The scorching heat washed over Asmodeus, searing the surface of his skin with a bright red glow. The world around him beca nothing but blinding white and a roaring silence that burst his eardrums, creating an eerie silence with a distant ringing noise.
When the light’s howl faded, his breath flowed in fast, ragged gasps. Smoke hissed from his body in a misty steam from every inch of scorched flesh.
Even his divine aura, sothing that could sunder mountains, cracked and trembled over what struck him.
’What... the hell was that?’
The beautiful imperial plaza lay in complete ruin. Entire sections of marble had been vaporised. The once-proud banners of every race fluttered as torn, blackened scraps.
The two beautiful sacred tree’s a sign of his marriage and union with his wives... although they stood intact, the singed leaves beca blackened like ash.
"...What happened? Report to !"
His voice cut through the entire plaza and the lingering hum of destruction.
Velvet and Levia moved first.
They transford into their demon forms and quickly took command. But doing so ruined their beautiful dresses, which were damaged and burned as they ford a defensive line around the surviving civilians.
"Ravena, hold onto !" Serena cradled Ravena and Ryusei using her tails like a cocoon, spreading her divine aura over the other children. Her silver hair burned at the tips, with traces of wounds across her cheeks and skin from the damage she suffered because of this.
Lumina landed beside her, eight legs digging into the fractured stone as she spun glowing threads into shimring dos around the younger ones. "Ophelia, Luthiel, get inside, now!"
Her pale skin hissed with steam, much like Asmodeus, as multiple layers of her golden thread wrapped around the children and other wives, while her body lacked any protection after the blood barrier shattered.
Around them, the other wives moved with desperation. Yuina and Yumiko used their superior physiques to gather people together before extending secondary barriers around the civilians.
Velvet and Erika led the imperial guard, blades drawn and ready. The empire was in chaos, but their focus remained the sa: protect the children, protect the people.
"E-Everyone is okay, we’re alive." Erika shouted back, dragging two unconscious demon knights from a pile of rubble. "But... we’re in trouble if that can do that again... big trouble!"
That’s when the air bent... and twisted as if soone could grab it freely while ignoring physics and logic.
Then, the air changed.
An imnse and suffocating pressure descended on the city. It wasn’t like the divine aura of Lumina or the darkness of Serena.
It was sothing far beyond that.
And from the heart of the blinding crater, two figures erged.
At first, there was only light, blinding and perfect and without rcy. Then, as the glare dimd, their silhouettes sharpened into sothing humanoid. Two towering shapes draped in robes of gold and ivory, and skin carved as if from radiant marble and eyes that burned with judgnt itself.
Every instinct in Asmodeus’s body scread danger.
’They look like dolls...’
"Impossible..." Lumina whispered, her voice trembling for the first ti since regaining her divinity. "Why... why are they here?!"
Serena’s face beca more feral, her claws extended, silver tails bristling as if facing a predator, as her pupils narrowed into slits. "They’ve never taken interest before... Why now!"
Their gaze swept over the ruin with a subtle disdain before fixing on Asmodeus. And finally, they spoke, their voices carried through the broken city like a divine order carving itself into the world’s bones.
"You have overstepped your bounds."
"King of Demons. This farce ends now."
***
The instant those words fell upon the scorched plaza, it felt as though reality itself bowed beneath them. The pressure grew heavier as if it were the crushing weight of authority itself.
Asmodeus forced himself upright and took a step forward, blood dripping from his split lips as his demonic aura roared to life, struggling against the invisible weight pressing him into the ground. It was like he stood beneath the ocean. His knees bent, the cobblestones beneath his feet cracked and depressed with spider webbing under the pressure.
"These arrogant bastards..." He grunted through bloody teeth.
Behind him, his entire divine aura pooled together with magic runes and spells to protect everyone. Thanks to that, Serena and Lumina had already stepped forward, their bodies flickering with holy light and darkness.
"Gretel get the children to safety!" Lumina shouted, her six ruby eyes narrowing into slits as strands of luminous silk shot into the air, weaving together into a radiant net around the plaza. "Riel, Sariel! Get them out of here!"
"..." Sariel’s eyes trembled as she looked at the two humanoids, her legs trembling without power. "Co on, sister." Riel’s experience and age allowed her to overco the ntal burden, snapping the terrified succubus out of her trance.
"Darling!" Yuina called to her husband with worry, then saw the figures. And instantly dropped to the ground and coughed blood, "Guha....!?" Her hands and knees dug into stone as her nine tails fluttered, desperate to resist. "W...Who are they?"
"The arbiters..." Serena’s voice lacked its usual tone, but it carried enough weight. "Judges of the Divine Court. They are neither god nor mortal... but serve the True gods and are the will of the First Throne. If they’ve co here, it ans..."
"It ans that soone god sick of my existence and declared war, huh?" Asmodeus finished for her, his golden eyes ignited like twin suns.
He spat one of his broken teeth out. It instantly crumbled and turned to dust under the pressure that wrapped around him.
The two beings descended the last few steps from the crater, each movent so precise and deliberate that it made them feel like machines. Their very presence bent the fabric of the world, mana recoiled, space warped around their feet, and the stone beneath them smoothed into perfect, pristine marble.
One raised its hand lazily, and instantly, Asmodeus’s right arm disintegrated and tore his aura apart, strands of demonic energy unravelling like smoke in a storm. He gritted his teeth, anchoring himself in place as the divine will pressed harder against his body.
"Do you think yourself to be divine?" The taller of the two spoke with a monotone voice that was neither male nor female. "Do you believe by claiming false gods as wives, spreading you filthy seed between races that you have earned the right to use that title?"
"I don’t call myself anything..." Asmodeus growled back, blood now dripping from his nose and the stump which slowly regenerated as he pushed back against the pressure, taking another step. "I am one."
The second arbiter, smaller and more clearly female in design, tilted her head, almost curious. "And yet, you can barely crawl before us, like an insect. You may defy the laws written by the great ones. But your existence is nothing but a stain upon creation itself!"
"Then co an erase , woman." Asmodeus spat blood across the cheek of the smaller arbiter with a dark, yet wild grin. "But you’d better be ready to kneel before while begging for rcy."
"...?"
The female arbitrator’s eyes widened for a mont, looking down at the blood. Then wiped the sar of crimson from her cheek with a single, delicate motion. She stared at the blood against her pale fingers and rubbed it together. "Curious."
The taller arbiter’s voice followed like a thunderclap. "Do not mistake that curiosity for weakness, Demon King. This is not your domain. Even the breath you draw is an offence against the order of creation."
Ba-Dump!
"Asmodeus, stop!"
"Honey!"
A single step forward... and the ground cracked. The sky shuddered from the clash of divine and demonic energies in the air, shrieking like a storm as Serena’s tails wrapped around his waist along with Lumina’s threads and yanked him back.
"Please... you cannot fight this," Serena hugged his body from behind while whispering in a tender and fragile voice. "We must escape..."
"Serena, where are we going to go?" And yet, Asmodeus stood tall. His skin stead, his arm was half-regrown, and his aura fluctuated like molten gold, but he was still standing. Unbending. Unbroken.
Serena’s voice quivered as she pressed her forehead against his back. "Ryuji... we can’t win this fight. The Arbiters cannot stay here long, because their presence alone causes damage to the worlds they descend upon."
"It’s Divine law." Lumina finished with a grim tone, her trembling eyes fixed on the celestial runes. "Husband, that’s why, they cannot appear often, or for long without giving up their powers."
Asmodeus sighed, taking a deep breath as blood trickled from the corner of his lips, but he kept grinning.
"How long?"
The taller arbiter lowered their hand, light coalescing into a spear of pure light. "Foolish insect, you desire to resist divine law? KNEEL ABOMINATION!"
"Make ." Asmodeus snapped back.
His right arm instantly regenerated, then with the snap of his fingers. He summoned a familiar sight.
The massive axe Blood Reaver appeared in his hand. "I don’t think you know this, but... fear ans nothing to ... because" He took another step, the pressure splitting his scales apart, ’This is dangerous. I’m so excited!’ Then another... he ignored the pressure with a leaping dash, then swung his axe at the Arbiter with a twisted grin.
"I’m a god damn berserker."
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