“ARIL. Sabala.”

The Obscurity’s eyes snapped to an angel at the side of the grand doors leading into the Transcendent. She had dark skin with an unnatural glow to it, white hair so short, it was merely a fuzz. Three pairs of wings originated from her back, all pointed to the sky, a silver staff gleaming in her hand. She wore a white, flowing dress that ended before her knees. A male similar to her stood at the other side of the doors.

Alice and Angelica dropped to kneel on one knee, right fists pressed to the floor and heads bowed.

The female angel tilted her head. “Get up, both of you. Why is this… human here? You both know the procedure.”

Angelica, back on her feet, stared at the floor. “Yes, but this is urgent.”

“So urgent you would desecrate the Transcendent with the presence with this thing? Sabala, I urge you to remember why we even have the procedure. The only reason I haven’t called for an Authority is because I can sense something from that. What is it?”

The Obscurity ignored the “thing” remark, focusing on “Sabala”. It made sense that Angelica and Alice’s names would be as they were on Earth.

Sabala and “Alice” exchanged a glance, Sabala then opening her mouth to speak. “Inside this human lies The Obscurity.”

Sabala looked like she wanted to say something more, but the unknown angel pushed past them and right up to The Obscurity, the male angel stepping forward as well. They pressed their now white fire-blazing staffs right up to The Obscurity as she leaned back, heart pounding. She couldn’t help the squeak that escaped her.

“What possessed you to bring it here? Don’t you know what that abomination would do to The Creator if it got the chance?” the female angel said.

Sabala stood behind the angels, hands in midair as if she wanted to restrain the angel but couldn’t. “It’s not what you think - she's just a human! The Obscurity got into her head somehow, but she's kept it at Bay. If anyone can get The Obscurity out of her, it's The Creator."

The female angel slowly turned to face Sabala, spear still pointed at The Obscurity. "You dare even suggest putting the Creator in danger just so this human can live?" She took a deep breath as her wings flared the same fire as her spear. "Sabala, Aril, right now you have two options: one - kill this human, or two - send her to the Authorities. Choose quickly - the longer she stands here the more I'm tempted to end this right now."

"I'll send her to the Authorities," was Sabala's instant response. Aril grimaced but didn't say anything against it.

The female angel sighed. "As you like. Now get her off of here. I must purify the entryway."

Sabala nodded, grabbing The Obscurity's hand and pulling her along. The Obscurity tensed but didn't pull away. Aril followed a few steps behind. She had been too distracted before, but The Obscurity now noticed that Sabala's hair was white, as it had been when she'd fought the demon. Glancing behind her, Aril's hair was white as well.

Not for the first time, she wondered why they had white hair in the first place. All angels had white hair, white eyes, and wore white clothing, but why? Using Neve's knowledge and memory, it seemed that only elderly on Earth had white hair so stark. And no one had white eyes. People did wear white clothes, but not exclusively. So why did angels?

And why weren't there any angels walking about? There were several different shaped buildings surrounding her, but they looked like facilities rather than houses. They passed at least a dozen of the buildings before they got to a row of massive domes, a circular hump with the outline of doors sticking out of each. Sabala pressed her hand to one of the doors. The thick doors parted with a clank.

That was when The Obscurity really started to wonder what they were doing. They were now in a small, white space, empty, save for the pale flame that flickered in the corner. Stairs lay at both corners of the room, and she had a feeling that they went to the top of the dome. In front of them was another outline of doors, faint snarls and growls emanating from inside. It wasn't too hard to realize what this place was. Demons were kept here, either to be punished or killed.

Then she remembered she was supposed to be acting like Neve.

"W-What is this place? What's inside of there?" she said with a shaky voice, trembling.

Sabala slid her hand out of The Obscurity's, pursing her lips. "I promise you'll be fine. You just have to stay here for a little while."

Before The Obscurity could say anymore, Sabala splayed her hand on one door and it clanked open.

Sabala shoved her in.

The Obscurity screamed as the doors shut and she fell into a pile of her own creations.

She hadn't figured out whether the demons would sense The Obscurity within Neve or tear Neve's body apart.

And even if they sensed The Obscurity, they might still mutilate her body.

But instead of immediately attacking her, the demons backed a good distance away from her.

Then one stepped forward.

Long claws scraped the floor as it drew near, bulging black eyes unnerving.

Yet beautiful. She recognized the demon as the one she had been most taken to after she'd created it.

The only one she'd ever named - Anlach.

It may have recognized her. On all four legs, Anlach was about as tall as her, give or take a few inches. And when it was so close that its eyes were only a few inches away from hers, The Obscurity couldn't help her shiver of fear. It opened its mouth, revealing a multitude of long teeth. She dared not turn or back away, knowing all that waited for her were more demons.

It took a large breath through the mouth. It reminded her that it smelled through its mouth.

After all those decades locked up, she'd forgotten.

Anlach's depthless eyes stared into hers for another minute, and for a second, she was sure it would eat her. Instead, it turned to the other demons and gave a strangled howl.

The other demons stepped cautiously toward her, sniffing at her. Most stared at her after sniffing, but there were a few that lunged, mouths open to bare their teeth.

Anlach took care of the ones that attacked her, and her heart warmed at the gesture. It had been decades, nearly a century, since The Obscurity had felt like this. Like she belonged. And even all those decades ago, she hadn't been able to feel quite like this. She hadn't had the capability to feel such. Every feeling she'd felt before had been riddled with bad intentions.

Everything good had been bad. And everything bad had been good.

It took a bit, but before long, all of the demons had sniffed her and were either staring at her or trying to nuzzle her. Most of them eventually went back to sitting or standing and snarling and growling. Anlach continued to nudge her. The Obscurity pet his flaky head… why was it flaky? Black flecks shed off of his gray skin. The last time The Obscurity had seen Alach, his skin had been smooth with light fur. Why was he flaking?

That was when she noticed the floor, which was covered in specks of black. She glanced around and saw that a lot of the demons were shedding pieces of black as well.

Her creations, which she’d thought were immortal… were falling to pieces. Slowly—so slowly it would take decades for them to completely disperse—but surely falling apart. She slid her hand down Anlach’s neck. As she reached his back, she felt a faint pulse beneath it. His soul.

The Creator had given The Obscurity a bit of creation only a few years after their separation. The moment she had touched the creation, she tainted it with herself: darkness. She had used the tainted creation to create Abaddon, The Netherworld, and her demons. She'd taken off a piece of creation to use as the soul of her demons, then created the body of the demons around the soul, using more creation to do such. She'd done similarly with the worlds.

At the time, she'd noticed that she had to perpetually give very tiny amounts of darkness to her creations to keep their form. It hadn't bothered her, especially not when The Creator had locked her up. She'd had bigger things to worry about then, and she'd figured that her darkness would continue to be given to the demons, even if that didn't make much sense.

Clearly, that hadn't happened, which meant that her worlds were also falling apart.

And it was all The Creator's fault.

Her eyes widened, teeth gritting and hand tensing on Anlach's back. She took in deep breaths to calm herself down, even as tears formed in her eyes.

She scanned the room, wanting to hurt someone, needing to hurt someone - her eyes caught on the angels, the Authorities, stationed at the four corners of the room, and a treacherous idea formed in her head. She stepped closer to Anlach and wrapped her arms around him, blinking back tears at what she was about to do. Closing her eyes, she felt his soul and imagined it, gray and fizzling.

And she took it.

Anlach dissolved beneath her fingers. Creation and darkness gathered into her hand. She didn't give the rest of the demons time to do anything, using Anlach's being to gather their creation.

It didn't even take a minute.

When the Authorities noticed what she was doing, they leapt at her, spears brimming with white fire. At last, she let her anger do the work, darkness lashing at the angels like a whip. But the Authorities used their spears to guard themselves, and The Obscurity soon found them too close for comfort.

She only had to flick her fingers, and it was over.

The darkness stabbed into the four Authorities, all of their spears clattering on the ground. They stared at her with wide eyes before her darkness tainted them, and they all turned into creation.

Her dark creation.

Even without it being a part of her, The Obscurity felt the weight of the Authorities's creation as if it were. The creation of the four Authorities combined made her demons feel like nothing.

Unsurprisingly, considering that The Creator was filled to the brim with creation.

Despite the loss of her demons, The Obscurity smiled.

The Creator wouldn't know what was coming to him.

After ransacking the ten domes for the demons's and the Authorities's creation, The Obscurity stepped back into the light, a mass of darkness at her side.

It was time to finally claim her full being back.

It was time to go back to Abaddon.