Demon's Journey

“Just what is going—ugh, they’re back,” Raphael said and glared at Palan with his empty eye sockets. “Did the Creator finally make the deal with you?”

Palan frowned at Raea before jumping down, landing on Creed’s bed. Andrea ran up to him and hugged his leg. “I didn’t want to give her the cookie,” she said with big, round eyes. “Pyre made me.”

“That’s alright,” Palan said. “He’s dead now. You don’t have to worry about a thing.” A wrinkle appeared on his forehead as a wave of heat washed over him. He raised his head. Raea was hovering over the room, her flames spread out behind her in the shape of two massive wings.

“Are you trying to show off?” Raphael asked, shaking his fist at the sky. He threw a fireball at Raea, and she blocked it with her flames. Instead of growing larger, the flames consumed each other and dispersed. The blind angel grumbled. “I really wish I had my eyes right now. Well? Did the Creator tell you to come here?”

“Not yet,” Palan said. “But I brought a gluttony candidate over. Mind letting her eat you repeatedly?”

Raphael’s expression darkened as Raea alighted on the wall. Uriel and Creed had to move to the other side of the room to avoid the heatwave. “Do you think I’m a food source meant to be eaten? Why don’t you let her eat you? I promise I’ll revive you if you die. Kindness angels don’t lie.” He laughed before swiveling his head around the room. “Where’s the gluttony being? Let me check.”

“He’s creepy,” Andrea muttered and hid behind Palan’s leg. She stared at Raphael with wide eyes. “Can he see? I can’t tell.”

Raphael followed Andrea’s voice and met her gaze. Her eyes widened even further as the furs on her arms and legs stiffened. Instinctively, a massive shark-like mouth formed above her head and flew towards the blind angel, biting down. The upper half of Raphael’s body vanished as it was consumed by the void in the air, bones crunching as it chewed. Blood leaked from Andrea’s mouth, but it wasn’t hers. The other five existences stared at Andrea, their expressions stiff.

Camael was the first to speak. “That’s not how gluttony’s supposed to work…”

“Archdemon? Almost beyond?” Uriel asked and raised an eyebrow. “How old are you?”

“I’m eight,” Andrea said through a mouthful of blood and flesh. She continuously swallowed as if she were drinking from a fountain until the mouth hovering in the room disappeared. She exhaled after she was done and patted her stomach before yawning. “I feel bloated.”

The flesh on Raphael’s remaining leg stumps wriggled as the revival process began. Uriel watched it for a bit before furrowing her brow. “An eight-year-old archdemon. What has this world come to? What the heck did you eat to grow this fast?”

Andrea lay on one of Palan’s tails with her arms and legs dangling off the sides. What had she been eating recently? Eggfruits. Lots of eggfruits. She licked her lips as she recalled their taste. It was a shame her snack dispenser wasn’t here, but at least there was an eggfruit farm growing in her backyard. They were a bit strange to eat because they made her glow like the moon after eating enough of them, but that hadn’t happened recently. She had a feeling it would if she ate a few more though. A chill ran down her spine just as she was about to fall asleep. The strange demon with eight legs was staring at her with a smiling face.

“Levy disagrees with this candidate,” Levy said, circling around Palan. He turned in time with her, refusing to let her get a closer look at Andrea.

“What? Why?” Camael asked. “You’re the one who wanted to leave the most, weren’t you? Once she evolves, we’ll have satisfied the requirement of gathering the fourteen main sins and virtues into the room.”

Levy clicked her tongue. “If Levy doesn’t kill her now, Levy will die to her later. This littleling is dangerous.” She beamed at Palan whose expression darkened. “But Levy is willing to trade! Her life for the cookie.”

“Cookie?” Camael asked, raising his eyebrows. He had been asleep for the majority of Palan and Raea’s confrontation.

A flaming halberd descended and split Levy’s body vertically in half. The flames spread outwards, and consumed her twitching remains until only ashes remained. Raea furrowed her brow at the halberd, and it flew back to her, dancing in the air as if it had a mind of its own. She hadn’t ordered it to do that, yet it had done it anyways. She grabbed its shaft and inspected it. There was nothing different about it compared to the usual halberds she created.

Palan looked at Raea with an odd expression on his face. If it was before, when their contract was still intact, he’d believe Raea was protecting Andrea, but since their contract was broken … her action was closer to his own—killing someone to prevent them from stealing his prey. Raea must’ve marked Andrea as her own kill and reacted when Levy wanted to take action. Why else would Raea have asked him that hypothetical question about killing Andrea so long ago?

“I have a question.” Both Palan’s and Raea’s thoughts were interrupted by Creed. “Every time you two come here, someone seems to die, and it’s not the people on your end. I get it; you two are young and want to kill everyone around you. That’s normal. But why hasn’t the Creator contacted you two yet? Don’t tell me he tried and you turned down his offer. If you’re just playing us while not aiming to help us in return…”

“How does the Creator contact people?” Raea asked, furrowing her brow. She wanted to talk to him. Maybe yell at him about her current situation too. Why couldn’t she control her powers?

“Usually through your dreams or inanimate objects,” Uriel said. “Have either of you two spoken to a golden glowing orb of light while you were sleeping?”

“I have,” Palan said and nodded.

Creed, Uriel, and Raea stared at him.

“I told it to piss off,” Palan said and snorted. “It promised me eternal glory. I can achieve that by myself. It promised me eternal life. I’ll admit I asked it for more details, and it told me I’d have to stay confined in this room. I’m tired of being told what I can or can’t do. I’ll choose freedom over a life in a cage.”

Raea bit her lower lip at his statement. She didn’t have time to think about it though because Creed asked her a question. “And you? Any dreams or inanimate objects talking to you?”

“No,” Raea said and shook her head. Thoughts of the golden statue she buried underneath a pile of rubble in Pyre’s lab surfaced in her mind. Was that not a lack of sleep…?