like area now that he got a closer look at the place, Nightingale on his back and his hands inside his coat pockets. 'Though I don't know how long I have till that ship departs, therefore I better hurry. All these obstacles remind me way too much of Jinako's pyramid.' he thought, shuddering at the unpleasant memory.

Putting those thoughts to the back of his mind, the male proceeded to walk forwards, only to make a couple steps until Virgil's ghostly form appeared before him, mouth already open to speak. "All souls that die, from every nation, collect here, as one, Charon crossing awaits those who did not fear the lord."

This elected a derisive scoff out of the descendant of Karna. "Fear the lord? What a load of crap. Why should we fear something? It would make us like a weak coward who fears everything, including his own shadow." Shiro said to counter Virgil's cryptic statements.

The said spirit hummed at this, though what he felt inside would only be known to himself at the moment due to his current state. "What you say is true but it is not how I made the rules. This place was made by the lord, and he made sure those who committed terrible crimes would pay the price, even other factions who are disgusted by the sin of the soul send them here." the poet replied to Shiro as he walked alongside him.

"If that's how it is, then tell me Virgil: what's the difference between a man and a monster?" Shiro asked him.

"There isn't any difference, both man and a monster are the same. They keep their beastly instincts inside of them while waiting to be unleashed, and a monster who could be a man like werewolves, vampires, yokais, even the gods themself. Even you." Virgil said to Shiro as he stops for a bit, sees Virgil floats ahead of him. "Don't think of yourself as a monster, young warrior. You may act like a monster outside but a man on the inside. Remember that." Virgil said as he gestured to the demon door in front of them, a door which had the upper body of a gargoyle inside of it, before disappearing into thin air.

Shiro stared at where Virgil had once been floating before continuing on his stride, mumbles escaping him below a whisper's volume. "A man huh….. That is if there's any of that still left inside of me." he mused, though he also wondered if there had even been any 'man' in him from the beginning. Growing up in the village he had taught him the rules of the jungle as well as to do what he needed to so he could survive. It had gotten better once he had met up with Brihanna and Jamal, 2 people with great dreams and goals in life compared to himself, but in the end he still saw himself as nothing more than a beast. A vicious animal who could only kill, could only swing, thrust, and strike down the enemy before him.

That hadn't changed at all since he escaped the Eclipse…

Yet the thought of a dream didn't resonate with him the same way it did in the past. No longer did he believe that dreams could be fulfilled anymore, no longer could he believe in something like that or be anything even REMOTELY close to optimism. The crushing grip of reality combined with the machinations of those with power, had wrenched all of that from him without leaving any of it behind, rendering him nothing but an angry animal seconds away from entering a blood rage.

Dreams… really were for fools.

Why else did Brihanna enter a coma, why else did Jamal die, whereas a grounded person like himself survived?

Approaching the demon door, he stared at it for a bit before pulling out his Kurogane and stabbing into it through its chest. A fierce shriek escaped the gargoyle as it tried to stop him from going further by gripping the Spear by its shaft, but it was not strong enough to do anything and thus, instead Shiro pushed his Kurogane further before it died. Following its death, the demon gate opened by sliding upwards, allowing passage through to the next area.

Shiro promptly walked through the gate, entering a small room before more horned demons appeared, this time there were THREE of them as they snorted and roared at Shiro who remained neutral. For a moment Shiro made to summon one of his weapons, but then he remembered the Scythe still on his back and thus, decided not to. Instead, he grabbed his scythe and drew it from his back, spinning it around before he switched it to spear mode. He then extended the spear forwards like he'd seen its original master do, thrusting it into one of the horned Demons who had been about to run at him.

Embedding the blade into its flesh, Shiro then set about knocking back the other 2 horned demons with their comrade like a makeshift blunt weapon, before he switched the weapon into scythe mode and tore off the flesh of the horned demon once impaled on it. Sensing danger after beheading this impaled horned demon, Shiro quickly used Rashomon's threads and bound the attacking horned demon who was about to get up, switching his weapon to Kurogane and stabbing its head as it wiggled for a few seconds, before it died.

He then jumped and flipped through the air, dodging a swing from the third horned Demon who was about to stab him in the back if he hadn't done this, returning the favor by thrusting his weapon at the Demon's chest. After impaling it like he had with the first one, Shiro lifted up his Kurogane as the horned demon tried to get out of the blade, before Shiro dropped his weapon on the ground and thrusted the Spear's blade in further till the horned Demon stopped moving, turning into black smoke.

Once the battle had concluded, Shiro continued on until he noticed a rope which connected to the boat of Charon. 'Hmmm, guess I gotta climb this sucker to get onboard…' the male mused mentally. He stared at it for a moment, contemplating on how to get on it before he got an idea, switching Kurogane out for Nightingale. He then proceeded to take the bowstring out from one of its ends before flipping the weapon onto the rope, reconnecting the bowstring afterwards.

This done, Shiro took a few running steps before jumping off and holding onto his bow, sliding along the rope towards the boat at high speeds.

Not before Charon looked at him from the corner of its eyes, however.

"You there. Stand aside from those that are dead."

"You don't tell me what to do, demon! Let me ride your boat so I could find Brihanna!" he screamed at Charon while his movement slowed down a bit, not that he noticed however.

"Hahaha! That girl already belongs to the warden. You will never see her again."

"Is that a threat? Because if it is, then how about I burn your boat into smitheries and make sure your soul will disappear!"

"Foolish mortal, instead your soul shall belong to us."

As soon as that was said by Charon, Shiro suddenly heard a sound that made his heart skip a beat within his torso: the sound of the rope being suddenly cut off. Quickly glancing behind him, Shiro saw that the cause of this sound turned out to be one of those horned Demons, which had cut it off with a single swing of its sword.

While the rope swung itself downwards thanks to being cut, Shiro quickly gripped onto it while Nightingale vanished from sight, until he found himself close to the ship's lower body, where he could see a wall containing many lost groaning souls. Seeing this as an opportunity, Shiro launched himself from the rope at the last second, and landed on the wall that the souls cried out from. He stopped for a moment before climbing up. He looked to the right and saw that there was an opening to the boat as he climbed to it. He jumped past a ledge before gripping on the wall on the other side, he continued to climb ignoring the screams of the soul who are being tortured.

He jumped to the opening and got on the boat, entering it and seeing some kind of puzzle but he didn't have time for that, so instead he used Rashomon to quickly get up to the other side and climbed up, to the main part of the boat.

Upon reaching the top, Shiro hopped upwards and landed on top of it's main deck in a crouch. Getting up, he noticed a set of metallic trap doors closing near him, but didn't think too much before a bunch of zombies, wasp monsters and horned demons appeared around him, surrounding the male.

"Kill... Kill intruder... KILL INTRUDER! KILL THE STOWAWAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!"

Post call from Charon, the Demons began to charge towards Shiro howling bloody murder, to which the male responded in kind. The first enemies to attack him were the zombies, of which Shiro sliced and diced them with his Scythe which he twirled, spun and thrusted like he were dancing through a yard of corpses, blood splattering everywhere he looked. Almost like his gaze had been turned completely red with the blood of his enemies, though Shiro knew in his mind that was entirely unrealistic. Still, it was the best analogy he could come up with in this moment in time.

Jumping into the air after a bunch of Zombies had tried to pile on him, Shiro summoned a bunch of Rashomon threads and had them bisect each zombie beneath him while swinging his Scythe to cut apart a bunch of fireballs launched by some of the Wasp monsters, from their tails to be more specific. While still in the apex of his jump, Shiro quickly selected the one closest to him and thrusted the Scythe towards it, blade switching to spear mode as the shaft extended to allow it to impale the creature and then retract, pulling him towards it. Using the creature and his Scythe as a makeshift swing, Shiro vaulted to the next wap monster and repeated the process while those that got impaled were devoured by a bunch of Rashomon jaws.

Once he had taken out the majority of the wasp monsters, Shiro landed on the spine-like floorboards of the main deck, sliding to a halt although he soon dive rolled to the side to avoid an overhead strike from one of the horned Demons which had been waiting for him there. The blade, covered by a fiery cloak, slammed into the ground and created a shockwave mixed with its flames, one which knocked him further backwards.

'Ok, didn't expect that…' the male mused internally as he put his Scythe on his back again before summoning his Nightingale, peppering that horned Demon with a couple , it still struggled on and charged at him, raising its sword for a strike towards his shoulder down to the right hip, an attack which he didn't allow to proceed thanks to recalling all the appendages launched by Rashomon and had it summon a bunch of spikes from the ground in front of him. Spikes which shot out the main deck and impaled the creature Vlad style, destroying its body if the smoke he saw was any indication.

The remaining 2 horned Demons apparently learned from their comrade's mistakes, since they grabbed what remained of their zombie allies and tossed them at Shiro, who quickly switched to Kurogane and sliced them apart, their forms going up in smoke behind him. This however, just let the 2 get close enough to cleave Shiro into three pieces, though the male jumped through the gap between them instead of letting their flame coated blades hit, several slash marks appearing over their person which soon started splattering their blood…

Black blood, that is.

'Huh, their blood's black…' Shiro noted mentally, glancing towards Kurogane while Rashomon manifested in its beast head form, the male making a simple hand gesture which allowed it to launch itself towards the two horned Demons and bite down on one. The other had managed to evade the lunge, though that didn't last for long since Shiro had allowed Kurogane to form its maw and threw it javelin style, the weapon chomping down and devouring the horned Demon while it had been getting up.

After finishing its 'meal' Rashomon grabbed Kurogane and brought it back to its master, the male holding his hand out for it to drop the weapon's shaft into his waiting hand, the end returning back to its blade form…

BOOM! BOOM!

Good thing too, because the sound of booming soon echoed around them as if something large was coming. Something which soon presented itself as a MASSIVE creature, humanoid in shape while being about 15 to 20 feet tall. It looked to be a pitch black hybrid of a gorilla and a crocodile with shark-like claws, bloodied steel hooves, a white helmet with bull horns and a seat for the rider which sat atop it.

Speaking of the rider, THAT looked to be a yellowish skeleton with smokey grey armour.

'Holy… that's one BIG motherfucker…!' Shiro mentally yelled as he got on guard while the beast stomped towards him. Behind him, Rashomon growled, catching the beast's attention and making it growl back, a growl of challenge that is, something which Shiro quickly recognized as evident by the recognition flashing through his eyes. "Want a fight do you… well then, a fighter's what you're gonna GET!"

With that war cry leaving his lips, Shiro roared as he charged forwards, switching Kurogane out for Nightingale and peppering the beast with Arrows. All the while, it roared and swiped at him, even sometimes tried to spray flames from its mouth onto him or launch a few fireballs from that same place, but Rashomon stopped these attempts by biting into and severing several of its fingers.

One time it even managed to bite into and rip off a portion of its fur-covered forearm, something which sparked an idea in the male while the battle between them raged on, glancing between blows towards the head at the ship's bow that was still going on about some religious bullcrap he didn't give a fuck about.

'Hmmmm…'

The idea formulated itself into a plan within his mind, one which he immediately put into motion by switching to his Scythe and charging forwards. Rashomon, as if sensing its masters' intent, quickly fell back and hovered behind him ready for whatever part it would need to play in the scheme Shiro had cooked up.

Charging forth towards its legs, Shiro watched as the beast roared, getting onto all fours to bring down its left claw onto him but Shiro side stepped it, thrusting the extended Scythe in Spear Mode into its arm and retracting it, hauling himself on top of the forearm. As the beast stood up, it raised its other claw to swat him off, but the male did that for it by jumping off the forearm, then allowed the Scythe to retract and launch them both up into the air. Rashomon, given the order by its master, promptly lunged forwards and chomped onto the skeleton rider atop the head, throwing it off the beast while Shiro landed in the seat, raising his Scythe and stabbing into the centre of its helmet.

Using the Scythe as a makeshift leash, Shiro directed the beast towards the head and had it grasp onto it, retracting Rashomon into him. The beast roared while the head screamed in pain, cracking sounds coming from the bow beneath the beast's feet as it gradually pulled it out of place, tossing the head onto its side behind it. Once again directing the beast, Shiro had it move to the head and grasp it, before promptly TOSSING the damn thing into the smoke ahead of them. 'Good riddance… and glad my idea worked…' the male thought to himself.

Though he soon saw how he had no time to rest, since ahead of him Shiro noticed two large, pillar-like protrusions made from rock extended out of the waters that the ship was approaching. This caused two words to pop into his head that pretty much summarized everything the male felt inside. 'Well, shit…'

Suddenly feeling like perhaps he SHOULDN'T have destroyed that damn annoying head, since it likely had been the one controlling this ship now that he thought about it, Shiro directed the beast to jump off the bow onto the right pillar, before making it proceed to start climbing it.

Seconds into the climb, Shiro's heart pounded when he sensed the ship's collision with the pillars below, and knew for a FACT that these things won't be remaining stable for very long due to their support being so badly damaged, and likely would start something akin to the domino effect. 'Shit, that hit will destabilize them until their eventual collapse! Have to act fast before I meet my end here!' he thought to himself, quickening his makeshift steed's climbing rate while dread filled his stomach.

This was NOT a safe situation to be in.

Not one bit.

Instinctively sensing the need to jump, Shiro obeyed them and had his mount jump onto the left pillar. Just in time too, because the parts he had scurried over simply fell down on top of the ship below, shattering into multiple broken pieces along the way down. Cursing under his breath when he heard crumbling sounds coming from the sections he was on, Shiro had his mount increase climbing speed double time, not wanting to fall into those murky waters below. Who knew what kind of things awaited him down there? He did NOT want to find out.

Worse still, it soon proved to be necessary to jump onto the right pillar once again, since bits of the right one already started crumbling down to the ocean depths below. By the time that he reached the top on the left pillar, Shiro had to ditch his mount which fell into the waters below, allowing him to vault over onto the pathway built on top of the pillar. One which led to a bridge further ahead.

However, the telltale signs of rumbling told him that he wasn't out of the woods yet as Shiro quickly booked it across the bridge. He could hear the structure crumbling behind him, but spared no effort to look back in favor of running as fast as he could to reach the other side, having to make a few turns here and there but nonetheless not suffering any drop in speed. 'Huh, wonder if this could be a good parkour experience…?' the male somewhat wondered to himself.

"Over here young man! Hurry!" ahead of him, Shiro spotted Virgil waving at him using his staff at the building across from his position, and hurriedly increased his speed. By the time that he reached the next platform however, the walkway in front of him collapsed first, leaving the way forwards blocked off from him.

'Oh, come the fuck on!' Shiro thought, gritting his teeth as he suddenly had to fight to retain his balance, the reason being due to the platform he currently stood on losing it's support and keeling over, tilting itself forwards. Looking and seeing no other way forwards, Shiro used the tilting platform to his advantage, sliding down it before jumping forwards, drawing and slicing through a large piece of rock to split it in half and allow him to proceed, falling through the air and crashing onto what looked to be a stone pathway. One lit up by large bowls placed along its ledges filled with burning coal or something to that effect, alongside a row of tall-looking torches.

"PANT...PANT...PANT…"

Heavy breathing escaped his lips while his lungs felt like they were lit up on the same fire he commanded, having exorcised them quite a bit in that short burst of time. Fortunately he was still in one piece with his weapons still with him, and his Scythe still in hand (he'd used it for that slashing motion earlier). Stabbing the rear end into the ground, Shiro used his Scythe's shaft as a pillar of support while he calmed his breathing pace.

Once he had sufficiently recovered enough, he stood up and looked at the sinking boat with a smirk. "I told you that I would-"

"His head is still intact and over there." Appearing beside him, Virgil reminded the male while pointing to a nearby hole, where sure enough the head of Charon could still be seen.

His mood turned sour at the sight of this, thus Shiro then scowled at Virgil. "Way to ruin my mood Virgil." he stated in annoyance.

"Sometimes but enough of that, we must go." Virgil said to Shirou, getting a nod from the male.

For a short moment into their walk, Shirou looked around to see where they were. As a result, he found himself on top of what he could only assumee to be part of some stone building, he wasn't sure exactly what from his position though. Still, a walkway that curved to the left presented itself towards him, so Shiro decided to take it by walking slowly and cautiously, wary of any traps like that one before he'd boarded that Ship.

Though, immediately he had to cover his face a bit to shield it from a huge ass wind that blew through the air, making the flames of the torches and bowls start swaying backwards whilst the telltale sounds of thunder overhead told him that there was a loud thunderstorm to go through. 'Ugh, just great. The climate here shifts on a dime, and from what I can tell...' he mused internally, before he went and asked something of Virgil. "Are we still at the entrance of the circles, or it's still further away?"

"We are in the first circle, Limbo, this place is where sinners did not commit a sin but did not believe any god, you can say this place is for atheist people." Virgil replied to Shiro.

"Even when they don't believe in any god they still go to hell huh?" Shiro said as he looked around with a newfound perspective. He figured that those who followed the path of atheism in the world (a LARGE amount of people) would probably be sent here.

"But it is also a place for non virtualized pagans and unbaptized babies." That answer made Shiro stopped as he processed the information.

"Un….baptized babies?" Shiro slowly turned around and look at Virgil with an angry face. "What the fuck or why would the Christian god made this place!?"

"I understand your anger but I do not have the answer, it is terrible yes but sometimes life can be cruel." Virgil sadly said to Shiro as he started to understand why gods never spoke of this place.

"Now I see why no one has ever spoken of this place." Shiro said to himself.

By the time he reached the END of the walkway though, Shiro proceeded by hopping down through a hole formed within the ledge to another walkway below, repeating this since there didn't seem to be anything worth seeing. On the third walkway, he noticed what looked like a wall filled with cracks on it, likely some kind of attempt to block it off made by some ametur construction worker. 'Heh, the boss in this place must have lousy subordinates...' Shiro darkly mused internally as he moved towards it, walking along the pathway... and kicking off a Zombie covered in flames and cracks along its body like kicking a football. It exploded about a couple seconds into its flight, though, but Shiro ignored that.

After reaching the wall, Shiro clenched his right fist and, after rearing it back, used his strength to throw a punch forwards. It ended up EASILY shattering the wall and opening the way for him, the pieces falling down to the ground inside which he cleared up by tossing them out like he'd done with the Zombie, before proceeding forwards...