Author's note: I decided to wait a little longer before releasing this chapter, thinking that I would let pass a bit of the frenzy about the amazing season 4. Wasn't it the most wonderful season EVER? I just can't stop myself from rewatching it in a loop. I've already watched it three times and I'm sure I won't be able to resist watching it again very soon. I am still an emotional wreck from that ending. My heart is crying every time I think about it. And doesn't it look dangerously like my ending of Stuck in Hell? Woah! I am in shock! So it makes the present story even more relevant to write for me.
Thanks again to my good friend and Beta, Bebec, for going over this chapter and giving me well appreciated advices.
Are you ready to discover Lucifer's new demon? I'd like to hear about your first impressions about it. And now, enjoy, my lovely readers!
Chapter 8
Sinking Into Darkness
Sword still drawn and pulsing with power, Lucifer walked decisively along the ranks of defeated demons prostrated on their knees before him or in the process of doing so. The adrenaline of the battle was still coursing through his blood, making him feel as tight as a wire. It had taken hours and countless lives to vanquish that huge army. At many points, he'd thought they wouldn't succeed. Having to leave a great part of his troupes back at the castle to guard it, he'd known right from the start that they were outnumbered, yet he'd bet on his celestial and devilish powers to get the upper hand. Valac's army was supposed to be one of the smallest among the Demon king's after all. In spite of it, he'd been surprised by the scale of the strengths sent to fight him as waves after waves of demons clashed against his forces. They had destroyed their enemy at last, but it had been a close call.
It revealed to be more difficult than he'd thought to use his full powers of destruction during the battle without killing his own men. So he'd focussed his energies on the biggest demons and winged troops descending upon them. At last, Lucifer had reached Valac in the middle of the battlefield where he wounded him enough to make the Demon King bend the knee and surrender.
To add to the challenges of the battle, he'd been distracted all along with his worries for Beatrice. He still couldn't understand what happened, what she'd been doing down here. She hadn't simply been an illusion created by his troubled mind, of that he was sure. Many had seen her and Malphas maintained that he'd touched her soul when he tried to catch her. She'd been as real as any other soul in Hell. But how could that be, unless she was dead? Yet, if she somehow was indeed dead and ended up in Hell, as preposterous as the idea was, she should never have been able to escape Malphas like that. She had simply vanished, all of a sudden, like an apparition. No soul down here could do something like that. He was completely at loss to explain the event, and his fear for her wellbeing was still sending cold shivers up his spine.
Above him the dark clouds had reached them and were pouring down their volcanic ashes over the living and the dead. For as far as the eye could see, the once deserted field was now strewn with demon corpses of every kinds and sizes who were either dead or moaning in agony as they waited for eternal darkness to take them.
Looking at the devastation around him, the Devil reveled in the feeling of victory.
He'd done it! He'd vanquished one of the Demon King!
He was one step closer to getting back to Chloe. Only eleven more to go. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to defeat every Demon King before they understood that their best course of action was to bow down to him once more. Today's battle was an important victory that would show them all what awaited them if they continued to defy him.
Four days ago, he'd heard Chloe's prayer and her pledge to wait for him forever if needed. He'd wept like a baby at hearing her loving words. The fear that she couldn't wait for his return had been his greatest. He knew without a doubt that she loved him, but she was only human, and her short life was precious and worth living to the fullest with as much love in it as she deserved. He would have understood if she'd eventually decided to seek love elsewhere, though his heart would have shattered into pieces if she had. Even though she was ready to wait, he didn't plan to take forever to return to her. He would make sure of it, otherwise he knew he would never survive being away from her for too long. It would kill him slowly, but surely. Damn! He was already feeling like losing his mind most of the time.
That heart wrenching reminder of Chloe waiting for him on Earth, combined with his frustration at the lack of any real advance in this war since his arrival had pushed him into this desperate attack against Valac. His boldness had paid off, and now he felt like everything was possible. Even if he never found his fallen brothers, he felt that he could do it.
He would end this war!
He was ready to do anything, and be as ruthless as needed to succeed.
He was brought back to the now and them when he saw one of Valac's soldiers resist being pushed down on his knees by one of Lucifer's demon. Without missing a stride, Lucifer slashed his head off in a fluid movement of his sword.
"Kneel! Or die!" He thundered above the tumult, his eyes shining with hellfire.
Instantly, silence settled over the assembly and the last reluctant demons fell to their knees, cowering in fright in front of the Devil.
Good! They should be afraid. He was ready to kill every last one of them if they were not willing to join him in his fight.
He finally reached the center of the first row of kneeling demons where Djalliah was keeping Valac prostrated on the ground in submission with a firm grip on the back of his neck. Valac was of strong built, shaped like a bull and sporting two twisted horns on the top of his head. Even with his weaken state, he radiated a sense of danger that would have impressed the common demon, but not Djalliah. She didn't seem concerned at all to be keeping down one of the strongest demon in Hell, quite the opposite. She even looked like she had fun doing it.
When she saw Lucifer joining her, a look of worry crossed her dark eyes.
"You're still bleeding, My King!"
She lowered her gaze at Valac and snarled viciously before kicking him a few times in the guts with her knee. She was rewarded by a few grunts coming from the one responsible for her Lord's sufferings. The big bull-like demon had been left without much strengths to fight back after the intense beating he got by the Devil, so he clenched his jaws and suffered her wrath with as much dignity as he could.
"You little piece of shit! You're gonna pay for what you did to My Lord!"
"It's nothing, Djall. Don't worry about it." Lucifer assured her.
His new demon was always exceedingly worrying about his wellbeing. Not that he hadn't predicted it. He wiped at the blood flowing over the left side of his skull that was starting to soak his collar. He'd been barely aware of the wound since its occurrence, but now that Djall was referring to it, he could feel his head throbbing in pain. He choose to dismiss it. He had way more important things to concern himself with at the moment.
Djall released Valac's neck and walked swiftly to Lucifer. She cradled the left side of his neck carefully, almost tenderly, to inspect his wound.
She spoke softly for his ears alone. "This is far from nothing, My Lord!" She emphasized his title with defiance in her voice to make her discontent known.
Lucifer smiled a little at her audacity. He liked his fierce new demon. She reminded him of Maze. No one else would dare to talk to him like that, unless they were looking for certain death. It was refreshing, and she seemed to enjoy getting away with it. So he usually let her.
Instead of commenting about his wound, he veered her mind on another subject.
"You did well today, Djalliah. I'm proud of you!"
The young demon beamed at her Lord's praise. It was the first time he congratulated her on anything since her birth less than two weeks ago. Even wearing her demonic features, she looked incredibly beautiful to him, all the more when she smiled like that. She had no idea how much more alluring she was when she wove her glamour over the ravaged right side of her face, and he didn't especially want her to be aware of it. She was young and wild, content to be a demon. His demon. And he loved her just like that.
Looking at her with a proud little smile, he once again wondered if it was only a coincidence that the second demon he created looked just like the opposite of Maze, at least in regard to her demonic traits. The ravages over her face were exactly the same as his former bodyguard except that they were on her other side. Aside from that similitude, they both looked quite different. Djalliah had Asian traits and was shorter in built yet slim and strong. She looked quite younger too, around her early twenties in human equivalent. She also acted like a teenager more often than not. Not that Maze didn't act like one too, now that he thought about it. Djall might look like a young woman, but she still was very young and inexperienced, which made her a handful to deal with. Her red hair as bright as fire was a fair warning of her boiling temper. Besides already preferring to dye her hair, she also liked wearing it short above her shoulders, for practicality in combat she said.
Amazingly, considering her very short life, she was already a fierce warrior, not yet as skilled as Maze of course, but certainly on the path to reach her level and maybe even to surpass her, given time. He had trained her himself since he created her, not trusting anyone else to do it but he. She was a fast learner and more than eager to prove herself in combat. Today had been her baptism of fire. And she'd been amazing, always keeping his back, putting herself in front of the danger when she thought he was at risk. And she was still so young. He couldn't wait to see what she could become in the future.
One thing he was sure of, was that she would never be a torturer. He would never let her lay a hand on a human soul, not now that he knew that his Father created humanity in his image and not in His own. He still wasn't sure how he felt about that knowledge. Certainly overwhelmed, probably proud, and in some way disturbingly protective of humans!? It was still just too confusing to really give it any real thoughts.
While he couldn't himself torture a single human soul anymore, his reluctance to torturing didn't hold when it came to demons. Oh no! He had tortured a few himself alright! Starting with some of his closest guards who let the last would-be murderer attack him in his chambers just before his Father's visit. He'd been sick of waiting for Malphas to find clues about possible accomplices, sick of feeling weak, and the helpless target of his enemies. He'd decided to take the situation in his own hands and had every guards on duty that night arrested and tortured until he could learn who helped in that attempt on his life.
Lucifer had finally made one of them confess against the promise of a quick death, and the details he gave held the road. He had apparently been behind two of the previous murder attempts under the orders of Valac, which confirmed Malphas' Intel. The corroboration of Valac's involvement in some attempts on his life had designated him perfectly as Lucifer's first serious target.
The nine remaining guards were still being tortured just in case some of them worked for another Demon King. Lucifer's ruthless move also served as a clear warning to the rest of his guards; if harm came to their Lord, there would be consequences. And the message seemed to have been received loud and clear, for his new as well as his older personal guards looked to be way more diligent in their duties since then.
Djall was now caressing softly the side of his head over his tattoos. He focussed his eyes back on her. She was looking at him like he was her sun and stars, the center of her world, and the worse was, he knew he was. He didn't feel worthy of such devotion, not with the way he conducted himself down here. Not for the first time, he realised that Chloe would certainly not look at him that way if she saw what he was becoming.
His tattoos were the visual proof of the darkness taking place in his soul. He reminded himself that giving in to his darker side was inevitable and even a necessity right now. He needed to exult power at every moment and be merciless, as to be respected and even feared by his enemies as well as by his allies.
And those tattoos reminded them all of that. They represented the story of his Fall and a hymn to the darkness of his soul. It said how the angel Samael defied God himself and was cast down in Hell where Lucifer had risen in his place and became the most feared and powerful creature of the underworld.
And Lucifer knew he needed to become that creature again if he was to survive and return to his soulmate someday.
Once again he wondered if he would ever be able to reverse to who he was with Chloe if he sank too much into darkness. The idea that he couldn't terrified him. Yet, he had a goal to achieve, and nothing would come into his path, not even himself.
After indulging a few more seconds in the sweet feel of Djall's tender touch, Lucifer disengaged from her and turned to face the assembly and a kneeling Valac who was trying to hold himself right. Seeing that their King was about to make a speech, his demons gave a few kicks and punches to their submissive enemies to make them pay attention to their new Lord.
Lucifer saw Malphas take his place behind him to assist if needed. Under his orders, his councillor had not taken part in the fight but instead stayed at the back of the army to stay safe. He was too precious to Lucifer to risk his life unnecessarily.
At that moment, Lucifer heard Chloe's voice in his mind, assuring him that Beatrice was fine. His eyes closed in relief in spite of himself. The little one was okay, and Chloe loved him. That's all he needed to know. His resolves to do everything needed to get back to them strengthened even more.
When he realised that silence had settled once more over the big field, Lucifer opened his eyes and made his voice resound thunderously.
"The ones among you who surrender and swear fealty to me will be spared!"
Like waves moving over the ocean, every last one of his enemies prostrated themselves low on the ground to show submission. Even Valac started to lower even more his huge body to swear fealty to him, but Lucifer stopped him by reaching out and grabbing his neck firmly with his left hand.
"Not so fast!" He smiled dangerously at the surprised demon.
He addressed once more to the assembly as well as to Valac himself.
"I will pardon every Demon King who submit to me willingly, but the ones who dare take up arms against me will all suffer the same fate."
Without waiting for Valac to react to his proclamation, Lucifer dived his right fist into the Demon King's chest and came out with his still pulsing heart that he raised high above his head for everyone to see. Valac's body limply fell to the ground in a heap.
A stunned audience gaped at him in dread and respect as he made his last declaration.
"Spread the word! Demon Kings, the Devil is coming for you!
Author's note: For Lucifer to dive back into his darker side by necessity was an idea that I developed way before I started releasing this story. Hence the double meaning of the title of this story. So even if there are apparent similarities with the new season 4, know that I wasn't influence by it. I hope you liked this chapter. Please let me know. Thanks so much for reading!
