Path of Cleansing Part 2

Path of the Cleansing Part 2

Easy Quest

Requirement: Must have done Path of the Cleansing 2.

Reward: 1,000 zeni and +15 Hero Points
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It wasn't long after Jeraph had stepped out of the cleansing machine that Helios approached him once again. The demon was as excited as Jeraph was, apparently the male demon enjoyed helping people.

"You aren't done yet, that's just the first part of the cleansing path." Helios explained, his smile stretching from ear to ear.

"Wait what? I'm not done?" Jeraph asked, he was visibly feeling better.

"I'm sorry but to become completely cleansed there are many steps in the process." Helios responded, his voice apologetic.

"Well what's next then?" the shin demon combination asked, sounding a little irked.

"Next we go to Hell." The demon known as Helios responded.

Once again the demon took the lead. Jeraph hadn't noticed before how small it actually was. It was only around three foot tall, it was more of an imp than a full blown demon. Helios led the way past the line of souls waiting to be cleansed and back down the mountain side. This time the animals seems to watch in awe as Jeraph walked down. The boulders and gaps that had been in the way before seem to have moved on their own and going down was quicker than the way up.

The odd pair made there way around the base of the mountain. At times the underbrush was so thick that Jeraph had to slice through it using his blade. Eventually they emerged on the back side of the mountain they had recently climbed. As they emerged the terrain massively changed. It went from nice firm earth to a swamp. The swamp looked a lot like Louisiana in the United States. The trees were draped in moss that stretched almost all the way to the ground or water. In the water what looked very much like alligators could be seen floating. The difference was these were several feet larger.

Each of these reptilian looking creatures, had a massive head. The beasts looked like they were designed to eat very large creatures. Due to the size of the creatures, and the comparable size of the demon and Jeraph, they paid them little to no mind. There were other creatures inhabiting this swamp area. These creatures were reminiscent of snakes on earth They had long, slender, muscular bodies, a forked tongue that flickered in an out to taste the air, but just like the alligator looking beasts these were larger than most swamp dwelling snakes on earth.

Some of these snakes were large enough for Jeraph to ride. Once again due to the size, Jeraph and the demon weren't even large enough to be an appetizer. The swamp had other life including some strange birds of prey. These were quite a bit like earthen eagles, and hawks. They appeared to prey on smaller animals here that resembled rabbits and rats.

As for the plant life, there were some massive lily pads, with a nice purple flower. The flower had bright yellow pollen in the center. Normally on earth bees would be all over these plants. Here there were beautiful butterflies here, some of theme looked like monarchs or viceroy, others were just bright yellow or green. As for some other life we saw deer that resembled deer but the horns were massively different.

Helios led the way through this terrain, just like he did the forest. They avoided all sorts of animals, the snakes, and alligator looking beasts included. They even dodged some plants that were like giant venus fly traps. The smell of the bog was different than every where Jeraph had been so far. It was full of the stench of decay, stagnant water, and a musty odor that was presumably coming from the moss.

Eventually the duo made it through the swamp, although there was no real way to tell how long it took. This being because time ticked away different here than on the mortal plane. What seemed like minutes here could be hours on earth, or even days. Jeraph wasn't sure, it seemed like he had only been dead for a matter of moments though.

As they emerged from the swamp there was a massive sink hole. It was roughly twenty foot by twenty foot, a perfect circle. They duo neared the hole and Jeraph could see stairs carved out into the side of the whole. The stairs were deep black almost like Ebony in color. There was a massive heat coming from the hole, almost like it led to the center of the Earth.

"Is this the entrance to hell?" Jeraph asked the demon who was leading him.

"Yes, but this leads to one of the circles that is inhabited by some of the lesser evil spirits." Helios responded to the question.

"So what am I to do down there?" Jeraph inquired his voice sounding slightly frightened.

"This trial for cleansing you may find more difficult. You are to go to hell, and help some of the evil spirits. They may have an easy task for you, or they may have something more difficult. Either way help a few of them out and you will come that much closer to becoming fully cleansed." The little red demon answered.

"Fine then, let's get this over with." Jeraph said with a sigh.

With this the odd pair started the walk down the steps into hell. The further down the pair travels the warmer the air got. Eventually it began to cause Jeraph to sweat, it was beading on his brow. The smell wasn't pleasant either, it smelled like burning coal. The duo kept climbing down the stairs, and the began to hear screams coming from some where below.

As the pair got to where they could see the flat ground, the screams were still in the distance. Immediately after they stepped off the stairs, Jeraph was approached by a spirit. The spirit appeared human, but was wearing clothing that wasn't like anything Jeraph had ever seen before. The spirit seemed to have belonged to a young person too, maybe twenty to thirty years of age.

"Please sir, can you help me? You are allowed to leave." The spirit asked of the shin.

"Well, it depends on with what?" Jeraph asked and stated at the same time.

"Well my family was on there way here through the swamp. They were going to visit me, they got lost or something, it's been a few days since I heard from them." The spirit answered.

"I'll go look for them." Jeraph said turning away from the spirit and walking back up the massive flight of stairs.

As soon as Jeraph exited the pit that served as the entrance to the certain level of hell that he had to help the spirits, he took off running towards the swamp. As he entered the swamp he began to look for any signs of the spirit's family. He knew from his past travel through the swamp that it would be easy to get lost, or worse in the swamp.

He wasn't sure what would happen if you died while already technically dead in Other World, but he was sure it couldn't be good. He began to use all his senses trying to find the group. He soon realized he didn't know if he was looking for a group, a single spirit, or even if it would be male or female. He did know in order to become cleansed he had to find the spirit though.

He continued to walk, making sure he didn't lose track of how to get back to the pit, a lot of good it would do if he got himself lost too. As he walked he began to hear screaming, it sounded like a human in trouble, a sound he had heard on earth. He rushed towards the screams and found a female spirit, and a child spirit pinned against a giant tree that resembled a mangrove.

The reason they were pinned was one of the alligator beasts was coming at them, the beast was smaller than the others. Jeraph figured it must be a a juvenile. The spirit's though didn't care, it was still large enough to swallow them both whole. Jeraph spring into action, he bolted directly at the creature, his ki instantly erupting around him, causing the earth to explode into a massive crater.

Dirt, rocks, grass, and other plants flew all over the place from the explosion as Jeraph rocketed towards the reptilian looking beast. As he powered forward he drew his blade, and held it out in front of him. His blade impaled into the side of the beast, due to the power from his ki, and speed he had built up, the blade kept going and he ended up exploding out of the other side of the beast.

There was an odd smelling and looking blood, and guts covering his body. This unsettled the spirits but it was better than the alligator creature. Jeraph approached the spirits.

"Are you trying to get to the pit that leads to hell?" Jeraph asked.

The woman was still in shock so she stammered as she responded. "Yes we were trying to visit my husband, but we got lost, then that...that...beast tried to eat us."

"Follow me I'll get ya'll there safely." Jeraph told the woman.

The woman didn't respond, but she nodded. Jeraph led the way back to the pit, and helped the family down the long stairway to the bowels of the pit. The male spirit ran over, and expressed gratitude, then started conversing with his family. Jeraph wondered back out of the pit wondering if he had been cleansed yet.

WC 1608