Demon Queened - Chapter 81 - Rough Draft

Devilla

“Devilla…” Lucy started, then stopped, before frowning. “Are you doing that thing where you say something super ominous by accident again?”

“No?” I replied, frowning in turn. “At least I don’t believe so. I said what I meant - that I intend to remove the Grand Patriarch from the equation, for a while. Perhaps turn him to stone? The petrification spell has proven surprisingly useful.”

“Devilla!” This time it was Abigail who snapped, narrowing her eyes at me. “You can’t just petrify all your problems.”

“Yeah! That’s exactly why I didn’t want to learn the spell. What if something happens and he breaks, or something?”

“Then I’ll fix him,” I replied. “There’s little our healing can’t accomplish, so long as I manage to keep his head intact. Probably.”

“Probably?” Abigail repeated, arching an eyebrow.

“He tried to enslave Lucy!” I pointed out. “He doesn’t really deserve much sympathy in my mind. Especially not when Luci could be outfitting him with another of those collars, even as we speak.”

“The collar won’t work on her anymore,” Doll declared. “Not now that she’s an angel. Perhaps if Luci gave him something made of divine magic, it would work - but I doubt she would ever outfit a mortal with something capable of harming one of her own kin.”

“She’s probably right,” the Goddess said, even as I saw Lucy mouthing the word ‘angel.’ “Though, that said, she’s probably already done with whatever she was planning, seeing as how I’m back to running interference between our worlds again.”

“I don’t suppose you have any idea what she did while you were distracted, did you?” I asked, only to receive confused looks from Abigail and Lucy. “Ignore me. I’m just talking to the Goddess that Doll apparently forced into helping us, so that we could save your soul by turning you into an angel, or some such.”

“Is that why I feel so different?” Lucy asked. “I knew I was stronger, but I thought maybe you just found a way to enhance my Heroine abilities, or something…”

“It was the only way to save you,” I explained, a touch hesitantly. “You’re not angry, are you?”

“I’d certainly hope she isn’t!” the Goddess huffed. “I put a lot of hard work into getting my angels just right!”

“I’m not!” Lucy said, unable to hear the Goddess. “Just a little confused, I guess? I’m not really sure what being an angel means. I mean, I don’t feel all that different? Just stronger.”

“Yup! My angels are basically just humans with extra bits, so that makes sense! She should be able to sprout wings now, though.”

“The Goddess says you should be able to sprout wings,” I informed her.

“The Goddess?” Lucy asked, seemingly latching onto that at last.

“As in, the one who theoretically maybe abandoned us?” Abigail asked. “The one that Doll thought might be back, and yet not doing anything?”

“Hey! I was busy jamming communications between the mortal and administrative realms! Though at this point I’m… not doing that, anymore, I guess, seeing as how I’m talking to all of you, so I’m mostly just blocking her from descending. Thankfully, she’s locked out of the world broadcast section of the system, so without being able to descend she’s stuck just talking to one person at a time… But still! I’m the only reason the Grand Patriarch didn’t find out all about you from the very beginning! Though, uh, to answer your question I’ve got no clue what Luci might have sent over while I was distracted with you.”

“I’m grateful for the help, at least,” I replied, much to the apparent confusion of Abigail and Lucy. “Though I must ask - is there any way you could talk to the group instead of just me? Because this is becoming rather awkward…”

“Well, you could just use your own magic to broadcast my words,” the Goddess replied. “It’s a pretty simple application of arcane magic, right?”

“...I suppose so,” I confessed. “So, in that case, please do introduce yourself, would you not? I need some time to stew in the fact that I apparently can’t simply turn the man who tried to enslave Lucy into stone.”

“Do you really want to do that?” Lucy asked, frowning. “Can’t you just throw him in the dungeon?”

“He’s a risk,” I whispered, anger seething through my voice. Anger Lucy didn’t deserve. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to apologize. “We don’t know what Luci - the traitorous one in heaven - has outfitted him with. And to be frank, this is the alternative to what I truly wish to do, which is rip him limb from limb.”

“Where was that when I was kidnapped?” Abigail demanded. “You were fine with just exiling her!”

“Alira was one of my people. One of those I held responsibility towards. Now she is no longer. The Grand Patriarch does not have that protection to begin with. Make no mistake, Abigail - I would as readily have imprisoned or even killed Alira rather than sending her free, were I not previously her Queen.”

“A proper Queen would have disposed of the variable altogether,” Doll stated. “As you should do with the Grand Patriarch.”

“A proper Queen according to who?” Abigail demanded. “The only queens you’ve ever known have been under a geas! Unless you mean the one who put them under it to begin with?”

“Enough!” The Goddess’s voice interrupted, brought to reality by an arcane spell I’d wrought without a second thought. “Lucy, I appreciate your love for all my people and your desire to protect the souls within them. Abigail, I appreciate your attempts to make Devilla back down, as prickly as they may have been in presentation. And Devilla… I get it. Someone hurt the one you loved. Of course you’re upset! I’m pretty sure I’d be, too! I mean, I cry when it happens in, like, TV shows so of course I’m here for you now!”

“TV shows?!” I interrupted. “What do you even… Why do you know so much about Earth?”

“I mean, other than the fact that it’s famous?” the Goddess asked. “It’s a naturally developed world from a home-grown universe that started with a big bang and holds stable to this day! Not to mention the sapient populace - do you have any idea how rare that is to find, just naturally developing? Lots of gods just straight up copy paste it to make their worlds! Though most of us prefer to take it from a time where you still kept the environment intact… Even if it does mean no TV… But also it’s technically one of my parents’ holdings. Though it’s mostly been abandoned by them? Like, they love the idea of it, but it’s just too much according to them… I always used to sneak over to the Monitoring Room and just watch it, though. It’s how I grew so close to humans! And why I made myself into one. More or less.”

“Into one?” Doll asked, the first of us to snap out of her uncertainty. “Do you mean that you gave yourself a human shell, like with your angels?”

“Sorta?” the Goddess replied. “Except it’s less a shell, and more just… me. Gods don’t have souls, after all! We’re basically made of magic - or rather, we are our magic? There’s no difference between the spells I create and the being that I am. So when I magically twisted part of myself that holds consciousness into the form of a twenty-one year old human lesbian, that’s what I became. Mostly. I did get rid of a few flaws - like, my hair doesn’t grow longer than I want it to, or shed at all, I don’t sweat  - which is fine, since I’m still made of divine magic at the end of the day and therefore impossible to overheat - and I don’t go to the bathroom, either… You know, the same basic functions I gave you angels and… Well, also you Abigail. Alongside all the other true demons down in Hell.”

“Wait,” Lucy interrupted. “Hell is a real place?”

“Yes, but it’s not a place where the damned go, like the church teaches - it’s more just a processing plant where all the negative energy is extracted from a soul, and used to either fuel the city, its citizens, or - if there’s surplus - to feed me. Same with heaven, really, except for positive energy - the afterlife is a whole other thing I created to give souls a break between lives. A little downtime, you know? Not that the angels are letting anyone make use of it, as is… They’re so desperate for souls, they aren’t even taking the time to scrub them free of their past lives before sending them on! Which is going to be causing problems for them down the line if nothing is done, let me tell you, but does Luci care? Of course not!”

“Yes, well, as intriguing as that all is,” I interrupted, “can we please get back to your reasoning as to why I shouldn’t be tearing the Grand Patriarch apart? Because my own anger at him aside, the fact remains that he’s a threat with angelic backing.”

“I mean, I’m actually pretty on board with that,” the Goddess said, to the surprise of everyone in the room.

“Shouldn’t you be against killing anyone?” Lucy asked.

“I mean, sure, if they’re decent people, but I just got finished telling you I’m as human in my thinking as the rest of you! And that douchebag hurt someone I care about! Mostly by hurting another person that the person I care about cares about, but still! It was very bad, and honestly kinda upsetting, even before we get into the whole ‘stripping a person of free will and ordering them to kill their loved ones’ being so fucked up that even I’m not sure they deserve any mercy… I guess you could just petrify them. Might be better to keep that soul from falling into Luci’s hands for a bit, anyways - the one in heaven, I mean. Luci with an I? I Don’t Love Luci? Whatever. Point is, I’m honestly onboard - I just don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret, Devilla.”

“Because you care about her?” Abigail asked, with a frown. “That’s what you said, isn’t it? That you care about her in particular for some reason?”

“It’s… complicated,” the Goddess hedged, “but yes. I care about her.”

“Complicated?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “It seems to me that you just got finished telling us that your thoughts are simple and easily understood by even mortals. So tell me - why do you care about me?”

“Well, it’s hard not to care about someone you’ve been watching so closely!” the Goddess answered. “And… uh…. Well, there’s another reason, but I don’t think it’s a very good time for it.”

“I see…” I murmured. “Then let’s start with something simpler, shall we? Like why you interfered with the Rite? Why you chose now to take a stand, rather than doing it for all the Demon Queens before me? It can’t be about the odds - Doll was very clear that those remained against my favor - so why?”

“I mean, I only really got back a little before you were born!” the Goddess said. “So it’s not like I was just sitting back and watching this whole time…”

“Is that the only reason, then?” I asked her. “Because I was the first one you returned for? Was it truly that simple?”

“Well… not exactly… but it’s…. Connected to something I really don’t want to talk about with you just yet!”

“...Well, at least you’re being honest about it,” I muttered, after a moment, shaking my head with exasperation. “But very well. If that’s too much for you, then let me ask you something else - your name.”

“My name?” the Goddess asked, hesitantly.

“You must have one, don’t you? Something people call you by? You said there are other gods, so you can’t possibly just be the Goddess to all of them.”

“Well… No…”

“Maybe it’s something mortals can’t pronounce?” Lucy offered, kindly giving her an out.

“Not exactly…” the Goddess replied. “I… Look. Don’t broadcast this next part, alright?”

‘Alright,’ I replied, mentally, quietly discontinuing my spell.

“My real name is… ugh. It’s Belizitera. Or at least that’s how it’s pronounced by mortal tongues. I hate it, though. I mean, it’s so ugly! And way too close to blister! Who wants a name that makes you think of blisters!?”

‘Right… Well, have you considered a nickname then?” I suggested. “Liz, perhaps?’

“Liz? Isn’t that, like… an Earthling nickname?”

‘Well… yes, I suppose, though I didn’t think of it that way. Earthen names seem to be somewhat common around here, after all…

“Oh, that’s just because I gave all my angels and demons names I heard on TV, and the like. But more importantly - Liz! My new nickname is Liz. Oh Em Me I love it!”

“...Right, well, if that’s all I’m just going to turn the communication spell back on,” I murmured. Truthfully, I was a touch embarrassed by how happy it seemed to make the Goddess - or rather, Liz. Had no one ever given her a nickname before?

“I can’t believe it! And here I was worried that you wouldn’t even like me… Ahhhhh, I can’t wait to tell Grimm!”

“Grimm?” Abigail demanded. “As in, like… Grimmilla?”

A moment of silence. “...Right, uh… about that…”

“You know my Mother?” I asked, my eyebrow arching. 

“Yeah, Luci put her in the room next to mine,” Liz explained. “Wanted her to have a similar treatment to mine - you know, forced to watch her kid be mistreated? Her idea of revenge, over just sticking her soul in stasis for all eternity. Except I kinda sorta ended up using my limited magic to talk to her - like I’m doing right now with you - and… Uh… Well, one thing led to another and… Oh, me, I did not want to be telling you like this, but… Devilla? I’m dating your Mom.”

~~~

Author's Notes

Well, that feels like a good place to leave off the chapter - don't you think? Also maybe a good time to switch PoVs and see how Lucy is handling all this, so look forward to that! (Not sure when the chapter will be done, mind you, but I do seem to be on something of a hot streak for the moment...)