~ What if the gods answered… but the answer was no…? ~

Eluvia

The Obsidian Throne was a very daunting centrepiece, emphasised by the fact that I was the only breathing existence currently standing in its presence.

Seemingly fashioned from a single gargantuan piece of volcanic felsic lava, it appeared too plain in its construct for the intrusive role it played in the balance of the entire world.

Maybe I had grown too complacent – having been in its presence far too often and for far too long.

‘Imposing…’ concluded my thoughts. ‘Insipid,’ I corrected my outlook after a second.

The Throne was so old that the castle was built around it during a time where Demons didn’t quite fully understand the uncanny object. Yet it was now fused into the literal foundation upon which we had built our society.

It looked vulnerable… and my thought momentarily flickered to my ability to rend apart nearly every material in existence with surgical precision.

Perhaps it was hubristic of me to even fathom the act…

A sudden force filled the throne room as a singularity expanded in a flash in front of the immoveable object, and the Demon Queen was suddenly standing there.

The shockwave of her teleportation violently fluttered my nightgown with the threat of tearing it right off, before quickly settling the room back into silence.

I took notice as to how the darkness around us seemed to eat away at any sound, making them muffled as if travelling through a liquid medium. It ate away at the flash of light as well… but that wasn’t needed for demons to see. Darkness was its own kind of illumination.

I remained unmoved by the momentary change, the silver chains and crystal jewellery in my hair jangled as the strands rippled when I turned my attention to the new presence of insurmountable power.

A frown marred the face of the draconic creature as she took notice of the space… but then recognition gleamed in her lurid purple eyes as she took notice of me.

“Contemplating an overthrow?” she asked with a smile. Her deep emotionless voice bounced around the multitudes of columns and up the walls of the vast ovular room.

I didn’t answer…

We both knew that the Obsidian Throne did not work that way.

It was demonic power incarnate, and the atmosphere around it was saturated with magica that could suffocate weaker demonic entities.

Nobody could touch the Throne – not even with an attack – aside from a select few, of which I wasn’t included.

The Queen moved… with a fluidity that complimented her regal appearance well. “Using hostility against the Throne to summon me is certainly a feat only you would dare to even attempt…”

She descended the steps from the Obsidian Throne with a deliberately slow stride…

Her legs were digitigrade though, so that might have played a factor as to how careful she was with the placement of her feet.

The Queen wasn’t that tall despite the extra centimetres of elevation the extra joint of her ankle provided.

Many of the Demons in her employ were taller or far more muscular than her… or both.

I simply happened to be a bit diminutive in size due to my lineage.

But one’s physical appearance was a meagre factor in the assignment of ranks.

Her massive tail curled around her feet as she stopped in front of me and bent down to run the claws of her hand delicately over my left cheek.

“Is it… painful?” the Demon Queen asked.

I lifted my head to level with her gaze, but I doubted that she could see my eyes behind the white ribbons of my blindfold.

“Show me.” She ordered as her claws continued their path over my chest… down to my left hip.

Like an extra pair of arms, my two lengthy braids lifted from behind me and slid into the collar of my nightgown, slipping the silk fabric from my shoulders… while a few other strands of hair kept the attire from falling past my waist.

I watched as the Demon Queen’s eyes widened momentarily, before her face hardened again. “For your beauty to be marred by such an injury…”

The left side of my lower abdomen was marked by the poorly healed remnants of three holes where the trident of one of the heroes had flooded my body with an ungodly amount of magically induced lightning.

The prolonged electrical damage had melted its way through my magica circuits… leaving Lichtenberg Figures extending from the area of the three holes that looked more like actual circuitry from a golem’s design – spread across the entirety of my left side in hues of black and deep, angry reds.

It was a miracle that I had even survived the blow, given that I had been knocked unconscious from the pain of my skin being flayed and parts of my flesh sloughing off from the heat the powerful currents had.

The permanent injury extended down my left leg to my ankle… over my chest… all across my left arm to midway through my forearm… and up the side of my neck.

It was all the more prominent with no fabric hiding it… accentuated by the fact that my skin was marble white.

Even with immediate intervention, there had been consequences to my act of intrepidity.

My body hadn’t healed fully, and due to that I had been robbed of a significant portion of my powers, as well as partial functionality of my left limbs.

“Do you… resent it?” I asked, changing the subject – my voice grated and whispered from the destroyed nerves and magica circuits in my throat.

The Queen pulled back from her inspection of my subpar recovery – eyeing me in mild confusion.

“Your shackles.” I added in elaboration.

She took a cursory glance at the Obsidian Throne before smiling on a deep exhale. “I see… so you didn’t intend to call for me,” she realised. “The Throne is necessary. It’s simply the humans that have deemed it evil. Though I must point out that you can’t rely on my answer. I am incapable of bearing any significant emotions for or against it. I simply do not care for what you deem to be… my shackles.”

“I see…” I accepted her words.

My hair moved once again, dressing me back up with the ease of a thousand dexterously nimble fingers.

“Should you even be moving around so soon after waking?” she inquired after observing how careful I was with the fabric and its placement over the tender spots of my skin.

“I’m fine.” I said curtly.

“I can tell that you’re in pain.”

“It’s temporary.”

“Drosera informed me that you’ve lost your ability to fly…”

There was a moment of silence.

“It’s… temporary…” I repeated my words, frowning to myself at the unsurety in my own tone.

The Queen was a Drake, so she lacked physical wings, which led to the both of us sharing the same method of flight – along with a handful of the other Demon Generals.

She knew how badly our bodies would have to be damaged to prevent us from being airborne.

“Are you aware of the aftermath of the battle?” the Demon Queen asked.

“Shard-haven fell.”

“And how are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.”

“Eluvia…” the Queen voiced in concern. “Shard-haven was your home city… You are not fine. That much I can tell. You wouldn’t be standing here alone if you were. Much less contemplating acting against the Throne.”

“My apologies,” I bowed lightly, before turning around.

“I am relieving you of your duties until further notice,” the Demon Queen spoke.

I had barely managed to limp a few steps away, but I shifted my weight to my good leg as I stopped. “Is that an order your majesty?” I asked, resisting the urge to clench my fist.

“Yes, General Eluvia. As of this moment your rank and obligations are suspended until I deem it otherwise. Take the time off to go and see your family and friends. Make sure they’re okay…”

“Understood,” I sighed with a singular nod of acknowledgement. I wouldn’t be able to fight or take command in my current condition anyways.

“I’ve seen the fire of vengeance in many a gaze before your own,” said the Queen solemnly. “At least have the decency to heal fully before you go and try to do something stupid.”

I gave another slight nod wordlessly and slowly hobbled my way out of the throne room.

A few corridors later and I was staring up the imposing spiral staircase. that led to the medical wing of the castle.

I realised that my right hand was absently rubbing over the trident wounds as I contemplated ways to surmount my current set of obstacles easier.

‘The descent wasn’t this… challenging,’ I thought to myself.

“General…?” The Shadow Knight standing by the corridor to guard the stairs eyed me gingerly from the void of his helmet’s slit. “W-would you like – Uhm… Do you require any assistance?”

“I’ll manage,” I assured him in a raspy voice, while ignoring the slight flinch he made over each of my words that made his armour clank.

I directed my gaze to the ground, taking notice for the first time as to how dirty it actually was…

I was reluctant to have even a single strand of my hair touch the stone floor.

Even now, the entirety of the two-metre-long undulating mass of my hair and its adornments remained shifting in the air, as if caught in a gentle perpetual river current.

The sound of footsteps distracted me from the internal debate.

I turned my head towards the approaching figure.

“Lady Eluvia…” the man said in genuine surprise. “I heard that you were grievously wounded in the last battle. If I had known you were up and about, I wouldn’t have excluded you from the meeting.”

“Sir Leith,” I inclined my head slightly towards the fellow General.

“Please, no need to force yourself,” he returned the light bow. “Are you on your way to the laboratories?”

“Medical,” I corrected him.

“I see…” he looked at me with a pondering look. “How are your injuries doing?”

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“Tolerable.”

“This might be uncouth of me, but I want to grab a moment of your time to discuss some things,” he gestured down the hall – clearly towards his office.

Since it was a distraction from me having to take my way upstairs, I graciously accepted his invitation.

“Lady Drosera says that you might not remember this, but you held on to the hero’s weapon as it impaled you. I thought you were going down to the labs to check up on the progress of its reverse engineering,” he started speaking as he matched my slow and uneven steps.

“It’s here…?” I was surprised.

“The miasma of the Throne is the only thing powerful enough to supress the holy aura of the trident, enough so that it cannot be tracked or be resummoned back to its owner,” he explained. “It was a struggle to even subdue it long enough to chain it down.”

“Why?”

“Lady Drosera is apparently still unsure as to the nature of your injury and why you can no longer just regenerate as normal. She ordered the trident taken alongside you just in case it’s some kind of spell it inflicted specifically to Supreme Demons.”

“Unnecessarily risky,” I noted.

“Perhaps so,” he agreed with a slight nod. “But as the humans would say… Two birds with one stone. Well – make it three in this instance. Aside from a solution to your injury, we may also learn how to counteract such divine receptacles entirely – not to mention that the humans are now down one more holy weapon.”

Once at the ornately carved door, he pushed it open and stood aside to hold it open for my entry.

“Beverage?” he gestured at the decanter of magically preserved blood as he passed the side table on his way to sit behind his desk.

I stared at the crystal wares for a moment once I had taken a seat… then shook my head.

“Right to business then,” he started. “The fall of Shard-haven has brought to light a very concerning issue. Though the multitude of discrepancies can’t discern it properly, it is conclusive that we either have demons working for humans, or humans hidden in our midst.”

“The barrier…” I realised, “was sabotaged.”

General Leith nodded with an overly serious expression. “It’s humiliating to admit, but they are very good at subterfuge. Without your prompt actions, few would have made it out alive.”

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on the edge of his desk and clasping his hands below his nose. “How did you know to act when you did…?”

I felt the open hostility pulse through the air.

‘He suspects me.’ I smiled lightly.

I would have suspected my response-time if I was him as well.

“Sister called,” I answered simply. “Lineage link,” I explained.

‘Is he testing me?’ At my full power, he wouldn’t even have dared question my allegiances or make such open threats.

“I’ve never heard of you having such an ability,” he frowned – his combat aura still rising in intensity.

“The Queen knows,” I countered. My hair remaining calm in its flow.

“I suppose I will have to ask her,” he sighed in resignation, disengaging his animosity towards me. “You’re a woman of so few words after all.”

“Was this all?” I asked, unruffled by his blatant display.

“You were checking the status of the active Portal Obelisks a few days ago, and up until the battle. I assume the inspection is incomplete.”

“Two remain…” I then paused. “Libra’s uncalibrated.”

“I figured – since you left it midway through inspection,” he motioned dismissively with one hand. “I sent out instructions to put a hold on its use. I don’t want anyone risking themselves past the safety date. Deliveries cannot be made the long way due to the delicate nature of the products though… How long till you can visit the port city to rectify this?”

I didn’t trust using my own portals to travel due to the shape I was currently in.

I didn’t trust the stability of my powers either.

It was questionable enough whether I could even complete the task of recalibrating the remaining Obelisks with my injury.

‘I will have to jump directly to the Taurus Obelisk from the castle and then hire a wyvern from Tempest’s Crest. Once Libra was fixed then…’

“Three days.”

“That’s sufficient I suppose…” General Leith nodded. “And the other two Obelisks?”

Another realisation hit me. “Pisces…”

I had left it for last on my list since it was in Shard-haven, and I would have been able to stop by the family estate for a day before coming back to my duties at the castle.

Hence why I was so fast to respond to the sudden attack, as well as evacuate the civilians.

I had only held the Pisces Obelisk stable since it was never designed with such an influx of Demons teleporting all at once.

“Can you get to it?” asked General Leith.

‘In the middle of now enemy occupied streets, with just a sliver of my now questionably useable powers?!’ “I’ll see,” I responded out loud despite my internal exclamations.

I didn’t find it necessary to notify him that I had currently been relieved of my duties by the Demon Queen herself.

“Before you engage in that endeavour, I’ll make sure you have the relevant documents in hand once my Nightmares come back from reconnaissance.”

“After-action report?” I asked.

“Nothing further of note from any of us…” General Leith thought about it for a second. “However, Lady Sheol may be seeking to challenge you for your position as the Eighth once more. She’s been pretty giddy since hearing of your injury.”

I gave a single nod of understanding. “And you?” I asked.

“I’m not ambitious enough to seek a spot in the top ten. Though, out of curiosity… would you be able to beat me right now if I challenged your position?” he arched a brow.

“I’d manage,” I assured him.

“Then I’d rather leave the surety of your losses to the humans’ heroes,” he grinned slightly.

I didn’t make a move since I sensed his defences go up. But to a lesser extent I still felt like tossing around a few of the furniture at his face.

I could understand why we were losing grounds to the humans now…

There was barely any unity amongst the Demons, and every opportunity taken to jab at each other was savoured.

If the throne and the queen didn’t exist, we’d all be no more than savage monsters with sapience.

Toleration was the only thing the Generals felt towards each other, and the fact that lesser Demons feared offending us in any respect left most situations hanging taut with an underlying current of threat.

‘Pointless…’ I surmised as I got up to leave.

I didn’t understand where these new thoughts, feelings and insights were coming from… but I knew when they had started.

I gave a slight bow to General Leith to excuse myself and walked out of his office.

I needed to see the trident.

I dismissed the Shadow Knight’s fumbling attempts to help me over his own fear, and proceeded to go down the steps as gingerly as I could while using the wall as a crutch.

My side sent pulses of pain everywhere whenever my abdominal muscles contracted.

Turning my torso about and sitting where much more strenuous than I could have ever fathomed.

I realised that I was pondering the intricacies of the muscular anatomy of one’s body before I could catch myself.

‘Again, these strange thoughts…’

They were getting progressively more noticeable. Especially when it was a clear deviation from my normal way of thinking.

I got down to the level of the dungeons, and the smell slapped me in the face with no regards.

Ammonia, salt, copper and sulphur!

I resisted the urge to pull the ribbons of my blindfold down over my nose.

The levels of the castle were separated by various types of barriers or negation magics. Which was why the moist scent of death and decay remained confined to their respective level.

I proceeded to walk past the dungeon cells while trying to ignore the majority of the movements and sounds coming from the ones that weren’t empty.

The duo of Shadow Knights standing on either side of the entrance door to the labs merely glance my way.

“General Voltz?” I asked.

One of the guards simply inclined his head and gestured for me to enter. “You’re expected General Eluvia.”

‘That was… unusual…’

I nodded at him and entered.

The corridor here was pristine, clinical and made of white marble.

On regular intervals on either side there were doors followed by crystal-glass windows, through which a view of the laboratory spaces withing could be observed.

And the door directly down the corridor was General Selenium’s personal quarters.

I knocked upon arrival, but didn’t wait for a response before pushing right in.

The tall, lithe figure was standing at the back of the room, peering through the thick crystal-glass that encompassed the entirety of the wall.

She pulled her hand away from the transparent surface as the Kelpie darted away to hide in the aquarium’s vegetation when I entered the room.

“Lady Selen…” I inclined my head lightly.

“Would you say that the word, Demon, has been bastardised?” the woman spoke out loud. “Humans even refer to these monsters as such, simply because they display a modicum of intelligence,” she gestured at the glass wall. “Thoughts?” she asked me with an arched brow.

“…Etymology is complex.” I noted.

“Eluvia darling, I consider you a fellow intellectual… Would it kill you to offer any sort of response that includes your own stance on matters?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Be philosophical about it then. Stimulate me!” she demanded.

I thought about it for a second…

“Perspective is subjective…?” I offered.

“Still as stale as ever…” she sighed, stepping away from the glass and making her way over to her desk and seating herself comfortably in the cushions of her large chair.

I approached and sat as well.

“Still in pain I see,” she commented at my slight wince. “I must apologise to you. Lady Drosera had asked me to prepare a fresh synthesis of Basilisk’s venom, but I’m still waiting on the delivery of the ingredients from Leviathan’s Bay. For the moment you’ll have to make do with minimal painkillers.”

‘The port city…’ Of which I had yet to recalibrate the Obelisk.

“Understandable,” I answered her in resignation to my own fate.

Selenium Voltz, wasn’t a combat-oriented General. Not that she couldn’t fight – she did have the Tenth position after all. But being constantly immersed in her work in the castle’s underground, it made sense that she was completely oblivious to most of the happenings of the outside world.

‘Lack of a proper communication network…’ My thoughts meandered through the implications of such a weakness and started to draw up parallels from recent events.

I frowned. ‘Why didn’t I notice this before?’

Then again, none of the other Generals or even the Queen had even made mention of the glaring issue.

But this… wasn’t the way I used to think either.

“I wanted to talk to you about the acquisition of some new specimen from the Demi-humans. They’ve been more frequent on the battlefields recently and have become quite the bother. They’re bolstering the humans. Irritating, truly-”

“The trident?” I cut across her.

She paused, ran a hand through her mane of wild copper hair, and released a heavy breath.

“I’ve barely begun tests,” she said, “but it is clearly damaged to an extensive degree. The weapon was utilised beyond its capacity. Whoever attacked you overloaded it. It was meant to be a decisive killing blow…”

I watched her eye me with curiosity in her greenish eyes.

“Did you fear for your life when you felt your body dying?” she asked.

“No.” I answered curtly.

General Selenium shrugged her shoulders and got up without a word.

I followed her movements with my head as she made her way over to a bookshelf to activate the passageway to her personal hidden room.

The shelf was pulled into the wall soundlessly, before being slid aside.

She stepped in momentarily, and then came back out brandishing the hero-weapon.

A pang of convoluted emotions ran their course down my spine as my good hand clasped the armrest of the chair so hard it nearly splintered.

I hated the very sight of it!

“A fascinating piece, if I do say so myself,” she extended it out to me once she was close enough. “I personally handled the dismantling of the tracking and homing crystals within. Unless a hero get’s their hands on it again, consider it basically decommissioned.”

I reached out… momentarily hesitating against contacting the metal – before steeling my resolve and taking a hold of the shaft.

It was cold, but inert.

“What are you going to do with it?” Selenium asked as her gaze skimmed over the length of the weapon.

“Return the favour,” I told her as I tucked the trident into my hair over my shoulder until it had completely disappeared.

“Not even the Queen can use an artifact of the holy attribute. And right now, it’s just an ordinary weapon,” she pointed out as she returned standing at the glass of her aquarium. “I get that it doesn’t take much to kill a human, but your retaliation is folly.”

“Is it unjustified?” I asked.

“No. But the state of your injuries… as bad as they are… What you seek to attempt is suicide.”

“Do you oppose?”

“At you removing yourself from the rankings…? Hardly.”

“You care for rank?”

“Unlike me, I know. But everyone has reasons for their ambitions.” She waved it off.

“I’ll take my leave,” I got up, bowed lightly.

“If you don’t die, I’d like to take another poke at that weapon. So, take care of yourself sweetie,” she waved her fingers at me from over her shoulder without looking back.

For a moment I watched as the Kelpie poked its head out from an outcrop of seaweed and eyeing the room.

“I’ll see to it,” I agreed, recovering from my pause and walking out.

Making my way back up the staircase took four times the effort and quadruple the time, but I managed to make it back to the medical wing.

The Shadow Knight stationed on this floor gave me a curt nod to acknowledge my return, but didn’t utter a single word as to how worn-out I looked after the arduous task of conquering a few flights of stairs.

“There you are.”

One of General Drosera’s facsimile eyed me as I unsteadily made my way past it.

“You’re going to tear your body apart if you keep pushing yourself like that,” she said in a bored tone. “And if you insist, then I’ll have to tie you in place.”

I stopped and turned my head towards her at the threat.

“Unnecessary,” I told her.

The Dryad’s clone shifted her weight slightly to her other foot, a momentary frown marring her forehead.

It was clearly the emoted response to some other conversation happening elsewhere in the castle bleeding into the iteration of her that I was currently facing.

Her eyes then found mine again. “If you weren’t a valuable asset to her majesty, then I wouldn’t be asserting my point. It would take far too much time and resources to find a replacement – much less someone capable enough to fill the vacancy.”

‘Had she just checked in with the Queen on that matter?’ “How flattering…” I noted dryly.

“I’ve warned the others against making a move for the time being. But I have many blind spots outside the castle grounds.”

“I appreciate the warning.” I genuinely admitted.

“I’ve already had your attire cleaned and mended, but your weapon wasn’t repairable. The blow you were dealt destroyed the artefact and its crystal enchantments.”

“A negligible loss,” I assured her as I continued on, making my way to the room I had been admitted in.

“Eluvia…” a sliver of emotion slipped into her tone. “Your body is in an almost irreparable state, and it might remain that way. Even the smallest of injuries right now might cost you your life. You came back from the brink – that in itself was a miracle. My healing has limits… there will most likely not be a next time.”

“I’ll restrain my actions,” I promised and took my leave.