She broke away from him and turned towards us as she continued the story. “So as you can tell, we fell in love.” She clutched his arm so tight I could see her nails digging in so much that blood started to drip, but he didn't even flinch. “How adorable, right?! The angel and the demon. It was like a fairy tale!” She clapped her hands in quick succession. “Then we noticed something weird when we would play with the artifacts… If we used them at the same time, the magics would bend towards each other.” She looked back at us, practically drooling.
“Then one day, I had this idea. What would even happen if we blended the two powers together, making it both blessed and cursed? Would it cancel each other out? Would one take over the other? Would they be transformed? Stay the same, like nothing happened?” She started pacing, like she was lost in memories of her past.
“So I told Behemoth about my dreams. About how horrible it was up in Heaven. How those of us who had done right in our lives, been good people in society, got to go to the ever-elusive Heaven, just to be worked every day in our afterlife. Working to help those humans who are still alive! Why would I want to do that for the rest of eternity? That was the reward for all the things I deprived myself of?!”
She started heaving, her eyes getting cartoonishly wide as she glared at the spot the creator laid, her breath getting more and more erratic as she sunk deeper and deeper into her chaotic mind until Behemoth ran a single finger down her spine. It was like a light bulb was switched off and then on as her eyes closed and opened again. A wide smile appeared, and her eyes twinkled with mirth.
“Anyways, Behemoth here had the great idea of trying this on some of the souls here in Purgatory.”
Lillian decided it was a great moment to interrupt her, and her voice came out cold and detached, like she was not genuinely interested. “If you did this with Purgatory souls, how did the sorters not notice them missing?” Her question had validity, but I didn't know if that was what we should focus on.
Muriel giggled. “You dumb, idiot girl. The sorters have been lacking in their job the past few decades. The souls coming across have been more polar opposite than ever, so they keep forgetting about the souls here. We also take the newest drops, knowing that they won't be looking for those souls for a very long time. By the time they notice, Heaven and Hell should be destroyed, so they will have plenty of other things to think about.”
Destroyed?Why would someone want that? If that happened, the world would descend into darkness and chaos. Not because of some war or some spiritual reason; it was based on the fact that Heaven and Hell were the two realms sandwiching the human realm, making sure the earth didn't tilt too far, or a meteor didn’t come and destroy the world. The two realms effectively protected Earth and the humans on it.
I also secretly thought the two realms were also preventing other space lifeforms from coming to Earth. If it didn't have that protection, anything could happen to the humans.
Muriel piped up, “So we wondered what would happen if we did that—combining the blessed and cursed magic on the souls here. Do you want to see the outcome?”
Her insane grin was plastered to her face as she whistled, and something rumbled from the cave hallway.
A claw appeared and landed in the dirt, and Muriel squealed in delight as she put her hands on her knees and patted her thighs. “Come to Mama, baby.”
The creature slid its way forward into the light.
All of us gasped as our eyes landed on the grotesque remains of a Purgatory soul. This soul looked hunchbacked yet huge. Its skin was a solid, bumpy pinkish hue. It had one crooked wing on one side and a limp leg on the other. Its face was distorted beyond recognition. Its eyes were huge like a bug, its cheeks swollen so large that its nose had disappeared. Its mouth was wide, and its teeth turned into sharp points, visible because its jaw was crooked and didn't line up. It made me feel bad for the creature.
I looked over at Behemoth. His face was neutral and unyielding, but his eyes held a note of sadness. Why was he doing all of this? His gaze pulled away from the grotesque soul, landing on Muriel. His obsession and appreciation for her was plain to see. This fool was in love with this crazy woman and just went along with it all to please her. I couldn’t fault him for loving that batshit woman, but at the same time, he was just going along with it, disrupting the careful system that ran everything. It was far from perfect, but I didn't think anything could be perfect when dealing with living beings. That didn’t give them an excuse to distort and ruin souls that had not been judged yet.
Muriel jerked her head towards us, pointing at us again as she said, “Devorabit eos.”
The glowing force field disappeared, and the creature sniffed at first, catching some scent before chomping its uneven jaws furiously, flinging drool in thick globs. It looked at us like we were a decent meal.
“I'm sorry, our time is up. You need to die.” She cackled as she turned to the creature, pointed at us saying, “Kill, kill, kill!”
The creature tipped its head back and roared, then sprinted towards us, while Muriel created a force field around her and Behemoth. Why would she need protection from her own creature?
The guys and I turned, ready to protect Lillian, when we saw her running up to meet the monster. What the fuck?! I turned back to look at the spot she had been just a moment ago, and she wasn’t there. I bubbled with rage as I realized she must’ve just slipped through between us.Fucking damn it!
“If Lillian is going to go fight that thing, can you four try to get Lucifer and me out?” Michael said as he yanked on his chains.
Lucifer didn't say anything, his eyes never leaving his daughter.
We didn't move at Michael’s request, instead, we watched Lillian, waiting to see if she needed us. If we jumped in while she was handling it and something went wrong, she would be so pissed at us, and I just knew we would hear about it for the next century.
“Pummel that thing, little goddess!” War yelled.
Lillian dodged the creature's first attack as it tried to take a chunk out of her shoulder. She turned and twisted around like a graceful panther, dodging and ducking all of its attacks while landing some punches and kicks of her own. My heart swelled with pride as I watched my mate. She was magnificent.
Con started cheering her on as he punched the air. “Kick its ass, babe!”
Death was watching her intently, his eyes tracking all of her movements. I could see his plan plain as day on his face. He was waiting for his moment to be tagged in. Practically bouncing on his toes, he continued to watch her, so I decided to watch the creature, looking for any signs of weakness or slowing down, but there weren't any. I noticed Muriel was laughing in the background, and I knew something wasn't right.
Before I could let Lillian know, she gathered some of her magic and hit the creature with it, aiming for his chest. It bent down and opened its mouth, swallowing down the power in one gulp. Muriel’s laughter turned into a howl, hitting her knee, as Lillian tried a different power to hit it with, but nothing fazed it. In fact, the mutated soul ate the power like it was nothing.
Lillian screamed in frustration and called Hellfire into her hands and shot that at the soul, but it was no use. The creature just absorbed the fire, and this time, it grew a little bigger.
I started to get this bad feeling in my gut when Muriel’s howling got louder, turning all our attention towards her. “You don't get it, do you? That creature was made withbothGod's divine and cursed power. At first it looked like they canceled each other out as this creature can't conjure or produce any magic… but it canconsumeit. It can consume all the powers that the leaders of HeavenandHell have and not be stopped. Well, it can’t be stopped by anyone but me.” Her evil grin darkened, making my skin crawl with her words. They couldn't stop it. None of the higher ups could stop it.
