章 24: Dissension - Part 1
Lucifer landed near the top of the rocky cliff and decided to walk to the edge. The feelings that had been interrupting his mission and guiding him there seemed to be completely gone once he reached the end.
Since the notion had disappeared, he started to wonder what had caused such activity to occur and what the answer to the question was. Other than the vast sand and hillside, there was nothing in particular that captured his eye.
Weird. Should I just leave?
Though he said that, his heart faltered and chose to stay instead. He set a time limit of no more than five minutes, or he would give up and depart back to his current destination. Still, there was no watch or clock in the afterworld to show the time, and counting the seconds would only portray him as an impatient man.
"Well, time's up." Believing that the five-minute duration had passed, he revealed his majestic wings and prepared for taking off. But before he could lift away, a sudden tearing sound arose behind him that caught him off guard.
[Rip!]
As he turned to look at the basis, six familiar faces greeted him with shocking eyeballs instead of a warm welcome. Not a terrifying kind of shock but disbelief followed by solace after they realized who they were looking at.
"G-General Lucifer?" The alluring voice that he would never forget called out to him. The tear in her eyes smudged her gorgeous face. "Is that you?"
"Who else can I be?" He joked, and Asmodeus couldn't help but giggle as she was pleased to know that they had all finally reunited. "Glad to see you guys ba... Ooof."
"General Lucifer!" Abaddon wailed as he hugged Lucifer's leg. "You're the real deal right!? Sniff Hey, answer me!"
Lucifer patted his head to calm him down and looked at the others. Sathanas had a smile carved from cheeks aligned to show her jolliness. Mammon saluted him with one hand on his head, and Belphegor joined him in receiving Lucifer by clutching his hand around him.
"Glad to see you haven't changed, Sir," Belphegor retorted and knelt on one knee to conclude the welcoming ceremony. The others immediately followed suit and showed courtesy, except for one.
"Beelzebub, I assumed you took on the command? Good work," Lucifer said. He approached Beelzebub as he had been keeping his distance and was the only one not greeting or even following the others.
"T-Thank you," Beelzebub replied with a stutter. Even though envy was his trait, admiring and respecting his leader was still a principle he upheld. After a couple of seconds, he also genuflected like everyone else.
"All of you can stop with the civility," Lucifer said as they all rose and glanced at one another with pleasure in their smiles. "So, how is everything going on?"
"As planned," Asmodeus answered.
"What plan?" Lucifer asked.
"The cavalry marched following the trail that we set as we speak," Beelzebub elaborated with a clearer vision. "We were using Asmodeus' warping ability to scout the area and route the shortest way to Heaven. In this unknown land, finding the right path was made easier this way."
"I told them to thrash anything on the way to suffice our shortage of weapons," Belphegor added. "Wood and stone, anything that could be used to kill was accepted."
"I had already taught them three or four ways to combine the materials to forge more versatile and deadly equipment," Mammon supported. "By that time, I can guarantee that 70% of them were fully armoured."
"One thing that we discovered was that hunger can lead to death by starvation," Sathanas noted. "It sounded like bullshit since we kind of acquired an immunity-like power to live in Hell without a single meal. This incident managed to cause quite a commotion and demoralize our troops."
"And you know what? Abaddon found this fruit, you see," Abaddon chimed in after everyone completed their turn conversing. "It was a bit sweet and sour, but everyone was able to pull through and create a searching crew to look for edible food. Still, some had to resort to cannibalism to live."
"Anything for the goal," Beelzebub declared.
"For the goal," all of them sounded their mind harmonically.
Though a bit regretful, Lucifer saw the determination on each of the faces that were stretched out in front of him. The hardship and trials they faced for who knows how long could be seen drawn on their visage.
A raid to overthrow Heaven? What a treacherous and undignified act! Have I been the one planning this assault? Have Malique and Michael told me the truth that I hadn't known of? Or was someone else pulling the strings and using him as a double body?
While his head was struck with pain, he remained calm and avoided showing any emotion or even using his hand to rub the ache away. Should he reveal his questions now? Should he wait and see how things played out? But if Heaven was destroyed because of him waiting on the side-line, what a terrible servant had he been to God? What a dilemma.
"By the way, General Lucifer," Beelzebub whispered to him as he closed in. His abrupt comment pulled him from his thoughts. "There might be a slight negligence that happens to take place on our grand scheme."
"What is it?" he asked.
"The Gatekeeper of Hell, an Angel that goes by the name Malique, overheard our plan," Beelzebub notified.
Malique had overheard this plan. Good... But if only he and Michael had headed for Heaven right then, the disastrous feat could have been avoided.
Oh, Lucifer wished they'd already arrived there.
"He managed to escape our grasp when we sparred back in Hell," Beelzebub continued the story. "Astonishingly, he also handled himself very well and broke free from our forces. Resulting in two deaths on our side that day."
That kid, Malique, did that!? Are you sure this information is correct? You can't be serious.
"If you don't mind me asking you this, my General," Mammon interrupted Beelzebub's report even though it appeared that he had finished handing out everything of importance. "What happened to you? I-I mean, like what have you gone through that differs from us?"
"If you'd like to give us the honour and entertain us, that could do," Asmodeus validated. For countless years, they had been entrapped in Hell, and Lucifer was the only exception that roamed the outside afterworld. Of course, they were all curious and asked away.
"I was confined," he made up a story in a nick of time. Although this might as well count as a lie, he began to wonder how he was able to tell one. The last thing that he remembered was Angels and Demons alike were not allowed to tell lies. "Restricted, drained. A cold and dark sensation is all that I can recall from the eternal slumber."
He hoped that they bought his indistinct narrative. Compared to the knowledge he had gained, his fate was by far more plain sailing when set side by side with theirs. Conceivably, having them trust his brandish recital was the best option available.
"To be fair, I also encountered Malique on my way here." To avoid any suspicion, he deliberately changed the topic that would attract the most attention.
"What happened?" Not all of them harmoniously input their query, but he understood what they were trying to say.
"He was about to knock on death's door," he said, stopping his sentence to heighten the suspense. "Until Michael interfered."
"Then?"
"I had to do what any normal person would do. Retreat," he said. He found it funny how they took all of his actions seriously and all of his words legitimately. He had to round it up with a bit of spice so he added, "But I did inflict a couple of damages on him and immobilized his movement by using his dear friend."
"Problem solved then?" Abaddon concluded the whole story.
"Well, both of them aren't corpses already," Sathanas thought about it.
"So chances that we could arrive at Heaven first increase, right?" Belphegor implored.
"I won't say that," Lucifer stated, and all of their faces turned stern following the presence of someone tracking their existence. While the main target for the chase was him, the others could use his essence to trace back to the two Angels who were coming into this trap.
"So they decided to come to us eventually, huh?" Beelzebub asked rhetorically.
"Idiots," Lucifer thought. He did not want to be mean, but it was the truth. They should have just gone straight for Heaven, and now they were doomed. When two unaware heads popped up, he knew that it was not going to end well.
"Oh, Malique, isn't it? Enjoyed the time?" Beelzebub welcomed them with a smile that meant something else.
"He doesn't look that quite happy to see us. Disappointing," Sathanas stole the turn to speak.
"Ready for round two?" Beelzebub asked, with a devious smirk.
クリエイターの想い 
Aki_Kure
Aki_Kure Fact no. 11: The world's oldest known customer complaint was written on a clay tablet in ancient Mesopotamia over 4,000 years ago.
I wonder what kind of business they had back then that they managed a complain.
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