Demon Queened - Chapter 91 - Rough Draft

Devilla

Pain, like nothing I’d ever known, tore through me. Agony that went bone deep, then dug even deeper, dissolving every cell in my being. Flesh, blood, bone and whatever else comprised my being dissolved, like a sugar cube in coffee. Like gasoline, eating through plastic.

Then, as quick as the pain had come, it was gone, my nerves having disintegrated alongside the rest of my body. All that was left of me was the soul, a glimmering point of white light floating in the very center of the pool, halfway between the surface and the bottom.

I could see a hole below me. A tiny one, just big enough to drain the magic out drip by drip. Too small for even a soul to fit through, in all likelihood - though I considered trying it, anyways. It would likely lead to Liz.

But would could Liz do? Short of unmaking me, and using the power within me as her own… that might work. My soul only had holy magic within it, though, so I doubted it would do much to a door made of divine energy.

Speaking of divine energy, I could see it now - see it in a way I couldn’t before. Or perhaps sense would be a better word? My mortal senses had been stripped of me, after all. I could still “see” but my awareness of the world around me had shifted, to a certain extent. Where before I had seen a pool of water, I now sensed nothing but energy given liquid form. Made tangible - and usable. Unlike the solid divine energy around us, such as that which constructed the pool’s walls.

That explained why Luci had decided to meet us in this world. Her little trick - using divine magic without a spell - was likely only possible when she had access to this pool of raw power. In fact, I could now faintly sense a thread of power running from the pool and up towards her.

I wondered what she was doing with this power. Was she preparing to fish me up, and make me face her? Or was she turning her ire towards Lucy and Abigail? Hurting them, as she had threatened to?

The thought… concerned me, but not as much as it should have. It should have terrified me, in fact. It should have shaken me to my very core - though I suppose I was now nothing but core, to begin with.

Somehow, though, it didn’t. It felt concerning, but nothing more. I knew they would survive it, after all. Luci couldn’t kill us. They, like me, were, was, and would always be, at least so long as Liz allowed it.

They would be fine… eventually. Yet they wouldn’t be fine in the moment.

That really should have concerned me. Why wasn’t it concerning me? Why wasn’t I worried? Why wasn’t I desperately trying to come up with a plan? Why? Was I so terrible a person that I couldn’t even muster care for those I loved? I… I couldn’t even manage to feel disgusted with myself, for it…

“Hellish, isn’t it?” Liz asked. Except I didn’t truly hear it this time. Instead, I witnessed the divine magic moving out from my core, carving the words into reality. “Like having a glass wall between you and… everything else, I guess. Like you know what a normal person would feel, but you can’t quite manage it?”

‘Yes,’ I confessed. No words for me - I wasn’t sure how to make them, in this state. ‘It’s… unpleasant.’

“It sucks. I used to feel like that all the time, you know? When I watched humans… I’d get so invested in them, and yet some part of me would always be detached. Distant. I couldn’t really connect. Not until I turned myself into one… but even then, Devilla, we’re not really like them. We’re just… running an emulator.”

‘But… I still love them…’

“Of course you do! You’re still you, just… not mortal. Your thinking has changed. Usually it wouldn’t happen this fast, mind you - but… well, you’ve always been a bit eager to escape yourself, haven’t you?”

I had no answer to that. All the self hatred I’d felt, throughout my life, felt so distant now… and yet I knew that it was part of me. Just as much as the love I held for others.

‘How do I go back?’

“I can do it,” Liz said. “Not only that, but I can remake you - make you faster, stronger, better. I have the techno… I mean, magic. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.”

I didn’t reply. If I’d had eyes, I’d have been glaring though.

“Anyways, the point is that I can remake you. Send you back up to fight, stronger than ever.”

‘I sense a but.’

“Yeah…” Liz confirmed. I could practically feel the grimace behind her words. “The only way for me to rebuild your body in this mess is by using divine magic, instead of holy. And if I do that… there be consequences, Devilla. It’ll change you in ways I don’t think you’re capable of properly comprehending right now.”

‘Change me more than this?’ I questioned, mentally gesturing to my current state.

“...Not exactly,” Liz hedged. “It’s… not even a bad change, necessarily… but…”

‘Do it.’

“Are you sure?” Liz asked. “Once I do this, there’s no going back. And I haven’t even told you the consequences yet!”

‘It doesn’t matter. There’s no time. Or rather, it feels like there’s plenty of time but I’m sure I won’t be thinking that way once you’re done, so… do it. Please.’

“Well… alright then,” Liz said, as the divine magic around me began to churn.

Centered in the midst of it all, my soul began to burn.

***

Luci

***

I stared at the pool my descendant had thrown herself into, watching and waiting to see if anything would come up. When nothing did, I let out a sigh of relief - only to immediately frown. To think, I would let myself be so riled up by some filthy mixed blood as to actually sigh in relief. As if they could do anything to me! As if ‘Liz’ would help them.

I knew my Goddess. She was a good person. She just… got too invested in her ant farm. She’d get over it, soon. She’d realize how terrible those ‘ants’ could be to even their own, and she’d give up on them, and thank me for showing her the error of her ways. She probably knew it, deep down, too. That’s why she wasn’t doing anything, even now that she had the opportunity. Why she wouldn’t do anything. Because deep down, she knew that I’d only locked her away for her own good.

For now, I turned my attention to the two interlopers. Lucy and Abigail. The filthy mortal who thought she could wield a variant on my name - who even been named in my ‘honor.’

As if naming an insect after me would bring me any joy.

Then there was the other one. The true demon. She was a mixed blood, like my descendent - so much mortal filth running through her veins - but at least she wasn’t a fully mortal being, like Lucy had been. Abigail’s ascension was arguably simply the restoration of rights her ancestor had abandoned, while Lucy’s… Well, an insect sprouting angel wings was basically an affront to everything good and proper. Heresy, really.

Perhaps I’d melt them off of her? A dip int the divine pool wouldn’t do any permanent damage, but if I killed her mortal form before the wings could regenerate and then trapped her stasis… I mean, it wasn’t as if it truly made a difference in the end, but I’d certainly feel a lot happier about all this mess. If only because I’d have finally wiped the smile off her face.

Not that she was smiling right now, of course. In fact, she was screaming and crying and running towards the pool. Couldn’t have that, though - it would be a pain to fish out her soul, on top of Devilla’s.

I moved. She could go fast, as an angel, but I could go faster by drawing on the divine energy I’d been gifted. It was a piece of cake to get in front of her, seize her by the throat, and lift her. Then, with another application of divine magic, I seized hold of the demon who’d dared to spit at me, who was currently staring at the pool blankly. She didn’t even make a sound as I drew her towards me. Didn’t resist as I seized her by the throat.

A shame. I sort of wanted to see her cry.

“Now, if there aren’t any more interruptions,” I began.

Which is, of course, when the universe decided to interrupt me again.

***

Devilla

***

I rose from the pool feeling different - different in a way I couldn’t quite describe. More solid, perhaps? More anchored to reality, somehow… More powerful, too.

Before me stood Luci, her hands on Abigail and Lucy’s necks. Fury ran through me, the sight of it - it was almost comforting, to be able to feel such anger for their sakes again. Not that such relief did anything to quell the inferno of rage inside me.

I moved, faster than I’d ever moved before. At the same time I drew energy from within myself - not the calm, warm holy magic I was used to, but blistering hot divine energy that was currently burning inside my soul. It raged against me, for a moment, as if unwilling to cooperate, before suddenly stilling. I felt Liz’s hand on my soul, guiding the magic within me, encouraging it to follow my lead. I shot her a mental nod, but made no other acknowledgement, even as the magic coalesced into a glistening white sword.

I swung it towards Luci’s wrists, intending to cut through her, but at the last second she released the girls and leapt backwards, her eyes wide with shock even as she moved.

“What…” she began, but I ignored her, turning my attention fully to Lucy and Abigail.

“Are you alright?”

“Eena!” Lucy called, tackling me with a hug.

Abigail, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes at me, not saying anything for a moment.

“...Abigail? Are you perhaps mad about that stunt I just pulled?”

“Mad? Of course I’m mad, you idiot! I knew you were planning something crazy when you started to talk about loving us, but I didn’t think you’d dive head first into the pool of people dissolving acid!”

“It’s actually divine magic,” I explained, only to trail off as Abigail narrowed her eyes at me. “Right… Sorry about that. But it worked?”

“Idiot,” she muttered, before launching herself at me and Lucy, and wrapping her arms about us both. “I’m just glad you’re alright…”

I didn’t say anything, for a moment. I just held them both. Eventually, though, I had to ask about the elephant in the room.

“Where’s Ashley?”

“She never went through the portal with us,” Abigail informed me, bitterness in her tone. “Knew we couldn’t trust that bitch.”

“Of course she didn’t!” Luci exclaimed from somewhere behind me. Quite frankly, at that exact moment, I was too busy embracing Abigail and Lucy to take a proper look. “She’s too much of a coward to face me. And she knew I’d be here - mark my words! There’s no way she’d betray me, after all…”

“We’ll have to have a word with her about that later,” Liz grumbled.

I didn’t say anything. Nor did I broadcast her voice for the others to hear. I just hugged Lucy and Abigail for a moment longer, before reluctantly parting and turning to face our enemy.

“You’ve lost,” I stated, plainly. “Give up.”

“Lost!?” she demanded. “Lost!? You think I’ve lost!? Just because you have a little extra strength, now, doesn’t mean-”

I moved. Faster than she could blink, faster than she could react. One second I was on the opposite side of the room, the next I was in front of her, my hand upon her throat.

“You’ve lost,” I repeated. “Give up.”

“Or what?” she asked. “You’ll kill me?”

“Not me,” I said, reaching out with a tendril of my divine magic. There was a door, on one side of the room. Ignored until now in favor of the throne, the pool, and our enemy, it now opened with a magical twist of the knob, allowing the energy to roam down the hallway. With Liz in my head to guide me, it didn’t take long to find what I sought - and it was only a simple application of my new divine power to blast the door to bits. “Liz.”

A moment of silence followed, as I watched fear blossom across Luci’s face for the first time. As I watched the realization fo what was to come hit her, like a fist to the solar plexus.

I watched her crumble to the ground, even as a wave of divine magic rushed forward, flying down the halls only to come to a stop right in the doorway.

A blonde woman stood there, hands on her hips and a big smile on her lips.

“Mama’s home, everybody! Time to end this party.”

~~~

Author's Notes

This chapter took... maybe an hour or so to write? Once I actually got in front of a keyboard, anyways... To be honest, I wasn't really sure how this chapter would go? Like, I spent a long time thinking about it, and yet what we got isn't quite the same as what I plotted... Which is probably for the best, because none of my plotting felt quite right. To be honest, in the end, I actively decided to just go for it and see what came out...

Hope you enjoyed?