Overpowered Wizard

Chapter 215: B3: C5: Hell Gate Portal 1

the little goblin went about cooking a tasty snack for zarian.

as zarian waited and endured monstrous starvation, he felt a familiar shift in the air. hidden hell felt it, too.

the realm sent small pulses of energy, as if to probe the shift. it couldn’t interact with it, however. nothing could mess with it or stop it.

hidden hell was powerless against the pov shift.

zarian had no idea why it was happening and couldn’t control it. the best he could do was get a glimpse of where it went when the pov chose someone else. but even then, all he could hope for was a glimpse.

the pov shift chose...

***

cussing up a storm, gilbert flipped through the air after taking another big hit. he slammed back first through the blood-coated columns of a hellish underground fortress.

he stopped short of having his head run into a spiked gate that would’ve cost him vitality and maybe some life energy. maybe not physically, but definitely magically. almost everything was cursed in this godforsaken and literal hell hole on the other side of the portal from zarian, foodie, and naomi.

his high-quality armor and its enchantments held up. some of the damage from the hit had transferred through to avoid overloading the runic magic. it was never at one hundred percent, which helped avoid overstress.

that was mostly fine with gilbert. as long as he could hit back the things that fought him. but the royal devil, lady hentayury, was as slippery as an angry catfish. she was also monstrously strong, much stronger than anything the usual healer should fight on their own.

stop your belly aching, gilbert thought moodily to himself. bianca’s fighting three on her own. i got this one. and hannah’s trying to shut down the damn thing-a-ma-bob keeping that portal powered. do your part and man the fuck up.

he needed to get back across the fortress grounds. he needed to stay close to bianca’s fifty-foot angel impression. three royal devils were picking at her from various angles while trying to avoid her full wrath.

his healing force +2 couldn’t reach her effectively while she was far across a vast fortress.

gilbert also had a bunch of bloody and evil hedges, possessed statues, demonic beasts, and tenacious imps that were in the way. the royal devil lady was just one big problem on top of a whole molehill of challenges, especially on this side of the hell gate portal.

setting his feet down solidly, gilbert stood back to his full height. wet and sticky rubble from the smashed blood columns spilled over his armored form.

he shook his head, spat a wad of blood to the side, and let out a grunt. he readjusted his cowboy wizard hat with his weapon hand and strode forward resolutely.

the air above his head was a maelstrom of infernal chaos, all fire, lightning, and brimstone. flash rains appeared, dumping oily blood in a downpour that covered everything in thick coatings of fresh red.

if he looked hard enough, he could see monstrous faces howling and laughing in the red-orange hell storms above.

the massive hell fort that surrounded him looked black from deep layers of soot and old blood covering its thick, stony facade and cruel designs of torments.

there were posts everywhere with skeletons strung up, crucified. each of those skeletons had wings to them.

it was quite the effort to make a mockery of what was pure and righteous.

eyes narrowed, gilbert looked across at the menagerie of beasts that had crowded around him while he was at the corner of a large courtyard. all he had were thick walls and spiked gates to his back and cursed hedges to his sides.

the demonic beasts to his front had horrific designs.

some had patches of howling faces all over their furry bodies. others had tentacles sprouting from along their spines.

then there were the humanoid statues intermixed in the horde. those suckers could take a wallop and deliver one back.

these creatures were truly hellish things. if gilbert and the others couldn’t bring down the portal, the hell break promised to send all these bastards out to deliver harrowing pain and destruction on the innocent.

despite all the frustration of his position, especially with him being separated and on his own, gilbert found a measure of joy again.

yeah, if it wasn’t for his mission to help a pair of fallen angel siblings like the darkruns find redemption, gilbert would’ve thought he’d done something wrong to end up here. but in truth, he really felt like this was all meant to be.

the screaming, gibbering, hell spawn gnashing at his face. the squads of imps maneuvering around like little nazis. all trying to catch him off guard. and his mission to get across the giant fort and reach his friend who was up against three royal devils.

yeah, this was all meant to be.

there she is! gilbert looked up as bianca’s fifty-foot form flickered into view beyond blood-caked walls, monster hedges, and hordes of hell. then she quickly disappeared, like any guardian angel would.

he still hadn’t decided on what to make of bianca’s ludicrous form. he was leaning on the idea that she was a medium of the supernatural that existed far above the infinita star system.

basically, the big g made it so that bianca could channel a fraction of his true power.

why her instead of gilbert? he figured it was because she was a better vessel, more pure-hearted or something.

gilbert knew he was a sinner himself. but he was trying his best, which was why he swung his axe and smashed with his shield as hard as he could. he did his best to make up for all the mistakes he’d made.

he’d slept around before marriage. he’d divorced twice. he’d slept around some more. he’d shot zarian, a fallen angel.

gilbert had fallen from grace again and again. he’d kept failing to live up to what a christian should be.

“i’m almost there, bianca,” gilbert muttered, feeling a little winded.

he lost count of how many hellish things he’d slaughtered. behind him, over a thousand fiendish creatures lay in ruins after running into a supportive adventurer who could fight for himself.

he wasn’t just a healer. he was the legendary knighted healer, and the forces of hell weren’t really prepared for that.

he was now on a staircase going up the nearest fortified wall. layers of black blood, some old, some fresh, slurped at the soles of his boots as he rose.

a few more imps picked at him from a distance with hell magic and arrows. they were shying away from direct confrontation, and their aim was crap.

once he reached the rampart, he saw bianca’s radiant form more clearly.

pure and majestic light covered her face and portions of her body that should remain private. a pair of golden wings spanning wide flapped with powerful beats. from her torso extended six elegant arms. each hand held sabers of light while she also had orbs of buzzing light spiraling around her.

he looked her over quickly and saw ... she was alright. she had a few burns and cuts on some of her arms and along her legs. but she had nothing serious while up against three devils that deemed themselves gods.

everyone thinks they are the messiah while peddling their shit, gilbert thought darkly.

still, he was glad that bianca was mostly healthy. that would make it easier for him to recharge her vitality and deal with whatever light wounds she had.

the more important part was giving her the vitality overcharge, which would bleed into her stamina.

vitality was one half health and one half stamina. at this point, the latter was more important.

none of the floridians had slept for two weeks. they had kept running this grind of a hell crawl nearly nonstop.

they were running on fumes. and nobody felt that more than bianca, who had to work twice as hard to keep that big target of a body she had from getting taken down.

if she wasn’t soaking heavy damage, she was definitely dancing her way out of trouble. she also had her light step +2, but her size made it extremely costly to use that skill.

regardless of the technicalities, gilbert needed to recharge bianca’s vitality and then go over to check on hannah and slip.

but, as per the nature of this life, nothing gilbert did could go simply.

“it was fun watching you struggle,” said lady hentayury, dropping wetly behind him. “you’re a tough enough toy. maybe i might keep you. but first, we must pick up where we last left off. i’m yet to be fully satisfied.”