The sound of wings grew louder, like the approach of a military helicopter, but deeper, more organic. Maya felt her mother's house shake as something massive landed on the roof with enough force to crack the foundation.
"He's here," Malphas whispered through Linda's lips, and for the first time, he sounded genuinely terrified. "Maya, please. I know I've done terrible things, but Asmodeus will destroy everything. Your mother, Elena, this entire city..."
"Shut up," Maya said, her attention focused on the ceiling where heavy footsteps were now pacing back and forth. Each step sent plaster dust raining down like snow.
Elena's mystical device was screaming so loudly she had to turn it off. "Maya, the energy readings are unlike anything I've ever seen. This isn't just a high-level demon—this is something that exists on a completely different plane of power."
The footsteps stopped.
Then, impossibly, a voice Maya recognized spoke from directly above them. Rich, warm, tinged with that same rough quality that had made her heart race for months.
"Malphas," Lucien's voice called through the ceiling, but now it carried the weight of absolute authority. "I can smell your fear from here. Come out and face judgment like the pathetic pretender you are."
Maya's breath caught. It really was him. The voice from the game, the presence she'd fallen in love with, the being who'd spoken to her through the screen. But hearing it in the real world, feeling the raw power behind it, made her realize just how much the digital interface had muted his true nature.
"Maya," Elena whispered urgently, "whatever you're planning to do, do it now. Before he breaks through the roof."
But Maya was already moving. She walked to the center of the kitchen and looked up at the ceiling.
"Asmodeus," she called out, her voice carrying more confidence than she felt. "I know you're up there. And I know you remember me."
The footsteps stopped again. The silence stretched so long that Maya wondered if she'd made a terrible mistake.
Then Lucien's voice came again, but different now. Confused. Almost... vulnerable.
"Maya?"
The sound of her name spoken in that familiar tone sent shivers down her spine. Elena grabbed her arm, but Maya shook her off.
"It's me," Maya said to the ceiling. "Your little sorceress. The one who completed the Betrayal of Shadows quest sixteen times just to see how you'd react."
"That's impossible." But his voice was closer now, as if he'd crouched down on the roof to hear her better. "You're just a mortal player. You exist in a digital realm. You can't be here."
Maya felt her bloodline power surge, temporarily breaking through Malphas's binding spells. The Guardian's presence rushed back, filling her with warmth and strength.
"Surprise," she said, smiling despite the insanity of the situation. "Turns out your gaming interface was accidentally connecting to the real world. All those conversations we had, all those moments you almost seemed to see me instead of just my character—that was real."
A sound came from above that might have been laughter or might have been something breaking.
"You're telling me," Asmodeus said slowly, "that I've been courting a human woman for months without realizing it?"
"Technically, you were courting my digital avatar. But yes."
"And you're here now because...?"
Maya looked at her possessed mother, then at Elena who was staring at her like she'd lost her mind. "Because Malphas has been terrorizing innocent people, and I figured the King of All Demons might want to do something about unauthorized activity in his territory."
The roof exploded.
Maya threw herself over Elena as chunks of wood and shingles rained down. When the debris settled, a figure dropped through the hole with impossible grace.
Asmodeus looked exactly like Lucien from the game, but somehow more. Taller, more imposing, with an aura of power that made the air itself seem to vibrate. His amber eyes were the same, but now they held the weight of millennia. He wore dark clothing that shifted and flowed like it was made of shadow and starlight.
And he was staring at Maya like she was the most fascinating thing he'd encountered in six thousand years.
"Well," he said, his voice exactly as she remembered it, "this is unexpected."
Malphas released Maya's mother so abruptly that Linda collapsed to the floor. The lesser demon's true form materialized—a writhing mass of shadow and spite that immediately prostrated itself before Asmodeus.
"My Lord," Malphas groveled, "I can explain—"
"You've been making deals without permission," Asmodeus said without taking his eyes off Maya. "You've been creating parasitic entities to feed your own power. And worst of all, you've been interfering with someone very important to me."
Maya felt heat rise in her cheeks. "Important?"
Asmodeus stepped over Malphas's cowering form and approached Maya slowly, as if she might bolt. "Do you have any idea what you've done to me over the past few months? A human woman who played a game for hours just to hear my voice, who looked at me like I was worth something more than fear and worship."
"You are worth more than that," Maya said softly.
"I am the King of All Demons. I have destroyed civilizations, commanded legions of darkness, inspired more terror than any being in existence." Asmodeus stopped just out of arm's reach. "And somehow, you made me want to be better than that."
Elena made a strangled sound behind them. "Maya, this is the actual Devil. The source of all evil. You cannot be having a moment with him right now."
"Actually," Asmodeus said, finally tearing his gaze away from Maya to look at Elena, "I think we need to clarify some misconceptions about my job description. But first..." He turned back to the cowering Malphas. "You threatened something that belongs to me."
"Please, my Lord, I didn't know.."
"You didn't know that the human woman you were trying to corrupt was the same one who's been teaching me what it feels like to be seen as more than a monster?" Asmodeus's voice dropped to a whisper that somehow filled the entire room. "You didn't know that every conversation I had with her through that ridiculous game made me remember what I was like before I fell?"
Malphas tried to shrink further into the floor. "Mercy, my Lord. Please."
Asmodeus looked at Maya. "What do you think, little sorceress? You've shown mercy to parasites and compassion to lost souls. What should I do with a demon who threatened your family?"
Maya looked at her unconscious mother, at Elena's terrified face, at the destroyed ceiling of her childhood home. Then she looked at Asmodeus—at Lucien—and saw something in his eyes she'd never expected to see in the Devil himself.
He was asking for her guidance. The King of All Demons was genuinely seeking her opinion on how to handle his subordinate's betrayal.
"I think," Maya said carefully, "that maybe it's time for some new management policies in Hell."
Asmodeus smiled, and the expression transformed his entire face from terrifying to devastatingly beautiful.
"Exactly what I was thinking," he said. "Malphas, consider this your termination notice."
He snapped his fingers, and Malphas simply... ceased to exist. No dramatic death scene, no screaming—just there one moment and gone the next.
Maya blinked. "Is he dead?"
"Recycled," Asmodeus said cheerfully. "His energy has been redistributed to more productive uses. Much more environmentally friendly than traditional smiting."
Elena made a sound like a tea kettle releasing pressure. "I need to sit down."
But Maya was staring at Asmodeus with new understanding. "You really have changed, haven't you?"
"You have no idea," he said, reaching out to touch her face with fingers that were surprisingly warm. "The question is, what do we do about it now?"