Chapter 491: Hell’s Hot (So is Anna)
"...Can I open them now?"
"It’s not like you’re going to get flashbanged, darlin’."
"I was just making sure!"
Anna timidly cracked open one eyelid and surveyed the world around her.
She was somewhere old, black, and creepy. Totally her aesthetic.
It was a sprawling library with rows and rows of ominous-looking books that were as thick as her thigh. Spiral staircases led towards all manner of nooks and crannies that held not just books, but demonic artifacts too.
"...Is it bad that I kinda wanna know what all of the stuff in here does?"
"Yes, so don’t touch anything."
"What if I just look at it real hard?"
"Why did I decide to bring you again..?
"Because you love me." Anna beamed.
Malachi adjusted his watch as he looked around the room.
If this was the all-important library he was supposed to be tending to... he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. The place seemed like it was plenty secure to him.
’...Scratch that.’
"Screee!!!"
An impish demon lunged down from a nearby bookshelf, it’s claws aimed directly at Anna’s face.
The demon’s body came to an abrupt stop in midair.
It’s eyes bulged out of it’s head as it’s head rotated a full 360 degrees. It’s body finally hit the ground lifelessly, prompting Anna to turn to her husband.
"I could’ve handled that, you know?"
Malachi smiled at her devilishly as he took her hand to kiss it. "Sure, but why should you have to worry about that when your husband’s here?"
Ordinarily, Anna didn’t like feeling like some kind of maiden who had to be looked after.
So Malachi always had to make sure that he was extra charming before he said anything that risked him getting punched.
Judging by the subtle blush on Anna’s cheeks, it appeared to have worked.
"How utterly foolish can you be..?"
Malachi heard a familiar voice that made all the hairs on his neck stand on end. He stood in front of Anna protectively as he tried to pinpoint the sound of heels coming from inside the library.
"Whoa... babe..." Anna pointed above their heads.
The library was strange indeed. Staircases and corridors stretched in impossible dimensions, travelling farther and farther upward to a ceiling that even Malachi couldn’t see.
Standing on an upside-down staircase was none other than Lilith. She scowled at Malachi as she closed the book in her hand.
"Do you think this is some kind of dating hub, son of Nyx? Why on Earth would you bring a human soul to this place?"
Malachi gave a measured, careful response instead of blurting out his first instinct.
"Anna goes where I go. She is my wife."
"How very cute and sentimental. But I assure you, hell is hardly the place for that kind of thing. If you loved this woman so much, you would be doing the responsible thing and not bringing her here for any roundabout demon to eat."
Anna boldly stepped from behind her husband. "Hey, I can take care of myself, alright?! I’m not some fucking princess in a tower."
Lilith laid eyes on Anna for the first time, and something strange happened.
Her annoyance seemed to wane as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Curious indeed..."
Malachi quickly tried to hide Anna behind his back, but at that moment, the space of the room seemed to distort.
He had been no more than a hair’s breadth away from Anna initially. But now, it was as if he were standing on the other side of the room.
And Lilith was the one hovering next to Anna.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!!"
Malachi flew at Nyx at his full speed.
Before he could barrel into the demon queen, his body was brought to a screeching halt in midair. He could neither move, nor use his powers.
"Before you try to do something regrettable, I want you to know that I have no intentions of hurting your love here."
Lilith turned to Anna and, for a moment, smiled at her fondly.
"I simply was given reason to admire her just now..."
Anna was beginning to feel wildly uncomfortable. She had no idea if Lilith was about to eat her or ’eat’ her.
"My... The world is so small, isn’t it?" Lilith smiled. "Never would I have imagined a son of Nyx, walking arm in arm with a descendant of mine."
Both Malachi and Anna dropped their jaws at the same time.
""....Come again??""
"My, how wonderfully in sync you both are!" Lilith chuckled. "Do you two do this sort of thing often?"
""Sometimes...""
"Adorable."
Anna shook her head hard to refocus. "W-Wait a minute! What’s that stuff you were saying about me being your descendant??"
Lilith shrugged casually. "Well, you see.. The laws used to be quite a bit more flexible back in the day. Many succubi snuck to earth. They ate well and had their fair share of fun. Many times the results of such fun got left behind, and as the bloodlines became more and more diluted you all lost everything that made you demonic."
Lilith teleported behind Anna and stared at her butt. "Well... I suppose not everything~."
"Hey!" Malachi snapped.
"Yes, yes, I’m behaving..." Lilith rolled her eyes.
She walked around Anna again and cupped her face.
"Truthfully, I was going to let the hard-headed little demon over there learn an even harder lesson, but... now that I know you’re one of mine, that changes things for a bit."
"Say what?!"
"I’m ignoring you, young man~" Lilith responded in a sing-song voice without looking over her shoulder.
The demon queen reached inside her dress, briefly revealing her nipple.
She removed what appeared to be a piece of fruit. At first glance, Anna thought it was a dried fig.
"Here, dear. A little treat from Grandma Lilith."
Anna stared back and forth between the demon queen and the fruit in her outstretched hand.
"...Yeahhh, I may not be super religious or whatever, but I’m pretty sure that eating demon-tit fruit was one of god’s biggest no-nos."
"I’m sure that taking demon semen into your body wouldn’t be something he’d approve of either. I suppose you’ll be discarding your husband too then?"
"Till death do we part, bitch." Anna sneered. "My man, my marriage, for life."
Lilith’s smile became significantly wider. Anna didn’t know why she felt as if she’d suddenly made a mistake.
"Well, aren’t you just a doll?"
Lilith suddenly grabbed Anna by her nose.
"H-Hey!"
When Anna opened her mouth, Lilith wasted no time throwing her dried fruit into the back of Anna’s throat.
"The fuck are you doing to her?!" Malachi’s roar shook every shelf within the demonic library.
"Please, calm yourself." Lilith rolled her eyes. "I have no wish to harm my descendant or condemn her to this foul plane of existence... if you’re not going to take the appropriate measures to make sure she’s safe down here, then I will."
Before Malachi could ask any more questions, Anna started to change.
First, her right wing darkened. Her brilliant scarlet feathers slowly mutated into a lightless onyx.
Her ears became slightly more pointed, and her cheeks seemed to develop a strange natural sparkle.
However, the most surprising thing of all was her hair.
Anna had been rocking a pixie cut ever since she was seven years old and her uncle tried to make her wear pig tails to school.
Every single photo of her, from elementary school to now, depicted her with the exact same hairstyle. Malachi had honestly never considered what she’d look like with anything different.
And now, he would never be able to unsee it.
Lock locks burst from Anna’s hair like streams of confetti.
The hair at the top of her head remains her natural black. However, the new hair that grew past her ears and dangled below her butt, was a very deep blue.
Anna’s hair wasn’t neat and soft like Sei’s. It wasn’t silky and straight like Nadine’s.
It was a very edgy, punk-ish style that only she could have pulled off. And she looked good enough to die for.
She was a fucking goddess.
"Holy shit..." Malachi murmured breathlessly.
Lilith turned to him, her arms folded and a smug smile of satisfaction on her lips.
"Well? You’re free to grovel and say thank you at any time."
