The City of Severance once boasted of billions of denizens, a realm unto itself.
Now it was a shadow of what it used to be, its population reduced to a few thousand.
Mukoku had quickly decided that she wasn't going to sit around waiting for her people to respawn.
She'd decided on an adventure, a quest to search for a way to put an end to the threat the Lagarakeis posed to Naraku as a whole.
Fortunately for Ran—who had read enough of the Book of Calidation to know adventuring through hell was a life hazard—an emergency came in the form of a nice distraction for Her Majesty's planned adventure.
Now, looking ahead at the city of The Principality that never slept, he didn't know whether he was fortunate or not.
"It is said Principality never sleeps because sleep is a mercy, and no mercy survives this deep in Hell," Haru commented from beside him.
The entire city towered on seven gargantuan basalt pillars like a dark spider nest, suspended above a sea of roaring molten glass. It had no walls and was instead walled and cloaked in shadows.
Its streets were jagged veins of black iron, and its sky, a stagnant cloud of old lightning, flashed with faces that never spoke.
The smoke glow of sulphur-stone was heavy here, but thicker still was the telltale demonic power of hell, drawn to this city like vultures to a corpse that still twitched.
It was like Naraku's equivalent of sunlight, demonic power was the waste energy released by the demonic essences of the beings who all call this infernal land home.
As their party, led by the Queen of Severance, entered the city upon their Wraithwagons, they all felt it in the air.
Tonight, the entire dominion of the Principality pulsed with tension.
Every infernal city had felt the Lagarakeis who had escaped ancient captivity rising from below.
Their nature as creatures of shadow and hunger, born from the deep wells of failure in Hell's design, resurfacing to devour and destroy.
As if he knew what he was thinking, Haru said to Ran, "it's usually more loud here. But I understand the reason for the mood. According to messages Mukoku have been receiving, the Lagarakeis have already swallowed six cities whole."
Ran turned and gaped at him. "But, what about the Princes and Queens? Couldn't they protect their cities?"
"Shhh!!" Haru hushed him harshly, looking around to see if they had the attention of anyone. When he was satisfied that they did not, he gave Ran a chastising look. "You need to be careful with your words here. Should any of said Princes and Queens, or any of their servants, hear such a question from you, offence will be taken. Quite a great offense, my friend."
Eyes narrowed but understanding the weight of his friend's warning, Ran nodded.
"Were the creatures at least slain?" He asked.
For some reason that caused Haru to chuckle. "Perhaps we should have found other pure mortals aside from you and sent them via express delivery to them."
Ran rolled his eyes at his friend's sarcasm. "It was a yes or no question."
Haru shrugged. "Only in the case of two cities did that happen, but not until only their Princes were left standing."
Ran didn't know how to feel about that. He'd done something the Queens and Princes of Hell had been unable to.
That thought made him uncomfortable as they crossed into the city through its mountainous gate.
But he could certainly understand their frustration and troubles. And why now, for the first time in eons, the rulers of Hell were gathering not to conquer—but to survive.
"I will need to be careful here, then," he concluded aloud to his friend, earning a curious look that urged him to explain. "Certainly some would not have taken the news of my dear well and may choose to prove something?"
Haru smiled but shook his head. "In the real world, Kurana, all stages of life might have schoolyard politics, but it's not always so here. You have Mukoku's aura upon you. No one would want to anger her by doing anything to her Knave, trust me."
Ran hoped so, dearly. He had no idea how he'd manage if a power demon Prince came to punish him just for having survived standing upon Lagarakei.
He had no idea what he was capable of now since his purity was perverted, but he'd do anything to preserve his life for the mission of saving his father.
A day after their arrival, Ran stood in the far corner of the grand council chamber, torch in hand, keeping to the shadows, as all good servants did. His skin was slick with fear, sweat, and cinder grease. Even being present here was enough to melt a weaker soul.
The room curved like a ribcage, with spires for teeth and a throne carved into the ceiling, upside down, where the Black Consensus watched.
Dozens of entities occupied the chamber: princes of ruin, lords of decay, demon serpents in the skin of angels, all wrapped in silence too loud for comfort.
At the center stood Arch-Carnifex Belladros, a towering demon of stitched brass and bone, his voice layered like a choir of cannons.
"We cannot contain the Lagarakeis."
Murmurs slithered through the council like oil.
"We cannot bind them," his voice boomed, rattling Ran's bones. "We cannot bribe them. We cannot outrun them."
A demon shaped like a burning halo spoke: "Then we let them eat the weak cities and seal the breaches behind."
Another, coiled like a fleshless dragon, hissed, "They are following the cities we abandon. They're learning. They hunger for power, not territory."
A third, cloaked in wings echoing of stolen prayers, rasped, "What if this is not a plague… but a punishment?"
That froze the room.
Ran dared glance up. A ripple of dark interest ran through the Consensus above. Some entities smiled with too many mouths. Some began to melt into shapes of agreement.
And then—a name was spoken. Not aloud, but inside. A suggestion from something ancient and never meant to speak again.
"Unseal the Prison. Let the Bound One fight for us."
The room ignited in chaos.
Ran dropped to his knees as pressure shattered the torch in his hand.
The Prison. The dream. The whispers.
He wasn't just a servant anymore. He had heard the name once. He had nearly spoken it. And now the most powerful beings in Hell were debating whether to break the world to save it.
All he could do was tremble.
Because if they opened that place… it wouldn't be a war.
It would be a reckoning.