Before long, we had made our way into the castle with relative ease. All was empty and dead inside. I guess they really were ready for our arrival and either fled or hid. Lucifer was absolutely confident that they were all hiding somewhere in the city. I don't know how he was so confident but I decided not to question him.
Our small party of Lucifer's council was now currently standing out on the large balcony that overlooked the main city square. Asmodeus had joined us again and was currently lying back on the balcony ledge seemingly bored. My father was off to one side with Lucifer as they quietly discussed something no one else could hear. The two prophets were huddled around their prophetic books on a table they had some demons bring out for them. The fat man, Muriel and the bird lady, Jarvaenla seemed to have raided the castles kitchens as they sipped on a goblet of red wine and laughed and talked jovially, most likely about our success in the prophecy thus far.
And here I stood in the center of it all. Keegan stood to my left with his two guards diligently standing behind us, waiting for any command. They had removed the chains from his wrists, at my request. Some of my peers gave me questioning looks but one glance from me and they kept their mouths shut.
I am the Angel of Death's daughter, I could kill with a single touch; a mere thought, I am the portal keeper, I will be Lucifer's mate. I will be their Queen...
No one would dare to question me now.
The low bellow of a horn sounded throughout the city, bringing us all out of our current minds and to attention. The others were instantly at the balcony edge, looking out into the city to see what was found. I motioned for Keegan and the guards to come with me as I slowly walked forward as well and stood slightly off to the side.
"Ge'iad!" A group of Hakil demons called from below.
And there they were, from the left side of the castle, through the narrow city streets, a group of demons walked forward and shuffling behind them were the Humans and their angel slaves alike. I tried not to scoff at the sight. Not so much better than your slaves now are you, Humans...
I watched on quietly as our captives slowly filtered into the center square, the demons and Fallen warriors ushering them around. You could hear the crying and sobbing and occasional scream.
There was one woman trying to run away from the crowd and escape out of the city; one of the fallen quickly flew over and dropped down in front of her and in the same movement they brought their sword up and across her neck in a clean slice. A handful of demons were there in a second to quickly lap up the blood as it spilled out of her veins and ripped her flesh clean off her bones.
The crowd around her started to scream and move further towards the center and away from the feast before them. I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see that Keegan had paled and was holding down a gag; I smirked at that.
"This is marvelous!" Lucifer suddenly exclaimed as he threw his head back and laughed maniacally, "Find me my King and Queen!"
Everyone started to animatedly talk together expect for me. I continued to watch the events happening below us. I couldn't tear my eyes away though. I was conflicted. I felt no remorse for the Humans. That one woman was out of line when she tried to run away and escape. She deserved her fate. But as I looked at the faces of the crying children and terrified mothers as they hugged their children, I felt a strange pang in my heart. Did they all really need to be slaughtered now that we had finally escaped our underground prison?
Is not the whole purpose of our escape to finally rejoin our holy home in the heavens? Why must we kill most if not all of the humans in the process? As Fallen, they only captured me and we didn't care for the Pure Angel scum. They were weak and got caught and that is no fault of our own...
We Fallen are able to finally show our true strength and power and the Fallen half of me, the stronger half, reveled in it. But the Pure part, the smaller, quieter part of me was whispering doubt into my ear. Is this truly what the prophecy was all about? If the portal keeper had to be an Angel of both light and dark that implies that there should be some good to this outcome. But based on what Lucifer's plans are for Earth and even Heaven later on, I see no light in that future. And that is what didn't feel right.
At this point in time, however, I decided not to say anything about it.
There were some screams and commotion right below the balcony then and two Fallen Soldiers flew up with a middle aged man and woman in their hold, "Oadriax ovcho booapis, ol Ge-iad (We found them, my Lord)."
Tears streamed down their faces and their legs shook, threatening to drop them to the drop. They were terrified and covered in dirty rags that hardly passed as clothing at all. It looked like they haven't showered for weeks. I found it very hard to believe that this weak and pathetic, sobbing couple were royalty.
Lucifer slowly paced back and forth before them as he looked them up and down, "Are you the King and Queen?"
I saw their hands clenched tightly together and they too were shaking. I narrowed my eyes at them as the wife looked up at the man as he slowly nodded, keeping his eyes downcast.
There are a few seconds of silence before the Devils clawed hand comes up and he uses his nails to scratch the mans chest with one claw while he does the same to the woman with another claw. They flinch in surprise and the woman lets out a frightened screech.
Bringing his hand up to his mouth. He stares intently at the two before he licks the blood of each claw.
Everyone waits patiently as Lucifer smiles menacingly at the two. He grabs the arms of the couple, ripping them away from one another so they stood on each side of him. He walked toward the edge of the balcony and the air stilled.
"I must admit, Humans... I do not know what the King and Queen look like," and in a flash he pushed the two over the ledge and their high-pitched screams filled the air before the bodies made a gut-wrenching thud as they hit the stone ground below. The people all gasped and screamed at the sight and some started to panic and tried to run. The running quickly stopped with the Fallen soldiers instantly slashed them down as soon as they stepped out of line.
Demons all around growled and howled out in pleasure at all of the fresh meat they were suddenly receiving. Dark red blood covered the streets all around the outside ring of the city's people.
"But I do know what royalty tastes like!" Lucifer bellowed as he brought out his wings to fly him up a bit to stand up on the balcony ledge. His large black wings, held open behind him was surely a terrifying sight for the Humans to behold. His booming voice once again grabbed the attention of the people as they focused on his again. Crying and babies wailing is the only thing that could be heard.
Lucifer continued, "You try to disobey me and give me a false King and Queen?" the sky directly above him started to become a dark grey and red circling mass that clouded around the castle before growing outwards to cover the whole city, "I will kill every last Human in this city, one by one, to find your King and Queen if they will not give themselves up. What kind of a leader do you Humans follow that would put all of your lives at risk for the sake of their own? Is their one true purpose not to protect their people? If you do not come forward and show yourselves in the next 5 minutes, I will start killing people to find you... I have no problem with that, for as you can see, I have a lot of demons to feed. Your time starts now."
As he jumped down off the ledge, and retracts his wings, the air was suddenly filled with the panicked voices of the Humans desperately yelling and calling for their royal leaders to do the right thing.
Jarvaenla stood up then and came up to her Lord, "And if they do not come forward?"
Lucifer simply shrugged, "Then I suppose I will be tasting a lot of blood this morning. My demon army will be very pleased to have such a large victory meal so soon after our escape."
Keegan growled from beside me and went to lunge at Lucifer in a fit of rage. I saw this coming and with a quick flick of my wrist, the two guards each quickly grabbed one of his arms and held him back before he took more than two steps forward, "You can't do that! You can't just kill a whole city of people for the sake of two lives!"
With a humorless chuckle, Lucifer said, "You seem to not understand yet that I do not make idle threats..."
"This is madness!"
His snake-like eyes narrowed seriously as he said, "This is war," before turning around, effectively ignoring him as he waited for 4 more minutes to be up.
I glared back at Keegan and hissed at him to; "Stay back, Keegan. You are no longer a part of this. You are only meant to witness the destruction of your home Stone City before you too are removed from the world."
He was still ridiculous furious but he relaxed slightly and stepped back. I noticed his clenched jaw and tight fists. My heart went out to him though. I still wasn't sure if I would be ok watching him die...
Before long, the five minutes were up and Lucifer called out, "Do I have my King and Queen?"
There is mostly silence butt the crowd starts to split open over on the right side of the giant mass of people and a couple walk forward. Holding hands and heads held high.
A part of my was kind of shocked that they were so calm. Maybe they took the time to accept their fate? There was no telling what the Devil himself would do to you when you are called for specifically. But it would be safe for them to assume that since their city had been taken over by the Devil and now he wanted them, after threatening to kill the whole city to find them, they were probably walking to their deaths.
As they reached the front of the crowd, they were instantly flown up to the balcony.
They were definitely the correct people this time. Their aura and the way they held themselves up tall was enough of a giveaway. My heart went out to them though as I noticed that the Queen was fairly far along in pregnancy.
Lucifer eyed them skeptically before silently walking forward and tasting their blood. He stayed silent in what looked like approval.
He nodded his head towards the woman's stomach, "Is that your first child?"
She held his gaze as she gave him a single nod. I didn't miss the tear that fell down her cheek.
"Good," he grunted out and then looked over at his council who all stood together behind me, "Obyzouth would have loved to meet the Queen..."
There were some chuckles from them as they found humor in his attempt at a joke. One look in Obyzouth's eyes and the Queen would have given birth to a stillborn.
The Queen grabbed her husbands are tightly in fear. She might not have understood the reference but I'm sure she knew that it wouldn't have ended well for her.
Two Fallen soldiers suddenly grabbed the arms of the king and queen and moved them off to the side while Lucifer addressed the people once more, "Do you see how simple that was? No lives lost... All was calm..."
I looked at the people's faces and they were all a mixture of fear, confusion and doubt.
"I can be a tolerable and fair man... Life may not have to be so bad for you Humans after all..." He paused to let his words sink in, "But this city cannot be governed by two groups of leaders."
Looking at his soldiers and giving them a single nod and the deed was done. In a flash both soldiers grabbed hold of the king and queen's head, freed their short swords and cut the royal heads clean off their shoulders in a single, swift slice. Blood instantly started pouring out of the heads and bodies as they lifelessly fell to the ground in an awkward heap.
This death was even more devastating for the people as they broke out in a scream, crying and pained roar. Some got hopeless broken and fell in a sobbing mass while others got angry and tried to break away. But those who opposed the Fallen were easily cut down and the rebelling was quickly ended.
Two long spikes were brought forward and the two heads were stuck on the points before they were mounted on the balcony for all of the people to see. The headless bodies were thrown to the ground below and instantly ripped apart by the demons without a care.
My eyes traveled from the pool of blood before us to Keegan who stood beside me and I could almost feel his heartache as a few silent tears fell down his face. I felt a bit of pity for him and his loss but I had figured that this result would be inevitable.
"Enjoy your new lives under my rule, Humans. There is nowhere for you to run or hide for I am now the ruler of this world. See to it that you find your place..." and with that turned around and left the people to figure out their lives for now.
Lucifer indicated towards his council to follow him inside, "Come now. The same must be done in every other city that we take over. We need to make a plan as to best do that and figure out how things will be properly organized and ruled."
I stayed behind with Keegan and we both watched as the people were split into groups and ushered away into the city streets. The Fallen had been previously ordered to put the Humans in homes around the city center until the mass confusion and rage died down and slowly but eventually, returned to normal. Lucifer was their king now. They would do as he said or be killed.
I looked at the two guards who still stood with us, "Ol noalnoiad ladnah(You may go now)..."
They wordlessly bowed to me, not questioning my orders as they left Keegan and I out alone on the balcony.
We were both silent for a long time before I spoke up, "I apologize that you had to witness that."
"I figured that he would..." Keegan replied darkly.
I nodded at him.
Keegan lifted his head to look at me with pleading eyes, "We can still stop this, Victoria."
My heart clenched, "No."
"Trinity is down there, Victoria. She was brought to the city for protection and being a Pure, she will now surely die. Is that what you want to become of her? We have to save her. If I can't save the world, I need to at least save her. I always promised her that I would keep her safe from all harm. Please Victoria," he gently grabbed my hand and I gasped as he didn't seem to fear the fact that he could be dead in a second from now, "Please let me do this one last thing for Trinity. She still loves you and I know you love her too. We have to help her."
My head and my heart were at war.
But just like in all wars, eventually, one side always wins.
©KatieLuvsToioHotel
Much too long of a wait. I know. This part of that is because subconsciously, I don't want this story to end. I have been writing it for so long that its an emotional thing to bring to a close.
Any thoughts, ideas, comments?? I would love to hear from you!!
Thanks :)