~~~
SYLVERA
~~~
The room's filled with the sobs and screams of my filthy sinner. Halsten's cleaning his bloodstained hands while I take off my gloves. I open the door and go back to the classroom, taking a seat.
"Phew. A job well done-" I say, as I see Ethan storm out of the room and slam the door behind him, and also leave the classroom. Halsten peeked out from the room. "The hell happened?" asked Halsten. Marie appeared from the room Ethan came from.
"He nearly broke our sinner's soul! And now he's being a bitch about it. This protagonist like motherfucker..." Marie says, shaking her head. I look out the window, seeing Ethan covering his head in his hands.
The girl was crying, covering her head with her hands, and sitting in the corner. Her brown hair was sprawled out on the floor. "Hey. girlie. What happened?" I remember asking, while approaching her.
"She-she was screaming...Blood everywhere..." Ah. A first-timer. Seems she's not used to it. Still...Something told me I should help her, though. I pet her head. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it."
"Are you sure?" Yes, I remember responding to her. "I can help you." The girl's face became much more cheerful. "Yay!" The girl got up. "What's your name?" I ask.
"Oh! Right. My name's-
I snap back to reality. Ethan's still outside as far as I know. This...This is the same scenario, is it? Well...I won't make the same mistake. Not like- I interrupted my thoughts forcefully as I left the room.
I clear my throat. "Hey, you seem off. Let's walk."
~~~
ETHAN
~~~
Sylvera leads me out of the seemingly endless building that I've been in for a day now. Seeing Hell for the first time, it looks relatively...normal. There are normal-looking houses, a bazaar, a big building that looked like a shopping mall, and people walking around.
To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. The inhabitants of Hell look like relatively normal humans, except for some people who used their powers publicly.
Now that I look at the building behind me, I see that the building that we were situated in was somehow a town hall and a school. It's a big white building with some windows, and it's really big. Even looking up at it, I couldn't see the top.
"Why'd you even bother to talk to me? So much for Apathy, huh?" I ask Sylvera, who is walking beside me.
"Most demons who reside over a specific emotion don't just feel that specific emotion, you know." replies Sylvera. Huh. So my schizophrenic dummy self was correct. I continue to walk, appreciating the red-tinted sky. Hell seems to be situated somewhere underground, judging by the big rocks that cover the sky.
"So? You still haven't answered my question."
Sylvera sighs. "Marie told me about what happened in there." she says, looking at me sternly.
I look down. "Guess I'm just not cut out for this stuff, huh?"
"Don't worry. You'll get used to-" Sylvera pauses. "Not again," she whispers under her breath. "It's rough at first, but it's gonna be better." I look at her quizzingly.
"You wasted half an hour of my time to get here, just to tell me this one sentence? "
Sylvera chuckles. "Hehe. Obviously I wouldn't do that. I just wanna tell you a story."
"I don't remember if I hate stories, but go ahead, since we're here."
Sylvera takes a deep breath. "You know, when I first started, I was one of the top students in our class. Breaking, torturing...I was the best in my grade. And I still am. One day, I met a girl. A girl just like you."
"A hybrid? What was her name?" I ask.
"Lilumenthal. Ah…Such a beuatiful child. She was stressing about torture, just like you had. I saw her, and I decided to take her under my care. However, I made one mistake."
"Mistake?"
"I told her it was going to get better. I let her torture more people, but...Some people just aren't meant for it. Day by day, she cried. Day by day, I told her it would get better. Again and again. Foolish empty promises. Her mind was breaking apart, day by day, until...They took her."
"Who took her?"
"Angels."
"Angels?" I raise an eyebrow. "I don't think kidnapping's in the list of good deeds, last time I checked." "It's funny. Angels don't necessarily have to be good, they just have to carry out God's orders. They took her, and...They made her an angel."
"How the heck can demons become angels, now?"
"This is exclusive to hybrids only. Since hybrids aren't directly created by either God or Satan, they can be shaped however God or Satan wants. They kidnapped her, and changed her into an angel..." She balled up her fist.
"So the moral of the story is...? The fact that I can go to Heaven if I want is one hell of a fucking deal! And all I have to do is get kidnapped!" Icicles form on Sylvera's hands.
"I guess you could. But...don't. Please." Yeah...no. I'm not staying here. How do I get to heaven now? Sylvera notices a stall. "Hey. These look delicious. Stay here for a moment, I'm buying this." Sylvera walks to the stall.
Yeah, no. What's the best way to get kidnapped- I notice a strange alleyway. Without thinking, I walk into the alleyway.
It's dark, but I guess I can notice someone if I walk enough.
Left, right, right, left, I continued to walk, the alleyway getting frker and darker.
Soon enough, I notice a strange woman in the alleyway, facing away from me. She has auburn hair tied up in a ponytail and golden eyes. And are those...wings? White wings, protruding from her back. An angel.
"Hey! Miss! Are you an angel?" I ask her.
She turns and tilts her head, then sighs. "Tsk. Lowly scum."
"Yes, then? Oh, thank god. Look, listen. I heard somewhere I can turn into an angel. Look, I'm a hybrid. So, you guys can convert me right? Righ-" Some black solid wraps around my neck. This is unlike the black liquid Sylvera used on me, this is...obsidian?
"You think we'll convert such scum like you? Traitor of God." The obsidian explodes into pieces. I guess I somehow summoned some antimatter.
"Pretty please?" I say, regaining my composure. The woman summons some red liquid in her hands, walking towards me. "Well, guess no exceptions." I say, summoning an antimatter ball in my hand. Guess my schizophrenic double is helping me. I throw the ball at her, but it just explodes midway, caused by colliding with some obsidian. Now that I take a better look, it looks like she has lava-based powers. Can she cool the lava at will?
"Emptiness...Interesting. I see. Who turned you?" She sends a wall of pure lava at me. How the fuck is this legal? I summon a ball of antimatter, which explodes in front of me, blowing the lava back. The lava hardens into obsidian in front of the woman.
"Eh…This girlie named Sylvera-" Her golden eyes shined bright as it widened.
"Sylvera?" she asks, summoning obsidian all around her, enveloping the area.
I back away, just to hit my back on a wall of lava. My back sizzles like an egg, and I dash in front, to find a lava fist travelling towards my face-
SHINK.
The magma fist turns to ice, mere inches from my face. The woman summons more lava to envelop the ice, but soon she widens her eyes and makes a choking sound, her neck turning a dangerous shade of grey, icicles forming on her neck.
Sylvera places a hand on my back, the burns cooling down as ice frosting travels through my back. "Stop, Lilumenthal."
"Master comes to - *ack* - save her little doggy, huh?"she chokes out. Lilumenthal? What, that girl Sylvera was talking about?
~~~
Sylvera and Lilumenthal face each other, master and student. "You haven't changed one bit," comments Sylvera, sighing. "You know our agreement."
"Look, I need to show results. God is waiting for me. Besides, a fate with Heaven is much better than whatever you have planned for him." Lilumenthal's face is back to normal. "Tell me why I shouldn't strike you down, right here and now."
"You couldn't." Sylvera scoffs. "Leave. Hell is not for you, and it never will." Lilumenthal dissapears in a brilliant flash of light. "You good?" asks Sylvera.
"So…I'm guessing that I can't go to heaven?" I ask.
Sylvera sighs. "A few years after Lilumenthal converted, God passed a degree that all hybrid demons had to be executed. Lilumenthal was powerful enough that God decided that all hybrids after her would be of the same degree, making them harder to convert."
"Are all angels like this?" I ask.
"Nope. Some are genuine good-hearted souls. But ones like Lilumenthal are completely subservient to a twisted "subservience" towards God. But I can't blame you for trying, of course," Sylvera comments. "No sane human would willingly stay in Hell, would they? Although, rather too desperately, too. Is there anyone in particular you want to see there?"
"Huh?" I say, realizing that this event was unlike me in particular. Since getting to Hell, I'd been subservient and compliant as much as possible. In fact, I didn't try to run away, and all that. So why the hell was I running away now at the mention of Heaven? Maybe there was someone there I wanted to meet, after all...
'Well, anyway, time to get back. I'm guessing the others are waiting for us." Sylvera says, walking away, and inching for me to follow. "But beware. I'm guessing the others are gonna beat the living shit out of you once they find out what happened. Us demons don't take lightly to traitors."