The plump demon mumbles over the words that his pupils are scanning through the sheet of paper. His friend, perching on the top of his head, following along the lines of the tiny print. But the final part leaves them with widen eyes and a tight lip.
"...Oh." The thick creature said. "Oh no."
"That's not good." The smaller imp added.
Their master paces back and forth with his tail between his legs. So many thoughts are racing in his head to the point where he could not stop biting the sharp edges of his fingernails. He was even more anxious about King Dice than the time he lost his pitchfork, having more emotional attachment to him than his signature weapon.
With Minion's wings, flapping in the air to carry himself off of the purple imp, Henchman, on the other hand, has his eyes glued to the letter, stuck on the name that ends the note: "Liam Jones."
"Did you know Paulina had any siblings?" He asked the blue imp.
"No, I don't think so." Minion said, shaking his head. "Did you?"
"No? ...Maybe?"
The Devil pauses his movements, taking a sharp turn towards his creations. Teeth jarred in frustration and red pupils, glaring down at them. The eyes of Satan himself renders them immobile, forcing them to whimper like puppies who knew they did something bad, like ripping the couch or create a mess that was beyond anything a human can comprehend. A mess so huge that you would hire a cleaning lady to take care of it for you instead of doing it yourself.
"YOU TWO DIDN'T LOOK INTO IT?!" He boomed. "After all this time, after I worked you boys to the freaking bone to find anything related to Paulina Jones, and I mean anything, how the bloody hell did you mess this up?!"
Everything was going so well. All so well. His wish finally came true, only for it to be snatched away from him like a thief in the night. To make it all worst, Paulina had a brother, and now he's the one who took Dice away.
That horrible, grotesque feeling reignites inside his very core. His hatred burns his entire body into a crimson furnace, matted with fur and coated in a glaze of ember.
The Devil snatches the paper from Henchman, then proceeds to stuff it into a crinkled ball, chuck it into the air as if he were playing badminton, and without hesitation, he shoots a blast of fire at the sheet, molding it into nothing but ash and brimstone. But it couldn't satisfy him.
"I'M GONNA KILL THAT BASTAAAAARD! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
His screams ring resonate the tremors of his rage, shaking the entire cavern that sprinkles crumbs of the craggy walls from the ceiling. This roar of fury tightens the ear muscles of the impish duo, trying to block out the wrath in their boss' vocal cords.
It only lasts for more than five seconds as the demon's exterior changes colors, back to its original dull hue, and the flames that covered his slender body disappear into thin air. The compression between his creations' head releases its grip, honing back to the sounds of deafening silence.
The Devil is calming down. That's a relief. In spite of that, though, Henchman and Minion can still detect a shimmer of his anger, still dormant within him, and their intuition, tugging at their heads with certitude, raises concern.
"What am I doing?" Their boss growled.
Destroying a stupid note isn't going to bring Dice back, he knew that much. But, his mind is clouded with judgement, and his rage is uncontrollable. Just the thought of anything bad happening to his righthand man would send him on edge.
"Are you sure we can't help you, boss?" The plump demon asked.
"Yeah!" The blue imp agreed. "I mean, you did teach us a lot of stuff in Killing 101."
"Like how to strangle a guy."
"Or how to make a murder look like a suicide."
"Or how to poison someone."
"Or how to throw someone under the bus... literally."
"We even learned how to use lethal weapons! We've got guns, knives, bombs, more bombs, and—!"
"NO!"
A millisecond gasp would've almost given one of his impish servants a coughing fit for choking on his own words, and possibly the saliva in his mouth, by accident from the prince of darkness' sudden response. But, that wasn't the point.
"F**k, that damn twat told me not to bring back up." The Devil grumbled.
It was literally written on the parchment, and the message is rather vague, but short. Very easy for someone to not forget if it wasn't as long as a paragraph in the page of a book. Heck, even Henchman and Minion knew that, and it never crossed their minds until the entity jogged their memories.
The Devil needs to figure out a plan, and quick! He's only got until midnight to rescue Dice, and it's not even the brink of dawn yet. Once he finds him, he will make sure to end Liam's life right then and there! However, he is fully aware that Liam knows his true identity when he killed Paulina in that church attack a month ago, so it's possible that he might have some kind of trick up his sleeve.
Also, there is absolutely no way in the seven layers of where he is standing in right now would the Devil, ruler of hell, kicked out of heaven and damned to the center of the earth, just give Paulina's soul to her brother. She has more than a reason to suffer down there, and her physical body had been a thing of the past since her death. The vessel in which she used to walk and breath with, as well as a place where her entrails and bones were kept, had ceased to exist.
That's when a light bulb dings inside the base of his skull. An idea blooms, one that might just work in a time of crisis, and in this case, it's a big one. No, huge! The hairy monster could only nod and smirk at the thought. He shifts his attention to his creations.
"Do you boys remember... the secret codeword?" The deity asked.
The impish duo couldn't help but squeal with glee. The codeword. They have been waiting for the day when the Devil would signal the codeword in desperate times like this one. It's like entering a password to a club that only invited members of the group have access to.
"If anything bad happens to me, I'll yell out the codeword, and you boys come find us! Got it?"
They nod their heads vigorously. Their eyes sparkle with pure excitement. Seeing the joy in their faces for such a moment, it makes the Devil wonder if it's okay for him to have kids in the future. He'll think about it later.
—
The human peaks his head out of the crack of the twin doors, examine the front to see if any shred of life has showed up yet, but he was expecting the prince of darkness to show up by now.
"I thought the Devil was smarter than this." The human grumbled. "If he's soooo smart, why can't he just poof here! He's good at that. Stupid demon..."
Now he's just getting on Dice's nerves. Calling his boss-slash-lover stupid, it pisses him off. If he can get himself out of his ties, he would punch his good-looking face until he jaw breaks.
But even Liam was having the same level of vexation as him, impatiently waiting for the Devil to show up. He lifts his arm up, scanning the hands on the numbers on his rolex,
"Where is he?!" He cried out. "That bastard better have Paulina with him! I don't see his sorry ass anywhere!"
He turns his attention towards his victim, who is giving him the stink eye. With a click of his tongue, he marches right up to him, raises his arm...
SMACK!
And slaps him on the face, just like last time.
"HEY YOU DUMBASS!" He yelled. "Say something! You're about to die soon, and all you're doing is giving me the silent treatment!"
"...Go f**k yourself."
SMACK!
Now that slap was harder than the last, leaving a red print on the helpless man's face.
"YOU WANT ME TO SHOOT YOUR HEAD OFF?!" The human shouted. "You're really that eager to choose death over life, huh?!
"Actually, quite the opposite."
Well, now that these two individuals are talking to each other, another question seems to ponder inside the mind of the purple suited create in that square head of his.
"I'm more surprised you figured out who offed your sister." Dice admitted.
"It's none of your damn concern how I figured it out. All you gotta know is that I've been digging deeper into the rabbit hole."
Wonder how deep that is? If dice-headed man had to guess, he probably figured it out from the beast attack, whatever shape the Devil was taking to tear Paulina out from the inside. He's more surprised that nobody was dence enough to realize that there was no wild animal in the home of the holy spirit.
"Well, whatever." Liam continued. "it's not like he's going to come and save you anyways. I mean, you're the Devil's righthand man, right? He must treat you like his slave or something—."
Suddenly, a chunk of saliva hits him in the face, abruptly interrupting the human. A fast growl leaves his angered mouth.
"You shut your shit-eating mouth, you scum of the earth." King Dice bellowed. "I can take you, being in full denial and all that... but you insulting the king of the underworld is where I have to draw the line in the sand."
"Oh?" said Liam, wiping the spit of his cheek. "And why is that?"
Because Dice loves the Devil, and he loves him back.
"...Because if he heard you right now, he would put your head on a silver platter."
"Pfft—!"
Laughter escapes the throat of the human male. But it wasn't anything normal; it was pure evil. Rotten to the core, devoid of any form of mentality. It was made out of insanity.
"You think I give a shit about what he thinks?! Or how powerful he is?!" He cackled. "Nooooo no no no no no. Not at all."
His corrupted smile is so filled with the putridness of insanity that it makes his sufferer want to throw up his lunch. This man isn't afraid of the Devil, not one bit, unless he was putting on nothing more than a facade to hide his own fears.
Well, either way, it's not working. He is trying his hardest to assert control over the dice-headed man, but he isn't going to make him crack. Try as he might to make him vulnerable, it remains distant from that dream, coming to fruition
"But if he makes it here on time, I already have an idea on what I should do with him." Liam chuckled.
Dice's eyes lower as he catches a glimpse of something, sitting against the wooden structure next to the door. Two things, in fact. A pit in his stomach falls as bullets of sweat fall from his temple. His mind, filled with anxieties, concerns, and fear.
"Oh no..."
—
How many times has the demon king been changing his forms? Too many to count. His mind is dead set on his current mission that he isn't attentive about what animal or object he turns into. He looked everywhere! The city, the pier, the forest, all of the isles! Everywhere he searched, high and low, he has no leads.
The Devil went out of his way to ask a few of the locals in his human form. Their alibi is all the same; they haven't seen King Dice, nor a strange individual anywhere. Left without any sort of clue on their whereabouts, the entity returns to Inkwell City in a huff.
The combination of the stress and fury within him continues to eat him away, and the sun is starting to set down into the oceans of the world. How the hell is Liam Jones quick enough to get away with kidnapping? This man is too cunning. Cunning enough to create an elaborate scheme without drawing so much attention.
Why do people like the Jones siblings have to exist? All they do is try to kill someone in order to complete an objective, and they went after King Dice, too.
A world without King Dice means nothing to him if he's dead. If anyone touches a single hair on his pretty little head... if anyone dares to hurt him... if anyone goes out of their way to murder Dice... then the prince of darkness, the ruler of hell—the Devil himself—will unleash Armageddon on the entire isles of Inkwell. He will cast his despair out of the corners of the lands. No one, not even the gods themselves, can flee from the Devil's wrath.
Suddenly, his mind went blank. His negative emotions cut off from his chest. Everything around falls under deaf ears. His gaze is unfocused and his body is still as frozen blocks of ice. Something had ceased him from all negative thoughts. Something faint, yet peculiar, tickling his nose hairs.
This scent...
Without a second thought, his skinny body starts to shrink. His arms and legs sink into his flesh, and his face twitches and contorts. His form eventually turns into that of a snake. Unlike his dragon form, where he is huge and had multiple claws, the Devil looked exactly like a regular snake, but all black with small horns, red eyes, and no limbs whatsoever. His trident is also about the same size as him, but the demon is holding onto the pole with his tough jaw.
If memory serves him right, snakes have an excellent sense of smell to help with their surroundings. It's a helpful asset to these reptilian creatures, a compensation for their poor eyesight and limited hearing.
People often thought their tongues were a sign that they feel threatened, but in actuality, they're just "tasting" the air, and that's exactly how snakes are able to smell things.
His forked tongue flicks out of his mouth. A whiff of the air catches onto him, and as clear as day, that scent reenters his lungs. He knew his nose wasn't playing any tricks on him.
Dice...!
With a few bleps, he slithers on ahead, following the smell, passing through the nature around him and ignoring the shrieks and cries of the public who view as nothing more than a lowly vermin. He doesn't care about his surroundings. All he can think about is King Dice. The more his appearance pops into his head, the faster the speed of his wiggling increases.
Before he could have any time to react, the Devil falls off of the edge of the island before eventually landing on something hard. The pain, aching on his small body reverts him back to his original form, wincing in bits of agony. His weapon, drops out of his mouth as it returns to normal size.
"Dammit!" He spat.
As he tries to pick himself up, he circles his head around to see that he is on a flat, rocky surface, surrounded by bodies of water. Next to him were a series of bushes and two trees with more leaves surrounding their short branches. Next to it was a long rope ladder that leads back up to where he was. Was he on the side of the isle?
But Dice's fragrance, he can still smell it. It's much stronger than it was before. He takes a long glance at the prickles of nature itself. What if...?
With one arm, lifting one of the bustling trees up, and his other hand, gripping onto his pitchfork and shoving the bushes aside with it, reveals a wide cavern-like hole. So, this is where the scent is coming from.
Luckily, the deity is able to fit into the hole. With his weapon under his armpit, he crutches down to his knees and crawls into the entrance.
—
The demon continues to follow the path to the bright beam of light from the distance. Where was this strange passage taking him? Was this some kind of shortcut? A new area he has never been to before? So many questions fill the the Devil's mind as he walks further towards the light.
Once his eyes adjust to the gleams, he stares in awe at the gorgeous sight before him. It is a paradise of greenery. From across this realm, away from the Devil, is a rocky wall with a waterfall coming out of the top surface, pouring down the liquid in a a circular pool. Next to the pool is a handmade bed swing. A blanket taking grasp of two large trees between it.
But King Dice isn't anywhere in the area, no matter where the Devil looked. He checks behind the trees and bushes, and dumps his head into the circle to see if his lackey is hiding underwater. He even checked the top of the waterfall, and it turns out that there were large stones, blocking the path to where he thought the man might've hidden. If he isn't around, why would the entity's instincts lead him directly to here of all places?
Although, the atmosphere has the air of tranquility. The longer you stay in here, the more you're tempted to never leave. This must be King Dice's secret relaxing place, if the demon had to guess.
Searching for his righthand man in a calm environment like this is making him waste more time than he needed, and it's frustrating him. But, the Devil couldn't help but stare at the porch swing. Seeing the dicey patterns on it, it's definitely an esthetic the man would have. There's no mistaking it.
Every one of these patterns would always make him think of King Dice. He could never resist the thought of his lackey in his brain. Thinking about him now is leaving a tinge of sadness in his core.
The Devil heads towards the swing, slowly examining every part of the relaxation spot. Placing his trident against one of the trees, he sits his rear onto the texture. Then, he lifts his feet off the ground and turns his body until his back is laying on the surface, rocking his body back and forth from the ropes tying the swing together.
The jingling sensation of the swing actually feels really good, and the soothing fluffiness of the blanket releases the tension from his form. He can even smell the fragrance of Dice's cologne, and the echos of the rushing waves brings peace to his heart. He never got a chance to take a break from everything. Maybe his lackey chose this place for the same reason. Once his shift is over, he comes here on his way back home from time to time. If anything, he probably wishes he can stay here forever, and the Devil can agree.
That's when King Dice's face pop into his head. Oh, he already misses everything the man. His smile, his laugh, his charisma, his loyalty, all of it. If he loses his righthand man now, he'll have no one who can help him with running the casino, or have someone to greet him in the morning.
The only man he loved in the entire world, missing and nowhere to be found. It breaks his heart to know that he is out there somewhere, without the demon knowing where he went.
"...And here I am, wallowing in my emotions." He sighed to himself.
Visions of King Dice flash before his eyes. In his own little world, the two males were outdoors, having a picnic.
"Dice..."
While he is off in his own little world, the Devil sinks further into the sheets, breathing into the same fragrance that filled his nostrils many hours ago. Feeling the soft fabric around his body, it was like his dearest is wrapping him in a tender embrace, and it feels so warm.
"Dice, I..."
The demon's mind wanders as images of his first kiss with King Dice overload his brain. His claws, gripping onto the thick blanket. From the tips of his ears to the cheeks between his mouth, all of his face is covered in bright red.
"I... I-I love you, Dice!" He cried out. "I love you so much! So please... don't leave me!"
Tears swell up from his eye sockets. The morning star wants King Dice back. He doesn't care what he has to do in order to achieve his goal. He wants to see him again! He wants to hear his voice again! He wants to feel his hugs again! He wants to—!
THUNK!
The Devil rises from the porch swing, spotting his trident now laying on the grassy floor. Guess the tree couldn't support the weight of the weapon for much longer. The vibrations of the swing from the monster's movements must've toppled it over.
All the demon can do is simply stare at it, pointing towards the rushing water, flowing from atop. His red eyes stare at the waterfall. A round-ish silhouette, while covered in a majority of water.
Picking up his weapon, he walks towards the cascade, scooting his large feet away across the rocks, taking a closer look at the large outline. Curious, the Devil holds his breath as hard as he could and braces himself, closes his eyes shut, and shoves his head into the waterfall.
When his eyes slowly start to open, the demon lord is surprised to find another cavern. A large entrance, hidden in plain sight. How did he not notice this until now? This place truly is full of wonders and surprises. If it wasn't there at all, the Devil would've accidentally hit his head on impact, and probably break both of his sensitive horns in the process.
Pulling his body through the waterfall, he stands on the craggy floors of his new surroundings. Trembling, dripping wet, and getting heavy from his soaked fur, darting downwards like a cat, getting out of the bathtub.
He leans his body forward with his legs to support his weight, swaying back and forth at a fast pace, getting rid of any lingering traces of droplets, and alas, his body hairs change his form to that of a ball of fluff. Gosh, he hates when this happens.
"I'm taking a warm shower later." He whispered to himself. "And I'm going to need extra towels."
In the far distance, A tiny ball of light shines through, indicating just how far the cave leads. Something inside him is telling him to proceed. It's like his instincts are telling him that he's going in the right direction, like his loyal subject—his lover—is somewhere beyond the distance. Even if he can't smell King Dice's scent, even if he can't sense his presence, he finally knows where his lackey is. His intuition is never wrong.
"I'm coming, my number one." He nodded. "Hang in there. Wait for me!"
His feet hover over the ground below him by a few inches, and his body darts forward, flying in the air as fast as he could, clutching the weapon with white knuckles.