Dance with the Devil

"Oh... I didn't know...but I still like you Azzar.."

Azzar wanted to clear this up once and for all, even if it was for just one mage.

Fear of the unknown was one thing, but this was just ridiculous. Folks probably had a few very influental books that made both them and demons to be the cause of everything they did wrong.

He opted for the same analogy his master gave him.

"Imagine the entire world as a three-story apartment building," he started. "At the roof, there's Heaven. Just below that is Purgatory, followed by the mortal realm and finally, Hell. In the basement, there's Tartarus and all around the apartment building, there's earth – Void, the realm that connects other worlds together. Far below that, where the earth gives way to rock, is the Abyss. The Abyss is a infinite, pitch-black nothingness. Even us, voidlings, fear what may be hidden within."

"That's... a really good analogy," Legion admitted, as the explanation was far more compact and easy to imagine than he thought it would be. "Can't say I've heard of Purgatory or Tartatus, though."

"That makes sense azzar.."

"I hold my master's wisdom in high regard," Azzar continued. "Maybe after we share this information with the mages, they will understand that we mean them no harm. If nothing else, it may intrigue them that in theory, the Void can be used to travel between worlds much faster than conventional travel."

Legion scratched his chin. "In theory? Has none of you guys ever tested that? That sounds awesome!"

"There are two equally powerful beings that believe in drastically different ways on how the Void should be," Azzar explained. "One is my master and the other is my master's rival."

"Let me guess," Legion thought aloud. "You good guys are completely surrounded, outnumbered, and you have a truce that keeps you from mutual destruction?" Azzar was surprised by Legion's impressively accurate guess and just nodded.

"That's like, the worst stalemate ever," Legion groaned. "Worst case scenario in strategy games; only way to win is for someone third to come along and lend a hand. Or a tentacle, no offence."

"None taken."

"maybe if you manage to convince the mages they could come and help"

"Yeah, sure," Legion noted sarcastically. "They'll definitely do that and visit Hell before the year's out. You convinced me and made me reconsider everything I was taught, but everyone isn't like me. They need time..."

"Which is, unfortunately, something we do not have a lot of," Azzar noted. "And using brute force or intimidation would just drive us closer to ruin."

"Well, you could always-" Azzar interrupted him; he knew exactly what his idea was.

"No, we have no right to ask them for such help; they have problems getting along, let alone getting along with a third party."

"Wait what?! What were you going to say?!"

"I wanted to mention Heaven and Hell before he cut me off and said the dumbest thing so far," Legion snarked. "The 'not get along' thing is where you guys have it wrong. It is a rivalry, but a friendly one."

"How would you know of such thing?"

"Before the Mages Council asked the Watcher to put a shield around Hell, we mages actually visited Heaven regularly," Legion explained. "I never did, but I always had the chance at least. So, when the thing with Hell was successfully voted for, Heaven suddenly didn't allow us to visit it anymore."

"Which would mean that both of them have their own issues which must be resolved first; Hell to end centuries of misinformation and Heaven to go back to not being a place where fun is banned. Neither of them can help us."

"Please stop using telepathy," Now, Legion sounded angry. "It makes you sound like an idiot that suddenly remembered he knew all along. Just admit you don't know."

Azzar stayed silent for a couple of seconds. "Sorry."

Lillith went closer to azzar hugging him. "It's fine...well want to sound smart. "

Azzar let out a chuckle and the way he spoke usually was gone. "Force of habit, really. Maybe some pressure from people like you and your sky-high expecations," he said sincerely. "We have no idea what actually happens on the upper floors, so to speak, yet the few of the people we do meet expect us to know everything. So we tap into their knowledge and just roll with it."

"Well, can you blame me?" Legion replied, also sounding sincere. "There's games, books and everything in between when if there's a squid person, it knows everything. Mostly. So, when we, and by that, I mean the few mages I know personally, discovered you guys are real, we kinda expected you guys to be like that."

Lillith didn't know what she could add on to the conversation so she just looked at then both.

For all the animosity that Azzar had towards Legion, the two of them got along quite well once they started talking.

Legion stretched and yawned. "I really need to go now, if you guys don't mind. I've been up all night trying to make this place look like it didn't have a rampaging elemental going through it."

"We'll share the information with the others," Azzar told him. "There's a lot more at stake than just Hell."

Lillith nodes. "See you later legion!" She waved by.

Azzar went to look for the others, the Devil and Ris in particular, and eventually found all of them in the dining hall.

The Devil looked as he was racking his brains to write down the speech, occasionally eating some cereal while Ris was telling Recin about herself.

"Being a spy wasn't something I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I ended up as a waitress at the Down & Under restaurant. Pay was nice; Belial helped cover my tracks."

Lillith went to the devil. "You're getting stressed. Just calm down. You'll do well." "But now you cant be a waiter. So what are you going to do?"

The devil nodded.

"Why not? Do you want me to go to Mobius with you?"

Lillith smiled back. "Well yeah...I can't hunt rare monsters in hell.."

"I'll think of something," Ris said with a smile and looked around. "Hmm. I could have sworn there was a little furball running around yesterday..."

"you mean Wendigo? I'm not sure where she is. I think legion had her."

Legion came back to his room, only to find Wendigo still sleeping. He didn't blame her, though; this was probably the first time she ever had a proper bed.

"You mentioned hunting rare creatures down," Ris changed subject. "Do you think there's enough of them for you to hunt?"

Wendigo's ear flicked and she woke up. "Mmmm...... Morning...." She said lightly. "Well I don't hunt them and kill them. It's more like I capture them for a little bit and research so that I can learn its abilities and can apply them to myself and others. Then I release them with no memory of the act."

"Still prefer rocks" Legion asked as he sat on his bed on the other side of the room.

"Oh. I thought you were a hunter. The one that kills rare enemies for trophies and what not," Ris told him. "If you just want to study them, perhaps I could help you. There are a few rare ones in Hell."

"it was like sleeping on clouds....That's the best sleep I've had.." Wendigo said looking at him. "Really?!?" Recon looked excited.

"I'm glad you like it; if all goes well, all wendigoes we manage to get here will have them as well," Legion replied, laying on his bed. "In the meantime, however, I'm gonna take a nap; I've been up all night trying to clean the place up."

"Yeah, they're just really hard to find and catch without scaring them away," Ris told him. "Heard of imps? Ever seen one with wings?"

"I can stay with you if you'd like? Or something." "Imps can have wings?!! " Recon sounded excited.