Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Blood leaked from the young woman’s body as she walked through the cursed forest. The exact position of where the blood was coming from, a complete mystery to the young woman as she continued her walk.

Cuts, burn wounds, and bruises covered her entire body leaving a lot to the imagination to understand what the girl had gone through.

Mildew and Rotten Soil that reeked of the dead filled her nostrils. However some of the plant life around her gave off sweet and enticing fragrances.

Smelling of honey and tempting fruits that begged her to take a bite. However she knew if she caved to her hunger in this place she'd be trapped here for all of eternity. In Between reality. A phantom unable to interact with the physical world.

Traveling through LeyLines was always difficult, Kaos, her lifelong friend and partner had warned her about them, and this one was no different. Her dwindling mental state and injuries made this affair more difficult of a task. But she forced herself to push on and endure. She would endure.

“Live for us.” That was the final request she had been given. By her lover. By her family. To survive the nightmare that had taken all their lives away.

Alastor.

That Devil clan name. It was her curse, her birthright and had been the cause of every tragedy that had befallen her. This name however had also been the cause of her greatest joys as well. It was the reason she had come to meet her master, Amelia Malphas. It was how she met Siris, who came to be like her mother.

She remembered when she finally got the courage and told Siris, about her not feeling like a boy. How Siri had crafted beautiful dresses and articles of clothing for her. Spun by her own hand. How Siris had traveled the depths of the Underworld in search of doctors and special potions and herbs that allowed her to avoid the harsh reality of “boy puberty” that awaited the confused boy-girl and allowed her to transition into a beautiful young woman.

Her family name was also how she met her first love, the girl she promised to always cherish and protect, Freya Onoskelis.

She was wearing a black dress, a simple black dress that was the last gift of her mother, her true mother, the one that had raised her since she was nine years old. Siris had sown this dress from her very own hair. Her last gift from the spider Devilness. Before her death. Freya and the others had used threads and needles to add to the dress, to help it grow as Emiri had. The dress was tattered and covered in blood.

Even her new name, Emiri, had been bestowed to her by the woman that raised her. Everything about her, her identity, it was tied to Amelia Malphas and her peerage.

Emiri believed she had done everything right. She fought to protect those she cared about. Even killed for them when asked. She had given everything…her body, her mind, her soul, and all her power for them. Now they are all gone. Died at the hand of the person who swore to love her the most. She was just 18 years of age but she felt she had lived an entire lifetime. A series of birth and rebirth.

She thought she had found happiness only to feel it once again swept from under her feet.

The young woman was so weak that it was a miracle she could even stand at this point. She half-crawled, half-walked through the giant forest, with trees that appeared to have eyes, stretching all the way to Heaven and for miles in front of her. She tried to focus ahead but the voices and dark whispers of the forest and the fear and guilt of her mind played tricks on her.

In her left hand she held the demon sword, Angurvadal, the last gift from Amelia Malphas.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw him. The soft young boy who had been her only friend at the orphanage. Who had comforted her when she lost her left eye during a baptism ceremony. Sora. His unforgettable mischievous smile. Those soft green eyes.

The one who cried her to sleep so many nights she had lost count of how many there were. The only one who allowed her to be a girl in his presence. Who protected her from all the bullies that felt like monsters when she was so young.

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Back when she was innocent. When she thought that mean orphans were the true monsters of this world.

Sora smiled at her and disappeared causing her to let out a cry. This second disappearing act. Was worse than the first one he pulled. She felt herself slump as she tried to force her body to ignore the torture and continue moving.

“Just sleep” a soft whisper spoke.

“You look so tired. take a nap.”

“Poor girl. What hardships you must have suffered. Eat some of my fruit and take a nap at my trunks.”

“No! No! No!” she loudly mumbled from the fog as she continued to press forward. She knew the rules. She tried to summon Kaos from her soul but the dragon that laid inside of her, a birthright gift ironically from the God who never seemed to care for her, was nowhere to be found. She wondered if this cursed forest had a way of distorting the connection between the two.

Tears mixed with blood streamed down her face as she tried to think of a way out of this situation. She couldn’t go back. She could never go back. So that only left her with the option of moving forward, of trying to get out of this place.

She believed she had done everything right. She fought to protect those she cared about. Now they are all gone. Died at the hand of the person who swore to love her the most. She was just 19 years of age but she felt she had lived an entire lifetime. A series of birth and rebirth. Tragedies both silent and loud that sent ripples through her soul.

She thought she had found happiness only to feel it once again swept from under her feet. All they needed to do was leave…and she would have married the woman she loved and finally had found peace. But fuck…everything always had to go wrong.

“Let go!”

The angry hostile, dark cold voice echoed in the back of her mind. The voice craved release. Euphoria. The desire to turn herself into a monster, one with no emotions. To shut off everything that made her still human. To allow her to kill, devour, and terrorize without fear or emotions.

This is what many demons did. To escape the guilt of the things they did or would do. To become monsters entirely in pursuit of power. It was why demons were so heavily feared by the church and humans. The ability to turn off personhood in pursuit of power, hunger, or pleasure. Just shut off all those voices in their head and make everything go black inside.

But she couldn’t.

Because she had made a promise to her.

A promise to live. To live for all of those that had died. To be the one to survive this nightmare. She felt a vine snag her and she almost fell to the ground. Her face, arms, and body were full of cuts and scars. But she refused to buckle now. She needed to keep moving. Anger, sadness, regret, and rage. All these emotions swelled inside of her and pushed her forward into the unknown.

Her legs buckled from under her and she found herself falling to the ground. She collapsed and was rewarded with a mouthful of dirt. She pulled one arm up and tried to steady herself, to force herself to take just another step. But her arm gave out and she collapsed back to the ground.

Everything…had it all been for nothing? She felt tears well into her eyes at this cruel twist of fate. The knowledge of what she had lost, gone for good. If she died, then everyone she had loved, knew, and cared about would die with her.

She couldn’t allow that to happen.

She would curse the Gods before she allowed that to happen. The young woman let out a scream, ignoring the torture she had endured just a few hours ago. She wasn’t very physically powerful. Her art of combat had always revolved around superior sword skill work, surprise attacks, and assassination.

But she would endure. Endure for her…and everyone else.

She forced herself to wander through the forest, a LeyLine of unreality, that connected the worlds together. This was a way for demons to travel, those without means. She had escaped one of the bases of her enemies, the people she swore she would kill one day. Malum, the Faction of the Original Lucifer. The people that had taken everything from her.

Katerea Leviathan. The woman that saw her not as a true devil, but a monster, a mutant. The woman who had filled his former master’s head with desire for power and rising to status.

Shalba Beelzebulb. The devil that treated Emiri like a lab rat. Experimentation after experimentation. Dark Matter transfusions. Surgeries. The man even experimented with the evil piece inside of her. A fucking hypocrite. He spoke of power and strength but he was willing to use drugs and tricks to get ahead.

Creuserey Asmodeus. The one who had sent them on mission after mission. Making it so Emiri and her peerage killed themselves little by little. Espionage. Theft. Downright murder. There were factions and people all over the Human Realm and Underworld that wanted Emiri dead, would rip out their own wings or fangs to cause her pain, all because Alaric promised her master power and purpose. Stealing a holy sword from the church? Fucking insane. They lost people as the years trickled on. Amelia Malphas grew madder and madder but he didn’t care. He merely saw them as tools to be played with and disposed of as needed.

And last but not least, Rizevim Lucifer. The one and only. The son of Lilith and Lucifer. The one pulling all the strings. She had never met the man, but she had felt his cruelty ripple, in the devils he surrounded himself with. Arrogant, self centered, and egotistical devils who saw their blood as proof of their superiority.

And finally Rizevim’s lap dogs, Nikolas Dagon and Euclid Lucifuge. She needed to live, not for herself, but for revenge. To make all those monsters pay. For all those they had hurt. They thought heritage and birthright made them strong. They thought they were superior on the basis of just being born that way. And they would kill or crush anyone they deemed under them with no mercy or hesitation.

Emiri felt her anger flare as she let out one last scream of pain before she came to the edge of a road. A large semi-truck roared past her. Wind bustling past his face and causing her to breath out a heavy sigh of exhaustion.

She was back.

{Emiri. You made it. You're back in the human realm.}

The voice inside her head said, it was clear there was a voice of pride at Emiri’s accomplishments. “I could’ve…used some help back there.” Emiri complained to her only living friend. The voice of the one sealed inside of the sacred gear.

The World she had long since abandoned after choosing to cloak herself in the embrace of her master Amelia all those years ago. The place where she would survive and grow stronger until she was able to take the fight back to Malum and kill them all.

The human world.

This felt like the end, like maybe she could survive. But little did she know. This was only just the beginning.