Chapter the second


A note on names. The names of the denizens of hell and
heaven tell us a lot about them. The higher the ranking (for
example saint peter the ninth) the more powerful they are.

Their names can never be changed they are born with names.
They won’t be as powerful as their names tell them until
they are fully grown; they get these rankings in advance
because time is not a one-way stream in hell and heaven.
Time can be easily manipulated this is evident from birth. 

Another aspect of the ranking is the name itself. There are
the fairly low down ones like Mailakah then there’s the
more powerful names like Gabriel and Peter.

However what few people know are the names of God and the
ruler of hell.  No one knows that god is a woman and most
people have guessed that the ruler of hell is a man, what
most people don’t know is that they also have names. Their
names are Lucifer the first and second.


Lucifer picked up his pace; he wanted to get this angel into
his pure sword as soon as possible. He knew it was a
powerful on and the longer it was in hell the more its power
would wane. He knew that it was three days easy walking to
the closest city. He intended to be there in less than two.


But true to the nature of hell there is always something in
the way. Lucifer felt it coming half an hour before it
arrived. But arrive it did, there was a small wind. It began
to pick up and swirl, like a cyclone. Than as if some one
had put a match to a petrol pump the wind enflamed. A
cyclone of fire but ten feet away from Lucifer gave birth to
a small man. The man was dressed in a robe but not a robe
like Lucifer’s; it was a much fancier robe. With stars,
moons, sequins and precious gem strewn about it. As if to
make the image complete there was a large pointy hat atop
his head. The man spoke through a long grey beard

“Lucifer, I have information that you might find useful”


“Why do you still dress like that? It’s so clichéd, so
what have you got for me Sam?”

“My names Viril and you know it”

“Your names Sam you and I know it, when you speak to me
your Sam not some lame-ass sorcerer. Now are you going to
tell me what you have or not Sam?”

Sam obviously looked grumpy about his name. He’d killed
plenty of people for even saying his real name before,
whether they were addressing him or not didn’t matter to
him. But he knew that he wouldn’t have a chance against
Lucifer.

“Fine have it your way. There’s a newby coming in about
half an hour, she has a lot of potential, I’d like you to
take her under your wing and teach her. She’s going to be
useful to me”

“Why should I give her to you? And why should I take her
in? And you know I either travel alone or in a group. I
refuse to take in only one person.”

“FINE, she’ll be useful to US. That better?” Lucifer
looked a little pleased at making the wizard raise his
voice, “If you don’t take her in then Malficiouse will,
he already has his eye in her. You know what that’ll mean,
more cannon fodder for his siege. You don’t like him at
the best of times and this woman will tip the scales greatly
in his favour. With her he’ll be able to kill your father
and rule all of hell.”

Lucifer seemed to ponder this, with a sigh had replied “Ok
I’ll get her and some others. Where’s she headed?

“A gateway market about a mile due west from here. If you
run you’ll be able to get her before Malficiouse gets his
bid in…Or you could slaughter them and take her. Which
ever works for you”

“So where will you be?”

“That doesn’t matter. Just train her and some others,
and head towards Caralon.”

 With that the sorcerer stepped back into his wall of flame,
as soon as he stepped in them the flames were gone. With
another sigh Lucifer began his journey due west. This was
turning out to be quite an interesting day indeed. 

In his private palace Malficiouse was watching the siege
from a large round crystal inlaid in a table or jet black.
He watched amused as one of his trolls ripped the head off
of an enemy demon only to be stabbed in the back with a
giant blade from another opposing demon. 

At this point one of his servants walked into the room. It
was a small plump human in rags. It was obviously in intense
pain, that’s how Malficiouse liked his minions. He says it
gives them moral. 

“Master, there are several spies back from there rounds,
they say they have some very interesting news
about…the…. err…the Lucifer”

“Send them in.” 
The little man scuttled out of the room and ushered in the
spies. They all seemed to be malformed bats that had brown
three times there original size and learned to walk. The
leader of the trio began to speak when the little man cried
out 

“Ooh thank you ooh merciful master” As has been said
before he believes in pain for motivation, whenever someone
does something right they are rewarded by a few minuets
without pain. 

“Sire we have information about Lucifer sire.” Said the
leader in a nasal voice

“we get on with it, what have you found” snapped
Malficiouse to the sound of screams from the table, a vat of
burning oil had been poured on a large group of his
soldiers. The spies looked down in horror, they weren’t
used to such carnage. They were spies, they killed when it
was necessary but they didn’t much care for mass
bloodshed. 

“Err, we found him wandering in a wood. He has just killed
a fresh fallen angel when we found him. Then that wizard
showed up. He told him about a woman, a newby. He said that
he has to get her before you do sir. He said that if you
were to get her then you’d win the…” but the beast was
cut short.

“Silence I have herd enough, thank you. You shall be duly
rewarded, now go” this put a spin on his plans. He had
indeed herd of her. He had also planned to use her to win
him the siege. He knew that if he wanted to keep her he’d
need to stop or at least slow down Lucifer.  He sat
pondering his position for a good five minuets amidst the
sounds of metal clashing and screams of agony from the
tabletop. He appeared to make a decision. 

He snapped his fingers and there stood above him a mighty
demon, it looked about to chop someone clean in two, it
would have done if it had it’s weapon. “What do you
want?” the new demon snarled

“Now now calm down Augustus, I need a favour.  There’s a
rather powerful man heading to a market, I need him stopped.
Your reward she be at least a fifth of hell all to yourself
as soon as I have won this siege. 

The demon seemed to reach a conclusion. “Deal, where is
he? And I require a unit of twenty elites”

“Fine” Malficiouse waved his hand over the table the
image changed from the carnage to a quite wood through which
the man was walking. “there he is, go to the armoury, get
the new armour and get you elites” 

At this the demon turned and went. 

The slave came back after the demon had gone,  “errm,
master surely you know that he can’t be defeated by such a
measly demon?” the slaves few minuets of salvation had
obviously worn off. 

The demon smiled. “Of course I do, it is what we call
killing two birds with one stone. You see that imbecilic
demon was going to side with the forces of Caralon to try
and topple me. However he will also present a slight
inconvenience for Lucifer, just enough for me to be able to
get the girl”

“But surely you wouldn’t risk getting caught by going
out yourself master?” 

The demon laughed, he was beginning to like this pitiful
human.  “No I won’t be making an appearance but I will
send someone, delivery boy to go get her. He’ll bring her
back to me. It’ll take a few months to train her. Then
I’ll be unbeatable. We all know Lucifer doesn’t like to
play in politics I bet he’ll just carry on roaming the
land looking for a fight.”

Lucifer was only a kilometre away when they attacked. He was
walking in the trees when they jumped down from the trees.
They all seemed to be clad in black leather. Lucifer knew
that it was a lot more than it appeared. That armour was
almost as good as his own. 

But he knew that his sword would slice it easily. But even
as he went for his console the first assassin jumped forward
with a downward slash, quickly Lucifer danced aside and
punched him hard in the side of the stomach. With a
resounding crunch the assassin was thrown into a tree ten
yards away, he hit a particularly thick branch. The man
seemed to fold around the great branch bending in impossible
ways, once he was wrapped around he seemed to keep moving,
the branch had snapped off with the force of him hitting the
branch. If the punch to the gut and the impact with the
branch hadn’t killed him the weight of the branch falling
on him sure did!

Immediately another assassin moved to replace the last one.
Lucifer could tell they weren’t going to let him get a
weapon out. Hand combat it was then. 

This assassin had two side blades. He held them in a reverse
grip so that when he struck they would have much more force
although they would also take a little longer to strike as
well.  The assassin moved to strike but Lucifer was upon him
before he had the chance.

Lucifer strode within his guard blatantly mocking the
assassin for his slow reactions. Quicker than had come
Lucifer thrust his palm into the assassins head forcing it
back so fast that it not only broke but was dangling on his
back, for a moment the assassin could see his companions
behind him, upside down another came to take his place but
the last was kicked harshly into the oncoming assassin. 
The two assassins were thrown into the others, the second
assassin’s head came clean off with the kick, it sailed
through the air and smashed into another assassin. The skull
shattered on his chest killing him and sending shards of
bone flying into the closer assassins. When Lucifer had
regained his composer he willed for the others to attack.
They were more cautious to move in now seeing his true
power. It took at least five seconds for another to approach
him, this assassin ran at him with its curved blade. A
moment before he would have collided with a head height kick
he moved to the Lucifer’s flank and span with his blade to
give it added strength. The sword smashed into Lucifer’s
back, were it crumbled uselessly.

If it had hurt Lucifer he didn’t show it, he also span
with his leg still high in the air and brought it down into
the mans neck. The man folded. Lucifer picked up the dead
mans sword and flung it through the air at another assassin,
it struck him in the chest and carried on pulling the man
from his feet. The blade carried on to stab three more
assassins before it hung reverberating in a tree. 

Only eight assassins stood, or at least stood with out a
sword to keep them there. Neither of them seemed willing to
advance any further. A loud booming laugh emerged from the
trees.  A mighty demon jumped from a thick branch and landed
with a smack that shuck the ground around him.  This demon
was obviously their leader, he stood at an impressive ten
feet tall, he was also clad in the strange leather And a
mask of the same material. However this demon had an axe, a
very large axe with glowing runes on its blade and hilt. 

The demon just sneered, but not at Lucifer, at the
assassins. “you couldn’t even defeat an unarmed Mortal
man? HA and your meant to be Malficiouse best!”

The assassins looked puzzled, one spoke up “we’re not
his best, we are just apprentice assassins. He sent us with
you as a training exercise. His best are the immortals, I
thought you’d know that” 

The demon was enraged “He sent apprentices! I told him I
wanted his best!” With that the demon began to kill them
with powerful swings of its massive axe. Lucifer took this
opportunity to draw his own weapon; again he drew the
gargantuan sword from the console. The demon must have felt
the power radiating off of it as he stopped mid swing
letting one apprentice assassin escape. 

The demon turned slowly to face Lucifer. He was stood with
the blade resting on the ground and his eyes down in
concentration. “What’s wrong little man? That blade to
heavy for you?” sneered the demon

At that Lucifer stood still with his eyes closed, picked up
the blade easily with one hand and quickly pointed it at the
demon. The demon reeled back in surprise, from the looks of
it that blade weighted more even than he could lift. “Ha,
it must be enchanted, it must way a feather for such a
wretched human to be able to lift it so easily” but he
didn’t sound so sure of himself. Like the head demon
earlier his ego had been taken down a peg or three.

“Why don’t you try lifting it then?” asked the
wretched human, he flicked the sword from his hand so that
it cut down into the soil point down, it was almost at
it’s hilt before it stopped. The demon stepped up to the
sword, now he was really worried though. Why would the man
arm the demon with such an immensely powerful weapon?
Nevertheless the demon wrapped its hands around the swords
grip and pulled a little but more than it would take to lift
a feather. The smile was wiped off of its face. The demon
repositioned it’s self and heaved again the sword didn’t
budge. The demon began to sweat. Again it heaved but this
time with all it’s might, the sword moved a fraction of
millimetre!

“Would you like to know my name?”

“No I wouldn’t pathetic human!” he screamed as he
heaved again at the blade. 

“my name” as he spoke he walked forward and wings of
pure black poked through his shoulder blades, they began to
grow. Almost half as big as himself again the wings unfolded
and began to flap aimlessly. “is Lucifer…Lucifer the
third” 

A look or horror spread across the demons face, it tried to
run like the rejuvenated angel before it. But Lucifer was
quick, quicker than any demon or angel could ever be. The
mighty wings flapped and he took flight, he swooped down and
grabbed his sword pulling it easily from the ground. 

“Writhe in pain stupid demon!” screamed Lucifer as he
dived at the retreating shape, he slashed it’s shoulder
clean in two before the coward teleported out.

“HA, coward!” shouted, the winged man quickly pulled up
and flapped it’s wings once or twice to regain its
balance.

Then for the second time that day the sky split and a form
was spewed forth, this one was not bathed in bright light,
or evil darkness, it was in a peculiar shade of blue. It
landed a kilometre away from Lucifer. He knew that he had to
get there quickly or he would lose her. 

“damn cowards” muttered Lucifer as he soared towards the
 market.