- Lucifer -
"I'm going to need some identifiers for your people. I'd prefer not hitting my temporary allies." Lucifer asked Kahvis.
"I suspected as much. My people all have a marking on the back of their clothes in the shape of three linked blue circles." Kahvis told Lucifer.
The man from before removed his cloak and showed the design to Lucifer.
'I wonder what significance those hold?' Lucifer wondered as he went through the door.
The three came out of the building and watched the scattering beings. There were large orcs and four-horned demons walking around with weapons trying to find the culprit of the explosions.
"I'll follow your lead for now. I'm not sure exactly who I should be killing here." Lucifer said.
"Four-horns and large orcs are slave masters. Oni are bodyguards. There are a few lycans and elves we need to look out for in the shadows." Kahvis looked above at the stone ceiling. "This place will be collapsing when we're done, so please try to save any victims you can."
"I'll do what I can, but you should know by now that most of them will be broken beyond rescue." Lucifer felt an anger he didn't want to show. He cleared his mind of past images of the Underground and started to move forward with Kahvis.
"YOU!" A gigantic orc yelled. The orc was the size of the buildings around him with clawed gauntlets.
Before Kahvis could use any of his magic Lucifer flew straight to the orc. The orc tried swiping at Lucifer with his weapon but was met with a strong tackle that pushed him off his feet.
"Prince? I-I didn't kno-" Lucifer covered the orc's face in fire, completely charring their head.
A large force of orcs and demons came around the corner. They looked at Lucifer standing over the body of his kill, his eyes glowing brightly against the dimness of the Underground. Some of them ran away after seeing him, while some charged in, magic at the ready.
As Lucifer was circled, two large waves of stone spikes shot up from the ground, impaling most of the forces. The ones who avoided the attack looked over at Kahvis. Kahvis surged electricity through the spikes, electrocuting any of the impaled who had lived.
Kahvis dashed over with wind and shot bolts of lightning into the crowd of dumbfounded enemies. Lucifer flew to the crowd and grabbed two by the head, slamming them into the ground, following up with blasts of flames on the downed beings. Many of the enemies tried swinging their weapons at Lucifer but were shot in the back by Kahvis.
"I had them," Lucifer said as he torched the bodies.
"We're a team," Kahvis responded. "If you don't want me killing your targets you should move faster."
Lucifer couldn't tell if that was an insult because of Kahvis's tone. He felt a strange sensation looking at the corpses beneath his feet. What he was doing didn't feel real. He burned his hand slightly to see if he was in an illusion. Kahvis noticed and rushed over to heal the injury.
"What are you doing? You can't afford damage like that." Kahvis said, healing the burnt skin.
"Thanks for the healing." Lucifer sighed. "Let's continue, shall we?"
The two tore through the enemy forces with ease. The versatility of Kahvis's magic combined with Lucifer's fire made it impossible for anyone to stop them. The business district of the Underground slowly became an orc, oni, and demon grave. The sound of explosions caused fear to spread among the residents, while for the victims of this awful place it signaled hope.
Lucifer and Kahvis flew around, making sure to efficiently shut down any chance of the residents regaining control. The battle seemed easy, too easy. Lucifer knew this place and these enemies weren't the real threat. The pleasure district is where most of the higher ranking beings stayed. It was also where most of the atrocities were committed. Cleaning up this part of the Underground was just a warm-up.
As Lucifer flew around he heard a whistle of air to his right and landed as an arrow ripped past him. The arrow kept flying, blowing a hole through the building next to him.
'Elven archer most likely.'
Lucifer's eyes traced the hole in the building to where his attacker would have shot from. He flew low and kept an ear out for another arrow. He closed in on the elf. They were running from roof to roof, sniping members of the resistance as they went. Lucifer noticed there was a shadow beneath them as well. He assumed it was most likely a lycan to guard against close-range attacks.
Lucifer channeled multiple orbs around his hand and shot them at a building that the elf was about to jump to, causing them to back off with wind magic and look around. Lucifer flew in. As he expected the lycan beneath the elf jumped up to grab him in their jaws.
A blast of fire straight down the lycans throat caused them to fall back to the ground. Lucifer hadn't stopped flying and was now on the elf. He was already launching another large plume of flames before the elf could even think to use their magic.
The longer the fighting went on, the angrier Lucifer felt. As though every kill reminded him of his past. He continued to fly low, trying to focus his thoughts on what was in front of him. More elf-lycan duos tried to shoot him down while he was thinking, sealing their fates. He searched around for Kahvis, who was doing the same for Lucifer.
"We need to move to the pleasure district. Defeating these enemies is a waste of your and my time. Killing Fenral, Garuuk, and Lysandrea will signal the true fall of this place." He said while landing.
The three Lucifer was referring to are the three heads of the Underground. Sometimes referred to as "A Cerberus of malice" by various beings around the world. Fenral is a former lycan ruler that now leads the security of the Underground. Garuuk is one of Moloch's commanders who oversees a part of the pleasure district where victims can be used as live training dummies or bodies for experiments. Lysandrea is a powerful elf who was banished from Verdyr that now rules over the multiple prostitution rings. They all have their own sub-commanders who are minor gods in terms of power.
"The more we kill here, the more allies we have for the next fight. I promised my soldiers I would fight alongside them, and I have no plans on turning my back on that because of impatience." Kahvis retorted.
Lucifer was furious, but not at Kahvis. This battle was different from the one at Sol. He hated Cytus and Azriel, but his anger with them was nowhere near what he felt for the three he had just mentioned. Azriel and Cytus had never personally taken anyone from Lucifer, despite trying. On top of that, they were threats that would have been dealt with even if he had failed back in Sol. Fenral, Garuuk, and Lysandrea had seemed like a scar on the world that would never be healed.
"Right, sorry. Still, we should hurry up here before Baal and Moloch send reinforcements."
"Baal had his army stationed close to the border, waiting for me to reveal myself again." Kahvis kept their eyes moving as they spoke. "I'm sure their army is already marching towards us now. The sight of Death will cause them to retreat, which will lead to Moloch joining his army with Baal. Everything we do now is just the beginning for what comes next above ground."
"Did you inform the grim in the area about that?" Lucifer was suspicious.
"No, I couldn't. The grim are rarely approached by anyone. It's difficult to travel through here undetected as is, I couldn't risk triggering an early invasion from Baal's forces." Kahvis explained.
"So you left Death up top to ward them off?" Lucifer glared. "You understand that if any grim die because of that invasion your chances of convincing him go to zero?"
"I don't need to convince Death, I just need him to stay out of my way," Kahvis responded. "If he is the god I think he is I shouldn't have to worry about losing my head once we're done here. If not, then I deserve to die for my mistake."
Lucifer found Kahvis's blunt acceptance of potential execution interesting. It reminded him of someone he hadn't seen in a long time. The context was different, he just couldn't help comparing the two though.
"Let's clean the rest of this place up." Lucifer started to fly, with Kahvis right behind him.
Finishing off the security of the business district didn't take very long. Most who could retreat ran to the pleasure district which was a full floor lower. Lucifer and Kahvis made sure to save as many as they could while they cleared out the buildings. Most were mentally broken as Lucifer had predicted. The few that weren't were lead back to a building where they were promised protection.
Lucifer and Kahvis headed to one of the elevators.
"Once we get down there I'll be joining my forces. If you need any help just make a call to me. I'll run over immediately if you do." Kahvis pulled out his echo and handed it to Lucifer who imprinted his echo's energy on to it.
"There's a chance we missed some enemies," Lucifer warned Kahvis.
"Doesn't matter." Kahvis shook their head. "The only ones we would have missed aren't looking to fight anymore. I trust my soldiers' strength. I know what I said before, but we can't focus on clearing every single threat up here considering the fight we have ahead of us." Kahvis almost seemed to show emotion on the last part.
"Expect contact the moment we drop," Lucifer said.
Kahvis and the other members of the resistance moved the stone elevators down and were immediately met with attacks. Kahvis jumped out of the elevator and ran along the sides of the wall while creating a bridge. They shot large stone spikes down at the enemies while intercepting any other attacks they could with wind magic.
Lucifer flew out and launched a barrage of explosion orbs down at the enemies, creating a large cloud of smoke to form. He flew through the smoke, readying another attack. He landed in front of the enemies and his flaming arms created whips of flames that lashed everyone around him. He didn't need to worry about friendly fire here.
Explosions started popping up all over the pleasure district. Demons filled the air, while orcs, lycans, and oni flooded the streets. It seemed like almost every rooftop had multiple elf snipers on them, ready to shoot down any flying targets they saw. A gigantic black wolf appeared near the back end and roared, causing large spikes of ice to shoot up from the ground. One particularly large demon was strafe-running with fire magic, while an elf stayed behind the two.
Lucifer's eyes rapidly scanned the area, taking all this information in. His prior fantasies about destroying this place helped him come up with a plan quicker than normal. He could see his enemies hesitate, which was exactly what he wanted. He charged forward, striking down every enemy on his sides with flames while picking one oni out of the crowd. He tackled them to the ground, ripped their horn out, and stabbed them in the head with it.
Fear was a useful tool when fighting outnumbered. Lucifer didn't have Death's raw strength to scare his enemies with, so he had to play to the rumors about him. Those who didn't know him thought he was some grand torturer, similar to Garuuk. Angels were mocked behind closed doors, while Lucifer was feared, a fact that he planned to use to its full effect. He faked the most manic, overjoyed laugh he could before continuing.
"You think yourselves murderers and torturers?!" He laughed. "You have no idea what true malice is." His smile was wide.
'Alright you monsters, how's that?'
The show worked perfectly. The enemies that stayed seemed to freeze in place. Lucifer killed them with a swipe of flames and picked up two demon bodies. He flew towards the rooftops holding the bodies as a shield. He slammed into one of the groups of archers.
The scene drew the attention of most of the other archers as they watched Lucifer burn the group. Lucifer made sure to aim low as he burned the enemies so their screams wouldn't get choked out by the fire. Any chance of retaliation from their magic was gone due to the extreme pain. He killed all but one archer and held the last one over the roof. He blasted a flame clear through their stomach and then tossed the body.
The three leaders of the underground could see Lucifer's act from afar. They all agreed they needed to shut him down now before he scares off any more of their forces. Lucifer saw them coming for him.
'I can't fight all of them for very long. Prove to me that I didn't just throw my life away trusting you.'