Chapter 13: Preparation

Sadness... That's what I felt after knowing the death of my parents.

Can I survive without them? Why... Why now? Is it better that I die now? No, I made a promise.

Remember what father told me at the party. "I hope you'll take care of Millie." and " A king's duty is to protect its people." I guess I have things still to do.

I'm not gonna disappoint them, I promise father; mother, that I'll, no- me and the others would protect Hell, I promise to the both of you that I'll do my best as the new King.

"Still worried about that Haruki? You know you can talk to me."

"Oh Sora, didn't notice you there, why are you here? Don't you have some work that Millie is giving you?"

"*Sigh* I'm worried about you Haruki, not as your General, but as your friend, so... You better pick those emotions up and smile for now, since tomorrow's a big day for us." Even if Sora is giving me a joyful smile, I can see regret and sorrow deep inside him, it's really amazing that he handled it really well...

"I forgot about the meeting tomorrow, also Akemi said that she wants to tell me something tomorrow, so I guess I'll be busy..."

"Come on, you have Millie with you, in terms of brains she's the only one that'll come in mind."

"I guess so... So what are you doing here eating at the hospital? Do you have something to tell me?"

"Nothing, I just want to make you happy." If there's one thing I want to say is that this is getting disgustingly cringe.

But happy? Is that something that I'll feel again? But... I'm thankful to have friends like them, so I'll try my best to make them smile too.

"Are you doing good Haruki?" A man said. A man that I've almost forgotten the voice of, I can't believe that for two months of disappearing, and he just visited me now.

Sora stood up instantly after hearing El's voice and took out his daggers. I was confused why he took out his weapon because I thought that these two are already on good terms. "Woah Sora, why are you taking out your weapon on El? You talked it out when you two met right?"

"Don't worry young Sora, I meant no harm; making sure that Haruki's fine is what I came here for." Sora hearing that dropped his daggers, and began to sit and just watch us creepily.

"*Sigh* What are you here for now El? Don't tell me that you just came here to visit me, because I know that there's a catch right?"

"Not really... Just as I said, I came here to visit you, also I want to tell Sora something."

"Then was it old man?" El came toward Sora and whispered something to him.

When looking at Sora I saw him looking like he's afraid of something, did El scared him? Or what El said to him is bad? Better not ask though cause it's their secret.

"Now that I'm done with that I have something to say to you too Haruki."

So he had something for me too, is it the same as Sora? Maybe not...

"Really what is it?" I hope he won't waste my time with this one.

"Goodbye, because this is the last time we would meet."

A strong wind came from the window that pushes the curtains and it covered El, and with a blink of an eye, he disappeared saying only that he was gone.

Is this really our goodbye? But I haven't thanked him yet for making me happy when I got here, what do I do? I guess I'll thank him again if I happen to meet him. If that happens...

D*mn, not even a minute has passed by and I already missed the old man, I guess it's because I kept reflecting myself to him, which is why I truly respected him, even if he's annoying.

"D*mmit... how? Wait of course he knew, he's him after all, what do we do now, Millie...?" Hearing Sora talking to himself is freaking me out, so I asked him what happened, but he didn't reply, is he gonna miss El too? But why is he mentioning Millie's name? Meh, better sleep now because I have work to do.

Closing my eyes already and trying to sleep, I heard Sora contacting someone, I want to ask, but maybe tomorrow.

The next day, Millie woke me up early because the meeting would start in 20 minutes, I didn't get enough sleep last night, because Sora kept mumbling something in the corner of the room.

Which made me worried about why he's still doing it, but I better leave him to it for now.

"Be ready big brother, you're gonna meet the other Archdukes on this floor."

"Sure..." I wonder who they'll be? I hope they're gonna be nice.

Millie and I entered the room, and inside were the Generals, Faust, and Master, so it's indeed true that every Archduke is here...

We sat at the chair waiting for the other Archdukes to come, to be honest of course I'm nervous, I got to do my best now that my parents are both dead.

When I looked at everyone they seem to be calm, except one though, even now Sora is still in the corner mumbling something, did El really scared the sh*t out of him? Better make him calm later since he kinda helped me.

Hmm... But I wonder what's El doing now? I bet he's making trouble elsewhere.

Creek!

The door opened, and a woman came; she has short white hair, red horns, and black wings and tail, she came toward me and Millie and bowed. "Nice to see you again Millie, also It's nice to meet you, Prince Haruki. I'm one of the Archdukes here on the eighth floor, the Ruler of the Succubus race, Lilith."

"Nice to meet you, Lilith..." She's the Ruler of the Succubus? And Lilith's her name, she's popular in many books, shows, and games back on Earth as the queen of the succubus, I guess she is real.

But... if succubuses are real, then is it possible that I can have one as my-

I felt an unknown chill down my spine when I was thinking about that, for some unknown reason Akemi and Millie knew what I was thinking and they used a skill that almost made me shout to death.

New knowledge: It's not good thinking lewd things near them or I'm dead.

Not long enough another came, and this time it's a headless armored man, is he a Dullahan? I guess that's him, like Lilith he came toward us to greet us. "I'm the Ruler of the Undead, Hans. It's a pleasure to meet you, Prince Haruki." What the h*ck, why is he holding his head calmly? This makes me uncomfortable.

Is it even normal for people not to be freaked out about this?! He's holding his own head! Why Isn't Millie and the others afraid?

After Hans sat in his chair another came, I hope it's not a creepy undead.

Looking at the one who came, he has pale skin like that of a dead body, and what intrigued me the most is when he opened his mouth because what I saw was two teeth with sharp pointy tips like a canine would have, right that is definitely a vampire. "Nice to meet you, my Prince. I'm the Ruler of the Vampires, Vladamir Dracula."

Vladamir? Did he mispronounce his name? I thought Dracula's name is Vlad, not Vladamir.

Millie got close to me and whispered. "You're probably wondering why his name is Vladamir right? It's because like Lucas and the others, he's not the original Dracula." That's it, so not only the Generals pass on their names, but also some Archdukes.

And lastly, the one I'm expecting the most to meet has come, wearing in fully black clothes; he has bright silver hair, and wings that have many similarities to that of a crow. "It's good to see you okay my Prince, I'm the Ruler of the Fallen Angels, Azazel."

Azazel, in many stories on Earth, he's name is known for being one of the first angels to rebel against God, so which makes him powerful enough to make a large and lead an army of fallen angels.

Looking at Azazel already is frightening, he's what would people call the real ruler of torment.

"Now's that everyone's here let's begin, first, Mammon what's your study on the barrier?"

"The barrier seems to be unbreakable, even using advance technology on it still didn't affect the barrier, it seems we need to wait until the barrier is gone, I reckon about a month or two it'll be gone."

"*Sigh* With that, we can't contact the ninth floor, so in case of them attacking again, we need to guard the passage to the seventh floor, so that means we need to use a lot of men power and hire more people."

"Satanael you need to understand getting recruits now is impossible, now that the King and Queen are both dead, the people's morale has tremendously decreased." Hans said seriously. "And worst of all, where are we even gonna get the soldiers!"

"10 million, that's our population and an attack happened again, so many people would ought for revenge."

"Then you're telling us to take advantage of their emotions? That's hypocrisy for us knights, we shouldn't take advantage of what people feel!" Hans hit the table loud enough to show his anger for Satanael's way of thinking.

Taking of people's feelings is wrong in its own way, so Hans has a point in this one; because I want to kill Michael, but at the same time something is stopping me to do so, so if we use the people's anger, then it would just cause more anger, and it would just keep multiplying.

"Hans you got to understand that now's not the time to think that; because we'll clearly win this time if we use the people, because it'll be more loses to us like last time when we prioritize the people's safety, so this time give them a chance to seek their revenge and avenge their friends and family."

"You too Mammon? Who else is with you Satanael? You people need to understand that if we use our people many bodies would be sacrificed."

"Hans is right Satanael, it's our duty as Archdukes to keep the safety of our people and not use them, even if I also want to avenge them, now's not the time to do so."

"There you go Shota, you're as nice as always, even to enemies. You too need to understand that killing the angels is our main priority now."

But even if we kill them, what would it cause? We'll be like them... Relentless killers who are just tools.

"Satanael and I have already decided this, because if we kill them then they wouldn't attack, and Azazel and Milicas are with us this time."

"You four... But what would you think our people would do if they found out that we're gonna use them?" Vladamir worriedly asked.

"Don't worry about that Vladamir, We four have made the people from our country join us." The Archdukes after hearing that were angered, because why did they ask the people now without their permission? It's like they're doing things all on their own.

"What did you four do to make them agree?! Because there's no way that it would be easy! Especially with the angels damaging us!" Hans was more bewildered than all of us combined, he can't accept Satanael's term.

And I agree with him, if Satanael wants soldiers, it's up to the people to decide and not him. Because if he's the one who decided against their own will, he's just using them as his own puppet.

"You can make people do your will with power, you all know that right?"

Power? Use them with your power? Isn't that just dictatorship? Satanael, what are you four planning? "Ifrit, I ask you this. As the leader of the military, and trainer for new recruits, would you agree to train people that we hire?"

"No, what you did is an abuse of your own power Satanael, if you want to get knights you should find people that want to become one, and not fall for the power of its superior; because that's not a knight, but an impostor. A knight is someone who decides for himself to be one and protect its people, but a knight who decides on what its superior is telling him to do so and listens to it, that's not a knight."

D*mn I know that it's not the time to say this, but Master that's cool...

"*Sigh* What about you Faust? Will you donate the technology for my army?"

"It's about time and money, but if it's gonna be wasted from your stupid plan, then it's better that I won't create any."

Satanael looked enrage from hearing their responses, any minute now he might cause a scene.

"Satanael, I don't know what happened to you four, but that's enough! Father and mother would be saddened and disappointed if they saw you for doing this!"

Satanael smiled and replied. "Don't use them here since they're already dead Millie, now is not the time to bring corpses here at the conversation."

"What the h*ck? What did you f*cking say Satana-!" I was about to shout from my anger after hearing that, but a loud bang from the table disturbed me. "That's going too far Satanael, you better shut it now or there'll be consequences." That is what Akemi told him after she slams the table with her hand.

"All of you are blind, making sacrifices are the right thing to do! We can survive this if we throw the life of our people, and the others can just create more to supply us!-" Before Satanael was about to finish his question, a sword almost struck him on the neck.

All of us were shocked when we saw Lucas bringing out his sword and pointing it at Satanael's neck. "You better shut your f*cking mouth, traitor." Lucas said with anger in his eyes while pointing the sword at Satanael, and attempting to try and kill him, but Lucas can't because in the end killing your loved ones would torment him.

The Archdukes stood up and tried to stop Lucas from his anger, but every time they do, Lucas is not listening to every word they say and kept pointing the sword at Satanael.

What do I do?! Do I stop them?! Of course dumbass I'm supposed to stop them. "Hey, can we stop arguing, please?" That is what I tried to say, but the fight got more intense.

"Lucas, what do you mean by traitors?" Lilith asked Lucas directly while preparing to cast a skill, and Lucas replied shocked not only me, but Lilith, Hans, Faust, and Master too. "This guy, and the three following him, are noting but vipers! Do you think that I don't know the secrets of all of you? D*mn right, pawns of Yahweh!"

"Pawns of Yahweh? What do you mean Lucas?" That's what I ask Lucas to know what he's really saying, what did he mean that they were pawns of God? does the four work with God? But didn't they stopped working with him a long time ago? When he and Lucifer betrayed God? So why are they with him again?

Satanael after hearing that laughed in joy, and the three pulled out their weapons and pointed them at us.

Why are they doing this? Is it true that they're pawns? But why betray us?

"So you knew Lucas, you knew that we've been working with Yahweh; impressive! Who knows about this? Millie? Akemi? I guess we weren't careful when either one of you saw us."

Traitor? I can't believe that Satanael and the others are traitors, this world is such a cruel place...

D*mn am I that unlucky to meet such a fate? Or is this what devils should really feel?

"It's true that you've betrayed us, Satanael? We've been friends before Hell was created and I can't believe that; DIE YOU D*MN TRAITOR!" Ifrit shouted and he's now casting a large fire-based magic.

With one snap of a finger of Satanael, the others and I were trapped in a giant orb. "A teleporter to an alternate space?!" That is what Millie said, and with one goodbye from Satanael, we were teleported to an unknown place.

"Now that they're gone, let's go and do our mission, and that is to create a fight between the people of Hell, and gather some sacrifices."

The four walked toward the door with smiles on their face, because right now they succeeded with their objective.

"Mission accomplished." was the word the four said after leaving the castle.

"Even if we were friends for a long time, it won't change the fact that this is the right thing to do, so everyone sits tight and wait for the outcome."

In the midst of transporting us, I had another memory that I had.

It was being betrayed by some of my friends in school and used by them like I was some kind of toy for them to have fun with, and rip off and demolish me every day.

Right now, that's what I also felt, no... That is what my friends and I all felt when we found out the truth.

The truth hurt isn't it? This right here is what the true world really is, it's all games that the higher ones play at. A game the lower beings suffer from.