As it should be.

Lucifer held up the house in his hand. He walked out of his room into the hallway. He trod on and on until he left the house. Snow from the ongoing shower fell on his white hair, making no difference in the shades at all.

Lucifer reached a small enclosed garden. A dead and rotting place filled with corpses of plants. The stench of rotting life was disgusting. The snow was piling up on what was left of the tall trees and the spikey branches of what once was a beautiful rose plant.

Lucifer placed the house in the middle of this dying garden. He kept standing there and looking at it for a long time. As hours of the night went by, so did the heat in his body.

"Grandpa said you pity sick children," he mumbled. "I need to be as pitiful as I can be."

He crouched down to the house and knocked on the little front door with his freezing knuckles. It was a simple magic he learned in the passing. The house was restored to its original size, though the state was still the same.

Lucifer kept sitting in front of the gate of this house until it was almost time for sunrise. As he saw the faint light lighting up the sky outside the walls, he told himself," A bit more."

Another hour passed by and the white sky had finally started to dominate the purplish-blue hue.

"Today is the day, huh? I hope Alkezar uses some brains," Lucifer said as he shakily stood up. His legs had gone numb with the gold. His white hair had frozen and his already pale skin looked dead white. The redness on his joints and face along with his eyes looked like blood stains.

He held the doorknob and opened the door.

He walked into a moist and humid room that was as cold as the garden he had just left. The fireplace was lit. The cold was coming in from the open balcony, on whose edge stood the figure of a woman.

Her white hair flew as the cold wind hit her.

"It's a very cold day to die, Ava," Lucifer said as he went to the balcony and stood beside her.

She looked down at him. The skin under her eyes was redder than the eyes themselves. There were traces of cuts and stabs all over her pale arms. Yet, Lucifer had only one thought when he laid his eyes upon her.

'Ah, she's beautiful.'

"I don't have many options to choose from. It's only on days like this that the servants return late," Ava said. Her voice was so alluring even though the coarseness was clearly audible.

"I have much better options, though," Lucifer said leaning over the balcony and looking down. It was a dead drop of 180 ft. "Are you interested?"

"Have you come from the future?" Ava asked this question as she slowly walked back into the room.

Lucifer was quite dumbstruck. Either it was a wild guess or his mother could see the future.

"Why do you ask?" he asked as he walked in after her and closed the glass door to the balcony.

"You look exactly how I imagined this child to be," Ava said patting her belly. She sat down on the bed. And started staring into a void. "What do they call you?"

"Lucifer," Lucifer replied as he stood beside her bed.

"As in the devil?" (Ava)

"As in the fallen angel." (Lucifer)

"What's the difference? They are both in hell." (Ava)

"Right. There is no difference."

"..." (Ava)

"..."

"Whether you're a devil or an angel, I have no desire. You've come to the wrong person if you desire a soul," Ava said continuously patting her belly. "I have no soul left to give you."

"I don't want yours. I want his soul," Lucifer said pointing to her belly. "Give birth to him and give him my name."

"What will you do for me?" Ava said with a scoff as she coughed.

"I will avenge you and Theodore," Lucifer said.

"Killing the king would be just replacing one trash with another. No trash is getting cleaned in the end." (Ava)

"What if there is no trash left that can replace him?"

Ava looked at Lucifer with eyes that were so keen, that he thought if she asked him to give her his soul there, he very well would.

'Whose the actual devil here?' Lucifer wondered as Ava silently nodded.

"The child, will it live?" Ava asked.

"Quite a lavish life, to be specific. Though he would have a knack for cross-dressing," Lucifer answered.

"A boy, then. Well, won't that be adorable?" (Ava)

"Annoyingly enough, it would be," Lucifer said remembering all the times he was hit upon at the library. "He'd hate books, though."

"And what's wrong with that? I do too," Ava smiled.

Lucifer looked back at the door leading to the garden to hide his smile. He had to play the devil, after all.

"A cold place you came from," Ava said, looking out to the dead garden. "It looks awfully similar to this rose garden I had back home. Take better care of it, will you."

"How would a devil holding a shovel look?" Lucifer said sarcastically.

"A responsible devil, I believe," Ava said with a tone. "Sit by the fireplace before you go. You look pitifully frozen."

Lucifer obediently followed her command and sat by the fireplace. The silence in the room was very soothing. The occasional sound of Ava's breathing was putting Lucifer at an ease he had never been at before.

'It's warm,' Lucifer thought as he stood up and headed to the door.

Standing in the dead garden, he looked back at Ava sitting in bed. She looked back at him this time.

"I'll be back soon," he said.

"Doesn't seem like soon to me," Ava said with a chuckle.

"Well, I can't let hell go haywire while out on a trip, right?" Lucifer said and shut the door. He fell on his knees and crouched against the door.

"You were right, Grandpa," he mumbled. "She IS kind to pitiful children."

The thin and old stature of the king of Behmuth rose from his throne and hurried down the stairs of his high seat. He had this unpleasant hunch that things had gone wrong.

"Ava!!! That wench!! If only that seducing witch didn't exist!!! It all started with her!!" he yelled into nothingness.

He was anxious. As liars are supposed to be. He lied. And he was afraid to be found out.

After Hector Whitlock killed Donovan on the day of the duel and declared rebellion, the king had already secured a perfect plan to acquire Alkezar's support. The border dungeons. They were the perfect bait. The only records of the natural magic stone decay of the dungeons were old books that were long lost and ones no one bothered to pay attention to.

If things went well, nobody would ever know about his lie. But a strange fear was raging inside him. Like he could die anytime.

"What a sad story you have," a voice came from behind him.

The king jerked around in shock. This black hooded figure was inching closer to him as he backed away.

"Who?! Who are you!?" the king yelled swinging his sword with the poor ability he had. "How did you get in?! Who are you, I ask?!"

"Me? I am a God. Personally, I prefer more to be called the creator, but people here prefer God," the figure said as it stopped in the middle of the hall.

"What do you want?! I... I..." the king was panicking.

"You're but just an unfortunate human. Parents died at a young age. Became king before becoming a child. The people used you for power. The woman you loved never loved you back. All your children were killed. There is no one left whom you could call family," the figure said as it hovered around the king. "And now you're inching towards your very own sad ending. In life, you were a villain. And in death, you'll be a villain."

The king fell silent. His fears were being realized. And there was nothing scarier than a lonely and painful death.

"Do you wish for me to help you?" the hooded figure said as a pale thin hand came out of the hood toward the king. "A lot of things have gone wrong. Should we put it back to how it should be?"

And with a terrified face, the king held the hand.