The Seven Deadly Virtues

Chapter 1: Angel?

Screams of agony bounce off the mansion's soundproof walls, echoing throughout hell.

The souls of the damned beg to be released, pleading to the Seven Princes that sit on their thrones of lies and deceit.

Every last human screams in remorse, crying in agony from slow torture. Their ghostly voices beg for a new life or a way out, one they'll never be gifted, because now this is  their reality. The moment the angel of death took them they were destined to come to the fires, now people are stuck in an endless loop of hate for all  of eternity, and not one will ever be pardoned.

Especially not under his eyes.

When they thought they'd be forgiven for their sins they were simply being selfish and conceited. After their meaningless and short lives of freedom, they're thrust into fires with demons who take humans for what they truly are.

Pitiful, weak-minded, and prone to destruction.

And there's nothing demons enjoy more than destroying things.

Absolutely nothing.

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"A what? *Yawn* What's that again?"

"A human? *munch munch*?"

"Why would we summon a human? They're nothing but trouble and useless under pact."

"Aight, no, listen here." Mammon looks at all of his brothers, a playful smirk lighting up his face. His bright, green eyes wander, flickering to each of their tense or relaxed expressions, "What if we  can summon humans? They  can summon us."

"That's...the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, and I've lived with you my whole life." Drawling, Belphegor doesn't even glance at his older brothers smirking profile, merely giving a prolonged sigh before drooping off the edge of his black, fold-out hammock. Dead bored, his eyes take in every piece of dull furniture: black doors, black floors and black walls, "And Lucifer's right, they're useless and annoying."

"But-"

"-No buts *munch munch*."

"Seriously Beel? Back me up wud'ya?"

"Mammon, Lucifer said so himself, so stop talking." Briefly closing his eyes, Leviathan flicks another page of his magazine while squeezing a small stress ball. Dark eyes laced with malice, his unwavering glare shifts around the room to warn everyone not to support another one of Mammon's schemes, trying to convince them with his hard gaze it was just another capitalistic plot, "We're princes, not animals, so would you stop talking like that too?"

"Wud'ya stop trying to copy Lucifer, Levi? I already have one mom, I don't need anoth-."

"-Mammon would only ever summon a human to make them slave for him...such a shame he's like that hm?" Asmodeus leans back with a breathy moan, his erotic daydream broken by the rests bickering. Unknowing of the fact he'd just cut through the argument, he blows a sweet kiss towards Mammon, giving a wink for good measure.

"Ew you retard, not like tha-"

"-But," Smiling, Asmodeus watches Mammon mumble something about how 'pushy everyone's being today', before turning his attention to Lucifer quite seriously, "It's not a waste of time...can't we only summon humans with adequate power to us?"

"That's what I'm saying! We can finally found out who's most powerf--!"

"--ful..." Satan steals the thunder from Mammon, ignoring the offense that crosses over the latter's face.

"After 12 million years of ignorance." Lucifer smirks, looking down at all of his younger brothers.

Belphegor sits up and Levi's eyes widen a fraction, both perturbed slightly at the news. Mammon doesn't seem to care if he summons the weakest human despite being the second oldest: he was never in for the kill, he was in for the loot on the body.

Already known to all, Lucifer, although another prince of hell, is the more of a king, so strong not a finger can be raised to the bottom of his shoe.

The only one who had the power to rebel against God.

The leader of darkness.

But that's not to say his Six brothers are worthless.

"I'll go first, outta my way motherfuc- Hey, where'd the knife go??"

Yawning, Belphegor swipes the knife off Mammon with sagging eyelids, "I'll do it, end your yammering."

"No, me- Hold up did Belphegor just say 'do'."

Cshhhh!

Beelzebub drops the extra-hot-flaming-Doritos-he-stole-from-the-human-world onto the marble floor, a deep echo adding to the heavy tension that surrounds the Seven Princes.

No-one speaks, all of them choosing to keep quiet and see how it'll work out.

Silence is the biggest influencer.

Trying to stop his hands from shaking, Belphegor grimaces slightly thinking about the pain he'll endure. Since demons don't sweat, and fallen angels definitely don't, the only thing to signify he was scared were his tremoring legs. Everyone stares at his quiet frenzy, anticipation growing with each quake.

The lazy brother volunteered.

A knowing look passes throughout the brothers, each of them realising they can't back out now. 

Shlick!

Deep, red, blood drips down Belphegor's pale arm, staining the black carpet.

A cut after centuries hurts more than a cut every hour.

Lips shivering, tears form at the bottom of his blue eyes, drying up because he won't let them fall. There's a solemn tranquillity between the brothers, none of them pointing out his weakness except Leviathan, who just rolls his eyes in response to how long the scene was playing out.

With an unsteady intake of air, Belphegor holds his breath while erratically placing his hand down on the black rug. Slowly dragging his index fingers across, he winces before standing up and straightening his back, his eyes solely focused the maroon circle and deep red stains.

"I am Belphegor. I am a demon."

"Though I have sinned against God, I was once an angel."

"My truth, in order to do this summoning, is I've never been loyal to either heaven or hell."

"As one of the seven deadly sins of hell and an extreme ruler, I have overseen all forms of 'sloth' since the moment Lucifer came into power."

"Blah blah blah, I summon thee with the strength that I barely have."

"What now?-"

For a moment, the daunting red and black chandelier lights dim to a point no-one can see, then slowly power up to reveal a visible, deep, grey fog leaking through every crevice of The Mansion Of Misfortune. Everyone keeps their wits about them anticipating a human only a Deadly Sin could conjure.

Standing in his circle, Belphegor regrets everything leading to this moment, from the 'going first' to the pain in his left arm.

Poof! Thud!

"Ah my butt!"

Wait...

Belphegor takes a step out of his summoning circle, eyes wide and breath raggedy. Expressing pure horror on his face, he takes several steps back, stumbling from the shock. It's like he's seen a ghost, a monster, a devil...

But it's an angel.

The light aura that usually surrounds it is completely consumed with the darkness of hell, but somehow it's skin seems to glow.

There was no light in hell for years.

This...was how beauty was, how purity looked. Something that feels long forgotten was coming back to him, reminding him of what heaven was, what being cared for by God was. Just by looking at her sculpted face he can remember the gentle touch of sun on his skin and can see the noble soul hidden by a layer of inhuman skin.

"Is that...?" Mammon's awestricken voice cuts through, the fog clearing slightly.

"Oh my Lucifer!- how is it possible?" Asmodeus feels disbelief cloud his vision staring at the two of them.

"A...blegh...an angel!?" Wrinkling his nose, Leviathan scoffs, "It  reeks of goodness?! Open a window, gosh, it's too much! Belphegor! Get away from it! "

"I think I took a wrong turn?" Looking down at her compass while on the floor, her melodic voice echoes throughout the chaotic room, effectively silencing the brothers, "But how do I get back?"

With big, brown doe eyes she blankly looks around, trying to make sense of where she is. Angels are forbidden to go into the barriers beyond purgatory, yet here she is in hell with what appeared to be demons-

"KILL IT !"

-"SATAN, WAIT!"

With a huge charge forwards, Satan puts full power into his fists, completely forgetting one crucial  point...

"....Angels can't be killed...", Closing his eyes and sighing inwardly, Leviathan pinches the bridge of his nose as he finishes his sentence a little too late. Shifting his seat, he puts down his magazine and crosses one leg over the other, only to be shook by a tremor that wracks the whole of hell.

Satan quickly stands from the crater underneath him, dust flying everywhere.

That kind of depth and width...enough to break the marble floors of the Mansion of Misfortune?...He could never do that.....Could Satan be stronger than him too?

He knew Lucifer and Mammon were, but the blockhead Satan?

A familiar burning boils in the pit of his stomach, the fire of resentment painfully bright. A reminder that no matter how high up he is, there's always someone or something to be jealous of.

Something to be jealous of...

Darting, his eyes sparingly glance over to the quiet angel who stands stock-still, her mind clearly replaying Satan's attempted murder on her.

The weakest type of angel, a Runner. If Levi remembers how heaven functions correctly, then those were the angels who make humans feel welcome by accompanying their souls.

Would he even summon an angel?

Each of the sins looked at each other, unknowing if they should go on, finally looking over at Lucifer for confirmation. A small nod greeted their clueless gazes, reassuring them that as long as the angels were summoned, they were under pact and therefore powerless.

"A-are you demons? W-where am-"

"Mute." Belphegor glares at her for her interruption, her mouth now moving but no words leaving. Ties of pact are...Imagine a puppet on strings...like ventriloquism. Belphegor is in control of every little move she makes, and when he says stop, she'll stop, when he says go, she'll go.

"Now, Belphegor, let's be gentlemanly," Lucifer's deep voice dripped like honey, already rich with pride, "Darling, what's your name?"

Begrudgingly and since Lucifer  said so, Belphegor hesitantly opened his mouth knowing he's the only one who can make her talk, "Uhhhhh...tell us your name then?"

Pursing her lips in an effort not to speak, her will is cut in half by the deepness of her pact with Belphegor, and she traitorously reveals her name,

"I am Diligence."

....

"...Pfft."

Chuckling, Lucifer begins a chain reaction of laughs slowly breaking out amongst the sins.

"Did God seriously start naming his angels after good deeds? It went from names like Lucifer and Gabriel  to what, Diligence?" Smirking, he puts his hand over his mouth to stop a snort of disbelief from escaping him.

"LOOOL!" Aggressively, Satan bangs his fist against the wall while manically laughing, "The fuck man *wheeze*"

With a persuasive tone, Mammon is the first one to cut through the laughing atmosphere as he loops his arm around Beelzebub's unsuspecting neck.

With a shit-eating grin on his face, he exaggeratedly and animatedly explains, "HAhh, what a good laugh, am I right? But listen Beel this made me see  somethin'. I would go next and all but after Belphegor stopped  me I realised it must be fate  that it goes from youngest to oldest, so since you're 1000000000004 and I'm 16087643334567873727, you get to go first!"

"You kept count of our ages?" Astonished, Leviathan's scathing tone drops for a moment, his eyes wide from Mammon's newly-discovered intelligence, but then it dawns on him, "Well of course you have, all you EVER do is use your soiled hands to grab other peoples money, I'm sure you enjoy sitting there counting effortlessly."

"*Sigh* He's been indebted to Lucifer for the last millennium, and me for the last six." Regaining his composure fully, Belphegor glances through Mammon in a lazy attempt to glare, the corner of his eye lingering on the angel who's tied to him by pact, "He took 2000 Mortem as well."

"Ha, you think that's bad?! He 'borrowed' 20000 from me!"

"You guys too? He scammed me as well!"

"Same here!"

"4 Million Mortem, and he lied he would give me food-"

"Aight, aight lets talk about this later guys, let Beelzebub have his turn!" Sweat-dropping Mammon plasters on a fake smile and puts his hands on Beelzebub's shoulders in a light tapping gesture.

The knife is already in Beelzebub's hand ready to summon something with similar power level to him.

The quicker he gets through this the faster he can get back to eating.

"I am Beelzebub. I am a demon."

"Though I have sinned against God, I was once an angel."

"My truth, in order to do this summoning, is food is my best friend, my wife, my child, and my parents."

"As one of the seven deadly sins of hell and an extreme leader, I have overseen all forms of 'gluttony' since the moment Lucifer came into power."

"*munch* *munch*.....Sowrey....quick snack break, I couldn't last. I summon thee with the strength of food!"

Poof!

"Ah?...."