The Pleasures of Hell

Chapter 01.011

~~Mia~~

Zel outright moaned. "It says war?"

Maybe Mia should have lied. The further they got into the book and the more of Lucifer's words she read, the more the bushes in the cathedral burned, the louder and heavier the winds grew, and the brighter the runes became. She was scared.

"It... did, yeah. But, these are weird words to write in a book, right? This sounds more like a speech you'd give before going out for a fight, not something written in a book for knowledge or something."

"Indeed. But then, perhaps it is not written for knowledge, but something else, something more... intimate, than simply words written on a page."

"Intimate?"

Nodding, Zel turned the page. "Continue."

Mia sucked in a breath. The cathedral reacted to the words she read, meaning if Mia pretended to read something now, lied about it, Zel would know. No choice but to keep reading.

The next page was a doozy.

"The nine spires are my bastion. My children will flood the world. My children will pour over the Heavens, and then the Earth. The nine islands will bow to me. The surface will bow to me. All will be mine, and my children will feed well. Vengeance will be wrought, my kin will be ash, and the creator of all will watch in terror, powerless, as I make this Great Tower kneel." Jesus fucking christ, even if Zel wasn't overtly horribly evil, Lucifer seemed to be. The cathedral roared, and both Zel and Mia looked around as something rumbled in the wind, something suspiciously close to a deep, vibrating voice. The final line. "Rise, Belial. Rise."

Zel licked her lips in that slow, sensual way women did when they were thinking naughty thoughts. She turned the page.

"Uh..." Mia squinted at the new page, more tears in her eyes as the amber runes burned. "That's a weird page."

"I thought you might say so." Zel ran a finger down the pillar drawing in the center of the page. At the top were nine symbols, circles, and at the bottom were nine more. "You confirm my suspicions. It is the Great Tower. At its base, the nine spires of Hell. At its peak, the nine floating islands of Heaven." She tapped a claw on the small runes, written onto each of the eighteen circles, small things but legible. "Read."

"I..." Hmm. Mia leaned in closer, squinting against the brightness. A little David showed through now, curiosity that demanded she read, even though she knew she shouldn't. "I... I'm not sure." She half expected Zel to yell at her, but the demon queen sat there and waited, eyes sliding from Mia to the book, as Mia's hand drifted toward the page. "It's a... a... battle plan? These little runes on the side, little paragraphs, they're talking about details, about things that'll happen at False Gate. Lucifer and the nine Old Ones, they converged on False Gate, created the vortex, and then... there was a battle. The archangels, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, came down to Hell and fought. And..."

"Mmm?"

"Nothing. The plan describes the vortex worked, describes the battle started, and just... stops. I guess Lucifer never got to write anything else."

For the first time in a while, Zel frowned.

"A reasonable conclusion. What remains of our lord, no one truly knows. Perhaps they are trapped in the Forgotten Place. Perhaps they are dead, if such a being can even die." She laughed, and her frown disappeared. "Whatever the case may be, the bones of the old world are ours to do with as we see fit. Mine, to do with as I see fit. Within the remains of what came before, secrets lie hidden. And—"

Zel's voice disappeared under a humming choir in Mia's head. A voice. A song. Music that wasn't music. Something alien and cosmic pulled at her. With a mind of its own, Mia's hand descended onto the page of dark stone, and touched one of the runes. A specific rune in one of the circles that beckoned, demanded, she touch it.