- Lucifer and David -
(Before the main story)
"I'm telling you to be more careful," Lucifer was warning David. "Double affinities don't make you invincible."
"I can't afford to be more careful," David said.
David was 5"9'. He had dark shaggy black hair that matched his scraggly beard. He had a slim frame that made him appear younger. He was wearing a black shirt and thick brown pants. His irises were a bright yellow color.
"I'm telling you this because I don't want you dragging Peter into making bad decisions," Lucifer sighed.
The two were approached by a reborn woman.
"You two ready?" Emily asked.
"Hopefully," Lucifer said in David's direction.
Emily was a shorter woman, standing 5"5'. Her brown hair was crew cut, and her face seemed to be permanently scrunched. She was wearing a green cloak and brown pants that were similar to David's. One of her eye's scleras was black with the iris being golden.
"Fucking hate this place," Emily said.
Lucifer and his team were in Passage, investigating the rumors of a human rebellion that was a front for trafficking. Death had asked Lucifer to handle it since his grim were busy everywhere else.
"Ya done?" Peter shouted from behind.
- Emily, David, Peter -
"What was that about?" Peter asked David.
"Usual," David shrugged. "He's telling me to be careful."
"Ya haven't been to Passage much, that's why," Peter explained. "Crossin' the Moloch line is one thing, actually bein' here is a different beast."
"I know all about it," David sighed. "Sadly..."
"You two want to be quieter?" Emily asked. "Keep your eyes focused on what's ahead of us."
"Em, I appreciate the reminder, but-"
"Don't warn someone if you're not paying attention yourself," She interrupted Peter.
"I'm always payin' attention," He mumbled.
The three walked through the streets of Passage. Lao was leading one uništi while Lucifer led the other. Peter had been keeping his eyes subtly moving and his ears listening. It wasn't because of Emily, but an intuition he had gained for this place.
"Northern edge of Passage," David mumbled to himself.
Eventually, the team arrived at the northern edge. Lucifer, Lao, and Sabu were up at the front, with Emily, David, and Peter at the back. They were met with a one-eyed lycan in partial wolf form. They were wearing a tattered brown cloak so full of holes that the team wondered why they even bothered having the clothes.
- The team -
"I'm here to meet with Hartwik," Lucifer said.
"He's not here," The lycan responded.
The team noticed the lycan's shakiness as they spoke. It was clear that they weren't willingly working with this "resistance" and that they were just a messenger meant to convey a much more sinister message.
"Right," Lucifer looked to Lao and Sabu. He held up two fingers and flew off into the middle of the camp. "I'll just make sure for myself."
Lucifer looked around and was immediately met with bolts of lightning aiming at his center mass.
"That makes this so much easier," Lucifer grinned.
Lucifer and his team swept through the camp, swiftly eliminating any threats and trying to rescue any beings that had been taken captive. It didn't take long for the resistance soldiers to be defeated.
"That was too easy," Peter warned Lucifer.
"I'm aware," Lucifer agreed.
"FIVE!" David shouted.
"No...there's no chance they would come out here," Lucifer mumbled.
Lysandrea, Garuuk, and Fenral were approaching from a distance. Fenral was towering over the buildings as a mass of black fur and fangs. Garuuk hovered above, multiple explosive orbs being channeled around him. Lysandrea stood on Fenral's back, electric arrow nocked and ready.
"Someone told them we were coming," Sabu asserted.
"Retreat, move and cover," Lucifer ordered the team.
Emily hopped onto one uništi with David, while Lao got on the other with Peter. Sabu stayed on the ground. Lucifer flew in front of the team and glared at the three heads. He didn't think that the team couldn't win, no, he simply had a more unnerving thought that was setting off warnings signals.
'If you're here, that means they might be coming as well.'
Lucifer channeled an explosive orb while the team ran behind him. Lucifer threw the orbs only to have the attack met by Fenral's barrage of ice. Lysandrea sent an arrow towards the running team members. Lucifer barely caught the arrow with an orb.
"THAT ALL YOU HAVE!" He shouted, hoping he might be able to intimidate them slightly.
The three heads all smiled. None of them were threatened, especially given what they knew.
'SHIT!' Lucifer turned around and flew towards his team, creating a smokescreen as he went.
Emily and Lao were riding when the head of a large hammer struck the side of Lao's uništi, toppling the creature.
"Where do you think you're going human?" Baal sneered, holding a similar hammer to the one that was thrown.
Peter didn't hesitate to send explosive orbs into Baal who shrugged off the attack.
Lao and Peter were now looking up at the demon lord.
"Don't stop for a moment!" Peter ordered the other team members. "I've always wanted to fight Satan's shadow." He insulted.
Baal leaped into the air and brought his hammer down, attempting to flatten Peter and Lao. The two dodged and stood on either side of the demon lord. The uništi stood up and stared at Baal.
"Fancy yourself a Rider do you?" Baal spat.
"Yer not worth a Rider's time," Peter retorted.
The sound of Lucifer's approach caused Baal to turn his skin black out of reflex. Lucifer grabbed the demon lord by the horns and forced him to the ground.
"How?" Baal questioned, trying to force Lucifer off him.
"GO!" Lucifer shouted.
Peter and Lao got on the uništi and started to ride. Peter kept looking back. He wanted to stay, though something told him that where there was one demon lord, there were two.
-Lucifer and Baal -
"YOU!" He locked his hands to Baal's shoulders, keeping the demon still as he blasted a large plume of fire from his mouth.
"Is that it, Prince?" Baal, unharmed, laughed, and knocked Lucifer off of him.
Lucifer noticed the three heads rapidly approaching. Everything that was happening seemed out of place. Baal and Moloch were power-hungry, but this was new. The entire reason for the Underground's existence was so they could maintain control below ground without having to fight. What they were doing now would go against the Healer's guild orders, a fact that Lucifer hadn't cared for prior because he didn't live in this part of the world.
"I wonder how Moloch will treat your humans?" Baal laughed.
Lucifer didn't respond. He needed to focus. Fighting Baal and the three Underground heads was nearly impossible. He took a deep breath and ran the priorities through his head as quickly as he could.
'Protect the team. Get to Verdyr.'
Baal ran in, his skin completely black, almost shining in the daylight. He swung his hammer at Lucifer, who jumped over it, using his wings to lift himself up further. Baal was annoyed but confident. He knew that he had no chances of losing here, so he decided to relish the moment.
"Oh, how I've wanted to put one of you archangels down," Baal smiled. "I wonder if Michael will follow once he knows you're dead? Or maybe he'll thank me?" He laughed.
"It's not Michael you should fear," Lucifer said quietly. "You know exactly who will come marching if I fall here."
Baal dropped his smile. He was confident, maybe overly so, in his strength, but even he didn't want to face Death. Gods of Death's caliber had been a stopping point for him and Moloch when it came to expanding their territory. Recalling the memories of failed conquests made the demon angry.
"Let the Rider come!" Baal said, banging his chest. "Even he will fall one day."
Stalling for time wasn't to Lucifer's benefit. If he wasn't moving towards Verdyr, he was only making the situation worse for himself. He had a plan, one that was completely reliant on surprise, a fact he hated.
'How long has it been?' Lucifer thought, readying himself.
In one-motion Lucifer shot up into the sky, creating smoke as he went. He flew back down towards Baal who attempted to swing at him. He dodged the attack, and spun around, thickening the cloud of smoke to be almost asphyxiating in its density. He listened for footsteps, completely relying on his hearing to give him the edge. Thankfully, he heard footsteps heading towards him, instead of away.
- David, Sabu, Moloch -
David jumped off the uništi and caught a wave of blood with a stone wall. It was just David and Sabu left, standing off with Moloch. Emily had kept riding. David had whispered to her prior not to stop no matter what.
"Well well," Moloch stroked his beard. "I suppose your kind is stubborn."
Moloch lifted his hand and crushed the stone wall with a surge of blood. The blood seemed to surge through the ground, surrounding Sabu and David.
Sabu threw multiple knives at Moloch who caught the weapons with a wall of hardened blood. David followed up with a strong blast of fire. Moloch was far more prepared than them.
Moloch moved his arms, catching every attack from the two. He flicked his hand up, causing an explosion of blood globules to fill the area around the three. The blood turned into hardened spiked balls and then flew towards Sabu and David.
Sabu and David did their best to fend off the barrage with their magic. It was a game of attrition, one that would be impossible to win.
Moloch took clear joy in what he was doing. He had locked down the two's movements and was slowly readying a much stronger attack beneath their feet. He was expecting the other two reborn to be joining slowly so he kept one more contingency just in case.
"BENEATH!" Sabu shouted, causing David to lift the two into the sky with a stone pillar.
The two took multiple spikes to their arms as they went upwards, but they managed to avoid a fatal hit from the mass of blood spikes that shot towards them.
"You're a fool if you think the high ground will help," Moloch mumbled to himself.
With another flick of the wrist, Moloch sent a large wave of blood into the stone. The blood permeated the stone and turned the pillar into a trap for the two. Before he could finish his plan he had to create a wall of blood to block Peter's fire.
"Still no Prince?" Moloch smiled.