⚠️☯️ ＷＡＲＮＩＮＧ ☯️⚠️
🔥 The following chapter contains references to Christian,
Judeo-Christian demonology and Chinese mythology 🐉. It also
touches on spiritual themes that may be sensitive 💀 to some
readers.
✝️ The author does not seek to offend or question any faith 🙏,
regardless if the reader is Christian, Satanic theist 😈, Taoist 🕉️,
Confucian 📜 or another belief.
📖 Everything narrated here is fiction.
Discretion is advised.
🖋️🌙 ＡＵＴＨＯＲ'Ｓ ＮＯＴＥ 🌙🖋️
You have no idea how much research I had to do 📚 to write this.
Even though the idea already existed 🌌, I wanted to do it with
respect and without ignorance 🕯️.
I just try to give my best 💫.
✨ Enjoy the chapter, folks. 😎🔥
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The branches shook with a muffled roar.
The wind dragged leaves, dust, and invisible presences.
It seemed as if the entire vault of Zhuang marched to the
rhythm of an army hidden in the shadows.
May 29, 1964
The air became heavy, electric, charged with death.
The day went out suddenly, as if an eclipse had swallowed the
entire sky. The colors of the landscape turned to ash in the
face of what approached.
Frollam raised his staff. The wood vibrated, alive.
A faint light ran through the runes that wrapped around it.
"He's here," he said. "Let's see what he has to tell me."
A deep creak ran through the earth.
First, a barely perceptible tremor; then, a pulse that made the
roots, the stones, and the very air vibrate.
Amid the murmur of the vault, a legion of demons emerged.
Their steps shook the ground, causing leaves to fall and branches
to crack. They advanced slowly, solemnly, as if remembering a
war.
They surrounded the vault of Zhuang completely.
The air smelled of iron and sulfur, damp and suffocating.
Each creature dragged centuries of hatred with it,
and the vault seemed to hold its breath at their presence.
Among them, three colossal shadows.
The first, with a human body, but also of tiger, bear,
and boar. Covered in gray, stone-like fur that absorbed
the light. Its gaze was pure contained rage, and each step
thundered like a hammer strike.
The second slithered with brutal elegance. Body of a
dragon and serpent, metallic scales reflecting the fire
of the abyss. Its human face, beautiful and cruel, cut
through the air like a silent dagger.
One came from the left, the other from the right.
Both were Princes of Darkness: Gong Gong and
Taowu.
But in the center, atop a black wolf with eyes burning
like embers, advanced a distinct figure. The air bent at
its passage, heavy and humid.
The wolf looked emaciated and depraved. Its skin hung
like a corroded cloak, and its eyes glowed with the hunger
of the dead. It was as if death had chosen to ride in life.
The rider was different. A prince from another land,
brought by design or vengeance. At his sides, the
lords of this territory. The shadows bowed before them.
The one in the center, however, was different. Not a
general. He was a scar of the cosmos. One of the
demons who commanded the Cosmic Wars.
His mere presence warped the air. A repulsive stench
emanated from his body, as if the corrupt of the
universe had found refuge in his skin. He had dragon
feet and sword-sized claws.
His appearance was a living blasphemy, the sum of
everything that went wrong in the rebellion. Marked
by his own pride.
On his forehead shone a crude diadem, carved by his
hands, covered with forbidden inscriptions that
breathed.
He had wings… wings that once tried to mimic the
cherubim. But their attempt was a curse. Fire and chaos
had deformed them.
Now they were black, torn, twisted by the environment they hated.
They were the failed echo of the purity that God had granted
at the beginning of time. Yet, their faces still held human beauty.
But their eyes… their eyes were two abysses, where creation
and destruction devoured each other. Before Frollam
stood one of the oldest and most feared princes:
Astaroth, the Prince of Darkness.
The air broke with his arrival. Frollam's legions fell back.
The ground vibrated under the weight of their fear. They knew
that this moment announced a new order in hell.
Heshin remained behind him, silent, not daring to breathe.
Though he was a great duke, his power counted for nothing
against those beings.
The demons following Frollam were wanderers, shadows
without a kingdom. Souls without a banner who had bet
everything on an impossible cause.
And before them, two princes and an archduke of hell rose.
The silence was unbearable. The universe seemed to hold
its breath.
Frollam smiled ironically.
"Well… the whole family is finally together."
"So, what message do you have for me?"
"Did you come to join my legion?"
In the distance, another demon lurked in the shadows,
waiting for the decision of the three archdukes. Then
Taowu spoke. His deep voice made the roots of the earth
tremble:
"You… are the one who destroyed the vault of Zhuang."
The entire jungle seemed to hold its breath.
"If this were part of the Creator," he continued,
"we would not touch it."
But someone released the man who was here… and destroyed
the vault with him.
"It's him, Astaroth," murmured Gong Gong, in a
grave tone.
Frollam responded calmly, as if the threat did not exist.
"Why would three archdukes have to come all the way here
just to challenge me?"
"Where are the others?"
"Where is the Chinese infernal council?"
He smiled faintly.
"This is China, isn't it?
Then why did the prince of the Mediterranean himself
have to come?"
Astaroth raised his hand.
"Silence."
He did not raise his voice; he didn't need to.
The air simply obeyed him.
"I didn't come to negotiate with a necrophage with an
Eris complex."
"I come only as an executioner."
The atmosphere grew dense, as if a thick mist—born
from the ominous scent of Astaroth—slithered
throughout the place.
"I heard a human achieved a kind of aberrant immortality,
even for us."
His eyes scanned the body Frollam occupied.
"That man was mine."
"A useful piece.
And you destroyed him… along with his soul."
"His name was Seneferu, a good man."
"To establish order among our domains, one must
understand that humanity will always need us."
He lowered his gaze, like observing an insect.
"I don't care about your war.
Nor where you come from, boy."
"A third cosmic war?… It had to be a man.
Only that species would come up with something so
pathetically naive."
Astaroth unleashed a fire of dark flames toward Frollam.
However, the staff coiled in his arms emitted an intense
blue fire, with a glow unlike anything divine and very
different from infernal.
He created a barrier strong enough to coil between his
arms, turning them completely black, protecting his body.
Intrigued, Astaroth dismounted the wolf he rode and
walked directly toward him, unhurried. He stood before
Frollam and tilted his face with a wide margin of
superiority, asking almost ironically:
"Human,
what did you do?"
Frollam replied with icy calm:
"I have done what no one else dares to do.
Not even you."
"I realize one thing, Astaroth."
"I always wanted to meet you, but now that I know you well,
I realize you're just a coward with a Daedalus complex."
Astaroth looked at him like one looks at a freak about to
die, and with a single motion, giving no time to react,
he drove his claws into Frollam's abdomen, hanging him
from his arm, and said:
"Tell me something… where did you find the courage to tell
me I'm a coward?"
"This is the first time I've felt such intrigue toward
your existence."
"So much scandal… all for one man."
Hanging from Astaroth's claws, Frollam lifted his head
defiantly.
"You just insulted me."
"I thought you came to negotiate with me."
Astaroth looked at him with intrigue; his lips drew closer
to his ear.
"Interesting."
"Not only can you not sustain a hypothesis, but your ideas
are founded on nothingness?"
A silence cut through the vault of Zhuang.
Then Astaroth delivered his judgment:
"Look into my eyes
and tell me what you see."
"Depending on what you see,
it will determine the solidity of your soul."
"When you die… or when you
…wake before dying."
Frollam searched desperately for a way out. Heshin
remained trapped in Taowu's arms, and he knew that if he
did not act that very instant, he would die.
He had no more compatible bodies left to transfer his soul.
"I bid farewell to my own… with a kiss,
and to the children of Ghouls I bid farewell with a sight."
He didn't even finish the sentence. Astaroth lifted him
like a rag and smashed him against the vault of Zhuang.
The impact tore a ragged scream from him, and the cosmic
radiation began devouring him instantly, burning his
essence like lit paper.
Any other spirit would have turned to ash in less than a
blink. The only thing stopping Frollam from disintegrating
was his cursed immortality, forcing him to feel every
second of that brilliant torture that consumed him
without killing him.
"You know," Astaroth replied, "I wanted to tell you
about my horrible fall, but… I changed my mind…
I only tell that to men; you don't get permission."
"Didn't you hear what I'm trying to tell you?" said
Frollam.
"I'm telling you all this can work."
"Lucy would listen to me. He would."
Astaroth cut him off coldly:
"Lucy wants you dead.
And God as well.
That's why He sent me."
"He sent me to kill you."
"And I will obey."
"Because I also want you dead."
Taowu said to Astaroth:
"Why don't you kill him already? Don't talk to him."
Astaroth replied:
"Shut up, you incompetent fool. This is your land; the fact
that this trash exists is your responsibility."
Astaroth turned to Frollam:
"When they gave you the staff and blessed you, the truth is
I saw it as a terrible mistake."
"That staff should have been destroyed by our legion
thousands of years ago. How did it end up here?"
"Giving it to a reckless young man was stupid."
"They appealed to mercy.
Now time proves me right."
Frollam was burning inside the vault, his face warping; he could
barely keep his soul and spirit attached to his artificial body.
"I'll ask you again: what made you think you could negotiate
with me?"
"I negotiate with men, not with homunculi."
Frollam responded:
"You're overreacting to all this, aren't you?"
"You're overreacting to everything you're doing to me."
To which Astaroth replied:
"Overreact?"
"Why would I overreact if I hold no grudge against anyone?"
"Resentment is a thing of belialites," spat Astaroth.
Frollam stood on top of the vault and shouted:
"You don't know who you're insulting.
You're standing before your future god."
"I will defeat God and rise above the stars!"
"You disrespected me!
I will not forgive your blasphemies!"
Astaroth watched him in silence.
He approached the vault without touching the ground; floating,
contained. He showed no anger—only a focus that reduced anyone
to nothing. He looked at him like a dying dog and said, coldly:
"Sorry, I didn't hear you."
"Repeat what you said."
"Repeat that stupidity."
Frollam answered with disdain:
"I already said it.
I don't repeat things to idiots."
"And I'll leave you a task: what happens if you fuse a
Tetrahelion with an Omega Nihilum?"
Astaroth was about to annihilate him, but Frollam vanished—
he teleported—before a black claw could reach him.
Taowu stood firm, furious:
"Listen, Astaroth. This is my land. I will defend it."
Frollam reappeared unfazed and looked at him with disdain:
"God will witness my wrath."
"I will rise above the stars to grant freedom."
"Real freedom."
From his hand erupted thousands of arcane circles, coiling
around his arm. With a single motion he hurled a dagger that
buried itself in Taowu's chest. He couldn't pull it out.
Frollam clenched his fist. Taowu fell to the ground;
his spirit twisted, his agony instant.
Astaroth watched the scene, and for the first time his face
was not only disgust: there was a long, calculated silence, like
the crack before a cataclysm. He didn't know—or rather, didn't
want—to answer immediately.
Suddenly, Frollam vanished from the ground. He levitated,
suspended above the earth like a spindle in the night.
Before Astaroth and Gong Gong, one of his servants spoke:
"You attempted to eliminate me."
"I acknowledge it."
"But even so, I offer you my proposal."
"Join me."
"If you do, I will not see you as a threat."
Astaroth looked at him with disdain.
He would not negotiate with a deranged being.
With a sharp gesture he ordered Aimon to surround Frollam.
Gong Gong spoke, his voice like a tide on his lips:
"Enough. He does not beg for mercy; he asks for the beheading."
"I will comply, for what this nefandus has done
demands an end without solemnity."
"Do not mistake my silence for clemency:
you are not forsaken."
"If you felled the demon of knowledge,
then you know the price that rupture exacts."
"If our justice does not consume you, heaven's will."
Frollam replied with steel calm:
"You asked why I thought I could negotiate with you."
"I'll give you two reasons: the first, because I thought
you were smarter;"
"And the second, because… I can kill you."
"Just imagine it…"
"An immortal… killed the demon of knowledge."
Astaroth smiled, calm. Then he spoke, his voice low and heavy:
"That I should see you as my god? A god of earth and water…?"
Astaroth laughed with force and irony:
"No one has made me laugh in so long."
"For that alone, your death will be more grotesque…"
And as the tension grew, the court broke into murmurs,
for no one expected a human—now exhumed—to speak that way.
Gong Gong rushed through the air and seized Frollam's
hands. His face was expressionless, though wounded by
Astaroth's earlier strike. He spoke like a decree:
"To kill you would be a tragedy, if not for the fact
that what dies is the entrails of an eel."
He pulled one of the spines from his arm and drove it
into Frollam's mouth. The spine grew like a thorned
bramble inside him, warping his spirit.
Yet Frollam began to feel better. He regenerated fast, and
as if no wound had ever touched him, he teleported.
He landed in the air, nearly intact, as though he had never
bled, and said:
"Thank you for sharing your knowledge."
He looked at the spine they tried to pierce him with and
added thoughtfully:
"That spine will serve me well if I study it carefully."
Frollam raised his hand in a calm gesture. His gaze was
sharp; his voice, a blade.
"Gong Gong, it pains me to see you like this. I used to
respect you, but now I see you lack vision."
"And you, Astaroth… do you think all my knowledge comes
from you?"
"No."
"All this I achieved because I did what none dared to do:
I defied God for the third time."
"I will wage the Third Cosmic War, and I assure you that half
of Hell will stand with me."
"Because now we actually have a chance."
"God fears me; that is why He sends His angels…"
In the distance, a demon watched every movement.
It was Belial, analyzing: silent, expectant.
"I'm sorry," said Frollam, firm, "no matter how you try
to hunt me, you will never find me."
"And I'll tell you why, Astaroth: because I am will and
freedom made flesh."
Astaroth pointed at him and unfurled his black wings.
He flew swiftly toward Frollam.
"Enough… this thing will die."
Astaroth was about to strike him, but Frollam vanished.
Not even the demon's speed could follow him.
One of his claws, however, grazed Frollam's abdomen
before he disappeared completely.
"Master," said Aimon, "he is traveling through the spiritual world."
"But he moves through the fourth Flumen Spiritus.
He dematerialized; leaving only a spiritual trace."
Astaroth looked at him and said:
"I must return to my land.
Lucy cannot find out about this.
If she does, we will break all balance."
"I came here believing I could control him,
but I must admit this is the first human I've seen
kill an angel."
"Aimon."
"Yes, master."
"Track his trail. Send half of our troops.
I will return with the other half."
Gong Gong watched the smoking ground and murmured:
"He killed Taowu… how did he do it?"
Astaroth looked at him, somber.
"That boy is more dangerous than we imagined.
That is why I opposed God creating a creature
that could evolve… both in body and spirit."
"Gong Gong, listen carefully.
Report everything you discover.
I will send all available assistance."
Meanwhile, Frollam moved through the currents of the
Spiritual World. That world had four levels:
The Asura Level, home to human spirits and souls.
The Hura Level, formed by invisible torrents and rivers of
divine Morak (sap), the currents from which the spirit
and all the universe are made.
But Frollam was not there. He traveled through the
Fourth Level, the currents that connect the vaults.
He had destroyed the previous vault to cross between
these currents freely. Now he headed toward the vault of
Baishral, in Mongolia.
Frollam managed to take Heshin and the staff with him,
but only the three of them escaped. The other demons
were captured by Astaroth.
They landed in the desert. The air was thick, dry, immense.
Heshin screamed his name desperately, while Frollam
panted, exhausted.
"Sooner or later, they would find out," he whispered.
"I knew they would look for me, but I never thought I'd have
the privilege of Astaroth himself coming to me."
He paused, laughing through his teeth.
"Although… I am surprised at how weak he was."
However, Frollam was too weak to do anything else.
Astaroth's claws carried poison.
But it was no ordinary poison: it was spirit venom.
If he did not act quickly, not even the immortality
that Frollam had induced in his body would save him.
And so the hours passed, under the moon. Night had fallen.
Heshin tried to heal him, but could not find a way.
Until an entity appeared. It brought no army; it came alone.
The being was detected by Heshin and Frollam at the same time.
He spoke, his voice calm:
"Calm yourselves. We will say absolutely nothing."
Heshin froze. The entity—in fact, a demon—
took out a card and handed it directly to Frollam.
"The archduke Belial wants to know more about you," he said.
"He is willing not only to heal you, but also help you
fake your death."
"This way, both the archdukes and Hell
can remain stable."
"Also," the demon added, "he wants to know how
you had the crazy idea of challenging God."
"If you accept, you could be our ally in the
Armagedón. It is your only option if you do not
want to be hunted."
The demon stepped back; his voice echoed as if
breaking between reverberations:
"Not even your immortality will save you this time."
Frollam smiled.
"This is what I wanted… I knew it," he whispered.
"I knew they would join the cosmic war.
Demons are idealists."
"Like me.
They know the purpose does not matter as long as
there is freedom for all."
Frollam clenched the card and then destroyed it with
a spark of energy.
"Enough formalities.
Take me to Belial.
Only Heshin and my staff come with me."
The demon nodded.
"At your command."
Frollam took his hand and vanished in blue flames,
leaving absolute silence in the place.
And while all this happened, in the distance one could
see Xiaoxui and the cherub protecting her.
Xiaoxui asked:
"What is happening? Why does my body feel weak?"
The cherub answered:
"Do not look back, girl. Come on, things are moving."
We moved toward the distance, back to the
vault of Zhuang.
The demon Gong Gong kept surveying the place.
One of his men spoke:
"Master, master, report to me."
"Speak," said Gong Gong.
"We found this. There are traces of blood, but this
blood is not normal… it seems artificial."
Gong Gong observed the substance. His voice was a murmur
that resonated like a wave:
"The first time I must admit ignorance…"
"This belongs neither to Heaven nor to Hell."
He paused. He looked into the void.
"Then it is true, Frollam… the one who wanted to
challenge God has died three times here.
And yet, he still breathes on his own."
He let out a faint smile.
"Brave… or foolish. Perhaps both."
He turned to his servant.
"Nie Fan, listen.
This must not stay here."
"I will inform the court of Hell.
In the new Persepolis, below the border of
Turkey, the archdukes' council gathers."
"I will pay a visit."
"I need someone to guard this place."
His gaze hardened like submerged stone.
"Send a message to Lucifer.
Tell him even the barnacle knows how to bite when stepped on."