As Avery peered up at the figure, her eyes widened. Through the flashes of light coming from each of the massive windows all around them, she was able to gather glimpses of the figure and slowly piece together what they looked like. And, while the resemblance wasn’t perfect, they seemed to bare a rather striking resemblance to her mother, Sera. However, to Avery’s knowledge, she was unaware of who the figure hanging in the air was.
“I know you probably don’t think you know exactly who I am, but you are actually very well acquainted with me, Avery, darling…”
The words rang in Avery’s ears as she stared up at the figure in bewilderment. “Mother…?”
The figured smiled widely, the exact same way that Sera did. “It’s very nice to meet you like this, finally… I’m sure that my current form isn’t exactly the most appealing, but… that’s what waiting around for a few thousand years will do to you…” Zeraph let out a strained chuckle.
“I don’t understand… Who… What… are you…?” Avery asked as she collapsed to the ground, barely propping herself up on her rather shaky arms.
“I… am Zeraph… As for what… Well… I am the embodiment of Ser, the place where you currently find yourself. This is a realm made entirely of destruction essence. It once was an empty wasteland of shifting darkness, but… thanks to me… or really… thanks to itself, it was able to become more. Eventually, it was able to become me.”
“And… what about this place…?” Avery asked, motioning around to the large structure that they were all inside of.
“This is my fortress… When I was detained… I was imprisoned inside of it and placed at the bottom of this lake of souls. They couldn’t help themselves with the irony, I suppose…” Zeraph replied, grumbling slightly.
“And who are they?”
“Well, they are the Masters of Magic and that vile creature, Sengario.”
Avery shot to her feet. “Wait, The Masters of Magic. You told me about them before. They’re the ancestors of all the apprentices… And one of them… Strataros is my father…?”
Zeraph nodded. “Yes… That would be them…”
“Okay, but I’ve never heard of Sengario. Who are they?”
Zeraph grit their teeth, attempting to contain their annoyance. “They are similar to me, a being that embodies a realm of essence. However, they embody the realm of creation essence, Reizen.”
“I see… And both Reizen and Ser are connected to the realm that I’ve been living in?”
“Sengario and I have always called that the void since, when we had first become aware of it, there was nothing inside of it. Once Sengario got their hands on it, however, that changed.”
Avery nodded. “I see, and why did they imprison you…?”
Zeraph scowled. “They imprisoned me because I tried to destroy everything that they cared about and loved…”
“But… why would you do that…?”
“I’m the embodiment of destruction. It’s in my nature. I have to destroy. It’s what I do.”
“Why did you have to destroy what they cared about? Couldn’t you have simply destroyed other things in the universe?”
Zeraph sighed. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, but Sengario and I are opposing forces in this universe. When Sengario creates something, it alters the state of the universe. It throws off the balance of things. And well, Sengario seeded creation all throughout the universe, but they took quite a liking to Terra, the dirt ball that we are on and so they put quite a lot of work in to it, making you humans and guiding you all along a specific path. The rest of the universe was allowed to progress normally, but Sengario wanted to control every single little aspect of this world, make it all run within their parameters. That’s why I had to destroy it. They were upsetting the natural balance. All the other worlds, those would have a proper flow of destruction and creation to them, thanks to their inherent nature, but this world was not quite the same… It was too… controlled… The destruction was brought down to almost nothing…”
Avery stood there, listening intently the entire time, taking in all of the information and trying to process all of it, totally unsure of what exactly it was that she should be doing with such information.
“Wait… So… how do I fit in to all of this…?” Avery asked, finally.
Zeraph paused for some time, so long that Avery thought that they might never respond, but after some time of internally calculating, Zeraph decided. “I abducted you as a child. As you may have guessed by the fact that I am in fact the embodiment of destruction, I did not have a child with Strataros… The idea sounds revolting in all senses. However, many many years ago, Lothia saw the future and saw that, if I were to balance the world as I saw necessary, I would need a direct descendant. I tried with another before you, but she caused issues… So… when you came along, I decided to take you and nurture you myself, turning you in the perfect child to help me.”
Avery collapsed to the ground, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. So many of the things in her life were coming in to focus in her mind, pulsing in her head and recontextualizing themselves. However, as she parsed through more and more memories, her expression changed from shock and horror to something like content. She slowly stood back up and looked to Zeraph, a strangely unnerving grin on her face.
“Do you still have plans to use me as a weapon to help you balance the world?” she asked, eerily calm.
“Yes, I do. Do you wish to help fulfil your purpose?”
“Of course. Everyone dreams of having a purpose in the world and here I am being handed it on a silver platter. Anyone would take that chance. Now, let me ask, what more do I need to do before I am ready?”
Zeraph stared at Avery, curious as to what might have changed. They sensed only a slight difference in their aura, but surely that shouldn’t have caused it. Perhaps she was simply raised properly for what Zeraph needed.
“Well… The first thing that I need of you is to take on the souls of everyone at the facility. Lothia and I have created something that will allow you to kill them and take their souls for yourself. I would use it myself, but it simply would not work for me. Now, remove your shirt and kneel in front of Lothia,” Zeraph instructed.
Avery followed the instructions, dropping to her knees and quickly removing her shirt. Lothia stepped behind her, brandishing a knife. He began carving a seal in to her back. Once it was done, her made his way over to the opening of the building and gathered a bit of the dark liquid from the lake. He then held it up towards Zeraph who used their toenail to slash their foot, causing strange swirling dark blood to drip down in to the jar of liquid. The mixture didn’t seem to change at all, but it didn’t stay in the jar very long. Lothia quickly poured the mixture in to the seal that had been carved in to Avery’s back.
The liquid flooded in to the wound, seeping directly in to her body, mixing with her blood. Soon, her blood was changed along with her entire body. Black flames began to billow out from her body. Avery began to convulse, collapsing to the ground and twitching before letting out a thunderous screech, the black flames melting on to her body, covering the ends of her limbs in pure darkness.
“Does it feel good, Avery?” Zeraph asked curiously.
“It feels wonderful…” Avery answered, her voice coming out in a similarly distorted way to that of Zeraph.
“Well then, go wild, Avery, darling.”
Avery, now looking more like a demon than anything, nodded and vanished in a streak of black lightning. She quickly made her way back to the rift and went through. She was moving with incredible speed, black lightning streaming all the way behind her. As she reached the entrance to the facility, the darkness on her body shifted, changing her hands in to large claws which she used to tear open the elevator door. She jumped in to the elevator shaft and allowed herself to fall , the darkness pooling all around her legs, preparing to brace her fall.
When she reached the bottom, she tore through the roof of the elevator, shattering it in to pieces and sending a loud boom resounding all throughout the facility. The attention of everyone turned to the elevator shafted as the doors were pried open by a pair of demonic black claws. When Avery finally emerged, everyone was happy at first, but then they started to notice the changes to her body and excitement turned to confusion. A few people began running up to her.
“Hey, Avery, you’re looking kind of-” Before he could finish his sentence, the boy found that his head was no longer attached to his body.
As his body faded, the soul poured in to the dark seal on Avery’s back, joining with her twisted form. The other in the group were horrified and the feeling spread throughout the facility as the massacre began. She whipped all through the facility, the darkness inside of her growing with each life she took. All the while, she was laughing, finding pleasure in the pain and death of all of those that fell.
Finally, it seemed that all of the people in the facility had fallen, but then Avery’s mind flashed and she remembered a pair of orange eyes. Avery zoomed all throughout the facility, searching until, eventually she found her, huddled in a corner.
Lilith looked up at Avery in terror, her eyes full of tears. “Avery… How could you do this… I thought you loved me…”
Avery knelt down, her eyes only a few inches from Lilith’s. “You know… I thought these eyes were beautiful when I first met you… What about mine? What do you think?” Avery asked.
As Lilith stared in to Avery’s eyes, she noticed that both of them were now ascended cursed eyes. The whites of her eyes had turned solid black and the irises were now both deep purple with black stitches circling a small black pupil. However, even though they seemed to resemble her original cursed eye, the purple seemed to move and shift, almost like ink being swirled in water.
“W-What happened to you, Avery?”
“I’ve found my purpose, Lilith. Now, serve yours.” Avery smiled wide as she thrust her hand through Lilith’s chest, staring her in the eyes the whole time. As her body faded and her soul was added to Avery’s body.
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