The Devil smirked at his new ward as a flock of harpies sailed across the treetops, breaking branches off those trees and causing the sinners turned into the plant's pain. Uriel looked after those creatures with distaste before he turned his attention back to Lucifer and glowered at him. The Devil still needed to think of a menial task to occupy the angel. After all, Gabriel had left succinct instructions of what he could make him do and what he couldn’t force upon him. At the same time, he was still occupied himself with the girl Gabriel had taken.

Suddenly, Lucifer got an idea. Perhaps I can manoeuvre him into a position from which he can not recover his graces, he mused. To cause another fall would be a feast! Perhaps I can even make him interfere with whatever Gabriel and the Lord are planing with the maiden.

There were a few souls unaccounted for by Minos. A handful of sinners, who deemed themselves wrongly condemned to Hell. Men who thought in life to do the Lord’s work. Men who had hidden their sins behind pious words and sermons in front of other mortals. And especially one held a very specific grudge. A grudge towards a specific player in the game Uriel had thrown himself into.

The moment those mortals had died, Lucifer had known of them as assuredly as the Lord knew of all things within the whole of creation. Due to Uriel’s interferences, he hadn’t been able to deal with them. But now the Devil calls it luck. After all, he could use them to give to Uriel exactly what he needed for his own destruction.

“Yes, this will do”, he murmured content and nodded to himself.

“Stay thy tongue, deceiver”, Uriel replied in a way which made him almost look like an angry tiny dog.

“You are not in a position from which you can make demands, Uriel”, the Devil remarked, slightly displeased. “You are to receive your punishment from me concerning the Lord’s wishes. While I can not force you to do things which would harm your very soul, I can still make offerings. If you do something out of your own volition, it is all up do you and not me.”

“I do not intent to commune with thou, serpent.”

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“You would rather not make a deal with me? I do offer you the chance for revenge.”

“I will not sell this soul of mine. I rather face damnation on my own terms than be eternally subservient to such a vile being such as thou.”

Too bad. But I can still tempt him in other ways…, mused the Devil and said a moment later: “Fine then. Have it your way, Uriel. And since you are not inclined to accept my help, I will make you help me.”

“This soul of mine shall not be tainted by thine hand!”, he replied fuming.

“It will not be tainted by this work I have in mind”, he said with a chuckle. “You can rest assured of that. But your hands will not remain unsullied. You are to clean the mess you left at Charon’s harbour on the side of arrival. While I appreciate that you fed the fish, the whole area stinks worse than Malebolge.”

“Cleaning duties?”, the angel asked and spit at the Devil’s feet. “Fine. Even if this is to thine amusement, I shall obey.”

“You are not to wield your powers to clean”, added Lucifer with a sadistic grin. “You will clean the place like an ordinary mortal. Have fun.”

Uriel almost snarled like an animal, which amused the Devil less than he cared to admit even to himself. There was something off about him. Could he condemn himself on his own?, he wondered. I will need to push him in the right direction. But not by much. We will see. We certainly will see…

“Follow me, Uriel”, he said, and took to the sky while the harpies screeched and giggled.

Uriel followed him begrudgingly but remained silent. Yet, the air around the angel was filled with violent hatred and displeasure. A dip in the boiling river Phlegeton would certainly have fitted him, but that was a punishment meant for mortals. Uriel’s punishment for now was just humiliation.

As they arrived at the outskirts of Limbo, Lucifer made them land beside Charon’s mooring. The ferryman was currently taking on the newest occupants of Inferno. He had to row his boat directly onto the shore to let them enter, since the mooring was inaccessible due to the bodies laying there, some even still wriggling and groaning in pain. Due to not being part of Limbo, they couldn’t be regenerated. The regeneration of their bodies was after all tied to their designated place inside the Nine Circles of Hell.

“Gaze upon your work, Uriel”, the Devil said and spread his arms out to encompass the whole mess. “It shall keep you occupied for at least a century as you need to find all of the pieces of each sinner and rearrange them correctly. Have fun. I’ll be looking after you once every while.”

Uriel let out a hissing breath but decided to remain other silent — much to Lucifer’s disappointment. On the other hand, the Devil used this silence to leave him behind. After all, he just needed to wait. Uriel and one of the missing sinners were to meet eventually. Laughing, Lucifer left Limbo and headed towards his main seat in Dis.