The Demon Against the Heavens 107 A smile

One battle field, two lines-up.

Helial immediately recognized Jeanne, Perion the giant, and the young Siche as they fought by the side of the Devil with huge terrifying bat wings. Around the youngster, the world seemed to have lost its color.

On the other side thrived a shiny blooming world instead. A woman, whose golden hair seemed to shine of their own light in the wind, was facing the Devil fearlessly. Her eyes were firmly fixed on his. Her ethereal beauty was that of a goddess. Her majestic Aura rouse her up from the earthly filth. She was the woman leading the forces of Life. All around her, the ground was scattered with piles of dead bodies. They had been split into two by the pair of candid swords she wielded.

Everything was silent.

A suffocating silence grabbed the throats of those standing there. At that point, they were but the mere spectators of the direst scene.

A severe, melancholy expression hung on the survivors' faces as their eyes lay on the dead bodies of their friends. The young Devil though wore a warm happy smile.

Siche walked towards her master and whispered: "Today is the day, master?"

The terrifying creature turned, smiled, and nodded shortly.

"My little Siche. I've raised you. You are the very first pupil I've trained all the way down to Immortality. And now you'll be the one taking my place and bringing our forces to victory. But I want to apologize to you all. For how powerful I am, I still wasn't able to prevent our brothers and sisters from dying."

When his words died out, the Devil nodded his head and warned her to walk away. These words were his goodbye.

Two warm streaks of tears streamed down Siche's cheeks. That was a feeling she had hoped she would never experience again. She hadn't cried since her one true love Sore died. Since she razed to the ground the Clan of Immortals who had torn her greatest happiness off of her forever. Ever since, she had felt she had no more tears left to cry.

She shed no tears when dozens of her fellows lost their life in combat. And yet, in that very moment, an icy grip seized her heart.

That Devil was unique. Nobody felt the same urge to improve themselves as fiercely as he did. He had stained himself in many races' blood to protect Siche and his pupils. He ran the army of Destruction in combat, he had shielded them with his body against the blows struck by the Life army, which had severely injured both their bodies and souls.

Siche knew perfectly well that was the last time she's see her master. She just couldn't come to terms with this. As she saw him right in front of her, smiling warmly at her, another tear streaked her cheek. The smile wouldn't disappear from his face, as if that war meant nothing to him, as if that was yet another challenge he would win.

"My war ends today." The Devil declared to his disciples. "Don't let this weight on your hearts, though. I will live in everything I have taught to you. As long as the last of you honors my memory, death won't find its way to me. But now it's time to say goodbye, dickheads. My stupidity only caused you one disgrace after another."

Then he turned to face the gaze of the woman standing before him. "Today is the day this war ends, Amaterasu. Now, make your decision. You can either blow to pieces your Daos of Mana and Meridians, or fall into despair and oblivion. My mercy has been pushed to the limit. Mercy and limit; here's two words you madmen know nothing about!"

The Devil's speech was tyrannical. The eyes of all the Destruction members standing behind him sparkled with pride. Their leader - their master - had always fought in the front line. Never had he backed off. Even an Ancestral Creature like Kirin, hidden in the shadow of Amaterasu, would merely look like a whipped dog before him.

Amaterasu spoke.

Her crystal-clear voice shattered the tense silence. The voice of the Goddess of Life released the tension gripping the souls of her soldiers.

"How can you not get how profound and sacred is our purpose? How can't you tell what's right from what's wrong? Iblis, a genius like you should join us and leave behind those beasts that follow you."

"Well said, my daughter!" These words came from a middle-aged man whose facial features seemed to betray a boundless wisdom. "Those slobs from Destruction only aim to turn the universe upside down to freely play around! We've got to teach to those dirty swine what-"

"QINGUANG!" Iblis boomed out. "Don't you dare speak. Don't you ever, ever speak to me, you damned soul! Crawl back behind the shadow of your daughter. It's only place where you can feel safe that my hands won't rip your filthy body in pieces. First thing I'll do when I put my hands on you is tear out the tongue you denied your own flesh and blood with."

The Devil stopped and tried to keep his cool. Then he wore again his typical sardonic smile and gazed ahead of himself. "Amaterasu, the only thing you inherited from your father is his blind folly. But I can't wait for you to come to your senses forever. Today is the day. The forces of Life will be wiped out, and you'll come with me. I have the eternity to talk you out of madness."

Iblis' Aura spread out and froze the entire battle field. The Devil took a step forward.

Thump

The images flashing before Vidio blurred and cracked.

Thump

The web of cracks expanded rapidly. The vision was shattered to pieces.

The fragments began to revolved as they glistened with different images. In many of them, the Devil was busy fighting strenuously. He was drenched in blood, but he wouldn't stop pushing back the enemy.

In one of the fragments, Iblis was fighting with Amaterasu. The huge black Longsword was blocking the blows of Amaterasu's two candid swords. Their wings were as in striking contrast as the clash they experienced; Iblis' bat wings and Amaterasu's creamy angel wings embodied the very concept of that conflict. The sight of them fighting was mesmerizing.

In another fragment, Iblis was walking with his usual heavy footsteps.

Thump

Slower and slower. As if the giant slowed it down on purpose, just to witness the death of his master one more time.

Thump

Amaterasu was ready to fight.

Iblis stopped.

"The heaven will come off with me." The Devil's two hands seemed to grab the sky and tear it apart. His pupils stared at him, a lump in their throat. They knew perfectly well there was nothing they could do to stop him. "You'll never find me. I won't get in your way if you look for me, though. I know you're a bunch of pig-headed dickheads…"

Then, Iblis pulled the sky down. He ripped off its veil as though he was merely holding a worn out fabric. Many thought besides the war, life too was about to come to an end.

From the Devil's point of view, no creature was worthy step by his side. In a world with no sky therein, couldn't shine no sun. If the sky was undone, nothing would be left but darkness. Iblis would become the king of the nightfall.

The gash rippled the very fabric of space and time. The folds of the vault ceiling filled with stars cracked open.

Iblis disappeared with a smile on his face. The satisfied smile of who has purposely done something really wrong.

The vision shattered and dissolved in a rain of white lotus petals. As they glided down, Perion finally spoke again.

"Nobody has seen him ever since. Nor could Amaterasu's pupils find her. Both parties long traveled in pursuit of them, down to the universe's far ends.

"The loss of our master was a heavy one. He had raised us, trained us, taken care of us. And he had promised he would stay with us until the end of time. We believed in this promise with all out heart."

Two big tears swelled up in Perion's eyes and streaked his cheeks. "But Iblis, my master, he had been suffering too excruciatingly. He had lost pupils who were like children to him, and his Clan had been wiped out. Very few people still followed him. Amongst them was Tsukuyomi, one of the few who has always trusted him just by relying on his word. But Tsukuyomi suffered as well. The one who caused her the worst pain was Amaterasu, her sister. And yet, every time our master fought against Amaterasu, he would flash her of a true warm smile.

"Iblis had gone through a lot of pain because of Amaterasu, but he would always find relief when staring at his one true love. Iblis has never fought without a smile. Common mortals won't get what's so great about a love that leads you to sacrifice everything you have. Sometimes even the life of your dearest friends.

"But we, the members of Destruction, are no common mortals. We have no cheap hearts. We grasped all the worth of his feelings. After all, it was the same kind of love he had given us; the unconditional love Iblis would only embrace. We respected this, despite the fact the we knew that our master was strong enough to defeat Amaterasu. Yeah, exactly. Iblis was far stronger than Amaterasu. But he couldn't, he wouldn't kill her. In the very end, he didn't dare thrust her with his Longsword, and took her with him instead. Nobody knows where.

He himself had formed the army of Destruction. He raised the most terrifying Immortals that have ever stepped on this world. His generals would make everyone amongst our ranks turn pale. He deprived himself of everything…"

Perion went on unfolding stories about Iblis' deeds. He told Vidio about his endless slaughters, of that time when he stopped Qinguang from killing his daughter Tsukuyomi, who had refused to fight with the Devil.

Suddenly, a blinding light erupted before the eyes of Helial and Vidio. A few moments later, new images appeared. These weren't war episodes though. They were love scenes.

A youngster with pitch-black hair and a young woman with angelic features were running down a field touched by sunrays. They were chasing each other. Then, tired, they lay on the soft grass. The night fell, bringing along the shining stars.

Iblis and Amaterasu were playing, joking, bickering. Their eyes betrayed a clear mutual affection. The images carried a great harmony, as if the sky could only exist if those two lovers were together.

Iblis and Amaterasu had once been able to speak without any hostile tone. Countless years before, the Devil could gaze at her intently in the eyes and wear the only beaming smile he had been capable of in a lifetime.

It was that smile - the only he had allowed himself, the one that caused him a life of pain - that eventually led him to take the final step and end the war. The smile that would grow on his face when he saw her was worth all the wars, the carnages, and the suffering that followed.

"My master could never renounce to that smile Amaterasu would bring to his face. Because, for how hard he tried, he'd never found anything else that was worth living for."

The image dissolved. Silence fell.

Chapter end