The moment Zion re-entered the atmosphere, he passed out. He had expended more power than he realized, and being in space didn’t help him at all. Not to mention, being so close to the sun almost burned him alive, but his adrenaline kept him going.
Now that everything was over, his injuries, mental strain, effects of space, and exhaustion caught up with him, and so, he plummeted to the surface, taking a well-needed nap in the air.
Tessa and Aryah, being separate entities, were able to safely prevent Zion from crashing into the ground, making sure he descended at a slow pace and transported him to Lilith’s estate, where he would rest for the next three days.
"Nnghh." His eyes slowly opened, the sun beaming on his face as he sat up in bed. Zion rubbed his eyes and stretched his body, feeling better than ever, though slightly sore.
"How long was I out?" He asked
"Anything interesting happen during that time? Did Karyndra do something wild?"
[Nope. Everything has been calm. Elowen has taken the opportunity to unite the demon world under his and Lilith’s rule. And as for Lilith herself, she’s out of harm’s way but is still on bedrest.]
"I see, thanks. Any sign of Azmorath?" He knew that the demon was powerful and smart. If he were anything like Zion, then he would have ways to cheat death. At least, that’s what he assumed.
[Nothing. We’ve checked his residence, underneath the residence, the floating rock in the sky, and all of the other residents of the archdemons. We’ve found nothing that would indicate a revival.]
"Good. Now this Chapter is closed, and Erebosa can govern the Demon world."
[She’s waiting for you in the next room.]
"I see. Well, it will be wrong to keep her waiting."
Zion slowly got out of bed, his body still sore and slightly aching, and walked to the other room.
As he opened the door, he saw Erebosa sitting on a beach chair wearing a bikini with sunglasses while reading something on the holo-tablet he created.
Just like on Earth, people were obsessed with phones, tablets, and computers. Only his people had access to them, and they weren’t public yet, but they all were still obsessed with them.
’I don’t blame them, though. As fun as magic is, I still got phone sickness when I couldn’t use it at night in bed. Then again, phones were the least of my problems while the world was fucking dying. Whatever.’
"Zion! You’re awake! Come, sit. Let’s have a chat."
"Alright." Zion took a seat. "What’s up?"
"First, I want to thank you for getting the demon world under control. Elowen has been doing a great job getting people to worship me once more."
That brought up a memory that Zion had wanted to figure out. "Oh yeah, speaking of worship. Don’t we need to handle the other Devils?"
"That’s another thing that I wanted to talk to you about." She said grimly
"Oh great, this can’t be good."
She shook her head. "No, it’s not. You see, the Devils are dead. All five of them have been killed. They’ve been dead for years now."
"How were you able to find this out?"
"Luminera and I are special cases when it comes to Devils and Gods. You see, Devils and Gods are technically the same thing, only using the opposite power of one another. Since Lumi and I are twins, we share everything, willingly, of course. This means that when she regained her heavenly realm, I gained my spot back in hell. I wanted to gain more power before confronting the devils, so I waited until you took over the middle world."
"So you went to face the other devils, and when you did, you saw that they were dead?" Zion asked
"Yes. They were completely robbed of their power and lifeforce. All that was left were husks of their body, still sitting on their thrones. I was able to merge their hell realms with my own. This also made Lumi’s heavenly realm bigger and stronger."
"Did Azmorath kill them? I know that he stopped the demons from worshiping the devils. Even Karyndra is trying to kill the gods so the angels can escape their influence."
Erebosa shook her head. "One thing that you have to know is that only beings of the same existence level can kill one another. Beings of a higher existence can kill lower existences, though."
"So you’re saying that unless Azmorath was a god, or Devil, I guess, he wouldn’t be able to kill the Devils. right?"
She nodded. "Yes. The devils wouldn’t kill each other either. And the gods would most definitely not kill them, as it was they and the devils that kept the realms in check."
"So something powerful enough to kill gods killed the devils," Zion concluded
"Exactly. And I think I know who, no, what did."
Zion, too, had an idea. If it were the past him, he would have assumed a rough god passed through the world and killed them or something, but now, he knew that there were two beings that were capable of doing such a thing.
"The sentinals." He said grimly.
"So Kayndra already released them before. How the hell did she manage to control them? IF they can kill gods, killing an angel would be easy as fuck, no?"
Erebosa sighed, pulling up her sunglasses. "I don’t know, to be honest. They shouldn’t have been functional with me and my sister out of commission, yet here they are, killing devils. It doesn’t matter how they’re operational or how she’s controlling them. All that matters is how we’re going to stop them."
"Question. Are they technology?" Zion wondered.
"Magic can still be hacked. How did you create them?"
"We used a multitude of magic circles and runes combined with Mythril as their skeleton, and blessed them with our power. We basically made super amped up demigods. We also made it so that they only listened to us. But now, it seems like Karyndra altered that function somehow."
Zion smiled. "Well. I have good news and bad news."
"Bad news first, please."
"This shit is going to be tough as fuck."
She laughed. "And the good news?"
"I should be able to change their matrix so that they will follow me instead."