Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System-Chapter 290 - Confronting On All Fronts - Part 2

'I should leave this place or I'm bound to be pulled into more of their me-' Amidst her moment of contemplation, a strong beam of white light burst behind Merciella, illuminating her whole room.

Turning to the sudden phenomenon, she was greeted by an enraged dragoness in her fiery warrior form. Retracting her wings, Rose moved closer to the demon lord with not the slightest hint of reluctance in her eyes. Had it been any other man or a woman coming face to face with a notorious demon lord, they would've been wise to keep their distance instead of shortening it further with a mocking display of insolence.

"About what happened today," standing towering over the mistress of greed, Rose looked down at her with a deep scowl. "What are you hiding?" 𝒃𝙚𝒅𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒆𝒍．𝙘𝒐𝙢

Rolling her eyes, Merciella crossed her arms leaning sideways, and then looked up into Rose's eyes. The tired, droopy expression on her face relayed how she felt about answering more questions; since now more than ever, she wanted to retreat to her domain, and never to return to Hestemia.

"I've told you already, he showed up through a portal with all those bodies and fainted in front of me and that's all I know," she tried to lie her way out of the situation, but Rose wasn't going to have it today, especially not after someone from their group had died.

Wearing a smile oh so smug, Rose reached for Merciella with her charred fingers streaming with lava. Resting a single nail on Merciella's chin, she smiled while slowly cutting into her skin and trailing the nail down to her throat. Her blood sizzled from the heat, Merciella tried to push away the dragoness, but failed miserably, and only stumbled back herself.

"A paper doll like you would burn nicely in my flames," As Rose warned the mistress of greed, her smile was replaced with scorn again. "How about you spit out the truth before I burn you out of existence? Hmm, what do you say?"

Taking yet another step closer, Rose grabbed Merciella's shoulders to keep her from escaping. Feeling the burn on her skin, the demon lord felt her heart race with angst. Even if she tried to escape by shifting into strips of paper, Rose would easily burn her down, and turn her body into ash.

'Reya's portal would've been my best bet, but she…' Hit with the realization that she couldn't rely on the currently unconscious demon lords, Merciella let out a defeated sigh and finally gave in.

"Fine…" Taking yet another step away from Rose, she shut her eyes for a moment before looking back up. "I was asked not to spread the news, but if it comes between my life and a half-hearted promise, I think my only choice is obvious."

"Go on then, tell me everything you know," conjuring up a throne of flames, Rose leaned back into it and settled down at Merciella's eyes level.

Looking right at the dragoness, Merciella rolled her eyes once again and began retelling her everything that had happened after Haruki sneaked up on them in Inferno's training ground back on the battlefield in Scorchen Gaia.

***

A few days passed and the rumors of the emperor's demise as Dominion was slowly gaining hold of the forces made their way towards Hestemia. The pressure on all war fronts was getting more intense than ever.

"He's most likely dead," Inferno said to the gathered council.

Unlike the time with Fay, Asuka, the demi-cats, and even Rose were present in the room to assess the situation from everyone's point of view. Still, at the head of them all, Margarette had grown quite impatient with each passing day it took and Haruki not waking up.

"So none of you three saw him die, but this Valkyrie, Helga could've killed him?" Margarette asked, trying to understand the situation now that the demon lords have finally awakened after so long.

"Yeah, she…Well, she took us all down in one hit, that should speak for itself in terms of strength," Deus chimed in from his seat at the sidelines.

"Worst part of it all, I think their weapons have weakened us," holding her hand forward, Reya tried to conjure up a portal but all that came out was flying silver sparks. "I-I feel like crying, it took me so long to…"

Overcome with emotions, Reya pressed her lips shut before her tears overpower her. Drawing her hand back to her chest, she held it over her heart and tried to calm herself with a deep sigh. As she slowly began to feel better, she turned her gaze back to Margarette to add something more.

"Those tridents held by Valkyries drain your strength the longer they are stuck in you, getting hit with them in battle would be the worst," done relaying the information, Reya clutched her teddy bear tight.

"Let me have a look at your soul after the meeting. Perhaps the trident burned parts of it and that's what's causing the loss of strength," Fay advised, offering her help.

Even though she'd not been completely forgiven by everyone just yet, she'd been put back on the council due to her extensive knowledge of the soul and all kinds of magical oddities.

"Really?" With her eyes wide open, Reya stared at Fay.

"I can try and fix it, but let's not get off topic for the moment," keeping the conversation going, Fay turned to Margarette to discuss something far more important. "If the emperor is dead, and Dominion is taking over, that'll explain why he's focusing so much on the interior of the empire instead of Scorchen Gaia and Feral lands."

"You're right, but our numbers are barely holding on so there's not much we can do at the moment," although Margarette knew she could always make use of the human prisoners trapped in the cities, the very fact that she had to rely on them was getting a bit worrying. "We have, at most a week before the borders fall, and even with the help from the humans, the population in the empire has dropped to perhaps a few thousand."

'The war has drained the world's population, and if it keeps going we'd be bringing our own demise with nobody left to enjoy the promised safety.' Rummaging through her thoughts, Margarette was getting quite worried about the aftermath of this war, after all, if nobody was left alive when it's over then what was the point of these battles?

"We still have a large amount of children's population living under Moriyana's illusion that everything's fine, but without Haruki, we can't visit them in tormentous dungeon," with that said, Margarette felt hopeless about everything that was happening.

The sudden opening of the door pulled her out of her gloom, however, as she turned to the gates, her hopelessness was replaced with a mic of shock and fear.

"Master?!" Asuka exclaimed, rushing towards Haruki the moment she saw him.

***

While the meeting took place in the castle hall, Haruki was left all alone in his room with nobody but Moriyana's frozen body cased inside a box of glass. Waking up to the sight of her laying on the other end of the room, Haruki to some degree figured out what might've happened and how he got to Hestemia.

'She decided to make a move finally after Moriyana was dead?' Enraged, he gritted his teeth and formed up a fist trying to suppresses his emotion. Getting off the bed, he moved towards the bedded platform over which Moriyana was encased. 'I did everything as planned but still…Why the hell does this happen every time?'

No matter how many precautions he took or what he tried, in the face of pure strength be it Asmodia's or Atlas's, he's always lost. Even his fight against Inferno went pretty much the same despite the ability to shift into a dragon.

"Why am I still so weak? Have I not done enough? I've drained most kingdoms in the empire and yet there's always someone who comes along and fucks it all up!" Slamming his fist on the glass, he made it crack. Worried about it getting broken, Haruki moved a few steps away from it. "I guess this is the problem, isn't it?"

Looking at the crack, Haruki felt as though he was looking at the very reflection of conscience. Whenever something went wrong, or when someone got hurt, he always tried to amend the wounds left behind by the hurt.

"I'm clinging onto humanity in a world that has forgotten what it means to be one! And why the fuck do I care for the lives of these so called humans or anyone else for that matter?" Reminding himself of all those who'd left him defeated in dust, Haruki had begun to recognize something all of them possessed. Thinking about it for a while, his finger dug into his skull and his mind was slowly corrupted by the darkness he'd spent everyday suppressing.

'I need to be a monster or else this will happen again!' From Asmodia to Atlas, he'd seen them all go to all kinds of extreme lengths to achieve whatever it was that they wanted to achieve, and looking back on it, his restraint to do the same was building up to be his biggest weakness.

"Asmodia, if you're listening to me right now," drawing a deep breath, Haruki braced himself for what he was about to commit to. "I need your help killing everyone with any amount of strength in this stupid fucking world…"

For a moment there was no response, and Haruki assumed she was sleeping inside, but then as he turned to the gates, Asmodia's voice trailed into his ears.

"Atlas is dead and so is the creator, devour this world for all I care, but then keep your promise and kill me as well," She whispered.

"You don't have to tell me, you'd be the first to die if I didn't have any use for you," saying that Haruki marched out the door to find the others, and ultimately joined the meeting that he didn't know about just yet.