9 Circles - Round 4 vs Casino Carmada (Part 2)

The competitors scattered from the moment Van said ‘go.’ The Casino Carmada was a labyrinth of opulence, with literally every surface gilded and dressed with gemstones. A stunning Wheel of Fortune spun over their heads, and from behind it, a waterfall of liquid gold cascaded down over statues drinking and bathing in the molten wealth. (At least they hoped they were statues, after their run-ins with the stone whores in Lust.)

The first hundred or so chips were quickly found and claimed. Some lie inside of glass jewel cases, while others were buried in elaborate machines. (Sange attempted to pull on their side-armed levers to force the prizes out, until Callidora and Byten swept in and simply smashed the things to bits.)

Spencer found a string of chips hanging around the waist of one of Van’s servant girls. Like the one that escorted them down to this circle, the girls of the Casino were practically painted with affluence; just enough so you wouldn’t notice the horrific ways gems were gouged into their eyes and flesh. Attempting to retrieve the chips from the girl quickly erupted into a fierce fight – one broken fist later, Spencer was still without her chips, and had discovered for all of them that even the girls’ skeletons had been carved out and replaced with diamonds.

Soon, the answer became clear. They had found all of the chips that were left in the open – the rest would have to be taken from the casino’s patrons.

While battles erupted around the casino, Callidora opted for a quiet route. She found one of the damned, running its twisted fingers over a large stack of multicolored chips. Sitting down next to the wretched soul, she extended a polite hand and asked, “Excuse me, but may I see those?”

“Get your own wealth, maggot!” the wretched hissed, protectively hovering over its stack. “These chips are MINE, and ye shall not have ‘em!”

Callidora glanced around the casino. Fighting would take too long, especially since they were forbidden from murdering anyone this round. There had to be another secret that none of them had seen yet. She groaned, rubbing her temples. The casino was so garishly bright that it was affecting her ability to think. By the gods, there’s enough gold on these walls to make every soul trapped here the richest man on the Greek Islands. If only they were as bright as these walls and lights, they might realize--

Suddenly struck with brilliance, Callidora grabbed her xiphos and sliced into a nearby pillar. Thanks to the blade’s enchanted strength, the flimsy gold bent like butter, breaking away a hefty chunk that more than towered over the beggar’s stack of plastic.

Callidora grabbed the gold chunk and dropped it down in front of the wretched. “If I give you this, may I have your chips?”

The wretched gave a shrill cry – something akin to happiness, as if such an emotion could exist in Hell – and promptly wrapped its arms around the gold. While it was distracted, Callidora quietly took the chips and counted them down: fifty more gave her an even hundred, so she shoved the plastic into her helmet (where the rest of her pieces were stored) and moved on.

She stayed quiet, ducking behind refuge as she moved from beggar to beggar around the casino. The rest of the competitors still struggled to wrestle the chips away from the wretched and slave girls. Byten and Spencer, through combined efforts, seemed to have a few more than the rest, but none seemed close to the elusive 300th chip. While they focused on using force, Callidora quietly used broken gemstones and carved chunks of gold to sneak the chips away. It took everything in her power not to make a sound and be caught – if the others realized her strategy, it could cost her the round.

With just a few more to go, Callidora turned her efforts to one of the slave girls, who had two strings of chips wrapped around her curvy hips. After a bit of work cutting up gold pieces and melting them together in the boiling hot waterfall pool, the Athenian had crafted a belt, heavy and laden with an array of gemstones. She tapped the slave girl on the shoulder and offered her the treasure. “Trade?”

“Oh, how beautiful!” the slave-girl cried. She slid the accessory on, knocking her chips loose in the process. As she danced and admired the piece, Callidora was free to collect the loose plastic from around her feet. “Wherever did you find all this beautiful gold?”

“You’d be surprised.” With another stack gathered, Callidora shoved them into her helmet. The slave girl had surrendered another fifty chips. If her math proved accurate, that might just be enough. Throwing caution to the wind, Callidora bolted out of the casino as fast as her legs could run – she would need peace and quiet to count them properly, namely to have them not be stolen as she did so. (Already, she overheard Spencer and Byten discussing plans to simply start stealing from the other competitors if the rest of the wretched would continue to prove difficult.)

She ducked around the corner and sat, spilling her collection of colorful plastic discs onto the rough, rocky floor outside of the casino. Trying to be quick, she stacked the chips and counted them off: “Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, vau, zeta, eta, theta… Iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, koppa… Rho, rho-nu, sigma, sigma-nu…”

Tau. Three-hundred exactly. “Perfect.”

She glanced back inside, making out what she could through the golden stained glass that covered the windows. Still, the chaos and combat continued – so long as the remaining three-hundred chips were still split between the five of them, she would have time to confront Van. Shoving the chips back into her helmet, she took off for the peak of the unconquerable mountain.

The mountain tapered off to a small plateau, before dropping off into a sheer cliff with nothing below to catch you but the raging golden river. Van awaited her at the top. He offered a gracious bow as she approached, panting to catch her breath from the treacherous uphill run. “Congratulations, madame. Do you have my chips for me?”

Callidora threw her helmet, spilling the pieces at Van’s feet. “All three-hundred, just like you asked.” Van merely stepped over them, instead walking towards her. “Aren’t you going to count them?”

“Unlike the rest of the damned here, my dear, I take it you can be trusted.” By now, Van was only inches away, close enough that Callidora could smell the dried blood and hot smoke burned into his suit jacket. (Though unappealing, it was still far better than the smell of excrement from the last circle.) With the plateau as small and unforgiving as it was, she had no room to maneuver around him. For the moment, she was trapped.

He traced a gloved finger under her jaw. “You didn’t have much fun with my game, did you, my little Athenian?”

“I am not here to play games. I am here to win a competition and claim a prize that is rightfully mine.”

“Of course you are.” He leaned in close, exposing the smell of expensive alcohol and tobacco smoke on his breath. “I can see that. You have potential, my dear, more so than anyone else here. We both know this game means nothing – these challenges are just stalling for time. Only one of you will confront Lucifer’s final task in Circle Nine, and we both know that one person is destined to be you.”

“What are you saying?”

“The rest of the competitors will be searching for those last chips for ages. I would gladly escort you down through the rest of the circles myself – how quickly will those last challenges pass if you’re the only one there?”

“What’s your catch?”

“Any ferryman has his tolls, my little Athenian. You figured out how to bamboozle those wretched sinners inside the casino, but I thirst for something a little more valuable.”

His finger moved down her neck, catching the gold and copper chain around her neck. Hidden under her toga, her sardonyx necklace had yet to see the depths of Hell, until the very moment Van reached down by her breast and exposed it from its hiding place. He took the center pendant into his hand, examining it as close as he could without removing the cord from her neck.

“Would you surrender your husband’s gift for a chance to see him again?” Van taunted. “This is just one necklace – imagine the jewels that could replace this one if your husband were still alive. Even beyond that, imagine the treasures of Olympus! You could rise to those gilded halls after performing your favor for Athena. Would you trade all of the gold and jewels in the Greek Islands…” he paused to dangle the sardonyx in front of her, “for just one necklace?”