- February 23, 2021
The House of Asmodeus: A Trial by Fire (Chapter 35)
“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.” – Mary Angelou
When Asmodeus wakes, to say that his left side aches is putting it mildly. He turns his head slightly, opening his eyes to a squint. He can see the impact radius of A’rock’s attack circle around his torso.
He feels like he looks, cracked. When he twitches he can feel his skin tighten all the way down to the left side of his hip, and across the left side of his chest, all the way to his shoulder.
Welp, I will most likely have this giant scar forever.
“Eh, uh,” he hears a woman groan from atop of him. Asmodeus opens his eyes fully to somewhat see Rose waking from atop of him. She probably fell forward into the crook of his neck when she entered his subconscious.
“He’s awake!” a familiar voice yells. Asmodeus’s eyes have still been adjusting, so he missed those around him while he was waking. He looks for the voice but his vision is still blurred. He feels two hands cup his cheeks as lips kiss his own.
Asmodeus feels a long tongue slip into his mouth and he knows who it is. When the tongue makes its exit he greets his wife. “Noella, I can’t believe you’re-”
His wife pushes a finger to his lips to quiet him. “Save your strength, beloved.”
When Noella removes it Asmodeus speaks again, his sight coming into focus around her face, his conversation with the old Asmodeus not coming back to him fast enough. “Noella, um, it’s not what it looks like, she was-”
Asmodeus thinks that he needs to explain why he is currently under an Archangel, though she makes sure to tell him no explanation is necessary.
“Husband! Asmodeus! Calm down! We already know how you got to be in your position!” Noella informs him, trying to keep herself from laughing.
“Master, we were here before Uriel kissed you.” Asmodeus moves his head to look around Noella and sees two figures. The devoted Azale who has just spoken up, and a black daemon he can’t place at first, his mind still groggy.
“I’m getting off now,” Uriel mutters as she begins to roll and remove herself from Asmodeus’s chest. After that, Asmodeus still feels a pressure on his chest, a painful one.
“Jeez, what the hell is wrong with me?” Asmodeus groans as he clutches at his chest.
“I can help,” and then the black daemon waves his glowing hand with the power of bone somewhat too close for Asmodeus’s liking, and Asmodeus feels something lift off his lungs, his own bones.
Asmodeus tries to sit up and speak while doing so, “I appreciate what you just did sir, and please don’t take it the wrong way if we never speak of it-” Asmodeus has elevated himself on his buttox with his arms holding him up when he finally recognizes who the black daemon is. “Cotaras!” Asmodeus gets himself worked up try and summon something to defend them against his old foe.
“Beloved, calm down! He isn’t here to cause harm, he saved me, kept me and Azale alive throughout the battle. He even guarded you while you were… incapacitated,” Noella informs Asmodeus.
“Really?” Asmodeus is puzzled. He always figured Cotaras would want revenge after Asmodeus exiled him. When he turns towards the large daemon he asks, “Why would you help us?”
Cotaras takes a deep breath and bowed his head before his liege. “Since my exile from the Circle of Lust I have traveled between the other circles, looking for somewhere else to call home, but I could find no such place, because I could only call one place home.”
“You want me to remove your sentence of exile,” Asmodeus mutters.
Cotaras falls to one knee. “Yes, my liege, I would wish to serve you and the Circle of Lust dutifully. I know that I have done much wrong in the past through my own blind arrogance, and have hurt many of the people I had once wished to lead. I cannot redeem myself if I cannot do my best to protect them once again. I would wish for you to consider allowing me to come back home.”
Asmodeus senses a real difference in the man before him, and the one who had once vied after his throne. He is unsure whether or not he can trust this Son of Lust, this is easily the first time the two have a conversation that wasn’t during battle or Cotaras’s trial.
“I will consider it, but there are still more important things I must attend to for now,” Asmodeus tells him.
“That’s all I ask,” Cotaras says humbly.
Uriel pushes herself up to partially lay on the side of her hip. She puts her hand on Asmodeus’s unscarred shoulder to get his attention. “Asmodeus, we still have to keep the angels and daemons from continuing the battle. They may have come together to fight against A’rock, but I doubt they’ll stay that way because…” Uriel presses her hand to her head, as her memories are slowly coming to her. “… whatever that old pervert said.”
Asmodeus starts to remember as Uriel does. “Oh… oh yeah.”
“Pervert?” Noella asks with an arch of her brow.
“I swear I’ll tell you later when my head hurts less,” Asmodeus promises.
“Yes,” Uriel agrees, “today, an Archangel was killed by a Demon King and the angels won’t just forget that without us trying to convince them.”
Asmodeus makes note of the challenges he still has to face. “I’m sure the daemons won’t take lightly to two Demon Kings being killed either.”
“Actually Master, Beelzebub killed Leviathan.” Azale assumes that Asmodeus doesn’t know how the King of Envy and King of Gluttony died.
“What?!” Asmodeus and Uriel shout in unison.
Azale continues to explain. “We believe that Beelzebub was in league with A’rock from the start, because after Gluttony kill Zadkiel, he betrayed Leviathan.”
“It was my mother who cut Beelzebub down,” Noella adds.
Asmodeus’s mind is reeling from this information. He points out, “The King of Gluttony was easily the kindest of all the Demon Kings from my interactions with him. Why would he do such a thing?”
“Revenge…” a voice speaks up.
They all turn towards the body near them, where the voice had come from.
“Impossible…” Uriel whispers, then more loudly she yells, “There’s no way he could have survived my White Lightning, I cut through him!”
“Heh, heh, heh… Cough*Cough* you underestimate me again…” the body taunts as he does little more than twitch.
“Help me up,” Asmodeus asks so he can end this.
Noella puts Asmodeus’s scarred arm over her shoulder to hear him groan. “I’m sorry,” she tells him.
“No, it’s just going to be sore for a while,” Asmodeus assures her.
Uriel comes to help with his other shoulder, her wing knocking into Noella’s. Asmodeus’s daemon appendages are still back in his body. “Let me help,” the Archangel tells him.
“Aren’t you tired?” Noella asks her.
“I was at first, but actually, now I feel… new.” This confuses the group, but Asmodeus has an idea why that is. He wonders, How is the new power me and Rose got from each other gonna show its face like the old Asmodeus said? Better yet, why is it taking so long for me to remember all of that?
“So even when he’s asleep he can perform,” Cotaras jokes, interrupting Asmodeus’s though process.
Asmodeus and Noella laugh, while Azale giggles. Uriel blushes.
They start walking towards the body of A’rock, the one that should be dead. They look him over. His chest isn’t rising up or down, daemons and angels had no need for oxygen so breathing probably isn’t necessary for Nephilim either.
Asmodeus can’t understand how A’rock is still alive. There is a gash so deep in the Nephilim’s left side that they can see his organs still moving beneath his ribcage. “They’re not cut,” Asmodeus notices, “Rose cut through your rib cage but your organs, your veins, none are even scratched, how?”
Noella looks at him sideways after what he called the Archangel.
A’rock’s eyes can’t open, but he can still form a smile. “I, may not… have the helmet… but I am… Pluto now…”
“A part of him will always survive,” Cotaras tells them.
“Where is this helmet now?” Azale asks.
“Destroyed, cut in half, but I have the gem that powered it here.” Uriel fishes it out of a pocket on her belt. “I’ll hang onto it.”
Asmodeus nods at her and turns back to A’rock on the ground. “If Pluto’s healed all internal damage why are you still laying here?”
A’rock grimaces. “I… I need it.”
“Withdrawal,” Uriel whispers.
“Like, super withdrawal, maybe more like a crash after an energy drink.” They all look at Asmodeus, not understanding what he is referencing. “Nevermind, but he’s weak now without it. At least for now his body may be mostly healed enough to survive, but he doesn’t have the energy to fight back.”
“What do you want to do with him, beloved?” Noella asks Asmodeus.
“I’ll go with whatever you think, Clay,” Uriel assures him, her use of his human name drawing looks from both Azale and Noella.
Asmodeus thinks about it for awhile. He turns to Cotaras. “Would you carry him? I want him put on trial, and properly punished. We can use him as proof as to who was behind Beelzebub’s betrayal, and make everyone fall in line.”
As much as I would like to, I can’t have him killed. He is still Laya’s father, and killing your niece’s father doesn’t really earn any points in the best uncle category.
“I can most certainly transport him, though I’d rather restrain and drag him, if you don’t mind,” Cotaras responds.
“That’s fine.”
Noella is a little apprehensive. Intertwining her hand into his bloody one. “Are you sure, beloved? Look at what he’s done to you, does his presence not infuriate you?”
Asmodeus looked her in the eye, and speaks coldly, progressively becoming warm. “Listen, there is little more that I want in this moment than to watch him suffer and die for what he’s done to me and everyone that I care about, but he is a way to stop further fighting.” Then a takes a brief pause. “Most importantly he is the father of my niece, and if I want to be a part of her life, killing her father is not a good way to do that.”
“He’s your brother-in-law?” Cotaras asks bewildered. “I’ve heard of having bad in-laws before, but this guy is the real pain in the ass.”
“Tell me about it,” Asmodeus jokes, “and Cotaras…”
Cotaras turns his head at attention.
“I like you better when you’re not so formal, it’s more… honest.”
“As you wish, my liege.”
“That…”
“I realize what I did, apo- I’m sorry.”
Asmodeus chuckles until it hurts. “That’s okay.”
“We should really get going before all hell breaks loose… again,” Uriel recommends.
“Probably literally too,” Asmodeus tries to joke, laughing and hurting himself again.
“Is he like this all the time?” Uriel asks Noella and Azale.
“Oh yes,” Noella groans.
“I think its funny,” Azale mutters.
“Thank you, my love,” Asmodeus says again, before laughing and hurting his chest again.
*****
The remaining Demon Kings and Archangels gather, forming two sides with Michael deliberating in the middle. The armies are not fighting each other, but they aren’t exactly ready to shake hands and go home. The lines are drawn and they are split again, chanting and throwing shade at one another.
“Everyone please!” Michael yells. The other Arch-beings aren’t much help since. Besides for Lucifina, they have been the ones who want to fight the most.
The angels are yelling things like, “Those scum killed Zadkiel!”, “Plights against God!”, “demonic shit!”
The daemons are no better, but much more colorful in terms of language. “Narcissistic bitches!”, “turkey-winged bastards!”, and what would have been Asmodeus’s favorite, “God’s whores!”
Michael has just about had enough, and with a call of “SILENCE!” he brings his fist down against the ground, sending a shockwave that topples all of the armies onto their asses, winged or not.
“Your support if you would,” Michael says as he gestures towards Lucifina and Jophiel.
Lucifina walks towards him gladly, back to looking like a white demoness. Jophiel has apprehensions over switching sides in the argument. After witnessing the true mind behind the soul harvesting there isn’t much reason to support more fighting.
Lucifina raises her hands towards the daemons. “This fight began over the collection of human souls, but now we can realize that it wasn’t all daemons. There’s no reason to-”
“No reason, Pride?!” Satan calls out as he pushes daemons aside to walk towards her and the two Archangels. “We’re here to defend ourselves, our dignity, our homes, because these bastards have done nothing but try to tarnish it for the last eternity! They may have been fighting over some mistake because they’re idiots, but we’re not! We’re fighting because we want to see them dead!”
Daemons begin calling out to back up the King of Wrath.
“You know what, the black daemon is right,” Chamuel speaks up from his spot near the army of angels. “We didn’t really come here to save human souls, we came here because we hate each other. It’s that simple, and this is why we’ve been fighting forever. It’s our nature, for Heaven to kick Sin’s ass every other millenia. This time we want to do it for the last time.”
“You two immature brats have been measuring your egos since the dawn of time. Why do they all enjoy following you to their deaths?” Lucifina asks both crowds. Then she flies high above them in the sky, and amplifies her voice magically.
“DO YOU ALL LIKE DYING?! DO YOU ALL LIKE DYING FOR SOMETHING WORTHLESS!? YOUR LEADERS BROUGHT YOU HERE SO THEY HAVE AN EXCUSE TO FIGHT EACH OTHER! YOUR LIVES ARE WORTHLESS TO THEM, AND YOU ALLOW THEM TO BE EVERY TIME YOU CLASH SWORDS WITH SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW, JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THEM! REALIZE THAT ALL OF YOUR LIVES WERE SAVED BY THOSE WHO LIVED TOGETHER IN PEACE!”
She lands and tells Michael, “If they still want to kill each other, let them. Neither of our societies need more mindless drones, but I would begin to separate the reinforcements Asmodeus brought from being privy to this display.”
Satan starts walking towards Lucifina, yelling at her. “Who do you think you are!? I am a daemon of Wrath, my people are daemons of wrath, we live for the fight and the thrill of the kill! Who are you to judge our ways?”
Lucifina turns towards the huge daemon with her arms crossed. “I remember a time where Kings of Wrath didn’t need war. They didn’t use wrath to fuel conflict, no, they used it to end conflict, because that was what caused their ire. They poured their hearts and souls into fixing their worlds, things that would actually help the people who lived there everyday. Kings of Wrath, the Satans before you used to be trusted to lead other wrath daemons in policing the rest, to do what’s right. Now they’re led by a boy with nothing better to do then flaunt his vestigial muscle.”
Lucifina’s words enrage Satan, as was the point, but so much so that he walks up and backhands her across the face.
Pretty much everyone who can see the action went quiet, leaving most in the back to become confused.
One daemon comments, “Hmmmm, she’s gonna beat his ass now. Done fucked up.”
Before either Demon Kings can start fighting, Michael gets between them, right up in Satan’s face, summoning his True Michael form.
His breastplate is a richer gold worth more than any Virtuous soul, and the top of his wings grow gold to match, and even that can barely contain his light. His power forms cracks in his armor and his wings, lighting the greatest of sunshine through to bring light to the darkest day. His gauntlets and greaves are much like the breastplate, but they cannot contain him. Mere cloth covers his biceps and muscles, his own power and light a better protection than any mystical metal can be. What makes all angels and daemons quake in fear is the blade that forms in his hands, the blade that struck down the devil Lucifer himself, and the eyes that could kill with a glance.
He is Humility, he is the closest these beings could ever come to being God.
For now.
With a transformation so quick and so fearsome, Satan can’t even raise his hand to protect his eyes in time. The light of Michael’s pupils blind the King of Wrath as he threatens him, “If you ever lay a hand on her again, I’ll split you in half,” but it is no loud threat. This comes as a cold whisper that runs death down Satan’s spine.
Michael finds Lucifina’s hand on his shoulder, and feels her hand pull him back, “Get out of my way, Michael.” He’s shocked as he sees her leap over him and kick Satan in his fist, sending him into his head, and only his head.
She turns back as Satan’s body flops to the ground, to stick her finger in his befuddled face, “I don’t need you to fight for me, I’ll break my foot off in his ass myself!” Lucifina is seconds from turning back into her True Lucifer form to add another dead Demon King to the list.
“The only way you’re going to get that daemon to calm down is by putting him down,” Chamuel advises. “You’ve been going on saying that we’ve been wasting the lives of so many because all we want to do is kill each other…
“And you know what, daemon, you may be right. Everyone else can stay back, I want to kill little ole’ Satan myself, an arrow in his chest, the same way I did in the last King of Wrath.” The Archangel of Patience hisses out the sin’s name.
Chamuel steps aside as Satan pushes himself up from out of the dirt. “How about that, Satan? I said we would be able to finish our duel, and I meant it, did you?”
Satan grins at Chamuel’s suggestion and moves around Michael and proceeds towards his rival. “Nothing would make me happier than to finally finish you,” then looks at the Archangels and Queen of Pride, “uninterrupted.”
Michael begins to say, “No, this is idiotic-” when Jophiel interrupts him.
“Let, them, fight, this will never be over until they’ve settled, this war won’t end until their quarrel does.”
Lucifina snorts at Jophiel’s capacity for being so naive. “Don’t you see what will happen? One of them will kill the other, and then others will start fighting too.”
“Then let those who fight, die,” Jophiel declares resoundingly, “our duty should be to lead everyone who does not, and take them home.”
One demonic looking woman steps out from the crowd. She has scales but they mostly blend in with her skin. “Wait!” she calls. All heads turn to her, and Satan is beyond annoyed.
“What do you want? Wait, you know what, I don’t care. Let’s just get this fight started.” Satan is in no mood for interruptions as he moves his hand for Conquest, which is holstered as a magnum at the moment.
“Please wait a moment. My name is Jessibana, I’m one of the leaders of the people who came to your rescue, I’m a Nephilim.” Satan stops pulling his weapon out when he hears that.
“What’s a Nephilim?” Chamuel asks.
“You five know of the community of angels and daemons,” Jessibana gestures towards the Demon Queen and Archangels, “well, eventually we found that angels and daemons could mix, and you get someone like me. The daughter to an angel and daemon.
“I would like to formally state that my people will take no sides in your conflict. We only came as repayment to the King of Lust, and if fighting should break out, we will leave without assisting any of you.”
“As you should,” Lucifina tells her. Then the Queen comments to Michael, “I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Asmodeus promised them a place in the Circle of Lust, and Uriel likely did the same with a place in Heaven. Can you honor that bargain?”
“I can’t make promises, but with a stronger majority of Archangels on my side I believe that we will be able to make do.” Lucifina nods in understanding of his position.
Chamuel takes interest in the brave Nephilim who has made her presence known. “You say you are a thing called a Nephilim,” he hisses his words, “the product of angels and daemons coming together…”
“Yes, that is what I said.” Jessibana prepares herself by reaching a hand behind her back, at the ready to use her lance.
“What kind of angels and daemons were your parents? What Sin and what Virtue?” Chamuel wonders.
“What does it matter?” she asks.
“Most likely nothing to me, but I want to be sure,” the Archangel tells with a threatening undertone. “Go on girl, spit it out.”
With one more swallow, Jessibana replies, “My father is an angel of Patience,” in a single breath.
“Oh really,” Chamuel taunts with a suspicious smile as he starts backing away.
“What kind of daemon was your mother?” Satan asks.
Jessibana is hesitant to answer, doing so slowly, “My mother, was a daemon of Wrath.” Satan looks away with her response.
Chamuel has already decided. “An abomination, you most definitely are then,” he declares as he draws an arrow on his bow, “and you will not sour my Virtue any longer.” He lets it fly right for Jessibana. It never makes it though.
Satan catches it…
SNAP!
… and breaks it in two.
“You will not kill another one of mine, Archangel,” Satan growls.
“Fine then, I kill her after you.”
Satan snarls, takes out the holstered Conquest, and turns it into an assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet. He revves it and leaps towards Chamuel.
*****
“You guys hear all that?” Asmodeus asks. The group come up on the summit of all the daemons and angels who are probably still regrouping.
Uriel points out sarcastically, “You realize that there are more girls here than guys right?”
“Oh, hush,” Asmodeus responds absentmindedly, more focused and serious. Noella expected sarcasm and did not get it, but Uriel got to smile.
Noella watches the two of them with a suspicious squint of her eye. Little more than a month beforehand they could have been thought of as mortal enemies.
Noella’s watch is interrupted by a sudden uproar of cheering and ranting.
They quicken their pace and in a minute they can all see. When they catch sight of the thousands of angels and daemons, the armies are amassed into two sides, with their leaders in the middle. All watch the Demon King of Wrath and the Archangel of Patience locked in deadly battle.
Asmodeus ignores the pain in his left side to move out of the grips of Noella and Uriel. “I can’t fucking believe that they still want to fight! After everything they’re still a bunch of- Aargh!” When Asmodeus goes to throw up his arms in angst, he still feels pain in his left side and clutches it. “Who am I kidding, it’s the most believable thing to happen his month.”
Noella is by his side as she holds him by his wounded arm. “Beloved, don’t get yourself worked up, you probably shouldn’t even be walking.”
“I can’t stop now, I’ve got to separate those two!”
“Says who?” Uriel asks, as she walks up beside him, her sword out. “Stop assuming you have to do everything yourself, there are others here to discipline the children.” She grins as she expanded her wings.
Asmodeus smirks at her remark. “If you want to break them up, then by all means go ahead, we’ll be right behind you.”
“With pleasure,” Uriel replies with a smirk in return, and as she calls on her energy.
He watches as she turns around and takes off with great speed towards the duel below.
Asmodeus turns to his wife, and asks her, “Just in case, Noey, could you do me a favor.”
Noella’s squint weakens a bit but doesn’t dissipate. “Depends, what is it that my beloved wants?”
“Could I borrow some of your energy?”
Noella smirks. “As if you’re going to give it back,” she says as she takes a step into his arms, running her hands through his hair and plunging her tongue down his throat.
He nearly gulps.
Uriel is on the fight in minutes, hovering over it to survey how the battle is going. Michael, Jophiel and Lucifina have retreated back away from the fight, letting Satan and Chamuel continue their duel without interruption. She can see Michael and Jophiel arguing, no doubt about the violence going on in front of them.
Then Uriel looks upon the duel itself. Satan has a firearm with a chainsaw attached to it, sawing through Chamuel’s bow. The Archangel is struggling to get him off as he starts bending backwards from the Demon King’s godly strength.
Uriel decides to wait until they separate, then she‘ll get in between them and disarm them with lightning.
Chamuel leans to the side and throws his bow to the ground so Satan stumbles with it. Satan maintains his grip on Conquest and quickly rolls back into a ready stance to shoot Chamuel in the chest.
This is when Uriel makes her move.
She dives down, summoning lighting swords in both hands. She manipulate it to zap the gun in the daemon’s hands.
“Oww!” Satan yells as his hands are electrocuted and he ends up tossing Conquest into the air where it transforms back into a magnum on the ground.
Uriel, sheathes her gladiuses to then manipulate the lightning further with her hands and pure concentration, making contact with both Conquest and Chamuel’s bow, summoning them both to her.
“Your quarrel ends now!” Uriel announces to them as she holsters both weapons on her person.
“Uriel!” Chamuel shouts. “What do you think you’re doing? Get out of my way!” and then the Archangel starts flying towards her.
“I do not need a weapon to ring either of your necks!” Satan threatens as he leaps at Uriel too.
Time moves much slower for Uriel then everyone else. Her speed more than doubles, and she can see both of her attackers right as they’re moving.
She decides to grab both of their wrists when they get close enough, and quickly slams them into each other. Satan’s fist into Chamuel’s face and vice versa.
BWOK!
BWAK!
They both are stunned and weakly try to remove their wrists from Rose’s stone grip.
“Uriel, what are you doing?!” Michael calls to her from the sidelines.
“I’m teaching a lesson, Michael, I’m showing what will happens to men who act like children.” When her opponents proceed to struggle, she summons visible electricity through her body.
She learns that she doesn’t have full control over her newfound abilities or strength, as the electricity turns into her white lightning to electrocute Satan, and black lightning to do the same to Chamuel.
Michael starts to move towards her, telling her to stop. “You’re killing them, Uriel!”
She leaves them a lasting reminder for themselves. With her startling speed she brings both of their wrists parallel with each other and lets them go. She is moving so fast that she is able to take out her sword, and raise it before the wrists have even begun to fall.
Uriel severs both of their hands with a slash.
The two fall to the ground screaming.
“Now you’ll think twice before making trouble again,” Uriel tells them.
Neither sides takes kindly to her interrupting the battle between their leaders. Daemons and angels are pushing each other aside to ready their swords.
“Could have thought this through better, I can admit that,” Uriel tells herself. While she has gained new powers, she has let herself become maybe a little too confident.
PLUME!
The sound of two fire infernos make way to block both armies from moving forward, shocking both angels and daemons into fearful retreat. The inferno that flies past the angels is one of black flames, and the one obstructing the daemons is of white flames.
Asmodeus falls to his knees after shooting forth both a ‘Black Inferno’ and a ‘White Inferno.’
Even with Noella’s magic energy, he’s still exhausted as he kneels down and inspects his hands. There’s a black spot that causes no pain forming on the one to the left, where the fire was white, and a white spot on his healthy right hand where the fire was black.
“How ironic,” Asmodeus mutters to himself.
Azale and Noella move to help him up, but tries to walk on his own. His body still hurts, but he can’t be seen limping in, that may alert any naysayers or would-be assassins to try and take a potshot at him.
“Cotaras, bring A’rock forth.” Asmodeus then begins his trek towards Uriel with Cotaras following behind him, dragging A’rock’s body in tow.
The walk to Uriel’s side is intense, the cold land has chilled the air around Clay, and the eyes of those around him are glued to him, watching and judging his every move.
By the time he gets to Uriel, his left this sharp pain is shooting up his left side, leaving his insides burning.
“I’m going to hang out in bed for a week after this,” Asmodeus mutters to himself. When he reaches Uriel, she reaches an arm behind his back to hold him up straight.
Uriel whispers to him, “You holding up alright?”
“I’ll live.”
“So what now?” she asks.
“Just hold me up, I think I know what needs saying.” Uriel nods in compliance, letting him take over.
Asmodeus raises his hand and chants a spell to amplify his voice to the crowd.
“We have fought long and hard, many of us have lost friends to the other side before you, and now you may think that you need to make sure that their lives won’t be in vain. Maybe you just want to go back home. I’m here to tell you, that you can go back home, and that it’s not in your nature to hate and fight each other.
“Thousands from both species in this conflict have proven that we can all live together, that we can survive together. That we are not so different and can even meld together to create something new.”
Asmodeus looks for someone he knew from his sister’s community and finds that the Nephilim named Jessibana has moved to look over Satan’s wounds. She has been watching and listening to him so she sees when Asmodeus holds out his free hand to gesture her to come over.
When she gets to his side the scaled Nephilim whispers in his ear to inform him, “They’ve already been told as to what I am.”
Asmodeus nods his head and skips over the explanation of Nephilim. “You should all know, that this community, this showcase of possibilities, will be taking residence in the Circle of Lust, as a sign of things to come towards putting a stop to conflicts like this.”
He turns from Jessibana to Cotaras behind him, “And speaking of this conflict, the perpetrator behind the disappearance of the mortal souls, was none other than this Nephilim, named A’rock. He used their souls to fuel the army that attacked you all. He is responsible, and he will face justice, but now, you all must make a decision. You can abandon civilized society to fight and kill each other, or you can go home, and live your lives. It is your choice, but do not expect another chance.”
There is a long pause before anyone from either side says anything. Then a lone female daemon, that reminds Asmodeus of a reptilian, comes and spits on the ground. She declares, “I’ll never throw my lot in with them, they’ve hunted, antagonized and murdered us in our sleep for billions of years. You expect us to trust them now?” And as she turns around to start walking many start to leave behind her.
Asmodeus thinks nothing is going to change when a fury walks out from the front towards the King of Lust. He removes his sheathed boomerang and throws it to the ground. He announces, “I don’t want to fight these guys anymore! Now I lay down my weapon to prove it!”
When he says that an angel walks up from the other direction and shouts, “I don’t want to fight either!” and when he doesn’t lay down his weapon, he embarrassingly admits, “I kind of want to keep my mace.”
Asmodeus chuckles and lets it be.
Slowly but surely many from both sides come to the middle, coming together to shake hands and communicate with each other, apologies and names are traded. Many too walk away in angst, not willing to give up on the eternity long feud.
Uriel says to Asmodeus, “What are we going to do about the ones who still wish to fight?”
Asmodeus told her, “Let them stay here, find their own ways back or let them kill each other. We have to worry about those who give this new thing that we have a chance.”
Uriel smiles at him, filled with hope, then turns to shake the hand of daemon who offers it.