Cain walked with Mei toward the private room she prepared for them to talk.

..

Deep in hell, almost as lower as it gets on the ninth layer. Asmodeus walked down the cursed stairs of her massive castle. With each of her steps, devils far away shuddered at the approach of her aura. Her feathery wings extended as she flew away, heading toward an old friend.

Looking down she could see the entire hellscape of Nessus, spike-like volcanos with lava dripping from their sides, Heavy acid rain, never stopping earthquakes, and cosmic tornados that could lift those volcanos from their base as if they were trees.

Yet, a city stood at the foot of her castle. A community was built under the protection of her presence, or to be more precise, the presence of the previous devil lord.

ROOOAAAR! She could hear it, feel it, the beast was hunting.

As she flew through the storms, feeling the burning on her skin. She heard it roar again, the demon who once devoured all of humanity.

BAM! BAM! BAM! She could see the monster, a titanic elephant standing on two feet. His head pierced the clouds as mountains only reached up to his belly. CRACK! The creature made a sharp turn, his massive body slowly tilting as it swung its massive trunk.

"Here it comes!" Asmodeus created a golden barrier to protect her body.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! From the rumbling hellscape, she finally appeared engulfed in an aura of cursed lightning and death. The mountain-sized black jaguar demon leaped, causing a city-destroying earthquake.

As its claws latched into the titanic elephant's trunk, she bite it off and climbed to its head. CRACK! A single bite was enough to cause a blood flood, drowning the whole region and its inhabitant in a gory mess.

BAM! CRACK! The titanic elephant fell dead, and the black jaguar feasted on its corpse.

Asmodeus flew to the black Jaguar, standing by its side, she looked smaller than an ant. "Can you hear me?" She yelled.

Taking a bite of the fresh brain, blood and juices flew out as the beast happily ate, crunching the bones within her massive jaw. A single lick of her tongue was enough to strip tons of flesh off the elephant's bones.

Just standing by its side, Asmodeus could feel the power stored as the heat emanating from its body was enough to evaporate the acidic rains.

Hearing Asmodeus's voice, the beast looked down. "To what purpose do you disturb my meal?" Her voice rumbled enough that Asmodeus couldn't breathe properly.

"Tiamat is lying dormant in the castle, most of her power seems to be getting ready to transfer," Asmodeus yelled.

"And you want to send me to the human world? Forget it." The beast returned to her meal, crunching on the elephant's neck.

"Between us, only you can protect him now," Asmodeus yelled and the beast stopped. Glaring down at her as if disappointed.

"Protect him? From what, himself?" The beast closed its head to Asmodeus, "Send me there, and I will devour every last human breathing there."

Asmodeus scratched her head, it started to hurt, "Why can't you understand, we need to.."

"You need to suck it..we were useless, failures. It's because of us he died, we don't deserve him." The beast growled, and a crackle of lightning blasted from its back. "You failed, I failed, Sof.."

"Don't utter her name!" Asmodeus cried.

The beast glared at her, "..I don't care about your ideals, goals, or happy conclusions. I only devour, and devour..till the day I grow big enough to devour him."

Asmodeus clenched her teeth, a pained look on her face, "We can't beat him, we never will. That is why we need to make sure they achieve what we failed at. Can you please just accompany me for a moment?"

The beast glared at her, "After my meal.."

A few minutes passed and the elephant was nowhere to be seen. The massive beast stretched.

In a buff of cursed lightning, the beast's body shrunk and she landed in front of Asmodeus. A scar-filled muscular humanoid body, sharp black claws, golden eyes, and jagged black hair. One of her two cat ears had a chunk missing while her tail wagged around like a whip.

"Let's go, Maharajah (Duke)" Asmodeus said turning around, the Rakshasa queen followed behind her toward the hell capital.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! As they walked, "You look weaker, are you all right?" Maharajah asked as she sniffed Asmodeus's hair.

"You talk about my body? I've been exhausting myself healing Tiamat, she is on the brink of death now that her power is getting transferred." Asmodeus replied with a sad look, staring into the exploding volcano in the distance.

Maharajah spoke, "You lie, you can't keep his restraint for long. Couldn't we just ally with Asmo.." Asmodeus glared at her. "Ally with your prisoner down there, he could have held hell while we operate."

Asmodeus shook her head, "No, he didn't accept the change. Just like the dragons, he will kill the god if the chance arrived." Asmodeus looks down at the ground.historical

Deep, deep under Nessus the man lay restrained by black chains of rot magic. His body was constantly held in a state of half-rotting. Two black feathery wings on his back, with countless stems underneath them.

The moment his wings shudder so do the stems, blood dripping from them as they mourned his past glory. He slowly looked up, "I couldn't lift a hand, at one of my own. How far, have I fallen?"

..

Back in the maze, Cain sat on a bed glaring at Ishtar and her guard as they woke up. Mei sitting beside him with a worried face.

Ishtar slowly lifted her head up, her whole body in pain. She could sense her guard beside her so she thought it all was but a dream. "Hey you, you're finally awake?" Cain looked down at her.

She took a second to remember what happened, "Woha!" she leaped away trying to gather her spirit magic but nothing came out. She looked at her hand and started sweating, she can't feel any magic.

"I isolated this room from the outside world, you have no way of regenerating your MP even if you tried," Cain said and Mei nodded.

"Isolated, imprisoned us is a more appropriate word." She growled, quickly pinching her guard to wake up.

The guard opened her eyes feeling tired, she looked up and saw Cain glaring down at her. At that moment, her breathing stopped..remembering all the chaos she saw in the demi-plane.

The guard's first reaction was to panic, "Please! Don't kill us we.."

"You would be dead if I wanted, I need you alive so don't worry about that." Cain patted her head, "All I need you to do is listen."

The guard nodded as she started up, Ishtar couldn't believe her eyes.

Cain lifted his finger and smiled. A small blue ball of mana appeared on the tip of his finger, glowing like a firefly. "10MP condensed mana orb, this is what Mei usually gives to her people. A high-quality food for pixies."

"You call that high quality?" Ishtar snorted.

The light intensified and Cain grinned, "And now it's a 100MP mana orb, the good stuff Mei keeps to herself. This can go for a lot in the pixie market."

"Stop joking, where is the Mana I was promised to find here?" Ishtar growled and her guard rushed to silence her, "Sorry your majesty but you need to calm down, this isn't the kind of person to talk to like that."

The orb's light only grew stronger, "Now 500MP, this is probably the sample you got. There aren't that many mages who could create such a condensed orb, at this point, it can mess with the pixies' thoughts and bring them down a delusion of pleasure upon consumption."

Ishtar started to drool a bit, her guard as well. This was the thing they came looking for. Ishtar starts creating plans in her head about how to get Cain to give it to her.

"Fine, what is your price?" Ishtar glared at him with a stern face.

"Hold your horses, there is more." Cain grinned.