"Aren't you a mage? Then fight like one and not like a barbarian!" Ordering Haruki around was the mistress of darkness, standing tall in front of his fallen frame.
Struck down for the third time tonight, he already felt like giving up since the disparity in their powers was too much to overcome in one night.
"This is the second time you pulled me into the abyss to spar…" planting the tip of his saber on the ground, Haruki struggled back onto his feet and looked right at Asmodia. "What's with the sudden urgency to train me? Is there something that I need to know?"
Fanning the golden flames off of her hands, Asmodia gave Haruki an uninterested look. She knew he would eventually catch up with her desperation for growth, but this was much sooner than expected.
"I haven't checked on the emperor for a while, but I doubt he's sitting around counting ducks," shifting her gaze to look over Haruki's shoulder, she nodded at something that he couldn't see through the darkness. "And with how horribly your battle with Michael went last time, and the fact that you still haven't been able to drain levels and ability from that devil girl, I teach you a little about how to counter true holy magic."
Following her gaze, Haruki glanced at his back from the very edge of his eyes. At first, he didn't see anything, but then all of a sudden a giant worm-like creature with furry skin and bleeding gums and teeth jumped at him from under the earth.
"Tormentous dungeon!" Teleporting behind the worm as it tried to devour him, Haruki clutched onto his saber and stabbed it deep into its skin.
Squealing out loud from the deep wound, the worm tried to burrow its back into the ground. However, with the spear made of darkness sticking into him, Haruki made the saber grow into the creature like a flesh-eating parasite.
"That's enough," snapping her fingers, Asmodia broke Haruki's spell and the saber inside the worm quickly disappeared. "Try and hold back on my pets as I'm holding back on you."
Not too pleased by his direct attempt to kill the worm, Asmodia walked up close to the creature and gently caressed its wound to heal it completely. Once it started feeling better, she had it once again buried itself into the depth of the abyss.
"You say you want to teach me how to counter holy magic, but so far you've only used holy flames to incapacitate me. How's that going to help?" Haruki asked as he created yet another saber of dark.
"If you're so eager to die then have at it," holding her hand towards him, she produced a giant magic circle behind her with multiple smaller circles revolving around its circumference.
"Let's see how strong holy magic really is," creating a dark magic shield Haruki braced for impact.
While the spell charged on Asmodia's end, the magic circles began giving off strong light that almost blinded Haruki's heightened vision. Having learned from his mistakes, however, he created dark goggles with a light tint glass to be able to keep watch at the magic circled about to unleash their assault.
"Benevolence…" To Haruki's surprise, the spell didn't release any assault, instead, it drew out all the mana from the magic shield and even turned the goggle into a glistering dust.
As the light from the spell touched his skin, he could feel himself burning and being drawn into the magic circles. Just like the goggles, his skin began turning to dust and eventually, his arms fell off and shattered like sand.
"Is this enough for you?" Asmodia asked, closing her eyes to break the spell.
"How?" It was all Haruki could say. After all, even if he wanted his dark magic was no match for holy spells. "How am I supposed to counter this stuff? And why do you know true holy magic spells?"
Getting back up with his arms being restored by Asmodia's gaze, Haruki remembered trying to use the true holy magic Godsmite on Almuld. At that time, having borrowed Asmodia's abilities it made little sense to him as to why she had it, and now he couldn't go without getting an answer from her.
Wearing a scornful look on her face, Asmodia seemed reluctant to discuss the matter. Yet even she knew that the longer she pushed the matter, the less trust would remain between Haruki and her.
"Sit down," snapping her fingers, she contorted reality and made them both settle down on a table in an instant.
A bit thrown off by the sudden change, Haruki could feel his mind-melting because of a sudden headache. Brushing it off with sheer will, he leaned onto the table to interrogate Asmodia more about the matter.
"I'm done wasting time trying to figure out more about you and your intention, so just tell me," said Haruki, glaring right into her glowing violet eyes.
Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Asmodia let out a sigh before replying.
"I used to be an angel, much like the rest of the demon lords," the very first revelation left Haruki stunned. "But then much like you, we were betrayed by the people we served our entire lives. We were painted as demons by Atlas, so the people will align under his banner and shun us without question."
Hearing her talk about her past, a sense of deja vu hit Haruki. It almost felt to him as if he was looking into a mirror of his own past. Betrayed by the people he worked for and shunned for crimes he'd never committed.
"Wh-Why did he do that?" She asked, still stunned by the whole thing.
"Like all living creatures warrior, a new arc in his life began when he witnessed the death of his father," speaking with a hint of melancholy in her tone, Asmodia seemed distressed just talking about the matter. "He wants to make the world immortal and ruin the natural order of things so nobody has to lose a loved one as he did, but we as the children of god couldn't simply stand by the new orders."
"Then what? How did things get to where they are? How did everything get so messed up?!" Growing hysterical himself, Haruki wanted to know everything there was to know about the history of the world.
Resting her arms on the desk. Asmodia tapped her nail against it and made two steaming cups of tea present themselves in front of them both.
"The people love gods, warrior, and when a god doesn't like his angels, he casts them as demons. And so corrupted by the malice we received from the world, all of us eventually submitted to darkness…Much like you did," the last of her words, tied everything together for Haruki.
As if a recollection of his own memories, the past of the demon lords wasn't all that different than his. Frozen in place by the realization, he didn't know what to think or say. However, as Asmodia pushed the cup of tea against his hand, he was brought back to reality by the burning on his skin.
"Take your time to digest it all," picking up her own cup, she enjoyed it with great leisure. "It took us centuries to accept being demons, and as a potential candidate to be the next demon lord of lust, I want you to be well prepared to take over."
'A demon lord, huh?' Haruki wondered, looking up at Asmodia's face. 'Feels like fate has worked to get me to this point ever since I died.'
With how perfectly everything was fitting in, Haruki couldn't help but wonder if it was all also part of Asmodia's plan.
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