Stronger Together chapter 220

The room below was intimidating as shit. Wall to wall fallen, some of  whom had more presence in their little fingers than these lordlings did  in their whole body. I'd been expecting the princes to be lined up at a  table of in thrones or something but actually they were standing  around. It was easy to tell who was who though, because those eight  people were surrounded by crowds of retainers, and the boss? The big bad  himself? Well, that cheese stood alone.

Lucifer was an  island in a sea of fallen, the crowd gave way around him like he was the  opposite pole of the magnet, and he just stood and stared lazily at us.  It was obvious who he was too, long blonde wavy hair, green eyes the  color of emeralds and a smile pulled back over perfect white teeth. I  expected him to seem otherworldy or horrible, but he was just...a really  handsome guy that seemed like he would be nice to talk to. He had this  aura of sympathy around him like he would take your side no matter what.

He  looked like the movie version of everyone's favorite high school  teacher, the one who does fun projects in class and who all the movie  kids love. It didn't occur to me he might be messing with me until I  took a step toward him to go tell him why we were here and try to work  things out with him. I froze in dread as I realized I had been about to  go tell the actual Devil what our plan was and ask him to abandon his  war effort out of the goodness of his heart. I grabbed Yang tighter and  dragged her down of the steps to the clapping of the crowd, getting us  as close to the wall as possible.

Luckily he looked away  pretty fast as the tiny female goldie was announced. "Now introducing  Lady Sharina, here representing Lord Malus of Gommorog." That was  actually interesting, it made me wonder if they had gotten the real one  down here or if it was just named after one of the biblical cities.  Sharina smiled smugly down at the crowd, not managing to make her face  any less punchable, and waved slowly like a princess as the shitty  herald read off more details I ignored. Finally she too stepped down,  striding over to a massive demon prince surrounded by subjects.

We  had been briefed on these guys before coming, mostly so we didn't  accidentally get Pater's city razed to the ground because we called some  fallen big shot bro or something. This huge bastard was Azazel, to him  ascribe all sin. The guy who supposedly invented weapons, war, and  weirdly enough makeup for some reason. Azazel apparently knew her city  lord because he allowed her to close in, though he didn't pay her too  much attention other than a glance of acknowledgement. She didn't seem  bothered taking her place near him, though she kept subtly sneaking  closer.

We'd been warned some of the city lords had thrown  in with the princes. Pater had not, because he said that there was more  benefit playing the field for the lords that didn't have dedicated  supporters. Not that "be a mercenary cuz it pays good" was a surprising  sentiment from this greedy son of a bitch. Still, it wasn't reassuring  to know that most of these assholes were going to be backed by the  princes. It made sense though, I didn't know why Lucifer had offered to  let the winner lead the invasion, but any of the princes would be idiots  to pass up the chance to gain that glory.

Hell, maybe  that was why. Maybe he was flushing out his opponent's tools so he could  dispose of them more easily. If there was one thing you could count on  it's that politicians were always working an angle, and EVIL politicians  even more so. Some people might expect Lucifer to be the "crush them  under my iron boot" type, but anyone who knew anything about  Christianity knew the prince of lies preferred a subtle touch. A whisper  here, a nudge there. The eldest archangel certainly wasn't weak by any  means, but he wasn't a thug either. Civilized monsters down here, or at  least the ones at the top.

The herald began to call more  champions forward. The bigguns went before male goldie, and were  introduced as Melkan, Varlys, Kelthrak, Ulvic, and Reekahn. I followed  the introductions but in all honesty once they stepped off the dais I  completely lost track of who was who. Two of them went to stand with  Azazel next to dumptruck princess Sharina, while the other three filed  over to yet another crowd. They made their way through the group of  fallen with all the grace of a bull in china shop, before falling to  their knees before the prince.

The small dark haired man  with a fine boned delicate jaw and a sickly pallor, was handsome and  refined. He gave off the air of an ailing scholar, a weak but clever man  who did his best to turn his intellect to his benefit. He was, in point  of fact, absolutely non of the things he looked like, including, as the  case may be, a small dark haired man. Leviathan, the devils own  brother, the beast from below, the devourer of the seas. This was a  monster the likes of which our world hadn't seen since time immemorial,  as well as an animal that put even Fenrir to shame.

Leviathan  didn't even look at the bigguns, who simply fell to their knees to  abase themselves. He just sat there, giving off an air of scholarly  boredom. Next up was male goldie's turn. The punchable man, whose name  was Williker, and his lord both filed in next to Leviathan as well.  Weirdly he was glaring hard at Sharina, but she didn't seem to care much  what he thought so he finally turned back to stare ahead after wasting a  few minutes on the stink eye. They had been standing near each other so  I'd assumed they were friendly, though looking back I was kind of  suspecting I'd just assumed that because they were both goldies.

The  sneaks came out and were introduced as Kiran, Ran, and Vederick, and  headed to stand next to a tall gaunt fallen who I knew to be Asmodeus,  and I turned to head out, before I was interrupted by the heralds voice.  I realized I'd forgotten the last two champions. The ones who had to be  purebred fallen. "Lord Rakiel, representing Lord Veltrix, city lord of  Bloodholm." A hush fell over the room, a silence so profound I'd have  called it deafening, and even Lucifer raised an eyebrow.

To  understand why meant you needed to have heard something about names in  hell. The -el in an angels name means "of God" which as one might expect  is a bit of a taboo down here. The only fallen that named their  children that were the one who had it in their own names. Which meant  this guys parent were first gen fallen and not weak ones. On top of that  most fallen had given up their former name like Asmodeus and Lucifer  had. The one who hadn't were all serious customers.

On top  of that there was the known fact that by some weird quirk of  metagentics first generation pure bloods were usually stronger than  their parents. In fact it was so universal that most first gen born  fallen were killed as babies by their parents enemies to deny them a  weapon. There had been a bloody period of infanticide a few decades  after the war. Luckily for everyone angels had a hard time breeding,  especially the original generation since the weren't made for it, so it  didn't come up much anymore.

But entering this kid to  fight was....bold. Based on the reaction he had to be young and  unveiling him this early was a risk. Someone was going all out here, and  I was pissed about it because it meant I'd have to fight this monster  myself. Not for the first time I found myself missing my Archangel  Armor. I'd left it at the castle sadly, not expecting need it on a day  out in the woods. More fool me. Unlike the others Rakiel didn't approach  a prince and like me just wandered over to an empty space to stand  alone. I had to raise an eyebrow at that.

Then the herald  boomed again and I forgot the guy for a second. "Lady Alleshara  representing representing Lord Radik of  Trevan." This one was even more  of a surprise. Not because she was a fallen mind you, but because my  guess had been wrong. Unlike Rakiel Alleshara wasn't a pureblood of any  generation. She was a succubus. Which was unexpected to say the least.  As my travels had made obvious, hell is extremely bigoted about  bloodlines. Aside from the the fallen, who of course were the lords of  this realm, every type of demon from great to small had a purpose. The  half breeds the demons had brought for the tournament were for different  things. Stealths, Bigguns, and I was assuming Goldie's were all combat  demons based on their presence here.

Succibi  were not for fighting. Succubi were for sex. Simple as that. They were  employed in brotherls and sometimes in inn's like the one we'd seen as a  purchase option for guests, but they were bed warmers and not for  fighting. Not to say they were looked down on any more than any other  demonkin, half breed or otherwise, there was no stigma against sex or  gender in hell, just against weakness, which by and large is what most  fallen thought Succubi were. They were sex pets, just like I imagined  the bigguns were either attack dogs or beasts of burdem.

So  Lord Radik bringing a Succubus as his champion was kind of a huge fuck  you to literally everyone here, and done in a way that they couldn't  even respond to. He was basically showing up at a dog show with a rabid  possum and pointing out that according to the rules, since it had four  legs and a tail it was technically eligible. That said unlike these  judgemental fucks I wasn't counting her out. Radik was a city lord, a  position you absolutely did not get by being a a petty idiot. If he  brought her to this fight he thought she could actually do something.

Alleshara  and Radik descended the steps, and unlike literally every other fallen  and demon in the place strolled right up to Lucifer himself and knelt in  supplication, before rising to stand on either side of him. That caused  quite a commotion, because Lucifer didn't really play politics. Or  rather, Lucifer didn't play visible politics. The sovereign was unlike  the other princes of hell because he was almost always moving, but in  subtle and indefinable ways. If Lucifer had tossed aside his charade of  nonaction then things were getting too spicy for the pepper. Which was  extra bad for me, because as the undisputed ruler of hell, if Lucifer  had allowed Alleshara to represent him in combat, even by not refusing  her, she had to be a fucking monster.

I'd  been mostly worried about Rakiel, but Alleshara would be just as  dangerous. Hell maybe I was being arrogant and I couldn't beat any of  them, but I didn't think that was likely. Regardless I mentally prepared  myself for the fights ahead, and as I did, Lucifer clapped his hands  once with a smile, silencing the room. "Greetings friends and subjects.  I'm so glad you could join us for the festivities. I see so many  familiar and cherished faces. Now, since everyone is here, let the  banquet, begin." And with a snap of his fingers we were all sitting at  tables with plates in front of us. I blinked. Well, that was terrifying.