~Luis’s Point Of View~
I had just returned from the woods, having assisted María José in lifting the veil on the cabin—a task that had drained more than I cared to admit. There was other business I had tended to before returning ho, matters that would remain my secret for now.
As I stepped into the house, I was relieved to find it empty. Rosario was out attending the wedding. Thank God. The silence was a soothing to my frayed nerves.
I settled into my chair, replaying the day’s event. María José was now married to Axel. The thought twisted in my gut. It was a bitter concoction of jealousy and resignation. But my master had assured that I would profit the most from all this in the end. I clung to that promise.
Faith was my anchor, even when the waters were turbulent.
As I brooded, a sudden pull yanked from my thoughts. The room dissolved around , replaced by an overwhelming heat and a blinding light. I was no longer in my ho.
Beneath stretched an endless expanse of scorched earth, where millions toiled under a blood-red sky. The air was filled with the stench of sulfur and the cries of the damned. I knew instantly where I was: Hell.
Despite being turned into a demon years ago, I had never set foot in this realm. The sheer scale of it was staggering. Rivers of molten lava snaked through the landscape, and towering structures lood in the distance, their spires piercing the sky.
This place felt like every nightmare I’d had as a boy—and every sin I’d committed since.
"Luis," a voice echoed, reverberating through the very core of my being.
Oh, that chilling feeling...
I turned to see my master.
Not the charming man he usually cloaked himself as. Not the well-dressed noble with a serpent’s tongue and a scholar’s gaze. No. This... this was his true form.
And it was terrifying. He was colossal.
His feet—if they could be called that, were hooves of burning obsidian, cracking the scorched ground beneath him as he moved. Each step he took echoed like thunder, rippling through my bones as though my very skeleton recognized him. Not as a master but as a god.
His torso was bare, chest rising and falling like a mountain range of molten muscle veined with glowing rivers of lava beneath his skin.
But it was his wings that made forget to breathe.
Two massive, ruined things arched from his back, torn and burned and ragged. Yet still, they moved with majesty. Those wings humd with power so ancient it felt biblical.
His face... Dios mío.
No symtry. His face was a maddening blend of all things wrong: half-beast, half-nightmare. One eye glowed red. The other was a bottomless socket, like a black sun devouring light. His jaw was made to devour hope, not just flesh—long.
Curved horns spiraled from his head like the spines of so long-dead god. Smoke drifted from them constantly, curling into the shape of screaming mouths that faded into ash.
I had seen horrors in my life, but this was different. This wasn’t evil. This was primordial. This was the source of evil.
"Welco to Hell," he intoned.
I dropped to one knee, bowing my head. "Master."
"Rise," he commanded.
I obeyed, my eyes eting his. "Why have you brought here?"
"You have done as I asked, and you did so without question, despite the personal cost. For that, I am granting you clarity."
"Clarity?" I repeated, confused.
I barely had ti to digest the word before he gestured to the horizon, as though the answer lived in the damned.
"Yes. Look below," he said.
I followed his gaze, taking in the endless sea of souls, each one marked by the sa darkness that now resided within .
"These are those who, like you, have sold their souls to . They are my lower-ranked demons, bound to serve."
"What are they working on?" I asked, the sight both srizing and horrifying.
"That is not for you to know—yet," he replied. "What you need to understand is that I am building an army, a formidable force that will shake the very foundations of the world."
"And María José?" I ventured, my heart clenching at the ntion of her na.
"She is integral to my plans. Her power, her spirit—they are unlike any other. She will be the cornerstone of what is to co. Now, listen, Luis. I’d like to tell you a story."
He leaned closer—not in a physical way, but in that dreadful, soul-warping way that made feel like my bones were being peeled apart and examined under so divine microscope. His voice lowered, and though it was softer, it weighed a thousand tombstones.
"Sit, Luis," he commanded.
There was no chair, and yet the mont he spoke, sothing surged up from the scorched earth behind . It was a throne made of fused bone and molten iron, still hissing with residual heat. I sat because I didn’t have the strength to disobey.
"Long ago," he began, "before I approached you, I had made contact with the most beautiful woman the earth has ever seen."
He said it like a confession. Like a curse, he had never spoken aloud.
The most beautiful woman the earth has ever seen? In my eyes, that was María José. There couldn’t be any other person like that. It only had to be her.
My master continued with his story. "You see, I had a plan. I had an army building. But I couldn’t help but feel like sothing was missing. Indeed, Luis, it was."
My master’s molten gaze pierced through as he continued, his voice low but expansive, echoing like a dying cathedral bell over the vast hellscape.
"I had a plan, Luis. A grand vision. But it was flawed—lacking sothing vital. Power, yes... but also legacy. A lineage. You see, an army of demons is not enough to shake the heavens. I needed sothing new."
I tilted my head, careful not to seem impertinent. "What do you an, Master?"
His charred lips curled into sothing like a smile—if a fissure in the earth could smile.
"A new creature born of both realms. Flesh and fire. Blood and brimstone. The pure essence of two separate species joined into one being. A living key."
"A hybrid?" I asked, squinting my eyes.
"Yes," he whispered, and the word cracked the sky above us.
Lightning split the air, purple and wrong, illuminating the twisted horizon. I felt the vibration of it in my ribs.
He gestured again, and from the haze rose a vision; hovering in the scorching air like a mory not my own. A figure. Female. Radiant. Powerful. It was a faceless silhouette wrapped in fire and sorrow. Her belly swelled with life. The vision flickered, then shattered into ash.
For so reason, she seed... Oddly familiar.
"It cannot be just any hybrid," he went on. "It must begin with one who carries my blood—my essence, coursing through their veins. And they must mate with a creature of earth. Sothing that still rembers the touch of the first curse. And then, they must produce a seed. But this seed has to be one borne from love. True love. It doesn’t have to be a perfect or tender love. It just has to be real... true."
His words crawled under my skin.
"A child of you... and soone else?" I asked, slowly.
"Yes. And no. The first blood must be mine, yes. A seed directly from . But the second is not directly from since I am not capable of love, Luid. That would burn the womb to ash before conception. It must be filtered—tempered through a vessel. One I have already molded. One who serves ."
I blinked, horrified as realization hit my mind.
"," I gasped.
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