Pawn trudged alone over the ashen dunes of demon realm desert, breathing heavily as she did so. Not due to exhaustion, but due to the literal river of lava which existed nearby. She glared at it as she walked alongside it.
A small settlement could be seen in the distance, surrounded by a large wall of black stone. It was likely a large town, or a small city, based on the wall's ten-metre height. The place existed right at the point where two rivers of lava merged into a single, larger sized one.
"I'll never understand why demons like building their towns and cities near these things," she grumbled, "they may not feel the heat so much, but for a celestial like me this is just too-."
"Ah," she exclaimed, "so that's why."
Indeed, as she had surmised, one of the reasons that demons often chose to build in such places, was for the simple reason that celestials would dislike it.
That was how deeply the two races hated each other. It was at the point that even the locations of settlements were being chosen out of spite.
There were, of course, other, technical, geographical, or political reasons for the decision to build in such places, but spiting the entire celestial race would probably have been enough even if the other reasons did not exist.
Pawn held up a flask in her right hand, drinking the last of its contents.
She looked at the design etched into the front of the silver canister. A pair of angelic wings extending outwards from a diamond, above which floated a halo.
She turned to throw the thing it into the lava river which she still walked adjacent to.
"Look at it, Pawn. Isn't it pretty?" Lumin's voice from many years prior echoed through her head. "I had it handcrafted by the best celestial smith there is. Its part of a set, so it matches mine. Be sure to take good care of it, okay?"
She paused, then looked at it once more.
"Storage," she muttered a moment later, causing the flask to disappear from her grasp, and into her inventory. It was one of her many abilities as a support-based celestial.
Pawn sighed at her inability to dispose of the thing, and then she continued walking.
'Ah, I should probably wear 'that' as well, so I don't stand out too much.
Extending her hand, Pawn quickly summoned a dark crimson coloured, demonic-looking, bracer into her grasp. She then quickly swapped it out with the leather one she had been wearing on her right wrist.
"A perfect fit," mused Pawn as she looked at it. It was the first time she had ever worn it.
"Should block me from being appraised by people," she thought out loud, "though, I don't really know the specifics."
...It didn't take too long for Pawn to reach the demonic settlement that she had seen in the distance.
She noticed as she approached it, that the people paroling the city's wall, and the people lining up at the settlement's gatehouse, were all quite varied in appearance. There were massive ones, small ones, buff ones, gelatinous ones, naked ones, finely dressed ones, spike-covered ones, vibrantly coloured ones, horrendously fat ones. The list went on and on. Most demons present falling into more than one of those categories.
Pawn let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the diversity, and then immediately found a place at the end of the line.
'It's good this isn't one of those 'our-species-only' type places,' Pawn thought gratefully, 'it'd be nearly impossible to blend in if it were.'
"Next," said one of the gate guards, one which wore a particularly shiny set of steel armour, quickly ushering the demon at the front of the line into the city.
The guard merely glanced at each demon before letting them in, his eyes glowing slightly green each time he did so.
'An envy demon,' observed the celestial upon seeing the glow. He was also the only guard at the gate with an aspect not suited towards combat.
Then came her turn.
'Here goes nothing,' she thought as she approached the guard, still wearing her hooded grey robe.
The guard merely glanced at her at first, as he had done with all the others. Then he stared. His stare then slowly shifted into a glare.
Pawn grew more and more tense as the glare continued.
"Lower your hood," he eventually ordered.
'Dammit,' thought pawn, 'but there are some demons that look like celestials, so maybe I could still fool him.'
Pawn, begrudgingly obeyed, slowly lowering her hood.
"Hmph," scoffed the guard immediately upon seeing her face.
"To think it would be one of your filthy kind that managed to block my discerning gaze," he continued.
Pawn tensed her muscles, preparing to fight or flee.
"Next," the guard then said, one of the combat orientated guards quickly shoving he through the city gate.
"Damn pride demon," she then heard the guard mutter under his breath before continuing with his work.
Pawn, though stunned by the reaction, continued forwards into the city. She walked past a group of stall selling various demonic-looking foods, nobody at the stalls sparing her a second glance either. Eventually, she reached a shop that contained glass windows, allowing her to observe her current reflection in the glass.
Her hair, once copper-coloured, was now a very dark shade of purple. Her once light-blue eyes, now bright violet. Her skin was now light grey with a purple tint. And atop her head, right along her hairline, she had an adorably small pair of light grey, purple-tinted horns.
She looked just like a pride demon.
'That explains that guard's reaction, she thought with amazement, 'envy demons and pride demons normally dislike each other as much as humans dislike the demonkin.'
Demonkin being beings of human ancestry who now possess the traits of demons, having been 'corrupted' by them. They, however, were mostly unique to worlds which contained the presence of magic.
"Whoa," she exclaimed as she prodded one of the horns.
'This bracer is amazing,' she thought upon feeling her finger make contact with it, 'even I would be fooled if I met me right now.'
'And here I always thought this bracer would be the thing to one day get me banished,' she continued, amused that it had actually instead been her salvation.
She continued standing there for a moment, observing every aspect of her new appearance, noticing that her front teeth had all become extremely pointy as well, though she still retained her molars.
"Typical pride demon," she heard someone mutter as they walked by.
"Get a room, you two" jeered another, referring to Pawn and her reflection.
Hearing that, and realizing how long she had been watching her own reflection, Pawn quickly raised her hood and continued on her way, slightly blushing in embarrassment.
None of the surrounding demons had really found the behaviour all that unusual, however. After all, seeing a pride demon gawk at their own reflection was as common to see as gluttony demon gorging themselves on food.