Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

“Poo! I wanna have triplets! Just imagine those fluffy cheeks! Those chubby legs and, best of all, the drool! Sene! Lili wants another! Chibi life forever!”

“…”

I cleared my throat and attempted to calm myself from barking her head off. It wasn’t every day Lilith got me angry but sitting in the soul of all places with my life in her hands, talking about babies, was not where I wanted to be.

My hand found there way to her head, and a bright fiendish smile marred my lips. ” Lilith…”

“Sene?”

“Form the bloody link for me.”

Eyes turning meek, the little lass lips pursed, and her head fell somewhat crestfallenly.

“Ok.” She whimpered out, sniffling as if I’d done her wrong.

“…”

“I just wanted three—”

“Woman! If you don’t!”

Bursting into laughter, Lilith stole a kiss and giggled away as Abyssal Essense flared to life. She turned to me with a warm smile and winked. ” I was only trying to put you in a good mood. Because the chances of failure are over ninety.”

My heart dipped at the odds. “Do I need more soul?”

“You can summon them. Remember how the faceless used to give you a soul? They can do the same. Just summon them, and I’ll open up a channel for you to do that. Don’t worry about the souls.” She explained, and her expression grew solemn. Her brow knitted together as she continued. “I’ll form the links but Arsene. You’ll have to constantly resupply souls and apply changes as you see fit. If you don’t… I’m afraid the chances of error will only rise. Lily, you help him out.”

Taking in everything Lilith said, I send my message down the ladder to my believers to start gathering souls before focussing my attention on the Core Link.

Staring at the Abyssal Essense dance around Lilith, spiraling around her. Information poured into what Lilith was doing and flooded my brain. Lily’s doing, no doubt.

Suddenly as if Lilith had attacked, a beam of light sped through the void of my soul and struck. A cold pang rippled through me, and before my eyes, the link between me and Eric dissipated, and before my very eyes, the fused Soul Flame was shredded away.

A grunt formed within my heart, and without hesitation, I pushed down the pressure brewing within the depths of my soul and made the necessary changes I needed with the fused souls.

The first thing to burn away within Eric’s soul was, oddly enough, my soul. My main soul considered it… a traitor, a virus of sorts, and got rid of it.

I needed to change the frequency of the fused soul. They needed to imitate my main soul.

“Again,” I said to Lilith.

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“Subject 704 – Taren Jeni – Failure – Excessive Calibration”

“Subject 913 – Sara Val’Ten – Failure – Frequency off by a plus or minus .003%

“Subject 100,483 – Jur Re’luna – Failure – Fractured soul

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“Subject 448,049…. Another failure.” I weakly said, opening my eyes to the real world, where a pool of blood filled my eyes.

I vomited a mouthful of blood in a daze as I turned toward Vita, staring at me with utter indifference. Holding a small bottle in her hand, she closed in with a single step and poured the liquid over my head.

Suddenly a warm essence poured through my pores and into my body and soul, and in seconds, I was whole once more. ” I’ve collected over seven billion souls from the channel Master opened up.” She opened her palm, and a small orb appeared and handed them to me. ”

Noticing something off with the serene expression of Vita, I spoke out. “What’s wrong? You disapprove?”

“…”

I waited, allowing the liquid to mend my soul a little more. I don’t know what that shit is, but I want it to be my blood.

“… I think… I think I feel bad for these souls.” She admitted to me.

I blinked in surprise. ” You what? You… you feel bad? Why?”

“Never mind… just keep going.” She said and vanished before I could probe. Shaking my head, I shrugged.

“Whatever, not my problem.” heading back into my soul, I fell back into a cycle of work. Years had long since gone by as I tried everything in my power to form a single link. I was getting closer, allowing a single soul to last twenty years before it deteriorated, but nothing lasted.

The stronger the soul, the faster it would burn, and the weaker, the longer it would survive. It was completely different from what I foresaw. But after seven cycles of constant failure, I had barely progressed.

I had Lilith and Lily’s help but… even with a hive mind helping me out. There was barely any progress.

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“It’s been an entire chaos cycle.” Said Lilith sprawled over on the bed as we took a break. Sweat oozed from her brow, and my arms tightened around her naked waist.

“And over seventy Trillion souls gone. If this keeps up, an entire galaxy will perish just from us.”

“How are the kids?”

“Jumping up and down. They are just full of energy. The little bastards been stealing energy from the Abyssal Shard.”

I smiled. ” will the shard be ok?”

“It had limitless energy. It’ll be just fine. Unless they actually take a bite of it. Then who knows, but they’ve been good.”

“Good! Now let’s go another round!” I said, flipping her on all fours.

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“Seven hundred trillion,” said Lily.

“My god, I’m going to hell.” I moaned, ready to bang my head into a wall. “What the hell am I doing wrong? FUCK! Soul deterioration after one hundred years is nothing! At this point, I’m a fucking soul expert!”

… 𝚘𝚟𝚕．ｔ

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“FOUR FUCKING Chaos Cycles!”

“At least it’s not a Hell Cycle or worse, an Eternal Cycle.”

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“BET! NOOOOOOOO~.”

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“DAMN IT, SENE!”

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“I LILY AM GOD! MHWAHAHA!”

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“LILY, SHUT THE HELL UP!”

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Sweat oozing from everyone’s brow, we glared at the small High-God soul that had been tarnished, branded with my slave crest, and soul fused with me, with the soul blood of Lilith. Hope and madness filled my eyes as I glared at the mid-size flame in my palm.

This was the last High god soul I had. And I was unwilling to use a Prince of Hell. Despite having an immortal soul, I wanted his shit in pristine condition. Same with Yesh.

“This better work… Lilith?”

“…”

“Lilith?” I turned to her as drool slipped from her mouth. ” Damn it, woman, focus!”

“I can’t feel my legs… Our workout broke me.”

Rolling my eyes, I shifted back to the empty vacuum of my soul, to the last Soul Flame left. After this… to get some quality souls, I need to return to the Nine Hells.

“Do it, Lilith… If we succeed. It’ll be a whole new world.”