Chapter 2: Satan's Wrath
Kage's castle
The Pit
Gehenna
2 months ago
The demon Lord's sharp blue eyes narrowed. His gaze traveled up to the paintings on the wall, lingered on the empty space above the desk where a map used to be, and glanced at the -empty- fireplace. An eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Even when he wasn't here, Kage managed to complicate things. He knew that, of course, and so had imagined a lot of things when he came, but this... wasn't what he had expected. His son's place, for example. He had expected a dark, gothic place, filled with black candles and furs and the skulls of defeated intruders and various "interesting" things in little glass pots like each and every one of his sons... Paperwork, even! But no, his son's room was a clean, spacious, tidy place with shelves filled with more reading material that he had seen in all of his son's rooms COMBINED, and colorful paintings covering the walls. He looked up at one of them: the Great Bridge.
Stone as red as blood, hints of purple and cobalt veins, chalk-white milestones, a great and proud arch linking the two sides of the Erebus Rift. A gorgeous sight, highlighted by the bloody colors of a sunset.
He moved his eyes to another one, shockingly green: a view of the Amahara garden, taken just before dawn, when the flowers are still closed and every leaf is covered in faintly sparkling morning dew. Each and every flower, tree, leaf, Greenman and goblin had been rendered with incredible precision.
The next one: an aerial sight of the Cerberus Hills, the quarries of Gehenna. Black glistening obsidian, hard grey granite, streaks of marble and the glint of adamant veins running like metal rivers in the stone. The far left hill null of life, covered in grey ashes, everlasting reminder of one of the Lord of Gehenna's temper tantrums.
Another one had been painted at Cocytus, the spring of he Styx: the clear water sprouting from the icy grounds and gathering in little ponds down the mountain side.
And another, a view of Rhadamante, the underground city, buildings carved into the mountain itself.
And another at Lux, the city of Light and Lucifer's capital.
And another from the roofs of Elysium's great night market.
And again, the World Trees.
And another, Teleri.
And again
and again
.
.
'Oh, the irony', thought the Demon King bitterly. 'The only one I banned from Gehenna seems to know its wonders better than anyone else on this god-forsaken realm. Just how did he manage to get up the Tartarus Walls? I made sure he couldn't climb the Stairs, so how did he get in Gehenna?' Whilst he was wondering how his son had managed to skirt around his orders, the demon realized something. Kage couldn't show himself freely in Gehenna, and had probably made all those paintings because he had thought that if he couldn't come to Gehenna, he could still make Gehenna come to him. He sighed. What a fool...
As he was scanning the room for other things that might have escaped his search, Satan's eyes spotted a piece of white near the fireplace. Of course, there was no fire there -not anymore- or he wouldn't have found it. But what better place than the chimney to make something disappear? He came closer, crouched, and picked up the piece of paper. It was burnt, blackened by smoke, but still recognizable.
A map fragment.
The paper showed a place down the Pit, the outline of the Lethe Sea on the western side, a piece of the Falls, where the Styx was flowing down the Wall, and surprisingly enough, hand-drawn on the great expanse of black water, an island. A little building with a tower had been added on it, and named 'Shadow Haven'. A dotted line was joining the island and the beaches of Lethe, with a little boat drawn in the middle. The King immediately asked for a map of the Pit.
It took the demon King and his underlings several hours to reach the Sea of Souls, Lethe, and even more time to find the place where Kage had hid his embarcation. It had been concealed in a half-immersed cave, a dory made of dark polished wood, shining with a reddish glow even when all the light came from the King's flames. A wood Satan had never seen, neither in Assiah or Gehenna.
"I have a bad feeling about all this..." muttered the demon as he sat in the dory and grabbed the oars. He then started paddling, and his minions either flew -for those who could- or swam all around him as they made their way towards the island creeping in and out of a dense fog.
It took about half an hour for the blue-flaming demon to reach the fog cloud. As soon as the embarcation touched the mist, it divided and spread, creating two towering walls, on each side of the dory, in a matter of seconds. The reddish sky of Gehenna was piercing through the white cover. Satan brought the oars back to the inside of the boat as an invisible pushed it smoothly towards the island. His sharp blue eyes soon made out a shape on the patch of earth, like a black pillar near the top of the 'hill' of the island. Shadow Haven. The building looked a bit too much like a church to the King's tastes. It was, all in all, a flat , rectangular construction of black stone and wood, with a long needle-like tower.
Heh. His Shadow Child had always loved heights as much as he loved his peace and quiet. The now very curious demon got out of the dory as soon as it hit the rocky shores and made his way up, his eyes riveted to the column of the tower.
From up close, the building looked even more like a chapel, though this impression was rapidly erased when the demon King got inside. There were three rooms: the first was a living-room that must also have served as a workplace. Cushions and pillows were piled in the corners, bookshelves on every wall, and every table was covered in paint stains, a pile of canvases on the ground, a big, washed out pot of paint filled to the brim with the stylized handles of paintbrushes. One of the shelves contained enough pots of various shades of paint to paint the whole room with the colors of the rainbow.
The second room was smaller, and served probably both as a kitchen and a cooking lab. Ingredients (where did Kage find all those pots, for Gehenna's sake!) and spices, going from CoalTar tails to rare Assiahn salt, in pots or just drying out in front of the window. Everything, from the tables to the pans, was sparkling clean.
The third room, the demon discovered, was a bedroom. And dear Gehenna, did it look comfortable. Mattresses had replaced rugs, blankets, pillows, covers and cushions in a big pile, forming some kind of nest. The whole place smelled of Kage.
Satan couldn't really believe had built this without anyone knowing. Yes, he was skilled, but still... He must really have been bored. But that didn't explain why he had fled to Assiah. As he exited the room, Satan spotted a faint glint near the end of the corridor. It was a door, concealed by both shadows and a curtain. The handle was flickering and reflecting his blue flames, only clue that the door was even here. He opened it, and suddenly filled with a strange, cold feeling in his gut, he began to climb the stairs inside the tower.
When, half an hour later, the King exited the building, his face was a blank mask, and his eyes icy. His flames were all over the place, crackling in an ominous manner, betraying his emotions. As his minions started fluttering all around him, questioning him, asking for answers, and all-together insulting his son and cursing him for upsetting their King, Satan felt a burning rage rush through his veins. A hate-filled glare unleashed his bright azure flames on the poor unsuspecting demons and burnt them to a crisp in less than a second.
Left alone on the rocky path, the King of Gehenna focused on the tower behind him as he started walking away. It suddenly burst in flames, stone and metal melting under the horrendous heat of the blue fire, fueled by the raging emotions of the betrayed father. The whole of Shadow Haven was quickly engulfed in the eery light of Satan's fire as the King left without looking back. His mind was turning, over and over, what he had found in his son's hideout; and his heart felt empty, too shocked to react to anything.
Maps. There had been maps everywhere, stretching on every wall and up to the ceiling, drawn by ink, charcoal, pens -was that blood on the far left corner?- or carved in the very wall. Maps of Assiah, of Gehenna, of a very detailed version of the Lethe Sea... and of the Forbidden Territories. Some places were circled, others scratched and redrawn, itineraries shown. Names in golden ink, and his son's chicken scratch. The King's gaze wandered on a place circled thrice in red. The name? Fire Forest. Accompanied with a detailed drawing of little flaming birds flying over a black forest. The mention 'FINALLY FOUND IT!' drew his gaze. Found what? The demon then walked to his son's desk, littered with literal piles of paper and parchment. A thick file was resting on top, with the mention: "BLUE FIRE". He opened it.
The first sheet of paper was a drawing, made in shades of red and blue, depicting a magnificent bird on a rock. The bird looked like an eagle crossed with a crowned crane, and little tongues of fire were licking its wings, crest and tail feathers. The Phoenix's glare was fierce and intense, but it's most shocking feature was the fact that its flames were blue like a morning sky. Azure blue. Exactly the same shade as the King's own flame.
Satan lifted a hand to his face to cover his eyes. He knew that creature. Had known it for a long time. How could he ever forget the very creature that had lent his spark, allowing the blue Holy Flame of the Seraphs to become the key to open the Gehenna Gate?
Feeling dread creeping in his stomach, the Demon King began flipping the pages of the file, and the dread increased further, along with a slight nausea. A few pages further in the file, he saw another drawing, a sketch of a glass orb encasing a cerulean flame. Beneath it, a little text:
"After all those years in Praeter Gehenna, I finally reached my goal. Above is a drawing of the case in which I put in stasis the tail feathers the Blue Phoenix gave me. The magic signature matches Father's flames. I am confident that combined with angelic blood, this flame can open the portal between Assiah and Gehenna. Now, all I need is to give it to my half-brother in Assiah to give him the power needed to actually challenge Satan. I would gladly use it myself, but no matter how unconventional I am, I still have demon blood in my veins. We all know what happens when a demon touches angel blood, and it isn't pretty. So: off to Assiah we go!And I'll need to make sure I am not seen. Nobody knows what the King of Shadows looks like, but it isn't a risk I am willing to take."
The Demon King crumpled the drawing and threw it to the ground, where blue flames consumed it. Now he understood. His sixth born, so gentle and quiet, almost too sweet for a demon, had betrayed him. Kage had ignored his Kingdom and his duty, and went exploring the Forbidden Territories, Praeter Gehenna as he called it, to find a way to bring his father down. The demon king bit his lip, trying in vain to keep his temper down. Why? Why, of all people, would his son betray him in such a way? Satan's eyes fell on a shelf in a corner, where a pile of little black, silver-lined notebooks were resting. Kage's journals. He grabbed the books and let his fury run wild. Blue lighted the room as paper and wood began to burn.
One hour later, there was no evidence that someone -that anyone- had ever lived on this island, except for a large, charred hole in the ground where no grass would ever grow again. The King of Gehenna was walking back to Hel, Gehenna's capital, in complete silence, as if lost in his thoughts. He didn't acknowledge his minions when they greeted him in Limbo, didn't greet the Minotaur at the gate of the 7th Circle, and didn't even seem to recognize his son Astaroth when he passed by! No, stone-faced, head high but eyes blank and glassy, his flames barely licking his arms and horns, he walked down the numerous halls of his castle like an automaton.
It wasn't until later, when he found himself alone, locked in his chambers and away from prying eyes, that his composure faltered and his blank mask broke. The Lord fell to his knees, feeling as empty as he had been when he Fell, hair covering his face and shoulders shaking with mirthless laughter. His grip on the books relaxed and they fell to the ground with dull 'thumps'. He didn't seem to notice. Instead, he turned his face to the unforgiving skies, feeling a question escape his lips -a broken man's whimper, so pained and sad and insanely enough, genuine...
"Why?"
No one answered.
A/N: Praeter Gehenna: Beyond Gehenna
Next chapter: New world, new people, new rules.
Forgive me for being so slow with my updates.
