Page 89 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

“Let us finish this, tragic creature that you are.” Beelzebub tilted his head. The sun shimmered against his golden horns that twisted atop his head like a crown.

They were a sign of station, a crown given to him upon his creation, the instant he crawled into existence and declared the universe belonged to him. All would kneel or die. Some would kneel and die. It mattered not to Beelzebub. All he craved was conquest and carnage and claiming everything as his.

In the moments since Beelzebub had arrived, he’d reached out to pluck Lilith’s essence from across the world so he could finish this battle. His fiery weapons merged with molten rock and dragged Lilith closer.

Soon, the city she’d laid waste to revealed itself again. In the wake of destruction, her essence retreated. How much of the world looked as disastrous as our city? How much had Lilith destroyed since she fled to our world?

“We need to fall back,” Wally shouted.

Wally? I spun in the air, finding him flying beside me while Corson and Satan retreated back to the Well of Wonders.

“Walter, I told you—”

“Yes, stay behind for safety,” he interrupted. “Now, take your own advice!”

He extended a hand, and I grasped it gently, intertwining our fingers. It was a momentary relief, allowing the war upon this world to wash away.

I smiled at him, soft and small. Then I yanked his arm and pulled him into a sudden embrace. With our chests pressed together, I wrapped an arm at the small of his back and held onto the hook of his wing where the joint met with his shoulder blades.

With him safely secured, I soared through the sky faster than I’d ever flown before and barreled through the barrier, which would only hold a fraction of a second if and when Beelzebub deigned to acknowledge our presence.

Over the course of the next few days, we sat in the shop watching Beelzebub shred waves of essence at a time, listening to the agonizing shrieks of Lilith as the god-king devil continuously and brutally eviscerated the other devil.

It didn’t matter how much Lilith fought back, how much she countered his strikes, how valiant her efforts to regroup and lash out. None of it made a difference against an indomitable opponent. Beelzebub existed only for war, pain, suffering. If something thrived in his presence, it was only because they endured his horrors. And even that was an offense, furtherencouraging him to find new ways to demean and torment those beneath him.

“How we coming on the orbs?”

“My orbs are always coming.” Corson bit the air by my ear.

Using my tail in an uppercut motion, I stabbed him through the chin.

He gurgled, body shuddering as essence poured from his split throat, staining his dreadfully dull sweater.

“You’re in my space.” I withdrew my tail.

Corson wiggled his lower jaw back and forth until he healed. “Apologies.”

“Closer to finishing—not that flirty demons seem to give a fuck when all they want is to fuck,” Kell said from her workstation, where she’d remained day and night, using caffeine and magics to delay her need for sleep. That and bitchy comments. By day three, she let out rude little jabs with every breath.

Corson leaned in close again until I thwacked my tail against the hardwood floors, encouraging him to keep his distance. We’d been stuck in this store the entire time, careful to avoid stepping outside where the devils warred.

Despite Beelzebub ripping apart Lilith’s essence and dragging her to one central location, it hadn’t detracted from the essence blockading the dimensional walls. We used Mora’s fancy Fae blade to pierce the veil between dimensions only to find Beelzebub’s essence had rampaged, stomping out Lilith’s essence and securing the realm in her stead.

So now we all stayed in this tiny store. It’d never felt so small until recently. But with a whiny Cerberus, a hissing scorpion, a chatty witch, an anxious mage, and five demons all wedged together, I almost relished the idea of certain death in battle.

Wally walked back into the room with an air of authority about him. I hated how the world would throw him into thesedangerous situations, threatening him with death at every turn, but he truly held such a captivating calm when thrust into combat. His collective cool oozed off him, making even his scent permeate power.

“Kell’s almost finished with the Diabolic orb, and it’ll cut things close, but I think we need to take advantage of their battle,” Wally said. No. Declared. Commanded. Announced like a devil himself in charge of everyone in this room, including me. “If we’re gonna have any chance of winning this, then we need to strike while Beelzebub is distracted by Lilith.”

“Distracted?” Corson scoffed. “She’s been writhing on the ground as he wails on her this entire time.”

“Exactly,” Wally said. “Despite how exhausted she is, how broken her essence is, he hasn’t paid attention to anything else in days. He hasn’t acknowledged us. He didn’t even react when Nature withdrew her forces to mend the holes left in the earth. The only thing Beelzebub is fixated on is his duel with Lilith.”

It was a fair point. He might have an overwhelming advantage against Lilith, but Beelzebub didn’t make sloppy moves. While he declared her a weak devil, she was still a devil who was, therefore, worthy of some priority.

“So, what’s your plan?” I asked.

“I think we need to exploit their battle,” he said. “If we strike Beelzebub while he’s distracted by Lilith, we should be able to seal them both in an orb.”

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