Ezekiel's blade touched the side of her face, "I'll make him suffer later if Inferno but for now, I've a bone to pick with you, in regards to what you put Minerva through while she was in hell.........you made constant visits to torment her....and worse..........give me one reason I should destroy your soul right now!!!"

She raised an eyebrow.
"I can give you three if you like. First off, killing me would only upset my son, who I think we can all agree is hardly stable right now. Secondly, Ezekiel - I don't see you telling Inferno off for killing my husband who had done no wrong to any angel. He was my consort and he died for it."

She twisted and glared at him. "And lastly, you devout hypocrite, you owe my son for helping to get her out of there. We wouldn't be having this conversation if he hadn't agreed to help Occidio in hell. Don't think I'm sorry for what I did to Minerva - because the way I see it, she knew exactly what she was getting into, and a part of me respects her for that. But you owe me, Ezekiel. Think about it - my child saved your wife."

She smiled. "Now that has got to sting. Especially since if I'd known he was doing it I would have throttled him on the spot..."

Mawthrough let a snarl escape him, and he looked up at Ezekiel and his mother with pure black eyes, throbbing with angry darkness.
He let out another growl, and his fists clenched as he fought to stop himself tearing someone apart...

Ezekiel growled deeply, then backed away, "Someone, someday, is going to see you for you what you are, and they're going to kill you.......but I'm not killing you today............." He retracted his blade, then cased it, but kept his hand on the hilt, ready to slash the demon in case Mawthough charged, a way of gaining vengeance and slicing his attacker at the same time.

His eyes never stopped glaring at Ezekiel, although at Chastity's words he stopped growling.

Finally, he turned and stormed off, taking to the air in one movement and vanishing from sight - having not looked at Chastity even once, or spoken a word to her - even acknowledged she was there - the entire time.

His mother sighed.
"Inferno, you really are a class act. And, darling, you are aware that as of now he doesn't have a soul, right? He's soulless. Wild. Inhuman, full demon, all that jazz. In a purely platonic sense, he's just an animal now."

Inferno glared at her.
"I didn't know she was contracted with the idiot! You can't blame me for this. I thought he'd come back good as new not some snarling animal! I knew he'd be angry, but this- how on earth could I have known?"

"If you'd been looking past your insufferable hatred, you could have easily realized! Or, better yet, not even killed him in the first place!" she retorted, looking as angry as Inferno.

"Now then, let's look at the results of this little trip shall we? They came here to ask for your blessing, and what did they get? You killed him, and brought him back, and now he hasn't got a soul. No love anymore, no pleasure, no personality, no warmth. You didn't want him, so you ripped out his heart and left him snarling and spitting."

She began to clap, sardonically.

"Well done, Inferno, well done. You managed to split them up good and proper, because now he can't even be near her without the desire to mate with her overwhelming him. And a succubus I may be, but I cared for my partner, I learnt to care.

"He'll spend a long long time now learning what it means to love. Then he'll have to distinguish love from lust. All of that while trying to not murder your daughter through instinctual gratification with no regard for her well-being."

She was now so angry she marched up to the stunned Inferno and slapped him, hard.
"Congratulations. You got your wish. Well f*cking done."

Then she vanished through a portal.

Inferno blinked, stunned.
Then he looked at Ezekiel, then at Minerva, then at Chastity.
He looked angry, though it was tempered by a slight guilt.

"I didn't think you'd have done something so stupid with him!" he suddenly burst out, glaring at Chastity...

Ezekiel sighed as he stepped forward, "Well Inferno, you were the one who dug your own grave in this matter, you never cared about the details, only the point, you don't get it, its the details that slay us........brother.......you all condemn what you don't understand, what you haven't experienced, even on Earth, you're just like Michael, you know that!"

Ezekiel grabbed his sword, True Death, "That's a different matter..........she has the power to bring out emotion among Celestials, and I like the feeling.....and I use it for what its meant to be used for, but you, you're beyond Paranoid.........you could never see any other option than the most wrathful one.........I've seen more death than any other Celestial, and I know that it is rarely the right choice..........what you did......was beyond foolish......but still, if he attacks you my brother, I will defend you........because that is the loyalty that has been instilled in me........I am not loyal to Michael, whom has surprisingly ordered the deaths of many of our kind who abandoned the heavens..........."

Ezekiel stomped on the ground, shocking Minerva as every wall in the room just about shattered, though somehow, he kept from destroying everything, "Something you wanna say Inferno?"

Ezekiel jammed his blade into the floor of the house, scabbard and all. "First off, Minerva fell because she wanted Occidio to become someone different, someone who didn't have to follow either the order of heaven or hell.........and I had no say in it.....because we're not suppose to show that emotion in the heavens........my son.......he was one of the few beings who could stop Lucifer from escaping hell, he was a hero.........Michael had to have fifteen Seraphim, a three other arch angels hold me down every time my son was killed in the mortal realm, and I have faced severe pain and agony every time I've been able to see him.......those are my failures, but I accept them, and I know how to change for the future, you don't Inferno, you ignorant fool........."

Ezekiel walked towards his brother at a rapid pace, "What I'm trying to tell you, is going to help keep you from losing your child, your ignorance may have already cost you her already, do you not realize that......that what you've done, you may already be dead to her........the last thing I was able to do for my son, before all this trouble began...no......you're not interested in that......no......but hear this, celestials are just as twisted as the demons they claim are evil...........and you.......you may have just become as twisted as them......." He continued to approach his brother, until he was but a foot and a half away from him.

Ezekiel rose up his arm, and sent it downward, but instead of striking his brother, he placed his hand on his shoulder, his eyes open, filled with sorrow, "I'm your brother, and I lost my only child today.......I don't want you to feel that pain.......there's a difference, between protecting your children, and isolating them from what you conceive as evil.....the best thing you can do, is to prepare them for the evil of this world......and hope that they make the right choices.....you cannot expect them to know what to do right off the bat......and you can't force them down a path, because they will always find their way.........the pain I felt today.......it made me want to begin another extinction event.........that is the pain I felt.....if you were to lose your daughter today, because you killed the man she loved, because you took him away, do you honestly think she'd ever want to see you again? You'd lose her, whether that demon took her, or whether you took the demon from her.........."

Ezekiel looked his brother in the eyes, "There's always a chance that it would work out....there's still a chance brother......you just have to have faith for once.......let the situation be repaired, let the boy and your daughter have their love.....and if he breaks her heart, then, and only then will it be right to hurt him......but until he's done something to make your daughter cry, not until he's actually hurt her.........orders from the heavens are for the death Mawthough, but I'm going to report back that he's been dealt with by Inferno.......that'll save both you and him grief.......that's all I can truly to do help this situation, since Mawthough did die for a time........that'll keep Michael away from you and your family........for now at least......" Ezekiel began to walk away from his brother.

Inferno nodded.
Then he squared his shoulders.
Then he walked over to Chastity, looking angry, yet determined.
"Daughter, you will wait here. That is an order."
He looked at Ezekiel.
"I'll be back shortly. I think me and the inc - Mawthrough - need to have a little talk."
He took to the skies.

The incubus wasn't hard to find - ripped trees, dark magic tainting the air, little scars of darkness led the way to a hollowed out ruin where Mawthrough knelt, eyes closed, body still shaking.

He approached, summoning his blade.
"Get up."

Mawthrough did not respond.

"GET UP!"Inferno jabbed at him with the blade.

Mawthrough still did not get up.

Inferno slashed - and Mawthrough responded by grabbing the blade midswing, wrenching it from Inferno's hand, then slowly rising to his feet while tossing the blade aside.

"What have you done to me?"
Mawthrough said, his voice no longer even barely human - a guttural growl, the noise a wolf would make if it could speak.

"A mistake. I made a mistake. Now let me fix it."

"You never wanted her to be with me. So you killed me. You killed me and you made me this. I hunger. I lust. I need to feed. Feed on her. Take from her. But I can't. Because I'll hurt her. Then you'll kill me."

His words were almost shaking with anger, and Inferno readied his blade.

"So how do you plan on fixing me?"

Inferno raised his sword.
"By teaching you what it means to forgive. And to love."
Then, very deliberately, he dropped the sword.
"I took your father. Took you away from my daughter. Turned you into the monster you are now."

Mawthrough snarled in hatred.

"So come. Take your revenge. I won't stop you. Only know this - killing me, ripping me apart won't make Chastity happy. It'll only upset her. Make her cry. Do you want that?"

Mawthrough's eyes were glowing dark again, and his armored fingers came up hooking into claws, glowing with dark energy.
"Don't tempt me. Don't do this because I swear I will kill you."

"Then do it," Inferno said simply. "Do it. Prove what you are. A demon, a monster, exactly the kind of thing I wanted to keep my daughter away from. Come on. I won't stop you. All the revenge you could ever want. Right here. Sure, you'll lose the love of Chastity forever, but you don't care - you're a demon, since when do you care about love, about her happiness? You want her as a mate, not as a wife, right?!"

Mawthrough's growling had now reached a crescendo, and his whole body was coiled to tear Inferno's spine out in one fluid motion.

"So PROVE ME RIGHT!" Inferno roared, and Mawthrough snapped.
A tornado of dark magic slammed straight into Inferno, sending him airborne - and in full view of the others, Mawthrough laced his fingers around Inferno's neck in such a way that if he twitched, he'd cut Inferno's head clean off...

Ezekiel stood there, his blade ready, "Boy, if you kill my brother, I guarentee you my blade is going through your head.........just know this........." He left through a black portal.

Minerva shouted to Mawthough, "Mawthough, Stop!!!! Don't become a mindless killing machine, think of Chastity, she'll never forgive you for killing her father, think for one moment please!!!!!!!!!"

Inferno laughed, despite the predicament he was in.
"Get with the times Minerva... he stopped caring about her minutes ago. All my fault of course, so why doesn't he just rub it in?"
His voice wasn't fearful, but was filled with a kind of angry sarcastic fatalism.
"So what are you going to do, boy? Think of the pain I put you in the first time we met - you did all I asked, and I just hurt you over and over again. And I laughed, remember that? Like this -"

He burst out laughing like someone had just told him the world's funniest joke, and Mawthrough slammed him into his own house just to shut him up.
Still pointedly not defending himself, he got up - and Mawthrough punched him in the cheek, the hook sending him staggering back.
Another hook, to the gut, doubling him over.
"I thought you were angry, boy..."

Another punch, this one rippling the air as it traveled as Mawthrough filled his fist with his truly unleashed energy.
When it connected, Inferno was sent tumbling across the floor.

"Now... that's better, isn't it..?"

Mawthrough strode forwards, picked him up - then hit him again, back down into the floor, causing it to crack.

"Keep going boy... you'll get there in the end... coated in my blood like a true demon..."

Mawthrough was starting to reach the point where he was starting to lose control of his own powers, and the air around them was starting to crack with black lightning, his horns were lengthening, his eyes were sparking...

"Almost there, boy... almost there..."

In one bold motion, Minerva charged up an attack of surging red energy, but instead of pointing it toward Mawthough, she pointed it toward Chastity, "Mawthough, calm down, or I kill her......please, don't make me do it, if there's just one bit of you still alive, calm down, and let bygones be bygones........"

There was a flare of both dark light and fire, blinding Minerva for a second.
When it cleared, Inferno was standing at the end of her arm, blocking the shot.
Mawthrough was standing to her other side, and his clawed arm shot up to her neck to tear her throat out.
In response, Inferno resummoned his blade and levelled it at Mawthrough's own throat.
The result was a three-way standoff.

For the longest time, no-one said a word.
Then,
"So now what?"
Inferno looked at Mawthrough again.
"Going to just kill Minerva too? Then me? Ezekiel will kill you before you can blink - but if you kill him too, somehow, then what? Take Chastity back to hell, just sate your lust with her over and over again, use her over and over again? Fulfill all my darkest nightmares? Ruin her? Heart body and soul - you monster. You terrible abomination to Creation. I won't let you kill Minerva, even if it means killing you, even if it breaks Chastity's heart, because I won't let you harm her, got that? Either of them. You kill me, then Ezekiel kills you. You kill Minerva, same deal. So what you're really left with -"

Mawthrough suddenly moved his hand away from Minerva's throat to Inferno's.
"SHUT. UP."

"Make me."

Mawthrough sent a bolt of darkness straight into Inferno's chest, and Inferno sank to his knees, still not moving away from Minerva, still blocking the shot.
"Not killing me yet boy..? What's the matter, don't have the guts?"

Minerva dispersed the energy in her hand, then looked Mawthough in the eyes. She calmly placed her hand on his cheek, "This isn't you......this isn't......find the real you......do not become a monster, you're stronger than that, you and Occidio freed me from hell, you fought Lucifer, you stood up to the strongest of the fallen......don't throw those achievements away......." As she spoke, purification energy seeped from her hand, and into Mawthough, energy meant to calm both demons and celestials.