Chapter 390: Lilith Moves. Taking Back the Demon Realm by Force
With episode of the cosmos now over, ripples moved across the world. And one such ripple was currently moving in the demon realm of Helheim.
They had all felt it. The change. The power. The authority she embodied. And most weren't happy with it.
But, it isn't like she cared or something. They were her descendants and creations to begin with. She had purposefully given them the leeway with some things for all these years, but it was finally time to take everything back and no politics was involved in this.
When was politics a thing in Helheim? It was all just a funny play, but the fun was over.
...
In the deepest reaches of Helheim, far beneath the caverns where even the cruelest demons fear to tread, lies the Chained Pits—a place not of fire, but of shadows and endless despair. It is not a prison built of stone and iron, but of living corruption itself. Chains thicker than towers stretch endlessly across the pits, forged from the bones and sinews of damned titans, forever writhing as if resentful of their own purpose. They dangle into a darkness that no flame nor spell has ever pierced, clanging softly like echoes of forgotten screams.
The air itself is poison, thick with rot and decay, tasting of rusted metal and burned flesh. The ground is not solid earth but a shifting mire of black ichor and withered remains, a foul swamp of corruption where the bones of the forsaken rise and sink like driftwood in an eternal tide. Each step in the Chained Pits is a gamble between sinking into the sludge or cutting one's flesh on the rusted hooks embedded in the ground, remnants of tortures carried out in ages long past.
And yet, the true horror is not the chains nor the filth, but the whispers. They come from nowhere and everywhere, filling the pits with voices—pleading, screaming, mocking. Some are promises of release, others are threats of eternal agony, and some speak truths too foul to be borne. Those who linger too long in this place often find the voices are not only heard but felt, coiling around their minds like the chains around their bodies.
It is said that the Chained Pits were never built, but grown, a wound in Helheim's flesh that festers eternally. Here, demons who have betrayed their lords or failed their kin are cast down, not to burn, but to rot in silence and corruption. No flame touches them, no blade kills them—they are left to drown in despair, chained for eternity by the very realm they once called home.
And in that abyss, where light has never existed and hope cannot survive, a lone being sat—neither bound nor broken, but watching, waiting.
He was a nightmarish existence. His body was a cathedral of mouths and claws and hunger. A single decaying green demonic eye hovered in the air above his body.
He was Malgarius the Black Maw. The second demon king and the one known without an army.
He didn't need a legion of demons to his bidding. He was the legion himself.
Malgarius was the quietest out of the demon kings, but it seemed his silence would be broken today.
After all, he had felt it. That presence. Although it seemed different and less dreadful, it was without doubt, him.
"Lucifer still lives." A cacophony of voices of different tones, pitches and accents echoed around him, twisting the very air around him. It reeked of decay and starvation.
He could remember it like it was yesterday. The day he was born. The day he was created.
It was through Lucifer and Lilith that he came to be who he was today. He was once a failed creation. A being whose only purpose was to eat and eat and eat. He was never satisfied. Not even once.
He was abandoned, out casted from everywhere until he met Lucifer and Lilith. They changed him. Although that change was also something that didn't sit well with him. He was used as an experiment to control one of Lilith's sins. Gluttony.
And it succeeded. He was officially the first creation with the power of Gluttony, but despite all that he had his pride. He would have become the Sin of Gluttony, but he refused.
Instead he chose another path and that got him to where he was. Alone but a terrifying existence in Helheim and the world as a whole.
Although his power wasn't real Gluttony, it didn't lose it that much, especially if it was in the hands of any being other than Lilith herself. Malgarius knew how powerful Lilith was, that was why he'd never actively attacked her, unlike the others.
"Those insolent kids..." He couldn't help, but grumble in annoyance. They'd attacked Lilith many times, and even thought she was weak. If only they knew the truth.
Yes. They didn't know the truth, or they couldn't see it.
They knew of Geraldine Beaumains, the 1st Demon King and the Paragon of Sins. Also, the Sins were so weak that they were defeated in less a decade. All this and some other factors had blinded them to the harsh truth.
They were just ants in the face of Lilith. Lilith was desire and emotions made flesh. Maybe, only he could stand a chance against her and he wasn't even sure of it. And this was when he had ascended into the Saint Realm.
None knew of Lilith's actual strength. She was known to wield the extremely rare chaos magic, but that was just her magic. Her true being and essence which made her power were the Sins. The Seven Deadly Sins.
"It seems I must prepare for war with the empress," Malgarius muttered, not realizing that he'd just referred to Geraldine as empress. But, his stance was clear.
He would never give up his throne without a fight! That was his way. That was the way of demons, not these unrealistic politics.
His thoughts were suddenly broken by a sweet, mesmerizing voice.
"Hi, there Mal. Hope you've been well?"
"Just go straight to the point," Malgarius said in anger and annoyance.
"Okay? Hand over your throne and be my subordinate or I take it the hard way. There's no third option," Geraldine answered with a smile, her eyes glowing menacingly.
There it was. What would be Malgirius's answer. Yes or No?