Corrine.
Corrine jolted awake, finding herself once more in the upper level of Wall Street. This time she was seated in a lavish leather chair facing the desk where the Prince of Greed was perched. The sun was beginning to rise and the golden rays pierced through the clouds, a dim light filling the room through the long paned windows. Corrine sat upright, waiting for her heart rate to return to normal.
“Morning,” she said, still uneasy around the demon Prince. The Prince smirked.
“So polite. Good morning,” he said, reaching next to him where a mug of hot coffee sat on the desk. He passed it to Corrine who accepted it gratefully, carefully sipping on it as the Prince stood up.
“Corrine, do you know what the Virtues are?” he asked, beginning to pace.
“Like determination? The attributes of a person?” she asked, turning in the chair to keep the Prince in her line of vision. He seemed pleased by her answer.
“Very good. Those are virtues, lowercase. And they correspond to Virtues, uppercase. What is another name for sin, Corrine?”
She paused, thinking for a moment.
“Vices?” she guessed. The Prince turned on his heel to face her, a wide grin on his face.
“You were a good decision,” he remarked, “Yes, vices are sins and countered by virtues. The Princes, myself included, are the Vices and our counters are the corresponding Virtue. This is not something that has ever been covered in your religious texts because Virtues collectively are presented in the spirit of society. That is how the Princes are held at bay. Of course, as I’ve explained to you before, those virtues did not materialize in your society following the end of the world as you all knew it, the apocalypse if you will. But!” the Prince exclaimed, pausing for dramatic effect. “But, that does not mean that those virtues, again lowercase, will not appear. They manifest in the Virtues, capitalized, in select humans who have exhibited the traits of said virtue. The Virtues are mortals but they hold unique abilities and cannot be corrupted by their corresponding vice. For instance, I cannot harm nor make a deal with the Virtue of Selflessness, whomever they may be nor can you. However, if we were to encounter the Virtue of Humility, you and I could easily dispose of them while my brother, the Prince of Pride could not. Following?”
“I think so,” Corrine replied. The Prince stared at her for a moment and nodded.
“You are. You’re very bright. I tell you all this because, as a mortal, you have a much greater ability in dealing with these Virtues. And we will need to use them. Do you enjoy chess, Corrine?” he asked. Corrine shrugged.
“I’ve played it a few times but I wouldn’t call it a hobby,” she said.
“But you know the mechanics. You must use the other pieces to both defend your own king and trap your opponents. Checkmate comes when there is no possible escape for the King. Currently, my brethren are the King and the Virtues are the pawns. Think of their abilities unlocking as if they are being promoted to Queens. We just have to move them to the end of the board.”
“And how do we identify the Virtues?” Corrine asked and the Prince nodded thoughtfully.
“The short answer is we can’t until they manifest. And, even then, we can’t be assured. Virtues are guarded by their divine powers. Naturally, that means those of Hell have a challenge in identifying the Virtues. You, a mortal, have an easier time in discerning those who are so blessed as to have the abilities of a Virtue. Especially considering your level of perception.” The Prince sat on the arm of the chair and grinned down at Corrine, an unsettling look. His smile didn’t reach his soulless eyes, reminding her that he was far from human. “We, however, have a hint of one.”
Corrine looked at the Prince expectantly and he waved his hand, causing a shimmering image to appear in front of her. Purple skies streaked with fiery comets loomed over jagged pavement and scorched earth. Buildings were razed and cleared through an unknown city and even the skyscraper that loomed in the foreground appeared to be buckling under some unknown force, its glass imploding outward and coating the ground in shimmering fragments.
“What am I looking at?” Corrine asked, mesmerized. The Prince ran his hand through the image and it disappeared.
“That would be a sample of the power of a Prince of Hell,” he replied and Corrine nodded slowly, processing what she had just seen. “Specifically the Prince of Envy who has made Hong Kong his residence. Envy is, to put it lightly, more emotional than I and far less willing to compromise. That which I just showed you, the sundering of a city, is but a fraction of what any of us can do. And it indicates that Envy has encountered a Virtue. Or was otherwise challenged by one of my brethren. I do not know which. This is your first task.”
“You want me to go to China and find out why your brother is mad?” Corrine asked incredulously.
“Alternatively we can end our contract now,” the Prince replied and, for just a moment, his human form wavered.
“Point taken. How do I get there?”
“Remember one of the abilities I promised you?” the Prince asked and Corrine thought for a moment.
“Teleportation?”
“That’s the one.”
“How do I do that?”
“Think about it,” the Prince replied and, in an instant, Corrine had vanished. The Prince smirked, “That’s how.”
Corrine looked around, wearing a look of perplexion and bemusement. She had teleported into Hong Kong. Looming before her was the building that she had seen in Greed’s conjured image. Surrounding it was miles of scorched houses and craters in cracked cement. The sky was not violet like in the vision, instead it was a pleasantly light blue with a smattering of white clouds floating by.
Neat power, isn’t it?
Corrine looked around but saw no one. The Prince was communicating with her telepathically.
Yea it is, she thought in response, beginning to walk towards the battered skyscraper ahead of her.
Then why are you walking?
Corrine paused and shook her head, chuckling slightly and feeling somewhat idiotic. She envisioned the doors of the building and suddenly she was there.
Good job.
She entered the building, walking into the lobby which had long been abandoned. Pieces of glass and chunks of ceiling tile lay on the ground. The linoleum floors bore jagged lines and water stains. Here and there small shoots of green peeked from in between the cracks.
I don’t know what the floors look like, Corrine thought, realizing the limitations of her new ability. The building, predictably, had no electricity and there was no way other than the dark and likely crumbling staircases to make it to the subsequent floors.
“I’ll help with that,” the Prince of Greed said, appearing next to Corrine. “You’ve already been noticed, you’ll need me.”
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Corrine felt a chill run down her spine and she followed the Prince to the elevators. As he had done in the Wall Street building, the Prince restored power to the building and the elevator doors soon dinged and swung open. He gestured for Corrine to enter,
“After you,” he said. She stepped into the elevator and he followed behind, the doors shutting behind him. They rode up the floors in silence.
“You’re nervous,” the Prince remarked as they neared the top floor.
“I’m in an elevator with a Prince of Hell, possibly about to encounter another one. I think I should be nervous,” Corrine replied, prompting a chuckle from the Prince.
“Smart. So very smart,” he said before the doors to the elevator opened. The pair stepped off into the dark room. An overwhelming smell of smoke and fire assaulted Corrine’s nostrils as they entered the room and she scrunched her nose in disgust. She looked around the room and noticed the bent metal, hanging wires, and shattered windows.
“Sonneillon. Exit from the shadows,” commanded the Prince of Greed. Corrine was confused until some hellish dog stepped out of the shadows, its eyes glowing red in the dim lit room. She instinctively stepped back, towards the elevator they had just exited from.
“Unfair to use my name when you know I cannot use yours,” the demon growled, but the Prince waved his hand dismissively.
“You are a lesser demon for a reason. Mind your manners.”
The room darkened momentarily as if the sun had been blotted out by a passing cloud. The demon hound hung its head submissively, refusing to look up at the Prince.
“Where is my sibling?” Greed asked. Another figure materialized from the shadows and stepped forward. The Prince of Envy had assumed the form of a man dressed in a well tailored emerald colored suit. If he were human, he would be considered strikingly handsome with his sculpted jawline and coiffed dark hair.
“Present,” the second Prince intoned, his voice flat and lined with irritation. The Prince of Greed surveyed his brother, walking around him and looking at his human form.
“Impressive,” he remarked before returning to Corrine’s side. Envy looked at Corrine and then back at the Prince of Greed with clear disdain,
“A ward?” he asked, gesturing towards Corrine. The Prince of Greed smirked and pointed at the hellhound Sonneillon.
“A dog,” he countered. The Prince of Envy sucked his teeth and drummed his fingers against his leg.
“Why are you here?”
“Because you made quite the scene, dear sibling,” Greed replied, looking sidelong out the shattered window. “And I wondered why that might be…”
The room darkened again, an occurrence that Corrine was quickly learning happened whenever the demon Princes felt angry. The light did not immediately return, however, and Corrine felt a growing sense of unease.
“You know very well why that is,” the Prince of Envy answered tersely. The Prince of Greed stepped directly in front of his sibling.
“I do. And that’s why I am here. Did you encounter a Virtue?” he asked. Corrine felt a rising sense of dread and noticed that the Prince of Envy’s form had begun to blur like she was viewing him through water. The Prince of Greed turned toward Corrine.
“Go,” he commanded. She immediately thought about her apartment and vanished from the room.
The Prince of Envy shed his human form and the Prince of Greed did the same. The two Princes faced each other in their true forms, the building once again buckling beneath the might of the demons. The lesser demon, Sonneillon, stayed hidden in the shadows awaiting his master’s command.
“You enter my territory and interrogate me with your mortal pet by your side. I never knew you to be such a brash type,” Envy hissed.
“You and I both know you cannot do anything to me,” Greed responded coolly.
Outside clouds began to accumulate and swirl, blotting out the sun. The Earth was reacting to the presence of two unbound Princes of Hell, one simmering with rage and one plotting against the other.
“Can’t I? The number of souls I have consumed is far greater than the ones you have pathetically bound to you.”
“And how much of their power did you exert in countering a mortal?” the Prince of Greed asked, chuckling.
Once more fiery comets began to rain down outside, continuing the decimation of the once great city. The Prince of Greed was unimpressed.
“Are you done with your tantrum?”
Outside the wind began to howl, surging and carrying the debris of the Prince’s rage, slamming it against the remaining buildings. The Hopewell Center groaned and its supports began to bow out, struggling to hold the unbridled power of the demon Princes. Shattered glass rained down like snow as loose wires sparked and hissed, flailing like wild snakes. The Prince of Greed assumed his human form once more, a direct challenge to the Prince of Envy.
“You know very well that this building will not continue to hold under us if we do not maintain a more earthly form,” Greed reminded his sibling flatly. Envy disregarded his sibling’s warning, maintaining in his true form.
“Do as you please,” Greed said dismissively. The wind roared louder, shattering the windows in the room and sending the shards of glass directly at Greed, cutting through the skin of his human form. Not a single drop of blood appeared and the skin immediately began to close back together. Greed sighed in exasperation.
“Ever headstrong aren’t we?” he asked. Another blast of wind sent further shards flying through the room. This time Greed redirected the shards around him, sending them crashing into the wall.
“I am losing my patience…” Greed warned. The building continued to sway and buckle as Greed stood in the maelstrom of his sibling. “Will you be reasonable and speak to me?”
Rather than answer his sibling, Envy sent another tremor through the earth, causing cracks to appear in the tile on the floor. The building was reaching its breaking point. Greed sighed.
“Fine,” He stated flatly, releasing his human form once more. “I have tried to be diplomatic, but you are being unreasonable.” Greed bellowed, sending out a flaming explosion that decimated the Hopewell Center, sending its structure exploding outwards. Metal, glass, and wires flew out for miles, crashing into surrounding buildings. The concrete foundation cracked and cratered, blackened by the heat.
The two Princes remained suspended in the air, floating above the destruction beneath them, free of their mortal forms with the torrid weather continuing around them, raining destruction on the city below.
“Neither of us can harm the other; this is ridiculous,” Greed said. Envy remained silent, boiling with rage. Sonneillon stood beside its master, bracing for another outburst from one of the two Princes.
“You have come into my territory and destroyed my home. Yet you have the audacity to call my actions unreasonable. You came here to determine how to defeat me. I am not stupid and I am not weaker than you,” Envy replied, sending a comet flying at the Prince of Greed who dismissively redirected it, causing it to crash into the ground behind them.
“That’s debatable. And now I ask again, did you encounter a Virtue here?”
Envy directed more flaming comets at the Prince of Greed who once again deflected them all, raining down more destruction and reaping the souls of several unlucky people left in the city.
“Your reluctance to answer this question is an answer in itself. Where is she?” Greed asked. Receiving nothing but silence once more, the Prince of Greed became enraged.
“My patience is gone. I have given you every opportunity to answer and work with me. Remember this day when I have you banished from the mortal plane.”
In an instant, the entire city was razed. Buildings disintegrated, leaving scorched craters in the ground. Every living creature was consumed in the hellfire of Greed’s rage, their souls collected by the Prince. Nothing but roiling clouds of smoke and dancing flames remained in a city that was once the envy of the modern world. The Prince of Greed stood in the midst of the destruction in his human form, ash swirling around him, the fire illuminating his dark eyes. He wore an expression of boredom and annoyance as he brushed off his suit sleeves. He stood in silence until the Prince of Envy also assumed his human form, his head hung in defeat.
“Contrition suits you,” the Prince of Greed remarked and, just as quickly as it had been destroyed, the city was returned to its original state. Even the houses and buildings that had been leveled in the wake of Envy’s arrival were reconstructed. The sky returned to a hazy orange and red as the sun began to set on the horizon. The only things that could not be restored were the lives and souls claimed by the Princes. The city was a hollow shell, decorative and empty.
“Remember, dear brother, that I know how to play the game. I have done it for eons. You never delighted in mortals the same way and that puts you at a disadvantage.”
“I don’t need a lecture; you proved your point,” Envy replied flatly. Sonneillon had returned to the Prince’s side and a low growl came from the hellhound’s throat. The Prince of Greed raised an eyebrow.
“Make that noise again Sonneillon and it will be the last time you stand on this earth,” he warned. The lesser demon bowed its head and stepped behind the Prince of Envy. Greed looked back at his brother.
“ I take it you will not share any further information.”
“No.”
Greed sighed and rubbed his temples with one hand before looking back at Envy and smiling. His eyes were narrowed, blunting the sincerity of the smile.
“Very well. Answer this one question and I will leave, did you encounter a Virtue?”
“Yes.”
A wide grin broke across Greed’s face and he nodded slowly,
“So they have appeared. Thank you. Until we meet again.” And with that, the Prince of Greed vanished, leaving Envy and Hatred standing on the street alone. Envy drummed his fingers against his leg agitatedly.
“What kind of deal do you think he made with that mortal?” Envy asked. Hatred looked at his master.
“I would assume she is operating as his ward in exchange for his protection,” the lesser demon replied. Envy nodded.
“So if she dies…” the words trailed off as Envy began to formulate a plan.
“Oh that’s very good, my lord,” Hatred said, piecing together the Prince’s plan for revenge. The Prince of Envy nodded again.
“Yes, I will need you to help me, Sonneillon.”
“Of course master.”
“Good, we will use his dismissal of me as an advantage. Greed considers itself to be one of the preeminent sins but that confidence will only allow us to get the upper hand.”
Envy released his human form once more and Hatred released from the form of the hellhound, both of them returning to the Hopewell Center.