Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

"Sene," Lilith uttered with a sharp deafening silence that had me still. "Do you trust me?"

"Is that really a question?" I asked, baffled by her inquiry.

"If so. Then don't ask or think about it. Simply follow what I do." She said, turning away with a stare I had never seen before. It was like staring into the eyes of a killer.

Lilith had figured out something but held her tongue. Why? Does she not —No. Why the Hell am I even thinking like that?

"Let it go," She murmured gently like a breeze in my ear, continuing with her work in silence.

'Kill Her.'

'Kill Her.'

Widening my eyes, I shuttered when all of a sudden my sight when to black and then red. Red with blood.

"Kill Her!" It whispered like a devil on my shoulder when a warm, soft liquid touched upon my feet, and there she laid.

"Lilith?!"

"Sene," Lilith suddenly called, touching my shoulder waking me up from what lay in my eyes.

"It's done." She uttered, staring intensely into me without a sound.

I touched my eye than hers. "W-w"

"Don't ask. Don't even tell me. Just trust me." Lilith warmly whispered, wrapping her arms around me. "Even in the other realm. Don't ask; just let me handle it all. If they cannot help, we head straight into the depts to find an answer. Ok."

Shuddering at the torment in her eyes, I helplessly nodded, finding myself lost in her arms. She was dead just a few seconds ago. I could feel the warm blood touching my feet, her very warmth leaving her body. I could feel it all.

"Send the signal Sene," Lilith said, suddenly grabbing my absent-minded attention.

Closing my eyes, my senses and will rush from the depths of my soul and into reality. "Let it rain," I uttered sharply in a low tone, yet it boomed like the crackles of thunder.

Wrapping her arms around me, space began to spin as we appeared within the same spot, but in a different space entirely surrounded by thousands of pillars of light that had appeared for but an instant.

They were warm, glowing with an azure hue; nevertheless, as these ethereal pillars of light began to fade into embers, a horrid power blinded my sight leaving only an intense heat that would never reach me.

The ground at my feet, the snow-white walls, and the ceiling all turned to dust in but an instant spreading like an everlasting web, leaving behind nothing more than ash and dirt. The thousands of lives that I had felt were fading without resistance as this wave etched out. The skies that were now visible were bleeding, torn to fragments leaving only an endless stream of ships past Alos's atmosphere. Yet, the only thing that seemed to enter my cognizance was the screams of despair and horror raining over this city.

It was beautiful, almost like a painting or a live movie filled with images that one would never see in real life. I could see the mindless eyes of a mother holding onto a small child's arm in her hand, but the child itself was gone. She was simply standing still with tears in her eyes, staring at the small tattered arm.

'Are we monsters?" Lilith suddenly asked, watching the same mother's head be torn away by an endless stream of worms that appeared from the void. I had not even noticed them. "This is madness."

I had wanted to smile, dismissing her concerns, but I actually felt terrible for the first time in my life. It wasn't enough to make a difference in me, or truly matter, but this was wrong.

The Hell is wrong with me? First strange voices now a conscious?

"I guess we are." I lightly responded, feeling our bodies return to normal space —smelling the soot and ash burning my nose and eyes. I turned to Lilith, whose eyes were touched with water. I did not know whether it was for the death before us or something else.

"The Teleport!" A man roared only to be met with a single ray of death blasting off his upper body.

Lilith and I made our presence small, watching out for any worms and death beams following the many gods and others who survive rushing towards the Hexagonal teleporter. Still, only more death seemed to follow as the starships in the space rained their destruction down without consequence.

Wiping the ash and soot from my face, I pulled Lilith a little ways from the teleporter. Now was not the time to enter. We needed them to figure something was wrong on the other side.

Taking cover the best we could, I gazed around at the sea of flames covering the city and the intense battle that was being waged just outside Alos's atmosphere.

"Tang Feng said to give you this." A voice from behind suddenly spoke, scaring Lilith and myself. Turing to see Talos and the other chosen all unconscious, I bitterly smiled, taking note of the small metal in his hand. "Our business here is done, right?"

"Yes, but are you not curious what might be coming out? or are your instincts screaming for you to leave?" I asked, noticing the stare that wished for nothing more than to end me.

"Another reason not to even use you, Arsene. No matter where you go, it seems to me like God's far stronger than anything I have seen will appear. The Angels themselves had not even come to the Bed of Chaos since the end of the War with Demons and Devils, yet for you. A new one is on its way."

Bitterly smiling, I shook my head, giving a light sigh, "So it seems. But with each torment, I gain something of higher value. The heavens are quite fair, don't you think?"

"Court of Nox! You stand in my Path!" A booming-aged voice resounded dryly with vigor, sending the realm into chaos.

"Shall we, Snow?" Lilith pulled. Gazing towards the teleporter, still burning with power. However, around the teleporter, a dense sea of Etherial Essence could be seen rising high from not just this teleporter but various areas around the city."

Taking the metal talisman from Talos, Lilith and I grew a tad solemn.

"Let's head to the Etherial Plane."