The Demon King's Guide To Not Getting Defeated By A Paladin-Chapter 36 - 35: The Shatterglass Sky

The wind was too soft.

Asami blinked hard against the glare, her boots crunching over the ruined earth, glass crunching beneath every step. A wasteland stretched around them in all directions—barren, yet strangely beautiful. Crystalline shards jutted from the cracked ground like fossilized lightning, some floating gently midair as if time had forgotten them. The sky was impossibly blue, serene even... and crowned with not one, but two crescent moons that hung opposite each other like mirrored commas. She walked in silence at first. So did Quinn and Lilith. Each step was deliberate, cautious.

She should’ve been more shaken. After what they’d seen, what had exploded out of Lilith, what broke reality itself like a cheap glass pane. But instead, Asami’s insides hummed with something dangerous curling beneath her skin.

Her eyes darted to Lilith, who walked a few paces ahead, strands of her brown hair lifting in the breeze. There was a calmness to her—too much calmness. After summoning that, how was she even functioning?

Asami didn’t trust it.

Didn’t trust the way Lilith walked without tension. Didn’t trust the way she didn’t look back. Or the way that ancient being—the Custodian—had simply appeared and then vanished without even brushing a claw against them. Asami’s fingers twitched at her sides.

Something was off about that girl. Something old. And she hadn’t figured it out before because she’d been too busy brushing her off as a wildcard. But you don’t summon gods and just keep walking.

Asami’s boots kicked up a swirl of dust and floating specks of glass. Her gaze flicked to the horizon. The land here was flat, mostly, but riddled with jutting obsidian columns of mirror-like material. They seemed to hum with a low frequency, and the way they reflected the moons gave the eerie illusion that they were being watched.

"Anyone else getting the vibe that we’re walking through a fever dream?" Quinn muttered, shielding his eyes as he glanced at a floating sheet of glass above them.

"Your dreams look like this?" Asami replied, quirking a brow. "You might need therapy."

"Two moons. Floating glass. The scent of burning air. Yeah. This is either dream logic or we’re inside a cursed snow globe."

Lilith didn’t respond. She was still walking like she knew where she was going. That annoyed Asami.

"Hey," Asami finally called, picking up her pace. "Just where are we?"

Lilith turned slightly, then glanced at the others before saying, "Some call it a Fold. A Junction. It’s where spaces cross. Realms collide. Memories leak into places they shouldn’t. Magic forgets the rules here."

Quinn blinked. "So... this is a glitch in the universe?"

"Something like that," Lilith said lightly. "But it’s also a shortcut, if you know how to read it."

"...You summoned a beast that shattered time and flung us into an interdimensional shortcut?" Asami’s tone was flat.

Lilith gave her a little shrug. "You’re welcome."

Asami clenched her jaw. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Lilith was too casual about this. Too easy in the aftermath of divine annihilation. And Asami didn’t like being upstaged, especially not by someone who could summon that and choose not to use it. That’s what truly got her. That restraint. She couldn’t decide if it was power... or fear.

They walked in silence again, until Asami couldn’t take it. Her eyes locked on a tall, floating blade of glass that hovered in place, shimmering with captured light like a window to nowhere.

She charged lightning into her palm. It buzzed across her skin like a warning. And then, she hurled it. The bolt slammed into the glass with a whipcrack, and instead of shattering cleanly, the shard swallowed it. Ripples radiated across its surface before it burst open, fracturing into a swirling hole in the air.

Everyone froze.

The portal showed something. Dark. Gray. A place dead of color or sound. Dead trees curled against ash-covered ground, and crooked towers leaned like dying men in prayer. It wasn’t just scary. It was old. Wrong. A memory that shouldn’t exist.

Quinn exhaled slowly. "What the hell is that?"

Lilith stepped closer, eyes narrowing. "The Fold is layered. Every realm that’s ever touched it left behind pieces. That’s one of them."

"And if we go through?" Asami asked.

"Could be anything. Time. Place. Death." Lilith looked over her shoulder. "But if we want to get home, we have to picture the thread. Picture where we belong, and let the Fold guide us."

"That’s romantic," Asami said dryly. "Or, hear me out—we could just destroy this place. Piece by piece."

Quinn gave her a side-eye. "And what? Get stuck in void-purgatory because your glass-shattering impulse kicked in again?"

"Don’t tempt me, Blue Eyes."

He smirked. "You wish you could tempt me."

Lilith rolled her eyes and pointed ahead. "That ridge—see it? There’s a clearer thread there. I think that’s our way out."

Asami grumbled, but she followed. They moved through the strange terrain, passing pillars of mirror-glass that pulsed with magic. The sky dimmed slightly, and the two moons bled silver over everything. Finally, just over a jagged cliff edge, they saw it: A spiral gate. Floating midair, woven of glass, light, and fire. The portal home.

Lilith stepped forward. "Ready?"

Quinn adjusted his coat. "Define ready."

Asami didn’t answer. She just walked.

***

Asami landed first.

Boots hitting wood. Sword clanging beside her. The portal behind her shimmered and vanished with a low hum, leaving behind only dust motes. She blinked at the familiar walls. It was their Guild Hall.

Warm but not empty.

Ares was sitting in his chair, one leg slung casually over the other, face buried in a thick paperback. His brows were furrowed. Not with stress—but... interest?

Asami narrowed her eyes and her gaze sharpened. That was not a mission report. That cover had lace.

And muscle.

And a lot of very obvious positioning.

Her jaw slackened. "...Are you reading erotica?"

Ares didn’t even glance up. "It’s for research."

Quinn emerged behind her, coughing as he looked around. "Gods, it smells normal again. No glass floating. No scary monsters."

Ares slowly looked up from his book. "Ah. You’re alive."

Lilith followed, her boots quiet on the wood. "Barely."

Ares raised a brow. "You all look like hell."

"Thanks," Asami muttered.

"What happened?" Ares asked, now sliding a bookmark into his... book and tucking it under the chair.

Quinn rubbed the back of his neck. "We fought someone who used the Catalyst."

Asami added, "Lilith summoned a godly monster and broke a dimension."

Lilith smiled, unbothered. "Technically bent it. Not broke."

Ares just sighed and muttered, "Good thing you’re alive, then." He stood up, brushing off his coat. "No rest, by the way. We’re closer to finding the Barons. The threads are tightening."

Asami’s eyes gleamed. "How close?"

Ares winked. "Closer than your lightning strike was to that glass."

She flushed. "You saw that?"

"I see everything."

Quinn groaned. "We’re doomed."

Ares clapped his hands together. "But no more apocalypses for today. Tonight..." he grinned, "we celebrate."

Lilith frowned. "Celebrate what?"

"You surviving the Catalyst." He looked at each of them. "Dinner’s on me. Real food. Real clothes. Real wine. Dress like royalty."

Asami crossed her arms. "You paying for all of it?"

Ares raised a brow. "Did I stutter?"

Quinn smirked. "Hot damn. I’m getting the lobster."

Asami tilted her head. "I’m getting the private booth and a second sword."

Lilith just laughed. And for the first time since they’d fallen into madness... things felt almost normal.

Almost.