Bab 3: I-3: The End of One War... Part 1

"I'm getting a whole battalion?"

It had been a couple of weeks since the Devils and Lilim had succeeded in closing the portal to Hell opened by the Angels, and driven them back to Heaven. Thanks to the efforts of Sirzechs, Serafall, Ajuka and Falbium, the Divine Dragon (a sub-species of Dragon with Holy capabilities, who seemed to be allied with Heaven) that had been sent to destroy as many Devils and Lilim as possible had been beaten back to whence it came. This, as well as the fact that there were no more Angels in Hell anymore (for the time being) meant that the battle had been hailed as an overall crushing victory for the Devils and Lilim, in spite of the casualties suffered during the battle.

Sirzechs himself was in his room at Zeoticus and Venelana's residence, soundly asleep on one of the rare days that he was at home, while his brother had received some... surprising news.

"This seems a little... fast." Sirzechs' 16-year-old little brother remarked, shifting slightly awkwardly on his feet. Zeoticus, who was sat down at the dining-room table and had been eating breakfast before Raylix had come downstairs, hungry for some morning sustenance.

"Well to be frank, Raylix," Zeoticus answered, taking a sip from a cup of tea that sat on the table in front of him. "I didn't have much choice in the matter. Many of the best higher-up commanding officers- both from us and the Lilim- died during the last battle you were involved in, and things haven't been getting much better since." he put down his cup of tea and rubbed his temple with one hand, sighing. "It's been decided that the Devils and Lilim that served under said higher-up commanding officers are being divided up and placed under the command of any surviving officers that have proven their worth enough." He leant back in his chair and looked over at Raylix. "You should be proud, Raylix. Really."

"I am, Father, I am!" Raylix replied. He realised, a second after he had said those words, that said words had probably come out a bit louder than he really intended to let them come out. However, Zeoticus showed no reaction to his younger son's raised voice, so he continued. "It's just... that isn't the only thing I'm feeling."

"And that's absolutely fine." Venelana's voice sounded from almost right behind Raylix. Surprised, Raylix jumped aside as his mother came into the room, clad in seemingly nothing but a light purple dressing gown, which strained against certain parts of her body. Venelana turned towards her younger son, seemingly completely ignoring the light blush that had formed on said younger son's face, and continued. "Raylix, those conflicted feelings you're having about this new responsibility? They're completely valid and expected. Honestly, I'd be more surprised if you didn't have those feelings at all, and were just ready to dive right into having several times more soldiers than you're used to under your command."

"Your mother's right, Raylix." Zeoticus replied, standing up and walking over to Venelana, delivering her a morning kiss when he got to her. "Any feelings of anxiety or worry that you might be having about this are a good marker that you, to be blunt, realise the possibility of failing miserably with the battalion that's being put together for you. I'm not going to beat around the bush with you, that IS a possibility, as it is with everything we do."

"I know..." Raylix mumbled, looking down at the ground for a few seconds before looking back at his parents.

"However, Raylix, I'm certain that you won't." Venelana spoke up, taking a couple of steps away from her husband and towards Raylix, smiling as he looked up at her (while doing his best to keep his eyes away from her exceptionally pronounced and lovely-looking breasts...) "Your father is, too."

"I am." Zeoticus replied, stepping forward as well. "And I've got some advice for you too, Raylix. In regards to what you're feeling. All the worry, anxiousness, fear?"

Raylix nodded.

"Don't forget those feelings." Zeoticus continued. "Or at least, don't forget the possibilities that cause those feelings. Your desire to avoid those possibilities will help drive your decision-making within the heat of battle, and guide you and those under your command to victory... or at least, survival to fight for another victory another day. Understand, son?"

"I... think so." Raylix replied, a small smile coming across his features. "Thanks, Father."

"No problem." Zeoticus replied, leaning forward and wrapping his arms around his younger son, pulling him into a hug. "Feel better, now?"

"Mmhmm." Raylix hummed, nodding.

"Good." Zeoticus answered, pulling back from the hug that he started after a few seconds. "Now, let's get you some breakfast, since I'm sure that's what you came down here to get, right?"

Raylix nodded again, with Zeoticus retreating to begin putting together a simple morning meal for his younger son.

"Well, with that out of the way, Raylix," Venelana spoke, sitting down in a chair next to the one that Zeoticus had been previously sat down in. "You know you're going to need some Devils or Lilim to help you with commanding your new battalion, right? Do you have anyone in mind?"

Raylix nodded, yet again.

"Yeah, he remarked, pulling up another chair and sitting down in it. "I... think I've got a couple of Devils in mind to help me.

"Good." Venelana replied, extending her hand towards the counter that Zeoticus was working at, and putting together two cups of tea from across the room before teleporting both back to her and Raylix, and giving one of the cups to Raylix before drinking from the one she had given to herself, smiling as Raylix thanked her before taking a couple of gulps himself.

The smell of Zeoticus' cooking then began to slowly permeate the kitchen/dining room as Raylix's father continued putting the breakfast meal together for Raylix. Not even ten minutes later, Zeoticus had finished making Raylix his breakfast, and served it to him before sitting back down, smiling as Raylix tucked in and hummed, clearly enjoying the meal.

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1519

For the first time in quite a long time, unquestionably good news was passing throughout the Underworld, among the Devils and Lilim.

One of the best things to happen (from the Devils' and Lilim's point of view) had come to pass: in the aftermath of a particularly awful attempt to assault Gid, the capital city of the Underworld, the Fallen Angels had been beaten all the way back to their territory within the Underworld, and were forced to surrender to the Devils. After their embarrassing defeat against the combined forces of the Devils and Lilim, Azazel had capitulated and sued for an end to direct hostilities with the dominant races of the Underworld, which Lucifer had agreed to. Soon after, the Fallen Angels had agreed to end direct hostilities with their unfallen brethren, effectively withdrawing from the war.

The news that the Devils and Lilim were no longer fighting a war against two separate enemies anymore was, understandably, a cause for jubilation among the two races. With very few exceptions, many Devils and Lilim had retreated from the front lines, and were simply enjoying the fact that, rather than two, they only had one foe left to fight: Heaven.

Raylix, Sabemka and Tomosei were among the many Devils and Lilim that were out enjoying themselves. Raylix, now 33 years old but still not physically a day older than 20 due to the way that Devils physically aged, reached behind himself to scratch an itch that had formed on his ass as he lay on the ground, with Sabemka and Tomosei (the two individuals that Raylix had chosen as his co-commanders within the battalion that he had been formed for him 17 years ago) lying beside him. Raylix and Sabemka were talking to each other while Tomosei had a book in her hand, and read through it while providing her own occasional contributions to the conversation.

"You ever considered further incorporating kicks into your fighting style, Sabemka?" Raylix asked, looking over at his friend and fellow commander.

"Not really, no." Sabemka replied, looking down at his own feet before looking over at Raylix for a second, and then re-focusing his gaze on the dark purple Underworld sky that glistened above them every day. "Why?"

"Just something I thought of, really." Raylix remarked, sitting up. "It's something that I think would work pretty well for you, considering how strong you are with your fists. Both from a strength and from a skill-based point of view, of course."

"You think so?" Sabemka sat up as well, a rather thoughtful expression on his face as he looked down at his legs again. "It'd take a lot of training to learn to fight as naturally with my feet as well as I do as with my hands. Never mind learning to use both at the same time."

"You're not THAT limited in the brain department, Emka, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out." Tomosei replied, her eyes flicking over to Sabemka as he got to his feet. "Plus, kicks are far stronger than punches, so with your already-considerable strength, you'd be able to take out Angels way easier with kicks than with punches."

"Don't I already take out Angels and Fallen Angels easily enough with my fists, though?" Sabemka asked, curling his hands into fists before throwing a couple of punches at an imaginary opponent (presumably an Angel) before following up with a spinning kick. However, due to not being used to carrying out such an attack, he stumbled, almost losing balance in the aftermath of his kick.

"Exactly." Tomosei replied, holding back a giggle at her friend's almost-failure to keep himself upright, as Raylix got to his feet.

"Come on, Emka, no time to start like now." Raylix spoke, holding out a hand that Sabemka took after a couple of seconds, allowing the younger Devil to pull him to his feet. "Maybe don't try anything too fancy at first, just some kicks. Maybe a small kick-combo or two. And please try not to kick my head off."

Sabemka let out a chuckle as he got into an attacking stance, and walked slowly towards Raylix.

"Got it, got it." he replied. "Here I come!"

Sabemka then broke into a run towards Raylix and, once close enough, span around to build up momentum then swung a heavy kick at Raylix's side. Seeing the attack coming, Raylix raised a hand up to where Sabemka's foot was coming at and formed a barrier out of his demonic power to block the kick. The barrier held up against Sabemka's kick without breaking or taking any kind of major damage, but the force of the kick was still enough to send Raylix skidding to his left (as the kick came at him from the right), coming to a stop around the time that Sabemka landed back on the ground.

Raylix was fast enough to both dispel the barrier to his right before pulling up another barrier in front of him as Sabemka came at him from the front, swinging a kick at his lower left leg. Raylix had to quickly move the barrier to his left side to block Sabemka's kick, and then jump up into the air just as leg met barrier. Using his eight Devil wings to gain extra airtime and fly over Sabemka's head, he landed on the other side of his friend's body just in time to see another spinning kick coming at his head.

Raylix wasn't quick enough to pull up another barrier, with the speed that Sabemka's foot was coming at his head and how close it already was to him, so he elected to move his hand up to directly catch the foot flying at him. However, though Raylix was definitely physically strong, he wasn't strong enough to completely stop Sabemka's foot from crashing into his head and sending him stumbling, same as Sabemka had done moments before. Though thanks to Raylix having caught Sabemka's foot as he kicked his head, it didn't hurt as much as it could have.

"Heh, not bad." Raylix remarked, stretching a little bit and getting himself into a defensive stance again as Sabemka approached, smiling with the satisfaction that came with succeeding as he walked towards him again. "Don't stop now!" Raylix cried, giving a 'come on!' gesture as Sabemka broke into another run. Raylix fired a bolt of demonic energy at his running friend, which Sabemka easily dodged before diving at Raylix, bodily grabbing him around the waist as he did so.

Holding Raylix by his shirt with one hand was easy enough for Sabemka, allowing him to punch Raylix in the face a couple of times to daze him slightly, before he flung his friend and commander up into the air. Spreading his four Devil wings, Sabemka jumped after Raylix and performed two quick mid-air kicks, one after the other, keeping Raylix stunned as the pair of them dropped to the ground. Before Raylix could right himself, Sabemka had dashed towards him yet again, and after building up momentum with a quick couple of spins, launched into a series of spinning kicks that all landed on or around Raylix's face and upper body as Sabemka moved up into the air, practically carrying Raylix with him via his kick-combo, which ended with a powerful axe-kick that sent Raylix down to the ground again.

"Urrrgh..." Raylix moaned, as Sabemka landed beside him. He picked himself up off the ground and gingerly touched his face, wincing slightly as he already felt it beginning to bruise. "Uh, Tomo?"

"Hm?" Tomosei looked up, and let out a small snort through her nose at the sight of Raylix's messed-up face. "Alright, alright." she spoke, by way of answer, as she summoned her staff to her with a wave of her hand. She focused some healing magic through one end of the staff towards Raylix and his face, which Raylix felt the effects of almost instantly. Even with his hand on the seconds-old bruise on his face, he could feel it going down just as quickly as it had come up, back to the point that it was good as new.

Raylix opened his mouth to thank her, but a magic-circle appeared by his ear before he could even start, indicating that he had a call. Zeoticus and Venelana's younger son touched the circle on his ear, answering the call.

"Hello? …Huh. …Seriously, now? …Right. I'll be right there. See you."

"What's up?" Tomosei asked, standing up and sending her book through a transportation-circle via a wave of her hand. "Who was calling?"

"Mother." Raylix replied, opening a transportation-circle of his own. "Turns out that Lucifer's called every available Devil, Incubus and Succubus to his and Lilith's castle in Gid, right now."

"Wait, right now?" Sabemka asked, widening his eyes as Raylix took a step towards the transportation-circle. Raylix looked back at his friend, his foot raised to take the next step, through the transportation-circle to Gid.

"Yea, right now." he replied. "I don't think I stuttered, Emka." He then turned around and stepped through the transportation-circle, with Tomosei following him. Sabemka, after a second or two, brought up the rear, with the transportation-circle closing behind him.

The three Devils seamlessly stepped into Hell's capital city, with Sabemka almost being crashed into by a flying Incubus. The streets and sky were both so filled with Devils and Lilim, all making a beeline for Lucifer and Lilith's castle. The centrepiece of Gid, that could be seen from just about anywhere in the city, was twenty-five stories tall, and was (understandably) the absolute most-guarded place in all of Hell, thanks to it technically having two layers of protection (those being Gid itself, which had its own guarding force, and the dedicated guarding force surrounding the castle).

And many, many, MANY Devils and Lilim (Raylix didn't have a snowball's chance of counting them all. There were far too many to count) were making a beeline for the castle, for whatever Lucifer wanted to tell them all. It had to have been some important shit, if it warranted summoning every available Devil, Incubus and Succubus that there was.

"Sir!" Raylix heard a different male voice calling out, and turned around to see the thousand-or-so soldiers within the battalion that he had been leading for nearly two decades all approaching him. A mixture of Devils, Incubi and Succubi, some had served under Raylix for longer than others, but after so many battles together, they all trusted their commander and his two co-commanders absolutely. All thousand-or-so Devils and Lilim saluted Raylix as he, Sabemka and Tomosei rose up to meet them.

"Hey, all." Raylix greeted the group at large. "Before you ask," he continued, raising his voice both naturally and with magic. "I don't know what we're being called here for, so don't bother asking me. I'm sure we'll be eventually told, though."

"Yes, sir!" all thousand-or-so soldiers replied, in unison. Raylix, Sabemka and Tomosei rose up, above most of the sea of Devils and Lilim that swarmed throughout Gid, with the others of their battalion following dutifully behind them.

"This is a weird first trip to Gid." Tomosei remarked, looking down at everyone from where she floated on her four wings. "Is it usually this crowded?"

"Not as far as I know, no." Raylix replied. "I haven't been here either, not since I was really little. I was also born here, but I don't remember that."

"Yea, no shit." Tomosei retorted, rolling her eyes slightly as she looked down on the castle and its grounds. "But still, damn."

A silence suddenly fell over every being, Devil or Lilim, in the area as the doors to Lucifer and Lilith's castle opened. A couple of seconds later, enormous magical projections of the castle's two owners appeared above the castle, so no matter where among the crowd any Devil, Incubus or Succubus stood or floated, they could clearly see their almighty King and Queen.

Lucifer, the First Devil, looked to be a middle-aged man. If one were to judge his physical appearance by human standards, it wouldn't be inaccurate to judge that he was in his late-thirties, potentially early-forties. He possessed chin-length silver hair, dark hazel eyes that bored through everything that he looked at, and light stubble on his face. He also had several faded scars over his head and face, with the most outstanding one being a deep-looking long wound that came literal millimetres away from his left eye. Lucifer was also dressed in ornate white and silver armour, from head-to-foot, with a dark silver cape on his back. His already-regal appearance was completed by the FOURTEEN Devil wings spread from his back, a league of power that no Devil, sans Lucifer himself, had ever achieved.

Lilith, the First Succubus and Lucifer's wife, was a woman of... damn near incomprehensible beauty, in Raylix's eyes. Looking around the same age as Lucifer, she possessed sleek hair, as black as everlasting darkness, that travelled down to back-length like a cascading ebony waterfall. She also possessed bangs that ran along either side of her perfectly unblemished and pale face, with the left bang partially covering her left eye. It, as well as Lilith's other eye, was a deep dark red, deeper and darker than even the crimson hair that most Devils from Gremory's bloodline possessed. Lilith was clad in a long dress that went down to her feet: it was jet-black in colour, further contrasting with her pale skin, and parts of it looked to be straining to keep her hips and bust contained. Her bust in particular, with her chest being the stuff of LEGEND among Devils and Lilim alike for being the largest in the Underworld, and potentially the largest out of any female being in any of the many supernatural worlds. Six heart-ended tails protruded from Lilith's lower back, indicating that her power was in the same league as twelve-winged Devils, Fallen Angels and Angels.

Overall, it was safe to say that Lilith WHOLLY lived up to her (apparently self-proclaimed) title as the most beautiful woman there was, as far as Raylix was concerned.

Raylix could feel his face warming up significantly, the more he looked at Lilith. Something that Tomosei was the first to notice, prompting a short giggle out of his female co-commander.

"Awww~" she cooed. "Raylix has a crush on the Queen of Hell~"

"Sh-shut up!" Raylix stammered, in a very poor attempt at denying Tomosei's teasing. "I don't!"

Sabemka just let out a short chuckle, while Tomosei simply smirked. They, along with every Devil, Incubus or Succubus in the area, fell silent, however, when Lucifer (as well as the large magical projection of him) raised a sand, non-verbally calling for silence among his subjects. It took about half a minute for the absolute silence that the King of the Devils seemingly wanted came, at which point...

"Many of you are surely wondering why you have been summoned here on this day..." he began. "I am obviously aware of the celebratory atmosphere that currently runs throughout this realm, as well as the reasons for it. For those... not aware," he continued, the slightest of sneers appearing on his face as he gazed down upon the Devils and Lilim stood before him. "The crows and ravens that invaded our realm so long ago... have chosen to completely withdraw from the ongoing war."

A couple of dozen meters or so below Raylix's location, and a few hundred meters closer to Lucifer and Lilith, a group of male Devils burst out into cheers, either out of jubilation at the good news or sheer patriotic fervour. Whatever their reason was for interrupting him, Lucifer raised one hand and fired several bolts of pure darkness at the offending Devils without missing a beat. The bolts of energy that he fired out were those of the Primordial Power of Darkness: the power that Lucifer and his bloodline were born with, said to be the original darkness that existed before everything, even the concept of time. As such, it was an extraordinarily powerful ability, probably the most powerful out of any of the unique demonic powers.

The bolts of darkness that Lucifer fired struck the Devils that interrupted him, with the Devils in question having no time to process what had happened to them before they were simply... erased. One second, they were there amongst the crowd, cheering at the words of their progenitor, King, and the closest thing that Devils really had to any kind of God-figure. The next, they were gone, simply removed from existence by that very same progenitor.

"We no longer fight this war against two separate enemies," Lucifer continued, his voice carrying the exact same tone as before, as if he HADN'T just erased a few of his own kind from existence with millions of witnesses, in broad daylight. "But against a single force: Heaven, the Angels, Yahweh, whatever creatures that they create to stand against us. The news that I just passed onto you all will doubtlessly have reached them as well, potentially faster than it reached us."

The absolute silence that Lucifer desired was preserved this time. Everyone had gotten the message from the last time that someone had interrupted the First Devil: that if someone interrupted him while he spoke, it would be the last thing that they ever did.

"This hardly means, however," Lucifer resumed, his voice beginning to rise in volume. "That Heaven and the Angels will slow down in their attempts to destroy us, no. In fact, they will further their efforts to wipe us from the world in their advantage, of this I am absolutely certain!"

Lucifer's voice, already magically amplified, now practically rang in Raylix's ears as he kept going, working himself further and further up. In spite of their silence, the crowd also felt themselves getting worked up by their King's words.

"And that is why-" Lucifer was close to shouting at this point. "Instead of waiting for the Angels to strike first, as we have done so many times, we will be the ones that strike first! We will take the fight to them, in their home realm! AND YOU WILL JOIN ME, MY FELLOW HELLSPAWN-" Lucifer really WAS shouting, at this point. "IN WIPING THE ANGELIC SCUM FROM THIS WORLD, FROM ALL WORLDS, AS WE HAVE BEEN DOING SINCE THE ONSET OF THIS WAR!"

Lucifer turned around, and the metaphorical dam broke. Gid erupted in a cacophony of roars, cheers and screams among the Devils and Lilim: some in praise of their progenitor, others out of a wish for Angelic blood, and other just being general battle-cries. Even though he didn't show it through any roars, cheers or screams like many, MANY other Devils or Lilim (including Sabemka, as a matter of fact), Raylix felt himself taken in by Lucifer's speech. Even he was wrapped up in the desire shared by literally every Devil, Incubus or Succubus for miles around: to wreck Heaven and kill as many Angels as they could.

Lucifer raised his hand before swinging it in a wide arc in front of him, opening dozens of dark portals similar to the Angelic portal that Raylix remembered fighting in the battle to close nearly two decades ago. Through the dark portals that Lucifer had just opened, Raylix could see what he presumed to be Heaven, home of the Angels and of Yahweh, also known as the God of the Christian Bible.

The young Devil's heart began to race as he pulled out his trusty sword-hilt, turning it on and projecting a blade of the Power of Destruction, in preparation for the battle to come. All survivors of this battle, as well as future generations, would remember it as the First Battle of Heaven, the biggest battle of the Great War.

"CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!" Lucifer practically screamed to all his subjects behind him. Said subjects obeyed their King's command and rushed forward, either on foot or through the air, towards the portals that would take them to their next battle. Raylix, Sabemka, Tomosei and their battalion of Devils and Lilim found themselves flying through one of the top-left portals, leaving Hell and entering Heaven.

The first thing that Raylix saw as he went through the portal were the famous pearly gates of Heaven, guarded by a few dozen Angels, who ranged from four-winged to eight-winged in terms of power. At the sight of such an overwhelming number of Devils and Lilim approaching them out of dozens of dark portals, none of them could be blamed in the slightest for freezing up in shock and fear. That didn't stop the Devils and Lilim approaching them from opening fire, both on the Angels and on the gates that served as Heaven's only real protection from invasion. Raylix was one of the lucky few among the enormous force that was able to kill one of the guarding Angels, with the projected blade of his mother's power.

The gates were smashed through immediately, by a combination of blasts of demonic energy and Devils/Lilim bodily flying/running into it, with Raylix being one of the first Devils to enter the absolutely vast space that those affiliated with the realm dubbed 'First Heaven'. It (like the rest of Heaven, Raylix presumed) was bright: far brighter than the Underworld and its dark purple sky, almost dazzlingly so. Aside from the brightness, First Heaven looked like a city of sorts, with there being many tall building-like structures and streets below, with the ground and air practically crawling with Angels. However, it was easy to note that there weren't nearly as many Angels as there were Devils and Lilim storming into their realm.

The Angels who were quicker on the uptake than their white-winged brethren took up arms almost instantly upon seeing Devils and Lilim trespassing on their home: readying weapons of light of all kinds before engaging the invading Devils/Lilim. The Devils/Lilim, quite obviously, returned fire, truly beginning the battle for real.

Raylix had to roll over in mid-air as he flew in order to dodge a particularly large light-spear thrown by a six-winged male Angel. The beginnings of a scream of pain, which quickly faded away, told him that the spear had made its mark and killed one of his fellow hellspawn without him even needing to look behind himself to check... not that he'd have even been able to identify which Devil or Lilim, among a potential million others, was now gone from this world. Switching out his Power of Destruction-blade for a blade of the element of darkness, Raylix flew at the offending Angel and slashed at his stomach, carving a deep gash into said stomach and eliciting a scream of agony from the Angel in question.

The Angel clutched at his gashed stomach with one hand while giving Raylix a look of mixed pain and anger, summoning a light-spear to stab him to death from close-range, but a magical bolt of lightning streaked past Raylix and struck the Angel. It was enough to fry the Angel as well as the robes he wore, causing him to drop like a stone, as dead as he was naked.

"Got your back, Raylix!" Tomosei called, raising a barrier to briefly defend herself and Raylix from a volley of light-spears, thrown by a particularly pissed off-looking female Angel. The next light-spear that she threw ended up cracking the barrier that Tomosei had formed a few seconds ago, at which she flew forward, a manic grin on her face at the thought of dispensing Holy justice on the Devil who'd killed her... brother? Son? Husband? Father? Who knew?

Regardless, as Raylix noticed the pissed-off female Angel before Tomosei, he acted first. His eyes glowed an intense crimson red for half a second, before concentrated beams of the Power of Destruction left his eyes, rushing towards the female Angel that flew at him and Tomosei as fast as a bullet. The destructive lasers missed the female Angel at first, but a quick movement of Raylix's head was all that it took to horizontally bisect the female Angel, stopping her in her tracks and causing her to instantly fall... literally, not metaphorically. She dropped like a stone, just like so many flying enemies that Raylix had destroyed over the nearly-two decades that he'd been fighting for, before falling out of sight with blood, guts and viscera dropping out of both halves of what was now her corpse.

"I've got yours, too!" Raylix called out in reply, earning himself a quick thumbs-up from Tomosei before she twisted around in mid-air and used her staff to block a light-sword from another female Angel. In spite of her middling physical prowess, especially in comparison to Raylix and Sabemka, she was able to hold her own in such a clash of strength for long enough to allow Sabemka to come flying over and crush the top half of the sword-wielding Angel's head with his fists.

Sabemka didn't even allow the Angel he'd just killed to drop several hundred feet to the ground below before grabbing her by her robes and using her corpse as a shield against a couple of other Angels that were simultaneously brave and foolish enough to approach the three Devils. Tomosei used the few seconds of relative safety this action brought her to charge up a powerful fire-attack, and point it at the two Angels, who had now decided that they didn't like their fellow daughter of God being used as a meat-shield by the enemy, and summoned light-spears to throw at said enemy. However, at the last second, Tomosei pointed her staff towards Raylix, who had a pair of Amalgamation-holes held open: one empty, one filled with the darkness-element that he was so proficient in controlling.

Raylix easily caught Tomosei's fired fire-attack with the empty Amalgamation-hole, fusing it with the darkness-filled hole in the next instant and unleashing the result in a devastating wave of dark fire that burned the Angels that were about to attack Sabemka. So hot and so devastating were the dark flames that Raylix had formed out of Amalgamation, and let loose on the Angels, that there was literally nothing left of either of them once the flames had fully passed over them.

While Sabemka dropped the female Angel's corpse, not having much of a use for it anymore, Raylix kept his eyes on the area that the two other Angels used to occupy for a couple of seconds, mentally acknowledging how calm he was in the aftermath of such brutal death. He thought back, for an instant, to the uneasy feeling in his stomach that he'd gotten at his first kill, seeing the body of that Fallen Angel dropping lifelessly to the ground, their life snuffed out as quickly as it would take one to snap their fingers. He remembered how he'd paused after his first kill, in addition to that uneasy, unpleasant feeling: how he'd steadily reacted less and less, both inside and out, with each passing kill that he'd racked up throughout the war.

Raylix's inner musings about whether or not that was a good thing were interrupted as a light-spear came millimetres away from his face. He felt the light-spear passing by his face, and shivered at the feeling of pure light so close to his demonic flesh. Growling, he looked up towards the Angel who had thrown the spear in question and refocused his destructive eye-beams in his direction, piercing his chest with the crimson lasers before flicking his head upwards. The lasers travelled through the Angel's head in conjunction with Raylix's head-movements, destroying his head in an exceptionally gory way: blood, bone and bits of brain dropped out of either side of the three pieces of the Angel's head as he dropped, while Raylix flew another hundred feet or so into the air to survey the battle going on.

The ground was absolutely littered with the bodies of Devils, Lilim and Angels, to the point that it wouldn't be inaccurate to call the ground more covered in corpses than not. As their comrades dropped like flies around them, Devils, Lilim and Angels all exchanged attacks, physical and magical, with each other. It was hard to tell from a glance who was suffering larger casualties throughout the battle, but it was easy to tell that the Devils and Lilim were likely not going to be able to come out on top in such a battle, with many Angels arriving to join their fellow children of Yahweh, either through transportation-circles or just appearing out of crosses of light.

"RAYLIX!" Raylix heard Tomosei's voice yelling for him from below, as she and Sabemka flew up to the point that they were on a level with him, followed by the Devil and Lilim soldiers of Raylix's battalion (or rather, those who hadn't been killed yet). "Here you are!"

"What's up?" Raylix asked, performing his destructive eye-beam attack on a couple more Angels that got too close, and turning back to Tomosei as said Angels slowly fell down, unable to keep flying with where Raylix had hit them with his lasers.

"We've been given the order to assist in stopping the reinforcement-Angels from getting into First Heaven!" Sabemka explained, before turning to Tomosei and Raylix. "So, I guess that means we go over there..." he gestured to the general area that the new Angels were arriving from "and kill all the white-winged bastards before they make it here?"

"That about sums it up, yeah." Tomosei replied. "Raylix, on your orders."

"Alright." Raylix replied, adjusting his grip on the sword in his hand before pointing it at the area that the reinforcement-Angels were coming from. "Let's go, all!" he yelled, readying to fly over there himself. "For Hell!"

"FOR HELL!" the hundreds of soldiers of Raylix's battalion shouted in unison, as they all charged towards the area of First Heaven that the Angels were pouring in from, preparing all manner of magical attacks to fire upon any more of them that showed themselves within that area. As light of differing shapes, sizes and power levels rushed by Raylix, with him dodging around, above and under all that came his way, he couldn't stop himself from smirking in satisfaction as he knew the soldiers of his battalion did the same.

Ever since a particularly disastrous failure against the Fallen Angels within Andras' territory, which he, Sabemka, Tomosei and only a couple of demonic soldiers within his company had managed to escape from, Raylix had drilled it into any soldier that came under him that the best tool one could have when it came to not dying in battle was good movement, and thus trained himself and all of his soldiers in advanced flying techniques, to the point that any soldier serving under him could pull any such technique off, on the fly and in the heat of battle.

The fruits of such training were showing now, with Raylix dispelling his Devil wings to drop just underneath a bolt of light aimed at his head, bringing them back half a second later to keep flying forward. As he saw three more light-spears heading his way, one set dead-on course for him, the second looking like it was going to fly over his head and the third looking like it was going to fly under him, he angled his body to lower himself below the first spear, allowed the second spear to fly right over him and held out his hand, using an Amalgamation-hole to catch the third light-spear, the light of which he combined with his Power of Destruction and sent right back at the Angel who had flung it at him in the first place. As the Holy Destruction-beam struck the Angel in the stomach, blowing it out and causing a scream of mixed shock and agony to come from said Angel, Raylix only took a second to imagine how ironic it was that a Holy being was almost killed by their own element before a bolt of magical lightning from one of the Devils in his battalion struck the Angel and finished them off.

"Raylix!" Tomosei called. "Squad of Angels coming at us, from the right!"

"I see them!" Raylix replied, after a quick glance to the right. He twisted himself in mid-air towards the oncoming Angels, and raised his hand. "You all know what to do!" he called to his battalion at large, summoning a large ball of the Power of Destruction and firing it out of his raised hand at the squad of enemies. At the sight of such a power flying their way, which had been made infamous among Angels and Fallen Angels alike by Bael and his descendants, particularly Venelana and Sirzechs, the Angel squad that had been approaching Raylix and his battalion instantly flew out of the way, giving the large ball of Destruction a wide berth as they all readied light-attacks of all kinds, ready to tear Raylix's battalion apart.

However, before they could throw their weapons of light towards Raylix and his battalion, half of the soldiers of said battalion, led by Sabemka, flew forward at speed. Protected by a layered magical shield cast by Raylix and Tomosei, the company within Raylix's battalion that Sabemka was now leading charged right into the group of Angels, outright killing a few Angels amongst the squad from the sheer speed and force and forcing the others to scatter. As the other Angels scattered, the other company within Raylix's battalion, led by Tomosei, quickly surrounded the scattering Angels and began pelting them all with magical attacks from all angles, making it so difficult to escape from them that none did... sans one.

One heavily-injured eight-winged female Angel had survived both the charge and bombardment, but she was only able to think about her newfound freedom and what she would do with it for all of two seconds before Raylix, who had been floating a few meters away, finished her off with a point-blank shot of his Power of Destruction in her face.

"Alright, we're almost there!" Raylix called, as those in his battalion turned around and reformed into similar positions to those that they were in before the squad of Angels had attacked. "Just another hard push, and then- LOOK OUT!"

A barrage of bullets of intense light were flung down out of Heaven's general light, towards Raylix and his battalion. The yell from Raylix, who had noticed the attack coming before everyone else, was enough to alert them to the attack's presence as well. However, even as everyone began flying out of the way of the oncoming barrage, Raylix was certain that he would be losing some of his loyal soldiers, at the very least. But he couldn't focus on that right now: all he could focus on was getting out of the way of the light that quickly approached him, in hopes that he wouldn't end up becoming one of the many, MANY Devils that would fall in the First Battle of Heaven.

Luckily, Raylix managed to get out of the way of the barrage of light-bullets, and looked back at the soldiers of his battalion as they made their attempts to fly out. His eyes widened as he saw many, easily more than half, of his flying soldiers being hit by the light-bullets: once one pierced their skin, it was enough of an understandable distraction that more soon followed, which was enough to end them. Out of the thousand-or-so Devils and Lilim that had been serving under Raylix at the start of the battle, only around 400, if he had to guess, survived the barrage. Luckily, both Sabemka and Tomosei were among those approximately-400.

"Devils, Incubi, Succubi," A powerful-sounding voice from above sounded. "Shocking inversions of our Lord's holy children. Your presence in this realm is an affront against all things great and good."

"Huh?" Raylix looked up, adjusting his grip on his sword again as the Angel who'd addressed them slowly descended... on TEN Angelic wings.

A Seraph, one of the particularly powerful Angels who served as guardians of Yahweh and Asherah's heavenly thrones. There were many Seraphs- 25, as far as Raylix was aware- and if he wasn't wrong, the one in front of him was known as... Selaphiel.

Selaphiel, like most Angels, wore simple white-coloured vestments in the style that you'd expect a priest to be wearing. She had a reasonably voluptuous form, but it had nothing on the bodies of certain female hellspawn like Serafall, Venelana or Hell-forbid, Lilith. Her hair was a light brown and rather curly, with it going down to her shoulders and framing her face, green eyes and all.

"I refer to the fact that all your species originate from us, the Angels, in a way." Selaphiel continued. "The most powerful Angel, God's own right hand, who tore out his blessed light and turned to darkness, birthing the Devils. And, after tempting and corrupting another of God's creations away from redemption, going on to fashion the Lilim with her help. I cannot stand seeing such vile, impure imitations of us, humble servants of our Lord, and for this you must all-"

Selaphiel was forced to pause, mid-monologue and dodge out of the way of a ball of the Power of Destruction was thrown her way, courtesy of Raylix, who had an annoyed look on his face as he switched out the Power of Destruction-blade on his sword for one of the darkness-element again. Getting the hint, all the survivors within Raylix's battalion, Sabemka and Tomosei included, all prepared for battle alongside and behind their leader.

"Well, at least Devils and Lilim don't drone on and on half as much as you do." Raylix replied, raising his free right hand and firing off another blast of demonic energy at Selaphiel, forcing her to dodge out of the way of that as well so she couldn't right herself. "So the vile, impure imitations have got that going for us! OPEN FIRE!"

Selaphiel was forced to throw up a defensive barrier as all the magical attacks fired by Raylix and his battalion-members came at her, pretty much at the same time as each other. The barrier she had hurriedly thrown up began cracking as all the attacks hit it, but it didn't quite break down completely and leave her vulnerable. Annoyed at this, she flew up once all the fired attacks stopped and returned in kind, flinging several powerful light-spears at Raylix and his group, forcing them to scatter into smaller groups in order to avoid getting pierced and killed. After this, she noticed a smaller group of Devils and Lilim that had gone up during the scattering, just as she had done seconds earlier, and a wry smile formed on her face as she outstretched her hand and formed a thin sword out of what looked like white ice.

She swung the ice-sword while hanging in place in the air, sending waves of ice at the group of Devils and Lilim that she had set eyes on, her smile widening as said Devils and Lilim realised, too late, that Selaphiel had targeted them, and attempted to get away from the ice-waves that she had sent their way. Raylix gritted his teeth as every Devil or Lilim within the group that Selaphiel had targeted were cut apart by the icy waves, their wounds freezing up instantly as they dropped through the air like stones... so at least their deaths were less bloody and gory than having their heads blown up by the Power of Destruction, for instance.

Selaphiel aimed her free hand towards another group that had gone in a similar direction to the first one she'd killed, and fired an orb of ice out of it. Tomosei, seeing this coming, fired a charged shot of demonic energy out of her staff at the ice-orb in an attempt to destroy it. Her aim was dead-on, and her shot of energy hit the ice-orb, though the ice-orb exploded into many ice-shards upon doing so. Ice-shards that flew in every direction like little icy bullets, many of which ended up travelling in the direction of Tomosei's own fellow soldiers. Almost all of the ones that were in harm's way ended up being protected by a barrier that Raylix threw up at the last second, and the shards that flew in Selaphiel's direction (fewer than the number that flew in Raylix and what was left of his battalion's direction) were stopped by a barrier that Selaphiel herself formed.

"Really? Attacking your own allies, Devil?" Selaphiel asked in a somewhat mocking tone, her expression a sneer as she looked down at Tomosei. "And I thought even Devils were above that kind of-"

"Shut up, bitch!" Raylix and Sabemka shouted, in unison, by way of reply, both getting the exact same idea at the exact same time and flying towards her, Raylix winding up for a kick and Sabemka for a punch. Sabemka got to the Seraph first, flying over the swing of her ice-sword and sinking his fist into her stomach. The punch itself didn't hurt her all that much, in spite of how big and burly Sabemka was, but the shock of actually getting physically punched in the stomach by a Devil was enough of a shock to Selaphiel that she didn't notice Raylix also coming at her, leg outstretched, until it was too late for her to make any real attempt to stop him from swinging his leg at her head, sending it snapping to the side as Raylix went flying past, did a fast loop-the-loop through the air and came back for another kick to her stomach, in around the same area that Sabemka had punched her earlier, while Sabemka himself circled around Selaphiel and threw a punch at her head.

Both attacks made their respective marks, and as Selaphiel flew backwards from the force of Raylix's kick, he couldn't hold back a smirk of satisfaction as he heard Selaphiel groaning in pain, and holding the area of her head that he'd clocked with his kick. Letting out a hiss of mixed pain and anger, Selaphiel prepared to summon more Angelic light to her side in an attempt to kill the hellspawn in front of her, but she was again interrupted by a bolt of magical lightning hitting her, causing her to shriek in shock and pain again for a couple of seconds before she was able to dispel the magical lightning, fired by Tomosei.

"Thanks, guys." the female Devils remarked to both Raylix and Sabemka, without a hint of her usual dryness or sarcasm.

"Anytime, Tomo." Raylix replied, smiling for a second as he turned back to Selaphiel, who thanks to Tomosei's most recent attack, seemed to have found herself in a rather... unorthodox situation: though she had come away from the lightning-based assault, courtesy of Tomosei, relatively unscathed, the clothes she had been wearing at the time... hadn't. It took one of the five female Seraph a couple of seconds to realise that she was essentially floating partially-exposed in front of her enemy... an enemy that were known for their less-than-virtuous natures.

Selaphiel let out a scream of indignant rage, covering her left breast (which had been exposed as a result of the vestments she wore being burned by Tomosei's lightning attack) as well as the area around her crotch, which was also partially exposed.

"D-do not look at me like that, any of y-you!" Selaphiel yelled out, her pale face turning a deep red from the embarrassment of being exposed in the middle of battle. "O-only the man who takes me as his wife is allowed to look at what is under my clothes! And you!" she added, looking over at Tomosei. "Y-you should be ashamed of using such a tactic against a higher being! Out of all of your fellow hellspawn that I have destroyed in the past, and those I will destroy in the future, I thought that someone like you would be able to demonstrate something close to respect in conflict with myself! Though the best kind of respect that you could demonstrate would be to willingly allow yourself to be destroyed in the name of advancing the mission of-"

"Again with the GOD. DAMN. MO-NO-LO-GUING?!" Raylix cut across Selaphiel again, flying forward and cutting her off mid-rant with a punch. Five of the last six syllables that Raylix spoke were punctuated with punches to Selaphiel's face and body, with the last one being one that Raylix decided to punctuate with a backhand to the face, infused with the element of darkness. The last backhand drew out a particularly loud shriek of pain from Selaphiel, who summoned a light-sword in her hand and attempted to swing at Raylix, but missed.

With her other hand, she came at Raylix again with the ice-sword she had formed earlier, which Raylix hadn't seen until it was almost too late to stop. However, before the young Gremory could make any attempt to counter the ice-sword, he felt himself pulled back by a magical force cast by Tomosei, who had cast a gravitational magic-circle from her staff in order to pull Raylix away from danger. It had worked, since Raylix was somewhat close to the circle that Tomosei had cast, but it had the side-effect of pulling Selaphiel too: though she hadn't been pulled as far. Either way, Selaphiel clearly didn't figure that she'd get pulled by Tomosei's gravitational spell, and wasn't able to dodge the pelting of magical attacks that were fired at her from all sides by the remaining soldiers of Raylix's battalion, with Raylix himself joining in on the bombardment as well. Though after a couple of seconds, he looked over at Tomosei.

"Hey, Tomo!" He called out to his female friend. "I need the most powerful spell you can charge up, so we can end this monologuing bitch!"

"Way ahead of you!" Tomosei replied, twirling her staff in her hand a couple of times before pointing it at Raylix. A second or two's focus saw her firing a powerful explosion-based attack out of the tip, right at Raylix. The attack would've violently exploded had it hit anything, but thanks to Raylix throwing out an Amalgamation-hole and catching the spell within it, suspending it within the hole, it wouldn't be doing that... not yet, anyway.

Two more Amalgamation-holes appeared around Raylix, one of which he mentally filled with the Power of Destruction, the other he filled with darkness. The three Amalgamation-holes then combined into one, which made its way to Raylix's hand as he focused, amping up the power of the Power of Destruction/darkness/explosive spell combination attack with his own considerable demonic power.

Selaphiel let out another scream of anger as she let out a powerful pulse of light, dissipating all the magical attacks that had been fired at her by the Devils and Lilim. A look of pure rage was on her face as she looked over at Raylix, too consumed by her self-righteous anger to notice the attack he was powering up right in front of her.

"DO NOT TRY TO LECTURE ME ABOUT WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT SAY, DEVIL!" she yelled, at the top of her lungs. "ESPECIALLY NOT WHILE IN MY HOME REALM! I WILL DO AND SAY WHATEVER I..." it was at that moment that she realised the attack that Raylix was charging up, and that her own long-winged monologues had allowed him the vital moments he needed to charge the attack up to this point. "Oh... fu-"

Raylix released the attack after amping it up as far as he could, in a beam of intensely dark energy. Selaphiel didn't even have a chance to let out a dying scream as the Power of Destruction/darkness/explosive spell combination attack blew her apart. Raylix allowed himself three or four seconds of celebration, alongside the surviving soldiers that remained in his battalion, before the blowback of pumping most of his reserves of demonic power into a single attack hit him, and he almost dropped out of the sky from the fatigue that chose that specific moment to hit him.

"Raylix!" Sabemka cried, swooping down and catching Raylix before he could fall any further. "You okay?"

"I'm fine!" Raylix replied, raising himself up out of Sabemka's arms on his eight wings. "Just... fatigued. We need to retreat, and possibly regroup!" he called out to the hundreds of soldiers that were left around him and took orders from him, while looking back the way that everyone had come into Heaven. He saw the portals back to Hell that were still open: even from where he was floating, he could see Devils and Lilim, most likely injured, making their way back through the portals to the safety of their home realm. "Let's go!"

Summoning what remaining strength he had, Raylix flapped his eight wings and made for the portals, with his remaining soldiers following him. They had killed one of the goddamn Seraphim (one of the weaker ones, though), he thought, that was definitely enough to justify withdrawing from the battle.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Meanwhile, in a vastly different- vastly stormier looking- area of Heaven than the one that Raylix, Sabemka, Tomosei and the rest of what used to be their battalion had just retreated from, a certain incomprehensibly beautiful woman was floating through the air, six Succubus tails out and barely even reacting to what looked like an entire battalion of six-to-eight-winged Angels, led by another of the ten-winged Seraphim (who Lilith recognised as the one called Khamael), in front of her.

"It's Lucifer's wife!" Khamael shouted to his fellow Angels. "The Queen of Sin! Brothers and sisters, we must destroy the abomination in front of us in the name of our Father! For Heaven!"

"FOR HEAVEN!" the other Angels around Khamael yelled, in unison, and prepared attacks of light to fire upon their single target. Lilith could only raise an eyebrow at Khamael's declaration that she was the 'Queen of Sin'. She'd been called many things, some flattering, some awful, over her long life, but never that before.

...She liked that one.

"NOW!" Khamael screamed, swinging his hand (which he had raised a couple of seconds before) down at Lilith. All approximately-one-thousand Angels sent their attacks, the most powerful attacks that each of them could muster out of their angelic power (opposite of demonic power, but still functioning in the exact same way), directly at the six-tailed Succubus in front of them. As the attacks came closer and closer, Lilith didn't move a muscle: she simply watched everything coming at her with a similar expression on her face to what a regular person would have if they were watching a particularly interesting bird flying overhead.

Khamael was positive that, thanks to the fact that she wasn't moving at all, the abomination known as Lilith would meet her end at his hand. The second being to turn away from the lord's perfect plan for her, and who fell into a life of corruption and sin alongside Lucifer (the first) afterwards. The two of them deserved each other, Khamael thought, and after his victim's death, he was certain that Lucifer would soon follow to join her in the afterlife.

But there was one small problem with the beautiful reality that Khamael had constructed in his head, which became immediately apparent to him when he looked back at Lilith: she was nowhere to be seen. She seemed to have vanished into thin air, as did the light-attacks as they whizzed past where she used to be.

At that moment, the stormy clouds around them in this sector of Heaven seemed to darken, giving the area a rather un-Heavenly look as Khamael looked around wildly, trying to see where Lilith had gone. If the attacks had hit and killed her, he'd have seen her body crumbling to dust and flying away on the wind (come to think of it, it had gotten a lot windier in the last minute or two), but that hadn't happened... and Lilith didn't seem like the type to just up and leave in the middle of a fight!

Khamael saw the flash of lightning from behind him a fraction of a second before he felt the pain: pure, electrifying, agonizing pain starting at his back and coursing through every square millimetre of his body. Unable to keep himself upright, or move in any way such was the pain from being shot in the back by such powerful lightning magic, he dropped like a stone from the Heavenly sky. Before his eyes closed for the final time, he saw Lilith floating behind all the Angels that had attacked her, looking exactly as clean and perfect as she'd been before the attacks were sent her way. The only thing that looked different about her now was that the expression she carried had a hint of cold annoyance to it.

The sudden death of one of the Seraphs, right in front of them, was enough for absolute pandemonium and panic to instantly spread among the remaining Angels, who whirled around to try and get a sight of the source of Khamael's death. Lilith made absolutely no attempt to conceal herself from them, only floating to the side as the first few light-spears were thrown her way. Without even raising a hand, magic-circles appeared around her, out of which more bolts of lightning flew. Those that were unfortunate enough to get struck directly were killed instantly, fried from the outside in just like Khamael had been seconds earlier, and followed the Seraph in dropping like stones.

That was more than enough for all the surviving Angels to immediately hightail it out of there, as quickly as their six (or eight, depending on the Angel) wings could carry them. They would've all died in a microsecond if Lilith so wished it, but such effort... unnecessary, she judged. Even if they didn't come across someone else that could swat them like flies, they were all screwed-up enough with the kind of fear that would make one want to throw up, or hallucinate their own death. She'd seen some of the Angels doing just that, or looking like they were doing just that, before they either pulled themselves together enough to keep fleeing her, or were pulled along by comrades that had things more put-together internally.

Silence reigned over the area after the last dozen Angels fled the area, with Lilith only taking a couple of seconds to adjust some hairs that fell out of place on her perfect face before a... new presence, made itself known to her. A presence that would make most Devils and Lilim shit themselves with fear upon feeling it as close to themselves as it was to Lilith now.

However, Lilith was not most Devils and Lilim. After all, she'd dealt with the source of this presence- this GODLY presence- firsthand in the past. She also didn't react to the general light of Heaven becoming a little bit brighter, a little bit more intense.

"You know," Lilith remarked, looking right up into the light. "There are better ways to get my attention."

"I'm sure there are." the voice of Yahweh, the Biblical God, came out of the light by way of reply. "But this was the most direct, Lilith. I knew you would react to a thousand of your brothers and sisters confronting you at the same time. Just... not like that."

"Uh huh." Lilith replied, the tone in her voice conveying quite clearly that she didn't believe her creator for a second. She also bristled slightly at Yahweh referring to the Angels she'd just killed and/or terrorised as her 'brothers and sisters', but didn't let it show. "But what were they for you, anyway? A day's work? Two?"

"I'll neither confirm or deny that." Yahweh replied. "But those Angels were surely a lot easier for me to create than what you doubtlessly went through for a similar number of Devils, Incubi and Succubi to be created."

Lilith remained silent, her slight annoyance now replaced by pure, ice-cold anger as she glared up at the light. Yahweh REALLY had to bring that up to her. Now, of all times, in this situation, of all situations.

"What do you want, anyway, Yahweh?" she asked, in a bid to change the subject. "Why did you 'get my attention' in the first place, sending a thousand Angels, including a Seraph, my way in order to do so?"

"Because those that you killed just now will have been avenged more than a thousandfold, when Heaven emerges as the supreme realm of this divided Pantheon." Yahweh replied, his calm tone betraying a hint of pride and confidence. "But to do that, I need some very specific pieces of information. Pieces of information that I know you have, Lilith."

"And what makes you think I'm just going to hand these hypothetical pieces of information over, Yahweh?" Lilith asked, her face taking on a slight sneer. "If whatever information you're talking about even exists, that is."

"Oh, I think you know." Yahweh replied. "The kind of intelligence, powers and strategy it would take to destroy something quite important to the Devils. Or rather, to destroy someone."

Lilith remained silent, continuing to glare up at her creator. It didn't take a genius to figure out what, or who, he was referring to, and the Queen of Sin couldn't help but consider, Yahweh's offer. Never mind how he somehow knew the true nature of her relationship with the First Devil (Yahweh had an annoying way of always knowing these sorts of things, and it drove Lilith mad. Heaven only knows how the Angels were able to put up with him): after everything that he'd done to her ever since she became what she was now, the idea of him gone was... tempting, to say the very least.

Yahweh seemed to have figured this out, as the intense light around Lilith seemed to soften a bit.

"The fact that you haven't come at me with a sharp retort and/or rejection must mean you find this as attractive from your point of view as it is from mine." Yahweh spoke. "Or, for once, am I wrong?"

…

"No." Lilith spoke, her own glare softening slightly as she looked down at herself. "You're not."