Chapter -76: A Young Sun and Moon
The sun's light.
Many welcome it with open arms as they awaken to a new day.
But in Sancturia, there was one who despised the sun with all her heart could muster.
Because every day it beamed down upon her and reminded her just how utterly insignificant she still was.
Because every day it signaled her to get up, put on her clothes, and engage in these...banal proceedings.
She was pulled to Borealis' chambers to report the status of the other Sages. Every insignificant, menial task was explained to the finest grain of detail, and then he let out that irritating little hum of his.
It penetrated Lilith's ears, as the man's ease of knowledge and wisdom was insulting her beyond his intent. And that just made her angrier.
If the Sages were equated to knights, she would be the scabbard holding his sword. And in his eyes she could be nothing else.
This was a role she played with great command over her feelings and thoughts. Every smile...painted on with careful care taken to let naught a single crinkle of frustration through.
But she took in every word, every flaw in his demeanor, peering through closed eyes with a precision allowed only to those trained to kill.
The smile was painted on. With pigment as thick and red as blood.
When his use for her had ended for the morning, Lilith pulled the hem of her skirt on both sides and bent part way onto one knee, "Anything else, Lord Borealis?"
Her voice was like cinnamon, sickeningly sweet but containing a surprising bitter element.
And Borealis, unguarded in her presence, took no care towards the subtlety of this tone as took up a voice akin to speaking towards a friend, "No. That is all for today, Lilith."
The moment had passed, like it had the other 8000 some days before this.
Leaving through his door was more relieving than a full body needle therapy session, given the circumstances.
But today, he conspired to drag the moment out, with a comment that any other weak-hearted waif would be overjoyed to hear, "Wait one more moment."
Lilith was forced to look at him one more time, breaking her facade just the tiniest bit in her eyes as she hummed curiously.
Borealis tucked his hands behind his back, his eyes tender, vulnerable, ripe for being blinded with just a flick of the wrist.
And yet even in this state, the gap between the two was unfathomably large, like it was between her and the sun.
"May I spare a word with you in private?" He said, not demanding, but asking.
Lilith's smile creased upward and she stayed on her feet for a few moments longer, bringing out her gently smoothed out silver-tongue, "Of course, Lord Borealis. 'Tis my duty to appease the doubt of all Sages."
"Yes. Yes...as though there is naught anything but doubt in my heart anymore," Borealis mumbled, his monarch features sagging as he stared listlessly at the ground, "I know...I haven't been the best of leaders, especially as of late. But, it makes every day better, knowing you are here for me."
"...Hmm," Lilith's smile wavered for a moment, "Our progress may be gradual, but we will put an end to the Titans one day. And then, all the lost children shall be under the guidance of a true deity."
"Ha," Borealis put on a bit of a smile himself, "You speak too highly of me, Lilith. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe that you're the same little girl who once tried to stab me in the chest."
Lilith chuckled, "Oh, those little whims get sharpened out with age and maturity."
She then bowed her head and remarked, "Now, if you'll excuse me."
"Yes. Sorry for taking your time."
And with that, she turned and exited through the door. And when the lock clicked shut, she opened her eyes partway and muttered coldly, "And I'll be sure the next time, my blade is sharp enough to reach."
She then began to strut through the halls of the palace to address some of the other Sages. Some would be missed, however, either out of not being required or because they already knew what she was expecting out of them.
In the end she would happen across the little wildfire demon named Vermilion announcing her return to the palace by kicking a chunk out of one of the support pillars.
"So, you're finding yourself in a good mood today." Lilith spoke sardonically.
Vermilion scoffed and lashed her hand out her way, "Pah! It's so fucking boring out there anymore."
She then scowled and dug her hands into her sleeves, pacing around the foyer while ranting irregardless of who would care, "That Knight's gone, blind bitch keeps ruining my hunts, and then there's that pesky chicken shit constantly getting in my way!"
"The mite who absconded with that irritating princess is irrelevant. Stop letting him work you up." Lilith responded, keeping her body still.
"Bah!" Vermilion made a sharp turn and declared, "Let's just gang up on him and put an end to this bullshit quickly!"
Lilith peered her eyes open part way and whispered, "HE may be a mite, but he's dug his little pedipalp into a very annoying problem."
"Kill him now, and there's no doubt the princess wouldn't hesitate to do the same to us," Every word uttered was cold and calculating, and she did not need to add expression work into it to make Vermilion settle down and listen, "That is why every move must be planned carefully."
"Ghhh...!" Vermilion then tossed aside and wandered away a bit before swinging her head back and remarking, "Well I dunno about you, but I've been smelling a dirty rat lately!"
"I mean shit, that chicken shit and his little chickadees have been able to intercept every attack we've tried to make lately!" Vermilion stood her ground and growled, "I'm telling you Lilith, someone has to be playing for the other team!"
Lilith twisted her smile sideways and chuckled, delicately shaking her head before stating with utter confidence, "Who, pray tell, would dare to defy us? Little Torren lay firmly in the palm of my hand, dancing only to my requests now. Adderbolt's loyalty has been easily bought with sweets and lies of better days disguised as promises."
"I bet it's Nimus." Vermilion stated bluntly.
"He's the most loyal to our cause besides my brother." Lilith said.
"Yeah and he's also the one who spent the most time around the little chicken shit."
"I'm not going to have you waste my air over baseless, juvenile accusations just because he ruffles your hair."
Vermilion's eye widened and a bit of fire spurted out of the eyepatch following a series of incomprehensible grumbles.
"Fine! Then that just leaves fault face and the blind bitch."
"Oh? Have YOU heard Carolina speak? Ever?" Lilith took immense pleasure seeing Vermilion go silent.
For there was no greater joy than seeing a lesser person trip and fall on their ill-brained assumptions. But that is why she is the one holding this dog's leash. To make good use of her bite...
Vermilion then turned her head and the two of them noticed Stonestein coming out of his room with a bag full of dusty books on his back.
"Hey fault face!" Vermilion shouted, making the man turn to face them, "C'mere! You got some explaining to do!"
Lilith tightened her grip on her expressions as the towering aegis approached, something Vermilion really should be taught to do at some point...
"Yes?" Stonestein spoke, his precise and deliberate minimalist approach to speaking yet another irritation on Lilith's mind.
Vermilion came at him swinging verbally, "Are you le-"
Only for Lilith's more gentle tongue to win out with speed and forced respect, "Where have you been lately?"
Vermilion bit her tongue in silence as Stonestein closed his eyes and remarked, "The ruins of Oreore."
"And you've not had any conversations with the likes of the Genesis Samurai there, or any of his companions?"
"I have not. Why?"
"Lord Borealis has been concerned about the possibility of an information leak to the 'Elemental Overlord' and his like. We do not mean to suspect you, but rather, to raise your awareness of this fact."
Stonestein slowly opened his eyes and his stony gaze focused on Lilith's face.
The smile had to be perfection, for this man could see the finest details in the grains of sand he wasted his time scouring through.
"I see," Stonestein bobbed his head, "I will keep watch."
Sensing no further need for him, the man continued on his way out of the palace.
It was so easy Lilith almost felt insulted.
All it took was preying on his loyalty to Borealis and a few sentences and she had not only gained a new pair of eyes regarding this assumed traitor but misdirected any suspicions he may have thought by presenting the idea to him in the first place.
There was...elegance, to this long-term form of manipulation.
Alas, the pleasure would be dried out in a matter of seconds.
A young boy with bright red-orange hair zoomed between them and carelessly rammed his shoulder into Vermilion, immediately inciting anger.
As she staggered back another child, a girl with pristine silver hair, was chasing after him with her quick and nimble legs, "Sooooolaris! Give me back my booook!"
The two children ran amok around Vermilion for a few seconds, the young boy holding a book high above his head while his giggling grated on both Sages' ears.
"Ha ha ha! You can't catch me, Lunis!" The young boy proclaimed.
Vermilion put an end to this by gritting her teeth and yelling, "Dumb brats! Clam it!"
The two kids froze up and squirmed every time her gaze darted in their general direction. She then cracked her fingers, ready to strike.
The children backed away and once they were a safe distance the boy grinned, wiggled his brows, and then made a mad dash out of the palace.
The girl recoiled with a blush and squeak and then sprinted after him, both of them hopping up the pyramid like it was a staircase.
Vermilion then concealed her hands and growled in a gravelly tone, "That half-breed needs to keep his little shits in line...!"
Lilith began to hum long and hard with intrigue. Vermilion peered over her shoulder and bluntly said, "What?"
"I'll admit, when Borealis first dissected those children's souls to determine their true nature, I laughed him off as a fool for calling them gods."
"Gods?" Vermilion scoffed, "Yeah right."
"See? You doubt it because you've only perceived them with the naked eye. But if you were to gaze upon their aura, you'd see the endless chasm of power they host inside."
Vermilion turned a little more and brushed her hand up, "Seriously? Never took you from someone who'd buy the old man's crap."
"Even a fool can get one thing right," Lilith uttered quietly, her lips quivering to restrain a smile of ecstasy, "Oh ho ho ho ho...Yes, my mind is working up a wonderful idea."
"We can make use of these children for our plans."
Vermilion's brow raised cast doubt, thus Lilith gestured her hand forward and spoke with tantalizing allure, "You've complained over a lack of challenge lately. Why wait for it to come, when you can create your own? Surely, the peons of the outside are beneath your notice. But a god? One heralding a power as omnipotent as the sun. THAT would prove to be a worthy hunt."
Vermilion's smirk widened to bear her fangs as she said following a chilling chuckle, "Go ooooon."
"Their growth should have been stunted by their environment, but they are already very healthy for their age. In a couple years time I could see them growing taller than you, and when fully grown they may even rival most Sages in size."
"Oh yeah, the little brats ain't so little..." Vermilion said with a side-eye glance outside the palace, where the two young gods ran about on the pyramid still, with Gabriel trying to calm them down to no avail.
"You can't make a god stray from destiny. Power gravitates towards them, filling them, empowering them, all on its own. They already have what it takes to put even the Titans down. All they need is a little...push."
"Heh, so you want me to draw out the brats potential and then surpass it, yeah?" Vermilion grinned with feral excitement, "That's probably the best suggestion you've had in a long time!"
"You don't get to have both," Lilith said, the cold coming off her voice sending a shiver down the scorpion's spine, "Be grateful that I am entrusting you with one."
Vermilion turned and then spat at the ground, throwing her head back and gesturing in an arc over her shoulder, "Feh, whatever. I'd rather not be anchored down by the silver-haired one, she looks like a real pussy."
"Then it's settled." Lilith replied.
"Heh...! I can't wait to get started!" And without another sound or breath, Vermilion vaulted out of the palace and blitzed right past Gabriel to start scaling the pyramid on all fours.
She set her sights on the fledgling Solaris and tackled him with all her might, tumbling further up before pinning him against the wall.
Lunis let out a gasp of shock and froze on a lower tier, "S-Solaris...?!"
Solaris was already pulling and tugging, managing to lift Vermilion's hands up a couple inches. She widened her eye and muttered gleefully, "Oh yeah, you're going to be a tough one someday...!"
"Hey! Get off you one-eyed monster!" Solaris spit in her face and she flinched, answering his request with a deep, hollow chuckle.
"Heh heh heh...you're going to call me 'Master' from now on ya spittin' brat!" And without a second though, she ripped the young boy from the wall and leaped hundreds of feet through the air with him dangling behind her.
Lunis ran to the top of the pyramid and shouted, "Hey! Where are you taking my brother?! Come back!"
At the bottom of the pyramid Lilith moved beside Gabriel with long, clicking footsteps. He turned aside with a perturbed expression as he inquired, "L-Lady Lilith, what is going on...?"
"We are taking these children under our wings, of course," She briefly cast her gaze aside and then pulled it away towards the pyramid, "This has been sanctioned by Lord Borealis. If you have objections, I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear them."
This put a cork in that annoying samurai's throat, and gave Lilith the freedom to float on up to her new tool.
Lunis cupped her hands around her mouth and ran around the rooftop, "Father! Father! Solaris has been taken! Faaaaath-"
Her voice was swallowed into an abyss when Lilith put her hands upon her shoulders, nestling them into her skin until her body shivered.
"There there, little one. Turn around..." Lilith guided the still child around to look up and face her.
This child, gifted with such pure, glistening skin and beautiful eyes.
She would grow up to be the envy of all. Men would throw themselves at her feet on appearance alone, women would desire to have what she couldn't.
Lilith found her eyes creaking open to spite this blessed child with the lifeless inferno trapped within her gaze.
Her fingertips dug in deeper, absorbing all the shivers this child bared in her presence.
"M-Ms. Lilith...?" The child said, cowering in obedience to the one who was denied everything she was blessed to one day have.
Lilith bent on one knee and pulled one hand out in front of her face. A dim, fuzzy golden light emerged from the palm, and no matter how the child would struggle, Lilith's fingertips ensured her gaze would continue to face the light.
"Don't struggle. I'll take care of you now."
"Who...who are you? Something's...wrong with you..." Lunis' eyes began to sink as her body fell limp at Lilith's feet. The moon...sinking into an abyss of black.
Meanwhile, Vermilion was leaping straight for Canofloe and leaving large craters in her wake.
The little so-called sun god was putting up a struggle full of kicking and punching but she hardly felt a thing and laughed it all off with delight.
"Awww that's cute, the brat thinks he's got a bite!"
"You're going to regret this! When father hears about this-"
"He's gonna what?!" Vermilion ruthlessly mocked him, "Kill me?! Ooooooh I'd love to see him try! But yer mean ol' daddy's all leashed up and he can't even hurt a fly!"
She could hear him trying desperately to reach behind his head and pull her hand off his robe collar.
"Why's he keep using his hands? You're a sun god, shoot some fucking fire!" She could already tell this was going to take an annoying amount of effort to get this started, "Uuuuugh..."
Once at the border of the burning wastelands she took one last leap, aimed her sights at the Heatstroke Wilds, and threw Solaris straight at the ground.
He went crashing and tumbling over a bunch of volcanic cracks, putting a bunch of burn marks all over his robes.
Before he could finish coughing and get up, Vermilion smashed down in front of him and remained bent down and hunched over, screaming right in his face, "Alright you little brat, we're gonna make you into a god!"
She threw herself upright and kicked him square in the thigh, "Get up!"
Solaris coughed and gagged while he took a few more tumbles on the ground and landed on his face. He then planted his hands and started to push himself up, his immature mind so jumbled he could only lock onto the source of his confusion at present.
"G-God...?"
"Yeah. God!" Vermilion threw her hands up and rolled her eye, "Apparently."
"Y-You're a crazy woman!" Solaris gagged up and could barely get on his knees, "Leave me alone!"
Vermilion shunted her hands into her sleeves and grinned, "That ain't happenin' brat. You're gonna show me some results, NOW."
Once Solaris was on his feet he growled like a dog on guard duty and lunged at her to throw his fist.
Her fingertips sprung from the sleeve and wedge themselves into his gut, his spit becoming steam upon her fiery aura.
While Solaris was staggering back, Vermilion prowled over to him and then kicked him in the gut to lay him on his back.
The moment he showed movement she drew her sword from the flames and it split down the middle like a jaw, both tips impaling themselves on the sides of the boy's neck.
The fangs dripped with acidic venom, edging so close to his skin every sizzle of the ground made him squirm like his flesh was ablaze.
She then hunched over, the geysers of flame spewing at her back giving her a monstrous silhouette with an eye of demonic nature.
"Lesson one...Pick your fights better, because the world won't hesitate to make you it's bitch for any error, and if you ain't strong yer weak, and if yer weak yer DEAD and WORTHLESS."
Her smile grew with wiggly delight as she raspily whispered at him, "So are ya gonna try and take another swing at yer Master, or are ya gonna stop yer howling and be a god?!"
The boy bit his lower lip and started whimpering, with his tears dissolving into steam once they reached the cheeks.
"Buh...buh...I want to go home!" And then he started crying a lot...
Vermilion's eye closed partway and she let out an unamused groan, "Oh good fucking grief, they're both pussies?"
She growled and barked out to him, "Hey, stop crying!"
He kept going at it.
"I said stop crying!"
He didn't stop.
"Goddamn it all..." She dispelled her sword, reeled her fist back, then smashed the ground apart beside his face with ease, "I SAID SHADDAP!"
He froze on his tearful face and his gaze rolled over to her fist dipped halfway into the lava beneath the cracks.
She then pulled it out and shook it off while grumbling incoherently. She then stood up and tucked her hands into her sleeves while turning away.
"Grrgghll mrrrgh...! Awaken his power she said yeah right, this kid's just waiting to be shit out of a carnivore's ass."
She peered over her shoulder and saw that he was staring with wide-eyed fascination at the hole she nearly put through his head.
She scowled and spat hot air, "Peh, didn't even notice I missed. What the hell...?"
All the lava bubbling out of the cracks filled the air with that delicious smell of sulfur that helped Vermilion settle down a little.
"Aaaah..." Her expression melted into a frighteningly smooth look and she turned around to face this stiff brat once more.
"Tsk...!" She tucked her hands into her sleeves and raised the stinger on her ponytail so it was wiggling towards the brat.
She then looked up slightly to see a herd of Ashen Mares stampeding through the hazy fire.
A smile grew. A wicked, lovely, spiteful smile...
"Perfect...!"
She then reached down and scooped the brat up and suspended him in the air. Her glare, forcing him to look and listen, "Lesson two...! Anything that ain't yer friend is yer prey! And in this world...!"
She dragged him right up and close to her face so that her growling tones burned into his ears, "There ain't no such things as 'friends'."
With a sinister widening of her smile she captured the moment his fear overtook his face and then flung him through the air and into the path of the oncoming stampede.
He scrambled onto his stomach and turned to face the towering ashen legs approaching his face, the claps of their hooves like lightning igniting a flame upon dry wood.
First he was kicked around across multiple mares. Then the beasts of burden began to trip over his girth and took notice of his presence.
At which point the stampeding stopped and they huddled around the body in a circle. The mares clopped their hooves inward, each time making the boy flinch and curl himself into a ball.
Vermilion stood by all hunched over a perch of dried magma. Her eye was wide-open as she saw the mares inch closer, coming to a point where their hooves would soon pound into the boy's flesh until it was as malleable as wet clay.
They were wild and restless, merciless as only nature could delight in.
Their conjoined efforts drowned out the sounds of the boy crying, his bones cracking.
"That's right, take it! Let them pound the hate into your bones...!" Her eye was throbbing like her heart, "More! More! Get mad! Get mad! GET MAD!"
The pain, the hate, the pressure, anything to make this child's birthright of the sun boil to the surface.
With her gaze so fully invested into this scene of rampant violence she lost control of herself.
And as the child kept being pounded away, she received flashes of burning red that replaced the boy with a trashy, weak little girl with red hair being stampeded on by a smaller herd of mares.
Vermilion grimaced with hate towards this sight and it's continually appearances. It got to the point where the cries of the boy and girl were one in the same and it came out as this ear-grating shriek that wrenched the insides of her chest.
"Grrr...!"
She suddenly leaped high off her perch and drew her pressed together fingertips back. Diving out of the sky like a meteor, she stabbed one of the mares through the neck and pinned it to the ground.
The other mares pulled off and neighed, rearing their front legs up and flailing in panic.
She jerked her head around feverishly with a grin and then flicked the suffocating mare into the magma river, standing tall with her aura blazing hot.
The mares dropped their hooves and fumbled to run away. Their spirits would soon follow.
She then closed her eye part way and scoffed, immediately licking the blood off her pinky and then lashing the rest away.
She then walked over to Solaris and gave him a quick examination. Her eye widened, her body rippling with a sublime shiver, "He barely looks roughed up at all...!"
Bruised, a couple bones broken, and his emotional state was in turmoil.
Her grin widened and she grabbed him up by the front of his shirt and threw him across the ground until he smashed into a blackened tree.
She then rolled up and pinned them there with a knee to the gut, using it to support her elbow as she leaned in closer, "You're holding back on me, you little brat...!"
"W-What do you want from me...?! Let me go...! It hurts...it hurts...!" Solaris cried out in pain, trying and failing to claw at her leg.
She pressed her knee in harder as she declared, "What do I want?! The only thing that matters in life... and that's the thrill of being alive!"
She drew her needles between her other fingers and pointed them at Solaris' chest, his racing heart beat reverbing down into her hand, "See, you feel that? Don't ya want to enjoy every single waking moment?"
"Of course you do!" She declared as an absolute, "Because you've got a fire deep inside waiting to BUST OUT and be free!"
"Never be satisfied with being weak! Be strong! Become the apex predator of the whole goddamn world!"
"I-I don't want any of that!" Solaris cried out.
"That's because your upbringing made you a goddamn pussy!" Vermilion exclaimed, "Put the tip of your tongue on the ember of power and you'll never forget how satisfying the burn feels..."
She peeled her knee off and let him drop to the ground.
She then heard a subdued growl in the horizon and turned to the left, feeling a sense of ecstasy rising as the lord of these lands made a rare appearance at the most opportune time.
Towering twenty feet tall, a height even most Rot Walkers would find frightening, with a length of forty feet, this beastly king was covered in soot black scales that hid itself well.
It had puny arms and thick legs with a tail that could slice through magma and lava and decapitate an entire herd of Ashen Mares.
Within those scales burned a white yellow fire, whose heat was second only to the Azure Flame of legend.
If there was ever something that could push out the brat's power, it was this...The Fission Rex.
"Heeeeh...!" Vermilion withdrew her needles and then nudged towards the beast with a quick, blunt command to the brat, "Kill it."
"Wha...what?" Solaris uttered in a meek, cowering voice.
She gave him a swift kick in the back to nudge him in the direction of the beast, "You heard me. Kill it."
He turned back around and flailed his arms down, his eyes both ragged and dry, "I-I can't kill that thing, it's huge!"
"You're a god! You're bigger than these puny beasts!" Vermilion proclaimed.
"I'm NOT a god!" Solaris screamed.
With a gentle flick of the wrist, Vermilion threw her needles past his shoulders and hit the Rex dead in the chest.
It let out an irritated roar and turned to face the two of them, Vermilion's smile widening as Solaris' face went pale.
"You WILL be." She then shoved her bare palm into his chest and sent him stumbling towards the oncoming monster.
He turned around and fell onto his knees, scrambling forward and pulling himself up while the ground trembled and eruptions plagued his surroundings.
"Kill it!" Vermilion shouted fiercely.
Solaris could only cower over his shoulder and scream, the life draining from his eyes, "H-Help me...!"
"KILL IT!" She shouted again.
"I don't want to die!" He screamed again, the beast halfway there, it's maw splitting with strands of lava salivating between his sharp fangs.
"THEN. KILL. IT!" She screamed through gritted teeth, her body tensing up as she was half-tempted to just kill him and put an end to this stupidity.
The boy faced this beast and craned his head back as it's titanic frame would soon envelop his vision.
His vision grew foggy, his breaths suffocating him until he felt ready to collapse. And all he could hear were the woman's shrill voice boring into his head.
"KILL!" "KILL!"
"DIE!"
"KILL!" "KILL!"
"KILL!" "DIE!"
"KILL!"
Vermilion put one foot forward and then, an overwhelming burst of flame erupted out of the boy's now screaming body.
Waves of solar heat swept across the land, reducing the brittle blackwood to oblivion, and pushing the boy off the ground with his hair turning a vibrant shade of red.
And he kept screaming as the heat collapsed around his body like a second layer of skin. Flames spewed from his teeth and tore through the ground along an uncontrolled path heading towards the king of beasts.
He dug his jagged fingernails through the ground and tore up a large triangular spear of stone, which soon became consumed in flames right as the boy jumped and stabbed it through the beast's jugular.
Many of it's scales flew off, a series of miniature atomic explosions bleeding off the wounds that forced the boy off.
The Rex's roars staggered and it broke the stone off with a chomp of its fangs.
The boy? kept screaming, his violent echoes ripping apart the ground and causing all other wildlife to flee any which way they could.
Vermilion's eye widened as she saw that cowardly brat now dive headlong into the beast's gut and tear its scales off with his bare hands.
He weathered all the explosions and savagely clawed away with draconic slashes of orange flame.
The air shook with every hit, the beast continually staggering back and losing any balance it once had quickly.
Small, mushroom shaped clouds of ash started spurting out between the beast's scales as its innards glowed brighter than the morning sun.
Solaris dropped to the ground hunched over and briefly spread scaled wings of flame as he roared.
The Rex remained unyielding to his ferocity and let out an equally powerful roar.
Then the light flashed from its body, Vermilion being beholden to a deafening explosion that consumed the beast.
Yet, without a shred of hesitation, Solaris plunged his body into blast like his whole body was a blade. Slicing deep inside, he slashed his right hand down and in an instant, the explosion blew back and sent miles of ground and magma flying through the air.
Vermilion was trembling. Her eye so pointed, the veins were visible, and her smile wide and toothy. And soon after, steam began to rise from her loins.
"Holy shit...!" She gasped.
After a long breath was breathed she saw in the aftermath that the beast was gone. Whether dead or scared off, it would never dare approach this feral child again.
And the land laid scarred, with even the magma that would be its blood hardened black and yellow. She saw no end to it, only the origin point...The brat that was now on his hands and knees with smoke spewing from his back.
Vermilion walked on up and patted him on the back, seemingly pushing a spark back into his eyes.
"W-Whuh...?" Solaris was panting, stiff in the back as the unignorable sight set before him paralyzed him from head-to-toe, "What happened...?"
"You did this." Vermilion stated clearly.
Solaris looked across his shoulder with a pale gasp of fright, "I-I did this...?"
Vermilion sneered, "Believe me now?"
Solaris took a second look at the chasm of burning heat and slowly bobbed his head.
"Good, cause I wasn't believin' until just now," She then leaned down to put herself beside his gaze, "How did it feel?"
His whole body shivered, his fingertips when laid flat, soon curled into the hot ground as the shivering steadied itself upon his smile.
With a semi-unhinged glare in his eyes he said in a sheepish tone, "I-I liked it...!"
"Heh...!" Vermilion sneered and raised her head, pulling him alongside her and then planting her hand on his shoulder, "You'll learn to love it."
"From now on brat, you're going to be training every goddamn day. Forget about going back to that shitty life of complacency. That's lesson three...Never rest, always keep honing your body to be the best weapon it can be! ...Understand me?"
Solaris obediently nodded his head and spoke eagerly, "Y-Yes...!"
"Yes, what?"
"Yes...Master!" Solaris proclaimed with a little more enthusiasm.
With a smile holding a semblance of pride Vermilion pulled her hand back and chuckled, "You're damn right."
"Guess this ain't gonna be a waste of my time after all..."
Meanwhile, the young Lunis awoke to utter darkness.
All she knew was that she was on her stomach, and the environment was tepid. This wasn't Sancturia. She didn't know it. Being awake in the unknown filled her heart with dread.
"F-Father...? Ms. Lilith...?"
Upon clawing at the ground in an attempt to stand up, she was scared flat and feeble upon the ground as her vision became flushed with pearl light.
Her hands cowered behind her head and she was forcing herself to look up.
She was trapped in a room without edges and everything made out of prism stone, constantly rebounding light around to create copies of her reflection and shadows.
She jolted up onto her feet with her fingers spread stiff and her head swerving around everywhere.
"H-Hello?" Her voice echoed around, growing fainter with every bounce.
She took one step forward and a wet, heavy sound forced her to look to the right. A mangy, half-dead beast with fur and fangs cobbled upright, hunched over with it's hungry eyes glaring straight at her.
"Aaah...ah!" Lunis stepped back, and the beast kept pace.
Metal scraped along the ground until it reached her feet, it's cold touch directing her attention to a peerless steel sword.
It came from a lady sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. She was adorned in a gray and white crown princess attire with her ebony hair kept in an updo style, with a feathery brooch above each ear.
A sword with a black blade that reflected nothing but oblivion rested below her palms, pointed at the ground, her chin resting atop the hands. Her wrists held armlets with black feathers sticking out backwards from the circumference.
Her eyes were focused on her, and masked their presence in a cold, unwelcoming silence.
The beast continued to advance towards Lunis, who tripped onto her butt and crawled away from her one salvation.
"The beast will eat you," The woman said, "It doesn't care for your cowardice."
The beast's eyes were glazed over, a thick, gooey saliva dripping out the sides of its mouth.
Lunis froze entirely in place and her chest heaved, gasping for air.
The woman twiddled her fingers in place and muttered, "Kill or die. Ill-bred savages will not be reasoned with."
"K-Kill...?!" Lunis squeaked.
The beast hung its chin at the ground and snarled, ready to lunge.
The woman curled her lips into a smile and whispered coldly, "Too late."
The beast hurtled its snapping maw straight for Lunis' head, the girl doing nothing to fight back.
In the blink of an eye, Lunis' peerless skin was stained with splatters of blood and viscera, freezing her pupils in a shrunken state.
The woman had come and smashed the beast's skull beneath her heel, rubbing down hard to grind the bone, brain and flesh into a fine paste.
The blood pooled outward until it touched Lunis' heels and made her pull them back.
The woman then scooped her sword out of the blood and hung the blood-dripped blade over her shoulder.
"You're feeble. Spineless. Naive. An ugly, worthless child...But it's alright..."
Lunis looked upon this woman's face and saw her grinning from ear-to-ear. But the way the light hit her put shadows upon that smile that made it unnerving, and amplified the emptiness and depravity in her gaze.
"I will mold you into something beautiful, my little blade of death. My...Silver Shroud."
"M-M-Ms. Lilith...?" Lunis forced out of her throat.
"Noooo, my poor, ignorant child," The Sage of Light's grin grew a little more, "I am your Mother."
Far, far away, in the library he called his sanctuary, Justek found he could hardly keep his grip steady on the book he read.
Echoes of malice.
Echoes of depravity.
He had longed to ignore them, praying that he could have averted them scratching at his ears...
But it could not be ignored any longer.
He turned to his left and saw his children playing innocently with one another, ignorant to the fact that this would be their last day to enjoy freedom...
The future had spoken...and he would be helpless to save them now.
A single tear was shed down his cheek.
And with a bitterness that could spite the heavens, he dug his fingertips into the book cover until it snapped, wishing so much that this was the fate he could inflict upon Lilith's neck...
Next Time: The Voice of the Speechless