landscape of Hell?
He opened a line of telepathic communication with Asmodeus.
No sign of it in this direction.
None in this one either.
Came the reply.
It was still strange being able to do this with Asmodeus. He had always been able to communicate with other angels of Heaven via telepathy, but had lost that talent when Asmodeus had contracted with him. He had thought the talent gone forever, until recently, when he had been cursing Asmodeus in his head and the angel had heard it and responded.
Asmodeus had never experienced telepathy before that point.
To say it had freaked his master out a little was an understatement.
Any idea at all where it might have gone?
Nevar said and heard Asmodeus huff in his head.
The angel wasn’t pleased with his master, the Devil. The Devil had been vague when they had questioned him, eventually admitting that he had no information on where the beast might go.
Yet he’d had the audacity to punish Nevar and Asmodeus for not finding it the first time they had scoured Hell and had sent them back out to look for it again.
His stomach gurgled again, twisting in on itself so hard that he grimaced and rubbed it. He couldn’t concentrate, not with the constant pressing presence of his hunger. It was a weight in his gut that he could no longer ignore.
Maybe we should check the mortal world.
It was worth a try.
No response.
I am starving. I am liable to drop into a boiling pit of lava or expire from lack of sustenance alone. You have orders to keep me alive.
Asmodeus grunted in response to that.
Very well. Scour the mortal world for the beast and I will send word to Apollyon, and he can alert the others to the situation. Eat while you are there.
Nevar grinned, threw his hand out and cast a portal directly in front of him. He flew through the swirling black vortex, unwilling to linger for even a second in case his master changed his mind. He had a pass and he was taking it.
He landed in the middle of London, on a quiet broad street that bustled with mortals during the day. The rain-soaked pavements and road reflected the lights from the closed stores that lined the road. He stretched and focused to put his wings away. They shrank into his back, aching as they went, slow to do his bidding tonight. It had been weeks since he had used them and it had felt good to fly again. Their reluctance to disappear was his reluctance to see them gone for once. If his stomach had been full, he would have kept flying, taking in the mortal world from the air.
It was as empty as his master’s heart though and he needed to fill it and refuel before he could fly anywhere.
The mark on his chest pulsed, sending fire sweeping over the curve of the beast. He pressed his hand to his breastplate and grimaced, waiting for the pain to subside. When it did, he felt a glimmer of something that distinctly felt like fear.
Fear?
He frowned at that. Perhaps it was his fear. Fear that Asmodeus would come for him again. Fear that he would spend forever trapped in Hell. Fear that the Devil would kill him and send him back to Heaven, to his worst nightmare. Although, he wouldn’t remember what a nightmare it was to him. He would forget everything the moment he died and was reborn as an angel of Heaven. He would forget how Heaven had used him.
He drew in a deep breath and focused on the mark on his chest. Where was the destroyer? If it was awake now, could it sense him? Did it know he was its master? If he stayed in one place for long enough, would it find him and save him from having to search for it?
He still wasn’t sure how such a gigantic beast could elude him and Asmodeus, and the Hell’s angels the Devil had dispatched to hunt for it too.
Unless it wasn’t in Hell.
He had goaded his master into letting him come to the mortal world so he could escape the constant torment and stench of Hell, feeding him a lie about the possibility of it being in this realm. What if it was here though?
There were many remote