The sound of the lock being unshackled could be heard from the other side before it swung open, and Lilia's face peeked through the gap.
"May we come in, Lilia?" asked Ratella, a gracious smile appearing on his face. The Sloth tried his best to adopt a smile, but with his nerves, it made his expression unsettling and awkward.
Ratella didn't wish to kill Lilia, so would find any excuse not to kill her. She had been nothing but sweet and nice to him, never swaying his opinion of her.
"Of course, Ratella."
Lilia moved aside, letting the three pass into the room, meeting the confusion and enraged faces of Samael and Sarian. He ignored this, sitting on the adjacent couch to the two men, placing Liliana down next to him.
Sloth seated himself on a stray armchair, nestling into it, obviously distancing himself from Liliana and Ratella so as not to be involved any more than necessary.
Lilia took a similar stance, sitting far away from the increasing tension in the middle of the room, staying silent.
"Ratella, what are you doing, leaving Sloth unshackled!? Are you mad?!" spat Sarian, aversion oozing from his mouth, his stance on Ratella blatant for all to see.
"He means no harm; he'll be silent over there. I had to bring him to see if I didn't you or someone else would have stuck a dagger in between his ribs when he fell asleep."
Samael and Sarian's faces twisted with resentment as they guessed the plans forming in their heads.
"Oh? Was I correct that you were planning to kill Sloth in such an unchivalrous manner?"
"What do you want!? We obviously are in complete aversion to your presence here, so why do you insist on troubling us!?"
"I've just come here to spill some of the lies weighing on my mind."
"I knew you were lying about something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Are you a traitor!?" barked Samael, his hand grasping the sword leaning against the couch.
Ratella shook his head towards Samael after his action, and he withdrew his hand from the pommel, sensing the looming danger.
"Samael, you've always been quite smart when it comes to sensing danger. I'm guessing you can always sense danger emanating from me, but I'm guessing that my bird has a much higher amount of danger surrounding her, yes?"
"We were just discussing that fact. That bird is something more than a Sin; the amount of malice pouring off its form is overwhelming. I have to block my senses when looking in its direction, or else I go completely limp."
"Ratella, what is the bird?"
"What do you think it is?"
"Judging by your nature, I'm guessing it's some sort of powerful monster found in the depths of the dungeons on Kathoros or even in these very lands."
"Sloth! Guard the door!" ordered Sloth, jolting him from his slumber, begrudgingly positioning himself between them and the door, slumping down against it.
"Ratella, why did Sloth just follow your command without a second thought!?" barked Sarian, summoning arrows of light, pointing them in his direction.
Ratella put his hand up mockingly; not a single thought of surrender ran through his mind. This was merely him playing with his food.
"Because of his fear of the bird seated next to me. Liliana, would you please show these men your true form?"
"I've heard that name before. You've spoken to the bird before on the battlefield. Is it really an angel?" asked Samael, confusion laced in between his brows.
"Very well, being a bird for this long was starting to get painful anyway," declared Liliana, words escaping her beak baffling the two men seated across them, furthering their confusion surrounding the whole situation.
Lilia, instead, didn't look confused, a certain acceptance dancing in her eyes. She didn't look shocked as steam clouded the vision of Liliana's birdform as Ratella briefly glazed at her.
Liliana's devil form was revealed to the men after the steam dissipated. She sat upon her light pink hair, twirling it in her fingers, the chess piece in her other hand, juggling it between her fingers. Two pitch-curved horns shoot from the base of her forehead.
"A Devil!?" shouted Sarian, jumping out of his seat and drawing blades of light from thin air, letting the arrows fly towards.
Liliana merely waved her chess piece, summoning multiple armaments from war to inspect the projectiles, not attacking despite Sarian's actions.
"Ratella, why have you been carrying around a Devil in disguise with you?! Are you mad?!" exclaimed Samael, distancing himself from the duo seated lazily on the couch.
"You! That is no normal Devil, she blocked my attacks with a flick of her fingers!"
Sarian discarded his attack fractally, looking around the room for a possible escape, but Liliana's summoned weapons had already positioned themselves in front of the windows, barring them shut.
"Lilia! Get out of here now!"
Lilia didn't reply to Sarian's shout, only gazing at Liliana, with an odd sense of detachment and indifference in her eyes.
"Sarian, Sloth was correct when he said he didn't kill Serian Valhorn," stated Ratella, locking eyes with Sarian, his brows twisting with rage in spite of the situation at the mention of his father.
"What do you mean, Ratella? Don't tell me you had something to do with his death."
"I'll tell you what happened to your father if you sit yourselves down and stop looking for escape."
The two complied with Ratella's request, sitting themselves back down and gazing at him, resentment spilling from their eyes.
"Your father was quite the warrior, able to wield his Edict of Light masterly; it's a shame he had to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I watched your father's battle against Sloth. He asked for help, but I didn't budge despite his pleas. Eventually, he bested Sloth and had his sword closing in on his throat, he would have most definitely killed the Sin if my wing didn't block his weapon."
"Are you saying you were his murderer!?"
"No, I didn't kill your father, but I certainly aided in his death. I watched the light leave his eyes, impaled to ribbons by thousands of blades pouring out of hell itself. Despite his pleas for help against his murderer, I offered no such aid."
"You watched as my father was killed, then carried his body back, giving his family fake sympathy at the gates. You monster!"
"No, I'm no monster after all. I didn't kill him. The murderer of your father was the Horsemen of War seated next to me here," stated Ratella, pointing towards the little figure of Liliana.
"What?!" exclaimed Samael, jolting out of his seat, dread encompassing his entire body, shivering with terror, shaking, nausea overcoming all sense within his mind.
"You are a Seraphim, why would you aid the Horsemen of War!?" asked Sarian, his voice cracking with fear and anxiety at the fate lying before him.
"What makes you think I'm an angel in the first place? You asked if I was a monster, I believe Devil is the correct term."
A grin was creeping across Ratella's face at the realization, while terror spread across the two's faces. Liliana adopted a similar expression, delighted at Ratella's acceptance of his true race.
No other race broke into fits of bloodshed and cruelty.
"You were a devil all this time!? I'll kill and right every wrong surrounding your nasty mind," declared Sarian, throwing multiple blades of light towards Ratella, who retreated backwards next to the barred windows.
Liliana's weapons automatically intercepted the light. The light clashed against their metal surface, producing a blinding spark from each weapon. Despite the reaction, there wasn't a scratch on the weapons.
Sarian's face dropped with dread at the ineffectiveness of his weapons, the realization that his death was near, overtaking his mind.
"Sarian, I'll ask you a single question. Who is more important to you, yourself or Samael?"
"You twisted son of a bitch!"
Ratella's smile grew wider at Samael's outburst, the misery spreading across their face being like ecstasy to his brain, polluting the good whirling around in his brain, corrupting it into malice.
"Myself," muttered Sarian, his face finally sinking into despair.
A fit of sadistic laughter escaped Ratella's mouth at his selfishness in abandoning his best friend at his last moments.
"So you would forsake all honor within your heart to save yourself?"
"Yes! I would just get it over with!"
"Who's the monster now?"
"I am nothing but a monster corrupted by grief and misery."
Sarian's mental fortitude was completely shattered beyond repair after Ratella's taunts and manipulation. The once virtuous Sarian was no longer standing before him was a shallow husk of a once chivalrous man.
Sarian held his head low, not looking in the direction of shivering Samael hiding in the corner. They were both broken, and Ratella enjoyed every second of their misery, his devilish desires flooding his mind with joy at their blights.
Ratella approached Sarian, placing his hand on the man's shoulder, jolting him out of his daze of misery. He redirected the divinity in his body to his hand, strengthening and heightening its power.
"Please don't kill me, I don't want to die. I'll sacrifice Samael's life if it means my own survival."
"How spineless of a virtue, but don't worry, you won't be dwelling on it for long. Your pain will soon come to an end."
"What?!"
"Join your father in the oblivion named death," exclaimed Ratella, wearing a gracious smile, giving no indication of the vile words oozing from his mouth.
Ratella thrust his strengthened hand into the virtue's nose, annihilating it entirely before continuing its path straight through his brain and out the other end.
In a second, all life had been extinguished from his body dangling upon Ratella's raised arm. His limbs went limp, devoid of any life, in the absence of his brain, now painting Ratella's arm scarlet.
"Sarian! No, No, No. Monster!"
Ratella withdrew his arm from the man's skull, cleaving upwards in the air, spraying the collection of brain matter and blood onto Samael, further increasing his horror and overwhelming terror of Ratella.
"Please do not worry, I will swiftly end your existence before you can blink. I appreciate your mind, so I will not destroy it like Sarian's. Please accept the hand of death and don't fight the inevitable. Embrace it."
Ratella's oddly charming and caring words did nothing to lower the man's terror and misery at his friend's brutal death.
Liliana eyed his odd change of demeanor curiously. His hostility had disappeared from the atmosphere; all that remained was a calm acceptance.
He felt no true hostility or negative feelings towards Samael; he respected the man, so he would offer him a quick and painless death. No true aversion existed in his mind towards Samael, merely posing as another mission to be completed to see the Primordial Light succumb to darkness.
Ratella paused time's flow, muttering the command word under his breath, unsheathing Excalibur from its scabbard, and slashing directly at the man's neck, cleaving it cleanly in two.
After time returned, the man's head slowly tilted off his body, falling to the ground, thudding against it, marking the end of their assassination quest.