Audience With The Demon King

I woke up to Anagi and Loralie giggling in the corner of my room, I grumbled something about waffles and got out of bed to see one of Lord Death's ghouls at the door watching me. When I first started as a reaper and would be summoned by a ghoul I would freak out, but I've been doing this a very long time so I'm used to it. This particular ghoul happened to be Lord Death's favorite, his name was Jeffrey he looked like you'd expect a ghoul to look, loose hanging skin, no teeth or eyes, and dirty smelly clothes.

"Lord Auris, Lord Death requests your presence at the former Commander Gorg's hearing." His voice sounded dry like sandpaper scraping against itself. He turned to Loralie and held out his hand, which was missing a finger and the skin on the remaining ones was gone. "Will you come with me please young lady?" I looked over at the girls and noticed Loralie looking at me as if to ask for permission. "Go ahead Loralie you're just gonna be gone long enough to answer some of Lord Death's questions." I turned back to Jeffrey and stood up, "I'm sorry Jeffrey I can't go send Lord Death my apologies, I need to prepare to visit the Nineth Circle, have Commander Björn take my place if you will." Jeffrey bowed and Loralie followed him out the room.

When they were out of ear shot I turned to Anagi and crossed my arms, "I need to get ahold of King Azazel before I even attempt to get into the Circles, I will be right back." She nodded and stood up. "I need some food, I might try out that bar you and Björn go too from what I've heard Lady Life actually enjoys the food there." She grabbed my hand and we walked till we got to the bar, ignoring all the questioning stares from the younger reapers. When we got to the bar she went in and I activated my energy calling out to Tragedy, 'Tragedy I need your cell.' Like his brother he had a type, where Comedy preferred the company of angels Tragedy preferred the company of demons, and I knew he was seeing an Arch Duke class demon. Normally if you wanted to contact someone all you had to do is activate some energy and focus on who you wanted to speak with, but the Nine Circles of Hell were closed off thanks to the on-going war with the Creator's army. So to contact someone in one of the Circles you had to have something connected to the Hells.

'No problem boss, where you at? I can come to you.' I activated more energy and forced a rift open with my hand leading to where the twins where playing a game of poker. "I'm right here, whose winning?" They both jumped and pulled a dagger before noticing it was me. "Don't do that, we could have killed you." Comedy said sheathing his blade. I smiled and jumped forward stopping an inch from his face. "Comedy if I was to try and kill you you'd be dead before you had time to draw your blade." Tragedy chuckled and Comedy gulped before I stepped back.

"Tragedy, may I?" I held out my hand as he pulled out a black flip phone with demonic runes etched into it. "Thanks kid." I said as I flipped it open, I dialed the number that belonged to a guard at the Black Tower in the Nineth Circle. It rang twice before he picked up, "Who is this?" He snarled and I swear I could smell what he had for dinner. "Its Auris Right Hand of Lord Death, give this to your king I need to discuss some business with him." I heard a beep and the Demon King spoke.

"Auris, what's the meaning of this, I am in the middle of something." His voice sounded deeper than it should have been. "Sorry Lord Azazel but I need to speak with you in person and I need access to the Nineth Circle." I heard laughter on the other line. "What do you want with the Nineth Circle the worst of the worst get imprisoned there and they are looked after by the worst of the worst demons." I scouled and tried to remember what I knew about the Hells which wasn't much. From what I remember the nineth circle held demons that could rival the throne and was where the Black Hand happened to come from.

"Your majesty I just need access to the nineth circle for a special mission. It may help end your war with the creator." A moment of silence came from the other end of the cell before a plume of hellfire erupted in the room and King Azazel stepped out.

The Demon King Azazel stood at just over 8 feet tall, he had long black hair flowing down his back. His crown a ring of hell fire that encircled his head just under the massive curling horns that protruded from his forehead. His eyes were a soft glowing red that seemed to bore a hole through me. His wings were folded behind him looking like more of a cape than wings.

He closed the phone and I motioned for the twins to leave as the King took a seat. "Speak reaper." He sounded bored but kept eye contact with me the entire time as I explained the situation. "So you need Barkiel, a low ranked demon, for a task force created by the Creator?" He scratched at his beard before speaking again. "What's in it for me?"

I looked him in the eyes and crossed my arms across my chest. "Your war will end like you want it to." He waved a hand to cut me off. "What makes you think I really want this war to end boy? I just want my Right Hand back in his rightful place, by my side." He stood towering over me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Get Bael back to me and we may continue this discussion." His entire body became consumed in hellfire and he was gone. I sighed and pulled out my scythe creating a rift to the bar.

When I spotted Anagi she was digging into some Earth food, pizza I think its called. I sat down and the bartender brought me a bottle of demons brew. I took a sip as Anagi finished her meal. "Whats wrong Lord Arius?" She smiled and I felt my heart melt. "King Azazel won't let me into the Nineth Circle while Bael is still in the cage." Her smile dropped and she grabbed my hands and held them between hers. "Well my love, have you tried talking to the Creator about it? He is the one that tasked you to gather his task force, I'm sure He might be open to compromise."

I shrugged and downed the rest of my brew before standing up. "Anagi my dear," I held my hand out in exaggerated bravado smiling ear to ear, "Would you like to come to the Silver City?"