The Way, the Truth, and...(Conflict)

The next three “days,” (for in Hell, days are relatively much longer: about six years to one day) were spent primarily in training the two young demons to harness their skills separately. Otiena mastered her skills with the mind: Illusion, telepathy, mind reading, telekinesis, and osmosis (although that was actually an extension of telekinesis that simply allowed her to move and loosen molecular bonds long enough for her to pass through them). She also learned the more subtle art of manipulation. She learned how to cajole, tempt, impress, bribe, blackmail, threaten, and sway. People, to her, seemed as easily manipulated as pawns on a chessboard. Dunkleflemme mastered his influence over the elements, even able to go so far as to “create” them. He mastered wind, water, earth, and energy. He seemed particularly fond of the flame. He integrated his elemental manipulation with his fighting style to compensate for the lack of weaponry. By the time the sun rose on the earth on the third day, they were ready.

Dunkleflemme was sparring with one of the lower-level demons of Hell. The demon was small, but fast- extremely fast. So fast that it was said that when he ran, the average eye couldn’t even follow his movements, effectively making him invisible to the eye. He was exactly the sort of challenge Dunkleflemme was looking for. Dunkleflemme waited patiently as the demon, Henair, drew his sword in an elaborate display. Finally, the demon ran at Dunkleflemme with all of his speed. It was true. His speed surpassed sight. However, it made a distinctly obvious disturbance in the wind. Dunkleflemme followed the disturbance in the wind until it was close enough to strike.

Otiena was recreating some of the more grotesque landscapes one might find in Hell. There was the typical lake of fire, which was primarily preserved for God-Fearing ‘Christians.’ The lake constantly burned and the water had a very greasy look to it. A closer look would reveal that the greasy was, in fact, fat- human fat. Otiena recreated the screams and the drowning sobs that perpetually emanated from the fiery red shores. The sky was always a dark gray, choked with human ash. Every once in a while a hand would lift out of the lake, its charred, raw, and often decayed fingers trying to grasp a means of reprieve that would never come. An interesting thing about Hell is that physical bodies are often the way that souls are kept. They still experience all of the sensations, but very rarely have time for pleasure. Otiena watched her handy work happily and waved it away with her hand. The lake was always calming for her.

The sound of a swinging blade rang out through the air. Henair stopped and turned around to view his handy work. He smiled as he watched Dunkleflemme’s blue arm spasm and flop on the ground, the blood that exited his lost appendage dying the brown earth black. Dunkleflemme looked at the stump of his hand in shock.

“And here I thought you were going to be a challenge,” Henair taunted.

He rushed at Dunkleflemme again, the hilt of his sword drawn to his upper stomach to cut down on air resistance. Dunkleflemme closed his eyes and beat his wings, shooting into the sky. The dust from the ground swirled into the sky, rising part of the way with Dunkleflemme and creating a visual barrier that Henair’s eyes could not penetrate. He ran through the cloud with erratic movements, seeking out Dunkleflemme. Dunkleflemme merely watched, studying and memorizing the patterns of his movements.

He is a good fighter…not just fast… but he lacks any other skill than with his hands and blade. Probably has very low tolerance for elemental attacks-

Henair finally looked up.

“Are we going to fight?” he called up to him.

Dunkleflemme nodded and surrounded Henair with a hexagonal cage made of intense blue flame. The depth of each wall was about six feet deep and, therefore impossible for Henair to run out of unscathed.

Henair looked at this trap and laughed.

“Nice trick,” he said, tensing his spindly legs and leaping straight towards Dunkleflemme. He was almost as fast in the air as he was on the ground.

He is still fast, but he cannot change his position as quickly as I can.

Dunkleflemme beat his wings and moved beyond his reach, watching with mild satisfaction as Henair rose above his altitude, swinging his blade wildly and hitting nothing but air. Dunkleflemme waited until gravity slowed him almost to a stop and flew behind him. He swung to knock Henair out of the sky, turning his bladed forearm at the last second in a non-fatal position as he sent him, end over end, into the blue flame.

“Give up?” Dunkleflemme asked, a quiet smile curling the edges of his mouth upward slightly.

Henair could but scream in response.

The flame was extinguished, leaving a charred, writhing demon in its place.

“Thank you,” Dunkleflemme said, still smiling, and flew through the gray sky, leaving Henair to his own agony.

Otiena watched the lake as it slowly disappeared, leaving nothing but a few lingering screams and the red earth that stretched out forever in all directions. Her body swayed as if she was in a trance. There was a dull glint of metal as a small, silver leaf pushed its way out of the otherwise barren ground and into the gray-brown sky. It seemed to emanate its own light as it unfolded and brightened the surrounding gloom. A gold stalk lifted the leaf higher into the sky, casting a warm glow upon the drab landscape. Fissures of wispy, black smoke issued from cracks that formed in the ground as the young tree's trunk expanded at an unnaturally fast rate. Smooth, bronze bark lines (name a tree with bark like this...cypress?) formed as the young tree matured. At the same time, gold branches shot out of the growing tree as if they were snakes rising from the cool shadows to warm themselves with the glow of the tree.

Tiny silver buds began to sprout on the branches of the tree. As they flowered, they revealed large tanzanite gems. These gems were a deep royal blue with a faint, red ‘heart’ in the center. The blooms sparkled in the silver and gold that surrounded them for mere seconds before their 'hearts' began to glow brighter and brighter until the red completely consumed the blue. The gems, now rubies, shined for only a few seconds longer before detaching from the tree and turning into brown-red garnets. Even these could not be enjoyed for long because they fell in the smoky fissures created by the trunk.

The tree continued to grow in this manner until it reached a size that would take a redwood centuries to achieve. The glow that the tree emanated cut through the palpable gloom of the gray sky for about a kilometer. The light drew both demon and Damned alike. Most stood in awe of the tree's decadent beauty; a few tried to climb the tree and steal the blooms, only to be knocked away by the tree's large, low branches.

The crowd jeered as all were knocked on the ground who tried to reach the gems. Otiena laughed as well, thoroughly enjoying the attention she received as the result of her creation. She even made one of the branches fling its blooms out over the crowd. They jostled and leapt for the blooms, only to have them evaporate in their hands if they were able to grab one at all.

Dunkleflemme flew through the air, trying out new ways to fight in the sky when he caught the glimmer of the Illusion out of the corner of his eye and sighed.

"Otiena..." he muttered.

He turned and flew towards the source of the glittering nuisance.

As he reached the tree, he decided to stay back for a bit, studying it, unnoticed, for the flaws.

Finally, he landed in front of Otiena, a slight smirk on his lips.

"There isn't enough light for that tree to shine that much by itself...where is the source of light?"

"It doesn't need one, it glows," Otiena snapped.

She turned her back to him and raised her hands to the crowd. They grew silent as they waited to see what she would do next. She lowered her hands slowly and projected the Illusion of gold, feminine statues. They stood still in graceful positions as the crowd waited. Finally, as the crowd became restless, the statues opened their eyes, which were large rubies, and began to dance and sway amongst the spectators in a sensuous display.

"Metal doesn't glow," Dunkleflemme said, creating his own dancers out of blue flame that burned the very air. Their audience backed away from the extreme heat and watched as the two groups competed with one another. The flame dancers, though not as graceful or seductive, were still captivating on the merit that they danced and moved in the same way that natural fire flickers and sways: almost revealing deep secrets within the flames, but telling nothing, nevertheless.

As Otiena realized that the attention was no longer fully on her, the stopped her creations and turned them to look contemptuously upon his.

"What's wrong?" Dunkleflemme asked, obviously amused.

"You," she said, crossing her arms and pouting her lips.

“Aw…surely I am not capable of annoying you…”

“I beg to differ. You always ruin things…you can never just let things be,” she said, hanging her head melodramatically.

The tree began to die. The tanzanite blooms fell from the limbs and flickered into brown garnet. The silver leaves turned to copper and oxidized into a mint-green dust that dissipated into the air. The gold and bronze bark crusted over with rough pyrite and fell into the wispy cracks, beginning with the highest limbs, until only the ‘dead’ trunk was left. Otiena waved one hand before the trunk, which caused it to burst into pieces and fall into the cracks. The cracks quickly sealed, leaving nothing to show for the grand Illusion.

The raucous crowd jeered at Dunkleflemme.

Otiena continued to pretend to sob, winking to Dunkleflemme as the jeering got louder.

“You act worse than the Damned do,” Dunkleflemme said matter-of-factly.

Otiena rolled her eyes.

“Just because I like to have fun-“

“You should be training.”

“What do you think I’m doing?” she asked, “This is what I do.”

Dunkleflemme looked at the golden dancers as they continued to compete with his flames.

“What good is it?” he wondered aloud, “What will trickery and false images help to accomplish?”

“Nothing,” she said darkly, “It will accomplish nothing.”

The golden dancers disappeared in a cacophony of screams, their bodies turning into wispy, red smoke and dispersing into the sky.

Otiena turned and walked away. Dunkleflemme reached out to grab her, but realized that his hand was no longer attached to his arm.

He looked at it for a moment. He could see veins and bone slowly growing from his wrist, but at the rate it was healing, it would take days to be complete again. Why was it so slow to heal now? When he trained with Lucifer, his wounds, some worse than this, could heal in minutes.

He dropped his arm to his side and watched her storm off.

What did I say?

He decided to walk in the opposite direction that Otiena took, in no hurry to deal with her anytime soon. He took to the sky. As he rose into the air, the wind created by the beating of his wings stifled his flames with nary a sigh of protest.

Both young demons wandered for a long time, one smoldering, and the other musing.

‘What good is it?’ ‘Why do we train?’ ‘What is our purpose?’ ‘How many questions can I ask before I piss her off?’ Otiena mocked, Well, I’ve got a question gfor you: ‘Why don’t you just shut up?’

She looked down at her tightly clenched fist and opened it, revealing a miniature Dunkleflemme running around in circles repeating ‘Why? Why? Why?’ in a high-pitched voice.

Train? I should train? Right, of course…nevermind the fact that he hardly ever trains with Lucifer. Probably too busy asking questions. Just because I don’t hit things with my fists…

She brought the obnoxious effigy of Dunkleflemme up to her face and blew lightly, causing him to blow away in a fine blue mist. The tiny figure screamed as it was blown into nothingness.

Otiena looked sadly at her empty palm.

Maybe I’m actually one of the Damned- and he is my punishment. He makes me feel so guilty when he questions me. Is it not my job to impress…cajole…sway…

She looked at the ground, dropping her hand to her side.

Seduce…

She looked at her petite body: her shimmering, exotic skin, her small, almost malnourished figure, her long legs, her cleavage- which was the only thing not small about her body. She knew why she was created- Wasn’t it obvious?

Dunkleflemme had his speed, his strength, the blades on his arms… Wasn’t his purpose obvious as well?

Dunkleflemme swung his bladed arm through the air, listening to them sing as they sliced through the air.

He looked at the slowly-healing stump on his arm.

I wish that would hurry up.

He looked up at the sky.

I was too slow…he shouldn’t have gotten me.

He looked back down at his arm, turning it over and replaying the fight in his head.

No…it wasn’t the speed…it was the unpredictability. I thought he would go for vital organs. He went for my hand instead. A few more limbs gone and I would essentially be incapacitated. His movements were also strange- erratic. It was also humiliating. I think it was meant to be that way. Hmm…

He began to shadow spar, mimicking Henair’s erratic movements. After a few minutes, he stopped, frowning. It didn’t feel right.

He looked up at the dreary sky.

I wonder how well we will be able to work with each other, if at all? She is so belligerent…

As he was musing to himself, a figure appeared in the distance. Dunkleflemme watched, curious, as the shadow drew closer at a casual pace.

“Lucifer,” Dunkleflemme said as he recognized the figure. His tone indicated neither happiness nor anger at the shadow’s identity.

“Dunkleflemme,” Lucifer said, mimicking the same monotony that his creation had used.

They stood in silence for a moment as if sizing each other up. Finally, Lucifer smirked.

“You look so happy to see me.”

Dunkleflemme shrugged.

“I am not bothered by your presence.”

“Ah…” Lucifer said slowly, nodding, “That’s good.”

There was another pause as Lucifer analyzed his creation.

“Yes…I think you are ready.”

“For what?” Dunkleflemme asked, perplexed.

“To finally put all of your hard work to good use.”

“How?” Dunkleflemme asked, his interest piqued.

“By giving the Marked One his due.”

Dunkleflemme mused for a moment, comprehending who the Marked One was.

Ah…I was wondering when he would come up again.

“How do I do that?”

“By destroying an entire city.”

“…Why…?” he asked, taken back by the request.

“The entire city has been handed over to me, as well as another city called Sodom. Another being will handle its destruction, but I want you to destroy Gomorrah.”

“Why has the city been given to you?” Dunkleflemme asked, unable to understand why he would want to destroy that which was given to him.

“The people have given themselves to me through their acts of evil. They desire nothing but their few seconds of decadence before they are punished for eternity.”

“Why would they want that? It seems rather short-sighted…”

“Humans are short-sighted.”

“I see…” Dunkleflemme said, still skeptical.

Dunkleflemme took to the sky.

“What would you have me do?” he asked.

“Find Otiena…tell her nothing of what we have discussed. Go to the ‘Gray Room’ as you have so named it. From there, you will go to Gomorrah. Wait for the Marked One to gain his title…then destroy them all.”

Dunkleflemme looked down at his wrist as it began to heal much more rapidly than it had been.

“I wouldn’t want you to have to heal while you are on Earth…you need to be able to concentrate on the task at hand,” Lucifer said, smiling generously.

“Why…” Dunkleflemme started, not quite sure of what he was pondering.

“Yes?”

“Nevermind.”

Lucifer nodded, turned, and walked away, his figure slowly fading out of sight as if it had become a fog…and then nothing.

Dunkleflemme turned and flew in the direction he last saw Otiena. She had not strayed far, and was casting a rather curious Illusion.

Dunkleflemme watched, unnoticed, trying to comprehend the trick.

The trick seems to be projected through her dark, vacant eyes. I wonder what would happen if her eyes were plugged up with something?
Dunkleflemme looked at the Illusion itself. The lights that were his eyes flickered. It was him when he trained- alone.

When did she watch me? Why didn’t I notice her? I need to work on my awareness…Why did she watch me? She doesn’t seem to care about what I do…even when we train together…

He watched as his figure turned and twisted on the ground, fighting some unseen enemy.

My wings create such drag…it is a wonder I can move at any decent speed at all…

He watched as he leaned to the left and clenched his fist before he threw a powerful left hook. He gave the enemy ample opportunity to anticipate his moves.

He looked back at Otiena.

She might actually be of use, he thought, landing on the ground noisily.

He considered asking a favor of her, but quickly discarded the thought.

It isn’t worth the trouble.

Otiena turned around quickly, her Illusion cutting off abruptly as she faced the source of her disturbance.

“What do you want?” she asked, her tone short. She knew he had seen her.

“It is time.”

“For what?”

So hostile… he thought, crossing his arms.

Otiena noticed the defensive body language and relaxed.

“I see,” she said, dropping both arms limply to her side.

“Gray Room,” Dunkleflemme said, beating his wings and taking to the skies once more. He flew off in the direction of the Gray Room without waiting to see whether or not Otiena decided to follow.

He was getting very annoyed by her attitude.

Otiena waited a bit before floating into the sky. She didn’t want to get too close to him. Their conversations had never really been stimulating or productive, afterall. She kept him in sight, but far enough so that she wouldn’t feel compelled to interact with him. Had Dunkleflemme turned around to notice, her distance and silence would have suited him just fine.

Dunkleflemme landed in front of the entrance to the Gray Room, which was, essentially, two massive boulders in a vast plane. The plane was overrun with wind-swept yellowed grass and tall weeds with long thorns and prickly purple flowers. The two boulders were made of the same granite and could be walked around- as if there was no room on the other side of them when they were parted.

Dunkleflemme walked up to the massive boulders. Upon further inspection of them, one could see images etched out into the black grain of the granite boulders. These images of black grain were perpetually shifting, depicting different scenes ranging from the fantastical to the grotesque. Currently, the scene was that of the Adam and Eve weeping at the Gates of Eden. A cherubim swinging a flaming sword much like Dunkleflemme’s sickle-sword was perched atop the gate, impervious to their pleas. A great snake slithered around Eve, avoiding Adam’s heel, and hissing at the cherubim.

Dunkleflemme’s attention was drawn to the hissing creature. He drew from his limited experience and found no name for the creature. He remembered that he also possessed the Marked One’s memories. He sifted through those until he hit a spark of recognition. It was called a snake. He inspected the hissing snake further- scrutinizing it for the reason it held his gaze. He wasn’t sure why… there was nothing spectacular about the snake. Since it was made out of the black grain of the stone, it was anyone’s guess as to what its color was. He looked at the spade-shaped head. He would almost swear that there was a five-point star on the top of its head…

The picture shifted, portraying a rather nasty demon with no arms, several legs, and a blue, gelatin-like body. It was spitting acid onto one of the Damned and lapping up the remains through its red proboscis.

“What are you waiting for?”

Dunkleflemme looked up and watched as Otiena landed on the ground beside him. The granite boulders began to part.

Otiena winked at Dunkleflemme and walked through the left boulder as it continued to open. Dunkleflemme crossed his arms and waited, annoyed, for the boulders to part wide enough for him to walk into the Gray Room.

“Ah. Good. You are both here. Do you know why?”

Otiena nodded.

“To terminate our contract with the Marked One.”

“That is correct. And how is this to be accomplished?”

“We fulfill our end of the bargain and-“

“I destroy him.” Dunkleflemme said, not at all looking forward to what he was about to do. Surely there was another way…

“Exactly,” Lucifer said, looking quite pleased. He looked at Dunkleflemme.

Remember….she is to know nothing of what your methods will be…