Banasphate looked in my direction with an expression of delight and intense lust toward me. I clenched my teeth and thought hard about how to survive against this extremely powerful hellish creature.
I assumed the spectres that had chased me earlier had deliberately guided me here to the place where their boss was imprisoned, and now I had released him. Damn those spectres....
"YOU WILL SOON ENTER MY BODY AND I WILL REGAIN MY POWER… HA… HA… HAAAA…" said Banasphate while laughing thunderously.
It was truly impossible for me to use grenades, and even this pistol to fight him. Banasphate possessed powerful magical power that could almost repel all physical attacks.
I looked around the pillars here, and it appeared that behind them there was another room. I thought this was the only way, to escape and keep evading while looking for a possible chance to stop his power. I immediately ran toward the left side of the pillar formation.
"IT IS USELESS FOR YOU TO DO THAT, LOWLY HUMANNN... YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ESCAPE FROM MEEE...!!!!" Banasphate looked angry at me.
Then he quickly shot a purple fireball from his mouth. I reflexively jumped in a zigzag pattern, sometimes falling because the jumps were too far, but I immediately got back up. The power of his fireball was exactly the same as the one Zigurath had, but Banasphate could release it instantly without chanting any spell at all.
I managed to reach the side of the pillar formation. When I looked at what was below, it turned out to be a mountain of treasure dominated by gold bars and coins and several other artifacts like those in the palace corridor in the form of jars, goblets, staffs, crowns, statues, all of which were made of gold and precious stones.
Without thinking long, I immediately went down and slid along that mountain of gold. Banasphate quickly floated toward the gold mountain as well in my direction.
"TAKE THIS…!!!!" said Banasphate. From inside his mouth there were purple flashes of lightning that looked as if they were being charged.
Oh nooo... He was about to strike me with his lightning power. As I was sliding downward on this mountain of gold, I immediately jumped to the adjacent pile of gold. Banasphate's lightning strike instantly devastated part of the gold mountain, and I could even say it was stronger than Zigurath's fireballs when they were fired simultaneously. I remembered that in the game's boss fight, Banasphate could release several lightning strikes at Hellraider.
Banasphate launched his fireball and lightning attacks at me in succession alternately. So far, all I could do was run and dodge among these vast mountains of gold. There was not the slightest opening for me to counterattack Banasphate. I thought that Banasphate was more suitable to rule this territory compared to Mareketh.
When I began to feel exhausted from continuously dodging without any rest time, suddenly I let my guard down after stopping briefly to catch my breath. Banasphate, who saw me panting on the side of the gold mountain, immediately fired his purple fireball at me again. I did not have enough time to run or even jump to evade.
As a result, I was hit by the explosion effect of Banasphate's fireball. I was thrown back and rolled down the pile of gold. I immediately saw my left sleeve burned and still on fire. I slapped it to extinguish the flames, but instead I felt intense pain. I realized that almost my entire left arm had suffered quite serious burns.
Suddenly, from the left side of the floor where I was lying, I saw something rolling.
"Ohhh... nooo... noooo... my green crystal balllll..." I shouted.
I was extremely confused and frightened as to why my crystal ball had suddenly come out of my interface slot without me commanding it to be released...
I got up while crawling unsteadily to catch my crystal ball as quickly as possible. But unfortunately, my green crystal ball instead fell into a cracks which turned out to contain flowing lava. It was all gone the only tool I had to survive in this hell realm. I no longer knew how I would survive after this. I once again felt the pain in my left arm.
While grimacing, I took out the pain-relief spray from my interface slot and immediately sprayed it on the burn on my arm. A miraculous thing happened where the burn I suffered quickly healed and my skin returned to normal.
I did not understand why the spray, which was basically only meant as temporary pain relief, instead seemed capable of healing various kinds of damage to my body.
I only realized that while still in Zigurath's territory, after Hellraider dropped me into the lava lake, my body, which felt as if all my bones were shattered, instantly healed after I merely sprayed with this. Did this interface slot increase its healing power drastically?
Before I finished thinking about that, I saw sparks of electricity and blue-colored flames forming in the air around me, rapidly growing larger. As if instinctively I knew what would happen next, I immediately stood up and ran while jumping quickly. Instantly after that, the area where I had been sitting exploded quite violently, forming a large crater.
"HAHAHAHA… YOU CAN NO LONGER HIDE FROM ME...!!! I HAVE ALREADY MARKED YOU WITH MY EYES…!!!" said Banasphate, and when I glanced to the upper right, he was floating there.
Suddenly, several purple circles appeared on the floor around me, shaped like demon summoning circles. At that moment, many humans who had already become undead emerged. They all immediately ran toward me. I immediately got up and ran again to climb the gold mountain. While climbing, I looked down and saw the undead also climbing to catch me.
I immediately took a grenade from my slot. I climbed quickly so that the distance between me and those undead became quite far. When I reached the desired distance, I activated the detonator. I took a stance and jumped to the adjacent gold mountain while dropping my grenade.
When I arrived, the grenade exploded and caused a gold landslide that slammed into the undead and buried them.
However, what I did not expect was that from the opposite direction, Banasphate was already there, ready to fire his lightning strike at me. With no time left, I immediately threw myself down. I rolled repeatedly as if racing against the gold landslide caused by Banasphate's lightning explosion.
Fortunately, my fate did not become like those undead buried in gold. I kept rolling until I crashed into the boundary wall of this room. I then got up and sat leaning against that wall. My back felt somewhat sore and I could not stand up quickly again. I looked up in front of me and Banasphate was already there, facing me directly.
"EVERYTHING IS ALREADY OVER… I WILL SOON DEVOUR YOUUU…!!!" said Banasphate as he appeared to take a diving position toward me.
In that moment of my desperation for the umpteenth time, suddenly my right hand grabbed something. I glanced at it and it turned out to be a fairly large white sphere similar to those used by fortune tellers, but its form was more like a mirror shaped into a ball with a circular gap at the top that looked like a lid.
I looked forward again and Banasphate was already charging rapidly toward me while opening his jaws wide. Reflexively, I took the mirror ball, directed the lid part forward, and immediately opened it.
When Banasphate was almost right in front of me, suddenly a bright purplish light shone from my mirror ball. Banasphate instantly stopped moving and appeared to be sucked into the mirror ball accompanied by purple flashes around him.
"WHAAAT... WHAAAT IS THIIIS...?!?!?! MY BOOODYYY... NOOOO MY BODY IS BEING SUCKEEED...!!!" Banasphate groaned in great rage.
My right hand immediately struggled hard to close the mirror ball. After several moments of struggle, I finally managed to close it. The purple light faded along with the flashes that had vanished.
I truly could not believe all of this. I had successfully sealed Banasphate inside this mirror ball. After taking a short breath, I looked at the mirror ball. The reflection of Banasphate could be seen moving back and forth in confusion while raging.
"YOU DAMN BASTAAARD...!!! LET ME OUUUT NOOOWWW…!!! OR YOU WILL RECEIVE EXTREMELY PAINFUL PUNISHMENT FROM MEEE…!!!"
"You are already trapped and still babbling nonsense," I said while giving a faint laugh.
"WHERE AAARE YOUUU HAAAHHH?!?! DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO HIDE YOURSELF AGAINNN... DAMN YOUUU…!!!" Banasphate continued his rage.
At first I was confused why he could not see me. Then I remembered and understood that this mirror ball worked as a two-way mirror. I could see Banasphate inside this ball, while Banasphate could not see me from within and could only see his own reflection. I also remembered that in fantasy stories, mirrors possess the power to repel and reflect almost all magical energy.
"Alright, for now I will store you here first," I said while beginning to stand again even though I was still somewhat in pain, holding the mirror ball.
"Youuuu daaamnnn.... bastaaard youuu...!!! How dare you summon without using my naaaame....!!! what are you going to do with me huuuuhhh?!?!" said Banasphate, still extremely annoyed.
"Heemmm I don't know... maybe I will return you to your Master Mareketh. He must have had a reason why you were sealed in that chest, right?" I said.
"You ignorant know-it-all foolll...!!! quickly release me right nowww...!!!!" said Banasphate while floating rebelliously back and forth inside the mirror ball.
I ignored his rambling for the moment and walked toward the large door on my right. When I opened it and entered, there was a room similar to the corridor when I first entered Mareketh's Palace, but this one was more magnificent. I walked along that corridor.
"Does this lead to Mareketh's throne room?" I reflexively asked.
"How would I knooow foolll...!!! quickly release me right nowww...!!!!" Banasphate kept repeating those words.
I reached the intersection of the corridor, and from my right side, I heard someone clapping slowly. I turned my body toward the source of the sound and it was…
In front of me stood a throne, and Mareketh was already there, standing while continuing to clap his hands and shaking his head at me.
"Truly unexpected... An ordinary human trapped in hell managed to seal the rebel again in such an extraordinary way…" praised Mareketh.