Abaddon (Demonology III)

IX

LILITH

Luna and I found ourselves on a seemingly deserted island off the Asian mainland. It was best to lay low in the trees for a while, because I wasn't completely sure that we hadn't been followed. Luna was still fretting over Finn, but at this point, I was too.

"Do you think they're still fighting?" Luna sounded like a scared child. The more time I spent around her, the more I realized how far behind Finn and I she was. Her being part of the Holy Shield didn't prepare her for this kind of crisis situation. Fighting imps and scout angels was nothing compared to what we were up against.

"No. If they kept fighting after we left, Leviathan surely would have taken the advantage." I tried not to think about the grim possibility that Finn had been captured. "The seas are her realm, after all. I trust that Finn has enough sense to avoid combat with her. He just doesn't know where we are yet, that's all."

"We'd better find a shrine then and fire off a beacon for him." Luna may have been a frail human, but she sure was determined when it came to helping Finn. She turned and marched deeper into the jungle with me on her tail. "I'm picking up some collection of religious artifacts," she continued. "After I died, my senses for all things religious were amplified like crazy. It would've been real useful back when we were in Hell, right?" I froze up. Every time I thought back to that journey into Hell, I realized more and more just how selfish I had been. I hadn't known it back then, but I wanted Finn just as badly as I did now. I began to wonder if what I had done was truly rational, or if it was the product of my own desires. I had been afraid of Finn seeing me for who I truly was, and wasn't using my full power. If I had, however, no one would have died. Not Luna, not her father, not Thalia.

"Lighten up, I'm joking." Luna snapped me out of my trance. "That was years ago, and we can't change the past. All we can do now is avoid making the same mistakes."

"R-Right." I shook my head and walked a bit faster. We eventually reached the artifacts, as I had picked up on the signal too. It was an assortment of pottery and dolls in a fire pit. We were in some kind of empty camp. But from the way things were strewn about, someone had been here recently.

"The way they're just dumped here in the pit," I said, picking up the artifacts. "It looks like they've been abandoned. God's death took a bigger toll on this region than I thought. They're artifacts nonetheless, but still, I can't believe it."

"I'm not sure I get what you're saying." Luna nudged the fire pit with her foot.

"When my father swallowed the sun, we knew it was symbolic of God's death, but only because we're well-versed in the world of angels and demons." I explained. "Most humans, however, don't know the things we do. They should still have hope. If the people here have already given up, though, it probably won't take much longer for faith to die in other parts of the world. The only semblance of hope they would have left is Finn."

"Then we have to do our best to help him and keep the faith alive." Luna gave me a triumphant grin that faded as quickly as it appeared. "There's someone behind that tree." She pointed behind me. I whirled around and immediately noticed a demonic presence. So we had been followed, then.

I marched over and knocked the tree down with a swift blow. But I was taken aback by what I saw.

"Seth?" I was shocked. Finn's father was still alive? Last I heard, his soul had been burnt up by Finn on a rampage. The old man looked like he was trying to speak, but hesitated each time. When he finally opened his mouth, he revealed a set of rotten sharp teeth and a long serpentine tongue. I lashed out to kill the demon, but someone came from behind it and cut it down. It was . . . Seth again? He looked just like the demon, but had no demonic aura about him.

"Is it . . . is it really you?" I reached out to touch him, and sure enough, he was tangible. "How? I thought Finn - "

"He did, and that's the last memory I have of him." Seth sounded worn out, as if he had been wandering this jungle for days. "But all of a sudden I was staring up at a red sky, and I felt all this evil around me. It's so odd. I'm not a demon anymore, and I'm not dead. People can see me, so I must be alive again."

"Who's this?" Luna stepped around me to get a better look.

"I'm Finn's dad." Seth gave the girl a forced smile. "I've been looking for him forever, but I can't track him down like I did when I was a soul."

"Wait, time out." I had to stop and think about this. "You've had your mortal body killed, and your soul destroyed by Finn, yet you're miraculously back to the way you were before this war ever happened. And you say you came to under a red sky, meaning you came back after my father swallowed the sun. And you, Luna, you say your parents died around the time of the Cataclysm, and it sent you on a journey that eventually led you to Finn. Does this seem strange to any of you?"

"I'm lost on whatever happened between my time in Hell and now." Seth admitted. "I've seen videos of the King boasting about what he and the guy downstairs have done, but it all just sounds like biblical jargon to me."

"Long story short - Finn is a demigod, God is dead, Hell reigns over Earth now, and all of your family aside from Finn are enslaved in my brother's castle." I rushed the story. "But anyways, don't you think that's odd. God's death definitely gave Hell an insane boost in power, but bringing back souls that don't even exist anymore and reuniting Finn's old friends? Do you think Finn did this as a demigod, even if it was subconsciously?"

"I don't know, we don't know enough about demigods to know what they're capable of." Luna brushed me off. "Let's not sit around and talk about it all day, though, we've gotta get in contact with Finn."

"Sounds good to me. These naagin demons have been running around for days now, impersonating everyone they see." Seth guided use to a large clearing in the trees where a bunch of other artifacts were. "I assume he's not too far? You and him usually stick together no matter what." I felt a pang of guilt when he said that. After acting as Finn's caretaker for so long, essentially in the stead of his parents, I had left him alone with one of the most terrifying creatures to ever exist. No, I told myself. This is not the time to think like this. You wanted him to fight, and that's what you got.

"He was off the northern coast of Australia when we left him." I explained. Hastily, I arranged the artifacts and began to chant. Given that there was no God left to call on, and I couldn't use my father's power without being detected, I had to call to Finn himself. I muttered under my breath all of the ways that we had connected over the years. I tried to stay professional about it, talking about our raid on Heaven or our battles against my brothers, but I couldn't help but get a bit sentimental. I could only hope that Seth and Luna didn't hear me over the rattling of the artifacts. After a few minutes of chanting, the beacon went off. It was two-way, so I could reach his presence just as he reached mine. He was nowhere to be found on Earth, however, and my heart dropped when I picked up his presence in Hell.

"No . . . no, that can't be right." I performed the ritual over again, but the results stayed the same.

"What? Don't tell me it didn't work." Luna said, tapping her foot impatiently.

"He's . . . he's in Hell. Leviathan beat him, and my brother has him."