Angel's Authority

Part Five, Chapter Sixty-Three: Seeing Red

Based on the Volition Inc.™ game: Saints Row – Gat out of Hell™

EVANORA

Everything was dark and red, the floor my nose was pressed on was sandy and smelled like burned meat. Everything I could hear were wailing sounds just like a child with a tummy ache only deeper and more hurtful, sounding like the grunts of a ghoul. As soon as I stood up on my knees, looked at the army that surrounded me and its leader, I knew exactly where I was.

"So what do you want with me... Lucifer Morgenstern?"

He chuckled. His massive, winged body and horned head rocking with the laughter.

"I'm surprised you don't know, Saint! But I won't spoil the surprise for you. Let's say we will soon be family, once you marry my child."

"You mean Jezebel? Which one of yours is it?"

"My youngest. My daughter."

"You know the term 'daughter' is atypical for a demon? Isn't your folk genderless and with no sexuality? Isn't it your rule that demons should remain so? Even the lost souls apply!"

It had been something Ruby had told me long ago which had surprised me then but made sense now. What does gender and sexuality matter to beings born from the fiercest flames and responsible for one's eternal damnation? Right, nothing!

"My rule! I can do whatever I want with it! But enough talking now... Will you come peacefully or not? We are on a tight schedule and there are other people that require your... existence."

He snapped. Satan had always been the maddest of the nine princes but also the most gruesome and brutal. Yet not even he could keep up with Ruby.

"I have powerful friends down here. They won't like what you're doing!"

The demon king laughed.

"You mean the abandoned Elder and her little puppy Rodin?"

Upon noticing my surprised look, he added:

"Oh yes, I know who you are, Evanora of the Green Dawns. The thing is: you're going to have to find yourself another name once the Morningstar has dealt with your home for good!"

I sank back down to the ground, remembering Zinjai's words and finally from where they had been so familiar.

"A four-spiked light on the horizon... A morning star. The Morningstar. Morgenstern is German for Morningstar..."

I muttered under my breath. The four-spiked light had been in the Seeker's prophecy when he helped us against the Lords of Fear. Back then, it had not made sense at all but right now it was perfectly conclusive.

Everybody knows the legend of Satan. Lucifer Morgenstern, the fallen angel who was saved by the demon mother Lilith and who turned him into the abomination he is in today's time.

But Satan is not talking to himself in third person. He is not that crazy. He would be too egoistic to do so. He must have someone else in mind. Another four-spiked light. There was another Morningstar.

Just then, as I had sunken in thoughts and was focusing onto my mind and soul, I noticed something. A feeling that I had only felt artificially since recently. A feeling that was thousand times better in real life that it even forced tears into my eyes. My magic. It was back!

Hell being a realm of pure magic could even invoke it into something as unmagical as a toothbrush. I should have known and remembered earlier. I felt its warmth – that I had so thoroughly missed – all over myself, inside me and around me like a soap bubble.

I stood up, straightening my overall and raised my hands high into the air. Lightning flickered in my eyes and between my fingerstips as I moved the sparks towards my palms, concentrating the electricity, charging myself with thousands of Volts.

I wanted to leap into the army of demons yet again, a force held me back. I looked down my feet, only to notice a purple crystal which was slowly crawling up my legs, aiming to enclose my entire body. And it was moving fast! All my efforts removing it were pointless, not even with my newly regained magic.

"Another gift from another friend of mine. Our plan is working out perfectly..."

Satan sneered and grinned provocatively. If I could move to snap his neck like Zinyak's, I would but the crystal will soon close around me completely. Only my face was still uncovered.

I closed my eyes before the cold material touched them. The dizziness slowly came knocking on my head, making it ring and force wells of sweat to pour down my entire body. The purple prison was putting me under an induced sleep. Another coma.

"PDEE BARMA... RUBIN-A..."

This was the last thing I could think of: calling for help before the crystal closed itself with a crunchy noise and my being felt like back in the cryo-pod. I saw myself float into black nothingness again like with the 2006 coma.

Somewhere far, far away, I was sure that Ruby Skellington could hear my whisper: The Enochian words for "First Elder, Rubina" had been meant for only her ears. It was my last hope that Ruby would realize where I was and save me. I don't know if I will ever find back home otherwise...