Hell’s Consort

Newest Chapter for Highest Tier (October 2021)

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Archdemon Empress Luna

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"Sloth." Luna murmured, blinking at the horrible thing she had summoned as per Sloth's instruction. 

The three of them stood around the circle while staring at the ugly thing with absolute judgment.

It wasn't positive and certainly not the horrifying president she expected from Archdemon's suggestion.

"This creature…" Luna trailed off and let out a huge sigh.

She couldn't deal with this, not when too many things were at stake.

How dare this Archdemon to have the gall to pull a prank on her?

Luna expressed all her outrage in a single glower as she turned her head towards Sloth.

Her hand gestured wildly at the harmless thing at the center of the summoning circle, but she still kept her voice low despite wanting to screech at him, "Is this the creature you wanted me  to summon Sloth?" 

Sloth nodded once, and his bow-shaped lips were pressed into a grim line. "Yes." 

The bastard was severe, and she couldn't quite believe this.

Luna couldn't help it, but her voice had raised its volume as she pointed at the thing. "Are you telling me this is the president of your Legion?"

"Yes?" Now, Sloth sounded unsure as he frowned at her in confusion.

Maybe, the clueless Archdemon did not understand where her outbursts were coming from. 

Luna pointed out the obvious, stomping her foot on the floor in her frustration. "Well, it's not moving!" 

"Of course, it isn't moving." Ravin lifted a hand to tuck the silver hair strands that had curtained the side of her face as if it was a significant inconvenience. He didn't want her hair to block his view of her. "It's a doll, Amare." 

What she witnessed on Queen Morgan's obsidian mirror about Luxen and the Vampire Realm had zapped her bloodthirst on their war with Luxen's Legion, but this was more… ugh.

Luna didn't have the energy to argue with these ridiculous bastards.

Slapping the Archdemon of Sloth's pretty face and that annoying long lashes of his—even longer than Luna's—required so much effort.

No.

She winced, shaking her head.

Not today.

She asked again, feeling hopeless, "I asked both of you to draw the summoning circle for this useless fucking doll?"

"That doll isn't for fucking." Sloth's tone was matter-of-fact as he bent down, picked the ugly doll up, and brushed the invisible lint out of its snow-white dress shirt.

  Luna was tempted to slap her palm against her forehead, but when her gaze landed on the creepy-looking doll, she felt an inky cloud of dread hanging around the atmosphere.

She glanced at Ravin and Sloth to see if it affected them, but it seemed like she was the only one who could feel the nauseous headache it brought.

Was Sloth's president this powerful when it can evoke such anxiety in its unmoving presence? Maybe, she had concluded that it was futile too early.

Luna observed the doll in Sloth's hand some more, giving it a chance. 

She examined the doll up close and personal while Sloth held the supposedly dangerous creature for her to see.

It had a circular head, black, beady eyes that moved from right to left to right, following their movements, but finding it hard which person to focus on.

Sloth's doll had red circles painted on its cheeks, wearing a slightly mischievous grin similar to Sloth.

  It had tiny distressed cuts all over its body and some things that resembled bruises.

Seven claw marks slashed its left eye down to the right side of its jaw, which unsettled her.

The doll also had a long carrot-shaped nose.

It wore a red hat that appeared like an upside-down bucket with a red scarf wrapped around its non-existent shoulders. 

"Hmm, speaking of f*cking, I wished to see more of  Luxen and those human girls in Queen Morgan's magic looking glass."

"Uh-Sloth." She reminded him before another discussion distracted them to the point of no return. "This wasn't the time to talk about that."

Sloth's sleepy gaze had wandered back to Queen Morgan's black mirror, showing them the real-time events at the North of the Fall Courts where Apollyon and Queen Morgan fought Luxen's Legion.

Fortunately.

They tried to keep the magical barriers together simultaneously time.

"It was a fascinating sight I don't come across often but you don't wish to see them anymore."

"What is even fascinating  to you, Sloth?" Breaking their formation outside the summoning circle, Luna stepped back away from the Archdemon as if she wanted to run away from these madman's presence. "Human women dying?"

Her movement caused the red lights outlining the geometric shapes to vanish. 

She had already checked out as one of the sources of Archdemon Magic. 

The Archdemon of Sloth also didn't miss her moving away from them.

It was a grave mistake to drag her eyes back to his forest green ones. 

"I also wanted to see those men being tortured by our Kind. It  makes an Archdemon feel confident and powerful—" Sloth's following words were lower, almost intimate, and had a certain rasp to it as he planted himself near her, not allowing her to escape. "--but  you don't want that, either."

Ravin's warm hand had wrapped around her wrist like a manacle and pulled her back to the summoning circle as the president's conjurer.

In that instant, Luna figured out that Ravin didn't want her to lose her place on the Devil's Pentagram, or she might find it challenging to command Sloth's president if he wasn't acquainted with her demonic energy.

"Sloth. You had never been there but the image that the black mirror had shown earlier is the Vampire Realm--" Ravin began without taking his golden eyes away from her face, and she could feel his intense stare burning the surface of her skin. "It is the Kingdom, Amare ruled as an Empress and  where I once ruled as King while I possessed the Vampire King's physical vessel when the Archdemon of Envy had attached my Archdemon soul to his." 

Sloth's lips formed into a small oval. "Ohhh."

"The Archdemon of Lust had chosen to conquer the Vampire Realm while we are distracted with the Garden of the Four Seasons?" Sloth's eyebrows had reached up to his hairline in shock. "That's sick and evil!" But then, he nodded in agreement after thinking about it, "Nevertheless, one I would expect from an Archdemon who sought revenge."

'So, all this  time, the slow Archdemon didn't understand the situation that Queen Morgan's black mirror had shown until now?' Luna thought as she ran a shaky hand through her silver hair.

She shook her head in sadness.

'Should she even expect something out from this president he had been talking about?' 

"Alright." The Archdemon of Sloth decided. "I will respect and be considerate of my Master's pain so I wouldn't command the black mirror to show the heartbreaking scenes again. But, then, he paused, "--even if I wanted to." 

Luna narrowed her eyes at him.'Well, thank  you, you f*cked up Archdemon.' 

"Now what do we do with this, president?" She prompted Sloth in a hurry, determined to move this forward. "Are you even sure this is the one?"

Luna was glad that she didn't have to painstakingly make a summoning circle in the War Room since the geometric shapes she had required drawn for her in advance as if Queen Morgan's foresight already knew what they were trying to accomplish or…  was this the exact purpose of the War Room here in the Fall Courts?

To summon any beings that would be willing to help in exchange for a prize?

Sloth inclined his head, "You have a problem with  it, Lune?" 

"Maybe,  I made the mistake and I summoned the wrong… thing."

Well, what she did during the conjuring ritual wasn't wrong, though. 

Sloth and Ravin already assured her about it. 

Ravin had the nerve to click his tongue with impatience as his thumb stroked the inside of her wrist to get her attention, "You know the more you doubt, the more we waste our time." 

"Sloth!"Her nostrils had flared. "Goddamn it, please!" As the seconds ticked by, Luna's lips  had curled as he gnashed his teeth in frustration, "My husband and  the Autumn Militia itself is in trouble as we speak."

"Now, tell me what do we do with it." She demanded with gritted teeth.

"I don't know. I'm not really sure how to use him since my Legion just existed in the seventh circles of Hell without me giving them commands." Sloth explained. "To be honest, I attached each member of my demonic Legion into these small dolls Simone had made for me inside my glass cabinet so that they wouldn't grow restless in my Kingdom and cause chaos in the other Circles. I am to lazy to go to war and I don't like getting tired." A hint of a smirk formed at the corner of her lips. Yes. This was Sloth they were talking about. "--But, I will help you this one time since I felt like this president of mine had been itching for a fight ever since he existed."

"Sadly, I'm too passive to fulfill his dream of demonic pride and violence." Sloth frowned, but it quickly shifted into an excited grin, acting as if the siege was just another game bored demons play, "Today I will make his wishes come true and make him defeat Luxen's president for me." 

Perhaps, dolls weren't just made as children's toys.

The Archdemon of Sloth just proved that they could be powerful vessels for demonic possession or attachment aside from living bodies in the Material Realm.

Dolls were vital conduits of magic, serving as links to communicate to the Spirit Realm and attracting evil spirits and were brought forth in a dangerous ritual.

Sloth's president was a puppet made of stuffing, containing bones and green fabrics crumpled and shoved inside its body. 

According to Sloth, he had bound the soul of his president into this doll, but she still couldn't imagine what it could do.

"Alright." She agreed.

"Queen Morgan, her Cadre, and the Vampire King will not be able to defeat that winged serpent alone, so Sloth's president will do. We must release him along with the evil spirits that we will call to support the Autumn Militia. But this decision is entirely up to you, Amare."  Ravin said as he breathed an irritated yet regretful sigh. "I offered you the entirety of my Legion to summon in the Fall Courts, but you refused to since you only wanted a president to lead our ghost army."

"I will take full responsibility of my Archdemon Familiars, Sloth's president, and our army of evil spirits to help the Fall Courts. With this, I am certain of our victory." Luna hissed as she shook Ravin's hold on her and turned her back on the two Archdemon Familiars, "No need to summon your entire Legion, Ravin."—or Luna might get into extra trouble than she asked for.

She shouldn't bite more than she can't chew. 

"I think we have seen enough in this War Room." Ravin's urgent growl rumbled in his chest, "We need to get out of here to unlock the doll's full potential, Sloth."

He glanced around the War Room, looking for something. "I don't see any window around here."

Maybe, the window is hidden behind one of those curtains, similar to this black mirror.

Luna proceeded to part all the curtains with a single snap of a finger.

"Found one." She informed them.  At least, her Archdemon Magic can do such a simple trick which meant she hadn't completely lost her touch of magic. "Now what?"

"This president will be too strong once we released him. He had been squeezed in such a small vessel." Luna heard Ravin mutter with conviction before she felt someone touch her shoulder.

She turned around to figure out who he was.

"I will wake him up from his long slumber, Lune." Sloth's forest-green eyes glowed as he watched her.

She swore the doll had changed its expression into a tiny frown when Sloth presented the haunted doll in her face.

"Here.." His hand on her shoulder fell away as he handed the doll ugly doll over to her, "Whisper your command into my president's ear, throw it to the window and watch it grow into a giant."