Assassination Through the Netherworld

"Those demons are still rooter in their spot but the explosions stopped."

"Umn"

The trio had already departed their room, dressed and ready, regarding everything that happened around them, the demons were seemingly fixed with their gazes towards one spot as if they had seen a ghost.

What they saw were two suns, a red one and a black one, and they might as well have seen ghosts, the ghosts of their souls seeping away from their bodies like a broken dam.

"Hey, you!" Vera started to execute the plan, the first part is to reach a transportation centre, they accorded she'd be the one to talk to Andrea the demoness as the latter is scared shitless of her, apparently.

"Oh, it's you..." Indeed, the demoness approached with a tray in her hand, she regarded Vera with fear, to her this is a protector and one that's especially fond of slaughtering demons and swallowing their cores, a devil.

"Do you want to take this pub? Sasha is gone and she 'left it' in my hands." she made that up, but now that Sasha is not here, the pub is ownerless until someone else takes it over, why not Andrea?

!!!

The demoness' eyes shone and her voluptuous body shook slightly with wickedness, this is a huge improvement, still, stupid she's not...

"You murdered her?" She had to make sure that everything was concordant.

"I slaughtered that whore and swallowed her core, and I'll swallow yours too if you don't tell me where I can find the transportation centre... if you be a good little demoness, I'll leave this pub in your hands." Vera sounded like a psycho, and having that big ass knife in her hand helped a lot.

Immediately the red-skinned demoness went white and Valentine together with Fayette suppressed their laughter, well, this is their first time scamming a demon, and it feels nice.

"T-Transportation centre? what are you talking about? do you mean the bear barn?" their terminology is a little weird, but she assumes that's because they're from another city or circle.

"What? y-yes, that! where is the bear barn of this city!?" The trio regarded one another, the fuck? bears?

"If I tell you, will you allow me to take over this pub?" The demoness asked the last prominent question

"You can do whatever you want with it, but you have to lead us to this barn." Vera knew better than to just know the direction of the place, she'd likely send them to some hellhole with demons ready to plunder their lives.

The demoness twitched her lips in annoyance, it seems that was really her plan.

"You have a deal! Let me finish my period and then I will take you there, you can't back off now, also... in order for me to inherit this pub, you need to help me kill the other demoness that's stronger than me!"

"So be it." 

...

Sadly, a purple-skinned relatively 'young' demoness had to perish that day, as if in remembrance of Sasha, Valentine killed her painlessly and they were led by a happy Andrea through the still shaken city.

"What kind of mounts do you have in this city?" He asked, hoping they were some kind of horses, mares, donkeys, for god's sake, even in a pony they could escape.

"We have the Callisto Bears~"

That's definitely not in the previous list.

'Callisto, seriously?' Vera didn't understand the innuendo but Valentine and Fayette did... he wondered what kind of bears were those.

"What else?" Vera asked hopefully.

"Oh? if you're a little brave then you can have a Rhino." The demoness answered as if she just uttered the most common thing in the world.

"V-Vale..." Even Fayette, this woman that feared nothing, shivered... she has never ridden a bear... in fact, she doesn't want to, let alone she's sure the bear they're going to find won't be a cute panda or a relatively friendly grisly bear that will leave you alone if you pretend to be dead.

...

*BAAANGGG!!!*

*GROWAAAAALLLLL!!!*

'There is no way we can mount this!'

The 'bear' smashed harshly against the cell it was in, denting it and spewing lava towards them.

"..." the shivering trio moved away from this creature, especially Vera... she felt threatened when regarding that magma, now that she's a tree, fire is her worst enemy.

The bear regarded them with a threatening gaze, its skin looked as if it was composed of magma and scalding rocks, it looked amazing but also threatening, it had a size twice as big as a normal bear.

"This is a Callisto volcanic bear... very odd but since you're a protector, taming it shouldn't be difficult for you." Andrea stood by the demon seller who seemed to be smoking something.

"If you want this one, it will be 100.000 amethyst coins, it is a thousand years old, still a youngling, I'd be taking it out of my hands, no one has bought him yet... 100.000 coins and it's yours, of course, you have to tame it before taking it." The man saw an opportunity, he got this bear quite young but no one has bought it yet, it's getting troublesome to hold him as it simply eats too many humans a day, more than he can get from a city that's no-violence.

"What else do you have?" Valentine gulped, needed to ask!

"A common Callisto bear will cost you 300.000 coins, here..."

*BAAANGGGG!!!*

"..."

This one crashed harder against the cell compared to the other, but at least it didn't spew magma, its body seemed to be composed of plants and roots rather than magma, upon regarding Vera, it went quiet.

"This one is roughly ten thousand years old, we got her two hundred years ago, all of her cubs are sold, but she isn't... as you can see, she's missing an eye, as you're a poor bastard without money, I'll give her to you for 250.000, I'll discount 50.000, that's the best I can do." 

Upon hearing the story, Vera felt sad and approached the bear, only to be stopped by Fayette who shook her head repeatedly.

Vera still regarded the bear that seemed to have grown quiet.

"I'll get this one, and also... I will take the other bear from you for 50.000" Valentine took out the money and pretended to bargain his way for the magma bear as he decided to call it.

'Pay 100.000 only to fight this beast that you want to desperately get rid of? fat chance...'

"Too low." The seller groaned, as expected of a protector, he's not that naive.

"Why not? do you think anyone is going to take this bear from you? you're just spending more money into keeping it here and hope to recover some of it, I'm afraid it's not worth that much, mate." Valentine mustered all of his roguish tongues and even made the demon doubt his own existence.

"... if you can tame it, I'll give it to you for 70.000 coins."

'That's the best you can offer?!'

Well, it's a couple of meals more...

"Deal." He sighed while Andrea rejoiced in the background, this means that the pub is hers!

'It can't be worse than Bellcroft.' 

Fayette told Vera that she would fight as the latter is likely to lose control and swallow the entire bear... she doesn't doubt that Vera can defeat that bear or any of them for that matter, the issue is ridding it, it must be hella uncomfortable.

"Then I'll have my men move the cell to the small arena, you can tame them there and I'll give you the collars." He clicked his fingers and the men around got to work, Andre decided to stay to look at the show before going back to HER pub, she giggled at the thought.

"How does it work?" Valentine wondered about those collars and took his knives, preparing for a fight.

"A collar is a bloody curse, it will keep the creature docile to you but before doing that you have to tame it and make it quiet." The man tilted his head, this is something he should know...

"I see..." Valentine was awed, where exactly do these beasts come from? could they be like the mahogany tree... they're born in the netherworld?

He wanted to get that bear, more than mounting, to assist him in dealing with tougher enemies, knowing Sasha, Lucretia and the power they had... the demon soldiers, Valentine realised that to live peacefully, they had to become stronger, but what mechanism do they have to get stronger?

Turn into demons? get miraculous encounters like Vera's?

They needed to leave this city, that's the only thing he knows.

...

The trio had to wait for a while in the rather small arena covered by a tent, there, the two cells were moved by a bunch of demons that had to put their lives in the line to move those bears.

"Once the magma big boy is released, you will have to succeed... it's too difficult to restrain him, which one do you want to release first?"

A difficult question.

"Release the 'common' bear first." Fayette nodded towards Valentine and readied her knife, putting her bag away, she's ready to face this bear!