Each pass through a hell gate brought them to a different place. Each time she would have to stop to make pleasantries with the ruler before adding their troops to hers and moving through another gate into another territory.

Country after country, ruler after ruler, until her army was too large to move all at once, and they had to split off to enter Iran from different gates. Adorna led one battalion for her, Jinn and Elaheh had another, and each ruler who sided with her had their own. Her father, Kang Dae, and she stood in front of her own battalion, ready to go through their own gate. The twins stood near, ready to fall in line and protect their lady when the time came.

Sauda's fingers itched as she tried to keep her sweaty hands from caressing the guns at her back. With so many eyes and ears on her, she had to remain cool to be their fearless leader.

She looked at the screen on her phone, receiving text from the group chat of all her battalion leaders or those they trusted. Some of the older Demons didn't know how to text or refused to learn. If they weren't about to march into battle, she would have laughed at that.

She closed out the message, opened another, and texted out a quick, "I'm scared."

"I know," her father texted back, "but I'm right by your side."

She looks at him and sees a small smile pointed at her, before he turns back to the soldiers behind her.

Sauda quickly looks at Kang Dae, and the twins and nods. They'll stay with her near the back until it's time for them to fight. She opens back up the group chat and her message is simple. "Go."

The Twins step in front of her, and they wait, the soldiers staring at the gate, echoes of breaths loud in the air, and hearts beating loud drums. Sauda waited, looking at her phone, waiting for text messages, whether it was safe for her to go through or not. News meant it was safe to go through and they had to figure out where La Muerte was and what her plan was. No news meant fighting or something bad.

Sauda sneered as her head throbbed and her chest tightened just a little. Her legs were itching to move. This differed from a mission given to her by her superiors. She was the Captain, and she always headed in to battle at the front of the line, going into action first. Now, as a diplomat and a ruler, she had to wait for others to clear the path before her. She didn't like it.

Her phone vibrated, and she looked down to see a slew of "all clear" in the thread. She looks at the Twins and gives a quick nod as she puts her phone away.

Gates weren't that tricky to go through. It was just like walking from one room to another through a normal door. However, this door made it feel like something was pulling you from the middle and your limbs had no choice but to follow you. Regardless of what was on the other side, as soon as you step in, there was no going back.

Over three-fourths of her battalion steps into the gate and she follows with the rest of the battalion at her back. It's only a second of darkness and then blinding light as she walks out on the other side. In front of them, a large complex stretched as far as the eye could see and embedded into a mountain.

"Welcome to Persepolis," her father says, coming behind her to step to her side.

Sauda couldn't help the awe as her eyes widened, trying to take everything in. "I've seen the ruins of Persepolis in Iran."

"Here in Hell, they're not in ruins. Before, during, and soon after La Muerte, this city will be magnificent."

The white walls of each palace gleamed, and the sculptures of elephants and men were detailed and sharp. The building stood high and intact. The only thing off was the swarm of flying Shades above the farthest palace.

"They really look like Dementors from Harry Potter," Kang Dae adds.

"Art imitates life," Andras says, typing into his phone. "Castors, Witches and Wizards, Demons, Fairies and trolls. These are all real things that have been made into fiction. Most of the famous writers are actually Demons or made deals with Demons. Not all of them, though."

"Rowling?"

"We don't claim her."

Sauda takes out a small earpiece and puts it in her ear, along with Kang Dae, Andras, and the Twins and they check in.

"All the battalions are in position. Doesn't look like there were any combatants outside of the gates waiting for us. They're ready to move on your order."

It wasn't surprising that they would have one big fight. As a former gladiator in the Persian area, La Muerte was used to putting on a show. But everyone still stayed on their toes.

"This scene is familiar."

Now that all of her army was finally in one country, their communication devices worked for all of her commanders. Most forms of communications worked in hell, just like on the topsoil, but the ear piece they "borrowed" from the military wouldn't work while they were all split up in different countries, going through different doors. Now that they were finally in the same place, Adorna's voice could be heard by everyone.

"All of us walking up to a historical site from different locations," Adorna says. "Maybe someone will come out to greet us. Maybe Elizabeth Bathory's son is in here too."

Sauda was the only person who knew what she was talking about, since no one in their army right then had been with them in Yemen last year.

Sauda pressed her device into her ear a little more. "We've traded Demon-Castors for real Demons, now."

Sauda sees a battalion marching towards her with enormous flags in red. Some of them carry the image of a golden flower while others have white water lilies . Seeing as they were slowly and casually marching towards them, she didn't think they were enemies, but unless she was told that they were allies, she wouldn't trust it. She slipped her hand onto the hilt of her shotel and grips tightly. Even the twins come to flank her in the front.

Kang Dae walks up to Sauda, holding his hands up to tell her to hold on, and Andras alone starts marching to meet the battalion head on. His shoulders are relaxed and there is a huge smile on his face, but even in the deadliest of times, he looks like that.

Kang Dae puts his hand on Sauda's, gripping her ancestral sword, watching as Andras greets the man and woman leading the battalion.

Kang Dae taps on his communication device before taking it off, and Sauda follows him. "The leaders of Bangkok and Tehran," he explains. "They're here to join their army with ours."

"Their army? Not just a battalion? This is a small army." Sauda asks.

"No, this is just one battalion," he answers. "Each battalion of ours should have met up with a battalion of ours."

"Each battalion? All the other countries only gave us a thousand soldiers each to fight and you're saying that Thai and Iran gave us a thousand soldiers per battalion?"

Sauda looks at the battalion that stopped and the man and woman who stand in front, smiling and talking to her father. A young woman, who looks to be no younger than Sauda, stands behind the two leaders, politely smiling at Andras. Whereas the man looks to be in his healthy mid-50s, with a frown spread over half of his face. With Demons, though, age was tricky, so Sauda couldn't guess which one was older.

"So generous," Sauda comments.

"They're pissed that La Muerte is on their own soil kicking up dirt, and they really want to curry favor with you." Kang Dae points out.

"I didn't know that Thailand and Iran had such close connections."

"Even up on Earth they do, since the 1600s. There was Persian royalty in Thai courts back then, and even now they have embassies in each other's capitals."

Kang Dae and Sauda put a smile on their faces as Andras and the new political leaders walk up to them. Introductions are made and quickly the two battalions are merged into each other until all three flags stand side by side in formation.

With communication devices back in their eyes, everyone checks in, and they all move.

Even with an army their size, they still had to move into Persepolis in different entryways. But only because they had to split up at Hell's gates to enter. Persepolis was so large that they could have entered all at the same time at the front gates.

Sauda moves with her army, staying on her toes just in case there is an attack while they're on their way to the arena, where they see the shades flying ahead. She has her shield gripped in one hand and her shotel in the other. She's in the middle of her army, with the twins on both sides of her, Andras and the Thai-Iran diplomats near her, and Kang Dae behind her.

Just a week ago, if you would have told her she'd be a Demon ruler in America, with thousands of Demon's vows to her, as a half-Demon, she would have laughed in your face. If you would have told her she would stand with an army facing off with Shades, she would have cursed you.

Soon they are through their entrance of the building, and as they walk the quiet halls, Sauda can feel not only her heart pounding in her chest, but the hearts of all those tied to her pounding as if it's inside her as well.

"The Colosseum is right up here. Everyone is waiting for you," one twin says. Sauda nods as they continue onward.

It was everything Sauda imagined it would be, just like the movies. Seats lined all around the sides, rising high into the sky, and an enormous field of sand in the middle, larger than three football fields, and wide enough to hold her own army. They fill up the stands looking down at the army standing on the sand, looking up at them. Looking, but not moving.

Sauda's men stop and Adorna walks up to her, joining with Kang Dae and Andras.

"This is dangerous. Look at the hole where the entrance to the stadium is bottle necked. Either we need to go to them or they come to us. Whoever moves is disadvantaged," Kang Dae says, looking at their battlefield.

Sauda follows his eyes all around the stands that circle the arena. Her men looked down at the men on the field. The only way to get to their army is through the few small openings onto the field, which only let a few people through at a time. Indeed, a bottleneck.

"I don't think they're too worried about that. Look up." Adorna doesn't wait for them to look up as she continues talking. "I'm pretty sure they think we'll all be dead when they let those guys loose."

Sauda could smell the fear coming from everyone, even herself, as she looked up in the air at all the Shades flying around. She could even smell the fear of the enemy. Even being on the same side as these deadly creatures didn't mean you were safe.

It was like the ceiling was moving as robes flew past each other, even though Sauda knew there was no ceiling in the arena.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Sauda can hear the Thai leader ask.

They could have. They should have. The second her army marched into the arena, they should have swooped down and took the soul of her men. Then the game would have been over. But they didn't. Sauda's army stood here, while La Murete's army stood on the sands and the Shades flew in the air.

Adorna lays a hand on Sauda's shoulder. "The arena is made of stone and dirt. If we had our special Castor team, our Earth Castor could have taken some stands down, making it harder for them to take advantage of us."

"Definitely an asset during missions," Sauda says, "but not this mission. So for now, don't get stuck in the small openings. Have the front line jump over onto the sands and then have the strongest demons knock the walls down to make it easier for the rest of the army to get down. After that... just fight."

"Look." Kang Dae points out.

Everyone looks up to where he's pointing and in the large box overlooking them all, a few Demons sit down. One on a very large seat like a throne.

"La Muerte," Andras Whispers.

Sauda watches the Demon smile as if she's heard her name.

"Welcome," rings out through the stadium. "Let the games begin."