Chapter 5 – Silvia's Reverence
Silvia had wandered into the outer edges of the forest that evening, her crimson eyes scanning the shadows with idle curiosity.
As the daughter of the Demon Lord, danger was a constant companion. To her, these lands were merely training grounds, her bloodline thrumming with unyielding pride.
But then—she felt it.
A pressure unlike anything she had ever experienced. It wasn't demonic. It wasn't even mortal. It was something higher, older, vast beyond comprehension.
She froze. Her claws instinctively extended, her tail bristling, every instinct screaming at her to submit.
And then she saw her.
A girl draped in gold ornaments, her body haloed by radiance. Hair like woven starlight, eyes blazing with constellations. She stood alone, yet the entire world bent around her.
And in her hands—a sun.
Silvia's breath caught as the orb of light tore through the monster. The explosion lit the forest brighter than noon, the ground splitting open to reveal a pit so deep even her demonic senses couldn't find the bottom.
Her knees buckled under the sheer weight of it.
A goddess… I'm looking at a goddess.
When the black clouds erupted, bringing cursed rain, Silvia's instincts wavered. For a moment, the divinity before her darkened, as if touched by something forbidden. But even then—her reverence didn't falter.
Because even shadow could not conceal the majesty she had just witnessed.
As the golden ornaments flickered and vanished, the goddess collapsed, hidden by the smoke and rain. Silvia's eyes narrowed, searching desperately. But when the storm cleared, there was nothing. No divine figure. No trace but the scar left on the world.
She fell to one knee, bowing her head toward the pit.
"I… Silvia Nox Arkanis, daughter of the Demon Lord, swear my reverence. Whoever you are, O radiant one… you are beyond us. Beyond me."
The words came unbidden, pulled from her very soul.
Silvia stood again, her expression unreadable, her heart pounding wildly. The power she had witnessed—something greater than her father, greater than the heroes sung of in myths—was real.
And she had seen it with her own eyes.
Yet when she later encountered Aurora—the frail girl in the white dress—she never once made the connection.
How could she?
The weak little girl could never be the goddess who conjured a sun.
Or so she thought.