Desires of the wealthy

“You did good!” Azazel purred with pride as he grabbed Tim’s chin studying him carefully, “But why this one?”

“Because… He’s smartest… Less arrogant and most skilled.” Ezekiel responded with little to no interest in what Azazel was asking..

Tim was securely chained up in the lowest level of hell. It was icy and cold, beside him was Gabriel who was starting to die, his wings seared and his spirit falling. He was hardly an angel at this point, mostly a half breed though he was still fighting to keep his holy side.

“And what? You expect me to work with you?” Tim asked skeptically before smirking, “All you had to do was ask nicely but now I’m not so sure I’m up for it.”

Ezekiel chuckled as he approached the teen, his expression soft and sweet. The fallen angel then smacked Tim hard enough to bruise and break open his cheek. Blood trickled down the teens face causing him to wince in pain as the cold air seeped into the wound making it sting, Ezekiel pulled the handkerchief from his pocket and cleaned the blood from his hand before grabbing Tim by the chin, forcing the teen to look into his eyes.

“You won’t have a choice love…. It’s just a matter of the right time.” Ezekiel grinned before licking the bleeding wound on Tim’s cheek making it heal while making the teen shutter.

Gluttony, the third circle in hell

“Bruce we need to find out where they took Tim.” Dick said with a heavy tone of worry in his voice.

Bruce slowly looked over at his son releasing a somewhat exhausted sigh, “If I had to guess I’d say he’s in the same place as Gabriel…. We’ll do everything we can to get him back and make these b******s pay.” The bat snarled harshly.

Damian scoffed and rolled his eyes, “whining about it isn’t going to do Drake any good, Let's keep moving.” The boy didn’t wait for his family to follow or so much as respond before he began walking off entering the circle of Gluttony.

All around the trio were various temptations, food, money, alcohol. The creatures in this circle were beyond obese with mouths on their hands which only helped them with eating the mountains of food that were around them, the poor souls gorging themselves so much they could barely keep the food down. Their bellies were covered in lacerations from the skin being unable to contain the amount of fat their bodies contained. The group was repulsed and disgusted by the scene before them, Dick was more sympathetic however than the others appeared to be. Damian did his best to ignore the ‘pigs’ around them just wanting to make his way through the disgusting circle however they didn’t get far before the creatures noticed them.
One of the gluttons let out a belch before it stumbled towards them, toddling towards them like a child after a shiny toy.
Damian took a step back as he tried to move out of the way however the creature stopped and projectile vomited at the boy. Damian rolled backwards to dodge the smelly bile however drops of the fluid  did hit his cape causing the fabric to burn and disintegrate. The boy had stopped to stare in shock as the fat creature went to grab hold of him with one of it’s so called hands, the fat on his belly shaking and tearing its flesh slightly.

“Robin!” Dick yelled before running forward getting between Damian and this creature, hitting it’s hand away with his escrima stick before kicking its feet out from under it.

The moment the creature hit the ground more bile shot from its lips and landed back on top of it, searing its flesh causing its organs to spill out like a flowing river. The fall shook the floor and got the attention of the other large creatures leading them to gather around the three, snarling and licking their lips like hungry animals.

“Stay close.” Bruce ordered as he raised his fists ready for a fight.

The bat kids obeyed and all stood back to back so nothing could get behind them. Bruce threw several explosive batarangs hitting three of the creatures. The explosion caused them to fall back and have the same fate the other ‘pig’ did.
Dick took a wing ding and followed suit, throwing it at the creatures. The three kept repeating this process keeping the monsters at bay before one jumped down from above them, landing behind the three.

It was much larger than the numerous others they had been fighting. It vomited on Dick causing his body to scorch and burn as the fluid went straight through the males armor, Dick screamed out and sunk down in pain. Damian ran forward releasing a powerful yell, twirling his swords in his left hand prior to raising the blade to bring it down on the creature however, it smacked the boy sending him flying off the platform.
Bruce’s gaze followed his son causing him to spring back into action. The first action was grabbing Dick, getting him away from the creature so it wouldn’t devour him. After slinging Nightwing onto his shoulders the Bat ran to the edge of the platform and jumped off, his cape catching wind and slowing him down, allowing him to use a grappling hook to catch Damian.

Bruce fired the hook into the platform above before throwing the grappling gun down to Damian who caught it in time to elegantly swing onto the ground.

Bruce slowly laid Dick onto the ground as Dicks wounds began healing and his suit got repaired. “You alright?” Bruce questioned in that, concerned father way.

“Am I alright? Are you kidding!” Dick snarled and pushed Bruce away, “I just got barfed on by some fat whale!”

“It was merely heating you up for dinner.” Damian replied with a smirk as Dick glared.

“Hardy har har… Look, I know tall, nude and handsome wants us to save his brother but he could’ve at least, oh I don’t know given us cannibal repellant!?” Dick was obviously fired up letting his anger get the best of him.

“My my my… You haven’t even made it to the circle of Anger and you’re already throwing a tantrum.” A familiar demonic voice chuckled.

Bruce growled as he turned his gaze to Azazel, whom was on a dragon covered in gold and fine gems. Now that his attention was off the children, Bruce actually noticed they were on a diamond lily pad floating in a river of molten gold.

“Where’s my son!?” Batman interrogated immediately earning a chuckle from the half breed.

“Somewhere safe, comfortable…. Now now Brucie Brucie Bruce, this circle could very well be your domain, yeah?” Azazel grinned, “Look around,” He swooned seductively before gesturing to the plethora of gold around them.

“I don’t give a damn about money!” Batman hissed, “Where. Is. my. Son!?” He asked through grit teeth.

“Better talk or I’ll kill you, you swine!” Damian pitched in.

A howling laugh erupted from Azazel, “I’ll tell you what,” he purred, “I’ll cut your trip a little short if  you beat me in a duel.” A wicked grin spread across his lips. “Beat me and I’ll let you ride my dragon through two whole circles!”

Damian smirked, “Make it three and you’ve got a deal.”

Azazel couldn’t help but roll his eyes, a smile spreading across his lips before he licked them, “Very well, but if I win, then I get you dear boy.”

Before Bruce could possibly object Damian spoke out accepting the terms of the deal. He then raised his swords as Bruce took on a fighting stance.

“Can we just have a dance off instead? No?” Dick asked before sighing and raising his weapons.

Azazel chuckled as he raised his hand, a large sword  generating in his grasp. The half breed grinned down at the group with a sinister sharp smile. The dragon roared furiously before spreading its wings, pushing itself up into the air as smoke spilled from its nose. Red bright embers spilling from its mouth as the glorified beast spewed fire from its mouth.

Batman was quick to use his cape to shield himself and his children from the dragons violent flames. Azazel’s laughing could be heard before he flew down and swung at the man in black.
Bruce fell back feeling the sword cut into his arm. Blood seeped out as the half breed took another hard swing. Damian ran forward using his own sword to block Azazel’s swing. As the swords clashed Damian’s arms sank, the weight almost being too much to bare and as though that wasn’t enough the dragon let out a sharp hiss, bearing into the boy’s hip with its razor sharp teeth. A sharp yell escaped the boy before he pushed up against the sword though despite his best efforts to stay strong the odds of him winning in this state proved to be quite slim. In fact the dragon proved this by vigorously throwing the child up into the air.

“No!” Dick yelled moments before watching the boy drop into the beast’s throat.

Azazel laughed cruelly, throwing a dagger into the older male’s shoulder as Bruce sprung up and attempted to tackle the half breed. Azazel used his telekinetic powers to catch the Bat, a sickening grin spread across his lips.

“Now…. Did you really think you’d win?” The man asked, his voice growing less human with each word, “That’s the problem with you mortals.”

Pressure began building around Bruce’s abdomen as he could feel his ribs crack and start to break, breathing growing to be incredibly harder.
Dick gasped and ran forward, doing a flip as he came down attempting to hit Azazel with an escrima stick however it came into contact with a forcefield before he was blasted back, landing in the molten gold that began instantly melting his flesh.

“Dick!” Bruce managed to yell though it was unheard through Dicks pained screams of sheer agony.

Blood began pouring from Bruce’s mouth as all his internal organs were being crushed, the light fading from his eyes as he was being brutally murdered.
Moments before the bat took his final breath a blade sliced through the dragon’s neck, taking  its head clean off. The beast bled gold as it fell to the ground. Azazel going down with it before Damian rolled out of the wound, a yell escaping his lips as he slammed his sword into the center of the half breeds chest.

Azazel gave a shocked look as he watched the boy, a smile slowly creeping across his lips, “Well, well, well….Looks like you won.” he chuckled as Damian panted.

Azazel rose and easily pulled the blade from his chest, using his powers to lift Dick back onto the platform before resurrecting the dragon, “You shall fly over three circles.” Azazel smiled, “Have fun.” The half breed whispered, his form blowing away in the non existent wind.

The child looked around at his mutilated family before helping them onto the dragon. The beast spread its wings and took to the air, flying down into the depths of hell. As they passed over the circles, Bruce and Dick came to heal and fully recover. There was no doubt that this journey would be a difficult and treacherous one and they had barely made it half way. What shall await them in the most vile and violent circles below?