Frozen Chains, The First

Azilom was the current king of Hell and every demon that lived in that wretched place. He was red-skinned with partial vision, as his right eye was blind. The main residents were known as Abaddon, Achan, Armaros, and Yosemite. Abaddon was given the role of being a gatekeeper while the other three were sinners in their own categories of greed, envy, and wrath.

Hell does not have proper time, but in the mortal world it would be thirty minutes after three o’ clock in the morning. At that time, Azilom awoke from his slumber by a whisper in his ear. He sat up in his royal bed and looked around to find nothing.

Azilom~ Azilom…

Azilom lied back down on his bed. It took a few seconds for the king to fall back asleep, but he managed a small amount of additional rest. His shut-eye failed to last though, another wave of whispers passed by.

Azilom… Azilom… Azilom…

“Ugh…” Azilom sat back up and stood to his feet.

He walked over to his window and looked outside at the beauty of his Hell. He saw the dismemberment of sinners as their screams echoed. Some sinners were being broken on the wheel of pride, and Azilom closed his eyes to enjoy the sweet sound of their groaned pains, screams, and cries. He felt peace upon the sounds.

Azilom~ do you hear?

“Mmgh…” Azilom groaned before grabbing a cloak from his nearby armoire. He slipped on his black cloak. Azilom walked out of his castle before pausing to listen. The whispers returned.

Azi… Azi… Azi…

Azilom followed the whispers. His feet started to wander into the colder side of the wretched place. Azilom approached the tub of envious punishment. He was half-asleep as his body nearly fell into the water. If any demon touched the water inside of that tub, their body would instantly freeze into an ice statue. Many of the envious sinners held their arms up, pushing Azilom back onto his feet. He rubbed his eyes, which helped him to notice the cave more clearly. The cave in the distance that glowed a faint teal. In order to reach the cave, Azilom would have to make his way across an extremely thin ledge. The king of Hell took a step closer to the ledge, glancing down at the river of punishing flames. He put his red-toned hands on the stone wall and turned his body to the side.

With his body positioned parallel to the stone, he began to inch his way across the ledge. One wrong step could send him down into the flames below. Azilom slowly walked along the wall until he reached the other side. The whispers returned to him.

Azilom~ Do you hear?

The whispers began to sound closer together at a louder volume. Azilom started to believe the source of the whispers was the cave, and he was correct. He stood in-place for a few seconds, his gaze locked in on the cave. As he stared at the cave, it began to glow brighter and the whispers began to bother him further.

Azi… Azi… Azi…

“I hear you.” Azilom spoke loudly. The whispers paused as soon as he spoke. He took a hesitant step towards the cave, but he kept pausing and continuing. Azilom finally stepped inside of the cave, and the temperature dropped instantly. He shivered. A few more steps into the cave showed Azilom a man chained up to the wall. The chains looked to have frozen over many eons ago.

“Who… Who is this?” Azilom whispered to himself in a moment of shock. He approached the demon in chains, his hand reached forward to gently touch the man’s frozen chin. His hand trembled from the cold. The frozen demon didn’t awake from his unconsciousness nor did he even flinch.

Azilom… Azilom… Azilom…

“The whispers…” Azilom mumbled to himself.

After the encounter with the frozen man in the cave and the whispers, Azilom decided to leave it be and headed back to the castle. He sat down on his throne, as usual. While in his royal seat of honor, the whispers returned to his ear.

Azilom… Azilom…

Azilom groaned. Would he have to follow them back to the cave in order to silence them? That was something he wished not to do. He adjusted his position slightly in his throne, hoping to host a decent meeting with the others about his cave discovery. After a couple of minutes, Yosemite entered the main hall. There were the other castle residents right behind him; Armaros, Achan, Abaddon, Bane, Seda, and Fachnan. Bane and Seda were children in the castle, a demon of gluttony and a demoness of sloth. As for Fachnan, he was an older demon of manipulation and gaslighting.

“What did ya want us for?” Yosemite spoke first as he sat down in a chair. The others followed his action.

“Yesterday I was wandering around the envy side of Hell and I noticed a cave. Inside of the cave had a man chained up in a set of frozen locks.” Azilom announced clearly.

“An’ what’s so important ’bout that?” Yosemite hissed in response. Armaros sighed beside him.

“Would it be a wise idea to release the demon or keep him there for the rest of eternity?” Azilom asked. The room started to fill with silence as the others thought.

“In my opinion, it would be wise to leave him there. Was the demon by chance awake? If so, I recommend questioning him to test if he is worthy of freedom or not.” Abaddon replied first.

“If it is in a cave on the envy side of Hell, I doubt the man is worth savin’. Y’know how the whole Lucifer situation went, he was jealous of God, fell down, and became king! Envy is a piece of heavy work.” Armaros countered.

“Not all demons down here are pieces of work, Armaros. Some are down here from blame that the angels failed to see, tch, some murderers down here had decent reasons too. But it is still murder. Envy can be good or bad, you know, similar to let us say, murder.” Abaddon lightly chuckled, turning the topic.

“Envy can be two-faced just as much as reason. Murder is only good if it’s in self-defense, and any other reason is not okay. Envy is like that, ya’have your reasons for it or ya’just take a glance at someone an’ have an overwhelmin’ desire to take what belongs to them and make it yours!” Armaros raised his voice to a shout.

“Envy is a desire to have something that someone else has or possesses, right? Envy is just a lust for something, similar to let us bring back murder. Murder can be done if an item or person is desired, lust is an overwhelming desire for something as well. The true problem here is desire, is it not?” Abaddon began.

“Where are you going with this, comparing my sin to the other seven?” Armaros questioned with a slight growl.

“Any type of desire– lust, gluttony, greed, envy– is going to be two-faced with its own reason. Therefore, anything can be possible and happen. If Azilom releases the man without proper questioning, he could either attack him or be friendly.” Abaddon explained. Armaros remained silent.

“What if the man is truly locked up because he was once a danger? What if he is extremely powerful to the point where he can easily destroy Hell?” Achan spoke up, which caused Fachnan to roll his eyes. Abaddon nodded.

“That could be a possibility too. But if we speak with the man, perhaps we could form his trust and he could explain why he was locked up in the first place.” Abaddon suggested.

“Ugh, this is so damn stupid! What is the need for anoth’ demon in the castle, hah?!” Yosemite complained loudly.

The room filled with silence again as everyone ignored his complaint. Azilom glanced at the other castle residents for a short while before he decided to break the silence.

“That was an excellent thought, Abaddon. I think your idea of communication would be best.” Azilom forced a smile.

Later in the night, Azilom attempted to sleep. Instead of sleeping, he was forced to hear the whispers. Their chants looped and repeated in his ear. Their phrases were predictable.

Azilom~ Do you hear?

Azilom… Azilom…

Azilom~ Do you listen?

Azilom sat up at the edge of his bed. He remembered the cave again– the only way to get rid of the whispers. He wished for the voices to stop, so he stood from his mattress and dressed in his black cloak one more time. Tiredly, the king exited his castle walls and followed the path from yesterday. The whispers changed into louder voices once more as Azilom approached the cave closer.

Azilom! Azilom! Azilom!

Azilom~ Do you hear?

The whispers were more choppy this time around. They were harder to understand. The whispers started to chant around Azilom in circles as they became more intense.

Free the Leviathan~

Azilom took a moment to breathe and approached closer to the cave. He positioned his body against the stone wall same as the previous night and he slowly inched to the other side. Similar to the previous night, the cave began to glow a light teal. The king never noticed the beauty of the cave before, so he took a second to admire it. He snapped out of admiration and entered the cave.

Leviathan…

A single whisper passed by his ear. He approached those frozen chains again and stared. Azilom placed his red-toned palm against the man’s cheek. It was the same temperature as before, it felt like he was holding snow without a pair of gloves. He thought about different methods to free the unconscious demon.

“I will free you from here, I promise.” Azilom whispered to the whisper-attracting man. He took a step back.

Azilom rotated his wrist in a circular motion until one of his daggers appeared in his hand. As he felt the smooth handle of his bloodstone dagger, he held a firm grip. Azilom faced the open space of the cave and swung his dagger downwards, it immediately transformed into a bloodstone sword.

“Unn…” The frozen man mumbled unconsciously.

Azilom turned around to face the chains that bound the man to the wall. He lifted his sword and swung it downwards to break the chains. As he expected, the chains shattered to pieces.

The frozen man fell forward as soon as the chains broke. Azilom caught him before his body could hit the ground.

“I will take you back with me to the castle. Perhaps you would be better there instead of locked up and frozen. Trust me.”