I stood on the edge of Dragon’s Nest as it approached the wall of blood mist. The cold wind fluttered through my clothes and I could already smell the putrid decay of the nearby red haze. Down below, I could see two creatures standing at the edge of the mist. One was the teleporter Demon I had faced the night before. The other was a woman with bleach-white hair.
I motioned towards Dragon’s Nest and the floating island slammed down to the ground at the edge of the mist. The two Demons were unconcerned by the cloud of dust and rock kicked into the air as they stood at the edge of the impact without flinching.
Purple energy surrounded me as I stood near the door to Dragon’s Nest. If this was a trap, I was prepared to escape into the Preateritum remnant faster than even the teleporting Demon would be able to catch me.
I was not the only cautious one, though. Berith stood within arms reach of the Seir. There was little doubt that if any other domain warriors exited Dragon’s Nest or if I had some other ambush prepared, the two of them would teleport away in the blink of an eye.
Of the two Demons, Seir appeared to be the least happy to see me. The cuts my mom had left on his face the night before had already begun to heal and mostly disappeared but that did nothing to lessen the bloodlust in his gaze.
Berith herself was much calmer. She stood with her eyes closed and a soft smile on her lips. Even though she never opened her eyes to look at me directly, it still felt like her gaze was crawling over my skin. It was an unnerving feeling as if I was laid bare in front of her.
“I am glad you came, Aurielle,” Berith said in a sickly sweet, almost singsong voice.
“You knew I would,” I replied as I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“Yes, though, not because of my talent. Your actions are fairly predictable to those that know anything about you.”
“Are they? I might have to put that to the test,” I mumbled in reply before raising my voice in the best authoritative tone I could muster, “I have little interest in speaking with a Demon. Tell me, Berith, why have you called me here?”
“That is a shame because I have a great deal of interest in speaking with you,” Berith said as she maintained that same simple smile, “Ever since my talent evolved, there has been very little that is capable of holding my attention. You are one of the few exceptions. There are so many fascinating influences on your future. It is simply incredible how much it twists and warps with every day that passes.”
“And you wanted to meet me so that you could better see my future?” I asked curiously.
Berith shook her head. “No, not at all. Regardless of the twists and turns that mark your path. The end result will not change for either of us. That is why I am here. I want to break the web of fate that binds us but I cannot do that alone. I need your help.”
I laughed loudly at the absurdity of a Demon asking for help. “Corrupted energy must have completely rotted your brain if you think I would ever do anything that helps you.”
“You should not be so quick to laugh off my request, Aurielle. Up until now, I have shown mercy to you and all the other little humans gathered here. With my talent, it would not be hard to lead the Demonkin to a decisive victory over your insignificant army. There is no strategy you can devise that I can not see through, no ploy that can trick me. Even without the Demonkin, it would be easy to send Seir here to massacre your generals and commanders. You may have someone that can match his teleportation but that does not mean you can predict where he will strike. I foresee that within a week your little alliance would crumble as panic and fear overwhelmed their tiny minds.”
“You’re rather confident in yourself,” I replied through gritted teeth. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew she was right. Up until now, the Demons had been oddly passive. Other than a couple minor clashes with my domain warriors, the Demons had not done much. My only explanation was that they were playing it safe until Envy arrived out of fear that our forces might kill one or two of them, but if Berith was telling the truth, the reason was simply that she was holding their reigns. If she wanted, Berith could release those reigns at any time.
However, I had gone into this war expecting the worst. A few threatening words from Berith would not change anything. Still, I could not resist my curiosity about what it was that Berith really wanted.
“If you can destroy my army so easily, Berith, why have you not done so already? Why come here at all if not to fight?”
Berith’s smile twitched a bit before she spoke. “I am simply following the path fate has forced me to walk. Envy demands that we expand our territory and hasten his arrival. As a being of lesser strength, I must obey.”
I noticed Berith’s left hand ball into a fist and I raised an eyebrow in fascination. “For you to express any form of displeasure at the orders of a higher ranked Demon… The gap between your strengths must have narrowed quite a bit... Is Envy injured?”
Berith covered her mouth with her hand as her laughter rang out. Behind her, the blood mist twisted and squirmed as if responding to her delight.
Once Berith had calmed down, she gave me a knowing smirk. “You know I cannot answer that. However, I can say that I do not share my master’s obsession with you. Should, for whatever reason something happened to him, I would have little interest in continuing this invasion.”
“I see. So, you are hoping to save your own skin even if it means abandoning your master?”
“I will live, no matter what,” Berith said with a low growl that wiped the smirk from her face, “I know what is coming. This war will have no winners. You will die. I will die. Envy will die. All those little humans you hope to protect will be slaughtered. All that will be left is a broken rock devoid of life.”
“That is quite the premonition,” I remarked skeptically, “And what ‘help’ were you hoping I would provide to change that?”
Berith gave a self-deprecating smirk. “Change? There is no changing fate. Some things must happen. What has been set into motion cannot be stopped. Not even that irritating void of shattered time behind you can accomplish that. However, the future can be skewed in our favor. My death is not important in the grand designs of the one that started all of this. The same thing goes for the lives of your so-called family and all the little humans that have gathered in your name. All you have to do is obey my directions and every one of them can be saved.”
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I chuckled in disbelief and shook my head. “I refuse.”
“Then everyone and everything will die! You must do as I say if you want any of them to live.” Berith said. A dangerous aura radiated out from the Demon. The blood mist behind her instinctively reacted and crimson tendrils lashed out in random directions, infecting everything it touched with the red corruption of the mist.
“I refuse.”
Berith’s eyes opened for the first time and the bright crimson light shined out. “What do you mean, you refuse? I told you, fate cannot be changed. All you are doing is condemning everyone to death.”
“I refuse,” I replied simply, “If death comes for this world, then I stand in its way. If the weave of fate cannot be changed, then I will burn it until nothing remains. There will be no more games. My future is mine to decide.”
As I spoke, something inside of me seemed to click into place. Flames erupted from my body and spread in every direction. It was not the green or blue flames that I expected but a bright golden fire. I did not use glyphs, nor did the flame hurt me as it flickered atop my skin. For the first time, the golden fire was completely under my control.
Golden flames burned away the surrounding blood mist as if it was light piercing the shadows. Corrupted plants ignited like tinder and fueled the fire to spread further. Within just a moment, a huge swath of land in front of me that had been consumed by the red haze was cleansed by purgatory flames.
The Demon, Sier, grabbed Berith as the flames approached and the two quickly teleported further away. Berith looked at the fire with confusion as she watched the blood mist around me fizzle away.
“This is not right,” she said in denial, “You were not supposed to reach this level until Envy came. How are you…”
I did not wait for Berith to finish. I was tired of hearing what others thought my future should be like. All the fire surrounding me responded to my thoughts and began to gather in my hand. No number of glyphs could replicate true control as the fire began to condense until it almost looked solid. It formed a bright gold arrow that shot from my hand in a flash of light. Faster than a flash of lightning, the golden arrow rocketed towards the annoying Demon.
Sier teleported Berith away again but not before the arrow collided with her domain. A thunderous explosion shook the air and the wind buffeted me back. Underneath the roar, a sharper sound echoed across the plains, a sound similar to glass cracking. It was the familiar sound of a domain armor crumbling under pressure.
Berith reappeared a short distance away alongside the second Demon, unharmed but not unfazed. All of her previous calm and composure was gone as she glared at me with undisguised bloodlust and hatred.
“You have doomed us all, Aurielle. No power can change that.”
“I refuse to believe that,” I replied with a grin, “Even if my power alone is not enough to burn away the future, there will be others that believe the same truth as me. None of us will obey and no one will bow to fate.”
As I spoke to Berith, shouts began to rise up from the plateau behind me. Soldiers began to march in the first counter-offensive of the war. Every single Demonkin outside of the blood mist would be hunted down in the crusade for victory.
Berith’s eyes shifted towards the marching armies, only for her to immediately scream out in agony. The Demoness clutched her head and nearly pulled her hair from her scalp as her domain flickered away. It was only thanks to Seir being nearby that she did not tumble from the sky and fall head first into the ground.
“What… What have you done?” Berith gasped through gritted teeth.
“I was hoping to distract you longer than this but I guess I lost my cool,” I said with a laugh, “No matter, it is too late for you to do anything now. This is the strategy devised just to deal with you, the ploy you cannot see through. Witness the march of chaos.”
Berith’s entire body shook. She closed her eyes tight and covered them with her hands but she could not block her talent’s vision. “Take me from here,” she said with seething breaths.
“But she…” Seir tried to interject but was immediately interrupted.
“Take me from here now!” Berith screeched madly.
Seir shook his head and the two of them vanished in a blink. I let out a long breath as the fire around me vanished. I felt the whole world spin. My vision turned dark. Completely devoid of energy, I collapsed to the ground with my arms outstretched wide. I laughed up at the sky as my consciousness began to fade.
“The rest is up to you, my cute little student.”