Hello again! Happy to have finally brought you all another chapter. Been looking forward to this one for a while to finally write it out. So I hope you enjoy it!


Chapter 7 - Stylish Occult

Location: IMP Building

Henry's POV:

I was still in disbelief that Via is back right in front of me again. I thought it would have been still awhile before we would be allowed to see each other, but god damn I'm so happy.

"I… Can't believe this." I said while hugging Octavia. "I gotta be dreaming- OUCH!"

I yelp by a sudden sting in my ass, and I look back to see Blitzo who used his fingers to pinch me in the back. "There! Now you know you're still awake". He winks at me, and everyone glares at him for ruining the moment. "What?"

"Well, now that the moment has passed…" Moxie was the first to speak. "Stolas Your Highness, what are you both doing back here with no notice of any kind?"

Stolas straightens himself and addresses us. "Yes I apologize for not letting you know, but I figured it would be a fun surprise for Henry."

"Well consider yourself lucky we didn't start shooting bullets at you." Blitzo said. "But still, why are you back so soon with Octavia? Did you get off your so-called bitch of an ex-wife already?"

"I was meaning to actually talk to you and your crew privately about it. But let's just say Stella will no longer be a concern to us" Stolas said with his main attention on Blitzo, Moxxie, and Millie.

We were all sorta puzzled by what Stolas meant by that. There's no way this was resolved very quickly, especially with Stella. I look back at Octavia who also seems to not know what the deal is ethier.

"Loona. Would you be so kind as to escort Henry and Tavia out somewhere for a little bit while I talk to your dad and the imp couple? I will have Blitzy text you to come back"

Loona looks up at Stolas, and with no argument, decides to roll with it and motions me and Via out of the room into the lobby of the building. We start taking the elevator down to the lower level.

"So what's the deal here? Why are you and Stolas back so fucking soon?" Loona asked Octavia.

"I'm not so sure either. Just randomly about an hour ago, Stolas came into my room and he greeted me with news that he had solved our problem with Stella. I was sorta puzzled and asked how he managed to do so, but he told me not to worry about it." Octavia said with some concern.

"Yeah… something doesn't seem right…" I said to them, "There's no way she quickly agreed to not disturb us again."

There was a bit of silence between all of us until Via spoke "Well, I guess on the bright side… I get to be near you again." She said as she leaned into my shoulder.

I chuckle and wrap my arm around. "Yeah, I guess you're right." I smile.

Loona just glances at us with a soft smile. She clears her throat which causes me and Via to distant ourselves since we didn't want Loona to feel uncomfortable. "Well… I guess we better find something to do instead of waiting around for them to finish." Loona says as the elevator stops now and we walk out.

"You know Loona, it has been some time since we last hung out, especially at Stylish Occult. Maybe we should take Henry there?" Octavia said with some excitement.

Loona looks back at Octavia with wide eyes "Oh yeah! Been a while since I've been there too."

Octavia is now giddy and looks at me with excitement in her eyes. "Come on Henry! Let's go!" She grabs my hand and she leads us out of the building with Loona walking behind us. I'm not sure where they are taking me, but I don't care as long as I get to spend some time with Via.


Third-Person POV:

"YOU DID FUCKING WHAT?" Blitzo, Moxxie, and Millie said at the same time so loudly.

"Language everyone!" Stolas said while being taken back by the crew's shockness.

"You gave Andrealphus the Grimoire?! Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Blitzo said to him with much disbelief and anger.

"I had no other choice here! He's the only one who Stella really listens to, and he would not simply just tell her to call everything off! So I offered him the book. Trust me, I never wanted to do this at all, but…" Stolas stole there for a second to collect his thoughts. "I did it for Octavia, and Henry."

The whole crew did not add anything else to the conversation. Blitzo wanted to say something, but he couldn't argue with Stolas's reason. They all did want the best for Henry and Octavia.

"So what now?" Moxie asks nervously. "Now without the Grimoire, we won't be able to do any jobs that require us to go into the Human Realm."

"Yeah no shit Sherlock! We're fucked up! End of I.M.P.!" Blitzo said with much frustration.

"Now that might not be true. I may still be able to convince Asmodeus to give you an Asmodean Crystal, but that might take a while to acquire." Stolas assured the group.

"Well at least there's some hope for us". Millie says following that statement. "But Your Highness, ain't ya worried about what Andrealphus might do now? Could he just go back on his word?"

"For his sake, he better not. Since we made an Unbreakable Vow. If he ever, ever does…" Stolas says but suddenly dark red magic aurora surrounds him, and sees very angrily "Then may all of the 9 Rings of Hell collapse down until I find him and make him suffer eternally."

Moxxie and Millie look back at him in horror, while Bltizo doesn't seem to bother it. Stolas calms down and takes a deep breath. "Sorry." He says for scaring the crew.

"Does your daughter know about all of this?" Millie asks after readjusting herself from the scare they got.

"No, I-... I haven't told her and I wish to not to. At least not yet" Stolas said with a stern voice. The crew look at each other confused by why he hasn't told her.


Henry's POV :

Location: Stylish Occult

"What do you mean not yet?" I ask out loud. "You guys better not be tricking me into going into some place where it's embarrassing or inappropriate!"

Octavia decided she wanted to surprise me with what the store had to offer by blind-folding me. My vision is completely black and I can only hear the city sounds as we walk.

"Oh don't worry Henry. I promise it's nothing like that!" Octavia says as she makes a small chuckle. "Well by the sound of you laughing, it definitely sounds like that!" I said back.

The sound of a door bell occurs, with Loona saying afterwards "Come on in, young fellow". This is not starting to feel good. Octavia walks me inside a little bit in the store and we finally start to stop, which I now ready myself for what's to come.

"Ok… ready Hen?" Octavia pats my shoulder. "3… 2… 1!" She takes off the blindfold, and I'm immediately face to face with a terrifying creature looking right at me.

"AH! WHAT THE FUCK!" I yell out loud. However, as I kept staring at it, I realized that it was not moving and it turned out to be a display. I look around and notice a lot more like this were near this display that were up for sale. I hear chuckling and laughing from behind me, and I look to see Octavia laughing at me, while Loona just chuckled with her phone out which she must have been recording my reaction the whole time.

"Damn man… V is right. You scream like a child." Loona says as she chuckles.

"I do not!" I yell while embarrassed, as I pout my arms. Octavia starts calming down, and walks over to wrap her arm around me "I'm sorry, Henry. But I just couldn't help it!" I then reply back "Oh whatever. Remind me to get payback next time."

After taking a minute to recover, I started looking around the store with various decorations, clothing, and other merchandise the store seemed to have. "So, this is where you two hang sometimes? I can see why" I said in an amazement tone.

"I know right! Pretty cool stuff they have here" Octavia says to me. "I was also surprised they sold some Taxidermy's!" she says as she walks over and pulls out a head of an unknown Hell creature I've never seen before.

"Which I've been meaning to ask you, what is it that makes you so interested in this stuff? This is something new I saw from you given what I saw in your room?" I ask her, but that last part I said makes her eyes widen.

"Wait. You've been in my room at Stolas's? Without my permission?" She says with a slight serious tone while being a bit playful about it. "Uh- W-well… I-" I start to say nervously, realizing what I just got caught in.

"Oooo V, looks like you got a pervert for a boyfriend." Loona says who looks so smug at me.

"S-shut up! I'm not!" I look back at Loona, who just continues to giggle. "I just… heard something fall over in there, and went to check it out." I said with a hint that I'm obviously bullshiting this.

"Uh-huh, sure…" Via says to me, but seems to not care much about it. "Well anyway, yeah it's something I started getting into years ago." She said as she looked at all of the creatures displayed. "They're creepy, yeah. But it's a creative kind-of creepy! I think it's a beautiful art form to take something as gross as death and turn it into something aesthetically pleasing, where we can preserve a species and see its beauty even in death."

I stand in full amazement with how passionate she is in this. As she finishes, she looks at me like I'm just dumbfounded by it. "Sorry, hehe. I'm mean… it's just cool to me… you know?" She looks at me. "I mean, how can I say anything negative about that?" I say back to her "Never knew you were so insightful with this." I saw as I rub my hand on her shoulder. She looks at me with a blushed smile on her face.

Loona just looks at us, and decides to give us some space. "Hey you two, I'm gonna have a look around here. Just don't wander off too far, ok? Still gotta keep you in my sights." She says to us both, and walks off.

As she does so, Via and I look at each other, realizing we are now by ourselves. And on instinct, we both take a hot minute to give each other a romantic kiss. Via pulls away and seductively smirks "Never knew how much I would miss those lips of yours.~"

"Be careful, or I may just lose control while in here~" I say to her with a wink. She giggles and we decide to maintain ourselves while out in public, I'm sure we will have our moment soon.

*One Hour Later…*

We kept looking around the store, looking at all of the items it had to offer. We then make our way to the clothing section, and Octavia and I manage to find interesting clothes for us to try on. We go inside the fitting rooms and we both check each other's clothes we picked out. I managed to find some shirts and jackets that make me look more badass, as well as Octavia too.

And of course, she tried on a pair of swim suits as she wanted to hopefully go on a beach vacay trip soon. And she playfully wore one that was too damn sexy, which elevated my horny levels. And so naturally, we both snuck a quickie in one of the rooms. We tried to keep quiet as there were other demons that were nearby who could probably hear us.

After wrapping up, I walk out to give Octavia a minute to clean up and get dressed. I went back to where I found my set of clothes I tried on, and something caught the corner of my eye as I hung back up the clothes.

Out of the window of the store, there was this strange demon figure who looked like he was staring at me. As I kept staring at it, my heart started to beat faster. I'm not sure what it is, but my gut is telling me something's not right with this guy. And as a group of demons outside start walking around him, he quickly vanishes as one demon walks in front of him.

At that moment, I immediately knew that it didn't feel safe. I start looking around the store for Loona to alert her about what I saw. But before I go looking, Via comes out just in time. "Hey! You good?~" she snuggles in my arm, but I'm so startled by her. "Woah… what's wrong? Scared ya again?"

"Octavia, I think we need to find Loona and go." I said to her as I grabbed her hand to keep her with me.

"W-what do you mean?" She says, looking a little shaken by my change of attitude. And as I start to explain, suddenly a loud bang can be heard from the front of the store, and a gunshot can be heard.

"GET DOWN!" I said Octavia. Keep her head low while trying to cover her from anything that could hurt her. We quickly ran towards the back, and we hid behind a counter area. I peeked over to see if I could find Loona from the small crowd of people who were hiding or running.

"Where the fuck is Loona!?" I said quietly while scanning the store. I look back at Via to check on her, and she seems to be hyperventilating. "V… keep calm, it's gonna be ok." I try to comfort her, but she doesn't seem to say anything.

"HENRY DALE!" Suddenly a loud voice shouts across the entire store. When I heard my name being called, me and Via looked at each other shocked that they called my name. I peek behind the counter and start to see the same figure appear from my view.

It is a snake head-looking demon who is carrying a pistol, and is surveying the entire place. It then speaks again "I know you're in here! I've been tracking you all morning! Now why don't you do me a favor and come out and make this easier for the both of us!"

He's here for me. I knew Stella wouldn't let this drama go. I sit back down and take some breaths. Via looks at me, quietly asking what we do. I try to think of all the options, but without knowing where Loona is and no way for us to sneak out, I decide to cooperate.

"Via, call your dad quietly." I whisper to her. "Whatever you do, don't step out."

"No! Don't! PLEASE!" she whispers with small tears forming in her eyes. I quickly kiss her forehead, and proceed to crawl out. I start to get up with my hands in the air.

The demon hears my movement and looks back at me with an evil smirk on his face "Ah… there he is…" I proceed to walk towards the figure and stop a few feet away from him.

"Before you do, let me guess. Stella sent you after me." With annoyance. The demon lowers his gun for a second. "Yep pretty much. An odd job I must say. A Royal Noble asking to kill just some random imp. But hey, Money is money."

He then takes aim at me, and says "Any last words?"

I glance back at the counter one last time, and then back to the demon. But out of the top of my eyeline, I see a small movement above the ceiling. My eyes widen, and with full confidence, I say while looking at him. "Banana."

The demon looks confused by my word, but suddenly, Loona, who has been hanging up in the ceiling the entire time, jumps down and tackles the person. She manages to disarm the demon by biting the hell out of his arm, but it then kicks Loona in the Stomach and sends her flying across the room, and quickly tries to get up while bleeding constantly.

I look around for any weapon I can grab, and there happens to be a box of pocket knives laid out on the ground. As quickly as I could, I grabbed one and ran towards the demon to fight him. I throw a few swings at him, but he manages to dodge most of my attacks. He grabs a hold of one of my arms, and he yanks me around and tries to stab me.

Octavia peaks out to witness the entire fight happen. Struggling to keep the knife from penetrating me, Octavia sees another sharp object and proceeds to throw it in the back of the demon, and he yelps out loud. I was able to get free of his grasp, kick him in the sack, and finally take the knife and stab it in his throat.

The demon tries to speak, but instantly falls down to suffer a painful death.

Taking a few deep breaths, Octavia walks over to me to get me up. "Are you ok?!" She asks as I dust myself off. "Y-yeah, I'm good. Thanks for the save." I smile at her and hug her to calm my nerves. She returns the embrace while softly sobbing "I couldn't just sit there… who knows if you or… Loona!" She breaks out of our hug, as I also forgot about Loona.

We look towards where she was thrown at, and she slowly starts getting back up. Me and Via go over to help her up. "Loona, you ok?!" I ask her.

"Y-yeah. Fucker got me good." She coughs a bit of blood "But I'll live."

As we help Loona get situated, unbeknownst to us, the demon crawls over to his dropped gun and points it at me. Octavia looks towards the small noise, and her eyes widen. And just in time, she pushes me out of the way when the gun shot is sounded. We both land on the floor, but Loona real quickly takes a sharp piece of broken glass, and throws it directly into the demon's head, ending him for good.

I get up on my knees and look at Loona. She looks back towards me, and then to the direction of Octavia.

"Oh fuck…." she quietly says with a very shocked expression. Turning to look at Octavia, and my whole stomach just knotted up.

There is blood coming out of her stomach, meaning she took the hit of the bullet. I suddenly start panicking and walk over to look at her wound.

"No, no, no, no! Via! Shit-shit-SHIT!" I say trying my best not to start losing it.

"Fuck…" Via grunts painfully. "Well, that's a first…" She tries to not make the moment more intense, but it doesn't matter. Octavia was shot.

"LOONA! CALL 911! FUCKING NOW!" I yell at Loona. She immediately pulls out to call for help. I try to push down my hand on the wound to keep blood from coming out. "VIA! Just hang on, ok?! I know it hurts, but just hang on! We're gonna get help!"

"Henry… I want you to know... how much I…" She coughs a bit of blood. "I love... you… And… how glad I am… to still see you alive… even after all this time…" She softly smiles at me.

My heart is now totally in shambles. "Via! Don't you leave me! I can't lose you! Not again, not ever!"

She slowly brings her hand up to rest on my cheek, as I am still holding down her wound, and she smiles at me with tears in her eyes. But her hand starts to lose strength, and I notice her starting to pass out.

"VIA! DON'T DO THIS TO ME!" I yell to her in full tears running down, as I cup my hand on her cheek. "OCTAVIA?! OCTAVIA?!"

My screams could be heard all across the entire Ring…


To be continued…