The Devil's Temptation!

“Still thinking about that woman?” Roshan’s sonorous voice snapped Azazel back to reality. Without looking at Roshan, he kept his mind fixated on the path his brother was leading him to.

“I still think you shouldn’t have accepted that human into the palace.” Azazel stood by his unchangeable decision. At first he thought Roshan was going to kill the woman when he sent the maid to let her in, but instead of that, he accepted to let the woman work for Anna.

It wasn’t wrong to help the woman, if Roshan even chose to give her some money so she could leave, then he has no problem with it, but letting her stay wasn’t one he’d easily approve of.

“I see, so you think Anna and I have made the wrong decision then?” Roshan inquired, but Azazel licked his dry lips, still not looking at Roshan to help him confirm the answers for himself.

“I’m only being cautious, a human who isn’t afraid of our presence, and even chooses to come work here, how can you not find that suspicious?”

Going down the underground stairs, the guards in charge of watching the door finally opened it up for Roshan and Azazel to enter, and the door was closed right after they did, and it was leading them into the dungeon.

“It’s suspicious.” Roshan admitted, “and I’m sure Anna’s aware of it too.” He logically added, but that only left Azazel to look at him with narrowed eyes.

“Then why accept her if you both knew? I know Anna’s kind at heart, but there are other ways to help her out than this.”

.....

Roshan’s dagger suddenly appeared in his grasp, “leave it to Anna and I, I agree she’s kind, but if the woman really has come here for a mission against us, then we’re interested to see what it is. If she came here just for money, or something else.”

Or even possible, she could be sent by Luderick to come check out where the coffin is hidden using Annalise.

Shaking his head helplessly, knowing Roshan won’t listen to him. He decided to focus on the main reason why Roshan brought him to the dungeon.

“Why are we here?” He asked while surveying the areas himself. Inside some of the cells, he could hear the clanking of chains as though someone was struggling to free themselves from it.

The same sound came from almost all the dungeons, and in some, Azazel could spot a few guards dealing with a set of Demons and trying to force them into saying something.

“Speak up if you don’t wish to die in the hands of a fellow Demon! Where did you learn to practice dark arts??” A guard yelled at one of them before giving his victim a loud slap across the face.

Azazel barely flinched at the sight, and ahead, they were making their way into the dungeon of torture. Several Demons who had studied black art were being severely punished.

Some were tied to a chair with chains, and they were seated on nails that had been attached to the chair, the stench of their blood lingered in the air and it was already making Azazel nauseous. He couldn’t remember the last time he stepped inside the dungeon, and maybe he never really did since they brought bad memories for him.

“Why are we here?” He asked again, he was looking at Roshan this time around, and the glacier took a turn through the left part without flinching, already immune to everything that was happening in front of him. The cries, the agony, they needed to feel the intense pain so they understood how their victims felt when they inflicted the same punishment on innocent lives.

“I want to show you something.” Roshan finally responded, but he was starting to sound serious, leading Azazel to also keep a face, and as they kept walking, Roshan led him through a caged door, but this part appeared quiet, with light torches hanging on each side of the bricked walls.

When they got deeper, a coffin was starting to come into sight, and before Roshan could go close to it, Azazel stopped him all of a sudden, holding his wrist and pulling him back. The look on his face had changed slightly at the mere sight of the coffin.

“Don’t go near it.”

As Roshan suspected, he knew Azazel’s instincts would kick in once his brother lay eyes on the coffin, and just like he said, Roshan remained where he was, not daring to take another step towards it. Instead, it was Azazel who moved closer to the coffin.

“Where did you get this?” He asked, letting his eyes rake through the structure of the wooden-brown coffin in front of him.

“It was found in Luderick’s Hideout, but there was no one in it.” Roshan casually informed, and without asking for permission, Azazel went further to open the lid of the coffin, and just like Roshan had said to him.

It was empty.

Crouching in front of the coffin, Azazel ran his fingers through the coffin board, trying to connect with it and see if he could understand the appalling energy swirling around it. It was the only thing here, but the energy it carried spoke volumes, terrible volumes and he closed his eyes.

A few seconds passed by with Azazel still studying the coffin. All of a sudden, his brows knitted worriedly, and his forehead creased as though something bad just popped into his head. To Roshan, there’s never any good that came with Azazel’s power.

“The coffin-” his eyes widened, “Anna isn’t safe with the coffin here, keep it as far away from her as you possibly can.”