The very night before the attack on Lamenia, the emperor was pulled out of his deep slumber by a dagger-like pain seeping through his heart. Alone in his dark room, he dared not call for help for that would squander what the farce of strength he'd kept up in the eyes of his congregants.
Struggling up his bed with his hand clutched against his aching heart, he struggled his way to the windows to catch up on his panting breaths. In his haste, he quickly opened up his windows without caution and drew long deep breaths to soothe his aching heart.
Overtaken by the sudden hurt, the presence of someone sinister behind him completely escaped his mind and instincts. It wasn't until he calmed down did his ears pick up on someone trying to slowly get closer to him.
"Stop," he ordered, and the person got frozen in place.
Turning around with his back leaning against the window, the emperor laid his eyes on the woman who'd once been closer to him than anyone else. But now, distanced by his own past actions, he couldn't bring himself to claim her once more.
"Asmodia…What are you doing here?" He asked, a bit surprised to see her in an astral form instead of just the regular whispers and the voices in the head.
"You haven't told anyone that you're dying, have you?" Taking a few steps closer, her eyes frowned in worry. "Do you truly intend to die with nobody to mourn you?"
"As if you're the one to talk, last I remember you were the one to put the curse of mortality on me," he retorted, fanning his hand towards her to portray his annoyance.
"Your father never intended for anyone to live forever, that included him and you'd be no exception," getting as close to him as she could, Asmodia grabbed his face from both sides and turned his head to look at her. "The curse of immortality will doom us all, you need to learn how to let people go, and that includes me Atlas."
Looking into his tired gray eyes, she senses a faint moment of hope, but the very next moment as he grabbed her by the shoulders, she knew that he wasn't giving up just yet.
"I won't, I don't want to lose you, I didn't want to Almuld either, but!"
"But you killed him, the only one of the true archangels who could've lived forever," reminding him of the true nature of the demon lords, she let her body shift into the form of an angel that she once used to possess. "Just because you can make the world live on forever, doesn't mean you have you."
Slightly tilting her head, she brought her face closer to him. Blinded by the haloed light shining through her very existence, the emperor shut his eyes closed. As her lips finally touched his, he felt his body being unburdened by something that he never knew existed.
"Let me die, I've served this world long enough, I cannot keep living without growing bitter to its existence," drawing her face away, Asmodia genuinely pleaded. And the tears in her eyes were enough proof of her honesty. "The curse of the emperor, that's keeping us alive, would force us to keep on living even after you perish from this curse I've put on you. So I plead again, let me die…"
At a loss for words, the emperor gently grabbed her arms and moved her off of him. Moving away from the window, he stood by his bed with his back facing toward Asmodia.
"I'm not gonna die, Asmodia, I'll find a way to live, I'm god after all," he said.
"If you could then why haven't you?" Getting closer to him, the sounds of her heels resounded in the decorated room. "Your father took measures to not let that happen, didn't he? Because if you could use the curse on yourself, then you would've already!"
Hitting the mark with her assessment, Asmodia could see through his lies.
"Admit it Atlas, you're not doing all this to be the savior of an undying world, but because of your fear of losing another loved one and it's your fear of death that's driving you!" Tearing up herself, she glared intently at his turned back.
For a while, the emperor said not a single more word, and the silence that loomed gave him a bit of time to think about what Asmodia said clearly.
"So what?" he asked, slowly turning to face her once more. "So what if I don't want you or anyone else from my family to die?"
Knowing well enough who he meant by family, Asmodia couldn't grasp how going up against those very people could help him achieve his goals.
"You intent to keep all the other demon lords trapped in an undying cycle like me?" Reminded of the casket her body had been kept trapped inside all this time, she knew exactly what he was planning to do with the others.
"You should be thankful you're alive with just a soul," his answer engaged Asmodia and finally tipped her off of the bridge of patience.
"Keeping me from returning to my body with my soul, having me trapped in this limbo of death with no way of escaping it myself…How can you call this mercy? How can you expect me to be thankful?!" Breaking out of her angelic form, her body turned back into the corrupted vessel.
Stretching her arm towards him, she curled her fingers shut tight. Feeling her hands crushing his neck, the emperor wheezed for breath, but showing no signs of fear in his eyes, he let Asmodia know that he was prepared to die if she could bring herself to kill him.
"Fuck!" Realizing what she'd done, she let go of his neck.
Heavily jittering over her arm, she stared at it for a moment just trying to figure out if she really just tried to kill him.
"You're a bastard…" Glaring back at him, she felt painfully conflicted in her heart. "I can't bring myself to kill you, and you won't let me die, what kind of-ughhh!"
Gritting her teeth shut, she let her astral body slowly turn into a cloud of glistering mist. However, before disappearing completely into the ether, she gave him a warning, something she'd planned to do from the very start of their night together.
"I hope your week-long sleep makes you see reason once again," licking her lips, her body trailed off into the air.
Intrigued by her last words, the emperor ran his finger across his lips. As he brought his finger in front of his eyes, he noticed a deep stain of violet mixed with a tint of blood.
'Medusa's poison blood?' He figured, but before he could call for anyone, his body helplessly collapsed onto the ground. 'I should've known it was a trap, ahaha.'
Although he laughed it away, the emperor knew that he'd played right into her hands.
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