In the dining room, Beelzebub laughed and joked with his courtiers, toasting to the upcoming demise of Lucifer at the hands of the Iron Knights. It was a shame that Adrammelech, Nergal, Beelzebub's wife, and most of his children could not attend, but they all had important business elsewhere.
Beelzebub noticed Cruciata sulking as she sat at the table. "Why so grim, daughter?" laughed the Archduke. "Are you still bitter about little Pava?"
"Yes," Cruciata grumbled tersely.
"Honestly, Cruciata!" Beelzebub scoffed. "That girl was nothing but an ex-human toy."
"I thought so once," Cruciata sneered, narrowing her eyes dangerously. "But I got to know her, and I fell in love. And YOU tried to take her away from me!" tears of sorrow and anger alike streamed down her face.
"You had to know the price of snitching," Beelzebub said coldly. "You endangered my plans, so I took away something you cared about. And what do you mean 'tried?' I'm quite sure I succeeded."
"She still lives," said Cruciata. "Baal and Michael are bringing her to Purgatory for healing."
"I don't care who tries to heal her," Beelzebub scoffed. "A Chaos wound WILL be fatal! Your pretty trinket from Earth will soon be dead. Ah, here comes the food!"
Servants served platters of meat slathered with bloodbloom nectar sauce, Beelzebub's favorite dish. All of the diners greedily filled their plates, with the notable exception of Cruciata.
"Aren't you hungry, Cruciata?" Beelzebub chuckled mockingly.
"I've lost my appetite," Cruciata grumbled. "Can you really blame me?"
"Suit yourself," Beelzebub scoffed as he devoured his lunch. A few minutes later, he stopped mid-bite. Beelzebub fell out of his chair as he coughed up quarts of blood, all of his guests except Cruciata meeting the same grim fate.
Beelzebub silently cursed. He was going to die now, and (per the succession laws drafted by that idiot of an ex-human Lilith) the Eighth Circle would soon be ruled by Princess Nocticula Morningstar, the eighth daughter of Lucifer. But this wasn't over yet! There were Chaos rituals to resurrect him, and Nergal and Adrammelech would be only too happy to perform the blasphemous rites. With thoughts of revenge filling his head, Archduke Beelzebub Carrionfly and most of his courtiers perished.
It suddenly occurred to Cruciata what this meant for her. True, she was free of her father... but she was also in trouble. She was the only survivor of this dinner, and she had known reasons to want Beelzebub dead. This had to be the work of the Iron Knights, but how could that be proved.
Death would know doubt the brought down to use his True Sight to look for them, but Cruciata knew that Beelzebub had disguised them with Chaos sorcery, the one type of magic that even Thanatos and Juventas could not see through. This was the magic of elder powers older and stronger even than Life and Death. None knew the extent of Beelzebub's sorceries, and they wouldn't know how to undo them even if they did.
Cruciata would gladly tell Michael and Baal who the Iron Knights were posing as, but her father had not trusted her with the latest round of disguises. Cruciata knew that she'd be going on trial for the murder of an Archduke (Lucifer's best friend, no less), and she honestly had no idea if she'd be coming out of it in one piece. Why was everything going from bad to worse?