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The Devil May Care

Part 20

For DuskCypher

By Draconicon

Selene had felt the building power in the mortal world and had immediately recognized it for what it was. She had felt the power of Lucifer's Wrath too many times to miss it when it started building again, even if it was being channeled through someone else for a change. The lioness had leaped from Hell to the mortal world, calling on powers that had been cultivated for decades on the off-chance that she might someday need them. She had assumed that, perhaps, she might use it to trap one like Brutus in the upper world, to hold him in the mortal realm while she pursued a plot of her own.

She burned them now without a second thought, forcing one mortal to summon her, and then flying through the world at the speed of thought to find her next favor.

The burst of power grew again, and Selene hissed under her breath as she rode the pride of mortals from one place to another. It was getting worse, getting stronger by the second; whatever had managed to piss Dusk off, it had done it in the worst possible way.

Selene flew through the heads of the mortals, leaping from one ego to another, feeding as she went. The power of Pride was that it was everywhere, and it was a demonic power that could be used to sling one through the world in a way that few other feelings could. The lioness was on one continent, then another, then another, flicking from one place to another faster than the eye could follow, than thought could track.

Finally, she found her target. A mortal, yes, but a mage, a mage that had only just started discovering his powers. The young weasel, barely an adult, jerked from his bed when she appeared. Selene shook her head.

"Out of bed. You have work to do."

"Now?"

"Now."

She pulled him free, giving him a piece of chalk and instructions. He drew quickly, to his credit, but every so often, Selene felt the urge to hurry him. She resisted it, but only barely, particularly as the pulses of unreality continued to grow in the distance. If she could feel that burning rage, so too could many others.

Dusk had almost reached the limits of what the mortal body could contain with rage, and yet, it continued to build, to swell. Here and there, she felt the power fade, a little bit of that Wrath taken up with something else, but it was never diminished for long. Whatever he felt, whatever he did to drain it, it only surged higher a second or two later.

Hurry...hurry!

The magic symbols were drawn, and she nodded as she looked over them, giving them a quick appraisal. Such a spell could not be cast by demons, but by mortals? Yes.

"Now."

"It's...complicated."

"Now!"

She forced his hands down against the summoning circle, and the weasel screamed at the top of his lungs as he was forced to power a spell that was too strong for most mortals to be able to cast, let alone control. It was not meant to control, however. It was meant to bring someone through, someone that needed to be with her right then.

Suddenly, the towering spire of Wrath elsewhere in the world faded, replaced by a sense of nothingness. She took a deep breath, half-afraid that it was too late.

Then, the Wrath returned, contained within the circle.

Thank all of Hell that I wasn't too late...

The lioness took a deep breath as she stood up. Unsurprisingly, the weasel was completely unconscious, something that was honestly for the best. She didn't want him to try something stupid right now, not when Dusk was in a state like this.

The black cat before her bore little resemblance to the man that she had met on a throne during the party at the Diel manor. There was little to him besides the coat and the sword in his hand to remind her of that male, of that controlled, amused individual. And no surprise; he was possessed of the sin of Wrath.

"Who...how..."

Even his voice had dropped, becoming something more like fire, like the voice of Hell itself, rather than the man that he had been. She had expected him to be somewhat consumed by the sin of Wrath, knew that he had been holding it tightly, but she had not expected it to progress this far.

The sword flicked out, hitting the edge of the circle. It took all of Selene's self-control to stay where she was, to not dodge back from the attack. It was hard enough to make the circle come close to shattering, but it managed to hold. This time.

She stood there without fear, or at least, no outward fear, and the lioness demon slowly crossed her arms under her breasts. Her power conjured up a dress of black and gold, something that slid over her like a waterfall running down stone. Her Pride demanded a hint of modesty, and a great deal of glamor, something that she had been in too much of a hurry to summon before this moment.

That, it seemed, was enough to get through to the black cat. He growled deep in his throat, slowly lowering his sword.

"Selene."

"Yes. It is I."

"You...why did you summon..."

His curiosity was still there, though she could see that it was already getting buried beneath the power of Wrath once more. The anger, the rage was still there, and she knew that she had to fight through that to get to him. She couldn't step through the circle, not without risking herself, but nor could the new devil get through it to harm her...not yet, not until he had focused his powers more than she assumed him capable of doing.

A favor worth spending, she thought as she stood before him, slowly shaking her head. It brought him here, and until the weasel is conscious again, he will not be escaping. Not without considerably more focus than this level of Wrath will allow.

The powers of mortals were so different to the powers of demons. The average demon could consume and destroy more than a dozen mortals with ease, but when the mortals began to understand their world, when they began to use the powers that were out there, they could do things that demons would find utterly impossible. It would take the power of the devil himself to be able to seal a demon to a location the way that this little mortal had done, and the devil himself would have needed to be sealed by God.

And yet, the mortals could do it on their own. It made them dangerous, but useful.

"Dusk. I called you here for a reason. Do you hear me?" she asked.

"I hear...but I don't...want...to be here!"

Another slash, another cut, another raging burst of Wrath. The walls shuddered around them, but the circle and the hall itself contained the power, kept it from spreading through the outside world.

A favor for a Mage Hall was never better given, she thought. Here, he cannot be felt. Here, he cannot be found. Here, I am in control...

For now. For now. For now.

There were too many ways that the rules could be twisted, particularly by one that had the power to twist reality itself, the way that Dusk did. She had to move fast, faster, fastest before Mercy sensed this, for she had no doubt that the tigress was the one responsible for this rage.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Nnnngh...everything...went...WRONG!"

She braced herself against the pulse, drawing on the power of the Hall itself, of the sins that were in the construction of it. The mortals were always leaving hints of their Pride in the world, whether in the construction of the different buildings that they made or the books that they created, or the limited teachings that they were able to accomplish, or just about anything else. She could draw on it, strengthen herself, make herself powerful enough to stand against just about anything.

And that was what she did, holding out against the pulses of Wrath that were coming from her monarch, even if he chose not to acknowledge it.

"Mercy?" she asked.

"Yes...that bitch...that woman...that fucking woman! She thinks that she can take everything from me? Everyone that I claimed, everything that I want!"

"She stole your people."

"She hurt them! She tried to kill -"

"But she hasn't succeeded?"

"It doesn't matter! She came close. Too close. I can't let that happen again. I have to kill her. I have to hurt her. I have to -"

He was building up to another explosive pulse, another world-shattering blast of Wrath. The circle hadn't cracked yet, but it was strained, bent, and she knew that it wouldn't take much more of that without starting to show real damage. No matter how well-drawn it was, no matter how much effort that the mortal had put into it, all it did was give her time. Whether through a quick, incisive cut, or through a series of beatings, it could still theoretically fall, and Dusk was hacking away with more power than she had felt for far too long.

The lioness gritted her teeth, not liking the implications. Mercy had taken something, but more than just Dusk's people. She had taken his mind, his focus, and left him with nothing but the rage at what had happened to sustain him. The Wrath of the devil...something that no mortal would be able to take.

She had to shake him from it, and there was only one way to do that.

Selene stepped across the circle, marching right up to the furious feline. She looked him in the eye as she approached him, her head tilted back, her eyes narrowed.

And then, she slapped him.

The sudden crack filled the air with a strange silence right afterward, a silence that was then filled with the rushing of her heart, the beating of it, the pulsing of her blood through her ears and around her skull. She could hardly believe that she had just done that, but she could not stop there.

With a hiss, she grabbed him by the jawline, forcing him to look up at her.

"Do you understand what she has done to you?"

"You...hit me..."

"I have reminded you of what you are."

"I...am..."

"You are the Devil. You have the chance to become the second Satan, but if you carry on like this, you will lose everything."

"I will take back everything! I will teach her -"

"That you are a mewling, roaring kitten, and nothing more," she said, holding tight to her own pride and leaning her head back, looking down her nose at him. "Look at yourself. Lashing out like a child at anything that is in reach. Nothing is safe from you. Nothing has a chance to survive when you are like this. What is this accomplishing? What does this show, save that you are a kitten that knows nothing of control.

"Look at yourself, again. Look at what you are. Tell me, what use is this to the Throne of Hell? What use are you if you cannot control yourself? What chance do you have against the daughter of God if you cannot hold yourself together?"

Dusk growled, but he didn't strike back, nor did he lash out. If anything, he seemed to be slowly coming back to himself, dragging himself out of the depth of that darkness. Selene didn't allow herself to feel relief. That would make her look like she was lying, that she was serving some other end.

No, she had to push it.

She sunk her claws in, digging them through his black fur right down to the skin. He hissed at her, his rage shifting, but she refused to let go.

"You are supposed to be the Devil. You have his soul. Stop behaving like a kitten. Where is your pride?"

He was still seething, but the black cracks in reality around his fingers slowly began to fade as she berated him. It was no longer the building Wrath that held him, but something else, something that had been wounded under it and was finally coming up for attention. She felt it in him as she would have felt it in anyone else: Pride.

He was hurt. He had been in control, and his Pride was hurt. Now, he remembers some of what he is. Now, he remembers what he needs to be, what he needs to do. That will help...not completely, but somewhat.

"...What do you want, Selene?" he said, his voice flat, but no longer vibrating with that same anger, that seething rage. "I had something that needed doing."

"Yes. You were off to try and harm Mercy."

"You know what she did, now."

"I have an inkling, but do you know why she did it?"

"Besides trying to make me do as she says?"

"That is her goal. Do you know what her father's goal is?"

"..."

"That is what I thought. You were thinking too close to the now. You must think forward, or your ambitions will mean nothing."

"What are you doing, Selene? What do you want?"

"I want to make sure that the only hope that Hell has ever had doesn't die out."

She gestured for him to wait, leaving the circle and returning with a pair of chairs. She sat in one, and he took the other. Not surprised that he still looked rather unhappy, she got comfortable, crossing her legs and making sure that she had the proper position for a longer lecture before continuing.

"You are a powerful man, Dusk, but you would never be able to harm her."

"I could ensure that she never gets what she wants."

"Correction. You would ensure that she doesn't get one thing that she wants. By giving up on one, she gains the other."

"Ugh...you're talking in riddles. What do you mean?"

The cracks were returning. She had to shift him, to push him to a different direction before it was too late. Selene hid the fear running through her, hid the worries of what might happen if she failed, and forced herself to look him directly in the eye.

"I will explain that in a moment. Do you have your soul with you?"

He nodded.

"Why haven't you merged it with yourself?"

"Because you gave it to me. I assumed that there was a trick involved, particularly when you implied that, as you put it, 'all gifts have barbs.'"

The lioness rubbed her forehead. She had been trying to warn him against the other gifts that were coming, assuming that he would take it as it had been meant. It was a moment of stupidity on her part, where Pride in a line had blinded her from seeing the other implications that it had. She had to look out for that in the future.

"I apologize for the misunderstanding. But it is crucial that you blend your soul with that of the devil's, and soon."

"It is a mortal soul. It will weaken me."

"No. It will keep you alive."

"..."

The way that he looked at her, Selene knew that he didn't believe a word that she was saying, and no surprise there. He had been surrounded by those that wanted to flatter him, those that wanted to push him, manipulate him, do anything that they could to make sure that he was their creature.

Then there was Mercy, who had taken it further, making him feel threatened from all directions. She had to do something to break that, and now.

"Do you know that there are only two other mages that have managed to take the soul of a demon?"

"...I have heard the legends, yes."

"Do you know what happened to them?"

"..."

"I will assume that you don't, despite your great education on the matters of magic."

"I was focused on the hows and whys of spells, rather than the way that the different mages of the past had done."

"You would have been better served to study them, to some extent."

"Then tell me. What have I missed?"

"Your own death."

There. That finally got something besides rage, besides the Wrath that he had been pushing up and down throughout the meeting. Confusion. She could work with confusion. She leaned back in her chair, folding her hands in her lap as she met his eyes.

"The soul of a mortal allows for the blending of vice and virtue. It brings the body into balance with itself, allowing it the power of choice. A demon's soul, however, is nothing but the raging power of the vice itself, unable to change, unable to shift, unable to do anything but reach out and affect all that it touches."

"Even the Pride demons?" he asked with a slight smirk.

"Especially our souls. It demands that there be something worthy of arrogance. Ambition, power, the hunger for control. That all comes from us. And we must spread it, or we feel...wrong."

She shook her head. It was not her time, and it was not the right moment to focus on her. She had to allow Pride to lead her forward, to remember that her Pride in herself must lead her in helping Dusk connect to his own Pride if he wished to live.

"The power of that soul is great, but it destroys any mortal that harnesses it. The other two mages that attempted to hold the power of a demon inside of them - merely a demon, not the devil - were slaughtered by the power of a concentrated sin. They died within two days, each.

"You have held out well, but you are trying to withstand something far stronger. The soul of Lucifer had the concentrated essence of all seven sins. You know Lust, and you know Pride. You know Gluttony, and you know Sloth. You know them well, and you know what you can do with them...but Wrath is out of your control. It bids you strike. It bids you burn. It bids you to forgo everything but the destruction of that which has hurt you."

"...Continue," Dusk said with a slow gesture of his hand.

She nodded. It was getting through to him. It was slowly coming to light what had almost happened. She pushed, hoping that it would be enough.

"Your mortal soul tempers the power of the demonic. It allows the blending that is required for your body to withstand everything that is in the devil's soul. If you do not blend it with his soul...then you will die. There is no denying that, no holding back from it. You will die if you do not do this."

It was the truth, and she hoped that he could see it.

Dusk could hardly believe what he was hearing, but he knew that there was no reason for Selene to lie to him. He had been about to rip through what was left of the world, and he knew for a fact that would have been something that the demons of Hell could have made use of, if they really wanted it. The fact that she had reached out to stop him, that she'd pulled him back and forced him to sit and listen, was a testament to the loyalty that she had for the Throne of Hell, if not for him personally.

He looked down at a ring on his finger, tapping the gem that rested at the top of the band. A bright light emerged, rising up and then taking the form of a ball of bouncing brightness, small, so small compared to the powers inside of him.

What if she's lying?

He didn't know what made him ask that. Long paranoia about the demons of Hell, perhaps, or perhaps there was something about alluring women that he had come to distrust. Either way, the question came, and then it was shaken away.

She could have done nothing. She had come to him and stopped him, and that was all that mattered. He looked at the soul, then at her.

"This will keep me from dying?" he asked.

"You believe me?"

"I can feel it."

And he could, much as he didn't want to admit it. The Wrath had burned through him in a way that he hadn't expected, rushed through his body and cut through, wormed through his lungs and heart. It had burned him, left him scarred inside.

Not physically, perhaps, but enough for him to feel the weakness that was coming under the anger. It was holding him up, keeping him going, but like a berserker rather than anything else. He could still fall, if he ran out of anger.

And Mercy...she probably has a way to do that...

"It will save you," Selene confirmed.

He nodded.

Dusk closed his eyes, bringing the glowing ball of his soul against his chest, letting it rest there between his pectoral muscles. He could feel them twitching in response to the soul that pulsed and glowed between his fingers, and he could feel the soul of Lucifer responding, too, trying to pull away.

The soul of the devil...was afraid.

He shook his head, slowly pushing the ball of light more and more firmly against him. The darkness that was the devil's soul pulled back, trying to make room for the soul of a mortal inside of him, but the light burned inside. It wasn't the cleansing light of Heaven, but rather the curious, inquisitive light of a darting fae thing, moving in and out of caverns, looking for something new.

And in the darkness, it found more than something new.

The soul of the devil was pulled forward, and Dusk almost fell right off his chair, gritting his teeth as he felt a new, sudden pain. For a moment, he wondered if Selene had lied to him, after all.

Then, it changed.

Oh, there was still pain. There was still much pain, rippling through his chest and coming out in muscle spasms and worse. There were things that hurt there, little clenches, little tightness and other things that made him groan in utter agony, but it was on the physical level rather than the spiritual.

Inside, things were...changing. It felt like...like there was something becoming complete again. Like all the power that he held finally had a place to go rather than being a storm of utter destruction and chaos inside of him. The darkness, the sins, were met by something that could contain and channel them, and he let out a long, slow breath as he felt that pain slowly filter away, becoming something different, something better. Understanding, ruefulness, wisdom, in a way.

It was all still there, the pain and the anger, but it was the difference between a bomb tightly contained in a haphazard package and one that had a chute through which the explosion could go. It would still be explosively used, but it no longer had the chance to rip him apart.

Dusk took a few deep breaths as he settled back on the chair, opening his eyes to see Selene staring at him. He smiled slightly.

"You were right. It fixed things."

"Of course I was right," she said, nodding. "I am Pride. I am never wrong."

"Except where Lucifer was concerned?"

"My one mistake. I still take Pride in the fact that I have made so few."

"Heh...ow." He groaned, holding his side. "Okay. Going to take a little while for everything to heal...but then...then I have to go after Mercy."

"And allow her to accomplish her other goal?" Selene asked, tapping her foot. "I thought that you would be better focused now."

"...I have nearly torn myself apart four times in the last month. I think I can be forgiven for forgetting a detail or two."

"Ours is not the business of forgiving."

"I suppose not." He groaned, rubbing his forehead as he sat back in his chair. "Alright then. What does she want? If she doesn't want me, what is her goal?"

"Armageddon."

He stared at the lioness, blinking twice. Mercy might have threatened using that a few times to try and get him to behave - he remembered that quite well, and it was one of many reasons that the capricious tigress had pissed him off - but he hadn't thought that she might be pushing him to actually go through with it.

"That...can't..."

"It has been one of their ways of keeping control for a long time," Selene said, shaking her head. "It was why Lucifer very seldom left Hell. It was known that she could make him so angry that he would push himself further than he should, and if they ever needed an excuse to destroy the mortal world, they would have it. Armageddon triggered by the devil attacking a major force of Heaven."

Dusk thought about it, and the more that he thought about it, the more angry he became. The only thing that kept him from utterly losing it was his blended-in mortal soul, something that he was becoming ever more thankful for. It grounded him, held him, kept him from getting lost in the rage.

It was perfectly sensible, now that he thought about it. It was a way of having the ultimate leverage. A foe that was too strong to be beaten, but too infuriating to avoid attacking. It kept the enemy of Heaven in the other world, unable to do anything but tempt mortals from a distance rather than interacting with them and telling them the truth of Heaven.

And now, Dusk had come along and taken the devil's soul. While Mercy quite possibly still wanted him for herself, there was every reason for the tigress to keep to the old plan. And just because Armageddon was triggered didn't mean that she would lose her access to him. She'd just have a harder time holding him.

And if she did get him, he'd have nothing left to fight her with. The mortals would be gone, Hell would be ravaged, and he would be helpless.

Truly, a losing proposition.

The black cat took a few deep breaths, tapping his chin as he thought it through. There were other implications, too, reminders of the horrible callousness of Hell. This was something that obviously worked on Lucifer, but why change it with it shifting over to him?

Mercy, obviously, wanted to have him on her side, to take him in and make him into...something. Unless the whole thing was a lie, but he doubted that even she could justify telling that many lies. And with the shift of the soul of the devil into a mortal...they did have the chance to try and turn him...

But did they know about the deaths of the hosts before?

They probably did, and if he hadn't completely lost his temper, there might have been some angel or other that would have come to him, offering a deal for survival. So, there would have been the possibility there, right at the end, for Heaven to gain the power of the devil on their side once more, under blackmail.

A neat little box, all tidy and everything...

He would have growled at it if he didn't admire the sheer technique that they had used to pull it all together. Dusk had known that Heaven was far more...sleezy with its dealings than most mortals would have believed, but this surprised even him.

"Armageddon has not happened, but if Mercy does not get an answer, she might trigger it purely out of spite," Dusk said.

"You can't fight her. Even now, she's stronger than you are."

"I know."

And that galled, but he had to be realistic about things. If he wasn't, then he would just fuck it up again.

Patience. Patience and cunning, as ever.

For all that Mercy had this going the way that she wanted, there was one last card to play. He knew that there were many different powers in the world, many different eldritch beings. He had learned of them during his time mastering black magic, and he knew that there were other powers than Heaven and Hell in the game.

They just had to be invited.

"If we cannot fight her directly, we'll have to do it indirectly."

"You have a plan," Selene said without a shadow of a doubt.

"I have...the beginnings of a plan."

"Be better than that."

"I have a way to knock Mercy flat on her ass, and she'll never see it coming."

"Better," the demon of Pride said, nodding her head. "What do you need from me?"

"This mage hall, for now. Do you have to give it back anytime soon?"

"It is mine for as long as I require it."

"That will make the summoning and contact easier..."

Nodding to himself, the black cat got out of his chair. It felt...strange, all of a sudden, to not be so overwhelmed by the various sins that he had been carrying around. Not the guilt of them, but the power. It was like he had been given some extra capacity, new strength, something that allowed the storms to build and blow inside of him without rattling the frame quite so much. He no longer needed to distract himself to keep from losing his mind to the powers of those sins.

It was a nice change.

He reached down to the chalk lines on the floor, buffing it out a bit. Now that he was part mortal again, he felt more himself, more akin to what he should be, but he was also no longer bound by the summoning magic that had pulled at the other part of his soul.

The ring that had held it was no longer needed, but he kept it on. It felt...better, he supposed, to have something physical to continue to anchor it. Maybe he would find a way to be without it one day, but for now, it seemed to aid the process.

But that was for another time.

She still has Andrew and Peter. She thinks I have two options...I guess she forgot about our talk in the café.

He had told her that there was one more bundle of power in the universe, and it was time to give them their invitation to the party. Dusk walked across the room, pulling on a combination of his eldritch power and the great wealth of energy that was the soul of the devil. It would require both for something like this.

All those cultists were onto something, though I doubt they ever realized just how powerful the guy they were shouting at is, he thought. Well...time to see if Cthulhu still does legal work...

The End

Summary: Selene, sensing the power of the devil rising, rushes to keep it from rushing out of control. The lioness manages it, but now has to keep Dusk from blowing himself up and taking the rest of reality with him.

Tags: No sex, worldbuilding, calming down, anger, rage, devil, magic, fantasy, modern fantasy, series, lioness, cat, feline,