Chapter 3

Cecilia's POV

Watching him raise that sword just makes me sneer harder.

"You want to fight me?"

Six massive wings explode from my back. Half-Supreme God pressure crashes down like a storm.

The attendants behind Arthur drop to their knees immediately, coughing up blood.

Arthur grunts, his sword hand shaking.

"You... your aura..."

"Come take it then."

I flick my wrist.

A blast of sacred energy slams into Arthur's chest.

The so-called God-King flies backward like trash, crashing hard into the wasteland outside my barrier.

He drags himself up, spitting golden divine blood, eyes wide with shock and terror.

"Get off my land."

I turn and walk back into the barrier.

It seals behind me, shutting out his fury completely.

After I beat the crap out of Arthur, he slinks back to the Core Divine Territory with his tail between his legs.

I figure he'll lie low for a while. Wrong. He goes completely insane for Lilith.

A few days later, my intelligence officer brings me a string of reports that would be funny if they weren't so pathetic.

"Lady Cecilia, the God-King has ordered a full blockade on all external trade routes to the Radiant Sanctuary. He's also cut off our access to the stellar ore veins."

The officer kneels, barely hiding his anger.

I sit on my throne, filing my nails.

"Let him. We've got enough resources in here to last a thousand years. The only ones starving will be the smaller clans who rely on our sacred herbs."

Sure enough.

Arthur's sanctions don't hurt me at all. They just piss off everyone else in the realm.

But Arthur's death spiral is just getting started.

Since he can't get my blood, Lilith's "condition" apparently gets worse.

To keep her alive, Arthur starts ransacking every clan for rare resources. Today he's seizing the Fountain of Life from the elves. Tomorrow he's stealing the Heart of the Earth from the dwarves. Day after that he's forcing the sea gods to hand over their Calming Pearl. Anyone who refuses gets labeled a traitor and crushed by his troops.

Within a month, he turns the realm into a complete disaster.

The once-mighty God-King is now just a tyrant blinded by some woman.

"Lady Cecilia, the Elven King sent a secret message yesterday."

The officer hands me a scroll.

"He says if you'll lead an uprising against Arthur, the entire elven clan will back you."

I take the scroll without even looking at it and burn it with holy fire.

"Tell the Elven King I'm not interested in ruling anything. If Arthur wants to destroy himself, let him. We'll just sit back and watch."

After living through this once before, I know exactly what Lilith really is.

She's not some healing saint with a damaged soul. She's a full-blown demon from the Abyss.

Her so-called injuries are just her demonic energy clashing with the realm's laws.

The more divine treasures Arthur feeds her, the faster her demonic power recovers.

When she's fully restored, Arthur's dead.

Why would I get my hands dirty now?

A commotion erupts outside the hall.

"Lady Cecilia! Commander Julian from the Stellar Knights requests an audience!"

Julian?

In my past life, when Arthur had me imprisoned and tortured, everyone in the realm avoided me.

Everyone except Julian. The normally silent war god charged the Punishment Pillar alone, trying to save me.

Arthur and a dozen generals surrounded him. He died right in front of me.

The look in his eyes before he died, full of pain and longing.

That's when I realized this man had been silently in love with me all along.

"Let him in."

A man in silver stellar armor walks into the hall. Sharp features, blue eyes that look like they contain entire galaxies.

"Cecilia."

Julian approaches and gives a slight bow.

"Julian, shouldn't you be protecting your God-King? What are you doing out here?"

He looks me straight in the eye.

"I'm not here to protect him. I'm here to protect you."

His directness catches me off guard.

"Arthur's lost it. He's planning to activate a forbidden formation to drain the realm's origin core, all to keep Lilith alive. Once that starts, this whole realm's finished. I tried to stop him. He stripped my command instead."

Julian holds my gaze.

"Cecilia, things are about to change. I came to tell you that no matter what happens, I'm on your side."