Hell's Consort

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The Empress Luna

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When Luna glanced down, she sucked in a breath and stilled.

Luna had high hopes that the entrée that God had led her back to the Vampire Realm or… she would be glad if she wouldn't end up in the Vampire Realm as long as she wouldn't go anywhere near Hell.

The Highest God could drop her on the Fae Realm or the Dragon Realm for all she cared, and she could travel to her husband, Apollyon, by herself and walk on foot.

Her toes dangled by the edge of the portal, gripping the side of the large doorway with her left hand as she clung unto her dear life.

It was like she was hanging by a cliff.

It was a good thing that there weren't any strong winds around that might distract her and led her to fall into her death.

Blinking rapidly, Luna saw the entire universe—outer space- and different worlds where stars, planets and moons of different sizes, an extensive spectrum of colours in varying degrees of brightness and splendour moved freely in their invisible orbits without crashing into each other.

She covered a hand over her mouth as her eyes widened like saucers.

It was a pretty sight.

The Northern Lights couldn't even compare to this attraction, pulling her in and telling her to jump.

As her knees quivered in both excitement and fear, Luna took a step backwards.

She was about to ask God, stalling and taking her time to postpone her passing.

She hadn't even looked over her shoulder yet when she felt someone's barefoot connected with her back.

Gasping, Luna flailed her arms around to regain balance, grabbing nothing but air.

Her screams weren't heard because the black hole had absorbed them as she fell into the Universe.

Luna couldn't believe that God had the audacity to kick her behind.

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Shutting her eyes tight, Luna braced for the landing if there was.

She could feel her brain slowing down during the vertical drop.

There was no wind.

She couldn't use her Archdemon wings to propel her higher or lessen the crash's impact because she wasn't taught how.

Her wings were pretty much ornamental at this point.

There wasn't a strong gravity, nor was she floating into this space.

Anyway, the falling into the Universe didn't last for more than a minute when she jerked awake from the visual hallucination in the blink of an eye.

She glanced around.

Luna was imprisoned inside a transparent glass sphere without any opening.

When she moved her hand and leg, Luna would send the large blue orb rolling.

She knew at this point that the Creator was playing with her.

She sighed with frustration.

Why did she even trust that faceless stranger with a halo?

Luna avoided stirring too much inside the globe and focused on what's outside.

Kneeling as he kept her hands and legs close in a crawl, Luna quickly registered that she was in a level surface because the orb didn't move when she was still.

The glass orb where she was trapped was inside another drawn circle.

As she examined them the concentric circles painted with azure, lime, gold and orange in harmonious spirals, she figured out that it was a Sigil.

This was the first time she had ever seen a Sigil symbol that was painted like this.

The drawn circular Sigil was surrounded by human skulls carved out of crystals.

This particular Sigil couldn't be used by witches or demons.

There was a compelling intensity to its auric field which radiated raw, adulterated power that was otherworldly—something she hadn't come across before.

Luna glanced around, waiting for someone to appear and explain things to her because that was how it worked around here.

Someone always appeared and walked her through this journey between Realms, jumping from world to world.

She wasn't a patient woman.

"Greetings! Is anyone out there?" Luna drew in a breath and shouted, making sure she was heard despite trapped inside a glass bubble.

Her impatience was replaced by terror when something showed up slowly from the total darkness outside the rich and vivid Sigil which appeared like the shades of seawater and aquamarine.

The monster had shaped like the truncated top of a sphere as it slowly rose, crackling with bright red energy at first.

The creature was massive, and it his height was never ending.

Hair lifted into her nape and arms as Luna watched it with wide eyes.

It had thousands of wings, and his whole body consisted of tongues and eyes all zeroing unto her.

She had never seen this creature before, nor had she experienced thousands of eyes judging her.

Luna stilled.

It felt like the horrific monster could count every strand of her silver hair with those laser-like gazes, pinning her down, frozen in time.

It was hard to maintain eye contact because she didn't know where to look.

Luna swallowed hard and cleared her throat in the silence that she could almost hear the pin-drop. "What is this place?"

"This is a place of in-between—a place where one transition between life and the next." The monster answered with its thousands on mouths echoing in these pitch-black chambers. "This is a Realm through which souls pass."

She covered her ears when all his mouths enunciated each word at the same time—some a millisecond later than the other mouths.

Tilting her head back slightly to glare at the massive creature, she realized this was the time where Luna wished she was deaf. "This Liminal Realm was an inherently mysterious place where space and time are suspended, and the veil between this life and the next is thinned."

Well, Luna had the urge to scream, but the utterance of the Liminal Realms caught her attention.

She hadn't heard of that Realm before.

"What are you?" Luna felt like she had heard about this creature before.

Hmm.

A thousand eyes and a thousand mouths.

Luna asked politely. "I assume you are an Archangel?"