Demon Queened - Chapter 76 (Rough Draft)

Devilla

“Is it just me, or are you flying faster than you did last time?” Lucy asked, twisting about a little in my arms as she sought a better view of the ground. “Everything’s just a blur down there!”

“Would you prefer me to slow down?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “Because I can - but I do believe we’re already short on time.”

“I wouldn’t say we’re short on it, exactly,” Lucy replied. “There might be some awkward questions if anyone finds out I was at Gour just a bit ago, though…”

“And we don’t know for sure that all the birds and letters were secured before word of me got out,” I reminded her. “There will most certainly be awkward questions if anyone manages to put two and two together and realizes your companion is the one who fell the dragon.”

“I don’t think feeding her good food counts as felling her,” Lucy remarked.

“It’s not like I didn’t fight her first,” I pointed out. “And the fact remains - we’ve already spent half the day dealing with the slime girls, and we woke up late besides. By the time we arrive it’ll be nightfall, meaning that it’ll likely be tomorrow before you can ask your questions. I hardly dare think about what would happen if they somehow figured me out before you had the chance…”

“You just offered to slow down, though!” Lucy pointed out.

I shrugged. “Fulfilling your whims is worth the risk - at least to me. I imagine getting answers is a bit more important than viewing the scenery to you, however.”

“A little!” Lucy confirmed. “Besides, we can always look at the view later, right? We’ll have all the time in the world after we save it!”

“Yes…” I murmured. Yet even as I said it, Doll’s earlier warnings flashed through my mind - I was immortal. I had all the time in the world and then some, If Doll was to believed. Yet Lucy… Lucy was only mortal…

“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked, frowning.

“It’s…” Nothing, I almost said. Yet I knew Lucy would disapprove, and so I let out a sigh. “I’m just worrying about the future. About my eternal life span, as it compares to your mortal coil…”

Lucy didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, she shifted in my arms, nuzzling closer against me. 

“I don’t really know what to say to that,” she admitted. “I mean, the whole concept of eternity is sort of beyond me, and as for old age… I never really thought I’d get that old to begin with!”

“Me either,” I confessed. “I knew my lifespan was theoretically infinite from the beginning, and yet…”

Lucy nodded. “I think we both need to think about the future a bit! I mean, maybe not right now? Since there’s so much we already need to sort through… but at the same time I don’t know if it’s a good idea to delay…”

I shook my head. “There’s only so much time in a day, Lucy. For now, we should keep our minds on task.”

“I guess, for now, it’s enough to know that whatever the future brings I want to spend it by your side!”

A faint flush touched my cheeks, even as I squeezed Lucy tighter against myself. Though no reply came from my lips, I knew none was needed - Lucy knew my heart well.

As such, rwe flew in silence for a while, traveling over forests and away from the roads so that I could focus on speed over illusions. Eventually, however, Lucy called out to stop me.

“We’re almost there! You should move over to the road - I think it’s that way?”

I followed the direction of Lucy’s finger, eventually coming across a surprisingly well maintained road. Not only was it paved, but I struggled to spot a single crack in the surface of it.

“Pilgrimage is really important to the church,” Lucy told me. “The roads get better and better the closer you are to them.”

“Then we must be close indeed,” I replied, lowering myself down to the side of the road. “I imagine we won’t be the only ones approaching the holy city by foot?”

“It’s pretty normal,” Lucy confirmed. “I think we might still get attention, though.”

“Because of our clothes?”

“Well, that too, but mostly people just know what I look like! All the churches have portraits of me, after all.”

“And I suppose there are no citizens here who would prefer to avoid church?”

“Of course not!” Lucy confirmed. “I mean, everyone past the first ring is a member of the clergy anyways.”

“The first ring?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “You know, come to think of it, I don’t know very much about place, for all that I’m invading it. What’s it called?”

“The holy city!” Lucy declared.

“...Seriously?” I asked. “I mean, I know there’s little need to differentiate when you’re one of a kind, but… Seriously? Not even a name?”

“The Goddess doesn’t have a name, either,” Lucy pointed out. “She’s just the Goddess. Just like there’s only one of ‘the Church’ and one holy city!”

“The advantages of a unified religion, I suppose… assuming it is unified? There aren’t any branches or sects I haven’t heard of, is there?”

Lucy shook her head, even as she took my hand and led me down the road. “There used to be, according to the holy book,” she told me. “But then the Goddess sent her angels down to pick the church that best represented her, and taught them everything they needed to truly spread her message across the world. She even put the first Heroine under their care, and gave them a special tool to help them find new Heroines when they’re born…”

“A tool?” I asked, catching onto one detail that interested in me amidst the religious drivel. “I thought they struggled to find you, though? They only appeared when you were thirteen, after all.”

Lucy nodded. “Nobody really wants to say it, but I think the tool stopped working for a bit. Maybe the Goddess interfered?”

“Or your namesake did,” I argued. “Though for what reason, I couldn’t say in either case…”

“Well, I’m glad, either way!” Lucy declared. “Because it meant I got to grow up with Mom, and become the person I am today!”

“The person I fell in love with,” I replied, with a soft smile. “So I suppose I don’t have much room to complain. It still feels suspicious to me, but… without even knowing how the tool functions, all I can do is speculate.”

“Well, get your speculations out now!” Lucy warned me. “Once we enter the first ring, you’ll find that people get pretty testy when any aspect of the church is questioned…”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Not exactly,” Lucy denied. “Mostly people just get flustered if I question things in front of them. I think they think I’m testing them… I did have to stop someone from getting mobbed, once, though!”

“You’re really selling the place to me,” I remarked, dryly.

“Yeah… it makes me really glad I refused to come here, back when I was thirteen!”

“I did wonder why you were raised in Ife, and not here… They simply let you refuse?”

“Not at first,” Lucy admitted. “They didn’t want to force me, but they didn’t want to let me, so it was sort of a weird stalemate for a bit. But then the Grand Patriarch himself stepped in, and said that if I wanted to live close to my mother’s grave I could!”

“I… see…” I replied, not entirely sure how to respond. “Well, that’s one good mark in his favor, I suppose, for respecting your wishes like that.”

Lucy nodded. “He usually comes off like a really nice grandpa! Or at least what I imagine a really nice grandpa would be like? Either way, I really want to believe that he doesn’t know all the bad stuff going on, but… being in charge, there’s no way he doesn’t know at least some of it… I don’t think he’s a figurehead or anything, either… But I’m sure his faith in the Goddess is real, at least! And most of the really bad stuff predates him, I think, so it’s possible he doesn’t know any better, or even tried to change things but couldn’t!”

“You really do believe the best of everyone you meet, don’t you?” I asked, an amused chuckle coming from my lips.

To my surprise, however, Lucy shook her head. “No… I’m not sure I really believe any of that. Not deep down. It’s just that I want to give him the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong! Even if it means putting aside my own judgement for a bit. I mean, how can I make a decision about him when he hasn’t even had a chance to give us his side of the story?”

“So you’re just being… what? Optimistic?”

“Pretty much!” Lucy confirmed. “I want to go into this assuming the best, even as I prepare my heart for the worst! That way, even if things go wrong, I won’t have any regrets. Not compared to if I just judged him immediately and turned out to be wrong, anyways…”

“I can’t say I entirely agree,” I confessed, shaking my own head. “There are people in this world that will hurt you, if given the chance.”

“I’m really hard to hurt, though!” Lucy pointed out. “Physically, at least. That’s part of why I try so hard, in the first place - because I know that even if I’m wrong, it’ll only hurt my heart and soul! Physically, I’ll still be able to do what I need to.”

“But you’d still be hurt,” I pointed out.

“My heart would hurt at least as much if it turned out I judged someone prematurely! At least I’m prepared to be hurt, if things go bad - and I know I can come back from it! Someone else might not be so lucky, emotionally or physically.”

“And so you sacrifice yourself for others?” I asked.

“It’s for me, as well! So that I won’t have to live with any regrets… Besides, you can’t talk about hurting yourself for the sake of others, Eena! We both know you’d throw yourself in the line of fire immediately if it meant helping someone!”

“Only if I had a responsibility to them!” I protested.

“So, if a stranger was about to die in front of you, you wouldn’t do anything?” 

“Well… I suppose if they were right in front of me… but one could argue that I have an obligation to do so, what with the fact that any help they might need is likely easily within my powers.” From healing to defending, there was little I couldn’t manage when it came to saving a life. Honestly, the act would be so trivial that I’d feel bad not doing it. So it was ultimately driven by a selfish desire not to feel guilt, when you came down to it.

“You’re trying to find some way to call yourself a bad person, aren’t you?” Lucy accused me, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t think you have a responsibility to help someone just because you can, either! It’s not like you asked to be born with all that power, after all.”

“What about you?” I countered. “Are you not held responsible due to the power you were given?”

“Yeah, but I want to help! I always thought the Goddess chose me because of that… but even if that’s not true, I know that I still want to do good in this world! Not because I have to, or because nobody else can, but because I want to see the world become a better place!”

“You’re too good for your own good, Lucy,” I sighed.

“So are you! You just always find a way to twist things around in a way that doesn’t make you seem like a good person, somehow…”

“That’s because I’m not a good person. I’m just… strong, and immortal, and given to guilt.”

“Nope!” Lucy denied. “I’m not accepting it! From now on, I’m going to tell you what a good person I think you are to your face, no matter how hard you deny it!”

“...So business as usual, then?”

“Pretty much,” Lucy confirmed, wrapping her arms around my neck and giving me a kiss. “...You should probably put me down before we reach the city, though, or we’re going to draw a lot of extra attention.”

“I almost think it’s worth it,” I confessed, before gently lowering Lucy to the ground. “Come on. Let’s go check out this holy city of yours.”

Author's Notes:

I wanted to work on the festival side stories, but I have writer's block/a lack of inspiration for them at the moment, so... I guess for now we're just continuing the plot.

Not that we made much progress - short chapter is short, and I'm sorry for it. This is the best I can manage at the moment, though, with depression weighing me down, so... Here's hoping you enjoy it.