¿Por qué no los dos?

Pov. Village head

Our village was dying, and many of us were ready to die. As the village head, it was my responsibility to do something about it, but what could I do. The village was going through a drought, and only the gods could fix that, so we prayed and performed rituals in order for a god to take mercy on us.

But nothing changed. In fact, things got worse due to a group of soldiers coming to the village in order to take some food. We tried to resist, but several people were killed. They even disgraced several of our women. Regretfully, not all of them lived through the awful experience. Whether that was a blessing or not, I could not say due to how the women that survived act nowadays.

The better ones can function normally to a certain extent, but there are moments where you can tell something wrong. As for the worst of them, they may as well be living corpses.

Everyone in the village was hurt by them in one way or another. Whether they were killed, robbed, disgraced, or injured. But the worst were the children left orphaned, though not all of them were orphaned per say but they may as well have been. One of the children had his mother, but she didn't really do anything after being disgraced. She didn't talk or really move at all. Her son had to move her so she could get from one place to another. The only time she would move was when she was fed by her son.

During normal times, life would have been hard for them, but the village would have helped them out. But we are in the middle of a drought, and as difficult as it is to accept, they will probably be the first to die since they have no one to get food for them.

Not that it matters much depending on how long this drought lasts, we may all share the same fate.

But one day a building appeared outside our village. I've never seen a building like this before, not even in the big cities. It was entirely made of wood with an odd design with a sign that said food and water for sale.

After all the village men gathered, we decided that a group of our strongest men would enter to see if it was safe. After they entered, we heard nothing, and there didn't appear to be anything going on. We waited with worried expressions on our faces until the men came out excited and said their prayers had been answered.

They explained that a god named Baal-Zebul has come and given them food and water for a price. It was hard to believe, but after they got a group of men to help them to carry all the food and water to their house, it was hard not to believe in their words.

That started a chain reaction where all the men asked for the same deal. After stopping one of them to ask what was the price they had to pay for all this, they answered that they wouldn't live past 50 years old.

Which was an odd price to pay for what they were getting in return. Mostly because the way things were going, they would have been lucky to make it by the end of the year. Even if the drought didn't hit if you made it to 40, you would have been considered to live a full life.

I guess word got around the village because more men came to make the same deal, they even started bringing their son's with them to get more food and water. I was worried this may anger the good, but nothing happened, and they were given more food and water instead.

After a while, I saw a man and woman run into the store carrying a child. I was shocked, but I recognized the couple and understood what was going on. I knew the couple and knew their son was sick and had a chance of dying. I began to worry again about the god becoming displeased with us, but again, my worries were unfounded as they came out with their child perfectly healthy.

This caused another round of the men bringing their wife and daughters to get more food and water as well as their injured. They either got more food or healed.

I also learned that the food they were given would never spoil, so they didn't have to worry too much about how to store all of it. After I heard that, I gathered up all the elderly and made a decision.

We entered the store, and I finally saw the god that decided to help us. Everything about him told me he was no mere mortal, from his looks to his clothing. Him merely looking at me made me feel so insufficient.

'So this is what an ant feels when I look at it,' was all I felt in his presence.

"Thank you, Lord Baal-Zebul, for having mercy on this village. But we must shamefully request you to hear our final plea for help," I said, hoping not to displease him.

"Yea, sure, just say it already," he said without taking us seriously.

"Thank you, we would give you the remainder of our life if you help us with the drought."

It is what we have all discussed before entering.

"Okay then, but I'll leave you 2 years of life so you can see that I've kept my end of the deal," he said, surprising me on how merciful he was.

"Thank you for your kindness. We will make sure future generations know of your greatness."

"Whatever, now that you got what you want, get out."

"Thank you again," I said as we were quickly leaving due to sensing his growing annoyances with us.

But before we could leave, four children pushed their way in before kneeling before our god.

"Please, god, grant our wish," they said.

As I feared what would happen, I realized who the children were. They were four of the orphans of our village. But these four weren't like the other orphans. They showed great promise. They were stronger, smarter, tougher, but most of all, they had an abnormal will to survive compared to all the children in the village. Especially the leader that would face this drought while doing everything he possibly can to take care of his mother, along with the other orphans.

"Hey, don't be disrespectful to our god!" I shouted, hoping he wouldn't give them divine punishment.

"But village chief, we must get our revenge," said the leader.

"You dear, talk back to me, in front of our god!"

During normal times, these four kids would have grown up to be the backbone of our village. Unfortunately, tragedy hit our village, but now, with our god's help, we can get through this. But if they displease him, who knows what may happen to them.

~Thud

I tried to slap him to appease our god, but I was slammed to the floor by an invisible force.

"No fighting in here," he said lazily.

"Please forgive me," I said.

"Just wait until the punishment is over, then you can leave. Now then, what do you four want?"

I couldn't see his reaction due to being unable to move, I could only see the children kneeling. But he sounded amused by their request.

"We want revenge."

When they said that my heart sank, of course they would want that due to what happened we all wanted revenge.

"And who do you want to get revenge on?" He asked with more interest.

"Those who have spilled the blood of the innocent."

When they said that Lord Baal-Zebul became silent for a while. I was beginning to imagine the worst and prepared to offer myself in place of their life to appease his anger. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.

"Okay, then I will give you what you want, the power to take your revenge. But be warned that this power will come at a price, and if you ever use it to spill the blood of the innocent, then you will be judged. You will also offer me one thing from each of your enemies you defeat," he said.

"We will do anything as long as we are able to get our revenge," they said.

"Fine, just remember this will be as much as a curse as it is a power depending on the person."

"Thank you!"

"Don't thank me yet. First, you must feel some pain before you're able to accept my gifts."

When he said that, four objects appeared before the children. He could recognize two as weapons, a sword bigger than any man in his village, it had red and black flames covering it from top to bottom with jagged edges on both sides along with the skulls engraved on it.

The next one was a giant scythe with skulls engraved on it, but the sheer size of the blade made it as unweldable as the sword. Pale blue and white flames dancing across its blade.

I couldn't really identify the other two. One looked like just an ornate hilt that had nothing attached to it. But it had purple and violet flames covering it.

As for the last item I had no idea what I was looking at, all it looked like to me was white and black lumps of iron with green and purple flames coming out of the holes at the tip of the iron.

"If you want revenge, the power to obtain it is right in front of you. All you have to do is reach out for it. But be warned everything has a price, and the pain you will experience to obtain this power is just the beginning," I heard him say.

Without hesitation, all four of the kids grabbed what was placed in front of them. Within seconds, they were engulfed in flames as their flesh burned off, leaving only bones.

As they screamed and writhed in agony, they never let go of their items. They continued to scream as the last of their flesh left their face.

'Is he really a god or a demon,' were my thoughts as it looked like the flames became their flesh.

"Good doing business with you now get out," I heard as a force pushed us out of the building.

As I got up, I looked towards the building only to see it was gone. Quickly looking around it was getting dark and all the villagers went back to the village so I was all alone with the children. But the children were no longer screaming or writhing on the floor. They were on their feet as they looked at their weapons, but their clothes had changed, and they were nothing but flaming skeletons.

As I looked at them, I was shocked to see them being able to wield them without a problem. The huge sword was being swung around like a stick, and the scythe turned into two little scythes. The hilt turned into a wip and what looked like scales. And the two lumps of iron seemed to be some kind of magic as he shattered a boulder he was pointing at after a loud noise.

After they were done testing their new weapons out, they whistled, and four horses appeared if you could call them that. They looked like no horses I've ever seen, and all four of them covered in fire.

As they get on all four of them, look at me and say "innocent," at the same time before riding off, leaving a trail of fire behind.

As I stand there, I wonder what we have unleashed, but only one word came to my mind for some reason.

"Apocalypse"

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Pov. Beelzebub

As I look through the list of what my employees have got me, a smirk appears on my face.

With each animal, monster, person, demons, fallen angel, or other mythology being they kill, I get one thing from them. The only downside is that it's completely random.

For example, if they kill a fallen angel, I may get their ability to control light, wings, or life span, which is great. But on the other hand, I can also get something like a rock in their shoe, a snack they were saving for later, or the lint in their pockets. But it's not that big of a problem since I'm getting many things without having to do anything.

I sell everything that I find useless to the shop for one point. It's not much, but it's better than nothing for worthless items.

But what I'm most satisfied about is the powers I gave them. Since they were in the DxD world, I wanted to give them powers that can fit in. That's when I had the idea of the four horsemen of the apocalypse since I never heard of them in the show or novel.

The hard part was deciding which powers to give them. It came down to two options. Ghost riders or Darksiders are both powerful and awesome, but I loved them both. That's when the wise words of a little Méxican girl hit me.

"¿Por qué no los dos?"

So that's what I did, I decided if this shop really had everything in the multiverse of the world I knew of and world I didn't know then there had to be a power that combined both. And I found it, so I gave it to them. Of course, the shop didn't allow me to give them full power from the start since they weren't buying it, but employees that had to work for their power.

It seems the way the system works is I give them power, and they work off the payment by getting me something from the enemy's they slayin until they pay off their debt to me. When they pay off their debt, they are allowed to keep that power and be able to get stronger with more work.

But it's not like they can't get stronger right now. It's more like there's a level cap until their debt to me is paid off. At their strongest, they would be able to kill gods since both ghost rider and Darksiders horseman are super op.

Though it seems like all four of them didn't go all murder happy when I gave them the powers. If you don't count that army, they destroyed at the beginning, which wasn't too surprising since they did say they wanted revenge. Not that I'm complaining since I got a lot from them.

After everything I got from the villagers, I got 700 years of life all together. Plus, what I get from my employees no and again would add up to 762 years of life. Unfortunately, I don't always get their life force, and unlike the villagers, where I took 50 years, the humans they kill would only give me between 5 or 10 years most of the time. I haven't gotten the lifespan of a demon or fallen angel yet, but it's not like I'm complaining since I've gotten other things.

It seems that I haven't gotten anything from an angel, but again, it's not too surprising since I know how the angels in this world generally act. Of course that also means my horse men haven't let the power go to their head which caused god to step in which is a good thing since I'm confident that even though they can put up a fight against a seraphim and even get away although with some damage I doubt they would be able to take the full wrath of the god.

Other than that, I had a couple of customers after that village. Most of them were human, but I did get some demons as well as some falling angels. Demons would always try and attack me to get everything for free, so I just kicked them out. Most of the falling angels came into my shop and bought something if they had something on them to trade. Though most of the time, it was demon or angel weapons that didn't get them much, but sometimes I would get something good out of them.

Like one falling angel traded me all his power and lifespan to see a naked picture of Gabriel. So I showed him one which caused him to die as soon as he saw it. I tried to look at it, but I only saw it as a blank picture. I thought it was a stupid request, but it's the DxD world, so it was that hard to accept it.

As for the humans, it would depend on the person. Most peasants would try anything but worship me and trade some of their lifespans for food or health most of the time. Unless they were very stupid, which kind of sums up the human race, so I did get attacked some time, but they would be kicked out. Nobles and kings, on the other hand, would try to attack me the majority of the time due to them wanting immortal life but being unable to pay for it, so they were also kicked out. Funneling enough, the only ones to never attack me were the warriors and soldiers I met.

What I found interesting was how the shop moved from location to location as well through time. Some humans knew of me as Baal-Zebul. Others called me Beelzebub, and others haven't even heard of me. It was always fun to try to guess the time period my customers were from. Sometimes, it was easy, like the bronze age or stone age, since they either had stone weapons or bronze weapons and armor. Others were harder to guess because the dark age and the iron age were very similar at the start. As well as the middle age and the beginning of the renaissance.

It was also fun to guess the location, but again, depending on what the human came in wearing, it could be easy to guess. Like a roman gladius, a katana, a jian, a kilij, or a khopesh. The armor was a dead giveaway as well. Funneling enough vikings did use horns on their war helmets in this world.

As I looked at the time, it was going to be 7 soon, so I was going to lock up soon. Until I heard the bell ring, looking up, I saw a head poking through the door. She was a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She had a shy and curious look on her face.

'She looks familiar'

"Welcome, can I help you?" I asked.

"Ummmm," she said, not knowing if she should come in or not.

"If you don't want to come in, then please close the door because I'm closing up soon."

"Um, um, um, I don't think you're supposed to be here."

"Probably not, but that has stopped me before."

"You should leave before my father and brothers find you," she said with a worried tone.

"I'll be fine, now do you want to look around?" I asked as I gestured around my shop.

"Um, um, um," she said as she shyly entered and started to look around.

When she finally entered fully, I realized who this was. It was Gabriel, one of the four seraphim.