Vinessa could barely hold back her chuckles as she held her mouth shut with her hands for a slight bit before bursting out with gut wrenching laughter, to the annoyance and bewilderment of Cole, who only could stand there in sheer shock of the heartlessness he witnessed.
Vinessa "You must like her or something. I bet she gave you a taste huh?"
Cole "I know demons are cruel…I know they are evil at times…but it's because usually they are hurting but you, you genuinely are like this. Don't you feel pity or sorrow? Don't you love her?"
Vinessa "Oh dear…Your brain must be broken. You can't love a corpse."
Cole "What?"
Vinessa "Didn't you hear? She's dead…She has been for a while now."
Cole "You killed her? How could you?"
Vinessa "No…she killed herself, overdose sadly. Her last words were something like gurgle gurgle."
Hearing the cruel words broke something in Cole, his eyes went blank before shifting an amethyst hue, his breath deepened and grew heavy, he trembled with such anger the sword in his hand fell, turning into sand shortly after hitting the ground, in a split moment the entire world turned into a white void, in the midst sat a cage. In the cage sat Samael patiently waiting for Cole to approach.
Samael "You actually called to me this time huh? This is quite the surprise."
Cole "I didn't call you."
Samael "Are you sure? We are here for a reason. The children are shaking in fear right now as well."
Cole "Why would they be afraid?"
Samael "Let's say it's been a very long time since they've seen you this angry. Maybe you should calm down."
Cole "I'm not angry, I honestly just feel warm."
Samael "I know what would make you feel better."
Cole "What?"
Samael "Let me free from these chains and I'll show you."
In an instant the remaining chains holding Samael in his cage evaporated into glittery sparkles of light, a huge smile and childlike innocence overcame him as he flexed all of his muscles, shaking the very void with his power.
Samael "Come closer boy, I'll give you just a drop of my power."
Cole came within arm's length with Samael and allowed him to touch his forehead to imbue him with his power. In a flash of light Cole's consciousness was brought back to the forefront of his mind. The area around him crumbling, the castle trembled and shook from his might. From his head wrapped a black halo, out of his back came a set of wings engulfed in flame, from his forehead a horn grew and latched itself to the halo as if to hold it up. Vinessa was unfazed, she even thought he was bluffing as she slapped him and Cole did nothing to resist, eyes still blank, he allowed her to basically slap him around until she was satisfied.
Cole "Is it my turn?"
Vinessa "Your turn? We are fighting aren't we? That's what you said."
Cole with a single slap turned the Vinessa clone into a black splatter on the wall. Another Vinessa crawling out of the remnants of what was left of her body. Cole casually snapped his fingers and the illusion around him began to dissolve as if reality itself was melting, the Vinessa clones turning into ash leaving just the real one sitting on a silver throne.
Vinessa "Oop, I guess the cats out of the bag. Well it has been a pleasure but you have to go to sleep now."
Vinessa raised her hand to cast a spell but she was too slow. Cole was already gripping her arm so tightly it snapped like a twig. Still holding on to Vinessa, Cole swung her body through her throne and slammed her on the ground. Without the slightest bit of hesitation Cole began to stomp on every part of her body, turning her bones to dust under the weight of his foot. Her agonized screams did nothing to change the blank stoic expression in Cole's eyes as he continued to pulverize her body, in fact he looked quite confused as if her screams were nonsensical.
Cole "Why are you screaming? You still have your left arm? Stop yelling…I didn't even touch your legs or ribs. I could've crushed your skull entirely at this point. Come on…It doesn't hurt too much."
Vinessa "*Gurggle*gurggle*"
Cole "How ironic, I bet you wish you could get a word out. I bet you wished your mother would save you right now. I just know you wish someone would put you out of your misery huh? I could but this is just so much fun right? ha-HA-ha-HA-ha-HA…Laugh. Suffering is funny right?"
Vinessa "Please stop! I can't take it anymore!"
Cole "I SAID LAUGH! Do it or I'll snap every finger one by one."
Vinessa "Stop this…You are insane! You called me evil but what does this make you?"
Cole "I don't care if I was the devil if it meant people like you suffer."
Cole calmly grabbed her only functional hand, beginning with the pinky finger, kept his promise and snapped each finger in her left hand before grabbing her right hand bending the pinky until it slowly snapped. Moving onto the ring finger Vinessa began to desperately fake laugh as best as she could, but that didn't appease Cole, it served only to make him crush her hand, making her squeal in pain. At least that's what he thought as she turned into black ink. The sound of footsteps rapidly approached Cole until a mangled Vinessa with a distorted body was in his face. With a mighty swing she tried to punch Cole but was turned into ash in the split second her fist made contact with his face.
Vinessa "I see your movies are much more interesting. Did you let out your aggression? How did it feel to make me scream? You got satisfaction from it right? You liked it didn't you? If you calm down I can make all sorts of movies for you. It can be whatever you want. You can live out all of your sick fantasies on whoever you want. What do you say?"
Cole "What do I say? Well…I think you are afraid to die so you are actively trying your best to do some sort of damage control because you felt the pain of what that pile of ash went through."
Vinessa "Like I would be afraid of you. Besides, you are only wasting my time. A child like you…is well…child's play. hehehe"
Cole "So then I should end it quickly huh."
Vinessa sent waves of clones to attack to no avail as they all turned into ash and sand before even coming within ten feet of Cole, making her yell in frustration as she rushed after him all around the room as Cole dodged and ran away from Vinessa's attacks. Just when Vinessa thought the tide of battle was changing, Cole grabbed her arm and slammed her into the ground, gripped her by her hair, and forced Vinessa to her knees.
Cole "Where are they?"
Vinessa "Guess you'll just have to find them."
Cole slapped vinessa and asked her the same question "Where are they?" This continued a few times before he got annoyed with her and her ways. With a flap of his wings the flames came off them and engulfed Vinessa, she wasn't burned but she screamed as if she were. Another flap and they returned, this cycle continued until Vinessa started to grow blisters and patches of her hair started to be singed.
Cole "I guess you aren't gonna talk. I've never been good with interrogation, so I'm going to give you mercy."
Cole gripped what remained of her hair tightly with his left hand and placed his other hand on her forehead, within seconds starting with her legs Vinessa started to smolder and fall apart as ash, the particles that fell off blew in the wind turning into glittery lights until nothing of her remained. After her entire body faded away a small orb no bigger than his palm remained floating. It was absolutely beautiful, having roses wrapping around it with small stars and a golden sash that wrapped around it.
Cole "What's this?"
Samael "It's her soul…See when you use my magic to kill someone you completely erase their connection to everything so her spirit has no where to go."
Cole "Whatever, I'll just leave it here."
Samael "NO! Eat it, trust me…It'll make you much stronger. Each one is easily worth a year or two of solid training."
Cole "From so small?"
Samael "Well typically they are much smaller. Depending on who it is it could be as large as you or as small as a seed. It's relative to their magic potential and current power you see. For her to be queen I was expecting something much bigger but this will do."
Cole "So the bigger it is the more power I'll get? I'll keep that in mind."
Cole reached out and grabbed the orb and put it in his mouth. It had a deep bitterness to it like the tears of a wife in mourning but it was also spicy as a chili. I warmed his entire body going down stopping in his stomach. Seconds later he could feel his fatigue disappear, his muscles grow ever so slightly but the biggest change he had so far was in his mind. The entire layout of her brain was placed in Cole's head almost as if it was downloaded, tears began to fall and his mouth quivered as he walked to find his team.
Angelos "What's wrong?"
Cole "She genuinely only loved Angillina. She didn't love herself, Her husband, no one. How can you have such emotions for someone but do something so cruel to them?"
Deablos "Demons have a twisted sense of love ya know?"
Cole "If her memories serve right, It was the same love that she had when she was born. She genuinely believed she was trying to cure her daughter…"
Angelos "It's tragic how people excuse and justify their wicked behaviors, even more so when they believe they are doing it for someone's best interest. I've seen humans do some of the most cruel things but we'd still be ordered to preserve their lives."
Cole "That's so wrong…who devised such a system."
Angelos "God…Much like you when I was a young angel I asked the same thing. Why are we called to help those who turn their backs to righteousness? And what he said stuck with me to this day. He said 'If you can't see they too are hurting as much as those they hurt, you'll never know why they hurt. They will pay in the end or if they decide to change but for now they need our help.' Mercy is sometimes the worst punishment."
Deablos "Adding on to what feathers said, Cole you know when truly evil people come to hell we as demons don't do anything. They do it to themselves, we are just actors and guards to make sure they don't escape well…at least the normal ones."
Cole ran all over the castle to different rooms finding bodies and torn structures but no people. He did his best to look for a soul signature but the castle itself burned with a bright light hiding even his own soul in its shadow, but that didn't stop him from searching for his friends not hearing it but feeling their cries of agony call out to him. Cole became impatient in his search, his calls were getting blocked back to back, that was until he could hear rumbling and shaking so he followed the vibrations praying it was one of his companions. Elsewhere Chester was still fighting Cerberus off somehow surviving a few hours by not killing him anymore but rather just holding it back and dodging but his stamina was quickly draining from the prolonged fighting however, this didn't stop him. He was too focused on the battle. Too into the fight to focus on anything but the present moment, the here and now, that was…until Delilah spoke to him.
Delilah "You sure are fighting hard."
Chester "I don't have any choice."
Delilah "Yes you do."
Chester "It's either fight or end up as a corpse."
Delilah "Then you should just die. I mean…No one cares about you. They all abandoned you and left you here to fight this beast alone."
Chester "No, I'm loved and appreciated. Fredrick would've given his life for me, Aslalo sees me as a valued member of the team, and Cole showed me how to catch up to everyone."
Delilah "HAHAHAHA You have to be joking right? Right? Please tell me your kidding? Fredrick and Alvin did nothing but bully you. Aslalo thinks you're the scum of the earth and Cole? Cole is the reason you are here. He led the both of you here to die."
Chester "That's not true! When everything gets hard or scary you never offer any encouragement. You've been doing this since we got to Eden, just when things were looking like a blessing. Just shut up already!"
Delilah "But it is true. Why else would he bring a fugitive such as yourself back to prison? Why would he abandon you? He was afraid? That's the true bullshit. HAHAHA. Come on, who would want someone like you around? I am encouraging you, by the way. I'm making you see reality. The truth. No one will ever love you because you don't deserve it."
Chester "Why do you always do this? I know already! I know there's nothing to fight for! I know there isn't anything I can do to mean something to someone. I'll always be pushed to the side and abandoned. I don't need to hear this right now, so can you just shut up?"
Delilah "If you want me to stop, it's rather easy. Just let go…Just die already. It will be peaceful and you'll be doing everyone a favor too. It's a win win, don't you agree?"
Chester "No, I don't…I don't want to die."
Delilah "There you go lying. You want it and deserve it, especially after what you did."
Chester "But it wasn't my fault…It was an accident and they made me do it."
Delilah "Maybe after her, but after that? That was all you dear, all you, every. second. of. it. The worst part was you enjoyed it. I've never seen a human in love with causing pain quite like you in a few millennia."
Chester "I'm…Im not the same person. I'm different. I didn't have a choice. It was do or die."
Delilah "That sounds like a choice to me. This time you should choose the right one."
During the conversation with Delilah, Chester dropped his guard just a bit letting Cerberus put a gash in his chest making him drop his knife before he had the time to recover Cerberus slapped him again, knocking the wind out of him. Chester stood once again constantly thinking about what Delilah said, what he's done, and why he deserved every bit of what's coming to him while he watched Cerberus get ready to pounce on him. Unable to fight, rather unwilling to fight anymore he let the hound charge at him, the foam from it's mouth splashing on his face as it's mouth opened wide ready to snap down on his head when the room brightened with a figure bathed in the light appeared in front of him like an angel descending from heaven. A loud booming voice shook Chester back to his senses. It was Cole! But his words were unrecognizable, indistinguishable from the sounds of flesh being severed, the beast cries and the ringing of church bells. Chester was too exhausted to see, let alone hear the voice of the one who came to save him. Cole without a single bit of fear kept attacking the beast giving Chester the time he needed to rest and heal.
Cole "Damn it! I hope he can fight, and we still have to find Asslalo. This is just great!"
Angelos "At least he is still alive. At this point we have to count our blessings."
Cole "I guess…This is just a pain. Deablos, what do you know about this thing?"
Deablos "Um…It's Cerberus, belongs to Asmodeus and it can't die."
Cole "Really helpful. How do I kill this thing?"
Deablos "You can't, he was born to keep powerful unruly souls in hell. When he gets loose even higher level demons have a tough time getting him into his cage, we basically have to bait him into it. The only one he'd listen to is Asmodeus…It's a pain every single time."
Cole "Where is his cage?"
Deablos "We're in it."
Cole "HEY! DUMB ASS! NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE ALL DIZZY! GET UP! CHESTER!"
Angelos "I don't think he'll be able to move for a little bit."
Cole "Okay, what are we supposed to do?"
Deep in the dungeons Aslalo's body laid limp on the floor as he shivered his body shrunken from starvation and fighting his urges to eat the food provided to him when Asmodeus walked in on him in his cell. Aslalo sensing another's presence quickly jumped up and pretended to be fine as not to show a sign of weakness, but it was in vain as it was obvious that he was in pain and in a weakened state both physically and mentally. Asmodeus opened his cage, with a flick of his wrist chains shackled Aslalo in a crucifix position against the wall as he approached closer. A bead of sweat slowly dripped down Aslalo's face when he came face to face with Asmodeus. The dead, cold, devoid of pity and mercy stare, the deep red eyes, and elongated pupils sent chills down Aslalos spine as the only bit of resistance he could offer was a defiant and angry gaze in his eye back but it bounced off the soulless enemy before him.
Asmodeus "Oh come on don't look at me like that."
Aslalo "Fuck you."
Asmodeus "I take it you didn't enjoy your meal? Or…maybe you did? Those beautiful iolite gems. You live up to all the puffery. It's rare for your kind to form."
Aslalo "What? What are you talking about?"
Asmodeus "Halflings… rather Nephilim halflings. Basically angel, demon hybrids. Nephilim are either angel spawn or demon spawn usually but you happen to be both just like that little friend of yours."
Aslalo "That's insane. That is a walking contradiction."
Asmodeus "Hahaha oh yes, yes, but that is the nature of this world i'm afraid. Peace achieved through war, love born of hating another, victory in a sea of loss and casualties. Contradictions exist in every aspect of this world, yet we pretend as if it was something against the natural order, when in fact it IS the natural order."
Aslalo "Bullshit. Those are just excuses to be a shitty person."
Asmodeus "Oh? How so? Are you not in my castle for war? Didn't you, supposed holders of angels, commit violence in the name of peace? Aren't you working with a demon? You think you are such a good person? Who's making excuses now?"
Aslalo "All of that is true, but we would never harm another if you didn't kill people. You're violent and evil, hurt people whenever the need suits you. There would be no war if you didn't exist."
Asmodeus "You really are a child who knows nothing. Say where do demons come from?"
Aslalo "typically a traumatic event forces them to subconsciously override their angel programs causing the data to be corrupted to the point they stop suggesting altruistic goals."
Asmodeus "Is that what you believe? You really bought that story? HA, boy let me educate you."
Aslalo "There's nothing I can learn from a demon."
Asmodeus "On the contrary. I can tell you the truth of where my kind are born from."
Aslalo "It's not like I have anywhere else to go. Where do you come from?"
Asmodeus "With the exclusion of us higher ranks demons are just humans. Regular humans in your natural state. Your angels artificially suppress your emotions and your trauma responses break their control over you. You become free and what do you do when you become free? You act out, but since this whole world ending fiasco happened you've had access to powers you didn't before. Truly most of you lived so long you've forgotten your history of war and pain that you've sown into the world."
Aslalo "You're wrong. You make us do those things. You control our minds and draw out our depravity. That's why we are at peace now without you."
Asmodeus "Again boy you are quite wrong. We can't make you do anything. A decree from God himself, reinforced by the queen of hell. Free will is not to be meddled with. You have to want it, desire it, crave it. We only provide a means and a suggestion and you people eat it up like candy."
Aslalo "So without your influence we wouldn't do those things. It still comes back to you."
Asmodeus "I guess, but that's all the time I have for today. I must deal with those pests."
Aslalo "I thought as much you have no argument…Wait, what pests?"
Asmodeus "I told you? You people came for war and as prince I am a general here? I must slay those who threaten my kingdom."
Aslalo "No don't!"
Asmodeus "But I must! It's do or die at this point and that boy killed my wife, he must pay for that. How would it look if I let it slide?"
Aslalo "Don't kill them, please."
Asmodeus "Now, now begging is mere folly at this point."
Aslalo "bastard, tyrant, monster! Vile demon!"
Asmodeus "Why thank you. I try to be as evil as I can."
Once Asmodeus left the room Aslalo fell to the ground gasping for air. Rage filled his spirit as he tried to figure out how to escape but it was useless, all he could do was sit back and think over the conversation they had. Who really were the good guys? Who was in the right in this war? Was there even a point trying to figure out the answers to these questions? The more Aslalo thought about the possible answers to these questions the more his mind anguished over the possibility his comrades, Cole could die for a mission they had no business being on, rather a mission he shouldn't have been on. What good would come from another war with hell? What did it matter anyway? Aren't they just going to die soon? Aslalo sat there alone with Evanescence trying to figure something out, while Cole and Chester were stuck in Cerberus' cage fighting off the great beast to no avail. Cole even tried to turn the beast to ash but it just grew a new body anyways.
Cole "What is with this thing?"
Deablos "He can't die, we tried to kill him multiple times."
Angelos "How is that possible?"
Deablos "I don't know? Jody back in the day was upset when we found it can't die. I'm pretty sure it's a blood spell of some kind but no magic could withstand this much punishment."
Cole "Chester look, I know things look bad right now but I could really use your help. I know this fight is hard, but giving up isn't an option. If it hurts, breathe. If you can't fight, run. If the world takes everything from you, rise and bear your fangs and scream to the heavens. Curse this world and everything that brought you here! BUT DON'T FUCKING QUIT ON ME. DON'T ABANDON ME TO FIGHT YOUR BATTLE ALONE! Don't do that to me. I came back, I didn't leave you."
Chester faded in and out of consciousness, barely able to hear the words Cole was speaking to him. He thought back to when the beast was in front of him and how it chomped down or did it? He was dead right? He surely bled out by now but as fate would have it Chester's body rang like a bell with pain making him cough up the blood stuck in his throat to scream in pain."
Cole "Welcome back to the land of the living! You feel that! It's pain, that's how you know you are still alive. As long as it hurts you can keep fighting. GET UP!"
Delilah "Don't listen to that nitwit. You can't even stand. What are you going to do? Just get in the way, that's what."
Chester "But he needs my help."
Delilah "Who? No one is here."
Chester "It hurts…I must still be alive."
Delilah "You are already dead. You move and that's it for you."
Chester "What happened?"
Cole "If you don't stand you'll die…GET UP!"
Delilah "Don't listen to him. Go to sleep, I'll lay with you like I have before. We will go to sleep together and it won't hurt anymore."
Delilah laid with Chester, rubbing her fingers through his hair to comfort him as his eyes shut, but this feeling of regret and pain wouldn't leave him. He could feel his body shake every so often. Cole's voice faded in and out, and when he was too loud Delilah spoke into Chester's ear as if to drown him out. The pain started to fade, the worry, the troubles, everything began to go quiet leaving the thump of a drum that shook Chester's body, making the pain come back in waves.
Cole "You aren't dead yet! It's not over yet. GET UP! STAND AND FIGHT."
Chester's body began to twitch as he tried to move his arms to try and lift himself from the ground, weakly falling back down, but that didn't stop him. He put all he could into his body and forced himself to stand with the last bit of his strength he had.
Chester "AAAAAHHHHHH! LIKE HELL I'M GOING TO LET YOU KILL ME YOU PIG FACED BASTARD!"