Ekaksh crouched down, the weapon crossed him, and it went towards the wall. As the weapon hit the wall, it shattered, and Ekaksh ran, and the lord followed him.

  The vibration of the wall breaking travelled through the place and caught the attention of Ivaan.

  What was that? The sound came from behind him. He turned around and ran inside.

  When he reached the place where he trapped the lord of Krimisha, one of the trees had fallen on the ground on which he carved a sigil, and the lord of Krimisha was not there anymore. Besides the tree, he found an axe.

  This is not good.

  Ivaan ran outside following the same path he chose before.

  The lords of hell caught every soul one by one and chained all of them, including Ekaksh.

  “What do you all think? That you can escape this place so easily,” said one of the lords, “you all could have escaped this place if you had suffered the punishments you deserved, but you all chose to run away. As a result of that, you all will stay here for eternity.”

  “That’s not possible, no soul can be put in hell for eternity. All of them should leave after completing the punishments.” Said one of the souls from the crowd.

  “So that is what you all think.” Said the lord, “Here’s a surprise for you all, you know nothing about hell, and you don’t even know what we can do to you. Anyways, we will deal with you all later, but we need to talk to your leader first,” said the lord of Dandasuka, and walked towards Ekaksh.

  They are thinking that I am the leader. This is great, Ivaan is not here, so he will be able to do something later. I should play along.

  “Smart, at least your brains started working after we had already done so many things.” Said Ekaksh with a laugh, “I know you all can do nothing, you all are nothing but the slaves of Lord Yama, so you'd better call him because you all are useless.”

  “Looks like your leader has lost his brain.” Said the lord

  “he’s not our leader,” said the man from the crowd

  “What did you say?” asked the lord of Dandasuka. Ekaksh's eyes widened.

  “I said, he is not our leader,” said the man

  “You don’t need to save me, and I didn’t command you to come in between,” said Ekaksh, sitting on the ground while being chained up.

  “What type of leader are you?” asked the lord, “can’t handle your own people.”

  “he’s not our leader,” said another man from the crowd, “he’s just in charge until our leader returns.”

  “Are you fools?” said Ekaksh

  “We are not going to suffer just to save Ivaan,” said the man from the crowd.

  “Ivaan?? So that is the name of your leader,” said the lord, “so they were not trying to save you, you were trying to save him. Interesting,” the lord of Dandasuka said with a grin.

  Ekaksh watched the lord coming closer to him.

  “It will be really interesting to make you spit out about Ivaan and where he is.” Said the lord while crouching down,

  “I’m telling you no shit,” said Ekaksh with a laugh.

  ‘Oh no, no, you might not tell me, but your pain and scream will be loud enough to be heard from miles away.” Said the lord by grabbing his mouth tightly.

  They shouldn’t look for Ivaan because if Ivaan gets caught, there will be no coming back.

  “Doesn’t matter what you do to me, it’s not going to change anything,” said Ekaksh to the lord

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Looks like you don’t understand,” said the lord, “we are not going to change anything, we are just going to make you tell us where we can find Ivaan, and then you will suffer in hell for eternity.”

  “For eternity, well, that will be hot.”

  “We are not joking, you're really gonna suffer, so you better tell us where Ivaan is?” asked the lord

  “You all are fools!” Ekaksh laughed, “Ivaan is gone already. I was just stalling the whole time. I don’t understand how you didn’t understand it. Now what will you do? Ivaan is gone.”

  “You are going to suffer a terrible fate.” Said the lord.

  “Fate, I’m already in hell.” Ekaksh laughed

  “Take him away,” said the lord, “before I lose control over myself.”

  “Nice decision,” said Ekaksh, “lord of hell got scared by a mere soul.”

  “Put him down,” said the lord

  Yamaduta glanced at him,

  “I said, put him down,” said the lord

  “Looks like the lord is not scared anymore.”

  The lord came closer to him, “laugh for now, we will make a special place in hell for you and just for you, the other souls will take you as an example, for the things they shouldn’t do otherwise it will not go well for them,” said the lord with a smirk.

  “You wish,” said Ekaksh, “Lord Yama will not let you do it.”

  “Only if he gets to know about it,” said the lord with a grin

  Ivaan came outside from the cave.

  “Looks like we found your leader,” said the lord of Avici

  My timing couldn’t be more wrong. How did they all reach here, and who informed them?

  Ivaan walked toward them.

  “Come! Come! We will not do anything to you,” said the lord of Avici as he approached closer.

  lord of Tamisra came and tied him up with chains.

  “What’s the matter, lord?”

  “Oh, please! Don’t act like you don’t know anything,” said the lord of Dandasuka, “why have you gathered all these souls here? What’s the purpose?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” said Ivaan, “I don’t even know why these souls are here.”

  “Stop acting,” said the lord, “you all were planning the escape.”

  “It is not the truth,” he said, “I just somehow found a way here, I don’t know why these souls are here.”

  Yamaduta came to him, “Lord of Krimisha is not present in hell.”

  “What?” said the lord and stared at Ivaan, “Where is he?”

  “He who?” asked Ivaan

  “Lord of Krimisha,” said the lord of Dandasuka, “where is he?”

  “He will be in the Krimisha, as he is supposed to be.”

  “All the souls of Krimisha are here, and the lord of Krimisha is missing,” said the lord, “so don’t consider me a fool. Where is the lord of Krimisha?”

  “Take all of these souls and put them where they belong, except the one in front of me,” said the lord to the Yamadutas, and the Yamadutas took away all the souls from there to the Krimisha

  The lords of hell took Ivaan to a dark place where they hanged him up in the air by chaining his arms and legs.

  “Now, tell me where the lord of Krimisha is?” asked the lord of Dandasuka.

  “How would I know that?” he said, “What is this place?”

  “We have specially made this place to torture you,” said the lord with a smirk,” we will torture you one by one until you say the truth.”

  “This is against the rule of hell; you’ll be punished for it.”

  “Only if the lord Yama gets to know about it,” said the lord, “and who will tell lord Yama when all the lords of hell are together.”

  “You all do the divine work, so how could you?”

  “Everyone needs a vacation now and then,” said the lord, “now get back to the question, where is the lord of Krimisha?”

  “Believe me, I really don’t know,” he said. The lord whipped him.

  “You’re lying,” said the lord, “we all knew that lord of Krimisha was planning to overthrow the rule of lord Yama, and you all were helping him; we will not let that happen.”

  “Overthrowing the rule of lord Yama,” said Ivaan with wide eyes, “are you all crazy? Do you really think that we will be able to defeat lord Yama?”

  “It doesn’t matter, you all were planning to do that,”

  “Why will we plan for something which is not possible?”

  “We know that you all were working for the lord of Krimisha.” Said the lord, “which is why he wasn’t punishing any of you.”

  He glanced at him, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Tell me what his plan is?” asked the lord, “or else the punishment can go for days, for weeks, for centuries.” The Lord smirked.

  “When I wasn’t working with him, then how can I possibly know his plan?”

  “So out of mercy, he wasn’t punishing all of you,” said the lord, “and you really think that I will believe that.”

  “If that is what you believe, I can’t do anything about that.”

  “We all know that lord of Krimisha is not in hell,” said the lord, “that means he has escaped hell, which no one believed was possible, but it happened, now how did that happen?”

  “How would I know?”

  “You all souls are more advanced in magic than any other souls. The lord of Krimisha, who is the cruelest among us, doesn’t punish any soul out of mercy, and then he escapes hell, and all the other souls are found at the portal to escape hell,” said the lord with a smile, “are you seeing a pattern here?”

  Ivaan stared at him with a stone face.

  “These points are different from each other, yet they seem so aligned,” lord tightened the chains tied to him, “But I still don’t know how you do it, as we all lords know that if we try to leave that portal, then Yamadutas standing at the portal can easily detect that we are not any mere soul. Still, the lord of Krimisha got out, how??”

  Ivaan still stayed silent.

  I would have told these lords about the lord of Krimisha, but I don’t know which of them is trustworthy and which one is not; staying silent is my only option for now.

  “I know you have the answer,” said the lord, “and I also know that you will not tell me so easily, but don’t worry, I have my ways. You will be thinking why I am talking so much and not torturing you, believe me, there is a reason behind it.”