She Belongs To The Devil

0Theodore had used his divine vision, or according to him – his cursed vision, to find Damien before he had teleported from the training ground.      3

And like he had seen earlier, Damien was flying above the Ethereal River.     

"Damien! Where do you think you are going?" Theodore asked Damien while flying behind him.     

However, Damien sped up his pace while pretending not to hear Theodore.     

"Ah! This kid!" Theodore sighed and thought.     

And he asked that boy, "Damien! Come on! Why are you running away?"     

Still, there was no reply nor any kind of response from Damien.     

Even when Theodore caught up to Damien, and asked Damien to stop flying away, Damien didn't heed to his request.     

"Damien… where do you think you're going? Stop already!" Theodore shouted again.     

"I'm going home," Damien replied in a scruffy voice.     

Theodore glanced at Damien's eyes because he sounded like he had cried. And his eyes indeed looked red and puffy as if he had cried a lot.     

"Do you even know that you can't reach your home by flying?" Theodore asked in a little polite voice.     

But he received the same silent treatment from Damien.     

Theodore felt bad for scolding Damien earlier. And he even apologized to his new enemy, "Damien, look… I'm sorry, alright? I shouldn't have scared you and I shouldn't have shouted at you. Will you please–"     

"Ariel almost got hurt because of me…" Damien abruptly blurted out in a soft and sad whisper.     

Theodore went quiet for some time. And a small appreciative smile appeared on his lips.     

And he asked that kid, "Did you cry because you couldn't protect Ariel?"     

Instead of answering Theodore's question, Damien replied, "I won't come near Ariel again. I can't let today's incident happen again in the future. I'll go home. Please don't follow me."     

If Damien didn't sound devastated when he said that, Theodore would have probably rejoiced thinking he defeated his little enemy.     

However, he didn't feel happy at all.     

Theodore rolled his eyes and mumbled, "And you don't even know the way to your home…"     

Theodore swiftly caught Damien and wrapped him under his arms as if he was some grocery bag. And before the latter had the chance to protest, Theodore teleported Damien to the cave.     

"Leave m–" Damien was squirming to get out of Theodore's grip but he stopped moving once his eyes fell on the garden which was even more enchanting than the one in the palace.     

"Wh-Where are we? What is this place?" Damien asked in a confused tone.     

It was already dusk by now. And the scarce and orange light of the sun that fell inside the garden made Damien contemplate that they were already back in Hell. However, he had never seen a flower bloom in Hell.     

Theodore gently made Damien sit down on the bench and he also sat down beside Damien.     

And he replied to the kid, "This is my cave. My home before I married Ariel's mother."     

Damien raised his brows and asked, "So this is still Earth?"     

"Yes. This is still Earth."     

The two men sat down silently for a while. Damien wasn't insisting on flying back to Hell anymore. But he was still thinking that it would be better if he never returned. He didn't want Ariel to get hurt because of him.     

And as if Theodore had read Damien's mind, he said, "Damien, it was not your fault that Ariel fell down. I was the one who scared her and she lost her grip."     

"But I couldn't catch her in time," Damien looked down and said in a sad voice.     

Theodore ruffled that young man's reddish-brown hair and tried to cheer him up, "I'm sure you would have saved her had I not stopped you."     

And without missing a beat, Damien pouted, "Yeah, you did me dirty."     

Theodore chuckled and tried to show the bright side to Damien, "But hey, thanks to you, Ariel now has a magnificent pair of wings."     

A sad smile appeared on Damien's face. He had witnessed those beautiful wings of his friend.     

And those pure white wings had made him feel bitter before he ran off crying. He didn't think that he deserved to be an angel's friend after dropping her from that great height.     

Seeing that Theodore wasn't angry at him even after what he did, Damien asked innocently, "Prince Theodore, am I worthy of being your daughter's friend?"     

Theodore took a deep breath in and pursed his lips. His eyes dilated when he said, "Something tells me you are going to be more than just friends with her."     

"More than friends? There's something more than friends?" Damien asked curiously. He wanted to know its meaning.     

Theodore realized that he wasn't just thinking in his mind and he hurriedly brushed it off, "Nothing. You don't need to know. What you need to know now is that Ariel is very lucky to have a caring friend like you. So don't think about running away from her."     

Damien didn't show it but he felt happy when he heard Theodore saying that Ariel was lucky to have him.     

Theodore looked up through the transparent ceiling of his garden. It was getting darker by the second.     

So he extended his arms towards Damien and asked, "Shall we go back to the Palace? It is getting late now. You should say goodbye to Ariel before going home."     

Damien gratefully looked at Theodore and held his hand.     

And the two of them vanished from the garden.     

---     

Back in Hell, Lucifer was back at Lilith's mansion to give something to her.     

"Lucifer…" Lilith gave a slight bow to the King and said, "You didn't need to come all the way here. You could have sent someone or you could have sent me a message and I–"     

"I'm already here." Lucifer interrupted her. "I didn't have anything else to do so I thought that I would stretch out my legs and wings."     

Lilith gave a smile and glanced at the package that Lucifer was holding.     

"Ah! Yes." Lucifer handed the package to her and said, "I've prepared the inhibitors as you asked. And I've also modified the spell a bit. If Damien gets into a life-or-death situation like yesterday, then the inhibitors will break on their own and will allow Damien to teleport."     

Lilith was happy to hear that. So she thanked him, "I'm really grateful for this. And thank you for being so mindful about the spell."     

Previously, Lilith had asked Lucifer to help her create some wearable ornaments for Damien that would prevent him from teleporting out of Hell. She could have made one on her own and also put the spell. But she didn't have unbreakable material for such ornaments.     

She didn't want Damien to accidentally break it or lose it and end up teleporting to some unknown part of Earth or Hell again.     

"Won't you open it?" Lucifer asked.     

Lilith gave a nod and opened the package. Inside, there were six round and golden ornaments crafted by the dwarves using a rare meteorite. Those ornaments looked like simple bangles at first glance.     

Lilith was confused to see six of them. So she asked, "Why there are so many? And why different sizes?"     

"The spell that I wanted to use was strong so I needed this many to properly hold it." Lucifer further explained what the spell did, "Damien won't be able to take these inhibitors off as he desires. And it will grow in size to accommodate the growing man."     

Lucifer then pointed at the two larger ones and said, "These two are for ankles. And the other four are for his wrists. Make him wear two on each wrist."     

Lilith glanced at Lucifer with grateful eyes. She gave a genuine smile to him and bowed, "Thank you, Lucifer."