With his hands folded behind his back, Samael stood by the entrance to the education hall on the ground floor of the Pandemonium. He observed his main helper, Beelzebub, applying colours to his face as he taught the art of beautifying, while the Shadows, sitting in rows before him, watched closely.

In one of the previous classes, in which he participated to show his support to his aide, he made the grave mistake halfway through the class of carelessly remarking that the Shadows could achieve better results if they focused their efforts on energy manipulation. This resulted in the Shadows restlessly bothering him with requests to form a class for that skill. Since they begged so nicely, he couldn't refuse them, and now he had a class on energy manipulation every Thursday, which was today, after Beelzebub's class.

The first thing he did when he started his Energy Manipulation class was to employ that bird-like creature to write the various instructions on how to manipulate energy on the hall's wall.

Samael's gaze went to the closest wall. He had to admit, that bird-like creature had done a pretty nice job. And it looked like Shadows appreciated it, since even now, a few of them following the instructions on the wall, quietly practised energy manipulation.

By now, almost all Shadows knew how to read. The class on writing was still regularly on the schedule, which was carved out on the tablets hanging on the wall by the stairs leading to the first floor.

Samael moved backwards so that he could see the entrance to the other education halls.

A reddish glow came from one of the entrances a few doors away, together with the smell of sulphur. That was the Hall for Forging, permanently allocated for classes about forging due to the large number of lava pits. Quite noisy. And quite well attended. Almost as much as his class.

He moved another step backwards to see more entrances that lined the ground floor. In the shadows of columns that ran alongside the outer edge of the long hallway, he strolled to the stairway at the far side of the building, which was carved out of the grey rock, casting glances at the Hall and then back to the stairs at the other end before he returned to his starting point. A smile curled his lips as he noticed that all the halls but one or two were occupied. None of the Shadows were obligated to attend the classes, but seeing how eager they were to learn made him proud.

In the last decades, the Inferno Dominion had thrived, with Shadows becoming more and more educated and the palace expanding. Meanwhile, in the Fifth Heaven, Nephilim, though fewer in number, were still causing mayhem, and humans, who had been killing each other since Cain killed Abel, were now waging wars, adding to the piles of bones already littering the Fifth Heaven because of the Nephilim.

Beelzebub appeared by his side. "My lord, I have finished with my lesson."

Samael nodded.

None of the Shadows in the Hall left, but more of them rushed past him into the room. They greeted him with a small bow as they passed him.

Samael walked into the hall to see them seated on the ground, facing him, with eager expressions on their faces. He clapped his hands together. "Are we ready?"

"Yes, my lord," they answered in unison.

"Wait for me, wait for me." A Shadow wiggled past him.

"Okay, where are we?"

A branch lifted. "You said you'll teach us how to focus on details."

"I mentioned I might. I don't think you're ready for that yet, but the instructions about that are already written at the tenth station." Samael pointed at the block of writing beside the large ten. There were fourteen blocks of writing on the walls. "How many of you have already tried it?"

A hand and two paws lifted.

"Lovely." Samael gestured for them to join him. "Show me what you got."

The next half hour was filled with them trying to manipulate their facial features, and with him guiding them. The one who succeeded repeatedly was tasked with guiding the other two, while Samael used other pupils to teach the newbies the basics and help those who had problems.

"Beel, observe," Samael whispered to Beelzebub. "This is how you do it. You use the talented ones to help those who are struggling. Not only do they prevent those who are talented from getting bored, but they also get to practise the technique, and you save yourself from explaining over and over again to those who don't have a natural aptitude. You only supervise and jump in whenever there's a need for it."

"Yes, my lord."

"I'm confident that in no time, this class will have another teacher." Samael nodded.

"But not as talented and well-versed as you are, my lord."

"You have worked on your compliment skills." Samael glanced at him, nodding approvingly. "Well done, Beel."

"I try my lord." A redness on the already red skin of Beelzebub's face thickened.

"And I appreciate it. Don't think I don't," Samael said.

Beelzebub cleared his throat. "Since we're already talking..."

"If there is something you'd like, say it. Don't make me drag it out of you."

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"We have a problem, but not really a problem," Beelzebub said. "Just a small inconvenience."

"If is only an inconvenience, why are you bothering me with it?"

"Well... I thought you should be aware of it."

This meant it wasn't only an inconvenience, because if it was, Beelzebub would have taken care of it himself. Samael raised his eyebrows. "What is it?"

"There are some Shadows, they are..."

"Yes?"

"They are..."

"Yes?" Samael crossed his arms and his eyes narrowed. "Your dillydallying is annoying."

"There are some Shadows not pleased with your leadership," Beelzebub said so quickly that it sounded like one word, closely observing him, most likely to judge his reaction to the statement.

"And?"

Beelzebub frowned.

"It's completely normal that not everybody is going to be pleased with how I do things. You are not popular with everybody either."

"But.." A worried expression marred Beelzebub's reddish face.

"But?"

"They are trying to recruit others."

"Yes, my lord." The wrinkles around Beelzebub's eyes and mouth thinned. He glanced at the Shadows practising. "Right now?"

Samael shrugged.

On Beelzebub's suggestion, they waited until the end of the class before he guided him up the stairs, past the Throne Hall, into the cave beside it that belonged to Beelzebub and his helpers.

The bird-like creature and the half-bull were there. As soon as they entered, the bird told Beelzebub the location of the group his main helper considered the troublemakers.

"You're flowing their movements?" Samael asked.

The trio nodded.

"I'm impressed. Well done," he praised them, receiving prideful smiles in return. He clapped his hands together. "Now, let's get this over and done with as soon as possible. So, where are they? And what are they doing right now?"

The bird said, "Satan..."

"Their leader," Beelzebub supplied the information.

"... and his group are currently in one of the ground caves at the side wall."

"I see. Let's look at them." Samael turned to Beelzebub. "Lead the way."

All four of them walked out of the room and across the hallway, stairways, and the plane towards the caves in the south wall.

A shadow veiled the red glow from the lava pits that lit the Inferno Dominion.

Samael looked up to see a dot that was getting bigger each second.

With a loud plop, the mass of limbs crashed on the ground just a few steps away from them. It loudly groaned. It was a newly materialised Shadow.

"It's nobody going to help it," Samael asked as they passed it.

"It will get up on its own due time." The bull waved his hand.

"Do something about this, please. We can't have baby Shadows littering the ground like that. We need to welcome them with care," Samael said to Beelzebub. "Appoint a few Shadows to do that."

Beelzebub nodded.

The bird that guided them slowed down the step when they came closer to the entrance of the cave. They could hear a male voice thundering so loud that they could hear it quite clearly.

"It was us who built Pandemonium."

"That's right," another female voice added. "And he can't even name things. Pandemonium. What kind of name is that?"

"They don't like the name?" Samael asked in a low voice as he pouting glanced at Beelzebub.

"They are exceptions, my lord. I swear," Beelzebub reassured him. He had a scowl on his face and his shoulders hunched. He looked as if he was going into a fight as he fastened his step.

The bird and the bull nodded. "It's true, my lord. We like it very much."

They reached the entrance, and Samael stopped them before they could stomp through and put a finger to his mouth.

"He's an outsider, not one of us," the first voice said.

"Here, here," the female voice agreed.

"Whoever is in charge, it should have been one of us."

Samael stepped into the cave. His eyes found the speaker, who was circled by a group of Shadows. A Shadow stood close to him, behind his back, just like Beelzebub liked to stand behind Samael. He faced him. "And who are 'us'?"

The Shadows gasped and gave Samael a quick short bow before they dispersed, passing the group of four as a blur, leaving behind only the speaker, the creature with goat's head and wings, and the Shadows that seemed to be his minion.

"That's Satan," Beelzebub whispered in his ear.

Satan blinked at Samael, a shock written on his face. "I..."

The Shadow, with the lower body belonging to a goat and the upper to a woman, nudged him with her elbow.

Satan cleared his throat. "You're not a Shadows," he said before he added, "My lord."

"I'm not a materialised suppressed dark thought of a human, but that doesn't mean that I'm not one of you. I came up from above just like you did, even though the plane from which we came is different."

"It's different. My lord." The head of the female for a moment peeked from behind Satan before she hid behind him again. She was beautiful, with her long strawberry hair and high cheekbones, not only by Shadow standards but also by human standards.

"Outrageous," Beelzebub exclaimed. "Don't listen to them, my lord.

"How so? Please, explain," Samael addressed Satan, a pleasant expression on his face. As he had said to Beelzebub, there would always be someone who doesn't approve of you—something he learned quite well when he was in the Second Heaven, among those stuck-up Thrones. He had always valued his time and energy too much to occupy himself with such creatures, but since Beelzebub was worried, and because he valued his main aide and his peace of mind, he decided to address these insignificant concerns. However, these insignificant problems can sometimes become significant and harmful. Perhaps Beelzebub's worry was justified.

"Since the lord had come, our heavens have improved drastically," the bird intervened.

"It was us who built everything," Satan said.

"Under the lord's guidance." The bird crossed his wings.

"Most of the time, he was not even here." Satan pushed his chin forward.

A wannabe leader. They want all the glory but are incapable of doing anything productive or taking on responsibility. Samael had the pleasure of knowing a few of them. "You think you could lead the Inferno better than me?"

"Yes, he could," the female said.

Satan puffed out his chest.

"Is that so?" A smirk played on Samael's face. He loved to give people what they wanted, just not how they wanted it. And if it meant that he suppressed the problems they were causing, so much the better. "Why don't you try, then?"

"My lord." Beelzebub wheeled around to stare at him.

"Why don't he try then," Samael said to Beelzebub. "We could use the holiday. You could use a holiday, a little breather, to explore things." His attention went back to Satan. "So yes, why don't you try, then?"