Demons and Devils

"Halt, you witless Abyssal spawn!" Hovering high in the air on beating wings, Bel unleashed a ferocious roar toward the distant Lord of Black Water, while the twelve angel heads at his waist shrieked in unison. With his arrival, an oppressive aura belonging uniquely to Avernus washed over the sky and earth. Even the dark clouds woven from foul black water burned away in searing flames. The pitch-black downpour ceased, replaced by hellfire that blanketed the heavens. Down upon the earth, the slime monstrosities and heralds of rot spontaneously combusted, disintegrating into ashes amid agonizing shrieks. Two forces carrying the deepest malice in the multiverse collided and clashed, unleashing terrifying shockwaves. Though both radiated an aura of pure evil, what the Lord of Black Water unleashed was the chaotic, disordered darkness of the Abyss, slithering like countless intertwined vipers. Bel, in contrast, projected distinct, sharply defined ribbons of blood-red light—evil, yet steeped in absolute order. Chaos and Order—this was the fundamental divide between tanar'ri demons and baatezu devils, and the eternal foundation of their Blood War. "Long live Lord Bel!" "Praise the Master of Avernus!" "Mighty and wise Duke, your power is unmatched! Those Abyssal worms are fit only to grovel beneath your feet!" "Oh, supreme Lord, your wisdom astounds the keenest mind flayer, and your majesty makes the proudest dragon tremble! Please permit your humblest servant to kiss the shadow you cast—it is the supreme honor of our devilish lives!" Seeing their infernal lord arrive, the fleeing devils stopped in their tracks. Cheers erupted as they heaped the most lavish, nauseating flatteries upon the lord hovering in the sky. Moments later, one devil raised a longsword and pitchfork high, shouting, "For Avernus! For the great Bel! I shall fight the demons to the death!" "For Avernus!" "For the great Bel! Long may he reign!" Driven by the devils' earnest bellowing, their voices rose like a roaring tidal wave, echoing across the vast battlefield and piercing the clouds. For any devil, reading the room and flattering superiors were essential survival skills; those who failed to grasp the tides of power had long since perished in the endless conspiracies of the Nine Hells. Bel naturally saw through his subordinates' hypocrisy. Moments ago, these cowardly wretches had been running for their lives; now they were brave warriors "sworn to defend Avernus to the death." Yet Bel did not care what they truly thought. He simply cast his gaze around, nodding with satisfaction, and mentally noted the name of the devil who had led the chants—quick-witted, opportunistic, and deceitful. A fellow worth grooming. Bel then raised the infernal sword clasped in his claws, pointed it at the Lord of Black Water, and declared in a resonant, booming voice, "This is Baator, the orderly realm of the baatezu—not your foul, reeking pigsty! Crawl back to the Abyss, you filthy, witless bastard!" His voice rumbled like thunder, deafening and carrying the weight of an indisputable decree. "You... are Bel?" The mouths lining the Lord of Black Water's tentacles opened and closed, producing overlapping voices that seemed to drift out of the void, raising hackles on all who heard them. A low, raspy laugh followed. "Kostchtchie was right. Zariel is dead, and the one who took her throne is indeed a crippled failure. A laughable pit fiend who doesn't even hold the full authority of Hell... Clearly, Asmodeus merely wanted a scapegoat." Bel was one of the few Lords of the Nine Hells who had clawed his way up from the bottom ranks entirely on his own merit. The other archdukes were either fallen celestials or primordial evils born with immense power. Only Bel remained firmly within the hierarchy of Baator—a "thoroughbred" baatezu devil from root to branch. The Lord of Black Water's words struck right at the sorest spot of the Lord of Avernus—or rather, the acting Lord. Raging fury flared in Bel's obsidian eyes. Bel beat his wings, sending fire sweeping across the earth as his wrathful roar split the sky: "Filthy demon, you seek death!" "Hahahahaha! Rest easy, Bel. None of this matters anymore—because Avernus will soon become part of the Infinite Abyss! It's a pity you won't live to witness that glorious sight!" The Lord of Black Water extended his twisted tentacles, lunging toward the devil high above. His mountain-sized bulk writhed forward, greedily devouring everything in its path. Hundreds of tentacles lashed out with blinding speed, whipping the air until it cracked with deafening booms. With every sweep, black water sprayed across the sky, pouring down once more like rain. "Pitiable hellspawn, in the name of the great will of the Abyss, I shall devour you!" Facing the slime-drenched tentacles, Bel's talons clamped tight around his infernal sword. He swung it horizontally with blinding ferocity, and the blade erupted into a sky-scorching pillar of hellfire. The moment he swung the blade, all of Avernus seemed to tremble, as though bowing before its lord's dominion. *Shhk!* Space itself was torn open! All several hundred tentacles were cleanly severed! A wound several hundred meters long ripped across the sky. Magma flowed from it like blood, cascading down like a waterfall to swallow the foul black sludge spreading over the ground. Hellfire surged along the remaining stumps of the tentacles, climbing straight onto the Lord of Black Water's colossal body and relentlessly scorching his flesh, drawing agonized wails and enraged roars from the aberration. "Ignorant lesser creature! Before the might of the Abyss, everything you have is nothing!" The Lord of Black Water spewed a torrent of black bile, unleashing a rancid, filthy deluge across the earth, threatening to consume all of Avernus and turn it into nourishment. "This is Avernus! For every day, every minute, and every second to come, it remains my domain!" The infernal sword in Bel's grip expanded wildly, transforming into a colossal blade hundreds of meters long before he drove it deep into the ground. *Boom!* The earth rumbled and shook. Under Bel's command, the crust fractured, tearing open a bottomless fissure over ten kilometers long across the desolate expanse. *Boom!* Pillars of molten rock erupted from the fissure, rocketing skyward and crashing into the filthy black slime. In an instant, sharp crackles resonated across the field. Plumes of pitch-black smoke billowed as the black water boiled violently! "Slay that hellspawn!" the Lord of Black Water shrieked, his tentacles flailing madly against the sky. At his command, tens of thousands of heralds of rot beat their wings in chaotic disarray, surging toward the pit fiend like a spreading storm cloud. Yet Bel never fought alone. "Quick! To Lord Bel's aid! We cannot let our lord fight alone on our behalf!" "Defend Avernus to the death!" The devils would never pass up such an easy opportunity to claim military merits. Infernal officers raised their pitchforks and led the elite legions they had carefully preserved into battle to "rescue" their lord, clashing fiercely with the heralds of rot. From the sky rained the rotting remains of demons, shattered fragments of weapons and armor, and the corpses of devil warriors, while foul acidic slime dripped from above, pitting the earth with corrosive craters. "Filthy beast, I will make you witness the wrath of Avernus!" Bel roared toward the heavens. Hell's unholy energy surged toward him from every direction, forming a crimson vortex. Encircled by surging hellfire, Bel's body rapidly expanded. Flames solidified into his blood, molten rock gathered into his flesh, and black steel formed his armor... Now, the archdevil resembled an insurmountable magma titan. His skin took on the brown hue of solid stone, laced with veins of glowing lava and wreathed in fire and ash—a terrifying spectacle. A pit fiend over a hundred meters tall stood in the sky. His massive bat wings blotted out the heavens, and even the gentlest flap stirred a brimstone tempest born of Hell itself. At this moment, Bel channeled seventy percent of Avernus's authority into his own body. In a sense, he had become the very avatar of Avernus. —Except for the portion stolen by that greedy red dragon. "Praise Bel!" "Long live Lord Bel!" "Hail the great lord! Hail his mighty power!" The baatezu cheered in unison, their flattery never-ending, though it now carried genuine awe for his terrifying might. *Rumble!* Bel yanked the colossal infernal greatsword from the earth. Beating his wings, he surged toward the Lord of Black Water with an overwhelming aura of hellfire. "Get out of my territory, or die where you stand!" "Lesser creature! Even with the will of Avernus at your side, you are fragile as glass!" the Lord of Black Water bellowed, thrusting out tentacle after tentacle coated in black slime. His colossal form slowly split open to reveal a gaping maw nearly fifty meters across, lined with hundreds of rings of serrated teeth. It spewed a sky-blanketing deluge of foul black water at Bel, concealing dagger-sharp fangs within the torrent. Yet before the black water could reach him, the hellfire swirling around Bel incinerated it to ash, and the flying teeth were deflected by his unholy aura. Gripping the hilt of his infernal sword with both hands, Bel raised it high and thrust it violently down into the Lord of Black Water's grotesque bulk. *Rippp!* The razor-sharp tip pierced through the surface layer of black slime, ripped through the thick, boil-encrusted hide, and drove deep into the strange substance that served as the monster's blood. Yet Bel showed no joy at gravely wounding his enemy. Instead, his brow furrowed into a grim frown. "This is..." After sinking into the Lord of Black Water's flesh, the infernal sword felt as though it had plunged into a voracious, chaotic black hole. Countless tiny mouths sprouted upon the shredded flesh, ravenously gnawing at his infernal power. The Lord of Black Water let out a discordant, grating laugh: "Hahahahaha! Lesser creature, you can never kill me!" *Curse this thing!* The Abyss was forever spawning bizarre, illogical abominations; having fought in the Blood War for millennia, Bel was all too familiar with them. Yet while the creature seemed impossible to kill, it lacked the means to seriously harm Bel as well. The putrid black water could dissolve ordinary devils, but it posed no real threat to an Archduke of Hell. *Squelch!* Without the slightest hesitation, Bel pulled his infernal sword free, shifted swiftly behind the Lord of Black Water, and plunged the blade into the ground once more. *Boom!* Another bottomless chasm cracked open. The Lord of Black Water thrust out his endless tentacles again, attempting to entangle Bel's wings and pin the devil in place. Bel wrenched the infernal sword up and slashed diagonally across the sky. Crimson blade-light cut through the firmament, severing several massive tentacles that crashed to the ground, twitching with charred stumps. The Lord of Black Water roared in fury as more tentacles lunged from every angle. Yet Bel circled the "black mountain," swinging his greatsword in a relentless crimson tempest. Thick black smoke engulfed their battleground, reeking of putrefaction and scorched flesh. Dark clouds continually condensed from the black mist, raining down upon the earth and pitting it with corrosive hollows. The clash of two supreme evils produced a catastrophic storm rivaling a natural disaster. Any demons or devils swept into their wake were torn apart, reduced to bloody scraps that fell as a localized shower of gore. The Lord of Black Water sneered shrilly, "It's useless, Bel! Struggle all you want, but I am immortal! Once the power of Avernus fades, you will be nothing more than my food!" Bel remained silent, bringing his blade down again to sever several more tentacles and carve another deep fissure into the bedrock. In the distance, Cassius narrowed his eyes. Watching the dark silhouettes through the mist and sensing the fluctuations born from the clash of cosmic laws, he stroked his chin and murmured, "Heh, now this is interesting. "Bel probably can't kill that disgusting pile of offal, so... is he planning to banish it?" Sure enough, amid the rumbling of the earth, deep chasms completely encircled the Lord of Black Water like an isolated island, trapping the Abyssal aberration within. *Roaaar!* Seeming to divine Bel's intent, the Lord of Black Water writhed frantically, trying to breach the ring of molten rock. Bel gave him no such chance. Beating his wings, the pit fiend soared skyward amid a brimstone tempest until he hovered directly above the demon lord, raising his infernal sword high. *KABOOM!* A streak of blood-red lightning tore across the sky, crashing down from above. An unspeakable, terrifying power converged from all directions. Upon the earth, the surging magma flowed together to form an inverted pentagram—a formation over a thousand meters wide that was the very symbol of Hell, enclosing the Lord of Black Water at its center. "Ixinix—" A sinister grin crept onto Bel's face. Flapping his broad bat wings, he brought the infernal greatsword down in a slow, deliberate swing, delivering his final judgment: "In the name of the Lord of Avernus, I banish you!" Panic seeped into the Lord of Black Water's furious roar: "Cursed lesser creature! No, you cannot—" *Boom!* The inverted pentagram flared with blinding crimson radiance. The surrounding space warped and folded, rendering the Lord of Black Water's colossal body increasingly faint and ethereal, as if expelling him from this reality entirely. All of the demon lord's thrashing and retaliation seemed relegated to a parallel dimension that would never intersect, unable to exert even the slightest influence upon the world.