Envy of the Heart II

Notes:

And now the thrilling conclusion (of this arc)!

(See end of chapter for more notes)

Back in the tunnel, the main party could feel the tunnel coming to an end as Marias sense indicated they were very close. They figured they had to be under the volcano at this point given the gradually rising heat. Maria was fanning her face while the others soldiered on sweating.

Lucifer then caught sight of the literal light at the end of the tunnel, dashing ahead with Levi still behind her while Maria and Beelzebub followed behind more slowly. Soon all four were standing in a volcanic antechamber, ogling the surreal scenery.

If the sweltering heat wasn't a giveaway that they were close to Mayon Volcano, then the streams of lava running down the sloped walls meant they were right under the magma mountain. Stalactites clung to the ceiling, dozens of feet long with the actual ceiling barely visible between the natural fangs and the glaringly bright molten rock.

While dozens of feet high, this room was only a few hundred square feet around with the Sins' goal in plain sight. Floating over of a small pool of lava was an ordinary human heart radiating golden light so brightly it outshone the magma.

"The Heart of Humanitas…" Levi gasped, "It's right here…"

"Hmph, don't get too excited," Lucifer warned, "God has a way of making impossible challenges seem like a breeze."

While she kept that in mind, the purplette still approached the pool with a hungry gleam in her eye. Every step meant she could feel more of the sheer power coming off of it and true to her title, she craved it for herself. She took slow, cautious steps towards the enchanted organ. The others stood back and watched, observing that nothing suspicious was happening as Levi was only ten feet away and closing.

Even as her foot stepped off of the rock and into molten mass, her magic kicked it keeping her foot unsinged. She could still feel the blistering heat but her eyes were completely locked onto the heart and the untold power that would soon be hers.

At long last the Heart of Humanitas was in her reach. She raised her hands up, waiting for any last-minute trap or even a surprise appearance from one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues. She didn't know who the Virtue of Kindness was and didn't honestly care. All that mattered now was that this incredible power would be all hers now!

That enthusiasm lasted all up until she tried to actually grab the heart and a heat so intense it made magma feel like a warm blanket shot through her hands.

She howled in pain, her entire arms soon feeling like they were being set on fire. Levi desperately wanted to pull away from the heart but her fingers were stuck. Its like they suddenly became fused to it despite feeling like two spikes carved out of lava rock were burning into her palms.

"Is this what Jesus felt like when he died?" she thought half deliriously before a harsh shrieking laugh filled her ears.

"Ha, that's rich coming from you!"

Levi tried to turn her head, seeing that Beelzebub and Maria were begging for her to get back. Lucifer was just staring at her, a look that was one part hopeful and two parts frazzled in her scarlet eyes. Also, was the room shaking?

"You dare compare yourself to the prodigal son?!" the same voice crowed, a shrill cadence that sounded like herself crossed with the stuffiest noblewoman imaginable, "Common criminals have more kindness in their hearts than you!"

"I… I need this!" she tried to explain, "We need to stop God before He-!"

"And you think that some grand conspiracy earns you the right to wield this power? How selfish! You're not fit to lick a cardinal's shoes!"

"S-Shut up! This is an emergency!"

"Oh, I'm suuuure it is… Just like all the other times in your past you decided drastic times meant drastic measures? Mortal Sin of Envy, my foot! You're just some desperate little harpy!"

Leviathan wanted to refute only for her vision to swim, a whirlpool of colors taking over until she suddenly found herself in a typical high school hallway. The tiled floors, lines of lockers over blinding white walls and fluorescent lights glaring overhead all fit but something was niggling at the back of her mind. Everything looked just a little too muted like someone had dimmed the colors a smidge. And why did it all look so familiar?

"You've only been damned a scant few decades 'Leviathan.' Don't tell me you already have no memory of your life!"

"My… Life? As a human?!"

A bell echoed through the halls, a chorus of doors opened and soon teenagers poured out of classrooms by the dozens. Their chatter bounces off the metal and tile to a near-deafening level. All of them were in the same muted colors except for one that strutted down the hall, a clear swagger in her step as the other teens watched her with a mix of respect and envy.

"That was… Me…" Leviathan gaped, barely recognizing her own double as it strutted through her and up to a locker. She couldn't hear her past self but several kids had already lined up, clamoring for her attention.

"All those souls you led astray even before being tainted in Hell…" that same voice taunted, "Coming to you to skimp ahead on their work…"

Leviathan watched as her other self reached into the locker to pull out papers before handing them out to the gathered students, taking sheets from them in return. A glance would show they were test answers, future assignments and various bits of gossip she could use to keep tabs on people.

And from the smug smile on the brunette teen's face, it was all apparent why. She wanted all of this information so she could be the best, keeping up her 4.0 GPA and getting into the best school in the country. And if a few guys had their secrets outed or got thrown in detention for plagiarism? At least she got what she wanted.

All these thoughts and more came flooding back to her. A rock soon dropped into her stomach as she remembered just where her namesake came from. She wanted to be the very best, damn the consequences and God help anyone who stood in her way.

"Oh man… I was a total bitch…"

"'Was? Past tense? As if you are some heroine now!"

The scene rushed ahead, Leviathan watching as everything passed into a blur until it all came to a standstill. Now they were in a tiny bedroom with a haphazardly covered mattress and a sparse wooden desk near a window. The only bits of personality were the pictures of various fish and aquatic animals dotting the walls, the bedspread resembling ocean waves and the marine biology textbooks stacked upon the desk and overflowing with notes.

Leviathan, this time, recognized it immediately. It was her college dorm room. She wanted to be a marine biologist but couldn't pin down the exact reason why. The ocean and its creatures just appealed to her for as long as she could remember.

And soon she saw herself, once again fully colored against a sepia backdrop. This time, though, a nerdy looking girl in a frumpy gray sweater and ruffled skirt followed her in with apparent anxiety in every step.

"Alright, what's on the agenda tonight?" Leviathan's past self said, her voice beyond cocky even as she sat down at her desk to file her nails while the other girl hurriedly flipped through some papers.

"W-Well, Kat will be delivering her essay…"

"Mm-hm," the old her muttered, more interested in her hand, "And what about Joe?"

"He's… Broken up with his girlfriend per your demands."

"Ha! That'll teach him! Go ahead and trash those pictures."

And on and on Levi watched in horror. Seeing herself casually ripping off other people's work, holding blackmail over heads or just planning pranks that could be considered funny only by a complete sociopath.

The speech she read Salem and Maria played back in her head, her stomach twisting into knots as she watched exactly what she was. A spoiled little bully who craved whatever others had and she didn't. Their academic achievements, their friendship, their relationships? All things she could possess and nothing more.

"This is the woman responsible of bearing the Heart?" that damned voice came back, "You don't know the meaning of the word kindness! You scarcely remember the lives you ruined!"

Leviathan tried to shut her eyes, desperate to block out the guilt ripping her in half but she couldn't look away. A literal flash forward brought her to seeing her old self simply walking through a dorm building with that same overbearing bravado until several girls stood in her way.

"Um, excuse me? I've got places to be!"

"Not anymore you don't!" one of them, a tall girl in a basketball jersey, growled, "You got me thrown off the team just because I insulted your shoes! What's wrong with your head?!"

"You stole my assignment and got me a demerit for copying you!" another one shouted, "And for what?! Just because you're a lazy twat who can't think of anything herself?"

Levi's old self was about to shoe her way through only for more girls and blockade her in. All of them started throwing more accusations ranging from blabbing their innermost secrets to getting their family members expelled. The actual demon could only thank that, judging from the conversations and fashions, this was all before the internet or she didn't want to know she would have done.

The whole scene escalated when past Levi tried shoving her way through only to get thrown to the floor, the enraged collegians taking the opportunity to pounce and try to beat some decency into her. Levi watched herself run for her life, the others hot on her tail as they all burst out of the front doors and out onto campus.

Of course, Levi begged for help but many of them just jeered at her. Several joined on the second they saw who was on the run, eventually leading to dozens trying to get the girl who caused them all so much trouble. The demoness saw what she guessed were a few teachers looking on and they merely turned the other way.

"How the fuck don't I remember any of this?!" the real Levi shouted only to get more mocking laughter of her own.

"Because your selfish, grubby little mind blocked it all out! How fitting that the wretch who craves everything never stop to look at herself! But please, keep watching, the best part is coming soon!"

The mob had somehow gotten the bratty college girl scrambling up a fire escape. Levi could already see several running into the building itself to cut their prey off but she couldn't change the outcome.

Soon what would be Levi was trapped with the stairs underneath her rattling and a gang of bloodthirsty students approaching from the rooftop door. Only now did the spoiled little princess try to apologize and talk her way out but that was far too late. She had dug her own grave already and hadn't noticed that she was leaning against the back rail of the fire escape. The metal was clearly creaking and rusted but she didn't notice until it completely gave under her weight.

Leviathan watched herself fall at least four stories from the top of the fire escape to the concrete below with a sickening splat at the end, her tormentors only now snapping out of their frenzy to realize they had just killed a girl who just turned twenty.

"Oh… Oh my god…"

"And thus, you were sentenced to the lowest circle of Hell, reborn as an envious little minx who dared call herself a Demon Lord. What an absolute joke! Only at your position because another took pity on you!"

And with that, Levi's hands came free of the Heart of Humanitas. Her breaths ragged, her face stained with tears, and the memories she just saw running wild in her mind, she stumbled backwards.

"Levi, we have to get out of here! This place is going to collapse!" Beelzebub shouted, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her back. The purplette only barely responded, stumbling away from the lava as the walls shook and stalactites started to plummet.

Maria screamed in panic but Lucifer was already swatting them out of the sky, leaping between the walls to shatter them even as lava started to leak from the cavern sides.

"Aw shit, this might be a problem," she grumbled, "I can't use too much power or else this whole place will blow. Maria!"

"Y-Yes?"

"You need to leave, now! Try and contact the other Sins!"

"But what about you, or Salem?! Isn't he at the top of the volcano?"

Yes, he was. He, Satan and Belphegor were still training when Levi grabbed the heart and started destabilizing Mayon Mountain. Now the three were hustling it out of the crater before all of them got swallowed by a sudden blast of magma.

"What the Hell-I've-just-been-to is going on?!" Salem shouted, leaping from platform to rocky platform like a mountain goat.

"I knew this was an active volcano but this is ridiculous!" Belphegor squealed, getting some terrible flashbacks to Belial's torture treadmill from when that harpy had double crossed them all.

"Stop yapping and run!" Satan barked, "We should regroup with the others ASAP! Us trying to get a heavenly artifact and this could very well be connected!"

Satan was already having to watch for the sudden molten geysers until they were at the edge of the rim. She managed to clear the slope in a single bound with Belphegor and Salem right behind her. The rumbling only grew worse as a massive cloud of ash and smoke rose out of the mountain peak, blinding the three on the way down.

"Gah, my eyes!" Salem cried, trying to focus through the gasses swimming through his head and burning his lungs. He did recognize a sudden red light that was rapidly getting brighter behind him.

"OH SHIT!" he cried, suddenly getting in front of both of this teachers and grabbing their arms as the eruption finally rang out, a tidal wave of burning hot magma was launched into the sky and started rushing its way down the mountain. The demon lords were unsure if they were more impressed by his sudden speed or embarrassed that a human was outpacing them.

Down in the volcano, the situation was even worse as now the pool of lava was a bubbling cauldron slowly spilling out onto the floor. The walls themselves were melting as more molten mass poured out of them. Beelzebub was now trying to pull Leviathan, still catatonic from seeing her own past, away from the boiling hot death that was inches away.

Lucifer was busy with her own struggle. "Maria, listen to me, damn it! You need to get out of here and warn the others!"

"And just abandon you?! I can't just go while you're all still in danger!"

"Guys! Something's wrong with Levi!" Beelzebub cried, snapping the other two away from their debate. Lucifer reached her first and forced her around to face her.

"Levi, snap out of it!"

"I… I can't… I'm nothing…"

She was so lost in her funk that she didn't notice a colossal stalactite that was falling straight towards her.

"Look out!" Maria cried, rushing further into the cavern to push the demons out of the way. She then yelped in panic as the rock landed inches away from her head. Beelzebub quickly peeling her out of the floor.

"We need to leave! I'm sorry, Maria, but we don't have a choice!"

"She's right," Lucifer grumbled, "We'll just have to reclaim the heart some other way…" The blonde then yanked on her purple haired cohort's hand hard enough to yank her off her feet before rushing down the tunnel with Beelzebub in Maria in close pursuit. The entire passageway rumbled under their feet as the walls groaned under the tectonic strain, pushing them all to run until their legs cried out.

Cracks quickly began to splinter off from the chamber they left, a hellish glow emanating from within and pushing Lucifer to all but carry Leviathan while Beelzebub and Maria trailed a few feet behind.

And all the while, Leviathan slowly came back to her senses. While the visions of her own final fall played, now from the first-person perspective, she became more aware of the cataclysm around her. Her eyes turned to see the youngest mortal sin and their human guide starting to fall behind. She then glanced behind them to see a wall of orange-red death startng to rush towards them.

"No!" she snapped, ripping herself free of Lucifer's grasp before throwing Beelzebub and Maria behind her and summoning all of the power she could into her hands.

"It's my damn fault!" she cried, unleashing a torrent of water as tall as she was, "The only one who's gonna burn here is me!"

"Levi, what are you doing?!" Lucifer shouted, "You'll never hold it all back!"

"I don't care! That stupid heart wanted to make me feel like shit… Well guess what?!"

Her attack grew a bit larger as the water met the liquid fire, "I'm not gonna let some righteous holy motherfucker shame me! I'm gonna burn if it means saving all of you!"

Maria wanted to reach out only for Lucifer to grab both of her arms and haul her away. "You make it back here, you hear me?!" the blonde shouted over the roaring rivers clashing into each other.

Levi only gave a single look back, her eye filled with as much compassion as she could manage. Soon all of them were out of sight leaving her to face the oncoming tsunami with her own. Unfortunately, she knew she was already running out of steam, her body bathed in sweat as her water was rapidly getting evaporated by the lava.

"Do you fully plan on dying for them?!" that infernal voice taunted one last time, "A selfish urchin such as you cannot be-"

"You bet your ass I'm serious!" Levi yelled, pushing the final ounce of power she had into her aquatic rush, "I may be a weakling, I may be jealous, and I might never get Lucy to love me… But they're off to save the whole world!"

Her hands screamed under the effort, she could feel heat burns starting to cover her skin and her clothes ignite but she didn't step an inch back.

"I'm not some asshole kid anymore! I'm Leviathan, a Mortal Sin and Demon Lord of Hell! You think fire can scare me?! Bring it on! I want more!"

She then watched the last of her liquid fizzle, leaving only a few inches between her and being incinerate. Even as unending agony stared her in the face, that same confident smile never left. In the back of her mind she wished the rest of the Sins, Salem and even Maria well.

"Make sure you get that heart someday. The world needs it…"

The wall of red washed over her, her entire body shutting down from the heat. She wondered how many souls experienced the same thing when they died only to realize something. How could she think this if she was dead?

She opened her eyes to reveal that the world had stopped, the lava so close she could reach out and scoop off a dollop with her finger.

"You fully intended to give your life for your cause and your comrades," the voice said, infinitely kinder than ever before, "A demon showing such selflessness… It's unheard of."

A slow, steady thumping hit her ears. The Heart of Humanitas was floating towards her, the lava drifting aside.

"More than a century ago, a human risked his own life for a stranger he never met when this volcano threatened him… It only fits that you inherit its power."

Leviathan looked down as the gilded organ phased into her chest, a sudden rush of pure energy filling her to bursting. That same golden light now embalmed her body. An act of kindness of her own had proved her worthy.

"Pay his kindness forward and use its might to protect all you cherish. Good luck, Leviathan, Mortal Sin of Envy."

Just then, the world resumed. The lava rushed over her but didn't touch her. A cocoon of ice so cold it froze the molten rock to solid stone kept her safe. A smile so serene it belonged on Mammon was on her face.

(Cue Epic Theme Song: Season of the Samurai from No More Heroes)

With her new frigid skin to protect her, Leviathan ran ahead with the stream of burning death barely fazing her. As she moved, all of it quickly petrified from that starting point with her barreling through solid rock. It wasn't much longer until she was back in that same chamber the Heart was in only for the entire thing to be a colossal magma fountain.

She lifted her hand and let a colossal jet of water onto the walls and sealing off the molten flow, the caverns quickly being flooded with steam as the streams withered and dried while Leviathan felt hardly any strain.

She then looked down at the lava still circling around her legs, pooled up halfway to her knees, but simply fired down with her hands to turn it all into rock before lifting her feet effortlessly out of the newly made stone.

The demoness then looked up at the cavernous ceiling, the tremors much lighter but still making the walls rattle. The entire mountain was probably spewing lava all over the island, including all over the other Sins.

Leviathan launched herself upwards with the force of a rocket, the ice around her growing until it formed the shape of a great white shark twenty feet long that surged straight through any falling rock, solid or liquid. Soon she reached the chamber's roof, sliding out of her own construct before willing it forward and crashing through like a missile. With the hole cleared she soared ahead at a speed far faster than before with a single mission in mind.

This eruption was most likely caused by her tampering with the Heart. Now she was going to stop it.

She flew out of her original room to see she was now inside Mayon Volcano, a roiling tide of magma waiting in the main crater a few feet below. A plume of smoke obscured her vision but the constant rumbling and red streaming down the sides made it evident an eruption just happened.

The tremors were growing again, her bones rattling as she flew upwards. The magma seemed to follow, a jet or pure liquid heat rushing up to meet her only for her to summon a demonic sea turtle the size of a truck that easily protected her and itself from harm.

Leviathan than soared upwards until she was hundreds of feet above the mountain, the beaches and buildings of Legazpi stretched out over the horizon. A cloud of ash blanketed the sky and rained toxic black flecks on the humans, a din of pandemonium hitting her ears. Somewhere down there was Lucy, Maria and the others.

Bringing her hands together as if she were about to pray, Leviathan took a deep inhale. The burning air stung her nose but she refused to break her focus. She could feel the heavenly heart thrumming in her even now. Before she was only drawing on the surface of her power but now it was time to dig deeper.

A royal blue glow enveloped her, the demon lord spreading her arms to open dozens and dozens of portals all around the volcano. Out came an entire pod of her demonic whales, mollusks the size of cars, sharks and groupers all alike that swam to the current of her power. As one they all began releasing streams of water that Leviathan made coalesce into a cyclone that wrapped around the lip of Mayon with her still in the center.

Millions of gallon rushed, the liquid growing as the speed increased as a full-sized whirlpool now contained the next eruption, the magma crashing into and being stopped by the funnel before it could melt anything else. This left a slowly growing wall of rock that threatened to disperse her water but she had a very simple solution.

Mustering all of her new speed and strength, Leviathan rushed and shattered the stone with her bare fists. The fresh igneous rock cracked like paper under her knuckles and allowed her summons to keep the whirlpool going with no trouble.

The local population naturally noticed the ensuing eruption being stopped by a small chunk of the Pacific intervening. Many thanked God or whatever they believed in but a select few souls looked on. Salem, in particular, had his jaw nearly touching the street they were on. Maria and Lucifer, on the other hand, were beaming with pride.

Back over Mayon, Leviathan could feel the quakes beginning to calm but there was still the problem of the ash raining down on the people. She knew no mortal should be inhaling it but she at least had the perfect means to get rid of it.

With the grace of a master maestro in front of her symphony, she guided her summoned sea creatures to open just enough of a hole in the vortex for her to fly out. Once she was out, she willed the water to follow her out. The people below gaped and awed at a flying river but she wasn't done yet.

Once she was in the center of the black cloud hovering over the city, Leviathan swirled all of the water around her until it formed a concentrated sphere about fifty feet from end to end. With her summons dispelled, she could put all her concentration on heating the water around her until it was steam. She wondered how it never occurred to her that she could potentially freeze or boil her chosen element before but regrets were behind her now.

Once her steam bomb was as dense as it could be, an opaque white nucleus against the ashy quagmire, Leviathan let it all loose in a massive shockwave that instantly broke the cloud apart and left her winded yet unharmed against the clearing tropical sky.

Soon the demoness landed on a street, surrounded by a crowd of astounded locals and tourists who rained applause and cheers for their new savior. Levi felt her eyes suddenly grow heavy and her knees buckle only to be swept into a hug.

"Leviathan, that was absolutely incredible!" Maria swooned, Salem and the other Sins right behind her, "That heart is incredible!"

"Heh, if we all get powers like that, Heaven doesn't stand a chance!" Asmodeus cheered only for Leviathan to have finally hit her limit and pass out.

"Oh man, is that gonna happen to all of us?" Belphegor asked.

"Considering the opposition?" Lucifer said with a devilish smirk, "It's only going to get worse from here… And I can't wait."

By contrast, the Seven Lively Virtues were all performing their various duties in Heaven under the watchful eye of their all-loving God. Even saints needed breaks, however, and all of them had split up.

One of them, a statuesque blonde with a rack so impressive it could make Mammon jealous, was simply wandering the ethereal plane to see if anyone needed help. As the Virtue of Kindness, Sariel considered it her duty to help wherever possible. Her glowing smile and crisp blue eyes soon turned worried, though, as an ominous feeling crept up the back of her neck.

She didn't know what it was but this unsettling creeping wasn't going anywhere, only staying with her as she got moving again. A part of her wondered if she should fly off and alert someone? A pastor on Earth? Maybe go directly to the Pope? Or, if it was really severe, tell Michael?

"No, it'll be fine!" she shrugged, "I wouldn't want to trouble anyone!"

And so, Sariel went back to being her wistful self, convinced that nothing was of concern. Sure, it had been a while since Michael fought that nasty traitor Lucifer but what could she possibly do to them?

And now... For a little epilogue.

Omake 2: Asmodeus's Romance Corner

With the first of the artifacts in their possession, Lucifer decided a celebration was in order. They found the swankiest hotel in Legazpi City and used the penthouse as the scene for their party. Salem, for his part, found the festivities enjoyable enough. At least the girls were more focused on Leviathan showing off her new powers than him.

That gave him time to dwell on Lucifer, the queenly blonde sitting back on the leather wraparound couch in the suite's main room and sipping wine while the others unwound in their own ways. Watching her lounge about, eyes content yet clearly thinking about her future victories, made his stomach jump in way no other woman did.

He turned to Asmodeus, casually flipping through fashion magazines and somehow still exuding sexiness even as she sat upside down.

Salem knew going to Asmodeus for advice was risky. Lust may be her area of expertise so he figured she might know some tips on how to win someone over romantically, even if said person is technically her boss. So, once she slinked off to the kitchen, he gathered his courage and followed after her into one of the many bedrooms.

"Um, Asmodeus?"

"Yeeeees?" she purred, pouring herself a glass of wine she pilfered from the kitchen.

Already, the room is filled with a naughty, flowery aroma while demon propping her feet up on a small table away from the luxurious king-sized bed. The instant her gaze met his, Salem could feel enough desire to make his knees almost buckle.

"Hello, handsome… Looking to have some fun?"

A voice in the back of his head demanded he say yes but he calmly told it to shut up. "Actually, Asmodeus I came to ask for your advice.

That got her to raise an eyebrow. She was more than accustomed to people wanting her on the spot. Plus, wisdom and lust tended to not go together…

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

"It's about Lucifer, I… I've always had a thing for blondes, no offense to you, but I want to know… If there's something I can do so she'll consider me more than an ally."

Asmodeus took another swig, humming to herself as she rolled the question in her head.

"So, he has the hots for Lucy, huh? Literally God only knows when the last time was she had any fun…"

The closest she could imagine was when the blonde had gotten a foot massage and seemed a little too into it. Her grin widened just a bit as she emptied her glass.

"Okay, Salem, I happened to get into a little fun with Lucy back in Miami. One shot of my aphrodisiac and she was in my hands like putty!"

"Yeah, no offense, but I'm not doing that."

"Eh, suit yourself," she shrugged as a second glass was filled, "So, going the old-fashioned way, there's something you can try. I got my hands on her feet and she went wild!"

The artist all but froze when he heard that. "R-Really? I n-never would have guessed…"

Asmodeus's lips were hidden by the dark red vintage as another idea popped into her head. "Yes, she was all for it! Oh, and blowing on her armpits. I see the jitters in you, Salem… Are you trying to tell me something?"

Before he could actually answer, Asmodeus slipped off her boots as the young artist grew from nervous to flustered. Soon her bare foot was in front of him. She wiggled her toes to reveal they were the same hot pink of her hair. With no callous, blemish or unsightly hair, and a slender size 7, Salem found it remarkable. Or was that the fact that it was also free of sweat despite the leather they were just wrapped in?

"You know, Salem, if you really want to get Lucy to notice you? Get good at foot messages. I'll even let you practice on me! All that walking around with Mammon today in the heat, oh, how I need some relief!"

Salem couldn't believe what was happening. Part of his mind was still stuck on the armpit thing but now this?! He didn't have any interest in feet whatsoever, not even hers!

"Actually, it's most everything above that point but still…"

He did know several women enjoyed this thing even after a long day at work, even if that meant burying her enemies in this case, but still…

"Um… I'll be right back!" Salem left a cloud of smoke in his wake as he sped back towards the foyer.

Asmodeus then laughed her head off, sipping her wine and just waiting to see how hilarious the outcome of her "advice" would be.

"Heh, I get the best ideas sometimes…"

"You think so, huh?"

"Yep, this ought to be fun!"

"I'm sure Lucifer will be once I tell her about this fetish she has."

Asmodeus paused mid-drink to look behind her. There was Satan, sitting on the edge of her bed with a stony expression on her face and a hand palming her massive axe.

The pinkette had to stop herself from spitting out her vintage, glancing over to the bottle. 1992 Barbeito Verdelho. The price tag was over seventy-thousand yen.

She made a concentrated effort to swallow, not wanting Mammon to hear that she ended up splurging on her money and then wasting what she bought. Only when she was done did she turn to face the redhead who could carve a swath through an army like a knife through butter.

"Ehehehe… I can explain?"

"Explain what, exactly? The fact that you're distracting my pupil who's supposed to be learning focus or that you're revealing our leader's personal information without her consent?"

Asmodeus then forgot the glass and put the pricey bottle itself to her lips. Demon Lord of Lust or not, she was going to need a lot of liquid confidence for this.

supposed to be learning focus or that you're revealing our leader's personal information without her consent?"

Asmodeus then forgot the glass and put the pricey bottle itself to her lips. Demon Lord of Lust or not, she was going to need a lot of liquid confidence for this.

Notes

One down and six to go! Heaven isn't on their tail yet so what will stand in the Sins' way? Tune in next time!
Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave questions or comments below.