~ Chapter 21: Invitation ~

[Syliar’s point of view]

Hell could be envisioned in various ways. It could take on the appearance of a shapeless cloud of demonic energy or be seen as a landscape of a melting inferno with lots of torture rooms across a field of lava. Demons could appear in the form and shape of every species or take a generic one. All of those aspects were decided upon by none other than the Demon King or Queen of that Kingdom.

In my case, my demon realm was rather medieval in aspect. There were castles where Demon Lords lived, villages and cities for the lower demons as well as numerous houses and torture rooms for the souls. Of course, each of those villages and cities were determined in shape and size by the mortal world from which it received its souls. For example, if the city was above a human colony, then all the buildings were similar to a medieval Earth’s styles. If the city was above an alien world, then the buildings would take the appearance of that alien specie’s Middle Ages. However, each of those villages and cities spanned for more than hundreds of kilometers across the whole area. I did not care for the usual standards which turned villages into towns and then into cities after they reached a certain number of inhabitants. If I wanted an area to be a village, then it would be a village even if it had twenty billion souls in it.

The landscape was rather disturbing to many mortals. Some areas were paved with roads made out of various infant creatures’ parts, every plant was carnivorous or deadly in some way or manner, the wildlife was disturbing in terms of looks but also incredibly dangerous. There were mountains that could never be climbed, and seas filled with blood, where giant sharks and other underwater monstrosities lived. The lava plains and sharp glass hills were also part of the scenery. As for the sky, it was always pitch dark and covered in thunderstorm clouds.

As the Demon Queen ruling over that kingdom, I was entitled to change the aspect of the land as I saw fit. If I did not like something or didn’t approve of another thing, I could easily change it with my magic. I was the only one allowed to do it, so when someone else tried without my consent, they ended up dead. Luckily for me, demons and souls could not die here, they just ended up suffering a great deal of pain and then they were sent to the edges of Hell to make their own way back in an excruciating difficult manner.

My palace was located right in the middle of this kingdom. It was a few kilometers high and spanned over hundreds of kilometers above the surface. Countless torture chambers could be found throughout it, and in each and every one of them, I had a soul I wanted to torture personally.

When mortals committed certain sins, upon their death, their souls were sent to my Kingdom in Hell, where countless demons were ready to teach them why their actions back in the living world were considered to be wrong by the Universe. Mortal laws held no meaning in either Hell or Heaven. Demons tortured and tormented them for countless years by repeating the events and putting them in the shoes of their victims. We took great pleasure from their ordeals, and once we believed was enough, we sent them to Heaven. There, they would come to learn of the good they did in their lives before being sent back to the mortal realm to reincarnate in another body and learn something new. Thus, the cycle continued.

After my long absence from Hell, there weren’t that many souls left for me to torture in my palace. Most of them had already been sent off to Heaven, and none of those lousy demons tried to replace them. I had to go out there and find new ones. However, that wasn’t my only problem. I had lots of imps and demon lords like Severus, who tried to act all high and mighty upon my return. They challenged me for my right to the throne, but they all failed miserably. Since I didn’t have that many souls of my own to enjoy torturing, I used their pathetic hides to satisfy my sadistic desires. Their screams of pain and horror sung a beautiful melody in which only a demon could find pleasure upon listening to it.

For an angelion, time was a relative thing. It was all about one’s perception. For me, a million years could come to pass before a certain event happened, while for another it could be in the very next moment. I used that small factor to make their suffering seem endless.

Taking that into account, I did not know how many years went by for Michael after we last saw each other, but for me, it was getting close to two billion years.

When looking at that number from a mortal’s point of view, it was extraordinary, however, I wasn’t a mortal. For me, as a Demon Queen, a billion years or even a quadrillion meant nothing. All that I had to worry about was my continued yearning for my beloved, however, even if it never grew to the point where I felt like breaking loose out of Hell and hunting him down again, that desire, that yearning, they were kept calm and under control by the revelation and hope I received from archangel Metatron back when I last saw my Soul Mate.

I had to accept and respect his free will. If he ever wanted for the two of us to meet, he knew where to find me. Meanwhile, I knew he existed, I knew he was there, and that was enough for me.

I waited patiently for him, letting time flow by me while I swum through it, gripping hard on my emotions, always trying to be careful as to not let them loose and cause another round of havoc. The thought crossed my mind once or twice, but it never went through.

Needless to say, there were moments when I believed and feared the possibility of him having forgotten about me.

Maybe being trapped in that endless period of waiting was also a way of punishing and testing me, however, I knew better than to break the laws and try to fly up to Heaven and then pull him back down. Then again, I did not know whether he was up there, in a mortal world, or still back at the Angelion Academy. That was why all I could do was wait...

And so it happened that one day after I was done tormenting the soul of a criminal, I found a strange letter on my bed. It was clearly covered in angelion spells meant to guide it to me, but from what I could see none were meant to harm me.

My first question after picking it up was if the letter was by any chance from some annoying demon trying to challenge me or if it was a message from my father... again. Chances were for the latter, however, when I opened it and read it in my mind, my eyes were quickly flooded by tears, and I began to cry like a small child. They were not tears of sadness but of happiness.

Dear Syliar Heartbreaker, Demon Queen of the Kingdom 74 in Hell,

I wish to meet with you after my graduation ceremony from the Angelion Academy. Through this message, I offer you access in the Akasha Library to the required space and time coordinates in order to find my graduation day.

Please meet me at the space coordinates inserted in the guidance spell of this letter.

Yours truly, Michael Kunosagi Asakura.

“After such a long time, I’ll finally be reunited with my love...” I said with tears in my eyes while holding the letter to my chest.

My voice was slightly different from that of my host’s from back then. Normally, angelions had their own specific voice, but when they possessed a host body, they used the mortal’s voice.

I did not waste any more time in Hell. Using the information in the Akasha Library, I opened a portal towards his Universe. This time, it looked like a puddle of water standing vertically just a few steps away from me, not a vicious vortex of unstable energy ready to rip apart anything it touched. I could see the demonic energies of Hell trying to slip through and lay havoc on the other side. Because of this, the edge of the portal looked like a ring of dark-red lightning and tendrils slithering about.

With a smile on my lips, I stepped through and entered the Universe of the Angelion Academy.