Lylia and Lilith

Lylia: Age 7

It was hard enough living in a border town, where the cleansing effects of the Purification Array were weaker. The Corruption of the Badlands made growing crops difficult, and the chances of encountering a monster increased exponentially the further west one traveled. So, for an orphaned, young girl, with no trust in the Galafern family, who favored funding military might over the quality of life for the citizens, surviving the day didn’t allow for one to be limited to lawful acts.

Coin and jewelry held little value to someone with an empty stomach, so the wealthy never bothered with chasing her as she dashed and darted through the streets and alleys with her daily bread. The baker had given up the chase ages ago, but she wanted to get back so she could eat in peace.

On the outskirts of Twilight’s Glory, old, hastily constructed, and subsequently abandoned battlements remained mostly standing, with the hard work of those without homes maintaining them. A remnant from a Golemtide decades ago.

“Joan? I got some bread!” She said, entering a partially collapsed shed that housed her and six other unfortunate children like her. “The fresh stuff. Not stale.”

“Lyli, what did I tell you about stealing?” The blonde said, scolding her like she was her mother despite only being a few years older.

“To not get caught, or I’ll get beat again?” She replied, shrugging. Breaking off an end of the loaf that was as long as her torso and half as thick, she handed the majority of it to Joan, who was shaking her head in disapproval. “Besides, it’s Essa’s favorite.” She added, pulling a sheet aside to reveal a girl with blue hair lying under some patched-together blankets, face flushed with fever.

“Lyli!” The girl said excitedly, sitting up faster than she should have.

“Whoa, not so fast. Here, have this and lie back down.” Handing the piece of bread to the younger girl, she supported her as she ate.

“Mmmm! It’s delicious!” She said, taking smaller bites to savor it for longer.

“Don’t spoil Vanessa too much…” Joan said, sighing and pulling the bread with the paltry amount of food on a shelf serving as their pantry.

But Lylia ignored the older blonde. Seeing Vanessa smile was worth the risk of stealing the bread.

*****

While she typically didn’t target nobles because the stuff they valued didn’t fill stomachs, and it was almost guaranteed that the guards would be sent to capture her, desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides, the encampment of people who regularly ‘didn’t’ come to Twilight’s Glory to send people into the Badlands, to collect something, weren’t nobles, technically. And if that ‘weren’t’ there, then she wasn’t stealing medicine from anyone.

Sadly, the nonexistent people in the white robes that weren’t the same as the ones the people from the church wore didn’t see it the same as she did. And unlike the guards in town, the angry men who were supposed to keep people like her from taking their stuff reacted even more violently.

Clutching what she thought was a Remedy potion she managed to find, Lylia skittered and darted between the tents, crates, and cages to avoid the firing lines of the mercenaries with crossbows. They had sensitive trigger fingers, from all the bolts that fired as where she had been, but one shattered a glass case on a crate above her. She got showered in the driest, most finely powdered dirt she had ever seen, with some getting in her eyes and lungs.

“Careful with the samples, your brutes!” She heard a woman’s voice say as she tried to wipe the dirt from her eyes and spit up what she swallowed. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get approval for these expeditions? Break another one, and you’ll be sent out to replace them!”

With her vision compromised and off balance from all the coughing, Lylia dropped the potion she had risked so much to steal, and before she could grab it, a crossbow bolt pierced her shoulder, knocking her over. Cursing her luck, she fled, taking the bolt with her instead of the medicine that she so desperately tried to get.

Either her pursuers found the potion she dropped, or outside of their encampment, they became completely incompetent, but either way, Lylia was able to shake them off once she got out of their territory. Nursing a bleeding arm, she returned to her friends, getting an earful from Joan and Adam, the two oldest among them, and having Kerri and Vanessa cry over her injury.

They didn’t have to shoot me. I’m just a kid for Lini’s sake! She thought, staring up at the slanted roof of their shelter as Vanessa clung to her side. The throbbing of her shoulder hadn’t subsided, and whatever the dirt that she was covered in was made her lungs sting and stomach queasy.

*****

The next day, Lylia awoke to no pain but a lot of worried whispering. Joan, Kerri, Adam, Orwyn, and Tallor were all trying to wake Vanessa up, but their tones were so fearful and dire.

Cracking an eye open and looking around cautiously, they all went quiet as she sat up. “Huh? What’s the matter, everyone? You sound like there’s a–”

“D-Demon! L-Let go of Vanessa!” Joan interrupted, grabbing the chipped, bent knife they used to prepare food with.

“Demon?! Where?” Panicking, hearing that Vanessa was being held hostage by a filthy Corrupted, Lylia turned to face the threat everyone else was looking at, but she only saw the cracked wall behind her. Then, strands of jet black hair dangled over her eyes, and she froze. “W-What’s–?”

“Lyli?” The small voice of the bluette at her side drew her attention, and Lylia looked down to see Vanessa clinging to her body, but her body wasn’t the body she remembered.

The torn shreds of her clothes wrapped tightly around her now much larger body, pinching her light purple, plumper skin. The hands that instinctively cradled the younger girl’s hand had long, dark, razor-sharp claws extending from each finger, and both her head and chest felt heavier. Three extra limbs awkwardly extended out of her lower back, unable to be at rest properly due to the cramped sleeping arrangements.

As soon as the fear entered Vanessa’s eyes upon seeing her, Lylia released her and jumped back, looking her body over, trembling. “N-No… No, no, no. This can’t… I’m not…” The wings and tail that had sprouted from her back knocked things off shelves and makeshift furniture over as the others pulled Vanessa into a protective huddle. Looking at her clawed hands more closely, the now ebony-haired demoness noticed a few drops of blood and snapped her head to her friends.

Kerri was clutching her right forearm, and blood was staining the sleeve of her ragged, heavily patched shirt. The fear in her eyes was shared by everyone.

“I… No, please… D-Don’t look at me like that. I won’t hurt you.” She pleaded to the only people who cared for her to not reject her, she instinctively accessed the new “Magic” category that she didn’t possess when she went to sleep, and activated her “Charm” spell.

To the six young children, the red irises swirling in pools of black as dark as pitch flashed a soothing, endearing pink, and their hostility and fear towards her disappeared completely. Joan dropped the knife she was threatening her with, Kerri released her wounded arm, and they all reached out toward her.

“Lyli~” “Lylia~” “Lylia~” “Lyli~” “Lyli~” “Lylia~”

Whether she registered what she had done or not, seeing her friends recognize and accept her, despite becoming what she was, Lylia knelt and held out her arms. “That’s right. I’m still me. I’m not like other Corrupted. I’m still me.” She assured them, pulling them all into her embrace, not concerning herself with her lack of proper attire.

*****

Lylia: Age 9

Adjusting to life as a lesser demon had its difficulties, but as an orphaned girl who was invisible to the people of Twilight’s Glory, except for when she caused trouble, it was also surprisingly easy. She had to stay inside during the day, only venturing out at night when all the most responsible and reputable people had gone to sleep. The others were more than happy to run errands for her and had become a lot more clingy, but she didn’t mind.

Her more adult body had given her more mature thoughts and desires. Caring for and cuddling with her orphan friends satisfied her maternal instincts, but she had other urges that she couldn’t bring herself to get the others to fulfill.

Instead, she took to using her new ability, body, and knowledge to entice drunks to give themselves to her. She felt no guilt in making them give money, gifts, and, when the curiosity was too much to resist, their very lives to her. They owed it to her and her friends. She gave the money to Joan and Adam so they could buy better food, clothes, and medicine for the younger one. She shared what gifts she could with them, though she kept the alcohol for herself. And she never once felt some sort of compulsion to feed on her victims.

One of her traits claimed it would make her stronger, and she needed to be stronger to protect the others. The first time was messy, but thanks to her Charm spell, he gladly isolated himself so she could take her time. She got better, cleaner, quicker, without a hint of remorse. They all saw her and her friends as less than human, so she saw no problem in seeing them as a delicacy to indulge in, carefully. Being too greedy too quickly drew unwanted attention.

As she and her friends got older, their affection for her grew too obsessive fanaticism. She still stopped them from touching her like the adults did, but she loved them all the same.

Life had only gotten better since she had become Corrupted. For her and her little family.

*****

Lylia: Age 10

But all good things must come to an end. For the menace of Twilight’s Glory, the lesser demon ‘Lilith’, the end of her happiness came in the form of fire, righteous fury, and divine cleansing.

How it got discovered that she was hiding among some orphans, whom she made sure nobody would bother, was beyond her. Whether she indulged a bit too frequently and someone noticed the disappearances, or she had gotten careless going home, didn’t matter when their home was in flames.

The punitive force sent to eliminate her didn’t care that children also lived in the shed. They simply sent fire to it and shot down whoever tried to flee. They didn’t even check to see if she was there. By the time she returned home, the embers were just sputtering out, and the Inquisitors were checking the bodies.

Despite echewing violence, Lilith’s rage and grief made up for any lack of experience that should have put her at a disadvantage. She was a well-fed lesser demon, after all, and having allies turn on their own to assist her helped immensely. But with her family gone, Lilith’s rage didn’t stop just with the Inquisitors, Crusaders, or Wardens sent to slay her. She terrorized Twilight’s Glory for a full month before the Saintess Audrey was sent to put her down.

It wasn’t even a fight. With her Divine Artifacts, Audrey handedly defeated her. Knowing that she couldn’t escape, Lilith fled back to the burnt remains of her home and collapsed on the graves of her friends, waiting for death to reunite them.

However, in seeing the glimpse of Lylia’s humanity shining through Lilith’s demand for death, Audrey chose a different, and far more difficult punishment for her crime. The members of the church who accompanied the elderly woman were against it, saying that all Corrupted needed to be slain for their heinous actions and turning from the Pure and righteous path.

“Death is not what is needed in this case. What she needs is a chance.” The wizened, wrinkled woman said in reply to the criticisms, pointing the staff that would one day be Lylia’s at the lavender-skinned lesser demon. “But perhaps there is a passage this old mind of mine is forgetting that states it is a crime to become Corrupted?” She asked, winking at the thoroughly confused Lilith.

“U-Um… well… That is to say…” A young acolyte stumbled over his words, unable to refute the long-serving Saintess. “No… There is no such passage that I am aware of…” He said, finally, defeated.

With a playful giggle, Audrey nodded sagely. “I thought not. Now then, young lady. I must apologize, but you must continue to live for a while longer yet.” She said, returning her full attention to Lilith.

“Why bother?! Just kill me now and be done with it!” Lilith spat back, tears streaming down her face as the death she so wanted was being denied to her. “I killed people! Ate people! Not because I had to. Not because I was compelled to. Because I wanted to. Becoming a Corrupted didn’t make me hate all of you! I hated this wretched world long before I became like this!”

“Goddess Lini, our Lady of Light, please lend but a sliver of your light to banishing this darkness. Purify (Advanced).” Ignoring the tearful, aggressive plea for death, Audrey chanted and rapidly cast her spell in succession. “Purify (Advanced). Purify (Advanced). Purify (Advanced).”

Each casting by itself wasn’t enough to do more than deplete her Dark Magic Corruption value by a set amount, but Lilith had already been subjected to a couple such spells during their earlier encounters. So, once her Dark Magic Corruption had reached zero, subsequent castings dropped the value into the negatives.

“No! Stop it! Stop it and kill me already!” There was no pain, but Lilith continued to scream in protest as the Corruption was slowly stripped from every fiber of her being. “Just let me die!”

“Purify (Advanced). Purify (Advanced). Purify (Advanced).” But the aged Saintess ignored her and continued to purify her body until the seductive demoness was no more, and a simple, tearful, young girl sat in the dirt in her place.

Lylia glared at Audrey, a double crescent mark appearing on her forehead above her right eye. Proof of her crimes and former Corruption. “Why wouldn’t you just kill me?”

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Audrey knelt in the dirt with her and embraced the trembling, solitary child. “My dear, you are much too young to be speaking of death or long-held hatred.” She said gently, in a warm, cracking voice. “Who, if not you, will remember them, should you die?” She added, motioning to the unmarked graves.

Lylia turned to look at where she had laid her friend, the family that accepted her when her first one abandoned her. She couldn’t say anything to refute the kindly old woman. She couldn’t denounce her. She couldn’t thank her. All she could do was cry all the tears her rage had held back.

*****

“After that, Audrey brought me back with her, and I entered the church to repay her for saving me,” Lylia said, finishing the tale of her past. “The story of the Saintess Audrey rescuing and redeeming a poor, Corrupted orphan girl was celebrated when she was still alive. The people said it proved just how kind and merciful she was. Since she named me her successor, however, that I was once a Corrupted was well known, and most people couldn’t accept an ‘Impure’ or ‘marked’ woman like myself as the Saintess.” Brushing her bangs aside once more to reveal her mark, she chuckled a dry, self-depricating laugh. “But they were right. I am unfit to be the Saintess.”

“You think?” Geist asked, taking in every word she said, only momentarily being distracted as he checked Inessa’s condition.

Inessa the Champion [Advanced] | Race: Human | Level: 10
Hit Points: 32/274 | Mana: 0/46↓ | Stamina: 0/70↓
Status: Burned, Unconscious

From her story, he knew that if he encouraged it with a Defile, he could Corrupt Inessa, and the transformation into a lesser demon would heal her like it did Lylia. But it was still something that would, quite literally, change her life forever.

“During my time with Audrey, she used to say, ‘You do not have to love the people, especially if they have failed you, or brought you into the world against your will, Lylia. But this world, the world that allows you to live and continue living, the world that allowed you to share a part of your life with your friends, and with me, this world, you should love.’” She said, quoting the late, wise woman in a voice that Geist couldn’t tell was an accurate imitation or not. “And I was able to love this world. But, especially with recent events,” she paused and, though her body fought against her instinctively, she started him directly in the flickering motes of light that served as his eyes, hers shining with divine light and utter, profound contempt, “I hate the people of this world with every fiber of my being and every shred of my soul. And that has nothing to do with being Corrupted.”

Even for a being of darkness and supposed ‘evil’, the malice he saw in her sent a shiver down Geist’s shadowy spine. “I see.” Looking back at the still slowly dying brunette, it wasn’t as if they had many other options to save her. “But is turning her into a demon the only way to save her?”

“If we had access to revival magic, we could just let her die and bring her back to life, but the Champions of the past had to trade revival magic for the Divine Artifacts…” She confirmed, looking at her friend. “Though, even then, I do not like the idea of Essa dying.”

“Actually, it was the Champion-Summoning Ritual that the Pure traded revival magic for.” Geist corrected, standing up and stretching. He had his answer for how becoming a demon would affect Inessa’s personality, and from Lylia’s story, he learned she could be turned back, not that he could un-Defile her himself.

“Wait, what did you just–”

“Sorry, hold that thought. Saving your friend now.” Committing and preparing for whatever comes from his choice, Geist laid a gauntleted hand on Inessa's head and cast the Legendary-rank Corruption spell, Defile.