Hell’s Consort

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Archdemon Empress Luna

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"They couldn't differentiate a friend or a foe and attack anyone who might get in the way to their desire for power."

The more she inhaled her husband's scent and heard the rush of blood running through the corded muscles of his neck, the more her mouth became dry with thirst. 

"You don't understand, Prince Aspen." Gritting her teeth, Luna pulled back and caressed her parched throat with her fingers. "The four of you killed too many of these faeries who had 'allegedly' turned into demons without knowing their circumstances on how they had turned out like this. You allowed this mass murder to happen. "

Prince Aspen merely shook his head, and his androgynous features were expressionless. "The faeries who had demonic entities inside them needed to perish. Archdemon Magic has tainted them, so they can't go back to who they were before. They are puppets for an Archdemon in exchange for magic."

Lips curving upward, Cederic shrugged, "They had grown large in numbers, and we had no choice but to eliminate them. Lilith had found out that her conjurer in the Faerie Realm had successfully formed a cult. She had intended to use your body, Your Highness, to build her own demon army in the Faerie Realm and wreak havoc."

Luna gasped, and chills ran down Luna's spine at Cederic's words.

It was a relief that she had come at the right time before the Archdemon of Envy executed her wicked plans to destroy the Faerie Realm and her relationship with her husband.

Nevertheless, Luna still tried to play the devil's advocate because she couldn't help it.

"What if there was still something good left in these demonic faeries, and we never got the chance to know because you have killed them all?"

She needed to know that the creatures she had surrounded herself with still had conscience somewhere deep inside them.

If there weren't, what made them different from the Archdemons she had abhorred if they didn't have a conscience?

Why was killing others so easy for them, and they didn't even bat an eye?

Luna hoped that their purpose wasn't a meager power play.

It would be nice to know that she was still safe with her husband.

Was he still the same even if they hadn't seen each other for almost a decade, or had he changed because of their tragic circumstances, making their relationship strained?

As much as how her husband had doubted her identity as Luna—her wife—she also needed reassurance that her husband's character hadn't changed at all.

It wasn't Apollyon who replied, even if she had anticipated his response above all else.

"Evil is the absence of 'good' because it had been corrupted. You can see that in their faces and forms." King Zephyr motioned on the dead bodies on the floor. "The corruption had become total and entire that it is no longer left either."

Luna wished she hadn't followed his gestures and glanced down at the sleeping corpses with tangled yet intact limbs and curved spines.

"They are no living creatures. They are no longer an entity." King Zephyr moved closer to stand beside her like a midnight shadow, compelling her to shift her gaze on his hypnotizing dark, obsidian pupils. "Only the foolish and unknowing can deny that it is still good even if it is consumed by evil when the soul had already corrupted by it."

Luna glowered at the Shadow King.

Did he call her foolish?

King Zephyr added a-matter-of-fact. "These creatures had become nothing, Empress."

"I would take responsibility," Apollyon whispered as he caressed her back in a comforting gesture, but the sudden contact had elicited an opposite effect, instead.

It made her posture more rigid. "I will make sure that you don't suffer from my choices."

"What's done is done. All of them are already dead." Prince Aspen had told her, "Unless you can cast a spell unto these piles of dead bodies, insert demon souls in them and control the undead, you know? Build that Archdemon Legion for yourself to protect your Kingdom from the enemies."

Horror choked off her saliva from Prince Aspen's outrageous suggestion. 

That would be the greatest nightmare she didn't want to deal with.

Luna wasn't confident if she can control the demons, compelling them to work for her, serving her as their Mistress and a part of her Legion.

Luna thought that was impossible for now.

"Ah~" Cederic clicked his tongue. "Don't give the Empress ideas."

Pulling back from Apollyon's embrace, Luna argued, and her voice almost cracked trying to explain herself. "Who in their right mind would summon demons in this Realm? Give me a break!"

"I'm not crazy enough to dominate other realms with an Archdemon Legions." Eyes darting from Prince Aspen to Cederic, Luna made frantic sweeping gestures in her hands. "I just wish to protect the Vampire Realm and the one I love without bringing Hell over here."

Luna paused when the four of them gave her strange looks.

She swallowed hard before addressing Apollyon. "Couldn't you find any other way to summon me back in this Realm without all this blood in your hands?"

"I am impatient to get you back, wife, and I grabbed the opportunity right away," Apollyon answered with a nonchalance that deeply bothered her.  "I had no time to think of other ways except using the solitary faerie and her cult."

A step forward. 

As Apollyon moved her long silver hair away from her slender neck, his half-hooded eyes had started to trace her body, "Their lives were already cursed the moment they killed the unicorns. I bet if I met with their souls in Hell, they would thank me for the favor."

She had been horrified at Apollyon's answer that her eyes had widened in shock.

Why would these dead bodies, with the gaping maw of their necks dripping with blood, piling on top of one another, thank her husband for killing them as a favor?

Luna stood frozen in her place and widened her senses, hearing the slow splash of fresh blood dripping on the floor.

Luna realized her husband was officially mad, including his friends.