The Children of Zegandaria, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov [first color ebook reader txt] 📗

The demons were surprised and paused.

- "We have never seen a man wish himself dead, provided he can get away!," they nodded. "But that's your choice! You want to get out of Hell, but you'll probably remain stuck between Heaven and earth."

Gabriel nodded and bowed his head. Tears dripped from her eyes. Then she broke the tile.

That enraged the demons even more.

- "How dare you destroy Xaphan's tile?," they gasped in bewilderment. "It's the only thing you have to live for. You destroyed your only support!"

Then they pounced on it without thinking and started tearing it apart piece by piece.

Gabriel's head whipped around, and the light of space reflected in her bulging eyes. Her mouth was frozen in a chilling lifeless smile. Her hands were clenched in a death convulsion. Thus did the former "mistress" of the asteroid end her earthly journey.

Consciousness, according to some, is like an onion - the more you peel it, the more layers are revealed underneath. Gabriel's insides were shared among the hungry demons, who began to feed with seeming relish. They craved the taste of human blood. They wanted to feel it all.

- "You have to give her credit, though," one of the thrashing demons added, "she definitely knew how to fight. How many of us were subdued by that girl!"

After they had fed well enough, the demons spoke:

- "It's a good thing we put her out of her misery - she would have died anyway if we hadn't come to her rescue to eat her. But on the other hand," they went on, grinding ugly. "I think there's nothing human in her, or almost nothing."

Valak swallowed them down:

- Enough talk, Hans, intention was to drive us all into a black hole. And he almost managed to trick me. But, enough of that! Just enough!

The demons looked at him in amazement, not because they were impressed by Hans, but because they felt a new surge of power in their leader. They realized that he would keep his throne. And many heads would roll!

The demons recognized only the one ready for a real fight, ready to prey on others and show all that he had harbored all these years. Few were those who would leave just like that.

Valak knew something - Hans surpassed him in intellect. That bastard was probably the smartest in the entire universe. But there was something else. In life, and in Hell, emotional intelligence meant much, much more. Of course many argued that emotional intelligence could improve over time.

But Valak's secret lay in something else - in the distant future, morality had collapsed not so much because of depravity, but because of warped values.

Drowning men helped drowning men. And this picture was sad.

Valak seemed stable though his wounds burned him internally. This in the language of Hell some defined as "work discipline." The demons were impressed by the lack of steadfastness and cool calculation of his actions - he was their true leader. He was the man to show them the right path.

The asteroid wasn't big enough to take even half of the so-called demon army - so numerous were they.

One of the demons found a small scroll in Xaphan's bosom - engraved on it were the following simple verses:

"In hell I live, Valak will judge me, I go,

Whatever I say, I was wrong here."

They handed him the note. He bared his canine teeth.

- Very well written and very true!

The demons then set to work on the second part of their plan. It was especially important given that they had so much ahead of them.

They couldn't stay on this asteroid forever because the portal wouldn't be open for long.

The arcane symbols could drive you insane just looking at them, and the aura of emanation was extremely strong. There was no doubt that one of the so-called spells could block all activity on the portal and that would truly be the end of them.

They voiced their concerns to Valak, and he made it clear to them that there was a solution to the problem. The asteroid would soon pass by a supernova star and this was their chance.

Just then, the place filled up with traitors - very brazen and low down traitors. They wanted to eject Valak from the asteroid into open space.

Some of the most powerful demons like Paimon[52] and Oriarx[53] roared:

- Kill the king! Hell commands! He's lived enough already!

Valak, however, did not lose courage. He anticipated a possible coup, but did not suspect that someone like Hans would orchestrate it. He didn't understand how an ordinary man could Enter the psyche of his subjects and manipulate them to such an extent.

The demons grabbed him and tied him up with ropes - so he couldn't move.

Deep inside, he sensed doom.

- "I have helped you so much," he began. "I tried to rally the infernal forces."

The demons are enraged at him:

- You simply had no plan and were leading us to certain doom on this asteroid from which there is no escape. Hans is much better than you, and if he has to be Hell's leader - let him! We will stand behind him.

Other prominent demons such as Soneilon and Tamus have tried to bring order among their rampaging fellows, but without much success. They felt that Valak's head would roll ah-ah-ah, but they wanted it done by the book. Hans was to be crowned the new king and given absolute power over the underground kingdom the Zegandarians called Shanor Dun.

Before that they asked him if he had anything to say as if for the last time. Valak looked at them grimly and said:

- I have none.

He was hanged at the entrance to the Chapter House, crucified between Hell and this world, tormented by the loss of his power.

As this occurred, a strange laughter was heard among the demons.

Apparently, this was how every demon lord ended. Strangled in its own webs.

Far ahead, the horns of Hell itself, or Shanor Dun, could be heard. They heralded the rise of the new ruler.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN: THE RISE TO POWER

Hans was wearing the robe of Argan that had belonged to many other demons before him.

He was also given his Emphusor to keep him from reading his own thoughts.

Deep down, though, he realized something super important - somewhere along the line, Valak had made a huge and unpleasant mistake.

Not even the demon doctor Uphir had been able to heal the wounds he had suffered.

The wounds tormented him because he himself knew what awaited him, but he allowed himself to delay the situation till the last. Valak suffered every day, but he looked like the ruthless demon he was.

A sick creature, full of infirmities, though invisible to the naked eye, not worthy to live by Hell's criteria. She simply will not be so well cared for by her subjects, who know that she agonizes.

The laws of the underworld are all too clear, and there is no room for improvisation in them.

Deep in his heart, Valak knew he was dying - and so was his soul, which was so sick. Living the life of a demon was not easy.

Many of his subjects, like the physician Uval or the demon Verin[54] suspected of his agony long before others knew. They knew it was time for the throne to be vacated - as it should be.

Hans assumed power and underwent a special procedure of clearing his mind - he had to be ready to take over almost immediately.

The demons recognized that regardless of his origins, it was most logical that he take command of the infernal hosts - he was damn smart, damn cunning, and damn immoral. What more could one expect from a master of Hell? Well, maybe he was still lacking a little brutality, but in time, who knows, he would make up for that weakness of his. Besides, demons didn't expect their ruler to be perfect

- After all, he was going to rule Hell, not Heaven.

Hans got the approval of all the senior ones like Nergal, Naberius[55], and Buer - that was more than enough to carry out his plan.

So many feelings shifted within him, but they all unanimously decided to reveal some of Hell's secrets to him right now without wasting any time. The situation was changing too fast for them to procrastinate.

Once he learned the principle of the operation of the Emporium and was acquainted with Hell's understanding of ruler morality, he had to go through the basic ceremonies. This took several days.

An assistant was assigned to him, Agares himself, who was cunningly aware that, though he had failed with Emborian, he would by no means repeat the mistake with Hans, who had every chance to succeed, and the old cunning man would advise him on every more important step and keep him from making mistakes.

The atmosphere in Hell was primarily one of deep understanding of death and how to avoid demons at all costs. In Hell, this was very important.

Agares had been through a lot, he was one of the oldest demons, but he feared it too.

- "Is what Pruflas claims true?," asked Hans. "He said the dimensions were countless many. And we can fall ad infinitum."

- "Your mentor didn't lie to you," Agares began very carefully. "But he has spared you some details about the structure of Hell and of the universe itself. It's all too complex. I'll put it to you this way. Your soul may perish, yes, it may ascend, but in the end, who needs all that? Sooner or later the truth will come out - first of all for yourself. Self-consciousness of the soul is one of the nastiest things - even in hell. And one of the most prolonged. It is not the tortures or adversities of this realm that sufferers more or less get used to. After all, what kind of Hell would it be if the soul expected what would happen to it?"

- "Then I want to ask you one last thing," Hans ventured. "What happens to demonic souls?"

Agares was in no hurry to answer. He was aware that there were great secrets in being this or that. He knew it from experience, and he was aware of how insidious his charge's question was no matter with what intentions it was asked.

- "Look here, dear Hans," he addressed him most politely, "it is not so easy to answer such a question. Not at all. The demon soul is not like the human soul, but the most terrible thing for it is not to cease to exist."

- "Then where is the clue?," demanded Hans.

- "There's the thing!," Agares hurried on. "We can never be quite sure where we're going. For some, Hell is a state of the soul, but others walk for eternity on a road that leads nowhere. Even in dimensions that have nothing to do with hell."

- "Is that possible?," wondered Hans.

- The demonic realm is just a place populated by certain creatures. In the end the soul doesn't simply cease to exist - it's primarily a matter of personal choice.

- "You mean we choose whether we die?," he asked.

- "Well, somewhat," the demon whispered to him. "I would put it a little differently. In the depths of our minds lies the truth