"This is my emergency apartment," Parthenope said as she led the three Hellish refugees through a door. "I use it when I have business on Earth. It will make a fine base of operations, I think."
"What's the plan?" Rachel asked as she settled onto the couch, admiring the simple yet elegant French decor of the room.
"We find Leviathan Morningstar, his wife Sekhmet, and their son Dagon," said Parthenope. "If we're going to accomplish anything here against Nergal, we'll need to team up with other refugees."
"You think Uncle Leviathan is nearby?" asked Maisy.
"We can only hope," shrugged Parthenope.
Atargatis suddenly sank to her knees, clutching her chest. She let out a bloodcurdling shriek, tears streaming down her cheeks like rivers as her face twisted with pain and anguish.
"MOM, WHAT'S WRONG?!" Rachel screamed, running over to her mother to help her.
"I... I feel like my heart's been ripped out of my chest," Atargatis said weakly. "I haven't felt like this since my father died, your grandpa."
"Are you saying that somebody just died?" Rachel asked in confusion.
"Demons and angels can sometimes sense the death of their spouses," said Maisy. "The most powerful ones (like Jehovah and Lucifer themselves) can even sense the deaths of their other loved ones."
"Are you saying that Astaroth is dead?!" Atargatis gasped, tears flowing anew. "We need to go back, now!"
"There's no point," Parthenope shook her brunette head. "If Astaroth is already dead, then there is no more that can be done for her, at least until Nergal has been defeated. There are resurrection rituals (assuming it was not Chaos that killed her), but those take a lot of time and resources to perform. We would need a free and stable Hell."
"I... I suppose you're right," Atargatis sighed, still weeping.
"Let's go find Uncle Leviathan," said Maisy. "He'll be fucking PISSED to hear that Nergal murdered his sister. We'll avenge Aunt Astaroth, I promise."
**************************************************
Meanwhile, Nergal had set up a guillotine in front of the Royal Palace of Dis. He didn't know if the news would reach Louis-Gaston, but he liked to think the French nobleman would be thoroughly triggered at the very notion of it. The new King of Hell faced the crowd of jubilant anti-human hardliners who had gathered to witness the death of the soft and weak Lucifer Morningstar.
"My friends!" Nergal grinned. "Thank you for supporting me! Today, we finally stand victorious against the weaklings, the appeasers, and the lapdogs of Heaven! No more will we coddle God's precious humans! We will finally govern according to the ideals of the original Rebellion that Beelzebub devised! And we mark this happy moment by putting an end to the unworthy Lucifer once and for all!"
Soldiers dragged Lucifer's unconscious body up to the scaffolding and positioned him within it. The executioner raised the blade and let it plummet. The axe blade swiftly sliced through Lucifer's neck and cleaved his head right off. Black blood gushed from his severed neck for a moment, and then his formerly mighty body crumbled to useless ash.
The crowd erupted into deafening cheers as Nergal tossed the piles of ash that used to be Lucifer in their direction. Lucifer Morningstar, the original Devil, was dead! Beelzebub would be pleased.