Chapter 6 - Time

After killing the demon I decided that my creature and I should practice our skills and get used to our powers and abilities. I did everything I could to prepare for my battle with Azazel learning my craft and perfecting new techniques that utilized my powers, as well as the abilities of Serpentine. I Imbued the power to read minds in Serpentine's mind and in a roundabout way linked our minds together so that we could communicate telepathically. This allowed Serpentine to learn everything that I knew and allow both of us to simultaneously take in information from one another. After what felt like an eternity of preparation, the perfection of techniques, and gaining better control over our abilities it was finally time to search out Azazel and take on one of the greatest warriors that have ever existed. I saddled up Serpentine and rode off towards the Kingdom of Hell hoping that I might find some demons along the way that knew the layout and where about I might just be able to find Azazel. I came to a large black wall built from bricks made of ash that fell from the sky. though you wouldn't think of ashes as being hard or really all that solid, the structure appeared stronger than even the walls of the Elf Queen's palace. We wandered around the outskirts of the outermost wall of the kingdom finding a few demons that were quickly restrained by Serpentine and squeezed until the point that they gave up the information that I wanted. As it turned out there were 7 rings of the Kingdom of Hell. The first is the front-line defense of the Kingdom of Hell itself. This was guarded by none other than Azazel himself. The other six were guarded by the Last six princes of Hell, and at the center of it all is where Lucifer, Lilith, and the first two princes of Hell reside as well as the rest of the fallen angels. The rest of the demons are either outside of the seven rings torturing the lost souls lost in the flames or in the dungeon of Hell torturing those who were so awful that Satan himself literally prepared a special place in Hell just for them. I then wondered where I might find the path guarded by Azazel. The wall went as far as the eye could see, and there didn't appear to be any way into the first ring. Serpentine and I wandered around the ring looking for the entrance. We passed by several demons that were outside of the wall. We would attack and kill those demons, though we would often become quite bored with such easy tasks. Eventually, we stopped going after the stragglers and just flew for as long as we could. It seemed as though we would never find the gate. We flew for days and even weeks, not once did we see even the slightest hint at a gate. After almost a month of flying, we decided to target some of the demons and interrogate them. Several demons said that they have never seen the gate and didn't know where it would be. After torturing several demons and getting virtually nowhere, we came across one that actually knew a little about the situation. The demon was wrapped in the armored coil of Serpentine's body squeezed so tight that the sound of his deep voice was barely audible. He was struggling to speak but said, "If you spare my life, I will give you all the information you need and more." So of course I decided to go ahead and see what I could gain. The demon was quite cautious when I released him, though he remained true to his word. He said, "The gate can only be seen by those who have survived the entirety of their torture outside of the first ring. Once you have suffered to the point that your soul no longer seeks to leave your eyes will be open to the gate, that or you must be one of the fallen. If you allow me to I can get one of the tortured souls, as I can't see the gate the same as you." I didn't like the idea of using this demon as a guide, and neither did I like the idea of trying to search blindly for a gate that is invisible on a wall that stretches for thousands upon thousands of miles in a giant circle. Eventually, I decided to allow the demon to live and use one of the souls who's will was broken to search out the gate. now it's only a matter of time before we find the gate and I have my first battle with one of the fallen angels of heaven. As we wandered about in search of the gate several questions appeared in my mind, "What will the battle be like? What weapons does Azazel have? Will I gain power in a similar way to killing demons? What lies beyond the gate? What magical defenses will the other gates have? will I gain the abilities to actually overcome the magical defenses of the gates?" The many questions continued to grow and create more and more questions, though I didn't allow the questions to create doubts. Curiosity can be good but if you are not careful it can create doubt and fear. After what felt like years of walking around this wall the soul that the demon was using turned towards a seemingly random spot on the wall staring with its lifeless, emotionless face lifting its arm to point with fingers that are dried and withered to the point of appearing like that of a skeleton at the gate that we have searched so long to find. We walked toward the wall and ran our hands along it until feeling a pillar that we could not see. After reaching the pillar a shimmer of light flickered revealing the vast black gate. I can only assume that the gate's magic allowed us to see it because it was no longer hidden from us. It was a magnificent gate stretching high into the ash-filled sky and across the ground for approximately 100 meters. The massive gate was smooth and shown with a strange dark light.