Chapter 938: Cradle of Demons

Tsukuyomi remained floating a few steps away from the two of them, still observing Vergil with that calm curiosity that seemed to be part of her nature.

Her eyes moved across the Demon King’s body once more, but this time they weren’t interested in Yamato or his posture.

She seemed to be looking far beyond the physical, following the different layers of energy coexisting inside him until her expression showed even greater interest.

"There’s something I genuinely don’t understand."

Tsukuyomi tilted her head slightly, causing her long silver hair to slide over her shoulders.

"How do you manage to maintain so much divine power inside a demonic body?"

Vergil looked at her.

"You’re producing divine energy on your own," Tsukuyomi continued. "I’m not talking about some blessing received from a god or energy temporarily stored inside you. It is born within you alongside your demonic energy. Normally, those two natures should not be able to coexist like this."

Susanoo remained silent beside them.

It was a question she herself had not asked, mainly because until that moment she had paid much more attention to Yamato and the draconic presences hidden inside Vergil than to the complete structure of his existence.

Vergil rested one hand on Yamato’s hilt.

"Because I’m not exactly a conventional demon."

"I already noticed that," Tsukuyomi replied.

"I’m the progenitor of my own race."

Vergil spoke naturally, although he immediately noticed the interest from both goddesses.

"Aethernox."

Tsukuyomi mentally repeated the name before asking:

"A race created by you?"

"After my evolution."

Vergil nodded.

"My body stopped completely following the rules of an ordinary demon when I evolved into a demonic existence capable of producing and sustaining divine power. After that, my own nature started accepting practically any kind of energy."

He raised one hand.

A small amount of demonic energy appeared above his palm, dark and dense.

Then a completely different light appeared beside it.

Divine energy.

Bright and positive.

The two coexisted without any sign of rejection.

Vergil allowed both to disappear a moment later.

"Positive or negative, it doesn’t matter much to my body anymore. Demonic, divine, spiritual power, or other variations all end up being processed by my own existence."

Tsukuyomi watched with genuine attention.

"So your race was born after that transformation."

"Exactly. The Aethernox inherited this hybrid characteristic to different degrees. I’m simply the starting point."

Susanoo crossed her arms.

"So you’re essentially a progenitor."

"Yes."

Tsukuyomi brought one finger near her chin as she continued analyzing him.

"But there is an important difference between possessing divine power and possessing divinity."

Vergil nodded.

"I don’t have a divinity."

Susanoo turned her eyes toward him.

Vergil continued.

"I can produce divine power, but I’m not a god. I don’t possess a divine concept of my own, I don’t naturally represent a phenomenon of the world, and I don’t have the Authority that comes with true divinity."

"So you have power, but no authority," Tsukuyomi summarized.

"Basically."

She stared at him for several seconds.

Then narrowed her eyes.

"Liar."

Vergil blinked.

So did Susanoo.

Tsukuyomi pointed directly at him.

"I can feel at least six Authorities inside you."

Vergil remained silent for a moment.

"They’re strange," the Moon Goddess continued. "They don’t feel like normal divine Authorities. They also don’t possess the same conceptual structure as ours, but they are definitely Authorities. Six of them are completely integrated into your existence."

Vergil let out a small sigh.

"Those didn’t come from my divine energy."

"Then where did they come from?"

"The Sins."

Tsukuyomi tilted her head.

Vergil continued before she could ask.

"I possess six of the Seven Deadly Sins. Wrath, Lust, Greed, Envy, Gluttony, and Sloth."

Susanoo slowly uncrossed her arms.

"You’re carrying six Authorities of Sin inside yourself?"

"Yes."

"And Pride?" Tsukuyomi immediately asked.

Vergil remained silent for several seconds before answering.

"It isn’t with me."

Tsukuyomi realized there was a larger story behind that answer and waited.

"The complete fragment of Lucifer connected to Pride reincarnated separately."

Vergil adjusted Yamato at his waist.

"She is now a little girl named Lily. She is under my protection."

Susanoo stared at Vergil.

Tsukuyomi did the same.

The silence lasted for several seconds.

Susanoo was the first to speak.

"You just said that a complete fragment of the ancient Lucifer reincarnated as a child and now lives under your protection."

"Yes."

"And you consider that normal?"

"In my life, it’s relatively normal."

Tsukuyomi let out a quiet laugh.

"I’m beginning to understand why Amaterasu will probably get a headache when she learns more about you."

"She already knows about me?"

"If she didn’t before, she probably does now."

Susanoo let out a small sigh before returning her attention to her sister.

"In the end, I still need to improve my perception. I didn’t sense any of those six Authorities."

Tsukuyomi looked at her with an almost provocative calmness.

"That’s natural."

Susanoo frowned.

"Why?"

"Because you’ve been denying your own divinity for centuries."

Susanoo’s expression became serious.

Vergil observed the two without interfering.

Tsukuyomi continued.

"Ever since you became obsessed with swords, you’ve been trying to transform your own existence into something different. You aren’t simply developing a new Authority based on the sword."

"You’re trying to replace the Storm with the Sword."

Susanoo remained motionless.

"You could coexist with both," Tsukuyomi explained. "Your original divinity never prevented that. Storm and Sword could exist as separate concepts within you, perhaps even strengthening one another."

"But you insist on treating the Storm as an old part of yourself that needs to be left behind."

A distant thunderclap crossed the Storm World.

Susanoo stared into the emptiness beyond the castle for several seconds.

"You think that is damaging my divine perception?"

"Of course."

Tsukuyomi answered without hesitation.

"You use your senses more and more like a swordswoman and less and less like a goddess. That isn’t necessarily bad, but it means there are things your old perception would identify immediately that now pass unnoticed."

Susanoo became thoughtful.

After several seconds, she nodded.

"My older sister is right."

Tsukuyomi immediately smiled.

Vergil noticed the change in her expression.

"You really enjoyed hearing that."

"Susanoo admitting that I’m right doesn’t happen every day."

"Don’t get used to it," Susanoo replied.

Vergil let out a small laugh, but soon looked at both of them again.

"Now that I’ve met Tsukuyomi, and without meaning to be rude..."

Tsukuyomi raised an eyebrow.

"I came here to learn swordsmanship."

Susanoo seemed satisfied that he had returned to the subject.

Tsukuyomi, on the other hand, merely nodded as though she had never intended to interrupt for long.

"Naturally. I only came to watch."

She crossed her legs without looking for any chair.

Her body simply left the ground, floating several centimeters above it as though gravity had given up trying to demand anything from the Moon Goddess.

The long white fabrics of her clothing drifted gently around her, accompanied by the black rings that continued to orbit slowly behind her.

Tsukuyomi rested her face against one hand and smiled.

"You may continue."

Susanoo sighed.

Vergil looked at the floating woman.

"You’re going to stay there during the entire training?"

"Probably."

"Great."

"Don’t worry. I promise not to laugh if you get beaten."

Susanoo looked at her sister.

Tsukuyomi immediately corrected herself.

"Not much."

Vergil ran a hand over his face.

There was definitely something wrong with that family.

...

Very far from Japan, the Oni Gate, and even the regions of Hell normally inhabited, Lilith and Sepphirothy walked through a landscape that had not received visitors in countless ages.

There was no sun.

There were no stars either.

The sky was a vast black expanse filled only with slow currents of primordial demonic energy.

Matter itself seemed incomplete in that place.

The dark ground beneath their feet had no vegetation, water, or any sign of conventional life.

It was a silent world, created before Hell had acquired the countless realms, cities, and ecosystems that would emerge ages later.

Lilith walked several steps ahead.

Her eyes swept across the empty expanse of that world before an expression difficult to define appeared on her face.

"It’s been a long time since I came here."

Sepphirothy didn’t answer immediately.

She had stopped.

Her eyes were fixed on the sky.

Far above them, partially hidden behind the currents of demonic energy, floated an enormous citadel.

Black towers extended in every direction from a colossal central structure.

Great bridges connected different sections of the complex, while ancient walls surrounded palaces and temples whose architecture resembled no modern civilization.

The entire castle remained suspended above the void.

Motionless.

As if the very laws of that world recognized that the structure required no support.

Sepphirothy watched it for several seconds.

"Where everything began."

Lilith stopped beside her.

"Yes."

Her gaze remained fixed on the citadel.

"This is our home."

Before the demonic realms.

Before the great bloodlines.

Before the clans, the cities of Hell, and the countless titles demons would eventually carry throughout the ages, that place had existed.

Genesis Castle.

The cradle of demonic existence.

The first great structure created in the depths of Hell, built when that world was still little more than dark matter, primordial energy, and formless territories.

Genesis had not been built to govern an already existing civilization.

It existed before demonic civilization itself.

There, during the earliest periods of Hell’s existence, Lucifer had established his residence and his first domains.

It was inside that castle that experiments, rituals, and processes now forgotten began transforming Hell’s primordial energy into something capable of sustaining an entire race.

And at the center of it all had been Lilith.

She had not simply lived in that place.

Genesis had been where her existence was used as the foundation for the creation of the demonic race.

Her blood.

Her energy.

Her essence.

Fragments of her own nature had been studied, altered, and reproduced by Lucifer until the first demons were capable of existing independently of her.

Entire generations would later be born without ever knowing that this castle had once been the first laboratory, temple, and home of their species.

The world around it would eventually grow.

Hell would divide into territories.

New rulers would rise.

Lucifer would disappear.

Lilith would follow another path.

But Genesis remained.

Abandoned.

Untouched.

Waiting in the same void where the history of demons had begun.

Sepphirothy continued observing the citadel for several more seconds before beginning to walk again.

"Come."

Lilith looked at her.

Sepphirothy didn’t slow down.

"We need to recover our things."

Lilith remained still for a moment, looking at that ancient home as though part of her were still trapped thousands of years in the past.

Then she let out a small sigh.

"I hate this world."