#also it stands out to me that Levi has gone through this traumatic and incredible thing

[daydreamerdrew]

The Swamp Thing (2021) #1

[old-hyper-super-clover]

Trouble in Devildom Town, Part 3/3

Words: 3.520 words

Approximate reading time: 10~15 minutes

Asmo was visibly enjoying this game, humming as he stood up to leave the building.

He got a little startled as he felt something soft rubbing against his leg.

"A cat...?"

Mustering the feline, Asmo wondered why anybody would implement animals into a game like this.

"So you are one of the traitors."

The clicking sound of a loading weapon echoed through the empty room, and a smirk curled on Asmo's face.

The Avatar of Wrath was standing in the doorframe.

"Satan~" Asmo turned around.

"So sorry for killing your partner... You see, I think she got overwhelmed by my incredible kissing talents...! It's very sad, but not the first time I saw that happening, actually..."

Satan pointed his gun at Asmo's head.

"How did you do this?"

"The traitor shop is fantastic!" Asmo laughed. "Your coins increase over time, and there's so much stuff to buy! They have killing pills that knock you out in less then a minute, all kinds of poisons, and countless shooting weapons too, of course..."

"How did you trick her, I mean."

Another chuckle followed.

"Aaah, yes! It was so dramatic, thank you for making me talk about my great plan! I fooled Beel by looking like Clover, and tricked her with the face of Beel. You can also buy this ability to change your appearance. All you gotta do then is to change your nickname, and BOOM! You're somebody else~! It's a bit weird that your voice doesn't change, however, but MAN I played that smooth regardless!

And how tragic they died, both of them, trying to protect what they love but in the end failing because of love itself..."

He stopped as Satan's face formed a deep frown.

But Asmo gave a chuckle regardless.

"Oh, dear brother, and you actually think you could just shoot me like this? We both know my reflexes are better than yours..."

The blond smirked.

"That may be true, but we also know that I am the smarter one."

A wave of surprise shooting through Asmo, he got startled as the cat that had stayed by his side started climbing his leg.

Of course, he wasn't so dumb to let Satan get the upper hand only because of this, so Asmo reached for his pistol and pulled the trigger the moment he pointed at the doorframe.

His eyes widened as he realised Satan wasn't there anymore.

Not even a second later, several shots went through his back, and as Asmo's dead body landed on the floor, Satan stepped back inside, smiling at Belphegor through the window on the other side of the building.

"Nice teamwork" Belphie grinned, punching a bigger opening into the glass so he could enter the room as well.

Satan picked up the kitten, fondling it with a pleased smile. "Indeed, we did quite well~!"

"... Are you talking to me or to the cat?"

Satan obviously did not feel the need to answer that.

"Come on now" he prompted instead. "We should take their stuff and make a leave. There is nothing more to get here."

  Neither Violet nor Lucifer were moving.

His face still hovering above hers, they kept staring into each others eyes, and if not for the high probability of death looming in the air, the girl would have begged to stay in this moment forever.

"Is there anything you want to say to defend yourself?" Lucifer asked.

The girl swallowed her nervousness.

"... You seem pretty confident in your guess despite only having caught me how I trailed off with my thoughts a little... How can you be so sure you are right about it?"

The demon smiled.

"The shop must be accessible through cognition, anything else would be too obvious in the first place. Traitors would blow their cover way too quickly if not with methods like these..."

"So... Innocents can't be absent-minded for a single moment?"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous..." Lucifer purred. "It is simply that I can tell the difference between you trailing off in thoughts and... the look you were wearing before..."

Violet's eyes widened slightly. He was indeed a hundred percent confident in his guess.

"You can really... Read me that easily...?" she mumbled, biting her lip as she watched a sly grin spread on the demon's face.

"Let us say I have been paying close attention to you, Violet..."

A shiver went through her.

And it only got more intense as his body got even closer, his weight on her causing the edges of the stone underneath her to press inside her back unpleasantly.

"Attention to your behaviour..." Lucifer continued. "To your features... your likings, to your way of thinking..."

He made a little pause, giving off something like a sighing breath.

"... Which is exactly why we are finding ourselves in this peculiar situation right now..."

His one hand found hers, and he intertwined their fingers.

"I know how you think, and maybe the favour is one you can return... Either way, you have advantages as a traitor that I don't even know of..."

"... So both of us don't dare to move, as they know the other will have a perfect reaction to follow immediately" Violet finished his sentence.

Lucifer smiled.

"Exactly... Now, how do we get out of this situation, Violet~? Should we see who in the end has the better predictions, or should we wait until someone finds us, to then shoot either of us...?"

The girl kept staring into his eyes, inspecting them and loosing herself in their pretty colours.

Again, a little smile curled the demon's lips, as suddenly, an urge seemed to take over, as he leaned down to meet his enemy in a kiss.

Both of them didn't dare to move anything but their lips, for what felt like an eternity they kept it at their lips dancing like this.

Slowly, as Lucifer seemingly felt in the need of more, a hand reached her waist, gently brushing her with his thumb.

Violet enjoyed the sensation to the fullest, his taste and his touch, forcing herself to imprint every single detail into her memories.

But as she felt Lucifer's breath getting slightly uneven, Violet panicked after all.

So her hand found his neck in a gentle touch.

The thing was...

Lucifer could not remember her having worn a glove before.

He parted from her in a sweet smooching sound, but his eyes were serious.

And as he looked down at her sorry face, he knew he had lost this game.

Violet pulled her hand away, and immediately Lucifer felt an incredible burn spreading from his neck over his whole skin.

"... Poison...?" he asked in a mumble.

As he stumbled backwards, Violet gave another sorry smile.

"Neurotoxins... Applied near the spine, it inhibits communication between your brain and heart, so your body thinks you are dead..."

"... To then actually kill me by deactivating the function of my heart and lungs..." Lucifer concluded. He looked in pain, holding his chest, but also... he seemed almost proud.

"I see..." his lips curled in a faint smile. "Very clever, I must say..."

He tried reaching for his gun, but the poison had numbed his nervous system already, so his body would soon collapse as if it had no bones to stabilise him whatsoever.

"Really, I'm sorry" Violet mumbled.

Then, she picked up his weapons and vanished in the woods.

  --- meanwhile in the spectator lobby... ---

Ghost Clover was sitting on a building's rooftop, still a little traumatized from the sensation of, well, dying.

Somebody plonked down beside her.

"So they got you, too?"

Clover looked up into a pair of purple eyes.

"Beel... Yeah, Asmo killed me."

Ghost Beel gave a nod. "Me too, I think. Weird that everything feels so real in this game, huh? Even pain and the whole process of dying..."

Clover gave a breathy laugh.

"W-well, yeah... I did not... Expect this... But I guess now I know what dying feels like... Yaaay..."

Her friend chuckled a little.

"How did you die?" he then asked. "I hope it wasn't too painful."

Clover had been staring at him, but as he turned his head to look at her as well, she felt her cheeks getting red again.

"U-u-uhm..." she breathed. "Ah, y-y-you know, it wasn't th-that... special... Or worth mentioning..."

However, Beel looked worried.

"Did Asmo do something cruel? Was he torturing you? If he did, then I will make him pay for that-"

"Nononono" Clover bursted out. "DON'T talk to Asmo about my death..!!"

The demon tilted his head.

"Why not?"

"B-b-b-because..." she panicked, knowing that Asmo would spill ALL the juicy details if he saw just the shred of an opportunity, "just... don't, please..."

He seemed confused, but in the end, Beel gave the blushing mess of a girl a pat on her head.

"Okay, then I won't."

He stood up and reached out a hand.

"Wanna go watch the remaining living ones with me?"

Clover looked up and smiled.

"I'd love to."

  Violet shot the timer a stressed glare.

Nine minutes were left, and for what felt like eternity, she couldn't find anyone.

Then, finally, as she dashed out of the forest, she happened to almost clumsily stumble into Belphegor and Satan.

"Violet!" the youngest brother exclaimed.

"Guys...! What's wrong, where are all the others?"

"Dead" Belphie stated. "Asmo was a traitor and killed Beel and Clover."

Satan pointed at the forest. "And Lucifer? He was with you, wasn't he?"

Violet flinched faintly.

She wasn't so dumb to blow her cover herself by saying something stupid, but she also knew well that Satan would do everything to try and get her to do exactly that.

"He was a traitor..." Violet stated. "After we both were equipped, he got rid of Mammon and tried to kill me afterwards. I just so managed to take him down, though."

Belphie gave a nod.

"That means Levi is the third and only traitor left..."

Violet was humming in agreement.

"I think he might have gone into the forest as well" she said, already turning around to show them the way. "We should go seek him together."

And Belphie was kind of convinced enough to follow...

Whilst Satan got hold of his gun.

"And what tells me that you aren't lying to us?"

Violet stopped abruptly, turning to flinch at the sight.

"Well... There's not really a way to prove myself other than telling you what happened, is it?"

The blond chuckled.

"Not really, but I don't want to risk running into Levi to then find out you lied to us, you know?"

The girl gave a huff.

"So what? Now you plan to... threaten me until the time runs out?"

Satan's smile widened.

"That is exactly what I had in mind, yes. Because if you truly are innocent, you should be fine with this plan, right?"

Violet could only give a shrug.

"Wouldn't that be kind of lame?" she asked.

"Why should it?" Satan hummed. "I find a well-thought victory plan is more satisfying that possibly running into the enemies hands."

And as Violet gave a stressed huff, Belphie tensed up as well.

"Judging from her reaction, she doesn't really seem fine with the idea..."

As Belphie reached for his own weapon, Violet got sick of this charade and went to grab a weapon of her own.

But with to guns pointed at her, she wasn't really allowed to move a single muscle.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Satan wore a sadistic smile. "Even with your little traitor items, you clearly don't have the upper hand."

Violet was going to respond, but an overly dramatic evil laughter cut through her words.

"All of you, you need to take action more quickly!!"

A voice echoed through the air.

"You are so unsure, so tense...!!"

Finally, Satan and Belphie were able to spot the voice's source behind Violet.

Leviathan was sitting in a tree, staring down at them.

"But a true war demands... ACTION!!"

and he pulled several mini bombs out of his pocket, resting between his fingers, ignited as soon as they were visible.

Violet reacted quickly, because as Levi threw the bombs at his brothers, she tried distancing herself from the demons as much as she could, while also taking hold of the telekinesis stick.

Getting closer to the forest's edge, she hectically activated the stick, pointing it at the innocents in hopes of grabbing one of them.

She actually managed to pull Belphie towards her and off his feet, the demon landing face forward right next to the bombs.

But as she was focussing on running again, only faintly hearing Levi's laugh and the other two shouting in panic, a shot hit her shoulder.

The shock of feeling actual real pain led to her knees give in for a second, so Violet stumbled down next to a tree instead of behind it, as originally planned.

She turned, seeing a pair of green eyes glistening in wrath.

While Belphie had stumbled back onto his feet, trying to distance himself from the bombs that were about to go off at any second, Satan was running towards her.

"Don't think I'll let you escape!!" he screamed, and as he threw himself onto her, he pulled out a knife while in motion, jabbing it directly into her chest when landing.

The hit's impact was huge, not only because he had let himself fall onto her, but also because just when he rushed towards her, the bombs went off, practically pushing the blond off his feet.

However...

Bending over her, Satan's eyes widened.

Dizzy in her pain, Violet glanced up, her hand now sliding off from the knife that she had held to that it pierced right into Satan's stomach.

They looked at each other for a moment.

And weirdly enough, both chuckled a little.

"So... Did you find this game to be 'quite amusing' as well...?" Violet mumbled.

Satan smiled.

"Oh... Don't act as if you didn't."

Then, both collapsed, leaving the stage to the last few left...

 Belphie was lying on the floor after the bombs went off, coughing, but his health bar was still high enough for him to function.

He tried gaining a view over the situation, catching a glimpse of Satan collapsing onto Violet.

Then, Levi jumped off the tree.

"Oh Belphie... I'm sorry it had to come this far..." He stopped mid-walking. "Wait, no, I'm not sorry lololol"

Levi stretched out his arms.

"I mean, look how EPIC this is!!!"

And Levi fell into one of his fanboy attacks, going on about how cool all battles have been, how skillfully he had scouted the situation until surprising the three just now.

Sick of listening to him, Belphegor tried to reach for one of the weapons lying next to him, but to his displease, his arm seemed to have broken when being blown away by the bombs.

And as he tried to grab it with his other hand, Levi had already seen through his plans.

"Nah, leave that be, you can't beat me anyways LOL"

"... Shove your LOLs up your ass" Belphie hissed, pissed that he actually couldn't really do much other than watching him.

"Pff, lol, Belphie it's rare to see you this agitated."

Levi came to a stand in front of his brother.

"Now then... Time to use my traitor points for the ultimate weapon..."

Belphegor, and all the ghost spectators watching the scene, saw as Leviathan started to glow.

And when he stopped glowing...

He was dressed in some kind of female anime protagonist dress.

Belphie stared.

And blurted out in such a laughter that it pulled Levi out of his heroic epic moment of (almost) victory.

"... WhAT??" Levi hissed angrily at the younger brother. "WhY ArE YoU lAUGhinG?! This is the most epic thing I could find in the store!! I even had to go find a special secret item to unlock this!!"

"B-bro..." Belphie pressed out in-between his laughter. "You're... You're wearing a skirt...!!"

Levi's mouth fell open in disbelief.

"Uuuh, yes, but this is THE Seraphina's outfit of the second season of..." He stopped in angered grunts as Belphie wasn't listening at all. "Also, look at the giant SWORD in my hand?!?!"

And he pointed at the ridiculously huge blade he wasn't even able to hold up with one hand.

"Ahahaha... Levi, stop, my belly hurts from laughing...!!"

As Belphie curled in the grass, not able to contain his laughter, Levi has had enough.

He didn't even need to step any closer (because of his effin long sword), and thus he could stab into Belphie's side and rob the last HP he had left.

In great euphoria (despite this anticlimactic kill), the otaku let out a scream of victory, raising his arms and festively announcing the traitors' victory.

He jumped in glee, waiting for all the other players to respawn as the round was over.

But nothing happened.

"... What? What's wrong?" Levi took a look around. "Why is nothing happening? Everyone is dead except for me, right?!"

Suddenly, Levi felt something bumping against his foot.

He looked down and immediately started to scream.

To his feet was nothing more but a golden grenade, a crucifix on it's top.

"WHAT?! NOOO!! NOT THE HOLY HANDGRENAD-"

the moment before it went off and teared Levi apart in an instant, the third-born looked up, realising with even greater fear that Mammon was looking at him, the biggest, most sly grin on his face.

With a flash of holy light, Leviathan's character was erased from the map, not even a corpse left of him.

Now Mammon was the one to step onto the open field.

"Well, well, well... What did I say..."

He screamed into the sky while slowly, his family respawned around him.

"Because I am THE great Mammon, the best detective that NONE of you believed in!!! What do y'all say now, seeing how I won the fucking game?!?! Nyahahahahaha~!

Bow down to me, Mammon, the winner of our very first game of TTT!!!!!"

    In the late evening, everyone has sat down to enjoy some snacks and let the day pass in a comfy, warm mood.

They were in great spirits, chatting about the game, pointing out things they liked, things they could have done better.

"Next time, I will make sure not to trust Satan" Clover stated while snatching away a chip out of the huge bowl that Beel was unconsciously hogging for himself.

"Huh? Why?" the blond looked earnestly irritated.

"Dude, you let me die for a cat launcher."

Satan looked at her, but could only gave a shrug.

"... Well, but it was a CAT launcher. And how was I supposed to know Asmo was waiting around the corner?"

While Clover was sighing, Lucifer gave a little laugh.

"There is indeed a lot of room to improve..." He shot Violet a glance. "And I will make sure to not have myself outplayed next time."

Violet returned the favour in a blushy grin.

Then, Beel spoke up.

"Will there be a next time, though...?"

He pointed at the one person that wasn't in a good mood.

Levi was sitting next to the couches instead of on the couch, wrapped in approximately three blankets, continuously mumbling some petty words of "not fair" to himself.

"Come on, Levi" Asmo huffed. "All of us really enjoyed your game. Why are you pouting over ther-"

Levi immediately jumped up.

"BECAUSE I LOST TO MAMMON!!"

"... Well, you sure did" Belphegor mumbled, and to Levi's anger, most of his brothers suppressed some laughs.

"That's right" Mammon chimed in. "You lost to the 'StupidMammon', Levi. How does that feel, huh? Pretty bad, doesn't it?"

Aaaand he shouldn't have done that.

In a great scream of pure agony, Levi dashed out of the room, and even the human newbies knew that he would stay locked away in his room for the next few days.

"... Well, and there he goes..." Violet gave a sigh. "So I guess we won't play it again after all? When Levi hates it this much?"

"Oh, don't worry" Satan mused. "We'll just force him to play, just like he forced us to play with him today."

"Only fair, I think~!" Asmo agreed.

"Yeah!" A big grin spread on Mammon's face. "Then I'll wreck all of you AGAIN! So don't be sad if all the next wins go to me as well, okay?!"

Silence.

Like, heavy silence.

"I wonder who will win next time~?" Asmo then thought out loud.

"Wha? I just said that I-" Mammon started.

"Now that we all know how the game works, we can make better use of all the mechanisms" Lucifer fell into Mammon's words.

"Yes! And with different roles, people might end up showing unknown potential they couldn't use today!" Clover cheered.

"But I'm still-" Mammon tried to say.

"Ooohh, I'm so hyped for the next time!" Asmo laughed.

And they all kept laughing and talking until the late hours of the night,

Completely ignoring Mammon, who ended up, again, desperately trying to finally make people listen to him...