A/N: Ack. Didn't know about that new rule. Sorry, sorry everyone, sorry 'bout that... I'll respond by message from now on.

Yay! New update. This chapter is kinda long, but if I had split it into two halves, things wouldn't have gone quite as quickly. So, I kinda needed to mash everything together to get one long chapter. Oh well, I hope you all don't mind. Things are going to get bloodier and darker from her on out, with (if things go well) lots of mindless slaughter. But it won't lose the plot, don't worry.

Well, thanks for reading, and as always, enjoy!

THREE

"What?" Diablo asked in surprise. "The mortal realms?"

Lucifer nodded tamely. "Indeed. Humans, as I understand, lack the power to kill even the lowliest of demons. You need not worry about being injured by those pitiful creatures, so long as you are careful."

"I'm not worried about humans" Diablo said, shaking his head. "I'm worried about angels. They favor the humans, because there's no way a race of monkeys could rise to power without divine intervention. If they see I'm trying to exterminate them..."

"You worry too much." Lucifer said, shaking his head. "You'll merely need to disguise your presence in the mortal realms."

Diablo's red skin paled slightly. "You want me to transform into a human while I'm there?"

"Not unless you have to." Lucifer said. "You just need to be careful. Genocide is... not a good idea at this point, unless you can find a way to disguise it well. For example..." Lucifer paused in thought. "If you can, find a battle. Humans have a penchant for slaughtering each other. So, if you can find a battle, you can kill all the humans and make it look like they killed everyone."

Diablo was still resistant to the idea of heading to the mortal realms. "Will I have any sort of backup?" he asked warily, knowing the answer even as he asked.

"No." Lucifer said, shaking his head slowly. "Mephisto's army will be covering for you, making sure that Heaven's attention is drawn away from the humans." He hesitated, looking Ama over. "You may take her with you, if you wish. Help would be welcome, I assume?"

Diablo nodded, but plowed forward with another question. "But Heaven has two armies, that of Tyrael and that of Michael. Mephisto can't possibly handle both at once, can he? That would be millions of angels."

Lucifer laughed. "You think we have only one army? No. We have several, but there are only two that would be a match for the Archangels' armies. One, however, is commander less, since the snake demon Asriel was killed for treason six months ago. Seeing as such..." He looked at Baal. "And I hesitate to do this, but I must... I hereby assign the Archon Army under the command of Baal."

Baal nodded, but to Diablo's surprise, said nothing. Something isn't right there... Diablo thought suspiciously. Baal would normally be gloating and crowing. Why isn't he saying anything?

"Why am I attacking the humans, Father?" Diablo asked, ignoring the feeling in his gut and looking back to his father. "What purpose does it serve?"

"The humans will form a strong bond with Heaven, if things are allowed to continue as they are." Diablo jerked. It was not Lucifer answering, but Mephisto. "Though the humans may not be worth it in a physical sense, this is a great tactical move on Tyrael's part. If Heaven can gain the humans' trust, then they will be able to use the mortal realm as an outpost against us."

"Obviously," Lucifer continued, nodding in agreement with Mephisto, "that cannot be allowed to happen. Mephisto and I have been discussing possible ways to stymie this growing problem for several years now, since it became apparent that the humans were Tyrael's new pets. They're only going to cause trouble in the future... So they have to be done away with."

Diablo nodded. It did make tactical sense. But the possibility of going up against Heaven's forces, even with Ama's help, unnerved him. "You honestly expect that I can kill possibly millions of beings without Heaven noticing?"

"Hundreds of thousands." Lucifer corrected. "They have only small cities, the biggest of which is Kurast, in the east." He snapped his fingers, and a large map of what had to be the mortal realms appeared. Lucifer stretched his wings and pointed at different areas on the map. "There is a high mountain in the north, called Arreat, that is inhabited by a group of warriors. On one of the large bays here is a desert encampment called Lut Gholein, primarily used to cross the bays. Here..." He pointed at a group of islands in the far south. "There is a very advanced civilization here, comprised of a group that honors women over men, contrary to the typical human belief. They, too, have powerful warriors."

"Don't forget," Mephisto said coldly, "that there is a religion forming that is based on the teachings of the angels. They call themselves the Zakarum, and have a semi-large army that could cause problems for you."

"And finally, remember one thing." Lucifer said, glaring at Mephisto. "If it comes down to it, forget killing them and save yourself. As long as Hell saps the energy of angels, we are safe here. They will never be able to pursue you through a portal home. That will always be your bail."

"Try not to use it, though." Baal said dryly.

----

"Here it is." Baal said, gesturing towards a huge red portal that was contained within a tall, wide arc in the back of the Chaos Sanctuary. Diablo was standing right in front of it, with Ama looking at the portal with a great deal of anticipation. "As long as Father is alive, this portal will remain open. He will undoubtedly pass its control on to either Mephisto or Mother, though, so you should be OK."

Diablo glared apprehensively at the portal. "Are you sure Father opened this?"

Baal smirked. "What? You don't trust me?"

"Hardly." Diablo muttered. "You said it yourself that I shouldn't trust you."

"Fair enough." Baal conceded, nodding. "Well? Are you going through or not? Time is wasting, Little Devil."

Diablo sighed. "Well. I guess I have no choice, eh? So I'd better get on with it."

"Yes, you'd better." Baal snapped in irritation. "Get on with it, or I might just have to throw you in myself. And believe me the effort is beneath me, so I'd prefer not to have to do that."

"Are you ready, Ama?" Diablo asked, turning to her. She was staring at the portal without the slightest apprehension. She looked up at him with her big blue eyes and nodded. "Good." He turned back to Baal. "All I have to do is step through, correct?"

"You seem awful worried about this." Baal observed. "I can't imagine why. It's not like angels will be pouring from the skies as soon as you show up." He looked down at Ama quizzically. "She seems fine now. Perhaps it was Father that disturbed her so?"

Diablo shrugged. "I don't know. She's still a mystery to me, in many ways. She acts so strangely..."

"I do not." Ama protested. "I act perfectly normal. It's you, Master Diablo, who acts oddly."

Baal smiled faintly. "Amusing." He looked back at Diablo. "Come on. What are you waiting for? Just get this over with, if you don't mind, so I can go home already. I've missed my one o'clock and three o'clock naps because of you, you know."

"Lucifer forbid." Diablo said sarcastically. "Well, come on, Ama. It's about time that we did this." Ama nodded, and the both of them stepped closer to the portal. Diablo peered through the portal, trying to make out anything on the other side. "Looks clear. Here goes." He stuck a leg through the portal...

...and felt and intense cold and an odd, soft substance beneath his food. Diablo shuddered. "Cold." He pulled the rest of his body through and stood shivering in the mortal realm. Ama stepped softly through and looked up at him without giving any signs that she had noticed a difference between the two environments. Diablo looked back at the portal, and then looked around at his surroundings.

It was dark out, with a dark blue sky overhead, with fluffy gray clouds here and there. There was a large, semicircular silver object hanging in the sky, with small pinpricks of light here and there around it. It was very dark out, and Diablo couldn't see very far in any direction. There was some sort of green plant underfoot, which Diablo's great weight crushed easily. But the most striking thing about this place was how bitterly cold it was. There were no fires anywhere, there was no lava, there was no apparent source of heat anywhere. The result was a chill like Diablo had never felt before.

"It's so cold here." Diablo said, rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm himself up. "Where's the fire? Where's the heat? How can humans live like this?"

"You'll get used to it." Ama said.

Diablo stared blankly at her. "What? How much of your old life can you remember?"

Ama shook her head. "None of it. But... I remember some of the basic things about this world. Take for example that star there..." She pointed at one of the points of light in the sky. "That's called 'Betelgeuse.' It's part of the constellation Orion, the hunter, and it comes out during the winter."

"Star?"

"You don't have those things in Hell, do you, Master Diablo?" Ama asked, smiling. "You don't know what you're missing. A lot of things are so great that when though my memory had been erased by my death, I missed these things terribly."

"I miss the heat." Diablo grumbled. Ama laughed. "I don't know how you do it." Diablo said to her, taking a few steps forward. "Humans wear animal skins to keep themselves warm, don't they? You're naked, so you should be freezing."

Ama shrugged. "I think we're in a part of the world that's further south, because I'm not really all that cold. I come from... north, I guess, because it's colder there. So I'm used to the cold, and it's warm here, so I'm not cold even though I'm naked."

Diablo stared.

"Sorry, master, I'm sure that was confusing for you." Ama looked down at herself, as if she noticed her body for the first time. "I had never really noticed that I was naked. I suppose that's the demon in me that didn't mind, because humans have... have a sort of taboo about going around naked."

"Whatever." Diablo snapped. Ama looked up at him in surprise. "We don't have time for this. I'm really cold, and I'm tired, and I have people to kill. Do you know where we are? If we can figure that out, we can decide which of those major cities we're going to attack."

Ama looked disappointed. Diablo guessed that she had been happy that she was carrying on a normal conversation with her master, but he had to cut that short immediately. She was a servant, not an equal, and she didn't have any sort of right to be conversing idly with him.

But at the same time... It kind of hurt him to see her sad.

Diablo shook his head. No, no, that was no way to think. He was next in line to the Throne of Hell. He couldn't be feeling bad about making a lesser demon sad, because if he was that soft, then he'd never be able to make an effective ruler when Lucifer finally offed it.

Assuming, of course, that he ever did.

"Like I said, master," Ama responded after some thought, sounding unhappy, "all I know is that we're down south. Where, exactly, is beyond me. I don't even remember many of the major areas on the planet. So where we are, without seeing any landmarks, isn't going to be easily found out."

Diablo snorted. "Good. Cold and lost. It gets better and better." He looked off at the horizon, trying to make out what was there. "It's too dark out. Are things always like this? Don't humans run into things a lot?"

"It's called night." Ama said fondly. "See, there's a big ball of light called the sun that circles the world, and as it goes around, one side or another gets dark. When it gets dark like this, humans go to sleep, because they can't even see and they've got too much to do during the day to sleep then."

"OK, then." Diablo said, unsure of where to go from there. "Uh... How much longer does this last?"

Ama looked up at the semicircular silver thing in the sky, then at the horizon. "Four more hours, maybe."

"What do we do for four hours?" Diablo wondered aloud, not expecting a real answer.

"I could use some sleep." Ama said off-handedly. "Since I'm part demon, master, I don't need as much, but I still need to sleep."

Diablo looked at her for a second. She met his red eyes for a moment, and then looked away in shame. "Well, I, uh... I don't really need it, I can go a bit longer, so don't worry about it, master..."

"Go ahead."

Ama jerked in surprise. "What?"

"Sleep, if that's what you need." Diablo said. "We're going to have a long few weeks ahead of us, so you need to be well-rested to be effective. And dying is always a draining experience." He smirked.

Ama smiled and nodded. "Thank you, master. I should only need three or so hours, and by that time, there will be at least enough light to see by..." She knelt and then laid down on her side, curling up in a ball so that she was smaller. "Good night, master. Feel free to wake me if you need anything."

Diablo grumbled, nodding. Mortals were getting to be very, very troublesome. Ama closed her eyes and was soon breathing deeply and slowly, something Diablo had never seen a creature do before. The smile faded from her face, but the lack of expression suited her, as well.

Diablo sighed and crouched a few feet away from her. It was going to be a long night.

----

"Master Diablo!"

Diablo jerked, opened his eyes, and looked down at Ama, who was sitting cross-legged (those legs and their joints were amazing!) before him and staring up at him with interest. Diablo must have started dozing at some point, because it was night faintly light out now, and he could see Ama's white teeth flashing up at him as she smiled.

"Sorry." he muttered. "I hadn't meant to doze off. But it was dark, and boring, and you looked so peaceful..."

Ama laughed and shook her head. "It's ok."

There was a shout from somewhere to their left. Diablo stood and turned his head, straining to see in the dim light, and saw three humans heading towards them, a female and two that were taller and stockier than her. They were dressed in light animal pelts, and were each carrying bows. They had dark hair and skin, much different from Ama's red hair and fair skin, and looked both frightened and angry.

"Ah, good." Diablo said softly. "We'll be able to test these creatures."

The humans got within about twenty feet and stopped, raised their bows, and cocked arrows, ready to fire at them. The two larger humans stood in the foreground, as if protecting the female. They looked at Diablo, then moved their focus to Ama. They seemed to know that Diablo was more dangerous, though, because they aimed at him again.

One of the larger humans barked and order to the other two. Diablo couldn't understand him, so he looked down at Ama. She shook her head. "I can understand him, but... it's hard to figure out. Like I don't know the language well anymore." She wiggled her nose in confusion, a gesture Diablo assumed she did subconsciously. "He said... 'Aim for the big one. Kill that monster first.'"

Diablo looked back at the humans. "Well, we'll need to understand the language, won't we?" He waved his hands in the air, muttered something in an ancient demonic language, and then spread his arms. "There. That should do it. Now, Ama, I want you to hang back. I'm not sure whether your skin is as soft as it was when you were human, so I don't want you getting stuck full of arrows." Ama nodded, and Diablo stepped towards the humans.

The human who had spoken before said, "He advances! We must kill the beast before he destroys our village, which he will no doubt do." His voice was much deeper than Ama's, and he was lacking the lumps on his chest that Ama and the female human had (he would have to ask Ama about those...), so Diablo guessed that he was male.

"Human, I don't even know where your village is." Diablo said, smirking.

The human jerked. "He speaks to us!" The bowstring was taut as he stared at Diablo. "Come no closer, vile creature, as we'll loose our arrows if you do. Now even a large beast like you will live through that."

"Try it, then." Diablo challenged.

The human gritted his teeth. "Go ahead." he said to the others, and he pulled back the arm that held the arrow. The other two followed suit. After a seconds paused, the loosed the arrows, which arced through the air towards Diablo. The big demon laughed and knocked them out of the air with a sweep of his arm.

"Mortal weapons need to be a lot more magical than that to beat me." he said, continuing to chuckle as the humans stared at him in horror. "You have no idea who you're up against, so I'd guess that you'd end up losing..." He turned to Ama. "Kill all three of them. Now."

A few minutes later, the two male humans were dead, and Ama was dragging the female over to where Diablo stood. She was crying and doing her best to resist Ama, but no human could ever do that and hope to actually do so. "Here, master, since she may be of use..." Ama said, lifting the female by the fur garment she wore.

Diablo took the human by her neck and lifted her up to his face. "I am going to ask you one time, human. Where is your village? Tell me now, and I might just let you live." He pressed his thumb very lightly against her throat, just to get the point across.

Her breathing got a lot faster very quickly. "S-six miles to the w-west, just g-go through the f-f-forest and you'll be there... P-please, just spare me, please..."

Diablo paused in mock thought. "No. I don't think I will." He squeezed and crushed her windpipe. It took only a few seconds for her to die, and he dropped her with mild disgust. "Pitiful creatures." he said, looking down at the body. "They'll be lots of fun to destroy. Well?" He turned to Ama. "Shall we go?"

Ama smiled. "As you wish, master."