Chapter Text
It's been a few months since Cuphead lost his soul to the devil, and went to hell. Wandering around the maze of torture, like many of the lost souls down there, unable to find an exit. Slowly started to lose hope of ever getting out of the fiery depths.
Many succumbed to the eternal agony, but others kept fighting and searching. Cuphead was part of the fighting group, but he was starting to give up. Until he overhead two lost souls conversion.
“I swear to you, I almost got it figured out!”
“Oh, you always say that, and yet, we're still here!”
Cuphead want to stop what he was doing and listen in, but he didn't want them noticing. He pretended to not be listening, but he kept his invisible ear open.
“Look, I was wrong the last few times, but this time I got it! I heard a juicy rumor that there's actually a demon who knows their way around, and even knows how to get out of hell!”
“Really? Well, tell me!”
"Yeah, tell us," Cuphead thought to himself, and glanced over at the two.
“Well, apparently this demon use to be the ruler-”
“OH I CALL BULL-”
“Now hang on. Listen for a second. This demon USED to be the ruler of hell. I heard they were challenged for the throne, and lost. Anyways, this demon had been hiding ever since then, but I bet ya anything that he wants they want their previous position back.”
“Hold on though. If this demon knows how to get out of this place, why would he be hanging around?”
“Outside of hell is the casino. The casino is where the winner, the current ruler, is.”
"They must mean the Devil." Cuphead glanced at the two again.
“Basically, you're saying…”
“I'm saying that this demon might not be able to defeat him. Might not let us even go to the surface. However, I got a plan.”
Luckily, Cuphead didn't have to listen to the plan to know where they're getting at. And, unlike them, he could actually do whatever was required.
“That's a great plan and all, but where can we find this demon?”
“I don't know, but I've overheard that the charon knows EXACTLY where they is!”
“And where are they?”
“By the rivers Styx and Acheron of course!”
“And where is that?”
“Umm…”
"No one knows where that is… Except…" Cuphead ran to see if could find a map that he found once.
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“I'm surprised a map even existed down here.” Cuphead rolled up the map, and put it back where he found it. He wanted to take it with him, but he figured others might need it.
He turned around, and walked towards the general direction that the map pointed towards. He hoped he doesn't get lost, like he normally does, without it.
Besides, he wasn't that good at map-reading like Mugman was…
“...”
Cuphead's mind drifted off to the time he was dragged under…
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The brothers had triumphed over the demon, forcing him to give up.
“We shall accept your surrender, Devil,” Cuphead laughed. “But we're not done just yet!”
And with that, Cuphead and Mugman destroyed all of the soul contacts, releasing Inkwell Isle’s residents from eternal servitude to the Devil.
“Gosh, I can't wait to tell everyone!” Cuphead said. The boys set off for home, and at top speed.
“C’mon, last one there's a leaky cup!” Mugman teased as they ran.
But before they could leave the Devil's throne room, a gate, that appeared out of nowhere, blocked the exit.
“What the heck!” Cuphead turned around, and saw the Devil laughing.
“DID YOU THINK I WOULD REALLY SURRENDER TO THE LIKES OF YOU?”
With his unbroken arm, the Devil snapped his fingers, and a hole filled with fire appeared. The fire had turned into some sort of hand, grabbed Cuphead's left leg, and dragged him to the fiery hole.
“Cups!” Mugman lunged towards Cuphead, grabbed his arm, and started pulling him away from the hell pit. The hands pulled harder, dragging both Cuphead and Mugman to the hollow ground. Cuphead had realized this, and tried to struggle out of the inferno limbs grasp, or out of Mugman’s.
“Muggsy! Let go!” Cuphead shouted.
Mugman's eyes went wide,“But you'll-”
“You will as well if you don't let go!” Cuphead argued. He prayed to what superior force existed that Mugman would let go.
“No! We're going to get out alive! Together!” Mugman pulled harder, causing the hand to pull harder, causing Cuphead to yell in pain.
The Devil laughed at what was happening. Mugman realized what pain he was causing his older brother when he saw tears running down his face. He stopped pulling as hard, but the hand was still pulling, and the next thing the both of them knew, Cuphead was halfway through the hole.
“Mugs, just let go.” Cuphead gave Mugman a warm, kind smile. “I promised to come home before dinner.”
Mugman hesitated, then nodded, then he let go of Cuphead, and watched him sink completely into the hole.
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Cuphead nearly cried as he thought of those times. He promised be back soon, but he was still here. Still in this place that the sinners were sent.
The smell of blood and rotting, burning flesh brought him back to reality. He finds himself next to a red river, and a boat on the river, next to a small hut.
“Guess I found their location.” Cuphead walked over to the hut. “Judging by the boat, he might be in there.”
When Cuphead got close enough, he knocked on the rotted door of the small shelter. Suddenly, the door was opened by a bit, and a cloaked figure slightly poked their hooded head out.
“What do you want?” The wording was quite rude, but their tone was polite by quite a bit.
“Are you the charon?” Cuphead asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible.
“Why, of course. Why do you ask?”
“I need to find a demon who was apparently the ruler of hell before the other guy.” Cuphead wasn't sure what to call the Devil. “Thing is, I need to get out of here as soon as possible, and this demon is the only one who knows how to get out of here.”
The charon was quite for a bit before letting out a trying-not-to-laugh kind of snort, “What made you think they would help someone like you?”
“Because…” Cuphead took a moment to reply. “Because I'm much stronger than I look! I was able to defeat the Devil, I even broken some of his bones, but then he pulled something funny! I'm only down here because of his stupid tricks!”
If there was any signs of disinterest on the charon, they would have disappeared as soon as Cuphead mentioned defeating the Devil. Perhaps the porcelain faced character might have more potential then he thought.
“Defeated the Devil you say?” The charon grinned, but it was unable to be seen. “Care to elaborate? I'm sure the demon you're looking for would be pleased to hear this story.”
Filled with pride, Cuphead told the charon about the battle against the Devil. He tended to exaggerate here and there, but it was to a point to where the story was still believable. Then again, this is the kind of world where a bird's head can turn into a trash can, and a mermaid that turned into Medusa was decapitated, but was still alive.
The charon listen closely, but there was one thing he didn't get. “As much as I'm enjoying this delightful story, I have a small question that's bugging me.” The charon sounded slightly confused.
“Alright.” Cuphead directed his attention back to the charon. “Ask away.”
“I noticed that you kept using the word 'shoot’ as if you had a range weapon are something. Did you have a gun, or is there something I'm not getting at here?”
Cuphead felt a bit awkward, he hated explaining things, “It be easier if I could show ya…”
He pointed at a nearby stalactite with his index, his thumb high above it to form a gun-like shape. A blue aura surrounded his hand, shining brightly on his finger that was pointed outwards.
He pulled his hand back, sending it into a snapping position. With a sudden loud crack, his threw his hand downwards, firing a blue bullet of energy from his fingers, for he brought them back to a finger gun position.
The blue bullet hit the stalactite, causing it to fall to the ground. Upon impact, the ground started to shake for a bit, and the sharp ceiling rock created a baseball size hole with cracks around the hole’s perimeter.
The charon let out a slight laugh, “I'm impressed. That's quite the ability, if I say so myself.” They laughed again. “In fact, I'd say you're actually worthy of meeting the demon you're looking for.”
“Really?” Cuphead asked. “Alright! So, where can I find them?”
“In here.” The charon opened the door. “Come inside. You'll see 'em when you come in.”
Cuphead entered the one-room house, and looked around. It was filled with necessities like a bed and stuff like that.
However, Cuphead couldn't name them all before the door closed. Now, it was dark. There was no source of light, so Cuphead was alone in the dark, and he was sure the charon didn't follow him inside.
Suddenly, before Cuphead's eyes could get use to the dark, a blue light could be seen in the far left corner...