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Sacrifice... If I ever thought I knew what sacrifice was before this mission, then I was naïve.
“Hermes? What are you doing here?” I ask, confused.
He’s walking through the small doorway with a slight grin on his face. His staff, with the two snakes on it, is on his back. He takes it off and twirls the staff effortlessly. The snakes seem to be unaffected by the movement.
Someone is following in Hermes’s shadow. He has long, messy, black hair. His body twitches every few seconds, and his eyes are darting around the room.
“We’re here to help. Olympus has finally realized the severity of the situation and has ordered me to back you up. When the world is at stake, even the gods move,” he says, walking toward me.
The other guy’s gaze is locked on me. I realize it is Pandora’s box that he’s looking at. As Hermes walks toward me, my pocket burns. The power has been restored to my key.
Hermes continues talking. “So, you did hold on to it. Good. Lucifer has locked himself behind his throne. He has almost reached the power he needs. We must stop him here before it is too late.”
“Where are Justin and Audrey? They were close to the entrance. Surely you must have passed them on the way here?” I ask.
He scratches his head. “They are still alive? When I saw you alone, I assumed... That’s good news, but I wouldn’t know. I took a very different route into Hell.”
“A different way?” I ask.
“Yes. Hades informed me of a secret entrance that allowed me to skip past most of the security. Put away that angry look. Demigods such as yourself would have never survived the path. My friend here is lucky that I was able to bring him along,” Hermes says. He holds out his left arm. It is black and decayed but looks like it is being restored.
“Yes... yes... lucky,” the boy says. He doesn’t take his eyes off of the box.
Hermes ignores the kid. “Now, let’s end this. Use the restored key to unlock Lucifer’s secret chamber, and we will finish him here.”
I walk toward the keyhole. My head gets dizzier the closer I get. I don’t think it’s because of me this time. I keep getting pieces of flashbacks that aren’t mine.
I reach for the keyhole. Just as I am about to put the key in, Lucas thinks, “Stop! Do not open that door. That keyhole is the last remaining seal to Lucifer’s cage. We’re being tricked.”
“Are you sure? What if you’re not remembering clearly?” I think back.
“Is something wrong?” Hermes asks.
“Almost all of my memories have flooded back. I swear to you that if you open this door, it is over. The world we know will be gone along with everyone in it,” Lucas thinks desperately.
“This doesn’t feel right. I think we should believe Lucas and turn back,” Lucian thinks.
“Well, well. It appears we have run out of time. Their memories are coming back faster than anticipated,” Hermes says behind me. The snakes from his staff coil around me, turning me to face his direction.
Hermes continues, “Sorry about this, kid, but Lucifer took some precautions on Beelzebub when he turned against him. Sel, energize the extra storage chromosomes attached to his demonic DNA. That should release the dormant version of the serum Shax so kindly gave him all those years ago.”
The strength from his snakes is enormous. I can’t break away. I’m about to release Lucas and Lucian’s power, but it’s too late. Sel’s hands are on my head.
It feels like jolts of electricity are surging through me. Lucas yells, and the hysterical laughter floods back into my head. My will is being pushed back, and I’m no longer in control.
“Beelzebub, would you be so kind as to release your master?” Hermes says, releasing me from his grip.
My body turns back to the keyhole. I can see my reflection in it. My eyes have turned green but are glassed over. My hands place the key in the lock. I’m trying to fight back, but nothing is happening.
Hermes yells, “By angel, demon, and human, you shall be free from your prison! Unbound and ready to rule over our rightful dominion!”
“Luke, we have to try harder to stop Lucas. Focus on controlling your body at the same time with me!” Lucian thinks.
I feel his power flowing with mine. Lucas is having trouble turning the key. I’m regaining control, and my will is pushing to the front of my mind. I gasp for air.
“Almost, but not quite,” Hermes says.
I look at the lock. The key has been turned all the way. Two symbols glow on the keyhole. The symbols are wings. The left wing is black while the right is white.
The throne is opening like two doors. I’m pulled back before the steps leading to the throne. Hermes flattens me to the ground and holds me with his knee.
A pair of feet walk through the new door in front of me. A comforting voice says, “I finally get to meet you face to face. I’ve heard many things about you, hybrid boy. Hermes, be kinder to our guest. Allow him to stand.”
Hermes pulls me to my feet. The man in front of me is not what I was expecting. He appears to be in his twenties. He has brown hair, orange eyes, and is freshly shaved. His face is kind but stern.
“Do you even know who you fight for?” he asks.
I don’t answer him. He smiles. It is a kind smile.
“You think you fight for Olympus, but they are just puppets without anyone to pull the strings. The angels are lost and have forgotten their true purpose. You fight for a God who has abandoned all of you to condemnation. I fight to unite angels and humans under one banner. True freedom,” Lucifer says.
He walks up to me and places his hand on my shoulder. My mind suddenly reaches a level of clarity that I’ve never known. I can’t feel Lucas or Lucian at all. My mind feels like it is my own.
“I fight to free humanity. To free them from their own slavery. To give them purpose. I can give you purpose as well. Why don’t you fight for me? Become my champion and fight for a better world,” he says with pride.
Lucifer isn’t what I thought he was. I don’t feel anything menacing from him. His words seem sincere.
“I don’t know... I can’t fight against Olympus.” Then it hits me. “What about my friends? What would happen to them?”
“Calm down. I’m not saying you have to actually fight anyone, and as for your friends—” He waves his arm in the air. Dark tears open up around him. Each tear shows my friends fighting.
Audrey is behind a table and talking into her book. The cages in the room have been opened. She becomes distracted by something.
Peter and Carla are fighting... Kaleb and some other demigods. There are a lot of demigods. I don’t know how long they can last.
Kale and Brittney are undoing chains on someone I don’t recognize. A giant sword almost hits them. It came from Goliath.
Kassidy... isn’t even shown at all.
Lucifer says, “As soon as you declare your allegiance to me, I will call off their attackers. They can join you as well. You will be a beacon to the demigods, both here and on Olympus. True change will come about the world!”
“I still don’t know if—”
Lucifer interrupts, “Do you know what Olympus will do if you return? Hermes tells me, they intended to lock you away forever. Just like Sel behind you.”
“Is it because of who my demon is?” I ask.
Lucifer seems amused by the thought. “Beelzebub is powerful, but what you don’t know is that you have a very interesting angel inside you as well. Abaddon informed me. If true, it could sway a lot of the angels’ allegiances on Olympus. I have a feeling that Zeus would have you killed on the spot if he knew.”
“What’s so important about him that Zeus would kill me over it?” I ask.
Lucifer is becoming visibly impatient but says, “It isn’t hard to see how you could become a threat already. The fact is your angelic friend is an archangel, but not just any archangel. He is one of the originals.”
“Originals? You mean the ones now weren’t always archangels?”
He laughs. “No, those fools are barely capable. Only one of the originals is still an archangel now. My brother Michael. Gabriel and I used to be as well. In other words, your angel is one of the most powerful to ever exist.”
Lucian is that important? I wonder how much he really remembers. Ever since he started gaining memories, he hasn’t said that much about it.
“What is it you want from me?” I ask.
The clarity my mind has felt is fading. The laughter is rising again, but I still can’t feel Lucian or Lucas. My eardrums are pounding, and my legs feel weak.
Lucifer turns his back to me. “I want you to convince the people of Olympus who their true savior is! The God you know is not worthy of being your God. He has abandoned you. Left you to fend for yourselves. I shall lead you into a time of prosperity never experienced before by humankind. Heaven will be taken by storm, and I will become the one true god!”
He grabs the golden sword from its mount and continues, “Disease, hunger, war, and death. I will release the locks on Hell. Any and all types of suffering will be eradicated by my rule!”
I think of my friends fighting to stay alive and the question Kassidy asked me. What happens to us when we die? Maybe this is the better world we are looking for. A world without suffering...
I open my mouth to answer back, but the voice isn’t mine. It belongs to the laughter that has almost driven me insane. “You’ve grown foolish, Lucifer. Believing you can become god.”
The voice chills the room. The tone has a power to it that I can’t describe. Even the fires surrounding us seem to die out from its presence.
“Have you forgotten who pushed you in the right direction? Who showed you that you could be so much more than what you were? Without me, you would be nothing more than a little angel obediently following his Father’s shadow,” the new voice says from my body.
My soul is being ripped from my body as it talks. Now I’m in the air, overlooking the throne room. Watching my own body move without me. I’ve had this happen enough by now that I realize this has to be my spirit being pushed away from my body.
Lucifer faces my body. “You! You shouldn’t even be alive. How did you worm your way back into Hell?”
“Maybe you are still naïve. Most of your demons are too young to notice a power such as mine,” my body says. It holds up Pandora’s box. Instantly, it transforms into a black sword. This sword is twice the size of what I normally use.
Darkness pours out of my shoulders, and the sinister voice coming from my body says, “I hid a piece of my power inside of this box before I was killed. Trapped for thousands of years. Growing my strength back. Most of my hosts died whenever I tried to overtake their bodies, and Olympus sealed me in a vault, not knowing what I was. This one was able to survive. He endured his mind ripping to shreds to make it to you. Unfortunately, he could never know it was all for me to retake my throne.”
Lucifer swings his sword at my body, but it blocks easily with the massive black sword. Lucifer says, “If you have been giving him your power, it’s no surprise things have turned out this way. I expect you are also the one who has been shifting Hell in their favor. Pathways have been changing without me giving the orders. I assumed it was Beelzebub.”
The darkness pouring from my shoulders forms wings. They aren’t feathery wings, but wings made of pure darkness. The skin on my body has patches of darkness that are bubbling up. It looks like I’m being boiled from the inside out.
The dark figure my body has become is fighting, the way I was in the arena. Every strike is unpredictable and aiming to kill. My eyes are as black and warped as my wings. Seeing the bloodlust on my own face is unnerving.
Lucifer scowls, “That darkness... you have stolen some of Gluation’s power and fused it with your own? Hermes, where are you going?”
Hermes runs with Sel out of the room and closes the door behind them. The dark figure transforms Pandora’s box from a sword into a mace instantly. The weight is too much to block. Lucifer gets knocked against a wall.
The darkness walks up to Lucifer using my body. The mace turns back into a sword. The dark figure controlling my body points the tip at Lucifer’s neck.
“I just gave the boy what he wanted. To make it to you. It’s too bad most of your powers haven’t returned to you yet,” the being that overtook my body says to Lucifer.
Just as the dark figure is about to thrust the sword pointed at Lucifer, the fires on the walls reignite. My feet sink into the ground somehow. Fires shoot at my body from the walls.
When the fire dies down, my body has disappeared. It reappears next to Lucifer. My foot kicks Lucifer to the center of the room.
My body walks toward him, but it almost trips. The dark figure places my hands on my head like it’s in pain. The dark wings are shrinking in size. I know what’s happening. Lucas and Lucian are fighting for control.
I wish I could help them, but I can’t even feel my body. I close my eyes and try to focus. When I open them, I’m looking down on Lucifer, back in my body. I close them, and I’m overlooking the fight again. I go back and forth between my body and watching the fight with every step I take.
It finally stops. I’m looking directly at Lucifer in my own body. My hands are holding him up. I still don’t know if killing him is the answer. I struggle against the darkness inside of me that is still trying to regain control.
Lucifer uses my hesitation and grabs my throat quickly. With the war raging inside of me, I feel close to blacking out. Instead, time seems to move faster.
I can see Lucifer choking me, but I don’t seem to die. Lucifer’s face is smug. He kicks the ground, and I watch my body roll under me. Am I watching from my spirit again? I’m locked in place watching time move around me.
Lucifer is seated back on his throne. He is giving orders to all of the demons. Lilith, Legion, and Shax... they’re all here. What does that mean for my friends?
My lifeless body is carried out of the throne room, but I remain here. Time speeds along even further. I’ve been watching years’ worth of time, unable to move.
Lucifer opens tears in the air. The sights terrify me. Cities are crumbling. The oceans are filled with fire. People are fighting each other in droves, and the demons are leading all of it. Lucifer looks pleased.
The tears are now showing Olympus or what’s left of it. The courthouse has been demolished. Through the rubble, the Olympians are seated in their thrones. They have been turned into stone.
The center of Olympus has been turned into an execution ground. The daemons are carrying torture devices. People are being dragged into the area. Elijah, Gabriel, Zach, and Peter are leading the line. They are locked in chains and appear half dead.
Their executioners are... Kaleb, Carla, and Lilith. Lilith places her hand on Carla and whispers into her ear. Carla nods her head and walks up to Peter with a sword in her hands. Peter is crying, but all he does is look down.
I can’t take this anymore. I turn away from the dark tears in the air. Lucifer’s face is nothing like it was before. There is no kindness in it, only twisted enjoyment. I let him lie to me. Convince me that he was good. If that thing didn’t control me, I could have taken a part in this.
This is all my fault. I’m so angry that I punch one of the pillars in the room. Then I realize, I can move again! Lucifer’s gaze turns to the pillar that I just punched. He’s confused but shrugs it off. He can’t see me.
Pandora’s box was carried out of the room a long time ago, but his sword is mounted next to him. I walk to it and find I can lift it. It may be too late to stop this, but he won’t get away with it. I know what I have to do. I hold the sword at the side of his head. As I thrust, he notices me, but it’s too late.
My body suddenly gets forced back. I place the sword back on the mount against my will. I have to suffer through the torture of having to watch everything again, but this time it’s in reverse. After what feels like an eternity, I find myself face to face with Lucifer again. His hand is on my throat, but I still have him in the air.
Pandora’s box is all the way across the room, still in sword form. It is lodged into a pillar. I can’t even see Lucifer’s sword.
A voice rings in my head. “Luke? Can you finally hear me?”
I’m so thankful to hear Lucian’s voice that I say out loud, “Yes. Yes, I can,” My right hand glows white and grabs the arm holding my throat. I am able to force his arm away.
Lucian thinks, “Lucas is trying to fight back whatever Hermes did to him earlier and that other being at the same time, but I don’t know if he can keep it up. I’ve been thinking carefully about those prophecies since we got here, Luke.”
“Is now really the time to talk about them?” I ask.
“It is. I know you can feel it. He is growing stronger than us,” Lucian thinks.
Lucifer is struggling to break away. My other arm grows fur. I’m able to keep him held in place, but Lucian is right. I don’t think I can kill him. He’s growing harder to hold.
“Okay, fine. Quick!” I think.
“The three are the key. Hermes said Lucifer would be released by demon, angel, and human. We are the key. The other prophecy said the keys of destruction may also bring salvation. Now I think—” Lucian starts.
Lucifer yells as if he can hear Lucian too, “Give in! I can give you your life back. Think of your friends. The longer you take, the more of them will die!”
Lucian continues, “We can lock Lucifer back into his cage, but I want you to know it will take all the power we have to seal him back in. That means—”
I stop him. “It’s already happening. You don’t have to tell me. Our body is tearing at the seams.” It’s just like Paean said. My body is breaking down.
I don’t even stop to think about it. After everything I’ve seen him do, sealing him isn’t even close to what I want for him. I pull him toward his throne. It’s still open. The key is lying on the right half of the seat.
He’s almost impossible to hold now. He says, “What do you hope to accomplish? I will break free! Is the small amount of time you have bought Olympus worth your friends’ lives?”
I hate that I am condemning them to death, but I know I can’t trust him. With the last of my physical strength, I throw him into the abyss.
I begin to close the doors. He is fighting me to keep them open. The fires on the walls are an inferno.
His voice echoes through the room, “HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL BE MINE! I WILL BECOME GOD!”
Wings sprout from my back. I force the door to close and quickly grab Hermes’s key. It’s still golden with power. I turn the key in the lock. Lucian and Lucas’s power flows from me into the key. The symbols on both sides glow again. My body is burning, but I hear the door click.
My hands return to normal. I struggle toward the stone doors to leave. As long as I can still move, I have to try.
My chest is glowing. I see something appearing around where my snake brand was placed. Is that my mark? My vision is too blurred to see anything clearly. The burning... my entire body is bubbling.
It’s too much. I collapse halfway toward the door and roll on my back. Bright light blasts from my chest. I have no idea what it was.
I wish I could tell my friends I’m sorry. I don’t want them to die, but there isn’t anything I can do. There never really was.
Are they already dead? Waiting in Hell’s jail cells to be tortured? Is that where I will end up? I guess I’ll find out soon. I hope I bought Olympus some time. After all, this is my fault.
It’s time for me to let go. My eyes slide shut. I feel the blood pumping in my ears. The sound of my heartbeat is nothing more than a murmur.
I know I’m not conscious, but I hear a door open. A voice yells out, Luke? Luke! Wake up! Where are you, Lucifer?!” It’s Gabriel’s voice. What is he doing here? I barely hear him whisper, “That mark... he can’t be.”
More footsteps are running to me. “Master Gabriel, is he—”
I feel my body being flipped over. Gabriel says, “Not yet. We don’t have a lot of time, but we must get him back to Olympus. There is still a chance. Apollo can keep him stable until we get him to Paean.” I’m being lifted off the ground.
Apollo? So, they were able to rescue him. That’s good.
I can still feel myself being torn apart, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me anymore. I’ve grown used to the pain. I hear the sounds of a hospital.
“His heart is barely beating.”
“He isn’t breathing, sir!”
“Aye, give him an oxygen supply. Prepare a defibrillator. Stat! Angel, tell me exactly what you saw. This is not a time to hold out on me.”
“Three lights shot out of his body as soon as I entered the room. I don’t know what they were. His body looked like it had just been cooked. It was redder than this and bubbling. That’s all I saw,” Gabriel’s voice says.
“Aye, it’s what I feared, but much sooner than anticipated. Right now, I don’t think he even has a soul. His body I can fix, but without a soul, all he will be is a living corpse.”
“Please... do what you can, Paean.”
“I will, ang... Gabriel. Well, go. Get yourself checked out. You know as well as I do that pure angels shouldn’t enter Hell. It will take months before the corruption wears off.”
My heart slips. “Paean! We’re losing him! He’s in cardiac arrest!”
“Use the defibrillator on him! I will personally force his heart to beat if necessary!”
I hear a loud beep. “Sir! He’s clinically dead. What do we do?”
“Why couldn’t my head tech be here? Aye, Amanda, keep hi—”
I’m so far away now. Their voices are only whispers. If I’m dead, does that mean Lucas and Lucian are too? I wonder if they have a place for them when they die.
I feel the dark consuming me. Swallowed by a sea of darkness. It wouldn’t be the first time, I suppose.
But what about the gate? Why am I not being burned alive? I should be hearing screams, but it’s silent. Maybe I should be grateful, but it’s still unsettling.
A light flashes in front of me. A voice calls,
“My son. Find—”
