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The sea was teeming with life and vigor, and the waves crashed against the wild shore, making a soothing sound conducive to relaxation. Seagulls squawk at each other as the sun begins to set on the human world. Not far from the shoreline there was a magnificent residence, made entirely of white marble, with gold decorations and red window panes. Behind one of these windows was a figure bathed in the red glow of the setting sun filtered through the red glass, standing still with a contemplative expression on its face. She was dressed in a light robe that did not hide the numerous bandages that covered her body.
She studied her reflection in the red glass, paying special attention to her white eye, the dimness of which made the orphaned demon shiver. Looking away from her reflection, she slowly began to walk towards the large bed, limping on her broken hoof before sinking back into the comfortable sheets, wincing at the pain in her back and chest, but not allowing herself to make more than a quiet grunt of discomfort.
- Charlie...
Lying like this, the demoness stared at the ceiling, wondering how everything could have gone so wrong. For hundreds of years, no Extermination has come so far as to actually threaten the fragile peace of the Underworld. This was the first time Hell had rebelled against Heaven, and both sides had suffered the consequences.
And worst of all, it was her fault.
- Charlie...
She was simply trying to help her people to stop the Extermination. She created a hotel to redeem Sinners and the only thing she needed was to meet the Angels. So she went to the Embassy, and there she met the commander of the Exorcist Angels, the first man, Adam. Adam showed interest in her idea and proposed a live meeting to discuss the possibility of allowing redeemers into Heaven.
She was so happy!
- Charlie...
She was so stupid...
Adam arrived at the meeting place, but not with the willingness to support her idea. NO. Adam was obsessed with hurting her parents and when he found out about her, he found her perfect to get to and hurt them.
What's worse, he wasn't wrong.
Lucifer and Lilith unleashed Hell when she was kidnapped. The decimated armies of angels were unable to stop the furious monarchs, until a final confrontation took place between the rulers of Hell and Adam and the powerful angels from Heaven.
Adam was the only one to survive this battle.
- Char...
Well, officially the sole survivor. She survived it too, though only because she ran away. Wounded, destroyed, after surviving countless tortures while being held captive and she live only thanks having gained the mercy of one of the angels. However, this event was enough to break her. Without her parents, with her dreams shattered, with scars for the rest of her endless life and with guilt for causing this situation, she never returned home. Leaving hell, she went to a place where someone like her would never be sought, so she could sink into blissful oblivion.
- Oh, Charlie...
The problem, however, was that she was not left alone.
She moved her gaze from the ceiling to the Apparition, which harassed her since the "Massacre", as she began to call the battle between her parents and the Heaven.
To her unconcealed annoyance and despair, she did not lose sight in her injured eye. Instead, the mat eye allowed her to see something that shouldn't have been possible. Apparitions, ghosts of people who died at the hands of angels, souls who experienced a second death in the afterlife. She ignored them, most of the time, and was ignored in return, but there was one apparition that wouldn't leave her alone.
- Go away. Please… - she whispered softly as salty water poured from her uninjured eye while bloody tears flowed from the dull one, irrevocably ruining her pillow.
A tall apparition in a purple flowing dress with curly horns on her head looked sadly at the broken princess of Hell before sighing, she walked over to the bed and sat down on it, placing a disembodied hand on the crying girl's shoulder. The gesture, as comforting as it was meant to be, caused even more pain in Charlie's heart when she was unable to feel her mother's hand.
- Charlie... You can't worry like that. It wasn't your fault.
The apparition's words seemed to completely break the poor girl as she screamed into the sky in tears.
- How can you say that!? If I hadn't gone to Adam, if I hadn't let myself be kidnapped, you and Dad would be here! This IS all my personal fault!
Lilith wrapped her daughter in a motherly embrace, but the empty gesture was only a reminder of everything Charlie had irrevocably lost.
- It is not your fault, Charlie. - Lilith assured, trying to break her daughter from her self-destructive thoughts. - You were only trying to help all your people. That's more than anyone else has ever been willing to do.
- But it only led to more pain...
- Charlie, it wasn't your fault. If Adam didn't find out about you now, he would find another way to hurt us. - Lilith explained.
Charlie couldn't believe it, but she didn't have the strength to argue about it. Turning over, she pressed her face against the pillow, which quickly became soaked with tears and blood as Charlie sobbed, choking on her own guilt, the despair of lost dreams, and the longing for her family. Lilith's apparition felt as if her heart had been torn open all over again as she stared at the broken figure of her beloved daughter. Things changed when she heard the words muffled by the pillow.
- What are you saying, honey? - she asked gently.
After lying still for a long time, Charlie rose, not enough to see her face, but enough for her words to be heard.
- Why does Heaven hate us so much...?
The question had tormented Charlie since she was old enough to understand Extermination, but she had never had the courage to ask it. But now, when she lost everything, she has also lost her fear, which so far pulled her away from the task of this question.
Lilith leaned over her daughter with a sad smile and wrapped her arms around her.
- For Heaven we are bad people just because we were born not wanting to accept their order. - she said, and there was bitterness in the apparition's words. - I was always the worst to them. I was portrayed as an evil queen who wanted to burn down their home and enslave their kind. The one who seduced Seraphim and led him to Fall. And because you are my daughter, you became another evil queen in their imagination that they had to stop and control, or kill.
There was a deafening silence in the spacious room as the devastated demon continued to cry into his pillow. It continued like this until Lilith began to speak again, a soft smile appearing on her lips.
- But I learned one thing about Heaven and Angels, Charlie. You can't change the way they perceive us, but you can adjust and adapt to it. - the late queen's smile turned into a cruel smirk as the confused princess looked up at her. - Why be the nice one when the rulers of the world think you're a villain? You won't convince them. You have to bring them down to your feet so that they understand their mistakes.
A quiet melody began to float in the room, slowly growing louder. Lilith began to sing, catching the eye of Charlie as she wiped away her tears.
♪I was once like you, my child, slightly insecure,♪
♪Believed in angels words too, thought I was de jure.♪
Lilith's voice was tinged with bitterness as she remembered her first husband and why she left him.
♪But I put my dreams aside,♪
♪And I used my head.♪
♪Now I think it's time you learned,♪
♪What dear old mamma said.♪
Getting out of bed, Lilith began to gently walk around the room as if she were dancing.
♪Don't you wanna be evil like me?♪
♪Don't you wanna be mean?♪
♪Don't you wanna make rebel your daily routine?♪
The smile she gave her daughter was watery, sad and nostalgic all at the same time, which snapped Charlie out of her despair, leaving her mesmerized by her mother's voice.
♪Well, you can spend your life attending to the poor.♪
♪This good and rightful, but in Heaven is it full.♪
♪Don't you wanna be ruthless and rotten and mad?♪
♪Don't you wanna be very, very good at being bad?♪
♪I have tried my whole life long,♪
♪To do the best I can.♪
Lilith sat down next to Charlie again and began combing her daughter's hair, providing some level of comfort despite her incorporeal nature.
♪Clawed my way to victory,♪
♪Built my rebel plan.♪
♪Now the time has come, my dear,♪
♪For you to take my place.♪
♪Promise me you'll try to be,♪
♪One who'll set coup de grâce!♪
At the thought of Heaven, Lilith's eyes flashed red and furious. She stood up and began to walk again in a strange dance, Charlie's eyes following her every move as she began to internalize her mother's words, the old depression and mourning beginning to morph into anger and determination.
♪Don't you wanna be evil like me?♪
♪Don't you want be cruel?♪
♪Don't you wanna be nasty and brutal and crool?♪
♪And when you grab that odds that's when your reign begins,♪
♪Who not want an evil queen revengeful of their sins?♪
Lilith's slight chuckle at the idea made Charlie smile for a second. But that wasn't the end of Lilith's song.
♪Don't you wanna be heartless and hardened as stone?♪
♪Don't you wanna be finger licking sins to the bone?♪
Lilith suddenly turned sharply towards the window, where Charlie was surprised to see another apparition appear. Lucifer looked at her with a deadpan expression, but a sharp smile on his lips as he approached his family.
♪This is not for us to ponder.♪
♪This was preordained.♪
♪You and we will bad for others.♪
♪But freedom you soon regain.♪
Lilith walked over to her husband, who stood in front of Charlie's bed and stared at his daughter with an intense feeling of love. His six huge spectral wings opened wide as he continued to chant.
♪Mistress of the universe, powerful and strong!♪
Lilith leaned towards Charlie, extending her hand in invitation.
♪Daughter, hear me,♪
♪Help me, join me.♪
♪Won't you sing along?♪
The princess's eyes turned crimson red, similar to her parents' eyes, as she smiled sharply and got out of bed, joining her family.
Allowing herself to be consumed by the anger she felt towards Heaven, the desire for righteous revenge, the lust for absolute power, and the desire to fulfill the expectations of her deceased parents, Charlie abandoned her former self and, allowing herself to grow horns and black wings, began to sing joyfully.
♪Now I'm gonna be evil, it's true!♪
♪Never gonna good face.♪
♪And I'm gonna be spiteful!♪
Charlie was interrupted when Lilith stood in front of her and placed her hand on her head, stroking it.
- Yes, spiteful. That's nice...
Brightening under her mother's affection, Charlie almost missed it as her father continued singing.
♪In just an year or two,♪
♪Your future's safe and sure,♪
Lucifer joined hands with Lilith and they both stared at Charlie with love and adoration.
♪The Empress of the Hell AND Heaven in purpure!♪
♪You're gonna be powers and rules and free!♪
♪Because you last of Morningstar,♪
♪And you were born the girl you are,♪
♪The daughter of the Hells king and queen!♪
♪Like we!♪
As the ghosts of her parents faded into nothingness and the broken princess swore revenge on the Heavens, the very fabric of the universe shook, because a nice and friendly princess of hell, now announced her claims to the throne of the world and nothing would be able to stop her from victory.