Michael’s Academy was quite far away from my family’s house. I had to fly at a speed of over 28 Mach and even slow down time a bit so I wouldn’t be late. Father made sure the ball would keep up with me no matter what, and as long as I didn’t decide to simply warp around the place, the sphere of light would constantly stay a few meters or so in front of me.

I flew at a high altitude too because I did not want to smash into any unsuspecting angelions or airplanes. Unlike in the mortal worlds, in this Universe, divine matter was tangible. The only thing that would have probably survived a direct impact with me would have been an energy shielded spaceship.

For the next two hours or so, we talked mostly about me, what I did, what I was going to do right now, and what plans I had for my future. We joked about some stuff, laughed about others, and ended up in awkward moments when I mentioned certain situations, but all in all, the time spent together with my family could be considered as one I learned to cherish.

Honestly, I felt more like a human woman than I did a demoness who ruled entire Universes and cast upon unsuspecting mortals the darkness and evil of all creations. Actually, thinking about whether good dominated evil or the other way around didn’t seem to matter that much anymore. The more I talked with them, the less I felt like needing to explain myself to them. They accepted me as I was without a question of doubt.

For a demoness, having a family with most members as angels was a bit… troublesome. All was well for the most part except for the times when either dearest mother or father called for a family meeting.

As angels, they wanted to save the world, while I wanted to see it burn. They wanted to have picnic in the middle of a beautiful pasture, while I wanted to char some bodies in the middle of a battlefield with freshly killed corpses and ripped off body parts all over the place. They wanted peace and sunshine, while I wanted chaos and natural disasters. Simply put, we didn’t see eye to eye when it came to most thing.

When a mortal looked at a true demon, they never saw them as beings able to love and care for another. Their very existence was the definition of evil and darkness. That was why even remotely believing a demon could fall in love with an angel was beyond absurd, maybe even blasphemous in some mortal eyes.

I always found those souls to be the most pleasing to torture and torment by setting succubus and incubus demons upon them. They would enthrall the mortal minds, pull them into their intoxicating embrace and when they would give in, strangle the last drops of life out of their pathetic bodies.

The first thing I saw on the other side of the portal was a gigantic planet in the sky. From where I stood, it appeared to be at least four times bigger than Earth’s moon, but in reality, it was of an unimaginable size. Its very existence contradicted many laws of physics for the simple fact that it was big enough to span over a couple of thousands of galactic super clusters. That meant it had a surface spanning over countless billions of square light years, and every single part of it was inhabited by angelions, various plants and animals, and even some mortals who reached Ascended status. They lived in every possible type of biome which could exist in a normal Universe.

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.

Throughout my entire existence as a demoness, thinking about love was nothing close but a taboo. Any attempt at harboring a positive feeling would result in pain and suffering for me. The reason for this was simple, as an angelion who chose the side of darkness and evil, for me, light was bad, and darkness was good. I felt at home surrounded by hate, destruction, sadism, and all sorts of sins, but the moment I stepped into the light, I would feel it burning all the way to my very core. It kept us demons in check and reminded us of our current path.

That was it, there was nothing else I could do to change my fate. No matter where I looked, left, right, down, or up, the result would be the same, my suffering and separation from my one true love. I could not bear the thought of it, but there was no other way.

The archangel would wait patiently for me to make up my mind, no matter how long it would take. Being in an area of near stopped time granted him the possibility to do so without worrying about returning to the heavens.

“I believe I can answer some of your questions, but I will let the demon answer the rest.” said Archangel Metatron, who appeared not that far away from us.

Light and love surrounded the angelic being from the High Heavens, calming down the demonic energies present in the world around us. The mortals would certainly resume their normal train of thought after our little scuffle was over, although, they would still have to bear the burden of the consequences of their actions while in they were in that state. A strong pure soul would never fall to the temptation of even the most cunning of demonic powers.

Looking up at him, I glared and then asked “Why are YOU here?”

“DIE!” shouted the rotten demon.

Alas, weakened, at the end of my breath, and with my host just a step away from actual death, there was nothing for me to do but go back quietly to the realm of demons. However, that very thought annoyed the hell out of me. It fueled me with rage and hate! I wanted to grab Severus by his smug face, sink my claws into his flesh and then bash him into the ground until there was nothing left of him!

But why didn’t I do this?

Because he won?

Because I had no more power left?

Power...

“Where are we?” I asked as fear rushed through every cell in my body.

I was afraid of the demon who appeared before me, I was afraid of what he might do to me. Unlike Syliar, there was something different about him, something scary.

“Outside.” Severus replied with a smirk on the tip of his lips.

As the dark fog cleared up around us, I found myself standing outside of the old apartment building. We were far away from the entrance, on the other side of the street, near the crossroads. Behind us and all around us were countless men dressed either in army suits, elegant black suits, or priest garbs.

Before I went to finish off those pathetic mortals who dared to interrupt my moment of pleasure, I checked back on Michael to see if he was safe. All I had to do was stretch my presence a little bit until I touched his, however, no matter how far I stretched it, I did not get a single reply back.

“What? No!” I shouted in absolute surprise and disbelief as I rushed back into the room.

There was no sign of him here. It was as if he had vanished from the face of the planet, but such a thing would have been impossible unless an angelion was involved, and I highly doubted it could have been a technologically advanced alien species that just so happened to drop by and kidnap him for their experiments. As for the mortals of this planet, there was absolutely no chance in a freezing Hell that they could get close enough to him without me knowing about it. Thus, what I wondered now was if I was dealing with an angel or a demon?

By nature, a demon should be unable to feel or share love. By pure definition, he was meant only to cause havoc, destruction, pain, and suffering to everyone around him. A demon was supposed to be the pure manifestation of evil, yet here I was, feeling nothing but love towards my Soul Mate and unable to take any sort of heinous actions against him.

If he were a normal human, I would have already begun to torment him in the most cruel and unpleasant of ways. Naturally, one would think of some sort of physical pain, but honestly, only a low type of demon could dare to think of something like that. Although capable of inflicting the most horrendous of physical injuries, nothing could compare to the pain and suffering caused by the pain of one’s soul.

As I stood there gazing upon the visage of a beautiful naked woman hidden behind only by the puffy fabric of a long bathing towel, her deep black eyes tempting me with a playful seductive gaze, I found myself unable to think, to move, or even say a single word. Was there even anything worthwhile to say?

That had to be a dream, a fantasy created by my weak soul and mind after being cast down on the very edge of insanity, yet it felt quite real. However, that was the first time in my life when I bared witness to such a gaze. The first time when instead of hate, disgust, and disapproval, I saw love.

“Michael?” she asked with a sweet honey-like voice.

Unfortunately, the pipes were clogged, the walls were smeared with dried blood and there was another unexpected sight. In the corner of the shower was another dead body, or at least what was left of it. It belonged to a middle-aged man who committed suicide by blowing up his brains with a gun. Guess his rotting corpse and disgusting sins were what added to the aroma of the place, but unlike his friend on the couch, he escaped my sight.

What’s wrong with me? I asked myself, seeing how I kept forgetting about various details.

Frankly speaking, it annoyed me.

That was a very pleasant... neighborhood, but not one in which I would let my beloved roam around unguarded and unprotected by my power. If he even so much as stepped out of my shadow, Michael would get jumped on by all sorts of hooligans. They would stab him, shoot him, hurt him in any way they could think of just for the simple fact that he was alive. I could not afford to let that happen. For that reason alone, I extended my presence a little further, making it known up to their very subconscious level that we were not a group with whom they wanted to mess with. It kept most of those rascals at bay, but others still dared to shoot a glare at us. As long as they didn’t act foolishly, I saw no reason in ending their pathetic little mortal lives.