We reached the ship.

  Here, the corridors were pure demon tech, all black steel and pulsating, crystalline veins. There were no doors to the rooms and other corridors here, but I did my best to not stare.

  After all, I was acting as if I had been here dozens of times, so I couldn’t stare around as if I were visiting Rome for the first time.

  We did reach a massive, steel door. Hell Anne stopped by it and knocked.

  For a moment, nothing happened. But then the door slid open. With a pleased smirk, Anne led me into the corridor, which took me to Kallisto.

  Kallisto lay sprawled across a sofa that looked like it had been carved from a single piece of obsidian. She had her usual shoes and pants, but then nothing on the upper half of her body. Her angelically beautiful face graced me with an amused smirk, eyes sparking up.

  Two succubi attended her, their hands working oil into her shoulders and torso with sensual efficiency of demons that knew a single wrong move separated them from an eternity of torture.

  I was really happy to have the mirrored visor, because I couldn’t help but stare at her bust, and the visor concealed that. So far, I could only imagine what Kallisto looked like under all the suit and armor. Now, I saw it, and it looked even better than how I imagined it.

  Anne stepped closer. “He says he’s your infiltrator.” In a seamless move, she drew an axe and moved its blade to my throat.

  I didn’t move an inch, too busy staring to react to the danger.

  “But I think he’s lying,” Anne continued. “I just wanted to check with you before tossing him into a cage.

  Kallisto slightly straightened, eyeing me with an amused smile. “I will take it from here, Anne. You may leave.”

  Anne bowed. “Goddess.” She withdrew the axe and left.

  Kallisto said nothing until Anne’s footsteps faded. Afterward, her smile broadened. “Why don’t you take off your helmet and sit down?” She motioned at an obsidian block roughly in front of the sofa.”

  I finally managed to tear my gaze off from her. The room featured a large, burning fireplace, which I somehow managed to miss. A bunch of statues and paintings rimmed the wall, art of other worlds, mostly abstract yet somehow alluring.

  I pulled off my helmet and sat down on the obsidian block near the fireplace. The flames heated up my back, and I focused all my willpower to glue my gaze to her face and lips, not to the succubus that licked her way to Kallisto’s breasts to service them. “Sorry for barging in unannounced,” I said. “But I need to discuss something.”

  “Do you… and here I thought you were sneaking around, got caught by Anne, and lied your way to get to me in a desperate attempt to save yourself.”

  Well, damn. She read the situation perfectly, and I realized something. She was a fallen angel, as far as I knew, so she might have had the angelic truth sense. I didn’t know if the angel part got lost during the fall from God’s grace or not. “That’s roughly how it went,” I admitted. “But I do actually need to discuss something.”

  “Do you…” She stifled a moan as the succubus clearly hit the correct spot with her mouth. “What about the samurai demon? Has he not come with you? You two were always together when we met.”

  “Nope,” I said with utmost confidence. “I’m here on my own business. He would only try to stop me if I told him I wanted to meet you.”

  “He would indeed… so, what have you come to speak to me about?”

  If she detected the lie, she gave no reaction. That didn’t help.

  Well, good question. The excuse worked right until this point. Now, I had to come up with a topic that made sense. I had one though. “Ever since about a week after my last return from here, I have seen a delusion of you on Earth. It’s always around me, looks like you, talks like you, but it’s immaterial, and nobody other than me can see or hear it. Is that your doing?”

  She narrowed her eyes, visibly focused. Meanwhile, the second succubus finished working on Kallisto’s back and slid down to her toned stomach, tending to it with one hand and mouth while her other hand slipped under Kallisto’s pants. The demon princess didn’t react, yet. “Can you see the delusion here with us?”

  “No. I haven’t seen it since I walked through the portal.”

  “Close your eyes and focus on it.”

  Reluctantly, I closed my eyes. I focused on the delusion of Kallisto.

  “Open them.”

  I did, and saw the delusion of Kallisto standing behind the sofa of the real one. Great.

  “Well," the delusion said. "This is awkward."

  I managed not to react, neither to her nor to the succubi servicing the real Kallisto.

  Kallisto smirked. “You can see her now, can’t you?"

  "Yeah, I really needed that. Thanks."

  “Always a pleasure to help.” Kallisto grabbed the head of the succubus that had her mouth glued to her breast and moved her to the other peak. “But no, that’s not my doing. The piece of metal in your throat that’s keeping you alive isn’t connected to me in any way.”

  “You surely have an alternative explanation then.”

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  “Well, there are options.” Kallisto raised her hand, studying her nails. “Your mind could be playing tricks on you, likely due to trauma from the near-death experience. I did save you, after all.”

  “You also tore out a chunk of my throat, from which I needed saving to begin with.”

  She chuckled. “True. Alternatively, your mind might be coping with how boring and meaningless your life is on your side of the portal, so it created an image of me as a reminder. Or, you have just missed me so much that your mind couldn’t stand it.”

  The delusion snorted. "That's the best bullshit she could come up with? Come on."

  I ignored her. "In either case, how do I get rid of it?”

  “Her,” the delusion corrected me. “Not it.”

  “Why would you want to get rid of it? Doesn’t it make your life more interesting?”

  “Not in the way I’m looking for. Being crazy isn’t exactly what I’ve been envisioning for myself.”

  “Well, then make your life more interesting, and the delusion of me will surely vanish.”

  The delusion snorted. “I wouldn’t bet on that.”

  I shrugged.

  “Anyways,” Kallisto said. “Dress me.”

  The succubi detached themselves from her and fished her clothes from behind the sofa. Kallisto sat up. The succubi started dressing her, slipping on her shirt, jacket, and armor pieces. They even closed her pants and fastened her belt.

  In a moment, Kallisto was dressed in her usual outfit, now identical to my delusion of her. She rose. “Come. I’ve got matches to watch.”

  That didn’t sound like a suggestion. I rose, picking up my helmet. Good that the radiation suit was heavy and thick enough to not pitch a tent.

  She led the way through the ship, leaving behind the two succubi. We didn’t walk for long. We crossed one corridor, passed through a crossing, and the corridor beyond opened into an arena that shouldn't have fit inside a ship. The space stretched up into darkness, ringed with tier after tier of seats filled with demons of every description. In the center lay a pit of black sand.

  Kallisto headed to her throne. But it wasn’t the black steel throne that attracted my attention. It was the narrower, ivory throne next to it, looking as if carved from a single piece of purely white stone, with a cross stretching up high from its back.

  It didn’t have Lillith’s signature, but it was a hundred percent her style. Kallisto walked to her throne, motioning at the other seat next to it, a touch better-looking steel seat, with nothing ornate.

  She sat down, crossing her legs.

  I dropped into my seat. “Mind if I take pictures? No one’s going to believe me.”

  “What makes you think you will get to return to those no ones?”

  I expected that threat, but still jerked a bit in my skin. It wasn’t even what she said, but the calm, alluring delivery, like she was talking about what movie we were going to watch tonight. “There’s no fun in imprisoning me. Also, I will get you Salieu back for letting me go.”

  “Why should I care about him?”

  “You’re holding arena matches between your own demons to entertain yourself. You’re still stuck here, and having your head scientist back might help to speed up the process of your demons adapting to Earth and its defenses.”

  “Bold.” She clicked her tongue. “But not accurate. Not that I care though, so take pictures. I’ll let you go… eventually.”

  Now, she was playing mean. I spotted my delusion of Kallisto standing to my other side, smirking.

  I drew my phone and took a few pictures of the arena. That wasn’t the goal though. I stood next to the throne. “Selfie?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Put your head next to mine and smile.” I switched my phone’s camera to selfie mode and moved my head above her throne, facing the camera. While I aimed at my face, I made sure I had the angle where I took a picture of the ivory seat next to her throne.

  Kallisto got the point, moved her head to mine, and actually smiled.

  I took the selfie about three times. “Thanks.”

  She straightened on the throne. “Well, how do I get the picture?”

  “Well, normally I would send it to your phone…”

  “Sounds like you’ll need to bring me a phone the next time you come around.”

  “Sure.” I pocketed the phone and sat down. There wasn’t supposed to be a next time, at least I wasn’t planning for it. But, seeing how easily I ended up in her clutches this time around, I'd better have a new phone for her the next time I stepped through the portal.

  I relaxed into the seat and watched two massive demons enter the arena. The whole arena cheered, and I decided to enjoy the show now and worry about everything else later.

  “So,” Kallisto said conversationally, “If I asked you to go down there and fight to impress me, would you do it?”

  That sounded dangerous. Really dangerous. “Well, if you throw me down to fight, I’ll have no choice but to do that.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  I knew. Now, I had to think about it. “Probably, yeah.”

  “Probably? Why so unsure? You know the answer, and there’s one use in being shy about it.”

  I glanced at her. She observed me with an amused smile on her face, clearly toying with me. “Yeah, I would.”

  “Why? Whether you impress me or not has no impact on whether you’ll make it out of here at all.”

  I shrugged. “But why not? It’s not like I’ll be able to avoid death. So, if I have to die, I prefer it to be out of a choice I made. A battle to death is the best way to die, getting torn apart by your demon would be fast and painless, and if I choose to go there myself, then it’d be of my own choice.”

  “Rather than to risk doing it out of me throwing you there, you’d volunteer just so that it was your choice. That’s moderately absurd, which I like. Then again, it’d also be stupid as you’d turn a chance into a certainty.”

  “You’d decide what demon you send to fight me. I think you are more likely to reward bravery, than you are to punish stupidity. I’m not good at planning for the future though, so I realize I might be completely wrong about this.”

  She narrowed her eyes slightly, voice dropping lower. “Don’t you have something you want to do, something to achieve, before you die?”

  “I did. I wanted to take Francesca’s soul from you and to give her another life. That’s been done. Haven’t found any new goal yet.”

  “Won’t she miss you? I thought you were rescuing her to be your girlfriend. I saw her soul. She would have loved that.”

  That made me smile. “Before setting her soul into a new body, I removed memories of myself from her. Her new life is free from the bullshit of Secret Societies.”

  “How selfless of you. Are you trying to get to Heaven?”

  “Nah, there’s no way they’d let me in. Even if demons don’t count, I’ve got at least one double murder to my name already.”

  “Of your own will, or were you pushed to it?”

  I frowned at her. “As if that mattered. A murder is a murder, so…” I paused. This wasn’t a discussion with another earthling about how we imagined Heaven and its entry policies were.

  Before her fall, Kallisto was an angel. There was no faith or guesswork involved. She knew what the rules and the mechanics were.

  “You’d be surprised how reasonable Heaven is when it comes to admissions. Or, unreasonable, depending on how you lived. The scripture is, ultimately, a rough interpretation of Heaven’s workings. But if an angel decides you’re worthy of Heaven, then no one will argue.”

  Me, going to Heaven? What a ridiculous thought. My mother was a woman of the cross. She was sure as Hell to get there. But I successfully resisted any attempts at religious education she threw my way, and she really tried. Sitting on an armchair next to a demon princess’s throne, watching a battle of demons arranged purely to entertain her, I didn’t feel like a candidate for Heaven. “What is it like in there?”

  “I can’t answer that.” She shrugged. “I was born there, so for me it’s normal. Different beings describe the experience differently, so I can’t even relay to you their reviews.”

  “Why did you fall?”

  “That’s a funny story.” Kallisto chuckled a bit, covering her mouth. “I was a warrior angel. One of the better ones… I would say even one of the best ones. And I wanted to advance to an archangel, which is the greatest title of honor an angel can aspire to achieve. But all my attempts to get a promotion were thwarted by the archangels, because they saw great darkness within me, and thus found me unbefitting for any higher position. I found that so incredibly unfair that I fell from Heaven with Lucifer over it.”

  I snorted. “They weren’t wrong.”

  “Yep.”