By the time Praxis and Kranis were finished with the clerk and heading towards the exit, the hub had already become relatively empty. Most of the demons that were wandering around the area had already left, leaving only a few stranglers behind.
As they walked towards the exit, Praxis could feel his head feeling fatigued again. After waking up from almost being consumed by the rocksouls, his cloudiness had gotten a little better. After working all the time digging soulrocks, the mental fatigue returned.
Praxis had to slow down his walking and even stop to massage his head to try to feel better again.
Kranis, not hearing Praxis' footstep behind him, yelled, "Let's hurry on out now, the next shift will arrive here soon. We don't want to be caught up in that mess when it happens."
Praxis, still massaging his head, said, "I'm sorry, but my head is acting weird again. I am getting really tired after working all day in the Empty."
"Did it start while you were in the Empty, above?"
"Yes."
Kranis dug through his coat pocket and pulled out a small red object. "Here, eat this."
Praxis grabbed it and swallowed it whole without even asking for its identity. It took a few seconds after he ate it for the cloudiness to instantly vanish.
"Wow, I feel a lot better now. What was that?"
"It's called a Red Jelly Pill. They were designed to counteract the mind fatigue that Empty puts on you."
"Wait, that feeling was the Empty, not my body getting tired."
"I guess that's one way to put it. The Empty turns your brain to mush and makes you take a rest, and then eats you alive. No matter if you're a demon or an intruder. Oh yeah, by the way, you better pay me for that."
"I will, how do I pay you?"
"Look at your registration card, the Clerk gave you. It shows you your work designation and how many rocksouls credits you have, they are pretty much the currency here."
Praxis looked at the card.
[Prince Praxi]
[Soulrocker Catcher]
[Credit: 14]
"And how much do I owe for that?"
"The Pill typically costs about 50 soulrock credits," Kranis said as Praxis' face dropped. Kranis giggled, "No need to worry, you can pay me back later. One pill will last you for about a week, so you should be good until then."
"So with these pills, demons can pretty much work non-stop in the Empty."
"What? No. Why would you think that we can work non-stop?"
"Well, this body of mine. As you said, it resembled that of a demonkin and ever since I got here, my body hasn't gotten tired, even a little. Just my mind."
"No, that's just you, or your kind. Most demons get physically exhausted, especially after shoveling in the Empty for an entire shift straight. Except for demonkin and some others, who don't really get physically disadvantaged. I even heard a rumor that they don't even need to eat."
"Yeah, that seems to be the case. I haven't felt tired, hungry, or even thirsty this whole time."
"Guess those rumors about demonkin were true, you ugly bastards."
"Yeah," Praxis said softly, thinking of the implication these traits about himself had on his human identity.
As they were talking, they were walking through a large corridor. The passageway in or out of the hub was through the large corridors. Those corridors were all connected to a large hallway, which Praxis and Kranis had just walked into.
Praxis looked at the new sight before him. It was a giant hallway made of mud, bricks, and stone. It was not as high up as the domes, however, it was much wider. On top of the corridor, they just came out of there, was a giant carving with the number "6." That number represented the designation of the transportation hub they were just at.
The hallway itself looked almost as endless as the surface of the Empty itself. It was like a massive tunnel with tens of thousands of demons walking around. Every hundred meters or so, the corridors that went into the transportation hubs.
The floor seemed to be split into three equal sections. The middle was a paved road where strange vehicles and beasts pulling carts of demons traveled. On both sides of the road were the sidewalks coming out of the hub corridors.
"Come, let's walk. We are lucky that we are in hub 6, else we would have had to buy a cart transport. And those guys charge too much, no matter how far you want to go."
Praxis followed closely behind Kranis, even though both sidewalks were packed with demons. The demons had a system of those walking in a certain direction walked on one side of the pavement. Every once in a while, there were these arch-shaped bridges that connected the two sides of the pavement.
All the innovation, architecture, and craftsmanship when it came to designing the Nest truly impressed Praxis. One of his favorite parts of being a diplomat for the Empire was traveling throughout the neighboring regions of the Empire. All the villages, kingdoms, and other nations each had their unique sense of history and culture.
Praxis truly enjoyed getting to different places and experiencing different things. Now that he was in Hell and seeing something really out of the world, it got him euphoric. He never could have even dreamed of Tartarus looking so incredible, yet here he was seeing it for himself.
"This place is just so amazing," Praxis said.
"This is just a hallway. We are heading to the center of the Nest, and that place is really amazing."
"All this is truly just so incredible," Praxis said. "I can't even imagine the amount of planning, work, and effort that went into making this place."
"I don't think I've ever noticed anything like that before. Most of the demons around here don't. Maybe you are a human after all."
"Does that mean that you believed me when I said that I was a human?"
Kranis giggled, "If my life has taught me anything, it's that if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, then it will probably will stab you in the back because it's a f**king rat. I don't have much else to go off than what I can see and sense. And to me, you're a demon, but there's someone who we can meet later who can probably help you get the answers you're looking for."
"That's great," Praxis said, truly great for everything Kranis had done for him so far. "Kranis, I want to give you my sincerest of thanks for..."
Kranis quickly cut him off, "Don't give me that crap, I don't want to hear it. Just help me out later if I need, else I don't trust when people spout those things."
Praxis smiled, thinking of how quickly his luck had taken a turn after meeting Kranis. He intended to pay back Kranis for everything he'd done to help Praxis and may him back in fold as it was customary for him to do so.
Praxis saw the hallway coming to an end, and on the other side, he saw something even he couldn't believe.
"Well, this is it. The heart of the Nest. The place that will take you where you want to go within the boundaries of this place."