The Crimson Lilim Appears

They left Kagura-no-Sato at dawn, when the morning mist still clung to the ground and made the ruined village look like something from a dream. Or a nightmare.The journey to the monastery would take three days through mountain paths that saw little traffic—which was good, considering Ayame could barely walk for more than an hour before exhaustion forced them to stop. The priest had fashioned the litter as promised, but she hated using it, insisting she could manage on her own despite clear evidence to the contrary."Stubborn," Shinjiro muttered as they made their fourth stop of the morning. "Four hundred years as a demon queen and she still can't accept help.""I can hear you," Ayame said from where she sat against a tree, breathing hard. Her human body was still adjusting to its mortality, relearning limitations that the demon essence had let her ignore for centuries."Good. Maybe you'll listen."They were following an old pilgrim's path that wound through dense forest. The trees here were ancient, their trunks thick as buildings, their branches forming a canopy that blocked out most of the sunlight. It should have felt peaceful.Instead, Haruto couldn't shake the feeling they were being followed.He'd felt it since they left the village—a presence just out of sight, matching their pace, watching from the shadows between trees. The demon essence inside him pulsed uneasily, responding to something it recognized."Do you feel that?" he asked Shinjiro quietly.The ronin nodded, his hand resting on his sword hilt. "Since about an hour ago. Something's tracking us.""Demons?""Maybe. Or bandits. Or just animals curious about travelers." But Shinjiro's tone suggested he didn't believe the last option.The priest joined them, his old face creased with worry. "The forest is wrong. Too quiet. No birds, no insects. Even the wind seems reluctant to move through here.""Could be residual corruption from the seal's breaking," Ayame offered weakly. "When the prison shattered, it released four hundred years of accumulated demonic energy. Most of it dissipated harmlessly, but some might have seeped into the surrounding area. Twisted things.""Twisted them how?"Before she could answer, something moved in the trees ahead.A figure stepped onto the path—a woman, beautiful and terrible, with skin like porcelain and eyes that burned like embers. She wore robes of crimson silk that seemed to move of their own accord, and her long black hair floated around her as if she were underwater. But it was her smile that made Haruto's blood run cold—too wide, too knowing, promising pleasures and torments in equal measure."Travelers," she said, her voice like honey and poison mixed together. "How delightful. I haven't had visitors in so very long."Shinjiro's sword was out in an instant. "Crimson Lilim. I've heard of your kind but never seen one.""Oh, you know of us?" The woman—the Lilim—clapped her hands in delight. "How flattering. Though I must correct you—I'm not just any Lilim. I'm the first. The original. Born from the demon queen's essence when she was first sealed four hundred years ago." Her ember eyes fixed on Ayame. "Born from you, mother. Don't you remember me?"Ayame's face went pale. "I... I created demons?""Not intentionally. But when they trapped you, when they locked away all that power and rage and hunger, it had to go somewhere. So it leaked out, drop by drop, and formed us." The Lilim gestured, and more figures emerged from the forest—other demons, each one beautiful and horrifying in their own way. "We are the Crimson Lilim. Your children. Your legacy. And we've been waiting so patiently for you to return.""Return?" the priest demanded. "The demon queen is separated from Ayame. The seal is broken. There's nothing to return to.""Isn't there?" The Lilim moved closer, her steps making no sound on the forest path. "Mother may have shed her demon essence, but that essence still exists. Divided among three vessels, yes, but not destroyed. Not gone. Just... sleeping." She looked at Haruto, Shinjiro, and the priest in turn. "And we would very much like to wake it up.""Not happening," Haruto said, raising the guardian's sword. The blade ignited with blue fire, though it was dimmer than before. The purification ritual and the fight with the Bone Lantern Oni had drained much of its power."Oh, but it is." The Lilim's smile widened impossibly. "You see, we are fragments of the demon queen's essence. And essence calls to essence. Even separated, even diminished, mother's power recognizes her children. And we recognize her power inside you."The demon essence in Haruto's chest pulsed violently, responding to the Lilim's words. He gasped as a wave of hunger washed through him—not his hunger, but the demon's, recognizing something familiar, something it wanted to reunite with.Beside him, Shinjiro and the priest were experiencing the same thing. The ronin's scar blazed like a brand, and the priest had fallen to his knees, clutching his chest."Stop this!" Ayame tried to stand, but her legs wouldn't support her. "They're not yours to claim! I released them, I—""You released us too, mother. When you destroyed the seal, you didn't just free the trapped souls. You freed us." The Lilim gestured, and Haruto saw them now—dozens of demons emerging from the forest, all bearing that same crimson coloring, all wearing that same terrible smile. "We were bound to the seal's structure, unable to fully manifest. But now? Now we can walk freely. Can gather our strength. Can reclaim what was taken from us.""The demon essence," Haruto realized, fighting against the pull he felt toward these creatures. "You want to absorb it. Reunite the fragments.""Not absorb. Become. You see, we are incomplete—fragments without a whole, children without a mother. But if we can reunite the three pieces of the demon queen's essence, if we can merge them back together, then we become complete. We become her. The demon queen reborn, no longer trapped in a single vessel but spread among many.""An army of demon queens," Shinjiro said through gritted teeth. "That's what you want. Not one demon but dozens, all carrying her power.""Clever ronin. Yes. Imagine it—not a single demon queen who can be sealed or separated, but a collective. A swarm. Impossible to contain because we are everywhere and nowhere. Impossible to destroy because killing one just makes the others stronger." The Lilim's eyes glowed brighter. "Mother's original mistake was consolidating her power in a single form. We won't repeat that error."The demons were circling now, forming a ring around them. Haruto tried to count but couldn't—they seemed to shift and multiply, their forms overlapping, making it impossible to tell where one ended and another began."Ayame," the priest gasped, still on his knees. "Can you... can you stop them? They're your essence, your—""I'm human now," Ayame said, her voice breaking. "I have no power over them. No connection. Whatever they were born from is gone from me.""Not gone, mother. Just sleeping. Waiting." The Lilim was directly in front of Haruto now, close enough that he could feel the heat radiating from her ember eyes. "Let us in. Stop fighting. Let the essence recognize its children and come home."The pull was stronger now, almost irresistible. The demon essence inside Haruto was straining against the containment, desperate to answer the Lilim's call. He could feel it worming through the barriers he'd erected, testing his willpower, searching for cracks.And it was finding them."Haruto," Shinjiro's voice was strained. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast. I can't... I can't hold this much longer."But what could he do? The guardian's sword was meant to cut demons, but these weren't solid creatures. They were made of the same essence he carried inside himself. Attacking them might just as easily damage his own containment.Think. There had to be something. Some weakness, some flaw in their plan.The Lilim had said essence calls to essence. That they were incomplete without the demon queen's power. Which meant they needed what the three men carried—couldn't just take it by force, or they would have already.They needed permission.Needed the vessels to willingly release the demon essence."You can't force it out of us," Haruto said, understanding flooding through him despite the pain. "That's why you're trying to coerce us, to make the essence come willingly. Because if it's taken by force, it won't integrate with you. Won't make you complete."The Lilim's smile faltered for just a moment. "Clever guardian. Yes. The essence must be given freely, or it remains bound to its vessel even in death. A failsafe built into the original seal—to prevent demons from simply killing the guardians and taking the power.""Then we refuse." Haruto planted the guardian's sword in the ground between himself and the Lilim. "We refuse to give you anything. The essence stays with us.""For how long?" The Lilim's voice turned cold. "How long can you three fight against the very nature of what you carry? The demon essence wants to be whole again. Wants to reunite with its children. You can resist for a day, perhaps a week, but eventually, your will break. Your containment will crack. And when it does—""When it does, we'll find another solution," Shinjiro said, forcing himself to stand despite the agony clearly visible on his face. "But we won't give you what you want. Not willingly. Not ever."The Crimson Lilim studied them for a long moment. Then she laughed—a sound like breaking glass and dying screams. "Very well. If you won't give it willingly, then we'll simply make your lives unbearable until you do. We'll haunt your dreams, twist your thoughts, amplify every dark impulse until the demon essence inside you seems like mercy compared to what we'll make you feel."She gestured, and the demons closed in. Not to attack physically, but to press against them mentally—Haruto could feel their presence worming into his mind, finding his fears and insecurities and dragging them into the light.You're going to failJust like Kenji failedThe demon will consume youEveryone you care about will die because of your weaknessThe whispers multiplied, layered over each other, becoming a chorus of despair. Haruto tried to shut them out, but they were everywhere—in his thoughts, his memories, his very sense of self.Beside him, Shinjiro had dropped his sword, both hands clutching his head. The priest was muttering prayers, but they were becoming incoherent, fragmenting under the mental assault.Ayame was screaming—not from the demons' attack, but from recognition. "I remember this. This is what it was like. Four hundred years of voices, of whispers, of my own thoughts turned against me until I couldn't tell what was real anymore.""And now you'll experience it again," the Lilim said, her voice the only clear thing in the chaos. "All of you. Every moment of every day, we'll be there. Pushing. Testing. Wearing you down. Until one of you finally breaks and releases the essence. Until you beg us to take it just to make the voices stop."The demons' pressure intensified. Haruto felt something inside him beginning to crack—not the containment around the demon essence, but something more fundamental. His sense of purpose. His certainty that he'd made the right choice.What if the Lilim was right? What if carrying this burden was just delayed destruction? What if he was dooming himself and his companions to a fate worse than the seal itself?The guardian's mark flared in his chest, responding to his doubt. And for a moment, he saw—Kenji, standing in the ruins of Kagura-no-Sato, consumed by guiltThe demon queen laughing as she watched him sufferYuki's ghost, forever trapped in tormentThe cycle continuing, endless, eternal, because he wasn't strong enough to break it"No," Haruto whispered. Then, louder: "NO!"He grabbed the guardian's sword and drove it into the ground with all his strength. The blade sank deep into the earth, and blue fire exploded outward, washing over all of them.The Lilim shrieked as the flames touched them, their forms destabilizing. The mental pressure vanished instantly, the whispers cut off mid-word."Holy fire," the priest gasped in realization. "The sword carries holy fire. It can't kill them, but it can drive them back!""For now," the Lilim hissed, her beautiful face twisting into something monstrous. "But fire burns out. And we are patient. We'll follow you to your monastery, to wherever you run. We'll be in every shadow, every moment of doubt. And eventually—inevitably—one of you will break."The demons were retreating into the forest, but their ember eyes remained visible in the darkness, watching."This isn't over, mother," the Lilim called back to Ayame. "We are your children. Your legacy. You can't escape us any more than you could escape yourself."Then they were gone, melting into the shadows.The forest remained silent—too silent, as the priest had noted. Every living thing had fled from the demons' presence.Haruto pulled the sword from the ground, his hands shaking. The blade's blue fire had dimmed further, nearly extinguished. Using it as a ward had drained it severely."How much power does it have left?" Shinjiro asked."I don't know. A few more uses, maybe. Not many.""Then we need to reach the monastery quickly," the priest said. "The monks there can help us strengthen our mental defenses, teach us to resist the Lilim's influence. But if they catch us out here again—""We won't survive," Ayame finished quietly. She was staring into the forest where the demons had vanished. "I created them. Fed them with my suffering for four hundred years. They know every crack in my armor, every weakness. And they'll use that knowledge against you.""Let them try," Haruto said with more confidence than he felt. "We've beaten impossible odds before.""But at what cost?" Ayame's eyes were haunted. "How many more sacrifices before this truly ends?"No one had an answer.They gathered their supplies in silence and resumed their journey, moving faster now despite Ayame's exhaustion. The litter was no longer optional—she rode it without complaint, understanding that speed was more important than pride.As they walked, Haruto couldn't shake the feeling of ember eyes watching from the darkness between trees. The Crimson Lilim were following, just as they'd promised. Patient. Persistent. Waiting for the inevitable moment when his willpower faltered.The demon essence inside him pulsed in rhythm with his heart, and he could swear it was whispering:SoonSoonSoonThe monastery was two days away.The Lilim would be with them every step of the journey.And the real battle—the battle for their minds, their souls, their very sense of self—had only just begun.