Hazbin Hotel: Another Adam

My conversation with Sera was rushed and brief. I was still reeling, apparently from the residual influence of Darkness, so I simply relayed the information about the Loa spirits, outlined their approximate danger, and mentioned the wound on my arm. She was noticeably frightened at first, seeing the mark and hearing that Darkness had entered me, but when she checked me in some way incomprehensible to me, she visibly calmed down and said that I had managed to expel the Darkness from myself, and, supposedly, everything was fine.

A funny (or alarming?) fact: my conversation was eavesdropped on again. And I can't understand what this "fashion" is among young ladies aged "200+," because this time it was Emily eavesdropping. The one person I didn't expect it from. And what prompted her to do this? Maybe Sera slipped up somewhere?

I spent the next month almost entirely at home: learning to play the guitar, experimenting with Light, and training, and of course, spending time with Lute. For some reason, even after leaving Hell, my emotions continued to glitch: causeless aggression would flare up, all sorts of creepy thoughts crawled into my head...

I didn't know what could be causing this shit. Certainly not Adam, whose influence I stopped feeling from the moment I moved all the angelic weapons from Carmilla and Sera.

By the way, about moving the weapons. Here's how it went:

The day after meeting Lucifer

I spent the morning of that day basking in the familiar rays of the heavenly sun. The sunlight didn't sting my eyes but seemed, on the contrary, to fuel me with strength.

Most likely, it was an illusion and self-suggestion, but my mood still rose from "I'll kill every living thing, just make a move" to "Everything pisses me off, but not enough to do anything about it."

Why was there such a mess in my head? Hell if I know. My options: Adam, the residual influence of Hell, the wound from Alastor. That's it.

I had no more ideas.

Considering Adam didn't experience such emotions constantly, the main influence of Darkness disappeared after entering Heaven, and Alastor's wound had completely healed, plus Sera had checked it additionally, there was... this bastardly feeling that I was fucking missing something.

Internally, I felt like a fucking adolescent whose hormones were out of control. Emotions raged within me like a storm, pushing me towards foolish actions and harsh words. If it weren't for Lute, I would have locked myself at home altogether, just to accidentally avoid punching some passerby in the face who smiled at me friendly, and I'd take it as a challenge.

And, frankly, I was scared. I had never been such a psycho, but something invisible was pressing on my consciousness, undermining my will, like a parasite, trying to break into my brain and drive me mad.

And I had no idea what it was.

Meanwhile, my incredibly beautiful girlfriend (yes, I could call her that now) brought me a steaming cup of tea and sandwiches. Straight to bed. Romance.

Muttering my thanks, I started breakfast.

She immediately noticed my shitty state, and I rather honestly told her about my suspicions, which I then immediately refuted myself. But Lute still tries to take care of me, as if I'm just sick, not a slightly fucked-up psycho, and tiptoes around, trying not to provoke my irritation at all. It was very sweet and once again convinced me of the correctness of my choice.

At that moment, I notice that a message has arrived on my angelic mask from Carmilla. Oh, gotta go down to this fucking Hell again. By the way, I remember, in the first episode of that cartoon, Adam mentioned something like "The atmosphere in Hell is killer and the songs rock, but everything down there is just yuck." Could this be a hint at that very influence of Hell?

To hell with it. Carmilla reported that all the weapons had been delivered, even sent the coordinates and called for movers. Clever girl, I'll pat her on the head when we meet, but I don't need movers – even there, in Hell, my powers are more than enough to transport all of it using Light.

Quickly saying goodbye to Lute, I create a portal to the coordinates, after which I find myself in a huge, echoing warehouse, packed to the brim with identical gray steel boxes. And next to me stands Carmilla herself and her daughters, who exchanged strange glances upon seeing me.

Ah, right. This is the first time I'm appearing before them without a mask, so the girls' astonishment is understandable.

"Carmilla, hello. How are you?" – To avoid slipping into my usual aggression, I force myself to speak more kindly than usual. It seems to help a little.

Carmilla raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Hello, Adam, I'm fine. It's all here. I gathered absolutely everything I had, and also bought another ten tons from my acquaintances and suppliers. Stirred up the Overlords, so now they think I'm preparing for war with Heaven, and that's why I'm collecting all the angelic weapons I can find," she sighed heavily.

"Stop. They know angels can be killed with angelic weapons?" A flash of anger seared me.

"Probably. I am a supplier of angelic weapons, after all, and after my run-in with you, they now know almost for certain that I was the one who killed that exterminator… Harfy…"

Hmm. She even remembered the name? It seems that murder affected her greatly. Quite surprising for a resident of Hell, too sensitive. Though, perhaps her brief stay in Heaven influenced her so?

"But isn't that just speculation?"

"If I hadn't started urgently collecting all available angelic weapons right after I 'escaped from Adam,' then it would have been mere suspicion. But, as you can see yourself, such a huge shipment cannot be delivered covertly in such a short time, so I worked for speed, and we have time before others find out about this place."

"Understood… Well then, have you considered my words? Would you like to go to Heaven with your daughters?"

Both daughters, in complete shock, shifted their gazes from me to Carmilla and back. It seems their mother hadn't told them anything.

"Yes. I want the girls to be safe. Having visited your place… I realized there's no safer place. I'm not eternal; even Overlords get killed here, and far too often, so I won't be able to protect them forever. But I would like specifics. If it's not too much trouble, could you tell me what exactly I need to do?"

"Nothing special. Just live for them, do 'good' deeds, and try not to do what can be called 'bad.' I know you can do it. If you want, you can drop by the Hazbin Hotel, or at least, send your daughters there sometimes."

Now all three of them are looking at me strangely.

"Hazbin Hotel?"

"Yep, the one Lucifer's daughter opened."

"Does it actually work?"

"Well, sort of. At least, the princess's company has a rather positive effect on those around her."

"Alright, I'll think about it, thanks for the advice."

"By the way, won't you have problems with other Overlords? You've completely gotten rid of your main commodity; I'm sure this will shake your authority and could lead to problems, right?"

"That's quite likely to happen, but I still have allies and influence among the Overlords, so there shouldn't be any major problems, don't worry."

"Good, I really hope so. But if problems arise, you know my number – contact me, and I'll come running to help immediately," I winked.

"I understand, thank you."

"Well then, I think it's time for me to go. Glad you and your daughters are alright. See you, beauties!" I smiled broadly and waved, then simultaneously opened dozens of golden portals directly under the stacks of boxes. The huge containers fall into them with a crash, and I myself fall back onto the warehouse floor, creating a portal directly beneath me at the last second and transporting myself to Heaven.

How did I manage to open portals in Hell so easily? Well, I wasn't just standing there chatting sweetly with Carmilla, admiring her daughters. All that time, I was filling the entire warehouse with Light. By the way, in the process, it seemed to me that I myself felt lighter, as if Hell had stopped pressing on my consciousness… Is it really that easy to protect oneself from it?

(Author's Note: It seems I miscalculated a bit with the weight of angelic weapons. 100 tons sounds impressive, but in reality, it's not that much. At first, I equated the weight to aluminum – too little. Then to platinum – it came out to only 5 twenty-foot containers. Let's assume that since angels are stronger than humans, their weapons also weigh significantly more. Okay?)

I surveyed the warehouse, which I myself had expanded last night. Turned out quite well: neat rows of racks for spears (I should inspect the firearms made by demons from angelic steel; I think they'll be much more effective than the simple spears currently in use), stands for armor, shelves with first-aid kits. Everything shines with cleanliness, bright, in those ubiquitous white-and-gold tones (getting a bit sick of them already; they're literally everywhere here!).

Alright, I've done my part. Didn't even snap at anyone – that's progress. So I'll send a message to Sera, and the Exorcists on duty, whom I warned in advance, will unload the containers.

And in the meantime, I'll fly home – to rest, to make some music. That dreary guy from the guitar lesson videos actually managed to be somewhat relaxing, not annoying. It was easy to fall asleep to his monotonous rambling.

The very next day, Sera called me. Said everything was ready and I could fly over to pick up the rest of the angelic metal from Hell. Her voice was tired but pleased, which lifted my spirits a bit.

I was too lazy to fly, so I teleported directly to the Council hall, where all the angelic metal retrieved from Hell was supposed to arrive. Only Sera met me in the hall; the other Seraphim, it seemed, decided not to wait for their prodigal son. Well, to hell with them.

I transported all that angelic iron to the warehouse. A pity all this scrap metal wasn't packed as neatly as the cargo Carmilla had handed over. Now she could truly be called a professional.

At that moment, something seemed to quietly click in my chest, and I instantly felt lighter. The dark emotions seemed to recede into the background, and it became easier to breathe. Literally.

What is this?

Another month passed.

What happened to me at that moment? Hell if I know. But it was precisely after that day that Adam's memories began to slowly return to me at night.

They felt like memories of a long-watched movie; I could easily distinguish them from my own, and they returned in small fragments, so they didn't drive me crazy.

I still don't know what exactly happened back then, but since that day, Adam's emotions no longer pressed down on me. And oh, how overjoyed I was when I realized I could control myself again, that the rage had retreated somewhere into the background!

Only, it hadn't gone away completely. I felt that this beast was lurking deep within me, ready to break out at any moment, just waiting for a moment when I relaxed, lost my vigilance. Or when Adam's memory was fully assimilated…

As for Adam's memory… Yes, it seems his personality really did influence me before, not just his memories, when I was looking for information about his past. He wasn't so bad, but it was hard to call him some kind of genius either. Simply put – he was a "man of his time."

And the more the world changed, the more he lost touch with reality.

He simply didn't understand people's new behavior. After all, there was no Darkness in him... He didn't understand why they kill, why they rape, why they steal. What's the point if you can honestly go and earn it?

He didn't understand this, and his loved ones noticed. Abel respected his father for this, but Cain despised him. Reviewing Adam's memory, I now noticed sparks of anger and hatred in his eyes, slipping into his words and actions. But Adam himself seemed incapable of even thinking such things, and Abel either didn't notice or thought it was normal for his brother and nothing bad would happen.

So it goes.

I should visit Abel. Even though I didn't feel particularly paternal towards him, seeing his childhood and youth in my memories, I began to perceive him more as a younger brother. I know it's wrong, but it was hard to change my attitude – I had no experience of fatherhood in this life or the previous one.

By the way, a little about Heaven's structure. During this month of nightly movie screenings titled "Life of the First Dick," I managed to reach the point in my memories of the war with Hell and thus learned that, apparently, after that incident with demons wiping out an entire town in Heaven, defensive walls with gates, similar to those at the main entrance to Heaven guarded by Saint Peter, were erected around all heavenly settlements. But these only keep Darkness out and don't look dazzlingly golden, but a gentle pearly color. That's how it is.

Another interesting point was that Adam, apparently, even after entering Heaven, didn't get wings like others, but did something to himself and literally recreated them from Light. Which kind of hints: does this mean I can also remove them somehow? And also, it seems, I can change my body at the deepest level. Oh, this Light, purest OP!

Well, never mind, let's get back to the strange events.

Last week, I had a completely different dream, in which it wasn't Adam's past, but mine!

By the way, congratulations: I didn't end up in this world the moment I went to sleep, as I previously thought. Why do I think so? It's simple: in that dream, I calmly woke up the next day and lived another dreary week of my past life.

Fuck. Well, what's the problem: just don't erase my memory, huh, God? It was you who arranged this crap, right?

…

Never answers.

Well, to hell with him then. What else is new? Ah yes, learned to play the guitar. Adam's memory really helped here, so I genuinely recovered his skills very quickly. Even played a couple of songs for Lute that don't exist in this world; she even cried… And I comforted her; it was fun.

I also experimented a lot with Light. It wasn't easy, but I mastered almost instantaneous teleportation, and also finally figured out how to protect myself from Hell's influence: all it takes is to envelop your body with Light of maximum concentration. Which was quite difficult due to the aggressive hellish environment and the resistance of Darkness, but I still managed to solidify this skill. You can congratulate me.

And now for the main news this month: I found out how Sera created angelic weapons. And that's just fucked up.

Did I already mention that Light contains not just energy, but the very concept of that notion? Well, Sera managed to isolate the concept of Death and endow this concept with a material carrier.

That's fucked up.

I won't even ask how she managed to put a concept into matter because I have no ideas at all. I'm more interested in why the hell the concept of Death is present in Light and how she managed to isolate it separately from the others.

This is some next-level shit that no one, naturally, was going to teach me. Fucking great.

I have no books on local "magic," apart from some primitive stuff mostly invented by Adam himself and some of his old comrades-in-arms who are now retired (but ready to join the ranks in case of a full-scale war). So I can't get proper training "From Dummies to Seraphim." Sera, for some reason, refuses, muttering that this knowledge is dangerous and they, supposedly, don't use it themselves. Yeah, right.

How I'm already sick of their nature, honestly, what kind of people are they?

The only option that came to mind was the grimoire of a certain Stolas, one of the "named" demons of Goetia. He had this very grimoire, which, supposedly, contained various rituals. Sounded incredibly tempting, even if it worked on Darkness.

And yes, I once again used spy drones to search for specific individuals: Blitzø (Yes, yes, the ø is silent, I know), Moxxie, Millie, and Loona.

Yes, yes, that gang of who-knows-whats from the equally unhinged (if not more so) cartoon than "Hazbin Hotel" – "Helluva Boss."

From my past life, I remember quite a lot about this cartoon and its characters. Honestly, they are indeed much more unhinged than all the Hotel's visitors, and that says a lot.

To begin with, the cartoon showed us Stolas – that very "named" demon from the Goetia family. What does that mean? It means his name is in the Ars Goetia, which lists the names of only the 72 strongest demons of Hell, not counting the royal family and deadly sins, of course. And this very "cool" demon was shown to us as… a pathetic, dick-dependent bisexual loser. I don't give a shit, as they say; they can fuck and fuck, as long as they don't bother me – I couldn't care less. But oh my god, how they shoved it in our faces on screen! Every. Fucking. Time. When Stolas and his little imp-lover Blitz appeared on screen, a theater of fucking absurdity and cringe began. I repeat, I don't give a fuck what they do at home, as long as they don't bother me, but fuck! Directors, writers, why the fuck do I have to watch this bullshit every time?

I won't even mention the other characters. Except maybe Millie and Stolas's daughter, Octavia, were shown as +/- normal, and even then, it was more in contrast to the other fucked-in-the-head morons they shove in our faces on screen.

In short, a very ambiguous cartoon it turned out to be. And if they behave like that in reality too… I might really not be able to hold back and burn everyone involved and not so involved in holy flame, because fuck 'em!

By the way, about flames. During this month, I also learned to create a special holy flame. Similar to Amaterasu from "Naruto" – it didn't extinguish until it completely consumed its target, and also didn't go out even under the influence of rather strong Darkness. Thanks to Carmilla for agreeing to help with the tests. And for the pleasant company over a cup of coffee. Yes, she took me to local hellish cafes once so I could understand her enthusiastic reaction to that old chef who impressed her with his cooking.

Well, what can I say about hellish food? It's alright. Roughly on par with good Earth food, nothing supernatural.

And right now, I was watching an amusing moment with a drone: that gang of the horned imp-clown was currently at the "Loo Loo Land" amusement park in the Greed Ring. And not just relaxing, but seemingly engaged in protecting that feathered misunderstanding… Stolas. And his rather cute daughter. Sigh, why isn't polygamy accepted in Heaven? Okay, okay, I'm kidding, just don't tell Lute, okay?

I think now is the best moment to intervene. The grimoire, in theory, is currently in their office. So first, I'll swipe it. For a week, no more. I think no one will even notice (insert evil laugh yourself). Well, and I'd also like to see real demons, not just sinners. And of course, it's interesting to see the cartoon characters in person. In short, business as usual.

But my appearance… If even that damn little snake Pentious somehow figured out I was an angel, and the other hotel residents, even if they didn't know for sure, clearly suspected – I stood out too much. So before the sortie, I need to come up with some kind of disguise so I don't get busted immediately. Hmm…