Satan, April 16th
It was a miracle Satan and the others made it home. They'd been freed only thanks to Arista and Eris; otherwise, they’d be stuck in the Black Kingdom dungeons for who knows how long.
Now, Satan was seated at the desk in his room, away from the world and everyone else, drafting plans to advance with the war and papers of things he’d collected on Katherina and Takahiro across his mess of a desk. The more the war advanced, the more he holed himself up in his room to be alone.
Satan glanced out the window to see the Red Kingdom. The magenta moon shined down from a crack in the caves above. When was the last time he was in his kingdom and not hauled up in the palace? He couldn’t remember. By now, he’d popped in to see many other kingdoms but barely went out into his own. He didn’t need to, anyway. Arsene would get groceries, and any issues within his side of Red would go directly to him.
An alarm stopped him from his thoughts, and he dropped his pencil in surprise. He looked at his phone, which read Tutoring Session with Phoenix.
‘Oh, it’s Thursday? God, my sense of time is fucked lately.’ Satan thought as he stacked all his papers on top of each other in a neat pile. He took his pencils and pens with him and opened the door. While looking ahead, and something grasped onto his legs. He jumped slightly, looking down, only to see Phoenix.
“Oh, hi Fifi.” Satan smiled at the sight of his son, who was now nine, his birthday in February.
“Hi daddy! You don’t look so good. Do you wanna put off tutoring and do it some other day?” Phoenix greeted with a smile.
“Huh? I’m fine. Why do you say that?” Satan asked.
“Your eyebag looks the worstest it’s ever looked. And your hair is messy!”
“But my hair is always like that. I got that from grandpa.” Satan combed his hair back with his fingers, exposing his right eye.
“I mean messier than normal! I’m gonna get Auntie Araya make you a hot chocolate!” Phoenix turned on his heel down the hallway.
“Fifi, I’m fine you don’t-” Satan’s voice faded as he watched Phoenix run to the living room.
No use fighting it, so he went to the dining room and sat down. He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and fixed his side ponytail.
“A little rascal tells me your not yourself. I haven’t seen you leave your room much since the attack on Black. You okay?” Araya says as she walks into the kitchen, Phoenix clutching her hand. She has to bend down slightly so he can reach her. Satan noticed Phoenix was much shorter than he was nine.
“Oh, you know. Planning our next move. That kind of thing.” Satan said.
“Makes sense. You need a break, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.”
“But things are so dire! I don’t want to lounge around or waste time, they always invade other kingdoms at the most unexpected times, I have to be ready for anything!” Satan leaned in closer to whisper to Araya.
“You’re still finding the time to spend with Phoenix, I think you can spare another hour to yourself and another eight to sleep at night too, plus two hours each for breakfast, dinner and lunch. That’s still eight hours for planning, just saying.” Araya whispered back. She walked away as she finished what she was saying, leaving Satan and Phoenix to their thing. Phoenix had brought a bunch of papers and threw them across the table, leaving a mess as he rushed to grab pencils from his room.
Finally, after a few minutes of Satan watching Phoenix go back and forth between the dining room and Phoenix’s room, he stopped and set the last of his things on the table, grabbing the chair and sitting in it. His head barely reached the top of the table. Satan smiled at the sight, tucking his long bangs that usually covered his right eye out of the way to see better.
“Alright, what do you want to start off with for today?” Satan smiled.
CRASH!
Satan whipped his head around to see a wall crumbled, the pieces landing on the floor. About fifteen masked figures, demons this time similar to the ones behind the reunion incident, appeared in front of the broken wall.
‘No, I thought they couldn’t reach the Hell Sector.’ Satan thought. He felt overwhelming dread as he unhooked the chains around his waist and transformed them into his pitchfork. His hands shook, pointing his pitchfork at them as Phoenix hid behind Satan.
Everyone else that had been living in the house came to the dining room to see the commotion. The others were shocked as they looked at the destroyed wall and the mysterious demons.
“You’d disobey your ruler to work for criminals?” Satan yelled, but quieter than he usually would. He couldn’t get too into his emotions in front of Phoenix. He shouldn’t see that side of him.
“You did the same for them..” One masked demon taunted, stepping closer towards Satan with an axe.
Satan's hands gripped his pitchfork harder. He teleported behind them and held the pitchfork handle up to their neck. Satan motioned Phoenix to go to Arsene and Nico while the demon tried to turn their body around to hit Satan with their axe. Arsene, Nico, and Phoenix teleported away, but he wasn’t sure about where. After knowing Phoenix was safe, Satan finally let up but pushed them onto the ground and stepped on their body. Not enough to break anything but enough so they would have trouble getting up, the other masked demons teleported towards the rest remaining in the castle:
Lucifer, Araya, Bree, Crow, and Eris. Lucifer stepped forward and cuffed the demon with his blood magic while Arista teleported away with her and Lucifer’s baby, who was nine days old.
Satan took a few seconds to take in sight in front of him. Araya and Eris were taking out three demons together, Araya twirling her pole around and Eris using her chaos powers to influence the three to fight each other. Bree was using her guitar as a weapon, as terrible as that sounds, trying to hit the invading demons with the thick end of it but missing. Crow teleported with his blood magic, tricking them into being hit by Bree. Satan felt relieved they could all hold their own in such situations.
Distracted, the cuffed demon kicked Satan while he wasn’t looking. The cuffed demon managed to stand up and tried to stop Satan, but Satan grabbed his leg and threw the cuffed demon away. By now, only eight remained. The other seven either passed out or were too injured to carry on. Satan tried to stand back up and steady himself, but the remaining eight raced up to him. Satan used his blood magic to push them back as they approached him. The others raced up to the other demons to take one on, while Satan was left with two others that raced back up to him. Satan pointed his pitchfork at the two and made jabbing motions with it. His pitchfork stabbed one in the stomach, and they fell back, but the other teleported behind him. Satan turned around, but the demon punched him in the eye, making Satan fall back again.
“Fall back!” The demon that punched him shouted into a walkie-talkie, and all of the invading demons teleported away with blood magic of their own.
Satan slowly rose to his feet again, rubbing his eyes.
“Wow I really can’t catch a break huh? Anyone injured?” Satan sighed.
“We’re fine, you have a black eye though. Here, let me heal that.” Araya glanced at everyone else, who looked perfectly fine, before walking up to Satan and holding his face. She touched his injured eyelid with her hands that glowed yellow and gave off tiny flower particles.
“There, good as new. Wait, did Arsene, Nico and Arista tell anyone where they went to?” Araya said as she retracted her hand.
“Nope, I’ll call them though.” Lucifer said.
And almost like nothing happened, almost everyone immediately turned to talk to each other like normal while Satan watched.
‘Oh, still have my tutoring session with Phoenix, as long as he still wants to, I suppose.’ He thought. Immediately Satan called Arsene, Nico, and Arista back. They teleported back with Phoenix. Arista immediately teleported after they all returned.
Satan knelt in front of Phoenix. Unexpectedly, Phoenix had a smile plastered on his face.
“You alright, Fifi?”
“Yeah, are we gonna start the tutoring session already?” Phoenix said
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
“Alright, I can’t say no to that. Come on.” Satan shrugged with a slight smile.
As soon as they had wrapped up, Satan went to his room. The whole session felt as if it was done all on autopilot. Currently, he was seated in his desk chair. His thoughts spun wildly, unable to focus on anything else. How could he not with everything that’s been happening?
He glanced over at his map of Ayuzuma. The entirety of Tempest was crossed out with many colorful thumbtacks, also in the color of the Tempest kingdoms. The Black Kingdom was crossed out in Black thumbtacks, a doodle of Takahiro likely scribbled out in five minutes at maximum pinned right next to it. Another doodle of Katherina was next to him, thumbtack arrows pointing from the doodles to the places they conquered on the map.
‘Ah, I haven’t talked to Reyes in a while. I’ll see if they have any new information for me.’ Satan thought. He turned on his phone and called them.
“Oh hey, it’s been awhile! How’s it been?” Reyes chirped on the phone.
“Bad, fifteen demons showed up to my palace today. They were dressed the same as the attackers at the reunion incident too! Do you have anything on that, and if not, anything new in general?” Satan asked.
“I haven’t been able to get into the kingdoms much lately. I’ve been forced to investigate other cases while ruling the Erisian Hell, but I do have some more stuff.”
“Wait, wait, wait, how the fuck do you balance all that?”
“Oh, in the daytime I handle my royal duties, at night I do my detective duties, and whenever I’m taking a break from both and it’s been awhile I’ll sneak my way into one of the invaded kingdoms.”
“Workaholic much?”
“So are you!”
“Okay, okay, back on topic, what have you found out by now?”
“So despite the diversity of Katherina and Takahiro crew, associates… whatever the hell they’re called, for awhile they had yet to get any demons or people with connections to demons on the crew so they could actually get into hell. They’ve been wanting to catch you out of the Hell Sector of Red and attack you again just to piss you off but they said you don’t leave Red much, and when you do, it’s not long enough for them to plan and send people after you. Finally, they got a few demons on their side so they could only just now place an attack on you, and they’re planning more that will be as bad, if not worse then the reunion incident. They plan to get some demon spies around your palace too so they can plan more attacks on you and foil your plans further down the line.” Reyes explained.
Once Reyes finished explaining, Satan spent a minute in silence, hand over his mouth, eyes widened as Reyes’ words sunk in.
“You good?” Reyes asked.
“No. Did you catch any more of their plans for taking other kingdoms?”
“Nope, seems those are kept to their private inner circle.”
“Alright. Is there a way you can get into their private circle somehow?”
“Most likely not, their private inner circle has the people they hang out the most, and with my obligations to my kingdom of hell and my detective work that’s not gonna happen. I can probably find ways to sneak into their meetings or bug their meetings.”
“Is that not what you’ve been doing already?”
“I sit in as a part-time member of their crew, actually and mostly get into Katherina and Takahiro’s offices’ if they’re not in their for the most part, but I’ll get to that as soon as I can. Is that all you need from me this time around?”
“That should be all.”
“Alright, talk to you soon!”
When Reyes hung up, all Satan could do was sit still, pondering and spacing out. When he zoned back into reality, his eyes happened to be on a map of Earth. Somehow, that map made him realize something.
‘The attack this time was barely anything. But I do not doubt that they’ll get more and more violent in the future. I think… Phoenix, Arete, Arista and her baby might not be safe here anymore.’
Satan took a break that day, later on, to get to do some stuff he hadn’t been able to do in quite a while, but as soon as he woke up the next day, it was back to business. As usual, he was busy dealing with issues of the Red Kingdom’s Hell Sector in the day, but in rushing through as much as he could to an unhealthy degree, he finally found time to talk to Arista and Lucifer. Satan was wandering the palace, looking for Lucifer and Arista. Just before he was about to call Arista’s phone, he spotted them in the living room, Arista lounging on the couch with baby Aragon in his arms.
“Arista, Lucifer! I have something important to ask you guys, is now a bad time?” Satan said.
“Actually, this is the perfect time. What’s up?” Lucifer said.
“Can we talk just the three of us, actually?”
“Sure, how about in Arista and I’s room?”
“Of course.”
“Give us a second. We’ll be right there.”
Satan walked to their room, which was painted a light purple rather than the standard grey all the extra bedrooms had before. He sat in the black spinny desk chair. The table in front of it was dark brown with carvings depicting demons and angels on the drawers. This was standard when the palace was remodeled into what it was today. A computer and open drawers had an almost unholy mixture of Lucifer’s random junk and baby supplies. Their room was messy, with baby clothes and toys all on the floor. Satan spotted the crib in the corner, and Satan began reminiscing on his time raising his children so many years ago. His thoughts were interrupted by Lucifer and Arista opening the door and entering, taking a seat on the bed, which notably was missing the canopy; also a standard for the rooms in Satan’s palace, and the comforter and pillows were a matching light blue rather than the unnecessarily expensive black and grey fancy comforters they used to have.
Lucifer and Arista sat on the bed together, Arista holding and cooing to baby Aragon. Satan maneuvered the swivel chair over the carpet to be facing them.
“Sorry I couldn’t be there when he was born, I got so busy with planning attacks and what to do for hypothetical situations that I passed out. You said his name was Aragon, right?” Satan said.
“Yes. do you want to hold him?” Arista held out Aragon to Satan.
“Sure, it’s been a few years since I last held a baby, so I must warn you, I might not know what I’m doing,” Satan said as he gently held Aragon in his arms, cradling him. Aragon was sleeping peacefully, swaddled in a red blanket. Satan felt the corners of his lips lift upwards as he looked at Aragon.
“What did you want to talk to us about, anyway?” Lucifer asked.
“You know about the attack yesterday, right?”
“Pft, yeah? I was there, and if you didn’t notice, I killed it.”
“And you remember the one I told you at the last Satanel reunion as well?”
“Yes?”
“I’ve been thinking… This attack really was quite pathetic, but the last one felt like they actually put some effort into harming us. Well, not you and Arista, but you get the idea. I learned from my spy that Takahiro and Katherina got demons to work for them, so they’ll keep the attacks coming, and they want to get spies down here to foil my plans and watch us.”
“Yikes. Did you tell anyone else yet?”
“Not yet, but you I feel are the most vulnerable, so I wanted you to be first.”
“Oh we’re not vulnerable as long as you have me around.” Lucifer smirked.
“Are you sure? Even you’ve had times you’ve gotten hurt before. I’m not sure this palace is safe anymore to be quite honest. I’m scared for Aragon, Phoenix and Arete. I know you could hold your own,” Satan looked at Arista, “but I really don’t think I should risk anything happening to you, especially with… you know…”
“You mean my father, right?” Arista bit her lip as she glanced at the floor.
“Partially, but mostly I mean what would happen if the attacks get to you, when your still in pain? Would the universe get all out of shape if something happened to you? And would he get on my ass and kill me?”
“I gave birth like a week ago, and the universe is still fine, so I don’t think anything will change much. There are plenty of other destruction goddesses like me, maybe I don’t have an heir but they’ll find someone to take over for me if that happens. Honestly, haven’t seen him since the day the girls and I descended down to Earth though, he sends someone to give us our assignments and that’s it, I really doubt it with the ways things are panning our right now. Unrelated, but man, you and Lucifer are a lot more alike than you think, you know?” Arista laughed, ow-ing in pain at the same time.
“I don’t know what you're talking about, we couldn’t be any more different. He’s a menace and I’m the stable one.” Satan argued.
“Hey, at least I have a sense of humor. You’re boring.” Lucifer pointed at Satan.
Satan could’ve fired back another insult, but he heard baby Aragon cooing, and he felt his anger at Lucifer fade away as he shushed Aragon and rocked him gently.
“Getting back on topic, I’m wondering if it might be good idea to move out of the palace. Not just you three but all of us. I’m also wondering if you should go off the planet indefinitely for Phoenix, Arete, and Aragon.”
“That does make sense, but what would you do for Phoenix?” Arista asked,
“Maybe Eris could take him, and I could help them buy temporary residence back on Earth? Or he could stay with my mom and dad, but I’d have to explain the situation here, and I’m not quite ready for that….”
“If worse comes to worse, I’m sure Artemios would have no problem watching Phoenix. When I pick up and drop off Arete he always tells me how Phoenix is a sweet kid and Arete adores him.” Arista said.
“I don’t get why you won’t let mom and dad help. They could end this all super quick with a shi- I mean, a heck ton of soldiers. Why don’t you just tell them?” Lucifer said, making sure not to curse in front of the baby.
“I’m here to follow through on my punishment. I need to show them I’ve grown since then and I can handle this on my own. They still have to run their kingdom, after all…” Satan said.
“It’s a war. Isn’t that a bit too much for just you to hold all on your shoulders?” Arista pointed out.
“Before this war, I had the entire Red Kingdom Hell Sector resting on my shoulders, which was fine.”
“Okay, if you don’t want mom and dad’s help, make an army. Maybe some of the other royals can pitch in.” Lucifer suggested.
“I will for sure.” Satan said.
“How would we even go about moving out of the palace though?”
“You and Arista can move back to the freedom pantheon, and so can Arsene and Araya. Nico could go with Arsene, I guess I’ll need a new bodyguard. I don’t know where I will go yet. I’d have to talk to my guard staff on where to go that’d be secure.”
“So, what are we gonna do, then?” Arista asked.
“I’ll tell everyone else my idea and get them on board so they can start to look for a place to go. Arista, you and I can call Artemios once I tell Phoenix about this. The last thing I want to do is spring this on him out of nowhere. I’m almost done making plans for potential war scenarios, so once I finish that up, I’ll be a little less swamped.”
“Alright, once you tell Phoenix, let me know, and we can talk to Artemios,” Arista said.
Thinking he was finished, Satan stood up and returned Aragon to Arista and Lucifer. He began using his blood magic to teleport but was stopped by Lucifer.
“I forgot, Eris and I were thinking, you’ve been super stressed about everything. What if you took a vacation for a week soon?” Lucifer said.
“Are you crazy? I still have a war to deal with! Who’d take over for me?” Satan said.
“Well, Eris was the queen of the black kingdom, so she knows how to run a kingdom. Sure, it may be different down here than it would be up there but she could deal with your duties as a king. And remember how growing up I’d sit in dad’s meetings with his friends, planning attacks on the angels? I know a thing or two about planning attacks and war and blah blah, so I could take over that.”
“That does sound nice… Maybe for a week Phoenix and I can spend some time together before he goes to Artemios’ house. But would you two be alright with it?” Satan asked.
“Dude, we’ve been thinking about this for a while; we wouldn’t want to take over your duties if we weren’t okay with it!”
“Alright, if you still want to do that, I’ll tell you when I tell Phoenix. I also need to let my staff know as well… Alright, I still have some work to finish, unfortunately, but once I clear the most important stuff out of my schedule I’ll tell everyone.”
Now more determined than ever to get to work, Satan said bye before finally teleporting back to his room and immediately got back into planning possible attacks for the war and doing royal duties, ready to get them done and out of the way soon as possible.
A few days later, Satan managed to talk to everyone, and everyone was on board. Everyone except Phoenix. He’d been procrastinating talking to him, finding things in his work to change or tweak that didn’t even need it, finding any excuse to avoid having the complicated conversation.
Satan was in his throne room, which had grey walls and stained glass windows depicting him and his loved ones. His throne was metallic black and a soft red to go with how Satan wore almost exclusively black, save for the red hair tie that went with his eyes.
“Wait no, give me that letter for a second, actually.” Satan said to his advisor, reaching out to them. The advisor gave Satan the letter and he read it. Satan took out a pen and began scribbling.
“You know what? My writing doesn’t look too good in this. Why don’t we scrap this one and throw it in the fireplace?” Satan suggested.
“Sir, I really don’t think-” The advisor protested.
“Give me a moment, I’ll go chuck this one and get a new paper.” Satan rose from his throne and walked to the living room where the fireplace was. He was about to throw the paper into the fire, but he was stopped by a thought.
‘I really need to talk to Phoenix… You know what? No more procrastination, I’m gonna do this right now!’ Satan thought, dropping the letter on the ground to deal with later.
He walked to Phoenix’s room and knocked on the door. Satan felt his body tremble as he retracted his hand back.
The door opened to Phoenix, looking up at Satan with his big, beady eyes.
“Hi, daddy!” Phoenix chirped.
“Hi, Fifi.” Satan said.
“I’m glad you’re here. I want to show you something!” Phoenix lead Satan into his room and took him to his small desk. Phoenix’s room was painted a dark red, something Phoenix chose and Satan painted for him as soon as Phoenix moved into the palace. He had a medium-sized bed with teenage mutant ninja turtle-themed bedsheets, a bed too big for Phoenix all on his own but would fit Satan if Phoenix wanted him to sleep with him one night. Phoenix’s room had a small wooden desk like the ones he’d see if he went to school and a cabinet beside it with a lamp. On the desk Phoenix was showing was a drawing with everyone Phoenix knew with their names written on top.
“I really like it! Man, you really made me and Aunt Arista tall. You got everyone in here!” Satan complimented.
“Yup!”
Satan looked it over, taking in the small details. Phoenix got down Satan’s sharper-than-a -humans-but-not-as-sharp-as-a-vampiress upper canine teeth, Arsene’s wing clips in her hair, Lucifer’s snake tattoo, and the list goes on. But as Satan looked over the drawing, he noticed a name he thought he would never see.
Takahiro.
“Fifi, why is Takahiro on here?” Satan asked.
“Because uncle Takahiro is nice?”
“You do know he started the war that’s happening, right?”
“Yeah. Maybe if you brought me to him, I could convince him to stop.”
“Fifi, I don’t think that’ll be that easy, unfortunately.”
“Why not?”
“He’s stubborn. I’m not sure just a conversation would convince him to stop. And part of why he started this was because he misses his parents and wants history to remember them.”
“I remember the stories he told me about his parents! I could help history remember them! But what does missing parents have to do with taking over the world?”
“I guess as ruler of Ayuzuma everyone will know about them and being a king is his only reason to be alive.”
“Wouldn’t mommy be another reason, too?”
“I would think so. Speaking of all this… Do you feel safe here?”
“I always feel safe with you and Auntie Eris, daddy, don’t worry!” Phoenix reassured.
“That’s good, but… I’m not sure about Arista, Lucifer or Arete, we’re also concerned about Aragon. You know what happened back and January and why Arsene wears the mask over her eyes, right?”
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“The reunion incident.”
“Right. This time, it was nothing, but what if another attack happens and it’s as bad as the reunion attack?”
“So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna fight Takahiro and Mommy in an epic fight?”
“Not this time, but eventually I will. I think you, Arista, Lucifer, Arete, and Aragon should leave Ayuzuma.” Satan described, his gaze falling to the floor.
“How long would I be gone for, Daddy?” Phoenix asked, voice cracking.
“I really don’t know.”
“You can’t do that! I’ve only been here for three months!” Phoenix begged, hugging Satan, finally breaking down into tears.
“I know, but knowing them, even if I just moved you out of the kingdom they may search every kingdom, top to bottom just to lay an attack on you just so it hurts me.” Satan frowned.
“You’ll come back for me as soon as everything’s over?” Phoenix asked.
“Of course. As soon as everything’s okay in Ayuzuma I’ll go straight to you. And I’ll call and text you as much as I can. Deal?”
“Deal.” Phoenix smiled, wiping away his tears.
“And, we’re gonna go on vacation a week before you stay at Artemios’ house!”
“Wait, really?”
“Yes, where do you wanna go? I still haven’t booked anything. We can go anywhere you want, as long as it’s not some super far away planet.”
“Disney world?” Phoenix looked up at Satan with a gleam in his eye.
“Sure.” Satan smiled.
Satan took a few days to plan and book everything for their vacation without letting everyone else in the palace know. Satan and Phoenix had a lovely vacation and enjoyed their time together. Unfortunately, even a week-long vacation, which Phoenix had never experienced and Satan hadn’t done in many years, wasn’t enough. Although they both thought that Phoenix being dropped off at Artemios’ would go by without a hitch, they still grew a little sad on the inside as the days passed.
They were currently in their hotel room, soaking in a few last minutes in it. The room was quite luxurious if one room was the way to put it. Phoenix was draped on the bed, he claimed, which was the right one, although he ended up sleeping with Satan in his bed most nights. All his belongings, clothes, toothpaste, toothbrush, and other miscellaneous things were packed into his little green turtle shell backpack. He was ready to go when Satan was, but Satan was absolutely not.
He was almost finished putting everything into his sleek black rolling carry-on. However, he still wanted to double-check everywhere, racing throughout the hotel room like a madman even when he finally finished. Finally though, he slowly walked up the stairs again as he panted.
“You ready, Fifi?”
“Are you, though?” Phoenix retorted, sitting up and putting on his backpack.
“Yes. Do you want to teleport to the front desk or wanna walk?” Satan asked, grabbing his luggage.
“Let’s walk.” Phoenix slid off the bed and put his backpack on.
“Alright, let’s go then.” Satan said.
Phoenix approached Satan and grabbed Satan’s hand as they walked downstairs and out the door. They both purposely walked slowly to drag out how much time they now had left with each other. What would be a five-minute walk to the front desk turned into a twenty minute walk with how slow they ended up walking. Satan finally realized how ridiculous he looked and walked at a normal pace up to the front desk, while he made Phoenix sit near the front desk. Satan gave Phoenix his phone, so he could text Arete.
Phoenix
We’re gonna see you soon!
1:48 PM
Arete
Finally.
Have you talked to my mom lately? I know your not close but it’s been too long since I last saw her.
1:49 PM
Phoenix
Yeah!
I think auntie Arista and uncle Lucifer are coming with daddy and I!
1:49 PM
Arete
Wait really?
Why?
1:49 PM
Phoenix
Dunno.
Maybe since it’s been awhile since she’s been to your house?
1:49 PM
Arete
I see.
I’ll see you soon!
1:50 PM
By the time Satan finished checking out, Phoenix had also finished texting Arete. Phoenix turned off Satan’s phone while Satan approached.
“Ready to go to Artemios’s?” Satan asked.
“Yeah! Are you gonna be meeting him?”
“Yes, I have a few things I need to tell him. But first, let’s meet with Arista and Lucifer.”
Satan used his blood magic to transform his chains back to blood and teleported away.
When Satan’s vision went back to normal, he found himself in front of a run-down gas station. Phoenix raised an eyebrow at the sight.
“We’re meeting them at a gas station?” Phoenix asked.
“Just wait a second, you’ll see.” Satan said. Phoenix grasped onto Satan’s hand a little tighter as they walked into the gas station store. The clerk looked Satan with wide eyes.
“You know your supposed to hide your demon features for a reason!” They said.
“Sorry. It’s quite different from how it used to be. I swear, it must’ve been the medieval period when I last visited.”
“Yikes, has Lady Arsene not visited since then?”
“Oh no, she came here often. The medieval period was… certainly an interesting time for me. Have you been a clerk here for long?”
“Oh no, only for three hundred or so years, I’m a demigoddess, actually, my dad is a deity, they had me quite late and I didn’t really inherit much godly anything, so they just set me up with this.”
“Oh, better than nothing I suppose.”
“It is, I wish I could’ve been born a little more interesting…” The clerk whined as they moved from behind the counter. They stopped in their tracks upon noticing Phoenix.
“Another kid? But this can’t be with-”
“It’s not. Remember when Enya and Arima came here together?”
“...You and Enya are-”
“No! Not Enya, I meant the woman disguised as her that time. Her real name is Katherina. She’s not a great person, we’ve since split up.”
“Oh, sorry for asking. Anyway, I’ll stop talking and let you on your way, enjoy your first time at the freedom pantheon little one!” The clerk said as they opened the back door. Satan looked down at Phoenix, whose jaw dropped at the sight of all the tall buildings, the crowds of demideities and deities and the lush nature of the town compared to how it looked at the entrance.
“What?” Phoenix shrieked in shock.
“That was my reaction when I first came to the freedom pantheon. It really was not like this though when I was younger. Come on, let’s go see Arista and Lucifer.” Satan lead Phoenix over. Satan followed the stone path to the palace in the distance. The five deities resting in their respective thrones all waved and cheered down at Satan as he walked.
“Who are they?” Phoenix asked.
“Close friends of your aunts. The lady in green helped them when they first arrived here. Now, where is their stone… Aha, look, there’s your aunts, and there’s me and Lucifer!” Satan pointed at a part on the path. The scene had two giant hands that were painted like a galaxy looming over the Mendoza triplets.
“Who’s that?” Phoenix pointed at the looming hands.
“Your aunts’ father. He raised them for the first sixteen years of their life but he was a terrible father to them.”
“Did you ever meet Mr. Mendoza?” Phoenix looked up at Satan.
“No, and I have no wish to. He gave all three of them issues, I’d probably try to fight him if we ever crossed paths. I never learned his name though, but Mendoza isn’t his last name.”
“What issues?”
“I think that’s a story best told by your aunts. Please don’t pester them about it much, that situation was very hard on them and it might be painful to recall.”
“Okay.”
They shifted their attentions to the triplets that were posing in the order of the life cycle, Arsene, Araya, and Arista. Birth, living, and death. Creation, preservation, and destruction. Arsene’s normal eyecovering was around her head, like a headband. She wore a long feathery dress with uneven light blue coloring. And of course, her classic creation staff was in hand.
Araya was in the middle, with a puffy yellow dress with a short front and long back. As usual, she was wearing various flowers, most prominently her flower on the left side of her head, still the same one she wore at the present. She had her grey pole as well, of course.
And lastly to the right was Arista. She wasn’t wearing a veil, but she did wear the furs of a wolf over her head, dyed red of course. Her hair was much shorted, and she also wore wolf furs as a dress as well. The head of another wolf laid over her right shoulder, and the dress dragged on the floor. Her arms and legs also wore small strips of wolf fur as well in black, like arm and leg warmers from many years ago. She still had her same scythe of course.
And in the space between the giant hands and the three sisters were Satan and Lucifer, Satan with hair down, but at a more practical length of down to the end of his torso. In the carving, he wore sleeveless black furs that went down to about his knees. To the right, was Lucifer, in similar black wolf fur clothing, but wore what resembled pants, a sleeveless shirt and a jacket.
“You actually used to not cover your arms and legs?” Phoenix asked, amazed.
“Yup.”
“Uncle Lucifer looks so weird without his upside down cross earrings and sunglasses.”
“Oi! I wanted to show it to him first!” Lucifer shouted from behind them. Phoenix and Satan turned and there was Lucifer, walking on a path to them from a tall and very colorful house, with a door for each section of color. He wore a very toned down version of what he’d normally wear, his sunglasses and upside down cross earrings, a black and white skull shirt, a black leather jacket and some blue jeans. He dressed basically as if he took one of his very decked out outfits, and tore off all the pins and extra pieces he’d sewn on.
“Hi Uncle Lucifer!” Phoenix greeted.
“Hey kiddo, ready to go to Artemios’s?” Lucifer asked.
“I think so!”
Satan looked in the distance at the house and saw Arista standing at the door, very exhausted, hair in a messy bun and wearing a grey sweater and sweatpants. No extravagant dresses with a high slit, no veil, something he had never seen her without. Arista approached Satan, with baby Aragon in hand.
“You look tired.” Satan said.
“I’m not used to the baby stuff, it’s been a couple years.” Arista yawned.
“Are you moving here?”
“Yup.”
“Did Arsene and Araya also…?”
“No, Arsene wants to stay on Ayuzuma to help with the war and Araya wants to bond with you and Arsene more since she’s spent the last ten years with Lucy and I. They moved into a new apartment together, actually.”
“They didn’t leave the palace unguarded though, right?”
“No, of course not.”
“Wait, what about Nico?”
“He’s not quite sure what to do yet. He kept talking to his dad’s portrait in that one hallway though, maybe he’s not quite ready to leave the palace.”
“Did he say where he’s gonna go?”
“Last I talked to him it seemed like he was gonna go with Arsene and Araya. Oh, and we also found a nice apartment you might like. It’s in the same building and Arsene and Araya’s and there’s a lot of black. Let me get my phone.” Arista turned on her heel and ran back into her house, and in a minute she raced back out, phone in hand instead of baby Aragon, apartment pictures on the screen to show. Arista handed him her phone and he grabbed it to get a closer look.
The first picture showed a modest little kitchen, dining room and living room all rolled into one. The kitchen and dining room area had black linoleum flooring while the living room was almost separated by the kitchen and dining room area by grey carpeting, even there was not wall separating all three areas. The kitchen area to the left had a partial wall with a opening for a pickup window near the dining area table. There was a stove, oven, and a few black cabinets. The dining area was a black circular table with matching black wooden chairs, all very minimalist and uncomfortable looking. The living area had a long leather couch, the back of it facing the dining area table. By a window there was a black tv stand and a medium sized tv.
The second picture was the first area of the apartment, which wasn’t much, just a place to hang coats and shelf to put keys, as if anyone still drove cars.
The third picture was of the bathroom, taking just outside the entrace. The bathroom was very cramped, barely walkable and any room, with a tiny tub with curtains, sink and a toilet a little bigger than it needed to be. There was a window on the other side of the bathroom, opposite to the doorway entrance with a generic decorative film over it, so anyone that happened to look over at the apartment can’t watch Satan shower.
The last picture was of a bedroom. The walls were painted grey and the floors were a black carpet. The bed was pushed to the left wall, inbetween a nighttable so small, Satan might as well not bother to put anything on it. The right corner had a desk akin to a school desk. Thankfully, the chair was one that spun around. And lastly, on the right wall from where the picture was taken was an empty bookcase.
“What do you think?” Arista asked.
“I’m disappointed but it could work as a temporary residence, I guess.”
“Have you ever lived in anything that wasn’t a palace?” Arista laughed.
“Nope.”
“Get used to it then, I bet this war will be a long while.”
Suddenly, Arista heard crying from her house. She apologized while she rushed back into the house, the crying starting to ease.
“Not to rush you, but are we ever leaving?” Lucifer huffed.
“Sorry, I didn’t expect to talk this much with Arista. Does she wanna come with us?”
“Yeah, let me go get her.” Lucifer said as he ran into the house after Arista.
Now it was only Phoenix and Satan left outside of Arista and Lucifer’s house. Phoenix was staring at the path carvings, mesmerized by intricate they were, all visually telling a story of other gods, goddesses, deities, even those of another species in a place he’d least expect.
“You ready to go in a bit?” Satan whispered.
“Yeah.” Phoenix nodded.
And almost as if right on cue, Arista and Lucifer came back outside together, baby Aragon in Lucifer’s hands, now much more quieter.
“You know the address, right?”
“Yes.”
Satan once more readied his chains into blood, and teleported away from the freedom pantheon town. Their journey definitely felt like it was longer than Phoenix and Satan’s, this teleportation feeling like it lasted a few minutes then the thirty seconds Satan’s previous teleportation job lasted.
When their feet finally touched the ground they all had to pause as Satan controlled the blood to turn back into chains and wrapped them around his waist once more.
Finally taking a moment to look ahead of them laid Artemios’ house in the distant, a small yet cozy home that was a dark grey with a wrap around poarch and two circle windows on either side of the door.
Satan walked on the path to the door, hesitating before finally knocking on the door.
The door opening to reveal Artemios, after months of hearing about him from Arista, Lucifer, Phoenix and Arete, Satan could finally put a face to the name.
Artemios had warm toned dark brown skin and black hair tied in twists. Satan admired how well his makeup done, how crisp his eyeliner looked and how his black eyeshadow wasn’t smudged. This was someone Satan could get makeup tips from. Artemios had a black choker with a silver heart and rings adorning all his fingers. He also had very long armwarmers, in black, of course. His clothes weren’t all that much, just a white tank top, light blue jeans with a black and white checkered belt, and brown boots, but he still made it work.
“Geez, Lucy said you were tall but I didn’t expect you’d be that tall…” Artemios commented, “Sorry, it’s good to finally meet you. Why don’t you all come inside for a bit?”
Artemios lead everyone inside and they took a seat in the living room that was just right by the door.
Arete rushed into the room at the noise, entering from the middle hallway and greeted everyone quickly, before she took Phoenix down the hallway to play some game in her room.
Artemios fawned over Arista’s new baby, holding him.
“He’s so cute. What’s his name?” Artemios asked.
“Aragon.”
“Doesn’t your family already have a lot of names starting with ‘Ar-’ though?”
“Yeah, it’s just been the family tradition.”
“Oh, Satan. How have you been?” Artemios turned his attention to Satan.
“Very stressed to say the least, the war is going on. But, I’d rather not talk about that more than I need to.”
“Oh, I get it. Does Phoenix have school or anything?”
“He’s been homeschooled for a long time, but I’m starting to wonder if I should send him to school. Arete is really his only friend. Back in Ayuzuma, the Hell Sector of the Red Kingdom, where I live if you didn’t know, doesn’t have too many schools. Most demons are homeschooled and the schools that do exist probably have few students if they can get any. The one school I did consider for a bit was one that accepted demons all over Ayuzuma, so it was very populated, but unfortunately, I just don’t think the rowdy students would work with Phoenix.”
“Do you know how to register him for in-person school?”
“Zero idea, I’d have to research. I have another question. I know humans on Earth are iffy about demons sometimes. Do you know generally kids are to demons at school?”
“Nobody really knows about Arete being a demigoddess, but kids at school have sort of seen her as something… inhuman in a way? But it’s not everyone, it’s more of a fifty fifty.”
“Is this the only school in the area?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Hm… I know of a spell that could cover up Phoenix’s horns, tail and make his eyes a more ‘normal’ color. It only lasts slightly longer than the school day, so it’d have to be recast every day Phoenix would go to school. Arista and her sisters have more vanilla magic powers, does Arete have hers? Blood magic can’t do that sort of thing.”
“Still learning, how do you perform it?”
“You move your hand around the areas you want to conceal.”
“You should show it to Arete before you leave. Is there anything else I should know before you leave?”
“Oh, so, you know about Phoenix’s mother, right?” Satan scooted a little closer to Artemios to talk a little quieter.
“All I know is that she’s not a great person, why?”
“When Phoenix still saw his mother she was very abusive to him. He gets upset and shuts down whenever anyone yells or Diablo forbid even hits him. He also gets nightmares, not a ton just occasionally, whenever he does he usually just wants to sleep with me in my bed. It might be different with you but if he does have a nightmare about his mother, maybe just let him talk about it a little bit, maybe get a drink, do something to get his mind off the dream so he gets back to sleep.”
“Oh geez…”
“Oh, I think I have one last thing to ask, do you know how registering works?”
“There’s a registration office online actually. There’s a personal information form, emergency contact form, and you need to bring proof of residence, proof of child’s age and immunization records.”
“That’s a lot… You know, we could register him like right now, if you just give me a bit to get back home and get everything.”
“That would be perfect, actually. If Phoenix comes out of Arete’s room I’ll let him know your not quite ready to leave yet. I know teleporting from Earth to Ayuzuma is basically impossible, so we actually have a teleporter you can use if you’d like.”
“That’s perfect. Just give me like fifteen minutes.”
Satan teleported back to the palace and scrambled to find Phoenix’s documents. He kept getting stopped by people for kingdom duties but he had to tell them he’d meet with them later. Finally he gathered everything and rushed back over to Artemios, but not without rushing to the nearest teleporter just so he wouldn’t be exhausted while registering Phoenix for school. And after another fifteen of Artemios and Satan finagling with trying to register. But finally, they figured it out, and Phoenix would be going to Arete’s former elementary school the coming Wednesday, if everything went well. Even better, Satan taught Arete the spell and she was immediately successful, Phoenix’s dark fuschia hair now a dark orange, his fuschia eyes now a dark brown, and his horns, tail, and fairy ears, the ones where they are shaped like butterflies, were all gone, his fairy ears replaced by normal human ears.
Now for the hard part.
Satan shook hands with Artemios, sincerely thanking Artemios. Arete and Phoenix suddenly ran down the hallway together. Satan looked down at Phoenix with an expression of happiness, mixed with slight sadness. He lowered himself to the floor so Phoenix could properly hug him, and Phoenix almost jumped into a hug, and for what felt like hours, they were on the floor embracing. Eventually, they both finally had to let go.
“I’ll call you as much as possible through Artemios. Have him text me if you want to call, okay? I’ll make sure this war is done as soon as possible so I can bring you home.” Satan spoke in demon tongue to Phoenix.
“Okay, Daddy.” Phoenix slowly replied, a little unfamiliar with the language.
“Alright. Arista, Lucifer, you coming back to Ayuzuma or…?”
“No, we’re staying here just for the night. I want to spend time with Arete and make sure she meets Aragon. Oh, also, Arsene, Nico and Araya all said they’d be willing to help you move into your apartment, the landlord is sworn to secrecy and if you want to take it, it’s yours, no lease or anything.” Arista explained.
“Really? That’s cool. Alright, I guess I should go back. Talk to you later Artemios, and thank you for everything.”
“Don’t mention it, happy to have Phoenix in my home.” Artemios smiled.
Satan made his way to the teleporter in Artemios’ house and waved bye before finally being transported away, back to the palace.
After Satan returned home he started moving everything to his new apartment as planned. A piece of him felt so wrong moving away, the new apartment was so tiny compared to both his childhood home and the palace of the Red Kingdom Hell Sector. And now everyone lived away from each other too. Sure, Nico, Araya, and Arsene were just next door, but nobody else was. Eris was moving outside of the capital of the Red Hell Sector, Lucifer and Arista moved back to Earth, and Phoenix was now staying on Earth indefinitely. Nothing about the new apartment was home.
It took almost five hours to move everything, and as soon as everything Satan wanted in the new apartment was in there, and he’d quadruple checked just to be absolutely sure, he broke down. He cried for hours, he’d been keeping up a brave appearance for Phoenix, but he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He muffled his sobs as best as he could in his new bed but still remained on high alert in case Araya, Arsene or Nico came into his apartment. He ended crying himself to sleep, waking up in a daze in a bed he still felt wasn’t really his own.
Satan rose in his bed, the Ayuzumian sun flowing in from one of the few areas of Hell where sunlight actually got in. He forced himself out of bed, despite his heart not really being in it.
Making the short trip to the bathroom he looked in the mirror. His face had dried tear stains, his hair a mess and untied. His eyes had dark circles around them, as if he had stayed up all night. He couldn’t stand looking at himself. He left the bathroom, and collapsed onto the bed.
‘Still have to take care of the kingdom…’ Satan groaned. He remained in bed, refusing to get up.
Then he heard a text.
Zeta Prasinos
I know you only just got back from vacation yesterday but me and the royals of conquered kingdoms have formed a resistance
We have a meeting today if you wanna join
It’s technically only for royals of conquered kingdoms but your the best leader
No pressure but it’d be nice to see you again
2:59 PM
Satan
Thank you
Where would the meeting be?
3:00 PM
Zeta Prasinos
Still figuring that out
3:00 PM
Satan
There’s a meeting room in the Hell Sector we can use if you want
3:00 PM
Zeta Prasinos
Can I come slightly early so I know where I’m going?
That way when others arrive I can show them where to go and everything
3:01 PM
Satan
Of course.
What time were you thinking?
3:01 PM
Zeta Prasinos
I’ll come over at like 4:15
And everyone else will start coming at around 4:30
Is that good?
3:02 PM
Satan
Yeah, yeah, don’t worry
You remembered you can’t be in Hell without a pass from someone you know right?
Does everyone have those?
3:02 PM
Zeta Prasinos
Shit, I knew I forgot something!
3:03 PM
Satan
Don’t worry, I can get them sent to you in time
Just give me the names, ages, and birthdays of everyone coming
3:04 PM
Zeta Prasinos
I have to get that from everyone, give me a couple minutes
Again I’m really sorry
Kinda excited to visit Hell Sector I’ve never been!
3:10 PM
Satan
It’s good
I can pull pictures of everyone off the internet and get by
I’m the king of the Hell Sector of Red so
Gotta run to post office to get these made then I need to get back to work
Text me when you’re here
3: 11 PM
Zeta Prasinos
Will do!
3:11 PM
As soon as Satan received all the info he needed from Zeta, he was off at the post office in seconds. But, unfortunately, he had to return to work, despite the thought of taking a few more days off becoming more and more tempting. Eris and Lucifer had been working hard to run the kingdom in his place and he felt guilty, so he reluctantly forced himself to return to work. He decided to just reuse the meeting room when all the Koizumi family members attempted to take back Black, it was easiest.
Now, he was by the end of the Staircase to Hell Sector. Non-demons couldn’t just waltz into Hell whenever they felt like it, they needed a pass that could only be made with the help of a demon connection in the Hell Sector of Red, who would get their pass made for them in Hell. Not by the demon themselves of course, but at the post office. If one of both of the people involved in this process is royalty, especially if Satan is the one getting your pass made for you, then that’s all you’d need to do. However, if not, then a background check would be performed. With all of the people needing passes being royalty, and the pass-making being handled by Satan, the process can be sped up just by Satan and the faces of other Ayuzumian royalty being present. There was also a similar process and staircase for the Heaven Sector of Red, but the Heaven Sector of Red is immensely more strict about letting non-angels.
Satan stared at the large doors guarding the top of the staircase, waiting for them to be opened. Finally, Satan heard creaking and the doors slowly opened. Zeta excitedly raced down the stairs, pass in hand with a smile on his face.
“Hey!” Zeta greeted.
“Hi,” Satan yawned, “Sorry, I’m a little tired.”
“That’s alright, it’s so pretty down here.” Zeta squealed like a kid, looking at the scenery around him. In the distance he could see how high the caves extended, the palace bridge from the staircase guiding the eye towards the high palace towers. Sunlight dripped in from cracks in the ceiling.
“Glad you like it. Why don’t we get going, maybe you’d enjoy a tour of the palace?”
“Yes, please.”
They made their way to the meeting room and hung out until people started arriving, Satan constantly having to walk back and forth between the staircase on the mortal lands and underground into hell.
Now Satan had finally finished with escorting everyone he sat at the table and planted his face on the table for a couple minutes. Afterwards he sat up straight, waiting for everyone to quiet down.
“Alright, what in specific did you all want to meet to talk about?” Satan asked.
“Well, you’ve made a bunch of plans predicting what kingdoms’ next, right? We’ve been predicting as well. At this point, it’d probably make sense for him to go after Orange, the motherland of Black, or Grey, the smallest kingdom in Ayuzuma. We think it might be good to talk to the rulers of each of these kingdoms, give them extra soldiers, all that.” Zeta said.
“Is Cyan not also a possibility?”
“Hmm… Your right, I guess we should consider them too. We’re all out of power though, so we can’t send help ourselves, we need to contact one of the remaining kingdoms.”
“I know Yellow is allied with Grey so we can talk to the Queen. Does anyone know who the Queen is?” Yami mentioned.
“It’s Jodie Illuka, Dad.” Kuroyami leaned over to Yami.
“Oh, yeah. And Orange is friends with Blue since the Water Elementals in Blue are descended from Water Elementals in Orange. Cyan is also allied with Purple and Light Blue since they’re so close, right?” Yami asked.
“Yes.” Said Frost, the heir of White.
“Okay, we don’t need the help of both, let’s go with Light Blue. Satan, you in to help?”
“Of course.”
“Alright, Kuroyami, Yami and Satan, you go talk with Orange. Robert, Feodorovna, Alaska, Frost, Paris and Tatiana you go to Light Blue, and Mazatl, Aztlan, Alpha and I will go to Blue.” Yami said.
“Wait, Blue and Light Blue are underwater, how are we supposed to go underwater and not die?” Alpha asked.
“On the beaches of Cyan and Brown, there’s witches that will transform us temporarily into merpeople.” Zeta explained.
“I better be a shark merman, then,” Alpha said, Satan, chuckling.
Kuroyami, Yami, and Satan used their magic collectively to teleport to Orange. Kuroyami is already dating Queen Amber, so nothing crazy could happen, right?