It was beautiful. The shockwave slammed into them as they watched the barrel of brimstone detonate, forming an evil blood red fireball. The screams of the dammed souls that were trapped in the brimstone powder harmonised with the rush of flames.

Bal had never witnessed such an awe-inspiring explosion in his life. Sure, there was plenty of brimstone powder exploding all the time in Hell, but this was different. Here, there were things to destroy. Flammable things; like wood for example. Oh, how he wanted to kiss whoever invented wood. As soon as the barrel exploded in the centre of town, the enormous fireball consumed some of the wooden shacks, spreading the destruction.

Bal was so entranced with watching his little fire grow up, he failed to notice Cas running towards him till he felt Cas’s stomps shaking him. No wait, that wasn’t right. Cas was bulky, but he wasn’t earth shatteringly bulky. He looked peeved about something as well. Shouldn’t he be happy? The muscle brain finally got a chance to stick his sword into something.

Cas ignited his mark as he reached them, blue mana flowing out of his hand, forming a shield around the group. Bal looked at him quizzically. Why would he do that? The explosion shouldn’t harm them at this range. Bal’s stomach dropped as he suddenly felt like he was falling. He looked down to see the ground giving way all around them, the darkness below swallowing them up.

They fell into the cavern opening beneath them, bouncing around inside Cas’s shield. Around and around Bal span, losing track of which way was which. Falling rocks careened into the translucent blue shield, knocking about the contents.

Ell screamed as she hurtled through the air, smashing head first into Bal’s stomach and sending them both into a collision course with the Boomy brothers.

“FUCK, FUCK, FUCKING SHIT” Was all Bal could make out over the torrential rain of rocks pelting them.

The shield-ball eventually hit solid ground, sending a final jolt through its occupants. A chorus of groans filled the sphere as they sighed in relief. Cas quickly composed himself and went straight into a heroic knelling pose, holding his arms up as if keeping up shield was strenuous on him. Bal smiled at that. Cas had been screaming more than the rest of them on the way down.

Bal tried to stand up as well but doubled over in pain, grabbing his stomach where Ell’s head had impacted him. He really shouldn’t be surprised that it hurt that much, of course her skull would be that thick. Slowly, taking deep breaths, he pushed himself to stand up, albeit in a hunched over position. Were they still spinning, or was it just his head? Taking a moment to centre himself, he turned to face the group.

“Well, lesson learned friends. I definitely won’t be exploding a barrel of that stuff over a mine again anytime soon. But sure, no harm done, right?” Bal laughed.

They all turned to glare at him from their various states of distress. Ell was about to launch into another stream of curses aimed at him when they heard the now familiar sound of the ground beneath them crumbling. He had jinxed it, hadn’t he?

The song of screams picked up again as their precious ground betrayed them and sent them down further into the darkness. The shield was smacked about violently as large and larger falling rocks hit them. They spiralled further and further into the depths as the darkness blanketed them, slowly starving them of any light from the sky above.

They fell for what felt like a lifetime to Bal, the darkness and adrenaline disrupting his usually impeccable sense of time. Finally, they landed with a splash, the sound of water rushing to drown their shield-bubble coming soon after. Thankfully, the bubble managed to resurface and float gently on whatever body of water they had landed on.

“Bal?”

“Yes, my dear?”

“I hate you. I really bloody hate you.”

Bal burst out laughing. His laugh echoed through the pitch-black cavern, making it sound like it came from all over. He didn’t need to see Ell to know that she was slamming her hands against her ears as she groaned. She really hated his laugh. Bal had often wondered why she loathed it so, his voice and laugh were like those of an angel. He hated how pleasant it sounded himself, but he thought it would make him popular with the humans. Oh well, can’t please everyone.

Bal tried to stop his laughter, but his body refused him. He was still dizzy and giddy from the fall. He couldn’t help it. That was easily the most exciting thing to happen to him in a very long time. The adrenaline surging through his body was wearing off and his body ached, and yet, he felt invincible. He could fight off 50 tyrant demons if he tried, easy-peasy. He laughter turned to great breathless gasps as the excitement very slowly left him. In the moments he stopped for air, he could hear what he thought was Cas panting hard from exertion.

“Damn demon! You nearly killed us all, and now you laugh!” Cas spat, taking gulps of the musty air between words.

“Oh, lighten up Cas! We’re all fine now! We are all still alive, right? Bang? Blast?”

Two groans came from somewhere in the darkness.

“See! Alive and well! No worries!”

“Reckless fool, do you not care for your own life!?”

Lords of Hell, not only was Cas a suicidal battle maniac, but a hypocrite as well. Delightful. Besides, of everyone here, he was the last one Cas should be calling fool. The barrel explosion had been a great idea. The assassins were likely dead, and Ell was alive. That’s all they wanted right? He definitely hadn’t detonated that massive explosion just to cause random destruction. Or to see that glorious fireball. No, most definitely not.

Bal was just about dispute Cas’s claim when a weak voice came from somewhere in the dark.

“I-I don’t think he does.” Bang whimpered. Was he crying? The fall wasn’t that painful.

“What my brother means to say is that demons don’t fear death. They aren’t like us normal folk.”

“D-Demon! What do you mean! We never told you- I mean, Bal’s no bloody demon! I wouldn’t summon no damn demon! What, are you fucking accusing me, you insane hicks?!” A stuttering Ell interrupted.

That was unexpected from Ell; she is usually so calm in cursing people out. Well, not calm. She did stutter less usually. Was she that nervous of people finding out that she summoned a demon? Even if those people were hicks? Demon summoners themselves as well.

Oh, he could use this. Bal could definitely use this.

“We’re not judging you little miss. Hell, you know we have done it ourselves, you’ve seen our demon. Bang here got’s himself a keen nose for this kind of thing. He said he felt something sorta demon like outside when youse were outside our shack.” Blast answered.

“I-it didn’t really feel like what a demon is supposed to feel like.” Bang added quietly.

“Yeah, wasn’t quite the same, he said back then. Wasn’t till we were getting the brimstone powder that Bang said he felt it getting more demon like. He said it figured it must be coming from our pal Bal here.”

“But he doesn’t feel like a demon now.”

“Well you are right friends. I am a demon, probably. No, no, don’t ask; you wouldn’t get it.”

“Well anyway big fella, your demon pal here, if that what he is, ain’t afraid of death. Reckless these demons are, or so Bang says. He knows a lot about the stuff. Go on, tell ‘em Bang.”

“Eh, ah okay. Um, well what my brother said is correct. Demons are not like us. So different, in fact, that it is often hard to understand each other’s perspective, which can cause all sorts of problems when making a contract. It has been studied quite a bit. N-not that I am that interested in demons or anything.” Bang tapered off, which prompted a kick from his brother.

“Oh they already bloody know that you’re a dirty demon lover. Not get on with it.!”

What was wrong with loving a demon? Bal was perfectly lovable. Adorable, even.

“A-anyway, demons don’t tend to share the same feelings of self-preservation as we do. Their lives are completely different to ours, as is their physiology, which could cause this difference Things like being spawned from some sort of pit rather than having a traditional family unit, meaning they don’t hve any animal desires for reproduction …” Bang coughed. Bal couldn’t see anything, but he knew that the man was turning bright red.

“…. But more importantly, a demon knows its only purpose is to cause misery and destruction. They are quite literally born to be evil.”

Bal wasn’t sure he agreed with that. Sure, he wanted to cause misery and whatnot to get his horns, and he certainly did enjoy a good explosion, but those were far from his only desires. Hells, he had all sorts of desires. Right now, all he desired was a nice cool drink. Maybe a cigar as well. He stole one of those from Azoth way back before he got kicked out and had been craving another ever since.

Damn, if he thought about it, he desired entertainment more than anything else. Hell was just so monotonous. The eternal screams of the dammed just get so dull after you have heard them the first thousand times. As did all the sparse sights and sounds of his barren red home. He craved excitement.

He also wanted to figure out why there was a magical card tattooed on his bloody arm. Perhaps that was more of a necessity than a desire. His mama always told him to never trust free gifts; well, she only told him after she had baked him a birthday cake and filled it with poison. Bal’s birthdays tended to be a rather depressing affair, even by Hell’s standards.

Lost in talking about his interests, Bang continued. He likely didn’t care if the others were listening, he was just splurging his knowledge upon them.

“Most demons tend to have a single-minded focus on causing evil, to the point where they would throw away their lives to cause one great catastrophe. It is instinctual to them. Of course, there are exceptions to this for some reason, like our greedy tyrant demon. It took us forever to find one willing to trade with us rather than try to break the contract to smash us. For some reason, Belexethor has a greater sense of self-preservation than other demons. I’m not too sure if Bal does as well, given the ah, explosion and all…..”

Would he be okay with losing his life for one great act of evil? No, no, no. Bal shook the thought from his head. In that regard, he was perfectly content being unlike other demons. He liked life. He really, really liked life. No act of evil was worth more than his life. Not even if he had a chance to defecate in the head angel’s hat. No matter how tempting that sounded, it was not worth his life.

He could see where they were coming from though. He hadn’t planned for them to fall down the mineshaft due to the explosion. He hadn’t planned anything at all. He still wouldn’t consider setting off the barrel a mistake, just a happy little accident. Everyone was still breathing in the end. Cas maybe was breathing was a little too hard. He was panting like a hell hound in heat. What had him all flustered?

Ah right, the bubble.

The sudden sound of Cas collapsing was soon followed by a very unwelcome dip into the water.