Kill Satan? Rin thought incredulously. As he hung there, suspended by chains and strapped to a machine against his will, Rin Okumura began to laugh.

"No one can kill Satan," He said through the laughter, "He's practically a god – that's what 'King of Gehenna' means!"

The circle of yellowy-light barely illuminated the room, but Rin could tell that others were in the room. They stood at the edge of the circle of light that illuminated the centrepiece of the room: the machine that Rin was attached to. As Rin giggled to himself, in the dim orange light of the chamber, he saw leader Alvar's face change. It was a slow metamorphosis; his face sank, the emotion on it rubbed away into a cold nothingness.

Alvar turned his head, looking off into the eyes of an outside spectator. How dare this spawn of satan mock his plan – did he not know of the way to kill satan?

"Even gods can be killed, Akuma-chan, it has happened many times before," Alvar muttered, his ever-present sneer deepening.

"W-what?" Rin gasped, "How, when?"

Instead of answering Satan's son's question, Alvar just stared deep into Rin's eyes, while the 191 other creed members chanted as one;

"Shaitan, Appolyon, Set,

with terrible fates they met,

Angra Mainu, Kroni,

Locked within Assiah's body,

Beelzebub, Azezel, Apep,

Cursed unto death,

Ahriman, Lucifer, Asuras,

No longer the Kings of Gehenna,

Satan,

Soon to meet them."


GG smiled as he sang the rhyme along with the creed members. Unlike the esquires, the almighty Gehenna's Guide could hear all that went on within its domain. And this network of caves was the dwelling of GG's host, so GG had easily made the caves his domain. Bon turned his head, eyeing the creepy figure that was tagging along.

"What was that?" He asked, not stopping.

GG laughed, The legend of the rulers of Gehenna, it replied, Satan was not always on Gehenna's illustrious throne you know,

Yukio stopped, his eyes widening, "What?!"

Gehenna's Guide stopped, the white dots on its face staring directly into Yukio's soul, The others have been killed, betrayed and usurped over the years. It's the way of Gehenna,

Shiemi gasped, "So there is a way to deafeat Satan," she whispered.

Bon couldn't help himself, he smiled: finally, a chance for him to get his revenge. Since Bon had set defeating Satan as his goal, he had always worried that it was, like Kamiki said, a naïve goal. After all Satan walked in a higher place, somewhere that Bon would never be able to reach. Satan walked among the gods of their time – what chance would an immature exorcist like Bon have to defeat Satan? But now Bon knew that there was a way to kill Satan. Bon was going to walk that tight-rope thin path that was now ahead of him, the path that lead to the death of Satan.

"What is the way?" Bon inquired, his voice excited and rushed – he wanted to know!

Gehenna's Guide spared the Kyoto esquire a glace, before bending over and laughing, Revenge again, hm? It sneered, its layered voice sending chills through the esquires' bodies, You humans are detestable creatures – what luck to find such a vengeful race!

Bon stayed quiet, staring fully into the eyes of GG

There is one way for the people of Assiah to kill the leader of Gehenna for good, GG said, turning round and beginning to walk down the mossy-green tunnel again, You must lock Satan within the body of one of its kin, and then kill them both.


"We will lock Satan within you, and then kill you both. This is the only way for a person of Assiah to kill one of the Kings of Gehenna," Alvar explained, his eyes dark and unreadable

Cold hands of fear gripped at Rin's heart in that moment. It was all so clear now – this was why Rin was clamped into place. It would make it easy to kill Rin now; there would be no resistance from him.

Never had Rin wished more for his flames than he did then.

Is this true, Impure King? Can this kill Satan? He couldn't help but ask the one possessing him, turning his mind inwards. The presence in Rin's mind stirred, and suddenly the Impure King was awake again,

I am not sure. I am a mere babe compared to the thing that is possessing Alvar so I cannot compare to its knowledge. The Impure King clarified, puzzlement emanating from him and into Rin's mind.

What is possessing Alvar?

It is an old being, known as Gehenna's Guide. It is the advisor to the Kings of Gehenna, but it is also the mediator. My guess is that it's not happy with Satan's rule and wants to get rid of him.

Rin gulped, his mind rejecting the information swelling through it. He didn't want to die! Rin had only just become friends with others; he wanted to forge more memories with them. The pain in his ribs and lungs became more pronounced as he gasped for air, suddenly unable to breathe.

Do not forget, Spawn of Satan, that those of Gehenna are tricksters and liars. Gehenna's Guide could be at the top of Gehenna, but chooses instead to manipulate them from the shadows. The Impure King interjected smugly.

Rin shook his head, abruptly shaking his limbs. He thrashed as hard as he could, trying desperately to escape. Red-hot pain boiled up from within him when he tried this; he gasped as his whole body protested against him. Still he thrashed, until his body was at breaking point. Then his head slumped, as sobs of fear wracked through him. He had only just found his resolve to live; he was finally beginning to live with himself.

But now.

But now, this creed was trying to take away that one thing that he'd always had, but never appreciated. His Life.

'At least it's not Yukio' he thought suddenly, realising that it could have been Yukio. Suddenly, like a warm shower, relief washed over him. The relief rinsed away the frustration and fear, leaving nothing but a small film of it over his skin. He shut his eyes, releasing the tension in his body. He resigned himself, muscle by muscle, to his fate.

He glanced at Alvar, who seemed to be taking in a deep breath; as though he was about to begin the countdown to Rin's death. Rin threw back his head as much as the collar of the machine would allow, and began to howl in mourning.

He was mourning the life that he would never again appreciate; he was so afraid.


Bon's blood chilled, his heart beating heavily in his ears. The tight-rope path to Satan's death crumbled and broke in front of his eyes, plunging him back into darkness – there was no hope of defeating Satan now. Not now he knew that either Yukio or Rin would have to pay for his selfish revenge.

GG continued to walk, the rest of the esquires following suit. Humans are interesting… It muttered, It is in your best interest to destroy Satan, and yet you are all against it now.

"Of course we are!" Shiemi cried, "Rin is our friend, and he has saved our lives so many times now!"

Aah, a life debt. Even one such as I knows of them. Not that I would honour them.

"Of course you wouldn't," Konekomaru whispered disdainfully, "You do not understand honour,"

You are indeed correct.

Konekomaru frowned at the demon's honesty, "Then how do we know that what you tell us about Gehenna is true? How do we know that this will kill Satan?"

"Konekomaru!" Chided Kamiki warningly, "Don't even think about letting this actually happen!"

"I know that! I would never wish for Okumura-kun's death! But it is a worry; what if all this plan achieves is a angry King of Gehenna that is trapped in Assiah?" Konekomaru retorted,

My, humans that no longer seek revenge are fearsome creatures – you saw right through me! GG laughed. As it did, the cave became darker around it, and it grew becoming a menacing, towering figure that stood angrily above them. They could suddenly see very clearly why the kings of Gehenna followed the advice of this one creature so religiously.

Now that you know my secret, maybe I should just kill you all? It mocked, its voice suddenly mimicking a villain from a bad TV programme.

The esquires gathered together, unsure as to whether they should laugh or quake in their boots. GG resolved it quickly by laughing.

Either way I will benefit from this situation. Satan has been king for too long, so the humans will kill him eventually. If by some miracle he escapes the death from humans, he will be unable to escape his son's body and will thus no longer be the king of Gehenna.

"Why are you telling us this, oh great Gehenna's Guide?" Bon asked, sarcasm dripping from the words.

Because there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it, especially not now.


The 191 creed members were murmuring, their voices melding into one. Alvar did not speak; instead he drew, with a piece of crumbling white chalk, a summoning circle within the circle of light of the room. It was an intricate circle of broken swirls and flames. What looked like imps held onto the inner circle of the spell, this circle was surrounding the machine.

"This machine has been useful to us," Said Alvar absentmindedly as he drew the circle, running over each line twice so that it was thick and resistant to rubbing. "It allowed us to test this ritual numerous times – lesser demons do not need to be summoned into a blood relative,"

Rin just hung there, drained from his struggling and screaming. It was too much to see this, to hear what this crazy one was saying. Alvar completed another line: the image of a sun being eaten by one of the imps from the inner circle.

"We even discovered how to reverse it. We tested it on ourselves,"

One of the chanting hooded figures stepped forward. Without stopping her spell, this shrouded woman lowered her hood. She pointed her blind, scarred eyes in the direction of Rin.

"We will all die for the creed," She said, her mutilated lips turning up into a jagged smile. Her voice was hoarse, like she'd screamed too much. Her throat had scratch scars on it, as though she'd clawed at it desperately enough to leave scars. Rin couldn't look any longer.

And die you shall mused the Impure King within Rin's mind, taking pleasure from the foolishness of humans.

"I suppose you didn't assist in this at all, right Alvar?" Rin spat, allowing his words to become venomous and for the poison to throb in the air.

"I have already been possessed by a demon once, to open myself out to more will surely kill me,"

"Like others from this order have no doubt died!"

Alvar was silent. He nodded at the woman, and she bowed her black-haired head. It was patchy, her hair, a patchwork of scarred skin and flowing locks of hair. She raised her hood, struggling with the fabric in her maimed, fingerless hands. Eventually, Alvar lifted the hood for her. He let his hand touch her face briefly before she disappeared into the black edges of the room once more.

"Kana was the worst affected of all of us, we wanted to know what happened when powerful demons were forced into one of us. It seems that without a blood connection, the body rejects the new demon presence," Alvar explained, taking a brush and pot of ink from someone on the side-lines of the room.

"You experimented on your own people," Rin growled, his teeth razor sharp and his ears pushed back in anger.

"Would you not have done the same? If a war was being fought, would you not also fight against those who seek your destruction?" Alvar asked, his steely blue gaze seeming to pierce Rin's eyes,

"Not if it involves injuring those who devoutly follow me, that would be the same as betraying them,"

"So you would do it to someone you don't know?" Alvar grinned, revelling in the fact that he just cornered Rin, "What is the difference between those who follow me and those who do not, besides the fact that there is trust between us?"

Rin was silent, now eyeing the brush and ink in Alvar's hands suspiciously,

"Ah, you thought the circle just involved me drawing on the floor? You are also part of the circle!" Alvar laughed, stepping forward. He carefully avoided the myriad of white lines on the floor in front of him as he half-danced, half-walked towards the rusting metal that held Rin. Rin began to struggle with renewed force – if Alvar ruined the circle, the ritual would be broken!

Alvar merely looked at Rin, unimpressed, before motioning towards one of the creed henchmen that stood in the darkness. The mechanism moaned into life, gears clicking into place, while pistons puffed steam into the air. During that time, Rin's struggling increased and a hook-like object curved down from beyond Rin's ear and hooked itself over his jawline. The machine belched a puff of smoke, before a seond hook appeared from the other side of Rin's face, helping the other one pull his jaw down. Rin cried out wordlessly, as a binding bar slipped itself over his forehead, holding his head in place, while his jaw was stretched unwillingly to breaking point. More bars and pads pressed themselves down on Rin's major joints, so that he could no longer move at all.

A needle containing a sickly yellow liquid swung down from above the terrified, feral exorcist's head. It squeezed slightly, allowing all air to escape from its tip, before jabbing harshly and accurately into Rin's mouth. Rin cried in pain, but for all his strength, he could not move an inch with the binding grip of the device. The needle emptied its contents into his vital vein within the mouth, and Rin felt the whole world twist and dim. He could no longer remember how to move his muscles, so his body fell limp.

Alvar walked up to Rin and stared him directly in the eye. He dipped the brush into the ink and began to paint jagged lines over Rin's face. It was only then, as the paintbrush reached his torso that Rin realised that he was bare-chested.

The machine was still whirring noisily, but Rin couldn't focus on that, he was trying to shake himself free of whatever it was that had paralysed him. He felt a black circle be drawn on his chest, over his heart, and other squiggly shapes within and around.

Alvar looked at Rin's legs for a moment, deciding after a second to motion once more to the chanting blackness surrounding them. The cuffs around Rin's leg popped open, before a thick pipe swirled down to the appendage, wrapping itself around the limb. It tightened, twisting and stretching the leg until…

Until..

SNAP.

The leg crumpled and cracked as the knee joint was splintered and cracked.

Hot bile rippled up Rin's throat, his eyes widened in shock, and a strangled, gargled cry erupted from his throat. Hot, burning pain ripped its way through his already broken body.

"That will teach you to resist when we are creating a circle," Alvar revealed mercilessly. Silence followed his words: the 191 tenants of the creed had stopped chanting.

It was time.

'Tempore demittantur ista bestia,

ut transeat ad eum

iudicium suum.'

Whispered Alvar, along with the rest of the creed; 192 voices, all speaking as one, all completing the spell.

Rin didn't have time to react. All he knew was that there was pain, hot, writing agony, and a lot of it.

Echoing throughout the dungeon, Rin's screams were heard. Rin felt it, the rising heat of flame and fear in his chest.

His death had begun.


Author's Musings: That one was pretty fun :P. It's quite long too, because I had a certain quota to fill for these past two chapters. We're heading into the fully planned finale now, hope you will enjoy it! I'm on holiday next week - which is why I finished this chapter for today. Hopefully I'll still write in Crete, even if it's only on paper :)

This one seems to be slightly AU, sorry!

The ending spell is just a google translate into Latin of

'Time to release this beast,
in order to pass unto him,
his judgement.'

Review replies:

Guest: Here ya go, hope you've enjoyed it!

blackchaosaria2501: Hi! :3, I'm glad I've piqued your interest! To be honest, I could have gone down the pair-centric route, but Ao no Exorcist is too young for any definite pairings - (sorry 'bout that), and I try to always keep in canon. Hope you continue reading and enjoying from here out and thank you for the kind words!

Fireminer: Yeah, I realised that my recent chapters have certainly been extremely lacking in the description front - sorry about that. I was trying to bring that back in this chapter, have I succeeded? Thanks for the critique and kind words!

ShiroHichi891: You can bet that it's not a good plan! And that plan is snowballing into motion very quickly! I hope to engage you more and more too! Thanks for the kind words!

See you guys soon, review?