Photographic memory. It was one of the many gifts that the angels had granted for the first humans.
The ability to recall all that they do, think, and perceive was an ability that simply needed to be given to mankind, the angels thought.
As humans were to be the ones to give names to all of creation it was a natural line of thinking to gift them the ability to recall with absolute perfection. Afterall to give names, definition and purpose to each and every thing, living and nonliving, physical and nonphysical, the perceivable and abstract. To do such a task, many gifts were needed and photographic memory was one such gift.
And so from the moment of their creation, Adam, Lilith and later on Eve were born with many gifts alongside this ability.
From the very second of their birth till the present, they could recall every single thing with a mere whim.
The number of steps they took on a specific day, they could recall perfectly.
The way they moved their limbs in any particular moment, they could perfectly emulate again and again without fail.
The thoughts they had, the words they spouted out.
Each sentence uttered.
Each whisper,
Each noise made.
They recalled it with perfection.
To recall anything for the first of mankind was as natural as breathing and blinking.
…And yet. For the first time…in her long existence,
Lilith for the first time…had forgotten.
Lilith didn't know when it had started. When her memory, which was made to be perfect since her creation, became…less than perfect.
Memories of Eden.
Of her interactions with the paradise of her home.
Of the many creations she had helped name within it.
Even…even memories of Adam.
Slowly they became a blur.
The memories she could once recall with utter perfection were becoming harder and harder to recall.
All becoming a blur of emotion and faint memories.
Lilith thought she was being manipulated. That someone had struck her with…something to cause weakness in her.
Perhaps it was a curse.
Some magic she knew no defense against.
Someone meddled with her mind and such a thought angered her, but it was secondary to fixing herself with Lucifer's help.
…But it wasn't.
It wasn't what she thought.
There was no curse.
No magic affecting.
No third party trying to make her lesser.
Lesser than the perfect self she thought she was.
There was nothing wrong with her.
Nothing at all.
Centuries pass by in a blur.
Lilith's rage at her imperfection began to wane as time went on.
It was pointless, she thought.
With no one to blame. No one for her to let out the rage she felt at becoming lesser, she felt it was a waste of her time and energy to even stay angry.
She let her rage simmer down.
It took time, decades of it, but it finally became enough for her to function normally now.
She must be aging. If not in a physical sense but a mental one.
She had once thought aging to be one of the things she wouldn't worry about.
After running away with Lucifer.
After discarding her humanity.
She thought the weakness of humanity would no longer be apart of her existence.
But apparently she thought wrong.
Her mind was aging and there was nothing she could do.
There was nothing to be done. Nothing that could be done.
And so she left the matter of her aging memory at the back of her mind as she continued to rule her new kingdom alongside her husband.
It was less than perfect.
Definitely lesser than Earth but this Pit, this Scar on Creation was all they had left.
After some of the residents of this Pit were swiftly struck by Michael when the greedy scum surfaced on Earth to take it from Adam and Eve's descendants, such thoughts of gaining even a continent on Earth were gone.
Lilith was prideful and so was Lucifer but even they wouldn't dare anger the Seraphim of War so casually.
And so as she looked upon the wretched place she called her kingdom, she could only sigh.
There was plenty of work to be done.
As more time passed it became clear that her mind wasn't aging as much anymore.
No, rather it became clear that it wasn't aging at all anymore.
She could recall things with perfection.
From the number of steps she took in a day.
To the number of papers she had to go through, even down to each word she read from them.
Her memory was perfect again.
But as she quickly skimmed through her memory, more and more her head began to ache.
More and more did it become taxing on herself to even continue.
She endured it.
She trudged through the pain, determined to find…something?
She didn't know what she wanted to gain from this but she had to do it.
If at least to find out if she had gained her perfect memory again.
But as she skimmed more through her memories it all became the same again.
The same blur of emotions and faint memories.
A fog of uncertainty and unknowns.
And as she reached closer to the earliest times of her life, her mind blanked.
And so at memories of after 1000 years after her expulsion from Eden, Lilith could remember no more and blacked out in exhaustion.
Lilith was confused.
She didn't know what was preventing her from recalling Eden.
Why even after each attempt she made to recall, her attempts fall short at the same place.
1000 years after her expulsion from Eden.
That was the time in her memories that she could never recall.
Only faint memories were what she could recall.
Only a cloud of emotions she couldn't even begin to decipher why she felt them during those times.
She couldn't even remember what her first home looked like anymore.
And that hurt her more than anything.
Worse than any wound she gained from all the upstart hellborn and sinners that believed themselves strong enough to challenge her rule in Hell.
If Lilith was confused before, now she was utterly clueless.
Lilith had thought that asking Lucifer about this would solve things.
That maybe him recounting the events she couldn't recall would help her remember.
…But that wasn't the case…because Lucifer had also forgotten.
Lucifer had also felt his memories wane at the same time Lilith did.
That his angelic mind would ever be able not recall anything felt utterly alien.
For Lilith she had once thought it was remnants of her humanity plaguing her and causing her to age like all other humans did. But for Lucifer to be afflicted by the same thing had dumbfounded her.
Lilith asked why he didn't tell her. Why he kept it a secret as she tried her damndest to fix her own waning memories.
Lucifer could only weakly smile.
"I didn't want you to worry about me, especially when you were so…helpless in your own problems. I didn't want to add more to your worries."
A fool.
Her husband truly was a fool, Lilith thought.
She smiled before pulling Lucifer into a kiss.
No one could help them in Hell.
Not one of the Goetia knew of Eden and its aftermath. Any that would've known have already died from the constant infighting for ranks and titles, of wealth and power.
The Sins were of no help either, they were never involved in Eden nor with humanity at all during the earliest years. Even Leviathan, the one who had once lived in the Primordial Earth with mankind before her expulsion to Hell, didn't interact enough with humans to be of any help.
Not even Cain and the rest of the first sinners would help them. Even if they had the answers to their questions, why would they? They'd sooner cut their tongues off than help the monsters that harmed their parents.
It was honestly admirable, especially Cain. Even though he denounces himself as a son of Adam, he still cares for his father so much.
No one could help them. And so Lilith resigns herself to her plight.
Extermination day was over.
The streets of Pentagram City were littered in the corpses of sinners.
Their mangled bodies lying lifeless on the asphalt road as their innards spew out.
There were those that took the clothes and belongings of these corpses.
Those that took their flesh and ate them without care.
Even those that violated and desecrated the bodies in a haze of lust.
It was truly sickening to watch humanity's scum indulge in their vices.
Lilith shook her head and looked away from the windows of the Embassy. The table in front of her was filled with documents detailing the population sizes of each city and major area of the Pride ring as well as the estimated losses of each from the extermination.
Lilith never really saw why this was needed, especially when Heaven already knew how many sinners they killed. But she figured they simply wanted to be sure without a shadow of a doubt that the population size of sinners would never allow for another Overlord to grow too strong. Strong enough to break the barrier separating Hell from Earth.
And so her work began, comparing the documents and showing various proof that yes the documents were in fact true and not some fabrication on her part.
Her colleague was just as annoyed as she was. Despite the mask it was obvious to her that he also felt the uselessness of their work but neither could do anything about it.
And as their work continued, the same thing that always happens occurs.
It starts off with a small comment, a snide remark. A little taunt towards the other.
But it was always enough to spark a response. A retaliation from the other.
It didn't matter who started it, the end result was always the same.
Broken furniture, documents strewn about the room, and sometimes broken walls threatening to collapse the Embassy.
And throughout it all would be the screams from the both of them. Of anger and rage. Of insults towards the other. Of accusations of the others' faults and mistakes.
One would think they both hated each other from just this alone.
But that was the furthest from the truth.
Despite the insults.
Despite the accusations.
Despite all of the screams from both parties.
There was no heat from their words.
No true anger that fueled them.
Lilith had noticed it before. After each meeting that she had with Adam.
Back then his words were truly one of rage and anger. The heat from each word made it clear that Adam was furious and enraged at the very existence of Lilith.
Lilith wasn't the same, she couldn't remember Eden. Nor anything that occurred within it.
Why did she betray Adam?
Why did she want to hurt him?
Why did everyone in creation believe the two hated each other?
She couldn't remember. Couldn't understand why.
And so when she retaliated she only screamed out vague words and phrases. Vague accusations of her supposed reasons for why she also hates Adam. Of why she betrayed him.
Accusations of being treated without equality. Of being treated as lesser spewed out of her mouth even though she wasn't sure of how true or false they were.
Her words were empty, lacking any true anger. Afterall how could she be angry over what she didn't know?
It was a stark contrast to Adam's whose words burned to the touch.
But as each meeting passed.
After each extermination day that occurred.
She noticed Adam's words becoming…less heated.
His insults became less heated.
His accusations, no longer scalding.
His screams no longer holding any rage in them.
It was if he was not screaming from emotion and was simply shouting what he believed he should be shouting.
As Adam attempted to cleave her in two with his golden axe, her trident stopped its momentum, locking them both in a clash.
As she looked towards his broken mask, half his face peaking out, she could see his eye glaring at her and yet…she felt no rage, no anger that truly fueled his glare.
As they struggled against each other, their weapons locked against each other, Lilith couldn't help but wonder.
'Has Adam…also forgotten?'