XIV.

Something was amiss.

The grey sky reeked of it.

Lucifer looked up to the omnipresent revolving eye, missing Earth already.

Checking on Chloe had been satisfying to some extent and calming despite the unfortunate circumstances that had unfolded before. Having tended to his injuries despite being scared of or for him, she was truly a gift, even if he was utterly undeserving of her. He had told her so, but she had dismissed it – as she had every time he had mentioned it before returning to his throne. It was unfathomable after all that had happened that she would still have faith in him. Sharing her side made him feel whole, untarnished, even if he was aware of all his shortcomings. Maybe the best to compare her presence was the kintsugi-mending: patching him up with shining golden lacquer, the dark and broken pieces still visible.

He stared down to the black maze underneath his spire and his face turned hard. No movement was discernable.

Where were they? Plotting against him for sure.

He inhaled and exhaled sharply through his teeth and emitted a hiss that could be heard over a great distance.

xxxxx

The raucous howling of the hellhound drilled into his ear. Garm had found something or someone within the unfathomable basaltic labyrinth and the King of Hell took his time to stride gracefully around several corners, enjoying the menacing sound and finally the smell of fear when he reached his loyal creature and its prey, a rather ratty looking demon.

"Just look what the cat dragged in! A maggot-eating mouth breather! Shoot, but I do not require some lowlife that betrays its Lady Astaroth or me." The smooth, yet at the same time stinging voice washed over the almost skeletally thin imp like ice rain.

"My King!" The demon was not even fully grown and reminded the addressee of that skinny, greedy character of that awful long feature fantasy film many humans fancied.

"What?"

Garm beheld his master and sat. Lucifer stroke him inattentively, his eyes fixed on the now cowering figure.

"Although I seem to have all the time in the world, I simply don't have it for something so insignificant like you, so spill it: Why are you following me?!"

The King of Hell's eyes pierced the inner core of the imp who twisted on the ground and pressed its pointy ears close to its skull.

"I am looking for a clue."

"A clue? Really? And what might that clue be?"

"My King…" the creature squeaked when Garm approached it and stopped over it.

"I thought we had established that fact? Cut to Hecuba!"

"My general wanted to know when you were departing to or returning from Earth."

"Lady Astaroth should mind her own business - otherwise hers becomes mine, too!" Lucifer spat.

Ishtar was tiny and fragile looking, almost innocent, but she was as fierce as Mazikeen. Originally a powerful entity defeated by Dad, she was but a shadow of her old self. However, Lucifer was well aware that she had been his mother's twin and shared her fate by being thrown to Dad's 'magnificent' dumpster of ash and fire.

"My King…"

"What now?!"

"May I go?" The imp whispered. Lucifer Morningstar almost found it amusing how the creature lay under Garm's paws and winced under the breath of the black Hell keeper.

"Deliver your general a message: I will not tolerate insubordination, nor meddling or otherwise. There are still vacancies at the shores of Tartaros' Phlegethon. Cottus might be delighted to tend to new guests with his many, many hands." The King of Hell used his seductive tone to imply what he meant, and the imp yelped involuntarily.

Ishtar Astaroth, brilliant and beautiful, and as unstable as Asherah herself, was always looking for opportunities. She probably hated Hell's darkness as much as the Devil did. Another problem in the making if she thought of Earth as a way out of her misery. If he didn't show strength to all inhabitants of Hell, this would quite literally turn into chaos and that wasn't good for anyone between the Silver City and his Spire.

Lucifer Morningstar waved his right dismissively and strutted away, hands behind his back while Garm followed on his heels, growling at the little lifeform left behind.

xxxxx

Returning to Dis, he'd immediately noticed that Soneillon had maintained order. With so many Lilim put out of existence it was after all an easy task.

Several legions of lower demons had settled into some caves nearby; "in Suburbia" as he had started to call it. Those less developed beings did not challenge him and tried to live their lives without aspiring to grandeur or to equal their Lord. As long as they were satiated and could entertain themselves they seemed content. They had no hand to torture the human souls as they behaved more like animals on instinct and felt no joy in punishing. That still had to be performed by Lilim and their rather rare offspring.

Funny that.

It seemed only Lilim and humans were able to be deliberately cruel. Maybe a genetic trait Adam and Lilith had? Oh, the human 1.0 again! Completely useless and with tendencies to violent behavior!

Lucifer pondered why Lilim were not as fertile as humans who spilled over planet Earth and prepared to jump to the next planet. Maybe angels and demons were quite alike or too much inbreeding had rendered them infertile. That was most likely. He glanced up to the vortex and grinned. 'Yes, Dad, foresightful as ever!'

Walking through his capital as he did now on a regular basis as through the maze of cells, he glanced at the dwellings of the Lilim, intrepidly rising toward the vortex the closer they were built to his own place. Not home. It never had been, and it never would.

He needed to come up with someone to replace him for good or another solution, would keep the demons in check. It couldn't be a mere demon, that much was certain, and an angel would not choose to take the throne willingly. He had been assigned by Dad. Maybe Dad had had the plan all along and just played him enough so he would rebel in order to be sent down. No, that was too easy and, as the Good Doctor would put it, and that train of thought would get him nowhere. But he was already "nowhere" and not where he wanted to be.

Garm stared at his master who had suddenly stopped walking on the middle of a crossroad. A handful of Lilim and other creatures noticed the absent mind of their Lord as well. The hound pushed his large muzzle into the Devil's left claw to get him to acknowledge his surroundings.

"What now you furry fleabag?" was the annoyed answer Garm received, but his master's attention was now back in the present.

Lucifer turned to the approaching Lilim and growled:

"Go to work before I find some entertainment you might not enjoy."

The present demons scattered rapidly in order to not to infuriate their master further. It was lately dangerous to get to much of his attention.

xxxxx

Lucifer's foul mood expanded during the following weeks like fog over Dis and Hell in general.

Whereas there had been torturous play and depraved fun, there was now little of that left. The Devil's mind had enveloped every creature with a dull headache, dragging everybody down, silence replacing the screams of the damned or the joyous howling of the drunken tormentors.

Soneillon felt the need to address the issue to his Lord.

The large general knelt underneath Lucifer who sat completely unaware of him, his wings dangling lethargically over the armrests of his throne, eyes set on the vortex.

"You should take another vacation, my Lord."

"Pardon me?"

"Sire, you should go back to Earth more often."

"Why?" The Devil left his place and landed in front of the general, eyeing him warily while plucking ash from his clothes. "You demons were so keen in getting me back."

"It would be good for all of us."

"You cannot be left alone for long. You wreck more havoc than human spawns."

"Human spawns are frightening."

"Manipulative and fierce."

"So I have heard."

"You were in contact with Maze?" Lucifer narrowed his eyes and pierced into the demon's core.

"No, my Lord!" Soneillon twisted under the Devil's willpower. "You have mentioned a Beatrice. Several times in fact and that she defeated Mazikeen."

"I have…" Lucifer Morningstar's mind wandered off to Los Angeles.

"Human spawns never make it to Hell. Why is that?"

"You couldn't handle them. I barely can."

"Where do they go?"

"To my Dad Almighty's"

"Hmm…" The Lilim tried to imagine a more sinister place. His Lord's father was certainly capable of worse deeds than his master. Maybe humans lost energy over their lifetime. Strange creatures indeed. If his master, powerful creator of so many wonders, could barely cope with them, they must be truly terrifying.

"You were suggesting, Soneillon?"

"Yes, Sire. A vacation to the stars or to Earth. It seemed you fancied that place."

Lucifer now loomed over his general. Oh, was he that transparent?

"What do you desire?"

"I… I want us to celebrate Hell and not suffer from your mood." The Lilim looked him in the eye and his 'mojo' couldn't find any deceiving ploy in his mind, but a selfish want to get back to how it was. The demon would have been an interesting subject to Dr. Linda. She would have told him that one cannot turn back time, but who was he to lift the veil of delusion? It gave him a way back to his penthouse. Maybe not for good, but for a while.

In his mind Lucifer already started preparing for a new lifestyle - a faint smile settling on his reddish features.