Chapter 18

Now that the Cerberus had been defeated, Shiro went ahead and walked across the dead beast's body, with Jinako (who had dismissed her weapons for now) following closely behind him while grimacing at every step she had taken. "Ew, gross gross gross…" She mumbled under her breath at the fleshy feeling beneath her feet... before almost hurling when she was at the butt of the Cerberus which looked like a tongue. "Oh my god come on!" she whined before she took a step on the flesh floor.

She had heard stories about this place, these Nine Circles of Hell, known as the TRUE Underworld. It was why she had been able to figure out the situation from what little Indra had told her when he had confronted her about Shiro's unknown whereabouts. From those stories she had imagined this place to be brutal, merciless and unforgiving in its nature, so when Indra had told her that Shiro had descended down here she had assumed that she would have been mentally prepared to face whatever things these circles threw at her.

Now, only a couple circles in and she already found a desire to smack her previous self in the face for her idiocy.

Up front, Shiro ignored her ramblings like people do with feminists as he walked mindlessly forwards, almost like a robot while eyeing his surroundings on occasion. This allowed him to find himself stepping on top of a platform made from bodily innards. Not only that but ahead looked to be one big swamp made from mud with rainfall falling from the skies above, rainfall which upon holding out his hand, Shiro discovered was actually mud itself. Furthermore, the way forward seemed to be a pathway similar to a canyon path, only made from living organic flesh.

Ignoring this, Shiro bent his legs and hopped into the air, landing atop a higher platform that took the form of a small walkway, with there being a gap between it and the next platform. The silver-haired male didn't feel very bothered by this however as he repeated the process... though, just before he did the male noticed a faint shuffling underneath the second platform, one which caused his mismatched eyes to narrow darkly.

Behind him, Jinako just managed to catch up with Shiro who had already leapt onto the second platform… although she couldn't help but see that his hair had grown a bit longer and was worried. "Uhhh, Shiro?" she questioned with uncertainty towards him, and to his credit he indeed stopped after her question left her mouth, but he did not turn to her. "What is with yo-"

BOOM!

"GAAH!"

"SHIRO!"

She was about to say something more, but instead, some kind of worm-like creature ambushed them from below, attempting to bite Shiro with its human mouth.

Shiro grit his teeth as he pushed against the worm by gripping both sides of its mouth, but the worm was relentless, refusing to give up the power struggle between them. A few minutes later, Shiro had enough and breathed out flames to incinerate it. The worm wiggled around in pain as Shiro got off of it and sliced it in half via Kurogane, the creature's two halves disappearing into black smoke.

"The demons are relentless." A sudden interjection came from Vergil, the poet having appeared before them shortly after the worm's destruction. His tone remained as grave as ever while eyeing the spot where the worm had surfaced from. "The deeper the circle you go, the more demons will come like a swarm of armies, better move quickly before they would surround you." With that said Virgil gestured at a fleshy-looking hole a short walk away, before Shiro went to the hole and jumped down it as Jinako stayed a bit behind him and heard the sounds of demons getting slaughtered.

"What's happening to you Shiro? You weren't like this before..." she muttered worriedly to herself, cupping her chin thoughtfully as she pondered the changing state her companion seemed to be getting himself into. She didn't know what it was, but for some reason she didn't like it.

As if drawn out by her concern, Virgil floated to her to which she turned to him as he stared at the hole, the sounds of flesh being torn escalating. "I had a feeling this would happen. It was only a matter of when." Virgil said to her.

"What do you mean, great poet?" She asked him with confusion.

"The boy's mind is slowly losing himself the deeper down the circles he goes." He explained with dread in his tone. Since he had been with him since the start of his descent, Vergil had the honor of seeing this start from a much earlier point, having seen the signs since the initial circles.

While this happened both became silent which allowed them to no longer hear the dying screams of Demons, meaning that Shiro had finished up his task. Thus, Jinako and Vergil hopped down (floated for the spirit) and saw that Shiro was ahead of them without sparing them a glance.

"He is becoming more of a beast, you saw how he slaughtered his former mother did you?" She nodded at his explanation, she saw how he lashed at her with no mercy, heck even she herself wasn't cruel enough to do what he did.

She got creeped out at the eyes when they exited out of what it looks to be a mouth, in front of her is what defines punishment for gluttons. Below her where the damned as they were slowly dissolving into acid, flesh walls with eyes as it stared on Shiro who jumped forward to the giant demon mouth as it opened and closed as if tasting the air as its meal.

"It won't be long until the young warrior's mind will be broken, either by his own doing or through external factors. I suspect the warden of the circles will find out how to break his sanity, his mother was the starting point, what would happen if the rest of his family was involved?" She became worried and concerned about that, if his mother was here…..then does that mean his father was also here? Was his whole family full of sinners?

"Try to be the anchor of his last piece of sanity young lady, if he were to break down….you already know the answer." Virgil disappeared warning Jinako who stared at Shiro, eyes alight with concern over those foreboding yet true statements. She knew damn well how volatile Shiro was on a normal day, more than practically anyone in their group, so she could definitely see the dangers associated with him losing what remained of his tenuous grip on sanity.

Thinking about this steeled her solve as she slapped both sides of her cheeks, her face becoming one of determination. There was no way she wouldn't do that for Shiro, since he'd done a lot for her previously. Helping him rescue his precious friend would be the least she could do.

After a short while of trailing her companion, Jinako eventually became witness to Shiro going through a mouth and saw that he was fighting a legion of demons, easily butchering them in groups at a time. Jinako had to wince to herself at the brutal display she was seeing before her, Vergil's words resonating within her mind while she recalled what he had been like during what few missions they had undertaken together. Yeah, she could DEFINITELY see the rise in brutality within Shiro's combat style, and if it was getting this bad NOW, then how badly would it be affected in the deeper circles?

Before she could contemplate this further, her eyes narrowed sharply when she noticed one of the Demons, a lowly zombie, manage to sneak behind Shiro while he remained occupied with slicing apart the foes in front of him via Kurogane, raising its sword to stab him. Instead of allowing that to happen though, Jinako quickly darted forwards to end up appearing behind the demon and slashed it in half with her newly summoned Axe.

Hearing the sounds of bloodshed behind him, Shiro looked behind his rear flank at her, witnessing this go down. Because of this, Jinako got an up close and personal experience with his face, which resulted in her seeing his usual blindfold having vanished, exposing his eyes to her for… well, probably the first time ever. She didn't like what she saw though, for instead of the eyes of a person, she saw eyes more fitting for a beast, with each one glowing bright red like neon lights, with the pupil elongated into beastial slits.

Slowly, differentiating between him and the Demons he was slaying became gradually harder.

Still, while gulping down her anxiety as well as her urge to step back from her companion, Jinako cleared her throat and placed her free hand on her hip, swinging her Axe upward and deflecting a fireball launched by one of those flying monsters back at it. "Better keep an awareness of your surroundings Shiro, you might not know if something was behind you." She remarked at him, but initially felt a bit terrified when he just looked at her with an intense glare before nodding.

"Noted. I'll remind myself of that." He said before looking ahead of a mist door, he walks to it with Jinako as she followed him before entering a room of what it looks like to be a destroyed castle as around them looks like to be a different dimension as there are multiple mist doors, but in front of them was the most hideous thing in the world, it was a giant fat demon that looks like to be fatter than any fat guys(don't mean to offend any fat guys) their hands are obese with jaws for hands, sagging mouths on their necks just below their ears, there were four of them as they were eating the damned alive.

Jinako held her breath to not vomit out of the sight of the demons as Shiro was not affected by it.

"Hmhmhmhm does this remind you of anything?" an unfamiliar voice was heard as Jinako looked at surprise before seeing Lucifer in a shadowy figure.

Without even FLINCHING, Shiro attempted to cleave him in half via the middle area, but the Kurogane swing simply phased on through him.

"Still hoping to kill me? Face it, you can't hurt me." Another attempt as he thrust his Kurogane at him, Lucifer was amused by this. "There is nothing that can harm me, for this is my shadowy figure." Shiro looked more intense at Lucifer as he became more feral and grit his teeth.

"What the fuck do you want Lucifer?" Shiro asked him which caused Jinako to be in surprise.

'(GASP)! Lucifer?! The morning star?! But how? Father told me that he died in the great war!' Jinako mentally screamed as she looked at Lucifer.

Meanwhile, his eyes caught sight of her to which Lucifer looked at her with amusement.

"Well what do we have here? Another willing soul that came here? Oh, this is becoming more amusing. And before you ask how I'm alive let's just say HE had something to do with me." He pointed to the sky as if he was referring to YHVH.

"I wasn't about to ask you that..." She pointed at the bottom part of him with confusion. "How is it that you don't have a dick when you're in that form?"

"..."

"..."

*Uuuuhhh?*

Everyone was in total silence as Lucifer looked at her with his mouth open and was about to point it out before he slowly closed it, even the demons and the damned were looking at Lucifer as Shiro just stared at her.

"I… that's a good question."

(RECORD SCRATCH!)

Hold on! Take two!

CLANK!

After a bit of time-reversal and space shenanigans, tension once again surfaced throughout the atmosphere. Tension thick enough to be cut with a knife while any ordinary person would have wet themselves from the terror this tension brought. All the while, Lucifer calmly strode around Shiro like none of the tension even existed for him… which may as well be accurate considering the situation.

"Do you remember how your leader had committed a sin so big that involved the rest of your group?" Lucifer asked him, darkly smiling.

Shiro furrowed his brows at him as Jinako looked at confusion. "What are you talking about, bastards?" Shiro asked him, to which Lucifer laughed.

"I've done my research on you, and had help with some of my 'special' friends who kindly gave me some information. Something that you never knew." Lucifer waved his hand which projects an image in front of them like a holographic screen from those cliche isekai series. The image showed static for a couple seconds… before Shiro began to wish that it had stayed that way since it went to viewing the village elders discussion, the plan they had concocted, everything that had been done by them. The reason why the band of hawks' reputation went downfall.

The reason why Griffith and Shiro became the men they were now.

From her side of things, Jinako could only watch on in horror and disgust, her skin rapidly paling at the sheer revulsion that spread through her system. She had to cover her mouth to suppress the bile rising within her throat while her eyes shrunk to the size of dots, trembling violently while the image apparently had audio to it since they could all hear the screams and frantic roars from the scenes shown. She felt sick, really wanted to vomit at how disgusting these village elders were for condemning such a loyal band of warriors to such a fate. Then her disgust extended towards Griffith for how he had quite literally fed his men's souls to the demons of the Eclipse. The sheer BETRAYAL that Shiro and his friend must have gone through, as well as the loss they felt when one of their own bit the dust from what she'd seen… it must have been agonizing.

It also reminded her of her own family. Save for her father, how everyone in her family betrayed her after the death of her mother.

This made Shiro gripped his hand in anger, furious and filled with fury as both of his hands started dripping blood from it. It didn't take Shiro long to flip his lid. "RRRRAAAAHHHHH!" In a fit of fury, the descendant of Karna struck forth with his Spear and destroyed the image, butchering two of the fat-looking demons. Albeit that last bit wasn't intentional, Shiro wasn't going to be losing sleep over it while he glared with his eyes bloodshot towards Lucifer. "THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS! AFTER EVERYTHING WE DID AND THIS IS HOW THEY REPAY US!? WHERE ARE THEY LUCIFER I'LL KILL THEM!"

"Such fiery rage in you exceeds my expectations. Unfortunately, they will never be in your reach." Lucifer watched as Shiro just blindly tried to kill him. "They are already dead as your friend had done it first before you."

Shiro looked at Lucifer. "What more do you gain out of this devil? WHAT MORE?!"

"That is up to you to find out." Lucifer disappeared, two fat demons getting up and walking (read: stomping) towards them. To be blunt, their faces looked WAY too disgusting for Jinako to stomach, but Shiro was filled with so much rage that he just didn't give a shit. All he wanted to do right now was follow the growing growls within the back of his mind to rip, tear and shred everything in his way towards his goals… and sadly for those Demons, they stood in Shiro's way.

He knew just how to deal with them.

Thus, the fury-filled descendant of Karna charged forth towards the demons, twirling his Kurogane in one hand. Upon reaching a fist's distance of one of them, he thrusted his spear into its gut before ripping it out, the other was walking to Shiro before it was sliced in half but Shiro did not care as he blindly slashed it to pieces, into smaller pieces he raised his spear up before slamming it to the ground, crushing it to literal pieces.

Jinako gazed at Shiro with pity, now she knew why he never trusted anyone before, nor even attempted to start a conversation, he was betrayed like her only worse.

She was about to get Shiro out of his trance before the ground shake.

Jinako quickly entered a mist door as Shiro realized the ground was shaking before he jumped to a ledge, the ground then cracked before it was destroyed, leaving the paths to the mist door on the ledges.

Jinako looked in confusion as she saw Shiro... only in her eyes, he stood sideways, she realized that the mist doors had a part on them. She didn't talk with Shiro for a bit since he was still in a fit of fury, huffing and puffing, so instead she looked around before seeing a switch. She strode over to it and activated the lever to which the mist door proceeded to hover forth in different directions, she entered back at the mist door before seeing she is in the same place as Shiro who had calmed down for a bit before seeing a floating platform which spun around for a bit before using his Rashomon sthread to connect it and jumped onto it. Seeing this, Jinako also followed him as the platform spun around a little before floating to a giant mist door as it entered.

Later

After they had entered the mist, the floating platform broke when it entered the mist door and they were back at the circle of glutton(to much of Jinako displeasure).

Once they had fully recovered their bearings after a brief dizzy spell, one which had come as a side effect of the tripping qualities that space had, the duo forced themselves to continue on. Or rather, Jinako had to force herself whereas Shiro wordlessly kept continuing. They had to climb on skeleton ropes and past those human spores that spewed out fire which was unaffected by Shiro but Jinako was not.

After destroying another chain that was similar to the one in the circle of lust (not to mention nearly avoiding getting scorched in Jinako's case) they went down on the human makeshift ropes, as the descend they were at some part of cave which means that they are no longer at the circle of Glutton, they walked through the cave before seeing something that took Jinako's breath away.

Down below was the abyssal darkness which almost seemed common at this point, but what REALLY took her and Shiro's attention were the various structures that were akin to factories or other mechanical-like things. He could see gears, he could see what looked to be rivers of... what he could only assume was 'gold' in its liquid form spewing down into the depths below like some kind of waterfall. Seemed much unlike that of the organic Gluttony or the Phallic lust, for sure... not like they would be complaining though. 'Huh... Gold... currency... lemme guess, this is the Circle of Greed isn't it...?' the male mused mentally while Rashomon growled darkly.

"More gold than I could ever lay eyes upon." Jinako whispered under her breath as she saw what it looked like a gold factory but with the damned being tortured on. Some were being squashed by factory mechanics, melting at a gold lava and sinking on gold coins.

Not like this fazed shiro very much though, the male staring emptily at all of this industrial shit without much of a care. While one DID need money to survive, him and Jinako had learned the value of money when they were young. Though WHERE and WHEN they had learned this may have differed between them, considering how Shiro had learned how Money impacted one's mentality back in his village… back when he had been with the Band of the Hawk. He'd seen countless greedy bastards in power hoarding their wealth to themselves while leaving others to rot. In Jinako's case, she'd seen how it affected her family when they had betrayed her and her mother.

This tranquil silence soon got shattered when Rashomon growled in his thoughts as if warning him, quickly breaking Shiro out of his thoughts before he looked up and saw… someone he almost didn't recognize. Or rather, someTHING now, considering what it looked like. Speaking of which, that thing took the form of a large, fat bald man that looked to be wearing normal clothes initially, but there were some marks on his arms that went up to his side of the face and collar on his hand which was connected to the mark. It was a triangle that had a round shape at the edge of it.

However, the moment that he saw it a sense of familiarity washed over his being, temporarily diverting his attention from the growing rage swelling within his gut to this new phenomena. He noticed a few minute details about this being observing them, and after a few moments… his eyes narrowed with recognition flashing through them and a new urge to kill blossoming within his chest. One which resonated with his animalistic Sacred Gear all too well. "You...!"

Upon hearing the calm yet fury-laced tone of voice that Shiro had used when addressing him, the man glared down with equal malice.

"So… we meet again, at long last. Let us see who is worthy to be a greater man and a descendent of a great hero… boy."

His words said, as much as they boggled the female's mind whilst the male glared right back at him, the humanoid-looking demon of a man turned his back to them... and then proceeded to head off. It was likely that he had intended to head deeper into the circle of Greed, Shiro believed, which meant they would be meeting again soon…

Good.

Whilst the male pondered on the thought of ripping into this person with an almost maniacal glee blossoming within him, Jinako looked at Shiro with confusion. "Uhhhh…..That guy…. Seemed like he was addressing you specifically there…." The demigoddess muttered in confusion, briefly gazing up at where the demon had once been before glancing back down towards her male companion. "Did you…...know that person Shiro?" she asked him with a head tilt.

Shiro stared at the spot where he left before facing his feral face at her. His eyes told her all she needed to know about his mental state, and as much as that worried her regarding the future if they stayed in this place longer than necessary, her desire for information outweighed her fear for the moment.

Something which the descendant of Karna seemed to understand after a few seconds of holding her gaze, apparently. "Yeah… I do." he replied, closing his eyes while a sense of calmness returned to him. Something which would come in short supply in the following instances, Jinako felt, but Shio remained ignorant of this. Instead, he thought back to a particular memory back during his days with the band of the hawk.

Flashback

Flames roared through the nighttime air, accompanied by countless war cries and dying screams belonging to those being slain, those who would be sent prematurely on their unwilling way to the afterlife. Those who would be sending them there did so with zealous glee, seeing their foes as little more than bugs to be squashed on their way to their glory, on their paths towards their own dreams.

Shiro, clad in his soldier garb, stood in front of what had once been a large, lavish mansion belonging to one of the higher-ranking officials in the village, a mansion which now was wreathed in flames like they were a new cloak for it to wear. And the identities of the ones responsible for lighting it up and killing off its occupants?

The Band of the Hawk.

"You sinners! You shall pay for disrupting our sacred place-"

SHING!

A furious yet fearful soldiers' words got caught short when Shiro cut him in half via a diagonal slash from the right shoulder blade to the left hip. The man's corpse fell to the ground beneath him, before Shiro started looking around to survey the carnage that was happening.

Aside from the raging fires, countless dismembered bodies with the majority being those from the enemy side thanks to their little ambush tactic catching them with their pants down, things seemed to be going pretty well for the group. A rarity these days, but with the war nearing its conclusion and the majority of the village approaching unification, it wouldn't be long before the Band of the Hawk collected its due. Hopefully, by that point, he and the others will have survived to go on to accomplish Jamal's dream.

Speaking of his friend, Kosuke heard the sounds of horse hooves approaching him and would have raised his sword in defense against a prospective attack, but he instantly recognized the pace of said horse hooves hence why he only glanced in the direction they came from, seeing Jamal approaching him as he rode on a horse. "Shiro! We found the main place of the operation!" he pointed at the cave which was surrounded by their fellow mercenaries. The reason why they were even here in the first place though, was that Griffith had a report that there was some kind of cult that only worshipped hedonism which was not a problem with them but apparently they figured out that they have been stealing money, killing men and children and kidnapping women.

This, combined with orders from their clients, had caused Griffith to launch an attack on their base which was why they were burning the mansion and killing the cultists involved in this mess.

Shiro looked at the house before he was joined by Griffith who rode up to his opposite side on his white horse. "Shiro, scout their main base. if there is something you can't handle quickly run."

"I never run from anything and I'll handle this myself," he said to Griffith before striding into the cave with a few of the soldiers and Jamal who had gotten off his horse.

As he entered the cave, Shiro wandered for a bit while he proceeded deeper inside, the heavy footsteps from his escort behind him, Jamal close to his side. The Band of the Hawk soldiers saw no problem with this, since it had been made more than clear on a number of occasions that Shiro and Jamal preferred to be together in times like these, if they had no other option. Only Brihanna was an exception to this closeness, which came with the territory of them being best buds for so long.

Eventually, the group noticed some light in the distance, but that soon became moot thanks to what came alongside that light: a bunch of people naked and having sex, unaware of anything happening around them. This got accompanied by the smells of sweat and other bodily fluids, alongside a bunch of moaning, gasping and grunting from all participants involved. A strong heat could be felt from these people which got infused into the atmosphere as if it were replacing that of a warm home as twisted as that sounded, so combine all those previous examined features and one got the sight that Jamal, Shiro and their soldiers saw before them.

Needless to say, each of the men cringed in sheer disgust and revulsion at the sight. "Ugh, they still have sex when we're attacking them? What a fucking deluded people these scumbags are, am I right Shiro?" Jamal muttered to Shiro in his ear, the said male nodding his head in agreement while looking like he wanted to explode.

"You can say that." he replied through gritted teeth, before the soldiers and him broke into a unified mad sprint, heading in for the inevitable slaughter. Thanks to their loud footsteps, war cries and the brandishing of their weapons, the cultists finally took notice of them approach... too bad they were far too late to do so.

They slaughtered them left and right, leaving no survivors there. Shiro stabbed one that tried to take his sword away and kicked the other person on the dick(Literally) before seeing one was getting away.

He narrowed his eyes before running the direction he ran to, as he ran he noticed a few gold coins on the ground and some gems before there were more of them as he got deeper to the cave. He enters a room of what it looks like to be a fancy chair, cages with broken women on it, even some teens or preteen on it and a pile of gold and gems around him, the man was stark naked and had a big sack and was trying to fill it up with coins and gems. He sensed something before turning around as he looked to have some similarities with Shiro as he had white hair but with no red eyes.

"Wh-what do you want? Gold, gems, women? I can give them to you!" he attempted to bribe Shiro as he remained neutral, he walked to him.

"St-stay back! I'm warning you!" He threw gold coins at him which unfazed him before catching a simple gem as he looked at it which made the man smile… but then it vanished just as soon as it had appeared when Shiro threw it to the side.

The tapping of the gem hitting the ground almost sounded like the man's thundering heartbeat while he got stared down by the cold gaze of his soon-to-be-killer. "Many have attempted to bribe me, but it doesn't work because you know why?" he said to him as he got close to him.

"W-why is th-that?" he weakly said to him as Shiro narrowed his eyes at him.

"They were weak willed wimps who thought themselves above karma."

SHING!

A simple swipe clean cut of what it looks like to be the leader of the cultist, blood spewing across the coins which wound up painting them with red. Glancing to the side, Shiro's eyes narrowed when he spotted a bunch of women within cages, looking horribly malnourished and broken beyond repair. Looking into their eyes, eyes that resembled voids rather than those of a sane person, Shiro felt his gut twist inward a little before he destroyed the lock and entered their cage. "There isn't much for me to do to help you, but all I can do is give you a quick and painless death." he said to them, there was little hope in their eyes, tears were out and they looked at Shiro.

"Thank…...you…"

Shiro raised his sword before stabbing them as a flash of the sword light appeared which blinds the scene.

Flashback end

"Afterwards, we exterminated the cultists without remorse… but there were no innocents we could have saved for future recruitments however." Shiro finished, frowning to himself.

The male, as well as Jinako, had sat down together with their backs leaning against the cave wall, having taken an unofficial break from their journey to hear his explanation. The Demigoddess had her legs curled inwards with her kneecaps touching her toso area, her arms wrapped around them securely. As for the male in question, he had only one leg raised in a similar position, the other being straightened out in front of him along the stony ground beneath them. One arm rested its elbow on the elevated kneecap, letting the arm hang loosely from it, while the other placed its hand on the ground beside him.

His companion having been rendered silent by the tale he had told her, Shiro simply chose to conclude it in the best way he could. Although it had been an old memory, he could still vividly remember the looks on each of the girls faces before they had met their end by his hand. Looks which he had often feared he'd see on Brihanna's face should she have awoken from her coma post the eclipse. "The women and girls in that damn place were broken beyond repair, with some having been brainwashed whilst others had been rendered utterly broken mentally. All we could do is give them a painless death." Shiro explained, reminiscing on the memory he had when he was with the band of hawks. His head reared back, the male held his gaze upwards as his mouth pretty much moved on its own accord, words flowing out like a stream of water. "Some…. Were haunted by the looks of those women a few of them quit the band of hawks because they couldn't take it, can't say I blame them."

Jinako was silent as her eyes were hidden by her hair before looking up with a furious expression, almost similar to her father. "I think he just earned a ticket to a place, a place that he will disappear forever." her aura was shining so bright it almost blinded Shiro(he no longer had his blindfold) before looking at the circle with hate.

"This is the fourth circle, the circle of greed." Virgil declared, his form manifesting beside the two as he looked around throughout the industrial factory.

"Obviously." Shiro simply said. "And I'm guessing this place is where the most greedy people go?"

"You are correct, for the crime of greed do these souls suffer. Those clerks' asquints of mind made no measured spending in life. And by contrast in these popes and cardinals greed practices its excess."

"I can think of a few people who are perfect for this circle." Shiro mumbled under his breath, thinking of the people he had met that were filled with greed… There had been a LOT of people, especially those from the Three Factions.

He wasn't alone in that opinion, either. "Me too, my former relatives will not know what will come for them." Jinako darkly muttered under her breath, thinking of how her former relatives had treated her, besmirching her mother's beliefs about them.

Virgil nodded before disappearing into nothingness, allowing the duo to look at one another, give a collective nod of affirmation, before getting back to their feet.

They then proceeded to continue their way through the Circle of Greed.

Shortly after the duo had hopped across a bunch of steps which repeatedly slid away from one another and then back together, Shiro and Jinako stood atop a ledge. One which was located within a cylindrical shaped structure which had a metallic cage-like ceiling up above their heads. However, what Shiro had focused on the most was the fact that beneath the ledge looked to a freaking POOL of liquified molten Gold, a pool which housed many Lost Souls similar to when he had seen the various mud swamps back in the Circle of Gluttony.

"Swimming in gold, huh...? Guess that's kind of a fitting punishment for these sods..." Jinako muttered mused to herself in his place, as Shiro simply eyed his way forwards: two square shaped slabs of metal, one of them being stationary and being located right next to the ledge he stood on. As for the other one, that one constantly slid across the pool in a horizontal manner, constantly moving to and fro between the corners of the pool. On the far left side, Shiro and Jinako observed another platform, one which seemed to be a section of the ceiling above, constantly falling from above then rising back up. Not to mention that they noticed how the moment that it completely descended the sliding platform atop the pool always met it.

Thus, after a quick glance at one another, both knew EXACTLY what they needed to do...

But instead of just jumping across the slabs of metal and onto the ascending/descending platform, Shiro instead jumped to the latter with the help of multiple Rashomon threads. Once he landed on the platform just as it completed its descent, Shiro retracted those threads into his coat, Jinako landing behind him shortly afterwards after having simply leapt across the distance between the ledge and platform. The two then remained kneeling until it rose up to the top, where he hopped off it and onto the rest of the cage-like rooftop.

Once they were at the top the mechanics suddenly started to work, with the platform locking itself into place while both observed another platform coming towards them as there were two horned demons approaching them and a few flying ones. They noticed that the moving platform was spilling out melted gold below them and figured out what they were trying to do:

Molt them alive.

Unfazed by this, Jinako summoned her goblet and from it, flung some energy dangos at the flying demons, killing them quickly before summoning her Axe and blocking an attack from a horned demon that snarled at her. Instinctively, she broke away from the deadlock before holding her goblet up high, summoning a cloud of energy dangos. She then flung the goblet downwards, and the dango cloud rained down upon the horned demon's position, causing the demon to stagger backwards before, with a final decapitation from her axe, the demon exploded.

On his end, Shiro spun around to avoid a Demon's slash before cutting it to pieces via Kurogane, following up with a spartan kick at the demon.

Soon after that the molten gold was close to them, they saw a moving gear just a few feets away, Jinako ran to the edge and jumped as Shiro used his Rashomon thread to pull him to the gear as he landed on it.

Although the male had landed perfectly, Jinako wasn't so lucky. The reason? She had landed near the edge of the gear with her back leaning backwards. For a moment, she flailed her arms about with a panicked expression on her face, almost losing her balance if Shrio hadn't reached out to grab her by the front of her outfit and pulled her roughly onto more solid sections of the gear. Once she had recovered, Jinako glared at him for grasping her outfit like that, but he paid no mind to it prompting a sigh out of her.

The threat dealt with, the duo both jumped off the moving gear and landed on another platform which seemed to have a gargoyle as a door. Jinako did not know how to open the door, but before she could figure it out she saw Shiro pulling out his scythe in place of his spear.

Before she could fully process that action, Shiro went and stabbed the gargoyle which attempted to stop him, but couldn't as he pierced it through, opening the door in front of them.

Jinako raised an eyebrow at Shiro as she didn't notice he had a new type of weapon he's wielding.

Was Shiro becoming some sort of weapon collector or something?

That question never got answered as once the door had been opened, Shiro and Jinako promptly passed through to see the sights on the other side, although considering this was Hell it wouldn't look very pretty which had been a fact they'd learned from the get go. This once again got proven to be correct when, upon stepping inside, they found themselves standing in front of what looked like a tower-shaped interior room, one which sported a cylindrical look. Additionally, there seemed to be Lost Souls made entirely from either gold or lava (neither were sure which), seemingly fused into the walls while looking like they were struggling to break free, to no avail.

At the bottom in front of them, Jinako noticed a lever contraption similar to what she'd seen a few times before, which initially made her wonder if this was some kind of elevator floor but upon further analysis of the area Jinako dismissed such thoughts. Instead, it seemed as though two plates with spikes could be seen close to the ceiling which were on opposite sides of... what looked like a rectangular plate with much larger spikes.

'Hmmm... I'd say that those plates play a part in helping someone get up...' she began to think, glancing towards the plates at the top to the pair of doors partially closed, since they had spikes that both kept from fully closing as well as formed a blockade to bar their passage. '... I'd say there, not to mention that beneath it is an area which may work to open that door though I can't say for certain. Some experimentation seems to be in order, but my instincts tell me that this is a trap...' Jinako thought, frowning whilst cupping his chin with his left hand. Her and Shiro currently stood just by the door, not enough to be considered as 'in the tower' itself, so perhaps that was why a possible trap hadn't been activated yet.

Turned out that they would have no other choice in the matter since they felt the rumbling of something behind them, forcing the duo to jump forwards a bit. That rumbling turned out to have been that of the door before it had shut behind them, several mechanical whirring sounds filling the air whilst a bunch of Demons rose from the ground like zombies from their graves. Out of all the Demons however, one turned out to be… well, a rather unique-looking Demon, like the fat one they had fought earlier. This one had a lower body that looked to be similar to that of those zombie Demons, but that's where the normality ended as, connected to the waist were two humanoid yet skeletal-looking Torsos, one spewinging gold from its chest and the other holding a giant Mace.

The moment that it saw them, the Demon proceeded to spin around like a beyblade, heading straight towards them as Shiro narrowed his eyes and blocked the spinning attack which was like blocking a buzzsaw before Jinako helped him by throwing a dango at the demon to stop its attack, Shiro used this chance to thrust his scythe which extends as it stabs it before cleaving it in half.

Soon enough, more rose from the ground to surround both of them, the gold demon spun around chasing Shiro like a cat hunting a mouse with the male flipping about to keep his distance.

While that happened, Jinako slashed the demons around her, she rolled to the front dodging an attack from a demon and threw her axe at it before ripping it off.

Eventually getting tired of this little game of hunting the human, Shiro used his Kurogane to do one of his Blood Arts, skills and techniques which he had hardly been using as of late, if one stopped to think about it. "Blood art: twilight covenant!" he declared, stabbing into the demon a few times before releasing a stronger thrust which destroyed the demon, spilling gold coins around him. He looked down and picked up a gold coin, inspecting it for a few seconds, before throwing it away.

Soon a level appeared as the platform dropped and the door a few feets high was opened before it was slowly closing. Jinako saw this before squatting down a bit before jumping to the door and Shiro jumped also and rolled as the door went to close. There they were in a room with a platform and a lever which he and Jinako went to and activated. The platform went down for a bit before stopping. They exit out of the platform and saw that they are in some kind of room where gold is flowing like water, in the middle was some kind of mechanic that goes around as if in a parkour series it pushes you out of the bound but more deadly.

A demon looked at them as it roared before it went out of the room and activated a switch which caused the mechanics to activate, going around in a circle. They jumped and went separate directions, with Shiro taking the left and Jinako taking the right for their combined goal: avoiding the mechanic and demons spawning, though there wasn't any need for them to fight. The mechanic throws them away into the molten lava of gold as they scream in pain before reaching the door.

Shiro used Rashomon to stop the mechanic on top with a thread as it stopped but tried to keep going.

Jinako look at the door and think of an idea before she thought of something and spawned out a dango which she forced the gargoyle to open its mouth as it tried to keep it close but it's no use, she opened it and threw the dango in it and close it which the gargoyle stagger before it exploded, making him fall limp and the door opened.

Shiro nodded at her idea before retracting the thread and quickly went inside of the room.

Later

The next room contained a spinning disk top-like construct which constantly swung itself around a full 360 degrees, swiping across platforms withs its tips which were shaped like that of pyramids made from mutilated flesh and bones. Of course, Shiro made plenty use of his Rashomon to keep out of their way, but the next problem he and Jinako had to deal with was opening the gargoyle-style door which they had to do without getting hit by the many appendages the spinning disk top had... thus, Shiro simply destroyed the damn thing with his Rashomon's jaws by slicing through its thin appendages.

Jinako would have scolded Shiro for that, but she thought better of it since this was a hellish place, one she didn't really care if it got trashed or not. Probably would be a blessing if it did, in her opinion. Anyways, after the two regrouped by the gargoyle door Shiro made to open it, but then a bunch of demons spawned around them, distracting them from opening the door. Fortunately, they slaughtered the demons with ease, opened the door, and proceeded on their merry way.

Afterwards, the dynamic duo found themselves within another cavern-like walkway where Vergil had given his usual cryptic speal about the Lost Souls damned in this Circle, to which they had to climb on over another climbing wall filled with the bastards (something Jinako did NOT appreciate in the slightest). Afterwards, they had to swing across a jagged rock that jutted out over a large abyss, RIGHT onto a tightrope which ran across a large pool filled with molten Gold and screaming Lost Souls.

Joy.

Sarcasm aside, after dropping down from the tightrope and landing on solid ground with a loud THUD (something which relived Jinako more than she'd expected, to her internal surprise), the two stood up and looked around, finding themselves to be in a somewhat cylindrical shaped rocky room. One which sported a curved path and a circular mechanical-looking platform... as well as a similar looking wall with countless human bodies engraved into it. Neither were sure if those had once been actual people, but Shiro wouldn't have put it past the Nine Circles to do so, but aside from that the male focused on figuring out how to proceed.

'Hmmm... ah, I see.' The said male thought when he saw a lever at the end of the curved path. 'Looks like I'll have to get to that Lever and pull it.' With that in mind, Shiro summoned a couple Rashomon threads, having them slither through the air towards the lever's shaft and wrap around it, pulling it to the opposite side. After he'd done this, the male noticed the wall start to lower itself downwards upon hearing the sounds of mechanical cranks being turned, allowing him to see his way forwards: a chain, one which ran over a large pool of molten gold below.

As Shiro made to advance further while his Sacred Gear retracted into him, his eyes narrowed when he heard additional cranking sounds. Glancing to the side, the duo noticed a bunch of metallic bars shoot upwards to block the way along the curved path, before a portal akin to those he'd seen Demons use before appeared over the platform's center, allowing a Demon to jump through and land in front of it.

'Huh, looks like a Guardian Demon, but there's a few differences...' Jinako thought to herself as she observed the enemy before her while drawing her axe. One difference between this one and the Guardian Demons she had seen was that this one had deer antlers, another being that it wore gilded armor with a Shield in one hand and a large double bladed Axe in the other. 'Well then, lets see if it can fight differently compared to its seemingly lesser counterpart...'

Fighting it took relatively no time at all like the many disposables that had come before it, although the duo had noted that this type of Demon (one which Vergil had designated as a 'Throne Demon' after the battle) had a few different abilities to its name. Namely that it threw fireballs from its axe swings as well as fought in a much more warrior-esque manner.

After having beaten it, Shiro and Jinako observed how the platform they stood on turned out to be connected to that chain by what looked like an iron head frozen into a gaping expression with the mouthpiece being run through by the chain itself, with two 'arms' holding the sides of the platform in a shape reminiscent of a square-shaped, upside down 'U'. It looked like the Platform would be carried along to the other side, where they could see another one which slowly began sliding along the chain towards the one they stood atop of.

Before they could leap onto the second platform, multiple Demons consisting of a couple Hoarder/Wasters appeared from the platform to try and kill him and Jinako before they got to proceed.

Some quick bisecting changed that, however.

By the time that they got onto the second platform (of which Shiro and Jinako had jumped over onto it when the first platform had tilted itself as if to try and drop them down into the pool below, which only succeeded in showing them the sight of a humanoid head and torso had been built 'into' the platform like it had to carry it on its back for eternity, as well as a slight liquid behind its head which implied that a small pool lay within the platform itself), the duo had to fight a bunch of Demons (a bunch of Temptresses, which surprised/disgusted Shiro since he hadn't figured that he'd encounter past Demons from higher circles the deeper he went, though he probably should have since he'd seen a few of those infant ones about too. Jinako had nearly been scarred for life when she'd first seen one) which appeared the very SECOND that they had touched the platform itself.

Well, 'fight' may not have been the right word since both warriors made the first move and wound up butchering them with ease.

After a few minutes, the second platform neared what looked to be a large golden statue of a human, probably male due to the lack of breasts and a masculine shape, half buried inside a pool of molten gold with a semicircular platform floating atop the pool. In front of him looked to be some kind of circular furnace, although when Shiro and Jinako jumped off the platform onto the one below, he saw from a different angle and internally mused on how the suspended platform and the furnace looked like two halves of... well, one of those european goblets that people drank from in the past.

'Huh, well I'll be...' the demigoddess thought, noticing that there was a lever atop the 'lower half' of the makeshift goblet, so once the upper half had started sliding back to where it had come from, Jinako hopped onto the lower half and pulled the lever. Afterwards, she heard the sounds of mechanics kicking into gear as well as the sounds of increasing fiery intensity, prompting her to glance downwards towards the 'furnace' part. This allowed Jinako to see how a fireball got launched from the 'furnace' right into a pile of bones that she hadn't noticed had been there previously, revealing a bone-shaped crank. One which Shiro had easily avoided before giving her a stink eye, earning a sheepish look from her before she pondered this information. 'Puzzles must really have been one of Satan's favorite past times... heh, I guess that could be the case since they say that 'god works in mysterious ways' so maybe he's trying to do that but in a more twisted way...'

While she had thought this, Jinako saw how Shiro had decided to take action himself. He reached out and started turning the crank... only to sense multiple Demons approaching him and quickly unleash his Scythe this time, shredding the first wave of the approaching Minions to pieces.

Once he finished up, Shiro once again commenced rotating the crank. Not long into this his ears twitched at the sound of turning stone, to which he glanced at the furnace and saw it having rotated to the left. 'Huh? Wait...' the male wondered, before an idea hit him and he began pushing and pulling the crank, confirming his theory when he saw the furnace rotate in different directions depending on his own manipulations of the crank. 'Huh, I see... so if I can rotate it with this lever, and the one on top launches fireballs, how do I proceed...?' the male wondered, looking around to see if he had missed anything. After looking back at Jinako who had noticed the same thing, both then soon noticed a pair of stone pillars on both sides of the half submerged statue, each one seemingly held up by multiple smaller golden statues... ones which seemed to be in PERFECT range of the furnaces' fireballs. 'Yeah, that could work...'

Thus, with this thought in their minds the duo got to work. Shiro turned the crank to 'aim' the furnace like it was a projectile, before Jinako pulled the other lever upon receiving the go ahead from her companion, effectively 'firing' it like he would his Ukaku. As a result, one of the pillars lost the statues supporting it, allowing it to drop into the molten pool and sink into it, just enough so that it became 3/4 submerged into it.

'Heh, excellent!' Jinako cheered internally, even when she noticed a lack of a way forward from what the pillar had been hiding behind it, so she repeated the process with the other one, finally discovering their way forward in the form of another platform jutting out of a wall with a gargoyle door. 'That's our ticket, it seems!'

Once they went up, opened the door, travelled down a pathway which ended in an elevator that took them down to another short walkway, the duo got confronted with the following sight: a large, wide open space. One with a large metallic circular plate in the centre that looked to be made from liquified gold or something. This space looked to have MULTIPLE areas of which one could hide in and ambush prospective prey, something which both internally took note of. However, one thing which REALLY stood out to the two (especially Shiro) had been the statue to their right at the back of the open space, one which looked like a god that had horns around it, coins as a beard, gems around it and a staff.

"What's that about…?" Jinako questioned while she strode forwards slowly and cautiously, humming with thoughts circling around her head while she tried to figure out who this was a statue of.

"This is the statue of Plautus, first son of hades and Persephone god of wealth. It was he who suggested the lord to create this place."

"I see, seems like this wasn't made by just one god huh Shiro…...Shiro?" She made a suggestion to Shiro but instead of replying he said nothing. This caused Jinako to glance back at him, only to feel like she was staring at the reaper upon seeing his visage. Shiro, unaware of Jinako's reaction, gazed up at the statue with growing hate and anger, the statue having almost reminded him of who was the person that sent Brihanna here.

He could almost HEAR that vile laughter inside his mind, mocking him for his failure amidst the furious roars from Rashomon that DEMANDED to sate its bloodlust.

The male knew JUST how to do that.

Without any seconds wasted, Shiro took out his scythe and made a massive slash at it. Afterwards, silence reigned in which the Statue seemingly stood still, seemingly unaffected by what the male had just done, before it's upper body area slid off a bit, falling into the molten gold pool down below.

"Still angry that he was the one that brought the girl here?" Virgil questioned Shiro which was obvious but he didn't answer him and instead walked to the door that was behind the statue.

"Wait, what do you mean by that Virgil?" She asked him with confusion and curiosity.

"You will know soon enough young Demigod, right now catch up with your companion." That reminded Jinako as she saw him opening the door, she quickly ran to him by jumping the floor and entered the room before the door closed behind her, she saw him climbing through the skeleton rope and quickly got on it and climbed there with him, soon catching up with him.

After a short while of going through different small areas, the duo found themselves in some kind of room that had mechanics around them and a giant golden gear in front of them. However, they weren't alone this time, nor were they confronted by any normal demons. Nope, they had a… more personal visitor.

On top of the Gear, was the man that Shiro talked about from his past, leering down upon them just like Shiro had remembered him doing a few times he'd seen him during his stay in the village. Some things would never change, would they?

"Well-well, it seems that you have finally made it here. Including you, girl." He said to them which made Jinako look at him with ferocious hatred. She may not know him nearly as well as Shiro had, but every fiber of her being felt revolted just from the sight of him. She could only imagine what Shiro had felt when staring at him before ending his human life, let alone see him in his demon one. "All of this for a woman? It seems you have bigger balls than anyone!"

"And YOU haven't changed at all, you fucking coward…" Shiro spat, eyes narrowed and his teeth bared. Was it just her, or did Jinako see his teeth resemble more like fangs at this moment in time? "A spineless coward is what YOU are!" Shiro yelled at him, running up to the gear and throwing his right fist forwards.

POW!

As a result, he punched it hard enough to dislodge the gear from its previous position. The whole damn thing then proceeded to slowly tilt backwards without the support of its mechanics keeping it in place, with the demonic man jumping up into the air while Jinako and Shiro jumped forwards. In the end, the Gear fell into a pool of molten gold to act as a platform, the trio landing on opposite edges while having their weapons out: Kurogane for Shiro, her Axe for Jinako, and… nothing for the demonic man. Either he was underestimating them or he didn't see the need to draw any weapons, or he had a more cqc kind of combat style to him.

Something which became clear as day when the demonic man grinned with a hungry gaze directed towards the two and leapt forwards, arms spread open wide as if jumping into a sea of exquisite food. Despite this comparison, both Shiro and Jinako noticed how his arms posture hinted at a more grappling combat style due to their positioning, disguised under the previous pretence that they had just made.

This didn't deter them from dodging however, as Shiro jumped to the side while Jinako flipped to the opposite one resulting in the two eventually landing behind the man's right and left rear flanks. Something which Shiro capitalized on by rearing back his Spear for a Blood Art. "Blood Art: CRIMSON ARC!"

With his Spear reared back, Shiro swung it several times in an X-shaped slash, the tip of his weapon pulsating with his energy mixed with that of Rashomon. As a result, a crimson orange circular disk made from their energies erupted from Kurogane's blade via each swing, the two energy attacks sailing towards the greedy former noble. These attacks also got aided by a bunch of energy Dangos summoned by Jinako's goblet, of which Shiro arched a brow as the curiosity in him finally found an opportunity to make itself known.

"You summon those things outside that multi-armed form now?"

"Yeah, but it took a lot of practice. About half as strong otherwise."

Ah, so that was it, Shiro realized. Looked like while she could indeed summon them outside of that Godly Trigger of hers, but as a payoff they weren't as powerful. He'd thought it strange that they didn't explode nearly as potently as when they had first been used against that damn sphinx back in that pyramid of hers.

In any case, the demonic man before them soon brought Shiro's attention back to the fight when he turned around far faster than his blabby form should have allowed him to, opened his mouth so wide that it went halfway down his body and CHOMPED down on the attacks. Several gulping sounds emitted from him once the mouth returned to its original size with various sloshing ones accompanying them, much to Shiro and Jinako's revulsion.

"Ahhhhh, those were some nice starters… but 'Gluttony' wants more! More! MORE!"

A wild bout of twisted laughter escaped the demonic man, who had called himself 'Gluttony', while he slammed both hands into the gear-shaped platform they all stood on, causing it to slant downwards near him abruptly while shooting the other side upwards. This resulted in his prey being launched up into the air whilst golden liquid sloshed across the submerged sections, some lost souls struggling to get onto the gear for some kind of reprieve from their torment only to be forced back under into the depths where they belonged. Following these actions, Gluttony opened his mouth once more to try and swallow the two foes while they fell down towards him.

However, instead of letting that happen Shiro reared his free arm backwards. "Rashomon: MURAKUMO!" With that declaration, his Sacred Gear manifested in its clawed Tendril form which he then clenched into a fist as best he could, then launched it towards the platform's elevated side.

POW!

Upon making contact, Rashomon forcefully set it back down to a perfectly horizontal level with various waves of liquid sloshing around. From the air one could see it similar to a bunch of boiling, bubbling oil inside a pan while the two of them landed atop the platform's centre with the flabby-looking Demon already making his next move.

That move being him charging at Jinako with inhuman speed that surprised her briefly, but she soon recovered and dismissed her Axe, favoring launching more energy Dangos at Gluttony to slow him down. This worked, as he had to slightly slow his movement to open his mouth to gobble them up, but this also allowed the Demigoddess to get out the way of his charge, switching her weapon out for her Axe once more and striking at his exposed right hip.

SLASH!

"Grrrrrr!"

The Axe's blade dug deep into Gluttony's flesh and tore a massive chunk of it out of the Demon's body, launching it into the air and down into the dark abyss below. This also exposed a decent chunk of his bodily innards… for a few seconds before, much to Jinako's dismay, electrical red energy crackled over the edges of his wound while it rapidly restored itself back to normal. "Tch, regeneration, huh…?" she muttered before jumping back to escape from an overhead palm slam Gluttony made.

Though her spot soon got taken by Shiro who had Rashomon out as a pair of large jaws connected to the middle of his coat, courtesy of Rashomon, with Kurogane in his right hand. "Then we'll butcher him till he can't heal anymore." He sneered with a snarl ripping free from his throat, twirling his Spear with both hands as he got in close while planting both feet onto the platform beneath him. As a result the male slid along it while he brought Kurogane to bear against the enemy with said enemy looking to try and grab onto him for another attempt at the main course.

However, that didn't happen since Shiro switched to Kurogane's rear end and smacked it into the side of Gluttony's head with enough force to divert the whole thing to the side, allowing him to side step to the left. After this he used the momentum to spin Kurogane into a downward slash to slice off Gluttony's right arm, rolling forwards before jumping to the edge of the pool containing the platform. He used this ledge to jump higher into the air before coming down with another Blood Art being readied for use in the following seconds. "Blood Art: SKYFALL!"

Shiro swooped down like he was a skydiver, thrusting Kurogane down whilst its form became coated with his and its energy. As a result, the male stabbed it right into Gluttony's opposite arm just as the right one had finished regenerating, severing it from his person. Thus, he heard the Demon howl in pain from the blow which caused him to smirk darkly while plucking his weapon out the ground and using the rear end to smack away the reflexive smack that Gluttony had launched at him from the side in a sweeping motion, before using the momentum to perform a second horizontal swing towards the enemy's face.

THIS time his luck fell short, when Gluttony reared his head back to avoid the Spear and then launched a headbutt at Shiro, slamming his forehead into his own. This caused Shiro to stumble backwards while placing his free hand atop his forehead where he felt something warm and wet to the touch. Glancing down at his hand for a few seconds after lowering it from its former position, he saw it was blood… his blood. Such a sight still served to surprise him even now, but he quickly brought his attention back to Gluttony who had just jumped at him to try and pin him to the ground.

Just as Shiro made to launch his two Rashomon jaws towards Gluttony in an attempt to hold him back…

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Six explosions rang across his back, causing Gluttony to grunt in exertion while the last of his previous injuries regenerated. These explosions also succeeded in knocking him off balance, launching him across the platform and close to the side of the platform.

Shiro glanced towards the source, finding it to be Jinako who quickly jumped on her opportunity by enveloping herself in her golden glow and entering her Godly Trigger. As a result, she now had her multi-armed form out for display, her Weapons pulsating with her true divinity that ran through them. "I think you've had enough, buddy! Eat too much and you'll get fat!" She bellowed, holding her Goblet up and conjuring about 30 energy Dangos which she, once she brought her Goblet down, launched in a shower of attacks towards him.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!

Each Dango fell unhindered down towards Gluttony's position like the hammer of the biblical god himself, with the force to match. Most of them fell around the platform into the abyss below with others smashing around the guy to limit his movement, whereas the ones which would have hit him… got gobbled up by Gluttony's massive mouth.

"Hahahahaha! Gotta do better than that to satisfy me, girlie! Many a whore can attest to that!"

"No wonder you died alone, then!" she countered, from what she had heard from Shiro it seemed that this guy when he had been human, lacked a proper wife due to being so unpopular among the other nobles, making him resort to prostitutes and kidnapping them from other houses. His death by the Band of the Hawk's hands had only been an inevitability in her eyes.

Her words did strike a chord within him though, for Gluttony gave an angry growl while his middle started to peel open, revealing a massive black void within while spikes that had once seemingly formed his ribcage now orbited around it. "I'll add you to my collection then, whore!" He bellowed, making his move as evident by the way his segmented rib cage rattled like it was about to reach out and snatch her up…

If it weren't for Jinako slamming a bunch of energy Dangos into him.

This provided an ample distraction for her to race on forwards and slam her Axe into the side of his neck, dragging it diagonally downwards before yanking it out to leave behind a massive bloody trail where skin had once been. She didn't let this stop her as, after pivoting around his lunge, Jinako quickly stabbed her Axe's rear end into the back of Gluttony's neck to knock him down to the ground, which allowed her to summon more of her favourite Projectiles and slam them down on her enemy.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!

"AAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH! I BLOODY HATE THOSE THINGS! THEY TASTE SO FUCKING BLAND, LEMME EAT SOMETHING ELSE ALREADY!"

Now utterly outraged beyond the point of sanity, Gluttony's rib cage expanded outwards to push him into the air, allowing him to launch himself away from Jinako so he could fall on top of her instead.

Knowing that massive body could potentially impact their platform in a negative way (she didn't fancy dirtying her feet with the pool of molten gold after all), Jinako responded by slicing him in half with her Axe like it was a golf bat…

But then Shiro solved her dilemma for her by manifesting Rashomon as one large beast head, one which lunged forwards and bit into Gluttony from the side. Gluttony howled in agony as the Sacred Gear greedily (ironic, huh?) dug into his flesh, all while it smashed him into the side of the molten gold pool with enough force to make a dent in even the most undentable of metals out there.

Its master, Shiro, grinned savagely and almost demonically while his eyes shone with his own malice, the male relishing in his surprise attack being successful. "Heh, how's it feel being on the receiving end of a banquet for a change?" he questioned mockingly, not caring enough for an answer though in favor of ramming Gluttony into the molten gold pool. It would be even better if he could drown the bastard while devouring him with Rashomon, he could feel the Sacred Gear's bestial glee at being able to feast on him after all.

Unbeknownst to him, his eyes gradually started to shift slightly, becoming more like that of a canine on a blood rage than human.

Back with Gluttony however…

BOOM!

"Guuuuooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh!"

"?!"

"Okay, that is just BULLSHIT!"

Just as Shiro and Jinako had been assured of their victory against the fucker, a loud roar escaped the molten gold pool's depths before a loud geyser erupted forth from within, rocking the platform itself. It didn't help that the outer edges of the platform suddenly got swallowed by the pool itself with several sizzling sounds alerting the duo to the alarming revelation that the molten gold had acidic properties. They further realized that their platform would not be lasting long either, if they didn't end this battle quickly then they would wind up like the many who had fallen under those waves unable to escape for eternity.

However, it seemed like this battle wouldn't be concluded so easily thanks to Gluttony emerging from the depths of the pool, Rashomon's head having been destroyed according to an annoyed Shiro's observations of its remains while it receded back into him. That soon got mollified by the demon's current form however, for it had almost DOUBLED its size from before with it's flesh having formed multiple 'Tails' behind it that were as fat as Gluttony was, with the majority of its body being made up from its former lower body. The upper body hung limply from it while a twisted, downright demented grin spread across his toothy face, a look of sheer insanity and madness shining forth from within.

"... Well…" Shiro muttered under his breath while gripping Kurogane which rattled within his grasp. "Looks like we're in for a round two."