No one's POV:

Taehyung shivered as he felt a gust of foul wind brush against his brown locks and kiss the apples of his cheeks.

Hell, a place normally depicted to be a fiery expanse with little light was anything but hot.

No, the realm was as cold as ice once you reached the edges and it was filled with agonised screams of those sent to suffer in the River of Styx.

The black and murky water came into view as Taehyung marched on forward, slightly shielded by the warmth of his lover's hand placed on the small of his back.

The cries gradually got louder to the point of ear-piercing intensity. The wails of immense pain and terror made the Angel's breathing slightly laboured.

Suddenly, Taehyung understood the fiery depictions and Jeongguk muttered something in an ancient dialect.

"Rex tuus venit. Incendant
ignes. Bonos absconde; tenebrae possideant." The Devil murmured as his eyes glowed in all of their red, bloody glory. 

The ground rumbled and gallons of fire burst out from the cracks that surrounded the endless depths of water.

Taehyung stood shocked at what had happened, now, he felt far from cold. The ignition of the red and orange flames made Taehyung's skin tingle.

Jeongguk however, seemed unfazed at what had happened. A low chuckle pushed through his lips as he saw his Angel's gawking expression.

"Close your mouth, you look like a fish Tae. I only summoned the fires so I can contain the dead souls." Jeongguk explained in an amused tone.

The Angel had never seen something so breathtaking, he couldn't help but stare at the ominous man next to him.

His mate truly was a burning enigma. Nothing that Taehyung had ever seen could compare to the handsome Devil.

Jeongguk's dark orbs contained so much, both the love and the hate. The anger and the calmness. The fear and the bravery.

For someone who had lost so much in all of his years there were seemingly no words to describe him. Hence Taehyung liked to use the word enigma.

The paradox that was the king of Hell.

Taehyung knew one side but many knew the other. The Angel knows the man next to him is dangerous but somehow that never bothered him.

Maybe it was the bond or maybe it was the sheer fascination?

Jeongguk isn't just the Devil, he is still a man- Taehyung saw that in him when no one else could.

The fear over what he had just witnessed dissipated as Jeongguk slid his hand into Taehyung's and griped it tightly.

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to but I figured that if you are going to be here from now on then you should see what I am capable of. I do this about every two or three days to settle down the souls and keep them contained so they face their punishment." Jeongguk explained as he nudged Taehyung to continue walking with him.

"It's scary but it's cool. I wanted to see what your job as a king is so don't apologise. I was startled, that's all." His mate replied as he focused on the kindling flames in front of him.

The Devil continued walking until they neared the edge of the water. The king moved Taehyung back slightly, so that he was out of the way.

However, Jeongguk didn't see the soul of a man reaching his hand out of the midnight black water edging forward towards the Angel's foot.

The bones were mostly all that was visible apart from the odd patch of moldy skin hanging onto the sharp edges.

Rattling in the harsh wind, the bones gave away the dead man's plan and Jeongguk whipped around towards the scene.

Taehyung let out a bloodcurdling scream when the hand latched itself onto his ankle and used the limb to pull the rest of the body out of the water.

Jeongguk's eyes widened as he scrambled to get to where Taehyung was standing.

If the soul successfully pulled the Angel into the water, Taehyung would take his place among the punished and their positions would swap.

The soul would be among the living while Taehyung would be sent to eternally suffer.

In one swift motion Jeongguk formed a ball of black light and aimed it at the joint of the arm.

The tugging on Taehyung's leg stopped and the Angel shook around violently to get the grip to loosen.

All of the arm except for the boney hand shattered and fell back into the black depths.

"Taehyung stay still please, you are fine now- trust me." Jeongguk uttered as Taehyung took deep breaths to calm his nerves.

The Devil leaned down to where the hand was now laying on the floor and flung it back into the water.

"What was that! It- AHH oh sweet mercy it touched me Jeongguk what in the name of all things holy wa-" The Angel was suddenly cut off by Jeongguk shushing him and enveloping Taehyung's shaky form into a hug.

Jeongguk then proceeded to whisper things like "don't worry" and "it's gone now" into Taehyung's ear.

"That was a dead soul, the man wanted to trade places with you so he would be among the living and you would be among the dead." Jeongguk explained as he let go of Taehyung and untucked the Angel's chin out of his chest.

"Oh." Was all Taehyung said as he looked down at his ankle. For some reason he still felt the tight grip on his ankle even though it wasn't there.

"It's all fine now though, I stopped it before anything more could happen." The king uttered as he moved Taehyung even further back, in the middle of two bursting fire jets.

Jeongguk returned to his original position, crouched down by the misty water and pulled out his knife from his boot.

Slipping the cover off, Jeongguk pointed the curved blade towards his finger and pierced the delicate flesh.

Liquid gold blood flowed out from the prick and Jeongguk hovered his dripping finger over the water, letting the blood ooze out.

The blood quickly splashed down and coloured the water into a gold tone instead.

The gold colour quickly spread as the body of multiple devourers swam towards the blood.

This turned the creatures into a golden colour and as they swam off into the distance- presumably to feast on the soul of some poor mortal- the previously black water glowed a rich gold shade.

Taehyung gasped as he saw the magnificent sight in front of him, the steaks of gold created a beautiful contrast and soon the entirety of the black abyss of water turned fully gold.

The exact same colour as the Demon's blood.

Jeongguk smirked as the devourers swam away, Taehyung looked very impressed and although that wasn't his original goal, it was a substantial perk.

However, the gold water soon lost its colouring and turned back into a deep black- somehow blacker than before.

The screams temporarily stopped and Jeongguk walked over to Taehyung to protect his ears for what was to come.

Next followed an eardrum shattering scream. All of the souls yelled out at once in tremendous pain. The sound echoed and bounced off of the surroundings.

Jeongguk appeared unfazed, he had grown used to the dead souls complaints and now, it no longer bothered him.

As soon as the screams settled down, the king removed his hands from Taehyung's ears and proceeded to explain what had happened while Taehyung's ears had been covered.

"Wow." Was all Taehyung could let out, the shock still evident and the events were far from being settled in.

Taehyung was completely awestruck by what had just happened. He looked like a fish again but he didn't care because that was epic.

Jeongguk chuckled at the response or lack there of and took ahold of Taehyung's soft hand yet again.

"Impressed daring?" Jeongguk asked, a cheeky tone lacing his voice

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response." Taehyung replied as he turned around and began to drag Jeongguk back towards the castle.

"Oh come on, that's the coolest move I have." Jeongguk complained as he pouted in Taehyung's direction.

Taking notice of the sad puppy behind him, Taehyung sighed and turned back around to face his mate.

"Okay. That was impressive. Will you stop looking like a depressed potato now?" Taehyung queried as he gave in to Jeongguk's pout.

"Yes. Yes I will. By the way- I'm a  handsome looking depressed potato." The Demon stated and Taehyung gave him the side eyes but didn't bicker any further.

Taehyung decided to let Jeongguk have his little moment. There would be plenty of times in the future to argue about which vegetable best suited Jeongguk's sad state.