22 years ago, the Holy War.
At the camp of humanity, the situation became chaotic. The reason was soldiers, medic staff, and people in this place kept dying when they fell asleep. People grew scared of sleeping. They were afraid they would die if they fell asleep. Nonetheless, ordinary soldiers couldn't defy their natural human function. Many of them fell asleep and didn't wake up.
A male soldier cried loudly as he tried to wake his female companion. However, all his efforts were useless. The female soldier lay dead in front of him with an unnatural ugly expression. Even in her sleep, she couldn't pass away peacefully.
"AAAHHH, I can't do this anymore. Someone, please save us! Hero! Where are you heroes? We never signed up for this helpless death!" the male soldier begged while looking at the sky.
At the same time, something was coming from the sky, but when the object got closer, people found out it was a female demon.
The female demon descended from the sky and dropped a corpse of a male human to the ground. People widened their eyes when they saw the corpse because he was none other than the hero himself, the hope of humanity. The very hope of humanity became a corpse with a terrified expression. It seemed he couldn't pass away peacefully.
"I heard you. Hero? Here I bring your hero," Lilith said, and she laughed wickedly when the humans fell into despair.
Some people knew they would die when they saw her, so they could only accept their fate. There were also people who wanted to escape, but they were too tired to run. The rest of the people ran away when they saw the hero's corpse. One of them shouted in despair, "Run! Save your life! The Queen of Nightmares is coming!"
"Yeah! Run! Keep running like lost lambs! If I catch you, you will die in the most painful way possible. I will torture your body and soul before killing you!" Lilith exclaimed.
When she heard their cries, Lilith laughed in amusement. She wanted to enjoy their despair more, but the Demon King wanted her to end things quickly.
Lilith formed a special hand sign and said, "Domain Marble...."
That day, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Lilith Butler, the Queen of Nightmare, annihilated one of humanity's camps, and she did the same thing to the other camps the next few days.
People who were lucky to tell the tale informed she carried the hero's corpse, even when he started to rot.
Thus the news spread throughout the continent. Lilith was marked as the biggest war criminal. People even feared her more than the Demon King himself. Even the Demon King hadn't killed anyone yet in this war as he was staying in his castle inside a rank nine gate.
Many people wanted her dead, but who could stop her when she had killed the very hero? They thought humanity would face their end in the hands of the biggest war criminal. However, a small speck of hope appeared. In a certain village, another hero appeared. He came from another continent by himself after hearing what happened in the Beryl Continent. The man would be known as the strongest person in the world, Tang Xia. His first heroic deed was slaying the biggest war criminal, Lilith Butler.
---
Lilith had been a different person after Tang Xia defeated her. She was spared and given another chance, but to be honest, changing oneself had been difficult. She had only started to change after she gave birth to her first child. How she came into a relationship with Tang Xia was a story for another time.
At the moment, Lilith remembered once again how much she liked to trample over living beings, especially if the other party was on par with her like Animarum.
When she saw Marilyn knelt helplessness, Lilith laughed wickedly. "What's wrong? Try to fight back!"
"Mom, you don't forget that body is Marilyn's, do you?" Jake asked, his spirit body floating around Lilith as her mother was taking over his body.
Lilith stopped laughing and came back to her senses. She put on a guilty expression and said, "O-of course. I didn't forget anything."
Jake looked at his mother with a dumbfounded expression. "Really?"
A droplet of sweat dripped down her face. "Y-yes. Please trust me."
While Lilith was talking with her son's spirit, Marilyn created another hand sign. Suddenly, her domain expanded and pushed half of Lilith's domain.
Lilith was surprised. Even though she seemed to let her guard down, she never did it. The Elder Thing really lived up to their level as the world class.
"Don't underestimate me, kid." Marilyn stood up as the sure-hit effect disappeared due to the clash of two domains. "I will show you how terrifying an Elder Thing is."
Marilyn stomped the ground, elongated the hands around, and made them chase Lilith.
Lilith knitted her brows when hundreds of giant hands were coming at her, but she still maintained her composure. She exerted her mana, and the gravity became heavy, stopping the hands' movement.
"Good job, mom. Stay away from the hands. They have the power of death," Jake said.
Lilith gulped when she heard that. "Ancient creatures are really scary. To think, they have an ancient ability."
"Not just one. He has two. Those eyes contain the power of ancient chaos."
As he said that, Marilyn pulled her blindfold and utilized the ability of [Elder Eyes]. All the eyes in the sky gazed at Lilith. Suddenly, the succubus queen exploded. Her ash scattered everywhere, and from a speck, she reconstructed herself.
"Chaos power is scary," Lilith said before her body turned into oil and burned in the air.
The power of chaos was really random, making it one of the most lethal abilities. Chaos could be everything and anything. No one could predict what it would do, but with [Elder Eyes], someone could direct and create chaos to specific targets.
Lilith reconstructed her body again, but the chaos destroyed her body again. She kept doing the process over and over, but she couldn't escape from the [Elder Eyes].
Marilyn laughed while enjoying her struggle. "Not bad. You are a master of dreams too. To think there is someone aside from me who has a multiple effect domain. I almost want you to live and take your soul."
Lilith looked at Marilyn coldly before turning into a puddle of blood, as if she was a predator that observed her prey. She let the eyes destroy her every time while maintaining the gravity magic to hold the hands down. At a certain moment, there was a slight pause to Marilyn's attack, and when Lilith reconstructed her body again, she immediately pointed her fingers at her. Suddenly, her darkness domain took control once again.
Marilyn tried to push back her domain, but she couldn't do it. Lilith knew she was running out of mana after repeatedly attacking her with ancient power. However, the Queen of Nightmare didn't let her guard down. She chanted a spell, and dark tentacles pulled Marilyn's arms and legs.
"Triple effect domain user! Just like me!" Marilyn exclaimed.
"You are probably stronger than me. The reason you lose is because you are restricted by your vessel," Lilith said as she conjured a giant dark spear above her.
"Kekeke, you understand. I admit defeat today, but I will come back every time I can. You can stop me now, but my connection with this vessel will grow stronger!"
Lilith smirked. "I wonder about that." After saying her last word, she waved her hand, and the dark spear advanced forth. However, it didn't come to Marilyn. Instead, it flew upward and pierced the sky, destroying the domain interior.
Even though her domain was dominating Animarum's, the exterior was originally Animarum's. That was the reason her mana consumption was less than her opponent. Of course, she was lucky the Elder Thing was restricted by Marilyn as the vessel. That was how she could overpower another domain. That was why she let Jake as bait. She knew the Elder Thing would have tried to snatch his eyes, and the latter couldn't do it without manifesting their 'self' in the real world.
As the domain exterior crumbled like broken shards, the possession got weaker, and Lilith slowly turned into Jake again.
Jake blinked his eyes and realized he was already in his room again. He looked at Marilyn and instantly knew she was still possessed by Animarum. However, he maintained his calm because he noticed a magic circle around the bed, and Aunt Mercedes was standing before it.
Mercedes chanted something, and chains of light surged out of the magic circle and tied M-Marilyn's body.
"No wonder you weren't making your moves. You are waiting for me in my weak state. Did you plan for this?"
"Yes, but we needed you to show yourself, or we couldn't execute this plan. Thanks to Jake, you showed yourself. It is a checkmate."
Mercedes pulled her blindfold and showed her [Magic Eyes]. After that, a nine-layered magic circle surrounded Marilyn, and runic letters flew out of it. Each of the letters was sticking to Marilyn's body, and the latter screamed in pain.
"Rank nine sealing spell? Stop it! Ahh!" Marilyn screamed, and her voice alternated between her usual sweet voice and Animarum's hoarse voice. "This attempt is useless! I will come back and kill all of you!"
" Begone, evil!" Mercedes exclaimed
The runic letters on Marilyn's body glowed, and black smoke came out of her mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears. Eventually, all the smoke left her body, and her orifices emanated light. After the light faded out, Marilyn's body staggered and fell upon Jake.
Mercedes heaved a sigh of relief. "For now, we have successfully exorcized the Elder Thing."