First Kill

Somewhere at the center of an open field is a thriving city filled with well-crafted buildings, the night is the same as any other night, tranquil and calm. Numerous activities of the citizen have been reduced immensely, only the rich and reckless that can afford the nightlife can be seen roaming around.

Contrary to most of the cities under the Cramanthia Empire, this city is filled with mages.

At the center of the city, there's a branch church of the Divine Santcum of Divinity and also a temple of the Black Fiend of Impiety, standing towering over the other buildings. For a city to have these branch guilds opening their branch here shows that this is a city with high standing.

Mages with varying powers lived in this place, and they were the main citizen of the city.

But in a quiet place at the corner of the city, a subtle brilliant glow appears from thin air and shone the surroundings. It went on for a moment oblivious to the citizen of the city, the light was akin to the grace of the angels themselves.

In no time, the light forms into a human shape until finally, a figure appears out of thin air.

The figure falls to the cobblestone ground with a light thud before keeping a kneeling position for half a minute, seemingly trying to grasp the situation around her. With slightly rigid breaths, the figure who is a woman straightens her back and looks around warily.

"Where am I...?" the woman mutters to herself, finding that she's in an unknown city.

Despite the woman having deep blonde hair alongside glittering yellowish eyes, her appearance slightly changed and would confuse the people that she knew. But if Samael was here, he wouldn't fail to recognize the woman as any other than Lily.

Lily was teleported away after receiving the System and arrived here.

Back when she entered the Canyon of Virtue with Samael, the sky is still brimming with light albeit covered with dark clouds. But now, she finds that it was already night, and she's also in an unfamiliar place that she has never seen.

Looking at the entrance to this quiet part of the city, she finds a few people walking by.

While she was inspecting the place she finds herself looking down at the ground remembering what she did. 'Samael...' she thought solemnly, Samael's expression as he falls down into the deep water flashed inside her mind.

A mix of shock and disbelief was clearly depicted on his face, but the most prominent was pain.

Something that is etched deeply inside his eyes as he realizes the fact that he was betrayed, 'I- I'm sorry for doing what I did, but... that moment is once in a lifetime. Revenge will feel better if done by my own two hands... I hope you can forgive me in the afterlife'

Upon thinking that, Lily takes a deep breath before she gazes forward.

'I don't know where I am, but it would be very convenient if there's actually someone that I can tell me and stay with for the time being' Lily thought, she sighed lightly before she strode forward, fully submitting herself to the destiny that lies in front of her.

But as she was about to reach the entrance, she made eye contact with a woman passing by.

The woman had to do a double-take when she locked on Lily, her expression shifting from shock to confusion repeatedly as if she saw something wrong with Lily. She didn't know why the woman seemed so surprised, there was nothing on her that could have caused such an extreme reaction from a passerby.

Suddenly, the woman rapidly walked up to her with big steps.

Lily was alarmed when she saw a stranger approaching her suddenly, her face becomes paler when she realized the woman would be able to do whatever she wanted to her in this deserted corner of the city. There was no way for her to run away if the woman lunged at her.

But the woman recognizes her apprehension and quickly raises both of her hands.

"Don't be scared! I'm not going to do anything to you" the woman said, trying to show that she means no harm to Lily with her hands held up. Even though she tries to look friendly, the caution has never left Lily's expression.

With a cold tone, Lily then asked warily, "W-What do you want?"

"I was just passing by but then I saw you" the woman smiled. "Tell me, what's your name?"

"Lily..." Lily replied while still keeping her guard up, she stands quite a distance away from the woman and would stepped back if the woman tries to approach her. It's still a stranger trying to get close to her, and that is not a good thing.

Upon hearing this, the woman repeated her name whisperingly, "Lily, huh... beautiful name!"

"Say, do you have any place to stay? I've never seen you in this city before and I pretty much know every single people here, so you must not come here" the woman said, there was no hint of bad intention from her.

Just then Lily realized that the woman is wearing a white robe, with a particular crest on it.

Squinting her eyes to see the crest on the white robe that is hard to look at due to the darkness of the night, Lily then widened her eyes when she realized the crest. "Are you from the Divine Sanctum of Divinity?"

"Yes, I am. My name is Agatha, and I'm a Priest Associate" the woman, Agatha confirmed.

As if her entire view changed completely when Agatha introduced herself as a member of the Divine Sanctum of Divinity, Lily stepped forward and said, "Please, take me into the Divine Sanctum of Divinity!"

"I already planned to scout you. But since you asked, I'll gladly accept" Agatha replied cheerfully.

Even though the first moment of their encounter is filled with tension and completely random, Lily decided to ask to join the Divine Sanctum of Divinity. Aside from not knowing anybody here and also having a place to live, she also met a Priest Associate.

It's pure luck that leads to this encounter, she would definitely be accepted if she impresses Agatha.

'Seems like being the host has its own perk, lady luck is smiling at me. I can't wait for what's waiting for me in the future, I'll definitely work hard to find the culprit and reach my goal...' Lily thought as she followed Agatha in a brimming mood.

~

Meanwhile, in another part of the world.

In desolation, disconnected from the outside world is a hellish place that seems to be at the center of the earth's core. The heat coming from the lava is scorching and keeps the temperature very high, not a compatible place for living beings.

But despite the inhabitable terrain, there seems to be a single living being at the center.

Lying at the center of an island surrounded by lava is a single man that is facing skyward with a blank look on his face, there are grotesque demons around him and seems to be gnawing away his entire body bit by bit.

In a bloody scene that could easily make an adult puke, the man is being eaten alive by demons.

Samael has already lost track of how many times he died in this place, he also has lost count of how many times these demons try to break his will by recreating his nightmares over and over again. Each time the demons did that, his mind is slowly turning towards insanity.

It's been hundreds of times he has seen his father, mother, and brother die in front of his eyes.

Moreover, he was then killed gruesomely by the Imps after his strength was stripped away from watching that same traumatic dream over and over again. Samael tries to fight back, but he was unable to kill even one of them.

'Just how can I kill these demons...?' Samael thought as he opens his eyes as he got resurrected.

The same thing happened again as flame embers appeared around him and turned into those damned Imps, they showed another sight of his brother committing suicide before mocking him for not being able to do anything.

Swish!

With a swift horizontal motion, one Imp clawed his chest and leave bloody marks.

Samael then wasn't given any time to recover as another Imp appears in front of him and stabbed him in the chest. But he already felt this pain hundreds of times and by this point, he was completely immune to it.

"Give up, human... Say the words and I'll send you to meet your family in hell" the Imp said.

Not stopping at that, the Imp then grinned right in front of his face exposing its sharp demonic fangs before it added, "I'm really anticipating your mother's reaction when she saw you going to hell too. Even at this moment, she's still crying and shouting to you to take vengeance and yet, you will die a meaningless death"

Even with the savage words thrown at him, there was no change in Samael's expression.

The Imp burst into hysterical laughter, relishing in taunting Samael who could do nothing in this hellish place. But before long, its mocking was halted as it felt Samael's hands clench around both of its horns tightly.

"Can you shut up already...?" Samael mutters with a chillingly cold tone.

Upon hearing this, the Imp looks back at Samael in surprise as this is the first time he talked in this tone. It didn't take long before the Imp horns were pulled down before its face meets a raising knee that hits square on the forehead.

Bam!

Imbued with purplish energy, the raising knee breaks and cracks the Imp's hard skin.

Growl!

Out of sheer anger from that raising knee, the Imp howled and bits Samael right on his neck, causing blood to gush out violently. Instead of screaming in pain, Samael didn't sit idle and also bites the Imp back on its neck.

Miraculously, the bite causes pain to the Imp and makes it let go and stumbles back.

The Imp was not able to recover fully from the pain before Samael grabbed its right horn with both hands and snap it, completely disregarding his devastating condition. Using the broken horn, he ruthlessly jabbed it from underneath the Imp's chin.

Splash!

Burning fire spats out of the Imp's penetrated chin as it growled in agony.

Samael doesn't realize the Imp stumbling left and right as its body burns, the fire grew and eventually swallowed its entire body and evaporates it into nothing but black ash. Following that, Samael falls face-first onto the ground.

Just like always, he opens his eyes and was resurrected once again.

Completely oblivious to what had happened before, he tirelessly stands up to face the Imps once again. But then his eyes widened when he realized something, 'Wait, shouldn't there be 12 of them...?'