The Broken Halo

Simon had not asked Lilith the question because of Marek’s speech alone.

The Commander’s explanation merely gave shape to a suspicion that had been growing inside him for a long time.

The Demon Realm was ancient, and its oldest history belonged to beings who were no longer ruling it.

During Lilith’s era, Daemons had occupied the realm in enormous numbers. They had built civilizations, waged wars, created terrifying artifacts, and produced beings whose strength far surpassed most demons alive today.

Now demons ruled almost everything.

True Daemons had become so rare that many demons could live their entire lives without seeing one. Even finding a demon with a partially awakened Daemon bloodline was extraordinarily difficult.

Many demons had no knowledge that Daemons even existed.

Entire races did not simply disappear because the air contained slightly less Demonic Energy.

Ancient bloodlines had weakened.

Affinity grades had fallen.

Some regions could no longer support life.

The Demon Realm depended increasingly on Hell Holes, Hell Stones, and the assimilation of another world to recover what it had lost.

To Simon, that sounded worse than an ordinary decline.

The army continued marching along the military road, but Simon barely noticed the armoured soldiers moving around him.

His attention remained within his Infernal Heart.

[Lilith... is the Demon Realm merely declining, or is it dying?]

Lilith did not answer immediately.

Her presence rested deep beside his Chaos Flame, silent enough that Simon wondered whether she intended to ignore him.

Then her voice entered his mind.

[That question does not possess a simple answer.]

Simon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

[That means the answer is not no.]

[It also does not mean yes.]

Lilith’s tone carried none of her usual amusement. There was no mockery or lazy disdain within it.

Only caution.

[Parts of this realm are declining. Parts are dying. Some things have been replaced, while others have merely changed into forms you would not recognise.]

Simon’s interest deepened.

[What caused it?]

Lilith released a quiet sigh.

[You truly possess no sense of self-preservation when curiosity takes hold of you.]

[I survived this long because I ask questions other demons are too frightened or ignorant to ask.]

[And one day, you may die because you asked the wrong one.]

The army passed another guarded checkpoint.

Black Horn soldiers opened the reinforced gate ahead, and the immense column continued toward the rift. The spatial disturbance in the distance had grown strong enough for tiny cracks of silver light to occasionally appear in the air before vanishing.

Simon ignored them.

[Can you answer me or not?]

[I can.]

Lilith paused.

[If you wish to die at this very moment, I will tell you.]

Simon’s brows almost moved, but he controlled his expression before anyone nearby noticed.

Lilith continued in the same quiet tone.

[Velmora will perish with you. Your companions, the army around you, and every living thing near this city will be destroyed.]

Her voice became colder.

[Depending on how detailed the answer I give you is, the destruction may continue until a large portion of the Darkness Kingdom is gone as well.]

Simon was genuinely baffled.

[You’re saying that merely knowing the answer would cause that much destruction?]

[Some knowledge is not passive.]

Lilith’s presence shifted around his Demon Heart.

[There are truths that create a connection the moment they are understood. Once the connection forms, what rests on the other side becomes aware of the one who learned it.]

Simon thought about the Chaos Wraps and Lilith’s previous warning to the Biggest Kev.

Some secrets were apparently protected by more than threats, formations, or curses.

[What exactly would attack me?]

[You are asking the wrong question.]

[Then what is the right one?]

[Not what would attack you.]

A brief silence followed.

[What would notice you.]

Simon’s pupils contracted slightly.

Lilith continued before he could respond.

[It is a power even the gods you know are wary of. They do not command it. They do not challenge it carelessly. Some avoid drawing its attention entirely.]

[Would you survive?]

[Yes.]

Her answer came without hesitation.

[So would the Chaos Blade and the Chaos Wraps.]

[But I would not.]

[You, your companions, Velmora, and countless demons who had nothing to do with your uneding curiousity and greed for knowledge would cease to matter.]

Simon could not tell whether cease to matter meant death, destruction, erasure, or something worse.

Considering Lilith’s tone, he did not intend to discover the difference.

[Then don’t tell me.]

[How unexpectedly sensible.]

[I only need to become powerful enough to learn it without dying.]

Lilith released a faint scoff.

[There is the arrogance I recognise.]

Her presence withdrew deeper into his heart, bringing their conversation to an end.

Only a few seconds had passed in the outside world.

Sonya was speaking to Virella several steps away, while Rellis occasionally glanced toward the sealed cases they had been assigned to protect. Akaza walked near Simon without showing that he noticed anything unusual.

Simon returned his attention to the road.

Lilith’s refusal had answered more than she probably intended.

The Demon Realm’s condition was not merely the result of age, wars, or the exhaustion of World Vitality. Something else was connected to its decline, something whose attention could destroy an enormous region simply because Simon learned too much about it.

He placed the mystery aside.

There was another part of Marek’s explanation that Simon had never known.

Humans were anchors for Earth.

Their souls, settlements, Aether, artifacts, and collective existence helped Earth’s World Law maintain its hold over its own territory.

During his first life, Simon had believed demons attacked human cities mainly to kill defenders, seize strategic positions, weaken reinforcements, and spread terror.

Those reasons had been true, but they were simply incomplete.

Simon remembered several occasions when demonic tribes, clans, and even kingdoms offered alliances to humans.

Some promised safety to cities willing to surrender.

Others offered power, demonic blood, longer lives, or positions within territories controlled by demons. A few even claimed humans and demons could share Earth if humanity stopped resisting.

Simon had rejected every offer.

Back then, he believed the proposals were transparent attempts to divide humanity. Demons wanted collaborators, servants, spies, and human soldiers who could move through Earth without attracting attention.

That was also true, however, Marek’s explanation revealed another advantage.

A dead human no longer reinforced Earth.

A fleeing population weakened Earth’s claim over the territory they abandoned.

But a human corrupted by Demonic Energy might be more useful than either.

Their soul had been born beneath Earth’s World Law. Their body possessed a natural connection to Aether and Order. If that same body was altered by demon blood, Chaos, and Demonic Energy, it could become a crack within Earth’s own foundation.

Instead of removing an anchor, demons could corrupt it.

A demonic human could continue living inside a human settlement, cultivating, reproducing, and maintaining a connection to Earth while slowly carrying the influence of the Demon Realm deeper into it.

They were not merely traitors or additional soldiers.

They could be living bridges between both World Laws.

Simon’s eyes flickered with understanding.

’So there was another reason why demonic humans existed in my past life... Interesting’