Chapter 25: Lilith (II)
Never in her wildest dreams had Lilith ever suspected that the souls of the entire human population of Gensokyo would just be handed over to her, willingly and without complaint. All the while, the ones whom had relinquished those souls remained blissfully unaware of Lilith's true intentions. Rumia had proven herself to be quite the unexpected boon indeed. This, of course, wasn't even accounting for the general aid Rumia's killing spree had also supplied for Lilith; she'd been there, ever watchful and patient, observing Rumia's kills from the start. And she was fully prepared to clean up after her as well. And to have been fortunate enough to pick up the souls of a couple of goddesses, an incarnate of winter, and even a powerful Shikigami belonging to the Yakumo family? Well, Lilith couldn't stop counting her lucky little stars.
"Do you finally have enough souls now? So we can hurry up and move things along?" Melony asked of her elder sister, her arms crossed with an impatient look across her features. "I'm tired of acting like we're helping these idiots."
"Because you've been doing an absolutely splendid job at that, haven't you?" Lilith replied calmly, almost kindly, despite the obvious barbed nature of her comment. Melony didn't dare respond to it either, though her expression remained as impatient and irritable as ever. "Don't worry, it won't be much longer. I finally have enough. Or at the very least, I am very close. They just need to undergo a few modifications. To bring out their full potential."
Lilith reached down into the glass dome which housed all of her harvested souls, which was now practically filled to the brim thanks to all the humans from the village. From it, she plucked out two of the human souls and stared at them writhing about in her hand with an amused expression. The both of them began to glow brightly with energy as Lilith tightened her grip around them, apparently fusing them together as one hybrid soul. "I wouldn't want to accidentally squander everything that we've gained over the last century, simply by acting out of haste."
"Yeah, fine. But what about Rumia? If she is who you said she is, don't you think getting rid of her first would be better?"
"As she is now, I doubt I would stand much of a chance against Rumia in a one on one confrontation," Lilith stated, dropping the newly fused soul back into its prison with the others. She turned over toward Melony, placing a hand upon her shoulder, while her gaze fell over toward Alan, who stood in the corner. Where Melony had told him to go stand. "While it's true that the three of us together might very well be able to take the two of them down, I'd rather not risk your lives after coming so far. Not when you can both still be useful to me."
Melony grunted slightly, but Alan did speak up in her place. "So, Lilith... What's going to happen to Rumia then? And Reimu, and Marisa, and Miasma, and all the others that we met?"
Lilith smiled at the boy, and strolled over beside him, giving him a pat on the head. "Oh, you're worried about them are you? It's a shame most of them will die, then." Lilith gave Alan another pat on the head, before walking back to her workstation. "The way I see it, things will pan out in one of two ways.
"The first possibility, is that Rumia does in fact pick off Reimu and the others, or slaughters them all in their attempted assault on Makai. If they were to all die here in Gensokyo, it would at least be easier for me to pick off their souls as they died, than if they were to die away in Makai, where I can't reach.
"The second, and more preferable possibility..." Lilith continued on, as she took a seat down beside the dome of souls once more. "Is that Reimu and the others do manage to kill both Rumia and Kana. Rumia is by far the biggest obstacle in my path, and that poltergeist with her Void abilities is certainly a nuisance as well. She might draw unwanted attention if she's allowed to carry on for too long. Plus, if those two are out of the way, Reimu and the others would be absolutely powerless in my ascended form."
"You know that she's gonna try to stand up against you anyway, right? She's going to die either way." Lilith merely smiled in response, and Melony shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, just thought I should mention it. If Reimu beats Rumia though, I want to be the one to kill her."
"Fair enough, Melony. But I don't want to kill all of my future worshipers. Just a few, to set an example." Lilith's hand caressed the side of the glass dome that held her captured souls, causing many of them to seemingly react violently within, glowing brightly and squirming about inside. She stared through the glass pane with an almost hungry expression, her golden eyes reflecting the bright glow of the spirits. Her fingers tightened against the glass by a fraction. "What is a God without mortals to worship her, after all?"
Alan seemed to be rather saddened to know that most of the 'friends' he had made would likely die, but not quite enough to object to Lilith's plans. Melony on the other hand actually managed to crack a smile at the prospect, even if only briefly.
Though the three did not realize it, they were not quite as alone as they thought. At the outside of Lilith's cave, hidden deep within the confines of Youkai Mountain, waited both Rumia and Kana. Rumia leaned up against the rock wall of the mountain, and had opened up a viewing portal of her own on the inside of Lilith's home, deep within the shadows, were it would be undetected. She had been tailing Lilith ever since her arrival at the Moriya Shrine merely a few hours prior, hoping to learn the location of the humans that she had hidden, but with no luck. Instead, however, she had learned quite the interesting bit of information about Lilith's true intentions, and what she was hiding from Reimu and the others.
"So, seems like Lilith isn't quite as helpful as she claims to be." Rumia closed her hand, crushing the darkness that had gathered in her hand to act as her listening point within Lilith's home. "The dumb bitch really thinks we're gonna sit back and wipe out all of her opposition."
"Well, we were going to kill Reimu and Miasma at least. I thought that was your whole revenge plan, to get back at Yukari and Yuuka.~" Kana said, as she drifted along through the air beside Rumia, rather boredly playing around with her soul birds, to toy around with random objects nearby.
"No, they're still going to die. Miasma especially, now." Rumia spat onto the ground, and looked down at it. Still full of her own blood, as a result of her confrontation earlier that night. "But Lilith is going to die first. Before she has the chance to enact whatever bullshit she has planned."
"Oh, well that sounds like fun.~ Are we going to go do it right now?" Kana drifted upright, suddenly a lot more interested, now that they weren't just standing around listening to Lilith ramble on about her schemes.
"No. Not tonight." Rumia stood up straight, no longer propping herself up against the mountain wall. "If we attack her right away, she's likely to just do something with all those souls, and turn herself into a bigger problem than I have the patience to deal with. And if we kill her right away, she'll never tell us where she hid the humans. Even if we found them later, they'd just taste so bland without their souls."
"Guess we could always try and harvest humans from the Outside World, perhaps.~"
"I suppose you're right. But she did say she would be returning to the shrine tomorrow. Sounds like the perfect opportunity to take her out, if you ask me.~"
"Aw, so we're just going to sit around and do nothing the whole time? That's so lame.~" Kana crossed her arms, and began to pout noticeably.
Rumia grinned, and clapped Kana on the shoulder. "Now don't be such a big baby. I had something else planned for tonight, something you'll definitely enjoy."
"Oh, really now? Well, you've caught my attention.~ Don't keep me in suspense.~"
Rumia tongue ran along her upper row of teeth, licking them clean of the blood that stained them. "We're going to prepare a little present, for our good friend Miasma."
End of Part 3