AN: I apologize that this took forever, I just had a hard time figuring out the best way to just write this side story. I hope it was worth the wait, and that you all enjoy this Aside. More from me at the end.
Everything was going as planned, the rifts were opening and closing on a regular basis, the monsters of the other world were adjusting to their new home, and best of all the expedition's hunter was escorting her children right to the great Wyverian leader of the Hunter's Guild. Lilith leaned back to relax her screwing back, her wooden chair being the only comfort in her observatory. Wiping the sweat from her forehead after seeing the unlikely party of heroes and monsters peacefully make their way up the mountain.
The past months had proven to be a particularly stressful one for her. What with the execution of her grand plan to engineer male monsters into existence, to protecting her most important assets in Kushala and Pluck, to her wayward daughter's return home. Druella had finally returned home from her most recent crusade, but not in the condition she expected. Her usual polite tone faltered into stammers, the grace in her flight and walk was gone and replaced with nervous shifting, and she seemed to struggle sleeping at night based on the black rings forming around her already red eyes.
Personally, looking after her cut into her ability to manage the Demon Realm's politics, but her husband would listen to whatever trite the nobles dragged in with them. Now that she thought about it, 'What is Druella doing back home?'
She hadn't questioned her daughter's sudden desire to return home, nor did she question Druella's affliction. Lilith stood from her seat, stretching her aching legs as she strode off to her daughter's room. She passed the main hall, turning herself invisible to avoid notice from her children below. She loved her children, the mamono she brought into the world, not just her own daughters, but she had to keep her priorities straight, they weren't the only ones that mattered.
She took a moment to see what exactly the nobles were complaining about. Down there, on the pearly violet floors of the Royal Makai, stood a monster from the other world. The Dragonians had taken to calling them uncanna, meaning uncanny-monster, but she found the term slightly distasteful. She wanted her children to treat them as their own, not as outlanders or some strange off shoot of themselves.
The monster was a transformed Jaggia, a female Jaggi that was slightly larger than their younger male counterparts, but she only stood about as tall as a normal human woman. She had short brown hair and long floppy ears, with purple scales framing a cute face of a young girl. The rest of her body exhibited similar traits; purple and orange scales framing her body, her claws weren't any larger than a normal human's nails, and her tail swayed from side to side behind her.
Chains were latched onto her wrist and heels in the hands of aggravated dark elves. A group of ten dark elves of the Slanndani tribe made their case before her dear husband, Arthur. The slavers, while certainly effective in their task of rounding up husbands, had always left a bad taste in her mouth. Based on the irritation exuding from Arthur; he shared her sentiment.
"Lilith said she would give us men," the lead dark elf presented the Jaggia, "and she gave us competition. What are we supposed to do with this… thing?!", Tossing the Jaggia to the ground before the de-facto Demon Lord she made her proposal, "You can't seriously expect us to harbor these females. I propose we put them to good use in the silver mines. That way they won't get in the way of we true blooded mamono."
Disappointed, Lilith left the pillar she watched from and resumed her march. Still invisible, she stroked her chin in thought, 'They've never fought each other like this before,' turning the corner, she took to the air to avoid the incoming maids, 'my children tend to hold grudges from their past lives as true monsters, but this… It's like a race war.'
Entering her daughter's chamber; an illustrious bedroom fashioned with all of the most precious magical materials Druella had tinkered with in her youth. She noticed that the grand terrace window was left afar, and that the drapes were pushed to the side. Confused, she looked to her sleeping, and while she was thankful for the fact, she was asleep, she was still confused as to how the window was opened.
Lilith closed the door behind her, and closed the window as a gust of wind rushed past her. Turning around she saw nothing, but the dark room and Druella sleeping peacefully in her bed. Everything was untouched and her daughter was safe. Suspicious she checked the room, unaware of the swirling rainless storm forming outside. The room grew darker with each passing second, but to the Demon Lord, this was the reality of her realm: change.
She felt something glide through the air, around her, through her, but nothing made manifest. She sensed no ghost, no spirit, not even a heartbeat besides her own and Druella's. Unsettled, Lilith moved to her daughter's side.
She gently caressed Druella's face, memories of her childhood coming to surface. She quietly leaned in, planting a kiss on her forehead, before noticing the sudden chill running through the room. Druella herself was warm, the cold completely passing over her as if it were never there.
"Oh, dear…", Lilith moved to wake Druella, to remove her from her room, but found herself frozen in place. Blinding white claws had covered her mouth and grabbed her hand. Their grip on her was light, but restricting. It was as if she were a toy in the hand of a meek child, as if she were held without effort.
"Shhhhh," a cacophony of voices echoed in her mind in a chorus of whispers, "we need not awaken the young one. Now stand. I wish to speak with you."
The light moved out from around her, she made to speak, but found her voice silenced. This creature of light had casted a spell on her, and it had entered her domain without alerting her senses; both of which should be impossible for not even the gods can escape her sight or alter her mind. Standing, she turned to face the being, a blinding light radiated from its form, so much that she found it difficult to even look upon their form.
As if by thought the light subsided, and the being before her revealed itself. It was like the creature was clothed in a hooded cloak, leathery and flesh like, the cloak covered their entire form. It was as if the cloak was the thing's skin, with the subtle cracks in the surface being more akin to creases in skin cells, and the glowing scarlet veins running along its body. Even the fur framing the neck had a living presence to it.
The face was practically unperceivable, shifting features, bright red eyes, and bright white scales framing their face. Sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine, the creature stared down at her with an expression that read patience and nothing else. It knew she would react that way, and perhaps that was what frightened her the most.
"You are frightened?", The voices returned, and the being stroked its ever-shifting chin, "I believed your familiarity with the divine would have prepared you for this."
"How are you doing that?", Lilith whispered, "Nothing should be able to enter my mind."
"I see now," it nods to itself, "I miss read you. My apologies, it appears that I will need to change.", A mouth appeared in the form of a thin slit, followed by an average sized set of lips, and eventually a crimson red tongue forming in its mouth, "Do you prefer this to…"
"Answer me," she pressed forward, summoning her power, "who are you… what are you, and what are you doing here!"
It merely stared at her, and her mana was stripped from her very hands. She was going to gasp, but her voice was silenced once more. It held a claw to its lips and hushed her, "We need not bring violence to your domain. But if it pleases you; We can be called the other world's God or in human tongue: Fatalis. We can read your mind for we know all that is and was. Now that we are here, the knowledge of your collective unconscious is now ours to wield.", They, she could only assume, leaned forward, "We wish to understand your reason; your ideology."
"Who's we?", Lilith asked, to which the 'God' titled their head.
"When we say we," they pressed a claw to their chest, "we refer to all of us. When you speak to I, you speak to all of us. For we are one, and we are many. We are Legion."
"Where's everyone else then," Lilith edged back, "where is the rest of… you?"
"It is only I that is here," the being nodded, "the rest of us are home. I merely desired to satisfy our collective curiosity."
She edged away from the creature and closer to her daughter, "How can I trust you? God or not, I don't want a stranger popping into my home out of the blue, and you're already stretching my good will."
The creature, the Fatalis, watched her for a moment. Silently, its piercing red eyes stared down at her, as if it were seeing into her, and not her herself. It claimed itself a god, a higher being, and as far as she could tell, it was even more. Not even the gods she allied herself with could claim omniscience, and the immortality she and her fellow immortals paled in comparison to a being that was literally ever-present within every being. The way it looked at her. The way it changed itself to align with her emotional reaction. It knew what she was think as she thought it, and that frightened her more than any display of power could.
Its face changed, its height shrank, and its long leather like robe changed. The action wasn't grotesque, it was actually the same change one went through during a glamour, the shape shifting magic. It now stood as tall as a human man, with a healthy pink skin tone, brown eyes, and short curly hair. It took the shape of man, or at least the image of one.
"It seems you find mankind more appealing than the fusion this world offers," its voice became that of a human man's, "now come. We desire an answer one way or another."
Lilith steeled herself, she knew she really didn't have an option here. This creature, this god pretending to be a man, was going to drag her out of her castle whether she liked it or not. Perhaps she could get something out of this arrangement.
"I will answer whatever questions you have in mind," she pointed to Druella, "but I want my daughters health to improve. If you are what you say you are, then I doubt that will be much of a problem for you."
"Druella's affliction is one of the mind, a secondhand illness she contracted from recklessly entering the memories of the hunter, Dawn, and the product of her pride finally bringing her low.", It, or perhaps he, said this without a hint of emotion, despite his irritated choice of words. He was detached, that much was clear, but it was not a mechanical coldness, "We will offer her respite after we complete our observation."
Lilith blanked, "So you can help her?"
"Yes, there are many solutions, each with their own tradeoffs.", He grumbled impatiently, "I could wipe her mind and erase the memory, but that would leave her infantile. I could strip her of her will, and force the memory to instill positive thoughts… You are not liking these."
"You don't need to read my mind to know that.", She defensively moved to her daughter's side, "Can you help her without butchering her, or are your 'godly' powers that limited?"
That seemed to sting this creature's ego, but he remained unflinching. He looked to Druella without distain nor concern, and moved closer with his fingers illuminating with red lightning. Tentatively, the Demon Lord allowed him closer. He eyed her for a second and then her daughter, before resting his palm on her forehead.
Red light filled the room, Druella writhed in pain, and Lilith could only watch in horror as her daughter screamed out in pain. He released her after a moment, wiping the sweat off his hand onto his cloak, before simply stepping over to the window.
"What did you do?", Lilith asked, caressing her daughters pained form.
His eyes flared red, his glamour fading momentarily, showing the destructive power hiding beneath the surface. She expected a grin, perhaps even snarky smirk and a cruel remark, but no. He beckoned her closer and said, "What you asked me too. Now come, we shall take you to the proving."
-0-
She suddenly found herself in a frozen flat, snow coated the ground about a foot deep, and snowflakes fluttered peacefully down from a partially covered sky. The beast, god, creature stood at a distance, observing the tundra with placid interest. He looked back to her and beckoned her once more, merely lifting two fingers to call her forward.
Hesitantly, she took to the air as she found the freezing snow nipping at her calves. Coming a halt beside the being, she came to realize why exactly he had brought her here. This place was a battlefield, or at least the remains of one. It had been a confrontation between two armies, more like gangs from the size of each force, and the corpses of both sides were only barely hidden beneath the snow cloaked surface.
"You speak of love between man and monster, correct?", The creature in guise of man asked.
Breathing softly, Lilith floated down to the side of a man that had long since passed on. His fingers colored purple from the frost, his expression reading a mix between pain and bliss. The local ice queen must have taken notice of the battle, and had comforted the lost souls in their dying breath. That didn't take away from the grizzly scene of the young man clutching at his stomach where frozen blood painted the ground beneath him.
"Is that some kind of trick question?", Lilith growled, "What does this have to do with my love for humanity?! You bring me to th… this-this field of slaughter to do what?! Humiliate me?! Prove me wrong?!"
"Answer the question."
Again, she was met with that stone wall of an expression. Letting go of a chilled breath, she nodded and submitted, "I believe in love between man and mamono. I believe there can be peace; I believe in a world where mothers and fathers and sons and daughters could live happily in peace and harmony."
She felt herself growing more and more uncomfortable with this frozen hell, but as soon as she moved to make a plead, the beast had draped a part of his cloak over her. It was warm, unnaturally so, and kept her from using that damnable excuse to leave this terrible place.
"We are not done here my dear Demon Lord," he said softly, "I want to ask you why? Why would humans do this? Why would they come out into this, as you put it 'frozen hell', and butcher their kin?"
"You know exactly why," Lilith scowled, but kept the cloak close to her freezing hands, "what are you trying to get at you-you… damn it all, I don't even know what to call you."
"We are known by many names," he draped the illusion of a cloak up and over her shoulders as well, so that winter's bite was kept at bay, "some, I have already told you of. Fatalis, God, the Ancestral Dragons… these are the titles humanity has given us, the humans that knew of us anyhow, but you are looking for a name are you not?"
She curled up in the ever-warm cloak, if only to keep the cold at bay, "So you don't really have an actual name, do you?"
"No," the beast brushed her off, "but we would appreciate it if you answered our question."
"Humanity under the rule of the…"
"False," He interrupted her, "this was not a conflict conducted under the Chief God, in truth, none of the gods besides Ares took part."
"That's not right," Lilith turned to him, baffled by his suggestion, "the Chief God spurs humanity for war. Humans will quarrel but they don't butcher each other like this."
He began marching further into the old battlefield, disregarding the tug on his cloak that came with Lilith's initial attempt to follow. They now stood at the center of what could only be called a graveyard. Men and small number of women were stacked in a grotesque pyre of flesh and charcoal. It was old, maybe a month or so, but the bodies were preserved from the winter winds.
He turned to her and presented the mass of ashes and corpses, "That man at the top is Markus Von Forts. He as well as Joshua Korse, the man lying dead in the ditch, came here to settle a family feud."
"And they killed each other," Lilith sighed, "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me… This has just been the most disgusting field trip I've ever been on."
"You were onto it earlier," he turned to her fully, "you do not understand the nature of man."
"I know mankind very well," she guffawed, "I've studied their history, their way of life, their biology, for the Chief God's sake I married a man and had over a hundred little girls!"
"No, no you do not," his expression fell, "you do not know humanity, because you have never experienced what humanity truly is. Mankind had been guided and culled for thousands upon thousands of years, your humans are little more than cattle for a long dead god, and they are none the wiser."
Shaken, Lilith pulled his cloak closer, "Then…"
"We are done here," he unfurled his cloak from around her, the cloth moving like an extension of his will rather than any article of clothing, "our curiosity is satisfied. I will bring you back to your domain."
In a blink of the eye, they were back in her observatory. He turned to her, and stated what should have been a question, "You are angry."
Seething Lilith made to berate the Fatalis for what he was about to do, but without so much as a flick of the wrist, she was silenced. Beyond furious, she began screaming at him with her thoughts. He didn't recoil as one might of or go pale in fear of the Demon Lord's wrath, but he did seem to understand her frustration. And with another blink they stood in the back allay of a tavern in what looked like a dingy village within Order territory.
The snow was present as before, but the warmth of the homes and bustling streets kept her from clinging to the beast's cloak. The village itself was well maintained; guard towers scattered from edge to edge keeping watch over the civilians, and the people went about their late-noon chores, some even heading for the tavern. Even the province nobility was joining in the daily activity; the father lead his family through the main square to occasionally pick out toys and trinkets whenever his children took interest.
It was the ideal village, a society in which she desired for her mamono daughters, and this creature under the guise of a man knew that. He turned to her and with but a point of the finger, she had taken the appearance of the average human woman. Her hair black and long, her eyes a soft green, and her clothing modest.
"This is your humanity," he said softly, making sure his voice didn't draw the attention of the peaceful villagers, "god-fearing, honest, and for the most part passive. They follow both the lies and the virtues of the church. They fear the monsters for what they were and what they are now."
"You're awfully kind to the Order," Lilith grumbled quietly, "you're a monster aren't you… Sheesh, don't you care about your children?"
He looked at her, truly perplexed by what she just said. Shaking off the shock, he moved on, "Humanity as I knew it, as the species before the Hunter's Guild, and the species before that were of an entirely different nature."
"Well of course they would be," she hooked her arm around his and began tugging him along, "anthropology is a fascinating subject. Even the smallest things will affect how human culture and development evolves over time."
"This is true…"
-0-
Their stay in this village went long into the night. The creature was keeping her there for a reason, Lilith knew that much, but she didn't know why. There were to be festivities, tonight was to be the beginning of the Order's Winter Festival. A celebration that was supposed to go on for a week or so. She had watched over one in her 'youth' but had never had the chance to partake.
The Fatalis kept her warm and somehow prevented her mana from affecting the humans. He, it, the beast, had silenced her magic before. She wondered if its magic could undo demonic corruption, perhaps even a god's blessing, but another part of her questioned how it could even do so to begin with. The mana or whatever it was that surrounded its claws was red. A distinctly unique shade: it was the disturbing crimson of Dragon.
As the sun began to set, the creature brought her higher and higher, until they found themselves perched atop a hill. They were alone, the snow beneath their feet melted in his presence. Both of their features shifting back into their original forms. The Fatalis's once loose white coat became leathery and stiff. Touching it alone stung her, but it wasn't hot and there were no barbs lining the freakish flesh. It was as if merely touching it would rip her hands to shreds.
"Why are we here?", She asked.
He pointed to the distant flames on the horizon, and said, "Those lights are from the torches of a bandit clan… a group who had not taken on the light of the Chief God, nor the other members of your pantheon."
"And they're heading for the village… aren't they?", Her expression fell.
"Not intentionally," he corrected, "they are pursuing a traitor. In this instance, a young man who had a change of heart. This young man once lived in this village, and now he is running home… away from the men he called friends."
"Can we stop these vandals," Lilith offered, "perhaps they'll see reason?"
The beast shook his head, "No, we… as in you and I only, will watch this event unfold. I know not the outcome… this will be a learning experience for the both of us."
"So, I'm just talking to just you right now," she blanked, "and what do you mean by 'you don't know?!' You told me you were all-knowing!"
He growled, his primal nature surfacing for the first time in many millennia, "I said I know all there is and has been, NOT that I am omniscient. Time is not as complex as you may think. It is but a single-tracked path progressing in an ever-constant march. I cannot know the future as it has yet to be written, dear Demon Lord."
His form changed once more. The hood atop his head fell into nothing as two pair of horns with tree like branches sprouted from the back of his temples and ears. His face shifted from androgynes to masculine, leathery skin became encompassed in glistening scales, and his became slitted like that of a dragon.
His appearance was frightening, perhaps even more so than the shapeless mask he normally wore. His expression was angry, fury etched its mark along his brow and jawline. It was as if purely existing in itself brought him rage, but as soon as he saw her apprehension of his new appearance, his usual calm returned in force.
"Forgive me," he asked in calm and gentle tone, "though I remember my nature true, it is not a sensation I am used too… Now sit, the bandits should arrive within the hour. There is no need to stand."
The beast fell into his spot uncaring for the wet dirt beneath him, despite his bodies continuing change. His tail grew out from his back, it was long and lined with razors, but it was thin and elegant despite itself. His robe separated into two massive wings; the webbing ran red with Dragon pumping veins. His chin and scalp grew dense with soft white fur that once collared his robe. All the while, his claws grew larger, closer to that of the mamono dragons, yet his overall size remained the same.
Taking a seat, a fair distance away from him, she said, "So we will watch this village confront these brutes, and then what."
"I can think of several different outcomes," he sighed, "many that demonstrate the true nature of man."
Lilith rolled her eyes, "And what would that be?"
"Industrious to a fault, steeped in avarice, and above all else," he pointed out to the villagers singing and dancing in the main square, "powerful."
"Powerful?"
He nodded, "Yes, powerful… very powerful in fact. The humans of your world are weak, not for their own weakness, but because the Chief God above saw this strength… and decided it was in need of quelling."
"So, it is true," Lilith grinned, "that baphomet was right!"
They waited there in comfortable silence, the beast entranced by the flames flickering in the village and the closing in torches in the outskirts of the territory. The Demon Lord watched the ceremony with interest, noting the differences between her last outing and the one before her now. Though as time went on, her thoughts began to wonder. Her attention eventually fell to the white dragon beside her.
She reached to nudge his shoulder, but thought better of it as an arc of red light pulsed out with her movement, "What do you think of humanity?"
He glances at her for a moment, before turning back to the sprites of flame, "They're dangerous."
"What do you mean?"
He let out a long breath, his shoulders falling slightly into his knees, before leaning back. He turned to her, his eyes distant and conflicted, "Perhaps I should simply tell you now, rather than wait for the humans to act for me."
He leaned forward and spoke with all seriousness, his voice void of emotional expression, "Humanity is responsible for the end of the original world order, the one they created themselves.", He paused upon noticing the Demon Lord edge closer, completely enthralled by his words, "Humans had functionally risen to the top of the food chain, they were completely and entirely unrivaled by even the Elder Dragons that once rivaled their incredible power."
"How?"
"The explanation is surprisingly simple," he grimaced, "their intelligence and their natural instinct to innovate and conquer lead them to becoming a worldwide power, and though they tended to war with one another, it never stopped the self-perpetuating machine that was Human Nature."
Lilith blanked, astonished, and utterly fascinated by what she was hearing, "And this was without guidance?"
"Yes," he answered, his expression turning dark, "gods, such as we the Fatalis, were not active in human development, nor did we interfere with their less than savorable acts. Humanity, without a guiding hand, is a truly unstoppable force… and you wonder why we find your Chief God's choice to restrict them so understandable."
"Well, I don't understand! I don't understand at all," Lilith furrowed her brow, "how could allowing humanity access to freewill be so much worse than shackling them? My humanity, when given the chance, has proven themselves capable of virtue beyond any monster, let alone the gods."
"You would be surprised by the horror humanity could unleash on the world," he smiled, a smile filled with malice and a sinister truth, "they can be monsters in their own right.", He dropped his uncanny grin to watch the ongoing conflict below, "Enough discussion for now… they're here."
The bandits had stormed the square, a little over three dozen men had enter the village. Most of the guards already laid dead in the streets, the civilians were huddled into the tavern, while the majority of the invaders searched the homes for their target. From above they could very easily see the man in question hiding from view. None of the civilian were dead yet, but if the fury in their leader's voice was anything to go by, they didn't have much time left.
"So, we're just going to sit here and watch this?", Lilith asked, though the tone of her voice spoke of her disapproval.
He lazily leaned onto his knee, and stated with uncaring flick, "You believe mankind to be virtuous, correct?", To which he received a nod, "Then by your ideal, these godless men will release the villagers for their inner goodness alone should stay their hand."
"I'm not stupid, nor naïve… White," she blurted out, "I know humans are capable of terrible things," she grew quiet as the raid target moved out from his hiding place, "but I know they're more then capable of virtue. That boy, the one you called a traitor, he's confronting them as we speak."
"And he's going to die because he decided to be brave," The Fatalis chuckled, "you should have stayed a coward young Oswald… Now you will die with the rest of your village."
Lilith rolled her eyes, "How are you so sure? He could save them."
"No, he cannot," He grumbled, a loose growl in his throat, "these men are here for his blood, not an apology. They will kill him, and after a moment to gloat, they will butcher his friends and family to their heart's content."
A loud bang drew their attention back to the village, the leader stood within a cloud of smoke with only the barrel of a flintlock rifle poking out from the smog, but the act itself was plain to see. The deserter laid dead on the ground, a hole puncturing his throat, and a pool of his own blood freezing in the snow around him. There was no talking, these bandits were here to kill him, not to find him and punish him for some past deed, but to wreak bloody vengeance. Her heart dropped into her stomach as the leader of these cruel humans turned to the frightened Orderites.
"We have to stop them!", Lilith jumped from her spot, but the beast was already ahead of her.
"I warned you already, dear Demon Lord," he leered, his form massive in size and radiating unnatural power, "we came here to watch this event unfold, not to interfere!"
"This isn't right," she pleaded, she moved to fly past him, but she found herself caught by the tail in a pair of red burning claws, "what are you doing?! You're a god aren't you, why would you abandon these people?!"
He threw her back into the snow, away from the ongoing violence. Lording over her, he proclaimed, "They are not my people, they are not my kin, the monsters are not my children, and I am under no obligation to enact my will upon anyone nor anything! We, the Fatalis, are nature personified! What you call unnatural, we call truth. What you call violence, we call order! What you call… cruelty, we call honesty! Life is cruel, unfair, and above all else monstrous, but it is the law in which the nature of all things exists!"
"Then what of them!", Lilith roared, her own inner most thoughts tearing at her to flee from the beast named god, "What of the Orderites, what of their nature?! Should they remain in the dark, should they be shackled by a hateful god's will, or should they be freed to enact their own will, their own nature?! What say you White, God of Monsters?!"
They stared each other down, god onto ruler onto god, they stayed there in the freezing snow silent as the dead and more resilient than steel. The screams of Orderites echoed in their ears as they were corralled and prepared for execution. The wafting scent of burning homes in the frosty night air only added to the tension between them. The beast, or White, as the Demon Lord had come to call him grew tired of her 'childish' ideals. Flicking out his claw, he pointed to the bandit leader with but a single clawed digit.
In a flash of red lightning with only the dull sound of displaced air following the smiting blow. The man was struck with such power that his body ceased to exist. The beast pointed to another, and then another, and then another, until the Orderites were the only ones left in the burning village. His wrath left them petrified for nothing remained of the bandits, not their ashes, and most certainly not their cries for help.
It was as if the Fatalis erased them from the fabric or reality, but the Demon Lord knew exactly what he did. Those men were vaporized, turned to nothing but dust in the wind, and this God of Monsters had done so with all the effort of lifting a finger. Though terrified, she brought herself to his level, wiped the snow from her wings and tail, before pulling the beast away from the humans' view.
"That's enough," she pleaded, "you've done enough."
Relaxing, his inner Dragon soothed, and he followed her deeper into the forest as the snow began to fall upon the disaster behind them. Tired and emotionally exhausted he gave her a weary grin, "Forgive me... I remembered my angered better than I believed I had."
Lilith remained quiet, dwelling on the act of murder, though she could hardly call it as such. Silently she brought him further out, until not even the light of the village fires was gone from sight and mind.
They came upon a lake, only mostly frozen over. There she released his arm, and settled with gently hovering in the air. Sighing she turned to him with a look of resignation, and said, "I understand now… you're right. Humans without guidance are dangerous… more dangerous than monsters could ever be, but you're still wrong about one thing."
"And what would that be?", His voice was calm, collected, closer to the way he carried himself before.
"Humans are far more complex than what you say they are," she smiled, "I believe-I know they are capable of great things."
"I never said they were evil," he added, with a soft smile of his own, "just that they were dangerous and easily corrupted. I have seen the rise and fall of humanity many times, in person and in memory. I am well aware of their nature's brighter sides. We simply wished to know exactly what you thought of their true character."
Lilith rubbed her shoulders as the chills began to set in, "Can you… can you take us back?"
He said nothing, but in the blink of an eye they were standing in her observatory once more. The only thing out of place was the note left on her desk. The handwriting was her husbands, but she knew it couldn't be important if he wasn't there to greet her. Falling into one of the many chairs scattered throughout the room she gave the Fatalis a lazy wave.
"Make yourself at home," she closed her eyes and began rubbing her temples in exhaustion, "today has been hellish on the senses for me."
"I don't think I will," he grumbled, "I have to return to my meditations. Cutting my link, if only momentarily, will prevent me from returning to my station."
Lilith looked to him in fear, "How long will that take?"
"Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years," he replied, idly standing in the center of the observatory, "enlightenment for one as distant from man as I can only be reached under prolonged detachment. As you have seen, my nature inspires rage with the presence of other living things, and focus can only come with time."
"So, you're stuck…"
"Yes, I suppose stuck would be the word befitting my predicament."
Dread struck across the Demon Lord's face. Pouncing before him, she bowed her head in shame, and pleaded, "Forgive me, I did not mean to steal these years from you."
"Nothing is to be forgiven," he chuckled, "it was a decision made by myself and my kin. Never mind that a single millennium is but a blink the eye for one as ancient as I… Though there is something concerning to me."
"What is it?", Lilith asked, wishing to keep good relations with this god among monsters, "If I can assist, you need only ask."
The ancient eyed her curiously, before leaning in with a smug grin, "Could you not have come up with a better name than White?"
AN: "It's still a monster it's head must be a weak point!" -The Commander : P
I have returned to America, land of the free. For what it's worth, Italy had some neat qualities to it, Venice had the nice art part, the sea food was good, and I liked the train system. As for everything else… pasta sucked, pizza was terrible, the spices were nonexistent. Just a major let down for food, and we nearly got runover multiple times because Italians can't drive for shit. Very polite conversationalist though, just wish they understood personal space when it comes to bathrooms.
Review Responses:
Shocknawe 425:
We'll see when it comes to Rathalos, I have some low-ranking monsters in mind to showcase for some first-time hunters.
gulag buster:
Don't really have the interest in reading too much. I have a lot on my table.
Nightwatch 7:
Glad I was able to fulfill a market, and you don't have to worry about this arc being short. I intended for the return home arc to only be like two chapters, but here we are, lol.
Guest 02:
Still mixed on whether or not to make Pluck and Lowen a couple or just platonic life partners. We'll see where that road takes us.
I would say there are plenty of stranger things than monster girls in MH, yeah. Though mind you these are Dundorma people, they've seen plenty of the Elder Dragons.
As for ye old man Kush Kush, I'll just add that he is more than a match for Dawn or pretty much any hunter. Plot-wise his place in MH4U had him fending off the Aces and the PC, which is a whole lot of bullshit for just one monster to handle.