Demon Queened - Chapter 79 - Take 2? Maybe? Details inside

So, I basically got a little too into my head about the pacing of the chapter, and worried a bit too much about a comment or two I got, and then ended up rewriting chapter 79 a bit... Thing is, I'm not sure if the rewritten version is actually better? So I thought I'd post it on Patreon and ask people what they thought.

Opinions very much appreciated! (I might make a poll.)

Devilla

“...How?” I whispered, my eyes locked upon the pitch black artifact that encircled Lucy’s neck. “Why?! That collar… What is that thing doing around her neck?!”

“Like I said,” Chloe replied, “we got invited to what was apparently poisoned tea with the Grand Patriarch. We both managed to fight off the effects, but… Well, let’s just say I still feel like a centaur kicked me in the head, so I wasn’t exactly in a proper state to prevent whatever the hell that thing is from being put around her neck.”

“That thing is a mind control collar.” My voice remained but a whisper, distant even to my ears. It wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. Rather, it felt as if raising my voice would somehow make this more real.

I didn’t want this to be real. I didn’t want to accept that the Collar of S ubmission, the very thing that had been forced around my digital counterpart’s neck at the end of Tower Conquest, was now clinging to Lucy’s. Yet it was there, all the same, dark enough in color that the eye almost couldn’t help but be drawn to it. It seemed to pulse with a vile darkness as I stared at it, the room itself seeming to dim even to my eyes.

“Can you maybe do less staring and more stopping?” Chloe pleaded as Lucy took her first steps into the room. Her eyes seemed almost blank, her steps clumsy, but as she drew back her fist and thrust it towards Chloe I knew that all her strength was in it. More so than normal, judging by the speed of her blow. Not that it was anywhere fast enough to keep me from snatching her fist out of the air.

“Lucy,” I whispered.

She didn’t respond. She didn’t even look at me. She just drew back her other fist and tried to hit Chloe again, this time forcing me to tug at her arm in order to redirect her. Of course, I could have simply blocked the blow, but with the amount of force she was putting into it I feared she might actually break her own bones on impact.

“Careful,” Chloe warned me from the side. “She landed a hit earlier, and… Well, let me tell you, she did not hit that hard during our spar. I think she might have fractured one of my ribs.”

“What were her orders?” 

“Her orders?” Chloe parroted back, blinking. “Uh… Right. ‘Kill the kitsune.’ Plain and simple, right? Guess that’s what I get for letting my illusion slip from the poisoning”

“Right…” I murmured, frowning as I gently tugged Lucy to the side, causing another strike to miss. Then I pulled her hands behind her back, as gently as I could, and held her wrists. “She’s likely not going to stop until she’s unconscious or you’re dead.”

“So mind control collar, then?” Chloe guessed. “Sounds like you already know something about it.”

“It was in Tower Conquest - the media through which I received information about my future,” I explained. “A game my past life played… except the collar was placed on me, there. And it didn’t zombify me, either - at least I don’t think so? The art seemed to indicate that I was still myself, even as I was forced to fulfill orders…” I could tell from the reluctant expression on my digital counterpart’s face during those scenes. It was nothing like the blank look on Lucy’s face as she struggled to pull free.

“I need to knock her out,” I murmured, looking around for a clue. “You said she’s already been dosed with some sort of drug, right? Something to put her to sleep? Maybe I could take advantage of that - weaken her until she falls unconscious?”

“That might work!” Chloe agreed.

“Or it could make it worse…” I murmured, glancing at the collar. So far, it didn’t seem to be working like in the game - rather than forcing her to actively comply, it was merely moving her body like a puppet. Would knocking her unconscious actually make that easier? Not to mention the possibility that she was mentally fighting, even now - weakening her could be the worst thing possible…

“You could always just… carry her like that?” Chloe pointed out. “It’s not like she can really resist you right now.”

“I’m more worried she’ll hurt herself the way she’s twisting around,” I confessed, frowning at Lucy as she twisted and turned in my grip, her movements becoming ever more fierce and erratic. “No. I need to make her still…”

I knew how to… as little as I wanted to use it.

“Forgive me for this, Lucy,” I whispered. Taking a deep breath I then shakily repeated the words I’d spoken earlier today. “Ereff Bajoul Draten.”

Instantly, Lucy stiffened in my arms, her body going still as the stone overtook her. Yet at the same time the collar seemed to pulse and her neck shifted a little, her head moving despite being stone. It only lasted for a moment before the petrification completely took hold, but it was concerning all the same.

“Come on,” I whispered, acutely aware of the fact that the statue of Lucy was trembling in my grasp, still struggling to move even in its current state. I wrapped my own arcane magic around the ‘sculpture’, steadying it, keeping it still, stabilizing it. I could feel something pushing back at my efforts, though, and it took active focus to keep her secure. “Once we’re back in the tower, you can go scurry off somewhere Lucy won’t know where to find you, just in case. I’m going to find Doll.”

***

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Doll informed me, dashing my hopes against the cruel rocks of reality. After all the help she’d been with finding Abigail and punishing Alira, I was sure she would have something to help. Yet now when I needed her the most…

“Don’t give me that look,” she said with a sigh. “Just because I don’t recognize the collar does not mean I can’t help.”

“So you do know something?” I asked, grasping at the faint hope she provided.

“Not directly about the collar, no. I have a few theories, however, based on what I can see happening in her soul.”

“In her soul?” I asked, blinking. Right. Doll had said something about soul sight when I’d restored her, hadn’t she? And something about emergency medical procedures, too? “What do you see? What’s it doing to her? How do I stop it?”

Doll shook her head, however. “This is not something you can do on your own. You will require the help of another.”

“Help?” I asked, my mind first going to Chloe. If I needed a partner, she seemed the obvious choice. Her life was somewhat hanging in the balance, too, afterall.

“Not Chloe,” Doll said, somehow guessing my thoughts. “Abigail.”

“Abigail?” I repeated, blinking at her. “What can she do? No offense to her, but…”

“She is weak?” Doll asked. “Indeed. That is, in part, what makes her ideal for the job.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” came a new voice from the door. Abigail’s voice.

“I… I mean…” I blushed. “I didn’t mean to disparage your strength, only-”

“I am weak,” Abigail interrupted. “I get it. My power levels are basically useless even when I’m not stuffed full of Jailer’s Vine. What I want to know is how the hell can I help?”

“It is not your weakness itself that is beneficial,” Doll explained, “but the cause. You were underfed as a child, were you not? Specifically in terms of lust?”

“Yeah? So?” Abigail asked, crossing her arms. “Mom wasn’t really up to gathering lust after my dam died. I still grew up alright.”

“Being underfed led to your being underpowered,” Doll stated, unperturbed by Abigail’s glare. “This is known. Less known are other side effects. Have you noticed that you can go longer between meals than other succubi?”

“...Occasionally,” Abigail admitted. “I mean, not that I’ve ever really felt the need to push it, but… Yeah. Considering how Devilla’s lust doesn’t actually do much to feed me, I guess I’ve been stretching things out a bit…”

“Of course it doesn’t. Lust is merely the conduit through which you access the souls of others in order to harvest some of their negative energy. Much the same as vampires and blood. True demons were originally from Hell, and while your kind may inhabit mortal shells these days, you still require trace amounts of unholy energy to function.”

“Alright, I guess that explains why all true demons have weird diets of some sort, but what does that have to do with helping Lucy?” Abigail asked. “Who’s… currently a statue for some reason? Could someone please explain what’s going on from the beginning?”

“Lucy was collared,” I informed her. “With the same Collar of Submission I told you about from the game. The one intended to make you follow orders.”

“A collar made purely of unholy magic,” Doll informed us. “Which is why your magic cannot affect it, Devilla. Why it seeks to make Lucy move, even now - and why it’s doing so bad a job at it… You saturated her body with positive energy, and so it’s struggling to take her over physically. Instead, it’s attacking her soul, using that as a conduit to get underneath the layer of holy magic, and attack her from within.”

“But she’s petrified,” Abigail pointed out. “To stop the progress, I’m guessing?”

“To stop her struggling, more like,” I confessed. “I was afraid she would hurt herself…”

“And she still might,” Doll warned us. “Your magic worked on a surface level, in part due to the fact that you’ve already begun to stain her with your magic, but I fear that stone only goes skin deep. Within, her body is in turmoil, still twitching and trying to move under the effects of the collar. If we do not act quickly her body might rip itself apart.”

“Then how about we get back to the fact that I’m supposed to help, somehow?” Abigail suggested. “I’m guessing it has something to do with that collar being made of unholy magic? Negative energy? The same stuff I feed on?”

“Correct,” Doll confirmed. “At least in part. The true reason you are fit for this is not only because you are a true demon, but because you were a malnourished one - your body’s arcane magic capacity is so small because you developed a capacity to store large amounts of unholy magic instead. The better to see you through times of starvation I assume. Something that has, at best, been a minor convenience through your life, I’m sure - but which could now prove to be the solution we seek.”

“So what? I just need to… feed on the collar, or something?”

“Something like that,” Doll replied with a nod. “Utilizing the full suite of enchantments and upgrades given to me by Dalleen, I should more or less be able to trick your body into accepting the collar itself as food.”

“Then what are we waiting for!?” Abigail demanded. “Whatever the hell happened to Lucy probably only happened because Devilla was too busy rescuing me to keep an eye on her, right? So let’s get started!”

“It’s not that simple,” Doll warned us before I could voice my opinion. “While it is true that you can feed upon the collar, and that you have a larger capacity for storage than most, the fact remains that this collar is made of pure unholy energy. It is more than even you can safely contain, Abigail. It will leak into your body, if you do this - and it will change you. Assuming you survive…”

“Change me how?” Abigail asked guardedly.

“And what do you mean ‘survive’?” I demanded.

“It will change you into a Demon,” Doll said. “A true ‘true’ Demon. A being of pure negative energy. In other words, the other side of Devilla’s angelic coin.”

“And the ‘survive’ part?” I pressed, not at all liking the look of determination filling Abigail’s face.

“It would take a miracle,” Doll confessed. “The chances are that slim. Of course, she could cancel the transformation at any time - release the energy. Her body would be all but destroyed, but with your magic and my help she would recover.”

“And if we don’t do anything?” Abigail asked before I could. “What happens to Lucy then?”

“Her soul will be consumed by the collar,” Doll informed us. “Her sense of self will be corroded, at best. At worst, she will be left a prisoner in her own brain, forced to watch as she enacts whatever orders are given her.”

“What if nobody gives her orders?” I asked. “We could try and work around the one to kill Chloe, somehow - maybe a momentary death, just to end the command? And then we could just…”

“Keep her locked up?” Abigail demanded. “For the rest of her life? Keep her safe from any further orders at the cost of her freedom?”

“I could kill the one who collared her,” I suggested. “That might do it…”

“Maybe,” Abigail conceded. “Or it might trigger some weird self-destruct thing we don’t know about!”

“So what?!” I demanded. “I’m supposed to let you risk your life to save hers?!”

“Yes! Because it’s my fault! I’m the one who distracted you! I’m the one who was so weak and useless as to be kidnapped at a crucial moment, all because I’m the weak link in this chain! And now you want me to turn away from a chance to not only save the girl you love, but actually step up in power and be of actual help?!”

“That’s… You didn’t… It wasn’t… It wasn’t your fault…”

“Really?!” Abigail demanded. “Do you really think that, deep down? Are you sure there’s not even the smallest sliver of resentment? That I couldn’t have been stronger or figured my own way out?”

“No!” I denied. “I would never blame the victim like that.”

“Unless the victim was you…” She let out an exasperated sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Look, just… let me do this, okay? If it gets too much, I can just let go like Doll said. Meanwhile, if we don’t do it, Lucy won’t have a chance…”

“She’ll need more than Abigail for a chance,” Doll interrupted before I could respond. Under circumstances I might have been annoyed at the repeated cut-offs, but there were more pressing matters at hand. “It’s not just the collar you’ll be drawing out, Abigail, but the tendrils it’s placed within her soul and body. Cracks will be left behind. Cracks that must be filled by more energy - preferably of the positive kind.”

“...What?” I demanded. “You want me to turn Lucy into some sort of angel?!”

“It’s the best way forward,” Doll said calmly, refusing to match the anger in my voice. I wished she would - it would have made it easier to rage at her, to act like this was all somehow her fault. Like I was at risk of losing Lucy because of her actions and not my own incompetence… 

If I’d given Abigail a proper guard, or at least insisted she stay with Bailey, would any of this have happened?

“No victim blaming, remember?” Abigail interrupted before my thoughts could get darker. “We’re on a time limit here. Probably. I mean, I’m mostly just guessing, but…”

“There is a time limit,” Doll confirmed. “Though as long as you act within it, waiting will do you no harm. Your chances will not go down.”

“But neither will they get better…” I let out a sigh. “Are you sure about this Abigail? Even knowing I don’t, in any way, blame you?”

“I’m sure,” Abigail said. “Even if you don’t blame me, I still do, at least a little bit. Besides, we both know she’d do the same for either of us in a heartbeat… and if I turn into a ‘true true Demon’ or whatever, I’ll be able to fight by your side, right? Maybe even travel with you.”

“That would be nice…” I confessed, before taking a deep breath, and turning to Doll. “Alright then. Let’s do this.”

***

Lucy

***

Darkness. Unending darkness. It was all there was. Some part of me whispered that it was all there had ever been. I knew that part of me was a lie, though! Just the darkness, trying to make me give in. I had plenty of happy memories from before the darkness, after all! Memories of traveling with Eena and meeting Abigail, growing closer to Feyra and petting Bailey. So many good memories! I knew they weren’t fake. That what came before wasn’t fake. Even if the darkness was in my head, whispering lies directly into my mind, it wasn’t going to win that easily!

That said, I wasn’t really sure of how to handle things… I mean, all I could see was darkness! My hearing was cut off, too, other than the whispers in my mind, and my senses of smell and touch were also cut off. I had my will to go forward, but that was about it… 

Well, that and my memories. Some of them were a bit fragmented? The most recent ones especially. I remembered being called up to meet the Grand Patriarch alongside Chloe (in disguise as Eena), but the walk there was just a blur. I could remember telling the Grand Patriarch that I had a bunch of questions for him, but I’m not sure what he said. Just that he laughed in that kind grandfatherly way he always did, before serving us all up some tea.

The tea was super bitter, without nearly enough sugar. Though that might have been the poison? I’m pretty sure there was poison. Lots and lots of poison, to put me in this state…

Was I dying, then? I didn’t feel like I was dying. Though I wasn’t exactly sure what dying would feel like? Painful, maybe? I always thought it would be pretty painful, anyways…

I wasn’t in pain, though. I wasn’t feeling anything. Just the darkness. The all consuming darkness that kept whispering promises to consume me, too. Telling me to give in. To just let myself be washed away. I couldn’t, though. I had people depending on me. People who trusted in me.

More important than that, though, was the fact that I had someone I believed in. Someone I knew would come for me. Who would rescue me. So when a light finally appeared in the darkness, I didn’t hesitate to reach for it. Even as the darkness clawed at me, trying to pull me away from it, trying to whisper it was a trap, I reached for that light, with its familiar, comfortable warmth. I embraced it, holding it against myself, and at last felt something penetrate the numbness this darkness brought with it.

Pain.

***

Devilla

***

“What’s happening?!” I demanded, looking back and forth between Abigail and Lucy in a panic. The former was screaming as dark splotches spread across her skin, while the latter was literally breaking apart, cracks appearing all over the stone even as my magic fought to keep her together. “I thought this was supposed to help Lucy, not make everything worse!”

“It will help Lucy,” Doll replied. “If it works. Certainly better than anything else we could have tried…”

“What about Abigail?” I demanded. “She’s in pain!”

“I told you both it would be dangerous,” Doll replied. “I told you that it would take a miracle for Lucy to survive. A miracle for Abigail as well, if she insists on holding all that negative energy inside of her.”

“But… but what’s happening?” I asked. “The collar is gone. Abigail ate it! Shouldn’t it be over?”

“Of course not,” Doll replied, shaking her head. “This is only the beginning.”

“The beginning…?” I parroted back dumbly.

“After consuming so much positive and negative energy in one sitting, they are each entering an apotheosis of sorts. Their mortal bodies are burning away as their souls make the shift towards holy and unholy respectively.”

“So what? They just have to endure and they’ll be fine?” I asked, hopeful.

Again, my hope was dashed by a shake of the head, though. “I told you, Devilla. More than once. If they’re going to survive they need a miracle.”

“...What?” I asked, not comprehending. Or perhaps simply not wishing to.

“Mortals cannot join the ranks the of angels simply, Devilla,” Doll stated, speaking slowly as if she were explaining things to a child. “Nor can one simply undo what was done to true demons to make them mortal in the first place. Though there might be methods I do not know of, with this particular brute force method they will require permission from the Goddess to ascend.”

“Permission from… but what about me? My soul was mortal, once!”

“And yet you were born to an angel,” Doll reminded me. “Your soul may have been mortal, but you have never been. It’s different.”

“So… so what? They’re just stuck here, in pain, until the Goddess decides to intervene?”

“Of course not,” Doll scoffed. “They have maybe a minute before their souls break apart under the strain. Unless Abigail lets go of the power, of course, but it seems so far that she’s rather reluctant to do.”

“You… You…. Why didn’t you say this earlier?”

“I did,” Doll replied. “I told you, repeatedly, exactly what we’d need. Not just for them to survive this, but to fight against Luci - we need a miracle. We need the Goddess on our side. Instead, she’s watching from the sidelines… but don’t worry. She’s already intervened to save you once. With luck she’ll do the same again - if not to save your girlfriends, then to protect her earlier investment and to keep you from completely falling apart.”

“That’s…” I paused, a thought occurring to me. “What if I stop funneling my positive magic into Lucy?” I asked. “What if I take it back?”

Doll was silent. 

“That would work, wouldn’t it?” I pressed. “It would stop her ascension to angel. And if I could just get Abigail to release the negative energy, than both of them could survive…”

“Their souls would be riddled with wounds,” Doll warned me, speaking at last. “Abigail would likely recover, but Lucy? With what the angels have already done to that girl’s soul, there’d be no returning to normal for her.”

“She’d die?” I asked, aghast.

“No… But she would be tethered to you, for all eternity. Her soul would become a leaky sieve, and without you to constantly fill it with holy magic she would eventually die.”

“But she’d be fine as long as she was with me?” I pressed.

Doll nodded, reluctantly.

“That…” Wouldn’t be so bad? Part of me wanted to say that. Being tied with Lucy forever didn’t seem bad… and yet it would create an inequity in our relationship. It would make her dependent upon me. Unable to leave me, should her feelings change. I would hold power over her for the rest of her life, whether I wished it or not…

“...Abigail first,” I muttered, after a moment. “There has to be a way I can communicate with them. If I can tell Abigail that it's safe to let go of that power - tell her that the collar has been removed from Lucy’s neck - then there’s still a chance she can be saved.”

“Impossible,” Doll denied me. “She’s stuffed full of unholy energy. Any holy spells you could use would be rebuffed by her own power, at this point.”

“Then what about Lucy?” I asked, desperately. “She’s full of holy energy, but it’s mine, yes? I should be able to penetrate it? To ask her questions?”

“...Perhaps,” Doll admitted. “I could teach you the spell for it. There’s no telling whether she’s in any state to respond to it, though.”

“It’s better than nothing,” I replied. “Teach it to me. Now.”

Doll hesitated - I could see it in her eyes, the stubborn desire to resist, to hold true to what she saw as the best route forward… but then she closed those eyes, sighed, and acquiesced. “Very well. Repeat after me…”

***

Lucy

***

Pain. Pain, unlike anything I’d ever known before. It tore not at my flesh but at my being. I could feel myself being burned away, layer by layer. Memories of who I was and what I stood for fading into nothing but pain that threatened to consume  me. Yet, even with that, something inside me somehow stood defiant. Something in me refused to let go! 

There were people important to me, out there. I didn’t know who they were - I couldn’t remember faces, or names - but I knew that they mattered. I knew that they were waiting for me. That someone in particular was waiting for me! Someone warm, and caring and full of so much love for everyone but herself… I didn’t need to know her name to know what she meant to me.

There was someone else, too. Someone I didn’t know as well, who hadn’t imprinted themselves as deeply in my heart, and yet they were there all the same! Like… like a prickly bush growing out of arid desert sand, desperately clinging to survival and screaming at the world to acknowledge that it existed. That she existed.

She was important to me, too. Maybe not in the same way, or on the same level, but… those things could change. What mattered was that she was here, right now, inside my heart. Right where I needed her. Because the funny thing is, despite all those prickly thorns, I knew she would never willingly hurt me!

There were others, too. They felt more distant, somehow, but they were there all the same, plucking at the edges of my awareness and reminding me of all that waited for me. All the people who waited for me… and not just people! The places I wanted to see. The people I had yet to meet. The things I had yet to learn! No matter how much the pain took from me, no matter how much it burned, it could not take away that desire for more! 

To see more, to live more, I just had to hold on!

At least that’s what I thought, until I felt it - a presence. A familiar presence, of warmth and love with a tinge of self-loathing. It didn’t speak to me, this presence - or maybe it did, but its words were simply swallowed up by the pain. Either way, something did get through to me, though. A question. A choice.

I could either stand by this person’s side for the rest of my mortal life, forever dependent upon her for survival, or I could fight for a miracle. For the chance at something more. A less certain, but much more full future where I could live by her side, by her equal…

I’m not sure that’s the choice she wanted to give me. It certainly wasn’t made up of any words she’d said… but when you stripped the meaning of the choice down to its bare essentials, and put it before me, that’s what it was. I could either live my life tethered to this woman, or I could take a chance to fly free and willingly stand by her side.

Of course, if I took the chance and things went wrong, I was pretty sure I’d die… Body, mind, and soul - I wasn’t sure anything would be left of me afterwards. It was a risk. A real risk. Maybe the first real risk I’d ever taken - I mean, I’d always been strong. Strong enough that “risks” didn’t always apply to me, in the conventional sense… and consequences rarely stuck when you were… well, whatever I was.

This choice was a real risk… but… at the same time… If I only fought for happiness when I knew there wasn’t a risk, was I really fighting at all? If I only stood for things I knew for sure and never truly put myself on the limb… was that truly who I wanted to be? Who I was?

I… didn’t actually know who I was. I didn’t know my name, or my title. I didn’t know what I looked like, or what my girlfriends looked like - though I was oddly certain that we were all girls.

The only thing I knew, at the moment, stripped down to my bare essentials, was who I wanted to be…

Someone who fought for what was right. Someone who’d fight for an uncertain happy ending over a surefire disappointment. Not just for her own sake, but for others.

In other words, a Heroine.

***

Abigail

***

If there’s one thing worse than mind-numbing, soul-rending, scream-unending pain, it’s suffering through that pain while knowing for a fact that you’re the one inflicting it upon yourself. That you can stop, at any moment. That you can just… let go, and everything will be alright.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple. There had to be a reason I was taking in all this pain, right? Something that made me crazy enough to agree to all of this. I just… couldn’t quite remember what it was. I knew it involved a girl - or… two girls? More one girl than the other, but still.

It was hard to think. Hard to remember. Hard to exist. It felt like it was taking everything in my power just to keep all my bits connected to my other bits instead of scattered to the winds.

I could let go. It was… probably fine? Whatever I’d been trying to accomplish by taking on this pain, it had certainly been done, right? 

Unless it hadn’t been. In which case I’d have gone through all this pain for absolutely nothing and maybe… I don’t know… doomed some girl? Some girl I maybe sort of kind of cared about enough to take on a massive amount of pain for?

Not that it was just for her sake. It was the other girl, too. Whoever that was. It was so that I could actually stand by her side rather than on the sidelines. How holding onto all this pain was supposed to accomplish that, I had no idea, but I did know that if I let go? I’d never get another chance again.

“Is that really a good enough reason for all this?” asked a voice. A voice I recognized, through the suddenly non-existent pain.

Doll’s voice.

“What?”

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” Doll replied, rolling her eyes. “I’m not even really here, you know? This is all inside your head… or, well, your soul as the case may be.”

“My soul?” I asked. “Wait, all this pain is in my soul? Isn’t that incredibly bad?”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Doll replied. “Your soul can survive a little pain, and then some. Though you might not, if you insist on stubbornly holding onto this power you’ve taken.”

“What do you care?” I snapped back, crossing my arms. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re really after. You were way too quick with this whole plan. You just want extra soldiers for your war on Luci, right?”

“I wouldn’t say that’s my only goal,” Doll replied - though I couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t quite meeting my eyes. “It’s certainly a major goal, though… which is why I didn’t originally want to interfere. I didn’t even tell Devilla that I could.”

“Then why are you here?” I asked. “I’m doing what you want, aren’t I?”

“For all the wrong reasons,” Doll replied. “Look, I might be a heartless automaton who cares more for my mission than my savior’s girlfriends, but I still care about Devilla’s mental wellbeing at least a little. If you choose to become a true demon purely to stand by her side, and then come to regret it after outliving literally everyone else you care for, it’s only going to build resentment and regret between you. It might destroy more than just your relationship.”

“Look at you, growing a conscience,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “Don’t worry, you can relax - I’m still going to be stubborn as hell and stick to the demon side.”

“Why?” Doll asked. “To be useful? You can do that by taking over my position as leader of the generals. You don’t need to do this.”

“Yeah, if I’m content to sit back and watch Devilla go off into the world to wreak havoc without me. I at least want the option to stand by her side next time she goes out - or who knows, maybe next time the collar will be around Devilla’s neck?”

“The collar would not work on an angel,” Doll told me. I wanted to retort that it most certainly seemed to work in that game Devilla’s past self played, but… Well, as credulous sources of information went, it sounded a bit too ridiculous to my ears.

Still. “The collar isn’t the point. It’s just the latest bit of nonsense that’s popped up while I’ve been stuck taking care of things at home! Needing defense, and getting kidnapped the moment I fucking step out of sight! I’m not just doing this for Devilla - I’m doing this because I don’t want to be the weak link in this party anymore!”

“And if your relationship with Devilla falters?” Doll asked me. “Will you resent her as you watch everyone around you age and die?”

“For what? Me choosing the same fate she’s already stuck with? At least we’ll have each other’s company.”

“Assuming you survive. I was not exaggerating when I said a miracle would be required to survive this, Abigail. This is, to put it bluntly, a tactic on my end. An attempt to bring the Goddess to the fore, and into our fight. If it succeeds, then the war might very well be all but won. If it fails, however…”

“You’ll be down two extraneous pawns?”

“And Devilla’s mind will likely shatter,” Doll warned me.

“...I’d love to say she’s stronger than you think, but… Maybe I’m just weaker than I want to be. As much as I want to be there to support her, I can’t stand the idea of just sitting back and watching anymore. Of being a worry in Devilla’s mind, instead of… I don’t know, some sort of flame in her heart? Look, I’m not a poet or anything. I just want to be able to fight for the girl that I love.”

“...Very well,” Doll said, after a moment. “Then it seems you’ve made your choice.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but the image of her was already gone. As was the image of me, actually. 

Instead, once again, all there was was pain.

***

Devilla

***

“It seems Lucy is determined,” I murmured, closing my eyes. Despite my worries, though, a small smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

“Abigail as well,” Doll replied, causing me to blink at her in surprise. “Yes, I asked your girlfriend for you. No, you do not need to thank me.”

“I was more wondering why you didn’t bring up the possibility, but… it’s appreciated nonetheless,” I murmured, after a moment.

“Really? Because I think it’s pretty messed up!”

I paused.

Doll paused.

“I mean, all of this is, really… Holding back info you know would have affected Devilla’s decision making, just to pull me into things? Are you that desperate to win?”

I didn’t say anything.

Doll didn’t say anything.

Abigail and Lucy’s bodies began to glow.

The disembodied voice sighed. “Well, whatever. Close your eyes tight and buckle up for what comes next! And I don’t just mean the light show that’s about to go down, because if I get to come in at the last moment with a deus ex machina then you can bet your skirts that Luci’s going to do the same!”