Preparation (2)

- Death -

Death was still thinking about things long after the call had ended.

'Why would an unknown lead a human resistance? If they want revenge against the anti-human gods then surely there'd be a better way of going about this.

Death thought about calling a few others, to see if they had any more information, but he knows they'd tell him if they saw anything new worth telling. There was a light knock at the door to which he responded "Come in."

In walked Mary, a woman around 5'5" with brown hair down to her cheeks and brown eyes. She was wearing the same purple robe that Zach was.

Death looked at the echo on his desk.

"You don't need to knock Mary. I don't have any other meetings planned for awhile. Even if I did I would have let all the grim know if I shouldn't be interrupted."

Mary was always nervous around Death. He towered over her, and his arms always unnerved her. They reminded her of charred wood, which gave her unpleasant memories from her past life.

"I know sir, but it's just a habit, please understand. I mean nothing by it, I just, you know, can't really talk well with you." Mary was clearly rambling. She was well trusted amongst her peers, being one of the older humans to work for death.

Death wasn't annoyed by her rambling. He sometimes found the anxiety humans had around him refreshing from the way gods and other creatures of the world acted around him, other times he found it disheartening though.

Mary collected herself, made eye contact with Death, and tried her hardest not to stare at his hands.

"Zach told me you might be leaving soon, to go investigate the unknown problem. I thought that was weird, so I wanted to confirm with you before I start making the usual preparations."

This was another reason Death liked Mary. She was dependable and questioned things appropriately.

"I didn't tell Zach that. Seems he's making assumptions again."

Mary looked worried, then mad.

'Zach you asshole, why are you telling people non-verified information. Then again...you know Death better than I do.'

Death started tapping his desk, wondering what Zach was doing. He groaned and told Mary to halt preparations. He stood up from his chair and walked past Mary, leaving the door open and giving a "Thanks for the good work as usual." before leaving.

Death's office was in the back of Purgatory's largest building, on floor five of thirty. The building was massive. It had to be out of necessity. It's a place for newly reborn humans to get work. They could help their fellow kind and get acclimated to the world around them. It wasn't an easy process, and most reborn humans go through shock after realizing they've awoken into a new world.

The inside of the building was very modern. To most it would look like a typical office, the main difference being the walls were made of stone. Everything was lit by electric magic that was contained in spheres that hung from the walls. The many windows of the building were often being looked through by new hires, watching the place where reborn humans spawn.

Death walked down the stairs, refusing the offer of a stone elevator ride from the attendant across the hall.

'Humans hate being in that thing with me, no sense in making them uncomfortable just to save a few steps.' Death thought as started to walk down the stairs.

It was rare for Death to be on one of the lower floors at this time of day. He would usually stay on his floor until fewer people were working. He was immediately bombarded with questions because most of the reapers mistook his early arrival as a bad sign.

"I'm just looking for Zach. I need to discuss something with him. He's fine, I'm fine, the world isn't ending, I'm just trying to catch him before he gets too busy." Death said in a hurried tone, trying to reassure them that nothing awful was happening.

"Zach!" one of the reapers yelled.

Zach turned around, noticed Death standing over most of the crowd, and rushed over.

"Maybe we should go back to one of the upper floors to discuss this sir," Zach said hurrying Death towards the stairs and shooing away any reapers that were still worried about their boss's sudden appearance.

Death looked down at Zach with the same glare he had given before.

"We're going to floor twelve to talk about my departure you've planned for me."

Zach gave a sly grin at the statement. Floor twelve was one of the training areas.

'Shit. Maybe he just wants to blow off steam before yelling at me.' Zach hid his smile. 'Whatever it is he's planning, I need to convince him to go to the northern territories and investigate with Lucifer.'

The walk up to floor twelve was long and it gave Zach more time to think about what he was going to say to Death.

'Last time an unknown appeared it lead to mass slaughter. I know he hasn't forgotten that incident.'

Death and Zach occasionally passed by others on the stairwell who could tell by the look on Death's face where they were going. One of the people they passed mouthed "Good luck" to Zach.

Finally, the two were on floor twelve. The sound of yelling, and bodies hitting mats could be heard immediately upon stepping into the training area. The floor was half as big as a stadium. Anyone who wasn't in the middle of training turned to look at the two that had just arrived.

There were various rings throughout the floor, some were boxing rings, others were meant for sword fighting. The ring Death and Zach were heading to was a specialized one, that was more of an arena, specially created for more intense matches. There was high seating all around the arena and the inside was a large open area with matting. Three people were standing in the middle of it. They all noticed Death and immediately went to three separate edges of the arena.

Death took off his robe revealing a black shirt underneath with thin black pants. Death wasn't particularly fond of the color but noticed he got fewer looks when he wore a color that matched his arms and legs.

"We're going to have a proper discussion about this. I haven't had a fight today, so it seems like you'll be volunteering."

Zach lowered his head to hide his smile and took off his robe revealing a similar outfit to Death's. As the two stepped into the arena, stone walls lifted up around them, blocking them in. A voice could be heard from one of the previous three.

"Best of five. No aggressive magic, no weapons. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" Zach and Death both yelled.

- Lucifer -

Lucifer and Elijah were now outside of a building that was built into the massive stone walls of Hell. The building was simple in design, being basically just a big stone square jutting out of the wall. It had window holes, doors, and a sign that read "supplies" but not much else.

The two were waiting for Peter and his team to arrive.

'I hope Peter takes this well. He won't, I know he won't, but hopefully, he takes it well enough to begrudgingly agree.'

Elijah looked up at the gigantic wall before him, suddenly feeling like this place is more of a prison than he had already thought.

"I didn't even know there were walls here, let alone this big. I thought they were just towers."

Lucifer looked at the walls and then Elijah.

"Yeah, Demons that can use stone magic built it a very long time ago. Most structures in this part of the world are made out of stone. The population of the three realms is constantly growing, so we try to make sure our infrastructure can be changed frequently."

'That answers one question I had.' Elijah thought to himself. He decided to get another answer while he could.

"I'm curious. You can leave Hell?"

Lucifer seemed surprised by the question. Not because he hadn't been asked before, but by the timing.

"I am not the original warden of Hell. That's Satan, who, believe it or not, is a different person, or demon technically. I was somewhat forced to work here a long time ago, but now I can mostly come and go as I please."

Elijah had a lot to take in.

'So he and Satan are different people? Creatures? Things? If Satan's a demon like the girl at the library I can kind of guess what he looks like. It's still weird though. If Satan is the original warden, why would he allow these contracts to be made? It's not unusual that someone gets their jail sentence reduced for good behavior, but this process seems excessive.'

Lucifer noticed Elijah being lost in thought and didn't interrupt him.

'It's good if he processes things, I just hope he asks questions. The last thing I want is a problem that could've been easily avoided with a simple answer. In fact.'

"Do you have any more questions to ask before Peter gets here? I'm sure I can answer almost anything that you're thinking about."

Elijah looked at him.

"Yeah, is Satan okay with these contracts of yours? I don't want the Demon ruler to come after me because of a misunderstanding."

Lucifer thought it was an odd question but he had the answer.

"Satan is all for giving the humans a second chance, which I am happy about so long as they're the right kind of person. If I didn't have his approval I can assure you I wouldn't be doing this."

While Lucifer's response did answer one of Elijah's questions it raised a few more.

"Who are the "right" types of person?" he said with a tinge of anger.

Lucifer could tell Elijah wasn't as upset as he led on.

"It means those with forgivable crimes. Hell has four levels to its prison. The first level is for those with one to ten years of sentencing. Almost everyone there is eligible to retrieve a contract. The second level is eleven to thirty years. Some of the humans there are okay to give a contract to."

Elijah was interested to know about the various levels but needed to ask about something important to him.

"Before you continue. Where does a human go from here when their sentence is up?"

Lucifer looked over at the large gate in the wall.

"They're free to go wherever they can or stay if they want to have a job here. Some go to Purgatory for work, because they'd prefer to be there than here. Death and I have a monthly transport setup for any who wish to go. As for any that get the idea of going to Heaven, only the humans reborn there are allowed to enter."

Elijah wasn't getting the answer he'd hoped for. He didn't want to stay in these places with the newly spawned humans. He wanted to get away from all of this.

"What about places outside those three?"

Lucifer made a concerned look.

"There are plenty of places in this world that accept humans outside of the three realms, but the safest places in this world for humans is here, in the southern territories. I'm not saying it's dangerous everywhere else, but don't undervalue what you can get if you stay."

Elijah was frustrated with the comment but understood where Lucifer was coming from. Different parts of the world have different, sometimes dangerous, cultural differences.

'I can only imagine what a battlefield in this world must look like.'

Lucifer tried to change the subject.

"Back to the last two levels of Hell. Level three is thirty-one to one hundred years. Very few humans there will be offered a contract, and the ones that are will be monitored. Finally, there's level four. The humans there suffer for a thousand years before being executed. They are never offered a contract."

Elijah stopped listening. He was thinking about what awaited him on the other side of these walls, wondering how he should prepare himself for potential conflict.

'How do you even fight someone who can use magic? With magic, I guess, but if the winner is the more experienced one I won't stand a chance. If I could get a firearm I might be okay.'

Before Elijah had a chance to ask Lucifer if there were guns in this world he got interrupted.

"You're fuckin' jokin'!" Peter yelled. He was surrounded by four other people who were now slowly backing away from him.