Charlie paced angrily back and forth in the guest bedroom with fists clenched as her demonic form flared in and out, her fury and desperation so mixed with tears nobody could tell what she was thinking as the entire palace was now on guard with everyone at respected stations as given by Stolas.
Lucifer could only stand there and watch as his daughter breathed heavily the emotional terror of Noctis' life now in peril while the blood moon cast it's midnight glow over the fields of the palace, showing the nobles with designated squads of guards both weapon and magoc users.
"Charlie…." Lucifer carried himself small and worried with the softest voice a father could give after everything he revealed to his daughter after waking her and Vaggie.
Charlie responded alright, but it was a screech of frustration that alarmed him and Vaggie whilst Max whimpered and yelped for her stop.
It didn't take a genius when Charlie did this that the clearest sign of her limit was finally reached.
"Are there any other secrets!?" She screamed at her reluctant father, horns flared and hair whipping furiously.
Lucifer stayed in place and shook his head whilst Vaggie tried her best to calm down the pup. Mentally he hated himself for all this, for being the cause of heaven's oldest enemy coming back and wanting Noctis dead.
But at the same time it wasn't his fault.
"No, there isn't. And I didn't know this would happen, pumpkin. When I sealed Lyoria I didn't know the locks to his imprisonment would break eventually with my fall from Heaven."
"Who is he exactly?" Vaggie asked while rocking Max to calm him down.
Lucifer hated explaining but knew better than to hold back from his own daughter who was still furious and on the verge of tears.
Begrudgingly he sighed in defeat of his own need as a father to tell his child, and answered somberly.
"Before god made life he made the heavens, and Lyoria was his first creation, his first Angel."
"So he is first life?" Charlie asked in a raised tone, getting a nod from him.
"Yes, but he was incomplete. God had yet to have the idea of making souls so Lyoria was born hollow, hungry for that feeling of being a person."
"Souless!?" Vaggie exclaimed before realizing her shout scared Max again, and of course back to rocking him. "How is that even possible when the laws of creation are—"
"They didn't exist yet!" Lucifer interrupted as Charlie stood from the side and listened with crossed arms to match her scrutinizing gaze. "Remember the scripture of the seven days; how god rested on the seventh?"
"Yeah what about it?" Vaggie replied skeptically.
Lucifer hardened his heart and mind before he told both girls.
"When god created everything, he started with nothing, and that's what Lyoria is. He is a being of nothing that wants to be something."
"He's empty." Charlie pointed out as it dawned to her what her father was telling them.
He nodded and continued with a hint of disgust in his voice now.
"When god created life, created all beings with souls, Lyoria felt cast aside and jealous. He was so envious of creatures with souls that he started eating them just to fill that emptiness. At first he did nothing until Earth was made, and then he started—"
"Eating others." Charlie finished for him with a gasp behind her hands that were pressed to her lips in shock.
"What is the pit?" Vaggie asked firmly.
A shudder eacaped the king of hell as the voice of Stolas barking orders echoed from across the hall. A twisted memory of horrors and death plagued his ancient mind while the sheer feeling of what he endured back then had his own wings curling around like a cocoon for protection.
"It's a prison of barren wasteland, meant to keep the worst creatures in existence trapped."
He looked to Charlie with a horrified expression and added with warning, "Far worse than even myself."
Charlie didn't fathom what caliber of danger her father meant by that, but she permitted herself underneath her cracking composure to feel more fear before looking over to Noctis' still unconscious form that was continued to pulse that soft glow from when she woke up.
Lucifer looked over with his daughter with better understanding as he eyed the halo-like crown that was all too familiar from his memory of Romna.
His eyes squinted in suspicion when he remembered the last time he saw said crown it was the same memory he shared with Noctis about Romna snapping it in two and piercing himself to become the leviathan before the wrongful battle of heaven's army.
His suspicions grew though to the lingering feeling of somethjng about Noctis and his fluctuating energy, a sense of nostalgia when only he noticed the slightest eye movement.
"He is awakening."
"What?" She asked her father sharply, her expression skeptic as she watched him approach the bed and drape a hand to sense through his golden aura.
He closed his eyes and focused deeply on Noctis' mind and soul to find the answer to these signs of change.
"Dad?" Charlie said quietly, only to be hushed by him.
Lucifer refused to pay attention to anything else amidst the chaos of the goetia palace being prepared, and he was certain to find some kind of answer to Noctis' having said crown when it should have been destroyed.
"How did you get it back?"
He snapped his eyes wide open and stepped back with a haunted look that worried Charlie and Vaggie, his brow holding a sudden line of sweat that beaded down while his wings shook violently.
"Holy shit….."
Charlie's eyes widened with worry as she heard this. She quickly realized that whatever her father just sensed had spooked him into labored breathing, and rushed over to confront him with a firm grip of his shoulders.
"Dad what is it?"
Lucifer batted his gaze in disbelief and thought, gulping audibly whilst Vaggie joined the confrontation after putting Max next to Noctis.
"Is he okay?"
"I don't know." Charlie responded in a raised voiced of bitterness, clearly still against her girlfriend, and faced her father agsin. "Dad, what did you see?"
He answered with a shaky breath, familiarity in his mind as he tried to process it himself.
"Someone is with him."
Both girls looked back at Noctis with the same befuddled look, and then back at the disheveled king that was still uneasy.
"What?" They asked in unison.
Lucifer felt so strange and uncertain now with how his sensory of Noctis was blocked off by a powerful presence that blocked off his mind and soul. It was concerning but at the same time familiar that something or someone was intervening and causing all these changes.
Without giving an answer and frustrating both girls, he grabbed the blanket and threw it off to find his suspicions were indeed as true as the hellish sky was red. Noctis' attire was still nothing after Stolas had healed his wound but the physical appearance was altering.
Noctis was developing his divine body just like his former self, growing in tone and in height with more definition. His divine power was not just coming back but fixing him to adjust and regulate.
"Somebody is helping him."
Charlie and Vaggie gawked in surprise at this. But they soon both looked to Lucifer and saw his small smile. He then draped the blanket back over Noxtis and explained to them what was happening.
"Ok, so we all remember how he unleashed that massove burst of energy when the hotel was attacked."
They nodded, still gawking from Noctis' physical appearance.
He smirked arrogantly about educating them.
"Well his body wasn't acclimated back then, but what is happening now is that his power is improving his body to handle all that power without another scare of him blacking out or getting weak."
Vaggie didn't understand in the slightest even with her vast knowledge as a former angel, but she did find the willpower to shake off her confusion and get the king back on track with a question.
"Who would be helping and how?"
His smile remained as things in the palace began to calm down, meaning the preparations were almost finished.
"Someone very powerful and on our side. What is happening is they have pulled his spirit away."
"What!?" Charlie exclaimed and rushed over to Noctis to check his pulse.
A chuckle escaped her father at her naivety to what was happening.
"He's not dying pumpkin. Someone is with him in spirit and probably helping him learn his power."
As mind boggling as that was, a breath of relief left the princess bedore she kissed her man of his lips and then turned back to her father to find better understanding.
Nobody, except for Vaggie, noticed Pentious quietly slither inside the room and push in his familiar skin flaying 9000 cannon from his start at the hotel.
"But who would be that powerful?"
That was the part that made Lucifer frown.
"I don't know, but hopefully they are helpful."
"Pentious, what are you doing?" Vaggie asked with a harsh judgment she hadn't used since the trust exercise.
"Arming the door." Pentious stated proudly with his chin high and a fist to his chest. "I am here to stand guard for the coming battle."
This was not going to end well, nor be as planned as they hoped.
Not when Loona took a picture of Noctis from the crevice of the door after zooming in and preparing to send it.
Charlie, Vaggie and Lucifer dread the idea of Pentious standing guard at the door with a literal cannon pointed to erase whoever from attacking, but they knew better than to intervene when the battle was coming.
Or the fact that the snake demon was not acting his usually goofy self. No, he was serious and in fact angry as it showed in his expression and how the egg boys were bringing ammunition in a crate without him snapping or ordering them around.
"Pentious, why are you helping up here?" Vaggie asked skeptically.
Suddenly his expression darkened in a way the three felt a tingle of uneasiness run down their spines. He pressed a hand to his cannon and hissed lightly, mainly at Vaggie.
"I may not have had as much interaction with Noctis, but I respect him and have watched him grow from the meatsack that fought me alone in my blimp back then to become this being of great potential."
Charlie's eyes widened with unshed tears of gratitude and understanding.
"You care."
Pentious nodded curtly with a proud puff of his chest whilst the egg boys ran out to fetch more weapons, holding his head high.
"Yes I do care and I will—"
Charlie felt herself smile at this and silenced his interrupted statement with her arms wrapped around his head and chest. She ignored the surprise on his face and squeezed the snake, for if everything worked out they would all get to go back and be the fanily they grew into.
Most importantly they would have Noctis, and knowing now that even Pentious was ready to fight for him...
"Thank you." She whispered softly.
Pentious felt himself a little giddy at her affection and had to compose himself while the egg boys saw what was happening and joined in the hug. A kiss to his cheek was even give by the princess whilst Lucifer broke from watching to alter his thoughts with hostility after sensing the coming danger in the distance.
"What was that for?" Pentious asked quietly, touching the spot that she kissed.
"For being such a good friend." She whispered back.
A smile for their friendship formed on the snake demon while the egg boys continued to hug his tail and her legs, giving him good praise while Vaggie directed herself from the warmth of the moment to the king approaching the balcony window.
"You're a good boss, boss!"
"We will help you, boss!"
"Because we are all friends!"
"Friends….." Pentious repeated the word and tasted not the bitterness he experienced the first time it eacaped his lips, but a sweet understanding that made his tail shake like a rattle.
"He's coming." Lucifer said coldly, warning everyone before the voice of the goetia prince booked across with magic.
"Attention all guests and members of the palace. Prepare for battle!"
"It's starting." Vaggie turned sharply to Charlie and Pentious with her spear summoned and ready as the chaos in the palace grew. "Pentious what are you going to do?"
Said hug was broken by the snake demon before he donned a powerful seriousness that wasn't anything like his first time at Hazbin Hotel.
No, this was an entirely different demon that had a hardened heart and mind for protecting his unconscious friend as he shared the same disgust for Lyoria who appeared over the hill in the distance from a flash of black light.
This was not Pentious—the demon who failed to best Alastor. This was Sir Pentious of Hazbin Hotel.
"Right then!" He raised his voice and glared down at his eggs boys. "All of you separate and go to individual groups. I want you providing ammo to our friends and allies at all times!"
The egg boys saluted and ran out to break apart and provide help, running with the goetia members that passed the doorway to tend to their battle stations.
Charlie and Vaggie were surprised to see this side of the snake whilst he slithered to Lucifer with a large rifle of energy design he pulled from under his hat.
How he did was something they would have to ask about later.
"I will stay and guard the room, your highness. You will be needed for the defenses." He said strongly and pumped the rifle, energizing it on the spot. "I will keep them safe!"
Lucifer felt himself recoil with pride at being told what to do by a demon so far beneath him, but with his pride came a strong understanding that he couldn't stay in the room and watch. His daughter was counting on him and deep down he knew Sera was probably watching worriedly to see how things would unfold.
As hard as it was, the king nodded and teleported out of the room to find Stolas while Charlie and Vaggie went to the bed and waited.
As soon as the they were alone, Pentious took position at his cannon with his rifle pointed and his tail holding the pull cord of said cannon.
"You won't get to my friend." He told himself coldly and stiffened his readiness for battle. "This I swear."
Once the door was secure the scene took a shift to Lucifer flying down the staircases and through the front doors of the palace to find Carmilla siding with Stolas whilst the entirety of the goetia family broke into ranks taking positions throughout the palace and courtyard that stretched to the hills.
Gracefully he landed between them and shared the same narrowed looked that was fixed on Lyoria and his primordial that glared right back at them.
His attention was unwavered, even with the touch of water on his wings as soon as the first angel displayed his wings with the similarity of his skin. Rain, red rain, falling suddenly from the growing clouds that blocked the moon out and cast an unsettling darkness around the goetia region.
Everyone was blinded by that darkness now, but the lingering glow from the first flaw had everyone unsettled as the rain drenched them.
"Any advice boss?" Husk asked quietly with a card in hand as they gazed.
Alastor, even as uncertain as he was, maintained a stoic gaze to go with his smile while Nifty was shaking needily for bloodshed.
"Yes," the radio demon found it endearing that his servant would look to him for wisdom. "Don't miss."
"Can't see shit now." Angel huffed with both tommy guns ready, his eyes squinting to the darkness ahead.
It did not take a genius to know that everyone was either scared or nervous in the darkness.
"Got anything Loona?" Blitz whispered, sitting behind a pillar with his pistols ready.
Loona sniffed the air for a long moment , her sense of smell giving her an advantage as she peeked over the garden bed she was behind.
It wasn't helpful though when lightning flashed and her eyes widened to the horror that appeared from the shadows crawling out of Lyoria's wings.
"Oh shit." She muttered before flipping the safety off her rifle.
"What is it?" Moxxie whispered with last minute checking of his shotgun before he heard groaning in the distance. "Uh…..what is that?"
The glow in her eyes said enough before she raised her hackles and warned in a hushed tone as the lightning flashed to reveal the numbers growing.
"Get ready for a fight, fatty. This asshole is serious."
"Lights!" Paimon commanded from his balcony.
A simple command but a command nonetheless that was followed without question. The goetia nobles of their adept magical skill each raised a hand and cast the darkness mostly away with strands of fire to the various courtyard and field torches that hissed in the rain, illuminating the true horror that is Lyoria.
All eyes went wide to the scene before them, seeding every heart in rebellion with fear. Hundreds from what they could tell, twisted and broken souls collected by Lyoria and turned into hollow beings of complete servitude and hunger. They were all empty hollow with grey skin hugging their malnourished forms, eye sockets empty or oozing with a blackness that hissed on the ground.
Even their groans were something out of a horror movie that made even Blitz very uneasy.
"My word." Stolas pressed a hand in disgust and shock of the growing numbers of these monsters coming out of Lyoria's two wings.
In all his years as a prince he had never encountered something foul and unmistakably lower than demonic. His feathers puffed with hostility whilst Carmilla herself felt as though she was going to sick from seeing these horrified souls serving the first angel.
Lucifer was not surprised though, not in the least when he encountered this foul torture the first time in heaven, and just like before it made even his selfish-self feel pity for these creatures ranging from mortal, demon, to even angels that fell victim.
"What are those?" Carmilla gasped.
"Unjudged souls." The king said bitterly, catching the attention of the prince and overlord. "This is what happens to souls that don't pass on in Limbo. They deteriorate into empty shells that are hungry for life."
Carmilla clenched her teeth at this revelation and tightened her grip on her blade.
"You're saying he has twisted them?" Stolas asked, shuddering at the idea.
Lucifer nodded slowly and added with a tone sharp and hateful.
"The first time he did this he collected thousands of angels that were slaughtered by him."
"Disgusting." Carmilla hissed before spitting on the ground in disrespect.
"We can't let him get to Noctis." Lucifer declared before emphasizing this with summoning a glaive from his light, and slammed the bunt to the concrete.
"Agreed." Stolas nodded before checking the flanks of his blindsides to find Vassago and Andrealphus at the ready with squads of their own.
"Nobody is getting to my child!" Carmila snarled with maternal fury, her hand gripping the blade shakily as she eyed the goetia squads spread across.
Stolas nodded to both goetia nobles and turned his gaze to Blitz next, seeing the imp he adored grinning evilly with his employees at the ready, weapons lock on the east entrance with guards behind them.
A slight breath of relief passed him to know his lover was nearby whilst Angel Dust and the others grouped together at the fountain.
"Nobody is getting our boy." The spider demon said dangerously with Cherri Bomb holding her lit bombs tighter and ready to throw.
"I'm gonna enjoy blowing this fuckers to pieces." She added with malice in her smile.
"How strong are our numbers?" Lucifer asked the prince, his eyes never leaving Lyoria.
"Two hundred guards, and that is without the nobles of my family or your daughter's friends. Plus the guards Carmilla could provide." Stolas answered.
Lucifer didn't like those odds, not one bit. However it was the best they got right now.
The stormed raged even harder with the unjudged souls screeching and groaning with endless hunger before Lyoria turned to his primordial.
"Such a pathetic rebellion." Lyoria chuckled, though the feeling of amusement was half-nsked with no soul to feel as he stared distantly to Lucifer. "It took him and the archangels to stop me the first time. This should be....entertaining."
"Oh I'm charging triple for this shit." Blitz whispered to his team and cocked the hammers of his pistols. "Starting with billing the king."
"Attack." The first angel ordered calmly, his tone as hollow as his body but the emptiness in his smile spoke malice.
The primordial inhaled deeply before echoing a powerful howl to signal the unjudged to start. It boomed across hell and the droves of these poor creatures took charge, running in a wave over the hills and closing in fast.
"Steady!" Stolas hollered.
"Come on. Come on." Alastor snarled with shaky patience for blood to start painting the ground as the tension rose.
"Now!?" Vassago shouted back at Stolas, his hands itching with flames that blazed for release.
"Steady!"
"You don't know steady you horny bird!" Blitz cackled just as the unjudged leap over the first courtyard wall.
"Goddamn it blitz." Moxxie, Millie and Loona groaned in unison.
With the unjudged now within palace grounds ,Stolas finally let out the tension in his body with a single command and retaliated to the attack with his own.
"ANDREALPHUS. VASSAGO. DO IT NOW!"
Without a moment to waste the two opposing goetia members participated in the battle with a synchronized strategy of entrapment. A slam of his foot and the Marquis of Ice joined his squad in a collected release of ice magic that erected on one side of the courtyard.
Vassago on the opposite end joined his underlings in raised a wall of their own but made with deeply hot hellfire that brightened the rest of the battlefield to cast away the darkness that did remain and show the monsters swarming to their home.
The two goetia worked this time not as opposing forces but a union that funneled the unjudged into a single formation to close in ranks.
"BLITZY NOW!" Stolas shouted desperately, making his lover go insane with excitement and laughter.
"FAT PAYCHECK HERE WE COME!"
The uncontrolled imp was the first to fire his pistols into the funneling swarm, which quickly followed with his team, then Angel Dust, and finally every guard of Carmilla's remaining arsenal the last to provide to the stream of bullets that echoed repeatedly across the goetia territory.
The battle commenced in a standoff of overwhelming odds versus a seemingly endless rain of lead that cut through the unjudged. No one who had a rifle, not even Loona, was taking their finger off the trigger when the swarm kept coming over the courtyard wall.
"I LOVE MY FUCKING JOB!" Blitz laughed maniacally.
"DIE YOU UNDEAD ASSHOLES!" Loona roared, piling casing after casing beneath her feet.
"HERE WE GO!" Angel screamed to his friends and opened fire with his Tommy guns in his upper arms and extra drums in his extra appendages to have at the ready.
The unjudged swarmed over their fallen brethren and continued what appeared to be a relentless assault thanks to Lyroia unleashing them from the darkness in his wings, pouring them out like a waterfall and casting them to join into the slaughter.
However, what should have been annoyance was more so a matter of logic for the first angel as he saw his slaves fall quickly with no real pushback against the weapons. It was a one sided start to the end of Noctis, but that would not deturr him from reaching his goal.
"Primitive." He quipped with a hardened gaze and raised his hand.
Stolas, Lucifer and Carmilla watched with bated breath as he curled his fingers and snapped them with the release of a powerful shockwave that made everyone flinch for a moment.
The blast alone did nothing to the residents, but it cancelled the funneling walls and gave the unjudged the moment to disperse throughout the battlefield.
"Oh shit!" Moxxie yelled fearfully as they watched their efforts now turn into desperate attempts of survival.
"He cancelled the walls!?" Stolas shouted in surprise while Lucifer took over.
"Don't let up. Everybody focus on an entrance!"
After shaking off the terrifying realization of how outgunned in power they were, everyone resumed firing at the scattering unjudged swarming around.
"Oh now it's getting fun!" Cherri laughed as she threw bombs, scattering limbs of her first group of victims.
Needless to say her idea of fun had Husk uncertain as to who was crazier— her or Nifty who was standing on a nearby ledge stabbing every unjudged that tried to get her.
"The fuck is wrong with you!?" He shouted with a crack in his voice before his attention was drawn back to fighting thanks to Alastor.
Said overlord didn't appreciate this lack of attention and smacked the back of his head with a tendril.
"Pay attention you foolish drunk!"
"Fuck you!"
"Don't break from your group!" Lucifer screamed to everyone.
"Here they come!" Stolas shouted as a few stragglers did break formation and ran up the palace steps.
One particular unjudged was foolish enough to leapt into the air with the attempt of attacking high. It made a plummet after revealing it was once an angel by flapping it's disfigured wings to give itself a boost.
It screeched a terrible hunger with claws extended and ready for the first of its prey.
That is until …..
"No you don't!"
In a swift motion of her ballet grace and strength, Carmilla timed herself at the last second to cut the poor soul right in half with a sickening crunch.
It's last breath was whole before the blade in her hand showed result of the monster falling at her feet in two pieces. The coldness in her eyes was all Stolas and Lucifer needed to see before they shuddered knowingly the wrath that is a mother.
And it was undeniable by the rarest declaration Carmilla gave in a scream both defiant and furious, echoing directly to Lyoria after she flicked the blood off her blade.
"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY BABY!"
"You tell that cock sucker, lady!" Loona praised before she bit the head off from the unjudged that tried to grab her leg.
Lyoria narrowed his gaze at those words, the love of a mother impossible to understand for him when he never experienced love. But then again he never experienced any emotion that was truly genuine.
Only hollow and faked to what he could comprehend.
"She's pissed." Blitz quipped midfire as the rage of Carmilla Carmine showed in her ballet mixed swordsmanship.
"No shit. That's her kid!" Cherri laughed while kicking away an unjudged that she stuffed with a bomb. "When he was hunted by the vees she kept him safe!"
Said monster bounced over the ledge and exploded in a fiery manner, consuming a few in the blast and shredding more with the shrapenal.
She grinned sadistically at her own methodic fun and turned to Husk to see his struggles with the swarm filling in faster whilst Blitz and his gang were surprised to hear the truth.
"You good there whiskers?"
"No!" He snapped while flipping over a few, countering with his cards that sliced his attackers. "These fuckers aint letting up. And where the fuck is Pentious!?"
"He's guarding Noctis!" Lucifer answered before joining the fray with a simple slice of the first unjudged that dared attack him, cutting it from its own lower half.
Husk was selfish for thinking the snake demon was able to stay behind and guard those three lovebirds and the pup. A growl of disapproval left with the card he threw before his attention snapped wide to an unjudged that slipped to the balcony.
"FUCK ITS GOING FOR—"
"GET OUT!" Pentious screamed suddenly, followed by cannon fire that blasted the the unjudged clear out of the window.
Husk had only a few seconds of pause to watch the singlular unjudged flying across the field with a familiar but gargled wilhelm scream before it splattered all over a statue of Stella.
"Nice shot." He praised while hearing the snake demon cackle with victory on the balcony.
It didn't take long for Husk to understand with those wide eyes of his that Pentious was up there for a reason.
But now a crying Max followed from inside the room, and it triggered the drunk.
Selfish yes. Brash he was to every sense of the word. Husk was what most would call a man you couldn't come to find any light within or to socialize with.
However there was one thing he did hold to heart besides his liquor.
Leave the kid alone.
"Okay." he growled with a sudden darkening in his demeanor, turning to the rushing unjudged leaping at him as his cards tripled in between his fingers.
"Husk, you good?" Angel Dust asked as he dumped rounds into one that grabbed his leg.
"No. They got Max crying." The drunk demon snarled, his scowl deepening before he yelled. "NOW I'M PISSED!"
Without warning to this sudden fury, Angel Dust was flabbergasted to see the cat demon suddenly throw his cards into a group that surrounded him during the distraction.
Without missing a single shot he had cut them down or into pieces before taking his secret flask from his fur and smashed it repeatedly into the only one that did get close.
"TEACH YOU TO MAKE THE KID CRY!"
"Holy shit." Angel gasped, but of course he wasn't any normal person that admired a side from a person.
No, this dominance, this fury, it did something else for the spider demon that stood there wide eyed and watched the drunk finish to catch his breath.
Angel Dust didn't notice it, but his cheeks were flushed as the impressive display had him giving Husk a toothy grin.
"Damn daddy!" He purred with want in his tone. "Wanna spank me later?"
"ANGIE FOCUS!" Cherri screamed before she tackled the distracted demon from having his head bitten off by an unjudged.
In the time of everyone responding swiftly to the growing intensity, the numbers of the unjudged started to overwhelm while the guards of the goetia family and Carmilla's employment started to thin out with the unfair odds even with gunfire and magic at their disposal.
Everyone was starting to get pushed back whilst Lyoria opened his second set of wings and poured more of his monsters out of the darkness in his feathers.
"Oh fuck you asshole!" Blitz spat after witnessing it. "I call hacks!"
"This is bad!" Millie commented as she and the rest of IMP watched another guard get dragged away to be torn to pieces.
Sweat started to bead down on their bodies, even Loona as she combined gunfire with her canine abilities of chomping and tearing some apart while firing with her rifle at anything else that got too close.
But even she was struggling when they started grabbing and tearing her clothes.
"Blitz what do we do!?" Moxxie shouted desperately after blowing a head off with his shotgun, only to shake off one that hugged his tail before losing its head.
The uncontrollable imp hated to admit it but the situation was quickly getting worse when the unjudged circled their post and moved in a rapid formation to break their focus and ranks, launching themselves individually in different directions.
Snarling with acceptance that they couldn't work on their own targets, Blitz started acting like the boss they knew and took control after stomping the throat of one.
"Everyone shoulder to shoulder!"
Without wasting a second, the team of IMP tightened their group into a square and resumed dumping lead in four directions with a little more relief to their efforts but even more struggle by the odds.
The battle started to turn tide with Stolas now fearing the worst as he tried to maintain leadership in the face of Lyoria's unjudged claiming some of the palace guards, Carmilla's henchmen, and even wearing down most of the gang that came together to protect Noctis.
Even Lucifer, the very king that was feared for his power, was flickering from normal to purely demonic out of frustration while suppressing his attackers that started to converge on climbing the balcony to reach Noctis.
Every cut, every jab of his weapon, both precise and ruthless but starting to show little effort when one unjudged would attack right after the other.
And what's worse is his darling daughter happened to brave going outside on the scorched balcony after Pentious' cannon fire, and see the struggles of his defenses while holding the crying Max into her bosom.
"Dad….." she whimpered, tears streaming at the carnage surrounding the palace grounds before she screamed desperately. "Don't let him take Noctis!"
"I won't, Pumpkin!" He snarled as her words triggered that fatherly rage, igniting his demonic form with a burst of fire that blasted the unjudged back.
"Charlie, get back in here!" Vaggie screamed bedore dragging the princess away from the scene, ignoring her protests.
With but a moment to catch his breath, Lucifer did the unthinkable in all his years as the sin of pride.
He cast it aside for a moment and shouted to the skies whilst being surrounded once more.
"A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED DAD!!!"
Just then the worst was to come for IMP when the primordial hellhound joined the fray with a ground crunching landing after Lyoria cast him to fight.
Malice was not even an accurate comparison when the beast locked his gaze right on Millie who turned and met him with a cocky smirk as she stomped an unjudged on its skull with a sickening crunch.
"Oh you still mad about your eye?" She taunted.
The primordial raised his hackles at the reminder and grew back to its massive size before attacking the scattering IMP members.
"We need more backup!" Moxxie screamed as he tucked and rolled from a swipe of the hellhound's claws.
This sounding need earned him a scolding from the raging Blitzo that was tossing grenades out of the weapon crate the egg boys wheeled over.
"No, you dipshitted fatass! We need something big! With teeth! And attitude!"
Meanwhile, prior at Beezlebub's Palace….
"Bee?" A familiar charming voice called out after appearing in a flash of blue flames with his secret lover on his shoulder.
This demon in particular peeked inside the bedroom of the disheveled sin after getting a panicking call from her that was incoherent and babbling. He worried fully that something did happen when she was known to never be affected by the worst of circumstances.
But seeing her so unkempt right now broke his blackened heart when he saw all the empty bottles of alcohol strung around her her dirtied form, amongst the various counts of destruction in her room.
"Bee?"
The sin herself was unresponsive with a hollow look about her glaring as she sat in the floor smoking a cigarette. Depression was definitely not a good look on her but the heaviness in her eyes spoke volumes of the turmoil her mind was feeking.
"Holy shit, Ozzy." His boyfriend whispered in shock.
The Sin of Lust rushed and got on one knee to touch her shoulder for some kind of response while seeing the broken ring in her open hand after it was forced out of it shattered amber casing. Shards were spread across the floor and some embedded in Beezlebub's fur whilst Ozzy tried talking to her.
"Hey girl, wanna talk about what's going on with you?"
Even the fondness of his voice did nothing to pull Beezlebub from her half-drunken thinking as Ozzy's lover extended a curious hand to pick up her buzzing phone.
There were multiple missed calls and texts of desperation and pleading, all of which had the same result while the mechanized imp read through them and showed Ozzy on his shoulder.
"Hey babe, she dumped Vortex."
"What?" Ozzy said in surprise and snatched the phone. "Let me see that, Fizz."
Beezlebub frowned at their lack of respecting privacy but remained silent with the only sound in the room being her breath every time she took a drag of her cigarette.
Ozzy felt himself nerved by the calls and messages, and gazed longingly with a need to know behind her antics.
"Bee, why did you dump Vortex?"
"Because I don't need him." She replied half-heartedly with a drunk hiccup.
Ozzy and Fizz exchanged confused looks before joining her on the floor.
"What's going on with you?" Fizz asked as he tried to make himself less awkward by doing small antics of being a clown.
Ozzy puzzled his chin and saw the broken ring in her palm as it shimmered in the lighting even when covered in her honey.
She took another drag and explained in an almost lifeless tone, hiccuping every few words in a slur with the alcohol permeating her breath.
"I Was on the phone with that Loona girl from IMP, and overhear that they were in some deep shit."
"Okay." Ozzy drawled with his flames flickering in confusion. "And how is that proportional to how you're acting."
Beezlebub chugged the rest of another bottle and huffed before the answer came out with drunken need.
"I heard them talking about Romna."
Ozzy was understanding now, unlike his boyfriend who still tried to lighten the mood by being a clown. He sighed and took a seat next to her with a firm hand on her knee, contemplating how to go about this conversation.
He stared with her at the furthest wall in the room and just sat in silence as she leaned her head on his shoulder for supoort.
He sighed knowingly the pull Romna always had on her, that same emotional drag she would bury and then bring back whenever her mind drifted back to the past.
"Bee, I know you miss him. We all do. But he's gone and you need to—"
"But what if he's not!" She interrupted, gazing up to the lust demon with desperate want for closure. "Oz I swear to you I am not losing it. I heard them on the phone with whatever was happening."
Ozzy was sitting there with the same need to bring her back to reality, the desperation she showed spoke calibers as Fizz noticed her phone buzz again.
Quietly he extended a hand and took said phkne to see who was texting as she kept pushing the matter with no room for argument.
"What if Romna is back?" She asked with hope shimmering in her eyes, and grabbed his forearm with an almost painful grip. "Ozzy…..what if—"
"Bee stop it." Ozzy interrupted with a firmness of tone that matched his expression.
Reluctantly he pulled his arm away and watched the desperation grow more when her claws dragged and tore his sleeve, a reaction that made him look down and then at her with uncertainty.
"Ozzy please!" She pleaded softly, only to have the same answer she got with every conversation they had.
"He's dead, Bee!" His tone had no room for second guessing during his reminder tocher with a stern finger pressing to the broken ring in her palm. "Romna is gone. He died so long ago that—"
"NO!" Beezlebub screeched and shot up with a buzz of her wings.
She landed with a tipsy sway and did her best to fight Ozzy on this matter when he stood up and joined her.
"He's dead!" He shouted, hoping the liquor would wear off soon and logic would hit her again.
Beezlebub felt her heart break more with how defiant Ozzy was to the possibility of Romna being alive. She felt alone as is from millenia after millenia of losing everything from when she was cast out of heaven. But this right here was almost as bad as having her paradise destroyed by that day of watching Lucifer bury the only angel that took care of her and the other sins when no one in heaven did.
Every sense told her to just give up as soon as Ozzy spoke to her like that, which made her feel as though her heart plummeted into her stomach with so much despair and regret.
But she would not give in this time. No, she was not going to let herself be swayed again so easily when the proof was in the conversation she heard over the phone.
She shook her head so hard her tears were falling right off.
"No, he's not dead. I know what I heard on the phone!"
"Dammit bee!" He raised his voice which made her flinch with those tears falling rapidly whilst Fizz checked her messages.
Bitterly he grabbed the distraught demoness by her shoulders and held her firmly in place as the reminder left a bad taste in his mouth.
"We all saw the body that day. Lucifer buried him in the castle!"
"Romna is alive!"
"He is gone!"
"He's not dead!" She cried desperately with the broken ring clutched to her chest, her sight blinded by the tears. "I can feel it in my fucking soul that he is out there!"
"What!?" He exclaimed with little patience left.
Beezlebub was more determined than ever to make the lustful demon listen. She wanted— No, she needed him to listen and give her the benefit of the doubt.
Roughly she pushed him away and glared through her tears while clutching all four hands now to her chest with enough strength to almost bend the two halves of the broken ring.
"I can feel it in my soul. Romna is alive." She declared needily.
Ozzy was on the verge of giving her a serious reality check when she was so out of it with believing in Romna. He was already casting away the possibility and set in stone to make her wake up and realize the angel they loved was gone.
Until…..
"What does he look like?" Fizzaroli asked before his gaze moved from the phone to staring up at the fighting sins that stopped at his voice.
The liquor was still fresh in Beezlebub's system and making her unsteady through it all, but she was determined to get this conversation the thought it deserves.
Ozzy rolled his eyes in annoyance of his boyfriend joining in the conversation, and begrudgingly explained whilst Beezlebub tried to wipe her eyes.
"He had long white hair, fangs, yellowish-amber eyes and basically was very human appearing."
"Did he have six wings and a halo that looks like a crown?" Fizz asked abruptly and went back to checking the text.
Ozzy and Bee dropped their hostility toward one another and shared the same confused look directed on the imp clown. It made no sense that Fizzaroli knew what to guess specifically when only they and the other sins were aware of his appearance.
"How do you know that?" Beezlebub asked with her lavalike tail coming back to life and whipping with curiosity.
Ozzy was the most suspicious, but that was about to change with the curious imp clown extending a mechanical arm to show what he was seeing on Beezlebub's phone.
"Is this the guy?" Fizzaroli asked and showed the picture from Loona. "Looks like the human from months ago those idiot Vees put a bounty on, but he has those wings and stuff."
Both demons cast away their opposing thoughts of Romna and gasped at the picture Loona had sent of Charlie, Vaggie, and Lucifer talking in the unknown room, standing close to an unconscious figure being cuddled by a hellhound pup while covered with a heavy blanket.
Beezlebub was assaulted with memories of her past with Romna. She was throbbing internally with incredulousness of the figure laying in that picture. She snatched the phone quickly and looked harder with Ozzy to find the man was who she didn't expect.
"That's impossible." Ozzy stepped back with tears of his own brimming, his voice breaking into a whimper. "We saw the grave. We said our goodbyes."
Said picture felt like a hot knofe in his stomach, twisting and turning like a burning coal that sat in there. He finally caved in to his emotions and dropped to his knees with a thud that shook the room.
Beezlebub squeaked her breath as the picture exploded old feelings within herself and the sin beside her.
"He's alive." She whimpered with her teeth clenched into a broken smile behind her upper hands that pressed to her mouth.
Her whole body shook at the picture as Ozzy tried to come to grips with Romna being alive, but the truth was painfully obvious. He was lying in a bed with Lucifer talking to Charlie and Vaggie, which it was taken but a few minutes ago.
The alcohol was still there in her system, but the emotional part was what had Beezlebub fall to her knees and sobbing into all four of her hands.
She was now on the floor with no strength left, but wore a look both haunting and joyous. She couldn't believe that what she heard over the phone and believed in was actually true.
Romna was back, the same angel so long ago that treated her and the other sins before Lucifer's fall as regular people when they were angels.
After thousands of years of separation and painful let go, he was here.
But why was he asleep?
She had always believed he would be gone after how his soul was destroyed by Sera, but now it didn't hurt any less to know that he was actually alive.
And now he was somewhere unconscious at the mercy of the lazy king and most likely somewhere hidden due to selfish desires of rekindling friendship.
If only she knew the truth.
She had to find out where Loona was and go to him. Nothing else mattered anymore, not even the duties as the Queen of Gluttony nor Vortex who still kept texting her for a reason behind her ending their relationship.
She started to drunk dial Loona while the mystery for Fizzaroli grew heavier with how Ozzy was being so distant all of a sudden in his deep thinking.
"Ozzy, what's going on?" He asked as he felt his heart pounding with nervousness, his concern growing.
Ozzy felt so uneasy as the pictuee of Romna continued to sink in. He placed his hands together in a rag ringing motion and contemplated just how long Romna was back.
Still he answered but with a forgotten longing in his tone.
"Back when we were angels we were taken care of by Romna when the others shunned us for our appearance. He is….."
He paused with a shaky breath and watched his fellow sin call desperately and wait for someone to answer the video call she was making.
"He is what?" Fizz asked with a raised eyebrow.
The answer came with great difficulty of speaking.
"He was Bee's husband."
"Pick up dammit!" Beezlebub snapped at her own phone.
Fizzaroli dropped his jaw as the drunken rage became a bitter scream of frustration. She threw her phone and watched as it shattered against the wall, but doing so snapped Ozzy back to reality and being the voice of reason.
"Bee calm down." He held up his hands, playcating friendly surrender to her behavior. "We just—"
"Calm down!?" She barked questioningly, scowling at her fellow sin that regretted immediately what he said. "HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN MY HUSBAND IS FUCKING ALIVE!?"
Ozzy should have known better than to tell a woman, especially a mourning woman finding out her husband was alive, to calm down. It was too late though and it showed with Beezlebub driven by the alcohol in her system to transform partially to her yellow state with her third eye opening.
"Uh oh." Fizzaroli quipped before using his arms to stretch across the room and dive behind the bed.
"Oh shit." Ozzy started backing away knowingly he set himself up with that murderous fury coming off of the demoness.
Beezlebub didn't know whether to be angry at him or at Lucifer withholding Romna's presence, but she was not in the right mind to be making decisions. She didn't know to be either happy or hurt when her lofe could have changed for the better with the man she loved being back from the dead.
Sadly the alcohol in her system chose poorly for her.
"Take cover!" Fizz yelled at Ozzy just before the Queen of Gluttony went into a rampage of destroying her room.
She stopped though, right before her first action was throwing bottles around the room. And why she did so was the glimmering flashes of light coming from the outer perimeter of the city, hitting the corner of her third eye while sounds of explosions and gunshots echoed distantly.
She stopped mid-leap with a buzzing of her wings and tipsy herself to the balcony with Ozzy quick to follow when he and Fizzaroli heard the same thing.
"What the hell is that?" The clown imp asked before squinting his eyes.
"That's the Goetia Territory." Ozzy pointed out, puzzling his chin.
The two lovers in secret thought together what could be happening from so far when it was well known in hell the goetia were usually quiet and living in solitude. To see and hear explosions was confusing and worrisome, but not enough to make Ozzy want to investigate as one of the higher ups.
However, the sudden widening of Beezlebub's three eyes and change of color had him curious.
What neither boys knew was that in her alcoholic thinking came a moment of sound conclusion to what they were seeing. She finally remembered everything from earlier about Loona and her job that was supposed to be guarding the prince.
And only one word left her breath when it all came together.
"Romna."
"Romna?" Ozzy questioned with a raised brow.
Without another word but a new desperation in her motive, Beezlebub summoned a hot pot of coffee with a snap of her fingers and drowned herself with guzzling the entire concoction.
Of course a most repugnant burp followed before she glared at the cringing Ozzy for her sometimes gross behavior.
"Get your fucking car and drive me!"
During the Speaker's Domain
Deep in a newly formed garden, built on the emotions between Noctis and Moira, the two exchanged conversation and truth while sitting in the lap of the speaker during her continuous touch of his form while her hands glowed and she remained quietly focused.
However, she was sitting most troubled underneath her smile with a haunted feeling of what she was hearing outside her domain.
She knew from hearing god in secret that the worst of so many concerns had risen as she had anticipated partially.
Lyroia was back and he was starting a war, but she couldn't tell Noctis right now.
She had always known that the past would come back to haunt the realms if Lyoria were to break free, but she didn't think his ambitions would drive him this mad.
And now she was running out of time in helping his power awaken, which meant she would have to skip so much in order to give everyone a fighting chance.
Maintain her smile and her demeanor, the speaker held back her begrudging acceptance and continued her work while hands touched his shoulder and arm.
"So you were….." Noctis paused with a sincere look as Moira continued to hold his hands.
He couldn't bring himself to say the horror Moira suffered as a slave to Valentino. His quivering breath came with looking away in disgust at the thought of such evil to exist.
But now he couldn't look away anymore, not as a man, nor a divine beast, nor this seraphim lord he was titled when he was Romna.
Moira made him face her with a gentle touch of her hand on his cheek. She was careful with her claws to not scratch his skin while smiling with a mix of acceptance and understanding of his pain for her.
"Valentino forced me into a deal when he held Max hostage, and I gave my soul away to keep him safe."
Hearing it again was not any less harder on the anger he felt, and it certainly wasn't going to be any easier when she spoke the rest.
"I died protecting Max because Valentino pushed my body too far with his movies. And when he threatened to kill Max I went to kill him."
"And he shot you." Noctis finished for her, earning a nod that only swelled his anger into releasing his aura heavily. "That piece of shit, those Vees, they gave me Max right after you—"
"And that is alright!" She laughed somberly and flicked her tongue on his nose to calm him down.
"How!?" He exclaimed with no understanding. "How is it okay!?"
"Because she is a mother, my child." The Speaker answered calmly, deepening the touch of her divine touch to his power as it calmed him a little. "And a mother's love can do so much."
Moira nodded in agreement whilst Noctis contemplated that answer.
"You should know by know." The speaker chuckled.
He felt an answer come to him with how a mother's love for we something beyond knowing. It was there for him in the beginning of residing in hell, in his journey of figuring out what he was.
And that answer was the woman who took him in.
"Carmilla….." he breathed it sweetly and laughed quietly with a small grin. "Mom..."
Silence moved between the three as he thought back to the overlord and all she had done for him.
If only he knew right now.
"Now then, let us continue." The speaker said, almost cracking her voice when she sensed Lyoria and his power shifting.
"Continue what?" Noctis asked, his curiosity becoming a little worrisome when her hands tightenes ever so slightly on him.
As he looked up to her though he didn't notice the grim nod Moira gave to The Speaker, understanding her role in this situation that would shake Noctis to his very core and do one of two things.
Make him...or break him.
"Awakening your power." The Speaker answered, though her gentle tone was more forced but not noticed by the man.
Slowly she continued as the conversation between Noctis and Moira continued.