MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin



After Adam left Elysia's office, she slumped a little in her chair and released a sigh. Having to constantly keep the facade of a saintess was not easy and sometimes she wished she could simply act as slovenly as she wished without a care.

Sadly, rest was for the dead and she had too many things she needed to take into account.

"What do you think?"

[There are many topics we need to talk about. Which one first?]

The voice of her friend and companion sounded in her mind as always and a beautiful light flashed before a small woman with angel wings appeared floating in the air.

"Let's start with him."

[He is certainly a very special human, a little too special even. But I seriously doubt that he is related to Cain.]

She shook her head, [All the creatures created by Cain are abominations and pitiful attempts to reach what was once there. But it's impossible. Humans can never get back their original divinity, even if they manage to transcend.]

"Do you think he can become an enemy?"

[Observation is necessary. But I can smell the presence of Lilith on him. I am sure he meet her during the last event.]

Lailah was adamant. She was perhaps the one who knew Lilith more than anyone else in this universe as they fought against each other so many times and shared similar authority as well as diametrically opposite authorities. [1]

"Lilith, huh…"

Elysia had a dissatisfied expression. But there was not much she could do. Lilith was actually part of the Devil King class of beings who actually never tried to invade Earth and the one who committed fewer atrocities.

Furthermore, since it was known that Bridget Bishop had signed a pact with Lilith, it was said that many witches went ahead and signed a pact as well.

One could say that while Lilith was in no way an ally, she was pretty neutral and Elysia had no intention to antagonize her.

"There has been a great increase in devil summoning in the last year."

She muttered. Not all devils summoning were calamity class obviously. But since they were very hard to kill without holy energy, once they finished the summoning they could create a great deal of massacre.

It didn't help that cultists were the only ones to summon devils [2]. There was always that one group of stupid children who fumbled on one of those 'fake' but actually very true rituals on the internet and decided that trying to summon a devil could be cool and entertaining.

Those rituals were in reality sent by cultists on the internet and disguised as fake. It was impossible for the hunter association and the church to observe all that information.

[Well, the boy will not be our problem for a while. The problem is the other much younger boy you baptized.]

"The name of the angel of Death. I was surprised when the woman received a revelation and used his name. But why would Azarael choose this kid?"

[Azrael and all gods related to Death are overly mysterious. They like to keep to themselves so I do not know. But we can be sure that something big is about to happen]

Elysia groaned once again. She was starting to wonder why she thought coming to L.A for vacation would be an interesting choice.

—

While Elysia was lamenting about her destiny, Hae-Won was driving carefully, while being a little distracted.

Lately, many weird things had been happening to her but she was feeling quite stressed now.

Her husband could become quite crazy when it came to his religion and if he learned that she had baptized their son without his permission he might get really angry.

At the same time, she did not regret her choice. She did not know why she had chosen the name Azrael at the last minute but it did not matter. It was a beautiful name and she was happy about it.

'The young man I met earlier.'

Something else was tugging at her mind. It might have been only an instant, but when she saw the young man earlier and heard his voice, her mind immediately brought her back to someone she was very intimate with.

Furthermore, while going past him, she was sure that she had smelled the same perfume as Cinder. The color of the hair, the beautiful blue eyes, and even the height all matched.

'Stop being crazy.'

It wasn't like Cinder was the only white male with black hair and blue eyes in all of America.

But his voice.

Even though the tone of the voice itself was different. The effect it had on her was unmistakable. This was something she would recognize no matter what.

She was also sure that he had shown surprise when seeing her.

'Is it really him?'

She blushed a little.

Hae-Won had imagined many times how Cinder may look at first. In fact, she had even anticipated that he might be extremely ugly or suffered from great wounds on his face.

But she did this and it did not affect her. Physical appearance was not why she fell for him after all.

But…She had to admit…He was really handsome.

'Should I tease him about this later on?'

She couldn't help but chuckle which caused her son to speak,

"Mother. You are in a very good mood."

"Hahaha. Is it that evident?"

"Mom always looks gloomy usually. Though lately, you look less gloomy."

It was cute how he would switch between childish and mature speech without paying attention. But at the same time, she was surprised at his power of observation and also ashamed that she had shown her negative emotion in front of her child.

She was a mother. Even if the sky was about to fall, she had to keep a strong facade in front of her son and make sure he had no fear.

This was all she could do as a powerless mother.

Gripping the steering wheel, Hae-Won finally made her decision,

"Say…If Mom had to leave one day and go somewhere far away. Would you like to come with me?"

"What about Dad?"

"It might be without dad."

"Hum…I don't know. I want to go with you and dad, together everywhere."

Hae-Won closed her eyes and the determination she had started to build up wavered.

During a divorce, the ones that were the most affected were without a doubt the children.

As such, "Okay. Let's try."

She would never love her husband the same way and she knew her marriage would never survive. But at the very least, she wanted to give the illusion of a happy home to her young son.

It was a stupid choice she knew. But this was all she knew.

Enduring and Enduring.

(AN: I wonder what you guys think of Hae-Won now. As a woman, a mother, and a character in my story.)

[1]: Lailah Lailah ( Meaning: "Night" in Hebrew) is an angel in some interpretations in the Talmud and in some later Jewish mythology, associated with the night, as well as conception and pregnancy.

Lilith also means night but if Lailah is the protector of pregnancy, then Lilith is the killer of babies. In some other versions, Lailah and Lilith fought in the Garden of Eden.

[2]: Okay so sometimes Devils and Demons are the same and sometimes they are separate. I think the difference mainly comes from DnD. Basically, Demons should be muscle-brain Chaotic evil monsters from the abyss while Devils are Smart and cunning Lawful Evil citizens of the 7-9 hells. I have been using the two terms to represent the same things until now, but I might use the DnD definition as Demons exist in different myths like Oni in Japanese myth and they obviously aren't related to Devils.