Upbeat Hyena 3 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I am not a theologian. What is written here is for this story.

-VB-

Upbeat Hyena
Chapter 3

-VB-

Viviane looked up at the giant of shadows.

Father, her new heart told her. The Prince of Demons was not her biological father or dad but the progenitor of her newfound status as a demonic being.

She never thought she would ever think such a line.

She, a Catholic, was now a demon, and her new existence explicitly churned up her emotions to tell her that she was not a good being.

She didn’t have to be evil!

But she wasn’t good.

Her thoughts were already twisting to fit her new state, because even though she knew that she should be disgusted by what she did, she only felt satisfaction and glee at how well she had dispatched the Hated.

“How are you doing?”

She snapped out of her train of thoughts at the voice of her progenitor. She looked up and saw him smiling towards her.

They were back in the mortal world, and a week had passed since the authorities took her in before releasing her because, as luck would have it, she became an adult during the time she spent in their custody.

So now, she was an adult, had inherited every little morsel her mortal mother once possessed, and also a demon, though no one was the wiser. Apparently, no one realized that the demon who killed the Hockey Guy (actual name) was her. There was a warrant out for her arrest, but no one would look to her to find the demon.

As her new progenitor said it, why would the police look for a violent killer with grey skin and black hair in a dark brown-haired white girl? And Viviane was fine with getting away with murder, especially since she had been hurt first.

(It was these kinds of thoughts that really told her that she was truly a demon.)

“Hmm? Why would I go against God?”

She looked up at her progenitor in confusion. “Doesn’t being a demon or a devil mean that we’re, you know, bad? Against God?”

“Oh no no, sweetie,” the Prince of Demons shook his head mirthfully. “Why would we fight God?”

“So God is real?”

“Of course, he’s real. Why are you asking?” her progenitor looked confused. He looked at her as if she had asked the dumbest question.

She fidgeted. “I don’t understand how we aren’t going against God. Aren’t we the demons and devils? The evil spirits who drag souls into hell?”

He blinked and then looked around.

“Does this hell seem that bad?”

She looked around.

It was desolate, but there were rivers and pools of water here and there, but there were also canyons where heat poured out along with warm red light. It didn’t look like hell so much as it looked a little hostile to life.

Vivi peered at the lava shark that jumped out of the lava-filled canyon with what looked suspiciously like a red goblin in its mouth before it dove back down.

‘Maybe very hostile to life,’ she thought with a little quiver of her lips. She didn’t want to remain here if she didn’t have to.

Especially since there were really big things on the horizon.

Why were there dog-headed giraffes as tall as ten story buildings?!

“Do you like them?”

“Huh?”

“The animals. Because this dimension is my world, I can craft its environment as I see fit. Aren’t those lava sharks cute?”

She tried to ignore the screams of the dying goblins as multiple lava sharks bit into their flesh and dragged them into the lava river.

“N-No.”

Her progenitor looked heartbroken.

He shrugged it off and continued to answer her question. “See, a lot of mortals misunderstand God, because they view God through the lense of their paradigm.”

“You mean he’s evil?!”

“No? Their own holy books describe him as perfect. Do mortals not know the definition of perfect?”

She felt confused now.

“God the Almighty is just that Almighty. He is both perfectly good and perfectly evil. He is the creator of a universe where death of stars may create the likes of black holes. Perhaps to the mortals, you should think of their relationship to Him rather than what He does for them. To us, it is the same. We are also His creations.”

She couldn’t believe that.

The Prince of Demons sighed. “Well, devils are a little bit different from us demons, so listen up,” he huffed. “Devils are angels who fell and fully allowed their vices to take over their souls. Demons are those who were born from the emotions and raw energy of the universe by His hands. Any other question about the difference between demons and devils?”

“... Why are we evil?”

“Vivian, it is not about why traditional demons and devils choose to be evil but how they choose to be evil.”

“...How?” she felt stupid.

“God gave humans free will. Do you truly believe that humans are the only ones to have received it?”

She blinked.

“Devils are angels who chose out of free will to indulge in their sins. What does that say about angels?”

“They … have free will. And they freely choose to serve God.”

“Correct!”

“Then why does God allow … people like Hockey Man to exist?”

Her progenitor sighed like an adult often does while trying to explain a single concept over and over to a child, but this time, it irked her. Her mom died because of Hockey Man.

“It’s the same reason you can choose to do good as a demon: free will. Without it, everything would be but an illusion for Him to play with us like toys in a sandbox. Unthinking, unchanging, and irrelevant. It is by free will that your mother’s death hold meaning. A doll would not know love.”

“... Then what is my place in this? In the world?”

The Prince of Demons laughed. “You are a demon! Such a question is beneath you!”

“I don’t understand…”

“To be a demon is to be true to one’s nature! Do you seek to bring justice? Do it, but you are a demon and your justice will not be the justice of mortals! Do you seek power? Go, but challenge me and know my wrath. Do you seek solitude? There are spots across the mortal world and my realm where eons will pass without a single mortal or immortal’s passage.” Her progenitor leaned down. “What does your nature, your instinct, say?”

Words failed her, but it took no more than a moment for her to know what she wanted.

“What about you?” she asked.

He grinned.

“I am the [Prince of Demons],” he rumbled. “I do as Princes do. I wage war, dominate mortals, and carve my realm into the collective unconsciousness of mortals. I seek conflict and I will be there when the next War of Heavens comes.”