Hey guys! Back! :) And the world is a MUCH better place than the last time I updated. I finally feel like I found my place here. It only took me three months hahah! Today, I went to a market with some local friends and then a super-cute cafe! Afterwards, we went to a nearby bookstore and it was CLOSED because it was a Sunday ... the downside of living in a small town. Oh well - the chai lattes here are to die for 3 I could spend all day long at a coffee shops - they all have their own style and atmosphere. It's great!

Anyway, here is the first chapter of the third and final arc. Get excited!

(By the way you guys, it's been over a year since the first chapter. It's a bit late for an anniversary, but oh well. )

But enough of that. Here's the chapter - enjoy!

. . .

GEHENNA

. . .

The battle field smelled like sulfur.

Rin Okumura narrowed his eyes against a stale breeze. Sweat plastered his dark hair to his forehead. Heat waves warped the horizon and gave the burned and blackened earth a fittingly-hellish appearance. His armor felt heavy and unyielding, his clothes uncomfortably stuck to his skin. His head hurt, his mind hurt, his heart hurt; brittle, strangely poetic, he stood in the field like a flower bending against the winter wind.

A slow smile rose the corners of his thin, chapped lips. Standing in the field and surrounded by his army, which was now somber as they braced against the full weight of Satan, he couldn't help but remember his old life. The contrast of his past and present was nearly laughable. Then, he had learned how to swing a sword using an old baseball bat in a batting cage ... here, he had fought for his life in a cage and killed doing it. He was up to his neck in the blood of his enemies. He could still see Xavier's cold, lifeless eyes in the mirror. Sometimes he could even feel a whip's cold thorns ripping apart his back, and the scars left behind burned like fire. Sometimes, on some days, he even forgot about the human world. Hell knew he no longer considered himself a part of it.

He was a demon, through and through.

His slitted eyes and his bloodied hands were proof enough.

Rin's gaze was level with the wavering horizon. "How many hours until contact?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm.

Raziele, standing beside him in midnight armor, whispered in reply, "Only two."

Only two.

A lifetime, and yet a blink of an eye. In two hours, Rin knew that he would face Satan. He had imagined the moment over and over again in his mind, and yet he could never decide on the outcome. There had been a time when he was certain of his victory; now, he was unsure. Satan was powerful full-bloodied demon, the King of Gehenna. Rin was a half-human rebel Price.

"I - I'm sure that it'll be fine," came a meek voice at his other side. Rin turned his head; Sophiel, in silver battle armor, stood rigid beside him. He could not see her exposed eye, but he could hear the terror in her voice. "We'll win."

Rin's expression softened. "You don't have to fight, Sophiel," he gently murmured. "We need more medics."

"I can fight," Sophiel replied. Her voice was a bit shaky, but there was noticeable conviction.

Rin opened his mouth to make a rebuttal, but Raziele cut him off with a hand gesture. "Leave her," he said with a slight smile. "You know how stubborn she can get."

"That's right," Sophiel huffed.

Rin remembered how Sophiel had been when he had first met her; quiet, terrified, a slave both physically and mentally. He wondered how different her personality had been if she had been allowed to be happy as a child, if she didn't live in this place.

This, he reminded himself, is what I'm fighting for. Liberation ... and for myself.

Suddenly Rin felt a slender hand brush against his head, and it took all of his self-control to squelch his sudden instinct to turn and attack. "Don't surprise me, Astaroth," he growled in warning.

"Well, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Astaroth smirked. Unlike the three of them, she wore no armor - only a robe, which Rin thought was much too revealing.

Rin turned away, the tips of his ears reddening. Modesty was one of the few remnant of his past that had managed to stick with him, and one of the few fragments of himself that he didn't hate. It reminded him that he wasn't fully a monster ... not yet.

"Don't be nervous, little Prince." Rin could feel Astaroth's warm breath tickling his ear. Damn demon. "We are on our home territory, and we have more to fight for. Your army also fully trusts in you. They believe in you, and they want to fight for you. Satan's army are just unwilling war-loving puppets. Cut their strings - "

" - and the army falls," Raziele finished, a dangerous gleam to his eyes.

"Us four should concentrate our attacks on Satan," Rin mused. "The rest of the army can defend attack everyone else."

"No, you dumbass," Astaroth stated. Rin, Raziele and Sophiel turned to her, wide-eyed. Astaroth continued, "That's way too simple of a plan. You and I are the two strongest members of the army - " Raziele made a noise of protest, " - so, one of us needs to be in the army while the other fights against Satan. And, as much as I detest admitting this, Satan can kill me. If he couldn't, I would be the Queen of Gehenna right now," she added with a smirk. "As it is, I can keep down the casualties."

"I thought you wanted revenge," Rin pointed out.

Astaroth still wore her smile, but it seemed quieter now, more understand and maybe even a little sad.

"And you, little Prince," she told him, "are my best chance."

. . .

Two hours later

. . .

"This way!"

A soft voice snapped Yukio awake, and he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was white, endless white, and realized that he was back in Purgatory. A figure hovered above him, and he found himself looking up into a pair of soft, rose-colored eyes.

"You," Yukio gasped.

Bon blearily sat up beside him. "Who?" he asked, half awake.

Yukio didn't reply. All he could do was hopelessly stare at the banished angel with pink eyes and hair the color of a rosy sunrise. Wings sprouted from her thin back; large, beautiful, perfectly white, and unbelievably soft.

"It's started!"

Yukio blinked. "What's started?" he asked her as she helped him to his feet. Her touch tingled on his arm.

"The war!" she replied. "The war between the King and Prince of Gehenna! Hurry! If you don't stop them ..."

Yukio made a face. He knew who the King of Gehenna was, but ... the Prince?

"What happens?" Izumo asked, wide awake. Shiemi stood beside her, hair and clothes rumbled and eyes wide.

The angel turned to her, pale. "Terrible things," she murmured. "Terrible things, awful things. Worlds dying. Purgatory breaking, Heaven collapsing, Assaih falling apart . . . the world's are connected," she continued. An orb of light blossomed in her open palm, and Yukio recognized it as a small portal. "They are all connected. I've been practice, waiting for you to come. I knew that you would come."

"How?" Bon demanded.

"Because you are friends of the Prince," the angel replied.

Yukio made the face. As far as he was concerned, he was no friends of any Pri -

The blood flowing through his veins suddenly chilled

Oh.

He suddenly knew exactly who this Prince was, and he felt like he was going to be sick.

. . . Rin.

The angel raised her gaze. The ball of light in her hands blazed like a miniature sun. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Come with us!" Shiemi suddenly exclaimed.

The angel smiled, a painful smile. "I wish that more than anything. But I can't." The orb of light jumped from her hands and slowly began to engulf them. "Give a warm hello to my son for me," she faintly added.

The world faded away into white.

. . .

Shura felt herself falling through dark, empty space. She failed her arms, unable to breathe, speak or see . . . and then came to a sudden stop as she slammed against the ground.

"SHIT!" she screamed, and then pleasantly noted that she could speak again. "Mephisto?!" she shouted, stumbling to her feet. She didn't know where she was; somewhere in the middle of a barren field, it looked like. "Mephis -"

Suddenly her breath lodged in her throat and she fell to her knees, gasping. Only then did it hit her that Gehenna's atmosphere was poisonous.

Damn it, she thought, her vision blurring. Where is Meph -

Suddenly an air mask conjured over her mouth, and she could suddenly breathe again. She took deep, desperate breathes and raised her gaze.

"There you are," she muttered. Mephisto hovered above her, his umbrella in his hand. He didn't look too happy.

And then Shura saw why. Hovering beside him was Yukio, Shiemi, Bon, Konekomaru, Shima, and Izumo. All of them were already wearing airmasks. Her lips twitched into a smile; for some reason, she couldn't find it in herself to be upset.

"Brats," she told them as Mephisto rose her in the air. Soon they were all hovering well above the field.

"You're lucky I found you all," Mephisto scowled. "If I hadn't, you would all be little more than corpses on the battle field."

Battle field? Shura glanced down to the field in reevaluation. Sure enough, she could faintly see silhouettes on both sides; one side was considerably smaller than the other, and they were slowly converging.

"So, that's the battle between the King and the Prince," Shima mused. "Looks interesting."

"Shut up," Bon grimaced. There was a strange look to his eyes. "We have to stop it."

Shura nearly choked. "We can't stop that," she pointed out. "Those are all demons, and there are only -" she quickly counted, " - eight of us!"

"Rin may be down there!" Shiemi exclaimed, her cheeks red. "We have to try!"

"Shiemi's right," Bon stated. "What if Rin's being used as a slave or something?"

"Rin's not a slave," Yukio muttered. All eyes turned to him. He wore a nasty expression; his eyes were narrowed, his teeth were clenched together and lips were bared. "He's the Prince."

Shura's eyes widened, as did the other's with the exception of Konekomaru and Izumo.

"What?"

. . .

Shadows and demons haunted Rin's dreams, and a sudden hand on his shoulder pulled him out of the wispy nightmares. He blearily opened his eyes; the shadows seemed to be painted in the sky.

"It's time," Raziele whispered. His rosy eyes were wide, his grip tended steel.

Rin felt as if he had aged decades. He wearily got to his feet; he must had fallen asleep.

He could clearly see the other army now, and his heart shuddered. He didn't want to do this. He was tired of fighting ... and yet, that was exactly why he fought. To end it, once and for all.

If he was destined to die today, then he would die fighting on this very field.

He steeled himself and shoved his unnecessary emotions as deep down as they went. He was untouchable. He was the strongest in his army. He leveled his gaze and tightened his grip around the hilt of his weapon, which comfortably rested on his hip.

He was the Prince of Gehenna, and his army was staring at him with hungry eyes. They were ready, as was he.

He raised his sword into the air. "Today we fight," he screamed, "and today, we will win!" The following shout was deafening, and his army - demons they were - impatiently charged to meet Satan's army. Rin could feel the cold eyes of his blood-father staring down at him, could practically see his smug smile as he sat completely assured in his victory.

Rin turned to Raziele, Astaroth, and Sophiel at his side. His gaze was just as cold.

"Let's go."

. . .

So, did the opening chapter meet your high standards? I tried my best! Next chapter: FFFIIIIIIIGHT SCEEEENNNNEEEEEEEEEES!

PS: Updates will be random, sparse, and spread out. (read in Stark's voice:) Finals are coming.