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Beelzebub was torn, and tired. His frail, insect wings drooped pathetically, and it felt as though his horns were too heavy for his head.
Lilith was dead.
But Belphegor was alive. Belphegor was alive and well and he was sleeping off his injuries in his new room. Their new room. Mammon had left a while ago, them being his last wellness check before going to Lucifer. Beelzebub half heartedly wished his kindest brother luck, for dealing with Lucifer right now would be hell.
Hah. Hell.
Belphegor groaned, gesturing for Beelzebub to lay next to him, and he did. Belphegor's natural sleepy aura spread to Beel, and before he knew it, he was drifting off to sleep.
~~~~
A few days later, Beel ends up in the human world. Many doors were wide open, and Lucifer had gotten angry again, so Beelzebub had gone through. It seemed he was at some sort of human world border, on one side there were well built mansions, on the other, shacks, barely fit for anyone to live in, much less a human, yet Beel could feel their starvation from where he stood. The people on the other side weren't hungry. They were fat with their riches.
A little girl pokes her head out of one of the sheds, looking at him curiously. Awe flashes across her face as she sees his wings, and then recognition.
"Beelzebub, ruler of flies." Her voice was quiet, more like a croak than anything else. She didn't scream out, but rather stated his identity like a mere fact. All Beelzebub could say for sure was that she was hungry. Ravenous.
"Could you do me a favor? Ah, I don't want to sell my soul. Nevermind." Beelzebub wanted to laugh, but the days events had rendered him… quieted. As though his heart struggled with each beat. Instead, he offered what awkward words of comfort he could.
"'So long as it's not huge, I can do it for free. Don't fret. Plus, your soul does nothing for you. It's not all that it's talked up to be. Trust me." A demon, asking a little girl to trust him? Laughable. Despite the irony, the girl voiced her concerns.
"Those houses, the nice ones. You see them?" Beelzebub nodded.
"All the rich people live there. They didn't get money through hard work like Mommy and Daddy did though. They sold our river to the foreigners. Now we can't drink, or wash ourselves, or even cook sometimes. Even if we were to steal the water, all the foreigners trash gets thrown into the river. It's dirty." As the little girl spoke, her voice quivered, and tears pricked her eyes. Distantly, Beel wondered how long she'd endured to be crying over it. Little girls who lived hard lives didn't tend to cry often, and not over something like this. Not unless it had been going on for a rather long time.
"So," the child's expression hardened, tear stained eyes practically glowing with fire, "I want you to eat them. They're all fat, so you'll have a good meal. And then once they're all gone, we can have our meal. Please." Beelzebub grinned, even though his heart felt heavy in his chest. This was definitely not something out of his ability. Plus, he was hungry.
"Sure. Promise me something though." The little girl grimaced, but didn't say anything. "Make sure to give me an offering. Your father keeps ale in your kitchen. Pour a bit on the ground for me, and say my name."
The girl narrowed her eyes. "Are you tricking me? I've never heard of leaving offerings to demons." Beelzebub hadn't either. Perhaps it was leftover from a different time. Regardless, Beel assured her that it was no trick, and that other demons would not be so kind. With her promise of an offering, Beel made his way to the rich houses.
What a feast this would be.
~~~~~~~
All in all, it was not hard. He found the rich people in their homes, loitering about, and otherwise being useless. The little girl was right though. They were indeed fat.
Beel licked his lips as he made his way back to the little shack the young girl resided in, trying to wash away the last bits of flesh so not to scare her. When he saw her, Beelzebub stopped dead.
The girls father was holding her viciously by her hair (oh so delicate hair… Lilith had always said the hair pulling really hurt. That it was no joke) and shaking her vigorously, screaming obscenities.
((Violent language up ahead. General misogyny))
"WHAT ARE YOU, A WHORE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY ALE? GONNA GET DRUNK YOU MISTAKE? GONNA GO SLUT IT UP WITH THE TOWNS BOYS? I KNEW YOUR MOTHER SHOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU WITH HER WHEN SHE SKIPPED ON TO HELL!"
The little girl sobbed, desperately trying to ease the harsh grip on her hair. Beelzebub felt sickened. In two swift steps, Beelzebub was able to rip the man away from her. The child immediately recognized him, and rather than do the sensible thing like run away, she pressed herself to his side. Beelzebub knelt down, and whispered in her ear.
"Look away child. This is not for the eyes of the young." The girl nodded, closing her swolen, teary eyes. It didn't take long to dispose of the man, the scum , and he knelt down to dry the little girls tears.
"Shh, he's gone now. He will never hurt you again, don't you worry." She nodded, but the tears didn't stop flowing. She broke away from his embrace for a moment, and began crawling toward the bottle laying discarded on the floor. She picked it up in shaking hands, uncorked it, and poured it entirely onto the ground.
"My offering to Beelzebub. I thank you for all you've done for me." The poor girl barely got the word out of her mouth before breaking down in sobs once more. Beelzebub approached her, and held her in a hug as gentle as possible.
Beelzebub could practically feel the alcohol dumped on the ground seeping into his skin, his core, and for that moment he wasn't ravenous.
~~~~
Not wanting to leave her alone in the human world, Beelzebub took her to the Devildom. Lucifer, surprisingly, didn't get mad. The other brothers, even Belphie, took to her like family. Over time, she turned into a demon, as it tended to happen when a human stayed in the Devildom for years on end with no other human or angel contact. She didn't mind. She also refused to tell anyone her birth name.
Instead, she went by Malat. And such a fearsome demon she was.