Disenchantment: Bean's Sister

Part 6; The Stronghold

We started heading towards the stronghold without separating. Honestly, we just went straight the whole time and hoped we'd end up there. I was dripping with sweat.
"You think they'd make a demon suit less hot. Especially when it's used in a place with a hole to Hell," I exclaimed as I tugged at the collar of my suit.
we continued until we got to a... I wanna say... torture.. chamber?

"Help us! Make it stoppin!" A woman yelled out in a german accent.
Bean and Luci looked at each other in shock as we saw two blonde german adults, one a man and one a woman, in extremely small green and brown clothes tied to a wall watching their death on replay.
Dayum! That's Bean in the video! She killed them both!
"Ouch.." I said as I put my hand over my mouth watching the video as it played endlessly.
Bean gasped. "It's those murderers I killed, Hansel and Gretel!"
"You mean like.. THE Hansel and Gretel? I heard they ate people-" I shuddered.
Bean nodded as I looked away from her and over at them.
"Ugh, I'm so bad in these situations," Bean looked away from them trying not to be recognized.
She slowly turned towards them.
"Hey, guys! What's happening?"
"It's our personal hell! We are made to watch our gruesome death over und over! Ah! There it is again.." Gretel yelled.
WE all stared at the screen as Bean swung her pickaxe, stabbed Hansel in the head, and used the other side to stab Gretel as well. Their bodies fell onto the floor in a stack with a loud thud.
"Yikes.." Luci mumbled.
Hansel was groaning. "The violence is too graphic! if offends mien eyes!"
"But you cooked and ate children.." Bean added.
"Yeah but we didn't look in the mirror when we was doing it!" Hansel yelled.
"I KNEW IT! Crazy..." I exclaimed.
Gretel was inspecting Bean with her eyes, looking her up and down.
"Wait a minute.. you look familiar."
Bean's eyes widened as she looked down at Luci.
"Did we go to high school together?" Gretel asked.
"No, I went to an all-demon school. Bye!" Bean interrupted.
"Wait! At least turn down the volume!" Hansel yelled as we started to turn around. Another floating rock appeared and we all hopped onto it without looking back.

The Stronghold was straight ahead. I just noticed that it was like a castle if it were a big funhouse attraction. The buildings move in circles around it. Cool. We walked down the last few stairs and headed up to the giant door.
"The Inferno Stronghold... we made it!" Luci exclaimed.
I gasped. It was so much bigger when you're directly under it.
"Woah.. this is like if a normal castle lived a really hard drug-fueled life.." Bean added.
There were a handful of symbols on the door, kind of like a passcode to get inside.
"I'm getting a lot of ancient ruins vibes.." I said as we walked up the stairs to the stronghold's door.
The door has three circular locks on it, all with symbols on them.
I saw a hook, and then a kite shape. l
Luci's tail was moving like it had a mind of his own. He saw me trying to move it out of my face so he slapped my cheek with the end of his tail.
"Ow! Luci!" I laughed, but then, I noticed something about the tail.
I tugged at it and put it up to the kite symbol on the door.. it fit!
"Hey!" Luci yelled.
The lock started to glow. It turned sideways and the door slowly started to unlock. The first one came undone with a loud "Click." Then the second and third and all the way up to six locks did the same.
We used a lot of our strength to push the door open. Before us was a rock path surrounded by lava, leading to a giant book, glistening in the light that was coming from.. who knows where.

"Woah.." Bean exclaimed.
We made our way over to the book. Excited to get to see Elfo. I was so happy things worked out the way I thought they would! I knew I'd get to meet him. I hope he doesn't think I'm annoying or something. You know what, never mind, who cares anyways. He seemed like a jerk. I laughed about it to myself.
Luci hopped onto the table where the book lay. It was bigger than him!
"Ooh the book of the dead. Everyone who's ever been sent to Hell is in this book." Luci said as we opened the extremely heavy book with a loud thud.
Bean started to flip through the pages.
"Hmm.. surprisingly large number of popes."
"Look, recent admissions!" I added when she flipped a page over.
"Okay. I should know this but.. does Elfo have a last name?" Bean asked Luci.
"On checks he just writes 'Elfo' and puts a little heart at the end." Luci exclaimed.
"Dang you're pretty obser...vant..." I said. but, I got interrupted by a large shadow hovering over us, and I mean huge. We turned around to see a giant red face staring at us.
"AAAH!" We all yelled as we jumped up in fear.
"Wait...you're not the night janitors.. WHO ARE YOU?" The giant red demon demanded.
"A- Asmodium! Lord of Darkness! Hello sir.. uh.. wow! Are those horns new? They look great!" Luci stammered with fear.
"Well well well.." Asmodium started, "Luci! That level zero boneball on princess duty! And who're your superiors here?" He glanced over at me and Bean.
"I go by the name of uh.. Juanita.. Demonheimer!" Bean yelled.
I chuckled, "Level zero! Damn Luci." Asmodium laughed with me. I had to think of a name quick. Girl demon names.. oh yeah! I met this girl demon from that hell hole once back in Maru. She was extremely annoying so I figured I'd just steal her name and hope we dont collide while we're down here! "Oh and I'm uh.. Stacie Leblatt! Yeah. That's me."
Luci looked over at me slowly. His eye was opened really wide. I raised my eyebrow at him wondering what I've done wrong.

flashback time!

I peeked from around the wall at the temple room. as Becky flipped up the switch to open God knows what.. the ground started to cave in! Wait.. no.. there was already a hole there.
A black figure with a bow flew out. a.. female demon.?
"Stacie Leblatt.." Becky started, "I need your help finding a demon for me. He has an assigned job I need him to fulfill. See if he's around and let him know we'll come down to grab him."
"Ugh I know who you mean. That douche was the worst. He's my ex.. so I bet I'll know where he is." Stacie said.

end of flashback

That's it! Stacie was Luci's ex girlfriend! Hahaaaa! That's hilarious! He's gonna kill me after this, oh my god, I gotta explain myself later.
"Stacie? I thought you died! Oh well. As for you... Juanita. That sounds kind of real," Asmodium shrugged, "But what business do three minor sub-demons have in the halls of the Inferno Stronghold?"
"Well.. we- we... uh I- really I-" Bean stuttered.
"ANSWER ME! NOW!"Aasmodium struck back.
"I- I-"
Asmodium drew fire from his hand and threw a flaming ball straight toward us. We all jumped back in fear. Not sure why Luci's scared, he's immortal.

Luci then laid back. Why is he suddenly so calm about everything?
"There's only one sub demon here.. and I am about to get promoted!!" Luci yelled
I gasped.
"Cause I'm here to deliver some HUMAN SOULS!"
Luci grabbed our hoods and tore them right off of our heads as Asmodium leaned down to look at us.
"Mid condition, still on the bones."
Bean and I looked at each other trembling with fear, then at Luci, who had just completely betrayed us.
"Actual living humans.. HERE in Hell?!" Asmodium gasped.
Would I consider myself human? Not if it was gonna kill me. Magic.. ya know. Kind of makes me different from your average human, same with Bean. But, am I going to speak up on it? No. This is the Lord of Darkness and most likely ruler of Hell.. I don't wanna know what he'll do with that information.
Luci chuckled with his hands at his sides.
I looked at him with disappointment on my face. He looked over at me and for a split second, his smile started to fade. He snapped himself out of it and tilted his head away.
"Well.. this is unprecedented! I underestimated you." Asmodium looked over at Luci.
"Luci.. what are you doing?" Bean chimed in.
"Plus, I got a dumb elf to come down from heaven!" Luci interrupted.
"What the hell man!" I yelled.
He looked over at me like he wanted to speak, but he didn't. I'm so confused, what is he even trying to signal?
"Haha.. four million years on the job and I can still be surprised! Sub demon Luci, I now promote you to demon level two. enjoy your wings!" Asmodium added.
Fire swirled around Luci as he grew at least an inch taller. Wings sprouted from his back. He started playing around with them as we sat there ashamed.
"Oh my god this was your plan all along.. wasn't it? I thought you were our friend... Now we're stuck here forever and so is Elfo!" Bean exclaimed.
"You sold us out for a promotion?!" I added.
Luci looked me up and down.
"EXACTLY! Bean.. I told you not to trust me! Hell! I spelled it out for ya! And Lina.. did ya think I was your friend? Huh? Your little fuzz buddy?! Did you think we had some sort of connection when we first met? Because I sure as hell didn't! I may have saved your ass but I did it so bean would stop pushing me away from doing my job! You're a placeholder, a distraction.. and I'm a DEMON dammit! It's what we DO!" Luci yelled as he walked over to Asmodium.
No way in literal hell did he just do that.
"Hey.. yknow.. you were the ONE demon who I thought actually cared. You were so worried about me after that fall.. and you helped me so much. I was starting to enjoy being around you. But fine.. have it your way. Have fun with your stupid little wings." I sighed.
"Oh Lina.." Bean mumbled.
Luci's smile slowly started to fade once again.
He looked up from the ground and chuckled.
"Hm.. I gotta say.. you guys are easy to betray. It's been fun but.. drag 'em away." Luci demanded with a snap.
Four small demons appeared. They kicked at our legs and made us fall over so that they could drag us away.. Forever.
"You're horrible! You're a monster! Y- y- you're evil!" Bean stammered.
"Ow. Ow." We mumbled as our head hit every step as we were dragged down the stairs.
I looked back at Luci one last time with tears coming down my face.
He looked at me and smirked.
"Thank you!! Bye now! Buh bye! Uh buh bye! So long! Toodles!" Luci said with joy as we were brought to the door.
We looked back at him and the door slowly closed, leaving us dragged to God knows where out in the depths of Hell.