The Twelve Apocalypses: A Damned Soul's Path to the Abyss

Our journey to Methialia's home was both quick and painfully slow. The demoness was still barely mobile, but she staunchly refused any form of assistance.

And her wings were still gone. That worried me more than I could put into words.

The captain had requested her lodgings be built at the very edge of the city. When we finally arrived, it took a moment for the doors to recognize her magic and swing open. She all but collapsed on her way across the threshold.

As soon as I followed her, heat slammed into me. It was such a marked difference from the world outside, even for my demonic body, that I actually stumbled.

I looked around with some apprehension. Sure enough, a huge fire was roaring in the massive hearth Methialia had commissioned for her home. It was also radiating so much mana that I would've known it was magical even if the flames weren't purple.

The effect it had on our host was immediate. Her shoulders relaxed, and a spring entered her step as she crossed to the fireplace.

"Oooof."

I glanced back at the silly cat who had made the noise, only to find her expression scrunched between discomfort and bliss.

"You okay there, Mia?" I whispered, using a trickle of mana to mute our conversation further.

"Yes. This is… hot. A part of me really likes it. Reminds me of home a little, but…" She grimaced, then did a full-body shake. "It's almost too much."

I caught her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as we trailed after our hostess. This was the one of the very few times Mia had ever mentioned her home or past to me. The fact that she had done it so casually made my chest swell with all sorts of emotions.

Still, I forced myself to focus on Methialia. Whatever was wrong with her had to be more than a simple weakness to temperature. That just wasn't a thing demons were supposed to suffer from.

The captain had already collapsed into an armchair positioned right in front of the fireplace. I felt some trepidation as we settled on a nearby sofa, but to my relief, the heat didn't get unbearable. Still wasn't pleasant, though. After only a few seconds, I was well past comfortable levels of 'toasty.'

At least the purple flame was fascinating. It crackled and swayed at all times like it was caught in a strong wind, yet never once faltered. It also lay right on the crystalline floor of the hearth with no visible kindling.

Methialia stared at it, eyes darting occasionally towards me and Mia.

"So… I suppose I should answer your questions now, huh?"

"It would be preferable." I hesitated, then went on carefully. "Listen, I'm not going to force the issue, but I really do consider you a friend at this point. I mean, you were the one who taught me how to fly. We've definitely fought alongside each other enough times. I'm not going to swear eternal loyalty to you or anything, but still. I promise you can trust us."

Mia didn't say anything, but the fervent sincerity in her eyes when she nodded was probably as effective as my little speech.

Methialia sighed and leaned back in her armchair, gaze fixed on the opaque crystal ceiling.

"Okay, okay. So… It might or might not surprise you to hear this, but I'm not an ascendant demon. I am the daughter of two Abyss-born, from a family of some minor renown. Not enough that everyone celebrates when the legion recruits one of ours, like with Wilhelmina and her sister, but… yeah. You know?"

I didn't 'know', actually, but it wasn't hard to guess. I just nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"Well, with that kind of fame also comes enmity. My family has a long history, and we've made more than a few enemies along the way. None of those enemies are content to sit around and ignore us, so it's pretty much scheming and struggling and killing. All. The. Damn. Time. When a member of our family wants children, it's always a risky period. They need to be hidden. Protected. Cherished. You know how we procreate, right?"

"Obviously," I scoffed. "Even if we didn't know about it beforehand, that's one of the first things the Abyss beams into your mind after ascension."

Methialia giggled. She was looking better by the minute. However, I also noted that she was using her proximity to the flames to… feed?

Yes, I thought, watching some of the mana and innate power of the flame streaming into her. She's feeding on the fire to maintain her health.

"Well, my mother wanted kids, but she also didn't want to be seen as a coward. She was the head of the family, you see. So, while pregnant with me, she went on an invasion. When she was assassinated during said invasion by a rival house, I died right alongside her."

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We must have failed to keep the shock off our faces, because Methialia outright laughed.

I couldn't help it. My mind was spinning. None of my Abyss-inherited knowledge applied to that scenario. In fact, everything I knew suggested strongly that a pregnant demoness should not leave the Abyss at all.

"But…" I sputtered, "what happens then?"

"What happens… varies. A lot. If the child is young enough, then they simply vanish when the mother reforms. People think the child gets absorbed by the mother's soul because the two are still seen as one entity by the Abyss. If the child is old enough in the womb, they could reform separately from the mother. The children in those cases don't always survive."

If I was flabbergasted before, I was now horrified. The images of half-formed demon babies squelching to the floor of the Abyss filled my mind.

Suppressing a full-body shudder, I managed to speak calmly. "You survived."

Methialia nodded. Her voice took on a decidedly cruel tone of amusement. "I was just old enough to avoid absorption and young enough to avoid getting forcibly ejected from my mother. Unfortunately, I didn't dodge all consequences. I was… damaged, by the experience. A part of me is just missing."

She slouched further into the chair, fixing her eyes on the hearth. "My family all have a high affinity for fire. The theory is our original ancestor was some kind of ascendant demon with a fire elemental heritage in their mortal form. Regardless, we're all deeply intertwined with flames."

Suddenly, she grabbed a soul out of her pouch and chucked it into the hearth. I watched, fascinated, as the soul melted away, seeming to screech in great agony before its energy was converted into fuel.

The purple flames jumped even higher. Methialia just looked bored, like this was something she was far too accustomed to.

"I have an affinity to fire, but I'm almost dependent on it. I need flames. Especially soul flames. I need heat, too. Lagyel wasn't too bad, even though the nights were almost torturous, but here?" She shook her head. "I'm not doing well here. As you might have noticed, unlike most of our kind, I'm highly vulnerable to the cold."

"I'm sorry," I whispered after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

I wasn't sure what else to say. Though Glaustro might have chosen the world solely because of Wilhelmina, our plans had evolved since then. At this point, we all wanted to make Breskwor our headquarters.

But for Methialia, it was the very definition of a personal hell.

The smile she shot me was sad. "It's fine. I can keep the issue at bay by feeding on souls and spending time with my flame here. I was just a little careless today. I pushed too hard. I want to find that bitch so we can all relax, but with all that Divinity out there…" She scowled. "I can hardly sense anything else."

I blinked. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"I mean… it's too intense, isn't it? The Divinity? It's why I haven't been able to sleep well since we got here. I had no clue what it was at first, but then you came back from that scouting trip and told Glaustro about it. It sings to me. I want to go out there, track it all down, and devour it. I want it so badly that…"

She blushed and trailed off, looking away from us.

I gaped at her, unable to form a coherent sentence as my mind swirled through possibilities.

Mia didn't have the same issue.

"You can sense Divinity from here?" she asked sharply. "Where is it coming from?"

Methialia looked confused, but she answered nonetheless. "Well, I can feel a concentration of Divinity in the major's tent. I think he's studying or devouring bits of it right now? I can feel it flicker. Then there are the four groups to the south, two to the north, and five to the east. I can't really feel anything to the west past some vague impression, but I think that's just because the source of Divinity there is too far away."

This time, even Mia was rendered speechless.

"What? What is it?" the captain demanded, looking back and forth between us.

"We can't sense Divinity that far out, Methialia," I explained slowly. "I don't know about Mia, but I need to be fairly close to a source to sense it. It's almost like Divinity doesn't want to show itself to me."

"It's true." Mia leaned forward now, taking in Methialia with an intensity that verged on predatory. "That is an amazing ability. Why didn't you say anything sooner?"

"I thought it was normal? I could sense sources of Divinity from the moment we set foot on this world. I just didn't know what they were." Methialia sounded defensive, but it was quickly giving way to excitement. "So, not everyone can sense it? But then… why can I?"

"I don't know, but I do know this is going to be incredibly useful for us." I stood and began to pace around the room like a caged animal. "We've been forced to hunt down the locals, steal their memories, and then hustle to get to any sources of Divinity before they could be hidden or moved. This presents an amazing opportunity. On top of that…"

"We'll know exactly when Wilhelmina makes her move," Mia purred, making no attempt to conceal the malice shining in her eyes.

I gave the cat a grin of my own. "Exactly. If she tries to move or devour one of the sources of Divinity nearby, we'll know! There haven't been any that just vanished recently, right?"

Methialia shook her head.

"That's good," I muttered. "Very good. She hasn't healed yet, then. Hasn't even started. Unless she's moved beyond your range already? But in that case…"

"Hayden, stop." Mia's voice snapped me out of the spiral. "We need to tell Glaustro all about this. Now. He'll be able to help us plan."

I nodded eagerly and was about to storm off right that moment when I noticed the grimace on Methialia's face.

"Sorry," I stammered, only then remembering why we were there in the first place. "You should stay here. Keep resting as long as you can. We'll go talk to Glaustro and bring him here. I'm sure he won't mind."

She smiled, and I bit back a sigh of relief. For a moment, I'd been afraid that she might not want to share her abilities with Glaustro. We would've had an entirely different problem on our hands then.

"That sounds good. I'd be thankful if we can meet here. I wish I could go, but —"

"No worries, really," I rushed to assure her. "I just wish I understood why you can sense Divinity so easily. Is there anything special to it, like an accompanying emotion?"

She shook her head. "Just a sense of the Divinity. Well, and the hunger. That's normal though, right?"

I hmmmed, eyeing the demoness. Yes, that was true. The nature of Divinity made it extremely appealing to demons. However, the way she said 'hunger' twigged something in my mind.

It was a desperate word, filled with a quiet sort of intensity. Wilhelmina was desperate to get Divinity in order to heal. What if my subordinate officer was in a similar situation? What if only Divinity could fix what was 'broken' in her by the circumstances of her mother's pregnancy?

I had no answers to that. What I did know was that I needed to fetch Glaustro, and fast.