Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

With Lilith resting soundlessly through the air, I gently wiped the blood trickling down my nose in streams, trying to hold back the torment of someone taking a hammer to my head.

Another soul had dissolved.

Resisting the urge to toss Lilith over, I released a dry breath of air and focused my attention over the horizon, the menacing demonic qi slowly overtaking this realm. Since the demons lost their minds, I had felt a change in the air. But the longer we traveled, the longer time was spent, and the more I began to pick up on the abnormalities in the world, I felt the change grow stronger.

The days where light would hit the earth had begun to trickle away, leaving longer nights and colder winters, almost like the sun was dying. While I didn't have much to complain about in that regard, as the sun could go fuck itself, life around me had begun to take on different properties.

The grass was no longer carrying a green glow but rather a black. And with the odd contrast of green, everything around me seemed to be losing itself to the nature of Hell.

"Arsene, we are here." Lilith softly informed, opening her eyes with a wary glow to them.

Looking around for a mountain, she had stated Yor'fenli was on. I couldn't help but frown, noting that nothing was there.

"Where is the—" I paused, feeling the tainted grass beneath my feet, alongside an entirely new world below my feet. "Underground? But why? And what the Hell is that building?"

Loki touched his chin and darted his eyes towards Lili, "Why don't we ask your wife?"

"The other Fallens are also making cathedrals, but nine years ago, Yor'fenli was just upon this mountain." She said with glowing eyes, shimmering a brilliance beyond the dawn, "I'm trying to look back through the laws of time to see what is going on, but it seems he's disrupted the nodes."

p "You seemed to have an idea about this," I said, and Loki nodded.

"Well, after the Shadow and King were informed about Lord Lucifer and all the other Fallen Angels, I was tasked to track them down in a suicidal attempt to find out where they are and what they are doing."

Releasing Lilith from my arms, I groaned, " You didn't think that was valuable information?"

"Tell your wife that. But haven't you all noticed some think odd?"

My expression went solemn, as did Lilith. She spoke, " There were no abyssal monsters anywhere, even on our way to the capital. We barely encountered any."

"Are they dead?" I inquired.

"No, they're fleeing," Lilith responded darkly. Opening her palm, a projection of the Nine provinces appeared before me, with all nine showing red dots. She continued, " While there are seven fallen of notable power, we have some like Belphegor running their operations in tandem with Mephisto. But I just can't figure out why Mephisto wants us to kill Belphegor."

"He doesn't, not really." I answered, scrunching my brow, " Sure, he wants Yor'fenli dead, but he also wanted his cathedral built. Look around you. Do you see any Abyssal Fiends? Where exactly were they forced to migrate?"

"Ilyia" Said Lilith and Loki.

"Bingo!" I coldly said, " Do you think it's a coincidence that Zantar and Balor are doing the same thing with that ridiculous capital?"

"Arsene? What did you—"

"It's a sacrifice." I said while I didn't have proof, did I not do something similar during my days in pendragon? Did I not sacrifice a major city just to kill my enemies? Balor was doing the same; that has to be the case.

Lilith held me in her sights, and I could see she had no disagreements. Not on the surface anyway, but there was some inner turmoil.

"Not a bad plan, but there's no evidence, but it's not like we cultivators act on evidence anyway. Kill first, ask questions later, am I right?" Loki uttered, sliding his gaze to the silent Tian Wang and his wife. "So, what are we going to do now? A Cathedral is like a home for these—"

"Greetings, Mr. and Mrs. Snow," A calm, high-pitched voice said as the earth beneath our feet trembled.

Leaping away just in case, a large stairwell leading downwards formed with the Laws of Earth, as a boy no more than three walked up the stairs with a loving smile.

"A boy?" Said Tian Wang.

"Do not speak," I snapped, walking up to the young child.

But the closer I came, the more I began to pierce through what seemed like an illusion. My heart seized as the world around me began to become clear, and before me, I saw a boy with a single eye hanging out of its socket, rotten skin bubbling with a pestilence that made my skin crawl, and a jaw that seemed to have been pealed away.

Watching roaches and various maggots within the socket squealing, my footsteps came to a halt.

"What are you?" I muttered.

"Undead," He said as a serpent slithered its way out the boy's eye, coiling around his neck, hissing at me.

The entire sight of the boy sickened me—all that good meat wasted. It wasn't even fresh enough to dry age.

"Pontiff Yor'fenli would like a word." The small child said.

Lilith stepped to my side, studying the child with a long look, ' how'd you die?"

The boy lifted the rags on his decaying body, revealing a gaping hole filled with scratch marks along the edges of his stomach.

"I had the honor of being Pontiffs Yor'fenli's dinner," he said with a smile of pride. "The pain was so spectacular I begged for a second chance. Once my soul has met the requirements, my lord demands. I shall present myself so that I will forever be within him."

Damn.

Getting a whiff of something sour that wasn't coming from the boy, I glanced at Tian Wang's wife, who I needed to ask the name of, that had vomited as she looked at the boy. I shook my head, shifting my attention back to this thing.

"Follow me," The child said.

Lilith snatched my hand, and her voice visited my soul, " be careful. You know what it means to be Pontiff to Belphegor, right?"

"We'll be fighting Belphegor most likely."