The World Is Mine For The Taking

Chapter 1495: Chapter 212 - Lucielle Of Pride (4)

"W-What are you planning to do?" I asked, unable to hide the nervousness in my voice.

Satania didn’t even hesitate.

"I’ll kill her."

The answer came out so casually that for a second, my brain almost failed to process it.

I swallowed hard.

Kill her?

Of all the things I had expected to hear today, that was definitely not one of them.

"How can you say something like that?" I asked, staring at her in disbelief. "You’re talking about our mother."

"She’s not our mother, Lucielle!" Satania shot back immediately.

Her voice echoed through the room.

"That monster has no compassion. She doesn’t care about anyone. She doesn’t feel anything. She’s the embodiment of evil and destruction itself."

The intensity in her voice made everyone go silent.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen Satania this serious.

Normally, she was confident, loud, and carried herself like she could set the world on fire and then laugh about it afterward. Right now, though, she looked different.

She looked angry.

But beneath that anger, there was something else.

Fear.

Confusion.

Maybe even disbelief.

The more I looked at her, the more it felt like she wasn’t just trying to convince us.

It was almost as though she was trying to convince herself.

Satania wasn’t the type of person who would make accusations like this without a reason.

That was what bothered me.

If anyone else had said these things, I probably would have dismissed them immediately.

Coming from Satania, however, it felt different.

"Calm down first, Satania," Morsea said.

Unlike me, her voice remained calm and composed.

"Are you absolutely certain about what you’re saying? Because if you aren’t, then I don’t think I can overlook you speaking about Mother like that."

Levi nodded.

"Mother was the one who raised us," she said. "Whether she intended it or not, she’s also the reason we possess the powers we have today. Everything we are started with her."

Her expression slowly hardened.

"You keep speaking about her like that, and eventually we’re not going to tolerate it anymore."

A faint pressure filled the room.

Levi wasn’t shouting.

She didn’t need to.

"At some point," she continued, "you’re going to push someone too far."

"If you’re going to make claims like that," Belphegor added, "then at least show us proof."

I blinked.

Belphegor was actually awake.

Not only awake, but actively participating in the conversation.

That alone was enough to tell me how serious this had become.

Normally, getting Belphegor involved in anything required divine intervention, several natural disasters, and possibly a written invitation.

Yet now she was staring directly at Satania.

And she looked annoyed.

Actually annoyed.

Beelzebub didn’t look much different.

Her expression wasn’t exactly friendly either.

"Satania, please," I said. "Don’t start talking about rebelling against Mother."

"You don’t understand."

Her reply came out quietly this time.

Much quieter than before.

For a moment, she looked smaller than usual.

Not physically.

Just... vulnerable.

It felt strange seeing her like that.

Satania was usually the one causing problems, not the one troubled by them.

"You don’t understand anything," she repeated.

She lowered her gaze slightly.

"If you knew what I found..."

Her voice trailed off.

"If you had seen what I saw..."

She clenched her fists.

"You’d understand why I’m saying all of this."

Silence followed.

Nobody knew how to respond.

The conviction in her voice wasn’t something that could be faked.

Whatever she had discovered had shaken her badly.

That much was obvious.

For someone like Satania to look uncertain was honestly more frightening than seeing her angry.

Then she turned around.

"Follow me."

She glanced back at us.

"All of you."

Nobody moved immediately.

A few seconds passed before she continued.

"I’ll show you everything."

Without another word, she started walking.

One by one, we followed.

Even Belphegor stood up.

That alone nearly distracted me from the situation.

I honestly wasn’t sure which was more shocking.

Satania wanting to kill Mother or Belphegor voluntarily moving somewhere.

The fact that both happened on the same day felt slightly concerning.

Still, none of us complained.

None of us turned back.

Because despite everything, we were curious.

Mother had always been someone we trusted.

Someone we respected.

Someone we followed.

Hearing Satania speak about her like that should have been enough for us to dismiss the entire thing.

Instead, we followed.

That was probably because Satania herself wasn’t someone who acted without reason.

Whatever she had found had to be significant.

Otherwise, none of this made sense.

***

The place Satania brought us to was familiar.

It was the cave where Mother lived.

The cave where we had spent countless years together.

The cave we called home.

The cave where we laughed, fought, trained, and lived under Lilith’s care.

For as long as I could remember, this place had been our world.

Which was why the growing feeling in my chest felt so uncomfortable.

"I always wondered why she never allowed us to go deeper into the cave," Satania said as she walked ahead of us.

Her footsteps echoed softly through the darkness.

"I never expected to find something like this."

Levi folded her arms.

"What exactly did you find?"

"You’ll see."

That was all Satania said.

Then she continued walking.

Deeper.

And deeper.

And deeper.

The further we went, the colder the air became.

The familiar sections of the cave eventually disappeared behind us.

The surroundings gradually became less recognizable.

"This place..." Morsea muttered.

She looked around carefully.

"Isn’t this the area Mother specifically forbade us from entering?"

I nodded.

She was right.

Every single one of us knew about this place.

And every single one of us had avoided it.

Not because we were physically unable to enter.

Not because some barrier stopped us.

Simply because Mother told us not to.

That had always been enough.

At least for me.

I never questioned her.

To be honest, the thought had never even crossed my mind.

Mother told us not to go somewhere.

So we didn’t.

Simple.

Looking back on it now, maybe that sounded naive.

Maybe it even sounded stupid.

But I trusted her.

Completely.

Questioning her felt wrong.

Almost like a betrayal.

Apparently, Satania didn’t feel the same way.

"Mother hasn’t returned in a long time," she said. "So I came back here to check things out."

She glanced over her shoulder.

"And then I got curious."

A small bitter smile appeared on her face.

"Turns out curiosity isn’t always a good thing."

That was probably the most normal thing she’d said all day.

"When I first came down here, I thought there would be nothing."

Her voice became quieter.

"But then I found this."

"W-Wait."

I finally spoke up.

"Do all of you realize what we’re doing right now?"

Everyone looked at me.

"Mother specifically told us not to come here. We’re ignoring her instructions and sneaking into a place she forbade us from entering."

I hesitated.

"This is basically a betrayal."

Satania stared at me.

Then she sighed.

A long sigh.

The kind of sigh someone lets out after hearing something they expected but still found disappointing.

"You’re seriously still saying that?"

I opened my mouth.

Then closed it again.

"Lucielle," she said, "your faith in her is completely blind."

I couldn’t even argue.

Maybe it was.

Maybe I trusted Mother too much.

But she was Mother.

How was I supposed to stop?

Before anyone could continue the argument, Satania suddenly raised her hand.

Fire gathered at her fingertips.

A second later, flames burst outward.

The darkness vanished.

The entire chamber lit up.

And then I saw it.

My breath caught instantly.

The walls.

The ceiling.

The floor.

Everything.

Every surface was covered in markings.

Ancient runes.

Strange symbols.

Countless engravings carved directly into the stone.

They stretched as far as my eyes could see.

It looked less like a cave and more like some forgotten archive hidden beneath the world.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody moved.

The sight was simply too overwhelming.

And then I realized something.

These weren’t random carvings.

They weren’t decorations.

They weren’t meaningless symbols left behind by time.

They told a story.

An ancient story.

A story recorded across the stone itself.

And as I stared at the countless runes covering the cavern, a chill slowly ran down my spine.

Because the story they told was one of the world’s destruction.