Adeline and her brothers bowed to the Devil King and said simultaneously, "It is an honor to be in your presence."
"It is nice to meet all of you," Lucifer replied with a mysterious smile on his face. He understood why she was staring at him a while ago.
Lucifer took a step forward and took Adeline's hand. He leaned down to place a kiss on her knuckles and then added, "Especially you, Adeline." Lucifer was impressed that his younger brother had fallen for a girl who looked sweet and fierce at the same time.
He gave a gentle smile to Adeline and praised her, "I had always wanted to meet you when Theodore told me about you. And I understand now why he was on the verge of going mad when you two got separated."
Adeline glanced at Theodore and gave a sad smile to him.
Lucifer then held out his palms and quickly conjured up a single-handed sword on his palms. "I don't think I can attend the marriage ceremony so this is a small gift from my side."
He presented that sword to Adeline while saying, "Welcome to our family, Adeline. I hope you can handle my eccentric brother."
All of this was so sudden for Adeline that she didn't know what would be the proper thing to do. She gave a bewildered gaze to Theodore to which he smiled and replied, "Take it. This is the strongest sword that you can never find on Earth."
Adeline received the sword from Lucifer and bowed to him again, "Thank you for being so kind to me."
"This is the least I can do for my sister-in-law." Lucifer pursed his lips and sighed. "I think this will be our first and last meeting. But I am glad that I at least got a chance to see you face to face."
Adeline gave her kindest smile and said, "Likewise. I am happy that I got a chance to meet you."
Lucifer took a glance at his brother and hinted, "I think we will roam around for a bit." He then gazed at Adeline and sarcastically added, "And I hope that I will never see you in Hell."
Adeline felt her heart skip a beat because of that dark humor of Lucifer. But she still managed to put on a smile and said, "I will try my best to avoid that fate."
Before the two brothers left the battlefield, Theodore lovingly caressed Adeline's ruffled-up hair and informed her, "We will be back in no time. Till then, ask the witches to finish healing the soldiers and shift Lillian to the carriage."
"What about the portal?" Adeline asked Theodore without missing a beat. "What if some more monsters crawl through while you are gone?"
And instead of Theodore, Lucifer replied, "I will have Cerberus guard the portal."
"Sure, thank you!" Adeline replied with gratitude.
The moment Theodore and Lucifer vanished from there, Adeline was shot with several questioning gazes from those who were unintentionally listening to the conversation between Adeline and Lucifer.
Edwin was the first one to break the silence, "You are getting married to the Devil Prince? When? How?"
"Did father agree to it?" Raphael also asked his own question.
Adeline's cheeks had already turned burning red. She gazed at her new sword and answered shyly, "The marriage hasn't been fixed yet but I think it will happen soon. Father has yet to formally meet Theodore and have proper talks. But they have met once already."
Both her brothers were in for a surprise, especially Edwin, as he didn't even know that Adeline and Theodore were fond of each other.
Before her brothers asked some more questions about her and Theodore, she walked towards Tabitha to relay the message from Theodore. And almost as if they were her tails, Edwin and Raphael also followed her subconsciously.
Tabitha was finishing up healing one of the injured guards when Adeline approached her. "High Priestess, Theodore was saying that we should transport Lillian to the carriage once all of the guards are healed."
"As you wish, Your Highness," Tabitha replied in a soft voice and looked around. Only two of the soldiers were still being healed, the rest were already back to their best health. And she asked the Princess, "I think we should ask the coachman to bring the carriage next to Lillian. I will undo the spell on her and we can shift her to the carriage."
Edwin immediately took the liberty to order one of his cavalries, "Ask the coachman to take the carriage over there."
That guard instantly mounted his horse and headed towards Lillian's carriage. Tabitha and the witches who were already free headed towards where Lillian was.
Adeline suddenly remembered that Raphael was also hurt so she called one of the witches, "Excuse me, will you also treat my brother's wound? He hurt his back."
Raphael chuckled and tried to brush it off, "No, I can get healed later. It's just a scratch."
Adeline didn't believe him so she made him turn around and peeked through the sliced armor. And she shouted to him angrily, "It's not just a scratch, Raph! It looks bad. Get healed right away."
Adeline gestured to the witch who was standing close by and she immediately began her work.
Adeline then glanced at Edwin and asked, "I am going to check on your mother. Do you want to come?"
Edwin pursed his lips and said, "I think I will wait for Raphael to get healed."
After she had unleased literal Hell on innocent people, Edwin didn't even feel like seeing her. He knew that his mother was currently impaled and unconscious, and he didn't want to feel sympathetic towards her at all.
Adeline nodded her head and then followed the witches who were walking towards Lillian.
When the witches and Adeline reached near Lillian, they saw Sybil limping towards them. She was soaked in water and it looked like she hadn't yet healed the wounds that she got from the bloodfairies and that harsh fall into the river.
"Sybil, are you okay?" Agnes and two other witches ran to hold Sybil and help her heal.
Tabitha, on the other hand, asked two of the witches to keep Lillian unconscious. Though it looked very unlikely that she would gain her consciousness any time soon because of the blood loss as well as the amount of dark energy that she was still channeling.
Tabitha then took the charge of removing all the branches that were impaled in her body. She slowly retracted the branches one by one and Lillian's bones and muscles could be seen as clear as the blue sky.
Adeline couldn't stomach the grisly scene even though it was her arch-enemy. She could feel her stomach hurling. So she walked away from that place.
In her subconscious state, she happened to walk towards the portal. When she suddenly came back to her senses, she heard a low growling noise.
Her eyes widened in terror when she saw massive paws on the other side of the portal. She shakily raised her head to see what that thing was. She was even more terrified when she saw three large heads looking down at her with its scary eyes.
Adeline felt like running for her life but her knees gave up on her. She just froze in place.
Cerberus poked out his heads through the portal and sniffed Adeline.
Adeline was so scared when that hellhound's huge head was inches away from her face that she just stood there as if she was a lifeless statue. She prayed that Lucifer would come back and take his dog away from her. She didn't want the hellhound to bite her head off or maul her over.
However, to her disbelief, Cerberus began to wag his tail and lick Adeline. He even rolled on his back and asked for belly rubs.
Adeline blinked her eyes several times because she was unable to believe that Cerberus was actually very friendly.
Adeline smiled and talked in a baby-ese tone, "Hi Cerberus! You just want to be pampered, don't you?" She couldn't help but walk closer to that bundle of cuteness and give him some belly rubs.
She shook her head while thinking, "Theo said that he was a terrifying beast.." She chuckled to herself and whispered, "Him and his definition of a terrifying beast! I was scared of this cute puppy for no reason."