Princess of Hell

The inhuman scream faded into an oppressive silence that somehow felt worse than the sound itself.

Isabella was the first to speak, her voice tight with controlled fear. "We should leave this place. Now. Whatever made that sound, it doesn't seem like something I'd want to face unprepared."

"Agreed," Aria said, her usual cheerfulness completely absent. "I vote we get out of here immediately."

I shook my head, even as another distant wail echoed through the laboratory's twisted corridors. "We still haven't found what we were looking for. Faith could be—"

"Oh, I'd absolutely love to keep searching," Aria interrupted, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "But not with some abomination running around loose. We don't know what that thing is, and I'd rather not be the one to find out." She gestured toward the dark passages leading deeper into the facility. "Even if we can't die, there are worse things than death that can happen to us."

The truth of her words settled like ice in my stomach. I'd seen enough of Kyriakos's experiments to know that some fates were indeed worse than simple destruction. But the thought of abandoning Faith—

"I can't give up yet," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "There must be something here to help us locate her. Some clue, some indication of where he might have taken her."

Isabella and Aria exchanged a look that spoke volumes. Faith was important to me, but to them she was essentially a curiosity—a mortal who'd become entangled in our supernatural world. They were risking themselves for my sake, not hers.

"One hour," Isabella said finally. "We'll help you search for one more hour, but then we leave regardless of what we've found."

"Or haven't found," Aria added pointedly.

Relief flooded through me. "Thank you. Both of you."

We moved through the laboratory as a group this time, none of us willing to split up with that thing lurking somewhere in the shadows. The facility seemed to stretch endlessly, room after room revealing the progression of Kyriakos's mental state over the centuries.

Early chambers showed methodical research—careful notes, organized equipment, the work of a scholar seeking knowledge. But as we progressed, the rooms became increasingly chaotic. Equipment lay scattered and broken, as if smashed in fits of rage. Scorch marks decorated the walls where magical experiments had gone wrong. Empty glass containers lined shelves like silent witnesses to failed attempts.

The deeper we went, the more the atmosphere pressed down on us. This wasn't just a laboratory—it was a monument to obsession, to a father's love twisted into something monstrous by centuries of grief and desperation. Every room told the story of Kyriakos's descent from acceptance to desperation, from despair to hope, from hope to madness, and back again in an endless cycle.

"This place is getting to me," Aria muttered, wrapping her arms around herself. "It feels like the walls are watching us."

I knew what she meant. The very air seemed thick with accumulated anguish, with the weight of all the failed experiments and broken dreams that had played out within these walls.

We passed through a chamber filled with broken alchemical equipment, then another lined with empty bookshelves where tomes had been torn apart and scattered. In one room, we found the remains of what might have been a summoning circle, the floor cracked and blackened as if something had gone catastrophically wrong.

"How many people do you think he experimented on?" Isabella asked quietly as we examined a room filled with shattered restraining devices.

I didn't answer. The number was probably too high to contemplate.

Another scream echoed through the facility, closer this time. We all froze, listening to the sound fade into the oppressive silence.

"That's definitely not human," Aria whispered.

"Or demon," Isabella added grimly.

We pressed on, checking room after room with growing urgency. Time was running out—both in terms of our agreed search limit and whatever was making those horrible sounds.

Finally, we reached a corridor that seemed different from the others. The walls here were newer, the construction more recent. At the end of the hallway stood a heavy door marked with warning runes.

"This looks promising," I said, approaching the door cautiously.

The chamber beyond was larger than the others, dominated by an intricate magical circle carved into the floor. Arcane symbols pulsed with faint light around the circle's perimeter, and at its centre—

"Oh, the irony," I thought.

Trapped within the magical prison was an angel.

The angel knelt within the circle's confines, her pristine white wings folded against her back. Golden hair cascaded over shoulders draped in simple white robes, and her face bore the ethereal beauty common to her kind. Yet something about her seemed diminished, as if the magical prison had drained some essential quality from her being.

"Well," Aria giggled, her fear momentarily forgotten, "apparently the Lich has some peculiar hobbies. I didn't know angels were on the menu for his experiments."

Stolen story; please report.

* * *

The angel's head lifted as we entered, her luminous eyes widening with a mixture of hope and wariness. She studied us for a long moment, her gaze lingering on each of our faces as if trying to read our intentions.

"More visitors," she said softly, her voice carrying a melodic quality. "I confess I'm uncertain whether to welcome you or prepare for further torment."

Isabella stepped forward, her ice-blue eyes fixed on the trapped celestial being. "What is an angel doing in an ancient lich's laboratory?"

The angel's shoulders sagged slightly, whatever fight she'd once possessed clearly long extinguished. "I was helping him," she admitted, the words falling from her lips like stones.

Aria snorted, crossing her arms. "Right. An angel helping with this kind of cruelty? Your wings would be black as coal by now, feathers. Something doesn't add up here."

"He wasn't cruel in the beginning," the angel replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "Just a grieving father who needed help. I thought…" She paused, her hands clasping together. "I thought that with his help I could find a way to reverse the demonic transformation."

I felt something twist in my stomach at her words, though I couldn't quite identify the source of my discomfort. There was something about her earnest tone that grated against me.

"But you miscalculated," Isabella observed, her voice carrying a note of satisfaction. "Didn't you?"

The angel nodded miserably. "I encouraged him to expand his research. I told him about all the good it could accomplish, not just for his daughter but for countless others. I was so focused on the potential glory…" Her voice trailed off. "Soon his experiments grew more radical. When I finally protested, when I saw what we were creating, he was too far gone. He trapped me here so I couldn't interfere with his work."

"How long?" I asked, though part of me wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"I'm not certain anymore. Time moves strangely in this place. A millennium? Perhaps more?"

Aria whistled low. "And your angelic friends just left you here?"

"This is my punishment," the angel said simply. "For the evil I helped create."

I cut through the self-pity with a sharp gesture. "If you worked with him, do you know where Kyriakos is now?"

The angel's eyes brightened slightly. "You're hunting him? I know where he relocated his primary laboratory, though I cannot say with certainty if he remains there."

"Where?" I demanded.

She tilted her head, studying me with renewed interest. "Why are you seeking him? Has his research finally become a threat to Hell itself?"

"That's not your business," I replied flatly.

The angel was quiet for a moment, then straightened as much as the magical bonds would allow. "I'll tell you the location if you free me and promise to let me go unharmed."

Isabella laughed, the sound sharp and cold. "You're hardly in a position to negotiate."

"Exactly," Aria chimed in, her purple eyes gleaming. "We could just extract the answers from you. Plenty of ways to make even an angel talk."

The angel's gaze shifted between my companions before settling on me. "You could try," she agreed calmly. "But it doesn't look like you have much time to spare."

I felt my jaw clench. She was right, and we all knew it. Every moment we spent here was another moment Faith remained in Kyriakos's hands. The thought of what he might be doing to her, what experiments he might be conducting, made my skin crawl.

"The longer you delay," the angel continued softly, "the more time your quarry has to complete whatever work brought you here."

Aria muttered something under her breath that sounded distinctly uncomplimentary, while Isabella's expression grew more calculating. I could see the same conclusion forming in their minds that had already crystallized in mine.

"Fine," I said through gritted teeth. "Tell us where he is, and we'll free you."

"And let me go?"

"Yes."

The angel nodded slowly. "Very well. His current laboratory is located beneath the ruins of Atlantis, in what was once the royal district. The entrance is hidden within the collapsed throne room, behind what appears to be debris but is actually an illusion. The coordinates are…"

She rattled off a series of numbers that Isabella quickly memorized, her perfect recall making note-taking unnecessary.

"There," the angel said when she finished. "Now honor your agreement."

* * *

I looked at the angel, then at my companions. We couldn't really refuse her demand—this was one of the first things Professor Zellaris had taught us. Even a verbal agreement was binding when it came to deals between angels and demons. Something about the deal my father had made with heavens after the last war.

"Isabella," I said, gesturing toward the magical circle. "Can you break it?"

Isabella stepped forward, examining the intricate runic patterns carved into the stone floor. "It's old magic, but not particularly sophisticated. Kyriakos was clearly more focused on keeping her contained than making it elegant."

She raised her hand, ice magic crackling around her fingers. With a precise gesture, she sent frozen spears into three key points of the circle. The runes flared briefly, then went dark as the magical bonds shattered like glass.

The moment the circle broke, brilliant white light erupted from where the angel sat. I threw my arm up to shield my eyes, the radiance so intense it felt like staring directly into the sun. The light pulsed once, twice, then gradually faded.

When my vision cleared, the angel was gone.

"Thank you," her voice echoed from somewhere beyond the physical realm, already growing distant. "Farewell, daughters of darkness."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered dismissively, blinking away the afterimages. "Good riddance."

Where the angel had been sitting, only a single pristine white feather remained, glowing faintly with residual divine energy. It looked almost too perfect, too pure for this place of corruption and twisted experiments.

Aria peered at the spot where the angel had vanished. "What was that all about? The whole light show?"

"Just pretty tricks," Isabella replied with a shrug, though her eyes remained fixed on the empty space. "Most likely she's still here somewhere, just closer to the transport gate. Angels love their dramatic exits."

I picked up the feather, surprised by how warm it felt against my fingers. Something about it seemed significant, though I couldn't put my finger on what. Better safe than sorry. I slipped it into my spatial ring, thinking it might prove useful for something later.

"Right," Aria said, clapping her hands together. "We've got what we wanted. Time to leave before this place gets any creepier."

Isabella and I nodded in agreement. We'd already spent too much time here, and every moment we delayed was another moment Faith remained in Kyriakos's clutches. The coordinates the angel had given us were our best—and possibly only—lead.

We made our way back through the maze of corridors, past the disturbing experiments and twisted machinery. The laboratory felt even more oppressive now that we knew its full history, the weight of centuries of suffering pressing down on us.

We were almost back to the transport gate when another scream reverberated through the laboratory—this time much closer than before.

"Shit," Aria muttered, her pace quickening. "It must have sensed whatever just happened here."

"Move," I ordered, breaking into a run toward the gate chamber.