Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

Trembling uncontrollably, the one who shared my name bled a river of tears. Laevatein, the sword Zero had designed, had seemed to be sucking the very life from out of her. Her soul flame that had seemed so weak was being devoured. The Mother of Demons would be no more in a few more years.

Her skin was already a grim black, while her eyes slowly began to turn hollow as if some strange force was sucking them away from behind her eye.

It was horrid. Mephisto had used her for god knows how long, gave such hope and cut her down at the precipice of everything—leaving nothing but a hollow dream.

A shame this was not the end of Lilith's suffering; Laevatein, this sword needs a soul. It needs someone to regulate my children's power. Upon their birth, I shall split this blade in half. A sword this powerful shouldn't lose power simply based upon being divided.

,m Leaving the sword to devour everything Lilith is will ensure the blade's edge can cut just about anything and demonic enough to temper the minds of my chibi.

Narrowing my eyes, I turned to Mephisto, eying the desolate Lilith, as an endless stream of tears and heartbreak rang like tolls. I could hear her heart beating begin to dim as she stood trapped by the blade.

"Should we thank you?" I asked.

"You should be thanking me for many things," Mephisto corrected, "I've done so many things to get you and Arsene together. Using this idiot as a third party was just what I needed to keep some distance, to work on my master plan."

"I still can't tell what you want with us. Why involve yourself in our business?"

"To get you out of this husk you call a Heaven. All you've achieved is but an illusion. My direction for Zantar and Balor to team up with the Mother of Demons was all I needed to help make you all desperate. I needed to give you all a push, and now that the Law of Concordance has been remastered, everything will be as I envisioned it."

"So the Fel, Gods Mistakes, are they even real?"

"God doesn't make mistakes," He said, shaking his head, " All they were are beasts who rebelled just like Lucifer. Only in a different way."

"Beast?" I glanced at Lilith and then towards Mephisto, who turned to me with his eyes that seemed sharper than any blade. There was no smile, only a cold, calculating man with a deadly reach.

"Just like with the Forsaken, I was there when the Fell Arms or Fel was born. Lowly creatures they were. I was still young, still a naive brat back then, looking on at what my father had done. Have you ever seen an actual race created? To see what it means, what it takes to make a race whose potential was said to rival us angels?"

Mephisto shook his head derisively, " I help in their creation, oddly enough. Father called me his little Architect. Back then, we were all so young, Luci had not even held the idea of rebellion, but during that time, something was born within me."

I sucked in a long breath pushing my senses out to Arsene to allow him to see and hear through my eyes.

He needed to know this.

"It was around that time I became the Actual Architect of Heaven. During the day where Mithra would shine her light upon the bedrock that was to be the Heavens, I would help mold the Heavens and its laws. By night I became Father's little assistant. Till one day I saw the Fel was born…."

His eyes snapped to Lilith, filled with the utmost disgust, as he spat upon her husk, " How such a beautiful thing was tarnished. I've no idea why, but upon seeing these disgusting beings, I fell into the first sin. Wrath." He snorted, almost laughing, "Like father like son, huh? I fell in a blinding rage and slaughtered seven of the fourteen before father held me down."

"I don't understand. Why? Why kill them? Surely they weren't born with a deformity. Even if they were, that shouldn't be—"

"Nothing of the sort, my dear. Only young naivety. Or an arrogance born from acting as though I were Father. I played his role and saw my creations as dirt as lesser insects that did not match my desired image. I was the Architect, after all. Everything I did was meticulously done, but these things, the Fel, how I loathed them."

Mephisto chuckled, shaking his head as if to cast away the building anger he felt, " Even to this day, I still grow annoyed. I don't expect you to understand. Zero could, but not you. Nevertheless, it was all a lesson Father held for me. One I would never forget because of all my brothers and sisters. It was only Lucifer I saw Father show such favoritism. That day I learned through my arrogance what it meant to be a God and that life is simply full of surprises. A simple lesson, one that you might see as over the top, but I assure you. Back then, we were so close-minded that a simple lesson would not have sufficed."

"Then Lilith. Why kill her?"

"Because she was part Fel. The mud Father had used in the creation of Lilith was the very dirt used to bury the seven Fel I killed. Lilith was half Fel," He explained, arching his lips as he shifted his eyes back to me.

"And Adam?"

"Human."

"So that's why you hated her so."

"Gods no, I long ago came to terms with my arrogant nature and have taken action to rectify such a thing. I hate Lilith because of what I said before. She is a weak woman. One I look down on. Although I did not think you would go in for the kill so soon. I thought I had a few more years. A shame, really; she still had a few more good years. But the reason I am telling you all this is to thank you; This is my gift to you, Lilith Snow. Thank you for ending this foolish woman's existence, and though she might live as a sword spirit for the end of her days, I am quite happy to see her gone."

Shifting back into his mischievous self, the Trickster was gone in an instant before I could ask whether he was friend or foe.