#106 "Apocalypse."
"Apocalypse."
His single word silenced the table once more. It was a different kind of quiet from when Catherine had crawled onto Chezare's lap.
'Apocalypse? What's that?'
She'd heard the term before but didn't know the details. It sounded like the name of some holy relic or another...
In the hush that fell over the group, Behemoth spoke again.
"The Papal Court's goal is the Apocalypse. They're pulling out all the stops to find it."
The demons' reactions were negative.
"Greed that makes holy relics look tame."
「Plant-speak: absurd.」
So what the hell was this absurd Apocalypse, anyway?
"Does Lilith know about the Apocalypse? It's a bit different from what's publicly known."
Belial tossed out the perfect question to fill Catherine's ignorance. She shook her head vigorously.
「No. What is it?」
"The Apocalypse, simply put..."
"Is God."
The hand stroking her fur had stopped at some point. Instead, a pleasant, languid voice spread from above her head.
"The Apocalypse, simply put, is God. The great being that grants the wishes of its creations."
There was a phrase even more concerning than "God."
「Grants wishes? You mean that god actually fulfills requests?」
As she asked, her head naturally turned toward Chezare. He rolled a half-crushed chrysanthemum bud in his palm as he replied.
"More precisely, it alters the future so that the wish has no choice but to come true."
Look at me while you're talking, would you? She poked at his chest with her front paw, but Chezare's gaze stubbornly stayed elsewhere. No matter how she thought about it, he was deliberately avoiding her eyes. Anyone could see it.
"The Apocalypse is, in essence, the prophetic book that records the birth and destruction of the universe. Terrifying enough on its own, but what's truly frightening is that changing even a single verse rewrites the future."
Belial fixed Catherine with eyes dripping cold menace.
"If I got my hands on that book and changed a line reading 'A sunny summer so bright it hurt the eyes continued' to 'The world ended'..."
「Plant-speak: end.」
"Mammon's right. Boom. Done. The world ends right when summer should arrive."
Scary. Terrifying, even. But so utterly unrealistic that it barely stirred her.
'World-ending stuff.'
Who in their right mind would even ask a god to destroy the world? If it were her, she'd wish for something more selfish and happy. Like endless money to blow, or nothing but good times.
"There have always been those after the Apocalypse. And most of them failed. Surprising, sure, but hardly news."
Unlike Belial, Asmodeus was unimpressed. He spoke as if it wasn't even worth discussing something doomed to fail.
「Does that mean someone succeeded?」
Asmodeus affirmed Catherine's question.
"The previous Lilith found it. As far as I know, that's the only time in history the Apocalypse was discovered."
She'd sensed it from the guidebook, but her mother had lived one hell of a busy life.
「What did she wish for?」
Catherine couldn't imagine it. The Apocalypse wasn't some living thing—it was an object. Where had she found it? What did it look like? Where did she keep it afterward? She was dying to know.
「Plant-speak: question.」
「You mean no one knows?」
"That's right. No one. We weren't even born when she found it."
Belial let out a long sigh of regret. Even for an archdemon, the image of the Apocalypse was shrouded in mystery.
"Ahh. That heartless previous Lilith. No matter how much I pried, she never told me. At this point, it feels like a lie..."
"It's not a lie!"
Someone snapped back at Belial's lament—Behemoth, of all people. He'd been sitting quietly, almost invisibly, but now his eyes blazed red with excitement. He shot to his feet, grinding his teeth as he bellowed.
"Lilith definitely found the Apocalypse. She told me so herself! That kind soul would have shared its secrets someday... She definitely, definitely would have..."
She understood what he was saying, but could barely grasp why it warranted such rage.
'Is this what they call loner logic?'
As Catherine vowed never to pick up that kind of speech pattern, Behemoth's fury turned on her.
"If it weren't for you!"
Like a fish reeled in, her tiny kitten body floated into the air. The magic pulling her along carried no goodwill.
Sorry, Dan. Seems my mere existence is rubbing him the wrong way. Demon life really is unpredictable.
"If it weren't for you, I could've heard her stories! Why were you born now? Why did you... why did you kill Lilith?!"
Bloodshot veins crept into his eyes as they drew closer. Catherine felt more suspicion than guilt. She got that Behemoth had special feelings for her mother. But whatever those feelings were, they didn't feel like love—or anything close. There was a strange chill to it.
Why was Behemoth so obsessed with her mother?
"I came to Eden to find Lilith, but you ruined everything! Even this damn banquet..."
Thud.
A dull impact cut off his scream.
「Huh?」
A cold palm covered Catherine's face. She slid smoothly across the table like on ice and was set down gently. She wiped the liquid that had splattered on her nose. The thick scent of blood made her dizzy. In that split second, she shook her head to forget the gruesome butchery before her eyes. To erase the moment Behemoth's body was sliced into something too horrific to describe.
"Hah."
A sigh of pity drifted from somewhere.
「Plant-speak: needs a beating to come to his senses.」
In that moment, Catherine truly realized she had become the underground overlord, a true archdemon. To her, the scene was vomit-inducing brutality; to them, it was as mundane as reading the morning paper.
Will I grow numb to horrors like that someday too? She couldn't believe it.
"This makes about the twentieth time I've had to tell you."
Chezare's voice came from right behind her back.
"I hate noisy things, Behemoth."
His words implied that Chezare was the one punishing Behemoth—and that the hand covering her eyes belonged to him too.
"If you can't get it after twenty times, what choice do I have? I'll shred you until you do."
A chilling sound echoed, and a massive scream shattered the silence at the table. Chezare's voice held not a shred of pity.
"I'll mince you down to every last nerve, so thoroughly you'll be grateful just to die."
It seemed Mars's death had been Catherine's delusion alone. Apparently, even after 600 years, he was still kicking strong. Dan's warning she'd half-ignored rang in her ears again.
'Don't talk back. Stay meek. At least for now. He's the unmatched powerhouse of this era.'
Got it. I'll etch your advice into my flesh and blood from here on out, Dan.
Belial approached silently and scooped Catherine up. She kissed the top of her head sympathetically, then hugged her tight against her ample bosom for comfort (the emphasis on "ample" because it was so ample she could barely breathe).
"So no more sitting on Leviathan's lap from now on, dear. It's nothing but trouble from one to ten."
To be precise, the current Chezare wasn't troubling her. Digging deeper, the root of her feelings was closer to "freshness." She was seeing a side of him she'd never known—perhaps the one closest to his true nature. Catherine liked this cruel, merciless, demonic Chezare too.
Boom.
But Behemoth's endless screams finally met their end. A thunderous roar like the sky tearing open lit them up, a massive magic circle etched between the clouds shining down.
Weeeeeng.
The Papal Court's intrusion alarm blared sharply. Catherine stared blankly at the heavens from Belial's arms. Something began crawling out from the brilliantly pulsing blue magic circle. Long wings. A menacing body.
A dragon.
'...What? A dragon?'
But it wasn't a real dragon.
"Hahaha! My dear brothers! How's the banquet? Enjoying yourselves?"
An undeniable presence radiated from atop the dragon's thick scales. Catherine's superhuman vision zeroed in on the figure standing there. Long golden hair fluttered like curtains, obscuring the face, but the refined features were clear enough to confuse the gender. Probably the wild biceps and triceps that might fool someone into thinking it was a woman.
The brawny blond man was unmistakably addressing the banquet's demons.
"Where's the new brother? No way that dumb-looking, brainless green weed over there is Lilith, right? Huh?"
"Hmph. Late and rowdy as ever."
Belial ostentatiously shook the tiny kitten body.
Hahaha! A boisterous laugh assaulted Catherine's eardrums.
"Mm-hm. Definitely not! A cat's surprising too, but cute enough to let slide."
Catherine asked on a whim.
「No way that's Lucifer, is it?」
If it was, things might get messy.
Belial didn't answer. None of the demons did—not even Belial. Maybe Lucifer was some monumental embarrassment to them.
Looping through the skies above the Papal Court, Lucifer bellowed loudly.
"My voice is so loud, it'll wake the Papal Court's dogs from their deep sleep, huh? Haha. But I had no choice—I was aiming for exactly that."
Did he really think his voice was the only issue? The madman vibe pouring off Lucifer meant he had no clue about the truth.
Grinning like he might die of joy, he waved at Catherine with a single root-like arm.
"Our lovely little baby sister! I was late, but I prepared a birth gift just for you."