A significant amount of time ago
After successfully killing his father, Levi worked under Lucifer in Hell. He started with small errands, mainly running messages back and forth between kingdoms, particularly messages which might have made someone angry because apparently Levi wasn’t allowed to die any more. He usually got sent on dangerous quests because he was kind of expendable now.
“Message for you…” Levi panted. “From Michael.”
Levi wasn’t exactly sure what Michael’s deal is, people in the middle ground had always said Michael was an angel, and that was probably true, but Michael was also a ruler in Hell, the ruler of Phrygia, and Levi wasn’t entirely sure but Michael seemed to have a Thing with Lucifer.
He wished they’d just meet up in person instead of sending letters to each other. It’d make Levi’s job so much easier. He was sick of this shit. It was kind of disgusting how much they liked each other, actually.
“I have another job for you.”
“If you send me to Phrygia again, I’m going to quit.”
They looked shocked for a second, then laughed. “Guess it’s a good thing I’m not, then. I need you to round up some people for me. In Lydia, of course. No need to go anywhere far away this time.”
The people Levi was supposed to round up were, of course, criminals. Levi had come up with a very clever criminal alter ego so he could hang out in the streets without looking suspicious.
Robin Steele. Master of theft.
It was glaringly obvious when you said it together but when he told people his name was just “Robin” or “Mr Steele” they had no problem with it at all.
He trailed his targets outside the tavern they’d been in and followed them to what he hoped was their base. As Lucifer had said, if he could get the guys themselves, it’d be good, but if he could find their base it’d be better.
It was kind of old and dingy and more like a hole in the wall than a secret base but they were definitely in there. He waited for them to close the door to sit next to it and eavesdrop.
…yeah, they were definitely the guys. What was he gonna do now? Wait for them to come back out? Barge in on them? Waiting for them to come out would put Levi at a disadvantage, he’d have to wait here and get whoever left the base next, but if he jumped in on them they’d be on familiar ground. And the chances were that they wouldn’t all be there, either.
He had a choice here. But both options sucked and he didn’t want to do either of them.
The third option, of course, was to ditch this whole gig and just go home. It would have been the easiest, too. But that’d get him in trouble and he didn’t want that.
He could lure them out. That seemed like the only worthwhile option here. All the others were terrible. And while this was also a terrible plan, it was less terrible than everything else.
Time for a good ol’ knock and run, without the run.
Levi knocked on the door of the hideout and waited.
No response.
Alright, time for plan B (ii).
He picked up a rock and threw it through a window.
There were shouts and stuff from inside and then a group of criminal-looking blokes emerged from the inside.
Levi rolled up his sleeves. “So who’s going first?’
He didn’t wait for them to respond. He didn’t actually care. There wasn’t going to be a first because he was going to take care of this all at once.
He held his hand out in front of him.
A blaze of fire exploded from the ground, circling out and surrounding the dudes, trapping them inside the fire.
Alright, well, his job here was done. They were trapped. No escape now.
“Laters.”
Levi started to walk away.
Then he collapsed.
“Pretty stupid of you to faint here.”
Levi woke up on a bench to a blonde man staring at him.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Escher. I’m one of Lucifer’s crew.” Escher grabbed Levi’s hand and started dragging him off the bench. “Come on, time to-“
“Fuck me, that hurt. I can walk, you know.” Levi stood up and adjusted his shirt. “Did you know this was going to happen?”
“I think Lucifer suspected it,” shrugged Escher. “They sent me along to watch over you. You know, just in case it was actually too hard for you to take down four outlaws alone.”
“And I’m expected to be able to do that?”
“Nope.” Escher turned around to face Levi. “Honestly, I’m impressed. You’re still relatively new here. You did good.”
Also significantly later but nowhere near the present day
The monarchs sat at the table. Levi waited outside, waiting for their meeting to end and unintentionally eavesdropping.
“We need someone new,” said Lucifer. “Locria has been without a ruler for a while and honestly, it’s really obvious. The place is a fucking mess.”
“Have any suggestions, Lucifer?” hissed Hades Steve. “If it was that easy to find a new monarch we’d have done it already.”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Who?”
“Leviathan.”
Wait what- fucking- what?
“He’s reliable, he works hard, he’s got leadership qualities, all that jazz. Besides, wouldn’t you rather have someone inexperienced over nobody at all?”
“Is he strong? Ruthless? Can he defend a kingdom if needs be?”
He was none of those things. He wasn’t strong, he wasn’t ruthless and he definitely-
“Let’s find out. Levi?”
Ah, fuck.
Levi pushed open the stone door and pretended he hadn’t been listening in on their whole conversation. “Yes, my leige?”
“Take a seat.”
Levi sat down. The chair was cold. The table was cold. Furniture made of stone did that, and maybe it wasn’t a very good idea in general because it was just kind of unpleasant.
“When was the last time you lost a fight?”
They talked, and discussed, and argued for what seemed like hours but was probably only 15 minutes. It didn’t matter. It felt like hours to Levi because they were discussing him.
“You can come back in now.”
This was horrible. This felt horrible. He was walking into a room of people who were judging him and criticizing his every move and-
“Welcome, Leviathan, the new King of Locria.”
Nope. Nope. Fuck this. Fuck that. Fuck everything.
Levi turned around and walked out of the room.
From there, it never changed much. He never really felt like one of the Kings or the Monarchs or one of the Real Leaders. It took him years to stop feeling like just a replacement. The stone chair still leaked cold into him when he sat at the table and the table never got any less hard.
But it was more interesting, now. He wasn’t an errand boy or a servant any more. He was a king and if he was being honest it was actually really cool. Like. People made him food now? They were scared of him. The moment he returned to the castle there would be people asking what he wanted and wanting advice and thanking him for the last thing he had done which was whatever. He could barely remember any more.
He’d go out and fight more, too. Being the King of Hell was a whole lot different to being a normal boring king and he got to beat up people who were doing the wrong thing.
And at the end of the day, he’d take off the crown and leave the castle through the window of the bedroom and he’d put on a hood instead and go hang out at the local tavern. He’d hear what people thought of him, what people really thought of him and not just what they said when they were trying to suck up to him, and he’d get into petty fights about small things and it was fun and then he’d go sleep in the inn or on a bench somewhere.
As fun as it was, he could never get used to living in the castle.
And every morning he would wake up again and before anyone else was awake he’d climb up the stairs to the castle and he’d go sit on the throne or his bedroom so it looked like he’d been around all night.
No one ever really knew. No one ever knew except Escher.
“You’re back late,” said Escher one morning.
“Shut the fuck up, it’s 3am, that’s not even late. That’s early for most people.”
“It’s late for you.” Escher sighed. “What are you going to do if someone finds out? It’s not going to end well for you if people find out that you hang out in bars and do the shit the rest of them do. And it’s not even your reputation that’s at stake here. If someone finds out who you are and what you’re doing, they’re going to kill you.”
“And then I’ll just come back again.” God, Escher was such a killjoy. So responsible.
“And who’ll be in charge while you take another twenty years to come back?”
“You,” yawned Levi, never really expecting it to happen. “You will.”
It was never a problem until it did happen.
Levi left by his window one night.
He didn’t come back the next morning.
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