“I... I don’t know what to think anymore, Ira...” The words only barely escaped Mora’s lips from behind the hands which hid her face. “I feel like everything up to this point has been a lie.”

Placing a hand on her younger sister’s head, “Lies are a means to an end to those from whom they originate, Mora. If you can now see clearly these lies, you are one step closer to the truth you wish to find.”

Mora fell to her knees in embarrassment of everything she had both done and believed up to this point. “I’m so sorry, sister. I had never wished for any of this.” She looked up at Ira from below, “The things I have done to you -- the words I have said about you... I am far from forgiveness for these sins of mine.”

Beyond the tears that had begun to flow down Ira’s face, she shook her head. “That’s not true, my sister.”

The stagnant air of the mausoleum seemed to have become oddly refreshing during this time. It may as well have been the loving embrace of their dearly departed father who rested behind the two of them. Though gone as he was, his soul still longed for the bonds of those whom he cared for.

“They’re in here!” A voice called from outside the crypt, breaking up the long overdue reconciliation.

Mora seemed startled at the sudden announcement.

“Lilith’s Legion of Wrath.” Ira calmly spoke.

An unnamed soldier in bone armor walked downward into the mausoleum. “Ira, please come with us. Mistress Lilith is awaiting your return.” Three others stood behind him in a watchful formation.

Ira extended a hand to her little sister, “Let’s go, Mora,” and helped her off the cold, stone floor. Before departing, both Ira and Mora stopped and turned around to get one last look at their father’s sarcophagus. Ira’s lips had moved, but no sound came out -- only the motions of what looked like a gentle “Thank you.”

The party of six walked back toward Belzar’s rally point with two soldiers in the front and two in the rear, to maximize the security of Ira and Mora in the middle. The mausoleum they had been in was located about 800 meters from Erelia’s estate on the outskirts of the city.

This side of the city had long been regarded as sacred ground due the dead being buried and held in exaltation here, and the trees and foliage of the grove seemed to go unchecked in these parts.

They had only been on their path for about 10 minutes before they had begun to hear rustling in the leaves and bushes.

“What the hell?” As one of the soldiers turned around he had noticed the two rear-guards had gone missing. He immediately turned to the next man beside him, but he too was gone. All that had remained was a single soldier of Lilith’s legion and the two girls.

The rustling in the bushes had once again resumed.

Ira, Mora, and the soldier turned toward the noise in a readied stance. Their expectations had been betrayed as the next sound would have come from behind them.

It fell to the earth as it was tossed from a distance. One bounce, then two, only to be stopped at their feet as it rolled. It was the head of one of the rear-guards.

Ira knelt down briefly, before looking back up at the two. “One of his ears is missing...”

Time seemed to have slowed into a near halt at that moment. A massive carving knife cleanly separated the head of the last remaining soldier from his neck, spraying a fine mist of blood all over Ira and Mora.

The knife was held by a giant man, his body shrouded under a bear’s pelt and a string of trophy ears dangling from around his neck. The only defining feature on his tanned face, were the scars that gauged across his skin.

Ira looked over at Mora. Mora reciprocated, both of them nodding in synchronization. The two sisters darted in opposite directions in an attempt to divert the enemy who stood before them.

“Now!” Mora commanded her older sister.

The ground encircling the man burst with a vortex of iron, wrapping around his body as a serpent would constrict its prey.

No matter how tightly the chains coiled him, he seemed unphased.

“Hmm...” Looking down at his ensnarement, the man began to flex his entire body, “Not good enough.”

“WHAT?!” Ira and Mora both visibly and audibly expressed their shock as the entirety of their strength was easily overwhelmed, watching the links of their chains shatter.

Leaving no time wasted, he hurtled to his left flank and with the blunt hilt of his knife, cracked the side of Mora’s skull and tossed her body across the span at Ira’s feet.

Raising her eyes up from her sister, Ira gazed beneath the pelt that shrouded most of the man’s face. “You bastard...”

This beast of a human started to charge down the path straight toward Ira.

Ira ran to the side and continued to evade him. “WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” With every step the man took, she unleashed at least ten more barbed spears. “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?!”

There was no acknowledgment of Ira’s fit of rage outside of unbridled aggression.

“GET AWAY FR--” She stopped.

The man’s advancement was halted when his pelt was ripped off of his back. With an expression that emanated fury, he cracked his neck.

“Heh... To think I would have this much trouble hunting one little rabbit...”

The man began to grow in size, patches of fur emerging from his brown skin. What was once a human was now a beast, casting a shadow down over the girl below it.

Looking up at this monster in fear, the last words Ira heard before being swiped in the face came from an inhumanly deep, raspy voice, “Good night.”

                                                               ●

The door to the estate opened and a wicked smile to rival that of Lilith’s was behind it. No longer in her usual attire, she was dressed in all black leather armor and black cloth with her hair tied behind her in a ponytail.

There was a certain air of audacity behind her strut as she walked out the front door. Stepping into the courtyard, the deviant grin she wore was concealed as she pulled the mask up from her neck to cover her face.

From the estate behind her, Imperial soldiers charged out in droves and mounted an assault on the Legion forces that lined the streets. Lilith’s army was taken completely by surprise and immediately took defensive measures against the Empire.

In that moment of opportunity, the surrounding Shadow Wardens joined the fray and held the Legion of Wrath in a pincer attack.

A vengeful voice rang across the city, “Li~lith~!” It seemed as quiet as a whisper, yet overpowered the clanging of steel and screams of war.

Lilith clicked her tongue in respite. “That boisterous wench seems to have outdone herself this time.”

Ymir looked down at Lilith beside him, “Why are there even Imperial soldiers here?”

“Not only is it simple, but it also proves our suspicions. She’s conspired against her own nation with the Empire... Stay back and save your strength, Ymir. We may find ourselves in dire straits here...” Lilith let out a sigh and walked away from Ymir. “Alright, I’ll bite... COME AND GET ME, YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A WOMAN.”

A moment had passed by, but nothing had occurred.

Lilith looked around with a plain expression of disappointment on her face. “Well then. I guess she was too sca--”

Before she could even finish her sentence, two massive chains whipped from behind Lilith and crashed at the spot where she stood, causing a massive upsurge of debris and dust from the impact.

“You just had to meddle and ruin the plans I had set in motion, didn’t you, Lilith?” Erelia dusted off her black sleeves, “Though you never were a modest woman. You always coveted what wasn’t yours. You always had to be the center of attention.”

A soft voice came from behind Erelia, “And despite how hard you tried, you always came up short.”

Erelia spun around and leapt backwards, but not fast enough to evade the claws that gouged and ripped at her face.

Lilith stood there staring into Erelia’s eyes as she delicately licked the blood off of her fingernails. She struck a pose of ponderment at the taste, “Just as I expected... You really are a bitter bitch...”

                                                               ●

Between Lilith and Erelia, the Legion and the Shadow Wardens’ Imperial coalition, the world seemed to spin around Ymir; a reminder that the peaceful life he had once imagined with Rena will evermore be a hypothetical, forever lost in the havoc that stalks him.

Ah, it’s happening again.

Standing among the carnage, he saw her. Blood falling once more from her battered face, under the arms of a man in a bear’s pelt.

I’m really starting to lose myself.

The man stopped at the courtyard to the estate and carelessly tossed both Ira and Mora to the floor as if they were no more than trash. He turned to the ensuing battle and called out, “Erelia, come clean up your mess.”

Lilith and Erelia were both in serious condition by this point -- weary and panting after hundreds of exchanged blows. At the sound of the man’s call, however, Erelia unleashed everything she had to knock Lilith off of the playing field.

“I will be there in one moment, Falxis.” Holding her hands at her left hip, a massive amount of energy began to well up. She took this convergence of Arcana, whipped it across her body, and began to swing it like a flail at her right side. The energy took its usual chain-like form, but it kept expanding in size, eventually becoming a seemingly unstoppable force.

“Well, this isn’t fair.” Lilith visibly worried at the raw power before her, put her wrist to her mouth and bit down, ripping off a thick chunk of flush. The blood fell from her wound like a waterfall. Lilith wiped her wrist across her opposite hand, and began to paint her coat of arms onto the air before her. “Blood brings life and life brings blood. Without blood there is no life. Without life there is no blood. Lifeblood, shield your mother.”

The blood that fell from her wrist began to be siphoned into the Liliarian crest that hovered in the air and formed a seven-layered barrier of blood magic.

It sounded like the sky had split open. The sonic boom shattered the ear drums of nearly everyone within Erelia’s vicinity as her chain flail had broken the sound barrier with solely centrifugal force.

Erelia’s expression softened as she let out a smug “Heh.”

Every single layer of Lilith’s barrier seemed to be obliterated at the same time. Even after, the momentum of the flail kept pushing forward.

The chain was moving faster than her brain could register. She could not help but exclaim, “Oh, sh--”

The impact of the flail on Lilith’s abdomen launched her sideways, practically leveling an entire marketplace.

“Hmmph. That’s one inconvenience out of the way.” Brushing herself off, Erelia had walked away with a swagger and made her way to Falxis, where her daughters lay unconscious on the floor.

                                                               ●

Parrying attack after attack from the Imperial troops, Belzar stepped backward and rushed to Lilith’s aid amid the ongoing chaos. “Mistress Lilith! Mistress Lilith!” He repeated. He continued, awaiting his master’s reply, but there was nothing but debris and the sounds of battle.

The creaking and crashing of shattered wood gave rise to a cloud of dust, only a pair of crimson eyes pierced through.

Beyond the smokescreen, the monotonous muttering of words began to reach Belzar’s ears.

“Father of Darkness... Mother of Night...”

“Lilith?” Belzar asked hesitantly as the air began to reek of iron.

“My blood in libation... The dying of light...”

With its body contorting among the noise of flesh ripping and bones snapping, the figure stepped out of the dust and into sight; one could tell it was Lilith, but far from how she should appear. Her teeth had seemingly been filed into a deviant point and wings as black as dusk had spread from her back, spanning more than twice her own body length. Blood dripped out of her now black eyes, painting an intricate trail that ran down her face and extended down the neck to all her extremities. Orbiting her body were dozens of blood orbs, leaving a red trail as they ran their course.

Lilith, gritting her teeth and furrowing her eyebrows, turned her eyes toward Belzar who stood in awe before his liege, “Playtime is over.”