Title: The step from 1 to 50

Author: The Laughing Corpse

Genre: Angst, vigilantes.

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Mild disturbing content and you have to squint to see some of the sexual situations.

Fandom: Angel Sanctuary

A/N: A piece written for the 1character community at Livejournal. That is all. Astoreth and Astarte share a body, so in a way, some of her is in here too, especially when they randomly switch places. Theme set Gamma. Smidge of incest implied. Originally uploaded under Mermaidcarols. Reuploaded to TLC.

Summary: Mini vigilantes starring the Satan of Sloth, Astaroth.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything of Angel Sanctuary only Kaori Yuki-sensei owns the series. I don’t make cash from this either.

The step from 1 to 50

#01 - Snow

They never seen snow, even alone he never seen the fall of white crystalline ice from the sky, the world isn’t grand enough to spare him the sight of such beauty God designed. All he knew how cold it could truly be by imagining.

#02 - Child

As children, they had each other, two halves of a single whole, yet he dominated the body after the Great One conjoined them as one.

#03-Brick

As Astoreth, his heart is as hard as stone, and his emotions are cold and callous—as Astarte, she’s warmer and kinder, and Astoreth thinks she’s a dense as a brick for wanting something she can’t have—children.

#04-Judgment

In the world of Satans’ and demons, there is no one to judge them or place them on trial—the last time they were sentenced in Heaven to be demolished for not fitting the “perfect” profile; they descended to Hell as the better choice based on their own judgment.

#05 - Powder

Disposing of bodies and draining them of their blood isn’t enough anymore, nowadays since the departure of his twin he followed up on a new little habit; grinding the bones of his screaming toys to dust.

#06—Grim

Astoreth grimaces the loss of his twin every single time he gazes at himself in the mirror.

#7-Trap

From all corners, from all sides, there was no way out, no way of escape—“Get us out of here!”—these feather winged bastards poke and prod, ignoring the screams of his sister as they attempt to split them apart by force.

#08—Star

“And with this wenches blood we will draw out the pentagram over this sullen Earth; we will summon more undead creatures to feed our growing powers—” By our, he meant, Astarte and himself as a whole—the pentagram symbol embedding on their foreheads glowed as the wenches’ blood tracing the pentagram on the ground glowed in union.

#09 - Possession

Although he obeyed the Dark Lord his greed engulfed everything around him, including Astarte--of course Astarte! She refused to believe yet she endured her brother’s cruelties and continued to because she was his and only his.

#10 - Bandage

Dissection after dissection the wounds are covered up, but inside nothing could bandage up the cuts sliced deep in only his sister Astarte caused.

# 11 -Pearl

When in dormant, Astarte, his twin sister--also known as his other half--took liberties the majority of the time he didn’t approve of, yet she still enjoyed dressing head to toe in glittering white or black shimmering pearls--while her brother just hated them, leather and whips were more his taste.

#12 – Glass

As a child he second thing he ever touched—before meeting his other half, his sister Astarte—he could remember clearly, was the smooth, cold surface of glass boxing him and his twin in as those creatures in white conducted countless failed experiments on them.

#13 - Classified

A lesson taut by the higher angels above to follow heedlessly the laws of God, to disobey broke the rules, including the most dangerous of thoughts: doubt and question, and yet every creature wanting freedom or not have these feelings and it doesn’t matter what classification of angel or being you are, Astoreth knows well classification is not necessary.

#14- Buttons

One black, shiny button after another slowly comes loose to reveal lovely flesh that is beneath the black leather and Hatter even wants to pluck them all out to see the marvel of the Satan of Sloth for eyes.

#15- Closet

Astarte was searching for the source of the smell, she didn’t quite know where to look for it until she stopped in front of the metal closet—she opened it and the rotting corpse of her chamber maiden collapsed at her feet, Astarte knew who put her there.

#16 - Ash

Adam was created from ash as the story is told, which was true, he had proof because God liked to experiment with his creations--he was another one of them; a failed experiment to fore fill the Creator’s curiosity and nothing more.

#17-Definition

As illustrious as the Satan of Sloth was in appearance, one word defined him: malevolent.

# 18-Staircase

The stairwell to Heaven is closed forever on them both, but they care not simply because that Heaven people worship so much condemned them to this fate they suffer so much—their fiery pit of darkness is their Heaven.

# 19 - Nail

The stench of warm blood and the prospect of a dying victim by his own hands motivates him to slow down hammering the hook-like nail through the screaming woman’s wrist, nailing her on the oh-so holy cross she believed was her salvation--the head of the tool hammered down the tail of the nail: thump, thump, thump.

# 20 - Prey

Instinct of a devil proved he enjoyed incurring fear in the hearts of those he deemed worthy to play it, by all means this didn’t mean he picked on the weak, not at all; everyone is fair game, everyone is his prey.

#21—Backwards

Sometimes Astoreth’s method of thinking would be considered “backwards” when treating Astarte good one day and then another day like a toy—a endless spiraling cycle.

# 22 -Trouble

Once a poor soul wanders off into the snake’s maze and entered their, his and his twin, territory, hope for survival is a laughable wish and trouble is one of the littlest worries to have.

# 23-Little

Little by little he plots his takeover of the Dark kingdom and little by little Lucifer’s reign falls apart—all he needed to do is take out that irritating Belial first.

#24 - Collar

“Come here, yes come here and let me cuff you,” the Satan of Sloth would say once his playful mood kicked in, and before the victim knew it a thick leather collar would encase their neck and then the torture would begin.

#25-Circle

The experiment of failed specimens, the torture, the rejection, the attempted murder of the specimen, the rebellion to survive and escape this white, feathery-winged inferno, the choice to join the legion of Darkness, all an endless cycle that ceases to come to a finale.

#26 - Hands

These hands of his are capable of inflicting pleasure, pain, destruction and much more than he could imagine, but he’s having a ball discovering what else they can do, and he doesn’t consider them sullied only when they touch the pure, pristine wings of the Sevy’s followers.

#27 - Freedom

Their, his and his sister’s, hand clawed the bloodied glass walls trying to find a way out of this confined hole where no one can hear the cries of agony and see the tears of rage flooding out of their eyes, and so he pledged revenge on all this; he swore an oath to the one dark angel that lead his ideals and took him away from this endless cycle of experimentation, as if he were meant to live his days out as God’s experiment, and when he took the chance to leave this place, leave with the army of demons for good the thought of damnation for eternity seemed like freedom compared to this.

# 28 –Last

Last time Astoreth remembered, it was the Angels that were the true evil beings, because although he reveled in incest, slavery, torture and sinful sex play—and enjoyed doing it—he wasn’t the one who created abominations and threw them away to suffer an existence of agony just to fore fill a silly whim; to toy around with it’s own creation out of boredom—they are the true demons.

#29-Scab

A scab and a thorn to his side described how much Astarte crippled him of his power, yet she also was his crutch against the world.

#30 - Crown

The glory of revenge dropped him to the dark world below, and as a prize his title of the Marquis and cold bloody nature donned him the position of the Satan of sloth.

# 31 - Time

Eons breeze by like the rush of harsh, hot wind, and not once has the pain of rejection left or lessen the poison of anger, hatred and resentment left the demon lord; time will never put to rest the pain of a damned existence to rest.

# 32 - Rice

Although his sister wanted to go with the absurd idea of turning his wench into her “baby,” he decided to keep her as his play-thing for the moment—until he grows bored or hungry for demoness flesh—collaring her and forcing her to do things for him by starving her, reducing her to eat one grain of rice a day.

# 33-Worn

And although the woman, his current play-thing, resisted and refused to succumb to his petty torments, his savage beatings did enough to make her squirm in agony like a worn worm on a hook.

#34 – Paint

The vivid colors of ruby red flicked a delicious tremor through his system—the color, the smell, the memory of it clogged up his vision and he could practically lick up the tangy, metallic taste teasing his tongue, and if it were possible he’d paint the world a nice thick coat of bloody red.

#35 – Ache

Hearing the futile wails of his sister accusing him of murder each time he crushed her “child” brought an indispensable pain he could get rid of—Astoreth remembered her last scream before the silence filtered in for good and the ache of not hearing her cries and demands again dampened the void in the darkness.

#36 - Cherry

The color of cherries was a favorite of the demon, lots of things were the color of cherries; ruby lips of a victim, eyes of cursed children born of angels, the splash of warm blood coating the naked body of a woman, dipping fruit in blood...now that he thought of it, the urge of running his tongue over a gaping wound spilling blood sounded delicious.

# 37-Library

No matter the number of books you read, not one single one will have written the truth of his coming to being.

#38 - Win

He had finally achieved what he boasted about to others: separating from his sister for good and to have full control of the body--although in some corner of his black heart it bleed, and forever will having lost his partner, his companion, his twin for good.

#39 - Loss

The angels believed the punishment of God disowning them and falling to the nether world below counted as the worst possible fate any angel and being alike can be bestowed, and Astoreth always scoffed at the nonsense of those fears; leaving God isn’t a loss at all.

# 40-Fold

All the wenches lost in the death maze if their land always stare at the folds of black clothing or their feet directly—staring at them dead in the snake’s eye would kill them faster than intended.

#41 - Music

Silence played a passive melody he rarely received, but the scream of dying demons was pure music in his ears.

#42 –Bell

The sound’s of bells ringing reminds them of things that never came, such as true existence.

#43—Sleep

During their sleep sometimes they can reach out to one another and hold each other like they did briefly once upon a time, before the experiment united them.

#44—Contact

It was because Astarte loved him with all her cold-blooded heart that she often wished she could touch him with separate hands; hands that weren’t theirs instead hers and then the world wouldn’t feel so dark and ghastly.

#45—Electricity

In his humanoid form, he was beautiful as he was meant to be, but his beauty laced with a darkness that chill the bones and when he kissed a wench the electricity rushing through him spoke of the sin he possessed.

#46—Milk

Astarte, much to Astoreth’s dismay, frequently wishes to be able to bear children in her sometimes womb and wishes to be able to feed a baby milk through her sometimes breasts—only these parts are borrowed and turned male by her other half.

#47—Wild

She watches with envy as Astoreth makes wild love with Lucifer’s first wife, Barubello, just for the sake of pleasure and to spite the king of Hell when he could do so much better than a demoness who has spent her existence spreading her legs for many.

#48—Expectation

She hoped her brother wouldn’t go through with it—but as her hopes are always fated to be dashed down to bits—he did sleep with the Queen of Hell and he planned to soil their body with her filth more frequent, and the expectation he will stop ceases to exist.

#49—Mechanism

By biological terms, they were an aberration to life and all things breathing and living just because of the simple detail they weren’t really male or female, but of the third gender; both.

#50—Finale

When the Mad Hatter left him alone on his knees to mourn the death of his sibling, he knew that this was the real thing, the real goodbye between them—and although he wished for so many times the death of his sister—he didn’t want to say goodbye, the bloody tears streaming down his cheeks was proof of her finale.

The End.