That was a whole lot of emotions and thoughts for me to unpack. Seven days of bloodshed, seven days of battle, seven days of exterminating the vile demons that stood between me and my goal. I played it off, pretending it didn't affect me, I acted so nonchalant about it that I almost believed it meant nothing to me. Truth is, the longer I had spent in the demon kingdom, the more I began to feel like a monster. One-thousand demons slain by my hands. That's not the grand total even, that is just from my battle in the petrified forest. I killed demons before, and I killed demons after. But one thousand was such a big number. I wore it like a badge of pride, while inside the guilt rotted my guts. 

So, hearing Beli say those weren't demons, well okay wow, honestly I was relieved, like seriously. That whole time I was convinced I had slaughtered an entire army of demons, that those mindless monsters were the citizens of the demon kingdom, and that I was stained by their blood. Yeah, I’ve been bragging about it, it was just a necessary thing in my journey, and like I didn’t care at first, I was proud. I single handedly took down an army! I am amazing, or so I thought. Then I spent several days in the demon kingdom and like I'm kinda ashamed I hadn't put two and two together sooner. Monsters, that's what I believed the demons to be, everyone believes they're monsters. Yeah there's some demons in the Divine kingdoms that clearly aren't beasties, but like they're the exceptions. Domesticated, servant demons that probably just didn't inherit their more monstrous traits, kinda similar to how a pubby is like a domesticated vulfie. Though, I suppose believing that was stupid, especially after what I've seen since. 

That all brought me to the question of, "why does Abelia teach that the demons are ruthless vile monsters?" Surely a goddess should know the difference between a demon and a malic… malish… those monster things from the void. So, why lie? No… she couldn't be lying, she has to be mistaken, right? Maybe, maybe she'll change her mind about the demons when she meets Lilith. 

But I was forgetting something, Oh that's right, we need the heart first. Where was that again? I had honestly lost track of it all after that fight against those other Champions. In fact, I almost forgot about it entirely. 

After traveling in the countryside for a couple days I kinda got lost in the sense of adventure. I was going on a journey with companions, people I could trust. Or, well, people I could sleep around without having to worry about waking up with a knife in my chest. That scar is never gonna heal…

Oh, um never mind that, so yeah… after our third day on the road we camped for what would be our last night outside before reaching Yericho. As usual we gathered around a small fire, Beli cooking something up for us to eat, while sitting in silence. 

"Hey Lilly, I been meaning to ask you something," silence was boring, I wanted to talk.

"What is it, Eve?"

I studied her, looking up and down from head to toe and asked, "umm, are you like, sure you're not a girl already" seeing her quizzical expression I nervously tried to elaborate, "I mean like, maybe you were a princess raised as a prince for political reasons, or something like that, ya know?"

"I," she paused and stared at me for a moment, trying to process what I just proposed, "I am a girl in soul, but if you are asking about my body, I was born a boy the same as you."

"Oh, okay so we are the same then..." I know I technically saw her naked already, but like maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me, ya know?

"Yes, I had thought we had established this already," she gave an exasperated sigh, something I felt I might have made her do a little too often, "why do you ask?"

"Cause like, you already look like a girl, like you're just sooo cute!" I argued, honestly unashamed to voice my adoration of her, "and like your body is all slender and dainty. And you got a thin soft face with really nice smooth skin and, well, your chin is small and pointed in a very pretty way."

Beli laughed, "Eve, you are describing every demon ever," as she said it, I kinda thought about it a little harder. Every demon I ever met was actually really feminine looking, like even the ones I just kinda knew were probably men. I just never put a whole lot of thought into it. Maybe because I was always trying to hide my own face, so I didn't make extended eye contact, but yeah, they were all really pretty, at least compared to your average human.

"Demons have different gendered traits than humans," Lilith explained, "for us it's about the shape of our ears, the size of our horns, and the direction they point," she touched her small little horn that sat at the top corner of her forehead, "demon men have smaller horns that point upwards, while demon women have larger curved horns that go downwards."

I looked at her, then over to Beli, then back to her, and back to Beli, "but Beli's horn is pretty small and not curved either."

Belail cleared her throat and turned her back to me, "I would appreciate you not commenting on my horn Eve, that's rather rude."

…

……

……..

"Oooh wait, Beli is a man?"

"I am a woman!" She turned back around and snapped, her eyes glowing like she was ready to fry me with her magic.

"Eeep!" I cowered behind the tree stump I'd been using as a bench, peeking over it, shivering as I hid, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Beli, don't be mad!"

With a sigh Belail relaxed her posture and closed her eyes, "it's… it's fine, Eve," she sat back down and continued to stir the stew, allowing me to ever so cautiously creep back over the stump and continue on as though nothing happened.

“What about you, Eve? I’d say you’re a whole lot prettier than most human boys,” Voxie buttered me up.

“Aww you flirt,” I teased, “but like, I’m just, I don’t know… Something doesn’t feel right. I guess yeah, I’m not the manliest of men out there, but I still feel too obviously male all the same.” I wrapped my arms around my broad shoulders and curled my knees up to my flat chest, internally dreading the body I was cursed with.

“Aside from the shape of your ears, I see no particular masculine traits,” Lilith lied.

“Shape of my ears? That’s not a gendered trait for humans though,” I touched my pointed ears, “though, I guess… most humans don’t have ears like mine.”

Voxie hopped over to me and bent down, bringing her faceless...face closer to mine, inspecting me far more than I was comfortable with. She held her chin with her forefinger and thumb and hummed, “hmmm, you know, that blond hair of yours is really pretty,” she giggled, “I think I’m going to give myself blond hair once it finally grows in.”

I chuckled, “thanks Voxie,” then added, “I think blond would look good on you. Oh, and maybe you could have braids or something!”

“Yeah that would be cute!” She giggled, then her tone changed immediately, “oh, hey wait a second,” she came in even closer, personal boundaries apparently nonexistent for her, and scrutinized me even further, “have you… have you always had silver hairs?”

“What?” I threw my hand into my magic satchel and fished out a tiny little mirror, praying internally that she was just kidding. I couldn’t have silver hair, not yet, I had taken my medicine a week ago, I should be good for a whole month. Nope, she wasn’t joking, there it was, those little strips of silver peeking through my golden locks of hair, taunting me as the echoes of my past infiltrated my mind. Frantically I dug through my satchel this time pulling out a vial, then in one fluid motion I popped the cork and downed the contents in a single gulp.

The others stared at me with a mixture of confusion and concern, "are you alright, Eve?"

I nodded while hiding my face behind my hands, "mhm," my panic quickly subsided as embarrassment took its place, "all good." Perhaps a bit skeptical, Lilith continued to watch me as I settled back down, her pretty little mismatched eyes fixed to me. I wanted to lighten the mood, get everyone's focus off my little outburst, so I thought of a good distraction. I perked up and flung my hand out, "hey Voxie, you got any good stories from other worlds?"

If she had eyes, I'm sure they'd have lit up as she hopped a little in place, "yeah, I've got a bunch!"

"I am sure you have quite the library of fascinating tales you could share," Beli began ladling the stew into bowls and passing them out.

Giggling, Voxie bounced in place, "so what kind of story do you want to hear?"

"I have been rather curious about your origins, how exactly did you come to be an interdimensional being?" Honestly Lilith's question just scratched the surface of my own curiosity, like what was Voxie really? Why were they after Abelia's heart? And what was up with that massive stone sword she carried?

"Well, the thing is my origins are kinda tied to a big long story involving Bonael, but like in short, she just called to me when I was nothing more than a voice in the void and I became a thing," she made it sound so simple, but like none of that made sense.

"Bonael? Who's that?" why did that name feel oddly, familiar?

"Oh, you don't know about her, Eve?"

"Nah, beats me. What about you Lily?"

She shook her head, "The only deities I am familiar with are the gods of the demon kingdom and divine kingdoms."

Voxie bounced some more, "really? Well I guess that makes sense, this world is a bit newer than most," she placed her finger on the 'chin' of her mask and tapped it, "okie so I guess I'll tell you the story of the Garden of Life, and the Goddess Bonael."

"Sure, sounds interesting to me," I shrugged, and though I really wanted to learn more about Voxie in particular, I was kinda curious about this Goddess. As far as I knew the only Gods were Abelia and the God of the Demons, but like, I guess that someone had to create them too, right?

"So in the beginning there was nothing but the void, and a lonely Goddess living within it. Fearing she would one day be consumed by the never ending darkness of the void, she took a portion of her power and created a garden so that she could live within it, safe from the void and its evil God."

"Wait, but you said there was nothing but a goddess in the void," I interrupted her.

"Oh, yeah the void had a god inside it too. So like, he was the God of the void, and she became the Goddess of the Garden," Voxie explained, "well, anyways, the Goddess was still lonely in her garden, so she used another portion of her own life force and created seven brides; Isatarael, Judigeal, Rafael, Michael, Gabrael, Remael, and Baraquael. The brides were goddess' later to be known as the Sophael."

"Seven brides? So like, she was married to seven different women?" That sounded simultaneously like a dream and also maybe just a bit too much. Like I don't know, maybe I'd stop at like... three wives? Just to put an arbitrary number on it.

"Yeah, at first, but then she thought to make for them seven brides each. So she took a portion of each of their life force and made them seven more brides. Which like, she repeated till there were seven generations of Sophael in total."

"And every single one of them had many brides? That is quite a constellation of partners," Beli laughed.

"It is a lot, but when you're a being made of pure love, then I guess you have a lot to go around. You see, the Goddess who created them all was called Bonael, which meant 'she of good love', and she is the Queen of Eros, Mother of all creation."

"Eros, so then the energy our magic uses comes from this Goddess?" Lilith inquired and Voxie nodded, "I was always told the source of magic was the demon king's heart."

"Well the two things might be the same actually."

Lilith cocked her head, "explain?"

"Well first I gotta tell you about the tree," Voxie wagged their finger, "you don't want me skipping ahead in the story after all," she cleared her throat, I think… not actually certain she had a throat to be honest, well anyways, she continued, "the Goddess and her many brides lived in their paradise and love abounded, but still the void loomed over the garden. Afraid it would one day swallow her garden, she planted a tree, but like not a normal tree. It was a massive tree, with seven trunks, each which had seven branches, that each had seven vines, which each had seven flowers that all bore seven fruits. The tree would later be known as the Sephirot, the tree of life."

"What's with all the sevens?" I couldn't be the only one noticing the odd number pattern, though that was only five sevens so like not a perfect pattern, but like still.

Voxie shrugged and tilted her head, "no idea, hehe." The little giggle at the end there made me almost forgive the terrible story telling… "so anyways, the void god was jealous of the Goddess and her brides, and hated the tree, so he called out to Isatarael, and seduced her. He filled her mind with jealous thoughts and devised a plan with her. Isatarael and her brides stole the Goddess' heart, as per the void God's schemes, and divided it amongst themselves, then fled into the worlds of the Sephirot."

She stopped, and sat there quietly, as though her story was finished, "so… what happened after that?"

"Oh, well that's kinda the end of that part of the story. But like, when I met the goddess, she was all alone in the garden because her brides either left when they betrayed her, or went after the ones who stole the heart. And now I'm helping look for the pieces of her heart."

"Then, do you mean to imply that the demon king's heart is a piece of the Goddess of creation's heart?" Lilith's eyes narrowed.

"Could be, I honestly don't know for certain," Voxie shrugged, "but I do know Abelia has a piece of the heart, and that's why I need to find her!"

That couldn't be the case though, why would Abelia have a piece of the Goddess’ heart? Why would she need something like that when she was already a goddess herself? Though… she also wants the Demon King's heart, but like, that's to prove he's been slain, right?

“There is a problem with your story, Vox,” Lilith tasted her stew between sentences, “you spoke of an evil void god, but that is inaccurate.”

“What do you mean? Didn’t you say you only know the gods of this world?”

“That may be so, but the idea of an evil deity within the void just runs contradictory to my own experience,” Lilith explained after taking another couple sips of stew, “I simply cannot believe that the one who watches over the void truly is evil.”

“Wait, but what about those monsters, the malishas thingies!” Even I could come up with a counter argument for that, like obviously those things are evil, so wouldn’t their god be evil too?

Lilith shook her head and sat her now empty bowl down beside her, “that is precisely my point. When I was in the void, there was a person there protecting me from them. A person I believe to be this Void God.”

Voxie placed her finger to her chin again, and clicked her tongue, I think, it sounded like she did, but like, she doesn’t have a tongue so... Well regardless, she made a sound like she was about to make some kinda counter argument, only to stop and think while humming a little.

“Have you nothing to say about that?”

“Honestly, I had never thought too hard about it, but come to think of it, I think, is it the same for me?” Voxie paused again and mumbled something to herself, “but, he stole Bonael’s heart, so he has to be evil… right?”

“Well you are the wanderer of the void, have you met this so called ‘God of Malice’?” Belail this time challenged her.

Voxie nodded, “well, yes, but also no…” she squatted down beside me and rocked on her toes, “I… I have a complicated relationship with them, one I don’t even understand, to be honest.” 

Voxie was, well she was perplexing, that’s for sure. Every new detail she gave just boiled up new questions inside me. It’s like the answers never answered anything, and the more I knew, the less I understood. Maybe though, that was just me, after all I felt the same way about the Demon Kingdom. Every time I thought I understood something, it turns out I was completely wrong. It was kinda starting to irk me a little. I don’t know why, but I felt like somewhere locked deep inside my mind was the answer to all of this stuff. That’s silly though, why would I know anything about any of this? Whether it’s the whole history of the Demon Kingdom, or the life of Gods and Goddesses in some far-off world, the fact of the matter was it had nothing to do with me… and yet, it felt like it had everything to do with me. I didn’t get it, any of it, and while I would one day understand it all, that day was not the day.

I went to bed that night with more questions than when I woke up, though I guess that I didn’t really go to bed. How could I sleep when my head was just racing with all these different little details? Well, I guess there was one way I could sleep; ignore it all! Like I said, it had nothing to do with me, and stressing over it was just gonna ruin my beauty rest. So why bother trying to understand, right?

The morning came, and I, well I pretended the previous conversation had pretty much not happened. Or like, at the very least it didn’t matter. I greeted my adorable companion with a lively, “Good morning, Lily!” only to have a rather lackluster “morning,” mumbled back at me. I was the one who didn’t sleep, what was her problem? Eh, doesn’t matter, she was really cute when she was all sleepy. Umm… wait… what? Moving on~

We packed up camp and continued our hike through the woods, and after maybe a couple of hours the trees began to grow sparser till we were in a big wide-open field, a city hidden behind a massive wall on the horizon.

“Oh wow, that’s like, three times as big as the last one, isn’t it?” I marveled at the sheer size of the city's barrier, still absolutely confuzzled as to why they needed those kinds of defenses in the first place. 

“Yericho is the second largest city in Nu-Eden in terms of population and is perhaps the most well-fortified to account for it,” Beli explained.

“Ooh, uhuh, I see, I see,” well, I think I understood, but also like, what’s with the walls? Well, that question aside, it was still a really cool thing to look at... Or like, it was a wonderful sight to behold! I don’t know, I’m trying to be a good narrator, but all in all, I’m not entirely sure my vocabulary is up to snuff compared to Lilith’s. So yeah, we got closer and closer to the city, and it’s walls just looked bigger and bigger, until finally after a whole bunch of days of walking we made it.  

Now, I was no stranger to traveling long distances on foot, Yekov to Abbadon was not exactly a little pleasure hike after all, but I was honestly relieved that we’d finally be done with all the walking. Well, we’d be done for a bit, I guess. 

We found our way to an entrance of sorts, something Beli called “customs”, and after a lengthy little wait in some less than comfortable chairs, we were greeted by a few demons dressed in fancy looking suits. I had absolutely no idea what anyone was saying, but they were pleasant enough, I think. They mostly talked to Beli, while Lilith kept her head hidden under her hood. Every once and a while one of the demons would glance over to me and Voxie, and Beli would grab their attention back to her. I think they could tell we weren’t demons, but I didn’t really sense any hostility coming from them, nah, if anything they just seemed curious, I guess. Not sure if I was the first human they ever saw, but I am absolutely certain Voxie was the first thing like her they ever met. The longer their conversation went, the more hard and rigid the chairs felt. I wiggled in place and kicked my legs, but I wasn’t going to find any kinda comfort in those seats. Lilith tapped my hand and whispered, “try to settle down, we’ll be leaving soon enough,” which I guess comforted me a little. 

 After what felt like hours Beli turned back to us and waved, “come along,” and I was never more happy to just stand up and stretch in my whole life. Together we followed them out the cold room with the awful chairs, and promptly left the very sterile, dull building into the much more vibrant city streets. Big metal moving boxes sped down dark roads, as all sorts of colorful lights illuminated every corner, while demons flooded the sidewalks in crowds that were possibly twice as dense as I had seen before. The buildings here rose high into the sky, some so high that I wasn’t even sure they ended, like they just stretched on into the heavens or something. Beli wasn’t joking when she said this city was big, cause like, it just seemed impossibly huge in every way. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that every demon in the whole of Nu-Eden lived here, though obviously that wasn’t the case. 

I didn’t really get long to gawk at the scenery though, cause the demons directed us into a big, long black thing with wheels. It was soooo much comfier than those chairs back in the cold room, but like I still really didn’t want to sit down. The seats of the black box, that Lilith called a “limousine”, squeaked under my constant shifting body as I wiggled all over the place, looking out every window I could to see the city more. I was honestly a little too dazzled by it all, like I felt like a little kid, “Whoa that sign has moving pictures on it?” I exclaimed, eliciting a chuckle outta Lilith that made my face red from ear to ear. My embarrassment didn’t last long though, as I was back to watching the exciting sights around us. 

The city itself was fantastic, but like so were the demons. They wore so many different outfits, some in colors I didn’t think were even possible for clothes, and it was like no two demons dressed the same. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, like there definitely were demons in plain clothes that matched the others, but like, the number of unique and expressive demons was certainly higher than I expected. The oddest outfits I spotted included one demon wearing a bunch of chains hanging off the belt loops of their trousers, trousers that themselves were torn up in a strange almost intentional looking way. All that was accompanied by the silliest hair style of massive spikes with green colored tips. Another person wore a dress that kinda billowed out like a tent whose hem would have been dragging along the floor if it wasn’t for the massively tall shoes they wore. Honestly, the style of clothes I saw on display made Lilith’s own outfit stand out far less, like in the last city everyone seemed to just have the same kinda drab colored clothes, but here it was like there was a parade of fashion just walking down the streets. I don’t know, I still wasn’t sure what was considered normal in the Demon Kingdom, or if they even had a normal.

Our ride wasn’t long, and soon enough my sightseeing was cut short by our arrival at the destination. A grand estate with a big metal fence surrounding a courtyard that featured seven fountains that spewed water in some kinda rhythmic pattern. “Whoa, are we going to be staying here?”

“Yes, this is the home of Lady Agreas,” Beli answered as one of the demons opened the door for us to exit.

I’d had a couple nights that I spent with some rich guys back when my journey first began, but like even then I had never seen such a nice house before. Obviously, the Demon King’s castle is not a house, so that doesn’t actually count. It was a good thing I had new clothes, cause I’m pretty sure they’d have never let me in through the gates wearing my old blood-stained gear. We walked up a brightly colored stone path that sat sandwiched between the nicest looking most well-maintained grass yard that was decorated by a buncha statues of various animals and people that I didn’t recognize. At the end of the path was a tall set of polished stone stairs, and atop that was an elegantly dressed demon woman waiting for us, a fiery gleam in her eyes.

“Welcome Demon Queen Lilith, it has been far too long love,” her rouge lips curled into a sweet but devilish smile.

“Thank you for welcoming me into your home, Lady Agreas,” Lilith bowed her head.

“Oh please, call me Auntie, there’s no need for pleasantries with family,” she then looked at Voxie, and her eyes lit up, “well, well, it has been a long time, Wanderer. It is very good to see you again, Voxie.”

Voxie tilted her head, “oh? So I have been to this world before?”

“Of course, it was you who,”

“No no no, can’t tell me what I did because that’s a future version of me!” Voxie cut her off.

“I see, yes, you did say that the next time we met you’d say something to that accord,” she laughed, “very well, regardless, I am happy to see you again, even if you don’t remember me.”

“I might not have my memories, but I kind of share emotional bonds regardless of time, so I’d say the feeling is mutual,” Voxie chirped, bobbing up and down like a happy lil pubby.

Agreas’s smile waned as she looked to me, her eyes stabbing me like daggers, but then, as she spoke, she shifted back to her warm pleasant self despite her very concerning words, “and a fine welcome to you, Champion of the Devil Abelia.”