"Feels like home. You're not so bad, for a human."
Laying down in his own pile of corpses, which was still as uncomfortable as ever, Eden rubbed his face, groaning mentally, "That's fucked up. And let me sleep. I earned it."
Eden felt the psychic equivalent of a chuckle pass over, followed by words, "Sleeping will make your mind more fragile. Prone to madness."
His eyes closed, Eden waited a moment, before asking, "How long do you think you can hold on? Before the madness takes over?"
Pit Fiends were naturally crafty devils, being at the top of the food chain, only below Archdevils, but the crushing despair of the situation they were in made any lying useless.
"Hard to say. I'm not just going to turn mad one day, it's a gradual process. There's not exactly any accounts of it either, since no one ever escaped from this shithole."
"How did you know it takes a month to go up then?"
This time it was a mental shrug, "It's just something I know. I've judged quite a few devils down here, so I know some of the terms of the punishment."
Eden paused. He wanted to ask if Abraxax actually thought they had a chance at escaping, but he was pretty sure of the answer already.
Instead, he asked, "So, how did you get here?"
"I thought you wanted to sleep?"
Rolling his eyes, Eden said, "Fine, don't say it if you don't want to. Well, warn me if anything tries to get to us."
Eden received no response, but he decided to take it as acknowledgment.
---
There was no day and night in the Forgotten Layer, only endless combat, and the ever-constant black hole in the center, making it near impossible to count the time pass.
However, with the help of his Simulacrum on the outside world, Eden managed to keep a track of time, and he also measured the exact time flow difference. Here, in the bottom layer of the Abyss, time passed 666 times faster than on Toril.
Eden would have been amused by the number, had he not been the one suffering the effects. To put things into perspective, by now, Eden had spent about a week at the Forgotten Layer. A week filled with near constant fighting, the only pauses he got being under piles of corpses, or high up learning Wall of Force.
Had it been in the outside world, Eden would have managed to learn and master it in less than a day, but the conditions made it much harder. Moreover, he was not able to use his Talent to replicate the spell inside the scroll as he could not meditate while flying.
This last week had by far been the worst of Eden's life, although it did allow him to grow closer to Abraxax. It helped to have someone to talk to.
But that week of struggle? It only represented 15 minutes for his Simulacrum. In other words, for the rest of the party, it had only been a quarter of an hour since he had been sent to the Abyss.
This made waiting out the end of the main mission a non-option. Although he and the party had gone through most of the equivalent of Act I quite quickly, several things in the game hinted at its events taking place over several months, and close to a year.
Just going from the Grove to Baldur's Gate would take at least a month of travel, and that was without taking into account the Shadow Cursed Lands.
But even if the Party somehow managed to go all the way to Baldur's Gate and kill the Absolute in a single month, that would still represent 55 years for Eden.
In other words, Eden would die of old age before the end of his main mission, if he did not get killed by demons before then.
This week had been nothing close to easy after all. Abraxax and he still had all their limbs, but they had already started accumulating scars. They were absolutely not the strongest beings around, especially with something like Gorellik walking around.
Speaking of which, Abraxax knew about him. Gorellik was the fallen god of the Gnolls, who had been supplanted by the Demon Lord Yeenoghu. Although Gorellik barely qualified as a demigod anymore, he was still immortal, and had a divine domain that would weaken anyone inside.
Concerning monsters, they had met their fair share of Balors, Pit Fiends, Nightmares, and all sorts of monsters that would pose a challenge to a party of Level 20 adventurers. The number of demons was seemingly endless.
Sighing to himself, Eden stopped thinking about the depressing stuff as he reached the 666th layer, and noticed that Abraxax was being attacked by monsters.
Activating Tasha's Otherworldly Guise, Eden used his momentum to fly at the Nightmare facing Abraxax, and before it could even see him coming, slammed into the back of its head with both fists forward.
Its skull exploded with a sickening crunch, unable to withstand his reinforced fists. Seeing him land, Abraxax turned his attention to another demon, while asking aloud in infernal, "Learned the damn spell already?"
With Comprehend Language activated, Eden understood the devil, and answered, "I told you already I wouldn't for a while. I still insist that it would be easier to have you carry me and allow me to meditate."
Abraxax snorted, smashing in the head of an aberration, "I would sooner die than let a mortal ride me."
Eden rolled his eyes at Abraxax's stubbornness, but did not press him as he continued fighting.
After a while, it was Abraxax who asked a question, "If you get out of here, do you think you could take on those three quasi gods that sent you here?"
Slamming his hands rapidly into the chest of a demon, each strike applied with Cursed Energy, each an attempt at triggering a Black Flash, Eden replied, "I think so, yeah. Why?"
Abraxax clearly hesitated, something he did not do often, before revealing, "You think you could make a visit to the Hells while you're at it?"
Eden chuckled, "You make it sound like I'm guaranteed to escape. I have no idea how to walk between planes."
"I suppose you're right. Besides, if you can't even kill Gorellik, I wouldn't bet on you against the Dead Three."
Eden headbutted a demon, recovering some of his HP as he scoffed, "Thanks for the vote of confidence asshole. I still have room to grow, and even then, taking on an opponent of that level carries danger. I'm not fighting a pointless battle at that level."
He turned to look at his Pit Fiend friend, and asked, "Anyway, why were you asking? Got someone you want me to visit in hell? You should do it yourself."
Abraxax sighed, mentally this time, conveying the message through his telepathic link, "I'm not getting out of here. I can already feel the madness encroaching on my mind. And even if I could, I wouldn't be able to kill him."
Leaping atop a Hazvongel, which was a large bird the color of blood, Eden severed its wing off with a Cleave. As the bird started falling however, Eden spotted a gigantic mass skittering over, and warned loudly, "Skittering Horror!"
The Skittering Horror was a gigantic centipede-like creature straight out of a nightmare. Its attributes were not very scary, and it even had a weakness towards radiant damage. However, they had a Maddening Presence Perk that attempted to turn mad anyone standing close to it.
It was of no danger to Eden, and in any other environment, Abraxax would be able to ignore it as well, but here it would merge with the aura from the black hole.
Honestly, deep inside, both Eden and Abraxax knew that the Pit Fiend would not be getting out of here. Even Eden, with his resources and decades of time, might die in here.
Still, Abraxax was not about to lay down and give up, so hearing Eden's warning, he immediately disengaged, and flew up, away from the maddening beast.
Meanwhile, Eden leaped down from the falling Hazvongel, chanting, "I cast Wrath of the Dead!"
Unlike most of the time when he used the Necrotic version that healed him, Eden used he radiant one that stopped others from healing.
Seeing him fall towards it, the Skittering Horror coiled back, its giant mandibles closing down towards Eden.
He did not dodge, and instead used the snapping mandibles to push himself up, getting his body out of harm's way, and pounded his fist into its skull.
Much to his surprise, Eden's Cursed Energy flowed smoothly, hitting the Skittering Horror right at the same time as his fist did, causing space to distort as he produced a Black Flash.
The Skittering Horror was a pretty tough aberration, its chitinous armor capable of withstanding strikes form basically anything down here except the toughest.
However, Eden hit it with a Maximum Output punch, and one coated with Radiant energy as well, which dealt double the damage. All of that was further multiplied by his Black Flash, resulting in a large part of the Skittering Horror's head exploding, killing it instantly.
Eden's luck had been down the drain ever since he had gotten down here, as this was his first Black Flash in a week. Considering he spent 80% of his time fighting an endless battle, not triggering one so far was not very lucky.
After all, in that week alone, Eden probably did more fighting than some sorcerers did in months, if not years. Each battle was challenging too.
As Eden was about to descend back to the rest of the demons, he suddenly received a mental warning, "Gorellik is approaching fast!"
He looked up, and indeed, the giant demigod Gnoll was rushing over excitedly, followed by his army. Normally, this would have been where Eden would have retreated, but as he felt the blessing of black lightning upon his person, Eden leapt at the demigod instead.
Eden shot out like an arrow, and piercing into the domain of the demigod.
[Wisdom Check…]
[Wisdom Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]
A check for each of his attributes appeared, and they were all blocked by his talent. However, that did not mean the domain was useless against him.
It was unable to restrict him and his personal energy, but according to Abraxax, a domain would also lessen the power behind any of his spells. Since his spells used the mana of the world alongside his own mana, attack spells would be weakened.
Seeing him approach, Gorellik grinned savagely, and swung down his axe. However, at the last moment, Eden slightly shifted with a twitch of his wings, and punched Gorellik in the face.
Space distorted, and Eden's Cursed Energy flashed black as Gorellik was stopped dead in his tracks, and was even forced a step back. He looked stunned he was even hurt, which was understandable since he had an Immunity to physical damage, and resistance to magical physical attacks.
Eden did not stop there, slamming another fist at his giant nose, and felt the bone inside break. Finally, as he landed down, Eden shot up towards Gorellik's lower stomach, and slammed one last Black Flash there.
Gorellik grunted in pain, he had been hurt. However, Eden felt that this would be his last Black Flash, and without it, it would be very hard to contend with Gorellik. So, while he recoiled from his last attacks, Eden cast Misty Step, using the last of his mana to escape.
Gorellik roared in rage, but did not give chase. While the demigod had a better resistance against the maddening aura of this layer, the countless years spent down here had eroded away his mind.
"Some help over here!"
Eden followed Abraxax's voice, and noticed him wrestling with a dragon.
[Name: Jarmina]
[Title: Lady of Silver]
[Perks: Tier II, Blindsight, Darkvision, Magic Resistance, Frightful Presence, Draconic Fortitude II, Draconic Might II, Spirit Glacier II]
[HP: 1834/2396]
[MP: 1123/1300]
[Strength: 85]
[Agility: 35]
[Physique: 75]
[Intelligence: 65]
[Wisdom: 25]
[Immunity: Cold II]
[Resistances: Bludgeoning II, Piercing II, Slashing II]
[Weaknesses: Fire III]
Eden had been surprised the first time he had spotted a dragon, as it was about the last thing he expected to see down here. After all, if there was one species that should have been able to leave, it would have been dragons.
Although Abraxax assured him this place had the reputation of being impossible to escape, he was sure wizards who could Plane Walk, and beings who could fly up for a month straight had come here. Dragons should have been such figure.
Yet, somehow, there were several dragons down here.
Though he did not know how it came about, Eden flew at it, or her going by the name, all the same. The Silver Dragon retained her beauty of old, but her grace had completely vanished, taken over by the madness.
Although the Black Flashes were gone, his connection to his Cursed Energy was still heightened. Jarmina paid him no mind, focused on tearing Abraxax to shreds, allowing Eden to land atop her and slap the base of her wind with a Cleave.
She screeched, and attempted to swat him off with her wing, but he was already gone, and hit her in the side with a punch. For both attacks, he felt his output was increasing.
Although it looked like Eden had still not seen any results from his Binding Vow forbidding him from advancing to Tier II, he actually had. His Cursed Energy output had been slowly but surely increasing, while he was actually learning Wall of Force.
He was not there yet, but to be able to learn anything was good enough already with his conditions. Although a week had passed, only a fraction of that time had been spent studying the spell. And on the rare times he had spent with the spell, he had done so while flying.
It might not sound like much, but it was like trying to learn algebra while running. Probably not impossible, but very much not optimal.
Jarmina turned her head toward Eden, opening her maw to unleash an icy breath on him. However, as the cold energy appeared at the back of her throat, her mouth was forcefully shut close by Abraxax with a smash from his mace.
The duo tag-teamed the dragon, and although any normal dragon would have long fled, affected by the madness, she fought to the death.
Eden ended her by slamming his hand through a hole he had made earlier with several Cleaves, and landed a last one directly on her heart.
A few more demons had joined in while they fought the dragon, and with the addition of the massive silver dragon, the two managed to get their mountain of corpses, and stopped for a rest.
While they were recovering, Abraxax abruptly said, "You really can hurt Gorellik."
Eden, who had grown used to be buried in corpses, which was both sad and terrifying, laid in the bets position he could, which helped with the breathing, and wiped the dragon blood dripping down on him as he replied, "Of course I can. I'm still rather helpless right now, but give me enough time, and I'll kill him. Well, I hope I'll have left by then."
There was little conviction behind his own words.
Abraxax ignored that however, and said, "If you get out, could you do one thing for me?"
"And what would that be?"
"Kill the cunt who put me here, Archdevil Belial."
Eden, who had been ready to nap, opened his eyes, looking in Abraxax's direction despite not being able to see him, and after a moment, casually replied, "Sure."