Hell’s Consort

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The Empress Luna

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"Well, if this isn't awkward, then I don't know what is." The young man glanced down at the scattered shards of colored glass on the red carpet as if he was witnessing the mess he made for the first time.

He sighed and squinted at it for a long minute as everyone watched the man, waiting for what else he would do next.

Luna held her breath in anticipation.

The young man scratched his chin as he surveyed them with his forest-green eyes full of curiosity.

He tilted his head as he peered at Luna behind Ravin and smiled, "It turns out like we are the only people who aren't part of this theatre."

If he were, indeed, talking to her, then Luna wouldn't know how to respond. 

She glanced at just about everything to avoid the young man's gaze, but then she couldn't help but return his intense stare.

He had appeared out of place with his weird clothes—a long-sleeved loose tunic with vertical green stripes with a red robe placed on top of it paired with a weird hat.

He was severely uncoordinated, and his fancy clothes appeared rumpled as if the young man had just gotten out of bed.

That's it!

He must be in his pajamas, and the man couldn't stop staring at Luna as he loosely held the reins of his horse. 

She didn't dare look away as she clutched Ravin's upper arm in a panic.

He appeared to be the kind of person who killed people just for fun with that innocent face of his.

"Who is that guy, Ravin?" Luna whispered, and the Archdemon of Gluttony tensed at her question. 

"You are late as always, son." The Demon King turned his head mechanically to the young man on top of his horse and sighed, "Why did you even come here if you are tired to get out of your bed?"

  "You forgot to bring your mask." Queen Jezebel noted as she relaxed her stiff posture and reclined to her comfortable chair. 

He simply shrugged. "I just remembered that I forgot it before I crashed the window, but I was too lazy to go back to my Kingdom and retrieve it." 

Queen Jezebel had shaken her head and sighed heavily as if she had enough of her son's antics.

Luna had started to doubt her reality of how these Archdemons can appear like a family with normal interactions.

Like, of course, Luna wasn't sure if ever they woke up from their bed and told themselves, 'What a beautiful morning. How shall I destroy the creatures' lives today?' 

They were created as pure-blooded Archdemons and it must remain that way.

Was that what was expected of them or--

Was the Demon King right--that all creatures wore masks and had roles to play in this grand scheme of things?

Were they born evil because it was a must-have trait for an Archdemon, or the circumstances had shaped them to be like this, and this was what they had chosen to become?

Her head ached once again.

Luna's confused mind had turned into a downward spiral.

She reminded herself that she wasn't crazy yet by being aware of Ravin's presence in front of her, effectively grounding herself that this was her current reality.

Luna was in Hell.

  She was an Archdemon.

Alright.

  "You are not only forgetful, brother, but also you are lazy as hell." Luxen snorted as he faced his brother with his hand on his hips. "To be honest, I didn't even expect you to come here and visit."

Luna felt like she was invading their privacy for witnessing such a display of how the Archdemon's family dynamics worked in Hell.

It was amusing and awkward at the same time, but she came to realize that it wasn't at all.

She wasn't supposed to be a stranger to this royal family when she was basically an Archdemon now.

Luna had Ravin and Luxen as her husbands, and the King and Queen were her in-laws under the Spiritual Laws of Hell.

Luna had Archdemon magic to cultivate.

She must learn how to open portals from different dimensions under this other older man's tutelage, whom she wasn't even introduced to.

She couldn't escape her fate when it had already happened, but that didn't mean she would wholeheartedly accept that the Demon King was her father-in-law.

She would have to learn how to so that she could get stronger than all of them combined, defeat them, and go back to Apollyon.

It sounded like a good plan, but it wouldn't be easy. 

Luna knew Apollyon was waiting for her to come back.

She had no desire to be lumped along with these evil people who refused to acknowledge peace.

Instead, they dedicated their entire immortality to wreaking chaos and havoc to other Realms.

"I want to see my sister-in-law."

Luna concluded that the man was an Archdemon, but who was it?

She hadn't seen the embodiment of Pride, Greed, Wrath, and Sloth.

Luna had four remaining choices, and this guy was probably one of them.

These demons lead creatures astray and expose them to all kinds of torture.

These devils can torture emotionally.

They caused accidents, divisive misunderstandings, and even fatalities by just a whisper.

They implanted seeds of mischief to test human beings, cheating and destroying their good intentions, seducing, tempting, and exploiting weaknesses.

The devil worshipped power, that's for sure, but were they doing the job they were forced to do before they even existed, or did they actually enjoyed it?

Ravin glanced up at him as the young man sat his horse aloft, scanning him from top to bottom.

His gaze stopped at the large egg-shaped thing which was secured in its place at his back.

"Sloth." Ravin pointed the finger at it. "What is that?"

So this was the Archdemon of Sloth!

Luna bit her lip in anxiety as she thought. 'Now that she was an Archdemon herself, was she siding with Archdemons now?'

"Hmm." Queen Jezebel had spoken when the sand in her hourglass's upper bulb was completely consumed, indicating that the time was up. "Perhaps, my new daughter-in-law could stay in Archdemon of Sloth's Kingdom for now to avoid another fight."