was Adam's second time experiencing it, many of those who made it to heaven had also experienced that empty blackness after something happened to you. It was strangely peaceful just you in the darkness waiting for the end to come.
"I guess this is how it ends" Adam said out loud, he was remembering several important moments of his long life, several happy ones, many others more painful but strangely he didn't feel so hurt or angry about the last ones, he simply let himself be carried away by the darkness while he accepted his situation or at least that was what he was doing until it bothered him somewhat.
An echo of someone impossibly familiar and at the same time impossible to completely identify, he wanted to ask who was there but he just remained motionless until he heard it clearly. A voice "Dear" was feminine and distant but above all grotesque almost as if the woman was a monster with a throat full of blood and pus that forced herself to speak. Even so, he recognized her, he had spent too much time longing for the owner of that voice not to do so, "Eva!?" He turned quickly but only saw emptiness.
Just as he was thinking that maybe it was just some kind of mental trick from hell he heard another voice, and another, and another. This time he didn't quite recognize them but each one left the monstrous imitation of his wife in shame.
"My child" heard from a woman one of the few times he heard a voice that was God himself, 2 other times it also manifested itself.
"Nephew" Equally powerful, one was more monstrous than his wife's and the other was the most absolute neutrality... The last thing he heard was not a voice... It was almost like a melody of cosmic and distant strings that had some deep and personal meaning that for some reason moved him in a profound sense.
Suddenly the comfortable and dark emptiness began to feel uncomfortable, at this change Adam began to shake violently as if he were drowning while he tried desperately to climb up, the first man climbed through the darkness and climbed until he saw a small light, when finally Adam put his hands in the light, he opened his eyes and the first thing he felt was pain, a large and sharp one that sank deep into his flesh, the second was the disgusting smell of blood that mixed with the ammonia and sulfur typical of hell.
And the third was the dim lighting of hell that revealed his body being devoured by cannibals, those devouring him perished noticing the change in both their food and the atmosphere around them. Only one was able to turn around before his lower jaw flew off his body, "Bastard, that hurts!!!" the first man screamed before bursting into another cannibal this time sinking his hand hard through his stomach retrieving one of his missing pieces of flesh, "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!!" He began to scream as he put the piece of meat on his body that surprisingly fused back with the rest of his body, his guts hung slightly but he put them back in place while he tore off a piece of cloth from his suit to seal the wound and complained that the cannibals who were nearby devouring the angels had stopped, moans of pain were common in hell so normally hearing them from the cannibals would not have caused them a great desire to hunt and the pleasure of feeling the suffering of another being. But this was different, the being that produced those noises was not distressed, fearful or weak. It was simply furious and that fury was fucking dangerous.
Adam's golden-pupiled eyes looked out into the room and he saw his girls lying in ruins. The man's anger was so palpable that it could almost be felt literally, but it was interrupted by one last burst of pain, this time from his head. Adam felt his skull deform, he wondered for a second what was happening, but the next he understood. They were horns.
Before he could continue processing that, another stranger and more intense one struck him again, starting with his head but spreading to his entire being. He knew he had fallen like many other angels before him, like the bastard who ruined his life. He had heard and even seen the process of falling several times but he never saw what followed.
In his head, lacking its classic golden halo, another one hovered in its place. It was the same shape but red and with some parts broken. What was it? What did it mean? That would matter to him later, he told himself as he landed on the bodies again. The cannibals had wisely fled to his surprise.
Before he could process that further, another stranger and more intense one struck him again. It started in his head but spread to his entire being. He knew that he had fallen like many other angels before him, like the bastard who ruined his life. He had heard and even seen the process of falling several times but he had never seen what came next. The first man tore off his robe revealing that despite what it looked like underneath his clothes he was extremely athletic and marked, as you would expect from the stereotypical image of a warrior but exaggerated strange and old scars formed on his skin as if he had been dragged by a storm of teeth, whatever way he made his way to the body of his nearest girl he tore the fabric of her exorcist uniform and merged it with his own forming a large sack where he put his girl's body he repeated this over and over until he could be seen in that part of the battlefield it was a masked man (plain exorcist mask not his own) in only underwear wearing a large gray sack that left yellow blood stains where he was dragged.
And so it continued throughout the land, he would not let any of his daughter's bodies be further desecrated than they already had been by those damned sinners. He knew they would see it and it would be a disadvantage in the future but he could not care less and there in that cursed situation. He began to sing.
Before he could process that further, another stranger and more intense one struck him again. It started in his head but spread to his entire being. He knew he had fallen like many other angels before him, like the bastard who ruined his life. He had heard and even seen the process of falling several times but he had never seen what followed.
"Standing and defiant, Like I always lived. Let it be clear in your minds, That I never gave up." And he sang as he picked up the last body.
At the end of that melancholic and pathetic song there was only one spectator, Vagatha the traitor looking at him with a mixture of emotions on her face, all of them negative. Adam quickly took off his mask to confront her. She returned a look filled with a deep hatred that she didn't know she was capable of while her hands lit up. Was he still capable of throwing lightning? Could he kill her with how weakened he was? Maybe he could cripple her with lightning and break her neck before she went for the monster he had as a girlfriend.
In the end he chose not to do anything, he spat on the ground a strange mixture of red and gold blood with mucus from which flowers came out when they fell to the ground.
"Slut"
And the first man put his mask back on to continue dragging the sack of his daughters' bodies across the horizon of Pentagram City.Maybe it was a mistake? Lute had taken his halo before checking his body, he knew that without it an angel could not be identified.
Maybe it was a curse? Some fallen angels, noble demons and other bastards may be resentful of him. He was their sworn enemy, many wanted him dead or worse.
There was a terrifying, more plausible theory floating around in his mind that he had committed a great sin, one big enough to erase all his years of faithful service and good deeds, but he denied that possibility only because he couldn't think of anything.
"Maybe angels do make mistakes, if not your king Lucislut wouldn't be rotting in this pit" Adam said to a sinner as he sat thoughtfully on a chair filled with 5 sinners.
"Please ignore me!!! You're too powerful, just ignore me!!" The incubus-like sinful demon begged. Adam just ignored him and continued paraphrasing while with a red ray of infernal energy he incinerated the sinner.
He was not instantly crushed like when he was the leader of the exterminators, the sinner screamed in agony and even after being burned Adam noticed that he was still writhing.
"I'm sorry about that, buddy, I'm weak," he said as he quickly lowered himself to step on his head to end his agony.
Enjoying the fear and suffering of sinners was carte blanche within the exorcists, artificially extending their agony was left to the bastards below, proud of retaining a bit of morality even in a shithole like that, he grabbed his sack of heavenly meat and walked back towards the horizon leaving the pile of corpses behind him, after 3 more piles the normal sinners stopped trying to mess with him.
*At the hotel*
"Honey, I'm telling you that we have a big problem," Vaggie told Charlie, clearly nervous.
"Vaggie is breathing, he's weak, fallen, and he's surrounded by people who hate him," said the princess, trying to calm her down.
"In fact," she seemed to consider what she was going to say for a second, "Maybe he'll even consider coming here."
All the hotel guests looked at her in unison as if she were crazy. Upon noticing this, her gaze darkened and she clenched her fists. "I know it's hard to accept. After all the damage he caused, I can't even say that I don't hate him right now." Some tears fell from her face remembering what Adam had taken from her. He had killed her second resident (Or at least that's what she thought) and her precious childhood pet. The wounds were too recent for her to overcome.
"But if someone truly repentant seeks refuge in my hotel, I won't deny it," she said firmly.
"Everyone out there wants him dead anyway, I bet some overlord is already sucking him off for protection right now" Angel said trying to ease the tension in the atmosphere but only received uncomfortable looks.
In the hotel they were talking about their post-victory situation Adam was outside a building that seemed abandoned he was watching how what seemed to be a canine-looking being was cooking in a greenish fire while holding an axe apparently made of celestial steel and around the building a bunch of bodies of mustelid demons all dressed up.
While normal sinners could already feel an aura of danger around the first man that warned them that just getting close was an idiocy this aura for powerful mafia lords and budding overlords was not a big deal so they were still trying to hunt him down.
"I want you to know that this is the end of the road for you and it's your fault," Adam warned the dying mobsters who were letting out incoherent moans of pain, as he cut off a piece of flesh from the hellhound.
He tried it and his face wrinkled "Really disgusting, but it's better than falling into cannibalism" he shrugged, soon there was nothing left of the humanoid canine, after finishing his dinner Adam went to sleep for the first time since his new hellish life, sleeping in heaven was something unnecessary but refreshing, on the other hand sleeping in hell was an obligation of the body, and every minute of sleep that was not achieved was punished with great exhaustion the next day.
Perhaps tiredness was what made Adam fall asleep quickly despite the smell of sulfur and the multitude of distant noises.
Adam was running through a dark field, he was clearly tired and on his face you could see desperation personified but it wasn't from fear, it was from rage, soon his surroundings became deformed they were no longer just shadows now they were bodies that continued to pile up, but he ignored them as if they were things that didn't deserve his time, in front of him in the distance he continued to observe it, it was a place, a beautiful one similar to the one where he was born and that would never return but at the same time it seemed primitive more like an Eden made in the times of Pangea.
The bodies stopped falling at his sides and began to fall in front of him trying to block his path, even so he didn't give any of them any importance for a second, he just wanted to follow the light and continue to the garden but there were too many bodies.
The ex-exorcist woke up with a start, it took him a few seconds to remember that he was simply dreaming, he took a moment to reflect until his gaze fell severely on the sack of meat of his dead daughters... He looked at it and looked at it until he made a decision and walked up to it.
"God and your dogs... and also you, whatever you are, I apologize in advance for the shit I'm going to do now and later, you know I'm not going to let it end this way and you know that from here on out the shit will only go downhill" he said out loud as he took several celestial bodies and piled them on the floor, then he made a circle of angelic blood and his own blood with 2 giant A's inside the circle.
"Whoever you are, whoever sees and judges this, enjoy the show" with a forced smile materializing Vaggie's halo preparing to use her powers in ways she had never imagined doing again.
Screams of effort could be heard outside the building, they were coming from Adam and completely drowning out the noises around him. They were only heard during the first 30 minutes of the process, the rest was carried out more or less in silence.
After several hours Adam had finished his task, he put on an exorcist mask, a skirt of celestial steel, his humble axe and his jacket before flying out, next stop cannibal Town.It's incredible that even though you were waiting for me, you bunch of shit-eating bastards couldn't have a little respect" said Adam as he carefully proceeded to tear off the sharp fangs of a cannibal who could only cry and scream while this happened many of his companions just watched from afar, they could feel the danger of the first man and his anger those who had not been so cautious and tried to attack him had paid dearly Adam had broken and separated their jaws.
He had killed millions of sinners over millennia, he knew where to aim although the reduction of power had long since ceased to be redundant and his amplification made him have to dust off old techniques.
After the cannibal fainted from the pain and stopped writhing, he let go, "Whoever wants to share the fate of these bastards, step forward." No one moved until Adam spoke again, "I thought so, now tell me where your boss is, and this will end without conflict." The answer was the same as before, but this time he was not grateful for the silence.
"Come on, tell me, did the devil eat your tongue? I promise I won't kill her, I admit that it is deserved and I would love to." He said this last thing leaning on his axe as if it were a cane and with a sinister tone.
Before the first man got tired and began to walk through the buildings, a cannibal spoke, "And who are you to demand that?" She was an old-fashioned looking woman who carried a cane, despite her appearance, Adam could clearly feel it, she was stronger than the rest of the cannibals.
"You slaughtered us relentlessly since always!! And now that we defeated you, you want to talk to us? No wonder you finished us off here!!" Susan said out loud.
Adam looked at her, he was honestly somewhat impressed and angry at the same time, "First of all, it was your king Lucislut who defeated me, not you, and second, I wanted to be civilized, but I see that you savages only understand one law," he said as he raised one of his hands and began to condense red energy. The cannibal sinners could see how the air around his hand began to concentrate and spin. It was clearly a powerful attack, and they remembered with horror how their enemy had previously been able to split a mountain in two with a similar attack. The difference in power was clear. Whoever received that attack would die, even if they were resurrected, they felt that their soul would be very hurt.
"They only understand the law of the strongest" He said with contempt before a female voice rose
"Enough" Rosie appeared in the crowd and Adam could see her better, a woman of about 30 or 40 well preserved, eyes completely dark like a shark and pale skin Adam held back the urge to let out a sigh of disappointment when he quickly recapitulated that she was one of the overlords involved in his downfall, he had killed hundreds of thousands of overlords perhaps millions in his years as head of the exorcists, many more evil, more powerful and more impressive.
There was an awkward silence between the two as Adam pondered what Rosie had broken "So what do you want", "Ah, just talk" the first man replied letting go of his attack "Preferably in private" surprisingly the overlord just nodded before leading her strange guest through the cannibal quarter to her personal tent, all the while Adam looked at his surroundings with disdain not so much disgust, he had seen much worse things over the millennia compared to many, the cannibal quarter was nothing more than a children's show.
They eventually arrived at the fancy cannibalism tent, Rosie made everyone in the place look at each other and they sat down.
"So what do you-" Rosie barely said anything when she was brutally cut off.
"Look bitch, I usually love to beat around the bush, but I'm tired and full of rage right now, so let's get down to the fucking point. I want to make a deal, let's put in the conditions that if I lie to you blatantly my soul will automatically be yours." There were all kinds of emotions in her voice: contempt, contained rage, malice and strangely the feeling of having had an attack of honesty so brutal that it would even be painful in hell, however Rosie, smelling the imminent danger and the opportunity to have a powerful soul in her control, accepted the conditions prior to the real deal.
"And what is the deal, darling, what am I supposed to do and what is my reward?" She asked, still maintaining her image of a nice lady.
"You see, even though I was defeated, heaven itself doesn't believe me darling when I tell you that I'm sure they'll be back and to be frank I don't have the slightest idea of who will replace me" he shrugged his shoulders, his soul was still his so he wasn't lying, Rosie could feel it in her soul.
"It could be someone almost as powerful and much more merciful than me, or on the contrary the next extermination could be carried out by someone much more powerful and cruel, your servant, but one thing is certain, dear, they will know that you and your people were involved and they will be the first to pay for their audacity both as a message and for convenience" the prospect of someone much worse than that monster that hunted them for countless years and that had in fact ended up in hell was bad enough to give Rosie a chill especially knowing that what the first man said was still true.
"And what do you offer me?"
"A possible escape route" he said bluntly
"Possible?"
"As I told you, I have no idea who the next commander will be, depending on which one he will surely listen to me even if he is now a fallen one and he will let you and me go, perhaps ending some of your stories as a facade but you will still be powerful, if it is one of the brutal ones I will simply die with you or more possibly I will end up worse than you, but it is your only real possibility apart from of course involving the princess"
"And what do I have to give you in exchange?" Rosie asked curiously.
"A life of my choosing. You will have to give me the life and soul that I choose."
Rosie was visibly bitter and confused, clearly incredulous of such a deal with clear small print. She was an overlord who knew this kind of thing by heart, however, the conditions for the deal established that Adam could not lie, so a question was enough to dispel his doubts.
"Are you lying?"
"No. Now do you accept the deal or are you going to keep wasting your breath?" He extended a golden contract in exchange for Rosie to sign, and after thinking about it for a while she did.
"And what is the life and soul that you want me to give you?" she asked suspiciously.
The masked man reached into his macabre sack and pulled out a disgusting ball and mass of pulsating flesh between golden and pale, some feathers and pupil-less eyes sprouted from it. Two contradictory thoughts formed in the woman. On the one hand, the purest horror she had felt in decades and on the other, true fascination.
"This" the masked man answered for the first time in their entire conversation with true happiness as he watched golden chains form around the woman.
The next thing that was heard were screams that echoed throughout the neighborhood, and in its residents the clear feeling of something bad happening to the owner of their souls. Things got worse when several cannibals felt their souls burning, that happened when an overlord used an excessive amount of power, he simply used the souls of some of his slaves as fuel.
The scene inside the place was much worse. Rosie was in her full demonic form, maybe four meters tall, chained to the ground with golden chains and her belly was swollen in an unnatural way. It was clearly painful as she tried to free herself like a maddened beast, but it was useless. When her belly reached its maximum point, a golden light began to shine there and then rose from there, what seemed to be a girl came out. When this girl materialized, the swollen belly disappeared and only a normal Rosie remained, exhausted and panting, with her clothes and place destroyed.
The light that surrounded the girl disappeared and she fell, being caught by Adam, who immediately after took off his mask to observe her well. She was at least a teenager, pale skin like candle wax, a black halo adorned her head and in general she looked like a younger version of her mother.
The overlord, still in shock, was finally able to see the face of the one she had made a pact with. He looked so... happy. A warm and compassionate smile appeared on his tired face, transmitting only tenderness. Far from calming her, this only made her even more alert, and she retreated to a corner of the place, cornered like a poor, defenseless woman, but she was only ignored.
The girl let out a few light sobs before her apparent father sat down on one of the few pieces of furniture that hadn't been destroyed and what he did left Rosie in shock, the man concentrated energy on one of his claws and ripped deeply into the veins of his arm causing red blood with light golden tones to run into the girl's mouth, who drank the blood first timidly, then voraciously for a few moments her expression showed glimpses of pain but quickly changed to her paternal expression, "Take it easy, my little Carina dad is tired" as she finished her words for the first time the teenager opened her eyes while she had expected the deep dark shark eyes typical of her people but instead they turned out to be a dark yellow, somewhat metallic.
"Dad" he said, perhaps he tried to say it with tenderness but his voice was clearly guttural and unnatural, but that didn't stop Adam from enjoying it, he tore off a blanket to make some improvised clothing and grabbed a mask to put on Carina before putting his own back on.
"Well Rosario, you kept your part of the deal, I will do everything in my power in the future to avoid your heavenly punishment, oh and say hello to the princess for me" the first man calmly left the premises and took off with a mysterious young woman in his arms.
The exterminator's anger had calmed down and a new rumor spread like wildfire in Pentagram City, there was an extremely powerful fallen man who was seeking revenge.