Pavement

Magoth grinned an evil grin as he walked out of the control room. The Boss was gonna like this report. He scratched the spot on his head that always itched, right between his horns, as he waddled up the stone ramp. These humans were so easy to pluck. It was like taking candy from a baby, something Magoth always enjoyed. This last report showed yet another increase in disease, crime, violence, traffic accidents, shootings and all the other categories that Magoth lived for. Now that he was Overlord of Acquisitions he had a first hand look at the steadily increasing rate of human souls condemned to hell. It was amazing how the humans seemed to be intent on helping that number grow to new heights. Not only did they continue to actively promote hate and fear, it seemed the more their technology grew the easier the few in power were able to tame the rest into uneasy submission. It was great for The Boss. Magoth looked around as he made his way to the inner sanctum. It had taken him almost a thousand years to get here, but the view was worth it. The control room, a vast area cut from the face of the rock by slaves, was just underneath the mammoth ledge The King of Death used to survey his kingdom. Giant windows (that not by accident) looked like a skull's eyes complimented the stairway that made up the grinning teeth of the skull. A hundred feet or more in height, it did what it was supposed to do, instill yet more dread into the hearts of the lost as they arrived. And he, Magoth, was in charge! It was a heady feeling, one he knew wouldn't wear off for hundreds of years. Especially with reports like this to hand to Belial.
At the giant hole in the rock that served as the entrance to the inner sanctum the two matching demons that guarded the doorway gave him a desultory glance and went back to their card game. Eleven feet tall, unequivocally female, their red skin shone in the firelight like fresh blood. Massive breasts behind hammered copper breastplates added to the sense of power the bulging arms and legs evoked. Their spears, six inches in diameter, looked like toys propped against the walls but Magoth knew they could hurl them miles across the cavern and impale a human at will, something they often did when losing a hand.
Walking into the sanctum was always a little unnerving, even for a high-ranking Overlord such as himself. The cave itself was huge, maybe one hundred yards across and twice that deep. In the far recesses was where Abaddon lived, and no demon, high-ranking or no, had ever been back into those depths. A few humans had been taken back there and even Magoth shuddered at the thought of what happened to them. Most of the cave was composed of black stone with occasional streaks of red and gray in the strata. Huge benches had been carved out along the walls, benches where The Tempter's henchmen would wait their turn to see the Father of Lies. The ledge itself reached out into thin air above the leering skull face below a hundred feet or more, ending in space. The view from the edge was magnificent. All of Hell, laid out below like a map. The pits of lava, the glow of brimstone, the chain gangs of naked humans being led to dispersal, and of course the pen for new arrivals. Magnificent in its evilness. Occasionally you could hear, like the cries of distant birds, the screams of humans being dismembered, scalded, flayed, sliced, and/or crushed. To each his fate, over and over day after day, forever. Magoth shivered with the deliciousness of it all. And from the looks of this report it was just going to keep getting better.
Belial liked to fool around with his appearance. Yesterday he'd been a green-scaled dragon, breathing fire and incinerating a few mortals. The greasy spots on the rock floor indicated where they'd been standing. Today he was in the shape of an accountant. Normally twenty feet high, today he was 5' 7" and slightly overweight. Spectacles and a white shirt over a pasty complexion finished the illusion. He loved to fuck with the humans this way. Oh sure, sometimes He'd do the dragon, or King Kong, or maybe even the alien from that movie. Another current favorite of The Bringer of Pain was female movie stars. That one really blew the humans way. A thousand years ago it'd been gargoyles and trolls and giants. Whatever humans liked to scare themselves with He was the master of exploiting. After all, wasn't He 'The Father of Lies'? His mighty throne, a giant black stone edifice, today appeared as a small desk and a couple of chairs with a green covered lamp. It looked totally incongruous in the setting, what with the fires of hell in sight over the edge of the precipice and the row of major demons sitting along the walls, some eating pieces of humans leftover from this morning. But humans were always easy to fool. For some reason, even sitting in hell, they couldn't comprehend that the being across from them was The King of Darkness. Instead they clung to the illusion that it was really another human, one from which they might find succor. Yeah, right. Magoth snorted.
Today The Wicked One had a couple of humans in front of Him, new arrivals. They, like the others, refused to take their eyes off Lucifer's now-human face. They clung to the only normalcy around them like a life raft in a storm. Soon enough they'd find out the life raft was the biggest shark in the sea.
Magoth stood back to wait. Much as he knew The Boss would like this report, he knew he'd rather finish playing with the humans. And Magoth loved to watch Satan at work. These two had no idea what they were in for.
"You say you don't remember how much you deducted in 1976? Says here you earned $18,732, yet you claimed a business deduction that year of $1800. Almost ten percent?"
The voice was calm, but the human was quaking. Even in disguise The Master of Disaster was somewhat overpowering. Hours of accounting questions had driven the human to a frazzle. This one was about to collapse. He croaked out a mumbled reply.
"I'm afraid that's not a good enough answer. We'll have to take measures."
Beelzebub was playing with this human. Of course Abaddon knew, like he knew everything, how much, to the penny, this guy had cheated on his taxes in 1976.
Standing, The Accursed walked around the table. Effortlessly he wrenched the man's arm out of its socket, slowly, to maximize the excruciating pain. Watching dispassionately he let the man scream and writhe a few moments, then kicked him off the precipice. The man's screams continued all the way down, a good seven or eight seconds, till he bounced off the solid rock floor of the cavern. Of course he was still alive and suffering, after all, that was why he was here. The minor feeding demons soon ripped him apart, silencing his suffering for now. What the poor human didn't yet realize was that in the morning he'd wake up, whole, and get to experience another day in hell. Over and over and over. The irony was sweet to Magoth.
Satan turned His head and motioned to Magoth. Decapitating the other human with a backhand He resumed His seat and nodded to Magoth to sit in the now empty chair.
"How many souls?" The Unholy Voice commanded. Still in disguise The Father of Darkness now let His voice resume its normal thunderous tone. Small rocks were dislodged off the cavern walls and humans far below felt a stab of fear.
"Over seven thousand, Great One. That's another increase."
"Hah! They just can't stop doing it to themselves, can they?"
"Apparently not, my Black Lord. The more the population grows the higher the percentage we're getting. Like a positive feedback loop."
"What irony. The more they "improve" their technology, the more of them we get. That idea of yours, to give them a push by allowing medicine to be developed, was masterful. In only a few hundred years the population has exploded. The more they chew up their limited resources the faster they grow and the higher our numbers are. And of course, soon enough, they'll suck the planet dry and collapse. We'll have a feeding orgy the likes of which has never been seen."
Magoth knew a large part of his promotion to Overlord of Acquisitions was thanks to his insisting that Beelzebub stop suppressing the inborn urge of humans to improve their lot. By letting a few select humans live, Jonathon Salk who had gone on to invent polio vaccine, along with a few other similar choices like Alexander Fleming and Louis Pasteur, the trigger for unchecked population growth was pulled. Heaven had claimed those few, but the volume since had more than made up for that loss.
Satan leaned back in His chair and pushed the spectacles up to His forehead. Something He couldn't do unless He was in disguise as His mighty horns would have been in the way.
"What about the darkness?" He rumbled.
"Always growing, Mighty Sire, always growing. It seems they are determined to cover the Earth with this thing they call "pavement".
"Excellent. Most excellent. And once again, how ironic." The Devil laughed, a sound that killed several hundred humans below the cliff face. Until tomorrow, at least, when they would rise again to suffer.
"Report tomorrow, Magoth. Well done."
Magoth nodded as he stood to take his leave. He knew Satan had pressing details to deal with; in the last few days the situation in the middle east had cooled off and needed the deft touch of his Highness. The Master liked it hot in that region.
Magoth fairly skipped as he left the sanctuary. "Well done" from Satan Himself was the equivalent of a thousand maidens to torture. It made Magoth burst with pride. The words would ring in his head all night.

Both the King of Darkness and Magoth knew and approved of the changing situation on Earth. Humans, in their infinite stupidity, not only were stripping the planet of everything it had to eat, ignoring the fact that sooner or later they'd run out, they were also destroying the very Earth that grew their food. They were paving it over! In the richest country already a significant percentage of the Earth was covered with a new impenetrable covering. This covering, this "pavement", took many forms, highways, suburbs, shopping mall parking lots, even sidewalks. What the humans didn't realize was that Hell was kept in check by the light from Heaven. Only one thing could block that light. Purposeful destruction of Mother Earth. "Pavement" was the single most effective thing humans had developed to do just that. All other human inventions, farming, fire, flooding, were as nothing to the Earth. "Pavement" however was completely dense to the light of heaven. As the rays passed though Earth and were blocked Hell grew in size and influence. In the last one hundred years the change had been dramatic. Dozens of new caverns had been opened up, millions of legions of newly apprenticed demons were at work, and The Boss was happy. It was like great cosmic shutters were closing on the searing Heaven-light, blocking it out and allowing Hell to thrive.
And when The Boss was happy Magoth was happy.

As the light from above dimmed so grew the legions of darkness. Magoth knew Beelzebub was waiting for the opportune moment, the crux of time when the human world was in disarray and total collapse from their own machinations and the darkness of pavement at a maximum. Heaven would be overwhelmed with the collapse of humanity, leaving open a window Beelzebub would exploit. Fully.

Magoth shivered with delight. Damn and hell, he loved being a demon!