It was early in the evening in Asgard and the sun had already set. Hela, newly crowned Queen of Asgard the day before, was standing outside on the balcony of her palace, leaning over the railing and was staring curiously downwards towards the main street of Asgard city. To her surprise, there were still a lot of Asgardians walking around and everything was bathed in a warm pinkish light, seemingly stemming from many lanterns which the citizens were carrying. Hela was knitting her eyebrows, not knowing what the meaning of this unusual activity down in the street was. This had to be one of those asgardian festivals which she usually had been missing in the past due to being busy every day from early morning to late evening with Odin's schedule and tasks for her to build her up for her intended role as his main weapon to build his empire, so she often had been oblivious of many social occasions or festivals that had been celebrated in Asgard while she had been either training or sleeping due to subsequent extreme exhaustion. Devil stepped outward onto the balcony and asked her: "What is going on?" Hela shook her head, still looking downwards. "I don't know. A festival, I assume." Devil now looked towards the people on the street too. "Oh, that's looking nice. The light from the lanterns and such..." Hela's time as an involuntary outcast from Asgard's social life was over now, if she chose it to be. In fact, she wanted to consume and nourish herself on Asgard's life force as much as possible, taking part in such kind of activities would resonate with her plan, even if it was in a rather abstract way. Without further ado, she turned around abruptly. "Servant, follow me." A few minutes later, Hela was stepping outside her palace and down the stairway to the main street, followed by Devil who was looking around at the activities going on there with a slight smile on his face. Officials and soldiers were standing around in small groups at the side of the road, looking toward the citizens walking in the street. One official had spotted Hela and now was approaching her. "My Queen," he addressed her. "Official, I demand to know the occasion for this event taking place," she proclaimed with her head held high. "My Queen, we celebrate the yearly Pink Lantern Festival." He was looking at her without further explanation. "And?" Hela asked with raised eyebrows. The official, not realizing that Hela did not know the slightest about the details of the festival, was confused: "Well, my Queen, do you want to join the festival?" Hela, perhaps because of having been debarred by Odin from such festivals her entire life, grew slightly angry. "Of course I want to join the festival, what would be the sense of it if the Queen of Asgard would not take part," she spat in a sharp tone. During their conversation, Devil had walked to one of the booths which had been set up on the sidewalk and which offered lanterns, hot alcoholic drinks and snacks and was coming back with one of the lanterns in his hand. With a look of slight disbelief, the official pointed at Devil and asked Hela: "Well, is this your...?" "My what?" Hela's irritation was now increasing. She didn't like the behavior of the official who was looking back and forth between her and her servant. Was this disrespect? How dared this lowly official to ask her anything anyway? Hela decided to ignore him and took a step towards the crowd of people in the street. Unbelievably for her, the official stepped into her way and straightened up. With a slightly shaky voice, he said: "My Queen, you are surely aware that the Pink Lantern Festival is the yearly holiday of the young love couples of Asgard. Traditionally, only courting couples join the event and the march on the street. I am just fulfilling my duty by making sure that the traditional precepts are fulfilled, therefore I was asking you...," he stopped and pointed towards Devil who seemingly was not paying attention to the conversation but instead was inspecting the intricate artwork of the glowing lantern in his hand with fascinated eyes. Hela's gaze wandered over the people at the street, they all were young couples, all holding hands or having their arms around their partners and every pair holding a lantern. Hela froze. So that was what the official had meant when he had inquired about her servant. With a stiff voice, she stated: "Of course, but as the Queen of Asgard..." The official, seemingly recapturing his courage due to Hela being defensive, concluded her sentence: "...the Queen of Asgard surely intends to be exemplary in respecting Asgard's traditions." Hela opened her mouth but didn't say anything. For young courting couples, of course, she was willing to bet that this was one of those festivals and traditions that Odin had been keeping away from her and had been keeping her oblivious about on absolute purpose! Hela bared her teeth in a terrifying grin. "Indeed," she said to the official and then pointed towards Devil,"he is." Feeling addressed, Devil looked up from examining the lantern and towards Hela: "I am what...?" Hela huffed: "Don't ask stupid questions, servant, and come here to me." Devil came forward and situated himself right next to Hela. Hela then looked sharply at the official: "Partner, lantern, I trust everything is alright now with me taking part in the festival...?" The official stepped out of the way and bowed: "Of course, my Queen." Without prizing the official with any further attention, Hela strode forward towards the crowd, thereby grabbing Devil's shoulder and forcefully pulling him with her. After they had entered the crowd and joined the marching people, Hela released Devil and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Devil walked right next to Hela, looking around at the people surrounding them. "Oh," he realized and his face became slightly red while turning his eyes back to Hela. Hela gave him a short glance and remained silent. They walked for some time quietly side by side inside the crowd of young love couples, those young people were all chatting and laughing and holding each other and exchanging smitten looks with one another. Devil was holding up the pink lantern, which bathed them both in a warm light. The air was fresh and clear and the young people around them emanated a relaxing warmth. The night sky above them was breathtakingly beautiful with its twinkling stars and colorful nebulae. The softly moving leaves of the tall trees right and left of the street were glowing with a golden light, reflections of the light radiating from all the lanterns, and there was the sound from a rippling stream flowing through the trees. When a bright shooting star was sweeping right across their heads, Devil inhaled sharply and closed his eyes. Hela looked at him and asked: "What is it?" "I am making a wish," Devil said calmly with still closed eyes, then opened them again and looked at Hela. Hela gave him an odd look, slightly irritated, but said nothing. When they were traversing the large bridge that was built over the wide river which was streaming through the city, they separated from the crowd, retreated to the railing and stared down into the dark waters below. Suddenly, Hela felt Devil putting his arm around her hip. Hela inhaled deeply and turned her head around to stare into Devil's eyes. "Servant, what exactly do you think you are you doing?" she said calmly with a husky voice while her eyes sparkled like polished steel under bright moonlight. Devil's arm was slightly shaking, his face was red like fire, but his gaze staring back into Hela's eyes was of equal strength and of immovable firmness like her own. Unlike her own cold stare, his eyes glowed like sizzling coal. He waited for a moment, bringing his body under complete control through impressive willpower and determination, his arm ceasing to shake and becoming calm, his face slowly losing its redness. Then with a calm and almost hypnotic voice he told her: "I am putting my arm around you." Hela swallowed hard. Like the deadly and perfect predator she was, she had felt the insecurity, weakness and fear inside of her companion just moments ago. And with equal distinctiveness she could feel that those faults were gone now and eradicated completely as Devil had subdued his own emotional, mental and physical nature in an immensely impressive and forceful display of willpower and internal strength. Hela had known soldiers who were like mechanisms, they had no emotions and just felt indifference in any situation. Being of such nature they didn't need any willpower or internal strength because no internal conflicts or opposing forces existed inside them, so they never had to overcome something inside themselves through internal struggle. Such soldiers had gone into death for her without even blinking, but not out of strength but rather out of complete indifference to life or death. As useful as these were as cannon fodder, they failed in war situations which demanded the release of much higher than their base levels of energy and performance, situations which demanded to grow above themselves and to overcome sudden and extreme obstacles. On the other hand, there also had been such soldiers who didn't appear very strong and impressive to Hela initially, but then surprised and impressed Hela with an incredible performance when confronted with almost hopeless situations, when put under extreme pressure that would break everyone else. Hela could now feel that Devil was an extreme example of someone of that second kind, who initially appeared soft, sentimental or even frail, but when the situation demanded it, was able to surpass and exceed himself, being then able to perform at extremely high levels, mentally, emotionally and physically, being able to push himself beyond his limits to an incredible degree and all this through extreme sheer willpower, self-control and being able to mobilize, to fuse and to unify all of his internal and usually opposing energies into one whole force and towards one goal. Strongly impressed against her will, feeling her heartbeat and her breathing accelerating and feeling for the first time in her life what she suspected she had heard others describe as "butterflies in the belly", she quietly spoke under her breath: "Careful, Devil, you are about to risk a lot." The glow inside Devil's eyes seemed to increase even more: "Yes... and I am sure that it is worth it!" Both staring into each other's eyes and magnetically drawn to each other, slowly began to lean towards one another,... "Sister!" Hela and Devil both jumped up. They turned their heads towards the source of the sudden interruption. Thor, holding a pink lantern in one hand and Lady Sif in his other arm were standing in front of them. The Queen of Asgard and her mysterious companion now turned their bodies around completely, Devil still had his arm wrapped around Hela's hip. Lady Sif greeted Hela with a bow and nodded towards Devil with a friendly smile in her face. Thor was grinning widely and was looking astounded: "Sister, I wasn't aware that you and your servant are..." "That's because we are NOT!" Hela spat aggressively towards Thor with a face blood-red with anger. Hela's one hand had been hovering over Devil's lower back and now being infuriated about her brother interrupting her first intimate situation, she unwittingly jerked her hand downwards and right into the rear pocket of Devil's trousers, almost ripping them apart and slapping against his butt cheek with a sound similar to a whiplash. Devil couldn't suppress a slight yelp. Actually, he had daydreamed about getting bruises from Hela in a completely different manner...