Free Melancholy Wings: Decadence by Matthew Ashworth

of the highest ranked demons in Lucifer’s army. He was so fond of killing that he was named as Lucifer’s chief executioner. When Malakai exited the tunnel, he descended through the air and landed right in front of Alastor. It appeared that they were about to discuss something. Lazarus knew he would not hear anything from where he was standing, but what he could do was to tune into the location where they were conversing and try to sense the sounds of their voices. Since it wasn’t so far away, Lazarus could do it, so long as he remained concentrated throughout the entire conversation.
     

 
    Chapter 9
    The Arrangement
     
     
     
    Alastor was on his way to a small, enclosed, secret area, to meet up with one of leading dark angels of Infernal Pit. The area used to be one of the entrances into the sector many centuries ago, but then was blocked off. Alastor couldn’t understand why Lucifer sent him to do the meeting, since he wasn’t fond of talking. Alastor was all about action. He liked to fight and to kill. He figured that probably most other high-up demons were preoccupied, and Lucifer most likely didn’t want any of the lesser demons to conduct the meeting.
     He finally reached the gates leading to the location where he was to meet up with Malakai. The two guards on his side of the gates recognized Alastor and quickly rushed to open the gates for him.
-           “Hurry up!” he roared at them.
     As soon as the gates swung open, Alastor walked through the gateway. One of the gate guards greeted him, but Alastor just growled in response.
     Once he was on the other side, the two guards on either side of the gate closed it, so that no-one would get in. It was their job to make sure that the gates were closed at all times and opened only when necessary.
     Alastor walked over to the centre of the area and began waiting. He was ordered to wait for Malakai, as Malakai was sneaking his way in. If Malakai failed to make it there, then he was not worthy. Alastor hated waiting, because waiting didn’t involve any action. He kept pounding the bottom of his huge spiked metal hammer against the ground from time to time out of impatience. His hammer had a long handle, making his swings in battles as wide as they were deadly. Each spike on the hammer’s head was long and sharp, capable of piercing deep into the victim’s body.
     Finally he saw a dark angel emerge from the darkness of the cave exit up in the cliffs. The dark angel quickly analysed the area, and then slowly descended down. Alastor wasn’t very trustful of dark angels. He wasn’t trustful of fallen angels either, because they used to serve the Creator at some stage. Demons for the most part were born corrupted. Some, like him, used to be humans before becoming demonic, but humans were not necessarily Creator’s servants on the first place. Malakai looked a bit rougher than most dark angels, but even that was not good enough to convince Alastor. Despite that, he had to do what his master told him to do.
     Malakai finally walked up to Alastor with confidence and spoke:
-           “You’re Alastor I take it.”
     
    Malakai tried to project confidence, but deep inside he was extremely cautious. He never was this close to a demon without that demon trying to kill him. He knew demons were backstabbing, savage beings, and weren’t to be trusted. However, on this occasion he knew this demon in front of him had a job to do and so was unlikely to pounce on him. He couldn’t quite understand why Alastor was wearing a metal mask, but that was unimportant.
     As soon as Malakai greeted him, Alastor gave a loud growl of annoyance and then spoke in his extremely low, snarling voice.
-           “Alastor I am. And you? Malakai, right?” he said.
-           “That is correct.” Malakai confirmed, “The creature attacks happened as you wanted.”
-           “It was not I who wanted it, but my master.”