A ghostly woman who looked an awful lot like Luna, was standing in the middle of something that looked like a set from a horror movie. Blood everywhere, several corpses strewn across the floor, and everything apart from that one ghostly woman was frozen in time, including the rain outside.
"What in the name of the void is up with this place!?" the woman cursed in a confused tone. "The lack of spirit energy is making it so weak that the mere presence of my soul body causes the world to freeze around me!"
With a groan, she forced herself to calm down and think. She looked around with a thoughtful frown. "Could I… be on Earth?" she muttered thoughtfully. "The ancient texts mentioned the seventh world has no spirit energy, but… I didn't think I'd ever end up here."
Before her thoughts could get any further, she suddenly cried out as her hands flew towards her head and a splitting headache ran amuck in her skull.
Unfortunately, she lacked the energy to make her soul body corporeal, so her hands flew straight through her head in an apparent attempt to high-five herself… which obviously didn't work either.
At the same time, the world around her began to spin. A lifetime of memories wormed their way inside her mind. Everything conspired together to make Luna lose her balance, and fall straight on her ass.
When the headache was over, and she remembered everything, including what just happened, she mumbled wryly, "Thank the spirits no one was there to see that. I'd have had to kill them all, and then Rurik would scold me- wait! Rurik!"
The radical changes her mind had to go through in the last few minutes had thrown her for a loop, scrambling her brain, but she was beginning to recover.
She quickly turned around, remembering she had to do something before it was too late. But she immediately froze as she saw another beautiful woman standing there with a hand before her mouth and her eyes wrinkling in glee.
Clearly, she was barely managing to keep her laugh in. Seeing that Luna had noticed her, she immediately let go of her restraint and started laughing her ass off.
"Hahahaha, that was truly a sight!" she bellowed loudly. "The vicious and prideful Luna fumbled, fell on her ass, and feared her husband's scolding. Hahahaha. I can't wait to tell the others about this!"
This woman was shorter than Luna, standing at 1.68m (5'5), and appeared like the personification of the colour red. Her hair was wavy, long, and like a wave of blood. Her chest was wrapped in a crimson halter-top with black decorations, and around her waist hung an equally crimson, flowing sarong that provided a tantalising look of her legs while providing complete freedom of movement.
Even her skin looked like it had a red glow, as if her entire body was always slightly blushing, which just added to her sex appeal. She had the definition of a bombshell body, with a substantially sized chest, hips, and ass. Combined with her slightly elongated canines, the first impression of this woman would make someone think of a combination between a succubus and a vampire.
"Lilith!" Luna exclaimed in shock, before frowning with disdain. "Why the hell did they send you to greet me?!" But then, as if it didn't matter, she shook her head and narrowed her eyes, "Whatever, you better not speak a word of this to anyone, Lilith."
Yet, Lilith wasn't intimidated. She simply grinned playfully. "Oh? And who's going to stop me? You don't even have a body! You really screwed this one up, huh?"
"Do you think I wanted to be reincarnated in this crappy world?!" Luna snarled, knowing there was nothing she could do to this woman right now, and she'd better not antagonize her too much. Lilith had never been a friend, and right now, Luna was vulnerable.
"Oh, I don't know," Lilith shrugged with a mocking smirk, before pointing to Rurik's corps. "Based on your earlier words, you seemed pretty fond of him?"
Luna immediately cursed at this woman for distracting her with her appearance, and quickly floated towards Rurik's corpse to stick her ethereal arm into his head. At first, she rooted around a little with a confident gaze, but with every second that passed, she became more and more worried.
"W— Why is it not here…?" she muttered to herself with an anxious frown. "Where the fuck is his soul?! It hasn't been that long yet!"
Meanwhile Lilith, simply looked at her with a curious gaze, but after a few minutes of panic, Luna fixed an enraged glare at the bloodred woman. "You! You took him, didn't you?! Where is he?!"
Once again, Lilith was not impressed. "Oooh, scary~" she giggled so charmingly that any weak-willed man or woman listening would have fallen in love immediately.
"I must say, reincarnating did you good," Lilith continued mockingly. "Did you lose your pride and indifference somewhere? I prefer this version, but what happened to the cold Luna I used to know?"
Despite her seeming playfulness, Lilith showed genuine, even somewhat desperate, interest in this topic.
"Don't change the topic!" Luna growled while approaching her. "Where is he?!"
Annoyed with Luna's unwillingness to answer, Lilith scoffed and waved her hand. "How should I know? I certainly didn't touch him." Then she shrugged casually, "Although, perhaps it's better this way… you don't want him going where you're going, anyway."
But Luna didn't listen to those last words. Instead, she frowned anxiously and quickly returned to her husband's corps. Once there, she crouched down as a golden globe formed between her hands, which she placed above Rurik's body, before starting to fiddle with it.
"Didn't you hear what I said?" Lilith wondered with a raised eyebrow. "Just let him go. He's better off in the cycle of reincarnation than he is going with you."
Yet, Luna continued ignoring her. The crouching woman even started muttering to herself with a focused frown. "Someone messed with his fate?" she started in a confused tone. "So that's why Mark went crazy… Rurik's fate was changed so he'd die today, and Mark was just fate's instrument. Nothing we did would have mattered. But why…? And what happened to his soul?"
She continued fiddling with the orb as she searched for any traces of her beloved's soul. In over a thousand years of life, she'd never felt love, until now… Rurik had somehow suppressed her pride shard, but without him… she could already feel indifference slipping back.
"I won't go back," she muttered in a resolved tone. "I will find you, my love…"
Lilith looked at her strangely, before adopting a surprisingly gentle tone. "Luna… The war is over, and we lost. Everyone bend the knee, including me, and I've been ordered to bring you back as soon as your soul reappeared. Trust me, this man is better off reincarnating than coming with us."
For a moment, Luna's fingers halted, and a look of despair passed across her face… but then her technique picked up a trail, and she quickly honed in on it, completely disregarding Lilith's words.
"There!" she finally cried out in joy, a wide smile breaking out. But then she frowned again. "This is… How is this possible?"
"Hey!" Lilith grumbled while poking Luna's head. "Are you listening?!"
"Of course I am!" Luna snarled furiously, snapping her head back towards Lilith. "But if we lost the war, then I at least want to know what is happening to my husband, before I leave with you to a life of suffering!"
The two women looked each other in the eye. But it wasn't long before Lilith relented. There was something in Luna's eyes that caused her soul to stir. "F— Fine," she grumbled, while waving her hand dismissively. "Do what you like, but when you're done, you're coming with me!"
But rather than get back to her work, Luna shook her head with a thoughtful frown, "No, I already figured out where his soul went…"
Lilith sighed, and stretched out her hand to grab Luna's shoulder. "Good, then let's go," she said, while intending to pull Luna along to who knew where.
"Wait…!" Luna exclaimed as she took a step back, frowning thoughtfully. The two of them never liked each other, but Luna knew that, so long as losing the war didn't break her spirit, Lilith would want nothing more than to resist.
"You're right…" she whispered in a deadpan tone, her eyes downcast. "I have no wish to pull Rurik into that mess…"
But then she looked up, and pierced Lilith with an intense gaze, "Yet, if the war is lost and Rurik remains dead, then I have no reason to keep on living either."
Lilith's eyes widened and she was about to step forward, as if afraid Luna would do something foolish. But then, Luna continued.
"So… what if I told you I had a way to change everything…?"