The wives struggled and suffered under phisto’s assault.
Every clash destroyed the beautiful mana-enriched land, shockwaves cracking the walls and foundations. Their voices rose together, straining with fury and desperation, but still his laughter cut through the battle like a blade.
"Asmodeus...!" Vinea called out, seeing his body, as her spear splintered into sparks against phisto’s scythe, taking a boot to her abdon.
"Ryuji!" Alice cried out... crawling on the ground after being hit with a close-range beam of phisto’s magic.
"Asmodeus..." Asmodea’s lips trembled, blood flowers withering as they burned in erald flas.
None of the won could explain it. But they could feel sothing different. The emptiness faded, and a tiny throbbing remained. Asmodeus wasn’t gone; they convinced themselves and fought harder, not caring for their bodies.
In the distance, Erika and Ciela broke from the lee long enough to support Yumiko, dragging his body to the second wall from the cold plains.
Their sharp eyes locked on the black crystal pulsing faintly in his ruined chest. Neither spoke about the aning, but dread and hope clutched their hearts.
"Levia," Erika shouted in a rare occurrence, forcing tears away. "Guard him. No one touches his body."
The exhausted knight knelt beside his body, battered and pale. She summoned the last of her remaining strength. A small do of iron ford in a shimring light, barely enough to cover his body. Her hand pressed tight against his torn armour, as though sheer will could keep him alive.
Beside her, Sariel and Riel crawled closer.
Their song had ended, their throats too raw to carry another note. With trembling fingers, they reached for his hands.
"Darling..." Riel whispered, her golden eyes swimming with tears.
"Master... wake up..." Sariel pleaded, her voice breaking.
Both of them rolled beside them, leaning against his body. The warmth remained, soothing their worries as both leaned on him. The mont they touched, a flicker of magic pulsed into his flesh from their touch.
From the small reaction, sothing happened as the two girls kissed his cheeks and collapsed against him, unconscious.
***
Darkness spread through the world.
In this place with no light, only a bitter cold remained.
Asmodeus opened his eyes and saw nothing but an endless void. His na and mories echoed faintly in his ears, but he didn’t know what belonged to him.
As ti passed, another person appeared.
A man stepped out from the shadows. Human... a familiar person with features almost identical to Asmodeus.
"Ryuji Vincenzo...?" He muttered.
The stranger smiled faintly. "Took you long enough, Asmodeus. I’ve been wanting to speak to you for the longest ti."
Asmodeus looked at himself and felt nothing but frustration. He wanted to shout and drive the old him away, a sense of sha flooding his chest in a tight ache.
"Why... are you here?"
"Because you’re still clinging to , like a baby." Ryuji replied, his tone quiet but steady. His figure looked softer than Asmodeus’s. No wings, horns, or aura, it was Ryuji Vincenzo before he ca to this beautiful world.
Just a man, plain and human. "You want to carry all their love and pain, but don’t want to lose your humanity an thus created sothing to achieve that goal. That’s why I exist."
"...A ghost of who I was."
Ryuji shook his head. "No. The anchor that keeps you from being lost."
He stepped closer, voice rising with a sharpness that cut. "You think becoming a god is simple? That fusing with the core won’t strip away everything else? I’ve been here, holding the line. Keeping you from losing yourself."
Silence filled the void, which pulsed faintly, like the beat of a dying heart.
"You’re wrong." Asmodeus shouted, his aura exploding in all directions. "I am myself, I am the Demon King!"
"True, but you refuse to let go of and who you were. You’re still Ryuji Vincenzo." The man snapped back in a similar voice. "That’s why you worry so much, fear losing them and don’t have the cold confidence that you should. That’s why you hold back — even against phisto. Because you’re afraid. Afraid of letting go. Afraid of what you’ll beco and if they’ll love you without ."
Asmodeus gasped.
The words stung him like a hot iron pressed against the skin.
He opened his mouth to reply, then faltered. mories constantly flowed within his mind: his wives’ laughter, their warmth; Alan’s smile, sharp and unyielding; the weight of promises spoken as a human, not as a king. All the fragile, fleeting things he’d sworn to protect.
And over it all, the steady throb of the black crystal, swelling with each soul it devoured.
"Ryuji," he whispered. "If I let you go, there will be nothing left of the man they loved."
"Are you retarded?"
"W-What? Retarded?!" Asmodeus asked, completely stunned.
Ryuji’s smile softened, no longer mocking him but almost... lancholy. "No. If you let go, there will finally be soone strong enough to protect them. I couldn’t. We couldn’t when separate and alone. A man can’t bear the weight of the gods. But... as a demon.... maybe we can."
There was a ripple in the void as Ryuji’s figure faded... threads of energy flowed into Asmodeus’s chest, pouring into the black stone.
"You’re not actually are you." Asmodeus asked doubtfully.
"No... I am just a manifestation of your hesitation and fear."
Asmodeus realised the truth: the Divine Core wanted to bind him to the rules of creation.
However, sothing inside him... refused and wanted him to beco sothing else.
And to do so, it ford this image of Asmodeus.
If he accepted his weakness instead of fleeing from it, he could twist the divine core into sothing else. Sothing the gods feared.
"A Different Core..."
Ryuji’s grin sharpened. "A Demon Core."
"...Yes. That’s what I’ll beco."
***
The black crystal throbbed harder, veins of pure black spreading from Asmodeus’s torn chest like roots burrowing into flesh. Each beat sent a ripple through the air, faint at first, then louder, until even those locked in combat on the walls turned their heads.
Levia staggered beside him, her shield cracked and trembling. Blood ran from her lips as she pressed one gauntlet against the do she had cast over his body. "My love... whatever this is... I’ll hold it back. Even if it kills ."
However, the pressure wasn’t hostile or dangerous. It was just heavy, deep and shook with a weight that made Levia’s bones quake.
"Master... does it hurt?" Sariel whispered weakly, curled against his right arm, her fingers interlocked with his as she licked the tears of blood streaming down his cheeks.
"Darling..." Riel, on the opposite side, closed her golden eyes tight, exhausted, yet she also licked his tears. Together, their soft bodies leaned against him, their wings twitching weakly. The last of their magic seeped from them, drawn by instinct into the pulsing crystal.
Once again, their magic flickered with the beat coming from his heart.
The beat repeated, over and over.
A heartbeat.
Levia’s breath caught. "No... it can’t be—"
***
In the void, Asmodeus stood in silence as Ryuji’s form began to unravel.
"Why do you still hesitate?" Ryuji asked quietly, his outline scattering into threads of light. "The world is breaking. They are calling for you. Are you going to ignore them?"
Asmodeus’s jaw tightened. "If I embrace this... I’ll stop being human. I’ll stop being Ryuji Vincenzo."
"Idiot." Ryuji smiled faintly, even as half his body dissolved. "They don’t love you because you’re human. They love you because you’re you. Whether as man or king, you’ve always been theirs. You could be a complete scumbag and those girls would torch the planet just to be your wives."
"..." Asmodeus thought to himself and then nodded, a slight blush on his cheeks. "Damn, you’re right..."
The void pulsed, each beat of the black crystal stronger, shaking the emptiness.
It grew larger with each beat, the massive hole now filled with this black, throbbing crystal.
"You cling to because you’re afraid," Ryuji continued. "Afraid of losing them. Afraid of becoming a monster. But Asmodeus..." His voice grew faint as his last fragnts dissolved into the darkness. "Have you forgotten you were more of a monster when human?"
"Look at what you’ve achieved since becoming a demon and you’re forgetting sothing important. A monster who protects his won and land is still better than a kind man who fails and dies."
Asmodeus reached forward, grasping his other self’s fading hand. "Don’t bla when I beco a tyrant with 1000 wives."
The fading image of his divine core chuckled. "You think those won will allow that? Brace yourself, once they all beco mothers. You’ll beg to be single."
Before he could respond, the contact seared through his flesh, black veins spiralled up his arm, latching into his chest, and abdon, into the crystal that drank the souls of the dead and the pure energy of his divine core.
Asmodeus scread in agony.
And in the background, the void cracked apart.
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