Page 46 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

“Ooooooh.” Wally adjusted his glasses, studying Satan as he cocked his head ever so to show a sign of intrigue when listening to Lilith’s story. “It’s funny. In our world, Satan and Lucifer are actually considered the same person by most mortals. But they also assume he’s the devil.”

“Lucifer wasadevil,” Lilith said. “But Satan’s merely a meager thing that looks good dressed in devil essence.”

As she embellished the rebellion against Lucifer, much like the mortals did, I recalled what I actually knew about Satan. Millions of demons had banded together to overthrow and consume Lucifer. It was a tale of success, Satan being an incredibly popular pioneer among demons who bested a devil, despite the fact Satan worked with nearly all his demon companions to destroy Lucifer and consume his essence. It ultimately added to the battle cry Eligos and other foolish demons in my dimension shouted when rallying the masses against Beelzebub. Obviously, that tale didn’t end with such celebrity.

Then again, seeing Satan’s life had turned into a form of entertainment for Lilith, I wouldn’t guess he’d been very successful either.

Physically, he towered over most demon lords here, standing with his shoulders hunched so his long, upward-curled horns wouldn’t scratch the ceiling. A deceitful action by Lilith, who had modified the dining hall upon Satan’s arrival. The vaulted ceilings had sunken inward with a droop like a wilted and withered flower.

Honestly, I was surprised Lilith didn’t make Satan crawl on his belly, but she showed him some respect. None of her lords commented on his glittering attire not fit for the theme of the party. Wally would probably assume Satan was meant to be a star, but I suspected he was a trophy meant to be shamed publicly and loudly. It served as a reminder this fate could’vebeen mine had I roamed in Hells after escaping Beelzebub instead of hiding away in some lowly mortal realm with only partial magic at its disposal. The only lower radar I could’ve gone was to a world with almost zero magic whatsoever, but even I couldn’t live such a tragic life as that.

The lights flickered and flashed and focused on Satan’s entrance. His scarlet-scaled skin shimmered. The bright red undertones of his complexion highlighted the sharp features of the oxen-dragon-like head. Coarse black fur covered his chest, growing wild and around his head like a mane with finely brushed hair over his forearms and lower legs.

Music played from older instruments Wally named off silently. His lips mouthed random factoids about the melodies created until he finally had to utter one or two or seven comments about the traditional verse popularized in Ancient Rome and the music they created.

Satan’s steps were slow at first, elongated arms reaching the floor, so his claws dragged alongside his hooved feet until the swift slash created a spark of lightning. All the light vanished and suddenly only the electricity brimming from the essence of Satan himself provided anything other than pitch black nothingness.

Each clack of the hooves held a rhythmic step. The sway of claws cast trances on the audience, and perhaps at Lilith’s bequest or merely for the sake of satiating his own appetite for carnage, Satan slaughtered a member here and there. No gasps followed. Not even by Wally, who’d quickly trained himself not to react to Diabolic carnage. A few cheers were met by the way Satan swirled the essence of his victims around the lightning.

Wally’s eyes studied each move, enchanted and perplexed by Satan’s graceful dance that blended death and fire and art into this elegant poetry where each step etched a letter in the lyrics of this performance.

I savored this calm entertainment where everyone’s eyes had been drawn away from Wally, even Lilith herself as she watched her puppet perform.

Satan’s movements reached their peak, and the dance slowed. When the final step was taken, the instrumental accompaniment died instantly with a sour thwack meant to silence everyone. Satan extended his arms high and wide, much like a warrior in an arena who’d bested a Diabolic foe, but now he only fought for Lilith’s entertainment. His entire existence meant to serve a devil’s whim.

Smoke captured Satan midbow, and he vanished in a swift act of teleportation, returning to whatever chamber Lilith deemed appropriate for her pet.

It was a sickening reminder of life in Hell, eternal agony or servitude or combat, and round and round it went.

The silence continued, only everyone’s gaze had flitted from Satan’s empty stage and landed on Wally, who did a masterful job of not squirming from so much attention.

“I’m floored by the level of research you all did,” he said. “It’s like you brought the era to life. With a Diabolic spin, but it’s fascinating.”

“But of course.” Lilith smiled and with her features imitating mine, it made the phoniness of her sincerity all the more obvious. “Only the best for my guest of honor.”

“You said I differed from Satan, from other Diabolics who possess essence.” Wally turned his attention to Lilith. “How so?”

“We’ll discuss it soon.” Lilith brushed a hand over Wally’s face, a delicate action but one met with a surge of Wally’s essence as his eyes went black, meaning she must’ve circulated a pulse of her presence in the brief contact. “Or perhaps we should discuss it now. Privately. The third course isn’t nearly as appealing as a conversation between devils.”

With a snap of her fingers, Wally split into crumbling ashes, shattering to dust on the floor, which Lilith swept away with a flick of her wrist. Wally had vanished before my eyes. Before I could react, move, or question, Lilith blinked out of existence, disappearing as quickly as she’d stolen Wally away.

Up until now, I’d been terrified Lilith was looking for any misstep on Wally’s part, a sign of weakness, a reason to shatter him to nothingness, but now, I feared it might be so much worse than that. Lilith had a curiosity for Wally’s uniqueness. She saw him as a new trophy to claim…one she might desire to keep in Hell and put on display like her other Diabolic devil oddities.

13

Wally

My fragmented molecules corporealized, and each cell of my body tetrised together seamlessly, though thanks to my Diabolic senses, the experience was grueling and detailed. Each fraction of a second ticked by even slower. There was a low, slow whoosh of my body colliding from a billion puzzle pieces to one entity. And then, after the euphoric afterglow of vanishing from one location and reappearing elsewhere, I took in the new room.

“By the gods, is that what teleportation is always gonna feel like?” I asked aloud, partially because of this need to verbalize my thoughts and half hoping to hear Bez’s snarky response sneak up on me. “But I hadn’t seen him swept into the magic of Lilith’s essence.”

Because I had seen it. That was when my senses expanded, taking in full sight of the energy hurled by the wave of Lilith’s hand.

I took in the new room where I’d arrived. It kept with the theme, cluttered with marble statues, decorative vases, and everything else that made this appear less like a room oozing opulence and more like a museum trying a little hard for authenticity. But this was a bedroom. The raised bed with a lavender canopy made of silk.

My vision flickered, and the essence that’d instinctually swirled into a defensive state had once again stretched infinitely long and pierced through the dimensional walls of Hell.

Flashes of my second sight, which linked me to Tony, to my world, showed a kaleidoscope of moments. Tony and Kell analyzing a map of the city. Sorcery searching for witches. Witches tracked in the dead of night. An array of bright sunlight and starry evenings. Weather’s goofy smile. Weather’s sad puppy eyes. Weather’s grumpy growls. Moments twisted into snapshots, and the images seemed stretched infinitely long, like seconds spread out into a warped collage.

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