The Broken Halo

Simon dragged air into his lungs in harsh, uneven breaths.

His arms shook. Sweat ran from his chin, and the giant around him trembled until its sword began losing its shape.

He could not hold it any longer.

The silver cross dimmed as his third eye closed. The manifestation’s fingers broke into black motes. Its wings followed, then its shoulders and chest, leaving Simon falling through the light that had supported him.

He summoned wind beneath his body.

It slowed him enough to land on one knee rather than his face. However, the impact still jarred his wounds, and he remained crouched, panting over the Chaos Blade.

Above him, the severed eyes were coming apart.

Violet fragments loosened along the edges of his cut. The divided faces below them faded, their open mouths losing their outlines.

But Simon did not lower his guard.

He gathered demonic energy cautiously, regulated the power surging through his damaged pathways, and kept UnholyRegeneration working. Pride held the other seeds together while he watched for any sign of the eyes restoring themselves.

He sincerely hoped they would not.

He had nothing left for another exchange like that.

The divided pupils remained upon him, their earlier surprise lingering beside a curiosity he found increasingly unpleasant.

’Is it finally-’

”BLACKMOON! WATCH OUT!”

Lilith appeared beside him and seized his right arm.

She dragged him sideways.

Simon stumbled, startled as much by her grip as the movement. She had never intervened directly against an attack during his tribulations.

Why now?

He had sensed nothing.

However, a white line suddenly crossed his vision.

SLASH!

His left shoulder opened.

The cut travelled down his chest, stopping over his heart as blood spilled across his stomach.

Simon stared with wide eyes.

There had been no approaching pressure. No warning from his instincts.

The line vanished before he could raise his sword.

He looked down at the exposed flesh, then at Lilith’s hand still gripping his arm.

Her pull had turned what should have pierced his chest into an oblique cut. One rib showed through the wound, but the attack had missed what lay beneath it.

His heart was still beating.

But without her, it would not have been.

Simon looked up sharply.

The eyes were dissolving faster now.

Even like this, The One had found a way to almost kill him.

And Simon had not noticed until his blood was spilling.

Then a voice entered the world.

”Interesting.”

The word was faint and distorted, its edges stretched beyond recognition by an unfathomable distance. Simon felt its meaning inside his chest before he properly heard it.

It was barely an echo of a voice.

Yet the thunder of falling mountains seemed to recede beneath it.

The last violet fragments vanished.

The attention pressing upon the realm disappeared with them.

Simon continued staring upward.

Beside him, Lilith’s grip loosened.

”He spoke...”

She sounded almost as stunned as Simon felt.

For a moment, neither said anything. Then Lilith looked back at him.

”Any longer, and you would not have survived. More of his power would have kept descending.”

Simon barely nodded. His gaze moved across the empty sky, searching for another white line.

Lilith noticed.

”He is gone, Blackmoon. Completely. You do not need to watch for another attack from him now.”

”You’re certain?”

”Yes.”

But Simon waited several more breaths before looking down.

Blood was still running from his shoulder.

The wound was ugly, though less extensive than injuries he had already healed. It had not penetrated his chest cavity.

And yet Devour, Gluttony, and UnholyRegeneration were struggling with it.

A faint whiteness clung to the exposed tissue. Each fragment he removed yielded reluctantly, and flesh trying to close over what remained simply failed to join.

Lilith followed his gaze.

”That was similar to the speck of white light you destroyed. But it carried only a fraction of its power.”

Simon frowned more deeply.

”This is a fraction?”

”The speck was far more dangerous.”

”What was it?”

”The Light of Annihilation.”

Her expression remained solemn.

”It does not merely destroy flesh or energy. It can annihilate laws and concepts. Had that speck reached your body, you would have been erased from existence.”

Simon stopped breathing for a moment.

He remembered the tiny white point beside his enormous slash.

Something so small.

He looked toward the sky again, but there was nothing left to look at.

After a while, he asked, ”Is it safe for you to tell me that?”

Lilith raised a brow.

”You used to say I couldn’t bear the weight of certain knowledge. That I was too weak.”

”You were.”

”And now?”

”Now you are a True Daemon with two powerful bloodlines. You possess four seeds of sin, and you are a Greater Demon rather than an Archfiend.”

She glanced at his bleeding chest.

”You can bear far more than before. That does not mean you can bear everything.”

”So I can finally ask questions without nearly exploding.”

”Some questions.”

Simon released a long, exhausted sigh.

”I’ll take that.”

He lowered himself onto the ground with a grunt, bracing his sword beside him.

Then he restrained the seeds’ output.

They remained aligned beneath Pride, but he stopped demanding more power than his body could sustain. Crimson lightning dwindled across his shoulders. Black flames guttered out, and the violence in his aura gradually receded.

His expression eased with it.

However, he kept Gluttony assisting Devour. The whiteness in his wound had not disappeared.

”I’m fucking exhausted.”

Lilith looked at him with raised brows.

”What a surprising development.”

Simon would have laughed if breathing had not hurt.

Instead, he surveyed the devastation.

There was no basin left to recognise. Mountains had been split or flattened, and black fissures interrupted the broken land. Farther away, dust rose in walls tall enough to hide the horizon.

Above them, ragged clouds drifted around wounds in the sky.

It looked less like a battlefield than the aftermath of the world being torn open.

Simon watched a distant slope collapse.

Then he turned toward Lilith.

”I haven’t thanked you.”

”For what?”

He glanced at her hand, then at the cut above his heart.

”For that. You saved me.”

His voice lost its usual mockery.

”Thank you.”

Lilith seemed briefly taken aback. Her gaze moved from his face to the wound before she looked away.

”Don’t mention it.”

Silence settled between them, broken by distant rumbling and Simon’s uneven breaths.

After a while, Lilith asked, ”What do you intend to do now?”

Simon adjusted his position carefully. His chest pulled painfully as he rested his forearms on his thighs.

He closed his hands into fists and examined them.

”I have questions. About The One. Daemons. The seeds. And I need to understand this body before I nearly kill myself using it again.”

”That makes sense. I expected that.”

”But first, I need to heal. Especially this.”

He glanced at his left shoulder.

”And then I need to pay a certain god a visit.”

Lilith folded her arms.

”Already?”

”As soon as I can.”

Her brows rose slightly.

”That puffed-up fool calling himself the God of War is still dangerous to you. Improving does not mean you can ignore the difference. Especially while you are bleeding and can barely sit upright.”

”I know.”

”Then stop rushing toward him.”

”I’m healing first.”

Simon flexed his fingers again.

”But I owe him for what he did. And I want to find out what I can gain from devouring his Chosen’s corpse.”

Lilith’s eyes narrowed.

”Along with the portion of his soul inside it,” Simon added.

She slowly shook her head.

”You were greedy and reckless before. Now you have given the greed a seed of its own.”

Simon chuckled, then winced.

”That sounds like progress.”

”It sounds like more trouble.”

”Usually the same thing.”

He closed his eyes before she could answer, settled his breathing, and directed his attention toward the stubborn white power inside his wound.