The Beginning Of An End

Chapter 2

Beneath a sky cloaked in perpetual twilight, I oversaw the barrier being built by a swarm of low-ranked demons. Imps carried molten pieces of Iron of Torment between towering furnaces, while newly formed demons worked alongside them, their movements slower and less coordinated. The lower ranks always struggled with Astral energy. Their bodies had not yet learned how to exist within it.

The lower demons worked without complaint, though I knew better than to mistake silence for obedience. Hell had always been good at creating survivors. Give any creature enough time, and eventually it learned when resistance was worth the cost.

The humans had always imagined demons as creatures of pure destruction. They were wrong. Destruction was easy. Maintaining an eternal kingdom was much harder.

Each hammer strike rang with precision, yet carried a chorus of screams—the iron resonated with the agony of the trapped souls within. While we did not torture indiscriminately, many demons ended up in dungeons for disobedience or failing to follow Hell's laws.

The barrier construction echoed across the realm for days. The sound of hammer against iron travelled through the Astral like a heartbeat. The air carried the scent of burning metal and old magic. Alchemy and sorcery infused the iron, twisting its nature with dark spells. According to human tales, to witness their work was blasphemy—a cursed dance where every movement invoked doom. I found it amusing how terrified humans were of us, yet in their despair, they always sought us out.

Watching the process was exhausting. Even Hell could be hellish to its residents. Time in Astral flowed differently—stretched infinitely in one moment, and gone in the blink of an eye in the next. Higher beings mastered this perception; lower-ranked ones struggled. Gods experienced time racing past, while novices often found themselves lost in its irregular rhythm.

Several Suns had passed since the first brick was laid. The passing of a Sun did not refer to an actual sunrise but rather a complete cycle of Astral energy through the realm. The human equivalent would have been a day.

And since this was supposed to be a lesson given to us by the Devil, he had specifically designed this to be burdensome. The Devil had always believed discomfort was the quickest teacher. Unfortunately, he also believed immortality made everyone lazy.

"Hey...Hey..." I felt someone shaking me which was when I realized I hadn't been paying attention for quite some time. It was Amon.

"Thank you for... waking me up." I said, through a chuckle. I looked around and I noticed a soft glow coming from the realm itself, ebbing through the cracks of the sky. It indicated the new day had come.

"We're almost done. I mean, they're almost done. We'll get to have our free time again." Amon said all cheerful.

"How long was I zoned out for?" I asked.

"Well... You were gone halfway through." He said, laughing anxiously.

I shook my head and waved my hand in a dismissive manner. "Eh, who cares." Catching me half-sleeping on guard duty will be even a treat if we compare it to my other bigger offense.

"So it's almost done?"

"Yeah, the Devil said we can go back to our usual routines now."

I let out a long breath in relief. This was going on for weeks already. I felt like my brain was physically getting smaller from doing the same thing over and over again. Well, mostly doing nothing. I just wanted to go back to my casino and serve freaky cocktails to demons. But first I had to respond to a summoning. Not that I had to but I really wanted to get out of this godforsaken place (quite literally).