"Now let me prepare the teleportation." Nathalia smiled slightly.
She turned, her bare feet tapping against the floor producing a faint creaking sound as she moved out of the room.
I and Lilith were left alone in her bedchamber.
Lilith stood at the corner of the room, she wasn’t moving. Her red eyes were locked onto me. She wasn’t even pretending to be occupied with something else, she was just watching me, as if waiting for me to speak first.
I did plan to ask her a few questions. There were things I wanted to clarify with her.
But… I didn’t know how to start the conversation.
Lilith seemed quiet, and distant.
I wasn’t sure if she was simply disinterested or if she was deliberately making things awkward between us. Or maybe both.
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My gaze wandered around, finally landing on a massive map behind Lilith.
It was pinned to the wall, covering nearly half of it. The details were incredible, each line was precise, as if someone had spent years creating it.
That map…
’I don’t think I’ve seen it before.’
Where was this from? I pondered.
Lilith, as if noticing the curiosity in my eyes, spoke without looking away from me.
"It’s the Demon Continent."
Hmm?
’What?’
Oh, she meant the map.
I studied it closer. The landmass was divided into five distinct sections, with markings that seemed to indicate the territories. Strange letters were scribbled across it, forming the words I couldn’t understand.
I frowned.
The script was entirely unfamiliar to me. It didn’t resemble the human language or even any ancient script I had come across before.
I reached out to Sera in my mind.
’Can you read it?’
Sera’s respond instantly.
’It’s Demon Tongue. And yes, I can read and speak almost all the languages in this world.’
I raised an eyebrow.
Well, she will be useful after all.
Anyways…
Demon Tongue, huh?
I knew demons had their own language and culture, but no human—at least, no recorded one—had ever seen it before. Every record we had on them came from second-hand sources, from old wars or demon prisoners.
But now, right in front of me, was a full-fledged, detailed map of the Demon Continent.
It’s a rare piece of knowledge.
The letters were completely different from ours— It looked more like an ancient rune than a conventional script.
I narrowed my eyes.
’Sera, try to memorize all the names on the map. I’ll analyze it later.’
If I could get my hands on a complete map of the Demon Continent—a map that no other human ever possessed—it would be an immense advantage for me in the future.
Sera nodded in response. I could feel her presence focusing as she carefully analyzed the map.
For now, I let her be.
Letting my mind calm, I asked Lilith.
"Why are you helping me?"
I had been thinking about it ever since she guided my hand to write that last condition on the contract.
That single term had shifted the balance in my favor, making Nathalia bound to provide me guidance—something I would have never been able to demand myself.
It was undeniably beneficial to me.
But why did she do it?
Why had Lilith, someone who should be loyal to Nathalia, gone out of her way to ensure that I had an advantage?
It almost felt like she was on my side.
Lilith’s blood-red eyes shimmered slightly. She parted her lips as if to respond—
Then she stopped.
No words came out from her.
She hesitated.
And that alone told me enough.
Her expression barely shifted, but I caught that faintest flicker of something—something buried deep inside her.
I pressed further.
"Who was Lucy?"
As I said that name, I carefully studied her every reaction. Every twitch of her muscles, every shift in her breathing, every flicker in her eyes.
"Why do you want to know?" she finally asked.
Why?
So, she did know about them.
And yet, she was testing me. Avoiding the question.
It seemed she didn’t want me to dig further.
Which only made me push harder.
I am not letting this go.
"I saw it," I said. "I saw what happened to Rex."
Lilith’s posture stiffened.
I continued my words.
"I saw how badly he was beaten. How his face was barely recognizable, how his bones fractured under the force of those continuous strikes, how his eyes—" I narrowed mine to her. "How his eyes were nearly crushed, how he was bathed in his own blood, how—"
"Enough."
Lilith’s voice was quiet, but the weight behind it was undeniably strong.
I ignored it.
I knew what I was doing was cruel to her, but I had no choice.
I had my own life to protect. My own people to look after.
If this was somehow connected to me, then those around me would inevitably get tangled in it as well.
I couldn’t allow that.
I had to be prepared.
I had to know everything—every last detail about this prophecy, about Olympus, about whatever game those gods and demons were playing.
And if that meant digging into the darkest suffering of someone, then so be it.
I would take the path no matter how treacherous it was.
Lilith’s reaction was slight, but I caught onto it.
Her fingers tightened around her wrist.
Her lips quivered for just a second before she bit down on them.
Then, she looked away from me.
"Some things," she murmured, "are better left buried."
My eyes widened.
I then saw it.
In her eyes, in the way she held herself.
It was— Pain.
Raw, unfiltered pain.
It was an emotion that didn’t suit a deity, yet here it was—right in front of me, on her face.
At the corner of her eyes, tiny droplets of tears dripped down.
She didn’t let them fall.
She brushed it away.
She just went silent.
I, on the other hand…
I was left speechless.
I had expected resistance. I had expected anger, defiance, anything but this.
But what I saw instead was something deeper.
Something that made me wonder—
What kind of life had she lived to show this kind of emotion?
How much had she endured?
How much has she lost?
To be Continued…
A/N: This chapter went over 2k, I have to split it into 2 halves… I recommend reading the next one.
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