"Hell's history is a tale of change and growth," Mephisto opened the lesson. Malevolence listened eagerly. "The One Below All ruled the original Hell eons ago, and that lasted until a number of nobles rebelled and the Splintering happened. With the Mending, we have entered a new age."
"I know, father," Malevolence said, peeved. "But what I don't understand are those Abstracts mother told me about a few days ago. I mean, don't we rule the underworld? Where does Death fit in?"
Mephisto smiled knowingly. "It is a matter of levels of being, Malevolence. The Abstract Entities are the fundamental aspects of the universe. Death is the concept of mortality and the metaphysical law that the souls of the dead leave the living world."
Malevolence didn't answer, recalling Magma's explanation about how the Abstracts were the natural order, a set of platonic ideals.
"I guess," she said, unsurely.
"Do not think too much of it. It does not matter for now," Mephisto advised, then proceeded to list historical trivia like that Baal and Eligos had become demons fifteen centuries ago. How he sometimes reshaped the realm to his liking, that it had gone from being nine circles to being a vast land in his queen's time.
A while later, she asked another question. "What happened to my brother, Blackheart?"
"We exiled him sixty years ago, after a failed coup," Mephisto disclosed. "Magma's punishment was that he had to walk away, just walk to the furthest corner of Hell. To my knowledge, he remains on that road."
"Huh," Malevolence said.
A human man was alone in a fairly unremarkable room. Its most noteworthy feature was the giant-ass circle and set of runes drawn on the floor. He stood with an open book in his right hand, and his left hand extended to the circle.
"I beseech thee, blessed Order," Saharn announced loudly. "Let me see into the darkness and observe it all." The summoning circle began glowing, and soon, a phantasmal image began to form in the air.
It showed him part of a city and a clear red sky. Six creatures were scattered around the street, simply walking about - a green man with four wings and horns, a three-horned yellow snake, a spider with eleven eyes and a horn, a two-headed hellhound, a seven-tailed fox, a semi-humanoid figure with four burly tendrils. None of them interested him.
The image changed after two minutes of him watching that scene. It showed a bird's eye view over the Bay of Agony - a vast body of lava with a handful of volcanoes in it - and its surrounding land. The only creature hanging out around here was a purple giant, with its face in its torso, whose mouth ran down its chest. It had a third arm on its left side.
Saharn recognized Azazel from the books as a child of the nameless demon, she who was once the Darkchild. That thought led him to another - where was she today? An answer occurred to him next, that she could be anywhere.
The image changed again. It now gave him a bird's-eye view of a forest clearing, where a fight was happening. A flock of demon bears was closing in on a swordsman, while about twenty laid dead or dying. Within moments, they had killed the swordsman and finished the meal.
Then a bloodied stretch of forest and a battle nearing its end, a N'Garai laughing and tearing its prey apart. Then a humanoid thing whose head was divided down the middle by a row of dagger-like fangs
"I doubt any of these is even a century old," Saharn thought. "Please allow me to see deeper into the dark. Show me monsters that have lived and grown for centuries aplenty."
The image complied. It first showed him a street and a giant chimerical thing called Amon, a creature with an owl's head and a wolf's upper body and a snake's lower body. Many pairs of wings adorned its body, and a dozen eyes had sprouted on its head. Saharn's blood ran cold at that sight.
The second vision was a lion-head attached to five goat legs, that towered over its city and subjects. The third vision was a giant spider, with the heads of a human and cat and toad growing from its furry body. The fourth vision was Murmur, a more conventional four-winged man.
It continued and continued, cycling through nightmare creatures. Saharn stared almost transfixed all the while, recognizing each and every one.
"DEEPER! MORE I MUST SEE MORE!" Saharn exclaimed, anxious. The image changed again, into a living room where Mephisto was reading a book with Magma.
Mephisto paused and looked directly at him. "Stranger, it seems you aren't aware of this, but a clairvoyance spell is a risky thing. Its magical energy connects to wherever you watch." The dark lord punctuated the statement by swinging his arm, the upper part vanishing abruptly.
Saharn felt a strong hand grip his neck, his surroundings dropping away. He knew that he was now worse off than dead.
Magma studied the stranger curiously. "I guess I should ask why you were spying on us?"
"I am but a humble student of the magical arts," Saharn struggled a bit to say. "I looked into the underworld to observe demon behavior, nothing more than that."
"Alright then," Magma smirked. "Care to make a deal with the queen of darkness?" Mephisto lowered and released him, folding his arms, giving Saharn a pointed look.
Magma looked out the window, her face turning stony at the sight of an approaching flock. She took flight, inspecting the hundreds-strong flock and seeing a great variety among them. The group was fronted by a bipedal horse, with an ashy white and a straight horn on its forehead.
She landed in front of them, immediately halting their advance. Countless eyes watched her intently.
"I assume that this is no social call?" Magma asked sardonically.
"Nope. We're here to overthrow ya," Azazel said, smirking. A few of them were starting to reconsider this whole thing. Five of them ran or flew away.
Magma raised her hand and sent a stream of flame at Azazel, engulfing him and the three demons behind him despite their attempts to evade it. Confident that they were dead, she ceased fire.
She quickly scanned the flock, a great many of them glaring vengefully back. "I'm going to give you all one chance to leave peacefully." A dozen of them fled while she told them so.
The battle began with them charging at her... and quickly proved one-sided. Magma's flames were more than any of them could stand while nothing they had could truly injure a demon of her nature and strength.
Magma quickly decided to end it, abandoning her humanoid form. The living inferno charged at them while a few streams erupted to pursue the airborne fiends. They all hurried to scatter or flee, but she caught handfuls at a time despite their efforts. She would have chastised them for challenging her if she could speak in this state.
It was only after Magma retook her physical form that she realized that she had not been their only target - saw a ruined chunk of wall and the ruins of their home - and flew over there.
"Malevolence, are you alright?" she called out.
"The child is well," an inhuman voice shouted back, from the other side of the rubble. Magma made her way over, seeing a N'Garai servant and Mephista flanking Malevolence, and that the area ran thick with red and green blood.
"Step-mother, as fun as this has been, I'd like to know what this even was," Mephista said while Magma descended.
"It looks like another rebellion," Magma answered, giving Malevolence a smile. "How are you holding up?"
"I am well," Malevolence answered calmly. "This was fun. Can we do it again someday?"
Magma looked back to Mephista. "Thank you for looking after your sister."
"Don't thank me," Mephista denied. "I did it purely to maintain my standing with the royal family." Malevolence glowered at that. The narration decided to speed through this next bit.
After Mephista had teleported the four to Malphas's palace, Magma explained the situation to him and requested a new palace. Malphas gladly accepted the task and gave them hospitality for the time being. Mephisto had been more than a little surprised to find his house wrecked, and found them eventually at Malphas's place.
Magma and Malphas spent part of that evening making and refining the blueprints for the next palace, which she decided should follow the styles of Nova Roma. The construction work took almost a week, even with Malphas's skill at transmutation magic and legion of assistants.
The end result was a classical villa with two floors and almost one-hundred rooms. Malevolence and Mephista had respectively made bedrooms in the left and right ends of the first floor, whÃle the parents had taken residence on the second. The peristyle was open on both sides, and the garden of red grass within was carefully maintained, with a few stone paths for Magma's convenience.
Magma and Mephisto were now in their bed-chamber. She was silent while watching him change - his flesh bubbling and tearing, yellow light shining from where his skin had given way. In what had been his stomach, she saw one face of Mephisto, unholy light solidified and made into a round maw that had a handful of eyes in it.
The dark lord's transformation ended in something altogether different, something whose many appendages resembled a mixture of insect legs and tentacles. Magma smiled at the somewhat-familiar sight, finding him simply hot.
Mephisto's limbs shot at her arms, wrapping firmly around them. Lifting her up, he took a moment to look her over. No words came to him that could capture how beautiful she was, other than platitudes like 'flawless' and 'voluptuous'.
"What are you waiting for?" Magma asked slyly, eyes shining with eagerness. Mephisto wasted no time in giving her his attention.
Their session proved to be a long one, outlasting even the day they began. Another day passed in such fashion for the underworld rulers.