Chapter 69: Hellish Training: The Spirit of Mt. Levi

The forest was very peaceful and are not filled with any sort of traps, which makes sense since they don't want to damage this beauty and the entire ecosystem built here in the forest.

As I continue walking and looking at the map, I saw that I was here at the location. I looked around but saw no glimpse of any ice spirits here. "So is it not real?"

I wandered around the forest and kept on looking for the ice spirit.

"If I were a spirit, where would I be?" All I could think of is under the trees or some other things, maybe they've created a burrow? But I would get in trouble if I destroy the surroundings here.

So I'll just have to find a spirit in the wild, but what do spirits look like? Are they the same shape as a soul?

"Let's say that they were real indeed and they appeared in front of me, what would I say to them?" I don't want to be rude to them since they're a key part of Akemi's life, so I need to be respectful to them.

"Hey!" If I want to find them, I need to test some things that could make them come to me, and the most obvious is. "Can you come out! I, the King of Hell Haruki Hotaru want to speak with you!" Shouting at them would be disrespectful, but if it's a way to make them come out, then I'll be disrespectful.

"....." Of course, as I thought, they didn't even bother to come to me. "This is gonna be hard..." For now, let's make the searching on pause because I kinda smell really bad.

I looked at the map to see if there's a nearby lake or river here and found one. "So it's close to me, let's head there." I hope that the water won't be frozen since we're almost at the peak of the mountain.

Actually, now that I think about it, how am I even not cold at this point? These fur clothes that Ryou gave me are convenient that I can't even feel any coldness on my body. "But if I'm gonna take a bath naked... It'll definitely change." Welp, Fire Manipulation is a cheat skill anyway. "So let's head off!"

The lake was clean, not a single trash or waste can be found, and most important of all it's not frozen. I can see why because this is a freaking hot spring.

There are many more hot springs beside it since Mt. Levi is a volcano in the first place it makes sense that hot springs are found on it. "Woohoo! This is fantastic!" Before jumping, I took off my clothes and started cleaning my body first, because there's no way I would dirty something beautiful.

I jumped in the water in joy after I washed my body and enjoyed the watery bath "This is really soothing." That was all I could say.

The water is at the right temperature, which is fantastic. Things like this really want me to say to Earth that their land and water suck! Places like this with no pollution are treasures that humans shouldn't ever touch. No, humans shouldn't experience them, because they're gonna destroy them one day.

If Hell's land is beautiful like this, and places like Heaven, Atlantis and some mythical place exist too, I wonder how beautiful they are too. Wait... If those places exist, I wonder if Ryūgū-jō exists too? Then is it a possibility that Princess Otohime exists too? Oh... It's like any child's dream. "Then, if we went to Japan and meet the Gods there, I want to ask them if those places exist, wait I can ask Lugh later." For now, let's enjoy this wonderful bath without worrying about anything.

Zzz... Zzz... Zzz... I was tired from swimming in the hot spring and fell asleep on the water again, which is a bad idea cause I might drown, but nothing beats a fresh sleep on the bath, right?

"Hmmm... Hmmmm..." I was woken up by that sound, and when I looked at the sky the moon was beautiful along with that humming.

Humming? Where did that come from? Someone was humming with their beautiful voice, which made me attracted to it.

The harmony of the voice was beautifully combined with the sound of nature, the tune of it was indescribable, the voice is truly majestic that any singer on Earth would lose to it.

"Hmmmm..... Hmmmm... Hmmm..." I stood up; put on my clothes and kept on listening to the beautiful humming. "The humming is coming from the forest..." And just by the humming, it's clearly a girl that was humming. But who could it be? There's no way that a citizen of Hell is living up high on the mountain, so the only people I could think of are either Luna or Dawn, but there's no reason for them to come here anyway.

Except... "Wait Haruki! Don't think about those weird stuff, or else Dawn would kill me." And I already feel like Dawn is threatening me the same as Ruri is doing...

"*Sigh* One way to find out." I ran to the forest and followed the voice; with Fire Manipulation, I created a small fire as a light to see the direction where I'm going.

"Hmmm... Hmm...." There! To the left. I ran very fast to caught up to it because there's only one thing that the humming could be.

A dwelling ice spirit.

In many films that I watched, spirits are usually like this, so the spirit is the only one that could be humming a beautiful tune.

"Hmm.... Hmmmm...." Am I still far from it? Or is it moving away from me? Then if it is I better get to it fast.

I used my wings and flew to where it coming from very fast.

I dodged the trees that were blocking my direction awesomely. "If I had the time to react to this situation, I would've shouted something happily..." But now's not the time for that.

"Hmm... Hmmm...." I have to observe and listen to where the humming is coming from, or else I'll fail my task. "Hmmm.... Hmmm..." In front! It's really close!

Looking in every direction to see the person humming, I stopped flying when I heard it stopped. "D*mmit! Did I lost it?!" There's no way that could've happened, I was this close to the voice a second ago and if I lost it; it could mean that I failed already.

Wait why am I even feeling down though? Dawn tasked me to confirm if it exists not track it, then this task has already been finished from the start, but Dawn just wanted me to get my opinion, is that it? No, there's something more than meets the eye about this.

If so, then what, where, how could it be? "This is confusing to process completely, my brain is dying..." So my task is complete then, I confirmed that the dwelling ice spirit is nothing but a fake.

But why am I so eager to believe that it's true though? Do I want to complete this task by finding it? Or is it because I'm curious about how the ice spirit is connected to Akemi's life... "Of course that is... If I can at least talk to it, then it might know a thing about Akemi, seriously... How low did I get to be a weird stalking pervert-"

Before I finished what I was supposed to say I heard something behind me. "Hmmm... Hmmm..." I looked behind and saw a figure behind me. It was a beautiful girl that has horns on her head, blue long hair, a tail of a lizard, her arms and foot has reptile scales, and she has sharp claws.

Is this the dwelling ice spirit..? I couldn't ask nor move when I saw her, it's like I was frozen in place.

The girl smiles and asked me. "Are you lost little one?" Her voice echoes when she asked me, and like the voice of the person humming, this girl matched the voice of the one who is humming beautifully.

I couldn't respond to her, it's like something is pressuring me to feel afraid of her presence.

"Not much of a talker..." The girl came closer to me and inspected my face closely; her face is near mine.

Even I couldn't feel any sign of lust or attraction to her; she is indeed beautiful, but it's weird that only the feeling of fear is the only thing I can feel right now.

"Oh... I'm sorry little one, I guess the power of my skill is stopping you from talking..." The girl bowed and it looks like her skill has been deactivated since I was not afraid of her anymore.

"Are you the dwelling ice spirit?" I instantly asked her, it's better to make things faster, especially if this girl has a skill that makes me afraid to talk to her.

"Dwelling ice spirit..? Is that a name that was given to me..? I'm glad to have a magnificent nickname now..."

This is getting creepy, the way she talks is really slow and it echoes too like she's sick or something. "Uhmm... If I may ask, what are you doing here? Are you a citizen? Did you get lost?" Even if it's odd that she's lost in a place like this with no people, I need to be careful and get pieces of information about her.

Because it appears that she has just found out about the name 'dwelling ice spirit', and what's weird is she's happy to have a nickname as boring and plain as that.

"What am I doing here..? I'm here because I'm here..."

"Uhmm... If possible can you make it clear by explaining what you meant by I'm here because I'm here?"

The girl bowed slowly. "A long time ago Mt. Levi didn't exist on Hell, but when the war happen and the angels started attacking the 8th floor, a massive tragedy filled with destruction and melancholy appeared-" So it's about the war again then, and she's telling me about a massive tragedy? I need to learn my history of the war.

"The Archduke Leviathan bravely fought against the angels and drove them off, but that's when it started, the tragedy. Filled with jealousy on how other races weren't suffering like them, Leviathan showed both the devils and angels who she truly is and slowly Leviathan started to transfer and reveal her true identity. She turned into the monstrosity that was recorded in the Hebrew Bible, a giant sea serpent that brought destruction to Hell. The cities of Hell were destroyed by Leviathan but in the process, she defeated one of the strongest Seraphim named Seraphiel and saved Hell from the Seraph,"

So Leviathan destroyed some of the city of Hell but did it to protect hell from the angels, I can't say that she's at fault at that time.

"That's what she thought at least..."

"Wait what?!" That's what Leviathan thought?

The girl continues. "Leviathan did indeed saved Hell from Seraphiel's army, but in the process, Leviathan lost control and started attacking her allies-" That can't be... Poor Leviathan, what could've happened to her? "Due to the size of her form as a sea serpent, it destroyed 90% of the 8th floor's landscape. Both the angels and devils knowing how much destruction Leviathan is doing made a truce to defeat Leviathan first before they continue the war. Many lives were lost in the end, almost all the Archdemons and Archangels were killed by Leviathan's rage, and Leviathan was killed by both the strength of Michael and Jarren Hotaru."

I was tensed from hearing about what happened to Leviathan, I could only feel pity for her. She protected her home, but in the end, she's the one who destroyed it... It's like she suffered a lot just by transforming.

"Leviathan's corpse landed on this place, her skull became the mountains, her body was the fruit of the life here, her breathe of flames became the magma for turning the mountain to a volcano, and her tears of sadness were frozen and turned to cold snow."

So Mt. Levi is Leviathan all along, the ground that I'm standing on is her corpse that was left here when she was killed and the snow that's falling right now is her tears...

What is this feeling? I feel empty knowing that Leviathan is here with me all along, and she's giving me a platform to stand on. "*Tsk* If I ever meet her in my dream, I want to thank her-" Seeing her wonderful eyes, I remembered what she told me. "I'm here because I'm here."

Don't tell me?! I looked at her and saw her smile beautifully, the moment she smiled she turned to snow.

"*Tsk* So the dwelling ice spirit does exist, and she is connected to Akemi." Today is full of surprises, I can't believe I got to meet and talk to the original Leviathan.

I messaged Dawn. [The spirit of Mt. Levi is the one who created the mountain.]

{Day 11/ 14}

After I send a message to Dawn that I completed my mission, she sent me a message and jokingly said that the deceased Archdukes are attracted to me.

Also my task for today. [Travel 11,500m, get a single piece of Leviathan's bone or teeth, and fight the entire nest of wyrm there.]

It looks like that I'm gonna be back monster hunting from today, and also fossil hunting too.

After that encounter I had with Leviathan yesterday I was happy that she visited me because even if we didn't talk very long, she's still better than Beelzebub.

And now that I got a bit of history lesson from Leviathan about Mt. Levi, so even if I didn't know her well, this place I'm standing on shows that Leviathan is still with us.

With 3 more days until I finished my training, I was excited to see what the end would be, and how everyone would react to me surviving alone in the forest by hunting and scavenging food here. I can't wait for them to praise me.

Also, in the end, I guess I was the second person to see or talk to the dwelling ice spirit of Mt. Levi, so if Akemi did meet her once in her life I wonder what happened between her and Leviathan at that time? Did they get along really well? Could be, because as of right now that Akemi is in a coma, she's with Leviathan, so I can ease up knowing that Leviathan is not scary as Beelzebub says that she is.

And looks like that Akemi and Ryou's mother was correct when she said that Leviathan is a nice and caring lady.

So even if I didn't know what's happening with them right now, or what are they doing right now, I want to ask Akemi when she wakes up. "Did you and Leviathan had a nice vacation at your dream?"