Piercing through the threshold, I was sure could kill a Peak Elder God. My eyes went wide as stars at the endless fields of cloud reaching over the horizon alongside the clear blue skies that stood without a sun, yet the emotions it portrayed were stifling.
"Ashura was her name," Aldrich mentioned from a distance away, capturing my attention as I drew near, stepping on clouds as though they were solid ground.
Seated near an obsidian grey coffin, a frailly thin Aldrich sat, resting his bones that barely held any meat.
His hair was shriveled, his eyes looked so hollow they appeared empty, and yet I could still feel a timeless power radiating from this walking corpse.
"My only love," He said, sliding his shriveled fingers over the marble. "Care to hear a story?"
"No," came my response.
He chuckled. "An ass till the end, I see. Do you know why your soul was scattered, but Vancurro's wasn't?"
"I died. Aldrich. Just as your love did." I mentioned, and he froze.
"I guess in the end. Words are meaningless in the face of actions. How unfair it is. All of it." The Lord of Iluthath lowered his head till it touched the coffin. " I've got a gift for you. God knows you don't deserve it. You or that bastard Zariel."
"So that's where it came from." Lily swiftly mentioned. "No wonder! It was the S/SSS tier. You and Zariel must have upgraded it."
"Here," He said, lifting his shriveled hand as light nodes swelled together. He bitterly spoke. "When I killed the last Sovereign of Elysium and ensured I was the only reigning king, I destroyed all their legacies but secretly kept them alive. Most you'll find useless, but I'm sure you'll find my fighting style to have the highest affinity to any creature alive. Elysium will live with you."
Staring at the elderly man, my hands dangled over the nodes as I stored them in the Ring of Bael.
"You are passing your legacy to me? The man who you killed?"
He chuckled. "I would've given it to Zariel if he were here, your only a substitute."
"Ass."
"Bitch…" Coughing bits of black blood, Aldrich groaned. "So… this is what it feels like to die… Part of me still wishes to live. To reincarnate and rise back to the top. A pity."
My lips curled down, and with a swift sweep of the area. Aldrich continued after a few more heavy coughs. "You're looking for Requiem, aren't you? The infamous blade that was forged from his bones and soul. Kill me… and the blade is yours alongside the Throne to the Realm of Blood, Iluthath."
"I hated you, you know." I began, "The day I first felt your aura in Midgard. I hated you will all my fiber. But it wasn't you who killed our Mother, was it."
"N…no." He weakly said. "I did know her, though. Yuki…Bl…"
Falling onto the coffin, Aldrich fell silent, his body still, but his soul still alive. A long hollow sigh escaped me as I summoned Noctem.
Everyone seemed to know her, more than us, her children.
Feeling the flames of Noctem burning through my veins and arm, I didn't mince or scream in pain but instead placed the edge over Aldrich's skull, watching as his soul flame faded away.
'Thank… You.' Two voices sang in my ear.
"How bitter this taste." I muttered, " I wished for a battle. Not this."
Staring at Aldrich's remains slowly merge into the coffin, which I was sure housed another, the realm trembled, and just above the coffin, a sword, blacker than anything I'd seen before, emerged alongside a crystal ring.
Almost appearing as a one-dimensional weapon, the blade hovered and throbbed with the Laws of the Abyss.
"It's lost its original form. Capture it before it shifts from a one-dimensional object to a seventh or higher."
Reaching out with the Abyssal Attunement, my eye suddenly went wide when all of a sudden, laughter spilled into my ear.
"MINE!!!!!" Lily suddenly shouted, and the blade vanished without me even witnessing what had happened. "Sorry, but it'll do me better."
"FUCK!!! YOU!!! Lily, you ass, give it back!"
"You can barely handle your wife, yet you think you can handle an Abyssal Fragment?" She claimed with a carefree belch as though she ate it. "Worry not. I'll help with all your concerns and help upgrade whatever you need as a substitute system!"
"Lilly, you ass, give it back!"
"Nope!"
"LILY!!!"
"Nope-Nope-Nope!"
"I fucking hate you!'
"Bitch you love me. Plus… I've got a feeling that if you had it… someone might have taken it away. Someone always seems to know something about you, Arsene." Lily suddenly claimed. "I've got a feeling that me having the Abyssal Fragment may help you better. After all, no one knows about me but you and Ezra."
"And Mephisto."
"He doesn't know." Lily adamantly said. " He's busy searching for the twins. Tell me, have you heard from him since he vanished the moment you received a shard of Laevatein? Trust me. He'll be gone for a while."
"Wait, how do you know that? Zariel was sure to have hidden—"
"I've got all the power now! Mwahahahaha, Lily Von Doom!!!! Is back! I mean Lily von Snow! I keep messing that up. Nothing can escape my all-seeing eye!"
"Lily, that power is mine!"
"Uh-huh. Did you know some rather sexy ass men are serving Lilith? Like damn! They are feeding her caviar, and… is that Raman? Damn, that looks good!"
"..."
" she and Aurelia are getting their freak on. There's even some woman in the fray."
… "you're talking about babies, aren't you."
"Maybe."
"Gimme that shard!!!!! Abyss-Chan!!!!!"
"Don't call mommy! She's busy!"
"Abyss-Chan!!!!!"
"Ignore him, Mommy!"
"LILY, GIMME THE DAMN SHARD!!!" I howled in such a furious tone. Stomping down as she just laughed maniacally.
"Ok fine, I'll let you use the shard to help create whatever you want, but… and it's a big but… Lilith has to be with you."
"Why?"
"Because without her, you'll die. You're only the bridge, Arsene. You're not of the Abyss like her or me. Despite what you might think about the Abyss being a realm of infinite chaos, it actually has some deep fragmented lore. Ever wondered who the first abyssal fiend was? Or where they are now?"