22 Chapter 22 - A Door Set In A Garden Wall

"What is this?" I asked. "The king of hell and one of the princes come up here. Michael almost wiping me out of existence and that thing."

I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible, it took every ounce of my strength. If there's one thing I hate, it's when people, demons included, lie to me. And I don't give a fuck whether he's the king of hell.

Lucifer looked at me apologetically. The bastard might charm humans but not me. "He is the avatar of Death." His voice was calm.

"Death?" I asked.

"Yes, a vessel for Death, a horseman of the apocalypse." said Lucifer.

And then everything started to come together.

A few months ago, he went and contacted me directly. A thing that is rare for demons to do, we tend to stay away from each other's company, especially those who roam the world and mingle with humans. He gave me the order to offer a contract to Dante Caulfield, a fledgling and dying outcast. At the time I thought that it was unusual but I didn't bother to ask him about it, most of my contract offers are given at random, depending on my fancy.

"So what do you intend to do with him?" I asked.

"For now, let him be. Let him continue with the task you've given him." He looked exhausted. "I just didn't count on Michael being here. This could complicate things."

"Tell me about it." I was still trying to understand the absurdity of it. I've never heard of Death being contained in a vessel for Death is a constant presence in the world. You just couldn't picture a force like that to be trapped inside of a human body.

"I know you have questions but now's not the time to discuss them. Come to me tomorrow." He gestured at Asmodeus who came over. "I assume you know each other."

Asmodeus nodded. "Mephistopheles."

"Asmodeus." The prince of lust, even he could incite desire in demons. Being this close to him brings a lot of discomfort.

Lucifer nodded approvingly. "Very well." Then he looked at me. "As you can see, Dante is in a precarious position. I know that he is your ward and you are to protect him. However, heaven is now aware of his existence." He sighed. "Would that we could've kept him hidden for a bit longer, I fear the war is not long from happening."

We were silent for some time, thinking about the repercussions of what just happened earlier. It could mean an all-out war and not just any battle between angels and demons which happens all the time in the mortal world, more like the war that ensued when Lucifer staged his great rebellion.

"I have brought Asmodeus here to help you in guarding Dante." That came as a surprise.

"What? You think I can't protect him on my own.?" The anger was seeping through and I knew I was losing composure.

"No offense Mephisto but Michael wiped the floor with you." Asmodeus sounded bored. "And I'm not merely here to protect him. I'm here to make sure he doesn't go berserk and if he does I'm the only one besides Lucifer who can restrain him.."

Lucifer came between us before I could think of a retort. "He's not just any other human Mephisto. You know that now. This is not a matter of just keeping him safe but you as well." He gazed at the lying form of Dante. "You saw how he fought Michael, we can't have him losing control. We can't risk that. Here in purgatory, his powers are weak because the inhabitants here are mostly the supernatural. However, on the other side, he will become unstoppable for on the other side lies the thing he needs to consume, his sole purpose. Life."

I thought about it and couldn't see any better way. "Fine. What do we do with him then?" I looked at the unconscious figure of Dante.

It was Asmodeus who answered."Let him enjoy the mundane things in life, let him live and love for the war is not long in coming."

Dante

I felt a hand slapping my face, deja vu, I saw Mephisto looking down on me.

"Wakey, wakey fanboy." He looked amused to see me.

I looked around and notice that we were still inside Crimson Arena, though the people still looked like as if they were frozen in time and their figures resemble that of shades. It was then that I felt the headache.

"You okay?" Mephisto asked me, looking a bit concerned which is unlike him.

Then I remembered the void and the voice. "What happened to me? Did you do something?"

He seemed to be thinking but it was a different voice that answered.

"You let Death take over your body." It was Lucifer.

"Death?" Then I remembered the presence. "That was Death?"

He nodded. "Dante, you are Death's vessel." Lucifer said it as if it was fact. "But not of his choosing, your existence abhors him as you must've surely felt."

My head was spinning. It seemed as if my life just took a violent turn. A lot of things have become too incomprehensible. "Hold on, when you say vessel, what does that mean? That I am possessed?"

"No, nothing like that. You may think of what you have as a symbiotic relationship." He sounded like he was giving out a lecture. "Have you heard of the four horsemen of the apocalypse?"

"War, Famine, Pestilence and Death?" My knowledge of the four horsemen came from my fascination with the book of Revelations when I was a teenager. It was the only book in the bible that didn't bore me.

"Yes." Lucifer continued. "The four horsemen are symbolic. They are the agents of change in the world of men. You see they are forces that cannot be controlled, constant and inevitable." At this he paused and smiled, a devil's smile. "Or so we thought."

"You are an anomaly Dante. A flaw in the design and the order of the universe, a singularity." I thought of the dark and gaping void and I shivered. "No matter what you might've heard, Death has no form because he is always flowing like a river, an invisible presence that can bring the world to heel along with the other horsemen. You can say that he is everywhere. In all of my eternities, I've waited for you. A vessel that I can use to channel his relentless force."

All I could think of is that I'm losing my mind. An anomaly? I couldn't believe it. But it seemed to make some sense in an insane kind of way. It's a better explanation than having none at all. But the last part caught me and that made me angry and confused. "So you want to use me to do what? Wage war against heaven?" I felt betrayed even though I've known that they were demons in the first place and I should've never trusted them.

Mephisto chuckled at that. "I didn't know jackshit about you being the Avatar of Death. I was kept in the dark just like you." Then he looked accusingly at Lucifer.

Then I noticed the other guy in the area we were on. I didn't see him earlier because he was sitting motionless in the ground and out of my sight. He moved with grace, as quiet and silent as a fox, I noticed that he was extremely attractive. Which when I think about it is the quality that most demons seemed to have. "Don't worry, he hasn't told any of us as well, that is until you were attacked by Michael."

I could see the look of exhaustion in Lucifer's fair face. "I do not plan to tell you this early Dante though I think I might be force to do so."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want the short answer or the long one?" He asked.