110. Execution

Remus woke up right as the subway reached the Golden Lands. The train slid to a halt, the screech of the rails ringing clearly in Isaac’s ears as he stared out into those rolling hills of flowers. He’d never realized it before, but the Golden Lands weren’t all that unlike the Abyss. If not for the flora and the rising golden lights, the empty void would be exactly the same. If anything, it was even emptier. The Abyss had Aberrations lurking within its shadows; the Golden Lands only had Lilith.

As Isaac stepped off the train, tablet in hand, he heard a faint rustling noise. His head jerked to the side, and within the red tinted barrier sphere drifting a few feet behind him, the demon trapped inside slowly shifted. Behind them, the doors slid shut and the train rolled away, vanishing from sight.

Left alone amidst the flowers, Isaac stared at the sphere, his fingers tightening around the tablet. What was he supposed to do? He knew Remus wouldn’t be able to escape the barrier, but shouldn’t he say something to him? What could he say?

Isaac stared at the demon, trying to summon the anger that had simmered for so long after seeing the bodies, after reading Olzu’s name on the list. But try as he might, he felt nothing beyond the constant, creeping dread that had taken root ever since he’d first stepped foot into the Abyss to chase the demon down.

Remus continued to rouse, and Isaac noted that he didn’t make a single noise even as those eerily dull, flat eyes opened and stared directly at him. They were as empty and distant as he remembered on the train, like they weren’t quite seeing clearly.

For a moment neither one spoke nor moved, as though bound by an unspoken agreement.

And then Remus’s hand began glowing with magic.

Isaac lunged forward, but before his fingers had even touched the barrier, a golden light coiled around the demon’s arms, stopping them from moving. At the back of his hand, Remus’s tattoo flashed.

Even as the demon struggled against the system’s magic, his eyes remained distant, widening with some deep, primal fear that sent a chill down Isaac’s spine. He swallowed, forcing himself to stay calm even as the situation grew increasingly out of hand.

“Calm down,” he tried to say. He winced internally, knowing how unhelpful that was, but it was the best he could do. “You’re safe,” he said. At least for now, Isaac thought with a swallow. The unease rose to a boil, and the more it grew, the less certain he became of what Lilith would do.

“Lies,” Remus hissed. His eyes were crazed, darting wildly about. His hands fell down again, to Isaac’s relief, and he instead coiled in on himself, as if scared of touching the edges of the sphere. “This is that angel’s magic!” His voice rose in pitch, and it sounded utterly foreign on his usually low tone. “If the angel is here, then he must be too!”

There was only one person that ‘he’ could be referring to. Isaac swallowed, trying to channel as much calm and authority as he could.

“Lucius and Casimir aren’t here,” he said. "We’re not in the Inferno.”

Remus blinked, and for the first time since he’d woken up, he looked like he was properly processing their surroundings. First his eyes fell on the hills of flowers, then they traveled upwards to the dark void expanding above them, the golden lights continuing to rise upwards. The demon’s mouth opened slightly in confusion, and it occurred to Isaac that he probably didn’t know what realm he was in. It sounded like no one but he, Lilith, and probably Fable ever came here.

“We’re in the Golden Lands. This is Lilith’s realm.”

The confusion didn’t clear at all. If anything, it only grew.

“Lilith…? That hu—“

“I’m surprised, I didn’t think you’d manage to find him.”

Isaac jerked around in surprise. Where once there was only the flowers and the lights, Lilith now stood against that dark sky. She wore one of her usual elaborate gowns, but instead of the typical black and white, this one was completely black, the fabric blending into the void above them. Her eyes were fixed on Remus, and her mouth sat in a straight line, not a trace of a smile in sight. It took Isaac a second to recognize her, like that. Without her usual smile, the woman looked sharper, her features hard and intimidating.

Lilith took a step forward, and the flowers bent around her footsteps, making way for her. She didn’t look at Isaac once, never taking her eyes off the demon trapped in the red barrier.

Remus’s mouth opened and closed, and his eyes flashed, shifting between that cloudy haze and clarity before finally settling on something in the middle.

A new fear overtook his features, different from the crazed, primal terror he’d had around Lucius. This one was subtler, one that froze rather than burned, but it was no less deep.

The corners of Lilith’s lips curled upwards, but it wasn’t a smile.

“I see your memory is still muddied. Lucius did a number on you. I do hope you’re thinking more clearly now.”

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Remus’s eyes darted from Lilith to Isaac, standing uncertaintly on the side, and then back to Lilith.

“You,” he breathed. Lilith stopped walking, remaining a few feet away from the demon.

“Good, so you’re aware.” She raised a hand, and Isaac saw Remus instinctively tense just before she snapped her fingers.

In a flash of golden light, the three of them now stood inside the parlor of Lilith’s home, the same place Isaac would sometimes sit in to relax or drink tea. Now, with both him, Lilith, and Remus inside, the space felt small and confining. Isaac eyed the room warily, noting the lingering swirling pools of golden light floating around the walls.

“Remus, former king of the Inferno,” Lilith declared, her voice ringing clearly around the room. She sounded like she was speaking to a grand audience, a monarch on her throne, a judge delivering her sentence. “You have violated the System and used your abilities to kill. Do you deny this?”

An unfamiliar fire flashed in Remus’s eyes, and his face twisted into a snarl that completely altered his appearance. For a moment the fog cleared completely, and in its wake were what Isaac suspected were the last remnants of the person the demon once was. He shuddered. For the first time since he’d seen him, he could fully believe that Remus was the one responsible for the murders.

“And? The System certainly didn’t stop me. You were too weak to maintain it.”

Lilith’s expression didn’t change, utterly unreadable.

“You don’t deny it, then.”

A harsh laugh made Isaac flinch, and Remus pressed closer to the edges of the barrier, his former fear shoved aside by the boiling anger taking hold. The shifts in his demeanor made Isaac’s head spin, and he found his eyes darting about, gaze moving between those swirling pools of light, trying to make sense of everything that was happening.

“Don’t act so high and mighty. Do you think the Underside hasn’t noticed how much you’ve weakened? You’ve no business interfering in the Inferno’s affairs,” the demon spit out. He leaned even closer so that he was right up against the barrier. “Demons have always done things this way. He took everything from me. It’s my right to answer in kind.”

“You killed Olzu.” The words blurted out, and Isaac distantly realized that his grip around the tablet had tightened so much that his fingers felt numb. Images of the corpses filled his vision.

Remus’s eyes flashed. “An above worlder has even less right to speak. You know nothing.” His voice dripped with venom, and Isaac suppressed the urge to shudder and dug his feet deeper into the floor. It was hard to believe this was the same demon shaking in fear before. He grit his teeth and took a step forward.

“You—“

“Isaac.” Lilith’s voice interrupted him, cold and hard. She never took her eyes off the demon, expression a blank mask. “You need to leave.”

Around the room, the swirling pools of gold seemed to sway, their coiling movements growing faster and more unruly. A few rising golden lights, not unlike the ones that filled the rest of the realm, slowly swarmed Lilith, gathering around the woman and casting her in an ephemeral glow even as she remained perfectly still.

Isaac let out a disbelieving laugh. “You can’t be serious.” After investigating nonstop, the idea of simply stepping away now, at the very end, was ludicrous to him.

Lilith still didn’t turn to face him, which only further agitated him. Around them, the golden glow grew, so bright that it washed out the deep maroon curtains, fading out the vibrant colors into a uniform pale hue.

Within the sphere, Remus’s eyes finally wavered, darting around the room in unease even as his body language remained steadfast.

“I won’t ask you again,” Lilith said. She raised her left hand, pointing a glowing finger towards Remus, and the lights flared, blindingly intense.

Isaac covered his eyes on instinct. After a few seconds had passed, he tentatively removed them to get used to the brightness. Around the room, stray papers whipped around from a rising wind, trinkets shook atop the shelves, and the draping curtains roiled and undulated. The breeze originated around Lilith, fanning outward and pushing everything else back. Isaac grabbed a nearby shelf, yanking himself forward against the current.

“What’re you doing,” he gritted out, straining to be heard over the rising roar of the wind. There was no response, and the lights only flared brighter.

“Lilith!”

Finally, the woman turned her head just slightly, and Isaac stopped. Though her face remained hard and the golden lights and wind surrounding them showed no signs of calming, for a brief second, he thought he saw something flash in her eyes. Weariness, resignation. Regret.

“Isaac,” she said, her voice ringing clearly over the gust, “You shouldn’t have to see this.”

Before he could respond, the golden lights flashed and a sudden force shoved him backwards. He dug his fingers into the shelf, but it wasn’t enough. A second blast followed, knocking him back past whipping curtains and swirling debris.

He felt his back slam into the wall, his breath temporarily knocked out of him, but he barely processed the pain in his back. Isaac shoved himself back up to his feet, surging forward, but it was too late.

In front of him, the door to the parlor was firmly shut, and he was alone in the hallway. Barely visible through the gaps between the door and the wall, that golden glow traced its form like a mocking outline.

“Damn it!”

Isaac slammed his fist into the wood, but it remained solid and unyielding. He yelled and kept banging on the door until his throat went hoarse, but the door didn’t budge.

And then, as he opened his mouth to yell again, the thin line of lights flashed, engulfing the hallway and the entire building in pure white.

For a moment, time seemed to still. Only white filled his vision, and his surroundings faded. He could no longer hear the wind, nor could he feel the throbbing in his hand.

Finally, as the light died down, he heard a crack.

Then another.

And another.

A chill crawled up Isaac’s spine even as he stayed still, listening beyond the door. Listening to pops and crunches, the sounds coming more rapidly, more intensely. Sounds punctuated by a strangled voice so filled with pain that he almost didn’t recognize it.

It went on like that for what felt like hours, far past the point when the voice quieted and left only those noises to haunt him.

When it finally stopped, the constant golden glow filtering through the cracks dying down, the hallway was filled with heavy silence.

Isaac raised a hand and pushed on the door again.

It still didn’t budge.