Chapter 392 392 - A Maid's Selflessness

"How you met Lucifer?" he asked, Lilith nodding, ready to tell him everything she remembered.

"Yeah... I mean, aren't you curious?" she asked, making Noah bite his lip.

"Of course, but what happened in between? I must have taken at least some time, no?" he asked, the snake smiling at him, sadness looming behind her smiling eyes.

"... Well, almost nothing. To be fair, it was not like there was anything to happen amidst the literal nothing... Aside from the occasional moans of the Titan of Time, that is," she cackled in a way that felt incredibly disturbing, yet Noah did not say a word, having heard of Chronos in the past, as one of the gods nobody prayed to. "How he could manage to even make a sound while being cut in a million pieces is far beyond me, but what can I say, that guy just won't die no matter what you do to him. Or rather, it would be really bad if he were to... After all, he still has a domain," she said something he'd never heard before, which kept Noah on his toes.

"What exactly is a domain?" Noah asked, making Lilith shake her head. "So you don't know, huh..." she muttered, tapping her tail against the side of the chair, which almost sounded like a person tapping their feet, she tried to find a way to explain it. "To put it plainly, it is something he rules over. Having a domain become vacant means that religion loses the right over it, which means everyone can try to claim it." she said, as Noah scratched his head, a bit confused. "Come on..." She rolled her eyes. "Do you think any god would let someone else take it without a fight? It always ends with a bunch of minor gods getting flung into the meatgrinder as one large god shows up and owns it, it's a shitfest," she said, Noah finally understanding with an 'Ahhh...'

"But getting back to the topic, how long was it? Like, between you getting thrown out of heaven and meeting Lucifer," Noah asked, clearly interested in hearing what she had to tell, and the snake began telling her story once again.

"Ummm... I actually don't know for sure. But, from my calculations... somewhere in the neighbourhood of a thousand and a half years, I think?" she told him what he asked her, but Noah suddenly turned away from her, making the snake frown. 'Why are you not paying—Oh," she started complaining, but soom discovered the reason. Noah had turned away because he noticed someone going towards them with pyakugan. "Aren't you the maid that—" she started asking, as she saw the girl approaching from the kitchen, but chose to not talk, as he looked at her closelier.

Despite being dressed in uniform and proper make-up, there was something different about her. The make-up couldn't hide completely her red eyes and her swollen face. It had been a full day already, but she was still crying. It was understandable she was this distraught. Her mother had died, she had been one of the few people Noah could not save that night. But Lilith was confused. Why was she coming towards them, why was she so stern despite everything she'd gone through.

"Is everything alri—" Noah started asking as the girl got close to them, but interrupted himself, as she knelt on the ground, completely overthrowing his expectations, and he instead chose to wait for her to say something.

"First, Master Noah, thank you. Thank you so much," the girl said, bursting into tears, which she wiped with the back of her gloved hands, her silk white gloves turning grey from the water seeping between its fibers. Noah and Lilith looked at each other, wondering what to do, but soon looked back to the girl, as she bit her lips, recollecting herself and continuing to speak. "If it weren't for you, I'd now be an orphan. You saved my father from certain death, and for that I owe you my eternal gratitude and my life, just like him."

As she said this, Noah frowned, not particularly liking the path her monologue was taking. However, he did not have the heart to stop her just there and then, instead remaining silend, watching.

"And if it weren't for your friends calling me in, I would have been there too, to get killed by those monsters, or worse..." she said, her fists clenching and her gloves making the peculiar sound for fabring being stretched and compressed. "I could live my life like this, like a lamb, just waiting for the next time someone comes over and kills me, while I work comfortably for the rest of my life under this roof, just like my mother did." She stared up, looking at Noah in the eyes, and him recognizing the flame in hers.

The flame of hatred and vengeance. Of one who lost what they loved most, and will not settle to lose what they love 2nd. The flame he had in his eyes when his mother died.

And she bowed, her arms stretched forwards, her forehead touching the ground as she sobbed, pleading, "I don't want to live like this anymore. I don't want to do nothing while my family dies," she said raising herself, the tears falling for her eyes glistening over her cheeks. While it was a sad sight, it was also endearing in a way, as her beauty and hatred captivated Noah's interest, making Noah's lips quirk up slightly, as he imagined how her hatred could be used as fuel, to further feed that flame in her eyes.

"They told you, didn't they?" he asked, not specifying what. But the girl knew exactly what he was talking about.

"I overheard them," she confessed, eavesdropping being something any employee knew confessing to would result in either firing or even exile, depending on how much one heard. Yet, this time, about this, in this situation, Noah would certainly overloook it, and she was sure of it. Sure enough to wage her jog and life at this gamble. "Please help me, I wan't to be able to fight," she pleaded, "I don't know the conditions or the price, but I'm begging you, make me a blessed, I don't care the price, I'll even give you my soul! All I want to to be able live like a person, not like cattle"

"You don't have to pay anything, all you have to do is believe," he said, as he stood up from his chair, extending his hand towards the girl on the ground, and pulling her so she could stand, staring at him in the eyes. "Believe in me an I will do your will," he said, the girl immeately closing her eyes, almost as if she had been odered too.

"Lilirh why is she," Noah srated asking the snake, but the nake and the firl remained silent, looking a teach other as a could appared "Fuck it!" Noah thought, deciding this girl deserved a shot, at least one. So he would grant her the wish she'd asked him.

He closed his eyes as he puched her shoulder, fire bursting forth and swallowing the girl whole And Noah imagined the fire burning in her eyes as he poured more and more of his flames over her, just like he would to the Imps in order tho grant them the powers he had given before once. The fiery hell of the demon licking her skin without burning it.

The girl smiled, as she felt something change inside her. Noah knew he had given her power, just lie he had Maggie and Carlos, but there was something more to what he did this time. He was more powerful than when he did it to them. And as his powers closed in on those of Lucifer, so did the power he could grant initally, the girl smiled, as she felt the weight change on her hands, her nails growing.

She became inebriated on the feeling, as the mana that now appeared within her flowed towards her limbs, fire covering her hands like a glove, as her nails grew further and further, becoming fiery claws with a menacing red glint. And her eyes opened, as she looker at her monstruous hand and nails, tears flowing from her eyes once again, "Thank you! Thank you so much!" she sobbed, overjoyed. She put her hands together, lifiting her hands like a prayer, her monstruous claws diminishing as the fire slowly became milder, amost to the point of diappearing entirely. "I knew they weren't exagerating. You really are a God, or at least the God's favourite," she said, making Noah smile wrily, as he swallowed dry.

'I am his descendant, though not of a god,' he muttered to himself, as he smiled and looked over to Lilith, who nodded satisfied. But the girl wasn't done as the blessing deadctivated, and she walked over to Lilith, the snake looking at her eyes, perplexed, as the girl suddenly appoached her.  Noah stared in awe as the girl hugged the snake, who did not move.

Lilith was too shocked to even say anything, never expecting her to to anything nowhere near this. And the girl hugged Lilith, closer, resting her head against the snake's as she muttered into her ear.

"And thank you too, for everything. For telling me who to believe, for calming me down after he left, for being there for me too," the girl muttered into the snake's ears, making her overjoyed, "Just like him, I owe everything to you aswell, and owe you everything."

As the girl said this, the snake shook, something shattering inside her mind, and a sinister purple glow overtaking her eyes, seeping through her fangs. "Everything?" the snake asked back, Noah turning over to look as he felt a sinister presence in the room.

"Lilith, wait!" he said, extending his hand, not knowing what to expect. But the snake's posionous fangs bore into the girl's neck, as soon as she responded.

"Everything."