Ch25: A Premature Reveal
Once I made it down to the armory, I saw that Leah was hard at work trying to make the Black Soulstone more tame than before, the demonic energy coming from it being very strong. "Get back, Lisa! This Soulstone... it's straining against me!..." Leah groaned in pain as she tried to qualm the darkness inside the stone. "Leah is right, Zombie Nephalem. You must stay back and go fight. We need to qualm the darkness of the stone," Adria said. "If it gets out of control, it will summon forth the demonic entities within."
"I think that I have a different job for her while I go ahead and take over this gig," I frowned as I looked at the Soulstone and tried to focus some of my own powers into the stone. The powers that I got from Maghda, gifted unto her by Belial, Lord of Lies. Upon me emitting a green beam of light at the Soulstone, Leah gasped and Adria just looked on in sheer astonishment. "What?! T-That power! The power of Belial!" Adria exclaimed. "Leah! I'll take over this job for a small bit. Meanwhile, I need you to focus your powers of hell-forge to mend the breach that was made by Azmodan's armies, okay?" I asked her as I continued to focus my powers at the Soulstone.
Leah looked at me and nodded, focusing her power as to where the demons were entering the keep from (I could sense it because of me looking into her mind thanks to Serena). And once she found it, her eyes glowed a bright orange-red and she activated the powers of Diablo within her. She let out a large Super Saiyan yell and I heard the entirety of the Keep actually rumble from the power. And after I fell on my ass, I noticed something truly astonishing happening all over us. Leah not only patched the hole up with hell-forged steel, but the whole Keep had become coated in bright red metal. She had turned the whole keep into impenetrable hell-forged steel!
"Hah... hah... that... that was awesome..." Leah gasped as she fell on the ground and laughed a bit. "D-Daughter..." Adria gawked at her. I looked at Adria and saw with the powers of Belial inside of me that something was going on in her mind. She was thinking of just how powerful her daughter had become and was actually showing legitimate concern for her plan on resurrecting Diablo.
"Wait a minute... I feel a demonic power looking at me..." Adria said with suspicion, making me very nervous as I finished the job on the Soulstone and the stone now emitted an aura of light green light. "Whew... the stone seems stable now... that was amazing, Leah..." I smiled as I knelt down at her and helped her up. "T-Thanks... by the way... how did you do that green light?" she asked. "The powers that I got from Maghda were given to her by Belial himself, so you could say that I have his power in me..." I smiled at her.
It was then that Adria looked at me with a scowl of distrust and pulled me back with her magic alone. "Tell me, zombie: did you look into my mind just now with those damned powers?!" Adria growled at me with her eyes glowing pure red. "W-Wait... what are you talking about?" I asked her with a look that she wasn't convinced by. All I could think right now was the word crud and crap mixed together. "Mother... let her go right now," Leah growled at her. Adria looked at Leah with a glare herself and I knew we were screwed.
"Adria... whatever you do, don't you dare hurt her. If you do, I will bite to kill," I growled right at the witch's stern look as she aimed her staff at Leah in her weakened state. Adria glared at me and simply threw me to the ground, the force being enough to actually knock my left arm right off. "I didn't want it to have to come to this, Zombie Nephalem," Adria growled at me. "Adria, if you kill me, you kill your only chance to get what you want," I growled right back at her. "And I know EXACTLY what it is you want, Misses Diablo," I growled right at her.
When I said those words, Adria's face literally changed from snarl to pale in a matter of a second. "Y-Y-Y-You knew? You knew all along, didn't you?!" she asked me with worry in her eyes. "It doesn't take a genius to know where Leah's powers come from, Adria," I growled at her as Leah got up on her own and joined my side and I grabbed my arm and began to sew it back on again. "Hell forged steel, rays of disintegration, able to control the forces that lie within the Black Soulstone... I knew the moment she made this happen on my arm that she was of demon blood," I frowned as I showed her the Hell forged steel that held my right arm in place. "And we saw your notes in your old cellar in Tristram. We knew that you were a witch that was in love with Aiden, the Dark Wanderer and host of Diablo at the time. So when we found you, we decided to play the dumb game, just because the demons torturing you mentioned the Black Soulstone," I said to her, finishing the sewing job after saying the word 'torturing'.
Adria looked at us with an extremely troubled gaze, sometimes looking at the Black Soulstone, almost as if she were determining whether to take it or not. "If you so much as touch that stone, we won't hesitate to attack," I snarled at her. Adria then looked at me with a glare herself. "If you knew that I would betray you this whole time, then why did you keep me with you after defeating Belial?" Adria growled at me. "Because, like with Maghda, I wanted to see if there was still any part of you that was sane. Would you be able to stop serving a Demon lord that treats his followers as nothing but tools? Or do you turn a new leaf altogether?" I growled at her.
Adria looked at me with a growl of her own, and then looked at her daughter, who now looked at her with a glare herself. "You may not believe me, witch, but I knew about every single minute detail that would lead to these events unfolding," I told her. "And I know exactly what you planned to do when we sealed all the 7 Lords of Hell in the Soulstone... you were planning on using your own innocent daughter as the vessel for Diablo! Would you really do that? Kill off your own daughter, who lived her life with an Uncle that was near and dear to her heart, just because you have no heart of your own?" I growled at her.
"Hmph! I would never do that to my daughter! Her spirit would still be in Diablo, and she would be able to live as long as he does," Adria snarled back. I simply growled right back, since I knew from my growing powers of Belial in me the horrid truth. She was lying right through her teeth. I sent a blast of Blizzard right at her, freezing her in all places other than her head. "What the fuck?! Release me, you bitch!" she exclaimed. "Not until you tell the truth, witch! I know exactly when you say a lie, since I have Belial's powers. So tell the truth or I will stick my sword right through your skull," I growled at her. "No," Leah frowned. "I will do it if she lies again," she frowned.
Adria looked at me with a face of fear now, and rightfully so. She could tell just by our stern glances that we were being very serious with our threats. "O-Okay! I'll fucking tell you!" Adria exclaimed. "What will happen to whoever gets possessed by Diablo or any Lord of Hell for that matter? Because we still need answers for how to get Hakan II back," I growled at her. Adria was now producing tears as she finally told us the truth with no lies at all. "When a demon lord... possesses a host... the host's soul is condemned to the Pandemonium Fortress... the only way to rescue them from that place... is to go there yourself and find them... but only a Nephalem can do such a thing..." Adria growled and began to cough at the end.
"And you were planning on sending your own daughter through that horrid process? Why me? Why would you offer me up as a host to Diablo when all I've done is live my entire life believing that my parents were both dead and living with Uncle Deckard for my whole life, not knowing my life was all but a lie? Do you know how traumatized I was when I found out that my father was Diablo and that my mother was a witch? And you would try to hurt me even more without even asking me once about my past... you are the absolute WORST mother in the WHOLE UNIVERSE!" Leah exclaimed at her in fury as I could sense her power go into her arms. "Leah, NO!" I exclaimed as I positioned myself in front of Adria and took the force of the demonic beam.
The moment that the ray hit my body, it felt like I had been hit against the gut with the force of a car. I was on the ground and in pain from the pure force of it. Nothing was able to hurt me until this point and Leah's demon powers were able to reignite the pain threshold in my body. "Agh... that hurt..." I groaned as I clenched my gut from the forceful hit. "W-What the hell... Lisa! You're not green anymore!" Leah exclaimed in pure shock. I groaned and looked at her in worry and then turned my attention to my hand. It was its original hue of dark brown once again. (Yeah, I was an African-American this whole time. So what?)
"What the hell... I'm... I'm back to normal..." I gasped as I tried to get up and failed miserably. "W-Why did you save me?" Adria gawked at me as Leah helped me off the ground. Adria was still encased in ice and I could only frown at her as I said the words that I learned as I was training as a fencer. "Always show mercy to your opponent, even if you hate them..." I groaned as I grabbed hold of the stone and found that it still didn't affect me. "We'll keep you here for now... I'll have Mira and mom check up on you from time to time... I still don't trust you... but no one should die without knowing their own daughter..." I frowned at her as Leah helped me hobble back to the top part. All I could hear behind me was Adria crying small sobs.