Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System-Chapter 281 - A Mother And A Child
"What the-?" Pulled right out of a portal by Reya, Moriyana had no clue where she was or how she even got there. But at the very sight of Haruki standing in front, her mind shoved the worries away as she rushed over to hug him.
Wrapping him with her arms around him, she squeezed him as tight as she could as if to check if he was the real deal. Used all the curses and illusions, she had reason for her doubt but the moment his warmth moved through his chest to hers, all those doubts were quickly washed away.
"How did you get here?" Pulling her head back, she clasped his head between her palms. "Oh fuck, I don't care!"
Ignoring even the other demon lords standing right behind Haruki, Moriyana pushed her lips against his and smooched them until her lungs forced her to breathe. Despite the warm hug and the kiss, however, as Moriyana looked onto Haruki's face a strange sadness lingered over him, almost as if he was forced to break a grim news to an expecting family.
"Moriyana, I need your help reviving Asmodia," the moment she heard those words come out of Haruki's mouth, her joyous expression contorted into a mix of confusion and surprise.
"W-What do you mean?" She asked, her hands gripping tight into Haruki's arms.
Before Haruki could answer, Inferno jerked him away from Moriyana by pulling him by the shoulder. Taken by surprise, Haruki and Moriyana both turned to look at Inferno, but the look of utter dissent on his face made things think twice before lashing out.
"What?" Asked Haruki.
"We don't have time," looking down the hill at the battalion Haruki had brought, Inferno shifted his attention to the handful of Deus's soldiers struggling to keep those men tied up with chains. "And you Moriyana Malice, tell me do you wish to help your master or waste enough time for Michael to come rushing back?"
Unaware of the whole picture, Moriyana had near to no reference to make her decision off of. Yet from how Inferno framed the question, she knew they didn't have much time, and her decision needed to be snappy.
"If we're only trying to revive Mother? Then no, but if it helps Haruki in any way, and he thinks it's the right decision, then sure, I'll do whatever it takes to help!" Determined to help, Moriyana straightened her back and stood firm.
"I guess that's my cue then unless you want me to grab someone else as well," peeking out from her dark portal, Reya addressed Haruki before trying to summon the witch of mournful melodies.
Gripping his fists tight, Haruki took a moment to calm his mind to think everything through. Drawing a deep breath, he shut his eyes closed and went through all the scenarios that could possibly play out past the summoning. In none of those mental images did he find any reason to add more people to the current group.
"None, we're practically going on a suicide mission anyways, and if people are going to die then I'd rather keep the casualties to a minimum," having gauged the risks of summoning Melicia, Haruki wanted to keep the number of participants to an absolute minimum.
In fact, had it not been for his lack of care for the other demon lords, he would've only asked Reya to come along.
"Very well then, let's hope she's not grumbly," crawling out of her portal, Reya appeared in the form of a little girl with her button-eyed teddy and a small violet umbrella to protect herself from the flying embers.
Not paying mind to anyone, but the expansive sky, she raised an arm upward. Shooting out of her frilly sleeves in a spiral around her arms, a strain of her mana sparkled like the night stars. Conforming into a collection of magic circles, they kept on expanding in size the more Reya fed her magic into them.
"Be ready with those souls," she warned, peeking at Haruki from the edge of her eyes.
Returning her gaze to the sky with that short exchange, she began to mumble in arcane. From the tales she'd heard, even before the creator plucked their souls from the cosmic river of souls, Melicia had already been in her slumber for more than a thousand years. Thus, to call on the witch she had to converse in the language presumely only a primordial ancestor would understand.
'Arcane, nothing good comes out of it.' Thought Reya as she desperately attempted to string about a summoning spell in a language she herself could only partially comprehend.
Heeding the call of the girl, the sky began to part as a pair of bloody nails slit the real apart. Like glass the sky crackled, terrifying all who bore witness to the great summon. Tearing through further, giant bony fingers stretched the slits further apart from each other until an eye of pure dark peered right onto Reya.
"Ahue hena klia?" The angel grumbled, and the very air grumbled with her.
Witnessing the sudden summon, Moriyana hid behind Haruki as if she was a small child. Being the least prepared of all, her mind was already being corrupted by the poison wreaking out through Melicia's eyes. 𝐛𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗼𝐯𝐞𝗹．𝐨𝐫𝗴
"Reya, be quick," a bit shaken himself, Inferno too wanted the witch to be gone as soon as possible.
"What is she saying?" Deus asked.
Instead of words, Reya decided to respond with action. Reaching towards Haruki with a single hand, she motioned him to hand her the jar of souls. Handing it right over, Haruki stayed back until Reya was done striking the deal with the witch.
"Melicia…" Holding the jar held up high, Reya began to voice the offer. "Ei Dastu Ou Soal Choir, Enki…"
Making sure she was hitting all the correct notes, Reya paused for a moment before continuing on with her offer.
"Asmodia Archangelieus Remure's soal lu pergatia!" Finished up, she lay in wait for the witch to reach for the jar and take the souls away for her choir, and in return she would offer nothing but a single soul that Melica would snatch out of the purgatory and offer it to them.
However, much like they'd expected, the witch was unimpressed for she could've had far more souls for her choir if she simply scraped through her past victims. What she seemed interested in more, became much more apparent as her eyes turned to Moriyana hiding behind Haruki's incubus frame.
Reaching down with her bloodfed hand, she baffled them all by reaching not for the jar, but the only succubus. Bringing the tip of her nail right by Haruki's shoulders, she touched with it end Moriyana's forehead.
"Asmodia's daughter…" The witch surprised them all by the use of current-day language. Even in Melicia's time, the arcane had been preceded as the tongue for a century, and thus, while she was professed in arcane from her studies of the banned texts, her knowledge in the layman's tongue wasn't lacking either.
"I pity you, child, not all mothers deserve children, most of all, not someone like me or that monster of a timeshifter," She added, her words growing softer as she spoke.
"T-timeshifter?" The word stuck out to Moriyana.
"The 'Remure' in her name belonged to a breed of warriors that used time as their weapon, and perhaps she belonged to the same, but only the creator would know," Melicia explained, her nail brushing against Moriyana's face as if feeling the bounce on a newborn's cheeks. "Regardless, I better be off before my poison bleeds over into this world again."
Drawing her hand back, Melicia seemed ready to leave without ever commenting on the offer made by Reya. But right in time, realizing that it needed to be done, Moriyana stretched her arm towards the retreating nail and clutched it into her hands.
"No!" Melicia spouted in a hushed, baffled tone.
"We need your help," scanning through the memories of the witch from the touch alone, Moriyana tried to find a way to make her agree to bring Asmodia back.
Seeing Melicia's past with her sister whom she considered her daughter, a crushing plan popped inside Moriyana's head.
"I need my mother! I need her!" Despite the poison from the nail bleeding into her body, Moriyana didn't want to let go as it served to distract Melicia from what she was doing. "Please, you wouldn't let another kid be parted from her mother, would you?"
Those last few words pulled Melicia out of the horrid memories of her cries drowning in blood families a millennium over. The thought of leaving a pleading child to suffer even though she could easily reach beyond realms and bring back the devilish soul of her mother.
"Why would you weep for a demon, child?" Melicia asked, unable to grasp just how someone could love Asmodia.
"Would you not have preferred for your daughters to weep you, had you died before them?" Making further use of her manipulation, Moriyana tipped Melicia off the bridge of emotions.
Falling for the thought of her daughters weeping for her, instead of shooing her away in terror in their last moments, Melicia's eyes numbed up with a drop of blood tear. Before it could fall, however, she pulled her hand away from Moriyana and quickly wiped it away.
"So be it then, Asmodia Archangelieus Remure, will be revived, but as her body has deteriorated, we'll need a vessel potent enough for her," Melicia explained, her voice suddenly growing the slightest hint jolly.
"Leave that to me," having already known that she would need a vessel, Haruki knew what had to be done. "Just bring us the soul, and once again, in exchange for these souls, bring us to the land of fairies."
Although she squinted at Haruki's request as if questioning his intention, Melicia had no intentions of backing down.
