What do you imagine, when you think about Hell? Is it a place somewhere underground, with lava rivers and the smell of sulfur? Do you imagine devils as humanoid creatures with horns, hooves and tails? With bat wings on the back, and wielding a pitchfork? But what if Hell isn't any different from what we have on Earth? What if devils look just like humans? And while horned creatures do seem scary, wouldn't it be more terryfying if you wouldn't be able to tell the difference if they'd look like an ordinary mortal?
Because you would never know, if the person in front of you in line, or the person next to you in the bus seat happens to be a devil...
Or perhaps a half-devil, like the man, whose adventures in Hell are about to start.
* * *
The teleportation lasted a few seconds, just like Samael said. The vortex around them calmed, however Wilhelm needed a moment to recover from the after-effects of the dimensional jump. His head was spinning, he groaned and held tight to Samael as he was about to loose balance. The Great Devil just grinned.
"Not bad for the first jump. You took it better than expected."
He gave the soldier a healthy pat on the back. Wilhelm coughed.
"You think so...?"
He said in a weak voice. The moment he straightened his back and took a deep breath in, Samael grabbed his shoulders and turned him around.
"Now, say hello to your new friends."
A loud "Hello!" was to hear, said in unison by 4 different people, and each of them did it in a differerent way - one unimpressed, one waving in a cutesy way, the other glaring curiously and the last grinning wide. Wilhelm blinked.
"Uh... hello."
He replied, not entirely sure what to think of it.
"Those are my most trusted people."
Samael pointed with finger at each of them, starting from the left.
"This is Jazeriel, Endymion, Sonneillon and Mephisto. Gentlemen, this is Wilhelm, Yuuto's son."
He finished the introduction with presenting Wilhelm to them. Yuuto? Was that his father's name? The thought flashed in his mind, before he focused on the people in front of him.
The one called Jazeriel was tall, with long black hair reaching past his waist. Some sort of golden tiara gleamed from beneath his bangs. His fair skin was in contrast to his hair, navy blue eyes and the dark uniform. He was the one who waved in a cutesy way, and the warm welcoming smile made him seem like a nice person.
The one next to him, Endymoin, was tad taller than Jazeriel, and his appearance seemed like a complete opposite of him - his hair was around same length, but pure white, just like his uniform. His eyes had an icy blue color, in which the narrowed irises gave him a predatory look. He seemed indifferent about Wilhelm's arrival.
Then the next one, Sonneillon stood there in less formal attire - a white shirt, opened vest over it in a darker tone, and wearing black leather pants. His skin was darker than the other two, and he had short ashen hair, and a crescent moon mark on his forehead. A same shaped moon earring was dangling from his left ear. He had wide gray eyes looking at Wilhelm with interest oddly mixed with reserve.
Lastly Mephisto was the one with the wide toothy grin, short black hair that curled at the back of his neck and deep jade eyes. His uniform was black-green and he had a black cape, the style resembling Samael's a lot. He seemed friendly with that big smile and fascination in his eyes.
According to samael those were his trusted people... which means that they should be pure devils? If Wilhelm didn't know any better, he wouldn't be able to tell them apart from the ordinary humans. Seems all those tales he read or heard as a child about satyr-like monsters were just that - fairy tales. Myth busted.
"Please take good care of our new crew member, alright?"
Samael smiled and pushed Wilhelm towards them. The group of men started to chatter, all at once.
"You can call me Jazz."
"It took a damn good while to find him, it's finally over."
"You could need some new clothes though."
"He's hot! "
"Looks pretty plain for a half-human if you ask me."
"What powers do you have?"
"Want some cake? I love cake!"
"Awww, he seems shy."
"Uhhh, um..." Wilhelm didn't know how to react or where to even start responding.
"Boys. Boys! What did I tell you before...?"
Samael sighed with irritation in his tone, and suddenly they all stopped the chatter and straightened their backs, like soldiers in army standing to attention.
"We will take good care of him, sir." They exclaimed in unison, saluting.
"Good." Samael smiled warmly and turned to Wilhelm.
"And they're right, you need new clothes, a room to stay... definitely to relax a bit with some bath, perhaps explore the place and we should have some dinner later... How does it sound?"
"It... sounds good to me..."
He replies, then he notices something moving by his side, in the corner of the eye. When Wilhelm turned his head, a weird black blob in a vaguely humanoid shape was standing next to him, it's height barely reaching to his shoulder and moving as if it was made of liquid.
"Ew! What's this thing?!"
The soldier quickly jumped away from it.
"Ah... what is it...?"
The Great Devil asked the shadow as if nothing was out of the ordinary and leaned forward when the blob approached closer. It stretched it's head towards Samael's ear as if whispering to him.
"No need to panic, it's just a shadow servant." Jazeriel replied calmly.
"Yeah we have many of those around here~ They can walk through walls too!" Mephy said and chuckled.
"Oh... I see... Charming." Wilhelm said loosening the collar of his shirt.
The servant passed the message and Samael groaned.
"What? Now of all time..."
Before anyone could ask what's going on, a loud "Helloooo my sweetie!" was to hear, in a chirpy female voice.
Then a flap of wings and a swoosh accompanied by a giggle. A woman flew up to Samael and threw herself in his arms, placing a kiss on the cheek.
"Lilu." Samael said calmly.
"I missed you, love! So I decided to drop by and say hello while I can~~"
She was leaning on him and making bedroom eyes, poking his chest playfully with her index finger. She was demonic yet voluptuous to say the least - tall, tan, her figure slim yet curvy, her fine breasts rubbing against Samael. Make-up, ruby eyes and a cutie mark in the corner of her lips. She had ginger hair tied up neatly, and small bat wings on her back, but they weren't attached to her body, more like they were floating inches from the back and yet moving like real ones. She was wearing a skimpy red dress with a thorny vine design on it.
"That's nice of you. I see you changed your hair again."
"You noticed!" She exclaimed happily and let go of him to swirl a pirouette in midair "The last fashion trend in my part of Hell... OH!"
She noticed Wilhelm and approached him instantly to give him a hug. When she pressed the bouncy breasts against him, he froze with his face flushing red.
"Hello handsome, are you new here? I never saw you before." she winked playfully.
"I... Y-yeaaah..."
The others stiffled a chuckle seeing the flustered soldier trying to answer her, turning more red as she squeed happily.
"What's your name?"
"About that..." Samael interrupted her. "This is Wilhelm. We just came back from the Human world after handling a... delicate yet tiring matter. Mind if you give him some space for now, my dearest?"
He said calm as always, but Lilu puffed her cheeks. She let go of Wilhelm, stroking his chin playfully and then approached the devilish Lord.
"Alright... that is... if I can spend some time with you, Sammy." She said in a seducing tone.
"Very well." He smiled slightly and embraced her waist. "Let's have a chat in private then."
He looked over the shoulder at the men.
"We'll meet again at the dinner table. You know what to do until then."
"Yes sir." They replied, as Samael nodded and left chatting with Lilu.
"Was that his wife, or...?" Wilhelm asked quietly, cooling off from the bouncy embrace. A stream of answers followed.
"Hahaha, good joke!"
"Not really..."
"They just happen to know each other since ages. I do mean it. Literally."
"But that's not important now, we have stuff to do."
"Right, I'll take care of the new clothes. May I...?"
Jazz snapped with fingers. A bunch of blobby servants oozed out of the ground and surrounded Wilhelm, holding measuring tapes in their wobbly hands, though they looked more like slimy tentacles rather than arms. The German gasped as they started to measure him, circling around curiously, but it lasted only a moment. They mumbled something while at it and Jazz put some notes in his small notebook. Once he was finished, he closed it with a thud.
"Alright, I'll be back in a moment." He left forming a circle in the ground like Samael did before and he disappeared, teleporting away.
"I'll ask the chef to cook something gooood for the dinneeeer!" Mephy said in a childish manner leaving to the kitchen, skipping happily.
"I'm off to the soul chamber then. Don't disturb me." Endymion said calm and telepoted away too.
"That leaves us two..." Sonneillon sighs. "Come with me, I'll lead you to your room."
He turned around and waved with his hand in a beckoning gesture. Wilhelm nodded and looked in the direction they were supposed to go, only now noticing his surroundings. During the ruckus before he didn't really pay attention, but they were outside in the backyard of a large black castle, with high pointy towers, large windows and gargoyles at the edges. The sky was as blue as back at Earth, the sun being currently behind some clouds. He didn't recognize the plants around, but they were mostly bushes organized in a neat royal style, some of them without any leaves but with thorns instead.
"Huh, not exactly what I expected..." The half-devil mumbled walking behind Sonneillon and looking left and right.
"Let me guess... Did you think that Hell is a cave deep beneath with lava rivers and smells of sulfur?" Sonneillon asked in a bored voice, without looking at Wilhelm.
"...that's... that's what I heard." He tries to hide his embarrassment.
Sonneillon just laughed and shook his head.
"Humans."
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