The Crown's Obsession

Beth had a startled look on her face, "W-what?" she whispered.

"If what Vladimir said before is true about his blood in the antidote, then that only means that you might turn into a demon. Or you already have, considering how many hours have passed since you took the antidote," explained Calhoun. Even though his mother didn't receive the wings from Vladimir because of the generation skip, Calhoun was able to acquire them.

Madeline didn't like the fact that Beth was turning into a demon, but it was much better than her sister turning to a full werewolf who would be part of the wild animals.

"Doesn't it take time to get wings?" questioned Madeline before looking at her sister. "Did you sense any pain in your back since you returned to the castle?"

Beth shook her head.

"How about you first take Beth there, and I will wait for you here?" suggested Madeline. "There shouldn't be any trouble here." All her eyes saw was a vast desert with not a single soul around except for them. It was as if they were left in the middle of nowhere. Vladimir could have made them enter the building directly instead of dropping them in here. The devil had left them far away from anything. With the portal closed, there was no way for them to get back to the living world.

As if in realization, Madeline said, "Does this mean...not being next to him equals getting into trouble?"

Calhoun's eyes looked around the desert, where the sky was starless with a blanket of darkness in Hell.

Leaving Beth alone here where she didn't know how to protect herself was not safe. "If anything happens, call my name, and I will be here," he said to Madeline, and she nodded her head. His black wings spread wide on his back, he picked up Beth to fly in the direction where Vladimir headed in earlier.

Madeline could hear and sense the silence that started to wrap around where she stood. It was strange to think she was in Hell even though she wasn't dead.

She felt a strange prickliness on her skin as if her body was trying to resist the atmosphere of Hell. But what was not known to the living mortals, was that compared to Heaven, the place of Hell was inhospitable when it came to welcoming living beings. And it put a time limit on the living things that entered Hell. One had to leave the place soon unless they wanted to be part of the Underworld, never to be mortals again.

While Madeline stood in her place, waiting for Calhoun to return as she had been told not to bring out her angelic wings, she stared up at the sky, and at the same time, one step away from her feet, the sand started to shift and move.

Slowly something stuck out from the ground, and it was a hand made of bones that started to move towards her leg, ready to grasp her ankle and pull her inside the sand. But in time, Madeline moved away as she saw Calhoun coming for her with his wings flapping in swift motion.

The boney hand that had tried to get hold of Madeline, it slowly dipped down into the sand.

Calhoun took Madeline in his arms, carrying her as they made their way away from the desert, she noticed an orange light from a far distance. In time, she noticed a large wall that surrounded a vast land that looked bigger and bigger with every second. There were plenty of buildings made out of rocks, but they were all broken. There was fire everywhere, and before they even entered the place that was surrounded by walls, Madeline heard the souls of people screaming and crying continuously. It was something uncomfortable to listen to.

She then caught sight of demons, who were not like the ones had ever seen before.

The true form of the demons were strange in appearance, and it was evident that they didn't belong to the living world. Some of them had one horn or more, and some didn't have any. But apart from the demons, Madeline's eyes fell on the creatures who didn't have skin, and the creatures had hollow eyes filled with reddish-orange light in them. The light could be seen from their nose and mouth along with parts of their body that was torn to emit the light like fire as if its body was burning from inside.

As Calhoun's wings flapped towards the tallest tower present in there, the demons who were on the ground caught sight of the black wings on the person. The demons turned curious as to who this person was.

Reaching the tower, Calhoun let Madeline down on the ground. Beth quietly stood at one side, her face slightly blank as if she was in deep thought. At the same time, through the large spiral stairs, Odin stepped down as quickly as he could, almost losing his footing, but he quickly got hold of his balance.

"Welcome to Hell, Master Calhoun, Lady Madeline and," said Odin, and his eyes fell on Beth. "My apologies to you, milady." Odin didn't know the news about the werewolf's death, but then he hadn't seen her name in the new arrival list of souls in Hell.

"She's not dead, she only turned to a demon," Calhoun commented at Odin's words, and the servant demon's eyes snapped at Beth.

"No?" But the girl smelled like a demon. He quickly bowed his head, "My apologies for thinking it so."

Madeline couldn't help but wonder how Odin was a demon because his mannerisms were very polite. "Master has been waiting for you. Please follow me."

Calhoun and the other two followed Odin, making their way through the dark passages of the building, whilst they heard the souls that were being tortured screaming in agony, their voices echoing through the place.

When they finally reached the hall where Vladimir sat in his throne, Madeline noticed he wasn't alone but he had company.