The Bliss of the Darkness
Chapter 4
(Part 1)
Beelzebub was gone, one again, when she awoke. Alza sighed, glancing to her left, one hand covering her with the bed sheets. She set a foot on the cold granite floor, and shivered, as it had absorbed nothing but the cold outside. She walked over to the window, looking outside of it. It was freezing cold outside and someone had left the window open. She pushed it closed and locked it. Alza crossed the room and bathed, coming out in fresh clothes, a maid in the room, making the bed. Maids swarmed in and cleaned every part she had just used and everything else. She used this chance to slip out of the room in her slippers and shimmied past the maids, who were too focused on cleaning, to notice that she had gotten out. Ever since she had been given to Beelzebub, the maids made sure she didn't even lift a finger, and that she didn't leave the room. Several other demons glanced up, and eyed her suspiciously and with confusion, as if they didn't know who she was. As she ran past them, they realized who she was.
"It's the Master's woman!" "She's not supposed to leave the room, right?" "Yeah- get her!" Alza found a door and opened it, closing it behind her, stalling them, as she continued to run down the path that Beelzebub had taken her down- but got lost at a large cave that spanned out to 10 other tunnels. She looked around, panting heavily. Where…Which one! Something called her down the one that was three from the far right, and she went with it, going down the tunnel and pressing herself into a cranny in the wall, big enough for her. The demons ran past her and she pretended she was stone. She heard them yelling, clear as day, a couple meters from her hiding place- arguing and bickering, before a roar shook the entire place.
"Y-Your lordship!" One of the Demons exclaimed, and she blushed faintly. Beelzebub? "W-We didn't know you'd be here so soon..."
"What are you idiots doing out here? You're supposed to make sure Alza is safe." Beelzebub's voice said sternly,
"B-But she got out-!"
"She is not confined to my room in anyway." Beelzebub told them, "How dare you think otherwise. She has free roam in any of my domains."
"Yes, Lord, but," One of the monsters said back,
"I will NOT accept your pathetic excuses!" He boomed, and even Alza flinched, "Do you not realize how close she was to going outside? I'm hardly sure if it's safe for her to go to far, and I want to make sure it is! Get out of my sight, all of you!" The demons fled the opposite way, and Beelzebub past her hiding spot, cloaked in a long, Vampire-like garment, before he stopped, "…I'm sorry you had to hear all of that, Alza. I just want to make sure you're safe as well as happy." He said quietly, and looked at her, offering her his hand, "Will you come out?" Alza blushed and took his hand, and he helped her out. "Come, I wish to show you something." He, himself, led her out of the hide out, as far as the first room, before wrapping her in a thick, heavy cape. It was heavier than she was. He pushed open the door, and she walked out, stopping, as he closed the door. He hastily pulled up his hood, and wrapped any exposed skin in black, as the sun rose over the mountains, and she knelt in the snow, hiding himself.
The sun was rising slowly over the snowy white summits of the mountain range, and Alza gasped, watching in complete awe, as colors erupted across the clouds. The entire spectrum of colors had been painted by the Gods across the sky. Beelzebub turned it head to the west, "It's so beautiful." Alza sighed, and he pulled back into the cave, as she looked at him. "Oh…is it the sun?"
"Indeed. I can't be out in it any longer, my darling. Forgive me." Beelzebub said, taking solace in the hidden shadows of the cave. "There is a small band of people who are looking for you…do you wish for me to take you to them?" She turned around,
"Are you sure?"
"My spies patrol far and wide in my name. One of them was at a tavern the three boys and the Head Hunter were at, and over heard them." Beelzebub told her, hunching over more,
"Would you take me to them, Husband? Even if I go with them, would you take me?" She asked, hands clasped, and he nodded without hesitation.
"I would." He answered deftly, and she went over to him, hugging him, "Do you desire a lighter coat? I know I gave you such a heavy one." She shook her head, and he went outside, changing.
His limbs no longer looked as if his skin had been merely pulled over his bones, but they held meat on them. His skin had become a hue or two redder, and his horns grew out as he changed. More muscles had been produces in placed like his bowed legs that held sharp tips, and his back to hold up his large, bat-like wings, but his silvery hair was still long and in a single braid over his shoulder. Beelzebub opened his wing, and she stepped over and took shelter, as he lowered it, before launching himself into the sky.
~O~O~O~
"We're completely lost the trail!" Jack growled, and Lionel nodded. Ace leaned his head back,
"Aye, but you've failed to realize there never was a trail, young'n." Ace said, gesturing to the sky, Claudia neighing, "Stand your ground, boys, it's the Big Man." Beelzebub landed just in front of the only exit there was to the small valley they were in now, and changed into his humanoid form, "'Ey there, Beelzebub." The Demon looked at Ace, bowing slightly,
"Good after noon." He said simply, the brothers dismounting. "You seem to be confused…you can't get over this mountain range without wings, or climbing gear." He told them, as the brothers aimed their weapons at him, "I'm not here to fight you, I am merely transport." He lifted his right arm, cloak over his arm- and an orangish-red haired girl stepped out from under his cloak.
"J…Jack? Derek? Lionel!" She exclaimed, as he lowered his cloak, and pulled back into a small cranny in one of the mountain walls. She turned to Beelzebub, and tried to get into the cranny, "I…I don't…" She reached for him, but he stayed out of reach.
"Go with them, Alza. Be a good girl and go with your friends." He told her, Jack and Derek gently coaxing her to their horses, and helping her onto one, the pathway out, open. They ran off, as Alza stared back, watching as he stepped in front of Ace.
"Letting her go? That's a first." Ace mused, and Beelzebub sighed.
"She desires what I refuse to give her, thus, she is unhappy. She wants to return to people who hate her. I will let her taste the bitterness of reality, and if she ever tires of it, if she ever cries out for an escape, then I will bring her back into the dream world I have introduced to her."
"You are one sick, manipulative bastard, Beelzebub. I can see why you were cast from heaven." Ace smirked, Beelzebub lowering his gaze. "I can see though, that you're only doing this for one reason…"
"Now that she is gone, and out of the way," Beezlebub put his arms out and looked at Ace, "No longer will I have regrets about this decision, and no longer shall I run." Ace chuckled and flicked his cigarette butt into the snow, pulling out a cross bow. He aimed for Beezlebub's head, and the Grand Demon simply closed his eyes, as Ace pulled the trigger.