Blood…It flows in times of desperation, and for better or for worse, it's soon washed with mournful tears. Carried by the howl of deep sorrow, the souls of such warriors lost in battle ascend to martyr-hood and shine upon those left behind as blinding beacons of unrelenting struggle. At times, however, the one who's lost is no meager foot soldier, but an angel amongst angels, that need more than a deeply lamented funeral.
"Amedstia Asmodia Archangelieus, I bring you…" Floating above an army in which her brother contested for the most bodies, Reya looked down with contempt as her eyes bleed in lament for her sister. "A sacrifice."
Trailing out with her words, a dark magic circle as big as the battlefield emerged above the dying soldiers. Infused with arcane magic, something her sister had been a fond maestro of, Reya summoned through it an army of otherworldly creatures to descend down and tear apart the royal armies.
The very first to peek out was the infamous eater of voice, and along with her came her hatchlings, eager for a taste of flesh in the real world. Following the lead of the god-killer, the arms of Goliathan crawled out from the portal, and the one-eyed creature with screaming souls trapped inside glared down at the terrified soldier.
Struck with shock as the Marionette ballerinas, the lurker in dark, and countless others began crawling out, the soldiers stood frozen in place questioning reality. Noticing the change in their surroundings, Deus and Inferno peered up to admire the craft of a great summoner.
"And I thought she would keep hiding," looking right at his sister Reya, floating in the air in her true physical form, a warm smile crept up on Deus's face.
Taking the form of a little girl with a dark frilly dress and a teddy companion with patched button eyes, Reya kept on casting more magic while her Sunday hat fluttered with the wind.
"Seems like she'll get the most bodies," Inferno mumbled, moving beside Deus.
"I suppose those beauties will be happier taking care of Reya instead of you anyways," retorting with that, Deus turned back to the field of battle, and dashed towards the terrified soldiers.
Storming right behind Inferno pushed his infernal demons out of the way, and decided to turn the land into a crater of lava with his burning fists. With every strike from his hands, the bodies of the human soldier melted in an instant, and with every step forward his feet turned the ground into igneous hot rocks.
In contrast, instead of brute force, Deus made use of his swiftness as well as astral gadgets to take out the soldiers one after the other. A single bullet tore through the skulls of his victims, and the summoned cyborgs played and crushed the royal guards like toys.
Hitting the ground finally, the creatures from the otherworld crushed the men under their feet, and the moment their mouths gaped open, even the soldiers knew that there was no escaping. Despairing at their eventual fate, the soldier began abandoning their posts and tried to storm out through the back, but with the lurker in dark burying itself in the ground, they were all devoured into the earth by a pair of giant tentacles.
"May the creator's wrath spare no mercy on your souls," watching the carnage as the very earth began to bleed from her magic, Reya cursed them all to an afterlife filled with unparalleled torture.
The carnage continued and the sea of blood kept flowing more and more fruitfully. By the time the earth was coated with the blood of those who believed in Atlas's vision for the future, the three demon lords present as well as the otherworlders felt exhilarated for having let out their anger.
"What the?" Dropping out of the magic portal in the sky, Moriyana was baffled at the sight in front of her. As her eyes caught the attention of the little girl dressed in dark, she knew exactly what she was dealing with. "Reya? Is that you miss sloth? Did you summon these guys here?"
Referring to the pets of Asmodia, Moriyana wanted to know why they'd all left so suddenly while she was trying to figure out a way to deal with the emperor's curse. Not saying a word, however, Reya gave Moriyana a way before slipping into a portal of hers.
"Wait!" Flying forward, she tried to stop the demon lord to perhaps get some answers about dealing with the curse, but with the portal sucking her in, there was no way for Moriyana to catch up with her.
"Oi!" While she did miss Reya, Deus on the other hand was calling out to her himself. "Come down here!"
Waving his guns around, he tried to get her down while completely soaked in blood and guts. Wincing at the sight, Moriyana reluctantly decided to approach the jolly lord of gluttony. Getting her feet back on the ground, she felt slightly threatened by the amount of gore all around her along with the fact that she was standing in the presence of not one but two of the most dangerous beings in this world.
"Whose army was it?" She asked, still looking around the place.
"That cocky bastard Dominion," at the very mention of the general Dominion's fist burst back into flames. "He shouldn't be able to mess with us for a while now at least."
"Oh forget him," shaking his head, Deus washed off all the guts and blood by incinerating it with a holographic circle encasing his body for a few seconds. "How's the preparations going back at the Marquis kingdom?"
"It…" Ignoring Inferno, Moriyana turned to look back at Deus. "I don't know actually, I've been busy trying to find a pet from my mother's collection who can help me get rid of the emperor's curse from Master."
"Well he can die and use another body, can't he?" Deus responded as soon as he heard her query. "You just have to trap his soul and put it in another body so that the other one can't pull his soul back into it once it recovers."
Squinting her eyes, Moriyana looked at him as if he was speaking a foreign tongue.
"How would that work?" She asked, confused by his suggestion.
"Why do you think my sister never created a new body for herself while her soul was still detached?" Taking hold of her hand, Deus pulled her into a sapphire portal that appeared behind him. Coming out into a room illuminated with blue light and all kinds of mechanical testing apparatus, Moriyana had no clue as to what she'd been pulled into. "If she did put herself in a new body, she would've lost her status as being of the angel race, and along with it, she would've lost her affinity for plenty of her skills. The new bodies aren't always compatible with the soul so the possibility of a mishap was always there."
Continuing on with his explanation, he led her up a spiral of stairs before bringing her to a wall filled with glass panels with translucent images floating all over.
"I'm getting sick just looking at this, what is it?" She asked, more lost than ever before.
"That kid, Stella's her name right? I've been watching her, and from the looks of it," turned to Moriyana, Deus clasped his hands together. "It's worth taking a deep dive into making more bodies as capable or perhaps even more capable than her."
"But how does that help master right now?" Brushing off the part about him watching her, Moriyana simply wanted some answers.
"It's simple, the curse only works if Haruki is attached to that body, but if he let goes and takes another vessel, then the soul will be stable in the new body, while the original body perishes and deteriorates with time," his explanation of the whole ordeal still had Moriyana confused, but with no plan of her own, she decided to play along and see how exactly Deus planned to get rid of the curse from her master.
"I have no clue what the hell you're rambling about, but if this works, you'd instantly become my favorite uncle," shaking her head, Moriyana was ready to aid him in any way he wanted.
Far away in the domain of the emperor, while all of the chaos transpired everywhere, Haruki was skillfully taking out the royal guards with more ease than stealing candy from a toddler. Watching it all unfold from above a balcony, the emperor felt confident that he could make use of him to fight against the demon lords or perhaps even subjugate them into coming back to his side.
'There's still a problem…' Knowing full well that Haruki would definitely betray him if given the chance, the emperor needed some leverage to keep him in line. 'Perhaps using that priestess's soul marble would be helpful enough.'
Thinking back to Serena's soul brought to him by Dominion, the emperor was ready to break up the fight between Haruki and the guards so that he could keep him from getting too cocky about being one of the strongest in the castle.
"Gospel: Halt!" He said, and all the guards followed.
Surprised by their bodies suddenly freezing in place, Haruki turned to the voice to find the emperor looking down at him through a balcony.
'I forgot the gospel doesn't work on demon lords, this could be a problem.' Atlas thought as it seemed that his plan to make Haruki the new demon lord of lust to control lust demons had turned out to be a double-edged sword.
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