She Belongs To The Devil

"Ar- You know Ariel?" he suddenly raised his brows and asked that boy from Hell.     

"Yes, she is my friend," Damien said with a wide grin on his face. He pressed his toy on his chest and tightly hugged it. And he asked with extreme excitement, "You also know her."     

That man smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn't know if it was some mere coincidence or if it was destiny that the two of them met. But he liked it that the two of them met.     

He then pinched that boy's cheek and introduced himself, "Yes, of course I know her. She is my niece."     

The boy gave him a puzzled look. So the man said again, "I am Ariel's uncle. Well, one of her many uncles."     

"You are her uncle!" Damien's wings fluttered with excitement.     

"Yes." That man smiled and added, "You can call me Alan."     

"Alan. It's nice to meet you, Alan." Damien giggled happily and hovered around that man. And he asked again, "Then Ariel must also live nearby. Will you take me to her? I want to meet her."     

However, Alan had to disappoint that excited boy. "Unfortunately, I live very far away from where Ariel lives. I can take you to her, but it will take two days for us to reach there."     

"Two days? Even if we fly?" Damien asked in a shocked voice because he couldn't wait for two whole days to meet Ariel.     

Alan chuckled lightly and said, "I'm sorry, kid. I don't have wings. We will need to travel using a carriage."     

Damien landed back on the ground and asked curiously, "Kya rage? What's that?"     

Alan subconsciously picked Damien in his arms and answered as he headed towards the village of Grazia, "It is a type of vehicle that we use to go from one place to another. A few horses pull it."     

Damien was so focused on what Alan was describing that he didn't mind getting picked by Alan. Rather he asked more curiously, "What's horse?"     

"It is a kind of animal. I will show the carriage and the horse to you when we reach my home," Alan answered.     

He suddenly snapped out of his trance and then asked Damien, "Will you come to my home and stay at my place tonight? Back at my home, I have a few boys and girls of your age. You will enjoy interacting with them."     

Damien showed a little hesitance because he barely knew the man who was carrying him. Even though he was Ariel's uncle, he found it a little weird to accept his invitation. "I don't know… I would have loved it if I got to stay at Ariel's place… Or if I got to return back to my mother."     

He thought for a while and said with a resolute face, "I want to go back home."     

To speak the truth, Damien wanted to meet Ariel now that he was in the Earth realm. But he wanted to go back to his home because he was scared.     

If it took two whole days to reach Ariel's home then he rather wanted to return to his mother. If he didn't return home for two days then he was afraid that his mother would get very angry at him and would scold him.     

And he also thought that he would be able to get back to his home in a few minutes.     

Damien didn't exactly know how much time it took for him to reach here from his home. But he had a hunch that he arrived here in the Earth realm within a few minutes after he entered that shadow demon's portal.     

Even though the shadow demon was nowhere to be seen right now, it was natural for him to think that his home was closer than Ariel's home from where he was right now.     

He looked at the kind face of Alan and asked in a serious tone, "Alan, do you know the path to the Hell realm? How can I go back there?"     

Alan felt a little sad that he was going to disappoint the boy once more. And he answered the kid, "Unfortunately, there isn't any direct path from here to Hell. The sinful humans go there only after death. And Ariel's father used to go there by teleporting."     

"Teleporting…" Damien recalled how his mother could teleport within the hell realm. And after hearing that Theodore could teleport back and forth between Hell and Earth, he wondered if his mother could do the same and he wondered if she had been lying to him all this while.     

"Then can you ask my mother to teleport here? Can you send a message to my mother and inform her that I'm here?" Damien didn't think that Alan could do that but he asked anyway.     

"Umm… I can't do that." Alan thought for a while and further said, "I don't know much about hell but I don't think your mother will be able to come here to pick you up unless someone summons her."     

"Can't you summon her?"     

"I cannot." Alan was having a difficult time as he constantly broke the hopes of that boy.     

He further clarified to Damien, "Only the dark sorcerers can summon your mother here. But dark sorcerers are known as the bad ones here. They will be punished if someone finds out that they are using black magic, so people rarely use black magic."     

Damien was disheartened to know that there was no possible way for him to go back home. And he mumbled after a sigh, "How did I even come here? I don't remember a thing!"     

Alan quickly picked up on what Damien said and he tried to make calm the boy down. "Since we don't know how you came here, the only thing we can do is wait for a few days. I'm sorry that you can't go home right away."     

Alan then cleared his throat and cheerfully said, "You can stay at my place tonight. And we can head towards Ariel's Palace tomorrow morning. I will ask Ariel's father to take you back to your mother once we reach there."     

As there was no other way, Damien had to agree to Alan's offer. He hoped that his mother would understand that he was somehow lost and that she would forgive him.     

He also hoped that his mother was safe. He knew that his mother was the strongest demoness out there. But the demons were very cunning creatures. He hoped the enemies wouldn't defeat her by tricking her.     

Damien took a deep breath in and then agreed. "Okay. I will stay at your house today." And he also said in a polite voice, "Alan, thank you for your kindness. You are as kind as Ariel."     

Alan smiled at that boy's remark and said, "Anyone would have helped a lost boy like you. But I am glad that it was me who found you."     

Damien looked down at the deer in his hand and said in a sad tone, "The demons wouldn't have helped me. If someone who wasn't from my clan had found me lost in the middle of nowhere, I would be better off dead. They would have either taken me as a hostage or sold me as a slave."     

Alan's heart ached upon hearing that brutal reality of Hell. And he reassuringly said, "Then I am really glad that you happened to come here. I will make sure that you safely return to your mother's arms."