Page 53 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

The tendrils shrieked with such a fury the entire world trembled. And I did mean the entirety of her dimension. I felt it in the quake of nearby demons, in the essence of those who were broken to pieces and transformed into scenery, in the quake of the stars above, and from the burning of the key Lilith had gifted me. A key which would open her door to Hell and send me home. But I felt her door fling wide open the moment she screeched.

“What’ve you done?”

“I’ve invited a new devil to attend,” she hissed. “Beelzebub has spent enough time locked away from the universe. I wonder how grateful he’ll feel when I restore him with his missing essence.”

She unleashed Beelzebub? The devil who’d tormented Bez for as long as he’d lived. The devil who’d waged wars against every other devil for the sport. The devil who currently sought the return of his long-missing piece of essence.

Essence which currently coursed through my being.

16

Bez

Everything rumbled. The sky split and shattered into a billion shards, which fell like meteorites. Rage seeped through the air, so haunting and familiar, I almost fell to my knees on instinct. Demons shrieked and fought and clawed and cast against the palpable fury which lashed out erratically. One by one or a hundred at a time, demons erupted into nothingness as their essence was spent and their lives were forfeited.

I stared out at the harrowing sight of an empty, broken sky where the stars cried and war rained down everywhere. A shadowed silhouette of a form I’d never forget filled the darkness, standing taller than any mountain, a sight that’d make titans terrible if any still lived in the deep depths of the earth of the mortal realm. Somehow, someway, Beelzebub had stepped through the threshold and into this world. How?

“How is he here?” I conjured black ice to shield the shards of fiery sky crashing down onto the temple, onto every part of Lilith’s dominion, slaughtering tens of thousands immediately.

Beelzebub simply setting foot into this world had sparked destruction. He wasn’t even fighting yet. This destruction was merely a greeting. A reminder that everything about my devil roared with war.

“Look out!” Corson tackled me, knocking me out of the way of several purple-scaled spikes that shot out of the floor and ran the length of the corridor before sinking into the ground, much like a shark’s fin.

Ominous and alluring and completely out of my purview, with all my attention fixated on Beelzebub’s arrival. How’d he get here? How’d he get out of his Hell where I’d locked him in? How long before he realized I was here in Lilith’s domain?

I trembled. If he didn’t already know.

“You feel so good quivering beneath me, wrapped in my grip.” Corson lay on top of me with a fiendish smile of wicked delight.

The spikes sprang up so quickly they nearly impaled me, while Corson of all beings saved me. Not that him shoving me to the ground and landing on top of me was much of a save.

“What’re you doing?” I snarled as his hand reached around to comfort me in a hug.

“Can’t have my mommy go and kill you before I have a chance to bend you over and bed ya.” Corson grinned. “Though, if you prefer missionary, I’ll gladly gaze into your eyes as I impale you in such a more satisfying way than my mommy ever could.”

“One, get off.”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Corson winked.

“Two, your mother issues aside, thanks, I suppose.” I shoved him off. “Three, how the fuck did Beelzebub end up here?”

“My guess is Lilith, in her feisty omnipotence, determined his visit during your banquet would make for quite the entertainment.”

“It’s not my banquet.”

“It is now. You think your devilish human boy is gonna last long now that the devil he robbed is here?”

“Wally didn’t steal…” I growled, furious and frightened and fucking confused. Beelzebub would kill Wally. He’d break my love apart into a billion molecules and devour every ounce of his being to restore his full strength.

“Look, the way I see it is this Hell is going to fall apart. In a day or decade, but with Beelzebub here, let’s just say Mommy doesn’t remember the wars she sent us into, and he came here himself instead of the buffer of his armies. No, thanks.” Corson pursed his lips, then twisted them into a minxy grin. “So why don’t we enjoy our time together before we all fall into Oblivion again?”

My insides stirred, anxious at the idea of returning to such a devoid realm. A place of sleepless slumber. A world of silent wails. An eternity of internalized war with my mind while granted peace from the horrors of Hell. Such a tragic afterlife that Beelzebub had dropped me into more times than I cared to remember, only to drag me out gasping and flailing and missing the misery of nothingness because my devil had grown bored and sought torment for his prized possessions.

Corson’s smug expression, coupled with the way he slid his leg between mine at the idea slipping more between me.

“Uukk, you realize that’s never going to happen?”

“Never say never. Relationships blossom.”

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