Page 27 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires (Diabolic Romance #3)

Wally

What had I done? What the hell had I done? What the ever-living Hell—quite literally—had I done? Somehow, I’d come up with the bright idea we needed to charge into battle and fight Beelzebub so he wouldn’t kill Lilith until we had the time to trap both of them inside the Diabolic orb.

I excused myself from the storefront and headed back toward my study, where I could sort through artifacts and determine what would help with…challenging a devil. My breathing hitched when I stepped by Kell and her workstation.

As uncertain as I was about everything, Bez’s wellbeing, the state of the world, my own abilities, there was one thing I knew for certain. The orb would work. There was this tension beneath my skin, essence circulating on high alert, ready to fight the threat of the broken artifact. The more Kell restored it, the more aware of its presence, its power, I became.

During the raid on the witch coven, this same sensation had hit. Struck. Sparked a fuse inside me to defend against a looming threat. But I didn’t make sense of it in the seconds that passed when confronted with those Diabolic orbs. Bez shattered them and the witches before I could react, before my essence could attack.

Attack.

I was really going to attack Beelzebub. With Bez. With other demons. Why hadn’t Bez said anything about me going on this mission? I shouldn’t be going on this mission. I wasn’t ready. I’d never be ready. Not with my essence. I wasn’t a Diabolic, not really.

I continued rifling through items until I found the case containing the demon-killing blade. Supposedly. Not that I ever personally killed a demon with it. But it hurt Diabolics a lot. Messed with their essence, their healing. It’d help for certain.

“If I could open the damn thing.” I pried the latches, somehow struggling to unfasten them.

How could I delude myself into thinking I could help in this battle when I couldn’t even open a case?

“I can’t even help Kell,” I muttered. Not without butting heads. I knew that much; I knew to step aside, to put my ego aside. Why’d my ego convince me to see this plan through? To convince others it was the plan? “I’m a moron.”

“Furthest thing from it,” Bez said, sculking from the doorframe. He tilted his head just enough to slip his horns under the doorway without hitting his head again. Since staying in his demon form, he stood taller, and the store seemed smaller. “You okay?”

I sighed in response, holding back every agonizing question leaping through my thoughts.

“Look at you, lost in that little hive of a mind.” Bez kissed my forehead, calming the wave of anxiety beneath the surface of my thoughts.

But even his touch couldn’t soothe my paranoia.

“Why didn’t you tell me to stay back?” I asked less a question and more an accusation. “I have zero experience in fighting. I mean, I have some. But not against Diabolics. Okay, there’s a few instances where I fought Diabolics, but never alone. Then again, I wouldn’t be alone in this battle either. But this isn’t demons. This is a devil. Two devils. More like one-and-a-half devils. Well, probably more of a quarter based on how scattered Lilith’s essence is.”

I stared through the nearby wall. Literally saw past the brick and stone, glimpsing the writhing clumps of essence dragged back to the city from across the globe, but too bloody and broken to rejoin with Lilith’s core.

“And yeah, I’m strong. Definitely strong. But should I really be fighting a devil? Should any of us?” I continued because I had a million things to express, to pour out, to… “I don’t even know. My thoughts are swimming with so much confusion and fear and stupidity. I’m not smart enough to be making a plan that challenges the scariest, most hateful devil in existence.”

“Are you done?” Bez blinked. “I can let you ramble on until you tucker yourself out if you prefer.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Terrified beyond belief,” he said. “Or I would be if I didn’t have someone to believe in.”

“I am not the person who you put your faith in.”

“No, you’re the person who I put my dick in.”

My face fell flat. “Seriously, Bez? Can you take nothing seriously?”

“I take dick pretty seriously.” He smirked. “Gladly take yours if you’ll sling it this way.”

And just like that, my entire face burned, quite possibly literally on fire. Was I on fire? Had Bez really just said that?

“Now that I got your attention, I want you to know I do fear what comes next. I fear falling short. I fear failing. I fear losing you. But most of all, I fear not honoring you.”

My eyes watered.

“You’re the smartest, strongest, bravest, brightest, cutest, dorkiest, most-annoyingly ridiculous-est person I’ve ever met in my long eternity.” Bez grabbed both my hands, wrapping his over and under them. “You make me better. You make me happy. You make me believe. I stand by your decisions because if you believe something will work, then I know with absolute certainty we can’t fail.”

“What if I’m wrong?”

“We could sit here while you do the math on it.”

I contemplated what kind of formulas I’d even need to run to evaluate those figures. It’d likely take me weeks to properly discern a proper method that’d yield the best results.

Bez grinned, studying my mouth. I was clearly muttering. Dammit.

I bit my lower lip and squinted. “You’re screwing with me.”

“If I were screwing with you, you’d know it, love.” He smacked my butt with his tail. “I am, however, teasing you.”

“It’s distracting.”

“Good. If that hive of a mind is kept busy, you can’t buzz with self-doubt.”

I leaned in and hugged him. “Thank you.”

He squeezed me back so tight and comforting, it removed all the doubt. All the stress. All the confusion. There was only me and Bez.

I didn’t use this time to train, to study, to prepare. Everything about to unfold was unlike anything I’d experienced. We were about to clash with a devil, a being with the power to sway dimensions, consume entire realities, command armies of billions.

There was no preparation that’d ready me for that. So I used this time to hug Bez, to hold him as he held me, to hope and pray and wish and believe our plan worked.

We’d attack Beelzebub. We’d stall him. Keep Lilith alive a little longer. Kell would complete the orb. She’d seal away Lilith. She’d seal away Beelzebub. The end. The easiest of easy plans.

I chuckled anxiously. “We’re so fucked.”

“You, always.” Bez squeezed my ass cheeks. “Me? Only if you’re incredibly lucky.”

My laughter turned into this bizarre cackle from Bez’s utter absurdity.

“And how does one get so lucky?” I slapped his butt and grabbed his firm cheeks just as tight as he’d squeezed mine.

“For starters, that whole confidence thing is really doing it for me.” Bez kissed me.

I gathered everyone as the tide of the battle neared its end. Using my senses, I peered through the distance, zooming in at the sight of two devils. Lilith had shrunk, barely larger than an anaconda, wings flapping as she slithered around the confined space where her opponent kept her trapped. Beelzebub had shrunk too, barely a few feet taller than Bez. Quite the stark difference from when he entered the dimension towering over most of the buildings. It was difficult to know if the size morphic change had to do with his depleted essence dueling with Lilith’s across the planet or if he wanted to toy with his prey.

“If we’re gonna do this,” I said with a gulp, one that didn’t remove the trepidation stuck in my throat, making every word shaky. “We have to move now.”

Each step Beelzebub took had this taunting effect, as if he wanted Lilith to suffer and beg and break before he ended it all. An end that he’d worked toward for nearly a thousand years. The surreal impossibility of it all. The distortion of reality.

I found myself questioning my world’s timeline, the biblical truths so many humans believed, and how much of that truth, to a degree, might’ve overlapped with the history of Diabolics. How much of their accords trickled down to lowly worlds such as ours through the mouths of demons who’d just witnessed a hundred-year battle or a dimension concurred and shared that truth, that history with mortals? With Mythics? With a world so much younger yet the same age as their dimension?

There was so much I wanted to study, to research, to share with the world. No way was I going to die here and now. No way was I going to let the world die.

“How close are you, Kell?” Mora asked.

“Minutes away if y’all just hold on for a bit.”

Lilith wailed in the distance.

“We can’t.” I stared at the handful of glass shards Kell needed to assemble, the remaining steps to invoking the Diabolic orbs’ power. “We can hold out for a few minutes.”

“We’re all going to die.” Mora folded her arms. “And just know that I’m going to make all of your lives as miserable as demonically possible when we’re in Oblivion.”

“Aw, you’re making me feel all warm and squishy.” Corson puckered his lips.

Mora ran a finger along Corson’s sharp jawline, smiling up at him. “Remember that time I murdered you?”

“Didn’t take.”

“If at first, you don’t succeed.” Mora winked.

“Enough,” I said. “No joking around. I get you’re all used to being the strongest person in the room 99.9% of the time. I get that you’ve all faced death and wars before, but this is Beelzebub. This devil will obliterate the entire dimension, every dimension, if we fail.”

“Let’s fuck ‘em up.” Bez flexed his claws and spread his wings wide.

I led everyone outside, and we formed a line as we walked into battle. Part of me wanted to surge ahead, fly quickly, but with each step, I noted the strategy.

Bez stood beside me, unleashing waves of black lightning that crackled against Beelzebub’s elements circulating across the city. Jolt after jolt reshaped into electrical silhouettes of Mythic beasts, primal lightning lunging furiously ahead.

Mora stood on my opposite side, strutting in her heels while weaving her hands to trace incantations of the highest caliber. Her technique was flawless, her spells on par with the strongest of mages, which meant her host body must’ve belonged to someone highly skilled in Collective education. Magic erupted in every direction, countering or redirecting the chaos of Beelzebub’s strikes.

Corson walked next to Bez, breathing in so deep that his chest swelled like the throat of a frog. Just when I thought he’d pop, he exhaled black fire. The flames cascaded ahead in a wild stampede, eating away the elements already stunned by Bez’s lightning.

Orias strutted in a similar fashion to Mora, eyes trained on her hips as he mimicked the walk. All the while, his tentacles sprang out of the torso of his host body, delicate of the flesh, and he waved his limbs to telekinetically hurl Lilith’s broken essence from the grasp of Beelzebub’s barrage of attacks.

Satan stayed the furthest out in this lined formation and turned to me.

“We devils gotta make the grand entrances, right?” He swallowed his lollipop—stick and all—then wooed loudly before raising a single arm and shooting a tight black beam from his palm. “In the fine words of a prima donna princess, get fucked posers!”

The energy struck Beelzebub and exploded with a cacophony. Not a single one of the demons I walked beside slowed down. They didn’t even appear fazed by the wave of explosive destruction. Admittedly, it was pretty badass walking alongside them through the empty streets of the Diabolic Oasis.

Tar and acid and ice and fire and wind and molten earth sprang forth in every direction, yet not a single demon flinched. None of them bothered to even react once Bez pulled his wings in tight over his chest.

The seconds ticked by, and the bombardment of elements swept in close until Bez unleashed a powerful black gale that sliced and diced the entire attack.

“He’s not even treating us like a threat.” Bez cocked his head, glaring. “Let’s make him regret that arrogance.”

“Gladly.” Corson grabbed Bez’s arm, and the two instinctively spun round and round, no communication required but so synced in their strategy.

Bez released his grip, and Corson flew ahead like a flaming comet.

In an instant, everyone took that as their cue and barreled ahead. Orias moved the slowest, easiest for my eyes to track. His tentacles burrowed deep into the street, pulling out chunks of concrete, which he set aflame and threw.

Mora appeared beside Beelzebub in a flash, evading the swing of his fist and darting back to the safety of darkness conjured by a spell just as Bez used the opening as an opportunity.

Bez stabbed Beelzebub in the chest with the demon-killing blade. The devil roared; he roared so loudly, the earth around the two cracked and crumbled, collapsing to pieces.

Before Beelzebub could attack Bez in retaliation, Corson slammed into him all fire and shock and cackling manically until Beelzebub threw him back with telekinesis.

Not that it did much good. Corson spit fire as he flew back. Satan swept in quickly, using the fire as a cloak. Each swing of his fist and kick of his legs held this majestic acrobatic movement. It was as if he danced circles around the devil, pummeling him in the process.

I watched this all unfold from a safe distance. As safe as ground zero of a world-ending battle could be. I couldn’t move. My knees quaked, an instant from buckling. But I didn’t need to fight. The five demons moved succinctly, striking Beelzebub at every turn.

Satan remained the heaviest hitter—logical since he possessed a piece of the devil Lucifer inside him. That made him the most vital fighter in their group. Seconded only by Bez, the only demon here actually trained by Beelzebub and used to waging battle with such ferocity.

No. I should’ve been the second heavy hitter. I had devil essence, too. I had Beelzebub’s essence. Not that he’d even deigned to acknowledge me or the loss in power he suffered from that missing fragment.

“ Because you are nothing, ” Beelzebub’s voice echoed in my thoughts, a roar of echoes surrounding his words, the Diabolic tongue.

What was this? My heart surged, my eyes fluttered, and everything around me twisted into gnarled, warped images of decayed plants, putrid air, and rotten corpses. The world spun in every direction, showing me the entire planet in destructive glimpses.

How? No. This wasn’t real.

I grabbed my head, squeezing away the Diabolic nightmare he’d cast. When? It didn’t matter. I needed to break free of this. I screamed, lashing out with essence and magic and spells to wash away the nightmares. Nothing worked. They continued spinning faster. I fell to my knees, hyperventilating.

“Relax.” Bez held a steady hand on my chest.

In the seconds since I’d fallen, he was covered in injuries; one of his wings had been sliced off.

“Bez.”

He wasn’t the only one in pain. Satan thrashed about, covered in flames. Orias had lost three tentacles. Mora stood riddled with open wounds, blood and essence spilling out faster than she could heal. Corson dragged himself forward on the ground, barely able to move. Had it been seconds? Had more time passed? This was the power of a devil at work. We weren’t even able to buy time.

“You all really believed you could challenge me? Five pathetic demons.” Beelzebub roared. “I have faced armies of millions. Slaughtered worlds of billions. Devoured dimensions of trillions. You are nothing.”

He withdrew the demon-killing blade, the one that’d remained embedded in his chest the entire time he fought off Bez and the others. It didn’t even faze him. With telekinesis, he crushed the blade, snapping the metal into a thousand tiny pieces that were forced into a small ball of trash for discarding.

“I’m more than a demon,” Satan hissed, finally free of the fire.

“Yes, a paltry fool with a few drops of Lucifer’s essence.” Beelzebub snarled, his snout revealing his fangs. “Lucifer was as inferior as Lilith, vain devils content with the gift the universe granted them and only interested in trivial foolery meant to make them memorable.”

“One demon with a piece of the devil might not frighten you, but how about two?” Corson propped himself up with his arms, sapphire eyes glimmering.

I needed to help. Needed to move.

Corson held up a piece of Lilith’s splintered essence, letting the tar drip down his forearm.

“How long I’ve craved this moment.” Corson scoffed, cutting a piercing glare at Lilith, who merely lay on the ground unconscious. “Mother isn’t even aware of such a momentous victory.”

He stuck out his tongue, stretching it nearly a foot in length, and wrapped it around his arm, lapping at the piece of essence he’d taken. A fraction, a tiny molecule of power ingested, but once he gulped that fragmented power, his body surged. Injuries that’d left his body mangled a moment before vanished almost as quickly as he had.

In an instant, Corson sprang out of shadows weaved by Diabolic webs and punched Beelzebub across the jaw, cracking one of the exposed fangs at the end of his snout. It didn’t end there. He swooped back into the shadows and darted out from a different direction, rampaging against Beelzebub.

Satan raced ahead, joining Corson’s futile attacks. They moved in a flurry, swiftly striking Beelzebub. The devil moved his four arms quicker than the demons, blocking their hits, countering their blows, knocking each of them back, and pummeling them until they collapsed.

It didn’t matter what we did.

“Fall back,” Bez said. “Reinforce the barrier.”

“What, no.” I hadn’t even fought yet. Hadn’t moved yet. Hadn’t found the courage to face a devil.

Lilith lunged from her spot, recovered enough from the time we stalled, and furiously bit Beelzebub’s throat. With her fangs set in deep, anchored into his flesh, she wrapped her serpent body tight, coiling around his arms, torso, and right leg.

“I need to help.” I traced incantations in the air, flipping the sigils and inverting signs to make this healing spell adaptable for Diabolics. I couldn’t offer much, but I could mend Bez’s injuries, speed up the recovery of his essence, support those fighting.

Lilith wailed, and the air itself shattered like glass, crumbling away chunks of the dimensional walls. An icy wind blew. I shivered. Such a stark contrast to the scalding heat that radiated off the devils to collide with the frigid chill of the world outside this hidden city. A broken city now. A dying city in a dying world in a dying dimension.

I ground my teeth, grinding out the self-doubt. I needed to focus, to fight, to buy time for Kell.

“Look out.” Bez shoved me, not fast enough.

The shriek a moment before. Beelzebub had broken Lilith into pieces, dropping her to the ground in seconds. Now, he barreled forward, a moment from hitting Bez, who braced in front of me.

“No!” I screamed with as much fear and malice and hatred as Lilith had unleashed a second before.

Unlike her, my energy didn’t wane. The broken walls of the dimension fell like glass shards, yet when the decibels of my Diabolic voice reached them and everything else, time slowed. Froze. Even Beelzebub. An awareness met with a furrowing brow and snarled snout.

Run. I needed to run.

With Bez in my grasp, I dodged Beelzebub. Again. Again. Again. Each time, shouting with my essence to stall the devil’s pursuit until he vanished from my sights altogether.

“Good job, Wally.” Bez shrugged off the stillness, the scream that continued to delay time around us. Living, dead, non-organic, magical or not. All of it seemed affected.

I spun around, searching for Beelzebub.

“Look out.” Bez shoved me away from the approaching darkness.

Beelzebub knocked Bez away, reopening every injury I’d just mended with magic.

“Manipulating the flow of time.” Beelzebub looked down on me. “You’ve learned how to wield my essence well.”

I went to run, but the ground itself encased my hands and feet beneath gravel. Beelzebub leaned close, a clawed hand gripped my face, and his snout pressed against my cheek.

“This is more essence than what was taken.” He sniffed, deep and confirming Lilith’s suspicions about my essence evolving.

His essence.

No. Mine.

Using my tail, I cracked apart the rocky shackles which bound me. Then I balled a fist and decked Beelzebub across the jaw with spiked knuckles.

“It’s my essence now.” It had evolved with me, for me, grown and changed in ways devils never had before. He couldn’t have it back. He couldn’t win this battle. He couldn’t destroy everything simply because he lusted for destruction.

Without hesitation, without pause, I swept ahead and found myself clashing with the devil.

I hit him with every spell I’d learned. Incantations one after another. Saturation of the atmosphere itself, turning the air and earth and molecules in between into my territory of combat. The familiar bond to Tony offered a pantheon of knowledge and insight into things about nature only witches accessed. I harnessed every element in my repertoire, and those I didn’t have access to, Tony assisted with. I glamoured myself approaching Beelzebub from a thousand directions, each illusion obvious. I wouldn’t win with stealth, but if I spammed his senses, then it might offer an edge for a second.

All I needed was another second. Another landed punch. Another critical spell. Another fatal injury. Another—

With a sudden and single snap of Beelzebub’s jaws, he shattered every incantation I’d cast. The swing of his lower arms sent the elements burrowing into the pits of the earth. His menacing exhale broke my control on the area. And he ignored my illusions, unfazed by pain, real or imagined.

In an instant, he towered above me, pummeling me from every direction. Hit after hit. It was brutal and blurring and bloody, and I couldn’t think anymore.

…

…

…

He kept hitting…

…

…

…

It hadn’t stopped…

…

…

…

I didn’t know what to do…

…

…

…

I gasped, awaiting the next onslaught. The next brutal assault. The next bone-breaking strike.

But relief struck when Beelzebub tired of me and knocked away the demons who bombarded him in a frenzy. I needed more time. Everything faded in and out with each blink of my swollen eyes. Orias tracing sigils of wicked spells. Mora using one-of-a-kind artifacts that could slaughter a nation. Satan sent waves of darkness. Corson cackled chaotically, still high off the taste of a devil embedded with his essence; it pulsed and thrummed with every attack he attempted.

I lay there, defeated and incapable of continuing.

The ground crunched beneath Beelzebub’s footsteps, and I wheezed. I needed to move. Fight. Harness my power. If he took another step, I’d be dead. We’d all be dead. Everything would end. The world. The dimension. The neighboring realms. The universe. Beelzebub would strike it all down.

Lilith shrieked.

I flinched. Beelzebub paused. We both turned to see Lilith’s crumbling body.

Her scream didn’t hold the fervor of resistance it had every time it had before. No. Her voice echoed with fear and defeat and an inability to stop the inevitable.

Kell approached, chanting with the Diabolic orb in hand. She’d made it here. She’d finished the orb. I panted, relieved and exhausted and struggling to mend all the damage dealt.

Kell stood silent with the orb raised high, unrelenting as broken bits of Lilith’s essence funneled from all across the city. Each writhing piece slashed at Kell, sliced deep, tore chunks of flesh, and did everything in the devil’s power to resist the eternal prison awaiting her.

In one blink of an eye, Lilith raged against the orb. In the next, she’d fallen prey to the indomitable artifact.

It worked. It held. It still had power, power Kell directed toward Beelzebub. She chanted the song meant to contain him, enacting the symbols on the Diabolic orb and giving her all to end this battle.

“The absurdity of twisting an angel’s tears into a prison,” Beelzebub growled. “To think such a thing exists.”

Angels? What?

Beelzebub lifted off the ground, not resisting the pull of the Diabolic orb but instead using the momentum to lunge at Kell.

NO!

Mora leapt at Kell, knocking their footing out of Beelzebub’s path but also breaking the gravitational pull of the Diabolic orb.

“Angels?” Kell asked, as perplexed as me.

“The Angelics are long since lost to the universe,” Mora explained, her eyes glowing emerald green. “Very few still breathed when I was born.”

“They were admirable in combat but soft.” Beelzebub stood tall again. “They challenged the glory of the devils, and as such, I removed them from existence.”

“Lucifer loved his angels.” Satan punched Beelzebub, knocking his balance off, but not enough. “One of his few admirable qualities. You haven’t tasted love until you’ve tasted an angel.”

Beelzebub went to strike Satan, only to miss when Orias wrapped a tentacle around Satan’s waist and pulled him out of range.

“Lilith never stopped talking about how much they glittered.” Corson struck Beelzebub from behind. “It seems you owe me a few centuries of whiny lectures endured about the times before.”

When Beelzebub turned in rage, another tentacle snatched up Corson from the devil’s grasp.

Soon, Mora and Bez joined the fray, each demon antagonizing and retreating again and again with Orias’ aid.

I gathered my bearings, doing my best to heal the injuries endured. Between my essence and magic, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Each demon fought with a fury, using the catalyst of the Diabolic orb to push them past their limits. Slowly, it dragged Beelzebub inward. His essence could only fight so much. Every time a demon landed a lucky strike, a piece of Beelzebub was sealed away. But he warred and raged and refused to go quietly.

Surrender from the incarnation of violence seemed impossible, but I wanted to do my part. Moving was too much work, so I shared my power, weaving sigils with my tail—the only part of me not entirely numb—and created every top-tier incantation I knew, which made for a lot of spell weaving.

The demons moved faster, harder, ruthless and unyielding. I threw more spell work at them. More. More. More. Anything to bring this devil to his end.

The devil’s lower arms transformed into blades, and he lunged directly for me.

Bez intercepted him, stopping him from impaling me. Two blades thrust through his chest, another breaking his remaining wing.

“Takes more than that, bastard!” Bez spit at Beelzebub, dragging himself off the sword arms.

Without hesitation, Bez resumed his attacks, the same each of the demons before had attempted. Bit by bit, he ripped apart Beelzebub’s essence. Small fragments, but enough to lure them into the orb. If he could keep this up, if the others could, if I could, then it’d bring a final end to Beelzebub.

“Whenever you fail me like this, I just send you back to Oblivion so you can contemplate your disgrace.” Beelzebub unleashed such tremendous fire it incinerated Bez to nothingness.

Instantaneous. Even the ashes were mere wisps. Impossible. Bez couldn’t… Bez wouldn’t… Bez… Not Bez!

I screamed so loudly I shattered the broken shards of the dimensional wall Lilith had cracked apart. They sprinkled like snowfall, glittering around the ashes of Bez. Those flakes were fueled with magic both new and ancient. I took a deep breath, drawing in all that stray mana. More than any misfit mage or not could contain. My essence clawed at my insides as furious as me. It needled throughout, repurposing the magic we’d taken.

My shadow swelled before Beelzebub, horns growing into gnarled twists much like a demonic stag.

“I’ll end you.” In a flash, part incantation and part essence, I appeared behind Beelzebub.

Without a word, I hacked and slashed and ripped into every weak point Bez had exposed. I tore chunks of Beelzebub out, releasing them back into the pull of the orb. I dug my claws into Beelzebub, burrowing into the spots Bez had already chiseled away at.

Bez had pushed his former devil to the precipice of defeat, and I gave the final shove. I wanted to drag out this agony. I wanted to make the devil suffer a fraction of what I felt. But more than anything, I didn’t wish to give him the glory of a final battle.

“May history forget you, you worthless fuck!” I kicked him in the chest.

Beelzebub roared, thunderous and godly, as the Diabolic orb contained his essence, shredding it into microscopic pieces, pieces which swam alongside Lilith’s essence. The two collided, their beings warring even in this prison.

I tumbled forward and nearly collapsed on the ground. I took deep, exhausted breaths, each exhale returning and restoring pieces of the city. It’d need a complete overhaul, maybe just a wrecking ball to finish the job, but I didn’t want to see this place die. I didn’t want to see anyone die. No death. Not B… I bit my lip. I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t think it. Couldn’t feel it. Not now, not ever.

Mora and Kell walked over, each using the other as a prop to stand as their legs trembled with exhaustion.

“There isn’t a hole deep enough to drop these two.” Mora stared at the orb, studying it cautiously while wrapping her arm around Kell’s waist.

“There’s one place we can send them,” I said, fighting back every sob ready to burst out.

I couldn’t process Bez’s death. I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have to.

“We can send them to Oblivion.” I stood to my feet. “Drop them into the nothingness where they won’t be a threat to anyone.”

“I can see those gears turning, Walter. It doesn’t take much to know what you’re thinking.” Mora studied me, careful and cautious in the way she sidestepped. “I’m sorry about Bez, but we can’t open Oblivion.”

“Yes, we can. Bez pulled me out of that place with devil essence, I can do the same.”

“He pulled out your consciousness,” Mora explained. “He waved a little flag of devil essence which retrieved your mind.”

“And I’ll do the same,” I snapped.

“Bez is gone on a cellular level, mind, body, and soul cast into the nothingness of Oblivion,” Mora declared it so nonchalantly, so callous, so flippant about the situation. “It takes a devil, a true and complete devil, to open the doorway to Oblivion and pluck out a deceased demon.”

“I’m unique, a hybrid devil unlike any other.” I barred my teeth. “I’ll open Oblivion and pull out every fucking demon if that’s what it takes.”

“You’re powerful, Walter. More powerful than I think any of us realize quite yet, but you can’t open Oblivion. You wouldn’t even know where to look for the door to Oblivion.”

“Where is it?”

“I don’t know,” Mora hissed. “It’s nothingness—not sure it has a fixed location. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“They would, though.” I stared at the orb. “I can leash Lilith or Beelzebub, form a Diabolic bond with one, force them to do my bidding, and open Oblivion.”

“They’re both broken, incomplete devils, incapable of opening the doorway on their own.”

“Then I’ll form a bond with both of them,” I shouted. “I’ll make them obey, make them work together. Two partial devils could surely be strong enough to open one damn doorway. Stop coming up with reasons this won’t work and help find a fucking solution!”

“I might have a better idea than taming the shrew and her eternal cuckold.” Corson propped a foot on the orb, a cocky grin on his smug face. “Why make deals with devils when you can dance with demons?”

“I don’t have time for riddles or annoying come-ons.”

“I want to be rid of Lilith permanently, and I very much enjoy your idea of dropping her into Oblivion, where she’s left me to rot many times before,” Corson said. “The beautiful thing about falling into Oblivion over and over and over again? You start to memorize the trail leading to nowhere.”

Was this real? Was this really going to happen? Were we going to rescue Bez from death?

My heart surged. “Let’s do this.”