Smiling in the Face of Hell
Chapter 13

The both of them stiffened when they felt Prince Lust, Greed, Wrath, and Envy step onto the surface through the gates all mere seconds after the initial gate opening.

Lust was right outside her door to her room so he helped himself and let himself in.

Lionel was on his feet, eyes narrowed.

Scout left herself open since Lionel was shielding his own mind so the moment Lust stepped in, everything rushed in, telling her everything before Lust even opened his mouth.

“There is a riot in Hell. Someone opened gates are letting demons through to the surface as we speak.”

Scout stood, letting the feeling of every single new gate truly sink in. They could not let them stay open, and by how the Prince’s all came to them and her place told them they had no idea where the gates they knew were open where on the surface. When she focused she felt them all and every single demon aside from the Prince’s.

Even Lionel could sense them all.

Scout was in no condition to act rash, but that was exactly what she did as she focused and went to the first gate that was opened.

She left everyone behind as she found herself in the middle of a huge mass of demons flooding the streets of LA.

They noticed her presence immediately and she could smell the fear. This was why they did not make gates in New York, because they knew the main gate and Lionel and Scout were.

Immediately there plan was compromised, she knew everything, and she knew she had little time.

Scout lifted her hand in the air, the motion triggered a mass flow of power encasing every single demon that had stepped through, stopping them from any further damage or movement.

Above her, she felt the tickle of some new players that have come to aid in gaining immediate order on the surface from the invaders, but she could not bother acknowledging them as she took the large mass of demons and basically chucked them right back through the gate.

Through the force of her power once every last scumbag was through the gate and back in Hell, she stabbed her hand through the gate that was opened on the side of a coffee shop and pulled it off the wall like it was a poster, disintegrating and closing it immediately.

She ignored the screams of the poor humans as she quickly returned herself to New York, knowing those growing presence from above were the angels to do their job as containing the humans and heal the wounded as well as take care of memories while hell’s side of things was working on immediately getting hell back where it belonged.

She was ticked, she had no explanation at that moment on why she felt the need to be this upset and mad when she has only been Queen of Hell for a bit over a week, only like 4 days of it actually awake, zero days actually being a Queen, but she took this riot far more personal and she felt the absolute weight of responsibility, even if she really, truly owed Hell absolutely nothing.

Even if anyone expects her to actually do her job as Queen or not seemed to not matter, cause the mantle she had not fully even realized was there made sure it was known as the rush of responsibility she felt towards what was happening made it feel like she herself personally needed to clean up this mess and right away.

Lionel also seemed drawn to do the same, but his worry about her screamed out loudly to her, as if even knowing she can handle herself, begging her to be careful. He was torn between duty and his soulmate bond, but unfortunately, with a breakout on the surface, he had no option, before anything else, for multiple reasons, containing the problem was the very first thing he had to do.

Scout was in the middle of screaming and bustling souls from the main gate inside the church. The rush had her nearly shaking in anxiety, she knew too much to possibly slack off and do anything wrong. Not even some of the princes seemed to understand the extent of the issue, it was way more than just a few demons escaping, way more, and only more was to come.

“Dirge, Close the gate now,” she called out turning to face the door of the church.

It seems like things have happened too fast for them to realize what was going on outside of the gate, but Dirge did not dare ignore or question her as he dropped the soul in his hands to rush over and quickly pull the large gate closed just as the whole front part of the church was pulled away, the shield holding in the souls and the location of the gate to others was blasted wide open just like that.

The souls screamed and took their chance to escape, creating yet another problem. A problem they could not bother with right then as Scout put her arms up just in time to block a huge body that flew towards her with the intention of knocking her out of the way. However, instead of Scout moving, she sent the beast flying back to where it came from.

She felt the presence of everything around her, including the humans who could not see anything, but hear and see the damage of it all. Then there also was immediately a growing presence of higher up beings like angels, the force that is ready to fight moments like this.

“Well if it isn’t the Queen, I thought you were still out of it, pity, you were next on our list to take care of,” said a voice that came through the dust and rubble of the front of the church, behind her silhouette was a mass of multiple others, showing her mini army that had gathered for the occasion.

They all knew she was a new demon, one thing they should not know, they also somehow knew she was unconscious on the surface, they should not have known that either. There was someone feeding them information, someone who had to be of high power and status to possibly know those things, at least for sure know that she was unconscious.

When the dust settled, she was somehow shocked to see Lady Pers.

Her voice never struck her as the Lady Pers she knew, it had been so little time, but Pers looked like a mess. The once tall slim woman who was neat and composed now looked disheveled, scraps of clothes that barely covered her, her mask was gone and her pale face was out for the world to see. It was definitely more distorted and appalling than how she imagined it was before, but it took little to figure out it has always looked like that, and that was the reason she always wore masks to cover it.

She had a sagging sack for a nose, her eyes vertical holes on her face like zipped open black voids. Her skin was heavily wrinkled and her mouth looked like just another deep wrinkle that sliced through her face.

Definitely not at all the face she ever imagined Pers having.

“Pers, aren't you suppose to be,” she paused to look for the right word, trying to buy some time,” elsewhere?”

Her huge eyes narrowed, but the effect seemed lost to Scout since she was not used to looking at eyes in that kind of shape or angle, it just looked almost frighteningly strange, especially since it was hard to see a gleam of any kind of eyeball, so the space where eyeballs are supposed to be literally looked like black holes, no light making it in at all.

“Yes, but I had a nice friend get me out, just for this moment, said I would love the honours of taking care of you while you were still weak and passed out from a little exertion,” she said mockingly.

Scout really did enjoy that at least Pers did not know why she was out, but even then, she doubted her opinion on it would change. Scout passed out, showed her vulnerability more than once, both on the surface and in Hell. To Pers, and everyone else who knew, Scout was weak.

Pers did not even realize that Scout nitpicked all the names and faces of everyone involved from her mind within seconds. Pers was not aware Scout knew everything and she was so confident that Scout was still too weak to properly defend herself.

Scout also soaked up more than just what was on Pers’ mind, unfortunately, causing yet another nosebleed to occur.

Everyone saw it, the only good thing Scout got out of this was they severely underestimated her, which was all she needed to take care of everything in one fell sweep before they got any closer to the gate.

She even heard Dirge’s mind voice his worries and doubts.

Scout probably had very little time to work, so she got right to it as Pers continued to speak, needing to feel superior,” Oh, oh my, Queen, your bleeding already, we haven’t even started yet. Hah! What a joke, someone as weak as you as the Queen, what was Lionel thinking, sacrificing his seat and power for such a weak human just because you are a soulmate. The Mighty must Fall, and it’s sad that it is always over a woman.”

Her mind went straight to the leader of the unit of angels that were only a minute out to making it there to aid,’ get all the humans within a mile radius away from here, please don’t fight me on this, you have 2 minutes.’

“It must really hurt seeing someone like me make it to such a high seat without trying, while you have been trying your entire life, even as a human, to prove yourself.”

Scout felt the shift in the angels above as they did as she asked with no questions. Had she been a real demon with the unbreakable chain to Hell, then her orders could have been ignored, in the least questioned, but they knew more than the demons did. They knew her strength, she had no qualms with them knowing, there was a huge difference between Hell knowing everything about her and Heaven knowing everything about her. She was only standing face to face with the difference.

Angels would sooner respect and obey her than demons would even consider her on equal grounds with them.

That spoke volumes of how she already was where she needed to be, and with very little effort. No one with hatred and envy in their hearts would possibly accept that. Hell, even Scout would not take kindly to someone who jumped up in everything in the span of a few days passing everyone who has been trying for ages to get even close to where Scout made it with little to no effort.

Pers tried to use the typical pressure, testing her grounds, seeing if she was lucky to get Scout on her knees, but the force was nothing but a tickle on her shoulder, on which she reached up to scratch, returning the mocking gesture.

’1 minute, no more than that, please hurry.’

“What’s with that face Pers, it looks like your constipated,” she called out, referring to her efforts once again, taking a moment to wipe the blood from her nostrils, annoyed as she flicked the blood off her hand.

Pers growled as she charged, signaling the whole mass to follow.

Dirge was quick to move past her to stand in front, but Scout would not have it as she put a wall between them and the group only to take a moment to speak to him,” Dirge, I need you and the others to go back through the gate, I cannot promise your safety. Close the door behind you.”

Dirge turned to face her only after he noticed the wall that they ran into stopped the assault in their tracks, his eyes still flickering wearily to the large group,” I will not, they will go but I will stay.”

The other two whom she mentioned did not even stick around and did just that, not giving a single moment for her to change her mind.

“Dirge, this isn’t the time to be playing the hero, you have no such responsibilities, and I have very little control right now, when I let free, there is no guarantee that I can keep the damage off of you. This is a one done deal, I can’t do my absolute if I worry about not harming you, and we have no time to be fickle and slow about things. You know what they are trying to do, don’t you? If they are not eliminated right now, then there is too big of a risk of them getting what they want. The angels already have the humans practically clear, once the humans are safe, all bets are off.”

She could not hold the wall for long, especially since some are trying to go up and around, making her expand her shield to keep them away from the gate and them, time was almost up.

The entire time she has been building up an immense and dangerous amount of power. She felt the confusion of Lionel when he noticed the Angels were in fact taking the humans away from the gates.

It was not only this gate that she asked for the humans to be clear of. She knew what she was doing, but Lionel did not.

Suddenly a voice broke free from the others, catching her attention for a split second, cutting off whatever was going to be said next.

“Queen, please, help me,” Johan begged.

Johan’s face brought a break in her shield, letting in the mass.

In the moment, Scout reached out to the begging and pleading servant, while receiving blows from all around because of her moment of vulnerability that she was soon going to pay for.

Letting something as small as a servant break her emotionally a bit was the very first mistake she made. Weakinging her shield to let it in was her second mistake. And taking Johan into her side to protect it was her third.

Dirge was quickly overpowered and everything when to shit.

Johan was quick with it’s hands, pulling out a rather large sharp weapon, immediately taking it’s chance to pierce it right through her.

The betrayal had Scout wondering what the hell she was doing, all for a servant, who she should have known better than to trust.

She gave Johan the benefit of the doubt, because she really wanted to believe it was on her side, despite it’s mind that screamed the complete opposite.

Now more than ever, she realized that even with these powers, she was too weak and too nice, and she made a stupid mistake that she should not have even made, but did anyways. What exactly was she expecting?

Scout chucked the little thing away from her, right to the gate where it slipped itself right in at the last minute as the rest of the demons began doing their worst.

She felt the angels, there were still a few left in the area, but she could not wait any longer since her failure had the rest of the mass, the bigger ones, began to head to the gate, intentions of quickly breaking the doors before Lionel came was loud and clear.

Just opening it was not enough, they needed to break the doors, which was the seal that kept everything down, the only exceptions were the gatekeepers. If the seal, the doors, are broken, than anything and everything is free to use it to get to the surface. As the largest gate in Hell, this one is 100 times more threatening than a few small made gates, like the ones that were spread across the world as distractions. If this one was broken open, balance would be thrown, and the end of the world would surely follow suit after.

Scout knew.

Scout also knew no one else was supposed to know.

But everyone knew.

She released her powers, no hesitation, hardly any thought.

She had very little mind to worry about Lionel and the Prince’s, she was sure they will be fine, they were strong enough to at least avoid it, but she did not know if any angels or humans got caught as she let loose.

It took her about a minute to finish, that was all she needed to get everywhere. All demons who were not aloud were taken care of, any remaining gates were destroyed.

Scout already noticed this before, but things truly did happen in twos for her, for now she was once again found in the middle of bloody flesh and blood of her enemies, as well as she was feeling the immediate effects of pushing herself way too far.

Scout was on her knees, shaking weak hands reaching up to touch the spear that Joan had used on her. It was not the longest thing, but it was mighty thick, and from the attack of the rest of the demons, it had been pushed all the way through until the rough, jagged point was sticking out from her back.

There was also other smaller weapons that jutted out from her.

Her break was her mistake, and now she had ridgid hand made daggers and knives sticking out from all over.

She felt the angels approaching as well as heard Dirge moaning.

“Q-Queen,” Dirge whimpered as he rolled over to get to his feet, swaying.

Scout just could not stop as she raised a weak hand,” They are poisoned, stay back,”

“Damn it, Scout, why did you,” he began before Scout chuckled weakly.

Her energy was fading quickly, that was not good at all. She had nowhere to fall without doing more damage from all the things that she was stabbed with, she was stuck upright as she forced herself to begin pulling at the spear in her gut.

“I know Dirge, I know,” she said with a grunt at she pulled as hard as she could, trying to dislodge the thing that seemed stuck.

The angels made it there before Lionel made it, and Scout found herself being flown away from Lionel rather than to him.

She could not remember much except Lionel’s screaming at the top of his lungs, being held back by the Princes to assure he did not do anything stupid, and she remembered he gave a hard damn fight before she welcomed the light that overcame her entire being.

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