A week had passed since the queen and king had... celebrated... the building of their new home with four of his forms.
They had found the free time to examine her current state, learn the properties of her flames. She learned that she could turn her flames into human flesh, which was no great surprise to either in light of her ability to make a solid body.
Mephisto had checked in with Mephista, to see how she was managing. He learned that the current rate was over five million new dead daily, from the four-thousand inhabited planets in the mortal realm, so she and the placement staff (several thousand psychics) had just dumped the dead into a burning river.
Meanwhile, in the mortal realm, Stephen and Clea had reached the conclusion that there was no problem. They had agreed that since Hell was home to perhaps one-hundred million demons, the royal family would be too busy quelling rebellions to do anything else for eternity. The most exciting thing all week, though, happened four days ago.
Magma had taken flight to the north-west, soared across the underworld's sky. She quickly crossed the wasteland beyond their villa, then a mountain range, then another wasteland. A forest followed, and there she saw a swarm of demon bats - mouthless beasts with tentacles in place of legs.
The forest gave way to grassland where she briefly observed a village. Another wasteland followed the grassland, and fifteen minutes in, she saw a giant worm. An ocean of fire had followed the wasteland, the air filled with the wailing of the damned, a sound she was neutral to.
Among the following landscapes were a forest where she saw a pack of N'Garai on the hunt, a wasteland where she saw Asteroth the Old One fight a trio of two-headed dogs, which had made Magma stop to wonder how she had survived the Mending unnoticed, and a volcanic land full of fire demons.
Magma had crossed a scorched wasteland filled with lava lakes and rivers for most of the day, the first unfamiliar region she had found so far. She eventually spotted a village.
Magma cast a look over it while descending, a pensive frown on her face. Small houses laid scattered about, while a handful of the locals watched her cautiously.
"There is no need to worry," Magma called out to them. "I'm only here as a tourist, not to cause any kind of trouble for you. If you wish me to leave, I'll do so right away."
The locals continued to watch her with suspicion. Magma saw an approaching figure in her right eye's corner and turned to face it, seeing a green humanoid with four eyes and arms.
"I would like to trust your word, traveler," Alioth told Magma. "However, our village cannot afford that. So, please, leave us."
"May I ask why not before I go?" Magma questioned. "No, I think I can guess. You're biding your time for a rebellion, aren't you?" She asked with a smirk.
"Correct," another voice said. Magma turned around, seeing a three-headed cat glare daggers. "Know this. Even if you don't serve the Haemovore Kings, we cannot let you leave with that information."
Magma looked quizzical. "The Hameovore Kings have been dead for almost one-hundred years." A deep silence followed the statement.
"Say that again?" Alioth asked her. A number of others watched her with confusion as well.
"I don't know the whole story, but they succumbed to infighting after two of them turned on the others. The war left none standing," Magma related.
"If that is true, then you have my gratitude for telling us this," Alioth told her. "Do you also know who rules this realm?"
A grin broke out on Magma's face. "Yes. I'm the queen of all of Hell." A heavy silence reigned, once she finished the sentence. Alioth gaped at the stranger. "I'm afraid that this village's information has is outdated."
"I am starting to see that," the hellcat agreed somberly. "It seems my greeting is overdue. I am Utros, defender of this village."
"I'm Magma," she replied indifferently. "At least one of you should have heard of me. I've been around for two full centuries, and I am the architect of the new underworld order." The listening demons stared cluelessly.
"I'm sorry, 'new underworld order'?" Alioth echoed. "Could you please elaborate on that?"
Magma considered how to put it for a moment. "Several months ago, I began a military campaign to conquer and merge the hell dimensions, which I won. This plane is now the one and only Hell."
"You mean to say that even Dormammu and Shuma-Gorath have fallen?" the demon cat questioned, openly skeptical.
"Yes. I led three-thousand mages to battle and we gradually wore him down," Magma related, almost feeling cold at the memory. "Shuma-Gorath left this universe a long time ago, though."
Silence descended over the area. Alioth hung his head, unsure what to make of this.