The Child Born to The Goddess

The dark tower echoed with a loud, abrasive howl of its sovereign monarchy. Lightning crackled in the overcast sky of blackened clouds, and creatures of all manner of shapes and sizes shrieked and howled in a cacophony of pain. The guards stood in wait outside the castle doors, still as statues, and quiet as mice on the prowl - the maids and butlers equally panicked as the queen, desperately rush back and forth in the hollow halls, determined - eager even - to await the dawning of a new day for all demon kind; the little princess of the archangel breed was to be born at any second now; the king - a towering behemoth of pale skin, long silver hair, and piercing crimson eyes - could only stand by the side of his wife, his breathtaking goddess, as she endured this unholy labour, hoping to imbue the child with every ounce of her strength. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours of grueling labor. Leeuw's body goes rigid, every muscle seizing as the pressure inside her reaches a crescendo. And then, with a sound like the world ending, it happens: she bore the young child, cradling its delicate, wailing body more than life itself…

“This is a miracle of the highest caliber! Congratulations to you, my king!”

The king patted the back of the kingdom’s seer and priest as he trodden to his wife’s bedside, slowly pulling back the blanket wrapped over his child, “Hahahaha, yes, congratulations to me - What a lucky ruler I am to bear before me the sight of my precious so–” Suddenly the king’s voice came to a screeching halt. The halls were silent, save for the baby’s tears echoing through them. Naturally, the question was what gave the Archangel King, warrior king of all Yamo, pause?
“W-What is it, Lord Enoch? Why so silent?” asked Samael.

“Yes, dear, what troubles you?” asked Leeuw, the archangel queen.

“N-Nothing. Nothing at all, e-ehehehe…Umm..Samael, correct me if I am mistaken. Months ago, while she was still pregnant, you had mentioned to Leeuw and me that the chances of us finally bearing a son were an unmistakable 99.7%. Correct??” to which the priest nodded in agreement. “T-Then just…explain to me why this is not a boy in my wife’s hands?”

Leeuw was appalled at his assertion, using what little strength she had to jerk the baby away from him and leave a red welt across his cheek after lashing her palm against it, “Enoch! For shame! This is a wonderful baby daughter; you can’t just say those types of things, especially at such a young, impressionable age!” Leeuw quietly eased the unnamed child’s cries, heaving her to Enoch’s height as best she could from under her stricken covers and mattress. “Listen…I know you’ve longed for a son…a part of me is saddened that my uterus failed you so…” she continued, with a smile like silk, casting away the shadows of sorrow building over the child’s mind, and her touch—weakened from labor though she was—was like the touch of water dripping off a freshly-risen plant at the height of spring. Enoch, however, scoffed and barely recognized the little girl being relinquished to his person. “But…look into her eyes.” Leeuw said with a delicate chuckle, “Tell me what you see; tell me what you think the future holds for this little girl in our care - that means you too, Minister Samael.”

“I was promised an heir to the throne in this generation; I’ve already set the Eden Plan into motion, preparing for that very eclipse to grace the skies above us. I wish to be able to continue the bloodline, MY bloodline! That’s all that it is!”

“And you believe that MY bloodline is less valuable to the throne, or even to you?!”

Enoch fell silent once more, this time recognizing his offensive implication. But he felt no remorse for his actions, shutting the nursery door behind him with volcanic force as he left, leaving the minister, the midwives, and the woman of his dreams to their lonesome - all was quiet, and saddened. Some are even fearful of the king’s future wrath. Immediately, they shuddered in a teary-eyed embrace. How could he have been so foolish? So vain? So prejudiced?!

“I-I see a cycle: day and night, rain and shine, and beginning to end, midnight to noon,” interjected Samael. His position usually prevented him from speaking, and yet he did just that.

Leeuw gazed at him, eyes heavy with deep regret, “W-What? I beg your pardon…?” she uttered between lightened sobs. The two glanced at each other briefly, exchanging looks of awe, tension, and peace before expelling their worries with a sigh, and, as Leeuw asked of Enoch before his abrupt departure, they looked over the little girl, looking into her big, bright red eyes.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” asked Leeuw, taking the girl back into her arms. “Son or not, we both conceived her, Enoch and I…We BOTH gave her the inheritance to our respective bloodlines; this, of course, means that all we are, both of us, now live on in her…She has his eyes, she has your hair—silver like snow, flowing in the wind like freshly cleaned drapes, and so much more! A-And yet…” For a moment, Leeuw grew tense. Silent, at least until feeling Samael’s comfort upon her shoulder before continuing. “I had fallen to the depths of love, and something far more intimate, the second I gazed into those very same eyes - the eyes of my soon-to-be husband, Enoch Archangel. It didn’t matter if you were a king or a commoner…I never felt more enamored by a man in all my ten lives than I did you at that moment. Looking at her…could you not feel the same, my love?”

The baby’s eyes opened, exposing her crimson orbs to the outside world once more. I had to have been reincarnated; it was far-fetched, surreal, whatever you’d wanna say to put it in perspective - point is, this was the only LOGICAL conclusion. I couldn’t recall exactly what was being said in those moments, but my new mom and dad looked and even felt…happy. The baby me cracked a toothless smile full of laughter, and they laughed too, once they realized I was listening to their happy embrace of me, and each other…”

“You know, my queen, you still have to name her.”

“Hm? Oh yes, of course! Well then, what shall we call her?!”

Almost as if on cue, from across the room, the midwives groaned, unfurling a scroll that stretched across the entire damn room! Little did Sam know he opened a can of worms, “I’m glad you asked because I prepared a list!” exclaimed the enthusiastic Leeuw, adorned in a set of goofy spectacles and almost forgetting about her depression immediately, “Ahem! First off, we have Tiamat; there's also Nure, Yuki, Jezzel, Mia, Miyabi, Mikati, Terumi, Choro, Chrollo, Zepar, Panther, Fillis, Demisha, Danashi–”

“E-Egh!? I mean, umm, beautiful names!”

Somehow, Leeuw could tell they were trying to spare her feelings, and with a sigh, she glanced back to her daughter's beaming eyes, “Fine then, what would YOU name her, my love?” she asked with a reluctant, almost disappointed sigh.

Samael’s eyes shot from their sockets after meeting her cold, judging glare. Admittedly, he never put much thought into a girl’s name, so this was all a sudden shift, him being the one to name what he assumed to be a son…but as he thought more and more about it, after a brief moment to collect his memories, an epiphany struck: “Lilim.”

“L-Lilim? As in “Child of the Goddess of Yoma, Lilith,” THAT Lilim? - Halberd of Destiny, Blank Angel, that very same Lilim, you want to name MY daughter after?”

“Well, in my defense, nobody said you couldn’t use the name more than once. There were already two Lilims in Yoma’s history - The offspring of the Goddess that liberated Yoma, and then–”

“Enough!!” Leeuw suddenly decreed, quieting Sam’s enthusiasm with harsh correction, “It is forbidden, Samael–We do NOT speak of ‘her…’”

“A-Apologies... What I mean to say is that throughout history, there have been two Lilims. But the name itself is synonymous with one common theme: power - both characters possessed untapped levels of power, and potential as well…Gazing into Lilim’s eyes, I see a cycle of death and life, darkness and light…It just felt…enamoring to me.”

With a quiet nod from Leeuw, it was settled.

That was how I was given my new name in this new life: Lilim Archangel the 3rd.