The Crown's Obsession (WN)
chapter-538

Music Recommendation: The Bends by Marco Beltrami

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When Madeline stepped into Hell, this time they didn't arrive in the desert like the last time, but instead near the damaged buildings where the towers of Hell were. In the pits, fire blazed making the place hot, and dry wind blew around the place. Compared to the current weather in Devon, Hell was the stark opposite.

"Welcome back, Master!" Odin appeared in thin air as a bat and he flew towards them. He transformed into his human form, bowing his head, "Master Calhoun and Lady Madeline."

Madeline was glad to see that Odin continued to exist and as Calhoun said, the Devil liked to keep Odin around him and he wouldn't kill him. She offered Odin a smile.

"Good evening, Mr. Odin," Madeline greeted the servant, and Odin forgot what happened the last time she had addressed him as Mr. Odin, and he returned the smile.

"Odin, bring out the registers that have the details of the death regarding the level one demons, the day Miss Elizabeth had been abducted," ordered Vladimir and Odin was quick to pull out the registers from thin air, making Madeline wonder how he did that.

"These are the registers, Master," informed Odin carrying more than four registers in his hands that had parchments in them. "Who are we looking for?"

"There's a demoness named Astrate. I want to know if she's here," stated Vladimir and Odin started to look for the name. In the meantime, Calhoun questioned Vladimir.

"Where do the level one demons end up if they are dead?"

"Either they turn to dust or end up in the river of the dead. If they are the demons who were created by me, they would end up in the Tower of Sins, Torcher or Chains," replied Vladimir, looking at his servant's hands going through the parchments. It looked like many demons had died on that day. "I wonder if it is the angels or the level three demons who are sending my demons back to Hell."

"It is the demons who belong to the living world," answered Calhoun. There was a difference when it came to the three levels of the demons, where the demons who belonged to the living didn't hold any powers. They were considered as good as to be humans unless they were turned into vampires.

"That is not good," hummed Vladimir, "How are my demons going to make deals and bring the souls into Hell?"

"Why do you need more souls? You already have enough of them floating in the river," stated Madeline, slightly confused.

"The souls are nothing less to the energy source, to keep Hell functioning. But there are some souls that can be turned into demons," Vladimir's voice then turned to a whisper as if it was a secret. He said, "There are some souls that are qualitative and can be used to channel abilities and powers that were previously not discovered as the people in the living world didn't care about it."

"Found it, Master!" Odin pulled out a dull-looking parchment and handed it over to Vladimir.

"Astrate Joslin," Vladimir read the name, "Looks like she was indeed born before I ascended the throne of Hell. But now she sleeps in the river of the dead souls."

"The same place where my mother is?" questioned Madeline and Vladimir nodded his head.

"Seems like it. Shall we go there?" suggested the Devil.

Reaching the river where the souls floated, Madeline walked near the edge of the water, hoping to see her mother but she didn't come across her mother and instead saw other souls that were floating in there. She felt a hand being placed on her shoulder, and she turned to see it was Calhoun. He squeezed her shoulder in encouragement, and she smiled.

Vladimir walked in the front before sitting down and dipped his hand in the river.

With one dip of hand, the souls opened their eyes as if awakening from their sleep and they quickly started to swim towards him like fish when a crumb of food was dropped into the river. And it was then Madeline saw the woman named Astrate make her way, but she didn't get close to Vladimir. Instead, the woman's soul moved near where Madeline sat.

Even though Astrate was dead, Madeline caught the menace in the woman's eyes. The soul moved closer to her while still being on the surface of the water.

"Is there no way to torture souls that are in here?" questioned Calhoun who could feel the distress in Madeline's mind.

Vladimir pulled out his hand from the river, and he got up to stand next to Calhoun. As Hell solely belonged to the Devil, Vladimir didn't have to open his mouth to speak, but he spoke in a way where only Calhoun could hear.

"The souls that you see in here are nothing but figments of memories that are left behind," Vladimir stared at the demoness who was staring back at Madeline. "They are people who have ceased to exist. What we have in here is nothing but remnants of the dead."

Calhoun turned to Vladimir with his eyebrows furrowed.

"Doesn't this mean that the souls that are in here are not real?" asked Calhoun before his eyes fell on the floating souls that continued to spread out.

Vladimir smiled, "Indeed, you are right, Calhoun. What you see here is not real, but every demon in here has some important information to share, and I thought it would be quite wasteful just to destroy them. You never know when one of them will come in use."

Madeline, who was sitting near the edge of the river, her hand stretched to reach towards the surface of the water, and the woman named Astrate moved her hand too.

When their hands touched each other, Madeline felt as if she was sinking in the water, and the things around her started to dissolve until she came to stand in the vast desert. She was surrounded by screams as if the people were in pain, but she couldn't see from where it was coming.

"Do you believe we will be able to pull it off?" came a voice from behind her, and Madeline's head snapped around to see two demonesses standing there- her mother and Astrate.

Marina looked down at her fingertips of her hand, running her thumb over it with a sullen look on her face. "It is our only hope here, Astrate. I am too tired of living in the dark and want to see how the living world works."

"Don't let Darian hear you say that," chuckled Astrate, "He wouldn't be happy if he came to know about you being enthusiastic about it."

Madeline's eyes that looked at her mother's hand, she caught sight of the light frost coming to appear on her mother's fingertips. When Marina spread her fingers out, there was a snowflake in her hand, and a dry smile appeared on Marina's lips.

"Then let's keep it between us, Astrate," said Marina, playing with the lone snowflake.

"You are my friend, Marina, so don't try to betray us. If you cannot do it, I am more than glad to do it. I know how you have spent time lurking in the shadows of the living world," said Astrate, staring at the other demoness before continuing to say, "I have known you for many years, and I know how you care about things and forgive unlike the other demons. If I didn't know you better, I would have told you were born on the wrong side," said Astrate in a low voice.

"What's the talk about?" came a man's voice, and a demon appeared out of nowhere. Astrate looked at Marina, a coy smile appearing on her lips.