"So tell me Lily darling, did you get him to sign the contract like I asked?" Asmodious asked, focusing her attention on Lily, making her shudder
"Yes mom." Lily said, a little scared. She had forgotten this side of her mother, since she doesn't see it very often and she only shows it when something is seriously wrong...or she is very angry.
"Now then, you darling. Tell me everything you know about Mephistopheles." Asmodious said, turning her attention back on Colin
"Not a lot, all I know is that he is appearantly a really powerful demon, is even a demon king like you is worried just because you heard his name. I ended up with a shard or fragment of his soul or whatever inside of me when I became a demon. I have no idea how, I swear." Colin answered truthfully
"Good, you don't seem to be lying to me." Asmodious said
"What's the big deal about this guy anyway? Why are you so-" Colin wanted to ask, but whatever restraint she placed on him tightened, silencing him.
"Aren't you noisy?" She said, and tendrils of pink energy escaped from the crystal ball and turned into a complex rune. Small threads escaped from the rune and entered Colin's body, causing him to let out a silent scream in pain. Alice tried to help, but her body was also being restrained by the Demon Queen.
"Mom stop!! You're hurting him!!" Lily screamed
"Silence. I need to see just how deep Mephistopheles has dug himself into your friend, it will be over soon." Asmodious said and Lily but her lips. The pink threads continued to dig into Colin's body and he could feel an excruciating amount of pain all over his body, yet he could scream, or utter a whimper for that matter.
'Pathetic.' He heard a voice say in his voice, and he instantly recognized it. He suddenly felt an excruciating burning pain from his right pec, and the demonic rune lit up bright red. Suddenly, black sparks of lightning lit up all over his body, destroying the pink threads and allowing Colin to move.
"You fucker." Asmodious said, grinding her teeth and her image became bigger and a ferocious bloodlust was eminated from the crystal ball. The room started to shake as pink energy spread throughout the room, everyone shivered in the presence of such bloodlust and Colin's tattoo glowed like a christmas light, giving him some resistance.
"Tell me boy, do you hear his voice in your head?" Asmodious asked
"Y-yes." Colin answered truthfully, feeling the pressure of her bloodlust
"Next question, would you ever hurt my daughter?" Asmodious asked and Colin looked at her resolutely
"No." He answered, and Asmodious finally calm down, causing the room to stop vibrating and her bloodlust receded. Alice and Lily could finally breathe normally again and took deep breaths.
"You wanna know who Mephistopheles is? He is a Spirit of Chaos, the Messenger of Chaos. He is the closest creature to the chaos heart, the source of demonic energy and chaos energy, the beating heart of the underworld. He is possibly the first demon in existence and no doubt the strongest. He is a malevolent force, that will destroy everything for his own amusement. He is the creator of monsters, the one who started the first holy war and the one who made us the rulers of the underworld. AND HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD, SO WHY THE FUCK ARE HIS SHARDS TURNING UP EVERYWHERE!!" Asmodious roared the last part in frustration, causing the place to tremble once more. Colin digested what he just heard, he tried to summarize what Asmodious just said, and he had to admit, he had no clue what most of it implies.
"What exactly is a messenger of Chaos? And what do you mean by his shards keep turning up everywhere?" Colin asked and Asmodious sighed
"Not even I'm sure what a messenger of Chaos is exactly. All I know is that was one of Mephistopheles' titles and he had powers and knowledge that no one else had. He could create monsters and he could modify the system, and possibly even create skills of his own. He was immensely powerful, it took an army of tier 7s and below, plus all the demon Kings combined to barely defeat him, and even that was just dumb luck. He has been dead for over two thousand years now, why has he resurfaced now?" Asmodious said, biting her nails in frustration and Lily looked at her mother in concern, while they all try to process what Asmodious just said. If it took all the Demon Kings plus an army of tier 7s to kill a single demon, then that would more than justify her reaction if she thought that guy was coming back, hell, they were surprised she wasn't doing more.
"As for the shards, it's exactly as I said, they keep turning up everywhere. I found a dozen demons with shards of Mephistopheles inside them, and Mephistopheles' consciousness already took over their body. They have been wreaking even more chaos in the underworld. Hell, I'm atleast 90% sure they are the ones who damaged the dimensional barrier between Earth and the underworld." Asmodious said and they looked at her stunned
*Wha-" Colin tried and say, but Asmodious continued
"Additionally, more have been spotted on other rings, I heard that even Leviathan spotted a few and he managed to kill one. Mammon, Beel and Bel, has also found a few as well, which is a real shit storm. Is suggest that you guys watch your back, I have no doubt that their are a few on Earth right now." Asmodious said concerned
"Uhm, just how strong are these shards exactly?" Alice asked finally
"It differs, the weakest I've discovered is tier 5 and I've found some as strong as tier 7." She answered
"Wait, if they aren't even tier 8, why do you have so much issue with them?" Lily couldn't help but ask
"Didn't you hear what I said? Mephistopheles is a unique entity, he used to be a tier 8, he still has all that knowledge. The knowledge of runes, traits and skills, height still even possess some of his authority as a [Messenger of Chaos], but he doesn't possess all of it. Even just the traits and runes he knew are dangerous. Tiers mean nothing to him, although he wouldn't be able to battle a tier 8 or battle a demon two ranks above him." Asmodious said, and Lily swallowed hard. She had some idea of just how much a tier 8 like her mother would know, and she could imagine just how terrifying a demon even older than her would be. Plus, there were more than a dozen of them, and Colin had one of those shards in him, making him a potential enemy.
'Fuck!!' She screamed in her mind.