Chapter 5: The Demon Gate and His Riddles
Translator: Park Nambyul
The huge gate was ahead of their eyes, a huge wooden gate, it was even bigger than the last one. It was pitch-black in color, resentment black energy was surrounding it, there was no handle or anything else on the gate except the mantras which were written in beautiful crimson-colored writing, it was horribly gleaming. The Demon Gate looked outrageous with the demonic air mixed in the atmosphere. Anyone could be terrified if they saw the gate.

Advik’s eyes scanned the Gate from bottom to top in amusement, “Woah! Such a huge gate. It’s even huger than the one I saw before.” He deliberately spoke with a loud voice. “Hey, Shriman Dwaar, Let us pass through you, we need to find some people. Help us!”

The eerie gate remained voiceless and motionless for a moment before it spoke with a cloud bursting voice, “WHAT DO YOU WANT? LEAVE THIS PLACE RIGHT NOW. IT’S NOT A PLACE FOR KIDS TO PLAY. DON’T DISTURB ME!”

Advik was enjoying his situation but choose to not show it on his face, “We are not here to disturb anyone. Just let us pass through, please!”

The gate was lazy and it didn’t want any trouble for itself, it just heavily sighed and opened his mouth and large round demonic eyes – it was frightening, his those eyes looked at them with wrath, it spoke, “OKAY! JUST SOLVE MY RIDDLES AND I’LL LET YOU GO. YOU ARE THREE SO THE RIDDLES WILL BE THREE AS WELL, UNDERSTOOD?”

“Sure, fine by us. Just ask, I can solve them in a second”, Advik confidently grind.

“I HAVE A CONDITION BEFORE I ASK YOU MY RIDDLES AND THAT IS, YOU WON’T EVER COME BACK HERE IF YOU FAILED TO ANSWER ANY OF THEM AND YOU HAVE TO ANSWER ALL THREE RIDDLES CORRECTLY IF YOU WISH TO GO.”

“Yes-yes, I know, just ask!”, Advik excitedly said.

“YOUR FIRST RIDDLE IS – WHO MAKES IT, HAS NO NEED OF IT. WHO BUYS IT, HAS NO USE FOR IT. WHO USES IT CAN NEITHER SEE NOR FEEL IT. WHAT IS IT?”

“Coffin, the answer is coffin”, It was not even a moment for the Demon gate to recite the riddle when Advik with a rapid speed said the answer confidently.

“How? How did you know the answer, you didn’t even waste a moment before answering. You are using some wicked kind of method for this, aren’t you?”, The Demon gate was furious and anxious at the same time. Because it was unthinkable for it to find someone who could answer his riddles in a moment.

“How you ask…well, I know the person who created this riddle. I know it was not yours from the beginning. The creator of that riddle was a woman. She was a tall, beautiful and smart woman. She was the one who told me the answer to it when I couldn’t think the answer to it a long-long time ago.”

“No! No! No! You are lying! This riddle’s creator is unknown. Even I couldn’t find the creator, so how a lowly life like you could have found them? You are lying, I am sure!”, The Gate just tried to deny in every possible way. It just never wanted to believe that the creator met him but not the Gate.

“Then, don’t believe. I am not here to prove that I’ve met the creator of some riddles. If you don’t wanna believe then don’t believe. I also have this precious gemstone ring of her which she gave me as a parting gift.” Advik put his palm on his cheek and looked upwards, “Aha…she was such a beauty, I miss her sometimes.”

“S-show me that ring, then I’ll believe you”, the Gate demanded.

Advik smiled hearing that demand. He put his left hand into his pocket which was in his ripped balloon pants. He took out a small pouch and opened it to take out the gem-stoned ring. It was glittering like a star, no, even more than a star. No doubt that the ring was priceless, costly. The breath of the Gate stopped when he saw that ring in front of his eyes.

Advik stretched out his hand to show the ring to the Gate, “Do you want this ring? It’s very precious to me because she herself gave me this but right now I am just a wandering soul and I don’t think I need this and it’s bigger for my fingers, so, I can give you this. Don’t you want it?” He gladly asked the Demonic Gate.

The Black-Fireball shouted hearing that statement of Advik, “Child, what are you doing? This demon is greedy, don’t give him something which is so important to you and what about the feelings of the lady who gave you this ring, don’t you care about her feelings that are attached to this the ring?” Even the Firefly looked at him with anger.

Advik was shockingly calm in the circumstance, he smiled and looked at the Fireball, “She gave me this ring and I can do whatever I wanna do with this because she said that I can use this ring if I ever meet any danger. And after she gave me this ring it becomes mine, so I can do whatever I want with it.” Advik softly smiled.

“HEY! HEY! HEY! Don’t TALK ON YOUR OWN. I AM ALSO HERE”, the thunderous voice of the Gate rang again.

Advik’s eyes again looked at the gate, he brightly spoke, “So, you want it? You can have it!” He put away his hand and clenched it in his fist. “You can have it but I want something in return, you see…I am not a saint who gives there everything without asking anything in return.”

“What do you want?” the gate was more composed than before.

Advik juggled the ring while he spoke, “I think you know what I want, we just want to enter the Real Realm and we don’t want to answer any more riddles by you, ” he crossed his hands, “You can have this ring if you make this deal with us, think about it. It’s a very special ring which was given by the creator of many famous riddles.”

The Gate looked like he was seriously thinking about the offer. It went silent and Advik again started to juggle that ring in his hand, “Are you thinking about it, Shriman Dwaar.”

“Yes, stay silent for a second.” The gate said.

“Don’t think about it, just say yes already. It’s a lifetime offer, see-see this ring.”

“I am thinking!”

“Just say yes”

The Demon gate, “……..!!”

Vismay, “…………????”

“Accept my fabulous offer, hurry up!”, Advik was getting impatient.

The gate, “………………..”

“This ring is truly precious, see!!”, Advik was again showing the ring to the Gate, “Look, look at it.”

“………….SHUT UP, WILL YOU? I AM TRYING TO THINK SOMETHING!!!!”

“Oh, ok…ay”, Advik took his hand back and stayed quiet.

The Gate looked at Advik who was mutely standing in front of it, the Gate thought, “Hmmm…this ring is really beautiful and I think its value is more than thousands of bags of gold coins and this boy seems to be extremely naive to give me this valuable ring in return to let them enter the realm which is incredibly deadly even for high ranked demons. I think I should accept this a deal.”

While the gate was in thoughts, Advik shouted, “I feel you don’t want to accept my once in a lifetime offer, then it’s no use to stay here. I’m going. You can think as much as you want while I’m gone”, Advik turned and stepped a little ahead.

Advik was going to go in the opposite direction when he heard the Gate, “Hey! Hey! Lowlife kid! I accept your offer. You can enter the realm and you don’t have to answer the remain two riddles as you wished. But first, give me the ring and I promise I’ll let you enter.”

The Fireball was fury, “How can we believe you? Maybe you won’t let us enter after getting what you want, then what we will do?”

“I will not do anything like that, trust me for once”, The Gate assured them.

“Mr. Fireball, just trust him”, Advik reassured the Fireball then stepped ahead to give the ring to the Gate. He opened his fist and the ring which was on the palm of Advik flew towards the gates.

After gaining what it wants, the Gate replied, “You can go now, be careful because inside of the realm is not for fun”, the Gate opened itself, the sharp-piercing creak of it was the signal that the gate was opening.

“Thank you for your advice, we’ll take care of ourselves”, Advik gladly glanced at the Demon Gate. He looked at the Fireball and the Firefly which was floating there for a while, he smiled at them and hastily went inside the gate together.

The Gate closed itself behind them with a loud bam….. The Real Realm was frightful, exceedingly dreadful. It was dark with highly-body-shivering dark and demonic energy filled in every inch of it. The deafening resentment screams and cries were coming from all the directions. The scent in the air was of blood and fleshes. The freezing wind was slowly blowing. Advik’s eyes widened after watching such an outrageous scene, his legs froze, he couldn’t even find the smallest place to put his feet. Everywhere was just trees and trees. If what they all saw before was just a deadly place then this time this was the hell itself in front of them!

New and old fleshes, corpses, and bones of various kinds of beings were everywhere scattered. The smell of decomposing fleshes was overwhelming, the cut-off limbs were everywhere even over the trees, blood was dripping on the ground like it was pouring there for years. The Firefly flew more close to Advik. Advik covered his nose and mouth after he smelled those unbearable smells, “It is so absurd and terrifying here. Who can do something so cruel? Are you sure that this is the Real Realm, not the hell itself!?”

“No, this is just the Real Realm nothing else.” The Fireball replied with a sad, low voice.

Advik looked in every direction, “H-how it becomes like this or is this place is always like this?”

“This Realm is always like this because of demons, ghosts, spirits, monsters, devils and other fiendish creatures live here or I should say they all are stuck here, imprisoned here by the hell or heaven. They have to fight for the food here. No one is safe here”, The Fireball said.

“Ohhhhh”, Advik was still struggling to find a clean place. He was not afraid, not at all but it was the heavy smell and other corpses that were making him feel disgusted.

The Fireball continued, “But for some time this place has become even more dangerous even for the demons and ghosts who have lived here for decades.”

Advik looked at the fireball, wearing seriousness all over, he said, “Why did you take me over here if you knew about this situation. Do you want me to die? Well, I cannot die anymore but still, why do you want to put me in danger?”

The Fireball softly denied what Advik just said, “No, I don’t want anyone to die. I am really trying to help you. Nothing else, I swear to my God.”

Advik remained quiet, he again glanced in every direction. Everywhere the situation was worse than what he was seeing a moment ago. It was frightening and devilish kind of a place. After some minutes of silence, he spoke, “Do you know who did this? Who is behind all of this? Do you know anything else about this place?”

The Fireball answered, “Look, kid, this is not a place to talk. We have to find a more secure place or will be the new pray for the demons. It’s a place where many different kinds of beast and monster come to hunt for their food, so we must leave this ground as soon as possible.”

Advik, “Hummm-ed”, he sat down on the spot, staring at the ground, he thought something, with a tensed face he grabbed some mud from a bit clean place. He tightly closed his palm which was full of the mud. After a moment he gently let the mud slid out of his palm, he was smiling and carefully looking whatever he was doing. With the mud gone from his palm, the terrifying and wrathful screams and cries paused. The whole place… just like an empty room went silent.

The Fireball and the Firefly were quietly watching him. He smiled and sideways peeked at them, curiously he asked, “Hey, why aren’t you guys asking anything? Don’t you think playing like this is very childish and stupid in this scary circumstance.”

The Fireball’s voice was amused, “You purified this area by what you just did, didn’t you?”

Advik was stunned and chuckled, “So, you knew? That was unexpected, that is why you both were so quiet.”

“But why you did that? It won’t change anything here.” The Fireball worriedly asked.

“Hmm…you ask me why. I don’t know why either. I just did it because I don’t want to see any other soul wonder and scream like me”, he stood up and shook off the dirt from his back, looking at them, he spoke, “I know I can’t do much but as long as I can help, I’ll help.” He again beamed and put his hands on his waist, “So where should we head next? I’m totally clueless about this Realm.”

The Fireball was in thought, it murmured, the voice of the Fireball was extremely low that even Advik who was nearest to it didn’t hear what it just murmured….

“You have changed a lot, Advik.”

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