Asmodeus sat atop the palace walls, his gaze fixated on the newly instated Imperial knights, given the nickna The Raven Order.
'It seems that to have Fredricka's knights form an order, the nobles refused the disposal of the current imperial knights.' Asmodeus thought to himself while tapping his chin. He wondered if he could do anything to help Yuina in the future.
"I wonder if Yuina feels this was worth it." He tossed a stone across the horizon before looking up at the afternoon sunlight and distant shouts from the knights sparring with each other.
Although she added the demons and spear maidens around her, it ca at a cost and restriction to Yuina's authority.
Because of the incident with phisto, the nobles refused to allow the Empress to have the sa amount of power and control. Thus, using this request, they placed their spies and knights into the order as a crafty thod to avoid it.
'Though Yuina didn't seem to mind, if they put her in danger...' Asmodeus narrowed his eyes while biting his teeth together in anger. He realised it made him angry that despite saving them. The ungrateful nobles wished to tie Yuina down and scramble for power.
'Forget it, they won't let down...'
'Two more days and Yumiko will arrive, then things will start moving again.'
He sat alone, with the breeze blowing through his silvery white hair, narrowing his blue eyes in a sense of peace.
Baku already contacted him and would et him soon, though he wanted to have the beast protect his two won.
Asmodeus promised to show Baku the world, and thus, he couldn't leave him here.
'Well, I am sure he won't let his successor ignore them.'
[Asmodeus]
"Eh?"
Suddenly, for the first ti in almost a week. Since the day he fought against the pope, phisto appeared and threatened him.
Serena finally spoke to him.
His body felt like lightning just struck him, with electricity surging through his body, causing all his nerves to tighten. Asmodeus could feel the hairs on his arms standing on edge as he tried to stop the trembling of his lips.
Anger...
Bitterness...
Affection...
Delight..
Countless emotions washed over him like a tidal wave of iced water.
'Though I do not know what you want from , go on, Serena.'
There was a mont of silence, and for Asmodeus, it felt like the world turned grey, montarily losing colours and then sound. Finally, he realised he was no longer sitting on the castle wall.
No, Serena summoned him to her world.
In the beautiful silver forest, with the eternal night and its enormous moon shining over him. Asmodeus gazed at a massive stone the size of a small house in front of him.
Atop that stone, a beautiful woman with long, wavy silver hair and large, fluffy fox ears gazed back at him from above with her shimring silver eyes.
Serena almost appeared to be the moonlight itself, given humanoid form.
'I am sure her eyes were golden before—what happened?'
Despite his thoughts being audible to the goddess, she watched him in silence, her delicate, fair hands resting below her cheek as she continued watching him in silence.
Asmodeus noticed Serena felt different this ti.
—You look well, Asmodeus.
"Ugh?!"
It was the first ti in a long while she spoke to him directly, her voice like sweet whispers leaking into his brain and gently caressing it.
—What's the matter? Are you unable to withstand even my voice?
Loud rings and violent jolts assaulted his body and mind, yet Asmodeus refused to surrender. He felt this way when phisto stood before him. Thus, he would never collapse!
"It's nothing, you're voice is just too beautiful."
Asmodeus bit his teeth together, forcing out the words he wished to speak. It was no lie. Serena's soft and delicate voice vibrated in the air with a deep tone and created a beautiful lody of words that was only for him.
—I see~ you're never going to change, even after everything...
—It makes happy to know that, Asmodeus.
"Why did you stop speaking to ...?"
The beautiful goddess lifted her chin before moving her legs and lying to the side. This movent allowed her divine body to slip out of her kimono slightly, revealing a great scar down the centre of her chest.
—Do you think phisto would leave without a fight... when you are his perfect vessel?
'Perfect vessel, ?'
A sudden truth from Serena's lips made Asmodeus face a fact he tried to escape and ignore. That phisto's goal wasn't to make him suffer but to take his body.
—Does it make you worry?
—Or are you scared to know what I sacrificed to protect you?
The cold tinge to her words, a distance that felt tangible... Asmodeus instantly felt the absence of Serena from that fight. When he collapsed and needed lifting, the cause was because he lost her light and the support she gave him.
'I am scared, but not of those stupid things...'
'The only thing I fear is losing you.'
"I do not know what you sacrificed to protect , and my worries are beyond a re phisto!"
Serena's lips curled into a smile, at first bitter before growing as she narrowed her eyes and put both palms on the rock.
Her body then hopped off the stone and floated down to Asmodeus, who stood in the darkness.
—In reality... I felt jealous.
"Jealous?" He couldn't understand why she felt that way—what would cause such a beautiful and all-powerful woman to feel such an emotion?
—You don't understand?
She showed an amused grin, her lips twisted into a distorted smile, while her pupils shrank. The next mont, Serena's hands grabbed Asmodeus by the neck, her gaze a mixture of obsession and insanity.
Asmodeus couldn't understand; he felt sharp pain, and his lungs struggled to breathe in air. Yet his hands didn't stop her from choking him. Instead, he extended both hands. With his index finger, he caught the glistening silver tears dripping from the corners of her eyes.
—Did you not promise only to love ?
'But I have many other won... Serena should know this...'
Stay tuned to empire
Her grip tightened, her teeth ground together as she looked more feral and filled with anger.
'No...'
—That woman, you swore you would never touch another goddess.
—You told I was your only one!
"Hrrk..." Struggling to speak the words, he suddenly understood when the gap and the crack in their relationship started. Even though Serena helped with the ritual, from that mont, she beca distant and stopped speaking as often.
'Is it because of that?!'
He felt stupid because he forgot.
Serena never complained about the other won because she was the only goddess... That seed to an sothing special to her, an important aning that he didn't notice.
—I never wanted to see that... to see you with another goddess, even if she fell from grace, even if she was reborn! You were supposed to be mine... I have watched you for your entire life!
It felt strange to see the goddess showing such raw emotions—normally, Serena would joke and play around with him, but revealing her emotions rarely happened.
'Because it was against the rules of a higher goddess...'
"Serena!"
That's when he gasped, calling her na.
She loosened the grip of his neck and smiled at him. It wasn't a warm or bright smile but one filled with bitterness, loss and sorrow. There was a feeling in the bottom of his gut that made him feel worried sothing happened.
—Your thoughts are right—I am no longer a higher goddess.
—However...
—I only lost my powers when it ca to the world.
—If it involves you or anything that might affect you. I have all the power and divinity!
"What do you an?!"
Asmodeus couldn't understand the grand thoughts of a goddess and the divine world, but those eyes oozed obsession and desire. He rembered Serena speaking about how Lumina beca obsessed with his father and how it destroyed her.
—Hehe~ are you angry?
—I discarded my divinity and made a deal with the creators!
—All so I can protect you. Will you reward ?
—Asmodeus~
A sweet voice, one tinged with obsession and insanity. It was sothing Asmodeus once feared and knew might happen if he ever made a mistake.
Yet now his worst fears had co true... Serena chose him over the world.
Her soft hands wrapped around his cheeks and leaned closer.
Serena's eyes, no longer golden but filled with a dull silver, focused on Asmodeus alone as if he were all that existed in the world.
—I cannot let her have you.
—No one knows you better than .
—Please don't reject !
A voice that sounded vulnerable, yet he still stroked her cheeks, brushing away her icy tears. There wasn't a desire to reject her even if she beca a monster. Serena wasn't soone that Asmodeus would ever discard.
"When I was weak and had no power to do anything, it was you who guided my path, allowed to et Yumiko, Alan, Ciela, Liana and the others"
Serena's eyes dilated—for a mont, her crazed atmosphere weakened, and her lips trembled from his words.
—Do you really an that?
Her unstable mind and current state caused more hurt to Asmodeus than he realised... when he was about to answer her, she suddenly yanked on his collar and scread.
—What if you are lying to ?!
In reality, he understood, after so many romantic debts and acting irresponsibly, this was his judgent.
The woman who supported him most now needed him.
Thus, he grabbed onto her tightly.
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