Ancestral Lineage

BOOM!

The earth convulsed as if the bones of Helheim itself were being shattered. Malgarius's fist tore through the air, a single blow carrying the weight to level mountains. The land cratered beneath his strike, whole ridges collapsing into abyssal pits as shockwaves tore apart the horizon.

Above him, the six-armed manifestation mirrored his fury—its chalice of decay tipped, spewing a torrent of black ichor like a poisonous rainstorm. The ichor hissed as it fell, burning the ground into festering pits and reaching for Lilith like eager claws. Yet Lilith's expression remained untouched, her lips curving into the faintest, cruelest smile.

Behind her, a beast burst forth from her aura—a monstrous fusion of bear and boar, grotesque yet regal, its maw glowing with crimson hunger. With a thunderous roar, it leapt upon the ichor and devoured it, swallowing corruption itself as though it were nothing more than wine poured at a feast. The air trembled with its gluttonous divinity.

"Sin of Gluttony!" Malgarius spat, fury twisting his noble, terrifying face. His aura flared like a hurricane of rot, whipping around him as he weaved past a spiraling bolt of chaotic energy launched from Lilith.

Her voice rang out, velvet and venom all at once. "Don't ignore me, baby boy…"

Her eyes ignited with a hypnotic glow, a deep, beautiful pink that shimmered with forbidden desire. For a fleeting moment, Malgarius faltered. His breath hitched. His fists trembled. In that split second, he was lost—snared in her Sin. What he beheld in the illusion was his alone, his deepest hunger unveiled, and if Lilith had glimpsed it, even she would have recoiled in utter horror.

That heartbeat of hesitation was all she needed. Lilith's wings flared wide, her six black pinions burning with purple fire as she gathered destructive energy in her palm. The chaotic blast pulsed with unrestrained power, a swirling storm of violet-red that shrieked as it tore through the air.

But Malgarius was no simple prey. His aura cracked, burning away the enchantment with sheer willpower. His crystalline nails dug into the earth, stabilizing himself as his six-armed avatar roared behind him. With a bellow that shook the ground, he launched forward, colliding with Lilith's blast head-on.

The clash was apocalyptic. The chaos of Sin met the inevitability of Decay, two primordial forces tearing into each other. The shockwave annihilated everything caught in its path—stone, earth, air, even sound itself. Volcanos in the distance erupted from the sheer pressure, and the skies above Helheim split into storms of black lightning.

Neither yielded. Neither fell. The collision of their power marked the beginning of something far worse than a duel—this was a war of concepts, and Helheim itself would be the battlefield.

...

The collision ripped through Helheim like a dying star. The skies themselves fractured, bleeding with rivers of violet flame and black ash. The ground had become a chasm-filled wasteland, each crack glowing with molten fury, yet the two titans at the heart of it stood unshaken.

Lilith's wings beat once, a ripple of flame-laced seduction cascading outward. From her form, tendrils of Sin slithered into the battlefield—each one whispering into the hearts of every lesser demon who dared to watch. Some fell to their knees, weeping with lust and despair. Others tore at their own flesh, unable to resist the cravings she awakened within them.

Malgarius did not flinch. His manifestation lifted one of its six arms, the scepter of starvation glowing with a deathly green light. With a single wave, the whispers died—not because he silenced them, but because their voices had been devoured. The air around him warped, shriveling as if starved of existence itself. Even Lilith felt the drag, a faint pull in her chest as though her very essence was being leeched.

"You'll find me… difficult to consume," Lilith mocked, her voice laced with velvet venom. She stepped forward, her armor glistening with a sheen of purple fire. With every step, her allure grew sharper, bending reality into illusions. Behind her, a thousand copies of herself blossomed, each seductive, each dangerous, each whispering with honeyed malice.

Malgarius didn't hesitate. Another arm of his avatar raised the blade of corruption, and with a sweep, his hair flared like wildfire. The earth split as black crystalline vines erupted, skewering every illusion at once. The vines pulsed, pumping rot and plague through the very air. Her copies died screaming, vanishing into smoke.

Lilith licked her lips, unfazed. "Mmm… you're fun."

Her eyes shimmered pink again, but this time the allure was different—not desire, but obsession. Malgarius felt it before he realized—his body moving without consent, his hunger drawn to her, his corruption trying to claim her as its vessel. For a moment, his six-armed manifestation faltered, shaking under conflicting orders.

"Enough!" Malgarius roared, his crystalline claws digging into his palms. His aura erupted in a maelstrom of decay, the chalice of black ichor overturning once more. This time, the ichor did not fall—it rose, forming a dome of writhing sludge that sought to smother her from every direction.

Lilith's beast, the Boar-Bear of Gluttony, howled with ravenous hunger. It charged forward, its maw unhinging wider than nature allowed, devouring the ichor with a frenzy that shook the heavens. But even as it gorged, its belly swelled grotesquely, cracks forming in its hide. Malgarius sneered.

"Gluttony… cannot feast forever."

The beast's body split in bursts of rotting gore, the ichor eating at it from within. Yet Lilith only laughed. "That's the thing about Gluttony, dear—" Her hand flicked, and the beast stitched itself back together, re-manifesting even more ravenous than before. "—it always comes back for more."

The stalemate grew unbearable. Each time Lilith's sins ensnared him, Malgarius shattered the chains with his regal inevitability. Each time Malgarius tried to smother her with rot and famine, Lilith twisted the decay into a new mask of seduction. Their clash was not just power against power, but concept against concept, each refusing to bow, each feeding the other's rage.

Around them, Helheim burned. Volcanoes split. Rivers of lava turned into black sludge. The cries of demons filled the air—not of death, but of despair, driven mad by the aura of their battle.

And still, neither yielded.