The Beginning Of End

”Hey…Hey… ” I felt someone shaking me while I was in such a deep and nice slumber. I grumbled and frowned as I opened my eyes just to see Amon and his bright blue eyes staring me down into the soul.

Oh shit. I fell asleep on guard duty. I looked around and saw I fell asleep against a giant tree. I cursed under my breath as I stood up.

”Thank you for waking me up. ” I said.

”We
e almost done. I mean, they
e almost done. Well get to have our free time again. ” Amon said all cheerful.

”How long was I asleep for? ” I asked.

”Well.. like… Almost the entire time you were on guard duty. So like 12 hours. ”

”And nobody woke me up?! ”

Amon shrugged, ”nobody really cared. The Devil didn seem to care either. ”

”Just because he didn say anything doesn mean he isn going to kick my ass later. ”

”Thats fair. Sorry. ”

I shook my head and waved my hand in a dismissive manner. ”Eh, who cares. ” Catching me sleeping on guard duty will be even a happy punishment if we compare it to my other bigger offense.

”So its almost done? ”

”Yeah, the Devil said we can go back to our usual routines in 15 minutes. ”

I let out a long breath in relief. This was going on for weeks already. I felt like my brain was physically getting smaller from doing the same thing over and over again. Well, mostly doing nothing. I just wanted to go back to my casino and serve freaky cocktails to demons. But first I had to respond to a summoning. Not that I had to but I really wanted to get out of this godforsaken place (quite literally).

I waited the rest of 15 minutes fully awake until the boss announced the end. As soon as he finished his speech about how thankful he is and how we should stop being so careless further down the line, I left the demon world. We do it by imagining a place in our mind and opening a portal or a rip in the dimension. The portals were a bit bigger than an average-sized human but they could transport anybody and anything.

No humans could see any deities with their eyes, only the more experienced once could kind of grasp how we looked like. Even though we appeared in front of them, they could almost never see us. They could sense us though almost every time.

I appeared inside this dark room, full of pentagrams and red candles. Seems like whoever was summoning me was very into demons.

”Oh, King Asmodeus, if you
e here, give me a sign! ” I heard a male voice coming from the center of the room. I looked over at him and he looked like he was in his 20s. He was sitting in the middle of the changed reversed pentagram.

So, I did him a favor and banged once loudly against the wall. It sounded like thunder and not a simple bang. I loved entertaining humans, they always looked funny when you gave them a sign and they became all scared and wide-eyed. Same thing every time.

I laughed when I saw the guy jumping a bit as he heard the noise. He poured some whiskey in the glass as an offer to me. I couldn say I wasn pleased. It was also always interesting to me how humans absolutely loved self-destruction. The alcohol always made them feel like shit the next day yet they kept going for it. What a bunch of peculiar beings.

”I give you this alcohol as an offering. Id love to make a deal with you. For me, I want this woman to desire me and to worship me. ” As he said that, he placed a photo of the said woman on the floor. Typical. The greatest desires of humans were for other humans to love and accept them. What a pitiful existence. ”And in return, Id do anything you wish. ”

Interesting, except I didn have much use of humans. The man took a deep breath, closed his eyes, trying to focus on my energy and get a response. ”Knock once if you accept this offer and twice if you don . ”

Eh, what the hell, I thought and banged once. I laughed once again as I watched him get startled by the noise again. I sent lovely obsessive and lustful feelings towards the woman in question. I felt bad for her honestly but not my problem to worry about. In return, I grabbed the drink from the floor and downed the glass. The only thing the man saw was the liquid disappearing from the glass though. I watched him swallow a lump in his throat in fear so I grabbed the bottle of whiskey as well and left the place leaving him to contemplate his existence for a while.

I didn want to go back to the castle yet so I decided to teleport myself somewhere else in the human world. At once, I appeared near some running stream in the middle of a clearing. It was a rather small clearing because on both sides of the stream there was a forest.

I sat down near the stream and watched the water flow as I took one big sip of the whiskey. Despite me being one of the more extroverted and playful demons, I also got tired of others after some time. Lets not forget that despite being a demon of lust, I was also a demon of deep-seated anger.

I sat down near the little stream and started drinking the whiskey from the bottle. The only difference between human and demon alcohol was that the demon alcohol one made you happier and more energetic. Human alcohol, on the other hand, made you contemplate existence from a very strange point of view. Never in these many years of human knowledge had I understood the very human need to feel terrible. Nonetheless, however, I liked it.

”Hey! ” I suddenly heard a voice behind me and I quickly turned around. No one was supposed to find me here. I specifically picked this place so as not to be bothered.

And there he was, Loki, in his whole essence.

”What in the hell… ” I mumbled as I watched him approach me. ”How did you find me? ”

”You really think of me as some low rank deity. Dude, Im literally Loki the worlds well-known trickster. I know many things. ” He exclaimed almost as he was looking down at me with the biggest grin.

”I thought we made the deal not to meet each other any time soon. ” I frowned.

”Yeah well… ” he trailed off before continuing, ”emphasis on the trickster. ” He said as he sat right next to me and grabbed the drink from my hand. He downed a much bigger gulp than I did.

”Good choice, ” he noted as I was trying to figure out how he found me and what in the hell he was doing here.

”Hell yeah its a good choice, ” I replied and then I grabbed back the bottle from his hand. ”Now tell me why you
e here. ”

There was a bit of silence when I said that but then he finally replied, ” I can keep thinking that if the apocalypse is inevitable, why even care at this point. ”

It really was a notion to ponder on. ”So you just came here to ”hang out ” as humans would say? ”

”To be truthful, ” he looked at me, then proceeded, ”yes. I don think Id want to spend the rest of my days with someone else. ”

”Why is that? ”

”I did a bit of reading on you and I realized you and I aren so different. Kind of like two sides of the same coin. ” He said and when I thought a bit deeper about it, I realized it wasn that far from the truth. Both of us have been completely misunderstood by society and both of us have loved to make fun of others. I didn exactly know whether to trust him though or if he was going to kill me at one point to complete his initial idea from a few weeks ago.

My eyes were set on him for a bit as I tried to figure out his true intentions by observing him. Or, at the very least, try to break through his many walls in his mind. After all, Loki wasn a human being, it was quite harder to read him, if at all. I didn like this. It made me feel vulnerable to the possible backstabbing.

”I don think we should see each other again, ” I suddenly said. He turned his head towards me and then cocked an eyebrow,

”You
e serious? ”

”I don trust you. As you said, you
e the worlds popular trickster and Id be foolish to overlook that detail. So, I advise you to leave or I will. ”

Loki groaned in frustration and then let out a small laughter. He leaned back on his arms and his eyes averted towards the sky.

”Man, I thought you were cooler than that. ”

Despite saying that, the red-haired man didn move or even budge from his spot. I wasn going to be the first one to move from my sacred haven. It was one place where I could be by myself and I wasn going to let him take it away from me. I summoned a dagger in my hand and just as I was about to swing at him, with the speed of the light the trickster turned into a raven and flew further away from me which made me stagger. I managed to lean my hand against the grass so I don fall face flat down. The fury was rising in me while I was looking at the feathery animal flying in one place above me.

I got up on my feet, now completely set on catching him when he suddenly disappeared from my sight. I looked hectingly around and hoped for a second he left for good but then the dagger from my hand was grabbed from behind.

”Youd have to be a lot cunning to catch me off-guard. ” I could feel a smirk when he spoke and surely, when I turned around, he was. He was playing with my dagger in his hands and inspecting its sharpness. Then, he tucked it away inside his coat before stretching out a hand towards me, ”lets start again. Im Loki. ”

I frowned then slapped his hand away, ”do you not realize the seriousness of the situation or you just don care? ”

Loki furrowed his eyebrows as if deep in thought. ”The latter. ” He shrugged.

I was honestly surprised the fight didn escalate and that he simply and truly didn care. He may have even wanted to jump-start all of this. Was it that boring over there, in his world, that even the apocalypse was considered a fun event?

I let out a long breath. Getting rid of him was a tiny bit like trying to get rid of a cockroach infestation. Even if you think youve killed them all, there is still one that comes out stronger than ever. Loki was one of the stronger cockroaches.

”Alright. I have an idea. ”

Loki raised an eyebrow in curiosity and I continued, ”we play poker. If you win, you can follow me to the end of the world if you wish. If I win, you leave me alone forever. ”

”Ballsy. ” He smirked. ”You
e willing to play cards with a trickster? ”

”And Im a demon who owns a hell casino. I wouldn say you are in a more privileged situation. ”

Loki laughed at that, sounding even amused.

”Okay. Im game. ”

As he agreed to the terms, I immediately manifested poker cards in one and chips in another hand. I even got us a nice table and chairs in the middle of the forest. We both sat down across each other and I felt a knot in my stomach as it was slowly dawning on me that there was a possibility of him never leaving my side. His face didn give off any emotion other than utter confidence in himself. For the first time in many, many eons had I felt insecure while sitting across someone about to play a poker game.

I took a deep breath and told myself to get it together as I started dealing cards.The future wasn smiling upon me.

***

The game was going on for, maybe, 8 hours in the human world. And it didn seem like it was ending any time soon. I was hugely underestimating my opponent. I thought it wouldve ended within like an hour but, no, Loki kept going. Not to mention, his poker face was like nothing I had ever seen. Not even demons managed to pull that kind of… blank face and just no expression at all. He really was the trickster god.

Most of the time Id managed to figure out very quickly what kind of cards the opponent was having just by throwing a quick glance at them. But, now, no matter how much I tried, I couldn get through his barriers. Just like when I was trying to read him, it was just impossible for me to break him. It was starting to anger me which is probably about the time when I started to lose focus and Loki pulled a Royal flush.

I felt all the blood leaving my face as I stared at the card combination. There were no words I could utter at that moment. I kept glancing from the cards to him as I was slowly coming to accept that I truly did lose at a poker game. And not only with some aces, but a full blown Royal flush.

”Well, what do you say? ” He grinned sheepishly as he leaned back into the chair, his arm hanging over the back of the chair.

I could just kill him, I thought. I didn even know what to say. My ego couldn accept this defeat at all. I could even feel it struggling.

”Are you okay? ” Loki asked, frowning a bit. He leaned over the table, about to touch my shoulder before I shrugged his hand off.

”Yeah, Im fine. ” I retorted and placed my pathetic cards on the table. I saw him trying to stifle a laugh. I really had no good cards.. Somehow it didn occur to me this entire time I was challenging a trickster god. But it couldn be! I was a king of demons, it shouldn be that easy! I was the owner of the casino in hell – so, how could this happen to me?

The smirk was still ever-present on his lips as he peered at me.

”Well, looks like you
e stuck with me. ” He suddenly spoke and I shot a glare at him. ”Oh, come on, don tell me a king of hell can handle a bit of loss! ” The mocking was obvious in his voice and I felt the big urge to snap his neck. However, I had to be graceful. As he said, I was a king of hell so I had to have some dignity.

”You
e right. ” I said with a dryness in my voice, feeling my ego dying inside and taking away an important part of me. Loki stood up at once and went back to the stream nearby. He picked up the whiskey bottle we left on the grass next to it. He brought it with him to the table and slammed it on the surface before grinning like a child.

”So, what do you say we drink this bad boy? ”

I definitely wasn pleased with the suggestion. I planned to drink it by myself and he now officially took away my solitude and peace. The only place I could have it at. He took away everything and I felt like it wasn us that were meant to jump-start the apocalypse – Loki was the apocalypse himself. And the grabbing, clawing and punching will be needed to just get away from him.

”Well, do I have a choice? ” I forced a smile. The trickster just snickered and shook his head. I hated how he seemed to think he was the boss of me now. Which he technically was. The rage was overwhelming my being once again and the black smoke started coming out of my body. Loki started to look quite alarmed, I could even hear his heart rate quickening. I stood up from the table, snatched the bottle from his hand before swinging it across his head. Then, I just opened a portal and quickly teleported myself back to hell.

I always had a choice even if it meant going back to boredom, then so be it. The smoke was still coming out of me and it felt like I couldn calm myself down at all. I truly had no idea how he managed to rile me up so much. I pushed the door of the castle open to the point they slammed against the wall. I had to calm myself down before others started to notice and ask questions. I kept my head down so my gaze wouldn catch anyones as I was storming through the hallways.

I started going downstairs in the undergrounds of hell where my casino was. I thought I could disappear into the crowd over there despite not being able to be completely alone. Maybe I could even get something to calm me down.

When I arrived at the casino, it was full of demons as usual. It was the one place where everyone could let themselves go. Especially those of lower ranks who had a lot more things to do than those of higher ranks. Not only that, but just because there were no demons of higher ranks that much, lower ranks could really just not care about whats happening. The higher ranks usually spent their time doing ”smarter ” things. Such things include making pacts with humans, reading, researching, even possessing people to convert them to satanism. You get the idea.

I was one of the lazier demons, I couldn care less about doing those things. I was mostly sick of the entire system and I wanted to be left alone.

I went to the back of the casino where my office was, and immediately started looking through the drawers. When I finally found the little plastic container I was looking for, I spilled the white contents of it on the work desk. I sat down and took a small plastic card that was sitting on the table. I started forming a straight line of the dusty material and then just pressed my nose against it, holding one nostril with my finger, before snorting it all in.

Angel dust… Looked almost the same like human cocaine except it was actually dust. It didn work the same way however. As soon as I felt it working in my system, I leaned back into the chair and stretched out all my limbs. It filled my mind with ecstasy and I felt like all of the rage I had felt until then had just vanished. I used it in extremely dire moments such as this. Not that it could really harm me but I did like to savor my drugs. I wasn a monster after all.

I closed my eyes and let my mind wander. Now, the sole thought of Loki didn even cause me any annoying anxiety. It was just like he didn exist. Like he was just a figment of my imagination. Oh, how I wish that was reality. A smile played on my lips as I felt utter bliss. Was it that why they said that ignorance was a bliss?

The peace wasn long lasting before I heard Amons voice. But even that didn disturb me to the extent it usually would.

”Asmodeus… Uhm… The Devil is looking for you. ”

I opened my eyes slowly and straightened myself in the chair. The anxiety in me was fighting for dominance but the strength of angel dust was still extremely strong. Instead, the smile emerged on my lips and I had to contain myself not to burst out in laughter. He seemed to have noticed it and was about to say something but I cut him off,

”Strange, ” I murmured and then stood up from the chair, walking over to the wide-eyed blue eyes. I grabbed his face before smooching him on the forehead, ”Never change. ” I didn let him comment in any way as I just scurried away to see what the big boss upstairs wanted.

As I was walking, once again I felt the gazes upon me. Honestly, demons weren that much better from angels with all the judging. But, to be fair, it was mostly curiosity rather than just judgment. It was due to my unusually cheerful demeanor but I couldn care less trying to explain myself to them.

I walked all the way to the top of the castle, the staircase becoming narrower and narrower. Eventually, I got to the highest point and opened the door. Inside was a small room with one female demon occupying a desk. Seemed to be the devils assistant. I smiled at the thought and then approached her. For a demon, she sure looked quite beautiful. Long black hair with nice plump lips and pale skin. Her figure was also very attractive. She was dressed in all black with a turtle neck that defined her chest pretty well. Well, one things for sure, he definitely knew how to pick em. I may have to get back to her after I finish whatever talk I had to have with the boss.

”Hello, the Devil was looking for me. Is he available? ”

She looked up at me with a slight smile before nodding and motioning to the door. ”Yeah, he is inside, you can go in. ”

I smiled back and made sure she didn forget my face for later. I opened the door to the most secluded room in the whole empire. I was met with the dim lights, only a few candles flickering. The room had a lot of bookshelves and there was a combination of red and wooden brown. Across the place where I was standing was a huge desk with a chair turned to face away from me. The entire wall that the chair was facing was covered with big windows with red drapes surrounding them.

I was waiting patiently for the other party to notice my arrival. There was no knowing how I was going to go through this conversation without cracking up at one point. Slowly, the chair started turning and I was met with glowing red eyes, long goat horns. Yes, the descriptions were true. Despite his piercing gaze, his face was gentle-looking, giving a hint that he used to be on the opposite side. His nose was small and raised a bit, but his jaw was covered with a short beard. He had medium-length dark brown hair with some of it covering his face.

The Dark Lord had his elbow resting on the arm of the chair while supporting the side of his face.

”Well, well, well. Its been a while, hasn it? ” He spoke before I had a chance to say anything when our eyes met. It felt like all of that ecstasy I was feeling until now just vanished when he shot a glare at me.

Indeed, it had been a long time. I used to be one of his most loyal soldiers. In fact, at the beginning of the creation of hell, I was the one person he could lean on the most. And when there was a rebellion in hell to take over the throne, I was the one who stood by him through it all. And then, all of a sudden, he just started becoming more and more reserved to the point it led to him never coming out of his ”cave ”. Not even I got to see him anymore. The Devil I used to know back then was a much more approachable version of him. The one I was looking at this time seemed almost like a bad copy of the friend I used to have. Like there was something lacking in him. Thats why, from that point on, I couldn feel the same warmth and joy of being around him. There was just utter coldness radiating from him.

”Yeah… ” I finally replied and tried to smile at him.

”Well, would you sit? ”

I took a note of the chair across him and rushed over to it.

”You
e probably wondering why I asked for a private conversation. ” His dark red eyes glistened in the dim light as his gaze was fixed on me, refusing to look away. The one thing hadn changed though – the sole intensity emanating from just being around him.

”I did wonder that, thats true. ” I punched myself in the face in my head because of how stupid I sounded. But that was because I didn know how to behave after such a long time. He just didn feel like somebody I used to know well.

Despite me sounding a little stupid, the Devil chuckled silently and a smirk remained on his lips for a short amount of time. Then, his expression turned quite murderous which made me swallow a lump in my throat.

”You know, just because Im constantly away, here in my office doesn mean I don notice things that have been going on lately. ” If I wasn already pale, I wouldve definitely paled noticeably at that moment. ”Especially you. ” I felt like I was about to faint.

”W-what about me? ” I tried to sound cool but it didn seem like he bought it. I wouldn have bought it either.

”You used to be quite a worker but lately… Youve just been out of it. You fell asleep on your job and not only that, but other demons have also noticed a strange behavior coming out of you. So, will you tell me whats been going on with you or should I start with the punishments? ” He raised an eyebrow as he waited for my response. My heart started to race and I was pretty sure he could sense it as well. Well, at least he didn know anything about Loki. My thoughts joined my heart in the race while I tried to find a perfectly reasonable excuse of why I was behaving the way I did. What I wanted to know, however, was who the hell were the ones who ”noticed ” my strange behavior? You really couldn trust anybody, not even your own.

”I just… didn have a good sleep recently. I had strange dreams and I couldn focus on anything. Although, I can tell you what they have been because Im not sure if its a smart thing to do yet. ” I decided to just go with the story I had told Beelzebub so that at least I had one demon backing me up in case the Devil decided to investigate.

The Dark Lords expression turned from murderous to a more curious and amused one. He leaned back into the chair, his two hands crossing the fingers.

”But do tell. I won judge. ” His tone of voice was softer than it had been earlier. It almost sounded like a trap.

”Its not about that. I just don know if I got the message right yet. I just know that those dreams have left me with a big sense of dread. I apologize for my behavior, I promise Ill try to keep it together. ” I really had to have him drop the topic. If he started digging, it wouldn have been long before he figured out everything. Our boss wasn a stupid man, that was for sure. He knew exactly how to play his cards to get the answer he wanted. But thankfully, due to knowing him well for all those eons, I knew all his tactics.

”If you say so. Ill be watching you though, carefully. ” He made sure to emphasize it so I remember. To be honest, I couldve just turned in Loki at that moment and maybe it would have all been over. But Loki didn do anything wrong apart from being extremely annoying to be around. So I bit my tongue before I said anything I would regret. ”I won do anything for now, but if you continue to behave recklessly I will have to do something about it. You can leave now. ”

I almost scoffed at what he said, that I behaved recklessly. I did everything by the book most of the time, even stood by him when I knew he was wrong yet he had the audacity to be offended that I couldve been disobedient to him. The utter feeling of injustice was slowly creeping in my senses as I realized that nothing had made him invite me but the fact that I wasn behaving like he imagined. A big heaviness in my chest started to form which felt like something like… hurt? I desperately wanted my friend back but he was nowhere to be found. There was just the boss and nothing else that I knew.

I had to contain my rage before he saw it. I swiftly nodded before I stood up from the chair and without even saying goodbye, I just left the office. As I was out, I looked to the side to where the girl was sitting before I grabbed her face and her eyes widened in shock. I stared deep into her eyes as I started hypnotizing her by making lustful feelings creep into her body. The moment it started working, her pupils started becoming larger. When it was over, her face became flushed and I smirked in satisfaction. Then, I grabbed her by the hand and we went into the nearby room which served as a storage room. It consisted of all sorts of offerings humans made to the devil throughout history which the Devil decided were worth keeping at least in storage.

As soon as we were inside, she pulled me into a deep kiss and took off my coat. I pushed her against the nearby wall as my fingers sneaked under her panties and inside of her. She moaned into my mouth and pulled me by the hair. The insides of her were already extremely wet but that was due to the prior hypnosis. Thats why foreplay wasn needed that much. I unbuttoned and unzipped my pants before her legs wrapped around me and I held her up. I slowly pushed into her and she moaned once more. She quickly took off my shirt as well and I started kissing her neck and leaving small marks behind as I did. Her legs started wrapping even tightly around me and I kept slamming into her. We both moaned in mutual pleasure and I didn even try to keep us quiet. I wanted to make sure that the boss heard it and shivered in disgust. It didn take long before both of us shuddered in deep pleasure and finished at the same time. That was the downside of the angel dust – it could make you extremely aroused but you couldn last too long.

I slowly dropped her and started putting on the clothes. She was still flushed and tried to get her breath back.. She seemed new to the whole demon experience. I smiled at her and was about to leave without a word, as I usually did but then she said, ”well meet again, right? ” Her naivety almost made me feel sorry for her.

”You don know who I am, do you? ”

”Yes, but… I thought you could make an exception. ”

I chuckled. ”I don make exceptions, thats what gets you into trouble. ” I could see that the sadness and hurt started forming on her face. But, shed get over it the more her human feelings started to fade and she slid more into demonic self. Maybe then, I could revisit. Without saying anything more, I left the room and then glanced for a second at the door behind which the Devil resided and sighed. Then, I just left those premises for good.