Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Charlie blinked in shock, as she looked up into the face of her father, Lucifer, smiling down at her as he held her in his arms.

"Dad?"

"I'm sorry I'm late, Char-Char."

Below, Adam had been sent through the roof of the Hotel, crashing into the first floor. With a roar of anger and frustration, he flew to the surface, breaking another hole in the ceiling upon his exit.

"Alright, how many of your pets do I have to... Lucifer?"

The Sin of Pride smiled smugly at Adam before looking back at his daughter.

"Don't worry, Duckling, this won't take long." Fluttering down to the roof, he gently set her down before looking back at Adam... and blinking in surprise at the amused look on his face. Lucifer was ready to deliver a one-liner he'd spent years planning for, but before he could respond, he was cut off by Adam's... laughter.

"Heh... hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

The First Man's laughter echoed across the battlefield, drawing looks of confusion and fear from both the Exorcists and the Sinners. Even Lute and Vaggie paused in their efforts to gut the other to turn and look in surprise at the Father of Mankind.

"Uhhh... you OK big guy?" Lucifer asked, confusion written all over his face. There were a lot of feelings his presence would invoke in his enemies. Humour definitely wasn't one of them, least of all from Adam.

"Oh, I'm just fucking peachy Old Scratch!" Adam calmed down to look down at Lucifer in amusement. "So, finally remembered you have a daughter, huh? Only took you, what, a couple of decades to remember to visit her?"

Lucifer growled in frustration, ready to respond in kind, before Adam raised his hand in a stopping motion.

"Listen Old Scratch, whatever shitty one-liner you think was gonna get a reaction from me, save it. Your fight isn't with me."

Lucifer sneered as he took to the air, bringing himself to Adam's level.

"Oh? Too scared to take on a higher being, are you?"

"Pfft. Please, much as I'd love to rip off a few of your wings... someone else has called dibs on that privilege."

"Oh? And just who do you think will-"

A blinding flash of light flew at breakneck speed at Lucifer, and suddenly he felt a fist slamming into his face and sending him rocketing to the ground below. But where Adam's fall merely ruined the furniture, Lucifer's crash landing shattered the very foundations of the Hotel, causing the building to collapse in on itself. Lute, knowing exactly who this was, ditched fighting Vaggie and took to the skies, flying up beside Adam.

No longer threatened by her old captain, Vaggie rushed to Charlie's side, grabbing her as she flew them both off the hotel roof, landing on the ground below as the crumbling Hotel raised a cloud of dust. Confused and alarmed, the Hazbins gathered around the Princess of Hell, while the cannibal sinners watched in confusion as the Exorcists took off, flying into the air to join their General.

In the Vees Tower, the trio of Overlords watching the fight unfold, looked in shock at the figure of the new arrival.

"Oh fuck me..." Velvette whispered.

"Is that who I think it is?" Valentino looked on in shock at the figure he'd seen etched in stained glass as a child. The images didn't do him justice.

"Oh, this is gonna be good." Vox watched the chaos unfolding with manic glee, as he fought the surge of fear rising in his very soul.

"Is everyone alright!?" Charlie called out frantically, holding on to Vaggie as they tried to regroup with the others in the massive cloud of dust and debris.

"We're alright, toots." Angel called out as they soon gathered around the broken 'H' from the hotel sign. As the dust began to clear, the group looked up to see Adam hovering lazily just ahead, a smug look on his face... and the new arrival floating just beside him.

Charlie was shocked. The new angel was a six-winged Seraphim, like Sera and her father, but so unlike both. For starters, he was tall. Much taller than her father, and just as tall as Sera, but more than that, he was muscular. Both Sera and her father were on the skinnier side, while this one was rippling with cords of lean musculature, hidden beneath a set of shining silver armour, engraved with the image of a winged sword, worn over a blue tunic while a longsword hung in it's scabbard around his waist. His features were refined, and from his head grew a mop of curly blonde hair, hanging around his ears.

He was quite possibly the most gorgeous figure to ever arrive in Hell... which made him all the more terrifying when you beheld the look of pure, unbridled rage simmering on his face. Looking into his steel blue eyes... Charlie felt fear like never before crawling up her spine. And to her shock, Vaggie was shaking as she stared at the newcomer.

"Vaggie? Do you know who this is?" Charlie asked, hopeful there might be some way to get this situation under control.

"M...m...Michael..." Vaggie's response came as a breathless whisper, feeling the air leave her lungs.

"Vaggie? Please tell me you didn't say 'Michael.'" Angel turned to her with a desperate, pleading look on his face. "Please tell me that's not the Taxiarch."

Vaggie didn't say or do anything for a brief moment... before she dropped her spear and fell to her knees in a kowtow, her body shaking in unbridled terror all the while. As she did this, whatever hope the Hazbins might have felt with the arrival of Lucifer quickly faded to nothing as they realized the full scope of the situation. A handful of cannibals, realizing exactly who had arrived, took the opportunity to drop their weapons and run for their very souls.

Charlie, all the while, was trying to process this. Her father never really spoke of Heaven or the other angels, so she had to go with what she'd heard from the sinners.

Michael, the Taxiarch. The Prince of the Heavenly Host. The Sword of God. And, if the stories the sinners told were accurate, the one who cast her father out of Heaven, and banished him to Hell.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted..." Husk grumbled, resigned to his fate.

Michael turned his head towards the Hazbins, who flinched in response, while Vaggie, still bowing before the Taxiarch, shook violently with fear as she felt his eyes narrow in anger.

"When Adam de-winged you, Deserter, it was an act of mercy." Michael's baritone voice sent chills down Charlie's spine, suppressing her desire to speak out in defence of her girlfriend. "I will not be so forgiving, Betrayer."

As he said this, a rumbling came from the broken remains of the Hazbin Hotel, and Lucifer shot out of the wreckage, his full demonic power on display as he surged into the air with a roar of anger and power.

"ALRIGHT!!! WHO HAS THE..." His voice trailed off as he recognized one of his siblings, realizing he had well and truly fucked up. "...balls."

"Hello, brother."

Charlie winced at Michael's words. His voice held no brotherly affection. Only venom laced with anger. Even Lucifer seemed to fear him, his horns retracting as his demonic fire faded.

"H-Hey, Michael! How, uh... how have you been?"

The Hazbins cringed at Lucifer's words, watching in fear and fascination the confrontation between two figures of legend... and Lucifer was treating it like an awkward reunion. While Adam seemed entertained by this, Michael was utterly unphased.

"You can't hide behind Sera's skirts anymore, brother." Michael drew his sword, shining in the light as it had been polished to a mirror sheen.

"Oh come on, Michael. We're brothers! There's no need for this to... get out of hand." Lucifer was smiling sheepishly, trying to think of something to save his ass. He felt a faint glimmer of hope as Michael seemed thoughtful at his words. But before he could press his maybe-advantage, Michael replied.

"You're right, Lucifer, there's no need for this to get out of hand... Which is why I'm going to do what I should have done ten thousand years ago."

With blinding speed, Michael charged Lucifer, his sword raised high, and fell on his fallen brother in all his wrathful glory.

Chapter Text

Sloth, the final Ring of Hell. The realm of apathy, of laziness... and surprisingly capable doctors, working within the myriad hospitals located amidst the floating islands that dot the pink skies of the lowest Ring. This is the realm of Belphegor, one of the Seven Deadly Sins... when she can be bothered to tend to her realm.

At the moment, Belphegor was lounging in her bedroom, hair messy and clothes crumpled around her frame. This was a special day for her and her siblings. Normally, there was a single day none of the demons of Sloth dared to intrude on her personal space. Normally, the Sin of Sloth was apathetic to the comings and goings of the Hellborn she ruled over, but on that day alone amongst all others, she would not tolerate any invasion of privacy.

That day, was E-Day. Extermination Day, when the Father of Mankind would descend on Pride and purge the Sinners, to ensure that none ever again dared threaten Heaven and Earth. And today was special because it was the first of the bi-annual E-Days.

Belphegor knew that Adam hated Hell and only came to this infernal pit out of a sense of duty to his children, both the living and the ascended. If Hell truly could be trusted to keep itself in check, he would devote himself to finding ways to encourage his children on Earth towards Virtue. Towards proving themselves worthy of Heaven's grace. But instead, because of the arrogant prick who calls himself 'King of Hell' he's forced to slaughter his descendants in a yearly raid that lasts a single day... until now.

Belphegor was many things, but stupid was not one of them. When she'd heard of a second E-Day being declared, she knew what it meant. Heaven believed an Archfiend was emerging if it hadn't already... and Lucifer wasn't doing a damn thing to stop it. She remembered the ancient days when those monsters invaded the Earth and slaughtered humans with glee. She knew Adam would never allow another to rise so long as he drew breath.

So she sat in her bed watching the TV. with an interest, none could have imagined her capable of. She never once glanced away, never even blinking as she watched the events unfold. If there's one thing she was thankful to Mammon for, it was unwillingness to tamper with any broadcasts of E-Day. It was the one thing all the Shedim, even Asmodeus, could agree on.

She watched with shock as Charlie, Lucifer's daughter, raised an army of cannibals and armed them with angelic weaponry.

'So much for her hatred of violence'

Bel almost didn't believe it. Of all the beings of Hell, the last one she ever expected to see raising an army against Heaven was Charlie. Despite having been forced to keep the truth from her, Bel and the other Sins knew her relatively well... and she was slaughtering angels while the sinners she spoke so much of redeeming were laughing with glee at the carnage.

And then he arrived. Lucifer. The Sin of Pride... and the asshole who was supposed to keep Hell in line, was instead leading the charge. And Bel felt something rising in her. Something she hadn't felt since her days on Earth... outrage. Gone was the apathy she had become accustomed to. Now, she felt a burning urge to act.

'Not this time, Old Scratch.'

And with a burst of violet mist, she vanished from Sloth. She had siblings to gather.

Lucifer hovered in the air, a look of smug satisfaction on his face. His rival, that waste of dust Adam was lying in a crater courtesy of his latest attack, and he was basking in the admiration and respect of the onlookers. He didn't care much for the sinners, or even the Ars Goetia. They were hardly worth the effort to impress, but Charlie was worth the effort! She looked at him with love and respect.

He had done it! He had reunited with his daughter, and she was so happy to see him winning against that-

THUD!!

Suddenly a flaming fist shot out of nowhere, catching Lucifer off guard and sending him crashing to the ground below. He could hear his daughter scream for him as she rushed to his side, helping him to his feet.

"Are you OK Dad?"

"I'm alright, Charlie. But what hit me?"

"Uh, Short King?" That one sinner, what was he called... Cherub Sand... not that wasn't it... was it? "We got a problem."

Lucifer looked up and saw, to his absolute shock.. the Sins. Satan, Mammon, Asmodeus and Leviathan, in their full demonic glory, all crowded around the crater where Adam had crashed, while Beelzebub and Belphegor helped the Father of Humanity to his feet, Belphegor taking particular care to tend to any injuries he might have.

"Are you alright?" She fretted over him as she checked for injuries.

"I'm alright, sweetie. Wish the circumstances were better, but I'm glad to see you all."

"Don't scare us like that!" Beelzebub, her eyes glistening with tears, hugged the First Man, wrapping her arms around him tightly, drawing chuckles from the man.

"Heheheh. I'm sorry, honey, I guess I got a little carried away."

The Hazbins and Sinners, from the lowest to the Overlords themselves, watched with absolute shock. The Sins were tending to Adam!? The angel who led the raids on Hell!? In what world did that make any sense!?

"Dad, why are the Sins helping Adam?" Charlie wasn't doing much better than the rest of Hell, confused and unnerved by this display of familiarity with those she thought of as her Aunts and Uncles. "Dad?"

She turned to her father when he didn't respond, and saw him just... standing there, an unmistakable scowl plastered on his face as he stared at the scene before him. She didn't know it, but while Lucifer might be more powerful than each Sin individually when they came together... not even he could withstand that kind of power. Finally, dusting himself off, and forcing back a wince as he pulled something he shouldn't have, he turned to the Sins.

"So, sucker punching me, Satan? Rather cowardly for the Sin of Wrath, wouldn't you say?"

Satan growled in response. "I suppose the cowardly snake would know."

Lucifer bristled at that jab. "Well, this is a nice reunion, but I don't remember inviting ANY of you to MY Ring!"

Charlie was startled by the anger in her father's voice, but it was Adam's response that drew her attention.

"They don't need one, Lucifraud. The treaty is broken, so they're no longer bound by your rules."

"But WHY?!" Charlie couldn't contain herself anymore. "Why would my Aunts and Uncles help you of all people!?"

Adam blinked at Charlie, before turning to the Sins. "Does she really not know?"

Ozzie grunted. "Old Scratch made pretty clear we weren't supposed to tell her the truth. It's about the only time he ever pulled rank on us."

Adam turned to the Princess, a smirk plastered on his face. "Well then, Princess, how about I tell you a story? It begins in the aftermath of Cain's banishment..."

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!!!" Lucifer roared in fury at Adam, his full demonic power on display, but Adam ignored him, keeping his eyes locked with Charlie's.

"Less than a month after Abel's death, the home Eve and I had built on Earth was shattered by a Primordial Beast, the monstrous remnant of Creation left on Earth when your father ended up making the gaping wound in Creation we call Hell. My Greek children would refer to them as the Titans. Together Eve and I killed it, but we both knew none of our children would ever truly be safe so long as even one was left standing. So, for a hundred years, Eve and I travelled the world, hunting the Beasts to extinction, and paving the way for humanity to thrive. But about thirty years into our hunt, who should show up but my old flame, Lilith."

"ADAM!!!" Lucifer's fury was palpable but impotent. Even he wasn't stupid enough to charge the other Sins at their full power. Not if they truly were unbound by the Treaty.

"See, she wasn't happy in Hell, especially after the runt there promised her the stars themselves, and so she decided to visit Earth, and see what had become of it in the aftermath of her Fall. She wasn't a full demon, not yet at least, but it didn't matter. She wasn't supposed to be on Earth and Eve... well, Eve had A LOT of pent-up anger against her."

Adam paused to chuckle briefly, while Charlie was becoming confused. Her mother had visited Earth? Why didn't she ever tell her? She would have loved to hear about Earth... even if the story involved Adam.

"Finally, after the mother of all catfights, one that resulted in the creation of the Dead Sea, we made a deal. She could remain on Earth, with us, for as long as we were hunting the Primordials. But, she had to help us with the hunt, and when it was done, she would return to Hell. And for seventy years, she remained with us, helping us bring down the monsters humanity remembers only in myth. And after some of those hunts... well, we all gotta let off some steam, and one thing would lead to another, until finally, after 100 years, the Primordials were wiped out... and I was a father again. Not just to children through Eve, but seven children born from Lilith, the Shedim."

Charlie's mouth fell open in shock as she realized what Adam was telling her. The Sins... were her half-siblings!?!? That just raised so many questions in her mind, but most importantly of all... why did none of them ever tell her???

"The hunt over, Lilith returned to Hell, while our children remained on Earth with me and Eve. Years passed, Eve and I had many children together, and the Shedim would later have their own. Eve and I passed away from old age and were reunited in Heaven. And while not all of our children were able to reach Heaven, the Shedim did. They followed in my footsteps, and ascended to become angels... and then the demons of Hell invaded the Earth. Heaven intervened, pushing them back time and again, albeit at the cost of countless lives until... I forget, was it the Third Demonic Invasion where we signed the Treaty?

"Sixth, Pops," Mammon spoke up for the first time since arriving. "The Third was when we realized the Duck Fucker was lying about not controlling the Hellborn."

Charlie gasped in shock and horror. Invasions!? Of Earth!? And... her father knew about them... and was responsible for them!? She looked at him in disbelief, the look in her eyes pleading with him to speak up. To tell her it was a lie. That he wasn't the monster Adam was making him out to be... but he didn't. His fire simply... flickered for a moment, as he briefly felt shame. His daughter wasn't looking at him with love and admiration anymore.

"Ah yes, thanks Mammon. I almost forgot that one. Anywho, after the Sixth war between Heaven and Hell, my children reached a decision. Heaven couldn't trust your father anymore, and we were no longer certain whether we could trust Lilith, so the Shedim proposed a solution. They would be installed as rulers in Hell, keeping the Hellborn under control, and your father in line."

Adam finished his story, a smug look on his face, while Charlie's world was tumbling down around her. Her parents... how much of what they told her was a lie!? And how much of what Adam said was true!? How much was he leaving out!? She didn't want to believe it, but something inside her was screaming at her, telling her this was the truth. That Adam, despite being an asshole, wouldn't tell a lie. But something was off...

"Wait... you said the Shedim would be installed in Hell... but there are only six other Sins. Where's the Seventh Shedim?" Charlie asked in curiosity, desperate for some hole in Adam's story to refute him.

"Right here."

"AAAHHHH!!!" Lucifer screamed in pain as a sword of angelic steel pierced his chest through the back, and lifted him into the air. The Hazbins turned in shock to see Paimon, King of the  Ars Goetia, holding the blade in his hands as he glared at Lucifer with unmistakable hatred.

"PAIMON!?!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!" Lucifer roared in pain, anger, and confusion.

"You never were good with names, were you Lucifer?" And with that, Paimon's body shifted from the refined avian form, into his true, silhouette form, before settling on a human... with long brown hair and amethyst-coloured eyes.

"ALL THIS TIME- YOU!?!?" Lucifer couldn't believe it! All this time, his most loyal subject... was a double agent for Heaven!?!?

"Yes, Lucifer. ME." And with a flick of his wrist, Paimon threw Lucifer from his sword into the ruins of the Hazbin Hotel, before shifting into a shadow and reappearing in his avian form beside Adam. "Sorry for being late. Had to make sure the rest of the Goetia knew not to try anything."

"It's alright, son. You're here now. Now," Adam cracked his knuckles. "Let's kick some ass!"

Adam summoned his axe and charged, Paimon and the Sins following him as Beelzebub and Belphegor shifted into their full demonic form. The battle was far from over.

Chapter Text

"Well, your first wife didn't seem to mind what I had to offer," Lucifer sang in a mocking tone as he flew through the air, fending off Adam's attacks with little effort. "Or the second! Bow chick-"

THOOM!

"AAUUUUGGGGHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?"

Out of seemingly nowhere, a beam of angelic light struck Lucifer in the face, catching him off guard and temporarily blinding him as it burned his eyes. While he clutched his face in pain, an angel in golden armour charged him. Wielding twin blades of angelic steel, he sliced at Lucifer's face and torso, leaving seven deep gashes in him and drawing copious amounts of blood. But the final strike came from a second angel that planted a boot on his back, and wielding blades of angelic steel, cut the first two of Lucifer's wings off, before kicking him down to the ground below.

"DAD!"

Charlie, shocked by the sudden onslaught, rushed to her father's side. The damage was bad. The swords had left deep cuts in his body and face, and they bled freely. But the damage to the wings was the worst of it. The slices in his body could be healed, though they would admittedly scar. The loss of his wings... that wasn't something so easily healed.

"RRGGHH!" Lucifer growled in rage and pain, pouring all his power into restoring his sight before forcing himself to his feet. "ALRIGHT! WHO WANTS TO DIE FIRST!?!?"

There, standing before him were three angels in golden armour. This armour, much heavier when compared to the Exorcists, looked like the armour worn by the knights of medieval Europe, only much more advanced in comparison. The lights glowing along the joints and palms lent credence to this idea. The first of these angels wielded the swords used to maim him, while the second wielded, not knives like Lucifer had expected, but sickles of angelic steel. The third and final angel carried a highly advanced rifle, one that Lucifer assumed fired angelic lasers as opposed to bullets.

Above them, however, was what drew his attention. Adam was flying there, still injured from his fight with Lucifer, but a fourth angel was flying towards him. When the helmet automatically opened, it revealed a face Lucifer hadn't seen in millennia.

"EVE!?"

The Mother of Mankind turned towards Lucifer, a look of pure loathing on her face. "Can it, Duck Fucker. I'm busy." She then turned to Adam, and all the loathing melted away, leaving only a look of love and adoration. Inwardly, Lucifer seethed with jealousy. He couldn't remember Lilith ever looking at him like that.

It wasn't fair that a waste of dust like Adam gets treated with love and affection while the real hero gets nothing but scorn.

"Eve?? What are you doing here?" Adam was shocked to see his wife in Hell of all places.

Of all the souls in Heaven, only Emily could truly claim to have been ignorant of the Exterminations. Unbeknownst to her, the policy of secrecy concerning the Exterminations was fairly recent, and was put in place in large part because of the birth of Emily, and Sera's desire to preserve her innocence for as long as possible. Thus, much of Heaven was not only aware of the Exterminations but actively supported them.

This included the Mother of Mankind, and the children she and Adam had during their mortal lives. Despite this, Adam had done everything he could to keep his family from taking part in the Exterminations, wanting them to enjoy the peace of Heaven as long as possible. But this hadn't stopped Eve from arriving now.

"First, this." Eve pulled Adam in close and kissed him deeply on the lips, ignoring the sounds of battle below.

The First Couple held the kiss for ten seconds, oblivious to the dimming sounds of battle below, as sinner and Exorcist alike turned to the Mother and Father of Mankind. The Exorcists, and even a few sinners, cheered the happy couple, with more than a few chiming in with wolf whistles. Naturally, Angel Dust was one of them. When they finally pulled apart, Adam had a savage grin on his face.

"Second, I'm here to bring you your new suit." Eve held in her hands a plate of golden metal, shaped like an octagon, with a similarly shaped blue gemstone in the center. Placing it on Adam's chest, it expanded into a full suit of armour, covering his entire body and lining his wings with the golden medal.

"WOAH! Now this is a suit!" Adam examined his hands and arms as the armour fully encased him.

"I also brought reinforcements."

At Eve's words, the sinners and the Hazbins turned from Adam and Eve to the portal to Heaven. Out of which flew a swarm of armoured angels, all of whom were making a beeline for the Hotel. These angels were split between those wielding melee weapons like swords and spears, while the rest wielded advanced energy rifles. These angels opened fire on the cannibal sinners once within range, vaporizing dozens before they could even fire back. The angels wielding melee weapons landed amidst the sinners, cutting them down with ease, and delivering to the Exorcists still alive suits of armour, including Lute.

"Babe, are those...?"

"Yes, Adam. Our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren... Our entire family from our days on Earth have come to support you."

Adam kept his gaze fixed on his newly arrived family. When he spoke, it was with a whisper. "I never wanted you to endure this."

"I know, Adam. And we love you for it. But we will always stand beside you, whether you want us to or not." Eve smiled gently at her husband, knowing the weight the Exterminations left on him. Despite his appearance and manner, Adam was the prime example of fatherhood.

"If you two are done!?" Lucifer's angry shout cut through the sounds of battle around them. "So, still settling for the reject of Creation then, Eve?"

Eve turned to Lucifer, and the look of loathing returned in full force. "You're confusing me with Lilith, dumbass. Then again, intelligence was never really one of your strengths, even before the Fall."

Lucifer's rage boiled up, demonic fire raging around him as he stood there, oblivious to the looks of shock and concern on his daughter's face. Turning from Adam and Eve, he instead glared at the three angels standing before him.

"I assume these three are your eldest?"

"Figured that out on your own, did you? Yes, my oldest sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth." Eve pointed to the angel wielding the sickles, the swords, and the rifle in succession.

"And, just so we're clear... which of them is responsible for cutting my FUCKING WINGS OFF!?!?"

Cain snorted as he stepped forward, hooking one of his sickles in his armoured belt. "That was for insulting my mother, oh Breaker of Light."

Lucifer growled at Cain, before settling on a cruel sneer. "Well, lucky for Abel then. This time, you'll be the first to DIE!!!"

With a roar of power and rage, Lucifer charged forward at blinding speed, faster than Charlie could track. Despite the pain from losing two of his wings, he was far from done. He was a Seraphim! He was a higher being, beyond the knuckle-dragging apes his father had created. Pulling his fist back, he gathered his power into his fist as he prepared to deliver a lethal first blow, one that would shatter that pathetic arm-

THUD!

The sound echoed across the battlefield. And Charlie looked on in horror, while Lucifer looked... in shock. Cain had effortlessly caught Lucifer's fist in his hand! Lucifer tried to pull back, but Cain tightened his grip on Lucifer's fist, crushing it in his powerful grasp.

"ARGH! LET GO OF ME YOU OVERGROWN APE!"

"Now that's just plain rude," Cain remarked calmly, before delivering a powerful uppercut, sending Lucifer into the air, where Eve moved with shocking speed and punched him back to the ground, digging a trail as he hit the dirt.

"OH, that felt SO DAMN GOOD! Now, who wants to go next?" The face covering had returned, but there was no mistaking the glee in her voice.

As she said this, Lucifer picked himself out of the dirt and roared with an insane fury. Charging at Eve, he was intercepted by Abel, slicing off his right hand with one sword, and cutting through Lucifer's horns with the other. Reeling backwards in pain, he let out a horrifying scream at the damage being done to him, while Seth blasted him in the legs with his rifle, leaving him open to Adam rushing forward and delivering a savage kick, sending him crashing back to the ground and leaving a trail of blood as he went.

Charlie, equal parts shocked and horrified by the assault on her father, rushed forward to try and stop this, only for Seth to turn his rifle towards her, and fire at her feet, hitting the ground just in front of her.

"Stay out of this, child. This fight has been ten thousand years in the making." Seth's voice was stern, making clear he would not tolerate any interference from Charlie.

As Adam and Eve went after Lucifer, Charlie glared up at Seth, not wanting to back down, but well aware she wasn't remotely strong enough to fight him. Abel slowly advanced towards her as she glared, holding his swords in a threatening manner.

"We should end her now, brothers. Humanity can ill-afford another Demonic invasion."

Charlie readied her trident, seeing no other option but to stand and fight, when help came from a most unlikely of sources.

"No, brother." Cain raised his hand in a stopping motion as he called out to Abel. "Our fight is with Lucifer, not his daughter. Leave her be."

"And what of the bloodshed today? What of the angels slaughtered like animals and eaten alive by cannibals? Would you have me pat her on the head like Emily would suggest?"

"The angels fell to angelic steel, not an Archfiend's power. Their souls will be reborn in Heaven. She has changed nothing."

Cain's words hung in the air, as Abel considered them. All the while, Charlie's mind and emotions were a chaotic mess. Her father was being beaten to a bloody pulp by Adam, with help from EVE of all people! The same Eve her parents gave the gift of free will! Why was she with a pig like Adam!? But what Cain and Abel said... had there been demons on Earth?? Was that why Adam was so dead set against the idea of redemption? And... what in the Here was an Archfiend???

"Fine," Abel muttered as he turned from Charlie and flew after his parents, joined by Seth while Cain... Cain just stood there, watching her. Charlie fidgeted in place under his gaze, feeling like she was being appraised before he began walking towards her. As she held up her trident, ready to fend him off if he tried anything, he snorted.

"I did not convince Abel to spare you only so I might attack you myself, Charlie. You are in no danger from me."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not too keen on trusting the children of that misogynistic pig!"

Cain paused in his stride, before resuming his advance. When he was close enough, with frightening speed, he used his sickles to slice off the prongs of the trident, leaving Charlie shocked and vulnerable.

"You know nothing of humanity, and you know less about my father if that's what you think of him."

Charlie stepped backwards, uncertain of what to expect from Cain. "I know enough. My parents told me all about him."

Cain held his stare for a few moments before scoffing. "Fine. Since you've made up your mind on what is and isn't true, answer me truthfully, child: Are you genuine?"

Charlie blinked at his words, before feeling indignation rise in her. She was not a child! She was a grown woman and she was tired of Heaven questioning her on-

"Think carefully before you respond. I don't care about your thoughts on me or my family, I care only about the truth. Are you genuine in your desire to see the sinners of Hell redeemed for the crimes they committed in their mortal lives?"

Charlie stared at the eldest son of Adam and Eve, before lowering her head and sighing in resignation. "Yes. I genuinely want to help sinners redeem themselves and become angels of Heaven."

"Then take some advice from the First Murderer, Charlie. Redemption isn't a sprint. It's a marathon, and every sinner has a different path to run. There's no easy path to redemption, least of all for those who have chosen to indulge in their sins time and again in their afterlife."

Charlie looked up in shock. Was he... helping her? Encouraging her? Did Cain really believe that redemption was possible for a sinner? As Cain turned away from her, she called out to him.

"Wait! What should I do first?"

Cain paused to look back at her as he responded. "For now, find your friends and get them somewhere safe. Despite your parents' claims, we do have a reason for our actions. After that... find a way to get sinners to turn away from the sins that condemned them to this place. That is all I can offer."

And with that, he spread his wings and took off, following after his family to join in savaging her father. Seeing no other options, she summoned Razzle and gathered her friends, to try and get them somewhere safe.

Vaggie had survived, thankfully, but her left arm had been cut off at the shoulder, and one of her wings had been torn off. Angel Dust had all but one of his arms broken and bleeding, while both his legs were mangled. Husk, surprisingly, seemed the least injured. Granted, one of his ears had been clipped and he was missing half of his tail, not to mention all the fur that had been burned off, but he seemed no worse for wear. Alastor was still gone, and none of them could find Nifty, while Cherri had been killed by one of her grenades.

As she flew off with her friends, Charlie wondered if she could do this. The odds seemed stacked against her more than ever before... but if Cain could be redeemed, then she owed it to the sinners to at least try and redeem them.

For Sir Pentious.

Cain caught up with his family. Lucifer was a mess, with both his hands removed, his knees shattered, one of his eyes missing, and another pair of wings torn off. He was mangled and bloodied in the most brutal and gruesome way possible... and still, he deserved more.

"There you are, Cain. Was wondering where you got off to." Adam's voice was cheerful. Brutalizing his worst enemy was remarkably cathartic. "So, what do you think we should do to Old Scratch next?"

"What about his last pair of wings?" Cain was surprised Lucifer even had a set of wings left.

"Eh, wanted to save that for just before we leave. You know, gather all the children together for one final 'fuck you' to this bastard."

"Hmm..." Cain thought hard as he looked over Lucifer. He was a bloody wreck, but something remained untouched. Something that warranted... removal.

"His mouth. It's the mouth that invented lies." Cain drew his sickles as he spoke. "We can't sew it shut, so the next best thing," He brought them up in a swift arc, impaling Lucifer's mouth on both sickles, drawing a bloody scream from the Prince of Lies,  "Is to remove it."

With savage might, Cain kicked at Lucifer's chest as he pulled the sickles towards him. The jaw was violently torn from Lucifer as he fell backwards, his mouth reduced to half of a bloody mess as his tongue flapped around uselessly.

"That's my boy! Now, Eve, baby, what do you think we should do next?"

"Simple, Addy." Eve advanced towards Lucifer, a retractable blade of angelic steel emerging from Eve's armoured wrist. "Castration, only this time, I'll make sure it's permanent."

Adam grinned at his wife while Lucifer squirmed helplessly on the ground. This was the best E-Day EVER!

Chapter Text

Sera watched the carnage of the Extermination unfold from her office in Heaven. She wasn't with Emily at the moment. She knew she should be. She knew she should have told Emily sooner about the Exterminations. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Every time she saw that joy-filled smile on her face, she was reminded of an earlier time. Of a time before the Fall of Man, the betrayal of Heaven, and the fracturing of Creation.

She was reminded of Adam in the days of Eden.

Looking back, she missed those days so dearly. Those days when Adam and Lilith were together, happy, carefree and innocent. She missed the days when Adam would describe in vivid detail the things he and Lilith had seen in the Garden. She missed seeing him without carrying the weight of thousands of years of hardship and loss.

God forgive her, she missed the days when she hadn't failed... everyone.

When Lucifer absconded from the Garden with Lilith, filling her head with lies, it was she who convinced Michael to leave them be. When Uriel reported Lucifer approaching the Garden, she was the one who believed his lies, that he would cause no trouble. And when he gave Eve that damned Apple, she was the one who restrained Michael's wrath.

Time and time again, she had been forced to make a choice she never wished for... and she had always made the wrong choice.

She trusted Lucifer's claims he couldn't control the Hellborn for too long, and untold millions died because of that decision. She advised mercy when Michael's blade was at Lucifer's throat... and when the Exterminations were proposed, she handed the responsibility of it off to Adam.

For thousands of years, Heaven knew of the Exterminations. She still remembered the celebrations that would be had in their aftermath, with the victims of Hell's population thanking Adam and the Exorcists for avenging them. For getting justice for them, when Lucifer was content to let them roam free in a madhouse, instead of fixing the mess he created.

Then Emily came into being, a gift from God, the first Seraphim to be born in thousands of years. And when she held that baby in her arms and saw that innocent face... she made another foolish decision. She resolved to preserve that innocence at any cost. The Exterminations were hushed, and she never told Emily the full history of Creation. She never told her about the aftermath of the Fall, of the Archfiends, or the flood.

And now, Heaven regards Emily with suspicion. Those who once regarded her as their closest confidant see in her another Lucifer, another Arch-Traitor. They heard of her standing with the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, the Princess of Hell. They heard of her denunciation of Heaven. They no longer trusted the one they once welcomed with open arms... and it was all her fault.

It was why she was alone during this Extermination. It was why she stood in her office, watching as Adam and his Exorcists assaulted the Hotel the Princess of Hell was in Heaven advocating for... and she watched the Exorcists be slaughtered by the sinners, the very same ones the child had been so adamant about 'saving', now laughing with glee as they gunned down angels and fed them to cannibals.

But then... Lucifer arrived. A part of her wished to understand his decision. He was, after all, there to protect his daughter.

'The same daughter who slaughters our people!'

But another part, a far sterner and more decisive part is screaming at her. It's a part of her she hasn't listened to in... ever, she thinks. And Adam... Adam is going to fight him.

But then Emily came bursting into the office.

"SERA! You have to see this, it's... it's... Sera?"

Sera didn't turn to see Emily entering the office with a serpentine angel. She knew they were there. Enhanced perception was one of her gifts... but all her focus was on the scene unfolding in Hell.

'Adam needs to retreat.'

'You know he won't back down. Not after everything Lucifer is responsible for.'

'I... I shouldn't...'

'Will you abandon him in favour of the Morningstar?'

'I...'

' Will you fail him!? AGAIN!?!?!?'

'.........'

'LIKE YOU FAILED EVERYONE WHO EVER LOOKED UP TO YOU!?!?'

"Sera?"

Emily looked up at her sister with concern. She'd never seen her like this... like she was lost. She was always so refined, so dignified. She was the picture of what a Seraphim should be. But now... she looked so... so...

"No..."

Emily blinked, thinking she had heard Sera whisper... something. But she stepped back in shock as Sera spoke again, with a clear and commanding voice, laced with a power she didn't even know Sera had.

"NEVER AGAIN."

The battle of the Hazbin Hotel was turning against the Exorcists. Despite Alastors defeat and subsequent retreat, the King of Hell had arrived. And for all of Adam's power and experience, even he wasn't strong enough to stand against a Seraphim, even a fallen one. And Lucifer was having too much fun taunting Adam in their fight when everything shifted. A blinding flash of white light was seen from the portal to Heaven, and every sinner and demon in Hell was forced to look away from the overwhelming light, including Lucifer, Charlie, and Vaggie. But what scared them was the voice that came after, ancient and brimming with power.

"LUCIFER!"

Looking towards the light in a futile gesture, a figure charged Lucifer with shocking speed. A figure with six wings.

Faster than he could react, the figure reached him and impaled him on a spear, before spinning them around and throwing him off the spear into the roof of his daughter's hotel. He crashed into the roof with surprising force, and as he tried to lift himself off his back, the towering figure landed on his gut, spear first, sending them both crashing to the ground floor of the Hotel, shattering every floor they hit on the way.

Standing upright, the warrior threw him to the side with her spear, causing him to crash into a wall before he righted himself. As he raised his arms in a defensive posture, the warrior charged him and delivered a brutal uppercut, sending him halfway to the roof, while she charged at him from below, impaling his stomach on her spear as she flew them the rest of the way.

Crashing through the roof, they flew ten feet into the air before she threw him off the spear, again, sending him crashing to the edge of the hotel. As he lay there, confused and in agony, his attention was grabbed by the figure landing on the roof. Hard.

This was his first chance to get a good look at the Seraphim attacking him. And it was a Seraphim, with wide-open eyes on the wings, but more than that it was a tall one. She was clad head to toe in white armour, with a sheer white fabric hanging from her waist like an open-front skirt. The breastplate was distinctive because its primary decoration was a single large eye, engraved into the metal, like an all-seeing eye, with angelic feathers surrounding it like the rays of the sun. Atop her head, she wore a white Corinthian helmet, showing only her two glowing white eyes, with a glowing gemstone embedded in the forehead of the helmet, like a third eye.

"Sera..." Lucifer coughed up as she advanced towards him. He had never even imagined she was capable of this, or even willing to do this.

"ALL THE INNOCENTS YOU'VE SLAUGHTERED TO FEED YOUR INSANE AMBITIONS, ALL THE DAMAGE DONE TO CREATION BECAUSE OF YOUR OVERWHELMING PRIDE, ALL THE LIVES THAT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED!!! ALL BECAUSE I LET YOU LIVE."

Lucifer would deny this to the end, but he was terrified. Sera had always been the one to go easy on him, to advocate mercy and restraint. And now here she was, all such thoughts having been tossed out the window. He backed away from her, only to find himself on the edge of the Hotel roof. Looking back, he could see the fighting had stopped, with every sinner and angel watching the scene with great interest.

"YOU'VE DESTROYED EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER TOUCHED!"

Turning back to her, he found her armoured boot shoved into his gut, holding him in place as she raised her spear high.

"I WON'T LET YOU HURT ANYONE EVER AGAIN, LUCIFER."

"NO!" Charlie screamed in despair as she watched Sera plunge the spear straight into her father's chest and out his back, his angelic heart impaled on the spear. She watched with horror in her eyes as he coughed up his blood, clawing at Sera, trying to get one final hit in... before the light faded from his eyes, and his body went limp.

The King of Hell... was dead.

"SINNERS OF HELL! LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS, OR DIE WHERE YOU STAND!!!"

There was no room for interpretation, no chance of negotiation. Not with a command laced with that kind of power. Sadly, not all the cannibals possessed the intelligence to know a losing battle and turned their guns on the Seraphim standing over the corpse of the Sin of Pride. Firing at will, they found to their shock the bullets bounced harmlessly off the armour.

"SO BE IT."

Sera raised a hand in a stopping motion, and released a beam of pure white light, blasting every cannibal on the field below, but leaving the angels caught in the blast unharmed. Those few sinners who avoided the destructive beam immediately threw down their weapons and raised their hands in a gesture of surrender. Satisfied with the result, Sera turned to the side and stared down the sobbing wreck that was Charlie Morningstar. Beside her, Vaggie held her shoulders, both in a comforting gesture and a pre-emptive attempt to hold her back should she throw herself at the mighty Seraphim.

"Holy fuck! SERA!?!?"

Before she could speak with Charlie, Adam landed beside her, looking up at her with shock in his eyes. He assumed she had to have been powerful. She was a Seraphim after all. But he had never seen her display her power like this. It was quite possibly, the last thing he ever expected from her... which made it hurt all the more as she realized how badly she must have failed. Removing her helmet, she looked at Adam with sorrow in her eyes, allowing her commanding voice to return to normal.

"I'm sorry, Adam. I never should have let things reach this point."

Adam blinked in shock, before composing himself. "Don't blame yourself, Sera. It wasn't your fault things happened the way they did."

"But I am the one who argued for the path we followed. Lucifer's crimes are my failures... and I can never do enough to make up for them."

Adam didn't respond, simply pulling Sera into a hug, as she felt tears forming in her eyes. It was the first hug he'd given her in thousands of years. She almost forgot how wonderful they felt. When she finally, reluctantly, pulled away, she turned to Charlie, silently weeping as Vaggie eyed her with fear and suspicion.

"Charlie Morningstar." At Sera's words, Charlie looked up, eyes puffy and red with tears. "For whatever it might be worth, I am sorry that things have reached this point."

Charlie didn't have any words. She simply looked down and away. Everything she had tried to do... it had failed... and now her dad was dead.

"But not all is lost. A soul was redeemed."

THAT got Charlie's attention. Turning back to Sera, she looked at her with wide, pleading eyes, desperate to hear more, even as she was terrified this was just a cruel trick. Vaggie and Adam, likewise, looked at her with shock.

"For his willingness to sacrifice himself to save the people he cared for, Sir Pentious was redeemed, and is now an angel in Heaven."

"R-really?" Charlie's voice was hoarse but hopeful. She almost couldn't believe it, but she had to know. "Sir Pentious? He really made it into Heaven?"

Sera nodded her head, a warm and gentle smile on her face. Adam was similarly stunned at this news. In ten thousand years, not a single soul among the billions that had arrived had ever managed to drag themselves out of this bleeding pit and redeem themselves. And it had to happen on the Extermination that saw the death of Lucifer. That couldn't be a coincidence.

"Because of this, Heaven will be willing to renegotiate the treaties."

"Does... does this mean Heaven will help with redeeming souls?"

Sera inclined her head, as she considered this question. "I don't know, Charlie. Remember, many of the souls of Heaven suffered in their mortal lives at the hands of those condemned to Hell."

Charlie faltered slightly at that. She hadn't even considered that. Redeeming sinners... she didn't just have to convince sinners it was worth an effort, she had to convince their victims in Heaven they were worth the effort.

"We shall send our emissaries in 30 days to renegotiate the treaties, Queen Charlie." Sera spread her wings as she prepared to take off. "I hope we can count on you."

And with that, she took off, Adam and the Exorcists following her. Despite everything that had happened, Sera felt a powerful sense of peace filling her heart. Finally, after thousands of years... there was hope for the future.

Chapter Text

In the country of Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, there lies a gateway, believed by some to be the gateway to the Garden of Eden, the biblical paradise created by God, where Adam and Eve dwelled until Eve was tricked into eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Foundation is quite curious to see what lies beyond the Gateway, to confirm or deny the possibility of the story being true, but there is something that keeps them from doing so, despite their efforts.

In front of the Gateway, standing 1000 feet tall, is SCP-001: The Gate Guardian. A towering figure of fire, wielding a colossal flaming sword, he stands guard against all trespassers. He has proven quite capable of destroying anyone and everyone who attempts to breach his sacred charge and is considered a contender for one of the most powerful entities the Foundation has ever encountered.

Anyone who enters a 1 km radius around the Gateway will hear a single command in their mind. LEAVE. Those arrogant or insane enough to disregard such an order may find themselves vaporized, as the Guardian's Sword is capable of destroying an opponent on the molecular level. But most frightening of all is the potential range of the sword, or more specifically the Guardian's strikes, is well beyond the 1 km radius. This was proven, at the expense of many lives, in 2004 with a series of experiments.

Experiment A involved sending a D-Class personnel to approach the Guardian, who, after entering the 1 km radius, was promptly ordered to leave, an order he obeyed, returning to the researchers. After refusing orders to return, the D-Class was immediately terminated. Upon their death, SCP-001 obliterated the research team responsible for sending the D-Class with a single strike. Experiment B involved sending in a research robot, which was obliterated as well. Experiment C sent 100 research drones to approach the Guardian. All 100 were destroyed at once, with the Guardian said to have struck in all directions at once.

Experiment D launched a wire-guided missile toward the Guardian, which was destroyed upon crossing the 1 km mark. At the same time, the launch site and all personnel inside were destroyed as well. Experiment E was performed on December 26, this time involving an ICBM fired from the submarine Nautilus in the Indian Ocean. The resulting retaliation not only destroyed the submarine and crew, but caused the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, killing over 200,000 people, and coming dangerously close to exposing the Foundation to the world. The failures from these and two more experiments prompted the Administrator to suspend all testing related to 001.

Because of this, SCP-001 is observed from Site-0, a facility located over 10 km from 001. This location is only known to the current Administrator and O5-14. Should the Guardian become active, O5-14 is authorized to take action against the entity and immediately contact the Administrator and the rest of the O5 Council if any behavioural change is detected. And on this day, O5-14 contacted the Administrator.

"O5-14, report, what's going on?"

"It's 001, Administrator. It's... agitated."

"What do you mean 'agitated??'"

"Approximately 5 minutes ago, the Guardian turned towards the Gateway and seems to have summoned someone, or something from whatever lies beyond. We're not sure... wait... I'm getting a live video feed. I can see... oh my..."

"What? What's going on?"

"Four figures, each as tall as 001 just stepped out of the Gateway. One is white, the second is red, the third is black, and the fourth is... pale. They're forming up in front of the Gateway and... he's gone."

"... Say that again."

"Administrator, SCP-001 has just vanished, leaving the four figures standing watch in his place."

"... Alert every MTF available of a possible Containment Breach. We need answers and we need them now!"

Charlie was feeling hopeful. Despite the loss of Sir Pentious and many other sinners, the battle was beginning to turn against the Exorcists. Adam, the Lord Exorcist, was facing the King of Hell, and he was being beaten back! They could do it! They had a chance! At long last! Things were finally going right for--!

THOOOOM!

Her thoughts were cut off by the appearance of a ball of fire in the air, separating Adam and her father. The light of the fire was blinding, forcing her to briefly turn away, but when she looked back, she felt both fear and awe filling her very being. There, hovering in the air was another angel, but one so unlike any she had ever seen before. For starters, his body was burning. Not burning as in he was on fire, because his body was made of fire! From the back of his armoured body emerged six burning wings, blazing like an inferno.

But what drew her immediate attention was the GIANT. FUCKING. SWORD. In his hands. That also happened to be burning!

"Uriel!?!?" 

Charlie looked up at her father as he shouted in disbelief at the figure that simply hovered before him, his sword pointed downwards. As though he was standing guard. Pulling Vaggie close, she whispered in her ear, "Vaggie, which angel is Uriel?"

Vaggie gulped before answering. "He's the angel that God tasked with guarding the Garden of Eden. But nobody in Heaven had seen him in... centuries."

Now Charlie felt scared. Admittedly, she didn't know much about the angels, beyond them regarding her father as a trickster, but she doubted Uriel was here to make amends with her father. If he was tasked with protecting Eden, then he probably didn't have a high opinion of him. But why hadn't he been seen in Heaven for so long? Did something happen to Eden? Questions began to build in her mind before her father spoke again.

"Well, what brings you down to my level, Uriel?"

Uriel stared.

"Wait... did you actually disobey father?"

Uriel stared.

Lucifer sneered. "Finally got tired of protecting that gilded cage then? Well, welcome to my team buddy!"

Uriel glared.

His hands began rotating the sword into an upright position.

"OH FUCK! ALL EXORCISTS, TAKE TO THE AIR!"

Adam called out suddenly, flying high as the sword was slowly moved. Did... did Uriel come to help her father??? Had he learned about the Exterminations and wanted to put a stop to them??? If he did... then that was awesome! Maybe with the Guardian of Eden backing them, maybe she could show Heaven that Redemption was--

"CHARLIE, RUN!"

Vaggie's scream pulled Charlie's attention back to the present, where she saw Vaggie push her away from her! What was going on??? What had Vaggie so scar--

"YOU WOULDN'T FUCKING DARE!!!"

Charlie looked up at her father, his full demonic power on display as he looked at Uriel with anger and... fear in his eyes. Was... was he going to attack? Was he-- She froze as she felt a brief feeling of heat fill the air, and turned to ask Vaggie what was going on when... she was gone. All she left behind was a scattering of ashes. Before she could even process this, the explosions happened.

Carmilla Carmine and her daughters were watching the battle of the Hazbin Hotel. She'd been reluctant to get herself involved, ever since discovering, inadvertently, that angelic steel could be used to kill an angel, she feared this day would come. She had made a discovery that she doubted even the angels considered possible... but it was. She had decapitated an Exorcist to protect her daughters... and Heaven declared a second Extermination would be held. No doubt to find the culprit, if they didn't already know that it was her.

When she agreed to provide the Princess weapons to arm her followers and protect her hotel, she knew it was a calculated risk. By tying her fate to the Princess, she was effectively declaring herself in open rebellion against Heaven. The Exterminations might be brutal and gruesome, but she wasn't naive, or a fool. Nothing about Hell convinced her the sinners would leave the Earth in peace if left to their own devices. The Exterminations were never about population control like she had heard. It was a necessary evil to protect the living world from the damned.

Siding with the Princess was risky, but it might be her only hope to save her daughters from Heaven's wrath. If Charlie wins, then she can bring Heaven to the negotiating table, and secure protection for her and her daughters. If she loses... well, she wasn't in much more danger than before. She just needed to get her daughters to safety.

But all those plans were going out the window as she witnessed the arrival of another angel, one made of fire that burned brightly like the Sun. And when she heard Lucifer's shout of shock, she knew the battle was over.

Uriel. The Archangel of Wisdom. Wielder of the Burning Blade, and the Guardian of Eden. If he was here, it was to do one thing. Punish the one who corrupted humanity and ruined Eden.

As the Exorcists took to the skies, she held her daughters close and uttered a silent prayer, not knowing if God would hear, or if he would listen even if he did. She was condemned to Hell for a reason, and she knew it. But her daughters... they deserved more than she gave them. Whatever the Exorcists knew or expected, she knew it wasn't just for Lucifer. All of Hell was about to feel the wrath of Heaven.

Neither she nor her daughter felt the explosions that tore through their factory.

"So, think he's going to attack the Princess, or the King first?"

Vox turned to his fellow Vees, asking out of simple curiosity. The arrival of another angel, one that Lucifer recognized, meant he was a big player in the game of Heaven. Granted, he'd never really kept up with that stuff on Earth, never believing it himself. Then again, even if he did, it wouldn't have stopped him from living the life he had. Power and wealth were what he was after, and technology was the key to getting it on Earth, and that remained true in Hell.

Still, he was briefly wishing he spent a bit more time reading up on this crap when he was alive. Uriel wasn't a name he recognized, not like Michael, so he had no idea what he was working with.

"Eh, probably the Princess. The flaming bastard probably wants to make Lucy suffer. Too bad. She still has a tight body." Val snickered as he spoke. He doubted the Seraphim was going to let Lucifer get away with helping the Princess fight the Exorcists, so Uriel probably wanted to make an example out of her.

Velvette didn't acknowledge the question, her eyes narrowing on the figure of Uriel. Unlike her fellow Overlords, her parents had taken her to church semi-regularly, so she had an idea of who Uriel was. And if she remembered those asshole priests right, this was about to go very poorly for everyone in Hell. She was shaken out of her thoughts by Vox stiffening, a look of shock and unimaginable fear on his face.

"Vox?? What's wrong?"

"Mi amore?"

Vox's talents with technology weren't just limited to television. Using the various sensors placed around the Vees tower, he had the ability to sense oncoming threats almost preternaturally. This gift had helped him personally evade trouble often in the past, and also served as an early warning to anything threatening the tower itself. A useful trait in a place as chaotic as the Pride Ring.

And it was with these enhanced senses he could sense the oncoming approach of a mass of unimaginable heat. A mass exceeding temperatures of 5 million Kelvin! What in Hell could--

"Sir, what's going on?"

Lute turned to Adam, wondering what was going on. One moment things were eerily calm, the next explosions were tearing through the Pride Ring. Almost all of Pentagram City had been incinerated in the explosions, and in the distance, she could see the other cities of Pride going up in flames. Normally she'd just attribute this to Hell being a burning pit of misery and despair, but Uriel's arrival had changed something. It was the only thing that made sense, especially considering Adam had ordered them airborne almost immediately.

"It's Uriel, Lute. He's levelling as much of Pride as he can in one second."

Lute stiffened in shock. "Sir, how's that possible?"

Adam pointed to the sword Uriel was still holding upright. "That sword is the Burning Blade, the first sword ever created, and the inspiration for Michael's weapon of choice. It burns hotter than the core of the Earth's Sun, and Uriel can wield it faster than the speed of light." Adam looked at Lute as he finished. "That's 300,000 km per second."

Lute's mouth hung open in shock. It wasn't easy for her to lose her composure, but that little tidbit had done the job. "So... he's moving and striking... he's just..."

"Moving so fast none of us can perceive it. Yeah." Adam looked down at the cloud of ash that used to be an army of cannibal sinners. "That's why he was the one tasked with guarding Eden."

Charlie stumbled as she heard the explosions tearing Pentagram City apart. All she could see was towering pillars of fire and smoke, and a haze of ash fluttering to the ground. In one brief moment of horror, Charlie realized that ash was all that remained of the cannibals who joined her. They were just... gone. In less than a second, an angel of Heaven had vaporized thousands of sinners, and all her friends... and Vaggie.

Vaggie... was gone... she was... really... gone... Charlie felt numb as she realized this horrible truth, and fell to her knees. Charlie couldn't hear anything. She couldn't feel anything. All of Hell was being consumed by fire... and it was all her fault.

She wanted it to be over. She wanted to take back her choices. She wanted to wake up and be told it was all a nightmare. But there was nothing she could--

FORGET

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?!?"

Lucifer roared in anger as he took in the destruction. Half of Pentagram City had been vaporized, the rest of it was being consumed by fire. Looking down, he saw his daughter collapse to her knees as she was surrounded by ash. Snarling in fury he summoned all his unholy power and charged his brother. And heard one final word. A command from the Guardian of Eden.

DIE

Chapter Text

The unfathomable Abyss.

The endless Void.

The all-encompassing Darkness.

There were many names to describe this desolate pocket of reality. A place between Heaven, Earth, and Hell, that all three are connected to. But those aware of the greater design of Creation simply refer to this as the Domain of Azrael, the Angel of Death. It was in this barren branch of Existence where she oversaw the souls of the dead as they travelled to their ultimate destination.

It was a task she was never meant to have.

In the days of Eden, when their Lord and Father created Humanity, Azrael knew her task was to be much different than the one she currently had. For in those days forgotten by all by the Eldest of Heaven, Death did not exist. When Adam and Lilith were ready to leave the Garden of Eden, she was to be the Angel of Ascension. She was to be the one who brought undying Humans to Heaven when their hearts and souls were filled with virtue enough to become angels.

But who should fuck it all up but one arrogant fool of a brother?

Lucifer, the one who conspired to sabotage their Father's work to satisfy his wounded pride, would deceive Lilith, filling her head with lies, and leading her away from Eden. And when it was clear she would not go back voluntarily, and Father created Eve, it was Lucifer who tricked Eve into eating the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was by his actions that Mankind Fell, and her once noble purpose was transformed into this bleak existence.

She was now the Angel of Death, a concept foreign to the angels of Heaven. And so, for the centuries she was alone, away from her siblings as she came to embody something they could not understand.

And then Abel was murdered, and she grieved for her new existence. She was not to be the friend and companion who stood by humanity at the end of a journey, she was the inevitability that humanity came to fear. She was the unstoppable force that would inevitably find them. She was the end of Life, God's greatest gift.

Nothing that ever came to her Domain stayed, and for centuries she was content to be left alone, to never let her siblings see the pale shadow of what she was meant to be.

Until Adam's death.

Adam was the next human soul to pass through her domain, and she saw what Adam felt in his final moments. Not fear of the unknown, but acceptance. He did not try to stop her coming. He did not fear her embrace. He... accepted it. He welcomed it like he was greeting an old friend after too long apart.

And it nearly broke her having to let him pass through her domain to Heaven.

She should be happy for him. Paradise was waiting for him. Abel was waiting for him. And Eve would soon be joining them. But still, he was leaving her. And she missed him.

But he came back. Mere days after arriving in Heaven, he found his way to her Domain. The first angel to do so in years. He wanted to see one of his old friends. She tried to turn him away, not wanting him to see her new form, but he persisted. She tried to craft illusions, but he saw through them. Finally, he did not turn from her when she appeared before him.

He... embraced her. And she broke down.

Adam truly was the greatest of Father's creations.

She finally began venturing back to Heaven, reuniting with her siblings, even if she was annoyed by them at times. Michael was a hardass, Sera could be a mother-hen and Uriel was... Uriel.

None of them gave her the feelings of warmth Adam did. She still visited them, but she savoured more than anything else the fluttering feelings in the core of her very being when she saw Adam enjoying the peace of Heaven.

Then the Archfiends came, and Adam's peace was ended.

Of course, that prideful idiot Lucifer wasn't content with damaging Creation to the extent he already had. He had to try and ruin it further! She remembered seeing the Archfiends through the memories of the fallen, bearing witness to their unholy power and monstrous forms. And she saw the angels, led by Adam, on the counter-attack, and saw Adam the Warrior in all his glory.

And he was magnificent.

She couldn't take it anymore. She'd seen humans performing various... acts in their memories, some of which were the cause of death, so she knew what to do. So one night, after watching Adam cut off every single one of Typhon's heads through the memories of the fallen, she snuck into his bed intent on giving Adam a night neither of them would ever forget.

Thank Father Eve was so kinky, because otherwise that never would have worked.

But it was only after Lucifer was forced to the negotiating table, no doubt by Michael's wrath being restrained by Sera, that a Treaty was signed, beginning the Exterminations. And Adam's work was started anew.

It wasn't fair. Not after everything Adam had already done. He had earned his peace in Heaven. Instead, thanks to Sera's indecisiveness, he had to descend to Hell and slaughter the sinners to keep them from ever creating another Archfiend.

But it worked. Despite him being the last angel the task should fall to, Adam carried out his duty with remarkable efficiency. And every soul slain by Angelic Steel was sent back to her to be reborn on Earth, purged of their memories and sins. A fresh start so that the soul can try again.

But now something was going on. Six months ago, the soul of an Exorcist had passed through her domain, and now they were passing by in the dozens. Sifting through their memories, she found to her horror the sinners had organized under Lucifer's daughter and were armed with Angelic Steel weapons. The Exorcists were still fighting, with Adam leading the charge.

And then he showed up.

Her dumbass, arrogant, boastful, duck-fucking jackass of a brother! Lucifer.

He wasn't there to put a stop to the fighting. He was there to support his daughter. He was there to hurt Adam. And for all his bluster, Adam knew he wasn't strong enough to beat a Seraphim. But he wouldn't back down, not to that prideful prick. He'd fight until... until...

'No,' she thought, as she summoned her scythe. 'Anyone but him. Anyone but Adam.'

Lucifer was enjoying himself. Normally he wouldn't sully himself by fighting a waste of dust like Adam, but he did attack Charlie, so he could bend the rules in this situation. Of course, the fact that Adam was so easy to rile up really added to the fun! But just as he was getting ready to remind him of Lilith and Eve, Adam froze in the air, a look of shock on his face. Lucifer was about to ask what was going on when he felt something: A cold chill crawling down his spine. When he realized Adam was staring at something behind him, Lucifer turned around and gaped in disbelief.

There, hovering in the air behind him, was another Seraphim, but unlike any he had seen or remembered! It was a tall female, dressed in tattered black robes with the hood pulled up. Tied to the robes were a trio of skulls, hanging from rope as though they were trophies of a hunt. From her back jutted out six wings, with pale feathers. Likewise, her hands and face were equally pale, while the sclera of her eyes were black as the void. And in one hand, she held a large scythe.

He had never seen this Seraphim before!

"Uh, hello?" Lucifer dumbly asked, unsure of what to even say. Either this was an old Seraphim he didn't recognize, or it was a new one he had never met.

"... Do... Do you not recognize her, Lucifraud?" Adam stared at him, bewildered at his blinding stupidity.

"No, should- GRK!" Anything Lucifer might have said was cut off by the angel grabbing him by the throat, and with a mighty grunt, she threw Lucifer into the Hazbin Hotel with such force he went straight through the wall and came out the other side. While the Princess fretted about her father, Adam looked at the new arrival with warmth in his eyes.

"Good to see you, Azzy."

While Azrael blushed at the affectionate nickname, the battle below came to a screeching halt. The Exorcists stopped because of the arrival of a Seraphim, but the sinners stopped for a very different reason. All of them, without exception, felt an unnatural cold in the air, and a biting chill crawl up their spines. Slowly, with great reluctance, they all turned their heads to the source of the chill and felt the very air leave their lungs.

They knew this figure. Even if they hadn't seen her before, they knew her presence. It was the last thing they remember feeling on Earth. And it was her they feared most of all in this infernal pit.

The Grim Reaper.

"I'll be honest, I didn't expect you to come down to Hell."

"Well, I wasn't about to let my idiot brother hurt you, Addy," Adam smirked at the affectionate nickname, while the sinners were stunned. The Father of Mankind and the Grim fucking Reaper... were flirting!?!?

"Now, you and the girls relax. I'll take care of the duck-fucker."

As she finished that sentence, said duck-fucker arrived in a burst of hellfire, his full demonic power on display. Except he looked... scared.

"Alright, who the FUCK are you!?" Lucifer roared in fury, but even the sinners caught the undercurrent of fear in his voice. Rather than answer him, she simply turned to face him, and pulled back her hood, revealing a much paler version of a once familiar face. The revelation caused Lucifer's demonic visage to retract in shock. "Azrael??"

"The very same. I'm surprised you didn't recognize me. After all, this is what you did to me!"

"The fuck are you talking about? I never did anything to--"

"DEATH, you moron!!! It was never meant to exist! Yet because of you giving Eve that damned Apple, Death was introduced into the world. And I was no longer the Angel of Ascension, but instead, the Angel of Death. All. Because. Of YOU."

Azrael was shaking with fury, while the sinners and Charlie looked on with shock and confusion. The sinners were shocked by the idea of a world where Death did not exist. That they were never supposed to die. But Charlie was confused. Her parents had told her that the apple gave Eve the gift of free will. What was this angel talking about? How could death be introduced by eating an apple?

"Now, now, Azrael, that can hardly be considered all my fault." Lucifer felt scared, and he wasn't sure why. If Azrael was the Angel of Death, he didn't have anything to worry about. He was a Seraphim, not like that waste of dust or his worthless descendants. So why was there this damned chill crawling up his spine?

Azrael simply glared at her brother. "You don't learn, do you? Well, no matter. Sera won't teach you a lesson, so I'll do it myself." Azrael pulled her hood back over her head, obscuring her face.

"And what are you going to do about it? I'm still a Seraphim! A higher being!"

"Not anymore."

Azrael's voice changed as her wings began releasing fog in massive quantities, obscuring her form and drifting down to the battle below. The sinners were caught off guard as the fog covered the battlefield, rising to the second floor of the Hotel. Those closest began scrambling to ascend to the higher levels, either with the stairs or taking their chances climbing the walls. The rest were caught in the fog, even as they tried to flee, and slowly began to feel... weaker.

On the roof, Charlie and Vaggie were helping as many sinners to the roof, with Vaggie flying some of the sinners to the roof while Husk helped Angel Dust and Cherri. Charlie began pulling up those who reached the top, and watched in horror as some of the cannibals, desperate to escape the fog, kicked some of their fellow sinners off the wall to keep from being slowed down. Despite this, she continued to help, until she realized something.

"Where's Nifty!?"

The Hazbins looked about the roof, thinking she was hidden among the sinners already there when Charlie caught sight of her. She was simply... standing there, staring at the fog as it surrounded her.

"Nifty, come on!"

Charlie called out to her, trying to get Nifty's attention, but she never even acknowledged her. She just... stared at the fog. Until, to Charlie's horror, her body began to whither away until it crumbled into dust. This was happening to all the sinners caught in the fog, with the few who managed to escape the fog feeling sluggish and weak.

All the while, Lucifer watched in morbid curiosity and deeply repressed fear. Seeing his daughter's look of distress, he decided to remind Azrael why he was the King of Hell. Summoning his powers, he charged at the spot where Azrael had been... and flew out the other side, coughing and wheezing as he did so.

"What- *cough* -what the? Where did- *wheeze* -you go?"

Silence was the answer until he felt a cold blade slicing through his side. He spun to strike at the assailant... and hit the empty air.

"Where are you!?!?"

A second strike came this time as a blunt force to the back, sending him crashing into the fog. And in this fog, Lucifer began to feel... weak. He could feel his strength fading away as he drew further upon his demonic might. Quickly flapping his wings, he flew out of the fog but found to his horror that his wings were feeling... tired. Like lifting him out of the fog and keeping him in the air was becoming... harder.

"What... what's going on!? What did you do to me!?!?" He screamed at Azrael, only for cold steel to strike at him, cutting into his legs. He screamed louder this time. The pain was so much worse than before. He tried healing himself with his magic but felt the wounds close far too slowly for his liking... when another punch or kick sent him crashing into the fog again.

Lucifer groaned as he pulled himself to his knees, and struggled to stand. He could barely lift himself, and his wings flapped uselessly. Looking down at his hands, he saw to his horror they were beginning to shrivel, as though his body had begun to age and waste away.

'NO!' he thought to himself. 'THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!'

"You can feel it now, can't you?" Azrael's hollow voice echoed across the battlefield. "What you cursed humanity with, what they have endured every moment of their existence. The fragility of Life."

"I... I'm a SERAPHIM! A HIGHER BEING!"

"You are beyond Heaven's grace, brother."

Lucifer fell forward as he felt his strength fading further. He looked around, desperate for something... when he saw everyone atop the Hotel.

'That's it!' He realized. 'I just need to reach the upper floors!'

Buyoued by this revelation, he tried standing himself up... and fell face-first into the dirt.

'No... NO!'

He screamed within his mind. He couldn't even stand! He tried thinking of something, anything, that could help him. He tried his cane, but he couldn't summon the strength to use it. He tried summoning Razzle, but he refused his call. He tried to crawl to the Hotel through the mud, guts and blood but made no progress. Until, finally, Azrael stood before him, looking down at him.

"A...az...rael..." His voice was a raspy whisper. His body was withering away, and he could barely think straight. He looked up at her, a look of pleading desperation. She maintained a stony visage until she raised her scythe high... and darkness consumed him.

Chapter Text

Since the trial in Heaven, where the Exterminations were revealed, Emily had been in a rough emotional state. To learn that every year, Heaven sent the Exorcists to purge the poor sinners of Hell, was a massive shock to her. But the turmoil from that was nothing compared to what came after.

Everyone but her knew about it.

The Exterminations were not new and had been ongoing for thousands of years. Long before her birth, Heaven had not only been quite open and public with the Exterminations, but the winners had actively celebrated them, with the Exorcists hailed as heroes for their efforts in purging Hell. But at some point in the last two hundred years, a policy of secrecy had been enacted, on orders from her big sister, Sera.

And there she was, flying around Heaven, trying to spread the news of the Exterminations, only to realize everyone else knew about them. And they weren't happy with her, because they heard about what happened in the courtroom. How she had called Heaven a lie... all while standing beside the daughter of the fallen angel responsible for the creation of Hell, and the Fall of Mankind.

Now she was no longer the Joy Bringer, welcomed with open arms by everyone. Now she was regarded with suspicion by the winners she once called her friends. Now, she was treated with disdain, regarded as a sympathizer with Evil.

The worst said she was an Archtraitor-in-waiting.

She wept after hearing that. It wasn't just the accusation that stung. It was the fact it was said completely without malice. It wasn't said to hurt her or for the simple sake of being mean. It was stated as though it were the absolute truth. As though her betraying her home and friends was as inevitable as 2 plus 2 equals 4.

She flew away after that, tears falling freely from her eyes. She didn't pay attention to where she was going, or what she was doing. She just wanted to fly. It had always been a fun pastime, especially with newly arrived winners, unaccustomed to their wings and wanting to learn how to use them. So many wonderful memories had been made as the newly ascended souls discovered the freedom and peace that Heaven provided.

But today she flew alone. Today she had no friends to accompany her. She only had herself, pain in her heart and the turmoil in her soul. She couldn't understand how Heaven could not only tolerate but actively condone something so cruel as purging sinners.

'Didn't they deserve a second chance?' she asked herself. 'Why does no one believe in redemption for sinners? Do they want them to suffer forever? How could any soul in Heaven be so cruel?'

"I thought I might find you here."

The voice pulled Emily out of her thoughts as she looked around her. She was no longer flying through Heaven. She was sitting in an impressive hall, with marble pillars etched with gold. At the end of the hall was a set of stairs leading to a pair of massive golden doors. And standing in front of her was a lion. A beautiful, magnificent lion.

It was with a jolt of embarrassment she realized she was sitting outside the Throne of Creation, where the Lord Himself dwelt, and was face-to-face with Yeshua, known to his followers as Jesus of Nazareth.

Or Aslan to Adam whenever he took the form of the Lion of Judah. She didn't understand why until Adam introduced her to Mr. Lewis and his stories. They were still some of her favourites.

"H-hi, Yeshua," Emily whispered as she wiped her eyes. "Did Sera send you?"

"No, Joy Bringer, she did not. Nor does she know I am here with you." Yeshua spoke warmly, yet with an air of authority that no one could deny. Even now, it comforted her in her time of distress. "I sense you have something you wish to say, Emily. Please, speak your mind."

Emily sniffed as she considered her words, before settling on a question. "Is it wrong for me to care?"

The Lion shook his head. "No, Joy Bringer. It isn't wrong for you to care."

"Everyone else is either apathetic to the Exterminations or openly supportive of them. Everybody I went to about opposing them turned me down or slammed their doors in my face. I... I just don't understand."

"Of course you don't." Emily looked at him with bewilderment. "How could you? You have only recently learned of them, yet no one has thought to tell you why they support the Exterminations. The question you need answered first is, what happened that made Heaven determine the Exterminations were necessary?"

"But... how could something so cruel be condoned by Heaven?"

To her shock, the Lion started chuckling. It was a warm, friendly noise, that brought her a sense of peace, but it roused her curiosity.

"You remind me of a soul I met once. A soul filled with warmth and goodness, always looking for the best in everyone."

"Really? Do I know them?"

The Lion smiled at her, but his eyes hinted at knowing something. "You do indeed. Every soul in Heaven knows him and has at one point met him."

"Who is it?"

"Adam." Emily must have made a face because the Lion began chuckling, amused by her reaction. "Do not be so surprised, Joy Bringer. You are very much like Adam was before we were betrayed, in the days of Eden."

Emily blinked in surprise. The Garden of Eden, the Paradise Mankind was meant to inhabit. Before Lucifer betrayed Heaven, stealing Lilith away and tricking Eve into biting the Apple. She'd always wondered...

"What was it like? What was Adam like?"

The Lion had a sombre look as he thought back to that magnificent time. "Eden... it was to be the beginning. The birthplace of Humanity was to be the foundation upon which a Paradise was to be built by Mankind, ruled by Adam and his wife. Earth as it is today is but a pale reflection of the wonderous place it was meant to be. And Adam... he was everything Father meant for him to be and more."

Yeshua paused as he sighed, remembering the wonderous plan their Father had for Creation. Emily sat there, enraptured by this tale of a time long before her when everything was as it was meant to be. She'd sometimes ask the older angels, but they often refused to answer. She didn't understand why, but hearing Yeshua speak of it, she began to understand. It was simply too painful. Even now, she could feel the pain in Yeshua as he recounted the ancient past.

"He was a being of kindness and warmth, boundless curiosity and an eagerness to learn. He saw the good in everyone and was always ready to make those of us who visited him smile. But there was more to him. There was a hidden wisdom in him, and a depth of understanding, both of people and of Creation itself, it was clear to all of us that Adam truly had been made in our Father's image. Unfortunately... one of us couldn't stand the idea of being surpassed."

"Lucifer." It was but a single word, a name, but it carried the weight of ten thousand years. She still didn't understand the Exterminations but... she felt she had begun to.

"Yes. His pride was injured when he saw how great Adam already was, and realizing the greatness he would achieve... he resolved to break him."

"So he stole Lilith away."

Yeshua nodded. "By filling her head with lies, that Eden was a cage, that she and Adam were not the beginnings of something great, but mere playthings. Pets. And offering her the stars themselves, she ran off with him. And when he saw Eve, he resolved to ruin the whole of Creation. For ignoring him, and refusing to let him break Adam."

"And he gave Eve the Apple."

Yeshua simply nodded the air heavy with the weight of time and betrayal. A tear escaped the Lion's eyes before he resolved to continue.

"But Lucifer failed. Adam refused to bend, and he would not break. Even with everything that had occurred, he remained strong and steadfast, the lone beacon light on Earth. Together, he and Eve sired many children, and when he arrived in Heaven, we welcomed him as a friend and brother, one returned after a long journey from home. And with Eve joining him later, Heaven felt that much brighter. But Lucifer had not given up. Even in Hell, he conspired to hurt Adam, and ruin Humanity. And so began the Invasions."

"Invasions?"

"From Hell, Emily. Demons poured from openings in the Earth, swarming the lands as they mercilessly slaughtered Adam's descendants, seeking to claim the Earth for themselves and their Fallen master. And it was Adam who led the charge against them. Time and again, the Demons invaded only to be driven back. Even with the arrival of the Archfiends, Adam would not yield. Not to despair. Not to grief. And certainly not to Lucifer.

"The wars were long, bloody, and brutal, but finally we broke Hell's might. After the last War, Heaven realized they needed to enact a measure to keep Hell from ever threatening Earth again. The key was in the Archfiends, sinners and demons who had enslaved enough souls to become monsters capable of threatening Heaven itself. And so, the Exterminations began. The souls of sinners were hunted, and in death, their souls were sent back to Earth to be reborn, and purged of their sins. So they might have another chance."

Emily listened, enraptured by Yeshua's story. She had spent so long helping winners find joy in Heaven, that she had never thought to learn why their lives were devoid of it. But there was still something bothering her.

"But then, why did nobody ever tell me? Why did Sera never tell me?"

"Because you are a soul that is truly innocent, Emily. You don't carry the weight of experience as the other Seraphim do, nor the pain of knowing what you lost, like the winners of Heaven. And that innocence reminded Sera so much of Adam, that she resolved to preserve it for as long as she could. She should have told you sooner, yes, but none of us could blame her for wanting to spare you that knowledge."

The pair simply sat there, in quiet contemplation. Emily because she only now realized how much she said, and how much of it had hurt her friends and family. And Adam... even if she supported redeeming sinners, she owed him the biggest apology. For not trying to understand. For thinking less of him even once. But Yeshua... he sensed something in the fabric of Creation. Something Emily felt belatedly.

"You felt that too?" Emily felt worried as she asked.

"Indeed."

"What is it?"

"Lucifer has engaged the Exorcists in open battle. The Treaty has been broken."

Emily gasped, realizing that if Lucifer had attacked... "What will happen now?"

Yeshua rose and began to leave the Hall, Emily right behind him. "For now, go find Sera. There is someone with her you must meet. I shall gather Adam's reinforcements."

"What do I do when I meet them?"

Yeshua looked at her with a slight twinkle in his eyes. "You'll what to do, and when to do it."

Lucifer was beaming with pride! Finally, after thousands of years, Adam was beaten and humiliated! The waste of dust was lying in a crater after a good beating from the one and only King of Hell! Of course, it was to be expected. Adam was, after all, merely a human, while he was a Seraphim! A higher being! No matter what their Father happened to think of his overblown creation, he would never rise to Lucifer's level!

Of course, Charlie's hotel had been ruined in the process. Just one other crime Adam was responsible for, the first of which was not acknowledging Lucifer's greatness, but it was manageable. He'd build her a better one! Much better than the one that smiling freak could ever create! He'd fill it with all the amenities a hotel should have. And ducks! He'd make sure there were plenty of adorable ducks decorating it! He'd have--

'Wait, what the fuck is that!?'

As he landed next to his daughter and her friends, another portal from Heaven opened. As everyone tried to process this, a terrifying sight emerged from the portal. A massive swarm of angels descended from Heaven, but instead of the grey uniforms the Exorcists wore, these angels wore silver plate armour, polished to a mirror sheen. Only the oldest souls in Hell knew it, but this was the armour of the Heavenly Host, the main force of Heaven's armies. If the Exorcists were Heaven's hunters, then the warriors of the Host were its legionnaires.

Lucifer felt anger and annoyance grip his heart. Of course, Heaven' would interfere at the moment of his greatest victory! They just couldn't let their golden boy face his just deserts, could they? He was about to remark to Adam about his failure when he heard something. A deep, rumbling noise, like the growl of a mighty beast. Narrowing his eyes, he watched as from the portal descended, onto the nearest tall building... a Lion. At least he thinks it's a lion. He didn't pay that much attention to the animals of Eden, aside from the duck of course. But even from here, he could tell it was so much more than a normal lion.

But then it roared, and there was no doubt in his mind who it was. It was a powerful, booming roar that echoed across the Pride ring. Every being in Hell, from the lowest sinners to the Overlords to Lucifer himself, felt it in their very being. It rattled them, shaking their cores with fear as they felt the divine power present in that roar. Even as Lucifer felt fear, it was matched only by his indignation. He might not have recognized the form, but he knew that power anywhere. His brother, Yeshua. The so-called Lion of Judah: nailed to a cross by Adam's degenerate descendants.

'It just had to be him, didn't it!?'

As Lucifer felt fear and rage, the Exorcists felt their morale soar to new heights. The roar carried with it Yeshua's power, and it filled their souls with the strength and conviction to continue. And as they rallied, both from the roar and the arrival of the Heavenly Host, a loud boisterous laugh came from the crater. From Adam.

"What's so funny!?" Lucifer roared in anger.

"Because it's hilarious how much of a dumbass you are! You actually thought that was the end of it!? That you were gonna break the treaty and bask in your daughter's admiration without any consequences? You lost this battle the moment you showed your ugly mug, Lucifraud. And you still haven't figured it out yet! That's what makes this so damn funny!"

Lucifer seethed with rage. As Adam laughed, the Host descended upon Hell and the sinners, slaughtering them without hesitation or remorse. The few cannibals who fired at them learned to their horror the bullets of angelic steel could not pierce angelic armour. The Host was practically invulnerable, and they used this to their advantage as they sliced Charlie's army into bloody ribbons.

But Lucifer didn't care about that. He didn't give a damn about these sinners, good for little more than cannon fodder for their betters. No, he cared about being shown up again! And to make matters worse, it was in front of his daughter! He couldn't take it anymore. With a sneer of cruelty, he summoned his power, channelling it into his fist in the form of a malevolent glow. As he raised his hand high, ready to finally deliver the finishing blow to this waste of dust, he heard another roar and turned to see Yeshua the Lion leaping at him, teeth bared and claws ready.

Lucifer tried to defend himself, bringing his arms back to try and catch the Lion, but the lion's weight forced them both to take a tumble. Rolling on the ground as Yeshua clawed and bit him, Lucifer tried to force his brother off him. But all he could do was scream in pain as they fell down the cliffside, and Yeshua plunged his teeth into Lucifer's throat.

"DAD!"

Charlie screamed in fear as she saw her father fall. She heard the lion growling as it attacked him, and wanted to intervene, but was stopped by the arrival of the armoured angels. Unlike the Exorcists, they wore heavy armour to protect them. Nothing the sinners did could injure or even slow down the angels. And as they surrounded her and her friends, halberds lowered and ready to impale them, Vaggie dropped her spear in surrender. And Charlie felt her heart fall as the lion reappeared beside Adam.

"It is finished," he said, before turning to help Adam to his feet.

"Thanks for the save, JC."

"You didn't think Heaven would abandon you, Adam?"

"No, but Sera doesn't exactly have the best track record for decisive action." Adam snorted as he said this, remembering the many arguments he'd had with her about taking further action to limit Hell's power and keep the Hellborn from endangering human lives.

"Perhaps, but today, she finally has a good reason." Yeshua turned from Adam to look at the portal, drawing Adam's attention as well. And his eyes bulged in shock as he saw who was coming.

"Is that... Emily?"

Yeshua nodded. "With the newly arrived angel, Simon Pearson. Known to his friends, as Sir Pentious."

Every pair of eyes turned to Yeshua in shock, before focusing on the arriving form of Emily, helping Sir Pentious in their descent. He was still serpentine, but there was no mistaking it. He wasn't a sinner anymore. He was an angel of Heaven. He was... redeemed.

"Sir Pentious? Is that really you?" Charlie looked in disbelief, scarcely believing it. Not long ago she'd seen Adam vaporize him, but here he was, an angel of Heaven. She'd scream with joy at this success... if not for the apparent loss of her father.

"Hello everyone." Sir Pentious greeted them all with a nervous smile. Despite the warm reception he'd received from Emily, he was still in shock over everything that had happened in such a short time. For him, he was only moments ago facing off against Adam, ready to lay down his life for his friends, especially Cherri. The next, he's meeting with a six-winged angel who looks in shock at his arrival.

"You... you're an angel." Vaggie stared at him with total shock, never believing redemption was possible, but supporting Charlie anyway.

"Indeed I am, Miss Vagatha. It's... strange, after being a sssinner for so long, to be one of the angelsss."

Charlie could barely hear the conversation as her mind raced with elation. It had worked! She'd done it! She'd redeemed a--

Charlie blinked in shock as Adam stepped up to Sir Pentious. Instinctively, she moved to intercept him but was held back by the halberds of angelic steel before her. Glaring impotently at the angels, she watched in horror as Adam walked up to Sir Pentious and... patted him on the shoulder.

"Simon Pearson, welcome to Heaven."

And without another word, Adam took off for Heaven, Lute and the Exorcists following close behind, while the armoured angels remained with... JC as Adam called him.

"Did... did he just welcome a sinner to Heaven???"

"Do not misunderstand, child." The lion's voice drew Charlie's undivided attention. "Hell has existed for ten thousand years, and none of Hell's denizens demonstrated the willingness to reject the sins that condemned them to this place, even before the Exterminations began. Had you proof that redemption was possible in that first meeting, Adam would have been the first to support your efforts."

Charlie... didn't know what to do with that. That meeting with Adam confirmed or reinforced a lot of beliefs she held from reading the Story of Hell. To imagine that all she needed was proof, and he would have been... maybe not completely different, but at the very least supportive... it definitely challenged what she had come to expect from the First Man.

"Does... does that mean Heaven will support me?"

"That remains to be seen, Charlotte. Despite knowing you could shelter your friends in your father's palace, you still chose to rally an army, with the promise of feeding the dead and dying to cannibals." The last word came out as a growl, causing Charlie to flinch as she considered the lion's words.

"Redemption has been proven a possibility, child. But you have also reinforced the need for Extermination in the eyes of Heaven. Never forget, Charlotte, that Hell does not have innocent souls, only varying degrees of guilt."

Charlie balked at that, turning to Emily for support as Sir Pentious spoke with Cherri, but found her looking away with a pained look on her face. Despite being happy at redemption being proven possible, she couldn't support Charlie without reservation. Not after this massacre. Seeing this caused Charlie's shoulders to slump with defeat. Had she really damaged her caused that badly?

"Do not despair, child. Though the path may be long, and fraught with hardship, you have already taken the first steps." The lion turned to leave as the angels flew away, Emily and Sir Pentious right behind them. "We shall be in touch."

And in the blink of an eye, he vanished as the portal to Heaven finally closed.

Chapter Text

Adam pulled himself out of the crater as that cunt Lucifer, his bitch daughter, and her idiot friends gathered around him. He should have known this would happen. Never mind the fact that whining bitch of a fallen angel signed off on the second E-Day. Never mind the fact he could have pulled his daughter away from the Hotel before the battle even began. No, he had to pop in at the last minute, all so he could pretend he's the hero, not the cause of every problem Creation has faced since Eden. The arrogant prick probably knew the brat was violating the Treaty, and instead of putting a stop to it, he let her carry on so he could pretend he was some noble saviour.

Prince of Lies was a fitting title for him.

As he pulled himself up, unwilling to give the prick the satisfaction of seeing him yield, he was ready to keep the fight going. He would never yield to that prick, even if Michael would show up the next day, it wouldn't be soon enough. After everything he had done, he would never willingly allow that bastard a moment of victory. No matter how hollow it would become.

Standing at the crater's edge, he glared at Lucifer, smiling smugly. As he summoned his angelic power, a pitch-black spike burst from the ground behind him, drawing his and everyone's attention. He scoffed and turned back to Lucifer.

"You missed, asshole."

But to his surprise, they looked just as shocked at something above him. Following the spike to its tip, he saw to his surprise, a tiny cyclopean sinner impaled on it. In her hands was a knife of angelic steel. It fell from her grasp as black roots began biting into her corpse. That... was new.

"No, I didn't."

That voice sent a chill down Adam's spine. Turning to the source, he watched as a woman approached from the ruined Hotel. She was slim, with white skin, long black hair and eyes with red sclera and white irises. She was wearing a ripped, sleeveless, red opened trench coat, a checkered tube top, long black gloves, and black tight-fitting pants. Atop her head was a large, wide-brimmed black fedora with a red-and-white checkered under-brim.

She looked like a sinner... but Adam knew she was something else. Something far beyond the regular scum of humanity that ended up in this pit. Every fibre of his being was screaming at him that she was powerful. That she was dangerous, far more so than Lucifer could ever hope to be.

But there was something else about her. Something he knew. Something he recognized... in the days of Eden.

Adam lounged in a field, lightly dozing as he waited for Lilith. He'd finished his chores, and now he was looking forward to spending time with Lilith.

As he lay there, he felt a presence approach.

He opened his eyes and looked around. He couldn't see Lilith, so it wasn't her.

He closed his eyes again but still felt that presence. He looked again. He didn't see any of the angels. It wasn't them.

Then he looked down.

He saw his shadow.

And it was there.

Hidden in his shadow, a presence staring up at him.

It was curious.

"What are you?"

The presence drew back.

It was surprised.

It didn't know He could see it.

He smiled at it, not wanting it to vanish.

It approached again... slowly, cautiously.

"Do you have a name?"

It paused.

It didn't have a name.

It never needed one.

It simply was.

He knew what he needed to do.

He sat there and thought.

Until he made a choice.

"From now on, your name is..."

"...Roo."

Adam breathed the name, for the first time in thousands of years. He had almost forgotten about giving that name. And now, here she was. Standing in Hell. And she had just saved him.

She smiled at him. "You remember."

"Ten thousand years, and I've never forgotten a name I've given. But... how are you here?"

Roo tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"You were in Eden. How did you end up in Hell?"

"I had no form in Eden, Adam. Then I received one." Roo remarked casually, offering no hints. Adam furrowed his brow until he looked at her again. And noticed an... uncomfortable similarity between Roo and...

"The Apple."

Roo nodded. "I was bound within the Tree. Until the Fruit was eaten. Then I was released."

"Then that makes you..."

She simply nodded, and Adam could feel the air shift with the weight of her power and presence. "The Root of All Evil."

Every angel and sinner shivered at the title. And all of them knew she was telling the truth. She was the embodiment of Evil. She was Sin given form. But not Adam. He stood there, unfazed and unafraid.

"Well, that's a nice title..." Adam groaned as he turned to the duck fucker, "...but you've interrupted something very important."

Adam glared at the smug look on Lucfer's face, but Roo just tilted her head. "Did I? What did I interrupt?"

Lucifer blinked at the woman, not entirely understanding what had been said, but it didn't matter. Hell was his house, and he'd deal with her later. "Yes, Adam here, after receiving a thorough beating was just about to surrender and take his locusts out of my house."

"Your house?" Roo's voice took on a bitter tone.

"Yes, whoever you are, MY house. You know, Hell, ruled over by ME." Lucifer was angry with this woman. He didn't know who she was, or what made her so important, but he'd put her in her place. But he wasn't prepared to hear her chuckle.

"Lucifer... you have no idea how wrong you are." With a flick of her wrist, black spikes burst from the ground, impaling Lucifer's legs as he was lifted into the air.

"DAD!" Charlie screamed as her father was lifted from the ground. Readying her trident, she charged the woman, only to be thrown back violently by an invisible force.

"CHARLIE!!!" Lucifer roared in anger and pain, as his daughter was thrown back. Pulling himself off the spikes, he launched himself at Roo... only for a hand made of blackened spikes to emerge from the ground, grabbing him mid-air and ragdolling him as he was slammed into the ground.

"You should probably leave, Adam." Roo turned to the man in question. "I'll take care of this."

As she spoke, more spikes burst from the ground, impaling the sinners while leaving the angels unharmed. To evade the spikes, the Exorcists had already taken to the air, watching with morbid fascination as the very hellscape itself turned against the sinners and their king. Adam nodded and prepared to fly off before Roo spoke again.

"Just promise me one thing." Adam turned to her. "You'll visit me on E-Day next year."

Adam blinked in surprise but grinned. He knew it was a bad idea to make any kind of agreement with the embodiment of Evil, but something about her told him one thing. No matter what, he was safe with her.

"Deal." And without a second thought, he took off, the Exorcists right behind him.

Roo smiled watching him leave. She'd seen him come and go from Hell countless times, and she remembered every one of them. It was something she looked forward to. Now she had a personal visit to look forward to.

"RAAAHHH!" A scream came from behind her as Charlie leaped at her, raising her trident high to bring it down on Roo's head. She didn't flinch or even bother to turn around. Only tilting her head ever so slightly, causing another hand of spikes to catch the princess, causing her to scream in pain.

"Now then," Roo approached Charlie, slowly, with every step measured like a predator approaching their prey. Charlie watched her through tears of agony, fear overtaking her very being. "that was very rude of you."

"LET GO OF ME!" Charlie screamed, feeling the spikes piercing her flesh with ease.

"CHARLIE!" Lucifer roared in fury as he was held to the ground by the massive hand, the fingers crushing his bones as the spikes impaled his limbs.

"Hell is not your house, Lucifer," Roo looked down at the restrained seraphim with a terrifying malevolence glowing in her eyes. "It's not your kingdom or your playground. HELL. IS. ME." With a twitch, Charlie's friends were lifted high in the air, where she could see them with ease.

Charlie gasped in horror. Angel had all his arms torn off and stuck on bloody thorns while his legs were trapped in blackened roots. Spikes tore through his body, protruding from his torso and throat, while his eye was pierced by roots, reaching into his skull to tear it apart from within. Cherri was impaled on a spike like a victim of Vlad the Impaler. From her stomach burst a bundle of roots, tearing out her intestines as her eye was pulled from its socket. Husk was caught in a bundle of roots, crushing his body as he bled out on the thorns, his wings flapping uselessly.

But Vaggie... Vaggie's fate brought fresh pain to her. Her hair had been pulled back revealing her scarred eye had been pierced by a root, leaving her free eye untouched. Thorns impaled her body as her wings were torn from her body anew. The torn wing sockets were plugged by roots plunging into them, emerging from her chest. All the while, her good eye moved, observing everything that was being done to her, and the others.

Roo had killed her friends, but she was dragging out her girlfriend's suffering.

She screamed in despair, but Roo didn't care. She and her friends had killed Exorcists and hurt Adam. They deserved this and more. But Charlie, she wasn't done with her. Approaching her, she placed her hand on Charlie's forehead, and poured her power into her memories, forcing ten thousand years worth of memories into Charlie's mind.

As her mind was torn apart by the bitter truth, Roo approached Lucifer, foaming at the mouth like a rabid animal as he tried to break free.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!"

Roo simply smirked, feeding her roots into his body, tearing each and every bone from his arms and legs as he was lifted into the air. Screaming with fresh agony, he thrashed about violently, trying to break free. Roo tightened her grip on him, impaling him with fresh thorns as his body was torn to pieces.

"Now, now, Lucifer, there's no need to be rude." Roo grinned cruelly at him. "Just wait until your daughter wakes up from her little history lesson. After that," she turned from him to Charlie, "We'll have some real fun."

Soon, Charlie woke from her 'history lesson.' And what she saw had horrified her.

She saw everything Roo had seen, since the dawn of time. She saw the Garden of Eden and the creation of Adam and Lilith. She saw her father meeting Lilith... and saw the lies he told her. She saw the hurt in Adam's eyes as he was betrayed by one he loved. She saw the creation of Eve and the release of Evil into Creation. She saw the invasions of Earth by demons and the creation of the Archfiends. She saw every piece of history her parents hadn't told her unfold before her.

She saw the truth of who her parents were. Her mother was the victim of a deception fueled by jealousy. Her father... was nothing like she thought he was.

Turning to Roo and Lucifer, she had a look of unimaginable horror plastered on her face. And Lucifer's mind and heart were broken as he realized the unforgiving truth.

She wasn't horrified by Roo.

That was the last of his thoughts as Roo's thorns began tearing him apart, piece by piece.

Chapter Text

Minimal Security Site 17, one of the least restrictive SCP Containment sites, was home to a variety of anomalous entities. Each of these anomalies was considered easy to contain, and unlikely to mount a violent escape attempt. Of course, security was still taken seriously, and any anomalies within this facility required a certain level of clearance to interact with them.

All of them except for SCP-343, or as he calls himself, God.

At first, the Foundation had treated him like any other anomalous entity, bringing him in for questioning and keeping him in a secure containment cell. He was quite willing to come quietly, and happily answer any of their questions, only to take a break mid-interview to stand up, walk through a concrete wall like it was air, and return moments later with his favourite food, hamburgers.

This led to an amusing situation where the Foundation continuously tried to keep him contained, only for him to ignore all their containment measures and walk through them like they weren't even there. Then he had begun freely conversing with facility staff, despite efforts to keep people from visiting him in his cell, which by now, despite its appearing to possess modest size, was a large and well-appointed room, richly decorated with Old English fashions, and even a roaring fireplace.

Eventually, the Foundation gave up on the idea of containing SCP-343, especially considering he seems to be there entirely of his own volition. Likewise, they stopped trying to keep staff from visiting him for a chat, and only asked the guard to his cell to keep track of who comes by and when, if only for a proper debriefing.

Compared to some of the other tasks in the Foundation this was a dream job. Especially to today's guard, Joseph Williams. He'd had plenty of people stop by, researchers and guards alike, all of whom had been very cheerful after leaving their meeting with the friendly old man. Some of the staff were convinced he was the creator of the universe, while others believed him to be a reality warper of immense power. He'd hardly be the first the Foundation had ever encountered, but he was certainly the friendliest.

"Hey, Williams." Joseph looked up from his clipboard, containing the list of every individual who had visited 343 over the day, and it looked like he was about to add another.

"Miss Rivers, good to see you." Researcher Sarah Rivers was one of the more recent additions to the staff of Site 17, and she had been a regular visitor of 343. These same visits had done wonders with helping her to acclimate to her new posting, and she never failed to stop by for a quick chat.

"Anyone in there?" She motioned to the door to 343's cell. Williams shook his head in response.

"Nobody's shown up for a few hours. Feel free to step inside."

Rivers gave Williams a friendly smile before stepping inside. She stepped back out a minute later, raising Williams' curiosity and concern.

"That was quick."

"He's not in there, but he left us a note." She held out a folded piece of paper to Williams, who quickly took it to read.

My dear Sarah Rivers,

I sincerely apologize for not being present for our daily meetings. I'm afraid I must step out for a few minutes. There is a family matter I've put off far too long and it must be dealt with immediately. Please give my apologies to Joseph for leaving without informing him. It is urgent. However, I promise that I shall return by the end of the day.

Sincerely, God

Joseph read the note calmly and mentally shrugged. It wasn't like they could ever stop him from leaving, and as far as they could tell, he'd never told them a single lie in his time here. He was here, after all, entirely by his own choice, so if he said he'd be back, then he'd be back. But there was one thing bothering him about the note. "A family matter? What kind of family matter could be of concern for the creator of the universe?"

"Well, your first wife didn't seem to mind what I had to offer," Lucifer sang mockingly as he flew through the air, fending off Adam's attacks with little effort. "Or the second! Bow chicka-"

From seemingly nowhere, a bolt of lightning cut across the skies of Pride and struck Lucifer in the chest. For the briefest second, the Sin of Pride felt the flesh on his torso cook as his blood was vaporized. The explosion of the lightning had his ears ringing as it blasted him out of the sky, crash-landing violently in the ground, leaving a crater where he landed, bringing the battle to a halt as everyone turned to see what had happened.

Charlie screamed for her father, but before she could run to him, she turned her head up to see what had attacked him. And there, floating in the skies of Pride just past Adam, was a man. He wore simple robes, and beyond the white beard on his face, had no distinct features she could make out. But there was something more to him than that... something that part of her soul screamed with joy at his arrival.

He wasn't a human, that much was obvious, despite the lack of wings. He certainly wasn't a sinner or a demon, but he wasn't an angel either. Yet still... he was something more than any of those things. Behind him, she could see floating in the air an army of angelic warriors, each wearing armour of shining silver plate, all armed with weapons of angelic steel.

Every sinner below witnessed the arrival of the figure and his army and felt both fear and awe at their presence. The angelic warriors were terrifying, but the figure leading them... awoke something in their souls, a piece of themselves they forgot they even had.

"I apologize for being late, my son."

The figure spoke, his voice echoing with power as he addressed Adam. Adam simply smiled at him before responding.

"You never arrive late or early, pops. You always arrive exactly when you need to."

The figure chuckled at Adam's words, while Charlie looked on in shock. Adam had just called this figure 'pops.' Was... was this the angel who created humanity? Did he also create Lilith and Eve? Or just Adam? And why were the angels looking at Adam with shock?

As she was thinking this, the figure waved his hands, and every Exorcist had their injuries healed! Those who lay dead in the dirt rose from their resting place, revitalized and ready for battle, as the cannibals that had partaken of angelic flesh mid-battle exploded in a shower of blood and gore, revealing a newly reborn Exorcist standing in their place.

As he did this, Lucifer crawled out of the crater, coughing up smoke with every breath. He struggled to stand on shaking legs, before looking up at the new arrival and feeling his jaw drop in realization of who it was.

"Indeed, Lucifer, it is I."

"You... you can't be here..."

The figure frowned. "Can I not, my son? This bleeding wound in Creation may not have been part of my plans, but what makes you so certain I cannot be here?"

Charlie blinked. This figure called her father his son. But... did that mean he was...

"The Father of Heaven and Creation and all that lies within, the Lord of Hosts, The Almighty, and He who forged Mankind in His Image." The figure spoke again, as though knowing Charlie's innermost thoughts.

Charlie gaped in shock. All those titles... if they were true, then that meant... this was...

"You... you're God."

God smiled at Charlie. "Indeed I am, child. But, you may call me 'grandpa.' "

Charlie, despite the shock to her brain this information was causing her, smiled in joy at the warm feeling that word gave her. 'Grandpa.' She had a grandpa! God was real, not that she'd ever been told, and he was her grandpa!!! And... he was here... in Hell... with an army of angels behind him... after hitting her father with lightning.

Sensing Charlie's confusion, God turned to Adam. "Adam, take the Exorcists back to Heaven. The Treaty has been broken. This fight is now the duty of the Heavenly Host."

Adam frowned. "Pops... are you certain?"

"I am. Return to Heaven, my child, and be with your wives. It is long past time for me to act."

Adam blinked in surprise before he began chuckling. "Can't keep anything from you, can I?"

God simply chuckled, and Adam took that as his cue to signal the Exorcists. The angels took to the sky, sparing barely a glance back for the sinners, but many paused mid-flight to bow in respect to God. Each angel was acknowledged by God, until the last of them disappeared through the portal, leaving God with the Heavenly Host, the Hazbins gathered around Charlie, the cannibals watching with nervous eyes, and Lucifer standing at the edge of a crater, slowly healing himself, but feeling nervous and angry in equal parts. Trying to regain some measure of control, he focused on God's line about Adam's 'wives.'

"So, Adam got another wife?" Lucifer remarked with a sneer that quickly vanished when God turned his gaze on him.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"You told him to go be with his 'wives'. I assume you made a third wife for him? Or did he seduce one of the angels? And here I thought you were all about monogamy."

Charlie internally cringed at her father's words, as did the Hazbins, but Vaggie was fighting the beginnings of a panic attack. God was here with the Heavenly Host. He wasn't here for a social call, or a casual family reunion. He was here to deliver punishment to those who had offended him. And Lucifer was getting mouthy with him. She couldn't tell if it was Pride or stupidity driving him, but it didn't matter. Holding Charlie's hand, she struggled to fight off her fear, but it was a losing battle.

God frowned. "You are mistaken on both counts, Lucifer. I did not create another wife after Eve, nor did he 'seduce' another. He simply reunited with his first wife."

Lucifer blinked in shock. "You're lying!"

"Lucifer, I do not lie. You know that better than anyone."

"Lilith would never go back to that waste of dust!"

"Why wouldn't she? It's not as if you were ever honest with her. Or have you forgotten the lies you told her?" Lucifer froze at that. "Did you not tell her she was a pet, kept in a gilded cage, and offered her the stars themselves if she left with you? Or did you think I was unaware of your actions?"

"Uhm... grandpa?" Charlie's voice was quiet, but she had to ask. Feeling God's eyes on her, she pressed on. "What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about Lucifer's actions in the Garden of Eden." Charlie's book, The Story of Hell, appeared floating before her. "I am aware of the contents of this book, Charlie. A pretty bedtime story that omits my existence, and paints your parents as misunderstood dreamers. I am sorry to tell you this, granddaughter, but it is based on lies. The truth is both far simpler, yet more complicated."

"I... I don't..."

"The truth, Charlie, is that your father was never regarded as a troublemaker, but the most beautiful and wonderous of the Seraphim, a beacon of light among the beings of Heaven. The Morningstar." Lucifer felt his pride soar as he remembered those ancient days before he lost his rightful place in Creation.

"Lucifer did not meet Lilith after she 'ran away' from Adam. He had known her long before then. He knew how much she loved Adam and how Adam loved her. And he knew how much it would hurt Adam to turn her away from him." God glared at Lucifer as he continued. "He could not stand the idea of his place in Heaven being threatened, that Humanity would rise higher than even the Seraphim if given the chance. So he resolved to prevent Humanity from reaching that point by breaking the man who was to be the Father of Mankind."

Charlie looked from God to her father, desperation in her eyes. Desperation to hear her father refute God, to tell her it wasn't true. To explain that it was all a misunderstanding! But he didn't. He just... stood there, alternating between staring at the ground and looking her way.

"He can't say it, Charlie. He can't deny the pride that has defined his being for so long was threatened by Adam."

"SHUT UP!!!" Lucifer roared in defiance. "That waste of dust was little better than a talking ape! He was never going to rival a Seraphim!"

"Then why did you dedicate yourself to ruining him? Why did you lie to Lilith to lure her away from the one whose love was genuine? Why did you resort to damaging the whole of Creation and cursing Mankind by giving Eve the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Because Adam would not listen to you. Because you wanted to hurt him in a way he couldn't defend himself against. Because you didn't care who you hurt, so long as Adam was finally broken.

"But you failed, Lucifer. Despite the passage of time, Lilith returned to Adam out of genuine love for him, and Eve rose above the sins you tried to infect her with. And Adam remains unbroken by your actions while Humanity endures. Despite your efforts, Breaker of Light, Humanity grows ever closer to what they were meant to be."

God spoke with a finality in his voice, one that would brook no arguments or refutations. Listening to his words, Charlie felt the turmoil growing within her. Everything she had been taught as a child was being challenged by God. And her father... just stood there, anger building in his soul as his demonic fire sputtered impotently.

Turning from Lucifer, God looked over the Heavenly Host before issuing his command. "Go, my children. Raze this monument to cruelty and vice."

The Host bowed in acknowledgment before taking off in all directions. Some descended on the cannibals, slaughtering them swiftly before turning their attention to Pentagram City, while the rest made for the various cities of Pride. As they carried out their orders, God floated down, hovering close to the ground as he came to a stop a small distance from Lucifer, still seething with rage.

"It is finished, Lucifer. You've failed."

For a brief second, the air hung heavy with anticipation. Failed. Lucifer heard the word in his mind over and over and over again. He had failed. The statement taunted him, breaking cracks in his soul as he heard the words on repeat. Failure. It was a feeling he hated, more than anything in the whole of Creation. Not even Adam's presence invoked a similar rage as the sting of failure.

He couldn't help it. He needed to do something. Anything. And without rhyme or reason, he launched himself at his father, his full demonic visage on display as he extended his claws, laced with unholy power, ready to tear into God with reckless abandon. He was deaf to everything else. His sense of self-preservation. His daughter. All of it was subsumed beneath the demands of his fractured pride.

He attacked with intent to kill... and God responded in kind.

From his hands, God sent forth a volley of lightning like nothing Creation had seen before. The sheer brightness of it nearly blinded the onlookers as they watched the King of Hell be struck down by the wrath of God. They could smell the burning flesh as it fell from his bones and disintegrated by the intense heat. Lucifer's inhuman roar of fury had devolved into an insane scream of agony before it was silenced.

As the volley subsided, Charlie tried looking at the spot where her father had been. The air was still heavy with the static electricity, and all water in Pride had been evaporated by the incredible heat. And where her father had been, all she saw was a blackened scorch mark and a scattering of ashes.

The King of Hell had been struck down by the Almighty.

God sighed heavily as the air started to clear, before turning to Charlie and approaching her. Despite the pain in her heart, Charlie felt herself being comforted by the presence of God, of her grandpa. Somehow just thinking the word was making her feel better.

"I am sorry, Charlie, that you had to see this. But it was well past time for you to learn the truth."

Charlie didn't say anything. Everything that had happened... it hurt too much to think about.

"But, there is something I would like to show you, granddaughter." God smiled as Charlie looked up at him with wide curious eyes. "The Story of Creation."

And in the blink of an eye, the Creator of the Universe and his granddaughter disappeared from Hell,

Chapter Text

"Well, that shouldn't have happened."

With a groan, a lone figure picked herself up, standing in a trash-filled alley in Hell. Wearing a red and black dress with gold accents, she embodied regal grace and beauty, her blonde hair ending at her shoulders as it framed her face. It would have been easy to mistake her for typical Hellborn nobility, but she was far above those base creatures, for she was Charlotte Guidingstar, Queen and Magistrate of Hell, and the Breaker of Horns.

It had been years since the day she struck down her parents to save Creation from their insanity and pride. In that time, she had grown from the naive princess who approached the Lord Exorcist on Extermination Day, into the Queen who guided the repentant towards redemption. Extermination still occurred, but on a much smaller scale, the stick to the carrot that was Charlie's offer of redemption. And it had worked, with several hundred souls being redeemed, and ascending to Heaven.

With every success, the process became easier, not only because of what Charlie had learned but also because those who were redeemed would always come back to Hell to assist Charlie in her efforts. It was slow going, but progress was made each day, and with every success, it felt like the wounds of Creation healed just a little bit more.

"Now, where exactly am I?"

She knew it was Hell, that much was obvious. But there was something... off about it. She couldn't quite tell what it was, and so resolved to do the simplest thing: get her bearings. With a small application of power, she began floating from the alley up to the roof of one of the neighbouring buildings and scanned the horizon. What she saw, or rather what she didn't see, was cause for concern.

First and foremost, the skeletal remains of Tannin and Falak were nowhere to be seen. Even from the most distant cities of Pride, the colossal skeletons could be seen, with the smoke spewing from Falak's still burning bones drawing anyone's attention. Yet they were nowhere to be seen. She wasn't in any of the other rings, they were all far too distinctive to ever be confused with Pride, but that just raised further questions in her mind... until she saw a building that had been torn down decades ago.

Lucifer's Palace. The home of the Sin of Pride, and the place where she struck down her mother and father. It was still there, untouched by outside forces. Anyone else might have begun to panic at the sight, but Charlie had matured a great deal over the past years, and she remained calm and level-headed.

'Ok, if the Palace is still standing, then I'm either in another universe or back in the past... and if it's the past, how far back?'

She looked about as she attuned her senses to the changes around her when she caught sight of something. It was a tall structure atop a hill at the edge of Pentagram City. Said structure was also being attacked by the Exorcists. Frowning at the sight, she cast a minor spell allowing her to see the ongoing battle, and her heart nearly froze in shock. An army of cannibals had been armed with weapons of angelic steel, and they were fighting the Exorcists... under the command of Charlie Morningstar.

Their ages were similar, but this version of Charlie still had her father's clown spot cheeks, and her horns were clearly on display. This meant that either Charlie had no idea of her father's actions, or she was fully supportive of them. The latter was a disturbing possibility, the former... just flat-out disappointing.

And speaking of fathers, above the battlefield was Adam, the Father of Mankind, locked in battle with Lucifer Morningstar. And it was clear that Adam was on the losing end of the fight. Lucifer might have fallen, but he was still a Seraphim, and that kind of power wasn't easy to overcome, even with Adam's training and experience.

And unless she missed her mark... Adam wouldn't back down from Lucifer.

'Well, at least I know why I'm here.'

Seeing no other option, she summoned her armour and weapons. Her battle dress had been upgraded years ago to a bronze-coloured cuirass, embossed with the symbol of the North Star. Her arms and legs were protected by similarly coloured vambraces and greaves. All of it was worn over a red dress with gold trim and an open-front skirt. In her hand was her favoured weapon. She had long since discarded the trident, a weapon meant for suffering and torture, a weapon of her parent's choice, and replaced it with a glaive of angelic steel, perfect for slashing or thrusting, with a blunted spike at the bottom of the shaft.

Satisfied, she focused her power and disappeared in a burst of fire.

Adam was not happy with how this day had turned out. He was going to pop down to Hell for the second E-Day, find whoever had managed to kill one of his girls and send the dumbass princess back to her equally fucked up daddy after giving her a good scare. He wasn't an idiot despite what people thought of him. He knew he couldn't do anything to her because of the Treaty, but that same Treaty didn't protect her Hotel or her guests.

Figures that she'd somehow figured out their weapons could be used against them (seriously, how the fuck did that get past the testing phase!?!?) and had rallied a cannibal army to fight the Exorcists. With that act any protections the Treaty gave her were officially null and void, and he was obliged to deal with her, especially since her prick of a father wouldn't. He wasn't gonna kill her, no way he'd tell Lilith he was responsible for that, but he was going to remind her of the pecking order.

But then, of course, that duck fucker shows up and plays the hero! Not like he's been absent from her life for years now! No, he pops in at the last minute and acts like the protective father he thinks he is! If he was that concerned about her, he'd have pulled her from the Hotel and kept her in the palace where neither he nor the Exorcists can go during E-Day.

In any event, the Treaty was officially broken by Lucifer's interference, which meant he should call in the Heavenly Host to deal with this... if not for the whining little bitch acting like a smug little asshole. As he flew at the prick to attack, he sensed magic from behind, and ducked out of the way, thinking it was an attack meant for him.

He was wrong.

From a ball of fire leaped a woman in bronze armour worn over a red dress. In her hands was a glaive of angelic steel, and as she practically flew at Lucifer, she wielded it with lethal skill. Bringing it into a downward slash, Lucifer was forced to block it, only for the force of the strike to push them both back in the air, with the woman pressing her advantage as they landed on the Hotel roof.

Lucifer righted himself quickly, as the woman charged at him, this time spinning as she slashed at him, only to jab backwards with the blunted spike at the end of the shaft striking Lucifer in the gut. As he hunched from the sudden strike, she twisted her hand and brought the glaive back the way it came, slicing to cleave his head in two and only barely missing him as he pulled back at the last second, with the blade cutting into his forehead as he did so.

As Lucifer jumped backwards, Adam was impressed. This woman was hellborn, of that he was certain, but she wielded that weapon like an Exorcist. She was swift, she was deadly, and more importantly, she wasn't backing down. His curiosity was raised and he used his power to look at her true name and see who she...

'Holy fuck. Ho. Le. Fuck. Charlotte Guidingstar. The Breaker of Horns.'

It shouldn't be possible, and yet it was. This was a woman who had claimed the title Breaker of Horns. Except Lucifer and Lilith were still alive, which could only mean... she came from a universe (or is it a timeline) where she had killed Lucifer and Lilith, presenting him with their horns as proof. And if he was going off of her appearance, there was only one explanation. This was the Princess of another Hell, and something had brought her here during his fight with Lucifer.

Still, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If she was the Breaker of Horns, then she was on his side. Landing next to her, she turned to look at him with eyes that offered freely a view into her soul. There was no deception, no nefarious motives or hidden plots. She was here for a simple reason: to put a stop to Lucifer, one way or another.

Lucifer, meanwhile, was extremely confused. This woman was a newcomer, one that had come dangerously close to killing him. She was skilled as well as powerful, but the strangest thing was her appearance. She looked, disturbingly, similar to Charlie, with the same coloured eyes and skin. The key differences were the hair was cut to shoulder length, while her face was missing the clown spots. Likewise, Charlie was completely lost. One moment her father was fighting Adam, the next he was nearly decapitated by a new arrival.

"Alright, who are you supposed to be!?" Lucifer demanded of the newcomer. She, in turn, only looked at him with a disappointed glare.

"That's not for you to know, Breaker of Light." She replied, drawing an angry snarl from the fallen angel. Angry at the insult, and the reminder of his past, he charged Charlotte and Adam, resolving to get answers the hard way.

If she was surprised by Lucifer's charge, Charlotte didn't show it, shifting her feet into a defensive posture, allowing the Devil to charge her, before bringing the glaive in an upwards strike, forcing Lucifer to pull back mid-charge, throwing off his balance and allowing Adam to swing at him with his axe.

Lucifer ducked out of the way, but that gave Charlotte the chance to bring the glaive down, slicing deep into Lucifer's shoulder and drawing a pained scream as she pulled the blade towards her. The wound was deep, cutting straight through the shoulder before stopping just above the heart when Charlotte pulled back, digging the blade just a little bit deeper and drawing more blood.

Seizing the initiative, Charlotte thrust the blade forward, looking to impale Lucifer's gut on the blade, but he flew into the air, and with a crazed look, summoned hellfire in his good hand, and unleashed a torrent of it on Charlotte and Adam. Adam summoned his most powerful shield to block the flames, but he could feel the heat through the shield, until Charlotte added her power to the shield, while Vaggie grabbed Charlie and flew them both off the roof to avoid the flames.

Seeing the need for an escape, Charlotte grabbed Adam and teleported both of them into the air above Lucifer. Holding on to Adam's back, Charlotte readied her glaive as Adam brought his axe down on Lucifer's back, slicing through three of his wings in the process. With an agonized shriek, Lucifer fell to the hotel roof in his shock, dispelling the hellfire as he crashed.

Dropping from Adam's back, Charlotte landed a small distance from Lucifer, who stood with a roar of malice and pain. Focused solely on Adam, he tapped into his full demonic power and was caught off guard by Charlotte charging at him, bringing her glaive in a decapitating swing. Any other time he'd simply blast her with his power, but she had done something that threw him off guard. She had dropped the glamour spell placed on her features, obscuring her scars. When he looked at her, he didn't see the woman who had attacked and injured him, he saw his daughter, Charlie, clown spots cut away, and horns filed to their base.

And in that moment of hesitation, she brought the blade around and cleaved cleanly through the neck, separating the Devil's head from his body as it tumbled to the ground.

"NO!"

Charlie screamed from above, struggling in Vaggie's arms as she tried to break free and get to her father. Vaggie refused to let her go, especially as the sight of Lucifer's head falling from his body had broken the spirit of the cannibal army, and emboldened the Exorcists. The cannibals broke ranks and made to flee, while the few who stood their ground were slaughtered. Soon only the Hazbins remained, gathering at the Hotel entrance, while Adam descended to meet with Charlotte.

"Well, I suppose I owe you my thanks, Charlotte," Adam remarked with an appraising look. She hadn't restored the glamour, so he saw the same thing Lucifer did. But of the two, only he understood the significance.

"I'm just glad I was able to help, Uncle," Charlotte replied, the beginnings of a smirk on her face. Adam blinked at the word 'uncle.' Having a positive relationship with Lucifer's daughter, even one from another universe, was not something he ever expected. It ranked only slightly more likely than watching said alternate Charlie decapitate the Devil mid-battle. But above them, the princess had heard them.

"UNCLE!?!? Who are... you..." Charlie's voice began as a scream of outrage, only to fade in shock and confusion as the woman turned to face her... and it was like looking in a mirror. She didn't consider herself vain, but she knew her appearance well enough. Seeing herself staring back with mutilated features caused any outrage to die, and instead be replaced with a whirlwind of questions.

"I suppose I should tell you. Simply put, Charlie, I'm you." Charlotte turned to Charlie as Vaggie slowly lowered them, confusion equally present on her face. "I'm you from another universe, one where I befriended Adam roughly 100 years ago, assuming the year's lineup."

As Charlotte paused to consider the potential time differences, Charlie's mind was a storm of confusion. Another her, from another universe, where she had befriended ADAM!? Why would she ever befriend someone like him!?

"It wasn't easy at first," Charlotte smirked at Charlie, having a pretty good guess what she was thinking. "Adam wasn't too keen on spending time around the 'Hellflake' as he called me," Adam snorted at the nickname while Charlie blinked, surprised to hear a cute nickname came from Adam of all people.

"But, with time and patience, he opened up to me... and he explained to me everything my parents hadn't told me. The true history of Creation, the consequences of the Fall... the invasions of Earth by Hell, led by Lucifer and the Archfiends. Everything my parents had ordered the nobles and the Sins to keep from me. For a time, it seemed like things might improve for all of Creation. But, 25 years ago, my parents devised a plan to enact a ritual, one that would fuse the Seven Sins into a singular abomination, chained by Lilith's magic. A ritual that required the sacrifice of a billion living souls."

Charlie felt sick to her stomach. To imagine her parents, even in another timeline, doing something so horrible... it hurt her to even think about it. All the while, Adam watched and listened with a detached curiosity, only to feel horror at the implications of such a ritual. Something he would need to deal with later.

"But do you know the worst part?" Charlotte asked, drawing everyone's attention. "They intended for me to lead the charge, telling me it was my destiny. That it was the reason I was even born." She paused to bite her tongue, remembering the good times she had with her parents. But she would never forgive them for wanting her to help them in something so horrifying.

"And, with no other option left and time running out... I killed my parents."

The sentence hung heavy in the air, drawing looks of horror from Charlie and Vaggie. Vaggie because, if this was another Charlie, taking such action must have been the most difficult choice imaginable. But for Charlie... In her mind, there was no reconciling the two ideas. That she could kill her parents to save Creation. For her, killing her parents was unthinkable, if only because she couldn't reconcile the idea of her parents in any universe being willing to stoop to something so horrifying. Until she began seeing things...

"Charlie!?" Vaggie kneeled next to Charlie in concern as her eyes began glowing and she clutched her head in pain and fear.

"What- what are you doing!?" Charlie screamed at Charlotte.

"Showing you the truth," Charlotte replied, a calm look on her face as she pushed the vision her parents had given her into Charlie's mind. "Know the truth of what we were born for."

Charlie writhed on the ground while Vaggie looked on in horror, and the Hazbins and Exorcists listened in morbid curiosity. Finally, a horrifying scream ripped its way out of Charlie's throat, and the vision subsided. As Vaggie helped her sit up, she looked at her counterpart and saw the look in her eyes. One of sadness and regret. She had taken actions that were far from easy, but she had done them because the alternative was...

"I... I would have done... horrible things..."

Charlotte nodded, before continuing. "With my parent's deaths, I became the Breaker of Horns, and later, the Queen of Hell. And having earned Heaven's trust and gratitude, they helped me with my dearest dream: the redemption of sinners. And I succeeded."

Charlie blinked in shock, while Adam looked impressed. To have earned that kind of trust and support, even without proof that redemption was possible, spoke of how close she had gotten. Not just with him, but likely with others in Heaven. And if she had managed it in her Hell...

"It wasn't easy, and every path is different. But with patience, I was able to start redeeming sinners. And every redeemed sinner returned to Hell to assist in the process, helping more souls reach Heaven every year." Charlotte smiled as she thought back on every time a sinner became an angel, the joy they felt at redemption and the hope it filled the repentant with.

"Can... can you teach me?" Charlie asked, hope in her voice. Despite the loss of her father, she still wanted to redeem sinners, and here was standing a version of her that went ahead and did it! Even if it hurt, she knew this version of her shared the desire to redeem the sinners of Hell. That wasn't something she could or would overlook. And to her delight, Charlotte smiled in response.

"I'll tell you what I can. But first," Charlotte turned to Adam, "I'd like to be there when you explain all this to Sera. I imagine I can answer her questions easier if I'm there."

Adam nodded in response. "I was going to ask you to come with us to tell her this." And without a second thought, he allowed her to jump on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck as her glaive dissipated.

With a nod to Charlie, Adam and the Exorcists made for the portal to Heaven while the Exorcists grabbed their fallen in the process. As they crossed the portal into Heaven, Charlotte leaned up to speak in Adam's ear.

"Adam, can you explain something to me?"

"I'll try." Unbeknownst to Adam, Charlotte had a smirk on her face.

"Why can I sense my mother is here in Heaven?"

Adam's face fell in a frown. "Fuck."

Chapter Text

"SIR!" Lute screamed in shock as Adam fell face first in the dirt, the tiny cyclopean sinner stabbing him in the back as he did so. The sinner cackled with glee as she stabbed his body repeatedly, covered in Adam's blood, before hopping off and joining the hellspawn princess. Silence briefly reigned over the battlefield, before the Archtraitor turned to face Lute.

"Well, now that's done, take your little friends, and go home!" Lucifer roared at Lute, pointing towards the portal as he did so. Briefly, Lute stared back at him... before she began laughing with glee. Each of the Hazbins, Vaggie especially, was thrown off by this. Vaggie knew how much Adam meant to her. Even if she fully expected to get payback in the end, she should not be laughing like a maniac.

When Lute's laughter subsided, she looked at Lucifer with a contemptuous smirk. "You think that's it? You think Adam's finished?"

Lucifer, still put off by that laughter, shrugged his shoulders. "Adam's lying in the mud with twenty stab wounds in his back. I'd say he's finished."

Lute smirked. "Yes, he's been stabbed in the back. That's step one." Lucifer and the Hazbins blinked. "What about two through ten?"

"Wait, what-" Lucifer was cut off as a beam of angelic power blasted him in the face, sending him into the rubble of the Hotel. As this happened, every sinner turned to see Adam's arm raised, as he began to stand, the wound closing as he did so. On his face, a grin that promised carnage.

"Sup bitches!"

"How!? How are you alive!?" Vaggie shouted in anger and panic at Adam, who flipped her off.

"Fuck you, that's how."

With a roar of anger and confusion, Lucifer burst from the rubble and charged straight at Adam, striking Adam's head with enough force to separate it from his body. To Lucifer's shock and horror, the head reformed from a mass of liquid starlight. As the head reformed, Adam chuckled in response.

"Try again, Lucy. I might actually feel that one."

"RAAAGH!" Lucifer struck again, decapitating Adam a second time, only for Adam to blast him back as his laughing head reformed.

"Jeez, Lucy, are we fighting or are you swatting at mosquitoes?"

Snarling with fury, Lucifer summoned in his hands a raging inferno of Hellfire, the heat so intense the Hazbins ran behind Lucifer, while the cannibals fled in every direction to avoid the flames. All the while, Adam stood there, a smirk of amusement on his face. "Now that's more like it! I can almost feel the heat!"

"IT'S ABOUT TO FEEL MUCH HOTTER!" Lucifer screamed as the inferno grew in his hands.

"Or it'll feel disappointing. But go ahead, Lucy. Flip that coin."

Adam stood his ground as Lucifer unleashed the full power of the infernal flames, coating the hill as the fires consumed the three nearest blocks of Pentagram City. The flames immediately incinerated sinners hiding in their homes, while those nearby fled in terror at the Devil's rage. All the while, the Vees continued to broadcast the event across Pride. In their tower, they watched with eager anticipation as the flames and smoke parted... revealing Adam still standing there, his burned flesh healing and regenerating as quickly as it was burned.

"HAHAHAHA!!!" Vox cackled with laughter as he watched the carnage unfold. "HE WAS PLAYING WITH THEM! Alastor got his ass kicked, and he wasn't even trying!"

While Vox was having the time of his life, Lucifer was equal parts furious, confused... and horrified. It infuriated him that Adam wasn't even phased by his attacks, but what confused him was how Adam was enduring everything, especially after the beatdown he'd delivered just a few minutes ago. And horror because despite everything he might say or do... he was genuinely worried Adam might have achieved some form of invulnerability.

"HOW!?!?" Lucifer screamed in rage and frustration. "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?!?"

"Well, let me ask you something, Lucy," Adam smirked all the while. "Just how badly do you think the Fall fucked with my soul?"

Lucifer blinked in surprise before his pride surged to the surface. "Not enough! What does that have to do with-"

" 'Pretty badly' was the answer, Lucifraud. Even after arriving at the Pearly Gates, and being greeted by Sera, Abel standing right beside her, I still felt the effects of the Fall. Every human soul that came after Eve and I never knew what it was like to be human before the Fall, so none of them knew just what they had lost. But we did, and we felt more out of place in Heaven than we did fighting off Primordial Beasts after leaving the Garden. We wore heavy robes, covered our hands and never let anyone but each other see our faces."

Lucifer, the Hazbins and the Vees listened intently. Lucifer was only interested in figuring out a way to overcome Adam's apparent invulnerability, while Vaggie and all the sinners were curious to hear about the Fall's effects on the First Man. Despite not liking the First Man, even Charlie was curious to hear how this connected to Adam.

"Lucky for us, your siblings weren't self-obsessed fuckups like you, so they resolved to help us. And wouldn't you know it! After centuries of patience and effort, they succeeded. The effects of the Fall were finally overcome, with Eve and I becoming the higher beings God had always intended for humans to become."

"Pfft. If that's the case, Father clearly overestimated you if this is the final result." Lucifer sneered at Adam, only to blink in shock as Adam chuckled.

"Oh, Lucy, this is far from the final result. It turns out that ascending to a higher form had a... euphoric effect on the angels. Even Sera wasn't immune from the effects, while Jophiel kept cornering me and Eve to propose a three-way. And as fun as it was to have her fawning over the two of us, shit still needed to get done, and having the Seraphim go into orgasmic bliss just from saying 'hello' wasn't helping anyone. So, we found a way to... restrain our powers."

Vaggie was losing her patience. "That still doesn't explain why the angelic steel didn't kill you!"

Adam looked confused, before bursting out into laughter. "HAHAHA! Oh, Vaggie, you thought these weapons were made out of angelic steel??"

In her factory, Carmilla and her daughters watched with curious apprehension, while Vaggie hesitated as she looked down at her spear. "Aren't they? They're made from the weapons Exorcists leave behind..."

"Mmhmm. Tell me, something, in all those years you were with the Exorcists, all those training sessions we had, all that camaraderie you threw away because you decided to spare a pedophile sinner, did you get the impression I'd just ignore the girls leaving their weapons behind if they posed a legitimate threat to us?"

Vaggie had no answer, just staring at Adam with confusion before he decided to press her for answers.

"Since you didn't pay attention, let me spell it out for you Vagasaurus. What do you think angelic steel is?"

"The- the metal used by the armies of Heaven."

"Good girl, now tell me, why do you think that is?"

"I..."

"Because, Vaggie, even the presence of angelic steel causes demons and sinners alike to feel extremely weak. Simply touching it causes the unholy to suffer as it burns their skin off. So tell me, how exactly would sinners, hellborn, and fallen angels, safely touch angelic steel, let alone use it against the Exorcists?"

A pin could be heard in the lower rings as silence descended on the battlefield. Carmilla watched with concern filling her soul, as she wondered what exactly she and her daughters had been scavenging, while Vaggie looked at Adam with renewed confusion and horror.

"Put simply, Vagasaurus, the Exorcists don't use angelic steel. What we use is a heavenly alloy I created before the Exterminations even began. After all, the only one who can unmake a soul is God, and he's not the type to do that, while some Archfiends could gather the souls of even slain sinners and hellborns. So, when creating Exorcist steel, I experimented with infusing it with a small fragment of my essence and bound the weapons to me. And every sinner slain with Exorcist steel becomes bound to me. More specifically, my true form." Adam paused as he grinned at Lucifer. "Would you like to see it?"

The Hazbins and cannibals remaining blinked in surprise, while looks of excitement dominated the Exorcists, still flying in the air from trying to avoid Lucifer's hellfire. And all of Pride felt a chill crawl down their spines as the Vees broadcast Adam's next words across the Ring.

"When Darkness rises, To consume the Light, The Angels descend, To break Hell's might! Release restraint level... ZERO."

In Heaven, Sera and Emily were dealing with the shock of a sinner ascending to become an angel. While Emily was jubilant, unaware of the battle that had unfolded, and Sera was wondering how the Heavenly Council would react, both Seraphim felt a shift in Creation. Emily, having never felt it before, was thrown off by the sudden shift. But Sera had a look of wonder on her face, one that drew Emily's attention.

"S-Sera? What was that?"

"...He's really doing it..."

Emily looked up at her. "Who's doing what?"

"Adam. He's releasing the restraints."

In an instant, the battlefield where Adam stood devolved into chaos. Every soul could sense it, a feeling of great dread, the source of which was the First Man, who stood tall and defiant even as Lucifer and the cannibals sprung into action. Lucifer had taken to the air and began bombarding Adam with blasts of hellfire, while the handful of surviving cannibals closed in and opened fire on the First Man.

In contrast, the Hazbins had pulled back, with Vaggie carrying Charlie and Cherri, and Husk carrying Angel Dust and Nifty. As they took to the air, Vaggie watched as her former sisters-in-arms danced through the air, singing hymns of battle and carnage in response to the chaos. Deep within her soul, Vaggie could feel the urge to drop Charlie and the sinners and join her former comrades in their celebrations of what was to come. And that terrified her more than anything else.

Turning her attention back to Adam, Vaggie noticed the symbol on Adam's chest. Glowing through the robes, she noticed a sigil composed of two circles, a pentagram, two heptagons, and one heptagram. Narrowing her eyes, she could see it was labeled with names, of who she wasn't sure. The sigil glowed brightly as Adam's body took more and more damage, dissolving into a golden mass of liquid starlight.

Suddenly, a pillar of light shot out from the mass, growing to envelop half the hill as Lucifer and the cannibals pulled back. And from this pillar spilled forth a tidal wave of liquid starlight. Those cannibals caught in the tidal wave soon screamed in fear as arms and hands burst from the liquid and grabbed at them. Slowly, emerging from the tidal wave, was an army of souls. First dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. The number grew ever larger as the liquid spread throughout Pentagram City, with every sinner within caught by the surge of bodies.

"H-Holy Crap! Vaggie, did you know about-!?" Angel began asking only for Vaggie to cut him off.

"No fucking way did I know this was something he could do! Dios mio! If he was telling the truth, then that army..."

"Millions at the bare minimum. Possibly in the billions."

Emily looked up at Sera. After Sera had begun explaining the nature of Exorcist steel, she watched the explosion of bodies with something bordering between joy and despair. Joy that none of the souls had been destroyed. Despair because the souls had been forcibly bound within Adam. It wasn't a final death, but it wasn't redemption either. Still, her soul couldn't help but sing at the display of Adam's true might.

"And... all of these are from the Exterminations?"

"Most, but not all. Plenty of them are the souls of Archfiends Adam slew during Hell's invasions of Earth, along with their most powerful lieutenants. All to prevent sinners, hellborn, or Lucifer from ever attempting to resurrect them."

Emily shuddered, having only recently been explained what an Archfiend was. To imagine beings of such cruelty and malice, under the control of Adam at his full power... it terrified her to imagine just how powerful Adam truly was.

Lucifer's mind was a whirlwind of emotions. Chief among them was denial, despair, wounded pride, and unyielding rage.

As he looked into that pillar of light, it soon began to contract, revealing a lone man hovering in the air. A man devoid of clothing, a gold sigil carved into his chest, with broad shoulders and lean musculature. In his face, he saw two golden eyes, blazing like the Sun, and from his back... sprouted twelve golden wings!

"No, no, no, no, nonononononono, NO!"

Adam simply smirked as Lucifer had a mental breakdown. "Now you see the full extent of your failure."

"This isn't possible! This isn't right! You're barely anything more than a talking ape! A knuckle-dragging shit thrower that was given the keys to Creation!"

"And yet, you fell, while Eve and I rose higher than you could have possibly imagined."

In Lucifer's mind, something snapped. For thousands of years he'd been fighting Adam, believing that no matter what that waste of dust might think, he was still lesser than a Seraphim! And now, here he was, claiming to have risen higher than even he had been before the Fall! It was infuriating! The gall this talking ape had, speaking to him like this! He couldn't think, see, or hear anything. All he felt was an impulse to attack. An urge to kill.

Charging at Adam, with his full demonic power summoned, nothing surprised him more than Adam simply uppercutting him into the air. Tumbling through the air, he felt himself come to a short stop when a foot was planted firmly in his back, as a pair of hands gripped his wings.

"It ends now, Lucifer."

With a sharp yank and a powerful kick, Adam tore off Lucifer's wings and sent him crashing into the liquid starlight below. Struggling to his feet, Lucifer's thoughts were an overwhelming cacophony of anger and pain. He was ready to tear Adam to pieces... until he felt a pair of hands grip his legs. Looking down, he felt his heart stop as he realized he was looking at a very ancient face.

"Typhon!?" Two more emerged from the sea of gold, wielding daggers and swords of Exorcist steel. "Echidna!? Orochi!?"

"Your generals from your invasions of Earth. They haven't forgotten how you promised them the world when my children were enslaved or extinct. They demand retribution for another of your broken promises."

Lucifer punched, kicked, bit, and screamed with every fibre of his being. With every last ounce of strength, he struggled to escape, only to feel blades of Exorcist steel piercing his body as more and more souls grabbed at him, dragging him down into that golden abyss. The last thing he saw as the last of his strength faded were two golden eyes staring down at him.

With Lucifer's death, and the destruction of Pentagram City, the Exorcists returned to Heaven, led by Adam in his true form. As they exited the portal, they were greeted by Sera and Emily. Sera was pleased to see the true Adam returned, while Emily was in awe of his majesty and power. All while her soul sang in joy at being in his mere presence.

"It is good to have you back, Adam." Sera smiled warmly at Adam as she spoke, drawing a similar smile from Adam.

"It is good to be back, Sera." Adam turned to Emily, who balked at being the focus of a being so powerful, only to blush as she received gentle head pats from him. "It is good to meet you properly, little Joy Bringer."

Sera smiled as she watched Emily squeal in delight after receiving Adam's attention. "Will you be staying like this for long?"

Adam tilted his head. "For a time. I haven't been myself for far too long. I only hope the others can handle my presence."

"Uhm, Sir?" An Exorcist approached cautiously, "I think I see Jophiel approaching."

Adam simply sighed. "Very well. I'd best go find Eve."

Chapter Text

The Garden of Eden.

The Terrestrial Paradise.

The Birthplace of Humanity.

It was in this utopia of bliss that God first breathed life into Adam, the First Man, and Lilith, the First Woman. Here they would remain safe, giving names to all the living creatures, for He had given them dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over all things that walk upon the earth. It was a task they took to with great joy, exploring the Garden in its entirety, seeking out every secret God had left them as they followed the most important command of all: never eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

For a time, they were happy together, and they were happy with the animals of Eden.

The animals loved Adam, for he was their friend.

They loved Lilith, for she too was their friend.

All the Seraphim knew of their Father's plans, and all looked forward to the day when they would come to fruition.

But one did not.

Lucifer, the Shining One, the Morningstar, was beloved in Heaven by all of God's children, but grew jealous of Adam, seeing him as a threat to his place at God's side. He conspired to hurt Adam, to stop Humanity from ever rising to threaten his place in Heaven. But he knew Adam would not be easy to break.

But Lilith was different.

He went to her and invented lies.

He told her a false version of her place in God's plan.

He deceived her to inflame her pride.

He led her away from the animals that called her a friend.

He led her away from the Angels who loved her.

He led her away from Adam, who loved her deepest of all.

They left Eden, and the Prince of Lies believed he had succeeded.

The animals decided then and there they did not like Lucifer.

They would miss Lilith.

But Adam missed her more.

Until God created Eve.

And Adam was happy again.

The animals still missed Lilith.

But they loved Eve, for she was kind, and made Adam happy again.

Lucifer did not love Eve.

He hated her.

She made Adam happy again. She healed the wounds in his heart left by Lilith's departure.

He needed to do something more.

So he lied again.

To enter Eden.

He took the Fruit.

He lied to Eve.

He offered the Fruit.

She trusted the wrong one.

And Mankind Fell.

The animals hated Lucifer from then on.

Adam left Eden with Eve, and the animals were left alone.

They missed Adam and Eve.

They followed Adam and Eve.

They would not return.

Eden was rebuilt by God.

He restored the animals.

They were thankful. But still, they missed Adam and Eve.

The animals waited for them.

Millenia would pass.

Eve would visit one day.

The animals were overjoyed.

But Adam wasn't with her.

She apologized to the animals.

She said it still hurt him to think of Eden.

The animals understood.

So, they waited for the day it wouldn't hurt to visit.

Until today.

The animals gathered at the center of Eden.

Somehow, they could feel it in their being.

Adam was in danger. He needed help.

Together, they called out to God.

The animals would not abandon their friend.

They would not let him suffer anymore.

And God listened.

Adam looked up at Lucifer from the crater he'd made upon his landing. That arrogant duck fucker was looking down at him, a smug look plastered on his face. As he floated down, however, something unexpected happened.

A ripple in Creation was felt, and seconds later, Lucifer was assaulted mid-air by a flock of birds of prey. Hawks, eagles, and falcons latched onto him, pecking and clawing at him, screeching as they tore at him. Beneath this sudden mass of feathers, beaks, and talons, Lucifer shrieked in pain and surprise. He'd never felt talons piercing his flesh before, but they hurt. A LOT.

They didn't content themselves with just attacking his face. They pecked and tore at his limbs, his chest, and his wings. He tried to swat them away from him. But they were too nimble for him. He summoned fire to blast them away. But they were too fast for him. Soon, the birds of prey were joined by every kind of bird that Adam had named. Except for ducks. They were noticeably absent.

As Luciferr struggled against the mass of birds, Adam pulled himself out of the crater. Every sinner and Exorcist had paused mid-fight to watch the surprising sight of the Devil getting assaulted by a mass of angry avians. But the surprises didn't stop there.

Another ripple in Creation was felt, and out of nowhere a herd of elephants came charging up the hill, followed by lions, tigers, cheetahs, wolves, bears, horses, and every other animal Adam had named.

The elephants swatted at sinners with their trunks, gored them on their tusks, and trampled them beneath their bulk. The big cats tore the sinners to shreds with their claws and crushed their bones with their mighty jaws. The wolves swarmed the sinners and tore the flesh from their bones in a concerted effort. The bears swatted at sinners, sending them tumbling down the hill to be trampled by the growing stampede of animals.

These few sinners who were still alive after being trampled and gored found themselves swarmed by snakes, spiders, scorpions, and an endless swarm of creatures with poison or stingers. Their screams of fear were silenced by the poison soon coursing through their veins.

Eventually, Lucifer fell from the swarm of birds, his wings too tattered and torn to support him in flight anymore. As he struggled to stand, Charlie attempted to run to his side, only to be blocked by a very large, very unhappy group of wolves. Snarling at her, they surrounded her and her friends as the big cats charged at Lucifer. Working together, the large cats bit and clawed at him, knocking him flat on the ground, and battering him around like a chew toy. Until, they latched onto a pair of his wings, and tore them from his back, drawing fresh screams of agony from the fallen Seraphim.

This was the cue for the wolves to attack Lucifer, grabbing onto his arms and legs, tearing them bloody, as the cats took their spot in watching Charlie and the Hazbins. Lucifer screamed in anger and pain as he tried to kick and punch the wolves away, but they only redoubled their efforts, with one ambitious wolf tearing at his crotch, drawing a high-pitched scream from him. Soon the bears joined in, helping the wolves tear off another pair of wings before the bears swatted him away.

The snakes took their turn. Every venomous snake latched themselves on the Serpent, injecting their venom into his body as punishment for assuming their form. Every constrictor worked together to crush his bones, while the remainder simply bit at what they could. The scorpions, spiders, and other stinging creatures took their turns until the Devil had more venom in his body than blood. He stumbled about, delirious and hallucinating, until the hoofed creatures took their turn, kicking him between them like a kickball mid-game. His pain was amplified by the venom coursing through his body, his mind kept from formulating a defence by the visions gripping his fevered brain.

Every animal in Creation took their turn in avenging themselves and their friend upon the one who ruined everything. Until, with the last of his wings torn off and consumed by the crocodiles, the elephants reached him. They had waited patiently for the others to finish, and now it was their turn.

The lead elephant grabbed Lucifer by his broken and bloody legs with his trunk, lifting him into the air as he slammed him down on the ground. Over and over he did this, drawing screams and groans from the Archtraitor before tossing him towards another elephant. One by one, the elephants repeated this process until Lucifer was a bloody lump of broken bones and torn flesh. With a bellowing trumpet, the lead elephant took Lucifer in his trunk again, and with a mighty sound, threw him off the hilltop.

The animals roared their victory, as the Exorcists gave a cheer. As they did, Charlie watched with a confused expression. All she could think was a simple question: What the fuck just happened!? Ironically, Adam was thinking the same thing, until the lead elephant approached him, and he recognized who it was immediately.

"Hathi..."

The elephant made a rumbling sound in response.

"Of course, I remember. I could never forget a friend from Eden." Adam looked down, feeling ashamed. "I haven't been a good friend, have I?"

Hathi placed his trunk on Adam's shoulder.

"Heh. Thank you. All of you." Adam spoke to the animals, many of whom were gathering around him as the rest helped the Exorcists recover the fallen. "I'll be better. That's a promise."

Hathi wrapped his trunk around Adam, lifting him onto his back. As suddenly as they arrived, the animals disappeared with Adam and the Exorcists, dead or alive, leaving Charlie and the Hazbins alone, staring at where the animals had been standing.

"OK, I'm just gonna say it. The FUCK just happened!?" Husk broke the silence, his confusion apparent to everyone.

"Did... did we get our asses handed to us by Heaven's Zoo?" Angel mirrored Husk's confusion.

"Eden... Adam said they were from Eden..." Charlie couldn't hide the shock and awe in her voice. She was shocked to imagine- anyone really- coming to Adam's rescue. But the fact they came from Eden of all places... it left her with more questions than answers. She'd have to ask- "FUCK! Where's my dad!?"

Lucifer didn't know how long he lay in the dirt. The last thing he remembered was getting tossed about like one of Charlie's ragdolls. Although, in Charlie's defence, she'd never been as rough with her toys as Lucifer felt. He wasn't even sure who had thrown him about. Everything between now and his fight with Adam is... fuzzy, to say the least.

As he tried sitting up, he fell back. His body was too weak for him to do anything beyond-

Quack.

That got Lucifer's attention. With considerably more effort, he forced himself to sit up, despite his body screaming in protest. As he did so, he realized with a shock, there was a large group of ducks standing in front of him.

Quack. Quack quack.

There were hundreds of them, from every species of duck he could think of. Some of them he wasn't even sure he knew, but he recognized them as ducks all the same.

Quack quack quack quack quack quack.

"Oh, hello duckies. Did you come to help me?"

The ducks all paused in their quacking before a majestic-looking mallard waddled forward. Lucifer smiled at the sight as it stared back at him.

QUACK QUACK!

"NOOOOOO!" Lucifer screamed with anguish as the ducks attacked. "THE DUCKIES HAVE BETRAYED ME!!!! WHY DUCKIES, WHYYYY-HY-HYYYYY!?!?!?"

Chapter Text

"By his hand, all things were made. Even...you."

The Slayer opened his eyes with a start, to find himself in an unfamiliar room. It was mostly white, with gold trim along the walls, and a window to let in light. His eyes followed the stream of light and he saw his armour on a stand across from where he was laying. Sitting up, he realized he was sitting on an extremely comfortable bed with soft blankets, wearing similarly white robes with gold trim.

A reminder of the life he lost thanks to Hell.

"Ah, you're awake."

Turning to the new voice, he found himself looking at a man with golden eyes and a goatee. He looked human enough... except for the giant golden wings coming out of his back. He was wearing heavy robes with a large 'A' emblazoned on the front, and on the table next to him was a black helmet with horns. His first thought would be this was some kind of Maykr, except for the lack of cybernetic enhancements. Even the Khan Maykr's 'wings' were artificial enhancements. These wings looked natural. Mostly.

"I know what you're thinking, big guy, and the answer is no, I'm not a Maykr." The figure shook his head. "In fact, there are no Maykr's in this universe."

The Slayer raised an eyebrow.

"Well, let me explain. You're in Heaven, the afterlife created by Yahweh and the angels for the good and righteous people. Yahweh is the Creator of this Universe, except unlike Davoth, when he was betrayed, it was by one angel, Lucifer, and he got kicked down to Hell as punishment. When you killed Davoth, the power that was sustaining you failed, and you were about to fall into some kind of hibernation, but a portal opened beneath you, and you fell into Heaven, in our universe."

The Slayer rose from the bed, glaring at the man in front of him.

"Yeah, dick move to go through your memories, I get it. But we needed to figure out what to expect from you, or even where you came from. All we knew was you're a very powerful being and that kind of freaked out the Seraphim. The upside, of course, is that now we know of your history with demons, nobody in Heaven considers you an enemy. And that's part of why I'm here."

The man leaned forward, a familiar look in his eyes. It was one the Slayer had seen before, in the Night Sentinels, and himself. The eyes of a warrior, one who had faced the horrors of the abyss more times than he could likely count.

"My name is Adam, the First Man and Father of Humanity. Like your universe, our Hell is a problem, and it has endangered humanity before, with sinners and hellborn demons assaulting Earth multiple times in the past. We beat them back before, but at great cost. And because of... a questionable sense of mercy among Heaven's leadership, a treaty was negotiated with Hell's leadership. Nothing like the shit the Maykr's pulled, OK?"

Adam raised his hands placatingly, temporarily subduing the Slayer's rage.

"I command a force of angels called the Exorcists. Once a year, we descend on Hell and conduct an Extermination, a hunt for as many sinners as we can purge in a single day. Only hellborn demons are off-limits to us. And I want you to join us."

The Slayer cocked his head.

"Well, sort of. The Exterminations are supposed to be kept secret, don't ask, it's a stupid reason. The thing is, nobody in Heaven believes the Treaty is going to last. But it gave us time to repair the damage done by Hell. And more importantly, Lucifer is a prideful dumbass. Sooner or later, he's going to get a big head and pull some stupid stunt that breaks the Treaty. When that happens, Heaven is supposed to send the Heavenly Host down into Hell. However, my boss is... well, she's a bit too willing to show restraint when it's the last thing we need. And I don't want to leave my girl's safety up to chance when it comes to that duck-fucker.

"So, here's the deal. The angels want you to stay in Heaven. After seeing everything you went through, they say you earned it, and I agree. But, I'd like to give you this." Adam held up a golden disk, no bigger than a belt buckle. "A device you can attach to your armour. It'll allow me to communicate with you and, when Lucifer breaks the Treaty, you'll be ready to land in Hell and rip him a new asshole. Even better, when that happens, you'll have full access to Heaven's armouries, including the 'Don't fuck with this' armoury."

Adam leaned back, looking at the Slayer with expectant eyes. He'd seen the Slayer's memories, and he knew what to expect from him. He wasn't counting on the Slayer accepting, but he knew the Slayer would take any opportunity to slaughter the demons of Hell, even one he was unfamiliar with. His hatred of them was probably stronger than his own, or even Michael's. But unlike both of them, he wasn't exactly bound by Heavenly rules, so nothing was stopping him from finding a way to Hell and going to town on the fucks if he said no.

But he wasn't lying in that talk. If the Treaty was broken, Sera was supposed to send Michael and the Heavenly Host to deal with Lucifer, but she had a track record of stopping Michael from taking decisive action when it was needed. The fact Lucifer even still breathes after all the shit he's pulled is proof enough of that. He didn't mind setting the Slayer loose on Hell right then and there, but he wanted to know he had a ringer that wasn't going to be restrained.

The Slayer, meanwhile, thought over Adam's offer. It was tempting to accept, but also to refuse. He wanted to get back in action immediately. If demons were also threatening humanity in this universe, then the relentless monsters needed to be eradicated. This annual Extermination was a temporary measure at best, and the rest of Heaven recognized it. Still, the offer of new weapons wasn't to be sneezed at...

"Adam, might I have a word with you?"

Adam sighed in resignation. He knew this was coming, just not now.

"Yo, Head-Fluff. What's up?"

"I'd like to talk to you about Heaven's recent... arrival."

Adam smirked. "Oh, you mean William? What about him?"

"How has he adapted to his situation? Have there been any concerns since his arrival?"

"Sera, relax. The guy's about as subtle as a nuclear-powered lighthouse. If he was interested in hurting anyone in Heaven, we'd know about it by now."

Sera sighed. "I know, Adam. But you saw his memories as well. Never mind the demons of his Hell, what those Maykrs did..."

"Yeah, I know. An entire species with the most advanced technology imaginable and Lucifer's pride and scruples. It's one fucked up combination. At the very least the Maykrs' leadership has been decimated. Whatever comes next for that universe, I doubt it'll be dictated by those floating fucktoys."

"Still, the potential for the Maykrs to arrive in our universe is a concern for all of us. Given the lengths they went to for Argent Energy, I can't help but worry their ravenous appetites will bring them into our universe. Hell is already enough of a problem without Argent Energy."

"I'll have a word with Michael about that, and see what he thinks about the possibility. Personally, kinda fucking doubt it. Assuming the Maykrs won't die off after the invasion of Urdak and losing the Khan Maykr, whatever cluster-fuck they call 'leadership' that remains is probably gonna make it a point to avoid that shit like it's the fucking plague."

"I hope you're right, Adam. For all our sakes." Sera had a grim look on her face as she finished.

"Time will tell, Sera. Time will tell." There was a change in Adam's voice, carrying the weight of his vast experience. Until he looked at Sera with a cheeky grin. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go get freaky with Lute on a private beach. Feel free to join in for the ride."

Adam took off with a cackle before Sera could reprimand him. Shaking her head in exasperation, she decided to go for a walk to clear her head. Opening a portal out of her office, she began walking down one of Heaven's streets, where she came upon an odd sight. It was the topic of her prior discussion, the Doom Slayer, walking towards an ice cream parlour. The strange thing was, he was letting a very familiar angel ride on his shoulders. An angel who smiled with glee at seeing Sera.

"Hi, Sera!" She called out with a wave.

Sera waved back. "Hello, Emily. Hello... William."

The Slayer nodded.

"We're going to get some ice cream! I'm helping William find his favourite flavour today! Wanna join us?"

Sera looked at Emily and the Slayer and marvelled at the absurdity of it all. The Slayer was a juggernaut of violence and destruction. He had slaughtered entire armies of demons, shattered their twisted cities, and ground their malevolent masters into oblivion. He was capable of a measure of violence she, at one point, didn't even believe was possible. And here he was, carrying the Joy Bringer, his polar opposite, on his shoulders, as they go get ice cream. Taking Adam's words under advisement, she looked at them with a smile.

"That sounds nice, actually. I'm in the mood for some mint chocolate chip."

The Slayer was no stranger to unexpected situations. His entire life could be summed up as one big 'WTF' moment ever since he first began fighting the demons when a routine mission turned into him fighting to hold back a demonic invasion, so many years ago. Losing his family, especially Daisy, to those monsters just reinforced the need to hunt down those abominations, and when he chose to remain behind in Hell, he fully expected it to be his tomb.

Instead, he ends up gaining the Praetor Suit, ends up joining a medievalesque space-faring civilization, one that would later be betrayed by their 'gods' and later imprisoned in a sarcophagus for centuries until he was awakened to fight off ANOTHER demonic invasion, and finally faced the creator of his universe and kicking his ass.

Now he was in an entirely different universe, one with a legitimate Heaven, and he had made friends with Emily, the youngest of the Seraphim, also called the Joy Bringer.

Said Joy Bringer was also very sad at the moment.

It seemed she had been kept in the dark about the Exterminations all her life, at the order of her big sister Sera. Kinda hard to fault her for wanting to avoid the topic. Not exactly the sort of thing most would enjoy talking about. But she should have told Emily at some point. It would have made the trial with Lucifer's daughter, this universe's actual Anti-Christ, less awkward when Adam let slip the secret in front of Emily.

After the trial, she'd spent more and more time with him, as much of Heaven began rejecting her for supporting Lucifer's daughter. He knew it had nothing to do with malice, but rather ignorance. She was a kind and gentle soul who only wanted to help people find happiness in eternity. She had no idea the kind of cruelty demons were capable of, regardless of their origins.

So he resolved to teach her himself.

Most didn't realize it, but the helmet of his Praetor suit contained a sophisticated recording device, allowing it to replay events the Slayer had witnessed firsthand. It is a handy feature when prepping battle plans for facing demons. Not that he'd had to do that in a long while, his brute strength more than suffice for most enemies, but there's no such thing as being 'too prepared' or 'overkill.' There's dead, and there's alive. He was alive, and every demon he'd faced wasn't. That wasn't going to change any time soon.

So he put it to use. What the helmet recorded, he allowed her to see. What it didn't show, he wrote out to explain. His life before the demonic invasions. The never-ending crusade he spent years fighting, until he arrived on Argent D'Nur, and joined the Night Sentinels. The betrayal. Everything that was connected to Hell, even in a small way.

By the end, to say Emily was horrified would be a tragic understatement. The Slayer couldn't find the words to describe the absolute state of shock Emily was in after learning everything about his past. As she slowly calmed down, thanks to a steady supply of cotton candy ice cream and head pats, Emily was forced to shift her perspective on Hell. She still believed in the idea of redemption and wanted to support Charlie in her efforts.

But then the Extermination began, and that all went down the drain.

Emily had been planning on sitting with Sera during this Extermination. Instead, she decided to spend it with William. Partly because she was still a little upset over being kept in the dark about the Exterminations. But more importantly, she had to see it for herself. William had access to a device that broadcast the Extermination in his home. That was why she was here. She had to know what Adam and the Exorcists would do this time. She still believed in redemption, at least for those who wanted to redeem themselves, and wanted to support Charlie's dreams. But what she saw changed that.

Charlie, who had spoken so much of redeeming sinners, had raised an army of cannibals, and they were slaughtering the Exorcists en masse. Even worse, some of the Exorcists were being eaten alive! It horrified Emily to see, making her wonder if Charlie was ever genuine. Was that whole speech... just an act? It hurt her to imagine that she had spoken against the angels who had loved her and treated her with nothing but warmth and kindness, all because of a lie.

Then Lucifer arrived, and Emily was ready to try and find Michael. Adam needed reinforcements! But she was stopped by a strong, but gentle hand, on her shoulder. Turning around, she looked at William, fully armoured, as he knelt to her level.

"Rip...?"

Emily blinked in shock. She'd never heard him speak since his arrival in Heaven. And he said... Rip... There was one thing she knew he wanted her to say... and she agreed, looking at him with a maniacal gleam in her eyes.

"AND TEAR!"

The Battle of the Hazbin Hotel had just taken a turn for the worse for the Exorcists. Lucifer, the Sin of Pride, and King of Hell, had arrived and was locked in combat with Adam. But the fight was disrupted by another new arrival. From the portal to Heaven, an object shot at high speed, crashing into the Hotel with such force that the already decaying structure collapsed as its walls shattered down to the foundation. As Vaggie carried Charlie to the ground, regrouping with the other Hazbins, they and the cannibals turned to the ruined Hotel to see the new arrival as the Exorcists took to the air, maniacal grins on their faces.

As the smoke cleared, they saw a figure standing amidst the rubble. He was clad in futuristic green armour, like a space marine, including a helmet that obscured the wearer's face, but did nothing to disguise the rage he beheld the sinners with. Every sinner flinched at his gaze, and many more were overcome with a feeling of absolute terror. Whoever, or whatever, this new arrival was, he was powerful beyond any of them could possibly imagine.

Even Lucifer felt uneasy by the arrival of this... human. But that unease was quickly buried beneath a sense of amused contempt for the desperation Adam must have felt to summon a waste of dust rather than a proper angel. But before he could remark on how low Adam must have sunk in Sera's view, he felt a pair of claws latch onto his torso... and a second later he was set alight with golden flames.

As he screamed from the pain caused by the holy fire, he failed to notice the human using the shotgun pull himself towards Lucifer at a frightening speed. Before he even realized it, the human was in his face, unbothered by the flames and ignoring Lucifer's panicked screams.

BOOM!!

The twin barrels blasted Lucifer at point-blank range, sending him streaking through the sky to crash without ceremony or grace into the ground. Turning his attention to the Hazbins, he produced from seemingly nowhere, a large, two-handed war hammer that glowed with heavenly power.

"OH SHIT! MOVE!" Vaggie recognized it for what it was, and grabbed Charlie, flying towards the cannibals as quickly as she could.

"Vaggie! What's-" Charlie, startled by Vaggie's panic, tried to ask her girlfriend what was so frightening to her, when she heard it.

THOOOM!!!

A massive explosion of heavenly energy blasted from where the human landed, striking the ground with all his strength. The resulting explosion fully enveloped the top of the hill, including the Hotel ruins, Cherri Bomb, and a trio of cannibals that had been located too close. Angel Dust, Husk, and the sinners who managed to put some distance between themselves and the landing zone were thrown back by the force of the explosion, and as the light dimmed, it revealed the human standing in a newly formed crater, as Nifty's mangled carcass fell in bits and pieces from the weapon.

"Fuck ups of Hell, allow me to introduce Heaven's newest recruit: The Doom Slayer," Adam called out, dramatically, as he hovered above the crater.

"W-what the fuck was-???" Charlie was stunned at the destruction on display.

"The Hammer of Vulcan. One of Heaven's more destructive personal weapons." Vaggie answered, before glaring at Adam. "According to the treaty, that's off limits to the Exorcists."

Adam smirked at Vaggie from above. "One, he's not an Exorcist. Two, the treaty was broken the moment Lucifer arrived. Three, go fuck yourself."

The Slayer, uninterested in the bickering between Adam and Vaggie, stowed away his Hammer and summoned the Reaper, a multi-barrelled machine gun with a firing rate of over 8,000 rounds per minute. Without hesitation, he aimed it directly at the mass of demons and opened fire, sending angelic rounds into them at 6,000 feet per second. Vaggie threw herself and Charlie to the ground the moment she saw the fearsome weapon, barely avoiding the bullets that tore through the sinners without mercy.

The sinners immediately opened fire as they made for cover, hoping to survive long enough to escape the insane juggernaut. To their shock and horror, their bullets bounced off his armour and his exposed skin harmlessly. Moving with a speed that should be impossible for someone carrying a weapon that big, he began moving across the hill to get a better vantage while Vaggie led Charlie in a crawl for cover. Angel, seeing no other option, used all six arms to fire his Tommy guns at the Slayer, hoping to overwhelm him with firepower. The Slayer cut him in half with the Reaper's bullets.

"RRRAAAGGGHHH!!!!"

With a roar of hatred and pain-fuelled rage, Lucifer charged at the Slayer from seemingly nowhere, his skin still carrying the burns from holy fire. Slamming into the Slayer, he pushed him back a few feet before the Slayer dug his heels in. Undeterred, Lucifer began striking at the Slayer with hands that had morphed into demonic claws.

"YOU FILTHY MONKEY!!!"

His claws became enveloped in demonic energy.

"HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME!!!"

He continued to strike at the Slayer, his attacks building in speed and ferocity with every second.

"I AM GOING TO FUCK YOU!!!"

Thud!

The sinners, and Lucifer, watched in stunned horror as the Slayer caught Lucifer's fist in his left hand.

"Gay."

At the Slayer's word, his Doomblade extended from his wrist, impaling Lucifer's right eye on it. The Sin of Pride, overwhelmed by the pain, stumbled backwards, causing his eye to be pulled from its socket as the Doomblade retracted. Seizing the moment, the Slayer dashed forward, delivering a brutal Blood Punch, sending him flying backwards, above the mangled sinner corpses, and into one of the buildings across from the Hotel.

"DAD!" Charlie screamed in shock and fear as the buildings collapsed, prompting her to chase after him, with an equal part panicking and frustrated Vaggie right behind her.

As Lucifer became properly acquainted with the dirt, the Slayer summoned the biggest of his new toys. It was a large, shoulder-mounted weapon, with an ominous glow emanating from the weapon's tube. Aiming in the general direction of the Devil, the Slayer began charging the weapon, causing a large amount of energy to begin building in the muzzle. Adam, seeing the Slayer had taken him up on his offer, immediately called out to the Exorcists.

"FALL BACK TO HEAVEN! NOW!"

The Exorcists, without a word of dispute, immediately made straight for the portal, while Vaggie, standing next to Charlie and the broken body of Lucifer, turned to see what the Slayer had pulled out this time. Her heart dropped when she saw the telltale glow.

"Vaggie?" Charlie, looking up at her girlfriend, noticed her silence. "Vaggie, what is that?"

Vaggie looked at Charlie, then at Lucifer, before looking back at the Slayer.

"Supernova."

Three days had passed since the second Extermination. Three days since the Slayer descended on Hell to assist Adam and the Exorcists against Lucifer and the cannibals.

Three days since the destruction of Pride.

The Supernova, Heaven's attempt at creating the ultimate weapon, had proven itself worthy of its namesake. The angelic energy within the weapon enabled it to release a potent charge with the destructive power of a 100-megaton bomb. The blast had been so massive the entirety of Pentagram City was obliterated, with only Heaven's Embassy remaining standing, protected as it was from outside threats.

Every city in Pride felt the effects of the Supernova, either being caught in the initial blast or feeling the shockwaves in the aftermath. But the real destruction came after, with the very ground itself crumbling under the weight of Supernova's destructive power. The shockwaves damaged the already weakened Ring to such a degree that less than 12 hours later, the Ring simply collapsed, with every soul in Pride falling into the Ring below. Rubble, debris, and Sinners rained on Wrath, leaving untold devastation in their wake.

All the while, the Heavenly Embassy simply floated there, untouched by Supernova, unconcerned with the carnage the Slayer had wrought.

In the aftermath, Heaven decided on a new plan to contain Hell.

The Embassy was repurposed into a fortress, one that would be used to monitor the remaining Rings of Hell. Within it, one warrior would dwell, a silent warden from Heaven, one who would remind the demons of Hell of the consequences of endangering humans.

The sole survivor of the Supernova, the Slayer was back at what he does best. Only this time... "William! I brought cotton candy ice cream!" ...he had a friend. Sitting across from the Joy Bringer, the Slayer freely acknowledged something that hadn't been true since his first encounter with demons.

Life was good.

Chapter Text

...............

"...systems are failing!"

"By the Omnisiah..."

............

"...are you supposed..."

"...the Illuminati..."

.........

"...running out of..."

"...the Ruinous Powers..."

......

"...the Sensei..."

"A final sacrifice..."

...

"Emperor have mercy on us all..."

Where am I?

"It's working!"

What... what is going on?

"You're certain?"

Wait... I remember...

"I don't know how to explain it... but he's coming back!"

The Imperium... Horus and his brothers... and... my third death...

I have to fix this...

I WILL fix this.

"What... what's going on!?"

That Duck Fucker will PAY for everything he unleashed!

"Holy Terra... he's warping time itself!"

HOLD ON TO YOUR TITS LUTE!

"He's going back!"

THE DICKMASTER'S COMING HOME!

Charlie blinked in shock, as she looked up into the face of her father, Lucifer, smiling down at her as he held her in his arms.

"Dad?"

"I'm sorry I'm late-"

Whatever Lucifer was about to say was cut off by the sudden light emanating from inside the Hotel, where Adam had been sent crashing through the roof. But that wasn't what concerned Lucifer. It was the sheer power radiating from the light. Even on the roof, he could feel the holy energy within this aura, making him wonder what Adam had snuck down from Heaven. Because there was no way that waste of dust could be capable of-

An explosion tore through the Hotel, destroying the building down to the foundation. Startled by this sudden surge of energy, Lucifer landed just before the cannibals, some distance from the Hotel, and watched the scene with awe. Like the Earth's Sun, a massive ball of holy energy was floating in the air, its power surging outwards as tendrils of holy fire scorched the landscape and disintegrated the occasional sinner.

Everyone, from the Exorcists to the sinners watching at home, stopped whatever they were doing to watch. Even Vaggie and Lute, having just been locked in combat, stopped their fighting to stare at the ball of holy fire. But Vaggie, like the sinners, was forced to step back from the sheer power radiating from this ball of fire. The cannibals felt something painful, while Vaggie felt a deep discomfort from the ball. None felt its effects more than Lucifer. His skin felt like it was being pierced with knives as his blood boiled in his veins. But more than that, it was a bitter reminder of his life before the Fall, when he had created the stars themselves.

He didn't have time to process what that meant because the ball began to contract, revealing a figure hidden within the flames—a towering figure easily as tall as Sera, if not more so. As it took on the shape of a man, it dropped to the ground, landing on his knees with a resounding Thoom! 

As he stood, the angels and demons alike watched in rapt fascination as the figure sprouted twenty wings from his back—twenty, glorious, golden wings.

'No' Lucifer thought. 'There's no way... it CAN'T be...'

The figure flexed his muscles as he stretched his shoulders. "It's funny, isn't it?"

Lucifer's heart sank as he heard a very familiar voice. One laced with an unfamiliar power.

"You ruined all of Creation with that stunt you pulled back in Eden, and spent 10,000 years either congratulating yourself for all the pain you've caused or painting yourself as a misunderstood hero. I spent the same amount of time trying to fix the damage you caused, but only now do I obtain what I've been missing for so long. Completion."

The figure looked back over his shoulder.

"Rather amusing, wouldn't you say, Lucifraud?"

"T-th-this is impossible..." Lucifer breathed, disbelief filling his voice. This kind of power was beyond his own, Sera's, and even Michael's... and it was in the hands of this talking ape!

"S-Sir?" Lute asked, hope and awe filling her voice.

"It's me, Dangertits," Adam smirked as he turned to face Lute. In all his natural glory. "And we are breaking every bed in Heaven when we're done here."

Lute blushed bright golden as she heard his words... and grinned like a giddy schoolgirl when she saw every part of his new, upgraded body. He'd always been muscular, a product of his life on a primordial Earth, but now he was a towering juggernaut, with a body that reminded her of his Greek descendants, and their sculptures of the Olympian gods. Except he looked like he could break even Hercules with his bare hands. And what he possessed below the waist... she would be very happy when they got home.

A sentiment shared by the females present, as not only the Exorcists, but the female cannibals, Angel Dust, Cherri Bomb, Nifty, and even the Princess were blushing brightly, or flat-out drooling, at the sight of the First Man. A fact Lucifer realized belatedly, as he rushed to cover his daughter's eyes.

"FOR FUCK'S SAKE, ADAM! COVER YOURSELF!" Lucifer screamed at Adam, covering Charlie's eyes while trying not to look at his... thing.

Adam chuckled in response. "Why though? There's nothing to be ashamed of. The human body, especially as your siblings meant it to be, is beautiful. In fact," Adam smirked as he watched Lucifer and Charlie, "I do believe your daughter is trying to get a peek. This, Charlie, is what Humanity was meant to be, were it not for the meddling of your pissant of a father."

"OH FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE!" Lucifer's demonic side flared up, even as he tried to keep Charlie from having to see Adam.

Adam, meanwhile, chuckled at Lucifer's outburst. "Not even in your dizziest daydreams, Lucy. Was I not clear back in Eden I wasn't going to fuck you? 'Mother of Humanity' was never going to be your title."

"WAIT, WHAT!?" Charlie startled everyone with her outburst and twisted even in her father's hands to face him. "Dad, did you-!?"

Lucifer sputtered out a denial, entertaining Adam to no end as he watched the back and forth between the Duck Fucker and his idiot daughter. This battle, he remembered its outcome quite clearly. He had gotten careless when Lucifer showed up, and of course, despite the Treaty being broken, Sera didn't send Michael and the Heavenly Host. Too busy fretting over Emily's fragile emotions to care about a massacre happening on her watch. In the meantime, he died in this infernal pit, only to be reborn back on Earth.

For a time, he lived as any other child, oblivious to his origins. He had a mother. He had a father. He had siblings. He had relatives. He was carefree and innocent. Until he saw his uncle murder his father. And seeing that crime... it brought Adam's memories back. He remembered his first life, his first death, his time in Heaven, and his second death. And it awakened his powers.

Stopping his uncle's heart with a thought, the young Neoth, remembering his true name and purpose, left home. He knew what was waiting for Humanity in the darkness. He knew how hamstrung Heaven had become, how they were held back by rules and regulations they knew Hell and the Hellborn weren't following. That same uncle, condemned to Hell for his crimes, hired a trio of Hellborn to assassinate him, the same trio responsible for the deaths of multiple humans destined for Heaven. And Heaven did nothing to restrict them or punish this flagrant violation of the Treaty.

But he was no longer an angel. Which meant nothing stopped him from reducing those Hellborn to paste. That Asmodean Crystal they carried explained how they were getting to and from Earth, something he'd deal with this time around, but more to the point, a Sin was helping in the murder of humans and NOBODY was stopping it.

It did come in handy though. Travelling to Hell afterwards, he kept watch on the sinners and the hellborn, allowing him to prepare defences for humanity back on Earth as the decades progressed. How ironic, the princess got her dream of stopping the Exterminations, and Hell became infinitely worse. He wouldn't learn until much later, but Sir Pentious was the only sinner to be redeemed, even after a century of promoting her joke of a Hotel. Tempting as it was to say 'I told you so' he left her to her grief. Especially after what happened to Vaggie.

Slaughtering her former sisters-in-arms, and feeding their remains to cannibals, had cemented Vaggie's fall as inevitable. The dewinging wasn't her Fall, it was the reminder actions have consequences. She spared a pedophile sinner, and the consequence was to live with the sinners of Hell until she found and Exterminated him. Joining with Charlie, and helping slaughter angels... that removed any chance of her returning to Heaven. She Fell, truly Fell, and became as terrible as the sinners she had once hunted. Putting her down was an act of mercy, yet even in death, she still blamed everyone but herself for her fate.

Seeing her like this, brought an unpleasant truth to the front of his mind. She was the daughter Lucifer wanted. Far more than Charlie ever was.

Still, he could reminisce later. He had work to do.

"Ok, everyone," Adam's voice drew everyone's attention, "Tempting as it is to watch this little family reunion continue to go off the rails, I have things to do, and bitches to bone." Adam paused to wink at Lute. "So, Lucy, here's the deal. Take your daughter, and if she insists, take her Hotel friends as well. Go back to your palace, and stay there. The Exorcists and I will carry out our duties, and you get to pretend you're an attentive father. I think that's fair."

Lucifer puffed up at Adam's words. Despite the fear in his heart, he wasn't going to let that waste of dust dictate terms to him!

"And why the FUCK would I do that!? In case you've forgotten, you're in MY HOUSE BITCH!" Lucifer's demonic fire flared, a piss-poor attempt at intimidation.

Cracking his knuckles, Adam grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that, Lucy."

With a snarl, Lucifer launched himself at Adam, claws extended, ready to tear into his flesh and rip him limb from limb... only for Adam to backhand him with such force he flew at break-neck speed to his palace, crashing into it violently. Charlie looked at the disappearing figure of her dad, before turning to look at Adam with horror.

"Well, that was disappointing. For all his talk of being a 'higher being,' I expected him to put up more of a fight."

Adam's musing was interrupted by the blurred form of Lucifer punching Adam in the face... and having no effect.

"I mean, really," Adam continued, ignoring Lucifer entirely, "Even back in Eden, the condescending bastard wouldn't shut up about it. How he was so much more than Lilith and I, telling us stories of the creation of the stars."

Lucifer began punching at Adam with startling speed, imbuing his fists with demonic energy, but it made no difference. A child would have better luck punching through a brick wall. Every failed attack only served to fuel Lucifer's rage as his pride was wounded further.

"Seriously, it's a wonder Lilith put up with him for as long as she did. It's kind of a miracle she stuck around long enough to have you."

"WHY! WON'T! YOU! DIE!"

Adam turned to look at Lucifer, an unimpressed look on his face. "You never learn, do you?"

With terrifying speed, Adam delivered a swift uppercut to Lucifer, sending him high into the sky. Raising his hand, he unleashed a beam of angelic power, of such intensity the sinners recoiled at its mere presence. None of this mattered to Lucifer, who felt his body being torn apart by the beam. A brief moment, where he let out a final scream of agony, and then there was nothing. Lucifer, after thousands of years, was finally dead.

Charlie, horrified by Adam's newfound power, turned to look at him, as a golden flame passed over his body. To her shock, the flame was covering his body in a golden armour, adorned with eagles. With his body now fully armoured, Adam turned to Charlie, causing her to flinch. On an impulse, she readied her trident to defend herself.

"S-stay back..."

"Oh relax, Princess. If I was going to kill you I'd have done it the moment we arrived. No, instead I'm going to remind you of something very important."

"Wh-what?"

"The pecking order."

With frightening speed, Adam grabbed Charlie by the shoulder and lifted her to eye level. As he was about to say something, he noticed out of the corner of his eye, Vaggie leaping at him, her spear at the ready. With all her strength, she thrust it at Adam's face, hoping to pierce his flesh and get him to drop Charlie... only for the blade to break against him. As she stared at the broken spear in shock, Adam used his free hand to grab her by the throat, lifting her struggling form to eye level.

"OK, if you can explain how you thought that was a good idea, Vagasaurus, I might just let you go."

"F-Fuck you...!"

"Well said, but I don't have time for your bullshit." Channelling his power into the hand holding Vaggie, the angelic energy surged into her. With her recent actions causing her to fall ever further from Heaven, the energy no longer healed her. Instead, it purged her from existence, leaving nothing behind as she vanished with a scream in a burst of golden light.

"VAGGIE!" Charlie screamed in shock and horror at seeing her girlfriend disappear in a flash, but her attention was diverted back to Adam.

"Pay close attention, Princess, because I'm not in the mood to repeat myself. This little stunt you pulled might have made you feel good, but between it and your father's recent actions, the Treaty has been broken. All of Hell is open to the Exorcists, and the Hellborn are no longer exempt from Extermination."

Somehow, Charlie's already wide-open eyes became wider. It never occurred to her that Heaven had been going easy on Hell.

"So, here's the way it's going to work. The Exorcists and I are going to carry out the Extermination. YOU, and your Hotel of fuck-ups, are going to stay out of the way, or after purging the Pride Ring we move on to the rest of Hell, exterminating the Hellborn in their entirety." Adam leaned in close, golden eyes boring into Charlie's soul. "Don't push me on this, Princess. There is more at stake than you can imagine."

Dropping the Princess, Adam stepped past her to glare at the cannibals that remained. Carrion feeders that devoured their own. Animals wearing human skin, masquerading as civilized beings. There would be no mercy for these wretches.

Extending a hand, a torrent of golden flames bursts forth, sweeping the hillside in its entirety. Every cannibal that remained was consumed by the holy flames, leaving nothing but ash in its wake. There would be nothing for these cretins to feast upon, even if he intended to allow any to survive.

Taking to the sky with the Exorcists, he beheld the whole of Pentagram City, and beyond, the Pride Ring. So many sinners to purge, and yet, with the Treaty broken, they had all the time in the world. Focusing his power on his hand, he concentrated on creating a new weapon. He was tempted to summon his guitar axe, but right now, he missed a weapon he had wielded for centuries as he campaigned across the galaxy with the Primarchs.

And it formed for him. An imitation, not quite as potent as it was when he forged it in the future that will not be, but it was here. The Emperor's Sword. A giant, flame-covered blade, infused with his immense power. Yes, with this in hand, and Lute beside him, there was no stopping the Extermination this time.

"No demon within this Ring, be they Sinner or Hellborn, is beyond our reach, ladies. And this time, there is no Treaty protecting them, or confining us to a single day." He could feel the excitement in their souls. For so long, the Hellborn had been beyond their reach, many of whom had a part in the suffering Hell promoted, both here and on Earth. Even better, with no time limit imposed on them, they were the ones to decide when the hunt ended.

"Your new orders are this: Cleanse the Ring of Pride! Purge it of Sinners! Kill every Hellborn you can find!"

The Exorcists gave a great cheer at this.

"Begin with Pentagram City, then we move to the rest of Pride. Let the Great Extermination begin!"

A roar of furious glee rose from the Exorcists, and they took off to fulfill his orders. Adam, with Lute by his side, focused first on that infernal factory, where a certain Overlord was dwelling with her daughters. She would be the first to fall. Then Cannibal Town, the vulture's biggest nesting ground.

After that, the rest of Pride.

And after that... well, he'd return to Heaven and plan his next move. His children would need to be prepared for what was coming. Despite his hatred of being worshipped in the way he was, one thing the Ecclesiarchy got right was their favourite phrase.

The Emperor Protects.

Chapter Text

"Remember Moxxie, we only have one shot at this." Blitz stared through his binoculars at the battle ahead of them. The Hazbin Hotel, Princess Charlie's hotel for redeeming sinners, was the primary target of the Exorcists, who were under the command of the Lord Exorcist himself.

"Understood, sir." Moxxie voiced his agreement, never once taking his eye away from the scope of his new rifle. Behind him, Millie held a small radio to communicate with Loona, currently seated far away from the trio of imps.

They were situated on one of the taller buildings on the opposite end of Pentagram City, far enough away from the combat that they weren't worried about stray bullets. But as they sat and waited, they thought about what brought them to this moment.

"OW!" Blitz hit the ground with all the lack of ceremony he was capable of, his face planting hard on the stone floor. "WHAT THE FUCK!?"

"Sir, is that you?" Moxxie's voice cut through the darkness of their surroundings. It carried a strong undercurrent of unease, eerily reminding Blitz of when they first met Crimson in the Greed Ring.

"Moxxie? Where the FUCK are we?? And where's Millie?"

"Right here, Blitz," Millie spoke up, her voice strong and sure. She'd been in worse situations than this. Or so she told herself.

"OK, good. Now-"

Blitz was cut off by the sudden burst of light, illuminating their surroundings. The suddenness of it temporarily blinded Blitz, forcing him to cover his eyes. But when he opened them, he was shocked by the sight of Loona, back against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest. Her ears were pressed hard against her head, while her eyes were practically bulging out of her skull. Blitz had never seen her this terrified before, not even in the pound where he adopted her. Panic overtook him as he crawled towards her, desperately hoping she hadn't been hurt.

"LOONIE! Are you OK??? Do you know what happened??? Did anyone hurt you????"

"We're dead..." Loona whispered it, just loud enough for those in the room to hear. "So very, very, dead..."

Just as Blitz was about to ask what she was talking about, a door behind them slammed open. Turning to face the door, Blitz was expecting one of Striker's buddies or Crimson's crew to be there, and he had the perfect response on his tongue. Nothing surprised him more than the sight of winged figures wearing horned helmets.

"Exorcists..."

Moxxie breathed in fear and disbelief. Of all the things Moxxie had faced since working with Blitz, this was one of the last he ever expected to encounter. He still remembered the stories his mother had told him, about the Exorcists, and their commander, the Lord Exorcist. Those stories had haunted his childhood dreams, especially as he came of age, and he learned his father and other mafia bosses would leave disgraced or treacherous underlings in Pride as offerings for the Exorcists. None would ever be seen again. For all the fear he had for his father, it paled in comparison to the fear he felt in the presence of Heaven's hunters.

Even Millie, fearless and confident, froze in shock at the sight of the merciless killers. Like Moxxie, she had been raised on stories of their terrifying exploits in the ancient past, when they freely raided the other Rings of Hell. Just being in their presence was a stark reminder of why the imps of Wrath feared a shadow from the sky.

As they processed their situation, the Exorcist stood aside, allowing a second Exorcist to bring in... a cart. Atop the cart were four trays with food. Without a word, the Exorcists left, slamming the door behind them, and leaving the cart in the middle of the room.

For a few minutes, silence hung heavy in the air. None dared speak, move, or even breathe, lest it invite the fury of Heavenly warriors. But slowly, Millie worked up the courage to approach the cart. Tentatively, she poked at the cart itself. It moved only so slightly from Millie's touch but otherwise remained motionless. Peering at the plates of food on the cart, she went over them with a scrutinizing eye, poking at the food, smelling it, and carefully tasting it, before nodding in satisfaction. The food was safe to eat.

Taking the meals from the cart, the trio of imps and one hellhound sat and ate in uncomfortable silence. The air was thick with tension and fear. All of them knew there was a risk of encountering angels. Their experience with the three cherubs was evidence of that, but it left them with confidence that whatever Heaven had to offer, it wasn't anything they couldn't handle.

But that feeling was dead, buried, and the grave desecrated now. Now they were in the hands of the Exorcists, held in a cell almost certainly in Heaven, far beyond anyone they could contact for help.

The minutes ticked by, and none of them could escape the feeling of impending doom. Moxxie and Millie were cuddling each other, wanting to savour every moment they still had together if this truly was the end for them. Loona, still gripped by the terror from earlier, kept her knees pulled up to her chest, resting her chin on it as she breathed as quietly as possible. It was as though she thought making herself as small and quiet as possible, she could somehow disappear from this living nightmare. All the while, Blitz sat next to her, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder, as he tried thinking of ways to get them out of this.

This had to be about I.M.P. There wasn't anything else that could draw their attention. At least nothing that would get the others dragged along with him. He was pretty sure his search history would be worth a life sentence to angels, but he doubted they'd drag the others with him.

In his mind, he arrived at an early decision: If there was no way to escape, he'd take the fall. If he couldn't save them all, he'd at least try and save Loonie. He'd try and save Millie and Moxxie too, but if it came down to one, Loonie would be the survivor. On some weird level, he knew Moxxie and Millie would understand. Even if they didn't agree with him prioritizing Loonie, neither would sacrifice the other to save themself.

Suddenly, the door swung open, and a tall figure, with long blonde hair, amethyst horns, and wearing a violet dress stepped in.

"Your Majesty!" Moxxie and Millie leaped to their feet, bowing before her. Blitz attempted to follow suit but worried more about Loona, who remained curled up. Before anyone could react further, the Queen smiled gently at them.

"I am divorced from Lucifer, and thus am no longer the Queen of Hell. But I thank you for the respect. It is... appreciated." Moxxie and Millie briefly shared a look of surprise, before standing straight. "Now, I assume I don't need to explain why you're here?"

"Um, your Majesty, where exactly is 'here'?" Millie asked, her curiosity rising to the forefront. The Que- Lilith, smiled knowingly at her.

"Heaven, of course. Or more specifically, the lower levels of the Exorcists fortress. Here, the Exorcists train under the watch of the Lord Exorcist, not only to prepare for the annual Extermination but also to combat any hellborn that make their way to Earth illegally."

Blitz stood up as Lilith finished, drawing everyone's gaze. "Look, your Majesty, this whole thing was my idea. I dragged the others into this." Blitz tried to continue but was cut off by Lilith raising a hand for silence.

"Your loyalty to your friends and daughter is commendable, Blitz. However, there might be an alternative to sacrificing yourself. But we can worry about that later. For now, follow me. They've gathered the last of their evidence."

"Evidence?"

Lilith turned to look at Moxxie. "For the trial."

The room, Loona thought, was big. That was her first thought as they were led from their cell into the room they were in now. It had taken some coaxing on Lilith and Blitz's part, but the final push that got her out of the cell was the Exorcists commenting she could either go with them, or the Exorcists would stay locked in the cell with her.

Not that anybody could blame her for being freaked out as she was. Even in the Adoption Center, the other Hellhounds told stories of the Exorcists and their hatred for the Hellborn. How in a forgotten age, they slaughtered Hellborn on sight, offering neither pity, mercy, or remorse as they sang hymns of glee and praise for God while carving their way through killing fields with the grace of dancers.

The only real consolation any Hellborn had when it came to the Exorcists was they were forbidden from attacking the Hellborn on E-Day unless the Hellborn provoked the Exorcists. And considering simply existing could be considered a provocation, every Hellborn knew just as well as the Sinners: When the Exorcists arrive, stay the fuck out of the way, and hope they don't find you. Because hoping for mercy was a fool's errand.

So when a portal opened behind her, one she saw only thanks to her messing around with her phone, and the horned figures of Exorcists pulling her through, every fibre of her being told her this was the end. That all she could do was make herself as small as possible, and maybe, just maybe, the Exorcists would ignore her. Even walking through the halls was a chore, because there was something that nothing could divert her attention from. Something that was soaked into every Exorcist they encountered, and built into the very foundation of the building.

The lingering smell of demonic blood. It was everywhere, so faint only a Hellhound could catch it. But it was there, a grim reminder of the duty of the Exorcists: to slaughter the unholy.

In the center of the room they had just entered were five chairs, four placed closely together, while the fifth was just off to the side. The seats for the condemned, with their defender given just enough space not to be mistaken for one of them. On the left and right-hand side of the room from their entrance, many demons and angels were seated, with the Exorcists on guard to ensure nobody got any funny ideas. But her attention was directed to the far end of the room. There, seated in an elevated position, was a figure of nightmares, the boogeyman of Hell, the King of Locusts, and the Master of Raiders: the Lord Exorcist himself.

"Let the trial commence!"

Moxxie was terrified beyond belief. Any imp with even a lick of sense would be if they were in the presence of the Lord Exorcist. That they were in a trial overseen by him did nothing to improve his mood. Still, he'd been in rough spots plenty of times before, including tense negotiations during his time in the mafia. During those tense moments, he had developed a habit that helped him keep his head in the game: focus on the details.

Just off to the side of the Lord Exorcist was a six-winged angel, a Seraphim if he wasn't mistaken, who held a gold scroll in his hands, with a quill writing of its own volition, no doubt due to angelic powers. This angel introduced himself as Metatron and began listing off everyone in the room for the trial, ensuring nobody was somehow still missing.

"Overseeing the trial: Adam, Lord Exorcist and Father of Humanity and the Shedim."

That was definitely not good. It was also quite an interesting bit of news to Moxxie. The Father of Humanity was the one who led the Extermination of the sinners on E-Day. He had to admit, he was genuinely curious now how that happened. Was it a punishment from Heaven, or did he see it as his responsibility? And more importantly, who were the Shedim? If Moxxie wasn't terrified of what was going to happen, he'd be interested in hearing about it.

"Representing the accused: Lilith, former Queen of Hell and Mother of the Shedim."

That perked up Moxxie's interest. As far as he, or any of the hellborn, were aware, Lilith only had one child, Princess Charlotte. The Shedim weren't something he was familiar with, and he liked to think of himself as well-read. Then again, according to the old stories, Lilith had been Adam's wife before Hell even existed. Moxxie began to wonder if the Shedim were children born in that mythical age.

"Asmodeus, Sin of Lust and one of the Shedim."

Moxxie turned his head to the witnesses gathered so quickly he must have gotten whiplash. Yes, there, sitting among the demons attending their trial, was the Sin of Lust himself. As Moxxie was wondering how he missed him, Metatron continued.

"Beelzebub, Sin of Gluttony and one of the Shedim."

There it was again! Another figure he should have noticed right away. He assumed there must have been something clouding the witnesses, maybe a measure to keep the prisoners from intimidating or threatening someone...?

"Paimon, King of the Ars Goetia and one of the Shedim."

'Paimon too?' Moxxie was surprised by the number of high-profile figures present for this trial. But he also caught something he might have otherwise missed: Paimon and the present Sins were Shedim, which meant they were the children of Adam and Lilith. There was something significant about that... Moxxie just wasn't sure he'd live long enough to figure it out or appreciate it.

The listing of names continued and included an impressive number of people: Verosika Mayday and her crew, including Vortex, Stolas, Stella and Octaiva, the three Cherubs from the Lipton job, and every human they had killed and ascended to Heaven. It was a comprehensive list, and Moxxie was admittedly impressed by the dedication to detail from the angels. Aside from the lack of sinners, they'd gathered everyone even slightly aware of their activities on Earth.

Which just meant they had everyone they needed to put their heads on the chopping block.

"Let me make sure I have this right. You're telling me that a Grimoire, an artifact of extreme power and importance, entrusted to your son to carry out his duties, was traded to an imp blatantly violating the laws of Heaven and Hell... all for monthly sessions of kinky sex?"

"That is correct, Lord Exorcist."

Adam's voice made clear how unimpressed he was with the present situation. Strangely though, Paimon's voice was even, as though he wasn't even phased by the scenario, but those familiar with body language could see the tension in his limbs, and the contemptuous look he shot Stolas during their testimony, made clear how he felt about his son's actions.

"Twenty-three murders... a fish mutated into a monstrous Hellbeast by Beelzebub's alcohol... a riot resulting in over fifty near-death experiences... including eight police officers left crippled from 'carnal activities'... all because of a bet... over a parking space?"

Adam glared at Verosika, who quivered with fear under his gaze. Even the salacious pop star had dressed modestly, for a succubus, for the trial. Normally succubi and incubi flaunt their beauty, but considering the legendary hatred Exorcists had for demons nobody on her crew wanted to risk drawing their attention or their ire any more than normal. Which is why Verosika was currently kicking herself for ever agreeing to that stupid bet.

"Y-yes."

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose and bit back a swear. Thanks to the Treaty, succubi and incubi were allowed to travel to Earth. The demons of Lust fed on sexual energies, keeping them healthy and beautiful, a trait heavily valued among their kind. While the lust of demons, including sinners, can sustain them, they're far less effective than the lust of humans, not only in keeping them healthy but in keeping them sane. Most succubi and incubi who travelled to Earth did so to collect these energies in specialized crystals. Of course, this privilege also came with a long list of rules and regulations they were expected to follow to keep this privilege.

Chief among these rules? They cannot be responsible for the death or injury of humans.

By trial's end, Adam would have to decide whether to axe this bitch, or deny her access to the energies he knew she'd need. A swift death, or a drawn-out punishment...

Adam listened intently as the three cherubs recounted their encounter with the imps. He had to admire their dedication, trying to at least give the old prick a chance to redeem himself before he faced judgment for his actions. Of course, if an angel encounters a demon while on Earth, they are supposed to contact Heaven, so they did screw up at least partly. But then Deerie should have at least gotten a damned explanation out of them before banishing them, especially for a first offence.

Even he had only banished Vaggie after she spared sinners multiple times. That pedophile was simply the final straw.

Maybe after this, he can have the trio do trial runs as Guardian Angels. With the right training, that dedication could have seen them kill these imp fucks. Wouldn't have been enough for Lipton to make it to Heaven, but at least other lives would have been spared.

"Alright, I've heard enough."

The trial had reached its conclusion, and after listening to the testimony it was time to render judgment, with Adam turning to the King of the Goetia.

"First, Paimon, I find no fault in your actions. You were unaware until now of Stolas' actions, and you had no way of knowing your son would make a... decision like this." Adam turned to Stella, who clutched Octavia close in fear. "Likewise, Stella, you had no way of knowing the full extent of your husband's actions, and cannot be held accountable for them. Octavia, while at least aware of I.M.P. possessing the Grimoire, had no part in their murderous activities. While travelling to Earth can be considered a punishable action, it was done without malicious intent, and I'm willing to let her off with a warning."

The trio of Goetia bowed their heads in thanks, Stella and Octavia both letting out a deep breath. Stolas, however, went stiff as Adam turned his gaze towards him.

"As for you, Stolas, while no humans have died directly by your hand, your providing the Grimoire, knowing what was being done with it, is a blatant violation of both the Treaty and the Laws of Hell. That you also ordered the deaths of humans adds to your crimes. As punishment, the Grimoire shall be confiscated by the Exorcists and returned to Paimon at our discretion. And as an Ars Goetia, the responsibility of your punishment falls to Paimon, but I'm warning you: any further infractions will result in swift and decisive action being taken. You may leave."

A portal opened, and the Goetia stood to leave, with Paimon keeping an iron grip on Stolas' shoulder. When the disgraced noble attempted to look towards Blitz, Paimon grabbed his head and forcefully turned it away, directing him towards the portal. Stella paused just before the portal to turn and curtsey towards Adam and directed Octavia to do the same, before leaving.

"Now, Verosika..."

Judgment was rendered for everyone else who had assisted or otherwise contributed to I.M.P's actions on Earth, until finally, the room was emptied of angels and demons alike. All that remained was the condemned, Lilith, the Exorcists, and the Lord Exorcist looming over them all. He glared down at the hellborn as they squirmed in their seats.

"Now, after everything that's been discussed, I would be well within my rights to end you all and get on with my day. However, Lilith believes there is an alternative."

The four looked at Lilith with shock, fear, and the beginnings of hope in their eyes. She stood before them, a predatory glint in her eyes.

"I do, Adam. While Loona is skilled in her own right, you three imps, the real killers of this group, are surprisingly capable fighters. Which is why, I believe you wouldn't be opposed to taking the ultimate contract on behalf of Heaven in exchange for leniency."

Blitz immediately latched onto the former Queen's words. "Uh, yeah! Absolutely! Right guys?" Blitz turned to Millie and Moxxie, both of whom nodded their heads in agreement.

"We'd be happy to take the contract, your Majesty. And, uh, your Lordship," Millie spoke in a familiar cheerful tone. The prospect of a challenging contract, along with potentially surviving the Exorcist's attention, brought a smile to her face again. "Who's the target, an Overlord or maybe a Goetia?"

"The Sin of Pride."

Lilith's words hung in the air, and the room went silent as a tomb. The imps weren't entirely certain they had heard her correctly until she continued.

"You heard me correctly. The target is Lucifer Morningstar, the King of Hell."

"Um, Ok, but... why?" Blitz was bewildered. Of all the targets he expected to be listed, the King was the absolute last of them.

Lilith's face fell in a frown. "Because I was deceived by an angel I thought was my friend. Someone I thought I could trust. Someone I believed had my best interests at heart. But I was wrong. He lied to me, and I lost my place in Paradise. All for petty reasons unbecoming of the higher being he thought himself as."

"Lucifer." Loona's voice was so quiet, so sudden, it drew startled looks from her fellows. But Lilith nodded in agreement.

"The very same. The only good that has come from him is our daughter, Charlie. But I know his mind all too well. Despite his belief to the contrary, nothing matters more to him than his pride, and putting her in danger so he can swoop in and play the hero is well within the bounds of 'acceptable behaviour' to him. I will not let him put her life at risk merely to satisfy his overwhelming need to be seen as the hero."

"Which is where you lot come in." Adam had risen from his seat and walked over to join Lilith before the hellborn. "In a month, when I lead the Exorcists on the second Extermination Day, we will attempt to draw out the Duck Fucker, allowing you the opportunity to end him, once and for all." He then produced a set of badges, gold in colour, shaped like a winged halo.

"These badges will mark you to my Exorcists as individuals working on Heaven's behalf, giving you protection on the off-chance one of them stumbles upon you. Even better, they come equipped with an Instant-Recall Teleporter. Just give the proper command, and they'll automatically teleport you into the Embassy in Pride. But they have a limited charge, so only use them when the job is finished." Adam smirked as he dropped the badges in their laps. "Congratulations on your promotion as Heaven's Inviolable Terminators."

"H-I-T... Fuck that sounds good." Blitz griped, not over the name, but the fact he hadn't thought of something like it before.

"Uh, your Lordship," Moxxie cautiously spoke up, drawing a look from Adam. "Taking down a Sin, much less the King of Hell would require specialized weaponry. Weaponry that we don't have. We've never, uh, never needed it before."

Adam smirked as he conjured a table covered in an insane variety of weaponry, the likes of which not even Hell's biggest gun nuts could dream of.

"You do now."

It had been a long and fierce debate/argument/fistfight, over what the imps should use for the task, and how they should conduct said task. The melee weapons, a wide assortment of magnificent swords, hammers, and axes, made Millie's legs shake with excitement, but it was obvious none of them would survive close-quarters combat with the Sin of Pride. Blitz was practically drooling over a set of silver pistols, which the Lord Exorcist had referred to as 'anti-material pistols' but they lacked the range needed. Finally, it was decided to use a long-range weapon and snipe Lucifer from afar. That, they reasoned, was their best hope of pulling this off.

This is why they were situated where they were, Moxxie aiming the magnificent sniper rifle dubbed Apollo's Wrath, at the Hotel. Blitz and Millie were acting as his spotters. Blitz observed the Hotel through his binoculars, while Millie acted as security, ensuring no curious demons, be they sinners or hellborn, interfered with their task. Loona remained in the embassy, kept far from the action at Bliz's request, though she retained an important duty: she would activate the Instant-Recall function once they reported success.

All the while, Lord Adam kept in radio communication with Blitz. A handy feature, especially when he was sent crashing through the roof of the Hotel.

"Fuck! What just hit me!?" His voice could be heard clearly through the earpiece.

"D-Master, the Duck has arrived, I repeat. The Duck has Arrived." Blitz spoke back as Moxxie lined up his shot, watching the battle pause as Lucifer's arrival signalled the end of the Treaty between Heaven and Hell. Millie readied her radio, waiting for the signal to tell Loona they succeeded.

"Acknowledged. Is the Lamb clear?"

'Is Charlie out of harm's way?' Blitz looked to Moxxie, who shook his head.

"Negative."

"Acknowledged."

The radio went silent as Adam flew back up, and Blitz observed their interaction from their distance. He had to admit, that Lilith was right. Lucifer was playing up the situation, building himself up in his daughter's eyes. It pissed him off to no end, that any father would put their daughter in danger just so they could play hero. What the fuck kind of father would-

"Sir, the Lamb is clear." Moxxie's voice cut through Blitz's thoughts. He had a clear shot, and Charlie was out of the potential kill zone. He was ready to shoot.

"D-Master, the Lamb is clear. Repeat: The Lamb is Clear."

"D-Master, the Lamb is clear. Repeat: The Lamb is Clear."

Adam smirked as he heard those words. Standing atop the Hotel, he felt a certain satisfaction at how everything had unfolded. The loss of his Exorcists was a blow to him, but they fell to Angelic Steel. It might take some time, but they would inevitably be reborn in Heaven, albeit with their memories of this battle fully intact. More than a few would probably leave the Exorcists, or at least need time to heal mentally from the ordeal.

Maybe now Sera will stop being a mother-hen and hiding things from Emily she needed to hear.

All the same, it didn't change one simple fact. Lucifer had fucked up and walked right into his trap. And the best part? The Duck Fucker didn't even realize it.

"Heh...heheheheh... hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

His laughter cut through the tension left by Lucifer's dumbass declaration he was going to fuck him. He probably meant to say 'fuck him up' but was simply too caught up in his delusions of successful parenting to realize it.

"Uh... you OK big guy?" Lucifer, like the rest of the Hazbins, was confused by Adam's reaction. He had expected a lot of things, mostly bluster and anger befitting the talking ape, but laughter was not one of them.

"Duck Fucker, you don't know how wrong you are," Adam smirked as he took two steps back, and folded his wings behind his back.

Lucifer's face twisted in an ugly sneer before it exploded in a shower of gore. His entire head and half his upper body were destroyed by the force of a gunshot. The now mangled body collapsed to the floor, his blood spilling freely from the gaping wound. Charlie, standing off to the side, screamed with horror as she was splashed with her father's blood and bits of his brain. She rushed to her father's corpse, screaming with shock and horror all the while, as Vaggie rushed to her side.

Even the battle below remained paused, as everyone, sinner and Exorcist alike, realized what had happened. Lucifer was dead. Seeing no need to remain, and wanting to spare his girls any further pain, Adam turned to the Exorcists and signalled for them to retreat. As they took off through the portal to Heaven, gathering their dead in the process, Adam gave a final look to the princess. She was bent over her father's corpse, while Vaggie was attempting to comfort her.

When Vaggie looked up at Adam, a look of furious hatred on her face, she froze in shock as she looked Adam in the eye, before he took off. As she knelt next to Charlie, Vaggie's brain was forced to reboot as she realized the disturbing truth. They'd been played from the beginning. Adam had been playing with them the entire time to draw out Lucifer. In her time with Charlie, she had forgotten one vital fact about Adam. Being the Father of Humanity, he was not only the First Man but the First Hunter. He had spent decades, even centuries, hunting the beasts of an antediluvian Earth.

And he had used those skills honed over centuries to lure his oldest enemy into a trap he had no hope of escaping. They had lost the moment they committed to this fight. And that disturbing reminder of just how dangerous Adam could truly be sent a chill down her spine as she tried to comfort Charlie.

Blitz, Millie, Moxxie and Loona sat in the Embassy, a sense of relief and unease hanging over them. They had done it. They had pulled it off. Lucifer was dead. The contract was fulfilled. They no longer had the Exorcists looming over them, but that still left an unanswered question: what happened to them now? Their old business of murdering humans on Earth was out of the question.

Before they could decide where they went next, a portal opened, and out stepped Adam, a large sack in his hand.

"Good work. I'll admit, I had my doubts about you. But you pulled it off." He then dropped the sack in front of them, drawing curious looks from the group. "Payment for a job well done."

Blitz raised an eyebrow at Adam, before opening the sack with Moxxie and feeling his breath catch in his throat.

"H-Holy Shit! There's more in here than we made running I.M.P!"

Moxxie's mathematical mind calculated the amount of money they had just been handed, and his brain practically fried itself as he realized just how much had been handed to them casually. "Sir, there's gotta be 10 times as much as we ever made!"

Adam smirked at their reactions. "Well, good deeds shouldn't go unrewarded. Not to mention that bastard has been at the top of my shit list for ten thousand years. And, if you're interested, you can think of it as... a down payment."

Millie looked at Adam in bewilderment. "A down payment???"

Adam nodded. "If you want, you can take that money and retire in style. Fuck, there are plenty of angels, and even a few demons, who'd feel obliged to thank you for taking that prick out. You'll probably be getting gifts regularly for the next few years. But there's also a fuckton of demons, sinners and hellborn alike, who would take advantage of any disruption to the status quo. Although overdue, Lucifer's death is a major disruption to said status quo. And I don't intend to simply sit around and wait for the next menace to rear its ugly head."

He then pulled out a scroll and held it out. "This is a list of demons I've had my eye on for Extermination for some time now. It includes the names of both sinners and hellborn demons. The sinners proved devious fuckers, evading the Exorcists on the one day we get to hunt them, while the hellborn know I legally can't touch them without cause. And they know how to cover their tracks. But if you were to remove them from the situation, well, like I said. Good deeds should not go unrewarded."

Blitz, Moxxie, Millie and Loona looked at each other, wordlessly considering their options, before Bltiz approached Adam with a smile on his face.

"So, when do we get started?"