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Chapter Text

Three centuries had now passed since Adam, the father of humanity, left the mortal world; his grave had been buried by sand and time, and even his children had long since ceased to exist. Humans had now created their civilization, and it continued to multiply and expand in every corner of the Earth. The first villages had sprung up everywhere, and from the first villages the first towns too had emerged. These were just groups of a few thousand people, but they were already considered enormous for the time. Some of them already numbered tens of thousands of individuals.

Even though Adam was dead, however, his teachings still endured. Humans had learned about the divine, and taking advantage of the fact that this was still a time when the Earth was still visited by beings from other worlds, they had greatly increased their knowledge of magic... and even darker powers. Some humans had in fact learned how to use evil forces to call from the afterlife entities much more powerful than them, who could give them everything they wanted in exchange for souls. They called themselves demons; humans feared them, but despite this, their greed led some of them to summon them.

In a land near what would in the future be known as Nod, there was a very populous town; it was also ancient for its time, having arisen shortly after the birth of the first villages. The town was structured like a spiral: the richest lived in the most central rings, the poor in the outer ones. At the center was the mansion of a family that was richer than ever, so much so that many wondered if it wasn't the richest in the world; no one knew how he had become so powerful and influential, because they had always kept the secret of so much wealth.

Near that town there was a forest, which everyone avoided as if it were a sea of ​​lava; there was a road that passed through it, but no one dared to take it. In fact, it was said that that road led to the place where the cruelest entity that ever existed on the face of the Earth dwelt, a being that demanded a price just to show up. If someone dared to disturb that ancient and evil creature, they had to be prepared for consequences so terrible that death would have seemed like a blessing in comparison.

No one dared venture on that road into the dark forest. No one except the family that ruled that town.

It happened at night, without anyone noticing. A group of people wrapped in dark cloaks emerged from the mansion and headed towards the forest. At the top of the line was the head of the family, followed by his wife and his numerous sons and daughters. Two of them were firmly holding a sack that was making some moans and squirming. They came to the forbidden road and walked along it.

The deeper they went, the darker the forest became, so much so that the moon and stars seemed to disappear from the sky. Those people each had a candle with which they lit their path, and they knew that this candle was what kept them safe. Outside the light they could hear the sounds of wild beasts: lions, loins and wolves that seemed to circle around them. But the cultists ignored them and continued on.

Finally they came to a rock altar in the center of the forest. It was a flat structure at least ten meters wide, with large columns on which there were monstrous statues. Beyond that structure there was a rise, on which a throne was located.

The cultists went to the corners of that enormous altar and lit the torches one by one, illuminating everything with a crimson light. Two of them cut their palms and with their blood drew a large circle in the center of it, full of dark and deviant symbols, and led a little goat to the center. The head of the family waited, and then he stepped forward and grabbed the goat, raised it upward, and shouted: "Now we will summon the king of betrayal!"

All the cultists knelt, lowering their faces so much that their foreheads touched the ground. They all started singing together, in an ancient language no longer used: the women led a calm and slow rhythm, and when it was time to insert harsh verses, the men sang too. The head of the family sang loudly, and the magic circle glowed red under his feet. Once that song was over, he took a knife and slaughtered the goat: "Please answer our call and come to this world, my lord!"

The crimson circle exploded, blinding everyone present. The red light lasted for just a second, and then it vanished. And when this happened, a dark figure had appeared sitting on the throne. A being that looked like a man, but had skin as black as pitch, a long tail and sharp claws: his face was almost invisible, showing only his eyes and his yellow teeth, and from his head started two large curved horns ending in golden tips.

The head of the family bowed respectfully. "Great Cain, thank you for having responded to our call. You who have guarded our family for centuries, now we are before you, humble servants, to ask for help from your immense powers; and whatever right price you will ask, it will be ours infinite pleasure to please you"

The demon on the throne did not move. Nobody dared to speak: they knew that, after that initial welcome, they shouldn't allow themselves to open their mouths. And then a hiss came from his lips: "I hope you know that just to talk to me you have to give me something in return, insect"

The head of the family trembled at that voice, but nodded nonetheless. "Yes. I brought my offering" he said, and nodded to the other cultists. Those who were holding the sack opened it, revealing a girl just six years old, bound and gagged, flailing desperately as she tried to free herself. "Here is the blood of my blood: my youngest daughter, the one we all should have protected above all others, who we are now betraying by giving her to you to satisfy your palate"

Cain let out a deep grunt. "Always the same sacrifice..." he commented acidly. "Once you used to be much more creative. It's getting boring now. I was hoping for something more innovative... never mind: hurry up and kill her and give me her head, at least I'll get something good to eat"

The head of the family nodded, and the cultists dragged the crying little girl to the center of the circle, and there lifted her neck. She was trembling and it was clear from the sounds she was making that beneath the gag she was begging for her life. But no one cared about her and they made her kneel down for the sacrifice. "Now, great Cain, I will give you the blood of my progeny" the head of the family proclaimed, raising his knife above the little girl's head. "May you feed on it and enjoy it with... ARGH!!!"

Suddenly blood erupted from his hands, and also from his legs and neck; all the other cultists screamed as well as the same happened to them. Magic circles had appeared on their wrists, their ankles and their necks, and as if they were sharp blades they had cut the tendons and veins. The cultists fell to the ground, and Cain, although he didn't move, took on a confused expression: "Mh?"

Suddenly the little girl who was about to be sacrificed stopped fussing: on the contrary, she became extremely calm and almost seemed to giggle from under the gag. And then she raised her arms, showing that she had managed to free herself from the bindings, and on her palms she had engraved the same magic circle that had now appeared on the bodies of the cultists. With one swift movement she clapped her palms together, and the ethereal magic circles on the cultists snapped shut: their feet, hands, and head were severed cleanly, and blood gushed out and exploded upward, falling on her like rain.

The little girl tore off her gag and gasped loudly, and then something extremely sinister happened: she rose to her full height with her arms wide open, fully showing the blood covering her. Any sign of innocence vanished from her face, replaced by a grin so wide it reached her ears. "My lord" she said, speaking for the first time. "This is my offer to you!"

Cain had remained as still as a statue until that moment, observing the whole scene with extreme attention. And as soon as the little girl said those words, he smiled. "Finally... something new!" he said with extreme excitement.

The little girl reached down and grabbed the heads of the cultists, and placed them one by one on the pike; after which she took it as if it were a skewer and handed it to the demon. “My lord, here is my offering” she said. "The blood of my entire family, shed by me personally, just for you. Taste their flesh and feast on their corpses. They are yours, as I am yours!"

Cain smiled even more, showing off his yellow, razor-sharp teeth. "Now that's surprising" he commented. "What's your name?"

“Babylon, my lord” was the little girl's response.

"Babylon, hm? It's a solemn name. You should be proud of it" Cain said, rubbing his chin with two fingers. "I admit I'm surprised. I never expected that the child destined for sacrifice would turn out to be such a skilled conspirator. It takes a great woman... not necessarily a tall one... to do what you did"

"For you, my lord, I will do this and more. Command, and I will deliver the blood of anyone you desire" Babylon answered him.

Cain chuckled with satisfaction. "Look, look... I like you more and more. How old are you? A little girl like you would be horrified at the mere thought of even killing a kitten, and here you are covered in blood ready to kill anyone, and you turn to me without any fear of not being able to keep these promises of yours and incurring my wrath"

"I fear nothing and no one" Babylon replied with extreme pride.

Cain's eyes narrowed. "Really?" he said in a thin voice. "You fear nothing and no one? You don't fear... even me?"

Babylon was suddenly overcome by a wave of fear: her heart began to beat wildly and her breathing seemed to stop. Cain disappeared before her, replaced by a crimson mass that distorted into a mouth full of sharp teeth ready to devour her, and she instinctively knew that if that happened a fate worse than death awaited her. Pure terror paralyzed her and she slipped to her knees, and her eyes started to water; she tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth. Her mind seemed to split, and she was awfully close to madness...

And then, as quickly as it began, it was over. Cain reappeared on the throne, motionless in the same position as before. Maybe he had never even moved and had just made her imagine everything. "Wow, what a surprise" he commented. "The cheeky little girl who claimed to fear nothing and no one is kneeling on the ground and shaking like a leaf"

Babylon was barely managing to stay upright: even though it was all over, she couldn't stop shaking. But despite this she did not let go of the pike on which she had placed the heads, holding it as high as she could so as not to dirty it with mud.

Cain let out a snort. "You made me have fun and I feel a certain interest in you, so for this time I forgive you. Don't ever dare to offend me like that again" he told her, and then he immediately changed his mood and returned smiling. "I want to enjoy my offerings. Come here and sit on my lap, so I can take those heads and we can talk a little"

Babylon took a deep breath, and then she murmured in a strangled voice: "My lord... it would be disgraceful... and disrespectful to you... if I... dared to sit... on your legs... as if I had... any importance. Allow me... to stay... at your feet"

Cain laughed. "Well, it seems you really just needed a lesson in humility. Good for you... I would have ripped your head off if you dared sit on me as if your pathetic existence could compare to mine" he said. “Since you know your place, come and let me eat”

Babylon struggled to her feet, trying to remain stable on her unsteady knees, and she headed towards the throne. She knelt at the foot of it, regardless of the fact that it was made of hard marble that caused her much pain, and raised her arms as high as she could, holding out the pike to the demon as if it were a skewer. Cain grabbed one of the heads and brought it to his mouth, and closed his jaws on it, tearing off half of it. "Mmm... human meat is always good" he commented, letting the blood drip onto the little girl's face, who however didn't move. "Tell me about yourself, I'm curious. Did you hate your family that much?"

"No, my lord" Babylon answered him. "The sacrifice must be made in the greatest betrayal, and as such, I was raised with love and affection. If I had been raised in a cellar just to be a sacrifice, it would have been worthless. I have never lacked for anything, And I've never had any reason to hate anyone"

"I see. Then how come you knew about your destiny?" Cain asked her as he finished chewing on the head. "You must have premeditated this massacre, it cannot be the result of a momentary whim"

"That's it" Babylon replied. "My family raised me well... too well. Ever since I was four I suspected there was something strange. Every time I wanted something, I got it right away, and everyone seemed anxious to please me; my brothers and my sisters weren't treated like that. So I overheard their conversations and found out everything"

Cain took another head and began to eat it. "And you didn't run away?"

"I thought about it, yes. But if I had run away, I would have lost everything. I am neither blind nor stupid, I know very well how poor people live" Babylon replied to him. "I didn't want to lose my home and my wealth, but I didn't want to die either, obviously. So I understood what I had to do: hand myself over to you with the greatest of sacrifices, my entire family!"

Cain chewed hard on another of the heads, making her clearly hear the sound of bones breaking. "Mmm... you really are an interesting little girl. How did you learn those tricks?"

"I studied them secretly from my father's manuals" Babylon explained to him. "It was enough for me to continue the act of the innocent child eager for attention. I asked my parents to teach me to read, and as usual they immediately granted my wish. Then I asked for the keys to every room in our house, and also this time I was satisfied. In order not to invalidate the sacrifice, the family was willing to give me anything. It was easy to enter my father's study every night and study his manuscripts"

"And once you obtained the necessary weapons you put your plan into action" Cain commented with satisfaction as he devoured another head. "A bold move. An experienced wizard would never have been defeated by such weak spells, but since no one suspected you, that was enough to kill them all"

"Exactly. And so I was able to deliver my offering to you, my lord" Babylon told him.

Cain could not contain his delight as he continued to eat the horrible meal. "Centuries and centuries of boring sacrifices, and finally someone manages to give me something truly great" he said, licking his lips. “Get up, little girl”

Babylon hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was another test, but then did as she was told; as soon as she was on her feet, Cain reached down and grabbed her by the waist, and he positioned her across his lap. "You've earned the right to sit here... for now" he told her, laughing at her shocked expression. "You have shown the strength of your heart. Anyone in your place would have taken another path... they would have run away, they would have faced their family, they would have cried... but you... you definitely did something unexpected. I wonder how much cruelty and greed is really in your heart, just waiting to be set free"

Babylon smiled smugly at those words. She almost looked like a normal little girl sitting on the legs of an adult who cuddled her, except of course for the fact that she was covered in blood and was holding a pike full of human heads that her interlocutor was feeding on.

Cain tore off another one of those heads and ate it, making sure she was watching, and then he asked her: "So, after this wonderful offering, what is your request? What do you desire?"

"Everything, my lord" Babylon replied, and her smile widened almost madly. "I want riches greater than any living human being, which I can use immediately, when I want and how I want. I want great fame and lasting universal appreciation, and to be treated by everyone almost like a goddess. I want power and respect from every man or woman on Earth without being opposed in the slightest. I want any person I want to be mine, without them ever betraying me regardless of what I do. I want knowledge, I want to know what is in this whole world and beyond it. I want eternal youth and health, a beauty unmatched by any other human being, and a life as long as the universe itself. This is what I desire"

Cain didn't change his expression at all. He didn't lose his smile, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. "You're asking a little too much, don't you think?" he finally told her. "At this point, you could just ask me the world, right?"

But Babylon did not fall for the trap. "I would never dare. That belongs to you alone, my lord" she replied with utmost respect.

Cain seemed satisfied by these words. "You continue to prove that you know your place. Well done" he told her, and he rubbed her hair lightly as if he were caressing her. "But still I think you are exaggerating. I advise you to lower your price"

But Babylon did not give in this time. "I know that almost all humans are too foolish and end up selling their soul for very little. But I am not one of them. I am ready to pay any price you wish; if it is high it is a good thing, and I will do anything for you, my lord. The greater my satisfaction in the gifts I will receive from you will be, the more I will feel obliged to give you what you ask for"

“Do you expect to be able to deal with me?” Cain growled menacingly, but despite his frightening demeanor he didn't seem angry at all. "If we demons offer so little for the souls of humans, it is because they are worth nothing"

"It's not true. The human soul is worth a lot, especially the one given away voluntarily" Babylon corrected him, showing that she had expected that trick. "And I will not give up mine without receiving what I want in return"

Cain hissed. "Don't test my patience. I could kill all your loved ones"

"All my loved ones are now dead on the ground, slaughtered by my own hands"

"I could take away all material wealth from you"

"I would give it all for what I asked for"

"I could take away your physical health"

"I was born only to die. Any physical suffering would be nothing compared to the fate that was set for me"

“I could take away your sanity!”

"You would do me a favor"

Finally Cain fell silent. Babylon wasn't moving a single muscle, but her heart was shaking. She knew that this was the most crucial moment of her life, she had studied for months what to say and how to behave to avoid making the slightest mistake. If she missed even one step in her speech, she could lose the most precious thing she had, her very soul, for something paltry. In front of her there was a creature devoted to deception, and consequently, she had to be more cunning than him.

Cain remained silent for a long time, chewing on two more heads; and then finally he spoke again. “You said you wouldn't settle for anything less… but what would you say if I offered you something more?”

Babylon's eyes widened. She hadn't expected that. "What...?"

"I can give you everything you asked for, and settle for a price in souls and blood... but I confess that I am too interested in you. I am curious to see what you might turn into" Cain told her. "How about becoming my apprentice?"

Babylon's heart leapt into her throat. "I... am honored by your offer, but..."

"Why do you hesitate? Let me describe to you what I can give you" Cain told her. "During your time in the world of the living, you will have exactly everything you asked for. You will have power, beauty, love, wealth, and a fame that every people on Earth will recognize. All kings will bend to your will and you will be able to laugh at them as you look down on them. I will teach you great knowledge, making you discover the secrets of witchcraft and demonology, and no one will ever be able to equal you in power. But all this will be nothing compared to what you will obtain after your departure. I cannot give you eternal life in this world, but you will receive it in the next; and not only will your name never be forgotten on Earth and everyone will pronounce it with fear and respect, but in the afterlife you will sit beside me on my throne, and you will command legions of servants and slaves. I will allow you to discover secrets so incredible that not even the angels know, I will teach you the truth about this universe and everything in it, and I will lead you to discover a power so incredible that compared to it any teaching I can ever pass on to you on the limited Earth will seem pathetic"

Babylon listened with extreme attention, and at Cain's every word her greedy heart seemed to tremble with excitement. She was so attracted by that prize that she began to salivate without realizing it. She could almost already feel the magic flowing through her body, the people cheering and bowing before her, and the 'dlin-dlin' of the coins ringing in her ears as if the leaves of the trees had turned gold and were about to rain on her. "What's the price...?"

"You, of course" Cain answered her. "I want you. I want you to serve me for eternity. When I ask you for something, you will have to give it to me". His face twisted into a grin more monstrous than ever, and the way he was caressing her became harsh and menacing. "If you agree to be my apprentice, you will be MINE. I will have every right to your body, your mind and your soul, and obeying my every order will be like breathing for you. You will receive more than anyone else, but you must be ready to lose everything to have this, including yourself. So, what's your answer?"

And while he was saying this the blood that stained the altar rose and concentrated in front of Babylon, until it became a contract; a very long contract, which faithfully reported all the steps listed by Cain, full of clauses that protected her from any deception unless she violated the pact first. Another clot of blood turned into a quill and settled between the girl's fingers, and the contract moved on its own showing where her signature should be placed.

She clutched the quill and held it close to the paper, but an instant before signing she hesitated. Her fingers froze and trembled. Babylon felt strange: it was as if her own hand was begging her not to do it. And it wasn't just her hand: the rest of her body seemed to rebel against her too, and her skin crawled. But she was more stubborn: with an effort, she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, and signed the contract.

As soon as she did it, she felt as if every blood vessel in her body had been violently opened; she reopened her eyes and realized that she had written her name with her own blood. Her signature glowed with an evil and menacing light, almost as if it were mocking her, and then the contract closed in on itself and flew into Cain's hand. "Good girl" he told her with a laugh. "I knew I would have been able to convince you!"

The hand that had been stroking her hair suddenly came down and pressed to the back of her neck; Babylon felt an unspeakable pain, as if someone had just wrapped her in hot metal. Cain withdrew his hand soon after, and she touched the back of her head and realized that he had marked her: her skin had been charred and melted, and now there was a mark on it. She had no time to wonder, however, as a collar grew from the mark and closed around her neck, tightening so much that it took her breath away; a chain was formed from it which went back up to the contract that Cain was holding in his hand and merged with it, becoming a sort of leash.

Cain laughed heartily, and pulled the chain; Babylon nearly fell on top of him as soon as he did, and he cupped her face with his free hand. "Aaaaaah... I knew you'd accept it" he told her. "Don't worry, I will keep my word. Your reward will be great. But from now on, forget what it means to be free"

Babylon gulped. She suddenly wondered if she hadn't just done something very foolish. But that feeling only lasted a moment, and she immediately bowed her head: "Yes, my lord"

"Good" Cain commented, and made the chain disappear, although she continued to feel it around her neck. "Are you hungry?"

Babylon was a little surprised by such question. "Yes" she answered truthfully, as using magic had drained her energy and it had completely emptied her stomach, which was in fact growling.

Cain smiled sweetly, and then he took the last head left on the pike: that of her father. "Eat, then" he said, handing it to her. "You are my apprentice now, and as a welcome gift I want to share my food with you. Trust me, you will love it so much you won't be able to do without it anymore"

Babylon took the human head in her hands, and she immediately obeyed: even though the thought of eating it made her very disgusted, she forced herself to put it in her mouth so as not to displease her new master. As soon as she chewed it she felt as if she were about to vomit, and swallowing the first bite was very difficult; but the more she ate, the easier it became. That meat was so sweet, so soft, and the blood so tasty... she felt like she was eating the best thing in the world.

But for some reason, the hunger didn't subside in the slightest: in fact, it seemed to get more and more intense with each passing second. With every bite she took of the severed head, her hunger pangs grew tenfold. Soon she was so hungry that she began to eat even the bones, until there was nothing left; and when she was finished, she was so hungry that she put her hands on her belly and doubled over. She felt like she had a crater where her stomach should have been.

Cain seemed to rejoice at seeing her so hungry. "Yeah... get ready, because I'm a very strict teacher" he told her. "Consider this a test of endurance. You are forbidden to eat until you return to town. Come on, lead the way"

Babylon literally had tears in her eyes from the pain she felt in her stomach; it felt like someone was opening her belly with a knife. But despite this she resisted and stood up and started walking. Cain took her hand and let her lead him. Babylon had to summon all her willpower when they passed the corpses of her family not to jump on them and eat them: just the smell made a waterfall of saliva fall from her mouth. But nevertheless she resisted and left that place with her new master.

It didn't take them long to get out of the forest and reach the outskirts of the town: there they reached one of the many neighboring farms, where a dog started barking as soon as it saw them. Babylon salivated even more at the sight of the animal, so much so that it was a miracle she hadn't already dried up. Cain laughed heartily at seeing her like that, but then he said to her: "Well done, you resisted well. Go ahead and feed yourself"

Babylon didn't wait any longer: she threw herself on the dog and mauled it with her teeth. The animal struggled in terror, but she tore it to pieces with strength she had never demonstrated before. She began to eat it just as it was, not caring whether she was swallowing hair, flesh, or bone. But still, with every bite the hunger only seemed to get more intense. As much as she continued to fill her stomach, it only became emptier and emptier. It felt like she hadn't touched food in years. She was so hungry that when she was finished with the dog she even started picking up insects and putting them in her mouth, and then even tearing up grass and eating it, but all this only whetted her appetite more and more. She wanted food, but the more she ate, the hungrier she became. Cain was only laughing at seeing her so desperate.

And then, a farmer came out of the house, clearly alerted by all the racket. “Hey, what…?”

He didn't say anything else: Babylon jumped on him and tore out his jugular. She began to devour him without even bothering to kill him completely. And finally her stomach filled and her hunger subsided, giving her relief. But even after she was full she continued to eat until she had consumed all the man.

Cain took on a satisfied expression. "I gave you a little push... but you did the rest on your own. So, did you like it?"

Babylon wiped the blood from her face and licked it greedly. "It was delicious" she answered. "I've never eaten such good food"

Cain reached down and caressed her cheek very gently. "Yeah... I figured you'd love it. You were born to eat everyone in your path, and not just literally. I'll teach you how to devour nations and empires as if they were the bones of the guy you just ate"

Babylon's eyes trembled with excitement. "I can't wait"

Cain smiled almost adorably. "You are simply perfect. Still just a tender shoot, but ready to bloom. Just like a rose of absolute beauty, but covered in sharp thorns" he told her, and then he seemed to have had an epiphany: "Yes... you know what? I'll call you Rosie from now on. My Rosie. Do you like it?"

In response Babylon buried her cheek deeper into his hand, almost as if she wanted to feel his touch even more. "Yes, my lord"

"Good" Cain said, rising to his full height, and staring down at her. "But don't address me that way anymore. You are my apprentice now. Use the right title"

Babylon lowered her head respectfully. "Yes, master"

Rosie stood still on one of the many balconies of the palace in the Betrayal Ring, intent on staring at one of the statues representing Cain. It wasn't difficult to find one of them since there were only depictions of him in that castle. She stared at it for a long moment, and then she spat on it. “Asshole” she hissed through clenched teeth.

"So this is where you were" Alastor said appearing from the shadows. "I was curious to know where you disappeared to"

Rosie let out a grunt and leaned against the balcony, letting the cold wind from the Betrayal Ring ruffle her hair, and she stared out at the crazy city below. "I wanted to stay alone for a while and reflect"

"Why? Bad memories?" Alastor asked as he approached her.

Rosie glared at him. "Careful, Alastor" she warned him. "I no longer have the angelic handcuffs now"

The radio demon narrowed his eyes at the cannibal overlord's once again free wrists. After Emily had taken possession of that palace she had broken the angelic handcuffs and freed Rosie, although she had still warned her not to leave the Betrayal Ring as she had questions to ask her. Which meant Rosie was now fully capable of snapping Alastor's neck like a twig again. "Listen, I know you're mad at me" he told her. "But I told you, I didn't want this. I knew you would hate me for it, but I couldn't oppose..."

"I know what it means to not be able to oppose a master" Rosie anticipated him, even if she didn't lose her sharp look. “But don't expect me to approve of your actions”

Alastor felt his skin shiver. His old friend was giving off a decidedly menacing aura. "Rosie, I..."

She didn't let him finish: she took him lightly by the collar, and even if she didn't touch his neck she still grazed him with the tips of her nails, making her intentions very clear. "Let's get one thing straight, Alastor" she said. "I know full well that you can't be trusted. I don't know what's on your mind or who's behind your back, but if you think I'm buying that altruism bullshit of avoiding further Roo awakenings, you're way off the mark. Emily doesn't want me to kill you, that's fine; but if your boss has told you even just one thing about me, then you know full well that I can make you beg to be killed"

Alastor as usual didn't lose his smile, but still he gritted his teeth tightly. "I am well aware of it"

"Good. Because now you will get out of this building" Rosie told him, staring straight into his eyes. "Cross that bridge and go back to the city. Find a new house, any one of the many that there are here, but stay away from this palace, and even more from Emily. If she decides to take a walk, stay away. Don't talk to her, don't look at her, don't even think about going near her. If I see you less than a kilometer away from her, I'll drag you down to the dungeons and make you experience firsthand how efficient Cain was at inventing instruments of torture"

Alastor let out a sizzle from his antennae. “Is this a threat?”

"No. It's absolutely truth" Rosie told him. "Leave. Now"

Alastor stood still before her. They looked at each other for an indefinite time, and then he nodded. "Okay" he told her, turning and heading towards the door. "But please, remember this: I care about you. And I care about them too"

Rosie raised an eyebrow. There was a strange ring to those words, and for the first time, Alastor seemed truly sincere to her. "If you really care about them, then never show up again" she told him. "This is the only warning I will give you, Alastor. Oh, and just to clarify, let's complete it like this: if by chance Emily... or even Charlie... were to embark on a journey that will bring them untold suffering, then you begin to run. Run until you're on the other side of the universe, and then keep running. Because if anything bad happens to those two girls, I'll find you and drag you on the other side of the Border. We'll take our last walk together in that cursed place, and as you well know you will never return from there with your mind intact"

Alastor stopped and tightened his grip on his staff. "And neither you" he told her.

Rosie giggled sadly. "Really? Look at me, Alastor. Thousands of years and I'm still here spitting on my old master's statue. I have literally nothing worth living for, only memories and a lot of regrets. It seems to you that I care about maintaining my sanity?"

Alastor seemed to stiffen at those words. He remained still for almost a minute, and then he turned slightly towards her, fixing him with a strange look: "You still have a lot worth living for. Don't let a bad memory cloud your judgement"

And without another word he turned into a shadow and vanished. Rosie was left speechless by those last words, not expecting them from someone like Alastor; wondering about them, she leaned back on the balcony and stared back at the city below her.

Chapter Text

Vaggie woke up with a soft grunt. Being an angel she didn't need to sleep, and therefore she didn't feel tired once she woke up, but she still wanted to bury her face under the covers and go back to sleep. At least, while her brain was in dreamland, she couldn't think. However, she knew that she couldn't stay in bed for eternity, also because she was sure that if she tried Lute would have thrown her away as soon as she returned, so she forced herself to get up.

Lute's room was very spartan, as one might imagine from her: little furniture, almost no decorations or ornaments. Just the bare minimum. There was just a bed to sleep on, a couple of drawers, a desk, a table with three chairs and a small kitchen in the corner, and of course a private bathroom closed by a door.

The rooms of the Exorcists took the form of the most suitable place for them, and some of them therefore did not spare themselves the luxury; Vaggie had entered someone else's room in the past, and in some cases she had found rooms as large as a house and with every kind of comfort. After all, most Exorcists were people who had had very little in their lives; it was normal that their ideal rooms were so rich. Vaggie couldn't suppress a smile as she thought back to the few times Adam had turned a blind eye to the curfew (usually for some important occasion where he himself wanted to go party) and some of the others had invited her to some sleepover in rooms who had beds so large that ten people could lie on them.

Yep... those were really good memories.

Vaggie rubbed her eyes to chase away the sleep and headed towards the bathroom, where she rinsed her face a little. She looked in the mirror: her hair was a mess, so she took a brush and started combing it. As soon as she was back to a minimum of presentability, she went towards the small kitchen and opened one of the pantries, and took out a bag of biscuits. They were just the taste she liked. This was basically how it worked: in Heaven there was no need to go shopping, refrigerators and pantries made the food the person wanted appear.

Vaggie sat down at the table and began to eat calmly, being very careful not to make any mess. She looked up at the alarm clock on the bedside table and realized that it was already past eleven in the morning. She had really slept a lot, she had never stayed in bed for so long. Well, her mind really needed to unplug a bit.

Who knows what was happening outside...

Her thoughts went back to Angel, Cherri, Blitz, and everyone else. Were they okay or had another big fucking mess happened?

Was Emily safe again?

Charlie...?

She shook her head as that person's face came back to her. The mere thought was enough to make her tremble.

The door to the room suddenly opened. Vaggie knew that only the owner and the leader of the angelic army could open those doors without authorization, and in fact she wasn't surprised at all when she heard Lute's voice behind her: "Are you finally awake? I've already came here three times, I thought you had decided to hibernate"

"And you didn't punch me to knock me out of bed?" Vaggie asked her jokingly.

"I thought about it, but I decided to wait until noon before punch you awake" Lute replied, sitting down at the table in front of her, and contrary to her she didn't seem to joke at all. "Know that this was the only night I let you use my room. From tonight you'll leave"

Vaggie nodded. She knew she couldn't ask her to stay there, also because it was a single room. “Did you work all night?”

"Managing an army isn't easy" Lute told her. "But at least now the situation is calm. I would have solved everything in half the time if those idiots of your friends hadn't let themselves be shot into Hell in front of everyone's eyes. You have no idea what I had to invent to justify this"

Vaggie felt some empathy for her. “I'm sure Pen and Husk are sorry about that” she told her. "They're not so bad when you know them well..."

"I seriously doubt it" Lute commented with a grunt.

"Well, at least they helped a lot" Vaggie reminded her. "Admit it, seeing Lilith crushed like that by Pentious' airship was at least a little funny"

Lute didn't change her expression, but she let out a snort that Vaggie was now used to associating with her being happy. "I admit it was cathartic" she confessed. "But speaking of your friend, as soon as you see him again tell him that if he tries to hide a rifle under the bed rails again he will be taken to martial court"

Vaggie's eyes widened. “Pen had a rifle under the bed?”

"I wish he had just that" Lute grumbled. "That guy has some problems with weapons. None of them were angelic, but... anyway, I've already doubled the surveillance on him"

Vaggie couldn't blame her. "I need to talk to Pentious" she said to herself. “Did he and Husk already come for that interrogation and all the rest…?”

"Yes, I've already sorted everything out" Lute confirmed. "Your friends will not suffer consequences, even if they risked it anyway"

Vaggie smiled. "Thank you"

"Don't thank me" Lute told her. She was silent for a moment, and then she grunted: "Look, let's get one thing straight: I still hate you. Not as much as I used to, but... it still irritates me to look at you. I left my room for you tonight as a thank you for the support that you gave me against Lilith, but don't expect kisses and hugs from now on. So don't thank me, it just makes me want to kick you"

"Yes, I thought so" Vaggie replied. She certainly hadn't expected things between her and Lute to change overnight. "But I thank you anyway"

Lute's eyelid quivered slightly. "How much I hate you" she murmured.

"I know" Vaggie told her mockingly.

Lute summoned her patience. "Look, now that you're rested... do you want to go home? I mean... down..."

"No" Vaggie said quickly. "Seriously, I... I can't go back to Hell"

Lute snorted lightly. “You know you can just avoid the girl you dumped, right?”

"No, I can't" Vaggie replied. "If I go back down there, I'll get involved in something somehow. Even the last time I walked away from Charlie I ended up having her in front of me all the time. You know... you try to help, there's a thousand problems to solve, and you can't just take a break and watch. In Hell I would get back into the fray one way or another. No, I... I really need to stay away from Charlie. Here at least the messes that are down there stay down there"

Lute remained silent, and then shrugged. "Well, that's your problem, not mine" she said harshly. "But are you sure you want to stay here in the army?"

“You mean the only place where there are people with the means and contacts to track down Adam, who is the only one who seems to have any idea of how to fix this mess?” Vaggie asked her rhetorically. "Do I have any choice? The universe is apparently about to end, so I might as well stay somewhere where I can try to prevent it"

Lute sighed. "You just can't sit still, hm?" she grumbled. "Okay. Today I'll introduce you to the others and then I'll assign you a room. Try to make a good impression, they're still mad at you for opposing us at the hotel. And let's be clear, I won't put in a good word for you and I will not show any favoritism; you will have to earn their trust again on your own"

Vaggie imagined Lute would have acted that way. It was already a lot that she had agreed to let her stay in the army and help her look for Adam, she couldn't also ask her to put in a good word with the others. "Okay. Thanks for the help anyway"

"I told you not to thank me!" Lute exclaimed in exasperation, but she already knew that she wouldn't have listened to her.

Vaggie went to change out of her pajamas and get dressed. As she did so she realized that she still had the angelic ballerina shoes that Carmilla had given her. What the weapon overlord had told her about balance came back to her. "Hey, Lute" she murmured. "I don't want to mind your business... but when we find Adam... will you... well, will you tell him the truth?"

Lute stiffened. "What are you talking about?" she asked, even though it was clear she already knew the answer.

Vaggie sighed. "You know... about what we are. Charlie overwrote Adam's deal, so now we're no longer at risk of being dragged in Roo's core. So... will you tell him?"

Lute was silent for a long moment. "Yes" she said finally. "It's right that he knows. I just... I don't know how or when I'll tell him yet"

Vaggie could imagine the storm that was happening in Lute's heart. When Adam would have learned the truth about her, any relationship between them would have changed forever. The way they would have looked at each other would never have been the same again. And technically the same was true for her too: as soon as Adam knew that Vaggie was the piece of Eve who had led her to eat the fruit, what would he have done? In his eyes, would she have been a sweet creature to protect or a despicable being? "I won't tell him anything until you tell him. It's right that he hears it from your mouth. So... take your time"

Lute nodded slightly. "Yes... maybe it's better" she murmured, and her fists clenched slightly as she said it.

Vaggie bit her lip. She wanted to say something kind to her, like 'shall we have a coffee later?', but she knew that Lute would have refused disdainfully, perhaps even thrown a punch at her. Even though she was definitely softer on her than before (MUCH softer) she still made it clear that there were lines not to be crossed. At the same time, however, Vaggie didn't want to simply let it go: after all, now that they were together in Heaven, they had the chance to build a real relationship. She didn't like the prospect that for all eternity the only interactions she'd have with her sister would have been those fleeting conversations.

And finally she understood what she had to do. There was something Lute would never have refused. "Look, if you don't have any plans later, would you like to train together for a bit? I bet you also want to know who is the strongest between the two of us now"

And as expected Lute immediately took the bait, in fact she literally jumped into the boat, put herself in the pan and shouted at the fisherman to cook her properly. "I'm the strongest. We don't even have to measure ourselves to know that"

"Oh, come on, it'll be good for both of us" Vaggie told her. "After all, without Adam, we are the only two who have awakened the powers of Eden. Who else could we train with? You know that at our level here in the army there is no one who can stand up to us. Since we don't know what the future holds, it's best to train as much as possible, right?”

Lute gave her an icy look. “Do you really expect that a few words will convince me to waste my time with you?”

"You already take for granted that you're going to lose, I see" Vaggie replied mockingly.

Lute's pupils flared. "This evening, at the arena. Six o'clock. Don't be late" she told her in an annoyed voice.

Vaggie's smile widened. As she had predicted, Lute would never have given up the chance to punch her. "It will do us good. The battle against Lilith taught me that we must improve quickly if we want to face forces greater than us. We must explore our powers better"

"Sure" Lute replied. "But when I leave you in the dust, remember that you were the one who suggested it"

"I won't forget it" Vaggie told her. Fighting in an arena wasn't exactly the most appropriate way to improve a relationship, but it was the best she could think of given the person in question. She was sure that once she and Lute released all the tension, it would have been much easier for both of them to argue peacefully.

Years in the military had taught Vaggie that fighting was like getting drunk: no matter how much certain emotions were repressed, they always came out in a fight. Weapons were a truth serum on par with alcohol. And they were also a great way to wash away stress and bad memories. Fatiguing the body freed the mind, making everything much easier.

Oh, and also this would have permitted her to explore her new powers well. Fighting against an equal opponent would have allowed her to learn a lot.

Well, she would have thought about it later. "I'm going to see Pentious and Husk" she said, heading towards the door. "When can I come back to introduce myself to the others?"

"Come to the cafeteria for lunch" Lute replied simply.

Vaggie nodded and walked out, closing the door behind her. She sighed: what awaited her would not have been an easy reunion at all. She hoped her friends had some helpful advice to give her.

She was about to leave, but she stopped at the door. "Where do you think Adam might be now? Do you think Abaddon has permanently disabled him?"

Lute shook her head. “Do you think it's that easy to stop Adam forever?” she asked her with a grunt. "Whatever Abaddon did to him, he's surely already recovered and working hard at this very moment. He's probably working in the shadows to move the pawns in our favor. I bet he already has a master plan in his mind, and maybe he is entrusted to powerful and intelligent allies, and together they are creating a scheme that only their sublime minds could understand..."

"Guys, I told you, he's dead!" Adam exclaimed in exasperation.

"Bullshit!" Agent One replied with a snort. "Of all the people that night no one saw the shooter! And on the cover of Don Killuminati Tupac is crucified, and there's a note that says: Exit Tupac, enter Makaveli. He's still alive, and he'll come back as a new messiah!"

"Come on, that's insane" Agent Two told him with a chuckle.

"Why, do you think he's dead?" Agent One asked her.

"Of course not, he is not dead!" Agent Two replied. "He is working for the Feds as an informant! He's mowing his lawn in Scottsdale!"

"Guys, stop!" Adam exclaimed. "You two seem crazy! I know it's sad to say this, but Tupac is very dead! I met him in Heaven, I know what I am talking about!"

Agent Two lowered her head dejectedly. Agent One on the contrary didn't give up: "I don't believe it! I refuse to accept it!"

"Well, accept it, you dick! This thing can't be changed!" Adam answered him with a grunt. Immediately afterwards, however, he whispered to him: "By the way, Biggie Small's twin brother killed Tupac, and it's that twin that got shot in LA! The real Biggie in this moment is sipping mojitos in Havana!"

Agent One and Agent Two's eyes lit up: "Really!?" they asked in unison.

"Really" Adam confirmed with a laugh, then he calmed down again: "Now that we've cleared up the Tupac issue..."

“Tell us about Elvis!” Agent Two immediately stopped him. "He's still alive, right?"

"No, that's enough! Guys, please, a little seriousness!" Adam exclaimed with a grunt. "I know uncovering the dirty secrets of dead celebrities is endearing, but we've got bigger fish to fry! Much bigger!"

Agent One and Agent Two finally fell silent. "Um... okay. So, back to the interrogation: why are you here?"

Chapter Text

After the capture of the mysterious creature with the appearance of a skeleton, it was taken to a specialized facility for the containment and study of the supernatural, located in the center of the Nevada desert. The location had not been chosen at random: although military areas were located in many other places in the United States, the one in which the entity had been confined was the furthest possible from any population center. Which meant that even if it managed to escape it would take a long time to reach the population, allowing the air defense forces to hurl weapons of mass destruction at it to at least be able to block it.

Even if human weapons were proven to be ineffective against the creature, this did not mean that they were ineffective for the surrounding environment: creating craters in the ground, turning desert sand into glass, raising large quantities of dust, were all actions that at the very least they would have confused and slowed down the entity, facilitating a second capture. And since they were so far from population centers, even if a hydrogen bomb had been detonated there, there would have been no casualties and the government could have pretended that it was just a nuclear test.

Even in the face of the supernatural, humans knew how to alter conditions to their advantage. If caught off guard they were unable to react, but with enough time and information at their disposal they could devise strategies to increase the odds in their favor. Even a seemingly indestructible supernatural creature had limitations and weaknesses, and humans were masters at identifying and exploiting them.

The military base was apparently just an army building in the middle of the desert, with a landing strip for planes and helicopters and a garage for vehicles. In reality, that was just a facade: the base was mostly underground, divided into thirty-three floors, all of them sealed and protected with extreme security measures to contain and study all the objects that escaped human understanding that had been found from America over the years. Some of them had been found directly on US soil, but most had been plundered from other nations during the numerous wars they had fought. During World War II, nations such as Germany and Japan had stolen the relics of the many nations they had invaded, from France to China, and once they had been defeated, America, rather than returning them to the previous owners, took them as prey for war. Subsequent wars in the rest of the world, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, had further enriched the prisons of the supernatural in the United States.

Even though Americans posed as bringers of justice and peace, the truth was that they had no qualms about stealing anything that could provide them with power and wealth. There were no good or bad nations in the world: each protected its interests and were driven exclusively by benefits and risks. Just as the United States would have never allowed nations outside its control to develop nuclear or bacteriological projects, it would have never left a supernatural artifact to someone else even if it was part of that people's cultural heritage.

The base was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by heavily armed guards; Signs had been placed all around the perimeter warning that this was an area you were not to go to, as any civilian caught there would immediately be arrested as a spy and court-martialed, assuming they weren't killed immediately. Fortunately, being in a desert, this eventuality was extremely remote. Most of the guards there had not seen anyone breach the perimeter even though they had been there for decades.

At least... until that day.

The guards saw him appear without understanding where he had come from: one moment before he wasn't there, the next moment he was already in front of the gate, and was walking calmly beyond it. The soldiers immediately pointed their machine guns at him: "Stop immediately or we'll shoot...!"

The man before them was disturbing to say the least. Those soldiers were used to seeing the worst horrors around the world, but they couldn't help but feel a feeling of uneasiness in his presence. He was completely wrapped in a black cloak that completely covered him without leaving even an open space; even his arms and legs were hidden by it, so much so that it was not even possible to see if he really had them. Around his neck the cloak opened into a collar that rose halfway up his head, showing that it had a red color inside. But the strangest thing was his face: it was completely hidden by a black shadow even when hit directly by sunlight. Not a single feature of it was visible: its mouth, nose and ears could not be seen, and even when viewed in profile these organs appeared to be missing. His head was covered by a large black hat that covered his hair, if he had any. The only visible thing of his face were his eyes, pupilless and blue as an abyss of the sea.

The guards gritted their teeth. It wasn't difficult to understand that the shadow that enveloped that man was not something natural at all. "Fire!"

More than twenty people fired in unison, but not a single bullet hit the mysterious individual: they all froze just an inch away from his body, and then fell to the ground as if gravity had suddenly increased. The man didn't even seem to notice this, in fact he continued walking calmly without worrying about anything.

The soldiers' grip on their weapons increased greatly. "It's... It's a supernatural creature!" someone exclaimed.

One of them pulled out a knife. "If we can't hit him with a bullet, then let's see how he fares in hand-to-hand combat!" he exclaimed, and he lunged at him.

He never reached his target: the arm with which he was holding the knife dissolved in an instant. It didn't explode or cut: simply: the atoms of both the knife and the hand broke all bonds and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The soldier threw himself to the ground screaming in pain, and his companions rushed to help him. "Move away!" the captain shouted. "You can't do anything about that thing...!"

The cloaked man reached the heavy armored door and passed through it without the slightest effort: again the atoms around him broke their connection, opening a passage through which he continued walking. "Notify all lower levels immediately! The creature is in!"

Adam wasn't doing too badly. The plan he had prepared had worked out perfectly.

The humans had taken him to a place filled with magical relics and powerful artifacts, which was just what he needed to be able to regain a complete body and return to the afterlife. He knew he didn't have much time, but he still wanted to wait until he knew the powers of these objects perfectly before attempting to escape. After all, if he hadn't escaped in time, the humans might have decided to level the place with another atomic bomb; although he had already established that such weapons could do nothing to him, the same could not be said for the supernatural objects in the base. If they had been pulverized by the explosion, Adam would have found himself with nothing in his hands. Before breaking out and stealing everything, he therefore needed to know what he wanted to take, how to get out as quickly as possible, where to go and where to hide, or he would risk losing everything he had been captured for.

He was held captive on the thirty-third floor of the facility, under tons and tons of rock; his cage was in the center of a room and was completely made of titanium, with even some additions of pure diamond to make it as strong as possible. Magical symbols to contain him were engraved on the bars of the cage, and the same was true of the ceiling and floor. He couldn't deny that those who built it knew how to do their job: that cage would be able to contain even a King Goetia without any effort, and even a Deadly Sin would have to work a little to be able to break all those seals.

Adam was obviously on too high a level for those limitations to contain him: only freely could his rays of divine energy have reduced those bars and seals to molten magma. However, the humans didn't know this, and he was happy to let them believe it. After all, if they didn't know how dangerous he actually was, they wouldn't have tried to imprison him further. And by remaining calm in the cage, Adam had had the opportunity to discover many details about that base and consequently find out what it contained, taking advantage of a power that he certainly did not lack: gab.

The two people in charge of that place, who for some reason unknown to him claimed to be called Agent One and Agent Two, had been quite talkative. Adam had found no difficulty in speaking with them; in fact, they had turned out to be quite pleasant people. In the space of less than half an hour, what was supposed to be an interrogation had turned into a very ordinary conversation... well, ordinary so to speak, given that Agent One and Agent Two had just learned that he was a soul from Heaven they had begun to behave like two conspiracy nerds who wanted clarification on the countless bizarre theories they had developed over the years.

Despite their slightly irritating behavior, Adam had been able to extract a lot of useful information from them about the artifacts contained in that building. Once he knew enough, he would have prepared an escape plan to be able to take away as many useful objects as possible from there. However, he had begun to develop the idea that perhaps it would have been better to recruit those two who were vainly trying to find out more about him. After all, they had both demonstrated considerable magical, angelic, and demonic knowledge, so they could help him understand how to operate the numerous artifacts contained therein.

If he could convince them to side with him, he could try and try different methods to regain his body and ability to move between realms. After all, if he escaped with many magical items, and then those items failed, then he would have had to go back to get more. By staying there and getting help from someone on the inside, he could try endlessly and even they had the resources to help him track down and use other artifacts if the ones they had didn't work.

Adam was still a general, and he knew which option was appropriate to choose depending on the situation. Staying there and getting someone to help him would have definitely made things easier for him. And since he certainly couldn't afford to waste time, making things easier on himself was definitely the best option.

With that idea in mind, he continued talking to his two interlocutors. Agent One and Agent Two were both in front of the cage, and the first was comically shining a lamp in his face even though he, having no eyes, couldn't be bothered in any way. "I already told you why I'm here. I was imprisoned in this body by an angel after I sent him into a black hole, and now I must free myself"

"That's all very good, but why should we believe you?" Agent Two asked him skeptically. "I believed that angels are the good ones. If you are as good as you claim, that would make your opponent bad. Isn't that counterintuitive?"

Legitimate question. "Angels aren't all good. Ever heard of Lucifer?" Adam replied rhetorically.

Agent One and Agent Two looked at each other. In fact, the Bible taught that angels did not always follow righteousness. “Who was the angel you sent into a black hole?”

"His name is Abaddon" Adam answered them. "He is the angel of life, and he took control of Azrael's body, replacing him as the dominant personality. I discovered his plans and tried to stop him, but even though I won I was imprisoned in my mortal body. By the way, thank on my behalf those who brought my body to the museum, it would have been really annoying to dig up from under several meters of earth"

Agent One put a hand in front of his face. "Okay, let's recap. You ended up here after a fight with an angel, and you claim to be Adam..."

"I AM ADAM!" the first man blurted out. “You would have no doubts if I were not confined into this pile of bones!”

Agent One cleared his throat. "Okay, so: you are Adam and you came here after this angel... Abaddon... cursed you or something. This means that there are imminent risks for Earth...?"

"You're wrong" Adam told him.

"Whoo! Thank goodness, no imminent destruction" Agent One said with a sigh of relief.

Adam let out a grunt. "You didn't let me finish"

Agent One's smile immediately fell. “Let me guess: this is the classic moment where a character is stopped before saying the complete sentence, everyone thinks they said something nice, but in reality they were about to say something horrible”

"Exactly. I see you know about cinema, good for you" Adam told him sarcastically. "You are wrong because there are imminent risks not only for Earth, but for the entire universe. We are literally at the beginning of the Apocalypse"

Both Agent One and Agent Two became frozen. "The Apocalypse?" Agent Two asked. "You mean... that Apocalypse? The biblical one?"

"How many other Apocalypses do you know?" Adam grumbled.

"Well, the zombie apocalypse" Agent One said. "And then also the nuclear apocalypse, the meteor apocalypse, the..."

"It was a rhetorical question!" Adam roared, immediately silencing him. "Yes, it's the Apocalypse of the Bible! The one in which the universe is destroyed by the beasts generated by the devil himself!"

“So the beasts of Hell that will bring destruction have already been born?” Agent Two asked through gritted teeth. "What are they like? Do they really have seven heads, big horns, and talk like dragons...?"

"No, they're two smiling and singing girls with a lot of family problems, who want nothing more than to bring joy to everyone they meet. One of the two manages a hotel for the redemption of sinners, the other worked as a joybringer in Heaven. One believes in the good hearts of people a little too much even if she was raised on abandonment and emotional manipulation, the other is incredibly good at deceptions and politics even though she was raised on biscuits and prayers" Adam replied.

Agent One and Agent Two widened their eyes. "Um... and Lucifer is...?"

"A pathetic clown barely one meter tall who spends his days playing with rubber ducks forgetting that he has a kingdom and also an offspring" Adam explained to them.

Agent One and Agent Two looked at each other. “Wow… they sure are different than you would expect” Agent One said rubbing his head.

Adam let out a sigh. "Look, I know this is hard to digest, but this is how things are, and I need to free myself from this constraint as soon as possible. I don't know how long it will take Abaddon to free himself from the black hole, I need to go back to the afterlife immediately and prepare to a new fight. Now it's only a matter of time before everything falls apart, I have to act immediately"

"Sorry, but if the Apocalypse is truly imminent, can't God take care of it?" Agent Two asked him. "You know, the big boss, the one that can do anything... he's the one who keeps everything together, right?"

Adam clenched his fists. "God is untraceable, as usual. Here we have to manage on our own"

Agent Two was about to retort, but suddenly she stopped and grabbed the two-way radio to her ear; Agent One also did the same. They both started sweating intensely, which didn't please Adam at all: "What's going on?"

“Perimeter breach!” Agent One exclaimed. "A man with supernatural powers is heading here...!"

If he could, Adam would have narrowed his eyes. He felt the urge to break through the cage immediately, but he stopped himself: he still didn't want to reveal that he could free himself whenever he wanted. It was always better to keep a few tricks up your sleeve, after all. So instead he said: "Release me. I'll take care of it"

"Do you think we're stupid? You'd run away" Agent Two replied with a sound of contempt.

"If this being truly possesses supernatural powers, then I am your best weapon" Adam pointed out to them. "I won't run away. I like you guys, and I trust that we can come to a mutual understanding and help each other"

Agent One and Agent Two paused indecisively. Adam waited patiently: if they freed him and he defeated the threat, and then stayed despite having the opportunity to escape, then he would undoubtedly have earned their trust. Once that was done, it would be easy to convince them to help him, and he could try out all sorts of artifacts without any problems.

But before Agent One and Agent Two could reach a decision, the armored door seemed to break down, opening a passage that allowed a man cloaked in black and with a dark hat on his head to enter. His blue eyes landed on Adam, and even though the first man had no pupils, they both ended up peering into each other's eyes.

Agent One and Agent Two had frozen at the sight of the man; they had tried to reach for their guns, but their fingers froze before they could do so. Agent One had his eyes completely wide open and didn't seem to have the strength to speak, while Agent Two looked like she was about to faint. "I-I can't believe it... it's him! The legend!" she stammered. "The Mutilated!"

Chapter Text

Neither Agent One nor Agent Two dared to move. Every muscle in them seemed to have turned to stone, and the blood in their veins had become cold as ice.

The Mutilated was a legend known to anyone dealing with the supernatural. It didn't matter whether they were government agencies, private enthusiasts or professional hunters: everyone, the moment they came into contact with the world of the impossible, heard about him. The Mutilated was a mysterious person whose face or name no one knew, and who spoke only to those he considered worthy of his attention; for the rest, he appeared when he wanted, entered where he wanted, and did what he wanted. His appearances were said to be tantamount to some impending disaster, as he obliterated anything he considered dangerous. An example had been the complete eradication of the Nazi regime's occult scientists, or the destruction of archaeological sites containing magical relics in the Middle East after the outbreak of the Palestinian conflict.

No one knew who or what he was. The information on him was fragmented and very unclear as he made a clean sweep every time he appeared. Some found traces of his presence as far back as the Middle Ages, others even in ancient Egypt; some traced his passage in popular legends such as the wendigo or the black man, and others even thought that some historical events, such as the disappearance of the population of the Croatoan island, should be revisited taking his existence into account. Some thought he was immortal, while others, more rational, believed that the Mutilated was a hereditary position that passed from master to apprentice since the beginning of time. It wasn't known if it was just one person or several people spread around the world like a huge secret network. It wasn't even know the reason for the name Mutilated. Nothing was known... except for one thing: you should never, for any reason, oppose him when you met him.

It was the only way to stay alive. The Mutilated's only goal when he appeared was to eliminate, guard, or evaluate something supernatural. People who met him simply had to let him do it. If he gave a prohibition or a command, they had to obey. All those who had not done so had been systematically erased from the world.

Agent One and Agent Two knew this well, and in fact they didn't even dare to even get close to the Mutilated. They stood back, keeping their hands on their guns, but not removing them from their holsters. Even though they would have liked it much more to have their weapons already trained on the Mutilated, they did not want to run the risk of irritating him in any way. They knew that a single whim on his part would have been enough to make their heads explode.

The Mutilated approached the cage. Adam in turn had lost all sarcastic intent: if he still had a face, he would have taken on a serious and frowning expression. His intuition told him that the one in front of him was not a normal person at all. That was enough to pique his interest.

The Mutilated stopped right in front of him, less than half a meter from the cage bars. He and Adam looked at each other intently. The two faceless beings remained staring at each other for an indefinite time, without either of them being able to understand the expressions and consequently the thoughts of the other. The only thing Adam could see in the completely black and featureless face of the Mutilated were his blue eyes like a sea abyss, devoid of pupils and any light, staring at him as if they were studying him.

Finally, it was Adam who broke the silence between the two of them: "You're definitely a big shot. What's your name?"

The Mutilated did not answer, but his eyes moved slightly. For a moment it looked like he was about to speak, but then thought better of it. However, his body stiffened, as if hearing the first man's voice had at least triggered a reaction in him.

Adam would normally have been irritated by the lack of response as it showed a lack of respect towards him, but this time he felt no such emotions. The person in front of him interested him too much, and therefore he could tolerate this little shamelessness. "If by chance you speak a different language than me, know that I know all the languages. Maybe I'm a little rusty on some of them, but nothing that a good chat can't solve. Speak in the language you prefer"

In reality he didn't expect to receive an answer either: he had already understood that the Mutilated was not speaking to him, not because of some linguistic impediment or even some physical impairment such as a severed tongue, but for a deeper reason unknown to him. He probably feared that Adam or any person in the room would in the future have been able to recognize him by his voice. After all, even if humans relied mainly on sight to explore the world, hearing also played an important role: a sufficiently attentive person would have been able to recognize the vocal timbre of a specific person even in the middle of a crowd. It was no coincidence that government secret agents often trained to control the muscles of their vocal cords to modify their voices while they were undercover.

Therefore, Adam was not irritated when the Mutilated remained silent again; on the contrary, if he still had a face, he would have shown a rather interested expression. "I understand. Well, if you don't want to talk, then listen" he told him. "You're clearly not like any other person, and you've piqued my interest. You're probably here to see if I really am who I say I am, well I'll tell you again: I'm Adam, the original dick, the one who created all humanity. Do you believe me?"

The Mutilated did not respond, but made his intentions clear: with a slow movement, he raised his right hand, which almost seemed to appear from nowhere through his black robe. He positioned it in the space between the titanium bars, and moved his fingers as if he wanted to grasp something. It wasn't hard to tell that he was inviting Adam to take his hand.

And the first man knew that it was certainly not an innocent invitation. That was clearly a challenge. “Do you want to verify my identity by testing my strength?” Adam asked him rhetorically. "As you wish. Show me what you can do, little guy!"

And having said this he placed his skeletal hand on that of the Mutilated. Their palms touched for a brief moment, leaving a microscopic gap between them. Their fingers clasped together slightly, as if they were exploring their opponent's territory.

And then, they both went wild.

Their fingers closed violently against each other, and their palms clashed; both could feel the other pushing violently in the opposite direction to them. An unstoppable force and an immovable object collided, generating an immense amount of energy. The air around them began to heat up from the immense friction being exerted.

Adam obviously hadn't put his all into it; in fact, he wasn't using even five percent of his strength. After all, if he had used all his power against an ordinary human being, he would undoubtedly have beaten their arm to pulp. Even though he was sure that the person in front of him was not a person like all the others, he still preferred to proceed with caution. However, he was surprised to find that his opponent was managing to keep up with him; not only that, but he was also moving his hand rhythmically, as if inviting him to do better.

If he could, Adam would have smiled. There was definitely someone special in front of him. If he still had any pupils, they would have been glowing with the challenge. “You're really built differently, hm?” he said to the Mutilated. "Okay, I'll stop playing. Let's get serious!"

The force he was exerting on his opponent's palm increased dramatically; his skeletal hand tightened around the other and he clearly felt the bones underneath. The Mutilated opened his blue eyes, but did not give in and in turn applied much more strength than before. Their hands seemed still, but an intense light formed between them and began to radiate heat around them.

Agent One and Agent Two were speechless. "I-It's not possible..." the woman barely whispered.

Agent One bit his lip. "Do you understand what's happening?" he asked her in a strangled voice.

Agent Two gulped. "I believe... that the force with which they are squeezing their hands is such that the air molecules are being pressurized... and even their ligaments are breaking, reducing them to atoms"

Agent One turned white as a sheet. "They're breaking the bonds between the molecules...? But... is that possible...?"

"Apparently yes" Agent Two just murmured. "Better get out of here! If they increase their strength any more they will even split the atoms themselves!"

Agent One didn't need an explanation to understand why his colleague was scared. Everyone knew that splitting an atom was equivalent to causing a nuclear explosion. If that had happened, the entire building they were in would have been pulverized as if an atomic bomb had been dropped on it.

However, despite his fear, Agent One still maintained his rationality. "It would be useless" he said. "Let's stay here"

Agent Two wasn't at all sure. "But..."

"If they really end up destroying an atom, then we'll never get out of the fireball's range in time" Agent One told her before she could comment. "If this happens, we will be dead anyway. Better to stay here and see what happens. At least this way, if we survive, we will have more data available"

Agent Two was scared, but she knew that unfortunately her colleague was right. The fireball generated by an atomic explosion could reach two kilometers in diameter... and that is if the main material from which it was generated was uranium. But what was being compressed by the two legendary beings in front of her was air, and as a result, what would be broken apart would be pure hydrogen atoms: the fireball would have been much larger. It was impossible to get away in time, and even going underground so close to the epicenter of the explosion was useless. They therefore might as well stay there and observe.

They both looked back at the two supernatural beings who continued to push against each other. The power was such that tiny shock waves were emitted from the pores vacated by their fingers as the pressurized air exploded outward. The titanium bars around them were shaking under the intense pressure, and the entire room was gripped by a strong wind.

Both Agent One and Agent Two felt completely hopeless in the face of that power. Instinctively they knew there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop those two powerhouses. They were truly existences beyond the limits of human beings. When Agent One and Agent Two faced the imps, they were creatures comparable in strength to normal soldiers; Stolas had been terrifying, but they knew, intuitively, that he was not invincible anyway and that with the right means and preparation they would have had a chance against him. But faced with the power emanating from Adam and the Mutilated, they were literally flies facing giants.

These were creatures capable of taking on entire armies single-handedly and effortlessly resisting the most destructive weapons humanity had created. They could compress matter to its physical limits and even break the laws of the universe. They were beings that went beyond the very concept of what was possible. For Agent One and Agent Two, finding themselves in front of those two creatures while they released their immense power was like being in front of an erupting volcano: they felt the same sensation of total helplessness and resignation that someone would have had when they found themselves in front of a lava flow descending towards them, knowing that they could do nothing to stop it or escape it.

Humanity had been able to rise above every existing creature and reign over the world unchallenged. They had reached space and split the atom. But despite this, they had always had to bow to the very powerful forces of nature. But neither Adam nor the Mutilated bowed to the forces of nature: they WERE a force of nature, capable of shattering matter and modifying it as they pleased.

That was true power.

Adam had now reached forty percent of his strength, but still the Mutilated was holding on. He could feel his limbs trembling under the immense pressure, but he still refused to give up. Adam could have pushed harder, but he knew that if he did he would end up breaking a few atoms and destroying this place, and that wasn't what he wanted; so, on the contrary, he moved his hand suddenly. The Mutilated found himself spinning in the air with such speed that a typhoon would have seemed slow in comparison, but nevertheless as soon as Adam let him go he landed back on the ground perfectly standing, if a little staggering.

Adam let out a light chuckle at the sight of him. “Bastard” he said. "You made me pull a move"

The Mutilated obviously showed no facial expression, but still the trembling of his body demonstrated the effort he had just had to undergo. And judging by the way he was looking at him, he realized that Adam had actually been holding back. He hadn't used a move to knock him down because he couldn't beat him by force, he had done it exclusively to safeguard the lives of the people in that building. If he used his full strength against him, he would surely have defeated him.

Agent One and Agent Two were completely petrified, unable to understand what had happened. Their hair had been messed up by the powerful wind generated and their eyes were widened to the maximum. "What... what happened? When did he knock him down?" Agent One murmured.

"I don't know... I wasn't able to see it" Agent Two answered truthfully. It had all happened so quickly that the limited human senses had not been able to register it.

The Mutilated remained motionless for a moment, and then he completely regained his composure: he returned to his straight and austere posture and approached the cage again. Adam let out a grunt: “Do you believe my words now?”

The Mutilated nodded his head. He didn't hesitate even for a moment to do it. He really believed that.

Adam crossed his arms over his chest. He knew how to read that situation: if the Mutilated had challenged him to a test of strength to prove his identity, then he really must have known him well. Of course, the fact that the first man was very strong was known to anyone with even a modicum of biblical knowledge, but knowing exactly how strong he was demonstrated much deeper knowledge. Adam knew that the one before him must be far more knowledgeable in the supernatural than any other human being he had yet encountered. "Now that we've properly introduced ourselves, will you do me the favor of letting me hear your voice?"

The Mutilated seemed to think it through: even without facial expressions, Adam was sure that he was wondering whether it was better to reveal himself or remain still in the shadows. Which only increased his suspicions about him: why on earth didn't that person want to let him hear his voice, if he had proven to him that he was a human being from thousands of years ago and therefore had no way to recognize him? The only solution was that the Mutilated knew very well that Adam would have understood his identity immediately despite the time difference; which, combined with that immense strength that certainly did not belong to a human being, only made him suspect that he could be something much more than what he pretended to be.

Unfortunately, in the end the Mutilated still chose not to speak. Adam was irritated by this, but he maintained his calm and spoke without showing anger: "Okay, it's your choice. However, what matters to me is something else. You were able to force me to be a little serious, which in itself is enough for me to want to get to know you better. Furthermore, you also knew very well how powerful I was, or at least you had a basic idea of ​​it. Someone like you certainly knows a lot of things, and you are just the kind of person what I'm looking for right now"

The Mutilated immediately became even more attentive than before; even without any facial expressions, it was still clear that he was eager to know the rest of the speech. His eyes, although they always remained the same, seemed to convey the emotions he was feeling.

This was enough for Adam. "I'll make it short: this world, and every other world, is in danger. I've been imprisoned here by a fucking angel bastard, and I don't know how long I have until he breaks free from the black hole and comes here to face me again. He will not be able to kill me, but he could lock me away somewhere or send me to the darkest depths of the cosmos, and I can't let him do that. It's not just me that's at stake, but all of creation. I need to get my body back, or at least find it the way to travel between realms. So, I ask you..." and as he said this his voice became lower and thinner: "Can I count on your help?"

The Mutilated said nothing. He seemed to carefully evaluate that question, so simple and at the same time so thorny. Finally, after what seemed like an interminable wait, he raised his left hand this time, but this time with the palm open upwards, and held it out to him through the titanium bars.

Adam stared at the Mutilated's hand intently, trying to figure out if it was a trick, but quickly realized he had no choice but to grab it. Whatever he wanted to say to him, he would have understood it just by holding it. So he raised his hand in turn and placed his palm on that of the Mutilated.

As soon as their hands touched, a flash dazzled Adam; suddenly he felt a looming presence in his head. Initially he was frightened and prepared to fight back, but then it became clear to him that there was no aggressive intent behind the Mutilated's actions: that was simply an attempt to communicate. So he simply let him into his head, letting it flow freely, but keeping him under tight control, ready to tear him to pieces if he showed even the slightest sign of hostility.

The Mutilated evidently realized that he was ready to face him, and in fact not only did he not try to be clever, but he even made himself even more exposed, as if wanting to demonstrate to him that he had no malicious intent. He clearly preferred to avoid a direct confrontation even in a mental fight. Instead, once their minds were in contact, he simply let an avalanche of information pass from one to the other.

Adam saw several images appear in his mind. For a moment it seemed to him that he was elsewhere, in different places... perhaps the Middle East? And for a split second he was able to glimpse a small light. And he also saw a mountain that he recognized very well. In the end, he saw an open space, this time in a more temperate place, perhaps a forest, in which the Mutilated was standing, as if inviting him to come.

All this lasted but an instant, and then their minds separated. The Mutilated abandoned that contact and the room reappeared before the eyes of both of them. Their hands also stopped shaking.

Agent One was sweating coldly. "What happened? Why did they shake hands? Did they perhaps reach an agreement...?"

But Agent Two didn't think so. “No… something happened” she said, noticing how the Mutilated and Adam were looking intently at each other again. "They must have communicated somehow..."

Adam looked the Mutilated straight in the eyes, who remained motionless as if waiting for his response. If the first man still had a face, he would certainly have looked extremely frowning. "I understand" he said finally.

As soon as he heard him say those words, the Mutilated bowed his head slightly in greeting and turned, and left as quickly as he had come, without saying a word and without looking at anyone else.

When they were sure he was gone, Agent One and Agent Two approached Adam again. They both sweated slightly as they looked at the bent titanium bars where the collision between the two of them had occurred. "What did you say to each other?" Angel Two asked him.

Adam let out a grunt. "I'm starting to put the pieces together... and I think he invited me to a place where we can talk alone"

"I remind you that you are a prisoner here!" Agent One protested. "You're not going anywhere!"

Agent Two ignored him completely; rather in a serious voice she asked the first man: "Are you going to trust him?"

Adam chattered his teeth slightly, making a hissing sound. "No, not at all" he answered truthfully. "You two, tell me everything you know about that guy right now. I want to figure some things out"

Chapter Text

After they met in the alley just outside the royal palace, Arackniss took Angel to a nearby parking lot, where a black car was waiting for them, even with tinted windows. He hadn't said why he was there, or what he wanted; after those first initial words, he hadn't opened his mouth again. Angel knew that meant only one thing: what his brother wanted to talk to him about was of absolute importance. So he followed him without asking him a single question.

Cherri obviously had objected; she certainly hadn't forgotten that Angel had gotten into trouble right after he went to visit his family. Sure, it had been Alastor's fault, but that didn't reassure the cyclops demoness in the slightest, and if Angel hadn't stopped her she probably would have stuck a grenade in Arackniss's mouth and blown him up. But the spider demon still didn't want to listen to reason: he knew that if his brother had come in person to call him, moreover showing up alone and without even a henchman, then the situation must have been really serious. So, despite his friend's protests, he told her to step aside and got into the black car.

Arackniss had not spoken to him during the journey; the two brothers remained sitting next to each other without even looking at each other. Anyone else in that situation would have been at least a little afraid, but not Angel: he knew that if his brother had wanted to kill him he wouldn't have used such subterfuge. Bringing two gorillas at the palace and jumping on him and Cherri from behind with a balaclava would have guaranteed Arackniss victory without even trying too hard. No, the reality was different: Arackniss wasn't opening his mouth because he didn't want to speak even in the presence of the driver. Angel knew how paranoid his brother was, and unfortunately he was often right to be so, in fact he didn't even try to bother him.

The car quickly took them to the other side of Pentagram City, past the skyscraper that was the headquarters of their mafia family. The guards obviously let them in without even daring to look Arackniss in the face; Angel, too, having come with him, was treated as a guest of the utmost importance. The two spider demons got on the elevator and with it reached the top floor. There Arackniss led him to the doors of their father's office and opened them.

Angel expected to find the hideous figure of the man who had fathered him sitting in the chair, but on the contrary, there was no one in the room. And not only that: all of Viniel's personal effects, including his portrait, were gone. And to his surprise, Arackniss went behind the desk and sat down on it. “Are you the boss now?”

"Our father broke the code" his brother replied, motioning for him to sit in front of him; in doing so he did not indicate the normal chairs, but rather the central armchair, the one reserved for distinguished guests. “He was responsible for your capture and everything that came with it”

Angel let out a grunt as he sat up. He had expected it, but still felt a certain annoyance at hearing it. "I thought it was Alastor"

"They were accomplices" Arackniss replied. "After selling you to Vox, Alastor knocked our father out and told me everything, and then ran away. I thought it was too late for you, though that thought turned out to be wrong, so I just punish him. Our family has rules and he broke them; just because he was the boss, it didn't mean he could do what he wanted"

Angel had no trouble believing that story. Arackniss was a bastard, but he respected the rules of their family code; he would never have violated them out of spite. His father, on the other hand... he was more dangerous, and as such it was likely that he would have taken advantage of the situation to get rid of his degenerate son and gain the approval of an overlord. As for Alastor... well, he was Alastor. "Didn't you try to take advantage of the situation? If you had contacted Vox and said it was your plan all along, you could have made money without breaking the code"

"I could have, yes. But I am no fool, Anthony" Arackniss answered him. "If the radio demon, someone who was already wanted by everyone, was involved, then surely this was a situation in which it was better not to interfere"

Angel smiled mockingly and even a little sadly. “You dodged a bullet, you know” he told him. "Alastor is not someone you can play with"

"I'm sure of it" Arackniss confirmed. “For what it's worth, know that I'm sorry for being indirectly complicit in that deception because of my speech. I don't take back any of the words I said, but it was never my intention to screw you over like that”

"You don't need to justify yourself, I know you well enough to know that you would never be that mean. Or rather, you would be, but you would never violate the rules of the code" Angel told him. "No more talking, I know that you don't care about my opinion anyway. What do you want from me?"

Arackniss let out a deep grunt. "I never said I didn't care about your opinion. And besides, my personal judgment on you in all this is irrelevant" he replied, then he narrowed his eyes: "I brought you here because you are very close to the new queen, and therefore I need your help. A new wave of changes is coming, and if something goes wrong, even the smallest thing, we could all be overwhelmed"

Angel immediately tensed. He knew his brother never exaggerated his words. Arackniss was cold, frank and precise: if he said that the world was about to end, it was because he was absolutely certain of it, and he obtained this certainty only with unquantifiable and unquestionable research and data. “I'm listening” he told him.

Arackniss clasped his hands in front of him. "Do you know what happened in our motherland Italy while we were having fun in New York, Anthony?" he asked him in a serious voice. "Our country has changed one government system after another. It started as a monarchy, and then new regimes, new parties, new armies, new ideologies continually emerged. Do you know why?"

"Because Italian politics has always sucked?" Angel asked sarcastically.

Arackniss looked at him as if he was telling him with his eyes 'stop being an idiot'. "Our motherland Italy spent every moment from when it was born until the end of World War II looking at other countries that had democracy. They admired the freedom it gave, but at the same time they feared the consequences of it and therefore rejected the possibility of having it too. Everyone wants absolute power in command; obeying is much easier than deciding. Yet, democracy still took root in Italy. Once the problems of other regimes were highlighted, the seed of distrust could not do nothing but grow, breaking the foundations of the previous system in favor of a new one"

Angel didn't miss the fact that his brother's tone had become much harsher in the last sentence. “What are you trying to tell me?”

Arackniss leaned back in her chair, cracking her neck. "I'm sure you've already understood. Here in Hell comes the worst of the worst... but even the worst of the worst has many stories to tell. The hellborns have learned from us sinners what democracy is. Obviously they never thought about applying it... but now that the flaws of the old political class have been exposed, everything has changed. Both the hellborn and the sinners want a change"

"Charlie is popular with the people" Angel opined.

"That's right: Charlie. Not the system currently in place" Arackniss pointed out. "Study history well: even in Italy people admired our first king, Vittorio Emanuele II, but hated the old Bourbons of the south and in fact they destroyed them. Here it is the same: the people admire the new queen and have faith in her, because she was on their side when the time came. Everyone else... the nobles... were already frowned upon, and the crazy situation we found ourselves in only highlighted all the defects of our system. It already started when Greed was destroyed, and now with the catastrophe that occurred in Wrath it's only a matter of time before the powder keg explodes"

Angel narrowed his eyes. "Are you convinced of what you say?"

Arackniss snorted. "You should take a tour of the slums, Anthony. If you listen closely, you'd hear a lot of people discussing... about elections"

Angel almost choked on his saliva. "What? Elections? Like… a president…?"

"Don't be ridiculous, no one thinks that big" Arackniss told him. "They talk about small elections. They no longer want the nobles to have absolute power, but to grant a small share to the common people. Elect a mayor, for example. In short, what they want is someone who can guarantee respect for the law even in the absence of the powerful demons of Hell"

Angel inspired deeply. Well, it wasn't such a crazy thing: in fact he and his friends had thought the same while Charlie and Emily tried to solve all the messes in Hell. "I understand. Since Charlie has shown herself to be so good to the people, they are convinced that things could change"

"Exactly. But even if the murmurs about these small elections are the most widespread, people are not stopping there. As you can imagine, there are already groups hoping for something more. There are quite a few who have completely lost faith in the old regime and they want a chance to be heard by the queen. They want a place in the royal council" Arackniss told him. "It's normal. This catastrophe highlighted the flaws of the old regime... and also proved to common people that they can survive even without the nobles. After all, the new queen sorted everything out almost by herself, using non-powerful demons as allies; not blue bloods, just ordinary people"

"She had the support of the overlords" Angel opined.

"Overlords are common people who have become powerful. In people's eyes, they are the human equivalent of bourgeois" Arackniss replied. "In any case, the hellborns are tired of the upper classes having every privilege, and with these whispers spreading like wildfire it's only a matter of time before the situation escalates and people start clamoring to be represented. The new queen has managed to avoid anarchy... but we are on the verge of a revolution of the lower classes, and if the situation is not handled carefully, it could quickly degenerate and we would find ourselves in the Russia of 1917"

Angel clenched his fists. "You said the people aren't angry with Charlie"

"No, but you know very well how easily the people get excited in these cases. Once unleashed, the people make no distinction between those who are on their side and those against. They only want blood" Arackniss answered him.

Angel tried to remain calm. As a person who lived in the first half of the twentieth century, he knew very well that his brother was right. "I have to warn Charlie"

"Yes" Arackniss confirmed, totally agreeing with him. "The new queen can still prevent the people's resentment from growing too much and degenerating into episodes of violence, but she must act now. The government system of Hell must be changed... or an angry mob will change it"

Angel nodded. He would have had a lot to say to Charlie as soon as he returned to the palace. Fuck, there was never a moment of peace... he couldn't believe it, but he was longing for the times when his only concern was to avoid Charlie dressing him up as a crack dealer for some therapeutic exercise. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked suspiciously. "You are not a person who acts without reason. Why did you come to warn me? What do you hope to achieve?"

Arackniss was silent for a solid ten seconds, and Angel knew that meant he was about to drop a bomb. And in fact at the end he said: "Because this change will affect all of us, including Pride. Like any great revolution, the people quickly go from hating those in power to hating everyone who has something more than them. You will see, before you realize it, they will want to totally get rid of nobles, Ars Goetia... and overlords"

Angel stiffened. "Even the overlords?"

"Do you think sinners like that the Pride Ring is divided among a few people who were lucky enough to rise in power quickly?" Arackniss asked him. “Just think of all the people who have been harmed by the soul trade. Think of all the people who would like to open a business, but there's already an overlord occupying it. It's a suffocating system. And with this wave of change and insecurity, even sinners are starting to show signs of instability... and unfortunately, they are much more easily angered than hellborns"

“Thousands of years with the same system, and now someone wants to abolish it?” Angel exclaimed.

"You'd be surprised how many there are" Arackniss replied. "Anthony, in past eras sinners came from a world where class division was normal. It wasn't that difficult for them to adapt to this system. But in the last two hundred years, Earth has changed profoundly, and so have human souls. Now people know what freedom is and don't want to lose it after death. Overlords have started to be more and more frowned upon, and now, with everything that has happened, we are close to the breaking point. Everyone knows that the new queen is a pacifist who seeks the common good, so why shouldn't they hope for change?" 

Angel snorted deeply. Challenging the overlords was something crazy from his point of view. They had too much power and control over too many souls. "Even if by some miracle someone managed to get rid of all the overlords, others would be born in their place"

"Not necessarily" Arackniss replied, and he seemed to become strangely attentive. "My information network has brought me many interesting rumors. Sure, there are warmongers and madmen who just want to see the world burn... but there are also more reasonable people who want to build after destroying. Some of them plan a real reform of the soul trading system. No longer a simple signature without even witnesses, but actual contracts, signed by an impartial notary who verifies the absence of deception and scams, which would not only almost completely cancel the contracts rip-off, but which would limit the possibilities of the overlords to obtain souls and therefore also their power. Think about it: no more Alastor going around doing what he wants, no more Valentino deceiving the gullible by making them slaves, no more overlords who are too powerful who pose as kings. It would be the beginning of a new economic and above all political system, which would guarantee much more order and stability, without risking the situation falling apart because an angel took a cannon and decided to shoot at the industrial complex of our city"

Angel bit his lip. What Arackniss spoke of was indeed a beautiful world, but he knew very well that it was not something easy to create. "Which side are you on?"

This time it was Arackniss's turn to tense up. "Anthony" he said in a firm voice. "Can I trust you?"

"Would you trust me?" Angel asked him rhetorically.

His brother didn't bat an eye. "Yeah... I guess I'll have to make a bet with myself and trust my intuition"

"Fifty percent chance of defeat. Fifty percent chance of victory" Angel told him. “What does your intuition tell you?”

Arackniss let out the slightest snort, which Angel knew was his equivalent of a sarcastic giggle. "I choose to trust you" he said finally. "Anthony, what I described to you are not just rumors. It is already in motion. There is a group of people who are ready to strike to get rid of the upper class"

Angel seemed to turn to stone. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. And they are many, and very well organised. They plan to exploit the instability of the current situation to strike and erase in one fell swoop all the overlords, nobles and so on, and appeal to the new queen to reform Hell in a more fair and stable system" Arackniss replied. “They are supported by numerous mafias, criminal gangs, dissident groups and much more throughout Hell. And I am one of them”

Angel understood why his brother had asked him if he could trust him. "Why?"

"You know why: the mafia thrives on order. We don't want chaos, that's just a myth of people who don't know what the mafia is" Arackniss replied. "As you know, I would never join something that I don't know could happen... and that's the point: these people know what they're doing. They already have information and data regarding many overlords, and they know how to deprive them of their souls and weaken them. They are preparing for a large-scale purge"

“How did they get so much information?” Angel asked.

"I have no idea, I don't know who's behind it. I haven't had a chance to find out enough" Arackniss admitted. "The point is, we have a chance. We'll never have another chance like this. This is our moment, Anthony... we can finally put a stop to all the injustice in this place"

"Yeah, and that way it will be easier for you to spread your big paws to grow your criminal network" Angel muttered.

Arackniss shrugged. "I never said that I act out of altruism. But an ordinary mafioso with just a few henchmen on his side is always better than an overlord with disproportionate power, don't you think?"

Angel had to agree with him. "Why did you involve me? What role do I have in all this?"

"It seems obvious to me. You can be our link to the new queen, and you have even broader connections. You can convince not only her, but also other overlords, nobles, and many others who believe in a more equal system to support us" Arackniss answered him.

"Basically, I can make things easier for you" Angel muttered.

“You can avoid excessive bloodshed” Arackniss corrected him. “You can tell us which targets are best eliminated and which ones can adapt to the new system. If you don't help us, they will all be eliminated indiscriminately. I don't care about the lost lives, but every battle against a powerful demon will risk ending in carnage; I can't lose too many men. If I can avoid wasting them in a useless battle, I don't mind at all"

Angel remained silent. He didn't know what to think: the prospect of a new reformed Hell wasn't bad, after all it was exactly what Charlie aspired to, but he wasn't sure that this situation would have ended well. Shaking the foundations of power on which the dark realm had rested for thousands of years was an enormous risk.

Arackniss raised herself slightly, trying to make good use of the little height he possessed. “Anthony, this is a fight that will take place whether you help us or not. I have not entered you lightly. I am trusting you, and I hope you can do the same to me”

Angel stood up. "Don't think it's so easy to convince me. I've stopped listening too much to what others tell me" he warned him.

Arackniss nodded. "I know. You have fully demonstrated it" he replied. "What do you want?"

"Transparency" Angel replied. "If you want my help, I want you to tell me EVERYTHING. Every detail. I want to know names, details, plans. There must be no secrets from me... or at least, everything you know must not be secret for me. If I find out that you lied to me even just once, you can forget about any support from me, in fact... you have my word that I will make you pay"

Arackniss didn't bat an eye. He remained silent for a long time, and Angel knew he was thinking. His eyes seemed to shine with a strange light... he couldn't understand what was going through his head, it was the first time he'd seen him like that. It almost seemed… respect…?

"Come here in three days" Arackniss told him. "I'll take you to meet some of those people. You'll know everything I know"

Angel nodded. "I'll be there. Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"When you tell the new queen about this, which I'm sure you will, remind her that I am only one of many. Even if you kill me, someone else will take my place" Arackniss said.

Angel snorted. "You're always good at covering your ass"

"Family vice" his brother replied. "You can go now. Go down to the parking lot and get back into the car that brought us here, the driver will take you wherever you want"

Angel didn't wait any longer and headed towards the door. But before he could touch the handle Arackniss called him back: "Our father is still alive, locked up in one of our cells. According to our family code, it is up to the offended person to decide the punishment. Do you wish us to kill him?"

Angel froze, and for a moment he didn't know how to respond. His father had been responsible for his capture by the Vees and therefore indirectly also for Husk's death (even if he was later reborn in Heaven). And yet... he felt nothing. No great anger, no hatred... no betrayal. Thinking back to that man, he felt nothing but emptiness. “Do with him what you want” he finally answered. "That man is too insignificant for me"

And after those last words he opened the door and left. But before it closed again he took one last look at his brother, and even though he knew it was impossible, he was almost certain he saw him smile.

Chapter Text

Charlie felt completely drained. It wasn't just psychological anymore, it was an actual physical symptom: her brain was begging her to get some sleep and at least give it some rest. But she couldn't have done it even if she wanted to: the worry weighing on her shoulders was such that even if she had tried to rest her head on a pillow all her thoughts would have kept her awake. It was lucky that being half an angel she didn't totally need sleep, or at least not to the level of common demons, because otherwise she would have already passed out from fatigue.

The fact that Vaggie was gone was next to nothing. Even though it hurt to know that she didn't want to see her anymore, she had taken it into account before even implementing her plan. Honestly, Charlie had expected all her friends to abandon her; from her point of view, it was only right that they completely lose faith in her. Even though she missed Vaggie a lot and at that moment she really wanted to rest her head on his chest and hear his voice, therefore, she didn't blame her.

The problem was everything else. Charlie had hoped that at least once her plans were concluded she would have had some peace, but instead she had to work twice as hard as before: even if Wrath had not been completely destroyed as had happened to Greed, there was a lot of things to do to make it new operative. And considering that it produced basically all the food in Hell, it was imperative to be able to resume production as soon as possible. She had had to work non-stop for hours just to manage to restore a minimum of calm and prevent political instability from forming again as had happened when Greed was destroyed.

Charlie found herself almost wishing she were like her father, not caring and leaving the job to someone else. But unfortunately for her (and fortunately for everyone else), she wasn't able to turn away and pretend nothing had happened.

Oh, and then of course there was the other issue on her mind. Finding out that she wasn't an only child, at least on her father's side, had been shocking to say the least. She didn't have the faintest idea how to approach the matter. She didn't mind having a sister, but she really wished this revelation wouldn't have come upon her so suddenly. And most of all, she wished Emily had been there with her when she found out. At least she wouldn't have had to worry about how to tell her the truth. She almost would have preferred Emily to stand before her and tell her that she hated that and recognized no blood relation to her, rather than continue to wait for the time to come to talk about it.

Having finished her duties as queen (for the time being), she retreated to the private rooms of her palace, hoping that once she arrived she would find Emily there, alive and well, and above all NOT in Alastor's company. Maybe she would have been lucky and Sera had already explained everything to her, so she wouldn't have had to do it...

As she was walking, a large figure approached her. "Charlie, are you okay?" Asmodeus asked her.

The Embodiment of Lust had also been present at the meeting she called to handle the Wrath problem, and also knew how much Charlie had done secretly from the others, so he could understand her upset... even if he too only knew part of the whole mess. "I'm fine, Uncle Ozzie" she replied.

"Char, please" Asmodeus stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. Charlie noticed that his touch was different than usual, as if he was afraid that she would have slipped away from him. "I... I just want to help you..."

"Uncle Ozzie, seriously, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired" Charlie replied, lying through her teeth.

It wasn't difficult to understand that Asmodeus didn't buy it at all. “Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

"Huh?" Charlie murmured in confusion.

"Char, you look like a walking corpse" Asmodeus told her in a rather worried voice. "And it's not just that. Earlier, at the meeting, you were scary. I'm not exaggerating, everyone was scared. It's the first time we've heard you talk like that"

Charlie bit her lip. Perhaps she had been a little hasty and radical in denying her family name... but after everything she had been through because of her father and mother, the mere name Morningstar had been enough to make her furious. "You all wanted a strong queen who enforces her will, right? You got it. Now don't complain"

"No one is complaining" Asmodeus told her. "Charlie, the others are worried about you. They only sent me to talk to you because they're afraid you'd feel besieged if they all came, otherwise they'd be here. Fuck, Mammon asked me to do my best to help you. Mammon, do you realize?"

Charlie felt a little warmth in her heart knowing that her aunts and uncles had cared about her like that. It was ironic that the part of her family that was worrying about her the most were six highly feared demons who technically had no true blood relation to her. “I… I'm… ah, fuck… it's a bad time, okay? I can handle it, you don't have to worry about me”

"That's what everyone says" Asmodeus told her. “And we both know that's always fake”

Charlie looked down. She didn't know what to answer. "Uncle Ozzie, please... I..."

"I'm not leaving, Charlie" Asmodeus told her firmly. "If you don't want me to talk, fine. But I'm not leaving. Not when you're like this. I bet Bee would throw up if she were next to you right now"

Charlie knew the Embodiment of Gluttony's ability to taste other people's emotions, and so she couldn't contradict him. It was very likely that Beelzebub would have had a stroke if she had tried to get close to her. "You can't stay with me"

"I won't go away"

"I could order it to you"

"In that case, my queen, I fear you will have to have me executed for the disobedience I will show towards you"

Charlie put her hand in front of her face. "Uncle Ozzie, please... I should involve you in too many things, I can't..."

"Not this time" Asmodeus replied by also placing his other hand on her shoulder and forcing her to look him in the eyes. "I don't care what shit I get into, I'm tired of being in the back. Tell me what's wrong"

Charlie tried to hold on for a moment longer, but then she really couldn't stand it anymore. The weight on her shoulders was too great, and it broke through all her barriers. "Do you really want to know? Ok. My father fucked an angel and had another daughter with her, who is the same angel who I had imprisoned and who now I don't know where she is or if she's okay. Plus under us there's a universe-eating monster that threatens to wake up at any moment and my mother is now her prisoner down there. Oh, and my girlfriend broke up with me, just to complete the circle"

Asmodeus was paralyzed. For a few moments he didn't even seem able to think. "What?"

"Have one of my friends explain it to you, they know everything" Charlie replied, taking advantage of his confusion to separate from him again. "Come, let's go to my quarters. Everyone should be there... and I hope my sister is there too"

Asmodeus seemed to connect the dots only then. “So… you have…!?”

“A sister, yes” Charlie muttered, moving away from him. "Half-sister, actually..."

Asmodeus swallowed. “Okay, this is a lot to... process… you have a sister…”

"Technically you've already met her" Charlie confessed to him. "She disguised herself as me a few times, you've already talked to her"

Asmodeus' eyes widened: "Really!?"

"I told you, let the others explain it" Charlie answered him bluntly. She didn't want to tell the whole story.

Asmodeus realized that this was not the time to ask questions. Even a blind man would have noticed that Charlie's muscles were so tense they seemed to be made of marble. "Well... I understand that you really have a lot on your mind..."

Charlie snorted. "Of course I have a lot on my mind. I just found out I have a sister and I don't even know if she's okay. My mother could have already been drained alive for all I know. That asshole of my father is out there somewhere doing who knows what. And I urgently need a therapist, but I can't afford one because now I'm the fucking queen of this world, and I should reveal things that shouldn't be revealed...!"

Asmodeus noticed that Charlie's breathing was quickening; mindful of the times when Fizzarolli had risked hyperventilating, he quickly hugged her from behind, using his feathers as if they were pillows. That action had a calming effect on her, and she slowly began to breathe normally again. "Thank you" she whispered.

Asmodeus touched her face. "Char, listen to me, please. I can only imagine how difficult this situation is, and many things are still unclear to me... but I am here. There are people who care about you, don't forget that. We are all here, ready to help us however we can. You are not alone. Keep that in mind"

A small, faint smile formed on Charlie's face. "Thank you, Uncle Ozzie. You're... really kind"

"Well, that's what fam... friends are for" Asmodeus told her, correcting himself at the last moment since he was sure that Charlie didn't want to hear that word, and then he tried to play down: "Is there anything else I should know? I don't know, you're also pregnant and I Should I wait for a mini tea?"

"Fuck, no. Aside from the fact that I had a girlfriend until a few hours ago, even if I found out that by some miracle I got pregnant I'd tear out my uterus" Charlie replied. She was joking, but not totally: she had definitely had enough of family drama.

Seeing that she had relaxed a little, Asmodeus took her back to her private quarters. At the door Charlie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Please let Emily be here, please let Emily be here, please let Emily be here...!" she begged softly.

With an almost inhuman effort she opened the door, without having the courage to open her eyes. She didn't until she heard Blitz's ringing voice ask her: "Why are you keeping your eyes closed? Is there a problem with the lights?"

Charlie ignored the imp's idiocy and opened her eyes again. And as she had feared, she didn't see Emily anywhere. "She's not back yet?"

"Um..." Blitz hummed unsure of what to say due to Asmodeus' presence.

The Embodiment of Lust gestured to him that he could speak. "She told me everything" he confirmed. "I know about her... sister. Even if you will have to explain many things to me later"

Blitz nodded. "She's not back yet" he told Charlie. "And she's nowhere to be found. I tried to contact a few people I know in the various Rings, no one has seen her. It's as if she's vanished into thin air"

Charlie put her hands in front of her face. She was really struggling not to collapse. "Sera...?"

"Luckily, she's reasonable" Millie replied. "She's still in her room, Loona and Octavia are there to make sure she doesn't run away or anything, but I doubt she will. She's worried sick, but she knows she has no hope of finding Emily alone. Staying with us her chances are rising"

"Something has to happen to her, it's not like her to disappear like that" Cherri exclaimed jumping out of one of the windows. "It was Alastor, I bet. He must have done something to her...!"

"Calm down, girl. Alastor doesn't have enough strength to handle Emily. Not to mention that Rosie's with them too, and since we'd know if she went into crazy frenzy mode again, she's probably not too keen to help that asshole" Moxxie said trying to mantain calm. “It's more likely that Alastor convinced her to do something for him"

Charlie bit her lip. Emily had a deal with Alastor, just like her; what if the radio demon had decided that this was the right time to use it? It wouldn't have been so unlikely considering the situation he was in. However, it seemed strange to her: Alastor had had many opportunities to use that agreement, even in cases where his own life was at risk, like for example when Vox was about to kill him after he disguised himself as Husk. It wasn't like Alastor to throw away something he had treasured so closely just to protect himself.

At the same time, however, she couldn't think of any other solution: why on earth would Emily voluntarily not have returned there to them? Why prefer Alastor, a very dangerous traitor, to her friends? Okay, maybe she was a little mad at Charlie, but she certainly wasn't foolish enough to choose a dangerous serial killer over her. Emily wasn't stupid, she wouldn't have done such nonsense.

The more Charlie thought about it, the more she couldn't understand.

That's when she noticed someone's absence: "Where's Angel?"

Cherri sighed. "He had a family matter to take care of" she replied. "His brother came to pick him up without giving any explanation, and they left together"

“And you let him go!?” Charlie exclaimed.

"He wanted it. I tried to chase them by jumping on the roofs, but the driver was good at evading any pursuers" Cherri replied.

Charlie tried to stay calm. Fuck, why was everyone constantly disappearing...!? "Ok... we have to go to..."

"It's no use" Angel said, entering suddenly. "I am here"

"Angel!" Cherri exclaimed when she saw him. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I told you, Arackniss wouldn't hurt me. I know his behavior very well, I know when he isn't planning an assassination" Angel told her. "Guys, we have a..."

“Please don't tell me we have another problem” Charlie pleaded.

Angel bit his lip. “I wish I didn't have to… but it's better for everyone to hear what I have to say. Trust me, it's important”

Charlie knew the spider demon wasn't talking nonsense, she could see it clearly from his look. She sat down, expecting another storm. "Proceed" she told him.

Angel told them everything Arackniss had told him, leaving out no detail. When he finished, his friends were shocked. "I wish I could say that's not possible..." Moxxie muttered. "... but given how things are, I'm no longer surprised by anything"

Charlie was already putting her hands in her hair. "Why...?" she whispered in a strangled voice, and without realizing it she touched the sharp tips of her crown with a finger, making a small cut from which a little blood came out. "Why!? Why do things never slow down, not even for a moment!? Why does everything always have to go wrong...!?"

"They're just rumors for now" Angel hastened to tell her. "Don't despair, focus on the problems you already have. I'll investigate, I'll find out what's behind it. Just give me some time"

"Angel is right" Blitz confirmed. "The best thing to do now is not to panic. Fuck, I can't believe I'm actually saying this"

"The boss is right. You worry about your problems, we will investigate this" Moxxie said in turn giving support to Blitz.

Charlie was already one step away from despair, but she nodded anyway. "Okay. I trust you"

"Good! You won't regret it! You'll see, everything will work out for the best! Right, darling?" Moxxie exclaimed looking at his wife.

However Millie had a blank look. Her eyes were on the blood dripping from Charlie's finger. “Um… it just occurred to me now” she murmured in a small voice. "Do you… remember how Sera found Lucifer after he was hit by that shockwave?"

"Huh? Yes, she used the trick of..." Charlie stopped short as she looked at her finger. "... blood..."

There was a long moment of silence, in which all her friends' eyes widened. "Fuck... it's true!" Cherri exclaimed. "How did we not remember!? We can use Sera and Lucifer's blood to track down Emily!"

“This is amazing!” Angel said jovially. "Where is Lucifer?"

The three imps shrugged. "Dunno. He's not back yet" Blitz answered.

Charlie was about to explode: "Of course, what else could I expect!? We have a solution to a problem and he's out there reveling like a lout when he is needed! Never once is he actually useful! Seriously, this day couldn't go worse...!"

Suddenly his cell phone rang. Confused, she took it out and without even looking who it was, she made the call: "Hello...?"

"Hello, new queen! This is Helsa, your beloved classmate. I need you to come here" a familiar voice came to her from the other end.

Charlie leaned against the wall as soon as she recognized that voice. "Never mind. I'm the usual optimist"

Chapter Text

Lucifer had scanned every corner of Sloth as if he were a hawk, looking for any possible trace of Emily. Even though he was still fresh from a close encounter with Roo, he had still used his powers to detect any of her passages, but he still hadn't managed to find her. It was as if she had vanished into thin air.

He was furious, and the anxiety he was feeling wasn't helping him calm down. A person couldn't disappear like that! She must have at least left a trace!

Had she abandoned Hell? Perhaps she had gone to Earth, or to some other corner of the universe. It wasn't impossible that Alastor had managed to get into her head enough to convince her that it was best to leave the dark realm once and for all.

Yes, Alastor...

As soon as he had him in his hands, the radio demon would have ceased to live. He wouldn't have let that bastard infect his daughters' minds again. He had tolerated his existence long enough. His place was under a grave, assuming that he would have had one.

If only he knew where to find them...!

One of his spells sensed something, and he immediately flew in the direction indicated, but as soon as he arrived he found only a little house in the middle of nowhere with Emily's hair in it. Sure she had been there, but she and Alastor were already gone from a while by now. Lucifer instinctively tightened his fist around that hair, reducing it to dust.

He was already terribly pissed off, and not finding the daughter he hadn't even known he had until a few hours earlier was making him furious.

He did a quick walk around the house, looking for any signs, but found none. They couldn't have been gone long... but then where...?

A thought made its way into his mind as he took a good look at the area where he was. Those mountains... right there in the middle there was... could it be that...!?

No... no, impossible. Nobody knew about the Betrayal Ring.

But... Rosie apparently was actually Babylon, and she knew everything. What if she revealed its existence to Emily...?

But they couldn't access it. The key had been destroyed...

Or maybe not?

If Babylon had survived all this time under his nose... perhaps there were other things he didn't know about.

In frustration he threw his fist against a wall of the house, instantly reducing the entire building to nothing more than its foundations. He had to admit that it was a rather liberating gesture, also because he had imagined that Alastor's face was there instead of the house.

It was at that point that he heard a voice behind him: "Are you done breaking things, or do you still need to vent? If that's the case, I can take you to a place full of things to demolish, so you can have fun"

Lucifer snorted. He had sensed his presence even when they were miles away, so he knew he was coming. "What do you want, Frederick?" he asked, turning around.

A demon nearly two meters tall, with gray skin and glowing eyes, appeared before him. He wore a black suit over a white shirt, with black pants and shoes, and his shoulders also have spikes coming out of them; in his right hand he held an elegant gold-plated staff with green shades. His hair was gray underneath, almost as if it represented tentacle appendages. Two small French-style mustaches were present under his nose, and his mouth was positioned in a wide smile that showed yellow and greenish teeth.

The most powerful noble demon in the Envy Ring since Leviathan, the terrible Frederick von Eldritch.

“Is this any way to treat friends?” he asked Lucifer as he approached elegantly, tapping the ground with his staff. "I just came to see how you were. It's a bad time for you, right?"

Lucifer let out a snort. "You don't know how much. What happened to you, by the way? I didn't see you around lately"

"Well, my good friend, all hell was going on around lately" Frederick pointed out. "And I wasn't exactly in top shape, you know... after what happened with that shock wave, I preferred to lock my family in our building and stay out of trouble, recovering on my own. I wanted to get back to full health. of my strength without being indebted to some Deadly Sin given the current times, I was hoping to have time to lend a hand, but your daughter was decidedly quick with her... coup d'état"

Lucifer let out a long sigh. "Don't be afraid of offending me, I know she had no other choice and I don't blame her. I'm just sad for her because I know she'll be unhappy forever now"

"Knowing her, I suppose you're right" Frederick confirmed. “She was brave and very selfless. Although I assume you don't see it the same way”

Lucifer nodded, knowing that Frederick knew Charlie too well to not have predicted how she would have reacted. The fish demon before him was relatively young for the infernal nobility's standards: no more than five thousand years old, and he was born as a simple baron in Leviathan's court. However, his intelligence and cunning had quickly led him to transform that barony into one of the most powerful noble families in Hell, to the point that in Envy only Leviathan was superior to him by now. Some four thousand years earlier the Embodiment of Envy had introduced him to Lucifer and Lilith, and they had soon developed a closer relationship. If the Deadly Sins were considered practically relatives of the royal family even if they were not related by blood, Frederick was considered a highly valued family friend.

"How come you're here?" Lucifer finally asked him. “Didn't you say you were at your palace this whole time?”

"I was. But I have eyes and ears everywhere, you know. And you're not good at hiding" Frederick answered him. "After what happened in Wrath your daughter assured us that everything was fine and gave us a credible version of events, but I'm sure it didn't happen that way. And since a few hours later some of my men told me they had you seen wandering around Sloth like a madman, I came to find you to finally have a conversation with you"

Lucifer let out a grunt. "If you expect me to tell you what really happened, forget it. Ask Charlie, she's the queen now. Sorry, but I can't cause her more trouble than she already has"

"I know. And in fact I don't intend to ask you. I would do the same if Helsa were in her place" Frederick replied with a small smile. "I'm a father too, don't forget that"

Lucifer replied with the same smirk. "Helsa, mh? And Seviathan?"

The smile disappeared from Frederick's face. "With him I shouldn't worry about talking about things I shouldn't, because he'd already ruin himself on his own". He remained silent for a moment, and then asked him: "How are you? And don't tell me you're fine, I know it's not an easy situation for anyone"

Lucifer chuckled sadly. "How do you expect me to be? A fucking shit. My daughter dethroned me. Not that I mind that, but she barely even talks to me anymore. Let's say a few things have come to light. The relationship with her... is not so easy now"

"Which one of the two are you referring to?" Frederick asked him suddenly.

Lucifer turned sharply towards him. "What!?"

Frederick shrugged. "Lucifer, I haven't been around much lately... but I've been keeping an eye on things. I've been wondering why you agreed to keep an angel here in Hell to begin with; sure, maybe at first you may have been hesitant, but it's not like you to give shelter to one of those winged beings. You don't want problems, you get them out of the way as soon as they appear. If you had acted as usual, you would have chased that angel away immediately... but you didn't. Which made me believe that maybe you had some... suspicions from the beginning. And I couldn't help but notice how similar she was to Charlie. And your reaction just now only confirmed what I thought". His gaze became a little hard: "She's yours, right?"

Lucifer narrowed his eyes. Frederick knew him too well indeed. In fact, every time he perceived a danger to Hell, and consequently something that could create problems for him, he eliminated it, just as he had tried to do with Blitz as soon as they had managed to contain the white knight inside him, and not even his daughter's prayers could move him in those cases. The fact that he had allowed Emily to stay in Hell was mainly due to his initial suspicions, and even after Sera had lied to him and dispelled those suspicions he still preferred to let her stay there for a while, just to be safe. "You've already got it all figured out, I see"

Frederick chuckled. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not judging you. I've also had some illegitimate children from time to time, I know what temptation can come from..."

"I never cheated on Lilith" Lucifer told him immediately. "It happened after the divorce"

Frederick was surprised. "Really? After?"

“Why did you expect otherwise?” Lucifer asked raising an eyebrow.

Frederick shrugged: "Well... when I started to think that she could be your daughter... I mean... looking at her she doesn't seem to be too different in age from Charlie... so... I thought that maybe she was... the cause of the divorce, that's it"

“Did you think Lilith and I divorced because I had a child with another woman?” Lucifer muttered.

"Well, neither you nor she ever wanted to tell me or anyone else the reason for your divorce. You just told us that she was right to be so pissed at you" Frederick replied. “Honestly, considering how your relationship suddenly changed, I had long thought you had cheated on her”

"I didn't cheat on her. That's the end of the case" Lucifer said quickly, not wanting to pursue the matter further. "Until yesterday I didn't even know I had a second daughter"

"Really?" Frederick muttered, his eyes widening. "Haven't you had any suspicions...?"

"Sure I came, but that bitch of her mother managed to screw me, and apparently I'm really too stupid to notice when someone wants to fuck me up!" Lucifer hissed. "After all, this is just me, isn't it? That fucking father who can't be present in his daughters' lives because none of the women he has sex with consider him a suitable parental figure!"

Frederick put a hand on his shoulder. "I understand it's not easy..."

"No, it's not at all" Lucifer growled shaking slightly. "And on top of that, now the daughter I didn't even know I had has disappeared in the company of some idiot with a microphone stuck in his throat!"

Frederick hesitated for a moment. “Um… I don’t know your family dynamic, so just to clarify… you mean she and this guy you say…?”

"What!? No! No way!" Lucifer exclaimed, trying to reassure himself more than his friend; even though Charlie had confirmed to him that Alastor was asexual, and therefore had no interest in her and consequently also in Emily, now he had that image in his head that was making him want to vomit. "He's just some asshole who wants to use her for something and who I intend to kill!"

Frederick bit his lip. He understood very little about that situation, but that was enough for him. "Listen... ever since I heard you were here I've been contacting my men, all over this Ring. Your daughter isn't here..."

"I know. I can't find her even with my powers" Lucifer growled. "I don't understand... she couldn't have just vanished...!"

"If even your powers cannot find her, then it is likely that she has left this realm" Frederick told him. "She probably knows how to open portals, she definetely escaped to Earth or somewhere else"

But Lucifer knew that Emily didn't know how to open a portal, not in Hell at least. The magical ways that existed there were completely unknown to her. She couldn't have abandoned Hell... which left him with only one possible option.

But if she really had managed to enter the Betrayal Ring... what did she intend to do?

That place... wasn't positive. Not at all.

But even though he had an idea of ​​where she might have gone, he had no way to follow it. That door wouldn't open without a key, and he didn't have one available. The Betrayal Ring was inaccessible even to him, no matter how much he tried to force his way in or how much he dug.

It must be said, however, that he had no guarantee that she had gone there. The clues pointed in that direction... but it couldn't be ruled out that he was very wrong and she was somewhere else entirely.

Frederick clearly noticed his apprehension, because he put a hand on his shoulder: "Man, I understand that you're anxious, but you won't get anything by staying here and destroying things. I told you, I've got eyes and ears everywhere; if she comes back, I'll know that she's here" he told him. "How about you go to my palace and get some rest? Seriously, you need it"

"Would you do it?" Lucifer asked him rhetorically. “Would you waste time resting while your daughter is potentially in danger in the hands of a psychopathic serial killer with a long history of violence?”

"You're not wasting your time, Luci, you're just being smart" Frederick corrected him. "If you can't find her even with your powers, then it is completely useless to continue looking for her in this way. The best thing to do is to go to a quiet place, relax and think carefully about what to do, and act once you have a real plan"

Lucifer gritted his teeth. He knew in his heart that Frederick was right, but it was still difficult to calm his restless soul. Just thinking about what Alastor might be doing to Emily right now was enough to drive him crazy. But if she really had abandoned Hell, regardless of whether she went to the Betrayal Ring or elsewhere, he couldn't do anything about it.

Eventually he gave up. "Okay" he murmured. "Let's go"

Frederick nodded, happy that his friend had listened to him, and he moved his stick slightly, the tip of which lit up with a greenish light; a greenish and circular portal appeared in front of it. The two of them crossed it, finding themselves in a large room with green and decorated walls, with sofas, armchairs and tables for resting. Two other demons were sitting on two of those armchairs, who immediately stood up as soon as they saw them.

One was an hourglass-built female demon with smoky green skin and long, silvery-white hair that sported dark gray spots, similar to the tentacles of a cephalopod; they also featured a rather large fringe that covered her right eye. Her eyes had neon green irises, deep teal sclera, slit pupils, and thick upper lashes with smaller lower lashes protruding from them. Her mouth sported black lips and sharp neon green teeth within it, similar to Frederick's. Her clothing consisted of a pink hem coat with a neon green fur collar and cuffs, as well as four neon green buttons on the front, a greenish-black skirt with the same trim as the coat on the bottom, and an overcoat, greenish-black heeled boots on the knee.

The other demon, however, was a man even more like Frederick, tall and with dark bluish-gray skin, sporting short, slicked-back dark green hair with lighter colored roots. Unlike Frederick, however, his eyes had red sclera, neon green iris, slit pupils and upper eyelids colored a shade darker than his skin. Despite this difference, it was otherwise almost completely identical, including the mouth full of sharp neon green teeth. He was dressed more soberly, with a monster-like green top hat with a brighter colored headband, sharp teeth, and several eyes; he wore a matching coat with neon trim and darker lapels, with a neon green ascot underneath and an untucked dress shirt, gradient green pinstripe dress pants, and light green heels with darker tips and toes. It was he who spoke first, showing off a cheeky smile: "Dad! You didn't tell us that you were bringing the dethroned king home..."

"Seviathan, for Hell's sake, behave decently!" Frederick scolded him with a disdainful grunt, and then he regained his composure: "Lucifer will stay with us for a while, he needs to gather his thoughts. Go and inform your mother that she must not disturb us. And neither do you"

"Of course, father" the demon girl replied politely. “Do you want me to tell the servants to bring you something?”

"Thank you, Helsa, but there is no need. We just need silence to discuss and put our thoughts in order" Frederick replied to her.

Helsa nodded. "I understand. Sorry if I ask, but does the new queen know that her father is here and is she okay with that?"

Frederick looked at Lucifer, who shook his head. "Yes... I'd say it's a good idea to inform her"

"I'll take care of it" Helsa told him.

“Oh, come on, seriously?” Seviathan grumbled. "Do we really have to tell her? I don't want to find my exes at home, especially when they are very powerful...!"

"Seviathan, disappear now before I use my staff to beat you" his father warned him. "And if by any chance the new queen comes to take him back, behave well with her. Don't make me put you in the stocks!"

Seviathan let out a bored huff, but left anyway, following his sister Helsa, and they closed the door behind them.

Lucifer let out a chuckle: "He still hasn't changed?"

"He continues with his degenerate behavior" Frederick grumbled as he sat down in an armchair. "He sleeps with a different woman every night and only thinks about partying around. Be thankful you had two females, they're definetely much more mature"

Lucifer narrowed his eyes. "By the way... I have good reason to believe that your son is the one who stole my little girl's virginity. I need to have a chat later"

Frederick barely let out a grunt. "It doesn't surprise me. It's just like him to deflower a princess" he said. "Forget it. Rather, now that I think about it... how did Charlie take the news?"

Lucifer sighed. "Well… she's shocked" he replied simply, not wanting to confess that he left the building before even seeing his daughter's reaction to finding out that she had a sister.

Luckily Frederick didn't ask him any further questions. "Yes... I assume it's very difficult for her. I advise you to stay close to her" he told him. "Tell me everything that happened to you. I don't pretend to mind your daughters' business... but at least tell me that it happened between you and their mother. By the way, was she at least worth it?"

Lucifer glared at Frederick. "Stop asking idiotic questions" he told him. "Okay, I'll explain it to you"

"Thank you" Frederick replied. “Before we begin… do you even have any clues as to where your daughter might be?”

Lucifer narrowed his eyes, thinking back to what had come to mind. It couldn't be a coincidence that the last place Emily had visited was right next to those mountains. And if you added his other suspicion to that... everything started to fit together. "Maybe" he finally said, remaining vague.

Chapter Text

Emily was flying towards a clearing of land in the Betrayal Ring, not far from the building where she had now decided to go and live. That place was decidedly depressing, but at least it was deserted and this allowed her to learn how to control the power she had just acquired without running the risk of harming anyone. And also… it was quiet. Emily was surprised, as she had always enjoyed company, but after eating the fruit she found herself appreciating the absence of noise much more.

The cold wind of the Betrayal Ring continued to hit her face, yet it didn't bother her in the slightest. In reality, to the touch it reminded her of the pleasant breeze of Heaven, even though she knew very well that the two things were as different as heaven and earth. It was as if his whole body had adapted to that place, and now identified that sensation as pleasant. The icy wind that would have turned a man into an icicle in an instant, and that had made her shiver as soon as she arrived there, now seemed... different.

She didn't know how to explain it either. The wind was whipping at her face with sharp gusts and howling in her ear canals nonstop; it hit her like a fighter attacking her from everywhere. Yet all she had to do was close her eyes and little by little that wind became almost lulling, wrapping her like a blanket, and she stopped even perceiving my body because she lost sensitivity due to the cold. All she felt was her mind, and the touch of the icy wind seemed to make that mind as clear and calm and cold as it.

She looked at the sky. It was always the same, yet it changed continuously. The dark clouds swirled violently as if in the midst of a storm, continuously emitting lightning and thunder. Every second their conformation changed, like a painting whose colors never remained still. They were trapped in an eternal bestial and ancestral dance, aimless, almost hypnotic.

Emily looked at them carefully. And then, she moved her wings and in an instant reached the height of the clouds.

She had never run headlong into storm clouds, let alone ones that seemed so violent; in Heaven there were no such things, after all. Sometimes she had admired the terrible hurricanes of the giant planets, and Sera had always advised her to stay away from them; even if they couldn't kill her, they would still have tossed her from side to side as if she were a twig. Yet now Emily for some reason felt drawn to the storm, or rather, the chaos raging within it.

As soon as she was inside, the wind hit her with a violence she had never felt before: the most violent hurricane on Earth would have seemed ridiculous in comparison. The temperature was so cold that every single drop of moisture that was still on her froze instantly, even that emitted by her breath; she noticed it and in fact stopped breathing completely. The Betrayal Ring storm was a continuous concentration of cyclones forming and destroying each other, incorporating and merging every single second; vortices of air so powerful that they would have reduced a modern steel and concrete metropolis to crumbs in less than a minute were continuously created and then vanished, generating strong waves of air and absurd currents in every direction.

Yet, Emily didn't feel in danger at all. Instead, she flew into the center of that chaos and remained there. Initially she instinctively curled up a little to protect herself better, but it didn't take long before confidence made her fully extend her limbs. It was as if the wind changed around her to do nothing but envelop and hit her at the same time, as if it were torn between giving her pleasure or pain. Chaos ruled that storm, and she felt at one with the storm.

"This is... weird" she muttered even though no one was there to hear her. "No... it's chaotic"

Yes, that was the right word: chaotic.

Yet, it was as if even in that chaos there was order. The more she looked at the storm that surrounded her, the more she felt the wind on her body, the more the cold froze her limbs, and the more she was noticing a logic in all that randomness. Every single cyclone and tornado formed in a completely random manner, ignoring any physical law, yet it was as if they still followed rules, incomprehensible to anyone's eyes, but in her mind they were coming together to form a pattern.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to keep in mind what he had learned, and then she moved. She went to a random spot, following that crazy pattern that only she could see. And as soon as she stopped, right at that point a cyclone formed around her, and she was in the exact center of it.

"I guessed right" she said a little smugly. “So even in chaos there is some sort of regulation… it is simply completely different from order”

If there had been a meteorologist there with her, they would surely have gone crazy. Assuming they hadn't frozen to death after three seconds.

Emily decided she had enough and flew back to earth. As soon as she left the storm behind, her body regained some sensitivity since the temperature, although freezing, was still higher than that of the storm clouds. It was ironic that despite that storm above not a single drop of rain fell in the Betrayal Ring, but the fact was that the wind was so violent that the updrafts immediately carried the rain back towards the sky, trapping it there. As for how it was possible for there to be clouds in a gaseous state despite the temperature being below the freezing point of oxygen... well, simply inside the storm the cyclones were so violent that they broke the bonds between the molecules, forcing them to remain gaseous.

Emily's feet gracefully touched the ground. Even though she could make some shoes in a second, she didn't feel like doing it. She didn't know why, but she now liked being barefoot on that frozen ground. Indeed, in reality, she liked to remain barefoot on any surface. It was as if she had become so in harmony with that place that she did not risk tripping, stepping on a stone, or getting hurt in any way. Now the shoes seemed more like an annoying constraint than a garment with real use, so she simply remained barefoot.

Of course, that didn't mean she started walking barefoot wherever she wanted. Mindful of Rosie's warning, she had kept well away from the rivers of evil resin. She didn't know if it could still have an effect on her and she didn't want to risk finding out. Even though a part of her that was getting pretty insistent was sure it wouldn't do anything to her and wanted to dive into it and prove it with a laugh.

Emily shook her head. She had to summon all her rationality to keep her feelings calm. It was as if certain traits of her had increased, especially her pride; taking on Roo's power had evidently amplified all the sins inside her, and she felt pride more than the others because, and she was forced to admit this at least to herself, it was a flaw that had often made itself felt even before. And precisely because she was now aware of this flaw, she knew well that she absolutely must not let herself be dominated by arrogance. So even though a part of her kept telling her that she was now too powerful to worry about Roo's resin, she still kept her distance.

If she had listened to her desire to prove her strength, she would have thrown herself into the largest supermassive black hole just to see if she could destroy it from the inside. Fortunately, rationality was still dominant in her head.

In any case, that wasn't what she was there for.

Her gaze focused on a stone on the ground. "Let's see if I can do this" she murmured, raising her hand and concentrating.

For an instant nothing happened; and then, reality began to bend. The rock remained in the same place and the ground didn't shift in the slightest, yet Emily saw it approaching. The rules of reality itself bent to her command until the stone, without ever moving an inch, still found itself right next to her feet.

Emily let out a tired sigh; her forehead was beaded with sweat. Bending reality like that had…tired her a lot. It had been exhausting.

At the same time, however, she had expected worse. Since it was the first time she had tried to do something like this, she wasn't even sure she would have been do it. It had been tiring, but not as much as she had imagined.

She tried again: she concentrated on the stone and altered the reality around it again. She was very careful not to use telekinesis or any other powers, only the ones she had just acquired. The stone flew into her hand, moved by new physical laws that she had imposed on it. This time it had been a little easier, although it still made her sweat.

“Well… so far so good” she murmured. "Let's try something else..."

She concentrated again, and this time she didn't alter the reality outside the stone, but inside it. The bonds between the atoms broke, causing it to vanish completely, and then the neutrons and protons separated too; but despite this, they did not generate any nuclear explosion. Then they reassembled themselves by creating new elements from scratch. When the process was finished, a small nugget of gold had taken the place of the stone.

Emily beamed. This wasn't a simple spell that would have faded away over time: she had truly altered the very properties of matter! She could literally do whatever she wanted with it.“This is amazing!” she couldn't help but think. "I could do anything! I could give everything the properties and characteristics I wanted! I could turn the moon into clean energy, turn New Jersey into... what's the opposite of New Jersey?"

The possibilities were endless to say the least: after all, if she could give the material the characteristics she wanted, what was her limit apart from her imagination?

Her eyes shone. If the laws of physics, chemistry, matter, and even reality itself obeyed to her, she might even be able to create a new universe from scratch! Or even just modify the already existing universe, for example by ordering asteroids to never hit planets with life, or stars not to age and therefore die, or it could have slowed down the expansion that began with the Big Bang and thus avoided that the void between the galaxies became larger and larger...

Ok, time to get back down to earth. Dreams of glory aside, he knew it was best not to interfere with such balances. If God had created the universe in that way He had His reasons; she had no reason to change it. It would have been arrogant, risky and foolish.

She had taken on Roo's essence to keep that monster at bay, not to do anything with it. She just wanted Hell to no longer have any reason to fear her awakening, and that was it. She wasn't interested in showing off her new powers.

She was a guardian, and nothing more.

It wasn't even such a bad prospect in her eyes. Even though she would definitely have gotten bored after a while, at least she would never have had any major problems, and at the same time she would have been doing the most important task of all. And also, technically, she was also making up for her mistakes... and those of her... father. It gave her a sense of gratification, in a way.

She felt a little bitter in her mouth. It still sounded strange to call Lucifer 'father' in her head. As much as she tried, she couldn't be happy about it. She wasn't horrified by it... but she wasn't able to enjoy it either.

Well, it didn't matter. After all, she had no intention of interacting with him in the near future.

Who knows what he was doing at that moment... and Charlie too.

Were they still looking for her? Probably yes. Maybe she could use her new powers to deliver a message to them. She had no intention of leaving the Betrayal Ring, but perhaps materializing a letter in her sister's pocket wasn't such a bad idea. Or even writing her a message by hand and opening a portal in front of her head and slamming it in her face wouldn't have been a foolish option. Just to let her know that she was fine and that there was no reason for all of them to worry.

She would think about it when she returned to the castle. With her new powers, delivering a message without leaving the Betrayal Ring wasn't that difficult after all.

By the way... she had tested her new powers, but what about the old ones?

She already had some control over them, so she should already have been able to notice a change. Preferring to avoid causing too much damage, she pointed a finger at the clouds in the sky and created a small sphere of energy, and shot it upwards.

What happened next made her eyes widen: the sphere moved at breakneck speed, faster than she had ever been able to throw it, and as soon as it reached the sky it exploded with such violence that it seemed as if a sun had just been created. The light was such that the very solid ice melted and evaporated, despite the large distance from the beam. The explosion reverberated in the sky for a few moments, and then died away; the clouds had been thrown away for hundreds of kilometers, but as soon as that immense force was no longer present they immediately turned back, as if they were eager to take back the place that was theirs.

Emily was stunned. She had expected a little more power, but not like this! She had restrained herself to the fullest and was even in her restrained form! In the past, under similar conditions that attack would have barely exploded in a small puff of steam!

"Okay… this is definitely something I need to train myself to control" Emily murmured in a strangled voice. "If I launched such attacks and hit the surface of Hell, who knows what disasters I would cause..."

She absolutely had to become completely confident with her powers before thinking of leaving the Betrayal Ring. Even just moving around with her newfound strength had the potential to cause a cataclysm. Emily was pretty sure that if someone was going to say "BOOOH!" to her at that moment, she would have generated an explosion with the energy of a star out of surprise alone. Not a positive outlook, especially considering that eighty percent of the people she'd been hanging out with lately weren't particularly intelligent or timely and had a tendency to play pranks and behave idiotically.

She continued training for a few hours, shooting more spheres of energy into the sky, which exploded, continuously illuminating that area like day. Despite her best efforts, she barely managed to reduce the size of the explosion by a few megatons. She definitely had a long way to go to truly contain that extraordinary power.

By the time she was done, the land around her was half destroyed, but it took barely ten minutes before the clouds filled the sky again, shaking it with their lightning, and the biting wind covered the land in the same icy patina, making it almost identical to before. It was as if that Ring itself didn't like that there was the slightest difference in that landscape.

"That's enough for today" Emily thought in her head as she breathed deeply from all the effort she had put in. "My mind is too tired now. If I continued, I would risk misaiming and hitting the ground instead of the sky, causing much more destruction. Now continuing would be counterproductive, if not harmful. It's better to rest properly and resume when I'm back at maximum concentration"

Even though she was confident in her stamina, she had no intention of overdoing it. To avoid damage she intended to follow a very specific program that would have allowed her to rest her mind and therefore tackle her training to the best of her ability.

Having decided to stop there, she took off and quickly returned to the abandoned city. Before approaching that place bothered her because of the absurd rules that controlled it, but now she felt neither hot nor cold. She landed in front of the main door of the castle and entered inside.

Chapter Text

When she entered the palace, she found Rosie and obviously Frank waiting for her; the little egg ran towards her as usual asking if she had anything for him to do, but she politely refused. Rosie, on the other hand, remained firm in her position. "How did it go?" she asked her.

"Um... let's say I have to train really a lot" Emily admitted. "Let's do this: until further notice, none of you must come up behind me or surprise me or do anything unexpected in my presence. I will inform you as soon as I have managed to control myself enough to not run the risk of incinerating you just by jumping"

Rosie narrowed her eyes slightly. "I imagined you had become powerful, but so much so that you would endanger a demon like me just for a moment of surprise? I admit it's amazing" she said, although her voice sounded much more worried than admiring.

Despite this, Emily felt flattered by those words. That spark of pride in her heart immediately ignited like a wildfire. "Well, I have a lot to improve, but as soon as I have total control of this thing I will truly be invincible! Even without taking new power from Roo or commanding her, I could become stronger than Lucifer and Michael!"

“Why, do you know how strong those two really are?” Rosie asked her rhetorically.

Emily bit her lip. Technically she had no idea how strong a 'full-power' Michael and a 'full-power' Lucifer were, she had spoken more out of vanity than truth. Maybe she was letting her emotions control her a little too much... but this awareness didn't stop her from feeling stung by her pride. "No, I'm just making a guess. Based on what I know about them for now, I might get stronger. And in any case with Roo under my control I'm still invincible!"

Rosie couldn't visually roll her eyes due to her pitch-black irises, but Emily was pretty sure she just did. "I'm glad you feel so... galvanized by this situation" she told her in a serious voice. "But so much power also makes you very dangerous. You have to learn to control yourself"

"I know. That's why I'm training" Emily pointed out with a bit of irritation in her voice. She knew exactly what she had to do, why was the cannibal overlord telling her that?

"I'm not just talking about your body. You need to learn to control your mind" Rosie told her sternly. "If you truly possess such power, then you absolutely cannot afford to lose control of it. A single moment of absolute anger would be enough to make you do things you will surely regret. You can no longer leave your mind as free as you did before, you must keep it constantly in chains and temper your emotions in every situation"

"Ugh! Okay, I get it, I'll try" Emily quickly declined the question. Come on, who did that woman think she was, her babysitter? "Rather, where is Alastor? And Niffty?"

Rosie was not at all happy with that clear lack of attention towards her, but she still remained calm. "Alastor went to find a new home, and Niffty went with him" she answered. "I told him, sorry for my undignified speech, to get the fuck out of here right away. I don't want him to be near you"

Emily couldn't completely blame her. In fact, considering what Alastor had done to Rosie to set her off, it was a miracle she hadn't torn him apart a bit before chasing him away. However, she still didn't appreciate that she made him leave without consulting her first. "He has to keep an eye on me..."

"He can keep an eye on you even from afar" Rosie replied. "He would cloud your mind even more. He's dangerous..."

"Technically you are too" Emily couldn't stop herself from telling her. "You're not exactly a pure lamb. Modern behavior aside, I remind you that you were the right hand of a genocidal maniac. You are not better than Alastor"

Rosie's eyes widened slightly, and then she looked down. Emily blushed, realizing she had used very little tact. "Sorry. I'm still getting to grips with all these heightened emotions... I let my hubris take control. I didn't mean to..."

"No, don't apologize" Rosie told her. "You're right, you have no reason to trust me. It's okay, you should be careful. But please, stay away from Alastor. I don't want him to get into your head any more than he already has"

And after such words she walked away, leaving her alone, but it didn't escape Emily's notice that she went and sat right next to the door, clearly wanting to be sure to intercept her if she tried to leave. This irritated her quite a lot, in fact; although normally it would have caused her only a little annoyance, this time it made her furious. How dare that woman think she had more judgment than her? She certainly didn't need a nurse...!

She slammed a hand over her face. Fuck, she was doing it again. Her amplified negative emotions made really difficult for her to talk to other people. Even though she knew full well that Rosie was only trying to help her, she still felt her pride hit; a jab that would normally have been no different than an itch in her mind, but was now as loud as a gong.

Small hands wrapping around her ankle pulled her out of her thoughts; she looked down and saw Frank trying to get her attention. "Are you okay, boss? You're very tense"

The egg's words brought Emily's good mood back. "It's okay" she assured him, picking him up. "I just don't like that Rosie kicked Alastor out of here without even consulting me first"

“But the nice lady just wanted to help the boss” Frank told her. "Besides, I don't like that guy either. He's creepy"

Emily couldn't blame him. “I know. And I know Rosie did it for me. I just… I don't know how to explain it, I guess I don't like that she thinks I need someone to make decisions for me"

"Why? I love having someone make decisions for me! That's why I love having a boss!" Frank exclaimed with a smile.

Emily couldn't help but giggle. "Don't ever change" she told him, stroking his shell. She was silent for a moment, and then she asked him: "Listen... do you think I offended her?"

Frank seemed to think about it carefully. "Well..." he finally said. "If I did something for the boss, and then the boss got angry with me, I wouldn't be offended because the boss is always right. But I would be sad because I made the boss angry"

Emily bit her lip. "Yes... I guess I would be sad too if someone treated me like that. I wasn't very gentle with her..." she admitted to herself. "Telling her that she was as bad as Alastor wasn't a good thing, mh?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but she doesn't seem to like remembering when she was bad" Frank told her.

Emily blushed. "Yeah... do you think I should apologize again? Maybe a little better this time?"

Frank shrugged… or at least, he moved his hands as if he were shrugging his nonexistent shoulders. "Well, the old boss had learned from the sweet princess that 'it starts with sorry'. If he thought it was right, then it sure is right"

Emily couldn't help but smile. "You're good at playing my conscience" she told him jokingly.

"What is conscience?" Frank asked her.

"Uuuuuh..." Emily tried to explain it simply: "Conscience is... like a voice that tells you what to do. If you follow it you are good, otherwise you are bad"

"Oh, so it's like what the boss is to me!" Frank exclaimed, but then he became doubtful: "But... if the conscience is the boss, how can I be the boss's conscience? So I'm the boss of my boss?"

Emily tried hard not to laugh. "Don't think about it too much" she advised him. "Now let's go talk to Rosie"

Frank, as usual, obeyed her without protest and went back to staring into space with an idiotic expression, just as if he had stopped thinking.

Emily reached Rosie and sat down next to her. The cannibal overlord seemed surprised by her behavior, but she let her speak. "Sorry about earlier" Emily told her. "I shouldn't have... said those things to you. I know you're trying to put the past and... whatever you did... behind you. I don't think you're still that person... or rather, I don't think you're just that person. I saw how selfless you can be and I know you only sent Alastor away because you care about me"

Rosie listened to her without speaking, and as soon as she was sure that she had nothing else to say to her, she smiled kindly at her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's nice to see that despite all the misfortunes that have befallen you, your good heart hasn't been affected" she told her. "I can easily tell you and Charlie are sisters. You both have only kindness in your souls"

Emily blushed a little at the compliment. "Well... we messed up too"

"I never said good-hearted people don't make mistakes" Rosie told her. "The nobility of a soul is seen in the desire to remedy these errors. As you did a little while ago by apologizing to me"

Emily smiled at her. "Thank you" she whispered. "Look... I know I told you to stay here because I wanted to ask you questions but... I understand that it's not pleasant for you. You can leave if you want, I'll open the door for you"

But Rosie shook her head. “No. Feel free to get mad at me, but I don't want to leave you alone"

“The boss has me” Frank pointed out.

Rosie smiled at him. "Sorry, but as much as I don't doubt your skills, I still prefer to stay here" she replied.

"Charlie could use some good advice now" Emily told her.

"Now that the Deadly Sins know who I am, I would be more of a burden to Charlie than a help" Rosie replied. "Trust me, I better not show myself around. Those guys are probably searching every corner of Hell to find me, and I don't want to lose control again"

Emily bit her lip. She was really curious about the past history between Rosie and the Deadly Sins... actually, she was curious about Rosie's entire past. But if she had asked her questions she would surely have brought out memories that the cannibal overlord didn't want to relive. So even though a very selfish part of her was screaming at her to not care and find out anyway, she still remained silent.

She was surprised when Rosie said to her: "See? You have a good heart. Even though you're curious, you're not talking so as not to hurt my feelings"

Emily's eyes widened. "How do you know? Can you read minds?"

Rosie giggled. "No, simply your thoughts were written on your expression. Neither you nor Charlie know how to hide your emotions. It is said that the beauty of the soul is also expressed on the body, after all". She remained silent for a moment, and then she told her: "I sold my soul to Cain when I was only six years old"

Emily was speechless. "Really...?" she murmured and then she composed herself. "Um... you don't have to tell me if you don't want to..."

"No, it's okay" she told her. "Trust me... I need to free myself a little"

Emily wasn't sure if Rosie was telling the truth or just trying to give herself confidence. But in the end, she decided to choose that she actually wanted to talk about it. "Why?" she asked her simply.

"Because I was a greedy, cruel and selfish child" Rosie replied. "I always had everything I wanted, but it was never enough for me. I always wanted more. Everything I did was forgiven, and instead of being grateful for it I took pleasure in hurting others, knowing that I wouldn't I would suffer no consequences. The more love I was given, the more I disdained it in favor of a subjugation of the others to me. I didn't just want to have everything... I wanted to be above everything"

Emily let out a sigh. "You know... when I was a child... and sometimes I threw tantrums because I didn't receive something or I had to do something I didn't like... my mother always told me that the worst fates that can happen to a child are never receiving what they want... or always receive it"

"Your mother is absolutely right" Rosie confirmed. "One day, I discovered that I was being treated that way because I was a sacrifice for Cain. Any other girl in my place would have run away, but not me. I killed my family and made the sacrifice in their place. It wasn't out of revenge, no... I didn't care about them. I did it out of greed. Because not only did I refuse to lose that life in which I received everything I wanted, but because I wanted to receive even more and I knew that a supernatural being could give that to me. In order to satisfy all my greed, I sold my soul. Since then... I just felt a lot of hunger" 

"Hunger?" Emily murmured in confusion.

"An eternal hunger" Rosie confirmed. "It wasn't an absence of food in my stomach, it was something more... emptiness in my soul. As if something had been ripped away from me and I was trying to fill it, but the more I threw things in, the deeper that emptiness became. I literally had everything, yet it was never enough. I could swim in a tank full of jewels and gold coins, wear clothes made of the purest silk, sleep in the most sumptuous palaces, eat the best foods, have the most beautiful men and women in my bed, rule over what I wanted... and yet the my desire was never satisfied. I always felt that emptiness inside me, and I kept taking in my zeal to appease my insatiable longing"

Rosie's fists clenched slightly. "All my life I've done nothing but take. I could sit on a pile of all the riches in the world, and yet I would still send my servants digging for more gold. All kings knew and feared me, and my every word was law, yet I never felt satisfied. In order to make fun of their pathetic authority I forced them to go to war with each other just for my fun. None of them dared to challenge me. They called me Babylon the Great and bowed with fear and respect, even as they spoke of me as a prostitute behind my back. I spent decades that way, plundering everything in my path, enslaving every people I laid eyes on, sowing good and evil only according to my whims. And yet, I still felt nothing but that emptiness inside me... that insatiable hunger that never abated, no matter how much gold, power, or beauty I had"

"Man does not live by bread alone" Emily couldn't help herself from saying, reciting one of the Messiah's teachings. "Matter cannot satisfy the soul"

"Yeah. You're probably right" Rosie confirmed. "After I died and ended up here in Hell... I was happy, because Cain had promised me wonderful things even after death. And he gave them to me, all of them... but he also gave me unspeakable suffering. And believe me, there was no limit to his creativity. Every new power, every magic he taught me, was paid for with a lot of pain. Yet I still remained loyal to him, because I wanted everything he was giving me. I reached the top of the social pyramid of Hell, all of thw demons feared me, anyone, even the Deadly Sins, trembled at the mere mention of my name. I had power that they couldn't even hope to match, I could mock them whenever I wanted, I could even speak as an equal to Queen Lilith... and yet I still felt it. The hunger. It didn't leave me. And in the end, as you well know, everything fell apart. Cain abandoned me as if I had never been anything but a pastime, and almost killed me... but at the last moment, I regained enough intelligence to finally understand that I was putting my trust in the wrong man and I managed to tear his mark away"

Rosie took off her voluminous hat and pushed back her hair, and showed the back of her neck; Emily was very surprised to find that just under her hairline there was a scar, as if someone had grabbed the skin and scratched it violently. Her angelic senses, however, could sense that there was something more behind it. “Your soul… is damaged there”

"Of course, I had sold it to Cain. To save my life, I had to tear off the chain that I had put around my neck myself. And since this chain was fused with my soul, I also had to tear off it a little" Rosie explained to her.

"How did you do it?" Emily asked her.

"Roo's powers can cut everything" Rosie answered her. "And also, I had Lilith's... support"

Emily wanted to ask for further explanation, but preferred to avoid it: Rosie was clearly not comfortable talking about that. As if to tell her that she could stop showing it to her, she took the woman's long hair and placed it back over her neck, covering her scar again.

Rosie looked at her in surprise, but then she smiled. "Thank you" she said to her, and then she became serious again: "Listen, what I want to say with this whole story is that... it's very easy to walk down a dark path, especially if there is someone who accompanies you along the way. For this reason I don't want Alastor to be close to you. You're not evil like me... but that doesn't make you immune to the bad voices that whisper in your ear. Don't make the mistake of thinking you're smarter than your opponent. I did it once... believe me, it was enough for me to learn the lesson"

Emily was silent for a moment. "You're really thoughtful. Thank you" she said finally. “You're right, I better have someone to keep me on track in case Alastor tries to take advantage of me”

"I'm glad you understood" Rosie told her, stroking her hair a little.

“It's so nice when everyone gets along!” Frank exclaimed happily.

Both women burst out laughing at the egg's claims. “I think I'm going to go to my room and get some rest now” Emily said, standing up, then she looked at Rosie: “Listen… I know this is a bad topic for you, but… when you feel okay with it, could you tell me more about your past? I want to better understand many things about this place... and about you"

Rosie nodded. "Okay. But don't expect good stories"

"It doesn't matter" Emily replied. "It's still your story. Learning it will allow me to understand you better. The past cannot be changed... but we can learn from it, even if it hurts"

Rosie inspired deeply. "Wise words" she said simply, without specify whether she agreed or not.

Emily sighed. She was about to leave, but then she couldn't stop herself from asking her: "Now... are you still hungry?"

Rosie looked down. "Yes" she answered. "But less than before"

And having said this she gave no other explanation. Emily preferred not to ask her anything else. When Rosie would have wanted to tell her more, she would have; until then, she had no intention of pressuring her.

Chapter Text

"So your father is in the palace of these... von Eldritch?" Angel murmured as soon as Charlie turned off the phone. "Who would they be?"

"What!? You've never heard of them!?" Moxxie exclaimed in amazement. "How is this possible? You've been down here long before I was born!"

Angel groaned. He felt like he was reliving the same scene with Vaggie when they had just opened the hotel... which put him in a bit of a bad mood as he remembered both the angel who had left in disdain and the good times when his worry the main thing was to take the piss out of her. "I'm not very knowledgeable about politics"

Moxxie sighed. "The von Eldritch are an extremely powerful noble family. Their head of the family, Frederick von Eldritch, is known with fear and respect throughout Hell. He is said to have a special relationship with the rulers..."

"He's a friend of the family" Charlie anticipated him. "His daughter Helsa is an old classmate of mine, and his son Seviathan is my ex-boyfriend"

There was a moment of silence, and then Angel's eyes widened: "Oooooh... now I remember! Yes, you talked about it when you were teaching Emily about your life for...". He fell silent when he realized that perhaps it was better to avoid talking about it. "Sorry"

Charlie would normally have told him 'never mind', but at that moment she just ignored him. “Helsa told me that Frederick brought Dad to their palace, so at least we know where to find him” she said. "I'll go down there and get a drop of his blood, and then we'll combine it with Sera's and cast the spell. But in the meantime, you guys still try to look for some clues"

"I will go to the von Eldritch house" Asmodeus suddenly said in a firm voice. "Charlie, you need to get some sleep"

No one in the room blamed him: Charlie literally looked like she was about to faint. Her body was begging her for some rest. "I'm half angel, I don't need to sleep..."

“I agree with this man” Sera's voice suddenly said. Everyone turned and saw her appear in the doorway, followed by Loona and Octavia. "We've all rested except you, and you're definitely the one who needs it the most. If you continue like this you risk collapsing from the stress"

“Listen to the angel” Cherri said. "We've seen this before with Lute, remember? Even for angels there are limits to how much the body can take". Of course she knew there was a gulf between Charlie and Lute given what the latter had been through, but given the new queen's expression she doubted she was very far from that stage. She didn't want to see her having an epileptic fit.

Charlie bit her lip. "But..."

"I'll go to your father" Sera told her. "We'll find Emily. Just think about getting some rest, you need it"

Asmodeus cleared his throat. “I will provide you with a disguise” he told the angel, who gladly accepted.

Angel put a hand on Charlie's shoulder: "Seriously, just go to sleep. We'll find Emily and keep an eye on things. No one will blame the queen if she sleeps for a few hours after you've been breaking your back for days to mantain the stability of Hell"

Charlie looked down. "Okay" she finally surrendered. "What do you want to do...?"

"We'll split up" Blitz said, taking the floor. "My spider friend and I will take a tour here in Pride and try to understand something more about what his mafia brother told. Moxxie and Millie, you go to Wrath and look for any sign of Alastor, he may have returned to the crime scene Cherri..."

"I'm going to Envy" the cyclops demoness said. "I'll ask Stolas to give me a ride there. I'm a bit familiar with those places since I already stopped by when we negotiated with that shark guy"

"And I'll go to Gluttony" Loona said.

Blitz glared at her. "Loony, you don't have to..."

"Yes, it is" Loona beat him to it before he could forbid it. "I know that Ring well, I know how to move. I'll go with Via, together we'll get through it"

Blitz was silent for a moment, and then he nodded. "Okay. Come on, guys, the goal is simple: investigate and look for any signs relating to Alastor or one of his henchmen. Even just a sighting made by a crazy nerd is worth it. And in the meantime, Angel and I will try to understand what the fuck is going on in the undergrowth of Hell. I'll take Stryker with me too, he'll give us a hand"

"I will warn Fizz to keep an eye on Lust. As for Sloth... if Lucifer has stopped looking there, there is certainly nothing of value" Asmodeus said.

Charlie didn't say a word for a long moment, and then she completely gave up. “Okay… I trust you guys”

"Good. For a moment I thought we should tie her up to convince her" Blitz commented. "Come on, let's get going. Where's Stryker, by the way?"

Stryker lay on the bed in the royal palace, not moving. His eyes were closed, but he wasn't sleeping at all: his mind was in fact in full motion, and he was currently facing an intense battle in his head.

Emily had connected him and the red horseman in their soul, just as Blitz and the white horseman had done; but harnessing his powers was a completely different matter. The red horseman was still an entity with a conscience, and even though he was sealed within him that didn't mean he was willing to submit to him easily. “Don't you dare try that again” he hissed after pushing him away for the umpteenth time.

Stryker, or rather his own consciousness, rose again in that sort of mental arena. He and the red horseman had faced each other several times on that battlefield, each time performing different attack patterns. It was lucky that Stryker couldn't die in that context, since what he was fighting was only a part of his mind, because otherwise he would surely have already been pulverized. "I don't intend to give up" he replied without even moving his mouth, speaking only with his thoughts. "I'll make you mine, no matter what the cost"

"I can continue this fight for eternity" the red horseman warned him.

"Me too" was Stryker's response. "You know that you cannot kill me and that you have no chance of defeating me. I am in charge in here... and that makes you my prisoner"

Stryker knew that in this context he had the absolute advantage: if it were possible for the horsemen created by Roo to free themselves even without the context of their host, then surely Blitz would already have been destroyed from within. The power of those beings was overwhelming, there was no possibility that an imp could resist it; therefore, the mere fact that the white knight hadn't already jumped out of Blitz was clear proof that he couldn't. Clearly there was something limiting about the seal that imprisoned them in their bodies.

Therefore, Stryker knew he could afford to be a braggart. The red horseman was very strong and continually knocked him out in that ring inside his mind, but in the end he could never give him the final blow. Stryker was beaten, but the pain certainly didn't scare him. "Stop being tough and give me your powers" he ordered him.

"Why should I?" the red horseman protested. "What you want is none of my business. I only follow the will of the Mother"

"Your Mother gave her powers to Emily, and so now you should obey that little angel... and she wants you to obey me" Stryker replied.

"Irrelevant" the red horseman said. "I was created to fulfill that one command Mother gave me, to destroy the parasite. Unless she herself changes my orders, I have no reason to obey"

Stryker cracked his neck... or rather, his imaginary neck. "I was almost hoping you'd answer like that" he admitted. "Let's continue then!"

And having said this he threw himself again at the red horseman, who awaited his arrival without batting an eyelid, and as soon as he was near him he moved his hand to slice him with his sword. Stryker had already been cut two hundred and seventy-one times with it, and by now he had learned to avoid it; he jumped on top of her and kept himself balanced with his tail, just in time to dodge a punch that had already hit him three hundred and fifteen times, and then a headbutt that had been inflicted on him another sixty-nine times. The battles between him and the red horseman were repeated so much that he had now learned to read his moves, or rather, to imagine how and where the knight would have attacked and act accordingly. Which could only please him since it was great training for him.

Stryker wasn't someone who asked for what he wanted, he was someone who took it. He wanted the power of the red horseman and he would have had it no matter the cost. He wasn't nearly as strong as him, but with each of their fights he became quicker, more intelligent, and more far-sighted, anticipating his opponent's moves and managing to slip away and inflict precise damage.

Blitz alone had been able to fight against the white horseman for a while and even put him in a bit of trouble. As a result, Stryker had no reason to believe that he wouldn't have been able to do the same.

The red horseman was much stronger than the white one... but Stryker too was much stronger than Blitz.

Like all the other times, the fight ended with Stryker being knocked to the ground and the horse's powerful hooves trampling him. In the real world anyone would have died at that point, but in his own mind the imp crotal need not fear death. And the red horseman knew it too, in fact he immediately retreated a few steps. “You will never win” he said.

Stryker grinned with satisfaction. "Are you so sure?" he asked him, getting up. "When we started, I could barely stand up to you for a minute. Now I can do it for over fifteen minutes. And it's been a very short time, don't you think? Sooner or later, I'll get to take what's mine"

“You will spend the eternity losing!” the red horseman roared.

"That's what you think" Stryker told him. "But I've learned to win my battles. I'll get what I want, whether you like it or not"

The red horseman blew smoke from under his helmet. “Why are you so determined?” he asked him. “What purpose are you chasing?”

"Purpose?" Stryker chuckled, his eyes shining with satisfaction. "I simply hate that undeserving people have great power. I'm not going to leave all this strength to a pathetic automaton who does nothing but follow orders like you. Power belongs to those who take it by force!"

And after such words he got back into the attack position, ready to face his enemy again and again, but a voice from outside interrupted him: "Hey, asshole, wake up. You and I have work to do"

Stryker grunted. "Mh. It seems that the clown idiot has finally remembered that I exist" he commented, and then he turned to the horseman: "I have to go. We will continue this battle another time. You're not going anywhere anyway, right?"

And after teasing him like that he quickly came out of the depths of his mind; he knew that the red horseman wouldn't have been able to get out of there anyway, and that unlike him he wouldn't have used the time at his disposal to think of strategies to fight him since he was incapable of any independent thought. He could take as many breaks as he wanted without risking anything.

When he reopened his eyes, the real ones this time, he found Blitz's frowning face before him. "Mph. Wonderful awakening" he said, pretending that he was sleeping.

"Save me the whining. Can you move?" Blitz asked him.

Stryker rose effortlessly. "I'm in full shape again"

"Good. We have work to do" Blitz told him. "We have to go and gather some information around, I'll explain along the way. Are you with us?"

Stryker nodded. "Absolutely" he replied, grinning and narrowing his eyelids inconspicuously.

Chapter Text

"... and so now I should go and... talk to a group of people who will surely be very pissed at me for killing some of our comrades. Any suggestions?" Vaggie asked.

Pentious shrugged: "Make some cookies and if things get bad, throw them at them and run away while they're distracted"

Vaggie's eyelid twitched: "They're not dogs, you idiot!"

Husk sighed deeply. After a good sleep, absolutely necessary after all the emotions they had suffered in the last few hours, he and Pentious had returned to the headquarters of the celestial army, where fortunately Lute had allowed them to take back the serpent angel's things (after having dismantled every potentially harmful device, therefore more or less half of the objects that had been seized from him); they had wanted to talk to Vaggie right then, but had given up after they learned she was still sleeping. So they had put it off and instead focused on getting all of Pentious's things back to his house; and just when they were almost done Vaggie had joined them, helping them with the finishing touches.

“Do you really want to do this?” Husk grumbled scratching his head. "I find it a terrible idea"

Vaggie shook her head. "I know they're definitely pissed at me, but I can't ignore the problem. It's only right that I face the Exorcists. I'm trying with Lute, I have to try with them too"

"A noble thought, but there are thousands of them and you are alone" Pentious pointed out. "If they get pissed at you, they could really hurt you..."

"You remember that I'm so strong now that I can make you explode with the tip of my little finger, right?" Vaggie groaned. "I'm not afraid of the Exorcists, the only one among them who can stand up to me is Lute"

"That's true, but honestly, I still find it a bad idea" Husk commented. "How do you plan to get along with people you've tried to kill and whose friends you've killed?"

"Well… I didn't technically kill them… angels don't die" Vaggie reminded him. "About all the rest... I don't know, that's why I came to ask you for advice"

Husk looked down. Okay, it was time to play the all-knowing counselor again: "Look, if you really want to do this, then just say what you think. Don't try to be submissive, or friendly, or mean, or whatever. Be yourself and that's it"

"Just in case, I can ask Molly if she can prepare a special session for you at the Sanctuary" Pentious proposed.

Vaggie looked at him confused: "Who is Molly?"

"Oh, right, you don't know her yet... we need to introduce you to some people" Pentious said, realizing that he had never mentioned Angel's sister to Vaggie.

Husk ignored him. "Just listen to me and say everything that's on your mind. At least they'll know how you really feel"

Vaggie wasn't very convinced, but she nodded. After all, Husk was the best among them at understanding the situation, better to listen to him.

There was a moment of silence, and then Pentious asked: "Um... sorry to ask... but when do you plan to go back to Charlie...?"

"I don't know" was Vaggie's curt reply.

Pentious hissed. "But... I thought that after a night's rest you..."

"Instead I still don't want to see her! Is that okay!?" Vaggie exclaimed angrily.

Pentious backed away, clearly fearful of reliving a direct assault like Charlie had when she was the one pissed off, except this time Michael wasn't there to protect him. Husk fortunately intervened: "Okay, take your time. Nobody rushes you"

Vaggie sighed. "It's complicated, okay, guys? I don't want to think about it right now"

Husk nodded. “When you're ready to talk about it, you know where to find us. Remember, that's what friends are for”

Vaggie smiled a little. "Thank you. You're true friends" she told them, making them smile back.

Vaggie stayed with them for another half hour, and then returned to headquarters. She wondered if she should go to Adam's office since it was technically Lute's now, but she didn't need to because she found her at the front door. “Uh… thanks for waiting for me”

"I just want to get rid of this annoyance as soon as possible" Lute replied with her usual acidity. "Let's go. And remember, I'll just say that now you're one of us again; after that you'll be on your own, if you try to involve me I'll punch you"

Vaggie knew she couldn't expect much more courtesy from her, so she followed her silently into the cafeteria. Almost all of the Exorcists, except for those who were currently on guard duty, were there for lunch, and as soon as the two of them entered all eyes moved towards them.

"But is that...?"

"Is it really her?"

"Since when did she have purple wings?"

"What is she doing here again?"

Vaggie didn't feel at ease at all, not even knowing how to say hello. It was Lute who spoke up: "Everyone, listen to me for a moment! I know this news will come as a shock to you, but Vagatha has officially abandoned her beloved little demon princess. She's back with us now"

The room obviously remained silent, after all they were in an army and discipline was everything, therefore no one would have dared speak in front of the commander without specific permission, but nevertheless the atmosphere suddenly became much heavier. Vaggie swallowed hard feeling thousands of stern stares on her.

Lute let out a snort. "Yes, I know, it's nonsense, but it's a complicated situation and I have to make difficult choices. If when Adam comes back he wants her out of the way I'll be happy to oblige, but until then, unfortunately she's staying here. Whatever problems you have, handle it yourself; I already have enough"

Vaggie would have appreciated at least a little support, but after all Lute had warned her that she would have washed her hands of it, so she couldn't scold her. The weight of all those stares was crushing her. She felt like she was back to the moment when Lute had vomited all her hatred and anger at her... well, clearly the Exorcists weren't at that level, but the feeling she was experiencing was very similar. Definitely, as fearless as she might be in battle, she wasn't very courageous when it came to social relationships.

She tried to steel herself. It wasn't the first time she had to face someone who had killed something dear to them... except that the last time it had been Charlie, the person who would have forgiven anyone. This time she wasn't exactly in front of people who were famous for forgiving. She at least tried to say something: "Um... hi, guys"

She felt the urge to slap herself. It was truly a pitiful conversation starter. "Okay, I know something really messed up between us, you're right to be angry, and... I'm sorry. But..."

One of the Exorcists stepped forward; evidently now that Lute had given them the green light they didn't intend to stay long. The slap that landed on Vaggie's face probably hurt the one who delivered it more than her, since she barely felt a sting, but still she leaned slightly to the side. "This was for Jade" the Exorcist growled. "I hope you had fun sticking your spear in her belly, she was the first one you killed!"

Vaggie's eyes widened slightly. "Wait... was that Jade? I thought it was Sabrina..."

"The perverted spider killed that one" another Exorcist informed her.

Vaggie broke out in a cold sweat. "Well... I'm sorry..."

"Ah, now you're sorry!" another Exorcist grumbled sarcastically, and many others agreed with her. "You come back here after weeks and expect that an 'I'm sorry' will solve everything?"

“Well, at least I'm trying to get started!” Vaggie snapped. Fuck, the tension was really wearing on her. "Look... I know you're pissed, okay? Yes, I admit it, I killed some of our companions..."

"They are not our companions. Companions don't kill each other, so you are not part of the group" another Exorcist told her. "And we don't care that sooner or later they'll come back, that doesn't justify killing them in cold blood! We didn't even see you cry a little, bitch!"

Okay, Vaggie had no excuse for that. In fact, maybe showing at least a little displeasure wouldn't have been such a bad idea. "I was trying to appear strong to encourage others. Inside I wasn't happy..."

"Says the one who smiled so cutely when Adam died" another Exorcist said with venom in her voice.

At that point Vaggie exploded: the tension was far too much to bear. "Well, try to get your wings and your eye torn off while the one who promised to protect you stands still and watches, then tell me how you would react!"

The Exorcists were taken aback by this sudden outburst, clearly not expecting her to react the way she did. Lute, who had remained leaning against the wall with her arms crossed the entire time without moving a single muscle, took on a slightly more surprised and at times interested expression.

Vaggie took a deep breath to calm herself down. She had decided that staying on the defensive was useless, so she might as well go on the attack now. "Yes, I made mistakes, I admit it! I'm not looking for excuses! But I remind you, my dears, that for three years I was in Hell and I didn't lift a finger against you, even if I was pissed off like a beast for what Lute did to me while YOU said nothing! The moment I acted was when Adam decided, for a totally personal reason that he himself later considered wrong, to attack us! If Adam had never attacked us nothing would have happened! He is just as guilty as I am, and he is aware of it! But I don't hear any bad words directed towards him, so why should I be the target of your hatred instead!? I'm fine if you're angry with me, I understand, I would be too, but at least try to be coherent!"

The Exorcists were speechless, and Vaggie couldn't tell whether they were impressed, outraged, shocked, surprised, or angered by what she said. Well, she didn't care: she needed to say those things. She got tired of everyone acting like everything was her fault. She was a person, not an object of vent. She didn't want to run away from her sins, but she didn't want to be treated that way either.

The problem was… now what should she do?

Vaggie realized she had no idea what to say. Should she remain firm in her position or try to mediate at least a little? Fuck, she hated being so bad at social relationships. What would Charlie have done...?

But what broke the silence was neither she nor Lute nor any other of the people present there, but a timid voice coming from the door: "Um... lieutenant? I mean... general?"

Everyone turned in amazement and saw an Exorcist enter, still with her armor a little dented and a slightly shocked expression on her face. "JADE!?" everyone exclaimed.

The Exorcist waved a little unsurely. "Um... hi, guys, I'm back. Well... we are"

Many more Exorcists entered, all wearing the same dented armor even though they no longer had a scratch on them. They were all those who had previously died in the battle at the Hazbin Hotel. Everyone was shocked, but it didn't take long for the confusion to turn to joy: "Guys!"

The Exorcists warmly embraced their fallen comrades, who welcomed them very willingly. Vaggie was confused, wondering what was going on, and luckily she wasn't the only one: Lute flew in front of the restored Exorcists with a surprised expression. "Is that really you?"

"Yes, lieut-I mean, general" the Exorcists promptly responded by saluting. "They warned us about the... takeover as soon as they reinstated us. Is Adam really...?"

"Not available at the moment" Lute replied avoiding too deep explanations. "When did you come back? Nobody told me..."

"I took care of it. Forgive me, it was a sudden event, I forgot to warn you" a shrill voice suddenly came from the corridor.

Lute turned her head and saw an angel enter. She was a statuesque woman at least three meters tall, perhaps even three meters and half; she had six wings, a sign that she too was a seraphim like Sera. Her skin was white as snow, but it was so smooth and flawless that it looked like porcelain; her hair was kept in long, cascading ivory locks and fell down her back like a beautiful cape. Her face was beautiful, perfect in every shape and form with thin lips constantly curved into a smile, and cyan eyes with sclera to match. She wore an opulent, flowing white dress, adorned with shades of cyan and accented with cross motifs along the edges. Completing her ethereal ensemble was a large cyan bow tie with an intricate pattern of crosses gracing the graceful paths of her twin ponytails.

Lute raised an eyebrow. It wasn't that strange for a seraphim to visit the army headquarters, even if it was unusual; and it wasn't even strange that she had restored the dead Exorcists, since it was something that technically should have already been done if it weren't for the string of messes they'd gotten into lately. However, it was decidedly disrespectful that that woman had shown up there unannounced and without even giving notice with a phone call. Every time Sera had wanted to talk to Adam she had warned him beforehand, even if only in private, she hadn't just randomly dropped into his headquarters.

In Heaven everyone was equal; even if high-ranking angels were in a higher position than human souls, in practice they were all on the same level. There was no real class division in the blissful realm, everyone was of equal value. Subordination relationships existed only when an order came from above or when someone worked for someone else, as in the case of Adam and Sera; but even in those cases, absolute mutual respect and non-interference outside work boundaries was expected from both parties. Therefore, unless it was an emergency, entering the headquarters of the angelic army without warning, which was notoriously a private space for the Exorcists, could almost be considered an offense.

And it wasn't just that. What also irritated Lute was the way that seraphim was looking at her: her expression was sweet, but it was as if she were staring at a defenseless animal before killing it, cooking it and eating it. There was something extremely wrong with her smile, and it caused Lute a lot of discomfort. "Who are you?" she asked her.

“Oh, forgive me, where are my manners?” the seraphim said, clapping her hands lightly, and she did it in a rather strange manner, as if she were trying to entertain a child. "My name is Adina. Nice to meet you"

Lute's frown deepened even more. That presentation seemed innocuous, but not calling her by her title of general, or at least 'lieutenant' since she hadn't been officially promoted, was quite disparaging for her since they were in service in front of the soldier, and consequently also for the rest of the army, since she was the boss. In fact, she wasn't the only one who thought so: many of the Exorcists were in fact raising their eyes very angry.

But whatever thoughts they were having immediately vanished when six much larger wings appeared before them. To everyone's surprise, the prince of Heaven Uriel appeared before Lute. "Hello, general" he greeted her showing much more politeness.

Lute immediately bowed his head in respect: "Lord Uriel, to what do we owe your visit?"

Uriel glared at Adina: "Didn't you warn them of our arrival?"

"I didn't have time" Adina replied without losing her smile. "I was too busy restoring those poor dead angels. There were so many of them, I wonder how it was possible"

Lute was starting to smoke: it wasn't difficult for her to understand that those words were subtly used to accuse her, or even worse, Adam of incompetence. Fortunately, this did not escape Uriel's notice either and he was not at all happy about it: "Next time, regardless of what your commitment is, let them know before coming. It's called good manners"

"I will remember it, Lord Uriel" Adina replied simply.

Lute was a little happy to see that impertinent seraphim being scolded, but she tried to show it and maintain a stoic expression: "Lord Uriel, may I ask you why you are here today, and accompanied by this one at that...?"

"Oh, it's simple!" Adina told her, totally ignoring the fact that the question wasn't directed at her. "The Heavenly Council has decided that from today I am your supervisor!"

Silence fell in the room. The color on Lute's face quickly changed from pearly white to the color of sun-bleached bones. And then she couldn't hold back any longer: "Excuse me, WHAT!?"

Chapter Text

Vaggie felt the acrid taste of dust in her mouth for the umpteenth time, and not without reason: this time Lute had literally made her eat dirt since she had sent her head deep into the ground. She forced herself to lift her neck again, spitting out all the dirt in her mouth.

Lute landed in front of her with a thud. "Stand up" she said through clenched teeth and cold eyes.

Vaggie knew that if she refused she would have most likely kicked her, so she stood up and made her shield reappear. Lute didn't wait any longer and launched herself at her, crashing with immense violence while brandishing her silver spear.

Vaggie gritted her teeth, trying to steady herself on her legs. Technically she was getting what she had wanted, since she and Lute were now in the arena together training… but she wished it had been at a time when she was less pissed off. And that's because Vaggie had turned into her personal punching bag, as she was clearly using her to let out a lot of steam.

They had been in the arena for two hours now, and although Vaggie had managed to hold her own against her sister at first, it hadn't taken long before Lute completely outclassed her. Vaggie suspected that most of it was due to adrenaline and anger rather than actual physical ability, but either way she had to admit that she really needed to train a lot before she was on par with her. She was sure that once that day was over she would be in pain for days despite her rapid regeneration, because every attack from Lute, even just the weakest punch, was like a block of marble thrown from a catapult as soon as it touched her.

Well, at least she had further proof that her body had become much more resistant than before. If Lute had hit her that hard not even a couple of days ago, she would no doubt have snapped her back in half like a stick.

Despite this, however, she still had no intention of giving up. And Lute welcomed this desire very willingly, since it meant continuing to have something to vent with. And she wasn't the only one, as many Exorcists had gathered in the stands and were cheering so much that Vaggie wouldn't have been surprised if they grabbed some bonbons and started dancing like cheerleaders. They were evidently enjoying the sight of her being repeatedly manhandled by their new boss.

Vaggie gritted her teeth as she parried yet another blow from Lute, so strong that it pushed her back a few feet despite her trying to resist with all her strength. She felt like she was constantly trying to stop an avalanche. She couldn't even fight back a little.

Lute was definitely very pissed off.

“What do you mean supervisor!?” Lute barked, glaring at Adina with fiery eyes. "And why wasn't I informed!?"

"It was a last minute decision" Adina replied without losing her mocking smile. “As for what I mean by supervisor… I assume you are smart, so get to it”

Lute was fuming. “We don't need a supervisor!”

"The Heavenly Council doesn't think so" Adina told her.

Lute's eyes flashed. Not only was that a total mockery of her authority, not only because someone was overriding her, not only because it meant breaking Adam's wish for her to command the Exorcists in his absence, but above all because that damned mocking smile Adina was sporting it was burning her soul. Only by summoning all her self-control did she manage to avoid punching her full in the face.

Fortunately Uriel stepped in to mediate, calling attention to himself with a cough: "Lute, I know you may not like it, but this is the decision of the Heavenly Council. After Adam, Sera and Azrael disappeared, it was deemed that it's appropriate to place someone to monitor the celestial army more firmly. You are still our armed force, we cannot risk something else happening"

Lute clenched her fists. "This is outrageous! Adam has given me command of this army!"

"And it's still yours" Uriel answered her. "Adina will not interfere with your work or your training, everything will always be under your jurisdiction. She will simply observe and intervene where she deems it necessary"

Lute raised an eyebrow. "Really? I'm still in charge?"

Uriel nodded. "I won't deny it that there were several people who proposed to... take the control away from a human soul... and place a high-ranking angel in charge of the army, but Michael took your side. Therefore the control of the army is still yours, you just have to take into account that you are now being watched by Adina"

Even though Uriel had tried to sweeten the pill as much as possible, Lute still felt like she was chewing on iron. It wasn't difficult to understand that from now on her every move would have been monitored on sight, and the fact that it was that angel with the mocking smile who would have done it drove her mad. It was no different from going back to work under someone else, with the difference that with Adam she had a relationship of strong trust and he basically gave her total freedom except when there was a real need to be disciplined, while she was sure that Adina on the contrary would have been constantly breathing down her neck.

Even the other Exorcists were not at all happy: "You can't!"

"Yeah! We've always done everything ourselves!"

“This is an abuse of authority!”

Uriel let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I didn't want this, but unfortunately this is how it was decided. The missing angels were all connected to the angelic army; the rest of the Heavenly Council prefers a guarantee that this series of problems will not continue"

Vaggie had remained silent up until that point, and honestly couldn't blame Uriel entirely. Adam, Sera, and Azrael were all people connected to the heavenly army, and considering that it was the military force of Heaven, it was natural that the Heavenly Council would want to impose tighter control over it, especially during that very troublesome time. Maybe if Adam had still been there he would have been able to convince them to trust him, but the angels didn't have that same trust in Lute, who in their eyes was basically a novice. After all, Lute had never really led an entire army, and she found herself having to do so in one of the most difficult moments of all: placing a supervisor alongside her was an almost obvious move.

However, Vaggie still found that making this decision without even notifying the person concerned or asking for her opinion was quite insulting. "The Exorcists have always been autonomous" she tried to protest. "They have their own training regimes and ways of conducting missions. I'm not sure an outside supervisor could…"

"Sera used to do it. Why can't I do it?" Adina interrupted her.

Vaggie felt quite irritated. Fuck, that cocky smirk was really material for repressed anger. "Sera knew when to step aside and let Adam have total control of the situation. She hardly interfered in anything, just helped when asked and reported orders. I don't think you can..."

“Do you doubt my competence?” Adina asked, putting her hand over her mouth as if she were deeply offended, even though she was clearly just teasing her. "Well, you certainly have the ability to do so, given your track record! You've never caused any trouble, right?"

Vaggie's eyelid twitched slightly. “Before you barged in here like you owned the place, I was trying to apologize!” she replied. "And anyway, I'm a special case!"

"One special case is already too much for me" Adina replied mockingly. "And from what I see, the new general has readmitted you without too many preambles, which creates a lot of doubts in me about your ability to evaluate situations"

Vaggie was already on the verge of exploding. Damn, she was so annoying. “I don't let someone judge me without even knowing me!”

“I'm just stating facts" Adina said simply. "Lately this army has clearly shown signs of imbalance. Evidently Adam had begun to use an unsteady hand. It is appropriate to remedy this"

Lute seemed to catch fire as soon as she heard her say those words; it was lucky that she was extremely cool and able to control herself, because otherwise she would have already tried to tear the smile off Adina's face in the truest sense of the word.

“Adina, stop” Uriel said in a firm voice. Evidently he wasn't liking that behavior either.

“Again, I'm just stating facts” Adina repeated. "Wasn't Adam the one who refused to shoot against Hell despite the situation requiring it, and who then also spoke back to Azrael? It's clear that he has softened in recent times, otherwise trouble like those represented by her wouldn't have happened" she said, pointing at Vaggie in a rather degrading manner.

Vaggie was smoking. "Adam just chose the path of mercy! You know, the one angels are supposed to follow!"

“But I blindly follow the path of mercy” Adina retorted, wiping away a fake tear. "Is it not mercy to rid a demon of their miserable life? With what cruelty could I let them live in Hell? Killing them is a blessing to them"

Vaggie turned red, and was by now on the verge of exploding, but Uriel was the one who ended that conversation: "I said enough!" he roared, spreading his wings wide, exuding an aura of such power that everyone's breaths stopped for an instant. From his expression it was clear that he would not have tolerated any further retorts.

Adina finally lost her wry smile and lowered her head. Evidently she too knew when it was best to remain silent. There was a long moment of silence, and then Lute clenched her fists: "Okay, your excellency, as you wish"

Vaggie looked at her in surprise, and many Exorcists did the same. "But...!"

"There's no point in protesting, the decision has already been made" Lute said, silencing everyone immediately, and then she turned to Adina: "May I know who chose you for this job?"

Adina narrowed her eyes: "I don't have to inform you about..."

"It was Gabriel" Uriel answered for her. "He ensured that she was one of the best under his command, suited to this task"

"In that case, Lord Uriel, please inform Lord Gabriel that I wish to speak to him as soon as possible" Lute told him.

Uriel nodded slightly. "I will" he promised her.

Adina let out a snort. "The decision was made by the Heavenly Council, you can't change it just by chatting with Lord Gabriel"

"Maybe. But if I really have to accept this situation, I would at least like to have a supervisor who doesn't irritate my soldiers every time she opens her mouth" Lute replied back.

Adina would have gladly responded to such words, but noticing Uriel's look, she preferred to avoid starting another argument. “I'll get to work right away" she told Lute. "I'll start by inspecting your office, if you don't mind"

"Go ahead, I have nothing to hide" Lute replied. Adina glared at her, but then she turned and left without saying a word.

Uriel let out a sigh. "I apologize for her behavior"

"Don't apologize, your excellency" Lute told him. "Tell the Heavenly Council that I will respect their will"

"I thank you for your cooperation. Adam has chosen his successor well" Uriel replied to her, and then he left as well.

Silence fell in the room again. As soon as the prince of Heaven was no longer there, Lute completely lost her composure and began to emanate sparks from her wings. "Vagatha?"

Vaggie gulped a little. "Um... yes?"

"In the arena. You and me. Now" Lute ordered her in a tone that allowed no replies.

Vaggie broke out in a cold sweat. Even though she had suggested it that morning, she felt quite uncomfortable at that moment. "Well, at least this will be fun" one of the Exorcists said with a chuckle.

It wasn't fun. Not for Vaggie at least.

Vaggie was punched in the sternum for the umpteenth time. "Ugh... haven't you vented yet...?"

"Not yet. Keep playing a punching bag" Lute replied without any emotion in her voice, a sign of how much pent-up anger she was letting out.

Vaggie blocked her spear with her shield, and then with her free hand tried to block her arm. "Do you think Adina will be a problem...?"

"Of course she will be a problem!" Lute responded by breaking free and kicking her in the teeth. "You talked to her too, didn't you? Just because of her face she's a problem!"

Vaggie spat blood out of her mouth. Hell, she was really thankful for the resistence she'd gained since unlocking the power of Eden, because otherwise she wouldn't have had a jaw anymore by now. "I didn't mean about the bitchiness... well, that too actually... I was referring to whether or not it will be an obstacle in finding Adam..."

Lute grabbed her by the hair and sent her flying through the air before slamming her back into the ground. "Whether she's a spy or not, she's an obstacle. We can't trust anyone, and with her watching us twenty-four hours a day it will be very difficult to search for Adam in secret" she replied as she pulled her up again. "And for your information, short hair serves to prevent the enemy from grabbing you from behind! Cut off this horsehair you've been growing!"

"Urgh... no thanks, I'm fine" Vaggie replied, and then raised her hands and shot a beam of purple energy at Lute, sending her flying backwards. She didn't stop until she was at least five meters away, where she turned and landed perfectly on her feet.

Vaggie inspired deeply. Well, at least they were talking a little. Amid the roar of their battle their voices were completely hidden, preventing prying ears from hearing them, even their spectators. They could have used that trick to secretly send each other messages... although Vaggie would have preferred to avoid getting beaten up like that every time. But ultimately, that was part of the training too.

Lute attacked her again, this time even more quickly; Vaggie concentrated and, making at least a little use of the ballerina notions she had learned from Carmilla, she emptied her mind and did a half pirouette, managing to escape her grasp... for three seconds, then Lute recovered from the shock and changed the his attack to take her leg and cut off her chances of escape.

Their movements were so rapid that their spectators were barely able to see two colored blobs stirring in the arena. However, it was clear to everyone that Lute had the advantage. If Vaggie was a quick purple spark who constantly dodged, Lute was a mighty silver bolt who tried to disintegrate everything it hit. The difference between them was evident.

But despite this, Vaggie refused to even ask for a break.

Fighting was the moment when she could think best; the mind was emptied, the emotions were released. Everything became incredibly simple, and the brain seemed to go into overdrive. It was like being thrown into a dance where you either danced perfectly or died. Every time she fought, she felt almost as good as if she had taken a stress pill. "Adina will probably check on both of us" she told Lute as she tried to squeeze her arm. "But she can't control both of us. If we want to look for Adam, we can use this to our advantage"

"That makes sense to me" Lute told her, all while spinning her around like a top.

"We just have to coordinate well!" Vaggie freed herself from her grasp using her wings as counterweight. "We just have to bite the bullet and force one of us to stay with her to distract her while the other does the work. I can do it if you want..."

Lute grabbed her by the hair again. "Thank you, I really appreciate it!" she shouted at her in a voice halfway between sarcastic and serious, but not before slamming her to the ground again.

Vaggie gritted her teeth as she felt the dirt on her face for the umpteenth time, but she stood up again. That fight was giving both of them the chance to get rid of some negative emotions, and was definitely forcing her to overcome her limits. And honestly, she was starting to enjoy it too.

Chapter Text

“So basically, there are people planning to take advantage of the moment to overthrow the system?” Stryker murmured, his eyes shining with interest. "If so, we should participate"

“I'm afraid to ask, but what do you mean by participating?” Blitz asked him.

Stryker hissed. "It's obvious to me, this is a golden opportunity to teach the blue bloods a lesson and make a big name for yourself. Someone like me should be at the forefront... and so should you, since with your new powers you can give a hand" 

"Thanks for relegating me to the role of sidekick without even asking me, but anyway, no, we won't do something like that!" Blitz told him. "We don't even know if these things are true or what these people really plan to do" 

Stryker snorted. "Coward" he accused him. “Instead of wasting time, we should do something!”

“I'm already regretting bringing you in” Blitz sighed. "I'm in charge here, so do as I say. Now shut the fuck up"

Stryker didn't like those words. "I don't...!"

"Guys, stop" Angel stopped them with a grunt. "We've arrived. We have to get busy"

The three of them exited the van trying to look as natural as possible. Following the plan, they had decided to go to a club to investigate; they had initially thought of going somewhere in Pentagram City, but then concluded that they were now too well known there, so they opted for Imp City. Blitz knew many places there where people wouldn't mind his presence even if he was near the new queen, so it would be easy to go unnoticed.

They entered the place, which was a rather poor pub, and headed towards the bar. As soon as he saw him the bartender let out a grunt: "Blitz, you haven't shown up in a while"

"I've been busy" the imp told him simply. "I want to have a nice evening with my friends. Bring out the best beer you have"

The bartender didn't have to be told again and immediately gave them three abnormal glasses. The three of them sat down at one of the tables and started acting as if they were really only there for that. "Mh. You didn't tell me you knew a place where they made such good beer" Angel commented.

"The secret is how they don't wash the glasses" Blitz replied. He and Angel immediately struck up a conversation while Stryker mostly ignored them; and while they did this, their ears were wide open, and in particular they were directed towards the bartender's table, who was conversing with other customers.

"Hey, is that...?"

"Blitz. He's a loyal customer"

"But don't you know who he is? He works for the queen!"

"So what? He's still a loyal customer"

"Mh. Which side do you think he's on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Yes, you know! Do you think he will side with us or them?"

"I don't know and I don't care. As long as he pays he can do whatever he wants"

"Come on, you can't be so stoic! Don't tell me you don't want to feel free too!"

"I'm already free"

"Yes, of course. We are all slaves to those blue bloods. But with the new queen things could change! Maybe we should try talking to that Blitz"

"Not in my pub. If you want to look for trouble, get out of here"

"I don't want to ask for trouble, just ask him something! Like, what does the new queen plan to do now that Hell is stable? Will she help us lower classes? Everyone knows she doesn't like slavery!"

"What happens in politics is none of my business. Now stop bothering me"

That was just one of many conversations they overheard.

At some point Angel pretended to be about to vomit, and Blitz and Stryker grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him outside while ignoring the laughter of the other people. Once outside they reached an alley, and there immediately their idiotic drunken expressions vanished and were replaced by serious ones. “Did you hear the conversations at the counter?” Blitz asked.

"Yes, and not only that" Angel replied. “The people behind me were discussing it in much more detail. They were whispering that someone like you would definitely be useful in what they wanted to build. They didn't specify what it was, but I'm increasingly convinced that Arackniss was right”

Blitz let out a deep sigh. “The lower classes are really talking about change” he muttered, rubbing his face. "Fuck... I should rejoice in this, it's something I've dreamed about for years myself, but fuck, now that we're in it I feel..."

Stryker moved suddenly: it was so fast that Blitz didn't even have time to turn his head to notice what was happening. When he turned around, the rattlesnake imp was standing in front of the wall, and on the said wall was the helpless body of an imp, his head completely crushed by the hand of his killer. “You… what the fuck…!?”

"He was spying on us" Stryker told him without any emotion in his voice, pulling his hand back and waving it to clear the blood and pieces of brain from his palm.

Angel had widened his eyes in amazement: unlike Blitz he had seen what had happened, and had noticed something very strange for a fraction of a second. The moment Stryker grabbed the imp's head, his hand had swollen and turned a bluish-silver color, similar to Blitz's when he took his cherub form. At that moment, it was as if the energy had exploded from the aforementioned hand and had given him such strength that not only had the imp's head exploded, but a hole had been created in the concrete and steel wall on which he had held it. slammed, and didn't even seem to have used his full potential.

Maybe that bathing in angelic energy had given Stryker abilities beyond those of common demons, like Blitz...?

"We are here to seek information!" Blitz growled. "You can't kill the first guy who comes by!"

"He was a threat" Stryker told him simply, and he did so in a tone that sounded like he was explaining the obvious to a child.

"There was no need to kill him anyway!" Blitz replied. "We weren't doing anything suspicious, as far as he knew we were three friends having a beer at a bar! It would have been safer to let him go so he could report to his bosses that he hadn't seen anything strange!"

Stryker let out a snort. He had really had enough. "If he had thought we were harmless, he would have gone and looked for someone else. What would have happened if he had actually found someone interested in a possible rebellion? You would have put an innocent person in danger. Aren't you the one who's been playing the champion of justice lately?"

"He's not entirely wrong" Angel admitted.

Blitz glared at him: "Which side are you on?"

"I'm on no one's side. I'm just trying to think straight while you two fight with your testosterone" Angel replied as he pulled some papers from the dead imp's pocket. "This guy was paid to track down information about possible rebellions. There's no name who sent it, but it's clear he's not someone who likes what's going on"

Blitz forced himself to ignore Stryker's smirk and focus solely on Angel. "Is there no way to trace the sender? Can you make out anything from the handwriting?" Angel shook his head. "The handwriting is very messy, it looks like it was made by a person who barely knows how to write..."

"Of course" Stryker said, snatching the paper from his hand. "It's a classic trick when you don't want to be tracked: you find a bum, you pay him to write down the order or the bounty so that it appears to come from a poor low-class person, and then you remove the witness and send the letter with money attached"

"I've heard about it. It's a simple but brilliant trick" Angel commented, thinking back to his time in the mafia. “However, we still have some clues”

"That is?" Blitz asked.

Angel showed him the imp's ID and his cell phone. "This guy was a resident of Sloth, and according to his geolocation he hadn't moved from there for at least a year. Which means the instigator couldn't be an overlord, or at least a sinner"

"They could have sent a hellborn to deliver the message" Blitz opined.

“Unlikely” Stryker contradicted him. "When you want to do something in secret you always try to involve as few people as possible. Every additional person is equivalent to an additional witness"

As much as he wanted to, Blitz couldn't contradict him. He too knew that the more people who knew something, the more that something was at risk of being revealed. The best course of action if you wanted to do something that no one else needed to know about was to do it with as few people as possible. There was a reason he'd tried to steal Stolas's grimoire on his own and then tried to keep their deal as anonymous as possible, even though the owl demon had often made things difficult for him, like when she'd called him his nickname at the Harvest Moon Festival in front of all those people.

Angel took out numerous bills from the imp's wallet. "It's a lot of money and it's unmarked. Untraceable, in short" he said. "Whoever sent it had a lot of money and the possibility of using some of it that couldn't be traced back to him. A very rich person, in short. And considering that it can't be an overlord, the most obvious solution is that he is an noble"

Stryker chewed his own saliva. "As I imagined. The fucking blue bloods are already starting to get suspicious"

Blitz gritted his teeth. “How did they know so quickly?”

"Arackniss knew it, and he's not exactly poor" Angel pointed out. "If the entire lower-middle class is aware that there are people who want to change the system, it is inevitable that the upper class has also noticed something. Maybe for now they are just suspicions, but as we have just ascertained they have already started to investigate"

Stryker let out a snort. “They definitely moved quickly” he said. "Whoever hired this guy clearly didn't think carefully about what job to give him. It shows that they don't yet know how bad the situation is... but they're still afraid of it. A snake always knows when it's in danger"

Blitz and Angel looked at each other. They didn't need to say anything to each other: they read each other's thoughts directly in their eyes. "Let's go home" the imp said finally. "Let's wait for the others to return too and then we'll explain everything to Charlie..."

"Or you could use the powers you now have to go to every fucking blue blood and cut off their heads directly" Stryker hissed.

Blitz narrowed his eyes. "We don't even know who the instigator is"

"Does it matter?" Stryker replied. "Every blue blood is now an enemy of these rebel groups, and therefore an enemy of our species. They will not let the common people free themselves from their yoke, as soon as they know where to strike they will do so. We can get ahead of them"

"Killing every single noble in Hell is not a solution" Angel opined. "The power is in their hands. Without it, everything would fall into chaos"

"I only see the possibility of finally being free" Stryker said. "If only someone would stop being a coward and finally use the powers that a stroke of luck he absolutely didn't deserve has given him, this would be a reality! This is the time to fight, not hide in fear!"

Blitz felt the urge to strangle him. "That's not the right way to solve a problem! And I'm not afraid of blue bloods!"

Stryker brought his face within inches of Blitz's. “Well, you should have” he said with a much louder hiss than usual. "You are underestimating your enemy, a mistake that will cost you dearly. If you give them time to organize, they will make you bleed. Do you think that just because you have superpowers now they are no longer dangerous? You are a fool. These people have had thousands of years to learn how to keep the people in chains, and they will not hesitate to do so when the time comes! Either you kill them right now, or you'll regret not having done so later!"

Blitz let out a snort so loud he wouldn't have been surprised if smoke came out of his nostrils. Luckily Angel intervened before the situation could escalate: "That's enough, both of you. Blitz, ignore this idiot. And you, asshole, get it into your head that we don't kill thousands of people at random and throw all of Hell into anarchy only for the suspicion that the blue bloods want to create problems"

Stryker turned away disdainfully. "Your pathetic pacifism will be your downfall. In this world, those who win are those who are ready to subjugate others by any means" he warned them.

"Maybe it will be our downfall, but we'll deal with that another day" Angel replied. "Now shut the fuck up"

Stryker was clearly annoyed, but nevertheless he decided that such conversation wasn't worth continuing and went silent.

Blitz thanked Angel with his eyes, and then tried to take control of the situation: "Okay, now let's go back to Pentagram City... no, wait" he said suddenly. "There might be other informants around here... it's not a good idea for us to move together. If we don't want to attract attention, we have to pretend that we really only came here for a beer, and that we killed this idiot just because it bothered us"

"Sounds like a reasonable move to me" Angel approved. "We dirty the body a little as if ours had really been a murder dictated only by the heat of the moment, then we go back inside. We stay here for ten more minutes, and then everyone goes their own way. I'll take the van and go back to Pentagram City; Stryker, you walk around the block, go to some other bar, fuck whoever you want, then take a bus and come back with that..."

"I'm going to my house" Blitz anticipated him. "It's nearby. I'll take a few hours' sleep and then take a taxi back"

"Fine, at least I don't have to spend a minute longer with you idiots" Stryker grumbled.

Angel also agreed. "Okay. Let's do this"

"Good. Let's mutilate the body properly then, and then let's go back inside" Blitz said, but just then his cell phone rang. "Sorry, it's Millie... you do it, I answer her"

Chapter Text

Millie sat in one of the Elevator's chairs, staring at the ceiling in silence as they descended downwards. She and Moxxie were headed to Wrath, where they planned to meet her parents in hopes of getting some clues. After all, Millie wanted to see how they were after what happened in that Ring, so she might as well go to them.

It didn't escape her notice, however, that her husband had become quiet... too quiet than usual. When Moxxie was nervous he tended to become neurotic and at times even slightly unstable (that 'slightly' was probably due to the fact that she was in love with him and, as people used to say, love made you blind... very blind), but at that moment he was simply locked in profound silence. Millie knew what this meant: her husband wasn't just nervous, he was seriously scared. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked him simply.

Moxxie just looked at her. "Talk about what?"

"You know" Millie told him. "What scares you"

Moxxie tensed. "There is... nothing that scares me"

Millie shook her head in disappointment. “Mox, you know that you and I are a team, right?” he told him. "Stop being defensive and tell me what's wrong. You know if there's one person who will never judge you, it's me. Come on, hurry up before I start to believe that you're so scared because you have another girlfriend and you know what I'll do to you in that case"

Moxxie laughed lightly at that. “I love you” he said to her without suppressing a smile, and then he let out a sigh: “It's just that... there's so much coming at us, and I'm not sure of anything anymore. I'm not scared, I'm just... worried. You know, I like to have everything under control, my bills, my weapons, the calculation of the missions... just the unpredictable way in which the boss behaves is getting on my nerves. It's as if the whole world has ceased to be predictable and now we are in the midst of an unstoppable current, and I don't know... what could happen to our friends... and to you"

Millie nodded. She could understand her husband's feelings very well; even though she was much more hotheaded than him and rarely thought about the future, she too was feeling the weight of all the insecurity they were now living in. "I know it's hard" she admitted. "Try to hold on. We have to be optimistic..."

"But being optimistic didn't stop us from getting in the middle of a battle with angels, or getting kidnapped by Chaz, or almost getting blown up, or..." Moxxie put a hand on his face. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to keep you safe, but instead... here we are, sitting on a powder keg that's about to explode and we don't even know where"

Millie smiled at him. "You know I'd even face God Himself with you, Mox" she told him, resting her head on his shoulder. "It's true, the future is unsafe. But I'm not afraid, because you will be with me. This is something I can predict with absolute certainty"

Moxxie trembled slightly. "But... even if I'm with you, it could still end badly. I'm not enough..."

"Oh, my! When are you going to get rid of this social anxiety?" Millie exclaimed elbowing him in the sternum. “Tell me, how did we meet?”

"Huh? It was at that bar in Wrath" Moxxie replied. "The boss and I were there to look for recruits, he got drunk like the fool that he is and started a fight with you"

"Quite a good fight, I must admit" Millie said. After all, she couldn't say that Blitz didn't really know how to fight well. "But who is the one who really beat me?"

Moxxie chuckled lightly. "I... because instead of attacking you like an idiot I made you stumble and end up with your face in a barrel full of herrings that made you pass out from the smell"

"See? So you're not 'not enough'. Or do you mean I could be beaten by anyone?" Millie asked him with an endearing smile.

Moxxie finally softened. "I would never think that"

“You better” Millie warned jokingly, and then she stood up feeling the Elevator had stopped. "Come on, get off your ass and let's get busy. And get that ugly mug out of your face"

Moxxie nodded. He couldn't help it, his wife managed to restore his smile even in the most difficult moments. So he followed her out of the elevator, and there they took a taxi that took them to Millie's hometown.

When they arrived, they found that the city was mostly intact, although it was much darker than usual: the volcanic ash in the sky wasn't enough to cover the pentagram's light, but it dimmed it quite a bit. All around them volcanoes were still erupting, and in the distance they could see rivers of lava emerging from the calderas. Fortunately the eruptions were no longer as violent and destructive as before, on the contrary, they had become rather tame.

Millie's parents' house was still largely damaged: even though the volcanic eruptions had not affected it, it had been hit twice by a devastating earthquake. However, some rooms had already been rebuilt, making it habitable again. The surrounding fields were mostly destroyed, but at least the people were okay: Joe and Lin didn't even have a scratch and came to hug their daughter again with great joy. "Welcome back, Pumpkin Spice!" her father greeted her. "And you too, Cupcake Husband!" 

"Thanks, sir" Moxxie murmured, hoping that it was a compliment.

Joe and Lin invited them into the house, or at least the part that was still intact, and made them sit at the table. Moxxie and Millie noticed that there was significantly less furniture inside than usual. “What happened to the cupboard?” she asked.

“Oh, we sold it” Joe said with a smile.

Millie's eyes widened. "But... it was grandma's cupboard...!"

"Yes, but every now and then we need to modernize!" Joe said. "We took this opportunity to get rid of some old stuff..."

"Dad..." Millie narrowed her eyes at him.

Joe raised an eyebrow: “What?”

“Joe, stop it, your daughter isn't a child anymore” Lin scolded her husband with a dirty look. "We sold a lot of the old furniture to buy the materials needed to rebuild the farm"

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Millie exclaimed. "I would have given you a hand..."

"You had already enough trouble on your mind, and don't say it's not true, I know it is" Lin said. Although she didn't know how many problems her daughter had been having recently, given that she was very close to the new queen she was sure that they were quite a few. "We can handle ourselves, you don't have to give us your money"

"Oh, come on! You know I have contacts with important people, I could have that money in a minute!" Millie protested.

Lin and Joe looked at each other and sighed. “Millie… it's not a good idea to show that you have any special privileges lately” her mother told her.

Millie was taken aback. "Why...?"

"Because people would be envious, and these days, people are very angry" Moxxie said. Unlike his wife, he had already understood everything. "Am I wrong?"

Joe let out a snort. "No, you're not wrong. Lately, people around here have been very angry with rich people, especially those of royal blood. If they see that someone is rebuilding his house faster, and therefore he must have received a lot of funds from someone rich , they treat him very coldly. They have never liked the rich and powerful... but since the situation has started to go bad they have been liked less and less. It is better to avoid showing that you have contact with them"

Moxxie and Millie looked at each other worriedly. From the looks of it, the lower classes were really pissed off. Arackniss hadn't lied. "Is the situation really that serious?" Millie asked worriedly.

"Many people already look at us badly just because they know that you work closely with the queen" Lin replied with a sigh. "Darling... people are scared. Look around us: not only we have suffered one disaster after another, but now all our fields are destroyed. The ash and lava have ruined every type of crop. We don't know if we will be able to resume production soon, and therefore have a source of income, all while we have to spend all the money we still have to rebuild our homes. Even if an Ars Goetia helped us with one of their magic tricks, the entire population is still becoming drastically impoverished. They are losing hope for the future, they have families to feed and they don't know what to do. In these cases, the people want an enemy... and what better enemy than those who have shown themselves to be little capable of managing a problem? The blue boods were already unpopular before, but now they are really hated. People are tired of feeling in danger, they want to be able to sit in front of the queen and be told what the plans for the future are, and inform her of their problems"

Simply put, people wanted freedom and the chance to be represented. Moxxie and Millie could read between the lines of what her parents were saying. They were about to ask another question, but just then the door opened again and Sallie May entered. “Oh, there you are” Joe told her. "Look who came to visit us"

"Oh, hello, sis. And you too, strong husband" Sallie greeted them, making Moxxie blush at the dig. "What brings you here?"

"We just wanted to see how you were" Millie replied by going to hug her, a gesture which her sister willingly reciprocated.

"Where have you been?" Lin asked with a frown on her face.

"Honey, you don't have to..." Joe tried to stop her.

Lin ignored him. "We were expecting you at home an hour ago, your father had to repair the crack in the wall all by himself. You were with those scoundrels again, right!?"

Sallie frowned. "Okay, first of all, sorry, Dad, I forgot about the crack. Second of all, I can go wherever I want, I'm an adult!"

"As long as you live under my roof, or rather, under my Ring, you will obey my rules!" Lin yelled at her, slamming her hands on the table. "I've already told you plenty of times that I don't want you hanging out with those people!"

"What are you talking about?" Millie asked him.

Joe sighed. "Like I told you, people are pissed off... and the more pissed off ones are making a lot of noise lately. There are some people going around saying that we lower classes should make our voices heard. They always attract a lot of people, and Sallie likes to go and listen to them, but your mother doesn't want..."

"Of course I don't want it!" Lin growled. "I already told you not to go near those fools!"

"They're not fools!" Sallie protested. "They only say right things..."

"I don't give a fuck, those are people who bring trouble!" Lin told her. "As soon as a noble gets really pissed off, they'll all end up on a pike! So woe betide you if you go back to them!"

"I'll go wherever I want!" Sallie screamed in anger. "Sorry, unlike you I at least take an interest in our problems!"

Lin became livid: “What the fuck did you say!?”

"You heard me right!" Sallie told her. "Look at the state we live in because the blue bloods didn't do their job well! Now we have a queen who loves us lower classes too, so why do we have to keep quiet and keep our heads down? I'm not going to spend my entire life waiting for someone to decide for me, breaking my back in the fields for a starvation wage, waiting for some nobleman or some other asshole to decide that my land is a nice place to build a house and evict me! to say that I'm changing the world, but at least I'm contributing a little by listening to those people!"

Lin's eyes flashed with anger. "Go to your room!" she shouted at her.

"I don't have a room anymore! I don't have one because all of Wrath is getting poor as shit!" Sallie yelled back at her. "Actually, you know what!? Now I'm going back to those fools that you dislike so much, I'm going to sleep directly there!"

"Don't you dare! Come back here now!" Lin yelled at her, but Sallie literally slammed the door in her face. Lin made a sound like a singed cat and stomped back into the kitchen.

Joe sighed deeply. "Sorry, guys" he said to Moxxie and Millie. "You've come to a bad time"

"Don't apologize, sir. We understand" Moxxie murmured.

Millie nodded. “I'm sorry this is happening” she said. “Do you mind if we go out for some fresh air?”

"No, go ahead. I understand that the atmosphere is heavy for you too" Joe told them sympathetically.

Moxxie and Millie thanked him, and then they got out from the house. As soon as they were outside she pulled out her cell phone. “It's better to warn Blitz” she said, with her husband's complete agreement.

"This is what Millie told me" Blitz finished explaining it to Angel. "Combining it with what we have just seen, heard and done, I would say there is no longer any doubt"

Angel nodded. "I feel like I've gone back in time. It's like being in Europe after World War I"

"I don't know what happened in Europe or what this world war is, but personally I don't care. What matters is that the ruckus is about to break out here" Blitz grumbled, rubbing his temples. "Let's put together what we know: on the one hand, there are all the lower classes who complain about the current regime and who see an opportunity in Charlie's rise to power; on the other, there is someone, most likely the nobles, who is already recruiting secret informants to discover their plans and be able to counterattack in time. Only to me does this seem like a mess like we've never seen before?"

"Unfortunately yes... and considering what we've been doing lately, that says a lot" Angel said in a tired voice. "Arackniss was right, it's only a matter of time before the powder keg explodes"

Angel had never been a history enthusiast, indeed, he could boast of being one of the most ignorant people on that subject, but in any case he too had not been able to remain indifferent at least to the decades closest to the era in which he had lived. The beginning of the twentieth century had been marked by one change after another, almost always bloody. If there was one thing Angel had learned it was that a people who had been oppressed for too long did not hesitate to seize the opportunity as soon as it presented itself, especially when they were in bad shape and the people in power demonstrated their ineptitude. If the situation continued unchecked, she wouldn't be surprised if they would experience a retelling of the Russian Revolution in Hell.

Stryker let out one of his usual hisses. "So now you have proof, it's starting. Are you still going to back down, or do you want to fight?"

Blitz and Angel ignored him. "We need to get together and think about it" the imp said. "Let's split up like we planned and go back one at a time. As soon as we're reunited and Charlie wakes up, we'll decide what to do"

His words made sense and Angel welcomed them willingly, and despite himself Stryker had to obey too. The three of them quickly returned to the pub, stayed there for a while longer, and then Angel left first with the excuse of not feeling well. Stryker did the same about half an hour later. Blitz stayed in the pub for a few more minutes, and then left. He headed towards his house, as planned: he would stay there and in the morning he would go back with a taxi. Or he could have simply asked Stolas to come and get him with the grimoire.

Having reached the building where he lived, he felt a little awe. Technically he hadn't been back to his apartment for only a few weeks, a month at most, but it already felt like an eternity. He had experienced so many adventures in that short amount of time that it was as if an entire lifetime had passed. That palace now gave him a strange feeling of nostalgia, as if he were a tired traveler returning home after too long a journey.

Using his keys to open the door seemed almost like an alien act to him. Nothing had changed: same furniture, same walls, same wallpaper. After all, very little time had passed in the real world, even if it seemed otherwise to his mind. He quickly climbed the stairs, the same stairs he had climbed plenty of times and which now it seemed he had never climbed, and reached the dilapidated door of his apartment. Who knows, he found himself wondering, if the food he had left in the pantry was still good.

But as soon as he touched the doorknob to insert the keys, he stopped.

The door was open.

Blitz's blood seemed to turn to ice. It could simply have been a thief, but he saw no signs of forced entry. His instincts told him that there wasn't just any criminal in his house.

With a click, he threw open the door and entered. “Who the fuck is in here!?”

The hall and living room were still spotless, but he heard noises coming from the kitchen, as if someone was humming. Blitz gritted his teeth and walked in quick strides to see who was there, and what he found before him was something unexpected.

He was a peacock; a lanky pavan demon, with a short blue beak and cyan eyes without pupils or irises and with periwinkle upper eyelids. His feathers were mostly white with smooth, short, light periwinkle fur with some dark blue spots. He regally showed off his long tail feathers, colored in an outlineless shade of cyan to white. He wore an extravagant coat in shades of blue with white details, the underside of which resembled tail feathers; the coat also included a large cyan fur collar, in which a snowflake design could be seen on the front. He was in front of the stove intent on preparing a coffee with extreme skill, humming happily in the process. "Oh, hello" he said, turning to him with a wide, magnetic smile. "I assume you're Mr. Buckzo, right? Can I call you Blitz?"

Blitz clenched his fists. There were plenty of demons in Hell with countless forms, but he knew a noble Goetia when he saw him. "Call me whatever the fuck you want. Rather tell me who you are and what you want"

The peacock demon placed a hand on his chest and bowed his head slightly, as if wanting to greet him politely. “Forgive the intrusion, but my desire to meet you was stronger than good manners” he told him, and then his smile widened and his eyes shone with a cold light. "My name is Andrealphus. I am Stella's brother... and also Stolas' ex-brother-in-law. It's a pleasure to meet you"

Chapter Text

Blitz narrowed his eyes more than ever. “How did you get in?”

"The door was open" Andrealphus answered him. "An oversight on your part, probably. Don't worry, I haven't touched anything except this coffee thermos"

Blitz knew that the door had not been left open, and he knew that Andrealphus too knew that this could not be the case. "What do you want?"

"Oh, just have a friendly conversation. You and me, no one else" Andrealphus answered him. "Just let me finish making this wonderful drink. You never talk unless you have something hot in front of you"

Blitz clenched his fists. He didn't like that albino peacock touching his things, but he knew he had to stay calm. If someone had entered his house then there certainly had to be a very valid, and above all dangerous, reason. And if that someone was Stolas' ex-brother-in-law... well, the situation couldn't have been more tense.

Suddenly he heard a voice in his mind: "Do you want to take care of him?" the white horseman asked him.

“Don't talk to me so suddenly!” Blitz whispered trying not to be heard by Andrealphus. "What do you care?"

"I clearly sense tension in you, and passing my powers to you has evidently created a stronger bond between us. Now if you are particularly tense, so am I" the white horseman replied. “Therefore, since that guy is clearly the object of tension, it would be logical to eliminate him”

Blitz tensed even more at those words. The bond between him and the horseman had grown stronger... how much stronger? He didn't like that, and he didn't like that he seemed to be advising him to use his powers either. What if making him use them continuously would have made their bond strong enough to let him take control of his body? He urgently needed to learn to manage that creature before something serious happened, or he might have lost himself and put everyone at risk. "Stay in your place. I'll take care of this" he finally whispered to him.

Andrealphus finished preparing the coffee and sat down elegantly at the table, motioning for him to do the same, and also made two cubes of sugar appear. Blitz sat down in front of him, and slowly tasted the coffee, trying to sense if there were any poisons in it. “So, how's it going with my ex-brother-in-law?” Andrealphus asked him.

"Do you want me to describe our positions in bed or are you satisfied with the slurping on the sofa?" Blitz asked him.

Andrealphus chuckled. "Come on, there's no need to be so defensive. I just want to know how Stolas is doing" he told him. "He was my brother-in-law, after all. It's my duty to worry about him now that he's a king"

"He's fine. He has a lot of responsibilities, but he's fine" Blitz replied hastily.

"I hope his father's death wasn't too painful" Andrealphus told him. "Did he get my condolence letter?"

"He probably missed it. He hasn't been home much lately, as you can imagine" Blitz replied.

"I see. Well, tell him I'm close to him" Andrealphus said. "We are all in..."

"Look, I'll stop you right now, bird" Blitz interrupted. "I know very well that you don't like sitting at this poor table with me, and I don't want to have you in the house. Instead of beating around the bush, tell me what the fuck you want"

Andrealphus seemed annoyed at being interrupted like that, but still he didn't lose his composure; on the contrary, his fingers drummed on the coffee cup in a rhythmic, almost disturbing way. "Okay" he told him. "Let's say I'm here to warn you. What you and Stolas are doing... this relationship between you two... is a problem for the nobility"

Blitz let out a grunt. "So you basically came all this way to tell me to break up with Stolas? You really didn't have anything better to do?"

There was a long moment of silence, so deep that not even the sound of a fly. And then, unexpectedly, Andrealphus burst out laughing. "Break up with Stolas? Do you think I came here to tell you this? Ah ah ah! Sorry, but you're off the mark. Why on earth should I interfere with your private life?"

Blitz was confused by those words. “Didn't you just say it's a problem?”

"No way! You misunderstood" Andrealphus replied without stopping giggling. "Look, I'll make an example for you: if tomorrow my sister told me that she was fucking an imp, a hellhound, or even some drunkard in a tavern, I would have absolutely nothing against it! What she does with her vagina is certainly not a matter of state! She should have fun, actually, enjoy life! And then, come on, I was young too, I know well what temptation beautiful people with sculpted abs represent!". And then he put on a jovial expression: "In fact, you know what? Maybe I might even get lucky, and I'll get a nice little nephew, and I'll be able to play the uncle again! It's very nice, you know? You should try!"

Blitz didn't like that situation. That albino peacock was acting way too strange, and it was quite worrying. Blitz had always preferred dealing with blunt people who told it like it was; those who wasted time in long monologues were always to be avoided, because they could stab in the back at any moment.

Andrealphus continued laughing for almost another minute, and then stopped. His gaze changed, becoming cold and penetrating, and even though he continued to smile, his expression sent a shiver down Blitz's spine. "But... if by chance my sister told me that she fell in love with that person... and maybe even wanted to marry them... well, in that case I couldn't stay silent. That would be a matter of state"

Blitz clenched his fists. "I've never been very smart. Say what you have to say without beating around the bush"

"Uh, believe me: it was noticeable that you weren't very smart" Andrealphus replied. "I'll keep it simple: what's between you and Stolas doesn't interest me. Nobody really cares. You can love each other as much as you want... but this doesn't have to be public. As long as you're alone in a room, please do whatever you want; but if you are in the company of other people, he is a noble Goetia, and you are an imp. Therefore, if by chance he were to offer you to go on a date, or to live in his house, or damn, even marry him... you will have to say no"

Blitz let out a growl. “Would it be that bad for you blue-blooded assholes if one of you kissed a lower class person on a bench in a park?”

"It would be enormously bad" Andrealphus replied. "The lower classes cannot, and must not, have illusions. They must be constantly reminded that their place is where they were born, and nothing more. Do you have any idea how difficult this is? We already have to deal with those damned sinners to which you kill people, who can become overlords and as a result continually carry the stupid idea that it is possible to aspire to something greater. And now, even some hellborns are daring to question social classes. It is imperative that this situation ends now"

Blitz let out a loud snort through his nostrils. He had heard enough. "My good guest..." he told him. "... can you kindly do me the courtesy... of getting out of my house and get the fuck out of here?"

Andrealphus didn't seem the least bit surprised by those words. "You know, I expected you to answer me like this. Believe me, your arrogant attitude is well known. It's easy to know when someone has the temerity to speak back even to the Deadly Sins" he told him. "But trust me... you don't want to upset delicate balances like this. The only reason why no one has yet tried to get you out of the way is because you have a special relationship with the new queen. But now everyone's patience is running out, especially now that Stolas is no longer just a prince but a king, and his influence touches hundreds of nobles and countless plebeians. I came here in a friendly capacity because we don't like to mess around too much... but don't think that you will have a peaceful life in the future if you are too stubborn"

"Why do you speak as if there were many of you?" Blitz asked him.

“Do you think nobles never talk to each other?” Andrealphus asked him with a sneer. "I'll tell you a secret: we nobles are quarrelsome and selfish, it's true. But just give us a common goal so that we forget about our disputes. Everyone knows that the new queen has certain... sympathies for silly ideologies such as equality and social respect. In such a context, nobles like me are rapidly coming together to form a united front against any possible alteration of the current status quo. It is not betrayal or opposition... it is just an expression of our birthright as superior beings"

Blitz slammed his fists on the table. "Well, you can tell anyone who's masochistic enough to talk to you that you don't scare me. Get this in your head: I've fought with things that in comparison you are a skinny pigeon. Don't challenge me, you or your friends. If you think you can get the better of me, come here to my house at any time. I'll leave the door open"

Andrealphus didn't change his expression, but his eyes became more attentive. He could read people well and was no fool: it wasn't difficult for him to understand that Blitz wasn't just being loud. He was truly ready to face him and anyone else who showed up at his door. He didn't know how an imp could be so confident, but after all, the one in front of him had a special relationship with the queen, and it was therefore possible that he was hiding an ace up his sleeve. "I understand. So it is completely useless to continue this conversation"

"Yeah" Blitz replied. "Now get out of my house"

"Wait a moment, please. Just let me finish my coffee" Andrealphus said as he brought the cup to his lips. "I need a boost of energy... you know, I'll have to go to Gluttony next"

Blitz stiffened. "To Gluttony...?"

"Yes, you know, I have work to do. A lot, actually" Andrealphus answered him. "You know, after what happened both in Wrath and Greed, that too is a very problematic area lately... your daughter was really very brave to go there"

Blitz's fingers clenched so tightly they created gouges on the table. "I never told you my daughter was in Gluttony" he hissed in a thin voice.

Andrealphus' smile widened, and he showed a pleased expression. "Oh... really? I thought you did. It must have slipped my mind..."

Blitz jumped onto the table and grabbed him by the neck. "Come closer to my daughter..." he growled. "... and I swear I will make you beg to give yourself death"

Andrealphus didn't bat an eye. Suddenly his skin temperature dropped dramatically, to the point that Blitz let him go while icicles were forming on his fingers. "My good friend, please don't do this. You risk creasing my collar... and this dress costs more than your entire agency" he warned him. "There's no need to behave like a barbarian. Let's talk about it like civilized people"

Blitz let out an angry grunt. He felt the urge to unleash the white horseman's power again, but he was able to hold back. "There is nothing to talk about. You touch her, and I will destroy you"

Andrealphus chuckled. “And maybe destroying me will bring that little dog back to life?” she asked him rhetorically.

Blitz gritted his teeth, barely managing to contain himself. He hadn't vaporized that bastard yet just because he knew his sister was around too, who might be just as much of a bastard as him. And from what Andrealphus had told him, they weren't the only nobles enough of a motherfucker to do such a thing.

Andrealphus cracked his neck, nonchalantly rubbing the spot where Blitz had grabbed him. “Don't get me wrong, I have no ill intentions towards your daughter; I would never stoop to such brutal and beyond disgusting actions. But I can't guarantee anything for all the other nobles who feel threatened by your and Stolas' actions. For now they are kept at bay by the fact that they are sure that I will be able to convince you with good manners, and that this whole thing will end with a handshake and a big laugh. But if I fail... well... they'll not remain silent"

Blitz trembled with anger, worry, and fear. "How long have you been spying on my daughter?"

"We don't need to spy on her. We have eyes and ears everywhere, we always know where every single person in this world is. Everyone who lives in the society is under our control. We are the society, don't forget that" Andrealphus answered him. "And we know many things about you. We know all your affections, both present and past, and we can find them, no matter where you hide them. Let's say you manage to make Loona disappear; can you do the same with my niece Octavia? With your two employees? With your friends, new and old? With your old loves?"

Blitz was snorting like an angry bull. Andrealphus seemed to find this very amusing. "If it can reassure you, I know how nobles like me act. They won't start immediately with your daughter, or with Stolas'... it's not convenient to start from such close affections, you risk motivating revenge. First they will send you a message through someone else you can lose without going crazy. If I have to guess... I think it's going to be that pop star"

Blitz's eyes widened. "Verosika...?"

"You've gotten closer lately, right?" Andrealphus chuckled. "These are very hard times, Blitz. Hell was dangerous before... but now, if such a beautiful woman found herself alone on the street... well, she could easily disappear. Maybe they won't even kill her... they'll just have fun with her, if you understand what I mean". His eyes narrowed wickedly. "And if the message isn't received even like this... well, it would still be too early to focus on the daughter. The sister is a better choice"

Blitz really jumped on him this time; the chair Andrealphus was sitting on broke and they both ended up on the floor. The peacock demon was surprised at how much strength the imp had, and even more so when some of his veins began to flash slightly white. "If tomorrow I see one of them even just disheveled, I swear I will come to you" Blitz threatened him with a look that sent flames. "No matter where you go, I will search for you, I will find you, and I will kill you"

Andrealphus' smile faded; the peacock demon had realized that the one in front of him couldn't be just any imp. But despite this he did not lose his calm: "And will you also kill every other noble who feels threatened by you? You are alone, we are thousands. Maybe you will kill me... but what's to stop the next noble from killing another one of your loved ones? And the next one, and the next one again? You won't know who they are until they send you their message"

Blitz was salivating with anger, and he felt the urge to snap Andrealphus' neck cleanly, but he had enough rationality to realize that by doing so he would have basically declared war on the entire noble faction, who would have made him pay. They couldn't harm him, not while he had the power of the white horseman... but the same couldn't be said of all his loved ones. With an almost inhuman effort, he let go of Andrealphus and allowed him to stand up.

The peacock demon calmly got back to his feet, without losing his elegance. "I see we finally understand each other" he said, and he gave him a contemptuous look: "I won't come to warn you a second time. Stay in your place, or next time here there won't be me, but a package containing the head of someone that you care about. Fuck Stolas all you want, love him if you really wish, but woe betide you if you dare to make this relationship between you two public. Whatever is between you... it must not go further. He is a Goetia king, you are an imp for him to have fun with: that is all the rest of Hell has to see, and nothing more. I hope I was clear enough"

Blitz wanted to punch him, but he didn't. Andrealphus smiled pleased at seeing him so submissive. "Well, I see you get the hint. Behave yourself and I won't have to come back here. Oh, and if by chance one of these days you would contact your dear friend Fizzarolli, or why not, even that muscular chad of Vortex... warn them that they too might get a visit soon if they don't start to change their behavior. The Deadly Sins had fun, but now we can't tolerate it anymore. Make sure they understand too, so we don't have to deal with them"

Blitz tensed even more hearing him say those words. “Do you have anything else to rant about?”

Andrealphus shook his head. "No, I'll leave you alone. I understand that I'm an unwelcome guest for you" he replied, heading towards the door. An instant before leaving he took a small golden coin from his pocket and tossed it to him: "To you. For your kind hospitality... and the broken chair"

And with that said he left the apartment, closing the door behind him. As quickly as he had come, he disappeared without a sound.

Blitz put the coin in his mouth and, despite its hardness, he bent it with his teeth. His anger was such that the white horseman energy was emerging from him in the form of boiling steam. "Why didn't you kill him?" the knight asked him in his head.

"It would have been useless. By killing him I would have warned his friends that they must take action immediately, and I wouldn't have seen my daughter alive again" Blitz replied with a grunt.

"What's the matter? You can always have another daughter" the horseman asked him.

“Fuck you” Blitz told him. "For us normal people it doesn't work like that, asshole. There is such a thing as empathy"

"Such sentiment is irrelevant. Leaving that man alive is clearly a major problem, not worth the life of a single person" the white horseman told him. "Why would it be worth focusing on one weak demon rather than the big picture?"

Blitz shook his head. "You really don't have a soul, do you?"

"Exactly. I am created for the sole purpose of fulfilling the Mother's wishes" the white horseman replied without hesitating.

"Then you cannot understand. You are nothing but a fucking robot" Blitz told him. “Do me the courtesy of shutting up instead of babbling in my head”

The white horseman seemed neither annoyed nor disappointed; as always happened except when something really interested him, he remained silent without expressing an opinion.

Blitz hurriedly reached for the phone and quickly dialed his daughter's number. The phone rang a couple of times, making him fear the worst, but then luckily she answered. "Dad...?"

"Loona, I'll call Stolas right now and tell him to come get you with his grimoire. Whatever happens, don't leave him and Octavia" Blitz told her.

Loona noticed her father's frightened tone very clearly. Considering how unusual it was, this worried her quite a bit. “Dad, what is…?”

"Do as I say!" Blitz ranted, and he ended the call in her face without even waiting for her answer; immediately afterwards he called Stolas. As soon as the owl demon answered him, the first thing he said to him was: "Stolas, where the fuck are you!?"

"Huh? Blitz, I'm..." Stolas tried to answer him.

"No, I don't care! It was a rhetorical question!" Blitz exclaimed. "Take the grimoire, or use your powers, whatever you want! Rush to Gluttony and take our daughters now!"

Stolas immediately became tense: "Blitz, what are you...?"

"No time to explain!" Blitz growled. "Do as I say, then go back to your palace! I'll meet you there, I'll explain everything to you!"

And having said this he closed the call again without giving him time to reply; he knew that in any case Stolas would have done as he was told. He quickly scrolled through the phone book, looking for the numbers of Moxxie, Millie, Fizzarolli and Verosika; he had a lot of calls to make, and quickly too.

Chapter Text

Luckily, Stolas had done as he was told and for once Loona had not argued and obeyed her father, and so everyone had gathered at the owl demon's palace. Once there Blitz had explained the whole matter to them. It was lucky that Charlie was in a bed sleeping, otherwise she probably would have had a stroke. When he finished, Stolas was furious. “How dare that albino peacock!?” he growled. “Does he really expect that he can threaten someone like that and have me say nothing!?”

"He really was a bastard" Octavia confirmed, proving that she thought exactly like her father.

Loona was angry too, and she had to summon all her self-control not to destroy everything she found around her as usual. Knowing that she had been Andrealphus' blackmail weapon made her furious. That bastard would have been reduced to ashes if he had dared to threaten only her father, but since she had also ended up in the middle, he had left on his own two feet without being punished in the slightest. Even though she was technically not at fault, she still felt frustrated.

Moxxie cleared his throat: "Boss, what do we do? We prepare the sniper rifles?"

"Yeah! We have to think about the counteroffensive...!" Millie said with her usual bloody enthusiasm.

But Blitz's glare froze them all. "There will be no counteroffensive, not in the near future at least!" he growled angrily. "I don't know if you have understood, but Andrealphus is not the only one! If we kill him we will only send a message of challenge!"

"Challenges can be faced!" Loona protested.

“Not if you are the price!” Blitz replied seriously. "Stolas and I can fight, you guys can't! And those people kill for sport! If we challenge them without even knowing who they are, all of you can already buy your coffins! So no counteroffensive!"

"But we can't leave them unpunished!" Loona growled angrily. "Why don't you…!"

"YOU WILL NOT DO ANYTHING!" Blitz yelled at her, silencing her immediately. "I am your father, and you will obey me! Now shut your mouth and never again talk about doing something dangerous that would get you killed, don't even think about it!"

Loona fell silent. It was very rare that Blitz showed himself to be authoritarian with her, he almost always left her absolute freedom and she often took advantage of it too much. But on those very rare occasions when he really wanted to be listened to, he was able to seriously put her down as only a parent would have been able to do. So, although fuming with anger, she lowered her head and didn't dare to reply.

Seeing that some sort of calm had returned, Moxxie turned to Stolas: "Your Highness, do you believe this is all true? Are there many nobles ready to act to prevent any love affair between the various classes?"

"Yeah! That sounds like bullshit to me. That asshole probably made it all up to scare us" Millie said.

But Stolas was not of the same opinion. "Instead I'm afraid that's the case" he admitted.

"Why? You two have been together for months, you even went on a date together!" Millie exclaimed. "And then there's Fizzarolli who fucks Ozzie, Vortex who fucks Beelzebub... why didn't anyone give a damn before and now everyone wants to stop you from loving each other?"

Stolas let out a deep sigh. "Because before there was Lucifer on the throne"

Everyone looked at him in confusion, but it didn't take long for them to understand. "Yeah... that's true" Moxxie murmured. "Before there was Lucifer... now there is Charlie"

"What does that mean?" Loona asked them.

"When Lucifer was in power, and Lilith with him, if anyone hobnobbed with the lower classes it wasn't a big deal. Even if it gave them hope, Lucifer simply ignored their requests and rejected them" Stolas explained to them. "But with Charlie it's different. All of Hell knows that she doesn't turn her back on the inferiors, which is exactly why the lower classes are now planning a revolt against the nobles. And in the same way the nobles know that she believes in equality, therefore they know that they must crush any potential rebellious thoughts now, before the voice of the people reaches the ears of the new queen"

"Before, the nobles didn't have to fear such ideologies spreading, but now they do. With a good queen on the throne, they must ensure that any obstacles to their rule are removed so that everything remains as it is" Moxxie explained.

“But if it's so dangerous for them, why not start with Fizzarolli or Vortex?” Loona asked again. "They are much more prominent figures, they should be removed first"

A loud hiss attracted everyone's attention, who turned towards Stryker, who had been leaning against a wall aside all that time. "Nobles don't care about popularity, but about danger, young lady" he said with a grunt.

"Shut up, asshole! Nobody asked you" Millie told him, although she immediately added: "But he's right"

"What do you mean?" Loona asked confused.

"That for the nobles, Blitz represents the greatest danger" Stolas told her. "It's true, Fizzarolli and Vortex are more famous, but they are also more harmless. Fizzarolli is just a popular clown, he doesn't even know how to fight. Vortex is a peaceful person without big dreams of glory. But Blitz is different. He is charismatic, intelligent, and survived numerous battles proving his strength. He repeatedly spoke back to powerful demons in public, even to the Deadly Sins. He never showed fear even though he had no support from any high-ranking demon. This, for the nobles, is the representation of everything they fear"

"If your daddy wanted to cause a riot, he'd have everything he needed to convince a lot of people to follow him" Stryker said as he approached in his usual creepy manner. "That idiot is exactly everything you would expect to find in a leader of a riot group. Not a clown who can do nothing but make himself ridiculous, not a hellhound whose only intent is to protect someone, but a first-class bastard who is not afraid to challenge powerful demons. If they asked me to draw the identikit of the person who will present themselves in front of the new queen asking for laws to protect the rights of the lower classes, he would be the perfect example"

"Thanks" Blitz replied sarcastically. "You wouldn't be bad either"

Stryker grinned at him. "I know. But the difference between you and me is that I'm not identifiable because I didn't waste my time fucking a bird"

"And yet you're still blackmailable" Blitz reminded him.

Those words were enough to wipe the smile off Stryker's face. "You are a disgrace to our species" he hissed at him. "If you were a real imp, you'd be out there supporting the rioters' cause instead of wasting your time with this vapid pacifism!"

"Of course, burning half Hell in the process" Blitz replied. “I assume you have no problem with that, right?”

"You have the powers of a demigod within you!" Stryker accused him. "You could wipe out all those blue bloods in one night if you wanted, and free our people from the yoke of those bastards!"

“This is not how we are going to change things!” Blitz yelled at him. "We would only cause anarchy! And not all blue bloods deserve death!"

"You're such a poor prick" Stryker told him.

Blitz's eyes began to glow white. “Shut the fuck up and step aside" he warned him.

Stryker wanted very much to unleash his new powers, but he knew he couldn't, not until he had absolute control over them. For the moment, the red horseman still exerted strong resistance to his will. He had to get hold of him before teaching that traitor to their species a lesson. And besides, technically, he was still undercover on behalf of what was now effectively a hellish goddess. So he swallowed his pride and stepped aside. "As you wish. You're the boss, right?" he told him rhetorically. Blitz gritted his teeth, but didn't react to that provocation.

Seeing that a semblance of calm had returned, if you wanted to call it that despite all the tension that lingered in the room, Angel murmured: "So, in summary... on one side we have the lower classes who hope to be able to take advantage of Charlie's kindness to create an egalitarian system, on the other we have the powerful people of Hell who want everything to remain as it is now. Is it just me, or does this promise the beginning of a terrible clash?"

"It does" Stolas confirmed. “As soon as these two groups collide, it will undoubtedly be civil war on a scale like we have never seen”

"I'll tell you how it will go: first the nobles will discover the existence of groups of inferiors who want equality, and they will eliminate some of them. This will be the spark that causes the fire, and the hellborns will rise up to take revenge. At that point it will be a free-for-all with no holds barred" Moxxie said through clenched teeth while biting his fingers with a lot of nervousness. "Imagine Hell transformed into a huge war zone, where everyone is constantly killing each other. It would be impossible to maintain any kind of order"

Millie let out a snort. “So… what do we do?”

Blitz crossed his arms over his chest. "The most logical thing: let's let them believe that they won"

There was a moment of silence. "Yes... unfortunately you're right" Stolas admitted. "We still know too little about both of these groups, and the nobles will not send another kind messenger. We cannot challenge them at this time. So it is best to give them the idea that we have surrendered"

“So are you and Blitz going to stop hanging out in public?” Octavia asked with a lot of bitterness in her voice.

But Blitz shook his head. "It's not enough" he said. "We need something more radical. We have to delude the nobles that they have managed to scare us completely, and that therefore we do not represent a danger to them. Otherwise, they will soon make other demands to be able to force us even more. They must be sure that we have not the courage to oppose us, so they won't feel the need to put us in chains"

Everyone looked at him. "What do you want to do, dad?" Loona asked him.

Blitz sighed. "I'm leaving" he finally replied. "I'm going away from the Pride Ring tonight. I'll disappear for a while"

"What!?" Loona gasped, and she wasn't the only one. "What are you saying...?"

"It's the best choice" Blitz said immediately. "If I run away like a coward, the nobles will be convinced that they have succeeded in terrorizing both me and Stolas. They will not feel the need to carry out any radical action against us, and will be less concerned about others like Fizzarolli. By doing so, moreover, keeping an eye on us will no longer be their priority, making it easier for us to investigate. Therefore, it is better for everyone that I disappear for a while"

Stolas made a hissing noise like a bird of prey, but was unable to contradict the imp. "You could just hide in my palace..."

"No. I'd be surprised if they didn't send someone to check on me after I disappeared" Blitz replied. "And also... I have to confess that I was already thinking about it. I need to get away from any population center for a while"

"Why!?" Loona asked him almost shouting.

"Because I have to learn to control the asshole in my head!" Blitz answered her. "Listen, the white horseman... has an influence on me. And it seems our bond is growing stronger. I need an isolated place to train without risking killing anyone"

Everyone's eyes widened. "You didn't tell us this...!" Moxxie exclaimed.

"Because I only found out tonight!" Blitz told him. "I suspected it before, but tonight when Andrealphus came into my house, the asshole in my brain and I were much more in tune. He confirmed to me that we are now much more connected than before. I don't know how strong our connection could become. I need to understand how to achieve a balance, I can't risk him being able to regain control. And since the situation demands it, then I might as well retreat to some desert like a fucking monk"

No one said anything for a long moment. In the end it was Stolas who asked him: "Are you really sure about this?"

"Yes. I will keep the phone with me and we will update every three hours, and you will tell me everything that happens to you in every detail" Blitz told him. "If the situation requires it, I will come to your aid"

"And who will come to your aid?" Angel asked him somewhat doubtfully. "Let's say the white horseman takes control. Who will help you free yourself? Who will watch over you?"

"I'll do it" Stryker said suddenly.

Millie let out a snort. “Of course, and we definitely trust you”

"Free to think of me whatever you want, but I'm still technically under contract to that idiot. I can't risk anything happening to him until he gives me what I want" Stryker told her. "And among us I'm the one who has the best chance of looking after him. I'm the strongest, I'm the smartest. And I can annoy him enough to drive him crazy even if that kind of horseman inside him takes control"

Obviously, in reality Stryker's goal was different. In fact, on just one occasion he had the possibility of obtaining three great advantages. First, since Blitz would be periodically informed of events in Hell, Stryker would be able to keep an absolute eye on the situation. By sticking around he could control some of that bunch of misfits, but not all of them; which meant he still risked getting fragmented information, since they avoided talking about what they were doing in front of him if they could. But if Blitz had truly isolated himself and received a complete report every three hours of everything his so-called friends, family and lover were doing, Stryker would only have had to spy on him during the phone call to always know everything, and consequently inform Emily of every minimal complication.

Secondly, this was a golden opportunity to train calmly. Following Blitz to an isolated location would also allow Stryker to learn how to use his powers. With no witnesses and nothing to destroy, he wouldn't have to worry about anything as he gained the power of the red horseman. He would just have had to be careful not to get noticed by Blitz.

And third, just as importantly, by staying with Blitz he could observe his workouts and learn a lot about his opponent. And since Blitz would learn to control the horseman within him, Stryker could learn from him to do the same. This would have greatly accelerated the time it would normally have taken for him to make the best use of his powers.

It was a perfect plan.

Blitz stared at him intently, probably trying to understand the reason for that gesture, but in the end, finding none (since he didn't know that Stryker had met Emily and she had given him the red knight's powers), he decided to believe that he wanted really just making sure he kept his word to get Charlie to heal his mother. "Okay. You'll come with me"

“Do you trust him, boss?” Moxxie asked skeptically.

"No, but I'd rather have him with me than leave him with you" Blitz replied. "And unfortunately he's right, he's the one best suited to keep an eye on me. And besides, if I kill him in a fit of madness, none of us will miss him"

"Thanks for the understanding" Stryker said sarcastically. "So, shall we leave?"

Loona approached her father and squeezed his hands tightly. "Don't go" she whispered to him. "You can't leave me alone again. Every time you do so, you almost die"

Blitz stroked her. "I'll be back as soon as I'm sure I can handle the situation" he assured her. "You stay here, Stolas will take care of you. Spend your days with your friend Octavia, and if anyone comes to ask you, say that you are only her private maid. It is best to avoid attracting attention in these hard times. Guys, I entrust my daughter's safety to all of you"

"We won't let you down, boss" Moxxie told him confidently.

"Yeah! She's in good hands" Millie reassured him.

Loona remained silent, and then without saying a word she hugged her father. He let her do it without complaining and reciprocated without making one of his usual emotional scenes. Then, as soon as that hug ended, Loona let him go and closed her eyes, as if she didn't want to see him leave.

Blitz looked at Stolas: "Take care of her"

“I will” Stolas assured him. "You take care of yourself"

The two fathers exchanged a nod of understanding, and then a kiss; at that point, after a final goodbye, Blitz headed towards the door followed by Stryker. The two of them left the building and got into the IMP van. “So, where do you want to go?” the rattlesnake imp asked him.

Blitz tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “To Greed” he said. "It's being rebuilt, but it's still ninety percent desert. We'll get down there and then drive as far as the gas can take us"

"Sounds like a viable plan to me" Stryker told him. "So, let's go?"

Blitz let out a grunt, and then he started the engine. The van drove off and quickly disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Chapter Text

Emily was in the highest room of the palace. She had chosen it as her bedroom because from there it was possible to see almost the entire landscape by going out onto the small balcony. It was an extremely refined room, which despite all the time that had passed was in excellent condition (well, after all, down there there were no spiders that could make cobwebs, moths that could eat silk, or even bacteria that could corrode ornaments); it was composed of a four-poster bed so large that five people besides her could have slept comfortably in it, several mirrors, a desk, a lectern, a couple of wardrobes and a bookcase, as well as various ornaments with absurd and extravagant shapes. Technically there had also been numerous tapestries and paintings depicting Cain, but she had removed them all as she felt rather uneasy at being continually stared at by those merciless eyes... it was quite anxiety-inducing, that is. Even if technically she hadn't gotten rid of all his depictions, given that figures reminiscent of him were engraved on the bed canopy; she could have erased them with her powers, but in the end, out of respect for the poor artist who had certainly worked hard to create them, she had decided to leave them there.

Definitely, Cain was the very definition of self-centeredness. Who knows who he got it from... ok, Adam was a little full of himself, but that was definitely excessive.

Emily was sitting at her desk, reading the letter she had just written. In the end she decided to rely on a simple message to inform her friends and family that she was okay. In the letter she explained to them that nothing bad had happened to her and that she was busy with something important, without obviously specifying what it was, and she asked them not to look for her or worry, and she assured them that she would have returned on her own as soon as she was ready. And as proof that it was her who had written it, she had attached a lock of her hair to the envelope.

She had decided that she would have left the letter in a place where her friends would have surely found it, but she couldn't think of which one; she had initially thought of the Hazbin Hotel, but she doubted that with everything that had happened they would still have been there at the moment. And she certainly couldn't leave it lying around and risk that someone other than them would have found it and read it: she was intelligent enough to understand that if the relationship between her and Charlie were discovered this would have created quite a few problems for the new queen.

As she thought about this the door opened and Frank entered the room. "I'm done, boss!" he announced. "All the horned guy's paintings are in the storage room, as you asked!"

"Thanks, Frank" Emily told him with a smile. She could have moved all those paintings herself, but since the little egg was so anxious to have something to do she had decided to leave that task to him, and in fact he had been extremely happy about it.

Frank smiled as usual: "You don't need to thank me, the boss' orders are everything to me! What should I do now?"

"Well..." Emily thought about it, and then she said to him: "Maybe you can advise me. Can you think of a place where I can put this letter that only Charlie or some of our other friends can find?"

Frank scratched his shell. He seemed to think about it very intensely, and then he brightened: "Oh, but it's easy! Give it to them personally, so you can be sure that only they will have it!"

Emily couldn't help but giggle. The naivety and simplicity of the little egg were always too funny. "Thanks, but I'd rather avoid it" she told him. "But seriously, where can I leave this? I know I said I could just throw it in Charlie's face, but honestly I'd rather not… even if it would be fun"

"Fun?" Frank asked scratching his shell. "Oh! You mean like when the old boss used to throw projectiles while laughing?"

"Okay, no, that's way too much" Emily quickly corrected him. "I'm just saying... it would be really liberating to throw something in Charlie's face after all our... history... but I know it would be really mean, so I don't want to"

Frank continued to have a look that was very reminiscent of a boiled fish. "Forgive me, boss, but I can't think of anything. In my opinion you should just give it to him"

"Yes, but I can't" Emily repeated in a tired voice, and then an idea came to her: "But... maybe I could see what they're doing now, and put the letter in their path! Excuse me for a second". She closed her eyes and expanded her mind: "Stryker, are you there?"

The answer came to her just a couple of seconds later: "Yes, I'm here"

Emily smiled slightly. It wasn't that difficult to contact her infiltrator, she just had to connect to the red horseman who, being a part of Roo, was like an antenna for her directly into the rattlesnake imp's mind. "What are the others doing... no, wait! Just tell me where Charlie is now"

"From what I understand, she is resting in her private chambers in the royal palace" Stryker replied.

Emily stiffened slightly. "So she's sleeping?"

"I can't know for sure, but it's probable" Stryker said.

"Okay... thanks for the information, you were helpful" Emily complimented him.

"Duty, my lady" was Stryker's simple comment before severing the bizarre connection.

Emily reopened her eyes happily. "If Charlie is sleeping right now, I'll just put the letter in her bed, right next to her! She'll see it right away when she wakes up!" she exclaimed satisfied. "So, the private rooms of the royal palace..."

It wasn't difficult for her to locate them: she had already opened a portal there when she had called Stryker the first time, and Charlie's rooms were not that far away. Although before absorbing Roo's essence she was in no way capable of opening portals to Hell, now everything was extremely easy for her: it was as if she had an instruction manual in her brain. As soon as she found the right spot, she opened a portal there and together with Frank sneaked into the royal palace.

She found herself in Charlie's room, and just as Stryker had said, she was asleep. The new queen was lying in bed with her eyes closed and in a fetal position, clutching the pillow tightly as if she was seeking comfort. Emily approached her, not even having to be careful not to make any noise thanks to the fact that she was barefoot, and she could clearly see her tense and not at all relaxed expression.

She bit her lip seeing her like that. In her original plan she would have simply left the letter next to her and then left immediately, but seeing Charlie so stiff she couldn't just do it. It was the first time she had seen her like this. She had bags under her eyes even though she was sleeping and was far too pale than normal. And Emily didn't miss the fact that she hadn't even taken off her crown before going to sleep, but rather, it had been left on her head for so long that it had created little furrows on her forehead.

She shook his head. She wasn't there to worry about that. She took the letter and prepared to place it next to her...

Frank suddenly climbed onto the bed and exclaimed in a high-pitched voice: "Hey, she doesn't look happy"

"SSSSSSHHHH!!!" Emily admonished him with a finger in front of her mouth. "Don't talk loudly! You'll wake her up!"

Frank lowered his voice: "I beg your forgiveness, boss! It's just that the old boss didn't have that expression when he slept. It was softer"

Emily preferred not to inquire what expression Pentious had while he slept. "Well... she's definitely stressed" she said. "So don't disturb her sleep"

"As you wish, boss!" Frank assured her. "But can we at least caress her? I like it when the boss does it, maybe it works with her too!"

"We can't wake her" Emily reminded him. "And it certainly won't be a caress that will lull her to sleep"

Frank looked shocked. "But... we didn't even try"

Emily bit her lip. Honestly, part of her wanted to do something, but another part wanted to leave Charlie exactly as she was. After all that she had done, some nightmares were certainly the least serious punishment.

Emily was about to tell Frank again that it wouldn't have been careful at all, but the words died in her throat when she saw Charlie's expression become more tense. Whatever nightmare she was having must have been truly horrible. The sight rekindled pity in Emily's heart, and she began to feel a little sick looking at it.

In the end, even though she knew she risked waking her, she couldn't just go away. "Okay... but only once!" she replied, and being very careful not to make too much noise she gently caressed her sister's face.

Charlie moved in her sleep, and for a moment Emily feared she had woken her, but on the contrary the new queen continued to sleep; but it was clear that she enjoyed the touch, because she moved her hand as if she were trying to grab her sister's and place it again on her cheek. Emily's heart ached slightly at the sight, and so, even though she wasn't at all sure it was a good idea, she sat down on the bed and continued to caress her. Charlie moved again and almost seemed to want to wrap herself around her. "Emily..." she whispered.

Emily stiffened, fearing that she had woken up, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she had only been talking in her sleep. This relief, however, vanished as Charlie began to sob: "Emily... come home... please, come home... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...!"

Emily felt her heart break hearing her talk like that. "Hey... it's okay, it's just a nightmare..." she whispered to her, even though she knew she couldn't hear her. In response Charlie only cried harder and clutched her pillow tighter.

Frank approached her and started to shake her, but Emily stopped him. "Shouldn't we wake her up?" the little egg asked confused.

"Um..." Emily wasn't so sure.

Frank looked at her with stupid eyes. "Boss?"

"We can't wake her" Emily said in a firm voice, though she still couldn't hide a trembling note. “If she were awake, she would try to follow me through the portal… it's better to let her sleep”

"But she seems so sad" Frank opined gloomy. "Should we leave her like this?"

"Well... yes!" Emily replied trying to hide the tremble in her voice. "She brought this guilt upon herself, now she has to live with it. It's not my problem"

There was a moment of silence, at which Emily wondered if she hadn't convinced Frank, but when she looked down again she realized he was looking at her rather strangely. He looked confused and worried at the same time. "Boss... that doesn't sound like something you would say" he told her in the end.

Even though she had no reason to, Emily felt a little ashamed and turned away to avoid meeting the egg's gaze. Yes, it was true, she would never normally have left behind a person who was suffering, much less a friend... but she wasn't a fucking nurse! It was Charlie who had done so many bad things that she now had nightmares, why should she be the one to fix it? Come on, a nightmare had never hurt anyone.

Emily put her hand in front of her face. It wasn't her problem, she knew that. And she couldn't risk waking Charlie. And she deserved that nightmare a little. She just had to get out of bed and go, and she would have had no regrets...

No regrets?

Her gaze fell on Charlie again. The new queen's face was sweatier than ever and small tears continued to fall from her eyelids. Damn, she looked like she was in so much pain... come on, it was just a dream... right?

Just a dream...

...

Fuck.

"Boss?" Frank called her back, as she had been silent for a very long time. "Um... so... do you want to leave or not?"

Emily sweatdropped a little. She wanted to say yes, but her heart was bleeding. Even though her selfish emotions had amplified after absorbing Roo's power, they were barely felt at that moment. “I…” she murmured. "I don't know. I don't know what I... want to do" 

"How can the boss not know what to do? It's the boss who gets to decide" Frank told her.

"I know! But..." Emily bit her lip a lot. "It would be the most logical thing to just leave. She can't see us, she would follow us through the portal..."

“Can't you just ask her not to do it?” Frank asked her in his usual innocent voice.

Emily closed her eyes. Ah, why was it so difficult? Where were the negative emotions when they were needed!? Everything would have been easier if she had managed to behave selfishly...

Fuck... what was she thinking...?

She looked at Charlie again, and every tear was like a dagger to her heart. Instinctively she leaned down slightly towards her. And at that point she decided. "Excuse me for a moment, Frank... I have to try something"

She let her powers flow through her, and reality altered; she did the same that she did with the rock, but with their brains instead. Charlie and Emily's minds, normally closed and separate, amplified and opened, until they merged into one. The bedroom disappeared before Emily's eyes, replaced by a large, dark void...

In her dream, Charlie was lying on the ground, desperately trying to get up; large black chains similar to solid pitch wrapped her, preventing her from even lifting herself on all fours. "Emily... please come back here...!"

"Why should I?" a copy of Emily made of what seemed like dark and cold matter screamed at her as she continued to walk away. "You betrayed me! You ruined my life! It's your fault that I'm like this! Are you surprised that everyone always abandons you?"

"Please... I'm sorry...!" Charlie begged, sobbing. "I don't want... I don't want you to get hurt...!"

"I got hurt just being with you! I was happy before you came into my life, and then you came to fill my head with bullshit!" the evil copy of Emily yelled at her. "You were the one who abandoned me in Hell while you went to solve your problems in Heaven! It's because of you that I fell! And after I had nothing left, you still turned your back on me!"

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry...!" Charlie screamed.

"Ah, you're sorry! Do you really think this is enough to solve everything!?" Emily's copy told her. "You are nothing but a plague! Everyone would have been better off if you had never been born...!"

Suddenly it all ended: the evil copy of Emily, the chains, and all the darkness in the background exploded and disintegrated in an instant. Charlie found herself in a completely empty space, with nothing around her. "What...?"

"Calm down. It was just a bad dream" a familiar voice said from behind her.

Charlie jumped up and turned, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw Emily appear in front of her. "You... are you here...?"

Emily didn't know what to say to her. Maybe she would have been better off simply canceling the nightmare... now what was she supposed to say?

Hi?

Hello?

How are you?

Is it nice to see you again?

How's life going?

In the end she simply smiled a little at her and murmured: "Hey, big sis. I'm home"

Chapter Text

Emily and Charlie stood there staring at each other for what was probably just a second, but to them it felt like a century. Neither of them had any idea what to say. The silence seemed to have solidified and created a barrier between them.

In the end it was Charlie who broke the ice: "You... are you really here? Aren't you... a dream...?"

"I'm not a dream" Emily assured her. "I mean, this is technically a dream, but I altered the reality to connect my mind to yours, so I'm not a dream even if all the rest is a dream... okay, I'm not a dream, just focus on that" she said in the end realizing that she risked making everything decidedly complicated.

Charlie trembled slightly. "Aren't you a dream...?" she repeated in a strangled voice.

"No, I told you" Emily told her. "Let's do this: I'll leave a lock of hair in your hand, so when you wake up you'll have proof that..."

She didn't have time to finish the sentence: Charlie threw herself on the ground with such speed that for a moment Emily feared that she had just fainted, which was technically impossible since they were already inside her mind, and only after a moment did she realize that she was actually kneeling in front of her. That gesture was so unexpected that she was left speechless. "Um... Charlie...?" 

"I don't want you to forgive me" Charlie exclaimed without having the courage to look at her eyes. "I know I don't deserve it. You're only right to hate me after I betrayed you like that. If you never want to see me again, that's fine. It hurts, but I accept it. But please… come home!"

Emily remained frozen. She hadn't expected such a reaction from Charlie. "But..."

"I just want you to not be in danger!" Charlie begged her. She rose up slightly and hugged her knees, not daring to show her face. "Sera is afraid for you, everyone is afraid for you! I... I'm afraid for you... even though I'm not worthy of having such feelings after what I did to you... please... if you hate me, that's fine, but..."

"I don't hate you!" Emily screamed in one breath.

This time it was Charlie's turn to freeze. She finally raised her head slightly and looked her straight in the eyes again. "No...?" she whispered, like she was unsure if she heard her well.

Emily bit her lip. Damn, she had spoken without thinking… now what was she supposed to say? She didn't have the slightest idea. If she had simply said that she didn't hate her, Charlie would have thought she was only saying it out of kindness, and she would have continued to feel guilty. 

Well, not that it wasn't right for her to feel guilty, but... not in that way. Emily didn't want Charlie to have that burden on her. Even though a slightly selfish part of her thought a little payback wouldn't have hurt, that was far too much.

She inspired thoroughly. This wasn't exactly how she'd imagined things would have gone, but now she was there and she couldn't just leave. So she knelt down too, bringing herself to Charlie's eye level, and stared back at her. "Charlie, listen... it's true, I'm still very angry at you about some things. I'm not going to lie to you and say I've forgiven you everything, we both know that would not be truth and I honestly think we've both told each other enough lies. But I don't hate you... I still love you"

Charlie's face was streaked with tears. She looked like a waterfall. It wasn't just her ordinary cry: every tear seemed to contain a lot of pain. "How can you not hate me?" she asked her between the sobs. "I betrayed you. You believed in me and I spat on your trust"

"It's true. And I partly want to slap you for that, but... nothing more" Emily replied.

“You should never want to see my face again!” Charlie stammered. It felt like her heart was about to explode. "You should think of me as a creep! You should want to make me pay...!"

Emily grabbed her wrists, pinning her down; Charlie's breathing seemed to stop at that moment. It was as if she were about to jump from a cliff. Emily couldn't remember ever seeing her in such a dim light; there had been times when she had been vulnerable, but this was definitely different. She wasn't an expert, but it seemed to her that Charlie almost wanted her to hate her.

Well, she wasn't willing to oblige. Not on that. "Charlie... I understand your reasons. I mean, Hell was on its last legs, you had to make some difficult decisions. And yes, it would have been better if you had told me everything from the beginning, and by the way, you were a real bitch for that, but... well, people make mistakes when they are afraid. You had the weight of all your people on you, a thousand problems and very little time available. I don't agree with your actions, but I understand them. And precisely because I understand them, I know that I probably would have acted in a manner not too dissimilar to you. And above all... I know how much it hurt you" 

Charlie stared at her as if Emily had just revealed to her that the world was flat and not round. "Really...?"

Emily nodded. She wasn't even sure where all that stuff was coming from, but for some reason she couldn't stop. “Charlie, listen… you are the only person I ever knew who cared so much about others. You are an exceptional person, and deny this means deny reality. That's why people gravitate around you... and I gravitated around you too. Even now, despite everything that has happened between us, I can't hate you, because I know very well that you would give everything you have, even your life, for me or for anyone else, even for the least of the beggars. I'm pissed at you, yes, and probably as soon as this messy thing is over I'll glare at you for a while and I'll refuse to share my pudding with you or something else like that... but I can't deny that despite everything, I still see you as the wonderful person who wants nothing more than to protect everyone. And... I still love you"

Charlie stared at her wide-eyed for another long second, and then her body began to tremble. The tears flowed freely from her eyes again. "I'm sorry" she stammered. "I was so bad... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!"

Emily cupped her face in her hands. "Yes, but... it starts with sorry, right?" she asked her with a small smile.

Charlie froze for a moment, and then she couldn't help herself: without wanting to, she found herself smiling and giggling too. Instinctively she grabbed Emily and pulled her into a tight hug, so quickly that she took her breath away. “Ugh… how can you have a bone-crushing hug even inside your mind?” Emily told her jokingly, then she hugged her back tightly. "I love you. It's the truth"

Charlie didn't say anything: she simply held her tighter and started crying again. But this time, it was a decidedly more beautiful cry. It was as if the weight on her heart was washed away by tears, and a little sunshine was warming her again. It was a good feeling even if she couldn't stop her eyes from watering.

It took over half an hour for Charlie to finally vent; Emily let her do it without moving an inch. Even though the cold logic that her heart had recently assumed advised her not to stay there too long since it increased the chances that someone entering the room would have found her, another part of her that was softer and that perhaps she had recently listened a little too less wanted to stay there. For once, she listened to that kind part of her. "Better?" she asked Charlie as soon as she stopped crying.

The new queen nodded. "Yes. I think... I needed it"

Emily giggled. "From experience, I assure you that sometimes a good cry is needed" she told her. "Once you get it all out, it becomes easier to think"

Charlie nodded. She ended their hug, but still she sat down next to her, as if she wanted to continue to feel her close. It was probably just like that. "Thank you" she whispered. "Thank you for still loving me" 

"Come on, it's impossible not to love you" Emily told her jokingly, and then she stretched her hands over her head. Charlie looked at her confused, but then she realized that she had just taken the crown away from her forehead. "You can put this back on later" Emily dropping it on the floor, or whatever they were sitting on.

Charlie didn't understand: "But..."

"You can think about your responsibilities when you're awake" Emily told her with an encouraging smile. "As long as you sleep, leave them aside"

Charlie looked at the crown. She had worn it for such a short time, yet taking it off had been almost alien to her... and at the same time she felt strangely light, as if that crown alone had weighed as much as a block of marble. She put a hand to her chest and tightened his robe a little, feeling her heartbeat, which seemed to be back more alive than ever.

It was a really good feeling, she had to admit it.

She looked back at Emily, who was still smiling at her. Now that Charlie was thinking more clearly, she noticed several details that she had previously missed. "What happened to you?" she asked her. "Why this dress? And what are those eyes?"

"Yeah..." Emily murmured a little uncertainly. Fuck, now what? She could pass off her dress, the crown of roots on her head and the fact that she was barefoot for a rather extravagant makeover, but she certainly couldn't just say that her red and black eyes were due to contact lenses, or that the thin roots protruding under her eyelids were strange makeup. "It's complicated..."

But Charlie obviously wasn't satisfied with so little. It wasn't hard for her to understand that a person who literally had roots protruding from her skin couldn't be normal. "Where are you now?" she asked her again, with much more emphasis this time. "What happened to you? How did you become... like this?"

Emily sweatdropped a little... wait, could she even sweat inside a dream? Strange. "Sorry... I can't tell you about it. But I assure you it's not something important, I'm the same as always"

She didn't know whether it was because of her expression, the way she avoided her gaze, her gestures or her tone of voice, the fact is that Charlie's immediate reaction to her words was: "Why are you lying to me?"

Emily blushed slightly. Oh, so she could also blush in dreams. "I'm not lying"

"That's another lie" Charlie muttered. "Why don't you tell me the truth? What's happening to you? What are you afraid to tell me?"

Emily remained silent. Maybe telling the truth was the best option... maybe Charlie would have let herself be convinced, maybe she would have understood that what she had done was the best thing for everyone. Maybe she would have given her her trust. Maybe...

But at the same time, she didn't want to tell her. Part of her didn't want Charlie to know. She didn't know why, she just didn't want it.

Charlie waited, hoping for an answer, and the silence only increased the worry in her heart. In the end she couldn't hold it any longer. "Please... come home" she begged her again.

Emily bit her lip. "I can't" she replied. "Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't want it. But at the moment if I went back among you I would risk doing serious damage and bumping into all of you. I need... a little time for myself, let's say"

"Why?" Charlie asked her. "What is so important for you? Why did you disappear without telling us anything?"

"Yes... I admit that I should have warned you, but... it all happened suddenly, I didn't know what to do" Emily told her, and then, perhaps hoping a little to divert her attention, she remembered: "Oh, by the way... I'm happy... to be your sister"

Only then Charlie seemed to realize that Emily had literally started that conversation by calling her 'big sis'. "You know...? How?"

"Alastor" was Emily's simple answer.

Charlie let out a grunt. "It doesn't surprise me" she admitted. "I'm sorry. I... I wanted to tell you, I really tried... but... I didn't even know how..."

"It's okay. You had just found out too, you were shocked. I understand that you were scared" Emily told her, and then she confessed with a bit of shame: "I reacted like crazy too. When I found out I almost broke Alastor's neck"

Charlie didn't comment on this. Instead she asked her: "Is it really okay with you? Being... the devil's daughter?"

Emily shrugged. "I didn't say that. About my father being Lucifer... well, I'm still thinking about whether to be happy about it or not. Honestly, it's still confusing to me" she told her. "I said I'm happy to have you as a sister. I have no doubts about that"

Charlie smiled tenderly and rested her head on her shoulder. "Me too. I'm happy to have you in the family" she told her. "I couldn't ask for a better sister. And thanks for your understanding... you're really too good"

Emily smiled back. "You are too. Trust me... you're good. Even if you sometimes make a mess, but... as Rosie pointed out to me, good people aren't seen by how much they avoid making messes, but by how much they try to remedy them"

"Is Rosie too with you?" Charlie asked her.

Emily nodded. "She's with me, and she's fine. And also Niffty and... Alastor"

"Where?" Charlie asked her again. "Please tell me"

Emily considered what to do. The most selfish part of her amplified by Roo's negative feelings was telling her not to tell her sister anything, but another part wanted to confess everything to her. Yet, that same part was afraid: how would Charlie have reacted to finding out that she had taken control of Roo?

In the end she decided to tell her at least something: "I'm... in the Betrayal Ring"

Charlie looked at her confused: "Where?"

"Yes... ask your father for more clarification, but... basically there's another Ring under Sloth, it's called Betrayal, and it was Cain's domain during... well, you know. Now I live in his palace, basically" Emily explained to her.

Charlie's brain nearly exploded: "What!?"

"Don't worry, that Ring is uninhabited!" Emily assured her. Well, that wasn't exactly true, given that there were those strange monsters wandering near the evil resin and that she had been careful not to look at again, but those were details. "There's nothing down there that can hurt me. And Rosie knows that place well, she knows I'm not in any danger"

Charlie clearly had a million questions about the new Ring she had just discovered existed on her mind (who wouldn't!), but she didn't ask any of them; instead she only asked: "Why did you go there?"

Emily felt a little touched. Even after receiving such incredible news, Charlie was still more interested in knowing what had happened to her than in finding out more about the Betrayal Ring. "I can't tell you about it, not now. Just know that I'm safe and I'm not taking any risks, and that one day I will come back to you"

"Why don't you want to tell me about it?" Charlie urged her. “Whatever it is, we can face it together…!”

"No. This is something I have to do on my own" Emily told her. “Charlie… please, trust me one more time. I promise you that nothing bad will happen to me. I will explain everything to you as soon as I get back to you, but until then, let me manage on my own”

"Sera and... our father... will use the blood trick to find you" Charlie informed her.

"They won't succeed" Emily replied. "The Betrayal Ring cannot be traced like this. And even if they can, they will not succeed to enter it. Only I can open the door"

"Everyone else is worried about you" Charlie told her again. She was probably hoping she could change her mind and let her stay. "Don't you at least want to say hello to them?"

Emily bit her lip. “No, they would ask too many questions and… I'm not sure I can handle an interrogation right now. I'll leave to you to assure them that I'm fine”

Charlie sighed. "Do you really have to leave?"

Emily nodded. "Believe me, I would like to stay. But I have to. We are sisters, we are both responsible for Hell, albeit in different ways. You have your duties, and I have mine. Please... just trust me"

Charlie was silent for almost a minute. And then, finally, she lowered her head. "Fine. I trust you" she told her. “But promise me that as soon as you finish doing what you have to do, you will come home”

"I promise you as your sister" Emily answered her without hesitation.

Charlie smiled a little. “Tell me… now, in the real world, are you next to me?”

"Yes" Emily confirmed.

“So can you wake me up?” Charlie asked her. "Please. I won't try to stop you, but before we part again, I want to see you with my real eyes... and hug you with my real arms"

Emily hesitated for a moment. Again the darker part of her wanted to refuse and let Charlie sleep so she wouldn't have risked her trying to follow her through the portal. But in the end, it was again her good heart telling her that Charlie would not have broken her word that won. "Okay. Just give me a second"

And after that she left Charlie's mind, sliding back until she re-entered her body; the new queen's bedroom reappeared in her field of vision. She was sitting on her bed again, with Charlie asleep in front of her. She grabbed her shoulder and shook it, until she opened her eyes again. As soon as she did, a smile spread across Charlie's face. "You're really here"

Emily nodded, smiling back. "I'm here" she replied, and this time it was she who hugged her first. Charlie reciprocated very willingly.

They remained in that position until Frank's ringing voice woke them up: "How nice! I said it was better to talk to each other in person!"

"Hey... you're here too" Charlie said noticing his presence, and she caressed his shell. "It's good to see you"

Emily let her sister say hi to Frank, and then she picked up the little egg and stood up. “I have to go now” she said. "Good luck, Charlie. Remember, you don't have to worry about me. Just think about your problems, you already have plenty of them... even if I'm sure that you'll solve them all. You can solve everything when you really trust yourself"

Charlie looked down. "I wish that was enough. The situation here is not simple..."

"I know. But you can handle it, I know that for sure. You have the skills to be a queen... you just have to bring them out" Emily told her without losing her encouraging smile. "You just have to change your perspective. Look at things and people from a different point of view, and you will realize that what appears to be a catastrophe can be an opportunity if used well"

Charlie couldn't help but feel a little more confident at those words. “Thanks for the encouragement" she told her gratefully. She felt bad about being separated from her again, but she didn't hold Emily any longer. "Just promise me you'll watch out for Alastor. Don't let him fool you"

"Don't worry, Rosie took care of him for me" Emily replied with a bratty smile. "I really don't think Alastor will dare to challenge her wrath. Maybe he doesn't fear me because he knows I don't like hurting people... but I doubt he isn't afraid of her"

Charlie wasn't sure, but she didn't argue anyway. "You remain careful anyway. And... thanks for coming, and for not hating me"

Emily gave her a stern look. "I haven't forgiven you yet" she reminded her. “But it's nice to see you smile again"

And after such words she snapped her fingers and a portal opened before her; it was an opaque portal, which didn't allow you to see what was on the other side. Charlie's eyes widened when she saw it: "Can you do it...?"

"I learned a few things" Emily said simply. "It's not that difficult, you just need to expand your mind and listen to the flow of magical energy from Hell, and then harness it to open a gateway"

Charlie listened carefully to her explanation. She remained silent for a moment, and then she asked her again: "Sorry to ask you for the umpteenth time, but... are you really sure about this? It won't be like when you left Heaven, avoiding facing the situation?"

Emily shook her head. "It won't be like that. I told you, it's not because I want it that I'm leaving. You... just trust me"

Charlie stood up and gave her another hug. "I trust you" she told her. "Please... be careful"

"You too" Emily replied with a smile. "Good luck with your kingdom, big sis"

And with those words she broke the hug and, after a last quick glance at her sister, walked through the portal. Charlie watched her and Frank leave, and at the last moment she felt the urge to chase after her, but the portal closed in front of her. She was alone in the room again; but for some reason, for the first time in a long time, her heart was much lighter and warmer.

Chapter Text

Babylon stared at the plain before her. It was an extremely sandy and sterile land, full of rocks and walls several tens of meters high, and normally she would not have found anything other than lizards, snakes and a few vultures there. Now, however, a large mass of people on horseback, perhaps as many as five hundred (which by the numbers of the time was considered a large army), was galloping towards that area. "They are coming" Cain said satisfied. "Ready for your first real battle?"

Since he had become her master, Cain had followed Babylon like a shadow. He often remained invisible to human eyes, but he was there nonetheless. A month had passed since the little girl had entrusted herself to his teachings, and he had not gone back on his word: he had taught her magic so powerful that the ones Babylon already knew were ridiculous in comparison. They were spells aimed at causing suffering, which killed slowly and painfully. Babylon was a diligent student, and Cain was satisfied with her... not only for the speed with which she learned, but also for everything else: every test he subjected her to, she passed without problems, proving herself more and more ruthless and cruel.

With her powers, Babylon had gained control of several local tribes, from whom she had stolen everything of value. Those who had resisted had been destroyed. There had been very few times when she had faltered, such as when she had first had to kill a child who was begging for mercy, but she had always gotten the job done in the end. By now, killing was as easy for her as drinking a glass of water, in fact, she was becoming more and more creative in doing it, really enjoying it.

Cain couldn't be happier with how his student was behaving, and so he began to aim for bigger goals. He had asked Babylon how to supply him with a large number of souls. The little girl had immediately found the solution, and with a trick she had caused the two largest city-states in the region to go to war against each other without purpose, consequently causing a lot of evil deeds that had dragged consequently hundreds of soldiers went to Hell, where they would have joined the ranks of the first murderer's army of the damned. Obviously the plan hadn't been perfect; Cain had in fact immediately noticed how it could be improved and optimised. However, as a first attempt it was definitely superb.

In any case, it hadn't taken long after the armies of the two enemy nations had massacred each other before anyone realized that they had been deceived; news of the existence of the witch child had reached the victorious king, and a small investigation had brought the truth to light. Realizing the danger represented by Babylon, the king had decided to lead what remained of his army there to eliminate it. Too bad for him that this was exactly what she wanted. “So, when I have exterminated them, I will reign over the region?” Babylon asked with her eyes shining.

"Of course. There would no longer be anyone capable of opposing you" Cain replied to her. "However, your current abilities are still too immature. You should have been more sneaky and found a way to kill many more of those knights before they discovered your involvement. You can't take on so many at once, you don't have enough mastery of the magical arts yet"

Babylon lowered her head in shame. "I'm sorry, master. I'll do better next time"

"Yeah. Now I'm forced to make up for your mistake" Cain said.

"So will you help me?" Babylon asked in surprise, since her master had never directly helped her until now.

Cain let out a roar that made her skin crawl. "You naughty little girl! Do you really think that I, the great king of Betrayal, the most powerful demon that Hell has ever seen, will stoop to killing miserable human beings with my own hands just for you? Who do you think you are?"

Babylon knelt down and almost touched her forehead to the ground. "I'm sorry, master! I didn't mean to insult you!" she exclaimed trembling.

Cain kicked her in the stomach. "Get back on your feet!" he shouted at her. "And don't you ever dare ask me something so degrading again! Next time I will remove the liver from the body with my bare hands!"

Babylon struggled to her feet. Cain's blow hadn't broken her bones, but it still made her spit up a lot of blood. But despite the pain she didn't disobey him and got back on her feet.

Cain seemed to calm down seeing her so submissive. "Well, now that you've remembered your place let's get this thing sorted out. I'll provide you with some helpers" he said, and he raised his hand; a blood-red circle formed in front of him. "Come to me, my servants!"

The circle exploded into a portal, emanating a crimson light; Babylon narrowed her eyes for a moment, and as she opened them again he saw two new people in front of them. They were both very tall, even taller than Cain himself, but nevertheless they bowed respectfully: "We are ready to serve you, Lord Cain!"

Babylon looked at the two beings in front of her. One was a very robust, bipedal beast, with legs that resembled those of a lizard and a tail like a crocodile, skin pockmarked like that of a rhinoceros, and a broad, elongated head that looked like a cross between that of a reptile and a ruminant. The other had a more human appearance: the body was that of a woman, but her legs ended in eagle claws, her arms were wings equipped with claws similar to those of a hawk, she had a long multicolored tail similar to a peacock, and on her head she had several feathers protruding from her hair creating a crest; her face was very beautiful and charming, but her cheekbones were decidedly more pronounced than those of a human, resembling a bird's beak.

Cain let out a chuckle. "Behemoth, Ziz, how are things down there?"

"The usual" the massive creature, apparently called Behemoth, answered. "Where were you, my lord? It's not like you to disappear for so long"

"I was just taking care of a new recruit that I was particularly interested in" Cain said as he grabbed Babylon by the hair and dragged her forward. "She is my new little joy, my beautiful Rosie. But let me be clear, only I have the right to call her that. You have to call her by her name, Babylon"

Behemoth and Ziz looked at her in surprise and confusion. "A child?" the bird-like woman murmured. "Lord Cain, if you wanted to experience the beauty of fatherhood, I would have gladly volunteered to give you a heir. There was no need for a pathetic human spawn"

Cain burst out laughing. "Ah ah ah! Ziz, do you really think that if I wanted an offspring I would choose a pathetic loser bird like you to be the mother of my children?" he asked her without hiding his mockery. "Stay in your place and do not have such dreams of glory. Someone like you cannot hope to be my queen. Get pregnant by one of the servants of my palace, they are definitely more suitable partners for you!"

Despite the heavy insults, Ziz did not dare reply; she simply blushed with shame and turned away. Babylon was somewhat surprised to see that creature, who surpassed her master in height and size, be so submissive towards him. "Seriously talking, she's my new apprentice" Cain announced.

Behemoth narrowed his eyes. "Apprentice? This one?" he asked, glaring at Babylon very badly. "Why on earth, out of all the demons at your disposal, did you choose this little termite as your student?"

Despite rationality telling her to keep very quiet, Babylon couldn't stop herself: "Did you just compare me to an insect!?"

Behemoth raised an eyebrow at her temper, but he wasn't too impressed. "Why shouldn't I? You're just a termite to us, and not just because of your height"

“Behe, stop it” Ziz scolded. Unlike her companion she was looking at Babylon in a more gentle manner. "If Lord Cain designated this child as his apprentice, he must have had his reasons. It is not our duty to question his choices"

"Eh eh! Well done, at least there is someone who remembers their place here" Cain commented, and then he turned to Babylon: "Behemoth and Ziz are my elite. They are twin siblings of the might Leviathan, who exiled them after he defeated them in their fight to decide who would have ruled the Envy Ring. After their loss these two losers came to me to beg for my support. So I took them into my ranks"

Behemoth let out a bull-like snort. "One day I'll get my revenge on Leviathan" he said with a grunt.

"We'll see if that day ever comes" Cain told him mockingly. "Anyway, I've called you here to support my beloved Rosie while she exterminates those wretches who are coming"

"Seriously? We have to kill an army for this little termite?" Behemoth grumbled boredly.

Babylon's eyes flashed: "I can do it myself!"

“Calm down” Cain said in a firm voice. "You two are only here as support. She'll do the rest"

"Tsk! Just don't start crying" Behemoth said.

Babylon gritted her teeth. "I'm not afraid to fight! Show me respect!"

"You must earn my respect" Behemothe replied.

"Behe, seriously, stop it!" Ziz scolded him. "Sorry, he's a little short-tempered when someone gets into Lord Cain's good graces"

Behemoth glared at her: "Whose side are you on?"

"If you have a lot of energy to fight, use it to take out some soldiers" Cain told them in a bored voice. "And hurry up. I feel like feasting on some corpses"

Babylon didn't wait any longer: animated by the classic impatience typical of people of her age, she wrapped her body with magic and took flight towards the army, without even bothering to check if the two demons were coming after her. She absolutely wanted to make that asshole Behemoth take back his denigrating words.

"If she attacks like that with her head down, she will be killed by the archers" Ziz pointed out.

But Cain shook his head and signaled them to wait. "Don't intervene right away. Let her have fun"

Babylon had not completely abandoned her rationality: she knew that without a plan she would have been short-lived. She didn't want to disfigure herself in front of her master. Regardless of whether she would have eventually needed help, she wanted to be able to kill as many people as possible.

She studied the surroundings carefully, and then she had an idea. She flew before the army and recited a magic formula; several crimson circles appeared before her and from them fire like blood exploded above the soldiers. Surely a more powerful wizard would have generated fireballs so large that they would have reduced every person there to ash, but she was still too weak and inexperienced: all she was able to do was kill a few dozen men, but all the others remained alive, protected by their armor. The enemy king ordered the charge, and she immediately flew away, staying at a safe distance to avoid being hit by arrows; while they were chasing her, however, she used other spells to lame some horses, and not by chance, but rather she always lame those who were carrying the archers, so as to make them fall and be crushed by the rest of the army. Fortunately any existing army was always divided into departments, and consequently the archers moved together; therefore, by dropping one, she caused a chain reaction that caused all the others to fall as well.

Cain, Ziz and Behemoth were watching very carefully. "Damb... she's smart" the bird-like woman said admiringly. "She immediately understood what her greatest advantage is, striking from above, and is taking away from her enemies the only weapons that can hit her while she flies..."

Cain grinned. "Not bad for a little termite, hm?" he said to Behemoth. “Doubt my judgment less, skeptic guy"

The giant beast let out a grunt. "She may be intelligent, but she's still just human"

"For now" Cain corrected him. "Long before you'll notice it... she will be a weapon like you've never seen before"

Babylon led the army near one of the rock walls, and there she stopped and prepared a spell; in the presence of the archers she would have avoided exposing herself like this, but now that she had gotten them out of the way she could risk it. She called upon all her magical power and broke the wall, which collapsed with extreme violence; the army was overwhelmed and at least three hundred men were buried under the rocks, and another hundred were dying. Babylon had already basically won: she just had to use one last spell and mortally wound those who were still able to fight, and then she would just have had to retreat and waited for everyone to die...

But unfortunately, by now she too was exhausted. She was forced to descend onto a high rock as she no longer had the strength to stay in the air; the magic was draining her. She hoped she could stay there and wait to recover, but the soldiers still able to fight were drawing their spears to throw them at her. Babylon knew that if they did, she wouldn't have been able to stop them...

The army disappeared in a second: one moment before it was there, the next moment all those people had been crushed to a pulp by gigantic paws. Babylon opened her eyes wide, and looking up she saw two enormous beasts: one was similar to a gigantic ruminant covered in rock armor, while the other was an oversized bird that seemed to be made of fire. The two creatures stared at her, and she recognized their eyes: "Behemoth and Ziz?"

The two beasts remained motionless for a moment, and then they transformed back into their smaller versions; Behemoth landed on the battlefield, while Ziz flew from Babylon and grabbed her, then she returned to her companion. Cain appeared among them an instant later: "A superb sight" he complimented them.

Babylon looked at Ziz and Behemoth in amazement. "So you are giant monsters?"

"Something like that. We are some of the strongest beings that live in Hell" Ziz replied, putting her back on the ground, and then she smiled at her: "You were good. You defeated the army almost completely on your own. I confess that I expected that I would have to help you much more"

Babylon was a little disappointed that she couldn't win on her own, but she was happy that at least the demons recognized her worth. Cain threw her some arms torn off some of the corpses: "Come on, let's eat. These look tasty"

All four of them began to consume the flesh of the dead soldiers. Behemoth and Ziz were surprised to see Babylon not only chewing human flesh without any disgust, but in fact she was clearly enjoying it, so much so that she broke bones to taste even the marrow. "Damn. You're voracious"

"I'm hungry" was Babylon's simple reply.

Cain made a satisfied noise, and then he snapped his fingers; three volumes of black magic appeared in mid-air and flew into Babylon's hands. "To you. I expect you to learn all these spells within a year" he told her. "Tomorrow you will go to the city where this rabble came from and take over; with your powers there is no one left here who can stop you. You will be able to enjoy all the riches of this region, but make sure you train properly"

Babylon's eyes widened in surprise. "Will you not come with me, master?"

Cain laughed. "You expect me to have nothing better to do than stand by you all day? I'm certainly not your guard dog. I've trained you just enough so that you can be useful, now it's up to you to prove yourself". His eyes narrowed: "You are free to rule as you wish, but remember: the more souls you can send me down there, the more satisfied I will be. Feel obliged to amaze me"

Babylon tightened her grip on the volumes of dark magic. "I will not disappoint you, master"

"I'm sure of it" Cain told her stroking her hair. "I'll see you again in a year. Based on what you've done, I'll decide what else to teach you and what role is worth giving you. Don't forget that the more you prove yourself to me, the more important you will become. This miserable region may be none other than your springboard towards a greatness so immense that you can't even imagine now"

Cain rubbed her hair a couple more times, and then caressed her cheeks in an almost paternal manner; and then he started talking, or rather, singing in an almost hypnotic voice, as if he were reciting a lullaby to put a little girl to sleep.

"Imagine, my precious Rosie,

Let your dreams take wing;

One day when you're big and strong...

You will serve the greatest KING!"

Babylon couldn't help but smile at those words. “I'll make sure I'm ready, master"

"Good girl" Cain told her. "Prepare to rule, my little rose that has yet to bloom. Tomorrow you will sit on the throne of this land of incompetents!"

Babylon did not hide her excitement; even though it worried her a little that she had been given a mission alone for the first time, she was still proud of the appreciation her master was giving her. She would have made sure not to disappoint him.

Cain clearly noticed his emotions, because his gaze became much harder and more intense, and his yellow teeth moved as if they were biting something. He began walking among the skeletons of the people they had just devoured, breaking the bones with his feet. And as he did so, new words came out of his mouth.

"I've been exiled, persecuted,

Left alone with no defense!

And when I think of the curse God gave me

I get a little tense!"

The smile on his face reappeared, and he picked up one of the skulls on the ground. He held it up before his eyes and shook it a little as if it were a bell.

"But actually that memory is so pretty

That I don't feel so depressed,

'Cause it soothes my inner kitty

And it helps me get some rest!"

Suddenly his smile widened until it almost filled half his face, and his hand closed on the skull, crumbling it to pieces.

"The sound of Abel's dying gasp!"

His tail smashed on the other bones scattered on the ground, reducing them to dust.

"His pathetic squealing in my grasp!"

He spread his wings causing a gust of wind, and stood up in front of his three servants as if he were even more powerful and imposing.

"My father and siblings mournful cry,

That's my lullaby!"

He landed on a rock and, just as if he were acting out a drama, he struck a sad and depressed pose, as if he were in the midst of an internal conflict.

"Now the past I've tried forgetting

And my foes I could forgive;

Trouble is, I knows it's petty,

But I hate to let them live!"

Behemoth climbed the rock and raised his head until it reached his height.

"So you are preparing yourself

To chase them up a tree?"

Cain in response grabbed him by the jaw and dragged him in front of his face; despite the difference in size, the mighty beast was unable to resist. The first murderer stared him straight in the eyes, making him tremble under that cold and merciless gaze. Cain did nothing but laugh in his face seeing him so scared.

"Oh, the battle may be bloody,

But that kind of works for me!"

And having said that he let him go, almost slamming him to the ground, and clasped his now free hands in front of him.

"The melody of angry growls!"

He jumped off the rock and landed on Behemoth's head with his foot, causing him to let out a yelp of pain.

"A counterpoint of painful howls!"

Despite the insult and physical abuse, Behemoth did not dare react; on the contrary he stretched out his body to allow Cain to walk above him as if he were a road. The first murderer trampled on him until he reached his tail, which rose up carrying him high, and he then raised his hands as if he wanted to grasp the setting sun, which illuminated him with its pale rays making him even more disturbing.

"A symphony of death, oh my!

That's my lullaby!"

Cain jumped off Behemoth's tail, returning to Ziz and Babylon. It was towards the little girl that he headed, taking her by the waist and lifting her in front of him, as if he wanted to pick her up lovingly. Babylon herself was confused by that lovely gesture, but it was clear that she didn't mind.

"They think I am gone... but Cain is still around,

To take care of this little lad..."

Suddenly his grip on Babylon became extremely strong, taking the little girl's breath away; Cain took hold of her arm, and she let out a cry of pain as it seemed to burn. Demonic fire enveloped him and transformed into bony plates that completely covered the limb, making it extremely hard. Cain slammed Babylon's hand against one of the rocks and then he dragged it back, showing that it left deep gouges in it.

"Till you learn to be a WEAPON,

With a lust for being BAD!"

And having said this he let her go again and set off elsewhere; Babylon looked at her arm wrapped in that new armor, and her eyes shone with excitement. It wasn't difficult for her to understand that she now had much greater strength. Ziz and Behemoth approached her from behind, and it was the latter who spoke first.

"You understand, you little termite-uh, I mean, precious little thing?"

Behemoth had corrected himself at the last moment due to the dirty look that Ziz had given him. The bird demon decided it was best to take the lead, so she pushed him away and picked up Babylon.

"One day when you're big and strong...!"

A broad smile appeared on Babylon's face.

"I will serve the greatest KING!"

The sun started to settle on the horizon in front of Cain. The pale evening light hit him as if it wanted to bathe him, while the sky was tinged with red colors like the blood that covered the earth. The first killer's eyes trembled with excitement.

"The pounding of the drums of war!

The thrill of the infernal beasts mighty roar!"

Behemoth rose to his full height and roared proudly.

"The joy of vengeance!"

Ziz too transformed back into her full demon form as a gigantic bird, and she raised Babylon onto her head, who in turn shouted homage to their master.

"Testify!"

Cain put his hand next to his ear as if he were listening to something.

"I can hear the cheering..."

His three servants applauded.

"CAIN, WHAT A GUY!"

The first killer took flight, moving further into opposition to the sun, letting the red colors of the evening sky fill the landscape behind him as if they were performing a terrifying choreography on him.

"Payback time is nearing,

And then my flag will fly

Against a blood-red sky!

THAT'S MY LULLABY!"

And having said this, Cain burst out laughing, a terrifying laugh that contained an evil beyond the limits known to human beings, so much so that it even made his three faithful servants tremble, who nevertheless felt electrified and galvanized by that magnificent sensation that preceded a massacre.

Rosie reopened her eyes with a grunt. She had evidently dozed off without realizing it... she was really more tired than she thought. She massaged her temples: she didn't know if it was because she was in the Betrayal Ring, but it was the first time in centuries that she dreamed of those memories of her past again.

Rather than think about it, she decided to go and see how Emily had settled in; she went to the room she knew she had chosen as hers, and was a little worried when she didn't find it, but that worry vanished as soon as a portal opened and the young angel reappeared followed by her trusty little egg. Rosie was about to scold her for disappearing without telling her, but she stopped when she noticed the happy expression on her face. “Did anything good happen?”

Emily's smile widened. "I had a... chat with Charlie" she answered.

Rosie made a satisfied sound. "Tell me everything" she said, sitting next to her on the bed.

Chapter Text

After his encounter with the Mutilated, Adam had sat in the corner of his cage, leaning his skeletal back against the bars. One of the advantages of no longer having skin, flesh and organs was that he didn't have to worry about getting comfortable, as the bones had no feeling. He remained there, motionless with his legs crossed, as if he were meditating. And in a way that was true, as he was deep in thought.

No creature on Earth before had ever been able to hold out against him for so long. His strength was too superior to anyone else's. Yet, the Mutilated had held out for at least a little while. Even though Adam was sure he could easily defeat him in a direct battle, he was still in awe of his resistance. It certainly wasn't a human being... which greatly fueled his suspicions.

The more he thought about it, the more new hypotheses appeared in his mind, and some of them found substance. The fact that this guy didn't want to talk to him meant that he was certain that he would recognize him, which meant that he definitely knew him.

There could only be two cases: unexpected help... or an extremely sneaky and dangerous enemy. More likely the second.

He knew he was moving in a very risky way and couldn't afford any mistakes. His every move had to be perfectly calculated taking into account every possible variation or unexpected event. A single mistake on his part could have cost him dearly. And since he had now established that Sera must have failed to recover Emily, he could not afford to fail too, not before making sure that the rest of the universe was not in danger of falling apart.

Therefore, he knew exactly what he had to do.

He stood up. His bones, even though there were no joints in between, made a slight cracking sound as he moved them. This was because his own strength was emerging from them, putting pressure on them. His very soul was like an immense fire, indeed, it was a continuous energetic explosion that was at that moment impacting his body with immense violence. If those in which he was imprisoned had been normal bones they would have already been reduced to ash.

And having done this, he grasped the mighty bars that surrounded him.

Titanium was a metal with extraordinary potential: not only was it extremely common, being found in many minerals such as rutile and ilmenite, and at the same time it was neither toxic nor essential for living species, but it possessed extraordinary resistance. Corrosion, which could corrupt iron as if it were nothing, found extremely strong resistance against titanium, almost equal even to that of platinum. Its melting point was very high, above 1,650 degrees Celsius.

And best of all… it was as strong as stainless steel, while being almost half as light.

But such characteristics meant nothing to Adam. Because titanium was still an metal from Earth, and he was created to dominate everything on Earth. Modern humans needed tools that exerted almost unnatural temperatures and pressures to properly handle metal; but Adam, the first man ever to appear on the planet, didn't need any technology. His hands were all he needed to bend the elements to his will.

The bars barely resisted: the immense pressure they were subjected to bent them as if they were made of cardboard. Adam's grip alone was so powerful that they turned red as if they had been red-hot. The first man continued until they broke with a crack, opening a passage large enough to let him out.

As soon as he stepped out of the cage, the numerous magic circles activated; Adam could feel their influence taking hold on him, not on his physical body but on his very soul. It was as if an external force was exerting immense spiritual pressure, compressing and crushing him. If a normal human being, a common demon, or any angel had been in his place, they would surely have already been sent to the ground, crushed so hard that any movement was prevented. Even a Deadly Sins would have had at least a little trouble getting free.

As much as that ability was turned against him at the time, Adam couldn't help but feel proud of his descendants. Humans were truly incredible creatures, and given enough time and information, they were able to capture anything. If he still had a face, he would have smiled.

However, he was no ordinary person. He wasn't even Deadly Sins. He was the first man.

And against the ancestral power of the first man, even that perfect trap could only fail.

He walked forward; with every movement he made, the cage formed by magic circles broke more and more. It was like walking through honey, but Adam still moved naturally. The defenses placed around him were trying in every way to hold him back, but every spiritual chain instantly broke when subjected to the first man's strength.

At last he came to the edge of that magical trap; crossing it was like trying to pass through bulletproof glass. The resistance against him was such that for a couple of seconds even he faltered. But a couple of seconds lasted only a couple of seconds, and after that very short amount of time, the barrier shattered. Adam could almost hear the sound of it breaking even though it was something that didn't physically exist.

Now he was free.

Any other defense of that huge underground bunker was nothing to him. The reinforced steel doors shattered under the immense power of his fists. Any barrier was unable to stop him. For him, it was like taking a normal walk where he occasionally had to stop to move a pesky stone from the path.

The guards tried to stop him. Their weapons were certainly not made up of rifles: they already knew that they would have been useless against a being made only of bones, which had no organs to hit and which, above all, was apparently invulnerable. On the contrary, what they tried to do was contain it. They used enchanted nets, special ropes, even some magical artifacts. Everything that had been able to contain the supernatural until that day was thrown at him.

It was all useless.

Adam pushed them all away with just a wave of his hand. His speed and strength were such that he could break a man's spine simply by brushing against him, and only the fact that he didn't want to prevented him from doing so; he limited himself to preventing him from disturbing him further. Even though that structure was specifically designed to stop the escape of any supernatural creature, they had never truly encountered an adversary like him.

He quickly moved up through the various levels, pausing only briefly at each. Every so often, as he passed by, he also picked up some artifact that he had come to find interesting during his time there. To carry them he tied them to a belt taken from one of the guards which he wrapped around his neck like a necklace.

When he reached the exit he found himself faced with something almost science fiction: soldiers who were operating real exoskeletons. They were like forklifts, but equipped with arms complete with rifles and grenades. However, even this marvel of science eventually had to give in to the immense physical strength of the first man. Adam stepped outside, and with a single leap he was at least a hundred feet away, and ran away so quickly that a cloud of dust rose up behind him.

He continued running in the darkness of the night, illuminated only by the light of the moon, until he left the great Nevada desert behind and reached the great forests of the western coast of the American continent. There he continued to search, following the map that was in his head, until he reached exactly what he hoped to find: a large clearing among the trees, just like the one the Mutilated had shown him in the vision. And seen in person, it was even darker and more ghostly as the pale rays of the moon cast eerie shadows across it.

Adam walked to the center of that clearing, and stopped there. "I'm here" he announced with a loud voice. "Come out now, and let me get a look at you"

There was just a rustle behind him, and he saw the shape of a man forming among the trees. The Mutilated appeared before him and walked politely towards the first man, until he was just two meters away from him. He was still dressed the same as when he came to meet him, and his face was still obscured.

They both stared deeply at each other, and then Adam said to him: "You told me to come here and I did, so stop fucking waste my time. What do you want to tell me?"

Adam immediately understood that the series of images that had been sent to his mind were a sort of map. In particular, when he had shown him that forest and that particular clearing, also introducing into his mind the right coordinates where to find it, he knew that this was the place of their next meeting. Which meant that the Mutilated wished to speak to him in complete secrecy, away from any prying eyes.

Adam had already understood that the person in front of him was someone special; consequently he was certainly someone who could be very useful to him. And if it was any use to him, Adam was ready to play any game he wanted with him. He was certainly not afraid of the consequences: any possible unhappy future scenario was nothing compared to what would have happened if he had failed to return to the afterlife.

The Mutilated remained in profound silence as last time, but this time he communicated with him: his hand emerged from his cloak revealing that he was holding a cell phone. It was a slightly old cell phone, clearly chosen to be absolutely untraceable; it even looked like it had been built by his own hand. He typed something on the keyboard and then showed it to her: "I can help you"

Adam let out a snort. "I thought so. So you believe my words" he said. “I assume you already have a plan”

The Mutilated nodded; he quickly typed on the keyboard again, and then he showed him his cell phone again: “We have a chance”

Adam nodded. "Speak"

The Mutilated wrote again. "If it was really Abaddon who imprisoned you, then it is likely that you are sealed not only in this mortal body, but on this plane of existence. You will not simply have to open a portal to go back, you'll need something more"

Adam had already understood this. It had been one of his first attempts, but he had quickly noticed that the limitations imprisoning him within his skeleton prevented him from doing so. He decided to test his interlocutor: "If I can't leave, we can call someone here. Can you teach me a summoning?"

The Mutilated's response was not long in coming: "If you trust those you could summon, why haven't you already tried?"

Adam clenched his fists. Yes... just as he had imagined, the Mutilated had already understood that he was not trusting anyone at that moment. If he had called the wrong angel to him, and found one of Abaddon's friends in front of him, it would have ended very badly for him. They couldn't kill him, but he was in no condition to fight; he would only have ended up being imprisoned in a place from which it would have been even more difficult to escape.

After all, the curse that Abaddon had inflicted on him also had its advantages: now no one knew where he was, and therefore there was no risk of some other powerful angel trying to confront him. However, by summoning someone he would have only risked exposing himself. Furthermore, a summoning wasn't exactly silent: he would still have had to break the barriers of space, and if he did, any high-ranking angel who was attentive and listening enough would have felt the spell. And in a situation like this it was highly unlikely that some of Abaddon's friends weren't constantly keeping an eye on the situation to intervene as soon as he made a misstep. Even if he had tried to summon trusted people like Lute or Abel, the interdimensional rift, however small, could have revealed his location and put them in danger too.

The only solution was to summon an angel so powerful that no one could oppose them, but Adam didn't trust any of them. Abaddon had proven that he could not trust the princes of Heaven. Even though Adam believed that some of them, like Michael, were too good to do such a thing, it was still too enormous a risk to take lightly. He would have done so only if he had no other alternative and had first taken necessary precautions.

The Mutilated seemed to understand his thoughts, because he typed new words into his cell phone and showed them to him: "If you can't trust anyone, we can't call for help. We have to fend for ourselves"

“You already assume we'll be a team, I see” Adam commented sarcastically.

"I know when someone has no choice" was the Mutilated's reply.

"I also see you are very skilled in these subterfuges" Adam told him. "And what makes you think I can trust you? How do you plan to prove to me that you won't betray me?"

The Mutilated wrote a new sentence: "I can't. You'll have to take a leap of faith"

"Pretty pretentious request, from someone who doesn't even dare let me hear his voice" Adam replied.

The Mutilated's answer was not long in coming: "Do you perhaps have any alternative?"

Adam normally would have already grabbed his interlocutor by the neck and slammed him against the trunk of a tree to force him to at least make a sound, but he stopped himself. The Mutilated was the only one who still had a clear idea of ​​what to do; he couldn't act rashly before he revealed his plan to him. "I see. What do you have in mind?"

The Mutilated quickly wrote again on his cell phone: "To break the curse of one of the princes of Heaven, you need a higher power to purify your self. A simple magical artifact or purification ritual would be useless"

If he could, Adam would have squeezed his eyelids shut. "I see. So what do you propose?"

The Mutilated quickly answered: "There is a power on Earth that can purify even the power of the mightiest angel. The power of God Himself, contained in the blood of the Messiah"

Adam made a choking noise and opened his mouth even though he had no lungs available. Of course... no power in the universe was greater than that of God. And when God came down to Earth walking as the Messiah, He left a piece of Himself on that planet. Even the smallest part of His divine body possessed a power that no creature in existence could match. "So what should I search?"

The Mutilated quickly answered: "Seek the Holy Grail, the cup containing the blood of Jesus Christ. You just need bathe yourself in it and whatever power is locking you inside that skeleton will shatter immediately"

Adam clenched his fists. The Holy Grail was a relic so mysterious that even the angels did not know where it was. "How can I track it down? Do you know where it is?"

The Mutilated shook his head. "I know a ritual that would allow us to locate it, but we need a high-ranking angel to perform it. I have already gathered some of the ingredients, you can help me gathered more, but without a celestial being, it is not possible to do it anyways"

"So we're back to square one..." Adam muttered.

But the Mutilated didn't seem to feel the same way. "No, instead. There is an angel here on Earth that we can exploit"

Adam felt he wouldn't have liked the answer at all. "Who?"

The Mutilated's eyes narrowed. "Azazel"

As he had imagined, Adam did not like the proposal at all. "Do you know that damned bitch traitor? She's where she belongs, chained under the desert"

The Mutilated seemed to bristle at his bad comment about Azazel, but he still hastened to reply: "But she is the only high-ranking angel at our disposal. I cannot free her, but you with your strength can break her chains. And I am sure that you can also force her to serve us now that she is so weak. With her, we can track down the Holy Grail"

Adam let out a grunt. "Let's assume that he listens to you, and follows you in this crazy plan of yours and agrees to free an angel whore rightly locked under a desert. What are the other ingredients, and how does this ritual work?"

But the Mutilated shook his head. "I won't tell you"

If he could, Adam would have gnashed his teeth. "Now you're being difficult, hm?"

"Revealing it to you would be useless. Tell me, even if I told you everything, how would you be sure that I'm not lying to you?" the Mutilated replied. "You have no reason to trust me. Whether I am sincere with you or not, you cannot be sure. I could reveal to you a false ritual that will call the attention of Heaven to you, have you thought about it? And just for the simple suspicion of this deception of mine, you would end up not trying anything for fear of attracting unwanted attention. You only have one way to be sure that I am not tricking you, and that is to keep me constantly under your eyes. You will have to take me with you on this journey"

Adam made an annoyed noise. "How I hate those who can speak well" he muttered. "You won't talk, will you? Am I really obligated to trust you, mh?"

“I won't betray you" the Mutilated told him. "You have my word on that. It's not my interest tricking you, even if you have no reason to believe my words"

Adam crossed his arms over his chest. "All this sounds very fucking nice... but tell me the truth: what do you gain from it?"

The Mutilated quickly wrote down the response: “Isn't the safety of the entire world enough?”

But Adam did not fall into the trick. "You don't seem to me as someone who cares about the common good. Why should you care about this world?"

Despite his face was not visible, the Mutilated seemed to roll his eyes. "Maybe because I too live here?"

Adam snorted. "Whatever, keep your secrets for yourself if you wish so. But please, tell me at least this... why did your desire to save the world lead you to draw a giant magical containment circle around this entire area?"

Immediately, even though Adam didn't have a skin to feel it, the air around them seemed to grow a thousand times colder.

Chapter Text

There was just a crack, as if someone had just used a whip; and then, the Mutilated was on the opposite side from where he had been before, while Adam had his arms raised as if he had hit something. Even if that movement had been too rapid to be perceived by the limited senses of human beings, it was not difficult to understand what had happened: the Mutilated had just tried to attack Adam, and he had deflected his blow without suffering any damage.

In a single instant, any semblance of the peaceful atmosphere it lacked completely vanished.

The Mutilated stopped. Even without being able to see his visual expressions, it was clear that he was confused. He looked at the first man in a strange way, as if he was wondering how this was possible.

Adam turned to him and chuckled. If he still had a face, he probably would have smiled arrogantly at him. "What's the matter? Did you really think I was stupid enough to fall for such a simple trick?"

The first man cracked his bones, making their strength felt. He no longer had muscles and skin to flex, but even just moving his scapula and humerus seemed to give off a sensation of power, giving his opponent a good idea of ​​his strength. "It would have been foolish of you to meet me defenseless. It was obvious that you would have had some trick up your sleeve. A special magic circle, spread around us... one capable of compressing my soul and blocking my strength. Really good, but I predicted it"

The Mutilated immediately got into an attack position. It was a strange position, a sort of mixture of all the various martial arts that humans used. A position that did not leave the slightest opening in his defense.

Adam did not lose his mirth. "You're wondering how I broke the circle if you activated it only after I entered, I assume" he told him. "Yes... it should have been impossible. Such a perfect circle could never be broken from the inside. My body, powerful enough to face a prince of Heaven on equal terms, would have been instantly repelled before I could even get close to such a barrier again. But... this does not apply... to those who are outside the barrier"

The entire clearing was suddenly lit up like day; dozens of torches lit up simultaneously, illuminating the two challengers. The Mutilated narrowed his eyes slightly, realizing that he was surrounded by several soldiers. Two familiar people stood in a tree, rifles already aimed. "Unidentified creature, surrender!" Agent Two shouted through a megaphone.

The Mutilated opened his eyes wide in surprise, and then looked back at Adam. Even though it was only a skull in front of him, he was sure to see the first man laughing. “Did you think you were the only one buying time?” Adam asked him rhetorically.

"... and that's all we know" Agent One concluded. "For the rest, the Mutilated is an enigma"

Adam had remained silent throughout the explanation, and even when the two agents had finished he didn't say a word; and then, after what seemed to be an infinite wait, he muttered: "Surely he can't teleport"

Agent One and Agent Two didn't understand. “Um… what?”

"If he could teleport, open portals, or move through space in any way, he certainly wouldn't have any reason to walk all the way here" Adam said. “Consequently, if he found himself trapped in a completely empty space, he would have no chance of escaping”

The two agents looked at each other. They weren't sure what they should do at that time. “Um… he could always use his ability to alter matter to escape through the ground" Agent One pointed out. "It would be enough for him to open a hole to the other side of the planet..."

"Oh, there's no need to worry about that" Adam told him confidently. "I would catch him much sooner"

“Are you really going to face him?” Agent Two asked him. "You don't know what skills he has"

Adam didn't feel the same way at all. "Oh, no... I think I already have an idea about that" he replied. "I have a hypothesis... but to verify it I have to fight him. A serious fight this time. The ideal scenario would be to meet him and have him reveal everything right away, but I doubt a guy who doesn't even let his voice be heard will be that cooperative. I'll try to talk to him, but if he'll still play the recluse guy, then I'll have to beat him up and force him to reveal himself"

"You could just go with him" Agent One suggested. “You could act compliant and follow him, let him show you what he wants to do, and then fuck him at the last moment”

Adam was already about to answer him, but Agent Two anticipated him: "It would be too dangerous a move. That guy has certainly taken a possible betrayal into account, and following him hoping that everything goes well is a big gamble. Before doing something like that it would be It's appropriate to at least have some information about him"

"Clever girl. Listen to your woman, she has more brains than you" Adam complimented.

Agent Two blushed a little. "We're not together, we're just colleagues"

"Yes, yes, everyone says that. You shouldn't have affectionate relationships at work and all that bullshit. I know, I run an army too" Adam replied in a teasing voice. "Don't be afraid to tell me like it is, I'll be as silent as the grave. And I remind you that that cloaked crow smashed the cameras, so no one will hear you"

Agent One and Agent Two let out a sigh, not wanting to tell him again that they weren't a couple. “So, you're actually going to face him?”

Adam nodded. "Oh, yes. And for this, I need your help"

Both the agents froze. “Um… what?”

"I like you guys. I want you on the team" Adam told them. “That asshole sure knows me well, and he knows that I wouldn't normally involve someone in a potentially dangerous situation, so… that's what I'm going to do. I'm sure that at least this is something he doesn't expect"

"Don't even talk about it!" Agent One protested. "I care about my life!"

"Yeah. Nobody faces the Mutilated and returns from the fight alive" Agent Two supported him.

"Tsk! And you call yourselves government agents?" Adam grumbled. "You had the courage to capture me, and for your information, I have exterminated entire legions of demons. Compared to me, that mute is a cute kitten"

Those words made the two agents blush a little. "It would be useless" Agent Two tried again. "That guy is definitely capable of using clairvoyance, he is probably keeping an eye on us"

"No, I don't think so. If he could project his mind this far, he could have communicated with me immediately" Adam told them. "Instead he needed to touch me to transmit images to me. No, I think the reason he knew I was here was just a good tracking spell... or super advanced hacking skills. Either way, he isn't listening to our conversation"

There was a long moment of silence. And then Agent Two said: "Do you have a chance?"

Agent One paled: "You're not really considering…!"

"I will win for sure" Adam said speaking over him. "If I get the right help"

Agent Two sweatdropped slightly. "What do you need?"

"If I were him, I would surround the entire area with a magic circle capable of containing me or some other trap, so that even if the negotiations went badly he could imprison me and force me to do his bidding" Adam replied to her. "All I need is for you to break the circle after our conversation begins, and make sure there is no interference. I'll take care of the rest"

Agent Two remained silent. Agent One bit his lip: "Do you really want to do something like that?" he asked his colleague.

"If there's one thing I've learned from horror movies, it's that mysterious black-cloaked guys in hats are never good" Agent Two replied to him. "I prefer to know what the Mutilated is and how to control him rather than leave him free to act undisturbed"

"It's too dangerous!" Agent One protested. "The Mutilated is...!"

"These two talked about the end of the world!" Agent Two interrupted in an angry voice. "This skeleton did nothing but say that the universe was in danger, and the Mutilated listened to him. If two such powerful supernatural beings discuss such things, it is not boasting. This is the time to take risks, in case you didn't understand it"

Agent One wanted to reply, but couldn't find the words. It was basically impossible to contradict his colleague.

Agent Two approached the cage and stared right into Adam's eye sockets. "But I want to make sure that you are absolutely on our side, and that you will never leave us behind"

"Betrayal is not my custom" Adam replied.

"Your words are not enough for me" Agent Two said, raising her hand and showing her palm: "I want a deal"

"No, wait...!" Agent One tried to stop her.

Adam let out a grunt: "I'm not a demon"

"But you're still a human soul" Agent Two opined. "You want me to believe that the so-called father of humanity can't do something that his descendants who ended up in Hell do on a daily basis?"

If he could, Adam would have frowned. "Okay" he said finally. "So be it"

Agent One turned pale: "No, don't do it, it's a terrible idea...!"

Too late: Adam shook Agent Two's hand, and a flash of golden light appeared between their hands; as soon as that was over he let her go, but she continued to feel the touch of his hand on her palm. "Now we're in it" Agent Two muttered. "Do you need help getting out?"

"It's no use" Adam replied. "I'll escape tonight. Better keep up appearances in case that funny guy decides to hack the cameras"

"Okay..." Adam commented satisfied. "What happened to all the confidence and calm you've shown so far?"

The Mutilated had clearly become tense. He couldn't seem to understand what was happening. It was clear that he hadn't expected any external intervention at all.

“You didn't expect me to get anyone involved, did you?” Adam asked the Mutilated rhetorically. "Yes... it's not something that I would normally do at all. And that's why I chose to take the risk. You clearly know me very well... so I had to behave in a way I would never have done"

The Mutilated narrowed his eyes, making an annoyed noise. He was obviously furious at having allowed himself to be played with like that. He had been sure that Adam would never have asked for help, let alone from humans; had he really changed that much to accept someone else's help?

Adam chuckled. "Anyone would have expected me not to come here alone... except someone who knows me well. Therefore, you must be someone who knows a lot about me" he told him. “Thank you for giving me the definitive proof of my suspicions. Now I know that this is not a meeting, but a reunion between old acquaintances”

The Mutilated took a step back; it was probably an instinctive action, but that was enough for Adam. It was proof that his opponent feared him. The Mutilated had realized that he had lost his edge, and that he could now do with him as he pleased.

The first man advanced towards him. "Don't get me wrong, I like your plan... but I don't intend to carry it out in the company of someone who doesn't even show me his face, so first I will force you to reveal yourself for what you are. So, Mutilated...". He clasped his fists in front of him: "... let's have a good fight, what do you say?"

And having said this he didn't wait any longer: his body moved like a spring, and he grabbed the Mutilated and slammed him on the ground. His face sank into the earth and even reached part of the rock below. The Mutilated didn't make a sound, but Adam still felt his breath catch at his touch.

There was a moment of stalemate, and then his opponent reacted: the Mutilated began to emit extremely strong energy, and Adam himself felt it. It was as if his body was capable of generating a nuclear force opposite to that of the atoms around him, pushing them away. The ground instantly recoiled as matter was pulled away from his body at the subatomic level, but Adam still didn't move. Even though his bones were feeling that force, they remained intact.

Realizing that he was powerless to counter Adam, the Mutilated deflected his energy downward, blasting a hole beneath them; this made the first man lose his balance, and the Mutilated took the opportunity to spin around to hit him in the face, so as to free himself from his grip. Adam, however, did not let himself be caught unprepared and dodged his blows, without letting him go.

It was then that the Mutilated made his eyes glow, and his fists suddenly changed; his hands were enveloped in what looked like electrical discharges, but which were actually lightning caused by the rapid rubbing of electrons on his body due to the mysterious energy he emanated. This time his punch was much more powerful, enough to push Adam back and free him from his grip.

The Mutilated jumped back and seemed about to run away, but Adam lunged at him again. Their fists collided in mid-air, so powerful that a flash of light exploded with unprecedented violence; and after that very brief contact, the Mutilated fell to the ground with such a violent thud that he split the ground beneath him. At that point he raised his hand upwards, and broke the electrons in the sky; this generated a real lightning storm that hit Adam, burning everything, but the first man resisted that attack without even making a sound.

The humans were keeping a safe distance, not wanting to end up in the middle of the clash between the two supernatural beings, but they were still dazzled by the light of the lightning. "What the fuck... is that guy Thor, by any chance!?" Agent One murmured. "Did we also end up in Norse mythology...?"

"I'd say he's more like Zeus" Agent Two pointed out. “He's not using a hammer... and he's doing that"

Taking advantage of the fact that Adam had been rejected, the Mutilated had stood upright again, and the lightning around them had condensed; moved by the electrons in the air, they joined together in an enormous bolt that shaped itself as if it were a sword, and positioned itself perfectly between the fingers of the Mutilated's right hand. Adam grunted and attacked again, and his opponent used those lightnings just as if they were a blade, swirling them in the air and parrying his every blow, generating electrical discharges with each contact. Even though the Mutilated was clearly at a disadvantage, he still managed to keep up with the first man.

This stalemate lasted for a full minute, and then finally Adam was able to land a successful blow and force his opponent to step back. But it wasn't over yet.

The Mutilated seemed to explode with energy from within, and aimed the bolt in his hands at the first man; it seemed to supercharge itself, and then it emitted a very strong light. The magnetic fields of the entire area went completely out of control, and as if they were alive they wrapped themselves around the lightning, increasing its power just as if they were a railgun. The jet of energy that was generated was so powerful that it would have been able to melt reinforced steel like butter, and even Adam, although he did not fall, was pushed backwards for over three meters.

Everyone expected that the first man would have attacked again soon after, but instead he stopped. "I only know one person who could use that attack" he said with a note of disgust in his voice. "Are you going to reveal yourself, or do I have to keep beating you to death to force you to talk?"

The Mutilated remained silent for a long moment; and then finally a mouth opened on his face, the same bluish color as his eyes, and a hoarse voice emerged from it: "Yes... there's no point in having secrets anymore. Know that I never intended to deceive you, first man... simply, I was sure you would have been reluctant to listen to me if you had known who I was from the beginning"

Adam let out a deep grunt upon hearing that voice. If he still had a face, he would surely have taken on a frowning expression. "Just as I suspected" he said with a hiss that didn't hide his anger. “It's been a long time, Samyaza”

Chapter Text

If Adam still had his skin and face, he would have looked at the Mutilated with a lot of disgust and hatred on his face. But even though his head was only made up of bones, his feelings were so palpable that everyone around them could feel them. It was as if he were exuding suffocating steam as he stared at his opponent.

The agents surrounding them had remained firm in their positions: their task was to continue to make sure that the two supernatural creatures did not move away from there. Even though this was a terrifying situation for them, they were still trained men who knew how to do their job, and kept a cool head even in the face of incomprehensible beings.

Agent One and Agent Two, although shaking, were also not moving. However, that didn't mean they were amazed. "What did he just call him!?" Agent One asked his colleague.

Agent Two was wide-eyed. "Impossible..." she whispered. “That name… like... the Watcher…!?”

Being experts in the supernatural, they knew a story well, told in the most ancient myths and legends of humanity, even before the myths of ancient Greece, before those of Japan, before those of Egypt; the story of a group of angels who had descended to Earth in order to watch over humanity, led by one of the noblest in Heaven... whose name was...

“Samyaza” Adam repeated, chewing on the words. "Can you kindly reveal yourself for the sucker that you are?"

The Mutilated did not answer him, at least not in words, but in any case he seemed to have nodded; and then, something in him moved. His cloak flew open behind him, floating in the air for the first time, revealing what was hidden beneath it: a body that had once probably been very beautiful and typical of a warrior, but which now seemed crushed, reduced to much less thin than normal. His skin was black, like the darkest night or the purest coal, but it was crisscrossed with symmetrical golden veins that formed patterns across him. Several scars covered him, tearing his tendons in various places, consequently making his movements much more difficult. In particular, six scars were immediately visible to everyone: on his back there were six deep gashes, barely healed, which seemed to have been inflicted by an extremely skilled surgeon who had amputated something down to the smallest detail.

His face remained dark and dark for a moment longer, then it was as if a fog had lifted; what was revealed was a very beautiful face, skin black as coal crossed by perfectly symmetrical golden veins; the only things that didn't change were the eyes and mouth, which kept the same shape and the same deep blue color. However, his face also appeared injured, as it too seemed to have been crushed and compressed, and the hair that emerged from under his hat, so long that it arrived to his shoulders, looked rather sickly. A moderately thick beard surrounded his chin, although it was more reminiscent of the quills of a porcupine than anything made of hair, and the shape was vaguely similar to that of a fish's fin.

The creature named Samyaza and Adam stared at each other for a long moment longer. And then the first was the one who spoke: "From your reaction, I assume you had hoped never to see my face again"

"You assume correctly" Adam replied with a hint of acidity in his voice. "But in times like this, even the presence of a traitor can be useful"

Samyaza didn't seem at all displeased by that provocation; on the contrary, his expression, while remaining serious and composed, seemed to be crossed by a hint of satisfaction. "You've really changed. There was a time when you wouldn't even consider talking to me"

"Desperate times call for desperate moves" Adam replied. "Don't think this changes anything between us. I consider you the same infamous being you were thousands of years ago"

"I never claimed to have your trust back" Samyaza replied. "I just want to help you. I hope you are willing to at least accept this truth"

Adam snorted. "You say that I have changed, but you are still the same. You talk a lot and in a difficult way to confuse others" he told him, and then he crossed his arms: "So, what does the old leader of the Grigori really want from me?"

At those words everyone froze. "I can't believe it... it's really him!" Agent Two exclaimed. "The Watcher, the leader of the angels that were tasked to guard Earth... Samyaza the Fallen!"

Adam completely ignored the astonishment of the other people around him. His attention was only focused on the man before his eyes, and as much as he didn't like it, his mind was reliving memories he would rather have forgotten.

Thousands of years before, after Eden was destroyed and humanity forced to wander the Earth, some angels were sent among mortals to observe and guide them in the early years of their growth; they were called Grigori, and acted as messengers between Earth and Heaven. They were the bravest soldiers of the celestial army, which at the time was still made up of just heavenborns. Their job was not to interfere with the development of humans, but only to help and support them as they learned to thrive on Earth. Many of them had become husbands and wives of Adam's sons and daughters, thus allowing humanity to populate the planet without risking problems related to incest.

And at the head of them all was him: Samyaza, nicknamed the Watcher because he watched over everything and everyone, an angel with six shining wings, whose voice seemed to make thunder rumble and who could manipulate matter at will, a power he had used to help humans erect the first city. His second in command was his wife, the beautiful Azazel, who everyone considered the most majestic and at the same time the most valiant of all the celestial warriors. Adam had known them, since they had given their blessing to the various Grigori whenever they chose to marry his children, and had been present at the wedding banquets; and then he had mistakenly thought that the Earth could not be entrusted to two more virtuous and impeccable people, who would surely have protected humanity from any catastrophe.

However, it had taken no more than a few centuries for their true nature to reveal itself.

Samyaza and Azazel had spent years observing humanity, and they couldn't help but notice how much they were falling into sin; and they themselves had soon begun to appreciate lust, gluttony and greed. The first to fall to such desires was Samyaza, who slept with a mortal woman secretly from his wife, giving birth to the first of many bastard children; Azazel had been furious about this, but it hadn't taken long for her to lie with a mortal too. From such unions monstrous creatures were born, which would later have been known by the name of Nephilim.

The Grigori were only low-ranking angels, and when they mated with humans the result was fully human offspring, with only a few special traits, such as long life; but neither Samyaza nor Azazel were low-ranking angels. The result of their mating with humans were the Nephilims, beings of multiple forms and immeasurable power. Some had the shape of monsters, others that of very large humans. This was unfortunately what the union of a high-ranking angel with a mortal brought about.

Initially horrified by their offspring, and fearing to be punished for this, Samyaza and Azazel initially tried to hide their bastard children to the eyes of the other angels, but they were many and rarely appreciated having to remain hidden. The two angels knew that it was only a matter of time before someone discovered their deeds. And this fear, combined with their growing greed and lust, made them create a cruel plot in their minds: taking advantage of the fact that Heaven's attention was focused on Hell due to Cain's machinations, they lay with as many men and women as possible, generating even more countless bastard children, in order to create an army. The Nephilims often retained their mother's major traits, therefore those born from Samyaza's seed were closer to mankind, while those born from Azazel's womb contained much more divine energy and this made them very powerful and destructive monsters. The two angels rapidly started to believe that they could take advantage of the moment to completely replace humanity with their offspring, so as to be the parents of a new world... or better, enslave humanity in order to use them as hostage when Heaven would have decided it was time to act.

By now corrupted by heart, it didn't take them long to fall into such depravity as to ally themselves with the demons, promising them many more souls (which they actually delivered) in exchange for their support in creating a new world; Cain, who at that time was still just the viceroy of a Hell and in the process of settling, accepted in exchange for their more powerful children, who would have ruled over the Rings that were not administered by Lucifer or him, so as to maintain more order. Samyaza and Azazel sent him many of their children, but only six qualified for such task: Satan, Beelzebub, Mammon, Asmodeus, Leviathan, and Belphegor, who would later have become known as the Deadly Sins. All of them were Azazel's illegitimate children, since she, as already mentioned, was able to generate much more powerful creatures since she was their mother; the children Samyaza offered, who were instead born from mortal women, were weaker and not strong enough to claim a Ring, but still they obtained important roles, creating the first nucleus of the infernal nobility that would later have been known as Ars Goetia.

Samyaza and Azazel were sure they could use Cain as a shield against Heaven, directing the angels' attention constantly towards him, while they continued to increase their strength; however, their plans went up in smoke when the war broke out for real. To the surprise of Samyaza and Azazel, the one who had come to face them had been none other than Michael, and against him they could do nothing: the most powerful angel in Heaven had defeated both of them effortlessly, and after Adam had killed Cain in Hell, to compensate for the loss of souls that could have caused Roo's awakening, the angels unleashed the Great Flood on Earth. The Nephilims were all wiped out, and Samyaza and Azazel were harshly punished for their machinations which had led to an aggravation of the already dangerous situation: Azazel, being the one who had generated the most horrible monsters and who had most incited them to kill, was punished most harshly, being chained under a desert; Samyaza, instead, was stripped by Michael of his wings, severely wounded, and his angel grace was taking away from him like the juice was stripped from a squeezed orange, and he was condemned to wander the Earth without ever being able to return to Heaven. Some of the Nephilims that were in Hell, like the Deadly Sins, survived, but not for long: the few Ars Goetia still alive reproduced shortly after to compensate the loss, but as expected due to the belligerant nature of the demons, their children soon hatched plots to steal power from their parents, eventually killing them all within half a millennium. In the end, the only surviving pure Nephilims became the Deadly Sins, who were also the only Nephilims to demonstrate the ability to lead a mostly peaceful life despite their more than obvious flaws. And in the end, they too had simply forgotten their old name and fully embraced their nature as demons.

Adam had hoped to never have to worry about Samyaza again, in fact, to never even have to meet him again; there had been cases where he had known that that idiot even though exiled had not been able to keep his dick in his pants and had fathered other monstrous creatures, but since he was so debilitated his new children were not nearly as dangerous as their predecessors and could be calmly defeated by human heroes. An example was the giant Goliath killed by David, but the children of Samyaza could be found in all cultures, such as the cyclops Polyphemus defeated by Odysseus or the ogre Grendel killed by Beowulf. Mortals can handle such creatures on their own, and therefore they were nothing that justified another angelic intervention on Earth, much less that of Adam. Precisely for this reason he had long been convinced that Samyaza was now a closed chapter.

And instead, now he was in front of him again. In an appearance that was not at all reminiscent of the wonderful angel he had been, but nevertheless it was still him. "Enough talk. Why this masquerade? Calling yourself the Mutilated... how ridiculous"

"Humans fear most what they do not understand" Samyaza answered him. "The legend of a mysterious being that no one could understand who appeared and disappeared at will was far scarier than that of a fallen angel. For centuries it has warded off the overly curious"

"Ah, so you've really thought about becoming a bogeyman?" Adam muttered. "Why?"

"Ever since humanity entered the modern age, nations have begun to actively seek the supernatural" Samyaza explained to him. "It was easier for me to do research using them. I kept an eye on them constantly and created the legend of the Mutilated so I could take what I wanted without anyone resisting"

If he could, Adam would have raised an eyebrow. In a way, Samyaza had made the same reasoning as him: to use humans to find the supernatural more quickly. “You could have just taken control of these agencies”

"I'm weak now, Adam. The humans on their own still can't do anything to me... but if they studied a way, they could easily imprison me" Samyaza answered him. "As I told you, humans are much more afraid of what they don't know. If I had come out into the open and controlled every person who studies the supernatural with an iron fist I would have provoked an open rebellion. By staying in the shadows and using a fake character instead I caused fear, respect and uncertainty, and no one ever understood who I was and how to defeat me. No one wants to challenge a mysterious being who is reputed to be invincible; when I appear, they simply do what I want... and if they don't, since they didn't know in advance what I am, they don't have the means to stop me and so I easily eliminate them"

"A clever plan" Adam admitted. "You didn't answer my question: why?"

“You should have understood by now” Samyaza told him. "I want to leave this planet, just like you"

Yes, Adam had honestly expected it. "You've been searching for thousands of years for a way to restore your old power, hm?" he told him with a mocking laugh. "I am pleased to notice that you have failed"

Samyaza gave a disdainful grunt. "I understand that you feel resentful towards me, but could you please refrain from such comments?"

“You already know the answer” Adam replied without changing his tone. "So, why did you want to meet me and try to convince me to help you get the Holy Grail?"

Samyaza narrowed his eyes, but then he answered sincerely: "Very simple: everything I have revealed to you so far is true. The Holy Grail can give you back your body and your freedom... and it can give them back to me too"

“So you wanted to trick me” Adam muttered.

"No. I never intended to use you to obtain the Holy Grail" Samyaza replied to him. “My intent was to share its power. I would lead you to it and let you use it, but then I would use it too”

“And on the way, you would have made me free your wife” Adam said.

"She has been a prisoner beneath the desert for millennia. I can't break her chains, but you can" Samyaza replied. "This is my proposal, first man: I offer you my help and all my knowledge to find the Holy Grail, and in exchange, once you have used it, you will let me and Azazel use it too. After we have regained our old power you will never have to worry about us anymore. We will go to another planet, or even better, to another galaxy, and you have my word that you will never see us again"

“Should I believe you?” Adam asked him rhetorically. "There are no beautiful women on other planets"

"I'm only interested in getting my beloved Azazel back. Everything else doesn't matter" Samyaza replied to him. "I may be an angel who has allowed himself to be dominated by lust several times, but my heart belongs to her"

Adam let out a grunt. From his point of view it was disgusting for a man to sleep with another woman while he was already married, but technically Samyaza and Azazel were in an open relationship that they both agreed to, so it was their problem. "How can I be sure that you won't betray me?"

"Let's make a deal" Samyaza replied. "If my word is not enough for you, let us bind our souls so that neither of us can betray the other"

Adam snorted. “You already assume that I might betray you, I see”

“If you suspect me, I suspect you” was the fallen angel's simple reply. "I haven't survived on this planet for thousands of years without using my intelligence. I know how much you don't appreciate me, and right now you're the strongest among the two of us. You could just pretend to be compliant and then abandon me as soon as you get what you want, am I wrong?"

“You might find a loophole” Adam said.

"You too" Samyaza replied. "It will be a leap of faith for both of us"

There was a long moment of silence. They both stared into each other's eyes, silent, watchful, hyperscrutable. The world around them seemed to have stopped, so much so that even the wind had stopped howling.

And then, Samyaza raised his hand. "My freedom and my wife's in exchange for the Holy Grail. Despise me if you want, but you have a war to win from what I understand, and you can't trust anyone"

"So I should rely on your help?" Adam grumbled.

"A wise old man once said that if your friend betrays you, then you should rely on the enemy who has proven his honor to you" Samyaza replied to him. "I have spent thousands of years on Earth, and even though I have tried to escape from this prison, I have still tried to make amends for my past. I have always prevented humans from playing with forces they cannot control, and I have prevented people wrong to put your hands on powers that are too great, as your new friends who wear sunglasses at night can confirm. If it weren't for me this planet would already be on fire. I believe you could show me at least a little gratitude and recognize me as a potential ally in this desperate moment, just like I do with you"

Adam didn't answer. He knew he didn't have much choice: calling for any help would mean taking enormous risks, and the Holy Grail seemed to be the only key to freeing himself. At least, he knew for sure that Samyaza wasn't someone I could trust, so it was definitely better to trust him than someone that he still didn't know which side they were on.

Samyaza raised his hand: “So, deal?”

Adam hesitated for a moment longer, and then he nodded. “Deal” he replied, shaking it.

Chapter Text

It hadn't taken Asmodeus long to find a demonic disguise for Sera; fortunately Hell was full of freaks of nature, and it was enough to simply change the color of her wings from white to black, make her appear two horns instead of a halo and change her dress to one with red and black colors, typical of demons. With these very simple changes, Sera could easily pass for any inhabitant of Hell, thus avoiding all the unpleasant inconveniences that would have arisen from having a seraphim roaming around freely. Not that this was a risk for Sera, but Charlie certainly wouldn't have liked to hear about a stampede of demons being terrorized by an angel.

Even so, Asmodeus had still preferred to use his powers to arrive directly in front of the von Eldritch manor, and when the servants had asked him who she was he had passed her off as his new secretary; he knew that no one would have bothered to check anyway. Having done this, he had tried to minimize any possible interaction, and fortunately Sera had followed the same reasoning as him and had let him do the talking for the most part. She didn't care about appearing unpleasant or antisocial after all, she didn't intend to stay there for long.

While they waited for the servants to announce their presence, Asmodeus took the opportunity to ask her: "So... you are the mother of my niece's sister?"

The poor Asmodeus was still trying to put the pieces of that whole affair together. Luckily Charlie's friends had managed to give him an almost complete summary of all that mess, but he was still having a hard time digesting it. He didn't dare imagine how Fizzarolli would have reacted as soon as he would have tried to explain it to him too. He understood very well why Charlie had preferred to involve as few people as possible, and he didn't know whether to be proud or extremely worried. More likely the second option.

Sera sighed. She felt a little uncomfortable talking about those things to someone who, even though she knew who he was, was still almost a stranger to her. She certainly would have preferred someone much closer to her to confide in. "Yes, it's me" she answered. “I hope you don't mind another niece"

"No! No, absolutely" Asmodeus assured her. “I promise I will protect that girl no matter what… I already technically have”

“Thank you” Sera replied hastily. She didn't want to be unpleasant, but she definitely wasn't comfortable talking to Asmodeus about those things. The fact that he had personally helped free Emily from the other Deadly Sins was the only reason she trusted him enough not to constantly keep an eye on him. From her point of view in that moment, anyone who knew the truth was a danger to her daughter, and the mental stress she was under did not help her calm down.

Asmodeus realized that it was best to change the subject, so he focused on a point that mattered to him almost as much as Charlie's sister: "Listen... they told me that you were imprisoned for a short time by a shadow. Do you remember something that could allow us to identify that guy?"

Sera shook her head. "That shadow enveloped me and then I fainted. That's all I know" she said sincerely.

Asmodeus narrowed his eyes. "They must have been a very big bastard to be able to reduce a seraphim to that state in such a short time" he said. "I don't know of any demon with those abilities. I doubt even Lilith could have done it"

Sera nodded sadly. She had thought about it too, and it scared her quite a bit. Knocking out a seraphim so quickly wasn't something anyone could do. The only thing she could think of was another angel… but that dark aura that had trapped her hadn't felt like that of an angel at all. It was something different and deviant, almost broken.

Honestly, she wished Adam was there at that moment. He understood everything once, maybe he could do it again. Who knows where the first man was at that moment... Sera hoped he was fine, even if the fact that he hadn't returned yet boded otherwise.

Just then the door of the von Eldritch palace reopened, and two people very familiar to Asmodeus appeared in their field of vision. "Your Majesty" Helsa greeted him with much respect. "Welcome to our home. What brings you here...?"

"Yo, Ozzie!" Seviathan greeted him with a pat on his shoulder. "Long time no see! How are things in Lust?"

"You ask that as if you don't frequent my Ring regularly" Asmodeus replied with a grunt, since he knew very well that Seviathan spent a lot of his time in his Ring.

Seviathan let out a laugh. "You know me too well. And who is this beautiful woman you brought with you? She's single, I hope"

Asmodeus sighed. The von Eldritch family was on excellent terms with each of the Deadly Sins, including himself, but he just couldn't stand Seviathan. He admitted that it was partly because he had broken Charlie's heart many decades ago, but what really got on his nerves was that he hadn't changed in the slightest: he was still the same degenerate boy who kept bad company and only thought about fucking every female being from Hell. Of course, he wasn't a bad person: he had never done anything wrong, apart from being a terrible boyfriend for Charlie... and after that experience he seemed to have learned at least something, since he had no longer committed himself to a serious relationship, and as far as Asmodeus knew he had always made his intentions clear to every woman he had slept with, which was a credit to him. He had never deceived or defrauded any of them. But otherwise, he remained an idiot.

Sera let out a grunt. “I'm the new secretary" she said simply. "Lord Asmodeus wishes to see your father and Lord Lucifer. Lead the way"

"They're upstairs" Helsa said quickly, and she led them courteously. Unlike her brother, she had definitely inherited the best traits of the von Eldritch family: she was intelligent, educated, skilled in business and very promising, to the point that Frederick had designated her as his heir despite being the second child. Asmodeus was also a little angry with her for the bad behavior she had with Charlie when they were in high school, but Helsa seemed to have matured a lot since then, which helped him forget about that bad period. After all, Asmodeus knew how stupid kids could be at that age: it wasn't worth holding a grudge for something done so long ago.

Asmodeus and Sera (the latter having become the silent target of Seviathan's advances, which she tolerated stoically without saying a single word) were led in front of a large door, and there Helsa and her brother left them since their father had told them not to disturb him. They entered and found Frederick and Lucifer intent on arguing heatedly; as soon as he saw them the ex-king of Hell narrowed his eyes. "Sera?"

"They told me everything" Asmodeus said immediately to avoid misunderstandings. "I assume he told you everything too, Frederick"

"Mostly I figured it out on my own. I didn't want to probe into Charlie and this… Emily's secrets" Frederick clarified. “We were discussing where she might be"

Sera took off her disguise, even though technically there was no need since she was practically identical to before except for the different horns and colors. She didn't miss the fact that Lucifer was barely giving her a glance, a clear sign that he still hadn't digested the fact that he had been a father for almost two centuries without knowing it.

Frederick took a couple of steps towards her, looking at her as if he were inspecting her. “So this is the angel you fucked?” he asked with a half grunt, and he didn't hide a rather interested expression: "Mh... you really like tall women, dud"

"Please, don't comment on my appearance" Sera told him politely, though from her gaze she seemed to be looking to a living trash. She had already had enough with Seviathan, she didn't want to continue.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to offend you" Frederick said to her, and he took her hand and kissed it: "I just wanted to be able to tell you with absolute sincerity what a magnificent creature you are. I had heard about the beauty of angels, but I really think may you be a rare pearl even among those of your..."

Sera squeezed his hand so tightly that she nearly broke his fingers, blocking out whatever he was saying. "You're a married man" she reminded him, tapping her finger on his wedding ring.

Frederick sweated a little, but still his expression did not change: "Here in Hell it is certainly not an impediment"

Sera squeezed her eyes so hard she almost closed them. Fortunately Asmodeus intervened: "Frederick, stop it. And Sera, don't give him any credit, he's just teasing you"

Frederick cleared his throat. "Okay, okay, I was just joking. I just wanted to break the ice a little. I would never cheat on my wife... well, not in front of everyone's eyes at least. I'm certainly not my degenerate son" he told her, and then he took on a more thoughtful expression: "Returning serious, as my friend said, I know everything about your daughter. I hope I can help you, even if I don't know how yet"

Sera relaxed a little. She didn't appreciate that this guy she didn't even know knew the secret she'd kept for almost two centuries, but she didn't complain. Rather, her calculating mind was as usual back to thinking about advantages and disadvantages; the first ones were obviously that having a powerful demon willing to help them was flattering, since with his information network he could keep an eye on many parts of Hell. However, the downside was that she didn't know if she could trust him. Lucifer considered the guy a friend, but she wasn't sure she could believe in his judgment. In her eyes, Frederick was more of a problem than a help.

Sera wasn't a bloodthirsty woman; in fact, she couldn't remember ever hurting anyone without feeling great remorse. Even if it was her duties and the greater good, such as exterminating demons to keep Roo at bay, it had still been painful for her. However, that didn't mean she wasn't ready to get her hands dirty. If she had considered Frederick too great a danger, she would not have hesitated to cut off his head cleanly.

The fish demon evidently understood her state of mind, because he took a couple of steps back and stood next to Lucifer, clearly hoping that his friend would have protected him in an emergency. However, Frederick knew he couldn't rely on him alone to defend himself, since Sera could simply wait for Lucifer to leave, so he quickly found a solution: "We can make a deal, if you fear for my loyalty. Here are the terms: I don't tell anyone what I know about your daughter, and you..."

"And I won't kill you" Sera anticipated him.

Frederick let out a snort. "Well, maybe we could..."

"I won't kill you" Sera repeated to him. “That's the only deal you'll get from me”

Frederick raised an eyebrow in annoyance, but he didn't complain. In fact, he had imagined it would have ended that way. He had never had any malicious intent towards Sera: he was an exploitative demon, but he always knew when certain things were better not pursued. Even if he had the courage to play with an angel, he would never have tried to trick Sera with Lucifer standing two steps away from him; he knew that if he did, he would have paid dearly. He just wanted to tease her a little, just to get rid of the whim.

Lucifer too knew it, and in fact he didn't intervene. He knew how to recognize Frederick's behavior and knew when he was acting with true malice and when he was just taking advantage of the situation to make fun of someone. If he had the inkling that he was actually trying to do something shady, he would have stopped him immediately by punching him so hard that the fish demon would have seen the blow even the next day.

Sera and Frederick shook hands, ensuring the silence (and life) of the fish demon, and then finally she turned back to Lucifer: "We can track down Emily. If you don't want to talk to me, go ahead, but give me a hand in finding her. Give me your blood, I will combine it with mine and I will find her with the spell"

Lucifer wasn't surprised by Sera's frankness: after all, they were talking about her missing daughter, it would have been absurd if she had started apologizing or talking about their situation at that juncture. The problem was that he too, talking to Frederick and putting his thoughts in order, had ended up thinking of using the blood trick... but he wasn't at all sure that it would have worked.

If Emily was indeed in the Betrayal Ring as he suspected, and the door had been locked, then only from the inside could it have been reopened. This meant not only that they couldn't physically reach it, but also that any location magic wouldn't be able to locate anything, as that Ring was completely separate from the normal definition of reality, and therefore technically didn't even exist, at least in the physical plane . Therefore, Lucifer was quite sure that even that attempt would have ended in failure.

However, there was no harm in trying. Therefore, even though he had no hope of it, with his powers he materialized a small needle with which he pricked his finger, causing a drop of bright red blood to come out.

Sera took it and held it in her hand; she also materialized a needle and pricked herself, causing her blood to slide onto Lucifer's. The two drops merged into one. Once this was done, Sera closed her eyes and concentrated; her pupils vanished and her irises lit up, and for an instant her consciousness was projected elsewhere...

But suddenly it was as if something had broken, and her eyes immediately returned to normal; Sera staggered for a moment, and her face went pale: "What...? Why!? Impossible...!"

Lucifer let out a grunt. "It doesn't work, right?"

Sera looked at him confused. From the tone he had used it wasn't difficult for her to understand that he had expected that outcome. "How did you know?"

Lucifer didn't answer her; instead, he walked towards the window and looked at the landscape below. “There is only one place where even the most powerful angelic locator spell fails” he said gravely. "A place that is halfway between what exists and what does not exist, between reality and madness"

Asmodeus immediately tensed. “Are you talking about…?”

Lucifer nodded. "Yes. The Betrayal Ring"

The Embodiment of Lust seemed to become a pillar of salt. “But… it was sealed”

Lucifer let out a deep growl. "I know" he said. “That door was supposed to stay closed until the end of time… how did Emily open it…?”

"Um... sorry? What are you talking about?" Frederick asked confused, having never heard of this.

Sera had also become very stiff. "The Betrayal Ring... is an ancient Ring that was sealed millennia ago for... reasons" she answered vaguely. "Nothing and no one can enter it"

"But that's the only place she could have gone" Lucifer said. "Our powers wouldn't allow us to track her there..."

"How could she have done it?" Sera rightly opined.

Lucifer remained silent. His suspicions were growing stronger. "We know that Alastor got in the way, and that he serves someone else" he said through gritted teeth. "Maybe this someone else... is someone who knows too much"

There was a long moment of silence. "We also know that Babylon is still alive" Asmodeus murmured. “Could it have been her?”

"Maybe" Lucifer said without further explanation. It was actually unlikely that she had helped Alastor willingly, but in the absence of any evidence she could neither confirm nor deny this.

Sera was understanding little about the whole affair, and obviously this didn't do any good to her calm: "How can we even verify that she's really in there? How do we know if she's okay? How do we get her out!?"

"Ehy, calm down" Asmodeus told her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Try to take deep breaths..."

"No, I can't calm down!" Sera exclaimed putting her hands in her hair. "My daughter is down there... who knows what's happening to her...!"

Frederick tapped his staff on the ground. “If we panic, we won't solve anything” he said aloud. "Ma'am, try to calm down. Do it for your daughter"

Those words managed to have an effect on Sera. Even though she was going crazy with fear anyway, she tried not to let such emotion overwhelm her. "Okay... I have to think clearly... I..."

Suddenly reality warped and a new portal began to open before them; all four fell silent and Sera hurriedly put her disguise back on, but they made a sound of surprise when they saw that the royal bedrooms were on the other side of the portal. Charlie stood there with her hand raised, and as soon as the portal was completely open, she calmly walked through it. "Mh. Emily was right" she commented looking at her hand. "It was easier than what it seemed"

Chapter Text

Charlie had sat on her bed for a long time after Emily had left. Her mind should have been filled with a thousand thoughts, yet that was not the case. She found herself in a state of profound calm, and her own body seemed much more rested than ever before. Actually, as soon as she tried to move a finger it clicked like a spring, as if all restrictions had been removed from her muscles.

That conversation had freed her from many of the burdens on her heart. Knowing that Emily was fine and in no immediate danger had finally erased all her worry; even though she would have liked to know what she was doing, it still made her feel better. Just knowing that she was still alive, free and still with enough peace in her soul to smile was enough for her.

But what had made her happiest was knowing that Emily didn't hate her, and didn't even refuse their bond, and in fact she was even happy about it. She hadn't forgiven her, but Charlie had never wanted her to do so, after all; the simple fact that she still loved her was a source of joy for her. Her heart was lighter than it had ever been in the last weeks.

It was as if she had previously had metal instead of a chest, and now that immense weight to support had suddenly vanished.

She would have gladly spent eternity sitting on that bed, still with the warmth and softness of Emily's embrace imprinted on her body, but she knew she couldn't procrastinate forever. Her heart was lighter now, but that didn't mean she no longer had problems. She still had duties to her kingdom, as Emily herself had reminded her. And now she felt a little more ready to face them.

She positioned the crown better on her head. She had rested enough: her mind was fresh, her body relaxed. Emily had asked her to trust her, and she would have. As requested by her sister, she would have first thought about the problems of the rest of Hell. So she got up, she got dressed, combed her hair, and after sending a quick text to Angel asking him to meet up later for a debrief on what happened in her absence (and something told her it was a lot) she got ready to go out.

Yes... but what was she supposed to do?

Resoluteness was certainly not enough to put everything back in order. She was no expert at ruling, and while she had done well thus far, she was now entering territory she had not yet planned for. And unfortunately she had no idea how to lend a hand to the lower classes who were demanding freedom, or how to ensure that they did not cause disasters.

She couldn't hold back a grunt. That's what she needed a person like Alastor, smart and shrewd. She hated to admit it, but he had always been very useful to her when it came to having to use the brain. But obviously, Alastor was no longer an option, and Charlie definitely didn't want him back.

Should she have looked for another political genius? But she didn't know who she could trust. Her friends didn't exactly fit the definition. Maybe Vassago? Zestial? None of them came close to Alastor in terms of wit, but combining them together perhaps...

She shook her head. She would have thought about it later, now she first had to let everyone know that Emily was okay. She was about to leave the room to head to the Elevator and pay a visit to Envy, but her feet stopped suddenly as a thought entered her mind.

The way Emily had opened that portal had sparked something in her. Charlie had never learned to do it: no matter how hard she tried, she had never succeeded, and in the end she had given up. She was literally the only noble demon over her thirty who didn't know how to do it. But suddenly she wanted to try again.

What had Emily said? Expand her mind and listen to the flow of magical energy from Hell, and then harness it to open a gateway. An explanation that, although in very different words, had already been given to her countless times by many teachers. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and did as she was told.

So far so good: it wasn't difficult for her to identify the dark energy of Hell, which flowed around her like a current. Up until that point she had always arrived without problems. But when the time came to envelop her mind in one of those streams, as usual it eluded her. It was as if they slipped away from her, not wanting to be grabbed.

Always the same problem... but maybe she was the problem.

"You just have to change your perspective. Look at things and people from a different point of view"

Charlie had never used her full powers when trying to open portals in the past; she had only used her demonic side. Half of her mind, not all of it. And from that moment on, she simply gave up.

But now she refused to give up any longer. 

Her six wings opened behind her, releasing her true form. Both her angelic and demonic sides flowed into her, merging into one; and as soon as she did so, she realized that the magic of Hell shied away from her angelic power. It was what had always prevented her from grasping them, and she, focusing only on the demonic side, had never noticed it.

But if angels could open portals to Hell... then so could she!

She moved her angelic and demonic sides in different directions; the dark magic fled her angelic side, sliding towards the demonic one. This time, Charlie didn't try to take the magical flows gently; on the contrary, she grabbed them forcefully. Instead of simply asking for their help, she imposed her will on them. As soon as she got one, she bent it and expanded it, splitting the space.

Her eyes reopened, and saw a light like an ethereal crack in front of her palm; her gaze was filled with determination, and her power exerted itself even stronger. A portal opened before her, complete and flawless.

Charlie's heart leapt.

She had succeeded... for the first time in her life, she had managed to open a portal!

She crossed it at a determined pace, eager to personally test if it actually worked. In an instant, she found herself within the walls of the von Eldritch manor, in front of her father, Asmodeus, Frederick and Sera who looked at her in dismay. The portal closed behind her as easily as she had opened it.

Charlie looked at her palm. She had to admit that she was feeling a certain satisfaction. "Mh. Emily was right. It was easier than it looked"

All her life she had simply been wrong. She had forced herself to use only her demonic side, but she wasn't just a demon. She was also part angel, and if she wanted to use her powers the right way, she needed both of the sides of her.

"Charlie?" Asmodeus murmured in amazement, then he smiled: "You finally did it!"

Charlie smiled back knowingly: "Apparently"

"My compliments, new queen" Frederick told her, twirling his mustache with great interest. “Should I call you that now, or do you prefer Your Royal Majesty?”

Charlie chuckled. She knew that Frederick was just teasing her. “You're brave, I could have your head cut off" she told him with the same sarcasm.

"Would you kill the one you have defined an uncle more than once? You would break my heart!" Frederick told her with a laugh. “Seriously, it's nice to have you here”

Charlie nodded slightly, also happy to see her family's childhood friend, and then she turned completely serious again. As soon as she did so, Frederick and Asmodeus' eyes widened: that seriousness... was different than usual. It wasn't the extremely tired seriousness she had shown when she sat on the throne, crushed under the weight of a thousand responsibilities. It was as if that weight had been lifted from her, and only a cold determination remained. "I talked to Emily" she said turning to Sera and Lucifer.

They immediately tensed. "Is she okay...!?" was obviously the first thing that came out of Sera's lips.

"Yes" Charlie confirmed. "But for now, she wishes to be alone. She is in a place called Betrayal Ring, and you can't find her if she doesn't want it. So give up looking for her for now"

The four people in the room were a little surprised to hear their suspicions confirmed so easily. "Why doesn't she want to come back?" Sera asked her.

Charlie shook her head. "I don't know. She has something important to do. She told me she'll come back when she's done, and she asked me to trust her. I intend to do so" she said. "I trust my sister"

Sera opened her mouth to say something, but then quickly closed it again. Even if she would have protested, she knew she would have gotten her nowhere. No one could access the Betrayal Ring without the key and door. They could only wait for Emily to come out on her own.

Lucifer took a step forward: "Did you tell her... well... about...?"

"Yes. She knows you're her father" Charlie replied. "And before you ask, no, she still doesn't know whether to be happy about this or not. But she hasn't denied the bond between me and her. She doesn't know whether to consider you her father... but she considers me her sister"

Lucifer bit his lip. He knew he wasn't exactly the parent everyone would have wanted, but it hurt a little to know that Emily had had no hesitation in accepting Charlie into her family, while she was having a hard time accepting him. Well, given his background, he couldn't expect much else.

Charlie cleared her throat: "I came to tell you this, but I'm still here as a queen" she warned them. “Sera, I know I have no authority over you, but please go to the heavenly embassy and stand by in case anyone tries to contact us. I have other matters to attend to. Dad, you go with her. Whatever animosity there is between you two, solve this before Emily decides to come back"

It wasn't hard to understand the reason behind Charlie's order: both Sera and Lucifer were a problem for her. Sera was a seraphim angel, something that shouldn't have been in Hell, and if anyone saw her it would have caused problems given the intense tensions that were already brewing in Hell. Lucifer, on the other hand, was the dethroned king, who Charlie had also disowned in public, consequently anyone who saw him around would immediately have thought that he was there to create problems for revenge, and this would have caused chaos. Locking both of them in the heavenly embassy, ​​the place where no demon could have access, was the best choice. This also meant using them as ambassadors, which was an added advantage since Charlie couldn't be there all the time and they certainly knew how to converse with the other angels better than her. From a strategic point of view, it was the perfect move.

And furthermore, this was also the excuse to keep them in a confined space and force them to talk. Charlie certainly didn't expect a relationship between them, but she at least hoped that when Emily returned, Sera and Lucifer would at least have been on good terms, so as to avoid further family feuds. She wanted to at least stop feeling all that tension when she was in their presence.

Sera and Lucifer looked at each other. Both were clearly unhappy with Charlie's answer, and wanted to continue searching for Emily... but now that they knew where she was, they also knew that any attempt would have been futile. They would have just wasted time and energy. As much as they hated the situation, they understood that they had no chance of doing anything. Following Charlie's order and avoiding causing further trouble was the best choice. "Okay" Sera replied. "But... if Emily contacts you again, please..."

"I'll let you know if she wants it" was Charlie's simple reply. “The same goes for you, father”

Sera said nothing else. Lucifer tried to speak again: "Are you sure you don't need...?"

"I don't want your help. Do what I tell you to do" Charlie told him in a definitive manner that suggested the conversation was over.

There was another moment of silence, and then finally both angels nodded. Sera turned and opened a portal to the heavenly embassy and walked through it. Lucifer stood back for a moment and looked at his daughter, as if he wanted to say something more, but then he closed his eyes and followed her. The portal closed behind them, making them disappear.

Asmodeus and Frederick looked at each other a little worried. It was the very first time they had seen Charlie act like this. Even though it was definitely better than the almost crazy way they had seen her lately, it was still something very unusual for her. It was as if the regal aura she had recently taken on had exploded in all its might: if before it had been held back by her worry and her sense of guilt, now it was unrestrained.

Charlie turned to them: "Uncle Ozzie, Frederick, I have a task for you too"

Both of them didn't even think for an instant about refusing: even though Charlie was someone dear to them, she wasn't there as a niece or a friend at that moment. She was there as a queen. "What do you want?"

"I want you to help me understand the situation" Charlie replied. "Uncle Ozzie, go find the other Deadly Sins. Try to understand what they think and what they want now that what they hoped for has gone up in flames. Frederick, you do the same with the high nobility. I need to know everything"

They both nodded. "I will do my best" Asmodeus immediately replied.

"Thanks" Charlie told him, and then her eyes narrowed: "And tell the other Deadly Sins to come see me as soon as they can, because we need to talk about... that thing"

Asmodeus knew that Charlie was referring to Babylon, and he couldn't help but agree with her: that was definitely a topic that needed to be discussed quickly, even if he suspected that she was aiming more to find out something more about this new dangerous person. In any case a discussion with all the Deadly Sins was a must, and therefore he disappeared with his fire, immediately going to search them.

Frederick, on the other hand, remained behind. His mind was already evaluating several possible future scenarios. "Thanks for helping Dad" Charlie told him. "Knowing him, he must have gone mad..."

“No, it wasn't a big deal” Frederick replied with a smile, and then to save his friend's face he lied a little: “He had already calmed down when I found him"

"Of course" Charlie replied in a tone that suggested she wasn't buying it. "Thanks anyway for the help you continue to give to my family. How's yours, by the way? I haven't even stopped by once to check on you after everything that happened..."

"You're here now" Frederick said, putting his hand on her shoulder in his usual paternalistic manner. "And we're all fine. As you can see, I got back on my feet quickly, and so did everyone else"

Charlie smiled at him. "Yeah... Are Helsa and Seviathan home? Since I'm here, I might as well say hello to them"

Frederick raised an eyebrow: "Are you sure? You know Seviathan irritates you every time"

"Oh, come on, he won't try to make me lose my temper now that I'm the Queen of Hell" Charlie replied jokingly.

Frederick sighed. "Think about it better" he warned her.

"Think about it? Come on, let's not exaggerate, I've known him all my life, he would never be foolish enough to... oh, no, you're right, he definitely will" Charlie corrected himself in a tired voice. "Well, I want to say hello anyway. Can you call them?"

Frederick shrugged: "As you wish. But please, my queen, don't have that degenerate son of mine locked up in a dungeon. If he offends you, let me know, I'll think about putting him in chains"

"I will be happy to abuse your cooperation, Baron von Eldritch" Charlie replied in the same joking manner.

Frederick chuckled a little, and then he took a bell and rang it, alerting the servants to go and call his children. In less than two minutes Helsa and Seviathan had arrived at the door. "Dad, did you call us...?" Helsa began to ask, but as soon as she noticed Charlie's presence a small smile immediately formed on her face: "Oh, what an honor! The Queen herself is here! Should I bow in your presence, big woman?"

"Well, it's not my custom, but for you I can make an exception" Charlie replied in the same tone. "What are you waiting for? Bow down"

Helsa let out a small hiss of amusement. "Good for you, you finally grew a spine"

“Coming from a half-cephalopod who literally doesn't have one, that sounds bad” Charlie replied.

"Girls, please. Do you have to do verbal challenges every time?" Seviathan asked, then he flashed his usual toothy smile. "It's good to see you, Char. It's been a while since you've visited us, is it true that you're fucking a former Exorcist now?"

"I've been busy" Charlie told him a little coldly. "I see you still haven't changed"

"Nah, I'm still the same" Seviathan told her. "You know that I like myself as I am"

Charlie rolled her eyes. She and Seviathan had remained on good terms after their breakup, but she didn't hide that it annoyed her that he continued to act as if nothing had happened. At least she and Helsa had matured, and even though they still teased each other every time they saw each other, they still did it more for fun than out of real malice like when they went to college. Seviathan on the other hand was always the same, and this got on Charlie's nerves as it gave her the impression that he didn't care at all that he had broke her heart.

A cough from Frederick shook them: "Helsa, Seviathan, before using this informal language you should ask whether the queen is here in an official capacity or not, and wait for her permission" he warned them in a stern voice.

Helsa fell silent, and then she immediately changed her attitude: "Right. Accept my greetings... Your Royal Majesty"

“Urgh, do we really have to?” Seviathan complained. "I feel in awe of calling my ex like that..."

"Show respect!" Frederick shouted at him, and he hit his right leg with his stick. “Dare to misbehave and…!”

"Oh, stop it, Dad! Don't always be so formal!" Seviathan grumbled. "We've known Charlie since we were five, I already know she doesn't care how I address her..."

"It doesn't matter!" Frederick yelled at him. "That is still your queen in front of you! You must address her as befits…!"

"Everyone, calm down. I don't want you addressing me with titles, you have my permission" Charlie told them to calm hostilities. She knew that if she didn't intervene, Seviathan would say something that would have earned him a few sticks on the head. "Frederick, go ahead and do what I told you... I'll take care of it here"

Frederick nodded. "As you wish. Helsa, I entrust our guest to your care. And you, ungrateful son, behave yourself!" he shouted at Seviathan before turning on his heel and walking away.

As soon as they were alone again, Seviathan rolled his eyes in disappointment: "That man really doesn't know how to have fun. He always has a stick up his ass"

Helsa nudged him lightly, and then she turned back to Charlie, still in the same teasing manner: "So, what drove your majesty to come down from the sacred mountain and mingle with us mere mortals?"

"Certainly not the smell of fish" Charlie replied, happy to have removed the smile from her face, and then she returned serious: "I just wanted to say hello to two friends. I have a lot of messes to take care of, I don't know when we can see each other again"

"Ah, yes, it's not a good time for anyone. Everyone's ass is so fucking tense these days!" Seviathan told her putting his arm around her neck. "If you want, I can at least relax your royal ass in my own way..."

"No, thanks. You've already missed your chance" Charlie told him, even though she knew he wasn't serious.

Seviathan took his arm off her. “Well, I tried” he said with mock regret. "To make it up to you, if you have someone you need to loosen up, I'm always available. As long as it's a beautiful woman, of course"

Charlie giggled in amusement, but suddenly she stopped. Her gaze seemed to lose light. “Uh, Helsa, sorry… can you leave us alone?”

Helsa's eyes widened: "What?"

"I want to talk to Seviathan for a moment. Just a few minutes" Charlie repeated, and her eyes narrowed a little: "In private"

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Seviathan let out a tired snort: "That's not what I'm hoping for, right?"

“You already know the answer” Charlie retorted.

"Then it's definitely trouble" Seviathan murmured, scratching the back of his neck. "This is why you shouldn't stay friends with your ex..."

Chapter Text

Charlie's request had caught both Seviathan and Helsa off guard. "Why do you want to talk to my brother?" she asked suspiciously.

"I just want to discuss things... a little personal" Charlie replied. "Nothing else. And I promise I will give it back to you in one piece"

"Why can't you tell him about it in front of me? We've known each other our whole lives... literally" Helsa protested. Judging by her tone she wasn't at all happy about being left out like that.

Charlie shook her head: “Really, Helsa… I just want to talk to him alone”

Helsa let out a ferocious hiss, but Seviathan put a hand on her shoulder: "Come on, little sister, don't be like that. It's not the first time she wants to be alone with me, and you know what I mean" he said, winking at her several times.

Such gesture only seemed to make Helsa more angry, who for a moment raised her hair as if they were tentacles, showing the left side of her face and therefore her three additional eyes, but then she calmed down and went back to her usual self. "Ah, whatever. Keep your secrets to yourself" she grumbled sourly, and then turned and closed the door behind her, slamming it loudly to boot.

Seviathan just let out a light snort of amusement: "Don't mind her. She knows she never liked us dating" he told Charlie. “Just to be clear, is there even a vague hope that the two of us are going to…?”

"We're not going to fuck, Seviathan" Charlie told him immediately.

Seviathan made a disappointed noise. "So I was right, I'm in trouble"

"How do you figure that out? I might just want to ask you if you're going to give me back that dildo you stole from me when we were in eighth grade" Charlie asked him.

"Okay, to be clear, I only used it once" Seviathan told her. "And then, if there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that if my ex shows up at my house saying she wants to stay alone with me, there are only two possibilities: either she still wants to have fun under the covers, and in that case I'm open to the possibility, or she's bringing me trouble. And considering that my aforementioned ex is now also the queen of the entire realm I live in... yeah, I'd say I'm truly in deep shit"

Charlie preferred to avoid commenting. Instead she asked him: "Sev, you said a little while ago, and I'm feeling really stupid repeating these words, that 'everyone's ass is so fucking tense these days'. What did you mean?"

Seviathan put on a confused expression: "Huh? Well, obviously I was referring about everything that's happened these days. Everyone's so tense..."

“Why should they be?” Charlie stopped him. "It's true, a few things have happened, but the situation is calm and safe now... at least as far as the public knows, and therefore as far as you should know too"

"Charlie, it was just a figure of speech!" Seviathan told her. "I had the opportunity to make a joke and I took advantage of it. Come on, you know me, I've been doing it forever. I wasn't referring to anyone in particular"

"Really?" Charlie asked raising an eyebrow. "So you actually think no one is tense lately?"

Seviathan shrugged: "Well, there is definitely someone tense, Hell has been through a difficult time anyway. But nothing too serious, come on"

Charlie cocked her head slightly to the side. Maybe she was getting paranoid, and Seviathan really had just made a silly joke, and wasn't referring to anything in particular... but she couldn't shake the feeling that he had spoken a little too confidently. Maybe it was because she'd been talking to too many manipulative people recently, but she'd started to notice when a person's tone of voice indicated that they were sure of what they were saying, even if they were joking about it.

In her head she berated herself. Come on, what was she thinking? That was Seviathan, the same Seviathan who could barely count by the end of high school. There was no way he could have noticed that there were people around ready to make a revolution. As far as Charlie could remember, Seviathan had never even been able to notice when someone changed their hairstyle.

But...

"Let's sit down for a minute" Charlie said, pointing to the seats. "Like you said, it's been a tough time. I want to rest for a while"

“Haven't you been sleeping well lately?” Seviathan asked her a little apprehensively.

"Not much" Charlie replied. It wasn't really a lie, more of a half-truth. "But it was just a phase, I'm getting back on my feet"

Seviathan was happy to hear that, and he went to throw himself on a chair, or rather, he spread himself right on it. "So, did you want to be alone with me just to question me on a joke? I remind you that if we are alone for too long Helsa might get the wrong idea, and I don't want to see you two fight again. I'm tired of being a mediator"

Charlie sighed. That wasn't that far-fetched, and she knew that if they stayed in that room for more than ten minutes Helsa would probably come and break down the door. She, unlike their parents, had never accepted the love relationship between her and Seviathan: according to Helsa, they were not suited to being together, and she had done everything to make them separate, to the point that for a certain period their harmony friendly rivalry had intensified on her part, becoming much more subtle and cruel, almost to the point of bullying. Only when Charlie and Seviathan broke up did she apologize and become friendlier again, even though their relationship remained somewhat tense for a long time, and even now she often seemed afraid that Charlie would have tried again to fuck her brother.

Well, after all those years it couldn't be said that she wasn't right, even if her resolution methods weren't the best. Seviathan wasn't the type for stable relationships: he wasn't bad, but he wasn't capable of staying with the same woman for too long. Charlie had often caught him cheating on her, and even though she had forgiven him for some time, in the end she had to admit to herself that he was a terrible boyfriend and had dumped him. And his promiscuity had been only one of many problems, for as kind as Seviathan knew how to behave, his lack of attentiveness and his rather high idiocy often made him irritating and annoying; not the right qualities to maintain a stable relationship in short.

"Tsk! As if you ever actually mediated between me and Helsa" Charlie told him. "In most of our fights, you would just say a few words and then run and hide on top of the wardrobe"

"Yes, because you two ganged up on me and started slapping me. It's called survival instinct, or strategic retreat" Seviathan replied. "And in any case, becoming the common target of your ire was still an efficient method to make you forget any kind of discord between the two of you"

Charlie couldn't deny that it was true. Maybe it was real that the best way to pacify two women was to throw a man between them as a sacrificial victim. However, remembering those moments made her notice a detail that until a few weeks earlier she would have ignored, but which now after everything she had been through immediately jumped out at her: "Now that I think about it... how did you manage to climb so quickly every time? You were always able to put your feet in the right place"

"Well, with you two threatening me with death, it was hard not to find the right path to safety" Seviathan replied.

"Really? Because I remember you were pretty shit at athletics" Charlie told him. "How come when you had to do sports you didn't show any quality, while with me and Helsa you suddenly became a professional climber?"

Seviathan still showed no signs of being upset; he just shrugged. "What can I say? With all the adrenaline I had in my body in those moments I was unstoppable!" he told her. "That was my motivation, I guess. Maybe if they had put you and Helsa behind me in a race, I would have won..."

"And that time at the cherry tree?" Charlie interrupted.

Seviathan was silent for a moment. "Sorry, you know I have a short memory. Which time?"

"When we were seven. Well, Helsa and I were seven, you were nine" Charlie answered him. "We were at one of my mother's country houses, and there was a cherry tree in the garden. I remember that you climbed up perfectly and in a few moments to get me one of the flowers because you noticed that I liked them. Why were you so agile there? No, actually... how come that time you noticed that I wanted flowers, when you barely noticed when I entered my emo phase?"

"Oh, that time!" Seviathan exclaimed, and he looked slightly nervous. "I forgot about that. Oh, and by the way, that emo phase was truly awful, I was glad when you stopped"

Charlie narrowed her gaze. "Don't try to distract me" she warned him. "This trick doesn't work anymore. Lately I've had to learn to be careful when I talk to someone. Answer my questions"

Seviathan closed his mouth again, and after a brief moment in which he seemed to reflect he returned to his usual self: "It's all very simple: if you remember correctly, the branches of that cherry tree were very curved, it was easy for a little boy to find grips. And I was also a little more trained at the time, it was after I stopped hopping from side to side like a little rabbit. Oh, and it wasn't hard to understand that you wanted those flowers, since you've been staring at them for half an hour"

Charlie tightened her grip on the arms of her chair slightly, and then she moved her hand and made a cup of tea appear on the table. She needed something to make her relax a little, because her brain was starting to smoke. "Do you want one?" she asked Seviathan out of kindness.

"Yes, thank you. I don't care if my father says that you shouldn't ask the guest for anything, offer me one" Seviathan replied as usual, and as soon as she made one appear in front of him he began to drink in a rather inelegant way.

Charlie's fingers tightened lightly on the handle of the cup. Seviathan... continued to behave as usual... but then why couldn't she shake that feeling away from her? Why did it seem like there was a veil between her and him, and that he wasn't completely sincere?

Had she really started to develop a sixth sense after all the deceptions she herself had taken part in? Were those signs that she had previously ignored now immediately apparent to her? Or was she just going crazy? The second hypothesis wasn't even so unlikely...

And yet... the more she looked back at her memories of our time together, the more strange details kept popping up before her eyes...

Emily's words rang in her ears again.

"You just have to change your perspective. Look at things and people from a different point of view"

From a different point of view...

Charlie's eyes suddenly widened.

Of course... now everything made sense...

Seviathan didn't seem to notice her dismay, or if he did he didn't show it; he continued to play with his cup of tea with her usual cheeky smile for a while, and then he said: "Why so quiet? Are you perhaps re-evaluating my offer? Know that it is still valid, I don't mind relive the good old days. Well, we don't have a bed here, but there are some armchairs..."

"Seviathan" Charlie stopped him. "Stop being an idiot"

“You told me that often” Seviathan teased her. "But then you loved it when..."

"Maybe I didn't express myself well" Charlie said in a harsh voice. "Stop pretending to be an idiot"

Seviathan froze for a second; a brief moment in which his expression didn't even change, but which was still visible. Then he started laughing: "Ah, so you too have finally understood my genius, hm? Obviously you just needed time to understand the intricacies of this sublime mind of mine. I couldn't invent so many positions in bed without... "

Charlie stopped his nonsense by slamming a hand on the table, which immediately silenced him. "Seviathan, I've had to lie, pretend, and deceive a lot lately. I had to learn how to do it. And you know what they say... only a deceiver recognizes another deceiver" she said, taking a sip. "As soon as I heard that Dad had come here to stay with you, memories of the past came back to me. And the more I face them with a clear mind, the more I realize many details that didn't match. I hadn't noticed it before because I didn't know what it meant to have to pretend to be someone I'm not... but now I do. You can't fool me anymore"

Seviathan positioned himself in a rather inelegant position in his chair. "Are you accusing me of fooling you? Well, I cheated on you a couple of times, but hey, I always told you I liked beautiful women. You remember that, right?"

Charlie did not fall for the provocation. "I remember other things better. For example, that you have always been incompetent at fighting, so much so that every teacher claimed that you had zero talent. Yet, once I was on a ladder to get a book on the bookshelf, and I slipped... and you caught me. Even though you were five meters away, you moved so quickly that you grabbed me in mid-air. It wasn't a simple instinctual action... you jumped onto the furniture next to you, you used it to generate propulsive force, and after you grabbed me you turned yourself and me to hit the bookcase with your feet, aiming to land the right way on the floor. At the time I was too naive to notice... but these are moves that only a professional fighter would be capable of replying. And the fact that you were able to do so with so little time to think proves that you repeated those actions over and over again"

Seviathan did not change his attitude. "Tsk! Come on, now don't overdo it. I know I must have seemed heroic to you at the time, but that's a bit much"

"Not enough for you? Ok, let's take another good memory" Charlie told him. "Do you remember our school trip in the third year of high school? We made the mistake of separating ourselves from the others to make out and so we got lost. But you found our way back. Or rather, I found it... but you left me of the clues without me realizing it. You spoke casually about the position of the pentagram in the sky, the amount of moss on the trees, the position of the ground... all things that then I, putting them together, used to orient myself. At that moment I thought it was just fruit of chance, but now all those clues that always came at the right time seem suspicious to me. And if you add to this the fact that you were considered a donkey in all subjects, and therefore you shouldn't have known those things at all... everything becomes more and more strange"

Seviathan hesitated for a moment this time, but then again he said: "Char, seriously, now I'm starting to doubt that you've put the crush behind you. I mean, I know I'm wonderful, but placing so much value on me in your memories is a bit..."

Charlie put the cup down, making a much louder sound than normal. "Okay" she said with a sigh. "Let's use the fun method"

Seviathan truly changed his expression for the first time, taking on a worried one: "Uh? What...?"

Charlie moved suddenly: the chair she was sitting on tipped over and fell to the floor, and the cups on the table broke. In an instant she was in front of Seviathan, her arm already raised and covered in dark plates; if she had hit him with that force, without a shadow of a doubt she would have split his head in two. It was all a matter of a fraction of a second...

Seviathan moved as well: with such agility that his body seemed composed of pure water, he slipped away from her attack, and then he grabbed Charlie's arm and used her own strength against her; she immediately changed the direction of her attack, but he positioned his feet as well to avoid losing his balance. He clearly wanted to stay attached to her arm to avoid being hit. Charlie then opened her wings, unleashing a violent shock wave, and this was enough to finally make him lose his grip and fall to the floor.

Silence returned to the room. That very brief handful of seconds had been extremely intense, and now it was over. "Asshole" Charlie told him, but without any malice. "You even forced me to use my powers"

Seviathan sat up. He wasn't injured, but his back still hurt a little. Even his arms, which had had to withstand the queen of Hell's strength, seemed to be burning. Yet, he didn't complain in the slightest, and instead stared at Charlie with a strange look.

“Are what you did the actions of a talentless idiot?” Charlie asked him crossing her arms. "I purposely left openings for you to dodge, I know you noticed them. Anyone's instinct would have been to use them to escape, but instead you chose to face me. You put yourself in a more dangerous and tiring position to make sure I couldn't attack you again. By grabbing my arm you put yourself outside of its range of action, and you gained the possibility of changing my balance by preventing me from grabbing you with the other one". Her eyes narrowed: "So, are you going to deny it again or are you going to finally throw away the mask?"

Seviathan narrowed his eyes. His expression was intense and thoughtful, something Charlie didn't remember ever seeing before. It appeared in her memory only for brief moments, moments so quick that she hadn't even noticed it at the time, only to be replaced again by his typical idiot face.

And then Seviathan smiled again. He stood up and stared at her, but even though his expression was the same as always, arrogant as usual, his eyes had taken on an extremely profound awareness. "Ah ah ah... you know, Charlie..." he said with a laugh. "... only Helsa has been able to see through me so far... no one else could... not even my parents... but I was sure that sooner or later you would have understood it too"

Chapter Text

Charlie remained impassive as she watched Seviathan rise to his full height. He used to remain upright on his back in order to show off as much as possible, but this time it was different: his pose was more firm, serious, statuesque, almost regal. His expression had also become much more mature, although he still didn't lose his arrogant smile. "So, did you have fun teasing your queen?" she asked him.

"Technically you weren't queen when we were together" Seviathan replied, not without reason. “And I never said I had fun doing it”

Charlie crossed her arms over her chest. "So? Why did you pretend to be an idiot?"

Seviathan sighed. "It seems obvious to me: because I want my sister to inherit the title of head of this house"

"It's not true" Charlie told him immediately. “Or at least, it's not the whole truth”

Seviathan's smile widened, but it was impossible to tell whether he was amused, proud, or annoyed that she had been able to read right through him. "I really can't fool you, hm?"

"I told you, I've had to pretend a lot lately too" Charlie told him. "I've become smarter"

"No, I don't think so" Seviathan replied. "From my point of view you have always been smart. This experience has only forced you to bring out that smartness"

Charlie rolled her eyes, not at all impressed. "Flattering as always"

"I can't deny it. But have I ever given you a compliment you didn't deserve?" Seviathan asked her rhetorically.

Charlie ignored him; on the contrary, she took the chair that he had knocked to the ground and put it back in its place, and she sat down on it; with a snap of her fingers, the broken cups returned intact to the table. "Sit down" she said, pouring more tea into hers. "And speak. Honestly, this time"

Seviathan did as he was told. "I would never lie to the queen. My neck is fine as it is now" he told her jokingly.

"You just can't be serious?" Charlie asked him.

"Only when the situation requires it" Seviathan replied. "Would it make the conversation easier to see me sulking?"

Charlie decided to let it go to avoid getting a headache. "Tell me the truth. What have you been doing all these years? You must have a good reason to have deceived all of Hell and even your own family"

“Of course I have” Seviathan replied, playing with his cup. “Do you know what your advantage is, Charlie?”

"Huh?" the new queen did not understand. "What are you talking about?"

"Of your birth. You, Charlie, were born into the royal family. An extremely small group... three people, two of whom were the most powerful beings of all. You yourself have within you a power that no one in Hell can match. And what's more, you're an only child, which left no risk of power struggles you're welcome, not until recently anyway" Seviathan said. "But normal nobles, like me... when they are born they have a sword stuck above their heads. Especially the children of important people, like myself. Ever since I came into the world, I knew that I would have had to deal with political intrigues, subterfuge, deceit, silence, enemies hidden in the shadows; as the firstborn and only heir, I would have become the target of all those who aimed to obtain the power and wealth of my family"

Charlie bit her lip. After experiencing firsthand how terrible the power plays were, she knew that everything Seviathan was saying was absolute truth. The von Eldritch family had many enemies, and deceiving or controlling Frederick's heir was definitely the best technique for any opponent. It was not difficult to imagine that someone would have tried to take advantage of the naivety of the young Seviathan to assassinate the head of the family and then place him at the head of the house as a puppet. "I see. It can't have been good"

"No, not at all" Seviathan confirmed. "And everything got worse when Helsa was born"

Charlie stiffened. "Why?"

"You would know if your parents had given you a sister or brother" Seviathan answered her. "If the heir of the house is one, the family belongs to that person and no one can question it; but if there are two... then a peaceful coexistence is almost impossible. There is a reason why powerful nobles like King Paimon preferred to divide power among their children, entrusting one with a grand duchy, the other with a county, and so on. Anyone who wants to take advantage of them will lay their cruel hands on them, spread discord, cause friction and clashes. This means that whoever inherits the name of head of that family will not only have to watch their back from enemies outside the house, but also inside of it. This was what risked happening with me and Helsa, further accentuated by the fact that she showed from a very young age great intelligence and ability. My father would never have risked a division within the von Eldritch house... therefore, he would have adopted the simplest solution: eliminate the problem represented by Helsa"

Charlie nearly spat out her tea. “What are you…!?”

"I didn't mean he was going to eliminate her!" Seviathan was quick to specify, realizing that his words could easily be misunderstood. "You know how much he loves her, he's not that kind of person. But you also know that my father is an old-fashioned man... to avoid her becoming a problem, he would have stripped her of her hereditary rights by marrying her off to some other nobleman. I know this for sure because I spied on him, and I heard him dealing with other families about a possible engagement, as if she were a horse to be bought. Such move had its logic... if Helsa had remained unmarried and in full right to inherit, a clash between me and her would have been inevitable; but if she had been sold to another family, my position as head of the family would not have been contested, decreasing at least a little the number of my enemies, and what's more we would have obtained an important alliance with another branch of the nobility"

Charlie felt a bad taste in her mouth. She knew that Frederick von Eldritch wasn't exactly a progressive: he behaved and acted as if they were still in the 'good old days', as he called them. This didn't make him bad, but he often tended not to understand some important things about the modern world; there was a reason why Helsa had never confessed to him that she was bisexual. Honestly, Charlie wasn't surprised to find that he, despite loving his daughter, had considered arranged marriage a very viable option.

Seviathan evidently understood her thoughts, for he let out a grunt. He didn't lose his smile, but his face was covered by a shadow. "I couldn't allow it. First, because I couldn't know who would have been the person who would have taken my sister. Second, because I couldn't leave her in a loveless marriage. And third, it wasn't fair that she couldn't let her abilities shine just because she was the second child and was relegated to the role of bargaining chip. I wasn't going to let that be her fate, but I had no power to prevent it. So I chose another path". He drummed his fingers on his cup. "If I couldn't defend her in the light of the day... I would have done so in the shadows of the night. And so I created a mask for myself" 

"You pretended to be an idiot" Charlie muttered.

"Precisely" Seviathan said, his smile widening. "My plan was as simple as it was ingenious. You see, being a degenerate son has many advantages. First, my father, seeing me so unfit to lead the von Eldritch house, delayed all of Helsa's engagements, even canceling them altogether. Unlike me, she was intelligent, smart, charismatic and good at everything: a much better head of the family than me. My father's choice was predictable: rather than entrusting the house to me, he preferred to give it to her. But this was just the first of many advantages"

"Why?" Charlie asked him. “What else did you gain from it?”

"Control and protection" Seviathan answered her. "As I told you, when you are born into a family like mine you have many enemies. Well, as soon as they learned that the von Eldritches had a degenerate son, these enemies all approached me. They thought it was easy to fool an idiot, and I let them believe it. I let them be convinced that they had been able to turn me against my 'sister who stole my position'... and since they thought I was a fool, it was never difficult to convince them to give me names, places and valuable information. And once they got all that... well, you can imagine what happened to them"

Charlie had expected it, but still she felt a little uneasy. She had seen Seviathan in many lights, but never one so sinister. “Did you kill them?”

"Of course" Seviathan answered her without any remorse. "I killed hundreds of them. I was good at the art of assassination, also because everyone thought I didn't know how to fight. With each murder I stole a lot of valuable things, so that everyone would think it was a robbery gone wrong, which I then sold on the black market, and with that money I hired trusted spies to better keep an eye on the movements of the other nobles. Over the years, I have created an increasingly dense network of information, and in doing so I have been able to predict many plots against my family and foil them before they even took hold". He let out a laugh: "Do you understand now? Helsa is the direct heir, the one who will be able to best manage our family... and I am the degenerate idiot who will always cover her ass in the shadows, making any enemy attack very difficult"

Charlie was left holding her breath. If someone had told her just a few weeks ago that a single demon had been able to deceive the whole of Hell like that she would never have believed it. Seviathan had literally screwed everyone, tarnishing his name in order to identify all potential enemies of his home and protect what was dear to him. "Doesn't anyone know this except Helsa?"

"No" Seviathan answered her. "I also deceived my parents. They wouldn't have understood"

"You've earned your father's contempt" Charlie pointed out.

Seviathan shrugged. "I have no interest in the appreciation of someone who can't love their children for who they are" he replied. "I don't deny that in the past it hurt me... but after all these years, I have lost interest in that man. I don't want his respect and I don't think he should give it to me"

Charlie wasn't sure how to react to those words, so she just moved on: "How did your sister figure this out?"

"She's intelligent and knows me like the back of her hand. She knew right away that something wasn't right. In less than a year she put the pieces together and understood everything... and she had confirmation of all her suspicions when she secretly followed me and saw me slaughter a rich man who had tried to bribe me" Seviathan replied to her.

“I guess that wasn't a good confirmation” Charlie muttered.

"You can say it out loud. Even if she suspected it, it was the first time she saw me carry out such acts in cold blood. She didn't have the courage to speak to me for a week" Seviathan told her. "But she didn't even report me, and in the end she came to me to tell me that she understood. I confessed everything to her, even what she hadn't yet understood. She asked me if it was okay for me to live with all this infamy on me, and I said yes. After all, honestly speaking, I like this life. Since then, she has helped me with my acting"

Charlie was silent for a long moment. And then she asked the fateful question: "Seviathan... was there ever anything true between us?"

Finally the fish demon's smile disappeared. He didn't say a word for a while either, but then he admitted: "No. Don't get me wrong, I love you, Charlie... but I've never loved you in that way"

Even though decades had passed and Charlie no longer had any feelings for Seviathan, she still felt bad hearing those words. “Then why did you want us to get together?” she asked him.

"Because you have always been a great friend to me, almost like a sister, and I knew you were in danger. Not like Helsa, but still I care about you a lot" Seviathan answered her. "Our engagement was exactly what our parents expected from us. I was sure that you would understand it too and that sooner or later you would ask me to get together just to please your mother. And not only that... even if neither of us had chosen that path, you were still exposed to the courtship of countless other nobles, who would have attempted to take advantage of your youth to marry you and thus become royalty. Even if you didn't realize it at the time, you were taking countless risks. So I chose to take action". He let out a deep sigh. "Even though it hurt to lose your friendship, I decided to become the monster who would teach you how to navigate relationships. I came forward pretending to want to fulfill our parents' wish, and throughout high school you were therefore with me, safe from any other relationship with a potential exploiter. And then, I behaved badly towards you, so that you would learn to recognize bad intentions. In a very unorthodox manner, I have protected you from both the outside and the inside. And then, I made sure that you left me in dishonor, thus also safeguarding your reputation"

“My reputation?” Charlie murmured.

"Of course. I couldn't be the one to break up with you. How would have a princess incapable of maintaining a relationship looked like? Today you would only hear gossips wondering how a queen can manage a kingdom if she hasn't even been able to hold on to the man she desired" Seviathan told her. "Instead, I made sure that you were protected from any accusation. I was the one who proposed that we get engaged, so you didn't want me, I wanted you; you simply gave me a chance. I was the one who throw that chance away, and since you were the one who dumped me in the end, I can't help but be the idiot who had the most precious flower available and let it go. For the entire Hell, including our parents, I am the only one responsible for our breakup. Your reputation remained pristine; mine was tarnished, but I already had the reputation of a degenerate idiot, so nothing changed for me"

Charlie clenched her fists slightly. "Did Helsa help you?"

"Unfortunately, yes. She pretended not to appreciate our relationship and behaved unpleasantly towards you in order to make you more inclined to leave me" Seviathan replied. "I didn't want her to get involved, but she still wished to help me at least a little. She too wanted to protect you"

Charlie remained silent. She wanted to feel frustrated at being deceived like this, but she couldn't. Seviathan had deceived her, but he had done so to protect her. For who knows how many years he had acted as a shield for her, preventing her from falling into the hands of some exploitative seducer and secretly teaching her how to recognize the wrong relationships. “Haven't you ever thought about telling me the truth?”

Seviathan nodded. "Sometimes. During our worst fights, or when I made you cry the most, I thought about it. It hurt to make you suffer like that. But I still preferred to continue with my plan. Hate me if you want, but that was my choice"

Charlie rested her head on the palm of her hand. "I wish I could tell you that you were an asshole... but I've done the exact same thing to a lot of people I've cared about lately... including my new girlfriend" she confessed to him. "And now I know how she felt"

"If you wish to beat me, go ahead" Seviathan told her in a sympathetic voice. “I know I deserve it. I won't stop you. I couldn't even if I wanted to, technically”

Charlie let out a grunt. "Be thankful that I have matured a lot lately, otherwise you would already be locked in a cell in the dungeons of my palace fed on bread and water" she told him. And then she smirked a little: “You know, you could have become king if you had used your abilities to actually make me fall at your feet”

"No, I don't think so. I told you, I always knew you would have found out sooner or later" Seviathan told her. "Besides, I never wanted to be king. Why should I? I don't even want to be the head of this house, let alone the king of Hell! I like my life the way it is. I can protect my sister, and in the meantime I don't have to work, I live just for fun and I can have all the women I want"

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Your womanizing attitude wasn't an act, as far as I can see"

Seviathan shrugged. "What can I tell you... I have many qualities; chastity is not one of them" he replied with a mocking smile. "And if there's one thing I'll never give up, it's the touch of a female body. I'm not one for stable relationships, and I always make that clear right away. Honestly, I'm seriously starting to suspect I'm aromantic"

Charlie preferred to avoid commenting. After all, this was his life, not hers; there was no point in judging him. She took a deep breath, and then she said to him: "If you are really such a good strategist, then I need your help"

Seviathan let out a snort through his nostrils. “I guess I can't refuse the queen's request that I've been cheating on for years” he said sarcastically. "What's this about?"

"If you really have a secret information network you probably already know it" Charlie replied. "I'm talking about all those people who risk causing a mess right now. Those who ask for freedom and those who ask for oppression"

Seviathan put on an expression that suggested he'd heard of it before. "So the problem is really already so deep-rooted..." he murmured. "You must have really good informants if you also found out about it so fast"

"Not good enough, unfortunately" Charlie replied. “Answer this question truthfully: what do you suggest me to do?”

Seviathan narrowed his eyes. He knew when his ex-girlfriend was serious, and it sent a shiver down his spine. When Charlie wore that cold expression it was truly terrifying. "Well... the simplest choice would obviously be to locate the leaders of all these organizations and take them all out. However, this would not solve the problem, it would only postpone it. There will always be brave men who will be born and try to change things. With a good queen in charge of Hell, once in a generation there would be a need for a new purge. You could try to mitigate this by gradually giving the lower classes rights, but doing so will face strong opposition from the nobles. Ultimately, the tension between these two factions will continue for who knows how long". He paused briefly, and then he said: "If I were you, I would try to understand what possibilities these groups of revolutionaries have, and when the time comes, I would make sure that this uprising happens as I want, eliminating only the problematic targets of both factions and thus promoting rapid change and radical that would guarantee peace perpetually"

Charlie remembered how Angel had explained to her that some of the people Arackniss had known had already planned a new political and economic system that would have benefitted everyone. If that was really the case, maybe it was really worth giving them a chance. "Aren't you afraid of what might happen to the von Eldritch family?"

"Why should I? We are a rich family, not a noble family. Our title is barely that of barons. If the nobility were abolished, we would lose nothing. We would be in much more danger if a full-scale revolution broke out... in that case, escape would be the best option for us. You know, when the people are angry, they don't control who is in power and who isn't" Seviathan replied to her. "And in the worst-case scenario, I have long since acquired an Asmodeus crystal and bought myself some isolated villas on Earth with a false identity. If I see that the situation is getting really bad, I will immediately take my family and leave Hell. I will show up again in a hundred or two hundred years, long enough for the people to forget who the von Eldritches are, so no one will recognize us anymore"

Charlie nodded. "I understand. But since you want to protect the people you care about so much, I have a request for you"

Seviathan let out a chuckle. "I figured. Do you want my people, am I wrong?"

"No, you aren't" Charlie replied. "I need someone with a good brain in the head, and you were able to deceive the entire Hell for decades. Now I want you on my side. I want you to find out everything you can. Use your bad reputation, your secret information network, whatever you want, but bring me results. I want to know everything that is happening inside each faction, and I want that you find a solution for the problems that will surely come"

Seviathan stretched. "This is why I hate having my exes around the house... they always bring trouble" he said, although with a clear note of sarcasm. "I guess I can't refuse"

Charlie nodded. "Help me and you'll protect your family again. You can use a fake identity if you don't want to be recognized, but I need your help. If you have a price, I'm willing to pay it"

"Hey, why are you bargaining now? I'm already in this, you don't owe me anything" Seviathan replied to her. "I told you, I like my life the way it is. I have no reason to change it, so I need that Hell stay the same too. Don't feel indebted; consider my help just as my apology for deceiving you all these years"

He and Charlie stared at each other for a long moment, and then she stood up. "Thank you" she told him simply, and headed for the door. "We have to get to work right away. I'll give you ten minutes to prepare and make up an excuse to Helsa, and then come with me"

An instant before she could touch the handle Seviathan called her back: "If you really want to do something for me... then please, if you still hadn't, forgive completely Helsa for how she treated you at college. She is not at fault, she was just following my directions. Treat you that way hurt her much more than it hurt me"

Charlie barely turned to look at him, but Seviathan had already lowered his gaze and was playing with the cup in front of his eyes. Realizing that he no longer wanted to talk, Charlie respected his wish and walked out, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Chapter Text

Blitz and Stryker had been driving most of the night. Neither of them had said much, just stared at the road or looked out the window. Stryker had simply given Blitz directions to a place he knew, and then they had both remained silent. After all, neither of them felt like having a conversation with the other.

It was only in the morning that they came to an extremely remote corner of Wrath, located on a barren hill amidst some mountains. Well, those that used to be mountains, as they were now erupting volcanoes; but this was not a problem because the particular shape of the hill had protected it from any lava flow. "Mh. Just as I imagined" Stryker said satisfied. "Perfect as always. Not even a scratch even though all of Wrath shook"

The hill was quite large and spacious, and in the center of it there was a small house which was apparently built of wood, but upon closer inspection you could see a much more solid structure beneath that covering. Aside from the house there was only a small paddock and an outdoor bathroom; Stryker's faithful horse, Bombproof, grazed in the aforementioned paddock, totally oblivious to the devastation that surrounded him.

"Tsk. I admit it's a nice place" Blitz admitted. Surely they wouldn't find a soul there for miles, making it a perfect place for someone who wanted to disappear. "What is it? Your super-secret hideout? The other one of the slash hunters? The place where you hide from the Yankees?"

"Okay, one more Western joke and I'll cut your tail off" Stryker warned him.

"Better the tail than the dick" Blitz muttered. "You can take the house, I'll sleep in the van. I prefer not to stay under the same roof as you"

"Whatever. I'll enjoy the bed" Stryker replied annoyed, even though he was actually about to tell him the same thing.

The two of them quickly unloaded their stuff and settled in properly. Having done this, Blitz went and sat on a rock, trying to think. He had decided to train to be able to control the horseman's power, but the problem was that he didn't know how exactly to do it. And that was a problem since if he did something wrong the armored bastard could take over his brain.

He stood there motionless for a while, to the point that eventually even Stryker grew tired of seeing him there. “Are you going to stare at nothing much longer?”

“Are you going to be a pain in the ass?” Blitz grumbled in response. "Why this sudden interest?"

"I don't know. Maybe a part of me still hopes that you can rediscover a minimum of attachment to your species and use those powers to free us from these tyrants, giving us the place we deserve" Stryker replied.

Blitz glared at him: "You just can't mind your own fucking business, can you?"

"No, not as our people have a golden opportunity to rise again" Stryker replied. “Even though I personally have very little hope in someone like you”

Blitz straightened up and looked him in the eyes. "Stop provoking me"

Stryker made a hissing sound with his tail in response. "You know, I really don't understand how I could have been so blind, that time at the Harvest Moon Festival. I really thought I had found someone like me to share an adventure with" he told him mockingly. "But it seems I was mistaken. Yes, you are capable of taking what you want... but you lack the resolve to do so. You have no guts"

"I'm not a maniac like you" Blitz told him. "I have morals"

"Morals are nothing more than a brake. Just a pathetic construct imposed by society to restrain those who have the power to shape it as they please, so they feel guilty if they alter the preconceived order!" Stryker replied. "A true leader is not someone who follows morality, it's someone who has the strength to TAKE what they want! If you had a little bit of strength, you could immediately control that horseman that you are already holding prisoner inside you!"

Blitz gritted his teeth. "You talk without knowing shit!" he shouted at him. “Do you want to get punched in the teeth, asshole?”

Stryker's eyes flashed for a moment. "You know what?" he asked him in a threatening voice. "I'm in"

Stryker's fist landed on Blitz's jaw so unexpectedly that the imp didn't have time to dodge it and was knocked to the ground. Blitz made a sound of pain, and immediately felt the white horseman activate in his mind. "Stand up" Stryker ordered. "That was just the first. Next time, if you stay on the ground I'll even kick you"

"Urgh... screw it, you know if I feel in danger, the bastard activates!" Blitz growled.

“Then control him!” Stryker answered him. "Force him to keep quiet!"

"That's not how it works!" Blitz exclaimed as he stood up.

"Yes, instead. You are the one who commands your body, he is at your mercy!" Stryker scolded. "Stop asking him for help or to step aside! You won't tame that being with kindness! Force him to do what you want!"

The rattlesnake imp attacked him again, this time with a kick; but this time, Blitz was prepared and grabbed his leg on the fly, and pulled it towards him to make him lose his balance. Stryker, however, was not intimidated and fell to the ground voluntarily, then pushed himself with his hands and then hit Blitz on the jaw with his feet, making him stagger backwards. Once this was done, Stryker tried to wrap his tail around his neck to strangle him, but Blitz managed to grab it in time.

"Pathetic" was what the rattlesnake imp commented as his opponent struggled to keep his tail away from his neck. “Stop fighting like a sissy!”

“Grrr… I remind you that this sissy beat you, asshole!” Blitz growled. Despite the tension, he wasn't about to give up even in a conversation.

"Well, apparently I must have been drunk that day" Stryker replied. “There's no way someone who fights that bad was able to defeat me!”

Blitz let out an angry grunt. Under normal circumstances he would have had no difficulty repelling those attacks: Stryker wasn't fighting using his tricks or techniques, he was simply attacking him with basic moves. Blitz was an expert at fighting, he shouldn't have had any trouble fending off an opponent who fought like that. But at that moment his mind was in the midst of a battle.

"Let me out!"

"Shut up! It's just training!"

"I can clearly feel your tension! You think that guy is going to seriously hurt you!"

"I can handle it, if only you would step aside!"

"If you're scared, I'm scared too! Let's destroy him!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

Blitz was really struggling to concentrate with that annoying mosquito in his head; so he simply acted on instinct and bit Stryker's tail. The rattlesnake imp wasn't expecting that and made a noise of pain, letting him go. "What the fuck...! You'll pay for this!"

"You started it, you bastard!" Blitz replied, trying not to listen to the horseman in his head. "Now stop!"

Stryker hissed. "Maybe it's not clear to you" he said, pulling out his pistols and twirling them in his hands. "I won't stop until you really fight!"

Blitz's eyes widened, and immediately his instincts took over and he quickly backed away; Stryker opened fire on him, unloading an entire magazine into him. Blitz gritted his teeth and grabbed his gun and fired; the two imps continued to exchange shots, running from one side of the plain to the other to take cover behind the rocks. They continued until both had exhausted their available bullets. Blitz then grabbed his trusty knife, ready to fight in close combat.

"I can provide you with much greater attack power than that thing!"

"I don't give a fuck! Stay in your place!"

Blitz let out a strangled sigh. He was feeling a sharp pain in his chest, similar to the one he had felt when Rosie had started sucking Roo's power and the white horseman had tried to force him to let him out to face her. Now he was feeling the same sensation, and was noticing some of the cum on his arms flashing slightly white. But this time he forced himself to stay strong, and didn't let him dominate him.

Stryker appeared above him, knife already raised; he leapt at him and pinned him to the ground, the dagger barely an inch from his eyes. Blitz gritted his teeth trying to hold it back, and then his eyes glowed and his body took on its cherub shape; using its wings it escaped his grasp and slipped away like an eel. He quickly flew into the air to escape his opponent, and threw his knife at him, but Stryker countered by throwing the knife back. The two weapons collided in mid-air and flew away, sticking to the ground.

Stryker sneered. "Good, you're finally serious!" he told him. "Well, if you use your little angelic powers, I don't see why I shouldn't do it too!"

His arm trembled, as if something was moving beneath it, and then pure energy seemed to explode through it: the muscles thickened and the bones strengthened. The skin of his hand strengthened and became covered in plaques, especially the fingers which were surrounded by extremely hard and sharp structures.

Blitz's eyes widened. “Fuck… so you can actually…!?”

Stryker grabbed a rock and threw it at him, hitting him square in the chest with such force that the rock shattered into crumbs; Blitz fell to the ground with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust. Immediately after doing this Stryker's arm seemed to lose strength and deflated, returning to normal.

Blitz let out a grunt at the sight. "You're not good at using it"

"A side effect of my bathing in angelic energy" Stryker replied. "My cells hold this power within them as if supercharged, and by fusing with my Goetia heritage they can exponentially increase my physical abilities... but unlike yours, my transformation is unstable. But that is hardly a problem for me, because I intend to impose my control on it. When I recovered from Raphael's treatment I could barely alter my hand for a second, and not without suffering excruciating pain. I've already improved"

"So this is good training for you too" Blitz said as he got back into an attack position.

"Something like that. But unlike you, it will be beneficial for me, because I know how to make use of my skills!" Stryker yelled at him. "I'm not a passive clam like you, I'm a warrior! Whatever I want, I get!"

And with that he lunged at him again, and this time it was his left arm that swelled and turned bluish in color; Blitz tried to block it, but it was like trying to stop a landslide. For a moment he feared his bones would have broken, and he felt the white horseman's influence inside him grow stronger than ever. He was thrown backwards, but despite leaving deep furrows in the ground, he managed to remain standing... more out of pride than actual usefulness, since at that moment kneeling down to regain strength was the best solution.

Stryker seemed pleased to see him refuse to go down. "Mmm... maybe you have at least a little pride in your heart" he commented rhetorically. "If only you used that stubbornness of yours even with that horseman, you would have already made him yours!"

Blitz hissed. "This is not an enemy I can tie up and move like a puppet!"

Stryker shook his head in disappointment. “He's inside you, so he's yours!” he told him. "Does a man ask the opinion of his hand when he wants to use it? You two are one now, and you are the master of your body, so you can dominate it the same way you dominate every other organ of yours! He's yours! You just have to accept it and fight to get his power!”

He jumped at him again; their fists collided, generating a small shock wave. They both felt their muscles tremble as their knuckles met. "What do you want to be?" Stryker hissed at him, bringing his face closer to Blitz's. "Are you a wretch who is too weak to oppose a being who doesn't even have free will... or are you Pestilence!?"

Blitz gritted his teeth as he heard himself called with the name he had called himself in front of Satan to hide his identity. The veins around his eyes glowed white. Stryker's pupils lit up at the sight. "You have so much power, and you could change Hell. You could wipe out those damned blue bloods if you wanted to, and instead you waste time bargaining with that knight when you should be dominating him!" accused him. "You are the scorn of our kind, Blitzo!"

Blitz's eyes widened even more as soon as he heard his full name; with a yank he stopped resisting Stryker and instead dragged him towards him, and kneed him in the sternum. The rattlesnake's breath hitched and he spat out some saliva. Blitz took advantage of the momentary superiority to grab Stryker by the waist and slam him into the ground with all his strength. He then flew into the air using his cherub wings and lunged at him, landing on his belly with a powerful kick.

But Stryker didn't let himself be beaten: instead of suffocating, his hands became big and blue again and moved and grabbed Blitz's legs, which felt like he was in a vice. The rattlesnake imp got up and without letting him go slammed his rival onto the ground again and again, literally leaving him in the dust. He probably would have continued if it hadn't been that after a short time a strong pain hit his arms, forcing him to bring them back to normal and let Blitz go. Unfortunately, his ability still had many limits, and if he violated them he would have faced very unpleasant consequences.

Blitz made a muffled noise as he tried to regain his energy; his body abandoned the cherub form and returned to that of an imp, and he used his tail to balance himself and stand up. Stryker's blows had been so powerful, so much so that his vision was becoming blurry, and the horseman's voice in his head was becoming more and more insistent.

"Let me out! We can beat him in a second and you know it! Let me help you out, don't keep forbidding me from taking action!"

"How annoying you are"

Yet, it seemed to Blitz that there was something strange about the white knight's behavior. It was as if he was trying in every way to convince him to take his powers... no, to accept his offer of help. Almost as if he hoped he would have believed that his intent was only to help, to support... or as if he wanted him to convince himself that asking for his help was the only way.

Stryker advanced on him; the two imps grabbed each other's hands, starting to push against each other. They both stared into each other's eyes, watching the flames burning within them. Blitz's were full of determination and strength, while Stryker's seemed to carry an almost savage bloodlust.

And then, Stryker said something that definitely set something off in Blitz: "If only you were truly who you could be... your daughter wouldn't have to live in fear, you rat!"

Blitz's eyes lit up white, and suddenly the tables were turned: Stryker was no longer pressing against him with the force of an avalanche, but instead it was like being pushed by a gnat. Blitz hurled it away with such force that the rattlesnake imp rolled at least ten meters away before it came to a stop. The imp's hands were briefly clad in what looked like ethereal white armor, which vanished immediately afterwards.

Blitz inspired deeply, and only then did he realize what had just happened. He hadn't accepted, he hadn't told the white horseman he wanted his help... but he had used those powers anyway. As if for that split second, they had become a part of him, no different than a finger or an eye. Something he could control and use as he pleased.

Stryker stood up; due to the blow he received, his hair was all disheveled and a little blood was flowing from a wound on his head. But despite this his smile became wider than ever. "Yes..." he whispered, looking at Blitz as if he were a shark targeting a seal.

His heart, which had rarely found itself beating with excitement in the last years of his life, was now doing somersaults. A whirlwind of euphoria was permeating Stryker's soul. "It's just as I imagined" he thought with extreme satisfaction. “These creatures, these horsemen, are nothing more than soulless beings incapable of any free will. Their only task is to serve someone else, just as a single cell of an organism serves the entire body. They resist us only as long as we represent a obstacle to the directives that have been assigned to them... but they do not have the ability to truly resist a being with free will. Our will can prevail over them, since they do not have one. The key is our determination, our stubborness, our desire of control. Dominated in the right way, even such powerful beings can do nothing but bow and obey, until they become nothing more than an extension of the body that hosts them!"

A soft, muffled laugh emerged through Stryker's clenched teeth. "Thanks to Blitz, I now have proof that I wasn't wrong. And if he managed to take control of that being even for just an instant, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to do the same!" he thought triumphantly. "And when I have succeeded, I will have in my hands a power greater than that of anyone else, even the Deadly Sins! I will be the most powerful warrior ever born in this realm, and I will finally be able to crush any opponent in my way!"

Blitz had made a very similar reasoning. That brief moment in which the white horseman's power had been his had made him understand the same things his rival had comprehended. "Again" he told him with a determined look.

Stryker nodded. His arms swelled again, exploding with angelic energy. He would have liked to try to dominate the red horseman himself, but that was not the right moment. He would have time for that, when he no longer risked blowing his cover. For now, the abilities he had acquired by immersing himself in the pool of angelic energy were sufficient. "Yes. Let's continue!"

The two imps lashed out at each other again, with redoubled fury, letting their bodies resume their deadly dance under the early desert sun.

Chapter Text

Loona was lying on her bed. Stolas had offered her a room next to Octavia's, so that the two girls could sleep close together, but mindful of Blitz's warnings she had preferred to take any servants' room, and the owl demon had therefore given her the best one he had available. Afterwards he left her there to rest for the night, but Loona had slept very little as she continually woke up: due to her tension, in fact, her canine senses were constantly on alert and alerted her to the slightest noise. When the morning light began to filter through the window she let out a dissatisfied grunt and opened her eyes again, but she still didn't get up.

She hated that situation. She had had to watch her father leave for something dangerous too many times. She missed the times when her biggest concern was finding more clients for IMP and making fun of Moxxie. Even if Blitz wasn't exempt from putting himself in danger before, what was happening recently was definitely on a whole other level, and even she, despite often boasting of her indifference, was feeling the weight of the tension on her.

But the thing she hated most was her helplessness.

Since this story had begun, she had been able to do very little. She had helped at times, but only against opponents who weren't truly dangerous, at least by the standards of what they found themselves facing. When the angels had fired with the cannon Blitz had immediately sent her to Wrath for safety, and there she had remained while he thought about cleaning up all of Pride's messes, facing a group of angels and even dying at the hands of one of them. After they had reunited she had provided some support, but it was still Blitz who had pissed off Satan, who had faced the white horseman head-on, who had done a lot of very dangerous things and often miraculously escaped alive. Even when they had gone to face Stryker, Loona had only provided support in the rear. Same thing when they imprisoned the white horseman. And when they had tried to free Emily, she had helped save the angel, but it had been Blitz who had fought against Babylon.

Ultimately, every time Loona was the one who could at most make a small contribution. It was her father who always threw himself headlong into beings who from the point of view of an imp or a hellhound were equivalent to gods.

She obviously didn't blame Blitz for this. She knew her father was doing all this because creating a safe Hell was keeping her and everyone he loved safe. Loona was proud of her father, who had shown more courage than every other person she had ever met combined.

But at the same time, she hated that she was unable to help him.

It was frustrating. She wanted at least to be able to be really useful for something, to help improve the situation, to really help her father. When she and Octavia had found the information needed to blackmail Stryker into submission she had felt like she was finally doing something useful. But not even a few days later he was feeling totally helpless again.

Blitz was now gone again, and who knew when she would have seen him again in the flesh and under what circumstances. Who knows what challenges between life and death he would have had to face to control the white horseman, while she was there to act as a spectator while all those events passed before her eyes without her being able to interact with them.

Suddenly a soft knock came from the door. She ignored him, hoping that whoever it was would have been discouraged and left her alone, but still, eventually the door opened and Stolas appeared carrying a cup full of some hot drink. "Hi. It's morning" he told her. “I thought maybe you wanted something warm”

"At this time of the day I usually only drink water to recover from the drunkenness" Loona answered him sourly, getting up from the bed. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you already be out doing your King Goetia thing?"

"I have already asked Vassago to come here in the afternoon. We will think of a solution" Stolas replied by sitting next to her, and even though she had refused it he still put the cup in her hand. "Look... I know you're probably mad at me right now, I get it. I don't blame you. Feel free to vent"

Loona snorted. Was she mad at Stolas? She would have wanted it so much at that moment. If it weren't for Stolas none of them would have been involved in that situation in the first place. It was for Stolas that Blitz had chosen not to flee to the lower Rings and remain in Pride, it was for him that he had died and risked his life several times, it was for what was between the two of them that the nobles had now put his father in their sights. If Stolas had never been there, Blitz would never have been in danger and she would not have had to fear for his life.

But at the same time, she knew it wasn't his fault. Stolas had been almost as much a victim of that situation as they were. And Blitz had always made his decisions of his own free will... and technically he had also been the one who entered the owl demon's life, not the other way around. Being mad at Stolas would have been a truly immature action... and Loona was truly longing for the times when she could allow herself to be immature.

"I'm not mad at you" she finally told him. "Really, Stolas... I'm just a little stressed"

The owl demon seemed pleased with such words. He and Loona had never interacted much until then, especially due to the girl's rather defensive personality; after all, Loona struggled to interact properly even with her own father, so Stolas had never pressured her more than necessary. However, that didn't mean he didn't want to have a good relationship with her, especially now that his relationship with Blitz seemed to be improving. "We'll sort this out, you'll see" he told her to encourage her. "You just have to hold on for a while..."

"How long?" Loona asked him. It wasn't really a question, more of a consideration. “Will all this mess ever end? It just seems like every time we get close to solving one problem another one suddenly appears”

"It's not like that" Stolas tried to tell her. "It's just..."

"It's not like that? Look around you" Loona grumbled, rubbing her temples. "Emily thought of a way to avoid a conflict, and just when you were on the verge of winning, Roo became agitated. Charlie thought of a way to prevent Hell from falling into anarchy, and when things started to improve the white horseman appeared. We imprisoned the white horseman, and soon after the Deadly Sins started a riot. Charlie came up with a brilliant plan to eliminate any problems, and just then Rosie unleashed her fury now. And now that it seemed like we could finally at least breathe a sigh of relief, here we find out that everyone is planning to jump on each other's throats and your asshole ex-brother-in-law comes into my house and threatens my father. How can you say that with every problem that we solved, another one didn't show up immediately afterwards?"

Stolas couldn't blame her. Honestly, even he, while trying to maintain his usual optimism, was starting to feel the weight of that situation. "It can't rain forever" he finally told her. "Sooner or later every storm must pass, and the sun can shine again"

Loona was silent for a moment, and then couldn't hold back a giggle. "King, astrologer, botanist, magician and also poet" she told him.

“I actually stole this line from a movie” Stolas confessed, but he was glad he had at least managed to get her to relax a little. "Listen... I know this situation seems untenable, and I know you're worried about your father. It's right to be, but have faith in him and in the future. If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that regardless of how it will end Blitz will do anything to get back to you"

Loona shook her head. "You know, you're not very good at consoling people... but at least you try"

“I know I'm not good with words” Stolas admitted. "But thank you"

Loona sighed. She clasped her hands together and started playing with her fingers. “I just wish I could do something” she admitted. "I would like to be able to really take part in all this and be able to believe that I am contributing to improving the situation. I would like to stop leaving everything in Dad's hands or in yours and take action, feel that I am being useful"

Stolas nodded. "I know. It's normal for a girl of your age to feel this way. Even if you're an adult, you're still young" he told her. "At your age you always feel crushed by the weight of the world and feel useless while adults do all the work doing mostly nonsense. But I assure you that this is not the case. The new generations like you are what pushes us older generations to move forward without giving up and improve ourselves along the way. When we become adults the world seems to stop for us, and time passes without us realizing it, and we no longer feel the need to change... but you young people remind us of what it means trying to be better and encourage us to be. So... don't think you are useless, because your value is much greater than you can now understand"

Loona was silent again, this time longer, and then she smiled slightly at him: “Seriously, you should work in cinema. You're a good speaker”

"I'm just a father too" Stolas replied by patting her on the shoulder. “And I was young too, so… I know how it feels”

Loona nodded. "Look... if it really works for you and Dad... what would that make us?"

Stolas shrugged. "Well, it depends on what you want. I can be whatever you wish"

Loona gave him a little punch. It was rare for her to do things like this with anyone other than Blitz, but ultimately she didn't mind Stolas. She had to admit that it was pleasant to have him around.

Suddenly Stolas' phone vibrated a little, and he looked at it and saw a message. "Charlie calls us again. I'm afraid she'll be even more tired after we explain what happened" he murmured as soon as he finished reading. "Do you want to come?"

"Tsk! For what reason? You guys will be the ones who'll put yourselves in danger, as always" Loona replied. "I don't want to come and listen for the umpteenth time to a plan where you'll will risk your life while I have to sit on the bench again"

Stolas nodded, “Yes… I see. I assume it’s not nice"

Loona did not reply to these words. "I'm going to talk to Octavia" she instead told him, getting up. "She must be waking up too..."

"She's actually already in the kitchen" Stolas revealed to her. "You know... it's not exactly early morning..."

Loona realized that the light filtering through the windows was actually too bright to be that of the early hours of the morning. "Well, it's better this way, I won't have to wake her up" she said simply, and after a final goodbye to Stolas she left the room.

As the owl demon had said, she found Octavia in the kitchen eating some cookies. She must not have slept very well either, as she had a few dark circles under her eyes. After all, even if indirectly, her father had also been blackmailed, and the fact that the culprit was her uncle couldn't have been a very good thing for her. But despite this she still greeted Loona warmly: "Hey, did you sleep well?"

“I've had better nights” was the hellhound's simple response. Normally she would have taken a biscuit immediately, but at that moment almost by instinct she stopped to check that someone wasn't watching them from the window before doing so.

Octavia sighed seeing her act like this. "I'm sorry" she told her simply. "I wish I could help you"

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault" Loona replied, finally sitting down at the table.

Octavia remained silent, unsure of what to say; and then she murmured: "Remember what you told me when we were together at that astronomical observatory in LA? About fathers making a lot of mistakes but still trying. Well... I know you wish now that your father had chosen to stay, but... he did it for you, for us. I don't know if his was the right choice, but he thought of you first of all. So... be happy to have such a person as a father"

Loona smiled slightly. "Thank you, Via. But I already know" she replied, looking out the window with a lot of sadness in her eyes. "I know he's a great man... when he tries. A lot". And then she winked at her: "Your father isn't bad either, anyway"

"I'm glad your conversation went well" Octavia replied. Evidently she already knew that Stolas had come to talk to her. "Look, if I can help you..."

Loona inhaled sharply through her nostrils. "I don't want to lose him" she confessed to her almost without thinking. "He is the only good thing I have ever had. He is the one who gives me a house, a job... a family. If I lose him, I lose everything"

Octavia sighed. "I know the feeling" she told her. "Well, not like you, but... I know what it's like to take a father for granted for a long time and then suddenly feel him slipping away from you without you being able to figure out how to get him back... and seeing him even risking his life in the process"

Loona leaned back in her chair. She wished she could use a little self-centeredness and play the victim, but that seemed too childish even for her. “It's a shitty situation for everyone” she grumbled. "And I can't imagine what it will be like when it gets worse again. I just know that I'm tired of watching from the sidelines"

Octavia seemed to immediately understand what she meant. "Loona..."

"I've been in the safe house too long. I can't do this anymore" Loona told her. "I know my father would prefer it this way, but I can't. I can't keep pretending that everything will work out while he's out there risking his life. I can't fight omnipotent monsters like he does, but I still want to give a help, a real help this time"

Octavia bit her lip. "Are you sure?"

Loona clenched her fists. "Yes. I don't want to just stand by and watch anymore. I know I can't interfere too much... but I can at least help, and I know how"

Octavia fully understood her friend's feelings, and was honestly curious as to what was on her mind. "What do you mean?"

Loona let out a snort. "Those bastards can blackmail my father, or yours, because they can endanger their affections. I want to take away this power from them" she explained. "I intend to track them all down, from first to last. As soon as we have brought them to safety, Andrealphus will no longer have the opportunity to blackmail anyone. Our parents will be able to look after him without fear"

"Some of them may not want to be kept safe" Octavia pointed out, but immediately after she added: "But if we at least knew where they are, we could protect them more easily. It would be useful for when tensions start to explode"

Loona was happy to see that her friend understood. After all, even if she wasn't an expert in politics she knew that this was a sort of chess game for them; and even though he had never learned to play chess, she was intelligent enough to understand that it was better to safeguard their own pieces to take away the advantage of their opponent. Their enemies had many pieces at their disposal, and if they had left their pieces alone, devouring them would have been much easier. "Can I count on your help?"

"You don't even have to ask me" Octavia answered promptly. "If I can help, I'm not afraid to do so. No one can back out now, we're all in this together. The more we take control away from those bastards, the more chance we have of freeing ourselves from their yoke"

Loona smiled. "I knew I could count on you"

“That's what friends are for, right?” Octavia answered her. “So, who do you want to look for first?”

"The hardest of all" Loona said, narrowing her eyes. "It's time for me to meet my Aunt Barbie"

"Do you know where she is?" Octavia asked her.

"No, unfortunately. My father managed to track her down once, but she disappeared again" Loona replied. "But if he found her, so can I"

"Are you sure? Do you have the same investigative skills as him?" Octavia asked her with a serious look.

Loona remained silent. Fuck, right now she was wishing she had insisted more on working with Blitz, Moxxie, and Millie instead of spending her days at the front desk. Maybe she would have learned something and now she would at least have known how to get started. "We managed to track down Stryker's mother..."

"But she wasn't exactly hiding" Loona pointed out. "It took just a little research to find her since she was lying on a hospital bed. Your aunt, on the other hand, doesn't want to be found, and since she is your father's sister, she is certainly just as capable of disappearing as he is"

Loona raised an eyebrow: “Sorry, but are you looking for solutions or do you just want to discourage me?”

Octavia let out a deep sigh. “I'm just weighing my options” she told her. "And such weighing tells me that going blind in this is not a good option. But... we at least have a lead"

Loona didn't understand immediately, but then her eyes widened in surprise: "You mean...?"

"The one who came to threaten your father is my uncle. So he knows where the people he is using to blackmail him are" Octavia told her with a determined look. "And my mother now lives with him"

Chapter Text

Angel was leaning on the windowsill of one of the royal palace's windows, watching Pentagram City below him. It was a nice sight, but he didn't like it much anyway. He liked the view he had from every window of the Hazbin Hotel much more; he didn't know why, there was simply something... more about it.

And honestly, he missed it.

He felt ridiculous. He had made fun of the hotel so many times, and now he didn't know what he would give to go back to living there peacefully. He liked that life, and he wanted it back.

He wanted to hear Pentious blow up one of his inventions again.

He wanted Niffty to jump into his room screaming while she tried to kill a bug, almost skewering him in the process.

He wanted to hear the screams of Vaggie getting pissed off about something.

He wanted to hear Charlie's sweet voice singing because she was in a good mood and hadn't yet understood that life wasn't a musical.

He wanted to wake up with Husk next to...

He put a hand in front of his face. "Fuck, what's wrong with me..." he murmured, leaning against the windowsill. “They should add my photo to the definition of idiot in the dictionary”

"Ah, there was never any doubt about that" Cherri said, appearing behind him and sitting on the windowsill. “What bothers you so much?”

Angel barely looked at her. "It's just that... look at us, there's almost no one left from the old crew anymore. Alastor is a traitor... well, we already knew that, but now he's even more so. Niffty left with him. Vaggie snubbed us and went back to her old life. Charlie is now a queen and has no time for trifles like redemption. Pentious is in Heaven... and Husk too". He let out a loud sigh, "There's only the two of us left"

"Like the good old times" Cherri told him with a giggle. "Come on, don't be like that. We lost people along the way, but no one died... and we found more friends..."

"Yeah, but already these new friends are leaving too" Angel murmured. "Look around, everything is going to shit. Blitz had to run away. Stolas was left alone now that he finally had a relationship with his lover. Emily is disappeared. Even Frank is missing. Who will we lose next?"

Cherri shook her head. She looked tired. “Will you tell me what the problem really is, or should I grab you and threaten to throw you out of this window?”

"We're demons, it's not an efficient threat" Angel replied, not at all scared. "It's just... Cherri, I'm not a good person and you know it. I've made mistakes and so often those mistakes have hurt the people I care about. And now I'm trusting Arackniss again... one of the people I swore I'd never see again. I'm going back to the mafia, do you realize? How long will it take me to fall into my old habits again? How much am I going to screw everything up this time...?”

Cherri kneed him in the sternum, which made him double over and spit saliva. "Mh. We may be demons, but I can still hurt you" she told him. "Stop this melodrama. You don't risk going back to your old habits"

Angel struggled to his feet. "Ugh... why do you always have to be so rude...?"

"Who are you calling rude?" Cherri asked.

"Don't play dumb! I feel sorry for Pentious..." Angel muttered, resulting in her elbowing him in the balls this time.

“You're playing with fire” Cherri warned him.

"Mmmgh... noticed" Angel barely whispered as he tried to get to his feet, keeping himself from screaming in pain. "Why do you think... that I won't go back to my old habits...?"

"Because you didn't doubt Charlie even after she seemed to have betrayed us all. Even though you were angry, you still chose to trust her. And you didn't kill Valentino, because his souls would have all died with him, and you couldn't let it happen even if you didn't even know them" Cherri answered him. "The old you would never have done that. So no, that person you were no longer exists already. You still suck, but less so"

"Thanks for the compliment" Angel commented sarcastically. "I remind you that if you're still down here you suck too"

"Yes, but in a cool way. You just suck" Cherri replied. “But that's one of the reasons you're my friend”

Angel couldn't hold back a laugh despite the pain still persisting in his private parts. And also a little relief. In fact, he couldn't deny that Cherri was right: the old him would never have cared about anyone else like that. He still thought of himself as a terrible person, but at least he had changed... a little.

They were both silent for a moment, and then Cherri asked him: "Look, when are you going to tell Charlie about... that thing?"

The smile immediately disappeared from Angel's face. "I know I have to tell her about the prophecy, she deserves to know" he replied. "But... I don't know how to do so. This could really break her... I don't know how she could react"

Cherri inspired thoroughly. "You know Charlie better than anyone here, so I'll leave it up to you to decide when to tell her about it. But I don't think you should put it off for long"

"I know!" Angel exclaimed. He was terribly frustrated. "But... Cherri, all Charlie ever wanted was to do good, and instead she's already been forced to betray, deceive, and imprison. You've seen in what shape she is now, I'm surprised she still has the fortitude to get out of the bed. The guilt is crushing her alive. Haven't you seen her face? She looks like a zombie. If we were to add to all the suffering she already has the knowledge that a prophecy designates her and Emily as those who will bring the Apocalypse... I don't know what she could do"

Cherri's single eye widened slightly: "Angel...?"

The spider demon put his hands in his hair: "Cherri, I have only one true certainty in this cursed life: that Charlie would rather die than make anyone suffer. And I'm afraid that if she knew that evil could be unleashed through her and destroy the universe... she might choose that her life is not worth that of everyone else"

"Angel, Charlie would never choose that way" Cherri tried to reassure him.

The spider demon stared straight into her eye: "Really? You wouldn't choose it? If you knew that one day you could kill me and all our friends, wouldn't you hang yourself from the ceiling with a rope?"

Cherri bites her tongue; Angel's gaze seemed to crush her alive. "I... I don't know" she admitted.

"Exactly! Even you are not sure of what you would choose! And you and I are two assholes, we suck, you said it yourself!" Angel exclaimed. "But Charlie... she doesn't suck. She's good. And that's what scares me. Because if even two selfish people like you and me are in doubt whether they would only think of themselves or not in such a situation... then a person as good-hearted as Charlie absolutely won't think of herself at all" 

Cherri bit her lip and looked away for a moment. She wanted to tell him again that he was wrong... but knowing Charlie, and Emily too... even she found it hard to believe that they wouldn't have put everyone else before themselves... even at the cost of their lives. "Angel, listen..."

The spider demon declined her words with a wave of his hand. “Forget it, Cherri. I'll tell her about it, actually. Just… give me time to think about how to tell her”

Cherri decided to oblige him. She knew that her friend wasn't very good at listening when he was particularly tense, and she also didn't have any good arguments available. For the moment, it was best to leave that discussion alone. They would have talked about it again when they both got their heads straight.

Silence reigned for a couple of minutes, and then the door opened and Stolas walked in, followed by Moxxie and Millie. All three had a very tired expression. "Oh, you're here" Angel greeted them, and he easily noticed the absence of two members of the group: "How is Loona?"

"I spoke to her, but as you can imagine she is not happy that her father is gone" Stolas replied to them. "Octavia is keeping her company now"

"Yeah, as I thought" Angel muttered. "And you?"

Stolas didn't answer him. Even Moxxie didn't seem to know what to say. It was Millie who spoke: "We're all a little down, but we know it's only a temporary situation. Blitz will be able to control that white asshole in armor. There's nothing he can't do"

"Ah, no one has any doubts about that" Angel admitted, as he himself was sure of it.

Stolas let out a deep grunt, which gave away just how angry he was. "I would have already gone to teach that peacock a lesson if Vassago hadn't held me back" he said without any shame. "We must put a stop to this story before it degenerates"

Everyone totally agreed. "I'll meet with Arackniss in a couple of days and get to the bottom of this" Angel assured him. "Now let's think about..."

Suddenly reality ripped apart before them and a portal opened wide; everyone jumped to attention, but stopped when they saw Charlie step out of it. "Oh, good, you're here" she greeted them.

"Uh... since when can you do that?" Angel asked, looking at the portal, but then he composed himself: "No, rather... did you rest...?"

He'd asked the question, but he didn't really need an answer: Charlie looked ten times healthier than when they'd parted and ordered her to go to sleep. She even looked younger, even though she normally already looked very young. And it wasn't just that: the light in her eyes was more fiery than ever, her expression calm, her posture straight. It was as if all the worries she had had until the night before had disappeared.

Charlie evidently noticed their dismay, because she announced: "I talked to Emily tonight"

Everyone almost choked on their saliva: "She's back!?"

Charlie shook her head: "No, she's not back, but she's fine. She came to see me to tell me we don't have to worry about her" she told them, and then she explained in detail what had happened that night.

When she finished, everyone was amazed. "Is there another Ring?" Moxxie muttered in amazement. "Fuck... all this is..."

“… scary" Cherri interrupted. "Are we sure it's a good idea to leave Emily alone in what used to be the realm of the most evil and craziest demon in Hell?"

"And with Alastor, to boot" Angel grunted sourly.

Charlie nodded. "Even if we didn't want it, only she can open the door. Not even my father can" she told them. "I want to accept her decision. When she feels ready, she will come back to us. I trust her"

Her friends looked at each other. None of them were sure this was a good idea. "Fuck... she could have at least told us in person" Cherri muttered heartbrokenly. "We could have tried to stop her..."

"That's exactly why she didn't want to talk to you" Charlie told them. "It's a difficult situation for her too, she's not ready for an intense discussion. Give her some time"

In the end her friends gave up; after all, they could no longer change the situation. If Emily was the only one who could open the door to the Betrayal Ring, they had no chance of reaching her. "Well... I'm glad you girls at least are in good terms again" Angel told her sincerely.

Charlie cracked a smile, but then she quickly turned serious: "Guys, I don't see Blitz here, and I've received some pretty worrying news from a certain person, so tell me right away what happened in my absence so we can take care of it"

Well, they certainly couldn't keep it from her, so her friends explained everything to her. They expected a furious reaction, but Charlie remained calm the entire time, although she still showed some irritation when Andrealphus' actions were described to her. When they were finished, she lightly rubbed her chin: "Mh. So it's really true, the nobles are moving too"

"Did you already know?" Stolas asked her in surprise.

"After the chat with Emily, a friend of mine gave me some tips" she replied, and then she raised her hand again: "I'll bring him here now. You don't talk about Blitz or Sera or my sister or... well, anything else. Just focus on the problem of the nobles and the lower classes who want to fight"

A portal opened in front of her again, but remained opaque so as not to show what was on the other side. The person who emerged from it was a large demon shark, two meters tall, with the head of a shark and muscles of steel, wearing only a pair of shorts that were not properly tied. As soon as she saw him, Charlie raised an eyebrow: "Really? This is your disguise?"

"It's the best I have" the shark demon, who was of course Seviathan using a magical disguise, replied to her with a sneer.

Charlie took a deep breath, and then she turned to the others: "Guys, this is... an old friend of mine. As you may have understood, this is not his real appearance, because he chose to remain hidden for his own reasons. Don't worry, he's trustworthy... more or less"

"Someone who likes to cover his ass, hm?" Angel commented looking at him. "So I assume you won't even tell us your real name, so what should we call you? John Smith, Mr.Jones, or...?"

"Macho" Seviathan answered him.

Charlie rolled her eyes: "Seriously!?"

"What's the matter? It's a name like any other" Seviathan replied with a shrug, without hiding his teasing grin.

Charlie shook her head. "Ah, why am I still asking questions..."

Seviathan ignored her: "It's a pleasure to meet you all, Charlie described you as quite interesting people. I'm sure we'll get along" he said to her friends, and then his gaze fell on Millie: "By the way, sweet lady, do you by any chance...?"

"I'm married" Millie told him immediately noticing his look, and she grabbed Moxxie and pulled him towards her. In response, her husband grabbed her hips as if to emphasize that she was already taken.

"Mh. It went badly for me" Seviathan commented. "Just to avoid any more misunderstanding, the girl over there too...?"

"Yes, I'm taken too" Cherri sensed it immediately. “All the people in this room are already taken actually"

“Dammit!” Seviathan exclaimed irritably.

Charlie rubbed her temples. "Now you remember why I stopped talking to you" she muttered under her breath. "Se-Macho, you are here to be useful, not to be a womanizer. Think about working, you can think about your animal instincts later"

"Sure, sorry" Seviathan said quickly. "So, guys, from what Charlie told me, there is someone among you who has had contact with a member of the main group of rioters"

"It's me" Angel said raising his hand. "But I won't tell you who my contact is. If you don't want to show us all your cards, I won't show you mine"

"Understandable. I won't ask you then" Seviathan replied. "After all, what matters to me is that this person apparently offered you to go and meet with the upper echelons of this group, and was even authorized to do this. Am I right?"

Angel nodded. "It's like that" he admitted. "That person wanted me on their side because I am close to the queen, and therefore they hope to gain an advantage from it"

"Advantage?" Seviathan said with a chuckle. "Don't be so narrow-minded. Those people don't just want an advantage... they're betting on Charlie"

Everyone looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean... they're betting on Charlie?" Stolas asked him.

"Very simple: letting the queen know that there's a group of people ready to cause trouble is a double-edged sword. Charlie could choose to side with them... but she could also choose to take the tyrannical route and send them all to die. It's a huge risk" Seviathan explained to them. “If they chose to take such a risk, then that is flattering to us. It means that these people are aware that they cannot unleash chaos indiscriminately, and they cannot simply kill the entire current ruling class. They are pragmatic, and they know that with every battle they would lose soldiers; even assuming that they would win in the end, it would be impossible for them to keep Hell united after such a massacre. They don't really want war; what they want is to stir things up a little to give Charlie the opportunity to act and change the current system in a more peaceful way. They are actually hoping that she will turn out to be the good person she has always been, and that as queen she will make the right decisions every time they'll give her a chance"

For a long moment, no one said a word. And then Angel murmured: "Indeed, Ara... I mean, the person who contacted me said that the people who run everything are very organized, and they already have an idea of ​​what the new Hell should be... "

"If they went to the trouble of imagining a new political and legal system before they even took power, then there is even more doubt that they are aiming to gain Charlie's sympathy and support" Seviathan said. "Think about it: you are some infernal nobles, and suddenly you find yourself faced with a riot. You are scared, but immediately the queen comes forward with a plan to stop everything. You are happy about it, you can immediately return to chill in your rich lives. This plan, however, includes some small changes to the political system, little things, stuff that doesn't bother anyone. Small concessions in exchange for peace and advantages. You are undecided, but then the queen or someone for her describes every other possible scenario as long, tedious and tiring. Having reached this point, wouldn't you accept the proposed plan? It would be very funny if in reality the rioters were in cahoots with the queen from the beginning and she had only used the opportunity offered to her to give rights and advantages to the lower classes without anyone objecting"

Everyone was left breathless. "Actually... that would make sense" Stolas murmured. "But will this be enough to deceive the nobles? They too are becoming very wary..."

"I know. I did some research myself even before Charlie came to see me" Seviathan told them. "It is possible that some of them will end up suspecting something sooner or later, but what we are interested in is the majority. As long as we have control of it, this is not a catastrophe for us... it is an opportunity to create a new Hell, a more equal and egalitarian one, avoiding bloodshed as much as possible"

“I didn't understand much of this, but it looks like we can still rule the ground here!” Cherri exclaimed. "Dude, you're smart"

"Nah, I consider myself just intuitive" Seviathan replied, and then he looked at Angel: "In two days you will go to meet the leaders of this organization, and if everything goes as I imagined, they will reveal something very useful to you. As soon as you have finished, come back to us immediately and tell us what you saw; I'm sure that as soon as you get here, their plan will finally be clearer to us"

Angel nodded with a smile. “I can do it” he said, his voice full of confidence again. All of them actually seemed to have regained all their determination now that the wind seemed to be turning in their favor.

Charlie made a satisfied noise. "We're back on track" she said resolutely. "Let's clean up even this mess!"

Chapter Text

Charlie stared at the door of the meeting room with a little tension in her heart, but still she didn't hesitate to open it. As soon as she entered, she was greeted by the familiar, yet now almost alien to her: "CHARLIE!"

As usual, the Sins crowded around her, playing the part of uncles and aunts. This time, however, they were decidedly more tense than before: "Are you better...?"

"We are here for you, remember that"

"You don't have to be afraid to ask for help"

"We're on your side"

"Are you sure you're okay...?"

Charlie smiled at their apprehension, which immediately silenced them. "I'm better" she told them in a confident voice. "It's okay, really. Uncle Ozzie was right... I just needed a good rest. Now I can think more clearly and have fewer bad thoughts"

His aunts and uncles were clearly surprised, but this time Charlie didn't look like she was lying at all, and actually seemed better. "We're happy about it" they told her relieved.

Charlie gave them a look of gratitude, but then she pointed to the chairs: "Please, sit down. We need to talk"

The Sins put on grim expressions, understanding that this would have been a serious conversation, and they sat down in front of her. Charlie was silent for a moment, and then she said: "Look, I understand that maybe this isn't a good topic for you, but I need to know this time. It potentially affects the safety of Hell, and so I need to know the truth. So please be totally honest with me". She took a deep breath, and then she asked the question: "Who is Babylon?"

The Sins looked at each other intently, unsure of what to say, but then Satan spoke up. "Okay" he said with a deep sigh, and suddenly looked very tired. "We promised ourselves not to talk about that story anymore... but ultimately you have to adapt to the circumstances. We'll tell you everything"

Not all of the Sins seemed to agree with this: Leviathan and Belphegor looked like people who would have much preferred to go home without saying a word. Asmodeus, Beelzebub and Mammon seemed more inclined to speak, but from their expressions it was clear that they were not happy about it anyway. Whatever they were about to say, it was an uncomfortable topic for them.

Just a few weeks ago, Charlie would have immediately told her aunts and uncles that they didn't have to talk about it if they didn't want to; instead, at that moment she remained cold and silent, waiting to hear the explanation. The Sins clearly noticed this, and looked a little concerned, but still before asking any questions they decided it was best to tell her everything. “It all started at the origin of Hell” Satan explained. "We didn't even existed yet during that time... we only know the events because your parents told them to us. Soon after its birth, Hell was still... agitated. The entire Rings were not yet stable, the laws of physics and magic were constantly changing. When your parents were exiled down here, they began working to finally bring order amidst that chaos. They used their powers to stabilize the Rings and then took care of the first hellborns that were born in that strange new ecosystem: imps, hellhounds, baphomets, and all the others. Your mother began to create the kingdom of Hell and form its first structure... but she wasn't the only one in doing so. Because shortly after their arrival, another human came to Hell, the soul of the first true sinner. A man who would have changed this world forever, and whose name would have always been spoken with fear and respect. A man whose lust for power knew no bounds"

Charlie narrowed her eyes slightly. "You're talking about Cain" she murmured, not even expecting to be contradicted.

Satan nodded. "We don't really know how things went... simply when his soul ended up here he was welcomed by your father to his palace. Lilith wasn't very sure of it at first, but it didn't take long for her to accept him too. They... I don't know why, maybe they saw him as a fellow human, or an idiot who had messed up like them, I don't know... the fact is that they treated him like a member of the family, and not like a brother or a cousin, but like a son. They made him crown prince of Hell and they immediately entrusted him with the office of viceroy"

Charlie stiffened a little. She had expected it, Satan had already partially revealed it to her some time before, but still it was a hard blow for her to receive confirmation that she technically had a brother, even if he was adopted. Well, she had had a brother, since he had died thousands of years before she was even born. “Was he good at his job?”

"Oh, yes. Lilith relied heavily on his advice to create the social system of Hell. It was he who devised the pyramid structure that allowed power to be kept centralized around the Crown, using weaker demons to administer territories in their name also in their absence" Satan answered her. "When we came here..."

Charlie's eyes widened: "What? What do you mean 'when you came here'? You are natives of Hell!"

Satan fell silent, and from his expression he didn't seem sure how to explain to her. It was Asmodeus who spoke up and said: "It's not so, Charlie. We... became part of Hell later, but we were born elsewhere. The imps, the hellhounds, the baphomets... they are the only true hellborns, born from the primordial forces that permeated the Rings before your parents stabilized them. But we and all the infernal nobility were born and raised on Earth"

Charlie felt the air leave her lungs: “What…?”

"None of us are proud of our origins. We don't like to remember it" Beelzebub told her with a very heartbroken look. "We six are actually Nephilims, hybrids born from the union between a human and an angel"

Charlie was speechless. Okay, that was definitely something she hadn't expected. “You mean… like me?”

"Exactly. With the difference that you are the daughter of one of the strongest angels ever existed and of the first vagina, we on the other hand are bastards born from a medium-rank angel who enjoyed cheating on her husband and an ordinary human" Mammom grumbled. "Azazel, that's the name of our whore mother. And if you lately you started to think that Lilith is a bitch, it's because you've never met her"

Charlie was silent for a long moment. "I think... I need more explanations" she murmured, as she was understanding less and less.

"Yes, I would say that is the case" Asmodeus said with a sigh. He too looked very unhappy. "When humans began to populate the Earth, a group of angels, known as Grigori, received the task of going to help them. Leading them was Samyaza, one of the highest and most respected warriors in Heaven, who had the task of watching over the humanity, hence his nickname of Watcher. Accompanying him was his wife Azazel, his second in command. As the years passed, the Grigori mated with humans, helping to grow humanity, but since they were common angels they generated nothing but humans who lived a little longer than normal, so this was tolerated by Heaven. But on the contrary, both Samyaza and Azazel were angels of rather high rank, and consequently their possible union with a human would have generated a Nephilim, therefore such behavior was forbidden to them. The angels thought that since they were already married, they would not have fallen into temptation... but in the end both Samyaza and Azazel gave in to lust and cheated on each other several times, sowing the world of their bastard children... including us"

Charlie was amazed. She remembered that Seth's wife, Azura, was in fact one of the Grigori, and that Calmana had revealed to her that Adam's children had mated with those very angels in order to continue humanity without resorting to incest. Many pieces fit together. “So… all of you are actually siblings?”

"Very distantly. We were created decades apart from each other and we never met before reaching Hell. Initially we didn't even realize we were related by blood" Satan replied to her.

Charlie bit her lip a little: "Why did you end up down here?"

Satan let out a deep snort from his nostrils, emitting grayish smoke. “Our dear sweet mother and her cheating husband sold us” he replied sarcastically. "After Samyaza and Azazel had filled the world with Nephilims, they knew that the wrath of Heaven would have soon fallen upon them, so they sought the protection of Hell. Cain agreed to their request; a cunning plan indeed, as he aimed to use them to divide the celestial armies on two fronts in case of conflict. In exchange for their protection, he asked them for the souls of the best Nephilims they had generated. And so Samyaza and Azazel finally went to find the bastards they had sown, and then they threw them into Hell"

"Parents of the year, really" Charlie thought, though she carefully refrained from saying it out loud.

"When we arrived here, Cain told us that we would have ruled Hell under the orders of the royal family, and that the most powerful and deserving would have basically become kings. And then... he made us fight to decide who would have obtained each position" Satan continued to explain. "Some of us died, some retreated, some lost in shame. And we, the children of Azazel, were far more powerful and feral than those of Samyaza, and therefore the bloodshed was much more evident on our part..."

"Why were you stronger?" Charlie interrupted.

"Samyaza had a cock, he could only give his sperm. Azazel on the other hand had a womb, she could nourish us with her angelic energy for nine months" Mammon replied in an annoyed voice. "More angelic energy, more power. The children of Samyaza were monsters, but they were not too much more powerful than the creatures of Earth. We, the children of Azazel... were forces of nature. And as such we were also much more ferocious, and when we fought, we fought to kill"

"Yes, that's right" Satan confirmed. "In the end, only the six of us and a few other children of Azazel survived that battle royale. Samyaza's children, instead, survived in much higher numbers, because unlike us they knew when to back down and who they shouldn't bully. As a result, Cain appointed the six of us, who had been victorious, sovereigns of our six Rings, while our other surviving siblings became part of his elite, while the children of Samyaza instead went on to form the first nucleus of the Ars Goetia. At that point Lilith, at Cain's request, exploited the knowledge she had of the dark arts and the fact that part of the primordial energy of Hell was still present to change our essence. She connected us to Hell, basically. We became... hellborns, even though we were not born as such. The six of us were tied to the Rings we had obtained and became the Deadly Sins. And it was with this last act that the social system that you know was born"

Charlie had a bit of trouble digesting all that information well. "So... you're not really hellborns" she murmured. "You just came here and forced the true natives of Hell to serve you. You were basically invaders..."

"Technically we didn't choose it" Leviathan pointed out. "It was Cain who decided for us. We were just thrown into this pit without even an explanation from Samyaza and Azazel. We simply did what we were told"

Charlie couldn't contradict him on that. Could she really blame her uncles for obeying the one who had literally bought them from their parents? Okay, they'd been assholes, but they hadn't exactly had a choice. "And then? What happened?"

“After Cain had established a strong social structure, the royal family took the Pride Ring for themselves… but he did not stay there” Satan continued. "Lucifer gave him the greatest gift. The largest, most unknown, most permeated with evil magical energy Ring. The Betrayal Ring"

Charlie felt the air getting colder. So Cain really did reign in the Betrayal Ring… Emily hadn't been joking when she had told her that she was now living in his house.

"Since then, there have been two centers of power in Hell. The king was always Lucifer, but even then he mostly kept to himself... therefore, it was his wife and his 'son' who were the true holders of power. power It could be said that Hell was closed in a shell: in the highest Ring Lilith dominated, in the lowest Ring Cain" Satan explained. "Lilith was dictatorial, but you could still reason with her. The inhabitants of Hell learned to respect her, and so did we. Over time, we built that bond of friendship that led us to consider ourselves almost a family, first with her and then, through her, with Lucifer. She wasn't a perfect queen, but at least she listened and tried to find a solution that worked for everyone, even if she didn't hesitate to use an iron fist when necessary". He let out a loud snort from his nostrils again: "Cain, on the other hand... he only knew one way to rule, and that was terror"

Charlie sweatdropped a little. Her mother was certainly no lamb, and she knew she could be ruthless, but at least towards the Sins and other nobles she had almost always been very soft. She had expected Cain to be more restrictive, but hearing the tone of voice in which Satan spoke about it, she realized that perhaps it was even worse than she imagined. It wasn't easy to cause such a reaction in her muscular uncle. "Was it that terrible...?"

"More than terrible" Belphegor muttered under her breath, a slight hint of fear in her voice.

Asmodeus too nodded. "Cain rarely abandoned the Betrayal Ring and left the government almost entirely in Lilith's hands, but when he decided to interfere, no one dared say no to him" he said, crossing his arms, as he always did when he was nervous. "Everyone was afraid of him, even those who had never met him. His cruelty and ruthlessness were known throughout the Rings. Lilith and Lucifer were the only ones who could truly speak to him as equals"

"And you?" Charlie asked. "What relationship did you have with him?"

"Mutual cooperation" Mammon replied. "We did our job and did everything to prevent him from feeling the need to come and meet us. If he ordered us something, we did it. And we in turn exploited him a little, because thanks to his reputation all the most problematic demons decided to go down there and join him, avoiding creating problems in our Rings. And we also sent him all our opponents or adversaries, who became guinea pigs for his experiments"

Charlie turned pale: "Experiments!?"

"Cain liked to study souls" Leviathan said with a grunt. "We don't know what he was doing with them, but no one wanted to become his new toy. He was a great deterrent, basically"

"Yeah..." Satan murmured, and then he gritted his teeth: "Even if the real deterrent wasn't him, but his terrible second in command"

Charlie preferred not to ask questions about what experiments Cain was doing, and she didn't even want to start judging the morality of her parents and the Sins for having sent who knows how many people into his clutches; she already knew she would have been disgusted by it, and she didn't have the energy for that. She preferred to just focus on what her uncle had just said: "His second in command?"

"Babylon" Satan said, and tightened his grip on the arms of his chair as he did so. "His best apprentice, his most faithful servant. A monster among monsters. If Cain was the terrible mastermind that all of Hell feared, she was his most destructive weapon, a devastating fury combined with ravenous hunger that only he was able to keep at bay"

Charlie felt a slight shiver down her spine. That description was quite different from the Rosie she knew... but it was very similar to the person she had faced when she went berserker. “Was she also a nephilim?”

"No, she was an ordinary human soul" Satan replied to her. "But at the same time, she was the furthest thing from a human being imaginable. Greedy, cruel, sadistic. Cain was the embodiment of sin at its most intelligent and manipulative way, but she was the embodiment of sin in its most primitive and bestial form. She saw everything in the universe as a delicious meal. If Cain had not constantly restrained her, she would surely have devoured every life form in all of Hell". She trembled slightly: "As much as I hate to admit it, she scared us too. For Cain we felt awe, but for her... it was just the fear of a prey hoping not to be found by the predator. The only one who managed to speak to her as an equal was Lilith, and it also seemed that she was the only one that Babylon respected at least a little, besides her terrible master of course"

Charlie sweated a little. "She seems... really dangerous" she murmured. "How could a simple human soul be so powerful that she even intimidated you? I mean... I can understand Cain, he was still the firstborn of Adam and Eve, but what about her? Where did she get such power from?"

"Ah, we don't know. And honestly, we'd rather not know" Mammon said almost sputtering. "Cain had done some experiments on her. She had been badass and bastard enough to survive anything he had put her through. The result was an army-eating monster. Not that she was a lamb before, her personality had remained almost the same before and after the treatment"

Charlie inspired deeply. She knew when her uncles were truly afraid of something, and therefore knew with absolute certainty that all of them truly feared Babylon. Whatever kind of person Rosie had been in the past, she must indeed have been terrifying; and considering what she had transformed into as soon as she went into berserker mode, it wasn't hard to understand why. Charlie tried to cheer herself up by remembering that Rosie seemed to have changed in all those thousands of years, but still she couldn't help but feel a little tense. "And then? How did it end? I know that Heaven attacked Hell..."

"Yes, that's exactly what happened. They attacked with much larger forces and weapons than we had expected, and their armies brought us to our knees. We... well, it didn't take us long to realize that it was best to surrender" Satan admitted without shame. "But Cain refused to back down. Instead, he unleashed even more destruction. He killed anyone who stood in his way, ally or enemy. His intent was only to reach the leader of the enemy army and kill him. He was able to meet him... and he failed. He died in that battle. And with his death, all the demons who served him died"

That matched what Charlie already knew. "And Babylon?"

"After the battle was over, Lilith told us that she had tried to convince Cain to surrender, and he had killed her in a burst of rage" Asmodeus answered her in a grim voice. "We believed her"

"We had no reason not to. After all, she too was tied to Cain with her soul. Even if she had survived, she should still have died when he died" Beelzebub added. "But apparently, we were wrong"

Satan let out a deep grunt of anger: "Lilith must have saved her somehow, and she had kept her hidden from us all these years! We had a bomb right under our noses all this time and we never noticed!"

Charlie nodded slightly. Hiding a potential weapon of mass destruction was just what she would have expected from her mother... though it surprised her that she had never tried to use Rosie. Probably even she considered her too uncontrollable... or maybe it was Rosie who wanted to get out and Lilith for once had respected the will of others. “What happened after Cain died?”

"We've moved on... in our own way" Satan replied with a shrug. "The Betrayal Ring had been sealed, and without Babylon it was no longer possible to open the door, so we decided to simply forget it. Only we and a few members of Ars Goetia had survived, and we promised ourselves never to speak of what had happened again. In subsequent generations even the last exponents of the old Ars Goetia were killed by their children and grandchildren, and so we and your parents were the only ones left to remember the old age"

This explained why no one but them knew about Cain. “How did my parents react?” Charlie asked again.

The Sins looked at each other sadly. "That's another reason why we swore not to talk about it anymore. We didn't want to... remind them of what had happened" Asmodeus confessed to her. "After Cain died, your father became much more withdrawn. He was already depressed before, but after that event he became much worse. Lilith, on the other hand, focused on her duties as queen to avoid thinking about it, and became much more intractable and intolerant. They both dealt with the loss in their own way... it was a hard blow for the two of them"

"I told you, it's not a good story, especially for them" Satan muttered. "They had lost a son. Adopted, of course, but to them he had still been a son for almost two thousand years. Regardless of the type of person Cain was, he was precious to them. Losing him affected them deeply, especially your mother, who from that day he no longer wanted anyone to pronounce his name in his presence so as not to remember it"

Charlie bit her lip, remembering well how her mother had tensed every time someone had mentioned Cain's name in her presence. She wanted to ask more questions, but she was pretty sure the Sins didn't know any more personal details. So she let it go, and instead said: "If Babylon is still alive, then she has been good for eight thousand years. We have no reason to believe she won't continue to lay low. She's not an immediate threat"

"We still have to find her!" Satan roared, steam emitting from his nostrils. "She's dangerous...!"

"I know" Charlie stopped him. "But tell me, do you really think you can find her after she's been deceiving you all this time? Sure, you weren't looking for her, but still, she's been under your noses for eight millennia and you didn't notice. What makes you believe that you'll be able to find her this time?"

Satan fell silent, and the other Sins too couldn't contradict her. Charlie was pleased that they seemed to have calmed down. "We'll keep an eye out" she said. "If Babylon goes out from her hideout again, we will be ready. But we have no reason to waste resources on a useless search. We have two Rings to rebuild, let's focus on that. When Hell finally stands firm again, then we can try to find her.. . although something tells me that Babylon knows how not to be found"

There was a moment of silence, and then the Sins nodded. "Charlie's right" Asmodeus said. "We have more pressing problems than a demon that has been hiding for thousands of years. We will search for Babylon when we'll have an intact Hell again"

Charlie was satisfied. She doubted that her aunts and uncles, at least the more belligerent ones, wouldn't have secretly tried to find out some information about Rosie, but at least for now they would have still been focused on fixing Hell, which was what she cared about. "Okay" she said, standing up. "Let's get back to our duties then. Thanks for your sincerity"

“You don't have to thank us for that” Satan assured her, though he then took on a hard look: “Charlie, just remember these words of mine: whatever happens, don't face Babylon alone, and don't try to reason with her. For monsters like that, the only solution is annihilation"

Charlie felt a little bitter in her mouth, but she nodded anyway. "I'll keep your advice in mind, uncle" she replied, and then she left before anyone else could say anything to her.

Chapter Text

"Ouch! Be gentle!"

“I barely touched your head!”

"Well, don't do that!"

"And how do I put the ointment on you, with the power of thought?"

"I don't know! Ugh! It hurts...!"

"Oh, come on, you're a warrior! Since when do you make such a fuss about some injury?"

"Let yourself be hit by a punch that would split a mountain in two, then tell me!"

Vaggie was moaning in pain as Husk applied a bandage to her head. She had a large bruise on the left side of her forehead, where Lute had hit her during their last practice, that hurt like hell. She hated having to admit that she needed a medication, it really hurt her pride as a warrior, but with the strength that she and Lute had acquired it was better not to joke. “Don't you have an infirmary there at the training camp?” Pentious asked her with a hiss.

"We have it" Vaggie confirmed to him. Even though when Adam trained them he made sure they didn't get hurt, every now and then there was always someone who made a mess, so they had set up an infirmary some time ago. "But I doubt that the Exorcist on duty would have been kind to treat me. I preferred to come here"

"Well, that's what friends are for too, right?" Husk replied by cutting the bandage, then she asked: "Is the situation still difficult with your teammates?"

Vaggie bit her lip. "Well..."

Vaggie had been forced to her knees under the weight of Lute's spear, which had not torn her apart only thanks to her shield. The two of them began a standoff where Lute tried to spear her and Vaggie tried to get back to her feet. It was quite tiring, and it certainly didn't help that in the stands a group of eight Exorcists had dressed like cheerleaders in an American movie from the nineties, and were dancing and cheering Lute on: "Rick her, rock her, rack her, rake! Stick that spear into that snake!"

The other Exorcists had burst out laughing at that scene. Lute had barely raised an eyebrow, although it was clear from her look that she didn't find this in good taste. Vaggie, on the other hand, couldn't stop herself from yelling at them despite being almost out of breath: "Look, I know you want to see me get beaten up, but can you at least avoid doing this stupid thing!?"

In response, the eight cheerleaders looked dejected and bored, but instead of stopping they started singing in an almost neomelodic way: "Vaggie, Vaggie, she's our girl. If she can’t do it, GREAT!"

"Just to be clear..." Pentious muttered. “… they were dressed in cheerleading uniforms from high school or with those from university?"

Vaggie glared at him: "Really!? That's your biggest concern!?"

"Yeah, Pen, you should really focus on something else right now" Husk told him, but then he added: "And anyway, I think they used university cheerleading uniforms. They would have looked too immature with high school ones"

"GUYS!" Vaggie snapped.

"Oh, come on, it was just a random thought" Husk chuckled, happy to have annoyed her. "Anyway, that's really interesting... I didn't think there were cheerleaders in an army..."

"Since you are an expert on the subject, what should I do to join that?" Pentious said winking at her. "I will be your best soldier if such a sight is the prize!"

Vaggie shook her head, an action that only made her friends burst out laughing. "You are the worst" she told them. “Just know that I will tell Angel and Cherri about this conversation”

"No, please!" Pentious said immediately in terror. "My tail is fine where it is"

Husk clapped a hand on Vaggie's shoulder: "Come on, we were just joking" he told her with a smirk. “I'm sorry you still have trouble with them”

Vaggie smiled slightly and shrugged: "It's not that bad. At least they don't avoid me. I expected them not to even speak to me, but instead they don't try to isolate me. Even if every time they speak to me for seventy percent are words not very kind... but as long as they just make fun of me like this it's not a big deal"

"Well, you were teammates. Even though you deserted and killed some of them, you're still someone they knew and shared four years with. And they know the story of how you were exiled, especially now that you reminded them of it" Husk told her. "You were smart to remind them of how things went. You didn't run away from blame, but you didn't let yourself get carried away either. I'm sure that even your teammates, deep in their hearts, want to have you back with them"

Vaggie couldn't help but smile at those words. In a certain sense she believed it too: after all, most of the interactions she had recently had with the Exorcists had been veiled insults and harmless teasing. Considering their history, she had expected much worse. “Let's change the subject” she told her friends. "Have you finished tidying up the house?"

"As you can see, yes" Pentious said raising his arms pointing at the entire house surrounding them. It was the same one he had had before, except now the roof had been rebuilt, much of the equipment was gone, and there was a door leading to a nearby building. "Husk lives next door to me now, and just in case we can go to each other's houses! Isn't that great? We're neighbors!"

"Yes, and I know I'll regret it" Husk grumbled. "But considering the current times, I prefer to stay close to a friend"

"I'm happy for you" Vaggie told them. "But please, tell me there are no other weapons hidden somewhere"

“I made sure he didn't build any more” Husk assured her. "I want to have a clean criminal record, or at least not to dirty it because of this braindead"

Pentious was about to protest, but a loud knock on the door called him back; after a few minutes he returned accompanied by three people: "Hey, guys! Look who came to visit us!"

They were Abel and Leo, and with them there was also Molly. "It's good to see you again, Vaggie" Abel greeted her. “We still haven't been able to meet since... well, last time”

"Don't apologize. It's nice to see you again" Vaggie assured him, standing up and shaking his hand. Abel looked very uncomfortable, and she couldn't blame him: she suspected that he still hadn't fully digested the news that she was a piece of his mother.

Leo also came to shake her hand: "Welcome back in Heaven, girl"

"Good to see you too" Vaggie replied to him. “Pen told me that you and him have… made progress”

Leo hesitated for a moment, but then, much to Pentious's delight, he nodded: "Yes... let's just say we've had... a lot to talk about since last time"

"Oh, they really talked a lot, believe me. They're both really trying" Molly said making them both blush, then she introduced herself: "My pleasure, I'm Molly. Ex-mobster, champion of justice, schemer, therapist... and apparently also sister-in-law of that kitten over there"

Husk tensed: “Wait… you’re…?”

"Angel's sister, yes" Pentious confirmed. "I finally managed to get you to meet, with everything that has happened you still haven't known each other"

"Yeah. I am offended, you know... what rude person doesn't come and say hello to their sister-in-law once they set foot in her place?" Molly told him getting a disappointed and angry look.

Husk blushed for a moment, but then his bartender's sixth sense pointed out the deception: "You're not really offended, are you?"

Molly's expression immediately became more interested and somewhat surprised. "Dang, you're good" she complimented with him. "It's a luck, Angel didn't choose badly"

Pentious and Leo were wide-eyed. “How did you see through her expression!?” the lion angel exclaimed.

"Yeah! We never succeed, she always manages to convince us to think and do what she wants! I suspect she's actually a witch!" Pentious said with a hiss.

Husk smirked wickedly. "I really think you and I will get along very well" he told Molly.

She winked at him: "Maybe. But know that I will test you properly to find out if you are suitable for my brother. And I am very demanding"

"I'll try to live up to your expectations" Husk replied. He hoped Molly wouldn't have turned him into her personal slave, even though he was pretty sure she wasn't that kind of person... but knowing Angel, he wouldn't have been surprised if she turned out to be just as bitchy as him.

Abel suddenly cleared his throat: "Um! Sorry, I don't want to interrupt the family reunion, but we have to talk about important things"

Everyone immediately became serious again. "Mh... before we say anything... do they know...?" Vaggie asked pointing to Leo and Molly.

They both nodded. "Lusia told me all about your trip to Hell and Adam sending a prince of Heaven into a black hole" Molly answered. "And with all the worry she had, I had to work three times harder than usual to calm her nerves properly, if you know what I mean"

It wasn't hard to understand what she was referring to. "Yeah, she's definitely Angel's sister" Husk thought in his head.

"And I told Leo everything" Pentious confessed. "He maybe doesn't trust me yet, but I trust him. I know he won't betray us"

"Uh... thanks" Leo said. "Anyway, yes, my lips are sewn shut"

Vaggie was happy to hear this. She trusted her friends and their judgment, so if Pentious had found Leo trustworthy, that was fine with her, too. "Okay. Aside from you two, only Adam's children know the truth, right?"

"Yes" Abel confirmed her. "But obviously we couldn't all come here together. They sent me along with these two, so it just looks like Leo and I are accompanying Molly to visit her new brother-in-law. My brothers and sisters are making sure no one spies on us". He was silent for a moment, and then he asked her: "Please tell me that you and Lute found some leads on my father"

Vaggie let out a grunt. "We're trying, but it's not easy. Adina is breathing down Lute's neck, and constantly checks on me too. And as you can see from the bandage on my head which is a clear testimony to Lute's repressed anger, the situation is getting worse day by day"

Abel made a sound of disappointment. "I was really hoping you two had made some progress" he murmured, though he didn't blame her.

Vaggie felt a little bad for him though. "I'm sorry" she told him, and then she narrowed her eyes: "It's all that Adina's fault, she's her damned smile...!"

"Ah, trust me, that girl is completely crazy" Pentious interrupted them. "I did some research on her... she must have some head problems"

Vaggie raised an eyebrow: "I'm afraid to ask, but how did you research on Adina?"

"I asked around" Pentious replied simply. "What? It's not a crime"

Nobody trusted his words, but they didn't investigate further. "So, what are you waiting for? Tell us what you discovered!" Husk urged. "Any information can be useful"

"Well, first of all, she's basically Gabriel's pupil" Pentious told them.

Vaggie wasn't too surprised. "Well, that explains why he rejected Lute's request to change supervisor"

"Yes, Gabriel has always had a certain favoritism for her. I discovered that he watched over her from an early age, and got her out of trouble a lot of times... because with the character that she has, many find her irritating" Pentious explained to them. "Basically, she sees everything imperfect as a problem. She has always tried to be absolutely flawless. When she was in school she always had perfect grades, she won all the competitions, she got the highest results, one time she even..."

"You seem a little too knowledgeable about her adolescence" Leo commented suspiciously.

Pentious looked at him innocently: "I told you, I did research. You know I'm meticulous"

"Yes, I know" Leo replied. “But I doubt this is information you found on her social media page”

Pentious blushed. "Well... I don't admit anything... but I might have gone to visit her old school, university, workplace..."

Husk put his hands in front of his face: "Pen, please, tell me that when you went to that school you didn't do what I think"

"Hey, I didn't come in through the window or break the bars like a thief! I came in through the door and greeted everyone like a civilized person!" Pentious protested.

“And how much of your face was visible?” Abel asked in a tired voice. “Actually, better yet, what did you tell them your name was?”

"I used my name and I walked in barefaced! Guys, what kind of person do you think I am!?" Pentious exclaimed irritably.

"Pen, can I remind you that you had a fucking death ray on your airship? An airship that you built secretly by disguising it as your roof?" Vaggie muttered.

Pentious blushed. "Ok, I admit that you are entitled to have some doubts. But I assure you that I just had a friendly chat with the principal..."

"Pen, bribing a principal is a crime" Husk told him with a grunt.

"I didn't bribe anyone! We really just chatted!" Pentious exclaimed, but after a couple of seconds he admitted: "But... while he wasn't looking I attached a special flash drive to his computer, inserting a virus into it, and so once outside I connected to the entire school database and was able to trace Adina's private data"

"PENTIOUS!" Husk and Vaggie yelled at him in unison.

"By now I'm no longer surprised" Abel murmured.

"Let's see... scam... violation of privacy... intrusion of personal data... potential damage to public material..." Leo muttered aloud as he wrote something in a notebook.

Pentious swallowed a little. “Um… what are you doing?”

"I'm writing down all the things I'll have to report you for as soon as this story is over" Leo replied simply waving his notebook. "In short, now we are in an emergency situation and everything is legal, but... as soon as it's all over, I will have to do my duty as a good citizen"

"OH, COME ON!" Pentious exclaimed.

"Seriously, how did you get out of Hell?" Vaggie murmured, rubbing her temples, then trying to forget what she had just heard she asked: "Moral conduct aside, what else do you know about Adina?"

Pentious let out a satisfied hiss at seeing her change the subject: “Well, like I said, she's obsessed with perfection. She hates anything that she perceives as a blemish on Creation, and the bigger that blemish, the more she hates it. In the case of demons, she sees them as something horrendous and even considers it pity to kill them, since from her point of view such twisted creatures can only be miserable and unhappy"

"Yeah, I guessed that part" Vaggie said, remembering what Adina had told her when they met.

"Yeah. That's why she was a big fan of Adam... oh, by the way, she knew about the Extermination since she's a high-ranking angel, and then, like I said, she's Gabriel's pupil" Pentious told them. "For some time she even looked to him as a role model... but in recent times she has instead begun to consider him too merciful, too permissive. She has proposed some alternative solutions to the problem of overpopulation in Hell... and if you think the Extermination was bad, you have no idea what she had in mind"

Everyone sweated a little. "I'm afraid to ask, but... what was her proposal?" Vaggie asked.

Pentious trembled a little: "Basically, she proposed that the angels would have occupied the Pride Ring and turn it into a prison. Every time a sinner would have arrived in Hell, they would have been locked in a cell and chained to a wall, so that they would not have been able even to move a muscle. And every year, some prisoners would have been drawn by lot and killed to satisfy Roo"

Vaggie choked on her saliva. "Um... ok, that way they couldn't have posed the slightest danger, but... isn't that a bit...?"

"Crazy? Cruel? Cold?" Pentious anticipated her. "For your information, I've sweetened the deal a lot. The original plan is... creepy to say the least. I think she took inspiration from some events that occurred in the 1940s, if you understand what I mean"

Vaggie was seriously turning pale, and the others had rather tense expressions too. "Okay, you were right, she's crazy" Leo admitted.

“I told you so” Pentious said. "Just know that even Adam rejected her ideas considering them too brutal and inhumane"

"And since we're talking about the same Adam who slaughtered people every year with a smile on his face, that's saying a lot" Husk muttered. "This girl needs a therapist"

"More like an internment in a mental hospital" Pentious replied.

Vaggie inhaled deeply: "So, you're basically telling me that I have zero chance of making her like me since I betrayed Heaven once, and therefore I'm... imperfect, in her opinion"

"Exactly" Pentious told her. "After Adam rejected her proposals, she began to consider him no longer suitable for his role, and after he decided not to fire against Hell she ended up to completely despise him. If she despises him just for this, I can't imagine what she thinks about you"

"I'd say the 'let's be friends with her so we can find out what she's up to' route isn't going to work" Molly commented, stretching a little.

Vaggie rubbed her temples. “When I tell Lute this, she won't be happy about it" she muttered.

Pentious swallowed hard: "Um... are you sure that telling this to the leader of the army that is supposed to maintain order in Heaven is a good idea? She might, well... ask you how I found out about these things..."

"I'll avoid reporting you... for now" Vaggie told him in a tired voice, much to the serpent angel's delight. "Rather, if Adina is so out of her mind, she will surely take advantage of every opportunity to hinder us. We will have to be even more stealthy when she is with us"

Husk let out a grunt. "She may be his pupil, but it seems strange to me that Gabriel chose her for such a delicate job" he said through gritted teeth. "I think there's something going on here. A supervisor is a great excuse to investigate the last place Adam was. What if Gabriel is looking for him too?"

Everyone looked at him worriedly. "Are you saying... that Gabriel could be Abaddon's accomplice?" Vaggie asked.

"It's too early to draw such conclusions" Husk replied. "After all, Adam is still missing and Abaddon turned out to be a danger, it's possible that Gabriel is just trying to understand how dangerous these two people are. But we know that there are angels hoping for the Apocalypse, so... we can't rule such hypotesis out"

Everyone looked at each other and nodded. Yes, in fact, that hypothesis wasn't exactly implausible. "Gabriel is just a messenger. Why would he want something like that?" Abel asked.

Husk shrugged. "Everyone in this world has reasons for their actions. Twisted maybe, but they have them. I'm afraid we won't know until he reveals them" he replied, then he looked at Vaggie: "If I were you, I'd warn Lute to keep an eye out with Gabriel too. Adina could easily be his instrument"

"We'll investigate him!" Pentious exclaimed resolutely. "I already have a couple of ideas for..."

"NO!" everyone shouted at him immediately.

"Pen, this is no ordinary angel, this is a prince of Heaven!" Vaggie pointed out. "If they catch you snooping in on his affairs, through illegal means to boot, it won't end well for you!"

Pentious immediately shut up. "Yes... actually it could be a problem"

“How the fuck did you survive in Hell for almost two centuries?” Husk asked rubbing his head.

Vaggie preferred not to continue that conversation. She was seriously starting to feel her head throbbing too. “I better get back to headquarters” she said. "Maybe Lute will come up with something..."

"Good idea" Husk said, suddenly standing up. “Before you go, can I talk to you in private for a moment?”

Vaggie was a little surprised by this request, but she nodded: "Of course. Come, let's go to the garden"

Chapter Text

As soon as they were outside, Husk stood in front of Vaggie and looked her face to face. She let out a sigh: "I know what you're about to ask me"

"I'm asking you anyway" Husk said in his usual harsh tone of voice. "When are you going to talk to Charlie again? It's been days now"

"Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I can't go freely to Hell while Adina is there just waiting for me to make a misstep and put me on the spot" Vaggie pointed out.

"Yes, I know, that's an impediment, but I don't remember that obstacles ever stopped you" Husk replied. "And I know how to recognize when you don't want to do something. If you really wanted to see Charlie again, at least you would have been pining and complaining about Adina a lot more than you already do"

Vaggie clenched her fists slightly. "Okay, I don't want to go back to Charlie. There, I said it, are you happy?" she blurted out. "And I don't feel like talking about it"

"Vaggie, you know it's not healthy to keep it all inside" Husk told her. "You have many friends here, at least confide in some of us. It will do you good"

"I'm already good!" Vaggie exclaimed, not without a good deal of aggression. "And we already have enough problems without my emotional turmoil. Don't pay attention to it"

Husk shook his head: "You and Charlie are really made for each other... instead of saying out loud that you need help, you prefer to stay quiet so as not to disturb the others"

Vaggie's eyes seemed to flame, and her feathers sizzled with purple energy. “Don't you dare compare me to her!” she growled.

Husk knew he was playing with fire right now, but it wasn't the first time he'd done something dangerous, and he certainly wasn't afraid to take a risk for a friend. "See? You are not fine. You need help"

"I...!" Vaggie tried to say, but the words died in her throat. "I don't want to forgive Charlie, okay!? I tried, I just can't!"

"Why not?" Husk asked her. It wasn't a reproach, he really just wanted to know what was going on in her head. "She regretted her actions, where did the 'it starts with sorry' go and...?"

"Because she used me!" Vaggie roared, and as soon as she said those words she visibly trembled.

Husk was speechless for a moment. "Okay, that's true, but..."

"SHE PROMISED!" Vaggie screamed putting her hands in her hair. "We promised each other that there would be no more secrets! We promised to tell each other everything! And instead she didn't! 'You are everything for me', this was what we told each other... and for her it meant nothing! Well, guess what: to me it meant everything!"

"Yes, I understand" Husk tried to calm her down. "And you're right, she behaved badly, but you also lied to her once..."

"Charlie didn't LIE to us, Husk! She USED us!" Vaggie roared, and numerous tears fell from her eyes. “She treated us like nothing more than objects, she didn't trust us, she didn't trust ME! I always believed that she saw all of us, or at least me, not as mere subjects to be protected but as equals! I never once thought about manipulating her to get something, I would never have done it... but this feeling wasn't mutual! She did it! I must be a fool for I sincerely believed her!". She sniffed loudly: "You... you never used Angel, every time, even when you helped the Vees against Alastor, you always told each other everything and you always agreed. And Angel never used you, he's always been on your side, so much so that he realized on his own that Alastor was deceiving him when he impersonated you. You have any idea how it feels to get betrayed by the only person you considered truly absolutely trustworthy in this world!? She... how could she do that!? She kept me in the dark about everything, she used me as an object, I was part of her plan to deceive Lilith and I didn't even know it! For her I wasn't a person, I was just a pawn to move on her stupid chessboard, just like I always was for everyone else!"

Husk was taken aback. He expected some crying, but not that nervous breakdown. "Vaggie..."

She didn't let him speak; she turned away, as if she didn't want to meet his gaze. “I can't tolerate anyone using me again, okay!?” she said in a strangled voice. "Everyone has always used me, I was literally created to be used! I know I said I'm past the burden of discovering what I am... but it's not easy! Do you have any idea what it means to know that all your life you have just been a tool in someone's hands? I've never had a childhood, I've never had an adolescence, I've never had a... life! I don't know what it means winning a sports competition, being sorry for a bad grade at school, drinking the first beer, hearing the words of pride from a parent! Adam wanted to create me just to be able to fool Lilith, and Lilith created me this way only to fuck Adam! For seven years, which is my whole life, I have been nothing but their toy! I was literally born to be barely more than an object! Adam used me to prevent Lilith from taking the weapons of Heaven, Lilith created me full of weak feelings to prevent me from holding her back! Neither of them asked the question of whether I could choose for me!"

Husk bit his lip. Fuck, that was really a situation in which even he, the wise bartender and eternal confessor, didn't know what to do. Well, in his defense he had never met an artificially created person… he hadn't exactly been living in a low budget science fiction movie.

Vaggie shrugged her shoulders tightly. "And now... Charlie used me too. Even though she knew how much she would have hurted me" she barely murmured. “I was part of her plan to deceive Lilith, and I knew nothing about it, again! She knew I would have supported her, she knew I would have been on her side, she knew I would have deceived even my best friends for her! But despite this she chose not to trust me, she preferred to manipulate me! She manipulated all of us! She used us as pawns! She acted just like...". She hesitated for a moment, and then she hissed: "... like her parents!"

Husk couldn't completely blame her. Honestly, he was a little mad at Charlie too, since technically she had lied to him as well since she had already started her plan before he died. He too believed that Charlie's choice to do everything on her own and keep the truth secret from them was, in no uncertain terms, a stab in the back, as well as an idiocy. He couldn't blame Vaggie for making comparisons to Lucifer and Lilith. There were times when he himself had doubts whether the apple had fallen far from the tree.

What was the old saying after all? If you want to beat a monster, you have to become one...

But still he put his hand on Vaggie's shoulder and said: "Charlie didn't act like her parents"

She glared at him: "Oh, yeah? What's the difference?"

"You already know" Husk told her. "Charlie did what she did because she cared about all of us. She made a mistake, but she was in good faith. Her parents always didn't give a fuck about the lives that they ruined"

Vaggie's eyes widened slightly, and a small light seemed to ignite within them. It lasted only a brief moment, and then she was staring back at the ground. "I can't forgive her for this, Husk" she told him. "I can forgive her a lie, I can forgive her a mistake, I can even forgive her a betrayal if necessary. But I can't forgive her for using us. That... is something I can't tolerate anymore"

"Yes, you can" Husk told her putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're just still very angry, and this topic stings you personally. It's normal for you to feel this way. But your heart isn't torn... it's just hurt. It can be healed, if only you try"

Vaggie inspired thoroughly. She leaned against the wall of the house tiredly. "I don't know" she murmured. "I tried, but... I can't"

"You just need time. No one blames a hurt girl for taking a break to think" Husk told her with a small smile. "But you know that the goal of our crazy hotel is to redeem and forgive us, right?"

Vaggie let out a grunt: "You know that was Charlie's dream"

"But you believe it. And not because you love Charlie, but because you know it's the right thing to do" Husk told her. "Look at Pentious, look at all the effort he's putting into Leo. He's hurt him so much, and now he's doing everything he can to make it right. And Leo, even though he's so mad at him, is trying to forgive him. They're both trying to free yourself from all that negativity. Charlie will also do anything to get your forgiveness if you give her the chance. You know that's true"

Vaggie blushed slightly. Yes, it was true: the very purpose of redemption was to work hard to fix what had been broken. Pentious was trying with Leo, who had had the strength to let him do so. She herself was trying with Lute and the Exorcists, even though they were more reluctant... to put it mildly. And Abel had told them so many times that resentment and hatred were poison, and Vaggie couldn't help but admit that she didn't feel bad every time her heart drifted back to a few days ago...

Maybe she had to follow the example of Leo, Abel, and who knows how many others? Let the other person try to rebuild the trust they had destroyed?

After all, she already knew that Charlie was repentant...

Seeing that she was finally wavering, Husk let out a sigh: "It's easy to invite others to forgive, but it's difficult when you're the one who has to do so, right?"

Vaggie nodded slightly. "I admit... it's much more complex than I expected" she confessed.

"Yeah" Husk told her. “I don't remember ever seeing you very forgiving of Adam, Lute, and your old troop before Emily showed up on our doorstep”

Vaggie shrugged: "Well... it's different with them. After everything that happened, and with all the things I know now... it's easier for me to feel guilty for them than the other way around. Now that I know what Lute went through..."

"As we remember, she's the one who tore out your eye. And your wings. And exiled you. And tried to kill you. Multiple times" Husk commented.

But Vaggie just shook her head at those words. "Husk, you don't know what she's been through. You haven't been in her head" she told him. "It's true, she hurt me a lot, but after those three seconds I spent in Roo's clutches I can only feel pity for her"

Husk didn't seem too convinced, but he let it go and instead said: "Okay, so let's talk about how Lute sees you. She's trying to let you make things right, am I wrong?"

"Well... let's say she tolerates my existence" Vaggie replied, and with a lot of insecurity to boot, given that the light in Lute's gaze every time they fought suggested that she thought that maybe detonating her wasn't such a bad idea.

“But still she let you return” Husk insisted. "Reluctantly, insecure, not interested in your well-being, but she let you return. She allowed you to go back to your old home and hasn't tried to kick you out since. Sure, you get punched at least once a day, but you can't say that you weren't the one who asked for it"

Vaggie couldn't contradict him, since she was the one who suggested Lute train together. Ultimately it was true: her sister could have sent her away in a thousand different ways, or she could have even simply refused to readmit her into the army, but instead she had done so. It almost seemed like Lute wanted to give her the chance to redeem herself, even if she didn't admit this even to herself. For one night they even shared a room like good sisters!

Husk knew she was understanding, so he breathed deeply: “Vaggie, forgiving someone isn't easy, I know. Especially if that someone was a loved one who hurt us. It's normal, it's human. But it's not a reason so as not to try" he told her. “Lute is trying to forgive you, even though she would surely die before admitting it, and please don't let her know that I said these words to you because she will definitely come looking for me... and you are trying to forgive her too, because I'm sure that in your heart you have not forgotten that eye and those amputated wings. If you two can forgive each other, you can forgive Charlie too, even if it is difficult for you after she betrayed your trust like this. And you know that you will be unhappy for all eternity if the bad way in which you separated will have been your last interaction. I'm not justifying her because she used you and us, on the contrary... but I know, and you know it too, that she definitely regrets it, and that she would just like to hug you again right now"

Vaggie looked down, staring at her shoes. She tightened her skirt with her hands. “The entire Hazbin Hotel is based on the idea that repentant sinners can receive forgiveness… and I want to believe in that reality" she murmured. “Can you… give me some advice to get rid of all this anger?”

Husk was happy to hear her say such words. "Well, my advice is only one: go back to Charlie and talk to her, just like Leo did to Pentious. Let the repentant sinner bring comfort to your heart. Charlie... will find a way"

Vaggie didn't give her opinion on the matter, but after a short silence she asked: "How can I do it? Adina will know if I go to Hell. I don't want her to have an excuse to force me to leave the army... rebuild my relationship with my old teammates is important to me"

Husk smiled at her; he knew he had convinced her. "We'll find a solution" he assured her. "A way is always found"

Vaggie didn't smile back, but she seemed more relaxed. "A legal way, this time" she told him with a hint of irony.

Husk chuckled. "Don't worry, this time I'll make sure Pentious doesn't..."

Suddenly, the whole world stopped.

Vaggie and Husk froze, and everything else with them: even the smallest blade of grass stopped moving completely. Actually, no... things were still moving, but they were... different. Vaggie and Husk could see the grass not moving in the wind, but moving within it, as if it had split into many very small pieces that moved rapidly. The very air was now filled with millions of little things moving like crazed fireflies.

Both Vaggie and Husk wanted to breathe deeply or scream, but their bodies didn't respond to them: they too were paralyzed, their lungs didn't move, their hearts didn't beat, yet they didn't feel the slightest lack of oxygen in their brains. They were fine, actually. "What's going on!?" Husk screamed in his head.

"I don't know! I...!" Vaggie answered him, but then she stopped: "Wait, why can I hear you!?"

“Are you on my mind!?” Husk exclaimed.

Vaggie wanted to swallow, but obviously she couldn't, so she tried to keep her cool: "No, I'm still in my body... but that way I can feel you, and you can feel me, it's like our minds had connected..."

"They are not connected" a cold and almost metallic voice suddenly said. "They are your own thoughts that are emerging from them, and therefore you can use them as you would normally use words"

Vaggie and Husk saw a figure appear in front of them, which unlike everything else still had well-defined outlines, and was not a shapeless mass of very small things that moved. Vaggie recognized her immediately: "Kharev?"

"Who?" Husk asked confused.

"She's the guardian of the door to the Great Hall" Vaggie explained to him. "She is at Michael's service"

“It's as you said” Kharev told them, and it wasn't clear whether she did it with her mouth, with her mind, or in an entirely different way. "It was my master who sent me"

Vaggie tensed, though obviously that only happened in her brain. "What did you do?" she asked her. "Why is everything so... strange?"

"I have accelerated your sensory perception" Kharev explained to them. “Right now, your brain is working at 99.99999999999999999999999999998% of the speed of light”

“What the fuck… we are moving at the speed of light…!?” Husk exclaimed.

"Of course not. If your real bodies moved within spacetime at that speed you would get the opposite effect: for every second you experience, over five million years would pass in real time. Study relativity" Kharev told him, without losing her cold voice. "What I've done is accelerate your brain's data processing speed"

"I see... since our brain processes so quickly, the world around us is as if it is still. That's why we can't move, even if we give the order the rest of our body takes much longer to understand it" Vaggie said. "But why is everything so... I don't know, agitated?"

“What you are seeing are the molecules that make up everything around you” Kharev replied to her. “Now that your brain processes so quickly, your senses can detect movements that would normally be invisible to you"

"Then why can we see you clearly?" Husk opined.

Kharev didn't even shrug her shoulders, as usual. "Because I'm not made of molecules" she replied simply.

Husk wanted to investigate more about it, but he was quite convinced that the strange woman would not give him any better explanations, so he changed the subject: "Is the fact that we can speak with our minds still due to our accelerated perception?"

"Exactly" Kharev replied. "What you are feeling are electrostatic waves generated by impulses in your brain. Too weak to be perceived by the normal brain... but noticeable to a brain that processes at almost the speed of light"

If she could, Vaggie would have sweated. It was the first time she had encountered an opponent that could literally stop her perception of time, even if only figuratively. "You said Michael sent you?"

“Yes” Kharev confirmed. "He has a message for you, but he can't risk anyone seeing you in his presence, or mine. He too is finding it hard to trust others lately"

"I can imagine why" Vaggie murmured. "What does Michael want to tell us?"

Kharev opened her cloak slightly and revealed what looked like an orb. "All my master's memories of Abaddon are stored here. All his knowledge of the angel of life is within it" she told them. "I'll leave it in the attic of this house. As soon as you're sure no one sees you, go get it and attach it to a memorycorder. Use what you'll see to track down Adam"

If she could, Vaggie would have opened her eyes wide. Well, Michael still didn't know about Emily and her true parentage and a lot of other things, but the fact that Abaddon was a traitor was no longer hidden since Raphael had brought Sera's testimony back to Heaven. What surprised her was that he trusted the other angels so little that he relied on them. “Why are you handing over such knowledge to us?”

"My master considers you reliable, and according to him your friends are also quite okay" Kharev replied to her. "Therefore he wants to believe in you. I must ask you not to betray his trust"

"We won't" Vaggie assured her.

"Good. Find Adam at any cost," Kharev told them. "Whatever is troubling my master, Adam is an important piece of the chessboard. He must be found as soon as possible. Once you have discovered where he is, go and get him with great caution: do not underestimate the senses of angels, they are much more acute than you can imagine. Don't open portals lightly, or they will hear you and find out immediately"

"If they have such developed senses, won't they perceive that you are... slowing down time, or speeding it up, or whatever you have done?" Husk asked worriedly.

Kharev shook her head. "No angel can enter your heads until I prevent them, not without direct intervention at least. They will not hear this conversation"

"But they'll notice you" Vaggie pointed out. "We are still in the same position as before, as soon as you unlock our brain we will move normally again and nothing will seem to have happened, but if you are here in front of us, even if for a brief moment..."

"I am not here in front of you for an instant. In fact, I am not even moving in the same time stream as you" Kharev answered her. "I'm moving faster than light. Right now, I stand here to say one syllable, and then I'm gone right away, and come back later to say another. Too fast for even your hyper-accelerated senses to see me, and too much even for the most powerful angels. The only ones who could see me are my master or his brother"

Husk understood practically nothing of that explanation, except that no angel knew what was happening between the three of them, and that was enough for him. "Okay. Is there anything else you need to tell us?"

"Only that my master advises you to be careful" Kharev replied, and then she vanished as quickly as she had come. The next instant, the world seemed to return to normal around Vaggie and Husk, who saw the objects clearly again and were able to move.

Their muscles suddenly made all the movements they hadn't been able to make until then, with the result that Husk ended up on the ground and Vaggie almost met the same end. "Ok... note to myself, don't try to move in a similar situation again" she whispered softly, and then she gave her friend a hand to stand up: "Are you okay?"

"Urgh... more or less" Husk replied, completely numb, but he quickly recovered: "Well, now you have to go back to headquarters. Will you come back to see us tomorrow at the same time?"

Vaggie realized that Husk was acting so condescending again because he was afraid someone might overhear them. In reality what he had said to her was: "Go and pretend nothing happened, I'll take care of recovering that object that Kharev gave us, and look for a place where we can look at it without being discovered". So she also nodded and pretended that it was all okay: "Fine. See you tomorrow then!"

And having said this she took flight and left. Husk stood outside for a moment longer, pretending to say goodbye, and then he immediately went back into the house. The other people inside looked at him in surprise to see him close the door behind him so rapidly. "Are you okay?" Pentious asked him.

Husk let out a deep grunt. "We might have a lead" he answered.

Chapter Text

After Samyaza revealed himself for what he was, Adam kept tabs on him constantly. Even though they were now allies he didn't trust him in the slightest: if he hadn't been out of options he wouldn't have even considered the possibility of working together with a traitorous angel like him. Well, better than working with Lucifer, he told himself to console himself; it could always go worse.

At least Samyaza had remained docile and hadn't complained when Agent One and Agent Two had taken him into custody and placed two special handcuffs on which magical symbols were engraved. They could not contain Samyaza for long, but they were the best they had; at least they would have slowed him down a little if he had tried to escape or attack them. Unbeknownst to the angel, Adam had secretly passed the two agents instructions for building better handcuffs, which were currently being secretly manufactured; he had every intention of keeping them as an ace up his sleeve. It was unlikely that Samyaza hadn't already thought of it, but it was better than nothing.

Now they were in a government van headed toward the Appalachian Mountains. According to Samyaza, his refuge was located there, where they would find what they needed to begin the search for the Holy Grail. “Seriously, is this really the guy who has terrified every supernatural seeker in human history?” Agent One couldn't stop saying in disappointment as he looked at the angel.

Samyaza let out a snort: "You remember that I can destroy you with a single gesture, right?"

"Yes, I know! It's just that... fuck, it's really true that once something is no longer mysterious it's no longer scary" Agent One replied. "Finding out that you're just a loser angel with a passion for lust is quite disappointing"

Samyaza raised an eyebrow at Adam: “Seriously, these two are the best you could find?”

“They work on the supernatural, do you expect them to be normal?” Adam asked him rhetorically.

"Agent One, stop it" Agent Two scolded her colleague, although she then added: "But actually I too expected you to be more threatening. You could at least dress well..."

"Says the one who wears sunglasses at night. While locked in a van. In the dark" Samyaza replied.

"I actually noticed it too" Adam admitted. "You never take off those dark glasses, how can you see?"

Both agents blushed. "After the first eighteen headbutts on the wall you learn to distinguish your surroundings even with these" Agent One responded by scratching the back of his head, before being silenced by his colleague with an elbow.

“Can't you just take them off?” Adam asked them.

"We can't, it's our work uniform!" Agent Two protested. "Every inch of our clothing is designed to be as efficient as possible in our work against the forces unknown to man!"

"Really? And let's hear, since when being blind is useful against the terrible 'forces-unknown-to-man'?" Samyaza asked sarcastically.

"It helps... the perception of our inner eye!" Agent Two replied. "It's essential"

"Yes. Of course" Samyaza commented clearly bored. "It seems to me that you just stole the idea from Man in Black. Why don't you dress up like Japanese spirit hunters at this point?"

Agent Two turned away. "They didn't let us" she muttered under her breath.

Adam shrugged. "Bof. It all sounds like bullshit to me, but at least those uniforms are as cool as fuck" he said sincerely.

The two agents smiled: "Thank you! See that he understands too?"

"It may be cool, but it's still totally impractical" Samyaza grumbled. "Why don't you put on normal uniforms?"

"NORMAL UNIFORMS ARE LAME!" was the unison answer of the two agents.

"Ah-ha! So you admit it, it's just to be cool!" Adam laughed heartily. If he still had lungs they would have probably hurt from laughing. The two agents blushed and turned away.

Samyaza only shook his head. “You haven't changed at all in humor in eight thousand years, I see" he commented, looking at Adam.

“Why should I change the best part of me?” the first man answered him by leaning against the wall of the van. "You should learn to smile more instead"

"Of course, after all there's a lot to smile about here" Samyaza muttered sourly. "We're not trying to avert a cosmic catastrophe, we can laugh and joke freely, right?"

"Well, the cosmic catastrophe part is cool" Agent One said, receiving another nudge from his colleague.

"Ah! Well done, you really understand! I like you guys more and more" Adam laughed even more. "By the way, can you finally tell me your names now?"

"We can't" Agent Two said immediately. "It's against the rules..."

"Oh, stop with this bullshit! I don't know if you've noticed, but since the beginning we all don't give a damn about any rules! It's all-out here, baby!" Adam protested. "And I would also be sick of continuing to call you Agent One and Agent Two or any other term that we all know doesn't mean shit. Come on, what's your name?"

The two agents crossed their arms. "There's no talking about it" they replied firmly.

Even though he no longer had them, Adam seemed to roll his eyes: "Ugh, what a drag! You're so annoying when you do that. I'm the ancestral father of all you suckers, since when are there secrets in the family?"

There was a long moment of silence; the two agents looked at each other, and then Agent Two sighed deeply: "Okay. My name is Victoria. Happy?"

"Oh, finally!" Adam exclaimed. "And you, dude?"

"Abraham" Agent One answered him.

"Abraham, mh? Like... Abraham Van Helsing, the most famous guy of your profession? Your career as monster hunters was already marked from childhood, huh?" Adam said with a laugh, but then he noticed the two officers' expressions and stopped. "Wait a minute... don't tell me that...?"

"Professor Abraham Van Helsing was our great-great-great grandfather" Victoria explained to him, then she pointed to her colleague: "He and I are very distant cousins... there are something like five generations between us, I'm barely still considered a Van Helsing. Technically that's not even my last name anymore, my side of the family changed it when my great-grandmother took my great-grandfather's"

"Wow... now that's an unexpected twist!" Adam commented in surprise.

"In our family it is customary for male children in the direct line of succession to take the name of our illustrious ancestor" Abraham told him. "My full name is Abraham Arthur Van Helsing. Honestly, I prefer to be called by my middle name"

"Okay, then from today you are Arthur to me" Adam replied, not at all displeased by this. "Honestly I prefer it too, I already have too many Abrahams in the family, I would end up getting confused"

The two agents ignored the last comment. “After our ancestor discovered the existence of the supernatural in the late 1800s when he met Dracula, he dedicated his life to studying occult forces, and our family has continued his legacy” Victoria explained. "Unfortunately, towards the middle of the twentieth century it declined a lot due to the two world wars and the persecutions of totalitarian regimes such as the Nazis who wanted our occult knowledge. To date Arthur is the last to still bear the surname Van Helsing, and I am the only other member vaguely connected to the family. Like our ancestors, we continued our search for the supernatural and thanks to a bit of luck we found evidence of the existence of demons and therefore obtained support from the government"

"This is interesting" Samyaza commented with a strange expression. “So you are the great-great-great-grandchildren of that guy who killed the brides of my son?”

Victoria and Arthur looked at him with wide eyes: "Wait, you're Dracula's father!?"

"Of course, do you expect normal humans to have the ability to shape-shift, hypnotize, and drink blood? Whatever monsters have ever existed on this earth since the Great Flood are the result of some one-off adventure of mine" Samyaza answered them. "Simply in 1431 I was passing through Transylvania, I stopped in Sighișoara, and there I met the beautiful princess Cneajna of Moldavia, wife of Vlad II of Wallachia. Needless to say, I didn't miss the opportunity, and after nine months the famous Vlad III, who later became known as Count Dracula, emerged from her womb"

Victoria and Arthur were wide-eyed. Adam, on the other hand, made a disapproving noise: "Tsk! I'm not even surprised anymore. Always around spreading bastards, huh?"

"You talk as if you don't fuck around" Samyaza replied.

"At least I avoid married women" Adam said. "And I don't create monsters"

Victoria coughed slightly to draw attention to herself: "Um... the situation is a bit awkward... do you want an apology...?"

"No, don't worry. Your ancestor did nothing wrong in getting rid of Dracula's wives and helping kill him. I hated that kid anyway" Samyaza replied.

Victoria and Arthur fell silent and looked at each other. "Not to play devil's advocate, but... poor Dracula...?" he finally said.

"Mph! Who cares" Samyaza grumbled. “The only useful thing that bloodsucker did was being a good book character material, since for a while Bram Stoker paid for my dinner every Saturday at a different fancy restaurant as thanks for the nice story I told him”

There was a moment of silence again. "Wow, mate, don't take this the wrong way... but you're truly a fucking parent, and I know what I'm talking about" Arthur told him.

"And you still haven't seen his wife's parenting skills" Adam commented sourly. "Trust me, these two love having children but they hate having to take care of them. If they don't serve their purposes they throw them into the sea and let them fend for themselves"

"I stopped throwing my children into the sea after the Middle Ages" Samyaza replied without showing any shame. "From that time I left them where they were born, how they grew up is not my problem"

“Wait, so you actually threw your kids into the sea before!?” Victoria exclaimed.

"Ever heard of Scylla and Charybdis? The sirens? Jormungardr? Orochi? The Kraken?" Adam grumbled. "And then you guys wonder why they were so pissed off"

“So these monsters are actually real?” Arthur exclaimed in surprise. “Why has no one ever found them? I doubt that they can hide well”

"After the press became widespread, and therefore news could circulate more freely, I moved them all and locked them in one place, so that they would not be found" Samyaza explained to him. “Why do you think there are so many disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?”

The two agents almost choked on their saliva: "So your children are locked up in the Bermuda Triangle!?"

"No, only on an island in the center of it. But there is always some ship or plane that comes too close" Samyaza answered them. "And scientists still believe that it is the currents that trigger waves thirty meters high..."

The two agents were too shocked to reply any further. Adam, on the other hand, was quite irritated. “After all these centuries your children only continue to do harm, even when locked away” he said, chewing on his words. "Maybe before I leave this planet I'll pop over there and get rid of them once and for all"

"Feel free to do so. Those kids only bother me, you're just doing me a favor by getting them out of the way" Samyaza replied without the slightest empathy.

Adam preferred not to answer him, sure that he would say something very not nice. Seriously, if it wasn't because he had no other options, he would never have teamed up with that pathetic excuse of an angel.

The van continued for a few more minutes, and then it stopped. “Bosses, the road ends here” one of the soldiers driving said to Victoria and Arthur.

Everyone looked at Samyaza, who shrugged: "A simple cloaking spell" he said, and snapped his fingers. In an instant the road reappeared in front of the van, and in front of it a small farmhouse appeared among the trees. "Come on, let's go inside"

And so they got out of the van and headed towards the farmhouse, which inside turned out to be set up almost like a laboratory, full of tools, objects and maps hanging on the walls. "So this is where you keep tabs on all the supernatural organizations in the world?" Adam commented. "Mh. I expected better. Haven't you found anything better than a shack among the mountains of Québec?"

"I like it" was Samyaza's simple answer.

“Is it a good idea to keep all this magical stuff so exposed?” Victoria asked a little intimidated.

"Don't worry, they're no danger to me" Samyaza said with a sneer. "But if I were you I wouldn't touch them... they activate easily"

Both Victoria and Arthur turned pale, but this only made Samyaza burst out laughing: "Ah ah ah! I'm joking. You can rest assured, I certainly don't keep the stuff that can really kill you here, it's locked in the cellar"

"Oh... good" the two agents murmured, trying to preserve their dignity, although they didn't hold back a sigh of relief.

Adam's attention was drawn to the larger map, which depicted the Arabian Peninsula, and where there were several arrows, circles, and notes. In particular, one point was circled in red. "Is this where Azazel is?" he asked.

"Exactly. She is right here, at this coordinate, in what during that time was called the Dudael Desert, and today is known as Rub' al Khali. One of the largest expanses of sand in the world" Samyaza answered him. "When Michael chained her there I had already been thrown far away, I didn't know where she was. It took me ages to identify the right position"

"What a devoted husband" Adam commented sarcastically.

Samyaza shook his head in annoyance, but then chose it best to ignore it. "The plan is simple" he said walking around the house picking up some items. "Now let's take what I've already managed to recover, and then we'll take a plane and go straight to Saudi Arabia. Once Azazel is freed we'll go look for the last ingredients"

But Adam stopped him immediately: "Why should we do this? Azazel waited eight thousand years, she can wait a little longer. Why don't we look for the ingredients first instead?"

Samyaza narrowed his eyes: "You expect me to betray you once we free her, don't you?"

"Well, you have no reason not to. You and I have an agreement... but she and I don't have one" Adam replied. "Honestly, I'd rather play it safe and avoid immediately freeing an angel stronger than me. And then, if I pull her out of the sand at the last moment, I'll have to put up with her less. And I'll avoid her immediately going to fuck anything that moves and breathes"

Samyaza turned purple at those last words: "What the... there was no need to add that detail!"

"Oh, come on, we both know that as soon as she's no longer in chains that will be the first thing she'll do" Adam told him. "She was already a slut before and now she hasn't seen a cock in eight thousand years, how horny do you think she could be? I bet she'll fuck you first, and then she'll jump on the boy over there and keep going until he passes out"

"Hey!" Arthur exclaimed blushing.

"Trust me, man, you'll want to stay far away when we free her. She'll throw herself at every cock she sees" Adam warned him. "Normally I never mind when there's a woman in heat around, but I'd like to avoid starting an HIV epidemic, or worse, finding other monsters roaming my planet. So let's release her at the last minute, so I can send her away as soon as possible; sorry if I sacrifice you, Samyaza, since she'll take out all the pent-up sexual frustration on you and therefore drain you alive, but honestly, I don't care about your well-being"

"Well, leaving aside the insults to my wife, I'm sorry to disappoint you but we have to free her as soon as possible" Samyaza told him gritting his teeth.

"Oh yes? And why?" Adam asked him. "You did not specify this clause before"

“I assumed you were smart enough to see it yourself!” Samyaza answered him. "Do you think we can afford to waste weeks searching for the other ingredients? You said yourself that there are treacherous angels in Heaven. When they come here, and they will, neither you nor I will be able to stand against them. We need a warrior who can defend us"

Adam fell silent for a moment. "No one knows I'm here" he reminded him.

“Do you think that will be enough to hide you?” Samyaza replied. "Abaddon's powers are not unknown, even if few people know them. As soon as your enemies find out about them, they will understand where you are and come here. Or your friends will figure it out and your enemies will follow suit. You and I can fight common angels, but a seraph? You beat a prince of Heaven, but yours was pure luck. Do you think you can hold your own in a sudden melee with a high-ranking angel?"

Adam remained silent, not knowing how to respond. He had not considered the possibility that someone might know Abaddon's powers and trace his location from them. And in fact, it wasn't such a remote possibility.

Samyaza let out a grunt. "We can't afford to be picky right now" he told him. "We need powerful warriors for when we'll have to fight, and whether you like it or not Azazel is the only one in this world who can stand up to other seraphim. She is not limited like me, once free from her chains she will be as strong as she once was, and you know that she, like me, was one of the most powerful and brave warriors in Heaven. Having her on our side will raise our chances of victory... and survival by at least a little"

Adam could not deny that the angel was right. However, freeing Azazel was a big risk for him: as Samyaza had said, she was still at the height of her power, and he had not prepared any strategy to deal with her at the moment. If she decided to oppose him, it could end very badly for him: she couldn't kill him, but she could still imprison him, not to mention all the damage she could do to the rest of the world. Adam wasn't at all sure that taking such a risk was a good idea. But on the other hand, if a powerful angel had arrived, Azazel would actually have been useful…

"Why don't you deceive them?" Victoria suddenly asked.

Samyaza and Adam turned to her. "Sorry?" they asked her almost in unison.

"You said that maybe powerful angels will figure out that Adam is here on Earth... but they have no way of tracking his exact location on the planet, right? Because if they could, they would have already found him by now" Victoria explained to them. "So you can use a decoy. Any angel who comes here will probably first look for signs of angelic energy, so if you hide yours and at the same time use something... an object, a magic... to simulate it, that angel will follow the false trail. That way you can lure them into a trap... or if you really don't want to risk it, you will realize their presence before they know about yours, and you can go and free Azazel calmly, already having information on the enemy"

Adam clenched his fists in triumph. Of course... that way he wouldn't have needed to free Azazel right away! “How to fuck the system very cleverly!” he commented satisfied.

Samyaza gritted his teeth in annoyance: "The idea is good, but a failure. There is nothing on Earth that can replicate angelic energy..."

"What a liar" Arthur said as he approached holding a map of North America that had several locations and dates marked on it, clearly marking the path of something, and had three photos taped to it. "Do you think you can hide these things from a government official trained from an early age to research the supernatural? You should better hide your photos of angels and notes on their whereabouts"

Samyaza almost choked on his saliva, while Adam on the contrary took the map and looked at the three photos, which indicated three little winged beings. “These are undoubtedly cherubs” he said. "And by the dates on this map I've been on Earth for a while. Samyaza, what were you saying?"

The angel let out a disdainful snort. “Fuck” he grumbled angrily.

Adam chuckled triumphantly. "It looks like we have the perfect candidates for our bait, and so your beloved whore wife will have to stay in the sand for a while longer" he told him, and then he looked at Victoria and Arthur, and if he could he would have winked at them: "Well, I really did well to take you with me"

The two agents smiled at him knowingly, and barely stopped themselves from making a rude gesture at Samyaza. “So, now we go on a cherub hunting?” Victoria asked.

"I call it recruitment... forced, if necessary, but recruitment nonetheless" Adam replied to her with a sneer. "But yes... this is our next goal"

Chapter Text

Three days had passed quickly, and Angel had waited for that moment with a lot of tension. Not that he wasn't normally tense, given all the mess that was happening around him and his friends and of which they were part of willy-nilly, but in this case he was even more tense than usual.

Even though he put up an arrogant facade, interacting with Arackniss wasn't easy after all these years. They had met just three times in the last few weeks and each time it had been an intense moment. As much as Angel hated to admit it, Arackniss was still his brother and as such had a strong influence on him, and to prove this he always managed to convince him to do something rash. He wasn't angry with him for what happened with Valentino, he knew full well that Arackniss wasn't to blame, but in any case he had been the indirect instigator of her attempt to kill the moth demon, given that Angel had felt (partly also thanks to manipulation of Alastor) having to prove his worth to him.

After all, Arackniss was still his older brother. Angel had sought his approval since they were little, and very rarely had he felt he lived up to expectations.

Therefore, Angel knew that he had to keep his cool as possible: this time his usual exuberance and recklessness were not allowed. Especially considering that what Arackniss was about to show him had the potential to be a danger to all of Hell.

When he reached his family's building, he found Arackniss already in the car in the parking lot, but unlike the last time it was not a luxury car and there was no driver, but on the contrary it was a very ordinary old and poorly cared for car and his brother he was driving. Angel got in, and as soon as he did Arackniss started the car and drove away until he reached a dark and secluded alley, and after checking that no one was there he took something from the back seat: "Here. We need to wear this"

Angel took it and discovered that it was a black cloak complete with a hood. "We have to hide...?"

"It's the rule" Arackniss replied. "It is to avoid being recognized by any spies or traitors. Nobody really knows the names of the people they will meet tonight, nor their faces. When the organization contacts you, they send you a mask to cover you. They sent one for you too. when I informed them that I wanted to bring someone"

Angel let out a deep snort. “So you actually don't know those people?” he asked. “We could walk in there and be in front of anyone, even one of the Deadly Sins, and we wouldn't know it?”

"Exactly" Arackniss replied without changing her expression. "It's a secret meeting, what did you expect?"

Angel leaned back in his seat. Whoever had organized that meeting certainly knew how to hide. Not even when they had to have super secret meetings in the mafia did they take so many precautions. He wouldn't have been surprised if the boss of the whole situation was a Russian spy or a secret agent of CIA who had ended up in Hell.

This obviously made everything more dangerous. If those people didn't want to be recognized in any way, then it meant that what they were doing actually had the potential to harm the higher echelons of Hell. If a person was hiding it meant that they wanted to avoid any spies recognizing them and warning their enemies; and the more they tried not to be recognized, the stronger the blow they were about to inflict on their enemies probably was.

This begged the big question: would what was about to happen be good for Hell... or would it be the start of an even worse problem?

Arackniss handed him a box: "Here. Your mask for tonight"

Angel took it and opened it, and he discovered that inside was a white spider mask. "Are you kidding me?"

"It's the one they sent me" Arackniss told him simply.

Angel narrowed his eyes. He could read the unsaid in his brother's words: if those masks were sent to him by the leaders of that secret organization, and they had sent a white spider mask, then it was definitely a message. They were telling him that they knew who he was, even though he didn't know who they were.

Could it have been a threat? Well, some of it sure was, but otherwise… no. If they knew who he was that well and considered him a danger, they could have blown up him and Arackniss right then and there, in that car, without any witnesses. They wouldn't have bothered to warn him by sending him the mask. Consequently, the message was different.

Maybe they were telling him they approved? That they wanted him to come to their meeting, listen, and then tell Charlie everything?

After all, based on what little they knew, that organization was made up of people who wanted freedom. Getting the support of the new queen would be very beneficial for them.

Arackniss surely understood his thoughts, because he told him: "I don't think they are threatening you. And in any case, that is your mask tonight. Now you are the Spider"

Angel sighed deeply, and then he put the mask on his face. "And you?"

Arackniss took a pig-like mask and put it on. “I am the Boar” he answered.

Angel let out a grunt. The fact that they gave Arackniss a generic mask while they gave him one that fully reflected his appearance demonstrated that this was a message aimed specifically at him. "Okay. Let's do this thing"

The two brothers covered themselves completely with their cloaks, until not even a piece of their body was left exposed, and then they started the car. Arackniss drove quickly, taking advantage of the light traffic. "Is there anything I need to know about these guys? How should I act, how should I talk?" Angel asked him.

"When we arrive, we will sit at a table and wait for the meeting to start. You speak as little as possible... everyone will do it anyway. Even if they use methods to hide their voices, they still prefer to remain silent for a long time to avoid the as possible to be recognized" Arackniss explained to him. "When the meeting has started, if you have to say something, stand up, otherwise stay seated and listen. And when we are finished and have to leave, stand in line next to me; we will have to wait ten minutes after those in front of us have left, and those behind us will do the same"

“Why do we have to wait ten minutes?” Angel asked him.

"If we all went out together, someone might recognize the others from their car license plates, or follow them" Arackniss replied. "By waiting ten minutes between one exit and another, this risk does not arise"

Angel crossed his arms. "The more you talk about it, the more it becomes clear how organized these guys are. They know how not to get caught" he commented thoughtfully. "The person who will run the meeting... and therefore I assume also the leader of this whole thing... what are they like?"

"You will recognize him because he has a mask similar to a hoofed animal. We call him the Camel" Arackniss told him.

Angel narrowed his eyes: "Is it a man?"

"He identifies himself as such, but I don't know if that's true. I've never seen his face, as you might imagine" Arackniss replied.

"If he never shows his face and leads you to act with such secrecy, why do so many people listen to him?" Angel asked him suspiciously. "There might be someone working for the nobility under that cloak"

But Arackniss shook her head. "No... no, I don't think so at all. He has shown us several times that he does not favor the nobility. Trust me... the world he talks about, more egalitarian and stable, and above all realistic and not utopian, is not something that can be disguised" he told him. "As for why everyone listens to him, when you hear him speak you will understand. His speech and voice are those of a completely average man, but his words penetrate your soul"

Angel was surprised by such words. "It's rare to hear you speak so highly of someone"

"I always say what I think. It's not my fault if in most cases I meet people unworthy of my praise" Arackniss replied angrily. “Like I told you, when you hear him talk you will understand”

Angel shook his head. “I doubt I will be very impressed by a man who you say is average”

Arackniss wasn't convinced at all. "Ten bucks if you're wrong" he told him simply.

Angel didn't reply, but those words still had an impact on him. Arackniss had rarely spoken well of anyone in her life; most of the time he showed his frowning face and discussed others as if they were human waste. Even when he complimented people he was often very stoic. Angel remembered having seen him smile just three times in his entire life. So the fact that he had expressed his appreciation for someone else to such an extent showed how exceptional that person everyone called the Camel must be... or at least how good a speaker he was.

Arackniss drove to a suburb on the outskirts of the city, and then parked the car in an alley and they walked part of the way. “Why didn't we go straight to the right place?” Angel asked. "No, wait, I'm guessing: it's forbidden because you risk someone following you and taking your car's license plate"

"Exactly. I see you're getting into the right mood" Arackniss replied. “Keep walking and don't take off your mask even if no one is there”

Eventually the two of them arrived in front of a building that looked old and deserted; but as soon as they reached the door Arackniss knocked numerous times rhythmically, following a strange code of long and short pauses, and as soon as she had finished the door opened. They were greeted by what were probably bodyguards, also disguised in wolf and lion masks, who just nodded at them and then returned to guard the door. “Shouldn't they ask you for your password?” Angel asked his brother.

"I gave it to him when I knocked" was Arackniss's reply. "The way we knock is the key word"

Angel nodded, having confirmed his suspicions. "I understand. And I assume that the code is different for everyone in here, so the bodyguards can immediately identify any intruders if they copy the code of a person who just entered"

"Exactly" Arackniss replied. "Follow me, let's go straight to the main room"

The two brothers entered a huge room, furnished in a rather sober way: there was almost nothing inside, except a very long table and numerous chairs. A microphone was placed in front of each chair, so that everyone could be heard despite the size of the room. And many of those chairs were already occupied by people wrapped in black cloaks and with animal masks to hide their faces.

Angel felt a little uncomfortable. It seemed to him that he had entered the room of a cult... or an agency of people with strange sexual tastes. However, he did not show the slightest fear and sat down next to his brother. The people at the table turned to look at him, but didn't say a word to him; at most they whispered a little with their neighbors, who were probably people affiliated with them. Apparently Arackniss wasn't lying when she said that everyone there preferred to make their voices heard as little as possible.

He counted those present. There were at least a hundred of them, maybe even more, and more were continuing to arrive. All of them were being very careful not to leave even a sign of their identity, some were even handling objects with their left hand even though they were clearly right-handed. Angel couldn't blame them: if there had been even just one spy in there, and this spy had recognized any of them, it was likely that that someone would have died shortly thereafter... in the best case scenario.

He decided to take an example from them, and so he leaned close to his brother's ear and spoke in a very low voice: "When will the Camel arrive?"

"When everyone else has arrived" Arackniss replied. "He never shows up unless everyone is here first, and is always the first to leave"

Angel narrowed his eyes, even though no one could see him through the mask. "So he's probably already here and watching us..."

Arackniss nodded. "Likely"

Another bold move. By remaining in the shadows, the Camel could observe the movements, interactions and behavior of all the people present for a long time, and consequently identify any spies or informants, and could also escape more quickly in case someone had spoken and an armed army had arrived at their hideout. Definitely, he was a master at hiding.

It took a while before every chair at that table was filled. Not even one was left empty, except the one at the head of the table. When this happened, even the whispered conversations immediately died down, and silence reigned supreme for a very brief moment.

And then the door opened again and in walked a cloaked guy with a camel-like mask over his face. Angel watched him walk to the chair at the head of the table, which he immediately sat down on. “My friends” the Camel greeted them. "Welcome"

Angel stared intently at the masked person. He was very tall and no part of his body was exposed; it wasn't even possible to see an inch of skin in the middle of his cloak. His face was completely covered by his mask which vaguely resembled a hoofed animal... a horse, or perhaps a camel. Angel couldn't even see his eyes through the cavities of the mask, a sign that they must have been lined with some reflective glass.

Whoever he was, he absolutely did not want to be recognized.

"It's him" Arackniss whispered to him. "That is the Camel"

Angel nodded. He certainly didn't need confirmation to understand it. "Are you really sure it's a man?" he asked him.

Arackniss shrugged. "I told you, he said so. But he could be anything" he replied. “He claims to be a man, but he uses a voice-altering device. For all we know, he could be pretending and actually be a woman”

Angel narrowed his eyes with a lot of tension. The Camel sat down at the head of the table without saying a word: he did so in an extremely casual manner, without any particular elegance or good manners. Try as he might, Angel couldn't tell from his movements whether he was a hellborn, a sinner, an overlord, or anything else. He did not have the education of a nobleman, nor the rudeness of an ordinary citizen; it seemed to be perfectly in the middle. It was as if he had carefully studied how to move to be as anonymous as possible.

There was a long moment of silence, a pause that was undoubtedly intentional. And then the Camel spoke: "I am happy that you have accepted my invitation... and that we are increasingly numerous at each of our meetings"

Firm, deep, but at the same time not too elegant: this was the impression Angel had when he heard him speak. Surely he used a voice synthesizer or something similar, but still the length of his pauses, the way he articulated the words, when he caught his breath, everything was perfectly calculated, giving the impression of a very wise and at the same time very ordinary person. “This guy is really good at hiding” he couldn't help but think.

“As you surely know if you have read the report placed before you, our ranks have increased by 60% compared to last week” the Camel said. "Within next week they will certainly increase even more. We have already made contact with 2,318 new criminal gangs in the lower Rings and as many as 512 autonomous military groups who have shown interest in joining us. Furthermore, according to our estimates, the population is always more likely to clamor for change to the current system. Do any of you have anything to say about this?"

A demon in a pig mask raised his hand politely. The Camel just nodded, and he stood up and spoke: "My friends, I have carefully studied the situation and can confirm that this is true. The population is seething with the desire to be liberated. If we come out into the open with a big action, all of them would rise up immediately!"

Everyone immediately started mumbling. Angel found himself sweating: that guy in the pig mask was definitely right. The people were already tense and eager for revenge: if they had discovered that there was an organized group eager to change things, many would have joined them. The problem was that many others, given the hot blood of the demons, would rise up on their own, causing disorder throughout Hell.

Luckily, the Camel seemed to think the same way as him. "We cannot act recklessly. If we did, every hothead in Hell would do their own thing. It would be chaos and many would die. Our goal is not to make the problematic situation in which the new queen and consequently the whole kingdom lies, but help them. Any big action would be a mistake"

“There's no omelette if you don't break the eggs” a demon in a shark mask opined. "It is not only by accumulating forces in the shadows that we will be able to make ourselves heard. A decisive action is a must!"

"You're right!" a demon in a snake mask exclaimed. "The new queen doesn't appreciate violence, but we have no hope of approaching her peacefully while she's in her palace or constantly surrounded by blue bloods. If we cause a bit of trouble, at least she'll notice us! And if she notices us, then we can make us listen!"

"But we can't antagonize her right away!" a demon in a bird mask protested. "If we do something that costs many lives, she'll be against us before we can even speak! That's not what we want!"

An argument was probably about to start, but the Camel suddenly raised his hand, and for an instant silence returned as if a veil had fallen over all of them. There was a pause again, and then he said: "What you say is true. We will never get the queen's attention without decisive action, but at the same time we cannot antagonize her. But you see, my friends, they exist ways to cause radical change without using violence"

Angel had never thought that anyone other than Charlie would have ever proposed a nonviolent solution to Hell, and yet that was exactly what was happening... and even more incredible was that no one was booing or objecting to such words. Everyone was silent and listening, waiting for an explanation. It was as if they were hanging from the Camel's lips as if his words were pure gold.

"What we must do is perform an action so radical that its noise will reach the ears of the queen herself, and at the same time demonstrate to her and all of Hell what we wish to achieve: fairness, respect, equality" the Camel he said in a firm voice. "That's why I have a plan. As soon as we have gathered enough forces, we will begin our first real move. It will take place right here, in the Pride Ring, the same Ring where the queen dwells and where she was born. And those who suffer the first real change will be the people directly under his jurisdiction: the sinners"

Angel tensed up a lot, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed some other demons fidgeting a little, a sign that they were probably sinners. Arackniss also seemed to become a little more tense, although unlike him he hid it much better. Apparently the situation was heating up, and quite a lot.

"As you well know, among our many objectives there is the creation of a new contractual system that blocks the excessive power of the overlords forever" the Camel continued to explain. "Therefore, it will be the first thing we ask. The overlords' ability to create soul contracts is their main strength, but also a great weakness. If they do not respect the terms of the contract, it is considered null and void. That is why as our first action we will free a large number of sinners from their contracts! This will be how we will reveal ourselves to all of Hell, a single action that will fully show our interest!"

Angel tensed even more. Free many sinners from the yoke of the overlords? It was impossible, an absurd move... right?

And yet... that guy was actually right.

Freeing a person from a soul contract was technically simple, especially if it was a joint contract. For example, if the contract provided for an overlord to give a certain job to a person in exchange for his slavery, it would have been enough to destroy the workplace to free that person, given that the overlord would no longer be able to guarantee his part of the agreement. The contract between Angel and Valentino was more complex, as it required Valentino to make Angel a star, and so even if his studio was destroyed the moth demon could find many other ways to make him famous, thus keeping him chained to itself. But most contracts were not that sophisticated.

Yes... it wasn't that impossible to deal a heavy blow to the overlords... in fact, that was technically what Emily and Charlie had planned to do with the Vees before that plan became unworkable due to their victory over Alastor!

Fuck... Angel knew he couldn't just let his imagination run wild... but if that guy was really so organized, could he really free a lot of people...?

From the looks of it, yes. "We have collected detailed information on each overlord, and using it, we already have the possibility of liberating about half the population of the Pride Ring in one fell swoop" the Camel said resolutely. "When the time comes, we will launch our attack. In a single moment and without shedding even a drop of blood, all overlords will see a drastic drop in souls under their control. A large portion of the low-ranking and mid-ranking overlords could even collapse to common demon status. The most powerful overlords, such as the Vees or Zestial and Carmilla, will certainly remain powerful, but they will still suffer the consequences of our actions. And while the overlords will be busy figuring out what is happening, we will come out. We will announce ourselves live nationally, and we will explain our values ​​to everyone. As soon as they hear what we have to say, almost all the sinners of the Pride Ring will side with us. Those who have already been freed will start a big strike, which we will support thanks to the supplies we have accumulated, and those who are still in chains will have hearts full of hope and can become our informants Such an event will undoubtedly attract the attention of the queen, and when she comes to meet us, we we will start the first negotiation. Both with our words and our actions we will demonstrate to her and to all of Hell that we are not barbarians, but only people who desire to be free!"

The rest of the people at the table burst into applause. Everyone was satisfied with that explanation, and above all with the fact that they were finally about to take decisive action. That plan would have been the first of many, and once implemented it would shake the foundations of Hell. Although it would have only gained a foothold in the Pride Ring, once that group's intentions were made public, in all the Rings the population would have known that there was someone fighting for peace and equality.

Obviously, there was someone who had doubts. "Why start from the Pride Ring?" a demon in a goat mask asked. "Couldn't we choose another Ring?"

The Camel shook his head. “We need to start from the Pride Ring, for three main reasons” he said, holding up three fingers. "The first is purely propagandistic: this is the Ring where the royal family has always resided and where the new queen was born and raised and has her palace, so when the first change takes hold here, the psychological impact it will have on the population it will be even stronger. The second is political: as I said, we cannot shed blood if we don't want to alienate the queen's sympathy, so we have to face enemies that we can defeat without fighting snatch them from the overlords by exploiting their own soul contracts against them. By doing so we will not only achieve a non-violent victory, but we will also immediately eliminate many potential future enemies. And this also brings us to the third reason, the one in anticipation for the future"

Angel immediately noticed that the Camel's tone had darkened, a sign that that last point couldn't be pleasant. Luckily he didn't need to ask anything, because it was Arackniss who asked: "Can you explain further?"

"In the future, when we begin to clamor for freedom for all classes, we will undoubtedly encounter opposition from the nobles" the Camel explained. "Even if we try to resolve this in the least violent way possible, it is very likely that we will be forced to get our hands dirty with some of them. Some people simply cannot accept change. Therefore, to continue to maintain the sympathy of the queen and of the people towards us, it is appropriate to show right away that we are ready to do anything to be freed, but that we do not choose violence even if it would be the easiest way. Our action in the Pride Ring, where we have the certainty of being able to defeat the overlords without shedding blood, will serve precisely this purpose. This way, if in the future we have to eliminate someone, the queen will be aware that we did not do it because we are sadistic or evil, but because it was that person who left us no choice. Even though she probably won't approve of such action anyway, she won't turn her back on us"

Angel nodded almost without realizing it. Yes, in fact, that reasoning made perfect sense. That guy must have really been a political genius, because only a person with an above-average brain could have thought of so many details. Now he understood why all those people at that table listened to him so much... and even he wasn't remaining immune to his charisma.

He was starting to wonder if that plan was really worth supporting. Surely even just the first phase would have made Hell a better place. Putting an end to the excessive power of the overlords would have been an epochal and extraordinary revolution.

And if that had happened... then people like Valentino could have been killed.

Last time Angel had stopped because killing Valentino would also have killed all the souls he had... but if Valentino had lost everything, then killing him would have been no different from killing a normal person.

He had to stay calm, he told himself. Despite the possibility of taking revenge, or rather, of giving justice not only to himself but also to all of that bastard's countless victims, was tempting, he couldn't let such feelings control him. He had to remain calm and cool, because at that moment he was there to understand as much as he could about these people and report what he discovered to Charlie.

In any case, he didn't get the chance because the Camel stood up and clapped his hands: "The plan is decided. We will implement it as soon as we have reached the necessary numbers and have completed the preparations. I will inform you of the exact date using the usual method"

"Can we at least have some estimates?" a demon in a budgie mask asked. "I don't know, five or ten or fifteen days...?"

The Camel did not give a precise answer: "For these things we can neither rush nor make estimates. When the time comes, I will let you know" he said, but immediately after he added: "In any case, it will be soon"

And after those last words, pronounced with much more emphasis than usual, he left. He didn't even turn to look at the room one last time or say goodbye. After him, one by one, the other demons also got up and left silently, always going out the door alone and waiting at least ten minutes for the one who had preceded them to leave, so as not to see him.

Eventually Angel and Arackniss also exited and returned to their car. As soon as they were inside it sped away and they rolled up the tinted windows. Arackniss took off her boar mask and lit a cigarette, probably to calm the tension. "So? What do you think about that guy... and all this?"

Angel took off his spider mask and let out a deep sigh, trying to wipe the sweat from his forehead. "I think... that I owe you ten bucks" he said simply in the end.

Chapter Text

"... and that's it" Angel concluded. “And before you ask, yes, I made sure not to leave out any details. I memorized and repeated every single syllable”

After saying goodbye to Arackniss, who had left him again in the same place where she had picked him up, he had immediately returned to the royal palace to tell his friends what had happened. During the journey he had replayed the scene he had experienced countless times in his head, to make sure he didn't forget a single detail. And the more he thought about it, the more tense and inspired he felt at the same time, and even he wasn't sure what was going on in his head.

“So they all hide in masks and give each other names based on them?” Moxxie said waving the spider mask, which Angel had brought with him. "Really smart. They surely know how to maintain secrecy"

"And they really know what they're doing" Stolas commented. "Such a plan is clever. To make sure that the overlords cannot fulfill their contracts, so as to weaken them and be able to kill them as if they were any demons..."

"It would be a nice slap in the face of the overlords, for sure" Cherri said. "I don't even know whether to be sorry about this. Apart from Zestial and Carmilla, everyone else is an asshole. Well... of the people that we know, at least"

Angel ignored them all and looked at Charlie, who was thinking on the sidelines. She found herself once again thinking about how much she had matured lately: the Charlie of not even three months ago would have freaked out at the mere thought that someone could get hurt, but now, even though she was still worried, she was keeping a cool head and thinking carefully before acting. Angel was proud of her, even if he was partly sorry that he no longer had the sweet princess who was moved only by her heart and very little by her brain.

He sighed deeply as he thought about it. It was truly true that innocence was always destined to fade. By now the sweet, playful and eager to do good for others princess had transformed into a serious, calm and at times even a little cold queen. At least her nice heart hadn't changed, and this was enough to put Angel in a good mood: he would never have forgiven himself if he had allowed even that beautiful part of Charlie to be destroyed.

Silence reigned for a few minutes, and then Charlie broke it: "Something's wrong"

Everyone looked at her. "What do you mean?" Angel asked her immediately, hoping to understand something more.

"The actions of this... Camel, as he calls himself. They make no sense" Charlie answered him, and then he stared at him intently: "Think about it: why did he authorize Arackniss to take you with him to meet him?"

"Because I'm close to you" Angel replied immediately. "And so he hoped to win your favor..."

"Exactly. And he's doing exactly the opposite" Charlie said, scratching his chin. "The Camel's plan is to grant freedom to sinners, and it's brilliant... but it has too many details that I would never tolerate. For starters, the deaths of so many overlords, plus all the people who will be caught up in the fight, and the souls who won't be freed from them in time..."

"Well, that's not much of a problem for demons" Millie pointed out. “This guy who dresses as a camel probably assumed that you too would be okay with killing a few people if it meant giving freedom to the majority”

"Really? After I told all of Hell that I want to redeem sinners to avoid Extermination? After I literally dethroned my father to avoid a civil war?" Charlie pointed out to her. "I don't think so"

In fact, this sounded rather strange. "Charlie's right" Stolas admitted, pondering the problem himself. "Even someone who doesn't know Charlie would understand that she's not a fan of murder. Proposing a plan like that, and not insisting that it's the only way... no one who wants to gain her sympathy would say that"

"Exactly!" Charlie said. “But let's ignore that for a moment. Let's assume that the Camel knows absolutely nothing about me, and that he believes that I'm a genocidal maniac. Well, his behavior still doesn't make sense anyway! The plan he's proposed will cause massive damage to the entire Pride Ring, which is exactly what I, the Queen of Hell who is currently already worrying about rebuilding two more Rings, would never want! He's literally suggesting me to let my kingdom go even further into trouble! What queen would ever agree to that? Not even if I were drunk I would consider this plan a good idea!"

Again, she was right. The Camel seemed to have done the exact opposite to gain her sympathy on both a logical, strategic, emotional and political level. "I like this story less and less" Angel muttered. “Are you saying that the Camel is actually sending you a challenge?”

"If he wanted to do something like that he would have cut off your head and sent it back to her in a package, you wouldn't have walked away from there unscathed" Cherri pointed out.

"Yeah, since we have no leads to trace him he just had to kill you and Arackniss and it would have sent a much clearer message" Moxxie confirmed. "This is not a challenge"

"So it's not a challenge, nor a friendship proposal" Millie commented confused. "What is this guy up to? He seems to contradict himself on purpose"

Charlie inspired thoroughly. “No… there must be a pattern behind it” she said. "I believe that... he is offering me something... that his plan is actually based on something unsaid, that he expects me to comprehend"

Just then a loud laugh reached their ears. They turned towards an armchair not far away. "What's wrong with you, Macho?" Angel asked.

The shark demon sitting on it, who was obviously Seviathan in disguise, stood up and turned to them, showing an almost excited face: "That guy is a genius" he said out loud, still laughing. "He's a fucking genius!"

Everyone was surprised by his words. It was the first time they had heard Seviathan speak with such excitement and at the same time such nervousness in his voice. It almost looked like he was shaking. "Why do you say that?" Charlie asked him worriedly.

Seviathan gave her a smile: "Because this guy didn't give you a challenge... he gave you the solution to your every problem!"

Charlie tensed. "Explain better" he ordered.

Seviathan gritted his teeth and tried to calm down: "This guy... Angel's visit today was just the last piece of the puzzle. What he told his henchmen is false, in reality he is already very ready to act. Tonight's meeting was only for Angel to observe and report to you everything he heard... so that you could put it together with the other clues that he has already given you and understand the plan"

Charlie was speechless. "The other pieces...?" she murmured.

"Hey, I don't understand shit" Angel said out loud. "So... the Camel actually lied so Charlie could figure out the truth? But what's the point?"

“Maybe it's like in the movies!” Cherri tried to propose. "One of those detective stories in which a thousand things are said but ten thousand others are understood..."

"Shut up!" Charlie exclaimed, rubbing her head in an attempt to concentrate. "The other clues... wait a minute! Now that I think about it... we didn't send Angel among those people without knowing anything... we already knew a lot of things. We knew that they don't want disorder, but order... so it wouldn't make sense for them to unleash chaos... unless...!"

"... unless the queen intervenes immediately and decisively" Seviathan anticipated her with a smirk. "Let's say that tomorrow a group of terrorists causes chaos in the Pride Ring. It's all extremely fast, and somehow they get the support of the population. The overlords find themselves in a precarious position, but before they can intervene the queen does it for them, proposing a compromise that would normally seem crazy, but which in such circumstances would be seen by the overlords as a lifeline..."

“… reforming the soul trading system” Charlie anticipated. She had turned white, and seemed on the verge of fainting. “Are you telling me that…?”

Seviathan nodded. He looked triumphant. "The Camel does not want to kill anyone, neither sinner nor overlord. He wants to give you the chance to totally reform the entire Pride Ring in one fell swoop, and free the human souls from the yoke they are currently bound to"

Charlie made a choking sound, and then she staggered; she seemed on the verge of fainting, and in fact Stolas caught her before she risked falling to the ground. Her friends were confused and even a little worried about that reaction. "Wait... I don't think I understand" Angel admitted.

Seviathan clapped his hands, as if he were applauding the Camel's cunning: "Here's what will happen: this group of rioters will stage a large-scale terrorist attack, destroying the property of the overlords and scaring them properly, and somehow (which I still don't understand) they will convince the entire population of sinners to side with them. Well, right at that moment Charlie, or at least someone for her, will stop the hostilities and bring the overlords together, and offer them a compromise. What is it that the sinners are asking for? We already know it: freedom, equality... basically, to change the system of soul trading. Charlie will propose a plan to abolish this trade and put the overlords directly under the crown, basing their election not on souls but on other criteria, and the overlords will, in the fear of the moment, accept. In this way all the souls of the Pride Ring will be free again, and on the contrary the overlords will be placed under the authority of the crown, effectively making them administrators and requiring them to follow precise rules, under penalty of condemnation and persecution. At that point it will be enough to remove the most problematic elements, and what you will have will be a Pride Ring based on a meritocratic system, with no longer even a soul subjugated to another, and with capable overlords in power who will guarantee stability and functionality, and who now that they will be under the authority of the crown they will be able to be punished in case of ineptitude or violation of the law"

The others had fallen silent. The air in the room seemed to have become a thousand times heavier. "This is brilliant..." Stolas whispered after a few moments. "And to pass these laws... Charlie will have to...!"

Seviathan nodded with satisfaction. "Exactly. She will have to have the approval of the infernal council" he confirmed. "This is an excellent opportunity to change not only the laws of the Pride Ring, but also all the other laws that govern Hell. Charlie can use this event to convince the nobles to change the voting system, guaranteeing more elasticity, and since Greed and Wrath are already destroyed, no one will risk sending another Ring into chaos. Even the most reluctant nobles will approve. And when this is done, it will be the beginning of an incredible series of reforms"

Stolas let out a guttural cry that made him sound every bit like an owl. Charlie's biggest obstacle to reforming Hell was that changing even one law required the approval of the entire council. Which meant that the approval of the entire council was needed to even offer a compromise to the Pride Ring. If Charlie had used this to highlight the weakness of this law and had proposed to change it, everyone would have accepted immediately: the danger of sending another Ring into chaos, especially Pride which had now become very important as it maintained a stable economy despite what happened to Wrath and Greed, would have been enough to scare them enough. And once this law was changed, the opposition of a group of conservative nobles would no longer be absolute, but only a partial obstacle. By then Charlie could have started reforming all of Hell, not just Pride. "If it worked, this group of rebels wouldn't even need to continue their machinations" he muttered. "They would have already achieved a peaceful change and not a bloody revolution"

"Following Pride's example, the lower classes across Hell could demand civil and political rights" Moxxie said, thinking aloud. He seemed more excited than ever. "By taking advantage of the problematic situation in which we live and taking away from the nobles their most important instrument of control... Hell could truly change without shedding a single drop of blood"

"Mh. Sounds a little too good to be true" Millie commented skeptically. “But…  it's nice to know that someone took the trouble to plan so much for peace”

Angel looked like his head was about to explode. "Let's see if I understand correctly" he said. "As soon as the Camel implements his plan, the overlords will lose their souls, the Pride Ring will stop managing itself and become controlled by the crown, no one will have to sell themselves to anyone anymore, the nobles will lose their absolute dominion and we can start fixing all of Hell?"

"Something like that, yes" Seviathan confirmed.

“This is amazing!” Cherri exclaimed. "If human souls are free, Charlie will be able to start a full-scale redemption program! Since they will no longer be in chains, they will be able to try! This will also help with relations with Heaven!"

Angel had darkened. His face seemed to have turned to chalk. "So... if the souls no longer belong to the overlords... could we kill them without risking exterminating millions of people?"

“Exactly” Seviathan replied with a grin. "As I said, we can calmly deal with the problematic elements. As soon as everything is finished you will just have to give me one night, I will pull out all the weeds before the pentagram shines again"

But Angel still seemed lost in thought. His shoulders were shaking slightly. "So... Valentino will finally be able to die...?"

Cherri put a calming hand on his shoulder. “Keep your cool” she told him. "The bastard will be short-lived"

Angel gritted his teeth, trying to calm down. The memory of Valentino in his hands made his limbs tremble. That time he had been so close to killing him, but he stopped because he didn't want to exterminate millions of souls. But if Valentino no longer had that one advantage, then...

He shook his head. He shouldn't have thought about it at that moment. He had time for that. "What do you think, Charlie?" he asked instead.

Charlie remained on the sidelines, leaning against a wall. She too was struggling to stay clear and her heart was pounding. She had so many possibilities ahead of her… reforming Hell, helping with her redemption program, freeing the people… everything. But she forced herself to hold back and think carefully. "There are two obstacles" she said in the end. "The first, is that it is necessary for the entire Pride Ring to rise up. These rioters can light a fuse, but to scare the overlords all the sinners must feel motivated to rebel. The second problem is Vox. He is dangerous, and he has plans for angelic weapons. We must be careful with him"

"Charlie's right" Seviathan admitted. "Honestly, even I struggle to imagine something that could unite all sinners in a common cause..."

“WE HAVE IT!” Angel exclaimed. "Charlie... the photo of Pentious in Heaven! Remember our old plan? We wanted to use it to lure sinners away from the Vees! We can give it to the Camel, and he can use it to reveal to everyone that redemption is possible and turn the heat against the overlords!"

Charlie's eyes widened. That was a possibility. "But... will it work?"

"I think so" Angel told her with a smile. "As soon as the sinners know that redemption is possible, and see that the overlords are falling, they will only register this in their heads: another path can be chosen. This will be enough to ignite the spirits. Even those who do not want to be redeemed will be pissed off for at least a few hours, which is all the time we need"

Charlie bit her lip. In fact that would have been a great way to make sinners revolt and demand freedom. It was obviously unlikely that all of them would then have thrown themselves into the path of redemption, but they would certainly have seen that situation as an opportunity. Even just a few hours of protest would have been enough.

“But… Vox knows about redemption” Cherri pointed out. "He will understand that Charlie is in cahoots with those who orchestrated that situation"

Charlie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe not" she murmured. “Maybe there is a scapegoat so perfect that even Vox will be convinced that none of us are involved…”

“Charlie, no one but us and the Vees knows about the redemption" Cherri repeated to her. “What scapegoat could…?”

Charlie stopped her with a wave of her hand and turned to Seviathan: "Let's assume there's someone Vox is convinced would be asshole enough to organize such a thing. How do I really divert any possible suspicion from me?"

Seviathan thought carefully. "Well, I think in this case the best choice is to act a little" he answered. "For starters, don't propose reforming the Pride Ring yourself, have someone else propose it. Look for a trusted person with a lot of authority who is willing to cooperate. Just act quickly and stop the hostilities, and then let that person propose the solution. Better yet: let that person propose only part of the solution, and then give the overlords the opportunity to establish the new rules of the Pride Ring themselves. You limit yourself to approve or disapprove of their decisions. This way it won't seem like everything is planned"

"We have Carmilla and Zestial on our side" Moxxie reminded them. "They can propose the solution to them, and then pull the strings to arrive at the rules we want. Do you think they will help us?"

“Probably yes” Stolas confirmed. "Zestial is a pragmatic person, and when he knows what we know he will understand that this is the best solution. After all he will not lose anything, and in fact by doing so he will have more security since it will no longer be so easy to bring down an overlord. But Vox will oppose it"

"It's not so sure" Charlie said. "Vox is arrogant, but he is not stupid. If he sees that the situation is irreparable and a change is necessary, he will accept it. But he will still try to come out of it as a winner as possible"

"The ideal scenario would be for this Vox to give up his souls. That way I could kill him before he could spread the weapons blueprints" Seviathan said. "But it is unlikely that he will let go of such an advantage. Almost certainly, the end result of this discussion between overlords will be to give up most of the souls, but keep at least a few for safety. The best thing is to accept this momentary compromise; we will have time to deprive him of what he has left later, the important thing is to remove the bulk. And to keep him satisfied, it would be advisable for Charlie to show to be on his side, offering him some more rewards for his cooperation. If all these elements are carried out in the way right, and this scapegoat that Charlie proposes will be convincing enough, Vox will not suspect her and will have no reason to oppose her"

“So we basically leave them some souls?” Angel murmured in disappointment, having really hoped to be able to deprive Valentino of any lifesaving devices so he could kill him.

"Just a few" Seviathan replied. "And it's only a temporary compromise. Once Charlie extends her influence over the Pride Ring and initiates reforms, it will be easy to completely eliminate the soul trading system without anyone complain. I already have a couple of ideas on how to do it. You'll just have to wait a little longer"

Angel clenched his fists, but still he held himself together. He had waited decades, he could wait a little longer. "Whatever, Charlie, who do you want to accuse so that Vox doesn't think it was you?"

"Someone Vox will surely already accuse on his own before I even intervene" Charlie replied with a smirk. "And who is already considered an enemy of the crown without friends or allies, and therefore with excellent reasons to harm the other overlords. And who knows that redemption i possible. And who is currently locked up in an inaccessible Ring and who therefore cannot intervene even to free himself from accusations"

There was a moment of silence, and then Angel almost laughed: "Are you talking about...?"

"Etciù!" Alastor suddenly sneezed as he looked out at the landscape from the window of his home in Betrayal Ring. "Mh? Is someone talking about me again, by any chance?"

Chapter Text

A fanart of Raphael when he enters the story created by Kat_in_the_shell, whom I thank infinitely for the gift. Here you can find the Tumblr address if you want to see more works: https://www.tumblr.com/kat-in-the-shell?source=share

I remind all of you that anyone who wants to create fanarts of this story just has to contact me on my Tumblr page or on Discord and send it to me, and I will be happy to publish it

After Rosie had 'kindly' invited Alastor to leave the castle, the radio demon had taken up residence in one of the buildings of the distorted city. He hadn't paid much attention to which one, he'd literally picked one at random, just so he could establish some sort of headquarters. After all, he had never cared much about accommodation: even if he liked luxury and comfort, he didn't consider it essential. He knew how to be frugal when necessary.

Niffty had obviously gone with him. She didn't know what had happened between him and Rosie and she hadn't even asked herself the question: wherever Alastor went, she would have followed him. She had settled in with him in their new home, and she had created a little place of her own, similar to the dens she had created for herself at the Hazbin Hotel.

Yep, the Hazbin Hotel... honestly, she missed it. At least there she had plenty of bugs to stab to distract herself with, but in this place everything was so empty and monotonous. It was fun running up and down the distorted buildings, but after a while even she started to get a bit of a headache.

Actually, honestly speaking, she didn't really like that Ring so much.

But she obviously had no intention of expressing such thoughts out loud. Alastor wanted to stay in that Ring and his decision was all Niffty followed. Even if she didn't like it, it was her duty to obey.

She had already done enough damage because she hadn't obeyed just once, when she had done as Husk told her instead of blindly following orders as usual, and as a result Alastor had been discovered and almost killed. It had been proof that she couldn't trust anyone but him, much less her own judgment. She wasn't good at thinking, she wasn't intelligent; and as such, she had to stop trying.

In the world there were people born to think and therefore make decisions and people who were not good at it and therefore only had to obey those who thought well. She was one of the seconds, so her duty was only to annihilate all her independent thoughts and concentrate on obeying.

She had been doing it for years, after all. She had been taught how not to think and had always managed to do it well. Serve the most cruelest person she could find: this was the teaching that had been transmitted to her to the point of imprinting itself in her mind as if it had been engraved in stone. It had never been difficult for her to turn off her stupid brain and blindly follow the designated person; the only time she had ever thought at least a little was when she had to decide who was the cruelest, during that famous day many years ago.

Yet now she was having a hard time continuing to do so. It was as if something had broken in her brain and she couldn't completely turn it off like she used to. From the moment she'd seen Husk dying, she'd felt... different. And for some reason, obeying without a word was no longer easy. And she ended up doing things that went against Alastor's will in order to save Angel... until she suggested to Moxxie the solution that unmasked the radio demon.

It had been a completely alien sequence of actions to her. And what was worse was that even though she hated herself for going against orders, she couldn't truly repent. She knew she should confess the truth to Alastor and accept the punishment he decided as she deserved, but she couldn't. She didn't feel like she had done anything wrong.

She knew that what she had done was wrong... but it was as if her soul didn't perceive it as such. It was as if she didn't think she deserved punishment for that.

Think...?

No!

She didn't have to think! Never!

Her job was just to serve the evilest of all!

She existed exclusively for that. She didn't have to think.

Thinking was for intelligent people. Serving was for stupid people. She wasn't intelligent. She was stupid. She didn't have to think. She had to serve.

She didn't have to think.

She didn't have to think. 

She didn't have...

“Why did one of the soldiers tell me that you hesitated for a moment?”

"I'm sorry, sir. I won't do it again"

“You didn't answer my question. Know that you're making me unhappy. I won't give you a third chance”

"... because he ordered me to cut up the body for further examination..."

"And you...?"

"... and I didn't feel like it... it seemed to me something... inhuman, sir..."

"Do you think so, mh? Girl, do you know why you're here?"

"To serve the soldiers of this unit"

"Exactly. You were selected among numerous comfort women because you are the best at obeying orders, but from what I see you still have flaws. Your task is to obey every order of the soldiers of this unit without hesitation; you must serve them as best as possible of your possibilities. You have to clean their rooms, prepare food for them, get them alcohol, dispose of the remains of the experiments, bring food to the human guinea pigs, give them pleasure with your body if they ask for it. You just have to obey. You don't have to ask if something is right or wrong. You don't have to think. Is that clear to you?"

"Yes, sir. I won't try to think anymore"

"So? What's the rule?"

"... don't think"

"So you...?"

"I don't have to think"

"Why?"

"Because I'm not good at thinking. And people who aren't good at thinking just have to give their body and soul to those who are good at it"

"Good. If you know, then why do you keep trying to think?"

"... because I'm stupid, sir"

"I'm happy that at least you're aware of it. Luckily for you, you learn quickly. Don't worry, you just need the right training. I'll take care of it, personally... puzzling other people's brains is my specialty"

"Thank you, sir. You are too good"

"Good!? Don't ever say that! You have to serve the evilest ones, is that clear!? The people in this unit are all evil, and I'm the evilest of all! So you have to serve me! You must not feel disgust for our actions, on the contrary, you must rejoice and laugh at the more cruelty you see and do. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir. I have to serve the evilest of all"

"Good girl. Get my tools now. It's time to correct you!"

"You have to serve the evilest of all... you don't have to think... don't think... don't think... eh eh eh..." Niffty murmured while her usual laugh manic came back from her lips, drowning out what she was saying.

Meanwhile, Alastor hadn't moved from the window. He continued to stare at the distorted city below him, which seemed at once slanted and parallel to him, and sometimes even perpendicular. Even though the sight would make most people vomit, he wasn't flinching. His expression was smiling as usual, but his brow was furrowed. “So the rest of the plan is going as planned?”

A familiar voice whispered in his ear: "You don't have to worry about that. I took care of everything"

Alastor nodded. "Good. So what is my task this time?"

"Don't pretend you don't know" his master replied. "You are here to sow evil. Do it"

Alastor let out a soft sizzle from his horns. “It might take some time" he said. "Rosie protects Emily, I can't get close to her without risking her ripping out my tongue"

His master let out a light laugh of amusement. "Since when is that woman an obstacle to you? Don't make me think you're afraid of her"

"I'm not afraid of her" Alastor replied in a firm voice. "But I'm also a realist. I can't win against her, not with my powers still sealed. Of course, if you gave them back to me, then..."

Something dark wrapped itself around his neck, squeezing him tightly, like a long tail. Alastor felt his breath cut off and his neck was very close to breaking. "Don't try that again" his master warned him. "You will have your powers and freedom back when the time comes. Until then, do not ask me such ridicolous demands"

Alastor gritted his teeth and a few drops of sweat ran down his face. “That was not my intention, master” he said respectively. "What I mean is that I can't force Rosie away, and deceiving her won't be easy..."

"Whether it's easy or hard is not my problem. We both know you can do it, so do it!" his master replied with a hiss. "Or by any chance do you not want to do it out of a pathetic feeling of affection towards her? Since when do these trifles stop you?"

Alastor's fingers tightened lightly on the windowsill. "I won't let what I feel stop me" he said finally. "If your reward will be really what you claim, at least"

"Do you doubt me?" his master asked him with a singular sarcasm in his voice. "Ah, Alastor, poor Alastor... do you still think that there is something in this universe that is beyond my control? Everything that is happening and will happen soon, happens because I decided it. It is only I who pave the way and only I decide where it will lead"

Alastor was silent for a long moment. And then, his eyes glowed red and he whispered: "You're gonna lose"

His master seemed taken aback. "What?"

"It's in your nature" Alastor told him. "You won't win"

He clearly felt the grip on him becoming more intense: it was as if a clawed hand had grabbed him and was threatening to crush him. "Everything so far has gone exactly the way I wanted it to" his master growled. "My pawns are in place. Three seals are already broken. Emily and Charlie are fulfilling their roles perfectly. What is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction" was Alastor's simple response.

The clawed hand closed completely on him, and Alastor felt his very soul being crushed as if surrounded by a hydraulic press on all sides. "You insolent little deer!" his master yelled at him as he tightened his grip. “You dare speak to me like this when you yourself were unable to complete the simplest of tasks! The fact that you are now in chains under me is your fault, don't forget it! And even now you have the dare to act like you can see further than me!? In case it's not clear to you, you only exist to serve me! I thought you understood that after the last time! I have to tear you apart again to teach that stupid mouth to stay closed in my presence!?"

Alastor didn't answer him. He did not dare contradict his master, but neither did he agree with their words. He remained motionless, staring at the point in front of him, which to his eyes appeared like a dark, black mass. "Tsk" his master grumbled after a few minutes of that rant. "Your conduct continues to be very disappointing, Alastor"

Alastor didn't argue, knowing he had no chance of winning a verbal debate, especially when his master could rip out his throat in an instant; but despite this, he did not lose his defiant look. He knew that this would irritate his interlocutor even more, but he was not willing to bend any more than that.

His master let out a furious growl at seeing him so stubborn, and for a moment he looked like he was going to tear him to pieces, but then he let him go. Alastor couldn't hold back a deep breath as that grip on him ceased. "What a troublesome boy" his master commented annoyed. "Stop wasting my time and get busy. I don't care what you have to do to get closer to Emily again, but do it!"

Alastor gritted his teeth, but he nodded anyway. "Yes, master"

His master snorted. "Good. I hope to see results soon" he said, and then his presence receded and vanished as quickly as it had come.

Alastor felt the urge to smash something, but refrained for decency's sake. Instinctively he touched his neck for a few moments, and then he exclaimed: "Niffty!"

"Yes?" the cyclops maid asked immediately appearing in front of him.

Alastor leaned down to get to her eye level: "My dear, I need your help"

Niffty immediately beamed: "What do you need? Tell me now!"

Alastor was pleased to see her so eager to help him. "It's about Emily" he explained to her. "Rosie doesn't want me near her, but... she hasn't said anything about you. Can you stay close to her for a while? I'm so worried about her, I want to make sure nothing happens to her in my absence. Keep an eye on her for me, okay?”

"Yes sir!" Niffty answered him. "I won't let her out of my sight for even a moment!"

"Good girl" Alastor told her as he patted her head a few times. "Please, I want to know everything he does"

Niffty nodded vigorously, and immediately she ran away, hopping on her little legs. Alastor made a satisfied noise: luckily there were still those who knew how to obey him without saying a word.

Chapter Text

The city of Shuruppak was considered one of the most beautiful kingdoms in the known world: it was said to have been founded by one of Seth's sons, Noam, the most devoted to the arts, who had learned sculpture, painting, astronomy, botany and architecture from his father's sisters, those who had invented those beautiful things, and consequently he had built the city based on them. Shuruppak was consequently famous for its beautiful monoliths, extraordinary bas-reliefs, wonderful gardens, and much more. There were no equals to it, and travelers from all over the world came to admire it. Over time, this city had transformed into a flourishing kingdom, which together with five others (Bad-Tibira, Eridu, Larak, Larsa and Sippar, all built by Adam's best grandchildren) had formed a solid alliance that watched over the world, avoiding too bloody wars and too violent massacres, acting as guarantors of peace among the first nations.

Or at least, that was their intent. But in recent years, a new nation had emerged, a nation that had swept away everything in its path. An empire that had no rivals on Earth. It was the Empire of Babylon, whose name was the same as its terrible queen, who in a very short time had annihilated every army that had been sent against her and had razed to the ground all the glorious kingdoms that formed the alliance. By now, only Shuruppak remained, and its inhabitants knew that she would soon have come to them too.

The sentries saw her arrive in the morning, illuminated by a bloody sun: she was traveling astride a beast that resembled an elephant, but was much larger and had seven artificial tusks instead of just the two natural ones. Behind her came her army, made up of black warriors covered in iron armor covered in thorns. A flock of crows and vultures followed them, obscuring them like a black cloud, probably anticipating the imminent massacre.

Mahalalel, the king of Shuruppak, came to the walls as soon as he was warned of the arrival of the enemy army, to get an idea of ​​what he would soon find himself facing. He had heard from the few survivors of the battles that Queen Babylon was extraordinary beautiful, and he couldn't blame them: barely in her twenties, the woman had an almost exotic pale complexion, hair that seemed made of silk, and every part of her body had perfect curves. She was sitting on a golden throne atop the large elephant, surrounded by slave girls fanning her (and judging by how dehydrated they looked, they hadn't stopped for days), and she was dressed in an extremely elegant purple robe, while in her hand she held a golden cup clearly made from a human skull infused in the metal, from which she sipped wine... assuming that wasn't blood. All these elements combined could only make Queen Babylon a beauty like few had seen in the world.

However, Mahalalel was not fooled: he knew that behind that wonderful body and that magnetic gaze there was a monster pretending to be a human. Queen Babylon's cruelty was not unknown, and it was said that she could burn entire cities to ashes just for one wrong word or just because she wanted to have fun. And her greed was certainly not unknown, or the fact that she used to make slaves draw lots to eat those who lost.

The enemy army stopped directly under the walls, and the first thing Queen Babylon did was snap her fingers; at that signal, some soldiers carried large sarcophagi in front of the rows, which they opened without shame. Mahalalel couldn't help but cry out in terror as he saw that they contained hundreds of dismembered bodies, all perfectly preserved, and he couldn't blame his guards who vomited. "Don't you like it? I've already prepared your graves!" Babylon shouted at them with a wide grin. "Well, more pantries actually. You can join all those who opposed me! Don't worry, every time I'll eat a piece of you I will put the bones back in the sarcophagi, so at least your skeleton will remain intact"

Mahalalel gritted his teeth. What a monster. “Are these all the inhabitants of the cities you conquered?” he couldn't help but ask.

Babylon burst out laughing: "Of course not, I would have many more sarcophagi in that case. They're just the ones who tried to stop me. The city dwellers are still alive... what would I rule over if I killed them all? I've also been magnanimous, I even welcomed some of them to my side" she told him, then she pointed to the slave girls who were fanning her: "These sweet maidens, for example, were princesses of the last kingdom I conquered. As you can see, now they are standing next to me to me with smiles on their faces. Am I right, girls?"

The slaves clearly would have preferred to be somewhere else entirely, even in a bone cave, but they still forced themselves to show smiles. Only one, who seemed on the verge of fainting, didn't do so, but instead begged: "My lady... please... have mercy... I can't continue anymore... I'm tired...!"

"Then stop" Babylon told her without hesitation. "You can stop whenever you want, I don't force you to continue. But remember that I don't like the heat, it makes me nervous... and when I'm nervous, I get hungry. So? Didn't you want to stop?"

The poor slave started sobbing, but she didn't dare stop even though her muscles were on fire. The other girls broke out in a cold sweat hearing their lady's words and intensified their efforts to fan her even more.

Mahalalel clenched his fists. "I know your reputation as a conqueror, but you too must be tired by now. Why don't we make up and settle it here?"

"Oh, if you prefer that, that's fine" Babylon replied. "Here are my terms: I will not raze everything to the ground and turn all of you into my snacks, and in exchange you must declare unconditional surrender, open your doors to me, give me every single ounce of gold, bronze, tin, platinum or other precious metals you have in here, as well as all the sculptures, paintings, frescoes and anything that could be called precious, plus all the most beautiful men and women you have that I will make my slaves. Oh, and while we're at it, since otherwise it would all be too boring... you, my dear king, must parade before me naked with an ermine on your head and an apple in your mouth, and then I want you to take one of your daughters and commit incest with her. This will amuse me" 

"No one would ever accept conditions like that!" Mahalalel exclaimed. She was afraid of the witch queen, but she still had dignity. And he also knew that letting Babylon steal all the riches and enslave everyone was equivalent to destroying the city anyway.

The evil queen shrugged. "It's your choice, not mine" she said calmly, then she looked down at one of her soldiers: "Hey, general! Remind me, what did you do to the last city we conquered?"

The soldier immediately knelt as soon as he was called upon, and raised his voice to make himself heard: "Everything, my lady. We have burned the houses, torn down the walls, destroyed the crops, polluted the wells, blown up the bridges, plundered the plunderable, enslaved the entire population, hanged the enemy soldiers, dismembered the queen, shredded the king, killed all the ugly men and women and divided the beautiful ones among us, and finally for good measure we scattered gunpowder everywhere and undermined the entire city"

"What!? That's all!?" Babylon exclaimed, slamming her fist into her throne and making her servants jump. "Incompetent! I told you no mercy!"

The soldier trembled slightly, and immediately he lowered his head: "I ask for forgiveness, my lady! We will be more ruthless this time...!"

Babylon closed his hand into a fist, and instantly the man's neck was tightened by an invisible vice and crushed on itself, literally breaking by itself as if it were glass compressed to the maximum. He fell to the ground with a thud, and his head rolled off. "Tsk. How much I hate inefficiency" Babylon commented without the slightest empathy.

Mahalalel trembled slightly, but still he did not give in: "We will never surrender to you, beast of Hell!"

The air seemed to grow chilly. Everyone, friends and enemies, awaited the witch queen's reply. The silence became so heavy that it seemed to crush them...

But then Babylon simply nodded: "Okay. Come guys, find a place to set up a camp. Let's lay siege to the city"

Mahalalel and his soldiers were confused for a moment. “Um… what?”

"Oh, come on, who do you take me for? I don't feel like fighting right now" Babylon told him. "I've been traveling for days and these four fools aren't even good at refreshing me, I want to take a nice bath in the salts and relax properly. I'll come back tomorrow, see you later". And having said this she actually made the whole army turn around, and they went to a nearby plain and positioned their tents and palisades there.

Mahalalel narrowed his eyes, and several drops of sweat dripped from his forehead. “She's definitely faking it” he told his soldiers. "She takes us for fools. Stay alert!"

But Babylon didn't return that day, or the next day or the day after that. Her soldiers remained in camp without ever showing any signs of hostility, and their only concerns seemed to have become feeding their horses, cooking and polishing their weapons. Babylon did not even return to threaten or mock, on the contrary every day she sent a couple of heralds to demand surrender, and nothing else. According to these heralds, their queen was actually very tired after all the time spent at war and preferred to spend her days feasting and having fun with her favorite concubines rather than starting a battle, and therefore she wanted to wait the city to be consumed by hunger until it surrendered.

Mahalalel did not fear that possibility: Shuruppak had a lot of food, they could resist a siege for years, but he was sure that it was a trick. Despite this, he still made wise use of the time he had available and sent his wife and children away via a secret passage: after Babylon's threat to force him to commit incest, he preferred to prevent them from remaining in the city. His eldest son, Jared, assured him that he would lead the family to safety; Mahalalel hoped that his promise would not prove in vain. But since even days after their departure Babylon had not sent him their severed heads, he was inclined to believe that everything had gone well.

But during those weeks, something began to... change. Mahalalel had no way of noticing it, but Shuruppak seemed to become more and more violent: the citizens, certain that they would soon die at the hands of the witch queen, had begun to behave dissolutely, squandering money, stuffing themselves with food, fucking various women and men even if they were married, and obviously also giving vent to long-suppressed grudges. With guards and soldiers stationed at the walls, violence and brawls became increasingly widespread. The priests of the temples invited the citizens to show themselves pious and moderate, but they were listened to less and less until one day they were found dead and the churches looted. It was as if sin was swarming inside Shuruppak, and while Mahalalel was too busy fearing the danger outside, he didn't notice what was inside.

Finally, when the city seemed to have become a den of debauchery, word spread that Babylon would have spared them if they had simply joined her empire, and that the only one she really wanted dead was King Mahalalel; as a result, from one of the most loved and esteemed people in the city, he soon became the most hated. Those who spoke in his favor were stoned, while those who invited them to join the enemies were listened to. And so, inevitably the night came when the citizens went to open the doors and gates, and before the guards could stop them the army of Babylon had already arrived and invaded Shuruppak killing everyone in their way.

Mahalalel managed to retreat from the walls just in time before being overwhelmed by the charge, and hurriedly returned to his palace. He found it empty, and when he reached the main hall, someone was already sitting on his throne. "Hey, are you still alive?" Babylon greeted him with her usual smile, still holding the cup full of blood and her handmaidens busy fanning her.

Mahalalel was petrified as soon as he saw her: "You... how can you be here? Your army is just at the walls...!"

"Teleportation spell" Babylon answered him simply. "I've used it often in the last few days. If you want I can explain you how it works, it won't take me long"

Mahalalel barely contained his anger. "You... what did you do!? You cast a spell on my city to make us kill each other...!?"

"Oh, come on! If I had such a spell within my reach, wouldn't I have used it on your guards right away?" Babylon asked him rhetorically. "All I did was reveal the rottenness behind all the smiles and beautiful words of this city. It was enough for me to teleport inside the walls and disguise myself as a handmaid, or a beggar, or a servant... a word here, a suggestion there... and in an instant, thanks to the fear of death and the fact that all the soldiers were too busy to patrol the streets, all the citizens let themselves go to their instincts. And now that their souls are enough rotten ones, I can harvest them easily"

"What are you talking about!?" Mahalalel exclaimed, not understanding the last part.

"Think about it: do you think I can be stopped by a wall? I entered and exited your city at will, do you think my powers can be stopped by a bit of rock? I could have conquered the city from day one" Babylon replied to him. "But that's not what I'm interested in. I'm interested in the souls of the people I kill. I want to make sure that as many of them end up straight in Hell, ready for my master to take and increase his power. That's why I always try to make a city fall into sin before I destroy it. And now I've done it, so... I can afford to tear this place to pieces and take your head"

Mahalalel gritted his teeth in fury. His grip on the sword tightened. "You... you disgusting monster!" he hissed. "I will kill you and avenge..."

"Oh, please, no, don't start that" Babylon stopped him immediately.

Mahalalel was taken aback by that interruption. "What?"

"I can't stand this stupid heroic speeches anymore" Babylon told him in a bored voice. "Seriously, I've heard hundreds of them by now. At first it was funny, but after the first thirty they're all fucking the same! It's always 'blah blah blah tyrant blah blah blah revenge blah blah blah Babylon stop killing'! I have better things to do than spend my day here listening to you talk nonsense while pretending to be at least a little interested in what you're saying. Come on, you don't want to give a twenty minute speech either, admit it"

Mahalalel's eyelid trembled: "You... are you serious...!?"

"Absolutely yes" Babylon replied with a smile. "Look, why don't we move on? Let's go straight to the part where you kneel down in terror and scream: 'no, no, please, have mercy, I have wife and children!' and all that other bullshit. That'll make me laugh at least"

Mahalalel looked like he was about to explode. "You filthy bastard...!"

"See? Everyone's the same! I've heard that phrase at least fifty times by now" Babylon replied with a smirk. “Really, you guys need to be more creative”

That display of total indifference was the last straw: Mahalalel let out a roar and lunged at her, raising his sword to strike her. Babylon didn't move an inch, but on the contrary opened her eyes wider and her pupils became red like blood. As soon as this happened, Mahalalel's legs exploded, staining the floor with his blood and causing him to fall onto his face.

Despite the macabre sight, Babylon didn't bat an eye; her slaves trembled, but did not even dare to make a sound or stop fanning her. The cruel queen stretched and finally rose from the throne, and went to the dying king, who still in spite of pain and fatigue was holding his sword aloft. "Oh, you want to give it to me? How nice" she said, taking the sword by the tip and snatching it from his hands, and swinging it in the air as if it were a toy. "Thanks, this is really a good gift. You don't mind if I try it right away, do you?"

And having said this she lifted it with both hands to use it directly on Mahalalel's head, but suddenly he took advantage of her proximity to grab her by the legs, holding her still. "Not so fast!" he screamed. "You will come with me to the afterlife, servant of evil!"

"Huh? What...?" Babylon muttered, but suddenly the tents around them tore apart, revealing more hidden warriors with bows already raised and mounted. She growled and tried to cast a spell again, but found that her hands were no longer leaving the sword's hilt, blocking them. Furious and perhaps even a little scared, she quickly moved her head to strike all the archers with her evil gaze and explode them as she had done to Mahalalel, and she actually managed to kill a couple of them, but the others sent their arrows flying at her. The dying king tightened his grip on her legs to prevent her from trying to dodge and escape, and so the arrows pierced her entire body, sending blood dripping onto the floor.

Babylon made a muffled noise, and she looked down at Mahalalel, who was looking at her triumphantly despite nearly fainting from blood loss. "I'm going to die today, but at least you'll die too" he told her. "It's over!"

And having said this, with his last strength he stretched out his hands and grabbed her arms, and pushed violently downwards, with the result that the sword stuck straight into her chest, piercing her through and through; Babylon trembled and spat blood, and Mahalalel, using the hilt of the weapon as a counterweight, raised himself even more until he was close to her face and pulled out a knife, which he stuck straight into her right eye, penetrating all the way to her brain. Babylon gave just a couple of spasms, and then she fell backwards onto the floor, and never moved again.

Mahalalel made a noise of triumph and did not suppress a smile; he was dying, he knew that no doctor could fix him now, but at least he had killed that monster in human disguise. Now, even if with some difficulty, Shuruppak would have had the chance to recover. Without that cruel woman around, Jared could have returned to reclaim the throne and restore order to the kingdom and the rest of the world.

His soldiers rushed immediately as soon as Babylon was dead, and relieved him; then, for good measure, they cut her to pieces with axes and swords, to make sure she didn't come back to life. Having done this using the torn curtains they attempted to stop the blood loss, even though it was obvious to everyone that it was a lost cause. "Hold on, sire. We can still save you. We will find a healer..."

"It's useless" Mahalalel murmured, now dying. "Nothing can save me now..."

"My lord, don't give up!" his soldiers cheered him on. "You have defeated that evil witch, you can also win over your wounds! Resist!"

Mahalalel was barely breathing and his vision was starting to blur. By now his soul was in the hands of God, he could only rely on him. With his last strength he prayed that Jared would return to Shuruppak soon, and that peace would have returned and reigned long...

"I admit it, it was a good plan"

Everyone froze as they heard that familiar sinister voice. Mahalalel looked at the pieces of Babylon's body, which dissolved into a black mass that melted into the floor, and then merged into a sort of shadow that crawled towards the throne; there the witch reappeared as if she had come out of nowhere, and the shadow reattached itself to her feet. "Unfortunately for you, I'm an arrogant and a bitch... but not enough to get close to a not-yet-dead king" she told him with a smirk.

The soldiers were scared and tried to react, but Babylon barely moved her hand and the blood on the floor instantly turned into blades that stuck into their bodies, killing them all. “Honestly, I didn't expect you to use yourself as bait” Babylon said, and the sword on the floor flew towards her, hovering in front of her face, the hilt showing nicely. "A rune of constraint, mh? Anyone who picks up this sword cannot let go, unless the sword is forcibly torn from their hand. Very clever... you knew I couldn't resist teasing you, so you let yourself be mortally wounded and tricked me into taking the sword from you, and in doing so you restrained my hands, and thus prevented me from doing very complex spells... enough for your archers to be able to hit me. Brilliant, I can't help but congratulate you". Her smile widened wickedly: "Unfortunately for you, I am now experienced with last-minute dirty tricks. A simple illusion spell is all it took for me to escape your beautiful trap. You would have noticed if you had looked at the throne even once... my sweet maids continued to fan an empty seat"

Mahalalel hissed in anger and desperation. "You... you motherfucker... you fooled me...!"

"Well, you fooled me, so... we're even" Babylon replied, then she snapped her fingers; the blood in the room condensed into chains that took Mahalalel by the wrists and dragged him towards the throne, preventing him any movement. "Any last words?"

“F-Fuck you” Mahalalel whispered with what little energy he had left.

"You're still acting bold, hm?" Babylon told him, and then her grin widened: "Well, you know what? I really think I'll avoid conquering something for once. On the contrary I'll raze the whole city to the ground, it'll be more fun!"

Mahalalel opened his eyes wide and closed his hands into fists: "Don't you dare...!"

"Oh, I'll definitely dare" Babylon replied. "I think I'll set fire to everything and have a nice barbecue with all the citizens, and then, when I've had my fill, I'll go look for any survivors. Your children are among those who escaped, right?"

Mahalalel froze as he heard her say those words. Babylon chuckled as he saw him so tense: "What, did you think I didn't know that you have let them go? After I'm done here I'll go look for them. I have to decide carefully what to do with them, but I think I'll at least gouge out their eyes and use their guts to make strings for musical instruments... no, even better: I'll use the bodies of your sons to make such musical instruments, and then I'll make your daughters play them until their fingers fall off and their arm muscles tear apart! I still have to decide which means of torture to use to make them play music non-stop, even if I could just put a spell on them... well, I'll decide along the way. I have several options after all. Do you think your eldest son's skin is good for a drum?"

"NO!" Mahalalel couldn't stop himself from screaming. "No... please...!"

"AH! See? I told you it would have ended with you begging, we might as well skip everything else!" Babylon said with a big laugh. "This is always the best part... but all this movement has made me hungry, so let's hurry"

And with that she raises her hand and pierces his chest effortlessly, and with a yank she tears out his heart, but she leaves it attached to his body via veins and arteries. Mahalalel made muffled noises, and watched in horror as Babylon opened her mouth wide and began to eat his own heart as if it were a succulent dish. Of course, as soon as she finished devouring it, he died since he no longer had one of his key organs.

Her maids trembled as they watched her continue to open the dead king's body and extract his entrails and put them in her mouth. Babylon always behaved in an elegant and refined manner, but every time she ate human flesh she seemed to transform into a ravenous beast. It was as if there was a never-satiated monster inside her that demanded to be constantly fed. In those moments, the queen so beautiful and perfect became so animalistic that no one would have been surprised if she suddenly grew claws, tail and fangs and started walking on all fours.

"Mh. I still say women's meat is better" Babylon muttered as she chewed on Mahalalel's stomach. "Maybe it's because of the extra layer of fat they have for pregnancy? Well, I just know that their flesh is less stringy than that of men. And don't say it's sexist because I'm a woman too! What do you think?"

Her maidens became so white that their faces seemed to be made of flour. "We... we don't know, my lady..." one of them, probably the one who had the most courage of all, murmured in a faint voice.

"What a shame. Well, let's fix it right away" Babylon told her, and tore an arm off Mahalalel's corpse: "Here, taste it"

The poor maid almost fainted. "No... please, my lady...!"

"If you can eat it all, you can stop fanning me. And I'll also give you new clothes and a less demanding job, and a good bed to finally sleep on" Babylon told her with a falsely innocent smile. "Come on, it won't be that hard. You want to fill your belly too, right?"

Babylon did not usually worry about the well-being of her servants, and in addition to not giving them even a moment's rest, she did not allow them much food apart from a few apple cores and pear peels. The poor handmaid to whom she was handing her severed arm couldn't help but salivate as she looked at it, even though it disgusted her. Her poor insides were screaming for at least an ounce of food.

Babylon gently grabbed her and pulled her towards her, bringing her face closer to hers; she suddenly seemed to have become extremely sweet. Her smile was almost magnetic. “I know you want it" she said, caressing her like a loving mother. "Come on, what does it cost you? This fool is already dead. You can take whatever you want from him. Do you think about it? A full belly, a comfortable bed, no longer having to spend all day here waving that fan until your bones break... don't you want that?"

The handmaid wanted to resist, but her willpower broke completely as Babylon listed how beautiful the reward would have been. After all, one bad deed wasn't that bad, right? She would have had time to regret it later...

In the end she no longer hesitated; she took the severed arm and gave it a hard bite, swallowing the flesh. She felt like throwing up, but she resisted, knowing that her owner would gouge her eyes out if she dared to do so. But despite the disgust, her stomach still celebrated receiving the food, which made the second bite much easier. And then the third, and the fourth. Eventually, she found herself eating the severed arm as if it were no different from an ordinary piece of bread.

"See? It's not bad" Babylon said, giving her a few gentle pats on the head, and then she cut off more pieces and threw them to the other handmaids: "Come on, you too. Remember, the reward is great; in light of this, who cares about morality?"

One after another, all her handmaids gave in and began to eat human flesh. Babylon watched with pleasure as they went from swallowing mouthfuls with difficulty to eating heartily. She grabbed Mahalalel's head and tore it off, keeping it for herself, and then she dropped the body to the ground. “Don't eat while standing” she told them. "Relax your poor muscles. You're at a banquet, behave accordingly. It's all yours"

And almost as if it were natural to do so, the four maids lay down at the foot of the throne, finally resting their tired bodies, and began tearing pieces from the corpse as if they were taking food from plates. They looked just like diners at a banquet, and the more they continued, the less tense and much more relaxed the way they ate became.

Babylon let them do it, and in the meantime she opened Mahalalel's head and poured his blood and brain fluid into her golden cup, and began to sip it with pleasure. She waited until the handmaids had had their fill, and then she got up and went to each of them, and like a loving mother she wiped their faces with a handkerchief. "You are too uncivilized, learn good table manners" she reproached them, without however losing her sweet tone. "Next time don't throw yourself on the corpse like that, eating as much as you can. Food tastes better when you enjoy it calmly. You will learn"

The handmaids nodded sadly. Babylon knew that in their hearts they were thinking that what they had just done was reprehensible and were making excuses for their behavior, promising themselves that they would not do it again. Fools... once you tasted blood, there was no going back. "Well, don't stay there. Go to sleep" Babylon told them, and with a snap of her fingers four beds made up of extremely soft mattresses and pillows that looked like they were made of clouds flew into the room. The handmaids looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged: "I keep my promises, and then... I've punished you enough for your arrogance, I'm sure you've learned your lesson now. Go to sleep, you don't have to work anymore. Get at least twelve good hours of sleep, and tomorrow I'll give you less onerous tasks to do"

And again the maids immediately obeyed her, and went and lay down on the beds, falling asleep at once; they could finally recover from all the tiredness. Babylon smiled evilly as she saw them smile so placidly in their sleep even though they still had blood on their hands. "Well, at least they have some potential" she commented satisfied, going back to drinking from her golden cup.

"Really, Rosie? These old tricks?"

Babylon's eyes widened and she almost spat out the blood she was drinking, and she looked down at Mahalalel's severed head, which had come to life and now had golden eyes. "Master!" she exclaimed, bowing immediately.

The blood in the room condensed and formed a magical circle beneath the severed head, and after a quick flash of crimson light what looked like liquid shadow emerged from Mahalalel's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, coming together to form a tall, powerful demon with curved horns. “Use a psychological trick to lead your servants into sin?” Cain said sitting on the throne. "A little boring, but still effective"

"They're promising" Babylon told him without raising his head. "In less than a week these modest princesses will abandon themselves completely to the pleasure of sin. I will transform them into new agents of chaos who will contribute even more to the spread of evil, as I did with all their predecessors"

Cain let out a satisfied chuckle. "You're always so bold" he said to her, then he clapped a hand on his leg: "You know I don't like too many formalities. Don't stay there kneeling, come here"

Babylon didn't have to be told again: she immediately stood up and went to sit on her master's lap, just like she did when she was a child. "I really spoil you too much" he told her as he stroked her head. "But you deserve these privileges. You took the last free kingdom of humans, after all"

"For you, I would do this and more" Babylon replied enjoying all that attention. "Now this city is already corrupt to its core. Under the command of my empire, within a decade at most it will be a den of depravity, just like all the others. A field that will produce impure souls that will all be yours, master"

"Truly wonderful. I knew you were destined for greatness" Cain told her. "No other of my servants has ever managed to give me so many souls. Through you, my army is growing rapidly"

"All thanks to your teachings and directives, master" Babylon replied.

"Nonsense. Take your credit for once" Cain told her, and then he sobered: "Be that as it may, now that this last mighty kingdom has fallen, there's no need for you to go around conquering anymore"

Babylon looked at him in surprise: "Why, master?"

"An empire that is too large is impossible to maintain stable" Cain replied. "You must focus on consolidating your power now, not expanding it further. The remaining nations pose no danger to you: ask for their vassalage and keep them independent, limiting yourself to asking them to favor... certain activities in their territory, such as valorizing brothels or gambling clubs. After all, don't forget that your task is not to conquer the world, but to increase the ranks of my army"

Babylon understood well and realized that her master, as usual, was right. "In that case, I will build a capital and settle there, and let my agents of chaos bring discord to the rest of the world. And I will order all the other kings to burn the holy books and renounce faith in God, so as to lead the people even further away from the right path. I will turn my empire into the kingdom of sin, and I will make the other nations follow me"

"Good, I see you understand" Cain told her satisfied. "Samyaza and Azazel will lend you a hand. Their influence has spread far, and now, without the six great righteous kingdoms and with your empire inviting debauchery, they will find the path much easier. They have already told me that they intend to come to thank you, and will give you some of their Nephilim as a gift of friendship"

"Oh? Those two renegade angels finally decide to introduce themselves to me?" Babylon asked in a pissed off voice.

"You know how proud they are, apparently it's a common flaw in angels. But after all you've done, they'll put that pride aside" Cain told her.

"Tsk! It's enough for me that they don't do any damage. If I had their ability to create monsters, I would certainly already have an efficient army, contrary to those two!" Babylon grumbled.

Cain burst out laughing. "Ah, I love it when you're so angry" he said, shaking her cheeks. "Try to get along with those two. After all, you have the same interests. They want to fill the world with their lineage, you want to give me as many souls as possible; you will be more efficient together"

"Mh" Babylon answered him simply.

Cain's eyes became fierce: "Rosie, don't test my patience. Woe betide you if you cause trouble with my allies"

Babylon immediately lowered her head in shame: "Yes, master"

Cain let out a loud snort. "Don't forget that those two angels are the only reason why no angel has tried to kill you yet. The truce with Heaven is based on these delicate balances. If you break these important agreements, I will make you regret it for eternity"

Babylon nodded. She knew that although her name was spoken with fear and respect among all human nations, she was actually just a big fish in a small puddle. There were forces much more powerful than her at play. Samyaza and Azazel were Cain's allies, and thus watched over her in his behalf; if an angel had dared to try to kill her, they would have intervened. And if anyone hurt them, then it would have been war with Hell. And going to war with Hell also meant risking Lucifer's intervention, so even with warriors like Michael at its disposal, Heaven was reluctant to act. If this hadn't been the case, some angel would have already come down to kill Babylon a long time ago given all the mess she was making on Earth.

Just then reality seemed to distort slightly, and a portal opened before them. Cain let out a grunt: "You speak of the devil... or rather, the angel"

An angel dressed in gray and black armor, with large gray and white wings and a black halo on his head emerged from the portal. "Cain, why are you on Earth again!?" he growled.

"Abel, dear brother" Cain greeted him. “Do you want to join us?”

The angel raised his sword towards him: "The agreement was that you would never return to this planet" he reminded him.

"No, the agreement was that I wouldn't do any more damage or make any more deals with living humans. I know you're shitting yourselves at the thought of me finding someone else like her, but I doubt that will ever happen" Cain replied, stroking Babylon's chin. "I didn't do anything wrong, I just came here and sat down. Do you want to scold me for wanting to meet my favorite apprentice?"

Abel's eyes trembled. "Go back to Hell" he ordered. "You've already done enough damage on Earth. Get out of here!"

"Oh, seriously? Are you so afraid of him that you don't even want him to come and say hello?" Babylon told him with a laugh, clinging tighter to her master's neck.

"It's your fault, Rosie" Cain told her, petting her as if she were a kitten. "You're too efficient. Since my last contract on Earth was so impactful, they decided to impose a few more restrictions on me"

Abel did not react to the provocation. "Go back to Hell" he repeated to his brother.

Cain gritted his teeth, and stood up, holding Babylon's hips with one hand. "Or?" he asked walking towards him. "Do you want to face me, brother? Let's start the war? Do you think that just because they now give you a sword and the title of leader of the Exorcists, that makes me fearful of you? I don't mind killing you a second time, you know that"

"I know. And I'm not just skewering you out of respect for our parents" Abel warned. "Go back to Hell. I won't tell you again"

The two brothers stared at each other intently for a long moment longer, and then finally Cain shrugged. "Ah, okay. I'm not risking open war just because of a personal grudge. I'll have time to kill you when we start the real dancing" he replied, and then he placed Babylon on the ground: "My beloved Rosie, I'm afraid we'll only see each other again in the afterlife. You have to fend for yourself from now on... it won't be a problem, you've learned well by now"

Babylon took on a heartbroken expression: "I will look forward to the day of my death to be reunited with you, master" she told him.

"Live as long as you can, you're too good at your job to die early. I can wait for you... and all the souls you bring me" Cain told her with a sneer.

Babylon lowered his head respectfully: "I will not disappoint you, master"

“I know" Cain replied, and then he turned back to Abel: “I would like to say it's nice to see you again, but it never is. Don't touch my Rosie while I'm gone”. And having said this he turned back into liquid shadow and seemed to disappear into the floor.

Abel looked at Babylon, who gave him a cheeky smile: "You heard your big brother. I know I'm beautiful, but you can't enjoy me"

In response, Abel turned disdainfully and disappeared through the portal again.

Left alone, Babylon sat back on her throne and let out a dissatisfied grunt. It was the first time Cain had returned to her in three years, and as soon as he came he had to leave immediately. But in fact, she now knew what she had to do: he had suggested to her the behavior she should have on Earth so as to collect the highest number of souls possible. He had probably foreseen that he would have been kicked out like that and had waited for her to conquer Shuruppak precisely to bring her those orders before being permanently banished. As expected from him.

Babylon stretched. Well, she would have followed his directions well. The angels would have soon discovered that banishing Cain from Earth wasn't enough to prevent him from growing stronger.

It seemed like she had a lot of work ahead of her, but luckily she had a lot of fun doing those things, and she couldn't wait to cause other souls to fall into perdition. She looked at the sleeping maids, already anticipating what she would have made them do as soon as they woke up. She certainly wouldn't have let them go easily.

"... and so I was like 'get that bug!' and it was all 'no, I don't want you to kill me!', so I took a needle and..." Niffty was narrating, but then she stopped: "Cookie lady, are you listening to me?"

Rosie jumped slightly, coming out of what seemed like a trance-like state. “Oh, sorry… I was thinking"

"To what?" Niffty asked innocently.

Rosie shook her head. Since early that morning Niffty had been returning to the castle and talking to her non-stop in her usual feverish manner, and perhaps this had sent her brain a little haywire. "Forget it, I just remembered some memories" she replied, and then she noticed something: "Oh, Frank, you're here. Where's Emily?"

The little egg was walking alone down the hall, something he only did when he was without his boss. But as far as Rosie knew, Emily had already returned from her training. "The boss said she wants to be alone in the room" Frank answered. "And she ordered me to move some ornaments"

Rosie frowned. There was something strange. "Okay, I understand. I let you work then" she told him, and then she got up and headed towards Emily's room, with Niffty in tow who clung to her left leg to keep up with her.

Chapter Text

“So there are some people who actually want to build a more egalitarian Hell?” Emily exclaimed in amazement.

Stryker grinned with satisfaction. "It is so, my lady. It seems that these people know exactly what they want and are ready to do it"

Stryker had continued to train with Blitz during those days and, above all, to spy on him to glean as much information as possible; and since Blitz contacted his friends every three hours and had them explain what was happening in great detail, Stryker knew everything too. He had been very pleased with everything he had heard, and of course he had immediately reported it to Emily as soon as he heard it. He was sure his new boss would really appreciate that information.

Emily had become better at using the connection she had created between her and Stryker: now she not only heard his voice in her head but could project his image in front of her as if he were a hologram. By altering the reality around her she could force the light particles several kilometers away to appear and conform in front of her to create the figure of Stryker so she could look into his eyes. "Mh. This is... positive, apparently" she commented, thinking carefully. "It's obvious that someone probably hopes to receive a profit from it, Angel's brother himself wanted so... but if in the meantime they guarantee the birth of a more fair and supportive political system, this would be an extraordinary victory for Hell"

Emily knew that what these people were setting themselves was an extremely difficult goal: eradicating thousands of years of classism would have been a hopeless undertaking even if everyone was on the same level of strength, let alone when the clash was between a demon barely older than stronger than a human and one capable of lifting castles with one finger. Eradicating the old political system was something very serious and difficult, and Emily wouldn't have been surprised if it led to a civil war... but if what Angel heard was exactly what those people were aiming to do, then there was a hope.

Those guys didn't seem inclined to cause a real clash, but more to weaken their opponents and exploit the favorable political position to turn the situation in their favor. The plan they had studied to subdue the overlords in the Pride Ring was absolutely non-violent and if carried out well could lead to an absolute victory. Emily still didn't know what those people planned to do against the Ars Goetia or the Deadly Sins, who were much more dangerous than the overlords, but if their modus operandi was really to follow the least violent path possible (and in fact, it was the only advantageous path for them, given that following violence they would probably have been massacred) then she was inclined to place her trust in them.

She tried to come back down to earth. She couldn't rush too much, she had to think carefully before acting. "Okay, continue to monitor the situation" she told Stryker. “Tell me any new details you discover”

"I will" the rattlesnake imp confirmed immediately.

Emily narrowed her eyes. "In any case, it's best to prepare for the worst case scenario. If for some reason something goes wrong, thousands of people could be injured, or worse die" she mused; after all, those people were playing with powerful demons who could kill anyone with a spit, a single miscalculation could have been fatal for thousands of revolutionaries. "Stryker, you must learn to use the powers of the red horseman as soon as possible. In case the situation worsens, someone will be needed to defend those people"

While the demons were powerful, none of them were as powerful as the horsemen Roo sired. Blitz had been able to hold his own and defeat Rosie, who was stronger than even Satan. And since the red horseman was even more powerful than the white one, if Stryker controlled him it would have been easy for him to protect the people from any rampaging noble demon.

Stryker nodded. "I fully understand, my lady. I will do my best" he assured her with a grin. He too had come to the same conclusion, and even though those people planned to use as little violence as possible, he was sure that he would soon have had the chance to kill some Ars Goetia. He was thrilled with joy just thinking about it.

"Also try to get Blitz to control the situation" Emily added. "Two horsemen are better than one. I know there's bad blood between you two, but make him feel like he has to keep an eye on things. I'm sure he won't let thousands of people get killed, and if he'll see something dangerous he will intervene. He already has control... well, more or less... of the white horseman, so he can intervene if you can't"

"There won't be a need, I'll be ready when the time comes" Stryker assured her, though deep down he too agreed that getting Blitz to keep an eye on the situation was a good idea. Like Emily had said, two were better than one.

Stryker knew that Blitz wouldn't have stood by if the situation turned violent. He had too many loved ones to care for, and letting Hell descend into civil war was putting them all in danger. If the nobles started persecuting the civilian population, he would have surely intervened to protect that hellhound he called daughter or one of his retarded friends. The problem was that Stryker knew that Blitz also had affections among the Ars Goetia, and therefore it was likely that he would have preferred to simply stop the hostilities, acting as a wall between the two sides, rather than kill the nobles. This clearly presented an obstacle, because he and Stryker could end up in conflict at the wrong time.

But maybe he could find a compromise. After all, Blitz had never had any qualms about killing anyone who posed a risk to the people he loved, regardless of who they were. If Stryker had used the situation well to convince him that the nobles were too great a danger for the common people, and therefore for Loona, Blitz would have been much more inclined to kill them. It would have been enough to accept that every now and then he would have spared some nobles because they were deemed important to his friends or worthy of the role... Stryker could be satisfied with that. After all, they were only talking about a handful of people, like that Stolas or his offspring; Stryker could leave them alive until Hell was totally reformed and kill them only after that, when he would no longer have had any reason to hide from Blitz that he too had a horseman inside him. It would have been the perfect scenario: first kill Stolas, the last remaining Goetia, and then start one final duel. Just him and Blitz, no external interference: a last battle that would have decided who among them was truly the strongest.

Yes, Stryker liked that scenario. Indeed, it was exactly what he aspired to. It would have been the perfect ending to the contest between him and his rival.

"I will make sure not to miss a single detail of everything that happens" Stryker assured Emily. "Do I have your permission to intervene if I see things going badly?"

Emily considered it. "Well... the plan those people have for the overlords is pretty good, I doubt there will be any bloodshed... and since Charlie knows about this too, she will definitely take precautions as well. I don't think there will be any need of you" she said. "But... if any mess should happen in the future... go ahead and intervene. But only after you have the red horseman under your total control!"

Stryker and Blitz were the only two in all of Hell, probably even in all of the universe, with both demonic and angelic bodies, and thus capable of trapping Roo's horsemen. Even though Emily could block those creatures with her powers, she hadn't yet figured out how to erase them or even overwrite their directives, if that could be done, and so having another person act as your guardian was definitely better. As a result, she couldn't risk Stryker going into battle without the red horseman's powers and dying... although, now that she thought about it, she could just resurrect him. Would have he retained his angelic power then? Still better not to risk it.

"Anyway, what does Charlie think about this?" Emily asked, remembering that she hadn't asked about her sister's opinion yet. "Does she want to support them or... stop them?"

Stryker shrugged: "Unfortunately, I have no knowledge of this. I will try to investigate"

Well, it was understandable: Charlie certainly wouldn't have made that decision right away, let alone lightly. It was a decision that could change a millennia-old system and cause chaos and potentially civil war. It wasn't strange that she was cautious.

Maybe, Emily found herself wondering, she should talk to her again? Push her to make the right choice and support the weak? But in doing so she would have had to confess to her how she knew everything, and that she had hidden someone close to her to monitor the situation...

No, that wasn't a good idea. And then, Emily had promised herself to interfere as little as possible, and even a small advice could be considered interference. The best choice was to trust her sister and let her handle this situation, and just give her some help through Stryker every now and then.

But maybe she could have altered reality in her mind to make her have an inspiring dream...

Okay, she had to stop thinking about it. "You can go. Let me know as soon as you know anything"

"Yes, my lady" Stryker replied, bowing his head slightly, and Emily immediately severed their connection, making his image and voice disappear.

The young seraph stood up and stretched. Well, it sure looked like there were some complicated new things on the horizon. She was right to warn Charlie that she was fine and not to look for her... her sister definitely had too many other things to think about. She hoped that everything was going well.

A cough caught her attention, and she turned, realizing that Rosie was leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed and Niffty clinging to her leg. "Uh... hi" Emily told her. "I'm not sure what you heard..."

"I heard it all" Rosie told her, frowning. "You didn't tell me that you had a henchman spy on your sister"

Emily turned red with embarrassment. "He's not... spying on her" she tried to justify herself. "Stryker only serves to... keep an eye on the situation and intervene if necessary"

Rosie cocked her head to the side. "Call it what you like, even 'mandolin' if you like, but it's still spying" she pointed out in a reproachful voice.

Emily turned even redder. Maybe it was because Rosie was over forty times her age, or because she spoke every time like a woman with a lot of experience (which in fact she had), or because she looked like a lady, but she felt quite embarrassed to be scolded in that way from her. She felt like she was a kindergarten girl standing in front of her angry teacher. "I just want to make sure everything is okay up there" she continued to try to explain. "I mean... I'm closed down here without connections to the outside, there's not even a television... having someone up there who tells me what's happening makes me sleep peacefully, I don't have to be afraid that something will happen in my absence"

"You can know what's going on without spying on anyone" Rosie told her. “You can just open a portal and talk to your friends”

"Yes, but... you know how I feel, it's better if I don't... let them see me now... too many emotions, it's not a good idea" Emily replied. "And then that would mean I wouldn't know what was happening for hours on end... having someone constantly there who can warn me at any time is safer..."

"You mean like it is safe to give an absolute power to a guy you barely know?" Rosie asked her in a much firmer tone than before.

"Hey! I remind you that if I left that red horseman around, he would kill you!" Emily told her a little angrily. "And it's not my fault that Stryker was the only body available in all of Hell. And then he won't betray me... he knows it's not convenient for him. He's not stupid enough to go against me, I could erase him with a snap of my fingers"

"Yeah..." Rosie commented in a strange tone of voice. "That's exactly the problem"

Emily raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Rosie let out a deep sigh. "Do you think being able to erase someone with a snap of your fingers gives you the right to do whatever you want? Even spy on your own sister?"

Emily's face turned bright red, and she didn't know whether it was from shame or anger. "W-Well, Charlie imprisoned her own sister, so we're even!" she replied. "Now enough about these trifles! Rather, Niffty, we haven't seen each other in a while. It's nice to have you back here"

Rosie wasn't at all happy that Emily had changed the subject, but before she could scold her again she took Niffty bodily and started talking exclusively to her, totally ignoring the cannibal overlord: "How are you settling in? If you want to go back up to the others, I can take you there"

"No, no!" Niffty answered her with a wide smile. “I have to stay here with the smiling boss!”

"Okay" Emily told her. "But don't you want to see Angel and the others again...?"

Niffty shrugged. "My place is with the smiling boss!"

Emily widened her eyes a little. "Her allegiance towards Alastor is truly bordering on the absurd" she couldn't help herself from commenting, and then she looked at Rosie: "Do you know why she's so devoted?"

The cannibal overlord shook her head in disappointment. "Seriously? Are you really trying to avoid the conversation like that?"

Emily didn't meet her gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about"

Rosie sighed and turned, walking out the door. "A piece of advice, girl: you've got some serious soul searching to do. Trust me, you should do it now and not later". And having said that she closed the door behind her.

Emily blushed again, but still shook her head and ignored the words. Rosie was speaking without understanding, she would have explained her better another time. “Is the cookie lady angry?” Niffty asked innocently.

"Nah, he just needs some time" Emily replied, then she winked at her: "Look... do you want to spend some time together? I'd like to drink some tea"

"I'll prepare it right away!" Niffty responded promptly, getting right to work. Emily didn't repress a smile at seeing her so industrious: even if it hurt her a little, seeing the little cyclops waitress move frantically gave her the impression of being back at the Hazbin Hotel.

Chapter Text

Sera and Lucifer had remained in the celestial embassy the entire time since Charlie had ordered them to go there. She had promised to contact them if Emily showed up again, and since that hadn't happened, they could only conclude that that wasn't the case. So they sat there, waiting, trying to kill time as best they could.

They had hardly spoken since the last time. Lucifer had barely even looked at Sera... and she hadn't even tried to change his mind. In fact, they could tell that she had no desire to have that discussion. She had much preferred that absence of words that Lucifer was involuntarily guaranteeing her.

However, they could not remain silent forever. There were issues that needed to be talked about. "What do you think they're doing up there?" Sera asked Lucifer while looking at the ceiling of the celestial embassy. "Raphael's been back up there for days now. We should have at least gotten a response"

Lucifer shrugged. He too wasn't sure what the strange silence meant. "Well... you know how they are, sometimes they need a long time to decide" he answered. "I'm sure they will contact us sooner or later"

But he too wasn't actually very convinced. Even though Raphael had promised not to tell the Heavenly Council all the mess that had happened in Hell, he had certainly reported that Sera was there and especially what had happened between Adam and Abaddon. It was strange that no one had at least told them not to worry, or asked for further information.

Just then the tower's instruments lit up, signaling the approach of a large amount of angelic energy. Both Lucifer and Sera stood up, and saw a portal open before them. Six familiar huge wings emerged from it. “I came as soon as I could!” Michael exclaimed as he emerged from it, and then he grabbed Sera and pulled her into a hug: "You're fine, thank goodness... we thought something had happened to you!"

Sera was surprised (more by Michael's arrival than by the actual hug, since she was used to his behavior), but nevertheless recovered quickly: "Hey... hi, Michael..."

"You took your time" Lucifer said reproachfully.

"I was stuck up there for a while. We had... a lot to discuss" Michael replied, and then he looked at Sera again: "I'm happy to see you again. Is moving to Hell a family vice now?"

Despite the joking tone, Sera still blushed. “It's…complicated” she murmured. "So... Raphael told you guys everything...?"

"Everything you told her, yes. We're trying to look into it" Michael replied. "Don't worry, no one is surprised that you want to stay here now that a prince of Heaven has attacked you. Abaddon... I would never have guessed it. So no one wants to scold you if you prefer to stay away from Heaven for a while... although Uriel will probably come here for a your further testimony"

It was understandable; in reality, it was only a matter of time before this happened. Raphael had learned from Sera about the mysterious shadow that had attacked her and possible conspiring angels in Heaven, so the entire Heavenly Council knew about it by now. With everything that was going on, it was obvious that their main concern wasn't worrying that there was a high-ranking angel roaming around Hell; indeed, considering the situation, it was technically safer for Sera to stay in the dark realm rather than in Heaven.

Michael crossed his arms: "So, how are you? Tell me the truth. You don't know how worried I was..."

Sera couldn't help but smile. "I know. Thanks, Michael, but I'm fine now"

"Are you sure? It's not every day you get imprisoned by a mysterious assailant" Michael told her anxiously.

Sera shrugged. "I'm just a little stressed" she replied. "Nothing too serious. I'm still on track"

"I'm happy about it!" Michael said jovially, then he looked at Lucifer: "Hey, little brother! How's my niece?"

"I'm not your little brother!" Lucifer snapped irritably.

And for once Michael didn't react in an idiotic way: "Look, I'm speaking seriously! How is she? And Emily? Have you found her?"

Lucifer let out a sigh. “So you really know everything that happened down here”

"Of course. I covered for Charlie here in Heaven while she put her plan into action. She warned me in advance" Michael explained to them, even though everyone already knew. "Raphael secretly told me everything that happened here, and although I'm happy to know that at least the plan ended well, I know that you still have many problems... I was hoping that something had been resolved in these days"

Sera sighed. "Well... we know where Emily is, even if she prefers to be alone for a bit at the moment" she said. “As for Charlie… well, she's tired, but last time I saw her she seemed to have regained her determination and confidence, so… I take it she's okay?”

Michael looked a little tense. He was pretty sure the situation was much more problematic than Sera was trying to make light of. "Well, at least you know where Emily is. What is…?"

"What is she doing? I would really like to know" Lucifer blurted out with a grunt. "My girls are always unpredictable, it seems"

Michael looked at him confused. "What?"

"Heh heh! Michael, can you excuse us for a moment?" Sera asked laughing nervously, grabbing Lucifer and dragging him slightly further away, then whispering to him, "What are you doing!?"

"I'm fed up with this story. There have already been enough secrets in this family" Lucifer replied acidly.

Sera broke out in a cold sweat. "You can't! Michael is still a prince of Heaven, he has duties towards the universe, you would get him into trouble...!"

"Oh, stop it!" Lucifer replied by pushing her away, and then ignoring her completely he looked at Michael: "Hey, idiot who unfortunately I have to call brother, do you want to know the news of the day? Emily is my daughter"

There was a moment of silence in the celestial embassy. Sera had become as still as a statue, breaking into a cold sweat and anxiously awaiting what would happen next. Michael didn't say a word for a long moment, and then he sighed: "Honestly... I was starting to suspect it"

Sera and Lucifer widened their eyes in surprise. “Oh… really?”

"Well, after meeting Charlie it was... pretty obvious. Come on, they're the same" Michael replied. "And considering how you two used to be, I'm not surprised you had an affair"

"Wow... that's high logic by your standards" Lucifer told him.

"Oh, look. You that think you can talk about height" Michael replied.

Sera interjected before another ridiculous argument could begin: "Um... so now... what do you want to do?"

Michael crossed his arms. His position betrayed how tense he was. “It's difficult" he admitted. "I hoped my doubts would prove unfounded. Now that they are certain we have a problem. You know I can't put the universe at risk"

"Oh, come on!" Lucifer snapped. "Charlie and Emily have been around for almost two hundred years, they've never done anything wrong!"

"Brother, I may be dumb, but not that much" Michael told him. "Only strange and often catastrophic things have been happening since those two met. I don't deny that they have good hearts, but they are dangerous"

Sera bit her lip hard. She knew that Michael, even if it didn't seem like it, knew how to be responsible when universal emergencies occurred. He had never let his feelings stop him from doing what needed to be done. He was a good guy, but he was still a warrior and knew how to close his heart when necessary. "Please... there has to be a..."

"We can discuss the fate of those girls" Michael told her in a firm voice. "But it's clear that they can't stay together. We have to at least put them far away from each other"

Sera internally breathed a sigh of relief. At least it didn't seem like Michael was going to use extreme measures against Emily, which was more than she initially hoped for. "Thank you" she barely whispered.

"Tell me where Emily is" Michael said to them. "Charlie is the queen, she can't leave Hell, but she can. I can take her to a place where she will be safe, at least until we have a clear idea of ​​what to do"

"Forget it" Lucifer told him acidly. “I refuse to let anyone else take my daughter. She stays here"

“Brother, I understand your feelings” Michael tried to mollify him. "But you have to understand that..."

"I said no!" Lucifer told him. "They've kept me away from my girls for too long! I don't intend to separate myself from them any further! Even less from the daughter I just discovered I have and with whom I want to at least create a minimum bond!"

Michael put on a surprised expression: "Just discovered? Wait, you didn't know?"

"Why, what were you thinking?" Lucifer muttered.

"Well... that you and Sera had a secret relationship and that after Emily was born you chose to hide the truth..." Michael answered him.

"Well, it didn't happen like that!" Lucifer exclaimed, pointing his finger at Sera: "She kept my daughter from me!"

Michael was really confused. "Really...?" 

"Yes, I did it" Sera admitted.

Lucifer expected Michael to scold her, but his brother didn't lose his confused expression. "Why?" he asked her. "It's not like you do... well, this"

Sera shook her head. "Emily's father had to stay hidden" she replied. "Lucifer couldn't, and shouldn't, ever see her. She couldn't risk him trying to contact her. And even if he did understand, it would still be too risky. And I didn't want him to live with the knowledge that he had to stay away from his second daughter as well"

Michael didn't seem completely in agreement, although he had a sympathetic expression. Lucifer, on the other hand, was not moved in the slightest. "This is not a justification!"

"I'm not justifying myself" Sera pointed out. "You asked me why, here's why. Think of me whatever you want, but I weighed the options and chose the safest solution for my daughter. Because that's what a mother does"

"Always the same excuse" Lucifer grumbled, remembering that Lilith had told him almost the same things, even if referring to something else. "It was my right to know! We did that girl together! Our relationship...!"

“OH, FUCK!” Sera screamed. "Shut the fuck up!"

Both Lucifer and Michael froze in place. It was rare for Sera to scream, and even rarer for her to use such language. "Um... maybe it's time we all calm down..." Michael tried to tell her.

"SHUT UP!" Sera shouted. By now she had truly reached her breaking point. Her fiery eyes fell on Lucifer with such intensity that she seemed to want to incinerate him. "You and I weren't in a relationship, okay!? I was your fucking toy that you used without caring about the consequences! I risked EVERYTHING for you! I supported you while you cried over losing another woman, without asking for anything in return! I have come here countless times risking my reputation, my face and my position just to be able to make you feel good! I listened to you complain that your daughter didn't want to see you and I advised you! And what did you do!? As soon as you noticed that I had an interest in you, you literally jumped on me, taking advantage of the fact that I loved you too much to refuse! You didn't even worry for a moment about what could happen to me! I could have fallen! I could have lost everything! Yet, I still chose to love you, to believe that what was between us could be sincere! But it wasn't true! You never considered me something to love! For you I was just your whore who allowed you to have fun with her body! I've waited forever to feel at least a little love coming from you, and it never happened! And when I gave you one last chance and asked you if you loved me, you didn't even know how to answer! You gave me absolute proof that you didn't even bother to ask yourself how you felt about me, you considered me something guaranteed, you thought that I would always be here ready to satisfy you and support you while you complained about your problems, while I risked everything that I had just to spend a night with you! Have they ever told you that a relationship requires commitment!? And were you surprised if Lilith divorced you!? I can't believe what I'm saying, but just for staying with you this long that woman should receive a statue!"

Lucifer finally showed at least a little shock. It wasn't the first time Sera had yelled at him, but never like this. He wasn't used to hearing so much venom in her voice. "O-Okay, but that doesn't justify you to...!"

"WHAT!? To prevent you from causing further problems!?" Sera yelled at him. "I didn't trust you! There, I said it! I didn't trust you enough to tell you the truth! I preferred to raise my daughter alone, and screw it, I don't regret it! I don't regret it, okay!? I DON'T REGRET IT! Because you wouldn't have been able to do something good anyway! You want me to believe that you would have been a father to Emily!? I saw how well you can be a father! How many times have you been a father to Charlie!? When have you ever actually done something for her, to deserve her love!? I've only ever seen you complain, and not because you were a coward or an asshole, but because SHE didn't want you in her life! She was the problem, not you, right!? You always just waited that she came to you, as you have always done! Because you do this with everyone, you expect them to crawl at your feet as if you were some sort of divinity! If you cared at least a little you would know that not telling you anything was the best choice, but you can't even make this simple reasoning! And now you're pissed because I made the best choice to protect my daughter!? What the fuck do you think!? How old are you, five!? You are nothing but a fucking profiteer who takes the love others give him and uses it only for himself! The only reason you're so angry now is because I refused to be another fucking object of yours who obeyed your every command, and I chose my daughter's fate for myself! I'm not one of your little ducks, always ready to wag my tail around you, and neither are Emily or Charlie, so why don't you leave me ALONE!?"

Sera only stopped because she had to catch her breath, but she still continued to stare at Lucifer with eyes that seemed to emanate flames. The fallen angel felt a little in awe, as it looked like she was about to jump on him and try to eat him. "Okay, you're right" he finally admitted. "I didn't do very well with you, but still...!"

"What have you done?" Michael suddenly said.

Sera and Lucifer turned towards him, and they both paled a little. Michael had an indecipherable expression. Neither Sera nor Lucifer could understand what he was thinking. It was as if a veil had been placed over his face. "Um... Michael...?" Sera tried to tell him.

“Let me get this straight” Michael said in a very low voice, barely looking up at Lucifer. "Not only did you not ask Sera to stop visiting you in secret, risking her position and reputation, but you also fucked her, deliberately running the risk of her falling into sin and becoming an angel fallen, and on top of that you treated her as if she were a toy always ready to serve you?”

Lucifer bit his lip. Those words were technically very accurate. "Did you happen to not listen to the part where she hid my daughter from me...?"

Michael clenched his fists tightly, cracking his knuckles. That sound made Sera shiver, and she felt her survival instinct activate instantly and almost involuntarily took two steps back. "Lucifer"

Lucifer's eyes widened slightly. He didn't feel safe either. "Um... yes?"

“I will do this last act of kindness to you in the name of our blood bond” Michael told him. "I'll wait three seconds. Run"

Lucifer swallowed slightly, knowing his brother was serious. "Listen, I know I didn't do very well..."

"One..."

"... but try to think about it, it was she who came here, I didn't ask her..."

"... two..."

"... she was in it too...!"

"... THREE!"

The punch that landed on Lucifer's face was so violent that the fallen angel was thrown away as if he were a projectile; the extremely strong walls of the celestial embassy, ​​which normally would not have suffered a scratch even if a plane had crashed into them, broke as if they were made of cardboard. Lucifer flew away so fast that in just three seconds he was far away from Pentagram City and crashed into a mountain.

Michael let out a grunt and cracked his neck. He was already about to follow his brother, but Sera grabbed his arm: "Wait! Don't do it!"

"You don't want to defend him, I hope!" Michael growled.

"I'm not defending him!" Sera answered him. "You two can't fight! If you fight here, you'll blow all of Hell to smithereens! Do I need to remind you what happened last time? It's not worth it just because he acted like an asshole to me!"

She wasn't wrong at all: the clash between the two most powerful angels of Creation had the potential to pulverize an entire realm simply by the indirect consequences of their blows. The last time Lucifer and Michael had fought seriously, over ten thousand years ago, they had devastated half the universe and wiped out entire superclusters of galaxies. Their power was inferior only to that of Roo and God, once unleashed no one could stop them: that time the angels had been more busy containing the effects of their clash than giving a hand to their champion while he captured the archtraitor and dragged him in chains to prison.

But Michael shook his head. "You don't have to worry. I may be reckless, but not that much. We won't fight here" he told Sera. "You stay here and fix the walls, and if Charlie asks you anything, his father and I went to a family meeting. I'll be back soon and we can talk more clearly about Emily"

And before Sera could say anything she opened her enormous wings and took flight, in an instant reaching the mountain where Lucifer had crashed. The fallen angel obviously hadn't suffered a scratch and had already gotten up, shaking off the dust. “Fuck…” he hissed, rubbing his face where he had been hit. "Do you always have to use your fists to express yourself!?"

"I speak with my actions" Michael replied narrowing his eyes. "Using lots of words, very few of them sincere, has always been your strong point, not mine!"

Lucifer let out a grunt. "Don't treat me like...!"

Michael didn't let him finish: he was immediately on top of him and punched him in the stomach. This time the fallen angel was prepared and defended himself with a magical barrier, but even so he was thrown backwards by his brother's immense strength. While this was happening Michael moved his hand slightly and a portal appeared behind Lucifer, which he walked through without wanting to.

The red sky of the Pride Ring disappeared in an instant, replaced by a dark, dark one; Lucifer found himself no longer on the dusty earth of the mountain on which he was an instant before, but on a cold and sterile rocky surface. A small distant sun barely illuminated that gray landscape. "What is this?" he asked his brother as soon as he followed him.

"A place I selected some time ago, in the event that you and I would have to fight again" Michael answered, closing the portal behind him. “We are literally in the farthest corner of the universe. This tiny star formed from a very rare large cloud of gas drifting in the cosmic vacuum and hosts no habitable planet. The nearest galaxy is no less than five million light years away from here"

“And you thought this is enough?” Lucifer asked him sarcastically. "Last time we fought across billions of light years!"

"True. But if we had started here, the other angels could have more easily contained us, and prevented us from starting to jump from one galaxy to another, destroying everything in our path" Michael replied. "But now there is no such problem. You are still too weak, and I will hold back. We will not risk destroying a galaxy, not if we fight in this remote place"

Lucifer narrowed his eyes dangerously. "So that's it? Do you really want to fight?"

“Do you still need confirmation?” Michael said, flexing his pecs and showing off his huge hands clenched into fists. "As I told you many times, I express myself best with my actions. So let me explain how I feel about your behavior!"

Chapter Text

Lucifer gritted his teeth and dodged Michael's punch almost by pure luck; his brother hit the ground beneath him with such force that a crater at least a hundred kilometers wide opened up in an instant, hurling tons of dust and debris into deep space. Luckily they were on an uninhabited planet, because otherwise such a blow would already have been enough to wipe out most life forms from existence. "What the fuck, why do you always have to be so violent!?"

"Always? Let's analyze this 'always' for a moment!" Michael answered him. "Over ten thousand years of you doing nothing but bullshit, and in all of that I've only beaten you properly once. Even right now I'm holding back. If this is 'always' to you, then you really are more idiot than I thought!"

Michael threw himself at him again, and this time Lucifer couldn't dodge the blow, so he parried it with his arms; although he was able to resist, the impact threw him backwards for almost a kilometre. "Fuck it... we're not going to solve the problem by fighting...!"

"No, but it will give me a lot of satisfaction!" Michael told him appearing behind him and hitting him in the back. Lucifer was hurled to the ground with the force of a comet, causing the entire planet to tremble.

There was a moment of silence, and then the dust cleared, or rather, it was literally swept away, and Lucifer reappeared in flight with a ferocious expression. "Okay..." he growled. "Now I'm getting pissed off!"

"Good. This was the plan" Michael told him, throwing himself at him again, and this time Lucifer did not remain still but imitated his brother.

Their fists collided with inhuman violence, so much so that for an instant a star seemed to appear in the sky: the planet's crust broke cleanly and moved away, opening a veritable sea of ​​magma beneath them. The two angels seemed to barely notice what had just happened beneath them, as their eyes were only focused on each other's pupils. “You really are incredible” Michael told his brother. "You had the kindest and most forgiving woman in the universe at your disposal, and you managed to make her suffer too!"

“Gnnn… we were two consenting adults!” Lucifer replied through gritted teeth, feeling the recoil of Michael's fist on his arm. Fuck, if he had been in top shape, that blow wouldn't have even tickled him. He hated that he was still in such a pathetic state. "I never lied to her! If she expected something more from me, she should have asked me first!"

Michael's eyes seemed to heat up. His fist slammed into his brother's face with extreme force, sending him flying away again. “Always an excuse, right, brother!?” he shouted. "ALWAYS AN EXCUSE!"

Lucifer let out a growl, and then his powers began to flow through his body. His magic focused on his palms, forming a glyph, which exploded, emitting a beam of energy. Michael dodged it and it hit the ground; in a fraction of a second, more than half the planet's surface was reduced to atoms. "It's not an excuse, it's the truth!" Lucifer screamed. "Okay, maybe I should have read the signs, I admit! But I never lied to Sera, unlike her!"

Michael looked at him with an expression somewhere between furious and disgusted. “You just can't get it, can you?” he told him. "You're still the same arrogant idiot you were when you ruined the universe! I was hoping you'd changed at least a little in all these centuries!"

"Why, it seems to you that I still go around destroying Creation?" Lucifer replied sarcastically. "I haven't done any damage since then!"

“Not to the Creation, but to the people yes!” Michael said. “You just can't get it through your head that no one in the universe owes you anything, can you? YOU are the one who should feel obligated to make a commitment to others! We all aren't giving you what you deserve, we're giving you a SECOND CHANCE!"

Michael moved with a projectile, so much so that the atmosphere was blasted away into space, and kicked Lucifer, forcing him to use a barrier to defend himself. The planet beneath them dangerously began to crack at its foundations. "Lilith gave you a second chance when she lost everything after you convinced her that you would dominate the universe! Sera gave you a second chance after everything you did! I gave you a second chance! All the Heavenly Council, even those who didn't believe in you anymore, gave you a second chance! Even Charlie, your own daughter, gave you a second chance after you refused to be present in her life! We all gave you a second chance, actually, multiple chances! Tell me, exactly how many times did you take advantage of these chances we gave you!?"

The blows of the two angels followed one another extremely quickly, so much so that any high-tech computer would have short-circuited trying to follow them. The planet beneath them expanded, as if it were an orange cut in two with its halves being pushed away. "You should be the first to try to prove to others that they are right to give you a second chance! But you just can't do that, can you? No, you think you're owed everything! If Sera is willing to put risking everything to love you, then it's her problem, not yours, right? You're the one who should be grateful and kiss the ground she walks on just because she still cares of you after everything you've done! If you had any respect for others, you should have to be the first to back out, you should have told her not to put herself in danger for you, you should have worried about her first and foremost! But obviously you didn't!"

Lucifer let out a roar, and several blades of pure energy formed around him; his wings lit up as if electric currents ran through them and sizzled dangerously. "Stop judging me!" he screamed. “You think just because I'm not in great shape right now I'm going to stand here and get punched!?”

His wings moved, unleashing an electrical discharge more powerful than any lightning, so violent and hot that even a stellar gamma-ray burst would have seemed weak in comparison; the energy blades around him supercharged and lashed out at his brother. Michael narrowed his eyes slightly, and then moved his hands extremely quickly, shattering the blades one by one. Fragments of them fell in every direction, splitting entire pieces of the planet that were thrown away into space. "I'm not judging you" Michael said. “I'm spitting out facts!”

Lucifer's eyes seemed to turn to embers; he lunged at his brother and grabbed him from behind, using his magic to tighten his grip, and then he dove straight down and knocked them both into the boiling magma. In a few moments they crossed the entire planet until they reached the core, which normally would have reduced anything to ash, but which barely tickled the two angels, who didn't even seem to feel its heat and pressure. Within just a minute, their continuous pounding was so intense that the core split in two, and so did the entire planet.

Back outside, the two brothers didn't stop, continuing to hit each other faster and faster. "To think that you could sink so low even towards what had been a sister to us...!" Michael hissed as he punched Lucifer in the eye.

"Ugh... she asked for it!" Lucifer responded by throwing another punch in return. “Don't treat me like I'm the only one guilty here!”

"You should have refused!" Michael yelled at him. "She could have lost everything! She could have fallen! She could have been discovered and cast out by the Heavenly Council in disgrace! The whole of Heaven would have frowned upon her! Did you even think for a moment about her and her well-being before seducing her!?"

“I asked her if she wanted it!” Lucifer protested. "I didn't force her against her will, she wanted all that! I used eyes trick to make sure of that!"

"Oh, yes!? Did you use it to make sure, or to break down the barriers she was trying to put up!?" Michael yelled at him. "Don't think you can bullshit me! I know you too well, although less than what I should apparently! You already knew she wanted it, didn't you? She tried to tell you no and you forced her to be sincere!"

"And that would be taking advantage of her!?" Lucifer replied. “I just got the truth out!”

“Yes, you short idiot, that's called taking advantage of someone!” Michael responded by punching him again in the face. "Yours wasn't a relationship that could be decided with feelings alone! You had to decide it using rationality! Sera tried to use it, and you stopped her from doing it! You stupid idiotic asshole!"

The two brothers were now moving so quickly that they seemed like two laser beams with a life of their own. The two halves of the planet they had just split apart were shifting, carried away by the effects of the battle. Their blows were so strong that they generated real gravitational waves in spacetime.

Lucifer was starting to really hate this situation. Michael's blows were always stronger, while his were much less so. He was still too weak to stand up to his brother, and it pissed him off. He knew that was technically a good thing, since if they fought at full power that planet wouldn't have been the only thing they would have torn apart, but it was still frustrating. “How long are you going to continue!?”

"Until I decide that is enough" Michael responded by punching him in the nose. "You haven't pissed me off like this in over ten thousand years. Maybe I should have punched you more during this time, at least you would have avoided treating our friend that way!"

Lucifer's eyelids fluttered. "Oh, fuck, stop it! I tried to be a good lover, okay!?"

"Of course, so much so that you didn't even question whether you loved her or not" Michael told him.

"What the fuck, she asked me that out of the blue! What was I supposed to answer!?" Lucifer protested. "She caught me off guard! How would you have reacted to suddenly hear her say that she was ready to throw everything away and stay in Hell with me!? I already told you, I didn't think she was willing to go that far!"

"You knew she loved you" Michael replied. "What did you think, that she would have been content to come and warm your bed every now and then? What kind of sick concept of a relationship do you have?"

“Come on, you can't deny that I couldn't expect such a statement!” Lucifer said. "What crazy person would want to go to Hell just for love!? I never thought Sera would be willing to go that far! I expected she would just want to let off some steam every now and then, a relationship of short and occasional encounters where she could love me as much as she wanted, and then go back to Heaven and stay there! Come on, we're talking about Sera, the most faithful, dutiful and upright person of all! How could I imagine that..."

Michael grabbed him by the wing and hurled him into one of the planet's halves, splitting it further in two. "She had already put everything on the line just for those brief and occasional encounters! Any person with a brain would have understood that sooner or later she would have wanted more! And surely YOU had understood it!" he shouted at him. “Don't try to make any more excuses! The truth is that you didn't care! You didn't care that she risked everything she had for you, that she loved you, that she was suffering because you clearly didn't love her back! You just wanted a woman who would support you with your whining and give you her body right after! What do you think, that people are toys that you can use and then put aside until you want to use them again!?”

Lucifer let out a growl, and then his power exploded; his body became more monstrous and his horns reemerged from his skull. "Now you've tired me out!" he screamed, and pure magic exploded from his hands; Michael was hit by it and had to protect himself with his arms, and behind him the ray continued its journey. What was left of the planet turned to cosmic dust, and even its moon melted and dismembered as if it were made of play dough.

Lucifer threw himself at Michael and dragged him away, accelerating until he exceeded the speed of light. In a few seconds they reached the nearest planet, and then the next, and the next; Lucifer passed through them using his brother's body and in particular his face as if it were a shield. The immense kinetic energy unleashed blew up the planets as if they were balloons, filling that solar system with fragments and asteroids.

"Shut the fuck up!" Lucifer screamed as he did this. "Everyone, you always think you can judge me! I've made my mistakes, but who doesn't!? Yet all you do is judge me! And why!? Why am I always the bad guy!?"

Michael didn't even seem to feel the blows, even after he was smashed into all the planets like that. He turned his head slightly and gave him a reproachful look: "Because whether you like it or not, Lucifer, you are the bad guy. And you are the only one who can't see it!"

And having said this he took Lucifer by the scruff of the neck, with much more force than before; the fallen angel felt his brother's hand threatening to break his neck. Michael stared into his eyes for a moment longer, and then threw him straight at the star of that solar system. Lucifer passed from side to side with unprecedented violence, colliding with the boiling super-pressurized plasma; the star seemed to boil from the inside, and then exploded in an immense supernova. Lucifer continued to hurtle across the solar system, colliding with everything in between, until he decelerated enough to slam into an asteroid and finally stop. 

He spat out a glob of blood. Fuck, that had hurt. Normally even such a blow would not have done him any damage, but weak as he was his resistance was greatly diminished. By now he had difficulty even moving, and he could no longer get up.

Michael reappeared above him and landed in front of his head. "You're a disgrace" he told him. “As much as I love you, brother, I can't help but tell you this”

“Ugh… fuck” Lucifer hissed. "Face me when I can fight...!"

Michael shook his head. "A person with a minimum of conscience in your place would be worried about his actions, not about the humiliation he just suffered. But I assume that this concept is something alien to you" he told him. "You don't think what I told you was right? Okay. Go to Emily, tell her how you and Sera conceived her, we'll see who she agrees with. Something tells me you'll be lucky if she doesn't slap you for how you treated her mother. Or talk about it with Charlie, with her friends, whoever you want. They will all tell you the same things I told you"

Lucifer didn't answer him, just growled furiously. He wanted to get up and give him a good punch, but he needed to recover at least a little before he could do it. It was a feeling of helplessness that he wasn't used to.

Michael knelt to bring his face closer to hers. "You could be so much" he told him, narrowing his eyes like slits. "Our Father has given you so many qualities, but you just waste them. And all this because you can never see that you are wrong. You can't understand that you are not worth more than others, you are like everyone else. If only you learned this simple concept, and gave the same importance to others that you give to yourself, you could achieve extraordinary things. But you don't. You are too blinded by your own pride to be able to get off that pedestal. That's why you lose all the people who loved you along the way, and you will continue to do so" 

Lucifer turned his head away, unable to hold his brother's gaze any longer. The last time he had spoken to him like that was after they had fought over ten thousand years ago, when he had created Roo. He hated it when his brother wore that fatherly mask.

Michael stood up with a grunt. "I'm going back to Sera, we need to talk about Emily. You find the way home on your own" he told him. "It will take the shock wave from that supernova twelve minutes to reach this asteroid. You'd better leave before that"

And having said this he opened his wings and flew away, disappearing behind a portal which closed immediately afterwards. Lucifer wanted to scream at him, but his chest hurt too much. But as soon as Michael was gone a new voice reached his ear: "You just can't help but cause trouble, mh?"

Lucifer turned his head slightly, and saw a familiar angel in front of him, which only pissed him off more. "What the fuck do you want, Gabriel?"

Chapter Text

Sera had been waiting with great anxiety for the return of the two belligerent brothers, and as soon as she saw a portal open and Michael reappear the first thing she said was: "Tell me that this time you didn't destroy anything"

"Just one solar system. Uninhabited, by the way" Michael answered her.

Sera mentally breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that Lucifer was weak at the moment, but she seriously feared that she would have discovered that those two had pulverized a galaxy in their battle. "Where is...?"

"I left him to think about his actions. Sooner or later he will return" Michael told her simply, and then he crossed his arms: "Sera... now we need to talk about Emily. Seriously"

Sera bit her lip. "Yes... I thought so" she just said. "What do you want to do with her?"

Michael sighed. "Sera, I know how precious she is to you. She's your daughter, I understand that. But you know that she is a danger to the entire universe"

Sera turned pale. "Please don't tell the others" she whispered in a small voice. She wanted to speak louder, but it was as if her vocal cords were paralyzing. "You know what they would do to her"

"I know. And that's why I'll keep it a secret. She doesn't deserve a fate like that" Michael told her. "But she still remains a problem"

Sera almost wanted to cry with happiness at hearing Michael say that he would not have revealed anything to the Heavenly Council. If the angels had known what Emily really was, they would have undoubtedly locked her up in the darkest and most remote corner of the universe, perhaps without even giving her the chance to move to ward off any attempt to escape. She couldn't blame them, she knew how dangerous she was, but she couldn't bear such a fate for her little girl. Or worse... if the angels really had deemed her too powerful... they could have asked Azrael, once they managed to make him supplant Abaddon as the dominant personality again, to erase her from existence permanently. It was truly a terrible prospect.

However, she knew that just because Michael wouldn't have said anything to others didn't mean he wouldn't have done anything himself. In fact, she knew the opposite was practically certain. "Adam decided to trust me. Please, do it too" she begged him. "As soon as we find Emily, I will take her away. We will find a planet of our own and stay there. You have my word that you will never see us again"

Michael nodded. "I can suggest you some places" he told her. "But I have to make things clear: if this solution doesn't work either, then I will have to take her away to an even more remote place"

Sera's heart tightened. "Please" she begged. "She is innocent...!"

"I know. And believe me, I don't want this fate for her. I love her too" Michael told her seriously. "But when Lucifer, the brother I loved so much, endangered the universe, I didn't hesitate to drag him in chains to prison. When Roo woke up in the body of Eve, a woman who had never done anything to deserve that pain, I was the first to take the field to contain her. When Samyaza and Azazel rebelled, I stopped them and punished them even though they were my best warriors. You know I hate having to do things like that, but if the universe is in danger, I can't just turn away"

Sera bit her lip. She knew it was the truth: Michael was a good-hearted person, not inclined to implement destructive measures, but when the situation really required it, there was no bond of blood or friendship or love capable of stopping him. He knew it was his duty to protect the universe and he would have stopped at nothing to do so. "She's your niece..." she still tried to remind him.

"Charlie is too" Michael told her. "But if the situation continues to get worse, I'll have to take one of the two. You know I'll treat them as best as I can, but I'd still like to avoid exiling them like that. So, go get Emily and get her out of here before another disaster strikes"

Sera swallowed. She wanted to tell him that she couldn't go get Emily since she was in the Betrayal Ring, but she stopped herself from doing so. She trusted Michael, but she was sure that if he knew this he would not have reacted well. "I'll do my best" she simply said in the end.

Michael nodded slightly. His usual jovial face was replaced by a mask of tension and worry. And maybe even a little reproach. "Of all those you had at your disposal, did you really have to choose him?"

Sera blushed. She knew she had no justification for her recklessness. If only she had listened to reason right away, she would have avoided that whole situation... even if she didn't regret giving birth to Emily. "I was in love" she finally replied. "Love makes you blind. I didn't really realize the risks until it was too late"

Michael sighed. "And to think that when we were all still up there I was hoping you two would get together" he commented harshly. "Couldn't you have at least used some protection?"

Sera shrugged. She couldn't deny that he was right, but it had to be said that most of the time that she and Lucifer had ended up in bed, passion had completely transcended rationality. They had definitely relied too much on the fact that angels had an extremely low reproduction rate.

Michael was silent for a moment longer, and then he said: "I better go back to Heaven. You make sure your daughter stops being a danger. And as soon as my idiot brother comes back, warn him that if he tries to interfere I'll come and beat him again"

And after those words he opened a portal and flew through it, disappearing on the other side. Sera was left alone, and she leaned against the table to catch her breath.

Lucifer stared at Gabriel with a lot of annoyance in his eyes. Since the Fall the two of them hadn't exactly been on good terms, quite the opposite: you could tell that Gabriel didn't appreciate him at all. He had maintained a rather calm relationship towards him, without showing open hostility, but still he had a coldness with him that he didn't have with anyone else. “Were you here the whole time?”

"I wanted to make sure you two didn't destroy some other galaxy" Gabriel answered him. "I like the universe as it is. I don't want to see the mess from the last time repeat itself"

"Tsk... as if you could stop us if we decided to get serious" Lucifer replied.

"Maybe when you're at your best, but right now you're not exactly in good shape" Gabriel told him with a certain teasing tone in his voice. "To stop you two, all I had to do was show myself to convince Michael. He is reasonable enough to stop when the situation becomes dangerous. You would have been too weak to oppose"

Lucifer let out a disdainful grunt. "Couldn't you have stopped him before he reduced me like this?"

"Why? I'm not proud of it, but I confess that like seeing you buried and swollen" Gabriel answered him with a little mocking smile.

Lucifer gritted his teeth and barely stopped himself from telling him to fuck off. The way Gabriel kept looking him up and down was getting on his nerves. He tried to get up, but his bones hurt too much.

Gabriel shook his head. "You wish you could shut me up, don't you?" he said, frowning. "Seriously, you're always the same. Even when you were up there you silenced everyone who said something you didn't like. Sera was the only one who managed to put some sense in your head. Or rather, the only one determined enough to speak back to you even if everyone else agreed with you. Seriously, how could you throw away such a flower?”

Lucifer grit his teeth and tensed. "How long were you spying on us?"

"Spying? I never spy on anyone. I'm just a messenger, not a spy" Gabriel answered him. "It's just that until I decide that I can deliver my message, people tend not to notice me. I was with you in the heavenly embassy, ​​but none of you saw me"

Lucifer glared at him. Fuck him, he'd been an idiot. He shouldn't have lowered his guard just because his brother was there. He should have checked carefully before telling Michael about Emily. "And what do you want to do now?"

Gabriel crossed his arms. "It seems obvious to me" he answered. "One of your daughters must disappear"

Lucifer narrowed his eyes. "If you just try to get closer to them...!"

“Do you think I like making such a decision?” Gabriel interrupted him. "Look around you. Look at what's been happening since those two girls met. The cosmos is descending into chaos. Two entire Rings have been destroyed, and much more would have been devastated if it wasn't for the prompt intervention of a small group of people. The first man is disappeared, one of the prince of Heaven was revealed to be a traitor. Billions of lives have already been lost, and very soon they could become trillions. I know that those two girls are innocent, but their lives are not worth that of the entire universe"

Lucifer clenched his fists and tried to get up again, managing to raise his back and head a little. "If you dare to come near them, I will destroy you"

Gabriel was not at all intimidated by that threat. In fact, he ignored him completely. "Now Charlie is a queen, so she's important. Making her disappear would cause new problems in Hell, and honestly we've had enough of that. Having a stable Hell is also convenient for us up there, it's easier to manage the situation if everything is not in chaos. So the obvious solution is to take Emily away, who from what I know so far, isn't of much value and is therefore expendable"

"Expendable...!?" Lucifer hissed angrily. “How dare you talk about them like they were numbers on a chart…!?”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. Even though his static stance didn't change in the slightest, he still looked angry. “You act like you care” he told him. "I remind you that you could have avoided all of this if you had only tried to really change after the disaster that you had caused. But I assume that for you, rolling up your sleeves and doing something useful for others instead of for yourself is too complicated a concept"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Lucifer yelled at him. "You think I don't care about my daughters!?"

"Maybe I might have believed that once, but I long ago stopped believing that you can truly feel love for someone" Gabriel told him. "You use the word, but you don't really know what it means. You don't have the slightest idea. After all, I've never seen you love someone enough to put them before yourself"

Lucifer rose even more from the crater where he was, looking at him with fiery eyes. "You don't know shit. I love my daughters"

"Really? And why did you always put your self-pity before Charlie? Why did you put your problems before hers?" Gabriel asked him, and then his tone dropped dangerously: "And why do you still refuse to tell her how much of a piece of shit you can be?"

Lucifer didn't understand: "What are you...?"

"I thought you could change" Gabriel told him without letting him speak. "Millennia ago, I wanted to believe in you, even though I knew you were a fake. I believed that your repentance was sincere, that's why I agreed to let you become Roo's jailer. Apparently I was really too foolish. For once, it was my eyes that didn't notice the truth, not those of others. You were really good at deceiving me"

Lucifer tensed. A few drops of sweat formed on his face. "What are you talking about...?"

"You have no attachment to anything, Lucifer" Gabriel said with a lot of disgust in his voice. "You have never truly loved anything. Whatever love you have for others is always surpassed by your love for yourself. No matter what happens, you must always be the one who wins in the end. You refuse to see how much others suffer because of you, and I have no doubt that you would find justification for killing even your own blood if it were to your advantage"

Lucifer let out a muffled growl. He didn't like what he was hearing. It wasn't the first time someone had spoken to him like that, but it was as if a dark veil had fallen over Gabriel's face. Those words and that tone of voice sent shivers down the fallen angel's spine.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes until they were slits. He seemed to be staring at something extremely disgusting. "I wonder if you would even eliminate Father if you could" he said with extreme hatred in his voice.

"Speak clearly" Lucifer hissed, no longer able to bear that conversation. "What are you talking about?"

Gabriel was silent for a moment, still staring him up and down, and then he knelt next to him and brought his mouth close to his ear. In a whisper he said: "Poor deluded idiots. They wanted to get rid of us and instead they will be remembered as losers. In the end, we will win"

Lucifer seemed to become the same consistency as steel. His eyes widened so much they looked like they were about to roll out of their sockets. “You… you… how…?”

"I was there that day" Gabriel told him. "The only time you confessed it, the only time you took a real responsibility. I was there, but as usual you didn't notice me. I heard everything"

Lucifer trembled hard and gripped the ground beneath him with his fingers. "You... asshole...!"

"I should be the one saying these words to you" Gabriel said standing up. “I admit it was truly shocking for me to discover how low you were capable of falling”

Lucifer looked like he was about to salivate. There was no doubt that if he could he would have jumped on the messenger angel and ripped his mouth clean off. Or maybe directly decapitated him.

Gabriel let out a snort. "I chose to keep it a secret" he told him. "I haven't told anyone... not because I don't think you deserve to lose the love that many of your old friends in Heaven feel for you, but because I learned long ago that it's best not to ruin delicate balances... as you should know much better than me. Say the truth, at that point, would not have benefited anyone. I pretended not to have heard anything. But now I'm starting to evaluate the options again. Maybe I should have a chat with your precious daughters, to reveal them how their father spent his days a long time ago"

Lucifer's eyelids fluttered and he sweated even more. The color of his face had become even whiter than usual. "Don't... do that" he said finally.

Gabriel looked even more disappointed by that reaction than he had before. "See? You would rather lie to your own offspring than face your faults and try to improve yourself. You are truly the shame of all the creations of God"

The angel stood up and turned his back to him. "Three months" he told him. "This is the time I give you, Lucifer. In three months you must hand over one of your daughters to Michael. You know that your brother will at least treat her well. When those three months are up, if you haven't done it, I will reveal everything. I will tell everyone whose daughter Emily is, and then we will all come to get her or Charlie. And I will reveal everything else, so that not even Michael will feel obliged to speak for you anymore. Your choice, Lucifer. Three months, not a day more"

Lucifer wanted to insult him, or at least say something to him, but instead he remained silent, simply staring at him furious and worried at the same time. Gabriel turned slightly towards him: "Oh, by the way... when Michael left, you had twelve minutes before that supernova hit you. Now you have five left. You better recover quickly"

And after such words he opened his wings and disappeared almost as if he were made of smoke. Lucifer was left alone again on that tiny asteroid, with the violent light of a dying star illuminating him, and he couldn't hold back a roar of rage.

Chapter Text

"Found anything?"

"No, nothing"

"Maybe I have... never mind, false alarm"

"I looked here too, but..."

"Wait, how did you open those!? They were locked...!"

"I forced them"

"... right, stupid question"

Loona and Octavia were busy opening practically every drawer in the archive room of Andreaphus' palace. Both were using the darkness of the night to their advantage to avoid being seen, using their owl and wolf halves to see well even in the dark, but still they were trying to hurry to avoid being discovered by some servant. The problem is that they still weren't finding what they were looking for. "They have to be here" Octavia growled. "This is the last remaining room in the palace...!"

They had searched almost everywhere, looking for information Andrealphus had on people to kill if Blitz or whoever else he was blackmailing rebelled. They were sure that by searching carefully in the building they would have sooner or later found a file containing all the data they needed; if they could find him, they would have also found Barbie Wire and everyone else, and they could get them to safety. But after so much searching they still couldn't find anything. "They're not here either" Loona said finally. "Are you sure there aren't any other rooms?"

"I know this palace like the back of my hand, even its secret rooms" Octavia answered her. "There is nothing else"

Both girls were quite discouraged. "Well, we'll think about it in our room" Loona told her friend. "Your uncle will be back soon, better not let us be found around!"

Octavia nodded. They had waited until Andrealphus had to leave the palace for some business of his, but even though he usually stayed late at night, sooner or later he would have returned. He certainly already suspected them, it was best not to give him any further excuses to keep an eye on them. "Yes, you're right" she said finally. "Let's go"

Very quickly and silently they returned to their room, and closed the door behind them. "I suspected it wouldn't be that simple, but it's still daunting" Octavia admitted. Loona nodded with a grunt.

"Ah, Via! I'm glad you came to visit me" Stella had greeted her as soon as she saw her daughter appear at the door of the building. "It's nice to have you back here with me, and to know that you're not together with that rude, cheating father of yours"

"Hi, Mom" Octavia had replied simply, trying to resist the urge to defend Stolas. Strangely, it was easier than usual for her; well, after all, the one in front of her was still her mother, it was normal that in her heart she didn't want to start arguing with her. “I thought I'd come and stay with you for a while, given everything that's happened recently”

"Yes, it's better to keep the family together these days. The real family, I mean, not cheating husbands" Stella commented sourly, and then she glared at Loona: "Why did you bring this plebeian with you?"

Loona's eyes trembled. "For your information, ma'am...!"

"She's a friend of mine" Octavia interrupted her before she could say anything. "Her father recently disappeared, so I hired her as my maid to keep her from ending up on the street"

"Did I hear you right?" a calm, but at the same time strangely mellifluous voice as if coming from behind a glacier made itself heard. "Is your father missing, miss?"

Octavia, Loona and Stella turned, and saw Andrealphus approaching with his usual statuesque pose. The hellhound clenched her fists slightly when she saw him, but forced herself to remain calm. "Andre, why don't you say hello to your niece instead of worrying about such trifles?" Stella muttered.

"You're right. Forgive me, Octavia, I didn't mean to be rude" Andrealphus said as he greeted his niece. “May I ask why you are here?”

"I just want to spend some time with my mother" Octavia replied to him.

"And Stolas agrees?" Andrealphus asked without changing his expression, but his tone of voice seemed to become cold.

"Actually... he doesn't know I'm here" Octavia answered feigning embarrassment. "I know he would have stopped me otherwise, but a lot of things have happened and I need... a change of scenery for a bit, that's it. And then I argued with him recently, I don't want to be in the same house as him"

Well, she wasn't actually completely lying: Stolas really didn't know she was there. If he had known, he would surely have freaked out, or at least been in constant terror, and Octavia thought he already had enough on his mind. She had told her father that she and Loona had left to look for the people Andrealphus was using to blackmail Blitz, but she had not specified that they planned to infiltrate his home to obtain that information. Luckily Stolas hadn't caught the nuance between the lines and had simply let her go, advising her to be careful; after all, from her point of view, the further she stayed from Pride and therefore from the currently riskier area given that there was a powder keg ready to explode there, the better. He only asked her to call him at least once a day.

“Please, uncle, can you not tell him?” Octavia asked Andrealphus. "Really... I need to stay away from him and society's problems for a while"

"You don't even have to ask" Andrealphus said without losing his smile. "You can be my guest as much as you want. You are my family, my home is your home"

Octavia was happy that he welcomed her without too many questions, but she knew she had to be careful. Andrealphus almost certainly already suspected her. From his perspective it was unlikely that Stolas would have sent his daughter to do the dirty work, but he still didn't trust her. He was granting her access to his palace, but that didn't mean he would have let his guard down in her presence.

Andrealphus turned to Loona again: "Anyway, young lady, did I hear you right? Is your father missing?"

As if you didn't already know, this was what Loona wanted to answer him. She knew very well that Andrealphus had eyes and ears everywhere and he already knew that Blitz had never been seen around again. “He left without even saying goodbye” she said, feigning anger. "He and Stolas had an argument one night. I don't know what they said to each other, but at the end of it he took the van and disappeared. He didn't even answer my calls anymore"

That version was quite plausible: if Andrealphus had been keeping an eye on them, then he knew that Blitz had left in the van after passing by Stolas' palace. It wasn't hard to believe that the two of them had argued because Blitz wanted to run away while Stolas wanted him to stay. And if Blitz had run away to protect his loved ones he would surely have tried to cut all ties with them, so even the possibility that he hadn't said anything to Loona to prevent her from following him wasn't so far-fetched.

However, she was unable to understand whether Andrealphus had believed her or not; his expression remained completely unchanged, as if they were having a very ordinary conversation about the weather or the shape of the clouds. "Ah, fathers these days are all inefficient" he commented simply. "You can stay too, but unfortunately all the servants' rooms are occupied at the moment. I'm afraid you will have to sleep in the garden, I will prepare a kennel for you"

Loona was about to punch him to wipe that smirk off his face, but Andrealphus burst out laughing: "Ah ah! You fell for it, didn't you? Come on, I'm not that rude. I'll find you a place here in the house"

Loona had to summon all her self-control; she was very sure that Andrealphus's joke had not been a joke at all. If she had been an ordinary hellhound and not a friend of his niece, he probably would have really made her sleep in a dog kennel.

Octavia tried to intervene to mediate: "Uncle, you can sleep in my room. There are many sofas there..."

"Really? Can you sleep with the smell of dog?" Stella asked skeptically.

Stay calm and don't growl, Loona screamed in her head. She knew blue bloods thought that way. She had to restrain herself and endure the insults.

"Mom... please" Octavia told her.

"Yeah, Stella, don't be so prejudiced," Andrealphus said strangely sympathetically. "After all, I'm sure that after being hired by your daughter, this girl learned to wash herself properly to avoid causing her discomfort. Have a little faith in Octavia's ability to discipline her servants"

Loona nearly choked on her saliva. She washed herself before too! What kind of sick conception did the blue bloods of the other classes have!? Now she understood why it had taken her father so long to trust Stolas. If that was the standard the nobles were used to, it was a wonder they didn't go on hunting trips with the lower classes as prey... because they didn't, right?

Andrealphus placed his hands around Octavia's shoulders, and although such a gesture would normally come across as affective, it just seemed extremely creepy. "Well, let's not waste time on these things. Come, my dear, let's have something to eat together. I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about"

"Actually, I'd rather spend some time with Mom first" Octavia replied, moving away from his touch. He had given her shivers just by touching her.

Andrealphus seemed disappointed for a moment, but then he returned to his usual self: "Of course, I understand. Sorry, I should have predicted it right away. Stay with her, I'll see you at dinner"

And having said this he turned and went away to some other wing of the palace to give them space; however, both Octavia and Loona were sure they had seen him stare at them several times out of the corner of his eye, and damn he was creepy. He was like a predatory bird staring at prey, and it was impossible to understand what thoughts were behind his eyes.

Stella also seemed to notice her brother's behavior, but she limited herself to grunting in annoyance, and then she took Octavia by the hand: "Well, let's not waste time, let's go and drink some good tea. We haven't done it in a while"

"Yes, Mom" ​​Octavia replied. Well, at least they had managed to get in… although she seriously suspected that Andrealphus would not have made their search easy.

"We've searched basically everywhere" Loona murmured as she lay down on the bed. "Now we have to give up, the information we are looking for is certainly not hidden here"

"I agree. Yet it doesn't make sense" Octavia muttered, thinking hard. "My uncle would never part with something so precious, he knows that with them he can hold Blitz and therefore also my father by the balls..."

"Is it possible that your uncle learned them by heart?" Loona rightly opined. "It would be a smart move on his part, this way he wouldn't risk anyone else finding them"

"No, I don't think so" Octavia replied. "My uncle is very intelligent and shrewd, but he doesn't have a very good memory. He would never make such a mistake, he would risk forgetting them and he knows it"

"Then maybe he entrusted them to someone else" Loona offered. “We know he is not alone in his machinations, it would not be strange that he gave such information to someone with a better memory than him”

"It would be a typical move of him, but I don't think he's completely separated from them" Octavia replied thoughtfully. "Surely he entrusted copies to someone else, but it's unlikely that he didn't want to keep something for himself. My uncle doesn't trust anyone, he would never let go of anything that gives him an advantage...". Her eyes shot open: "Wait... of course!"

Loona was a little confused by that reaction. "Um... did you understand something...?"

"Yes!" Octavia answered her. "Loona, my uncle doesn't trust anyone... except one person, because he thinks he can control her: my mother!"

Loona raised an eyebrow: “Are you saying your mother has that information?”

"Yes! Unlike my uncle, she has an excellent memory. And since she is constantly under his control, she is perfect to serve as... his living data bank" Octavia said with a little acidity. "She must have them!"

"Okay..." Loona murmured, not sharing her enthusiasm. "But... how do we get them? We certainly can't open her head"

Octavia thought about it deeply. "Well..."

Loona's eyes opened wide. "You're not about to suggest using a spell to read her mind, are you?" she asked her.

"No, of course not! Also because the Ars Goetia are immune to it, and then they are extremely invasive and very painful" Octavia replied.

Loona froze. “Wait, there really are spells like that…!?”

"Yes, but like I told you we can't use them on my mother" Octavia replied hastily. "But maybe... I can enter my mother's mind. I mean... I can convince her to side with us, or at least give us a hand"

Loona bit her lip. "I don't know..." she murmured. "I mean... ok, you're her daughter, and a mother listens to her daughter, but... we're talking about convincing her to betray her brother and therefore put herself in danger. I don't think she would accept it even in a hundred years"

Octavia couldn't blame her. Her mother wasn't exactly the most courageous and altruistic person in the world, she would hardly have risked exposing herself in that way, much less for the good of those who, from her point of view, were inferior individuals. And what's more, she firmly believed in Andrealphus' ideals, and therefore didn't even have an ideological motivation to go behind his back. If she had asked her directly, she would definitely have refused.

However, Octavia thought it was worth a try. She and her mother weren't super close, but they weren't super distant either. She was sure she could move her heart enough to help her daughter. “I want to at least try" she told Loona. "Just give me a few days, okay? If it doesn't work, let's forget it"

"Via, I'm not sure about this at all" the hellhound protested worriedly. "If your mother understands what you are doing and tells your uncle, we will end up badly"

"I'll be careful" Octavia assured her. "A few days, that's all I ask of you. Think about it: soon the Pride Ring will change forever and my uncle will surely be furious about it. He will probably take that anger out on my mother. I can use this to free her from his control"

Loona bit her lip. She knew her friend had deeper motivations: she didn't just want to exploit Stella to get the information they needed, she also wanted to help her escape from Andrealphus. It was normal, after all it was her mother... but it was still extremely risky. Stella was still not an easy person to manage, and Andrealphus was a very dangerous man. "Via..."

"Just a few days" Octavia repeated to her. "Please"

Loona finally gave in. "Okay" she told her. "But on one condition: don't play hero. At the first sign of danger, you warn me and we both escape straight away"

"Okay" Octavia promised her. "I'll find a way, you'll see"

"I hope so. I trust you" Loona replied, even though she still had many doubts in her heart. But after all, it didn't cost her anything to believe in her friend.

Chapter Text

"Okay... time to give this a try" Emily said as she sat cross-legged on the bed. She was trying to keep her breathing as calm as possible, but still she couldn't hide a note of nervousness in her own voice.

She was about to try out a part of her powers that she had ignored until then, but which she knew she couldn't put off forever, especially since they were the most useful ones. Now she was one with Roo, so everything Roo saw, heard, or sensed, she could see, hear, or sense too. Therefore, if she had only opened her mind and harnessed Roo as an amplifier, she would have been able to see everything that happened in Hell, and perhaps even be able to see what happened on Earth thanks to instances of sin in humans.

It was, simply put, the closest thing to omniscience that could be found in the universe.

Emily knew that she had to control this power more than all the others, because it was too precious. Being able to know everything that happened in Hell meant finally finding out what Alastor was up to or who his mysterious master was. Just because Emily had agreed not to be told who they were didn't mean she had decided not to find out. The only reason why she hadn't heavily questioned Alastor yet was because she knew that he would have never spoken, indeed, in any conversation he would have been able to get the upper hand right away; maybe she would have had a chance if she had left him in Rosie's 'loving care', but she didn't want to stoop to that, and she didn't want to force the cannibal overlord to carry out similar acts either. Even though Rosie had already threatened Alastor, Emily was quite sure that she would not have liked at all dragging him into the castle dungeons and subjecting him to the tortures created by Cain; it would have meant reliving a past that she was clearly trying to leave behind.

But if Emily had been able to expand her mind to see everything that happened in Hell, then she would undoubtedly have discovered who the mysterious master of the radio demon was and above all what their true purpose was. Emily wasn't foolish enough to believe that anyone would have been so crazy to play with an extremely destructive force without receiving anything in return. And even if the mysterious master's goal had truly been to contain Roo forever, she had to at least confirm it.

And even without taking into account that very important detail, having perpetual control over everything that happened in Hell would have guaranteed an infinite number of advantages. For example, she would not have had to rely entirely on Stryker to know what was happening, or he could have immediately identified a potential danger and sent her henchman to deal with it or tipped off Charlie. And considering how things seemed to be heating up, that wasn't a bad thing.

However, Emily had put off that attempt because she was honestly scared of it. Watching everything that happened in Hell meant also seeing all the bad things that happened there on a daily basis. And she remembered well the way Lute had talked about it, which had made it clear that she would have rather died than relive that moment again. Of course, Lute had been Roo's prisoner at the time and so that power was used by the parasite as if it were torture, but Emily was still sure that she wouldn't have liked to have every single bad deed done by the demons in her head.

But even though she was afraid of it, she couldn't put off that moment indefinitely. That power was now a part of her, and she had to live with it, not ignore it. On a purely technical level, that sort of omniscience wasn't even too difficult to use: it was simply a matter of expanding one's mind, something she was already able to do when she was an angel, with the difference that as an angel she could expand it just a few meters and was almost always concentrated on a single objective; in this case, the expansion area would have been an entire realm.

"Ok... let's do it" she said to herself to give herself courage. "It won't be that bad. In the worst case, if I see that it's difficult for me to handle it I can simply turn off this power again"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. And then, with no small amount of tension in her heart, she expanded her mind and using Roo as a springboard she spread it throughout Hell.

It was a really bad choice.

In an instant, Emily was hit by a tsunami. Her mind seemed to literally explode with the violence of a supernova as billions of sounds, voices, images, or even thoughts entered it all at once. She wasn't even able to understand what she was looking at or hearing, it was all enormously confusing, she was like everything that existed and at the same time she was something separate. It was so shocking that she immediately turned off her power and locked her mind back into her body, and then she fell onto her back on the bed breathing heavily.

“Okay… that was a really shitty idea” she whispered, looking at the ceiling. She rubbed her temples, feeling her brain ache as if someone had just hammered her in the head. "I didn't expect it to be so intense... oh, it still hurts..."

It took her a while to recover; for over an hour it felt like she had a gong attached to her ear. She didn't dare move from where she was because she was pretty sure she would have fallen face first on the floor. But when she was able to sit up again the first thing she said to herself was: "Ok... let's try again"

Her brain clearly didn't take her decision well, because she felt a slight twinge in her head again as soon as she said it. It was probably asking her why she was stupid enough to touch a boiling pot after she had already burned herself once. “I just started too big" she told to herself. "The whole Hell contains too many things and people, it was obvious that it couldn't end well. This time I'll try something smaller"

She decided to proceed in small steps and then slowly widen the circle, a bit like when she learned to fly: as Sera had always told her when she was too exuberant as a child, never jump off the cliff straight away, it's always better to start from the trampoline above the swimming pool, so she wouldn't have risked getting hurt. Most likely in that case it was the same: she had to first expand her mind to a small point, get used to it, and then gradually increase it until it eventually included all of Hell.

She decided to start with a sparsely populated area of ​​Sloth; logically speaking there shouldn't have been too many people, and considering the personality of the inhabitants of that Ring they should have been rather calm. But as soon as she expanded her mind in that direction, she was once again hit by a cacophony of sounds and a riot of images. It was much less intense than the first time, but it still made her dizzy and she was forced to pull away again. She let out a huff of frustration as she rubbed her head.

This time she was able to make out something, which allowed her to understand that the demons were only a small part of the problem: the fact was that she saw and heard literally everything. Every movement of a blade of grass, every breath of wind, every insect that flew; and what's more, she didn't admire it from just one perspective, but from every possible perspective at the same time. If it weren't for the mental resistance provided by Roo, even a seraphim angel like her would have ended up developing schizophrenia after such an experience.

“Fuck, how can God do this?” she couldn't help but wonder. "I'll get an epileptic attack if I continue like this..."

Maybe she should just let it go?

But it would have been such a waste...

Ok, she shouldn't have collapsed at the first obstacle. She simply had to find a starting point that didn't make her brain explode right away, and which consequently allowed her to get used to that condition.

Yes... but which one? Even the Betrayal Ring, which was almost exclusively a frozen wasteland, had tons of stuff in it. Even taking just one square meter of that Ring she would have found wind blowing continuously and consequently hitting the ice, thunder, lightning...

But... maybe she could have started lower down.

Yes... the earth couldn't make any noise, and it didn't have much color, and since we were talking about the underground it wouldn't have much light either. And being so close to the absolute depths of Hell, she certainly wouldn't even have found worms or other organisms that with their complexity could further mess with her brain.

Yes… that actually seemed like a good place to start. Or at least, something that wouldn't have given her a multiple personality disorder after three seconds.

Hoping for the best this time, she expanded her mind underground, descending beneath the Betrayal Ring. To her enormous relief, this time she wasn't greeted by any loud noises or explosions of colors, as the terrain was all almost completely homogeneous, yet she still needed a certain amount of concentration to stabilize herself.

It was all so... strange. It was as if she were a single rock, and she felt every interaction it had with other rocks, every grain of sand that brushed against it, every tiny fragment of graphite that it rubbed against. She could feel its hardness, and at the same time she perceived what was happening inside it: an infinity of smaller pieces that made up the rock, in turn composed of increasingly smaller pieces that combined with each other. She was the rock and understood it in every tiny part. And once out of the rock, she could feel the interactions with the other rocks, and she also felt every other rock in its entirety, and then again all the grains of sand and gravel, all the minerals, all the tiny cavities within the underground.

Emily was shocked by how much... life there was in that little patch of underground she had imprinted her mind on. Well, not life in the proper sense of the term, but life as something dynamic, of movement, of... presence. Everything there existed, no different than things existed on the surface, and interacted with their surroundings just as they did, albeit much more slowly and calmly. And she now felt permeated by that existence, because she was at the same time every single thing and the whole of it.

She was the earth itself and all its smallest components.

She was… everything.

It took her a while to get used to the feeling. Whenever something 'new' happened, like the tiniest shift of a grain of sand, her attention was immediately captured and she lost sight of the rest of it. But slowly, and then more and more quickly, she learned not to let this distract her; instead, everything new became contained within the grand totality of things she was looking at, until she ended up feeling a strange sensation of completeness.

That grain of sand moving or that drop of water flowing down the fracture was no longer something that caught her attention, because her attention was on everything at once. She was the earth and the earth was her, and there was nothing that escaped her perception.

“Is this what God feels like?” she couldn't help but wonder. Well, if someone had asked her what it meant to be an omniscient entity, surely that sensation she was experiencing would have been the answer she would have given, even if obviously for God the sphere of influence did not only touch that piece of earth but all of Creation.

Having gotten used to that new condition, she tried to expand her mind again, touching new underground pieces. For every extra centimeter she added a new avalanche of sensations hit her, but then she managed to integrate them into the immense complexity that was now part of her. More and more quickly she learned to get used to that environment, and even though she knew that as soon as she reached the surface again things would have become much more complicated since she would have had to interact with much more dynamic forces and organisms, she still felt a strong satisfaction in having managed to achieve such a goal.

Suddenly, as she continued to expand, she felt something new. Initially she didn't understand what it was, but then she realized that it was an enormous root that was digging into the rock like a snake, indeed, the rock itself was growing from the root as if it were a part of it. It wasn't difficult for her to understand that she had found one of Roo's roots.

Emily felt mixed emotions as she included that organism in her mind. She could feel the energy coursing through it, every inch of it as powerful as thousands of supernovae and more chaotic than any black hole. Yet that root also possessed a strange form of stability, a kind of order in chaos, that gave it a strength and strength beyond anything Emily had ever felt.

She felt quite in awe as she felt the strength of that being. She had no doubt that just that root that she was touching with her mind could reduce a supercluster of galaxies to crumbs in a fraction of a second without the slightest effort. It was an extraordinary force, comparable only to the primordial force of Creation; something destructive and eternal that could not be stopped by anything.

Well… almost nothing, Emily told herself in her mind. Because now that unstoppable force had found an immovable object. In fact, even at that moment Emily could sense her control over that root. She knew that if she wanted, she could force that root to move. That same root that had the power to sweep thousands of galaxies was however forced to obey her will.

She couldn't help but smile. She didn't like to admit it, but it really felt good to feel so powerful. Knowing that even the strongest being in the universe was forced to obey her lit a flame of pride in her heart.

"Damn. Apparently I really am my father's daughter" she said to herself after realizing the emotions she was feeling, but despite this she was unable to feel totally ashamed.

She continued to expand her mind, touching new roots of the enormous parasite. They were increasingly larger and more twisted, infused within the rock that served as their cocoon. It was really true that Hell was nothing more than an extension of Roo, since it was as if the roots generated the rock as if it were an excrescence. As disgusting as this was, Emily found something strangely interesting about it. For her, who could see the totality of that entire part of Hell, everything seemed to have a precise role, and the apparent chaos formed something harmonious, not dissimilar to any ecosystem albeit in a horribly deviated nature.

Eventually she expanded so much that the earth and rock disappeared; she was surprised for a moment, but then realized that she had reached the absolute depths of Hell. She had arrived at the center of the dark realm, the place where the most powerful and evil creature ever lived. Now there was no longer rock in front of her, but... emptiness. Absolute emptiness. A space completely devoid of any subatomic particles, whose only presence was an immense tangle of roots.

Emily was a little in awe of getting closer again. She wasn't sure if her mind's eye on what was literally the repository of all the evil in the universe was a good idea. So instead of continuing downward she continued to expand around that cocoon.

Meter after metre, kilometer after kilometer, eventually all the ground below the Betrayal Ring and above Roo's home became her. She had literally become the entire layer that made up the space between the two Rings. Now she could only choose whether to try to expand upwards, and so return to the surface of Betrayal, or go downwards and enter Roo's cocoon.

But while she was thinking about it a slight shiver ran through the roots. Emily was the only one who felt the movement, imperceptible to any other living creature, so slight that not even the atoms had stirred. Through the roots she perceived a thought, or rather, a sort of instinct, something so basic that in comparison even a bacterium would have seemed a man of letters. The instinct was simple and carried a single command: don't let the prey escape.

Don't let the prey escape...?

What prey?

Part of Emily's brain told her not to take the risk, but she was too curious, so she expanded her mind even inside Roo's cocoon. And it was there that she felt that instinct coming from the roots again, at the same time as one of them tightened more. It was tightening around something... something alive that had just moved, generating that reaction.

Was there anything alive there...?

As soon as she realized what it was, she started to laugh.

She opened her eyes again, finding herself back on her bed, though her mind was still underground-expanded. With a satisfied grin, she moved her hand slightly and opened a portal, and in an instant found herself in Roo's cocoon. Even though she knew it wasn't a good idea to venture there, she still couldn't stop herself. "Hey, Lilith! How are you?"

Chapter Text

Lilith let out a moan as the root tightened around her arm once again, piercing her flesh as if it were a hot needle. She gritted her teeth as hard as she could, knowing that Roo would only have tightened her grip if she dared to move.

She didn't know how long it had been since she had been imprisoned there. Maybe days. Time had started to get pretty crazy in her mind, and every now and then a minute seemed as long as a year. And it certainly didn't help that she couldn't make the slightest movement without Roo immediately starting to crush her again.

By now the root had penetrated almost into her shoulder. Every second her arm burned and ached more than it had ever done before, making her constantly cry, but she still had to force herself not to move because otherwise it would have triggered that horrible reaction again. Even just moving a muscle slightly was enough to trigger Roo. And every time she did, the amount of pain increased.

She had tried to think of a way to escape, but with a good portion of her concentration focused on not moving her body and another wracked by pain in her arm, it had been impossible for her to formulate even the slightest plan. If there was a way to free herself from Roo's grip, she couldn't think hard enough to figure out which one.

Fuck, she'd never felt so much pain… not physical, at least. She knew it could have been much worse, she remembered well what she had felt coming from Eve as she tore away pieces of her soul, so she knew that what Roo was inflicting on her was an infinitesimal part of what was constantly being inflicted on the mother of humanity. However, this was certainly no consolation given that the pain still remained.

She even found herself hoping that Lucifer, Charlie, or anyone else would have come and lend her a hand, even though she knew full well that even they couldn't play with that monster lightly. Shit, she had really sunk low. If only...

 "Hey, Lilith! How are you?"

That voice made her eyes snap open, and luckily she had enough self-control not to ball her fists, or Roo would have crushed her arm again. She turned slightly and to her surprise found a mop of white hair above her. "What...?"

The person looking down at her moved and flew in front of her face… or rather, she did a slight pirouette in the air and landed as if there was a solid surface beneath her, not a void. "Come on, Lilith, won't you even say hello to me? I thought we were friends by now!"

"You?" Lilith exclaimed as she recognized the young seraphim that Charlie had helped her capture and exploited to build Hell's arsenal. However, it did not escape her at all that she was now barefoot, that she had very complex and almost royal clothing, that she had what looked like a crown of roots on her head, and above all that her eyes were now red with black pupils and they seemed to be surrounded by tiny roots that cast a dark shadow over them, making them extremely disturbing. Lilith felt very well that something was terribly wrong. “What… how are you…?”

"How did I get here? I simply opened a portal" Emily replied with a smirk. "When I sensed you were here I couldn't resist. Karma really is a bitch, mh?"

Emily didn't know if it was due to her amplified negative emotions or if it was simply what she was really feeling, but she remembered feeling so satisfied a few other times in her one hundred and eighty-six years of life. Seeing the one who was mainly responsible for her imprisonment reduced to those conditions made her want to smile, even if she doubted it would be a sweet smile. But damn, for once she didn't care about appearing mocking.

Lilith swallowed hard. Incredibly, Emily's expression was managing to send shivers down her spine too. "Um... okay, you're right. I misbehaved and now I'm being punished. Karma taught me a lesson. Now can you help me, please?"

"Help you?" Emily put a hand on her chin as if she were thinking, without losing her wry smile. "I don't know... try to insist"

Lilith's eyes narrowed. "Come on, girl! Okay, I was mean to you, and you're right to be angry! But you can't really want to leave me prey to this monster!"

Emily's smile widened. "Beg"

Lilith blanched. "What?"

Emily's heart was pounding. Fuck, she didn't know it felt so good to be in a position of power over someone who was on her ass. She felt like she had just won every prize possible. "I told you to beg. Where I come from, when someone needs help they start crying and ask for forgiveness. Do it"

Despite her precarious situation, Lilith still felt a flame ignite in her chest. “Are you kidding me!?”

Emily shook her head. "Well, if you don't want to beg, I assume you don't really need my help that much. Bye bye!"

Lilith's eyelids fluttered. "What the... what kind of angel are you!?"

"One who got tired of doing things for free. Especially for those who don't deserve them" Emily replied, and turned around in an almost theatrical manner. "I'm going home now, I have plans for the evening. Remember to not move too much!"

She took a few steps, continuing to move in the void as if she were on a solid surface, and then Lilith's faint voice reached her ears: "... wait"

Just as expected.

Emily felt her satisfaction skyrocketing again. It was as if every time she thought it had reached its climax, she discovered there was so much more room left.

She turned her head slightly: "... yes...?" she asked in a false innocent voice.

Lilith gritted her teeth and blushed, but still she whispered: "P-Please, help me. Don't leave me here like this. I don't know what to do anymore. This parasite will eat me alive. I'm begging you. Please, have mercy"

Emily's smile widened until it almost touched her ears. Her eyes seemed to give off sparks. "Oh, good! Did it have to take that long?" she said to Lilith, turning back to her. “Well, since you have shown penance for your sins, I'll give you a little reward”

And with that she snapped her fingers. She did it more for show than out of real necessity, since she gave the real command with her mind. As soon as he did, the root that had now almost completely crushed Lilith's arm retreated, slithering away like a snake, until it was reduced to half its original length.

Lilith's eyes widened in surprise. Clearly, she had never imagined that someone could do something like this. "Y-You... commanded...?"

Emily shrugged innocently, and then she moved a nearby root that positioned itself beneath her, creating what looked like a seat. "As you can see, she and I are on very good terms" ​​she said, sitting on the root and patting it as if she were petting a dog.

Lilith had turned white as a sheet. "I-It's not possible... no one can do something like that! How can you control Roo...?"

"Does it surprise you so much? You immediately trusted when Lucifer told you that he would have been able to control her, right?" Emily told her. "Well, I don't have the same limitations as my father. As you can see, I succeeded where he failed"

Lilith fell silent. "Father...?"

"Oh, right, you don't know yet" Emily said. She didn't know why she was telling her those things, she just knew that they would have hurt Lilith, and that was enough for her to want to continue. "It didn't take your husband long to move on from you. He quickly found another woman. You weren't that special after all, mh?"

What little color remained on Lilith's face disappeared completely. "You... are Lucifer's daughter...?" she whispered.

"Yes, I told you. Your ex had an affair with my mother" Emily replied. "I hope you don't mind that you were replaced almost immediately. You really weren't worth anything to him"

“Okay, now you're exaggerating” her conscience whispered to her. "You know that's not true...!"

"Oh, shut up!" Emily yelled back at her. "This is too good! This is the bitch who had the idea to treat me like a battery, I want to have some fun!"

Lilith was silent for a long moment, and she seemed to have even forgotten that Emily was there. Her expression was unreadable, but she didn't seem happy at all. "What? Don't you like that your man wasn't totally obsessed with you?" Emily asked her.

Lilith let out a soft grunt. "We're divorced" she said finally. "He has the right to do what he wants. If he wanted to have another woman, that's his decision, not mine"

Emily was a little disappointed by this. It was obvious that Lilith wasn't happy, but she still would have preferred a much more intense reaction. Something like crying and screaming, let's say. "Well, I'm not surprised that you think so. After all, I bet that you too have had a good number of lovers in the last years..."

"I had no one" Lilith replied sourly.

That answer caught Emily off guard. "Uh... really?"

“Why, what did you expect?” Lilith asked.

"Well, the classic... you're not married anymore, so let's have fun! Men, women, whatever you like! You're the first slut, right?" Emily answered.

"Don't call me a slut!" Lilith growled. Even though she knew that her life was literally in the hands of that angel, she was not willing to be insulted.

"Why not? Everyone calls you that" Emily replied mockingly, happy to have made her angry again.

"Well, I'm not a slut!" Lilith exclaimed. "I've had two men in my entire life, Adam and Lucifer! The first because divine order, the second because love! No one else! By what logic could you call me a slut!?"

Emily cocked her head to the side. "Really? You loved Lucifer?"

"Of course I loved him. Why else would I have married him otherwise?" Lilith grumbled.

"Ah, I don't know. Social climbing?" Emily asked. "Knowing you, it wouldn't surprise me..."

"What kind of opinion do you have of me!?" Lilith almost screamed. "I don't give away my body to get favors! I have a fucking dignity! I hated that Adam always tried to be on top and asked me to do it too many times a day, do you think I would be happy to let myself be used by someone who just wants to satisfy their lust? I wouldn't have stayed all these thousands of years with Lucifer if I hadn't loved him!"

Emily was speechless for a moment, and then without any malice anymore, but only with curiosity, she asked: "Then why did you get divorced?"

Lilith didn't answer. She simply said: "That is my business, and I have no reason to speak with you about such things"

Emily didn't know how to react to those words. Well, she technically didn't know much about the relationship between Lucifer and Lilith, and in fact when she thought about it better it seemed strange to her that two people would have stayed together for millennia without any feelings between them. Especially considering that one of them was constantly depressed and so the other person not only had to take care of him, but also run an entire kingdom all by herself.

However, she wasn't willing to end the conversation there: "Well, even if you are not a slut, you certainly had other flaws. Just look at your excellent parenting skills..."

“You're going too far” her conscience warned her again.

"I told you to shut up!" was the only answer Emily gave.

Lilith immediately became aggressive. "You're not a mother, you can't judge me"

"No, I'm not a mother, but I'm a daughter. And believe me, my mother is much better than you" Emily replied. “She raised me much better than you raised Charlie”

"Really? I'm not aware of Charlie becoming a fallen angel and being exiled from her home" Lilith replied back.

Emily's eyelid quivered. Her soul seemed to revolt. How dare that little bitch...?

But what she felt wasn't anger. It was different, it was like a desire to make her pay. And she knew exactly how to do it. "Maybe, but at least I still love my mother. Charlie hates you instead"

Lilith went rigid. "It's not true. She's just angry with me, she'll get over it"

"Oh, not at all. She hates you, she hates you sooooo much" Emily replied. Strangely as she said this her smile was widening and her eyes narrowing. "She didn't cry even once for you. In fact, she rejoiced in knowing you were down here, punished as you deserved. She almost laughed!"

"Stop it!" her conscience screamed. "This is a lie!"

"So what? She's suffering, it's working!" Emily answered without any empathy.

Lilith was gritting her teeth tightly. "I don't believe you" he told her.

"Oh, come on, as if this is the first time you've earned the hatred of a child" Emily replied. "Don't you remember Cain?"

Lilith's face seemed to turn to chalk. "Don't you dare...!"

"What? You don't like to talk about this, do you?" Emily said as her grin widened. "The great and mythical Queen Lilith... who backs down as soon as it's time to face the past. Didn't you say you have a dignity? Yours were just beautiful words, I assume"

"You...!" Lilith hissed, though her voice died in her throat.

Emily was having a hard time containing her satisfaction. She could see how Lilith's eyes were shaking. She was still putting on a pissed expression, but it was obvious that she was breaking. "You know, I live in his palace now. In the Betrayal Ring, I mean. Seriously, Cain dedicated a statue to Rosie, but not even one to you. That was already a sign of things to come, don't you think?"

Lilith's forehead was sweating, but she tried to keep her wits about her. "You live in the Betrayal Ring?" she muttered. "Listen... maybe I can help you"

Emily raised an eyebrow: "How?"

"I can teach you everything I know about that Ring. I was there when Hell stabilized and that place was created, I know how it works" Lilith answered her, trying to sound convincing as usual. "I can teach you arcane powers and magic that take shape thanks to the primal energies of that Ring. All you have to do is take this root off me and take me up there, and I'll be happy to be your teacher"

Emily narrowed her eyes. Clever, she found herself thinking: even in this situation, Lilith was trying to win her favor. And by doing so she was also diverting her attention from the topic of Cain, avoiding talking about things she didn't want to. She couldn't deny that she was smart. "I have an alternative proposal" she told her.

Lilith swallowed. "And that is?"

"Very simple" Emily replied, and then her expression became more evil: "I'll free you, but I don't need a teacher; instead, you put on a humble maid's dress and from now on you will be my skivvy! I just need someone to clean the palace where I live, after all these thousands of years it's dirty"

Lilith's eyes widened: "Are you serious!?"

"Of course yes! It's a perfect job for you, don't you think?" Emily replied. "Unfortunately I don't have a broom to give you, understand me, I don't have time to go to the supermarket to buy one lately. I'm afraid you'll have to cut off that beautiful blonde hair you're so proud of and use it for cleaning!"

"Girl, please, think well about it!" Lilith tried to talk her out of it. "Think about what I can teach you...!"

"You can't teach me anything" Emily replied. "How do you think I found you? I'm learning to expand my mind, pretty soon any secrets of the Betrayal Ring and then all of Hell will no longer be secrets in my eyes. And even if I can't, I have Rosie up there with me, and she can teach me just as much as you can, maybe even more. Therefore, what do I need you for? You're useless to me"

Lilith bit her lip. "W-Well... don't jump to conclusions! I can..."

"Let it go" Emily interrupted, and then rather cruelly she added: "I don't need the help of a woman who can't even make her children love her"

Lilith gritted her teeth so hard she looked like she was about to break her own jaw. "Shut up...!"

"Oh, don't be so pissed. It's just the way it is. Charlie hates you now, and Cain... well..." Emily put her hands on her neck, simulating a person being strangled, all of that while keeping her amused and mocking expression.

Lilith's eyes flashed what looked like lightning. "You can't...!"

"What? Remind you that he almost killed you?" Emily said with a grin. "Well, I guess you should have expected it. When you create a monster, you can't be surprised that it then behaves like a monster"

"I didn't make Cain a monster!" Lilith screamed, and flailed as she did so, regardless of the fact that she was still attached to Roo. Needless to say, the root lodged itself harder into her arm, making her scream in pain.

Emily didn't even try to help her. It was the first time she had actually watched someone suffer and not felt the urge to help them. Instead, she brought her face close to Lilith's and said: "Accept the reality, no one ever loved you. Not Adam, not Lucifer, not even Cain. You were just their pastime. Charlie was the only one who had any affection for you, and now you have destroyed it. You are left completely alone"

Lilith looked up weakly. Her face was drenched in sweat, and her arm was clearly still very sore. Her eyes had become trembling. "F-Free me, please" she murmured in a small voice.

Emily's heart seemed to explode with satisfaction. Finally, here it is. That magnificent expression. "Yes... yes!" she screamed, taking Lilith's face in her hands. "This is the face I want to see on you! You finally bend over! So, how does it feel? How does it feel to be so helpless!?"

The bastard had finally given in. She had thrown away her pride and collapsed. She wasn't holding her head high with her anymore. She had submitted.

Fuck, it felt so good...

"I-I'm sorry" Lilith stammered, and judging by her expression just letting Emily's fingers touch her was uncomfortable for her. "Please, let me go...!"

"Oh, no, no! I'll let you go if I decide to!" Emily responded by holding her even tighter. Her eyes seemed to glow evilly. "Now I decide what you can or cannot do! You are my toy now! You will leave here when you have paid a thousand times for what you have done to everyone!"

She didn't know what expression she was wearing right now, but the way Lilith was looking at her made it clear that it wasn't reassuring at all. Good, she was scared, that bitch. The more scared she was, the better Emily felt.

"I admit that I understand why you like being in control so much" she told Lilith. "Fuck, it feels so good to be able to do whatever I want to you... you're nothing but my bitch now! You should see your face! Pfff... ah ah... ah ah ah...!!! ULP!"

Emily immediately put her hands over her mouth. That laugh hadn't been her usual laugh. Her normal laugh was light and gentle, like tinkling bronze, containing a sweet and pleasant note, which always brought smiles to her listeners.

The laugh that had just come out of her mouth… it wasn't hers. It had been sinister, loud, even hissing at times. It had made even her own blood run cold with how terrifying she had been.

That hadn't just escape from her lips... right?

"I have to go!" she almost screamed in a shrill voice, and in an instant she opened a portal and disappeared through it.

Lilith watched her go with great relief. Her face was now wet with her own sweat. “Fuck, that girl is crazier than me” she muttered slightly as she took a deep breath.

Emily immediately reappeared in her room, still with her hands over her mouth. She almost didn't have the courage to move them. She stood still for a few seconds, and then she finally found the strength to move her palms away from her lips. She barely let out a whisper: "That... that was me...?"

“It was you in doing what?” a familiar voice behind her asked.

Emily whirled around and saw Rosie sitting on her bed with her arms crossed with a rather stern expression on her face. "Um... uh..."

Rosie's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Where have you been? I'd like to know"

Chapter Text

Emily immediately broke out in a cold sweat. Maybe it was because deep down she knew she'd done something wrong, or maybe it was the piercing look Rosie was giving her, but she really felt under a lot of pressure. "I... um... uh..."

"I asked you a simple question" Rosie told her. "Where have you been?"

Emily immediately looked away: "It's... personal! I don't want to talk about it!"

"You looked very shocked to me" Rosie pointed out. "And something tells me that what happened shouldn't be ignored"

“Why, are you a psychic now?” Emily replied sarcastically.

Rosie raised an eyebrow. “You're getting really rude, you know that?”

Emily put a hand over her mouth, as if she hoped she could take those words back. "Um... sorry, I let my emotions get the better of me again" she replied, hoping that the cannibal overlord would have been satisfied with that excuse.

Obviously it wasn't like that. "That's enough" Rosie told her, getting up from the bed and staring at her very sternly. "You have three seconds to tell me where you've been"

Emily swallowed. Why did she suddenly feel like a teenager caught by her parent after running away from home to spend the night out with her boyfriend? "I... um..."

“Why do you hesitate so much?” Rosie asked her, and from her tone of voice it wasn't hard to tell that she knew the answer very well. "If you have a clear conscience, then tell the truth"

The problem was that Emily didn't have a clear conscience at all. Indeed, she could say that she had a very guilty one. She looked at Niffty and Frank hoping for help, but they were both still staring at her in confusion and completely silent. "So?" Rosie asked her in a firm voice.

Emily then gave in: "Oh, okay! I've been to the center of Hell, okay?"

Rosie's eyes widened slightly more. "What did you even go there for!?" she exclaimed, and for the first time her tone of voice not only contained seriousness but also a note of fear.

"It was… something related to my powers" Emily replied, telling a half-truth. "I was learning to expand my mind..."

"And you didn't do anything else?" Rosie asked her inquisitively.

Emily nodded: "Yes, I told you. I just trained..."

"Stop telling lies!" Rosie suddenly exclaimed, so loudly that Emily jumped slightly and even Niffty and Frank were surprised. “What did you really do?”

Emily swallowed; how had Rosie known she wasn't telling the truth? Had she really been that obvious? "Well... maybe I have..."

"There's no maybe here! There's only what you did and what you didn't do!" Rosie replied sternly. "And now I want the truth!"

Emily couldn't stand it any longer: "I talked to Lilith! Are you happy?" she finally exclaimed.

Rosie froze for a moment. "Excuse me, what?"

Emily bit her tongue, realizing she'd revealed something better left unsaid. "Yes... Lilith is down there, imprisoned by a Roo's root... and I took the opportunity to tease her a bit..."

"What do you mean with 'tease her a bit'?" Rosie asked her.

"Oh, come on, don't judge me! That's the woman who had the idea to use me as a battery, I'd say I had the right to get even a little revenge at least!" Emily said trying to justify herself. "I just revealed to her that Lucifer is my father and therefore he had a relationship with my mother... you know, to make her a little jealous..."

"And what else?" Rosie urged her. Even with her completely black eyes it was possible to see the strain of tension in her gaze.

Emily twiddled her thumbs a little. "Well... I told her that Charlie doesn't love her and that she's happy that she's now a prisoner"

Rosie took on a strange expression. It was something so indecipherable that it was impossible to tell what she was thinking. "Emily..."

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have! It was mean and cruel and everything else" Emily said quickly, trying to brush it all away quickly. "But... come on, she deserved it! You can't deny that she was a bitch to me and to a lot of other people!"

"She deserved it?" Rosie repeated in a harsh voice. "Really? Is that what you think?"

"Yes!" Emily exclaimed irritably. "Why, do you perhaps want to defend her?"

"I'm not defending anyone. I simply remember an angel who would never have said that someone deserves such a fate" Rosie replied. "Emily, you are crossing too many lines. May I please ask how much you listen to your conscience lately?"

Emily bit her lip, feeling a little guilty in her heart; but that didn't stop her from replying in kind: "Too many lines? I just annoyed a warmongering bitch a little, I don't see anything wrong with it"

"First, you didn't annoy Lilith! The mere fact that you call what you did 'annoy' shows how much you need to revise your morals!" Rosie told her. "Second, this is just the latest in a long series! Shall we talk about the fact that you had someone spying on your sister and friends?"

Emily swallowed. "That's just to protect them..."

“That's not true and you know it” Rosie replied. "You don't trust them. You want to keep an eye on them"

"Well, it's the same!" Emily said. "I keep an eye on them so I can intervene and help them in case. Come on, do you have any idea what they are like? They're sure to get into some trouble"

“And that justifies spying on your sister?” Rosie muttered.

Emily crossed her arms: "W-Well, she was the one who betrayed my trust first! She can't complain if I keep an eye on her now! She's a queen, I have to make sure she doesn't mess up!"

"So you are already assuming she's going to make a mistake" Rosie told her.

"Yes! There, I admitted it! Are you happy now?" Emily retorted.

Rosie shook her head. "This is not good" she told her.

Emily's irritation rose quickly. Now she really had enough. "Well, think what you want! I'm the one who decides here!" she replied acidly, then she turned and quickly left the room.

But Rosie didn't give up. "Oh, no, no, young lady! You won't run away from the conversation this time!" she said following her with quick steps, followed by Niffty and Frank who were hopping on their little legs.

"Leave me alone!" Emily exclaimed without turning towards her, and actually she accelerated her pace almost without realizing it. "There's nothing to talk about! What's wrong? The fact that I don't trust Charlie after she overthrew our father and imprisoned me? She can just thank me for just spying on her!"

"You know that Charlie did what she thought was right and that she still considered you a priority!" Rosie told her. "This doesn't justify her actions, but it doesn't justify yours either! You can't behave like this!"

"So what!?" Emily blurted out. By now she was almost running down the corridor in an attempt to outrun the cannibal overlord. “What did I do that was so wrong?”

"Do you want a list? I'll make you happy" Rosie replied rhetorically. "For starters, you refuse to meet your friends and continue to isolate yourself. Then you refuse confrontation every time someone says something you don't like. You gave extraordinary power to a guy you barely know and sent him to spy on that who now you know very well are your family. And to conclude you went to the center of Hell to make fun of someone, and in a rather cruel way to boot!"

"Cruel? Tsk! Come on, I could have done a lot worse!" Emily opined. "I even helped Lilith, I pulled that root halfway out of her arm..."

"What?" Rosie asked confused.

Emily bit her tongue. Why did she always talk too much? "Yes, the root that imprisons Lilith is stuck in her arm. I pulled it out a little after she finally begged me for help..."

Rosie's hand grabbed her arm, preventing her from continuing to run away. The cannibal overlord's face seemed to have turned to chalk. "You made Lilith beg you!?"

“Well… technically I gave her a choice!” Emily replied. "I just wanted to see her face while she was finally helpless...!"

“Emily, do you listen to yourself when you talk!?” Rosie exclaimed.

Emily's eyelid quivered visibly. Now she was really angry, but she still tried to contain herself. "Stop being moralistic! A little revenge never hurt anyone! You agree, right?" she asked Niffty and Frank.

The two little people looked at each other a little undecided. "Um... I don't think I understand much... but I don't think revenge doesn't hurt anyone" Frank pointed out. "When the old boss tried to get revenge, a lot of people got hurt..."

"Yes, but Pentious was incompetent!" Emily blurted out. She realized what she had said too late and blushed: "Oh... sorry, Frank, I didn't mean that..."

"You seemed to mean it to me" Niffty opined. Even though her expression was extremely confused, her voice still contained at least a small hint of rationality, which was quite rare in her.

Frank was clearly upset for what she had just said, but still he tried to appear understanding: "Boss, I think you should calm down at least a little..."

"I'm calm!" Emily responded in a significantly louder voice than normal. "You're the ones who keep...!"

"Enough!" Rosie said in a firm voice, tugging her a little. "Get a hold of yourself, young girl!"

Emily felt a little overwhelmed by that authoritative presence, but that didn't stop her: "You... with what right do you tell me these things!? You're not my mother!"

"Well, be thankful that your mother isn't here, or that poor woman would surely be heartbroken to see how you're behaving!" Rosie answered her. "And in any case, in her absence I allow myself to take her role! I am over nine thousand years older than you, don't forget that! Show respect for the elderly!"

Emily's blood began to boil. Every muscle in her tensed like a violin string and her insides seemed to twist on themselves. "Tsk! Should I show you respect!? I remind you that I'm the most powerful in here! You're just a cannibal on steroids!"

Power surged through her body like a small hurricane; her white hair fluttered slightly and her dress did the same. For a moment it was as if liquid fire was enveloping her, and her red irises glowed like embers.

But Rosie wasn't at all intimidated. "Keep it down, miss!" she ordered her. “Do you think that just because you are now a goddess come to earth, then you can do as you please? Actions have consequences for everyone, no matter how powerful you are! And if you think you can scare me, you are way off the mark. Trust me, you have no idea of what I saw in my prime, you're just a slightly pissed off chihuahua in comparison"

“You… how dare you compare me to a dog!?” Emily exclaimed, and her body seemed to exude pure dark energy. "I remind you that I can destroy you with a single gesture...!"

Rosie barely closed her eyes. "Okay, do it. What will be the excuse you will find to justify yourself this time?"

Emily gritted her teeth. Her head was literally exploding. Why wouldn't that woman just fucking shut up!? Why did she keep confusing her!? The crown of roots on her head began to stir slightly.

Fuck, fuck, fuck...!!!

"You can't shut me up" Rosie repeated sternly. "If I see you behaving badly, it doesn't matter how much powerful you are, I will always tell you to your face!"

Emily let out a roar. "Shut the fuck up!"

"Why!? Because you don't like the truth!?" Rosie retorted. "Don't you like being told that you're doing things wrong!? That you're behaving like you never would have behaved a week ago!? That you're making a fool of yourself by spying on your sister!? That your mother would have an aneurysm if she saw you now!? Come on, try to tell me it's not true! Tell this lie to my face, if you really believe it!"

"I said shut up!" Emily repeated. Her eyes flashed. "I'm in charge here, do you understand!? You can't tell me what to do!"

“When have I ever done that?” Rosie pointed out. "I'm just throwing your mistakes in your face, I'm not ordering you anything! Ever since you came down here you've always made your own decisions! You have no one to blame but yourself!"

Emily's breathing began to quicken. Fuck, why did she feel so angry!? It was all Rosie's fault, she was the one who wouldn't shut up! It certainly wasn't her fault, she had only done things right... maybe she had done something wrong, but who didn't make mistakes? There was no point in holding them against her like that...!

Frank gulped: “Um, boss… I think you should seriously calm down now”

"Yeah, I think so too" Niffty murmured as she backed away. Normally she would have found that sight amusing, but now something was terribly wrong. It was as if Emily emanated fear itself, and the little cyclops demon's body was instinctively repelled by it.

Rosie was getting hit too, but even so she wasn't moving a muscle. Emily stared at her with eyes that had now become monstrous, and when she took a step towards her it seemed the whole Betrayal Ring seemed to tremble slightly. "Last chance. Shut up" she ordered, and what looked like hot vapors emerged from her mouth.

Rosie was pulled back slightly by the immense strength Emily was exuding; her hat flew off and her dress was torn in several places. But despite this she did not change her position, nor her stern expression. "No, Emily" was her answer.

SLAP!

Rosie fell to the floor with extreme force and rolled three times before coming to a stop; her jaw had literally fallen away from her mouth, and a trickle of blood was emerging from it. Judging by the movement of her eyes, she was even unconscious for a few seconds, and it took her a while to get her brain back in order. Niffty and Frank made a small sound of fear as soon as they saw her on the ground in that state.

Emily took deep breaths a couple of times; her blood still boiled. She raised the hand with which she had slapped the cannibal overlord again: "If I tell you to shut up, you have to shut up! Is that clear!?"

Rosie didn't answer her… not that she could have even if she wanted to. She simply turned her head slightly and stared at her with reproachful eyes. A reproach so great that Emily was unable to bear it and looked away, but even though she wasn't seeing it, she still felt the weight of those eyes on her. This continued to irritate her, and she felt the urge to hit her again...

Wait... what?

Now that the adrenaline was leaving her body and her heart was beating less fast, Emily began to realize what had just happened. Her eyes widened and she looked at the hand with which she had delivered that slap in horror, finding herself almost hating it. "R-Rosie...?"

The cannibal overlord still hadn't gotten up from the ground. Even though she didn't look too hurt, it was clear that the blow had done a lot of damage to her. She didn't seem to be even just able to stand on her own two feet.

"Oh, my...! Rosie, I... I don't know what came over me... I'm sorry...!" Emily exclaimed, putting her hands in her hair, and then she reached down and took the detached jaw: "Here... here, now I'll fix everything... come closer, I'll reattach it in a moment..."

But Rosie in response took the jaw away of her hands and reattached it to her mouth herself; instead of letting Emily fix it with her powers, she patiently waited for her natural demonic regeneration to repair it. Emily tried to approach her a couple of times to help her, but Rosie always pushed her away. And when she was finally able to speak again she said: "Go to your room"

Emily's eyes widened, "Um... what...?"

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!" Rosie yelled at her. "And stay there until you have thought carefully about your actions! And woe betide you if you try to use your powers to escape!"

Emily blushed. “What the… are you grounding me…?”

"Exactly" Rosie replied sternly. "Go to your room. NOW!"

Emily felt embarrassed. She wasn't a child, why did she have to go to detention? She felt angry again... but then she remembered that she had just broken Rosie's jaw, and the thought of doing it again made her stop. "F-Fine! As if it would do any good!" she exclaimed, and immediately she ran back to her room and locked herself inside.

Rosie got up with an effort almost inhumane; her entire body still ached terribly, especially her mouth. Frank and Niffty lent her a hand. There was a moment of silence, and then the cyclops maid asked: "You... realize that you just grounded a goddess, right?"

Rosie let out a grunt, leaning against the wall, looking like she wouldn't have been able to move from there for a while. "That girl needs to fix her head" she said in a quite worry voice.

Chapter Text

Angel didn't think of himself as a hero at all. He thought of himself as many other things: a sly profiteer, a freeloader, a former drug addict, a grumpy, easily irritated guy, an idiot, the kind of guy who could irritate even Gandhi, the party animal everyone wanted in their house, the one who needed someone to walk him home from outings with friends so he wouldn't have fallen asleep in a ditch, and many other things. Somewhere along the way he even managed to pull out attributes that a self-righteous person like Charlie would have found positive, like being the best friend in the universe and someone who definitely learned from his mistakes... when he tried, put aside his stubbornness, and tried to question himself. But he certainly wasn't a hero, and he would never have had the arrogance to call himself such.

He never acted out of selflessness. Oh, he could do it... but only when his opponents were still at a level almost equal to his own or slightly higher. When he had faced those assholes outside the club with Husk when he had come to console him, when he had fought against the Exorcists at the hotel, when he had found himself in the middle of a battle in the last few weeks, it had always been against enemies he knew he could defeat. Because that was his kind of courage: he knew how to assert himself only against opponents on his own level.

But when a true hero was needed, someone willing to face much more powerful enemies... he backed down. It was Husk who had had the courage to rebel against Alastor, the person who terrified him the most, and free him from the Vees. It was Blitz who had had the balls to face Rosie with Charlie, even if to do so he had had to allow some sort of monstrous horseman to leave his body, running the risk of losing his mind. It was Vaggie who fought Lilith, even though she knew full well that she would probably die in the fight. Hell, even Pentious was tougher than him, since he threw himself headlong into Adam even though he knew he was going to get himself killed, all to give Charlie a boost of motivation so she could save their friends.

Everyone had been more heroic than him. The most Angel had ever done was talk back to Valentino to defend Niffty. But when it came to actually facing the moth demon, he had let Husk take all the risks while he stayed behind. And even when he had had the courage to try to kill Valentino, he had not done so out of noble feelings, but because he was moved by revenge and selfishness that had almost culminated in the death of the man he loved and to whom he owed his very freedom, and who only by divine will had been saved by ascending to Heaven.

No, Angel certainly couldn't call himself a hero.

But he could call himself a bastard. A fucking sneaky little bastard who could cause a lot of trouble when he wanted to. He just had to find the right motivation, and now he had one. And he would have done everything in his power to chase that motivation.

Angel couldn't hide it from himself: he knew he had changed since he had accepted that smiling princess' offer to enter her hotel as the first patient in exchange for free accommodation. Not enough to go to Heaven, no; even if he didn't tell Charlie, he knew deep down that he was the one with the least chance of ending up there. Who would have wanted in Heaven a jerk who had done nothing in life but have fun shooting poor people for his mafia family, then drug himself to death just to keep them from finding out he was gay? Even God would have probably asked him what was wrong with his head. But if Angel thought he was incapable of truly redeeming himself, at least he could give Charlie credit for one thing: that thanks to her he had rediscovered enough empathy and altruism to refuse to leave Hell as it was now.

Angel was a free man now: thanks to Husk he no longer had to worry about Valentino, and in his will he had received all of his property, so if he wanted he could live in comfort for all eternity. But he knew that he was one in a billion, and that very few other people in Hell were as lucky as he was; most were destined to live as slaves forever. And while Angel once might not have cared, he couldn't anymore: he refused to let anyone else go through what he had gone through. He didn't want anyone to be more of a slave than anyone else, condemned to be a plaything for entertainment. He wanted sinners to be free to choose instead of being under the yoke of some overlord. He wanted imps and hellhounds and all the other lower classes to be free and with rights, not just tools in the hands of nobles. Life had taught Angel that it was very easy to become a slave in that Hell, and that being a slave really sucked, so fuck everything and everyone, he wanted to fix that shit once and for all.

Angel didn't consider himself a hero, but he could still be a part of making it all happen. He would have still been a coward who didn't fight bigger battles than himself, but he could at least act as a wingman for those who did have that courage. Even if it was fleeting, he could do his part, and go home saying that at least he had been selfless, and not his usual selfish self.

This was what Angel was thinking as he stared at the building where his mafia family was based, knowing that on the top floor he would have found Arackniss waiting for him. He had been hanging around that place too much lately, but honestly he didn't care: even if in the past he would have refused to go in there because he didn't want to face bad memories, now he told himself to be strong and do something for the good of his friends and all the other people in Hell. He had definitely changed, and for that he had Charlie to thank; so, now he had to at least give back a little by helping his friend build a more just Hell.

When he entered, the bodyguards greeted him with bowed heads. It was almost as if he had returned to the mafia and they considered him some sort of leader just because he was Arackniss's brother. After all, those were stupid and extremely simple-minded henchmen: as long as he and his family were at loggerheads they did not hesitate to beat him, but now that it seemed that he and Arackniss had made peace they treated him like an honored guest. Angel wanted to say that he was disgusted by such behavior, but he could not do so in good conscience since he himself had behaved like this countless times in the past.

As always, he found Arackniss waiting for him in his office. His brother was behind the desk with the computer turned on in front of his eyes. "You've arrived" he greeted him.

"You said an hour before the pentagram starts to shine, I even arrived early" Angel replied. "Don't look at me like I'm late"

"I didn't" Arackniss replied, expressionless and serious as his usual.

Angel rolled his eyes. "Seriously, it wouldn't hurt to loosen up a bit" he said, and then he sat down in front of him and pulled out a photo from under his jacket: "I brought it"

"It's not to me that you have to tell this" Arackniss replied, and he turned the computer to him; to Angel's surprise, the Camel's masked face was on the screen.

The spider demon was astonished: he didn't expect the big boss to bother himself in person, or at least not to expose himself in that way. Wasn't he afraid of being tracked down via the Internet, or that someone could intercept the communication? No... based on what Angel had learned about him so far, surely the Camel would never have made such a gross mistake. He had to have precautions. "Hello, sir" he greeted him.

"Hello, Angel" the Camel said back, and then he added: "And to clear up your doubts, this communication channel is encrypted using cryptographic protocols that use intertwined polyphasic waveforms that constantly alter the signal. Even the fastest computer currently in Hell would take no less than a year to be able to decipher it. I have created this channel exclusively to talk to you now, and I will delete it as soon as we are finished, and the place from which I am transmitting will be completely destroyed by tonight, erasing any possible evidence"

Angel narrowed his eyes. Okay, he knew he wasn’t exactly good at hiding his emotions, but had that guy really read him that much, especially while looking at him with that bulky mask? Damn, he was good. “As I was saying, I brought what I promised” he said, holding up the photo, which turned out to show Sir Pentious in his angelic form.

After Charlie and her friends had decided what to do, Angel had immediately contacted Arackniss and explained what they had in mind. His brother had shown a bit of surprise for the first time, not expecting such an ambitious plan, much less that redemption was possible; Angel had to admit that he had felt a certain satisfaction in seeing him lose his composure for once, even if he hadn’t said it out loud. Once he had recovered, Arackniss had assured him that she would have contacted the Camel and told him everything. After not even a day, he called Angel again telling him to come the next day before morning bringing the photo, because that day they would have started that big operation.

The Camel looked closely at the photo... or at least that was the impression Angel got, since he couldn't see her face. "Really... interesting" the Camel commented. "I can see why the Queen is sure this photo will cause a ruckus. Tell her she was really generous in giving it to me"

"I will, but you guys hold your own and don't be an asshole" Angel growled. Which translated to not trying to pull any tricks behind their backs.

The Camel remained unperturbed. "I never had any intention of doing so. While I'm a little annoyed that the Queen doesn't want to completely strip the overlords of their souls, she surely has a reason behind such actions, just like I do behind mine. I will respect that" he assured him. Angel obviously hadn't told Arackniss or the Camel that the Vees were to be treated differently since they had the plans for the weapons of mass destruction. "What matters is the result. According to my calculations, over ninety-eight percent of souls will be free by tonight if all goes as planned. That's enough for me to consider it a victory, and more importantly, it's enough to send a message to all of Hell"

Angel knew next to nothing about the man, but he was pretty sure he wasn't acting out of love for the community. Maybe he was pursuing an ideal, but he seriously doubted that he was the type who loved and wanted to save all people like Charlie. He sounded much more like someone who was willing to sacrifice something for his own purposes. Therefore, for the Camel, a measly two percent was not a big deal.

Or maybe he had simply already foreseen that there was a plan to free those two percent as well. Or maybe he himself had a plan. Or maybe he thought that once he had freed the majority of the population of Hell and ensured a fair regime, he could calmly and legally take care of freeing the last remaining minorities. Again, Angel had no way of telling because of that damned mask that hid any expression.

Anyway, that didn't matter now. "What should I do?" Angel asked, waving the photo.

"Go to that scanner" the Camel ordered, pointing to a scanner positioned a few feet away from the desk. "It's already connected to this cryptographic network. Once you scan the photo, it will be uploaded directly to the devices I'm transmitting from. I'll take care of the rest"

"Good" Angel replied, and went to the scanner to do as he was told.

However, the Camel's voice stopped him: "Angel Dust. Anthony Corleons" 

Angel wasn't surprised that the Camel knew his real name and surname: it was definitely someone who did research on the people he worked with, and even if he didn't find any information Arackniss could have told him at any time. What sent a chill down his spine was the fact that he knew full well that the mention of his real name meant that the Camel had something important to tell him. "Yes?"

"I hope you are well aware of what will happen when you put that photo in the scanner" the Camel warned him. "Regardless of whatever your future decisions will be, we will move forward. And once we start this, there will be no way to stop it. Even if I step aside, it will be the start of a chain of events that will change everything you know forever. Hell will never be the same again. Once you give me that photo, there is no going back. So if you feel that you, or rather the Queen you now represent, are not ready for what is to come, this is your last chance to back out"

Angel bit his lip. He knew what that meant: the Camel didn’t care about him, he cared about Charlie. He was telling him that if she wasn’t ready for the mountain of chaos and responsibility that was coming, then it was better to stop and wait a little longer. The Camel wanted to be sure that the person he was betting on wouldn’t have been crushed by events she didn’t know how to handle.

For a moment, Angel was actually tempted to back out. Honestly, the idea of ​​changing everything Hell had been built on for millennia scared him, and not a little. Angel wasn’t a broad-minded person, he had no idea what would have been unleashed in the distant future and what repercussions it would have. He feared what would have happened to his friends and who knows how many others if something would have gone wrong.

But that moment lasted only a moment; after that, hesitation gave way to determination again. “I’m not ready… but Charlie sure is” he finally answered. "And that's all that matters"

Angel knew Charlie could handle what was coming. Even though she hated that crown, she was fit to be Queen of Hell. It was her destiny to change that corrupt and depraved system. Angel had doubted her too many times, and each time he had been proven wrong: he was no longer willing to do so.

The Camel needed no further confirmation. "Very well. Proceed" he ordered him.

Angel nodded and placed the photo on the scanner. There was a metallic sound and a faint light, and then the machine immediately shut down. Angel took the photo back and looked at the Camel again, who had slightly tilted his head as if he were looking at something on the computer screen. "Good" he said. "I have received the photo. Operation No Return begins now. Go to the designated points and be ready; as soon as the time comes, I will send you the signal"

And after those last words he disappeared immediately: the screen went blank, without even giving them time to ask a question. Angel looked at Arackniss: "He was referring to the area you will attack, right?"

"Exactly" his brother replied, putting on his face the same boar mask he had used at the meeting. "Each of the people you met that night have been given a specific area of ​​the city where we will have to do damage to terrorize the overlords. Our job, as already stated, is to go there and smash everything, and run away immediately"

"Something our family is good at, basically" Angel muttered. "Give me the spider mask. I'll come with you"

Arackniss looked at him a little surprised. "That's not necessary"

"Are you acting like a caring brother now?" Angel grumbled sourly. "Charlie wants me to keep an eye on things from the inside, and I will. Besides, if I assert myself, your boss might like me even more and tell me his future plans. Oh, and I also want to make sure you don't kill anyone, at least not innocent people"

Arackniss remained silent, and then he nodded and opened the drawer, taking the spider mask from it. "You're not going to run away this time?" he asked rhetorically, throwing it to him.

Angel caught the mask in mid-air. "This is a story people will tell, and I want to be a part of it" he answered to his brother. "And if you think I'm going to run away and let you go on a shooting spree or some other bullshit of yours, forget it. I promised Charlie I would have stopped any massacres, and that's what I'm going to do"

Arackniss was silent for a long moment. "My cowardly brother ready to fight for a promise and a just cause... who would have ever imagined that" he finally commented. "Molly would be proud"

Angel stiffened as his brother mentioned their sister. "Don't mention her" he said annoyed. "Let's go"

"I mean it, stay close to the Queen" Arackniss commented again. "Because she can certainly perform miracles"

"I said let's go!" Angel snapped, not liking the way his brother was talking about him. This time Arackniss remained silent, and as expressionless as ever, he walked with him towards the door.

They took the elevator and went down to the basement of the building. They didn't say a single word during the ride, but they could both feel the tension emanating from the other's body. After all, what was about to happen was an event of epochal proportions, it was impossible to remain completely calm. But despite this, they both kept their cool and their minds clear, knowing that they would be needed for what they were about to do.

When they arrived at the basement, they found at least fifty men already waiting for them, all masked and cloaked to make themselves unrecognizable, and in any case all in an orderly line waiting for their boss. "Mh. What good little soldiers" Angel commented. "Forget about the mafia, you should create a battalion"

"Every large organization has a private militia. The more disciplined they are, the better" Arackniss answered him simply.

Angel let out a slight grunt. "You always knew how to make yourself respected" he commented looking at their men, who didn't dare move a muscle without a word from their boss. "So, what's the plan?"

Arackniss nodded, indicating a nearby crate containing several stacks of TNT. "We'll place them in every building in our assigned district and then blow them up. We'll also cause a bit of chaos in the streets with Molotov cocktails"

Angel nodded. Since it wasn't morning yet, most of the work buildings would be empty, so destroying them would only make a lot of noise, without hurting anyone. "What about any janitors or guards?" he asked just to be sure.

"A hit to the head and then we drag them out, and leave them on the street" Arackniss replied simply. "And if anyone tries to resist, we shoot them. We won't use angel bullets, so they'll regenerate in less than an hour. No one will get hurt, as promised"

"Good" Angel said, though he still wanted to be there to monitor the situation: while the sinners weren't at risk of being killed by the gunfire or even the explosion itself, the same couldn't be said for the hellborns. It was unlikely that a hellborn janitor would have tried to fight back, but just to be safe, Angel wanted to be there to make sure Arackniss's men would have just knocked them out, and not shoot them as collateral damage.

They got into their cars and drove off; Pentagram City was still dark, but soon the pentagram would begin to light up again. Eventually they stopped their cars in a nondescript parking lot with no cameras, and then continued on foot until they reached the designated spot. "This is it" Arackniss told his men. "I want a quick and final operation. Everything must be over within fifteen minutes. Each of you knows the escape route and what to do. No mistakes are allowed this time"

His men nodded in response, and Angel nodded as well. Arackniss pulled out his cell phone and waited. The tension was almost too much to cut with a knife. And then, finally, Arackniss's cell phone rang, and a single message came through: "NOW"

"FAST! FAST!" Arackniss shouted, and his men immediately broke down the doors of the buildings and swarmed inside. As expected there were occasional people working, and the guards present tried to resist, but were unable to react quickly due to the surprise. They were quickly knocked out and the bombs were planted, then detonated with a bang.

Angel was pleased to see that Arackniss was keeping his word; his men weren't killing anyone, and he knew this because he was helping to carry the stunned people out. He didn't know if the other leaders in the other sectors were doing the same, but it gave him hope nonetheless. "Satisfied?" Arackniss asked.

Angel nodded. "I admit I am" he replied.

Arackniss handed him a Molotov cocktail. "Then get serious. Let's burn this place to the ground"

Angel didn't need to be told twice: he took the Molotov and threw it into the street. Arackniss's men, having finished blowing up the buildings, went around setting things on fire and smashing windows and cars. "Okay, that's enough" Arackniss said as soon as there was enough destruction. "Everyone go!"

His men obeyed him promptly and seemed to almost evaporate from how quickly they ran; Angel followed his brother, who led him into an alley and then into an underpass, and finally into a dilapidated building that was almost deserted. "What now?" he asked when they stopped.

Arackniss took off his mask. "Now we wait an hour, and then we leave as if we were civilians who happened to be here" he answered. "Take off your disguise, we must not be seen in it"

Angel nodded. It seemed that Arackniss had really thought of everything: by dividing his men and waiting at alternate times, he greatly decreased the chances of anyone discovering their identities. "Well, let's wait then" he said, taking off his mask. "Is there any way to find out how things are going in the rest of the city?"

"Sure. Let's go up to the roof" Arackniss replied, pointing to the stairs.

The building they were in was old and ruined, but it was still quite tall; once they reached the roof, Arackniss and Angel could see a good part of the city, from which columns of smoke were rising, testifying to the explosions and fires that were happening everywhere. The residential neighborhoods had not been touched, and only the buildings owned by the overlords were being destroyed. Every second a new column of smoke rose, testifying to a new explosion. And Angel couldn't help but smile when he noticed that the pornographic television studios owned by Valentino were also on fire.

Arackniss leaned on the railing, staring at the spectacle. "So it begins" he commented.

Angel raised an eyebrow: "Are you quoting the Lord of the Rings?"

Arackniss snorted in amusement. "So you're not completely uncultured" he told him, making him grunt in irritation.

Chapter Text

"Vox! Can I kindly know what the fuck is going on!?" Valentino screamed as he entered his boyfriend's television tower like a hurricane. "My studio just blew up! And it's not the only one, half of the city is imploding!"

Vox gritted his teeth. He was already risking an aneurysm, and Valentino wasn't helping him at all. "Not now, Val!" he roared furiously as he stared at his countless cameras.

From there he could see everything that was happening in Pentagram City and beyond, and therefore knew what was happening. The screens were full of buildings from which columns of smoke emerged, or even completely destroyed. And every minute a new explosion occurred.

Valentino didn't have his technological powers, but he still had eyes albeit not with excellent vision, and could see at least some images from the screens. “Shit… what the fuck is going on!?” he hissed. “It can't all be a coincidence!”

“No, it's not at all” Vox growled.

“They're ignoring the civil districts” Valentino muttered, looking at the cameras. "It's a targeted attack... they're not blowing up random stuff, they're just hitting the overlords' possessions! It's a guerrilla tactic!"

Valentino might seem like an idiot at times, and he himself didn't deny that he often did stupid things, but he was still an expert when it came to the criminal world. There was no illegal trade or illicit action in which he had not immersed his paws. He was therefore able to immediately understand that those highly targeted attacks were aimed exclusively at the overlords, not at common citizens.

A bit of sweat formed on Vox's face, causing his screen to flicker. "Not only are they targeting the properties of the overlords" he said, clenching his fists. "They purposely waited until there was no one inside. They had planned everything down to the smallest detail"

Valentino made a furious noise: "Well, what are you waiting for? Stop them!"

"I've already done it! I've already sealed everything I could seal, including this tower!" Vox replied. "But these bastards knew what they were doing! They cut the wires and electrical connections to slow me down! Even with the quickest alertness, I couldn't stop them from blowing up over forty percent of our property!"

Valentino felt his blood boil. "Okay, they wanted it!" he exclaimed, spitting tons of toxic smoke from his mouth. "Now I'm going to go out there and teach them some manners personally..."

"If you can find them, they're all yours. They disappeared after you blew everything up" Vox told him. “Don't make more trouble than we already have!”

Vox already had a headache and was dangerously close to short-circuiting, and as a result he had no desire to deal with his impulsive boyfriend as well. Fortunately for once Valentino listened to him at the first shot and held back his anger: his experience in street fights and urban warfare reminded him that if he didn't have a clear target to hit he would only have made things worse by taking his guns and starting to shoot in the streets like crazy... although that would probably have let him get rid of some fucking steam, so it wouldn't have been such a bad thing for him.

Suddenly Velvette also entered the TV room. “You guys need to see this" she told them, holding up her cell phone.

Vox and Valentino looked at the screen, which was playing a video. A person cloaked in a camel mask was standing in a completely dark place, leaving no sign of their identity or whereabouts. "Hello, Pride Ring" they said with the most anonymous voice in the world, but at the same time full of a strange charisma. "You may be wondering what is happening. Well, today is the day when a page of history will be written. We are making our voice count so that the queen can hear it. Today we are rebelling against an oppressive regime that for too long has held all the sinners prisoners. It's time for a great change"

"What the hell is this guy talking about!?" Valentino ranted. "What do you think you are, asshole, a partisan!? Did we end up in 1944!?"

Vox remained rational: “Vel, can you trace the source of this video?”

"I already tried" Velvette replied to him. "The person who posted this must have destroyed their cell phone after doing so. I'm trying to trace the cell phone signal streams from days past, but whoever did this knew how to hide"

Predictable, Vox mused. That person had definitely planned that attack in detail, otherwise their men wouldn't have been able to avoid his cameras and catch him off guard like that. It was clear that they had accurate information on the overlords, so they would not have made such a blunder as allowing them to track their location. "Very clever indeed" he admitted.

“Oh, now you compliment this idiot!?” Valentino blurted out angrily.

"This time I agree with him" Velvette admitted. Even though she wasn't freaking out like the moth demon, she was still pretty tense. "What do we do?"

"Keep calm" Vox ordered them. “They've dealt us a few hits so far, but nothing too serious. Our remaining properties are now sealed. We don't have to worry about losing too much. Instead, let's focus on figuring out what this guy's next move might be”

"Why? Do you think we can get ahead of it?" Velvette asked him.

"If we understand what the next target will be, then we can capture at least one of his men and obtain useful information" Vox replied.

Vox knew that the best way to stop that bunch of imbeciles who thought they were who knows who was to eliminate their leader; cut off the head and the body will stagger, it was a simple and extremely effective tactic. But to do this it was necessary to find the aforementioned head, which was certainly hidden very well. And for the moment he had no idea who they were. But if he could capture even one of their trusted men, he could extract that information from them. Even if they were loyal to the core, he had plenty of ways to break their will and make them confess.

Vox normally preferred not to use such methods, not because he considered them amoral (the last time he had actually asked himself whether his actions were amoral was when at the age of thirteen he considered whether it was a good idea to disobey his father) but because they took time and were difficult to hide: their opponent would have immediately noticed the disappearance of one of their men and unless they confessed immediately they would have had all the time they needed to change their plans and location and therefore escape him. Vox much preferred to place spies, gather intelligence in secret, and then strike when his opponent least expected it. However, given the situation it was better to change his modus operandi for once: in the worst case scenario, even if he hadn't managed to obtain any useful information, the disappearance of some of their men would have at least intimidated their enemy who would have stopped for that day to regroup, giving him time to think about something else.

It was little consolation, but for the moment it was the best strategy he had in mind. Any other more decisive action would only have caused more chaos, and in the chaos there was unfortunately also confusion, and in the confusion it was even more difficult to discover anything. As much as he burned with the desire to annihilate those idiots perhaps even more than Valentino, he had to hold back his anger and continue to decide using rationality.

Meanwhile the guy in the mask in the video was continuing his monologue. Damn, why did all the heroic idiots have to give super long speeches? Wasn't that supposed to be the characteristic of villains? Oh well, they were in Hell, they were all villains at heart, including the heroes. Even though it seemed like he wasn't listening anymore, Vox still wasn't missing a syllable of what the guy was saying, hoping that they would at least have left some clues.

And it was precisely for this reason that he did not at all miss the way that guy ended their speech, with the result that his screen (and perhaps even the whole tower) almost exploded due to static electricity: "I know that for many of to you, change may seem scary, even impossible. But I assure you that it is not like that, not at all. Hell can change, for the better! Breaking your chains is not just a pipe dream, it is not an illusory reality; it's the first step towards true freedom! If you are no longer tied to the overlords you can aspire to be much more! You can aspire to this!"

And to everyone's surprise he showed a photo. A photo that showed a demon well known to all, but which was now different, presenting much more candid and... angelic features. The same photo that the Vees already knew well and which showed the same spy they had sent to the Hazbin Hotel some time before.

Vox, Valentino and Velvette almost choked on their own saliva: "What!? How did they get that!?"

The entire Pride Ring was speechless. For a moment no one even seemed to remember how to breathe. Everyone's minds were blown.

"That's...!?"

“It's not photoshopped, right?”

“So is redemption really possible?”

"How?"

"Why didn't anyone say this before?"

"Is it really true? I mean really really true?"

In a single instant, the demons' souls changed completely. What they initially saw as aggressive and dangerous behavior suddenly became something completely different. Now it looked almost noble.

The sinners did not know how to take this news, nor were they able to understand what they should do, or even whether to be happy or not. Only one thing was clear to them: something that everyone had thought was impossible had become reality. A demon had completely freed himself from damnation, leaving the gloomy realm of Hell and arriving in the blissful realm of Heaven.

The impossible, what no one had believed in, had become reality.

Like a wave, that news seemed to crash over every single person in the Pride Ring. TV studios were going wild, competing to see who would report the news first. In the 666 News studio, Katie Killjoy was fuming: "Are you kidding me!? I had a chance to get exclusive of the millennium and I missed it!?"

"Um... I'm afraid so, Katie" Tom told her without any empathy. He was shaking his head in disappointment, but deep inside he was a little happy that karma had finally punished his boss for her bad temper.

Katie let out an enraged hiss: "Shut up! This is all your fault!"

Tom raised an eyebrow: "My fault? But it's you who...!"

"Your fault! It's all your fault!" Katie ranted again, so much so that she looked like she was about to suffocate from the tension. "I missed this absolute news! This is the right time I hang myself again!"

"I wish so..." Tom commented softly, but Katie heard him anyway and slammed his face into the desk several times.

Pentagram City wasn't the only city 'hit' by the news. In every corner of the Pride Ring it had gone viral, literally. In Imp City, the sinners there dropped whatever they were doing and ran to the television screens.

"This is amazing" Mayberry murmured as she watched the television with her face almost glued to the screen. "I... thought this was the end of the line..."

"Apparently you were wrong" Martha said. Unlike her partner she was keeping it cool a little more, but still inside she was seething. If redemption was truly possible... then perhaps his children had a chance to redeem themselves too. Even though Martha was a pomp, she still didn't like that her children had ended up in Hell. She was still a mother after all.

"Quite an eccentric thing" Loopty said, pulling at his mustache and twirling it as he used to do when he was nervous. “We should experiment with it”

"We can find some poor people again, my friend" Lyle told him jokingly, even though he knew his friend was just being tough and was actually fascinated by what he had just seen. Even though both were greedy and at times cruel men, life in Hell was still very difficult, and neither of them would have minded going to a better place... also because, despite their brilliant inventions, they were the poor ones there. due to the extreme competition that always stopped them in their tracks.

It had truly been a shocking revelation.

And sure enough, this new revelation turned into hope.

If it was possible to leave Hell… then what was the point of continuing to work and serve for a starvation wage? Why continue to be slaves to the local overlord, when they could go somewhere else?

A new feeling of freedom was formed in the hearts of all common sinners.

“How did they get that photo!?” Valentine blurted out. "Husk is dead! He couldn't have given it to them!"

“Maybe it was the queen?” Velvette murmured, but she wasn't at all sure. "But it wouldn't make sense... to move Hell in this way, in such a delicate moment, risking a civil war..."

Vox nearly exploded, and that wasn't a euphemism: electrical energy emerged from his body like a hurricane, and in an instant his true overlord form revealed itself in all its might, reducing the monitors to ashes. "IT WAS HIM!" he roared. "ALASTOR! IT MUST BE HIM!"

Velvette and Valentino looked at him a little confused. "Are you sure?" they asked him.

"Of course! Who else could gain from causing chaos!?" Vox ranted. "That bastard has now lost all support in the royal family... starting a revolt and causing disorder is exactly what he would do when he is now! He can no longer hope to rebuild his power, and therefore aims to destroy ours! He wants to reduce the Pride Ring to a battlefield to harm us! Son of a bitch… he failed with the royals and so he decided to be a revolutionary!”

Velvette and Valentino looked at each other. This time it didn't seem like Vox was as paranoid as usual: in fact, Alastor was the one who stood the chance of benefiting from what was happening. The new queen certainly didn't want a kingdom in even more chaos, and her friends would never betray her; the only other person who knew about Pentious was the radio demon himself. And if the Pride Ring had fallen into total chaos, resulting in a decrease in stability and therefore with a massive loss of souls by the overlords, he could have taken advantage of it to eliminate the weaker overlords, steal their souls and rebuild at least partially his power, and then take his revenge.

As weak and pathetic as Alastor now was, the Vees knew they could not underestimate him. Husk had done so and died as a result... and if it hadn't been for Angel's conscience, Valentino would have died too, resulting in chaos that would have led to the inevitable defeat of Vox and Velvette as well. The only reason he had failed was too much pride which led him to act without due care. This showed that Alastor, even though he was no longer one of the strongest overlords around, was still extremely dangerous.

Yes... in fact, every detail fit together. "If it really is Alastor..." Velvette murmured. “… so how did he film himself? We all know that he isn't friend with cameras...”

“That guy is probably a figurehead” Valentino opined. "Someone like him must have had no problem finding someone willing to dress like an idiot and make a video for him. And once they did that he probably killed them to erase the evidence"

Vox sizzled with pure electrical energy again, lighting the entire room in blue light, and then he suddenly stopped; very slowly, he abandoned his overlord form and returned to normal. His face had become extremely serious. "We have no proof that it is him, even if it is the most probable hypothesis. Therefore, we will move taking into account every possible option" he said, even if it was evident that he was totally convinced that it was Alastor. "In any case, it is now imperative to stop any disorder in its tracks"

"How?" Valentino asked him.

Vox let out a sizzle. “Contact every overlord you can think of” he told them. "These people keep talking about appealing to the queen. Well, we'll do the same!"

Chapter Text

Here's a gift from the artist Matt in a Hat: my Emily (on the right) with Mari's Emily and another character (on the left) in chibi version. A thank you to the artist.

The Pride Ring seemed to have descended into total chaos. Hordes of sinners poured into the streets, running everywhere and breaking windows and walls as if their lives depended on it. Those who had already been freed from their bonds with the overlords were simply causing more destruction to free more people, and the guards' efforts to keep them at bay were of little use; and those who were yet to be freed welcomed this willingly, and indeed opened the doors to let them do the work.

It was total anarchy. In the center of Pentagram City the sinners had gathered in the square in front of the celestial embassy, ​​probably because they hoped to find some answers there. Maybe they would have even tried to throw her down if it hadn't been for a voice that, full of some magic, rumbled in the sky like thunder.

"That's enough!"

Everyone stopped when they heard that voice. They realized that Stolas was coming, walking in the middle of the street with his guards clearing the way for him. Everyone recognized him immediately.

"Hey, I know that guy!"

"He is in the queen's service!"

"Why is he here?"

"Did she send him?"

"What does he want?"

Stolas walked to the center of the square and using his powers he made vines emerge from the ground which raised him, putting him in plain sight: "Listen to me, sinners! The queen herself sends me. She wants to inform all of you that she has listened to your requests and who at this very moment is evaluating how to act. She therefore asks you to calm down and wait at least a little while. Let's avoid further unnecessary destruction"

"What if we wanted to continue instead!?" someone in the crowd shouted.

Stolas narrowed his eyes slightly, and then he let his power emerge from his body; an action that was enough to take the breath away of everyone present, who clearly felt the pressure he exuded. "The queen does not want further bloodshed, but if you continue to have your way, then I have permission to use any means to prevent the Pride Ring from suffering further damage. Do you wish to challenge a King Goetia and all his legions?"

The fighting spirit of the sinners quickly died: Stolas' display of strength had frightened them. However, the owl demon knew that it was only a matter of time before they regained their courage, so he said: "The queen only asks for a little time. Give it to her, she will not ignore your plight"

The sinners looked at each other unsure of what to do, but then one of them shouted: "If the queen is really thinking about what to do, then I will await her answer right here!"

Everyone immediately agreed.

"Right!"

"We're not leaving!"

"We'll stay here, and if she doesn't show up in a couple of hours, then we'll start messing around again!"

"Yes!"

"Well said!"

Stolas nodded, satisfied that they had listened to him. "It's your right to stay here. But please avoid violent behavior" he told them, then he whispered softly to himself: "It's all in your hands now, Charlie"

"Can I know what the fuck happened!?"

As Vox had guessed, the new queen was enraged… to put it mildly. "Isn't it enough for you that two entire Rings are on the verge of collapse!?" Charlie was exclaiming. “We just started fixing Greed and Wrath, and now Pride starts getting messed up too!?”

The Vees had discovered that they were not the only ones who had turned to Charlie: many other overlords had called her before them, and she had called an emergency meeting with all of them. And judging by how furious she was, she hadn't taken the situation well at all. “Your Royal Majesty, I understand this is a difficult time…” Vox tried to say.

Charlie slammed her fist on the table so hard it was a miracle it didn't break in two: "The job of you overlords was to ensure order!" she exclaimed, her eyes flashing. "I thought this was clear since the state of emergency has not yet ended! Were you so worried about the other Rings that you didn't realize that someone was plotting in your own territories!? My family has given you sinners total freedom of action because we assumed you could handle yourselves, not because you sent an entire Ring into chaos!"

The overlords turned very pale. It was rare for Charlie to be so furious. Definitely, the recent situation had really hardened her. "Now the consequences throughout Hell will be very serious and you are responsible for it!" she told them with a lot of venom in her voice.

Charlie finally stopped. Her outburst had almost broken the windows from how much she had screamed. She put her hand over her face and took a deep breath, and then she asked in a slightly calmer voice: "Does anyone have an idea who these people are?"

Vox immediately stood up: "Your Royal Majesty, I don't know who the members of this group are, but I'm sure I know who controls them from the shadows: Alastor!" he accused immediately. "He was the only one who could make this mess and he was enough of a bastard to start it! He lost your favor and so he plans to ruin us all with this revolution bullshit!"

All the overlords looked at each other. In fact, that actually seemed like a plausible hypothesis. "Alastor is already wanted by the crown... he has nothing to lose in fact" Zestial commented rubbing his chin. “Harming us like this would be a brilliant move. Not only would it deal us some serious damage, but by wreaking havoc it would make it easier for him to hide”

The overlords began to nod, and they looked at Charlie. She hadn't removed her hand from her face yet, but her tired expression suggested that she too had thought about it. “Is there any way we can find him before he messes up some more?”

"I'm afraid not, Your Royal Majesty" Zestial replied.

"Ah, if there were, he certainly wouldn't be among us anymore" Vox said through his teeth, clenching his fists which emitted a couple of sparks.

Charlie let out a small growl, which was enough to make everyone shiver a little, and then she composed herself and put on a serious expression. "We'll think about Alastor later" she announced. "Now we have to think about resolving this situation. In exactly one hour the entire infernal council will meet, and by then I want to have a solution to propose. I don't need another Ring in ruins. So, any ideas are welcome: proposals?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Valentino stood up: "Forgive me if I use these words which you will certainly not like, but given the situation I think the best solution is to remind those rabble who is in charge"

The overlords immediately found themselves in agreement. As was to be expected, by the way.

"I agree"

"Alright"

"Let's institute an extreme policy"

"If we rule by terror, they will lower their heads"

"This is how it should be done!"

However, no one failed to notice that neither Vox nor Zestial, the two smartest overlords at that table, had expressed their opinions. On the contrary, both had very thoughtful and doubtful faces. And in fact, they both nodded when Charlie said: "I asked for a solution, not a very short-term fix"

Everyone fell silent immediately. “Um… could you explain further, Your Royal Majesty?” someone asked.

"Do you even have the courage to ask the queen for explanations!?" Vox exclaimed, obviously not missing an opportunity to sound important. "You are a bunch of inept fools! Do you think that if ruling by terror was enough to restore calm, then I would be here now, instead of out there frying those reckless people!?"

"If we acted like this we would only be playing into Alastor's hands. This, assuming he is behind all this, is exactly what he wants" Zestial explained without losing his usual calm. "Now the sinners have something worth fighting for, which means they will fight. And this group of rebels knows how to deprive us of souls, they know that simply nullifying the conditions of our contracts is enough to diminish our power. Today's action was not an attack, it was a warning. If we rule by terror, we will only motivate sinners to rebel, and since we will end up killing said rebels, we will end up harming ourselves even more, all the while whoever is pulling the strings will continue to attack us from behind. Using an extremist policy is not a solution, it is the calm before the most violent storm you have ever seen. And considering that there is a good chance that Alastor is behind all this , I seriously doubt any of you would survive"

Unfortunately no one could contradict him, as upon reflection, all the overlords agreed that this was absolutely true. Now that sinners knew that redemption was possible, surely no one would have wanted to remain under the rule of the overlords. Before they had no other choice, but now, however faint, there was hope, a hope worth challenging the system for. They would have asked to be released from their contracts and employed without having to use their souls to work, and if the overlords refused, this would have fueled dissent. The end result, considering the aptitude of sinners to wreak havoc and act impulsively, would have been constant rebellions which even if easily quelled would have steadily decreased the number of available souls... all while the mysterious group that had caused that situation would surely have continued to attack. For low or medium-level overlords, it would have been the end; they would have been lucky to last more than a month. More powerful overlords might have lasted longer, but they would still have lost much of their current power, making them extremely vulnerable.

This, Vox in particular was thinking, would have been the perfect time for Alastor to attack suddenly, kill them one by one with deceit and disloyalty, and steal all their remaining souls so he can once again become the number one in the entire Pride Ring. Vox was sure he had guessed that bastard's plan right, and as much as he hated to admit it, it was brilliant. Which only made him suspect even more that the radio demon was behind it all, creeping in the shadows as usual waiting for the right moment to strike.

Yes… that was exactly something he would have done.

Just like that time...

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when Carmilla stood up. "What I'll say will spark a debate" she announced immediately, and then she addressed Charlie directly: "Since we can't just put things back to the way they were before, how about we subject the Pride Ring to a government experiment?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow and immediately became attentive. “Explain” she said simply.

“As you wish” Carmilla said, and then she turned to all the overlords: “As you well know, these people plan to ruin us by taking away our source of power, human souls. They are clamoring for a more egalitarian system than doesn't involve total slavery. So, why not please them, but in our own way?"

The overlords began to converse among themselves, clearly confused. "I don't understand" Valentino admitted without shame.

"It's very simple: if we react with violence, we will only wear ourselves out. Not only will the queen here have to worry about another ruined Ring, but we will destroy ourselves by our own hands. This is probably exactly what that the person behind all this wants. So let's do the exact opposite: give them concessions" Carmilla said. "They asked for a more egalitarian system for soul contracts, which require notary signatures and a commission of judges to monitor them to avoid deception. And they also asked that soul contracts can only be executed under certain conditions, not simple working relationships or something like that. Well, let's give them what they want"

“Do you want to lose thousands of souls?” Velvette grumbled sarcastically, but from her look it was clear that she too, despite not liking the woman, was interested.

Carmilla just gave her a dirty look, and then she continued: "Obviously, none of us want to lose our power and position. However, if we must give up souls, we can have another source of power". She looked at Charlie again: "My queen, you can invest us and whoever else you deem worthy of positions and consequently powers"

Everyone made a surprised noise, but then they narrowed their eyes, especially Vox who almost emitted sparks. Charlie, on the other hand, remained almost impassive: "Continue"

"As you know, we overlords have always managed ourselves, but this time it is no longer possible. Leaving us sinners in command of the Pride Ring after what has happened means reducing it to ashes in the space of a year or even less time. Therefore, you may change the crown's interference with this Ring" Carmilla told her. "You could invest us with new powers and grant us sovereignty over our territories by law, giving us roles and abilities on par with the Ars Goetia or the rest of the infernal nobility"

The overlords stiffened: become the equal of the Ars Goetia!? Really!? "Explain better" Charlie ordered her.

"My proposal, my queen, is to take example from the human regimes of the past, and create a document. A sort of constitution of the sinners, if we want to call it that" Carmilla explained. "In this constitution the new methods for soul contracts will be listed, so the sinners will have what they want and will be at peace, and can deal with redemption if they want; in any case, they will no longer cause chaos. Only soul contracts deemed legal because executed with certain constraints they will have value, so the majority of people will be free again and will not feel obliged to start a revolution. And to prevent us overlords from losing our authority and the Pride Ring falling into anarchy without us, we can establish that every time each of us reaches a certain number of souls they are invested by you or a representative of yours with the powers of a noble and with sovereignty over a territory. There will be various degrees, just like a sort of nobility, but with sinners instead of hellborns. And since it will be a meritocratic system, since all sinners will be able to aspire to be part of it by following the law, we will not run the risk of embittering. Obviously we will have duties to perform and rules to respect, and we could lose our position if we violate them, and there will be rights and so on... in short, it will be a real reform of the entire current system"

There was a moment of silence. “A constitution for sinners?” Valentino muttered with a lot of confusion. "Well, certainly the masses of crazy people out there would like this... but it still seems ridiculous..."

"Sometimes we have to change so that everything stays as it is" Zestial said, supporting his wife. "I agree with this idea. It means giving up our total autonomy, but we would have the advantage of being legitimized in our actions and therefore protected by the law. We would risk much less losing our position"

"It's a compromise" Carmilla said. "We must give freedom back to people now that they know that redemption is possible. If we do this, we can give it to them without losing anything, in fact we could even become richer"

Obviously everyone immediately became more interested at those words; after all, the best way to attract the overlords was to appeal to their greed. Everyone's attention fell on Vox, knowing that he was currently the most influential overlord alongside Zestial, and they remained silent waiting for his word. He didn't tell a word for a long time, and then he finally said: "As much as I don't like the idea completely and it certainly needs some adjustments, it makes sense to me. Focusing on increasing order instead of chaos is definitely going to hinder the plans of Alastor. It will be much more difficult for him to challenge us if our position is legitimized by law. What do you think, Your Royal Majesty?"

Charlie remained motionless with her arms crossed. "That's fine with me. I like this idea" she told them. "After all, it would be in my favor too since, as you well know, I desire the redemption of as many sinners as possible. However, since it would mean completely altering the laws of Hell, I will have to discuss it with the council as soon as it meets"

No one was surprised that Charlie had sided with that idea: after all she didn't risk losing anything, on the contrary she only gained since it meant maintaining order better and therefore lightening her burden of problems, as well as giving her greater possibilities of recruiting people for her redemption project as soon as she had time to reopen it. However, this was not a choice Charlie could make alone: ​​changing the law meant changing the code of Hell, and this required the approval of all the nobles on the council.

After a brief moment of silence she stood up. "I will propose this idea to the council. You have one hour to draw up for me a... constitution of sinners... that is suitable for everyone, so that I can present it to all the nobles" she said to the overlords, and then she narrowed her eyes: " But let's be clear, this is primarily to calm tensions, so don't try to give yourself too many advantages. This constitution will have to be as egalitarian as possible and will have to reflect the demands of those people who made this mess. And all of you will have to be subjected to it too, therefore you must also think about crimes and punishments. I won't tolerate a constitution that just gives you advantage"

“We understand completely, Your Royal Majesty” Vox replied. "Don't worry, we will prepare something that fully meets the expectations of the people, and we will not give Alastor any leverage he can grab onto to cause further chaos"

"Good. In that case I'll let you work. Remember, one hour, not one minute more" Charlie ordered them, and then she walked briskly out of the room, closing the door behind him. As she did so she could already hear the overlords starting to argue.

"Great job"

Charlie just looked over and found Seviathan leaning against a wall. “How long have you been here?”

"Not much, just since you stopped screaming" Seviathan answered her. "You should be happy. Now those idiots will grant freedom to the sinners without even realizing how big a change this will be. The repercussions of what happened here will shake all of Hell"

"I still have to convince the council to change the law" Charlie reminded him.

"Oh, I'm sure you will" Seviathan said with a wink. "I have faith in you. You should have it too"

Charlie just let out a grunt. “Well, so far everything is going as you planned”

"Of course" Seviathan told her. "You will see, this will be the first in a series of momentous changes. Not only will you get approval from the council to change the law, but all the lower classes of Hell will feel motivated. When the hellborns see that the sinners have obtained a constitution, they will have the courage to ask for one too. By providing step-by-step concessions, you will change Hell as you wish. The key is to let the woman come to you, and then dominate her and move her in the position you want"

Charlie rolled her eyes: “Can you avoid reminding me that you are a womanizer?”

"Why? It's part of my nature" Seviathan replied, and then he added with a mischievous look: "That friend of yours who spoke before, by the way..."

"Carmilla is married" Charlie stopped him immediately.

Seviathan shrugged: "Well, I tried" he said without losing his smile. "Rather, that guy, Alastor... how did he take being scapegoated?"

"He can't cause any trouble at the moment, and even if he were still around he has a list of crimes a mile long, so he would end up in the dungeon anyway. He can't complain" Charlie replied. After all, Alastor was currently locked in the Betrayal Ring with Emily, and furthermore all of Hell now considered him an outlaw, so she didn't feel guilty using him that way. "And in reality I didn't even have to accuse him that much. Everyone was already convinced that it was him"

"Well, fame does that too" Seviathan commented amused.

Charlie ignored his words. "How do you think the leader of those rebels will take this decision of mine?" she asked with some concern.

"Honestly? Based on the character Angel described to me, I'd be surprised if that guy didn't see this coming from the beginning" Seviathan said, rubbing his chin. "I wonder who they really are. I would really like to meet this political genius..."

Charlie let him think on his own. "Well, I'm going. I better prepare a nice speech to give in the throne room..."

“You already have eighteen of them prepared, for every outcome” Seviathan told her.

Charlie glared at him: "Shut up! You don't know me that well!"

"Oh, no?" Seviathan asked her teasingly.

"No" Charlie replied in a firm voice. And then she confessed: "I prepared twenty-one of them"

Chapter Text

The calm had lasted for a full hour, maybe even longer, but throughout the Pride Ring it felt like the tension could be cut with a knife. The sinners were scattered everywhere, from the squares to the streets and even on the rooftops, and they did not move from their position, remaining seated where they were. The legions of Stolas and other Ars Goetia affiliated to him continued to monitor the situation, ready to intervene if anyone decided to reopen hostilities.

It was like walking in the middle of a battlefield, with two sides ready to go to war at any moment. Everyone knew that a spark would be enough to unleash total chaos.

Stolas remained in Pentagram City, keeping a close eye on the situation. He knew that the most unpredictable and dangerous demons were there and as such it was better that he, the very powerful King Goetia, continued to show up to intimidate them. It was an unorthodox control technique, but it was better than using force. Furthermore, in an emergency, he could stop any hostilities with much less bloodshed than his legions.

Stolas wasn't just thinking about keeping an eye on the situation, however, as he had the phone next to his ear. “So, is the council ready?” he murmured.

Vassago's voice came from the other side: "Yes, they are all gathered. We are about to start"

"Great. The rest of the plan?" Stolas asked him.

"It went as expected. Carmilla did her part, Zestial too, and the other overlords fell for it" Vassago replied. “Now we just need to get this thing approved”

"I understand. Are you sure you won't need my help?" Stolas asked him again. "We could use a little more support"

"You're already supporting me. I'm taking your place while you take care of keeping the situation at bay" Vassago replied. "Stay where you are. If you left, the sinners would think you were running away because something bad was about to happen, and they would start lashing out again. I'll take care of it here"

Stolas nodded. "Okay. I leave everything in your hands, Vassago. Good luck"

"Thanks, but I don't think I'll need it" Vassago replied confidently. "I know what I'm doing"

And with those words he turned off the call. Stolas did not reply and was not surprised by this, and went back to checking on the sinners as he had done up to that point, without showing any sign of tension on his face.

In the royal palace the entire political class of Hell had gathered, from the lowest nobles to the Deadly Sins. Although normally none of them would have cared much about sinners, since they didn't consider them their problem since they managed themselves, at that moment the tension was at its highest. After what had happened to Wrath and Greed, everyone knew that having another Ring in chaos was equivalent to dealing a final blow to Hell, especially considering that the use of the overlords for the reconstruction and stability of the other Rings had been (and was still very important. Therefore, for once even the nobles, who had always looked down on sinners, were concerned about their situation.

Losing the Pride Ring was tantamount to dealing what could have been the fatal blow to Hell.

Charlie showed up as usual dressed in her most regal clothes with the crown well placed on her head, and she sat very calmly on her throne. And then she confidently announced: "Before any of you start asking questions, I want to let you know that I have already found the solution to what is happening"

All the people in the room immediately became stiff as stockfish. They were like predators staring at new prey to decide if it was worth taking a bite. Well, the analogy was definitely similar, Charlie found herself thinking. "Actually, there wouldn't even have been any need to call this meeting" she continued. "The overlords and I got together, we talked, and we found a solution that's good for them and more importantly will be good for the people out there. But unfortunately, applying this solution requires a change to the laws of Hell, and how you well know I cannot carry it out without your approval"

“What is this solution?” Satan asked impatiently.

"Yeah! We're all eager to know it" Mammon said back.

Charlie wasn't even surprised by her uncles' inappropriate intervention. Satan and Mammon were the rulers of the two Rings which were currently in critical condition, and much of the reconstruction depended on the support of the overlords; it wasn't difficult to understand why they preferred to resolve the situation as soon as possible. This was obviously to her advantage. "It's very simple. The overlords have agreed to end the total independence that sinners enjoyed. They wish to enter fully into the laws of Hell, with a constitution"

A soft murmur spread among the surprised nobles. "Constitution?" someone asked. "What is that?"

"Basically, it will be a new set of laws and rules that will apply to the Pride Ring. Instead of letting the sinners manage themselves, they will now have rules to follow" Charlie explained to them. "Laws have been chosen that will be in favor of both the overlords and common sinners, so as to prevent any further attempts at revolt. Allow me to read it to you"

She snapped her fingers and a package appeared in her hands. She took out a large sheet of paper and brought it to her face: "This document, which if approved will become the basis on which the Pride Ring will stand, currently only has twelve articles due to the short time we have had available, and It leaves a lot of room for further changes. And I quote:

Art I: The Pride Ring and consequently all its inhabitants recognize the Infernal Crown as sovereign, but the aforementioned Crown sets itself the duty not to intervene in their affairs unless a) an emergency situation arises, or b) a violation of the rules stated in this document happens.

Art II: Only absolute soul contracts, i.e. those that give someone total authority over the soul, are valid. Any other relationship, whether working or otherwise, must be carried out without obligations of this type for either party.

Art III: Any soul contract can only be enforced in front of a neutral third party.

Art IV: Soul contracts cannot be forced in any way. Any use of force to obtain them will be punished accordingly.

Art V: If anyone fails to comply with these obligations, the person concerned or anyone with an interest in it can appeal directly to the Crown, who will judge the situation impartially.

Art VI: The status of overlord will no longer be granted solely based on the number of souls, but to those who meet the following requirements: high capital, ability to influence a large number of people, and a minimum number of 1000 souls obtained by respecting the conditions listed previously.

Art VII: The Crown undertakes to provide any sinner who meets the requirements for overlord status with authority over a territory and, accordingly, to amplify their powers so that such a person can enforce their will.

Art VIII: Each overlord have the precise duty to guarantee order and stability in the territory entrusted to them. For any type of disorder, this person will be considered directly responsible and will have to pay accordingly, unless they can demonstrate that such disorder could not have been prevented by them or that it was caused by third parties with the specific purpose of damaging them.

Art IX: At the end of each month the overlords have the task of meeting in an assembly to discuss any disagreements between them in a peaceful manner.

Art X: No overlord may interfere with the redemption process of his dependents unless they are his souls obtained by legal contract.

Art XI: Sinners have the right to protest peacefully if they believe that some behavior on the part of the local authority is wrong, but in case of violent behavior, that authority has the right to suppress the riot by any means it deems necessary.

Article XII: In case of violation of the laws listed above, the person in question will be arrested and tried by an impartial court.

And that's all this document says" Charlie concluded.

The room was profoundly silent. Charlie didn't speak, leaving the nobles to think for themselves; out of the corner of her eye she glanced at Vassago, and she saw that he too still didn't think it was appropriate to intervene.

In the end it was Asmodeus who spoke up: "This law basically guarantees the possibility of redemption, limits slavery in the Pride Ring, and at the same time does not destroy the power of the overlords while maintaining stability. It would satisfy everyone, common sinners and people in power"

"Approving it would mean still having a functioning Pride Ring, and therefore guaranteed support" Beelzebub commented. "But how will you invest the overlords with new powers?"

"There are many artifacts capable of amplifying the power of human souls" Charlie explained. "I will apply spells to them so that they will only work for the person I give them to, so that they couldn't be stolen. They will allow the overlords to maintain their current power even without all their millions of souls"

"So they won't lose anything by avoiding dissent and disorder" Satan said, rubbing his chin. "Sounds interesting. We could use something like this, as we could continue to focus our efforts on rebuilding the other Rings"

Obviously, most of the people in there were just thinking about solving the problem right away, without worrying too much about the consequences. It seemed like a good time for Charlie to point out: "As you may have understood, I cannot pass this law on my own. If we were to vote now and just one of you didn't agree, it would all be for nothing. Therefore, I have gathered you here to take a historic decision, which affects all of us"

Everyone immediately became alert again. Vassago narrowed his eyes; it was time to drop the bomb. And that's exactly what Charlie did: "I hereby ask you to approve a substantial change to the legislative code of Hell: that in case of emergency, everyone's approval will no longer be required to change the law!"

And as was to be expected, those words caused an uproar.

"What!?"

"Why!?"

"What are you saying!?"

"We can't!"

"It's an ancient law!"

Charlie let them speak, and then she spoke again: "I know it's going against tradition. But look around you" she said in a stern voice. "Hell hangs in the balance. We can't waste time convincing everyone every time that a big change needs to be made. Even at this very moment there are people here who don't agree with what I've brought, am I right?"

There was silence again. Charlie narrowed her eyes: "Speak freely, you who do not appreciate the document I brought. I guarantee you no repercussions regardless of your opinions"

A queen's promise could not be taken lightly, and indeed no one doubted her. And finally someone stood up. It was Adrealphus. "My queen, I am against it" he admitted aloud. “Surely this… constitution you propose can solve the problem in the Pride Ring, but it can potentially cause others. The hellborns will see this concession as a weakness on your part. If you have been good to sinners, why can't you be good to everyone else?"

“Are you telling me I should be an evil queen?” Charlie asked rhetorically.

"I didn't say that" Andrealphus replied. "But imagine what could happen. If you were willing to change the law for sinners, then all the other demons who dislike the current laws will feel motivated to pressure you to cancel them. In the long run, it could be anarchy"

That was the moment Vassago intervened. "What Andrealphus says is absolutely true" he said aloud. "But at the same time, we cannot simply use repressive measures. The Pride Ring is currently one of the best functioning Rings, so it is vital that it remains in excellent working order. If we exterminate everyone, who will be able to keep it functioning? If we let it be consumed by war civilian, how could it maintain its usefulness?”

"We'll have a lot more to worry about if said civil war affects the rest of Hell!" Andrealphus exclaimed. "We cannot give the demons the illusion that we are willing to listen to any madness! You know how they are, if we give them a finger they will take the whole arm too!"

"Maybe. But it's much easier to keep them from tearing our arms off when they're calm" Vassago told him. "Every time we lose a Ring, the entire economy of Hell is devastated. We already have millions of displaced people, many of whom are still mourning their dead. A lot of people have lost or are at risk of losing their jobs and homes. If we now resolve the situation with violence, we will not only aggravate the situation, but we will show that we are not willing to resolve it peacefully, dissent would explode much more violently and we will have to quell who knows how many outbreaks of revolt. They will spread like wildfire and devastate everything"

Charlie stopped the conversation by raising a hand, immediately restoring silence. Unbeknownst to Andrealphus, that was exactly what she wanted: to show how even a logical solution would have fallen victim to conflict in such a large assembly. For this reason Vassago had deliberately prolonged the argument, so that it really seemed like two parties who couldn't reach an agreement. “That was exactly what I was talking about” she said. "It is impossible for us to always agree on everything, especially on such important laws that will have repercussions on the present and the future. Since this is a law that would modify the infernal code, and only the approval of all of us could make it effective, at present I would have to waste months convincing each of you... or I could enter your house and force you, like my father did when he didn't want to listen to you, either way, I would be wasting time, time that now we don't have. In recent years, whether in peace or war, Hell has begun to proceed too quickly for this slow method to be considered effective. There are situations in which it is appropriate to act quickly, even if someone may not agree. This is why I ask you to modify our system to change the laws: we no longer wait for everyone's approval, but let's use an election and approve the choice of the majority"

The nobles looked at each other unsure. They had conflicting opinions: on the one hand, changing their method of passing laws to make the process quicker and more effective was exactly what they needed to deal with the crisis they were in and any future crises; but on the other hand, that strong and immutable system was a guarantee for them. Having to convince every single noble of the need to change a law was a way to avoid too radical changes, thus guaranteeing a solid maintenance of the status quo. 'Updating' this method, so to speak, especially at a time when the lower classes of society were so restless, means to take a huge risk.

An infernal code no longer immutable was equivalent to opening up to the possibility of change... and change in turn was equivalent to the possibility of losing their privileges.

Vassago waited a few moments again, and then he stood up again and said: "Gentlemen, listen: the queen is right. I understand that for many here this proposal is doubtful, it is for me too... but we need to act. If we lose too much time talking, people will start to question our competence even more. I know it may seem risky, but this time we have to change if we want everything to stay as it is". He paused briefly, and then he announced: "In my opinion, we have no other choice. We agree that from now on, two-thirds of this assembly will be enough to change a law of the infernal code, not the total, so every decision will be rapid and determined"

Charlie avoided showing her emotions, but she didn't hold back in giving a very quick look of approval. By highlighting the need for immediacy and the risks of not acting, Vassago had moved the minds of the room in their favor. He certainly was a really good speaker.

There was silence again, and then it was Asmodeus who stood up: "Gentlemen, I am okay for this. We need faster methods of decision-making"

"For once we agree" Mammon grumbled, albeit with a lot of annoyance.

"Me too" Satan announced.

Predictably, Mammon and Satan had chosen the safest path. Both of them under normal circumstances would never have approved of something that would have allowed change, but since they needed support to rebuild their Rings they had no choice but to accept.

Beelzebub also stood up: "I agree too. Given the difficult situation we find ourselves in, a faster system is a must"

And since four Deadly Sins had already given their consent, Belphegor as usual jumped on the bandwagon: "Me too"

Left alone, Leviathan weighed his options carefully, and then he decided it wasn't worth resisting and antagonizing everyone. "I agree" he said finally.

With all the Deadly Sins having given their approval and mindful of Vassago's words of warning, it didn't take long for the other nobles to be convinced. Even if Andrealphus seemed to be about to explode and several others grumbled in annoyance, they knew that opposing was of no use: with so many powerful demons having approved, they had no one to appeal to to resist, and since their vote was not secret, but rather they would have had to declare against it in front of everyone, they would only have delayed the approval by a few days or even just a few hours, given that Charlie or someone for her could simply have come to threaten them or directly eliminate them. This time, they had to admit defeat.

The final result was historic: as soon as everyone had given their approval, the infernal code was immediately modified. It was established that from that day on, a total vote would have no longer been necessary to change the law, but that only two-thirds of the court would have been enough. And the first vote that took place immediately afterwards was the approval of a solid constitution for the sinners, annulling their thousands of years of independence in favor of a more rigid, stable and, above all, fair system. That day, two historic laws of Hell had been changed forever, thus marking the beginning of a new era: one in which the Crown would have had much greater weight with sinners, and would have approved change for them... and for others.

Thus it was that, unknowingly by all but a few friends, Charlie achieved her first major victory to change Hell.

Chapter Text

Calm, or rather tension disguised as calm, still reigned in the Pride Ring. Stolas' legions and the owl demon himself continued to keep their eyes open, ready to intervene at the first sign of disturbance. Nobody knew what would happen and therefore nobody was at peace.

Suddenly all the giant screens in Pentagram City, as well as every other city in the Pride Ring, lit up all at once, obviously attracting everyone's attention, announcing: "Attention, please! The Queen has just concluded her meeting with the infernal council, and wishes to make a statement"

Silence reigned supreme during those few seconds in which the frame moved to Charlie. The new queen spoke as soon as the cameras were on her: "Citizens of the Pride Ring, I am here now to announce to you that yes, what you have seen is true. I can confirm to you that redemption is possible, and that at least two demons have already managed to gain access to Heaven. This information had been kept confidential precisely to avoid sudden disturbances in this already difficult period, but since it is now in the public domain, I prefer to be honest with you. I can therefore announce that I have decided to meet your needs requests for freedom; since redemption is possible, I intend to change the current method of trading souls"

The sinners made a startled sound. So it was all true? Was redemption possible? Not only that, but had the queen just announced that she was going to change the soul trading system? "I know many of you will be confused" Charlie continued. "Allow me to explain what was decided..."

The sinners were shocked and confused by the queen's statements. When Charlie had finished explaining and the broadcast ended by inviting all the demons to go home and wait until the next day for the implemented reforms to take hold, everyone was still full of doubts and confusion. Clearly they hadn't expected this whole situation to be resolved in such a convenient manner.

“So… we're free now?”

“Do we no longer have to give our souls away?”

“Do the overlords agree?”

"And what about redemption?"

"What should we do now?"

Stolas couldn't hold back a satisfied smile. There was still a lot of doubt around, but it was clear that the possibility of further disorder had now been averted. Everything had gone well. "Great job, guys" he complimented under his breath.

“Did you asked for me, Your Royal Majesty?” Vox asked respectfully.

Charlie nodded, motioning for him to come in: "Please come in"

Vox obeyed her immediately, entering the reception room of the royal palace. It was a truly beautiful room, large and bright, with imposing windows from which it was possible to look at the sky and the city. There were many armchairs of fine red filigree and paintings showing demons or fight scenes. Vox had to admit that the decor was very impressive. "Really not bad" he said aloud.

"My mother decorated this room. Even though this is now my palace, I have kept it as similar as possible to how it was before" Charlie explained to him. "Please sit down"

Vox took a seat in one of the chairs, and Charlie sat directly in front of him. Both remained silent, then the media overlord spoke first: "You must not fear that I am angry with you for having approved such a government project. I understand that the situation was difficult..."

"Mr. Vox, please, let's spare ourselves the hypocrisy" Charlie stopped him immediately. "I know well that you don't like what happened. That's why I called you here, because I wanted to give you something to make you happy again"

Vox emitted a few sparks from his body. “Your generosity is immeasurable, Your Royal Majesty” he said flatteringly.

"You helped me against my mother, and I don't forget friends. Especially those who can threaten me with spreading weapons of mass destruction throughout Hell" Charlie replied.

Vox crossed his arms in satisfaction. The reasons why he didn't at all oppose to a new more egalitarian system for the Pride Ring were essentially two: the first was that he himself recognized that there was no other solution, not one that didn't cost much more at least; the second was that he knew that even if he lost everything, he was still protected by the new queen. Charlie wouldn't have risked him falling into poverty and developing resentement towards her, not while he had the secret plans for weapons of mass destruction with him. Simply put, even if that new government system would have resulted in a catastrophe for the overlords, he and consequently Valentino and Velvette still had their asses covered.

Vox was not a fool; he wasn't like Alastor, who clung to every possible hold in order to remain anchored to the old ways, he changed according to the times. Every great man, once he established his empire, knew that it would not have remained the same forever. Sooner or later something totally unexpected happened that changed the cards on the table, and those who didn't adapt collapsed. Vox had therefore learned to act like a chameleon, always ready to change at any moment. He knew that if the overlords clung to the old system they would have only incited a rebellion that would have devastated the Pride Ring, and he was willing to play the people's champion and pretend to be on their side; all he cared about was making sure that at the end of the day he would have continued to have fame, wealth and power. For the first two he could think about it on his own, but for the third he still needed support. And Charlie, thanks to the fact that he could threaten her in any way to spread the secret projects everywhere and thus unleash chaos, was that support.

"I'm glad to see that you already have an idea on how to satisfy me" Vox told her. "But first, I want to make one thing clear: I will never expect you to alter the terms that we overlords ourselves have established. I am ready to respect all the rules that have been imposed without any complaint"

"Good, I'm pleased" Charlie replied. She knew that Vox was telling her this because he wanted her to understand that he was still her supporter, and that at least for the moment their interests matched, so if she behaved well towards her, he in turn would have been her friend. "To make up for any potential losses you may have, I will not only continue to allow you to participate in the reconstruction of the other Rings, but I will give you heads up against the other overlords, so you will be the ones who gain the most. And even after the Rings are rebuilt , you can continue to extend your influence over them, obviously respecting the law like everyone else"

A smile immediately appeared on Vox's digital screen. What Charlie was giving him was no small feat: even if the soul trade had now been changed, being able to extend one's influence over the other Rings still meant growing in fame and wealth. "I thank you, Your Royal Majesty..."

"I'm not done" Charlie interrupted him. "There's something else I wanted to reveal to you"

Vox immediately became attentive: "I'm listening. What's this about?"

"As you know, the new constitution of the Pride Ring requires the overlords to meet in an assembly. However, it has not yet been established what type of assembly it will be, as there was too little time available" Charlie explained to him. "My idea, which will be discussed in the next few days for greater calm, is to create a system similar to that of a company, so as to better facilitate the exchange of information and mutual aid. There will be a need for someone to coordinate all this, a president, or a mediator, or whatever you want to call it; I was wondering if that man could be you"

Vox nearly electrocuted the chair he was sitting in. President of the assembly of the overlords!? Charlie was practically handing him dominance over the Pride Ring! Sure, it wouldn't have been an absolute domination like he, Valentino, and Velvette had hoped to achieve, as they would still have been subservient to the Crown, but they could have influenced the entire Ring as they pleased. "My lady... I don't know what to say..."

"Don't be modest" Charlie told him. "You are one of the most powerful overlords at the moment, it is logical that you fill that role"

Vox's smile widened enormously. "I was really right to bet on you and not on Lilith" he didn't stop himself from telling her.

Charlie narrowed her eyes at the mention of her mother's name, making his skin crawl for a moment. "Let's get one thing straight" she said much more aggressively. "I am not giving you this position and these benefits for free. I want you to work harder than ever not only to maintain order in the Pride Ring, but also to make it function as best as possible. I want every territory entrusted to every overlord to become a true city, not a whorehouse half devastated and submerged in rubbish. Therefore you, who will have to coordinate all this, will have to do your best, so when Hell is finally stable again I will be able to fully concentrate on my redemption project, and it will be more easy with sinners who will already be more accustomed to living in order. Oh, and I expect your total support in this area too, let's be clear"

Vox immediately bowed his head, so much so that it was possible to see the wire attachments on the back of his screen; he understood that Charlie brooked no exceptions to what she said, and that she had been annoyed by his comment about her mother. “Absolutely, my lady,” he said immediately without even thinking. "I can assure you that this will become the most beautiful Ring of all. We will transform it from a dump to an efficient and stable civilization, so you will no longer have to fear disturbances like those that occurred today. You have my word that you will find only order and discipline when you'll walk on our streets"

Charlie nodded without losing her grim expression. "You better keep your word" she told him. "And remember: you too must respect the rules imposed by the constitution. If you want to exploit the situation to enrich yourself or gain influence, do it, I didn't think for a second that you wouldn't have tried; but do it respecting the law. Understood?"

“Absolutely” Vox assured her. "You don't have to worry, unlike some idiots I know my place well"

Charlie glared at him again for a moment, and then she nodded and relaxed. "Good. Because I really need to keep this Ring in order. If Alastor really plans to overthrow the current system to take advantage of this, then we can't let him stand a chance"

"I understand perfectly. Don't worry, with this plan we will have already put a spoke in his wheels. It's too analog to expect such a radical change" Vox answered her, and then he too narrowed his eyes: "So Alastor is really behind all this?"

"Why are you asking me these questions? Only he knew about redemption" Charlie told him. “Or do you expect me to have caused chaos in my own kingdom?”

"The thought crossed my mind" Vox admitted. "It would have been a bold move... free sinners from our oppression and thus grant them the possibility of redemption. But if it had truly been your plan, you certainly wouldn't have carried it out when Hell is still so unstable"

Obviously Vox was reasoning based on the data he had available: he was not aware that there was an organized group that aimed to overthrow the entire government system of Hell, and that it would have stroke with or without Charlie's support. If he had known, then it wouldn't have taken him long to realize that she was the one who gave them the proof of redemption so as to create the right conditions to stabilize the Pride Ring. But since he didn't know, from his point of view it would only have been illogical to risk chaos like that, so he excluded Charlie from the list of suspects, leaving only Alastor as the main suspect.

The new queen sat back better. “Now that Alastor's plan has failed, it's likely he'll hide better to think about a countermove” she told Vox. "Therefore, we need to find him as soon as possible and get him to tell us who he works with. If you have the slightest clue, let me know immediately"

Vox let out a loud sizzle. His digital screen short-circuited for a moment, a sign that he was experiencing strong anger. "I can assure you that I will not rest until I find Alastor" he told her. "And if you want to take my advice, if you find him before me, don't waste your time questioning him. He'll just use such chance to get into your head. Just kill him immediately, or he'll bite you much harder than before. That's a bastard whose head needs to be cut off without waiting a single moment"

Charlie knew the hatred Vox felt for Alastor, but the more she saw that anger the more she was sure it wasn't just due to rivalry. So, even if with a bit of hesitation, she asked him: "If I'm not being indiscreet, can I ask you the reason for so much hatred?"

Vox emitted a light spark from his electrical antennas. His expression became even harsher than usual, and his nails involuntarily tore off a piece of the chair he was sitting on. "I'm sorry" he apologized immediately, knowing it wasn't good behavior to do in front of a queen.

"It's okay" Charlie told him. "You don't have to tell me if you don't feel like it..."

"No, no. You have the right to know... so you will also know why you can't leave him alive" Vox told her. He didn't want to appear weak in front of her, even if he didn't like telling that story. "It all started when I ended up in Hell... it was still the fifties, and so the Pride Ring was still recovering from Alastor's purge of all the overlords who had reigned before. Only a few like Zestial were still around. This opened up a sea of ​​possibilities... and I exploited them. I've always been good with technology, so I immediately founded my business empire... but then I wanted to aspire to something more. I wanted to create a new order of overlords, to dominate all of Pride"

"A new order of overlords?" Charlie exclaimed in surprise. “You mean you wanted to… create some sort of meeting, like Carmilla had?”

"What Carmilla did was just pretend to be a respectable figure and summon the overlords to talk from time to time. Nothing more than a stupid club that essentially served no purpose" Vox replied to her. "No, I planned more. I wanted to create pacts and agreements with each new emerging overlord, so as to bind them into a pyramid structure that would have allowed me to get to the top. It would have been something similar to what you have just approved, just with demonic pacts instead of laws"

Charlie nodded. Yes, in fact, taking advantage of the fact that there was so little competition, that idea would not have been completely impossible. “So what did you do?”

"I got busy, of course, and started gathering support. I knew I had little time left, as it wouldn't have been long before new overlords popped up like mushrooms. I had to hurry" Vox explained to her, then he thinned his eyes: "But I made a mistake. And that mistake happened when Alastor came into my life"

Charlie realized that the media overlord's fingers had turned bluer, as if they were charged with static electricity. "How did this happen?"

"That bastard approached me in a bar. It seemed like a chance meeting, he acted just as if he had ended up there by chance. At first I didn't even recognize him. It didn't take him long to bewitch me with his talk" Vox he explained to her. “When he told me who he was, I was amazed: was the infamous radio demon actually such a pleasant person? I didn't let my guard down, but I started to think that maybe there was a possibility of reasoning with him. If I could bring him to my side, everything would have been easier. He listened to me, and approved my plan. He said he wanted to participate. So we started working together, and a friendship was born between us... or at least, I considered him a friend of mine"

Charlie was stunned by those words: Vox and Alastor had worked together!? The two of them!? Seriously!? "I didn't think you were... friends"

"It was secret. We wanted to exploit his terrible fame to more easily lure sinners into my claws" Vox explained to her. "And it worked. In a very short time we accumulated a huge number of souls, and thanks to this we began to form alliances with other emerging overlords. I knew that I couldn't trust him... but I did anyways. I considered him my friend... my best friend. He was the first person to whom I had the courage to confess my homosexuality, you know, at the time it wasn't good be such on Earth, and even if I ended up in Hell I still had a little fear on that... and when he not only didn't judge me, but he revealed to me that he also didn't have a conventional sexuality, I felt even more comfortable with him. Over time I confessed everything to him, even my most intimate secrets. He... seemed to understand me, he really seemed to… consider me a friend, as much as I considered him such"

Charlie felt a bitter taste in her mouth. Vox was an evil asshole, she hadn't forgotten that, but seeing him like this she felt a little sorry for him. It was clear that whatever had happened to him, it wasn't pleasant. "How did it end?"

Vox emitted several electric sparks that burned part of the chair, and this time he didn't even bother to apologize. "It all happened after I started a relationship with Valentino" he answered. "By now I had become very powerful, and I was sure that, if I continued like this, I could truly become a king. Since I had Valentino and Alastor on my side and multiple overlords under me, the path seemed clear to me. I wanted to raise an official team, the VAV, composed of the three of us, with whom we would officially challenge the excessive power of overlords like Zestial... but then he showed his true colors"

Vox's screen flickered violently. Charlie momentarily feared that he was about to totally short-circuit, but the media overlord's furious face kept reappearing intermittently. "As soon as we were alone, he attacked me from behind and told me the truth. He had never wanted to be my friend... he had never cared about me. He just wanted someone to help him accumulate enough souls to finally rise to the top and surpass even Zestial, and since Valentino was now joining us he wanted to eliminate me immediately to prevent him and I from being able to form a united front against him. I tried to fight, but he, exploiting the quibbles in our contracts, stole the souls that I possessed… slowly drained me, stripping me of my power, and he would have continued until he would have killed me"

Charlie's eyes widened slightly. That was truly a bastardness. She thought she was used to hearing that Alastor had stabbed someone in the back by now, but that definitely seemed like extra cruelty. Valentino had ended up in Hell in the  seventies, so even if it had taken Vox a decade since he arrived there to build his business empire, that meant he and Alastor had known each other for at least ten years. And for ten years Alastor had deluded Vox into thinking he was his best friend. "How did you save yourself?"

“Even in a situation like that, I'm not a pushover" Vox replied. "I had countermeasures to face an opponent, and this allowed me to resist until Valentino noticed something strange and came to my aid. Together we managed to fend off Alastor, who at that moment still hadn't gotten used to the huge number of souls that he had just stolen from me; Valentino lost his left antenna, and I too" he said pointing to his left TV antenna, the one with the particular zigzag shape. "Valentino still didn't know about Alastor at the time, since we worked together in secret, and I didn't want to tell him anything; I and that moth continued to work together and fuck sometimes, but for a long time I had trouble trusting anyone other than me. Alastor, after having adapted to all the souls he had stolen, became the very powerful overlord that you know well. He never contacted me again: I had served his purpose, and now I had become useless. It was only after a long time that I regained enough trust in others to finally reveal the truth about what happened to Valentino. He, unlike Alastor, wasn't always pleasant, but at least he never fooled me. And the same goes for Velvette... after she joined us forming the VVV, or Vees, as you like to call us. They are both bastards, I too am a bastard, but at least we know not to betray those who have been faithful friends for years"

Charlie bit her lip hard. Fuck, she hadn't expected that she would have one day felt sorry for Vox. She could only imagine what trust issues he had developed from that ugly affair. "I'm sorry" she finally murmured.

Vox's screen finally stopped flickering, and he returned to some semblance of calm. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness" he murmured, though he did so while chewing his words. "Do you understand what I mean, my queen? You cannot trust Alastor, ever. There is only one solution for someone like him, and that is to kill him immediately. Show even a hint of hesitation, and he will not hesitate to use it to destroy you"

Charlie nodded. "I understand" she told him. "I don't intend to disturb you any further. Go home, Mr. Vox. You are dismissed"

Vox stood up; even though he was trying not to show it, it was clear that he wasn't comfortable in this situation. "Thank you again for your generosity" he told her. "I will do my best to live up to your expectations, Your Royal Majesty"

And having said this he left, and quickly too it had to be said. Charlie remained sitting in her seat for a long moment, and then she too stood up, and after having repaired the chair with a snap of her fingers she headed towards her private rooms. There, as she already knew, she found her friends waiting for her. "How did it go?" they asked her.

Charlie nodded slightly. "Everything went well. Vox is convinced that I had nothing to do with what happened and that I am on his side. As long as he believes it, he will collaborate"

"Good" Seviathan said satisfied, crossing his arms. "Everything would have been much simpler if that guy didn't have a way to blackmail you, but even like this we are in advantage. Now the fire ignited by this first flame will spread throughout Hell. The revolutionaries got what they wanted without anyone getting hurt, and now the Pride Ring has completely changed the soul trading system and you, Charlie, have the possibility of changing the laws of the kingdom even if someone were to oppose it... you just have to convince the majority"

"What's the next move?" Angel asked anxiously. "How do we deprive the overlords of their last souls?"

"Calm down, my friend" Seviathan told him. "Now that the system has already changed profoundly, we just have to be patient and strike in the right places. You'll see, in the end it will be the overlords themselves who will demand that the soul trade be completely abolished. At that point, you will only have to leave the most problematic subjects like that Vox to me, I'll deal with them myself"

Angel let out a snort. "As you wish. But remember, as soon as they lose their fucking souls, Valentino is mine"

"I know. And you will play a major role in their downfall" Seviathan told him with a wide smile.

"Ok, that's enough" Charlie stopped them, no longer wanting to hear words that referred to a potential murder or worse, massacre. "We will think about it another time. Now we must prepare for the consequences that what we did today will have. The nobles will not stand by and watch"

Seviathan's smile became more sinister. "No, they won't" he said. "And neither the people"

Chapter Text

During all the mess that had occurred, Arackniss had not moved from his office, observing everything through numerous monitors to make sure not to miss a single detail. Now that calm had returned, he had to admit that he was surprised at the solution that had been reached: he had expected a compromise, after all the plan was to force the overlords to come to terms, but that was definitely more than what he expected. Angel hadn't lied when he said that Hell would have truly changed forever that day.

Arackniss was pleased with the new law: although only time could tell how useful it would be, he could already understand that it provided for more order, more stability. Exactly what the mafia, and therefore him, needed. He already had a couple of ideas in mind on how to exploit the situation, and he was sure that many other people were doing the same.

Suddenly his cell phone rang. Arackniss immediately took it and, seeing the anonymous number, knew right away that it must be something important: "Hello?"

"Don't worry, this call is not traceable or interceptable in any way" was the first thing that the Camel's voice said to him.

Arackniss nodded. He didn't even ask him how he got his number. "Why this call?"

"I just want you to communicate a message to your brother, who in turn will communicate it to the queen" the Camel replied. "Tell her that we approve of her actions, and that we are grateful. And we will wait for the Pride Ring to stabilize before we make our next move, so she need not fear that we will create more disturbances at such a sensitive time as this. After that... we'll see"

"Understood. I'll make sure the queen knows" Arackniss confirmed.

"Good. I have nothing else to say to you. We will contact you as usual when necessary" the Camel told him.

"Yes, sir" Arackniss replied, and then couldn't help but ask, "May I know if everything went as you predicted?"

The Camel burst out laughing. "Predicted? You speak as if I were a seer" he answered. “I had plans, yes. But otherwise, I trusted the intelligence of the new people in power, and they did not disappoint me. This is an age of change… you can't just lay out a plan perfectly and expect that everyone follows the script. You just have to show a way and give the people around you the opportunity to express themselves, and they will be able to amaze you... as you can see. All you have to do is choose the right people, like I did"

And Arackniss, once again, was certain that he had not bet on the wrong horse at all.

Octavia had been waiting with great anxiety for her uncle's return; not so much because she was worried, she was happy with how things had turned out, but because she had noticed that her mother seemed much more nervous than usual. Stella had in fact become very taciturn, and since she knew Andrealphus better than anyone else, that could only be a bad sign.

Loona had noticed it too, and she wasn't happy at all. "Maybe it would be best if we went to your room and waited for the storm to pass" she whispered to her.

But Octavia shook her head. "No... no, I want to stay here" she replied softly. "If we want my uncle to trust me, then I have to..."

Just then the door opened violently and Andralphus appeared, grim as Octavia rarely remembered seeing him. Stella immediately ran to him: "Andre, welcome back. Come on, sit down" she told him, and she also took off his coat. Which only made Octavia worry more, as she had never seen her mother act so subservient to someone.

Andrealphus didn't even say a word; he didn't say hello, he didn't even have a reaction. His face remained tight in a cold expression, so cold that it made me shiver just to look at it, without even meeting his gaze. He walked calmly to the table and sat down, and in a very elegant manner at that. Once seated, he remained motionless and stared at the other end of the table, even though no one was sitting there.

Octavia clenched her fists a little. Her uncle's behavior worried her quite a bit. "Everything is fine...?"

Andrealphus slammed his fists extremely violently against the table, breaking it in half; he did it with such force that it bounced back a little on the floor, opening cracks on it. "FUCK, THEY SCREWED US!" he roared angrily.

Octavia swallowed hard; she couldn't remember ever seeing her uncle so angry. He seemed to be emanating lightning from his eyes, and the air around him was rapidly freezing. She stepped in front of Loona and surrounded her with a little of her magic to protect her.

Stella too had lost her frowning expression. Evidently, she also knew when it was best to lower the bar. “Andre, what…?”

“I didn't expect them to use sinners!” Andrealphus screamed. His fingers tightened like claws. "Bastards... I knew they were planning something... but I didn't expect this...!"

Stella was clearly confused: “Um… what are you talking about…?”

Andrealphus glared at her: "Those fucking rebels, it seems obvious to me! Those assholes who go around talking about fucking elections! I was convinced that they would have provoked a ruckus among the imps, the hellhounds, the baphomets... everything but the sinners! They shouldn't have cared about sinners! And instead they screwed us! They caught us totally unprepared! They hit us exactly where we couldn't intervene and where we were most vulnerable, and now the queen has changed the fucking law!"

"Well, what should we care?" Stella answered him. "Sinners are worth nothing to us..."

The air around Andrealphus cooled so much that the moisture froze, falling to the ground like icicles. "You idiot, can't you understand!? What happened today is very serious! Not only did those suckers mess up and get away with it, but the queen granted rights to the sinners, and even changed a thousand-year-old law for them! This is an example for all the lower classes! Now everyone has concrete proof that the queen is ready to listen, and it will therefore be very easy to convince all the people to carry out a revolt against us! Our entire position is at risk!"

"If they revolt, we will kill them" Stella said trying to calm him down. "It's not a..."

Andrealphus seemed to explode: the ice expanded around him with exceptional rapidity, killing the few flowers in the vases in an instant. Octavia fortunately realized in time that the temperature was dropping to absurd levels, and warmed the air around herself and Loona with her magic; and this was a good idea, because within a few seconds the temperature was so low that even the oxygen and nitrogen turned into snow that fell on the floor.

Andrealphus jumped up, rising to his full height, and grabbed Stella by the neck; she was coping with the cold quite well, she was his sister after all, but as soon as his hands touched her her skin turned blue. "YOU STUPID COW!" Andrealphus roared. "Do you think it's that simple!? There is no longer Lucifer on the throne! There is that fucking girl who unfortunately give a damn about this kingdom! We can no longer do as we please! If we kill a crowd of commoners, she will be angry! Of course, we wouldn't break any law and therefore she wouldn't be able to legally punish us, but we would give her a valid reason to deprive us of our positions and above all our privileges, especially now that the law no longer provides for a unanimous vote! Killing a commoner today is not as simple as it was yesterday!"

Stella began to seriously show signs of hypothermia, and Octavia worried that her mother would have passed out from thermal shock at any moment, but fortunately Andrealphus let her go by pushing her away, and began walking around the room as if looking for to get rid of the fury. "This was their plan! We were ready to intervene if they tried to do it with the hellborns, but instead they used the sinners! Fucking rebels! Sons of bitches... sons of bitches!" he shouted, grabbing an ornament and throwing it to the ground. "And Stolas... fucking Stolas, he never knows his place...!"

Octavia swallowed. "Did my father do something...?" she asked in a small voice.

"No, he sent that galloper of his, that Vassago, to give stupid speeches about the need for change, all while he went out there with his legions to play the peacemaker!" Andrealphus screamed as he continued to smash things. "I know Vassago acted on his behalf! Fuck, why that crazy idiot of Paimon made HIM king!? All he does is cause trouble! I even became their tool to get what they wanted... how humiliating...!"

Octavia felt the urge to take a step back, and instinctively squeezed Loona's hand, which in turn was quite tense. Andrealphus seemed to have completely lost his mind. He whirled around and pointed his finger at Stella, so violently it almost felt like a curse, and Octavia couldn't blame her mother who took several steps back and even lost her balance and fall to the floor. "YOU! If only you had been able to keep your husband and earn his trust, I could have known about all this beforehand! You stupid sow, the only use you ever had was to get married, but no! You managed to push your husband to divorce! Becoming a wife is the only reason you were conceived! Being attractive is your only quality, what did it cost you to play the lovely wife and keep that idiotic owl under control for me!? Aaaaah, I'm surrounded by incompetents!"

Andrealphus turned towards the wall, which was now covered by a layer of ice half a meter thick, and threw a punch; it was so loud that it reverberated throughout the room, shattering the icicles from the ceiling, and the place it hit shattered as if it were made of plaster. Once that was done, silence returned, broken only by his deep breaths as he finally let go of the adrenaline. Neither Stella nor Octavia nor Loona dared to open their mouths for fear of causing another violent reaction.

And then, Andrealphus turned and walked out, slamming the door. As soon as he was gone, Octavia threw herself on her mother and rushed to help her up. "Did he hurt you?" she asked.

Stella was clearly upset, but she shook her head. "It's okay. Your uncle is just a little shaken up" she said. "You'll see, he'll apologize to us by this evening"

Octavia bit her lip. She had never witnessed her uncle's outbursts of anger, since he almost never lost his composure. She had often wondered why her mother was so submissive towards her, to the point of obeying even when she didn't like his ideas... but maybe she was starting to understand.

In the meantime, Andrealphus had reached her bedroom, and there he had literally started punching the wall; He had broken through it with the first blow, but then he had used his powers to freeze the hole, so he could hit it again and again. He continued until he had completely vented, and then he leaned against the wall of ice he had created, staring at his reflection. For a long moment he was in complete silence.

And then, Andrealphus started chuckling. A light laugh that got louder and louder with each passing second, until the whole room was ringing with his voice: "Ah ah ah! They screwed us! Yes, they screwed us real good! Ah ah ah! Fucking Stolas! AH AH AH!!!"

Andrealphus put a hand in front of his face, still laughing, and then his expression became more menacing: "Okay... okay. So be it. I'll play your game, with all of you... especially with you, silly Stolas. Poor, silly Stolas. Please, do your worst... I will do the same"

Andrealphus's grin widened. His eyes seemed fill of a mad glare. "Oh, yes" he said in an almost wheezy voice. "You were good. All of you. Brilliant. I'm not afraid to admit it. Stolas, Vassago, those rebels... each one moved very well. So I'll do the same". He looked directly towards the ice, staring at his own reflection. "I don't run away. I don't dodge. I don't retreat. I just attack. You have used this opportunity to demonstrate that we need to change... all I have to do is prove the opposite in an even more pressing way. And I know exactly how to do it"

In the next room, Octavia was still trying to calm her mother down; Stella was still acting normal, but just by holding her hand she could feel how strong her pulse was. Loona, with her keen sense of smell, could also clearly sense her upset. "Mom, maybe we should go away... even if it's just for today" Octavia said.

Stella shook her head. "Via, seriously, there is nothing to worry about. Your uncle gets like this when he's really mad about something. It's your father and all that shit, they made him lose his temper"

"He grabbed you by the neck!" Loona couldn't help but say. She had never liked Stella, but damn, even she had a limit when it came to her tolerance for domestic violence.

Stella just gave her a look of contempt. "Don't open your filthy mouth when you're not spoken to, servant! You don't understand" she snarled, though she then added, almost as if to justify her brother: "And in any case, I'm the one who provoked him. I should have just kept quiet and let him vent"

Loona was about to reply, but just then Andrealphus returned. All three of them tensed, fearing another violent reaction, but instead he said regretfully: "I'm sorry, I scared you. I let my emotions control me. It won't happen again"

Octavia and Loona looked at each other worriedly, wondering if he had lost his mind; it seemed that Andrealphus had completely changed personality. There was no longer any trace of the furious demon he had been until a few moments before, replaced by his usual gentlemanly demeanor. Stella, on the other hand, didn't seem very surprised. 

It was to her that Andrealphus addressed himself: "Little sister, I'm sorry for my behavior. I shouldn't have accused you like that. After all, it's not your fault if your only quality is being attractive. You are not to blame"

Seeing that her brother had completely changed his attitude, Stella immediately became jovial again: "Oh, good! I assume you already know what to do, as usual...!" she told him flatteringly.

Andrealphus nodded. "Yes, I just needed to think about it well" he replied. "I know how to solve this difficult situation"

Octavia and Loona felt a shiver run down their spines; that behavior was definitely more disturbing than before. Stella, on the other hand, was ecstatic: "I knew you just needed a moment, as usual. So, what should we do...?"

"We? My dear sister, you know that you don't have to do anything. I'm the mastermind in this house, your only job is to be attractive" Andrealphus told her, grabbing her cheek and squeezing it a little, as if she were a small child, and then he turned to Octavia: "Dear niece, please call your father and tell him I want to meet him soon. I want to make peace with him, I'm sure that after talking he will understand my point of view well. Therefore, I want to... yes, play a game of golf with him. It's a good way for two men to get along"

Octavia froze for a moment; it seemed impossible to her that her uncle, who until a few seconds ago seemed ready to tear her father to pieces, had suddenly changed his mind and wanted to talk to him peacefully man to man. She had already heard that Andrealphus was someone who could change sides and allegiances as easily as a normal person changes socks, but this was the first time she had seen him change his mind in just a few minutes. And the most disturbing thing was that his face seemed truly sincere: that was one of the creepiest things about her uncle, no matter what heinous thing he had in mind, he always managed to appear trustworthy. And then, why wasn't Andrealphus worried about her saying to her father that not even three minutes before he had clearly threatened him? But then she realized that she actually had nothing useful to say to Stolas: he already knew that Andrealphus was hostile to him, and since her uncle hadn't said her what he actually wanted to do, she didn't know what to say to her father other than a simple warning. "Are you sure? You could call him..."

"No, I'm sure he'll listen to you more" Andrealphus replied. "We'll have a nice family reunion, all together. But not today... let's at least wait some time, since he will surely be busy in Pride" 

Octavia sweatdropped a little: "Well... I can at least call him in advance..."

"No, please. You would only make him anxious" Andrealphus told her with a kind smile, which however was also terribly disturbing. “You're going to wait a while, right?”

Octavia swallowed, but still she nodded: “Sure… sure, I’ll wait"

"Good!" Andrealphus said satisfied. "Come on, let's go have lunch. I want roast owl today"

As soon as Vox returned to Vees' tower, Valentino and Velvette nearly jumped on him: "So!?" they exclaimed in unison.

Vox signaled them to calm down: "Don't worry. The queen is still on our side, and has granted us some favors. She has told me in secret that she intends to appoint me president of the assembly of overlords"

Valentino and Velvette relaxed a little. They hadn't received a comprehensive explanation yet, but they knew that when Vox had that satisfied expression, then everything had really gone according to his plan. “So… we stay on the top?” Valentino asked unsure.

"Absolutely yes. Do you think I would have approved a law that would not allow us to remain at the top of the social pyramid?" Vox replied with a smile that showed off his digital teeth. "You know I never make rash moves"

Unlike Valentino, Velvette already understood the most important part: "If you're going to be president... that technically makes us rulers of the Pride Ring, right?"

"Precisely. And this time we will be legally" Vox replied, and he didn't hold back a laugh: "Poor Alastor... he thought he was screwing us, and instead thanks to his pathetic scheme we only cemented our position. Now it will be much more difficult for him to undermine us from our position. I almost feel sorry for him"

"Lucky you. For me, it just pisses me off" Valentino grumbled. "Even though we won, so to speak, now we have to abide by some fucking rules too. I preferred it a lot more before..."

"Yeah, we all know you don't like the law" Velvette grumbled, though she didn't look happy either. Even if she didn't say it out loud, she still appreciated being able to do as she pleased without having to worry about having to account to anyone for her actions. Now, however, even though she technically still had almost total freedom, she had some limits that she had to respect.

Vox shook his head. "Yes, I know it's annoying. But given the current times, it was inevitable that sooner or later a change would occur. This was the best I could hope for" he told his two companions. "Alastor and his foolish rebels failed to do us any real harm. They just hindered us a little. It's not a problem" 

Velvette and Valentino looked at each other, and then they both nodded. "Yeah, it's not that big of a deal" the doll demon said. “But we can't risk anyone making such a mess again, we can't lose any more independence”

Vox immediately lost his smile and became serious. "I know" he said through gritted teeth. "We must find Alastor, or at least someone who works for him. He suffered a defeat today, but as long as he breathes, he will not stop. No matter what the cost, we must take him out. The queen cannot protect us forever..."

"Assuming she will" Valentino grumbled. "I don't like that chick, she's too sugary"

Vox rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter her character, as long as I have the blueprints for the weapons, she won't turn against us. In fact, her good nature is an advantage: we don't risk that she kills us with a surprise ambush to make those blueprints disappear, not until we have at least a few souls with us. You know she doesn't like letting innocents die"

Valentino was silenced by those simple logical arguments, having nothing to reply. Vox was glad he had stopped bothering him. "I told you, she's not our enemy. We secured our position when we made that deal with her. Now we just have to worry about everything else". His fingers sizzled: "We'll fix this Ring properly. And most importantly, we'll find Alastor!"

"Etchoo!" Alastor sneezed. "Damn… a lot of people are really talking about me these days"

Well, he didn't care. What happened in the upper Rings was no longer his business. He didn't want to test his master's patience any further, and besides, he had no way of getting out of there without Emily's consent since the door was sealed again. He would have taken care of whatever problems were going on up there at another time.

Just as he was mulling this over he saw Niffty come back in, climbing through the window like he was a cockroach. "Oh, my dear Niff!" he exclaimed. "What news do you bring me?"

"The cookie lady has grounded the mad angel" was the answer of the little cyclops waitress.

There was a brief moment of awkward silence. "Please, explain me better" Alastor said.

Niffty shrugged: "The cute angel is going completely nuts. She kept saying 'no, no, I'm right, I'm in charge', and the cookie lady was like 'you can't act like that', and then she slapped her and broke her face, and the cookie lady got angry and grounded her"

Alastor was stunned for a moment. “Seriously, I go away for such a short time and I miss all this stuff?” he murmured to himself, but then he immediately regained his composure: "I understand that Emily is alone now, and that she isn't very happy. Am I right?"

"Uh..." Niffty hesitated for a moment, but then she answered: "Yes, that's right. She's in her room"

"Good!" Alastor said clapping his hands. “Please go and distract Rosie for some time”

Niffty normally would have complied right away, and indeed she felt the urge to do so, but then she muttered: "What do you want to do?"

“Oh, are you interested?” Alastor replied a little surprised, as Niffty had never asked him such a question. "I just want to have a chat with Emily. From the way you described her to me she seems too tense, I just want to... make sure everything is fine, let's say"

Niffty clasped her hands together and played with her fingers a little. “So… I need to distract the cookie lady?”

Alastor was a little confused: it wasn't like her to ask all those questions. "Yes, exactly. Why, is it too complicated a task?"

"No!" Niffty immediately screamed. "I'll do it right away!"

And with that he scampered out of the building and ran back towards the dark building as if it were a splinter. Alastor raised an eyebrow, wondering if there was something wrong, but after all Niffty acted strangely sometimes, so he decided to ignore that. Rather, he had other things to worry about. His shadow emerged through him and slipped through the dead city like a hideous ghost... towards the window of the highest chamber of the central palace.

Chapter Text

"Yay, it's done!"

Blitz let out a triumphant noise as he turned off his phone after a long discussion with Moxxie, who had informed him of everything that had happened. The whole time since the plan had begun, he had been on constant alert, ready to intervene immediately at the slightest sign of danger, and he could finally relax. Everything had ended for the best.

"Hmm. I understand that this is great news, but could you be quieter?" Stryker commented sourly. They were both sitting on a rock on the hill where the house was located, and had been there for about the entire day waiting for their friends to contact them.

"Tsk! Do you have to be an asshole all the time?" Blitz grunted, but then waved his phone in front of him: "Anyway, did you hear that? Apparently you can get your freedom peacefully! You were wrong, sucker!"

"I'd be happy to be wrong if the Queen would put the same effort that she used for freeing a bunch of illegal immigrants who use our world as a prison into helping our still oppressed people" Stryker hissed with a snake. Having been so close to Blitz he had heard every single word, and he knew that this was an absolute victory anyway, but his pride prevented him from granting his rival that small ideological victory.

"Ugh, you're really hard to please" Blitz grumbled, and then he sneered: "When Hell will be reformed, I'm going to enjoy watching you apologize while I kick your ass"

Stryker narrowed his eyes, and then he stood up, cracking his neck. "Well, since the emergency situation is over, we have no reason to sit on this rock any longer" he said, and then his hand swelled and vibrated with angelic energy, and he punched Blitz right in the face: "LET'S CONTINUE"

Blitz was sent rolling ten feet with a sore jaw. "Fuck you, that's no fair! You attacked me by surprise!" he protested.

"There are no rules in a real fight!" Stryker replied, his entire body swelling and emitting white sparks. "Get on your guard, you little shit!"

Blitz grumbled, and then he changed into his cherub form. "Very willingly!" he shouted, and he took flight to the air and swooped down on him like a bird of prey. Stryker grinned in response, and braced himself to take the blow and strike back.

During their entire 'anime training retreat', as Blitz foolishly liked to call it, the two of them had done nothing but fight; they went from morning till night, stopping only to eat, sleep, and contact their friends to find out what was happening in the rest of Hell. In some ways, that training had paid off: both of them had grown stronger and learned to use their powers better. Blitz could now fight with extraordinary skill in both his imp and cherub forms, while Stryker had managed to partially control the flow of angelic energy in his veins, managing to increase the physical performance of a part of his body for over an hour before feeling the side effects, or even swelling and bulking up his entire body for almost half an hour without taking any damage. Since all of these skills required extreme precision, both of them had improved their concentration considerably, at least when they were engaged in a fight; When they fought, their minds systematically excluded anything that was not aimed at overpowering the opponent.

However, as far as controlling the horsemen inside them, they hadn't made much progress. Blitz had been able to force the white horseman to give him his powers for a few moments, but that was it. And Stryker, to his frustration, hadn't been able to control the red horseman yet. They both felt that something was missing, but they didn't know what. Even that day, even though they fought for over three hours, they made no progress. "Time out!" Blitz yelled at one point.

Stryker paused a moment before kicking him between the lungs and colon. "What? Tired already?"

"No, I just want to think" Blitz said, taking a deep breath to regain his strength. "We're not going anywhere like this. There's no point in continuing if I don't know how to activate these powers"

Stryker snorted deeply, but he crossed his arms anyway. "I'm afraid you're right" he admitted. "Any ideas?"

Blitz was a little surprised: "Wow, you're willing to help me? I was expecting you to say fuck you and punch me in the balls"

"It's still not out of the question that I might do that" Stryker replied angrily. That would normally have been how he would have actually reacted, but he preferred to hold back at the moment. As much as he hated helping Blitz, if he could control the white horseman, Stryker could mimic him to control the red horseman. It was simple strategy. "I want to fight you at your full power, not this lesser version of you. So let's find a solution to this problem"

Blitz closed his eyes to concentrate. "Let's think about it. We know that the asshole inside me has no free will, and I can control it if I use enough willpower. But then why can't I maintain the transformation?"

"Maybe you don't have enough willpower" Stryker said sarcastically, even though he knew that wasn't the case; if that were the case, he would have taken control of the red horseman long ago. "Or... it's possible that something is needed to stabilize the transformation"

Blitz raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean?"

"Well, as much as it annoys me to admit it, sometimes willpower isn't enough" Stryker replied. "You can tame a horse to the point of turning it extremely docile, but without a saddle, you'll still hurt your pelvis..." 

"Just say the balls" Blitz commented.

"Can we talk seriously for a moment!?" Stryker growled. "As I was saying, with willpower you can tame even the wildest horse, but without a saddle you will hurt yourself and eventually fall. It is possible that this horseman inside you works the same way. You can impose your will on him and use him as if he were a part of you, but you need something that allows you to mantain such control in the long term"

Blitz rubbed his chin. “Mmm… you might be right" he said. “Let’s see… what happened when I first transformed…?”

“I don’t think that counts” Stryker told him. "The horse and rider were in agreement that time. Here we’re trying to tame a wild horse that’s struggling to be contained"

Blitz was silent for a moment, and then his eyes widened: “Of course! You bastard son of a bitch, you’re a fucking genius!”

“I’ll hold off on punching you for insulting my mother just because I’m curious about what’s going on in your head,” Stryker grumbled angrily.

“It’s very simple!” Blitz told him. “Think about it: why was I chosen to contain the white horseman?”

Stryker narrowed his eyes: "Because you're both an angel and a demon"

"That's right! That bastard adapts to everything, but since there are two opposing principles in my body, he can't adapt to both and therefore can't make me explode from the inside! Or at least, that's what I remember being told" Blitz explained, albeit a little unsure, since memory wasn't exactly his strong point. "As long as he's inside me, where these two forces are constantly present, he's forced to stay quiet, but as soon as I try to pull him out, since he doesn't want to be controlled, he adapts in a matter of seconds and manages to free himself from my... grip of will, so to speak!"

Stryker was silent for a long moment, thinking carefully. "It might make sense" he admitted. "So if you manifested both angelic and demonic power outside of your body, you should be able to use your will to command the white horseman however you wanted"

"Well... maybe" Blitz admitted, and then he quickly changed from imp to cherub form and back again. "The problem is, I can't use both at the same time"

"Wait, let me try. My Goetia heritage makes it easier for me to control energy" Stryker suggested, and raised his hand. It immediately swelled and turned blue-purple, emitting white blasts. Stryker concentrated hard, and his hand began to change shape and size continuously, although it was clearly causing him a lot of stress as his muscles continued to harden and deflate rapidly.

Blitz made a disappointed noise: "It looks the same to me. Maybe it's not the right method..."

"Shut up!" Stryker hissed at him. "I need to focus and you're not helping!"

Despite having just said that, Blitz didn't close his mouth at all: "Wait... so you really think we can do this...?"

Stryker snorted. "Study some infernal biology. Dark energy flows naturally in every demon like blood. In the case of us imps it can barely guarantee a very long lifespan, but the more energy there is, the more it can be extracted and used, like the Goetia or even just minor demons like the infestors do" he explained. "You and I are just imps, but we have equal amounts of white energy typical of angels, so it's like we have double the energy. Therefore, we should actually be able to transmit it outside of our bodies, not just with a simple change of appearance..."

"I'm not following you" Blitz admitted.

Stryker had to close his eyes to give himself the strength not to snap his neck. "I had no doubts about it. Just let me work" he said simply.

Ignoring Blitz's confused and downright idiotic look, he continued to continuously flow energy into his hand. Every time his cells supercharged he felt pain, but the more he tried, the more he felt like he was reaching some sort of balance. Each time he tried to use as little angelic energy as possible while at the same time maintaining his demonic energy. And finally, his hand stopped swelling, and instead seemed to be surrounded by some sort of halo made up of the combined angelic and demonic energies.

Blitz's eyes widened: "What the fuck... you did it! So it can be done...!"

"Yeah" Stryker commented. "Now it's your turn. And once you reach this state, try using the horseman power"

"Me?" Blitz muttered.

Stryker rolled his eyes: "Is there another idiot around here? I did it with unstable angelic energy, you shouldn't have any problems. And besides, you're the only one who can test if this one can control that horseman"

Actually, Stryker could have tried it himself, he was dying to try, but he certainly couldn't transform in front of Blitz. Besides, it was better to let him take the risk in case the idea turned out to be a fiasco or something worse. That's what guinea pigs were for after all.

Blitz scratched the back of his head. Unlike Stryker, he didn't have a Goetia heritage and didn't have any knowledge of how the process worked, but after all the times he had changed form from imp to cherub, he too had started to get used to the dual energy that flowed through him. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard.

It took him a while before he could do anything. The demonic energy and the angelic energy were like two forces in perfect balance that didn't want to touch: every time he managed to grab one, the other seemed to slip away from him, and he just changed from imp to cherub and back again and again.

The white horseman's voice resented his mind: "Why do you waste your time doing this? I can give you my powers whenever you want if you just ask for them"

"Shut up. I don't intend to depend on you any longer" Blitz replied.

"Your behavior is illogical" the white horseman replied. "You said yourself that I have no soul and therefore no free will. Why should I be a threat to you?"

"You are programmed to find Emily and destroy her anyway, so even without free will you can try to fuck me" Blitz growled back. "Shut your fucking mouth. I didn't go through the worst pains to stick you inside me only to have you come out again! You stay in here and don't be a pain in the ass!"

Blitz completely ignored everything else the white horseman was saying. Only one thing was clear to him: if the armored asshole was trying to convince him to give up, it was because that was the right path. So he went back to trying to control his dual energy with even more force than before.

After all, Stryker wasn't wrong about this at least: imposing his will was necessary for such situations.

In the end he succeeded: thanks to his infinite stubbornness and a good dose of willpower, he managed to capture both demonic and angelic energies, and merged them in his right hand, which just like Stryker's was surrounded by a light purple halo. It was very difficult to keep the two energies together, which continually tried to move away as if they were the opposite poles of a magnet, but Blitz was not discouraged. "Now... the moment of truth" he said, looking at Stryker.

The rattlesnake imp seemed as tense as he was for once. He was almost sweating. "Call the power"

Blitz gritted his teeth, and immediately his hand was surrounded by a white aura and covered in armor. But unlike the other times when it had immediately vanished, this time it remained there. Blitz was gritting his teeth to try to keep it stable, but he was succeeding. "It's working" he said triumphantly.

Stryker's eyes were glowing with extraordinary excitement. "Don't waste any more time! Call it all!" he said, salivating from his mouth. "Show me the true power!"

Blitz concentrated even more, and expanded what he had done to his hand all over his body; for an instant he seemed to explode in a white light, and as soon as it disappeared, he was back on the white horse, completely covered in armor and with his bow and pistol already in his hand. "Yes... yes!" Stryker hissed under his breath. "So this is what I have to do...!"

The whole thing lasted only a couple of minutes, and then Blitz couldn't take it anymore and ended the transformation. "It's... really hard to keep the two energies stable" he admitted. "But I know how to do it now. I just have to practice a little. In a few days at most I'll have total control of this stuff"

Stryker nodded, and then they both went back to the house. As soon as they got back, Blitz sat down on the couch and took a deep breath. "Since this is training inside my body, I guess I need to turn into a Zen monk" he commented with a bit of sarcasm. "From now on, we'll train during the day and at night I'll do this sort of meditation, hoping it helps"

"That sounds like a good idea" Stryker told him, then he turned around. "Well, the couch is yours. I'm going out"

Blitz raised an eyebrow: "Where are you going?"

"The discovery that we can merge our dual energies isn't just about you" Stryker replied. "I think it might help me improve my abilities, since I have angelic energy in my body too. I need to think about it, so I'm going for a walk. It'll clear my mind"

"Huh? You weren't the type to walk... well, everyone has their hobbies" Blitz said without asking too many questions, and he went back to focusing on himself.

Stryker went out again, and initially walked away casually just in case his rival decided to check out the window, but then he couldn't hold back any longer and started to speed up his pace until he was running. He reached the base of the hill and hid behind a large rock, and after checking one last time that Blitz hadn't followed him, he immediately repeated what he had done earlier, coordinating the dual energies in his body until they were stable; but this time, as the purple aura enveloped his arm, he also called out something else with all his willpower. In an instant, blood-red armor with knife-sharp fingertips enveloped his entire arm.

Stryker looked at the red-armored hand over and over again. Damn, it felt amazing. He could feel it clearly, the power coursing through his veins like fire, even in that embryonic state. He snapped his fingers, making a metallic and rhythmic sound.

Amazing.

Now he wanted more.

He immediately expanded his power, and in an instant a red light blinded him; when he recovered he was no longer on the ground, but sitting on a monstrous huge horse of fire red, and he was completely covered in armor of the same color. He raised his right hand, and in his fingers materialized a sword extremely similar to his daggers; he waved it, finding it perfectly balanced, and as soon as he did it was enveloped in a golden flame.

It was all fucking magnificent.

Just like Blitz, he also couldn't maintain the transformation for long and soon returned to his normal state, only more exhausted than before. But it didn't matter: now he knew what he had to do, and just like Blitz, he too could gain total control of that power with just a little mental training. In a few days he would be able to maintain that supreme form, in fact, he had every intention of doing it in just one!

He almost wanted to go into the house and challenge Blitz right there and then, so he could immediately decide who was the strongest of them, but he held back. Even though he was intoxicated by the power of the red horseman, he could still think clearly. He wanted to face Blitz at his maximum power, so both of them had still to train. And he remembered very well that his job wasn't just to control that immense force; he was here undercover, he couldn't risk being discovered. Even if he had killed Blitz, his death would have raised questions that would have been difficult to answer. And he doubted that his new mistress would have been happy with him taking out the only other being in Hell capable of controlling a horseman.

Speaking of that... he had to inform Emily. There were many things he had to inform her of, actually, and fortunately they were all positive. So he might as well do it now.

He reconnected with his mistress, expecting her to appear before him; instead, he only heard her voice in his head. "Stryker?"

He was a little confused, since they had been talking face to face lately, but he decided that if she wasn't showing up, she had a reason. "My lady, I have very good news."

There was a moment of silence. "Oh... oh! Good!" Emily exclaimed. "I really need some good news right now"

 Stryker noticed that her voice sounded a little strangled, as if something was strangling her. "Are you okay, my lady?"

"Yes! Yes, everything is fine" Emily replied briskly. "So, this news?"

Stryker was speechless for a moment, not remembering ever hearing Emily sound so breathless, but then decided it wasn't his place to bombard her with questions. "First of all, I can proudly tell you that I have discovered how to control the red horseman!"

Emily didn't say anything at first, and even though he couldn't see her, Stryker was sure it was because her eyes were wide with surprise. When she spoke again, her voice was a little less anxious and more content: "This... is great news! Are you sure...?"

"I can catch him and force him to give me his power at any time" Stryker replied. "I have no idea what abilities he has given me, since I haven't tested them yet, but I can say with certainty that I can already defeat almost any opponent Hell can throw at me. Once I have full confidence in these abilities, there will be no enemy that can stop me"

"That's excellent" Emily told him. "I admit I'm impressed. Blitz managed to control his as well?"

Stryker grunted slightly, annoyed at having to give his rival credit, but he answered truthfully anyway: "Yes, and that's the second big news: you don't have to worry about the white horseman breaking free anymore, he's under perfect control now"

Even though Stryker didn't like Blitz, he couldn't deny that the fact that he was able to control a horseman was a good thing; letting such a loose cannon loose in Hell would have unleashed one catastrophe after another. It was fitting that the white horseman remained sealed, as was the red horseman. Those creatures had to stay locked away somewhere, and as much as Stryker hated to admit it, Blitz was a much better guardian than most.

Emily's voice shook him out of his thoughts: "Is there anything else you need to tell me?"

Even though she wasn't in front of him, Stryker nodded anyway. "Yes. I'm happy to report that your sister's plan was a success. She managed to change the law and free a lot of her precious sinners"

"Really? That's great!" Emily exclaimed in satisfaction, and Stryker was sure he heard her clap her hands. "So all the sinners are free now...?"

"Not really, your sister had to make some confessions" Stryker told her. "That guy, Vox, gave her some trouble. But from what I understand, they have a plan for that"

"Oh... well, it's still a success" Emily muttered.

Stryker made his usual hissing noise. "If you want, I can take care of this" he told her. "An overlord was an easy hunt for me before, now it's a quiet night walk. That Vox could be dead in less than an hour"

Emily remained silent, a sign that she was at least thinking about it. Stryker expected her to nod, but instead she answered him: "No... no, better not, just keep an eye on the situation for now. Only intervene in case of emergency"

Stryker noticed again that her tone had become breathless, as if she were afraid of something. "Are you sure you're okay, my lady?" he asked again. It wasn't his place to pry, but he honestly felt that something was wrong.

"Yes, I already told you! Now stop asking me that!" Emily blurted out with some irritation, although she immediately changed her attitude: "Um... anyway, like I said, keep an eye on the situation and intervene if something happens that puts people in danger. For the rest, step aside and let Charlie handle it"

Stryker would have preferred a more active role, but he preferred not to complain. He could tell something was wrong and he didn't want to push the strings too far with what was basically a goddess. "It will be done, my lady" he confirmed.

"Good. I'm counting on you" Emily said briskly, and then she immediately cut the conversation short, disappearing from Stryker's mind.

He scratched the back of his neck. This had been the strangest conversation he'd had with his new mistress so far. Up until that point, Emily had always appeared calm and collected, never this anxious and rushed. Well, maybe he'd caught it at a bad time, he finally thought as he walked back toward the house.

Blitz was still on the couch, apparently looking at the wall with an idiotic expression, even though Stryker knew he was actually thinking about what to do now that he'd found a way to control the white horseman. Blitz almost always looked like a moron, but that didn't mean he was one... well, not constantly at least. "Oh, you're back" he said as he saw him walk in. "Have you been stretching your legs?"

"Quite well" Stryker told him, sitting down next to him. "You made progress?"

"Let's say I'm trying" Blitz answered.

"It's still something" Stryker replied. "Mind if I join you?"

Blitz shrugged: "If you wish"

Chapter Text

Emily rubbed her head. The conversation with Stryker had brought her good news, but it hadn’t done anything to lift her spirits. She still felt tired, anxious, scared, and terrified, too many emotions all at once that she couldn’t control.

She buried her head in the pillow, just to be safe and stifle a scream in case she couldn't hold it in any longer. She had been trying to calm down for an hour, but she was having a hard time containing the tornado of emotions in her heart. She felt like she was about to explode.

She hadn't done it on purpose. She hadn't hit Rosie on purpose! She didn't know what had gotten into her, it was just a moment...!

She gritted her teeth hard. If Rosie had tried to react instead of just looking at her... what would she have done? Thinking back to that moment, she was afraid to give herself an answer. "I was ready to break her back" she whispered softly, clutching the pillow tighter. "All that anger... I would have torn her to pieces if she had tried to react...!"

No... no, she had to stay calm. Rosie wouldn't have gotten hurt, right? She was a demon, she wasn't in danger of dying... she would have fully recovered in a few hours, right...?

But... that didn't make it any less bad.

Fuck... why couldn't she control herself...?

"It's these damn emotions!" she screamed into the pillow, letting her frustrated words get drowned out by it. "It's all Roo's fault! I would never have been this angry otherwise! I wouldn't have lost control like that...!"

But... she should have been able to handle those emotions. It was her job. She was Roo's guardian, controlling that parasite was exactly the reason why she was still there in the Betrayal Ring...

She shouldn't have been the one being controlled!

"It's also Rosie's fault!" Emily exclaimed trying to make sense of what had happened. "She knew I wasn't in control of everything yet, she should have stopped talking! She should have shut up! She told her to shut up! It's her fault! It's...!"

"Then why are you the one who's grounded?" a familiar voice said in her ear.

Emily let out a small scream and immediately sat up, discovering that next to her in the bed was a black shadow with an unmistakable shape. "What the... Alastor!?"

"Hello" Alastor's shadow said to her. "Sorry, I've been missing you a bit"

"Are you out of your mind!?" Emily exclaimed angrily. "Does it seem normal to you to enter a girl's room like this and appear next to her in bed!?"

"Of course, I've done it before" Alastor replied. "Ask Charlie, she'll confirm it. Although in her case I appeared with my physical body, not as a shadow"

"That's not an excuse!" Emily snapped. "That's a violation of my privacy, and considering you showed up in my bed I might even consider it sexual harassment!"

"Come on, you know I'm not the type to do that" Alastor said, but he still slid his shadow off the mattress, moving it to the wall. "And I tried knocking on the window, but you didn't listen. I'm curious, why are you here screaming in frustration into your pillow?"

Emily groaned. Normally she would have been grateful that someone cared about her, but she already knew that he never had good intentions. "Do you think I'm stupid? I know you already know everything, Niffty told you for sure. Not to mention that you can apparently sneak in here even though Rosie warned you that she would smash your fucking balls in if you tried"

"Your language is getting more and more colorful" Alastor told her. "I confess I'm a little disappointed, I liked having someone to talk to who didn't use vulgar words in every sentence"

Emily's eyelid fluttered: "Are you kidding me!?"

"I'm just telling the truth" Alastor replied with a lot of malice in his voice. "I really think your mom should give you a lesson in manners"

"I'm going to kill you!" Emily warned him.

Alastor laughed heartily, but then he became serious again: "Jokes aside, yes, I already know everything... but I wanted to ask you out of politeness. You know, it's nice to have someone to confide in"

"Not if the aforementioned someone is a psychopathic serial killer with a long history of violence, who has already taken advantage of me more than once to boot" Emily replied in a tired voice. She couldn't even stay angry, Alastor was simply nerve-racking. Talking to him seemed to drain her of all energy.

"Being a killer doesn't stop me from being a good listener" Alastor told her, crawling up the wall toward her.

"And a profiteer" Emily muttered, but she didn't push him away. She knew she could keep berating him until her tongue dried out and he wouldn't have given a damn. Alastor would have been able to stay there for the next thousand years, retorting to every argument she made until she was exhausted. So Emily simply lay back on the bed, this time facing up, and simply said: "Do whatever you want, just don't bother me"

Ignoring him was the best option. She knew she couldn't beat Alastor in a rhetorical contest, so her only option was to pretend he wasn't there.

The radio demon's shadow moved, moving over the bed's canopy: "I don't mean to disturb you, I just want to talk a little"

In response Emily remained silent and to better emphasize the concept she closed her eyes.

Alastor let out an amused laugh. "Have we come to this? Come on, there's nothing wrong with having a conversation. Don't stay silent"

Emily rolled onto her side, not opening her eyes.

Alastor was only more amused. "You can't ignore me forever, Emily"

"Of course I can" Emily couldn't help but mutter.

"You didn't do that now" Alastor pointed out triumphantly.

"I... aaaaaah! Fuck you!" Emily exclaimed, picking up her pillow and putting it over her head. "Is it so hard for you to leave me alone!? I have enough problems without adding you to the mix!"

"What a fuss. Did slapping Rosie really upset you that much? Sometimes you get so angry" Alastor told her.

Those words made something snap in Emily, who literally threw the pillow at the radio demon's shadow, even though she already knew that it obviously wouldn't have done anything to him. "Shut up! It wasn't my fault, it's this damn parasite that made me act like this!"

Alastor got into a strange position, as if he was massaging his chin, although it was hard to tell since his shadow had no defined edges. "Mmm... that's denial, right?"

Emily was speechless: "What?"

"I'm trying to remember the hotel's activities" Alastor answered her. "If I'm not mistaken, we're now in the denial stage, where the lost sinner desperate for a second chance instead of admitting her guilt and accepting that she screwed up tries to shift the blame onto something else..."

"What the...!? Why are you acting like you're at the Hazbin Hotel now!?" Emily snapped. "You didn't even believe in Charlie's project!"

"I said it was ridiculous. I never said it didn't have potential" Alastor replied. "Haven't you learned to read between the lines despite all the bad luck that's happened to you?"

Emily's eyelid trembled dangerously. "I hate you" she hissed.

Alastor chuckled. "No, you don't. That's denial too"

"Oh, go to Hell, even though we're already there!" Emily exclaimed, putting her hands in her hair. "I didn't mean to hurt Rosie, okay!? I didn't mean to! I felt so angry, she kept talking even when I told her to shut up, she had to shut up... and why do I feel like I'm in a therapy session now!?"

Alastor's shadow crawled next to her: "If you want, I can move to a chair and materialize a notebook in my hands"

Emily groaned. She hated that Alastor never seemed to take anything seriously, especially since she knew that behind that joking and smiling facade was a master deceiver. "Maybe I should really call Rosie and have her kick your ass out of here"

"It depends. Do you want to do it?" Alastor asked innocently, but his voice had a strange hissing sound to it.

Emily frowned at him, but in the end, even though a very rational part of her advised her to kick the radio demon out right away, she remained silent. Instead, she muttered: "Look, Alastor... you ended up in Hell..."

"That seems obvious to me" the radio demon told her.

"Yes, I know! What I mean is... you ended up here, you weren't born a demon. You're a human soul, so you were human first and then you became a demon" Emily explained further. "When did it happen... well, how was it? Was being a demon like being human, or... different?"

"Interesting question" Alastor replied. "I can tell you that being a demon is very different from being human. You have different sensations, different thoughts, different feelings. It's all more... instinctive, bestial, animalistic. Even someone like me, who in life tended to rely on his worst side, is able to see the difference. Sorry if I don't explain very well..."

"No, no, I got the idea" Emily assured him. "What I wanted to ask you is... how did you get used to it? I mean, you're always so calm, elegant, quiet, unlike the other demons who are almost always chaotic, so you're able to control the animalistic part you were referring to. How do you do it?"

Alastor seemed to rub his chin again, but this time with much more emphasis. "Mmm... clever, you want to know how I did it because you hope you can replicate it and prove to yourself that what you did was just an instinct that you didn't know how to control and therefore clear your conscience"

Emily blushed visibly. "That's not what I want to do at all!"

"No need denying it to me, I agree" Alastor told her, as if he were a proud father. "Pretty devious, I have to admit. You're making progress, girl"

"I don't want to clear my conscience!" Emily blurted out, her face growing redder. "I just want to know how you do it, so I can control myself and avoid being overwhelmed by these heightened feelings again! It's pretty much the same situation, just on a bigger scale, right? If we imagine that I'm you... I mean, I'm not a serial killer... and I'm not a psychopath... well... okay, using a lot of imagination, we can say that I'm you and Roo is all the animalistic instincts you got when you came to Hell, so how can I control her?"

"Mm-mmm..." Alastor muttered as if thinking. "I don't think you'll like that answer"

Emily rolled her eyes. "I haven't gotten answers I like lately. So?"

Even though it was just his shadow, Alastor's grin widened enormously. "I don't control my demonic instincts. No sinner really does" he told her. "We embrace them. We make them part of us. The more we accept them, the more complete we are"

Emily bit her lip. Alastor had been right, she didn't like those words at all. "What do you mean?"

"When a sinner arrives in Hell, they are invested by all their evil instincts. Imagine that the human body is a filter, and once it's removed and replaced with a demonic one, that filter is no longer there. That's why sinners are almost always chaotic and violent and, more often than not, stupid" Alastor explained. "But a sinner can change into a better form. There are two ways: in the first case there is no real change, simply the surrounding environment favors a more peaceful lifestyle, as happened at the Hazbin Hotel. A bit like taking lions and putting them in captivity by guaranteeing them good food and the absence of enemies, they tend to become less violent"

"So... basically demons calm down when put in their comfort zone?" Emily muttered in confusion.

"A wild animal will always have its instincts at their highest, but an animal brought to a safe and calm place will gradually suppress them" Alastor answered her. "It's just nature. Give a demon good food, a safe home, family love and everything else Charlie gave her patients, and even the most bestial demons will change for the better... as it actually happened, right?"

Emily scratched her head. She had technically only met Pentious, Husk, Angel and Cherri after arriving at the hotel, when they were already good people... well, kind of. But at least from what she had heard from their stories, they were much more selfish, self-centered, lustful and destructive before they joined Charlie's project. "Well... it makes sense" she muttered in thought. "But... I'm already in my comfort zone, and it doesn't work..."

"Really? Your comfort zone is being locked in a castle in the darkest depths of Hell?" Alastor told her, and again he seemed to go into psychologist mode: "Do you have some fantasy princess complex that I don't know about?"

Emily took a deep breath to keep from yelling at him. "My comfort zone is being away from people I can hurt, like this!"

Alastor continued to look thoughtful: "Interesting. How would Charlie call this... self-isolation or emotional self-harm?"

"Stop psychoanalyzing me! You are the furthest thing from a psychiatrist I could find!" Emily snapped.

"Why? Where would I go wrong?" Alastor asked innocently, though his tone was clearly false.

"Psychiatrists care about their patients' well-being" Emily pointed out.

"Who said I don't care about you?" Alastor told her.

"Aaaaaah, stop it!" Emily exclaimed, tired of getting a headache from the radio demon. "However, it is clear that this method is only a placebo, once out of the comfort zone nothing would change"

"Angel and Husk, as much as it pains me to admit it, have changed" Alastor reminded her. "Sure, they have had some small relapses, but they have not forgotten Charlie's teachings. Am I wrong?"

Emily bit her lip. Yes, it was true... the hotel guests had kept their good intentions even outside their comfort zone. Not always... but they had. "Well... you could be right" she admitted, and then she changed the subject: "What is the second method?"

Alastor's shadow's smile widened even more. "The second method is mine and that of all the other overlords. We all learn to use it" he answered. "It consists of not letting external factors do the work... but acting from within. While common demons simply accept their situation and are therefore dominated by their instincts, overlords like me go a step further... we accept our nature, but we make it ours, we take it inside of us voluntarily"

Emily was speechless. "You mean... that you agree to become monsters?"

"Of course not, that's what common sinners do" Alastor replied. "Overlords take it one step further. You see, Emily, a wild beast may seem instinctive and mindless, but that is not the case at all; animals are capable of extremely complex thoughts, and that is because they combine their mind with their nature, drawing strength from it. We overlords do the same: instead of giving in to our instincts as if they were something thrown at us and that we passively accept, like common sinners, we take our demonic nature and make it our own. Deceit, treachery, malice... these are all characteristics that we accept, and that especially I accept. And thanks to this I am able to maintain perfect calm even with all my demonic instincts. After all, the perfect predator is not the one who attacks randomly, but the one who calculates, who is able to lie in wait and prepare the right strategy, and strike only when the prey has no way out"

Emily sweated a little. "So you're telling me that... I should just accept the monster to avoid becoming a monster?"

"Monster? My dear Emily, 'monster' is a very relative term. To a mouse, a canary is a monster. To a canary, a cat is a monster. To a cat, an eagle is a monster. To an eagle, a hunter with his rifle is a monster. To the hunter, a demon is a monster. To demons, I am a monster" Alastor replied. "There are no monsters in this world, only predators and prey. There is power and those too weak and cowardly to pursue it. Tell me, Emily, you say you are a monster... but when you planned to spy on your dear sister, did you feel your emotions getting the better of you? When you tormented Lilith, were your emotions speaking or were you finally letting out all the venom you had kept inside? That slap you threw at Rosie... would you have done it anyway, or could you have avoided it if instead of trying to find justifications for your actions you had simply accepted it and silenced her right away?"

Emily instinctively moved further away from the radio demon's shadow, as if she had suddenly been burned. Her heart was pounding. "No... no, no, no! This is wrong!" she exclaimed, putting her hands over her ears. "Get away now! Stop talking to me!"

"Why? Are you afraid of falling into temptation?" Alastor replied wickedly.

"There is no temptation to fall into!" Emily told him. "You... I know what you're doing, you want to trick me like usual! I won't do what you want, so stop putting these stupid ideas in my head!"

"You asked me the questions" Alastor reminded her. "I just answered you. I'm not putting ideas in your head, you're asking me to explain how it works"

Emily clutched her ears as if she wanted to tear them off, and curled up a little. Calm down... she had to calm down. "Stop it" she said again, and this time it sounded both like a plea and a warning.

Alastor didn't listen to her, however, and crawled onto the bed like a hideous dark snake. "I'll shut up if you want, but shutting me up won't magically erase what I told you from your memory" he told her. "Especially when you know what I said is true..."

Emily snapped: in one movement she turned to him and moved her hand towards his neck. "I said..." she hissed more furious than ever. "... stop it!"

Emily's hand grabbed the radio demon's shadow, but instead of the bed sheet she grabbed the shadow directly: she pulled it up holding it by the neck, as if it were a solid person. Alastor let out a surprised noise, and tried to free himself, but he found out that his shadow could no longer become intangible, or at least, he could no longer make his neck intangible, which remained blocked by Emily's hand, tightened around it like a vice.

"I warned you" she told him as her eyes became even redder and her pupils even blacker. "I'm not your toy, okay!? You can't keep whispering in my ears thinking that I'll keep dancing in the palm of your hand! I'm not something you can control!"

Alastor made a guttural noise, and even through his shadow Emily was sure she saw a few beads of sweat on his forehead. In fact he was appearing to her less and less like a shadow and more and more like something tangible. "Emily, I don't want to control you..."

"Stop lying to me!" Emily growled, and her grip on Alastor's neck tightened. "All that talk about accepting instincts, you're trying to use me, aren't you!? You want to drive me crazy!"

A strange sound emerged from Emily's fingers, as if something had just broken; but not something solid, it was as if space itself had broken. And just then Alastor felt the girl's hand grab him directly: his real body, not just his shadow, was dragged through the air by his neck, and he clearly felt his spine being dangerously cracked. "E-Emily, stop right now! You're grabbing my real body!"

"Better! At least I can really teach you a lesson!" Emily hissed, and a small smile full of evil painted on her face: "You know... I've wanted to do this ever since you tried to kill Husk, asshole!"

Alastor sweated profusely and his smile faltered. His neck was actually on the verge of breaking, and worse, he could feel dark energy seeping into his bones and muscles. He wasn't sure he could regenerate if she killed him. "Calm down, Emily! Don't..."

"Calm down, Emily! Relax, Emily! Take a deep breath, Emily! Enough!" Emily roared, her heart exploding for the adrenaline. "You wanted a monster, right!? Well, now I'll do what monsters do...!"

"Emily, look at yourself in the mirror!" Alastor suddenly told her.

"Huh? What does this have to do with...?" Emily grumbled, but still she looked slightly at the mirror on the wall, and froze instantly: "WHAT!?"

The right half of her face remained the same, but on the left side, something truly sinister had happened: the roots that were under her eye had elongated and merged into one, forming a structure that perfectly surrounded the eye and then extended out to the side. It looked like a hideous twisted branch, which extended and branched out, and on which sprouted a few diseased and dried leaves, and even a hideously deformed flower on the top.

Emily let out a cry of fear and in surprise she let go of Alastor, who didn't waste even a second: his shadow instantly dematerialized, disappearing completely from the castle. On the other side of the city, Alastor's real body was finally freed from the grip and fell to the floor with a thud.

The radio demon rubbed his neck with a lot of tension. "That... was a close call" he muttered, barely standing up, and his gaze narrowed: "The situation is getting too dangerous, she is becoming too strong in a too short time. This time I'll have to be more subtle..."

Chapter Text

Emily had almost not noticed that Alastor had run away: her gaze was completely focused on the mirror, and especially on the reflection of the left half of her face. She was completely petrified, to the point that she couldn't even move a muscle. Her concentration was all on that root that was now sticking out of her eyelids.

When she regained a minimum of motor skills, she very slowly raised her hand and touched her face, begging in her mind that she was having a hallucination. But that hope was immediately dashed when she felt something hard and wooden under her fingers. "I-It's not possible... is it true...!?"

With her legs shaking so much that they seemed to have turned to jelly, she got up from the bed and walked in very small steps towards the mirror. She was forced to lean on it to keep from falling. Panic was grabbing her heart like a vice.

Why was there a root sticking out of her body!?

What was happening to her!?

She touched the root again, feeling how it penetrated her skin... no, it almost seemed to merge with it, as if it were a common part of her body. This made her even more afraid, but with a great effort of will she managed not to scream. "It's okay" she said to her own reflection. "It's... it's not growing or doing anything bad. It's just a root. I just have to cut it off and the problem will be solved"

It was nothing serious.

Now she just had to take the root and break it. One piece at a time, until it was completely detached from her. Once it was removed, she was sure that her heart would have returned to a normal rhythm. Then she could calmly have asked herself what had happened.

She took the root in her hands again, but suddenly she stopped. For some reason, a part of her didn't want to do it. It was like an instinct, as if she had taken a piece of glass and was trying to cut herself and her body knew it would have hurt and was trying to stop her. "Okay... let's start small then" she muttered, trying not to panic, and she took one of the leaves. "Here you go... three, two, one... OUCH!"

The moment she tore the leaf, she felt a sharp pain, as if she had just grabbed a piece of skin and violently ripped it off. A little blood began to ooze from where the leaf had been and slid down to her eye, making her moan. "What...?" she whispered in a thin voice. "Why!? It doesn't make sense! Why does it hurt...?"

She put a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream of terror when she looked at the leaf she had just torn off: the base of it, the point that was previously attached to the root, was not woody or made of fibers like it should have been, but the inside was fleshy and full of veins and arteries that were bleeding. "T-That's not possible... is that my flesh!?"

Why was that root made of her flesh!?

Was it a piece of her body...?

No.

NO!

"FUCK IT!" she exclaimed, and she grabbed it with both hands. "Who cares, I'm taking it out! I don't care if it hurts... URGH... OUCH... SHIT...!!!"

The blood gushed out even more, so much so that it blinded her left eye, but she didn't care; she continued to break the root, feeling excruciating pain every time she did it. It felt like she was shattering her own bones and tearing her own muscles, as if she were cutting off her own arm. It was like the left half of her face was on fire. "I don't fucking care!" she exclaimed, even though she was on the verge of fainting from the pain. "You... now... come off my face!"

The root broke in several places, which Emily dropped to the floor, staining it with blood. Now only the base remained, the part attached to her skin. Emily took a deep breath: "Okay... now the really painful part... AAAARGH!!!"

With a yank, the last part of the root was torn off, which came off so hard that it also tore off part of her skin and flesh; it was a miracle that her eye remained in place, although it still tore several veins as it began to weep blood. Emily literally fell to her knees holding her face in pain.

But despite this, she could not hold back a victorious cry.

It had been horrible... but strangely, she felt good. Finally, she didn't have that root on her anymore. Looking at the pieces on the floor, she couldn't help but feel a sense of triumph. It had hurt... but in the end, she had won.

With an effort she stood up and looked at the mirror again, which was also stained with blood from Emily's repeated leaning on it, but there was still enough reflective surface to allow her to look at herself. She was a mess: the left half of her face was raw and the rest was stained with blood. But she didn't care, focusing only on the fact that not a single piece of that root was left. "Good" she said with a sigh of relief. "It's done. Now I just have to put myself together again..."

With a snap of her fingers, the blood rose from her body and clothes and slid away, leaving her as pristine as she had been until moments before. With that, she sped up her regeneration, mending her skin and stitching up her blood vessels. In less than a minute, her face was back to normal, with only slightly lighter skin to show that it had just grown back. "It's fine now" she said to herself, touching her skin, happy to feel it soft again. "In another hour or so, there won't be any marks left"

Now that her face was normal again, she felt more at ease: the problem was solved, she had won. She couldn't help but smile. It had been painful, but it had solved the problem.

She reached down and picked up the broken root that was lying on the floor, and looked at it carefully. It didn't look dangerous or strange, except for the fact that it was made of living flesh. "It really seems... just a root" she muttered to herself. "But why did it grow on me?"

Well... she was technically connected to something made of roots... but she had never grown one out of her face before.

Was Roo... gaining power over her?

Emily swallowed. It wasn't out of the question that the parasite was trying to control her. Eve was constantly keeping her at bay, but maybe she had found a way out. Maybe all the heightened emotions and outbursts of anger were because the parasite was getting stronger.

Yet she was sure that wasn't the case. She didn't know how she knew, it was like an instinct: she felt that Roo was still fast asleep, and therefore he couldn't have done anything to her. And in fact that root had just poked out of her skin and that was it, without doing anything to her.

No... Roo had nothing to do with it.

But then... was she the problem?

"No... no, that doesn't make sense, I certainly didn't want a root growing out of my face!" Emily exclaimed. "Okay... let's get this straight. When did it come out? When I..."

Her eyes snapped open.

Fuck... she'd forgotten that she'd almost... snapped Alastor's neck.

It wasn't the first time she'd felt the urge to kill that bastard... but this time she'd been really close. She'd had him in her hands and would have killed him if he hadn't distracted her. She'd actually been on the verge of killing someone, without any incident this time.

Shit...!!!

"No... I'm not to blame" she said to herself. "I mean... I overreacted, but... it was Alastor's fault! He provoked me! He wanted to use me like usual! I wasn't myself at the time... I had nothing to do with it!"

Alastor was the one who had entered her room without permission.

She had told him to go away.

He hadn't listened to her.

He had tried to manipulate her again.

She had gotten angry.

Yes... it wasn't her fault. It was all that idiotic radio demon's fault. He should have just left her alone!

"It wasn't my fault" Emily repeated to herself, putting her hands on her face and lightly tugging at the strands of hair at the base of her forehead. "It wasn't my fault. If Alastor almost died, it's all his fault. I didn't... WHAT!?"

Suddenly her skin hardened and began to buckle. Emily immediately took her hands off her face and looked in the mirror again, and to her horror she saw that new roots were sprouting from under her eyelids. "No, no, no!!! Please!!!" she screamed in horror. "Enough! I already pulled it off! Why...!?"

She grabbed at them to tear them out again, but each time she broke one not only it hurt, but more popped up in its place. "No, stop!" she begged. "Fuck... fuck, fuck, fuck... FUUUUUUCK!!!"

For an istant, she completely let go all her frustration. And that was enough to make the whole palace shook.

Emily's room began to shake as if it were in the grip of a violent earthquake: the walls cracked and the ceiling began to fall apart. She let out a cry of terror when this happened, and even more so when she realized that the entire castle was shaking down to its foundations. No, it wasn't just the castle... the entire Betrayal Ring was shaking like a bell. The ice cracked, creating deep crevasses. Emily felt her heart skip a beat as she realized it. "No, no! I have to calm down! Calm down!" she screamed to herself.

Fuck... she had to get control!

She had to stop before the rest of Hell shook too!

Someone was going to get hurt...!

Someone... was going to... die...

... again...

... because of her...

... she couldn't kill someone again...

... she couldn't be a murderer...

... monster...

... calm down...

... fuck...

... FUCK...!!!

"EMILY!" 

Emily looked up slightly and saw that Rosie had just thrown open the door and was looking at her in fear. "N-No! Go away!" she shouted. "I can't control myself! I have to...!"

Rosie threw herself on her and raised her hands, just in time to block a piece of the ceiling that was about to fall on her. In doing so she hurt herself a little on the roots that were sticking out of Emily's face, which only made her panic more: "No, leave me alone! You know this can't hurt me! Go away...!"

Rosie took her face in her hands, holding her tightly. "Emily" she said looking straight into her eyes. "Breathe"

Emily was speechless. "What...?"

"Imitate me" Rosie said in an extremely firm tone. "Breathe like I do. Just focus on this"

Emily was confused, but Rosie's voice was so stern that she found herself doing as she said. She took deep breaths, each lasting no less than ten full seconds. Rosie didn't let go of her face, continuing to hold their gazes to make sure she was still breathing. Very slowly, Emily's heartbeat returned to a near-normal rate, and finally the Betrayal Ring stopped shaking. "Are you feeling better?" Rosie asked her.

Emily nodded slightly. "I... think so" she murmured.

Rosie finally took her hands away from her face. As soon as she did so, Emily realized with horror that they were full of cuts from the sharp roots. "I'm sorry" she whispered. "You hurt yourself...!"

"Don't worry, they're just small cuts" Rosie said, showing her her palms so she could see that they were already healing. "Trust me, I hurt myself worse this morning when I stubbed my toe"

Emily wasn't sure, but at least it didn't look too bad, so she didn't press her further. She looked around: all the furniture was up in the air, the walls were cracked, and a good portion of the ceiling had collapsed. Looking at the door, she saw that Frank and Niffty were standing in the doorway, and the dwarf maid was holding the egg by the shell. "Hey... did I scare you...?"

"Boss, are you okay?" Frank exclaimed, trying to free himself. "I tried to come to your aid, but they held me back...!"

"The cookie lady wanted it" Niffty said. "Hey, you have something on your face, you know that?"

Emily bit her lip and looked at Rosie again. The cannibal overlord sighed: "When the whole Ring started shaking, I ordered Niffty and Frank to stay safe so they wouldn't get crushed by the debris" she explained.

"Thanks" Emily said, burying her face in her hands. "I'm sorry... I messed up again...!"

"Hey, it's okay. No one got hurt" Rosie assured her.

"Yeah, I still have my shell intact!" Frank said, finally breaking free of Niffty's grip and running toward her. "Hey, boss, what's that on your face?"

"It's nothing" Emily said, and she grabbed her roots again. "I'll take them out, it'll only take me a second... OUCH...!"

"Hey, stop!" Rosie exclaimed as she saw the raw flesh underneath the roots. "You're bleeding...!"

"It's okay... I've done this before..." Emily replied as she continued to break the roots, groaning in pain each time. "It hurts at first... but once they're all torn out... I'm fine..."

"Emily, no!" Rosie screamed, pinning Emily's wrists. Her gaze was moving from her face to the already broken roots on the floor, and then to the blood-filled mirror. "Stop hurting yourself!"

"It's okay" Emily assured her. "It pains a little, but nothing serious..."

Rosie's grip on her wrists tightened even more. "Emily, don't ever do that again!" she ordered. "It's not healthy and it's not good for you! Cutting yourself to pieces is not going to solve the problem! Next time ask for help, don't fill the room with blood!"

"Boss, if I were you I would listen to her!" Frank begged. "This doesn't sound good to me!"

"I love it when someone hurts me" Niffty told her. "But you don't seem to feel pleasure for it, so maybe you should stop"

Emily was silent for a moment, and then she gasped: "Then... then help me! Please! Get these hideous roots off me!"

Rosie hesitated for a moment, but then she sat down next to her. "Okay" she said. "We'll deal with this now"

Emily trembled slightly. "How...?"

"We'll find a way" Rosie assured her. "But you have to promise me that you'll try to stay calm. Panicking won't help you, I know that from experience"

Emily looked away, but she nodded anyway. "Okay"

"Good" Rosie said, and then she put a hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you just try to tell me honestly what happened to you?"

Emily bit her lip. "I was... thinking about everything that happened, and..."

"Emily" Rosie stopped her quickly. "This is not the time to be difficult. Tell me the truth"

Emily shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I... almost killed Alastor" she confessed.

Rosie's eyes widened. "Alastor came here!?"

"Just his shadow, but I grabbed him anyway" Emily specified. "I told him to go away, I told him to leave me alone, but he wouldn't listen! I got pissed and..."

"You almost killed him?" Niffty anticipated her, tilting her head curiously.

"Well... yeah" Emily admitted.

Rosie inhaled deeply. She seemed to be barely holding back her anger. "I'm going to beat up that idiot later" she said to herself, before turning back to Emily: "But still..."

"It wasn't my fault!" Emily immediately yelled at her.

"Emily, you don't have to be so defensive" Rosie tried to calm her down.

"I'm just telling the truth!" Emily replied. "It was all Alastor's fault! He should have just left me alone! He knows I'm not very stable right now, he was the one who...!"

"Boss, they're growing again" Frank suddenly warned her.

Emily stopped and touched her face, realizing that the roots had gotten even bigger and new leaves and flowers had sprouted. "Oh fuck, no!" she exclaimed. "Why!? They stopped just now! What's wrong with this parasite...!?"

"Emily, I don't think Roo is the problem" Rosie told her.

Emily looked at her confused. Rosie had a strange expression on her face. "What do you mean? It's obviously this parasite that's the problem!"

"Really?" Rosie asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"

Emily was speechless. No... in fact, she didn't think Roo was trying to do anything. "No..." she admitted. "But if it's not her, what is it?"

Rosie sighed. "Emily, when I go into... crazy mode, let's say, I too have plants that sprout all over my body, but they're never random. Those plants take on forms and functions that are analogous to my desires to hunt, kill, and devour, because that's what I want deep down inside, even if I don't have a fully functioning brain to think about it anymore"

Emily listened intently. She didn't like the direction the conversation was taking. "What does this have to do with me?"

"You already know" Rosie told her. "Emily, I only have a seed of Roo inside me and you have the whole essence of her, but I don't think that changes the way things work much. The problem isn't your powers or your body or the parasite, it's your psyche. Simply put, you have a lot of shit inside you that is now using an alternate way to come out and manifest"

Emily paled a little. "Are you saying... that these roots are growing because I'm not right in the head?"

"I didn't say you are crazy" Rosie replied patiently. "But Emily, we both know you need to let off a lot of steam"

"That's not it!" Emily exclaimed, feeling as if something had just pricked her. "There's nothing inside me, I'm fine...!"

"They're growing again" Niffty warned, pointing to the roots, which were now so thick they looked more like the branches of a sick tree.

Emily grabbed the roots again, shaking as she felt them grow bigger. Suddenly she felt something tugging at her dress, and looked down to see Frank looking at her worriedly. "Boss... I don't really understand... but it seems like the more you deny it, the more it grows" he said. "So if you don't want them to grow... maybe you shouldn't deny it anymore"

Emily blushed slightly, and instinctively hugged her knees a little. Rosie took her chin gently and turned her head so she could look her in the eyes. "Emily... no one here is judging you" she said. "I know it doesn't feel good to spill it all, but you have to do it now. Putting it off any longer won't make it any easier"

Emily trembled slightly. "I can't" she said. "I might shake everything up again...!"

"If that happens, we'll figure it out" Rosie replied.

"The nice lady calmed you down once, boss" Frank reminded her. "She can do it again, right?"

Emily took a deep breath. She was honestly afraid she wouldn't be able to control her emotions again, and knowing how destructive she could be, that was no small worry. But finally she gathered her courage and said, "Okay... when Alastor came here... even when he was acting that unnerving way of his... I didn't get mad. I mean, yeah, but... not that mad. It was only after I thought he was trying to manipulate me for the umpteenth time that I reacted badly. I don't know why... but the thought of him still seeing me as something he had to control... made me so angry...". Her eyes widened: "And... and with you too... when you scolded me... I felt like you were trying to control me... and I felt the need to react immediately... and with Lilith... I was angry because she had also tried to... control me... oh fuck... was... was it really me who wanted to hurt you!?"

She ran her hands through her hair. Was it... really her who wanted to hurt others?

"Emily, don't panic" Rosie said. "You're not a bad person"

"How can you say that!?" Emily exclaimed. "If I really only reacted like that when I was stung in that spot... then that means I wanted all the bad things I did! All these strong emotions may have given me a push, but I'm the one who wanted it! I was still in control of my actions, so I...!"

"... you reacted like a normal person" Rosie stopped her. "Emily, you've been through so much, and now you have scars all over you. There's no point in ignoring them and letting them bleed. There's nothing wrong with getting mad when you feel like you're being controlled after you've been controlled by someone multiple times. And it's normal to be afraid of yourself to the point of self-isolation after... well, everything that's happened"

"Afraid of myself...?" Emily repeated.

"Emily, don't lie anymore. You know what I mean" Rosie said. "You didn't seal yourself down here because logic tells you it's best, you did it because you're afraid of what you might do if you were around other people. Just thinking about leaving here makes you think of those two destroyed Rings and that scares you. And you don't want to meet your friends because you're afraid of how they might judge you for taking Roo's powers. It's not to protect them, it's because you're afraid that they won't support you, that they'll be afraid of you and what you can do. That's why you haven't even told your sister, and you haven't even wanted to meet your mother. Even though you're worried about them and want to see them again, fear is holding you back"

"I...!" Emily was about to retort, but Rosie's stern look made the words die in her throat. She looked down and saw Frank still tugging at her dress apprehensively and Niffty who for once didn't look completely out of her mind, which only made her heart ache more. "I... think I need therapy"

Rosie finally cracked a smile. "That's a step forward" she said. "Emily, you're a really strong girl, but you don't have to do it all alone, and you don't have to keep it all inside. No one expects you to be a rock. If you don't deal with your problems, they'll never get solved"

Emily shrugged. "I might hurt someone"

"If you keep letting that hold you back, you'll never solve the problem, and if you don't solve the problem, then you might hurt someone" Rosie said.

Emily was silent for a moment, and then she picked up Frank by the shell and brought him up to her eye level. "What do you think?"

"I think the boss is happier when she's with others!" Frank smiled back.

Emily felt a little infected by that smile. "Are you really sure that's the best thing?" she asked Rosie.

The cannibal overlord shrugged with a smile. "Well... letting your emotions out has worked so far" she said, pointing to the mirror.

Emily turned around, and her eyes widened when she saw her reflection and realized that the roots were completely disappeared from her face. "Hey... they're gone...!" she whispered happily, touching her cheeks and forehead.

"It looks like they were really something psychological" Rosie told her. "Now... since you're still really shaken up, how about you get some sleep?"

"But..." Emily protested.

"No buts, young lady," Rosie said, authoritative as usual. "You have no idea what you look like right now. When was the last time you slept?"

Emily wasn't sure she had a good answer to that question. "I don't sleep" she admitted. "But that's normal, angels don't need it..."

"I know enough about angels to know that even if they don't need sleep, it's still good for them to unplug every now and then. Especially in times of great psychological and emotional stress. So now go to sleep" Rosie said, pointing to her bed. "And tomorrow, when you wake up, we'll have a serious talk, and try to figure out how to get to the bottom of this. And this time let your heart speak, not your fear"

Emily hesitated for a moment, but then she decided to do as she was told, so she snapped her fingers and tidied up the room, and then crawled under the covers of the bed. And even though she said she didn't need to, as soon as she lay down and her head hit the pillow she felt her eyelids getting heavy. Frank jumped up next to her and went to stand next to her, like she was a stuffed animal. "Don't worry, boss! I'll protect the fort while you sleep!" the egg assured her.

Emily's lips curved into a small smile. "You're always so diligent" she said affectionately.

In response, Frank saluted her, and even though he still crawled under the covers, he still kept looking around as if he were a soldier emerging from a trench. The scene was obviously ridiculous, and Emily giggled at least a little. Hell, she didn't know why, but she felt like laughing did her good.

Rosie sat down next to her and lightly stroked her hair. The touch made Emily shiver a little, and she clutched the pillow. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable" Rosie said immediately.

"No... no, don't worry" Emily said, touching the spot where Rosie had stroked her. A gentle hand caressing her before going to sleep... it had awakened a few memories in her. "It's just... nothing, let it go"

"Emily, not holding it all in, remember?" Rosie said in an encouraging voice. "What's upsetting you?"

Emily was silent for a moment, and then to give herself courage she took Frank and held him a little tighter. "I think... I miss my Mom"

Rosie smiled slightly: "Why do you say it like it's a bad thing? It's normal to miss your mother, it's the proof that you love her"

"I know" Emily admitted closing her eyes. "It's just that... I have no idea what I could say to her... or how she would react"

Rosie sighed: "Emily, your mother loves you and you know it, you don't have to be afraid that... Emily?"

She realized that Emily had already fallen asleep, and quite heavily it had to be said. "And she said she didn't need to sleep..." Rosie couldn't help but comment softly as she watched Frank give her a few small caresses on the forehead, at which her expression became more serene.

Chapter Text

"So? What do you think?" Samyaza asked.

Adam was still staring at his hand with extreme attention. Hand that was now no longer a mass of bones, but a large hand as if it had flesh, covered by a glove. "Really... impressive" he admitted. "How did you do it?"

"A human body is nothing more than a mass of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. It is not difficult to put them together to simulate a real human body" Samyaza explained to him. "It is the same principle as creating a golem, except that in this case I just covered your skeleton with these elements to give you a human appearance"

Adam looked at himself several times. His skeletal appearance was now gone: instead, his body looked like that of an elegantly dressed man. He was wearing designer shoes, long black pants, and a red coat that fell to his knees, as well as white gloves on his hands. However, touching them gave the impression that underneath them was actually a human body, when in reality his skeleton had simply been covered by a layer of matter that culminated with his clothes, which were therefore an integral part of him. "Couldn't you have given me a body and then made me dress?"

"It's easier this way" Samyaza told him. "The body of a normal human being is complex and full of imperfections. A body that is too perfect would undoubtedly arouse suspicion. Rather than create all the countless lines on your hands, I'd rather sculpt them like a pair of gloves"

"So you're just lazy" Adam commented.

Samyaza rolled his eyes: "What does it matter to you? It's not your real body, it's just a covering. It wouldn't change anything even if I sculpted it like a lizard"

Adam couldn't disagree with him: even though he now had something covering his skeleton, he still didn't feel any sensation, and he didn't need to breathe or feel a heartbeat, proving that inside he had no organs but was just a mass of matter that resembled a wax statue more than a real body. "Hmm. I don't dare to imagine what you've done to my face"

"I tried to make it as unproblematic as possible" Samyaza replied, handing him a mirror.

Adam took it and looked at himself. His face was more or less identical to the one he had had before becoming a skeleton, but now he had no beard or hair of any kind, his lips were curved in a smile, his eyes were hidden by a pair of glasses with reflective teeth, and his hair was completely covered by a hat. "What the... why did you put glasses on me!?"

"Because you can move the rest of your body by moving your skeleton, but you can't move your pupils since there are no bones there" Samyaza reminded him. "Imagine how people would feel if they saw you never move your pupils or blink. I could try to give you an illusion, but it's very complex to mimic eye movements based on the complex infinity of emotions a person feels at any given moment. And even then, I couldn't imitate the light and feelings in the gaze. Putting on a pair of glasses is the simplest solution"

"And why did you put this bulky hat on me!?" Adam blurted out. "I look like Carmen Sandiego, but without the sexy face and the hair that everyone wants to grab!"

"Better than creating a mass of hair that never moves, no matter how strong the wind is" Samyaza replied.

"And this smile!?" Adam asked again. "What am I, a psychopath who escaped from the asylum!?"

"Facial expressions are also not something you can imitate, so I chose the most versatile and similar to your personality" Samyaza said. "You just have to keep acting sarcastic and making fun of everyone you meet, and a mocking smile will be perfect"

"Wonderful, now I have to imitate that idiot deer too" Adam grumbled.

Samyaza raised an eyebrow: "Who?"

"Ah, just some idiot I had to kick in the ass a while back" Adam answering. "So... now I've gone from cosplaying as Skeletor to cosplaying as Alucard. Really perfect, just what I wanted to do in my life"

"Could you finish quoting people I don't know?" Samyaza said.

"What? Oh, come on! Masters of the Universe! Hellsing! How can you not know them!?" Adam snapped. "Over eight thousand years here on Earth and you've never bothered to watch these pieces of cinematic art?"

"I have better things to do than watch cartoons on TV" Samyaza replied.

"Tsk! You really are a cultureless guy" Adam said with a grunt. "Wasn't it enough to just be Godless and homeless? You wanted to complete the collection of words that end in 'less'?" 

Samyaza rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I understand that you don't like me, but do you really have to comment on my moral conduct every chance you get?"

"It's just a pastime" Adam chuckled. "I also need to release tension somehow"

"Well, find someone else. You're starting to get on my nerves" Samyaza grunted. "I know I'm not a good person, you don't need to remind me. And also an unfaithful husband and a taker and a deceiver"

"And a shitty father" Adam added.

Samyaza shrugged. "So? The universe is apparently full of shitty fathers. At least I don't hide it"

Adam wished he could crack his eyelids at that. "If you don't hide it, why does it bother you that I tell you?"

"Would you like it if I kept throwing something in your face, even if you didn't care about it?" Samyaza replied. "Stop it. No one is perfect, I made my choices and you made yours. We are beings with free will, there's no point in dwelling on the so-called mistakes"

"Having free will doesn't mean you can do whatever you want" Adam replied.

"And who decides that? God?" Samyaza asked sarcastically. "Forget it. He abandoned us, He doesn't give a shit about us anymore. He walked away and left us with a universe to run, and then He gets pissed if we screw up. At least I, unlike you, am able to not give a damn about what He thinks"

"And that would be a good thing?" Adam grumbled. "You've done nothing but damage since you decided to do it your way. What did ignoring God do to you?"

"And what did following His rule do to you?" Samyaza asked rhetorically. "You did everything you could to be faithful to Him, and in the end did He give you your son back?"

Adam grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. "Don't you dare mention that" he hissed.

But Samyaza didn't give up: "You know I'm right. God abandoned you in that garden, and when He showed up again in your moment of greatest despair, He didn't lift a finger for you. He just played the moralist as He usually does. Because that's what He does, He leaves His children alone to fend for themselves in this extremely complicated universe and then imposes His judgment when they screw up, nothing else! Tell me, as a father, what kind of father do you think He is?" 

Adam growled, which with his plastic smile made him look like someone who was contemplating cruel torture. "Don't make me lose my patience..."

"You told me about what you did recently. You went ahead with the Extermination, and then you realized that it was wrong, right?" Samyaza asked him again, narrowing her eyes. "What were you doing when you were carrying out the Extermination? You were abandoning your children to Hell, and then imposing your judgment on them. You didn't lift a finger for them, but you despised them and then killed them. And then you yourself admitted that it was wrong. So, how is it different from what God does with us? And if they are so similar, doesn't that mean that what He does is also wrong?"

Adam looked like he was about to punch him, but then he stopped. It was hard to read his emotions because of his plastic face, but he finally grunted and let Samyaza go. "All I know is that every time someone didn't listen to God, innocent people suffered" she told him. "That's enough for me to know that you're an idiot"

"I'm an idiot, a terrible father and an asshole, but at least I take responsibility" Samyaza replied. "Unlike God, I never hid the fact that I didn't give a fuck about my children and only saw them as useful pawns. That's why I love Azazel, she too is not a hypocrite even if she's a slut"

Adam felt anger rising inside him and was about to react again, but just then someone knocked loudly on the van door. "Excuse me, do you have much longer? You've been in there for half an hour" Arthur's voice asked him.

Adam grunted, then nodded to Samyaza. “This discussion is not over" he warned. “Now let’s get to work"

Samyaza didn't reply and instead put his hat back on his head. He had resumed the appearance he had when he called himself the Mutilated, with the difference that now he had left his face visible, although modified to be a little more human. It was with that appearance that they both opened the door of the van and went outside.

Victoria and Arthur were there waiting for them, and when they saw them their eyes widened. "You decided to cosplay as Alucard?" Arthur asked Adam.

"See!? He says that too!" Adam exclaimed, putting a hand in front of his face.

"Well, at least you have a face now" Victoria told him, trying to mediate. "Though that expression is a bit..."

"Get used to it, it's the only one I have" Adam grumbled tiredly. "Let's forget it. Have you found the cherubs?"

Victoria and Arthur noodled. "Using the tools provided by the cloaked gentleman here, we know where they are" they replied. "Fortunately when they move from one city to another they tend to stay in fairly deserted areas, they rarely approach people... almost always to try to do a good deed or something. We've already cleared the area, so if you two want to use your powers you don't have to hold back"

"We're talking about cherubs, capturing them will be a walk in the park" Adam replied. "But we're here to talk, not to subdue. At least not right away"

Adam preferred having allies, not forcing others to do as he said. A person subdued by force, like Samyaza, would constantly have tried to screw him. An ally gained through friendship, on the other hand, was useful, as the two government agents had shown, since without them he might never have discovered the cherubs. So, even though those were angels so weak that even Victoria and Arthur could have captured them if they were well prepared, he still preferred to go to them in friendship and talk to them in a normal way, and not with them tied to a chair like in a police interrogation. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't have forced them if they tried to refuse to help him, but at least he wanted to make the first contact without violence.

Adam, Samyaza, Victoria and Arthur headed to the indicated spot, which turned out to be an abandoned park. As soon as they arrived they saw a pile of concrete pipes in one corner of it, and from it emerged some small voices. Adam tapped them a few times, as if he was knocking: "Hey, is anyone home?"

Three small people emerged from inside it. They were all wearing clothes that were way too big for them, hiding their faces, and hats that covered their heads. "We're just good kids, Mr. Policeman" one of them, clearly a girl, said in an innocent voice. "We weren't breaking the law or..."

"Sure, and I'm Santa Claus, and I'm going around the world early" Adam interrupted. "And my gift to these three cherubs is... well, a roof over their heads for starters, and then we'll think of the rest"

The three small people froze in place, and then quickly removed their scarves and cloths from their faces, revealing a completely inhuman appearance, and took off their hats, revealing halos under them. "You... know?" they asked in surprise.

"Oh, there you are. It's nice to meet you" Adam told them.

"So cherubs are like that?" Victoria said with a smirk. "They're so cuddly!"

"Can I hug one?" Arthur asked tenderly.

One of the cherubs, who looked like a little purple goat, immediately smiled. "Very willingly!" he exclaimed, and started to fly towards him with open arms, but was immediately held back by his two companions, who clearly had more brains than he.

One of the cherubs, the one that looked most like a human, stared intently at Adam, and then opened his eyes wide: "Wait! That face... you... are the first man!? Adam!?"

"Oh, a fan!" Adam said satisfied, then he looked at Samyaza: "Good, it seems you have reconstructed my face really well"

"Is that Lord Adam!?" the other two cherubs exclaimed. "One of the most famous human souls, as well as the rocker whose posters Cletus has in his room!?"

"Oh, you really are a connoisseur then!" Adam said looking at the cherub who had recognized him first, who was a little blushing at the comments of his companions. "Well yes, it's me"

"Oh, how exciting to meet you!" the cherub in question exclaimed taking flight to reach his eye level. "I'm Cletus, and these are my friends Keenie and Collin! I'm honored to meet someone of your caliber!"

"The pleasure is all mine, little friend. As I said, I'm Adam, these two are fairly capable government agents, and the creepy guy is an old acquaintance that I was forced to recruit in these hard times" Adam replied. "I'm currently here on Earth because there's a cosmic feud going on up there and I'm trying to... well, stop the end of the universe"

The three cherubs were speechless for a moment. "You're... trying to stop the end of the world?" the one named Cletus repeated.

"The universe. And the ones who started it were unfortunately the awesome man in front of you, a bunch of idiotic demons and angels, two Disney princesses, a mother with complexes, and a hobbit who can't keep his dick in his pants" Adam replied, which combined with his plastic smile made him seem even more sarcastic than he normally was.

The three cherubs were more shocked and confused than ever. "Could you... be more specific, please, sir?" the one named Collin asked.

"Yes, I think a more in-depth explanation is in order" Adam said, sitting down on the concrete pipes, and motioning for the others to do the same. "So you can explain to me why you're on this planet instead of in Heaven"

It took a full half hour to run through everything. By the time they were done, everyone had a clearer idea. "The Apocalypse, hm?" Cletus muttered, chewing on his finger. "This is... worrying"

"We have to do something!" Collin exclaimed resolutely.

Keenie quickly stopped him by tugging on his sleeve: "Don't be stupid! What are you trying to do? We're bringers of kindness and hope, not warriors!"

"But we can't just sit around doing nothing!" Collin protested. "And if someone in Heaven is trying to bring about the end of everything, we have to stop them!"

"First, we have no proof that this man is sincere" Keenie began to say.

"Don't talk nonsense! A musician as good as Adam would never lie!" Cletus protested.

Keenie shook her head in disappointment. "He just confessed to us that he's been hiding that thing called Extermination for years"

Cletus fell silent for a moment. "Well... he hid it, he didn't lie" he replied to defend his favorite idol.

Keenie tried to ignore the childishness. She hoped Cletus wouldn’t have become another idiot like Collin. “In any case, from what I understand there are very powerful angels dealing with this situation. I’m not going against Abaddon, let alone against someone else who is perhaps stronger than him!”

"Yeah, they can bust our asses open without even trying" Cletus admitted.

"But..." Collin was already protesting.

"Look, it's one thing to be good, but it's another to be suicidal!" Keenie told him. "I don't want to get involved!"

"Yeah. Much better to stay here on Earth begging for good deeds" Victoria commented sarcastically.

The three cherubs blushed. "We're not begging for anything! Doing good deeds is what makes us happy!" Cletus protested. "And we'll definitely be welcomed back to Heaven if we do enough of them..."

"You mean the Heaven that will be destroyed along with everything else if the Apocalypse begins?" Arthur asked, lending a helping hand to his colleague, who gave him a high five in response.

Keenie and Cletus fell silent. Collin took the opportunity to speak up: "They're right, guys! Even if we get readmitted to Heaven, where will we go when it starts to be destroyed? Even if we are small and weak we must oppose this!"

"But how will we get readmitted up there if we go against the principles of Heaven?" Cletus muttered.

"Well, what's your other plan?" Adam asked rhetorically. "Stay here doing good deeds and hoping that it will convince those idiots who have almost certainly already forgotten about you that you made amends for killing an old man?"

Cletus' eyelid fluttered. "We didn't kill anyone! It was those three demons' fault!"

"Yeah! If they'd just let us do our job, none of this would have happened!" Keenie exclaimed, then he looked ferocious. "I wish I had those three bastards in my hands...!"

"Yeah, I've met them. I need to talk to them, about that" Adam said with a bit of acid in his voice. He knew that demons came to Earth every now and then, but this was the first time he'd found out that some of them killed people, and he was quite surprised to find out that it was three of those demons that had been at the hotel the last time he'd been in Hell, when he'd had to save it from being destroyed by the mega shockwave generated by Roo's rapid rotation. Well, at least for now they didn't look like they'd killed an innocent person... although he was sure not all of their victims had been so.

"Hey, we've met them too" Arthur said. "Those demons are really famous..."

"More likely they have a knack for getting into trouble" Adam said. "Listen, guys, I'm telling you this straight: you can do all the good deeds you want, but Heaven has more important things to worry about right now. So, you can stay here and be destroyed along with Earth when the time comes... or you can join me, help me stop the Apocalypse, go back to Heaven with me, and as a bonus as soon as this shitty situation is resolved I'll make sure you meet those imps again, so you can clear things up, also because I have to punch them in the head too. Are you in?"

The three cherubs looked at each other, and then, much to Collin's delight, Cletus sighed and Keenie looked down. "Well, we don't have much of a choice" Cletus admitted, then he smiled proudly: "And besides, I'm sure that with the guidance of someone like Adam, we will be victorious!"

"I will be very happy to oblige, my beloved fan" Adam told him happily.

"So, what's the plan?" Collin asked. "We serve as a distraction...?"

"No" Adam said. "You serve as bait. And messengers"

Everyone looked at him a little surprised. "What do you have in mind?" Samyaza asked. "That wasn't the plan"

"I'm afraid the only plan available is to stop what's happening, and for that I don't just have to recover my body and return to Heaven. I also have to find the traitorous angels and deal with them" Adam said. "And why should I seek them out and go fight on their territory, when I can lure them out into the open and take them exactly where I want them?"

Chapter Text

As expected, the news that the Queen had formally changed not only the law of the Pride Ring, but also one of the oldest laws in the entire Hell, had reverberated everywhere, even in the most remote places. It was not the first time that a change had occurred, but most of these changes had affected the relationships of the nobility or at most a very small part of the common population; this time, the change had affected a lot of people, and this had obviously started a chain reaction.

For the people, this was a sign that times were changing. For the first time, a member of the royal family, the Queen herself, had done something to improve a situation that mostly involved people who had no noble blood at all. If she had done it once, why not do it again? This was the common thought of all the inhabitants of Hell, and with the commitment that Charlie showed in everything he did, everyone could not help but wonder what his next move would have been.

Of course, this did not mean that everyone was enthusiastic about it. The nobles had not protested, since going against the Queen without a good argument was a foolish thing to do; however, each of them was now permanently on alert. For some of them, the more progressive ones, what was happening could have been a good thing: they hoped for a peaceful coexistence between all the various classes, and with the example already provided by Asmodeus and Beelzebub, they believed in a more egalitarian world that would have allowed everyone to have the same opportunities. But most of them were obviously more conservative and saw progress as a threat to their power, and therefore they were constantly alert, ready to react at the slightest sign of danger. They did not want to lose their power and they certainly would not have given it up easily.

One might have thought that all the lower classes were united in believing that what was happening was to their advantage, but of course this was not the case. As in any time of change, even those who could benefit the most had conflicting opinions. There were the exalted who loudly declared that they must stand up to the Queen and demand freedom, the prudent who proposed acting cautiously and in small steps, and even those who rejected any form of change and wanted to remain dominated by the nobles; some hoped for peaceful cooperation, others wanted to see the upper classes hanged. Of course, the majority of the civilian population remained silent and passive, preferring to avoid trouble and hoping only to come home with their life if things went badly.

Charlie was happy about that: as long as everyone just looked at each other askance but preferred to wait, she wouldn't have risked chaos spreading. Even though inciting the lower classes to demand freedom was part of the plan, it was still necessary to proceed one step at a time. Doing everything at once would only have caused a mess. Therefore, she was happy that no one was doing anything for the moment, giving her time to prepare the Pride Ring properly. And she suspected that Camel was lending her a hand in the shadows, keeping the more belligerent people at bay: after all, that man, if he was a man, had already proven that he didn't want a bloodbath, and in fact so far he hadn't applied any pressure, but rather seemed to want to give her time to prepare.

The two days after what had happened had obviously been intense: the sinners were not exactly masters of calm and reflection, and there had been quite a few violent episodes. The sudden renunciation by the overlords of so many previously imprisoned souls had caused many sinners to go into a frenzy of omnipotence and start acting like crazy. However, thanks to Stolas who had continued to manage the situation with his legions, such episodes had been limited and resolved very quickly. Taking advantage of this, the overlords had moved quickly and had pacified each of their territories, ensuring that the economy continued to function efficiently; many more changes would be necessary in the future, but for now this was enough to finally allow Stolas to withdraw his legions and officially end the state of emergency.

Charlie had worked non-stop so much that she had even forgotten to sleep, and luckily her angelic side had come to her aid, preventing her from passing out, even if she was still feeling tired. She had first had to identify all the overlords; even if most of them had remained the same, with the new law in force some sinners could be considered new overlords, while some overlords had fallen. She had then had to provide each of them with a title, a document that legitimized their role and the protection of the crown, an artifact that increased their powers as much as their souls, and finally she had also had to listen while each of them explained their plans to improve their territory, which she then had to approve, reject or modify depending on how feasible she thought they were. It had been exhausting work, and she had thanked several times for having her friends to support her and help her, otherwise everything would have been much more difficult.

At least the overlords knew what to do: they understood perfectly well that they could no longer play with other people's lives as they pleased and had therefore studied a plan to improve their territories based on what would have pleased the Queen. Each overlord had prepared a strategy that, while keeping the classic Pride Ring activities active (such as brothels, drugs, and so on), still guaranteed a sort of social order, which would have greatly reduced turf wars and other idiocies of the sort. Most of the modernization plans had stopped at this, even if some (such as those of Vox, Carmilla and Zestial) were much more ambitious, but it didn't matter: once they were all implemented, the Pride Ring would have become a much more peaceful place than it had ever been before, which would have guaranteed an explosive economic growth that, of course, would then have been used to accelerate the reconstruction of Wrath and Greed. Not surprisingly, Satan and Mammon too were in fact happy about this, and the latter had even offered to give financial advice to those interested (obviously demanding payment for his services, but it must be said that it was much lower than he would normally have asked).

As for redemption, Charlie had chosen to leave it aside for now. Even though some sinners were asking to know more, there was no point in reopening the Hazbin Hotel or even other branches when she didn't have the physical time to do it. There was no rush after all: the Extermination was still on hold for now, and as soon as she was able to get back to work on redemption there would have been no overlords to oppose them since they would no longer have been at risk of losing souls so they no longer needed it, and in fact with the Pride Ring made more peaceful the sinners might even be encouraged to try. With any luck, when the time came Charlie could start a redemption project large enough to provide the stability that the Extermination provided and thus keep Roo sleeping. Of course, assuming she finally understood what really made sinners redeem themselves, since even though they already had two demons who had gained access to Heaven they still had no clear idea of ​​how they had done it.

In any case, for now the priority was to ensure order, and that was exactly what she was managing to do. Surprisingly, everything was going well, and although Charlie was honestly afraid to breathe a sigh of relief since she knew that luck was never on her side, she was still seeing her kingdom improve at least a little.

On the third day, the formation of the first real Crown-certified assembly of overlords took place. It was something that had technically never been seen before: for the first time, all, really all, of the people who commanded the Pride Ring were gathered in one place and not to show hostility but to work together. After many private discussions with each overlord, Charlie had decided that the assembly would have worked almost like a company, an environment in which entrepreneurs like the overlords were experts, and therefore perfect for them; she had established a rulebook to be enforced in case of conflicts of interest, improper behavior, and so on, so that any kind of direct confrontation was avoidable. The overlords had a ferocious temper, but now it was in their best interest to avoid fighting and instead work together; after all, with a Pride Ring directly under the Crown's control, they were destined to compete with money and fame rather than strength, and therefore it was in their best interest that everything remained orderly and stable and that people admired them and saw them as examples to follow. Ironically, the more stable the Pride Ring was now, the more they would have profitted from it, and so they would have committed to keeping it that way.

And as promised, Vox had been appointed as the assembly's President. "Hello" he announced as he entered, not hiding a pompous smile, and sat at the head of the table. "It is a pleasure to see so many overlords gathered under one banner. We are in a historic moment. I hope we will work well together and I will strive to be a good President"

"Cut it short, we all know you are gloating" Carmilla commented a little sourly. "Know that I opposed your appointment, and I was not the only one"

Vox did not lose his satisfied smile. He was too happy to fall for that provocation. "Well, it's a good thing the queen thinks otherwise then"

Carmilla's eyelid fluttered slightly, and other overlords also showed some disdain, but Zestial intervened: "The Queen has chosen the safest path, since for now you, Vox, are the one among us with the most influence. The fortuitous circumstances of recent times have brought you to that level. But in the future the situation may change, and in that case you will no longer be in that chair"

It was not exactly a veiled threat, and the overlords knew it; after all, everyone knew that Zestial was still almost on the same level as Vox in terms of influence, fame, and wealth, and so the balance of power might change in the future. Even though they were now working together, that did not mean that the overlords had become peaceful; their competition was simply now on a different level than simply destroying their opponent. "I'll have to make sure I stay firmly in this chair, then" Vox shot back at Zestial, his smile still intact even as he became a little more menacing.

Even though he acted confident, Vox knew he had to be very careful. He was now at the top of the Pride Ring, which was what he had always wanted; but that position wasn't absolute. Even though he had the Queen's support, he preferred not to rely on it too much: as an entrepreneur he knew it was always better to win on your own strength than on someone else's. Luckily, what he did best was making people like him, and he was sure he could keep control if he was careful. His goal was simple: make sure that all the overlords couldn't budge him from his position, keep Charlie happy, and become richer and richer. And for all of this he needed to turn the Pride Ring into a functioning and orderly industrial machine, so that his fame would have remained high, Charlie would have been satisfied with the result he had achieved, and he could have obtained money by selling products to the rest of Hell, especially Wrath and Greed, who really needed them at the moment.

It seemed like a difficult undertaking, but Vox was not afraid of it. He was not an entrepreneur at all and already had many ideas to exploit the situation to the best of his ability. He had great confidence in the future. "Okay, let's get started! Who wants to make some money?"

"There are still some people missing" Carmilla pointed out, pointing to some empty chairs.

"Yeah, right. Sorry, I got a little excited" Vox said. "Okay, let's wait. I doubt they'll be late anyway"

These words were correct: in the next ten minutes, those who were still missing arrived, apologizing for their lateness. Most of them were new overlords, who were in fact quite nervous in the presence of the older ones. Vox liked them: the younger and more inexperienced someone was, the more easily malleable they were. "Who's the last one missing?" he asked, pointing to the last empty chair.

Velvette took the list bored and scanned it with her eyes: "So, the chronic latecomer who's wasting our time is..."

"Me"

Everyone's eyes widened as they saw a very familiar demon enter. Valentino literally jumped out of his chair: "Angel!?"

Angel only smirked at that reaction, and ignored the surprised looks of all the overlords, who knew very well who he was given his closeness to the Queen. "Forgive my delay, I'm still getting used to my new role and it's hard for me to keep up with everything"

"What are you doing here!? You're not an overlord!" Valentino protested, salivating a little from his mouth and ignoring Vox and Velvette who were signaling him to sit back down and stay calm. Apparently he still hadn't digested that Angel had almost managed to kill him, in fact you could tell he was holding quite a grudge.

The spider demon in response sat down politely and took out a document from his jacket. "I knew you guys would have been surprised, after all, many of you know me. That's why I brought proof that I am now on your level" he said, and he tossed the document on the table. "This is Husk's will. You will all remember it as he played a major role in sending you overlords to the various Rings to help with the reconstruction. Well, now that he is dead he left everything to me, his fiancé. And when the new law came into force I managed to get the minimum number of souls, which as you know is very low now, so this grants me all the qualifications necessary to be considered one of you"

No one knew that Husk was actually in Heaven and the will was absolutely authentic since he was the one who wrote it, so Angel was by right the owner of all the casinos in Husk; this made him rich enough to meet the new qualifications needed to be considered an overlord. Of course he hadn't actually acquired the thousand souls needed, that was a deception; he had used a spell provided by Stolas to simulate this. In any case, he had everything he needed for Charlie to make him overlord.

Valentino took the will and brought it to his eyes, narrowing his eyes trying to read despite his poor eyesight. "This writing is too small" he finally said, passing the document to his two colleagues.

Velvette rolled her eyes and read the will. Her eyes sparkled slightly, becoming sharper than a scanner. "This is definitely Husk's signature, and there are his fingerprints on it. It's authentic" she finally confirmed.

"The Queen would never break the law out of favoritism" Vox said, flattering as usual. "But I hope no one have any doubts now" 

Valentino growled, realizing that she was referring to him, and was tempted to protest again, but his boyfriend's glare forced him to contain his anger. Even though he was fuming, he sat down again, although he did it with such mechanical movements that he looked like a forty-year-old cog.

Angel couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. "Come on, what's so strange? I'm not the only new overlord in this room. Luck changes for people like me too, you know?"

Valentino was clearly imagining strangling him, but with a huge effort of will he forced himself to remain seated.

Vox cleared his throat to bring the attention back to himself. "Um. Anyway, we're all here now, so we can get started. As you well know, the Queen expects us to ensure social order throughout the Pride Ring, and therefore to work well with each other. So, to start, I thought about..."

The meeting continued for the next three hours without a hitch. Ironically, the overlords were good at working together: when they had a common goal, they were able to ignore hostility and use their abilities together to their fullest, even if they continued to glare at each other and make bold to snide remarks. Even Vox and Zestial put aside any rivalry and used their intelligence only to succeed in the task assigned to them. By the end of the meeting, many efficient agreements had already been established to ensure the balance between the various territories, urban modernization plans had been approved, and even disputes related to this or that had been resolved. Of course, there was still a lot of work to be done, but that first meeting seemed to be a good omen: it really seemed that the days of absolute conflicts between the overlords were over.

When Vox declared the meeting over, the overlords stood up and left, except for one: Angel remained in his seat, apparently reading one of the files on the table, although it was clear that he was actually just waiting. The Vees waited as well, and when they were completely alone, they finally asked him: "So, what do you want to tell us?"

Angel finally looked up with a smirk: "You can speak less hostilely, I'm not here to get you in trouble"

"Fuck you!" Valentino exclaimed. "If these two weren't holding me back I would have already beaten you!"

Angel in response made himself comfortable in his chair: "Do it, I'm right here. Give me an excuse to report you" he said mockingly. "You can't do whatever you want anymore, Val. Don't forget that"

Valentino had an expression that would have made no one surprised if he had committed a murder. Luckily Velvette slapped him on the back of the head to calm him down and Vox spoke up: "I assume the Queen approved your appointment as overlord because she expects you to keep an eye on us for her"

"Don't insult me, I really do have all the qualifications. You can check it out if you don't believe me" Angel replied. "But yes, Charlie wants me to make sure no one here tries to violate her law. It's convenient to have someone on the inside. I hope it's not a problem"

"Of course not. I never thought the Queen wouldn't do something to make sure we didn't try to fool her" Vox replied truthfully. "She's not stupid and I don't underestimate her. She didn't become Queen of Hell just by inheriting a title"

"I'm glad you're so understanding. Don't worry, I won't just be watching you, I have orders to watch everyone," Angel told them, and then his smile faded and his gaze became serious, "But I also have a goal of my own, a personal one. And that's why I'm talking to you now"

The three Vees' eyes narrowed. "So?"

"Very simple" Angel said, clenching his fists slightly. "Alastor killed Husk, I want him dead. And I know Vox won't stop searching him until he will breath. I don't care what you do with him or who gives him the final blow, but I need to see him reduced to a corpse"

"So you want to join the hunt?" Velvette asked with a raised eyebrow. "The Queen is looking for him too, help her"

"Charlie won't kill him" Angel said with a bit of resentment. "She'll want to interrogate him first and he'll take advantage of that to get into her head. She won't be able to kill him, I know her too well. Alastor is too good at manipulating people and knows how to bend her, I can't let him get close to her. He has to die, and I know Vox won't hesitate to eliminate him. Kill him, and I'll testify that he left you no choice. I can make a deal with you here and now if you don't believe me"

Vox drummed his sharp fingers on the table. "I understand. You want to protect your friend the Queen and at the same time get your revenge"

"I want Alastor dead" Angel repeated. "I don't care how. Show me his body, and then you can keep his head if you want. I just want to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone else" 

"Tsk! You expect us to oblige?" Valentino snapped. "I don't get along with people who try to kill me!"

"Again!? Val, get over it!" Angel replied. "I spared you, isn't that enough?"

"You still had a gun to my head!" Valentino growled.

"Look, do you really want to have a contest to see who was the most amoral of us?" Angel asked rhetorically. "Because I'm pretty sure I'd win"

"He's not entirely wrong" Velvette commented.

Valentino glared at her: "Whose side are you on?"

"Sorry, Val, but if we start making a list of all the shit you two have done to each other... Angel wins hands down" Velvette replied.

Valentino started salivating in anger again, but Vox waved his hand to silence him: "Come on, Val, they're right, forget it. I remind you that we live with a woman who sent a bomb to our house once, there's no point in holding a grudge" he said pointing at Velvette with his eyes.

She grunted: "You're still throwing that in my face? It wasn't a real bomb!"

"Sooner or later you'll have to explain to me this thing of the bomb" Angel said.

"Why, Pentious didn't tell you?" Velvette asked him.

"Pen was involved!?" Angel exclaimed. "Asshole, he could have told me...!"

"Okay, okay, let's get back to serious things" Vox said, calming things down. "We'll think about it, okay? Give us some time"

"I'll be waiting anxiously. You know my number, you can call me whenever you want" Angel replied. "Just avoid midnight to eight in the morning, I'm usually asleep at that time. Oh, and since we're telling each other everything... I hate you" he said, looking at Valentino, making him snort. "And you two are a spoiled brat and you're a shitty television. But as long as we have a common goal, I'm fine with working together"

"And you're an arrogant and disobedient little whore who I just want to put in his place!" Valentino growled.

"Sure" Vox replied, ignoring his boyfriend. Angel realized he didn't want to continue talking, so he got up and left.

At the same time, at the royal palace, Cherri was biting her nails in anxiety. "I don't like this" she said. "I don't want to throw Angel into the lions' den"

"He's a key piece" Seviathan reminded her. "We need him to convince the overlords to give up the last souls they have and end the trade once and for all"

Millie put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Angel is strong and has made progress. And Valentino can't hurt him now"

"I still hate that he has to be so close to him" Cherri said.

"If we still had Husk, we could have sent him, since he had managed to earn their trust" Stolas commented. "But unfortunately, Angel is the only one who has the qualifications to become an overlord now, as well as a good motive for his actions since he is the boyfriend of a murdered victim. We need to trust him"

"Angel is strong" Moxxie said with a smile. "He'll be able to hold his own"

Charlie stood back, thinking to herself. She didn't like the situation either, but she hid it better than Cherri. She had really learned to act cool and impassive... she wasn't sure how much of a good thing that was, but it had certainly served her well so far.

As they spoke, Stolas's phone rang, and he took Octavia's number. Although curious as to why she was suddenly calling, he responded with his usual cheerfulness: "Hello, owlette?"

Chapter Text

"I'm glad you accepted my invitation" Andrealphus said as he picked up his golf club.

Stolas did the same without raising an eyebrow. He continued to act casual, but he wasn't losing sight of his daughter for a second, who was currently sitting a few feet away next to Stella. He was ready to intervene if anyone tried to do anything to her.

When Octavia had called him, he had almost broken the phone: she had told him that she and Loona had met Stella and Andrealphus while they were out and he had asked her to stay with them for a while and convince him to meet them. Stolas didn't know how much truth there was in that story and he didn't care: he just wanted to get out of there with his daughter as soon as possible. Through Octavia, Andrealphus had invited him to an area of ​​Wrath just outside one of the largest cities in the Ring, which had been little affected by the volcanic eruption: it was a very wealthy area and there was a golf course, and it was there that his ex-brother-in-law had wanted to meet him. According to Andrealphus, he wanted to play a game with him and talk man to man, in the hope of at least making peace a little.

Stolas obviously didn't trust his ex-brother-in-law at all, knowing how dangerous he was; so when he got there he was ready for anything. Luckily they weren't alone: ​​apart from the ball boys and the servants, there were other nobles who were playing golf like them, so it was unlikely that Andrealphus would have tried to assassinate him there. To be safe, however, he hadn't come alone: ​​Seviathan had in fact disguised himself as a servant and was wandering around the course, and he had also provided disguises for Moxxie and Millie who were there with him. All of them were super tense, but they kept signaling him that they hadn't spotted a potential assassin or any other kind of danger. Andrealphus really seemed to only want to play golf with him.

Stolas didn't like that tranquility; it felt like the calm before the storm. He really wanted to bring Charlie, since no one would have been crazy enough to do anything in the presence of the Queen of Hell... but just at that moment she had been called to settle a dispute between two other nobles in Sloth, and without Emily to impersonate her, she couldn't split herself anymore. Stolas was sure that Andrealphus was involved in that as well, and that only worried him more. Maybe he should have brought Vassago at least... but it was better if he remained in command of the legions in his place, ready to intervene if something happened somewhere while he was there playing golf.

Fuck, that was really an exhausting situation.

Andrealphus was the first to throw, and he let out a disapproving noise as he saw the ball land not too far away. "Oh, man, I'm usually better in this"

"What is it? Weak shoulder?" Stolas replied a little piqued.

Andrealphus just laughed: "Ah ah! Yeah, I'm probably not in shape today" he said, and then he pointed at Octavia with his head: "See? That's what you should teach your daughter, men making fun of each other! It's what a teenager should see. Come on, it's your turn; I bet you'll do better than that"

Stolas didn't laugh, or even smile. In fact, the mere presence of his ex-brother-in-law was getting on his nerves. Reluctantly, he took his ball and placed it on the lawn, and he prepared himself to hit it.

Andrealphus was silent for a long time, giving him time to take aim and hit the ball. As soon as he did, he sighed: "You're still mad at me for scaring your boyfriend away, aren't you?"

Stolas narrowed his eyes. He wanted to punch him, but he forced himself to stay still. "I'm not a fan of people who break into other people's homes and threaten them"

Andrealphus didn't flinch at the provocation; on the contrary, he put on a sorry expression. "I know. But I didn't mean to go that far" he told him. "I just wanted to talk to that imp, I didn't mean to threaten him. I hoped he'd be more understanding, that he'd understand that he had to behave in a certain way"

"Sure, and you broke into his house illegally to save him the trouble of welcoming you" Stolas grumbled.

Andrealphus's smile widened. "Why do you talk about it as if I did something wrong?"

"Because it's wrong! It's a crime!" Stolas exclaimed. "Trespassing, threatening, inciting to..."

"They're crimes only if they're committed by people of the same social class" Andrealphus interrupted him. "A nobleman breaking into an imp's house isn't a crime"

"It's still wrong!" Stolas protested.

"The law of Hell says otherwise" Andrealphus replied.

Stolas's eyes were shaking. Fuck, he really wanted to wipe that smug expression off his interlocutor's face. "Just because something is legal doesn't make it right!"

They weren't exactly talking in hushed tones anymore, though they weren't shouting, and in fact many of the people there were turning to listen; after all, their conversation was probably the most interesting thing on the entire golf course. Stella made a satisfied noise as she saw that many people were clearly annoyed by her ex-husband's words. Octavia noticed it too and, without letting her mother see, signaled him to pay attention to what he was saying. Stolas bit his lip; he had to keep calm or he would only have given his ex-brother-in-law another excuse to ridicule him.

Incredibly, however, Andrealphus didn't even try to exploit the advantage that Stolas had indirectly given him; on the contrary, with extreme calm, he continued to concentrate on the golf ball to get a good aim. "You know, Stolas... that's always been your problem" he said to him. "You are one who acts not with logic but with feeling. There is nothing wrong with that, on the contrary... but in this field, it is a thought that takes you to the grave. Tell me, Stolas, you who maintain that the law can be unjust: have you ever asked yourself why a law exists in the first place?"

Stolas raised an eyebrow, struck by the question. "Laws exist because someone established and imposed them in the past"

"You know that's not what I asked. I'm not interested in a lesson in legislation" Andrealphus replied. "Why was a law established? Why impose it? What made the legislator want everyone to do or not to do a certain thing? What were their thoughts? What was their purpose? To solve the equation you have to have all the variables"

"What are you getting at?" Stolas asked, not appreciating all the beating around the bush.

"Very simple" Andrealphus replied. "Laws exist for just one purpose: to ensure social order. Without a social order, there is no nation. Therefore, there are no laws that violate social order. Of course, laws are not perfect, but none of them can contradict this principle. If a law were to cause chaos in the nation, it would immediately be abolished and forgotten. It is the classic principle of survival of the fittest, but with laws and rules instead of organisms: if a law breaks the order, either the nation abolishes it or it crumbles on itself. Do you understand this, or am I going too fast for you?"

Stolas didn't give in to that jab. "I understand perfectly well. You mean that if Hell has these laws today, it's because they maintain order"

"Precisely" Andrealphus said. "Demons are fickle creatures, Stolas. They pursue desire, not reason. The social order of Hell must be rigid, otherwise everyone would do as they please, like those sinners who in fact look how they periodically reduced the Pride Ring. Without order, you can't maintain a nation. So, next question: why do you think that the maintenance of this order was entrusted to us nobles?"

That question was easy. "Because we are stronger, and therefore it is easier for us to impose ourselves on any dissidents" Stolas answered.

Andrealphus chuckled. "Good, see that you too are smart if you try?" he teased him. "We are stronger. We have abilities that an imp or a hellhound can only dream of. We are immortal, which also makes us wiser since we can gain more experience than any other demon. When faced with a problem, we can find a solution, and if it doesn't go well, we can crush those who cause it"

"Crush..." Stolas hissed slightly. "You speak of it as if it were a good thing. How many times has this power to crush others been used for a truly good purpose, instead of to suppress freedom?"

"Freedom?" Andrealphus commented in a voice that was half amused and half disgusted. "Do you know what this freedom would really entail?"

"Enlighten me" Stolas replied.

Andrealphus cracked his neck as he took good aim with the ball: "Since you've been hanging out with sinners lately... let them tell you what happens when you give people freedom" he told him. "Everyone says that things like democracy are good... but how many times have they really been good in history? In a nation where the people have complete freedom to choose, there are only two paths: anarchy or oppression. In the first case the nation crumbles on itself, in the second case... the elected politicians are either inept or at least not enough to fix the country, and the people start asking for a strong man, and a tyrant comes to power who is a thousand times more cruel and violent than the previous ones. Do you know that all the cruelest dictators in human History became such because the people themselves wanted them? Study the twentieth century, study the Napoleonic wars, study the French Revolution. Everyone talks about these events as something beautiful, but they were nothing but a continuous bloodshed that cost, and still costs today, millions of lives"

"There were bad cases, I know" Stolas tried to reply. "But things have changed since..."

"Yes... they have changed for the worse" Andrealphus interrupted him. "Look at the state of Earth today: there is so much democracy, everyone is happy with democracy... and that is why the big multinationals are in power, increasing poverty, causing wars and changing the climate of the entire planet, killing thousands of people every day. Tell me, how many times have so many people died when the aristocracy was in power? Never. Even in the past, when humans didn't have all this technology, where did the greatest number of sinners come from? Did they come from England, or from Germany? No. They came from the United States, a nation of slavers born to evade taxes. They came from France, which had beheaded the king for freedom, but spent decades doing nothing but spilling blood across half of Europe. Freedom for the common people is not equality, Stolas... it is a different form of slavery, imposed by the people themselves, which only leads to destruction. It is a false myth. It is a promise never kept"

And with that he took a swing at the ball, sending it far away, and then stepped aside to allow Stolas to take his shot. "And tell me..." the owl demon said as he took aim. "... what's to stop aristocrats from behaving in exactly the same way?"

"Principles" Andrealphus replied. "An aristocratic society is not one where nobles can do whatever they want. They must behave appropriately and display etiquette, education, wisdom, skill. There may be conflicts, but they must be resolved with certain steps, never in a hasty and confused manner. That's what makes aristocrats more balanced than a people ruled by demagogic politicians and unscrupulous rich men"

"I don't see that stopping nobles from acting like assholes in recent decades" Stolas replied, taking a hard swing at the ball, which landed well beyond that of his ex-brother-in-law.

Andrealphus smiled, and he motioned for Stolas to walk over to the balls so he could take another shot. "The problem for the last two hundred years wasn't the aristocratic society" he told him as he took aim again. "It was that there was no one to ensure the maintenance of the principles of the nobles. Lilith was divorced and stopped being queen, and Lucifer didn't give a damn about Hell. Why do you think the system only recently started to malfunction, and not a thousand years ago? Because there was no good ruler in charge"

"Does that change anything?" Stolas asked.

"It changes everything" Andrealphus replied. "The nobles are still people, and so they too must be kept in check. The aristocrats' job is to keep the lower classes in check, and the ruler keeps the nobles in check by enforcing the principles that pertain to their role. Without a ruler, the nobles stop caring about this and become degenerate... just as without the nobles, society as a whole becomes degenerate. But fortunately, there is now a ruler on the throne again who cares a lot about this kingdom"

Stolas didn’t miss the change in his ex-brother-in-law’s tone. “What are you trying to say to me?” he asked.

Andrealphus stopped looking at the golf ball, looking up at him. His smile hadn’t faded, but his eyes had become much colder. “I’m trying to say that you need to think before you act, especially now that you’re in a position of power and so close to the Queen” he replied. "Let's say everything you wish for comes true. Let's imagine that the lower classes are free, that we nobles step aside, damn it, maybe I even die in the process... I know how much you'd like to see me two meters underground. But what will you get? Permission to marry your beloved imp... and then? What world will you hand over to your daughter? A Hell where a false order reigns, which will continually generate increasingly violent chaos that will only lead to disorder and devastation. Maybe my niece will end up in the middle of a gunfight because of this and that blood will be on your hands. We all know that the Queen is so good and nice, and she wants everyone to be happy and free... but wouldn't it be better to take advantage of your position to convince her to re-establish the principles of aristocratic society and return Hell to the perfect order it was before her mother left the throne? You'll have to give up marrying your imp, but is a ring on your finger really that important to the two of you? Tell me, wouldn't your boyfriend prefer that your daughters live safely in an orderly and stable society?"

Stolas didn't answer, not knowing what to say. The problem was that his ex-brother-in-law had some good points in his favor, and it was really difficult to counter them with logic. Andrealphus' smile grew, happy that he had left him speechless. "It's the famous story of the table and the ball. Have you ever heard it?"

"No" Stolas answered honestly.

"I thought so. It's a metaphor for society" Andrealphus explained. "It consists of imagining placing a ball on a table. As long as the table is perfectly horizontal, the ball remains still, immobile, unchanged in its condition. But if the table tilts, no matter how imperceptible this inclination is, it can be even just a micrometer... but the ball starts to move. Slowly, but it moves. And there is no longer any way to stop it. You can put an obstacle in front of it, and the ball will hit it and apparently stop... but in reality, it is only momentarily slowed down. The force of gravity that started making it move as soon as the table tilted continues to press on it. Very slowly, the ball begins to move and erode the obstacle. It takes a thousand, maybe even ten thousand years, but eventually it breaks it and starts rolling again. And if you place a second obstacle in front of it, this time it will have much more latent energy, and it will break it much sooner than the other; and so on, until there is no single obstacle capable of stopping it. At that point the ball will only continue to pick up speed... until it reaches the edge of the table, at which point it will fall to the floor with all its stored energy and shatter"

Stolas grunted softly. "I see. The ball is the society, and the table is the potential change. As long as it's zero, everything is fine, but if it's inclined even once, everything falls apart"

"Precisely. I see you understand" Andrealphus told him. "To function well, a society needs strong pillars and unchanged codes. If you start giving people the impression that something can be done differently, that's the beginning of the end. It causes a chain reaction that grows bigger and bigger, and like a domino whose pieces are bigger each time, it only leads to chaos and destruction"

And after those words he hit the ball hard, sending it flying far away, though it completely missed the hole. "Aaaaah, today is really not my day" he said, then he looked Stolas straight in the eye: "You, the Queen, your imp, all your friends... you play with forces that you don't know if you can control. A society doesn't have to be fair, it has to be stable. That's why I don't want you and your imp to be lovebirds around, because that small and insignificant gesture could have repercussions that would undermine the stability of society forever. You can only afford to be fair after you have secured stability. And I'm afraid none of you are really thinking about stability right now"

Stolas remained silent, looking at him intently, and then he took his bat and placed it on his ball: "I fear that it is you who does not understand what it means to maintain stability"

Andrealphus raised an eyebrow: "What?"

"You are right" Stolas told him. "You are right in everything you said. A single shake-up of stability can lead to the collapse of society. That is all right, I fully agree". His eyes narrowed: "But what you do not understand... is that we have already passed the point where we could avoid shaking the social pyramid"

Andrealphus abandoned the smile, and he seemed to think carefully. "Explain better"

"Very simple" Stolas replied, taking good aim. "The collapse you speak of has already begun. It began decades ago, centuries ago. It began when the nobles, the very ones who were supposed to ensure a stable society, started to behave like degenerates, confident in their absolute power. Maybe it began when Lilith abandoned the throne... maybe later... maybe long before... but still, that was the point of no return. If just one part of society doesn't behave well, the others begin to react. The lower classes began to grow resentful, and now that resentment is exploding. Before, you could suppress rebellious thoughts with force... now if you do that, you will be seen as a dictator, a tyrant, an oppressor, and you will only contribute to spreading discontent even more. The question is not whether or not we can prevent society from starting to change... it is how we want it to change, because change is already inevitable"

And then he took a swing at his ball, which landed perfectly in the hole. "I won" he said to Andrealphus, then he lowered his voice threateningly: "Trust me, you are a losing business. Hold on to your beliefs all you want, but you have already been defeated. This world will not stay like this, it is destiny that it will change"

Andrealphus stared back at him. His face seemed to be shrouded in darkness now. "You may not like the world that will be created" he warned him.

Stolas leaned closer to him, their beaks almost touching. "Maybe" he replied. "Maybe I won't like it. I don't know, I can't predict the future. But I know this: I don't like the world we have today, a Hell so corrupt and ruled by pompous aristocrats who don't care about the needs of the people. That's why I'm going to do everything in my power to change this society. Not for Blitz, or for myself: I'm going to do it for my daughter and for every single child, kid, and teen in all of Hell, because I refuse to accept that they live in this shitty society. And if you don't like it... then I guess I'll have to do something about you, too"

Andrealphus made a hissing sound, like a peacock pawing the ground. "You accuse me of threatening others, but then you speak to me like this? You are such a hypocrite"

"Hypocrisy is typical of nobles" Stolas replied. "That's why I want to change everything. I'm tired of hypocrisy... especially yours"

Andrealphus looked into his eyes, as if he were trying to search his soul for the slightest sign of fear, finding none. "You know... hearing you speak now, I'm starting to think that you are not as much of a mollusk as I have believed for the last twenty years" he said. "But tell me... when the time comes to put these words of yours into practice... will you really be able to do everything that is necessary for this ideal you believe in... or will you stop halfway?"

Stolas almost breathed in his face. "Try me" he challenged him.

The air around Andrealphus seemed to cool, and Stolas instinctively braced himself against a potential attack...

But then Andrealphus closed his eyes, and seemed to make an effort to calm himself. "I see..." he said in a very low voice. "Stolas... would you be so kind... to grant me a rematch?"

Stolas remained still, his eyes narrowed, and then he indicated the hole with a nod of his head: "You go first"

Unlike the golf course, which was located in a noble residential area that had withstood the eruption well, the nearby town was still being rebuilt; while it was mostly intact, it still needed some repairs. The builders and laborers worked overtime every day to complete the reconstruction as quickly as possible... not that it was good for their health, but it was better than leaving families sleeping rough.

Deep down, those workers were happy to have so much work, because at least they could get a paycheck. Many of the residents of Wrath were not so lucky and were forced to sell their belongings. And of course they protested, even if no one seemed to listen to them at first... but after what had happened to Pride, their complaints had become much louder since they now had hope.

"Tsk. What a bunch of degenerates" a cloaked figure muttered from behind a pillar, as he looked out over one of those squares, where there was a crowd listening to some imps talking. "There was a time when no one would dare show up to something this ridiculous. What do they think, that they can have a chance? Ridiculous"

"Keep calm. Think about our work" another cloaked guy next to him said, before pulling out a small bottle filled with a strange purple liquid. "Hold your breath. This farce ends now!"

Chapter Text

In Hell, everything was trying to kill you, literally. The inhabitants were only part of the problem: all the rest of the flora and fauna were also deadly and destructive. Plants and animals had evolved the most sophisticated and subtle tools of death.

The basilisk was a perfect example of this. It was an animal native to Sloth, apparently harmless, with the appearance of a rooster with a snake's tail, but it lived in the middle of desert areas of its own making. The basilisk in fact exuded a venom from its mouth capable of instantly killing anything, so quickly that in ancient times it was said that it could kill with its gaze.

This venom was extremely difficult to obtain, but whoever obtained it had a real treasure in their hands. The basilisk's venom acted on the motor functions of the brain, instantly blocking the heart, lungs and all other internal organs, killing the victim instantly, and it left no traces: therefore, it was perfect for murder, since the victim simply appeared to have died of cardiac arrest. However, it could also be used in other ways. The more it was diluted, the less effective it was and therefore it caused different reactions. If diluted at least fifteen times, the poison was weak enough not to kill the victim but only to paralyze them: it still took control of the motor functions of the brain, but it was not strong enough to block the internal organs, only the muscles. If diluted at least forty times, it was not enough to cause motor paralysis, but it blocked some internal functions such as the immune system, favoring the proliferation of diseases; not by chance in the past basilisks that lived too close to waterways had often caused deadly epidemics many hundreds of kilometers away from them.

And if it was diluted a hundred times, the poison lost its ability to affect the rest of the body, only part of the brain: it caused paralysis of some areas of it for a while, causing a high intensity neuronal decompensation. Just like a rabies virus, it caused confusion, involuntary movements and, of course, an exponential increase in aggression. Consequently, if some demons, who were already aggressive and violent by themselves, inhaled it, instantly every repressed instinct became impossible to control, turning them into uncontrollable beasts.

"Did you put your mask on?" one of the hooded guys asked the other. "Remember, we absolutely can't breathe this stuff"

"Sure" was the rather annoyed reply. "Come on, let's do this thing and then leave right away"

Their companion nodded, and then lifted the bottle and opened it. As soon as it was exposed to the air, the purple liquid instantly evaporated into a transparent, odorless cloud that spread quickly. The basilisk venom was denser than air, so it didn't escape upwards, but instead spread throughout the square without anyone noticing.

"It's done" one of the hooded guys exclaimed, and then dragged their companion away. "Come on, we have to disappear quickly!"

The poison began to penetrate the nostrils and eyes of the imps who were gathered in the square. None of them noticed, they didn't even smell a pungent odor. But within a few minutes, many of them began to feel a little strange: they had trouble understanding the situation, all the sounds were amplified, the lights were blinding... and above all, they felt a fire in their hearts, a fire that quickly began to burn them from the inside, igniting their spirits. And finally someone shouted: "Why keep talking!? Let's tear those bastards to pieces!"

Under normal circumstances, no one would have listened to a person who said things like that, in fact they would have seen them as crazy; even if they were pissed off at the nobles, the demons were still capable of using rationality. But at that moment their minds were too clouded and their violent instincts too heated to allow them to think carefully. All the resentment accumulated in recent times exploded like a volcano.

"Yes!"

"Enough waiting!"

"We don't want them!"

"We're tired!"

"I say let's destroy everything!"

Unable to control themselves, the demons began to unleash themselves on everything that could be linked to the nobles: they tore down statues of Satan, attacked buildings owned by the aristocrats to loot them, and even began to beat up those who worked for them. Very soon the city was in total chaos.

Sally May was hiding in an alley, observing everything that was happening. As usual, as soon as she heard of someone protesting against the aristocracy she ran to see, although this time, mindful of her mother's warnings, she preferred to stay a little apart. It was immediately clear to her that something was wrong: it was as if the demons' aggression had turned on like a light bulb. It was certainly not something normal.

She quickly grabbed her cell phone, but the basilisk venom was working on her too, and it slipped from her unsteady fingers. She too began to feel angrier and angrier. Trying to keep her wits about her, she threw herself on the floor and tried to get her cell phone back, and with an inhuman effort she managed to dial the emergency number, her father's. Joe's voice answered her quickly: "Sally?"

"Dad... call Millie!" she said, feeling her anger take over her. "There's... something wrong! Don't... don't... ARGH!"

Her aggression completely took over her: she was now too confused to think clearly. "Sally!? Are you still there!?" Joe's worried voice asked, but it sounded like an annoying fly in her ear, so much so that she grabbed her cell phone and smashed it against the wall.

Satan was furious. Well, it wasn't that unusual given his personality... in fact, it was something to be concerned about if he wasn't furious. But there were times when he could be even more terrifying, violent, and scary than usual. "What do you mean there's more unrest in my Ring!?"

"It's about a group of protesters who started causing serious damage to a suburban town" one of his attendants explained. "It started out as a peaceful protest, but things got out of hand"

Satan let out a deep snort from his nostrils. "Fuck... I never should have let those bastards talk" he commented. "I should have destroyed them right away!"

Satan was obviously aware of the economic difficulties the Wrath Ring's inhabitants were in following the massive volcanic eruption. He obviously didn't really care about them, but he knew that their bad temper could cause problems in rebuilding his Ring, so he kept an eye on the situation. He knew that there were idiots who took advantage of the moment of difficulty to stir up the people, and just as many idiots who listened to them. Satan would have already given the order to massacre these protesters and hang their heads on pikes from a while if he hadn't known that this would have greatly annoyed Charlie; and beyond the family troubles that their quarrel would have created, he absolutely didn't want to make her angry since now she was not only his beloved niece, she was also the Queen of Hell. Antagonize her would have been a foolish move, so Satan for once had contained his proverbial anger and let the matter go, deciding that as long as these people did not cause trouble he would have tolerated them.

After all, what danger could these people really pose? From Satan's point of view, they were just ridiculous. What did they expect, to take up arms and start a revolution against him, or even the entire kingdom? Even the biggest idiot in the universe would have realized that was a shitty idea.

Well, it seemed he had been very wrong. There really was someone idiotic enough to provoke his anger. "I'm going to go over there and kill them all" he growled, blowing smoke from his nostrils. "We'll see if anyone tries that again!"

He was already about to open a portal, but one of the nobles of his court stopped him: "Your Majesty, I don't think that would be wise"

"Why? Don't tell me you think I could be hurt by some pathetic bumpkins!" Satan grumbled.

“Your Majesty, if you were to go there in person, it would be like officially declaring that you have no other way to protect your Ring than to act alone” the noble in question pointed out.

Satan was initially tempted to ignore him, but then he stopped and reflected. In fact, it was true: going in person to resolve a potential revolt meant admitting that his army was not capable of protecting even a provincial city... and in part it was true, since in order to speed up the reconstruction he had been forced to dismiss many soldiers to make them work in the construction sites, with the result that now he had too few troops to make them abandon the main cities and maintain order in the small ones. If he had gone in person to resolve the problem, everyone would have understood that he had no other way to stop a revolt than to bother himself in person. This would have had very serious repercussions, since other revolutionary groups would have understood that it was enough to simply attack multiple cities at the same time to put him in difficulty.

Not to mention the damage to his image. It would have meant admitting that even the smallest of revolts could put him in difficulty, who had always boasted of having the best armies in all of Hell. If he had done so, everyone would have laughed at him. He would have become the laughing stock of the entire demon realm.

No... if he intervened personally, he would have risked losing more than he would have gained.

But he couldn't just stand back and pretend nothing had happened. This affront had to be punished, or his authority would have suffered greatly. A Deadly Sin who lets something like this happen in his Ring? It was ridiculous to even think about.

So in the end he opted for the simplest and safest option: shifting all the blame onto a third party. "Who is the highest-ranking noble currently in the area?"

If a Goetia noble intervened under his command, then there would have been no problem. That would have been no different than an army officer obeying his orders. No one would have questioned his authority and no one would have laughed at him.

His attendants did a quick search, and then said, "It's King Stolas Goetia, Your Majesty"

"Oh, him? He's made a name for himself lately, and my niece likes him. Well, it'll be easier to calm her down too then" Satan commented. "Tell him I'm too busy to waste my time on a trivial matter like this, and that he should take care of it"

And in this way he had also saved face in front of the nobility, since he had declined the mess as something he saw as unimportant, a sign that he could crush them if he wanted. Now he was just a bored Deadly Sin who knew exactly how to solve the problem, but who considered it so petty that he didn't want to bother and passed the job off to someone of lower rank. That kind of behavior was totally acceptable in the upper class.

"We are contacting King Stolas now" his attendants told him. "What are your orders?"

"It seems obvious" Satan replied. "He must exterminate everyone. I do not want even a survivor"

Stolas and Andrealphus had continued to play golf in silence after their earlier conversation. Neither of them had spoken again, as if they were both waiting for the other to make his move. They were like two hawks ready to slaughter each other at the first sign of threat...

... and then, suddenly, one of the servants came running: "Your Highness Stolas, we have received a call from His Majesty Satan!"

Stolas immediately tensed. A call from one of the Deadly Sins would have been a source of absolute tension at any time... but while he was in his Ring it was even more worrying, because while he was there he was under Satan's direct command, and while he normally had to obey him but could have some leeway, in this case he could only obey and that was it. "What is it?" he asked immediately.

"There is unrest in the city" the servant explained quickly. "You must take care of it. His Majesty Satan has specifically ordered everyone to be exterminated"

Stolas went as stiff as ice; his heart seemed to skip a beat. Octavia's eyes widened, and Stella also looked surprised, not expecting that to happen. Moxxie and Millie, who were still wandering around disguised as ball boys, hurried to catch up with Seviathan: "This is serious, isn't it?"

Seviathan gritted his teeth, and a couple of drops of sweat formed on his forehead: "More than just serious"

He tried to walk towards Stolas, but was immediately intercepted by more ball boys who stepped in his way. It wasn't hard to tell that they were blocking his path to prevent any potential advisors from getting close. Millie looked like she was about to punch them, but Moxxie stopped her: "No, that's not a good idea" he whispered, since that would immediately have attracted attention.

Millie gritted her teeth. "What do we do?" she muttered anxiously.

"I don't know" Moxxie replied, and he took his cell phone: "But while I think about it, I'll do this"

He quickly dialed a number, and after a couple of rings Blitz's voice came on the other end: "Mox, why are you calling me earlier than usual? What's going on?"

"Boss, I'm afraid something serious is about to happen" Moxxie told him. "We might need some serious help"

There was a moment of silence, and Moxxie even thought he saw his boss's face tighten into a grimace. "Send me the location" was all she said.

Stolas was still paralyzed, confused and unsure as ever, but Andrealphus' voice called him back to reality: "What are you waiting for? His Majesty Satan has given you an order. You must follow it"

Stolas turned sharply to Andrealphus: "You..." he hissed. "This is your doing, right!?"

Andrealphus shook his head innocently: "Think what you want about me, but I would never be so bold as to cause trouble in a Ring that is being rebuilt" he replied. "And anyway, this is not the time to make accusations. You have an order, you should obey"

Stolas wanted to slaughter him so much, and only the fact that they were in front of many witnesses stopped him. They were not alone on that golf course, there were plenty of people watching them, and therefore could spread the word about what was happening there. Even in his frantic state, he was smart enough to understand that he could not accuse someone without evidence. "I'll call the Queen right away" he said, picking up his cell phone.

"It's His Majesty Satan who gave the order, you should call him" Andrealphus told him. "Or are you saying that the relationship between the new Queen and her most important subjects is not as solid as it seems? That's a very serious accusation, you know?"

Stolas gritted his teeth, fully understanding what Andrealphus meant. If he, a person known to be close to the Queen, had called her at that moment, he would have tacitly declared to all of Hell that the Deadly Sins' decisions might not be aligned with those of Hell's highest authority even within their own Rings. It would have meant that Satan, who had the important task of running the Wrath Ring, could make a different decision than the Queen would have made.

It might seem like a small thing, since obviously the Deadly Sins couldn't always agree with Charlie, but it would have been a disaster from a political point of view. The Deadly Sins were supposed to be like physical extensions of the king, running the Rings on behalf of the crown. Therefore, to say that Satan and Charlie could make different decisions for the Wrath Ring would not only be to accuse Satan of being incompetent, but also to sever the relationship between the Deadly Sins and the crown that until that point had been seen as absolute, opening the doors not only to more intense revolts but also to tools that any political opponent could have used to more easily gain control.

It would have been, simply put, a disaster.

Seeing his uncertainty, Andrealphus pressed him: "Do you think the Queen would be against it... or do you hope so?" he said in a rather malicious voice.

Stolas narrowed his eyes, and looking around he saw many of the people present whispering intensely. He knew what that meant: Andrealphus was indirectly asking him in front of many witnesses if he actually did not want to carry out the order received at all. Basically, he was asking him if he wanted to risk being accused of high treason.

Bastard... he really had thought of everything.

"I will call the Queen just to confirm" he replied, trying to gain time.

"Good, and in the meantime the city will have been destroyed. Her Royal Majesty the Queen will have to call Her Majesty Satan, discuss with him, and then approve his actions. It will take time, time that is not there now. Any damage caused to the city while you continue to waste time is your responsibility, do not forget that!" Andrealphus told him, and then he said: "You leave me no choice. If you refuse to act, as the noble with the highest rank after you, I will have to do it"

Stolas whirled on him: "Don't you dare...!"

"What? You're the one who refuses to follow orders now" Andrealphus pointed out. "Someone has to do something. Therefore..."

Stolas grabbed him by the shoulder and pinned him there. "You won't do anything!" he growled at him.

Andrealphus narrowed his eyes. "Stolas... my good ex-brother-in-law... please think about it. You have an order, you must obey. If none of us act, we will all be blamed"

"I don't care!" Stolas shouted at him. "You're not going anywhere! None of you are leaving here!"

Stolas knew he was in an extremely precarious position; any action he took right now would have had dire repercussions. He was seriously walking a tightrope. He wanted to take a moment to think, but Andrealphus continued to thwart him: "Did you all see? This man is preventing me from doing my duty! He is breaking the law!"

"I am not breaking any law!" Stolas growled, shaking him so hard he nearly tore his arm off.

"Yes, you are!" Andrealphus replied. "The law requires you to follow the orders of the highest-ranking demons! Refusing to do so is a violation of the law!"

"Shut up!" Stolas hissed. "Since you like to follow the orders of the highest-ranking people, obey me and close your fucking mouth!"

Andrealphus glared at him defiantly: "The original order comes from His Majesty Satan, who is higher than you, and therefore surpasses your will! Whether you like it or not, I will follow his orders!" he replied, and then a light passed into his eyes: "Make a choice! Do you want to obey or not!?"

Those words were the last straw for Stolas: "NO!" he shouted, pushing his ex-brother-in-law away and sending him to the ground.

He realized too late what he had just declared out loud; all the nobles present were looking at him as if he were a madman or a living trash. Andrealphus stood up slightly and glared at him with an expression of anger, even though the light in his eyes was not at all: "What do you think you're doing, you idiot!?"

Stolas snorted. The damage was already done, he might as well say everything he thought now. "You heard me! I don't attack a defenseless city! I'll evacuate it first, and then I'll march all the legions you want to see!"

"Don't talk nonsense!" Andrealphus shouted, standing up. "The order is to leave no survivors! It's the will of His Majesty Satan!"

"Well, it's not my will!" Stolas replied.

"You're crazy! You think that just because you're close to the Queen that will save you!?" Andrealphus growled. "You can't break the laws of Hell like that!"

"Well, that's my problem!" Stolas replied. "Hold him down!"

The hellhounds patrolling the edge of the golf course immediately moved in and grabbed Andrealphus by the arms, holding him tight. Even if they didn't understand the situation, Stolas was the highest ranking noble there, and that was enough for them to follow his orders. Of course a group of hellhounds couldn't even hope to hold back a Goetia marquis, but before Andrealphus could react, Stolas used a spell to block his powers. "Urgh... Stolas, this is treason!" his ex-brother-in-law protested.

Stolas didn't even want to listen to him anymore. "Lock him up somewhere!" he ordered. "And if anyone tries to do the same, arrest them too!"

"Yes sir" the hellhounds responded promptly.

However, as they were dragging him away, Andrealphus turned his head one last time: "Good, it seems you were telling the truth: you are really willing to do what is necessary for your stupid idealism! This will be your downfall, Stolas!"

"And gag him!" Stolas ordered, but there was no need: Andrealphus didn't say another word to him, and instead he remained profoundly silent.

Stolas let out a furious growl. Fuck, he was pissed off like he’d never been before. He strode over to Seviathan, Moxxie, and Millie, who finally didn’t have the ball boys holding them back. "You were a fool" Seviathan whispered in his ear.

“And what was I supposed to do, kill everyone?” Stolas grumbled. "We’ll talk about this later, now let's take care of the main problem"

Seviathan shook his head in disappointment, but still he said: “The damage is already done, so just take your legions and surround the city, that should scare the rioters enough for you to resolve things peacefully, and contact Charlie before Satan finds out so she can put the civilians under her protection”

“Good idea” Stolas said, but as he turned around his voice quickly hardened: “Where’s my daughter!?”

When Joe received the call from his daughter, no one had paid attention at first, since they were not eavesdroppers in their family... and they would ask questions later, so it didn't matter. However, even people who were not eavesdropping had found it difficult to ignore the frightened voice coming from the phone, much less the worried expression of their father. "Honey, what's going on?" Lin asked him anxiously.

Joe put down the phone and grabbed the keys to the pickup truck: "Darling, call Millie. Tell her something's happening in town, and she needs to call someone important right away"

"What are you talking about!? Where's Sally!?" Lin exclaimed in fear.

"I'll go to get her now" Joe replied. "You do as I told you, stay here and make sure none of our other children do anything crazy"

"Joe!" Lin said, grabbing his arm. "Sally is...!?"

Her husband put his hand on her face. "I'll bring her back alive" he told her resolutely. "But you and the others stay here"

And after such words he went out and started the pickup. Lin grabbed her dress above her heart and tightened it, feeling almost like she was about to faint.

Chapter Text

As soon as Stolas gave the order to lock Andrealphus away by force, Stella grabbed Octavia by the arm and quickly pulled her away. Before her daughter could react, she had already opened a portal, and they found themselves on top of a skyscraper in the city. "Mom, what are you doing?" Octavia protested.

Stella made a noise of disgust. "That idiot father of yours is making a mess as usual" she replied. "So now I'll sort this out"

And after such words, magic circles began to form in her hands. Stella wasn't very talented in magic, but she was still an Ars Goetia: power flowed naturally through her as if it were blood, and even if she wasn't as efficient as Andrealphus's, she could still use it. She knew she couldn't win against a noble of her own rank, but she could easily eliminate a bunch of crude uncivilized imps.

Octavia understood her mother's intentions and grabbed her arm to stop her: "Mom, no! You can't do this!"

"I have to do this!" Stella replied. "You heard your uncle, we'll all be accused of treason if we refuse to act, and your father won't follow orders! I won't let him ruin this family any more than he has already done. If he likes this rabble so much, then let him piss off Satan on his own; I'm not going to antagonize a Deadly Sin!"

Octavia bit her lip; she knew that for once her mother was right. When Satan's order had come, she too had thought that Andrealphus was involved in that mess... but in fact, all the nobles present there would have been implicated and accused in case of non-compliance with the order, not just Stolas. It was not like his uncle to make such a move...

Maybe he thought he could escape the accusations since Stolas had forced him not to intervene? But it would still have been risky, too risky. There were witnesses, it's true, but Stolas could easily force them to lie; it wasn't his style, but from Andrealphus' point of view he could decide to make an exception for once, therefore he would not make such a gamble. Stolas was still a person with power and very close to the crown, it would not have been difficult for him to convince the witnesses to speak for him.

No... the more Octavia thought about it, the more she could not find the solution to that twisted plan. If Andrealphus was really responsible, he was just risking losing more than he could gain. There was something wrong with that whole scheme...

But still, she could understand why her mother was so scared now and willing to get her hands dirty for once. Andrealphus couldn’t intervene, and anyone who dared to speak back to Stolas would apparently have suffered the same fate: the only solution was to use his distraction to intervene immediately, execute Satan’s will, and make sure someone saw them so it would have been known that if Stolas was a traitor, they were not. It was a logical reasoning, and it wasn’t hard to see who her mother would have chosen if she had to decide between risking the two of them or sacrificing a bunch of plebeians.

But Octavia couldn’t stand by and watch people get killed; even if it wasn’t a big deal to her mother, it was to her. So she tried to dissuade her again: "Mom, please, no! You know Dad, he won't let them accuse me, and I'll make sure they don't accuse you. You don't have to fear for your position..."

"You're too naive" Stella replied. "Do you think your father will have any room for negotiation after disobeying a superior's order? No one will care who is or isn't involved. There's only one way to resolve this situation, and that's this!"

But Octavia remained adamant: "Mom, do you think that when the Queen finds out what happened she will thank you? You know she doesn't want to see her people die!"

"The Queen is still bound by the laws of Hell. She can't ignore a betrayal" Stella rightly pointed out. "And I'm not going to take any risks just because she likes these dirty plebeians! She can consider me unpleasant if she wants, but in the meantime I will make sure that this family is left alone. Unlike your father, I think of us before a stupid imp!"

Octavia felt a little bitter in her mouth. Well, she couldn't blame her father for the choice he had made, but she would have still liked him to think a little more and find a solution that didn't put her at risk too. A part of her felt left out, but the more rational part told her that Stolas had simply found himself without a choice. "Mom... I don't want you to do this. Stop now"

Stella glared at her, "What the fuck is wrong with you!? I'm trying to protect you too, in case you don't understand!"

"I know!" Octavia replied. "But I don't want you to do it like this!"

"Why?" Stella exclaimed, and pointed to the crowd below them, "Who cares if this rabble dies? There are other plebeians, they replace themselves quickly!"

"That's not a good excuse!" Octavia protested. "They're people, not animals!"

Stella's eyelid fluttered. "That's your fucking father's bad influence" she growled. "He fills your head with nonsense. They're not like us. They're nothing but cattle, and that's how they've been run since Hell began! We shouldn't care if..."

Octavia's right hand shot up at her, and a purple aura began to surround her. Stella's eyes widened as she saw her do this: "What do you think you're doing?"

"Mom..." Octavia murmured. "Don't do this. Please"

"How dare you threaten me!?" Stella shouted at her. "I'm your mother!"

"I know! And that's why I don't want you to commit a massacre, I can't tolerate it!" Octavia said, and a small tear fell from her eye. "Mom... I know you don't like the lower classes, I know what you think of them, fine. If you want to see them that way, fine. But you can't kill them. Their lives are just as valuable as ours! Those people at home have children, wives and husbands waiting for them and who will suffer if they lose them! How would you feel if I were down there?"

Stella seemed to have turned into an ice statue. "You're not like them" she answered her.

"Yes, I am! From my point of view, I am!" Octavia replied. "And I don't want to see them die! And I know you don't want that either! You've never killed anyone before, even when the servants made you angry! You may have mistreated them, but you never killed them!"

"They never gave me a reason to" Stella said back.

Octavia's hand shook. She was trying to maintain eye contact, but it was hard. "Mom... I'll stop you if you'll try to hurt them"

"Really?" Stella challenged, bringing her face closer to hers. "Do you think you can do this? Do you even have the courage? And if so, do you think you can beat me at your age?"

Octavia trembled. She knew she would never have the courage to hit her mother, it wasn't something she was capable of doing. Regardless of all their differences, that was still the woman who had given her birth and raised her, and who until less than a year ago had never given her any reason to disdain her. Slowly, she let the purple aura disappear from her palm and lowered her hand.

Stella let out an annoyed snort. "As expected. Now stop being such a rebellious teenager and..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Octavia completely closed the distance between them and pulled her into a hug. Stella's voice trailed off at the gesture. "Let them live" Octavia begged her. "Please... let them live"

Stella was speechless. Instinctively she raised her arms slightly as if to reciprocate, though she stopped halfway. Her mind, so resolute until a few moments ago, was now a storm. "I have to do this" was all she could say.

In response Octavia only held her tighter. "Please" she begged again.

This time it was Stella who turned her head, unable to maintain eye contact. "I'm just trying to protect you" she said again.

"I know" Octavia replied. "But not like this. Please, Mom"

​​Stella was silent for a long moment, feeling her heart tremble. She knew that following Satan's order was the best and safest choice, she wasn't afraid to do it. But at the same time, she didn't have the strength to ignore her daughter's plea now that she was holding her like this, the same way she used to hold her when she was a child and she asked her to take her to the park or go to Loo Loo Land with her and her father.

Finally, she gave in. "Fine" she whispered.

Octavia's heart skipped a beat. "Really?"

Stella nodded. "Let's put an end to this madness" she said. "And then, your father will choose whether to execute these people or not"

In this way she was taking a little bit of the responsibility away: she would have stopped the mess, but then she would have left the final judgment to Stolas; so it couldn't be said that she had done nothing, she had simply let someone of higher rank than her make the decision. She hoped that this would have been enough to avoid accusations for herself and Octavia, or at least to gain the sympathy of the crown enough to not be accused directly. It was the safest move if she wanted to please her daughter too.

Stella pulled away from Octavia, and then her body was enveloped in white light and she changed: she completely abandoned all her clothes and resumed her true demonic form. Her feathered tail grew and her neck and limbs became longer. At the end of the transformation, in her place there was now a peacock so large that she was dwarfing Octavia, with snow-white feathers all on her body, covered in armonious designs and with ice crystals around her face and wings, with a majestic tail and elegant feathers around her head that wrapped around it like a crown, and her own crown became larger and a ice crystal appeared on its front. The feathers on her chest darkened, creating the symbol of their family. "Get on my back" she ordered her daughter.

Octavia obeyed promptly, climbing onto her mother’s majestic feathers. She had almost never seen her in that form; the last time was when she was ten and she had asked her to transform so they could take a flight together. The nobles considered it unbecoming to show themselves in their true form, since it was a form they used in battle, so releasing it was therefore an act of defiance. Every time Octavia when she was a child had wanted to see her mother in her demonic form she had had to beg her mother a lot to convince her.

Stella took flight and soared into the sky. "Shouldn't we go down and try to calm the hostilities?" Octavia asked.

"Not while they can still move" was her mother's answer.

Stella wasn't always very smart, but she knew how to learn from the experiences life gave her. And one thing she'd learned when she hired Stryker to kill Stolas was that any assassin could kill a noble Goetia. Therefore, she wasn't about to approach the angry mob while they had even a chance of hurting her. Maybe Stolas or Andrealphus would have done so, but she lived putting her life before anything else, and there was no fucking way she was going to risk to take an angelic bullet in her body.

She flew to a point where she could clearly see the position of all the rioters, and then she stopped; the feathers on her head moved as if they had a life of their own, and an ice-colored magic circle formed on it: "That's enough!"

The magic circle exploded, and instantly the temperature of the city below them dropped below zero; the spell caused all the moisture in the ground to freeze instantly and so quickly that all the pissed off demons were instantly covered in ice up to the base of their necks, blocking their every movement, and their heads also became covered in snow, making them sneeze. "There, now they have to stop" Stella commented.

Octavia thought it was strangely suggestive to see ice in a warm place like Wrath. "Aren't they at risk of hypothermia?" she asked her mother.

"It will take at least an hour before they even risk gangrene" Stella replied. "And if they still haven't calmed down in an hour, it's their fucking problem, not mine"

That was enough for Octavia. Her mother finally flew down and landed on the frozen surface, still in her demonic form. Octavia jumped off her mother's back, but still she stayed close to her, understanding that Stella wanted to be ready to protect her with her wings in case of further danger. "Um... hello" she said out loud. "I'm Octavia Goetia, I..."

"Fucking blue bloods!" one of the frozen imps screamed when he saw her. Octavia was taken aback, and even more so when several more followed suit.

"Bastards!"

"Suckers!"

"Sons of bitches!"

Octavia was taken aback by all the hostility, especially because it didn't seem natural at all. It was as if something was exponentially increasing the demons' already high level of aggression. But if she was confused about how to act, the same couldn't be said for Stella: "Fucking low classes, you think you can talk to us like we're your equals!?" she exclaimed in anger, and sharp crystals formed on her feathers; not big enough to kill a person, but enough to cause painful cuts and wounds.

But Octavia stopped her before she could do so: "Mom, no! You'll make things worse! There's something wrong here!"

"I won't let these dirty plebeians insult me!" Stella replied. She had promised her not to kill and she would have done so, but she still had pride.

Octavia quickly looked around, and noticed a detail: not all the demons were insulting her. Some were looking around confused, as if they didn't quite understand what was happening. And they were the ones who had more snow on their heads than the others. "Mom, can you cover everyone with a little more snow?"

Stella didn't understand her daughter's reasoning, but she spread her wings anyway and let a curtain of snow fall all over the street, covering the demons' heads by at least twenty centimeters even as they continued to struggle to free themselves. And after a few seconds, many others seemed to completely lose their aggression, leaving only confusion.

"What...?"

"Where am I?"

"What happened?"

Unbeknownst to Octavia, the intense cold was causing the demons' brains to use all their energy to keep themselves warm, and so all functions were being slowed down... including the production of fear and aggression hormones. This was counteracting the effect of the basilisk venom, which was already dissipating anyway. Therefore the continued exposure of their heads to the snow was slowly giving them back their ability to use lucidity.

However, this effect was only partial: a lot of the demons were still aggressive, and many others were switching from total confusion to pure rage completely at random. "Mom, keep causing snow them until Dad gets here" Octavia said to Stella, and then she raised her voice: "Listen to me, all of you! I know you're confused right now, but you have to stay clear! Try to think! Focus on... I don't know, something to occupy your mind! Try reciting your multiplication tables, or..."

"YOU GOETIA BASTARDS!"

A shower of bullets fell on them; Stella grabbed Octavia with her beak and put her under her wings, shielding her. The bullets were not angelic, thankfully, and so they bounced off her icy feathers. Octavia looked up and saw several armed imps leaning over the eaves of the buildings; evidently they had been upstairs when his mother had frozen everything and so they had escaped... although many of them had ice and snow on them, a sign that they had still been affected by the spell, the layer of ice had simply been thin enough to allow them to free themselves.

Stella screeched in fury, ready to hurl ice icicles; even though she wasn't feeling any pain, she surely wasn't known for her calm temperament, and those people seemed to be doing everything they could to piss her off. Luckily, Octavia stopped her once again: "Mom, freeze them like you did with the others!"

Stella wanted to tell her daughter that sometimes you had to teach the plebeians their place, but she decided that this wasn't the time: she had had enough, so she would have frozen those guys and then she would have flew in the sky again, or at least to the top of a skyscraper, and keep an eye on the situation from above until Stolas arrived, so she wouldn't have risked further attacks... and above all she wouldn't have had to feel further outraged. After all, she had already solved the situation, she had no reason to stay there making speeches; her stupid ex-husband would have done it, it wasn't her job. The feathers on her head curved and glowed again, and she shot out blue rays that struck the walls, creating ice formations that instantly engulfed the unfortunate.

The problem was that she had to keep turning her head to hit those imps who seemed to have turned into monkeys since they were so agilely jumping from one building to another. Fuck, what was wrong with them? It seemed like they had no muscular limits. Stella had to admit to herself that maybe Octavia was right and that something was strange, but that didn't stop her from getting angry anyway: "Fuck, can't you suckers stand still!?"

Some of those idiots dared to throw something in her face, maybe a tomato... she hoped it was just a tomato. "Fuck you, you dirty blue blood! Let's kill her!" they shouted at her, while they grabbed a large net as if they wanted to catch her as if she were a common pigeon.

That insult was the last straw for Stella: "Ah... you are very dead men!" she hissed while above her head began to form ice stalactites at least a meter long and sharp as razors.

Octavia was about to stop her, but someone anticipated her: "Stop!"

Some imps jumped on the others, preventing them from throwing the net. They too were covered in ice and snow, but a little more, a sign that they had been saved because they were on the higher floors but lower than the others, and perhaps that was precisely why they were managing to think correctly. "Freeze us!" they shouted as they held their companions back.

Stella didn't understand why those plebeians were fighting among themselves, but she still did as she was told and took advantage of the fact that they were finally all still to hit them with her beams one by one and freeze them in the ice. Octavia emerged from under her feathers to look, and among the imps who had intervened she noticed one that was still not frozen: "Sally?"

"Via?" Sally May, whose face was covered in ice crystals and snow, recognized the owlet they had hosted during the initial big crisis together with Loona. "Stay away! There's... there's something wrong with our heads! Freeze us all before we can hurt you!"

"Tsk! As if you could hurt us" Stella muttered, but still, just to be safe, she froze her all the way down to her torso.

Octavia approached her: "Sally, what's wrong with you?"

"Urgh... I don't know!" Sally responded by shaking her head furiously. It seemed like she was fighting against two opposing instincts. "I... I can't... I... you... fucking blue blood...!!!"

"Via, get away from her!" Stella ordered her daughter, continuing to move the sharp ice icicles around them in case anyone dared to attack them again. "We're going back to the sky, your father will handle this from now on!"

"Wait! Maybe I can figure out what's wrong!" Octavia said, taking Sally's face in her hands: "Let me check your eyes, maybe I can find signs of an infection..."

"No... no!" Sally growled, pushing her away with her head. "Get... away... I... don't... ARGH!"

What happened next was a matter of just a few fractions of a second. Sally felt the adrenaline in her body reach its limit again, so much so that her muscles flexed enough to partially crack the ice and free her left arm, which she immediately used to try to grab Octavia by the neck. Stella acted on instinct, and threw one of her ice icicles...

And then there was red.

Octavia barely felt a hand push her away and make her fall to the ground, and then blood sprayed her face. At the same time, more of that red liquid splashed on Sally, covering her almost entirely. The two girls turned their heads slightly to see a large imp with his arms still spread wide to separate them, a long icicle splitting his chest.

Joe stood still, and then he looked down a little to stare at the hole in his body. The realization of what had just happened flashed across his eyes, and once again he had proof that it was just like him to jump into the fray without thinking. As usual, he had saved everything... except himself.

A little drop of blood dripped from his mouth, but his lips curled up in a smile anyway. "Hey, girls... don't argue, yah?" he said to them, and then he slid forward and fell to the ground with a thud.

He didn't move again.

Sally was frozen; she wanted to scream but no sound left her mouth. Octavia rushed to the body, but it was already too late: no matter what she would have done, Joe was already dead. Not even with her powers could she save him now.

Stella was shocked too; even if the death of an imp was certainly not a big deal, she had not meant to kill Joe. She had acted on instinct, she had not thought. Damn... now how could she justify herself to Octavia...?

She didn't have time to think about it, because something suddenly landed in front of her, something that broke the ice and made her stagger backwards. Something that, to her surprise, turned out to be a sword as red as fire.

Here's Stella's full demon form:

Chapter Text

Blitz had literally smashed the phone in his hands... well, it wasn't the first time he had done it and it probably wouldn't have been the last, but it had to mean something. He had only had to hear four words from Moxxie to know that there was a serious situation going on, and that was enough to make him go crazy. "Problems?" Stryker asked, with an almost bored voice.

In response, the white aura enveloped Blitz and he transformed back into the white horseman. "Some idiot is making a mess, I have to go make sure no one, especially the idiots I have the misfortune to call friends, gets hurt" he said, pulling on the reins. "Simply put, I'm almost certainly going to kill someone!"

And having said that, the horse took off at a gallop, faster than any other horse or even many modern vehicles. Stryker watched it quickly disappear into the horizon, chewing on a stalk of corn as usual. "Hmm. Interesting" he commented, and then a grin formed on his face: "Well... I too have orders to intervene if something dangerous happens, after all"

A blood-red armor began to form on him, and a fire-like aura surrounded him. "Let's see who's faster between the two of us, hm?" he commented with a chuckle.

The frozen street seemed to be completely silent. Sally was still frozen in place, staring at Joe's lifeless body, Octavia was too shocked to make a sound, and Stella was staring at the red sword planted in the ground. But soon there was more to worry about.

There was a rumble, sounding like a horse's neighing and a roaring engine, and then a completely red horseman appeared, shocking everyone. He was completely clad in blood-red armor, with smoke billowing from the shoulders as if there were a volcano inside. His head was covered in a helmet of the same color, with two massive horns wrapped in what looked like scarlet flames, but at the same time were something else, more... abstract. That helmet also cast a strange shadow on the horseman's face, making him unrecognizable, as to everyone he appeared only as a blank and flat face, with only two merciless eyes as features. The most frightening thing was obviously the horse: huge, bigger than any normal horse, with a completely red coat and covered with plates of the same color, whose hooves seemed to be made of molten steel that miraculously remained together, even if at every step a little remained on the ground melting the ice, and from whose nostrils and mouth emerged flames and smoke that were very reminiscent of those of a building that was hit by a bomb.

Octavia's heart skipped a beat. The others couldn't know it, but she had seen a creature like this before. This was one of Roo's horsemen, just like the one Blitz controlled! There were two of them!? Where had this one come from!? She swallowed hard. If he was as strong as the other one, fighting this horseman would have been impossible. They had struggled last time even with Raphael on their side. And this one... at first glance, it seemed even worse than the white horseman.

Unbeknownst to her, Stryker was gloating at the sight of everyone so shocked. Ah, it was beautiful: that feeling of awe that the strong inspired in the weak. It was something he had felt many times before in his life, but this time there was something different: not just fear, but also surprise, shock, intimidation, insecurity. A mix of negative emotions that he felt like he could taste on his tongue. Wonderful. And to this was added the fact that he had achieved what in his eyes was a first victory over Blitz; ephemeral, unimportant, but a victory nonetheless. He had turned out to be the fastest: if Blitz could travel at a maximum of one hundred kilometers per hour, Stryker could push himself at four or even five times that speed. If it had not been for the fact that he had had to follow him to know where he was going, and only at the last moment had he passed him, he would have arrived there much sooner.

The red horseman was truly superior to the white horseman.

And therefore, he was superior to his rival.

He had a lot to be happy about... and to top it all off, he could now take some Goetia heads as a reward.

Stella was the first to recover from the shock: she immediately spread her wings, unleashing a freezing wind. "What the fuck are you!?" she screamed, and immediately froze Stryker, this time without leaving even a crack open.

There was a moment of silence, and then the ice cracked, and finally broke; the red horseman emerged without a scratch. Honestly, Stryker hadn't even felt the cold or the weight of the ice. "That's it?" he mocked her. "Is that the great power of you Goetia? Just as miserable as you are!"

Stella shrieked and backed away. She hadn't expected to encounter an opponent so strong that could nullify her attack so easily. "You... who are you!?" she asked through gritted teeth.

Stryker smiled wickedly. Ah, that sort of concealment was perfect: not even the woman who had hired him long ago could recognize him. "My name is War" he told her, announcing himself with the title he had chosen for himself. "I am the one who runs wherever there is conflict, and preys on those I deem weak and unworthy. Like you!"

Okay, maybe that was a little cringe-y, but it had the desired effect: Stella became more furious than ever and ice icicles formed around her. "Are you calling me unworthy!?" she screamed in fury.

Ice icicles flew at Stryker, but he didn't even try to dodge them: he grabbed them with his bare hands, crushing them as if they were made of sugar. It was wonderful to see the shocked face of the giant bird as he backed away. "If we continue like this, the fight will be too boring" Stryker commented aloud. "Let's do this, you filthy Goetia: I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself. Hit me with your strongest attack. And I don't mean you'll hit me very hard but with some energy left, or at your half strength, or whatever... I want you to hit me as hard as you can. I won't stop you"

Teasing his opponent like that was pointless, but Stryker was enjoying it too much. He didn't just want to kill a Goetia, he wanted to humiliate them. So before their death they would have known that their power was actually bullshit.

Stella squeaked from her beak, and then, both from pride and actual fear, all her feathers bristled... in fact, they pointed like dry ice, and they vibrated, making a soft, cold sound. A huge magic circle, much larger and more complex than the ones she had used before, formed above her head, and her entire face was enveloped in a whitish aura. Snow began to fall around her, caused by the air molecules solidifying, first water vapor, then nitrogen, and finally oxygen.

And then, Stella opened her beak wide, and a flash of bluish light emitted. "Oh, that's cute... oh, shit!" Stryker exclaimed, a split second before the ground beneath him seemed to explode and form a white column. It all lasted just a moment, and then the column disappeared, revealing a block of ice with Stryker inside... but that block of ice was different, the color was almost alien. And this time, the red horseman didn't emerge right away.

Stella let out a few labored breaths. That was the most powerful spell she knew, one of her family's most famous, which she always kept as an ace up her sleeve. She had never used it until that day, but luckily she had managed to formulate it well.

There was no way anyone could survive. The temperature inside the ice block was that of the absolute zero; even the vacuum of space was warmer in comparison. Frozen snow continued to fall around it, because just getting close to it was enough to reach freezing point, and air molecules then turned to solids. At that freezing temperature, even the very movement of atoms had stopped; the red horseman's body was literally frozen in place for eternity, down to its smallest components. In other words, he was dead.

Or at least that waz what Stella thought... until she saw a crack form on the surface of the ice. "What!?" she exclaimed in shock. "He's trying to break it from the inside!? Impossible! His brain should be off...!"

The ice cracked again and again, and then it shattered with a crash; Stryker emerged completely unharmed, though he still cracked his neck. "I admit it... I felt that a little" he confessed, though he spoke so quietly that it was almost impossible to hear.

Stella quickly backed away, and then prepared to take flight and grab Octavia with her hind legs; the horsewoman didn't seem capable of flying, so the best solution was to outrun him in the sky. But Stryker didn't give her time to do that: he took his sword back, pulling it from the ground as if it were made of feathers, and as soon as it was in his fingers the metal was engulfed in what felt like fire. "Now that I've destroyed your pathetic illusion of power, I have no reason to keep you alive!" he shouted at her, and then swung his sword.

Stella was thrown away, the shockwave of that simple movement alone dragging her into a building and making her crash into it. "Mom!" Octavia screamed, and immediately raised her hands, enveloping them in purple aura, to rush to her aid.

Stryker turned, and stopped her in place with his glare. "Don't worry" he said wickedly. "I'll take your head after that..."

BANG!

Stryker's instincts kicked in, and he ducked just in time to avoid a lightning-fast arrow that resembled a bullet; he grunted at the sight of it, and when he looked over he could immediately see a familiar white horseman holding what looked like a cross between a bow and a gun aimed at him. "I was expecting a mountain of shit, but this is a little too much" Blitz commented.

Stryker grunted. Damn, he’d wasted too much time. He knew Blitz would have defended the Goetia now. He wanted so badly to fight him and show him who was boss, but he knew Emily wouldn’t have appreciated him rampaging through a city full of people. He had to wait. “Pestilence!” he greeted him, using Blitz’s nickname for himself. “I was wondering when you’d show up”

Blitz growled. "Who the fuck are you!?" he hissed.

Stryker couldn't help but grin. Unlike him, Blitz hadn't seen him remove his helmet yet, so he couldn't recognize him. "My name is War" he said, walking toward him (or rather, spurring his horse that walked toward him). "I was drawn to the violence of this place. Tell me, will you oppose me or help me eliminate the causes of this disorder?"

"Bl-Pestilence!" Octavia shouted at him, correcting herself at the last moment. "The nobles aren't the cause of this! Something strange happened...!"

"They're still responsible!" Stryker exclaimed. "The hatred of these people was fueled by this vapid race of blue bloods. Wouldn't it be right to eliminate them?"

Blitz's eyes narrowed. The warrior coolness he acquired when he transformed served him well at times, as it prevented him from losing control in anger. "I prevent chaos" he told him. "And now you're the one causing it, so get the fuck out of here"

"You say you fight chaos, yet every day you let unworthy people rule this world, sowing the seeds of chaos and discord" Stryker replied. "If you truly fought for order, you'd exterminate these miserable people. Your idealism honestly disgusts me"

Blitz tightened his grip on his weapon, and Stryker did the same. The air around them seemed to thicken dramatically. For a moment, they actually looked like they were going to start fighting, and neither of them probably would have minded...

... but luckily, a portal opened up just then, and that was enough to distract them and calm the tensions. Stolas emerged breathlessly from the portal: "Via!" he shouted, running to his daughter, although he immediately stopped when he saw the two horsemen in front of them.

Stryker snorted. Now that Stolas was here, he had no chance of changing Blitz's mind, and he didn't want to start fighting in the middle of a city and risk Emily's wrath. It was better not to anger the entity that could take away his powers after all. For now, the best option was to retreat. "Hmm. So be it, I'll call it a day" he said, and he spurred his horse's reins, taking off at a gallop.

"Hey, you! Don't think you're going to get away so easily!" Blitz exclaimed, and after giving Stolas a brief nod that he would take care of it, he too took off at a gallop to chase him.

The two horsemen quickly reached the outskirts of the city, and from there they began to run at top speed. Stryker's horse seemed to burn from the inside, and actual flames appeared on its sides, while the molten iron of its hooves solidified into something extremely hard and sharp; in a few fractions of a second it reached a speed comparable to the fastest train in the world. "Sorry, but we'll face each other another time!" he shouted to his rival, leaving him behind to eat the dust.

Blitz stopped, knowing he would have never been able to catch up. He couldn't help but let out a furious roar. Who the fuck was that guy!?

Shit... he had hoped he would never have had to face an enemy as powerful as the white horseman again, but this one seemed even worse. The fact that he had outdistanced him so easily meant greater speed... and since speed was due to the propulsive force of muscles, greater speed equaled greater strength. He still had no idea what abilities this new enemy had, but based on a wrestling match alone, it was likely that it would have been him, Blitz, the one to go down first.

Fuck...

Meanwhile, in the city, Stolas was having the same thoughts. Now there were two horsemen? And what would that mean?

He was worried, but he knew he couldn't do anything, so he made the only decision possible: leave this battle to Blitz, if he was going to actually fight that mysterious individual, and focus on what was happening in front of him right now; first and foremost, helping his daughter up. "Are you hurt?" he asked her apprehensively.

Octavia shivered a little. She was clearly shocked. "I'm fine" she told him anyway. "Blitz intervened in time"

Stolas took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Why did you come here!?" he shouted at Stella, who in the meantime had recovered a bit from the blow and had returned to her normal appearance.

His ex-wife made an irritated noise. "You didn't want to act, I did it. I won't risk being accused of treason for me and my daughter just because you like to be a moralist"

Stolas's eyelid trembled: "Listen to me, you...!"

"DAD!"

The portal was still open, and so of course other people were emerging... and among them was Millie, who as soon as she saw her father's body lying on the ground had literally thrown herself on it, desperately searching for any sign of life. "No... no, no, no, no, no...!!!"

Moxxie quickly ran to his wife and hugged her from behind, knowing that otherwise she would fall to the ground. He too was shocked like few times in his life. He and Joe had not always been on good terms, but he was still a member of the family, and recently they had started to get along so well... "What... what happened...?"

Sally was still completely apathetic, with her gaze fixed on her father's body; she had not yet slipped to the ground helplessly only because she was inside the ice. But even in that state, the one arm she had free moved, and pointed at Stella, shaking like a leaf in the wind.

Millie immediately seemed to transform into a raging beast; with flames streaming from her eyes, she immediately lunged at Stella without saying a word, intending to tear her apart at least a hundred times. She literally wanted to eradicate her from the world. Stella, however, only let out an annoyed grunt and punched her in the stomach, throwing her backwards and making her roll in pain. Even in the midst of absolute rage, a single imp could not match the strength of a noble Goetia.

However, that action was a mistake, because Stolas seemed to explode: all the tension built up inside him in the last twenty minutes, combined with the fear he had for the fate of his daughter, the fear of discovering a new horseman, the worry about whether Blitz would have survived a fight with the new enemy or not, the irritation towards his ex-wife and the shock of finding out that someone was dead could no longer remain contained. Seeing Stella throw that punch at the woman he had grown accustomed to considering a friend was the last straw. At that point he didn't think anymore and grabbed her by the neck: "DON'T YOU DARE!"

Everyone looked at him shocked, even the still frozen people. Stella's eyes widened as he grabbed her like that: "Get your hands off me, you animal!"

But Stolas instead dragged her to Joe's body. "Kneel down!" he ordered. "Kneel down and ask forgiveness from this man who died because of you!"

Stella went white: "What!? No way! I won't humiliate myself like this!"

For a noble Goetia, kneeling to a lower class was the greatest shame. No matter what happened, Goetia were superior to imps, and therefore justified in all their actions; it was not tolerable for a Goetia to feel inadequate towards an imp. No noble kneeled to the lower classes, ever, not even when they were dead. Precisely for that reason, forcing a Goetia to kneel and apologize to an imp or any other common demon was considered the worst punishment after death, justifiable only for those who committed horrendous crimes against Hell. Obviously, this refers to crimes committed against other nobles, not against the lower classes; no one would ever have thought of giving even a small punishment in that case.

That was why Stella wasn't willing to humiliate herself like that. Kneeling before an imp would have been too much of a blow to her pride. If she did, she wouldn't have had the courage to leave her house for the shame. Nobles bowed to nobles of higher rank, not to lower ones: that was the rule. Stella was even willing to bow to Stolas, even though it would have eaten her up inside, but definitely not to an imp.

But Stolas didn't care. He had gone through too much in too little time and he wasn't willing to let a man die without justice. "You will kneel!" he shouted at her, making her jump.

Stella remained adamant: "Never!"

Stolas glared at her: "You will!"

"Stolas, no! You will get into trouble!" Seviathan whispered to him.

Octavia also tried to intervene: "Dad, wait...!"

Stolas didn't listen to either of them. "NOW!" he shouted, pressing hard on his ex-wife's back.

Stella made a noise of anger, but still, feeling her ex-husband's strong fingers on her and knowing that he was stronger, she finally knelt down. Trembling with shame and fury, she lowered her head before Joe's body, humiliating herself in front of all these people, many of whom were clearly pleased to see a noble Goetia treated this way. "I'm... sorry" she said through gritted teeth, forcing her voice out.

What a humiliation.

What a... shame.

Stolas seemed ready to force her to do more, but Seviathan grabbed his arm and held it tight. "Enough" he whispered in a tone that brooked no argument.

Stella jumped up and backed away. She probably would have fallen backwards if Octavia hadn't caught her. "I swear you'll pay for this!" she screamed at him, barely holding back tears of shame. "I'll make you regret what you did today!"

"Do me the courtesy of disappearing from my sight!" was all Stolas gave her. "Via, come here..."

"No" Octavia told him.

Stolas's eyes widened: "Via?"

"Dad, you have to calm down. We'll talk about this when you're more lucid" his daughter told him. She didn't think her father had done anything wrong, but she still didn't want to leave her mother while she was in such a vulnerable and delicate moment. "Dad, now just think about how to handle this situation. Mom, come on, let's go"

Stolas wanted to protest, but Seviathan stopped him again: he also agreed with Octavia, it was better for everyone if Stolas left the family squabbles aside for now, he had already gone too far because of this. Although reluctant, Stolas nodded, and Octavia hurried to lead Stella to the other side of the portal, before another argument could arise.

Chapter Text

After he had calmed down and finally managed to think, Stolas had expected that Charlie would not have liked his actions at all... and in fact he was not surprised at all when she looked at him with an expression that clearly suggested that she was thinking of strangling him. "Do you realize what you have done!? What have you unleashed!?"

After Stella and Octavia had left, the entire city had been put in a sort of quarantine, fearing that whatever had driven the demons crazy would spread; however, this risk had turned out to be absent since they had already returned to normal. The basilisk venom in their brains had now completely worn off, which was a good thing... but it also meant that there was now no longer any evidence that someone had orchestrated it all. Eventually, at Seviathan's suggestion, Charlie had publicly stated that it had all been a case of mass hysteria due to the difficult conditions the people of the Wrath Ring were in, not unlike when the native Hellborns of the Greed Ring had attempted to break through the barricade to gain access. The explanation had been convincing, and that had silenced the rumors for the time being. After all, there was much more on everyone's lips now.

When Satan learned that his orders had been ignored, he had become enraged like a bull: the Deadly Sins were sovereign in their Rings, the only time someone could disobey them was when they were under the orders of the Infernal Crown, the only higher authority. Refusing to follow the orders of a Sin was treason of the worst kind, which combined with Satan's famous temper gave an idea of ​​what the Embodiment of Wrath's reaction would have been. Of course, his anger had been directed at Stolas from the beginning, since he was the one who had given the order, but that anger had turned into pure fury when he was informed of how the owl demon had dared to oppose him so blatantly and without shame. Now he was pissed off more than ever.

Under normal circumstances, all the nobles in the area would have been investigated for treason; but this time there was no doubt about who was to blame. After Stolas had forced Stella to humiliate herself in front of so many witnesses, it was immediately clear who had attempted to follow orders and who had not. Added to this were the statements of the other nobles, all of whom had sided against Stolas: normally they would have sided with the highest ranking, namely Stolas who was a Goetia king, but not this time. The nobles were self-preserving, and after Stolas had dared to humiliate one of them to bring justice to a pathetic imp, from their point of view he had become capable of anything; too unpredictable and too hostile to the noble principles to be left free. Consequently, everyone had testified that Stolas had arbitrarily chosen to oppose orders, even ordering the imprisonment of those who instead wanted to do something. And so in less than an hour any suspicion about the other nobles had been completely erased, and only Stolas had become the target of the accusation of treason.

"It's a good thing you called me just in time, or my uncle would have come to vaporize you himself, with the whole city annexed to boot!" Charlie shouted in his face. "And now he wants you to be punished! I had to turn off my cell phone because he was texting me all the time! And not only him, a lot of upper-class people now want you demoted, exiled, some are even asking for the death penalty! Tomorrow as soon as the infernal council meets Satan wants to formally accuse you, and surely many will side with him!"

Since she seemed on the verge of exploding, Angel quickly grabbed her by the shoulders and massaged her a little to calm her nerves: "Come on, come on... he saved over three thousand people...!"

"That's not sure, the issue regarding those people is only postponed, not shelved. Simply now the nobles prefer to talk about a traitorous Goetia king than a group of rebels" Vassago commented a little harshly. "For now, Stolas is ironically saving those people since he has become the recipient of the ruling class's wrath... but once he is dealt with, this incident will hardly be without consequences"

Angel glared at him: "Excuse me, parrot? You're no help now!"

"I'm just telling it like it is" Vassago replied without any empathy. "What happened today is extremely serious... and what's worse, by saving those people, Stolas has made himself a hero"

"And that should be considered a bad thing?" Angel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Politically, it is" Vassago replied. "Stolas is now a hero to the lower classes and an enemy to the nobles, which means the aristocracy will do anything to condemn him... and as soon as he is punished, regardless of what the punishment is, the common people will be outraged. There could be riots, and that would give the nobles the perfect excuse to start a purge"

Angel was speechless: "Oh... then yes, it is bad"

Stolas sighed: "I know I got myself into trouble. I'm sorry"

Charlie put her hands in front of her face in a desperate attempt to calm herself: "Why the fuck did you lose your temper like that!? If you had called me right away, we would have solved everything in an instant! Sure, there would have been complications, but it would still have been better than formally declaring your opposition to the authority of a Sin!"

Stolas lowered his head. "I know. I... I don't know why I..."

"You let Andrealphus influence you" Seviathan commented, crossing his arms. "He knew what he was doing, he wanted to make you lose your temper like that. That's why he provoked you so much during the golf game, he wanted to raise your nerves to the maximum. And when the order came, he continually prevented you from calling Charlie until you lost your temper"

"But why? It doesn't make sense" Vassago muttered. "Andrealphus would have been accused too if Stolas hadn't..."

"... humiliated his ex-wife. Who says he didn't see that coming?" Seviathan told him. "During the golf game, Stella wanted to sit on the sidelines, but Andrealphus insisted that she and Octavia stay close to them. He wanted them to hear their conversation, so that Stella felt threatened and intervened in the city, and he knew Stolas would have been furious and do something reckless"

Everyone looked at him in shock. "Are you saying that Andrealphus actually saw this coming?" Vassago asked incredulously.

"He knows his sister well, and he knows his ex-brother-in-law. And now it all ended with Stolas in trouble and him getting out clean, and a potential crisis at the horizon" Seviathan replied. "I don't think that's all a coincidence"

Andrealphus had actually come out of it as innocent as a dove. After it was all over, he was released and left with his sister and niece, without even trying to speak to Stolas again. Pretty much everyone had taken it as an insult... but he might have been holding back from gloating. "I wouldn't be surprised" Stolas had to admit.

Charlie's eyelid fluttered: "So you think Andrealphus orchestrated this? Is he responsible for this accident?". Her gaze seemed to heat up: "A man died because of him?"

"It's possible, yes" Seviathan confirmed.

Charlie had to summon all her strength to remain calm. She had become decidedly colder than before lately, but that didn't mean she was indifferent to injustice, especially murder. Especially if the person murdered was someone close to her. "How's Millie?" she murmured softly.

Stolas bit his lip, "She... was shocked. Moxxie stayed with her" he said with a lot of sadness.

Charlie shook her head. She wanted to do something to help her, but there was nothing he could do. She couldn't ask her father or Sera or any of the other angels to resurrect Joe, not without Roo becoming agitated again and thus producing a new horseman. Especially now that they knew there was at least one more. "That red horseman..."

"Blitz said he chased him and lost him. Now he's looking for some trace" Stolas told her.

Charlie felt the tension rise again. Not only was there a new horseman on the loose, but from what she had been told, this horseman acted nothing like the other one, who had been constantly apathetic and hadn't even given himself a name. This horseman was fully capable of emotion, teasing his opponent, arguing with the others, and calling himself War. Which could only mean two things: either the horsemen spawned by Roo were becoming increasingly intelligent, or another person had been given the power of a horseman of their own like Blitz. Both prospects were equally terrifying.

"Excuse me, but why are we talking about this now!?" Angel exclaimed. "Charlie, give the order to arrest Andrealphus immediately...!"

"I can't" Charlie immediately silenced him.

"She's right. We have no proof" Seviathan confirmed.

"But... you figured out that he did it...!" Angel protested.

"I figured out that he could have done it. But to accuse someone you need concrete evidence, not baseless assumptions" Seviathan pointed out. "Any judge would simply believe that I made it all up"

Angel opened his mouth, but quickly closed it again. He knew enough about how a justice system worked to know that this was true. "So... what do we do?"

"For now, we can only investigate... and hope we find some clues" Vassago said, thinking aloud, before glaring at Stolas: "As for you, you better prepare a good defense for when you get to the infernal council tomorrow. I don't want to see you demoted"

Stolas nodded. He knew Vassago was right to be annoyed with him. He had really acted without thinking.

What Seviathan said right next, however, made him freeze: "You should also hope that Andrealphus won't do something else in the meantime"

Everyone looked at him. "What do you mean?" Charlie asked.

Seviathan rubbed his chin. "It's just that... if Andrealphus, as we have assumed, is behind this incident, then he must have predicted the movement of all his pawns with millimeter precision. It seems strange to me that such a brilliant mind would be satisfied with so little" he said. "Think about it: Andrealphus hasn't really gained anything from all this. The ones who have gained the most are the nobility as a whole, who now have a good example to use to oppose the rights of the lower classes, and this will have very serious repercussions throughout Hell. But Andrealphus? What has he gained from this? He can't even use this event to make new important connections, because he can't reveal that he is responsible without risking a lawsuit. His ex-brother-in-law will be in a lot of trouble, but is that enough for him? Ruining Stolas is really all he wants?"

A tense silence fell again. "Indeed... that would not be like him" Stolas admitted.

"And so we must expect something else" Seviathan said with a grunt. "And that is exactly what worries me..."

As soon as they got home, Stella had rushed into her bedroom and ordered everyone to stay out. The humiliation she had suffered was so strong that she didn't even want to be seen by the servants. She was too ashamed to even look out the window, and in fact she had closed all the curtains, leaving the room almost in darkness.

Ignoring her request to be left alone, however, Andrealphus had gone to see her anyway. "Hey, little sister" he said, closing the door behind him. "You don't even want to turn on the light?"

"You..." Stella hissed furiously, then she threw one of the ornaments at him: "You knew it!"

Andrealphus caught the object she had thrown at him and placed it on a drawer. "Little sister, you should calm down. It's not good for your health"

"Fuck you!" Stella shouted at him. "It was you, wasn't it!? You orchestrated it all! It's because of you that bastard humiliated me like this! I can't show my face to anyone now...!"

Andrealphus grabbed her by the chin, closing her mouth; it seemed like a gentle gesture, but the force he put into it was quite remarkable. "Now you're speaking nonsense" he said. "Tell me, why should I have done that? I risked being accused of treason too. It was only thanks to a fortunate series of coincidences that our family wasn't implicated"

Andrealphus would have never revealed his involvement in a crime, not even to his sister: no matter how much control he had over her, there was still the slightest chance that he would have been betrayed, or that someone was listening in. He would have behaved innocently in that context too.

Stella tried to break free, but her brother's grip was too strong. "It must have been you" she growled. "You made me feel ashamed...!"

"Sister, be reasonable" Andrealphus told her. "What would I have gained by humiliating you? Nothing. My position is the same as before, except that I now have a sister that no one will want to marry anymore since she was so humiliated by her ex-husband"

Stella's eyes flashed: "You... is that all you're worried about!? That I won't be able to marry anymore because of your schemes!? You fucking...!"

Andrealphus' grip on her chin tightened even more than before and he pulled her towards him. Their eyes were inches apart. "The only quality that you have, my dear sister, is to be attractive" Andrealphus told her in a much harsher voice. "Are you complaining because I use you for my plots? If you had any other quality, you wouldn't be in my house like a parasite. You are precious because you are useful in climbing the social ladder, so be grateful that I care so much about the fact that you will no longer be able to marry now. But luckily for you, your humiliation was extremely unfair from the nobles' point of view, and no one likes to see a beautiful woman covered in shame for no reason... Stolas will not go unpunished"

Stella trembled slightly. Her brother's icy eyes frightened her. "You're a son of a bitch" she whispered to him anyway.

Andrealphus tugged at her violently, hurting her. "I'm the only one who really gives a shit about you" he told her. "Without me you're nothing and you know it, so show me some respect. So stop quacking like a goose and be grateful that Stolas is getting what he deserves". His eyes narrowed: "And don't create further problems to me" 

Stella couldn't even breathe for a moment. "Go away" she finally stammered.

Andrealphus smiled wickedly, and then he let go of her so violently that she slipped onto the bed. "Whatever" he said, turning toward the door. "We'll talk when you're calmer. I suggest you enjoy that bed and that pillow, sleep helps"

And with those words he left, closing the door again. Stella let out a growl, and then buried her head in the pillow to stifle a scream and began tearing at the sheets with her nails in frustration.

A familiar voice shook her: "Mom?"

Stella turned slightly, and she saw that Octavia had appeared beside her, sitting on the bed. "Go away before your uncle sees you here" she said, even though she wasn't sure why either.

"Loona's outside, keeping an eye on the hallway in case he comes back" Octavia reassured her. "Mom... I'm sorry about what happened today..."

Stella stood up with a furious sound. "Did you see what that asshole did!?" she exclaimed. "I did as you asked, I tried my best not to kill anyone, and what did I get in return!? For your father to humiliate me like that, all for a fucking imp! That bastard...!"

Octavia bit her lip. It was really hard for her to remain objective at that moment: Joe had been kind to her when he had taken her in earlier, but at the same time she knew that her mother had not killed him on purpose. She was just trying to protect her, it had all happened too fast. But that wasn't a complete excuse. "He wasn't just a fucking imp, Mom" she told her. "That was the man who protected me when the Pride Ring was in a state of emergency. I owe him a lot"

Stella made a noise of disgust. "Taking care of nobles is an honor for scumbags like that..."

"They're not scumbags, and he didn't deserve to die!" Octavia exclaimed.

"I did it to protect you!" Stella protested. "And he just...!"

"Mom, I know" Octavia stopped her. "I know you did it to protect me, and I know it was an accident. But that's still no reason to badmouth Joe. His death was unnecessary, and while I think Dad went too far, you still owed him some justice"

Stella put her hands in front of her face. "I could have given him justice in a thousand other ways... not... like this...!"

Octavia sighed. She also thought her father had gone too far: humiliating her mother like that, after she had been understanding enough to try to resolve the situation as peacefully as possible, had been far too much. Joe deserved justice, but that had been just cruel. In a way, Octavia was as guilty as her mother for getting close to Sally instead of staying back like she had told her; why hadn't she been punished the same way? Her father had only ruined her mother's social life and put himself in danger for a ridiculous revenge, not justice.

Instead, justice should be done by accusing the person who caused all of this. "Mom..." Octavia murmured. "Did Uncle cause that chaos?"

Stella shook her head, but she didn't look sure at all. "He said no, and in fact he didn't win anything, he just put himself in danger. It wasn't him"

Octavia bit her lip. She too found it hard to believe that Andrealphus was behind all of this, even though it seemed like the most logical solution: too many things seemed to have gone exactly the way he wanted. However, Octavia was fairly certain that Andrealphus could have at least foreseen that Stella would intervene, and that she would have done something that would have made Stolas furious, and that he would do something unseemly that would have cleared his ex-brother-in-law and everyone else of the charges. It seemed to her that there were too many pieces to fit together... but her uncle wasn't a person like the others. 

Octavia knew her mother was thinking about it too, even if she wouldn't admit it to herself. "Are you sure?" she asked again.

"Of course!" Stella exclaimed. "He would... he would never do that"

"Then why did you kick him out of your room?" Octavia rightfully asked.

Stella was silent for a moment. "Your uncle is just terrible at showing grudges" he replied. "He acts like what happened is a good thing, and he keeps saying that your father will pay for it and that I should console myself. You know he's a pragmatist, that's all"

"And you know that's not it" Octavia said. "Mom, from his point of view this is a good thing. He doesn't care that you've been humiliated. In less than a week he'll start teasing you about it, just like he did during the divorce"

"Don't be silly! Divorce is frivolous, this instead is serious" Stella replied, although she didn't look at all sure: "He... won't do it"

"Mom, he always did it" Octavia pointed out. "During the whole divorce, during the time when Dad was cheating on you, even before that every time you had a problem, what did he do? He just laughed. He cared about the opportunities that he could have, not about you"

Stella bit her tongue. "That's not the case" she said again. She seemed drained of energy.

Octavia sighed. "Do you remember my fifth birthday?" she asked. "It was the first time I met him, he had never come to our house before, not even for a tea. Before you spoke on the phone, and each time he quickly ended the conversation and asked to speak to Stolas about business. And why did he come to my fifth birthday? To see his niece, or the sister he hadn't seen for five years? No, he came because that time Grandpa Paimon showed up to announce my official entry into the family. And when uncle arrived, did he hug you? Did he spend time with me? No, he barely greeted us and then immediately ran to make himself look good in Grandpa's eyes. He didn't see us as people, only as a means to his purposes. Just like now"

This time Stella didn't reply. She didn't even turn to look at her daughter. "He protects us" she only murmured.

"No, he doesn't. He's not protecting us, he's using us" Octavia replied. "He doesn't care if your social life is ruined, if I'm sad, or if people die. To him, these are just opportunities to exploit. This whole situation is to his advantage, that's why he orchestrated it"

"He said it wasn't him" Stella said again.

"And maybe he's telling the truth" Octavia admitted. "But Mom... we both know he would have been totally capable of it"

Stella breathed deeply. Yes, there was no way to contradict those words: she knew in her heart that Andrealphus would have been completely capable of humiliating her if he had been sure he would have gotten something out of it. He would have been capable of doing much more, in fact.

Octavia put her hands on hers and squeezed them: "Mom... we can argue all you want about Dad, about his moral conduct, about the lower classes, about anything you want, but on this we cannot deny the reality: Uncle Andrealphus is dangerous. We must stop him, for everyone's good, including ours"

Stella barely looked at her. "What are you asking me to do?" she asked.

"For starters, stop being a slave to Uncle. It's not true that your only quality is being attractive and you don't need him. The further away from him, the better" Octavia told her. "I don't expect you to move back in with Dad, I know you don't love each other and it's right that you stay apart. I don't expect you to forgive him for the humiliation or to magically change your opinion of the lower classes. But you can at least leave this house with me. We can be... just mother and daughter"

Stella was silent for a long time. Her fingers tightened slightly around her daughter's hand, and she could feel them shaking. "He won't let me go" she finally said.

Octavia noticed that for the first time her mother was talking about Andrealphus as something that was holding her back. "It's because you have something he needs, right?" she asked her. "The data of the people that he and anyone affiliated with him use for blackmail... you have stored them in your mind" 

Stella nodded, "Yes, that's right"

Octavia took a deep breath: "Give them to me, Mom"

Stella barely raised an eyebrow: "Why?"

"Because then I'll give them to someone who will go and protect these people, and I'll make sure someone protects you too" Octavia told her.

Stella didn't ask who that someone was, who they worked with, or how they knew about those data. She just asked: "Why do you care so much about saving those lower classes?"

It wasn't a rhetorical question, it was genuine; Octavia knew, her mother really wanted to know her reasons. She wanted to understand why her daughter considered this so important. "Because no one in the world deserves to live in a cage all the time" she answered resolutely. "Just like you"

A strange light passed through Stella's eyes. For a moment her hands even grew colder, and she withdrew them from Octavia's. Her beautiful white feathers seemed almost to droop.

Octavia put a hand on her mother's shoulder and look into her eyes: "Mom, please... make the right choice. Uncle has to be stopped. If not for the public good... at least for yourself... or for me"

Stella took a deep breath. And then she murmured: "Give me a pen and a paper"

Octavia's eyes widened and she felt a strong sensation in her heart; she immediately went to the desk and handed her mother what she had asked for. Stella quickly wrote something on the paper, and then folded it and gave it to her daughter: "Here it says where to find those people"

Octavia took the paper and knocked lightly on the door; Loona opened it again, and was surprised when her friend put the piece of paper in her hands. "Go" she said. "Go find your aunt right now, and then everyone else. Don't waste any more time"

Loona looked at her confused: "And you?"

"You should go too" Stella warned her. "You, hellhound. Take my daughter far away from here, before Andrealphus finds out"

But Octavia shook her head. "No, I'm not leaving you here alone. Loona, you go first; I want to take my mother away from here"

"Via, I'm fine here" Stella told her.

"No, you are not" Octavia replied. "Let's go, Mom. Both of us. Don't stay with that man who exploits you. Come with me"

Stella looked down. "I can't" she said.

"Yes, you can" Octavia said. "Mom, please... I don't want to leave you here. Andrealphus isn't protecting us, you know that. We're just pawns to him. Don't let him keep using you"

Stella took a deep breath. "Just... give me some time to think about it" she said, going to sit down in a chair.

Realizing that her mother didn't want to talk about it anymore, Octavia nodded: "Okay... I'll see you tomorrow, Mom"

And after such words, she and Loona left and ran toward the entrance. "I can stay here until your mother decides to run away too" the hellhound said.

Octavia shook her head and pushed her towards the door: "It's better not to waste any more time, this situation will only get worse at this rate. Find these people so that your father is no longer blackmailable, so he can come and kick my uncle's ass if he tries anything"

Loona bit her lip. Unfortunately, as almost always, her friend was right. "Okay" she finally gave in. "But if I find out that something happened, I'll come back for you"

"I'm sure of it. Now go!" Octavia said, opening the door for her and pushing her out. The two of them exchanged one last look, and then Loona ran off through the garden and over the surrounding wall.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Andrealphus had not stayed in the mansion, but had gone out with the excuse of wanting to take a walk in the garden to relax; as soon as he was sure that no one was watching, he transformed into what looked like an icy mist and flew away, heading towards the most distant streets, until he reached a rather dark alley. Two hooded guys were there waiting for him. "It took you a long time"

"You know I'm a busy person" Andrealphus told them. "Congratulations, you did a great job"

"Hmm. You didn't tell us it was basilisk venom" one of the two guys said.

Andrealphus chuckled. "You're the smart one, huh? Well yes, it was basilisk venom. If I had told you, you would have run away to sell it instead of doing what I hired you to do"

The two criminals grunted in disapproval. "Let's not waste time. Pay us and then we can all go our separate ways" they told him. "And just to be safe, we warn you that..."

"... that if I try to kill you now, your colleague who is not here now will reveal everything to the authorities" Andrealphus anticipated them, and he pulled a jingling bag out of his suit: "You are not the first professionals I have hired, I know how it works. Take the money; I even added an extra, just to remind you to keep your mouth shut"

The two criminals seemed more relaxed; they took the bag and opened it, seeing that inside there was indeed the agreed sum and even the extra just mentioned. "Mh. You really know how to work with us professionals" they told him satisfied. "Don't worry, we know how to keep our mouths shut. If you ever need another job..."

"... I will definitely not call you" Andrealphus interrupted them again. "I never use the same hitman twice. Too many risks if they get caught"

The two criminals nodded. They too would have refused if he had tried to hire them again. "We can still recommend some of our colleagues"

"Don't worry, I can find someone by myself. Now we better end this conversation here, better not to attract too much attention" Andrealphus told them. "It was a pleasure working with you, really excellent service. Oh, one last thing before you go"

The two criminals tilted their heads to the side: "What do you want to tell us?"

Andrealphus' grin widened, and he pulled a small transmitter from his pocket: "You're good... but not good enough to check that I didn't put a bug on you with a pat on the back. And that there isn't a small bomb inside"

And just then he pressed the single button on the transmitter, and in a building not far from them a window exploded. The two criminals jumped, and Andrealphus laughed: "I'm afraid your colleague just blew up... and thanks to the bug, I know for a fact that you haven't told anyone else about our little deal"

The two criminals whirled around, but it was too late: two ice stalactites, so small they looked like bullets, pierced their hearts, killing them instantly. Their bodies hit the ground with a thud, and the bag of coins rolled away. "I would never pay you for such stuff" Andrealphus commented, taking it back. "I don't give money to amateurs who are stupid enough to think I'd leave a witness alive"

And with those words he turned back into an icy mist and left. The last thing that could connect what had happened that day to him had just disappeared. Everything was going as planned.

Now... he only had to do one last thing, and the path to becoming one of the most powerful and influential demons in Hell would have been paved.

When he returned to his garden, he didn't immediately head into the house; instead, he went around and reached the storage room in the back. He knew it like the back of his hand, and in fact it took him very little time to find what he wanted. "I was right to preserve it" he said, taking an elegant sealed box. "Now... it's time for the final act"

Chapter Text

Andrealphus returned to the house and than he went in his bedroom with the box he had taken from the warehouse hidden under his dress. Nobody knew it existed and nobody knew it was there; and since no one had seen him go down to get it, no one would have known that he had it. And what he had in his hands would have been the key to his rise.

Andrealphus was a pragmatic man, and where others saw obstacles, he saw opportunities. And those miserable third-class rabble demanding freedom were a golden opportunity for him to ruin Stolas... but more importantly, to gain power and prestige that a wretch like that owl could only imagine. Stolas did not realize how much power he had and did not use it properly; when he took everything that was his, Andrealphus would not make the same mistake.

His pawns were already in place. Making Stolas a hero to the lower classes and a criminal to the nobles at the same time had been easy. When he would have been condemned, the lower classes would have surely started a revolt... and he, Andrealphus, would have led the purge of those idiots and earned fame and riches higher than every other Goetia.

But to do that he needed two things. The first was a higher and more prestigious position than the one of marquis he now had; it was essentialy to bring the nobles under his flag. The second... was to ensure that the final verdict on Stolas was so dire that the people's outrage would have been too much to contain, and therefore a revolt would have been basically certain. He didn't just want to make Stolas a criminal for the nobles... he wanted to make him a monster.

And with that final act of that night, he would have ensured that.

When he returned to his rooms he found his trusted butler waiting for him as usual: "Was your walk useful to you, Your Highness?"

"Yes, I stretched my legs and let off some anger" Andrealphus replied. "Please go to my sister and tell her I want to see her. I want to apologize to her, I was hasty and treated her badly. And all of you, go out, I want to be alone"

"As you wish, Your Highness" the butler replied, and immediately he left the room followed by the other servants, who closed the door behind them.

As soon as no one was with him anymore, Andrealphus went to his desk and took the box out from under his suit, and he hid it in one of the drawers. Now began the most difficult part of his plan. For the next half hour he should have been an absolutely flawless actor.

He opened another drawer and took out an envelope from it. He opened it, and it revealed itself to contain an enormous quantity of papers of all kinds, on which Stella's elegant writing was undoubtedly present. Then he took a blank sheet of paper and began to write on it, perfectly copying the words on the various pages contained in the envelope.

He had kept those pages for years. Every letter, every message, even the bad copies from the homework that Stella had thrown in the bin. He had so many of them that he literally had every single word his sister could write at his disposal. Which meant that all he had to do was cut out a word, trace it onto another sheet of paper, and then take another word and trace it too, and so on, and he would have had a complete sentence that no one would have understood that Stella hadn't actually written.

It was a complex job, but Andrealphus had trained a lot in that field; knowing how to forge other people's writing was now something he was expert at. And sure enough, when he was done, he had completed a perfect letter that no investigator, not even the best of them, could have figured out was fake. Having done this, he put it back in the drawer, and waited.

His servants returned a few minutes later. "Your Highness, your sister refused to meet you" the butler told him.

Andrealphus let out a disappointed sigh, even though he was satisfied inside. Ah, Stella... she was so predictable. "Yeah, I guess she's still mad at me" he said, feigning regret. "Well... I'll try to talk to her tomorrow, hoping she'll calm down"

"Wise decision, Your Highness" his butler told him. "I'm sure that after one night of sleep she will come to her senses and remember that her fury is towards the man who humiliated her, not towards you"

"Yes, I believe so too" Andrealphus said. "Ah, it's been a bad day, I want to relax a bit. Prepare me a bath"

"Polar temperature as usual?" his butler asked him.

"Even colder" Andrealphus replied. "I really have a lot of hot spirits to cool down"

The butler nodded. "All clear. It will be ready in no more than three minutes". And having said this he signaled to the other servants and they went into Andrealphus' private bathroom to prepare what he had asked for.

Three minutes.

That was all the time Andrealphus needed.

He had carefully trained his servants so that they were always perfect in respecting the times: not a second more, not a second less. Which meant that for the next three minutes no one would come calling for him again. It was enough. With a quick movement he reopened the drawer and took the box, that he opened and took out the contents, and the fake letter, teleported away with a magical path.

The palaces of the Ars Goetia were protected against that type of magic, since otherwise an enemy could open a portal and enter their house without difficulty, making the defenses useless; it was therefore impossible to teleport or open portals inside such buildings. But this was still Andrealphus' home, and he had long ago prepared secret magical ways that only he knew. It had been a lot of work, but it was worth it. In a second, he was on the opposite side of the palace, in a familiar room: "Dear sister?"

Stella, who at that moment was sitting in her favorite armchair writing something on some papers, immediately became tense. "You... how and when did you come in!?" she growled. "I told you I don't want to…!"

"I know, you don't want to talk to me" Andrealphus interrupted her by moving closer to her, holding his hands behind his back. "But please, listen to what I want to tell you. Stolas is about to fall, and all that is his is about to be..."

"Yours" Stella anticipated him.

Andrealphus was a little surprised. "Well, yes. Have you already figured it all out on your own?"

Stella narrowed her eyes. "It's strange that you didn't correct me" she told him in a sour voice. “Yours, not ours, right?”

Andrealphus' eyes widened slightly. This was unexpected. Had her stupid sister really understood something? "It was just a figure of speech..."

"No, that's what you really think. That's what you've always thought" Stella told him. She had rarely shown him so much hostility. "I didn't want to tell you, but since you're here, you might as well know: Via and I are leaving tomorrow"

Andrealphus froze. "Sorry?"

"I'm leaving" Stella repeated. "You already got what you wanted, now I'm no longer of use to you. I won't stay here to be humiliated. I'm going with my daughter to my country villa"

"My dear sister, don't be hasty" Andrealphus told her as he approached her slowly, still keeping his hands crossed behind his back. "We can talk about it..."

Stella threw him the papers she was writing. Andrealphus caught them in mid-air, quite annoyed by his sister's rude gesture, which she had never dared to address to him. Stella herself seemed to regret her action, but even though she trembled slightly she still held his icy gaze. "Here. These are all the names and information you made me memorize, I wrote them all down for you" she told him. "You don't need me anymore. Now leave me alone. Via and I are leaving, I won't change my mind"

Andrealphus just looked at those papers, satisfied that Stella had written everything down for him. Obviously he didn't even consider that his silly sister might have given him wrong information, it was too deep a thought for her. "Sister, please..."

“Stop it" Stella hissed at him. "Stop pretending you care about me. To you, I'm nothing more than your tool, and now I can't be of any use to you anymore. Continue to fight with Stolas on your own. I'm done"

Andrealphus was silent for a long moment. Honestly, he never expected that Stella would one day have talked to him like that. Well, it didn't matter anymore. "Okay. I'll let you go"

Stella seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Even though she wasn't showing it, it was clear that she was tense. "Thank you for your understanding" she told him.

Andrealphus nodded quite comprehensive, and for a moment he actually seemed about to turn and leave, as a good brother, or at least someone who cared about his sister, should do in that situation. But then he stopped and said: "Before you go, let me at least tell you what I intend to do with Stolas"

"I don't care" Stella told him. Apparently she just wanted him to leave her alone again.

"At least listen, please" Andrealphus told her, ignoring her. "By now he is already a finished man, he disobeyed Satan and showed contempt for the laws of Hell. He was guilty of treason... not even the queen can save him now. But I don't want him to be just punished, demoted, humiliated... I want him to be destroyed"

Stella stiffened; his survival instinct kicked in in an instant. She immediately tried to get up with the intention of running away, but her brother blocked her with one hand, forcing her to remain seated. “What… what are you…!?”

"I want him to be destroyed, and all that is his to become mine... and for that I need him to be involved in an even worse scandal. And I need you one last time" Andrealphus told her, and then he finally showed what he held behind his back: an extremely ornate dagger of angelic steel. "Do you recognize it? It was part of your dowry. Stolas gave it to you on your wedding day"

Stella opened her eyes wide, and immediately tried to scream, but Andrealphus grabbed her and covered her mouth with his free hand; she tried to wriggle free, but there was no way she could push him away. "Guards... guards...!" she tried to scream, but her voice was not heard by anyone as her brother was literally holding her beak shut. He smiled evilly, and then thrust the dagger straight into her chest.

Stella stiffened and made a sound of pain, which was obviously muffled by Andrealphus' grip. With difficulty she raised her hands and grabbed the dagger, trying to tear it away, but her body had already become too weak to do so. "Good... hold it. Like this... like this" Andrealphus told her with satisfaction, then he hissed with contempt: "I said I would have let you go, not where you could have gone. Enjoy your journey to the afterlife. Oh, wait... we're already there"

"You... monster...!" Stella muttered as blood dripped from her mouth. By now her brother no longer even needed to hold her: she was no longer able to scream or run away. "You will pay... you will pay...!"

"Oh, I don't think so. Thanks to this, I will become one of the most powerful men in Hell" Andrealphus told her with a sneer. "If only you had been at least a little intelligent, you could have still been useful to me... but fortunately you are attractive. And no one likes when an attractive woman dies. Through you, I will destroy Stolas... and through the destruction of Stolas, I will reach the highest heights"

Stella was still barely managing to keep her eyes open. "Via..." she barely whispered. "Via...!"

"Don't worry about my niece. I will take good care of her" Andrealphus told her. "After tonight, she will hate her father. I will shape her as I want, and soon she will be my best political tool. Unlike you, she will know how to do her job when I'll marry her to the right person"

A few tears emerged from Stella's face. "N-No..." she stammered with her last remaining breath. "Stolas... save her...!"

"Oh, my dear sister..." Andrealphus told her with a wicked chuckle. "... Stolas is already finished"

Stella's eyes trembled, and then she lost the last remaining light. Her body stopped resisting and she sank completely into the chair. She stood there, her hands still wrapped around the dagger.

Andrealphus couldn't help but let out a small sigh as he was sure she was dead; even though it had been a simple murder, he had still felt a bit of adrenaline. He was satisfied that it looked like Stella had died by sticking the dagger into her own chest. He placed the box where the weapon was previously contained on the table, and next to it he placed the fake letter; having done this, he teleported back to his room.

Exactly two minutes and eighteen seconds had passed, so he still had forty-two seconds left; without wasting a single moment, he took off the gloves on which there were Stella's fingerprints, and put his usual ones back on; after which he also took all his cards, put his gloves on them, and used his powers to freeze everything. He froze them at the molecular level, breaking the bonds between the atoms, and within a few moments the ice dissolved along with everything it had encased. All evidence had now been erased from existence. Just in time for his butler to come calling him: "Your Highness, your bath is ready"

"Good" Andrealphus said, and very casually he entered his private bath, let his servants undress him, and then immersed himself in the water. But when they were about to leave he stopped them: "No, stay. I want a shoulder massage. And a bottle of wine"

His servants obeyed him, and then they began to massage his shoulders while he enjoyed the cold water and sipped his favorite wine which his butler kept pouring into his glass. Unknown to his servants, however, he was holding only one hand out of the water, to hold the glass; the other was underneath, well hidden by the soap bubbles; and with that hand he was moving his fingers generating small spells, with which he was destroying the secret magical path that connected his room to Stella's.

By the time he was finished, the last piece of evidence that could have connected him to his sister's death was gone too. Not only that, but since his servants had always been there with him, he had created a perfect alibi. All of them would have testified that he had always been there, and if someone had read their minds they would only have confirmed this; no one would have believed that he could have reached the other side of the palace and returned in just three minutes. "Okay, that's enough" he said as soon as he was done, getting up from the tub. "Dry me"

His servants immediately obeyed him. He let them dry him well, and then said to his butler: "Since my sister doesn't want to see me, bring her the best chamomile we have. At least she can sleep soundly"

"Yes, Your Highness" the butler replied, and immediately left.

Andrealphus signaled to the other servants to dress him; he didn't need them, but he wanted them to stay with him as long as possible so that there would have been no doubt in his alibi. And as he had predicted, within about ten minutes a scream rang out throughout the building. "What's happening!?" Andrealphus exclaimed pretending to be confused, and rushed out of his room followed by his servants.

He behaved exactly as he would have done in that situation: initially he didn't run too fast, but then when it was clear that the screams were coming from Stella's room he sped up a lot. Halfway he met Octavia, who had obviously heard the screams and was also running. "Uncle, what's going on?" she asked him worriedly.

Andrealphus shook his head. "I have no idea. I..."

"The lady!" the butler shouted appearing in the hallway. "The lady! The lady is...!"

Both Andrealphus and Octavia widened their eyes, and then they both ran towards the door of Stella's room; there Andrealphus pushed Octavia back slightly, as a caring uncle would have done in that situation. And as soon as Stella's dead body was back in his field of vision he screamed at the top of his lungs: "NO!"

The peacock demon dropped to his knees, and probably if they had been on television he would have won an Oscar for his masterful portrayal of a desperate man. Octavia, taking advantage of this, entered in turn and as soon as she saw her mother she blanched: "No! No, no, no!" she screamed desperately, running to hug the corpse. "Mom! No! No!"

"A doctor!" Andrealphus screamed, and pretending to stagger on his legs he also approached Stella's corpse, put her on the floor and ripped the blade away from her chest, and began to try to revive her. "Quick! Call a doctor! Bring the entire hospital here if necessary! Move! You have to...!"

"Your Highness..." the butler murmured through tears. "... it's too late"

Andrealphus froze on the spot, while Octavia continued to hug her mother crying desperately. And then he got up again. "WHO!?" he roared. "WHO DID IT!? MOVE FORWARD! COME OUT!"

The servants trembled in terror at his outburst of anger. The butler pointed to the table: "Your Highness... the lady left a message..."

Andrealphus looked at the table where the fake letter was placed. With trembling hands he took it in his hand, and then, as if he were seeing it for the first time, he read its contents in a muffled voice, but loud enough for all to hear: "Octavia, my daughter, I ask your forgiveness for the pain I will give you, but I cannot bear to live with this shame on me. Your father has humiliated me too much. The shame is too great, and no matter how much time will pass, it will never fade. I can only choose therefore to take the path of honor. May my dignity and yours be preserved through this gesture of mine, and may your father be cursed for eternity. Andre, my brother, take care of her. Goodbye, my beautiful daughter; I hope your life will be happier than mine" 

Octavia's sobs had died down for a moment as she listened to her uncle talk, and as soon as he finished she completely collapsed: her body lost all energy and she literally lay down on top of Stella's corpse, hugging her tightly and crying her eyes out. The servants put their hands over their mouths as they saw her continuing to call for her mother in the hope that she would have opened her eyes again.

"It's terrible...!"

"The lady committed suicide!?"

"Poor girl...!"

Andrealphus remained still for a few seconds, as if he were unable to accept what he had just read; and then, he threw the letter back on the table and screamed at the top of his lungs: "STOLAS! YOU SON OF A BITCH! IT'S HIS FAULT! FUCK YOU! I'LL KILL HIM!"

And having said this he made an ice sword appear in his hands and threw open the bedroom window, and he literally threw himself off the balcony. The servants chased him, but he obviously ignored them and continued walking towards the gate as if he had gone crazy. And in fact it didn't take long for the people in the street to notice it, and they crowded onto the garden fence to understand why there was a madman who kept shouting Stolas' name.

"What happens?"

"Isn't that Lord Andrealphus?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"He keeps screaming that he's going to kill Stolas!"

"Stolas? You mean his ex-brother-in-law?"

"Haven't you heard? Rumor has it that he humiliated his ex-wife in Wrath!"

"He not only humiliated her, he forced her to kneel before an imp!"

"How depraved...!"

Andrealphus' villa was located in a neighborhood particularly frequented by nobles, and in fact it didn't take long before other Ars Goetia intervened: before he could even reach the gate many of them had arrived and were looking at him, and a couple of them had entered the garden and had blocked him by their hands. "Lord Andrealphus, please calm down!" they told him aloud.

"Get off me!" Andrealphus shouted at them waving his sword. "Stolas! I will kill him! He must die a thousand times! Bastard! He will die as my sister died...!"

The two demons who were holding him widened their eyes, and everyone who was listening to him made a sound of astonishment. "What!? Your sister is dead!?"

"She took her own life!" Andrealphus screamed, and slipped to the ground as if he had tripped, and slammed his fists violently on the ground. "That infamous bastard! The shame he inflicted on her was too much to bear! She killed herself with the dagger she received at the wedding! It's all Stolas' fault! My niece no longer has a mother!"

The crowd murmured in shock at hearing him despair like this. It was an impactful situation to say the least, and everyone was confused and scared.

"It is true?"

"Did Lady Stella kill herself?"

"Are you surprised? After the humiliation she suffered!"

"That Stolas...!"

"How else could she preserve her dignity?"

"Stolas kicked her out of her house, divorced her, and then humiliated her! Anyone would have been too ashamed to live!"

“He practically forced her to commit suicide!”

"He must be punished!"

"Let everyone know!"

The two demons holding Andrealphus were just as shocked as everyone else, but they still tried to keep theur cool: "Lord Andrealphus... think of your niece. She needs help now that her mother is dead. Don't take justice into your own hands, you cannot win against a Goetia king! Ask the crown to punish your enemy! Don't die needlessly leaving your poor niece alone!"

Andrealphus let out deep snorts, as if he were fighting himself. His grip on the sword trembled, and the two demons holding him took this as a good sign: "Lord Andrealphus... let go your weapon, please"

Andrealphus growled deeply, and then finally dropped his sword to the ground. Now that he was no longer armed and seemed to have regained his sanity, the crowd approached him and helped him to his feet. Perhaps they were expecting some statement from him, but on the contrary he turned around and returned to his palace without saying a word. He didn't need it, after all: those people would take care of spreading the news, and by morning all of Hell would know. He, on the contrary, could continue to play the part of the brother destroyed by pain, so as to make everything more credible. As he returned to the house he could already hear the crowd begin to murmur even more indignantly.

It took all of his self-control not to smile and show how elated he actually was. The plan had worked out perfectly.

As soon as he returned to the house, he found Octavia still lying crying on Stella's body. Under the gaze of the servants (and probably many other onlookers from the windows) he knelt beside her and took her gently into his arms, holding her tightly. "Be strong, my niece" he told her in a soft voice. "You'll see... your mother will get justice. I can promise you this. The person responsible will pay dearly!"

Chapter Text

Angel and Cherri were together in one of the rooms of Stolas' palace, and both were more nervous than ever. Cherri was sitting in an armchair and was trying to pass the time (and tension) by playing on her cell phone, while Angel had been spinning around on the carpet for twenty minutes. And when the door finally opened and Stolas and Vassago came back in, they both ran towards them. "Fuck, you're alive!" Angel exclaimed with relief.

"We thought they had already killed you, big owl" Cherri said, also relieved. "What happened? You were at the royal palace for three hours!"

Stolas looked tired like few times in his life. "We still have time" he said simply, and went to sit in an armchair, resting his head on one hand.

Cherri and Angel bit their lips, and they turned to Vassago: "Did they condemn him?"

The parrot demon shook his head. "Not yet" he assured them. "For the moment it has only been decided that he cannot leave his quarters, nor interact with the queen or the Deadly Sins. His fate will be discussed at the trial"

Angel and Cherri sweated a lot. "A trial? In Hell?" the spider demon muttered.

Vassago nodded. "Exactly. A trial" he confirmed.

"Shame on him!"

"He must be punished!"

"He betrayed the sacred principles of the infernal classes!"

"A scoundrel!"

"A woman died because of him!"

"Punish him!"

The entire throne room was abuzz; almost all the nobles, instead of remaining seated as usual, were becoming so agitated that they looked like a flock of crazy birds. Stolas was almost completely isolated in his seat, and was doing his best to maintain a confident expression; he knew he couldn't show hesitation, or they would flesh him alive. "I won't let you insult me!" he said aloud. "I acted justly, you can't accuse me!"

"Justly!?" Satan roared, almost breathing fire from his nostrils. "You ignored my orders! You rebelled and were guilty of treason! And you forced a noble Goetia to kneel and beg forgiveness from a fucking imp! That woman died because of you!"

Stolas fell silent, feeling a strong bitter taste in his mouth; trying not to be seen, he had to tighten his grip on his chair to stay upright. What had happened had shocked him too; he had never thought that Stella would have died like that. When he heard this he initially thought it was a trick, but his servants confirmed to him that the body in the body was undoubtedly that of his ex-wife... and the reaction of Andrealphus, who the witnesses said had seen leaving the house like a madman with a sword to come and kill him before they stopped him, was quite explanatory. And the fact that Octavia no longer answered his calls, but had actually turned off her phone completely, was another clue that it wasn't a trick at all. "If she chose this fate for herself, it's not my fault!" he defended himself, trying not to show his inner turmoil. "She's the one who killed a person without caring about the consequences!"

"Ah, so now an imp is worth as much as a Goetia!?" Satan shouted angrily. "What world do you think you live in!? You have broken the laws of Hell without any shame! Your Royal Majesty, you must punish him!"

And of course most of the nobles in the hall followed him. Even those who would normally have been more moderate and might have sided with Stolas at the time believed the scandal was too big.

"Yes! Punish him!"

"Do justice!"

"He's guilty!"

"Cut off his head!"

"TO DEATH! TO DEATH! TO DEATH!"

Charlie was sitting on her throne as usual, staring at the room without saying a word. Judging by her face, it looked like an octopus was crushing her heart. But as soon as Satan called her into question, she raised her trident and slammed it on the floor, generating a loud metallic sound that drowned out all the voices. "SILENCE!" she shouted in a tone that brooked no reply.

Silence returned to the room; everyone shut up, not daring to contravene the queen's order. But this did not last long, because Satan stood up anyway and shouted: "Your Royal Majesty, please! We cannot let this go unpunished! Do justice!"

"Do justice!" all the nobles in the room said in unison, bowing their heads as if making a request.

Charlie slammed her trident on the floor again, bringing silence. She did not speak for a few moments, and then she said aloud: "As you all surely know, His Highness Stolas is a person dear to me. Therefore, I cannot be the right person to judge him. My judgment would not be impartial"

The demons stiffened. Throughout the history of Hell it was always the king or queen who decided whether someone violated the law, as their position also placed them as judges of the matter. It had to be said, however, that there had never been a case where the accused was a person close to the royal family, as there was no reason for them to commit treason. "So what do you want to do?" Satan asked apprehensively.

Charlie inspired deeply. She would have very much liked to defend Stolas and close the matter there, but she knew that if she had done so she would have provoked the distrust and dissent of the entire ruling class of Hell, and she couldn't do it. Even though she had already gained the ability to change the laws of Hell, any future reform would still require the trust of the majority of the infernal council. She had to show herself as a just queen, not as a good one. "Since I cannot make a judgment, the only solution is to organize a trial"

The nobles remained silent for a moment longer, amazed by her words; but then they immediately started nodding in satisfaction. That was a solution that they approved of, in fact, they liked a lot.

"Right, right!"

"At the trial!"

"Let's put him through the wringer!"

"Let him be judged!"

"Let's put him on trial!"

Stolas felt quite tense upon hearing the nobles' words, but he did his best not to show the slightest fear. He remained impassive and let them speak. Vassago too initially didn't say a word, but as soon as calm seemed to return he asked aloud: "But if the queen won't give her judgement, then who will be the judge of this trial?"

There was silence again, and all eyes immediately turned to Charlie, waiting to hear what she had in mind. "Your Majesty Satan, please sit down " she said to her uncle, who was still standing. "And all the other Deadly Sins, arise"

Satan was confused, and perhaps a little offended at being sidelined, but he held back his proverbial anger and did as he was told, choosing to trust his niece. The other Deadly Sins stood up simultaneously.

"Asmodeus, Belphegor, Leviathan, Beelzebub, Mammon" Charlie said looking at them one by one. "You will form a jury. You will listen to the trial and formulate your opinions, and at the end of it you will vote. There are five of you, so there is no risk of ending in a tie. The result of this vote will be the final judgement"

“Yes, Your Royal Majesty” the five Deadly Sins responded in unison.

"Good. Sit down. And you, Your Majesty Satan, stand up again" Charlie ordered, being promptly obeyed. "You too, like me, are partially involved in this matter, therefore your judgment would not be impartial; you cannot therefore be part of the jury. However, I entrust you with the task of managing the trial. You will be the judge, in practice, even if the final judgment will not be up to you. It will be you who will have to question the witnesses, establish the order of the sessions, inspect the evidence, remind everyone of the laws of Hell, and all the other actions that a judge is required to carry out"

Satan immediately forgot any offense he had felt two seconds ago. "Of course! I will do my best" he replied, proud that the queen had entrusted him with such a burdensome task.

Charlie narrowed her eyes. "Let me be clear, I expect you to conduct yourself in an honest and respectable manner. Please know that you too will be watched. If I learn that you have ignored witnesses, falsified evidence, or attempted to bribe the jury, I will replace you and you will be held accountable for such procedural errors" she warned him. "Also, for greater safety, you will not be allowed to interact directly with the jury during the entire duration of the trial. If you have something to say to them, give the message to someone who will first convey it to me, and then to them"

Satan nodded, fully understanding Charlie's intent. If she had simply left the Embodiment of Wrath out of the trial under the guise of impartiality, surely he would have tried as an outsider to push for a guilty plea since he had been offended by Stolas, and almost no one would have dared to stand against him; his fame alone would have been enough to frighten witnesses or even terrify the judge. Instead, by placing him in the position of power but warning him that he would be watched, Satan's hands were tied, since if Charlie reprimanded him for wrongdoing during the trial he would be covered in shame and ridicule. This forced him to remain as impartial as possible, and not being able to interact with the other Sins also prevented him from intimidating or corrupting them. Charlie was truly giving Stolas the fairest trial possible.

Satan was a little upset about this, but he made it okay. After all, Stolas was almost certainly already a goner, and even without any administrative or judicial wrongdoing he would have been destroyed. The laws of Hell spoke clearly, and even if that was a particular and complicated case, the solution was not. “I will be an impeccable judge” he declared loudly, and he meant it.

"Good" Charlie said satisfied. "The trial will begin in exactly one week. The place where it will be held, the time, the methods and everything else, as I have already said, will be chosen by His Majesty Satan, who will inform all those involved in this matter. Are there any objections?"

No one said a single word of dissent. Everyone was fine with that solution: even if they would have preferred to see the blood immediately and close the matter there, the prospect of a trial was still interesting and in a certain sense intriguing.

Charlie exchanged glances with Stolas and Vassago, as if to tell them that this was the best she could do at the moment, and they nodded slightly in response, to let her know that they understood her position and bore her no grudge. At that point Charlie looked to another part of the room: "Lord Andrealphus, in all this you are the only one who has not yet expressed himself despite the fact that you are clearly the most involved. Don't you have anything to say?"

In fact that was something that had surprised everyone: since the beginning of the meeting Andrealphus hadn't said a single word. He had come in and simply sat down in his seat, and remained so, without even changing his position once. It was as if he had become a statue of ice. Which, considering the reaction he was said to have had when he found out the reasons behind his sister's death, was pretty confusing.

Having been called by the queen, Andrealphus rose to his feet. It was a slow and almost magnetic movement, which captured the attention of everyone in the room. "I have something to say, actually" he answered. "It's just that I didn't know how to express my thoughts. So I'll try to get them out while maintaining a minimum of decency"

And after such words he turned to Stolas, staring at him with a gaze so cold that no one would have been surprised to see ice appear on the owl demon. "Here's what I mean: you won't escape justice, you filthy bastard" he told him through gritted teeth. "I know that you are a coward, a pathetic imitation of a person of your rank, and I intend to destroy you. Whatever happens, I can swear to you here and now that you will not walk out of court without getting what you deserve. And in the unlikely event that you are a man and want to resolve this matter quickly, perhaps hoping to silence me, then I will be happy with such decision and will wait for you in my home with open arms. No politics, no courts, just you and me, and a good revenge at the sweet old fashioned way. We will enter that same room where my sister took her life, alone, and only one of us will come out alive. If instead you prefer to wait for the court to tear you to pieces, I will be in the front row to enjoy your ruin. Regardless of what you try to do, you will not go unpunished. This is what you wanted, right?”

And having said this he looked away and sat down again, returning to stare at the void in front of him. And despite the invitations and requests of the other nobles, he never uttered another word during the entire meeting.

"Charlie was very clever" Vassago commented. “She kept a cool head and did not panic, and was able to give Stolas the fairest trial possible. By excluding Satan, who would surely have pushed for a guilty verdict, from the jury and preventing him from interacting with others, she does not risk him scaring, bribing or threatening witnesses and eliminating or tampering with evidence”

"Maybe, but I still would have preferred you to declare Stolas innocent right away" Cherri said with a sigh.

"You know she couldn't do that" Vassago replied. "If she had exposed herself in that way, her reputation would have been forever compromised. And this would have destroyed her authority and credibility, given that a queen who talks so much about laws and rights and then ignores them in favor of a single subject cannot be defined as anything other than a joke. And in the same way, she could not give a judgment of guilt, even with a lenient sentence, without being accused of being cruel and heartless, effectively undermining the security that the people place in her"

"Vassago is right. Unfortunately, the only solution was the one she chose: to abstain from judgment" Angel commented, crossing his arms. “This way she's playing the fair queen who thinks first and foremost about justice, regardless of the situation. This will be good for her reputation. Plus, thanks to her reputation as a fair queen, no one will criticize her if Satan misbehaves and she replaces him with someone else as judge, so in this way she's also forcing the Deadly Sins to behave properly”

Cherri let out a deep sigh. "How ironic. Charlie has absolute power over Hell, yet she can't use it to protect the people she cares about" she said quite sadly. "It's really true that you can't be calm even in the highest position"

Angel let out a grunt. "Macho isn't here, so he's definitely with her and they're discussing this. It's unlikely we'll see her again anytime soon, controversy could arise if she gets close to Stolas or anyone else involved in the trial"

"Very likely" Vassago confirmed.

Angel nodded. "So? What are the odds that Stolas will be executed?"

Vassago crossed his arms: "Actually, not too much. Charlie made a jury of five people, and two of them are notoriously pro-lower class, so it's likely they'll vote for the least severe sentence"

"Asmodeus and Beelzebub" Angel said. "So, we only need to convince one of the other three. Belphegor?"

Vassago shook his head. "Belphegor will take the side that causes the least trouble, as usual" he replied, knowing full well the lazy nature of the Embodiment of Sloth. "But even so, the odds are still good. Mammon and Leviathan are stubborn, but not foolish. They won't risk making Charlie feel bad by killing one of her friend. They too will vote for a lenient sentence. It is therefore very unlikely that Stolas will be beheaded"

Angel and Cherri were happy about this, but they knew how to read between the lines. "You keep talking as if there was no chance of an innocent verdict" the spider demon pointed out.

"Because it's very difficult that there will be so" Vassago said with a sigh. "Even if Asmodeus and Beelzebub had the best of intentions, they cannot ask for Stolas to be declared innocent if his actions go against the laws of Hell, and sadly they do. All they will have to debate is what kind of punishment should be given to him, and as I explained, fortunately it is unlikely to be death"

"But still he will be found guilty and punished as such" Cherri murmured.

Vassago nodded. "It's probable"

Angel bit his lip. "What do you think they will do to him?"

Vassago sighed. "By refusing to obey an order from His Majesty Satan, Stolas has shown himself to be unworthy of his position as King Goetia, so the verdict will probably see the confiscation of all his assets, the loss of his status and any kind of office, and finally the confinement to a palace in some remote area. They will strip him of everything he has and exile him, essentially" he said, and then he added with quite a bit of bitterness: "His title, his assets and his legions would normally go to the heir, but since Octavia is not yet old enough to inherit, they will be entrusted to her guardian"

Angel and Cherri narrowed their eyes, both understanding what he was referring to. "Andrealphus?"

“Exactly” Vassago confirmed. "Since Stolas is accused of incitement to suicide, he will also be deprived of the possibility of interacting with Octavia, since he cannot be a positive parental figure for her. She will therefore be entrusted to a guardian, and since Andrealphus is her closest relative, the choice will almost certainly fall on him. It is already probable that in a note of compensation for the death of his sister and as a reward for having attempted to carry out Satan's orders Andrealphus will obtain a part of Stolas' assets and titles, but by being appointed as Octavia's guardian he will be able to administer them all. He will essentially take his place as a King Goetia"

"Can't you offer yourself as Octavia's guardian?" Cherri asked him. "You too are her relative"

"I am Stolas's half-brother, while Andrealphus is Octavia's mother's actual brother. In terms of kinship he has precedence" Vassago explained to her. "Also, I am close to Stolas, which means that from an outside perspective I might try to negatively influence his heir. Even if I will fight in court to get tutorship over Octavia, I will hardly win over Andrealphus"

"If Andrealphus becomes Octavia's guardian, it's over for her" Angel said worriedly. "Since he will manage everything that previously belonged to Stolas, it will be easy for him to move the ownership of it from her to himself. Hardly anyone will take the side of a little girl without particular qualifications if she tries to sue her uncle for having stolen her assets. Or he could do even worse... he could fake another suicide, or an accident, or a fatal illness, anything. He will just have to wait for things to calm down to get her out of the way"

"He doesn't need to wait for things to calm down. No one would be surprised if Octavia died of pain or killed herself after what happened" Vassago replied. "The only reason she is still alive is that he probably aims to make her his puppet. He almost certainly wants to marry her off to someone important to further consolidate his position"

Angel almost choked on his saliva. “What… you mean he’s going to sell her to the highest bidder!?” he asked indignantly.

Vassago shrugged. "Arranged marriages are the norm among nobles... and unfortunately, Andrealphus stands to gain enormously from all this" he explained to him. "Think about it: the situation and the difficult period in which we live are perfect for him. As soon as he becomes Octavia's guardian, it will be easy for him to move all of her assets and titles to him; at that point, all he will have to do is marry her off to someone to nullify her right to inherit. And since many Goetia kings died during the catastrophe that destroyed Greed, this creates a perfect power vacuum to exploit. By forming the right alliances, Andrealphus has the possibility to become a beacon for the entire Ars Goetia. Not only that, but by exploiting this incident he will be able to incite a campaign against the granting of rights to the lower classes, since he has demonstrated how harmful they are. I wouldn't be surprised if he'll manage to become the leader of the entire noble faction, with an influence almost equal to a Deadly Sin"

Angel clenched his fists, feeling the urge to smash something. Years and years spent selling himself on Valentino's behalf had led him to hate anyone who sold someone else for profit. From his point of view, a nobleman offering his niece in marriage to the highest bidder was no different from Valentino in the slightest... in fact, it was even worse, because at least Valentino didn't pretend that he was doing something socially acceptable. "We have to stop him" he hissed through clenched teeth.

“Is it just me, or is the situation a little too good for that asshole peacock?” Cherri rightly opined. "In my opinion he killed her. It's too convenient that Stella committed suicide right now. I bet he killed her to spark a scandal and inflame feelings"

“It's possible” Vassago said. "But we have no way of proving it. If Andrealphus is guilty, he certainly had already erased all the evidence. And if he isn't... well, it's not the first time a noblewoman has committed suicide out of shame. No one will believe it's a staged act"

"Well, it doesn't matter! Whatever happens, we can't leave Octavia to him!" Angel exclaimed, then he turned to Stolas: "Hey, you're not saying anything, asshole... hey, are you okay?"

Stolas was still sitting in the chair, and was keeping his gaze lowered. His eyes were focused on his fingers, which continued to move almost jerkily, playing in his hands. "Hey, buddy" Angel shook him. "What's wrong with you?"

Stolas finally looked up. "Do you think she really did it?" he murmured. "Do you really believe... that Stella killed herself?"

Vassago, Cherri, and Angel exchanged sympathetic looks. It wasn't surprising that Stolas was so heartbroken. "I don't think so" Cherri told him immediately. "I told you, for me it was that bastard who killed her"

Stolas focused his gaze on Vassago. The parrot demon inspired deeply, and then he said sincerely: "We can't know. Stella was a proud woman... it's not impossible that she chose that way to preserve her dignity"

"Or to hurt you even when she is dead" Angel said with disgust. "She would have been bitchy enough to do it. Come on, don't be so upset, after all you hated her..."

He had said those words to cheer him up, but Stolas took on a ferocious expression and jumped to his feet, and stared at him with fiery eyes. "I hated her, yes" he said, chewing his words angrily. "But if you think that I wanted this fate for her, then you don't know me at all. Stella deserved many evils, but certainly not this! Should I be happy because my daughter no longer has a mother because of me!?"

Angel fell silent, realizing he had exaggerated. Luckily Cherri intervenes: "Stolas... think about Octavia. I know you're upset, but now you have to make sure that she doesn't become Andrealphus' puppet. You'll have time to regret your actions with Stella later"

Stolas took a deep breath and put a hand on his face. He was truly devastated. "How can I talk to my daughter again now? How can I even look at her face...?"

"It doesn't matter" Cherri told him in a firm voice. "You are her father, and your duty is to protect her. Even if she never wants to see you again, you still have to do everything to make sure she is safe"

Stolas was silent for a moment, and then he closed his eyes and let out a couple of owl-like hoots. It seemed like he was using all his strength to stay focused. "Yes... you're right" he said, even though those words seemed to cost him a lot. "I have to... protect Octavia..."

Cherri said nothing else, and Vassago and Angel did the same. Stolas was really going through shit, and none of them knew how to cheer him up. All they could do was remind him what he was fighting for and make sure he stayed focused on that, instead of drowning in despair.

Suddenly the door opened, attracting everyone's attention. Moxxie had just come in and was taking off his dress jacket. "Hey..." Angel greeted him. "How is Millie?"

Moxxie didn't answer right away. "She is still... very upset" he said finally. "Now she's with her family... they want to have a lunch together to commemorate Joe. I would have stayed, but they really want to have some time alone together... and they wanted me to come here and find out how Stolas was doing. They haven't forgotten that it's thanks to him that Joe got justice"

Everyone gave him a sympathetic look. "Tell your wife she doesn't have to worry about me" Stolas told him. "Let her just think about saying goodbye to her father"

"Thank you" Moxxie said, then he growled: "What a fucking world... Millie loses her father and no one gives a fuck about it, while you honor his death and get accused of being a criminal. Is there any justice in this depraved realm!?"

Nobody had the strength to answer him. "Good question, my friend" Angel finally said, giving him a few comforting pats on the back. "Good question..."

Chapter Text

Octavia stood still in front of the gravestone on which hung an elegant photo of Stella. She knew that not two meters below her at that moment was her mother's body, enclosed in the beautiful crystal coffin that had been placed in the earth as soon as the ceremony was over. Now, she was there, staring at that photo, wishing it would come to life and speak to her.

Many people had come to pay their condolences during the funeral, but she had listened to almost no one. She had done nothing but stare at the coffin and then at the gravestone the whole time, forgetting to even blink. Her heart had closed to any emotion.

A cold hand rested on her shoulder. "Via, we have to go" Andrealphus said. "I know it's painful, but the funeral is over now. I think all you need now is a bed and a good pillow"

Octavia didn’t answer him: she continued to look at the gravestone. Despite this, however, the slight shivering of her shoulders let Andrealphus know that she had at least heard him. “I know it’s hard to lose a parent” he told her. “It’s painful, it’s cruel. You don’t have to feel guilty for these feelings, it’s understandable. It’s normal to cry. But there comes a time when you have to stop crying and pick yourself up again… especially in the name of those we’ve lost"

Octavia opened her mouth as if to say something, but only air came out. She didn’t have the strength to speak, her lungs were frozen. “I understand. You’re still very upset” Andrealphus said, putting both his hands on her shoulders and squeezing them a little too hard to be considered comfort. “But you have to be strong. You know that she wouldn’t have wanted you to be so down. She would have wanted you to move on with your life, and to be happy… as she unfortunately wasn’t able to be”

Octavia's hands shook and clenched, so tightly that she felt like she was about to break her own fingers. Her breathing became louder, too. Andrealphus made a satisfied noise at the sight. "Good, that's the spirit" he told her, then he looked around with a grunt. "Stolas didn't show up... I guess the bastard is too ashamed to show up here. To think he didn't even come here for his daughter... he's really a terrible relative. But it doesn't matter... he'll get what he deserves soon. His fate is already sealed"

Octavia's breathing quickened. Andrealphus patted her neck a few times. "Sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned this now. Take your time, I'll wait another five minutes" he said, and then he put his beak close to her ears: "And remember... you're not alone. Don't be afraid that you don't have anyone anymore. I'll make sure you're okay. I'll teach you everything I know. I might even become... like a father to you"

And after such words he finally let go and walked away, leaving her alone in front of the gravestone. Octavia was shaking, tears streaming down her face. "I already have a father" she whispered to herself in a small voice.

Just then a shadow passed across her field of vision. She looked up and saw a familiar mass of fur behind other nearby graves. "Loona?" she exclaimed.

The hellhound motioned for her to come closer, and she did. As soon as they were close enough, Loona picked her up and pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry," she said in a strangled voice.

Octavia soon hugged her back. Damn, she had needed this so badly... a hug, a real hug, not a fake and condescending one like the ones she had received so far. "Thank you" she whispered. "How did you know...?"

"All Hell is talking about this. I told you I'd come back for you if anything happened" Loona told her. "Let's go now, your uncle is distracted. I have a motorcycle parked nearby, we can disappear before he notices"

She turned and started to run away holding her hand, but she met fierce resistance. She realized that Octavia wasn't moving an inch. "I can't" she told her.

Loona made a strangled noise: "Via, what are you saying? I'm not leaving you with Andrealphus, you know it's dangerous! I know you're upset, but...!"

"It was him" Octavia whispered.

Loona froze. "What...?"

"The letter my mother left told me to trust my uncle" Octavia said, shaking and gritting her teeth. "You know she wouldn't have told me that after our conversation earlier. She knew he wasn't trustworthy"

 Loona's face was very pale. "You're saying that..."

"... it wasn't a suicide" Octavia hissed. "He... he killed her. He did it to gain the upper hand on my father and take everything that's his. It was his plan all along, I'm sure of it"

Loona took a deep breath, and then she grabbed her arms and squeezed them tightly. "If you're right, then I have to bring you away from here right now! Your uncle is even more dangerous than we imagined!"

"I can't" Octavia repeated. "I can't just leave. I have to find proof... something. I can't let him win without a fight. He has to pay...!"

"Via, please, be reasonable!" Loona said, shaking her. "You can't stay in the same house where a murderer lives!"

"My uncle thinks I've fallen for it. He thinks I'm growing a hatred for my father and that I'll end up relying on him as my only remaining relative" Octavia said. "I can use that to my advantage. One way or another, I have to knock him off his pedestal"

Loona shook her head. "Via, my friend, I understand that you hate that bastard, I hate him too. He deserves to pay for what he did to your mother. But you can't stay...!"

"It's the only way! No one will ever find evidence against him, I have to get him to confess or something!" Octavia exclaimed, and then she pushed her friend away slightly. "Loona... go. Go find your aunt and everyone else, take from Andrealphus his fucking advantage over us, so your father can finally put on his armor and come beat the crap out of him. I'm staying. I have to... get the truth out. I can't let... my mother's death be considered a suicide"

Loona bit her lip. She couldn't imagine how her friend felt, she herself wouldn't have been able to give up in her place. "Via, I can't leave you here..."

"Do you think I'm kidding!?" Octavia said to her, raising her voice, then lowering it immediately, fearing that someone might hear her: "I'm not asking your permission. I'm staying, I have to finish this. You... go"

"You're asking me to abandon a friend" Loona said to her.

"I'm asking you to trust a friend" Octavia replied.

Loona looked down. "I could refuse to leave" she said.

"I'd rather you didn't. I want to part with you in friendship, not in anger" Octavia replied with tears in her eyes. "Loona... please... let me do this"

There was a long silence. And then the hellhound turned and took a deep breath. "Know that if anything happens to you I will never forgive you"

"I know" Octavia told her, turning around as well. She knew that the more they hesitated, the more painful that separation would have been. "Go now"

And after those words she started walking towards her mother's grave, and behind her she heard Loona's footsteps moving away; she barely turned for an instant to see her tail disappear behind the wall. She reached the grave and lowered her gaze to admire the tombstone one last time. "I will give you justice, Mom" she whispered resolutely, and then headed towards the exit of the cemetery, where she knew Andrealphus was waiting for her.

In another cemetery, this time much poorer and more common, another coffin was being placed in the ground. Millie was leaning on Moxxie, who was doing his best to support her, knowing that if he let go she would fall to the ground. He could feel her trying to hold back her tears as much as possible because she didn't want to disturb the ceremony.

The grave was simple, consisting only of a modest headstone and a hole where the wooden coffin was placed. It was little, but Moxxie knew that Joe would have been satisfied with even less: he was a spartan person, a simple type, he didn't want much pomp. As soon as the grave was covered with earth, the people who had come to the funeral went to pay their condolences to the family. Moxxie looked with great sorrow at Lin, who had sat in a corner of the cemetery because she couldn't stand, and they were crying while her children tried to cheer her up at least a little. A familiar voice came from behind them: "I'm sorry"

Moxxie and Millie turned to see two people wrapped in hoods and cloaks, who they had already noticed in the distance in the cemetery during the whole ceremony. It was Blitz and Stryker. "You shouldn't be here" Millie told him in a small voice. "No one should see you..."

Blitz stopped her by hugging her. "We were careful not to get caught" he said. "And I had to come"

Millie took a deep breath, letting some tears run down her face, and lightly she gripped her boss's cloak. Blitz couldn't remember ever feeling her shake so much. "Thank you" she whispered.

"That's what friends are for, right?" Blitz muttered, and then he bit his tongue. "I'm sorry. If only I'd gotten there sooner, I could have..."

"Hey, no... don't say that" Millie told him. "It wasn't your fault. Please... I already have someone in my family who feels guilty"

Moxxie knew who his wife was talking about: out of the corner of his eye he looked at Sally May, who had been standing in the background the whole time. She hadn't said a word since Joe died; most of the time she didn't even seem to understand what was going on around her. It wasn't hard to understand that she felt responsible for his father's death.

Blitz tried to hold back any more guilt. Instead he said: "He... was a great man. He didn't deserve the way he ended up... but I'm sure that going away defending his family was the death he would have wanted"

Millie hugged him tighter. "Thank you" she whispered again as she cried.

Blitz hugged her tightly without another word. They stayed like that for a while, and then Stryker shook his rival a little: "We have to go. Remember that neither of us are officially supposed to be here, you're gone and I'm dead. We can't stay here too long"

Blitz nodded. "I know" he said. "I'll... show up again, I promise. And I'll make the person responsible for this pay for it"

Millie smiled slightly. "Thanks, Blitz. Sooner or later... we'll kick their ass together, right?" she choked out as tears continued to stream down her face.

Blitz nodded quickly, and then he gestured for Moxxie to pick up his wife; he too was afraid that if he let go she would have fallen to the ground. He and Stryker started to leave, but the rattlesnake imp suddenly said: "For what it's worth... I'm sorry. No one should be deprived of their parents"

Stryker wasn’t someone who cared about the deaths of others. While he had known Joe, he honestly didn’t care about him. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t know his responsibilities. Protecting the civils should have been his duty, and he had failed to do so with Joe, which rankled a little. If only he had arrived even just two seconds earlier, it would have been that fucking Goetia who died instead of an imp. Besides, he knew what it was like to lose a parent, and what little empathy he still had allowed him to at least offer his condolences to Millie.

She nodded slightly in response, not wanting to thank him. Stryker didn’t care. He and Blitz quickly walked away and disappeared as quickly as they had come. Moxxie and Millie waited until they were out of sight, and then they went back to their other relatives and friends.

However, as people began to leave, Moxxie saw a large black car pull up in front of the cemetery gate. He immediately stiffened, recognizing it right away, and this caught Millie's attention, who in turn saw the car... and more importantly the shark demon with a metal prosthetic mouth that got out of it accompanied by a dozen henchmen. Millie immediately felt a fire ignite in her soul and before Moxxie could stop her she ran to Chaz: "What the fuck are you doing here!?"

The shark demon didn't respond with his usual playful attitude; instead, he seemed unsure of what to say. "Millie..."

Millie seemed to spring forward like a cat and slammed Chaz into the wall surrounding the cemetery. "What the fuck do you want!?" she hissed.

Chaz’s henchmen were about to intervene, but their boss stopped them with a wave of his hand. He didn’t even try to react to Millie’s grip, actually. He just looked her straight in the eyes. “I heard your father died" he said. “And… I’m sorry”

Millie’s eyes widened slightly, but then she gritted her teeth. With an effort that seemed inhuman, she let go of him. “Go away" she ordered.

But Chaz didn’t move. “Joe was good to me when you and I were a couple” he said. “Please… I just want to say goodbye to him. I don't want anything else"

Millie let out a snort that sounded like a bull, but then Moxxie put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Honey... we're at a funeral" he reminded her to keep her from freaking out.

Millie closed her eyes. "You have ten minutes" she said to Chaz, and then she turned to Moxxie: "And you keep an eye on him"

Moxxie nodded, and Millie strode back to her family, knowing that if she stayed there she would start a massacre. Chaz stood up and exchanged a quick look with her husband, and then motioned for his henchmen to stay put and headed for the grave. Moxxie followed him, watching him like a hawk stalking prey.

Chaz kept his word, though: all he did was walk over to the grave and place a small flower on it. After that, he just stood there, staring at the headstone. “You can go console your wife” he told Moxxie. “She needs her man, and I’m not going to do any harm today"

“I’d rather not trust you anyway" Moxxie said sourly.

Chaz chuckled, but he was not amused at all. “Yeah… you’d be crazy to do that” he admitted. "You know... when I was dating Millie, Joe didn't like me. He appreciated my physical strength, but not my attitude. He always treated me coldly. But despite that, he never kicked me out of the house, left me without a roof, refused to give me money when I asked for it. When I stopped for dinner his wife wanted to give me low-quality food, but he insisted that even if he didn't like me, it was right to treat me like any other guest. He never let me go without anything. He was a good man underneath that stern exterior"

Moxxie took a deep breath. Maybe it was because he too was shaken by his father-in-law's death, but those words were disturbing him deeply. "Yes... he did that to me too" he said. "Always stern and unyielding even when he walked Millie down the aisle... but always willing to do anything for me if I needed it, even if he still criticized my lack of strength. Somehow... he was always there" 

Chaz nodded. "He didn't deserve this" he muttered. He was silent for a long moment, and then he said: "You should consider leaving"

Moxxie raised an eyebrow: "What?"

"What happened to Joe was a tragedy, and we both know it might not be the last" Chaz told him. "This is getting more and more dangerous, staying close to the cities is risky now. If this shit happened once, it can happen again. Even the countryside may not be safe anymore. And we don't know who might die next. That's why I'm telling you to leave. Run. Go to some remote corner of Hell with your whole family and stay there at least until things cool down. That's a friendly advice"

Moxxie took a deep breath. He knew Chaz wasn't lying to him; he only used that serious tone when he was being sincere. "What about you? You don't want to run away?" he asked.

Chaz folded his arms behind his back. "I've thought about it... but I don't think I'll do it" he replied. "You know, since we... separated last time... my mafia has grown a lot"

"Good for you" Moxxie said. "So?"

"Remember what I told you? What kind of mafia do I want to build?" Chaz asked. "I want an organization that's not just based on fear, but also on trust and respect for agreements. Just like the mafia I learned from the sinners. And right now... ironically... a lot of people are relying on my mafia for protection"

"Really?" Moxxie asked in surprise.

"Of course. They're afraid of everything now, who do you think those poor guys trust?" Chaz pointed out. "My mafia currently controls the slums of three cities in Envy and two of the areas that are being rebuilt in Greed. Those places were war zones before we took control. Thanks to my henchmen patrolling the streets, life for those people has become boring again. It's just like the mafia I learned from the sinners... they know we're dangerous, they know we're criminals, but they still want us. Because we provide order, and without us there was only chaos. Imagine, many of the weaker people have even voluntarily emigrated to our districts"

Moxxie laughed sarcastically. "I wonder how it is possible that there's someone who thinks you're trustworthy"

"Yeah, I wondered why too" Chaz said sarcastically. "Those people have no one to trust anymore. The Goetias abandoned them, the authorities failed them. They have no one but us. I could run away with my henchmen, yeah... but that's not the mafia I wanted. I've done everything I can to create an image as a respectable mafia and I intend to maintain that. And besides... I don't want to abandon those people. I might if they were just smelly men, but... there are a lot of mothers and children who came to us because they want to feel safe, they want to have someone to believe in. I can't leave"

Moxxie nodded. "You've really changed" he told him. "You're still a piece of shit... but you've changed"

"I've learned from my mistakes" Chaz told him, and then he touched his metal jaw. "Mox, that day when Crimson was forcing you to marry me... I didn't just lose a friend, or an ex, or an opportunity, or my dignity, or my mouth. I lost everything. For the first time in my life, I was really at rock bottom. And I really wanted someone to come help me, even though I knew no one would. Now I know what it's like to be totally hopeless... and I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone. That's why I admired the mafia of sinners so much when I first discovered it, a mafia that also... protected. And I wanted to make it real for us hellborns, too. That's why I can't leave now, not after believing so much in this ideology of mine. It would be... like admitting that Crimson's way was the right one, and... well..."

He didn’t finish his sentence, he just drummed his finger on his metal jaw, making a squeaking sound. That was all Moxxie needed to understand. “So you won't run away” he said sadly.

Chaz nodded. “I’ve been running away all my life, avoiding too much responsibility. I don’t want to be that man anymore. I want to be the mob boss I dreamed of being, not just a tyrant, but a leader. Someone people can trust, especially in this dangerous time. I know there’s not much I can do to protect those people if things get really bad… but I can at least try to save as many of them as I can. I’m making contingency plans just in case of disaster, to get the people who trust me to safety”

“That’s pretty smart thinking by your standards” Moxxie told him. “Making contingency plans to deal with a disaster, I mean. You’re smart, but not that smart. Did anyone give you that idea?”

"I had help" Chaz confirmed. "A wiser friend of mine suggested that we secretly set up bunkers and shelters and study methods to get the population there as quickly as possible. They're not Goetia-proof, but they're well hidden. And we're also trying to get plenty of angelic weapons so we can respond in the event of an attack"

"Was the person who suggested this strategy a cloaked guy with a camel mask?" Moxxie asked.

Chaz's eyes widened slightly, but then he chuckled. "So he really does have a way to contact the Queen..." he commented amusedly. "Well yes, it was the Camel who suggested I prepare myself this way. I'm part of his circle too"

"I thought so. We know that man has contacted many mafias around Hell. If you created a mafia like the one you describe, it was obvious that he would have called you" Moxxie told him. "So... he suggested you prepare yourself to protect the population?"

"He suggested it to everyone" Chaz replied crossing his arms. "The Camel doesn't want an open war, but he's not stupid. We need something to protect the people if by chance the nobles start a mass persecution. We were hoping to solve things another way, or at least to have more time... but after what happened, the risk of a fight is very high. I don't think we're ready... I don't think anyone in Hell is ready. That's why I'm telling you to run. I have nothing to protect except my men and the people who trust me, but you have a family. You have to think of them first"

Moxxie bit his lip. He was already tense, and those words weren’t helping at all. “I know" he said. “And in fact, I think I’ll send Lin and the others somewhere safe. But… I can’t leave. And we both know Millie won’t either"

Chaz nodded. “Yeah… I imagine that” he muttered, and then reached into his pocket and handed it to him.

Moxxie took it, revealing it to be a USB stick. “What is that?”

“The location of the most fortified safe house we’ve built so far” Chaz replied. “It’s programmed to erase all the information inside after being used once, so make sure you memorize the path when you turn it on. If things get bad, take your wife and go there. My men are ordered to get you in and protect you. That’s all I can do to help you”

Moxxie tightened her grip on the stick, and then put it in her pocket. "I'll keep that in mind" he said.

Chaz nodded, and then he bent down to Joe's grave and touched the headstone. He closed his eyes, as if he were actually saying goodbye, and then he stood up and turned away. "I better go, I know I'm not wanted here" he said, walking away. "Good luck, Mox. And stay close to your wife. She needs it"

Moxxie sighed. "You know, it's really ironic... I used to hope you'd grow up some day... but now that you finally are, I really want you to go back to how you were before"

"Because before we didn't have to think about a potential hellish crisis, right?" Chaz told him. "Yeah... I'd like to go back to those times too. But I think we've gone too far now"

Moxxie nodded in confirmation. "Yeah... we can only move forward now" he commented resignedly.

Chaz took a couple more steps, and then stopped. He seemed to think carefully about what to say, and then he looked at him slightly: "Mox... I'm not going to apologize for kidnapping you and your wife so your boss could kill Stryker for me, because I don't regret it since it got me to where I am now. But about forcing you to marry me, like I said before... I'm sorry. When I hit rock bottom I knew how you felt. I know it's too late now... but I'm honest in apologizing"

Moxxie groaned. "You still suck at apologizing" he told him. "And I'm not going to forgive you"

"I don't expect you to" Chaz replied. "All I ask is this: if you, your wife, your boss, or anyone else ultimately decide that my place is in a coffin... please wait until I appoint a successor to my mafia and make sure he can maintain control of it, so that the cities I control don't descend into chaos again. Then you can kill me if you want"

Moxxie was silent, and then he shook her head. "I can't speak for Blitz and Millie, but for me, I just want nothing to do with you anymore" he told him. "Let's never see each other again and I'll be satisfied. The other people you've offended... will decide for themselves"

Chaz remained silent for a while as well, and in the end he lowered his head. "Yes... I think that's the best thing to do" he said, and then he resumed walking. "Goodbye, Mox. I wish you happiness"

"Goodbye" was all Moxxie said in reply. Chaz said nothing else, and walked until he reached his henchmen who were waiting for him at the entrance to the cemetery. There they got into their black car and drove away.

Moxxie watched him go, and then he returned to his wife. "Did he cause you any trouble?" Millie asked.

Moxxie shook his head. "No... he really just wanted to say goodbye to Joe" he answered, and then he took her hand: "Come. Let's go home now"

Chapter Text

"What!? Can you say that again!?" Emily exclaimed in shock.

Stryker (or rather, his image) was kneeling in front of her: "I'm afraid you understand correctly, my lady. The blue blood owl will be on trial soon"

Emily put her hands in her hair. She had seriously hoped that she had misunderstood what Stryker had said, but apparently she had not. Which not only meant that Stolas was risking everything, that Octavia no longer had a mother, that Millie no longer had a father, but also that the situation in all of Hell was dire. This was a truly huge mess.

Rosie put her hands on her shoulders to calm her down. Ever since Emily had had that nervous breakdown days ago, the cannibal overlord had tried harder than ever to help her recover at least a little from her trauma. Not only that, but she had also asked Niffty not to be near her when they talked, knowing that she would tell Alastor... although, with her ability to move in the smallest of spaces, that wasn't necessarily enough. At least Rosie had managed to calm Emily down a little, and she was finally showing some signs of improvement, which however had quickly vanished when Stryker had contacted her saying it was an extreme emergency.

The rattlesnake imp did not hide his responsability: "It was my fault, my lady. If I had intervened sooner, I could have prevented that imp's death and everything that followed"

"Of course it was your fault!" Emily snapped, more furious than ever. "I told you to protect the people! You failed!"

"Emily... calm down" Rosie warned her.

"No, I'm not calming down! I...!" Emily exclaimed, putting her hands over her face. She couldn't even speak. "Fuck...!"

"It won't happen again" Stryker told her. "I won't make that mistake again"

Emily glared at him: "Don't waste any more time and get back to work! Be ready to intervene, and this time for real! If anyone causes trouble again, STOP THEM!"

Stryker nodded quickly, knowing that it was better to not reply. "Yes, my lady" he simply replied, and his image quickly faded.

Emily felt the urge to bite her hands. She hadn't felt this frustrated since Charlie had made her believe he had just killed Raphael. "Shit... I need to talk to my sister!" she blurted out.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Rosie asked.

Emily shook her head: "No... no, that's okay. I just want to make sure Charlie knows what to do"

"What if she doesn't know?" Rosie rightfully pointed out. "This is a new and difficult situation for her, too, and she'll be extremely worried, too. Don't you think questioning her will only make things worse for her?"

Emily opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it again. "You might... be right" she murmured. She was silent for a moment, and then she said: "I don't like this at all... but maybe Alastor can find a..."

"No, don't involve Alastor" Rosie told her imperatively. "He's not trustworthy and you know it. Now go to your sister, and if she doesn't know what to do, talk to her. Talk like civilized people... and do it honestly"

It wasn't hard for Emily to understand what Rosie was referring to. "Okay... I'll keep that in mind" she said softly, and then she didn't wait any longer and opened a portal to the royal palace.

She found herself back in Charlie's rooms. She remembered too late that she might not be there, given all the mess that had happened, but luckily she found her sitting at the desk surrounded by endless paperwork. She was so focused that she didn't even notice Emily was there. "Sis!" she called to get her attention.

Charlie almost fell off her chair. "Emily!?" she exclaimed as soon as she recovered from the shock. "What... when did you come in...?"

"I just got here" Emily said, helping her up. "I came as soon as I knew... how's Stolas? And Octavia? Millie?"

Charlie bit her lip. She looked more tired than ever. "They're... dealing with it" she answered. "You... how did you know...?"

"It doesn't matter now" Emily said to avoid answering. "Please tell me you already know how to solve this situation"

The brief silence that followed that question was quite telling. "I'm sorry" Charlie finally said. "We're... still working on it"

Emily sighed. She wanted to scream in frustration, but she held back. "There really isn't even a loophole...?"

"We're looking for one, but it's hard" Charlie said. "It all happened too fast... if only a little more time had passed, maybe I could have changed some of these damned classist laws... but on such short notice, Stolas is guilty on every count"

Emily bit her lip. Damn, Hell really needed a reform, a real reform. It was unacceptable that a man who refused to kill innocents was being accused like that. "I assume... that Stolas is devastated"

"You should ask Angel or Cherri, I haven't spoken to him in person since. I can't, they're watching him constantly and if I get close to him they might accuse him of trying to trick the Queen" Charlie replied while sitting on the bed. "Those assholes are waiting for any misstep he makes to accuse him even more"

Emily didn't understand: "Why? If they've already won..."

"It's not a matter of winning in court, Emily" Charlie told her, resting her head on her hand. "Stolas is now the emblem of treason for the nobles, but for the lower classes he is a hero. The more they accuse him, the more they can destroy him... and the more they destroy him, the more the lower classes will be furious and therefore they will react. And if they were to react violently... the nobles will have every right to carry out a purge, which is exactly what they want. This is their chance to crush their rebellious spirit and prevent anyone from talking about social rights for the next thousand years"

Emily looked down. She had imagined this scenario before, but knowing that it was actually like this was still bad. Unfortunately, it was inevitable that it would have ended like this.

People loved heroes, it was a rule. And Stolas, having fought for the lower classes like that, in front of so many witnesses, even defying Satan's orders and even humiliating his ex-wife for the death of an imp, was in every way a hero to them. And as history taught, if you killed a hero, the people would have reacted. And unfortunately the demons, in their rather quick-tempered nature, would have surely reacted. And if they did react, the nobles could unleash all their power to forcefully enslave them, since it would have just been self-defense and maintenance of social order, and not even the Queen could have accused them of anything. "That's... really shit" Emily admitted.

"Yeah" Charlie confirmed. "Fucking Andrealphus..."

Emily obviously already knew about the peacock demon's orchestrations, but revealing it would have also meant exposing Stryker, so she pretended not to know: "Did he cause all this?"

Charlie explained to her very quickly everything that Andrealphus had done... or rather, what they thought he had done, since unfortunately they only had assumptions and zero proof. "... and now, that bastard is going to win" she concluded. "Once he destroys Stolas in court, he will take everything that is his and become a Goetia king, and surely after that he intends to use the fame he has gained to lead the future purge of the lower classes and gain power. He will become the head of the entire noble class and will have honors, glory and riches. All at the cost of thousands and perhaps millions of innocents... and of course his own sister"

Emily thought she was used to how evil people could be, but that was something that disgusted her. Andrealphus wasn't even thinking he was right, like Lilith had, or Lucifer, or Adam when the Extermination was still in effect; and he wasn't acting to share the power he had gained with someone else like the Vees did, who at least in their twisted way had mutual respect and trust among themselves. Andrealphus was just evil, without any moralistic excuse, and he was willing to sacrifice everything, even his own blood, to gain power.

Charlie sighed deeply. "I hoped I could fix this corrupt world" she murmured. "But I failed again. I dethroned my father and wore a crown I hate to ensure peace, and I still couldn't prevent innocent people who just wanted a little human understanding from being exterminated. I can't even protect a friend"

"Don't said that" Emily told her, sitting down next to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's not over yet, Andrealphus hasn't won yet. You might find a way to prove Stolas is innocent. Don't lose hope..."

"If Stolas is convicted, the lower classes will start a riot. If by some miracle he is acquitted, the nobles will feel outraged and do it. The result is the same" Charlie replied, continuing to sob. "I don't know what to do anymore, I'm tired! I just want to finally rest. Why does everything have to get worse and worse? What's wrong with me?"

Emily patted her on the shoulder: "Well... if you want, I can take care of making Andrealphus disappear"

Charlie quickly turned her gaze to her: "What!?"

Emily realized too late that suggesting a murder wasn't really her style, and that Charlie's reaction was more than understandable. She tried to make up an excuse: "I don't mean... killing him or anything like that! But I could open a portal under him and make him fall into the Betrayal Ring, and then he would disappear from the rest of Hell"

Despite that excuse seeming quite believable, Charlie continued to look at her in a rather inquisitive manner. "Are you... sure that's all you meant? You seemed very..."

"I just expressed myself badly!" Emily said a little hastily. "Come on, Charlie, you know me! I would never suggest something like that, right?"

Charlie continued to look at her in a street-like manner, but still she said: "Yes... yes, you're right. Sorry"

"It doesn't matter" Emily said. "So... do you want me to...?"

"It would be useless" Charlie told her. "Everything is already in motion now. Even if Andrealphus disappeared forever, someone else would take his place. If he disappeared, all we would get is another accusation against Stolas, since everyone would think that he was the one who took him out just to have one less opponent in court. Whether Andrealphus is there or not, the trial and all the consequences that come with it will still happen"

Emily had to admit that this was true. Eliminating Andrealphus would have been useful before, but now that everything was already in motion it was useless. "You should have sent Blitz to capture that asshole from the start" she couldn't help but scold her.

Charlie looked at her inquisitively again: "Emily... since when do you talk like that?"

Emily felt like putting her hand over her mouth. Damn those damn emotions amplified in her brain! "Sorry... I didn't mean it. I'm just really tense, like you" she said. "I just wish..."

"Are you sure?" Charlie asked again.

Emily realized that she was looking at her very strangely. This irritated her a little: "Yes! Yes, I am! Can we focus on saving Stolas now?"

Charlie didn't look convinced at all, but still she got back to the main issue: "Honestly, I don't know what to do. The only way to save Stolas without causing a riot would be to reveal that it was a setup, but there's no evidence whatsoever for that. The only person who could testify to that is six feet underground right now"

Emily's eyes widened: "Yeah... if Stella was alive, she could exonerate Stolas right now"

"But she's not anymore" Charlie said. "And as you know, we can't resurrect her unless we want to cause another global disaster"

Emily bit her lip and at the same time tightened her skirt. She took a deep breath, and then in a small voice she said: "That's not... exactly true"

Charlie froze. "What?" she asked, confused.

Emily felt her heart pounding. Okay... the moment of truth had arrived. She just had to tell Charlie straight away what she had become and that it was safe to resurrect Stella and Joe. But for some reason she had a huge lump in her throat that felt like it was strangling her. "Listen... I have to confess something to you"

"Confess...?" Charlie seemed to become more tense than ever: "Emily... why do I feel like I'm not going to like what you're about to say?"

"It's likely" Emily replied scratching the back of her head. "You're almost certainly going to freak out, but please don't, because I'm already freaking out on my own and that won't help me, so just remember that I'm in control and that's a good thing"

Those words didn't help Charlie in the slightest, in fact they made her even more worried: "Emily...?"

"Okay... let's do this quickly" Emily thought to give herself courage, and then all in one breath she revealed: "I merged with Roo"

Charlie seemed to turn into a pillar of salt: "Huh?"

"I merged with Roo!" Emily repeated with a slightly louder voice. "Please don't freak out"

Charlie couldn't have done it even if she wanted to: her mind had literally exploded. "How...?" she stammered slightly.

"It's a long story, I'll just get to the point" Emily said quickly. "Basically, I went down into the depths of Cain's palace, sat on a throne made of roots, connected to Roo, talked to Eve, she gave me a fruit, I ate it, and since our father had...". She trailed off for a moment. "Okay, sorry, that's not going to get to the point. The important thing to say is that Roo is now under my control, so you don't have to worry about him waking up anymore! No more disasters, no more messes, technically no more Exterminations either! You can be happy about that!"

Charlie literally grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her: "Are you okay? Did it hurt that bad? Didn't you...?"

Emily was a little surprised: "Uh... really? Your only reaction is to be scared for me?" she asked, having definitely expected worse.

"What other reaction do you expect me to have!? You just told me that you merged with the most evil being in the universe!" Charlie yelled at her. "Please tell me it didn't hurt!"

"No, no! It didn't hurt!" Emily quickly said. "Charlie, it's okay, Roo's just sleeping right now, she's completely blocked through me! I told you, it's a good thing!"

Charlie was shaking. "Are... are you really sure about this?" she barely muttered.

"I'm in control!" Emily quickly said. "Charlie... I know it's... scary... but really, it's okay!"

It still took Charlie a few minutes before she could breathe normally again. Well, considering the situation, it was a miracle she hadn't fainted. Maybe all the bad emotions she'd been feeling recently had actually made her stronger. "Why did you do that?" she whispered. "Why would you put yourself in such danger? You shouldn't have...!"

"I was careful" Emily told her, even though she was lying a little. "Charlie... I had to. I couldn't leave Eve like that. Believe me... you have no idea in what state she was. I didn't have the heart to leave her to suffer"

The words silenced Charlie for a moment. Emily knew she couldn't really describe what she saw when she met Eve, the terrible state she was in, but her slightly shaking tone gave her sister an idea anyway. "You... were brave" Charlie murmured.

"You would have done the same" Emily told her. She was regaining some confidence now that the hardest part had been revealed and Charlie hadn't reacted in terror like she had imagined.

Charlie sniffed. "Is that what you've been doing all this time?" she asked. "You locked yourself away in Betrayal to... control Roo?"

"Um... technically it's more complex than that... I was trying to train myself to control my new strength so I wouldn't destroy everything around me" Emily explained. "You know... because I'm technically super-powered now. I didn't want to give someone a friendly pat and send them flying out of the atmosphere. And I'm technically still training, so... don't jump out suddenly behind me"

Charlie took her hands. Emily found herself thinking that her sister's hands were really warm and comfortable, but for some reason they were cold when they touched hers, as if Charlie were touching ice. "I don't like it" she admitted. "I... Emily, I know you just wanted to help, but... that parasite... connected to you..."

"I know it sounds bad" Emily admitted. "But it's the best thing for everyone. Trust me, I only did it with the best intentions"

"The worst things in history have been done with the best intentions" Charlie warned. "And as they say, the road to Hell is paved with them"

"Well... we're already in Hell, so that doesn't matter" Emily replied, quickly declining the argument. "Rather, as I was telling you... now I can force Roo to sleep, so... resurrecting a demon isn't that dangerous anymore"

Charlie was speechless, but then she put the pieces together: "Wait... are you saying that...!"

Chapter Text

"I can't do this!"

"Charlie, please..."

"This is illegal!"

"Charlie, I remind you that you are the law now!"

"There is a limit, though!"

Emily sighed deeply. She and Charlie stood in front of Stella's grave, staring at the cold headstone. They probably would have already finished everything if she hadn't been so uncooperative. "Come on, it'll be no big deal! We'll dig her out, I'll try to revive her, and if it doesn't work we'll put her back in the grave! What's so terrible about that?"

"That the last time you revived someone, Roo caused a global catastrophe!" Charlie replied dryly, and then her eyes widened and she put a hand over her mouth. "Sorry... I didn't mean to..."

Emily shook her head, immediately silencing her. "Charlie, I know I destroyed an entire Ring... more than one actually, you don't have to keep from saying it" she said. "It won't happen this time"

Charlie sweated a little: "Are you sure...?"

Emily looked her straight in the eyes: "Do you trust me?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I trust you!" Charlie answered her without even thinking.

“Then why don’t you trust me when I say everything’s going to be okay?” Emily asked rhetorically.

Charlie looked down and blushed. She was silent for a moment, and then whispered: “Okay… but promise me that if you feel something is going wrong, you’ll stop right away”

Emily rolled her eyes, thinking all that caution was unnecessary, but then, at least to reassure her sister a little, she nodded: “Okay, I promise. Can we start now?”

Charlie took a deep breath, and then, without a single answer, she raised her hand and pointed it at the grave. The headstone and all the paving shifted as if it were a coffin opening, and the elegant coffin emerged from the ground, floating, until it settled on the ground in front of them. Emily placed her hands on it to open it, but Charlie stopped her, “Wait! We’re still desecrating a grave… shouldn’t we at least say something?”

Emily didn't think this was necessary since Stella would soon be alive and well again and she certainly wouldn't mind being taken out of the coffin, but she decided to give her sister that little satisfaction: "Okay. Um... Stella, sorry to bother you, but we really need to resurrect you. I'm sure you won't be mad about this, but just in case... sorry. I hope you'll find the strength to forgive us". And after such words she pushed the lid off and opened the coffin.

Stella was obviously still there, lying on the bottom with her eyes closed as if she were asleep. The body hadn't started to decompose yet since it had only been dead for a couple of days, but her skin had taken on a cadaverous paleness that combined with the now limp white feathers gave her an almost ghostly appearance. Maybe it was the creepy atmosphere of the cemetery, but it looked like she was ready to get up like a zombie in a low-budget horror movie. Especially since her expression, even if it seemed peaceful, gave off a strange sense of desperation. "Wow... it's sad" Charlie commented.

Emily didn't feel the same empathy as her. "You see dead bodies on the streets every day and you feel bad for a body in a coffin?"

She realized what she had said too late, and this time it was her turn to put a hand over her mouth. Charlie glared at her very badly: "What are you saying!? She's a poor dead woman, maybe murdered by her own brother! Of course it's sad!"

Emily turned quickly, not having the strength to meet her sister's gaze. "You're right" she said quickly. "Sorry, I... I don't know why I said that"

Charlie raised an eyebrow. That was definitely not a sentence she had expected from her. "Emily, are you sure...?"

"Yes, yes! Now let's not think about it!" Emily said hastily, kneeling down next to the coffin and still not meeting her gaze. "Let's do this! The sooner we finish, the better!"

Charlie bit her lip. The situation was just getting more and more disturbing. "Remember what you promised me, okay?" she said to her for good measure.

"Yes, I remember!" Emily snapped annoyed. "Now shut up, I have to focus!"

That tense reaction only worried Charlie more. Maybe Emily was just acting tough, but in reality she was also worried about what could happen if something went wrong... but Charlie was pretty sure that wasn't the only reason for so much anxiety every time she spoke to her. But still, knowing how delicate that moment was, she fulfilled her wish and remained silent.

She looked at Stella’s body in the coffin. As much as she hadn’t liked pulling it out of the ground, and as much as she thought it was dangerous to attempt a resurrection given how it had ended last time, she knew it was the best solution. Not just for Stella, but for everyone. If Stella could resurrect herself and testify against Andrealphus, Stolas would be safe, and the potential conflict that loomed on the horizon would be gone. And if it worked, Octavia would have had her mother back… and then Emily could have done the same with Joe, and therefore Millie too would have had her father back. As dangerous as it was, it was worth a try.

Emily took a deep breath, and then dragged her mind into the depths of Hell, as she had done when she found Lilith. This time, however, she went straight into Roo's roots, looking for the souls of the dead demons. Stella hadn't been dead long, so her soul should still be on the absolute periphery of the parasite, and shouldn't have had time to start being cleansed to re-enter the cycle of reincarnation... after all, according to the angels, that took thousands of years, Stella had only been dead for two days. She just had to find it...

It wasn't easy: it was like moving through an eternal labyrinth looking for a grain of sand. The souls of the demons appeared as red globes of light the size of a microbe that crawled inside the roots as if they were bacteria and viruses. It was like looking at a microscopic ecosystem magnified a million times, except that everything was more... random, without any real order, a continuous chaos that somehow, absurdly and illogically, worked. Luckily Emily could focus on entire chunks per second, or it would have taken her a century to explore even just one of those roots.

And finally... she found it.

Stella's soul was at the tip of one of the roots, and it was moving toward the whole, so slowly that even a centimeter would have taken a decade. Emily reached out to grab it, but the root immediately seemed to twitch and try to close in on itself, as if it wanted to imprison her. Emily, however, was not intimidated and ordered Roo to step aside; albeit slowly, the root stopped squeezing and returned to normal. Realizing that she couldn't just pull it away, Emily dragged the soul back very gently, always keeping an eye on Roo and intervening whenever she seemed to twitch. Fortunately, her will prevailed over the parasite's, and Stella's soul finally slipped out of the root as if it had never been there.

"YES!" Emily exclaimed loudly, and she immediately dragged the soul toward her. A spark lightned in her hands, and then a red orb appeared and hovered above her palms.

Charlie couldn't help but gasp in amazement: "That... is the soul of a demon?" she asked in amazement.

"Yes! See? I told you I could do it!" Emily said with a wide smile. "And not a bit of agitation, Roo remained calm!"

Charlie felt the tension finally disappear from her heart. "Good girl" she couldn't help but say. "You were really good"

"Heh heh! In your face, skeptic!" Emily replied, giving her a playful raspberry.

Charlie gave her a little friendly punch shoulder in response. She couldn't help but feel happy and proud of her: Emily had managed to do what no one else could. And now... they could solve all their problems. They could resurrect Stella, Joe, maybe even all the demons that had died in the previous disasters, and save Stolas and send Andrealphus to jail... "Well, what are you waiting for? Put it in her!" she urged Emily.

Her sister smiled, happy that she was finally getting the trust she deserved. "Said and done!" she announced, and she placed her soul into Stella's body. The red orb entered her chest and seemed to expand, illuminating her for a moment, and then vanished, merging completely with her body.

And then nothing happened.

Charlie and Emily waited a minute, two minutes, three minutes; but Stella didn't move an inch. Her eyes remained closed and not a single sign of life passed through her. "Um... shouldn't she... wake up?" Charlie finally asked.

Emily nodded; she was confused too. "Yeah... I don't understand, with Blitz it happened right away"

Charlie scratched her head. "Well... Blitz had just died, the body was still warm" she said, trying to think of an explanation. "Maybe for her... it's different"

"You're saying it's because the body was dead too long?" Emily asked.

"Well, a body needs a heart, lungs, blood, and so on to function" Charlie pointed out. "When a body is freshly dead, like Blitz was, the cells are technically still alive, it's easy to restart all the life processes. But Stella has been dead for two whole days... her organs must have atrophied by now, her blood must have dried up in her veins, her muscles must have become stiff, and her brain must have already started to deteriorate. It's not exactly... an optimal body for a resurrection"

Emily had to admit that there was some logic to that explanation. "You might be right" she said. "So... I just need to repair the body?"

"Can you do that?" Charlie asked.

"Well, it's just a matter of returning the cells to their original state. It's only been two days, they can't be in too bad shape, it won't be too hard" Emily replied, and placed her hand on Stella's chest. Her power flowed through her and into the dead Goetia's body.

With great care, Emily repaired every single cell she found... or at least the ones related to the most important functions of the body, she would think about the others later. After that, she warmed the body to make the blood liquid again and forced the heart to beat, and then the lungs to inflate and deflate. She was acting a bit like a life support machine, she thought with a bit of bitterness. Eventually her body returned to full function, to the point where she no longer needed to continue forcing her vital functions, yet Stella still did not wake up. Even though her body was alive again, she still did not move. "I don't understand!" Emily exclaimed. "Everything is working and her soul is there, what went wrong?"

"Are you sure you connected her soul to her body correctly?" Charlie asked. "Maybe you did something wrong..."

"No, I checked! It's positioned correctly!" Emily replied. "But it doesn't work! It's like Stella's in a coma!"

Those words turned on a light bulb in Charlie's brain: "What if that's the case?"

Emily looked at her strangely: "Um... what? So you think her body is in...?"

"Not her body" Charlie said. "Check her soul. See if... it's normal"

Emily was confused, but did as she was told. What she found shocked her more than just a little: "What!? Her soul is... like closed! It's like she's asleep!"

"The angels told me that the souls absorbed by Roo go into stasis while she... cleans them and then reincarnates them" Charlie said. "You took a soul from Roo without any natural processes in between, so it's still in stasis"

"So I just have to wake her up!" Emily exclaimed, and before Charlie could say anything else she touched Stella's chest again and grabbed her soul, breaking the strange shell that was enclosing her and reactivating her at full power.

There was a moment of silence, and then finally a shiver passed through Stella's body. Her fingers moved slightly and her eyelids fluttered, as if she were a coma patient trying to wake up. "It's working!" Emily said contentedly. "She's...!"

There was a click: Stella suddenly raised her left hand in an unnatural position. Her arm bent backwards, and so did her palm and fingers. A loud sound of bones rubbing against each other was heard, breaking the silence of the cemetery in an extremely disturbing way. Her other limbs also began to move in a rather disturbing manner. "E-Emily?" Charlie barely murmured. "Is this... normal?"

Emily was starting to shiver too: "Um... I don't know... maybe it's just the muscles reactivating..."

Stella's hand grabbed the edge of the coffin and she pulled herself up, with a jerk that would normally have snapped a person's spine; in surprise Emily fell backwards, and Charlie immediately grabbed her and dragged her several steps away. Stella continued to get up, jerk after jerk, still making that horrible sound of bones rubbing together. "E-E-Emily...?" Charlie muttered, feeling the fear grip her heart like a vice.

"I-I don't know what's happening!" Emily stammered. "It's not supposed to be like this...!"

"Turn it off right now!" Charlie yelled at her. "Put that soul back to sleep like before!"

"I'll try...!" Emily said, raising her hand, but before she could do anything Stella's mouth opened wide and a sound emerged from it. A metallic sound that seemed to contain fear itself, which made both girls immediately put their hands over their ears in an attempt to protect themselves.

Despite feeling like someone was sticking a needle in her brain, Emily's eyes widened: she had heard that sound before. It was the same sound one of the monstrous creatures in the moat of Cain's castle had made as soon as she had looked at it...! "CHARLIE, DON'T LOOK AT HER EYES...!" she shouted at her sister.

Too late: Stella finally opened her eyelids, and Charlie had the misfortune of looking right at her face at that moment. Her mind immediately seemed to explode: her every thought went into overdrive as she saw those alien eyes, something that shouldn't exist, something that went against every natural law. She couldn't even scream and simply went rigid like a stone statue, and she didn't even notice Emily grabbing her face and twisting it so she couldn't see that terrible sight anymore. Her eyes closed and she fell to the ground unconscious.

She didn't know how long it took her to recover; her brain felt like it had completely melted. When she was able to open her eyes again, her senses were completely off, and it took her a while to be able to perceive reality normally again. It was only then that she realized that Emily was slapping her. "Charlie!? Charlie, please, tell me something!" she was screaming at her in fear.

Charlie took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I... what...?"

Emily hugged her tightly. "Oh, you're okay!" she exclaimed with relief. "Thank God... for a moment I thought that...!"

Charlie hugged her back, not only to reassure her but because she was in dire need of physical contact herself. "Where... where did that... thing... go?"

"She's right there" Emily said, pointing next to them; Stella was there, a few steps away from the coffin. She had stopped and was no longer making that creepy bone sounds, and instead sounded like she was crying; she was completely wrapped in a cloak that hid her, except for some parts like her feet or her tail that were sticking out from under the fabric. "I put that cloak over her, so you don't risk seeing her again"

Charlie felt enormous relief in knowing that she would never have had to look at that thing again. "What... what is that?"

"I don't know how it's possible... but Stella has turned into one of the monsters of the Betrayal Ring" Emily replied.

Charlie looked at her confused: "Monsters?"

"There's a moat around Cain's castle... and inside are the remains of the demons that were thrown beyond the Border, a place where the laws of reality stop working. I've looked at one in the face too, but only briefly... not like you" Emily bit her lip: "Rosie... warned me never to look directly at them"

Those last words sent a shiver down Charlie's spine: "Emily... what are you saying?"

Emily sweated hard: "Charlie, I... I tried to... repair it... but..."

"What happened to me!?" Charlie screamed, touching her face, fortunately finding no imperfections. "What did that thing do to me!? Give me a mirror!"

Emily was getting paler and paler: "Charlie... I don't know if that's wise...!"

Charlie grabbed her shoulders with extreme force: "Emily... give me a mirror! NOW!" she screamed.

Emily closed her eyes and raised her arms, and made a mirror appear in her hands, complete with a light bulb so that the reflection would have been clear in the darkness of the night. Charlie saw with relief that her face was unchanged, and even her hair was still in place. But such relief was very short-lived as she realized what had happened to her eyes.

Her left eye was gone.

Where before there was a beautiful red and yellow eye, now there was only a black sclera like the darkest night. It was identical to Rosie's eyes, the same total darkness without pupils. It looked like it had been burned.

Charlie's mind seemed to shut down at that moment; instinctively, she reached up and touched the spot where her eye should have been. Instead, she felt a hard, smooth surface, and she didn't feel the touch. She could still see... but it was as if the eye was no longer there. As if it had just been... erased. "What... what is...?"

"I tried to fix it!" Emily shrieked. "I... I turned your head to the right, so your left eye was exposed for a few extra seconds... I managed to fix your right one, but I can't fix your left one anymore! I don't know how to fix it! I... I swear I...!"

Charlie was starting to hyperventilate. "Repair it" she whispered softly.

Emily trembled. "I... I've already tried... I can't...!"

"REPAIR IT!" Charlie yelled, shaking her, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I want my eye back! Do something if you're so powerful now!"

Not knowing what else to do, and sure that her sister wouldn't have calmed down until she had seen her face back to its original state, Emily did the only thing she could think of: she created an illusion of Charlie's former left eye and placed it on her face. "Um... that's all I can do!"

Amazingly, it worked: when Charlie saw herself with both eyes back in place, her breathing slowed to normal levels... well, sort of. "It's not real, is it?" she asked, continuing to touch her eye without feeling any pain, as she should have if she had had a functioning iris.

Emily shook her head. "I can't repair it... I told you" she answered. "This is... a power connected to Roo, it's beyond anything else... maybe if I practice a little more and try to explore my powers more, I could...!"

"I told you to be careful!" Charlie blurted out. "Why the fuck did you activate that soul so lightly!?"

"I didn't think this would happen!" Emily tried to tell her.

"You didn't think!? You didn't think!?" Charlie screamed. "I don't have a fucking eye anymore and that's all you have to say!?"

"I-I'm sure I can fix it... just give me some time to figure out how...!" Emily replied.

Charlie lunged forward and grabbed her by the cheeks. Maybe it was fear, tension, or the knowledge that she had just lost an eye that was making her act this way, but she was still on the verge of hyperventilating again. "Enough! Who the fuck are you!?" she screamed. "What have you done to my sister!? Get out of her right now, you parasite!"

"What?" Emily exclaimed. "Charlie, it's me! It's really...!"

"That's not true!" Charlie screamed. "You're not my sister! What did you do to her!?"

"Charlie, try to think straight!" Emily said. "I understand that taking your eye out isn't a good thing, but I didn't do it on purpose, and technically I've done worse things before..."

"I don't give a shit about the eye!" Charlie replied. "I know you're not my sister! My sister has made many mistakes, but she would have already apologized to me in tears by now!"

"I...!" Emily tried to say, but she immediately fell silent.

She... hadn't apologized to Charlie, actually.

She had been the one who suggested doing that thing and had acted a little too recklessly, so she was the one who was responsible for what had happened. Why hadn't she apologized yet?

Just a few weeks ago she would have fallen to her knees begging for forgiveness for something like that... why now she hadn't even felt the urge to say a simple 'I'm sorry'?

And... how long has it been since she had cried?

The last time she had shed tears was before Alastor had taken her to the Betrayal Ring. She hadn't cried since.

Not even when she had panicked. Not even when she had torn Rosie's jaw off. Not even when she had almost killed Alastor.

She hadn't... shed a single tear.

She... was trying...

... but her eyes remained dry.

What...?

Her mouth moved slightly: "I... can't cry" she whispered in a small voice.

Charlie made a sound like she had just choked on it. Her hands were shaking and Emily could feel them through her cheeks. Damn, they were so cold.

Emily barely dared to look Charlie in the eyes. Her heart was beating faster and faster as her older sister's expression was leaving the blank state of shock. "Please don't look at me like that" she found herself begging in her head. "Don't look at me with fear in your eyes. Don't let me know that you're afraid of me. Look at me with anger, with disappointment... anything but fear. I'm okay with it even if it's a lie. Please, just... don't... don't look at me like I'm a monster...!"

Maybe it was the fear in Emily's eyes that reactivated Charlie's empathy; as soon as she saw her with that scared look, the anger in her heart subsided, giving way to her usual protective instinct. With an inhuman effort she tried to contain herself. "If you're really my sister... why can't you cry?" she asked in a small voice. "What happened to you?"

Emily bit her lip. "I... I don't know" she confessed in one breath. "I... I lied to you. I don't have the total control. I... I think I'm losing my mind"

Charlie's eyes widened, and for a moment she seemed to forget how to breathe. Emily was afraid she would have pulled her away, maybe called her a freak, but instead, her reaction was to grab her shoulders and pull her into a hug. "Oh, Emily..." Charlie murmured as she cried hard. "What have you gotten yourself into...?"

Emily instinctively reached up and hugged Charlie tightly. She wanted to cry too, she wanted to be able to let those sobs out of her mouth, she wanted to make the tears fall from her eyes. She wanted to let it all out for once.

But she couldn't.

No matter how hard she tried... she couldn't cry.

She could only hug her sister tighter and try to immerse herself in that warmth... although the more she tried, the colder she felt.

Fuck...

Chapter Text

Charlie and Emily sat on what had been Stella's gravestone. They held each other until Charlie stopped crying, and then they both fell silent. Even though Emily instinctively leaned into her and she was stroking her hair as if to warm her. They were silent for what seemed like an indefinite amount of time, and then Charlie spoke up. "What's the truth?" she asked, her voice so weak it sounded like she was dying.

Emily bit her lip. "I... when I took the control pf Roo, all my negative emotions became more uncontrollable. And I have so much shit inside me, and when it comes out, I'm going to hurt someone". Her hand tightened on her sister's dress. "I... I... I've done this before. I broke Rosie's jaw and... I almost killed Alastor"

Charlie's eyes widened slightly. "Emily..."

"I can't control myself!" Emily exclaimed, putting her hands over her face. Fuck, it was really hard to handle the shame when that feeling was amplified hundreds of times. "I should stay calm, relaxed, but... every time someone opposes me or even seems to want to control me, I freak out!"

She wanted to say something else, but her voice seemed to disappear from her throat. Her heart started to beat faster again at the realization that she had just told Charlie how many bad things she had done while in the Betrayal Ring. "No... no, no, no!" she screamed in her head. "Why did I tell her!? Now she'll be afraid of me... no... no, please... don't...!"

But contrary to her expectations, Charlie's gentle grip only tightened. And when she looked into her eyes again, all she found was a lot of pity and even guilt. "It's my fault, isn't it?" she said as two tears fell from her still-good eye. "I've used you so much that now you're afraid of others using you. It's my fault that you can't stay calm"

Emily was speechless. Of all the reactions Charlie could have, she certainly hadn't expected that one. "Yes" she finally admitted. "But Alastor has done his share of damage, if it's any consolation"

Charlie gritted her teeth, and pulled her sister's body slightly closer to hers, as if she wanted to feel her as close as possible. "What have I done to you..." she murmured. "I... I'm so sorry. It seems like I'm destined to make you suffer..."

Emily paled: "No! No, don't..." she was already starting to say, but then she stopped. Her throat burned, and then she exclaimed: "Oh, fuck, you know what!? Yes! That's right, I blame you for this!"

She jumped up so quickly that she almost lost her balance. Maybe it was because she was already in a less than optimal emotional state, but she urgently needed to get it all out without any more filters. Her soul was like burning. "I blame you for this, okay!? Yes, it's your damn fault! Let's look at the bigger picture for a fucking moment: my life was perfect, I lived in the beautiful Heaven, I focused on helping others, I was good at it, I was happy! And then you came along and took me away from everything I cared about! I never asked for anything from you except a modicum of mutual trust and human understanding, and you couldn't even give me that! You always just TOOK from me! I was always there, ready to help you like a good little dog from the first moment, and all you did was use me! You used me when I supported you in Heaven, you used me when I replaced you while you were up there fighting for your cause, you used me when you needed to be in multiple places at once to fix your crumbling kingdom, you used me to lure a fucking horseman who could have killed me into a death trap, you used me to take the throne, you used me to screw with your mother! And the more time passed, the more I helped you, the more you acted as if it was guaranteed, you even went so far as to keep your plans a secret from me! It's your fault that I'm now terrified that someone will try to use me, it's because of you that I can no longer fully trust you! I'm your younger sister, not your puppet!"

Charlie was silent. Tears were streaming from her still-good eye, but her expression wasn't changing. "I never thought of you as a puppet" she whispered.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER AT ALL!" Emily yelled at her. "It's not enough! 'I didn't mean to hurt you' is not enough! You did it, that's the point! And apologizing is certainly not enough to make me forgive you! You, all of you, have always used that damn fucking excuse to justify yourselves! You, my mother, our father, your mother, every fucking idiot we've faced so far! 'Emily, I did it for you, I didn't tell you whose daughter you are to protect you'... 'Emily, it would have been better not to tell you that I wanted to deceive my mother, much better to make you suffer and believe that I abandoned you like the last of the bitches'... 'Emily, I love you, I was only helping you'... fuck you all! You ruined my life, stabbed me in the back, treated me like an object, and now you're surprised that I'm afraid to reveal all my cards and problems to you and prefer to keep some secrets!? You're surprised that I don't tell you right away that I merged with the most powerful being in the universe and that a moment of total loss of control on my part could be tantamount to a catastrophe!? Are you surprised that I don't want you to know how horrible I am!?"

Charlie took a deep breath. "You're not horrible, Emily"

"YES, I AM HORRIBLE!" Emily screamed at her. "Goddammit, will you ever open up your eyes!? I've destroyed two entire Rings, killed millions of people, I broke Rosie's jaw and would have torn her apart if she tried to fight back, I was this close to killing Alastor and would have done it if he hadn't distracted me, you literally just lost an eye because of me! What's not horrible about me, the way I look!? The face!? The voice!? Try telling me I'm not horrible!"

She said it more as a vent than a real challenge, but Charlie didn't hesitate even for a moment: she immediately stood up too, looked her in the eyes, and replied: "You're not horrible"

Emily's eyes seemed to turn even bloodier. "Don't..." she hissed. "... make fun of me!"

The power exploded through her with such force that it was a miracle Charlie wasn't blown away; she had to plant her feet on the ground and still was dragged back a few inches, and it felt like someone had just punched her hard in every part of her body. She didn't have time to think about this, though, because her blood ran cold as she saw a large root growing under her sister's eye. "Emily, your face...!"

Emily barely touched her cheeks. "Are they back? Good!" she exclaimed, as more roots sprouted through her hair, onto her cheeks and forehead. "Look at me now! Look at me now that I don't look like Miss All Sunshine and Rainbows! Try telling me I'm not horrible now! You made me like this, remember that! You and all the other liars in this fucking universe!"

What felt like a wave of fear seemed to emanate from her, hitting Charlie's heart like a spear. More roots exploded from Emily's body, growing from her arms, shoulders, and back, so much so that she resembled a terribly twisted and diseased version of a tree. The sight of her had become so terrifying that it would probably have paralyzed even Satan, especially her eyes that seemed to contain evil itself...

But despite that, Charlie closed the distance between them again and grabbed her face in her hands, heedless of the roots that were cutting into her like brambles. "You're not horrible" she repeated.

Emily trembled. Damn, part of her wanted to grab Charlie and push her away, maybe tear her arms off, but another part of her was holding her back. "How stupid can you be!? Can't you see what there is right in front of you!?"

"There is my little sister" was all Charlie could say in response. "And you said it yourself, I'm the one who made you this way. Why do you call yourself horrible and not me?"

Emily's eyelids fluttered, and the roots growing from her body moved as if to strike Charlie, but they stopped just shy of touching her. "You still keep trying to take the responsibility off my back!? I don't need it, bitch! I'm the most powerful being in the universe now! I don't need your stupid pity! I've done other things I haven't told you about, you know!? For your information, I've been spying on you this whole time! The red horseman? I created him, as a backup measure in case you screwed up!"

"Uh?" Charlie murmured speachless.

"Yes, I did it!" Emily said. "And I did it because I didn't think you were fit to rule a kingdom in the slightest, and I was right! Stolas' troubles, Stella and Joe's deaths, all of it is YOUR responsibility! You're a failure as a queen and as a sister!"

Charlie had dreamed those words many times, she had repeated them to herself countless times, and each time they had hurt her terribly; but this time, she felt only deep pity. "If all this is my fault, why do you call yourself horrible?" she asked again.

Emily let out a growl. She was desperately searching for any sign of fear, fury, hatred or any other negative emotion in Charlie's eyes, but she found none. "Fuck... fuck, fuck, fuck...!" she hissed furiously. "How much I hate you...!"

"That's not true" Charlie interrupted her immediately. "You may despise me, you blame me, but you don't hate me"

"Oh, you do!? What makes you think that!?" Emily growled.

"You told me that" Charlie reminded her.