Heir Of Argranos

1

“Your Malice, forgive my rudeness, but it needs to be said. We cannot let a child who’s barely an adult rule over us! I’d rather have the crown stays on the cushion, than have it occupying a head full of immaturity!” Mammon argued, a massive spray of spit leaving his disgustingly grayed and cracked lips.

My cheeks flared in anger. I should’ve scratched out his pathetic little existence when I had the chance.

The Council of Demon Elders kept their eyes trained one me, trying to gauge out a reaction that will further support their views that I am indeed immature and unfit to take over my father’s throne.

I glared back at them, but kept my face stoic and my mouth sealed shut.

‘Don’t react.’ My father warned through the telepathy we share.

‘If he angers me any more than he already has, I swear on the screams of the souls, I’ll end him.’ I replied.

My father glanced my way with a disapproving look, but focused his attention back on Mammon. “You forget that you stand in the court of Satan, and you speak ill of his daughter.”

Mammon quivered like an old hag breathing her last, but then the wrinkled bastard regained his balance and spoke up again. “Your Malice, with all due respect Your Malice, your daughter is unfit to rule Hell. If it had been a boy, then the Council’s decision might have wavered in another direction. But women are too emotionally unfit to…”

Whatever degrading and misogynistic words he was about to say was silenced by my dagger slashing through his throat and cutting his voice box in half.

He gasped, and gurgled on his own blood that now choked him. A mad look of surprise, hate, and regret scrunched his face into an ugly mix of malfunctioning muscles. If he had seen me coming, he would’ve attempted to flee or fight back, and that was exactly why I used my teleportation powers.

The Council of Demon Elders rose in an uproar, with whispered and shouted accusations hurled at me; the old men and women adjusting their robes and turning into their demonic forms, in case I decide to kill off another one of them.

As if killing them wasn’t easy for me in both their human and demon form…

I wiped the disgustingly warm blood of Mammon that had somehow gotten on my cheeks as I slashed his throat, and scanned the Council with a smirk, mentally thinking of whom to pick out and obliterate next. The feeling of ending a life heightened my bloodthirsty desire for c*****e.

Mammon finally concluded his sickening gasps and fell lifelessly limp to the floor, his human form melting into a nasty puddle of bones, blood, and black dust.

“Silence!” my father; Argranos commanded, slamming his pitchfork down and rising up from his throne.

The blackened ground shook, with a few members of the Council losing their balance and toppling down from the chairs situated on the left side of my father’s cathedra. Silence followed soon after, as everyone noticed the two horns of Argranos curving backwards and their tips pointing straight up; a tell-tale sign of his anger.

The temperature of hell rose above the usual. The screams of punished souls, which for some reason are always echoed in my head, increased. I could hear their begging, their regrets, their pleas…

Human souls are so cute.

“I am the embodiment of chaos, but I detest chaos in my court.”

The Council shrunk back into themselves.

“My daughter is, and will forever be my only heir. However, she shall not go unpunished for her rash behaviors today…”

My eyes widened in disbelief. ‘Pops, what the hell? What are you doing?!” I mentally communicated, basically screaming in his head.

‘Shh, if I don’t do this, the Council won’t give you an ounce of support when the time comes for you to ascend the throne.’ He replied.

‘f**k their support!’ I screamed back again.

My father visibly winced, and the same look of disapproval he had given me earlier crossed his features. ‘Actions have consequences, Harleah. And I’ll prefer if you stop using human curse words. For hell’s sake, don’t we have enough curse words here?’

‘Like what? Lech lehizdayen?’ I shot back, but he had already sealed off the mental link between us with a barrier like he usually does whenever I annoy him.

I huffed and crossed my arms, then got back to glaring at the Council of Demon Elders and waiting to hear what sort of punishment I would be given for my apparent ‘misconduct’. This is the underworld… since when was adding to the population of tortured souls a crime?

I mentally reviewed the usual punishments I get. There was overseeing the torture chambers, which is fun, but very exhausting because it makes my ears hurt like a b***h from hearing all the agonizing screams, and there was also the punishment to steal souls, which is too time consuming to be agreeable.

The worse was simply being grounded.

For one, I would be locked away in my room with a demon in whose presence my powers couldn’t work. This meant no teleportation, no telepathy, no shape shifting, and being consumed by the greatest enemy of all; boredom.

“And since the Council has lost one of its members, I’m giving the honor to suggest a punishment for her, to all of you.”

Seriously?!

Wicked smiles graced their aged faces, but before they could collectively come to a decision, Mania; the succubus demon, or as I, and many other humans like to call her; the old hag blurted out “Send her to earth for a year!”

Foul satisfaction glinted in their eyes. “Yes!” another of them agreed. “Send her to earth, for two years!” “Send her there forever!” “Strip her of her demon powers! Let her live among the humans as an inferior demon!” “She’s too weak to survive it. Let her walk the earth like we all have!”

Giggles and chants of agreement were worded and exchanged back and forth among the once thirteen, now twelve Elders of the Council that are eagerly wishing for my head on a silver platter.

“My verdict is this: Harleah Dixie Argranos is banished from her home; the underworld, to live on earth as a human being for a year. After three hundred and sixty-five human days, she will return to the underworld, and ascend the throne of Hell. If you wish for the same fate as Mammon, you’re free to argue with me.” Argranos said authoritatively.

The Council of Elders bowed their heads. “More wickedness to Your Malice…” They praised.

“In other words…” I began with an evil chuckle, strapping back my black dagger into place, and making sure I looked at each and every one of the Elders in the eye. “You all have three hundred and sixty-five more human days to live. Because when I return as Queen of Hell, the Council will be the first to face my royal devilry.” With that, I teleported out of the throne room and back to my bedroom.

Three hundred and sixty-five days…

Three hundred and sixty-five days living among those inferior creatures as a demon without any supernatural abilities…

Praise the old hag’s wickedness.

I plopped down on my bed, which, by the way, is made up of demon bones that keep the matrass afloat. In some ways, it was like lying down on a cloud, with the same feeling of weightlessness. Only difference is, there is nothing angelic about it.

There’s nothing angelic about this whole place. I mean duh; it’s Hell. What were you expecting?

I stared up at the blackened ceiling, and tried to place my thoughts together. In a way, being sent to earth wasn’t really a punishment. I mean yeah, life will hurt like a b***h without my powers, but it would be like going on vacation to a new place. It would mean a break from these dark caves and mistakenly splashing on puddles of lava. And I’d get to see different humans, maybe even taste one…

“Only inferior demons eat human flesh.”

I shot up from my bed and glared at my father who was standing by the opening of the massive cave that formed my bedroom. “Well, aren’t you turning me into one?” I hissed, contemplating whether to conjure up a ball of flames and hurl it at him.

“I’d just conjure up a larger ball of flames and throw it back at you. Then it would be like a snow fight. But with, you know… fire instead. A fire fight… no, that doesn’t sound right.”

“Stop reading my thoughts!” I complained and jumped down from my floating bed to the floor, landing ungracefully on my feet.

“Then close the telepathy barrier. You should be able to do that by now.” My father replied, crossing his four arms and walking towards me. As he walked further into the room, his demon form shrank, with the two extra hands retreating into his body, and his massive black horns curling back to form a mass of black hair. His red skin turned shades lighter, until he became as pale as a Caucasian human being.

“Are you really turning me into an inferior demon?” I pouted, trying to conjure up a puppy face and making my voice whinier than it usually becomes when I want something from my father.

He sighed and shook his head with a conspiratorial smile. “Since when does Satan keep his words?”