Blasphemia Ch. 08

"No!" Lily cried.

Nico and Filia looked at one another. The demon reached out and clasped the succubus's hand. The purple energy reached a blinding intensity. "I am Azathoth! I am the greatest of the Gods beyond creation! And none shall stand before me in defiance again!"

The light winked out.

The Infernals looked. Azathoth's pupil spasmed and trembled like an overworked muscle, bulging and shrinking in rapid succession. Filia spotted a plume of purple energy spewing from the side of his massive eye.

Gold light burst forth from the side of the eye, and Judith rolled in mid-air as she landed on a still tentacle. For a brief moment, Filia saw the phantom image of an angel's silhouette around the demon hunter.

"I bow to only one God," Judith said. "And you are not Him." She snapped her fingers.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then Azathoth's massive, irregular pupil contracted to a pinpoint, and a terrible scream threatened to rupture their eardrums. Golden light burst free of the eye as the gelatinous iris bubbled and roiled. The keening reached a fever pitch, then tapered off all at once as Azathoth's eye exploded.

The tentacles binding them slackened off, and they dropped to the carpet of tentacles underneath them. They spasmed and writhed gently, turning to ash and dissipating like sand in the desert. Nico and Filia held on to one another to keep their balance as the tentacles underneath them vanished, and they dropped back into the normal monochrome of the Prototory dimension.

"What did she do?" Filia wondered, looking over at Judith. The demon hunter had dropped to her knees on the grass, her head bowed and lips moving in prayer.

"It was a collaborative effort," Lily answered, her feet rustling the grass as she stepped over to the two Infernals. "I simply crammed as much power into her as I could and asked her to pick her moment to be a living bomb. Azathoth was too busy focusing on us, being the big furnaces of power and might that we are, that he didn't bother paying attention to the lowly Nephilim."

"I am far from lowly, thank you very much," Judith said. She got to her feet slowly, and held out her hand. Her dagger whistled back into her palm from where it had fallen. She tipped her head back, loosening up her shoulders.

"From there all she had to do was hit Azathoth where it hurt." Lily looked to her left. "What's become of him?"

Satan was back to the form he had initially appeared in, minus the nice sunglasses. He waved a hand dismissively. "Gone. But just as you can't destroy energy, only transfer it, the same is true of Azathoth. He'll be back in some form soon enough." He licked his palm and ran it through his greasy hair. "Hopefully this time it'll be a more manageable form rather than one of my Fallen."

"You don't know where it will be?" Judith asked. "Can we not figure it out beforehand and be there to destroy him?"

"If he's born mortal, and doesn't remember who he is, he'll just pass away and come back again," Satan said with a shrug. "Not worth the effort, in my opinion."

An expression flickered across Judith's face before she smoothed her face over. "I see."

"Now then, we did have a deal." Satan snapped his fingers and a portal opened under Judith. The demon hunter managed only a startled curse before she fell into it and it snapped shut behind her.

A silent moment passed. "Did you actually send her back to the mortal realm?" Filia asked.

"Of course I did!" Satan said, sounding offended. "What kind of dishonorable cur do you take me for?" He winked at them, then turned and wriggled his fingers. "Shall we head home then?"

"Where did you send her exactly?" Lily asked.

"Right back to the middle of the Saint Bethany's quad," Satan said. "Buck bare naked. Sure, she's home, but she'll have to get creative if she wants to find clothes and get back to the Vatican. I'm sure they're going to want to pick her brain about all that's happened." He tore open a portal, and through it wafted the familiar smells of fire and brimstone. "Gonna need a fucking long soak in the lava to get rid of the eldritch gore smell, blech."

As Satan walked through the portal, Lily reached out and took Nico and Filia's hands. "Come on, you two. Let's get out of here."

Judith pressed herself into the lee of the staircase as the police officers raced down in the direction they thought she'd gone. When their footsteps faded, she emerged from the shadows and pounded up the stairs. In the upper hallway, she used her dagger to force the locks on several of the dorm rooms until she found one with a female occupant.

As luck would have it, the resident was her size. Judith muttered a quick plea for forgiveness before helping herself to a pink shirt with a flower on it, a pair of jeans, and some functional, if a tad worn, sneakers. She jammed her dagger down the back of the pants, the blade flat against her buttock. She gave herself a quick check in the mirror, making sure that the weapon wasn't visible. As she did, she scowled. She looked like the protagonist of a young adult novel in her getup.

"Very funny, Lucifer," she seethed as she set off, headed for the staircase on the far side of the building. It would take her most of the afternoon to get to one of the hunter safehouses, longer if the police decided she was worth pursuing further. Considering she'd appeared naked out of thin air in the center of the quad like the Terminator, it wasn't too far out of the question. "We'll meet again, and next time you won't get off so easily."

As she reached ground level and began to move north, she felt a brief twinge in her shoulder, right where the demon brand had been seared into her skin. She ignored it. It was just an ache. Nothing more.

"Ow, dammit!"

Nico had forgotten about the rocks, and picked one out from underneath his backside as he sat down on the promontory in Hell. The weeks of debauchery on the campus of Saint Bethany's seemed a distant memory now, considering how abruptly it had ended and what had transpired since.

Satan hadn't wanted to make a big deal about Lily - or, rather, the part of her being that was Lilith - being back in the fold, so Lily had simply assumed the role of just another demon, masking her power to be revealed "when the time was right." Much to Nico's surprise, Satan had let both him and Filia off the hook, and had even permitted them to keep the power that Lily had granted them so they remained ascended. Rumors were already swirling around about where they had gone for almost a month and come back ascended, and Nico knew that things wouldn't stay quiet forever.

There was a rustle of wings as Filia lofted over to him. The succubus lighted down next to him and dropped into a crouch in one smooth motion, then made a face and pulled a particularly large rock out from under her ass and glared at it. "Asshole," she muttered, cocking her arm back and pitching the rock across the expanse of Hell.

"Feels weird, being back here, doesn't it?" Nico asked.

"Here as in this hill or Hell in general?" she said.

"Both."

Filia smiled and looked out over the vastness of their fiery home. She wrapped her arms around her knees, pressing her wings against the ground for balance. "Kind of, actually. When we left I wasn't concerned at all with what would come after we got all the human sex we could handle. I was just so fucking horny consequences didn't mean anything to me."

"Do you think it was worth it?" Nico asked.

Filia scoffed. "Is that even a question?"

"Well..."

She looked at him, then reached down and put a hand over his. "The answer's obviously yes, you goof. The most damage we did is that the humans of Saint Bethany's have a couple weeks of their life where they don't remember anything. Azathoh was confined to that whole other dimension, so it's not like there's a lot of collateral. If anything, we got off scot-free."

"Until the other Infernals start asking questions about how we ascended."

Filia waved her free hand. "Let them talk. It's our secret."

Silence stretched between them for a moment, as they enjoyed the quiet together. Then, the succubus snuggled closer to Nico's side. "You know, you're incredibly handsome, Nico. You know that?"

The demon smirked. "Now that I'm a studly ascended demon."

"Well, you always were." Her fingers traced the lines of his chest. "Now even more so."

Nico's hand slid down the curve of Filia's back to cup the other, more supple curve below. "And you look absolutely delicious," he purred back.

Filia grinned, then pushed him down onto his back. Nico went down willingly, allowing the succubus to rip his loincloth off and toss it aside before throwing her leg over him as if she were mounting a stallion. Her shadows turned to mist and flowed away from her body, her heavy breasts dropping down, nipples full and ready for him. Her tail brushed his ankles. "This is doing something for me, Nico, this is definitely doing something for me," she said.

Nico reached up and drew Filia down towards him. Their lips met softly, and he held her there for a long time. In all the time they'd spent together, it was perhaps the most intimate gesture they'd ever shared. When they parted, Filia was blushing something furious. "It's not just Lily that I care about, you know," he murmured.

The succubus made a soft noise, then kissed him again, harder this time. He felt her drawing from his essence a little, and he gave it willingly. He had plenty left. Filia's breath fanned hot over his face, her breasts smushing against the strong frame of his chest. His cock surged to life between them, the tip sliding against her already-slick folds. "You charmer," she said.

There, on the promontory overlooking the Plains of Torment and the Glades of Misery, but not quite as far as the Screaming Sea, atop a small series of rolling hills that didn't have a name, a demon and a succubus began to make love.

"Still has that smell to it," Lily remarked.

Satan folded his arms. "What, do you want me to Febreeze things down here? It's Hell! It's supposed to have that smell."

Lily snickered. She craned her head back and looked up and out of the Pit, past the cold, dark expanses of rock out of the massive hole to the fire-tinged rocks above. "What did you wish to speak to me about?"

Satan inclined his head, pushing his new pair of Luis Vittons up his nose. "I was wondering if you'd gleaned any more about what we discussed yesterday after coming back."

Lily folded her arms against her lower back. The succubus Matriarch had graciously provided her with clothes, and she wore a striking scarlet dress with a plunging neckline and a low-cut back to allow her mismatched wings to stretch free. The floor of Satan's palace was icy under her bare feet, but the chill didn't bother her all that much. "My memories?"

"Of course."

Lily closed her eyes and focused. She remembered the Garden, of course, and Adam, the misogynist dickhead. Then there came the desert, and the serpent that had been Satan in his early days back when he thought snakes were the most intimidating beings in all of Creation. But from there it was a blur, with glimpses of the Before Gods - Azathoth was there in all his tentacled chaos, along with his allies, the Things that had occupied the Nothing before God had beaten them back. They were great and terrible beings, that could unleash horror on a cosmic scale with a flicker of thought. They were lucky Azathoth had only been at a fraction of his full power, and they'd still almost all perished.

"No," she said. "Just the conflict with the Before Gods, then memories of my time as Lily begin. Nothing in between."

Satan sighed in frustration. "You're certain?"

"Yes." She turned to him. "Why do you need to know so bad?"

"Because a soul like yours doesn't just disappear." Satan stepped up next to her, and he followed her gaze up and out of the Pit. "It should behave like Azathoth's does and reincarnate in some shape or form almost immediately. Where did you go for all those centuries, Lilith?"

"I don't know. Does it really matter?"

Satan's eyes slid over to her. "For now, no. Eventually, it might."

Lily sighed and looked away from him. "I'll let you know if something new reveals itself to me, I promise."

Satan stared at her for a moment, then turned and walked away from her. "See to it that you do."

A rustle of wings announced Lily's departure. Satan stopped and turned back to watch her leave. The reincarnation process for Great Souls like Lilith's was a complicated and messy affair. When the Great Soul's body died, rather than slipping between realities towards either Paradise or the Inferno, it instead went on a journey between them until it latched onto a soul just past it's genesis. From there it melded and became diluted, until it was awoke in a violent - or carnal - manner. This Lily/Lilith was not the same he had known all those eons ago, and yet she was exactly the same and just didn't quite know it.

But the Great Souls were so powerful they should reappear within a couple years. Lilith had been missing for thousands. Where had she gone? Satan believed the answer lied in her memories, but he couldn't crack her mind open like an egg like he could with other being and sift through their memories, no matter how hard they were repressed. All he could do was hope the memories came back to Lily and she was forthcoming with him. He didn't want to have to torture her for it - he'd grown rather frond of her already.

A lone, scraggly messenger flapped awkwardly into the spire. Satan held out his arm and let the creature land. It was a grotesque thing, a bulbous eye with bat wings and the talons of a hawk. "He wishes to speak with you, Lord," it rasped

Satan scowled. "Leave me."

The messenger lofted away, still flapping awkwardly. Satan tapped his bootheel on the ground. A rune lit up underneath his foot, the energy flowing through thin channels in the floor like lave. It ran to the edge of the palace spire, ran up the walls, and collected in wells above each of the apertures that looked out over his domain. With the noise of stone scraping stone, heavy granite slabs descended from where they were hidden, each etched with runes of power that prevented noise from seeping out through the rock, even to the most audio sensitive of his minions. When the slabs became flush with the floor, the chamber was plunged into darkness lit only by the channels of power in the floor.

A stone section of the floor flipped over, revealing his throne. It was a monolithic thing, obsidian marble through and through etched with runes. He sat down in it. Then he grinned, snapped his fingers, and burned off his clothes with a small spark of power. As befitting his station, he was quite hung. He lounged in the chair naked, his manhood on full display.

Anything to ruffle the windbag's feathers.

The wells of energy above the slabs began to boil. A beam of light emanated from each, meeting at a point in the center of the room level with Satan's head. Where the light met, smoke wreathed up and out, coiling in and around on itself until it formed a sphere. A few moments passed, and then the smoke coalesced into the shape of a face, lit from within by a storm of sparks that accented the features of the image. It was a old, weathered face, lined by countless eons, long hair flowing down over his shoulders.. As befitting most Seraphim, he wore a cloth around his eyes, but Satan knew that particular cloth was special. It was part of the Shroud of Turin, the cloth that Jesus Christ was buried in before rising from the dead like the austentatious prick that He was.

Of course the Voice of the Host would wear such a thing.

Metatron inclined his head. Underneath the scrap of cloth around his eyes, his brow furrowed. "Must you?" he asked. His voice was a discordant choir, comprised of voices male and female, young and old.

Satan smirked. "Oh, yes, I must."

"Don't play games with me, Lucifer."

The smug expression went away. "Don't call me that."

"I'm not in the mood," Metatron glowered. "Your subjects wreaked havoc on the poor innocents at that university."

"Is that what you call it? I like to think of it as they showed those people a good time." Satan rested his chin in his hand. "I find it funny that you didn't notice for so long."

"Do not mock me!" Metatron's voice grew sharp. "You know why we did not come sooner. The Host is spread thin, thanks to the lingering effects of your machinations."

"Hey, that election had nothing to do with me." Satan jerked a thumb up at the ceiling. "Thank Him for making the humans stupid idiots. Speaking of which, how many of those people on the campus got knocked up? None, because Nico and Filia at least had the decency to take preventative measures." He grinned, his mocking humor back. "Unlike Gabriel and that-"

"Enough!" It sounded as though the entire Host had called for him to be silent, and Satan knew that Metatron's buttons had been successfully pushed. It had only taken about a minute, and if he recalled correctly, that was a record.

"Look," Satan said, sitting up in his throne. "We could trade barbs all day, but I'd rather save that for Judgement Day, wouldn't you? And I know you didn't call just to trade witticisms."

Metatron's face smoothed over gradually. "You destroyed Azathoth?"

"Yes."

"How was he reawakened? It was your responsibility to keep him sedate."

Satan inclined his head as he debated what else to tell Metatron, then decided on the truth. It would probably freak the old Seraphim out. "I believe Nico and Filia might be in possession of fragments of a Great Soul. Which one, or ones, I'm not sure. Azathoth, believing himself an Infernal, gave them a fragment of his power to use to have their fun in Saint Bethany's. Under normal circumstances they should have been consumed, but they thrived. I think that might have been what triggered Azathoth remembering."

"We will have to observe carefully to see which form he takes next." Metatron sighed heavily. "And I heard that Lilith is back."

"In a manner of speaking. Lily has Lilith's soul, and acknowledges that part of her identity, but can't summon any of Lilith's memories. I have no idea when or if we'll ever figure that out."

"She must," Metatron insisted. "It may be the only way to..." He trailed off.

Satan lowered his head, his eyes boring into the smoky visage of Metatron. "He's losing, isn't he?"

Metatron worked his jaw, and even though he said "He is managing," Satan knew the real truth.

"Make sure He knows that he's not to lose," Satan said. "It is my destiny to erase him from existence. Not those bloated, tentacled things."

"Like you can make demands of Him, traitor."

Satan settled back in his throne. "Remember, Metatron, I only agreed to this because I want a Creation to rule when this is all done, instead of a tangled mess of tencacles and eyeballs like the Before Gods would create. I'm only cordial because you're not in front of me physically. If you were, you'd be talking through a sword rammed down your throat."

Metatron actually managed a smug smile. "Always the firebrand, aren't you?"

"Hey, you know me."

The Voice of the Host's face grew serious again. "Time grows short. You know what you must do." Without a goodbye or farewell, Metaton's face vanished as the smoke plumed outwards, leaving Satan alone.

He sighed, then slowly looked up at the stone slabs that had slammed shut around his tower. There were seven of them in total, each of them baring a round stone seal mounted on the marble. Far away, at the highest point in Paradise, there was an identical chamber that Metatron used for their clandestine conversations, with identical seals on the walls.