Satan needs a break. Unfortunately, Lilith and Aosoth are not keen to give him one. They segue into their next song: a wild, rock track. A large amount of fans don’t seem to appreciate the change in direction for the sisters, but they don’t care. Things are just getting started.

‘Where’s Legion?’ Satan asks Beelzebub, who rests the demonic AK-47 on his shoulder.

‘How should I know?’ Beelzebub replies. ‘Stop asking me things. I’m not a bloody encyclopaedia.’

Satan growls. He keeps his eyes trained on the stage, ready for the next episodic challenge coming his way.

‘Throw me the gun,’ Satan says.

‘Sure,’ Beelzebub replies, tossing the gun in Satan’s general direction. It flips through the air a few times and lands a metre away from the its target. Satan looks at the gun, then at Beelzebub.

‘What was that?’ he says.

‘What was what?’

‘That throw.’

‘They call me Lord of the Flies, not Lord of Throwing Guns at People.’

Satan sighs and walks over to pick up the rifle. As he bends down, the episodic challenge begins. Satan jumps back up, AK-47 at the ready. He scans the nearby crowd of fans for any potential threats. Nothing yet. Satan considers that maybe the narration was simply incorrect. He discards the idea immediately. Right on time, a ravenous dog-creature appears out of nowhere and buries its yellowed teeth into Satan’s arm. Satan yelps, firing the rifle with his free hand at the sudden threat. He accidentally grazes his arm with a few red bullets, but the dog is killed anyhow. It flops off Satan’s arm and onto the sand, black blood running from its gnarled jaws.

‘That was easy,’ says Beelzebub.

The dog-creature suddenly bloats, ballooning into a veiny sack twice its original size. The sack bursts, and two identical dog-creatures jump out in a rain of blood. Satan immediately drives a bullet into each dog’s mangled head before they can get to him. Like before, the corpses inflate, each one exploding into two more dogs. Satan sends a spread of bullets at the creatures, killing all of them. Each corpse bursts into two more additional dogs.

‘Yeah, I don’t think that’s working, mate,’ says Beelzebub.

‘Spare me the commentary,’ replies Satan as he slowly backs up and considers a different strategy. He throws the gun at Beelzebub (who fails to catch it) and summons his still unnamed weapon. He assumes a battle stance as the dogs close in. Time to see if a blade will stop them from reproducing. Actually, that’s a terrible idea. Satan realizes that he’s been missing the obvious solution the whole time. He throws his weapon aside and turns to Beelzebub.

‘Throw me the gun!’ Satan shouts. He thinks for a moment. ‘Actually, don’t!’

The dogs pounce at Satan. He leaps out of the way and snatches the gun from Beelzebub’s hands, then runs into the crowd. The pack of dogs tear through the fake fans with ease, covering the beach in a frankly distasteful amount of blood. A dog pounces over the crowd, its jaws aimed for Satan’s neck. Satan grabs a nearby fan and pushes them into the dog’s path, then rolls away, trying to lose the animals in the crowd. From the middle of a group of fans in front of him, three dogs prowl towards Satan. He turns a hard left, almost losing his balance. The dogs charge. Satan jumps just as the dogs, matted fur slick with blood, reach him. He lands on one of their heads, then springs off it, aiming for the stage. The dogs jump after him. Satan spins in mid-air, narrowly slipping between two flying maws. Another dog snaps at him from beneath like a crocodile vying for hanging meat. Satan bounces off its snout, then continues to sprint across the top of the crowd, using fans’ heads as stepping stones. He reaches the stage, dogs biting at his heels. Satan leaps into the air one more time, aims his gun at Aosoth and fires. He lands on the stage directly in front of the masked demon and does not let go of the trigger. Satan riddles the demon with round after round of glowing red bullets. She stops singing, and soon Lilith follows after, settling into a disturbing silence. The dogs vanish, as does the crowd. Satan grits his teeth as he continues firing point blank into Aosoth’s chest. Her entire torso is a field of glowing red bullet holes. Black blood pools around her feet. She collapses. Satan does not stop firing.

‘Stop,’ rasps Lilith.

Satan grins. He mouths no as he continues to fire into the corpse of Aosoth. Lilith runs forward and grabs at his arms, feebly trying to stop him. Fortunately, she gets her way as the bullets run out and the AK-47 is reduced to a clicking paper weight. Satan bashes Lilith in the face with the butt of the gun, then removes the magazine and throws it at the mess of black flesh and glowing bullet holes that used to be Aosoth, just for good measure. Satan turns to Lilith, a pleasant smile on his face. Her plague-doctor’s mask is cracked in half from the force of the impact. Slowly, it separates into two halves and then drops to the ground. Lilith’s face is a charred mess of melted flesh and aging scars. One of her eye sockets is fused shut and only half her mouth seems to be able to open. Satan wonders how she was able to sing so well. Lip-syncing probably. Tears stream from Lilith’s one good eye.

‘Oh, what’s the matter?’ mocks Satan. ‘Isn’t your sister just going to wake up in the real world and come back here?’

Lilith looks at the king of demons, rage burning in her eye.

‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this,’ she says, her voice remarkably restrained. ‘The concerts were a distraction; something to keep you busy. How did you…?’

Satan leans in close, throwing the spent gun to one side. ‘You see, whenever I get shot to death in this hole, the bit of my body that got the bullet hurts. A lot.’

Satan straightens up and walks over to Aosoth’s body, kicking it a little in spite. ‘So I thought, what happens when you put a lot of bullets in one bit of the body? This was just a little experiment.’

‘You killed her,’ whispers Lilith. ‘You really killed her.’

‘This isn’t a game, Lillie,’ Satan replies. ‘Your people challenged the devil to a fight. Don’t act all innocent and afraid when he wins.’

‘This is only the beginning,’ Lilith says. She’s trying to act tough and is doing a terrible job of it.

‘I look forward to the rest,’ Satan says, really just stalling for time as he tries to think of a way to kill Lilith too.

‘Wake me up,’ Lilith whispers.

Satan cups his ear. ‘What was that?’

But Lilith is gone. Satan can’t pinpoint the exact moment between her being there and her not being there. She’s just gone. Satan kicks the AK-47 off the stage in frustration.

‘You’re trying too hard,’ Beelzebub says as he climbs onto the stage. ‘I don’t think this cruelty thing is as natural to you as you think. Right now you come off as more of an edgy teenager than a personification of evil, you know?’

Satan glares at the Lord of the Flies. ‘Someday I’m gonna kill you.’

Beelzebub gives an exaggerated shrug. ‘A little better.’