Sasaki cut through the night sky, hooking the air with his twin scythes. Each swing tore a path forward. Wind slammed against his face and pulled at his hair.
His gaze dropped to the black ring on his right index finger. He hadn't worn it in over a century. Yet the moment he looked at it, an old memory from four hundred and fifty years ago came to his mind. A memory he had sworn he would carry forever.
***
Mammon, the Demon of Greed, forced his way out of Purgatory and stepped through the gates of Hell. The sky burned a deep red, its light bleeding across the jagged landscape. The ground wasn't ground at all. It twisted into a labyrinth of sharp ridges and black mountain peaks that rose and fell. Not to mention rivers of molten lava cut through the terrain.
Lesser demons scattered across the landscape, tearing into one another like mindless barbarians. However, unfortunately this behavior was nothing unusual. The concept of chaos was born in the pits of hell after all.
Above him, seven doors drifted through the bloody sky. Each one led to the private quarters of a different Demon of Sin, the only sanctioned path into their territories.
Well… almost the only path.
When lesser demons needed an audience with a Demon of Sin or one of their high-ranking officers, they had two choices. They could fly up to the floating doors, or they could walk the long miles across Hell's shifting terrain to reach the place the door connected to. Either way, the path always led to the same destination.
He pushed through the air, wings straining against the pressure as he closed the distance to Lucifer's floating door. The wind tried to shove him off, but he forced his way through and dropped onto the small stone platform beneath it.
Once he landed, he made his way toward the door and held the door knob tight. Sweat clung to his cheek, from the strain of the mission he had just forced himself through, not including the fear of facing Lucifer and having his hidden agenda somehow exposed.
He opened the door and was greeted by Lucifer sitting on his throne. The ground was covered in smooth red tiles that stretched across the hall. Statues of the demons of sin stood on each side facing one another, four on the right and three on the left. Mammon bowed before Lucifer, who sat in his towering chair, watching him with a serious stare.
"You actually did it. I have to admit, Mammon, I'm impressed. You managed to push Azazel and Conquest into tearing each other apart, and now look at the result. Conquest erased for breaking the Law… and Azazel stripped of Death's title and locked away in Purgatory. Exactly the outcome you promised me."
Mammon bowed deeper and said:
"All this praise… but I do not deserve it. I only made sure you did not rush into a fight with Conquest after she killed Lust. If you had stepped in to face her, the realms themselves would have shattered under the force of you both, with no victor and only ruin left behind. I knew how deeply Lust's death wounded you, how much you wanted to avenge her, and that is exactly why this plan of mine served us better than any direct battle ever could."
Lucifer grinned.
"Well, I hate to admit it, but you're right. Conquest's strength cannot be overlooked. They took down our beloved comrade Lust, who was the fifth strongest. In truth, they were even stronger than you."
He gestured for Mammon to look up.
"Stop with the bowing. You're a Demon of Sin, so act like one. Only outsiders who aren't Sin's should kneel or bow."
Mammon lifted his gaze, a wide grin spreading across his face. Lucifer caught it instantly. His eyes widened, then slowly narrowed, confusion settling over his features.
Mammon quickly covered his mouth, voice muffled.
"Before I forget, like I mentioned earlier, since Death...also broke the third law, the Sovereign sentenced her to be locked away... for five hundred years in Purgatory. Which means that once she is released, you still have a chance to bring her back to our side and finally get her to take back her title as the Demon Sin of Wrath. Her territory... has been abandonment for about two million years. Right?"
Lucifer shifted to the side of his throne, watching Mammon with interest.
"The Sovereign will announce the new Death any minute now. Tell me… did you take the rings of Death and Conquest once they were punished? Those items are important to me."
He sat on a chair beside the statues and lowered his hand, the smile gone from his face.
"I swear to you, Lucifer, Demon Sin of Pride. I couldn't retrieve the rings. If I had, I would've brought them straight to you. So, that you may present your case to the Sovereign, on why you deserve to become the next Death. I would never take that chance away from you. Believe me."
***
The memory faded, and his focus dropped to the ground below. A massive crowd of cursed spirits stretched all the way to the mansion gates. Some of them had already swarmed The Global National News van stationed in the forest below. The cursed spirits slammed against the doors while the crew cowered inside, shouting for help.
Sasaki clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he had no choice. Saving weak and innocent humans from cursed spirits was part of the mantle of Death engraved into him. His duties wouldn't let him ignore it. Whenever cursed spirits or demons were involved, he was forced to act.
He dove headfirst at the speed of sound, hitting the ground with a shockwave that tore through the forest. The impact carved a crater into the earth, and the cursed spirits scattered from the force of his landing.
The GNN crew stared through the window, their faces locked in shock. One of them tried to pull back from the glass out of fear, while the other couldn't look away. However, when Sasaki rose from the ground and the smoke finally began to clear, the one who had avoided the window finally gave in, as they itched closer to see the man in black standing in the crater.
A massive cursed spirit loomed at the edge of the trees, its gray body stretched by ten massive limbs and its face swallowed by ten rows of dark, unblinking eyes. The smaller cursed spirits gathered beside it, each one more twisted than the last. All of them crawled toward the edge of the crater.
Sasaki with a serious look on his face got himself in a fighting stance. The GNN crew watched while holding their breath.
Dark smoke seeped from his body, and a handful of ravens pushed through the haze, bursting into the air. The cursed spirits lifted their heads, drawn to the birds circling above. Sasaki lifted a finger, then lowered it toward the ground.
The ravens sensed the command instantly and nose-dived into the massive cursed spirit's eyes, popping each one like a balloon. The giant creature trembled, stumbled over the smaller spirits below it, and eventually crashed to the ground while the ravens tore into its dark eyes and flesh without stopping.
The other cursed spirits didn't flinch. They only growled and launched themselves at him. Sasaki shifted his stance, his twin scythes glowing with a dark hue, and sprinted toward them.
He carved through every cursed spirit that rushed him, relentless. His blades swept out in two heavy arcs, releasing a surge of energy that ripped through the larger spirits in a hundred-meter radius, cutting them down in rapid, merciless succession.
He kept attacking, cutting down every cursed spirit that rushed him. The news crew watched in awe at the mysterious man who had dropped from the sky. He looked almost like a hero, and one of them even suggested cheering for him. The other agreed.
Sasaki struggled to breathe when he suddenly heard loud voices coming from behind him. He looked back at the van, confusion settling in on his face.
"You got this, sir!!"
Another voice followed, a girl this time.
"Don't give up!"
Sasaki gave them a small smile. "You two are from GNN, right?"
The man inside the van nodded with a nervous smile.
"Yes. Me and my colleague came to see the Sorcerer King, but these monsters showed up out of nowhere while we were driving. We just wanted to be the first news crew to break the story on the disappearances, which is why we came this early. We know he's still sleeping at this hour, but we were planning to park our van by the front gate and wait. I mean… the Sorcerer King did promise he'd find out who was behind all this within two days, so we came to see if he had already solved the mystery or not."
Sasaki kept attacking the cursed spirits in front of him, backflipping again and again to dodge the larger cursed spirits clawing at his legs. One finally managed to grab him, but the moment its claws touched his dark aura, the limb disintegrated into dust. Sasaki fell back to the ground, breathing heavily.
He turned around again, and this time a wide grin spread across his face.
"Once I'm done helping you two, I expect a fat compensation from the GNN news corporation. Get your bosses on the phone and have them send me a 7,791,275.00 Yen ~(50,000$ USD) for keeping you both alive. I'm being dead serious. I don't do anything for free. Let's just say it's part of my nature."
Both the girl and the man snapped their heads up, their eyes widening as they yelled at him in unison,
"HUH!?"