Liz

Walking - or more like sprinting - out of my room for the first time in a couple of decades felt nice. Seeing Luci limp in Devilla’s grip, fear and resignation in her eyes as she looked at me? …Less nice… Extremely unpleasant, in fact, despite everything she’d done—but I guess I had considered her my bestie, once upon a time…

“Let her go,” I said.

Devilla did as I asked, only for Luci to immediately crumple to the floor. “…Get up.”

She didn’t.

“Do you want me to make her stand?” Devilla asked, but I shook my head.

“You should go check on your girlfriends. They’re obviously worried about you. Also your Mom. She’s in the cell next to mine - though maybe don’t blow her door open? You nearly gave me a heart attack…”

“I’ll have to try and find the keys then,” she replied.

“Oh, Luci has them around her neck,” I told her. “Proooobably should have mentioned that before, but I was kinda hoping she’d have backup keys somewhere we could nab them.”

“...Right,” Devilla said. “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing we ran into her, in the end then, isn’t it?”

“No, it isn’t!” Abigail yelled, fury in her voice. “Just like it wasn’t a good thing for you to go diving into a pool of… of divine acid or whatever! Do you have any idea how horrific it was to see you disappear into that water?!”

“About as horrible as it felt to be dissolved?” Devilla suggested blithely. “I am sorry for worrying you, but it was the only way out of the situation that I could see at the time.”

“What if you’d died?!” Abigail demanded.

Lucy, though silent, seemed just as eager to hear the answer from the way she was looking at Devilla.

“I… didn’t really think that far,” Devilla confessed contritely. “It seemed like the only option, so I simply ran for it…”

“Well, next time, maybe consider the people you’re leaving behind. I’m pretty sure we would have been taking a bath right after you if your ploy hadn’t worked…”

“If I hadn’t tried anything you might have been dunked in first,” Devilla pointed out.

“I’m mostly just glad none of us ended up dissolved,” Lucy said. “Permanently, at least… But I also want you to consider your own well-being more, Eena! For all our sakes!”

“Oh, you won’t have to worry about that anymore,” I replied. “Devilla’s current body could basically bathe in divine magic if she wanted to! Even I probably couldn’t kill her without expending, like, a lot of resources…”

“How does that work?” Devilla asked with a frown. “Are you saying I somehow came out of this experience stronger?”

“Uh…yes?” I hedged. “Your current body definitely is, but only because it’s made of divine magic. And… actually, I guess we are sorta gonna have to figure out a way to get you out of it if we wanna get you back in a holy magic body, so you can go home… at least temporarily…”

“Temporarily?!” Abigail demanded, eyeing me like a hawk. “What do you mean temporarily?! Is something wrong with her?”

“Not exactly!” I said quickly. “It’s just… um… Well... You know how an angel’s body will convert a mortal soul into an angel soul to suit its needs? It’s the same in reverse - an angel’s soul will convert a mortal’s body if given time in it. And… it’s the same for gods… I’m sorry, Devilla. The divinity I used to remake your body has already started to fuse with your soul. I can slow the process by removing you from this shell and putting you back in a holy one, but now that the process has started it’s only a matter of time before you reach full godhood. I’d say you’ve got maybe… a hundred years? And that’s assuming you don’t use any more divine magic.”

“That doesn’t sound bad,” Devilla replied cautiously. “A little… heavy, and I’m not entirely sure how to process it, but it doesn’t sound bad at least.”

“What about the ‘only going home temporarily’ thing, though?” Lucy asked, concern laced through her tone.

“Well… it’s just…”

“Gods can’t walk amidst mortals,” Luci said with a bitter laugh, seeming to recover a bit of spirit out of sheer spite. “Enjoy the next hundred years, because after that you’re going to be trapped up here.”

“I-it’s not that bad!” I assured Devilla hurriedly. “You can still watch the people below! And your girlfriends can join you! And we’ll talk a bunch! I’ll even teach you how to make your own world, so you can start feeding yourself and stuff down the line - not that you aren’t welcome to crash with me and your mom for as long as you need, of course! Just… you know, if you want to, for the future?”

“That’s… I think that’s something for future me to figure out,” Devilla replied, sounding dazed. “I’m… not entirely sure what to make of it, to be honest.”

“You can do an avatar, too!” I added. “Though it’s not really the same… sorta like squeezing into a too tight suit that covers your entire body and muffles all the sensations and… Yeah…”

“Later,” Devilla repeated, a little more firmly this time. “I’ll think about that later. For now, I think I want to… to see my mother.”

“Go for it,” I replied, gesturing towards Luci. A key on a necklace came up and out of her shirt, lifting off her head and floating over to Devilla. “It’s a skeleton key - should open anything in the house.”

“Appreciated,” Devilla murmured, before turning to her girlfriends. “Girls? Are you coming?”

“Of course!” Lucy replied.

“Like I’d leave you to face this alone,” Abigail all but snorted.

I smiled as they walked out of the throne room Luci had made. That smile vanished the moment they were out of sight and I turned towards Luci.

“They’re good kids, you know? You must have produced a pretty good bloodline if her and Grimmilla are what you have to show for it.”

“That was hardly my intent,” Luci said, her words soaked with bitterness and perhaps a touch of regret. “I simply needed the half breeds to keep my work going. Which they did, up until recently.”

“Pretty sure your daughter tried her best to screw you too, from what Doll said,” I replied. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have had to come up with that geas… You always did think people should just mindlessly obey anything you said, like it’s the natural state of things or something. But people are more complex than that. People are-”

“Insects!” Luci interrupted. “Livestock, at best, overgrown parasites at their worst. And my children are-”

“Angels,” I interrupted this time. “The children of angels are also full angels. I made sure of that. Didn’t want any of you watching your mortal kids dying, and I kinda figured we could always use more hands on deck…”

“They’re tainted by mortality!” Luci insisted. “You can see it in their arcane magic. It’s not something a proper angel wields, or needs. It’s-”

“Actually pretty cool, in my opinion,” I interrupted again. “I mean, it’s so flexible! Not that divine magic isn’t? Like, I can just will things into existence, but one stray thought and everything goes crazy. Arcane magic isn’t nearly as powerful, but it also can’t accidentally create or destroy dimensions just because you got a little distracted during your casting, so… you know, I think it’s a pretty cool thing to have. I’m almost jealous that Devilla can wield it.”

“...You would be,” Luci said, the bitterness draining from her voice. Everything was drained from her voice, in fact. She sounded defeated. “You always did love mortals… I think you’d actually be one if you could…”

“Maybe for a lifetime or two,” I replied. “Not permanently, though. Probably. Their lifespans are just way too short for everything I wanna do and see! I at least want to live long enough to see them come up with television, you know?”

“No,” Luci replied flatly. “I don’t. I don’t understand your fascination with them. Why you love them so - so much more than me? Why don’t you love me the way you love them?!”

“I do love you! Just… not in the way you want me to. You were like, my best friend. And a fuck buddy. Which was probably a mistake, looking back at it, but I figured it was just sex and I didn’t exactly build you guys with a lot of inhibitions in that regard, so… yeah…”

I sighed. “...I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Sorry?!” Luci demanded angrily. “Sorry for what?! For leading me on?! For leaving me alone, for a hundred years, while you went to your precious little coding camp?!”

“It would have been a lot less time if you’d slowed things down in heaven and Solla, like you were supposed to,” I pointed out, only to receive a glower. “Right… not the point. But yeah. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not realizing your feelings. I’m sorry for thinking things were okay with us when they weren’t. And I’m sorry… for failing you.”

“Failing me?” she asked blankly. “How? Other than all the ways you’ve already mentioned?”

“I failed you from the start,” I replied. “From the moment I created you. All of you. I popped you into existence as fully formed beings, and then just started treating you all as friends when you needed a leader and guidance—when you needed a foundation to build your lives upon. Someone you could trust to be there and solve your issues… I failed you. And now… now I have to make up for it.”

“‘Make up for it?’” Luci asked, flabbergasted. “How?”

“By taking responsibility,” I replied. “For you. For the angels. For everything…”

“So what?” she asked. “You’re going to take my punishment for me?”

“No…” I replied with a sigh. “But I might give Solla over to Devilla, as soon as I feel safe with it… this place deserves to have someone it can trust to look out for its best interests. I don’t know. We’ll see… All I can say for sure is that I’ll be doing better by her - and the Demon Queens you had trapped - then I did for you and the others. That I’ll try my best, same as I always have, but with a lot more understanding of what went wrong…”

“And why are you telling me this?” Luci demanded. “To rub it in my face that Devilla will have all the opportunities I never did? That you care more about the filthy half breed than me?”

“...I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I really don’t. I just… thought you deserved to know, I guess. Before the end.”

“...The end?”

“The end,” I repeated, closing my eyes. “I’m sorry, Luci. The other angels… I’ll have to decide on a case by case basis. Maybe some of them can still be redeemed. Maybe. Otherwise… Well, I might have to wipe them clean.”

“You mean killing them,” Luci accused. “Wiping their minds and erasing who they are.”

“...Yes,” I agreed solemnly, the words heavy on my tongue. 

“And what about me?” Luci asked. She tried to speak with confidence and bravado, but I could hear the undercurrent of fear in her voice. “The ringleader?” 

“I’m sorry, Luci,” I repeated.

There was no response.

There was no longer anyone to respond, as the glow around my hands faded. Not even a soul left to look upon. 

I opened my eyes to an empty room, and - alone, at last, without any of the people Luci had hurt around to witness it - I allowed myself to grieve.

I allowed myself to cry. Not for the woman who I’d killed, but for the friend I had lost… or perhaps never truly had. 

I don’t know how long I sat there. How long I cried alone in that room. Only that it ended eventually.

I stood up.

I walked over to the throne, pressing a button upon its armrest to lift a screen and produce a holographic keyboard. Keying in my credentials, it was easy enough to log in and find the right program.

The one for world-wide broadcasts.

No matter how upset I was, no matter how fake the smile or cheer in my voice would be, it was time for an announcement. 

It was time for change.

~~~

Author'sNotes

Many thanks, as always, to FallingLeaf for editing! He helped make the chapter a bit more somber, while keeping just a touch of the humor on Devilla's side. It was a good change, in my opinion - for as much fun as Liz normally likes to have, this is a moment of great seriousness to her.

I know at least some people out there expected Luci to be spared, and redeemed in the long run. It would have been nice - and I can see why people would expect it, considering the generally light tone of this series - but at the same time, it would have felt almost disrespectful to everyone who's died or otherwise suffered at her hands, over these last two thousand years. In Liz's eyes, at the very least, she'd gone past the point of no return quite a while back.

Two more chapters left, including the epilogue. Hope to see you next time as we get ever closer to the ending! (Of course, if you're impatient, you could always go over to Patreon and read ahead~! That said chapters aren't edited, yet, and I do intend some slight changes to the epilogue at a minimum, so if you've held on this long you really might as well just wait... Unless you're interested in learning about/reading the start of the sequel, anyway! Or reading ahead in my other works, such as Naughty Magic and Heart of Fey and Fire.)
PS: Who here thinks Liz making an announcement on her own is a good idea? Anyone? I mean, I'm sure it'll be fine... right?