A/N: Sorry for the late update. My parents have been hell-bent on keeping me away from home, and the computer I've been writing this on. I only own Cassie.
The sun started to rise, and me along with it, (old habits die hard) as I got up and ready for the day, with my ritual of sleeping in my clothes, sans my boots and jacket, when about a bucket of water dropped on my head. Well, now that my shower's been taken care of, I thought sarcastically and screams resounded on both the girls' and boys' sides of the dorms. We all came out to see what did that and I was unsurprised to see the dragon that had forcibly changed me back when I first terrorized the class rolling around in what seemed to be a fit of laughter.
Megumi, whose room was beside mine, seemed to be in the worst mood of all, forming a blade and leading a chase through the campus, undoubtedly freaking some perfectionist early risers out as most of them cursed at the demon. I wasn't really complaining because I was up, and it was really refreshing. The path that the dragon, I think its name was Mizu, was leading us to was leading us to was becoming increasingly familiar. I sighed in slight laughter as I realized that the thing had led us to the training area. I was somewhat amused to see a patch of scorched grass where I had passed out that first day.
"Ah, finally. You lot certainly took your time. Are you ready for training?" Astarte asked them as Mizu coiled around her shoulders and stuck its tongue out at us. That smug little dragon... We all glared at the dragon. "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." Yes. Fat lot of use it's going to do me, I thought sarcastically.
"Why?" We all asked.
"Simple. Without this knowledge of your past, how can you ever hope to improve your skills?" She asked rhetorically. "Now, come on. Aniue said we can use one of the classrooms in the cram school for these lessons."
"I know about my past. Asshole demon gets greedy and wants a new pet. So he decides to take the Angel of Justice and turns him into a demon," I muttered under my breath, but Samael obviously heard me, judging by the quick glare he shot my way.
When we got to the classroom, a few kids at the cram school decided to be a bunch of smartasses, standing in front of me, Drake, and the always-present Jenna. "Oh, look boys. We've got a sideshow on our hands," the ringleader said with a grin.
I looked him in the eyes, getting a reading. "Oh shut up. We both know you're trying to impress miss Easy Lay over there," I gestured to the girl in the front of the room who wore as few clothes as required by the uniform, "Because you don't want to spend the rest of your life jacking off to ninety cent centerfolds. So why don't you just fuck off and pull her into the janitor's closet or something." The boy promptly turned red and stormed off, lackeys behind him.
I looked behind me to see a tomato-colored Drake and a giggling Jenna. "H-How did you know that?" he asked.
I tapped my temple. "I just know these things,"
In the classroom, Astarte stood behind the teacher's desk while we all took seats at the desks. The door opened to reveal a white dog with a green hamster on its back. Great. Just great, I thought angrily taking a seat in the 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. This was too easy. Come on. Anyone? I thought desperately when I saw the awkward silence falling over the room. I can't be the only one who knows this. I don't want to be that kid! I sighed in embarrassment as I realized nobody else knew the answer. "Anyone?" She paused when I raised my hand reluctantly. "Yes Cassandra."
I began kind of quietly. "The nine circles of Hell each represent a different sin and are ruled by one of the eight Baal and then Satan himself." Kids started staring, and I felt my face turn pink. "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." I started counting off with my 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." I heard a few whispers as I slumped deeper in my seat, trying to avoid detection.
Astarte nodded before turning to the chalkboard behind her and drawing a large diagram on it of circles inside each other, the name of the sin and the name of the king of each circle written in each circle. "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 kept on with the lesson as she answered distractedly.
"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. Not even I knew that one. "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 before shaking her head and continuing. In all honesty, after all the stuff I read, I should've seen that coincidence.
"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 freaking book I had ever laid eyes on landed on her desk with a thud, and I almost thought that the desk would give from the sudden weight of the monster. "And then reading through a tome like this for homework every day." She clicked her fingers once again and a second, slightly smaller book compared to the first appeared and landed on the desk next to the first. Every day?! You gotta be shitting me. "And that's the smallest tome of them all." I looked at the literary monstrosity 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, if you could call them that, vanished into thin air and I thought that the sudden disappearance of weight would cause the desk to start floating, though it was impossible. Please, I scolded myself, you turn into a soul-sucking monster when the sun goes down. How is a desk floating that unlikely?
"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." In the Inferno, Minos only wrapped his tail around his torso the same number of times as the circle the person was sentenced to. Frankly, I liked the latter of the versions better. I've known I've been damned for a while, but it was always chilling to hear about it.
"Then we come onto the circle of Lust..."she started to continue when I heard something… like the bald eagles in Maryland, only on a much larger scale. Everybody else evidently heard it, too. And I suddenly got the urge to kneel, to bow down and kiss the feet of the beings who I sensed now. It wasn't just white noise that came from them. It was purity, righteousness, and all-around holiness. Beams of light shone through the doorway.
"Am I disturbing your lesson here demon queen?" The holy being asked, for it obviously was no human or demon. Astarte, whilst shielding her eyes with her arm, snarled at him. "Oh come now, is that anyway to talk to a member of family?"
I froze, head bowed, eyes not meeting theirs. Some part of me, some forgotten instinct kept urging me to be as respectful as possible. "Family?" I barely was able to whisper.
The light faded slightly, and I saw white skin and white robes, with a holy light surrounding them. Usually the other side was begging to get out of the necklace, but now it was hiding in the darkest recesses of my mind.
"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 us then back at him.
"And who is my uncle?"
"That would be me, Demon Queen Astarte." A second male voice said. Another man, slightly taller than Michelangelo 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.
Any hope of suppressing that instinct now was gone as it told me who he was. I instantly dropped to my knees in submission, bowing my head, knowing I wasn't worthy to look him in the eye.
"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." I suddenly started to pray mentally. I didn't know why, but the latent instinct let nothing out of its grip. He stepped forward.
"How have you been, my foul and unholy niece?"
A/N: Please review!