"To begin with, Az isn't my real name," he said. "Though I presume Leviathan already told you what that is?'

Slowly, Alain nodded. "He said your real name is Azazel. I take it that's the truth?"

Az returned Alain's nod with one of his own. "It is. Do any of you understand the significance of that name?"

Sable bit her lip. "...I've heard it before," she admitted. "A long time ago. Several centuries, I believe."

"I've never heard of it," Danielle said, her brow furrowing.

"I'm not surprised," Az answered. "It's not common knowledge. I believe you'll find it in a few religious texts throughout the world, but all of them miss the mark, even if only barely. In truth, I am the one to introduce humans to the art of war."

A chill went down Alain's spine at that declaration. "Wait, you… what does that mean, Az?'

"It means, before I came along, you all hadn't yet perfected the art of killing each other," Az explained. "I changed that. It wasn't hard; all I had to do was point out how much better one tribe had it than the other, then show them all how to make primitive weapons, and all bets were off. And from there, it has been nothing but thousands of years of misery for you lot."

Sable paled at his admission of guilt. "Why would you do that?"

"Because my mistress told me to," Az explained. "You all have to understand something – the Underworld is governed by, essentially, a caste system. All of us do the bidding of the Supreme Mistress of the Night."

"And who is that?" Alain asked.

"Lilith herself."

Again, Sable stared at him in shock. "...That name keeps coming up," she recalled.

Az nodded. "Indeed, it does," he said. "Lilith is the first Child of Night – the progenitor for all other vampires in the world. She is, on a certain level, your ancestor, Sable. Hence why you are named after her. Why she created vampires, I have no idea – perhaps she merely wanted children of her own, and sought to create them out of the very humans she so despised."

Alain took a step forward. "Hold on," he said. "You said Lilith despises us. Why is that?"

"She hates your innocence," Az stated. "Hence her desire to corrupt you all into little more than a mirror image of herself. Lilith fell from firmament, along with her followers, and was cast into the Underworld, never to be unsealed again. She saw this as the ultimate betrayal – an eternity spent serving the Supreme Creator, and in the end, all it got her was a prison at the deepest layer of the Underworld." Az shook his head. "Humans, on the other hand… you were built in the Creator's image. You all are, on a certain level, his reflections. Lilith realizes she cannot strike at her former master in her current state, so instead, she seeks to pervert his creations any way she can."

"The Supreme Creator…?" Alain echoed. "You mean-"

"Yes," Az confirmed. "You humans call him by many names – Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, God… all lead back to the same being, in the end."

Danielle swallowed nervously. "Okay… this goes against everything my religion taught me growing up, and-"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I understand that," Az said. "But no one religion has all the answers. You humans find that hard to believe, but it's true. I'd go so far as to say that none of them are truly correct, in the end. Some come closer than others, but all of them have their faults."

"So what you're saying is we're all going to hell," Alain stated.

Az stretched his arms out. "Look around you, Alain. There's no need for you to go to hell – it's already come to you."

"How do we stop it?" Sable asked. "And, for that matter, what's Leviathan's plan, anyway?"

"Truthfully, I can't claim to know every little detail," Az admitted. "But I do know one thing – Leviathan and the other demons exist solely to serve Lilith. Every facet of their beings at this point is devoted to this cause."

"And what does that entail?"

"Doing her will, of course," Az answered. "And her will, if you haven't already surmised, is that humans be either twisted in some way or destroyed completely. There are other things as well, of course, but primarily, that is what she wants more than anything… well, that and to eventually break free of her prison."

"So, which is it?" Alain questioned.

"Honestly, it is tough to say," Az admitted. "As far as I can tell right now, all they're trying to do is sow chaos amongst the city and its citizens."

Danielle crossed her arms. "Mission accomplished, in that case."

"Not quite. I think what they're trying to do here is tear open a permanent door to the Underworld, through which its denizens can enter and exit this mortal plane as they see fit. Think of it as a staging area for the Underworld's many legions of demons." Az's brow furrowed. "Of course, how that is supposed to lead into releasing Lilith herself, I have no idea. Like I said, nobody has ever gotten this far in the ritual; generally, someone key to the plan gets cold feet and backs out at the last minute, or they mis-cast the ritual itself, or someone high-up in the church finds out about it and puts a stop to it before it can progress any farther."

"However you slice it, a literal permanent gate to hell opening right here in Texas is bad news for everyone," Alain surmised.

"And how do we stop it?" Sable asked.

"That is a good question," Az replied. "This is hardly the first time the ritual has been attempted, though like I said, this is the furthest anyone's ever gotten with it. Truthfully, this is as much uncharted territory for me as it is for you all."

"Great…" Alain sighed. "What's your best guess, then?"

"Leviathan is the one in control right now," Az emphasized. "Take him out and it's likely this entire plan folds then and there. He's the one directing things – without his leadership, all we're left with are cultists and lesser demons, which should be easy enough for us to clean up once the cavalry arrives."

Alain's eyes widened. "You mean Colonel Stone?"

"And the Tribunal," Az added. "I have no doubts that they've heard about all of this and are en route right now."

"There are still a few things that bother me about all this," Sable admitted, interrupting them. "It's clear Lilith hates humanity and wants to see them all either destroyed or corrupted. How does she plan to do that, exactly?"

"It's a vexing question," Az explained. "My guess, though? Block out the sun, first and foremost; cast the entire world into eternal night and then use her magic to mold almost every mortal into her children. Imagine, if you will, hundreds of millions of vampires walking the earth, with only a select few mortals kept alive to serve as breeding stock so they can all continue to feed forever. Past that… I don't know what her plans are. All I know is that she'd like nothing more than to eventually strike at the one who cast her down into the Underworld."

Alain turned to him in alarm. "Wait, hold on, I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly… are you telling me that Lilith is going to try and convert almost everyone on the planet into her servants, and then launch an assault against Heaven itself?"

"In my few conversations directly with her, that was what I understood her ultimate goal to be, yes," Az replied with a nod.

Alain just stared at him. "...And I take it you didn't approve, hence why you're allying yourself with us?"

"That's a simple way of putting it," Az admitted. "In truth… I spent a great many years living among you, disguised as one of you, teaching you the very basics of war and how to hate each other. Spending that much time around you all, living as one of you… I don't know, exactly, but your kind altered me. I grew fond of you, and your simple natures, we'll say."

"And that was enough for you to turn your back on your mistress forever?"

"Sometimes, that's all it takes. Humanity as a whole was my wake-up call. The way I see it, everything I do now is atonement for the evils I've inflicted upon you all through the centuries."

"Is that why you allowed yourself to be summoned and bound by the contract to me?" Sable asked.

Slowly, Az nodded. "Your contract sent out a call for a lesser demon. I saw it as an opportunity, and muscled my way to the front of the line, so to speak. I did the same thing just now, when you sent out the call for a second time."

"So you mean to say that we can't actually kill you?" Danielle questioned. "Or any demon, for that matter?'

Az shook his head. "Lesser demons die the same way as mortals do. When their lives are snuffed out, they simply cease to exist. Greater demons such as myself, however… things get complicated at that point. We are, on some level, bound to our mistress. We cannot simply die; instead, we return to the Underworld when killed, bound to serve her for eternity."

"So you're unkillable?" Alain asked. "No offense, but that sounds like a pretty good deal to me."

Az's face darkened. "It isn't. We are destined to spend an eternity serving her; no matter how much we may long for death, it will not come. We will continue to serve her long after this world has had its final judgment and been turned to ash, whenever that may be. Imagine, if you will, longing for sleep and never being able to have it. The same principle applies here." Az shook his head. "But we are getting off-topic. Come, we must make haste. Leviathan awaits."

The three of them nodded, and then followed after Az as he began to march through the spire once again.

Outside, the storm picked up even more than it already had, the bloody raindrops hammering against the walls of the spire, and the demons turned downright feral, screeching as they worked themselves into a frenzy. Alain wasn't sure what was happening, but he knew one thing.

Whatever the four of them were going to do, they needed to do it quickly.