16- Oh how the Fallen has Fallen

"So they're going to kill him?" Azrael asked as he stood beside Xanton with his arms crossed on his chest.

"Yaseen has to die so his soul can move forward to hell and his body can be taken over by Lucifer." Xanton replied as they saw one of the inferno sisters tying his hands behind his back.

"Like how demons possess human bodies?" Azrael asked.

"No, in possession, the demon becomes a part of human's body, the human soul is still there but it's being controlled by a demon. But in infusion, the human body becomes a part of the devil. It's like a form they can take whenever they want. Shouldn't you know these things?" She added at the end and he shrugged.

"I'm just an angel. The only things I know are related to my job or the orders given to me."

Xanton scoffed a little. "And you're still perplexed about why I turned down an opportunity to become an angel."

"It's a bad job." He said.

"No, it's not." She turned her head towards him. Her eyes glowed with royal blue and her chocolate lips whispered the words, "It's pathetic."

Azrael let out a chuckle as he shook his head slightly. He felt a little chill run through his body and he turned his head to Zafael who was hovering above ground just beside him. "It's okay, buddy. She's tainted. She won't understand."

Xanton smiled widely with a sense of satisfaction. She couldn't get to Azrael but at least she got his pet a little agitated. She turned and looked up at Azrael.

"You can't understand how beautiful free will is because…" She put her hand on his chest causing his eyebrows to burrow in confusion. "...you're hollow here." The dark abyss in his eyes dilated a bit as he watched her step away from him. "You'll always see me as tainted unless someday you realize the hollowness in there isn't truly as holy as you think it is."

Azrael just watched her, still a bit perplexed. For all these years he has lived among humans, he knew how easy it was to tempt their free will, he knew how easy it was to manipulate their freewill. It was never really free will , their tempter always held the reins over them, be it a devil or another human or their own desires. Was it really so beautiful being manipulated by everything and everyone around you? Wasn't it better to have no free will to begin with? At least you weren't living a delusional life that you had control of.

He could never understand what Xanton meant, for every time she spoke of free will she always said it was beautiful. But was it really?

"It's starting." Azrael said as they both turned their attention to Lucifer, whose hands and feet were tied together and he was sitting on his knees in the middle of the pentagram, his head was lifted up looking at the sky as the torches around him burned up and high.

The inferno sisters took their positions at the edge of the pentagram forming a triangle. They held up their swords and rushed forward, in a swift motion the metals pierced his flesh. One sword went straight into his heart, the second into his throat and the last one right through his head.

The sisters were softly reciting something under their breaths as they pulled the swords out without putting much effort into it. The body fell forward with it's face down in sand bleeding filling up the pentagram. The sisters then lifted up the swords and sliced their own throats at the same moment, causing the blood to spray out all around in the air but oddly enough it fell into the pentagram in a fine and consistent manner. The sisters finally fell down on the ground. When their blood and the blood from Yaseen's body mixed with each other, the fires seemed to have been fueled somehow.

Azrael leaned towards Xanton. "Did the sisters kill themselves?" She simply nodded her head.

"Why?" He asked and she moved her eyes to him as if she was looking at a very annoying child. She sighed.

"The blood shed of hell beings is important in this ritual. Normally, devils sacrifice their demons but since the only demons left in Lucifer's line are me and Xaphan. He can't bear losing us."

"So he sacrificed the inferno sisters?"

"Inferno sisters are actually the most sinister human souls. When one trio's existence eradicates another one forms just as soon and anyways they won't be as useful after infusion anyway since Lucifer won't need to be summoned to Earth anymore." She shrugged her shoulders.

"You're just telling me everything I'm asking, is that weird because I'm an enemy?"

"Celestials can't attack hell because it's a written rule. So even if I tell you all the hellish secrets you won't be able to put it to any use 'cause of the leash around your neck." She replied.

"Fair enough." He muttered and looked forward to Lucifer whose body was still lying as a lump of meat on the cold sand.

The torches started to blow out one by one until only the red torch glowed brightly and after a few moments it blew out too.

As soon as the last torch blew out, there was movement in Lucifer's body. The ropes tying his hands and legs together burned off his skin as he looked up. His face was covered with dried blood and sand as he opened his eyes. The small grains of sand on his lashes glowed with the crimson shade of his pupils as he looked up at Xanton and Azrael.

"Take me to the other side." The words growled out of his throat.

Xanton smiled as she took out a suit from her bag lying on the sand and walked towards him.

_

Lucifer opened his eyes into a world that he had never seen. The whole place seemed like a normal marketplace but everything was colored in white. Not even a spec of another color. He felt a bit uncomfortable as he looked at the black smoke like beings moving around.

The failed creatures of God. He thought to himself.

His presence was instantly recognised as the creatures simply bowed down to him as if they were already waiting for him. One of the creatures moved forward to Lucifer, it's head was hanging low and held out his hand as if gesturing to him to follow.

Lucifer felt a bit shocked as he was hoping to do some blood shed with his newfound strength but it was natural that Asmodeus knew he'd come for Fiona.

The creature led him through the white colored city as every other creature in there was bowing down in his honor. He calmly walked behind him, his eyes scanning everything and everyone around him as he slowly walked by.

Soon enough they reached an amphitheatre. The gates were left unguarded, the cheering of the crowd could be heard clearly to those standing outside. The creature led Lucifer up on the stairway. The cheers became more booming and loud with each step upwards. He was brought into a hall and from there he was led to a door leading to the main balcony looking down at the field. He saw Asmodeus from the back, who was sitting on a golden chair, laughing and enjoying the show with a creature standing beside her holding a bowl of small jelly beans. The creature that had led Lucifer in moved to her and leaned down to her ear. She quickly turned her head in Lucifer's direction and stood up with a wide grin plastered on her lips.

"Lucifer, I see you have finally infused a human. It feels good not being limited while you're on earth." She said walking towards him. Her gray eyes glowed with amusement. "I thought you said you would never do that. I guess you really wanted that human back." She giggled as she pinched his cheek softly. "Come on, lose the sour look already."

Lucifer firmly grabbed her hand by her wrist and looked right into her eyes. "Where is she?"

She smiled softly, pulling her hand away from his grip. "She's here but first.." She sneaked her arms behind his neck. "..why don't we have some fun?"

He smiled at her pushing her hands off him. "Tell me where she is, because I won't ask another time." His words were absolute and firm and she knew he wasn't bluffing.

She smiled as she walked towards the concrete railing. "There she is." She pointed down at the field.

Lucifer walked towards the railing and looked down. There was one cage in the middle of the field, the black smoke-like creatures surrounding their hands elongated as they reached for something, not something, someone; Fiona.

His eyes dilated as he saw her there. Her hands tied up on a hook as her body hung down like meat on the hook. She had lost weight to the point that her vertebrae were peeking out on the skin. Her skin had lost the color and it seemed to have turned blue due to lack of blood flowing in her body. She was barely hanging onto life as her thirst ridden lips were softly peeling off.

He didn't know what he felt at that moment, a sort of ache in his heart. He had been there with Fiona through everything, he had seen her happy, sad, confused or even anxious but he had never seen her lifeless, never like this.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." He heard Asmodeus' voice. "Oh, how the fallen have fallen.." She mocked him as her hand reached to his face and using her index finger she lifted up a tear from his cheek. "The almighty proud Lucifer crying at the sight of his beloved. My suspicion wasn't wrong, was it?" She smiled at him as she pointed at his wrist.

He looked down to see a pattern forming around his wrist with red fire as it burned his skin.

Asmodeus laughed as her voice boomed through the amphitheatre leaving it in a deafening silence.

"You just fulfilled her wish. Her eternal soul now belongs to you and your heart to her."