Hellbound - Chapter 3

There was the feel of soft lips against his, and then the next thing Lucifer knew, he was being shoved with a great deal of force. Lucifer stumbled and landed on his butt. He was still trying to understand the text floating in his vision when he noticed that an angry-looking demoness was standing over him. She had her arms crossed under her chest, causing her impressive cleavage to look like it was going to burst out of the top of her chest.

Lucifer had been trying to survive earlier, so he had never gotten a good look at her. She wasn’t a full succubus. Her lineage was definitely mixed with something else he couldn’t identify.  Her skin was a smooth, deep crimson, and a pair of short, curved black horns protruded from her forehead, framing a face of striking beauty with high cheekbones and full, angry lips.

Her eyes, now blazing with fury, were a luminous red, and her long, dark hair cascaded over her shoulders. She was tall and lithe, with a figure that was both athletic and voluptuous, barely contained by the revealing black leather attire she wore. A thin, spaded tail whipped back and forth behind her, lashing the air in agitation. In a word, she was extremely beautiful, even for a succubus.

Compared to Eve, who had always appeared pure and angelic, this woman was the embodiment of temptation. Lucifer licked his lips, remembering that he had just shared a kiss with her. It wasn’t a bad choice from which to share his first kiss. He wondered if there were any other firsts he’d get to share with this woman.

“Who do you think you’re looking at?” She growled, raising her shoe to stomp him again, but this time she seemed to stop herself, lowering her foot back down hesitantly. “What… what did you do to me?”

“You don’t know?” Lucifer tilted his head, a bit surprised by her admission.

“I used the minion magic, just like I was taught, but then I felt it rebound.” She admitted, a complicated expression on her face.

“Right…” Lucifer nodded. “It appears you’ve become my minion instead.”

Lilith’s face went through a series of rapid changes, from confusion to disbelief, and finally settling on a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. Her red eyes turned distant for a moment, and he guessed she must be checking her system status. Everyone with magic could access the system, human or demon, although the systems were intrinsically different. One system was granted by heaven, while the other was wrung out of life.

Lilith finally let out a curse. “I am your minion? How is this possible? A level one couldn’t possibly overpower and level twelve! This defies laws of demonic magic!”

“Well, it happened.” Lucifer patted himself off and stood up.

He felt a strange new connection to her, a faint thrum of power in the back of his mind that confirmed her status. He could feel her soul power, now his, pooled within him. It was a heady, intoxicating sensation. That power hadn’t increased his level though. He was still embarrassingly weak.

“This is a joke!” Lilith seethed, looking around the room in a panic. “If anyone else learned about this… I’d become a laughing stock! A level twelve demoness becoming minion to some… some… level one newbie?”

“Hey…” Lucifer responded, feeling more amused than upset.

She grabbed his arm, her grip surprisingly strong. “Come with me. And don’t say a word.”

She immediately walked to the door, and then looked out it both ways as if she was sneaking. When she was sure the cost was clear, she dragged him into the hallway. Her movements furtive and rushed as she began to quickly usher him along. She kept her head down, avoiding the gazes of the few other demons they passed, who were too busy with their own tasks to pay them much mind. Lucifer allowed himself to be led, curious to see what would happen next. She led him out a back entrance and into a bustling street.

She only took a breath of relief once she was outside. “You should feel lucky it’s the afternoon and people are already starting to head home.”

“Aren’t you the lucky one?” Lucifer asked with a chuckle.

He was looking around. Hell wasn’t exactly what he had expected. Rather than a fiery hellscape filled with rivers of lava and pools of blood, it instead had the appearance of a sprawling city. The buildings weren’t all that advance, rarely going over two stories. There were cobblestone roads, and on them were various carriages being led by all manners of beast. Many of them had been monsters Lucifer had fought at one point or another.

Demons of all shapes and sizes were walking around. However, they weren’t burning things, battling, or pillaging. If anything, they just looked like people getting on with their day. Some were heading home while others were going to work. Some were laughing and relaxing, while others were focused and tense.

“Where’s the technology? No lights?” He murmured.

“Hell isn’t all that much different from Earth, but we reject your technology. We don’t need it?”

I looked up at a massive bull of red. The biggest difference between this world and mine would be the red sun, as well as the red sky.

“I thought I had heard that your sun gives off regular EMPs that disable all technology.” Lucifer suggested.

Lilith shot him a glare. “If you know the truth already, why are you asking dumb questions? Don’t waste my time with unimportant things.”

“Alright, here’s a more important question then. “Why are we just standing here?”

Lilith was just standing outside her workplace, facing the street. She seemed to be taking no initiative to move.

“Perhaps we should ask any questions at all?” Lilith’s expression turned sour, but then after a moment she spoke anyway. “This city is large and I don’t live that close to my apartment. I have a ride I summoned. Ah, here they come now.”

I looked in the direction she was turned, and there a small carriage came forward quickly. It was small and seemingly made of an ornate black metal. It had privacy so anyone who got inside would not be seen. However, the thing that set it apart the most was that there were two massive lizards attached to and pulling it. At the front, there was a small person hidden in robes. They appeared to be a small child.

Yet, when they pulled in front of us, the child pulled back her hood, resembling the face of a somewhat pretty, dark-purple woman with pointy ears as well as horns. She had the face and body of an adult, but she was miniaturized. I didn’t need to look under her robes to realize she was sporting wings and a tail similar to Liliths.

“Mistress!” She called out to Lilith. “Empusa has come. Excuse Empusa’s untimeliness, Empusa wasn’t expecting you to leave work so early today.”

“No, Empusa. You’re fine.” Lilith seemed to grow more relaxed.

“An Imp?” I asked, causing her to grow tense again.

Empusa glanced in my direction. “Who is the cutie? Has Mistress finally brought home a boyfriend for us?”

“No!” Lilith cried out, and then winced. “He’s just… an acquaintance. I need you to take us both to my house.”

“An acquaintance that you’re bringing home? Mistress… is this… a booty call?”

“Empusa! Get your head out of the gutter!” Lilith shouted angrily. “He is not to be touched!”

“Ehhh…” Empusa looked over at Lucifer, her ears wilting a bit.

Lucifer couldn’t help but feel a bit of a shiver. It wasn’t because he was disgusted by her flirtatious looks, but because he was a bit turned on. For a moment, he imaged picking her up and bending her over the carriage as he did whatever he wanted with her. Lucifer didn’t know what was happening to his mind. Was this a part of the demonification process? Was he becoming feral?

No, it wasn’t that at all. Perhaps, these were always his inner feelings. He suppressed all of his Earthy desires for the sake of Eve. Women had thrown themselves at him in the past. Some of them were quite beautiful, in fact. However, he had rejected them all because he had Eve waiting home for him. Thinking about it now just made him feel angry all over again.

“Get in!” Lilith snapped, causing Lucifer to glance her way causing her to drop her head. “Look, my reputation is on the line here. We need to figure this out. You need to figure this out with me. Okay?”

Lucifer stared at her for a few moments, and then nodded and then walked over to wear she was holding open the carriage door. She took a breath as the pair of them entered the carriage together. A few moments later, they were leaving the large factory-like building and heading off into the city with the Imp at the reigns. As they rode in silence for a little bit, Lucifer grew impatient.

“The imp… is she another minion?” He asked.

“Empusa? No, she’s just a personal servant. My father…” Lilith stopped, her teeth clothing with a click. “Empusa is just a servant.”

“What’s the difference?” Lucifer asked.

“You don’t even know this…” She started, but then let out a sigh. “Unlike humans, demons don’t have a soul. To survive, we most use soul power. In general, it costs one soul power a day to survive in this hell. However, if you grow stronger, so does the cost.”

“Okay…” Lucifer nodded.

Lilith shot him a challenging look, but Lucifer only looked back innocently. “Soul power isn’t just necessary to live, but it also pays expenses. Room, board, food, they all cost soul power. Life in hell is expensive. If you want to survive, you must continuously earn soul power.”

Other than a life surcharge, soul power didn’t sound all that different from the currency of Lucifer’s own world. Where the merit system was unique to heroes, most humans depended on money. The merit system only existed to acquire unique artifacts, skills, or spells. Everything else like food and board was purchased with money. It seemed like hell used soul power a bit more ubiquitously than heroes used the merit system.

“So… soul power is earned through missions?”

“Missions? Only Reavers earn money in such a way.” She frowned.

“Reavers?”

“Reavers are the name of demons who take on missions and travel to Earth. The job is extremely dangerous, so only a small portion of the population take on Reaver missions. Besides, Reaving doesn’t earn enough soul power to maintain a society. That’s why my job exists. I extract soul power from human souls. Well, I don’t get to keep the soul power. My employer acquires the souls and then I extract soul power, and then they pay me to do that job.”

“How much soul power comes from a soul?” he asked.

“It varies depending on the soul and the human involved. Usually, a few hundred.” A small smile formed on her lips. “I don’t like to brag, but I once managed to tap a single soul for 1,252 soul power. Of course, they were once a B-ranked hero… I’m sorry, it wasn’t so long ago you were human. Does this conversation make you uncomfortable?”

“Not at all.” Lucifer responded coldly, causing her to blink.

It might seem strange, but when Lucifer though back to humanity, all he could feel was a cold fury. He had given his entire life for them, and in the end, humanity had repaid him by stabbing him in the back. He knew, deep down, that it was only a handful of people who had done it, but these were the best that humanity had to offer. These were the leaders and the faces that everyone worshipped. If even they were corrupt, then what was the point to any of them. All of humanity deserved to pay.

Lucifer realized that Lilith was watching him. He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that she was cleverer than she was letting on. He didn’t think there was any way she could guess his identity, but he didn’t want to reveal it either. If any demon in hell learned he was the soul who killed the Demon King, they would all be racing to decide who could kill him the fastest. Thankfully, the same Karmic Entanglement that sent him down here in the first place also hid is identity perfectly.

He turned to Lilith and gave a toothy smile. She snorted in response and shrugged.

“Either way, Empusa receives a salary from me. Every week, I pay her a sum of soul power, and in exchange, she works for me. When it comes to a minion, the master assumes the cost of the minion’s soul power. In other words, in exchange for their servitude, they will never need to worry about running out of soul power, at least as long as their master maintains soul power.”

“So, the more minions you have, the more expensive it becomes?”

“Mm…” She nodded. “However, if you minion earns soul power on their own, that soul power is then granted to you. This can be very useful. Minions make good shopkeepers for this reason. However, if you over extend yourself, it can end up bad. You… were supposed to be my first minion.”

“Why did you want to make me your minion?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” She looked away. “It was just an impulse. Something told me… you might be worth controlling.”

“Well, how did that work out?”

She shot me a glare. “You know, even if I’m your minion, my strength is much greater than yours. Minions have been known to kill their masters to get out of a contract. This is why a master should never be weaker than your minion.”

“Then, why don’t you kill me then?” Lucifer asked earnestly.

“That…” She looked away, puffing out her cheeks in a matter that felt quite cute. “When… the spell rebounded. You took something else of mine.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t act stupid! I know that you took my soul power! If I kill you, I lose my entire life savings! It doesn’t transfer back to me.”

“Huh, oh?” Lucifer sat up. “If you have no soul power, doesn’t that mean you die?”

She gritted her teeth. “If I killed you, I’d have twenty-four hours to earn some soul power or I’d die. There are only two ways I could survive.”

“Two, you say…”

“First, I could find someone else and become their minion.” She made a bitter expression like she would rather do anything else.

“And the other option?”

“I could… beg someone for a loan of soul power.” She spoke quickly and quietly, but I heard her clearly within the carriage.

“Beg…”

“I’d rather die!” She hissed. “Do you understand?”

“So… what are you saying?”

“I’m saying… for the moment at least, I have no choice but to be your minion.”

“I-I don’t know what to say.”

“I won’t follow your orders!” She snapped back. “Nothing changes until I find a way to fix this! Just know that if you try to push my bottom line, I’d rather bring us both down!”

“Alright…” Lucifer held up his hands defensively. “I won’t push.”

She gave a nod. “Then, we won’t have a problem. It looks like we’ll be stuck with each other for a while, Lucifer.”

“My friends call me Lucy.” He stated before he could stop himself, wincing slightly.

There was a pause, and Lucifer looked up to see Lilith shaking slightly. “Lil…lil…”

“Little?”

“You can call me Lily!” She snapped.

Had her skin not already been red, Lucifer wondered if he’d see her blushing. She was quite volatile, but in a somewhat cute way.