Chapter 83: The Savior's Destiny

Asherah, the Goddess of Motherhood in Abrahamic Mythology, she's the ex-wife of Yahweh the God of Creation in the corresponding Mythology. She is called Mother instead of Lord by both the angels and the devils.

And looks aside, she's the embodiment of the saying "Never judge a book by its cover" after all, despite her beauty and youthful look, the outside is way different from what any normal people would imagine her to be. Since her true self hidden under that mask of hers is a wicked woman who would destroy the world just for the sake of her children's safety.

Any parent would call her feat touching to the heart or it's something a real parent would do, but by closely hearing her story and what she has done. I can call her despicable as both a parent and a God.

A real parent shouldn't drag their children to something dangerous, and what has she done? She's done the exact opposite of what I said, because of what she's done; most of all her children are dead right now, and what's worse is that her own children killed each other with no actual mercy at all.

Just as I thought, no matter what they look on the inside and what are they like on the outside, Gods are nothing but greedy creatures...

Right now, after that scene that I don't even want to explain we've watched, Asherah decided to take a rest for a bit and made food out of thin air for us to eat.

Will Asherah replace Lucifer? Thinking about it that way, if she were to replace Lucifer then that's amazing, after all talking to a woman in your dreams is way better than talking to a man right? Well kinda, but Asherah is a God which makes flirting with her impossible, and also she has children already, so is this the reason why I'm not attracted to milfs?

I drank slowly the cup of tea that I was drinking and looked at Asherah who was eating her omelet peacefully. "*Cough* Asherah, There are some questions I want to ask you, so do you mind me asking?" I have some things that I want to make clear with Asherah, so now that we're taking a break; now's a good time to do so.

"Ask anything you want Haruki Hotaru, I'll answer it all honestly."

"Then Asherah, why me? Why did you choose to talk to me when there are other good candidates for this?" I've asked this many times to people, especially with Lucifer. "I know it's something basic like because I'm the current Ruler of Hell, or that I have a special skill called Soul Bound, but is that all?"

"..." She was silent, and she kept on munching down her food slowly. "The reason? Haruki Hotaru, the son of the legendary demon Jarren and Xuntea Hotaru who have overpowered the power of a Seraph, is there any good reason why you're not a good candidate?"

"That's different! Do you think that I have the power that both my parents have? I couldn't even defeat any of the Archdukes without the help of Flint or them being weakened by their skills. I'm just-" I'm just me, I weak and pathetic guy who can't survive without the help of his friend; either intelligence or strength I'm the weakest.

And her comparing me to the monster of a parent I had? the audacity of her... I'm nothing like them at all. I'm just a guy who wants the safety of his people, not a fighter but a King.

"You're inferiority complex is what stopping you from what you can do? Is that what your parents taught you? I'm not comparing you to anyone else Haruki Hotaru, you're the one who's comparing yourself to them." She leaned closer to me and patted my head gently. "I can see from your eyes how much you felt inferior to everyone around you."

The feeling of her hand patting my head slowly felt peaceful... It's like there's true love onto it like a real parent would have toward their children, it is expected from someone like her. I guess this is why she is called the Goddess of Motherhood...

"I don't have any advice to give you so that you would fix this inferiority of your Haruki Hotaru, right now I only know two people in Japan that can help you remain calm." She softly said to me.

She's right, I got to fix my inferiority complex of mine, I can't keep comparing myself to my friends, or else I'm not gonna head forward in my life if I kept on going like this. "You're right..."

Why am I even like this in the first place? is it because I'm envious of others that I'm bringing myself down?

"For now Haruki Hotaru, I'll send you back to Earth, and we'll continue this later on okay?"

"Okay..." I closed my eyes slowly to finally go back to Earth.

Finally opening back my eyes, I saw the familiar hotel that we are staying at.

"*Sigh* Looks like you're finally okay Haruki... Seriously, you're really gonna break the world record of longest sleep of the year." Lucas looks disappointed in saying my achievement, but he was happy to see me awake.

"What time is it, Lucas..? And what happened..?"

"Today is already 3:00 am, a good thing that you waking up didn't take a day or two. And for what happened, you and Zephyrus were attacked by the Monkey King Sun Wukong at the building Susanoo sent you two to investigate, don't worry nothing happened to Zephyrus because you saved him."

"Really..? That's good..." Even if I'm a bit tired and my body still hurts a bit from the impact that I suffered from Sun Wukong's staff, there are still some people I want to visit right now.

Lucas seems to notice what I wanted to do and smiled at me. "*Sigh* Is there perhaps something you want my help with right now Haruki?"

I gave him a smile to show him that there is, and it looks like he understood. "Lucas, what are the others doing right now?"

"*Sigh* The two girls are sleeping in their room, and Zephyrus is with Bishamonten to scout out some areas that they suspected Sun Wukong is going next."

"Good..." I snickered in joy. "Lucas, can you follow me for a moment? I want your help sneaking into some places that I haven't been in for a long time." If their ashes are not there, then that means that either Homura or Asahi took them from my apartment.

"Sure, if it's something I can do."

"Don't worry, we can do this easily because we're both devils..."

We prepared the stuff that we are going to bring along the way and left the hotel to go back to where I was born. Sendai! Since it's another city, we're gonna take the famous trains here in Japan.

Tokyo to Sendai is 349km away from each other, which is very far. But if we're gonna take the train, it'll only take us 3 hours to go there.

This is gonna be nostalgic, I remember that everyday me, Homura, and Asahi are always taking the train to go to Akihabara to have some fun, and even if I'm not with them right now, I can still feel those nostalgic feelings.

***

[Lilith POV]

On the 9th floor of Hell, Lilith was with Baal, and right now they were at someplace that they only know.

This place that they are at, is hidden from the naked eye of the devils, and even Millie and the other Archdukes don't know about this place at all. Just only the two of them know.

"It has been a long time since I've come here, I hope that you're taking good care of him for me Baal."

"*Sigh* Of course, he's an important subject to both of us."

Lilith remembers the day she first became a demon, it was constantly struggling for her to decide at that time whether to become one or not, but with the insistent of her mother to her, she agreed in becoming the first-ever demoness in the world.

She knows that every living being would hate her if she became one, but that didn't affect her decision at all. For her, Asherah's happiness is what's more important to her than everything.

Even to this day when Asherah is already dead, she was still fulfilling what her mother tasked for her to do.

"Anyway Baal, how was it? Did everyone still think of you as a traitor?" She mischievously asked him. "Because it'll be troublesome for us if they still suspected you like a snake to us devils."

"*Sigh* The others are already believing that I'm not a traitor, but persuading both Millie and Gusion is hard." Baal looks saddened by what he said. "If only Satanael didn't mention my name at that time, then they wouldn't think of me as a traitor... It's really painful that no one completely trusts me."

"After all, Satanael, Mammon, Azazel, and Baphomet are all one of the top-ranking Archdukes of Hell, and you and I are with them. This is why when you the rank 1 at Ars Goetia, King Baal is mentioned by Satanael, it's normal for them to become suspicious."

"Then why aren't you the same Lilith? Everyone completely trusts you when you're the first-ever female demon ever, so what's even the difference between us in the first place? That same thing goes for Ifrit, Faust, Gusion, Gremory, and Phenex..."

"Ifrit, Gusion, and Gremory aren't mentioned at all by Satanael, and those two have been completely loyal to Jarren and Xuntea, which is why everyone trusts them. And Both Faust and Phenex aren't even originally demons in the first place, which is why they have no connections to Yahweh at all. While me, even if I'm the first-ever female demon, I'm not as strong as you, even the current Generals are stronger than me."

Baal looks astonished by what Lilith has said. "Makes sense..."

The two kept on walking down deeper and deeper underground the 9th floor of Hell, and at the same time they were talking to each other so that they wouldn't get bored from walking down for a long time.

After a long time of walking down the giant stairs, the two finally got to where they were going. The deep underground of the 9th floor is where you can find a giant safe.

The safe has many barriers and traps on it so that intruders won't open the hatch of the giant safe; the safe can only be opened by both Lilith and Baal since they created it to only detect their soul and face as proof that they are authorized to open the safe.

Inside the safe lies a giant hidden secret that only Lilith and Baal know of, the creation of this safe was tasked by Asherah to the two to hide something for her; a special weapon you may say that they have.

"Open it for me, Baal."

Baal let out a deeply frustrated smile and tiredly walked to the safe to open it all by himself. "If you could at least help me a bit..." Baal whispers to himself. He closed his eyes and said to the safe. "Authentication: Name: King Baal of the Ars Goetia demon."

The safe shone brightly, and opened itself slowly after the authentication of Baal was approved by the safe. "Done, so let's check on him now."

Lilith and Baal walked inside the giant safe, and there they saw was a man tied up in a chain, and has no means of escape. Both of his food and water are linked to him by a strange device so that he wouldn't die from hunger and dehydration.

He has lots of injuries on him and was already empty inside that he couldn't feel any feelings at all to anything anymore.

"Looks like he's still alive and kickin', seriously you're really tough for surviving here all alone." Baal was impressed by the person that was imprisoned here. "Really, for you to not have a broken mind by now, it's truly impressive."

The man looked slowly to both Baal and Lilith, even if he knows that these two are the reason why he's like this right now, he couldn't feel any resentment for them at all, it was like he was just tired of everything right now.

Tired of his life; tired of what's happening to him right now; tired of Lilith and Baal's faces; he's just tired of everything that the world offers him right now.

he couldn't cry, he couldn't feel angry, he couldn't laugh, or he couldn't smile, this person is just like an empty seashell that has no crustaceans living inside of it; truly meaningless of a being is what he is.

"You two are finally back..." Even if his throat was painful, he spoke to them still. "I thought that you two has forgotten about me..."

"Don't worry, we wouldn't forget you. After all, both me and Baal are the only two you have right? The only two you can call your family?" Lilith answered the man's question with a gentle voice and patted him on the head.

By hearing the word family, the man started to start feeling pain; both physically and mentally, it was like he was being tortured when he was feeling that pain.

He doesn't know why he was feeling it or why this is happening to him with just some words that Lilith has said, it was like he has something with that word that he doesn't even know about anymore.

Lilith seeing the man's reaction made her disappointed. "*Sigh* It still didn't work, no matter what I said or do to him he won't remember back his memory..." Lilith was saddened by the result of the test she was doing for the man. She only wants the man to remember back his old memory, so that she could finally repay her debt to this man. "It's because of me that he's like this..."

The man stopped feeling the pain he was experiencing after Lilith let out a disappointed smile, and he went back to his usual empty self as nothing has happened.

Lilith touched the man's cheek with her right hand gently and kissed him on the forehead. "I hope one day you'll remember everything... I wish that one day you'll remember your family again..." Lilith remembers everything he has done to the man, and she started to break down from remembering destroying this man's life.

She regretted what she did to the man from the start, which is why she was doing everything she can to save this empty man again. Her only wish was to be forgiven by him alive, she doesn't want to be forgiven by this man when she's dead. "I'm sorry for everything I've done, Adam..."