Purgatory (Hazbin hotel/helluva boss AU)

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Sera wasn't sure if she should be shocked or worried as she looked over the massive pile of paperwork, designs and planning Adam had shown her with his and Lute's plan on how to deal with hell in a less timely and more resource effective manner that would also make it even less likely for anyone in heaven to learn about the necessity of the extermination. If only he could be this active or serious with his regular duties. It would be amazing the work he could get done if he kept this mindset with things that didn't amuse him as much as his vendetta against his fallen descendants. In many ways his hate was rather petty as she knew it was more just one of the few ways, he thought he could hurt Lucifer if he could be as cruel and vindictive as possible during the exterminations. It did worry her sometimes, but Adam always seemed to cool down and mellow out after the exterminations and he was always on good terms with the winner when he travelled around heaven. He was rather abrasive with Emily but then they had entirely different mindsets when it came to how they viewed humanity as a whole.


Purgatory, a new realm to house the souls of sinners alongside hell. A realm designed to test the souls of those who fell for lesser crimes and dark deeds. They would be forced back into humanoid forms and their minds reset to test them a second time by giving them a second chance at life, though the realm itself would be designed to make sure that they were tested. Looking over the plans Adam had written up Sera had to admit that the whole idea while a big unknown seemed like a much more viable and long-term option compared to the yearly extermination. While working out at the moment, the human population of earth was growing and dying off in such a rate that Sera could tell that eventually a yearly event wouldn't be enough and the risk of the rest of heaven finding out would grow as well as Hell and its residents getting more and more willing to take the chance of all-out war against Heaven. This was a well thought up off ramp she could take that could allow her to push back the timing of the extermination and possibly give souls a second chance to reach paradise. She had at first not given the idea much thought as Adam while a diligent worker tended to be rather lazy though with him handing supervision of the project to his right-hand Lute she felt more comfortable placing her confidence in the project.

Building a new realm would be a big ask especially with it needing to be secret but she should be able to handle the task, though she wondered if it would be stable considering that while she would more than easily be able to design the earth like nature of it well enough, the parts that would need to be set up similar to hell had her worried as hell had formed all on its own upon Eve eating the apple. The nature of the realm was a mystery to her which had her a bit worried about the project, but Adam and Lute assured her that they would inform her immediately if anything seemed off and if things became too dangerous, they would pull the plug. Her decision made Sera wrote down some notes on a page and teleported it to Adam and Lute while she went to work on crafting the new realm.


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Lute looked at the paper in her hand a bit surprised at its contents. "She actually said yes?" Lute hadn't had Adam's confidence in Sera even entertaining the idea and yet here she was rather surprised that it looked like the project had been green lit.

"Come on don't sound so surprised Lute, it hurts that you thought I couldn't sell this to Sera." Adam faked being hurt while lute just had a look of seriously on her face at Adam's antics. "Oh, don't give me that look. you know you and I can do anything if we put our minds together and this will be the cherry on the top of your career and my afterlife. plus, I can't wait to see the look on Lucifers dumb face once he finds out."

"About that sir." there was a bit of a nervous look on her face though more unsure than nervous. "Sera wrote that no one is to know about this. we won't even be telling Lucifer about Purgatory. souls are just going to be moved and he will be told that the extermination will be set to a new and longer schedule."

"Oh come on seriously." Adam just looked bummed that he couldn't rub this into Lucifers face as the various ways he had planned to rub the Fallen's face into the metaphorical mud shattered in his mind. "Sera can be a real buzz kill. How am I supposed to get my entertainment now...?" Adam had slouched down a bit upset that his fun had been spoiled before he sat up an idea growing in his head while Lute had a bit of a worried look on her face knowing the trouble Adam could get up to when he got bored and how she often had to stop him or try to limit the damage.

"Sir whatever you are thinking, I would advise against it. we both know that Purgatory won't be a permanent plan until Sera is fully confident in it so, please be on your best behaviour at least until we don't have Sera looking over our shoulder."

Adam pouted a bit, but he knew better than to try and trick Lute. "Fine I promise to be on my best behaviour, and I'll keep my mouth shut."

Lute gave a sigh of relief as she left to go talk with Sera about what duties she would need to follow and if she would be getting any support from the exorcists or if she would just be working to keep the new realm out of sight and out of mind. unfortunately, lute should've been a bit more specific with Adam as he had agreed to be on his best behaviour and not cause any issues for Sera of gloat at lucifer. he hadn't promised not to get up to mischief no one would notice or know that he had caused or been involved in. Adam knew he would need to wait for Sera to finish building the new realm first but had a few ideas on how to get a win out of the situation even if he couldn't tell anyone. I can't tell anyone, but I can make this work out for me still. As long as play my cards right Sera won't find out and even if she does, she won't be able to trace it back to me. Being part of this project does give me a few privileges so even I can spin a few things to my benefit, I just need to wait for the right time to make my moves.


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Sera looked at the new realm, a feeling of pride at how well it had turned out despite not knowing how half of it would need to work. If she was being honest with herself, she had been so worried that it would collapse in on itself as whenever she stopped maintaining it personally the realm always seemed to be trying to pull itself apart. She had even considered going to ask some of the other seraphim for help but was surprised by how the realm had seemed to stabilize itself by the time she had returned from her break. she had no idea what had caused it to stabilize but after some extensive tests and understanding it wouldn't fall apart and this was not a temporary situation, she felt it was best not to ask to many questions when things seemed to be working and she had no way of really knowing what fixed things or how to recreate it in a way that would satisfy her worries. A golden glow began to engulf her hand as a wave of her power flooded over the new realm breathing life into it and making sure it would be able to sustain its new residents.

Sera hesitated for a moment as she looked upon Purgatory, it looked so pure and vibrant reminding her so much of Eden before the apple before Lucifer in his foolishness brought ruin upon such a wonderous creation because he thought he knew better and helped birth such a ruinous realm as Hell. A small part of her still worried and wondered about why the realm had managed to fix itself in her absence from crafting it. From all previous evidence it should've fallen apart while she was gone and yet it had pulled itself together and become whole. For a moment she considered breaking her silence and calling in the other seraphim to look over the new realm to make sure it was safe and that everything was in working order, she quickly however decided against it knowing that questions would be asked, and she couldn't risk answering them without revealing why she was only doing this now and what she had been doing before. Its ok, everything looks fine and if any problems should arise Adam or Lute will inform me. After reassuring herself that everything would be fine and that if they weren't she would be given enough warning ahead of time to fix thing or end them before anything spiralled out of control she continued her work.

She watched as time seemed to speed up as eons passed in the blink of an eye as things started to be shaped, grow, die, crumble and build as an entire new world seemed to grow out of dust. she smiled a bit as she recalled the original crafting of earth and humanity. recalling the wonder of seeing new life take its first steps and how even when that paradise had been broken how they their creations had still fought and struggled to survive and while humanity had become a bit of a disappointment she was still happy to see souls managing to find their way to heaven and she hoped that this new realm would also lead to souls finding their way to the golden gates for Peter too great. while she was happy with how the realm had turned out and was now sure that it could sustain its future denizens now came the hard part.

once more she gathered divine power in her hands as a new flash of light seemed to erupt around her covering the entirety of the new realm. for a moment nothing happens, then single flashes of light followed by dozens and eventually hundreds and thousands as souls started to flood into the realm to populate it.


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In hell no one knew what was happening as a massive golden flash seemed to engulf the realm scaring many yet the trumpets signalling the extermination weren't blaring and no giant golden hole in the sky left many confused as to what was happening. Suddenly though sinners started to disappear in pops of golden light entirely at random as new sinners, older sinners and even several overlords disappeared into thin air. For those that remained there was a sense of shock and terror at what had just happened, it was even worse for the remaining overlords as many felt the shattering of thousands of contracts as they lost their grips on souls they had held for years, souls had just vanished from hell, with no explanation and no warning and it was obvious to everyone in hell that heaven had done it. At the moment people were scared and for those in positions of power they rushed to the palace to seek answers from Lucifer who had watched the whole thing with a feeling of apathy knowing the headache he would be getting as he would be in so many talks.

Lucifer just felt pain he didn't want to deal with this not when his heart had been shattered yet again with yet another failure to add to the pile of the mess that was his eternal life. The last light in his life was gone, weeks earlier Charlie had disappeared, and he had no idea what had happened. He couldn't sense her at all, no spell he tried could show him what had happened or where his little angle was, and it broke him even more. Fate seemed to hate him, and he just felt like the universe had decided to make him its punching bag since he broke heavens rules. He had tried calling Lilith to know if Charlie was with her and yet she hadn't tried to contact him in any manner to tell him if she had Charlie or not. Charlie had to be with her mother though as she was the only one in Hell strong enough to take Charlie without him knowing and the only one capable of keeping her hidden from him. She was also the only one in hell besides the Seven and a few of the trustworthy Goetia who even knew of Charlies existence. First Charlie goes missing and now I must deal with this mess that Heaven has thrown at my face. For the sake of courtesy, they could've warned me ahead of time that they were going to pull a stunt like this. I could've been prepared but now I'm stuck dealing with all of this at once. Lucifer honestly didn't feel like he had the energy to deal with this as he hadn't left his home since Charlie had gone missing and now, he had to deal with people he barely liked and or tolerated.

It would be a few days before hell and its people realized just what heaven had done. How in such a short amount of time they had simply removed a third of hells sinner population with barely any effort. Initially there had been calls to go to war, to challenge heaven for such a brazen act yet everyone knew there wasn't anything they could do. For many souls there was a sense of despair at the very new and growing concept that the exterminations were a mercy, a lottery to give hell the feeling that it had a shot of not being under heavens grip. While many hell-born didn't care much, for sinners however this had left the Pride ring a mess as power vacuums led to all-out war while Overlords struggled to maintain their territory and power after their hold on the city had been shattered and their power greatly weakened. For Lucifer it was yet another sign that he simply was being given a new form of punishment he would have to deal with in the mess that was hell and how little heaven cared. For the Goetia this had thrown things into a mess as thousands of prophecies had been thrown into disarray or been ended with thousands of new ones popping up every day that they had to work in reinterpreting all over again. Their work over thousands of years had been erased, altered, and muddled or outright needed replacement and editing. The Seven were the least affected by all of this but they were also affected by how this affect Lucifer. Their king had been barely been involved in the running of Hell but every now and then he would show off why he was in charge and not to be messed with and it kept the Goetia and more ambitious sinners in line but now this mess had thrown a lot of things into question such as if Lucifer would just let the chaos consume Pride and even possibly spill over into the other rings if he stopped enforcing the seals and rules forbidding sinners to travel to the other rings. For now all the Seven could do was shut down the elevator linking the rings, the hell-born in Pride would all but be sacrificed to the madness but they couldn't risk the chaos spreading while they waited to see how Lucifer would handle things.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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The last few years had been rather successful as Purgatory had worked as intended on her end, greatly slowing down the growth of hells population as portions of souls that would've gone to hell ended up here. She did feel a bit miffed that about how she couldn't really take part in the exterminations anymore with her new job, but she still enjoyed that she had been trusted enough for such an important responsibility. Lute also knew that Sera was quite happy with the realm as while not in large amounts souls had started arriving at the gates that had gone through the process of starting over in Purgatory.
If she was being honest with herself Lute hadn't thought, there was really a chance of a soul redeeming itself and yet it had been a pleasant surprise when she had seen the first soul leave the realm for Heaven.

Patrolling the new realm was a big job but she felt it was worth the effort knowing that it was working as Heaven intended. While a soul redeeming an ascending had been a surprise for Lute what had been more of a conundrum for her to figure out why Adam had been so focused on setting this whole thing up. He enjoyed the exterminations just as much as she did and while she didn't mind not really taking part anymore, she couldn't fathom the idea of Adam giving up the chance to punish his descendants that became failures and fell. And as much as she like hanging out with him she knew him well enough to know that he tended to be rather lazy at times unless he found something fun enough to put effort into but this, Purgatory didn't sound like fun, it was just a ton of work with a big chance that it could've been a failure. No, no trying to understand how Adam thinks and does what he does is a bad idea. Especially after he dragged me to that after party from the thousandth extermination. Lute shuddered as she shoved the memories of that day deep down into her subconscious and decided to go flying to clear her mind, maybe doing some work would help her think of something else to focus on with all her new free time.

Flying around to get a better look around to make sure the barriers separating the realm from most of the rest of creation where still in working order Lute felt something off in the energy of the realm, like it was being thrown off balance. She stopped as she tried to figure out what was going on. None of the barriers were damaged and she hadn't been sent any messages from Adam or Sera, so this wasn't Heaven. Lute rushed down to the surface of the realm to try and figure out what she was sensing but was shocked at the sight in front of her as she reached the surface of the land. Wait, it isn't just going off balance. Its gathering and coalescing. What in the fiery pits is going on?

A truly giant tree like growth had sprung up seemingly out of nowhere. It's roots spreading far and deep and its branches reach out in all directions. It would've been majestic in a certain sense if not for the clearly demonic nature of the tree as eyes seemed to be growing all over its trunk and mouths filled with sharp teeth at the ends of its branches and the tips of roots that broke through the surface of the land. The sight of such a monstrous creature that shouldn't even be in this world froze Lute into in-action as she watched the thing simply spread out its branches and roots.

She forced herself to act when she was broken out of her stupor by the sound of screams. The voices of terrified souls running for their lives, begging for mercy as the tree began tearing into the city closest to it. It's roots and branches devouring anyone they could reach and grab. They aren't rising or falling… ITS STEALING THEIR SOULS!!! Rage filled Lute as she went in for the kill. These souls had been given a second chance by Heaven and they were still being tested, they were innocent souls, and this thing was devouring them as if they were just finger food snacks. These souls still had a journey to go on and she would not allow it to be cut short.

A blast of divine energy tore the clouds in the sky apart as the people looked up in terror wondering if another new horror had arrived, instead they felt a sense of calm and safety as a lance of golden energy slammed into the tree tearing off a few branches as people scrambled to escape or to help those trapped in the grips of the cut of branches.

An unearthly scream came out of the trees many mouths as it experienced pain for the first time. Rage engulfed it as its many eyes seemed to swim around its body to find the source of the new feeling. They stopped looking up in the sky at the flying figure. Dozens of roots shot up out of the ground though none of them managed to reach the target as she dipped and dived and dammed around the attacks and with each miss another branch or root was cut clean off leading to more pain and making the tree even angrier.

Lute was unsure of herself for the first time in centuries. She had taken part in many exterminations and had slain some of the most powerful sinner's hell had seen and yet this tree felt off, different to the demons and sinners of hell even though she could sense that its power was similar. She was definitely hurting it, and it seemed to be weakening and slowing down the more she injured it but unlike with sinners or hell-born her holy energy didn't seem to nullify the creature's power at all. "What in the high heavens and low hells is this thing?" Such a creature shouldn't exist in this realm at all, it puzzled Lute that she had no idea what she was fighting or if she could even kill it, heck she wasn't even sure where to hit the tree in what could be considered its heart.

It was just a moment, but the tree saw that the winged being was distracted. A lone root went as deep as it could reach while the tree sent as many branches and roots as possible at the thing to keep it distracted.
Success, while the frontal assault had been evaded or destroyed the being had not noticed the sneak attack as it was caught by surprise as the lone root erupted right underneath it dragging it down to the grown and while it was stunned from the impact more and more roots worked to pin the thing down, causing building to collapse on it and then dragging it as deep underground as possible where it's roots held the advantage and the winged thing lost its mobility.

She had gotten careless and distracted and now she was paying for it. The fall hadn't hurt to badly but each time she was forced to block a strike from the roots or was unable to fully evade them in the mess of underground tunnels the roots of the tree had made she could feel herself slowing down as her stamina and strength were fading. How is this thing hurting me? Why am I struggling so much with this? Could I lose? Am I going to fail these souls and my duty to this realm? Am I going to fail Heaven's mandate? For an angel Lute was rather prideful but even she knew that this was not going her way, she needed to call for help. At first, she thought about calling Sera for help but decided against it. While she respected the high seraph, she knew her well enough to know that whatever had happened here would result in Sera simply shutting the project down and wiping the slate clean. Lute had seen enough progress to know that Purgatory had a real chance of success, and she wouldn't just give up on all the progress she had seen so she sent a call out to Adam.

"Sup Lute what's happening."

"Adam I don't have time to talk I need your help. Get to Purgatory as fast as possible!"

Adam joked a bit about Lute being bored and lonely, but she just yelled at him to get over and help her as she showed him an image of her situation. Adam spat out the drink he had been slurping on at seeing his friend in trouble.

In Purgatory the people felt fear griping their hearts as the angel that had come to save them seemed to have failed in her duty. The tree had gone back to feeding on whomever it could get into its mouths growing again as it fed on the people still left in the vicinity. It let out a ghastly laugh as whatever regular weapons the snacks had seemed to do no real damage at all, especially compared to the winged thing that had attacked it earlier and that would soon become another morsel for it to digest.

The ground and air seemed to vibrate as the sky grew bright once again. The tree started to feel frustrated at its mealtime once again being interrupted while many people were confused as they heard an odd cross between harp and guitar music fill the air. A Shockwave struck the area nearly uprooting the massive tree and all but guaranteeing tinnitus in the future of any of the survivors. "Epic entrance hell yeah!!!"

Another winged figure exited a massive golden portal as a second Shockwave though much more localized came out of his harp guitar utterly destroying the wall of roots and branches that had moved to attack it. "Well, this can't be good. Hey tree thing! Have you seen my partner? She's about this tall, a bit of an attitude, very serious and tends to always have a scowl on her face and was likely fighting you." All Adam got in return was a roar of hatred aimed at him as whip like leaves grew out of the tree lashing out at him. All of which he simply incinerated with a flash of his power.

"No need to be so rude dude." Adam laughed as he danced around the creature tearing out chunks from it as it tried to kill him. "Are you even trying to kill me. I've faced stomach aches more troublesome than you."

Despite its best efforts the tree couldn't land a blow on the new winged one. In its effort to kill the new arrival the tree had lost focus on its attempts to kill the first one as Lute managed to claw her way out of the underground when the roots had stopped attacking her.
"Nice to see you arrived on time for once sir." Gasped out as she worked to catch her breath and regain her bearings.

Adam gave Lute a thumbs up with a big smile though he took note that whatever this thing was it had managed to hurt her. He realised he would have to take this thing seriously in case it managed to hit him. "Well, it's been fun and games, but I think it's best we end this now. Hey lute hand me your spear will you."
With his partners spear in hand Adam flooded the thing with massive amounts of divine energy as he flung it into the air. For a moment nothing happened followed by the sound of thunder as like a bolt of lightning the spear fell out of the sky splitting the tree in half piercing all the way to its core as it was flooded with holy power.

"Well, I think that solved things. You ok Lute and who was your new friend?"

Lute simply gave him a thumbs up as she took a chance to look herself over. "It was a bit tougher than I expected. Thanks for the assistance, sir. However, to be honest I have no idea what that thing was or where it came from but what do we do about all of this?" She motioned to the corpse of the tree and the massive amount of destruction.

Adam shrugged neither of them knew what had caused this to happen or really to fix the problem of the people here having actually seen a demon not to mention them having to reveal themselves to slay it. "Let's wait and see, let things play out for now but we can't let Sera find out about this. For now, let's get you cleaned up." As they left Adam took one last look at the fallen creature wondering why the tree looked and felt so familiar to him.

While for the angels the fight would slip from their minds for a while, things were different for the people of Purgatory. They had borne witness to a fight between a tree monster and angels. Their world had been changed forever in their minds and how it physically worked as people took note of odd changes in behavior, scientists noticed a new form of energy flowing around the world and took note of new discoveries as they studied the spear left behind by the angels and the corpse of the tree. For them the world was changing and not for the better as people started to fall ill, as they started to change, and many began to wonder if hell had found its way to the surface and what that meant for the future.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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People are very predictable, especially after a disaster. After the events of what would be known as the first eruption things fell into chaos as the dead were counted and people mourned. Then came the anger as people looked for someone to blame and demanded action be taken not even knowing what they wanted their leaders to do and eventually came the apathy as time passed and peoples pain was slowly covered up and all that was left was an undertone of sadness and depression at not knowing anything or being able to do anything.

However, it's not people one should worry about, rather a person should be worried about as they see opportunity in disaster and seek to exploit people for all they are worth to enhance their own future. Governments are full of people that would be classified as a person, wolves in sheep's clothing always looking for the one thing that would have their names written in the history books, to make money and further their career and power. The Eruption was that opportunity for many as heads had to roll and many people lost their jobs which meant a power vacuum and that meant opportunity. For a while after the eruption nothing was really done as the governments of the world tried to make a plan on how to act. In that time of inaction people were people and while many knew it was dangerous, they sought out the location of the Eruption making memorials, taking photos and some even taking souvenirs usually pieces of the plant monsters and even some cults tried to claim the land.

The government quickly put an end to things as plans had finally been made and were being put into action. For days clean up crews swept into the ruined city collecting the remains of the monster while police and soldiers forced out and kept civilians out of the area. While the tree parts were an enjoyable bonus what was most important was the spear. There were calls for it to be left alone or put into a museum or monument, many people not wanting to mess with the weapon of what was clearly an angel by all accounts. These calls were ignored with many politicians claiming that the spear was useless without the angels holding it or how they must have left the spear behind for a reason and eventually a fake spear was made to shut people up and be place in a specially crafted monument to the events of the eruption and those that had saved the city and likely the planet.

It had been at least two months of secretive and likely dubious work as eventually what was left of the Tree was fully removed alongside the spear that had been its end. Slowly people came back into the city, it was rebuilt, rebranded and set up as a statement of the strength of humanity and how people could stand together in times of trouble and how the city itself became a symbol that not only was there some form of divine power, that power was still around and not only watching humanity but also protecting it. A lot of work was done to get the focus on the city, on the work to recover and rebuild, doing everything in their power to keep people distracted and not asking questions about what they planned to do with the remains and the spear beyond basic explanations of studying them, destroying them and storing it away once nothing more could be learned.

While various government factions and politicians worked in the shadows, many religious factions and institutions seemed to act more openly in the light. With what could be seen as a legitimate act of divine intervention many people thought the various institutions would end up falling into conflict with each other and yet the opposite happened as many started having much more open talks even groups from entirely different religions. For those who had paid lip service this had been a terrifying awakening for them and for those who truly believed there was a great fear this was just the beginning of something much worse and there was a good chance that something worse could follow.

The various faiths began to talk and come together in the name of preparation as while they all disliked or hated each other they all had tons of literature that talked about just how bad things could get and none wanted to face that alone or unprepared. The first thing they attempted was to get access to the spear but much to their frustration they could neither find it nor get anyone to tell them anything about where the real spear was and while they had been able to get access to a great deal of the tree monsters remains it was a loss in many of their eyes not managing to even gain access to the spear so in retaliation many religious organizations not focused on preparing for the future became a thorn in the side of government bodies that either refused to talk, had become even more hostile or refused to take the future threat seriously acting as if the tree was a one off thing.

With the main focus of their unity being preparation, a lot of resources started to be pooled together and many text that were thought lost or destroyed were revealed and many things were learned from studying the corpse. For many they discovered that the tree wasn't entirely dead and that while what could be considered its heart and brain, its core was gone the tree's parts still seemed to function in some manner similar to a starfish limb that had been cut off. This led to many attempts to destroy these samples with little success until they learned that faith literally weakened it. No specific prayer seemed to have less affect than the other but what seemed most important was the sense of earnestness behind the prayer. While the discovery of the effectiveness of prayer was a good thing what became a truly helpful discovery was the various verses of power that was discovered as tome after tome, scroll after scroll and even the dozens of different versions of biblical and religious scriptures were read through and found to varying affects on the remains from freezing the larger moving parts in place to causing actual harm to it in various forms.

While it annoyed some Christianity became the face of the united front of this religious resistance with how its numbers had exploded after the Eruption. Judaism and Islam followed close behind but while this caused some of the more abrasive members of the new coalition to complain many felt that it was better to use this to their advantage to make sure people were prepared and not just waiting on a lying government not even attempting to tell them the truth or prepare them for what was to come. New tomes were being printed and new sermons were prepared to teach people on how to prepare and defend themselves in the future. What many old school religious leaders would call heretical and blasphemous became a bit of the norm as Sunday schools and other forms of religious education held classes on teaching what could honestly be called magic though it was rather more focused on binding and weakening or calling for divine favour and blessing.

This coalition was still a fragile thing which made it very funny to those who could be considered its leaders when various government agencies annoyed by this new unity or how the government was being challenged in any form tried to break it up which only seemed to prove to many of its members that this was the right thing to do, especially those who had been more apprehensive about working together. Not all conflict between these groups ended but enough did that many people around the world took their words more seriously and became more sceptical of how various governments seemed to just be trying to sweep everything under the rug.

Unfortunately, there is no growth without pain and suffering and the growing pains for the coalition of the faithful was truly painful. Extremists, zealots and con men saw an opportunity to enrich themselves and they took it. Many groups popped up or grew as they viewed this not as a time to prepare but a time to finish and win scores and grudges. That this was a time to prove that in the end they were the ones in the right while everyone else was wrong and that they needed to be the ones in charge and others should bend the knee or die. Religious sites were attacked, people were threatened, and even killed for not conforming to what some saw as the right way to now act or live. Temples were ruined and vandalised and even destroyed. To make things even worse for the coalition was the con men who took what was being taught and corrupted it and perverted it to build their own small kingdoms of sorts. All sorts of cults began to spring up as people were pulled in through lack of knowledge and the flashy showing of magic even if it was weak magic, not that those fooled knew any better.

For the Coalition this was a mess that was now all they could truly focus on as they fought to fix these growing pains. Militias were trained and warriors brought to bare so that those self-righteous fools, thieves and liars could be fought off and that their lies wouldn't poison and corrupt the cause they were trying to build and fight for and to make sure that all knew these false prophets didn't stand with the Coalition and didn't represent them in any manner. This was a war that wouldn't truly be won until it was to late and even the concept of winning can't be taken as a whole as some of these groups still managed to survive till the second great eruption with a few managing to thrive even if they were not able to grow to match the Coalition in any real manner by that time. This infighting and war for the soul of the Coalition while important still lead to a lot of damage as the Coalition was not able to be as helpful to people who started to feel the effects of the first eruption, were unable to be as active and available as they wished to be and the more clandestine if unintended affects of the American government with how it test, poked and prodded with things that they should've left alone.

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Unknown black sight

The hidden underground world that was the ironically named New Eden started as a young think tank seeking knowledge and the expansion of the understanding of humanity, this however changed as the think tank grew and expanded. It became a research base, a place to not just seek knowledge but expand and move beyond it, to learn and put that knowledge to use. Scientific knowledge, medical knowledge, weapons knowledge, everything grew and expanded and then that expansion was further built upon. What was known and hidden in New Eden was at least 10 years ahead of what was known to the world on average but with the Eruption this gap grew even greater as new knowledge and technology, and even spiritual wonders were revealed to those who had been given the chance to step into this garden.

For those who had the chance to study the spear of the angels they found such great frustration as if the very weapon itself was struggling against their attempts to study and understand it. They did manage to learn many things, but every step was something that was hard fought and didn't provide as much information as their superiors would like. What they did learn was also usually seen as not useful or unnecessary and falling behind the studies of their counterparts studying the remains of the tree. There was some resentment on the parts of those studying the spear, but they held their tongues knowing they had chosen to follow such a long and thorny path and that one day they would learn the secrets of the spear. At the time it was unknown but upon the day that would eventually be known as the second eruption these men would be hailed as heroes for not only providing humanity with what they had learned but also saving one of the greatest tools humanities would ever have in fighting back the demonic scourge that flood the world.

For those who had the chance to study the tree wonder after wonder was revealed to them as they dove in with a zealous hunger for what they could learn and create from that knowledge. An interesting piece of information they learned after a short study of the tree was how its remains seemed to hold massive amounts of human genetic code, ancient code that traced back generations and how it even held connections to those who were still alive, with even some of the researchers being connected to the tree. This led to an abundance of medical advances as they found ways to slow aging, repair cellular damage and even give people who had lost limbs or been born with debilitating illnesses a chance to have normal lives, the victory on the war of disease and decay now in sight.

A more collaborative project was the discovery of new forms of energy, natural occurring forms of radiation revealed by the spear and the tree. The energy revealed by the spear was seen as not nearly as useful due to how rare it seemed and how slowly it spread and how difficult it was to replicate in a timely fashion. The energy revealed by the tree was seen in a much brighter light with how it was revealed how even regular people were capable of producing this energy and how easy it was to bind to regular objects and even weapons and how by binding this energy they were capable of binding and wounding the more active remains of the tree. A more controversial but successful project was the use of concentrated and refined doses of the energy on human subjects. People no one would miss, and black site prisoners were used as test subjects for the project leading to horrible mutations, pain and suffering and by the time the project showed success these test subjects were executed lest they escape or become a problem with their new strength and power. Through this project old veterans were brought into the fold given new strength and purpose in armed forces once again. Most of the time they acted as fast response forces to mutated animals that had been affected by the slowly growing levels of the radiation revealed and spread by the trees remains the government had been unable to secure, that had been collected by tourists, collectors and the curious and the insane. Upon the day that would be known as the second eruption these men of twisted science and knowledge would be seen as the architects of the collapse with how they crafted and proliferated such dark knowledge with many managing to survive and would help build some of the more well-known Warlock cities outside of the city of the faithful.

Many a secret were learned and buried in New Eden but none so much as what was discovered at the heart of the tree's corpse. Peter Johnson was a new hire to New Eden though he was not a researcher, he was an interrogator, a man to pry secrets out of others who also had no idea why he had been brough to New Eden as his skills should have no need to be used there. Deeper and deeper he went into the bowels of the facility with some worry that he may be on the short list of being an experiment for one of the researchers down here with how secretive everyone was being.

"This way sir."

The voice came out of nowhere giving peter a jump as he left the elevator he had been in as a guard led him to a sparce and white room. "Welcome to the vault sir. Take the first door to the left and you'll me head researcher Victor. He is the one in charge of this sector of New Eden and who asked for your assistance with some project of his." Peter took note of how the guard he was talking to and likely none of the others down here knew what Victor was doing and that also meant very few if any of the higher ups knew what the hell Victor was up to making him wonder if he should inform any of them about what he saw down here. Choosing to make his decision later Peter followed the directions given to him coming into a rather strange room covered in plastic though the more harrowing fact was how everything was covered in blood and viscera.

"Ah you must be Mr Johnson. Pleasure to meet you and I'm so sorry about the mess but my guest is just so un-cooperative."

His guest? What the hell is this man doing down here? Looking around Peter took note of another room with a lone man sitting chained down to a chair while rather large, automated guns were aimed at him. "I'm assuming that is the guest you were talking about. Is all of that really necessary?"

"Oh, I assure you it is. When he first woke up, he killed a few dozen guards before we managed to contain and restrain him. At the moment he is actually under several doses of elephant tranquiliser." Victor seemed quite amused as he spoke about the chained man while Peter noted how the man was actually awake as he looked through the window only to be shocked as the man seemed to take note of him even through the one-way glass. Victor seemed quite amused by his reaction.

"Who is he?"

"We have no idea. All we know is that when we were doing clean up and collection of the tree, he was discovered at the very heart of what could be considered the root system. Must have been important to as the tree seemed to have torn off parts of itself to prevent any damaged from the winged beings that attacked it."

"Winged beings? Don't you mean the angels?"

Victor scoffed at the question as if it was the dumbest thing he had ever heard. "I don't fall to such shallow beliefs. We simply saw greater beings fall into conflict. To give them such human labels is a fallacy I refuse to follow." Victor scoffed a bit more talking about how he hated how unscientific people were talking about the winged ones and how he hated how his work was being questioned by people he had neither the skill nor knowledge to do what he did or understand.

The man was a narcissist and that scared Peter a bit with how the man seemed to have no real supervision down here or a leash to keep him from going further than was needed or wanted.

"Anyway, since I have been unable to get him to talk to me, I wanted someone like you to get him to talk."

"Why? If it's been such a struggle, I don't understand what he could know that would be worth all the effort."

"Simple really. He wasn't the only thing we found. Follow me good sir because you are going to be in for a unique surprise." The man seemed rather giddy as he led Peter out of the room.

Peter looked back the path he came wondering if he could make a run for the elevator before the researcher decided to work on him and if the guards would block his path or not. This man is going to be the death of me I can feel it. Victor had clearly gone of the deep end years ago and what ever assignment he had down here was likely to keep him busy as it was to keep people safely out of his grasp. What exactly is his job down here? Peter was pulled out of his thoughts as he found himself looking at a red orb sitting in the middle of the room he had been led into. "What is that?"

"We have no idea, and it has been rather annoying for me and my colleague. We found it alongside our guest. We haven't been able to break the outer shell and none of our instruments have been able to break the surface of this object or pear inside of it in any manner. Our friend in the chains is the only one who seems to know what it is, and he refuses to talk." Peter had a much better understanding of why he was here now. people were getting frustrated, but they couldn't force them, so they needed a professional like him to do his job. He also realised that there was a good chance nothing good would happen if he failed.

"Well then I guess I should get started then."

The first few days Peter didn't really get anything as he simply sat across from the chained man. Much like those before him he asked about the orb and got nothing but silence, no answers either when he asked for the chained man to talk about himself. The silence left Peter worried for a while knowing his bosses were getting impatient, but he knew he needed time, and he also knew that it would take to much time and effort to replace him and start this whole process over again. Peter eventually started to bring lunches down with him, having a pleasant meal and conversation as he simply spoke about himself, his life outside of this cell and about the many wonders of the world even joking that if the man cooperated, he may even be given permission to walk outside a bit, under extreme supervision of course. About a month of nothing but as he sat down for yet another one-sided conversation the man looked up at him, Peter felt a sense of victory taking note of the curiosity shown in the man's eyes.

"You are a strange man Mr Johnson. You aren't a barbarian like the other fools down here, yet you keep coming back. What interests you so much? Is it the orb everyone else wants to know about so badly, is that the knowledge you seek?" The chained man looked deeply into Peter's eyes making the man feel like his soul was being weighed and judged. From his earpiece he could hear sounds of excitement that the man was finally talking with people yelling at him to ask about the orb. Peter in turn knew asking now wouldn't work, that it would be a bad idea and likely lead to more silence. This was a test, for what he didn't know but he couldn't fail it.

"The orb? No hasn't been on my mind for a while now. what I'm really interested in knowing is your name, who you are and why you haven't tried to leave yet."

The smile on the man's face frightened Peter as he simply sat up snapping the chains tying him down as he picked up the apple on the tray in front of him taking a big bite out of it as he seemed to decide if he wanted to answer or not. Peter in turn hated how he had been proven right that the man could've left whenever he wanted and that he was now stuck in the room with him while the others likely were evacuating and preparing to gas to the room or something, maybe even simply cutting off this entire section from the rest of the facility.

"Well Peter I am exactly where I want to be. I have no need to run and even if I did, I have nowhere else to go so here is as good a place to wait as anywhere else. Though while I wait, I guess there are a few things I could talk to you about that may interest you and your bosses. Oh, I almost forgot, so rude of me not to introduce myself, my name is Cain and I foresee us all having a very productive relationship in the future."

The now name Cain walked to the entrance of the room ripping it open motioning that Peter was free to leave. Peter rushed out his legs nearly giving out from his own fear of his predicament while Cain simply walked back to and sat down in his chair waving goodbye for now.

Upstairs people were very happy to hear that Cain was not only talking but willing to even teach whatever hidden knowledge he knew to them. many researchers and scientists were just happy to no longer have their bosses breathing down their necks. For many it was a sense of jubilation at new roads being paved and doors being opened. For Peter however as he ascended back into the sunlight of the surface outside of New Eden all he could do was worried as he had finally had time to process Cain's words. What is he waiting for? What is coming and can I convince him to talk or convince my bosses that something is coming that we should be worried about.

The world was changing and not in the most pleasant ways as animals had grown more violent and mutating requiring special response teams. Crime had risen around the world and people had gotten more violent and confrontational. The world was reaching a tipping point and Peter was worried he and his bosses were helping with the tipping. Taking out his phone he sent a message to his wife to leave the city as soon as possible, to go to her parent's home in the countryside. I can't tell her what's going on, but I can make sure my family can avoid the fallout of whatever is coming.


Well we have had a good look at whats happening on the earth of purgatory and how things arent going so well for them and how people are messing with things they really shouldnt. coming up next we get a good look at the political storm happening in hell thanks to recent events and how no one in hell knows whats going on and are just stuck dealing with the headache.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Paimon had a growing headache as his frustration grew alongside his impatience and his anger. Bael was screwing with him, and he was not amused with his fellow king. He had been trying to get a meeting with Lucifer for the last few months and that asshole had been diverting or blocking his missives. Bael was a petty king as while he was technically the leader of the Goetic kings none of the other kings really liked or respected him. Bael had it out the worst for Paimon due to how close they were in power and rank even though Paimon had been born after Bael who saw it as an afront to have such a young demon be so close to him in any form and in petty revenge always made life difficult for Paimon and the other kings when it came to them doing their job of keeping hell somewhat functional. It was funny how those petty attempts at retribution only made the others respect him less and in turn Bael just tried to make them even more miserable.

"I wish I could just rip his head from his neck, but he would eventually just pull himself back together and the few days of peace and quiet wouldn't be worth the hassle of the destruction our fight would cause nor the chaos of his legions running rampant until he pulls himself back together. What do you think Heckle? Any ideas to get him off my back for a while?" Paimon asked his butler, an imp that had been in his employ for a while.

"I wouldn't dare presume to think I could give you an idea you couldn't come up with yourself sir, but I do think I have a few ideas on how to keep lord Bael preoccupied while you try to complete your business. I know a few of the imps under his employment and could quite easily convince them to drug him for a bit and then completely disorganise his library of grimoires. If they leave him in his library, he will simply think he did it himself in a drunken stupor leaving you free to do as you please while he is stuck reorganizing his library."

Paimon smiled quite happy at the idea. Grimoires were quite important, not really to the kings but to their children and the lesser demon lords under the banners of the kings those books were extremely necessary. They helped make sure spells were not forgotten, that those beneath a king could do a specific job if the king was not available at any point in time and some were even crafted by lucifer himself for the Goetia and it would be seen as a great insult if those books were not in good condition if the man ever came around to visit or check up on them to make sure they were doing their job, not that Lucifer really did that anymore. The man hadn't left his home in nearly a century by this point.

"Heckle how long have you been in my employ?"

"About fifty years sir. I was a new hired shortly after the time one of your children tried to kill you by blowing up one of your palaces while you were inside of it." Paimon frowned as he recalled that act of stupidity when one of his broods had thought to try and usurp him. It had been quite an enjoyable site seeing the fear and terror on their face when he walked out of the ruins unharmed. The foolish boy was still petrified buried in the depths of Leviathan's ring, where the pressure would always be crushing him yet the stone shell that was now his body would never break nor let him die. The rest of his siblings Paimon had simply torn apart in front of the others who had been smart enough not to try to make sure they got the message not to try such a stupid act. If Paimon was honest he had been more annoyed at the destruction of his palace than the assassination attempt though that had been annoying due to how pathetic and simple it had been. It was insulting how little effort his children had put into trying to kill him.

Heckle was still a good employee to have around as Paimon recalled how another of his brood had tried to kill the imp once due to him refusing to follow their orders. Heckle had gotten the better of them and instead they had fallen into the very trap they had set for him. The inability to kill Heckle had made them look weak in the eyes of their siblings who eventually had killed them a few weeks later. So many of my children lack common sense. I give them all the tools they need and the wealth and power to make something of themselves and they squander it. What does it say about my broods that I know imps more intelligent and capable than them.

"It is done my lord."

Paimon was pulled from his musings as Heckle informed him that Bael would not be bothering him as he had set up the distraction. "I also got into contact with lord Marbas and set up an appointment for you. Your headaches have been getting worse and Marbas is likely the only one that can help alleviate them while making sure you don't end up in a drug induced stupor and just a reminder, but you have a meeting with lord Vine next week on decrypting one of your grimoires." Heckle bowed as he stepped out of his lord's room to go get him lunch. He paused for a moment as he recalled something he almost forgot. "Before I forget my lord you have an appointment with your son Stolas later. Should I prepare an extra plate for him, or will this be a short meeting?"

Paimon simply grabbed the entire bottle of headache medicine he had been taking and gulped it down in one go. His workload had been increasing rapidly and he wasn't happy with that fact. The reason he even bothered still having children after all these millennia was the fact that they took off a massive amount of his workload. He used to be able to go for years without any risk of falling behind but now he was in meeting every other week and having to deal with Bael every other week when he used to be able to avoid the asshole for at least a year most of the time. Taking all his medicine now would be a pain to deal with once he stopped feeling the positive effects, but he needed to cut the edge off of his day or he wouldn't be able to sweet talk Marbas into giving him the good stuff to deal with his recent medical issues. Paimon would've blamed one of his children finally managing to make a poison that could affect him, but he knew better. The future was in chaos and rapidly changing on a dime as if someone had decided to have fate decided by a roulette wheel inside of a tornado.

Paimon himself had felt the changes early on after the events of whatever Heaven did in the Pride ring but it had been Stolas who had informed him of just how bad things seemed to be before the headaches really started to hit. Stolas had called informing him of the grimoire he had been gifted going blank all of a sudden. It hadn't bothered Paimon all the much at the time but after a few thousand calls to the rest of his children just to make sure he learned rather quickly just how bad the problem was with books going blank or in the process of going blank as he called. If not for Stolas calling those cowards that are his siblings would've waited years before even thinking about contacting me. While the runt of his siblings Stolas is the only one that seems to take the job, he was given seriously. In many ways considering how soft Stolas was Paimon actually considered it a miracle the boy had survived to marry and work on producing an heir of his own. Then again maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise as with how soft he was considered, especially by Goetia standards no one really saw him as a threat in any manner. It was considered odd how even after so long in his marriage where everyone could see how unhappy both partners were neither had tried to kill each other or hire a killer yet. Paimon would never admit it, but he had a level of pride and respect in Stolas. He didn't make waves even if many mocked him for his softness and lack of ability to play the game even though Paimon knew Stolas could trap many of his siblings in contracts if he ever felt like it. The boy has a flair for contracts and paperwork that could give Mammon a run for his money. If even half of his siblings could even partially as proactive as he is my job would be so much easier even with this mess going on in the pages of fate.

"Yes, Heckle set out another plate for Stolas. I will be having quite a chat with him. Also make sure we are not disturbed by anyone of a rank equal to or lower than Stolas, I don't need any of my children trying to spy or interrupt this meeting." The imp gave a curt nod in acknowledgement as he left to complete his duties. I should reward him for his service and having to deal with the wastes of space that most of my children are.

Paimon gave a harsh smile as he took note of Stolas arriving at the palace. While he did appreciate all the work his son was doing, he also knew unfortunately he would soon be placing an even greater burden on his shoulders because Paimon knew he would have to be dealing with the upper ranks of demon governance soon and wouldn't be able to handle his lesser duties for a while.

"Father. It is an honour to be in your presence but why did you call for me? I know this seems to be a time of unknown disturbances but would not one of my elder siblings be better to help you with your work? I am one of the youngest of your brood and lack much of the experience and wisdom you may be seeking." It was easy to see that Stolas was not very comfortable and looking to avoid the situation he had found himself in, not that Paimon would allow him to get out of this.

"You sell yourself short Stolas. You have been doing an adequate job with the work I have been giving you, especially compared to the majority of your siblings. Now come inside and sit down, I have had quite the lunch prepared for our meeting and I'm sure you would hate for me to have gone through all the trouble?" It was a statement more than a question as both knew Paimon had no real hand in preparing the food, but it was a polite way of saying Stolas had no choice in the matters to be discussed.

The conversation stared off smoothly enough as they ate with Paimon asking question after question about the grimoire and the how Stolas' dreams had been. Stolas in turn gave as good a recollection of his prophetic dreams as he could despite them making even less sense than usual and talked about the current state his grimoire was in and how it would more often than not rewrite itself or remain blank for days. Paimon nodded and listened with rapt attention while making a face as if he was deep in thought about decision he was on the cusp of making, eventually raising a single finger to silence Stolas. "I will be off on business for a while Stolas. I assume you have taken note of how things have gone off the rails in hell since Heaven's act against the sinners?" Stolas nodded not knowing if he should speak or not. "Well, I'll be stuck in meetings with the various princes and upper ranks of nobility. The kings have been put on notice by the sins as lord Lucifer is indisposed of at the moment and thus, we are needed to make sure hell stays in order. With this job I have been given someone else must take the reins of my legions."

Stolas was unsure of what he was hearing and was sure his father was making a joke but the look on Paimon's face told him that the man was being serious. Paimon took out an ornate grimoire and handed it over to Stolas. "While I am gone you will be acting as my voice, my right hand and with my authority. Heckle will answer any questions you may have if you feel unsure of anything and will make sure you will be provided my schedule." Paimon didn't even wait for Stolas to accept the offer though it was more a command as there was no way Stolas could've refused Paimon. "My staff have already began moving your things to my palace and informed your wife of the move. Oh, and Stolas do not embarrass me or make me think that giving you this chance was a mistake. That would be extremely unfortune…… Ok, good, good, the special medicine you'll need is in my study, Heckle will give you the key and the antidotes you'll need for when your brothers and sisters learn of this is in the kitchen, make sure only my staff handle them as they know well enough which of your siblings enjoy using which specific poisons or curse you may end up becoming afflicted with. Good luck Stolas don't fail me." Paimon gave a cheery goodbye as he disappeared in a puff of black smoke while Stolas simply was frozen in horror wondering what in the seven rings he was going to do now. That feeling of horror was muffled by a sense of calm and relief as he felt a prick in his shoulder taking note of a well-dressed imp with an empty needle in hand. "Your father informed me you may have needed this after your meeting. Be assured I will be working to the best of my ability to make sure you succeed in this task my lord." Stolas merely gave the imp a weak thumbs up as he tried to simply enjoy the melo feeling of calm the drugs were giving him as he understood just how complicated his life was going to get.


enjoy this latest chapter everyone. you know i actually feel a but bad for Stolas with what i have decided to put him through but the man is a trooper and we know he can handle it even if he is drugged to the gills to get through the day. coming up next is the unfortunate events of the last few days of sanity on purgatory before everything falls apart. a few questions i know you readers have are going to be answered

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Peter felt exhausted as he sat at his desk, he hadn't had a goods night sleep for over 2 weeks now and he couldn't understand the feeling of unease and restlessness that was overtaking him. He had even been on a steady diet of decaff and sleeping pills and they were barely helping. What the hell is wrong with me? Everything is going well, I got a promotion, a good pay raise, I get along well with colleagues and the other employees, and my bosses aren't crawling up my back for results. So why do I feel like my guts want to explode out of my stomach? Something just felt off for Peter no matter how good things were going for him. He tried to ignore that feeling but no matter what he did he couldn't avoid it. Even now he hadn't called his wife to tell her it was safe to go back to living in the city, for 3 years now he had decided to rather put in the extra time of commuting from his in-laws home, even building a new house nearby. At times he was actually living in his office space in the research base not even going back to his apartment complex.

There was a general sense of unease that no one wanted to talk about, yet everyone felt like a blanket slowly being dropped on them. Despite how much prestige and knowledge working at New Eden provided to the scientists a lot of them were signing up for transfers out of the facility with many simply saying they couldn't handle it anymore and none of the therapists or psychiatrists hired on to support the facility being able to explain what was wrong as not even their patients could understand the sudden need to be as far away as possible from the scientific epicentre of the world. Peter wouldn't lie to himself and say he had never thought about signing up for a transfer, but he knew that personally he would not be able to handle simply giving up to a feeling of unease he couldn't explain, nor did he think his bosses would let him transfer out. When it didn't involve teach or explaining things, he was the only one capable of communicating with Cain, it was just a dead silence and an unnerving stare with anyone else, Peter recalled how a man had actually clawed his own eyes out and burst his ear drums after trying to talk with Cain.

Things weren't helped by Doctor Victor and his grating personality and need for perfection in all of his work and his staff. The man had grown irritated by the sudden feeling of superstition of his staff and could often be seen yelling at them, berating them for abandoning the path of science in fear of nothing but ghosts and shadows. That they needed to take fate into their own hands as they had been given the keys to world and they were all to scared to grab on it and make the world theirs. The man seems to lack any sense of fear or even respect for the things he is working on. I wonder if he even has any form of common sense or if he would call people thinking like that idiots and cowards for not pushing forward well beyond what many would consider sane or safe. Where was Doctor Victor? Peter hadn't seen or heard the ranting of the man for a week now and neither had anyone else though they weren't complaining, being rather grateful not to have the man yelling at them for a change.

A yawn escaped from Peter as the man felt his energy fade away for a moment. Getting up and deciding he needed to take a walk to get his mind off of how tired he was, and maybe get one of the doctors on the staff to prescribe him some horse tranquiliser. Being knocked out surely must be better than constant fitful sleep that barely lasted an hour or two and often left him feeling worse than when he had simply been exhausted.

Standing in a break room looking through a selection of candy in a vending machine Peter overheard some gossip from a security officer. Apparently, someone had caught sight of Victor. The man looked like he hadn't slept for weeks and hadn't even acknowledged the presence of the other person when they had tried to see if he was alright or get him to go to the see the medical office to get checked out. The man simply kept repeating something about a planted seed that they had all foolishly nurtured and then left for the room with the red ball and simply sat down staring at it with a look of awe and dread. No one had been able to move the man from the spot, Victor even going into a near psychotic rage when attempts were made and not even the gaseous sedatives or darts being able to put the man down. "Apparently the last thing anyone knows he did before going into this psychotic break was talking to Cain." Peter quickly left the room careful not to be seen. The lower ranked staff often clamped up not talking about or mentioning anything that could sound like things were going wrong or were out of hand in front of higher-ranking staff.

Victor had a breakdown after talking with Cain. Upper management and even some of the lower ranked staff knew where he has been this whole time. What the hell is going on? I and other colleagues have been asking for his location for a while now only to be told no one knew where he was, and it turns out they knew exactly where he was. Does his breakdown have anything to do with why upper management doesn't want me talking to Cain anymore. It had been an odd turn of events for Peter when he had simply been told he would be working with the therapists for while and not to engage with Cain until ordered too otherwise. He didn't mind the new assignment as talking with Cain always made him feel like he was missing something, like a word on the tip of your tongue that you couldn't recall, and Cain knew the word yet refused to tell you. Cain seemed to take an odd form of enjoyment watching the scientists of New Eden struggle with what he was trying to teach them or fail to understand what he was telling them about the technological path they were following or about the energy they had discovered from the remnants of the tree. The man if he was a man was unnerving and despite all he offered and gave upper management thought it best to make sure they had a trump card and so had kept knowledge of the spear away from Cain, no one was to talk about it at all to him, they had even been spending more funding and resources on the spear research.

Back in his office Peter wondered what Victor had talked to Cain about that had broken the man so thoroughly. Peter as a seasoned interrogator knew people, knew the human mind and someone like Victor didn't just break from a single conversation, no something profound and important to the man must have been damaged, some truth he couldn't accept and yet was forced to accept broke the man, as if a core part of what represented him had been damaged. Peter had seen things like it before in war torn nations, usually in child soldiers or true believers who had been forced to see that their leaders had lied to them and twisted their beliefs and hopes. Something important in irreplaceable had been broken and people didn't know what to do anymore.

As Peter pondered on what broke Victor some new papers were dropped on his desk that led him to groan a bit as he realised it was the same stuff as last week. The enhanced soldiers had been having problems. Aggression levels had been on the rise after each deployment be it in combat or dealing with the rising number of mutants and even regular soldiers seemed to be suffering from it more recently. Nightmares of things they couldn't understand or remember was spreading and having an even worse effect on morale. While nothing had happened, yet Peter was worried about some of the soldiers going off the deep end and possibly doing something dangerous. He had tried to get the higher ups to put a pause on operations for a while and to lock away the weapons until they could understand what was happening even if he had a good idea of what was causing all of this, yet they refused. The didn't want the Coalition of Faith to gain ground or popularity by having the government fall behind on protecting people. "It's all politics to these people. They refuse to see the danger or act on it when it could blow up in their faces. More likely it will blow up in my face while they relax safely in the lap of luxury in their private bunkers."

It was the energy from the tree, Peter knew it and it had him worried with how much technology and medicine was not only based on it but also being spread in civilian space and industry. The world was getting worse and yet people moved on as if nothing was happening or even attempt to understand why things seemed off. Why violence was up, why mutant animals were spreading about, why things like magic seemed to go from fiction to fact, the why no longer seemed to matter to a lot of people. People had become infected with something, something enhancing and bringing out their worst selves for the world to see. Like a slow acting poison had been given to the people and they kept taking it because of how sweet it tasted. "How long can we keep up this denial?" Who am I kidding, it's the human condition to lie to ourselves even when we know we shouldn't be doing something or telling the truth will be more helpful in the long run.

In the end Peter simply continued to do his job as ordered and kept his head down not wanting to rock the boat or put himself into an unnecessary risky situation to simply act on a hunch, it was at least a month before he decided to act when by happenstance he got his hands on documents referencing the shut down of the lower levels of the facility. Plans set up to not just shut things down but lock it down hard, as the higher ups had started building a new research facility and planned to shut down New Eden and then collapse the upper levels to trap anything and everything that was in the lower levels down there. They didn't think they could kill Cain or the darker and hidden projects in the lower levels of New Eden without a significant loss of manpower, resources, and money. "They are just going to bury everything." Peter was at a loss for words as he read through the papers a second time before he carefully put them back in place and made sure no one could tell they had been read. I need answers and this could be my last chance to get them.

It took a bit of effort, but Peter managed to make some counterfeit documents that would get him past security and into the lower levels. The guards he showed them to looked at him as if they pitied him for having to go down there but they opened the elevator none the less wishing him luck and offering him a small prayer.

"Ah Peter I was wondering when I would see you again." Cain welcomed Peter as he put down a paint brush. The room was filled with portraits of the Monalisa yet none of them held her mysterious smile, no they all had different expressions being shown off, confusion, rage, disgust, fear, worry, intrigue, and so many more as the room seemed covered in them. "Sorry about the mess but I just had such a brush of inspiration and felt the need to give it form and shape." Peter simply wondered where Cain had gotten the supplies as none of the requisition forms had made mention of any art supplies and all he could see was small gardens, impossible gardens growing all around the room.

"How?"

"Come now Peter you should know better than to ask how from me. I know how to shape and manipulate energy in ways your bosses couldn't imagine. Let's just call it magic." Cain gave a cheeky smile as he offered a chair to sit on, the same chair from their very first meeting.

"They plan to seal you down here." Peter didn't know why he had decided to tell Cain, but he felt that honesty would be the best policy right now in this situation.

Cain simply laughed as if he found the threat of permanent entrapment hilarious. "While your sympathy and worry are heartwarming, I must say it is unnecessary. So why have you come down here then Peter?" That Cain showed no fear from the information provided confused Peter he pushed that aside so that he could get the answers he needed.

"What is happening to everyone? The enhanced are changing, people are changing and even the animals are changing. Do you know what is happening?"

Cain looked disappointed at the question. "Please Peter don't ask stupid questions you already know the answer to. It's the tree, the energy you have discovered and have been syphoning and playing around with, but you already knew that didn't you. You just wanted someone else to actually speak the truth to you… How much have you bosses been keeping from you or lying about? Why have you waited so long Peter? Do you think yourself a good man, if so, then why didn't you try to convince your colleagues to also get their families and friends out of the cities, why didn't you try harder to get your bosses to slow down. You're not a good man peter but then again that just what being human means. To lie to yourself until you believe the lie."

Peter punched Cain in the face. There was impact and yet Cain didn't move an inch and it felt like he had punch a wall as he pulled his hand back shaking it in pain while Cain laughed and Peter cursed himself for letting his emotions force an action he didn't think would help or wanted to take "There he is, the real Peter, the one who has had his filter striped and acted without thinking everything through."

"Shut up Cain, that was you not me. Pushing my buttons and putting me on a path where there is only one outcome!"

"I'm a farmer Peter. I plant seeds and get them to grow as I want, the only difference between you and a plant is that you have agency and self-awareness. But you and the people around you simply act as if you have no agency. I have cared for prepared you and everyone else in this facility for such a bountiful harvest. You all knew that I had my own motives and yet you took the risks anyway. What does that say about you? You don't get to complain." Cains voice dropped off lacking any of the jovial tone it had as he told Peter that neither he, nor his bosses, nor humanity got to complain about the consequences of their actions, as they all knew what they were doing was wrong. That they knew that something bad was coming their way and had no right to whine that things were going wrong, that the world seemed to be falling apart around them and their toys were broken.

Just as suddenly as the harsh tone had arrived it was gone just as quickly as cain motioned for Peter to continue questioning him. "Come now Peter there are much better questions you could ask me. What is just on the tip of you tongue? What have you wanted to know since the start of all of this?

Peter was scared terrified as he looked at Cain, looked deep into the man's eyes as he tried to understand what Cain wanted, why he had stayed in New Eden when it was clear he could've left whenever he had wanted to. Why was he so eager to answer the questions he had refused to talk about at the start of everything. "Who are you Cain? What is that red ball? What did you tell Doctor Victor that broke him? Why only talk to me and what is going to happen next?"

Cain had a big smile on his face as he seemed to mull over the questions that had been asked. As if the right questions had finally been asked at the right time for the answers to both matter and not matter at the same time. "I'm a farmer Peter, I work and prepare the soil to plant the seeds for a future yield. I grow things and harvest what I've sown as my claim. The soil is mine to claim as was my duty and my birthright. I told you my name was Cain, but you simply took it at face value not understanding anything. I'm not a Cain I am the Cain, the first to till the soil, the first killer to grace creation. Now it is my duty to prepare this world for harvest as my mother sleeps waiting for the day she is to rise again. That is not a ball Peter it is a seed, carefully cared for and waiting to sprout. My father thought himself so smart he thought he could cheat the system, he placed my mother and I here not understanding just why it was doomed to fail even if he wished to save us, give us a chance to escape hell."

Peter fell out of his chair as Cain ranted backing up to a wall as he tried to comprehend what he was hearing. What had he unleashed, what had he helped poison the world. "What system? What are you talking about?" Cain seemed to have a genuine look of enjoyment in his eyes as he looked at the fear oozing out of Peter as the man seemed frozen unable to run for the door, to pick up the courage to try and warn someone anyone about the mistake they had made not that it would help.

"While my father was the starting point of humanity, you could say I was the starting point of mankind and industry. I watched how my descendants shaped the world with steal and fire and often wondered why. So many years passed as I hoped for someone to end my suffering as watched things crumble around me, as the gates of heaven became narrower and narrower and knowing, I had a hand in that. I'm sure you recall how the great book talks about my curse." Cain pulled back his hair showing a scar on the back of his neck that looked like a locked gate. "For killing my brother, I was marked for all to know and always know who I was and what I had done but all that could be done was for me to be shunned as I was blessed or cursed however you see it that none could harm me lest they suffer that same harm seven times as bad back upon them in recompense." Cain was laughing bitterly now as he recalled heaven branding him as his mother cried and he recalled the look in his father's eyes the man being unable to look Cain in the eye as he screamed in pain for help. "Perhaps heaven had hoped that I would be slain at some point, but it never happened and thus I simply grew, aged and suffered and then I died and thus there is the crux of the issue my father failed to take into account. My curse still took affect just not in the way anyone expected. The natural order of the world lead to my death and thus by mandate of heaven the natural order must suffer recompense and yet there was nothing to be done as I was condemned to hell, and I was contained until now. My father in his ignorance wished to save mother and I but due to my curse I could not forget, and mother dear mother became something worse."

There was a bitter look in Cain's eyes now as he looked at a wall in his cell, it simply crumbling under his glare a clear look at the red ball now revealed to be a seed containing Eve. This world is unstable, inherently so. Had Sera taken the time to seek council with the other seraphim she may have been able to make it work but this world had no core, it had no centre and likely would've collapsed in on itself. She should've questioned why it fixed itself, taken the risk of revealing secrets she wished hidden, but she didn't thus here we are. My mother became a core centre of this world. The pillar of its existence, as purgatory was meant for redemption, something had to shoulder all the sins, the dark ugly energy of the souls that taints all of humanity and what better to shoulder that burden than the first sinner, the one who allowed evil into the world. Thus I raged once I woke up, once I realised what had happened and I allowed my rage and anger to consume me as I worked to wake her up, to tear her free but at that point I didn't understand but now I do, for what is the point of freedom if my mother and I are trapped in non-existence if everything falls apart around us. So, after I was defeated, after you claimed me and my mother I decided to wait as Purgatory slowly but surely grew, connected and rooted itself to the other realms as the souls of this world fed my mother, as you fools sped up the process by spread and proliferating the demonic energy of sin. That man Victor came rather close in the end to getting me to talk earlier but for a man like him it was simple to break him, I told him the truth. Your world is false Peter, a second chance built by heaven to test dammed souls and so many of you fail its hilarious. You fall to the same vices even after your past was wiped and the slated cleaned. None of this is real, you failed already and now heaven thought you could change and yet you all proved you couldn't".

Peter felt like he was falling apart as he tried to understand, no he couldn't understand as he looked at the spiteful, angry being in front of him. A monster set on hurting all those who had hurt him and those he cared about. Who knew how unfair the world, the universe was but knew the rules and had the skill, power and ability to bend those rules and make the universe bend. "Why tell me all this? What do you have to gain?"

"You're broken souls Peter. This world is a cheap, rushed poor quality project where heaven thought it could take broken, damaged souls and put them back together. This broken project is also just a few steps from heaven just deciding to wipe the slate clean. You are all temporary but useful as I've learned so much in my time here and now heaven, hell and the seraphim will pay for what my family has suffered. As for why I'm telling you? Well, there isn't anything you could do to stop. I want you to know and understand just what is about to happen. You were a pleasant enough person to chat to and I did enjoy the confused looks on your face but mostly it's because I recognise your soul, Peter. I knew you before all of this, a con man who sought to make a life for themselves trying to live as honest a life as you could while trying to survive but a poor sale on your part dammed you. A second-hand car whose breaks failed leading to a massive pileup on a main road, didn't help that you decided to take the noose when you heard the news".

"Happen? As in now?" A loud cracking sound filled the air as Peter saw the seed cracking open as a new tree began to grow. The entire facility became to shake as it was torn apart from the inside out as the tree broke through floor after floor. Containment rooms shattered as contained mutants flooded out attacking anything in sight as people fled for their lives either to fall to tooth and claw or to be crushed under concrete.

Peter raced away his legs finally having regained their strength and courage as he grasped his chance of life and freedom knowing of a secondary escape chute he could take. It wouldn't be comfortable or safe, but it was a chance as he took out his phone desperately typing out a message and sending it to his family and friends hoping he could spare some of them the nightmare to come. Cain's laughter was all he could hear in his head as flashes of what had been wiped from his soul filled his mind. His nose filled with the smell of burning flesh and cries of pain and suffering. He was standing on a highway all of a sudden looking at a massive accident. He jumps to a motel room an empty bottle of pills and booze cans littering the floor as a tear-stained note and instructions for a lawyer on what to do with his money as he looked at a noose.

The scene broke as the other him took the step off the chair and the noose tightened around his neck. "Come on Peter you're not getting out of here alive. Why run, just sit down and accept what is to come."

"Just because you gave up Cain doesn't mean I will. What ever my past may be, whatever pain I caused that person still took steps to try and make things better even knowing he could never earn forgiveness. Peter recalled the note, how his money had been spread out to pay hospital bills, therapy, both emotional and physical and to pay out to the people who had been hurt from his callousness. Peter sent a second message out on his phone to the secondary site the spear had been moved to a last ditch warning as he stopped running and stepped into a somewhat functional computer room and started wiping any and all data on the spear from the network and even the other sites while also sending messages to people to get anything physical to the Faith, they were the only ones that could stop this, fight back.

"Really Peter. Breaking some code and data isn't going to slow me down. Everything you know about sin energy I taught you. There is nothing you can do with it that I can't do better or undo."

He was getting closer. Peter took out his phone as he recoded a message for his family telling them how sorry he was for failing them, for not protecting them or putting a stop to the madness that would soon engulf the world. "I'm sorry I can't be there with any of you to help you in the world you are about to inherit. I'll do my best to slow things down, to give you all a chance. Be safe and know that I love you all."

"Oh, isn't that sweet a last message of love. What can you do Peter? How can you slow me down when we both know not even those enhanced of yours could hold a candle to me." There was a viciousness to Cain as he slowly stalked towards Peter a piece of rebar in his hand.

"Let's find out shall we. Even if the world goes to hell at least you won't be there to take the reins immediately." Peter activated the fail safe. All around the complex hidden caches of explosives were activated and went off but with a twist as blessed energy flooded the facility the explosives having been augmented with the energy; they had been able to syphon off the spear. Peter grunted in pain as he blacked out when Cain in a rage smashed him over the head.

Cain tried to escape the facility down the path Peter had been taking only to realise he had been led into a dead end as hundreds of tons of stone and concrete and soil fell on top of him while also getting a good blast of blessed energy to the face. In his last moments of consciousness and likely life Peter only smiled knowing even for all he had helped doom his world he had done a bit to give people a chance to save it as a bright white light engulfed him.

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No one knows what started it, but the second eruption was heralded with a new Tree growing though it simply stood still unmoving, sleeping yet unleashing many horrors into the world as sin energy spread out from it like a tree's leaves give off oxygen. Mutants that would eventually be called, demons or the afflicted flooded the world as governments fell, as military bases fell as madness took people in-mass. It would be years before anyone knew what truly had happened or at least managed to grasp pieces of it.

Peter's actions had given human souls of Purgatory a chance as while demons and afflicted took most of the world for itself, they had no unifying force no leader to direct or guide them for years and thus humanity had a chance to push back, make claims and create barriers not even the mightiest demon could break through. The Faith grew and thanks to the surviving scientists that had made their way to them and the knowledge, technology they had brought not to mention the spear. Humanity had a chance to build and prepare for Cain's return, but they at least had a fighting chance.

For Cain by the time, he managed to free himself he was not alone in power nor ability to shape sin and soul. He had rivals and challengers to face as many vied for control of the tree, the legions of demons and the world. Cain raged in anger at his revenge being stolen from him, and how he was now forced to work against these broken dolls of heaven as if they had any right to challenge him. He swore he would track down Peter's soul, the souls of his family and make their torment so great that no matter how many times the slate was wiped clean they would never forget.

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In a white room Adam looked at a sleeping soul wondering what the hell he was going to do now to try and keep things on the down low. Despite everything souls were still managing to redeem themselves and leave Purgatory for Heaven, this Peter dude proved it, but those same souls could also reveal just how badly things were going. At the moment he had Peter and a few others in a dream state and planned to keep them a bit isolated from the other winners but that was only a stop gap solution at best and wouldn't last. Despite everything though Adam looked down and could only feel a pain in his heart as he learned Cain had not forgotten, hadn't been able to take his second chance and neither had Eve. He had simply given them more torment and he had even almost destroyed the souls of his wife and son. He couldn't fix it, he needed to fix things, he couldn't let Sera know, he could fix this. "Sorry Peter my man. Can't let you wake up just yet, but I promise you your family and their souls will be safe." Adam looked at the slowly growing mess in Purgatory and wondered just how he was going to fix this mess without informing Sera or getting help from any of the seraphim. A small feeling of dread in his chest as he flew into the cosmic gap between realms trimming away at the roots growing out of Purgatory knowing it was Eve reach out for something, anyone and feeling nothing but self-loathing as he all but cut away at her hand reaching out.

boy this was a long chapter and took a bit to finally write out. hope you all enjoy this.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. These words ran through the head of a little girl as she rushed down a decrepit alleyway her eyes dashing over the piles of trash to make sure nobody was hiding in them to jump her or track her down and follow her. The girl paused at the edge of the alley sticking to the wall as she peaked around the edge to make sure no one was around to see where she was going or what she was doing. Once she was sure she was alone and that she was safe the girl carefully moved towards a half-collapsed house, only stopping in front of two shallow graves giving a respectful prayer. Prayer given she climbed through a large bush that had grown over the entrance to the basement of the house and started struggling to open a partially rusted steal door in the basement of the house. I should ask dad for some grease or oil, or I may not be able to open this door one day and I can't leave it open, or some animal may find this place, or the stuff inside could spoil.

The bunker was a lucky find for the girl, who had been near starving as the city her family was living in had been suffering a famine for a while and the warlock in charge seemed to have little care for the people under his control. She had been desperately digging through trash for anything and had managed to stumble onto the place quite by accident, it had been quite a scare when she had found the bodies of the couple who had owned the house simply lying down in their bed, a small note explaining that they just didn't have it in them to live in this new world and that they hoped who ever found their stock could put it to good use. The bunker had been a truly amazing find as not only was it full of supplies, but the thing had been blessed, the divine power keeping everything inside in good condition. The girl had been so happy at the time she had rushed home to tell her parents only for her dad to silence her and told her to keep it a secret for herself. The location was to be kept secret from everyone even them and that it was the girl's backup plan, her safe spot and that while the supplies could help the family, she needed to learn how to take care of her own needs. It had been a bit of a shock having her father scold her for wanting to share but the man also made a point of being rather forceful in asking if anyone had seen or followed her.

She hadn't looked or taken note of her surroundings and had felt saddened by the disappointed look on her father's face when he told her she needed to be smarter than that reminding her of the time a classmate had stolen from her when she had shown her one of her hidey holes for the times she had been lucky enough to get candy she could keep some for later. He handed her a small rucksack and told her to go back and fill it up with what she thought the household could safely keep and barter with, without bringing any undue suspicion upon them from their neighbours or the soldiers.

The supplies had been a god send managing to keep them afloat during the harsh days of the famine. Keeping them fed, acting as good tools to barter and for the occasional bribe but most importantly for the girl she didn't have to see the shallow brands of chains on her father for whatever extra job he did that he refused to talk about when money was tight. Her father had actually managed to buy the rights to the house putting it in her name for the day she would be on her own. It had cost quite a bit to, the family going hungry for a week as her father had refused to let her go for a supply run lest people figure out where she was going and how they were getting the extra supplies. Her bag full the girl began the long journey home as a sense of paranoia fell over her again as she kept looking around to make sure no one was spying on her.

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"Mom! Dad! I'm home." She dropped her bag in the kitchen as she looked around the house. Her father wasn't home yet taking note that his boots were not at the door, her mother came out from the backyard large reflective black glasses on her face.

"Oh, Charlie your back early. How was class today?

"Classes were cancelled for today and likely for the next week. There was a large fire nearby not to mention the soldiers got into a big fight with a big monster that broke free of its cage. No idea why they were transporting the thing in public, but they were and when it got out it ended up doing quite a bit of damage to the schoolhouse not to mention some of our teachers were killed."

Her mother frowned for a moment as Charlie prepared to go to her room. Her mother took note of the supply bag in the kitchen and sighed. "Charlie, you know that you need to ask your dad when its ok to make runs… I'll sort these out, but rest assured we will be talking when your father gets back." Her mother handed her a pair of glasses similar to her own as she left for the kitchen. "While you have free time, please check on the cockatrice, they have been acting up recently and I'm a bit worried as no summoner or tamer can come around to do a check up for at least a month, our glorious ruler decided to have every summoner, charmer, tamer and binder he could find in the city come to the castle to do a job for him."

Charlie groaned but complied not wanting to risk getting grounded when she had free time from school. Working with animals was also something she enjoyed as they seemed to always like her and even the more violent ones tended to calm down around her. While didn't think much of the calming effect, she had apparently it seemed like a big deal as she recalled her mother telling her that she could likely get a job working as an official tamer. Keeping while beasts away from the city or helping to capture them and train them in the defence of the city. The idea didn't really appeal to Charlie all that much as she knew for a fact thanks to having overheard some older students gossiping about how afflicted were also valid targets for capture, and how it was even encouraged for them to be targeted. Charlie shivered at the idea of stealing away someone's free will even if their minds were all but mush due to the forced transformation from sin energy. Charlie calmed herself down as she looked over Medusa to make sure the cockatrice was alright. "Come on girl can you tell me what's wrong?"

No answer but she wasn't really expecting one. Simply talking seemed to help as Medusa seemed to calm down. Taking a small walk out of the shed and looking around Charlie spotted some damage to the fence around the house and felt frustrated and worried not sure if it was caused by a foolish thief or if she had to worry about a beast or mutant that had attempt to break into the property. She recalled stories talked about in class and while her family didn't live on the border of the city they were still close and she recalled her dad talking to her mother about a colleague who had died when a herd of minotaur had smashed up that entire section before any soldiers or defence force could react and event then it had taken hours before the situation could be handled.

She was about to go talk to her mom about the damaged fence when the door burst open, and her dad was carried in by some of his friends. Charlie rushed in very worried as she found her mother crying, and her dad covered in chain marks and his arm partially transformed into a large wolf-like claw. Her dad's friends where apologizing profusely, that they had tried to get her father to leave but he had been on a winning streak in the pits and the host had taken notice and that the big man himself had come down and wanted to see how long he would last. They apologised as they couldn't stay long as the host had only let them leave to get the man home to rest, that they needed to come back to entertain the big man until he had his fill of violence.

"Abreham you foolish man. You shouldn't have gotten into the fights. Money was tight but we would've found a way to manage we always did."

Charlie watched helplessly from the door not sure what to do seeing her mother break down and her father in such poor condition. All she could do was go and give her mother a hug to try and comfort her as they both started crying her mom promising her everything would be alright even though both knew she was unsure if her father would even recover. Even as they hugged each other and comforted each other Charlie's eyes were stuck on her fathers mutated arm, recognizing the symptoms of sin corruption, knowing her father was risking his mind and body and towing a very dangerous line.

Charlie made to promise her mom that she would do what ever she could to help, even stop going to classes, find a job to make sure her dad didn't have to go to what ever the pit was to make extra money. Her mom had put a quick end to that. "You are not going to chain yourself to us Charlie. This city won't last, Victor won't last, no warlock that arrogant and greedy does. You are going to get a good education and you're getting out of this city Charlie, to a better city, a smarter warlock that will see your talents for what they are or hopefully you'll managed to get passage to Purgatory city." There would be no further discussion her mother's mind made up as she sent Charlie to get some medicine as the two started to patch up the more visible wounds on her father's body that hadn't healed.

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Waking up Abreham was a bit surprised to feel a soft comfortable surface beneath his back. Looking around he realised he was home, in his bed as he took note of Charlie and Mary asleep on a chair huddle together having fallen asleep looking after him. They look so peaceful right now… Mary is going to give me quite a talking to when she wakes up. Abreham knew he had pushed himself harder and longer than he should've, but something had been different. When he had started winning, he couldn't stop, he needed to keep going, to keep winning and to keep his blood flowing with that feeling of euphoria. I need to see the priest and hope he still has some water he can spare to help expunge the extra sin energy or supress it until the next time Purgatory sends an envoy with blessed items for the city. He was risking a lot having fought more often and taken on more sin energy than usual, but any suffering was worth keeping his family safe, people higher up on the food chain were getting suspicious and he needed to keep their eyes on him and not Charlie or Mary.

Noting that Mary and Charlie were waking up he put on a fake smile acting as if he was in much better shape than he actually was or felt. "Hey girls sorry if I worried you." Charlie jumped on him in joy giving a big hug that he had to strain not to flinch from the pain his body was still feeling. "Hey, don't worry Charlie I'm alright. I'm really sorry if I scared you." He gave her a return hug before patty her on the head and wiping away some of the tears in her eyes. He did shrink back a bit when he got a look at the look of absolute anger on Mary's face, and he knew they needed to talk. "Hey Charlie, why don't you go to the kitchen and make me some of your famous cockatrice eggs, a good meal would be really helpful right now." Charlie gave a big smile having been convinced that her dad was feeling better and once he was sure she was out of ear shot he turned to Mary ready for the verbal lashing he kind of deserved.

"What were you thinking!? You know how dangerous the fighting pits are. Why would you take the risk knowing you could end up a true afflicted. Victor barely allows any of the blessed items that Purgatory city hands out as gifts to the warlocks to be provided to the people and what little blessed power there is needs to be used sparingly until the next gift day arrives."

"I'm sorry Mary. The sin energy got the better of me, I couldn't keep my ego in check, and I also heard people wondering about some of the rarer items we trade with. I needed to make sure we had a good excuse for the things we had and having a good winning streak seemed like a good idea at the time. I just had the bad luck of being supplied with poor quality cursed chains, couldn't keep the transformation and sin energy contained properly." Abreham looked at the rather visible marks on his arms and the rather painful partial transformation of his one hand with a feeling of foreboding dread. Mary also looked at his mutated arm with a painfully clear amount of fear and worry. They both knew that things couldn't keep going like this and Charlie wasn't even of age yet to live on her own.

"We could ask Charlie to lead you to the bunker she found. The blessing in the storage room could help you."

"NO!" Abreham paused a bit shocked at how he had rebutted his wife's suggestion taking a moment to calm himself. "No Mary. That could end up sapping all of the blessed energy there just to fix me up. We and more importantly Charlie wouldn't be able to use it again not to mention how suspicious it would look if I was just suddenly fixed right up after all this." He pointed to his hand. "Victor and his goons know just how many blessed items they hand out to us lesser not to mention how he keeps track of what little blesses energy is kept in stock by the priests. If anyone finds out, we have been keeping this stash a secret you know we could be executed at the very best not to mention what could happen to Charlie with all of her gifts. No, I can tough it out for a few days."

Mary gave a sad nod knowing he was right but something else was bothering her as she recalled the conversation with his co-workers when they had dragged him into the house. "Abreham, why was Victor at the fighting pit? Some of the richer residents and even the soldiers visit from time to time, but Victor would never do so, thinking it beneath him."

No Abreham did look rather weary as he tried to explain to his wife just how bad things were outside of the city and on its borders, the conversation cut short as Charlie came in with a meal on a tray and just wanting to talk with her father. To enjoy some story time and have fun and laughter fill the house to help remove the heavy weight that had seemed to settle in the air. For now, the conversation was forgotten but there was an important thing to known, something was worrying Victor and that left both Mary and Abreham worried and scared about what could get under the skin of a warlock in such a way.

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Living in a warlock run city is always a coin toss between basically being a citizen or being a slave and even then, the difference is paper thin depending on the condition of the city and the mindset of the warlock running it. Farm city was the well-known name of the city under Victor and while he hated the name it stuck due Victor being too lazy to think of a new name to act as his cities trademark and due to his city being a large provider of food type resources to other cities and even Purgatory. The average warlock city barely broke a population of fifty thousand and even the cities ruled over by the mage council barely broke a good 250K. Victor despite his young age and the relative newness of his city manage to reach half a million all on his own though this did come with draw backs.

Victor was well known for his arrogance and it showed with how except for the immediate area surrounding his castle most of his territory was falling apart and barely held together as he kept expanding his territory even when what forces he did have were barely able to keep the borders safe and even then it was a coin toss if an afflicted or monster managed to break through, sometimes even unnoticed until things started getting wrecked.

Victor was not well liked among the small community that made up warlocks. Not only was he young but he was also extremely arrogant and obnoxious, with an extremely abrasive personality and tended to get on the bad side of most people who were on the same level as he was or higher be it politically or by a basis of personal power. Many would be more than happy to see him dead, or his city fall but unfortunately his city was to important for it to fall so many people simply grit their teeth and dealt with the man no matter how annoying he was and provided extra support when it seemed like he needed it to defend his borders.

Despite his importance as a provider of raw goods another thing that allowed Victor to manage such a large amount of territory was the magic he was specialised in and that he focused on monopolising grabbing any mage showing any proficiency in the field of magic of summoning or binding or taming. Victor had a massive force of beasts and afflicted bound and enslaved to his will or the will of those who served under him. The man had an insane skill for crafting cursed items that could also allow any regular human to become demi-awakened, basically though no were near as strong as a true awakened. What no one could figure out was how the man had managed to capture and bind a true awakened, him having actually brought it to a meeting once, likely another reason he was willing to keep so many afflicted within his borders. Many of the other warlocks thought him a fool though knowing that no matter how good his grip was on the leash around the monsters, beasts and demons he kept as his attack dogs, one day his grip would become loose enough be it from arrogance or forgetting just how dangerous his 'pets' were, and they would turn on their master. Many were waiting for that day preparing for the chance to steal Victor's territory for themselves when the man took a step to far over the line and couldn't take it back.

For Victor himself the man was a bundle of paranoia, which was normal for a warlock, but it was off the charts when looking at Victor. The man seemed to see to always be on edge ever since he had captured his pet awakened because Victor personally knew how lucky he had been. The thing had only recently regained any sense of sanity still being somewhat lost between the mind of an animal and the mind of a person and having no real control over its power. Having the awakened under his thumb allowed him a great deal of power and control but he was always working to add more chains, more weights more bindings to keep it under his thumb, bound to his will.

"What a dangerous game you seem to be playing." A hollow whisper of a voice seemed to float out of no where Victor jumping to his feet looking around as the temperature in the room seemed to drop rapidly as a misty humanoid form floated into his chambers. "I must say I've enjoyed watching you play but I wasn't so amused when you took one of my chosen as your pet." The figure pointed at the half woman half spider asleep on the floor of the chamber they were in. Every spell and cursed item being used to bind it shattering at once while the misty figure laughed at the sheer terror overcoming Victor who was about to call out for help, but it simply held a figure to what could be its lips "Shhhhh."

No sound came out of Victor's mouth, no sound could escape the chamber they were in. "Now that we can't be interrupted why don't we have a chat." The figure pointed to a spare chair in the room though Victor seemed apprehensive to the idea of sitting in it even though it was his chair. "Oh, there is no need to be worried Victor. This form is merely a projection. I don't have the time to move this far from my territory to kill a simple warlock for something as petty as taking one of my awakened."

Victor was shaking now, awakened never really formed communities, never had any real bond among their kind. The only reason for this one to care was if it wasn't simply just an awakened, the fact that it couldn't leave its territory was what really tipped him off. Most awakened didn't care about territory traveling as they liked making were every they decided to sleep or live theirs until they moved on or were forced to move. This however was different this thing in front of him was a lord. "Who, who are you? Why is a lord here? Why care about a simple awakened like this?"

"Because its mine and you stole it." There was a sharp hissing tone as the mist seemed to engulf the room entirely before returning to a humanoid shape. I am Envy and you stole from me, me who all things should belong to!" the misty being seemed to pause as it calmed itself down. "I do apologise for that outburst. That's more Greed's style but then he and I are always fighting and is the only reason you don't have an army coming down on your head, but you can pay me back for this affront, so I don't have my child here turn you inside out or become a nest for her future children."

"What stops me from simply killing this awakened right now? its no where near as strong as it could be yet and after being under my control for so long much of its power having atrophied. Plus, you are just an illusion and despite what power you have shown off, this projection doesn't have the ability to kill me." Victor felt his confidence returning as he stood up in front of the projection of the lord. Slowly large ant like beasts arrived chewing threw the walls as they ate through the barrier that had been erected around the chamber. "You seem to forget this is my castle and despite all your power I'm the one in charge here." Victor felt relieved to see his beasts had arrived to support him as he allowed his magic to flow through his body as flames covered his hands.

Envy looked at the man stunned for a moment by the sheer arrogance she was seeing and then she started laughing. "Oh, I wish I had your sense of self worth and self-importance when I was still human but what's a girl to do. Still if you refuse to pay the debt you oh me than know this, I will come to collect my dues human." In an act of spite instead of simply dispelling the projection the mist form of Envy exploded outwards destroying the roof of the tower chamber they had been inside the lord's laughter echoing out for all to hear even if they had no idea behind the context.

The visit broke the sense of security and calm Victor had as he called in every favour, he had with other warlocks to call in the back up he would need. He had his soldiers collect every homeless and workless person they could get their hands on throughout his territory anyone not being productive in maintain his lands and had them flung into dungeons and purposely infected with sin energy forcing them into monstrous afflicted. He went to fight pits looking for talent to join his army for the fight he knew was to come and that was worth more with a mind than the brute power of regular mindless afflicted. Every mage, wizard or shaman he could pull into service were handed cursed items from his personal collection so they could unleash the full might of their magical knowledge without the risk of transforming into mindless and useless afflicted. Hunters spread out across the land capturing the most powerful and dangerous beasts they could for Victor to bind and enslave into service for the coming war.

The mood in the lands under Victor had changed as people took note of longer work hours and higher quotas. How people were disappearing off the streets and how the blessed items given to the churches to spread among the people had been lowered even more. Mostly bound beast and golem constructs monitored the streets as soldiers had moved to the borders of the territory. There was also a mass migration of low skill workers to the borders as massive construction programs had been set in place as bunkers and supply lines were being built and then fortified. Traps and trails were set up and mapped for soldiers and defensive lines and trenches were dug in massive numbers. Victor had stopped any form of expansion and had instead focused everything into fortifying everything he had.

While the mood for his citizens was a sombre and depressive one as their hard lives became even harder, for Victor his mood was much more erratic though hopeful despite the dire situation he was in. In the man's mind despite his fears, he had managed to chase off a lord and that led to many other rather dangerous ideas growing in his head as he prepared for war with said lord. I already managed to bind an awakened if I win here my name will be greater than any of the other warlocks, greater than even the council. The man was terrified into an odd form of insanity as despite all the risks all he could see was the opportunities victory could bring him. What if I don't just push Envy back? What if I can kill that thing? I have more than enough blessed items from Purgatory. It will be the first confirmed kill of a lord ever since the arrival of the angels in the first Eruption. What if I took their power for my own. The idea festered in his mind as he thought about just how much more power he would have, how much more land, more territory, more everything and then not even the council would be able to stand against him. He could see it now, not only conquering Envy but becoming Envy, taking their name, title power ascending to become an awakened, a lord.

Victor stopped leaving his personal chambers with his orders simply becoming letters and notes he pushed out from under his door while he spent his days experimenting on and studying his captured awakened. He would learn the secrets that had been kept from mankind, from him that would allow him to rise to power, to rise above even the lords themselves never knowing or seeing he was being watched as while arrogant for a being of their power Envy wasn't stupid though the situation was more complicated for the lord as another of her kind sat next to her. A deal had been struck; a bargain made though much to her annoyance it had been to her disadvantage. She needed Greed kept busy with how he was always vying for her lands, and this was the only way she could set that up even though she knew it would bite her in the ass later all deals made with Wrath ended like that.

"I have your assurance that Greed will not make a move on my lands while I deal with this fool?"

Wrath laughed a cold cruel laugh but one that held no sense of humour to its tone at all. "You wound me Envy. I always keep my word and my forces are always spoiling for a good fight."

Envy wasn't assured knowing just how unruly and disorderly the lands ruled by wrath were with the only reason none of the other lords made a move against him being the sheer size of territory Wrath controlled not to mention the sheer number of afflicted and awakened under his command and that for some reason Sloth had joined with him. Wrath and Sloth had been the first to be known as awakened and that gave them the other lords a level of wariness with how little they actually knew, except for maybe Pride. Pride was always looking for a weak point a chance to attack or hurt Wrath in some manner, there was mutual history there though neither spoke about it. A deal with Wrath gives me safe passage to move against this foolish human without having to worry about Greed but I'm risking Pride moving against me if he things I'm working with Wrath in any way. Pride's territory wasn't close, but Envy recalled just how vicious the lord could be remembering the site of independent awakened that had tried to make deals with Wrath against Pride.

"If your worried about Pride, don't be. I have something else in mind that will keep that fool busy. Come now Envy even if you don't trust me, you can trust my power. You know I'm good for any deal I make, and I can keep my end." Wrath smiled as he took note that while she distrusted him Envy wanted her petty revenge more. "So, is it a deal?" Wrath took his true form, a somewhat regular human shape even if he was more of a giant of a man. Envy sighed knowing they would likely regret their choice taking on the form a humanoid form of shattered glass that had been forced together in a human shape shaking Wrath's hand to seal the deal.

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Alone as Envy had left to start moving her forces Wrath smiled as he looked at his hand. The pieces were starting to move in the places he needed. "Oh, father your petty revenge against Samael has provided me with the investment I need to take control of this wretched realm from these annoying gnats." Cain laughed at how he was moving everyone around like pawns on an invisible chess board, a game being played yet everyone else was at a disadvantage due to how little they knew or not even knowing they were part of his game. "Soon the child will be forced to start awakening her powers and then I'll be able to break a hole in the walls you built, and mother and I will be free and then heaven and hell will know our wrath!" Magical projections of Hell and Heaven formed in the palms of his hand before he crushed them as he laughed in a twisted joy at his plans finally being able to move again as he prepared to remove all the annoying pieces off of the proverbial board.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics

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Life in Farm city didn't change much for a while in the eyes of its citizens, and what changes they did notice felt more positive than negative for them. Despite all the beasts now patrolling the streets many felt more at peace and safe to just be themselves no longer being under the watchful eye of Victor's soldiers. Kids were out and about more, and even small social gatherings started to grow in size and frequency as people decided to enjoy the small reprieve to their rather sombre lives. The adults did know however that something was happening as there was no way Victor would do something like this out of the goodness of his heart, they were waiting for the boot to drop and worried just how much damage it would do when this peaceful mirage was shattered simply keeping a brave face for the children.

For the kids of the city things seemed to really brighten up. Their parents seemed less tense and certain stores seemed to have stock for longer and better quality and even slightly cheaper prices. They were allowed to play on the streets though they still had to stay inside if a patrol beast was walking down the street to avoid getting squished. They also enjoyed having their parents return from work earlier and in seemingly better spirits.

As the days and weeks began to drag on however the kids started to notice how things started to go downhill in the city even as their parents worked their hardest to hide the worsening situation. For the kids who were going to school they noticed how classes had been shortened and how some teachers weren't even showing up anymore, and even some of the older kids had disappeared with some of the friends of those kids having seen their parents or parent sobbing and hiding in their homes. Work hours also seemed to start increasing again as their parents came back later and later depending on the job they were working. Charlie herself really started to understand things weren't all sunshine and rainbows when the streets were simply empty. She and some classmates had been playing outside and by the time they noticed they had been outside well beyond curfew time and their parents had come looking for them none of the usual patrol creatures were seen or heard. Charlie had asked her mom about this due to her having a job as a vet and sometimes had a chance to look at the creatures up close, but her mom had just gotten a faraway look in her eyes before telling Charlie not to think about it too much and simply be grateful no patrol had caught her or her friends breaking curfew.

One night her dad came home but he didn't smell of the usual melting steal and smoke, the smoky smell was still their but something else surrounded it, almost like a mix between meat and plastic that had been put over an open flame. It worried Charlie that she had seen her dad covered in chains and not just scars or imprints of them on his flesh. She saw a lot of the other men looking more like her dad, partially mutated and covered in chains and not even returning home for a few days at a time and when they did return, they were usually exhausted. Shops also started closing down either due to the owners disappearing or stock was not being replenished as quickly as needed with some stores going days before a truck came with new stock. Blackouts were also starting to hit the city or at least the outer areas as Charlie could still see the buildings surrounding the castle still having lights on.

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The school was hauntingly empty as Charlie walked to her classroom noting how the secretary had red marks over her face and looked dead tired even as she tried to put on a small but weak smile for Charlie. A lot of the classes were empty or so small these days groups had started to be put together simply to fill up rooms. Honestly it was more like large group classes with what staff and students were still coming around as they found the routine calming, at least for the adults for the children this was just to keep them distracted.

Despite all the attempts at distraction everyone could see that things were getting rather unpleasant as lessons had become almost nothing more than fun games and stories, anything to make the day fun and more enjoyable both for students and teachers who always felt a warm spot in their heart seeing the smiles of joy and hearing the laughter of the students.

The thin layer of normalcy was shattered when soldiers walked in during a lesson and the students had the unfortunate luck to watch some of the last of the older students and male staff being 'led' out to waiting trucks. Charlie overheard soldiers talking about something called the front line still holding but it had become a meat grinder, that they were worried they would need to start falling back and was worried defences weren't as prepared as they should be. Too much effort had been focused on the front lines.

School was cancelled after that. It was starting to get really obvious that things couldn't be hidden from the children anymore, so parents started preparing them for the worst. Escape routes were set up and memorised, hiding spots were set up to make sure at least the children could not be found easily if escape was not a possibility and making sure the kids could react in a timely and efficient manner if anything happened to warrant such a response.

Charlie knew that things had changed as her dad hadn't been home in over a week now and she was worried as she didn't know if any of her letters were reaching him, and her mother hadn't sent any letters except for one she gave Abreham the day he left. Charlie also noted how they had stopped trying to hide they had extra supplies as her dad had told her to show her mom where the bunker was and bring as much stuff as they could back home. They had started grouping up with some of the neighbours staying over, her mom saying something about safety in numbers though Charlie wasn't sure what they needed to be safe from. She just wanted things to go back to normal, things may not have been as pleasant or easy or even nice, but the air and the people didn't feel cold and numb all the time like everyone had just accepted that something horrible was coming and they just accepted their fate. She wanted her dad to come back.

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The council running Purgatory city had convened as they tried to come up with a solution to the mess that had been started by Victor and how it was affecting not only the other warlock run nations but Purgatory as well. People were smuggling themselves into the city, a refugee crisis was hitting, it slow but it was happening and it was starting to stress the resources of Purgatory and they knew things would get worse if Farm city fell and its resources were cut off alongside the flood of refugees that would come to Purgatory hoping to escape the wrath of the lord Victor had angered.

Motions had been put forward to send in an inquisitor to reign in the idiot of a warlock but that had been shot down as it would set a bad precedent in the minds of the other warlocks and could sour relations between Purgatory and the rest of the warlock nations and Victor was not worth the hassle many had thought at the time. Many were now regretting treating him with gloved hands and felt it would've been worth the irritation of the other warlocks to stop this mess from happening.

"I believe we should send in an exorcist."

"Are you sure? This is a very dangerous situation and losing an exorcist is a great deal of time and effort lost. Not to mention the lord Envy is likely getting personally involved from what our spies and scouts have been telling us.

"True a lord is getting involved but with the sheer wall of weapons and flesh being thrown at them this could be our chance to remove one of those monsters from the board and give humanity the chance to reclaim what was stolen during the second eruption." It wasn't a pleasant taste in the mouths of the councillors thinking of simply using Victor's people as a tool to weaken Envy.

It was a difficult decision to make as while it could save lives there was a great risk involved as the only tool, they could think of being strong enough to kill a lord was the Spear and they didn't want to risk losing it. The other lords could see their involvement was a chance to remove the Spear from the game board or even a chance to attack Purgatory if they realised the Spear was gone.

"Even if the lords discover the Spear is missing it matters not. They wouldn't be able to gather a force large enough to assault us before we reclaimed it. We must make a decision and make it now. Losing Farm city is something we can't tolerate; it will mean losing more land to these monsters no to mention the population boom the accursed and the awakened will see, and we will all suffer. Send in an exorcist, one we know will likely succeed and also be enough of a message to the other warlocks we will no longer tolerate behaviour that risks the whole of humanity. They may be sovereign nations, but they must be reminded that is by our blessing and that they only still retain their humanity thanks to our blessings."

The meeting was adjourned, the motion cast and the decision made. The belligerence of the warlocks would no longer be tolerated, and an exorcist would see action outside of Purgatory territory for the first time in decades.

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Abreham wondered if he was going deaf as the sounds of weapon fire going off had become so monotone to him, he could barely make it out in comparison to general conversation with other fighters and the sounds of accursed dying or being wounded. He and the others often made bets on whether it was raining or not due to how the trampling of the feet of the attacking hoard sounded just like it.

They all knew they wouldn't make it home. Even if they managed to push back the lord's forces many were too far gone and would eventually become insane accursed themselves. The only thing keeping many going were cursed chains binding their mind and flesh to strands of sanity. He looked at his hand or the paw it had become as he took on a more wolf like form. If I ever got home, I wonder if they would recognise me? Or would they only see the beast I have become?

There were so few of them now, friends he had worked with and fought with had been whittled away and now he mostly saw new faces, faces that were far to young to be fighting here. Often, he had wondered if he should just stop fighting let the hoard pass, many of the fighters here had thought as much but they knew better, that it wouldn't just be the rich assholes and Victor who would suffer but their families and friends, the lord would not distinguish between innocent or guilty for what ever Victor had done to draw their anger. It didn't help that the soldiers behind them would likely shoot them in the back out of spite if they stopped fighting. The cowards sitting in the remaining tanks and other military vehicles that Victor had collected and was now using as artillery support for the fighters even if the soldiers didn't care if they hit the lords' soldiers or their own allies.

The blood in Abreham's veins froze when he saw the battlefield being flooded by mist and he heard the officers talking about sending everyone else forward while they fell back. Envy had decided to join the fight. Spires of glass were erupting all over the areas piercing though people and then just shooting out like grenades ripping though muscle and flesh. It was like seeing a person put through a blender as people were torn apart. Mist was also acting as water suffocating people and forcing its way into their mouths and killing many by simply expanding till, they burst like balloons or with others melting them from the inside out as if the mist was acid. The few who could be considered luck lost their minds as the mist inside of them twisted their minds and sight beyond recognition driving them mad or removing them from the driving seat of their own bodies and turning them against their fellow fighters.

"There is no shame in surrender! You have all fought bravely and well and I would be willing to embrace you who are still standing to become my children! Join me and embrace me instead of this fool who has sent you to your deaths! Envy's voice covered the battlefield not even being silenced or blocked out by all the noise of the fighting and the screaming of death, pain and suffering.

We are going to lose we can't win. The simple truth of the matter almost broke Abreham. He was going to die here, he wasn't going to get to see his loving wife again, threaten his daughters first boyfriend, teach her more lessons he wished his own father had taught him, or have the chance to walk his daughter down the isle or here his grandchild's laughter. The broken spirit in his heart was further hurt as Abreham saw many of the officers and soldiers turning tail and either running or falling to their knees and choosing to betray Victor and side with Envy.

Abreham almost sat down to accept his fate to die until he heard the sound of choking and gurgling on blood. It was the host of the fighting pits; he had put a spear though the neck of one of the surrendering officers. "Sure, Victor is an ass and he set us all to die but I still have my integrity and I hope to keep my mind to myself thankyou very much. I would rather die on my feet fighting than to just surrender to a monster like you. Free drinks to every man that fights with me! Don't forget we aren't fighting for that arse Victor! We are fighting for everyone behind us! For every child still back home, for every wife, sister, and brother, so that they can have a future we won't! Now push back, kill these cowards and let's give this beastie a fight she won't forget." It was a hollow cry to rally behind and yet Abreham saw men who had all but given up laughing as they got to their feet saying they would hold the host to his word to pay for their drinks. More gurgling as officers were slaughtered by their own men, the sound of crunching bones and flesh as vehicles that had been pulling back started charging forward running over those who had surrendered.

Mary would tan my hide if she saw me now. how could I just give up and leave Charlie and her to this monster's hands. His mind made up he waved down one of the trucks charging forward. "This isn't your place to die. Take the kids and get back to the city perimeter. Warn them the lord is on her way." Abreham also handed the driver the letters he had been writing but had been too scared to send back home worrying about how Mary would react to them or that the officers would just destroy them. "Make sure our words, our hearts prayers and souls get home." A small sack all filled with the words everyone needed to get home alongside the kids fled the battlefield. Abreham turned to see the host tearing through a group of spiders the mans flesh tearing as chains over his body snapped and his own body took on more animalistic and demonic form. He saw a spear of glass and mist heading for the hosts back and he moved before he realised, he needed to, shoving the man out of the way barely avoiding the attack himself.

"You shun my kind offer? It matters not I will have the debt owed to me paid." Envy couldn't understand why these people were willing to die as she cut her way through them. but Envy could see them all rallying and making things more difficult than they needed to be and was frustrated by these ants deciding to fight back against the inevitable, it brought back to many unnecessary memories during her time before she became a lord, when she was still human. It vexed her greatly, so she decided to be cruel and make death as painful as possible for each ant she found.

The host looked at Abreham shocked that he had been saved by a man he had doomed to this fight. "don't look like that, I would've ended up here one way or the other. Being here sooner just meant I could keep more of the brats Victor dragged into this mess." Abrham cut through the head of a giant spider while the host impaled a gorgon like creature before setting it on fire. "You know all this time I've worked in your fighting pit, and I've only ever known you as the host. I've never known your actual name.

The host laughed at that. "We are fighting for our lives in a suicidal battle and that's what's on your mind?" tentacles came out of his back grabbing and crushing or electrocuting dozens of monsters that had tried to rush him. "I'm Jacob not that it really matters anymore."

For a moment there was a pausing in the fighting at least for Abreham and Jacob as Abreham held out his hand and they shook. Wolf claw met squid like tentacle both men knowing this was likely their last fight as humans. Jacob took out a small pill and popped it in his mouth. The level of sin energy in his body erupted and what was left of the chains on his body strained to keep from shattering. "It was a pleasure having you in my pits Abreham, shame we couldn't have met under better circumstances. Take this its likely you only chance to make a real stand if things get worse." Jacob handed Abreham a pill just like the one he took and once it left his hand Jacob did the unthinkable as he broke his own chains letting his mind and body shatter as he focused his mind on a single last thought charging forward into the awakened forces of Envy. Lighting struck out from his body and tentacles smashed through and smacked around anyone they could reach. The fierce and sudden attack caught the awakened by surprise and they weren't able to think of action before three of their own were slain and another two before the rest pounced upon Jacob pinning him down and tearing into him. It was a struggle with how badly his form had been mutated but Jacob let out an inhuman laugh as he forced himself to his feet despite the weight of awakened pinning him down and the wounds he was suffering "it's a shame I won't be able to host any more fights, but I tell you this I am winning this one. Jacob the host is the winner of this fight!" lightning arced all throughout his body as energy formed in massive amounts bloating and them breaking free of Jacobs form incinerating his body and dozens of the awakened trying to hold him down and kill him.

Envy was furious, this should not have been this hard, these were ants before her and yet so many of her awakened had been slain. In a move of spite, a sea of acidic fog and a storm of glass dust flew after the trucks taking away the children and the wounded. This was intercepted by a large vacuum as a massive wolf sucked it all in. Abreham gasped in great pain as he fell to his knees feeling the acid and glass tearing into his insides while the recent transformation and massive amounts of sin energy in his body patched him up at the same time. "Man, that pill is something else. Shame I won't be able to go home but I won't let you steal those kids' future. A spiteful witch like you doesn't deserve the right to claim anything from others." Abreham let out a massive howl blowing Envy and a small group of her army back. All around the battle raged as Abreham and a few of the other fighters who still had their minds after a forced awakening pushed hard to keep the lord occupied as the others fought to whittle down the lord's army.

"ENOUGH!" Envy was done playing as fury had engulfed her after seeing her forces being held back and the way the numbers of her forces kept getting cut down and assumed her true form as glass and mist took on the shape of a giant spider. Glass like silk strung up people and beast alike all over sinking into flesh causing unimaginable pain while also draining the life force out of them and feeding Envy. Envy's own forces started retreating knowing that their lord had lost all sense of friend and foe in her rage and not wanting to be a snack for her.

Some of the remaining soldiers tried suicide bombing but it didn't even scratch Envy now as she started storming forward furious that she had been denied for so long and to lose so much to such a worthless force before her that wasn't another lord.

The only thing keeping Envy even slightly slowed down was Abreham as he held on focusing power to his fur making it tough enough that nothing Envy was doing could hurt it though he knew that wouldn't last. His mind was slipping as pulled more and more sin energy into himself focusing what little was left of his mind to all the cursed items scattered across the battlefield calling on their power, their curses knowing the energy would seek him out with how much he was freely offering his mind and body. "Even if its just a few seconds more its worth it to deny you what you want." The wind stilled then started to twist and turn shaping into a massive storm as the very air became a solid wall pushing back and even tearing into Envy as the weather became her enemy. The sheer force of nature pushed Envy enough that her form solidified allowing Abreham to pin her as he tore into her with fang and claw.

It wasn't enough.

Abreham felt numb as he felt an arm being torn off as glass filled his flesh cutting into him, bypassing his armoured fur. "I always get what I want." A low harsh whisper as Envy bit into Abreham sucking him dry but it didn't satisfy her seeing the look of satisfaction on her victim's face knowing that in some way he had managed to win, to keep her back even just a bit longer. Rage and fury was all Envy could feel and see as the storm that had been holding her back faded and was replaced by a flash of sin energy with the battlefield being replaced with a valley of glass spires either piercing whoever was left or leaving them eternally imprisoned inside of the glass as Envy shot forward at such speeds she didn't even notice when she had passed the convoy of trucks that had tried to escape her simply focused on getting what she wanted, revenge on Victor for causing her such aggravation.

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It happened so fast no one was sure when it had happened, but the walls of the city were crushed, thousands died as a wall of mist and fog pushed towards the castle and destroying everything in its path. "Victor debt it to be paid!!!"

A pillar of fire erupted into Envy managing to push her off course as her form a slammed into the magical wards of the castle. "Then you'll be waiting forever! I owe you nothing beast. These are my lands and everything in it is mine and mine alone even you!" magical chains erupted all around Envy pinning her down and forcing her into a physical form. "It took ages and many experiments, but I figured it out and now you are mine." Chains started to reach and bind Victor a mad smile on his face and for a moment fear on Envy as she felt energy being siphoned from her and being transferred into Victor.

The man let out a callous laugh of insanity as he felt his body pulse with power. Then nothing as he froze confusion on his face which was replaced with pain as he couldn't understand what was happening.

"You are a foolish child. You tried to use my own child's power and my own abilities against me. You have nothing you fool its all mine." Sin energy flooded out of Envy now causing a great deal of pain to Victor as he felt his body start to mutate.

"No no no this can't be happening. You can't do this. This is my land; I can't lose here. You can't do this to me!" he yelled out like an angry spoiled child who was finally getting punished and couldn't accept the fact.

"Don't worry you're not going to die, not yet anyway." Fear was all that could be seen on Victors face at how quickly he had been stopped and now whatever Envy was doing to him as his flesh gave way to mucus and soon all that could be seen remaining of Victor was a giant slug. Not only had Envy forced the transformation she knew he still had his mind as she forced him to watch as Envy unleashed sin energy from her body like a virus upon his land. While it wasn't enough to turn a regular person it was enough to send the beasts of the land and Victors personal summons crazy as they tore up the city forcing Victor to watch in horror unable to do anything as everything he had built was being torn down. "You won't have a legacy except one of failure and mockery. You will be nothing but a warning and a joke to all you learn of you but its also time for you to pay your debt to my daughter."

With the spell that had been binding the awakened he had imprisoned finally, and truly broken Victor had to watch as the creature he had experimented on for months crawled out of the castle towards him as he tried to flee though his new from made that very difficult. He yelled out in pain as he felt her bite into him, he felt his body go cold and numb as he lost all control of his flesh while he was wrapped up in a web cocoon. "You will pay the debt owed to my mother to me. You will be a living battery of sin energy for the hordes of Envy to feed and grow from. You will have a permanent home in my mother's caves as a babble for all to gawk and point at. Your time in the caves will make my time in your labs seem like a vacation warlock." Victor could only whimper as she talked about how she was going to enjoy making him understand what he had put her through trying to understand the powers of an awakened. He got to be a guineapig just like she had been for his foolish attempt at trying to subvert her mother and claim her title as a lord for himself without any of the work or suffering an awakened went through to reach that level. He didn't treat power with any respect and thus he would be a joke and a toy for the rest of his existence.

Both left carrying a the now slug awakened Victor who was begging for death as maddened beasts and summons were tearing up his city. Though this was interrupted by a loud boom in the sky as a massive bright light tore open the cloudy sky revealing a masked figure with large golden wings and a spear in hand that made Envy feel extremely uncomfortable and fearful with how much blessed energy she could feel even with the distance between the figure and her. An exorcist?

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Charlie was scared as chaos reigned around her as she ran for the bunker dragging the other kids she had been playing with earlier. The beasts had gone mad and the storm of glass that had arrived earlier had caused so much damage. The kids didn't know what was happening, but they knew they needed to reach safety.

By the time they reached the bunker the screams of people being attacked, torn apart or eaten filled the air. The kids did their best to block out the sounds but were very grateful to see many of their parents in the bunker Charlie had dragged them to. Fear filled their minds when they saw a swarm of giant ants heading for them though that was thankfully put to rest as they suddenly froze up and turned to stone as a large cockatrice came up behind them and shattered their stone form. 'Medusa!" Charlie called out in happiness at seeing the family pet giving the beast a big hug as Mary followed up beside it leading more people hoping to survive the chaos. Mary looked relieved as she grabbed Charlie into a big hug,

"Mom what's happening? Why is everything falling apart or on fire? Why is everyone screaming?" Charlie was terrified as her Mary tried to comfort her daughter feeling like a failure that she hadn't been able to protect Charlie from all of this mess that was the world she lived in. Mary just apologised to Charlie as she carried her into the bunker and ordered Medusa to keep watch and to keep any crazed beasts at bay.

As she closed the doors of the bunker Mary felt some hope as she saw the sky light up and an angelic like figure seemed to float down. Purgatory had sent help. She almost couldn't believe they had sent anyone to help. It was cynical but politically it would've been better for them to just let farm city burn. They sent an exorcist. We may actually survive this after all. It may have been pessimistic, but she honestly didn't think they would survive the day even hidden in the bunker with most of the beast having gone made and any real military or police force either having been sent to the front lines or most likely being dead at the castle when the lord had arrived to slay Victor.

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The exorcist frowned as she looked down at the damage and destruction of the city as enraged beasts rampaged about breaking everything in their path or killing whoever was unable to get out of the way or escape them, then their gaze moved to the lord looking up at them. "You have moved against humanity. I am of the light to keep beasts like you in the shadows. All under my light are under my protection." Nothing for a moment and then a spire of glass shot up to try and spear her only to shatter and crumble against a seemingly invisible wall as light radiated off of her body.

Envy turned to her child telling her to return to their lands with their prize while she dealt with the nuisance. "Your blood will be sweet exorcist and it will greatly secure my reputation among the other lords." Dozens of glass spires shot up some shattering while the exorcists worked to evade those that didn't shatter under her light.

A wave off acid mist flew at the exorcists but this was bated aside with a wave of the spear in hand before a lance of light shot out of it cutting into Envy who hissed out in pain and then shock as while the light managing to hurt her even when most of her body was incorporeal was one thing, but the wound wasn't even healing, not even slowly, there was no recovery what so ever. This wasn't just a regular blessed weapon was it, the light it had wounded with lingered on the wound like when a cursed weapon had been designed to keep a regular wound from healing properly, but this was somehow worse. Envy could feel her own sin energy flowing to the area to try and regenerate the wound, but it simply dissipated when it interacted with the light. Eventually a large flood of energy to the wound forced the light out and allowed it to heal but Envy knew she couldn't rely on doing anything like that again as the exorcist had simply floated and watched as she tried to recover likely judging how effective their weapon had been and to see her response.

"I warn you now lord, this is the spear of the heavens. The gift the angels left us after the first eruption. Upon the order of Purgatory, you shall be slain. The lords hold no dominion over humanity or its lands."

Envy reeled back in fear as she looked at the exorcist calculating what to do now as originally her plan was to cause a big enough fight and then pull back but now, she had to take this seriously or risk getting stabbed in the back rather fatally. I have no idea if Purgatory will be sending any more forces here and this exorcist just got here early. I can't drag this out in the hopes of devouring this punk I have to push for everything I have, or all this effort will have been for nothing. Doesn't matter if there is nothing to feast on, I just need to kill this thing. It will be a nice bonus to claim the spear as well, I can't believe Purgatory would ever let it out of the city.

Envy tried for a sneak attack as her power transmuted some of the remaining buildings and rubbles into spears charging at the exorcists who evaded each blow landing on the tip of the last construct. Envy continued the assault using her acidic fog alongside it and striking out with her legs to try and skewer the exorcist. While the exorcist was distracted Envy used her power to call every enraged beast of the city to them commanding them to attack.

Blood was spilled everywhere as the exorcist evaded tooth, claw and power as fire, lighting and attempts at petrification flew in their way only to face the retaliation of her spear cutting through them like a hot knife through butter. The mass of bodies and attacks was enough though to give Envy an opening as the exorcist was pushed back into a trap flying into a mass of webbing. The divine blessing on the exorcists clothing and armour was enough to keep the glass like webbing from cutting into their body but they were still stuck in the webbing and unable to dodge a massive blow from one of Envy's legs.

The exorcists smashed into several buildings before breaking through a wall leading into a bunker where people were hiding.

Envy laughed in triumph as she stalked to the downed exorcist who was struggling to get up as the remnants of the crazed beasts had them pinned. "Now how special is your light little bug."

"Leave them alone!" a young voice called out. Looking around Envy laughed seeing a little girl trying to lift the Spear as a cockatrice that somehow still had its mind had pecked through the head of a giant and petrified one of the flame lizards. The exorcist tried to call out to the girl to drop the Spear and run noting how who was most likely the child's mother was being held back by the other survivors.

Envy paused for a moment smelling the air and gave a cruel smile as she looked at the woman and the child in front of her. "You're that dammed wolf's family, aren't you?" while a question it was more of a statement of fact the lord not expecting an answer simply smiling at the looking understanding and horror on the older woman's face and the look of confusion on the child's face.

"How do you know daddy?" she sounded so scared, and it was like music to Envy's ears as she stalked closer to the child as the exorcist fought to escape the grasp of the beasts holding her down yelling at the girl to run.

"Your daddy was a tasty meal for a bid bad wolf, have a look yourself." Envy pulled the severed arm of the man who had transformed himself into a wolf accursed to try and hold her back and flung the mutated arm to the floor in front of her enjoying the look of horror and pain on the child's face as they sunk to their knees. Envy made to kill the child while at the same time the exorcist managed to break free charging forward to try and stop Envy.

A spark in the dark, a hidden power erupts as pain and fear and a want to hurt the thing that hurt her daddy is all that Charlie could think about as she got to her feet standing tall as massive amounts of blesses and sin energy seemed to flow out of her body. She raised the Spear in hand as if it weighed no more than a pencil and then just blinding white light all around and the screams of pain of Envy as sin energy was torn from her body.

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Far away Cain look to the distance sensing the power and smiling knowing his investment was paying off and that Envy even if she didn't die would be off the board for a while and an easy mark if he ever decided to move against her. "Well little Charlie nice to see you tapping into the powers of the Seraphin and demon kind. This is going to be easier than I thought. Thank you Envy for making all of this possible."

Cain smiled as he felt a small rumble from the large tree branch, he was sitting on as Sloth stirred having sense the massive amount of true divine and demonic energy.

"Shhhhh. Not yet mother, you still need your rest, and the child isn't ready yet. Sleep longer and I shall wake you the day the path is secure, and the gates are broken open for us to leave this place." He petted the tree branch calming it down as Sloth fell back to her deeper slumber in an eternal blissful dream. Cain smiled looking beyond the branch to the thousands upon thousands of pods lining the branches full of beasts, accursed, awakened and humans all trapped inside as his mother slowly absorbed them while they were all trapped in blissful dreams. "Keep dreaming mother for soon you'll get the chance to embrace a paradise were we rule all. No longer will you or I be judged, we shall be the ones doing the judging."

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No one knew what had happened that day with the survivors thinking it was the exorcist that had chased Envy off.

The exorcist felt shame at falling for the tricks of the lord but looked at the unconscious child being looked over by her mother. Such power in a child? The spear woke up, truly woke up in her grasp. She needs to be trained, brought in and shown the path. She was still a child though and the exorcist knew she needed to play carefully simply offering all the survivors a chance to come to Purgatory that were in the bunker she had crashed into. The council and the elders would be upset with her but once they knew what she had seen they would understand. The angels hadn't abandoned them yet, a gift had been given to humanity and she would make sure that gift was ready for the day they fought to get their world back.

The exorcist also informed everyone that Farm city would officially be falling under the protection of Purgatory. They would build it up again and work to protect its people, but the city and its purpose was much too important to leave in the hands of unstable warlocks.

Attempts would be made to push back against this annexation, but no one could really deny it or do anything to stop it. Victor had screwed them all over one last time and there was nothing the warlocks could do as Purgatory moved to take charge shortening the leash they had given the warlocks openly saying to just try and do something to stop them and see what happens. The status quo had been broken and things were going to change no matter what anybody wanted, things couldn't go back to the cold war normal everyone had gotten used to, the calm was settling but a storm was brewing.



Wow this was a long chapter. Hope it's up to standard and is enjoyable for you all to read. Looks like Purgatory has taken note of Charlie or at least one of their exorcists has. And it looks like this as all gone to plan for Cain though let's see if he can keep his plan on the straight and narrow road to victory or will it be shoved off the lane and straight into crazy town as outside factors start to encroach and people take note of his investment.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics

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Emily didn't like snooping around, but she was so frustrated that Sera refused to talk to her about the new special arrival souls. She had tried to talk to them a few times, but Adam usually was around talking with them, and she didn't always like dealing with Adam and it didn't help that Adam was basically Sera's right hand meaning he would spin up some story for her to keep him off of his back and make sure he didn't reveal any of Sera's secrets. His attitude was also extremely abrasive though she was unsure if that was him acting like that on purpose or she just didn't jell well with Adam considering how almost everyone else in Heaven loved the guy. Emily cringed a bit recalling how Sera and Lute had dragged her away from one of Adam's special parties when she had first tried to learn from Adam about human souls not realising that doorknobs had socks on them for a reason.

Luckily for her she did have someone else she could pester who wouldn't be able to deny her need for information. "Oh Peter!" Emily called out as she landed in front of the gates.

Peter looked up and sighed as he saw the look of excitement and mischief in Emily's eyes. He liked the girl he really did but she tended to be rather nosey when she wasn't busy around heaven or in a lesson with Sera and that meant he and the other angels had to deal with her curiosity and while he often worked with Emily the most that didn't mean he didn't want a break every so often. Emily just had way too much energy even for an angel. "What can I do for you Emily?"

"I was wondering if you could tell me about the new arrivals?"

Peter looked at Emily a bit confused by what she was asking. "New arrivals? Emily, you meet them every day why would you need me to tell you about them? I mean you get the chance to go through my record book whenever you like, technically there are no arrivals you don't know about. I'm pretty sure you know more about the souls that show up than I do, and I greet most of them."

Emily frowned as she realised that she hadn't been as straightforward about her question while also wondering if Peter had any information about what she wanted to know. "No not the regular souls in your book. I double checked ahead of time. No, I mean the souls that live in the Meadow, the ones that Sera and Adam greet personally. I've tried asking Sera, but she won't tell me anything and I don't think I'll get much out of Adam if Sera won't tell me anything."

Peter listened intently himself having also noticed the rather odd occurrence of how often Sera had come to greet specific new souls and when Sera didn't show up for those souls it was Adam and as much as Peter would never say anything to the man's face he just didn't know why Adam was helping or working on whatever secret project Sera had started up as there was no other reason he could think of that Sera was keeping this all secret. The fact that Adam seems so invested in this is odd as well. The man has gotten so lazy in his years that I don't understand what could have him putting in so much effort. "I'm not sure how much I can help you, Emily. I've never even gotten a chance to talk to those who live in the meadow. Have you tried talking to the newcomers, I'm sure they leave the Meadow eventually right, they can't live their entire eternity inside of the meadow?"

"That's the worst part." Emily pouted in frustration. "When they do leave the Meadow its only for a short period of time and they are always being escorted by an exorcist. I can't get any real answers to my questions." Peter could see the frustration painted all over Emily's face and just let the young Seraphim vent.

"I'm the joy bringer, my job is to help human souls and give them happiness and comfort! How am I supposed to do my job if my angels keep blocking me or lying to me or keeping me in the dark!" Emily's frustration and anger seemed to take physical form as what seemed like a small lighting storm appeared above her even if the rain and lighting that fell from the clouds had no effect at all on the fuming angel. After a while Emily took a few calming breaths and the clouds vanished as Peter just gave her a warm gentle hug.

"I'm sure you'll find a soul to talk to eventually and then you can help fix whatever problem they are having." Peter felt happy that he seemed to have helped assure Emily as she gave him a smile. "If you ever have any issue, you feel frustrated about, I'm always here by the gates if you need someone to talk to." Emily thanked the saint as she flew off thinking of a plan on how to get around her sister.

Once Emily was out of sight Peter felt his own doubts about the situation growing as having had a chance to really think about everything, he found it rather peculiar and troublesome that none of the souls guided to the Meadow were in his book of mortal souls. Every name of the departed that was worthy of heaven should have their name in it. Sera has hidden something from the heavenly council. But how did she do this and why? Peter was unsure of what he should do and even what he could do. Besides Emily, Sera was the only other Seraphim still around and he didn't want to risk earning her wrath to satisfy his curiosity and worry, especially if this was nothing to actually worry about and he ended up causing unnecessary problems. But the thought that something dangerous was going on in the background wouldn't leave the back of his mind.

There was something he could do; it was bending the rules a bit, but it was the safest thing he could do to check up on things to give himself some peace of mind and maybe even help Emily on her little quest. Taking out the book of names Peter began speaking in the original tongue before babel was destroyed. The smell of burning paper seemed to grow in the air as the book of names shook almost seeming to be tearing itself apart trying to complete the request being asked of it.

PURGATORY!PURGATORY!PURGATORY!

The words kept repeating the book seeming to be almost attempting to scream the words out to Peter and yet there was no context that he could understand. The only thing he could reference the word to was the idea of redemption spoken about in newer texts of written by humanity about a realm based on the idea of repentance, a world in-between Heaven and Hell a realm meant to challenge mortal souls that had not reach Heaven yet had not earned Hell. "But no such realm exists?" Peter was confused as he tried to make sense of what the book was trying to tell him. "Please explain what you mean. I don't understand."

ROOT

All the pages of the book went blank except for the single word or name the book showed as it tried to answer his question. Peter was shocked and frightened when the page seemed to tear itself out of the book setting itself ablaze in golden fire and tearing itself apart as if the very word or name wasn't allowed to exist in Heaven.

Peter slammed the book shut a deep fear taking hold of him at what had just occurred. By the almighty what just happened!? Is this why Sera has been hiding things from Emily? Peter decided that it was important to make sure no one knew what he had done as he needed to investigate. He could leave a few cherubs in charge of the gates right now he needed to enter the library of Gabriel and Metatron, hopefully it could provide him the answers he was seeking or at the very least give him some closure and a knowledge of just how badly things were going or if Sera had things under control. Could this be why Sera had Adam leave Heaven with so many warriors every year? They stopped leaving yearly so could she be getting a handle on things?

Had Peter stayed a bit longer instead of hurriedly leaving his post in his haste he would've seen the torn page attempting to warn its master one last time as a rather old name was formed from the smoking remains of the page before it was blown away.

CAIN

The words so clear and legible as the nature of divinity itself tried to warn the guardian of the gate that something was wrong and yet that very same divine nature could not abide such things in the realm of Heaven removing the stain of even the name with a simple gust of wind seemingly from nowhere.

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Emily found herself at the edge of the meadow smirking at the simple genius of her plan. While the warriors had not left Heaven as often as they used to, she knew they still did even if she didn't know where they left to. All she needed to do was wait until they left for wherever then she would have her chance to enter the meadow unimpeded and no chance of Sera dragging her away.

I wonder what the human souls in the meadow will be like? Usually, they seem to keep their human form which is odd considering how most mortal souls I see enjoy shapeshifting and taking on different forms than their regular human one. There were so many questions Emily had for the souls in the meadow, and she was so giddy at the chance to talk with them.

Emily knew her chance had come when Adam landed at the entrance though she found it odd how tired he seemed considering how laidback he usually added. His mask hid it well, but she could tell from his posture and how unsteady his landing was. She decided to bug Adam about why he was overworking himself so badly later, as the meadow was much more important to her at the moment. She couldn't help but giggle a bit about the future of bugging Adam as she always found it funny how he tried to clean up his foul tongue as Sera called it whenever she was around. She recalled the last time he had cussed in front of her and how Sera had literally filled his mouth with soap. He had been burping bubbles for weeks.

Emily quickly covered her mouth to muffle herself as she saw a large number of warriors arriving to meet with Adam. She couldn't hear them, but she was grateful to see the angels leaving with Adam through a large golden portal. She waited until after it was closed before she put her plan in motion as she pulled a spare warrior outfit she had 'borrowed' from the barracks when no one had been around and putting it on so she could blend in and not be found out. As she was about to enter the gates to the meadow she frowned as she looked where the portal Adam had left through was and wondered where he had led the warriors to. I could follow them. The portal was only recently closed so I should be able to open it up again and follow… No, no, no questions to get answers for on another day, right now it's time to see what's happening in the meadow.

If Emily was honest the Meadow was a bit of a letdown and underwhelming for all the secrecy and security that surrounded it. Unlike the grand futuristic city that the mortal souls lived in this looked more like a large town that was a mix between rural towns down on earth and log cabin communities. The entire place seemed very low key and based on calm and gentle comfort almost a physical crafting of the idea of nostalgia, not that she really understood the concept though Sera and some of the other older angels had told her she would someday.

Walking around Emily noted how it wasn't just the few souls she had seen but the majority of the souls here were in a human form. Most mortals she knew loved being shapeshifters or shedding their old mortal forms, something about how doing so invalidated a lot of the things that caused problems back on Earth but apparently from the small bits of gossip she had managed to overhear and from what she had seen and was seeing now the souls of the Meadow seemed to almost become terrified if they lost their human form, even partial transformations causing issues with a few exorcists arriving to help calm the soul down.

Emily found it a bit comical how angels that had been crafted to be warriors were playing therapist. Her sense of humour left her in a rush when another exorcist paused in what they were doing seeming to have taken note of Emily and moved to intercept her.

"Soldier what are you doing just wondering around?"

Emily felt like her heart had stopped beating as she froze up for a moment worried, she had been caught in her disguise before managing to calm down and answer her carefully rehearsed lines if she was forced into a conversation to avoid being found out. "I'm actually a bit lost. The high seraph sent me here as I was supposed to meet Adam for my introduction to the exorcists. I'm newly crafted and this was my assigned job. Where is Adam?"

The angel looked annoyed as she took in Emily's excuse before signed in irritation and just being tired. "Just my luck having to deal with the newbies with Lute and Adam being busier than ever and spending less time in heaven to train the newbies." The angel looked at Emily again as she contemplated what to say. "Look we are pretty busy right now and Adam is currently taking most of our forces out on patrol so right now I'll just have you shadow and keep an eye on one of our newer residents. He should be a good first soul for you to guide and support. When Adam gets back, I'll introduce you so he can explain things properly."

The two flew for a bit as the warrior angel led Emily to the soul, she would be spending time with. Emily herself felt rather nervous as she wondered how long she could keep up her masquerade especially if she was still around when Adam returned.

"Mr Abreham, its Boxer. I'm here to introduce you to your new companion angel." Boxer knocked on the door of the house as she called out. Emily herself who had heard the sound of wood being chopped found silence for a moment and then footsteps as a rather large man covered in a light sheen of sweat opened the door. He spoke with Boxer for a bit before the angel nodded and then turned to Emily. "Well good luck newbie, Adam should be back in a few hours but for now unofficially you are Mr Abraham's companion."

"Don't you need my name?" Emily asked Boxer but the exorcist just shook her head a bit of a smirk on her mouth as she seemed to find the question humorous. Not really newbie. Adam gives everyone nicknames and that's the only name that tends to stick among the exorcists. When you see him be sure not to do anything to annoy him or you could end up with a rather annoying nickname for the rest of your existence. Well, if that's all ill be going. Good luck and hope your ready for this job kid because once you're in there is no getting out."

As the angel flew off Emily felt very nervous as she looked at the retreating form of the angel and the man she would be stuck with now instead of being able to explore. The sweat that had been on him had vanished though this seemed to annoy the man a bit as he motioned for Emily to follow him inside. "You want anything to eat or drink? I have some food on the oven, and I don't mind sharing."

Peaking inside Emily saw a small wood oven with some pots on with a very pleasing aroma coming from them. As an angel she didn't really need to eat but she always enjoyed snacking on the sweets the cherubs brought her or that was being shared by the various venders when she travels among the souls in heaven to bring joy and wonder. "I don't want to impose. Its your food after all."

The Abraham laughed as he let Emily inside his home pointing her to a large chair to sit on as he quickly went outside again before returning with a stack of chopped wood in hand. "I'll never get used to you angels but then again, you're all a breath of fresh air to talk to. Your all so innocent it's kind of funny."

Abraham set a small table with some plates and cutlery as he took the pots and pans off the stove. "You know you don't need to keep your helmet on the whole time. I know its kind of a policy for you gals to always keep them on but I'm pretty sure it'll get in the way of eating. I won't tell anyone if that's what your worried about."

Emily looked around a bit nervous but not wanting to offend Abraham by being a bad guest. Once she was sure no one else was around she slowly took off the helmet but kept it close by in case she needed to put it back on quickly.

"Well, aren't you a sweet thing. Shame you girls seem to have such an odd need to hide your faces but then again, I guess it helps with the warrior lifestyle you girls follow. So how is your first time in the Meadow?"

"How did you know?"

Abraham laughed at the confused look on Emily's face as she tried to figure out how he knew this was her first day here. "Its clearly written all over your body language. It was the same for all the other girls when they first arrived and met us. So, you have any questions? Most of the older folk here told me a lot of you girls tend to be pretty curious so ask away."

Emily couldn't believe how lucky she was at the moment though her thoughts were temporarily halted as she took her first bite of the meal as she thought about what to ask. This is so good! She internally squeed though she would never admit to that recalling how Sera had teased her the first time she had tried human sweets.

"I see you like the food." Emily in turn pouted as she forced herself not to simply devour the meal in front of her not wanting to seem like a bad guest but not wanting to embarrass herself either in front of her host.

"The meal is quite impressive Mr Abraham, but why make it yourself? I'm sure you could ask some cherubs to help you around your home not to mention all the labour you're doing for yourself." It confused Emily how so many of the souls she had taken note of in the Meadow seemed to be working to avoid the easy life heaven could provide them even more so than the usual earthly souls who seemed to need a bit of time adapting to the concept that they no longer really needed to work to survive.

"Yes, that question does seem to float around a lot. I think it's mostly because a lot of us are scared that this is all just some sort of joke with many waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under us. For others I think its just to create a feeling of normalcy, life wasn't good or easy before our deaths and I think just having a chance to live life without the metaphorical axe hanging over our heads is just something everyone here needs."

Emily looked at him in confusion wondering what he was talking about as it felt like she was missing something. Earth can't be this bad, can it? Emily felt confused as she tried to think of the last time, she had taken a look at the planet to see how things where going. The cherubs have been having a lot more requests and missions on Earth lately but surely Sera or the elders would've acted if things got really bad right? "Surely things can't be too bad on Earth sir. I'm sure heaven would've acted to help.

"I forget you angels look at things rather long term don't you. Things have really only gotten bad in the last century or two which is long by human standards but I'm sure it's rather short to eternal beings like yourself. Considering how Boxer called you a newbie though I guess you're a pretty young angel right?"

Emily cringed a bit inside as she recalled how she had to lie to get this chance to listen and learn and simply nodded not trusting herself to speak at the moment.

Abaham chuckled a bit as he spoke further. "Well, if I recall my own history lessons well enough two warrior angels or exorcists as you call them up here did make themselves known to humanity a while back fought off some great demon before leaving. Honestly, I wasn't too sure about the idea when I was still alive but being up here, I guess I owe my history teach an apology."

"There was a creature from hell on Earth?" Emily found herself shocked as she tried to process what she had heard and to learn that it had been a rather large and public event as well. Is hell interfering with humanity and their lives on Earth? Maybe that's why the number of human souls that have arrived at the gates have been dropping and why so many of those that do come here. Thinking on it a bit more maybe that's why newer souls didn't like the idea of not looking human if a hell-born was the last thing they saw in life.

It can't be that bad though can it. After all the armies of heaven haven't been rallied to head for Earth or Hell. Emily rationalised it as the act of a few from Hell and that Earth had it this handled as according to Abraham the exorcists had left behind a tool that had helped humanity not to mention humans had learned how to handle and fight back as well.

Despite the warmth of the meal in her stomach all Emily felt as a bit of cold dread wondering if this was why Sera had kept this a secret from her. All Emily could think about was how horribly it must be for the humans on earth to have to deal with demons. Part of her wished hadn't learned about this as now all she could think about was how to help and she couldn't really help without her sister finding out about her little trip nor did she really have any idea on what she could do. She wasn't a fighter or a healer in any real sense, she had a great deal of power and it hurt her thinking about how ignorant she had been of what the human souls had to deal with.

As the artificial night cycle in the Meadow began Emily realised, she had spent a great deal more time in the Meadow than she had meant to. She had been rather engaged in some of the stories Abraham had been telling her about his family and how he was waiting for the day they joined him.

As she got up to leave and thanked Abraham for the meal she looked down at the helmet in her hand as an idea niggled its way into her mind. After all the exorcists seemed to have a strict policy of keeping their faces hidden and keeping the helmet mask on. She could stick around, learn a bit and be more useful and helpful if the need ever arose. Emily flew off her mind made up about what she planned to do and was now working on ideas and plans on how to keep her sister from finding out what she would be up to. Emily looked down at her hands wondering if for a change she could be more than a simple smile and the friendly face of the angels towards humanity. She was the angel of joy, the joy bringer and that was all the angels of heaven saw and while she enjoyed her job it was frustrating how the rest of heaven often treated her like a child even though she was a seraph, one of the mighty. It will be nice to be more than a pretty face for to help keep the humans calm and happy. I can have a chance to be proactive and do some good in the world beyond heaven and not just be a clean up and repair person to fix what reality did to a human before they entered heaven.

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Void between worlds

Adam growled in frustration as he avoided a giant tentacle like root as he cut through another that tried to grab him when he avoided the first. "When did I take up a job as a gardener. I feel like I'm more of a weed remover than a warrior these days." Adam unleashed a blast of holy light frying a dozen more roots that had managed to corner a few of his girls.

This had become a rather annoying repeat occurrence for Adam and his elite warriors as they started having come to the void every few months to wipe out the strange roots that grew out from the Purgatory realm reaching for Hell, Heaven and Earth. For a while Lute had been more than enough to keep an eye on the realm and keep the roots in check but after a few years she had been forced to call in Adam telling him the roots had grown in number, strength and speed and now here he was being the interdimensional gardener.

The worst part for Adam was the screams and wailing he heard whenever a root was destroyed and how he was the only one who ever seemed to hear the noise. The voice that produced the wailing sounded so familiar though that it felt like torture for Adam whenever he heard it even though he shoved his feeling of discontent down refusing to let it stop him from doing his duty and protecting the realms from what was likely his own screw up.

Lute arrived by his side having burned away the last of the roots reach out to the other realms. "Sir the attempted breach has been ended."

"Good, anything new to report about what's happening down in Purgatory?"

"It's been a stalemate for the last few decades now sir. An attempt was made by one of their versions of the sins, but the humans managed to push it back. There was an odd surge of divine energy though, much greater than any previous attempt by the humans of this world when they tried to shape and wield holy energy." Lute didn't sound very worried, rather she sounded so hopeful and happy especially with how angry she had been when so many in the world had started using hellish power, rejecting or ignoring the power of the divine and holy simply because of how difficult it was to shape, control and master. "Sir, are you sure I should still just be an observer? I know we should leave them to make decisions on their own, but I worry that someday they may suffer a defeat or make a mistake they won't be able to recover from and then the darkness infecting this world could overtake it."

Adam could see that Lute was worried. While the world and its denizens were resisting and fighting back against the dark forces seeking to devour them it was a situation with a very small margin to allow for an error that could be recovered from. Adam pondered on what to do for a moment as he thought about his own investment in Purgatory. Sending Lute in would definitely help the humans of the realm but if she directly entered the realm now it would definitely draw Sera's attention and likely see the end of the experiment. Sera is happy that souls are entering heaven. She doesn't need to see the bug in this little program, she just needs to know that it works. "For now, just keep an eye on things. Like you said the humans are doing well on their own and are even showing a greater appreciation for the divine and holy energies. Only step in if things really do seem dire for the human souls of the world." Lute gave Adam a salute as she left to back on her patrols of the realm.

Adam grimaced as he felt bad about how things seemed to be turning out. It really would be better to inform Sera now before anything really bad happened or one of those strange roots by some cosmic joke managed to connect to the other realms, but he couldn't afford for that to happen, for the truth of the matter to get out and risk the erasure of Purgatory and the souls on it. It was selfish and petty of him, but he needed to project to keep going until his own investment paid off. Until their souls reach heaven, I can't let Sera know or all of this was for nothing… I can't lose them again; I have a chance to save them, and I won't let it slip through my fingers.

"Come on girls it's time to go home. I have a ton of paperwork to write up and I'm sure you would all love to get a chance to get some rest in after that work out." Adam himself felt exhausted, this was starting to get out of hand, and he knew it, but he just couldn't let go. He could fix this and make things work, he just needed time to, time to. He wasn't sure to do what be he knew he still needed to time to figure everything out and fix things.

hey readers I know it's been a while since this got updates. sorry for taking so long but this story takes a bit more effort to write about than the other one I'm also working on, and real life has been a bit of a punching bag at the moment. hope you all enjoy the reading of this latest chapter.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics

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Hell was quiet, it was an unnerving thing in the realm of damnation when so many had gotten used to the noise produced by the citizens of the Pride ring, be it from vehicles, gang warfare, screams of pain and or suffering and the constant begging of the weaker souls who lived in Pride. Sinners had tried to act as if nothing had changed since Heavens clean up day as many had started calling it when hundreds of thousands of souls had simply vanished but that had been simply impossible as various businesses had collapsed which sent the citizens into a panicked frenzy as they lost access to things that made life in Hell bearably for the average or lesser soul who lived in Pride. The act hit the Overlords the worst as some had vanished while others had their power bases destroyed after losing to many souls to Heaven and thus the governing of everyday life had just disappeared for a while as it took forever for the Goetia to care enough to put in any effort to rein in the chaos going on in Pride and for the new Overlords to rise to prominence and power and the remaining older Overlords to regain their bearings and reassert themselves as the ones keeping order and running Pride when Hell nobility didn't want to.

For some though Heaven's purge had been a sort of boon in their power and status. One such Overlord was Carmilla Carmine who had seen major growth in her business with many being willing to pay or sell themselves to her to get even a junk piece of angelic weaponry not that she sold anything that could be considered junk. Many powerful sinners had become vulnerable thanks to cleanup day and Carmilla made bank on those who wanted to cash in on their chance to get even and settle scores or debts. What improved her success was the reduced supply of angelic steel with the extermination being postponed and pushed back to later dates and being set to a much later schedule.

Despite all of her prominence and growth, Carmilla still felt rather nervous as sitting across from her in her office was the current voice of Paimon, prince Stolas of the Ars Goetia. She found it funny that she was currently surrounded by loyal souls all armed with weapons crafted from heavenly steel and yet she was the one who still felt scared stiff while the prince looked like he was just having an everyday meeting.

"Miss Carmine I must say I am so please you had time to meet with me. I was worried you may not have any openings for a meeting, but it seems I was worried about nothing. I must say though it was a pleasant surprise to be able to find open parking and not have to destroy someone's vehicle or rip their limbs off for a spot." Taking a sip from the tea provided Stolas had a shiver of delight go up his spine as he could taste the quality of the drink, though he was somewhat astonished that he could tell this was from Earth and not any product produced in Hell. I'll need to ask her about who is supplying her things from Earth at a later date. The food and drink are just divine and it's such a hassle for me that the only time I have a chance to get some goodies is when some idiotic humans summon me for whatever stupidity they feel is worth selling their souls for.

"The honor is mine to have you here my lord. It's a rare… 'gift' for one such as yourself to even grace us with your presence. To what do I owe this honor prince Stolas? Carmilla worked to keep herself calm and collected and the perfect face of the powerful and feared businesswoman that she had become and yet she still kept running over escape scenarios in her head and ways to harm and slow down the prince if he got violent or threatening. Carmilla felt so out of her element as for the first time in decades she was not in a position of power, she was the weaker party in the negotiation and she hated how weak it made her feal, how it brought back rather unpleasant memories of her life before she ended up in Hell.

"Oh, it was no trouble at all Miss Carmine. Normally I would've sent a representative, but this is a rather important piece of business that I need taken care of and from what everyone has told me and from what research I've done you're the best person for the job."

Carmilla felt herself having to suppress a shiver at the idea of a Goetia looking into her history and affairs. That shiver forced itself out as she choked on her cup of tea as Stolas pushed forward a piece of paper he had been writing on while speaking in a hushed yet serious tone. "I need this order filled and delivered."

This could seriously hurt my stock of angelic steel. Why does he need so much and what is he planning to use it all for? What he was willing to pay was tempting but while Carmilla had enough steel for what Stolas wanted she wasn't sure she wanted to take the risk of hurting her storage when the exterminations had been set to a new schedule and her ability to restore her stock of angelic steel was much more limited. I need more information. I can't just sell this much steel on such short notice without some information, but the prince is unlikely to share why he needs the steel not to mention I can't just refuse him without the Goetia retaliating in some manner.

Carmilla was between a rock and a hard place as she tried to come up with an idea on how to offset as much risk as possible and she hated how casually calm the prince seemed as he sipped tea while she was putting in a great deal of effort to not collapse from the stress of the meeting. She was just glad her daughters were at the storage site taking inventory and not here where the prince would have so much more leverage against her to force a transaction. Carmilla decided to bite the bullet and lower herself and throw out some of her pride. Getting information was more important than her pride as it could help her avoid angering the prince or find a way to delay the deal until she was in a more comfortable situation.

"My lord this is quite a hefty sum you are asking for and the fact that you're willing and ready to pay for it all upfront, it leaves me feeling somewhat uncomfortable. What is this all for and why all the cloak and dagger?" While the Goetia had property and proxies in the ring of pride the Hell born princes and princesses rarely ever visited or spent any time in the pride ring, so it was always news when one showed up yet somehow Stolas had managed to avoid the ever seeing and annoying eyes of Vox and no news or even rumor spoke of him coming up to pride at all. He wanted secrecy, no one was to know he was up here making this deal with her, and she needed to know why, even if just only a portion of the why was provided it would help calm her nerves somewhat.

Stolas looked a bit apprehensive at the question pausing for a moment as he took out his grimoire looking through its pages. The time he was taking and the silence filling the room left everyone on edge. Carmilla felt herself starting to fidget a bit as her nerves were starting to really get the better of her self-control.

Stolas stopped leafing through his grimoire placing the book down leaving it open for all to see and yet all that was visible was empty pages. For everyone in the room it left them rather confused but for Carmilla the sight was different as the light seemed to leave the room from her perspective until all that could be seen was herself and Stolas. "Much better, having some privacy for such important details is often necessary. I do apologies but I can't risk my siblings learning of this." Stolas paused as he gave Carmilla a chance to calm down and take in the privacy spell he had set up as he explained that as far as the rest of the room's occupants were concerned, they were in a protracted staring contest, for them though their minds where currently inside of the grimoire for a chat in privacy. "You did say you wanted to know, didn't you?"

Carmilla was starting to regret ever asking any questions instead of simply shoving down her apprehension and worries and simply accepting the money and providing the prince with what he asked for no questions asked.

"What I need this all for is a rather complicated ritual my dear. For one there was a lot of unseen damage done to the cosmic fabric that made up Hell from whatever Heaven did when it removed all those souls and while Hell is more than capable of repairing itself, I any the other princes have been given the task of repairing the damage lest sections of the rings collapse into each other. We Goetia draw strength from Hell and thus in its damaged state there are many of my people who have had their strength and power diminished."

Carmilla felt like she was hearing something she really should not be and worried what conditions Stolas could end up placing on her to make sure she stayed silent. The prince was known to be the calmer and 'kinder' of the Goetia but that didn't mean he was dangerous. "My lord, are you sure you should be telling me this?"

"Oh, it's not much of an issue to share. Most of the damage is superficial at best so only those ranking at the level of duke and bellow really have to worry and even if they are weakened, they are still more than capable of wreaking havoc on you overlords." Stolas spoke with such a jovial tone that it really made her feel ill at ease as she knew there were overlords dumb enough to take the risk of striking the Goetia in any form if they thought there was some weakness to exploit.

"What is more hush hush is the other ritual I will be setting up… I'll be casting a rather complicated and old scrying spell to get a glimpse into Heaven. My father and his colleagues wish to try and understand what Heaven did or if they have any plans to repeat the process, but they can't risk doing the ritual themselves or they will be noticed. I on the other hand have the skill to do this but my own power is low enough that I won't be noticed."

Carmilla looked rather shocked and surprised at the idea of spying on Heaven. She wondered if Stolas knew that his father was setting him up to be a sacrificial lamb if this went wrong and Stolas was found out by Heaven but realized that the prince likely knew he was expendable.

Light flooded her sight as they both left the pocket space the book had stored their minds in. Stolas didn't seem phased at all as Carmilla tried to catch her bearings her guards moving to check if she was alright when in their eyes she suddenly fell forward and looking a bit ill. She waved them off as she slowly stood up looking at the purchase request the prince had given her. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you prince Stolas." Stolas nodded in thanks and left the office for his car to return home.

Carmilla ordered her men to make sure that Stolas got what he asked for and not to ask any questions when she saw their confused faces. She just wanted to leave the room and see her daughters. The people in charge of Hell were making plans and making moves and she wanted to be as far away and out of their line of sight as possible. Something big was happening and she didn't like the idea of being caught up in it. Could Heaven plan on doing another clean up of souls? Will I or my daughters be caught up in it? What if the prince is caught and I'm implicated in his actions due to giving him the supplies he needed? So many worries but there wasn't anything she could do about it except try to weather the storm as best she could and hope her family survived.



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Stolas hadn't been entirely honest with Carmilla, it hadn't been his father who had asked him to set this all up. No, it had been his grimoire. While most could simply be considered powerful spell books and tomes of ancient knowledge, a true grimoire was an entirely different beast. No, they were books specifically crafted by Lucifer himself from the cosmic fabric of Hell and his own angelic blood. They were living tools to make the administration and maintenance of Hell and its denizens a much easier task. The true grimoires themselves were alive in a manner and would often provide messages or tasks for their wielders.

To tell a regular soul or Hellborn you were following the orders of what was simply a book in their eyes would sound like lunacy, but any other Goetia would understand. No matter how lazy or self-interested, if a true grimoire gave you a task you completed it. Stolas looked at the book worried about the many tasks he had been working on completing, hoping for the day his father would take it. If he was honest with himself, if not for his father's orders he would've pawned the thing off to one of his older siblings to deal with it.

Stolas took out a small knife whose edges were covered in a light golden sheen, cutting his finger with it and letting his blood drop onto the book. Slowly he leafed through its seemingly blank pages and was happy to see spells, knowledge and history writing itself out in the pages. Prophecies were starting to reappear, and new schedules could be set up as he took note of changes to lost prophecies he could recall and made sure to make some calls to those who would need to be informed.

The last thing he needed to set up was to increase the number of human souls ending up in Hell. Since Heavens actions the number of souls falling had dropped, while sinners hadn't seemed to notice the grimoire had and it made sure to inform the prince that the number of souls falling needed to increase. Not immediately but at some point, things needed to be sped up. Stella had simply told him to open a portal and send a few of his legions to collect the quota but that had been an idea to shut down quickly as that would get Heaven's attention and their likely execution.

His stepbrother told him he would look into things to see if he could help with a solution, but Stolas wasn't holding out any hope. He had thought of going to lust and asking Asmodeus for help with how he had easy access to Earth and maybe contracting some of his succubae and incubus, but he doubted the sin of pleasure would help. They gained power from humans more primal reproductive urges not death or human souls and would likely refuse due to the risk to their own power.

The Grimoire told him a solution would make itself known in the future, but Stolas didn't feel much comfort with his own powers of divination, not showing him anything. It was the one task he didn't know how to complete without risking his own life or his families and he didn't like how little there was he could do.

Arriving home Stolas simply collapsed into his bed exhausted hoping he could have some time to rest before he was dragged back to work due to his duties. Stella walked in to complain about something she had been dealing with as a few of Stolas siblings had attempted to kidnap her a week back and she was working on a retaliation plan. Seeing him asleep on the bed gave her paused as she simply sighed as she put a glass of water next to his bed and closed the door behind her as she took out a golden dagger smiling at it as she imagined the screams she could draw out of her step siblings. "No one is to disturb my husband until he wakes on his own time is that understood." The servants nodded not wanting to upset the mistress

Stella froze up when she saw the open grimoire glowing a blackish red with her name being written into existence on its pages with a task for her to complete. She grimaced but understood that her own plans would need to be put on hold. She took out her phone, calling her brother that she needed his help with something important. She picked up the grimoire leaving a note for Stolas, so he knew what was going on and wouldn't panic about the book being missing if she hadn't returned before he woke up.

On Earth plans were drawn up and deals were made. Various politicians had scandals leak out of nowhere and funding drying up or getting that funding from less than reputable sources taking pr hits. Other politicians found cases dropped, bad pr disappearing and new donors popping up out of nowhere. A judge that should've earned his bench was looked over for another less reputable pick, certain lawyers managed to pass the bar by a single point while others had their test go missing forcing retests and dragging things out. Police that would've lost their jobs due to their more violent tendencies where simply transferred and given a short slap on the wrist while better officers ended up being moved away to new precincts allowing the worst side of other precincts to fester. Gang leaders escaped imprisonment and crime and violence spiked in cities as less extreme and violent leaders died or disappeared or were replaced with those who thrived on violence and chaos. New laws were written up making things more difficult for people and old laws that help keep people comfortable and happy were weakened or cut down and ended.

All over the world an icy chill of wind seemed to blow, and a harsh painful laugh followed as misfortune seemed to flow over the earth. Millionaires, money men who wanted to help, to save the world found themselves under attack as hackers tried to drain their funds, as lawyers and company board groups fought to oust them and steal the golden gooses money and gold or simply disappeared or died in accidents of fate when traveling, a plane engine failure, a random avalanche or a spooked animal attack while on safari. Cheats and scam artists made banks as others lost everything to their schemes.

So many schemes and deals, so many souls collected and lost as misery grew and people got desperate or greedy and were willing to sell, steal, bargain and pay any price to climb that invisible ladder or escape the pit they found themselves in. thousands of small dominos being set up to build up the pressure cooker that was Earth and the human condition to make old goals easier down the road as pressure built until either something broke or a release valve was found.

Hell was silent, unnaturally so, the nature of the realm being muted and dulled. On Earth there was noise as life went along yet unknown to those who inhabited the mortal realm, sheet music was being drawn up and written as misery and suffering acted as a muse to invisible cosmic forces. A concert was being planned and soon its music would flood out in a symphony though what type of symphony was a matter of debate as no conductor had been chosen yet. Once the conductor was found, the unknown concert would begin; a musical masterpiece of unknown scope would reach out for the ears of all to hear and yet none would hear at all. A melody to steal the light from mortal eyes, the warmth from their hearts and deafen others to sweater, kinder melodies, to steal the sweet taste of life and replace it with only bitterness.



Hope this chapter was a fun read for everyone. Don't forget to like and any comments are always appreciated as they tend to help with planning and focus on the story and having a good direction to work with.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics

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Emily fell down on her bunk exhausted as the exorcists had finished their daily drills. She hadn't ever really had to work that hard or put that much effort into any of her previous activities and wondered if she would be able to keep up with the other exorcists or even catch up. She had thought about using her powers but felt that she was already being dishonest enough by simply lying to take part in all of this and the idea of cheating to make herself look better in front of the other warriors made her feel worse enough already than actually doing it. The other exorcists didn't even judge her for being behind the others in training as it was like that for most of the newbies when they started. Boxer had even told her that if any of the other exorcists made an issue about her being behind the others to come get her.

Emily herself was wondering how any of the exorcists were even able to tell each other apart when they were always wearing masks and looked exactly the same due to their uniforms. "Hopefully I can figure out that trick someday as well. I don't want to be the one angel who can't tell who is who." While Emily considered how to better learn to adapt and integrate herself into the group a small bell started ringing leading to the exorcists jumping out of their bunks though some of the more exhausted ones simply rolled off their bunks falling on their faces before dragging themselves to their feet. A feeling of excitement and energy seemed to fill the warriors even after the grueling day of training and exercise.

"What's going on?" Emily asked her bunk mate as she tried to figure out what was going on. Boxer came to her rescue as she explained what was happening.

"Sir Adam has returned from his mission. The newbies tend to get excited whenever he is around. The feel a need to prove themselves to him, that they are worthy of being exorcists. I think you're the only newbie who is acting normal at the moment and acting like a fan girl."

Emily was about to ask what a fan girl was but was interrupted as a group of angels landed shortly followed by Adam. Emily was actually kind of shocked as the armor and uniforms of the warriors were dented, torn and slashed. It was damaged with quite a few of the angels being taken to the infirmary to get checked out or patched up as she noted golden blood staining the uniform of quite a few angels. Adam himself had lost the jovial sense of humor and attitude he radiated. He seemed in deep contemplation and a feeling of frustration seemed to radiate off of him as he looked at the injured exorcists being taken away.

"Come on time to introduce yourself." Emily felt herself being dragged forward even as she tried to tell Boxer that she wasn't ready, and that Adam didn't seem to be in a mood for introduction not that Boxer took note of her protests.

"Sir we have a newbie you missed. She arrived just after you left for your expedition." Emily shuffled nervously as Boxer dragged her in front of Adam who had lost his look of frustration and now just looked inquisitive and annoyed.

"A newbie seriously? I didn't ask for backup and I can tell she is heaven born as I vet any human souls that ascend to become exorcists and I haven't given any feathers for the crafting of new heaven born warriors so where are you from girly?" Adam looked at her with a very attentive look. Emily in turn held in her own nervousness as she ran through her own fake story in her head before talking with Adam.

"I'm a cherubim sir Adam."

For a moment Adam was silent his annoyance quite clear on his face as he took a step back then turn his back to Emily before he just started swearing up a storm. Once he seemed to have calmed down, he turned back to face Emily a large smile on his face though it was hard to tell how sincere that smile was with his face being covered by his helmet only showing a false electronic facsimile of his face. "What brings you here? You're highly ranked as a heaven born and most angels of your rank tend to stay in the higher Heavens avoiding mortal souls."

"Lady Emily said that you and your warriors looked as if you needed the help, and I was looking for a job at the time."

"Looking for a job?" Adam was curious now wondering why a Cherubim was looking for a new purpose to follow let alone how one met Emily considering how much the cherubim hated the cheribs and in turn had a dislike of Emily who was the progenitor of the cheribs. The Cherubim tended to view the cheribs as an insult unworthy of even claiming part of their name. the only reason the Cherubim hadn't made a bigger fuss about their creation was that they never left the garden and Metatron and Sera had both been willing to stand in Emily's defense not that the young Seraphim knew about the mess she had accidently started, no Sera had made sure that her sister had no idea that Jophiel had sought out to punish her for such an insult to make such defective copies of his children in the archangels eyes.

"I got bored in the garden."

Adam felt like his brain froze at that simple answer like an old wound being scratched at in his mind and heart as anger started to bubble up. Emily in turn felt so bad about talking about the garden to Adam even if she wasn't lying entirely as she personally had found the garden rather boring in comparison to Heaven and being able to interact with human souls. It didn't improve the image of the garden in her mind that Jophiel had been very rude to her and her sister the few times they had visited, and Sera had brought her along.

"Lord Jophiel sent me to work with lady Emily, something about the job showing me why the garden was the place of the Cherubim. He was hoping that the new job with the cheribs would drive me back to the garden. The cherib office wasn't for me either, I felt just as hollow as in the garden, I wasn't really doing anything to help people, to help souls beyond being a band aid to a bigger issue. Lady Emily then told me about the exorcists and so here I am."

Adam felt his eyebrows twitch in frustration and barely suppressed anger. He had not been on good terms with the Cherubim for a long time and the few times had been forced to interact with them things had always come close to devolving into a brawl until Sera intervened. At least this girl doesn't have a stick up her as like Jophiel or his honor guard. She was young, he could tell with how she lacked that sense of arrogance and superiority that permeated Jophiel and his ilk. Adam didn't really like the idea of having a Cherubim in his ranks, but it wasn't like he could go talk to Jophiel to get him to take his angel back. Nope he was still band from the garden and the last time he had tried to go back without Sera being with him he had gotten a flaming sword through his wing and many a threat thrown at him by a rather smug Jophiel. On the other hand, getting one of his girls working for me and doing a good job would infuriate him to no end. Maybe I'll keep her around.

Emily felt nervous as Adam held his gaze on her deep in thought. She wondered if he was buying her lie when he stood up and took her hand in his shaking it. "Well, I guess we can make room for another newbie but don't think just because you're a Cherubim I'll give you any favorable treatment or go easy on you." Adam turned beckoning Boxer to come forward. "The newbie is under your guiding wing until I feel she is ready for an actual mission is that understood." Boxer nodded while Adam had a cheeky grin on his face as he came up with a funny idea. "Oh, before I forget, newbie your name is now Brief." Adam flew off laughing while Emily tried to understand the joke while Boxer gave off a light yet humored groan having expected Adam to make such a joke and made to explain it to Emily while they returned to the beds of the barracks.



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Alister gave off a light laugh as he had lunch with Rosie as they discussed what to do to replenish their power and the filling the gaps in their storage of souls. Rosie joke how that didn't really matter for her friend considering how he had forced other overlords into contracts, he had a much nicer parachute to work with as even if he lost some regular souls the power, he got from an overlord's soul more than made up for that.

"Oh, dear Rosie sure having power is useful but pawns to be your eyes and ears on the game board of life is so much more useful and helpful. After all I can't risk those batteries of mine getting any bright ideas and trying to escape my grip." Alister gave off a laugh as he tuned the small radio on his mike to play the screams of some of the older souls he had under contract. Rosie in turn gave off a laugh humming along to the screams as if it was an old song, though to her it may as well have been.

"Oh, that's a good choice Alister. One of the first overlords you toppled if I recall correctly. Some musicians of sorts if I recall. Yes, a vocalist, his vocal cords were such a delightful treat when you gave them as a gift" The radio demon gave a chuckle telling Rosie the gift had been no problem and he was simply greatful to have such wonderful company.

As the two continued with their meal Rosie asked if he had been keeping tabs on the Vees since Velvet had vanished.

Alister laughed as if it had been the most wonderful of jokes telling Rosie he had never seen Vox so paranoid. The man was jumping at shadows and was spending a great deal of time money and power looking for his missing business partner. "It has been so much fun messing with him these days."

Rosie gave Alister an annoyed look as she huffed. "So, you're the reason Vox has been frying the electrical grid so often these days. Seriously Al, I get you enjoy tormenting the arrogant twit, but I must say it is such a hassle having to deal with so many power surges."

Alister gave a mock bow of defeat. "Yes, the power surges do tend to make annoying vox a rather expensive luxury. I guess I could lay off of him for a bit. Repetition does tend to make things boring, and I don't think I would like the idea of annoying Vox becoming boring. By the way my dear what do you think happened to Hells favorite fashionista?"

Rosie gave a huff at the idea of Velvette being Hell's fashionista, in her eye retro was the in thing and if she ever saw any of Velvette's clothing or style in her territory, she had them burned or shredded. "I guess she likely fell fowl of Heavens cleanup of Hell. I still don't understand why Vox is so adamant about her still being in Hell, acting so desperate makes him look so weak and pathetic, even more so than usual." Alister gave a hum of agreement having taken note of how Vox was spreading his power and mind throughout Hell's power grid more actively and on a more consistent basis always looking and trying to keep an eye on all of Pride city.

"At the very least we no longer really have to suffer his arrogance as often now that he is the one having to deal with upstart overlords." Alister laughed at how Vox and Valentino now had to deal with newbies who thought they were tough though he was sure Carmilla enjoyed the peace and quite of not having the three always making noise and problems.

The suffering of the Vees was always a delightful thing and Alister knew Vox was running himself ragged. Maybe he could mess with his foe one last time before letting things settle down for a bit.



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Vox was furious as he finished frying the mind of some upstart that had tried to act as if he could replace Velvette as a new member of the Vees. The idiot didn't even have a name starting with a V and having electrical based powers just made him a rival. Vox's eye began to spin and swirl as he tore into the mind of the idiot, forcing him to sign a contract and binding his soul in chains. Soon the new slave was thrown out with Vox making sure to remind him to come back for his new job.

The latest problem dealt with Vox turned to his computer as he scoured the various sites he had set up and bounties he had put up and felt only frustration and disappointment. Still no new information or leads on where Velvette could be.

"Where in Hell are you!!!" Vox yelled out as the lights of his building flashed brightly blinding the sinners nearby outside of the building.

Vox took a moment to calm himself down as he took out an appointment book looking through it as he worked to make himself look presentable as he went into business mode. He had a few contracts he was working on with several succubae who were looking to expand their business out of Lust and into Pride. For Vox this was a rather good deal as with the recent drop in the sinner population the Hellborn had gotten a great deal more power and influence and these ladies had deep connection within Lust and that could help him find his missing partner. Vox took out a few glasses and a special wine glass filled with a special blend of wine and Valentino's aphrodisiac. The stuff had no real effect on him and would be more than useless on beings from Lust, but he was sure the succubae would appreciate the taste, maybe even seek a supply of the stuff for their work if they liked it enough.

Once the table and meeting room had been set to Vox's satisfaction, he left down an elevator to a sealed off room. Inside was his partner though in rather poor condition. He had lost many souls in the clean up and with his power greatly diminished a lot of people decided to take the risk of getting their revenge on the moth. Vox had managed to save him but at the moment all Valentino was good for was producing his special aphrodisiac. Vox had been forced to take over all of the Vees' usual business dealings and it was leaving him drained.

Vox wasn't even angry at the sinners who had attacked Valentino, no he was angrier at his partner who in his usual arrogance and short sightedness failed to understand how weak he had become or had been unwilling to accept his own weakness and went out like normal, antagonized people and made enemies like normal. Hopefully this event teaches you a lesson on knowing your limits you idiot.

At the moment one of Val's contractors was running the V porn business for Vox someone called Angel Dust. He was well-liked enough and popular enough that he was actually bringing in a lot of business and making new connections and repairing old bridges Valentino had burned long ago. Vox honestly wondered if it would be better to just keep Valentino down here and let Angel run things on the porn end. He would have to change his name though, have to have him fit the brand after all.

Once he finished milking Valentino for more aphrodisiac Vox got a rather interesting message as he exited the sealed room, and his phone got a signal again. Angel had sent him a link to a strange ad. Apparently an Imp had started up a revenge killing business. Normally this would be nothing more than a joke and likely a bolt of lightning zapping Angel for sending him such an annoying and pointless ad, but he gave a smirk as he saw that apparently the imps were talking about killing people on Earth. How did imps find a way to reach Earth. I thought only succubae and incubus could casually reach Earth. The how didn't really matter to Vox rather the various business ideas that now ran through his mind as he thought about the money he could make and the contracts he could set up if he got in on this. Angel likely thought this was a joke but if this was real Vox could only dream about the success and power he could claim if this was real. And maybe they could help me find Velvette. She could be stuck up on Earth. Vox called his secretary to book an appointment and to call this new business I.M.P as he entered his meeting room with a large smile and happy that he could have a very power filled and bright future and had a chance to look for his friend from a new avenue.



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Stolas looked at the paper ad in his hand wondering why he kept questioning his grimoire when things more often than not went as it foretold.

I.M.P we kill to satisfy your need for revenge.

Stolas prepared to make some calls. The book had no names yet but soon he would need to start making people drop and these imps would likely be a rather good way to do his job. "I do hope they can be discreet and tactful." Well, they were imps after all it wasn't like they could make too big of a mess.



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Blitz was laughing as he shot through the head of a local warlord while setting fire to what was left of the weapon and ammo storage of the man after he had finished salvaging what he liked for himself setting off a rather large explosion and fire work show for the imp as he laughed watching cooked off ammo turning soldiers into Swiss cheese or simply men being burned alive. "Well, my work here is done." Blitz took out his phone making a call as a purple haze like glass appeared in the air before opening up like a hole in the air.





Hope everyone likes this chapter. I may make some edits or additions to the Vox section as I feel I left it a bit too dry for my liking. Hope the Alister, Rosie section was a good read. Any ideas on what you think I could improve on would be appreciated.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics

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Vaggie felt a bit empty and hollow as she thought about the exterminations and tried to understand just what their purpose was now beyond simply being cruel. Upon Purgatories creation the number of souls in Hell had diminished greatly not to mention how the souls of people on Earth that recently died were getting their second chance if Heaven felt they were deserving of a review on their worthiness, if their was a chance Heaven had made a mistake when the first time around when balancing and evaluating the souls of the lost and the fallen mortal souls then what if they were overlooking something else, when looking at the souls who had and still were attempting to try and be better, to be decent. Vaggie recalled the times she had been the last to leave and saw souls who instead of attempting to grab at power or steal, pillage and plunder to advance their own lives and positions were helping the wounded who hadn't died or were helping others sort through the rubble of destroyed homes or even comforting those who had lost people they had been close with that had died in the extermination.

The first time Vaggie had seen it she wasn't sure if she was seeing things or if it was really happening, so she ended up staying later and being part of the final group of exorcists to leave at the end of an extermination and to her surprise this altruistic behavior continued to happen. Since her confirmation of this Vaggie had put in some effort to keep track of these caring sinners and made sure that if she ever spotted them in an area, she was in she would be just a bit slower, just a bit sloppier or just missed them and even not put as much effort into chasing them or even looking if they went to hide. Vaggie kept her mouth shut knowing very few if any of her fellow exorcists would understand her reasoning at the time and was sure Adam or Lute would've severely punished her if they ever found out, so she just made sure that other exorcists didn't follow her on her hunts or made sure they kept their distance from her and her hunting grounds.

Since the creation of Purgatory Vaggie had felt a great deal of validation in her actions even if she had kept them secret and hidden. Vaggie had even been able to talk with her sisters about these more virtuous sinners she had noticed and that they had also noticed without the risk of being seen as a traitor or at risk of falling.

Why does Adam keep the extermination going when the need for it has all but been made mute? I know he has a grudge against the fallen one but that can't be the only reason, right? Not even Adam could be that petty to torture and kill souls just to hurt one being. Vaggie felt confused and lost since these thoughts had become more and more active in her mind. It was her job to eliminate threats to Heaven and its population, to keep them safe and to make sure they didn't even know they had been under threat in the first place. Fighting in the void, keeping whatever that strange beast was away from the realm of Heaven and Earth, it filled her with a great sense of joy and fulfillment. She was doing a job that had a real effect of keeping creation safe while she had stopped feeling anything but a sense of regret after taking part in the most recent exterminations.

Vaggie was unsure of how to talk to Adam about her feelings on the situation, the extermination was his brainchild after all. Maybe I should talk to Lute about this first. She is closer to Adam than any of the other exorcists and I'm sure she would know how to talk to him about this. Talking about one's problems and issues was always difficult even for an angel, especially for an angel as they were not meant to have doubts, they were built for a purpose and to have any doubts about that purpose caused a great deal of anxiety and stress as it went against their very being. Lute seemed like a good person to talk to as she hadn't been part of the exterminations for a while now as she mostly kept an eye on Purgatory for Adam and did basic prevention work in keeping what ever those creepy vine like structures that were growing in the void at bay only calling in back up when they started growing wildly out of control to quickly for her to destroy. "I hope Lute can give me some advice on how to deal with this. Maybe she could at least get me off of extermination duty if she doesn't have any ideas on how to talk to Adam about this." Adam always had a hands-off approach when it came to talking to his girls, not to mention his lax and jokester attitude made it difficult to know how to approach him, talk to him or even know if he was taking your problems seriously.



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The void was not a pleasant place but then again it was mostly empty except for the occasional storm of matter and anti-matter clashing as creation fail to come into existence. It was like being trapped in a fireworks factory that had all its fireworks always going off. The void was the realm between everything and nothing or as Adam had once called it gods backyard and testing ground. These days it was the closest anyone could be to the creator since he left. To where no one knew but he had left with most of the archangels after the fall of the snake.

Lute took her chance to rest as she finished destroying one of the many vines growing out, reaching for Heaven and Earth. They were relentless things seeming to hunger to reach the cradle of life and the seat of humanity. Oddly enough only a few of the vines ever seemed to try to reach out towards the Hell and while she would've loved to leave the cesspool of failures to its own fate Adam and Sera had made sure she put in the effort to make sure the vines didn't reach it either. They didn't know what the consequences of the vines reaching one of the realms of creation would be so they would rather avoid something truly horrible happening and do the busy work of prevention than the risk of cleaning up an apocalyptic mess if something went wrong.

Simply floating, Lute looked down on Purgatory smiling as she watched the forces of the stronghold city named after the realm itself standing fast in the teachings of Heaven and fought to preserve humanity and the light of Heaven. She laughed at the failures and foolishness of the men who thought they could tame and control demonic energy. She frowned a bit as she got glimpses of the twisted and demonic souls who had fashioned themselves after the seven sins back in Hell. They were more powerful than they should have any right to be, and it was worryingly difficult to keep and eye on a some of them, but Adam had made her promise not to interfere without his permission and only without it if something truly bad was about to happen.

She recalled when one of those so-called sins had attack one of the larger settlements and had actually been about to get involved when she had felt that surge of divine power, it had felt as if a piece of Heaven had made itself known to the realm and she had felt such joy and wonder for those few moments basking in the light. That light wiped away her doubts about the realm if a soul had managed to release that much light into the world. It had been so funny watching that so-called sin run away with their tail between their legs though Lute did feel foolish for losing herself in the brilliant light that she failed to find its source.

I should inform Adam of the light and ask for his assistance in finding it later. Such a pure light can not suffer the risk of being snuffed out by the trash defiling this realm. Lute would never admit it but she was getting worried about the power the ones claiming the title of sins in this realm were accumulating and while she was sure they were no threat to her or Adam the fact that these abominations where able to cause damage to items the people of Purgatory had imbued with holy power and that meant unskilled or unaware exorcists and regular winners were at risk, that unlike the regular denizens of Hell or sinners these new creatures, these demons had the chance to cause real harm to Heaven.

"Lute!"

The warrior angel was pulled out of her thoughts on how to deal with the threat growing in Purgatory by a familiar voice as she saw Vaggie arriving from a portal. Lute felt a bit confused as she had not called for support nor had Adam told her she would be getting backup not that she needed any and she would tell that to his face next time she saw him. "Vaggie what are you doing here? Did Adam send you?"

"What? No Adam didn't send me. You know as well as I do, he would come himself if he thought you needed any help."

Lute blushed a bit her cheeks growing a healthy glow to which Vaggie gave a slight smirk knowing how her friend felt about their commander but pretended she hadn't seen anything knowing how prideful Lute was and that she didn't want to show any form of weakness.

"If Adam didn't send you then why are you here?" There was a defensive tone to her voice as while she understood Adam hadn't sent Vaggie she didn't like the idea of Vaggie thinking she needed the help, that she wasn't strong enough to do the job, to be able to match Adam's standards. I'm strong enough to do this job, I don't need a partner unless the roots have a growth spurt and those are rare. The unspoken truth for Lute was that there was a chance Sera could take note that more warrior angels were watching Purgatory and then she would end up asking why more than one was needed.

"I needed someone to talk to. I've been trying to think some things over, but I feel like I keep hitting a brick wall. I was hoping I could talk to you about this. Maybe come up with some new ideas about things I may not have thought of. I mean if I want to bring any plans or ideas to Adam your likely the best person to talk to before hand after all." Vaggie gave a nervous shrug as she felt a bit foolish coming all the way to the void to talk with Lute about what could likely just be a small issue. It would've been better to just talk to Adam get shot down and then leave things be, would've made it easier for her to accept if her idea failed anyway.

Lute raised an eyebrow in interest as Vaggie was the type to just let things sit and simmer, to avoid confrontation not really push any ideas forward. She wasn't a yes man, but she didn't like to be in the spotlight which was a shame in Lute's eyes as Vaggie could make an excellent replacement for her in helping Adam as his new right hand with her spending so much time in the void.

"Was wondering if you could help me think of a way to talk to Adam about the extermination?"

Lute hid it well, but she felt a sense of dread and worry fill her as Vaggie continued talked about her ideas trying to understand why such a loyal angel like Vaggie would have any questions or doubts about the extermination. If Vaggie had doubts what about the others? I need to nip this in the bud if this goes too far, stop her from stepping over a line she doesn't see. "What about the extermination has you so deep in thought Vaggie?" Lute kept her tone level to hide her sense of unease but also to keep Vaggie talking so she could evaluate just what steps she would need to take.

"Well, I was wondering if it was even really necessary to continue with them. I mean most of our time and effort is spent on making sure that the roots do not escape Purgatory and acting as tethers for the souls of the worthy to find their way to Heaven. We spend more time and effort sending troops here as relief during an extermination than what we send to Hell. I know you don't like the idea of people thinking you need help but at the very least if we stationed a few more angels here then you wouldn't be alone for who knows how long until a relief force arrives to support you." Vaggie hid her own thoughts on how as a side benefit it could give her a chance to see how the less twisted and dark souls in Hell would react and hopefully work on bettering themselves and Hell or at least a small part of it.

Lute sighed as she could understand Vaggie's train of thought she really could it was just a shame that in her attempt to be helpful Vaggie could end up causing so much more damage than she realized. No one but Adam and Lute knew just what was happening in Purgatory and most of the exorcists only knew about the roots being a problem at the least and maybe a few demonic beasts traveling the realm as part of the tests set up to see if the soul was worthy of heaven. It really did help keeping things on the down low that the souls that ascended tended to downplay or refused to talk about Purgatory or Earth as far as they were aware.

No, the big issue with Vaggie's plan was that it would grab Sera's attention as she would wonder why Purgatory would need so many exorcists. It would reveal just how much Adam and Lute had been hiding from her. She would see the demonic virus ravaging Purgatory, she would see the roots reaching for the rest of creation and she would end it all. Not only would it be an end to Purgatory, but it would mean the end off all the souls inside the realm that had yet to be judged. Lute shivered as she thought of the chance no matter how small it was that Sera could end up erasing the souls of those who had ascended to make sure the demonic virus plaguing Purgatory could not reach or spread to Heaven. Not to mention how she would punish Adam for hiding all of this from her. What if she unmade us, those of us who were born from Adam's feathers as punishment. Lute and many of the older exorcists had been born from Sera's wings but most of the girls were born from Adam's wings and while she held up a tough exterior she cared for her fellow warriors and didn't want to see them suffer for the foolish decisions she and Adam had made.

Maybe if she and Adam had come to Sera earlier all of this could've been avoided and a proper solution could've been found instead of simply wiping the slate clean but now it was to late. Things had gone on for to long and now all she and Adam could do was damage control until they figured out what was causing this mess and fixing the problem. They just needed time and unfortunately Vaggie was cutting into that time. I'm sorry Vaggie I really am but you need to be silenced for the good of everyone else. I'll do my best to make sure its quick.

Lute put on a big smile as she swallowed the bile that wanted to claw its way out of her throat as she spoke with a silver tongue and lied to her ally and friend. As she spoke honeyed words while holding a metaphorical and literal dagger behind her back. She gave Vaggie a big hug as she told her she would help her work out the best way to talk to Adam about her plans and ideas. Vaggie smiled a genuine warmth that just made Lute feel even worse about what she was about to do as Vaggie returned the hug none the wiser to what was about to happen.

Pain flooded Vaggie's mind in an instant with only her instincts as a warrior and her self-preservation instincts saving her life. She had never felt real pain beyond the exhaustion of training, so her body had an extreme reaction feeling it for the first time as she felt the dagger enter her back. She recoiled in shock and horror her arms flailing partly through muscle memory of self defense training and partly sheer instinct to survive as she avoided the dagger piercing her hearth through her back. Unfortunately, this had the unintended consequence of the blade sheering through one of her wings.

Lute could barely look at Vaggie seeing her in so much pain as she tried to get away from Lute's blade, away from Lute. The look of betrayal in her friend's eyes was painful and Lute knew she deserved whatever hatred Vaggie must be feeling what ever dark emotion must be filling her heart aimed at Lute for what was being done to her. "I am sorry Vaggie, but I can't let you go through with your plan. There is to much at risk and I can't, won't let this all unravel, let it all be for nothing." Lute dove at the flailing and injured Vaggie who was doing her best to open a portal to escape

Vaggie was very grateful for all the training Adam had put her and the others through as that was all that was keeping her alive at the moment as pushed her body to its limit to avoid fatal blows from Lute. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as while she was able to avoid fatal strikes the number of flesh wounds kept growing and her own movements kept slowing as pain and blood loss was taking its toll. Vaggie tried to understand why Lute was doing this, why she thought this was necessary but couldn't think, couldn't understand. She tried to call out to Lute to get her to stop, to talk and explain things but her own body betrayed her now as a numbness seem to take hold and her voice just wouldn't leave her lips.

"I'm truly sorry for all of this Vaggie. I wanted to make it quick and painless, but I guess you're to good of an exorcist for that. I'm sorry that this went on for as long as it has but I promise the pain will be gone soon." Lute hated herself for what she was about to do but what made it worse was that she didn't see any hate in Vaggie's eyes just confusing, just the question of why and a small glint of hope that this was all just some nightmare or that Lute would stop. With a heavy heart Lute fell into a dive thrusting her dagger forward hard for a final decisive blow to end this.

Vaggie didn't know how she did it but a final burst of adrenaline and a bit of holy power she managed to avoid the strike at least somewhat as a greater deal of pain flooded her. The blade getting shoved into her eye. Everything was going black and fading as spots covered her vision her body going rigged, and stiff being overloaded with the sensation of pain on a whole new level. The only saving grace for Vaggie being Lute thinking the blade in her eye had killed her instead of a pain induced paralysis.

Lute flew away not having it in her to watch Vaggie's body, her corpse float into the abyss that was the void and then simply be wiped away by the clashing storms of existence and none existence. Vaggie watched her former ally fly away with what was left of her conscious mind and her good eye slowly tumbling into the abyss below wondering if her final end would be as painful as the betrayal, as the blade that had removed her wing, covered her in wounds and was currently lodged into her other eye. As everything fade to black a golden portal opened beneath Vaggie, her earlier attempts as making a portal finally bearing fruit not that she really noticed. She fell, she didn't have any concept for how long, but she fell all the while feeling a familiar yet unnatural heat and then she made impact with a loud thud breaking through something though she wasn't sure what. The last thing she heard was an annoyed voice complaining about having to call a contractor to fix his roof and then that same voice getting very panicked most likely having taken note of her as it asked if she was ok if he could help her, if she needed help.

"Don't worry, don't worry I can fix this, I can fix this! Oh, Sera will not be happy at all if she finds out about this."

sorry this took so long. real life just has a way to taking up time and then i kind of forgot to update for a while even after i finished writing the chapter. hope this is a good read for everyone who is enjoying the story so far.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Lucifer blue screened for a moment as he tried to process what he was looking at. At first, he had been ready to fry whoever had decided to bust through the roof of his home as at this point, he had been having a pretty good day all things considered but now he just felt a horrible pain in his gut as stress and worry started to overwhelm him. Lying in a pile of golden blood was an angel. No no no no this can't be happening, this can't be real. What the hell is going on. Lucifer felt as if fate was using him as its punching bag as he tried to understand why a dead angel had landed in his home.

As his thoughts started to catch up with him all Lucifer could think about was how Heaven was going to blame him for this the moment they found out or came looking for their missing angel and nothing he would say would convince them otherwise. "I need to clean this up. How do I clean this up?" Lucifer paced back and forth as he tried to think of a way to solve this mess that had landed at his feet. He tried covering her in rubber ducks before slapping himself in the face as the body would still be in his house and he wasn't even sure how this had happened.

Why would she even end up here in the first place? Lucifer was broken from his thoughts by a low groan. He looked around for a moment and then realized it had come from the corpse. She isn't dead…… She isn't dead!!! He couldn't let her die. The fact that she was still alive meant that maybe he could escape a harsh punishment, he just needed to make sure she was still alive when Heaven came looking.

But what if they don't come looking? The thought was like a worm that dug into his head as he cast a stasis spell on the wounded angel. After all she had arrived in Hell and at his doorstep, what if she had fallen, been cast out like he had. The angel had clearly gotten into a fight with something capable of hurting it thus there was a good chance she had been cast out and even if she hadn't been cast out there was a good chance Heaven simply thought her dead and wouldn't even come looking.

Lucifer went back to pacing as he tried to come up with a plan that didn't feel stupid or would backfire on him as most of his plans tended to do his current rulership of Hell being a prime example of such wonderful 'success' stories tied to his life. He felt like his mind was a factory of gears that had jammed and were breaking apart from the stress of trying to keep moving. Hoping to find some advice from people who hadn't screwed up as badly or as often as he had he took out his phone as he called Asmodeus and Beelzebub for help as they tended to have a solid head on their shoulders. Hopefully they can help me think of a way out of this mess.

A few moments later he was shouting as he didn't like their plan at all. "Hell no, by everything in this realm of suffering and punishment I won't tell Heaven anything. I won't tell them I have a half dead angel lying in my living room." When had honesty ever caused him anything other than pain and suffering. No, he wouldn't fall for that trap again, the risk was too great and the chance of him having anyone willing to listen before or even after they decided on how to punish him was too low.

"Lucy, I know you don't want to hear this, but you are letting your fear and pride rule your decision making here. That had never been a good combination. You can't keep shutting people out Lucy, running away and hiding doesn't work long term and keeping your mouth shut has been even worse for you hasn't it." Asmodeus came off harshly towards his king. He wanted to be gentle to help his king and friend, but Lucifer was a stubborn man, and it would take too long trying to get him to do the smart thing so harsh and fast was his best bet of getting the king to see reason. "Did silence and hiding away keep Lilith in the palace? Did it did it help keep Pride from falling into anarchy and chaos? Did it keep the princess safe!?" Asmodeus was yelling now his true form threatening to erupt as an anger had overtaken him as he shouted at Lucifer.

The sin of lust had kept his tongue on the downfall of Pride and the king's choice to retreat inwards and leaving things to rot but now seeing the self-destructive acts of the king coming back in a way that could be even worse not just for the king, not just for the Pride ring but for all the rings, all of Hell he felt that he couldn't keep his tongue even as the king seemed to be jumping between anger with the will to smite Asmodeus for talking to him in such a manner and falling to the ground on his knees.

"Enough!" Bee yelled getting the attention of the two before anything came to blows. "Asmodeus, that was going too far. Talking about the chaos in Pride or the queen leaving is one thing, but you shouldn't have brought up the princess. That was a low blow, and you know it. our lord may need a kick in the ass but that was unnecessary." Bee then turned her ire on Lucifer who seemed to have gotten some strength back in his body as he got up from his collapsed state and was sitting on a chair seeming to try and reclaim his balance. "Lucifer you called us, you know us and you knew this would be the advice we would give you. You are being a coward, you wanted Asmodeus and I to force your hand to make the decision for you. We won't! This is on you, and you are the one who will make this choice. You can't keep running and hiding anymore."

Lucifer tried to respond yet found himself tongue tied as he couldn't come up with anything to say as Bee hit him with harsh but needed truths.

"It doesn't have to be a good decision; it can be a bad decision, but you need to make one Lucifer. You can't keep using everyone else as a crutch because eventually we're all going to be sick of carrying your weight. And by the light of Heaven get that girl to Belphegor, keeping her in a stasis field may stop any further damage or avoid death but that's just a stalling tactic. If you don't want her to die but you still want this kept secret at least to take her to Sloth, where she can get proper treatment."

Bee left first as she just couldn't stand the rotten and sickening taste of shame and self-loathing that Lucifer oozed out and she knew if she stayed any longer it could end up tainting the honey she was producing for her next batch of parties. She took a single look back a look of pleading in her eyes for Lucifer to get back some life and effort, to do something, to be the man of progress and creation she recalled him as. The king could only look away in shame not having it in himself to look his old friend in the eye. Asmodeus stayed longer as he kneeled down next to the sitting king giving the man a gentle hug. "My lord I'm sorry for what I said but I can't see you like this. You are a shadow of your former self, and it pains me to see you lock yourself away and let your kingdom crumble like this. I will help you as I am able but please end this self-exile before it rots away what is left of who you are." Asmodeus left hoping beyond hope that Lucifer could pull himself out of his pit as he recalled how much it had destroyed the king when the princess had gone missing and then how it had gotten even worse when Lilith had left as she could no longer stand being around the husk that Lucifer had become, being forced to try and maintain a collapsing kingdom and support Lucifer at the same time as the man simply unraveled.

You used to be such a man of action my lord and it is truly a pity to see how you have devolved into this shadow of a being. As he left Asmodeus started to think of a plan that could at least help the king out of his funk and isolation. Lucifer was a crafter; a creator and this state of stagnation was poisoning him just as much as isolation and tragedy was hurting the king. If I can just get him active, to work on a project and do something new and exciting. Something that can lift the spirits of Hell and its people, maybe it could help lift his spirits and take his mind away from his pain even if just for a short while.

The sins gone Lucifer slowly got out of his seat feeling strong enough to stand as he processed his thoughts, the advice and harsh but needed confrontation by his friends and then also looked at the stained golden ducks next to the young, wounded angel lying next to them. He had tried to bury his problem and hide it away and all that had done was leave a mess and a stain. They were right, he had called them to try and shove this mess onto their shoulders to deal with or to make a decision for him.

Lucifer felt so overwhelmed as he looked at the wounded girl in front of him wondering why this had happened, how this had happened and why he was being forced to deal with it when fate had used him as its punching bag for so long. Why couldn't he get a break. A flame grew in his hand, a mix of hellish red and a faded golden glow like a flickering light trying desperately to stay alight in a dark room. It would be so easy to make this all go away, to make sure this never became a problem. Golden blood staining the ground and ducks began to bubble and the ducks began to melt as heat flooded the room. A flick of my wrist and this all goes away. I'll need to hire a contractor for a new palace but that would be less of a hassle to deal with than Heaven. No one would judge him for this, and Bee said good or bad she would accept the decision he made, and this could be his decision.

He looked at the wounded angel. This would be fast and painless. It would end the suffering she was already feeling from whatever had wounded and attempted to kill her. She won't feel a thing. He repeated the thought in his head and yet he couldn't flick his wrist or even simply will the flames to engulf the palace or spread out of his hand.

"I would judge myself. I would judge me." Lucifer whispered to himself. When the girl had landed, he recalled the last words he had heard before casting the statis spell to stall for time and to keep her from dying. She had been asking for help and for all his faults, his pride and need to run from his own pain and suffering and the hatred the universe seemed to have for him Lucifer still wanted to help. How pathetic am I? After all the good my help has done the universe, the people I cared about. Even as he berated himself, he looked at the stasis locked girl with a feeling of desperate hope. She had asked him for help, had arrived in Hell which was impossible to do by accident. This wounded angel had come to him, to Hell knowing his story and had still in their time of need come here instead of Heaven. With what had likely been the last dregs of their strength they had come here and asked him for help.

But what if I can't help her? What if I just make things worse for her and for the people of Hell? Lucifer laughed a bit to himself as he laughed at the stupidity of his thoughts. This was Hell after all things always got worse but rarely did, they get better and for the first time in a long time he felt the feeling of hope in his chest. He could really help some actually help some for the first time in millennia. Lucifer closed his fist, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling a strength enter that he had thought had left him eons ago. He wouldn't go to Heaven, wouldn't talk to them as they or someone in Heaven had likely done this but he wouldn't run away either this time, he would do the right thing. Had his eyes been open he would've noticed that as the flame in his hand died out the golden hue had become brighter and lost that edge of desperate flickering as he made his choice and solidified his resolve. I really hope this doesn't blow up in my face…… Dammit I'm going to have to clean up the palace to hide any evidence, aren't I? at least I can count on Bee and Asmodeus helping with that at least. He had a brief thought about simply burning the palace down and replacing it but that would simply take to long and be to aggravating but also thinking about it there were a lot of irreplaceable things in the palace, memories, hopes and dreams he couldn't fix or replace. His mind fluttered for a moment to a locked door he had wallpapered over so he could stop feeling the stabbing pain in his heart whenever he had looked at it

"Come on let's get you to Belphegor." Lucifer teleported away to Sloth his soul feeling lighter even if by just by what many would call an insignificant amount.



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"So how is she doing?" Lucifer sat nervously as he waited for any news from Belphegor about their Jane Doe patient. Belphegor just looked at the king annoyed and tired but then again, she was always tired since arriving in Hell. The stupidity of her king and her brothers and sister just added to that exhaustion in a new manner. This new secret patient issue had her feeling even worse and on edge and had her feeling like taking a break and going into hiding for a few centuries so she could get a proper break and chance to actually rest.

I need sleep, actual sleep and not just drug induced comas. Belphegor tried to ignore Lucifer for a bit as she took a deep lung full of her own special blend of cigarettes and medication. "The girl is fine for now Lucifer. We were forced to break your stasis spell to get any real work done but we managed to properly stabilize her. The only issue is we can't really get any real healing or repair on the wounds. At best I was able to do some superficial healing but nothing more." Belphegor had felt bad for the girl seeing just how deep and damaging some of her wounds were. She was pretty sure the girl would have some brain damage from that knife through her eye. Oh boy removing that thing had been a pain due to the risk of actually killing her patient if anything went wrong.

"Is there anything we could do to help her. It's been weeks and nothing has changed. I know your doing your best but is there anything you haven't tried yet?"

Belphegor got annoyed even further by the king's question but didn't snap as she could hear the desperation in his voice. Belphegor yawned a bit from exhaustion, this job having kept her up and overworked for a job she had no wish to be taking part in, she was still a healer however, and her job was to help this angel even if she didn't feel like it. "I wish it was such a simple task to heal her my lord, but I have tried everything I have at my disposal, and nothing has been able to make a dent in this problem. Wounds caused by Heaven have a nasty habit of not wanting to be fixed. The only idea I have is a trick some sinners have tried if they managed to survive an extermination but its risky." Before she could explain Lucifer almost jumped into her face, a look of hope and excitement which actually made Belphegor feel a bit bad as the idea was likely false hope.

"Lucifer this isn't a fix all kind of thing and there are real risks to it. the idea is to cause more damage and remove the areas where holy weaponry or power has caused the wound." Lucifer looked at Belphegor in confusion trying to understand the concept that more damage could end up healing the damage.

"It was a desperate gamble that some sinners came up with. They had the unfortunate luck of surviving extermination but were still badly wounded. A few took risks and tore off and cut away flesh that the weapons of the angels had caused. In some there were cases that they were able to survive and make full recoveries though often they would have to kill themselves and hope for the revival process to fix them fully once the holy energy was removed, in others they were permanently crippled and unable to heal even if the wounds stopped getting worse and not even destroying themselves and the revival process could fix the issue. Most of those who took this risk died though as they couldn't withstand the pain or the damage their body had already suffered, and their bodies just quit on them." She didn't want to stomp on Lucifer's hopes, but she needed him to understand if they took this option there was not only a chance, they could end up making things worse, very likely make things worse but even if it did save their mystery patient it could and likely would leave her crippled. He needed to understand this was a last resort situation.

"Why don't you just heal her Lucy." A voice stated, a very familiar and annoying voice as Lucifer groaned and Belphegor took her chance to just leave the room and hopefully catch a five-minute nap, maybe if she was lucky ten before she had to deal with that maniac of a clown. Out of the shadows the form of Mammon could be seen though he wasn't walking, he was being carried like a sack of potatoes by the giant form of Satan who threw Mammon onto a bed. It was clear to see why Mammon hadn't walked in with his head facing the wrong direction, with a very broken looking neck likely caused by the man who had thrown him onto the hospital bed.

"As annoying as the clown is my lord, he is right you have it in your power to heal her, to save her." Satan growled out hating that he was forced to agree with Mammon. Lucifer just gave the sins of Greed and Wrath a look of confusion not understanding what they meant. He couldn't save her; he sucked at healing and often had gone to Raphael for healing when he had still lived in Heaven instead of doing it himself.

"He means the breath of life Lucy." Mammon groaned out as Satan stomped on and broke one of his legs for taking such a mocking and petty tone with their king not that it stopped Mammon from running his mouth. "Just use some of that juice as the archangel of creation, as the gift and duty the big G gave you and fix her right up Sammy." Another snap as another leg was broken by Satan who glared angerly at Mammon.

"I can't do that. Using that power carries risks you don't even understand. That was a blessing by father and to use it now that I've been banished and stripped of my titles and status in Heaven, I'm not even sure if I could access it and even if I could what if the power backfires or worse brings father's wrath down on me and Hell for daring to use that power." Lucifer was hyperventilating as he tried to calm himself as many hidden fears of his father finding new and inventive ways to punish him for stepping out of line or use power, he wasn't worthy of having anymore.

Mammon just started laughing only for a loud snap to fill the room as his recently healed neck got snapped again with the jester yelling at Satan for being a kill joy and an ass kisser. Satan simply walked towards Lucifer getting down to a knee so he could look his king in the eye and spoke. "My lord there is nothing beyond death that Heaven could do to punish us. They do not have the stomach or the will to do the things you fear and worry about. And God won't punish you for trying to save a life, the life of one of his angels. Fear has taken hold of you my king and you need to start learning and understanding when that fear is just your own paranoia and past haunting you and when that fear is true, and action should be avoided."

"Yeah, grow a pair, Lucy. Your top dog of the universe after big G and you know it stop wimping out and stop wearing the skirt in your relationship with the universe." Mammon yelled out in pain as his arms got broken and Satan picked him up.

"Clearly I was far to kind bringing you here to get fixed up after you already attempted to cross me."

"Hey, we both know Leviathan would've paid me top dollar for those secrets. You're the one who is just t sensitive for such a tough guy"

"If your so tough then I'm sure you wouldn't mind a spa trip to the lava fields of wrath Mammon. This time of year, the heat is just right with eruption season coming up. As for you my lord I do hope you figure out the path to take. I have faith in you Lucifer, know I will always stand at your side to support you. We are family and no matter how much we fight or annoy each other I will stand by you; this idiot of a clown will stand by you and the others even if they get annoyed and frustrated will be there to support you." Satan left dragging Mammon on the ground to punish the jester further while Mammon tried to bargain with Satan while also yelling for Lucifer to help him

Alone Lucifer stepped towards the bed looking down worried and scared. He wondered if Satan was right, and he was letting his own fear and paranoia rule him. Heaven had punished him; he had been cast out of his home and barred from entry unless invited or given permission. "You asked for help." Lucifer spoke to the sleeping girl as he steeled himself. "You asked for help, and I will do my best to help. I can't, I won't let this chance to do something good slip out of my fingers." Lucifer lowered his face to meet the sleeping girl as he took a slow hesitant breath before taking a second less shaky breath and then a final third deep breath his resolve steeled. With the third breath gold light seemed to be pulled out of the girl's body the sickly golden yellow that seemed to stand out from her natural golden blood seeped away from her wounds though they still weren't healing or were healing rather slowly. Then Lucifer breathed out, yet it wasn't air that came out of his lungs but power, the idea of life and creation. Pain filled Lucifer as he hadn't touched these powers since the fall and he wasn't used to the rush, the sheer amount of will it took to contain the power he was using. The pain soon faded though as Lucifer managed to get his grip and sent the flow into the unconscious angel. Pain was the first thing Lucifer noted as the angel seemed to be waking from her unconscious state groaning in pain as creation and life flowed into her and wounds began to heal, as the damage to her body began to repair itself and the medication that had been put into her body to try and keep the natural pain her wounds would likely have caused her was burned away. She would feel everything as her body repaired itself and for a moment Lucifer almost hesitated as he saw the pain the angel was in, but he couldn't stop now, or he could lose his nerve or even his grip on the power and not be able to control it.

His nerves were calmed though he wasn't sure by what as he felt what seemed like a gentle yet firm hand being put on his shoulder and whispered words of encouragement that he felt he knew yet couldn't make out.

With one last push Lucifer let out a surge of power, will and intent as he would save this angel. He wouldn't fail her, he refused to fail her. One step at a time he recalled one of his many therapists telling him. Take one small step at a time, take every problem in life one step at a time and things will get smaller, things get easier, and you are one step closer to a solution. Energy surged out of Lucifer engulfing the hospital and then spreading out through Sloth and then the rest of the rings even reaching Earth and Heaven. For a moment no one was sure what had happened but for a moment it was like a warm gentle blanket of comfort had been placed on a person who had been cold for years and was now being given the care and comfort they should've been given. A calm and kind word in the ears of all of creation. A feeling as if you were seen, heard and understood, that you weren't alone. For a moment all of Creation felt as if they knew and understood what good meant what calm and happiness meant.

Lucifer didn't know any of this, his focus on the angel in front of him as her body healed and repaired itself. The natural glow of her skin had returned, the wounds from the weapons had either healed or closed. She looked like a natural Heaven born though without wings; her eye also seemed to not have healed but Lucifer was sure that the angel would be more than happy about being alive rather than focus on the loss of her eye. The normal changes ended there as much to Lucifer's shock things went beyond healing. Her remaining wing sprung forth and even grew in size and then below that wing a new angelic wing grew. Where her other wing had been cut off the nub that the wound had become burst open as bat like, dragon like wing grew forth before a second grew underneath that wing much like the second angelic wing the girl had grown. Even her angelic features took on a paler white look and two small horns growing on her head.

Lucifer took a step back wondering what in creation had just happened and wondering if he had screwed up again, if he could fix this. In turn Belphegor rushed into the room to see what in Hell was happening a feeling of energy she hadn't felt since living in Heaven filling her. "Lucifer what's happening?" She shut up seeing the healed and transformed girl, rushing forward to do a check to make sure the girl was alright while asking Lucifer to tell her what had happened while she was gone.

Both were stunned as the girl woke up sat up gasping looking around frightened and confused. Belphegor worked to try and calm the girl down making sure to repeat that she was safe and away from danger while Lucifer tried to think of a way to answer the questions the girl likely had about where she was and the questions she would have about her transformation.

Once the girl had calmed down Belphegor worked on getting some answers. The best she simply got was the girls name "Vaggie" Soon she seemed to collapse soon after waking up her body completely drained of energy sleep claiming her so she could have a chance to properly rest and recover after her abrupt and fast-tracked healing and transformation. Belphegor just wondered if it was too late to disappear for a few centuries just having a feeling her workload was going to increase greatly in the future while she kept smacking Lucifer over the head telling him she wouldn't forgive him for making her job more difficult and to stop doing things spontaneously, especially in her ring without her supervision.

Lucifer just wondered about the voice he thought he had heard and the hand he had felt on his shoulder. He wondered if that had been real or his mind simply crafting an experience to give him the courage and will to keep moving forward and take the reins of his life and the power he had been using. At this moment though he was simply waiting for Vaggie to wake up so they could have a proper conversation about what had happened to her and likely what her current situation was and what she would like to do. Likely she would have questions as well though Lucifer just hoped that she wouldn't freak out once she got a chance to look at her reflection.

Wow this update took a while to come out. Sorry for how long this took to put out and I hope everyone enjoys reading this latest update. Also, sorry can't promise the next update won't take just as long or longer. Don't forget to like and comment, they help to sustain me and its nice to see the thoughts of my readers



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Out in the middle of everywhere and nowhere beyond creation a man paused in his work, he paused as he stopped sculpting, molding clay, painting, doing arts and crafts, coding, singing, dancing, tuning and playing instruments and writing with a smile on his face. Maybe lucifer could finally learn some responsibility. His son had always tended to have to learn a lesson the hard way. Maybe things could be better for his son with the path this world this life was taking. His attention on Heaven, he wondered how things would turn out with the different roads being taken there hoping that his golden city could learn to be more flexible and less stifling. Purgatory had been an interesting thing to take note of it was a rarity in the fact of existence when it came to the many stories he started. While he did worry about his children this was their story to write and it was high time he took the training wheels off. He couldn't coddle them forever as it was time they stood on their own feet or flew with their own wings.

His only real worry was Adam and Lucifer coming to blows. The two were healing, coming to terms with some of their issues but he knew they still hated each other and if they came to blows it could unravel any growth they had managed to have. He also wondered how it could affect Purgatory as the realm itself had taken on an interesting evolution. Its design was flawed and only held together by a dark secret that could lead to war if it ever got out. There was a chance Purgatory could devour the other realms of creation in hopes of stabilizing itself and that failing to happen there was still a chance of apocalyptic war. The author worried but knew interfering would be against the point. He only gave them the start he couldn't finish for them and if they tripped at the end then he could just start things over and give them another chance to try the race again.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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To consider what represents a miracle is, is something many find difficult with how few things occur that could be considered a miracle and how much time and distance there is between the occurrence of what people consider miracles. Upon Lucifer's release of the power of the breath of life it wasn't just one life he saved, a miracle he crafted for himself as such a thing is impossible to truly contain. All worlds felt this in their own unique ways as the power attempted to follow the last directive it had felt in the heart and mind of Lucifer. He wanted to save a life, he wanted to save himself but most importantly deep within himself he wanted the suffering and pain to end and for a chance for what he lost to be reclaimed in some form or another.

Lucifer always recalled how his father had used this power that others called miracles and thus it acted in such a manner, to be obscure and many small dominos acting together in a wonderful picture as each falling domino each minor near invisible act led to another and to another as wonders filled the world. Of course, Lucifer was a dreamer, a showman of a man who lacked the subtly of his father to his own detriment and thus the power also spread out in more esoteric and fantastical ways to match the ideas its wielder had of it and to match the idea the power had about its wielder.



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In Hell the effects were the most immediate and visible as divine power flowed through the ring of pride. The red sky vanished and was replaced with a calm blue sky as if they were on earth instead of being in Hell. A gentle cooling breeze flowed pushing back on the harsh and oppressive heat the realm of the dammed was known for and it rained, not acid rain that bit at all it touched but cool wet cold rain, pure water not usually known to the denizens of Hell without a great deal of filtering acid water or magic being used to change the natural waters of Hell into something resembling the water of Earth and then sold at exorbitant prices to people desperate for even just a bottle of the stuff to fight off the edge of thirst that natural waters of Hell could never truly sate.

Old run-down speakers that were strung up on buildings and power poles all around Hell long since dead an unused left to rust in obsolescence started to place music long forgotten since its singer vanished from the public eye as the voice of the queen of Hell played out. As music not heard for decades brought about a feeling of calm and hopefulness that many new souls thought impossible, and the older souls had long forgotten.

Old souls, sinners that had grown tired of the nightmare that was Hell and the dark roads they had to take to survive stepped out and helped new fallen souls, to hide them from opportunistic overlords and teach them how to lay low and not stand out in Hell how to survive without falling to the vice many felt was necessary to survive. Other souls that had felt like they were on their last leg and were about to sell out, to make deals or take that step off the edge of decency and general kindness into vileness and greed to win and survive paused and pushed back that inner darkness for one more day, week, month as they refused to be like the worst of the worst that they saw thriving around them.

Souls that knew each other in life be they former enemies managed to come to agreements feeling standing together accepting the crook they knew was better than standing alone and suffering to crooks and scammers that they didn't know and would take advantage of them. Souls of family met up and despite disappointment and anger at their status as fallen, that their family and friends had been unable to avoid this fate they stood together working to make the best of their situation and this chance to be together again. Hell was failing to tear people apart, to bring up their worst selves and to fill them with the idea that they needed to be their worst selves to survive and thrive, to avoid being on the bottom of the ladder beneath someone else's boot. This feeling would fade with time and be forgotten by others, but it would still stick, Hell would lose its fate given grip on souls because for the first time there was a light at the end of the tunnel, that feeling of hope and the chance of something better had wormed its way into the hearts, minds and souls of the sinners

For Hellborn the feeling was an odd sense of mellowness and confusion as they didn't understand what they were seeing or feeling except for those that traveled to and worked on Earth. Some worried that was another move by Heaven to rip into Hell, its power and to put them in proverbial time out but those with power, those who had a far better understanding of how the cosmic scale and powers worked understood and could see and feel where this was coming from. A pilgrimage was made by those with power as they traveled to the palace, their king had made a move, he had done something, tapped into a power that many believed had no existence in Hell, those with wisdom and age to their name knew the stories, recalled the power of their king and were amazed and ecstatic to see their lord wield that power once more and the Sins rushed back to the palace wondering what the Hell Lucifer was doing what he had unleashed and why now, why take this step while also just happy to feel him unleash and wield this side of himself once more and to take that step off the ground and hoped they could see him as the morning star once more, that the state of decline and decay in Hell could end though a few did worry how a more active and aware Lucifer could spell trouble and punishment for them be it for petty slights they had taken against the king (Mammon) or active steps they had been taking no matter how small they were to challenge him and usurp him(Leviathan). Whatever had happened everyone in Hell knew things were going to change and that the king was stepping back in and had made his announcement even if he didn't know it himself that he was taking back the reigns of Hell and Pride.

Lilith sat alone in her home wondering when things had gone so wrong as she looked at the baby pictures she had of Charlie. After she had gone missing was when things had started going downhill for her family and then Heaven just acted as if she and Lucifer didn't matter at all once again removing a vast number of souls from Hell which seemed to be another punch to Lucifer that her husband just couldn't handle after everything else, and he shut down. She had left soon after not being able to handle seeing the once bright and joyful man she had fallen in love with being this empty shell of himself. She couldn't stay seeing every day in the form of her husband the unavoidable proof that not only had Heaven won but that she and Lucifer had never had a chance of victory, that their will meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. That Heaven and their order was absolute, nothing could challenge it, it was the only truth in the universe.

And then she felt it, she wasn't sure at first wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her, that she was imagining what she was feeling because it was what she wished instead of what was happening. Then she sat up understanding what she was feeling, Lucifer was acting, stepping up and unleashing long suppressed power. Lucifer what brought this out? Why use it now? What has happened? She needed to go see him, to know what had changed. Part of her held out hope that maybe he had found Charlie, and this was him making a signal for her to find them. She knew it was too much to hope but she couldn't suppress that need to feel and believe in the chance her little one had been found and returned. Another more cynical side of her worried about how Heaven would react to this, to see Lucifer unleash this power an in such a grand way.

What did she care about Heaven. All Lilith cared about was that it seemed like Lucifer, her Lucifer was back and there wasn't a chance in 'Hell' that she was going to let him slip back into the pit of depression and become that husk of a man again. I'm coming home Lucifer; I'm not going to let you fall again. I failed at keeping your spirit alive once, never again. She wouldn't be able to handle it if Lucifer broke again, it would break her. As she left her home she paused for a moment looking at a golden card she pulled out of her purse. This single card held so much temptation, yet she knew using it calling upon it would be not only a betrayal of her own principles but admitting defeat. She tore it up refusing to let it, to let Adam hold anything over her again. Part of her felt pained at losing that once chance to enter the golden city and yet she felt free and light as if a chain had been removed from her as she watched the torn up shards of paper burn away.



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On earth things were a bit goofier at the start of a strange feeling that things were going to change and that this sense that the darkness that seemed to have overrun the world hadn't won just yet and that people being kind, honest, good and decent wasn't a fool's game. That those who used every dirty trick in the book were about to pay some rather large amounts of inflation when it came to dealing with Karma that had found the bill hadn't been paid and they were coming to collect.

All around the planet stories were popping up on news feeds and podcasts and YouTube and social media about poachers. There were tons of news and posts about them getting caught out and hunted by the very animals they had been hunting. Of weapons failing to fire, of a magazine falling out of the gun, of misfires and even ammo exploding and destroying the gun. Hilarious videos of these so-called hunters being chased around by animals and desperately hiding in trees or their vehicles. There were thousands of posts showing pictures of men covered in monkey dirt cakes running and hiding in shame.

Other news came around of scam artists and politicians and billionaires that had overstepped and played a game they should not have. Bankers and financial protectors gave them a sharp kick in the rear as accounts were frozen, as financial laws were enforced against people who forgot the basic rule of their game, to avoid being caught and if they are caught to make sure they didn't have the bag in their hand. Money that had been stolen and hidden away flowed back into accounts they had been taken from and people saw their pensions, their 401ks, their savings and their hopes and dreams returning, they had regained something they thought they had lost forever. Someone was able to keep or reclaim their childhood home, a business that was downsizing due to financial issues instead managed to grow with a new infusion of money they thought they lost and now instead of workers losing their jobs new jobs were being provided.

Bribes were also failing to work and sway people leading to a lot of people ending up in rather uncomfortable positions as senses of shame, honor, dignity and self-respect or simply just doing your job and not caring about money held fast or awoke for single moments at important times in people. A judge here, a witness there, the occasional officer of the law and every now and then politicians. Work was getting done that powerful people didn't want to get done, the legal system was functioning smoothly a lot more than those in power liked it and businesses were actually paying out decent wages and products in larger scales than their corporate overlords cared for and couldn't figure out why it was happening.

The funniest for many was when leaders of all sorts made those bold claims of how Heaven and God were on their side, that the people could believe their promises or as God was their witness let them be struck by lightning. All around the world there were many lighting strikes and even funnier was when peoples' pants suddenly combusted. There were even a few times when people suddenly burst into flames when stepping across the threshold of churches.

Good deeds may not have been rewarded or had as much positive effects on the world as they used to but for sure everyone took note and could see that bad behavior, bad deeds were no longer as rewardable, as profitable as they used to be. There was karma, there was a sense that the scales were being balanced once more and that punishment was back on the table. That rules were being put back in place.



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In Purgatory the wave of divine power had a much more direct affect as its power spread across the realm and its people though it wasn't they who noticed it first as the most visible effect of the power was seen in the void by a lone angel occupying the realm of the in between.

Lute was feeling conflicted and like she was falling apart as she tried to justify her actions to wards her sister in arms. Maybe she could've talked to Vaggie, explained things and why her idea was a bad one. Or she could lie to her and say she would talk to Adam first so he could get her idea in front of Sera and then just lie about her idea not getting support and Vaggie would drop it. Why did I just attack her? Why was that the first thing that came to mind? No no I can't falter now, it was the only way to protect Purgatory, to keep those souls blessed by the Seraph to be given this new chance. One sister doesn't outweigh the mortal souls we are charged with protecting. Guilt tore into Lute as she tried to justify her actions even as her mind kept coming up with other paths she could've taken.

Her breakdown was interrupted as she took note of the divine power sweeping through the realm. As the great roots that she had recently trimmed started to recede much to her confusion. The roots always seemed to grow back and even if they didn't spread out soon after a trimming, they always seemed to amass yet now the roots were falling back and even shrinking.

Once she broke herself from her stupor Lute had a chance to really take in the feeling of divine power she was feeling as a faint memory in the back of her mind started to rise as there was only one thing, she could relate this to. Adam had explained it to her upon her birth, the divine power of creation of life personified. She had felt it at her birth and yet that had been a filtered and diluted version of the power that few in Heaven had access to beyond the Archangels and Seraphim council. Adam had been blessed with it to forge the army that would become the exorcists yet even he could only use what he had been blessed with and couldn't naturally produce the power on his own. What she was feeling though was much purer than what her memory could recall from her birth. This felt, it just felt so different, greater in a way she couldn't describe or explain and yet she could feel life in all its glory

"God, father of the high heavens is that you?" Lute muttered to herself as looked upon the miracle in her view. He doesn't hate me; he isn't punishing me. He sees all and he took note of my actions and yet instead he has given me a blessing. I may not feel good about what I did but it was necessary. He sees Purgatory and despite the pains the realm is facing he sees it is worth protecting, to hide its flaws until those flaws can be fixed. A deep sense of relief filled Lute as she felt vindication in her choice of action as she looked down upon Purgatory and smiled sending her well wishes to the souls calling it home and knowing they would soon receive a blessing from the father of all that would help put the realm back on track. Maybe I should go down and help out a bit. The roots have receded, so I don't have to keep an eye on them and the time I spend in Purgatory won't cause any risk to the other realms at the moment. Lute thought about it for a moment as she let herself fall within the Void dropping into the realm she had been charged with guarding. While she felt vindicated a small part of her felt that killing the monsters that had tainted the realm would be a great way for her to deal with some of her issues and guilt and breakdown as while she felt like she had not been punished a part of her felt the need to deal out a great deal of violence to help clear her mind and make herself feel better.

In Purgatory itself the divine power had pronounced effects on many blessed items and tools greatly enhancing their power, items that had their blessing fading were suddenly as powerful as they day they had been crafted or blessed. Holy wards that had been at the point of collapse were now as powerful as those crafted by the most powerful and wisest of holy spell casters. Crop yields were suddenly bountiful and healthy free or mostly free of any sort of demonic or cursed energy and even failing or dead crop seemed to become healthy and hearty much to the shock and surprise of the less faithful who worked the land or lived in the lands of the warlocks. Cursed and demonic energy throughout the world was dropping in great amounts while holy power seemed to jump a great deal in potency.

In a section of the city known by the less charitable and jerks of purgatory city was a place called the zoo. The holding cells were built to contain citizens who lost themselves to cursed energy and were becoming feral beasts. Their transformations were being reversed; they were not becoming awakened but rather their humanity was being restored to them. The cursed power was leached out of their bodies as they returned to human form or only partially transformed human forms. There were many cries of joy and celebration as families and friends were reunited and hope filled the gaps that had been growing in the hearts of those who had thought nothing could be done to save their loved ones.

All throughout the world the drop in cursed energy and the increase in holy power had rather annoying consequences for the warlock nations as cursed relics and items fell apart or simply lost any real power beyond being a paper weight. Their magic weakened and it would take a greater amount of effort and power to even cast curses and spells. Even with how holy power was weakening afflicted and the many cursed beasts that mostly ruled the world under the command of the awakened and the Lords of Sin yet they ran into a rather terrifying problem as a woman dressed like an exorcist yet they could easily tell was no human empowered by holy energy was tearing through their ranks with bloody abandon and nothing they seemed to throw at her seemed to slow her down. For the eldest of the awakened and the lords they knew immediately who this warrior was as old memories fell back to the day of the first eruption, the awakening of demonic and holy power in the world. An angel had returned to the world much to their shock and terror unsure of what to do except hide and let their fodder forces act as a meat shield hoping she would tire out or eventually leave and they could keep their heads.

All except for one.

Cain was furious as he felt the holy power flood over the world as cursed energy was suppressed and he felt his own plans being pushed back and slowed down. How dare Heaven interfere now, how dare that overblown useless creator mess up his plans, ruin his future again. How dare he be rejected again. No, he refused to let Heaven dictate his life again. Cain looked upon the tar swap that was Sloth, that was the current state of his mother and how the nightmares that tended to engulf all the souls and loves she had slumbering in her pools had turned into dreams, the thorny and monstrous plants that seemed to grow out of the tar had become beautiful gardens of color and joy. It frustrated Cain how he felt such happiness to see his mother in such a calm state and yet how angry and frustrated he was that her roots were no longer reach beyond Purgatory. This pleasant dream won't last mother. Don't accept his light, you'll only feel disappointment when he abandons you again and you lose his light. Sleep in the dark, accept that you won't find his light and you won't suffer as it's what you have chosen instead of begging for even a scrap of his supposed grace.

"You don't get to ruin what I've built here Heaven. My Purgatory won't be another Babel for you to topple." Cain wished his mother pleasant dreams worrying how violent and active she would become when those dreams ended but also smiling a bit knowing just how much that violence could further his goals as he left his lands for the first time in years as it was time Heaven got a message, his father had sent his soul here and it was time his old man got an idea of just how foolish he was, that Heaven didn't dictate his wants or needs.

Lute paused for a moment as she tore off the head of a demon looking around as she felt a great power heading her way.

"I should've guessed it would be you, his lapdog that would be causing such a mess of things."

Lute growled as she turned to see who was talking. The plains were empty desert except for the corpses of the many she had slaughtered and now a lone human figure that was walking in as if the carnage around them was nothing but an annoyance instead of a message of her power and how he should be threatened. He wasn't human, Lute could tell that immediately from all the power he was giving off and yet it was much more controlled and contained than the power in the souls of the beasts she had fought. Is this one of those awakened or maybe one of the so-called sins of this world. should I kill them if they are a sin? Awakened I could wipe out easily enough, but the Sins are humanities duty to overcome, and it would be wrong of me to take that from them. "Who or what are you? This offer is one time only leave now while I'm in a good mood or join your brethren here as fertilizer for the dirt."

Cain just smiled at the woman in front of him barley holding back a laugh at her arrogance comparing him to the rabble she had been slaughtering. "It's just like the arrogance of Heaven not being able to see others for who they are. We are all the same in your eyes, aren't we? To this day I still don't understand why he so willingly bends to the knee to you rabble."

Lute didn't give the man a chance to speak further deciding at the very least she would remove his blasphemous tongue. The man ducked under her blow not even moving an inch as he bent back that smug smirk on his face just serving to annoy Lute as she flew into the air avoiding an eruption of fire that tried to engulf her. That same fire turned solid as it shielded the man from blasts of energy Lute sent his way as he yawned at her openly taunting the angel that now wanted him very much dead as she dive bombed, smashing through his shield. That caught the man somewhat by surprise as he tried to turn the shattered shield into arms to grab Lute but instead of grinding him into the dirt, she launched into the air at such speed a loud boom could be heard for kilometers as she smashed his face in while the man tried to recover from the sudden shift in gravity, altitude and the pressure as he body rapidly ascended.

Fire erupted from his body as he tried to burn the warrior to make her let go as he formed wings of flame so he could have a controlled descent. Lute did let her target go though before he could recover, she slammed down hard with her leg sending the man down like a rocket smashing into the ground. Lute quickly followed behind him her knee slamming into the mans gut before burying him in punches.

This is starting to get very annoying. I must say she is more of a challenge than I expected but I'm sure that she hasn't noticed yet.

Lute was sweating. Why was she sweating. It was getting warmer, she shouldn't not be feeling the heat, she could fly next to a star and be fine and yet now she was feeling hot, and she didn't understand why.

"Divine protection not doing much I see."

Lute growled at the man realizing how much heat he was now putting off and realized he wasn't some ordinary awakened he was one of the Lords he was a Sin of this world. Honestly, she didn't care all that much at the moment, he would be replaced once she killed him, and humanity would have an easier time cleaning up here. She focused on her divine aura to thicken it around her body smiling as she felt the heat fade, but that moment of concentration needed to deflect the heat was all her prey needed to turn the tables as dozens of molten fists erupted out of the ground taking her by surprise as they pummeled into her. She winced feeling pain, real pain beyond training for the first time in ages as she tried to come up with a plan. The fists were in many ways like the roots she always cut through, but they were much more coordinated and unlike the roots where she knew the direction they were coming from most of the ground was now her enemy and this Sin made sure to keep her pinned to the ground and not give her room to fly out of his reach. Each time she thought she had managed to avoid and get out of the reach of the molten fists the Sin would charge in attacking her himself either getting in punches past her defenses or forcing her back into the box of fire and earth that was trying to turn her into dough.

Lute let out a tired and frustrated roar of anger as she let her holy aura falling letting the heat burn her for but a moment before that feeling was followed up by an internal feeling like she was tearing herself apart as she let her energy erupt from her body. The Sin was taken by surprise as he got his face smacked in by a wall of holy power sending him flying back and looked to actually hurt him as Lute gave herself a chance to catch her breath. Picking up her spear she walked over to her downed opponent and went to stab him in the heart. She was not going to give them their last words, they were much too dangerous to be given a chance to slip away and recover.

"You didn't think fire was my only trick, did you? I know fire is easily the only thing associated with wrath, but darkness is its own form of fury as well."

Lute's spear seemed to stab through nothing as the mans form erupted into flame before it went pitch black and a vacuum-like suction caught Lute dragging her in. "Drown in my darkness, my wrath, my anger. Heaven's rule is coming to an end. All things will be drowned in my fury."

Lute could only gasp and grapple as she seemed to sink in the darkness that had engulfed her. She was drowning, sinking and nothing she did seemed to give her grip or momentum except sink further. She clawed at her throat as she felt her lungs burning, truly burning for the first time in her life as she felt starved for oxygen, as she felt the pressure of the darkness crushing down on her. As she sank all that Lute could think about was how had this spawn of evil beaten her, how had she let this thing beat her. She had failed this world; she had been given the task of protecting it and she had failed. She had failed Heaven, and she had failed Adam. He had trusted her, put his faith in her and she had let him down. Would they even know what happened to her or think the roots had gotten lucky. Would she just be replaced and forgotten, would her replacement be up to the task or had she placed a burden on Heaven and on Adam, on her sisters for not being strong enough for letting her own weakness win and letting this demon have his way.

"no….no….NO!" Lute roared out even as she heard nothing in this darkness, she kept roaring in defiance. She called on everything she had within herself no matter how much pain it brought her as she glowed like a golden light in the nothingness that had swallowed her. She focused her power into her spear feeling it shake and hum as it struggled to contain her power. She focused on crafting a portal and then cut using her spear and power like a scalpel tearing away at the darkness and let herself sink and fall.

Cain laughed as he stood tall in his victory. It had been a tough fight but with time not only would he be stronger, but he would have a might army and his mother at his side. If this fool of an angel was the strongest Heaven's army had then his old man was a fool for following them. His feeling of victory was cut short when a stabbing pain filled his abdomen. What? What's happening? Where is this pain coming from?

Blood erupted from Cain as a hole tore open in his body as Lute fell out of him.

Cain gasped in pain as she struggled to heal himself while Lute dragged herself away to put some distance between the two. Lute did smirk as she noticed how the Sin was not only struggling to heal himself, but he seemed unable to send any attack at her in his current state though she wasn't in much of a position to gloat. Cain in turn was trying to understand how she had escaped, how she had managed to wound him so badly.

"Damm you, you harpy! I don't know what you did but I will make you pay some day! Tell that old fool that the mark one has returned, that his plan failed and that I won't play his game or Heaven's game." He fled sinking into the ground fleeing the scene.

Lute wasn't sure who this soul was, yet he seemed to know Adam. She recalled that Adam had, had another agenda when he had spoken to Sera about creating Purgatory. Was his scheme coming back to bite him. I can think about this later. I need to warn Adam about this. Lute created a portal and fled into the void as she cleaned herself up before heading to Heaven to warn Adam and hopefully come up with a plan to deal with this belligerent soul and keep Purgatory safe.

Cain in turn sunk into the tar of his mother feeling her power wash over him sinking into a deep sleep as he let her power focus on healing him and keeping him safe. He dreamt, the nightmares were not there to drive his anger and yet this pleasant dream seemed to stoke the flames of his wrath just as much. There was Abel, his father and mother and Seth. His family was together and happy; he hadn't caved in his brother's skull. He had not been thrown away. He was Heaven's happy little puppet. He would be no one's puppet. He had stood in defiance every day of his life upon his banishment. He had taught his descendants given them grand plans, showed them how to stand up and move beyond Heaven's puppet strings and yet each time Heaven broke them. Babel was toppled and their tongues were tied, the land was flooded and defiance, disbelief and hatred of the divine dammed them to Hell. I will make creation drown, Heaven will be torn down, and Hell will be snuffed out. I will rebuild creation as it should be the perfect world to sate my wrath.



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In Heaven there was celebration and joy as while the winners didn't really understand what was happening the Heaven born did. Their father, their grand creator, was still keeping an eye on them. They felt his power reach out and improve things, give people a chance, empowered angels and gave them a strength they hadn't felt in ages. They felt purpose and drive, that they had direction again.

The only one that wasn't celebrating was Sera as she knew this wasn't the high father. Sera had been the very first Seraph, the first angel, the first light the lord had placed in creation. She was his prototype in a sense as he crafted the archangels and the other seraphim. She was the one who had taught her siblings, shown them how to use the gifts their father had granted them, and Sera recognized this for what it was. This was Lucifer and yet she couldn't fathom why he had let so much power flow freely. There was no direction or intent beyond a simple plea to help to breathe life and to make things better. He was begging for some form of hope to be made manifest.

I need to go down and see what he did. There was no ill intent, but Lucifer often caused no end of problems even when he didn't mean to. I need to make sure this doesn't cause problems. Sera loved her little brother and every day since his fall she wished he would beg their father for forgiveness, that he would repent and come home. Sometimes she had fantasized about simply dragging home and making him see reason.

"Lucifer, I hope you haven't managed to make to much a mess this time?" Sera whispered as she looked through her schedule before sending a message down to Hell, to the embassy to inform Lucifer that she would be visiting, that a meeting had been set up and that he better be there instead of trying to wriggle out of the meeting like he did with other meetings Heaven set up. She wasn't Adam, she wouldn't just let it go, her brother would see her, and she wasn't above dragging him out of whatever hiding spot he found and publicly putting him over her knee until he promised to stop dodging the meetings she set up.



I live. Sorry, this took so long to update but I started like halfway and then kinda fell off and then came back paragraph by paragraph. Hope you all enjoy this latest chapter everyone. Poor lucifer he has no idea what is happening around him and how he is going to have to deal with something he didn't mean to do at all.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Lucifer wondered if his father was messing with him as he looked at Lilith. Was she really standing in front of him or was this is mind playing tricks on him after using so much power. He pinched himself to make sure what he was seeing was real though that felt rather unnecessary when he found himself lying on the ground after Lilith tackled into him with a hug while peppering him with kisses. "Lilith is that really you?"

"Oh, you silly fool of course its me. Oh, my light it's so wonderful to see you so bright once again." Lilith quickly stood up as she helped Lucifer to his feet before she started slapping him in the face. "Don't you ever do that again. It hurts to see you dim your light so much. It hurt that you never let me help you." Lilith finally just took Lucifer into a big hug happy to see her husband as himself again at least from direct appearances rather than the shell that Hell had shaped him into.

Lucifer just smiled happy to see his wife not caring about her assaulting him before a single question burrowed its way in. Why? Why was Lilith here? What did she mean by his light shining again?

"Lilly don't take this the wrong way but why are you here? I think I may be missing something here."

Beelzebub face palmed at her king's stupidity and lack of awareness while Lilith looked as if she was contemplating slapping Lucifer again while Mammon just laughed eating a bag of popcorn enjoying the show.

"You're kidding right Lucifer? All of Hell saw your light. I felt your power unleash and untethered. Oh, it was like the old days when you showed me around the void when Earth was still being built. To feel that raw energy was unmistakeable and to know you were using it again I had to see you. To see the man, I fell in love with stepping forward again."

Lucifer felt his mind struggling to catch up with what was happening as he had been so happy he had been able to save the angel's life and then everything else had flown out of the window when Lilith had entered the room. Satan wanting to help but not wanting to speak up and show just how lost his king was opened a window curtain and pointed out in a manner only Lucifer would notice.

Huh a blue sky….. Wait why is the sky blue!?!? Where is all the red!?!?!??! Lucifer felt his mind blue screen for a moment as he stumbled forward carefully moving Lilith to the side before, he threw open the window to look outside. The entire skyline of Hell was blue, the heat had been replaced with a pleasant soothing breeze. It took a moment for Lucifer to realise that his power had gone far beyond just healing an angel and possibly making them into something new. No, he had altered and reshaped fundamental parts of Hell and he hadn't even noticed. I hope Sera doesn't notice anything. I need to figure this out and I can't handle that at the same time as he yelling at me.

"I seem to have done more than I though." Lucifer mumbled to himself as he looked at the fabric of Hell thankful that nothing permanent had been done yet still intrigued by how he had reshaped things. He was fascinated by how much he had been able to do as a side effect with no true intent behind his power.

"If you didn't plan to alter Hell as such, what did you do then?" questioned a confused Lilith as she looked around the room wondering why Lucifer was inside of a hospital as Lucifer would never need such a place's services. Her gaze fell upon Vaggie who only waved hello nervously not sure what to say or do as the gaze of the queen of hell fell on her with a look of displeasure growing on her face. Vaggie desperately wanted Lucifer to say something or act as she had no idea if she could do anything while the king of Hell remained distracted as he looked over his kingdom and his accidental work.

"Lucifer who is she?" Her tone was neutral and controlled yet there was an underlying promise of violence as she questioned her still distracted husband who didn't take note of her question… "Lucifer I asked who she is!?" The king jumped as Lilith grabbed him by the collar of his shirt dragging him away from the window and pointing at Vaggie. "Who is she?" a low threatening whisper came from the queen as she wanted answers.

Lucifer in turn knew he couldn't tell Lilith the truth, she didn't like even talking about Heaven and had been fighting tooth and nail to delay the construction of the embassy when Heaven had started imposing their will on Hell. The exterminations had all but destroyed their marriage especially with Adam being involved and he recalled how half of Hell went deaf after Heaven decided to just remove souls from Hell without any explanation. Honestly after that mess he was sure Lilith would never talk with or even meet with him again with how she refused to even work together with him after Charlie went missing and they scoured Hell looking for any trace of her. Lilith had even risked the wrath of Heaven sending small armies of hellborn onto Earth in case someone had summoned her. Come to think of it she is still sending hellborn up to Earth even now. I should probably sort that out before it comes to bite me in the ass later though. Looking at the waiting angry Lilith in front of him though dealing with demonic investigators was put on the back burner

Lilith was one of the very few people Lucifer was sure of that was capable of killing a heaven born or at least making them wish they were dead and honestly; he didn't need that mess just after saving this poor girl's life. Not to mention he wanted to know why she had been in such poor shape anyway. Who had wanted her dead, why and how, he needed that information and if Lilith knew what she was that would make getting information very difficult to near impossible, so Lucifer took the one option he had available to him and decided to try and live up to the name humans gave him. He lied. Oh, this is so going to bite me in the ass later. I hope she believes me, and I hope the others "Mammon" can keep their mouths shut.

"Oh, that's Victoria…. I made her." For a moment silence as Lilith had a blank look on her face as she tried to process the information. Looking behind her Lucifer got a myriad of reactions from the sins as Mammon was doing his very best to hide a great deal of laughter, Asmodeus and Beelzebub were either facepalming or looking at him as if he were an idiot for lying, Belphegor just looked at him like he was an idiot and she wanted everyone out of her hospital, Leviathan had a looked both intrigued and worried and Satan just looked neutral but at least looked as if he was willing to keep a lid on things and support Lucifer in the lie if it was needed. Vaggie on the other hand was very confused as she looked at the king of lies and was about to contradict him, call him out and ask what was going on, why lie about her name though any attempt to reveal the truth died in her throat as a suffocating feeling flooded the room as she found Lilith's gaze resting on her with a cold fury though that anger seemed more like it was aimed at Lucifer.

"You made her." Lilith who had seemed entirely smitten with Lucifer a moment ago looked as if she wanted to strangle him now while Lucifer seemed unable to understand why she was so angry all of a sudden.

"Do you want to replace me like heaven did all those eons ago Lucifer?"

Lucifer realised very quickly he had screwed up by making such a simple statement and not explaining things further. Unlike what humans tended to think, he did not have a plan most of the time, he wasn't scheming and more often than not acted on a whim. I really should plan and think ahead before I act. Being spontaneous doesn't seem to work out very well for me if I think about it.

"No, no, no, she is far to young to be a replacement. Lucifer is nothing like his family, he wouldn't just replace me. He has still been trying to talk, so why did he make her then." Lilith mumbled to herself as she tried to think things over her anger seeming to have dulled for a moment igniting hope in Lucifer, he would have a chance to come up with a more convincing explanation to go with his lie that could avoid the result of the hospital becoming a crater. He didn't need Belphegor being on his case anymore than she already was, the sin of Sloth could be surprisingly vicious for how lazy they tended to be. Belphegor on the other hand was the only one closest to the queen that could hear her mumbling and thinking things over, who realised just where the queen's mind may be wandering and moved to try and warn the king, warn Lucifer and try to get him to stop things from escalating, unfortunately she was just a bit to slow to react and Lucifer far to optimistic that things were going in a positive direction.

"Charlie…. She looks like what my darling little girl could've been had we been able to raise her……" the room was going cold as if the warmth was being sucked out of it as Lilith whispered to herself her own thoughts and doubts as her anger started to swell again as a new and heartbreaking thought filled her mind.

"Lilly, darling is everything alright?" asked a rather nervous Lucifer as he noticed the growing amounts of frost and ice spreading from where Lilith was standing. In turn Satan having seen the way the winds were likely blowing and not wanting to be caught in the middle grabbed the transformed angel and the other sins and rushed out of the hospital while also yelling at the gathered nobility of Hell to get as far back as possible.

"Charlie… my dear little blessing… You're trying to replace her." It came out as a light whisper though this time Lucifer had managed to hear her, and alarm bells went off in his mind not that he really had a chance to try and explain himself as Lilith just exploded on him yelling so loudly even, he had to cover his ears. "How dare you! She is still out there waiting for us and here you are trying to make a replacement! Is that why you stopped looking, why you just locked yourself away? Did our little girl mean so little to you? Is she so easy to replace?" Lucifer felt his heart break as Lilith ranted at him lashing out with her fury and her power as ice and shadow smashed the building around them tearing everything apart.

What hurt the most wasn't the falling parts of the building or the lashing out of Lilith's power that was striking him. No what hurt the most was how easy it was for her to jump to the worst conclusion. To think he had stopped caring, had stopped looking. He however couldn't blame her after how he had just locked himself away and blocked out the world. Dear lord I was acting like my siblings wasn't I.

Lucifer braved the storm of rage and pain as he slowly walked towards Lilith just taking the beating not avoiding any of her attacks. Step by step he moved forward humming an old song, the first song he and Lilith sang together after she had left the garden with him. "Nothing could replace her Lily. Nothing could fill the hole she left. Just take a breath my dear, give your heart a chance to rest. I have been away for far to long." He closed the gap and just hugged Lilith who was just crying and begging for Charlie for their daughter to be returned. Old wounds that had been papered over had been torn open as Lucifer just comforted his wife telling her to rest as he explained himself. How he had only made Victoria as a test of his old powers, to see if he still had any real connection, to see if his father had truly forsaken him. He spun a tale of how Satan had worked and managed to convince him to get back into doing his job of running Hell and this was his first step of sorts into getting back into the role of a leader by flexing his power. To show Hell but more importantly Lilith that he was more than capable of shining brightly again as the Morningstar.



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"Blaze are you sure we should be doing this?" a bird like demon asked as a small army gathered around a palace. "I mean I'm all for a good backstabbing and power grab, but this could really backfire on us."

The heat in the area rose as small pillars of fire erupted near the dissenting and doubting voice. An eagle like being walked out of the shadows of the forest looked at the other demon as if they were a pathetic idiot. "Either do your part or leave. I have no need for weaklings or cowards." The new demon scoffed as he looked at the growing fear in the eyes of the coward. "Now is the perfect time to strike and grab out prize. Every other noble is distracted and heading towards the king to seek answers or his favour. Stolas will be there and so will most of his guards. He will not be able to leave without showing a great deal of disrespect and suffer for it. This is my chance to make sure I get was meant to be mine. Father was a fool for giving him the grimoire." Blaze took one more look around as his magic spread out to make sure everything was safe and smiled a wicked smile as he motioned for his followers to attack.

A small hoard of demons poured out of the forest as Blaze sent out a great stream of fire slamming into and breaking the wards around his father's palace. The small number of guards stolas had left behind had not be prepared and were unable to push back the invading force especially with Blaze taking to the battle fire erupting all around as he burned anyone in his path into a crisp. As his soldiers push forward Blaze stepped into the palace slowly walking through burning the occasional painting of his father's favoured sons. They didn't deserve to be there anyway. He was fathers eldest, his first born, he should've needed no other heir than he. He deserved the right to wield his father's legions, he deserved to hold his father's grimoire not that pathetic waste of space Stolas. Blaze stopped as he found what he was looking for as he looked upon a door that was entirely out of place in his father's palace covered in glitter and stickers.

While pathetic his little brother was no fool, the grimoire would be on his person, there was no way he would leave such a pitiful defence if the book had been left at the palace and trying to fight his brother while he had the book would be an act of suicide. No, he needed another tool and behind the door was that tool. A young owl girl was dragged out kicking and screaming, small bursts of shadow magic trying to strike her attackers to no avail as Blaze's fire prevented any of her strikes that could give her freedom from being true strikes. "Such a frail and tiny little thing. Only my brother could have a child as pathetic as you."

He struck her knocking her out and ending her annoying struggling though the other demons under his command and the few siblings willing to work under him gave a nervous look as they felt small worms of doubt creeping into them. Blaze was powerful but Paimon wasn't a fool so there must have been a reason he had given Stolas the grimoire. Blaze taking note of the doubt lit a ball of hellfire in his palm as he looked down on all his allies "Do not let your doubts and fears weigh on you now. There is nothing Stolas could do that I couldn't do tenfold. Get to work and get her to the safe house. I'll prepare the message to be sent to Stolas. Let's see that pathetic wimp of a goetia with his bleeding heart find a way to reject my demands." Blaze laughed as he walked out of the scorched palace confident in his success and future elevation and enjoying the thought of tormenting Stolas.

Unbeknownst to Blaze looking through an enchanted Paimon looked down on his son with a look of curiosity and just apathy at how pathetic he thought Blaze was being. How stupid must his son be for if he thought Stolas to be his lesser by showing his own jealousy and envy it made him even more pathetic than he thought Stolas was. It was rather sad, he had once held such high hopes for Blaze when he had first noticed his son's potential but that had quickly faded when he saw how his son squandered that potential, was a brute of a man and just didn't seem to understand the actual purpose of Paimon's job. Not to mention how he viewed Blaze as a coward. Most if not all of the assassination attempts against Paimon had been organised, orchestrated, planned and egged on by Blaze. The welp used his brothers and sisters as meat shield so his hands would never be dirty enough for Paimon to muster up the motivation to punish him but honestly it was time Blaze learned his lesson. Consider this your first true test Solas. How will you act and treat this challenge to your authority and power?



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Purgatory city

Walking down the halls of a grand cathedral a lone snake man looked through several notes of after-action reports of the battle in Farm and how it had been taken under the control and stewardship of the Holy Council and the Purgatory government. He didn't care much about the collapse of a warlock led nation, but he was annoyed he was going to have to take stock of all the new supplies and equipment that this new land grab had brought in. "I'm not some office clerk; I have actually important work I need to do, and this is just getting in my way."

The man knew it was all a game of politics though. As an afflicted even with his position in the running of the city he lacked the same level of respect, and many were weary of his presence. He was sure the only reason he had even manged to climb as high as he had was due to the many medical breakthroughs and treatments he had invented and his work in treating and reducing the number of and the worsening of those who suffered from affliction. What really gave him his support and backing however was the political backing of the exterminators and the military of Purgatory. His advances in medicine and technology made their job safer and easier and thus they had a vested interest in his wellbeing.

The backing and support were appreciated even if that meant he was stuck dealing with menial jobs every now and again but what he did care about was the great deal of latitude he got with his work. Oversight was a rare thing he had to deal with and at the moment he was rather glad about that fact as he had found an interesting project to start working on and many an eyebrow would be lifted and unnecessary attention and people being uncomfortable could end up giving his enemies a chance to take a shot at him.

In his hands was not just after-action reports but also immigration papers and medical records. It had been a few months since the battle at Farm and learning about the miracle child and how she had unleashed such power from the spear. Since the girl's arrival he had started a little experiment to test out if the reaction the spear had with the girl was a fluke or if she was truly something special. He had made sure she had direct interaction with sin and blessed energy through a variety of means be it by having agents spiking food and water or even during medical visits and check-ups. Sometimes he did feel bad for using a little girl as an unknowing lab rat but when he looked at the preliminary results his mind instead switched lanes into the possibilities of the future as the child truly did seem to be blessed. He body filtered blessed and sin energy as if they were natural parts of her system. There was no degradation, no rejection it was all flowing in a perfect symbiosis that he just knew he could learn so much from if he had the time and resources once he figured out how to convince the council to act or at the very least the exterminators. With her gifts I could learn how to better fight affliction, maybe even cure it. I could rid myself of this accursed form and take back my humanity in full… I could even retain the power this curse provided me. This girl is a font of knowledge, I just need to figure out how to access that knowledge without the others catching on and cutting me out of the picture.

Screens lit up as he went over surveillance, he had set up to keep an eye on her knowing he was likely not the only one keeping an eye on the girl. The city had fallen into an invisible war being waged by its leaders as every faction of the leading council of Purgatory knew that the girl would be an important part of the future of the city and thus also their role and position in that future. Pentius truly did feel for the girl who was unknowingly a pawn in a grand game for the future, but he didn't care to lose that game or be on a losing team.



Sorry this chapter took so long it just took a great deal of effort to put out the first half with constant starts and stops. The second half came out a bit easier and I feel like I have a good rhythm going at the moment, so I hope to update this sooner than the release gap between this chapter and the previous one. Hope it is a good read and has been worth the wait I made you all wait. Enjoy the latest fruits of my labour.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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The nobles of Hell were not sure what was going on. One moment things seemed call enough as they waited for a chance to see their king and much to their surprise their queen after many spied lady Lilith rushing into the hospital building calling for her husband. A few minutes later the sins were rushing out of the building with an unknown extra demon in Satan's hands while the hospital was falling apart behind them either freezing over in parts or powerful surges of sonic magic tearing everything apart or even simply stealing the sound away from an area. The nobles unsure of what to do simply fell back on the basic wait and see approach even if they backed up a fair few kilometres just in case the queen decided to expand the range of her wrath even if they were struggling to understand why she was likely so angry. There were whispers among many nobles wondering if they should leave and come back a bit later yet many felt it would be disrespectful to the king who had finally made himself known again after years of leaving things in the hands of the queen and sins and also nobody wanted to be the first ones to leave lest they incur the wrath of the sins or the king if he wanted them all here for something important. Any idea of leaving early and waiting for things to calm down quickly vanished with the sins landing in front of them, Satan letting someone out of his hands before looking back at the 'conversation' going on between the king and queen.

The goetia looked among themselves as they tried to figure out who the stranger was among the sins and why she was likely so important. Had the king decided to choose and elevate a new demon to be his queen? Was that why the queen lady Lilith was so angry? No that was unlikely as the damage being done was much more contained than it should be considering just how powerful the queen was, no something else was going on.

Eventually someone managed to gather the courage to ask the sins what was going on. "Lord Satan if I may be so bold but who is this young lady with you at the moment?"

The other sins rolled their eyes at the deferral to Satan though it was understandable due to him handling the enforcement of the laws of Hell and making sure the goetia didn't start a war with each other every other week. Mammon though hid a growing grin as an idea popped into his head to mess with Satan and Lucifer he just needed to wait for the chance as he dragged the angel girl to his side out of the sight of everyone else as Satan got swamped by the goetia as after the first question asked many felt brave enough to voice their own concerns and confusion.

"Look girly how about a deal, I help you and you help me?"

Vaggie didn't looked impressed, nor did she feel very compelled to take the demon up on his offer no matter how confused she felt about where she was and what had happened to her. Everything felt different in a way she couldn't really describe. "Why do I need your help? Lucifer seems like he will have this sorted out once he is done talking with the queen."

Mammon broke out in a small giggle as he forced himself to keep his laughter in check not wanting to draw attention to his little scheme. "If you think old Lucy has any control on this situation you are just as delusional as those idiots up on Earth. The man is comically inept at the best of times. No, the ones running the show down here are Satan and queen Lilith because they actually have heads on their shoulders and not whatever circus for a brain Lucifer has and do you know what that means?"

Vaggie shook her head though she didn't like the growing feeling of a pit in her stomach as the demon continued to speak.

"It means that you are on a time limit girly. The queen doesn't like you and while Satan may defer to Lucifer on this situation the queen will find a way to get Lucifer to see things her way and all things considered I don't think that will end well for you." Mammon gave a big toothy grin as he watched a sense of despair and fear grow in the girls eyes as he let her imagine the worst possibilities of her future when in all honesty the most likely thing that would happen is her simply being abandoned by Lucifer and all things considered the girl seemed more than strong enough to survive in Hell but he could tell she was lacking information which meant she was an easy mark to manipulate. Wow they really don't know much about Hell up in Heaven, do they? Or they think things are still like the good old days not realising just how pathetic Lucifer has gotten.

"Look Victoria I aint looking for your soul or anything. I really just enjoy messing with Lucifer and you need a patron to back and support you with the queen being on the war path. So how about a bit of quid quo pro. I help you keep your head, and you help me have a laugh by screwing with Lucifer and Lilith without having to get my hands dirty. Heck, you don't even have to do much just smile and nod or wave, whichever feels ok for you."

Vaggie wasn't impressed though she was scared even as she tried to hide her fear recalling just how angry the queen had been when she had seen her. The deal was tempting, and it didn't seem to cost her much at all, but it also put her at risk if the queen got even angrier at her. Vaggie spoke out with any small annoyance she had as a way to stall the demon in front of her as she thought about the deal he was offering. "Victoria isn't my name, its…" she froze up for a moment as she felt a stabbing pain in her head by her eye, the only wound that hadn't properly healed with her transformation. "My name is Vaggie." She held her eye trying to hold back the pain as she felt a burning as if a wound had been exposed to air as memories flashed almost too fast to comprehend some feeling like damaged or burned old polaroid photos as Vaggie tried to make sense of her thoughts and memories. Some hidden and blocked due to her trauma and others missing or damaged due to her rapid transformation and the wounds she had received.

Mammon hid a grin taking note of the girl struggling to remember her own name. a bit of damage to the old thinker huh. Well, this could be very useful. Lucifer won't be able to abandon his sick little puppy, Lilith will get driven up the wall and all I need to do is warm up a bucket of popcorn.

"Well Victoria do we have a deal." Mammon smiled as he held out his hand

Vaggie frowned at the demon refusing to use her name but sadly she didn't think she had much choice in taking him up on his deal. She had no real friends and relying on Lucifer's support alone for her survival was a fool's gamble and she couldn't risk it when the queen seemed out for her blood for reasons she couldn't understand. It was a distasteful decision, but it was the best option she had at the moment. Vaggie almost wanted to cry, she had only been stuck in Hell for a few hours by her own knowledge and she was already making a deal with a demon. She held out her hand and shook hands with the demon, her soul wasn't sold, she didn't feel any hellish power attempting to bind her will, no true hellish deal or contract had been made or signed and yet Vaggie still felt like she had lost something, something fundamental that she wouldn't be able to get back, she had compromised and she realised that while it was a small line she had crossed that wouldn't be the last line, once you crossed one it was just easier to cross the next and the next.

"I believe this will be the beginning of a wonderful business arrangement. Names Mammon, sin of greed and I do say I think we will be good acquaintances in the future." They shook hands though Vaggie took note of Mammon's words and knew this was not a true partnership. He wasn't her friend, and neither was she his, this was something set up as an association by convenience and desperation. The power balance and disparity between her and Mammon was wide and she needed him while she was just entertainment for him.

As Mammon turned his back on her to keep an eye on the game of panic and politics Satan was trying to wrangle Vaggie could only look at the retreating back of the demon Mammon and feel anger and frustration at her own weakness and desperation. How she had thrown away even just a small bit of her principles just at the chance of survival, to have the aid of even an untrustworthy ally in this dangerous new life she had been thrown into. She wanted to hurt Mammon, hurt the sin of greed to get back even just a bit of her self-worth, to show him she didn't need him as much as he thought.

A dagger formed in her hand as she stared at Mammon's back.

She dropped the wicked blade as soon as she felt its weight in her hand looking at her hands in shock and terror, feeling shame and horror at herself. How had she been able to craft and form the blade so easily, so casually, how had she known what Mammon was when all she had been given was his name. New power, new knowledge both out of her hands, emotions she hadn't ever really thought about felt amplified and slipping out of her grip and shaping and moving her instead of her having control of herself anymore. I wanted to hurt him just because of how small he made me feel. I was willing to hurt him… What is happening to me? Vaggie didn't have a chance to really ponder her new existence as Mammon made his move to have his entertainment.

Satan had lost track of Mammon for a moment as he dealt with the many questions of the nobility getting them to calm down and getting everything in order as they were calling for the chance to talk to the king and queen seeking answers, hoping for answers many had been hunting for since Heaven had their little clean up of Hell and they lost the last bits of contact they had with the royals when they just shut themselves away.

"Who is the girl with you? Who is she that you rescued her from the building?"

A simple question to answer even if he was going to use a lie. Just call her an experiment crafted by Lucifer, a test to see how much of his angelic power he still had. That this was their king's attempts to see if he could actually protect Hell and its people from Heaven if larger actions were taken against Hell that went further than just acting against the sinners. Such simply and easy methods to gain control of the crowd and to get them to just shut up and listen, unfortunate for Satan there was a certain spider that just loved causing him and Lucifer chaos to deal with.

"Meet your new princess everyone, meet princess Victoria!" Mammon had crafted giant speakers that let his voice echo over the crowd reaching all ears. Satan froze up as he looked at Mammon as if he was insane and wanting to squish him under his foot as fire and smoke started to spew from his mouth. Unfortunately, Satan had made a mistake in turning his attention away from the nobles in his search to find and punish Mammon as the jester sin of greed further played up his own lie to the crowd by using a string of webbing he had attached to Vaggie to drag her in front of the crowed whispering in her ear for her to just show her wings.

Nervously Vaggie complied and unfurled her wings, leathery bat like demon wings sharing space with feathery dove like angel wings and a single horn growing on her head clear for all to see. While the goetia gazed upon her Mammon had dozens of robotic servants spreading among the nobles answering their questions with his voice as he moved through the crowd to keep out of Satan's sight. "Such a perfect blending of heaven and hell. Only the daughter of Lucifer could radiate this power. Queen Lilith was angry due to not being able to have her daughter in a natural manner. The child was hidden to avoid Heaven learning of her existence. The child was kept isolated to hide her from the politics of Hell. She was kept isolated until her power could be properly contained so she didn't hurt herself or others. The queen wanted her hidden to hide her shame at not being able to mother a child. The king wanted her hidden to keep her from himself and his queen." Mammon spread rumours and lies and deception among the nobility until they were all talking amongst themselves spreading Mammon's words further and faster, sometimes keeping information solid and straight and other times bending it and putting their own fantastical spin on it.

Satan eventually managed to get his hands on Mammon, but it was far to late as Bee pulled on his arm to grab his attention showing the gather goetia all bowing before the girl, only a few were slower than the others looking at ancient grimoires before they themselves were bowing and praising the new princess of Hell.

"Hell, dammit Mammon! Why would you do this? I don't need my job being made more difficult and I don't need you starting a fight between the king and queen."

Mammon just laughed shrugging even in the tight burning grip of Satan. "I like to cause messes and its even funnier if that mess spills on you or Lucifer." Mammon choked as Satan crushed his throat. The giant dragon of a demon only bemoaning the fact that his fellow sin would heal sooner or later, and he would no longer have some blessed silence and freedom from the chaos Mammon liked to dump on his lap.

"Bee please keep him from causing any more trouble. I need to figure out how to deal with this before more trouble comes my way. I also need to figure out a suitable punishment for Mammon here because I honestly think he's starting to enjoy the pain I cause him, or he gets enough jollies out of annoying me that he doesn't care about the pain." Growled out the rather annoyed and tired sin of wrath. Mammon was a walking talking aggravation for him made worse by the fact Mammon knew how to skim the edges of the few true rules and laws Hell had making it even harder to pin him down for a proper punishment. He and Lucifer literally had armies of lawyers, sinner and Hellborn alike working on finding a way to finally trap Mammon and block any escape he could make to weasel his way out of legal trouble or proper punishments. Mammon had made avoiding accountability an art form much to Satan's annoyance, it truly frustrates him to no end that Mammon put more work and effort into being a pain in the ass than in doing his job running Greed.

"I have a fabulous idea, Bee. Why not take Mammon down to my ring. I have the perfect gear to hold him down while we punish him."

Mammon let out a gurgled laugh as his throat hadn't healed properly not believing Beelzebub or Asmodeus could come up with anything even possible of being labelled as a good punishment.

"You should take this a bit more serious Mammon. When we get to Lust, you'll be tied down in front of a pleasant fireplace."

Mammon rolled his eyes not taking anything seriously. It had been decades since Bee had ever come up with a good punishment or torture system. She spent way too much time keeping her parties going and making her honey. Asmodeus had nothing that scared Mammon at all, at best he could end up using him as a tester for his more exotic and dangerous toys and that didn't phase Mammon at all.

"And while your immobile I'll be burning your money one dollar at a time."

Mammon froze up then started freaking out as he tried to break free of Beelzebub's grip. "Is it too late for the lava fields, I hear they are extra hot this time of year. Heck, I don't mind being a punching bag for Satan, I'll even drop half my legal team at the next meeting Lucifer, and I have." Mammon was begging and pleading the moment his throat had healed to try and save his money while Bee and Ozzie dragged him through a portal. Mammon tried to ask the other sins for help, but Belphegor was sleeping on the ground, and Leviathan was asking Bee to make a recording of Mammon's punishment.

Satan felt like he had been played for a fool for eons now. why had he never thought about simply threatening Mammon's money. Then again rarely was Mammon in a position to be caught like this and he rarely if ever left Wrath. I'll think about this later. Right now, I just need to figure out how to get the nobility to stop all this praise of a fake princess before lady Lilith sees it. She'll really blow a gasket then. Of all the sins only Belphegor and Satan had really known about Charlie about the child of Lilith and Lucifer, and he knew just how angry Lilith would get if, no when she learned of this.

Luck and more importantly time was not on Satan's side as a rather annoyed voice joined by a confused, yet curios voice directed at him caught his attention. "Satan what's going on?"

Satan didn't immediately turn to face the voices rather he turned to where the portal to Lust should've been hoping to be able to grab Mammon and use him as a shield but also forcing the spider to explain things instead of leaving it to him. No such luck, the spider was gone for now meaning he was stuck explaining everything. "Well, your majesties it's like this… it's all Mammon's fault."



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Andrealphus was ecstatic learning about the princess the man going over political game plan after political game plan and how he could raise his status as a goetia. Stolas in turn found the reveal both as a sign that Hell may be leaving its current state of stagnation but also worried about what could happen in the new period of advancement that the princess could represent. There were many demons who loved the current status quo and would not be happy seeing their gold mine drying up and would fight to try and keep things as they were. Stolas may not be the biggest fan of his brother-in-law, but he knew the man would be needed with his love of the political game if they wanted their families to stay afloat and even thrive in the up coming unknown future Hell would face.

"Do you think our little Octavia would be able to befriend the princess? She is starting to come of age and having a friend with status like the princess would help shield her somewhat from the growing pains of her youth and interacting with her peers." Stella sipped her tea as she wondered aloud about the possibilities of bringing her family closer to the royal throne even if only by association. Andrealphus gave a big smile as he was already thinking about plans on how to get his niece and the princess to meet each other by 'chance' the man giddy at the idea his sister had given him. Stolas felt a bit apprehensive about using his daughter as a political tool even though he knew many of the other goetia would gladly use their children in such a manner couldn't bring himself to object to the idea. Stella was right growing up as a goetia, as Hell nobility didn't offer one a shield from the violence of Hell, often it painted an even bigger target on someone. No matter how kind or friendly a face looked, there was always a hidden knife or bottle of poison or curse hidden behind the back of the demon giving you that smile or friendly look. This could be rather healthy for his daughter having a friend as politically powerful and personally powerful as the princess would be and how that could let his little girl have a normal life growing up or at least as normal a life as a noble could have.

Stolas felt a slight buzz from his grimoire. A single message appeared on a blank page, a message from his father. A test is coming. Be prepared and don't disappoint me. Good luck Stolas, you are going to need it.

Stolas felt a pit grow in his stomach as he looked over the short message from his father wondering what he was talking about. His thoughts were interrupted by an imp butler arriving with a buzzing mirror. Picking it up Stolas wondered if it was his father calling to clarify what the message, he sent was, but it wasn't his father, rather it was his brother, his eldest brother. "To what do I owe this pleasure Blaze." Stolas wasn't sure how to feel about the call. Blaze had been the loudest of his siblings to challenge their father on giving him the true ancient grimoire. Had called it a disgrace of a decision to give it to one as young as Stolas. He had actively challenged Stolas to claim it several times, though much to Stolas' confusion many of his siblings, even the ones that didn't like him had stood in his defence. Stolas had learned that Blaze while one of Paimon's most powerful children he had not made any friends, being responsible for the most deaths of his own siblings than any other of Paimon's children.

"What no hello, how are you, Stolas. I feel hurt, where is that courteous and welcoming nature of yours Stolas?

"We both know you're not calling to see how I am. What do you want Blaze?"

The fake jovial nature and tone Blaze had been giving off vanished as the usual cruel and harsh energy Blaze usually gave off almost started to crack the mirror. "You know what I want runt. I want Father's grimoire; it is mine by right and should never have gone to a pathetic weakling like you."

Stolas laughed at his brother unable to take him seriously. "And what does that say about you that Father gave it to me and not the all-powerful Blaze. No, I think I'll be keeping the grimoire, Blaze." Stolas went to shut off the call but was stopped by Blaze who continued to talk with a rather hard glaze of anger in his voice now.

"I wouldn't end this call if I were you Stolas, after all you wouldn't be able to know where to send the book after all once you bend to my demand." Stolas wanted to laugh at his brother but felt the humour die in his through when Blaze allowed the image of the mirror to expand now it showed him next to a damaged and burning castle and Stolas realized where his brother was calling from. "You were smart enough to keep father's grimoire on your person but sadly it seems you didn't hire very good security. Not to mention the wonderful little bargaining chip I found."

Stolas felt his heart stop as Blaze lifted an unconscious Octavia up so she could be seen in the mirror clearly. "Such a fragile little thing. Bring the grimoire to the wastelands of Greed by midnight tomorrow or well I'm sure you and your blushing bride can have another heir prepared."

The mirror shattered as Stolas felt his rage bubble over, shadows flooded the tent at the sheer audacity of his brother going after his daughter. Stella and Andrealphus rushed out of the tent to avoid the initial wave of shadows not sure what was going on until Stolas had managed to calm down enough to explain the situation. Stolas knew his father knew what was happening and he couldn't give the grimoire to his brother as this was likely the test his father had mentioned. He felt angry recalling how Paimon had seemed to enjoy spending time with Octavia so why hadn't he stopped this but then again if he failed would his father simply take Octavia under his own wing. Either way he lost his daughter, and he couldn't handle that even as an idea or option.

Stolas couldn't leave. He and his entourage had been some of the first to arrive and it would be seen as a great insult if they left now not to mention they would lose an advantage of being the first to see and be able to talk to Lucifer, Lilith and the sins. If he could manage a meeting early enough, he could petition at least Satan for aid in this situation with how the sin was known for not really caring for the games of the nobility and just enforcing his will and Hell's laws.

Another idea was brought up by Andrealphus as a call to check up on the castle staff that had survived gave them the knowledge that the stores of angelic weapons was untouched Blaze hadn't even noticed them or if he had had simply left them alone not thinking them as anything worth taking. Stolas recalled one of his siblings once telling him about how short-sighted Blaze tended to be, the man never once thinking more than a step or two ahead. The true grimoire lit up catching everyone's attention as names started appearing in the book and a path was provided for Stolas to take to save Octavia.

I.M.P, passage to earth, angelic payment, Striker, humiliation, capture.

Andrealphus had heard of Striker, an imp assassin of great renown for being capable of even taking out lower-level nobility. Expensive but worth the cost, I.M.P was something none of them had heard of though as Stolas search over the Vox net to see what or who they were. Learning about the organisation was a bit funny seeing how a group of imps had managed to find ways to get to earth without being summoned by a human and were selling their services as revenge assassins.

Sending imp assassins after Blaze on a rescue mission would certainly send a message and it would also mean they didn't have to risk getting the ire of Hells rules by simply leaving to deal with the issue themselves. Stolas wondered what the grimoire meant by capture and humiliation, but he was sure he would figure it out once his daughter was safe again.

Andrealphus started making some calls to start organising as Stella and Stolas left the tent to act as if everything was normal. They couldn't afford any weakness being shown as if the other nobles learned of Blaze's actions, they would start taking their own shots at Stolas hoping to claim something while they could show off the privilege that they had managed to strike against the family of Paimon. Stolas was sure the other goetia princes would support their own children against him to spite Paimon and he didn't feel like suffering his father's wrath for showing any weakness his enemies would feel like they could take advantage of. Stolas could only chuckle at the dream of the punishment Blaze would face under their father's ire for pulling a stunt like this on such an important occasion. You have no idea the pain and suffering I will bring upon you Blaze once I have my hands around your throat.



Well, here is a fun present for all you readers. A new chapter out earlier than usual for how long the last one took to come out. Mammon clear to his jester roots likes to make fun of his king and it looks like we will be having a few other players entering the game. Blaze really has no idea the fun I plan to have writing his punishment once he loses in the next few chapters that is gonna be fun. Well looks like Vaggie is also going to be stuck dealing with the nobility and rules of Hell also suffering a bit of brain damage from her trauma at being betrayed but also having a knife in her head wonder how that's gonna affect some things. Enjoy this latest chapter readers.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Blitzo sat on his bed his head in his hands as he contemplated the many decisions he had made in his life. Sure, there were some regrets, but he could accept those regrets as they led him to a much calmer and clearer life, the weight of his regrets was lighter than they had been in years, they didn't feel like they were smothering him, controlling him. "I just started to get my life together again. Why did this sort of thing need to happen now?" Blitz whispered into his hands as he looked at a letter, he had dropped the seal of the Goetia emblazed on the front.

Veroskia walked into the room wondering what was going on as seeing Blitz like this always filled her with dread as she feared he would start backsliding, but this seemed different as it seemed like he was consumed by fear. "Blitz are you ok?" she called out as she sat down next to him holding him in a comforting hug. She noticed the discarded letter but missed the emblem on it as she wondered who had sent Blitz mail. "If it's your old man, don't pay him any mind Blitz and if its from your past we'll work on it together. Just don't push me away please not after all the work we put in."

Blitz tried to give Veroskia a comforting smile, but he just couldn't hold it as he showed her the emblem on the letter. "Wish it was my old man then I could do something about the issue. This is so much worse, got a job offer something I'm sure I may not come back from."

"The don't go, say no." Verosika had a good idea of what the job being asked for could be considering the side business Blitz did whenever he went up to Earth as part of her security detail. "Pulling a job on Earth for the Goetia will chain you to the who political mess in Hell. Say no and leave it alone, the risk is too big."

"Unfortunately, it isn't a hit on Earth, a hit would've been an easy job even with the politics in mind. No, I've been asked to take on a job here in Hell, a smash and grab job with rescue on the side." Verosika frowned as she tried to understand why this job scared Blitz so much if it was taking place in Hell and was a simple grab job, then again nothing involving the Goetia was ever simple.

"Well, it's about who my partner is, a big shot assassin named Striker. He is only ever called on big jobs involving high ranking and powerful Goetia V. if he is involved then I'm really scared about this whole situation and since I was asked personally, my organization I.M.P was called to get involved I can't say no or the Goetia will work to bury me and everything connected to me. I can't let you get hurt; I can't let the others get hurt but I'm so scared I may not come back." Blitz fell onto his back as he just sank into the bed letting his fear and worry weigh him down. He let out a small deprecating laugh at himself. "Don't even know why I'm so scared just because of who my partner is, don't even know the job and I'm almost to scared to leave the apartment."

Verosika wasn't looking at Blitz rather her gaze had turned to a room with a decorated door and a small smile grew on her face as she thought of the young girl sleeping behind that door and how she had saved Blitz, helped rebuild the man and some of the bridges he had burned. She then turned to Blitz as she pulled him off of the bed and made sure to force him to stand on his feet. "Blitz you are a good man and a great fighter. I know this letter is scary, this job is scary, but nothing will keep you down. This may seem scary but remember the first few therapy sessions you had, how you literally jumped out of the 10th​ floor of a building just to try and avoid your issues. And if the job scares you so much make yourself a promise that you will talk to Fizz when you get back. You were honest with me so be honest with him for a change and if you feel that isn't enough make a promise to yourself and go walk into Loona's room and promise to take her to Lu Lu Land. We both know you'd never break a promise to that girl, so you'll come back from whatever job they are asking you to do."

Blitz gave a small chuckle as he looked at Loona's room. The young hellhound had saved him in more ways than one. He had found her by complete accident after breaking out of prison during the mess that had been Heaven zapping sinners in mass instead of the regular scheduled exterminations and he had ended up hiding in a hellhound orphanage from guards chasing after him. He had pretended to be a prospective adoptive parent to avoid getting thrown out and boy had the place been depressing and then he had seen her that small young girl doing her best to look tough but being unable to hide the hurt and pain. It was her eyes, her eyes reminded him of his own whenever he looked in the mirror and couldn't hide from himself. He didn't know why but he took her in as his own, the matrons warned him she was a tough girl to place having been sent back at least two other times, yet all Blitzo could think about was her eyes. Taking care of Loona had been a tough gig as his pay checks from the circus had been stretch just to take care of himself and now, he was taking big risks with his finances looking after Loona and yet he felt the risk was worth it. There had been some incidents of broken cups, plates and even the occasional piece of furniture, he recalled the first time she had broken something entirely by accident how scared she was he would throw her away. He recalled the look of complete awe when he had told her that a dad couldn't just throw away their child and since she was his daughter, he couldn't throw her away.

Blitz mind fell back to how Loona had ended up bringing him and Verosika closer together again. How Loona had gotten really sick, and he had been unable to get an extension on his paycheck, no one was willing to give him a loan and he knew nothing about Hellhound biology and was terrified that he could make her sick if he tried to help her. He ended up throwing his pride away as Loona was far more important, he had found a way to talk with Veronika and had begged on his knees for her help. Verosika had been quite surprised how Blitz had been more than willing to become her slave for her help. She had been quite surprised when she found out that Blitz had not been trying to scam her bat had actually been that desperate for her help. Helping him look after Loona had been an odd experience as she got to see the side of Blitz she had fallen in love with the first time, and she had hated how that flame was still burning even after all he had done to hurt her. Looking after Loona had forced the two to be around each other for a lot longer than either had cared for at the start and ended up with the two blowing up at each other and for the first time actually talking not just about their break up in how it hurt Veroskia but why Blitz had run, why he had been so scared about everything, about how he felt and cared about her.

Verosika had disappeared for a few days after that mess and Blitz had been more than willing to just forget about her just so he didn't have to face his own issues, but Loona had gotten attached, and she wanted to see her again. Blitz had broken after the first hour of her puppy dog eyes. He had put in the effort to go see Verosika and the two had talked for a while and having had a chance to calm down and talk with cooler heads the two came out better for it even if Verosika hadn't been willing to commit without Blitz going to talk to a professional.

"You know it's a cheap move using Loona to motivate me, right?" Blitz gave a low but hearty chuckle as he felt the strength coming back to his body as he thought back on how long it took to get here in his life and all the work and effort, he had put in. No, he couldn't run away now no matter how scared he was and wouldn't risk the lives of everyone he cared about just to save his own ass. As Blitz turned to go talk to Loona he stopped for a moment as he turned to face Verosika again. "V before I do anything else there is something I need to ask you. There is a chance I won't come back from this so would you be willing to be added to Loona's parental papers. She already sees you like a mom, and I know you love spending time with her. We've always talked about the future and well Loona was always going to be part of that future, so I was hoping." Blitz had started rambling as his nerves got the better of him, Verosika shut him up with a big kiss.

"Yes, yes, a dozen times yes you big fool. Loona means the world to me and I'm sure she would love to be able to call me mom officially, but enough of this depressing I may not come back stuff. You are coming back and then we are going to celebrate with the most expensive party I can think of." Verosika gave Blitz a big hug and a kiss on the forehead before shoving him into Loona's room so he could say what he needed to say and make the promise he needed to make before going off to do something really stupid.



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Striker wondered who had blessed him with so much recent luck as he looked over the calling card sent to him. Business had been good the last few years as sinners flooded him with cash to kill off weakened overlords and even the Goetia had gotten more active in their backstabbing, and he had been paid well to off upstarts and those who lost favour, power or allies. He had never gotten a job as high up as from the House of Paimon one of the true princes of Hell. A smash and grab job and against Blaze of all Goetia made Striker just giddy with excitement. Blaze was an infamous name among the Goetia and assassins in general with how often they were hired to try and kill the royal prick.

Striker had lost a lot of allies and business partners due to Blaze and even some of the few people he would call friends. As a point of business and avoiding risk Striker didn't like to personal meetings with his clients but for this chance, he was more than willing to take the risk. The pay would be good and the chance for revenge and the elevation of his name in taking down a big named Goetia like Blaze was a dream come true. "Shame I'll have to share the credit with some partners but then again going after Blaze alone is a death wish so having meat shields won't be too much of a hassle to work with." Striker was curious about what Blaze had done though as he had always seemed so untouchable but now to have someone as highly ranked as him put a price on his head and personally hiring a squad to take him down. What he did is irrelevant, but it would be nice to rub it in his face or I could lie and make up some pathetic joke of a story to diminish the reason we were sent after him kick the idiot while he is down. The reason didn't matter much to Striker in the end he had fame and fortune in his future, and he was so happy Blaze had made the mistake of screwing up to give him this opportunity.



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Moxxie was dead tired as he finished looking over the latest account books of his father's gang but was glad to see all the numbers in the green even if he knew his father wouldn't care about the work, he put in to make sure their accounts were good. All the old man cares about is that the money keeps coming in, nothing about what we already have and how its being handled. Moxxie often wondered how his old man's finances hadn't collapsed in on itself, honestly the only reason his old man's gang was still afloat was Crimson himself as those working under him were far to scared of the man to risk screwing with him or their own pay check and his business partners and rivals were either not strong enough to knock Crimson over or were smart enough to see that Crismon's gang's life was on a timer.

Fear was all Crimson had as Moxxie had learned over the years as he grew up under his father's thumb and he had also learned his father lacked the flexibility he needed to expand and grow after spending time in the other rings, meeting his wife and even the time he spent in Pride when he was hiding from his dad. Working part time for Blitzo had been an interesting time as the man knew so little about handling money except for using it. Spending time with Milly in Wrath had tough him how to handle himself better, how to stand up for himself and be more than the whipping boy his father had raised him to be and spending time with Blitz in Pride had just shown him how small and short sighted his father's gaze was, how inflexible the man was and how much he had improved his own skills, expanded what he was capable of doing and the contacts and allies he had made.

Moxxie recalled the time he had gotten so drunk he had been willing to actually talk to Blitz about his past, about his dad and why he was in Pride in the first place. Blitz had laughed, not at him but at the situation and much to Moxxie's surprised had spent a good deal of time insulting and making fun of his dad and then Moxxie realised he could do exactly the same, his father didn't have an infinite reach, he realised just how small and limited his father was, how he had stagnated. Blitz told him it was important not to let a man like his father be the person that had a free place to live in your head, to run your life like an asshole like him wanted you to live it. The next day while they were sober Blitz ended up taking them to a firing range and had paid extra to have special targets set up to look just like Crimson. It was here Moxxie internalised and finally realised that his father had no true control over him but the control he gave.

He went back home and suffered his father's wrath in punishment, but his old man hadn't killed him and immediately put him back to work, killing rivals, collecting protection money, gutting snitches and eventually counting the books. As time passed while his father never got any better in how he treated him the rest of the gang started to see him in a better light, it was respect and Moxxie loved the feeling knowing that in his own way despite all of Crimson's effort the old man was losing and Moxxie was winning. It would take time, but Moxxie had the patience because he knew his way of doing things would far outlast his old man and once Crimson was old and feeble Moxxie would take over and enjoy rubbing it in his dad's face that he was taking the gang to far greater heights in power and influence than it had even been under Crimson.

Moxxie was pulled out of his daydream of usurping his father by his personal cell ringing. Why is Blitz calling? Its far to late in the day for this to be social." Answering Moxxie got the chance of a lifetime as Blitz told him about a job offer, he had received but the risk was so great he didn't want to go in with just himself, Millie and a single extra partner. He wanted to know if Moxxie was willing to bring in muscle for backup. Moxxie could tell just how dangerous the job was going to be from how much the clients that wanted to hire Blitz were willing to pay up front. "Seems risky but if Millie is willing to go and you're willing to take the risk I'm in to help. Getting funding that isn't tied to my old man will go a long way in showing him up and proving my way is better than his." Blitz laughed on the other end of the phone as the two of them joked about asshole dads and being better than them.

Putting the cell down Moxxie looked over his contacts list to see who he could call in to help on this job while keeping his dad in the dark. I may actually be able to get one up on the old man earlier than expected. You're going to regret wanting me to toughen up dad because I'm going to take everything you've ever built and make it my own. I'm going to erase you once I show you how I've overcome you… Mom, I know you may not be happy with the path I'm taking but know that I will never forget how you fought for me, and I'll make sure the Greed ring never forgets you as long as I'm around.



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Andrealphus smiled as he his scrying orb notified him the assassins were willing to take up the job and were coming to meet him. The ice demon laughed as he thought about the things Stolas had told him he would end up doing to Blaze once he was brought to him. He didn't like to think he was a petty demon, but Andrealphus wondered how Blaze would react when he saw Stolas had sent imps after him and not more powerful demons or even called a court meeting with the lord of Wrath Satan. He laughed as he thought about how much it would wound Blaze's pride and ego. He would need to contain his pleasure at dreaming about Blaze's future torment as he needed to go prepare for the meeting. His sister and Stolas would be busy representing the family as the king and queen were finally allowing the nobility to come to the palace instead of standing outside of a wrecked hospital. His sister and brother-in-law had lucked out in being allowed to be some of the first to meet the new princess. Oh, how it would elevate their power and status if they could get the princess on their side.

Andrealphus got shocked and frightened as Paimon stood behind him looking on intently with a look of amusement in his eyes. "My son has placed you in charge of organizing the retaliation against Blaze I see. Well, this will be most entertaining to see how you deal with the disappointment that is my eldest."

"You knew about Blaze's actions lord Paimon? Why not stop him then? Would it not reflect badly on you for your eldest son to challenge your choices and word so brazenly." Andrealphus tried to hide his fear and worry with one of the true Princess of Hell talking to him as he tried to understand why he had let Blaze do as he pleased.

"That upstart is far to young and foolish to be taken seriously. Blaze is a candle of fire in the grand scheme of things. Why would I care how others thought of me through his actions, I didn't choose him, I chose Stolas. How my son treats this insult will be a far better reflection of things and so far, it seems he has come up with quite the scheme to counter the plans Blaze set up to try and make him a fool in front of the king and the rest of Hell's nobility. Stolas has far exceeded my expectations, and I must say so have you and your sister. Keep up the good work, I could have a job for you in the future depending on how this goes. I am so excited to see how this game ends." In a flurry of starlight Paimon was gone and Andrealphus felt like he could breathe again without the risk of insulting the prince. The games of the higher powers were truly a terrifying thing the ice demon realised even as he felt exhilarated that he had not only been noticed but that it had been acknowledge that he was doing a good job. I wonder if Stolas knows his father is watching this, watching us as we work to deal with Blaze. No, he likely does and knows Paimon is testing him. Well, I'm doing my part brother-in-law I hope you can do your end well enough. Disappearing in a veil of mist and snowflakes Andrealphus left to his mansion to meet the men that would hopefully take down Blaze and set them on the course the true grimoire wanted them on. A great game was afoot, he didn't know why this was all so important, but he knew it was important or Paimon wouldn't be so invested, and the true Grimoire wouldn't have given them the tools needed to build a road to take.



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Something big was on its way and Hell was working to prepare itself and its denizens as the fabric of the dark half of existence was twisting and turning as it gave out the clips of information Hell needed to make sure their half of existence didn't get torn apart. It couldn't afford the loss of even a single piece on the board, and it wouldn't tolerate petty temper tantrums putting Hell at risk to sooth their own ego. Paimon was doing his part as were the other princes though it had been surprised when Lucifer had created a Nephilim by accident, it had blinded Hell for a moment, made so many roads and paths it wasn't sure what road to take, it had even seen roads to a place it had never seen or known. Heaven had done far more than rip away souls from Hell's grasp, Hell, the shadows could feel it, something just beyond its sight, just beyond its reach.

The eye of the almighty had been upon them, upon Heaven and Hell and thus the road had to be adjusted. Something had been planned, and it couldn't go against the Great Plan even if its own existence was at risk. the shadow felt fear as it couldn't see where the available roads led. All it knew was something was hidden in the dark reaching out for Heaven and Hell as well. Heaven, the great light hadn't made any roads yet, the angels just as slow to act as ever but then again, they had caused this problem and likely couldn't even see or feel it yet. Hell, the shadow if it had a voice would be yelling in frustration at the light to get its act together and help it fix the problem the denizens of Heaven had caused the fabric of existence.



Well we are slowly moving to have a fun plot point in the story as we see the assassins thinking on the job offer to take out Blaze. Actually, on a side note I may be doing a side story on the slow repairing of Blitz and Verosika's relationship and him adopting Loona much earlier in life than in canon. If anyone wants to help with ideas on doing that side story I would love to hear it. Hope you all enjoy this chapter as its not much of a plot mover and feels a bit like filler for me.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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Pentious was looking over notes and recorded data his instruments had collected on the miracle day as everyone had come to label it, the grand flood of energy that seemed similar to the holy power of the spear and blessed power but was so different as well. There was a sense of absolute will behind it as if the power would accept nothing other than its will being made manifest. He had tried to duplicate it, examine it or even contain some of the linger bits of essence the power had left floating around, yet nothing worked. Every test turned out as a failure as he could find nothing, he could bend nothing to his will, and he couldn't contain it as anything he put the power in shattered before the energy dissipated. This endeavour was starting to eat into the time and resources of his other projects, and he could tell it was affecting the quality of his work. Other departments were staring to complain that he was falling behind quotas and schedules. He knew he should drop this path of research until he could acquire better equipment or had a better idea of what he was working with, yet he felt like he was so close to a breakthrough, to understanding something that wasn't meant to be understood that he couldn't just give up. "I think I need to get some sleep; this is going to drive me insane if I let it consume me, and I don't need to give the inquisitorial branch any other reason to want me dead and if I keep falling behind schedule, I know the Exterminators and military will stop defending me."

One of his researchers came in with paperwork as he motioned him to put them down with the other files that were in one big pile to be sorted out later. Pentious groaned as he looked at the pile wondering if he was going over the deep end with his current path of research, when had he allowed his paperwork to pile up like that.

The researcher just nodded even if they were a bit put off at the large pile of papers. So much work only half looked into, or half done. Putting down the notes he saw that some had fallen to the floor, so he picked them up and slowly sorted out some of the pages on the desk to avoid papers falling and going missing. "Sir if I may ask why do you rely so much on analog paper records when it would be easier to handle and sort digital files?" the man decided to strike up some conversation to pass the time as he sorted out the papers. He didn't get much of an answer as Pentious just lay on his desk half awake half asleep as he contemplated his failures and how many people were just waiting for him to make a mistake to pounce on. The researcher asked again this time nudging the snake man to get his attention.

"Oh well digital is so much easier to hack and copy. While someone could steal any physical records I have they still need to get into the RnD building and get past my security systems and even if they can get past that I can still burn all my records."

"But can't you also burn digital records?"

"Oh, you can but there are always parts of code left behind that can be put back together. Most digital system have ghost data, something that isn't talked about a lot, but a lot of new digital systems have codes put into them to retain data even when you erase it. Not to mention all the trojan programs and other such things that can be hidden in a computer and other such things. No writing and papers are safer, and my own memory is more than great enough to recall the important information." The researcher nodded as he came to understand his boss's reasoning knowing how close the other branches that ran Purgatory were watching the research and development centre.

The man paused in sorting out the papers as he noticed something on one of the papers. "Sir when did you get back to looking at the research data on the Charlie girl? I thought you put that on the back burner until the data on how her body handled sin/cursed energy and blessed energy." Pentious looked annoyed as he got out of his chair walking over to the researcher wondering what he was talking about.

"I did pause my research on the girl until my experiments results came back. Plus, I was explicit we were to not talk about that lest prying ears find out. I don't need the others learning of my own operations especially involving that girl so please tell me why you felt it was necessary to ask about something that won't show results for at least a few months." Pentious had the man all but wrapped up in his coiled-up tail.

The researcher choked out his reply as he felt the air being squeezed from his lungs. "Sir its just those new research papers have records of the same energy she seems to radiate and expel when the sin and blessed energy build up in the girl's body. She seems to exude it as she filters out both conflicting powers. Its in small amounts but the readings seem similar enough to what ever you are looking at now." the researcher gasped out as he realised his boss hadn't been looking at Charlie's data.

Pentious dropped the man as he grabbed the Charlies records and the latest data they had on her and his experiment and then also looked at the new data he had concerning the miracle day event and the strange energy that had likely caused it. His eyes widened as he saw the similarities. The energy Charlie gave off was weaker, more diluted in a sense, but he could see the similarities. "This doesn't leave this room." Pentious whispered out before repeating himself to the lone researcher as he started gathering his notes on the miracle day event and motioned for his fellow researcher to do the same. "What's your name?"

"Jason sir."

"Well Jason you're my personal assistant from now on. No one is to know about any of this understood. I'll explain later but for now everything relating to the miracle is to be destroyed is that understood." Jason gasped at the order, frozen in shock at the idea of destroying so much research data especially since everyone in the RnD department knew how much time Pentious had been spending on trying to figure out what had caused the miracle. He was only shaken from his shock seeing the head researcher throwing papers into a furnace the crackling sound of burning paper pulling him from his stupor.

Jason moved to do the same, but his mind was burning with a single question. "Sir why are we doing this? So much data destroyed, and time wasted?"

"Oh, not time waisted my good assistant. I have everything that is important here memorised and locked away in my mind. As for why, well I've come to realise just how important little Charlie could be and having this little piece of information to myself will be the lynchpin I and the RnD department may need in the future to not just survive but to move beyond being simple makers of tools for the warriors and spies of our good nation. Those fools of the other departments only see a future weapon to be aimed and fired but Charlie is so much more. You may not know it Jason but you have provided me with the missing piece in a very large puzzle that we have all been trying to build while blind and now I have been given a glimpse of the picture we are tyring to recreate and now for the first time in a while I feel like I'm not in the back of the line behind the others anymore." Pentious felt a vast wealth of vigour return to his body as his mind filled in blanks to many questions he had been struggling to answer even if those answered questions were soon replaced with new questions. "Jason informs the staff we will be putting a pause on all our research projects for the moment and we will be working overtime to catch up on our development schedules, make sure those other fools on the council can't complain and make sure they have all their equipment needs met. We'll also be spending a bit more time on our construction and repair duties for a while as the Purgatory city could use a bit of renovation and improvement, I think we could even expand the walls a bit with the breathing room the miracle gave us."

Jason could only watch in awe and a bit of fear as he watched Pentious start going over the data they currently had on Charlie and writing entirely new roads of research and theories while burning papers he had on the miracle. Jason had heard stories about how the snake man that ran research, and development could do in a single week what took entire research teams months. He had thought it exaggeration but seeing the man in action made him think they may have been downplaying just how brilliant the man could be when he found something to really sink his fangs into. Still though what has him so excited that he's actually willing to play ball with the other departments this much. What did he see in those papers I gave him? More importantly do I want to know? When it came to research and understanding sin energy there were lines put in place not to cross for a reason, RnD had a history of promising scientists and researchers going off the deep and turning themselves into afflicted beasts losing themselves in their research and experiments, to date Pentious was the only researcher that had somehow managed to keep his mind intact becoming a sort of pseudo awakened though lacking any of the real power and awakened was known for. No, no don't think anymore about this. Just do as the professor asks and keep my mouth shut. Do my job and get a cushy promotion and not become a lab rat for RnD of the professor or other researchers think I've spilled their secrets.



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Unknown location Purgatory city

"Any idea what the snake was working on?" a modulated voice asked a masked figured.

"Unfortunately, no. the snake is a paranoid one and works hard to make sure we can't tap into his systems. What little we have managed to find is that he has gone back to looking into the girl. He likely has more information than any of the others but will likely work to hide how much he actually knows." The masked figure sounded annoyed by how little they had been able to learn.

"Its to be expected. The snake knows we have a guillotine with his name on it if he ever slipped up. It is a shame you were unable to find something we could use to put pressure on him at the next council meeting. The Military and Exorcists have been gaining a great deal of influence in how the city is run, there power needs to be counter balanced and while RnD is a department I would rather not deal with the civilian and legal branch of the city has fallen to the sway of the Military department."

"While we may not have any dirt on him, we could offer him support of our own my liege. The snake is well known for his eccentricities and how far he pushes himself and his staff in his work. The snake himself knows how many eyes are on him at all times just waiting for an excuse. What if we offered him the opportunity to have some of those eyes turn away or be blinded."

The person hidden in the shadows seemed to contemplate the idea. The snake had the least number of friends and support of all those who ran Purgatory and his department was known for having to deal with many disasters that it was also technically one of the weakest departments even if it was an important one. "Your idea could work but we will need a good piece of bait if we want to hook him and reel him in to our side or at least make him more willing to deal with us rather than the Exorcists and Military…… When was the last time you visited our vaults."

"What do you wish for me to retrieve?" the masked figure only hesitated for a moment as it was extremely rare for anything to be removed from the vaults of the Inquisition.

"The notes of Dr Victor, new Eden's head research before the disaster struck. But make sure to only bring parts of the notes, no point in giving Pentious everything now. No, we need him to want to work with us. I'm sure the man would sell his own mind and sanity to see what we have left over from new Eden."

"Are you sure sir? I understand that things are getting a bit tight with the other council members but is it really worth the risk of letting that snake become the next Dr Victor. You've seen the records of what really happened in new Eden sir, the stuff that was supposedly 'corrupted' footage." The masked figure shivered recalling the horrors they had seen when they first gained enough clearance to learn the secrets the Inquisition kept even from the rest of Purgatory's ruling council.

"Of course, it's necessary, the girl is already a lost cause she will either end up in the hands of the Military or the Exorcists, the girl's natural adaptability and tolerance to blessed energy would mean no other path would be allowed for her to take too much of a valuable weapon as the others would say. With the RnD department on our side we would still be able to have a hand in how the girl is shaped for Purgatory's future and the place of the Inquisition in that future. And its not as much of a risk on our part, we know so much more than the researchers of new Eden did about both our head researcher and what to look for to avoid, any issues come up we can nip it in the bud. Just do as your told and make sure the snake is on our side."

The masked figure nodded in confirmation of the acceptance of their mission as they left. The man cloaked in shadow let out a sigh of frustration as he took a deep breath of a cigar letting the smoke float around him as he looked out of the window of one of the many in progress tower buildings of the city. The lights of Purgatory shining from the very bottom of the city to the very top and yet all he could take note of was the shadows spread by the light where the rot and filth of the city lay, the hidden dangers the others didn't feel was worthy of their attention. Fools the lot of them. they can only see the big and flashy threats, the things that can't be missed. If only it had been my agents who had found the girl instead of the exorcists. We would be able to turn her into a fine-tuned scalpel to cut away the rot of our world… I can't believe I'll have to rely on Pentious of all people for support. Hopefully with his help I'll be able to steer the direction of the next meeting on how we handle the girl.



Well we have jumped back to Purgatory city for a bit. Hope you liked this small peak into the minds of some of the people running the city. We will be taking a look at the other department heads that are members of the council soon but for now we look at those who are on the shadier side of things. Hope this is a good read for everyone hope you enjoy until the next chapter comes out.

 

[Ghost666]

Disclaimer I do not own Hazbin hotel/helluva boss series, and I am not making any money by writing this story. Hope everyone that reads this enjoys it.
thoughts will be in italics


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The Hub was a constant flow of chaos and order as soldiers moved throughout the structure either busy training, getting equipment repaired or were moving equipment and other items. Not a single piece of time was wasted as soldiers were often moving from the base to the walls and back again on reprieve while fresh and ready soldiers took their place. The soldiers of Purgatory had a simple duty and that was to protect the city and its people from all outside threats. Usually it was small incursions from afflicted beasts trying to smash through the walls, that was a near daily occurrence, the harsher job was when an awakened decided to take a crack at the walls, though thankfully for the soldiers that was often something that only happened once a year and never lasted long as an exorcists would soon be on the scene to take on the awakened while the soldiers mopped up the mess that was left behind.

The last few decades had been a far different story. As the walls grew stronger and the magical and technological abilities of Purgatory grew greater the military took a more personal role in the city acting as police and a sort of security force for the civilian government of the city. It wasn't a glamours job often working on cleaning out the occasional upstart warlock, the trafficking of cursed items and stored sin energy. If any military officer was honest about the job, they didn't mind doing the work but often got irritated and down right hostile when an inquisitorial investigator stepped in, after all investigation was supposed to be their departments job but the Inquisition had in all but name forced the job on the military while they played spy games with the Warlock run cities so it was always a shouting match between sides as the inquisitors acted as if the job was still theirs to do and they had all the authority they needed by their position while military police told them where they could shove their authority as they had decided the job wasn't their anymore after all.

That was where Gregor came in, third man to have the rank of general of Purgatory's military forces and often having to deal with the constant friction and conflict between the Inquisition and the Military departments and at the moment he really wished he could retire as he looked at the latest pile of paperwork that friction had brought to his doorstep. "I really wish I could burn all this up and get away with it but then the civilian government would be on my case for disruption of the bureaucratic machine." The man sighed as he lit a cigarette and got to work all the while wondering how his boss had ever conned him into taking this job when he had been so much more comfortable on the battlefield.

"I do believe it was because you caved in the skull of an inquisitor agent after they caused your battalion to get caught up in a crossfire between two warlock gangs on one of the border towns outside of the walls so they could capture and awakened. If I recall correctly the man actually threatened to have you stripped of your rank just for daring to question their methods, called the deaths of some of your squad mates' acceptable losses."

Had he been a lesser man Gregor would've jumped from his seat or gasped out in shock, instead the man simply turned his head looking at a seat that he was sure had been empty but now had a rather elderly lady sitting in it, wearing what looked like black mourning robes.

"I'm pretty sure you got the job because it kept you alive and it also meant pissing off the Inquisition and forcing them to have to deal with someone they couldn't bend to their will and already had a dislike for them."

"Mother Superior to what do I owe this pleasure of a break from my misery? It's not Sunday, so you aren't here to drag me away from my duties for temple and I'm sure its not because you enjoy my company." Gregor asked as he looked at the most powerful woman in the city. He put out his cigarette wondering what the military was going to be dragged into this time as while he had great respect for the Exorcists and the church, he wasn't going to risk the lives of his men or his standing in the council as the head of the military forces just because they had come asking him for something.

"Oh, Gregor there is no need for you to be so suspicious of me. If one of my exorcists had come, I would say you could be suspicious, but you have nothing to worry from me. As for why I am here I was hoping to acquire your support for the upcoming council meeting."

Gregor narrowed his eyes thinking on some of the things coming up in the meeting but couldn't think of much that the church would need help with. The budget always sent a great deal of money to them, they always got first rights to claim spoils of war and conflict in a warlock city got to uppity and the Exorcists and the church loved taking soldiers and cadets out of the armed forced and even occasionally managed to drag away an inquisitor from the Inquisition if anyone ever showed a good degree of their body being compatible with blessed energy. Gregor paused as if waiting for the old woman to explain what she wanted but she stayed silent as he tried to think before the answer smacked him in the face. "You want the girl."

"Exactly and I know your not one to do something for nothing so if you're willing to help on this issue I will be having fully fledged exorcists and not just trainees sent to help support your soldiers on the border towns outside of the wall." The old woman sipped from a cup of tea that had not been in her hand before, hell Gregor didn't even have tea in his office.

She is trying to unsettle me. No matter how kindly and grandmotherly she looks and acts she is a viper in the grass. You don't survive as long as she has as mother superior and not become a snake. It was an open secret among the upper ranks of the bureaucratic blood of Purgatory that no mother superior lived past five years, their bodies just couldn't handle all the blessed energy flowing through it, the current mother superior was already reaching the fifteen year mark of her role with the only proof that the blessed energy was having an effect on her body was the advance aging. She was actually in her thirties even if she physically looked to be in her eighties. "That's a pretty big offer. Are you sure the church will be willing to honour that deal if I do decide to help? The church tends to be very stingy when sending out exorcists, you and your kind are a rare commodity after all and if they are willing to honour your bargain that just shows me how much you want this girl and that I could barter for a lot more out of you."

"Come no Gregor no need to be so ruthless, I'm here as a friend between our departments there is no need for you to be so opportunistic, after all I came as a friend, the church is far less friendly." The gentle tone faded from her voice coming out far gravellier and like the sound of death was creeping up on the general and he could see it in her eyes that this wasn't just a threat. "I'm sure you wouldn't want exorcists support to be delayed during important battles, or a blessing on your weapons and armour to be sub standard and more likely to fail and fade in a combat situation."

Gregor let out a growl of anger actually standing up from his desk the pen in his hand having shattered in his grip as he stood to his full height towering over the mother superior. "Do not threaten my men. I don't care what you're willing to take out on me, but those soldiers are out of bounds for this game you seem to want to play." Gregor wasn't sure how, but he managed to keep himself from yelling, but he knew it was better to keep anyone from coming in to check on the situation unsure of how the mother superior would react.

"I have no need to play games as long as you're willing to support the church and in turn the exorcists in the next meeting when the girl comes up. We want the girl to join the ranks, she shows great potential from what we have observed of her and from the reports we have of what happened at farm."

They want her now?! what is so important about this girl the exorcists are willing to bring her in at such a young age and that the church is willing to support them in this madness. The girl is far too young, and they are far to eager to snatch her up. Gregor was a simple mane, he woke up, went to work, got on the nerves of the Inquisition, yelled at officers that needed to put more effort into their work, punched some afflicted skulls around, shot demonic beasts and then he filled out some paperwork and went home to sleep before repeating the process. He was not a man that enjoyed politics and often did his best to avoid taking part in the back ally deals that littered the shadows of the governance of Purgatory yet now he found himself being dragged in by the last group he expected to try and blackmail him or force his hand. "I'm going to be honest mother superior I honestly expected to see an inquisitor sitting in that chair making threats, I'm a bit disappoint to know it's the exorcists that are threatening me. Our departments have always been on good terms, why put that good will at risk to force this issue? What does the church, what does the exorcists get out of this but one girl with some sort of amazing potential. It's still only one girl, one 'soldier' can not change the course of a war." Gregor felt vile calling a child a soldier even though he knew that the armed forces had at times been forced to call on the strength of the youth of Purgatory.

"Oh, dear Gregor you have no idea how wrong you are. I…the church has seen this girl's potential, and she could very well change the course of our war against the awakened. There is so much she can off Purgatory and the exorcists are perfect for unlocking her gifts and talents."

Gregor didn't say anything or react, but he had taken notice of the mother superiors hic up. She had something personal to gain from this, the church likely didn't know how far she was willing to push but it wasn't like they would believe him over her word if he tried to tell them. what does mother superior get out of this? What does she want that she is willing to risk the wrath of the church, excommunication and banishment if she is caught. Why does she want this girl so badly? I need to figure out what she is after, especially if it could threaten Purgatory and its people but to do that, I'll need to… "Fine I'll support you in the council meeting mother superior. Is it safe to assume you'll be the church representative at the meeting?"

"Quite right I will be the representative. Oh, Gregor it warms my heart to hear that the military will be supporting the church in this endeavour to protect our fair city and its people. The church and I thank you for your acceptance of our request for assistance, may the bonds remain strong between the exorcists and the military." Mother superior vanished in a flash of golden light as Gregor finally let his frustration and anger loose smashing his desk into splinters much to the shock of his secretary who rushed in to see what was wrong.

Gregor managed to smooth talk his way out of the situation lying and saying he simply got his hands on a rather rude letter from the Inquisition and had let his own bias against them get the better of him. Once he was sure he was alone Gregor sank into his chair exhausted wonder what the hell he was going to do. He didn't trust the mother superior or the Exorcists, the military police had broken up enough gangs and criminal operations on the few joint operations they had successfully gone on with the Inquisition and found those same gangs and criminal operations either being run by or supported by rouge or even active exorcists acting as muscle for hire. Exorcists were powerful warriors but from what little Gregor knew of the training they went through, they were treated and viewed as weapons by the church and themselves, that did not lead to many positive mind sets in the organisation and often there would be times when trainees would break away from the organisation and even the occasional fully trained exorcists would run away and disappear showing up later to be a problem for the city. The worst pain in the ass was exorcists that were still sanctioned and supported by the church running less than legal and often times dangerous operation in the city often forcing the military to not take action against certain gangs and other such groups which the church had interest in. They are going to break that girl, and they are not going to get the warrior they want. They are going to create a monster. Not only is she far to young for this to be a good idea, but she is also not a Purgatory born citizen, she knows nothing of the city, its history or its people, there is nothing tying her to the city beyond moving here as a refugee. Taking her from her mother is a recipe for disaster why don't the Exorcists or the church see that or rather why is mother superior blinding them to the very dangerous game they are playing and the unstable monster they could create.

It was a puzzle Gregor needed to figure out and find a way around the ultimatum the mother superior had given him. He didn't have a lot of time as the next council meeting was soon and he needed a plan to get around the game he was being dragged into and hopefully save the girl from whatever madness the mother superior had in mind. "I don't know what's going on, but that girl is still just a girl, not a tool, not a weapon, a girl and I intend to let her grow up and let her make her own choices. She may not have started as one but now she is a citizen of Purgatory and its my duty to protect her and keep her safe from threats both external and internal."



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Location unknown wastelands/ new Eden

Mother superior appeared not at the church but what looked like a half-rebuilt mess of a lab shining with twisted and horrid spectacles of magical and scientific research, dozens of afflicted humans, demonic beasts and even awakened strapped to machines or having many parts of their bodies replaced or fused with technology. A small horde of beasts marched on the elderly lady but a simple raising of her arm and a burst of golden light leading to the decapitation of a few of the awakened with the rest backing off.

"Why are you here soldier of the burning light?" one of the awakened called out.

"I am here to see Victor. It seems his predictions were true. Tell him I am taking him up on his offer as long as he can uphold his end of the bargain he offered." The awakened flinched at the name mother superior called out with mindless demonic beasts and afflicted actually running away.

"You know its rude to use some one's name without their permission mother superior. Please use my title as we are not yet friends or allies." A lone man walked out of the lab. He looked surprisingly well dressed, like a businessman of the old world and his body and flesh looing totally unblemished by the sin energy permeating the area yet she could sense how it was contained within the man like a single dam wall holding back a tsunami if sin energy.

"Pride, you were right. Everything you told me has been right. I'm willing to take your offer but I want assurances that you can provide what you promised."

The man no, the awakened no, the Sin Pride laughed, no malice just sheer humour at the woman making demands of him when she was not only in his territory but was more than willing to sell out her people and nation for such shallow reasons. He handed her a small necklace. "A temporary fix to your problem. Once I'm sure I can trust you I'll have a more permanent solution for you." Pride himself did find himself somewhat amused and annoyed at the same time how accurate the predictions he had made were, mostly annoyed though as some of the data he had used to make those predictions had been provided by that man all those years ago and he was infuriated he still needed that sort of help even all these years later.

Mother superior grabbed the necklace out of his hand putting it on not even questioning if it was a trap or likely not even caring. There was no effect for a moment leading her to question for but a moment but then she felt it, she felt her strength returning to her body, the hidden weight of the blessed energy being lifted from her muscles and bones. Grabbing a mirror from her pocket she let out a gasp seeing not a woman in her late eighties but rather a more distinguished woman in her early fifties or late forties.

"I can return what was stolen from you my dear mother superior. Just be my eyes and ears in the city, make sure that the prophesied child is ready for the time I call to claim her. Do as I ask Regina, and I can give you everything that the church promised but lied about." Pride spoke in a deep soothing nearly hypnotic voice even if he made no attempt to use magic at all, he had no need to after all.

Mother superior hadn't even noticed the use of her old name, a name lost to her since gaining her title she was just so enamoured to see some of her time returned to her. "Yes pride, I'll do as you ask. The girl will be ready on the day you call." Covering herself up in her funeral dress once more mother superior vanished returning back to Purgatory. Her mind still trying to comprehend how Pride had managed to counteract the side-effects of the extremely large amounts of blessed energy being channelled through her body, forgetting that most of what Purgatory had built its knowledge of blessed and sin energy had come from new Eden and Dr Victor, now Pride.

"My lord, are you sure you can trust her? She is still human; she is unchanged she has nothing to hold her to her word. Many of the others fear she may try to betray you and simply claim the treasure you have offered her."

"Indeed, at the moment she is imperfect, but she will make a find addition to our family my child. I will perfect her as I have perfected all of you. None in this world have the skill or knowledge that I have and soon not even Cain will be able to stand in my way. I will tear down the plans of Wrath like he tore down my life and world. I don't know why but that child is important to him, the seed, the egg told me all that time ago before it started to hatch, to bloom." Pride didn't even seem phased at the concept of the chance that mother superior may end up trying to betray him his mind filled more with the dream of getting to rub his knowledge and success in Cain's face that he had surpassed him.

Pride turned to the afflicted and demonic beast mother superior had decapitated and simply put their heads back on their bodies as wires stitched them back together connecting nerves and flesh back together and sin energy and blood flowed again as life returned to the once slain beings. "Sadly, not good enough, not yet but soon I'll have the perfect test subject to improve you all to the greatness you deserve."

Pride motioned for his awakened to get back to work digging out his old lab. He was so close to getting to the sub levels again. A lot of equipment was likely damaged beyond repair but that mattered little to him as so much of his research and other records were sealed away in special vaults that he knew protected them even after all this time. He would reclaim it all, take what was his, take what was hidden from him and he would finish his work, he would perfect the human form, the human shape. This world would be his to rule as he was the only one capable of ruling it, he was perfect after all, only he could fix the flaws of this world, of its people. I can fix it I can fix it all. Watch out Cain I will take it all for myself, I won't let you have what you want. This time I'm the one who knows more than you, you won't be lecturing me ever again. I have perfected myself and soon I'll perfect everyone else.

Unknown to Victor was much of the research data and documentation of new Eden had long since been spirited away by scientists with a greater deal of survival instinct before the second awakening had occurred. What he would eventually find was scarps of what he needed with what he truly wanted safely behind the great walls of Purgatory or locked away in the mind of the one being he despised most in the world, either way a crash course was set as Pride would be unable to complete his great work without a confrontation. Either way the awakened in Pride's territory got to work digging out new Eden, repairing and restoring what they could as they opened up lost sections of the research facility and for those not busy working on reclaiming new Eden for their lord were busy capturing afflicted and putting them through many machines, and experiments, taking them apart and putting them back together again as flesh and machine became one. The family needed to grow, to expand to be able to stand against all who would reject the beauty and perfection Pride wanted to give. It was a slow process as even with bodies as powerful as their few afflicted could survive the process to become awakened of Pride.

Unbeknownst to Pride a lone cactus flower was blooming in his lands watching him its roots leading all the way back to Sloth where Cain was laughing his ass off at the absurdity of seeing another man like him, a man capable of holding a grudge for so long. "Poor Victor, the fool has no idea how little he matters in the scheme of things. I wonder what the look on his face will be when I shatter everything, he has built like the fragile illusion it all is." Cain simply laughed and laughed at the foolishness of the idea that Victor could ever be a threat to him or his plans. The man was just as easy to manipulate and guide now as he had been all those years ago, he was practically doing Cain's work for him. Soon I'll escape this pit and Heaven and Hell will feel my wrath. I just need to be patient, can't rush anything or I could end up being stuck waiting who knows how long again until the perfect moment makes itself available again. Cain was content to wait as his Sloth gave him eyes and ears all over the world as small gardens of plants tied to her were set up everywhere important, except to his chagrin in Purgatory city but that could soon be changed thanks to Victor giving him an in even if it wasn't as steady and reliable a source of information as Sloth's plants. I know what all you little lambs are planning, you foolish Sins, you arrogant warlocks and you ignorant foolish pitiable children of Purgatory. Don't worry all your struggles will soon come to an end as the time for your sacrifice and my ascension, my escape from this pit draws near.



Well, lots of shady stuff happening and wow who thought the intelligence group would be the saner people we have running the city. Power often goes to people's head and here we see how that goes, especially when you're not always honest about what getting that power entails. Will this deal with a Sin work out or will it end in betrayal or a karmic version of getting what you wanted, keep reading to find out. Hope you all like this latest chapter. Also yes Cain is still and asshole. Next one may take a bit as the council meeting feels like its going to be a big one and may take some effort to write as it will also be doing a bit of crossover with Hell as Vaggie gets dragged into the world of noble politics as she is forced to play the role of princess of Hell as the rest of Hells nobility licks her boots all the while she tries to not get on Lilith's bad side and trying to get lucifer alone for answers.