99 – First Command

Asmodeus silently gazed down at Amael from the spirit realm.

Even when Amael, in agony, gripped Satan’s demonic sword, Baltaruk.

Even when his body was pushed beyond its limits with an inhumane physical modification, shattering him.

Even in the moments when he fought the Selector of Envy with his ruined flesh.

She merely watched Amael.

No.

She had always been like this.

She had always only been able to watch.

[Amael isn’t dead yet. You won’t move, will you?]

Lucifer, from far off, grabbed the chain extending from Asmodeus’s wings, shook it, and asked the question.

Asmodeus nodded in response.

[As long as Amael’s soul isn’t destroyed.]

[Loyal.]

[Haven’t I always been?]

Amael collapses.

He reaches out a hand, but it is feeble.

The three demon lords showed no intention of letting this opportunity slip by.

They had come thoroughly prepared.

The abilities Asmodeus had granted to Amael were all proving useless.

Perhaps the outcome was predetermined.

It was only natural that a single human would end up like this when resisting the combined efforts of three divine beings.

[A right mess. Amael. He’s oblivious to how much stronger his powers have become.]

Before draining Mammon’s divine essence and faith, Asmodeus’s power level wouldn’t have been an issue.

But the amplified power had allowed Amael to enhance his body far beyond human limits, causing fundamental strains.

This phenomenon was bound to worsen, not diminish.

That’s the price a mere mortal pays for wielding transcendent authority beyond their capacity.

Asmodeus sighed, averting his gaze from Amael.

He was frightened of him.

The result of a dark god’s machinations.

Yet, Asmodeus held no resentment.

If that’s what Amael desired, she was content to let it be.

[Looks like you’ve won, Lucifer.]

Kanya was about to be seized and once again become a toy for Sloth.

Using Belial’s divine essence, the three Demon Lords would shackle themselves further while corrupting Amael’s soul.

Asmodeus looked down at Amael with a hint of regret.

[This isn’t fair. He never knew how to handle me properly.]

[The world isn’t fair to begin with.]

[I don’t want Amael to be ruined.]

[He won’t be ruined. Just temporarily misunderstand you.]

[It shouldn’t be like this. He deserves to know who I am. If I was unconscious, then maybe. But now that I’m aware, we should be talking and interacting. He deserves to know how to handle me.]

Asmodeus gazed at the chains emanating from her left wing.

[Amael can do that to his heart’s content, once he’s turned to the side of Hell. Asmodeus.]

Asmodeus chuckled.

[Childish and foolish.]

[Merely what’s necessary.]

Amael lost his grip on Kanya.

Defeated in battle.

Predictable.

There was a limit to what a simple mortal, brimming with ambition but wielding powers beyond his control, could achieve.

A bitter expression crept onto Asmodeus’s face.

[Are you satisfied now?]

[Once Amael is corrupted, you’ll be free to converse with him. I’ll even help you protect him.]

[Will he be corrupted? Really?]

[There’s a limit to human will.]

Lucifer, wearing an expression of utter certainty, giggled as he drifted away.

Asmodeus glanced once more at the fallen Amael.

A foolish, idiotic man.

And that was his limit.

[Indeed. There is a limit to human will.]

Asmodeus, too, turned away from Amael.

It was the end.

She, who had been walking slowly, stopped abruptly.

Her right wings.

From her wings, boasting a pristine white, so radiant it seemed impossible to be more so, suddenly burst forth chains of iron.

The four pairs of wings on the right.

And from the discolored wings on the left, chains erupted as well.

All those chains, in unison, stretched toward the single man collapsed on the ground, flailing pitifully.

Amael.

She grasped the chains.

And cried out.

“Asmodeus!!”

Asmodeus’s eyes widened.

She turned her body.

She gazed at Amael.

[Speak. Amael. I am listening.]

“Save Kanya!!”

That single, simple phrase reverberated violently through her entire being.

It was a first.

The first time Amael had given her a proper command.

Asmodeus rose to her feet.

Her divine form stood ready to descend directly into the human realm.

The black chains on her left wings stretched taut.

[Asmodeus!! What are you doing!! I command you! I forbid you from descending!!]

It was Lucifer’s voice, but Asmodeus did not heed it.

[Forgive me.]

The white and black chains springing from her wings tangled chaotically, clanging together.

[You are not my *Master*. You have no authority to command me.]

[No!! Stop!!]

Lucifer, with a shriek, desperately pulled at the black chains, but still, Asmodeus did not halt.

Her immense divine form broke free from the ethereal plane.

*

Asmodeus slowly stood.

She looked down at her body.

Limbs shattered, strengthened beyond their limits.

A melting palm and festering cheek wound, the consequence of wielding Satan’s demonic blade, Baltaruk.

“[I overdid it.]”

Smiling faintly, she lowered her hand.

And her body was perfectly healed.

The wounds inflicted by Satan’s blade.

The limbs shattered by reckless amplification.

Everything returned to normal, utterly.

And around then.

[……..Ugh……..Wh-Who……Who are you………]

Hearing the voice coming from her own throat, she lowered her head.

A vibration pulsed from the locket around her neck.

The emotion within the vibration was clear: terror.

“[I need your help.]”

[Wh-What……]

“[I cannot contain my power within a human mind. You must assist me. Can you do it?]”

[Y-Yes…….Of course.]

Nodding in satisfaction at the trembling voice, Asmodeus slowly stepped forward.

Within a world where time stood still.

She could see the frozen, motionless followers of Jealousy.

Asmodeus strolled as if she were out for a walk.

“[I must take back what is mine.]”

Taking Kanya from the follower who held her, Asmodeus placed her hand upon Kanya’s mangled body.

The thorn-like curse of binding too.

The wounds from tumbling down the steep slope.

They healed in an instant.

But even she could not restore Kanya to her original form.

“[Still a penchant for the grotesque, I see. Belphegor.]”

Muttering thus, Asmodeus cradled Kanya and quietly began to move.

Their destination: the rocky mountains of Talahaim that Amael so longed to see.

As she walked leisurely,

a chilling sound reached her from behind, and she slowly turned.

Someone was interfering with her power.

Before long, the space where time had stopped fractured, then burst into the form of a massive circular dome, releasing the temporal stasis.

Within the vast, unstuck space, numerous rifts formed, appearing one after another.

From within the rifts, a multitude of people frantically poured out.

Not dozens.

But hundreds, thousands, an enormous number.

And then, like a phantom echo.

[Asmodeus!!]

Three voices crashed into her mind, as if driven stakes.

[Give back my possession!!]

At the loudest of those voices, Asmodeus burst into laughter.

“[I’m afraid I cannot. Amael wishes to protect her.]”

[Damn you! After all this time, silent, why now!!]

“[The first proper command has been given. That is all.]”

The three Demon Lords fell silent at the word ‘command.’

[I do not acknowledge lust. A frontal assault would be difficult for the three of us to overcome you.]

[But if the fight is on the human plane, the amount of power you can unleash through a human body must be limited.]

[Hand over the Goddess of War. Otherwise, a fight is unavoidable.]

With that chilling warning, the air tore open, and even more followers emerged.

It was nearing the scale of an all-out war.

Thousands of troops were gathering, all targeting Asmodeus alone.

She looked at the number of her pursuers, and silently set Kaniah down.

“[Hound who craves purity.]”

[Ye-yes!!]

“[Lend me your power, for a moment.]”

The psychic amplifier began to vibrate uncontrollably.

[S-save me!!…….]

Kon’s scream echoed briefly, then vanished.

With the psychic amplifier radiating an almost melting vibration and heat, Asmodeus slowly began to walk forward.

“[Turn your army back. Belphegor, Satan, Leviathan.]”

[Not unless you surrender the Goddess of War, we cannot…….]

“[Then pay the price for your choice.]”

Asmodeus extended her hand forward.

And with that…

“Ugh? Ugh… aaargh!!”

Strange things began to happen to those at the front of the thousands of gathered demon followers.

They suddenly clutched at their chests, and collapsed to the ground.

Their fallen legs broke at unnatural angles, and then rapidly decayed, rotting away.

“R-rage!! Rage!! Sa-save!!……..”

With a final, agonizing scream, the follower’s body melted away, collapsing onto the ground.

A faint soul escaped his body, struggled for a moment, and was then sucked into Asmodeus at tremendous speed.

And this wasn’t just happening at the front.

It was spreading like a plague.

“Ugh… aaa!! My, my body is rotting!!”

“Sloth! Belphegor! Save me!!”

“Envy! Sa-save me, please!!”

In an instant, dozens of humans had rotted away and fallen to the ground.

The closer Asmodeus got,

the more the number of beings who rotted and fell increased.

It was as if the very source of a plague was carefully taking steps.

Death was instantaneous.

And the dead didn’t just lose their bodies, but their souls were unable to be preserved as they were sucked into Asmodeus.

Asmodeus smiled as if it were a game.

“[You thought fighting on the human plane would be in your favor?]”

The dead already numbered in the hundreds.

The sight of humans, alive just moments ago, crumbling to dust, their bones and all traces of them decaying into nothing – even the devoted found it unbearable.

And the three Demon Lords, for their part, could not afford to lose any more followers for no good reason.

The followers began to retreat.

They fled madly from the invisible realm of death that spread in real time.

Asmodeus, seeing this, finally stopped his advance.

He felt the three Demon Lords withdrawing.

And he felt the necklace around his neck heating up, almost to the point of burning.

[Lo, loose….]

“[Well done.]”

Asmodeus raised a hand and placed it on the necklace.

The heated necklace quickly began to cool.

“[For your sake, it’s better to forget you ever met me.]”

With those words, the psychic amplifier’s vibrations and heat abruptly ceased, as if it had broken down.

Asmodeus, seeing that it was all over, approached Kanya once more.

He gently stroked her cheek.

“[Your order has been carried out.]”

Asmodeus smiled, as if taken aback.

“[I never thought you would order me for the first time to protect someone other than yourself. Remember that feeling well, Amael. It is your privilege.]”

She quietly closed her eyes.

A single human mind was far too narrow and small to accommodate such a massive divinity.

If she stayed any longer, it would be destroyed.

She left the body she had briefly descended into.

Amael’s body lost all control and collapsed like a puppet.