CHAPTER 442: SIGN HERE, PLEASE.

Malachi heard the sound of the demon queen’s bare feet coming closer.

He was painfully aware of the scent of her inky black hair. It smelled faintly of blackberries and invaded every crevice of his nostrils despite his efforts to ignore it.

His body responded to the scent against his will.

Shame ripped through him violently. His eyes stung as he struggled to free himself from being controlled.

"...I believe you might be a little interesting than the others. It’s not often I find myself saying that about a man."

The demon walked around Malachi while giving his hair a subtle sniff. She didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to the very obvious erection peeking beyond his toga.

"You were born differently from the others. I can smell it on you even now. Young though you may be, I sense lived experience in you. I’m curious to see it."

"N-No..!"

Malachi barely managed to speak.

His words seemed not to carry much weight with the demoness. Her green eyes shone more brightly than before.

Malachi felt like a needle had been taken to his forehead. It caused him no pain, but he was acutely aware of something invading his mind.

"So many women... maybe you are an ordinary pig after all."

"...get...out..!"

The demoness tread deeper into Mal’s mind.

He could feel her dirty fingerprints touching his precious memories.

Images flashed by like shooting stars. The demoness sifted through them all like his mind was her own casual library.

Finally, Mal felt her touch one of his most sacred memories of all.

The demoness must have been quite shocked by what she saw, because she came to a halt after coming that particular memory.

"Is that-"

"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUTT!!!"

Malachi’s individual powers ripped out of him like an out-of-control tidal wave.

Darkness, negative energy, lightning, and even that new strange flame of his all rushed out of his body in one massive explosion.

The walls of the dark castle shook fervently. All around them, the entrance crumbled.

When the dust settled, Malachi was on one knee. His breathing was ragged and unstable. He wanted to get back to his feet, but he knew if he tried he would just take an embarrassing tumble. He couldn’t stop his body from trembling.

"I thought I had designed the place nicely, but if you had some better ideas then you could have at least run them by me first."

Malachi heard a familiar voice that only made his trembling worse.

Maybe it was because he was a demon now. Or maybe his senses were just better now that he was standing in front of the man in all his glory.

But whatever the explanation was, he could tell that Lucifer was an incredibly powerful individual.

Even if it was a bit hard to take him seriously when he was wearing a tacky Hawaiian shirt and swimming trunks...

"Don’t make things too hard for this one, Lilith dear. He’s Nyx’s precious darling."

The demoness wiped away a small bit of blood running from a cut on her cheek. Her wound closed up as her finger passed over it.

"Yes... I am aware of that now. Though what he’s doing here still eludes me."

"Well, he certainly can’t tell us from down there, can he?"

Malachi felt an invisible force lift him up and put him back on his feet.

Lucifer dusted off his toga with his hand. His tone was ultra-friendly.

"I have to admit, when I felt you suddenly show up I thought I was finally going insane down here. But it’s true! And you’re not any old run-of-the-mill demon either. How fascinating. Mommy dearest must be so proud."

Lucifer was almost seven feet tall, so he had to lean down a bit so that he was at eye level with Malachi.

"...True immortality becomes you. Your resemblance to her is uncanny." Lucifer whistled. "Don’t let those Olympians get their eyes on you. Zeus is always looking for a new cupbearer."

Malachi had a number of responses to that, but said nothing.

"How did you end up here? Does your mother know what has happened to you??"

Lilith seemed much more concerned with Mal’s sudden appearance after accidentally stumbling on the memory of him with Nyx.

But Malachi was feeling less than chatty after a woman he didn’t even know had pried through his memories with impunity.

As a result, the look that Mal was giving Lilith was less than friendly.

"Send me home." Was all that he had to say.

Lilith opened her mouth to speak.

"Oh, is that all you want? Sure, that’s no problem." Lucifer suddenly took Malachi underneath his arm and began leading him down the hall.

Mal hadn’t realized it, but at some point, everything he had destroyed had been rebuilt as good as new...

"But why the rush to leave? You just got here, so you should at least let me show you around a bit. There’s not a lot to see in hell, but I’m particularly fond of my home, so I like to show it off when I get the chance."

"I don’t have time to sightsee. I need to get back to my family."

Lucifer seemed surprised by his refusal, at least until he considered a potential reason why someone like Mal might be hesitating.

"Oh, I get it. Worried about the time difference, right? Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you slip right back into the moment you left without missing a beat. You have my word." Lucifer placed a hand over his chest.

Malachi stared at him for a long time.

"...You understand how receiving the word of the Prince of Lies would seem a little flimsy to anyone, right?"

"Aww, that hurts. We’re friends, right? You should know you can trust me by now. I even let you keep that power you stole from..." Suddenly, Lucifer subjected Mal to a more scrutinizing look. "Wait a damn minute... What the hell happened to the power I gave you??"

"Dunno."

Lucifer blinked.

"Can you at least act like you care about losing a prime ability like that?!"

"I barely used it. My mother’s gift is usually all I need."

With Arias in prison for the next hundred years, Mal would be extremely hard-pressed to find a rival back on earth.

Shadow manipulation with his amount of range and control was about as cracked an ability as one could get.

All of his other powers were pretty much situational.

If Lucifer knew that, he wouldn’t look quite as sour as he did right now.

"...Mama’s boy."

"Daddy’s boy." Malachi shot back before he could stop himself.

He could already see that he was going to have to get a handle on his mouth.

Lucifer seemed surprised by Mal’s choice of words, as did Lilith.

For a moment, Malachi considered apologizing but that was when Lucifer ruffled his hair as if he was some snot-nosed boy.

"Yeah, my old man’s pretty great, isn’t he? He believes in a few hopeless causes, but who doesn’t nowadays?"

Malachi was completely stunned.

Lucifer started leading him down the hall with Lilith following silently behind.

Malachi couldn’t really say that Lucifer was outside of what he expected.

He was quite a charismatic, talkative sort. Handsome no matter your persuasion and he even had an adept sense of humor.

It was all extremely off-putting.

Malachi had a real aversion to figures who seemed picture-perfect. And there were enough bad stories about Lucifer to last a lifetime.

Though, granted... it was really hard to believe them when you were standing right in front of him.

Lucifer was nonchalantly going on about his pool, which was just another pit of burning magma, when Malachi finally couldn’t take it anymore.

"Look, I appreciate the hospitality but I really need to go back. Maybe I’ll come and visit on a day when my entire world hasn’t been turned upside down."

"Oh... really?" Lucifer seemed disappointed. "Alright, I guess... Sign here then."

Suddenly, an absolutely enormous book appeared in front of Malachi.

It was bound in strange black leather that bore too close a resemblance to human skin. The bone fragments acting as a binding didn’t exactly help to change his mind.

The book miraculously flipped to a very specific page.

Malachi saw hundreds of names written in red ink.

"What is this?"

"Come now, Mal. Don’t make me say it."

"Book of the Damned then."

"Smart boy."

"I’m a grown ass man."

"Not nearly as grown as I am."

Malachi didn’t know if that was fair. He could probably count the number of individuals as old as Lucifer on just one hand.

"You going to tell me why I need to put my name in this to get sent home?"

Lucifer smiled, and for a moment, Malachi was absolutely positive that he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.

He was right.

"Well, my new and budding demon, there are rules about this sort of thing. It’s a pain, but I need to have a way to recall you nice and easy just so that I can say I’m being a responsible monarch. You understand, right?"