The world around Lucius grew quiet.
The ruined battlefield, the drifting dust, even Lilith's distant laughter mocking Selene's death, all of it faded beyond his awareness. The blue in his eyes dulled, hollow, as though his will to live had been drained away.
For a brief moment, he stood completely still.
Then Lucius let out a slow breath, an attempt to calm a heart that had been shattered beyond repair. He lowered his head, his voice falling to a near whisper as he spoke to the goddess to whom he had devoted his life.
"O Goddess Celestia," he murmured. "Grant me the strength to avenge her."
His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword.
"Let me wield the blade you gave me since birth. Not only to pass judgment, but to avenge the one I loved."
The sword answered his plea.
The Blade of Celestial Judgment began to glow softly, warmth spreading beneath his fingers. Selene's blood still stained the edge, but it shimmered and shifted, the red slowly turning gold as it was drawn into the blade, absorbed as though it had been accepted.
The light expanded.
Lucius's vision trembled as the dull blue of his eyes transformed into a deep, radiant green. His ears lengthened, tapering into elegant points, while his blond hair brightened, glowing faintly as if touched by sunlight.
A gentle radiance wrapped around his body. His wounds began to heal and the bruises faded. Pain vanished as divinity was being bestowed into his human body. It flowed through him as though he were being reforged from within. It did not feel like mere healing but rebirth.
Lucius stepped forward, and the distance between him and Lilith vanished as though it had never existed.
One moment she stood amid broken stone. The next, his presence crashed into her like a descending god. His leg struck her torso with a heavy force. The impact ripped the air from her lungs and shattered the ground beneath her feet, sending her body hurtling backward through fractured stone before it slammed deep into the earth below.
The crater swallowed her whole.
Dust and debris poured down as Lilith lay at its center, coughing violently, thick blood spilling from her mouth and staining the broken ground. The laughter and mocking expression she wore so easily to her was gone, replaced by ragged breaths and disbelief burning behind her widened eyes.
She forced herself to move, but her hands shook as she pressed them into the shattered earth, dragging her battered body upright inch by inch while pain screamed through every nerve.
Before she could even steady herself, Lucius was already there.
He stood at the edge of the crater, looking down at her in silence. His expression was unreadable, but his new strength was enough to make the air feel heavy and oppressive. Divinity flowed openly through his body now. He was no longer a human but more like judgment given form.
A demi god with the authority of Goddess Celestia, as if she had descended to this world with Lucius as her avatar.
Lilith bared her teeth and forced a mocking smile, though it trembled.
"Did killing your lover," she asked hoarsely, "finally make you angry?"
Lucius did not answer.
Her eyes flickered and her years of instincts screamed at her to strike before it was too late. Dark demonic energy surged into her palm, twisting and compressing as it gathered into a dense black sphere. The air warped violently around it as she thrust her arm forward, hurling the attack straight at him.
Lucius lifted his empty hand. He did not dodge, but placed his fingers closed around the sphere.
The demonic magic collapsed instantly, crushed as if by his divinity, shattering into nothing more than fading smoke before it could even detonate. The attack never reached him and he barely reached as his gaze was always locked on to her.
Lilith's breath caught in her throat.
Lucius raised his sword.
The Blade of Celestial Judgment descended in a slow, deliberate arc, its edge glowing faintly as it cut through the air. The strike landed cleanly, tearing a deep gash across Lilith's body. She screamed as divine power flooded the wound, burning through her demonic essence and eroding her flesh as holy force clashed violently with the corruption sustaining her.
Her own magic turned against her, writhing and tearing at her from within.
Even then, she laughed.
Blood flowed freely as her body trembled, struggling to remain upright. "Your strength is fake," she spat, her voice cracking. "You can only hurt me because Selene is dead."
Lucius stepped closer, his shadow falling over her completely.
"No," he said quietly. "My strength exists because Selene is still with me."
He raised his blade once more, his grip steady, his gaze unwavering.
"And this power," he continued, his voice devoid of hatred, "was given so that beings like you may be erased."
Lilith's eyes widened.
Lucius moved and brought the blade down.
There was no hesitation as it only took a single slash. With a clean motion fueled by divinity and wrath. The Blade of Celestial Judgment cut through Lilith's neck as though resistance did not exist, its edge flashing once before the sound reached the air.
Her body froze.
For a fraction of a second, it remained standing—headless—before collapsing forward in a spray of dark blood that soaked the shattered stone below. Her severed head was flung aside by the force of the strike, tumbling across the ground before coming to a halt.
Her eyes were still open, but those purple eyes burned with hatred even in death, staring into nothing as the life was torn from her in an instant. Her mouth was twisted mid-mockery, the expression never fading, forever frozen in shock and rage.
Lucius stood over the headless body in silence.
Relief settled into his chest, as he looked down at what remained of Lilith. For centuries, she had carved suffering into the world. She had trampled over innocents, twisted their lives, and mocked justice without fear.
And she had taken Selene from him.
That alone was unforgivable.
Yet even now, Lucius felt no triumph—only a cold certainty that something vile had finally been removed from existence. His gaze hardened as it traced the body lying before him. The black armor she wore barely served as protection but for provocation.
Disgust stirred within him.
"This world has no need for a body like yours," Lucius said quietly. "Better that it returns to nothing than giving life back to the land you poisoned."
He raised his sword.
The Blade of Celestial Judgment plunged straight into her chest—into the space her armor left exposed. The moment the blade struck true, Lilith's body convulsed, then began to unravel. Dark miasma poured forth and drawn irresistibly into the blade as though it were being devoured.
Within moments, nothing remained.
Now, a low voice echoed through the ruined hall.
"What a worthless daughter I had."
Lucius turned.
The Demon King stood amid the destruction, his presence once again overwhelming as if the battle they fought, never happened. His wings, once battered and torn, were whole again. The wounds that had nearly brought him low were gone, his body restored as if time itself had bent to his will.
"She was useless even at the end," the Demon King continued coldly. "Just like her mother."
His eyes burned as he looked down at where Lilith had vanished.
"Children bring nothing but trouble, Lucius. Lilith was the most troublesome of all. That is why I killed her mother, to remind her that her life was always in my grasp."
A cruel smile twisted his lips.
"But she did buy me the time I needed to fully regain my strength."
He stepped forward.
Lucius let out a slow breath.
The weight of the moment pressed down on him but the understanding that the end was finally here. This battle was worth centuries for the lives of previous heroes and innocents who perished
Good and evil.
Hero and Demon King.
The final chapter was ending.
Lucius closed his eyes. When he spoke, his voice carried devotion so deep it bordered on reverence itself.
"O Goddess Celestia," he said, each word flowing like prayer and oath intertwined. "You who guided my steps when the world was lost to darkness. You who gave me strength when my body failed and purpose when my heart broke."
He tightened his grip on his blade.
"This battle has endured for centuries. Lives have been broken. Hope has been burned away. I ask you now. Grant me the strength to end it."
The air changed.
Light gathered behind Lucius.
At first it was distant, a presence just beyond sight. Then it grew, vast and overwhelming. A massive figure of radiant light took form, towering over the battlefield. From the waist up, it shaped itself into a woman, her features gentle yet absolute, her form both divine and unmistakably human.
Her arms, vast beyond measure, wrapped around Lucius.
Despite the immense difference in size, she drew him into her embrace effortlessly. Warmth flooded his body, a comfort so deep it felt like returning home, to a mother's embrace.
Lucius did not resist.
He leaned into it.
Then the light surged upward.
The divine presence shot into the sky, tearing through the remains of the Demon King's castle as though it were nothing more than mist. High above the ruined lands of the Demon realm, the being stopped, her palms crossing and pressing forward.
Lucius stood at the center of it all.
He turned and behind him was the goddess he had devoted his life to.
Though her body was formed of pure light, Lucius could see her clearly, every expression, every emotion. Her eyes held warmth, gentle and motherly, yet within them held pride so profound it stole his breath