The years continue to pass, and nothing changes. Lilith wonders how long she can continue fighting a hopeless war when he comes to her after another battle. Requested by a tumblr anon!

based on the prompt: "I don't want to be alone."

Cyclical

Her name was Lilith, leader of the human army, the most powerful mage in the world.

And she had lost track of the years.

The war was lasting eons. Countless decades and centuries past without any changes. More and more were slaughtered every single day, their corpses filling the meadows and burning in mass graves. The Creator was cruel and refused to give leniency to the ones who simply wished to die instead of bowing to the cycle of rebirth, and Lilith didn't know how many more times she could stand seeing them all grow up again.

So many simply came back. So many of them with the same face, the same hair color, the same style of clothing only to be killed again and again.

How long did she have to suffer through the Creator's war? Seeing countless friends die over and over only to return as babies waiting for the slaughter like cattle and piglets? It was insanity. It was a maze which she had to navigate, but there was no end in sight.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled. There was a crick in her neck, and it strained every time she looked to the left. It was a painful reminder of another lost battle with too many good mages and friends dead.

Witch would be revived again. So would Centauros and Uroko. Little Wood Hunter would come around after dying from her own arrow redirected into her heart. Blood had caked their faces. Coarse, rich, filling her nostrils with too much copper. It was to the point where she felt nauseous, but she couldn't surrender not when God was leering down at them.

She stayed in her tent after the battle and felt the blades of grass between her fingers. She picked at a few strands, each sharper than the last. Recalling how Centauros taught her how to make a grass whistle, she was almost tempted to do it when the frayed flap opened.

"Lucifer," she said without looking at him, "you've found me."

"It's easy to locate you," he said, his vibrant white wings fluttering behind him. He tugged at his robes, his bare arms littered with raw scars.

"You could heal those," she pointed out as he knelt before her.

"I'd rather let them fester." He tightened his jaw. "It makes me feel more like you."

A hollow laugh freed itself from the back of her throat. It echoed in the tent, and for a moment, it silenced the wails of the outside world. Right now, this little tent filled with nothing of value was her world. Lilith raised her gaze to him and stared at her sallow reflection in his halo, the gold too bright for the eyes which the Creator deemed as sinful.

"Shall I heal your neck?" he offered, coming closer, testing the waters to see if she would strike him. When she remained still, he placed his hand on her, and warm, white light pulsed between his fingers.

"You could kill me," she said as the pain vanished, replaced with nothingness, bitter blood swelling in her neck. Lilith twisted his hand around her throat, taking in his paling complexion. "Yet, you won't. I know you won't."

They shared too many battles, too many close calls. Many times they both came dangerously close to killing the other, but they never followed through. He claimed it was fun at first, but those feelings changed. She had every opportunity to kill him, but at the end of the day, she let him crawl back to Heaven with his tattered wings and snatched the feathers which had fallen.

"Why don't you kill me?" she whispered as he narrowed his gaze.

"Do you want to die?" he asked, and she smirked, having expected the tables to turn.

"What do you think this war is about?"

He cupped her cheek. Smoothing back her deep auburn hair, he lowered his voice and asked, "Lilith, why are you alone?"

Her breath caught in her throat. She thought of Witch's cackle and Centauros' beauty, Uroko's song and Wood Hunter's speed. It would be like a blink of an eye to her before they returned, but waiting still made her heart pang.

"They died again," he interjected, glancing at the flap which billowed in the wind. Anyone could have seen them, and yet, they remained.

"I'll have to wait more than a decade before they're ready to fight again." She sighed and closed her eyes. "This war is evil. Plain and simple, it's evil."

He didn't reply. Agreeing would be treason, but his heart already betrayed him.

"I don't want to be alone," Lilith said, placing her hand upon his. "Just for tonight, will you stay with me?"

His eyes widened but quickly relaxed. With a smile pressing into his cheeks, he pulled Lilith to his shoulder. He felt her rest her weary head upon his chest and closed his eyes, trusting she wouldn't kill him. For tonight, the Creator and God didn't exist. There was only the mage he loved with his sinful heart.

The world seemed to fade away as she embraced slumber. For once, the nothingness provided comfort even when her heart wailed. As she felt Lucifer bring her closer, she wondered how long she could continue fighting the war, but just for now, it didn't exist. There was only herself and Lucifer nestled together and if the emotions she felt were actually real.