Lust was trying to make up his mind about location. He looked for something that might give him some heads up, but it was hard, considering that nobody even knew how the playboards exactly looked like. Finally, he made his choice, "The Hanging Gardens of Babylon."

"The decision has been made." Death raised its hands, creating a multidimensional passage, leading to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

"Lust!" Wrath came up to him, because once he crosses the passage, he will find himself on the board, while others will be on the audience. "Thank you, even though it's not your mess to clean up."

"Save your thanks for when I'll win." Lust smiled and went through the passage, behind Death and Asmodeus.

The other sin demons and Hailie, as well as all entities interested, crossed the multidimensional line. Hailie closed her eyes, feeling how fear spread through her body. Pride's closeness couldn't help, she was terrified.

"Whoa." The word slipped through Hailie's mouth, when she finally opened her eyes. They were no longer in the Casino Hell. This place was something different, something quite magical and frightful at the same time.

She turned around, gazing at the ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs, flowers, vines and unbelievable looking plants. Lianas hung from the upper levels of the garden, entwining not only the rocks and walls, but also falling onto the stands they were on. The buds bloomed into beautiful flowers that sparkled with a thousand colors, like the noblest diamonds, in the sun. Hailie could hear the noise of the waterfall as it flowed horizontally all the way to the bottom, where it turned into a river that flowed among wonderful trees, casting shadows on unusual nooks. She was sure that visiting all the places in the garden could take her forever, moreover she would quickly get lost. But these gardens surely were a place where she would like to get lost. Everything here seemed so beautiful and hopeful, like all nature was coming back to life.

"Have the Hanging Gardens really looked like that?" Hailie asked.

"It's a playboard, so there might be some changes after all," Pride answered. "Precisely, I believe the gardens weren't in the air." She pointed at the playboard with her head.

Hailie came up to the barrier, feeling sudden dizziness as she looked down. They were indeed soaring in the air on a large platform consisting of a garden inside of a large green mountain. While all of them was in the audience, Lust and Asmodeus, along with Death, were on the playboard, in the middle of the gardens. But it looked completely different from normal chess. For starters, it was a board 10x10 squares, so it was slightly bigger than the usual board.

"Are the rules clear to both sides?" Death's voice echoed in the garden. Hailie heard it better than she thought she would. "If Lust wins, he'll become the prince of Hell and gain Shane Blackwell's soul, while Asmodeus will die. If Asmodeus wins, he'll become the lust demon and king of the Lust realm, while Lust will die, but in addition Shane Blackwell's soul will be given back to the other sin demons."

"I understand the rules," both Asmodeus and Lust answered.

"Take your places on the board," ordered Death.

Hailie narrowed her eyes, looking at the figures, who were the size of a normal human, or a demon, like Lust. At first, she laid her eyes on Heaven's side, noticing other differences from normal chess. The pawns were swapped for figures with white wings. They must've been angels. On the other side were demons as the pawns. But she couldn't see neither the knight, nor bishop, nor king or queen. Instead, on Heaven's side were figures she didn't recognize. And Lust just took a place among them.

"Lust and Asmodeus are the counterparts of the kings," explained Pride.

"They're playing on the board as figures?" Hailie tried to understand it. She thought of them more like commanders, not actual pawns.

"Yes, because when there's going to be a checkmate, the king dies." Or rather, Lust or Asmodeus dies.

"What are the other figures?"

"The counterparts of the queens are God and Devil."

"Wait!" Hailie parted her mouth, when she gazed at Hell's army. "That's you over there!" She pointed at the figure that looked exactly like Pride. "And Envy, and Gluttony, and all of you, actually."

"It's not me, it's only my representation. We're the original sins. As one of the most powerful creatures in Hell, the pawns were made on our own image. We're in Hell's army. Gluttony and Sloth as the counterparts of knights, Envy and Greed as the bishops, me and Wrath as the rooks. On the Heaven's side there are the seven heavenly virtues. Diligence and Temperance, Kindness and Charity, Humility and Patience, and Chastity."

It made sense. Hailie actually liked the choosing of the figures. But there were four more additional figures.

"There's second Lust in Hell's Army." She looked at the counters of the board.

"Once again, only his representation."

"That's funny," Hailie chuckled with nervousness. "And on the second end is," she looked at the figure, then she looked at Death, and again at the figure. "Death."

"Yes, the figures in the corners of the board can move only one square ahead or one square diagonally."

Just when Hailie was about to look at Heaven's side again, Death's loud voice echoed in the garden again, making her shiver, "Let the game begin."

For a moment it felt like her heart stopped, but it was only beginning. There was no telling who was about to win, and she hoped it would be Lust. It must've been. She didn't know what she was about to do in case of his death. She couldn't even think about it.

The first move belonged to Asmodeus, who ordered one of demon pawns to move forward two squares. Hailie wasn't good in chess, she actually never played a single match, but she knew the rules. The tension was making her uneasy, so she started stepping from one foot to another, watching how the figures moved across the board just as Lust or Asmodeus directed them.

"Where was the last game played?" She got curious, besides she needed to fill her mind with something else. Watching a match was making her stomach twist with nervousness. "I mean, which of the seven wonders was chosen the last time?"

"Neither of them," Pride answered, trying to think about a wise strategy for Lust. He was usually winning with them in chess, but he had his mistakes as well. And here he was playing against one of the princes of Hell. One that was particularly brave and confident about his skills.  "The last game played took place in the Garden of Eden. It was thousands of years ago, truly between the army of Hell and Heaven. After the creation of seven wonders, the rules were matched, so that players had only seven possible choices of location. But nobody has ever played in the Divine Hellish Chess since then."

That's what was making this game so extraordinary. It was a game that could change things that normally couldn't be changed – for example giving a possibility to kill one of the original demons. Everybody feared it, and nobody dared to play it. Moreover, nobody could.

"Why not?"

She wouldn't have thought that chess was so boring for hellish creatures to never play them.

"Because of one, simple, but difficult to meet, rule. In Hell's army there's Death, which exists, so the pawn was made on its image. But on Heaven's side, there's Life. Life is just life. It needs something to be resembled on. Someone, who's living."

With a tight throat, Hailie looked at Heaven's army, at Life's pawn. She gasped, noticing it was looking exactly like she did.

"It has my shape."

"The game hasn't been played for centuries, because neither in Hell nor Heaven was a living human. There wasn't a Life pawn, so the game was incomplete."

It was the second time that game was ever played. Something about that made Hailie even more scared and insecure.

She shuddered uneasily, when Lust lost his first pawn. The demon took out a blade out of nowhere and stabbed the angel.  Beneath him a square on the board opened, causing the angel to fall down, into nothingness.

"That's brutal," commented Hailie.

"So was the battle between angels and demons."

Hailie was getting chills each time Lust was losing another figure. She could read from Pride's face that the game wasn't going good enough. She started to bite her lips, watching the chessboard and trying to come up with a solution to improve Lust's position.

"I call upon Death," stated Asmodeus and his voice echoed in the gardens.

Hailie frowned and gazed at Pride with confusion.

"Shit." Pride seemed to know what Asmodeus had planned. "In the Divine Hellish Chess, both Death and Life figures have special abilities." She bit her lip harder. "Death can take one of Heaven's army pawns or figures, except for the king and queen. I didn't think that Asmodeus would use this, because Death dies as well. He's losing his own figure in order to take his opponent's figure." She shook her head.

"Kindness," Asmodeus chose the figure he wanted to take.

Both Kindness and Death figures suddenly fell apart into pieces. The square opened up for a second and their remains disappeared in the air.

"He can do that?" Hailie asked, full of surprise.

He could, that's what Pride told her a minute ago.

"Unfortunately, yes." This just changed Lust's position into a worse one. "On the other hand, Life has an ability to bring one figure back to life, except for the queen and the figure that Death took." In that case, Life would crumble as well. "But I don't see how Lust can use it in this kind of situation." She breathed in.

Hailie looked at the red sandglasses that were on the side of the chessboard. They were measuring time and it seemed that both Lust and Asmodeus were having less and less of it. She hoped that the fact that Lust had it slightly more testified to his advantage.

"He's not doing well, is he?" she asked, but Pride didn't have the courage to answer that question. Her silence was enough of an answer.

Hailie looked at Sloth. Even he was full into the match. There were no traces showing that he was tired or in a need of a nap. And Sloth was always in a mood for sleeping. His seriousness and focused sight made Hailie think that all the sin demons were completely worried about Lust. She tried to keep it together, because otherwise she would fall apart, and the game wasn't ended just yet. That meant hope, even though that hope was coming mostly from the fact that she didn't know how to win in chess.

"No!" Pride quietly snapped, watching how another of Lust's figures was taken away. For her it seemed almost as if he put it on that square on reflection, but it couldn't be true. Lust was tired. He was losing more and more with every minute.

"The time has come," Asmodeus said, looking at Lust with a satisfied smirk on his face. The wind blew harder, ruffling his dark hair that matched his terrifying horns and dark, almost black, eyes. "Surrender, Lust. There is nothing you can do to win now." Every player knew that. They could keep playing, they still had some more time, but with every move they were just approaching the inevitable. "I won."

"Not yet," Lust answered calmly, even though the adrenaline was pumping through him, while he tried to come up with his next move. The anger wouldn't help him in any way.

"But soon enough." Asmodeus already had his moves planned ahead. "Surrender, Lust. That's the right way to do it. Honorable way."

"No, no, no." Hailie started crying, while she turned to Pride. "There must be another solution. Come on, there must be another move!"

But Pride didn't answer her, staring at the chessboard in shock. She stared so long, without blinking, that finally a tear appeared in her eye. She wanted to find another way, but Asmodeus was right. Lust was losing. Now it was just a matter of time, before the checkmate. Pride gazed at Greed and Sloth, but the look on their faces was enough to know she wasn't wrong. She didn't like Lust, but she couldn't imagine existing without him as one of them. She started slowly shaking her head. Then, without hesitation, she turned around to Wrath and fell into his arms, hiding her face in her hands. This unexpected turn of events caught him completely off guard. For a moment he stood like paralyzed, then he slowly embraced her tightly.

She gave up on him, Hailie thought, feeling how she was breathing faster and faster. It seemed like there was not enough air, even though they were in the gardens. Maybe her heart stopped, or she was just suffocating out of sorrow? Lust gave up his life for Shane.

No, not for Shane, she understood, for me.

She was wrong. Everything that happened between them wasn't a lie. It started from a lie, a simple one, Lust being a human, but all that followed, it was true. And even though Hailie didn't know how to feel about that, she knew that she wouldn't stand seeing Lust die.

One more move and another of Lust's figures was destroyed. With her eyes full of tears that were running down her face, Hailie gazed at Lust and frowned. Was that a smile on his face? When he was losing?

"Do you know what's the divine move?" Lust asked, making Asmodeus only a little bit confused.

He looked at the board, trying to see what Lust was seeing.

"The divine move is a non-obvious move that can turn a losing game into a winning one," answered Asmodeus. "But there is no divine move for you, Lust."

Pride turned her face back to the board. Hailie noticed that she was holding hands with Wrath, as if they were trying to ease each other's pain.

"The first game of the Divine Hellish Chess was played thousands of years ago, in the Garden of Eden," reminded Lust. Hailie already knew that. "But you weren't there." Lust pointed at Asmodeus, as if he was rebuking him for the absence. "I wonder, if the reason was the fact that it was mine representation that was decided to be taken for the game, not yours. See, it was clearly decided that I was more powerful than Asmodeus, prince of Hell."

"Not for much longer," Asmodeus dared to say, getting ready for becoming the new lust demon.

"If you were there, maybe you would know about the divine move," Lust continued, as calmly and confidently, as earlier. "I call upon Life."

The figure that looked exactly like Hailie straightened up, ready to make Lust's command come true. Asmodeus smirked, gazing at Lust with pity.

"Bringing one figure back to life, won't help you," he said, trying to figure out about which one Lust thought. He was sneaky and Asmodeus didn't like being surprised.

"Death," Lust announced, making most of the creatures in the audience whisper. Greed turned to Sloth, who frowned. Then both of them smiled as if they figured it out.

"You're bringing back one of my figures? It's not a divine move, it's a suicide move," Asmodeus said, watching how the Life figure fell apart into pieces, which after a short while started rebuilding themselves on the image of Death.

"I'm bringing your figure, but it's mine now. If you had witnessed the first game ever played, you would have known that Death serves no one. It cannot be a figure reserved only for Hell's army, neither only for Heaven's army, because it's independent and neutral in its choices and actions. And so, now Death is not yours anymore. I can make a choice on who to destroy."

Hailie gasped, finally understanding what Lust meant. He gave up Life for Death and now he could use Death's ability. She couldn't see how that was supposed to help him yet, but it seemed like everybody else already knew.

"It's not-"

"Possible?" Lust raised his head higher with his well-known charming smile. "It is possible. My whole game was directed to go this exact way up to this point. Because, knowing that I can take your figure, and knowing I will take the figure representing Envy, it doesn't matter what will be your next move. You've already lost, Asmodeus. I'll checkmate you in," Lust took a second to calculate, "two or three moves."

Asmodeus took a look at the chessboard, noticing his ultimate failure. The anger raised inside of him like a tsunami. His eyes seemed to burn with flames, when he growled, "No!"

"Yes." Lust wanted to laugh in his face.  "I won."

"You'll regret this." He took out a blade and tried to reach Lust, but after one step to another square, tangles grew out of the board. They entangled Asmodeus's entire silhouette, making it impossible to make another move. As king, he could only move one square.

"Oh, that was stupid." Lust's calmness was making Asmodeus even more furious. "Now it's already checkmate. Lovely."

The sandglasses stopped measuring time and all the figures returned to their start positions. Only Asmodeus was still trapped by garden tangles. He had lost and nothing could change it anymore. Lust slowly walked to him and took the blade he was holding.

"I might've lost, but you'll answer for killing the prince of Hell," Asmodeus tried to scare Lust off, but this was the fair game. The rules were clear. The one, who lost, must've died.

"I'm the new prince of Hell." Lust caught Asmodeus's chin and made the demon look in his eyes that intensely glowed red. "Now, where's Shane Blackwell's soul?"

Asmodeus wanted to fight Lust, but he could do nothing, held back by the tangles.

"Since I'm about to die, you can go get it yourself." From the way Asmodeus looked at Lust, he realized that there was more trouble coming. He whispered to his ear, where Shane was, what made Lust almost curse. "You'll need some more luck out there," he added, showing off his dark teeth.

Lust nodded, thinking for a moment about it.

"Well, I guess it won't be a problem after all," he said and stabbed Asmodeus, ending the game at last. He watched the body of the former prince of Hell to cover with black lines starting from the spot where the blade was stuck. He growled just before crumbling into pieces, as the other figures that took part in the game.

Lust took a deep breath, letting himself relax after the most challenging and hard match he has ever played. He stopped in the center of the board and looked at the audience, at Hailie.

And he smiled.