CODEX Part 3: Between Heaven and Hell

“Did you feel that?” Gakhas asked Mepalham once they entered the central corridor that was connecting pretty much the whole mansion.

“Yes. The mansions shook lightly,” Mepalham mumbled, always glancing behind for any enemies.

“No. It felt like my soul broke, like my existence became meaningless,” Gakhas frowned and touched his chest. His eyes widened when he started to breathe heavily and lose his balance.

Mepalham raised an eyebrow when he noticed the powerful Gakhas lean against the wall clenching to his chest tightly.

“What the heck is happening to you?” The greed demon asked, not in the least worried if he were to be sincere. They only had to work together, do business and that was all. They only had to find Zoe and that was it.

“I don’t know. She didn’t sign me, I assured myself of that,” The short demon hissed, the pain becoming more accentuated, “I am so going to kill her personally if she signed me secretly or something,” He continued in anger.

“Wait-” Mepalham’s eyes widened when he remembered something, “She may not have signed you. Maybe you just became sensitive to her soul. That means she is close if it affects you so much!” He shouted contently.

Gakhas only threw him a glare, “Then where is she?”

Whatever the two demons were expecting was definitely not close to what came from around the corner. It was only the first floor and it was redecorated by a person who was standing in the middle of the corridor, her left hand still holding onto an unfortunate soul while her right hand seemed rotten.

Gakhas could barely walk by the time they walked in close proximity to the creature with the rotten hand. Mepalham gulped when he felt the energy coming from it; dark energy mixed with something else that he didn’t recognize. Whatever that was, it has never existed ever before.

Truthfully, after Zoe blasted the door open, the guardians fell at her feet, screaming in pain and begging for mercy. Her mind turned off, even worse than before because now, she couldn’t give a crap about absolutely anything; not even Lucifer.

As she was walking down the hall, she noticed she was somewhere underground and had to search for stairs. Everything close to her started to die, even the pattern on the walls. Zoe didn’t meet demons on the way, mostly because most of them were out there, on the battlefield, fighting for their master.

It was event-less and boring so she had to make it more interesting and attract them to her therefore, she concentrated on a point on the wall and punched it hard. The rock fell down at her feet and made quite the noise but it wasn’t enough; she broke the base wall and the ceiling crumbled on her which only meant she didn’t have to search for the stairs anymore.

“Go find Zoe.” Beelzebub started while waiting to get on the battlefield.

“What? But-” Mehrdir got cut off by Beelzebub’s blank expression.

Now that he was looking closer, Zoe really looked a lot like her father. Their eyes were a bit different but their expressions and personalities were definitely alike; more alike than her human parents.

“I didn’t ask you, Mehrdir,” The redhead bee stated coldly, making Mehrdir nod instantly and move faster than the rest.

The army was impressive; no it was grand. In his long existence, Mehrdir has never seen something so powerful and feel something so intense.

As he was getting further away from the army and closer to the vanity domain, he couldn’t help but tense and stand on guard all the time, just in case there were demons that would spontaneously attack. Mehrdir was aware that everyone in Hell was busy taking sides and some were even using it as a decoy to get on Earth but the troublesome part was Zoe. She was dragged to Hell and transformed into a monster by the one demon she feared the most.

In a way, Mehrdir couldn’t help but feel guilty. He has taken care of her –in his own twisted way- and that also meant keeping her as far as possible from getting into the darkness. Once other demons appeared, she grew interested and Iaosur urged her to wake up faster than Mehrdir wanted. Of course, it was partially his fault because he sent Eneizar while he had to do some businesses for Beelzebub; that wasn’t his brightest idea as it has been proved.

The demon lover was so deep into his thoughts that his senses numbed; or at least concentrated on finding Zoe. He was three quarters on the way and one smart demon knew exactly how to sneak and even destroy Mehrdir.

From his place, a few feet behind, the former vanity demon was debating with himself. He could take the greed demon in one movement and destroy the only thing that Zoe cared about and was still somewhat alive. With Ezekiel dead and gone to Heaven, she had nothing; her anchor to humanity was gone and Eneizar could use that in his favor.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed a pack of outside demons eyeing Mehrdir. They knew he was daydreaming and he was so lost in his self that they could do anything as long as no one would notice; no on with a title, at least.

Eneizar stopped and watched the pack sneak all around Mehrdir while he didn’t notice. The greed demon was weak and could be killed easily. With him out of the picture, Eneizar had a whole list already written with how he could play with Zoe and her human friends. With Mehrdir gone, he could have Zoe all for himself and the most dangerous rival of his would be just a memory.

But he didn’t.

Once he saw the demon get close enough Eneizar ruffled his hair, annoyed, and rushed to Mehrdir’s help. He jumped in front of him right in time to have his chest scratched by a low ranked demon with a sword. Eneizar winced and immediately killed the low life that had the guts to hurt him.

“Wake up, Mehrdir. Hell is a battlefield not a flower bed.” The vanity demon hissed, eyeing another demon coming from his left. He quickly kicked him in the chest, sending him a few feet away.

“I know that,” Mehrdir snarled, quickly moving out of the way and plunging his hand through another demon, killing him, “I have to find Zoe,” He continued while killing another one.

Eneizar’s right eyebrow twitched and quickly got rid of the other three demons using only his energy. Once the land became silent again, they continued to walk towards the mansion. Eneizar was still tense and he couldn’t understand why Mehrdir’s presence was killing him from the inside.

“Ezekiel is dead,” Eneizar informed the greed demon.

“I know. I could feel it and I’m sure she felt it too. Everyone who has the sign did.” Eneizar responded coldly.

It was his attitude that really annoyed Eneizar. Even him, as a vanity demon, could still leave everything aside for something precious to him; but not Mehrdir.

“She’s gone insane, hasn’t she? Losing Ezekiel certainly killed every amount of humanity left in her.” Eneizar continued, trying to get some kind of satisfactory answer.

“She still has Chen and the rest. She will come back to norm-“ Mehrdir’s eyes widened when Eneizar punched him really hard.

But once he punched once he couldn’t help himself but do it again and again. Mehrdir was confused and defended himself, making the two get into a fight.

“What the fuck came into you?” Mehrdir spap before he wiped the blood from his nose.

“You are one ungrateful bastard aren’t you? Do you even know just what Lucifer created while you were gone? No! You haven’t seen Abaddon in Zoe’s body, killing what was the only person she ever let inside her heart. The only person except you.” Eneizar was really mad. He couldn’t help it, though; Mehrdir was either too proud or just couldn’t admit it.

“And what do you want me to do?! I already admitted my feelings for her and you have no idea how much it hurts! I am a demon, Eneizar! Demons aren’t supposed to care at all.”

“I do,” That answer definitely surprised, “I care and I admitted it in the moment I let her sign me. You’re not the only one who would give everything up for her.”

Well that was interesting. Mehrdir got up and stared at the vanity demon, speechless. Eneizar was breathing heavily from both the fight and screaming. Now that he was slowly calming down, reality struck him.

“You love her.” Mehrdir stated, his voice going back to his normal cold tone, “You love her.” He repeated, making it even more awkward for Eneizar.

“Yes. And I know you love her too so we should hurry and get her out of there before Beelzebub arrives and destroys everything.” Eneizar mumbled, already turning around and walking.

Mehrdir remained on his spot, still registering what just happened.

“What the heck is that?” Mepalham whispered to Gakhas, still in awe.

The short demon was in pain and couldn’t process what was exactly in front of him. The figure turned around and snarled loudly, making the two demons take a step back. Gakhas had to narrow his eyes to see better and he did.

“Zoe?” He mumbled, taking Mepalham by surprise.

“That is Zoe?” The greed demon muttered, taking another step back.

The figure, that in the end was Zoe, walked closer to them and Gakhas’s chest started to hurt even more. Mepalham’s eyes widened when she stopped in front of them and grabbed Gakhas by his collar. She sniffed, which was very weird, before she looked straight into his eyes.

“Beelzebub is coming,” Gakhas muttered, trying to save himself from the angered commander. “The war began.” He continued.

Zoe tilted her head to the side, the yellow in her eyes blinking. Afterwards, her eyes traveled to Mepalham, who has frozen under her sight. His eyes moved on her rotten hand and saw her swollen veins pumping what looked to be black blood.

She didn’t do anything and only threw Gakhas aside, to Mepalham. She turned around and walked to her business which was probably killing some more demons.

“Where do you think she’s going?” Mepalham asked curiously.

Gakhas’s pains seemed to have decreased once she started to get further away from him.

“She’s so overwhelmingly strong,” The short sloth demon mumbled, finally getting steady on his feet.

On the other side, Zoe’s world was blank. If she didn’t know better, she could swear she was in the abyss, having nothing and no one to love anymore. That wasn’t true, after all she still had the demons she signed and her human friends but Ezekiel was the closest thing she had to family and his death was because of Lucifer.

She didn’t hurt Gakhas because she recognized him. However, that couldn’t be said of other vanity demons that launched at her yet got killed in a few seconds. The grand hall became bloody and the screams were loud and horrifying, half coming from outside the mansion where armies were fighting other armies.

Zoe was just killing without thinking, trying to express her hurt and anger through death. She didn’t expect to meet the thing that dragged her to Hell in the first place; the white figure that haunted her, making her weak.

The shehereeyocht was there, standing tall and proud right in the middle of the grand hall. He growled lowly, threatening the woman that became a monster. The Leftover glared at her, his black eyes sending chills to anyone with half a brain; but her mind was shut off and the only emotion she could feel was anger and she only wanted revenge.

Zoe was going to make sure that leftover was going to suffer as much or even more than she did. She was going to torture him the same way he tortured her.