- Peter -
Peter looked around at the destruction, sure it must have been Lucifer's victory. Still, he was wary, watching every corner he could, keeping his blade ready to strike at any time. Hearing something getting closer Peter pointed his sword in the sound's direction, frightening the resistance soldier that came to meet him.
The soldier gripped each arm's wrist with the opposite hand, a sign meant to show non-aggression.
"I'm a resistance soldier. This floor is mostly cleared out already. Lucifer and our leader are down in the pleasure district finishing the mission."
Peter wasn't taking any chances. He would need more proof from the man before him before he lowered his guard even slightly.
"I'm gonna need more proof than your word. I was attacked on my way in here, so forgive me for my skepticism." Peter's tone showed a clear distrust.
The resistance soldier kept staring at Peter's flaming sword, scared that he might get killed if he says one wrong word.
"This way. We have the beings we rescued gathered in one building, they can vouch for me." The soldier's tone was nervous.
Peter kept a fair distance from the soldier as they walked. He wanted to help Lucifer as soon as he could, but back-to-back misfortunes had him at a paranoid level of caution.
"Right here." The soldier arrived at the same unmarked building where Kahvis met Lucifer.
"Call them out. I'm not goin' into some strange buildin' in the Underground." Peter ordered.
The soldier nodded.
"Come out! One of Lucifer's allies wants to confirm the safety of the rescued!" The soldier shouted.
Out of the building came multiple races, elves, vampires, lycans, with a majority of the rest being human. Most were covered in thick cloaks. Every arm Peter saw was missing a hand. One elf female came up, shaking, and looked at the floor as she spoke to Peter.
"Th-th-they sa-sa...saved us." She quietly stuttered. She was visibly shaking as she spoke.
As Peter looked at the crowd he felt his stomach sink. Almost every member of the rescued group was missing some key features of their body. The vampires were missing their eyes, the elves their ears, lycans their teeth, lastly the humans were mutilated in a number of different ways. Peter felt chilling anger, his sword's flames going out from his loss of concentration.
"Ya did well savin' them." He spoke softly. "I'll be assistin' Lucifer now." Peter started to walk where the other elevators were.
Heinrich followed behind, wanting desperately to speak. The fact that Peter referred to Lucifer by his full name showed a side of the man that Heinrich had only heard stories about. He noticed that there were no more elevators available so he made one himself.
"Are you okay?" Heinrich asked as the two got into the elevator.
"No. Just go, we can talk about this when it's over." Peter's tone sounded like a mix of anger and crying.
Heinrich lowered the elevator, revealing the work of Lucifer and Kahvis to the two. Heinrich moved the elevator slower than he meant to. Peter would have told him to go faster if he wasn't absorbed in what he saw, the most prominent of which was the three Underground leader's corpses hanging from large stone spikes in the center of the district.
Peter's eyes looked around, noticing Lucifer at the bottom helping more survivors. He fell to his knees, finally letting the weight of everything he felt hit him.
"It's gone...it's finally gone," Peter cried. He hated that he couldn't control his emotions at this moment. He wanted so desperately to look stoic and strong, playing the role of a savior, but he just couldn't bring himself to fight the images that flashed in his mind of the former team member they had lost.
Images of a mutilated human corpse kept filled Peter's mind. Next was him shouting at Lucifer that they needed to get revenge, and Lucifer's furious look as he screamed that they couldn't, followed by him hitting Lucifer in the face, calling him "The Devil" along with many other swears. Finally, Lucifer not fighting back, only taking the hits and the insults with a look of growing sadness at the situation.
Peter's final words in the argument sounded through this head: "Please, please swear to me that one day we will burn this place to the ground." Lucifer's response had been "Someday we will. I can't promise when, but we will, even if I have to beg Satan for help."
Heinrich looked at his crying friend, feeling even more disgusted with himself. He said what he thought was best for the circumstances.
"Stand up. Clearly, Lucifer isn't done just yet, so we can't let him be the only one who destroys this wretched place." Heinrich's tone was far more confident than he felt.
Peter looked up at Heinrich and wiped his face.
"Right...yeah...thanks," Peter stood up. "Lower this thing faster. The sooner we get there the better."
Heinrich sped the elevator up, bringing the two to the bottom.
- Peter and Lucifer -
Lucifer was helping lead any victims to the protection group while also cleaning up any other scattered enemies. He noticed Peter and Heinrich running to him.
"We're finishing up here. Just making sure we get everyone we can to safety before finally razing this place," Lucifer told the two.
The pleasure district was simple on the surface, but some of the buildings had a more complicated structure underneath, with various rooms and dungeons built even lower into the ground. Finding everyone they could took time, time that seemed to be stretched out by every broken being the team found.
"How many?" Peter mumbled.
"We'll get the count after we're done. Don't get dissuaded, we won." Lucifer responded.
The search finally finished. The large group of victims was lead to the upper floor first, while Kahvis and Lucifer retrieved the leader's corpses. After the last group was sent up Kahvis met with Lucifer who was discussing what comes next with Peter and Heinrich.
"Are you ready?" Kahvis asked, giving a quick glance to Peter and Heinrich.
"Yes," Lucifer responded. "I was going to have Peter help me with the destruction."
"The more help the better. The sooner we remove this place the better." Kahvis responded. "Kahvis by the way," They told Peter and Heinrich.
After all the victims were moved above ground it was just Kahvis, Lucifer, and Peter. Kahvis created a large hole in the business district, revealing the pleasure district down below. Lucifer flew down with Kahvis and the two strafe ran the pleasure district, blowing up everything they could. Lucifer destroyed far more in far less time.
Peter watched from above, his thoughts still cloudy. He felt jittery as he waited for the two to resurface so he could have his turn. Eventually, the two came back after thoroughly bombing the pleasure district, leaving only rubble and fire behind them. Kahvis created a flying stone platform for the two who went around blowing up every inch of the business district they could.
With both districts in ruin the underground was finished, almost. Lucifer had Peter go on ahead, claiming he wanted to add one final touch. Kahvis created a stone bridge that jutted out of the walls of the underground for Lucifer, while they stood far off.
"This takes a little while to do so bear with me." Lucifer closed his eyes. "I can't do this spell while I'm flying, so I appreciate the assistance." He thanked Kahvis.
"What fire magic could you possibly struggle with?" Kahvis asked.
"It's a spell that my master created." Lucifer smiled as he clapped his hands together. "She called it "Grand Finale" when she taught me. She loved naming her creations."
Orbs started to appear all around Lucifer. The orbs would pulse with energy rhythmically as they grew in number. Soon Lucifer was lost among the growing cloud of orange. Lucifer slowly pulled his hands apart, causing the orbs to gather together in multiple balls. Each ball got covered in an orange shell that looked like a cartoon bomb in shape with what seemed like a fuse made of orbs sticking out of the top.
Lucifer took a breath, then every "fuse" caught fire. Lucifer took another deep breath and threw his hands downwards, launching every "bomb" as he did.
The ground started to shake with the powerful rumble of every explosion. Pillars, rings, and waves of fire started to shoot out all over the business district, followed by a cacophony of explosions that would have deafened anyone who was close. The length of the spell's explosions surprised Kahvis until finally there was a small lull.
Lucifer smiled, knowing what came next. The entire lower area erupted in a shock-wave of flames that created multiple holes similar in size to the one Kahvis had made. The entire business district was engulfed in flames with some buildings falling to the floor below.
Lucifer flew over to Kahvis, clearly proud of his work.
"We can go now." He said, smiling.
- Death -
Death had felt the feeling of multiple stone elevators coming up from below. He turned, hopeful that it was Lucifer. Seeing the survivors being lead by humans filled him with mixed feelings. He was happy to see that the resistance won, but feared the idea that Lucifer might have died in the process. He was assured by Heinrich that Lucifer is okay.
Death returned to his normal form after seeing multiple survivors shudder in fear at it. He looked at Yvere.
"How long will it take for them to be...back to normal?" Death asked, his sad tone surprising Oliver.
"How long it takes depends on them. I could heal them all today in an ideal world..." Yvere gave a sad smile, then wiped her teary eyes. "Uh, but...I don't think they can handle more pain right now..." She leaned against the outside wall of the tavern, covering her face with her hand.
'A century's worth of atrocities in a single day...no one should have to experience this.' Death thought.
Peter eventually came up, his eyes to the floor. He walked past Death, giving a quick glare before continuing to walk to assist the others. After one final large tremor from below stopped, Lucifer and Kahvis came up the tavern's elevator. Death ran up, overjoyed that Lucifer is okay.
"We need to talk," Kahvis spoke before Death could.
"Let's get everything sorted first," Lucifer said.