Chapter Text
The hotel had been rebuilt and Alastor returns more or less in one peace. It had taken his body a week during construction to heal, the holy grace slowing things down tremendously. He had planned to take things slow, regroup with his plans and consider the favor he gained from Charlie. But then Lucifer had called a meeting with the Overlords out of the blue.
In the past Zestial would reminisce about the king’s more active roll with Overlords as they had tried to work around the exterminations contract or on Hells politics. When he had first arrived in Hell Alastor had made the track to Pentagram city to possibly meet the Devil himself, but the man had been missing from the spotlight long before the radio host had died. The radio demon had been greatly disappointed when he met the fallen angel for the first time, and made that abundantly clear to the man. Alastor could not guess what this meeting could be about and only hoped the king was not going to try and rope other Overlords into the hotel’s business.
The radio demon arrives last, having the farthest to travel and not trusting his teleportation magic yet from his recent injuries. When he walks into the meeting room he is not met with the small man’s idle awkward chatter as he expects. Instead everyone is deadly silent and stiff in their chairs. The room is charged in an oppressive energy that the demon immediately feels his instincts recoil from.
Lucifer sits at the head of the table like he is sitting upon a throne. Alastor had overheard residents whisper about the king’s full form witnessed when he defeated Adam. He had missed the battle as he laid in his old destroyed tower to heal, he certainly had not been keen on watching a replay of the shaming event that was televised for days afterwards. People had called it monstrous, a harbinger of death, and the true form of the Devil. But the demon had not realized how horrifyingly beautiful it was.
Sitting at the table in all his glory the man looks like a true angel of judgement with his red horns, barbed tail, and six wings folded behind him. His eyes are glowing red and a manic smile shows off his sharp fangs as he leans his chin on one hand. A holy fire flickers between his horns and commands attention.
Alastor is momentarily confused if this the same person, the fallen angel before him is so different from the silly man he met at his daughter’s hotel. The presence he demands now while just sitting in a chair is alarming and the demon is unsure how to proceed. Only Zestial looks enthralled, the rest of the party pointedly try’s not to make eye contact with the being that finished off the first man like he was nothing but an interesting toy to break.
“Ah Alastor! My daughter’s defender!”
In a blink of an eye the king is right before him and the demon jerks back automatically.
“Come and sit.” those blazing red eyes almost look crazed as they focus on the taller man, “We all have much to discuss!”
Lucifer lays his hand in the small of Alastor’s back and whirls him to the last seat at the table with much more strength than the small man would seemingly possess. The demon does not have time to react, even if he wanted to Rosie gives him a subtle shake of her head. Instead of returning to his seat the king crosses his arms over the back of the chair and leans over it.
“We can defend ourselves.” Lucifer’s grin stretches further and Alastor thinks this is how people view his own smile.
It’s so quite a pin could be heard if dropped, the small man looks around the room excitedly.
“We can defend ourselves!” The king howls and spreads his arms out theatrically when no one says anything.
Everyone sits confused, unsure where the small man’s mind is and what they should be understanding.
“Even before the clause for ‘no hellborn shall be harmed in exterminations’ was broken,” Lucifer walks around the room, gliding burning fingers along Overlords shoulders, “My daughter and her residents defended themselves and there was no backlash to the deal!”
The fallen angel waits for someone to see what he sees, when no one does he rolls his red eyes, “There is no rule in the contract that sinners can’t defend themselves during an extermination, we have just never thought to fight back!”
Lucifer returns to his seat, hands folded in front of him on the table to hold his chin. The barbed demonic tail flicks back and forth in excitement and the six wings feathers ruffle. Alastor wonders if the king has possibly gone mad, the sight of angels attacking his daughter too close to his own fall that may have triggered a psychotic break.
“What do you propose we do with this… enlightenment your Magesty?” Zestial finally speaks up for the group, trying to put the angel’s puzzle pieces together.
“We go to war.” The small man grins malevolently, his eyes shine like he has looked at the void and it has blessed him with answers, “The contract barely holds now that a clause has been broken.”
“War? With Heaven?” Rosie offers softly, phrasing it like it’s for clarification and not disbelief.
“Heaven has shown its cards and we have the upper hand! The time for battle is now and Hell will have its justice!” Lucifer bangs his fist on the table, fire erupting upward between his horns like it is doused in gas.
They are all silent for another moment before the Overlords erupt. Panic and self preservation driving them to speak out towards their usually inactive ruler. Zestial is the only one that remains seated, a look of devotion in his eyes. Alastor also sits quietly, too stunned or curious to move as he studies the man in a circus outfit he has known only a few weeks. Where was this Devil he had wanted to meet upon arrival in Hell? Had the snake been hiding in the grass all along, just needing to shed his skin? He watches as the triumphant smile begins to drop at the other’s reactions, observes when it turns into a snarl instead. Velvette makes to get up and leave, proclaiming she never signed up for a holy war, but the room’s door slams shut loudly in front of her.
“You all seemed to have forgotten,” Lucifer’s voice drops to a hiss, the presence of the room grows and all feel the need to shrink and cower unconsciously, “ that this is a Monarchy !”
The fallen angel’s voice become polyphonic. Velvette’s body convulses as her eyes light up red like the king’s. With a twirl of his finger the woman turns around and involuntarily returns to her seat, face pulled in terror as her body moves without her control. All hush once again as the favorite son of the Lord, an arc angel, relaxes back in his seat.
“If I say we go to war… we go to war.” Lucifer smiles kindly at the Overlords, like he is scolding naughty children.
Eyes bloom on the angel’s six wings, one focuses on each Overlord independently and the weight of the stare holds them in place. It feels like a much larger predator is watching prey, out in the open and unafraid. Like there is a much larger presence none of them can see, Hell itself turning its attention to its inhabitants. They are suddenly reminded that the man that sits in front of them is old and powerful, a being contained in a small form for the sanity of all. Everyone shivers as their new reality sets in.
The king of Hell has declared war on Heaven, and they will follow him into battle whether they like it or not. Alastor thinks he has already faced angels, has barely survived a battle with the first man. Everyone else in the room had watched from the comfort of their territory’s, none have worried about angels for a long time since rising to power. The radio demon is the only one in recent years who has faced the holy beings one on one. But he has found exterminators can be killed, that they could fight and win. With a powerful arc angel now free of self restraint, how much further could they go?
Zestial once again takes the lead and stands, “Yes my King.” The spider demon falls to one knee and bows with his hand over his long dead heart.
Alastor is next to rise, knowing an opportunity to win favor when he sees one and also bows. The rest are quick to follow, afraid to deny a being that once faced a God to give humanity free will.
They had forgotten what slept in the belly of Hell. The holy being had forced himself to become small, to bend to his guilt and shame of his cursed gift, exposed his throat for his wife and daughter, but now the proverbial Pandora’s box was open; and from it the righteous being of pride and creation peeks out, allowing Hell to see it for the first time in a millennia.
See, see, see!
Alastor looks upon the Devil himself and sees the dawn of a new era. He bares witness to the pacing monster that was forced into a golden cage. He sees the porcelain skin crack as all that pent up rage finally breaches the carefully crafted walls.
He wonders where his place will be in the footnotes of history. The radio demon’s smile stretches wide and he decides this side of Lucifer is so much more interesting. It’s monstrous and beautiful, he recognizes it as kin.
He just needs to decide his place on the chest board and how best to survive.