Chapter 7
Shadow's crawled across the wet cobble streets of an old English town, they grasped at the old buildings as if to swallow them and intern everything around them, whole. It was odd... you could have sworn you've seen this town before... but how? It didn't make any since... Unless... Was this from some past life of yours, is that even possible? Given what you un-life has come to so far?
The shadows around you seemed ever more corporal, as if you could reach out and touch them, like a truly black inky smog. It made you oddly sad, what had happened here? What made it seem so much like a hollow dead void? You walked for what seemed like hours only to see more desolation in your path. The buildings seemed very old, but perfectly preserved all the same. It was haunting to look at and made you shudder.
"You think to enlighten them..." A loud hissing voice echoed off the walls of the buildings surrounding you. "You think they will see..." He slivered from the great expanse of shadows ahead of you from the deeper depths of a long dead town. A massive obsidian dragon like snake with piecing red/gold glowing eyes and the sclera completely black, stared unnervingly down at you. It slivered towards you until it's massive frame was towering over you.
It shed it's body, turning into a man with long black curly hair, the same glowing red/gold eyes and a face so handsome it could put an angel to shame. He was still very tall, much like Val ''That horrid monster!' you thought remembering him even within your own dream. Because this had to be a dream!? 'Right?' you thought to yourself while craning your neck upwards to see that he has ram horns, both completely black against his all too white scaly skin. You felt brave despite the horrid nightmarish scene around you and this equally strange being. What could he do to you? You were dreaming...
The man leaned over to grabbed your hair in his long black clawed hand and twirled it between his fingers, lifting it up to his face and inhaling. "You smell innocent... Like you aren't supposed to be in Hell." He emphasized the word 'hell' as if he known it all to well. "And my dear, your not supposed to be here, like a white rose set aside to wilt away..." He let go of your hair and straightened up. "They will come to take you away... from us. A light in the darkness... You see..." he said leaning over again to look you in the eyes. "They can't have the two mixing, it would make them look bad, upset the balance of things. And we must keep the quota..." He seemed to sneer with sarcasm.
You backed away from him in absolute confusion and fear. What was this man? Who was this man? What did he want? He took one long stride towards you, making it seem as if you didn't move at all. "I want this to end... this never ending display of pointless conflict... Of ego... One against the other... And I want to be on the winning end..." He grinned then, long sharp fangs protruding from his mouth and displaying his sharp teeth along with them. "Your my key, my dear..." 'Wait?...'
Your eyes shot open as you gasped for air, your hand clutching at your chest. 'It was just a nightmare... only a nightmare...' Though it was still as vivid as ever in your mind. But despite the horrid nightmare you just experienced you still feel very foggy mentally. Taking a couple of deep breathes to calm yourself, you realized that a hard and warm chest was pressed against your wings and back. This makes you blinked sleepily at the ceiling as everything comes crashing back into forethought. Making you remember Alastor and that this was your second day in hell...
It was almost to much and made you want to scream in alarm at all that took place yesterday. But you reined yourself in with a new focus forming in your mind, seeing what else you could do with your new powers/magick. Could you have more than one shadow person? What could you do to better protect yourself ? Could you completely change your shape? Could you make things form from nothing? Your mind racing at the possibility's! All you wanted to do is get up and run outside to see what could happen!
"Hmm..." You heard a deep static groan against your ear while he nuzzled his nose along your neck, making a pleasant shiver run down your spine "calm yourself, it's too early for this excitement, my dear." you heard Alastor rustle in the covers, stretching. "But... why not?!" you pouted, stretching yourself in turn and yawning. He smiled gently down at you, having sat up in bed. He then got out of bed and clothed himself in a completely black suite, with a dark red tie and a small white rose in his jacket pocket. "After the wedding we can go about training you, my dear... but until then with those ruffians running around... well, I'd rather not bring attention to a newborn overlord in the making." he stated, turning to look at you.
You gave him an odd look, shaking your head as if in denial. 'I'm an overlord in the making? Really?' Shock was reverberating throughout your being. 'Am I really that powerful?' You didn't know much about overlords or how they came into being or even what it all took to be an overlord. With those thoughts in mind, your dream came crashing down on you. You would usually forget your dreams quick enough, but this dream... It seemed all to real for you. What did he mean you were the key? Key to what? His release? The end to this good vs evil? Was the dream even relevant to your new life or was it from the stress of this new reality you found yourself in?
You didn't want to discount the dream right off though... It felt to real... to vivid to knock off to stress alone. So with that thought in mind, you got out of bed and headed for the closet, grabbing a pair of black jeans and a blue lace long bell sleeved top along with other essentials, you headed to the bathroom and soon came out ready to face your new day in hell. You were suddenly excited about what you could find out about the snake-man... from your nightmare, maybe you could somehow get to the royal library to find out...
You looked up to see Alastor's usual smile " Yes, since I am an overlord we can go too the royal library today, but we also have another busy day ahead of us. Maybe we can bring Charlie along with us as well. I would like you to get to know her better anyway..." You saw something odd stirring in his eyes, like their was a little gold speckles instead of pure red, odd... like the snake mans eyes... You shook you head to clear your mind. 'That would be ridiculous... me, yeesh!'
"This nightmare of yours is getting to you, huh? Do you need to talk about it?" He asked leaning over you with his hand caressing your cheek. You blushed looking up at him "No... I just need to find out about what it means or if it is from stress, is all..." you said while smiling up at him. You then stretched your wings out, yawning loudly, flapping them a little. It felt good and funny at the same time. You giggled, smiling up at him. He shook his head while quirking a eyebrow at you. "You silly goose." he said while laughing and wrapping his arm around your waist, turning towards the door. "We should get going, my dear."
Just then the room shifted to the outside of the First Circle. It didn't seem to faze you too much to teleport anymore, though you still felt a little dizzy from it even still. "So again, this is the First Circle of the city, right?" you asked yawning again. He landed a kiss on your forehead "Yes, this is aptly called the First Circle, there are three in total. The First Circle is for the nobles and Royals of the first Pride Circle/Tier of hell. The lower parts lead too and into the ground, the last one being entirely in Hell's Earth itself. Most of sinners are in the middle tier of hell, while the third tier is oddly enough for the wealthier, much like the First Circle. Those who reside there, don't like the sun much..." He finished saying as he led you to another breakfast diner, much like the first. The diner was called "Roasty" the lettering was silver despite the fact it's sign look as if it was on fire, other than that it looked like your typical diner you would find back on earth.
You smiled and walked in with Alastor hand in hand. Everyone had the same reaction to Alastor as they had in the first restaurant from yesterday, utter fear. You sighed at their reaction as a male imp lead you down a row of tables to one against the far wall, near a window. Your waiter was a obsidian black cobra demon with blond hair and red eyes with black sclera's. He came to get your drink orders and left you to look over your menu. Just as he was leaving to fill your orders he turned and gave you an odd look, but you paid no mind. Alastor seemed a little more than irritated as he looked over the menu. Maybe... it was just the stress from yesterday... probably?...
Your waiter returned, giving you an odd concentrated glare. You had a urged to see what he was thinking and tried to read his mind the way Alastor always did yours. You theorized that if you wrapped your aura around his and with a little concentration you could established a link from your mind to his mind. 'If she would just leave to go to the lady's room, I could knock her out and give her to Valentino and get that reward money... Hmm... maybe first dips...'
His thoughts disgusted you, but it also was alarming that Valentino had put out an reward for you capture... It also irked you that it would be so easy and simple to execute his plan he had in mind for you... You needed to be more aware of everything around you to stay safe. Maybe order your shadow demon to keep tabs on those around you? You willed your thoughts to into your shadow demon mind. 'Hey, could you keep tabs on those around us just in general? And what should I call you?' You felt a stirring in your mind 'I'm know as Ash and your will is my command.' you heard Ash purr into you mind as you saw a flicker of shadow behind Alastor.
You heard Alastor growl deep and low. He turned towards this man named Fredrick as his name tag suggested. "If I were you, I would leave while you still can..." As he said these words you could see his horns grow into large black antlers and his eyes turn to radio dials, though still serpent like. A loud humming static fog enveloped around him and his grin turned monstrous. "Mister I don't know what I did to upset you and all... I leave ya two alone.." He played innocent and gave you one last look, slivering outside so fast it was as if he was never present to begin with. You thought you saw a shadowy blur chase after him...
An imp from earlier looked up in alarm, he was the one that led you to your table earlier before. He seemed to figure out what had just happen and quickly came over with another waitress in tow, who then got her pad out to take your orders with shear panic in her eyes as Alastor returned mostly to his normal form. She was a blue flame demon with pure black eyes. You looked at the poor girl and gently voiced your order to her. "I will have a omelet with sausage, tomato, onions and cheese with a side of french toast." The waitress scribbled your order down quickly and turned her fearful gaze onto Alastor who half growled his ordered out "I want a very rare bloody venison steak with a side of pancakes." He turn is gaze from the menu and looked her directly in the eyes "Also, I would like to speak to your manager once we are done here..." he almost hissed as the waitress took no time to dally, almost running down the row of tables ahead of yours.
You touched his hand with yours to try to calm him down. It seemed to help a little from the looks of it. He sighed placing his hand against his forehead and through his hair. 'These other Overlords are getting on my nerves, It's enough that they consistently try to pick women from my territory... but now with you... They crossed a line that won't be forgiven...' he pushed his thoughts into your mind gently, though you felt the stress emanating from him. 'I'll have to talk to Lucifer about this, If I go into an all out war against these cretin's there could be a large untold amount of casualties... mostly on their side... But still I'd rather it be minimal.' He said as the waitress returned with the orders. You pushed into his mind 'It's going to be okay, well get them in the end and we could go talk to this Lucifer after the royal library or before, whichever works.' he gently squeezed your hand in his and started after his morning meal. You did the same and finished soon after him.
As you and Alastor got up to leave you saw him stomp towards the now approaching manager. You could see the manager tremble in fear as Alastor laid into him about the encounter from earlier. The manager of "Roasty" was another flame demon, though his body's flames where orange/gold. His eyes where honey gold with white sclera's and he was wearing circular glasses and a black waiters outfit. He continued to tremble as he relayed that he would fire this person today and screen his future employees more thoroughly.
You doubted that he would do this, but who knows? Maybe Alastor truly had put "the fear of God" into this man? You quirked an eyebrow at the manager as he seemed to somehow sweated profusely despite what he was. "I be back to make sure you follow through with this!" Alastor snarled at the poor man. He turned to you and took your hand in his, leading you out of the diner. "Well with that out of the way... lets go and see about furthering our wedding plans." He seemed to be forcing his smile this time as he led you down the long road of the First Circle.
You turned your gaze towards him "Why was that man so scared of you?" He smiled down at you, while you both continued to walk "He is under my employ as he resides in my territory, since I am the overlord for much of the first circle and some of the middle tier, he and many others answer to me. It works much the same for many other overlords of the Pride/Sinners circle of hell."
You quirk an eyebrow and wonder out loud "How many Circles of hell are there?" He chuckles "There are nine in total, my dear! Each are so named after the sins of human's." he states as you near the wedding's planners store. 'Here we go again...' with that thought you feel many eyes on both you and Alastor, making you look around wearily at your surroundings. Looking around more only makes your suspicions come to life, seeing so many people on the streets, staring intensely towards you two...
'Did they want the same as that man from earlier or were they just curious?' you questioned as your ears flattened against your skull. 'Yes and no, my dear. Don't give it much thought. They won't and can't do much to actually capture you. I won't let them...' He almost snarled that last thought as he held the door open for you to enter the wedding planners shop that you just realized was called "Entwined" It was a actually quite a cute name and said it all.
'Let's get this over with...'