NOVEL NEXT Pandemonium Princess (1)
The King of Devils, Lucifer the Morningstar.
Silla alone already gave Charlotte a scare, adding that Gem on top of it made the situation far worse than it could have been.
"Lucifer is a very special person, you know why? Because his secondary power is suppressing other Devils, even sealing some!"
This is bad...
"Oh, and I knows your Devil's name, Lucigucci told me!"
This is REALLY BAD
"Hm~ the fear smells nice!"
Silla pulled Charlotte up from the bed, hugging the girl between her arms. Charlotte meanwhile, was struggling to get her feet on the ground. The perverted researcher was tall or was it because Charlotte was short?
"Hm~ you smells good! Top grade shampoo for the win!", she giggled, "And you have a good soul yourself too! Prideful people are my favs!!"
"P-Prideful?"
"Hehe, Lucifer over here can detect Deadly Sins. Pride, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, and Wrath, all have different smells. I would describe Pride as... exotic...", Silla took another sniff, "Hm~ like a fancy fruit."
With Charlotte in her arms, Silla carries on her merry way out of the room. But she turned her head back, her crimson eyes staring at the hole she had just gone through.
The researcher's gaze became cold, as well as her voice.
"Hm, salary deduction. Anyway, Satanic Authority, Reverse."
As she commanded, the dirt and bricks previously knocked down by Athen floats. As if time was reserving itself, the light pinkish wall was restored bit by bit. And in the end, not a single abnormality can be found.
Happy with the result, the cheery aura returned to Silla, "This should be enough"
She went on her way again.
Charlotte has nothing to say after seeing what Silla could do. Repairing the wall without as much as a single speck of dust. Questions were going around in her head, can Silla be killed? Would Reverie affect her? What is the extent of Lucifer's power? And why does she keep calling me 'little one'?
Silla's head snapped down, her crimson eyes met with Charlotte's azure ones.
"What is it, little one? I feel like you have a question for me."
Charlotte looked away, avoiding the pervert.
"Hehe, shy aren't you? Well, I guess I need a more informal introduction!!"
"My name is Silla Arco. Eternally in her early 20s. My house is in Nevada, specifically Las Vegas, under the Illumination Casino because I have connections to the mobs. I work here as a Project Manager for Project Belial, and I usually go on leave for a week every three months. Usually, I organize concerts under Issac's nose so I am some sort of idol here. I don't smoke, but I do drink. I am usually in bed at 10 P.M, or longer if there is a party, and make sure I get 8 hours of sleep, no matter what. After drinking a glass of wine and doing some stretching for 10 minutes, I usually have no problem with sleeping. Just like a cute baby, I wake up with not a single spec of fatigue or stress in the morning. On my last check-up, I was told there was nothing wrong with me, well, except I was told to hold back on my drinks."
"W-What?"
"I am trying to explain that I am a person who tries to live a happy and fulfilling life!"
They reached the steel door. Charlotte expected it to open up automatically for Silla, but it did not. Instead, something came from behind and reached out, a crimson reptilian tail holding a card. Her eyes followed it and found the thing connected to Silla's back. How did she hide it?
"Hm? Curious about my tail? Well, it's a part of my power, I can turn myself or a part of myself into a dragon though I usually just use a tail. Having a fifth limb is more convenient than you would think!"
The door opened, and Silla carried Charlotte into the hallway. It was exactly like the one in the other labs.
"Now, I will reveal some huge secrets for you! So don't run around and tell anyone, will you!"
Charlotte felt the air get colder and a mass of murderous intent attacked her mind. It got a lot harder to breathe, and her waist where Silla hugged her got a lot tighter. Then, Silla spoke in a chilling voice, full of killing intents.
"If you do... I would have to kill you, do you understand, little one?"
Fear.
So this this fear... I hate it.
Charlotte did not answer, the deathly gaze Silla gave made her choke on her throat. The pressure from those crimson eyes is digging through her insides. Not a moment where she felt safe with this woman.
Then it stopped.
"Well, just warning ya~!", the cheer returned to her voice, as well as the pressure was lifted.
"Why... are you telling me this?", Charlotte managed to get her words out. It took more than the girl thought.
"Well~ I have the Devil King himself, I learn quite a few things from him!", Silla giggled, "One of the things I learned is how to bind people. When I tell another person a secret or two and then threaten them with their livelihood, they are bound to keep contact with me no matter what. This isn't some big power Lucifer has, just his experience in studying humans. Secrets are what binds us humans together, the bigger the secret the stronger the bond."
"There are slips up sometimes, but eh, who cares? The important bits are already placed by that point."
This woman... is dangerous. Charlotte tried to wiggle her way out, but the hold was too strong for her.
"Hm? Trying to escape? Not a chance! You are stuck with me for the day! Hehehe!", she leaned in closer, and whispered right into Charlotte's ear, "It is close to impossible to escape a devil's grip."
"Now, for this huge big secret! I will start by asking you a question, where are the gods?"
"Athen told me they left"
"Technically the truth, is they did leave, but there is more to that! They all died!!"
"What?", gods are dead?
"This springs into my reason for joining the organization since this place pretty much held most, if all, information about the world. By using the organization, I could find the person who killed all the gods, or his Devil to be precise. Do you know the man named Remus?"
"Remus... Athen mentioned him last night, she said he was... the son of Mars.", Charlotte spoke while remembering some parts of what Athen talked when she was sleepy.
"Yes! Together with Romulus, they built Rome, the birthplace of modern civilization! They both have powers, one was to expand human dominion over the world, and the other was to end the era belonging to the gods."
"Romulus built his empire, whose echoes can still be felt today. In the meantime, his brother, whose history was recorded to be killed by Romulus, went on a journey with his death as a cover. Over a thousand years, he laid waste to many pantheons, his blade stained with the blood of countless divines, from Europe to the Middle East, then East Asia, down to India, sailed to Japan, then to America, back to Europe to go down Africa. Not a single god could stop him. His thousands of years crusade led to an end to the gods, still, their remnants exist beyond their death."
Charlotte realized what Silla was going for. The remnants of the divine era... Gems...
"You realized it, didn't you? Hehe, don't go around telling people that, or else it would spark a lot of conflict.", Silla giggled, then let go of Charlotte.
Quickly, Charlotte created some distance between them. Her azure eyes plastered their view onto Silla, not even blinking once.
"I am far stronger than you, Charlotte. Even if you regain Akashic's full power, the only thing that will change is how long you can hold out."
Her smile turned wicked, and the air too grew dull with a chilling pressure.
"I will show you how far we are apart. So never betray me, never turn your back on me."
Underneath the researcher appeared a satanic circle of the five-pointed star, which glows blood red.
"I am Silla Arco, Contractor of Lucifer."
A wave of scorching heat attacked Charlotte, forcing the girl to fall back even further.
"Devil of the Inferno, He who embodied Rebellion."
Red crimson scales grew on her skin, blood poured out from her eyes as the sclera blackened, ten horns formed a crown on her head, and skeletal bat wings popped out of her back underneath the lab coat.
"You who gave humanity Rebellion, the will to fight back against tyranny."
Her voice changed, as if another overlapped hers, it had a royalty feel to it, belonging to someone from above. The Silla Charlotte is looking at now is completely different, the way she moves, her subtle movement gestures, all fit for someone of high status.
"Anima Pactum - Lucifer the Morningstar"
That name sent a chill down Charlotte's spine, her body frozen in terror. She tried to move, but her mind screamed to run, to escape this creature of a nightmare.
Move...
Move!
MOVE!!
Her body refused to listen to her, it was becoming more of a coffin for Charlotte than her actual body. It was suffocating.
"Humans when faced with danger cannot fight have a response, it's called 'Fight or Flight', to stand or to flee, stupidity or cowardly. Yet, there is still another response. When stare at something unknown, something unfathomable, human can only stay still, it is their curiosity that makes them stay even in the face of doomsday."
Her wings folded inward, the flowing blood evaporated, and the horns shrunk back down. Her high and mighty gaze was gone too. The pressure too slowly died down.
Silla went behind Charlotte, who was still frozen in fear. The woman's arms wrapped around the girl's waist again, lifting her.
"Well~ that's what you have to face when you leak out the secret. You can keep it until I find my target, the Devil of Remus."
"W-What is... the reason you want him?"
"Hm, because I want to! Human cravings can be very complicated or very simple, with reasons or impulses, with logic or passion. Once you have a great buddy such as Lucifer, who excels in human study, you can read humans like a book."
Once again, Silla carries Charlotte further into the lab.
"I will be responsible for your human study, so get your hopes up and let me reveal the face behind every human mask!", her tail happily wags around, which reflected on her happy smile, "My first lesson is unmasking you, little one."