The Demon’s Bride

Elise enjoyed her time talking to her grandfather. The man was humorous, kind with his words, and appeared to be very delighted with her company that had Elise to be happy being with him as well. 

Ian came not soon after, his eyes often looking back in the beginning but it appeared clear as they left the side of the garden.

Elise looked at his expression, finding how refreshed he appeared when his hand slide to her fingers. "I can't wait to meet your mother."

Elise replied to his words with a wider smile, "Me too."

In Hell, Satan looked at Ariel's painting. At first, he spent his time doing nothing but stare at her portrait. After some time he stared at the painting, he couldn't help his hand to touch the canvas, furrowing his eyebrows when the sensation of the canvas turn out to be colder than his imagination. 

"We can drink together," a voice spoke from behind. 

Satan turned his head to look at his son. He had to say how Leviathan was a splitting image of him when he was younger; handsome and poised. 

Satan didn't answer but neither did he ushered Leviathan outside the room. He looked at the bottle that Leviathan had on his hand and sat in front of him.

Leviathan didn't look at his father. He took it upon himself to open the bottle of the liquor, bursting open the cork of the wine with a loud pop. The bubble of the liquor seeped out as Leviathan poured the rest of the purple colored liquid inside the two glass he had brought with him. 

"You are not leaving?" Satan questioned and Leviathan's golden eyes rolled to him. "Elise and her husband is granted a reward to meet the people who they want to meet, I believe you can tag along and meet them."

There was no need for explanation of 'them' whom Satan had mentioned as to Leviathan there was two people who he wished to meet.

"The reward was given solely to the children, not me. Even Lucifer, who was able to go to Heaven as he wish still couldn't meet his sister and Raziel cannot meet Adelaide. For me to meet her is close to impossible," Leviathan tipped his glass and drank the content of the glass at once before pouring more alcohol into the glass. 

"You can try. Even that snake Lucifer can find a way to meet his sister. He might be pretending to have no cards to use at the moment but that crafty snake will be able to do anything when he put his mind into it," Satan said and Leviathan stared at him in silence. 

To think that his father can praise a person… although Satan's words sounded like a mock, Leviathan could tell the hidden praise that his father had for the duke of Hell.

"Try is good but…" Leviathan was suddenly at loss of words. "I don't think it's time for me to meet her yet and I do think she should reincarnated instead of staying in Heaven. Unlike me, she has all the chance to live her life once again." Turning around, he turned the question, "Why do you never try finding mother? You can, can't you?"

"For certain, I do," replied Satan firmly. After inhaling his breath sharply he continued, "But your mother prohibited me from visiting her. She prohibited me from finding her and resurrecting her… The only single thing that she allowed me after years of pleading to her was this." 

Leviathan followed his father's gaze, noting that he was pointing at the painting of his baby self who was around his mother arms.

All those years, after his mother's death, to Leviathan, his father was never the pleasant person to be around with. He would often appeared miffed. His expression that was dark with rage was simply too frightening for his childhood self. It had been so frightening to the point where Leviathan could never draw Satan's face on a paper as he had never been able to gather the courage of seeing his father by his eyes.

Years went and the anger that once blossomed in Leviathan's heart then slowly changed into displeasure, before detest and hatred. 

As years go on, this was in fact their first time to sit alone, where both wasn't occupied by their anger and the other wasn't occupied by their past. 

Leviathan was reminded by Adelaide's words when he once talked about his father. "In a book there would always be two way to look at the story. First, from the villain's perspective and second from the hero's perspective. Not all is wrong but not all is right. Perhaps it's just that you haven't learned everything about your father."

How correct, Leviathan agreed now. He didn't understand it back then but now, he learned that all this time, it wasn't only his father who wasn't looking at him but he as well. 

As his father had brushed him off, he had decided to treat him in a colder way. He never knew his father's reason for keeping everything close to himself. He never knew to whom his father's anger was directed to, silently thinking the anger was directed to himself.

"Why would mother do that?"

"I am at lost myself. But it's the truth that I love her so deeply, I can give her everything even if it was my life. All of her wishes, her dreams, her needs, I would cover everything for her. I love her but at the same time, I hated her on her last moment for prohibiting me to save her, and to myself who wasn't able to lift a finger as her death came for her." 

On Satan's face was simply the face of a desperate man, the expression he had as well when he lost the love of his life. 

"And the reason why all those years you ignored me… why was it?" 

"Ignored?" Satan's red eyes narrowed while looking at him, and one eyebrow of his raised. "I have never ignored you. Perhaps, yes, I was cold. But never has the idea for me to ignore you happened in my mind. I… honestly. I didn't know how to interact with you."

Leviathan's eyebrows both raised as he looked at his father blankly. "And your reason for chasing after me in the mortal's world?"

"I never wanted to chase for you or hunt you. I am no beast, I am your father," Satan set firm his reply. "Since you have rejected my offer to become the next heir of Hell, I only wished to offer you a home— somewhere that is safe for you but I could never find where you are with how agile you escape my sight."

The outcome of their conversation was something that Leviathan never expected. His father was cold-hearted, a man who thinks of himself before others, someone who was a tyrant— a King. Yet… that King was also a father. A clumsy father who was simply too awkward to himself and his son.

Leviathan's expression that always seemed cool and composed cracked, showing a face of a completely baffled person.

He exhaled a sudden sharp breath. His lips curled and a loud laughter escaped from his mouth as he threw his head back. 

Satan looked at him with a full askew look, "Maybe the fight you had with Camael had caused you to loose your marbles."

"Perhaps," Leviathan shrugged his shoulders and pulled his father's glass when Satan was about to take a drink. "Drink more. The night has just begin. Maybe drinking will help you loosen yourself too."

Satan raised his strong eyebrow and took the drink without an answer. As the father and son fix their drifted family hood, Elise stood in front of a different section in Heaven where the place was guarded by fence of thorns. 

Raziel looked at the place with a faint sigh. "She is here… your mother."