Sending Fay off upstairs with Stella in her arms, Haruki sat back down beside Asmodia with only four of his servants. Asuka who seemed too concerned to leave him alone was paired with Margarette seemingly ready to use her chain to try and bind the mistress in case she tries to harm anyone. Athena and Alice on the other hand were there to sniff out the presence of any invisible familiar that Asmodia might try to use against them.
'Riley's already out to keep guard of the city gates or else we wouldn't need to risk so many people around her.' With their best spy not available, Haruki could feel himself getting a bit tense. Yet, taking a deep breath he just pushed through and began asking her questions.
"Why are you here?" Although she'd clearly heard the question, Asmodia remained unmoving with her hands clenching the wine glass.
"Asmodia-"
"They used to call me 'The omnipresent curator', do you wanna know why?" Finally turning her gaze back to him, she took yet another sip of wine.
Looking right into her violet gaze, Haruki gulped down his angst before replying.
"Why?"
"Because I can see everything Because I used to record history, the present, and even…" Shutting her lips mid-sentence, she quickly shied away and took another hit of the wine. "Forget it, just know that the more strength I recover, the more I can see, record, and influence."
The knowledge of her power only made her more terrifying to everyone around the bar counter. It was no surprise that she was stronger than all combined already, and yet to realize that her strength was only just recovering? That they hope to defeat her by a lot.
"Asmodia, again, why are you here?" Haruki asked yet again, his feet tapping on the floor with anxiety.
"To answer those questions you wanted me to ask," finally as she replied, the whole world around Haruki crumbled like glass.
For a spell of time, he didn't know what had happened, and as he looked around at the others still seated at the stools, he noticed them all frozen in time. Surrounded by the heavy resting dark he felt his lungs gasp for breath, and his heart trying to pump blood as if he was running dry. Peering back at the mistress, he noticed but a faint smile.
"What's happening?" Haruki asked, baffled by the whole thing.
"I'll give you three questions to ask," holding three fingers towards Haruki, she let out a sinister laugh. "Now do you wanna reconsider what you just asked? Or do you want to waste it on such a useless query?"
'Again with this stuff? Had she just gone insane after recovering some of her strength?' Washing the look of scorn off of his face, Haruki pushed everything off his mind except the few things that he wanted to ask.
"Omnipresent, right? Is that why you have that book? The record of the world?" Looking right at her, he patiently waited for her to answer.
Crossing her legs, she put down the smile before replying.
"That's right, I used to be the guardian, but then I got replaced by that mangled monster with who knows how many limbs," her teeth gritted shut, she appeared resentful towards the guardian of the library.
'That only brings more questions…' Her answer left him even more confused about her nature than he already was, but given that he only had two questions left, he decided to not waste any and simply moved on to the next.
"What is your plan for all this? What do you wanna achieve through this struggle I'm going through? What battle will you be fighting with the army that I'm gathering for you?" The moment he finished asking the question, the same sinister smile from before climbed back up on Asmodia's face.
"Every world has a god, I need ours to be far gone," and that was the end of her answer. Even after waiting for a while for her to elaborate on that, Haruki got nothing more than that cryptic response.
Thus, he turned to ask the final question.
"Godsmite…" Taking a pause at the hint of a slight backward jerk in Asmodia's body, Haruki stared at her for the sudden change in demeanor. "Why do you have a true holy spell in your list of magic skills?"
'Did I hit the mark with that skill's ability.' Seeing her flinch for the first time, he knew there was something more to it than what meets the eye.
Mulling over her thoughts, it took Asmodia a while she responded to Haruki once again. However, this time the world around the slowly began to repair itself and his companions showed slight movement in their bodies as well.
"You were a human before becoming a demon," from the edge of her eyes she glanced at Margarette and Asuka. "Just like these two, I used to be someone else, someone with command over every element except dark, but that soon changed when…"
Turning her eyes back to Haruki, Asmodia got off the stool and stretched their arms wide as if trying to show something.
"I died and someone brought me back up, but unlike me, he wasn't so kind to let me choose my own path toward my life," tilting her head, she pulled Haruki up with a pair of phantom hands. "Say, warrior, do you ever wish to come back to life if you die again in this world?"
Taken by surprise, Haruki had an idea about how to answer that question. After all, he's spent so much of his time trying to perfect soul manipulation to prevent that from happening, but what if he didn't want to come back when the time of his death really came to be? Will he accept eternal sleep in the cold abyss or will he rise again and again until his conquest was finished?
"I probably will," he answered, yet that lie couldn't slip past the mistress.
Squinting her eyes in disappointment, she looked at him in utter disgust.
"A demon who can't stay true to his true nature, how, vexing?" saying that she took a few steps back and disappeared, leaving only a half-full glass of wine resting on the counter.
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