Chapter 942: What Was Left Behind

Lilith and Sepphirothy had left the throne room behind for only a few minutes before realizing that what they were looking for was much closer than they had imagined. There was no need to descend into Genesis’s lower vaults or cross the castle’s ancient storage rooms. As she went around the platform where Lucifer’s corpse remained pinned to the throne, Lilith felt such an absurd concentration of demonic energy that she stopped immediately. The wall behind the throne was partially rotted, not by time, but by the presence of something that continued emanating power after countless ages.

“I didn’t imagine this would still be here.” Lilith walked to the side of the throne and observed the enormous spear fixed vertically to the wall. Even knowing exactly what it was, she had difficulty associating that thing with the weapon she remembered. “Even though it’s a Divine Weapon, it has become completely corrupted.”

Sepphirothy approached slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on the weapon. The spear had a dark shaft covered in red veins that pulsed like arteries, while its blade seemed to be formed from black metal and crimson crystal. A suffocating amount of demonic energy escaped from it continuously, saturating the stone around it. Part of the wall had turned black, brittle and practically dead, as if matter itself were decomposing simply from remaining too close to that weapon.

“It seems even the angels preferred to leave this behind.” Lilith touched part of the wall with her fingertips and watched the stone simply turn to dust. The spear’s current appearance was almost a perversion of what had originally existed. “I can’t blame them. This looks nothing like the golden weapon covered in sacred power that I knew.”

Sepphirothy did not answer immediately. She could still recognize something very deep hidden beneath that corruption, a signature that passed through all the demonic energy and reached directly into her soul. The weapon also seemed to recognize her, because small tremors began running along the shaft before Sepphirothy even raised her hand.

“The spear that pierced the saint and the demon, the true supreme sacred weapon… Longinus.” Sepphirothy opened her fingers toward the weapon and allowed her demonic power to reach that ancient connection. “You are my weapon. Return to your mistress.”

Longinus trembled violently.

The entire wall responded.

Cracks spread through the stone as the spear tried to pull itself free, but something still kept it buried deeply within the castle’s structure. Sepphirothy made no additional effort. She simply kept her hand extended and waited, as if she knew the weapon would eventually obey.

Longinus pulled herself free.

The wall exploded.

Stone and dust were thrown in every direction when the spear tore away a huge section of the structure and crossed the hall like a red bolt. Sepphirothy closed her hand around the shaft when it reached her body, completely stopping the weapon’s movement. A wave of demonic energy traveled through her arm and made her hair move, but she remained perfectly still as she examined Longinus up close.

“It’s still usable.” Sepphirothy spun the spear once in her hand and realized that, despite the extreme corruption, its fundamental structure remained intact. The weapon still recognized her and responded to her commands, although what now circulated within it was far removed from the original sacred power.

Lilith was about to answer when she heard a crack behind her daughter.

The wall from which Longinus had been removed began to collapse.

The deteriorated stones gave way one after another until an entire section fell inward, raising a large cloud of dust. When the view cleared again, the two realized there was something behind it.

A passage.

Sepphirothy tightened her fingers around Longinus while Lilith approached first. The opening led to a small room that appeared in none of the memories she possessed of that castle. There was no furniture or decoration, only ancient symbols engraved into the walls and a black crystal installed on a pedestal at the center.

“He built a hidden room behind his own throne.” Lilith entered first, observing the symbols while trying to recognize the function of that place. “Of course he did. That paranoid man could never do anything simply.”

The moment her foot touched the inside of the room, the crystal reacted.

A red light appeared.

Lilith froze.

So did Sepphirothy.

The energy began constructing a translucent figure in front of them, and the moment the face appeared, both of their expressions changed completely.

Lucifer.

It was not a soul, much less a conscious fragment. It was only an ancient recording, prepared to activate when someone finally found that chamber. Even so, hearing that voice again after so long was enough to make Lilith slowly clench her hands.

“If someone entered here, it means I was killed.” Lucifer’s projection remained still before them, speaking with disturbing calm for someone who had prepared a message for after his own death. “Well… I expected that. That was precisely why I divided my soul into several fragments and prepared ways to scatter them throughout the Human World when my main existence was destroyed.”

Sepphirothy remained silent, but her fingers tightened around Longinus.

“I imagine it’s you, Sepphirothy.” Lucifer continued while the recording kept its eyes focused on a fixed point, incapable of actually seeing the daughter standing before him. “Your sister Sapphire never cared much about anything other than continuing to grow stronger, so I always considered it more likely that you would find this message.”

Lilith was already beginning to get irritated.

“If you’re hearing this, know that everything I did was planned for this moment.” The projection raised one hand while symbols appeared around his image. “My heart was used to make Longinus devour a sufficient source of demonic energy so that she could be fully wielded by a demon. A Divine Weapon built to pierce higher existences needed to stop rejecting the one who would eventually have to use her.”

Sepphirothy lowered her eyes to Longinus.

For an instant, she understood why that corruption seemed so deeply integrated into the weapon. It was not simply demonic energy covering a sacred weapon. Longinus had absorbed it over the ages until the two natures had merged.

“She was prepared to kill a demon far more powerful than I was.” Lucifer continued, and this time Lilith slowly raised her eyes. “In addition, the Demonic World Tree was sealed inside my personal vault, located in the forest near the Demon Realm. I needed to ensure that it wouldn’t be found by that demon before you were prepared.”

Lilith lost every trace of calm from her expression.

“If the Underworlds have begun being attacked, then he is already acting.” Lucifer’s recording slowly began losing stability, making it clear that the message was reaching its end. “Sepphirothy, be careful. Use what I left for you and stop him before it’s too late.”

The projection disappeared.

The crystal went dark.

For several seconds, absolutely nothing happened.

Then the entire castle shook.

Lilith’s aura exploded with such violence that the loose stones around them were crushed against the walls. Primordial demonic energy flooded the small chamber, and Sepphirothy had to brace Longinus against the floor as she watched her mother grit her teeth.

“How does that piece of trash dare say that he prepared all of this?” Lilith glared at the dark crystal as if Lucifer were still standing in front of her. The anger in her voice did not come only from the arrogance of the message, but from how easily he had tried to turn a war that cost billions of lives into a calculated part of some grand plan. “He destroyed entire families, sacrificed demons, angels and fallen angels by the billions, used his own wife to create a race and now wants to leave a message saying it was all planned?”

Sepphirothy did not try to calm her mother. She herself continued looking at Longinus with an unpleasant expression, especially after discovering what Lucifer had done to the weapon and to his own heart.

Lilith took several deep breaths until her aura began to diminish. When she finally managed to push the anger aside enough to think, she approached Sepphirothy and examined the spear again. The energy emanating from the weapon remained so concentrated that the floor beneath its tip was beginning to darken.

“How this thing hasn’t been disintegrated by such an absurd concentration of demonic energy, I truly don’t know.” Lilith ran her eyes over the red-and-black blade, searching for any visible trace of the weapon’s former nature. “But one thing is clear: this is no longer a sacred weapon.”

Sepphirothy raised Longinus in front of her face and felt the spear immediately respond to her presence. There was still something divine in its structure, buried deeply beneath ages of corruption, but calling it sacred would almost be a joke.

“It doesn’t matter what she became.” Sepphirothy rested Longinus over her shoulder and looked at her mother, leaving the revelation about the mysterious demon for later. “She is still mine.”

…

Inside Vergil’s mental world, Qliphoth was sitting calmly on one of her own roots, with one leg crossed over the other and her face resting on her hand. In front of her, a mirror-like surface showed everything Vergil could see outside. Amaterasu continued trying to teach him how to completely seal his presence while Susanoo and Tsukuyomi watched, and every new attempt ended practically the same way: Vergil managed to control some sources, others escaped and, the moment he tried to correct the imbalance, some different energy began circulating again.

Qliphoth had been watching that for some time.

She did not look worried.

In fact, she looked bored.

“Do you want me to manage your powers?” Qliphoth asked casually, swinging one foot while watching Vergil fail once again. “I’m not doing anything anyway.”

Outside, Vergil remained still with Yamato in hand. His eyes narrowed slightly when Qliphoth’s voice appeared directly inside his mind, but he was already far too accustomed to those interruptions to show any surprise.

“What do you mean?” Vergil asked mentally while keeping his attention partially focused on Amaterasu, who at that moment was once again analyzing his energy circulation.

Qliphoth blinked a few times.

“What do you mean, ‘what do you mean’?” Qliphoth uncrossed her legs and pointed at herself with a genuinely confused expression. “I’m literally made for power management.”

Vergil remained silent.

Qliphoth realized that he truly did not understand.

“I’m a World Tree, Vergil.” Qliphoth stood from the root and opened her arms, causing dozens of other roots to emerge from the ground around her. “Normally I would connect my roots to the planet, establish a network and manage the flow of energy through it. Absorption, distribution, storage, conversion, stabilization… that kind of thing.”

Vergil discreetly lowered his eyes to Yamato while listening. When he thought about Qliphoth’s original function, it really made sense. Until then, however, he had always associated her roots mainly with absorbing energy and the growth of the tree itself.

“But the Underworld isn’t a planet.” Qliphoth let her arms fall and made a small grimace. “It’s a dimension. So I’m kind of useless there.”

Vergil raised an eyebrow.

“Did you just call yourself useless?”

“In that specific function.” Qliphoth corrected immediately, crossing her arms with some irritation. “I’m still wonderful at practically everything else.”

Vergil decided not to argue.

Qliphoth began walking through the mental world again, and some roots followed her steps beneath the ground.

“To tell the truth, even I don’t know why I was assigned to remain in the Underworld.” Qliphoth looked upward, as if the answer might be hidden somewhere in that artificial sky. “Putting a World Tree in a dimension that doesn’t function like a planet is a fairly questionable decision. I spent a long time possessing a gigantic energy-management capacity without having a proper planetary system to manage.”

Then she stopped.

Her gaze returned to Vergil through that mental connection.

“But now I’m inside your soul.”

Vergil slowly began to understand.

Qliphoth smiled.

“I can simply grow roots here.” Qliphoth struck her foot against the ground, and dozens of roots immediately spread throughout the inner world. “Your soul already functions like a complete system. Your demonic power, your divine energy, your Authorities, your contracts, your spiritual connections… everything passes through here at some point.”

Vergil watched the roots advance.

They did not attack or absorb anything. They simply moved around the different structures of his inner world, recognizing the flows of energy as a network Qliphoth could monitor.

“I can manage all of this easily.” Qliphoth made a simple movement with her fingers, and some roots separated in different directions. “You keep producing energy normally, but I control how much can reach the outside. If you need to release more, I release it. If you want to reduce your presence, I reduce it. If you want to completely close a specific source during training, I can do that without you having to fight against all the others at the same time.”

Vergil remained silent for a few seconds.

Then his expression slowly became more serious.

“Why didn’t you say this before?” Vergil asked while tightening his grip on Yamato slightly, remembering the countless useless attempts he had just made in front of the three goddesses.

Qliphoth shrugged.

“Well, I didn’t want to interfere with your growth.” Qliphoth replied as naturally as possible while sitting back down on a root. “If I help, things become too easy, I think.”

Vergil did not answer.

Qliphoth looked at him.

“Vergil?”

He remained silent.

“Did you get angry?”

“I’m thinking.” Vergil replied after a few seconds, and the extremely calm tone of his voice made Qliphoth realize that perhaps she had chosen a poor justification.

“Thinking about what?” Qliphoth asked, discreetly moving backward along the root.

“About how many times I’ve had trouble controlling something while carrying a ready-made solution inside my soul.” Vergil kept Yamato still while his consciousness focused more deeply on his inner world.