The Bodyguard [End]

In that hall, which was supposed to be the stage of an unforgettable party for Lila Grace, the script had been drastically changed to a high-tension drama, with crying and gnashing of teeth in surround sound. "How did you let this happen? You bastards!" shouted a man whose mustache and baldness emitted vibrations of authority so potent that they almost compensated for the lack of hair. The hero to whom the outburst was directed seemed to have exhausted all the patience available for the month, reacting with a sigh that perfectly translated a "Get me out of this Mexican soap opera episode".

"Angel already dealt with the killer, right? So, problem solved," declared a blonde woman, demonstrating a level of detachment that would make a Buddhist monk look attached. Her comment, accompanied by a casual shrug, had the same effect of throwing alcohol on fire.

"And the president's daughter is dead!" The man's counterattack was a mixture of anger and despair, capable of competing with the volume of a rock show. "This was supposed to be the safest place in the world, it proved to be the most pathetic." Ah, the irony. If there was a world championship of failures, they would certainly have taken the trophy home.

The reality of the facts promised to become a global headline, the kind that makes journalists salivate more than a dog in front of a bone. Lila Grace's party, now a CSI scene without the charm of Las Vegas.

The man, in a failed attempt to hide his frustration or perhaps to perform a magic trick to disappear with it, sighed and covered his face. "At least the president was escorted out by his security guards and Scarlet…" Yes, because trusting the escort is super reassuring when the security plan has already proven to be as effective as an umbrella in a hurricane.

If this tragedy were a play, it would be a comedy of errors, with a cast that clearly skipped all the acting classes.

---

On that night, under the starry mantle that covered the White House, Scarlet stood out as a figure against the night sky, enjoying the solitude offered by the moonlight. Her red gaze, so vivid and contrasting, cut through the darkness, a lonely flame in the immensity of the night. Around her, chaos reigned — soldiers and heroes ran, a tide of urgency and despair. But there, on that terrace, she remained untouched, invisible to the world below thanks to an illusory veil of her own creation.

In Scarlet's hands, an object of deep and mysterious power: a pool of blood, the liquid of life and death. With eyes fixed on the red substance, she began to chant an enchantment, her words weaving the darkness around her into a tapestry of ancient and forgotten magic:

"In the deep shadow of the night, we invoke you, O powers of darkness, hear our voice. Through the secrets of the arcane, we call you, Open the doors of the obscure, reveal to us the true secret.

As the stars shine in the eternal sky, So the truth shines in the darkness. We, seekers of ancient wisdom, We ask for the way to the unknown.

In the name of the night and the sacred silence, We await your sign, That you may lead us through the dark path, To the end, which lies beyond mortal knowledge.

We pray this, with humility and reverence, By the power of the ancient words, Come, o hidden power, hear us."

With every word uttered, the air around her pulsed with an ancient energy, the shadows dancing in a nocturnal ballet to the sound of her voice.

The pool of blood turned into the epicenter of a supernatural spectacle, bubbling with the energy of a newly established connection. The chemical reaction was not something out of a high school science lab, but the prelude of a dark pact being sealed. Scarlet, or should we say Lilith, watched with a smile that overflowed with a mixture of satisfaction and triumph, like a child who, for the first time, manages to ride a bike without training wheels, declaring possessively: "It worked, the United States is ours."

Ah, but as the stories our grandmothers told us (and Nietzsche, of course) teach us, "If you look into the abyss for a long time, the abyss will look back at you". And the abyss had a voice, one that echoed from the depths of that pool of blood with an authority that made the ground tremble. "Great, Lilith. Return to the underworld. You have completed your objective."

"Yes, father, I will—" Lilith began her farewell, but, as in every good plot, a twist was lurking. An interruption cut the air, a female voice laden with knowledge and a hint of "I told you so". "So it was a demon from the start… I should have known from the beginning."

Lilith, caught off guard by being located despite her illusory veil, turned to find not an army, not a battalion, but the solitary figure of Alva. She, with her hair and eyes as white as the moon that illuminated the scene, displayed an expression of coldness that would make winter feel jealous. Blood adorned her dress and splashed her face, a mark of battle that contrasted with her ethereal beauty.

"The enchantment around Washington, it was something I had never seen before," Alva declared, her firm voice tracing the outline of a reality that unfolded beyond ordinary comprehension. As she looked at her hand, the cold was not just a climatic touch, but a reflection of the magnitude of the challenge that presented itself. "But nothing that I couldn't handle."

Lilith's response came loaded with a contempt that was almost palpable. "Arrogant human," she murmured, more to herself than to Alva. Leaning over the pool of blood, the conviction in her voice was unwavering as she proclaimed her next move: "I will deal with this human and return, father." And, without waiting for any sign of approval, Lilith's hands parted, letting the pool of blood dissipate on the floor of the terrace, a symbolic gesture of the end of one act and the beginning of another.

The tension between the two was a tangible force, filling the space with the energy of a pre-confrontation. They were two predators on the prowl, each dominating an aspect of reality at their whim. Alva, with the ability to shape the world according to her will, and Lilith, master of illusions, prepared for a duel whose outcome could alter the fate of countless lives.

Lilith then articulated a catastrophic scenario with the calmness of someone who discusses the weather. "We are powerful enough to destroy this city if we fight seriously. Thousands of humans would die in the process, and surely, the High Court would be blamed for it." Her dramatic pause was not just for effect; it was an invitation to ponder the magnitude of her words. Turning to face Alva, she proposed an alternative: "So… Shall we settle this civilly? Using only the essence of our existences."

Alva understood the nature of the challenge proposed, a duel whose rules transcended common understanding, an ancient battle unknown to the world of humans. "Very well, as the challenged, I will start," she accepted, her tone laden with a serenity that contrasted with the gravity of the situation.

Then, without hesitation, Alva launched her attack, aiming at the essence of what Lilith represented: "Demons, they are pathetic, weak, without understanding of the essence of life, completely shallow."

Alva's words were not mere insults; they were loaded with the weight of altering reality. Lilith's body began to suffer the consequences of those words, shrinking and paling, a transformation that led her to the threshold of disintegration, until only bones seemed to remain. But this was only the surface of a much deeper game, an illusion within an illusion, for Lilith, even reduced to a skeletal form, prepared her retaliation.

With a smile that seemed to transcend her skeletal condition, Lilith replied: "And strength, Alva, lies in perception. Demons, as you see them, are mere shadows of the truth." In an instant, the skeletal form dissolved, revealing Lilith's true nature, not as a weakened entity, but as a being of power and indomitable resilience, an entity that defied the reality imposed by Alva.

Impressed but not defeated, Alva prepared her counterattack, determined to test the limits of the one who challenged her reality: "Then, let's see if shadows can shine without light." She then wove the reality around Lilith, trying to submerge her in a darkness so absolute that not even shadows could exist, a final test to see if Lilith could find light in the deepest darkness.

Lilith smiled again, her confidence unwavering even immersed in the darkness created by Alva. "But, Alva, even in the deepest darkness, I create light." And so, with those words loaded with power, the darkness around began to pulse, lighting up with points of light that mimicked stars being born from the night veil. A whole galaxy emerged from that darkness, challenging the reality imposed by Alva with a vision of cosmos that Lilith conjured through her will.

Alva, in front of the majestic illusory galaxy, does not give up. "A galaxy, you say? Let's see how it withstands a black hole." Concentrating her will, she invokes the creation of a voracious abyss in the heart of that fabricated galaxy, a black hole that threatens to swallow everything in its voracity.

But Lilith remained serene, observing the new threat with a calculating look. "And what is a black hole, but another reality to be explored?" She challenged, manipulating the stars around the black hole so that, instead of being consumed, they orbited the abyss. The imminent destruction turned into a cradle of creation, where new worlds and possibilities emerged at the edges of the void, a testament to Lilith's skill in transmuting end into beginning.

Recognizing Lilith's ability to manipulate the illusion and create realities within the darkness, Alva realized that the battle of creation might not be won with the same tricks. "If I can't surpass you in creation, maybe we should go back to the beginning. Where everything is nothing, and nothing, is everything." With this new strategy in mind, Alva sought to redefine the entire scenario of the duel, trying to take the battle to a terrain where the rules of existence were as fluid as the waters of a primordial river, where reality itself could be shaped and reshaped at will.

In the midst of the abstract arena where reality and illusion were confused, Lilith accepted the challenge posed by Alva, plunging them both into a domain where the boundaries between being and non-being were blurred. "In the beginning, then, where everything began. But remember, Alva, in the void, in the absence, in the essence of 'nothing', we find the freedom to be everything." Her words, laden with an ancient power, prepared the stage for a confrontation that would transcend the limitations of common understanding.

With reality now submissive to her will, Lilith proclaimed: "Being everything, I declare, fill the nothing." And so, before the eyes of Alva, who represented the 'nothing', a devastating light began to consume her, a purifying fire that sought to swallow her existence.

Alva, engulfed by the overwhelming light, fought with all her strength, her scream of resistance echoing through the transformed void. And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the light faded, revealing Alva fallen, her form marked by the flames of transformation, surrounded by an expanding cosmos, thousands of stars born from nothing, filling the void with the light of creation.

The battle, now, was not only for supremacy, but for survival. The expansion of the universe created by Lilith threatened to swallow everything, a reminder that, in the game of creation, the stakes were existence itself. Alva, aware of the imminent danger, knew that defeat meant more than just the loss of the duel; it meant being absorbed by the very void that she sought to shape.

"Do you know how old I am? Child." Lilith, with a smile of triumph, looked at Alva, whose struggle against the expansion of the universe seemed increasingly desperate. Lilith's laughter cut through the silence, a note of mockery amid the tension of the moment. "Did you think a demon did not understand about life, death, redemption and ascension?"

On the threshold between existence and nothingness, Alva lay in a state that defied the very definition of life. Her body, now reduced to mere ashes by the voracity of the expanding universe, whispered stories of a confrontation that would mean her end. In the midst of the chaos of her own disintegration, she desperately sought a solution, a way to stop the relentless advance of everything that threatened to consume the void. "I need something, something that can stop everything that consumes the void. But… What can stop this?" The question echoed in her mind, a riddle whose answer seemed as distant as the stars that witnessed her dilemma.

Lilith's voice, then, cut through the silence, a sharp dagger piercing the veil of despair that enveloped Alva. "You know, even being a human, you managed to amuse me quite a lot, judge." Her words, although laden with a distorted recognition, were a testament to Alva's indomitable spirit, a flame that burned even in the ashes of her apparent defeat.

At that decisive moment, holding the delicate thread that separates life from death, Alva reached a transcendental understanding. She saw the universe not as a series of disconnected events, but as a intricately woven tapestry of light and darkness, of everything and nothing. "The light, it cannot shine without the darkness. Just as the darkness, it is not revealed without the light. Everything, it cannot exist without the nothing, and the nothing cannot exist without everything. A paradox of the soulmate, where the existence of one defines the other." Her words, although uttered in a context of conflict, resonated with the eternal truth of universal interdependence.

As Alva verbalized this revelation, the void around her began to expand in an unexpected way, but not in a threatening way. It was as if the universe itself was adjusting, reacting to her newly acquired understanding. Her goal had never been to interrupt the expansion, but rather to flow with it, to adapt and, through this adaptation, to transcend the limitations imposed by the battle between light and darkness, between everything and nothing.

Under the astonished gaze of Lilith, Alva's body began to restore itself, the ashes of defeat giving way to a new vitality. Alva rose, not only in physical form, but as a symbol of balance and renewal. "So, Primordial Demon, what can break this balance? If you take away 'everything', or the 'nothing', you will die, just like me. For we both complete our existences."

"Fascinating" was Lilith's response, with a smile that defied the gravity of the situation, a mixture of charm and surprise. "So… I was defeated by a human? That sounds like a bad joke." Reality, as they knew it, shattered before them, revealing itself to be fragile as glass under pressure, breaking and falling apart, until the scenario of the epic confrontation faded, bringing them back to the terrace of the White House.

"As the defeated, you have the right to a request," Lilith granted, adopting the posture of a reality show host about to award the grand prize. "If your request is my death, so be it." She said, ready for the final drama.

Alva thought for a moment, probably considering asking for something extravagant like a unicorn or maybe the secret recipe for the Big Mac special sauce. But, instead, she said: "The soul of a friend of mine? No… A colleague, sounds better. He's in hell, I want you to bring him back to his body."

"Hmm, name?" Lilith asked, as if she were taking a coffee order.

"Dean Carleone."

"Ah, the 'Bodyguard' of the president's daughter. By the way, you did a great job tonight…" Lilith could have joked, but, with her eyes rolling to a blinding white and back to normal, she simply declared: "Done, his soul is back in his body."

She made a dramatic pause, perhaps for effect or perhaps because she simply liked dramatic pauses, and then suggested: "Shall we fight boxing now?"

Alva, with the calmness of someone who knows when the game is won, just shrugged. It was not a escape, but the gesture of someone who had already achieved what they wanted. Fighting Lilith in a direct confrontation? That was no longer in the plans. Alva had a report to do, superiors to inform about the supernatural twists that Washington had just witnessed.

And so, with a almost casual wave of her hand, she teleported, leaving behind the terrace of the White House and a visibly exhausted Lilith with the events of the night.

Lilith, seeing Alva disappear into the fabric of reality, let out a heavy sigh, the kind of sigh you give when you realize you just went through a marathon of emotions and still have to walk back home. "Okay, let's go back to hell now…" She muttered to herself, perhaps thinking about the reports she would have to fill out or the explanations she would have to give to her father.

Before following the same path as Alva and disappearing, Lilith cast one last look at the moon, the kind of look you give when you are about to leave a place knowing you may never come back. "It's a pity that this world will be destroyed…" She thought, a flash of sadness crossing her face for a fleeting moment.

And then, with a thought, Lilith's figure faded into the night, leaving behind the silence and calm that precede the storm.