I looked back at the Creator, who was still unconscious on the stone slab. I watched the two most powerful beings in existence, chained to a wall, bicker about how they could possibly fix this with this new information.
“Oh, and this one was only our first one,” Muriel cooed at the soul like it was a baby while it continued to prowl around Lillian. Then she turned her gaze towards us. “It was our tester, but it wasn't the only one.”
There was a sudden rumble throughout the cave, like an earthquake, and we struggled to stay still.
“You see, there's a fundamental problem with Heaven and Hell.” She glared at the Maker as she continued, “It’s switched. Those who lived their lives hoping for paradise, for everything that they ever wanted to be granted to them in their afterlife, only to be assigned jobs and tasks. More work.” She spit out the last part, disgusted with her place in the afterlife. Then she looked at Lucifer with a snarl. “And those who had done bad things, things that only furthered themselves, got to continue that behavior in Hell. Punishing each other, having a grand old time while they repeated their sins. Sure, they paid for it in the end, but they still got satisfaction for that sin for a minute before the hammer dropped. And they get to do that for the rest of eternity! So we are going to change that, but first, we have to get rid of the leadership. Eliminate those who would try to stop me.”
I could hear the creatures still working their way down the cave slowly, thumps echoing with every limping step, but I knew different. I’d seen it when it had fought Lillian. It seemed like it didn't have much range of movement, but in the heat of the fight, that all changed, and it was quick and fast.
“That's why it took a while to get it all to happen. We had to collect all the artifacts, both from Heaven and Hell. Since mine were all in one spot, it seemed easy, but I had to make fakes, and that took time.” She huffed as she flicked at her nails. “Behemoth had to use the artifact he found, the Ring of Disguise, in order to sneak into the other circles and find the other artifacts. He had a lot of nasty things happen to him while he was in the circles he was not meant to be in but it was all for the greater good.” She petted his arm while he flinched at the memories. “Then it was just a matter of time and testing for the creatures.”
“How did you get our Father?!” Lucifer yelled, snapping out of his petty fight with Michael.
Muriel lifted her chin with a gleam in her eyes. “We took an educated gamble. I thought that since he’d made them all, if we combined them, we would be more powerful. More powerful than not only the leaders, but maybe the Almighty Father too. So we worked up a spell to use the magic to encase him. This way, after we get rid of you all and fix the system, we won’t have anyone interfering with it. Not even the Creator. He can stay like that for the rest of existence while we run the show.”
The cave started to get abnormally hot, the heat radiating from one source: Lillian. She stood there, eyes narrowed and hands balled into fists at her side. She was radiating so much power that the ground around her feet was starting to tremble. She suddenly threw up her hands and bellowed in rage.
“You. Fucking. Idiot! You. Stupid. Imbecile! You. Waste. Of. A. Fucking. Soul!”
I didn't know if that was the best approach to handling this psycho angel and her demon henchman, but I understood the sentiment.
“You don't get it, do you? You don't understand why each place is the way it is. Maybe if you stopped feeling sorry for yourself for one fucking second, you would realize. Or maybe you’re really that dumb, and I need to spell it out for you.”
I shook my head at her, this was not the time to give a life lesson, but apparently, my mate thought otherwise.
“Did you ever think that maybe you wouldn't want the people who have done evil, the people who have been selfish for most of their lives, guiding others? What if they purposely pointed them in the wrong direction? What if they just wanted to fuck with the living humans because it made them feel good? No, you wouldn't. You would want the people who had done the right thing, the people who knew the personal benefits and sacrifices of doing the right thing, even without gratitude, because they learned how to be selfless. They learned the value of selflessness and the other joys that went with it.”
Lillian threw up her arms in a huff. “That’s the gift of Heaven. That you get to use your selflessness to help others. To fill your heart with the goodness you put out into the world. Not that you get to come to some paradise, where all your needs are met. That’s selfish, and that kind of behavior belongs in Hell because that place is only about self-fulfillment. It's the place where those who only cared or thought of themselves in their human life go to learn the suffering of constantly thinking about themselves. How in the end, a few minutes of self-happiness was not worth an eternity of pain and suffering. That’s what the system is about.” She took a step closer to Muriel and stabbed her finger out at her. “You just got sorted wrong.”
“That's my daughter,” I heard Lucifer tell Michael with so much pride you would think she’d just fixed everything, but I had a feeling it was going to get worse before it got better.
Muriel stared at her for a few seconds, letting her words sink in until she shrugged her shoulders. “It's too late for all of that.”
She turned to the hallway and screamed as she pointed to my mate, “Kill her. Kill them all, but make sure you kill herfirst.”
Then a whole horde of those creatures came into light, and I knew we were fucked.
I started to panic, looking everywhere for some way to escape but couldn’t find any. I looked to my brothers and knew that our powers were not enough. Even if we fought alongside Lillian, we didn't have enough strength to take out this magic-eating horde before they destroyed us and consumed all our power.
I watched our gorgeous, strong, and determined mate straighten her shoulders, slide her feet into a fighting stance and motion for them to come at her. No fear, no hesitation. Even if she logically knew we all wouldn't make it out, she still glared true evil in the face and refused to back down. A being like her deserved to live a very long and happy life, a life my brothers and I wanted to give her, but ultimately failed to do.
I turned towards Lucifer to apologize for failing as her mates, but as soon as our eyes met, he mouthed something. I squinted, understanding his message as he said it again. Then I looked at Michael, who nodded in agreement.
My mind whirled with the implications, but if they both thought we should, then who was I to say no? If it ensured that Lillian made it out of this alive, I was going to do it. I promised to be a good mate, and that's what I was going to do.
I turned to my brothers, calling them with my mind, and surprisingly, they all looked at me. I mouthed only one word:Apocalypse. Their eyes widened, but then they heard Lillian grunt at the creatures fighting her. Our collective gaze snapped to her to see the creatures had finally made it to her, and the first one swiped at her with its claws, catching her on the arm and making her bleed.
My brother's faces were engulfed with rage and then turned to me, nodded in agreement.
We all moved as one to make a solid line. Con, War, Me, then D. The order that the angels had said we would come in. Our heels dug into the ground, our jaws tightened, and our eyes came alive as we looked at Lillian.
I committed every single moment with her to memory, locking that in my heart for the end of time, because me and my brothers were determined. We’d made a promise, and we always kept our word. Always.
I counted down, making sure we released it all at the same time to trigger the Apocalypse.
“Three.”
I kept my eyes on Lillian, wishing we could’ve had more time.
