Chapter 64

**SAMAEL**
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The situation in the Underworld was worse than I thought. I should have returned immediately after finding out Beckett would survive. The Etir had grown and spread throughout the entirety of the Acheron River Village and all of the city of Lethe and was continuing to spread through the Cocytus and Phlegethon rivers, but the spreading of the Etir wasn't the worst part. It was the destruction throughout the Acheron. Boat houses along the rivers and dams created to help tunnel water into the village were destroyed; the only remnants remaining were pieces of wood laced with metal floating along the river banks. The Etir had transformed, leaving behind a monster of mass destruction. A Kraken.

As I flew over the village, my heart ached at what lay below. The once boisterous village of Acheron, the city of lost souls, was now a literal ghost town. The remaining souls were frozen in place mid-scream. Was it the sight of the Kraken that had scared them, or was it something else? Could a Medusa or perhaps a basilisk be slithering around, freezing those who dared look upon their face? The thought of not one but two monsters living in the Underworld sent a shiver down my spine. Luka had mentioned the multitude of monsters that could form from the Etir, and there was one monster that I couldn't afford to be formed. The Ushi-Oni or the gyūki,

The gyūki was a monster whose appearance looked like a spider with an ox's head that sported long sharp poisonous horns, and razor-sharp fangs, each of its six legs had a single long claw that could slice through even the toughest of metals, and its forked tongue carried the force of a whip. It was a creature of nightmares. A monster that most gods assumed was mythical, a folklore legend, but the gods of the Underworld Kingdom knew better. A single Ushi-Oni could cause a sickness that would drain the lesser gods and goddesses of their souls and their divine gifts; it would then use those powers to unlock the hidden cells of the sub-princes of Hell; Astaroth, Maggot, Asmodee, Beelzebub, Oriens, Paimon, Ariton (Egin) and Amaymon. Who would, in turn, resurrect the four princes of Hell; Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, and Belial. If Lucifer were resurrected, he'd come after my father to claim the Underworld and reestablish Hell. It would be an all-out war, and without Lucifer's weakness, Lilith, on our side, I doubt the good guys would win.

I need to rid the Underworld of the demons and the Etir running through it before Hell breaks. Ignoring the constant chiming of my phone, I soar quickly through the air, searching for the Kraken, hoping I can catch it in the middle of an attack. I'm only halfway through the City of Lethe when I hear a child crying in terror.

*A screaming child in the Underworld might sound weird to you, but children make up most of the lost souls; having never had the chance to live a full life, the lure of the Underworld promises them that which was stolen, and many children linger for hundreds of years until they finally feel content enough to depart fully.*

Jetting through the sky, I head toward the sounds of terror and stumble upon a Medusa, mid-attack, already half-shifted. Her once beautiful legs were starting to scale, shifting into what would become a rattlesnake's tail, and her dark mahogany hair had already shifted into several serpent heads. I called to the flames of the Underworld, wrapping the blue fire around the children and myself, adding a protective layer between us and the witch's stone gaze. Sensing my power, the Medusa turned to me, her once emerald eyes now pitch black.

"Prince Samael," She hissed, glaring up at me, "You're too late. These children are mine." Turning her head back to the children, she began to whistle the serpents' call, trying to lure them from the safety of my fires.

As tiny feet started to move toward her, I had no choice but to land in front of the children, blocking them with my massive wings.

"What are you doing here, Medusa?" I ask the demon, "Your kind has been banished from the Holy Lands."

My ears picked up the sound of a basilisk slithering nearby, indicating the closely related demons had decided to team up and wreak havoc through the already destroyed city.

"My master is more powerful than you, Dear Prince," the serpent-like woman hisses, her forked tongue flickering in and out of her mouth, "You are beneath me; even in the land you hope to rule someday, you have no power over me." She replies, her lips curving in a smile before she spits venom at me.

The venom is meant to burn through my wings, creating an opening in my makeshift sound shield so that she can finish luring the children, but my flames are stronger than she anticipated, causing the venom to evaporate before it comes within a foot of me.

"You are strong." She whispers, licking her lips and slithering closer to me, "I could sense your power the moment you flew above the Lethe, but I didn't realize the extent of it. Tell me, young prince, how is it one of the four heirs is stronger than the ruling Kings."

The basilisks slither, slightly different than the Medusa's, is getting closer to me, the noise coming a few yards behind me. Not even bothering to look behind me, I send the full force of my flames in that direction, knowing that any being of the Underworld would be safe from their heat. I can smell the roasting skin of the snake before I hear its screams of pain. I take in the terror that passes over Medusa's face.

"Impossible." She hisses, completing her shift.

She's larger than any Medusa I've read about and has a bright neon green aura surrounding her that's never been mentioned in the history books. Could this be a side effect of the Eitr, or had her master somehow increased her magical abilities?

"Like what you see?" She asks, her body shimmying in a way only a serpent can, "It was a blessing bestowed upon me by my master."

A blessing? Only angels used the term blessing. What angel could be powerful enough to call upon the powers of the Etir? Michael was powerful enough, but he was a light angel. Wouldn't the Etir he called upon also be light? Or had he fallen when he mated with Lilith? No, Michael didn't make sense as the culprit. Katrina had told me her parents abandoned her to save her; they wouldn't unleash unknown evils into this world. As I racked my brain, trying to recall all the fallen angels still alive, I kept a close eye on the Medusa, trying to determine her next move. I could feel her pulling at my divine powers, trying to weaken me, but my powers weren't budging. She didn't know I was mated, and her powers of lust, bestowed upon her by the Goddess of Lust herself, Aphrodite, wouldn't work on me. So I ignored the pulling allowing her to weaken herself until she figured out it wasn't working.

With each desperate and failed attempt to steal my power, she inched closer to me, getting as close as my flames would allow her, before finally stopping.

"You taste different than I expected," Medusa states, her tongue licking my flames, a burning hole appearing and then disappearing just as quickly as it had appeared when she pulled away from the flame.


"And how would you expect a God of the Underworld to taste?" I ask, trying to hide my shock at her healing ability while gaining the knowledge that my flames won't work against her and calling upon the shield of my mother's people, a shield of purity.

"You taste like..." She takes a deep breath inhaling my scent before licking my flame again, "like a demon of lust." She smiles, "Has the all-mighty prince been visiting the sisters of Lilith in his free time?"

I scoff at her, hiding that her guess had hit too close to home.

"Tell me, young prince, are your new concubines filling your every desire?" She asks, shifting back into the beautiful woman she once was before Aphrodite cursed her, standing before me completely naked.

I watch as her body morphs, taking shape into a woman she suspected would be my type, a woman with jet black hair covered in tattoos and piercings, a black leather choker around her neck, and a corset piercing down her back. Admittedly the woman before me is gorgeous, but she could never be my type. Preppy blonds who pretended to be goth were more my type.

"If they aren't, then perhaps I can?" She replied, her voice filled with lust as she walked toward me, sashaying her hips, crossing through my fire.

This. This is how I destroy her. She's forgotten that my mother is Persephone, a goddess so pure that her power alone cleanses the world of winter and brings new life. A demon of pure darkness, one such as this Medusa, wouldn't be able to get past my shield.

I clear my throat and lick my lips, letting my eyes travel over her body. Pretending to be affected by her useless attempt at seduction. Medusa smiles at me, thinking she's ensnared me in her trap as she reaches over to caress my face, then screams. Her skin instantly starts to melt off her bone; I grab the skeleton of her hand and pull her the rest of the way into my shield, watching as the purity of my shield destroys her as it tries to cleanse her body of its darkness. If I could push my shield out, I could use it to cleanse the Underworld of the darkness; unfortunately, my mother's gift is only meant to protect me. So I'll have to go about cleansing my kingdom one demon at a time and using Freyja's mixture to remove the Etir.