Lana's golden eyes gleamed with cold finality as she uttered the words that would change the course of the morning.
"Very well. You deserve to know the truth."
Her voice was deceptively calm, but the weight behind it carried the fury of a storm yet to break.
For a fleeting moment, she held her son's gaze—a silent acknowledgment that what was to come was not merely a story.
Then, with a slow, deliberate shift of her gaze, she turned to the true antagonist of this tale.
Xylara.
Lana's expression remained unreadable, but her next words cut through the air like a blade dipped in venom.
"Xylara, I'm sure you're dying to tell such a story…"
The Succubus Queen stiffened.
She had anticipated hostility—but not this.
Not the slow, deliberate unraveling that Lana had begun.
"A story where you betrayed not just the demon race… not just your allies… but your own Queen."
Each word struck Xylara like a lash to her soul.
The guilt she had buried deep within resurfaced like an unhealed wound, raw and bleeding.
She wanted to refute it, to remind herself why she had done what she did, but those reasons—**no matter how justified—**were drowned beneath the weight of the truth.
She had betrayed them.
Not just the demon race.
Not just the crown.
But Lana and Elizabeth.
And that was a crime far greater than all others.
A sharp, exaggerated sigh pulled Xylara from her thoughts.
She turned toward the source, only to see Elizabeth—and the sight sent another wave of shame crashing into her.
The Dragon Queen leaned back in her chair, her posture deceptively relaxed, but the wicked gleam in her eyes told another story.
Then, with an elegance that bordered on cruel amusement, she subtly cleared her throat.
The shift in her demeanor was instantaneous.
From a calm predator… to a heartbroken victim.
"Yes, Xylara…"
Her voice was mockingly sweet, soothing—yet underneath, there was a sorrow so carefully woven in that it made the atmosphere impossibly heavy.
"Tell us of your greatest accomplishment."
Xylara's breath hitched.
No.
She wouldn't—
"Not just anyone can betray me and my sister…"
A slow smirk curled on Elizabeth's lips, though her golden eyes shimmered with something that looked eerily like grief.
"Not just betray us…"
She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a near whisper—intimate, devastating.
"…but break our hearts in the process."
A single tear.
One.
It slid down Elizabeth's cheek with agonizing slowness.
A masterpiece of deception.
A perfect, flawless act.
The final touch to the grandest of performances.
And then, as though it were nothing, she wiped it away.
A gesture so small—yet it sent a devastating message.
That no matter how much pain had been inflicted… she would never let it make her weak.
It was a performance worthy of the gods.
Too bad the audience was small.
And among them, two spectators saw through the illusion immediately.
Lana had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
Meanwhile, Lycius, unbothered and thoroughly entertained, tilted his head slightly, amusement dancing in his eyes.
"Not bad," he mused silently. "I should ask Auntie to teach me her secrets to such beautiful acting."
But Vynessa…
Vynessa was utterly convinced.
Her wide, disbelieving eyes flickered between her mother and Elizabeth, her mind racing with the weight of what Xylara must have done to bring the Dragon Queen to tears.
And just like that, the guilt inside Xylara multiplied.
It was unbearable.
Suffocating.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Not because she refused to speak.
But because for the first time in centuries—she didn't know how.
Seconds stretched into eternity.
Finally, she forced the words out, the weight of them crushing her lungs.
"…I'm sorry."
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"Just know that."
Her hands curled into fists beneath the table.
It was time.
A heavy silence settled over the room, the kind that seemed to choke the air itself.
Xylara's fingers trembled ever so slightly, her mind torn between the weight of the past and the judgment of the present. She forced herself to meet Lycius's gaze, his golden eyes holding an unreadable depth—as if he were already passing silent judgment.
She exhaled sharply. There was no running from this.
"Five hundred years," she began, her voice steady, yet laced with something raw.
"That is how long your mother, Lana Abyssi, was absent."
Lycius's eyes narrowed.
Five hundred years?
He had expected many things. His mother being gone for half a millennium was not one of them.
His gaze flickered toward Lana, but she remained still.
She did not deny it.
She did not react.
She simply sat there, her golden eyes fixed on Xylara, as if waiting to see how deep she would bury herself.
Xylara swallowed hard before continuing.
"Without our Queen, without our ruler… chaos reigned. But not the kind we were meant to thrive in. Not the chaos of war, of conquest, of devouring those who stood against us."
She clenched her fists, the memories clawing their way to the surface.
"No, it was the chaos of weakness."
Her voice trembled slightly, but she forced herself to go on.
"Without Lana, the lesser races of demon kind began to crumble. The snakefolk, the spiderfolk, the beast clans—they were all left defenseless.
And then, humanity came.
Not as prey.
Not as victims.
But as a force that whispered promises into the ears of the strong and sharpened their blades against the weak.
And we— the heavenly demons, strongest of the superior races—we listened."
She closed her eyes, as if she could still see the bloodied bodies of the slaughtered.
"We turned our backs on our own kind. We chose the side of the enemy, fought alongside them, and together—we slaughtered our own people.
We cut them down like pests.
We hunted them like vermin.
We slaughtered them not because they were our enemies, but because they were weak."
Xylara's voice wavered for the first time.
"They never even saw it coming."
Her nails dug into the table, her breath uneven.
"They thought we had come to protect them.
They looked up to us, thinking their strongest warriors had arrived.
And we repaid their trust by spilling their blood."
Her throat tightened.
"Entire clans were wiped out before they even realized they had been betrayed.
We led them into traps.
We let their women and children run to us for safety—only to deliver them into the hands of their murderers.
And I was one of them."
A pang of silence followed her confession, and Xylara could feel the weight of judgment crashing down upon her.
She deserved it.
She had never once denied it.
She had never once claimed innocence.
But she hadn't expected the silence that followed.
Or rather—she hadn't expected Lycius's silence.
She forced herself to look at him, but what she found made her breath hitch.
His expression was unreadable.
Not angry.
Not disgusted.
Not even indifferent.
Just silent.
But there was something else.
Something... dark.
Then, ever so slowly, Lycius tilted his head slightly, his golden gaze piercing into her very soul.
"So… betrayal."
His voice was calm, but there was something profoundly unsettling beneath it.
Xylara swallowed hard, but she nodded.
"Yes. Betrayal."
Lycius closed his eyes briefly, as if contemplating something deep.
He felt nothing for the slaughter.
Nothing at all.
The annihilation of the lesser demon races did not stir even a flicker of emotion within him. Their weakness had determined their fate.
But betrayal?
That was something else entirely.
His golden eyes slowly opened, and for the first time, Xylara felt a chill run down her spine.
His gaze was no longer neutral.
It was cold.
Calculating.
It was a gaze that promised punishment.
Not through violence.
Not through death.
But something far worse.
Lycius had already decided.
She would be punished—not physically, but emotionally.
And he would make sure she felt every second of it.
Just as Lycius parted his lips, prepared to pronounce his decision, a voice as smooth as silk yet edged with unshaken authority cut through the air.
"Carry on."
His golden eyes flickered toward Lana, a momentary silence stretching between them.
There was more?
The thought settled in his mind, a flicker of curiosity and intrigue mingling with something far darker.
Xylara, despite the weight already pressing upon her, knew she was far from finished.
She swallowed, willing herself to speak the next words, knowing they would be met with even greater scorn.
Her fingers clenched, her nails digging into her palm.
"The second betrayal was… far worse."
Silence.
Even Vynessa shifted uncomfortably, feeling an unease in the air she couldn't quite place.
Xylara's lips quivered before she forced herself forward.
"The four of us— the Heavenly Demon of Instinct, the Heavenly Demon of Blood, the Heavenly Demon of Redemption, and lastly… me, the Heavenly Demon of Lust—
We helped the humans summon a Celestial Angel."
Lycius's golden eyes darkened, his gaze shifting, sharpening as though something inside him had clicked into place.
Even Lana and Elizabeth, who had already known of this betrayal, did not hide the way their expressions twisted into something even colder.
Xylara felt the air grow heavier.
Still, she continued, forcing herself not to falter.
"That Celestial Angel… became the sword of slaughter."
Her breath was shallow, her voice heavy with the weight of sins long past.
"With his divine weapon— one crafted to be most effective against demon blood— he led the massacre of the middle ranks of demon kind."
The words fell into the room like a death knell, each syllable a blade plunging deeper.
Vynessa stiffened.
Even she had not known the full extent of her mother's betrayal.
Xylara's lips pressed together before she forced the final words out.
"He even slaughtered a portion of the lesser races of the Dragon Kind."
A breath hitched—but it was not from Lycius, nor Lana.
It was Vynessa.
She had been prepared—barely—to hear of her mother's betrayal toward the demons.
But this?
Her mother had taken part in an atrocity against the dragon race itself?
A race that, even within its hierarchy, had always been bound by blood and honor?
Her fists trembled, but she did not speak.
Xylara, sensing the burning gazes upon her, continued.
"It was not much, of course. We knew Elizabeth was still present somewhere, and her Heavenly Dragons refused to betray their kin."
Her lips pressed together.
"But the fact that the humans and the heavenly demons dared to touch the dragons at all… It was an act of war."
Lana's aura flared, and the dining hall itself seemed to groan under the weight of her power.
Her pride as a ruler had been spit upon.
Elizabeth's pride as the ruler of dragons had been tested.
And both sisters knew… the humans had grown too arrogant.
The demons alone were already an ambitious conquest—one Lana had crushed beneath her rule.
But to dare turn against the Dragon Race itself?
That, alone, was a declaration of pure stupidity.
And yet… the final nail in the coffin had not yet been spoken.
Xylara's next words, however, would be the worst of them all.
A sin that could never be undone.
A crime that even she, in her own shame, could never explain.
Her breath trembled.
"And then, after it all…"
Her voice wavered, her throat dry.
"I married him."
The silence was absolute.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
The Celestial Angel.
The divine being that had led the slaughter.
The creature whose very weapon had been made to be most effective against demonkind.
The one who had defiled the battlefield with the blood of those beneath him.
She had married him.
And worse…
"I bore his child."
For the first time, Vynessa felt the full weight of those words crash upon her.
She was the daughter of a Celestial Angel.
Her very blood… was a contradiction.
She had been born from betrayal itself.
A violent chuckle suddenly escaped the lips of Elizabeth.
An amused yet chilling sound.
But the moment it reached their ears—another laugh joined it.
Lycius.
His deep, dark amusement resonated through the room.
The mirth of a predator who had finally decided how to toy with its prey.
Lana blinked, surprised at the unexpected reaction.
Xylara was nit done yet.
She swallowed, her voice turning brittle.
"Yet… I do not remember him. His face, his presence—it's all… missing. As if I had never met him at all."
A strange sensation crawled down her spine.
And then—
The chuckling grew louder.
Lycius.
Elizabeth.
Their laughter, light yet laced with something undeniably sinister, echoed through the quiet chamber.
Xylara stiffened.
Lana's golden eyes sharpened.
Vynessa felt her heartbeat quicken, unease creeping into her very soul.
Why were they laughing?
What did they know?
Lana's gaze flickered between her sister and her son, realization dawning on her.
This… was Lycius's doing.
His power—had already stretched far beyond what she had anticipated.
She felt her frowned face twist into a prideful smile.
Lycius tilted his head, amusement glimmering in his golden gaze.
His heart of darkness beat with anticipation.
He would punish Xylara.
Not through pain.
Not through death.
But through something far more cruel.
And the best part?
He would watch—watch as her very sense of self unraveled, as the remnants of who she once was crumbled into dust.
And from those shattered pieces, he would mold something new.
Last night, he had chosen restraint.
He had decided not to break too much of Xylara's mind—but today was different.
A new day. A new purpose.
And today, he found her current self utterly distasteful.
That would not do.
Her very essence—her untrusted decisions, her misguided arrogance—had to be shattered.
Because with destruction, there is creation.
And with creation, there is growth.
Lycius would reshape her into something more fitting.
Someone worthy of belonging to him.
Not just in body, but in mind, in spirit.
He would craft her into a being tailored to his liking.
Someone with the alluring devotion of Kiara, yet with her own unique identity—
Another being born from his will alone.
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