"They're here. It's time."
Lusamine had come bright and early to collect Exedra and bring him before the sins.
His wives and daughter who wouldn't be attending the meeting each gave their own goodbyes as he departed.
Truthfully they were slightly worried about how things might go with the demon lord's tendency for violence.
But they trusted their husband to come back unscathed and with news of what this whole thing was about.
As Exedra and Lusamine silently approached the meeting room the succubus couldn't help but give the man next to her sideways glances.
He seemed to be completely calm and not at all fearful of what might occur.
She knew he was not naive enough to believe that the demon lords would never hurt him so where did this confidence come from?
Unfortunately as they arrived at their destination, she ran out of time to ask.
Without waiting for another word, Exedra pushed open the large double doors and entered fearlessly.
Inside was a large dimly lit room with seven thrones circling the walls.
Exedra came to a stop in the middle of the room and eyed the occupants of the thrones curiously.
"You.. You feel like him."
An ancient and weary voice spurred Exedra from his thoughts and prompted him to come face to face with the demon lord of sloth.
He was staggeringly tall with a body that appeared to be made from a rotting tree and a sheep skull for a head.
"No, can't you smell it?"
A hulking demon with fiery orange hair and numerous battle scars rose from his throne and came to a stop in front of Exedra.
"He stinks of the abyss."
One by one all of the demon lords began to sniff the air and realized that wrath was right.
The smell of the abyss was coming off the being in front of them in waves and yet he was still sane.
That shouldn't be possible unless…
"What is the abyss?" Exedra finally spoke.
The deep throaty laughter of a fat, blue demon was suddenly heard.
"Oh that's rich! The boy is in the middle of a test but doesn't even know what for!"
The demon lord of gluttony, beelzebub, suddenly ceased his laughter and leaned forward in a mocking grin. "We called you here hoping you would join our army, but now it doesn't feel like you're fated to live very long!"
"Are you going to answer me or make more useless predictions?"
"I don't mind telling you." A feminine voice spoke up.
Exedra's gaze landed on a raven haired woman with the lower half of a serpent.
She was the sin of envy, Leviathan.
"However, I would ask for something you covet as payment."
The dragon's gaze immediately hardened and Leviathan merely chucked.
"Enough. Get to the point of this meeting so that you can all go." Belphegor's tired voice brought everyone back to the focus of the gathering.
"There is something you need to see." The sin of greed who had been silent until now finally spoke.
With a snap of his fingers, he materialized a wall of black stone that was wrapped in chains.
At the base of the monolith was a man that Exedra did not recognize, yet the more he stared at him the more he found himself in disbelief.
"What is this?!" Exedra roared and it was clear that he wasn't amused by the current turn of events.
The man had skin as black as the night and long ash gray hair.
He had two horns as black as obsidian and as proud as a mountain poking out from atop his head.
He was so incredibly handsome he looked like the word lust was created with him in mind.
It was then that Exedra noticed something that did not quite belong.
The man had six wings on his back.
Three were black as the deepest night.
Three were as white as the purest of snow.
The sin of pride, Lucifer, who had remained silent until now also rose up from his throne and came to state directly at the demon bound before them.
"He was our brother."
Exedra's heart began to thump wildly as he realized his wildest suspicions were indeed true.
"This is your father, or at least what remains."
Suddenly, the bound man stirred awake and Exedra was able to look into his father's eyes.
One eye was red with black sclera, the other was pure gold.
-
At the ruined city of grucius, the small religious detachment was currently circled around the man in white robes and a woman with wings on her back.
The woman had soft tanned skin and her body was decorated in golden chains.
Her eyes remained closed and hidden behind a curtain of white hair.
She looked over the bodies of all of the fallen with an imperceptible look of disgust.
"We found them like this a few hours ago. The entire city was razed to the ground during what was supposed to be a festival." The man in the white robes explained.
"We don't know what happened but we believe the demons may have a new weapon of some sort. They've never caused this kind of hell before."
The angel could agree with that kind of thought.
Demons more often than not liked to play with their prey and yet not a single one of these people appeared to have been tortured, robbed or eaten.
They truly died from tearing each other apart but how was that possible?
There was another stench here that the angel could not quite put her finger on.
It was old and malevolent.
Suddenly the woman flinched when she recalled exactly where that smell had come from.
"A member of the abyss.." the angel finally muttered. "And judging from the fact that there is no trail and nothing else was destroyed, it could only be one of them."
The angel finally opened her bright golden eyes and turned around to face the humans who'd been staring at her in awe.
"A new abyss king is about to be crowned."
"Judging from the fact that there is still earth beneath us to stand on, he can't be very strong yet but time is of the essence."
The angel suppressed the urge to tremble as she spoke.
If a new abyss king was allowed to walk the earth, horrors the likes of which were incomprehensible would ensue.
The humans looked at each other in confusion.
They'd never heard of this abyss she spoke of but judging by her tone, it couldn't be anything good.
"What are your orders, my lady?"