Chapter 12

You stared down at the silver leather book, now clutched tightly in your right hand. How did he do that? Duplicating that dusty old leather book out of nowhere... and would this have more answers than the mass of history books you found, already? Was it really his diary? You sighed, just wanting to inhale all the information at once, but that wasn't possible... right? Regardless you wish it were.

You smiled up at him, though his eyes were still strained, his smile remained. He patted your shoulder and gestured with a wave of his arm for you to walk back to the table. As you walked you couldn't help but stare down at the book in your hand in disbelief, how old was this book really?

You set the history books down in their own pile away from the others and then set the diary down in front of you, taking a seat in the old rickety chair. Would he mind if you read this? You assumed it was okay... but this was probably his diary...

Now you may have read your sisters diary once... or twice out of curiosity and spite, but now having been an adult... it didn't feel right to invade someone's privacy like that. You almost didn't hear his soft footsteps behind you as his warm arms wrapped themselves around your shoulders. You grabbed his arm with your free hand, smiling. The other hand caressing the book cover.

"It's okay to read that book I gave you. It contains most of my diary from the time I died, but it's also an analysis of it's contents. I don't know why Lucifer had it made... but I guess I must be an enigma to him." he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. He sighed, with his head resting atop yours. He straighten up, letting you go. Taking a seat on the other side of the table.

You smiled at his now sitting form across from the table and look down at the silver leather cover of the book, tracing the embossed words with your fingers. The book making a crinkled sound as you opened the cover and began to read.

First Entry...

When I was alive I was a strong warrior King to a prosperous Kingdom of Scalleth, happily married to my one and only, my soulmate Y/N. My race was called Elvallion's, we are a dragconic humanoid race. Our facial features were very similar to humans and though our bodies were humanoid in nature we would still stand out sorely in a crowd of humans. One of our many skills was to shapeshift into any form we desired or needed, we many times would shapeshift into dragons to enjoy the freedom of flight and to honor our ancestor's.

Before humans, we had never seen any other intelligent life forms other than ourselves. These humans... seemed to appear out of out of nowhere. Their race advance little by little as their population soon overtook our own. That's when the wars started. They wanted our riches... our technology... anything of value...

The battle waged near my castle and I and my queen rushed into fight them... I don't know what happened... one minute I was fighting for her and my kingdom and the next I'm... I'm dead... all I can remember is my vision blurring and falling?... beheaded perhaps? Afterwards, all I see was this blinding white light. Then there was an empty black void that filled my senses, overwhelming me... surrounding me. I was floating in nothingness...

All I wanted in that moment was to go back home, I couldn't stand this void of nothingness and with that very will strong within my mind I believe I caused this... blinding light to overtake everything... this place... it somehow formed from my being... I somehow carved out this... this world... this land that looked so similar to my homeland?

How is that even possible? Like I made my own world from nothingness...

I stumbled around blindly in rage and sorrow, I screamed for what seemed like forever, trying to find her... my one and only. When I stumbled on what looked like our home... I found only remnants of her having lived there. Our castle... Our Kingdom... I was alone... I am alone... I need her... I miss her...

Second Entry

I see things... flashes of light in the distance. All of them so bright that I cannot gaze upon them for to long. It feels like I'm not alone here when they appear. Are they souls of the dead? Like myself? Did they do what I had? Or did they go somewhere else altogether? What is happening? I will find out!

Third Entry

There is now a blinding white light in the sky besides the sun... It's like a beacon. All the lights... souls? They seem to flock towards it and when they do it glows all the brighter! What is that? Who is doing this?...

Fourth Entry

A being of light... that felt of false purity came to me... I was wandering the gardens of my palace when they tapped my shoulder. They looked like a human male... perfect in every way. White glowing eyes, blond hair and pure white glowing skin. Almost as tall as me. They seemed perplexed by my non human features. They seemed disturbed even...

He said I was not normal... that this place shouldn't be here... I shouldn't be here... I was not normal and should be alone and stay that way. He came down here with the intentions to invite me over to this heaven of his that he had made for the fallen lost souls, but since I am not human-like enough... I could not come. He was rather cruel and hostile the more he talked to me.

He reminded me of the humans that had killed me. Scared of something different from themselves. Despite his mounting anger towards me, he left in a huff. Taking flight into the sky and disappearing in a flash of white light.

Fifth Entry

Many hundreds of years have gone by... since his visit. I have heard nothing from him nor had he taken any action against me. The white light has now become almost to bright to look at and it's almost the size of a planet. Seeing it unnerves me... it feels wrong...

I have explored this world of mine as best I can through all these long years. It mimics earth... but in layers... Nine so far that I have found. They all have sky's of their own... it is very odd.

And even though I look for her... I cannot find her. She can't be with them!? No...

Sixth Entry

The light is the size of a planet now... no matter how I try to find her... I can't. She has to be with them... or maybe somewhere else? I do not know! It tears at me... this loneliness... It's all I can do to stay sane...

Seventh Entry

There was a loud screaming rumble and a massive bright beam of light that shot across the sky from the planet sized ball of light. It had crashed into the rather large lake near my castle. I rushed out towards the crash site. I had to know what it was.

That was the first time I saw Lucifer and Lilith clutching at each other. Scared and sopping wet, climbing onto the shore of the lake. I didn't show myself immediately, and to be frank I didn't know how to react, It had been so long since I had contact with anyone...

They seemed scared... talking very fast and looking around in a type of awe. From what I could hear, they seemed to have angered a god... his father? He said something about being an angel of light? Lilith then patted her stomach and smiled saying "We at least got away with our child, right?" I was truly shocked at her admission... she was pregnant!? How... we are all dead? It didn't make sense...

At that time I thought it best to show myself, but maybe I should have waited. I made it look like I walked in from a great distance away. They both looked up at me in fright. Lucifer got onto his feet in no time and flared his three sets of wings out in threat.

I put my hands up in a calming manner, hoping it would stop him. I spoke in a soft soothing voice "I am Alabastien Archion, I live over there in that castle..." it took some time to calm them both down after that. I guess my non human like appearance took them by surprise, but then I offered to take them in, regardless. Maybe I won't be lonely anymore...

Eighth Entry

They seem to be a delight to have around! It took some time for them to get used to being around someone like myself. But now that seems to be a thing of the past! Lilith is now showing! I feel like it's going to be a girl...

Ninth Entry

The baby is born! Her soul calls to me! She is the spitting image of my one and only, without my race's features! I can be a part of her life again! It fills me with joy I cannot express through words alone!

Though something is troubling me, many beings that were once living have started to come here, calling my home... Hell! They say I must be Satan at the sight of my appearance... they call me the king of this hell... If they want a king...

Tenth Entry

My Y/N, they have grown into an adult! So beautiful! They have the same silver starlight curly mass of hair I long to run my finger through. Deep blue eyes that I could get lost in... and the figure of an angel! She has the wings of her father as well, though they are black... that of a fallen angel they say... here in Hell.

I have now gotten accustom to calling my home Hell. Though I will never truly believe it as such. I have become the king of Hell over these long years. A city has been built around my castle and in the ruins of what once was there so long ago...

She and her parents still live with me. They are my family now... they have wormed their way into my once cold dead heart. They are now the only treasure's I need.

Eleventh Entry

My new kingdom of Hell is prosperous and the people who live within it say that it is like living in heaven! Now that she has truly blossomed, I will ask her to be mine! Now I will court her and get her father's permission to wed as is human tradition.

Twelfth Entry

She says yes! She feels the same way! I... I am overwhelmed with joy! This will be a beautiful afterlife!

Thirteenth Entry

We have been courting one another many years now! Her family approves of me to! We will be wed very soon!

Fourteenth Entry

The light in the sky has started sending angels to exterminate my people... they are warped in appearance of what an angel should look like! And they have tried to kill me and my family on numerous occasions! I will not stand for it!

Fifteenth Entry

(blood spatters the page)

I... have been betrayed by Lucifer! I always thought of him as a very close friend along with Bastian... they said to stop the attack on us... that I must die... and they have hidden her away from me! My beloved! I will take her back!

Sixteenth Entry

(Blood soaks the page along with tears)

She is gone... killed by those mutant angels... and I am trapped in a prison of my own kingdom... death is everywhere... it coats the once vibrant streets...

Lucifer has tricked me... but I will free myself and kill him! He put her in harms way! They will suffer! They have... brought out the devil in me!

Diary ends... and the analysis of the diary begins.

You looked up at him with tears in your eyes. They had thrown him away like trash and after all he did for them... He was not the monster they made him out to be... they were! He laid his black clawed hand atop yours and smiled sadly "They made me into one though, I am not the man I was before. Not the kind virtuous soul I used to be... they brought out the devil in me and here I stay." he paused looking deeply into your eyes "I hope they do not realize that you are the reincarnation of their first born daughter... or there could be... will be a war that they cannot win..." he said with a flare of anger and grief in his voice.

You stared down at the table, hand on the diary. You didn't want there to be any conflict between your once parents and him, but it seemed unavoidable. From your limited perspective on the matter, they seemed to love one another like family... or at least did at one time.

You looked up at him smiling sadly, it made sense that you were this woman he had fallen in love with over two separate lifetimes ago, but... it was almost to much to take in. You had wanted answers... but... your mother and father were... Lucifer and Lilith? From that long ago life? Would they really care anymore? They have Charlie! You were long dead to them, right?...

He did seem like the Alastor that you grew up with in your childhood. He acted the same to you... well mostly. But the man in the diary was so different that it confused you. People do change and being in that prison for so long had to have chipped away at his sanity. The very fact that he had never originally been born human had thrown you off as well, though from his appearance in the dream you had recently it now clicked, making sense. Thinking about your dream reminded you of his prison. Just that short amount of time you had spent there was more than enough for a lifetime as far as you were concerned. How had he managed in all that time?

You laid your chin into your palm, elbow pressed into the table, sighing. You did like his old personality from what you could gather from the diary. Now that you know, you can pick out the times it had come out in your time together. It had always been in his best moments. All wounds are healed with time as they say and maybe he would heal over time now that he had you back. And as far as you were concerned you were not going anywhere.

You decided to continue reading the rest of the diary's written analysis. It didn't sum up more than a theory about what he was when he was alive and the extent of his abilities so that he may be better controlled. They couldn't come to any meaningful conclusion. So Lucifer must have left it here to collect dust. After you were finished with the diary, you handed it back to Alastor and started to combed over the first stack of history books you had picked up.

All of the history books from that first pile never mention anything from the diary, only that Lucifer was cast down here to Hell and that he had started the kingdom and made his army, populating all nine layers of Hell. They chronicled all of the death's from angel attacks close to present day as well. Talked about the Princes of Hell, politics etc... you now understood the present climate better at least... but you would have never really had your questions answered if you had gone off these history book alone. You stacked the books back in order and pushed them aside.

Looking up you noticed Alastor had a fiction novel in his hands, at least he would be entertained for the moment. You scooted the stack of old history books towards you in earnest, what did they contain? You again combed through all the books present. They had the history of the kingdom Alastor had built, about how Hell was really made. About the 9 layers of Hell and their different biomes. It was rather fascinating and made you feel oddly nostalgic, like a part of you already knew this? Well a part of you did... you'd guess.

You organized the history books and got up to put them away, finding the shelf they where originally on rather easily enough. As you were coming back, your ears atop your head perked towards the sound of voices far away. You could barely hear what they were saying.

"I want them found! She has to be my daughter!" you thought you heard Lucifer say with a strange emotion. "That can't be! Your only daughter is Charlotte! My lord!" you thought you heard the librarian say in a squeaky scarred voice. What was her name... ah Alana? "You had to have seen them! You were here when they arrived! Now tell me!" Lucifer said in a more furious voice that sounded all the closer to you. You looked at Alastor over by the table, who was now standing up in alarm. His never ending smile faltering.

He put his finger to his mouth in a shushing motion. 'Let's get out of this room... I don't want him to see us in here.' Alastor thoughts rushed into your mind, he handed you the stack of "modern" history books. You held them tightly in your arms. Your wings fluttering with nervous energy. He held his diary in his hand and made it disappear in a puff of smoke. Then he quickly led you both out of the room, making it pitch dark again, just as you were leaving through the wrought iron gate. He produced the key again and locked it, rubbing your back in circular motions with his palm to help calm your nerves.

It did help a little, you had to admit. You tried to calm yourself down all the more as you quickly scanned the room for a distant enough table. You needed to make it look like you both were sitting at it for a rather long time. You quickly grabbed his hand and ran towards a table off in the distance and sat down in a rush, making the books in your hands land on the table in a scattered mess. It looked rather good for almost having no time to act. You saw Alastor act like he was leaning over you and talking "Well we will find the answer in..." He picked up a later edition history book and flipped it open to a random page. "Ah... here we are..." he trailed.

You could hear the shouting continue "Let's go this way! I thought I heard Alastor down here!" Lucifer said in earnest.