Chapter 95 – The Silver Trail and the Scent of the Feast.

The descent down the tunnel of the Abyss of the Exiles demanded caution with every step of her boots.

The rock beneath Diana's feet was steep, damp, and strewn with loose shale gravel that slipped easily toward the dark. There were no torches or magical lamps upon the walls. The only illumination came from the faint, bluish glow of small colonies of phosphorescent moss clinging to the stone's wettest cracks.

Diana walked with her right hand pressed against the cold walls to steady her balance.

The right side of her chest still tugged whenever she drew a deep breath, but the sharp pain of broken ribs had already passed. Her Archdemon flesh and the old warrior's root broth had fused the fractures in record time.

Early in the second afternoon of her march, Diana paused beside a spring of crystal-clear water bubbling from a fissure of blue quartz.

She sat down on a flat rock, rested the dimensional pouch on her lap, and unclasped its iron latch.

The Commander touched the edge of the enchanted fabric with the tip of her black claw, focusing a spark of mana to access the Arcane Greed Faction's [Shared Soul Vault] panel.

The System screen opened before her eyes in black gold.

Diana looked at the vault log. The 368 Silver Coins (36.8 Gold Coins) remained listed in the Bastion's central inventory.

Diana reached inside the dimensional bag and pulled exactly eight silver coins onto her palm.

The metal clinked cold against her claws.

In the very same second, the vault interface updated the central balance: the total in the Bastion dropped from 368 to 360 Silver Coins, with the withdrawal log recording Diana's official name as the recipient.

Diana slipped the eight coins into the inner pocket of her leather jacket and released a small, relieved sigh.

The faction vault's magical bond functioned across the Circle borders.

If Kael, Aurelia, or Seraphina open the ledger in the Bastion's common room... Diana thought, looking down at the spring's clear water. ...they'll see eight silver coins leaving the account signed under my name. They will know I didn't turn to ash at the bottom of that pit.

She knew Rhea would see that log. The wolf girl would never let anyone sell the mansion or give up on the faction if she knew her leader was still alive and spending money.

Diana cupped both hands to drink fresh water from the spring, washed the soot from her face, and picked up her supply satchel.

The march had to continue.

***

Over the course of the third day of descent, the nature of the cavern began to change drastically.

The mineral chill and dry air of the Second Circle were left behind.

As the tunnel sloped deeper, the wind rising from the chasm grew humid, warm, and heavy with a scent Diana had not expected to encounter in the bowels of the earth:

The smell of animal fat roasting over embers, thick broth boiling with garlic and pepper, baked rye bread, and the dense, sweet aroma of fruit fermenting in oak casks.

It was not the sulfur smoke of the Forge District, nor the lavender perfume of Asmodeus's high society.

It was the raw, overwhelming, constant scent of food being prepared on an industrial scale.

The gray shale ground gave way to reddish rock carpeted by gargantuan mushrooms the size of trees, with amber-hued caps that dripped sweet, luminous sap onto rich fertile soil.

Diana halted at the subterranean rift's final threshold.

The cavern opened into a fifty-meter natural precipice overlooking a colossal valley lit by thousands of torches and iron chimneys venting seasoned smoke toward the vaulted ceiling.

She had crossed the border.

Spread before her dark eyes with golden rings lay the outer territory of the Third Circle of Hell: The Circle of Gluttony.

***

Down below, in the center of the reddish valley, rose a fortified city of rustic, colossal architecture: The Iron Cauldron Outpost, the primary border city of Beelzebub's Circle.

The city lacked the slender white marble spires of the Ivory Citadel. It was built from massive blocks of red granite, twenty-meter-tall cast-iron cauldrons, and open plazas packed with long banquet tables where hundreds of brawny demons, four-armed ogres, and merchants ate, drank, and bargained amid shouts and boisterous laughter.

Massive wagon caravans laden with whole carcasses of giant beasts, barrels of dark wine, and sacks of grain rolled through the iron gates under the watch of burly guards clad in raw hide armor reinforced with hell-ox bones.

Diana pulled the hood of her black leather coat over her head, concealing her obsidian horns and the amethyst circlet so as not to attract immediate attention from border officials.

She had 368 Silver Coins accessible through the faction vault, eight loose coins in her pocket, 183 Intelligence, over a thousand mana points, and the recovered body of an Archdemon.

Diana made her way down the red dirt path winding along the valley slope toward the city gates.

Her initial objective was simple and direct: enter the outpost without being stopped by Beelzebub's inquisitors, rent a safe room in a local inn, map out alchemy market prices, and find a way to send an official message back to the Second Circle.

Diana adjusted the black steel dagger at her belt and set foot onto the packed dirt road leading to Iron Cauldron City.

The Commander of Greed had just set foot into the Circle of Gluttony. And she was ready to devour that new territory.