Hahhh. Hahhh. Hahhh.
Lilith drifted in the void, her breaths coming hard and fast, clouding the air in translucent wisps. Stars speared through the darkness around her, their brightness piercing like needles, mocking her with their serenity. These cold celestial lights weren't the garish glow of Enochians or the up–high divinity of the Devas; they were indifferent witnesses to a slaughter. And this time, it wasn't outsiders she faced, but her own people.
"Slay her! Tear her apart, piece by fucking piece! We don't need any more threats!"
Their howls tore through the silence, cruel and gleeful, as a horde of reapers from the Circle of Wrath closed in around her. Wrath demons—reapers, grotesque creatures born of living bone, their skeletons twisted and fused with tendrils of fire that crackled as they moved—surged through the dark like falling stars. Red-orange embers flickered from their limbs as they swooped, shrieking, towards her, sending wave after wave of flames roaring across the abyss. Each inferno blast shredded the vacuum, lighting up the bodies of her fallen comrades that now floated, still and silent, in the vast, empty gulf. Her allies had been ambushed, cut down in waves, while she, the young prodigy from the Circle of Pride, was left to face the reaper pack alone.
Rumors had painted her as dangerous—too dangerous. They whispered that Lord Satan himself saw promise in her, that she was one who could overturn the balance of circles and disrupt the old hierarchy. Because of this, she was marked for death.
A reaper broke from the swarm, scythe glinting against the starlight, and lunged for her neck with a cackle. She ducked, pivoting as the blade hissed past, twisting her body to dodge and capture his arm. With a brutal twist, she wrenched the blade from him and drove it through his ribs, the bone snapping with a sickening crunch, severing his spine. Before his body was even cold, another reaper closed in from behind, his jaws wide, embers dripping like saliva. But this was the void, and Lilith was a demon of Pride.
Reality warped around her; with a thought, she peeled back the dark folds of space. She could see through its infinite depth, unraveling threads of time and shadow with her vision, diving deep into the variations that made up every reaper, every injury they had endured, every change etched into the memory of their flesh and bones. Wounds, after all, were just another state in the existence of space and time—a mark that she, with her affinity, could control. One must be prideful in their past. With a furious twist of her wrist, she invoked her command:
"All of your pride!"
A purple, radiant sword formed in her hand, a pure extension of her will, and with a sharp wave, she unleashed it, forcing the painful memories of every past injury to resurface within her enemies. Their screams echoed across the void as their bones cracked, twisted, and shattered, their bodies buckling under the sudden return of every wound they had ever sustained. She surged forward, weaving between them with a deadly grace, her sword materializing out of thin space as she accelerated, her blade impaling reaper after reaper, cleaving them with precision.
She was a knight class demon of the sixth layer. An affinity for space is what she had gotten upon her evolution. She was formidable able to fight even above her shackle. These reapers could not face her in battle. She shuttled through the darkness every movement a kill.
But victory, however fierce, was fleeting. She felt the dark void pulse behind her—a greater reaper with a towering frame, his shadow stretching vast and foreboding. His skeletal hands gripped a scythe that radiated a holy flame. It wasn't just any weapon; this was a high artifact, something far more sinister. She spun, raising her sword to block the blow, but the artifact carved through her blade, and the fiery edge sliced through her flesh, leaving a deep, gaping wound that sizzled as her blood met the cursed flame.
It wasn't just an ordinary wound. She could feel the sting of the flames gnawing at her essence, tearing at the threads of her very being. Blood leaked from her side, a sickly, smoke-laden steam rising as it reacted with the unnatural fire. A sneering laugh cut through the void, filled with unrestrained glee.
"This is the flame of samadhi! We stole this little treasure off a few traveling Buddhist monks," the reaper taunted, voice cold as the void. "It's super effective against our kind, bitch! This fire can purify anything—even a demon's soul." His voice sharpened with mockery as he swung the scythe again.
But Lilith's reflexes were sharper. Her sword, fading from sight, rematerialized in an instant behind her attacker and pierced through his skull. His body slumped, but the damage to her was done. She looked back noticing he had managed to survive somehow by sacrificing the life of one of his comrades. She shook her head now was not the time. Pain tore through her abdomen, tendrils of flame burrowing into her flesh, devouring her strength. She staggered back, but her instincts wouldn't let her rest. As she fell, a reaper launched a heavy punch that caught her unguarded, and the force of the blow sent her reeling across the void. Her body sailed past the stars, her form a blur of motion, until she collided with a distant planet. The impact shattered the celestial body, splintering it into fragments that scattered across the emptiness, a mist of pulverized rock clouding the battlefield.
But the reapers were relentless. More portals flickered open, spilling wave after wave of fresh demons, their twisted forms tearing through the veil of space. Her eyes widened, her heart pounding as she beheld the bodies of her comrades, lifeless and adrift, encircled by the monstrous horde. She fought back a rising tide of despair, feeling hot tears prick at her eyes.
Yet survival instinct spurred her on. She whipped around, plunging deeper into the void, bending shadows and space around her to slip from view. She moved with all the strength she had left, ducking into pockets of darkness to conceal her presence as the horde howled and seethed in the blackness. The burning gashes in her side pulsed with pain, the cursed flame tracing her like a beacon, its cursed light glowing in the shadows.
But Lilith was nothing if not cunning. In her flight, she hunted smaller life forms—wandering astral creatures that barely registered on a demon's scale of importance. Snaring them, she invoked a dark spell, weaving pieces of their souls into an abomination fueled by her essence. Her spell was one of profound corruption, a parasitic creation designed to carry her trace. Though she could never touch the true core of a soul, this twisted art left a vile enough impression to pass for her. When the reapers found her again, she sent the shadowy construct forward, watching as it bolted through the void, radiating her essence like a blaring signal.
"Over here! We've got her!"
"She can't keep running—she's ours!"
The reapers roared in excitement, their voices blending into a monstrous crescendo. Their flames flared, lighting up the darkness in fiery wrath as they followed the shadow with frenzied glee. The greater reaper's artifact flared with power, its flames lashing out like whips, burning through the abomination. The samadhi fire worked quickly, exposing the corruption within, dissolving the construct into a cloud of blackened ash.
The greater reaper, seeing the shadow's demise, clenched his jaw in satisfaction, his grim smile spreading like a crack through the darkness.
"We got that bitch!"
"RAAAHHHH!"
____________
Her eyes narrowed into slits of simmering malice. One day, she would return and kill them all, make them pay for every strike, every wound. She was a demon of Pride, and her vengeance would be a masterpiece.
Lilith descended, her body hurtling through the atmosphere of an unfamiliar planet. She crashed down into the ground, the impact sending waves of fractured earth and dust spiraling outward, creating a massive crater. Rising slowly, she glanced around, taking in the scenery. For a place so far from Hell, it was almost…pleasant.
The sky hung above her like a golden tapestry, its light casting a warm glow over the world, while clouds floated lazily, each puff painted in shades of pink that reminded her—fleetingly—of the Circle of Lust, where skies bloomed in colors so vibrant they bordered on hallucinatory. Here, however, everything was softer, more gentle. The land was dotted not with trees, but with giant fungi, towering structures of vibrant purples, blues, and yellows, each cap forming an umbrella of color. Thick stems twisted upward like columns, some with swirling patterns, others with bioluminescent spots that gleamed faintly even under the daylight. A gentle, earthy scent filled the air, mingled with something faintly sweet, almost floral.
Lilith took a breath, feeling a stab of irritation that even breathing now hurt, each inhale agitating the flame-borne wounds that still burned in her side. She needed shelter, somewhere to hide and rest. As she stepped forward, her foot suddenly collided with something soft and yielding.
She glanced down, momentarily startled. There, sprawled against the vibrant undergrowth, was a creature—a small bunny of sorts, though unlike any she had seen before. It had six legs, all tucked under its delicate frame, with fur as black as night, absorbing the light around it. Its eyes, however, were bright, piercing blue, and beneath each eye were two small white marks, like tattoos or war paint. Its chest rose and fell in shallow, rapid breaths, and she noticed a deep wound along its side, staining its sleek black fur with a hint of dark crimson.
Sympathy tugged at her, an emotion she was neither familiar nor particularly comfortable with. Yet here it was, softening the hardness in her chest, as if seeing this small creature's struggle mirrored her own. She crouched down, her movements slow, and opened her palm, summoning a healing pill from her ring of holding, selecting a less potent one—she didn't want the creature to explode from a surge of foreign energy.
"Here," she whispered, her voice softened in a way that felt strange on her tongue. She held the pill near the bunny's mouth, and without a trace of fear, it sniffed it once before nibbling at it.
As the creature chewed, she watched closely, expecting the familiar glow of green light that usually accompanied healing magic. But to her surprise, there was no flash, no gleaming aura. Instead, the wound on the bunny's side simply sealed itself shut, the skin knitting back together seamlessly, as if the injury had been merely a suggestion rather than a reality. The bunny looked up at her, its blue eyes calm and unblinking, and with a small nod that was almost…acknowledging, it turned and bounded away into the forest, vanishing between the vibrant mushroom stems.
She shook her head, a rare smile playing at her lips. Perhaps that one small act of kindness could offset some of her endless sins—not that she particularly cared about things like redemption. She wasn't one to tally her good deeds or seek absolution. No, her mind was set on one goal alone. One day, she would become an Archdemon, commanding the power and fear that came with it. But to reach that lofty position, she would have to topple the current Archdemon—or make them bow. Serving Lord Satan directly, rising to the ultimate power in the Circle of Pride—that was her dream, and it was the only thing that mattered.
Turning on her heel, Lilith began moving through the forest, eyes scanning for any sign of shelter. She wanted to find a cave or some hidden alcove where she could lick her wounds, but her thoughts kept straying back to the small, strange creature she'd encountered. The little bunny's nod…could a creature like that even be capable of such an acknowledgment?
Days passed, and each one weighed heavier than the last. Her injuries weren't healing as they should; the cursed flames gnawed at her insides, each spark burrowing deeper, leaving her feeling raw and exposed. As the sun rose and fell over the alien sky, casting shifting patterns of golden light across the mushroom canopies, she kept herself moving, knowing that stopping for too long could mean the end.
In her restless wanderings, she saw the bunny again. This time, it appeared as she rested at the edge of a shallow stream, where she had paused to clean her wounds. The water was cool, its surface shimmering with tiny flecks of bioluminescent spores that drifted like stars on the current. She sensed a presence and turned to find the bunny sitting a few feet away, its blue eyes fixed on her intently. She offered it a small nod, acknowledging the creature, almost hoping it would do the same.
To her amusement, it did, dipping its tiny head in a gesture that felt oddly familiar, almost like a companion's greeting. She chuckled to herself, a sound that was rusty and unpracticed. The creature watched her for a moment longer before bounding away, disappearing once again into the undergrowth. She found herself wondering why she was so amused by its presence, but perhaps, she mused, it was just a distraction from the relentless ache that had taken up residence in her body.
Their paths crossed again and again, as if by some unspoken agreement. Once, as she huddled beneath a large mushroom cap during a sudden, gentle rain shower, she saw the bunny darting across the wet ground, its fur glistening under the rain's fine mist. She lifted a hand in greeting, and once more, it acknowledged her with that subtle nod. There was no fear in its gaze, no hesitation. It had accepted her presence in its forest, much as she had accepted it.
But her own condition was deteriorating. The samadhi flames refused to subside, their cursed fire embedding itself deeper with each passing day, eating away at her strength and slowing her healing to a crawl. She had once thought she could endure it, but the pain had grown beyond her control. She needed to return to Hell, to immerse herself in the infernal energies that could extinguish this cursed fire, or she would perish on this alien world.
As she limped through the forest, her mind racing with thoughts of survival and escape, she saw the bunny again. This time, it was only a flash—a black streak darting between the mushrooms, but it paused once more, looking back as if expecting her to follow.
The thought struck her, absurd but persistent, that the bunny somehow knew she was struggling, that it sensed her desperation. She smirked at the idea—an animal caring for a demon of Pride. Yet, as it darted away, she found herself following, drawn by curiosity and the faintest hope that perhaps, just perhaps, this world had some hidden sanctuary where she could rest and gather her strength before making her way home.
It led her to relatively peaceful cave before moving out to leave. Once more she waved and it nodded. She found herself exceedingly amused and somewhat grateful. She rested her eyes for a few hours however peace was not to be.
______________
The sound tore through the air like a scream, "Shiiieekkk crshhhh!" Lilith's head snapped up, her gaze fixing on the sky, which had fractured, a spiderweb of cracks rippling across its surface as if the heavens themselves were breaking apart. Those Satan-damned reapers had found her, and there was no place to hide. Flames licked at the edges of the cracks, and the air grew heavy with the scent of burning embers. She bolted, racing toward the cover of the shadows, but her body was betraying her—she wasn't fast enough, not with her injuries.
The reapers descended like falling stars, striking the ground with such force that the whole world seemed to tremble. Each one stood nearly nine feet tall, hulking and intimidating, their forms a mass of interwoven bone and flame. They towered over her, embodiments of rage and death. She could feel the heat radiating from them, scorching the ground to ash beneath their feet.
One of them surged forward, his fist wreathed in flame, and before she could react, he drove it into her face. The impact shattered the ground beneath her, sending cracks spiraling out in all directions. Pain burst through her vision, and her blood smeared across the earth in a spray of dark crimson. But Lilith was not so easily slain.
As the reaper loomed over her, she twisted her body and swung out her leg, her foot infused with the lethal edge of sword intent and numen of space. Her heel connected, slicing clean through him in a single brutal arc. The reaper's body severed at the spine, collapsing in a pile of burning bone. Lilith staggered to her feet, her breaths ragged, blood dripping down her face, but her eyes blazed with defiance.
More reapers circled around her, their bone-thin limbs casting shadows like the grim specters of death. She bared her teeth, ready to tear, scream, and claw her way through them all, her voice ringing out in the howl of a queen.
"HAVE YOU NO PRIDE!" she roared, her voice raw with fury. Her fists clenched so tightly her nails bit into her palms.
The reapers merely cackled, a chilling sound, their bony faces stretched into mocking grins. One of them, wielding that cursed artifact blazing with the flame of samadhi, sneered at her. "We are demons of wrath, not pride. We just want you dead—nothing more, nothing less." He laughed, the sound grating like metal scraping stone.
Lilith's teeth ground together, her jaw tight as she fought the urge to lunge at him then and there. She pulled out her blade, a sliver of shadow and space, and launched herself forward. Her movements became a blur, flipping over one reaper and lopping his head clean off. She slipped in and out of the shadows, twisting space to her advantage, moving at impossible angles as she tore through them with deadly precision. She was darkness incarnate, a blur of slicing shadows and flickering flame.
The greater reaper swung a flaming fist her way, and she used the guard of her sword to deflect the blow, redirecting the cursed flame back at one of his own. The blast struck, and the reaper erupted in agonizing screams, dissolving into ashes. Lilith used the momentary distraction to sever the reaper's arm, her sword cleaving through bone and flame alike, scattering embers as she moved. Hearing an enraged scream from behind her.
But there were too many. Wrath demons moved in groups for a reason—overwhelming quantity was their quality. She couldn't keep up. Soon, they were on her, fists and blades striking from all sides. She fought with every ounce of strength, slicing, blocking, twisting, but blow after blow landed, each one sapping her remaining energy, leaving her body battered and bruised. Her bones cracked under the assault, piercing through her skin, her dense, dark blood flowing down her battered form in thick rivers.
Finally, one of the reapers, his arm the one she'd severed earlier, grabbed her by the head with his remaining hand, pulling her up to meet his blazing eyes, his grip like a vise. His gaze seethed with rage, an inferno of fury flaring behind his skeletal face.
"You know, I was just going to kill you," he snarled, his voice low and dripping with menace. "But now you've pissed me off." His voice twisted into a sneer. "I think I'll pull a Lust Circle move. Right here, in front of the stars, I'm going to burn your guts with this rod of mine. And we'll all have our turn. We'll immolate you from inside your most sacred place!"
Even as his words dripped with venom and threat, Lilith glared, a cold, disdainful smirk pulling at her lips. She spat blood into his face, her voice low and filled with venomous promise. "You'd better kill me right now. Because if you don't—and I survive—I'll slaughter you and your kin. I'll melt your bones into a pot for the beasts of Pride to shit in."
The reaper's expression twisted in fury. He reared back, striking her hard across the face, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Her vision spun, her body wracked with pain, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something—a faint shape in the shadows, almost like… the bunny. Her chest tightened; had it come to watch her die? The irony wasn't lost on her.
She shut her eyes briefly, preparing for the inevitable, but then, suddenly, something changed.
The bunny's shape began to shimmer, morphing, growing in size. Lilith's eyes widened as it transformed, expanding into a towering figure that stood at least five meters tall, looming over even the wrath demons who stood about eight feet on average.. The transformation was as fluid as water, the creature's form shifting into a woman of supernatural beauty, a presence that seemed to draw the very light from the stars around her.
The woman's face was breathtaking, a flawless collection of features that somehow escaped the trap of perfection, a uniqueness to her beauty that transcended mere appearance. Her eyes were a fierce, piercing azure, framed by long, silvery-white hair with black tips that cascaded down her back like a waterfall of midnight and moonlight. Two golden wings extended behind her, their feathers shimmering with a warm, ethereal glow, and a long, sinuous black tail curled around her form, black as the void of space.
She wore a short, dark dress, the hem ending at her mid-thigh, exposing her powerful, toned legs that still held a softness, a distinctly feminine grace that only accentuated her power. Around her waist hung a medallion, intricate and mesmerizing, depicting a man standing before a beast, and behind them both, an endless starry sky encompassed them all—a symbol of boundless dominion.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
But what caught Lilith's eye most were the familiar silver marks beneath the woman's eyes, identical to those of the little bunny. The realization struck her like a thunderbolt—this was no ordinary creature, and it certainly wasn't here to spectate her death.
The woman's eyes flicked to Lilith briefly, a glimmer of recognition and a hint of something unreadable passing over her face before she turned her gaze to the reapers. Her expression shifted to one of cold, unyielding authority. The wrath demons hesitated, their jeers and mocking laughter falling silent under her piercing gaze.
______________
One of the reapers sneered, his jagged teeth glinting in the eerie, distorted light around them. "Who the hell is this giant bitch interrupting our fun?"
The towering woman didn't bother responding with words. Instead, she lifted one finger, pointed directly at him, and three golden orbs manifested above his head while seven black ones materialized within his body, glowing faintly beneath his skin. With a twist of her wrist, the orbs abruptly switched positions, an act that seemed almost trivial to her. But the effect was devastating.
The reaper's body convulsed, his flesh dissolving into a writhing mass of numen as his soul reshaped, coated grotesquely in twisted sinew and muscle, an inverse of its natural form. His meridians, now little more than dark, sinewy tentacles, writhed and crawled like a mutated creature, dragging themselves across the ground in a sickly, tumorous mass. His screams were barely coherent as his malformed body finally collapsed, oozing into a pool of festering corruption.
The woman's voice carried a chill as she observed the grotesque result of her work. "I heard souls here have seven po and three hun. The hun represents the energy, mind, and cultivation, while the po represents the body. It's unfortunate his got switched around."
Lilith frowned, her mind reeling. That was an ancient, long-disproven theory—an outdated attempt to understand the complexities of the soul. They knew by now that the soul wasn't composed of differing parts but was a singular entity interwoven with one's cuumulated layers, true soul and meridians. Spectral entities could debunk the idea alone. Yet this woman wielded it as though it were fact, and somehow, it had worked.
"You dumb bitch!" another reaper roared, launching himself toward her with fury blazing in his eye sockets. The woman merely flicked her fingers, her expression almost bored, and suddenly, reality seemed to split. Half the world around them was cast in an impenetrable black, while the other half shone a blinding white. Between the two was a thin, gray line, extending far into the horizon.
When the colors faded, everything in that line's path had been cleanly severed, including the reaper and several of his comrades. Even space itself. Their bodies crumpled to the ground, their lifeless forms halved in neat, smoking slices. Silence settled over the remaining demons as they stared at the aftermath in shock.
"Oh ho, are you afraid?" she said, her lips curving into a chilling, dagger-filled grin. "You have yet to feel fear."
Lilith watched, entranced, as the silver marks beneath the woman's eyes shifted, revealing a second pair of eyes, each one piercing and brimming with ancient, dreadful power. An overwhelming weight descended upon the battlefield, a presence so oppressive that even Lilith, though not the target, felt her own pride falter, instincts screaming at her to submit, to bow, to yield.
The woman's voice was low, cold, and commanding. "Fear is the act of giving power to another. It is submission in its truest form. It makes the body soft and the will weak. And you are subject to it."
At her words, black halos appeared above the heads of several reapers, marking them as if by fate. Their skeletal bodies, once formidable and rigid, began to soften, melting as though their bones had turned to clay. They slumped to the ground, limbs dangling like wilted branches, their flames snuffed out in an instant as the very essence of their numen drained away, siphoned into the woman's being.
The remaining reapers gritted their teeth, casting defensive mental arts in a desperate attempt to resist the aura of fear bearing down upon them, but more and more continued to succumb. One by one, they fell like puppets with their strings cut, their bodies limp and helpless.
She tilted her head, as if amused. "Well, that's enough of that, isn't it? Now, let's be clear: none of you should even think about killing yourselves." Her grin widened, and Lilith felt a chill. "I need to kill you myself to get my fill."
Lilith couldn't look away, caught between horror and fascination. The woman's face, twisted in that grin, was somehow both hideous and beautiful, her smile a perfect storm of malevolent delight and terrifying calm.
The reapers, enraged by her taunting, roared in unison and surged forward. But she merely flicked her tail, the void-black appendage shimmering with a quantum-like dark light. In an instant, shadows erupted from beneath the reapers taking the form of her tail, coiling up like serpents before shooting straight through their skulls, leaving gaping holes where their heads had been. More reapers charged, only to find themselves rooted to the ground as if bound by unseen chains, their legs sinking into the shadowy earth.
"What the hell is happening? Why can't we move?" one of them screamed, panic lacing his voice.
The woman's expression remained placid, even casual. "If one's shadow is a sea representing all their yin, how could they escape drowning in that sea? It is one's shadow that will always follow them after all." She watched impassively as the reapers struggled, their bones snapping as they sank deeper, terror distorting their hollow faces.
A desperate reaper managed to break free, his bony hand brandishing a curved blade as he charged toward her, intending to cleave her head from her shoulders. She didn't flinch. With a subtle flick of her wrist, a reversal of black and white spread across the battlefield. In an instant, his weapon clattered to the ground, his head following suit as it slid cleanly off his neck, his body frozen in place.
"She may be big, but her body is weak!" The reaper wielding the samadhi artifact bellowed, his voice desperate yet rallying. "If we get close, she's finished!" He gestured at her, trying to embolden his comrades, who were already visibly shaken by her display.
Lilith's gaze shifted to the woman's face, catching a brief flicker of amusement that quickly vanished. She knew right then—the reapers were walking into their own deaths.
They surged forward, their collective roar tearing through the void. The woman simply flapped her golden wings, and from behind her, an image of the sun appeared, radiant and burning with an almost sentient intensity. Its light was neither warm nor comforting; it cast an ominous glow, rising above her head like a harbinger of doom.
"The sun, in many places, is the origin of life, the center of fate," she murmured, her voice carrying across the battlefield. "A rising sun is a symbol of luck and fortune for some. What they don't tell you, though, is that for one to rise, another must fall."
Lilith could see an aura emanating from her, not from the surrounding world but from within herself, wrapping around her in an ethereal shroud. It puzzled her—she'd met cultivators who could manipulate fortune, but fortune was supposed to be an external, unpredictable force. Here, it radiated from the woman's very being, as though she embodied luck itself.
The effect was immediate. The reapers' ranks dissolved into chaos, their attacks misfiring, spells fizzling into useless sparks, some even turning on each other in frenzied confusion. One reaper's cultivation base destabilized, and he exploded in a violent burst of numen, sending fragments of his form scattering across the battlefield.
The woman exhaled, a faint hint of exertion in her eyes. "Admittedly, that one took a bit out of me." She turned, grinning at Lilith, her expression less terrifying, even a little playful. "But it's nice to show off every once in a while."
Lilith's gaze shifted, catching sight of a reaper charging toward the woman's exposed side. She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but before the words left her lips, two linked portals—one golden, one black—materialized behind the woman. The reaper surged forward, running directly into the portal. His body split apart, each half sucked into the respective portals and reappearing disjointedly at opposite ends. His torso and legs fell in a crumpled heap, his severed head rolling several feet away, eyes still wide in shock. That was something she could not do with her current power over space.
And the woman hadn't even turned her head.
The battlefield erupted in chaos as the reaper leader bellowed, "She's protecting the wretch! Go all out—aim everything at her!" With that command, the reapers converged, dark flames and spectral energies twisting together as they charged up their attacks. The air buzzed with the malevolent hum of building energy, each reaper pushing themselves to unleash the entirety of their wrath and fury in one final assault.
The woman remained perfectly still, an unyielding statue amidst the growing tempest. Her face betrayed neither fear nor worry. As the reapers' combined blast roared toward her, a shimmering halo materialized above her head, radiating an ethereal blend of gold and black—a celestial glow infused with a depth and darkness that defied conventional light. She raised her hands, and with a simple motion, stretched out her fingers as if gripping something intangible.
"Polarity split…" she murmured, her voice a soft chant that carried across the battlefield. Her words were laced with ancient power. "Without yin and yang, there is no chaos. Without chaos, there is no form."
Threads of black and gold energy spiraled outward from her hands, spreading across the oncoming attacks like an intricate web. Reality itself seemed to tremble as her energy met the oncoming assault, and in a stunning act, she tore her hands apart as if rending fabric. A ripple spread through the air, colliding with the reapers' combined power, and then everything stilled. Their attacks, raw and relentless, stuttered, frozen mid-flight, each blast suspended by an invisible force. With a single, decisive motion, she wrenched her hands apart, and the attacks disintegrated, fracturing into streams of numen particles that floated into the void before vanishing completely.
Lilith watched in disbelief. To disperse another's attack in such a manner was a feat bordering on the impossible. This woman was rewriting the rules of battle itself. Yet the reaper leader smirked, his flame-wreathed form flickering with grim determination as he activated a hidden art, a last-ditch technique that brought him directly above the woman. Fueled by his life force, the flames of samadhi blazed even brighter, imbuing his artifact with destructive potential beyond its limits. He swung down with every ounce of hatred he could muster, the artifact a meteor of wrath descending upon her.
The woman's head tilted, almost as if she were mildly intrigued. Her hand shot up in a blur, catching the scythe in her grip. The purifying flames danced across her fingers, licking her skin with searing, unrelenting heat.
Lilith's heart raced. "Don't touch that!" she shouted, her voice raw with alarm. "It's a purifying flame—it can wound you, maybe beyond healing, even if you're not a demon!"
"That's right! You're done for now!" the reaper leader laughed, his voice frenzied as he poured the last of his power into the artifact. The flames intensified, spreading over the woman's hand. But instead of recoiling, she merely examined the fire, her eyes narrowed in cold curiosity. Her four eyes traced the tendrils of heat as if studying each particle, each strand of numen interwoven within the flames.
A derisive chuckle escaped her, laden with contempt. "I see," she murmured. "The concept here is one of purification, of erasing anything that cannot transcend the sea of suffering. All creatures with form, all with history, can be unmade by this flame." Her eyes gleamed with disdain. "A respectable attempt. However, to me, this is merely a warm fire. Such tricks are feeble against us."
Her grip tightened, and with a bone-crunching sound, she clenched her fist around the scythe. The artifact shattered, fragments of twisted metal scattering as the flames dissipated in a last, futile gasp. Before the reaper could react, she grasped him by the throat, lifting him into the air. A pulse of black and gold energy extended from her hand, binding him in place with shimmering tendrils, locking him in midair.
Desperation flooded his eyes as she summoned two orbs of pure energy, each a churning, impossible color—a fusion of black and gold, a hue beyond mortal comprehension. She took a deep breath, the orbs swallowing the orbs like candy, and as she exhaled, a beam of that unknowable color burst from her mouth, aimed directly at the struggling reaper.
The beam struck him, erasing him from existence. His scream was obliterated before it even left his lips, his form dissolved into nothingness as the beam continued its path, slicing through the void. The very sky itself tore open, reality ruptured by the sheer force of her energy. Lilith, her own supernatural senses heightened, could see the path of destruction extend beyond their battlefield, stretching to a distant planet which crumbled into fragments under the impact, vaporized without a trace.
As the beam faded, a wound in the fabric of space remained, a dark scar in the cosmos that pulsed with residual energy, the edges frayed and bleeding as the universe struggled to mend itself. The void held a profound silence, as if every particle of matter and every sliver of numen around them was holding its breath.
Lilith's gaze shifted from the rift back to the woman, but the reapers had seen enough. Panic seized them, and with fear clouding their judgment, they turned to flee, abandoning all semblance of order. Yet the woman's response was swift; in an instant, she moved faster than Lilith's eyes could follow, appearing in the path of each reaper. With brutal efficiency, her hands, her tail, even her wings struck out, decapitating each demon with flawless precision. Heads rolled, bodies fell, and in seconds, the remaining enemies lay scattered, lifeless, across the ground.
Her task complete, the woman allowed herself a single glance over the field of corpses, her four eyes glowing with a satisfied glint. Every reaper had been slain. She turned to Lilith, who was struggling to keep her eyes open, her vision dimming as her injuries took their toll. The adrenaline faded, and Lilith's strength finally gave out. Darkness crept into her sight, and the last thing she saw was the woman's towering form standing amidst the destruction, a silent guardian or perhaps a monster in the void.
Lilith's world slipped away, her consciousness succumbing to the weight of her wounds. But even as she drifted into unconsciousness, a sense of triumph filled her. Her enemies were dead, and even if she died here, she would go down with her pride intact. She allowed herself to fall, her battered body surrendering to rest, confident that whatever happened next she would not be violated. At least she could take comfort in that.
___________
When Lilith's eyes fluttered open, she was greeted by the crackling warmth of a flame nearby. She blinked, the scent of something rich and savory filling the air. Holy shit. They were cooked—literally. The woman who had saved her was crouched by the fire, cracking the bones of the fallen reapers open to suck out the marrow, savoring each bite before crunching the bones themselves with unnerving relish.
Lilith turned her head, curiosity getting the better of her. The woman's lower pair of eyes were closed, appearing like intricate tattoos that marked her face. She wondered how it worked—how those eyes seemed to open and close at will, turning from mere tattoos into something more.
The woman glanced over, noticing her stir, a glint of humor and something far more indeterminable flashing in her gaze. "Hmm, you're awake?" She gestured to the fire, her grin almost predatory. "Come on, eat with me."
There was a confidence, an intensity in her invitation, but Lilith had never been one to be easily swayed. She sat up slowly, dusting herself off. "I cannot. I'm no cannibal, but… I appreciate your help, benefactor." She squared her shoulders, her pride shining through even in her exhausted state. "I am Lilith of House Superbia, one of the foremost houses in the Circle of Pride. A knight-class demon of the sixth layer." She inclined her head respectfully, feeling no shame in acknowledging the debt. "I swear, I shall repay this favor in full."
The woman stood up, her towering five-meter form casting a long shadow over Lilith. She looked down with an expression that was both calm and quietly intense, her piercing gaze sizing her up. "So you won't eat with me, even though I just saved your life?" She phrased it like a question, but her tone sent a chill down Lilith's spine, its edge unmistakable. Lilith barely had a chance to respond when, suddenly, she found herself swept up in the woman's powerful arms, held aloft as effortlessly as a doll.
"Well, if you won't eat, I guess I'll just have to punish you… in the bedroom," the woman said with a mischievous grin, striding purposefully away from the fire with Lilith in tow.
A laugh bubbled up from Lilith's throat despite herself, a helplessly incredulous sound. "Hoh? So you did save me just to drag me off to bed, huh?" She couldn't help but smirk, the absurdity of the situation settling over her. For a demon of pride, she found herself surprisingly relaxed in the strange woman's grip.
The woman's grin only widened, her voice a low, playful rumble. "Oh? So you can laugh, huh?" Her shoulders shook with laughter, the two of them sharing a moment of levity in the otherwise bleak aftermath of battle.
Lilith's smirk turned teasing. "You didn't actually go through all that trouble just to whisk me away, right?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.
The woman chuckled as she set Lilith down, her form shrinking in a shimmering, graceful shift until she stood at a more modest height—still a good head taller than Lilith, though, at a solid eight feet. She grinned down, that playful glint now fully visible in her eyes.
"Halfway serious, actually," she admitted with a grin that was equal parts bold and mischievous. "I like what I see, Lilith. I want you to be my woman."
Lilith felt her pulse quicken, but she held her composure, feeling a strange warmth bubbling up within her. She was young by demon standards, not even close to her prime, and in truth, she'd never had much chance for these kinds of games—flirting, laughing. Even amongst the Circle of Pride, her life had been one of ambition and isolation. This… this was new, and strangely exhilarating.
She tilted her head, giving the woman a sly look. "And what if I'd said no? What would you have done then?"
The woman's gaze flickered to the field of dead reapers, her lips quirking up. "Funny how I don't see any witnesses around," she replied, tapping her head with feigned innocence.
Lilith snorted, barely able to stifle her laughter. "Ewww, Satan-damned disgusting," she muttered, both of them erupting into shared laughter, the sound echoing over the silent remains of the battlefield.
As their laughter subsided, the woman's expression softened. She stepped closer, wrapping her arms around Lilith in a sudden, unguarded embrace, her forehead resting gently against Lilith's. Her smile, while still laced with mischief, held a rare warmth that seeped into Lilith's bones.
"You've been through a lot," the woman murmured, her voice quieter now, intimate. "From now on, we're friends."
Lilith arched an eyebrow, though a smirk tugged at her lips. "Do I get a choice in the matter?" she asked, her voice a teasing lilt.
"No," the woman responded without missing a beat, her grin unfaltering.
For a moment, Lilith felt her usual guardedness slip, a strange lightness settling over her. Right now, she didn't want to think about the endless challenges, the ambition, the debts she'd pledged herself to. All she knew was that, in this moment, she had found someone who understood the blood-stained path she walked, someone who had waded through fire and bone to stand by her side. There was a raw, unspoken bond that thrummed between them, the beginning of something unbreakable.
"Well," she said finally, her voice a murmur as she met the woman's gaze. "What's the name of my new friend, then?"
The woman smiled, a genuine, almost shy curve to her lips as she answered, "Lervea. Just Lervea."
And with that, they stood side by side, two demons amidst the ashes, bound by fate, blood, and a friendship forged in battle.