Chapter 687: Broken balance. Lilith realized she was fighting Diablo in a barrier, but she didn't care; as long as she killed and tortured Diablo, nothing else mattered. She stopped holding back long ago as she threw her destructive attacks at Diablo, causing massive damage to the former demon king. As a demon goddess, and a Progenitor, she was strong, incredibly strong, and when she used her true form, that level of power increased even further. Long demonic wings, sharp horns, and a tail covered in miasma, a miasma that began to spread throughout her body, a dense and corrupt miasma; this was Lilith's current appearance. As a goddess, she could use divinity, specifically the concepts of rottenness, corruption, despair, and of course, the concept that led to her being called the mother of demons. Goddess of demons, or specifically speaking, the concept of 'Beginning'. A concept that was formed thanks to her being a Progenitor. She had complete authority over demons, and she could force her authority on weaker-willed demons to do what she wanted. She could even create demons if she wanted to. Wielding Genesis, a god-slaying sword, the angry goddess attacked Diablo using her miasma and divinities, not holding anything back. Despite being so superior, she still couldn't finish Diablo. The ancestral demon was a special kind of demon. He was born from the sins of mankind, the incarnation of all the sins of mankind in physical form, the incarnation of evil. He wasn't weak either, and as he was made by the sins of mankind and had spent hundreds of thousands of years consuming souls, his power rivaled Lilith's, but... "Gaaah!" Diablo yelled as he looked down at his rotting hand. He quickly cut off his hand and covered himself with miasma. When the goddess used all of her concepts in one attack, even Diablo needed to beware; rot, corruption, and despair were very destructive and harmful concepts for any race. The miasma that Lilith expelled from her body was so toxic that it destroyed everything it touched. If not for the barrier that The Heavenly Father and The Demon King created, this whole place would have already become one big hole of despair. These were inherent advantages that not even Diablo could easily overcome, and because of these advantages, he prepared properly to defeat Lilith. Diablo was incredibly strong, but he lacked the quirks that Lilith had as a goddess and Progenitor, which freaks like Victor had. All he had was an extremely tough body and a massive amount of energy in his body. Understanding these shortcomings, Diablo fought with astuteness. He knew he couldn't fight head-on against beings of the same level as him, like Lilith and Lucifer. So it was no surprise when he pulled out the only weapon capable of killing the heavenly father's creations, his trump card. The Spear of Longinus. "Blasphemy! And to think that Spear would be in the hands of a demon of all things!" Ariel growled. "...." Scathach looked with somewhat melancholy eyes at the Spear in Diablo's hand. The weapon was not luxurious or worth looking at, a simple Spear that took the life of the son of God. Upon seeing this Spear, memories of 2000 years ago resurfaced in her mind, memories of a very talented young man she wanted to train. With his power, he would have been a formidable warrior. Unfortunately, he was too good for his own good. "Die!" Diablo covered the spear with Miasma and threw it towards Lilith. "That was a good plan, but unfortunately..." Victor watched the Spear fly at high speed toward Lilith. "It will not work." Victor and Heavenly Father spoke at the same time. TINK! The sound of two metals colliding was heard, followed by an explosion of power, and soon everyone saw Lilith defending from Spear's attack with her sword. "Have you forgotten who is in front of you, Diablo?" Lilith caught the Spear with her other hand. Diablo opened his eyes a little when he realized what had just happened. "Now, take it back." Lilith hurled the Spear back at Diablo. Diablo quickly dodged the blow; he didn't want to test his luck with Spear. "... Why didn't it work? If I'm not mistaken, the Spear of Longinus should kill all of Heavenly Father's creations, right?" Natashia asked, confused. Kaguya opened her eyes slightly in shock when she heard the Spear's name and its effect. The one who answered Natashia's question was not the heavenly Father but Victor himself. "When a being ascends to godhood, the entire soul of the being undergoes a metamorphosis. In simple to understand terms, the soul takes all of the mortal characteristics of the being, merges them together, and transforms them into something completely new. It is much like a rebirth.." "The moment Lilith became a goddess, she stepped out of Dio's influence here." "… Dio?" "It's god in Italian. Since I don't know what to call you, you'll have to settle for 'Dio', 'Good Guy', or 'Dude'. I might even call you 'Creation' sometimes, after all, you're a god of creation, and it's not like there are many out there." Victor spoke casually. The Heavenly Father looked at Victor in shock. It was obvious that he, too, had a look of amusement on his face, and he wasn't the least bit offended by what he had just heard. Something that wasn't the case for the angels. Even Ariel was livid at the 'disrespect' for her father and creator. "You treat me too casually, Demon King." "My family was Catholic." Now it was very difficult to say if they were or not. After all, the supernatural was real, "And I always saw God as a friend to talk to." "So unless you give me reasons, I won't be making myself your enemy." "Not to mention that as the King of Hell, chosen by Hell itself, I am your equal." He narrowed his eyes at the angels who were staring at him as if they wanted to stab him. The angels shuddered slightly as they felt the spike of Victor's killing intent. "You're right, Demon King. It looks like you will be the only Demon King I can have a cordial conversation with without them trying to kill me." "Well, Lucifer was a kid with daddy issues and too conceited for his own good." Victor shrugged. "And Diablo is a madman with delusions of grandeur." Heavenly Father added. "Two troubled beings." The two added at the same time. "No wonder hell was so slow with those two in power," Victor spoke. "The very nature of hell does not help to develop itself either." Heavenly Father added. "That's because previous kings were too focused on their own navels to even think about doing something for others. Fortunately, I changed that." "Well, they are demons, beings of sin." The heavenly father spoke, testing the waters. "That's not an excuse, you know, right?" Victor raised an eyebrow, "Even though it's just the negative aspects of a soul, that doesn't mean that the soul won't develop into something more." A satisfied smile appeared on the man's image: "Yes, I know." "Just like humans, demons have the ability to love and feel affection. Though due to their inclination, they will always follow their wishes," he added. "The same applies to angels only in reverse," Victor spoke and added: "Well-meaning actions can sometimes be crueler than a demon." Victor snorted, "Hell is full of well-meaning people. Believe me, I know." "From my point of view, Angels, Demons, and humans are not that different." "... That's something I can agree with you on." Just because you're an angel doesn't mean you aren't capable of committing atrocities. Just because you're a demon doesn't mean you're incapable of acts of kindness. Humans are the best examples of this, there are humans who are considered monsters, and there are good humans too. 'He has the same values as I do. It's good to know he's not blind, and it's good to know he understands that although a balance between good and bad exists, that's not all. There's always the gray area... And this gray area is where all beings are currently.' The Heavenly Father saw angels committing atrocities several times, thinking it was correct; 'A good man's actions can sometimes be crueler than a demon's, huh?' he cannot but agree with these words. The angels shuddered again, this time in disbelief. Their father just accepted him as 'equal', clearly a message to the angels to treat him with respect. He was even having a 'jovial' conversation with the damn man! They've never seen their father like this before! And what philosophical discussion is this? They seem to be talking about something only they understand. 'Angels treating the DEMON King with respect... Hell must have frozen over, and I didn't know.' Cassiel thought in disbelief. Even if he wanted to protest about it, he couldn't, his father's orders were absolute, and he could only obey even if he was dissatisfied. Amused smiles were seen on the faces of Aphrodite, Natashia, Kaguya, and Scathach. They really couldn't quantify how much they missed that side of Victor. The four generals looked even more proud than before, although they also had their eyes on the angels' reaction should they need to defend Victor at any moment. … It's not like he needed protection, but it was their duty to protect their king. The fight was getting even more intense as Lilith and Diablo went for each other's throats. And before anyone knew it, over an hour had passed, and that was enough time for results to start showing. Diablo's body was covered in bruises and cuts, and his horns, tail, and red skin were completely covered in damage. His regeneration stopped working at some point during the fight, proving that Lilith had something to do with it. Speaking of Lilith, the demonic goddess, despite having several cuts and bruises, was better off than Diablo. Her eyes still glowed with unquantifiable hatred, and it was obvious that she would only stop when Diablo died. On the other hand, something started to worry Diablo. 'I'm going to die…' The thought triggered a wave of anxious feelings. He was surrounded by a barrier that prevented their powers from harming Earth and, at the same time, trapped Diablo here, unable to escape. 'I need to get away.' That thought crossed his mind as he dodged Lilith's miasma attack. Diablo was, without a doubt, a cautious demon, and he always had a plan B or C in case something went wrong. 'Asmodeus is still alive, Agares too, not to mention that I can sacrifice the souls in my possession to get out of this place.' This whole thought process was a huge humiliation for Diablo. Running like a coward was a big blow to his pride, but he wasn't a fool. He'd rather run than die. Diablo wasn't desperate yet, he had his backups, but the problem was, how to use them? Dodging attacks, he flew even further backward until he slammed his back into the 'barrier'. Then, lightly touching the barrier, he analyzed the structure with his power. 'Impossible...! Negative and Positive Energy? They really want to kill me!' It was virtually impossible to destroy a barrier that was being held in balance by these two pure energies. He needed an abysmal amount of energy. And just with that fact, the plan to use Agares, Asmodeus, and even souls was completely unusable. Diablo found himself entirely out of options. Lilith appeared in front of him, "Why are you running?" A sword pierced his stomach. "Cough..." "Get away!" He growled with rage as he forced his power to explode and sent Lilith flying away. He opened his mouth, and a beam of red power came out of it and flew toward Lilith, who had no choice but to defend herself. He put more power into his mouth, and soon a thunderous explosion was heard, followed by a large mushroom cloud. Diablo ignored this as he looked down at the pit in his stomach. 'I have no choice... If this continues, I will die.' It hurt a lot for Diablo to make that decision, he wanted to do it in the egg of creation in his hideout, but he wasn't going to leave here alive. Desperate people have no choice. A heart completely covered in Miasma appears in his hand. Ba-dump, Ba-dump. 'Heart nourished by all the evils of the world, my heart.' He opened his other hand, and a shining heart with a holy feeling appeared: 'The heart of the fairest angel, Michael.' Then a heart appeared floating in front of him; this was a dark heart with several white parts. 'The heart of one of the highest ranking angels fallen recently, Gabriel.' At first, he wanted Lucifer's heart, he was the perfect ingredient, but the fool changed his race, and he had to settle for that heart, it wasn't a perfect ingredient, but it would do. "It's time to break the balance." Diablo opened his mouth and swallowed the three hearts. In the next moment, Lilith appeared in front of him and tried to cut him: 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢 "It's too late." The moment he said that, a dark miasma and holy light exploded from his body toward the sky like a pillar. FUSHHHHHHHHHHH! The Heavenly Father's face became serious when he saw that power. On the other hand, Victor's smile grew wider. ..... Edited By: DaV0 2138, IsUnavailable If you want to support me so that I can pay artists to illustrate the characters in my novel, visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/VictorWeismann More characters images in: https://discord.gg/4FETZAf Like it? Add to library! Don't forget to vote to support the book if you like it.