Devil Ash Deceit (Devil Ash Saga) Read Free Page A

even are any rebels. We still don’t have any solid proof yet,” he said. “All we’ve got to go on are a few of Goddard’s suspicions.”
    " Regardless, we’ve finally got something to report,” said Shiva. “Let’s high-tail it back to the kingdom so Ash can inform… Where’s Ash?” Shiva asked, noticing the boy had wandered off.
    Increasing the size of her guiding flame, Shiva found the boy standing several feet away, staring up at the sky. Before she could ask what he was looking it, there was a brilliant flash in the sky miles away. What looked like a black meteor shot through the sky and rocketed down, but did not hit ground.
    “It can’t be…” Aura said.
    The team advanced cautiously. Ash relit a new fireball and floated it forward slowly. Up ahead t hey could see the ground came to a cliff-like edge. With more bright eruptions in the sky raining down glowing objects, Ash crept closer to the edge for a better look. He was only a few steps from falling off, but his fireball was hovering twenty yards out. There was no bottom to the canyon. All they could see was a radiant black haze that obscured the view of anything below. For a moment, Ash thought he might have stumbled upon the Grand Canyon. But he was not on Earth, and he knew at once where they must have ended up.
    "So, we've come all the way out here," Shiva said.
    "I've never seen it," Aura said.
    " I’ve seen drawings,” Shiva replied. “But drawings are nothing compared to the real thing.”
    "The Negative Divide, " Ash said in wonder.
    The Negative Divide, Ash recalled from his book 'Hell in my Pocket', was the place in Hell where all the evil souls from Earth are deposited. Above the canyon, brilliant flashes of light sent darkened souls raining down randomly every couple of seconds. Those blackened souls, Ash knew, must be the poor souls of those condemned to Hell for eternity. The hazy abyss of the Negative Divide was the true Hell that humans knew. Standing there, observing the shower of fallen souls, Ash actually felt lucky to be living in the Kingdom of devils.
    " Careful: don’t go falling in,” Aura warned Ash. “No one’s ever come out.”
    Ash shot a flame down into the cloudy canyon. It disappeared in a flowing river of negative soul energy, as more and more spoiled souls fell from Heaven.
    “Those flashes in the sky…” Ash said. “What are they?”
    “Temporary gateways to Heaven,” Shiva said. “The souls have to get here somehow.”
    “I thought there was no way to get to Heaven from here,” Ash said, hoping he’d been misinformed.
    “I wouldn’t get excited if I were you,” she said. “The gates only open for a second at a time. Anyone stupid enough to stand in front of one gets blasted with a direct shot of soul power. Instant death .”
    “She’s right about that,” Aura said. “A long time ago many people died trying to get to Heaven that way. It’s a definite no-go.”
    “Oh…” Ash said deflated. For a moment, he thought he’d found a way out of Hell. But they are gateways to Heaven, he thought. Maybe… Out of sight of his friends, he clasped his hands together, hoping with all his might that his prayers might be heard this time.
    "Let's get going," Shiva said. "The artificial sun should already be dimming, and I highly doubt you two can navigate back without it."
    The team's mission of looking for rebels in Hell a partial success, they flew with as muc h stamina as they had remaining all the way back to the protective gates of the Kingdom of Hell. Behind them, Ash had hoped, was the last he'd ever see of the Negative Divide.

Chapter Two: One of Those Days
     
    Ash was moderately aware of his alarm clock ringing out once, and then his flat was slowly filled with light as the creation of the artificial sun took place. At that time of the morning, the Kingdom was just waking up but there were already plenty of people out and about contributing to the sun's creation. Ash and Aura very rarely