The sun was low in the sky now as the three of them made their way slowly up the gravel path that led back to the mansion. The salty ocean breeze was still ruffling their hair and clothes and somewhere far behind them the faint sound of crashing waves echoed like a distant memory of the beat down Eldrigan had just received.
And speaking of that beat down…
"Put me down," Eldrigan muttered, his arms limp around Vastarael's shoulders like a sack of groceries no one asked for.
"Buddy, you can't even stand."
Vastarael replied dryly as he carried the nearly two meter tall mass of muscle and Divine pride on his back like he was a toddler on a piggyback ride.
"You're literally wheezing every five steps."
"I can stand," Eldrigan said through clenched teeth. "My lungs are just... temporarily non-functional."
Peroncerea walked beside them, her arms crossed behind her back.
"Bear with it, babe," she said sweetly to Eldrigan. "You're lucky he didn't rearrange your soul again. You made it through three hours of fighting without dying. That's actually impressive. Besides..."
She leaned over and planted a light kiss on Eldrigan's temple. "It's kinda cute."
Eldrigan groaned, looking mortified. "This is not what I meant when I said I wanted to be carried by you someday."
"Too bad," Vastarael teased. "You're stuck with me now. You're being carried by a man. Must feel disgusting, isn't it?"
"Please stop. My girlfriend is here."
They laughed for a bit until the conversation mellowed and they walked in silence for a while. Then Vastarael glanced toward Peroncerea.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask something."
"Mm?"
"If you two are a couple, how's that gonna work?"
"Work?" Peroncerea repeated, blinking. "What do you mean?"
Vastarael looked at her like it was obvious.
"You're the Duchess of Wisterix and not just any royalty. Hell royalty. That puts you directly under the Demon King and Queen, right? So you falling for someone outside that whole… infernal hierarchy is kind of a big deal. Isn't it?"
Eldrigan perked up a little from Vastarael's back, clearly interested now that it wasn't about him getting folded like laundry.
"Wait… I didn't think about that either. Wouldn't your family go nuts?"
Peroncerea tilted her head and gave a small, half-smile. "It's complicated. But not as bad as you think."
"That's never a good sign."
She chuckled. "Okay, so technically speaking, I'm actually blood cousins with Denisia and Natalis."
Both Vastarael and Eldrigan froze at that.
"Wait what?!"
Well Vastarael knew it but by blood? Not distant?
"Yeah. Wild, right? Here's the short of it. When the previous Demon King had Denisia and Natalis with the Heavenly Queen or Mother, the rulers of Heaven and Hell kind of... well, blurred the lines."
"Hold up, the Demon King and the Heavenly Mother?" Eldrigan asked. "That was allowed?"
"It wasn't. That's the thing. After the twins were born, it caused such a stir that the Demon King, my uncle, was deemed unfit to rule by hell itself. So his younger brother, my father, took over the throne."
"So your dad's the current Demon King?" Vastarael asked.
She shook her head. "Technically, yes but he's more of a placeholder. He used to be just a Divine, way weaker than his Nexus-tier brother. But once all the Nexuses were exiled, my uncle gave my dad a forced ascension to Sixth Enlightenment. He shoved the Divinity into him and made him a proper king."
Eldrigan winced. "That sounds… unpleasant."
"Oh it was. He nearly imploded three times during the transition. But after that, he could hold the throne and that let my uncle step back and be with the Heavenly Mother without the politics of who rules where."
Vastarael exhaled slowly. "I knew Wisterix history was messy, but that's some next drama right there."
"You're telling me."
Eldrigan then furrowed his brows and asked.
"So wait. If your dad was just a Divine, and the previous Demon King was a Nexus… how did Denisia and Natalis even happen? That's a union between literal opposing Divinities of hell and heaven. Shouldn't that kind of pairing be impossible?"
Vastarael glanced up at the horizon, thoughtful now.
"Not if my parents had something to do with it."
Peroncerea's brows lifted. "You mean… the Richinarias?"
"Yes. After the Destras Cataclysm, when all the First Generation Deities died, they're the ones who pioneered hybridization, which led to actual functional, healthy hybrid births without defects or fatal genetic side effects. Before that, hybrids died young or were born sterile. But my parents changed all that. They basically rewrote the entire metaphysical compatibility laws."
Eldrigan gaped. "That's nuts. So you're saying they probably helped the Demon King and the Heavenly Mother have Denisia and Natalis?"
"Wouldn't surprise me," Vastarael shrugged. "Dynasty Richinaria didn't just earn their reputation because of strength. They literally made interracial and inter-divine marriages possible without destroying the fabric of realism. That's why we're recognized globally. We could probably just ask the twins next time we see them if that's what happened."
Peroncerea nodded slowly, considering it. "Honestly? That might be worth doing. They're surprisingly normal about personal stuff. I don't think they'd mind explaining."
Eldrigan shifted slightly on Vastarael's back.
"So what you're saying is, I might be getting dragged into hell drama because my girlfriend's technically demonic royalty and also cousins with half-angelic mega twins."
"Basically, yeah," Vastarael said, grinning.
"And you're carrying me like a towel while we talk about it."
"Also yes."
"Awesome."
They all laughed, the tension breaking just as they arrived at the mansion gates.
"Still," Peroncerea added with a smirk, "if anything happens, we'll handle it. Hell or not."
Vastarael gave a crooked grin as he glanced at Eldrigan, who was trying very hard not to look like a beaten-up ragdoll.
"Well, if the Monarch and Monarchess of Cerea have a problem, I'll just remind them Eldrigan here took my full punches for three hours straight and didn't die. That counts for something, right? And as Richinaria's Dynasty Monarch, I'm sure they would listen."
Eldrigan groaned. Peroncerea laughed.
They stepped into the grand lounge. There, on a carpet draped in velvet and light were the Andelaris twins, seated on it. Between them, cradled gently as if she were the very ember of their world, was Adelasta.
She looked exhausted.
Her crimson hair was damp from the heat, her skin faintly flushed and her breathing controlled but strained. Her body, which had endured full submersion in molten lava for hours today, now lay limp across their laps.
The radiant pressure of the magma wasn't meant to be sustainable. She could barely endure two hours at a time before her energy collided so violently that the divine lava itself began to reject her. And yet she kept doing it over and over every single day. Were it not for the Andelaris twins soothing her nerves with steady pulses of pure holy Divine Energy, she likely wouldn't even be able to stand the next day. Their palms hovered just over her skin, weaving slow spirals of golden warmth into her body, anchoring her soul with the same gentleness one would give to a sleeping phoenix egg.
"How is she?"
Denisia glanced up, a small smile curving her lips. "Honestly? She's doing surprisingly well."
Natalis nodded. "Her body's adapting faster than expected. The burn damage is negligible now. Soon, she'll hit her Second Enlightenment threshold."
"She's determined," Denisia added. "Terrifyingly so."
Vastarael exhaled, his gaze lingering on Adelasta's expression. Her lips were slightly parted. She was pushing herself beyond immortal limits again.
"She doesn't know how to stop," he murmured.
"No," said Natalis, smoothing a hand over Adelasta's forehead. "But that's why we're here."
There was a brief pause before Denisia tilted her head slightly.
"Vastarael… we wanted to ask you something."
"Yeah?"
She exchanged a look with her sister.
"We need your help for our First Sacred Trial."
"What kind of trial?"
Natalis looked down, brushing a strand of golden hair from her sister's face, and then over her shoulder at Peroncerea, who had just stepped quietly into the room.
"We have to construct a Heavenly Array," Denisia said.
"A powerful one," Natalis added.
"Okay. What's it for?"
The twins paused. Their gazes fell on Peroncerea again. Denisia whispered.
"To purify and eliminate demons."