CHAPTER 232: UNDERSTANDING A CLEAR DIFFERENCE!

Later that day at Ravens Grave, most of the guild members had already left the main hall to focus on their own activities.

Some were outside honing their magic, others were tucked away in different rooms studying new spells.

Academy classes still hadn’t resumed, but the need to grow stronger remained, especially with the demon situation still unresolved.

There was a knock at the door to Aiden’s room.

"Come in," he said.

He was alone inside, standing by the window.

The door opened and Aeris stepped in quietly, though she left it halfway open. Aiden did not turn toward her; his eyes remained fixed on the view outside.

In truth, he was currently monitoring every action his variants and avatars were carrying out across different dimensions. All of it flowed through his mind at once.

"So... I wanted to thank you for earlier," Aeris said, looking off to the side, clearly embarrassed.

Aiden understood she meant the confrontation with the god. He turned his head slightly and gave a slight nod. "That’s alright."

Then he faced the window again, returning to his focus.

Aeris lingered a little longer, with her eyes still lowered toward the corner of the room.

Aiden eventually asked, "Is there anything else?"

"No... it’s just..." she fumbled for the words. "I keep thinking you shouldn’t have had to step in. Dealing with gods isn’t something anyone should be dragged into, and I hate that it ended up on your shoulders because of me."

Aiden let out a scoff but didn’t add anything.

Aeris nodded gently. "Still... thank you. I just didn’t want to leave it unsaid."

She turned and quietly stepped out of the room.

Not long after Aeris left, Aiden’s senses sharpened at once.

"They’re back," he muttered.

Through the eyes of his variant stationed in that dimension, he saw them appear; the nine demon lords he had been tracking, and with them, someone new.

His variant’s awareness swept over the group automatically, gauging each presence and measuring their strength.

Morrigan’s signature, along with the two white-haired lords, Asmodai and Astaroth, was immense; far beyond that of the others.

He could handle the six weaker ones without much trouble, but those three were a different matter entirely.

But the new woman...

She didn’t feel like a demon at all. If anything, her presence was unmistakably divine, and the density of power radiating from her was overwhelming.

It wasn’t just strong. It was fundamentally different, potent enough to make even the three strongest demon lords seem lesser beside her.

"Who is that?" Aiden asked, he wasn’t particularly referring to anyone, but then

Cronyssia’s voice replied in his mind, "That’s Lilith"

Then her translucent form materialized beside him with a troubled expression on her face.

Aiden glanced at her. "The one whom you mentioned was imprisoned?"

Cronyssia nodded, with concern her face. "I wonder how they managed to break her out of Adam’s confinement. It should have been impossible for them."

"Hm... so it’s possible Samael took possession of one of his demon lords again?" Aiden’s face looked worried again.

That had to be the only way that could’ve possibly happened.

Cronyssia shook her head. "I cannot say for sure that’s the case." She paused, and her expression growing more puzzled. "But even with her freed, she still wouldn’t be able to contend against any dragon, let alone three of them holding the demon realm sealed. I can’t see what their endpoint is."

Aiden said nothing for a moment, processing the information.

Lilith.

The implications of her presence among the demon lords just changed the whole situation into something far more dangerous than he’d anticipated.

"How strong is she compared to me?" he asked.

Cronyssia shook her head and said, "Right now, she’s stronger. Much Stronger. She’s an Archon God, and even among them, she stands near the top."

Aiden’s expression deepened into a frown.

He had been planning to confront the demon lords directly and eliminate them before whatever scheme they were plotting could come to fruition.

But now with Lilith in the equation, that plan needed adjustment.

"This Lilith, you know what she’s capable of, I presume?" Aiden asked.

Cronyssia hesitated before answering. "Not completely. She was imprisoned early, before her power fully unfolded. But I do know this; she and Adam created the City of Eden. Something like that, a domain where gods reside and anchor their powers, is not something ordinary divine magic could ever achieve."

With the current situation, Aiden needed more information. He needed to understand what they were capable of together.

"I cannot deny that I do want to engage them... to see for myself what they can do, even if I don’t win the battle."

There was a brief pause.

"But I’d also be exposing my current strength. And if they had any reason before to hesitate or avoid a direct confrontation, that would vanish. They could invade this place whenever they wished, and if that happened, I wouldn’t be able to stop it."

"You’ve spoken wisely" Cronyssia said.

"Tch." Aiden clicked his tongue in frustration before speaking through his thoughts to the avatar and variant stationed in that dimension.

"We know where they are for now. We’ll come back soon to finish this."

And in the next instant, they vanished. He had undone the casting that created them in the first place.

But he only unmade the variant and avatar in that dimension. The others remained untouched.

The reason was simple.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to keep watch over the demon lords, but leaving a variant and avatar there was too risky.

Both carried the power of dragons, and there was no reliable way to suppress or conceal their presence. Sooner or later —if it hadn’t happened already— they would be discovered.

Which would force the confrontation early and expose his current strength either way.

As for the other avatars in the remaining dimensions, he kept them active for one purpose: if the demon lords or Lilith moved from this dimension into any other, those avatars would immediately alert him.

——-

After Aiden’s duplicates vanished, Lilith came to an abrupt halt as they walked through the corridor of a vast, shadowed castle.

She slowly turned her head toward the direction they disappeared from.

"Hm..." she murmured.

Raising her chin, she lifted her hand.

A colossal red magic circle bloomed above the castle, its runes spiraling outward like burning veins across the sky.

"Concealment," she whispered.

At once, it was as though a black shroud descended over the entire dimension.

From the outside, it no longer existed; no senses, spells, nothing, not even could reach it unless she permitted it.

Morrigan paused in front of her. "Is something wrong?"

Lilith glanced back with a faint smile. "If there was, it isn’t anymore. I simply don’t intend for Him to notice me."

She still considered the possibility that Adam could see her, even here. She wasn’t certain, but she refused to take chances.

Morrigan nodded and moved ahead. Lilith tilted her head back toward the darkened sky.

"Watch closely," she whispered, in her soft and cold voice. "Your turn to suffer is coming."

——-

Later that evening, within the infirmary at the Academy; Arcane Spire, Thamoryn stood beside a row of beds where members of the Fractured Stars Guild lay in various states of consciousness.

Some had begun to stir, their eyes fluttering open as they slowly returned to awareness.

And some Others remained comatose.

Talen sat upright on one of the beds, staring blankly at the wall. His eyes were open, but there was no recognition in them.

Ambrose lay nearby, also awake. He was eerily still but looked better compared to Talen.

Thamoryn frowned as she observed them.

Something was wrong.

She turned toward one of the servants standing near the doorway. "Send for Aiden. Tell him it’s urgent."

The servant nodded and hurried out immediately.

——

Aiden arrived at the infirmary shortly after.

Thamoryn approached him immediately, with a trouble expression on her face. "There’s a problem, Infact it’s grown only worse." she said.

Aiden said nothing except following her toward the beds where the guild members lay.

One of them, a young woman, suddenly let out a scream and began clawing at her own face. Two attendants rushed forward to restrain her as she thrashed violently, her eyes wide with terror.

Another man sat hunched over on his bed, rocking back and forth while muttering incoherently to himself. His hands trembled as he clutched his head.

Talen suddenly stood up abruptly, he had jerky and unnaturally movements. He turned toward Aiden with an angry expression.

"You!" He yelled out first.

Then tilted his head to the side as though he didn’t just exclaim that, or recognize Aiden at all.

"Who... am I?" Talen whispered to himself.

Thamoryn sighed heavily. "Half of them are acting insane," she explained. "Some don’t even seem to know what they are anymore, human or otherwise."

Aiden was already in understanding of what was happening here

He had removed the parasitic leeches from their minds, yes. But some of them had been possessed for too long.

The demonification process had either completed or come close enough to completing that removing the leech hadn’t reversed the damage.

Now they were left with fragmented identities, caught between their human selves and the demonic influence that had been etched into their very beings.