“I demand to see Lord Marduk”, a dark, arrogant and seemingly violent soul demanded.

“I don’t know what you are talking about”, an angel appointed to greet and process the deceased responded. “I know of no such person. Are you even aware of who you are, where you are and what is happening to you?”

“Of course I am aware, unworthy scum”, the demonic creature answered. “I am Ashurnasirpal the Mutilator, second of the name, and you better bring me before Marduk, before I have you skinned alive, you wretch”, he threatened darkly.

Azrael the Judge thought what to do about this one. This was by far the worst example he ever saw; most corrupted, most powerful, made of something that looked like soul crystal, only black. Not black like the blessed shivaratri, the stuff wielded by Lord Shiva, which was black in the way mind of God that is to give birth to Light is black. This was black the way concentrated evil and hatred would be black, were they to take crystalline form. It was as if an angelic being was corrupted into something nastier than his past experience told him was possible, and he was very old. This was above his pay grade, so he turned his mind inwards and prayed to Lord Shiva to come to his aid.

Shiva instantly appeared from the shimmer in space. “Hello Azrael, nice to meet you”, he smiled. “I see you’re having some issue here”.

“Yes, Boss”, Azrael smiled and bowed to the Lord. “Here is something I have never seen before, and I decided I better call you”.

“Are you Lord Marduk?”, the dark demon inqured.

“No”, Shiva answered. “And let me see what we have here. This is a terrible criminal, Azrael. He seems to have skinned people alive, impaled them and murdered them in all kinds of terrible ways intended to increase and prolong their suffering. He ruled with fear and intimidation, gouged people’s eyes out, had their noses and fingers cut off, burned them alive and so on. His crimes are numerous, and he even made inscriptions to brag about them, in order to intimidate others. And do you know who this terribly deformed creature is?”, Shiva turned to the angel.

“Don’t you dare talk about me as if I’m not there, you worthless scum!”, the demon growled, moving towards them as if to attack them.

“Enough of this”, said Shiva, raising his hand and freezing the demon in place.

“I honestly don’t know, my Lord. He looks made of material I have never seen before; it’s as dense as vajra, but black, evil and corrupted in incredible ways I have never witnessed before. Honestly, if anyone told me such a thing could exist, I would have refused to believe it, because it contradicts everything I know about spiritual substances”, the angel shrugged helplessly. “How can this creature even exist?”

“I’m afraid it can exist, and I’m afraid we’ve seen the first of the most terrible things that have come from Sanat Kumar’s evil experiment. You see, this is your former colleague, angel Uriel”, Shiva shrugged with profound sadness. “The others need to see this as well, because I am afraid my beloved sister Lakshmi proves to be of immaculate foresight”.

“May all the Gods and everything that is holy be forever at my aid and have mercy upon me, because this is the worst thing I have witnessed in my long life”, Azrael whined in utter shock, staring numbly at the Lord.

…

“Fucking hell”, stuttered Lord Vishnu. His Lady stared at the frozen figure, as if reading from its memory, and wept wordlessly. Shakti grew pale and started shivering, while Zee and Kay just looked at each other in terror. “Fucking hell indeed”, confirmed Lord Shiva. “If there were an encyclopedia of some kind here, if you looked up under ‘fucking hell’, a picture of this creature would be there, staring at you menacingly”, he managed to make a sour attempt at a smile. “What do we do with it?”, he asked, looking at his family.

“Destroy it outright, without remainder, and someone would have to purify the kalapas because the substance is incredibly toxic”, said Lady Shakti, her voice shaking slightly. Lakshmi nodded in assent. “I approve wholeheartedly. This is the most evil thing I have ever seen: an utterly corrupted angel turned into a super-demon; more evil, warped and demonic than even Sanat Kumar, and all of the astral demons taken together; in fact, compared to this abomination, the astral demons look like naughty children throwing rocks at birds. This is worse than Satan, and it can’t be allowed to exist in any shape or form”, she shivered, as everybody nodded in assent.

“That’s what I thought, but I wanted you to see it first and tell me what you think, and I’m glad we agree”, he opened his palm and the frozen super-demon broke apart into dust, turning into a terrible black smoke that looked like it was made of a million microscopic black holes, and was absorbed into Shiva’s body. Shiva looked unwell, as if crunched under a terrible burden or pain. “I must leave you now and take some time off to deal with this, because this is not health food by any means”, he smiled weakly, as if it hurt him to think or talk, and shimmered out of their presence.

“Great Lord, conqueror and destroyer of all that is evil and impure, I salute you and bow before you, again and again”, whispered Lord Vishnu, and all the Gods and Goddesses bowed in silence.

Angel Azrael stood there, still petrified in shock, with his mouth agape, knowing only that he just witnessed the death of an Eternal, and, even worse, that it was a good thing.

“Fuck”.