As Beel spoke the name of Lilith, the world went white; Melody’s eyes were forced shut by the brilliance. When she was able to open them, she found herself in a room that was unfamiliar to her. A room, by her estimation, that hadn’t been used in some time by the way there were white cloths draped over all the furniture. Beel also looked quite surprised.

“I… I know this place… It’s Lilith’s room from back up in the Celestial Realm. I’m sure of it.” The room was very pretty, and full of light. But, it didn’t look anything like what Melody imagined ‘Heaven’ to be. Instead, it looked much like the time period of the House of Lamentation, but with a more airy and cozy look. Even so, it looked like it could have easily belonged to a house in the human realm. There was a beautiful chandelier and many lovely paintings. “What’s Lilith’s room doing here, in the House of Lamentation…?”

“Was she… never here with you in the House of Lamentation?” Melody asked softly. She knew Beel had been reluctant to speak of her before, but, she had to say something.

“She died. In the Great Celestial War.” Beel looked so sad that Melody wished she had the courage to give him a hug. Her earlier guess had been right though; Lilith had died, leaving behind her brothers to live as demons somehow. “Do you know about the Great Celestial War? About what happened then?”

Melody shook her head no. Mammon had mentioned it briefly, when he spoke to her at the dinner table, but she had no clue what had gone on. Not really. Only that they were all angels to start with, and had fallen from grace. Luke had told her a similar story, pointing Satan out as the exception. But now they were demons, and Lilith was dead. It sounded like a family tragedy.

“My brothers and I were originally angels. That was back before the Great Celestial War— before we were cast out.” Beel had been looking sad, but his expression soon switched to angry; it reminded Melody of how he looked when he came across Mammon eating his custard, only this time it was much more personal. “Lucifer incited a revolution against our father, and we aligned ourselves with him. Those who followed our father fought against those who followed Lucifer. That was the Great Celestial War.”

It sounded a lot more like the classical Bible story that seemed to float around a lot of the Abrahamic faiths; even those who weren’t religious had heard the basic story. But, it seemed much more real after coming to the Devildom. Yet, at the same time, it wasn’t nearly as black and white as a lot of Christians made it out to be. Melody idly wondered how well one of them would have fared here. She had no particular faith, and she was struggling enough as it was.

“In the end, our father crushed our rebellion, and cast us out of the Celestial Realm.” Beel was looking sorrowful again. It must have been hard to fight, and lose, such a battle. Against his own father. Melody had never known her own father; she only knew her mother. But she couldn’t imagine fighting her.

“During the battle, my sister Lilith’s wing was pierced by an arrow. Both Belphie and I saw it. It happened right in front of our eyes… She fell down out of the heavens and… died.” And there was the tragedy. Melody didn’t love her siblings very much, but, she would have been devastated and traumatized to see such a thing. She hadn’t had the faintest idea of what Beel had gone through; it turned out it was a lot more than she anticipated. Beel wasn’t finished yet though.

“Just before Lilith was shot, I saw angels from the opposing side draw their bows and aim at both her and Belphie. I couldn’t save them both… the three of us were too far apart. I knew I’d only be able to get to one of them in time. Then suddenly Belphie’s eyes met mine… and just like that, I rushed over to him and shielded him from the attack.” Beel looked down and away from Melody. “I wasn’t able to save Lilith. She died, and it was my fault.”

Melody was breathless, her eyes stinging with tears that leaked from the corners. To have to make that choice… Her heart felt like it was being squeezed. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t met either Belphie or Lilith. She could only imagine that Beel was haunted by his decision, and the worst part was, no matter what choice he made, he would always be troubled that he didn’t take the other option.

“That’s not fair! He was your twin, and you had a bond with him,” Melody protested; she couldn’t be silent while he blamed himself.

“Everyone tells me that. ‘You couldn’t help it,’ that’s what they all say. But none of them saw what I saw. They didn’t see how Lilith looked at me as the arrow pierced her wing in the split second before she fell. They didn’t see that look of despair…” Beel was angry again, but it was clearly directed at himself, and even perhaps at all the brothers who tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault. “…Belphie hasn’t ever come out and said it, but I think he blames me for not being able to save Lilith.” Anger flipped back into worry and sorrow. “I know he wanted me to save her instead of him. In fact, I knew that at the time, but I chose to save him instead. …Melody, what would you have done?”

“I would have frozen because the decision was too hard and lost them both,” Melody admitted quietly, looking away in shame. If she had to choose between two of her siblings, or between two people she cared about, she knew that indecision would have stopped her from making her choice in time. Beel was very strong, and not just physically, but it also came at a cost. Beel looked like he was thinking of a response, but then Melody’s DDD began ringing.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You should get that,” he said, his tone neutral. Melody couldn’t tell if he was annoyed at the call, or relieved that he didn’t have to say anything more about the matter. Melody just nodded and fished out her DDD, clicking the display to answer the call.

“HEY! Melody… where are you?!” It was Mammon, and he sounded upset. No, more than upset: he sounded worried and the matter was urgent. “Something seriously bad is about to happen here! Get your butt down to the underground tomb now! Hurry! The dog is down here, and Lucifer’s about to kill him…!” Yup, that was definitely bad. Melody didn’t know anything about an underground tomb though, and she turned to ask Beel about it, but apparently Beel had heard both sides of the call.

“The dog? Does he mean Luke? Come on, we’d better get to the underground tomb.” At least it solved that issue; Melody could just follow Beel down. Though, she had no idea why Mammon called her in the first place; if Lucifer was that angry, what could she do about it? She didn’t have a pact with Lucifer, and he was the strongest, so her pact with Mammon would only get Mammon hurt as well. Still, she had to go, and her legs scrambled to keep up with Beel’s long strides.

They got there as quick as the two of them could, and quite a scene was unfolding. Mammon, Lucifer, and Luke were there, as evidenced by the fact that Mammon did the calling, and mentioned both Luke and Lucifer. The room was a high vaulted place with rows of sarcophagi on either side. Torches lined the walls, and candles were at the base of each stone contained. Everything was decorated with skulls and other death motifs. At the end was a particularly ornate sarcophagus on a raised dais with stairs leading up to it, and a backdrop of even more candles.

But all this was seen in a glance; Melody’s eyes were drawn specifically to Lucifer, who was in his demon form already. Usually Melody had barely seen such a form before things got violent, so she trembled at the sight of him. Yet, at the same time, she was in awe of the sense of majesty that came from him, even while enraged, from the curved horns on his head, to the four great, black wings that came from his back.

“Lucifer, come on! Calm down a little, would ya?! He’s just a lost dog, that’s all! There’s no need to go revealing your true form over this, now is there?!” Mammon was trying to talk Lucifer down, who had cornered Luke close to the sarcophagus at the end. Luke looked even smaller than usual against the expansive wings Lucifer had; he was clutching tightly to a large book in his hands.

“R-R-Right, e-exactly! A-And if you th-think you’re gonna s-scare me looking all evil like that, y-you’re wrong! It w-w-won’t work!” Luke was trying his hardest to be brave, but it was obvious he was terrified. But Lucifer was between Melody and Luke, so there was no way she could reach him. She just wanted to hold him like she would a child and reassure him, even though he was a lot older than she was in total years. His childish appearances just instilled that instinct in her. “I’I’ll h-have you know that I r-report directly to Michael the Archangel, one of the g-greatest—” But he was cut off.

“Luke. That book you’ve got in your hand… Do you realize what that is?”

“Y-You mean this…? I found it a minute ago. The sculpture on the stone coffin there was holding it.”

“I know that book…” Beel was looking at the book with shock and dismay. Mammon, slightly diverted from the scene that was unfolding, turned towards the two newcomers.

“FINALLY! Melody, Beel, you’re here! IT TOOK YA LONG ENOUGH!”

“That’s a grimoire.” Beel’s expression was severe; it was on the verge of anger, but not quite there yet. The word sent a chill down Melody’s spine. She didn’t know the in depth details, but she knew that it was a very powerful magical book of some sort. The kind most witches would love to get their hands on.

“WHAT?!” Mammon was shocked by Beel’s assessment. Clearly this object was something that got everyone’s attention, and Melody could feel the tension tightening in her stomach.

“Wh…!” Luke went even more pale than he had been.

“A-Are you sure?” stammered out Melody, not sure what else to say.

“Yes. It’s a book of magic known as a grimoire. Several of them exist. Actually, there’s one installed on your DDD as well, Melody. ‘Nightmare’ is a grimoire. But Nightmare is nothing more than a trial version of sorts. It can temporarily borrow a demon’s power.” Beel made a harsh sound in his throat. “The grimoire Luke is holding has the power to control a demon— to make him do anything, even if it’s in violation of a pact. Everything that we are rides on that book. We can never allow it to be stolen under any circumstances. I didn’t realize Lucifer was hiding it here in the underground tomb.”

Melody shuddered. Her pacts had made her uneasy, but, this was an even greater source of power. Did… all demons have some connection to a grimoire somewhere? It seemed risky; she could only imagine it would be some sort of necessity or else no one would create such a thing. The thought of someone having that book…using that book…made her feel sick to her stomach.

“This is no time to be standing around lost in thought, Beel! Get with the program!” As rude as Mammon’s words were, he had a point. The information was useful, but it didn’t calm Lucifer’s anger, or explain what Luke was doing with such a book. Even so, she couldn’t imagine the little angel doing anything evil with it… “Now, listen up, dog! What I wanna know is how you ended up lost in a place like this!” Again, Mammon’s words lacked any pretense of tact, but at least he got straight to the point. “No one else but us has access to this place! So how’d you get in here?!”

“I-I don’t know! Y-your guess is as good as mine! I tumbled out of the closet in Beelzebub’s room and found myself here! And then—” Again, Luke was cut off by Lucifer.

“Wait. Beelzebub’s room…? Did I hear that correctly? Did you just say the words Beelzebub’s room?” Lucifer was more than shocked… more than angry. He looked like a man, or demon, betrayed.

“Uh-oh, this is bad…!” Mammon’s words were unhelpful this time.

“BEELZEBUB…!” Lucifer’s anger shook the room. After the outburst, his anger turned into something cold and sharp as a steel blade. “Were you hiding this angel in your room? Did you allow him access to the House of Lamentation? This angel who would try to steal that grimoire…?”

“Y-you’ve got it all wrong! I wasn’t trying to steal it at—” Luke tried to speak up in both his and Beel’s defense, but his words were like paper in a storm.

“Once Lucifer flips out, it’s no use tryin’ to stop him! I mean, there’s one guy who could do it, but—” Mammon interrupted Luke, and in turn was interrupted by Lucifer.

“You two had better be ready to face the consequences…!” From the sound of Lucifer’s voice, these consequences would be dire; this would be no slap on the wrist.