Devils fate, p.2
Devil's Fate, page 2
She had two entire bookshelves full of books on blood magic.
I took my time, going through one book at a time, and looked for what I needed. In particular, I missed the details of strengthening bones and higher-tier muscle compression.
My current body had both, so I wanted the same features for the new one.
Steps approached from the direction of the door.
“Alyssa?” I asked.
The steps stopped. “Are you sneaking through my library, Lucifer?”
“Walk away, pretend you never found me here, and do not inquire into why I have been here.”
“Very well.” The steps headed away, and the door slammed closed. She slammed them so I could hear it.
Good. “That goes for you as well, Crystal.”
No answer or reaction. Crystal was another of my high demons, one that could merge with any shadow, and who loved to spy on me.
I didn’t know if she was watching me or not, but I suspected as much. “For real, this time. Don’t stick your nose into this, or things won’t go the way you want.”
Still no answer or reaction.
She better not be around. “Last warning,” I said. “I’m dead serious about this.”
Nothing moved.
All right. I returned to the books and found what I needed. Both the bone strengthening and muscle compression required multiple rounds with waiting in between.
I memorized the techniques and returned the respective books to their places.
Now, where was a jeweler?
A fashion craze engulfed Hell not that long ago, so we had more than a few jewelers.
I stretched out my detection field, encompassing most of Hell. I remembered who my jewelers were, but I found none, so they guarded the Tower.
I used soulsteps to move through the main streets. After about a few minutes, I found a closed jewelry store.
I moved inside and searched for large crystals and gems. Into every candidate I found, I pushed a bit of power to test the conductivity.
From the entire store, only about four gems and two crystals had the necessary conductivity.
I took those and tossed them into my soul chamber. The technique to move item to and from my soul chamber was essentially an application of the soulstep. And I used the practically infinite storage more than I should have.
All right, I had everything I needed.
Now, one more check. I spread around my power and drew all energy surrounding me into myself.
My shadow moved, and Crystal formed. She wore her usual leather armor, heavy boots, and a face mask, all black. Her hair fell almost to her waist, eyes piercing. “It’s not what it looks like,” she blurted.
I soulstepped to her and struck her chest, injecting a jolt of my power into her magic circulatory system.
She froze in place.
I reached into my soul chamber and pulled one of the gems into my palm. I caught her nape and rammed the gem into her forehead.
At the same time, I pulled on her soul.
As she screamed, I tore the soul from her body and trapped it in the gem.
Once I got the whole soul inside, I sealed the gem.
The large diamond now turned pitch black.
I warned her.
Lillith 1
Deep inside area fifty-seven, Lillith stood in front of the metallic casket.
Her science teams had yet to arrive, so she had a moment alone with the recovered artifact.
Two containers held the two captured alien bugs, one filled with liquid, the other with air. The bugs moved in both, slashing at the walls to no avail. They have been going at it for hours with no hint of planning to stop.
The third bug, or well, the scrambled remains of it, were stuffed in a box by a side. She tried to analyze the casket and found absolutely nothing of interest.
The metal was cold, felt like steel, and had no magical conductivity. The surface reflected light, at least a low-intensity one, and she didn’t want to break the facility by trying anything stronger.
This whole place, a military facility deep in the heart of Alaska, was run by the magic-knowing part of the US army and the Vatican Inquisition. The place cost millions of dollars just to maintain, and any repairs were going to be billed from her budget in one way or another.
She had no idea what to do with the casket.
Elsha? She asked in her mind. What is this?
In a puff of violet mist, Elsha appeared next to her. The demon princess wore an elegant white dress and had goat-like horns towering from her forehead. Her violet eyes shone on her unspeakably beautiful face. “It looks like a steel casket.”
Only Lillith could see or hear her. That was the way it always worked with Elsha. And yes, on the grand scale of things, Lillith, an archangel of light, and Elsha, worshipped as Dark Alexandra, a goddess of demons, were supposed to be mortal enemies like no other.
But she was also Lillith’s only friend, so the clash of good and evil had to wait. Not to mention she trained Lillith in magic, which she needed, mostly because she had no one else to learn from.
Well, technically speaking, Lillith was already among the top five most powerful beings on Earth, but she wasn’t the strongest, so she had space for growth. Not to mention that aside from the Earth’s power scale, there was the Void one.
And Lillith didn’t rank high in there, if at all. “I can see that.”
“Then why did you ask me?”
Lillith rubbed her face with her palm. “What about the bugs?”
Elsha tilted her head. “They are ugly. I don’t like them at all.”
“What are they? Where are they from?”
Elsha shrugged. “I’ve never seen these.”
“You are a goddess of seventeen thousand worlds, one that has lived for millennia, and regularly travels through timelines and alternate realities. How do you not recognize something?”
The demon princess rolled her eyes. “How am I supposed to recognize these? It’s some shitty alien bugs and a steel casket. Why should I recognize them at all?”
“Because my father most likely sent these bugs in this casket through time from the future into our timeline. They must be extremely important.”
“Hmmm… have you checked if he didn’t leave a message inside? You know, like an accompanying letter…”
How useful. Lillith shook her head. “Anyway, I need to make this facility magic-proof, or more precisely, Lucifer-proof.”
Elsha rolled her eyes. “That sounds like work. How about we do something fun instead? You know, Netflix and chill, or something along those lines?”
“Make the defenses, and we will go bully my sister afterward.”
“Deal.” Elsha vanished into a puff of violet mist.
Aside from Lucifer-proof, this facility also had to become vampire-proof. Lillith had her own resident vampire, her stepsister, Casey, who was made from Lucifer’s blood.
Technically speaking, Casey was the real daughter, in the traditional, blood-related sense, and Lillith was the adoptive one. But she had a fragment of Lucifer’s divinity, which had to count for something.
She spared the casket another glance. Nothing.
But her father was not the type to send something through time and space without purpose. He didn’t do anything needlessly. Ever.
She hated that aspect of him.
In a puff of violet mist, Elsha reappeared. “Done.”
Lillith headed out from the laboratory. She greeted the soldiers she met with customary nods and she exited the complex. The ice-cold wind slammed into her face. She turned into pure light and beamed into the sky.
In that form, she flew to her hideout in the Himalayas. With a nice view of Mt. Everest from the entrance, she had a cavern with hot springs where she used to train.
Now, she did a lot more things in there.
Aside from friends, she also used to have no hobbies. But Elsha helped her find one.
Lillith moved through the caverns and reformed in her workshop, straight in front of the cabinet of things she wasn’t supposed to make.
Elsha helped her with the application of magic to craft items. And given the demon princess’s hobbies, the natural items to train on were chastity belts.
Yes, yes, yes, Lillith knew that was about the last item she was supposed to be crafting.
But it was fun to create something unique with Elsha, and any attempt to make Elsha work on something non-sexual proved to be futile. She picked up two of the latest models, the ones that had soul-connecting features, and extreme anti-magical and anti-everything protections.
She hid them both underneath her jacket. Lillith turned into light and beamed out from the cavern.
This time, she headed to New York.
Casey lived in a thirty-million-dollar penthouse in a New York skyscraper, and since the sun had yet to set, heavy blinders covered all windows.
Lillith first materialized outside and spread out her detection field. Both Casey and Ophelia lay in their beds, asleep.
Lillith turned back into light, sneaked underneath one blinder, and materialized in Casey’s bedroom.
The vampiress slept in a bed that looked like it cost more than a new car, everything made from silk, cashmere, and similar materials.
Even asleep, Casey looked perfect, blonde hair wonderfully arranged, lips full and crimson without any need for makeup, face perfectly beautiful.
Lillith sat on the bed’s side and lightly ran her fingers by the side of Casey’s face.
She stirred. “You’re early,” she muttered and spread her legs wide underneath her blankets.
Lillith smirked. “I’m not Hutriel.”
Casey’s eyes opened, irises as crimson as her lips, and she sat up in a jerk, pulling the blanket to keep her chest covered. Her gaze darted around the room and then fixed on Lillith. “What are you doing, Sis?”
“I’ve come to chat.”
Blood burst from Casey’s shoulders, wreathed her body, and formed a beautiful blue dress. “About?”
“You see.” Lillith smiled. “I’ve got this facility that’s very likely to be spied upon by your dearest mother. I need her to fail, so I was thinking you could help me fortify the complex. And I need it pretty much immediately.”
Casey frowned. “Really? Your Inquisition completely messes up my boyfriend’s schedule, severely disrupting our love life, then you do nothing to fix it, and now you come asking for favors? The gives and the takes don’t balance out at all, Sister.”
And they were going to disbalance a whole lot more. “You see, there’s a little problem here. Your boyfriend, Hutriel, is an angel. As such, he is very much not supposed to partake in pre-marital sex.”
Casey smiled. “Hutriel is a human with an angelic blessing. The angel who granted him the blessing doesn’t care, so I don’t see why you should.”
“Because I’m still his boss, and the enforcement of the rules of our faith falls upon me, especially when angels are involved. Hutriel is an angel, and those have rules to obey.”
Casey formed perfect puppy eyes. “Couldn’t you make an exception? For me?”
Lillith’s heart didn’t budge the tiniest bit. “I am not making exceptions unless there is a wedding on the immediate horizon.”
“The wedding is somewhere in the medium-term future. I am not nearly ready to settle down.”
“And I am not going to give waivers for rule-breaking just because the angel in question is pounding my sister.”
Casey glowered at her. “Sister, dear, that you are almost a thirty-year-old virgin doesn’t mean others aren’t allowed to have a sexual life.”
Lillith focused for a split second. Elsha, bait in the test subject. “True,” she said and smirked as venomously as she could. “But I am going to enforce my will. So, I’ve been thinking about a chastity belt.”
Casey licked her lips. “Well, if things cannot be helped, then I suppose you have to do what you must.”
“Oh, not for Hutriel. That would be like a Christmas gift for you. You would tease him endlessly with it, and he still has fingers and mouth to satisfy you.” Lillith pulled one chastity belt from underneath her jacket. “But if I lock you up, then he’s going to have all the time and focus that needs for his duties.”
Casey returned to glowering. “You cannot be serious.”
“Try me, Sis.”
The door opened and a split image of Casey, just in a white dress, walked in. Ophelia, Casey’s something-like-twin sister. Something-like, because while they looked identical, they were made centuries apart.
Vampires were created from a body, an essence, and the gift of unlife. When making those two, Vivian, their mother, didn’t bother to update the blueprint, so Casey was effectively a copy and paste from Ophelia.
Ophelia put on a charming smile. “This looks interesting. Don’t let me interrupt you.”
Lillith smirked. “Now that’s just the test subject I needed.” She turned into light, beamed to Ophelia, reformed straight in front of her, and struck her in the chest, injecting Ophelia’s magic circulatory system with her own magic.
That completely paralyzed Ophelia.
Lillith pulled up Ophelia’s skirt. No panties. She locked the chastity belt around her crotch, made sure the locking mechanism was fully engaged, and rearranged the dress.
She touched Ophelia’s chest and withdrew her power back into herself.
Ophelia glared at her. “You cannot be serious.” She turned into pure blood, washed around the room, and reformed.
Lillith smirked. The belt held.
Ophelia became half transparent and walked through a couple wardrobes.
Lillith’s smirk broadened.
Ophelia’s body twisted and then exploded into chunks of flesh and blood. The pieces turned into blood and reformed again into Ophelia. “How?” she shouted. “I can’t even turn off my crotch now.”
“That I don’t usually use my father’s soul-manipulation magic doesn’t mean he hasn’t taught it to me. He has.” Lillith pulled out the second belt from underneath her jacket and looked at Casey. “Sister, dear, do we have an understanding, or do you want to test how indestructible this is?”
Casey got out form the bed, still glaring at Lillith. “But of course we do.”
Lillith took out her phone and rang up Hutriel.
He picked up in an instant. “What’s up, Boss?”
“I need you to pick up Casey and Ophelia in their apartment, and to fly them up to area fifty-seven. Immediately. They know what to do there.” She hung up and refocused on Casey. “And by the way, if you screw me over with the defenses, you will wish I only put a chastity belt on you.”
“Don’t worry,” Casey said in an uncharacteristically weak voice. “I am not that stupid.”
Lillith hid the belt back underneath the jacket.
“Wait,” Ophelia shouted. “I’ve got eight pets, one of whom is a succubus.” She pointed at her crotch with her fingers. “I need this.”
Lillith smirked once more. “One of your pets is an angel of mine, and I’ll need him focused on work. Plus, I need to test if you really can’t get out of it, so I think I’ll give you at least a week to try to do that.” Lillith turned into pure light and beamed out through the window.
‘That felt good, didn’t it?’ Elsha asked into her mind.
It wasn’t supposed to.
‘On a scale from zero to ten where ten is the highest, how good did this feel?’
About fifty-seven. Lillith streaked into her chambers in the abbey in Queens and reformed. She used to live in this abbey with her father, then with her sister, and now, with her dog.
The puppy, which she still had yet to name, barked happily, and jumped out from the cot.
In a puff of violet mist, Elsha formed. “So?”
Lillith ducked to pet the putty. “You are corrupting me.”
“How precisely am I doing that?” Elsha gasped. “There are rules angels are supposed to live by. You follow them. Others don’t. And when I help you push things toward justice, it’s me corrupting you?”
Lillith picked up the puppy and headed for her laptop. “Partially.”
Elsha giggled. “So, may I go toy with Ophelia?”
Without any hint, Lillith stretched her power and touched Elsha’s magical shields four times. The shield’s pattern changed every time, verifying this was the real demon princess. “Yourself, or with your projection?”
“Projection, of course. The bloodsuckers aren’t worth the time of my real self.” She waved with her hand, and a perfect copy of her appeared next to her, but in her usual dress made from black feathers. “Yet at the same time, I cannot waste such a glorious opportunity to tease her to tears.” The projection vanished into the violet mist.
Lillith smiled and sat behind the laptop. That no one other than her was worthy of the real Elsha wasn’t supposed to make her happy. But it did. Really happy. She hated that. With an idiotic smile, Lillith booted the laptop and started the application for the Hand of God.
“By the way,” Elsha said. “It wasn’t very nice of Casey to call you a thirty-year-old virgin to your face. She’s technically correct, but it still isn’t very nice of her.”
Lillith rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, you would like to fix that for me?”
“I’m just saying that whenever you decide to stop being stubborn, I’m here for you. It’s not that you haven’t met the right person since you have already met me. It’s just you being stubborn for no good reason.”
She started an emergency meeting, with invitees: Lucielle of Europe, Linn of China, and Gilgamesh of Africa. She set the meeting to not show in Lucifer’s history of meetings and pressed launch. “I’ve got a meeting,” she said and put on her headset.
The other members of the Hand of God connected within a minute.
No matter the time, the rulers of the supernatural underworld were always available. Except for her father, who only joined meetings he organized himself.
Everyone connected, and the unofficial chairman of the Hand of God, Lucielle, took the word, the icon of her corporate logo lighting up. “What is it, Lillith? Are you going to tell us that aliens fell into your territory on that weird meteorite?”
