Millennia passed.
Cain wandered through the world that was rebuilding itself after the Flood. He saw new civilizations rise from the ashes of the old ones. Babylon. Egypt. Greece. Rome. Each with its own glory and eventual fall.
He married when loneliness became unbearable. He had children. He watched them die. He left before people noticed he didn't age. He repeated the cycle over and over and over again.
He helped when he could. He saved lives when he had the opportunity. He tried to be better, as he had promised. But the guilt never disappeared. Abel visited him in his dreams every night.
It was in the year 1523 AD---more than six thousand years after killing Abel---when he met the succubus.
Her name was Vexy. She was beautiful in a way that wasn't completely human---skin the color of red wine, small horns that curved from her forehead, eyes that glowed with an internal fire, a tail that moved with a life of its own.
Cain found her in a tavern in what would eventually become Italy. She was disguised as human, but Cain, after millennia of seeing strange things, could see through her disguise.
"You're a demon," Cain said simply when he sat across from her, his beer mug hitting the worn wood of the table.
The woman, Vexy, froze for an instant. Her eyes, which had been scanning the tavern looking for easy prey to feed on, fixed on him. The illusion covering her flickered before Cain's gaze, revealing for a fraction of a second the reddish skin and curved horns before returning to the mask of a beautiful Italian woman.
"Well, well," she purred, leaning over the table, showing generous cleavage. "Either you have divine perception, handsome, or you've drunk too much cheap wine. What makes you think that?"
"I've lived long enough to recognize the smell of sulfur and the desperation of someone seeking energy," Cain responded, taking a long drink. "And your eyes... they shine when you look at men's necks. Not with lust, but with hunger."
Vexy smiled, and this time the smile showed teeth that were too sharp.
"Interesting. A human with true sight. I should kill you before you alert the Church, you know?"
"Try it," Cain said with a calm that disconcerted her. He pointed to the mark on his forehead, hidden under a lock of hair. "Many have tried. Psychopathic humans, beasts, floods. And I'm still here."
That night there was no violence. There was conversation. Vexy, fascinated by this human who emanated an aura of heavy and painful antiquity, stayed. Cain, tired of the loneliness of the centuries, found in her a spark of something he hadn't felt in millennia: genuine curiosity without human moral judgment.
They fell in love. It wasn't a fairy tale romance; it was a love forged from a strange mutual curiosity. Cain hadn't made more partners because humans live much less after the flood. They had sex several times and Cain would see her off when she returned to hell, and sometimes they would go months without seeing each other again, so one night of passion between them she commented.
"Come with me," she told him one night, caressing the scar of the Mark on his forehead. "To Hell. To the Lust Ring."
"A living human in Hell?" Cain raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like suicide."
"You can't die, remember?" she joked, though sweetly. "And I know someone. The King of the Ring. Asmodeus. He appreciates... rarities."
And so, the First Murderer descended willingly into the abyss, not by punishment, but for love.
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Hell was an assault on the senses. The violet sky, the air charged with ozone, he expected some kind of desperation and distant screams. But the Lust Ring was different; it was a normal city and more advanced than earth. With lots of violet and neon color, pheromones and vibrant music.
Vexy took Cain directly to the main tower, Ozzie's. Thanks to her status (and a lot of charm), they managed an audience. Or rather, they managed to sneak in until security surrounded them.
That's when he appeared.
Asmodeus was gigantic, a demonic rooster wrapped in foxfire and pure charisma. His presence filled the room, an intoxicating mix of desire and power.
"Vexy, dear!" Ozzie's voice boomed, sensual and powerful. "You bring an interesting pet. It smells of..." Asmodeus stopped. His head turned to look at Cain with curiosity. The air became heavy. "It smells of old Earth. It smells of primordial dust. What is this?"
Cain stood firm, shaking off a guard's grip. "I am Cain." He said bluntly.
The silence that followed was absolute. Asmodeus descended from his platform, his steps making the glass floor tremble. He approached Cain, his main face inches from the human.
"Cain..." murmured Asmodeus. His eyes ran over the man's figure, from the defiant posture to the facial features. "You have... You have his chin. And that stubborn look."
"Whose?" asked Cain, confused by the lack of immediate hostility.
"Adam's," said Asmodeus. The revelation hit Cain like a sledgehammer.
"You know my father?"
Asmodeus let out a laugh, but it wasn't mocking. It was a laugh of disbelief. "Know him? Honey, I'm his son."
Cain's world stopped. He looked at the gigantic Deadly Sin, then at Vexy, who seemed equally surprised. "Impossible. My mother is Eve. You... you're a demon."
"My mother was Lilith," Asmodeus corrected, straightening with pride. "The first woman. The one who supposedly didn't submit. Adam and Lilith... well, let's say I'm the fruit of that explosive union before after your mother left the scene. They've refused to tell me all the details. Their relationship is complicated."
Cain felt a wave of nausea and rage. Adam? His father, the man who preached about righteousness and cried for the lost Paradise, had had a son with the Queen of Hell? The image of Adam cheating on Eve, or temporarily abandoning her to sleep with the woman who once abandoned him was impossible to imagine. His father loved his mother too much to cheat on her. And he was too innocent to commit such an act. Something smelled fishy here.
"So..." Cain swallowed his bile, trying to process the information. "You're my... half-brother?"
"Seems so," Asmodeus smiled, showing rows of sharp teeth. "A human brother! And the First Murderer! This is delicious!" Asmodeus circled him, examining him. "But tell me, brother, what is a living legend doing in my ring?"
Cain explained his situation. His love for Vexy. His immortality. His desire for a place where he didn't have to see human history repeat itself.
Asmodeus listened, and for the first time, Cain saw a spark of humanity in the Sin of Lust. "Love..." murmured Asmodeus, his voice softening. "Many believe that Lust is just sex. But without passion, without connection, it's just friction. I understand your desire, Cain."
It was there that Cain learned about the Pact. Asmodeus explained to him, with pride, how he had negotiated with Heaven. "The Asmodean crystals," he said, showing a bright gem. "They allow my succubi and incubi to go up to Earth legally. They extract energy, yes, but we give pleasure in return. No one dies. No one gets hurt. It's a fair exchange. Papa Adam... well, his influence in Heaven helped them look the other way."
Cain felt a pang of toxic jealousy. As always, Father, showing favoritism to others less than to him.
Guilt hit Cain immediately after the jealousy. He remembered the rock in his hand, Abel's blood. I earned my punishment, he reminded himself. I have no right to hate Asmodeus for having what I lost.
"It's okay," Cain said, exhaling heavily. "I accept it. Thank you... brother." Cain tried not to make a face of disgust.
Asmodeus, delighted with the novelty of having family (and such an infamous one), granted Cain and Vexy a private residence in the ring. A home.
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The years in Hell passed differently. Cain lived with Vexy in a domestic happiness he never believed he would have again. But biology was cruel. A succubus and a human couldn't conceive.
They adopted a demon child, a street orphan with big eyes and grayish skin. Cain loved him with the ferocity of someone trying to atone for their past sins by raising a life instead of taking one. He taught him to fight, he taught him to read, he taught him about the stars that couldn't be seen under Hell's red sky.
But time, that old friend and enemy, didn't stop for them.
Cain saw Vexy age. Demons live long, but they're not eternal like him. He saw how her fire slowly extinguished. And then, he saw his son grow, become a man, and also begin to wither.
There was an incident. A group of shark demons tried to assault their home, threatening his already elderly son. Cain didn't use magic. He didn't need it. That night, the Lust Ring remembered why the name "Cain" made the earth itself tremble. With nothing more than his fists and a cold, millennial fury, Cain dismembered the attackers. It was brutal. It was efficient. It was the First Murderer protecting what little he had left.
But he couldn't protect them from time. Vexy died in his arms, whispering to him that he had been her best adventure. Years later, his son died of old age, holding his father's hand, who still looked as young as the day he arrived in Hell.
Cain was left alone in the silent mansion. Impotence was a poison he knew well. He accepted the pain, swallowed it as he had swallowed the desert dust for millennia, and decided it was time to leave. Hell no longer had anything for him. He planned to return to Earth, use his curse to try to help humanity once more.
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It was on his way to the inter-ring elevator when he saw her.
She was in a lower-class area of the Ring, near a seedy bar. She didn't look like the woman from his memories, the one with sun-bronzed skin and calloused hands from working the earth. This woman had pale skin, raven-black hair falling straight over her shoulders, dressed in gothic clothes, torn black stockings, and an expression of eternal bitterness.
But the eyes... the eyes were the same.
"Mother?" His voice came out as a whisper.
Eve turned, and her eyes opened with shock. "Cain?"
They stood staring at each other for a long moment. Thousands of years of separation, thousands of unspoken words, thousands of regrets between them.
Cain knelt down. He made a complete dogeza, his forehead touching the ground.
"Mother," he said, his voice breaking, "I know I have no right to ask for it. I know what I did was unforgivable. But please, please, forgive me. Forgive me for killing Abel. Forgive me for destroying our family. Forgive me for all the pain I caused. You have every right to never forgive me, but I need you to know that I'm sorry. I'm deeply sorry. Not a single day goes by without me thinking about what I did."
There was silence. Cain didn't dare to look up.
And then he felt hands on his shoulders, lifting him.
Eve had tears running down her face. But they weren't tears of rage.
"Get up, my son," she said softly.
Cain stood up, trembling.
Eve took his face in her hands, studying his features. "You look beautiful," she whispered. "You look so much like your father. You're exactly like him when he was young."
Then, to his complete shock, Eve hugged him.
"I forgive you," she said in his ear. "I forgave you a long time ago, Cain. I was hard on you, too hard. I favored Abel and that was unfair. I don't justify what you did, but I understand that I was part of what led you to that point. I forgive you. And I've missed my firstborn son every day since you left."
Cain broke down in her arms, crying like he hadn't cried in centuries.
They talked for hours. Eve told him about her life, about how she had ended up in Hell. She told him about her own guilt---how she had almost killed Aclima in an attack of jealousy toward Seth, how she had abandoned her family, how she had died alone and full of regret.
She told him about living briefly with Lucifer and Lilith when she arrived in Hell, about how they almost had a threesome, but she stopped.
And then she told him something that made Cain's rage return with force: how she had discovered that Lilith had raped Adam.
"I hit her," Eve said with dark satisfaction. "When Azazel told me, when I understood what that bitch had done to Adam, I went straight to her room and hit her with all my strength. Then I kicked Lucifer in the crotch when he tried to defend her. I cut all ties with them. And I've lived here, in the Lust Ring, under Asmodeus's protection, since then."
Cain couldn't believe what he was hearing.
The world turned red for Cain. Not the red color of Hell, but the red of pure anger. "She did what to him?" he growled, standing up. The floor under his feet cracked. "That... that witch raped my father?"
"Cain, sit down," Eve ordered, though her voice trembled.
"I'm going to kill her!" Cain roared. The Mark on his forehead began to glow with an ominous light. "I'm going to go to the Pride Ring, I'm going to find Lilith and I'm going to rip off her head! Nobody touches my family! I don't give a shit if Adam exiled me, he was MY father!"
"No!" Eve grabbed his arm, using all her demon strength. "Cain, listen to me! You can't! Lilith is the Queen of Hell. Her power is immense. And Lucifer... Lucifer protects her. He's a fallen Seraph, Cain. He's stronger than anything you've faced. If you go there, they'll destroy you."
"I'm immortal! Those idiots can't hurt me!" Cain spat at his mother.
"But they can chain you!" Eve shouted back. "Defeat you in ways that don't hurt you, my son. Don't try to fight a battle that's too doubtful and in which you can lose a lot just for revenge which you don't know if you can win! Besides... Asmodeus is friends with the other Sins. If you attack his mother, he'll have to intervene. Do you want to fight against your brother too?"
Cain trembled with rage, breathing heavily. The image of his father, innocent and too kind for his own good (although he always put his foot down), being violated in that way, turned his stomach. But Eve's words made sense. He was a primordial human, yes, strong and fast, and he didn't know too much magic. Against beings like Lucifer or Lilith, he was an indestructible ant, but an ant nonetheless.
"Damn it..." whispered Cain, letting himself fall back on the bench. "Damn all of this."
"Promise me you won't do anything stupid," Eve pleaded. "Stay here. Train. Learn. If you're going to fight, do it when you have a chance. I know that one day... one day that bitch will pay for what she did."
Cain nodded reluctantly. "Alright... I promise. But I will learn. I will become stronger."
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Eve's revelation about the nature of Asmodeus's birth and Adam's rape had lit a cold fuse in Cain's stomach. It wasn't just anger; it was a feeling of vulnerability he hadn't felt since he was a mortal child fearing thunder.
He was immortal, yes. God's Mark on his forehead guaranteed that nothing could kill him. If a mountain fell on him, his bones would break and reform. If they threw him into the sun, he would burn eternally without being consumed. But immortality didn't mean invincibility, and it certainly didn't mean freedom. Eve was right: beings like Lucifer or Lilith could bind him, lock him in a box in the void, leave him floating in conscious nothingness for the rest of eternity.
He needed more than just brute strength and regeneration. He needed power.
"I need to be faster," Cain told Asmodeus days later, in the penthouse of Ozzie's. The King of Lust was reviewing contracts, but stopped when he saw the intensity in his half-brother's eyes. "I need to hit harder. I need my human body to react at the speed of a demonic thought."
Asmodeus left his papers and adjusted his sunglasses, his three heads looking at Cain with curiosity. "You have the strength, Cain. I've seen how you dismantle sinners. You're a natural killing machine."
"I'm a human," Cain corrected dryly. "A primordial human, but human. I don't have attack magic. I can't throw fire or lightning. If I face a Seraph or a Major Sin that uses containment magic, I'm fucked. I need... improvement."
Asmodeus hummed, a deep vibration that made the crystal glasses on the table shake. "Enhancement magic. Somatic. Converting environmental energy into kinetic power. Not my specialty, little brother. I'm more of... vibrations and emotional manipulation. But I know someone."
"Who?"
"The Queen of Gluttony," Asmodeus said with a toothy smile. "Beelzebub. No one understands consumption and energy conversion better than her. If anyone can teach you to devour the magic from the air to power your muscles, it's Bee."
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The Gluttony Ring was a different sensory assault from Lust. Where Lust was neon, sex, and deep bass, Gluttony was sugar, honey swamps, oceans of soda, and a constant smell of fried food and sweets that made you salivate involuntarily.
Beelzebub's mansion was a giant, vibrant hive, an eternal party that never stopped. When Cain arrived, escorted by a nervous imp, he felt out of place. He was dust, blood, and antiquity; this place was pop, glitter, and modern excess.
"OZZIE CALLED ME!!" The voice resonated before he saw her.
Beelzebub descended, floating from the ceiling, a whirlwind of neon colors, orange skin, and an abdomen that was actually a mouth with ferocious teeth, though now it was covered by party clothes. She was a mix of fox, bee, and pure chaotic energy.
She landed in front of Cain, floating inches from the ground, her multiple arms moving, holding drinks and light wands. "You must be the famous Cain!" Her voice was fast, enthusiastic, almost dizzying. "Wow! Your aura is super dense! It's like looking at a black hole made of flesh! How heavy!"
Cain blinked, a bit overwhelmed. "You must be Beelzebub."
"Call me Bee! Everyone does!" She spun around him, buzzing. "Ozzie says you want to learn to hit harder. Why? You already look pretty tough. Like aged beef jerky. No offense."
"Survival," Cain said, maintaining his stoicism. "And protection."
Bee stopped in front of him, tilting her head. Her compound eyes shone. "Mmm. You smell of guilt. And determination. A spicy mix. I like it." She smiled, and for a second, the friendly face disappeared to show the voracious Deadly Sin underneath. "Alright, Friend. Let's see if your human body can handle the Juice."
The training wasn't what Cain expected. There was no meditation or reading of ancient grimoires. There was partying. There was movement. There was pain.
Bee taught him that magic in Hell was like a constant electrical current. Demons used it instinctively. Humans, normally, couldn't touch it. But Cain wasn't a normal human. He was the First born from a womb. His body may not have been made from Eden's dust, but it was forged in the hardness of the fallen Earth.
"Don't try to grab it!" Bee shouted at him one day, while Cain tried to concentrate energy in his fist and failed miserably, only achieving a static spark. "It's not a tool, fool! It's food! You have to let it in, chew it with your nerves, and spit it out with your muscles!"
"This is ridiculous!" Cain growled, sweating, hitting a punching bag made of Leviathan skin. "I don't have mana conduits!"
"But you have the Mark!" Bee pointed to his forehead. "That thing is a beacon of cursed divine energy. Use it as a magnet! Pull the energy from the environment through the Mark and push it to your arms."
It was strange advice, but it worked. When Cain stopped trying to control the magic and started channeling it through the constant dull pain of his Mark, something clicked. His fists were wrapped in a dark red aura, crackling, almost black. He hit the bag. The bag didn't move. It simply exploded. The shockwave broke the gym's windows and knocked down a tower of "Beelzejuice" barrels.
Bee was left open-mouthed for a second, then let out a euphoric laugh. "YES! THAT'S IT! Pure kinetic destruction! High five!"
Cain, breathing heavily, looked at his smoking hands. For the first time in millennia, he felt he could fight the supernatural on equal terms. Bee flew toward him and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder (which would have dislocated a normal sinner's arm). "We're going to get along, you and me. You're intense. I like intense things." She commented with a huge smile while looking at his bare chest up and down with approval.
During the following months, a strange friendship was forged. Bee was loud, Cain was quiet. Bee lived for excess, Cain lived in austerity. But both shared a peculiar loneliness: Bee, surrounded by people but always hungry for real connection; and Cain, the eternal wanderer.
"You know," Bee told him one night, floating upside down while they drank on the roof, "Queen Lilith... she's complicated. What she did to your father... it's shit. Even by Hell's standards."
Cain squeezed his glass, the glass creaking. "Let's not talk about that, Bee."
"Okay, okay. I'm just saying... that not all of us are like that. Ozzie loves you, in his weird way. And I like you. You're not here to use us and we're not here to use you or hurt you. I just want you to know that."
Cain smiled slightly. "Thanks, Bee."
He was ready. He had learned to imbue his body with enhancement magic. He could move faster, hit harder, and resist magical impacts. He was ready to return to Earth. Only three days were left.
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Cain settled in Hell. Asmodeus became his mentor and friend. Eve became a constant presence in his life again. Beelzebub became increasingly close to him; she even flirted with him, but Cain couldn't get used to her fox-bee form. That's why he doesn't try; of course, she wasn't ugly, and in fact, sometimes she was a bit sexy, but he wasn't sure because of their different biologies.
But he was still missing something. Someone.
And then, one day, Aclima found him.
BOOM.
The main door didn't open. It exploded. Splinters of wood and metal flew through the hallway, embedding themselves in the walls. A golden light, blinding and pure, flooded the entrance, dispelling the red shadows of Hell as if they were smoke before a hurricane.
Cain turned, his combat instincts activating instantly. Red magic crackled in his fists. An attack? Did the Angels discover his stay in hell was going to exile him again?
When the dust settled, the light diminished enough to reveal a silhouette. A woman. She had brown hair, loose and wild, floating as if underwater. She wore a white tunic with golden edges, elegant but functional, cinched at the waist with a silk bow. But what dominated the room were the wings. Two enormous wings of pink feathers, soft but powerful, extended in their full wingspan, almost touching the hallway walls.
Cain felt the air escape from his lungs. He would recognize that posture anywhere. He would recognize those eyes, the same golden color as his, in any universe.
"Aclima?" his voice was a broken whisper.
The angel didn't smile. Her face was a mask of divine fury, tears shining in her eyes like liquid diamonds. "YOU!" Her scream wasn't melodious; it was the roar of a woman who was going to be his wife, but couldn't because of his sin and aggrieved sister.
Before Cain could process that she was there, in Hell, Aclima moved. It was a golden blur. She threw herself at him, not with a sword, not with holy magic, but with bare fists.
"IDIOT!!" A punch went toward Cain's chest.
"STUPID!!" Another punch to the shoulder.
"I HATE YOU!!"
Cain didn't defend himself. He didn't raise his guard. He didn't use his enhancement magic. He simply accepted the punishment, retreating with each impact. He felt the force behind each blow; Aclima was an Angel, a Winner, her physical strength was immensely superior to that of a normal human. It hurt, but it was a pain he felt he deserved. His mark didn't act on those blows because they didn't intend to harm.
"WHERE WERE YOU?!" she screamed, hysterical, launching a punch straight at his face with all her strength.
Cain didn't dodge it. But his Mark did react. Cain's Mark wasn't just a tattoo. It was a living curse. Seven times shall be avenged he who kills Cain, and the damage will return to whoever tries to harm him.
When Aclima's fist connected with Cain's jaw, a crimson and black light burst from his forehead. The sound was nauseating. CRACK.
It wasn't Cain's jaw that broke. Aclima let out a shriek of pain, jumping backward, clutching her right hand. The extremity was bent at an unnatural angle, the fingers broken, the skin instantly bruised by the divine recoil of the curse.
"AHHH!!" she screamed, falling to her knees, her wings dragging on the floor, tears now falling freely from the physical and emotional pain.
Horror flooded Cain. "Aclima!" He threw himself toward her, forgetting everything else. He knelt beside her, trying to touch her but fearing to hurt her more. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I forgot... the Mark... reacts on its own!"
Aclima panted, her body trembling. She looked at her shattered hand and then looked at Cain. The pain in her eyes was mixed with infinite frustration. "Damn your hard head!" she sobbed, with a mix of laughter and crying. "It's still as hard as ever! I can't even hit you for leaving me alone!"
"Let me see," Cain said, with an urgent voice.
Aclima shook her head, sniffling. A soft golden light began to emanate from her own body. "I'm an angel, fool..." she murmured. With a sound of wet crunching, the bones in her hand repositioned. The skin healed. In seconds, her hand was perfect again. But she didn't get up. She stayed there, on her knees, looking at him.
"Why didn't you look for us?!" There were tears in her eyes now. "We're family! You're my brother! I love you, idiot! And you just disappeared!"
Cain felt a knot in his throat. He sat on the floor in front of her, not caring about the distance. "I thought... I thought you didn't want to see me. I'm the Murderer, Aclima. I killed our brother. God exiled me. I thought that you all, in Heaven... would hate me. That you'd be better off without me."
"You're an imbecile," Aclima said, hitting him again on the chest, this time gently, without activating the Mark. "We waited for you. Every day. Every year. Every millennium. Abel would sit on the edges of the clouds looking down, asking if you had finished your punishment yet."
Hearing Abel's name, Cain closed his eyes, a solitary tear escaping. "He... he hates me?"
"He loves you," Aclima said firmly, taking Cain's face with her healed hands. Her touch was warm, like sunlight. "He says it was an accident. That it was envy, not you. He already forgave you before his blood touched the ground, Cain. I forgave you a long time ago. Father forgives you. Azura forgave you. And Seth also forgave you. But we couldn't tell you because you disappeared."
Cain looked at her, stupefied. "Everyone forgave me?"
"Yes. Adam, before dying, made me promise that I would find you. That I would tell you he forgave you. That I would tell you he was proud of the man you became, despite everything."
He didn't care how his father found out, but Cain felt ugly and unworthy.
So despite his effort not to, Cain broke down crying. Not the silent crying of the centuries, but an ugly, loud and liberating crying. Aclima wrapped him in her arms and in her pink wings, creating a cocoon of forgiveness in the middle of Hell.
"I found you," she whispered in his hair. "I had to listen to disgusting rumors from drunk demons. I had to bribe a corrupt cherub to open a portal for me. I had to descend to this pit of filth. But I found you."
When the tears dried, Cain helped her up and took her to the couch. He served her tea, his hands still trembling slightly. "You can't be here, Aclima," he said, recovering some composure. "You're an Angel. A 'Winner'. You don't seem to come by Heaven's order. I don't want you to be exiled like me, plus there's the problem of Lucifer finding out... this is enemy territory."
"I don't give a damn," Aclima said, crossing her legs and drinking the tea with an elegance that contrasted with her explosive entrance. "I'm not going back up without you."
"I can't go up," Cain said, pointing upward. "He won't let me in." Referring to God, of course, he was a better man, but he wasn't a worshiper of God; he still had that resentment with him for leaving him immortal and making him suffer in the flood.
"Then I stay," she declared.
"Aclima, this is Hell. It's no place for you. The energy here isn't made for angels, who knows what it will do to you long term."
"I don't care," she said, with that stubbornness that Cain remembered so well. "I'll find a way to break your curse, or to sneak you into Heaven, or we'll build our own Heaven here. But I'm not going to leave you alone again. I was supposed to be your wife, Cain. Where you go, I go. I should have left with you when they exiled you."
Cain looked at her, illuminated by Hell's dim light, her wings glowing softly. He couldn't argue. He didn't want to argue.
And so she did. Aclima became a fallen angel, technically, though not in the traditional way. She hadn't been expelled---she had chosen to descend. And that choice kept her... different. She still had her wings. Cain couldn't help but find her as beautiful as when she was human.
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During the years that Cain spent in Hell before Aclima arrived, he had become close to Beelzebub. Very close.
Bee was different from the other Sins. She was chaotic, fun, and full of life. She organized huge parties where food and drink flowed endlessly. She was generous with her friends and brutal with her enemies.
And she clearly had feelings for Cain.
It wasn't something she said out loud, but Eve noticed. She mentioned it to Cain several times.
"That girl is in love with you," Eve told him one day.
"No," Cain had protested. "We're just friends."
"Friends don't look at each other that way," Eve said with a raised eyebrow.
Cain had ignored the warnings. Because he didn't see Bee that way. She was his friend. Period.
But when Aclima arrived, and it became clear that she and Cain had a deep connection, Beelzebub began to act differently.
She wasn't openly hostile. Bee was too polite for that. But there was tension. Passive-aggressive comments. Looks that lasted too long.
Aclima, for her part, didn't trust Beelzebub. "She's a Deadly Sin," she told Cain. "You can't completely trust her."
"She's my friend," Cain defended.
"She's a demon who's in love with you," Aclima responded. "Those two things can be true at the same time."
The situation reached a critical point when Cain and Aclima finally admitted their mutual feelings.
It had been a quiet night in Cain's apartment. Aclima had come to visit him, as she often did. They were talking about old times, about their siblings, about the family they had lost.
"Did you ever think about us?" Aclima suddenly asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You and me. When we were young. Before... everything. Did you ever think we could be together?"
Cain looked at her, surprised by the raw honesty in her voice.
"Yes," he admitted. "All the time. I loved you, Aclima. I always loved you. But I thought you preferred Abel."
"Only because Abel was easier to be around," Aclima said softly. "You were so full of rage and pain. It was hard to get close to you. But that doesn't mean I didn't love you. I loved you then. I love you now."
"We're siblings," Cain said weakly.
"Don't come at me with that shit. That didn't matter before," Aclima responded. "Remember that Mother was born from Adam's rib, so you could practically consider her his daughter or sister however you see it. And Seth married Azura. That incest shit doesn't count for us. You were going to be my husband, and even though we didn't get married... after all these millennia, after everything we've been through... I still love you."
"But I had other families and children. I wasn't faithful to you," Cain argued.
"My fault for letting you go, I should have clung to you and claimed you as I do now."
And they kissed.
It was their first kiss in more than six thousand years of existence. And it was perfect.
One thing led to another that night. Years of tension, of repressed feelings, of loneliness, all came to the surface.
Cain was gentle, reverent, treating Aclima like the precious thing she was. She was passionate, demanding, showing centuries of contained desire.
Their bodies met in the darkness of Cain's apartment, skin against skin, wings against back, sighs and moans filling the air.
For Cain, it was the first time in millennia that sex had meant something more than temporary comfort. It was love. It was a connection. It was finding someone who knew him completely---all his sins, all his failures---and still chose to be with him.
For Aclima, it was the culmination of feelings she had carried throughout her life, both human and angelic.
They made love for hours, rediscovering bodies that had changed with the millennia but still recognized each other on a fundamental level.
When it ended, they stayed embraced, Cain tracing patterns on Aclima's back while her pink wings fluttered gently.
"I love you," he whispered.
"I love you," she responded. "I always have."
.
.
.
The next day, Cain told Beelzebub that he and Aclima were officially together.
Bee's reaction was... controlled. She smiled, congratulated him, and said all the right things.
But Cain could see the pain in her eyes. And he felt terrible about it.
Eve, when she found out, only said: "I told you."
But if Bee was a headache, Eva was a trial by fire. The meeting between Eva and Aclima was worthy of a Greek tragedy.
Cain brought them together in a neutral café in the Pride Ring. Eva arrived with her gothic sinner look, bitter and dark. Aclima arrived radiating light and purity, though dimmed to not draw attention.
Mother and daughter. The First Sinner and the First Perfect Daughter. "You look... different, mother," Aclima said, trying to be kind, though her eyes judged the cleavage and dark makeup of Eva.
"And you look just as unbearably perfect as always, Aclima," Eva responded, lighting a thin cigarette.
"You shouldn't smoke. It's bad for your... well, for whatever you have now."
"I'm dead and damned, daughter. I think lung cancer is the least of my worries." Eva blew the smoke toward Aclima's side. "I see you found your brother. You were always his shadow."
"Someone had to take care of him. I was looking for him since I went to heaven and you were just too busy crying over Paradise," Aclima replied coldly.
Cain sank into his chair. "Please, no."
"I cried for what we lost," Eva said, her voice hardening. "You had the easy life. You stayed with Adam. You went to Heaven. You don't know what it's like to crawl through the dust."
"I took care of father when you left mentally!" Aclima hit the table. "Seth, God bless him, was the one who kept the family together after Cain left! Don't you dare say it was easy!"
However, despite the jabs, there was love. A fractured and difficult love, but love. Eva, reluctantly, respected Aclima's strength. And Aclima, despite her judgment, felt pity and love for the fallen mother. Cain became the bridge. He visited Eva to make sure she was okay, bringing her money or food. And he loved Aclima.
Fortunately, things improved a bit when Beelzebub found a boyfriend---a hellborn named Vortex who was strong, kind, and completely loyal to her. The relationship helped ease some of the tension, though the discomfort never completely disappeared.
Cain learned to balance his life: being friends with Asmodeus and Beelzebub, helping his mother Eve when he could, loving his sister-now-girlfriend Aclima, and trying to be a better person every day.
The relationship with Aclima flourished again. They were no longer the inexperienced youth from the beginning of time. It wasn't perfect. He had relapses. He had dark days when everything seemed useless to him. But he kept trying.
They were old souls. Cain, with his burden of millennia and blood. Aclima, with her infinite patience and her light. They made love with desperate intensity, as if they wanted to recover the thousands of lost years in a single night. For Aclima, being with Cain was being complete again; he was her other half, her soulmate. For Cain, Aclima was his tangible redemption. It didn't matter that God didn't speak to him; if an angel like her loved him, maybe he wasn't a monster.
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END OF FLASHBACK - RETURN TO THE PRESENT
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Cain blinked, returning to the present. He was back in the bathroom, looking at his reflection in the mirror, with his hands still gripping the edge of the sink so tightly that his knuckles were white.
How much had happened since that terrible day in the field when he had killed Abel? How many lives had he lived? How many people had he loved and lost? How many mistakes had he made and tried to amend?
And yet, when he looked at himself in the mirror, he still saw the murderer. He still saw the jealous brother who had thrown a rock in a moment of blind rage.
But now he also saw something else. He saw the man who had built the city of Enoch. The father who had loved his children. The husband who had cared for his wives until they died of old age. The brother who had been forgiven. The son who had been accepted again.
It didn't erase what he had done. It never could. But it meant he was more than that one terrible moment.
"Cain?"
Aclima's voice pulled him from his thoughts. He dried his face with cold water and straightened, adjusting his blue vest, briefly cleaning his white shirt. He couldn't afford to get lost in the past. Not today.
Not when Eva had requested an urgent meeting after the chaos of a few days ago---that explosion of primordial energy that had shaken all the rings of Hell, the earthquake that had made buildings tremble, the mysterious barrier that had appeared over Cannibal Town.
Something big had happened. And knowing his luck, it probably involved his family in some way.
He left the bathroom and found Aclima still in bed, lying on the bed, and she wore a short, simple white shirt that highlighted her large chest; he could even slightly see her nipples. She also wore blue shorts, leaving her exquisite thighs and toned legs in view, her feet equally as perfect as her body. She was beautiful, and all this contrasted beautifully with her pink wings.
[Imagen]
Aclima was checking her hair in a small hand mirror, making sure every strand was perfectly in place.
The night before, they had had passionate sex- it was their anniversary of being officially together, after all. They had celebrated in the best possible way.
"Are you ready to see Mom?" Aclima asked, rolling her eyes as she put away the mirror. She had started calling Eva "mom" a few years ago, although technically she was also her mother. It was complicated, but most things in their family were.
Cain couldn't help but smile despite the tension in his chest.
"Are we ever ready for family meetings in Hell?"
Aclima laughed, a musical sound that always managed to ease some of the weight on his soul. She got up from the bed gracefully, her wings folding perfectly against her back.
"Valid point." She smiled at him cheekily while giving him a slight exhibition of her body for him before she snapped her fingers and her clothes changed to more formal ones. "But this time seems to be especially important. Mom sounded... worried. And Eva doesn't worry easily."
"I know," Cain said, taking her hands in his. "Whatever she wants to tell us, we can handle it... by the way, you're a show-off."
"I learned from the best," Aclima agreed, while putting her hands around his neck.
They kissed briefly before heading to the door.
As they left their apartment in the Lust Ring, Cain couldn't help but think about everything that had led to this moment. The millennia of loneliness. The constant pain of guilt. The centuries of wandering. The meeting with Eva. The discovery about Lilith. Aclima's arrival. The tensions with Beelzebub that still hadn't been completely resolved.
And now this---whatever Eva wanted to tell them about the recent events.
They walked through the elegant hallways of the apartment complex that Asmodeus had built for those under his protection. The building was luxurious without being vulgar, with decoration in violet and golden tones, with soft lights that created a warm atmosphere.
Other residents greeted them as they passed---succubi and incubi mainly, but also some other hellborn who had ended up in this ring, and some two or three humans who ended up in this ring for some reason. Cain had earned a reputation in the Lust Ring: "The Marked," they called him. "Asmodeus's Protected." "The Immortal Human."
Most respected him. Some feared him. No one bothered him.
They left the building toward the vibrant streets of the Lust Ring. Despite being Hell, this particular ring had a beauty of its own. Neon lights in shades of pink, purple and red illuminated the streets. Incubi and succubi flew through the sky or walked on the sidewalks, living their daily lives. There were clubs, restaurants, shops. There was music floating in the air---not the music of torment one might expect from Hell, but smooth jazz, electronic music, even some rock.
Asmodeus had created a kingdom that, while dedicated to the sin of lust, also had order, beauty, and surprisingly, a certain level of mutual respect among its inhabitants. The rules were clear: you could enjoy carnal pleasures as much as you wanted, but consent was mandatory. Abuse was not tolerated. Asmodeus himself severely punished anyone who violated those rules.
Cain had learned to appreciate this place. After millennia wandering the Earth, always alone, always being the stranger, he had found something resembling a home here. It was ironic---finding peace in Hell when he had never been able to find it on Earth or get close to Heaven.
Although there would be complications. Cain had wanted to talk to his father ever since he learned that he was going down to hell to exterminate sinners, but he didn't know what to say to him other than "I'm sorry," so he decided to postpone it, not wanting to disappoint him again.
And now he couldn't tell him how sorry he was because of the pieces of shit sins, and once again the damned Lucifer had damaged his family. The only reason he hadn't gone to take revenge was that he was too worried about his wife and mother. Adam's death had hit them hard, so he had to comfort them and calm them down, especially Aclima, so they wouldn't do anything reckless.
That didn't mean they weren't going to take revenge, just that Cain had been planning how to do it and in what way to make the revenge more satisfying. He even prayed to God for some kind of answer, but nothing. He still didn't answer.
Cain scoffed. Typical of God, rejecting him despite everything he had done. He had honestly given up on seeking God's forgiveness, but even so, he had nothing to lose by seeking His advice.
"What are you thinking about?" Aclima asked, intertwining her fingers with his as they walked.
"About how complicated our family is," Cain admitted.
Aclima let out a laugh that was half amusement, half bitterness.
"We're humanity's first family, Cain. We were the prototype. God was literally experimenting with us, figuring out how to make this whole 'having a family' thing work. Of course, we're complicated. Of course, we're fucked up in a thousand different ways."
It was such a simple but so true perspective that Cain couldn't help but laugh, a real laugh that came from deep in his chest.
"I guess you're right. We're God's draft for humanity. All mistakes included."
"Exactly. And look how much we've endured despite that." Aclima smiled at him, squeezing his hand. "We're still here, still fighting, still trying to be better. That has to count for something."
Cain kissed her forehead as they walked. "It counts for everything."
But as they headed to Eva's apartment in another sector of the Lust Ring, Cain couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed in Hell.
That explosion of energy from a few days ago. The earthquake that had shaken all the rings---Cain had felt it even here, had seen how buildings swayed, how people screamed in fear. The rumors of a primordial barrier over Cannibal Town that not even Lucifer could penetrate. And the strange silence from the Sins since then---even Asmodeus had been unusually reserved, refusing to talk about what had happened.
Something big was happening. And Cain had a feeling that Eva knew more than she had said on the phone.
"Cain," Aclima said softly, squeezing his hand as they approached Eva's building, "whatever mom wants to tell us, we'll face it together. Okay? You and me against the world, as always."
He looked at his sister---now his wife, his love, his anchor in a world that often seemed designed to tear him apart---and felt a wave of gratitude so intense it almost overwhelmed him.
Despite everything he had done. Despite the sin he had committed. Despite being humanity's first murderer. Aclima had stayed with him. She had forgiven him when no one else did. She had loved him when he felt incapable of being loved.
"Together," he agreed, kissing her hand. "Always together, love. Whatever happens."
As they entered Eva's building, climbing the stairs toward her apartment on the third floor, Cain couldn't shake the feeling that his past was about to catch up with him in a way he couldn't anticipate.
The mark on his forehead, invisible to everyone except those who knew to look for it, seemed to pulse with anticipation. As if it knew something he didn't.
Humanity's first murderer was about to face the consequences of a world that had changed drastically during his absence from Hell's main events.
And he had no idea that what Eva was about to tell them would change everything.
He had no idea that his father, Adam---the man he looked so much like, the man whose approval he had craved all his life, the man who had exiled him but who had also admitted his own mistakes---had just experienced something that would shake the very foundations of Heaven and Hell.
He had no idea that soon he would have to make decisions that would define not only his own destiny, but potentially the destiny of his entire fragmented and complicated family.
But he would find out soon.
Cain knocked on Eva's apartment door, and as he waited for her to open it, he took a deep breath.
"Whatever it is," Aclima whispered beside him, "together."
"Together," Cain repeated.
And the door opened.
.
.
.
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