Baelgor's paw crashed downward on them in slow motion as if time slowed down the closer it got.
However, before his paw could reach its destination, the grimoire began to dissolve into Alex's palms.
No longer ink and page but shadow liquified, sinking into her veins. Molten script of runes of an unknown and lost language seared across her skin, crawling up her arms like living chains.
Alex's sin core bucked once around her navel.
Then...
CRACK
Agony tore her apart. Alex screamed, back arching as if her ribs had split open from within. Her knees hit the glass, her vision flared white. The grimoire's voice wasn't just a sound anymore. It was an etching carved into her very being.
'Balance cannot be read. Balance must be lived.'
Her sin core exploded within her into shards of black glass.
However, instead of leaving her hollow, two new cores bloomed in its place: one a black orb that burned like abyssal fire, the other a faintly white-gold glow like a small sun. They rotated inside her naval area until they came together and merged, forming something equivalent to a three-dimensional spherical yin and yang orb.
Then her flesh answered.
Skin darkened to a dark obsidian color. Alex's dirty-blonde hair turned snow-white, flowing down her back. Her body expanded, reshaping, broadening shoulders, lengthening limbs. Muscle rippled under her obsidian skin.
Alex's wings, which were still on her back, transitioned from black to a grayish white. Contrasting with her now obsidian skin. They flared once, shaking ash into the air.
The grimoire's voice spoke into Alex's head:
'You cannot hide what you are. But you can mask it. For even light and shadow may wear a veil.'
From the yin and yang orb in her navel, threads unspooled. Black and white, shadow and light, they braided into a sigil that carved itself across her stomach. The mark pulsed once, and the world around her seemed to dim. The golden leak of virtue that had bled from her body folded inward.
The hungry flare of sin coiled tight.
Alex gasped. The suffocating flow; she hadn't known she was bleeding. The beacon that had called Baelgor across the realm was gone. To the Nether Realm, she no longer blazed like a lantern.
She was now like a shadow among shadows.
'This mark is the Veil Seal.'
The grimoire intoned in Alex's head.
'A cloak wrought from paradox. While it rests upon you, your scent will be muffled, your light subdued. The hunters will not see you until you choose to be seen.'
The mark cooled, settling as a faint sigil of interlocked wings. One feathered, the other skeletal, just like the clasp that held the grimoire closed.
She fell forward on her hands. Looked down. And froze.
The reflection in the cracked black glass did not show Alex Gray. Not the girl she had grown accustomed to seeing since being cursed.
It showed her Asura side.
Obsidian skin. White hair. A man's frame, broad-shouldered, muscled like a statue carved from living fire. The sclera of his eyes was black, with eyes glowing white-gold.
His breath came deep, resonant, too heavy for the voice she knew.
Azaelia turned, her visor fracturing. Her eyes widened. For one heartbeat, she forgot the beast.
"...Alavion," she breathed before shaking her head side to side, knowing that it couldn't be him despite the resemblance to Alex in his Asura form.
Baelgor froze, chains and paw halting mid-air.
Steam hissed as though even wrath itself hesitated.
'This can't be...' Baelgor whispered into their minds. His voice, for the first time, wavered. 'An asura. Extinct...and yet...alive.'
His maw gaped, molten fangs glowing, and he roared in fury.
Alex rose. The Asura form stood, tall and alien, his obsidian skin pulsing faint light from the veins of script crawling beneath it like stars in the night sky.
His gray-white wings spread wide, heavy, powerful.
The grimoire voiced inside Alex's head:
'You are the paradox. To walk unseen, you must wear both faces. On one side, a feminine Angel that cultivates sin. On the other hand, a male demon — an Asura who cultivates virtues, child of the forbidden flame.'
Baelgor lunged. Chains tore from the ground, steam poured, and claws descended.
That's when Alex's Asura body moved.
The first step was instinctive and felt natural. A technique that almost felt like it was downloaded into his brain.
A blur forward, body folding into shadow and reappearing in Baelgor's blind angle, preparing a palm strike known only to the long-extinct clan.
He raised his right hand.
Oblivion Palm
His obsidian palm struck Baelgor's jaw. Shadow and flame erupted, cracking through molten flesh, detonating upward. The beast's head snapped sideways, teeth clattering like falling swords, blood spraying molten gold across the Flats.
Baelgor stumbled, the chains screeching in confusion.
'Impossible!' The beast howled. 'That form...it was erased from this realm. You shouldn't exist.'
Alex's deep male voice thundered back with a demonic smile on his face. "Yet here I am."
Baelgor retaliated. Chains erupted from below, spearing upward. The wings of Alex's Asura form folded, twisting his body in a spiral midair. He came down like a meteor, fist glowing with a white gold sheen.
Ruin Breaker
His strike split the glass floor into shards, shockwaves rippling outward. The chains recoiled and cracked, causing Baelgor to growl and stagger backwards.
Azaelia stared at him. Not Baelgor, but Alex. Her lips trembled. "...Asura techniques. To think I'll once again be witnessing techniques Extinct for centuries."
Baelgor gathered himself. Steam belched, chains tightened, his entire body coiling to lunge. 'You will die, Asura!'
Alex spread his wings. His hair whipped white in the hot wind. His hands came together, fingers weaving into a sigil no living Asura should know. A technique born from the knowledge of the grimoire.
Alex spoke the name as the grimoire whispered it into his mind.
Ashen Eclipse
From his palm, a sphere of black-gold light bloomed. Shadow swallowing light, light bleeding into shadow.
Alex thrust the sphere forward from his palm.
The orb detonated against Baelgor's chest. Chains shattered and flesh split. Molten blood gushed, flooding the Flats with burning rivers.
The beast roared once, high and broken, before collapsing down on the ground. Baelgor sagged. His furnace-eyes dimmed. The hound of Wrath, a high-ranked beast, fell silent at the feet of an Asura reborn. However, this was just the borrowed power of the high demon rank. Alex will soon face the dire repercussions.
Silence
The steam drifted. The vents hissed more softly.
The Flats quaked no more.
Alex stood over the corpse, chest heaving. His obsidian skin glowed faintly, light leaking from the cracks in his veins.
'Now the demons in this realm can see you and hear you. The Monarchs watch, and the Veil listens. You may speak, Zivarel.'
Alex's grayish-white wings snapped open. With one flap, he surged skyward, flames spiraling in his wake. He hovered above the Flats, like a black sun crowned in silver fire.
Alex willed the seal open. The cloak unraveled, and his true presence bled into the Nether.
A pulse ripped outward. The Flats quaked. Steam vents detonated in pillars of fire. Demons across the realm froze mid-step, their instincts screaming.
The seven monarchs even turned their masked faces toward the disturbance, some intrigued, others disappointed, while one remained neutral.
Alex's aura roared unchecked, sin and virtue twined together in a paradox that no decree could name.
His voice thundered into every mind:
"I am no prey. I am heir of a bloodline once forgotten, born of ruin and flame. Monarchs of the seven sins…the chained hound of Wrath's domain lies dead beneath me." A small chuckle released from Alex's mouth before he continued.
"If it could not consume me. Nothing will."
The corpse hissed below, chains still smoking.
"Come then, you demons. Hunt me. Bind me. Tempt me. Strike me with every sin in your arsenal. Just know...you will fail."
Alex's wings beat once. The pressure doubled.
Glass shattered in Wolven abodes and buildings. Rivers of ash rippled like oceans.
"I am shadow and flame. Sin and virtue. Demon and Fallen Angel. I am the paradox your codex fears, the decree you cannot cage. I will not kneel. I will not break. I will not flee."
"So let's turn this hunt of yours into a fun game." Alex smiled as adrenaline rushed in his veins at what he said next. "In less than 3 months, I'll be within the ranks of your recruits in the academy… hidden.
However, no monarch shall take part. And even if you tried, not even your senses will find me. The game will end too quickly, don't you think? So, let your demonic underlings currently within the academy take part."
and then the vow that cracked the realm itself:
"For I will ascend using your demonic underlings as cannon fodder. And be the next Sovereign. The next in line, and I will slay those who stand in my way!"
The aura burst outward like a quake, rattling mountains, shaking cities, bending demons to their knees in instinctive fear. Then, slowly, the seal folded back over his presence and disappeared, as if it hadn't even been there.
When that process was completed, Alex swayed in the air. His eyes flickered between consciousness and unconsciousness, struggling to stay aloft.
Unimaginable pain began to consume him as his once male frame transitioned back to his cursed feminine side. Obsidian skin turned into a fair complexion, grayish white gold hair back into a dirty blonde, and wings from grayish white back to their original fallen Angel black wings.
All this occurred as Alex, once a male but now female again, plummeted to the ground.
Fortunately, before she hit the ground, Azaelia caught Alex in her arms bridal style.
Azaelia's POV
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I let out a sigh of relief, knowing that Baelgor had perished, but Alex's condition left me worried. Every vein in Alex's body bulged and was tainted black, looking as if Alex's body was afflicted with poison.
"Oh, Devil, the borrowed power left her body damaged beyond repair. Her sin veins are inflamed. I…I can't heal this." I said to myself as I observed Alex's body.
'Don't worry, child.'
A deep, almost mystical voice began speaking to my mind.
"Who?" I squinted my eyes as I pushed my perception all around me to find who it was that spoke in my mind, immediately becoming on guard of my surroundings.
'No need to fret, child. I am Raziel, the grimoire now fused with Alex.'
"The grim…ah…I see." I said, reeling in my perception as I continued to observe Alex.
"Will she be okay?" I asked
'She will be healed. Her body couldn't handle the power output of a high-ranking demon. She is only in a forced coma state to allow the body to focus only on healing. Just bring her home. Her consciousness shall return in 2-3 weeks.'
I frowned at the timeframe it'll take for Alex to heal completely, but accepted it nonetheless. I descended next to the corpse of Baelgor, bending down slowly on one knee as gently as I could until I could support Alex with my right arm.
I took the opportunity to envelop my sin energy on my left hand and then touched the corpse of Baelgor, where a black ring with a blood diamond remained. As soon as the blood diamond began to glow, the high-ranked beast corpse disappeared like magic, turning into a misty energy that entered the ring.
"This would come in handy down the line for Alex once he learns that skill that made every demon in this realm fear the Asuras," I whispered to myself.
Not wasting any more time, I teleported Alex and me back home by enveloping us both in flames, reappearing in Alex's room.
The moment I placed Alex on her bed, her body began to glow white-gold. The superficial wounds, like the burns on her hand and ankle, left behind by Baelgor's chains, immediately healed.
Within seconds, Alex looked like she didn't even get into a life-threatening situation at all. The only thing to say otherwise was her inflamed sin veins that occasionally bulged and pulsed as if they were alive.
I stared at the white gold energy in amazement. That white gold light was pure healing energy that not even sin can taint. It gave me a repulsive feeling, prompting me to take a step back. Being in the same room made my skin itch uncomfortably, so I decided to walk out and close the door behind me, knowing the grimoire would take care of everything.
The moment the door clicked shut, exhaustion hit me hard, and I lowered my body down to the floor using the door to my back as support.
My sin core was halfway drained of Lust energy from the fight with Baelgor. I don't even think I had such a battle in a long time.
'I've grown rusty.' I thought while undoing Gehenna's forge and calling back my wings on my back. I closed my eyes and got into a meditative pose, crossing my legs. I released a breath and used some of my lust energy to heal the damage and wounds done to my body.
After about 30 minutes, my body felt 80% healed. My lust energy drained down to about 35% from the 50 that was left prior. If I were to continue and get it down to 25%, then my sin has a higher chance of consuming me, and I'll go berserk with lust, and I couldn't let that happen.
I sighed, "Looks like I'm going to need to find another Incubus demon to replenish my Lust. Simple self-feeding won't do me any good." I said, got up from the floor, and headed to my room to lie down on the bed to get some rest.
My thoughts then turned to Alex.
"So it would take about 2-3 weeks for Alex to wake up again. That's nearly a month wasted already. Seems like after 80+ years, I'm going to have to contact the Nocthyrion clan."
I groaned in annoyance after completing my thoughts aloud. I turned to my side and closed my eyes to let time pass and night arrive faster.