The Confrontation

Maria thanked the devil and then transformed into a beautiful woman. She then went to the nearest tavern and found one of the assassins drinking alone. Joining him, she instantly attracted his lust and seduced him into overdrinking. Using his grogginess as key, she then burned him to death and transformed into his appearance to enter the assassin stronghold unnoticed by them.

Assassinating all the assassins one by one, she finished her first part of vengeance. Burning her old home down to leave no traces, she left the village and returned to the devil. " Master, what should I do next? " Even if it was her revenge, she still had to take the permission of her lord to do so.

" Hmm, wait until the king gains the realm king's authority. We can then kill him and seize it. "

Just as they anticipated, the king made his move and tried to seize the realm king's authority inadvertently revealing the location of the realm spirit to Satanael. With a devious smile on their faces, the duo simply slaughtered the king and his entourage like swatting flies or smashing ants.

Reaching the realm spirit's hive, Satanael was surprised at the form of realm spirit. It looked like an ant, as large as a building with mandibles made of god tier metal and carapace of black diamonds. It looked like quite a challenge. " Ah! such a pain. Why isn't the realm spirit an easy foe? " he groaned.

" Aren't you throwing a tantrum like a child, husband? " Maria had totally been enticed by Satanael and became his loyal confidant and wife. Satanael was indifferent for most of the time, but, he did have some passionate and affectionate moments with her. It was very ambiguous and doubtful.

" My love, I can only throw tantrums when none are around, right? let me have some fun. " Maria's giggles at his answer reverberated amusing him and enraging the realm spirit. They immediately got ready and dodged the earthen spikes of mithril that jutted out of earth right below them.

Flying away into the air with his 12 pairs of bat wings, Satanael created a ominous shadow from the gemstones that refracted light from somewhere, illuminating the cave. The shadow applied a weakening effect on the spirit while Maria continuously burned its carapace with the undying flames of Muspelheim and channeled her rage into her attacks wounding it.

With impeccable teamwork, they finally subdued and finally silenced the spirit gaining the realm king authority for themselves. Maria unhesitatingly merged the authority with her husband. All of this occured several eons ago. Satanael maintained the realm in the place of the realm spirit.

He completely mastered the realm king's authority and gained tremendous strength. He then proceeded to crush the Great Alliance of the Righteous formed by the all the kings and then abducted Randolph after weakening his kingdom by enticing the last light mage cursing the kingdom to never have another light mage in Randolph's grandfather's reign.

He then replaced Randolph with the puppet he created with the fragments of the astral body he obtained from the king and some other voluntary sacrifices. He then put the king into cryosleep and waited for the right oppurtunity to strike and take Celestina, a huge threat, out of the picture.

But, out of nowhere came Aria, not only a light mage, but also a group control fighter, destroying all the armies that he prepared as a distraction. He planned to destroy the kingdom and reestablish it with his undead army after killing Celestina and sending her back to the spirit realm.

Aria threw a wrench into all of his plans and forced him to make his move, the first one being retrieval of his puppet, lest she figures the internal mechanism of its creation and control. He carefully removed all the traces of his realm on it before retrieving it completely.

Meanwhile Celestina and Gustov were tending to the king. They were waiting for Aria to return. Her plan was risky, both for her and Randolph. She had to hurry. Almost a super stellar unit (Half a day) was up. Her solar aura, a potent medicine, was just as ineffective as magicia in healing him.

Aria rushed into the inner chambers like a light ray and landed in front of Celestina who immediately stood up to hug her only to gape in wonder. " Huh, Sis, is something wrong!? " " Um, Aria, where did you get these many wings!? " " Wings?!?! " Aria, who was in a hurry, did not notice/observe the changes that occured to her body due to Lord Surya's blessing she just recieved a while ago.

A golden, transluscent annular ring decorated her like a nimbus, only floating behind her back rather than her head. Its diameter was just as much as Sarcony's back and had mysterious runes on it. 36 pairs of golden dove wings were attached on the sides of the ring making her look like an angel descended from the heavens. She looked divine, almost god like, in her transformed attire.

Her white dress with golden embroidery that looked like a knee length skirt rippled like the surface of calm water gently disturbed by a feather whenever she moved. A faint, golden aura surrounded her making her look even more like an ethereal fairy. She was very very adorable in the outfit.

She gently embraced the shocked Celestina and then sat beside Randolph. Placing her hand on his forehead, she infused her body with golden light/aura that slowly enveloped the poison and tranformed into an unparalled elixir that started to heal his old, burdened body to its health.

Randolph started to appear several years younger all of a sudden. He slowly gained consciousness and opened his eyes. As expected of the transmogrification given by Lord Surya, she could convert the deadly poison into life-saving medicine in an instant that healed all the stress/trauma that he accumulated by being the prisoner in Satanael's castle for all these years without a trace.

His astral body connected to the puppet's made it possible for him to possess all the memories that the puppet acquired in his place/while replacing him. He thanked Aria and his teacher for saving him. He instantly brought order to the disorderly royal palace and convened the court.

" What next Aria? " " I have a slight hint on Satanael's location. How about ambush? " " I am in. " Celestina spoke. " Count me in as well. " Gustov interjected. " Gustov, no hard feelings, but you are weak. You may die in the expidition when Seraph level or above (tycoons) collide. "

Gustov felt bad, but agreed. He would die a worthless death if even ripples of the attacks of Seraph mages hit him, much less the original attacks. Aria and Celestina, shortly joined by the Queen of Arache, a seraph level fighter herself, travelled to the Leap of Faith, a deep, unfathomable ravine whose bottom was always shrouded in murky black-brown fog and populated by demonic beasts.

" Are you sure mate? The fall looks fatal enough. " " Arache sis, this is the Leap of faith. Have some of it in me. I promise, We will reach him. " Arache's kingdom was targeted along with all other kingdoms by the demonic beast army. She was enraged by the mastermind behind the attacks that cost her several valuable soldiers. She was a compassionate but unforgiving person.

The team was soon joined by the Vermillion bird who just couldn't watch like a helpless child. She agreed to help as well. The four of them jumped into the ravine. The golden aura emnated by Aria that carried a slight chill, feeling like fog on a snowy winter night, only golden in colour, spread like a mist and gathered around the others and cushioned the fall while sizzling the corrosive brown fog.

Aria put the three on the ground safely. The earth was dry and cracked as if baked under high sun. The brown fog made faint wailing ghost like noises whenever it touched the white-gold aura that resembled the colour of tigers of Earth, albiet faint. Several hundreds of demonic beasts that put the special Di-tusk Behemoth to shame surrounded them in droves/waves like honeybees.

<Restraints of destiny>, a simple command from Aria created innuemerable strings of light that shredded them like the blades of a blender, without mercy, without discrimination. Even then, their number was largely unchanged. Celestina carbonised them with lightnings, Arache followed Aria, slicing and dicing them with her spider threads, Vermillion bird burned them with her flames.

" This won't work. Vermillion bird and I will open a path, go get the mastermind's head. " Arache declared and instantly used her strongest skill to open a path to the spooky, obviously deserted and haunted castle in the distance. Vermillion bird reinforced the path by burning off those that strayed into the path. " Stay alive. " Celestina urged. " May lord Sun keep you safe. " Aria blessed.

Blessing of the sun: Bestowed for a lifetime to two individuals, Arache and Vermillion bird.

Aria's wings folded themselves into a barrel and concentrated a large amount of chakra to a small point. The Eye of Ra sat at the point absorbing and refining it even further. The charge continued for a while before Aria muttered, <Mercy of Ra>. A death ray so thin and fine, resembling a hair-thin thread, vaporised all the beasts in the way without mercy, unlike what the name suggests.

She flew over, closely followed by Celestina. Aria's flight, unlike Celestina's, had become passive and consumed no energy due to the wings she possessed. They slashed the beasts and scorched the murky fog to nothingness as she flied greatly reducing the burden on Celestina while increasing their travel speed by a large chunk/factor.

" Aria, will the puppet master be in the castle? " " I don't know. I cant feel any signs of life from the castle, heck, I can't even feel the existence of the castle. " " OF COURSE YOU CAN'T. IT IS MY HUSBAND'S CASTLE AFTER ALL. " A sharp black blade made of murky brown fog slashed at Aria's throat only to dissipate into nothingness while the hand carrying it burned, the skin peeling off.

~~Urgh~~ muffling her scream from the stinging pain she felt from her hand, a woman with 4 pairs of bat wings revealed herself from the fog out of mistake while backpedalling from Aria. " So you are the wife of Satanael. " " YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF TAKING MY HUSBAND'S NAME. " yelled Maria while attacking Aria once again, only to have painful burns on her other hand as well.

Maria and Aria got entangled in a heated battle. Meanwhile, Celestina, who wanted to help her was confronted by Dahaka, the fake Randolph. " We meet again, teach. " " Hmph, today, I shall carve into your very bones, the sin of decieving a teacher. " Celestina and Dahaka battled as well.

" YOU ARE AN ARROGANT LASS, AREN'T YA? I WILL TEAR YOU BIT BY BIT, FROM THE INSIDE. " " As if it is possible for someone of your caliber. " Maria carried burns all over her body, small golden fires burning on some places, three of her wings hanging limp due to losing the patagia, her skin tight dress melted at several places, searing her skin, her throat and lungs burning from the heat.

It was inevitable as Aria was the natural nemesis of fallen creatures like her. Maria huffed and panted. Her physical body was falling apart. She hadn't gained enough knowledge to shed her physical body completely. Partial astralification of her body was still imperfect, resulting in her injuries.

Aria was a perfect, balanced fighter. Her wings allowed all round defense and unpredictable offense while the unbearable heat and light radiated by her skin made the area around her a heat zone, no inferior to deepest region of Muspelheim, the Lair of Surtr, the king of Flame Jotuns/giants. Just by staying near Aria injured Maria and scorched her airway. It was a hopeless battle, in the end.

Irrespective of the level of advancement of Dahaka, Celestina was a tough foe, a Sprite and a Seraph level mage, she was a monster like existence, whose mere gestures can move continents. As such, he was being destroyed bit by bit, real time, by Celestina's lightning that stinged him like live serpents and burned his skin and boiled his blood like red hot iron. He was no match for her, even when put under desperate conditions, which cause latent power in individuals to awaken and grow.

With a flash, the serpent made of lightnings, mimicking Mo'er, ate Dahaka and scorched him with lightnings that could shatter mountains till all that was left was foul smelling, burnt rubble. Celestina took a deep breath to gain her bearings and turned towards Aria only to be shocked. Aria was glaring at a devilishly handsome man holding a badly burnt woman in his arms. There was no semblance of a living being left in her. All her wings were burnt into mere stumps.

The man was expressionless, with no semblace of rage in his visage at all. He was the one who interrupted Aria's finsher attack and saved Maria at the verge of death from her. The very attack that vaporised a multitude of beasts with ease couldn't even scorch the corner of the man's clothes, much less him. He was in a different level of existence from Celestina or any others.

He was the Lord of the Fallen, Satanael, and this was the first, and probably the last, confrontation of him with the spirit of light, his archenemy, his nemesis, Aria.