Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

“Your son’s sub-affinity is Darkness, so of course, I know.” said lily after a pause, “But you know, I could give you some idea’s on how to use your power. Nothing big, just give me control of your body for a second.”

My brow jumped at her words. But Noctom continued to spiral in a whirlpool of spear light whisking through the air and cutting through space as Zantar and I continued our war.

“I think you’re stuck with what you can do with your darkness and concepts, so let me show you,” Lily added. “I mean, you’ve really not created any good techniques in a while to match your battle prowess, and it’s showing.”

My eyes narrowed just as Zantar appeared on my flank with a gruesome smile that sent shivers down my Soul. No time to strike with his spear, his fist pierced towards my face stopping as the Etherial Concept radiated off me; he pivoted backward, summoning hundreds of spells that whipped towards me like beams of death cutting through mountains as they shrieked towards me.

“Please!~Let me take your mental virginity!”

Screw you! But she was right. I was sure Lily had seen at least one of the fallen battles at some point.

I groaned in response, and the little lass chuckled like a supervillain.

“Good choice.” She sang.

Relieving control, I felt a sudden pulse trickle through the Hells as if a set of eyes so old and revered locked onto my body. The very hells trembled at this sudden attention.

“Step out the way, old man!” Lily shouted in my voice, chuckling as the darkness trembled to her will. Suddenly the Concept of the Abyss and Etherial began to leak off the tip of her spear as she stared at the beams of light whipping towards her, slowly beginning to lose their light before fading away.

Within my soul space, I couldn’t have been more surprised as my heart dipped.

“You see, Arsene. Concepts are like the perfect passives. Are you ok if I use a gaming language? It’s easier for me to explain that way. They layer your techniques, but you need to find a way to use concepts without actually using concepts. A perfect example would be the actual laws that are compilations of concepts.

“No one can stop concepts. Not Lucifer, Mephisto, or the Old Goat Lord Hellmaster. They are the facts of causality. The darkness holds seven concepts, all of which you hold: ethereal, Eternal, Devouring, Chaos, Supremacy, Trancendance, and Abyss.

Etheral makes your power encompassing. Eternal gives it infinite life, Chaos ensures no matter what it touches is distorted, devouring eats away at reality, supremacy ensures peak performance, transcendence pushes it past the peak level of any particular heaven and Abyss… The Concept of Abyss… not even I know.”

“Who the hell are you!” Zantar howled, pointing his spear at me. It was trembling. Quivering as if frightened.”

“The trick about using Concepts is illusions. Something Mephisto saw first. It masks your attack and your personality. It’s all-encompassing.” Lily continued on with a seething look that had me on edge.” The old man Hellmaster once told Crowe, Ves, and Iza that the most powerful people in battle are those with imagination.

She scuffed. ” he’d even said the reason Lucifer lost to Michael wasn’t because of GOD. But because he was so imaginative, so well versed in killing, he didn’t need to use the Father’s blessing. So many claims Lucifer only lost due to the Father’s Blessing, but Lucifer lost because he was weaker at the time. Falling to Hell had really served him well.”

Listening to Lily talk about Lucifer and Archangel Michael, I didn’t bother to respond. There wasn’t a need to. Zax had claimed the opposite, but he was just a devil raised by other devils. His knowledge should have been limited. 𝑏𝑒𝑑𝑛𝘰𝑣𝑒𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Raising my palm toward Zantar, I felt the very Hell’s reel in pain. Clouds instantly formed, brimming with almighty essence.

“The Hells are eternal, but as is the Night.” Said Lily softly and clenched my fist.

Suddenly all laws, all concepts, everything within range of a parsec vanished. There was no explosion. No gathering of divinity. No anything. One minute Hell existed. The next, it wasn’t.

“Combine Etherial, Eternal, Devouring, and Supremacy, and you can destroy anything.”

Returning control to me, I hovered in distorted space as even Zantar had vanished. Seconds followed by minutes as I watched the land begin to regenerate by the will of Hell. But the clouds in the skies didn’t. They began to grow stronger.

“ARSENE!!!!” Zantar howled, tearing a wormhole out of subspace. He stepped out with barely any flesh around his left arm, and my jaw almost dropped.

‘What the hell did you do?”

“It was a simple technique: spread your awareness and activate the concepts. It’s that simple. Not everything requires a weapon. Azazel screwed your perception of what people can do without a weapon. The body is far more formidable than something the Angel who corrupted humans by giving them weapons could ever give. Sure. You can do more damage with a spear, but the body is necessary to wield a weapon. Think of that next time you swing your spear.”

“Azazel gave humans weapons?”

“He crafted the first flaming sword in heaven. He was the blacksmith. Why do you think he’s called the Angel of death? He made a weapon by giving concepts physical form and hammering them into weapons. It said his sword could cut even the One, although that’s just propaganda. No one knows if it’s true. But he does have one of the strongest weapons conceivable.”

Glancing down at Noctem and back to Zantar, heaving flames from his lungs, I stood mystified at the level of damage done.

What Lily had essentially done was an attack with her Soul. She had latched the concepts together and made an attack that was damn near impossible to defend against.

“Shall we take a step back?” I offered to Zantar as he growled in response, bleeding out.

Lily could have killed him if she had added Chaos or god-forbid transcendence. God knows what the Hell would have happened if she had added the Concept of Transcendence into the mix. Zantar would be dead, and Avenos would be gone.

“I’ll remember this one Arsene. Run as much as you want. I’ll find you, and I will kill you.”