Lucifer's voice calmly resounded through the hall. Even though its volume had not been louder than when holding a normal conversation, an echo returned after a few seconds. While his words were slowly fading away, Lucifer turned around and walked to an exit.
'Was that all?' Eyna asked herself dumbfounded. She had expected an emotional eulogy of how the demons will reclaim their lost rights and how the angels will suffer from their act of banishing all infernal forces to hell for all eternity.
But Eyna got disappointed. It seemed like this wasn't what the hellish army had expected either as they stared perplexed at the rock their lord just had stood on. They had probably all assembled long beforehand to listen to the war declaring speech of their leader.
Eyna truly had to compliment Lucifer's steadfast attitude of being able to talk this indifferently to at least the second strongest army of all known realms. This wasn't something any sane person would dare to make.
The individual addressed had already arrived at an exit of the gigantic cavity, a corridor right next to the one he had come from. The scarred demon who seemed to be a close subordinate to Lucifer followed silently behind him.
The cave twisted similarly to a corkscrew upwards until it finally ended in a small room. Generally speaking, its size was still as big as a detached family house but in relation to the gigantic hall, it lacked greatly in splendor.
A wooden table was placed provisionally in the middle of the cave, surrounded by a set of chairs. While Eyna was still wondering about how the woodwork didn't begin to burn in this maddening heat one of the many people already present approached Eyna's host.
"This was truly an… exuberant speech," he said falteringly, trying to somehow compliment Lucifer's words. Eyna immediately recognized his voice as she was certain to have already heard it before. Its tone was suspiciously similar to the man to who she had delivered the fake artifact.
His current appearance reminded her a little bit of the ugly character following Lucifer closely behind. Cut and rotting wings and a scarred skin. However, this individual had gotten away better as only one long scar ran across his face and his original handsomeness still shone through.
When Eyna let her locked gaze sway over the remaining people in the room, she detected five other similarly hideously looking demons. A subtle stench of rot hang in the air.
Eyna remembered an old story she had heard from her mother when she was still a child. After Lucifer failed to overthrow the one true God he was exiled with seven angels who had supported him in his revolt. They together were deemed to be the first demons and would later become the embodiment of the seven deadly sins.
Judging from the seven crippled demons present they could possibly be these fallen angels. As they had to suffer from the wrath of the sole creator, the received injuries were presumably unhealable.
"I know," Lucifer didn't refute him and without even glancing over, he went past his subordinate and approached the huge table. The hall was big enough that his footsteps hitting the rough rocky floor produced an echo. Like Lucifer had probably done so many times before, he decisively chose the chair at the head of the long table, where he leisurely took a seat.
Eyna thought his actions were a little bit arrogant but considering the fact that he was currently the strongest being in all three realms made it somehow understandable.
Everybody followed suit.
"Are we really going to fight the angels? This sounds too exhausting," one of the fallen angels asked languidly once all had made themselves comfortable. He watched the other's reactions with only half-opened eyes while appearing to dive into his dreamland at any moment.
"Watch your mouth, Pigrites. You are in the presence of his Lord. I'm sure there is already an underlying plan on how we will submit all the three realms under our feet," the fallen angel she already knew from the future spoke.
Eyna truly had to compliment their dedication to their specific traits, regardless if it was deliberate or not. The seven fallen angels were said to be the embodiment of the seven deadly sins.
Pride, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, and Greed. Each of Lucifer's direct reports represented one of these deadly sins. As their appearance and dementor differentiated greatly, Eyna quickly tried to match the demons to their respective sin. The half-asleep man called Pigrites probably substituted sloth.
Everybody except for him looked abidingly to Lucifer, hoping to receive insight into his plans. Pigrites just laid his head on the wooden table and began dozing off.
The devil himself noticed these expectant gazes and raised his voice.
"We will directly attack heaven's headquarters in the human realm, the Vatican," he clarified his plans.
Most of the demons present didn't seem to like the sound of this straightforward charge into the tiger's den and pulled wry faces.
Only one female fallen angel began laughing hysterically.
"What a beautifully simple plan! I like it. Lucrum, sometimes it's better to just whack the enemy's brains than to rack your own brain over," The female shared her point of view. Eyna linked the demon's personality with the deadly sin of wrath.
"Shut up, Ira. Not everyone is as moronic as you to mindlessly charge into every battle. Interference is always dependent on the potential reward," The demon Eyna already knew replied annoyed. Apparently, his name was Lucrum and the female's name was Ira. Lucrum seemed to represent greed.
"My Lord, if I may ask. Why are we directly attacking heaven's headquarters in the human realm? While it certainly holds some strategic value, it is nowhere near as important as the estimated fatality rate on our side. Furthermore, accessing the holy city through this gate would be equal to suicide because this is the best-defended passage leading to heaven's realm. Wouldn't it be better to attack another gate?" The demon of envy asked cautiously.
He was the same fallen angel who had talked to Lucifer before his speech. Eyna found his line of reasoning surprisingly normal, considering the unique personality of the others.
Lucifer chose to speak up again.
"We won't try to enter the holy city through this gate. The only thing we want in the Vatican is to retrieve a specific item that should belong to us," he argued.
"And what great item would force even the great Lord to act against these measly feathered birds?" A female fallen angel interjected inquisitively. She probably carried the deadly sin of pride, judging from her haughty dementor.
"It is a cursed key, giving one the ability to open a specific undiscovered passageway," Lucifer explained. In his hand, a rolled-up parchment appeared out of thin air.
Everybody gasped for air. Eyna didn't know what exactly a passageway was. However, she could somehow estimate its importance as even the sleeping Pigrites was jolted awake. Naturally, nobody considered explaining its significance to an unperceivable human spectator like Eyna.
"So… This is the map to the entrance of the passageway?" Lucrum asked while a greedy glint flashed through his eyes. Lucifer nodded.
"Then, when will we start?" The wrathful fallen angel asked with a face full of smiles while already warming herself up for the upcoming fight. A huge club had at some unknown point of time appeared in her hand.
"Right now," Lucifer answered.
Suddenly, the earth quaked. The glowing red veins began pulsing at an increasingly faster pace as chunks of debris fell rumbling from the ceiling. A large crack appeared and split the rock above their heads in two. The fiery spiderweb instantly grew into the opening rift as it dug its way through the stone. A seemingly never-ending vertical shaft leading to the surface emerged.
Lucifer raised up from his chair and said.
"Let's go."
・・・
Eyna watched Lucifer patiently waiting at the end of the continually forming corridor. They were still surrounded by rock and stone, with only glowing veins illuminating the otherwise dark cave. However, as the walls were already compromised out of a few spots of dirt the surface wouldn't be far anymore.
Lucifer's subordinates politely stood a few dozens of meters below him. His current demeanor didn't seem to allow any individuals to approach him.
The parchment appeared in his hand again. Lucifer held the rolled-up piece of paper gingerly between his fingers. Eyna could feel the old and withered material turning into dust at any moment.
The devil unraveled the invaluable item for one last time and gazed onto the yellowed disappearing ink that would merge into the drawing of a map. The edges were frayed and torn, the glowing red veins shining through the thin surface.
Then, the paper suddenly caught fire. A growing black flame ate up the inflammable material and its content slowly vanished into nothingness. No ashes nor smoke were emitted and no trace of its previous existence was left behind. Now, Lucifer was the only person alive who had seen the map with his very own eyes.
As if waiting for this event to happen the earth rumbled again. The rock split open as the veins made their last push to the surface.
For the first time in five years, Eyna saw natural light again, shining through the crack at the top of their heads and illuminating the cave shrouded in shadows. However, it was probably early morning or late at evening as Eyna wasn't able to see the typical bright daylight but only dark shades of red similar to the glowing spider web surrounding them.
Eyna somehow was elated as she already showed a huge reaction of just being able to see a dark cave. Therefore, she didn't want to experience the shock of perceiving thousands of vivid colors all at once burning into her… Lucifer's retinas.
Lucifer's scrawly hand reached up and took hold of the ledge. Then, with one last push, he pulled himself up to the surface.
・・・
Eyna found herself on a flat plan consisting only of dirt. The ground was dried up and crunched under her host's feet. Cracks spread out in all directions as more and more rifts leading to hell appeared on the even ground surrounding him.
These planes may have formerly been crammed with plants and trees but with the arrival of the infernal forces, all vegetation was disintegrated into the nothingness from the purging heat. The only evidence of its former existence would be the memories of the people who inhabited these lands.
It was late in the evening. The sun was nearly setting behind the long mountain range in the distance and only a limited amount of light reached down to the hellish army rising up from the underworld. The plane continuously filled with demons of all sizes until Eyna could not see any spots of the dirt ground anymore.
It all happened in near silence. No talking nor other means of conversing was needed and only the quiet cracking of the dirt was heard when a giant as big as a mountain reached the surface.
Then, the army set off, marching towards the setting sun. In the far distance, if one looked above the countless heads of demons, the silhouette of a city was seen. The city of Rome. Many towers reached high up into the sky as the flags on the tip of the roofs swayed gently in the wind. Adding the rubicund tint of the dusk the buildings looked surreal as if it was a toy city created for a small child.
But Eyna knew that this day would be marked as the darkest point in human history. Most people had probably long gone to bed, expecting to wake up the same as the previous morning. However, little did they know.
Before the never-ending war began, divine presences were minuscule inside the human realm. Therefore, humans were divided into different beliefs and cultures, even fighting to the death with each other to defend their own religion. To justify their irrational and inhuman murdering they used their gods, pushing all blame of these atrocious acts to the divine.
Now, for the first time in history, humanity was in harmonic concordance with each other on this topic. Never should the divine have entered the human realm.
Before Eyna lay Rome, where the Vatican, the headquarters of the angels, sat. The battle over this fort would be marked as the beginning of the never-ending war. And Lucifer's army was steadily marching towards its destination.