The name still rang in the air like a timeless verdict: "The Serpent Who Coils Around the World." At that moment, Satan's gaze darkened. The impious creature remembered, despite herself, ancient battles. She hated every humiliation suffered, every time the primordial man had forced her to retreat. And yet… a strange emptiness invaded her, almost nostalgia. As if these confrontations had been the only truth capable of giving her a reason to exist. The absolute sin and the man shaped in God's image… they were two forces doomed to meet, to oppose each other without end.
She slowly turned her flaming eyes toward Bakuzan. Her lips stretched into a smile that swung between irony and sadness.
— Tell me… It was Adam who whispered it to you, wasn't it?
Bakuzan remained impassive, his gaze hard, yielding not a single answer. But Satan laughed softly, as if she had already pierced his silence.
— Don't try to deny it. You can convince yourself that it was only a dream, a voice lost in the night of your mind… but I know how to recognize its imprint.
She lifted her head, her pupils clouding as she plunged into the abyss of her memories. Her voice, suddenly lower, echoed as if she were reciting a sacred passage.
— The day Adam stumbled, kneeling before the mute gods, he was at death's door. I still see him, breath short, but eyes burning with a light that neither I nor any deity had ever managed to extinguish. And he spoke words… words that have never faded from my memory.
Bakuzan, against his will, inclined slightly, captivated by Satan's solemn tone.
— He said this, word for word… "My child, I love him so much. I think those who thirst for knowledge will be entrusted with things they should never understand. But… I cannot prevent my child from being curious in a world too vast. I would have wished they never had to face mythological creatures, but it was only a too-beautiful dream. So I will do this: after my death, whenever my child wishes to understand and calls upon me, I will be there. Always there to show him the path. Always there to offer him the conduct to follow. Always there to comfort him. I believe… yes, I believe that is the role of a father."
A strange silence fell, almost sacred. Even the air seemed to have frozen around them.
Satan stepped out of her reminiscence, her eyes returning to fix Bakuzan. She offered a fine, almost tender smile, which starkly contrasted with her aura of corruption.
— You understand, do you not? Do you know who he spoke of, this child Adam wanted to protect even beyond death?
Behind them, Raiku did not dare to breathe. Witness to the scene, she felt the weight of the words sink into her soul. This was not a simple confession, but a fragment of cosmic history, a crack in the fabric of legend.
Bakuzan remained marble, his silence heavier than any answer.
Then Satan raised a delicate hand and pointed a finger at him, as if to pierce his soul. Her voice vibrated with cold solemnity:
— This child… it's you. But not only you. It's your father. It's your mother. It's your brother, your sister, your blood. It's all humanity in its entirety. You are the descendants of Adam and Eve… and Adam, even after his death, has never ceased to bear his role as the father of humanity.
Her flaming eyes lit up, almost in a trance.
— Adam was the apostle of all possible gods. He was the bridge, the living proof of the alliance between the divine and the human. It is thanks to him that your race inherited this unique capacity… this insane luck to evolve. It is through him that mortals can break their condition and become Deviants, or even apostles of other deities. Adam has bequeathed to you a vast door… a passage to what transcends mere flesh.
She stepped closer, her finger still pointed toward Bakuzan's heart, her voice dropping like a prophecy.
— And you… Ebon Woe. You are not merely a Deviant. You have become the most powerful of them, the one who even surpassed the first father. The first son of Adam to have surpassed him.
Bakuzan bowed his head, his gaze wandering for a moment in a silent melancholy. The shadow of his scars seemed heavier, as if each word woke in him an ancestral burden impossible to reject.
Satan, for her part, slowly raised her finger toward the sky, as if sealing her words.
— Here is my second request… or rather my demand.
Silence grew denser still. Bakuzan raised his eyes, his expression hard, sharp, ready to hear whatever she would force upon him.
Satan's smile widened, unhealthy and seductive at once.
— You interest me, human. More than any other. I want to see how far you will go, how far your steps will carry your name and your destiny. I want to observe your ascent, your triumph… and each of your choices.
Her pupils burned, and her voice turned into a rumble of storm:
— So listen well… never give up. Succeed. Go to the end of your goals. For if you ever fail…
Suddenly, her face changed. Her smile vanished, replaced by a demonic, terrifying expression. Her aura exploded in a gust of fear that made the air itself tremble.
— … I will tear out all your essence. And I will devour it, piece by piece, until there is nothing left!
The ground fissured beneath her feet, the cave resonated with an ominous wave. Raiku herself stepped back a pace, feeling the threat coil around her entrails.
But in the face of this incarnate terror, Bakuzan did not flinch. His unshakeable calm, like a mountain set against the storm, made the scene even more surreal.
After this icy demand, Satan gently placed her hand on Bakuzan's shoulder, as if her ultimate threat had never existed. Her voice grew smooth, almost light:
— So… you understood me well, I hope?
Bakuzan nodded slowly. Nothing in him trembled. He had never allowed doubt to inhabit his mind, and even if gods or demons stood in his path, he would not renounce for a single moment.
Satan furrowed her brows slightly. This man was indeed strange. No request, no intimidation, not even a threat against his essence made him waver. It raised the question of what unyielding purpose this "Black Grief" carried to show such resolve.
A glint flashed in her eyes as she asked:
— May I know your goal? You are so fixed, so relentless… It almost makes you seductive.
A smile highlighted her rosy lips.
Bakuzan lifted his dark eyes toward her and answered in a cold tone:
— You made your two requests. That is all. Give me what I came for, and I will continue on my way. What I intend to accomplish concerns only me.
Satan withdrew her hand from his shoulder with a gesture of slight affront.
— Frigid… even for a Deviant. Life must have been harsh, relentless, to harden you so.
Bakuzan remained silent, staring at the ground with a gaze that seemed to probe far deeper than the stone beneath his feet.
— Very well, she finally whispered. Hold on… I will reveal to you what you want.
A mischievous smile instantly lit up her face.
— Anyway, now that I have posed my second request, I will witness everything you undertake. This pact binds us, and I will always see your goal, no matter how hard you try to hide it.
Her gaze slipped to Raiku, leaning against the cave wall, arms crossed, watching the scene in silence. Satan extended a hand in her direction:
— I have deceived countless creatures, under different faces and names: Erashia, Sata, Hinata, and many more… But this one… Raiku… is the one who, among all, has become the dearest to my sin.
A delicate, almost tender, smile curved her lips.
— She has become powerful. An Demon Emperor, in my image.
Bakuzan slowly lifted his head, intrigued.
Satan ceased to point at Raiku and fixed Bakuzan again.
— The Demon Emperors… They far surpass the Demon Kings. They represent the summit of Hell. Even if, for Raiku as for me, Hell isn't truly our homeland… I have lived there, before.
Her voice took on a grave tone:
— Hell is a world of layers, just like the Realm of the Gods or the Void. Its strata begin as early as the third dimension, but rise far beyond. There reside creatures ranging from mere imps to Emperors. But for the latter, their absolute form cannot always be sustained in that place.
She paused, letting a nearly solemn silence hang.
— For you see, Demon Emperors do not always remain in Hell. When we reach that rank, it is in our nature to disappear… not to die, but to found our own myths.
Satan fixed her gaze in Bakuzan's eyes, a mischievous gleam in hers:
— Most of the demons I knew once have become Emperors today. Was it out of hate? Perhaps… I don't know. What I do know is that I have broken more than one destiny with my own hands. Many were still Primordials, or young Demon Kings who extended a hand to me… and I stabbed them in the back, only to serve my own interests.
Her smile widened, cruel and almost amused:
— It is the case, for example, of Raktabīja Rāvana. You probably know his name. Today, he is nothing but an absolute terror, chained in the depths of Tartarus.
Bakuzan's eyes widened, surprised despite himself:
— You... you know that demon?
A dark, velvety laugh escaped Satan's lips.
— Know him? Of course I do. He was one of my most faithful allies. He would have given everything. Raktabīja was unwaveringly determined, and he had that flaw… he clung too much to his companions. Including me.
Her voice suddenly turned sharp, almost icy:
— But the day I achieved my objective, I betrayed him. Ruthlessly. I thought I had killed him. Before abandoning him, I hurled words at him that would have reduced any heart to dust. But he survived… And from that survival, a monstrosity was born.
Satan narrowed her eyes, and a cruel smile broke the tension:
— He is no longer really a demon… but a creature of the Abysses. His hatred fed him, his despair shaped him. He defied even the notion of form. Fifty heads, a hundred arms, a carcass of horror that dreams no longer of devouring everything.
She began to laugh softly, a nearly mocking laugh, as if she reveled in recalling her own crimes:
— I truly have tormented creatures… and I do not regret it.
Bakuzan slowly raised his eyes to her, his face closed, his tone dry:
— It's very poetic, all of this… but it's not what I asked you.