A bit shorter than what I usually write but still, I hope you enjoy.
The sun was barely beginning to rise over the horizon but Astarte had demanded they appear for her class. She had sent her familiar Mizu to wake the class up in a rather uncalled for method. Mizu, being a dragon of the water, had waited in the centre of the building before using its abilities to drop the equivalent of a bucket full of water on every student simultaneously. The resulting shrieks and yells had resulted in them finding the water dragon collapsed on its back rolling and laughing its head off. In their anger, they didn't realise the cackling familiar had forced them to chase it through the forest to their training area.
"Ah, finally. You lot certainly took your time. Are you ready for training?" Astarte asked them as Mizu coiled around her shoulders and stuck his tongue out at them. They all glared at the draconic demon. "Now, I realised that actually, you lot know very little about demons. So, rather than train out here, I'm going to educate you a little about demon origin."
They all stared at her as if she was insane. "Why?" They said in unison.
"Simple. Without this knowledge of your past, how can you ever hope to improve your skills?" She said. "Now, come on. Aniue said we can use one of the classrooms in the cram school for these lessons." She said before turning and leading them towards the cram school. They each began to follow, curious as to what caused the change of tactics for her. As they approached the cram school, some of the ordinary students spotted them and began to whisper whilst their teacher approached Astarte.
"What do you think you are doing?" He demanded as he watched each of the students carefully.
"I've come to use one of the classrooms to teach my class some demon history. I already have permission to use the rooms from the head of the branch so if you have an issue take it up with him." She said simply. He looked like he was about to say something else when a flame of purple flickered near him. "I assume you have no issues correct?" He nodded before letting them walk past without another word. As she did a flame ignited at the end of his coat, causing both him and his class to panic. They all stared at her back. "Don't ever doubt my word."
In the classroom, she stood behind the teacher's desk whilst they all took seats at the desks. As they did, the door opened to reveal a white dog with a green hamster on its back. She watched as the two animals headed over to the desk and hopped onto it before watching her. She watched them briefly before turning to the class.
"So what are you meant to be teaching us?" Ron asked from his spot at the back next to Drake. Astarte smirked and walked around to the front of the desk.
"Tell me, what do you lot know about the nine circles of Hell and their significance?" She asked. The class fell silent. She walked backwards and forwards at the front of the room, waiting for an answer. "Anyone?" She paused when Cassandra raised her hand. "Yes Cassandra."
"The nine circles of Hell each represent a different sin and are ruled by one of the eight Baal and then Satan himself." Cassandra said. Everyone stared at her but she continued anyway. "The first level is Limbo and is ruled by Beelzebub, then there's Lust which is ruled by Amaimon, next is Gluttony which is ruled by Agramon." As she spoke she counted off the circles on her fingers. "The fourth circle is Greed and ruled by Azazel, then there's the fifth which is Anger and Belial is in charge of, then the sixth is Violence which Iblis rules over. Seventh is Heresy, ruled by Samael, eighth is fraud ruled by Egyn and the last circle is the circle of betrayal, ruled by Satan."
Astarte nodded before turning to the chalkboard behind her and drawing a large diagram on it. "Gehenna is ruled by a hierarchy based on power, this I'm sure you already know. At the top is Satan, and then there's me and finally the eight Baal." She said.
"Wait, if there's ten rulers, why are there only nine circles?" Autumn asked. Astarte didn't even turn to look at her, she merely continued talking.
"The way it works is that I am seen as the angel of Satan so technically, whilst I rule over all of Gehenna, I do not rule a circle of my own. I merely sit upon the throne beside my father as he rules over the circle of betrayal." She paused before continuing. "Can anyone tell me the significance of the nine?" She asked. No one answered. "When Satan fell from Heaven, he and his followers fell for nine days and nine nights. The nine circles is a twisted reminder of that fact." She paused momentarily, sensing that something wasn't quite right with the surroundings. There was something coming that shouldn't be there. She shook her head before continuing.
"Now, my original plan was to have you lot learn the same way I learned. By having you make notes out of this." She clicked her fingers and the biggest book some of them had ever seen appeared and landed on the front desk with a large thud. "And then reading through a tome like this for homework every day." She clicked her fingers and a second, slightly smaller book compared to the first appeared and landed on the desk next to the first. "And that's the smallest tome of them all." They all stared in horror. "However, I realised that it may have been a bit harsh to do that to you so instead, I will teach you from my own knowledge." She turned back to the board, clicking her fingers so that the books disappeared.
"Now, let's start with what happens when a soul is damned. It first arrives in Limbo where a soul falls burning to the shores of the river that leads the soul to where it will be judged. The souls are then herded onto the boat of Charon. He carries the souls across the river to where they will receive their judgement. A spiked wheel sits beneath the limbs of he who judges the damned. He reads your sins and decides which circle you will be forever damned to. To send you there, he impales the soul a spike of the wheel and then spins it."
The class paled at the sound of what Limbo is like, knowing that some of them were already damned to the eternal fires of the abyss ruled by demons. Astarte paused, glancing at them before continuing. "Then we come onto the circle of Lust….." She stopped when she heard the sound of wings upon the wind. She turned towards the door and began walking towards it. As she did, Mephisto and Amaimon returned to their normal forms from their animal forms and slowly followed her.
"Why can we hear wings?" Amaimon murmured. The three of them stared at the door as Astarte reached towards it when she spotted it. A brilliant white light shone through the cracks in the doorway, meaning that it could be only one thing. The three demons leapt back as the door burst open and a person surrounded in a bright light entered.
"Am I disturbing your lesson here demon queen?" The stranger asked. Astarte, whilst shielding her eyes with her arm, snarled at him. "Oh come now, is that anyway to talk to a member of family?" Everyone froze.
"Family?" The collective question emerged from them all as the man let the light fade slightly, enabling them to see him. He had hair that was a blonde so pale it looked white, his skin was pale as virgin snow and upon his back were wings made of feathers of the purest white. He smiled softly at her.
"I'm your cousin, Michelangelo, Queen Astarte. Your mother, the blind angel was my aunt." He said. "My father is your uncle." She tilted her head to one side before glancing at the others then back at him.
"And who is my uncle?" She asked, but secretly knowing who it most likely was.
"That would be me, Demon Queen Astarte." A second male voice said. Another man, slightly taller than the first and who seemed to give of an even brighter glow stepped forward. The class murmured to one another, trying to see if anyone knew who this stranger was. Astarte, Mephisto and Amaimon all growled at him, instantly recognising him from what their history had told them.
"The most loyal servant of God. The one so eager to ensure God is pleased. The Archangel and most well known of those in heaven. Gabriel." He smirked at them before stepping forward and looking straight at Astarte.
"How have you been, my foul and unholy niece?"
Yep, Astarte's uncle is the archangel Gabriel. I'm curious as to how many of you actually saw that coming considering how little I have actually revealed about Astarte's family on her mother's side. Anyway, I hope you lot enjoyed and I'm apologising in advance if updates get a little scarce from now on. It's just that due to external circumstances, i.e. exams, I will not be able to update as often as I would like. But I hope you lot enjoyed this chapter. And until the next one it's sayonara from me the psychotic author.