"Whoa… This is… just…"
"Amazing, right? Even though it's hell, I've neva seen people make orderly lines like this before. And the fact that none are fighting… Yeah, it just speaks volumes of how many suckers want to get it in."
The Hazbin Group has finally reached the sturdy grey wall that separates the territory of the new Overlords and the rest of Pentagram City. With the princess along with many others, including her father and girlfriend, gawking with impressed and shocked faces at the neat and tidy lines of sinners and hellborn waiting in front of the gates of the territory designed in a futuristic style.
"So… uh… Angel, Cherri, should we just wait in the line?" Charlie pointed to the back of the already long line, with over a hundred demons and more already standing within it.
"Yep, I would've said you should try to use your authority as a princess or dear daddy's title to get us in quicker. But last I heard, a noble demon tried that shit with the guards, and they, the same guards I mean, threw him outside on his fluffy ass and blacklisted him from ever entering again."
With the exception of the two cycloptic demons and Alastor, the rest stared at Angel with shock. Simple demons were able to manhandle a noble and blacklist him? It's practically unheard of! Regardless of the power of an Overlord, they could never compare to noble demons like those belonging to the Ars Goetia family for example. Yet, it wasn't even the reigning Overlords but the mere guards who did something so… impossible?
How?
Charlie gulped as she stared nervously at the head of the line, imagining what sorts of terrific monstrous demons the Overlords hired that they could do something so impressive.
Was it maybe the old overlords? No, that wouldn't make sense, if they could, then they would've been considered among the most powerful before they were defeated and more well known at that. Perhaps it was fellow noble demons? But then that would raise the question of why they would ever do something that many of them would consider demeaning by working for mere sinners, regardless of how powerful they were.
Charlie bit her lip as she stared with a hint of nervousness at the gates, where the guards who seem to allow people in waited, she couldn't see them from here, due to the line filled with sinners and hellborns of all shapes and sizes. Yet she couldn't help but picture terrifying monsters born from illogical nightmares waiting for them.
The group didn't stay idle for long as they went and took their place in the line, seeing how quickly more demons joined in before them, and waited for a while.
They stayed for probably a few hours, striking topics with each other, appreciating the uncommonly peaceful atmosphere of the place, or witnessing the occasional rare occurrence of someone causing trouble only to get silenced by other demons in the line, sometimes fatally.
Finally the group were in front of the doorway that led to the territory and with a raspy withered voice beckoning them in, the gates opened.
"Next!"
The group slowly entered through the massive gates that seemed to open on their own. With the exception of Angel Dust, Cherri Bomb, Alastor and Nifty, the rest of the group walked in through with hesitant steps, walking through the massive doorway as it closed behind while the Hotel group matched through the short well lit hallway to another set of large doors.
Lucifer wanted to be the first to lead the group through the doors, though it was mostly to defend his daughter in case of any hostile beings on the other side. But before he would get the opportunity to do so, the porn demon barged through with a bang and a casual smile, his fingers snapping as he gave whoever was on the other side four finger guns.
"Sup, Skelly Daddy! And you too, ya rotten hunks! Did'ya miss little ol' me~?"
A multitude of withered voices, ones that seemed to belong to ancient men, sighed with utter exhaustion, before a deep one spoke up with utter annoyance.
"I do hope that you are not here to cause chaos again, Sir Dust. You are lucky that the people don't find you to be a nuisance, or we would have had to kick you out for disrupting the peace… again."
Angel sighed playfully as he placed his hand on his chest fluff, a feigned hurt expression on his face.
"Me~!? I'll have you know that I've been a very good boy for a while now! Though… if you all think I haven't learnt my lesson, why don't you tie me up and… 'educate' me~?"
A loud thumping noise was heard from inside the room, akin to one bashing their head against a table, as a multitude of groans were heard.
Charlie, seeing that Angel might really get them all kicked out before they even get a chance to meet with the new overlords, rushed inside to try and mitigate the damage and apologize to the unfamiliar demons, with the rest of the group following her
And what she saw terrified her a bit.
In front of her was a large rectangular metal table with five cloaked figures, in various states of corporeal decay sat down, each was clothed in purple robes with golden accessories of different kinds, they eerily reminded Charlie of those undead characters from the RPG games she was introduced to by the sinners of the group.
Standing on the far sides of the room behind the table were two dark gigantic rotten creatures donning black armor with helmets with large horns. In their hands they held large tower shields that easily cover their massive forms as well as large flamberges with a dark aura wafting from them.
And while these two demons that looked straight like something that crawled out of Charlie's nightmares as a kid, surprisingly the one she felt the most nervous around was the last seated undead.
The one in the middle was, for a lack of a better word, different from the other seated demons. Unlike the other four sitting on either side of him, the entity didn't have any rotten flesh whatsoever on the visible parts of his body. Instead being purely skeletal in nature, with tiny red flames in his sockets representing his eyes. And quite frankly, the aura that sinner(?) had reminded the hellborn princess of some of the noble demons she met before in the past when she was still active in Hell's noble society.
And if she were to take a gamble, perhaps the noble Angel told her that was thrown out of the territory, was removed by this central skeletal demon.
The skeleton looked away from the porn demon and gazed at her for a few uncomfortable seconds, before turning his unblinking gaze to the others who had entered the room after her.
"I see you have brought others, including Lady Cherri once more. Well, it doesn't matter."
The skeleton cleared his throat - confusing many with such a bizarre action - as he gazed at them again.
"Let me introduce myself, I am the gatekeeper here, by the name of Ostiarius."
The skeletal demon then rearranged a pile of papers, setting them aside as he brought a book from within his robes, setting it on the table as he magically brought out a quilt and looked at them.
"Now, according to procedures, we shall note down your names and the purpose of your visit before you are allowed to enter. We already know who you two are, Sir Dust and Lady Cherri, as such, you need not do this again, unless you're planning on a different reason to visit."
The porn demon and his friend shook their heads as they went to the side, leaning on the wall as they gave the rest thumbs up with cheeky grins.
Charlie gulped as she walked towards the group of undead first, waving them a hand.
"Your name, miss?" Ostiarius asked her with his quilt near the paper on his table.
"Uh, my name is Charlotte Morningstar, but please call me Charlie, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Ostiarius looked at her suddenly for a moment as the fires in his eye sockets disappeared for a moment before reappearing once more, he then nodded and wrote down her name on the book in front of him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, your Highness, and what is the purpose of your arrival today? Visitation? Relocation to within the territory? Or something else perhaps?"
"Oh, uh, my friends and my friends here were hoping to meet with your bosses, the overlords leading the territory, today."
Ostiarius looked up at her again with a head tilt before shrugging his skeletal shoulders, jotting down words on the paper before looking up at her again.
"If that is the case, then all of you, please give me your names and you'll be on your way afterwards."
The group of demons looked at one another inquisitively before each slowly gave out their names to the robed skeleton.
"Husk."
"Niffty!"
"Alastor, quite a pleasure!"
"...Vaggie."
Ostiarius noted down the names of the four before looking at the final person.
Lucifer.
"And you? What's your name?"
Lucifer didn't know why, but for some reason, Ostiarius's already cold tone seem to be even more frosty than normal, but the fallen angel chucked it up to his own debilitated social skills and that the gatekeeper was simply acting as normal as before.
"The name is Lucifer Morningstar, King of Hell and Charlie's proud father!" The fallen angel said with his most charming smile towards the skeleton.
Only for it to be shattered the very next second.
"Hmm… Lucifraud Morningstar, curious name, your Majesty."
Lucifer blinked as his smile weakened for a bit before speaking up.
"Uh, I think you misheard me, my good man, I said Lucifer, not… Lucifraud."
Ostiarius looked up at the man with an innocent head tilt, before nodding and writing it down.
"My apologies then… Your Majesty… Lucifuck? I must say, the naming conventions of angels are quite weird…"
The fallen angel could've swore that he heard a snicker from that bastardly red demon but ignored it as he sighed, while looking at the oblivious Ostiarius.
Perhaps his undead appearance isn't merely for show and actually affects his hearing.
"Umm, sir…" One of the undead creatures sitting on either side of the gatekeeper looked at the Ostiarius. "I think he said Lucicunt, not Lucifuck."
Alright, the snickering Lucifer is hearing began to definitely increase now.
"No, you fool! He clearly said Lucibrat!" The other sitting demon said with anger as his one good eye looked with contempt at his colleague.
"Why… you! Are you deaf?! If it wasn't then he definitely said-!"
Most began laughing as the three seated undead began arguing loudly about what was Lucifer's possible name, despite having the man in question in front of them.
"It's definitely Lucishit!"
"No, Lucicunt!"
"You all are wrong, it was definitely Lucibitch!"
"How does the end of that name even rhyme with Lucifuck?!"
"You said before it was Luciwhore! Your hearing is definitely worse than mine grandpa!"
"You vile bastard, we're all the same age!"
By that point, most have given up any semblance of decorum as they began laughing loudly at the quartet of arguing undead, especially when they began grabbing each other's collar and shouting at one another.
Even Charlie, to Lucifer's shock, joined in the laughter, as she giggled at the amusing scenes. While the man in question was blushing bright gold at the humiliation that he was facing.
"Enough!" Ostiarius bellowed as his subordinates scrambled back to their seats in an instant, all looking away from the seething superior in hopes of not getting reprimanded.
The skeleton sighed as he looked at the four, daring any of them to look up again or speak up. And seeing no signs of such actions, nodded to himself before turning over the book and handing it to the fallen angel along with his quilt.
"My apologies, your Majesty, you can write your name on your own, right there."
Lucifer nodded gratefully as he took the quilt and wrote his name in cursive below Vaggie's name, and being satisfied with the result, handed over the book again to the gatekeeper.
The undead took it before reading it, his head tilting as he slowly spelled out.
"L-u-c-i-f-e-r… Lucifer? I see. Well then!"
Ostiarius closed his book with a thud as he waved for the demons to follow him as he opened the doorway on the other end of the room.
"Welcome to Nazarick!"
"Whoa…" Charlie and the rest of the group who have never seen the territory looked with awe at the sight before them, taking in all the scenes around them.
Streets that, as far as the eye can see, were sparkly clear, with nary a hint of dirt or blood, which was the norm in Hell with the amount of crimes committed everyday.
Buildings that seem to have gone under repair greeted their eyes as they looked at the varied shops and apartments around the territory. And the ones that weren't yet repaired, had numerous demons of all shapes and sizes working on them, with suspended platforms donning the old buildings as sinners and hellborn imps seem to work in tandem in fixing the damages, from laying out new bricks instead of the old ones to simply giving the walls new paint coats.
Though what surprised the group the most were the crimes committed.
Or rather, the lack of them.
Sinners and hellborns such as imps, hellhounds, succubi and incubi walking along the pavements on either side of the road enjoying themselves as they went about their businesses, while cars went about safely (even listening to the traffic lights!) with some of them that seem to leave the territory through much larger gates in the border wall, ones designed for the large vehicles.
Husk whistled as he saw the civil atmospheres of the place, with even Alastor giving an appreciative hum as he took in the sights.
Such sights in Hell are rare, with the only other place in all of Pentagram Can coming close to it being the Cannibal Town. Which, for a lack of a better word, is still quite violent and bloody on occasion due to its cannibal denizens.
"Wow, this is… just… so… cool! Look, Vaggie! These sinners are behaving really well and aren't fighting with one another! There's no murder, no burglaries, no car crashes or fires! And there's also lots of hellborn here too!" Charlie practically squealed in excitement as she jumped up and down while holding the one-eyed angel's sleeve, her bubbly joy infecting even the cynical woman as she had a smile on her face too.
"I can see that, hun, but remember what we're here for."
Charlie came down from the excitement high she was on as she looked with an open mouth at Vaggie before coughing slightly, her cheeks a redder tint than usual as she looked Ostiarius with a smile.
"Ahem, sir, I know it's not really appropriate to ask for a favor like this, but how do we go meet the overlords in charge?"
The gatekeeper hummed as he tapped his skeletal chin in thought, before shrugging his shoulders and looking at the hellborn straight in the eyes.
"It's not so easy to do so, especially as the two lords are often busy with work of their own, more so with the repair efforts still going as strong as usual. But considering your status as the princess of hell, I'll relay your request to the masters and should they be free, they will meet with you at the earliest opportune time. But, until then…"
The gatekeeper shrugged his shoulders as he motioned to the street in front of him. "Go enjoy yourselves for the time being and see the place for yourself. There's not much that can be done in the meanwhile after all."
Charlie nodded with excitement as she stared with stars in her eyes at Ostiarius.
"I appreciate it, mister Ostiarius, I really do! Thanks for all your help!"
The skeleton chuckled as he waved her off before entering the room once again. "I'm simply doing my job, your Highness, now if you'll excuse me, the line is still far from over."
And with that, the doors shut behind the group, with the faint voice of the skeletal being shouting 'Next!' once more.
"Nice place, eh, toots?" Angel asked as he leaned on Vaggie, making the halo-less angel grit her teeth in anger.
"Nice? It's simply amazing! Look at them all! And look, no one is murdering, or looting, or even having sex in public!"
Cherri snorted as she looked at the people in front of her. Shaking her head in pity.
"It ain't for a lack of trying princess, some fuckers try to stir up shit in here before they get booted out or out down. Remember the little incident that Katie Bitchjoy was talkin' about? Yeah, it's like that."
Charlie gave a small 'oooh' as she nodded her head, a bit of a grimace adorning her features. But she couldn't really complain right now, after all, for as cruel as forcing the people to behave on the threats of death, it does seem to work in keeping the peace here. But then, this raises another question of where exactly are those guys that enforce it to begin with.
And looking around more, she found her answer.
Standing at attention in-between the buildings periodically, were the same monstrous large armored monsters that she saw two of in the room where Ostiarius was. These ones had their flamberges planted firmly on the ground with their shields beside them as they stood still as statues on the pavement.
It did make her curious though, if the deaths on TV were permanent and the sinners in question aren't coming back, would that mean that the flamberges used by these monsters were made from angelic steel? Or are they simply there for show and someone else is punishing the sinners?
Charlie couldn't mull over this thought for long before she saw the group being lead towards the heart of the territory by Cherri and Angel, forcing her to keep up as she continued to take in the view of this new reformed part of the city.
'Still, no matter what the answer is, or how those new overlords got everyone to behave, I have to convince them to side with the idea of redemption. And if they got everyone to act nice and help each other, then they surely must be good people! This will be easy as pie!' Charlie thought optimistically as she began to take in the view while surrounded by those she considered family.
Unfortunately for her however, this endeavor of hers will not prove to be easy or as likely as she thought.
As the group of demons and fallen angels disappeared from view, Ostiarius placed two fingers to the side of his head as he mentally recited a spell to connect to the person on the other side.
{Message}
{"Hmm? Huh? Wha…? Oh! It's you, Otsy! How's work treating ya at the gates? Any fuckers causing trouble again?"}
Ostiarius shook his head, though the other person couldn't see it or sense, as he spoke telepathically again.
{"Negative, Lord Adam, but thank you for thinking of this lowly subordinate. I'm simply intending to report that the Princess of Hell, her wretched father, and the sinners affiliated with her, have entered the town."}
Silence permeated through the connection, before Adam spoke up again, a sadistic taint coating his voice.
{"Good then, did you give Lucifucker a passive 'warm welcome' like I asked?"}
The skeletal Elder Lich nodded as he spoke again in the connection with a pleased tone.
{"Indeed we did, my lord. He was positively embarrassed by the numerous insults we threw at him in the guise of our poor hearing being at fault. And the fools who accompanied him and even his daughter were laughing at his humiliation."}
Adam laughed from the other side, a hearty powerful laugh, before he spoke up again.
{"Good job, Otsy! I'll make sure to ask Ainz to get ya a reward for making my day."}
{"You need not do so, Lord Adam, I'm but a lowly servant made to assist in however way I can, I'm unworthy of a reward for the service that is to be expected of me."}
Adam groaned from the other side as he replied to the skeleton. {"You know you'd be insulting me and especially Skelly if you don't just accept the fucking compliment and any rewards we give ya! So stop your bitching and when Skelly asks you what you want, you better says something good!"}
A pregnant pause continued on through for a while before Ostiarius spoke up again.
{"Then thank you, my lord, and when the time comes, I'll have a wish prepared "}
Adam huffed happily as he heard the Elder Lich's words. {"You'd better!"}
{"...Speaking of which, my lord, shall I inform Lord Ainz of this new development?"}
The overlord from the other side of the connection snorted as he answered. {"Nah, don't worry, I'll go tell him, besides, he's already in the middle of the town under disguise, so he'd probably meet those morons sooner than later. You just continue with your job and if any fuckers try to do something stupid, you know what to do."}
The gatekeeper nodded his head as he responded for the final time. {"As you command, my lord. Then, I shall return to my task."}
With a slight groan, Adam cut the connection of the {Message} spell, leaving Ostiarius once more in the company of his four subordinates and the two Death Knights assigned to them.
The Elder Lich silently pulled out his book and opened it, gazing at the name of the fallen angel who he had the displeasure of meeting a few moments prior.
'Lucifer Morningstar'
With a simple snap of his fingers, the name changed immediately to something the Elder Lich found more appropriate for the Archtraitor of his own people.
'Lucifraud Fallenstar'
Ostiarius gave a small smug 'hmph' as he gazed at his handy work for a moment as the flames in his eyes brightened with utter contempt at the name.
'For the heinous crime of betraying your own allies, family and your very Lord, I hope you suffer the most gruesome of fates, oh vile wretched seraph. And if Lord Ainz were to ever grant me permission, I shall watch you suffer agonizingly, and ever so slowly, from a front row seat.'
Ostiarius could only gaze with vitriol at the name for a few more moments before one of his subordinates alerted him to the newly arrived group of imps ready to enter their masters' territory.
The undead sighed as he flipped a new page open and began working again for the very cause for which he was born to do, one that he swore to do perfectly and exceed all expectations placed upon him by his lords.