Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

"Good," Lucifer said. "Now, spiral the energy and allow Lilith to smooth the edges, do nothing to interrupt the flow of energy."

Arms trembling, I clenched my fingers over Noctem as the pores of my being bled through my scales. There was not one orifice that wasn\'t bleeding as I held onto the power that could wipe out the fourth Heaven instantly.

And yet, as the seconds raddled by, I could feel my body growing stronger; I could feel my entire being absorbing a sliver of this power, adding it to my own, making this process easier and easier.

If Yu Jing had joined, I don\'t think I would have had the strength to control all this energy. A little grateful as my body and soul began to adapt; I could feel Lucifer\'s intent stir.

"You have a question?"

"If I had a question, I would have asked," He said, growing silent, at least for a second, " my Concubine. Is her soul alright?"

My brow jumped. "Umm, you realize you\'re not supposed to fall in love with a hoe, right?"

I was sure by Lucifer\'s intent that if I weren\'t already at my peak, he would have slapped the shit out of me or, gods forbid, worse.

This was the perfect time to nut-shot me: I was wide open. I\'m not even wide open when I sleep.

"To not test me, boy, she was the first human to stand by my side. The first to feel the power of hell and accept it. Despite my brother\'s cruelty, she was mine." He argued, shaking his head, with a hollow gleam ebbing from his eyes. "So I ask again, one last time. How is her soul."

"I\'ve not analyzed that sword, but I\'ll say horrid. She can either be stuck in time till the sword awakens in my kids\' hands or be tormented by the darkness, stuck with the fact that her life goal was taken away from her so late in this cruel game. If I were Mephisto, I\'d wane to the latter. Mental torture is the best."

Lucifer went silent, and I could not help but smile. "You seem almost normal. Is it your pride that speaks to you or—"

"She was worthy. Mephisto is a perfectionist; that\'s why he likes Zariel so much. In his mind, you are either Order or Chaos. There cannot be a mixture. It\'s illogical to him: Something that needs to be fixed. " Lucifer signed. "And Lilith lacked decisiveness when it came to Adam."

"Tell me you aren\'t mad at me."

He chuckled. " Mad? Boy, I\'m furious. But not at you. The only one I wish to kill is Zariel and maybe Mephisto."

My brother?

"What—"

"Aurelia," Lucifer answered without me even finishing, and I understood. The fear of all fathers.

Wiping the blood flowing into my eyes, I found a bitter smile on my lips and trailed my eyes towards the congealing essence above House Lazarus.

Watching on as the essence began tearing away the land around the palace, uprooting history that pre-dated the last dozen or so chaos cycles, a shutter passed as a faint, almost minuscule image flashed through my soul.

But in it, I saw an endless land, a world, and a child… infants.

"Did you see—"

"Your the only one who can see through the darkness," Lucifer hurriedly said, "But focus. You need to hold out till Balor that fool finishes below."

Lowering my eyes to the battle, my heart, which had warmed at the site of something that could perhaps carry my blood, turned cold as ice as I saw endless war and mayhem.

"They\'re all dead," I whispered, sucking in a sharp breath. "Only the paragons live."

"Dead, or they just ran," Lucifer said.

I shuttered, looking at the battle that seemed to be flickering in an out of subspace at speeds that made light seem small—these Paragons were forcing the laws of the abyss to recede through share intent to regain the scaled power they held in the Myriad Heavens.

In the bed of chaos, I was able to move at the speed of light, but when I first came here, I was nowhere as fast enough to do so, but now. Now I could definitely fight that fast. How much stronger am I?

"ENOUGH!!!" Balor\'s booming voice uttered as he appeared alongside Zantar.

He looked around at the Planer Lords and finally focused on Raziel, who suddenly blinked beside him.

"You\'ve played your part well," He said, placing his hands over the lifeless eyes of Raziel, crushing his skull till his eyes popped from their sockets and brain matter slid from his fingers.

My eyes went wide, and before everyone, Balor began to devour Raziel physically.

"What the hell?"

"Madness!" Asmodeus said.

"Burn away," Balor uttered as the sigil above the archangel\'s brow suddenly lit up. And within a moment, emerald flames of the fallen appeared, devouring all the Archangels in a blink of an eye, leaving nothing but ash and the sight of sigils that slowly began to appear all over the battlefield.

"Will you not show yourself, oh King of Iluthath?" Balor howled, calling for Aldrich, who had not appeared. "So you will die a coward? You who was able to damage my mortal form."

"Aldrich will not appear," Lucifer said to me, shaking his head. " He\'s done. All he wishes now is to die by \'her\' side. Unless Zariel commands it, he won\'t show. He\'s done his part."

I sneered."Aldrich will die by my hand. Zariel had better preserve his life. A life for a life."

The battlefield had still as no one moved. We had all just stared at the blood-stained Balor hovering in the air as he finished devouring the remains of Raziel.

"Asmodeus, Levi, Azeroth, Kings of Hell, ready yourself for the end." Balor calmly said as scales carrying emerald light began to bleed from his skin, releasing a blazing flame. Suddenly a small throne appeared right between his brow, seemingly forged with the dao of light, as it stood the size of a grain of sand. Small yet...

"The Throne of the One," Lucifer whispered.

"I shall show you, lowly mortals, the power of a higher being!" Balor uttered, creating a storm with his mere words. An almighty aura that almost made me sink to my knee began to release its light over the planet.