If Vox's day had been bad before, it had gotten downright terrible quite quickly.

After the big ugly beast's unwanted interruption in his phone call with Velvette, Vox had spent a good chunk of the day hiding away in his lair, wanting the solitude and peace it offered over Val's company anyway. Besides, when Velvette returned, he'd be able to learn what Carmilla had thought was so important.

Instead… he got some of the worst news he could've ever imagined.

Carmilla had simply wanted to discuss how they could minimize the damage to their interests that the new Extermination schedule could cause. And even despite the rude interruption, Velvette had still intended to take control of the meeting with the angel's head.

But… it would seem that Alastor's new pal was more of a threat than the Radio Demon himself.

Vox had thought he had the upper hand when he found out about the fucker's kid. That was a conundrum that still messed with him, but at least it provided some kind of insurance if the guy tried to make good on his words.

Instead, Vox himself and Valentino were the only Overlords in Hell who even had the choice to make a move on the kid. The goliath had forced everyone at the meeting into a deal where they couldn't make a move unless they wanted him to slaughter them all.

Even scarier… the guy had the power to follow through.

Not just slaughter, not just the usual temporary death that sinners suffered… no, the big fucker was far more dangerous than that.

After all, as Velvette had made sure to ingrain into both himself and Val… what's a sinner to the Exorcists?

At first, Vox understandably struggled to believe that. A mere sinner, not even an Overlord, killing Exorcists? If it were possible, why hadn't it already been done? The fuckers were pretty much invincible-

Well, no, Vox knew that wasn't true. After all, he'd been with Velvette when she discovered the corpse. It was the reason they'd come up with a full on assault plan.

But then Velvette revealed what had happened at the meeting.

As Vox had expected, Velvette had gotten fed up with the giant idiot and eventually pulled her gun, threatening to end his existence as he'd promised Vox himself.

And from what Velvette had told him, he'd reacted with nothing more than annoyance and surprising speed, simply grabbing her hand.

Of course, she fired the gun. Directly at his face. Two had hit him in the cheek and one nailed him square in the eye.

And they just… fell right off his face.

Now, Vox didn't know how exactly the Exorcist died, but he assumed it had something to do with holy weaponry. And one thing he knew about holy weaponry?

No demon in Hell was immune to them.

Except one.

What was it about the guy that made him so different? Why was one demon such an outlier to… every other sinner in Hell? And as Velvette could attest to, he wasn't just immune to holy weaponry.

The head they'd managed to find… he'd crushed it with his bare hand.

Vox knew without any shadow of a doubt that no one in Hell could do that except for Lucifer, Lilith, and maybe the Seven Deadly Sins. A mere sinner had no right having that kind of power.

And yet, one did. One whom Vox had foolishly made an enemy of.

If he'd been more subtle, he could've had that power for himself. All it would've taken was a single hand-shake, and he'd have more than enough power to fight the Exorcists himself.

He wouldn't need Val anymore, he wouldn't need… well, he wouldn't need Velvette, but he'd be lying if he'd said the doll hadn't grown on him.

But either way, that definitely wasn't a possibility now.

The TV demon let out a sigh of disappointment, propping his flat head upon his palm as he stared at all the screens in front of him. Though admittedly, he wasn't staring at anything in particular.

"Fucking Pentious." If the idiot hadn't gotten caught, they wouldn't be having this problem. But Vox supposed he could only blame himself. After all, it had been his idea to bring in the stupid snake in the first place.

The sound of a ringtone caught his attention, and Vox didn't even have the patience at the moment to try and sound presentable, still grappling with the day's events. With a sigh, he casually transferred the call to one of the many screens with a flick of his hand.

"What?" He asked in annoyance, not even looking at the screen.

"Are you coming to bed? I'd rather you be here before Valentino."

Velvette's familiar voice caught his attention, and he raised his head to see the doll on the other side of the screen, already in one of her many sets of nightclothes.

"Vel, you and I both know Val's gonna be in the studio all night." Vox replied with a sigh as he shook his head and raised a brow. "What exactly are you afraid of?"

"Look, I just… nevermind." She tried to play it off, but Vox didn't miss the look of slight hurt on her face. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She hesitated before hanging up the phone, and Vox took that as all he needed to know that Velvette wasn't herself.

"Alright, spit it out." Vox said with an irritated shake of his head. "What's going on with you?"

Velvette turned back to face him, but she had an unusually vulnerable look on her face. She looked apprehensive and hesitant, as if she was struggling to decide what she would say.

"Do you… do you actually care?" She asked, causing Vox's brow to furrow in confusion.

"What? What are you-"

"Just answer the fucking question." Velvette interrupted the TV demon, earning herself an amused smile in response. That was more like Velvette.

"Of course I care." Vox answered with an amused shake of his head. "I'm not Val. He's here because he's useful."

"And I'm not?"

Now Vox was confused. What exactly was Velvette implying.

"Of course you are." Vox replied, raising an eyebrow as he met the doll's gaze through the phone. "I might be a tech guy, but I don't have anywhere near the kind of influence you do on social media. What brought this on?"

"I… Look, if I tell you, will you promise not to laugh?" Okay, now Vox actually was concerned. And that wasn't an emotion he felt often, so when he did, he didn't make light of it. And he felt he was justified in this rare occasion of concern considering how vulnerable Velvette looked right now.

And the words 'Velvette' and 'vulnerable' went together as well as oil and water.

"I won't, alright?" Vox offered a rare soft look to the doll as he gave a small smile. "I don't give a damn about anyone in Hell, I'll be the first to admit. But I like to think you know me a bit better than that."

Finally, Velvette managed a small smile, and Vox counted that as a win.

"I just… The big guy, whatever his name is… he said that he's glad he has the power to protect his loved ones." Velvette explained, and Vox hoped she didn't notice the ever so slight scowl that took his face over as she continued. "I told him they didn't really care. I mean, why would they?"

"And that's got you down in the dumps?" Vox asked in genuine confusion. After all, why would that mess with Velvette? But the doll shook her head in response.

"No, not that… it's what he said back." Velvette admitted with a small sigh, shaking her head as a slight laugh escaped her. "I mean, I know it's stupid, but… he said he doesn't care if they actually care about him. He cares about them, and that's enough for him."

Ah… that actually explained a lot. Velvette hadn't exactly had a smooth climb to the ranks of Overlord, and being the media personality she was… many people had tried to use her to their own benefit.

Granted, most of them were either double dead or owned by the girl herself, but that didn't change the fact that things like that all add up.

If there's one thing that everyone in Hell understood, it was trauma.

"Well, we both know you'll never really believe me." Vox pointed out, before shaking his head with a chuckle as he leaned forward. "But for what it's worth, yeah, I care. I'm on my way, okay?" He assured, deciding to appease the doll for her own comfort.

Velvette smiled, and gave a slight nod, before her face turned to its usual confident expression.

"Well, don't fuck about, alright? Get your ass up here."

Vox let another chuckle escape him, before nodding his head with a mock salute. "Yes ma'am." With that final farewell, he ended the call and turned away from his screen, moving around his chair as he made his way to the elevator.

As per usual, the wall split apart, and he stepped inside. The elevator took him up to the ground floor, and with a small sigh and an amused shake of his head at Velvette's antics escaping him.

Unfortunately… fate clearly had a very different plan for him.

Suddenly, the entire building seemed to shake, down to it's very foundations. Vox found himself stumbling at the unexpected sensation of the very ground shaking beneath him, before righting himself and standing up straight with a look of annoyance.

"Can't they go somewhere else and blow things up?" Vox had no clue who the culprit was, and he cared very little either. He just wished whoever it was would take the battle well away from the tower.

However, he found the culprit much quicker than he could've possibly expected.

No sooner than the words left his mouth did the front doors smash open violently, tearing from the frame itself as bits of broken metal went flying along with the doors themselves, smashing to the ground in front of the TV demon as he backed up and immediately took a combative stance.

A stance that would clearly be quite pointless.

Vox initially thought that it was some idiot, maybe even Pentious coming back for another failed attempt to prove he was there 'equal'.

But the snake wasn't the one responsible.

The familiar massive form of the one they now knew as an angel-slayer squeezed his unusually large frame through the already damaged opening, bringing his gaze up with a look of complete and utter fury.

And Vox found himself staring into a pair of hollow eye sockets, the bone of the skull exposed around them… and a pair of pinprick red eyes staring into his very soul.

Vox had just enough time to process just who he was looking at before the massive goliath cleared the distance completely, speed that should've been utterly impossible taking hold of him, and Vox found himself struggling to breathe as the a large hand wrapped itself around his throat… and a good portion of his admittedly rather thin chest.

A strangled grunt escaped the TV demon as he found himself being slammed into the opposite wall, before his eyes shot wide as the growling face of the behemoth moved inches from his own.

"Wh-What… do you… want?!" Vox struggled to get the words out with his restricted airflow, and he wasn't entirely sure if the fear he felt was because he now knew how dangerous the behemoth was, or if it had something to do with his eyes. Probably a bit of both, considering his own fear seemed to be constantly rising.

"Valentino." The behemoth growled, leaning closer as his lips pulled back tightly and exposed an ungodly amount of angry serrated teeth. "You'll tell me every fucking thing I want to know, or I'll make good on my words."

As useful as Val was…

"U-Upstairs…" Vox managed to rasp out, and it felt like the grip was tightening around his throat. "Stu…di…o…" The TV demon was positive that he was going to be dead in the next few seconds if the behemoth didn't let go.

The guy leaned ever closer, letting a low, guttural growl escape him… before backing away.

Vox immediately sucked in a deep gulp of breath as he fell harshly to the ground, immediately collapsing to his knees as he struggled to get his breath back. He sat on the ground as he regained his oxygen, before slowly turning his admittedly still scared gaze up to the behemoth.

Whatever form he was just in seemed to have been withdrawn, and Vox found himself staring into those piercing blue hues rather than red dots.

Something he found much preferable.

"Be glad you get to live." The behemoth growled with a look of pure contempt, before turning away and making his way towards the steps.

But not before pausing in his tracks.

He slowly twisted his head until his gaze was returned back to the still recovering tech demon, a dark look on his face.

"But… not before I get this out of the way." The goliath turned on his heel and began approaching Vox once more, and the man couldn't help the way he instinctively scrambled away on the ground to put as much distance between them as he could manage.

"I told you where he is!" Vox protested as he crawled backwards. Unfortunately, his pathetic crawling didn't exactly compete with the bigger demon's large strides as he found himself jerked to his feet by the collar of his coat.

"Sure did, but I got one thing to settle with you." The behemoth retorted with a snarl. He raised her free hand…

And Vox watched as crimson colored flames engulfed his hand.

Every deal-maker had a unique look when utilizing the power. Alastor's would manifest as that weird voodoo crap, Vox's own manifested as pure electricity… and this guy's clearly manifested itself as some kind of blood flame.

"You will not make a single move on my son, or I get to kill you." He stated the terms of the deal, and there wasn't a single thing Vox could do to so much as get a better stance. "It's not a debate, it's not a discussion. You will shake my hand, or I will kill you right now and be done with you."

Vox was still panting in the behemoth's grip, his eyes shooting between the dead serious expression on his face and the still waiting hand engulfed in flames. And as much as he hated to admit it…

"Deal."

Vox shook the demon's hand without a moment's hesitation, more than eager to be left alone by the goliath as the power of the deal took hold.

The crimson flame expanded to engulf Vox's own hand, while the power of the deal took effect on both men. Vox could only watch in humiliated defeat as his only real insurance against the goliath was promptly taken from him.

The flames continued to grow, engulfing their arms, and then their entire bodies, before dispersing in a forceful display of power.

And then… Vox found himself crashing back down to the ground as he was released, while the behemoth turned away and began to make his way towards the stairs.

"Thanks, Vox." It was sarcastic, Vox didn't even need to hear the tone to know it.

But as the behemoth disappeared up the step with his heavy thumps… Vox could only be happy that he'd avoided a very real permanent end.

Valentino loved his life!

Hell was great! It was perfect! If he could do his life over again, he wouldn't change a single bit so he could find himself right back in the real paradise of the afterlife.

This was the life.

He was the owner of a massive business, he was partnered with the two sexiest demons in Hell, and he had thousands of pathetic and useless souls to do with as he pleased.

Granted, it wasn't without it's flaws, he could admit.

Like all the stupid meatbags who can't seem to do anything right. Watch where you're going, how hard is that?!

So many people trip on that wire and start a fire to the point that it was starting to get old. It shouldn't be too much to ask for people to pay attention to wear their stepping.

But no, he had to put a fucking fire out at least twice a week because nobody could keep their eyes open.

He'd have thought that after shoving that bottle inside the tiger… what was her name? Blight? Barbie? Bitch? It started with a B, he remembered that much. But he'd have thought that when he stuck the bottle inside of her, people would fall in line.

After all, no one was a big ass bear bottle shoved inside them.

But unfortunately, no one had seemed to learn that lesson. He'd already had to shove bottles inside a couple of other people, and it was beginning to get old.

Maybe he should switch to something more painful? Maybe a blade of some type would do? They'd heal anyway, and if he felt that they weren't worth it anymore… well, an angelic blade wouldn't be a bad idea.

So long as he saved that one for the-

"Oh… fuck…" Valentino found himself thrown from his thoughts with a grunt of pleasure, his head falling back against the back of his chair.

His eyes drifted down, and a confident smirk took over his expression as he met the eyes of one of his favorite toys.

Below, on her knees between his legs, was another succubus sinner. Unlike that new bitch, Vanny or Valerie or whatever, this one hadn't been a problem.

Which made sense, considering she'd been the one to come to him. He didn't remember her story, after decades under his employment, it didn't matter.

The succubus had bright purple skin, and dark purple hair with pink highlights in a bobbed style. A pair of pink horns with purple highlights stuck up from her head. A pink and purple bow was tied around her neck, she wore a purple skirt with pink frills and a matching purple fleece hanging from the back. Complimenting that was a pair of pink and purple striped thigh-high stockings.

She was topless, but that wasn't anything new. Ignoring the fact that Val was used to his employees in their birthday suits, this particular worker never wore a shirt or a bra of any kind. She knew what she had and made the best use of it to get paying customers.

Yellow, feline-like eyes wearing pink-eye shadow stared up at Valentino with a seductive expression, and the moth would gladly say that this worker knew very well what she was doing.. Her striped, heart-shaped tail was swaying behind her, and Val enjoyed the feeling of her horns against the edges of his hand as he rested it upon the top of her head.

This was one of the few employees who's name he would never forget. A relatively young woman by the name of Grima.

Grima pulled her lips from his length with an audible pop, before looking up at him with a confident smirk of her own as she stroked his member.

"Am I doing good, sir?" Despite the downright dirty look on her voice, her tone was one of faux innocence as she batted her eyelashes at the moth.

Valentino simply grinned in response.

"Yeah, baby. You're doing real good." Valentino assured with a pleasurable smile, giving her head a soft pat as he nudged her back towards himself. "Keep going, make me happy."

"Yes sir." Grima replied without fail, obediently placing her lips around his tip and swallowing him once more.

Valentino could only grin, and let his head fall back.

This was the life-

BOOM!

Val sat up straight immediately as he heard the sound of the studio door being slammed open, followed shortly by the sound of the door itself impacting the other side of the room, before he jerked his gaze towards the door frame in a fury, carelessly pushing Grima away from himself.

He originally thought it was just some idiot whom he'd enjoy killing…

But that wasn't the case in the slightest.

Instead, he found himself staring down Angel's new Hotel friend, the one Velvette had claimed was capable of killing angels with his bare hands. The behemoth was only a head shorter than the moth himself… but that didn't mean anything when the beast had triple Valentino's own muscle mass.

And the guy looked… there were about a thousand differents that meant anger and hatred, and Valentino was positive they all applied the the man currently stomping his way towards him with narrowed, furious eyes and gritted teeth.

Valentino's own teeth gritted in frustration as well as he stood to his feet, staring down the shorter behemoth with a look of fury as he immediately set about closing the distance. He didn't care what Velvette said, no sinner was that powerful.

"Hey fuckhea-" The words were cut off when the behemoth's hand lashed out with an unexpected quickness, before Valentino found himself on the receiving end of a very painful back hand.

He couldn't stop the scream of genuine pain that escaped him as the large hand connected with his face. His skull was definitely shattered from the sheer force, and it didn't help that he now had three deep gashes in his face along with a missing eye.

"Ah, fuck!" Valentino shouted as he heard gasps of shock ring through the room, and he had no time to really grapple with what was happening either. He was on the ground for only a second before he felt himself being pulled back up by his wings.

And then another fist slammed itself into his stomach, the spikes piercing the skin and tearing his shirt as he felt all of his currently unpunctured organs rattle within his very body.

"Nice to meet you in person." The behemoth commented, though it was a bit hazy in Valentino's ears considering he was still grappling with his current agony that was being induced upon him.

Valentino felt what little air left in his lungs being knocked out quite harshly, as the behemoth punched him in the stomach once more. It was a visceral sight, Valentino was still coherent enough to realize that.

It didn't help that the sudden speed and sheer force created an unexpected snapping sound, only adding to the fear-inducing factor of the vicious move.

Which spoke nothing of the pain. Because Val was positive he'd never felt this much pain in his life.

Well, outside when his girlfriend snuck into his room and stabbed him to death.

But this was… something else.

Valentino let a pained grunt escape him as he found himself slammed into a table, trying pointlessly to push away from it and stand back up to face the beast properly, when his head was jerked up and promptly slammed back down into the wood.

"Your employees, Angel and Vanessa, are good friends of mine." Val could feel the man's clawed fingers beginning to dig into his skull, a pair of hands shooting up and trying to force the much larger one of himself while the others desperately tried to break away from the table. "I can't say I appreciate the kind of shit you've put them through."

Val managed to jerk his head around in the clawed grip, scratching himself in the process, and found himself glaring pure daggers at the behemoth despite the pain he was currently in. Blood red orbs met angry blue hues, and Valentino let a snarl escape him.

"Those bitches-"

"Wrong answer!" The behemoth emphasized his words by delivering another bone-shattering punch to the moth's side, cracking a couple ribs and making it extremely difficult to breath. "You've been raping Angel for god knows how long on a regular basis, an you're looking for a way to be able to do that to a sixteen year-old girl?!"

"The stupid cunts asked for it when they sold me themselves." Val replied as he found himself struggling against the behemoth as best as he could, though it was a vain effort as anyone watching could tell.

The behemoth gritted his teeth in an almost feral rage, before jerking Valentino up.

Valentino had a single second to process what was happening, before he found a stinging pain erupting through his already injured skull as the table he'd been slammed into shattered, and his head was smashed into the floor.

He could barely feel the grip on his skull disappearing, too focused on the unpleasant pulsing in his skull as he tried to right his hazy sight and sound.

A process that was viciously interrupted as blunt, stinging pain crashed through the back of his head. The moth could barely hear the sound of shattering glass, but that definitely should've been the least of his worries.

The pain in his skull, in his side, in his stomach… all of it was forgotten as a fiery, burning pain erupted through his lower body, radiating through his stomach and legs from his ass.

"How's a broken bottle feel, dipshit?" He could hear the behemoth casually ask, though just barely considering the way Val now found himself screaming bloody murder, any bravado lost in place of pure agony and terror.

It wasn't helped at all by the way he felt his entire body jolt, his screams spiking in pitch as he felt the rather thin bottle being jostled within his rear, cutting into his bowels without remorse and injecting absolute misery into the moth.

"Jesus, fuck, stop!" Val found himself saying as he tried to push himself up, only to find himself being slammed back into the ground as the bottle was viciously jostled once more.

Valentino hadn't had time to really process anything that had just happened, and it kept him on the back burner. Unable to react with anything other than the pure instinct each action elicited, and right now, all that meant was blood-curdling screams being forced from his lips.

"Did you stop?" The behemoth asked, and Valentino felt the grip on the bottle slack, only for him to find himself being pulled up. The grip on his skull returned, and his back found itself bent at an odd angle as he was forced to look forward. "How many of these people have you done the same shit to?"

"I own the-" A smarter person would realize that was a bad choice of words, but intelligence wasn't exactly something Valentino had an abundance of. The moment he'd tried to speak, his head was smashed back into the ground with enough force to shatter the marble under him.

"You don't own anyone." The behemoth's voice changed as he spoke, growing deeper, more guttural, more… demonic. "Not anymore."

Val could feel the hand upon his head growing as the behemoth's voice changed, causing the claws cutting into his skull to stretch the skin and pierce well past the muscle, until the sharp nails were digging into the very bone itself.

"L-Let g-go!" Val demanded, his eyes jerking around in terror as he found himself genuinely fearing for his life. A feeling he shouldn't actually be experiencing.

He was Valentino! The porn Overlord, one third of the Vees, one of the most powerful sinners in Hell!

This man was nothing! A beast, a waste, a piece of dirt that needed to be-

Those arrogant thoughts were harshly cut off when he found himself harshly jerked into the air, still hanging from the piercing grip of the behemoth as he began to thrash and struggle as harshly as he could.

He had to escape, he had to escape-!

What happened next… well, if Val would regenerate, he was sure he'd remember it very well for the rest of eternity.

Agony blasted through his side as he felt a pair of claws dig into the base of one of his lower arms, slowly digging deeper until they shattered the bone… before being ripped away.

An uncharacteristically high pitched scream was ripped from the moth violently as his skin tore. Useless muscle and flesh hung from where his arm had been torn off, and all Val could do was thrash for dear life in a frantic frenzy.

He wasn't processing anything anymore. He couldn't hear any voices clearly, he couldn't see clearly through the agonized tears in his eyes, he couldn't even feel much of anything else properly… all he could focus on was the excruciating pain and the need to survive.

It was a long, slow, torturous process, as the behemoth moved one by one. His other remaining lower arm… and then his upper ones, one after another… and then…

Val had been bitten before by some surprisingly strong-willed employees, Angel had even done it to him before. But… he'd never felt anything even remotely resembling what happened next.

His screams silenced themselves, and the small remaining part of him that was still coherent assumed it was shock, as he felt an… empty space.

Where his genitals had once been.

It only took a second for the pain to kick in…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Unfortunately, being in Hell meant that escaping into shock wasn't really an option. It was only momentary, and then he felt the full pain. No restrictions.

And all he could do was scream his agony for the world to hear.

"Don't pass out yet." That deep, guttural voice… the voice of a monster echoed in his ears.

And for all his power, his money, his wealth…

Valentino could only whimper.