"Moriyana, you seem…" Entering the tent, Margarette's first impulse was to greet Moriyana joyfully, but upon noticing the sickly look on her face, she stopped herself from finishing her greeting.
Quickly shifting her gaze to Fay standing beside Moriyana's bed, Margarette squinted her eyes at her as if asking what had happened. Picking up on Margarette's gesture, Fay huffed out a tired sigh and stepped slightly forward.
"Seems like Deus might've overdone things, and her mind is still a bit fuzzy," Fay explained.
Lightly tapping the back of Moriyana's head, Fay tilted her head sideways to have Margarette follow her eyes. Then as she looked at Moriyana sitting upright on the bed, both of them noticed her looking through the air in a state of deep daze.
"What the hell did you do?" Shifting her gaze to Deus seated on a stool at the tent's corner, Margarette wanted answers that she'd been denied so far. "And don't tell me that I don't need to know again, I'm tired of-"
"Margarette, stop," interjecting in between Margarette's tirade, Fay moved even closer to her and placed her hand on top of her shoulder. Then, once she had Margarette's attention, Fay had her follow her gaze to Stella as well as Greta who was present in the room. "We can talk about this later, but in all honesty, the fewer people that know what happened the better, and that includes you too."
Even though she wasn't convinced completely, Margarette decided to push the matter off for the moment and try to figure out a way to get Moriyana's mind back on track. After all, there were plenty of places where her presence was needed immediately, one of which happened to be the middle of the battlefield where only Asuka and the two demi-cats were responsible for healing the injured masses.
Walking up to Moriyana, Margarette placed her hand on top of her bushy red hair. Pouring mana in through her skull, she commenced a spell that could heal her disarrayed state of mind in a matter of instant.
"Fortitude!" The moment she unleashed the spell her eyes glowed in a deep violet, and so did Moriyana's. Like a bright lamp, their eyes alone lit up the whole tent. For a brief few seconds, the casting continued, a smog of pure dark crawled out of Moriyana's mouth, ears, and nostrils until her mind was utterly stripped of the mind fog.
With a jolt, Margarette pulled her burning hand away from Moriyana and closed her eyes to strip the light away from their eyes. When she opened them again, a trail of blood streamed down from her blood-red eyes. Being on the receiving end, Moriyana was no different, however, having just regained her consciousness, she was assaulted with fear and angst.
"What?! Where am I?!" Her vision all bloodied, she could barely make out the features of the familiar faces around her. "Margarette? What the hell is-Ughh!"
Assaulted with a sudden headache, Moriyana's hand clamped on her forehead in pain. Witnessing it all, Stella was shaking from fear at the far corner. To comfort her little angel, Fay moved over to her before quickly marching towards the exit.
"I knew you overdid it!" Complaining to Deus, Fay glared at him with gritted teeth.
Turning to Greta for a brief moment, she pinched her ears and dragged her out along with her daughter. Inside everyone could still hear Greta groaning outside the tent in pain, but they were all far too absorbed in the absurdity of their situation to care.
"Next time," looking at the demon lord of gluttony, Margarette pointed a stern finger at him. "You better not use any weird spells on my family."
"What spell?" Moriyana asked, turning her head towards Deus as well.
"Nothing," Deus replied, not wanting to escalate the matter any longer.
Following his voice, a tense silence lingered in the air. The room, still smelling of tar and burned hair, was left in a state of uncertainty as none of them how the other felt about the matter. Margarette wasn't sure how far should she push Deus for answers since Fay seemed to agree with his decision of stripping part of Moriyana's memory. Then there was Moriyana who had no clue about the events that had led to this point, but the tension around her was palpable enough to turn her cautious.
"Are we done here? I can heal the rest of your wound if you want," knowing himself to be in the wrong, Deus was trying to make up to the two, but Margarrete was not at all inclined to integrate his help at the moment.
"Rejuvenation," using her healing ability, Margarette first healed Moriyana's eyes and the tenseness in her body and then did the same to herself.
After she was done healing them both, Margarette helped Moriyana to get up on her feet before turning to address Deus once more.
"Stay here until it's your turn to switch with the other demon lords, I don't want you causing any more trouble than you already have," with that warning, Margarette took Moriyana and left for the battlefield to replace Asuka and the demi-cat so they could rest for a moment or two.
Left lonesome in the tent, Deus didn't want to even risk being seen by Merciella who was supposed to be helping Margarette at the moment, and thus, he confined himself in the company of his electronic gadgets to waste away time until either the clone research continued or his help was required in any way.
'I wish…It was her who died and not Asmodia.' Even though his eyes were glaring at the transparent screen of a luminous gadget, Deus couldn't push Merciella out of his mind. 'Dammit, why did I have to be here wasting time when a war is about to start at Inferno's territory?'
Cursing his luck his fingers gripped tight onto the glass screen until it shattered and sparks of electricity began flying out through the machine.
"Reya, can you send me back to my domain?" Closing his eyes, Deus requested his little sister.
"Hmm? Deus, I know Dominion's army has perished, but returning to that place when only a fraction of it has been reclaimed by your servants is practically suicidal, Reya retorted.
With Dominion's army gone, Razor had been forced to thin his soldiers in Dominion's territory, however, even with the trimmed number of soldiers, returning to his castle could prove to be dangerous.
"My soldiers are there, and I…" Thinking back to Asmodia, as well as Inferno, there was one thing that popped up in his mind. "I need to face a fear of mine, but I need a…Woman for it, one of my soldiers that is."
"You mean to say, you want to relieve your stress sexually? Where did that come from?!" Baffled by the sudden confession, Reya didn't know what to make of it. "You're gluttony, not lust, if you wanna unwind why not feed on something?"
Getting out of his chair, Deus began to make his way toward the tent's exit.
"Because I've lost my appetite since long ago," stopping in front of the tent's cover, Deus's hand reached forward, but then on instinct, his other hand clasped onto it and drew it back. "All this chaos has resurfaced a few scars that I wanna bury deep down, and if you won't help me return then I have other means to get rid of these thoughts."
Trying to understand what was happening, Reya took a moment to think about the situation before calmly asking him a few more questions.
"Tell me why you wanna do this, and if you're honest I'll help you get back," she asked with a hint of concern in her voice.
Deus too took a moment with his eyes closed, however, as he opened them back up, he was ready to spill the beans on a long-kept secret.
"When things first began to spiral downhill, and our instincts for destruction were still fresh in our hearts," placing his hand over his chest, Deus took a deep breath and continued. "At that time, Merciella, she…U-used me, and if you're not gonna help me, then I'm gonna help myself by tearing the source of my misery apart!"
"By used, do you mean…" Simply nodding to Reya's question, Deus confirmed her suspicion.
At the height of his innocence, of which he still possessed some, he'd been assaulted by Merciella for nothing more than greed to have any and all men she laid eyes on. Being perceived as the weakest of the demon lords, she'd forced herself on Deus and committed all atrocities that would turn anyone's stomach.
"I-I'm sorry…" Astonished by the news, Reya had no clue what she was supposed to feel. Her heart although bled for her brother, her mind was lagging behind with the emotional output. "I'll send you to your castle, just be careful."
"Thanks," even though he was the victim of the crime, having told someone else, Deus felt tainted with some ethereal guilt and the look of disgust was visible in his eyes. "Reya, keep this a secret, okay?"
Humming in agreement, Reya opened up a portal for her brother and cut her connection off him for the moment so she wouldn't be able to witness what was about to happen.
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