Throughout their relatively short time of back-to-back questing, the crew had managed to rank up to the point of being Space Wanderers.
After the cargo defending quest, the crew quickly got used to killing actual people and came to terms with the fact that their powers were deadly when used properly.
While most of the crew was used to killing beasts, Z'oelo had already possessed a violent nature.
That was not to say that killing was familiar to any of them, including the aged ruler.
On the other hand, in another plane, a ruthless killer born from the infernal depths was experiencing a whole other life.
---
After a grueling period full of scouring and devouring in the hellscape he was sent to, Edmond had managed to find something other than an endless expanse of molten rock.
There he was, travelling after having scorched the hellbats and consumed their essence when he came upon something he thought he would never encounter.
A city!
In this godforsaken place there was an actual civilization.
He headed for the gateless outskirts and took note of the barren and shoddy buildings that resembled stone houses.
He could see larger, sturdier buildings in the distance, but for the time being, he had the outer ring to go through.
As soon as he was spotted by some imp-like creatures, they hissed at him and advanced with killing intent.
'Fools.'
Edmond took notice of the crowd of superior imps seeking to surround him for unknown reasons.
They were all shrieking and salivating while charging at him in a disorderly manner pushing each other aside as if he was a sizzling steak on a platter.
Edmond simply focused on his hands— specifically his palms— and felt his blood boil as a tingling sensation slithered its way down to his clawed fingers.
Then suddenly a plume of hellfire was blasted at the nearest targets in front of him.
This caused the rushing imps to shriek in pain before thrashing around on fire.
This variety of flame sought to destroy the very soul of the imps set ablaze as they soon dropped dead on the ground.
Despite this, the other imps simply tumbled over their dead companions and continued forth attracted by the flesh of Edmond.
'Boring.'
He continued blasting the incoming imps with hellfire like there was an infinite well that he could draw upon until all that remained was charred corpses.
Not being one to waste food, he quickly chomped on the piles of bodies in a heartbeat and continued his way to the city all the way in hell.
---
On the other side of things, the denizens of the city were rushing to notify their leaders of the occurrence in the outer city.
They were clearly more intelligent than those in the outer city as they had the means and capability to build a city in the first place.
Among those of the city, there were lesser demons that scrambled to warn the others of an intruder.
They spoke a wretched tongue that would make your ears bleed if you heard it.
"Intruder alert! There's an intruder in the outer ranks!"
All of this screaming eventually made it to the higher ups of the city to which they appeared among the lesser demon crowd.
"What intruder do you speak of?"
A taller, more devilish demon stood amongst the crowd and asked them.
One of the lesser demons spoke to their superior kind, "My lord. It was a high-born demon with horns!"
At the notion of a high-born, the demon was visibly shaken.
'A high-born in these parts? There must be something wrong with them.'
"Alright get out of the way! Let me see who exactly has come to my humble city."
And so, he headed to meet tiny figure that was Edmond.
---
'So, there was something else besides weaklings down here.'
This was what he thought upon facing the demon leader that came to see him.
"So, it was true!"
'There really is a high-born here. It seems to be a child at that! I can't wait to taste his carnality and drink his ichor.'
He stepped forwards while Desmond remained still.
Disregarding the strange behavior the child exhibited, the demon attempted to communicate with him.
"What brings you here to my humble abode high-born child. Have you lost your way?"
While he spoke, he feet never stopped as he got uncomfortably closer and closer.
Edmond wondered to himself, 'Is he speaking to me? I can sort of understand him, but its like there's something clouding my judgment.'
'Who cares,' a voice that he had grown used to hearing as his own spoke to him, 'Let's eat!'
'No. This one is not prey. I must be careful.'
'Screw that! I need something other than disgusting imps and hellbats. I need more powerful prey to consume.'
The back seated voice boomed before compelling Edmond to raise his hand for another blast of hellfire.
"What are you doin-," before he could finish his question, the nameless lord was met with a fiery end.
This time however, Edmond controlled the flames in a way that burned away the useless parts of the demon and left him with a boiling essence that was promptly sucked into his mouth.
"Yes! That's more like it," this time, Edmond was the one to speak his mind.
He marveled at the wonderous flames that he took for granted before this.
Ancient marks began to appear on his pale skin reaching all the way to his horns; the flames were clearly more than met the eye.
These flames could only be found in purgatory where the damned were faced to suffer in torment, never to feel anything but the searing heat.
Now that the head honcho of the place was dealt with, the rest of the lesser demons were scared to even move.
Some saw how effortlessly the high-born child released a hellflame that rendered him dead in seconds and grew fearful down to their core despite being wretched beings themselves.
'What are we going to do?'
'Why did the leader have to die just like that?'
'Does this mean he is going to take over now?'
Edmond did not meddle with the inhabitants of the leaderless city and instead focused on his growing hunger.
'Hehehe. You know what that means, don't you?'
"It's time for a feast!"
Edmond yelled to the dismay of the lesser demons.
Screams echoed in the area as the entirety of the city— aside from a few quick-footed stragglers— were rendered into a meal for a hungry demon child.
---
"Alrighty now. This makes us even!"
Theef gloated to the others of the crew as he was officially appointed as a Space Wanderer.
"Congrats man. It took a while, but you made it," Null congratulated along with the rest of the crew.
They had plundered, protected, killed, and more to advance and gain experience like the rest of the Wanderers.
They were becoming quite famous among the Wanderers as they were a group that mostly worked together to complete quests.
There were not many Wanderers to begin with as Barter was not a relatively known planet amongst higher level beings.
One of the other groups had come into contact with the crew cordially.
"Nice going, Theef," Glorp, the leader of his group came up to congratulate as well.
"Yeah, we still have much to learn before we make it like you guys," a man named Chino added.
The others of the other Wanderer group also came to offer their congratulations before heading out once more on a quest.
"You know," Theef began, "I think I've gotten too used to this area's difficulty. Plus we still need to find out clues as to how wer're gonna get to the rest of your so called 'flames'."
"You're right. There are not many threats we get exposed to at our level," Null surmised.
"Well, if my planet is not to your liking, perhaps we could travel to one of the Wanderer Guild's headquarter planets in another system," Barter's Ruler concurred.
"I'd like that, "Klein gave his piece, "I've already seen so many wonderous things just by travelling with you guys all this time. I would like to see and experience more."
"Same here. I feel like there's more I could handle than what's out here. Muni also feels the same way," Z'oelo blatantly lied to which Muni berated him.
Like it or not, bashing in heads or slicing them off was all she could do in his hands; not that she didn't enjoy being at his side.
With the things she had seen him go through, a little venting was healthy in her opinion.
Upon hearing that the crew had desires to travel to one of the headquarters, the receptionist was more than happy to help the crew figure out which one was best for them.
They had decided on one of the most popular headquarters among the roster which coincidentally happened to be the closest.
It was known as the Wanderer Trogon Headquarters of the Trogon System.
That was to say that the Wanderer's Guild held ownership of the entirety of a solar system!
With more adventures to be had, the crew headed out beyond their solar system for the first time.
What awaited them was information regarding the whereabouts of the separate plane that held the last two flames— one of them crimson in color that now emitted almost black flickers.