With each step Eli took, the wind seemed to grow stronger, tugging at her as she pressed forward with her hands buried in her pockets and her knees bent against the force. As the flames ahead intensified, mirages danced before her, briefly casting doubt on her vision amidst the heat.
"Hell sucks ass," she murmured to herself, a soft giggle escaping her lips.
It struck her as absurd how closely hell mirrored the landscapes of human construction: towering buildings, accident-prone highways, mansions built on corruption, and even street signs no one bothers to read or follow. Only here, everything lay in ruins and eternal flames.
"Fresh out of creative juices," she muttered under her breath as she navigated the deserted city, though she knew it wasn't truly empty. Demons lurked around every corner, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. One such creature began to crawl menacingly toward her.
Swiftly withdrawing her right hand from her pocket, she delivered a decisive blow to a soldier demon lunging at her from the left, despite her petite stature. The creature, its head partially missing, screeched as her knuckles connected with its face.
"Hey, that was not nice," she said calmly, turning to face the demon as it squirmed and shrieked.
More of its kind gathered, surrounding Eli with their putrid scent of death and sulfur. Though enough to make anyone retch, she was no ordinary human–she wasn't even human, despite her efforts to pass as one.
Their humanoid limbs twisted unnaturally as they prowled on all fours, their sickly green skin decaying like the souls condemned to this infernal realm. With heads resembling half-eaten fruits, they drooled and scavenged, presenting a grotesque sight.
"Why are y'all so hellbent to kill me?"she remarked, almost amused.
"Get it? Hellbent? Because we're in hell, and you lot are bent in all the wrong ways," she quipped, attempting to lighten the mood with a pun. Some demons tilted their heads, exchanging glances as if pondering her words.
"Oh, come on. Don't pretend you can think. You're all brainless idiots," Eli taunted before delivering another blow to the demon nearest her.
"Oops, slipped," she added with a smirk.
As another demon leaped from behind, aiming to graze her shoulder, Eli swiftly sidestepped, seizing the creature's arm and twisting it with her bare hands. With a forceful maneuver, she brought it crashing to the ground, then stepped firmly on its back, eliciting another agonized shriek. Before it could recover, two more demons charged toward her, leaping simultaneously from opposite sides. With remarkable agility, Eli executed a precise roundhouse kick, catching one demon squarely in the neck. As it crumpled to the ground, she spun, using the momentum to hurl the other demon down beside its fallen comrade. Landing gracefully on her feet, she struck a martial arts pose, a triumphant smile playing on her lips.
"They don't teach this in hell," she remarked, her voice tinged with amusement at her own prowess amidst the chaos.
But they were merely a fraction of the horde, with thousands more lining up to confront her. Eli found herself torn between vanquishing their ugly asses or revealing that she's part demon herself, a prospect she detested. She despised being classified as such, even the thought repulsed her. God knows how much she abhors it. Or in this case, Lucifer knows.
As the demons closed in, their foul stench assaulted her senses. She was trying to make a decision, which led her to say,
"I'm blessing y'all with a little prayer."
Eli decided to invoke a prayer, blessing them with a touch of divine intervention. With a sign of the cross and a Latin chant invoking St. Michael, she called upon heavenly assistance.
"Deprecare Deum pacis, ut conterat Satanam sub pedibus nostris, ne ultra valeat captivos tenere homines, et Ecclesiae nocere," she intoned, tapping into her faith while acknowledging the source of her power with a sardonic quip, "Using you for a bit, daddy."
Her palm aglow with ethereal light, Eli unleashed a burst of energy, causing the demons to recoil and scream in agony. The holy light incinerated some, reducing them to nothing but ashes in its wake. From a distance, amongst the horde of disgusting soldier demons, a figure stood dressed in white. Eli snorted. Guess who decided to join the party, she thought to herself.
Drawing a glass bottle from her leather potion belt strapped on her waist, she shattered it against her chest, dousing herself with holy water. With a defiant gesture toward the distant figure clad in white, she bid farewell.
"Toodles, Uncle Lu," she called out, extending her middle finger. Though she couldn't see his reaction from afar, she knew her actions had surely infuriated the ruler of hell, even if he chose to turn his back on her in that moment.
She jolted upright from her seat, smoke hissing from her shoulders and chest as her soul returned to Earth.
"Jesus!" she exclaimed, irritated by the unpleasant experience of visiting that realm.
"I hate going there; they reek, and they've chipped my newly painted nails," she grumbled to herself, inspecting her hand and finding it returned to its ordinary, non-emitting state. Clenching it into a fist, she offered a sardonic thanks.
"Thanks, Daddy Mikey!" she chirped, about to take a step and nearly slipping on the water pooled on the floor – a detail she'd almost forgotten.
Water served as the universal conduit for traversing between planes, allowing her to explore Hell by sitting through Earth. Literally.
However, she hardly relied on it; as a part demon, she possessed the innate ability to slip in and out of Hell effortlessly. But distinctions mattered. She wasn't merely a half-breed. She was a hybrid—the improbable offspring of an angel and a demon. The existence of hybrids defied conventional wisdom, a testament to the enigmatic nature of supernatural beings.
Long ago, God and Lucifer had struck a deal to prevent beings from the heavenly and hellish planes from crossing over to Earth, thus maintaining peace and balance. However, half-breeds like Eli were exceptions, granted the unique ability to travel between their respective realms and Earth. Their role was to subtly influence the paths of humans, whether guiding them or leading them astray, without directly interfering in their choices.
However, Eli defied categorization. Neither fully angel nor fully demon, she embodied both, disrupting the delicate balance established by divine decree. Her purpose remained elusive, her existence a harbinger of chaos, challenging the very foundations of order and destiny.