For most people, death has a particular scent to it. Their final moments accompanied by the antiseptic smell of the hospital ward as they breathe their final breath. That is not how his death smelt.
His was accompanied by the unmistakable smell of burning flesh, the stench of the inevitable.
Death.
Lux could hear laughter as the flames consumed him. He heard his own voice screaming in agony as the pain took over. Those sounds, intermingling in the abyss, accompanied his death.
“You know the only thing worse than being burned alive?”
The voice spoke in between waves of laughter.
“Is stepping willingly into the fire.”
For that’s exactly what Lux had done. He stepped into the cage. He walked into the fire to save his brother.
“I’m sorry Solomon. I have destroyed the world but I won’t ask you to suffer an eternity here with me.”
As soon as Lux Bellator leapt into that cage, the flames consumed him.
First came the smell of burning rubber as his mask melted onto the flesh of his face. His voice screamed, but the furnace kept burning.
His flesh was engulfed. Melting off his body, so that it dripped like discarded pieces of tissue paper, bursting into fire before they hit the ground and disintegrating into nothingness.
Lucifer delighted in the sight of the Light Warrior’s body burning before his eyes.
He delighted in that smell. The unmistakable smell of burning flesh.
He delighted in the screams, for they kept the fires burning.
Hotter the flames burned, boiling Lux’s very blood. Melting the muscles right off the bone as great hunks of meat that burned upon the grill of the cage floor.
Lux’s own voice fell silent, his skull now exposed in a permanent silent scream.
Solomon stood, looking on from outside the cage. Weeping.
“Thankyou” He said with deep sadness. “Thank you.”
Lucifer did not show himself within the cage until it was finished. Only when Lux Bellator stood skeletal before him, and his bones crumpled to a heap did Lucifer return. When the furnace had turned the bones to dust, he smiled. A sadistic smile, one filled with pleasure in the suffering and brutality of God’s great warrior.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Lucifer mockingly recited the words, scooping up the remains of Bellator and tossing them into the air.
Slowly, they materialized again before his very eyes into the unscathed form of Lux Bellator. Made anew, refreshed.
Lux blinked, eyes wide in fear as he looked upon the face of Lucifer himself. That shining, sadistic smile and voice filled with loathing.
“There is no death here in hell, Lux Bellator.”
His laughter filled the air once more.
“No. I get to play with you for eternity. You die and are reborn, only for me to kill you again. You suffer endlessly.”
His laughter filled the air again as he clicked his fingers and the flames returned, engulfing Lux again. Bellator’s screams filled the air, but the fire seemed to only make Lucifer stronger.
“Oh I’m going to delight in your torment, Lux Bellator.”