A/N: Sorrrrryy for the late updates. Exams killed me lol but no worries, I am alive!! Advance Merry Christmas to you all! I'll try to update every 3-5 days. Thank you so much for bearing with me. And oh, here are amazing fan arts! I can't post the others yet because wattpad's new feature will only be available to everyone by mid-january so I can only post one picture = one update.
Rest assured that the other art works will be posted, too. The next fan art will be from @cleoxopatra
This fan art is from @Marytastic13 's friend. THANK YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH <3 btw, what's the name of your friend?
unedited x
Enjoy!!! :)
- Athena
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"Why does it always have to be you?"
Lilith shrugged, her skin turning paler and paler every minute. Her body was becoming translucent with a burning blue flame right at her chest. It was as if she was the fire itself and as time passed by, that blue flame grew bigger, circulating around her veins and even her skin, completely covering her everything. One touch from Lilith and it could mean the end for Gabriel.
"I suppose you aren't called the mother of demons for nothing," Gabriel said in distaste.
She laughed out loud, her lips tainted with black shadows and her hair was styled in its own Empress royalty. It was about time Lilith showed her true powers. Long ago, Lucifer banned Lilith from using her demonic powers, said it was too powerful, and that it would be a waste of time and energy to contaminate it. From then on, no one really knew what she could do. Based from the previous wars, all she did was to be a decoration, an observer of some sort. Every one of them then assumed that she was actually a weakling – that Lucifer's banning was actually just a cover-up since he didn't want to be seen as weak, too.
Oh, how wrong they were. They should have never underestimated Lilith. Gabriel could now see how Lilith was like, and it was nothing like the stories they all tell. Lilith wasn't someone you pick a fight with.
"Curious, are you?" Her eyes. . . her eyes matched Malphas. And Gabriel loathed that.
She couldn't bear to look at her, with the same stormy gray eyes that Malphas had, with the same emptiness and hurricane, almost as if they both carried this world's miseries. Gabriel hated the fact that Lilith and Malphas shared the same pain, that she knew nothing about Malphas, that she couldn't help him, that she was just an archangel who ruined him.
"Where is he?"
Lilith's eyes flashed hot red. "I warned him. He belonged to me. Still, belongs to me, and yet he wouldn't look at me. Because of you!"
Gabriel raised her sword.
"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"What would you have me do?"
"Do you really know me, Gabriel?" Lilith spat out, floating mid-air, turning the whole place black until she couldn't see where the others were. It was as the place was exclusively made for them. "No, you don't. My dearest husband told me: 'If I even see one tiny flicker of flame come out from you, I will have your empty, dead heart for dinner. And do you know what's worse than that? I will make you sing for eternity, of how I crushed your entire being, and then I will put a golden crown upon your skull.' You see, Lucifer would rather have me sitting next to his Throne in a pile of cracked bones than have my body warm him."
In all honesty, Gabriel agreed with Lucifer. She'd rather see Lucifer's Queen already dead and broken.
Was that why Lilith was so taken with Malphas? Because he was kind to her? No, he was not. Malphas loved her because there was nobody else left to love. He was forced to love Lilith, thinking she was the only person left to keep him alive.
Gabriel closed her eyes, not letting Lilith affect her so. Lilith ruined their moment every time. It was about time she chained her. "Malphas is not a play thing."
Lilith opened her palms and the blue flames danced. Soon, the flames in her palms rose higher, licking every surface and crevice until Gabriel had nowhere to go.
"Malphas accepted me. He treated me the way a king should treat his queen – an equal."
And then the fire went out.
Gabriel couldn't see a thing. There was only total darkness.
Lilith's voice then rang out. "Let's play a game. I will sing your demise, and you will have to look for the casket. Once you find the casket, I will stop. Simple, hm?"
Lilith's prowess . . . singing. Anything she sings out comes true, and when the player of her game loses to the singing, the soul of that player becomes her voice, meaning, she could become Gabriel. She was Lilith, Lucifer's other half.
"What casket?" Gabriel asked, treading carefully around Lilith.
Unfortunately, Lilith didn't have the time to explain the rules of the game. She started singing.
"Here's a casket of dead and cold;
For lovers who burned with rage,
Let my song of Death embrace you both."
She didn't need to ask the second time around what casket Lilith was referring to. The casket dropped out of nowhere, made of gold with black and white thorny roses surrounding it. It wasn't an ordinary casket; it was too big, too long, and too filled with ancient writings and runes.
Slowly, Gabriel padded her way to the casket and what she found there almost killed her.
Malphas.
Malphas.
Malphas.
Malphas. Malphas. Malphas. Malphas. Malphas. Malphas.
"Death's lover, Life, kills Death
Oh, what fate it is!
Death dies in the arms of Life
How cruel Life is!"
Gabriel wanted it all to stop.
Malphas, dead, pale as Lilith, with eyes closed. He was in a suit and tie, almost as if he had a time for fancy looking garments. How could he die? When a demon dies, they just die. No more heaven and hell. Eternal damnation to nothingness.
Before she could even open the coffin, it disappeared.
"No!" she cried out, trying to reach out. "Malphas!"
"Little Angel."
Gabriel turned around and saw him, perfectly alive and ravishing. And smiling . . . sadly. "I can't fight the heart I have loved for so long. I can only bear and burn."
She quickly dropped her sword and went to his arms and it was home. His arms were strong and secure. Warmth filled her. Just the mere proximity and she could have died a thousand times.
Her tears were washed away by Malphas's hands but she didn't have any choice. She called upon her sword and brought it upon his heart. "I'm so sorry, but you are not my demon."
"Then where am I?"
"Burning, dying, because of me." How many times did she have to kill Malphas? How many times did she have to make him suffer? How many times? How could she be cruel?
The dying Malphas in front of her kissed her forehead, whispering, "Don't cry. I don't have any regrets. For centuries, I've never seen someone so complete, so enough even without a king, a lover, anyone by her side. I've never seen someone glow with radiance alone. Even without me, you are complete, worthy of this world."
And he died. In her arms.
"I've had enough of this!" Gabriel yelled, her voice strong and loud. "Don't you dare show yourself in front of me, because once you do, I will kill you. And I will make you sing of your own demise. I will have your bloody head as my crown. I will do this before Lucifer comes down and he shall witness how complete I am!"
Lilith seemed unfazed. "Let's see you try."
"Death's kiss trapped them both
In a box of blood
In a box of bones
Let the box take your last breath."
The casket appeared again. Once Gabriel came close to it, she, too, was being stored inside and there was no way out. Next to her was Malphas, eyes open, staring right at her, coaxing her soul to come out from her body. Malphas's eyes were bleeding and his arms were around her, sucking her divinity.
Malphas became Lilith's puppet. That was all she could do.
Gabriel struggled to get out from the suffocating casket, but it was no use. Malphas looked like a corpse, dead and yet somehow still alive. And somehow staring at her in blanked eyes. The world must have drained him of all he had. But once he wakes, he won't be her Malphas. He'd still be Lilith's.
So she had to kill Lilith, while trying to get out of there. And there was only one thing she could think of.
She sang.
"Even the Sun will lose its heat
Even the Moon will lose its light
And even the songs will love its tune."
The casket shattered into tiny pieces, letting Gabriel and Malphas break free. As soon as they were out, Gabriel unfurled her wings out wide, flares of golden fire emanating from her. A burst of light cracked open and then they were all bathed with her glory and radiance. Her ethereal being killed millions of demons and blinded a few other angels. Her eyes matched Malphas – stormy gray, the path of an avenging angel, the eyes that opened every being's pain and wounds and the hurricane that threated to destroy the world with just one look.
She floated up above and stared at Lilith.
But before she could even take Lilith's head, Malphas's black wings interrupted her. Malphas was protecting Lilith. How funny.
"Malphas," Gabriel said out loud. "Let me take away the puppeteer."
In a blink of an eye, she re-appeared behind Lilith, her hands around her head. Malphas then did the same to Gabriel, threatening to take her head off. In response, Gabriel laughed.
"You can't behead your little angel," Gabriel whispered, her soft breaths calming Malphas. "After all, I am your . . ." She snapped Lilith's head, twisting it to the side. "Little." Finally, she ran her holy sword through Lilith's neck, and then Gabriel was gripping her hair. "Angel."
Pool of black liquid clung to Gabriel's skin – Lilith's blood. But this was not enough. She let her hand go through Lilith's body and Gabriel stopped the heart. She squeezed it in a painful vice as the demon queen's body thrashed around. Behind Gabriel, Malphas smiled, because he was released from the hold of Lilith. He was simply staring, enjoying the scene unfolding in front of him, but he was not the same Malphas. He was still the same pure demon Malphas.
"I'd like to say thank you, but I would have to kill you," Malphas said, running his hand around Gabriel's arm. "Make sure she stays dead for a very long time."
Gabriel pulled her hand out and held Lilith's dead heart. She crushed it. "She calls herself a Queen. Too bad I am a King."
"Who says kings can only be men? After all, you are the King of my heart. You dominate my entire being," Malphas whispered against her ear. "You kiss. You love. You dominate."
She pulled him towards her, kissing him feverishly. "No, we both do. We kiss. We love. We dominate. Now, where is my demon?"
"What happened to my sweet, innocent Little Angel?" He cocked his head to the side, kissing her left cheek.
"Aren't I half demon and half angel?"
"Wrong. You are half Malphas and half Gabriel. Now, shall we continue our fight or shall we just . . ." He tipped her chin up and the chaos in his eyes matched hers. The same gray eyes. The same pain. The same love. Almost the same souls. "lose ourselves into each other's bodies?"
Gabriel pushed him away, sword already withdrawn. She then turned Lilith's head into a blue crown, a reminder of what transpired between the two. With Lilith dead, the only problem left was Malphas.
Something irked her. When she kissed him, there was nothing. She couldn't feel him. The Malphas standing in front of her was just a body, which meant . . .
"Malphas, what did you do to your soul?"