Chapter 16: The Wrath Sector
Indigo was still speechless by the time Alastor had teleported them into his car and snapped some proper clothes on them. He wore a version of his red coat with white trimming on the collar over his usual attire. Indigo was in her dark blue dress, complete with her purse, boots, and a bouquet of speedwells, alliums, and azaleas in hand. Her eye twitched as they left the driveway.
Alastor just laughed. "Your reaction is priceless! Did you honestly think I was going to cut your tongue or turn you mute? Priceless!"
Indigo shook her head. "What? But you said…"
"Rule of thumb in demonic negotiations, my dear: the many meanings of a singular sentence." Alastor tapped his thumbs against the steering wheel. "If someone negotiated something with you in exchange of having you for dinner, would you immediately assume that they wanted to take you out for dining or that your flesh was up for negotiations?"
Indigo sighed in relief. "Thank goodness! I thought you were going to eat my tongue. But… then what do you want from me?" She then pointed at him. "If it's about performing…"
"No pointing at people, my dear."
Indigo crossed her arms.
"Here's a pop quiz, my dear. Why would a man like myself be a radio host in life and death? What can I gain from doing something that I enjoy combined with my nature?"
Indigo pondered. At the same time, Alastor brought down the window on his door. He spotted some radios chatting on the sidewalk, and the moment he raised his hand to wave a greeting, they ran for the next 6 blocks. Indigo saw his sour smile as he closed the window.
"You're a radio host to spread your voice so people don't have to see your face to hear your story?" Indigo suggested.
"B+, my dear."
"Really?"
"Indeed. I loved listening to the radio since I was much younger than you. The orchestras, the news, the fascinating voices that echoed into your ears and stirred your imagination without even seeing faces! The magic behind invisibility! The dream it was to do a dreamful career during an oppressive time period. People didn't need to see my face to be enthralled… which made it easier to avoid suspicion during my killing sprees! No one could imagine that an admired radio host would be cooking andouille sausages out of their perverse neighbors!"
Indigo wrinkled her nose in disturbance. "Uh… but everybody knows you in Hell."
"Indeed! And, as the Overlord of Radio, I tend to be the main backbone for audio business. I have my routine broadcasted bloodshed, but I'm also responsible for any breaking news, sports announcement, and musical broadcast in any radio station whether it's from the comfort of one's home to the radio in your car! My tower is my main office while any station in Hell is either part of my territories in the Pride Ring or foreign branches in the other Rings. I decide whatever goes on in every channel! Check the glove compartment."
Indigo pulled the stag antler handle of the glove compartment. A pile of CDs, vinyl, album covers, cassettes, and fan mail landed on her legs. She picked them out and noticed a lot of hand-written titles. "'Highway Death' by the Dexter Ravens? 'Vacay to Bonetown' by Verosika Mayday?" Indigo cringed a bit when Mayday's single CD came with a real lipstick kiss on the back cover and an autograph on the front cover. Indigo tossed the CD back in the glove compartment after reading the disturbing autograph. (Note to self: do not tell Angel Dust that a succubus popstar was a fan of Alastor.) "'My World Is Burning Down Around Me' by Fuck U Dad? Oh My Gosh! A CD of Bobby Brown! 'Don't Be Cruel'! May I have that, please?"
"And that's what I'd like to go over!" Alastor took a turn and they reached the black-colored freeway. "My radio tower is overstocked with submissions from celebrities and desperate starters! An approval of mine is a new song on any radio station in Hell that guarantees a demon's success! Unfortunately, I don't have all the time to look over them, what with my overlord business, my hotel duties, and my side businesses. I could really go for an organizer… who'd also keep my radio tower clean!" He snapped his fingers and all the junk flew back into the glove compartment before closing up.
"No public performances, right?" Indigo frowned suspiciously.
"None." The car came to a halt. Alastor held out his hand, a green aura glowing from it. "Protection and independence in exchange of mentorship. Would that be a deal?"
Indigo rubbed the fingers of her right hand. It was tempting. Too tempting. When she stared back at the glove compartment, she could see the envy glowing from the other side.
Should she? Who knows what could happen with such easy access to envy?
"May I think about it and give you my answer on the way back?" Indigo retracted her hand. "I need to think more."
"Of course." Alastor patiently nodded and put his hand back on the wheel. The green glow of his hand disappeared.
They kept driving on the freeway. On the right side, Indigo smiled when she spotted the Cannibal Colony. She was genuinely eager to see Miss Rosie again. As the freeway went over a river, the clouds on the other side suddenly turned orange. The natural red sky colliding with the orange clouds reminded Indigo of freshly squeezed blood orange juice she once had at Dimitri's birthday party. The urban landscape quickly got replaced with lanes traveling through fields of aged volcanic rocks. Olive trees framed the lanes, factories and farms were spread out, and jasper bridges stood over a great river of fire that spread over the area like a lightning-shaped Mississippi River. Mansions with old Italian architecture rested in plantations, and miniature ruins were getting destroyed just for being near lava geysers.
"The Wrath Sector. My favorite sector of all of the Pride Ring!" Alastor inhaled and sighed happily. "I adore the smell of ashes, death, and despair before teatime!"
"I never saw volcanoes this close before." Indigo leaned against the window.
"Consider this our lesson in history and geography, my dear. The Wrath Ring holds all of Hell's volcanoes, giving its soils the proper agricultural nutrients. Satan's subjects are the primary responsible ones in farming and livestock raising. With his trades with Lucifer, Satan also guarantees the farming attributes for the Pride Ring." Alastor pointed at the fiery river. "The Phlegethon is the river that brings all the lava from Wrath to all the rings. It feeds the sector's lands so the local sinners, business owners, and overlords have land to harvest their products and livestock before sending them to their factories and putting their products on the market. Rosie owns fiber farms in the Wrath Sector to create all the textiles she sells at her emporium. Royalties are sent to her every time a buyer resells it or if a fashion designer sells well a line that uses Rosie's textiles. I personally oversee the livestock farms that will send high-quality meat to shops, restaurants, and chefs for aristocratic families."
"And the Roman ruins?"
"That is for entertainment. Satan simply adored Pompeii."
Indigo chuckled.
Alastor suddenly stopped the vehicle.
"We're here?"
"No. But this is something you need to see."
Indigo followed him out of the car. Alastor had another unamused smile on him. When they stood by the edge of the cliff where the road was, they had a view of the terrifying landscape ahead. Indigo gasped in horror at the sight.
200 feet below them laid endless miles of lava red badlands. Despite the Phlegethon flowing past it, not a single plant grew on that soil. Not even a crow dared to land on that foul land. Unlike the rest of the orange clouded red sky for the Wrath Sector, the badlands were shrouded by muted clouds.
If vegetation didn't cover the badlands, the infinite amount of weapons did.
Spears, swords, maces, knives, axes, and all sorts of silver weapons were sticking out of the soil, as if demons planted the weapons. Some skeletons were impaled by spears while other discarded corpses had skulls indented with weapons or tied up as if to be burned at the stake-made-of-weapons. Indigo freaked out at the sight of skeletons sticking out of the ground, as if whoever killed them intentionally meant to put the slayed ones' bodies half-buried and left to fossilize.
It didn't help that all the weapons, like Indigo's family sickle, which was still hidden in her room at the hotel, glowed brightly. Like a sea of crying choirs in the middle of an endless abyss.
Indigo clutched onto Alastor. A natural instinct. She used to clutch onto her father whenever she got scared. Indigo didn't expect Alastor to calmly pat her on the back.
"The graveyard from the first extermination," Alastor sighed. "It was created when Heaven first sent exterminators to purge Hell's overpopulation. The first exterminators created this graveyard with the bodies of their victims and their holy weapons to have us remember. Many demons still toss lost holy weapons into the graveyard."
"W… What did they want the demons to remember?"
"That in the end, no matter what we do, the ultimate death is the fate worse than death for a demon. A mortal can reincarnate in the afterlife for an eternity, but when the blade of an angel strikes the demon flesh, the demon is now nothing. Becoming nothing… is the ultimate punishment."
Indigo gulped.
"Well, let's be on our way. It's ill-advised to be late for tea and I simply enjoy finger foods!"
They went back in the vehicle and drove off. Indigo stared at the holy graveyard one last time before it completely vanished behind them.
She didn't notice an abandoned sickle glowing. Nor did she notice the see the monstrous scale hiding underneath the junkyard of weapons. And the sickle was the only thing piercing it.
Minutes later
Rosie's residential domain was a great mansion centered in beautiful gardens that centered farms where all sorts of fibers were harvested. It made Indigo think that the Highclere Castle was surrounded by cotton, piña, conifers, sheep, nylon, and spider silk. The garden where the tea party took place was framed by orange trees and vanilla orchids. An orchestra of demonic musicians played classical music underneath a red tent while the guests occupied themselves with drinking tea and chatting at the tables, trying out the two large buffet tables, or dancing near the fountain shooting acid out of the Satan statues' mouth.
Alastor parked his car under the shade and gave his keys to the imp valet. Indigo noted that the air had a dried blood and burnt skin odor despite the presence of fragrant plants. She cautiously held on to her bouquet. From what she quickly saw, all the partygoers were dressed either in Victorian clothing or any style that reached the 1930s. If Mr. Coeurdor had seen this, he would have said something about the DOWTON ABBEY fandom getting off to the wrong station and wasting time at a Robert Louis Stevenson convention.
No, because that did happen once in Ines Coeurdor's life. That fictional fandoms clashing event hadn't amused her father.
"Alastor! Indigo! What a pleasure to see you!" Rosie greeted them with a curtsy. "Oh my, what lovely flowers!"
"It's great to see you again, Miss Rosie!" Indigo curtsied back and gave the bouquet to the demoness. "We thought you'd like a bouquet from the new garden. The seeds from your Emporium worked like a charm."
"Of course they did!" Rosie accepted the bouquet. "They will look lovely in my semi-formal dining room. And good timing, too! Our friend Mimzy is joining us for dinner."
"What splendid news!" Alastor said.
"Good! Because I fear that on the bad news, the Von Eldritch are joining us." Rosie's smile dropped.
"The Overlords of Consumerism? Rosie, why did you invite them?" Alastor exclaimed.
"I didn't invite them, and that's where the medium news kick in. They're only here because the Von Ouroboros black sheep is popping by to discuss suggestions to create exports for my Emporium to the Envy Ring."
Alastor's eyes twitched. "And you didn't think to inform me? Indigo is terrified of Leviathan and you want her to meet his least favorite grandson?" Just as Indigo started to tremble, she calmed down when Alastor held her. "Rosie, I know you were eager for us to accept the invitation at the last minute, but I don't think it'd be wise for us to…"
"Wise to do what?"
The trio found that the conversation had been interrupted by some party attendees. 4 demons.
Grey-skinned. Lime green eyes with feline pupils and black framing to their eyes sockets. Green fangs that shined like emeralds. White hair with grey streaks filled with octopus suckers. Black and green attire filled with eyes and open, fanged tiny mouths (it made Indigo question the demon physiology).
Indigo didn't need to guess who they were. They were walking Lovecraftian beasts.
"The Von Eldritch family." Rosie tilted her head. "Enjoying the party?"
"The chamomile tea's exquisite." Bethesda Von Eldritch, the matriarch, commented as she held a teacup. Seeing how only her pinkie held the handle, she might have spilled some. "Isn't it exciting? The youngest grandson of Leviathan himself is coming! For business transactions with you, Rosie! You know, we are VERY distant…"
"But NOT TOO distant!" Frederick, her mustached husband, chuckle.
"… cousins of the Von Ouroboros family!" Bethesda continued.
"Yes, the stories of one of your grandparents being the legacy of one of his children's illegitimate bastards back in the Middle Ages hasn't escaped us." Alastor's smile tightened. "Why ever Lucifer not bat his eyelashes when his daughter broke up with your son will always be baffling."
"Yes, was the illegitimate legacy or the fact that Lucifer would rather have a sinner for an in-law than a relative of Leviathan?" Rosie joined in on Alastor's sarcastic, mocking quip. Bethesda scowled, Frederick glared at an embarrassed Seviathan, and Helsa just laughed at her brother.
"How agonizing for him! He really knows nothing!"
"Shut up, Helsa!" Seviathan snarled.
"If it makes you feel any better, you probably got lucky! Could you imagine the embarrassment we'd get if the media mistook us for supporting her stupid pet project? You'd be as embarrassing as her!"
Rosie and Alastor's smiles were still up, but their eyes twitched in sourness. These were the kind of demons they didn't like associating with. Not because they shared the same status, but because of their ghastly dynamics. They truly had the behavior of nouveau riche gold diggers.
For Indigo, it was a walking temptation.
She could see it. The envy filling their hearts released a radiating aura. The delicious aroma of the sin evaporated from the blood flowing through their organs and the heartbeats sounded like a summoning bell. The Overlord family's envious hearts were steaks compared to the thumb-sized sinful portions of sinners and the bread-sized envy of Vaggie.
The hunger kicked in, but wasn't like any kind of hunger Indigo had felt before.
A smile formed itself on her lips.
Indigo wanted to eat them.
Her smile was still on her when Seviathan noticed her. "Wow. The company got better. Who's this?" He smirked.
Her response was worse.
"Just someone wondering what a Von Eldritch haggis would taste like with all of your freshly squeezed envy served with scones."
Seviathan gulped and took a step back. Rosie and Alastor froze. Helsa was disturbed. Bethesda and Frederick panicked, as if they had seen a familiar ghost. The Von Eldritch clan took steps back as Indigo walked towards slowly, her smile baring her teeth as she continued. "Maybe I could have all your envy in meat pies? Shepherd's pie? Meatloaf? JAMBALAYA?" Indigo licked her lips. "I'd like some of your envy, if that's alright…"
"W… We can try to find some in the buffet…" Frederick quivered.
Alastor quickly snapped his fingers, petrifying the family. Using his shadows, he teleported them on the other side of the property and created a scene so that once he unfroze them, the family would think that they hallucinated the whole thing due to spiked rosé. Rosie dragged Indigo behind a rose bush. Indigo shook her head, regaining her senses. Alastor came back with a platter of food from the buffet table. Indigo blinked numerous times.
"W… what did I do?"
"What did you do? You nearly spilled the water out of the kettle!" Rosie hissed. "Consider yourself lucky those bastards will think they had a drunk hallucination! What did I tell you about hiding your tastes for envy?"
"Indigo…" Alastor patiently asked. Indigo felt horrible when she saw the gleam of disappointment in his eyes. "What happened? This is a new misbehavior, even for you."
"I… I don't know…" Indigo clawed her cheeks. "All I could think about was the envy they had… They have more envy than the other demons so far… I got hungry!"
Alastor showed her the platter. Her stomach growling, Indigo aimed strictly for what she saw to contain envy: crumpets, strawberry sponge cake, and mini shrimp quiche. Her hunger calmed down and she sighed in relief. "I feel better…"
"Oh, this is not good… Indigo, darling, you've been eating the spices I've provided you, right?" Rosie asked.
"Yes, after every meal."
"This REALLY isn't good! A week has barely passed and your sin-devouring is worsening." Rosie started pacing. "Spices won't work anymore, you'll need direct envy to feed you!"
"I'm sure we can find the right kind of food for her that requires envy…"
"Alastor, I know you mean well, but when I mean direct envy, I mean 'things that directly secrete envy'. She'll need envy food that she can eat on a constant basis! Otherwise, she will do what she nearly did to the Von Eldritch clan. Do you understand what will happen if Hell finds out that a sin-devourer ATE the heart of an Overlord?"
"Uh, excuse me, Miss…"
Rosie glared at the sudden arrival of a Hellborn. He looked like he was the same age as Indigo. She gasped after seeing that he was an insect demon.
Or more specifically, a butterfly demon.
"Don't you understand how impolite it is to interrupt two Overlords, my boy?" Rosie questioned sharply. She must have mistaken him for the help.
"Uh, actually… Where are the Von Eldritch?" He meekly asked. "They were supposed to…"
"Great Satan, please tell me the prince isn't here yet!" Rosie panicked. "Alastor, go check on Mimzy in the dining room! I'll check those bastards! As for you, boy, don't sit around!" She forcefully placed the platter on his thin arms, causing him to wobble. "And make sure Miss Caligo gets a cup of tea before this tea party is over!"
The Overlords rushed to do their things, leaving Indigo and the teen demon alone.
"They… do know that I'm not a waiter, right?"
"They're stressed. Here, let me help." Indigo picked the platter and put it down on the nearest table.
"Thanks. I might have spilled it all on the grass. My aunts always say I'm the worst at carrying trays," he chuckled.
Indigo had a better look at the teen. He was the same height as her, but rather frail looking, like a CGI Chris Evans before the super-soldier serum. His curly brownish red hair was cut in the pageboy style. His purple cat eyeglasses embedded with amethyst stones rested above his freckle-infested nose and covered his heterochromia eyes. The right one had a white sclera, a brown iris, and a black pupil, while his left eye had green sclera, a purple iris, and a white pupil. A purple butterfly-shaped facial mole rested on the right side of his nose's bridge, but even that didn't beat the glory of Marjane Satrapi (Ines Coeurdor and her father both loved her work). His purple asymmetrical tuxedo bared green-stitched pinstripes and silver buttons and cufflinks fashioned like European peacocks, or Aglais io. His dress shoes didn't have a single trace of mud on them.
In other words, he looked like a CGI Chris Evans who accidentally got the role of Miss Frizzle and Gomez Addams' love child. If Kyle Ketamine was a street-smart hobo with bad breath, this teen was the kind of high-school nerd that would have gotten his face squashed against lockers by his conservative classmates for not respecting gender norms.
And for some reason, Rosie thought he was one of the servants even though he looked nothing like the imp servants providing to the guests.
"Ooh! Hibiscus tea!" He inhaled the aroma as the liquid poured into his teacup. Indigo looked at him blankly as he fidgeted with his glasses' gems and his lenses flashed out rainbow hues while he looked at the tea. "79% gluttony, 20.5% sloth, and 0.5% wrath. 79% more likely to get hungrier if I drink this… but, what the heck! I skipped on lunch!" He drank the hibiscus tea in one gulp. He saw Indigo staring at him. "What?"
"What… are you doing?" She asked.
"Oh, my bad! Here, try it on!" Without even asking, he took off his glasses and put it over Indigo's eyes. She was startled when she saw through the glasses! It was insane! Unlike when she used her unique vision, her regular vision was still on with the glasses AND percentages of everything sin-related appeared on the screen.
"Wow! It tells you the percentage of sins?" Indigo was amazed.
"Right now, you're on the all-sins settings." The teen touched the amethyst stone on the right temple and turned it five times. The percentages shifted to blue-colored numbers. "If you turn this stone, the settings change so that you only see specific sin rates. Turn it five times and you get lust percentages. Like the order of the rings!"
"Cool! Let me try!" Indigo turned the stone seven times. The numbers turned into purple. Percentages for envy! And she could see that the mint, earl grey, and jasmine teas had the most envy in them. She almost reached for them… until the teen turned the amethyst stone on the right temple three times. Now Indigo didn't just see percentages but equations.
Mint: 88% envy+ 9.5% gluttony+ x% wrath= most likely for a violent dinner
Earl Grey: 79.5% envy + 10.8% gluttony + x% sloth = most likely to be indifferent if a fight breaks out
Jasmine: 81% envy+ 18% gluttony + x% lust = most likely to kill someone if they steal your lover
Indigo didn't hesitate and made herself a cup of Earl Grey. Sure enough, she felt the envy kick in… and felt calm about it.
"The Sin Sensationator 13.0," the teen reclaimed his glasses and put them back on proudly. "Took me nearly 13 months, 6 weeks, 6 days, 6 hours, and 4 minutes to make this device a reality."
"That's specific." Indigo kept drinking her tea.
"Well, it should have taken me a month, but it took me several months to find the right analysis caliber for each sin, then the right memory card to stock up all the separate data, and longer weeks because…" He chuckled nervously and adjusted his glasses' placement against his nose, "… my cousins kept breaking it."
"That's mean. Your invention's really cool!"
"Not really… I still need to start working on the 14.0. You know, contact lens versions. My eyesight's horrible." He chuckled awkwardly and ate a quiche from the buffet.
"So?" Indigo asked. "I have the most hideous birthmark on my navel AND it's still on me even after death!"
"Me too!" The teen gasped. "Except, you know, mine's obviously different. It's genetic."
"I thought birthmarks were congenital irregularities with vague chances of being genetic."
"No, they're usually irregular. Except, you know, when your family has this weird thing where birthmarks are like a familial brand…" He chuckled again in his nervous voice. "You know, it's like the way they brand stallions… except, you know, while you're still in the womb…"
Indigo twitched her eye in awkwardness. "Your life sounds horrible…"
"I know…" He groaned. He held out his hand. "And I'm awfully rude! Nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Indigo Caligo." Indigo shook his hand, feeling the scars and burnt marks on his palms. Probably the occasional cuts from being a teen inventor.
"I can't believe it! Another butterfly demon! And really fun use of the caligo! You have the eyes for it!" He shook her hand too eagerly. "My name's August Aglais! Which is kind of ironic, since, you know, I was born in November!" August let go and chuckled awkwardly.
"My… birthday is also on November…" Indigo smiled weakly. "November 29th."
"It's my birthday date as well!" August clapped his hands. "What were the odds? You know, it's pretty common for 60% of all demons to share the same birth date, but 1% likely if demons of the same species share the same birth date? And 0.5% likely if a sinner and a Hellborn share the same birth date? It's insane, am I right?"
"Right… And I died on my birthday… Literally last week…"
August bit his lip once Indigo let out her dry comment. "I'm… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to be insensitive." Indigo nodded at his quick save. August was really nice and Indigo was eager to meet another teenage demon, but sometimes people ranting about things can be annoying. And Indigo almost thought she was going to sprout red admirals if August started talking about any existing percentage of demons dying on their birthdays. "You know…" He hesitated to say. "We kind of have the same nose… Not based on percentages. Just a remark."
Indigo rubbed her nose. She looked at August's and noticed the similarities. "Huh. I guess you're right. My dad used to tell me that I didn't exactly have his button nose."
"And my dad's nose is nothing like mine. And I have NO idea what my mom's nose looks like. She never shows it."
"Why… why is it so quiet?"
The teens realized that they failed to notice the tea partygoers leaving during the course of their conversation. Servants were clearing the tables, Alastor came out with a chubby 1920s demoness in a flapper dress, and Rosie came back with the Von Eldritch. The family freaked out when they saw August and Indigo. Whatever feeling Frederick previously had before forgetting? That feeling of seeing a familiar ghost? It worsened when he saw August and Indigo standing next to one another.
He might as well have hallucinated Hell's version of Castor and Pollux.
"Your Majesty…" He led his family into bowing, not giving away his suspicion. "What an honor to see you."
Indigo speechlessly looked at an embarrassed August. Before she could say anything, Alastor instantly pulled her away from him. And out of nowhere, an imp suddenly shouted.
"Sorry everyone! I forgot to announce the arrival of August Abel…"
"August Aglais, Trixie…" August groaned.
"My bad! August Abel Cainson Von Ouroboros, or as he prefers to be called, August Aglais. Son of Cain Adamson and Invidia Ithomia Von Ouroboros. Younger Grand Duke of the Evil Eye, youngest prince of the Ring of Envy, and youngest grandson of Leviathan Von Ouroboros! Did I good, boss? Or did I need to mention that unlike you're cousins, you're a single child?"