Chapter 61

Dead bodies lay scattered everywhere. Freshly dead and badly decomposing bodies, bodies in all stages of decay were scattered everywhere all around Arya. Men, women and children alike.

She was in a dark and gloomy place, a sort of empty place that seemed to have no end or beginning. 

Arya looked down at the face of a dead girl, her dead face forever stuck in a scream and look of fear and despair.

Arya gagged and felt sick and she took a step back only to trip over another dead body-this time one of a man-and her hands splashed into puddles of blood.

Arya jerked her hands away from the blood and saw her hands covered in the red blood.

This…where was she? Was she having a nightmare?

Then she saw the corpses surrounding her start to move and twitch.

At first, she thought it was her imagination but when the body of the dead little girl snatched her by the ankles, wrapping her bony and dead hand around her, then she realized that the dead were coming back to life.

 They slowly awoke from their eternal slumber and they all started to move towards her, clawing on their bellies, or walking towards her in slow and sluggish steps.

Arya wanted to fight back, to scream, to wake up from this nightmare, but she couldn't as she realized her entire body was paralyzed and she was unable to move it.

….

Lilith showed no emotion on her face as she watched as the last of the guards got swarmed with the deadly poisonous-and "flesh eating"-butterflies. They twitched and flitched a little but the butterflies soon did their job and the guards' bodies were stripped of their flesh, leaving behind only blinding white skeletons picked clean of flesh and organs, after they were poisoned to death.

 Her face was one of a goddess of death and destruction.

Skeletons and half-consumed bodies of the guards surrounded her and Lilith carefully made her way down to the dungeons to find her brother and the kids.

A few butterflies flew up and started to surround her, fluttering all around her, their wings blinding gold and pitch black. 

A single butterfly landed and nestled itself into her hair while a few others rested on her arms.

Lilith took the time to relish the sounds of death and the begging for mercy and life.

Finally, power and strength of her own. Her little butterflies were her personalized weapons, obeying only her command and only she could summon them from thin air. She was their master and creator. 

…

30 minutes ago

Lucifer punched and kicked, landing blows on the guards who tried to overpower him with numbers.

Ribs were cracked, noses were broken, bodies hit the ground and a few people lost their lives as Lucifer overpowered them very easily.

One very tall and bulky globin guard slammed against the wall and didn't get up.

Three werewolves went flying through the air.

Lucifer was just too powerful for them to deal with.

Lucifer looked like he was able to win when an arrow suddenly dodged itself into his shoulder.

"Cowards!!!"

Lucifer gritted his teeth as he ripped out the arrow.

He looked at it. The tip of the arrow was stained with his blood but he noticed that the arrow was also covered in a green substance.

He felt his head start to spin and his vision going blurry and he fell down onto his hands and knees.

Poison? Lucifer thought as he fought to clear his mind of the drug.

He lost the battle and he collapsed onto the ground.

…

Lilith started to worry about her brother.

It had been almost an hour since he left to free the children.

She bit her nails and wondered if she should go looking for her brother as he could be in danger.

But that was a foolish thought as she was powerless. Going to find her brother might help her brother at more risk and she would just be a burden to him.

Not once did she wish that she was stronger and more not so weak.

Being a girl was not an issue with the royal demon family but being weak was. 

Weakness was not tolerated and respect and recognition was given to the strong.

How she longed for the day she would awaken her "Touch of Death" ability and finally have an ability of her own!!

She huffed and got up from where she was hiding, under a large oak tree, and she saw a black butterfly marking on her right hand.

Strange, where did that come from?

She looked at it with fascination.

But then she noticed that her right hand also had a butterfly marking-a golden one-and she realized what was going on.

Her awakening was about to happen. The timing could not be better than this!!

When a member of demonic royalty first awakens their "Authority of Death" ability, a special marking will appear on their body. On the face. Under the eyes. On the arms. Or on the chest.

The marking will be able to predict the ability that a child might have. 

Lucifer ended up with a marking of a skull over the place where his heart was. The skull looked to be made of ashes and was a dusty gray color-a reference to his ability to turn any living creature into dust and ashes with a snap of his fingers.

Their father, the Demon King, had a special marking of a blood-red teardrop under his right eye-a reference to his ability to literally drain the blood from anyone and kill them by manipulating and controlling their blood.

The butterflies…what did they mean? Her ability obviously had to be a bloody and deadly one as it did any power the "Authority of Death" granted. So the butterflies had something to do with her powers. But she wouldn't know exactly what it was until she awoke.

Lilith felt the buddle of power inside of her growing and growing and she knew it was almost her time to see what her new power was.

The awakening process was quick and fast but painful. Lilith was left feeling shaky and out of energy after the process was over. It probably only took about 2 minutes but it felt longer to Lilith.

"Fuck….they weren't joking when they said that it hurts so much. But I finally got what I wanted so badly!!"

She clenched her fist.

The marking on her right hand started to glow and shine and she saw two butterflies, a gold one and a pure black one, blossom and fly out of her right arm. Then a flash of pain in her right arm almost took her off guard and she stumbled back a little, holding her right arm until the pain passed. She also felt a little bit dizzy as well but she chalked it up to her being overly excited at having an ability of her own.

They fluttered in the air and danced around her.

Pretty but what can they do?

As if the butterflies could hear her thoughts or mind her mind, they dashed off towards a small bush and Lilith followed them in suit out of curiosity.

Under the bush was the dead body of a small brown rabbit. The rabbit looked like it had been dead for only a short while. Its limbs were stiff and jerky and the rabbit's eyes were black and creepy. A bad cut on its belly betrayed the cause of death-death by blood loss or death by infection or maybe both.

The two butterflies gracefully flew towards the dead rabbit before they landed on its body.

Then it seemed like the rabbit was undergoing decomposition and decay in a matter of seconds and not weeks or months.

The flesh disappeared and melted away, the rabbit went from still having its flesh and organs to being a bare skelton in seconds.

"Amazing", Lilith said to herself, as she watched the gruesome process with fascination and wonder.

So the butterflies she assumed she summoned or created herself could melt away flesh and organs? It was clear that they didn't kill the rabbit in any way as the rabbit was already clearly dead. Or maybe they were flesh eating butterflies?

Alright. She got somewhat of a clear idea of what her ability could do now but she wondered where the butterflies were coming from. Nothing in this world came from thin air. Swords and weapons came from metals and minerals mined from the Earth while food came from seeds and hard work. 

So…Lilith had a hunch that the butterflies were created using her own blood and flesh. While the "Authority of Death" granted the users powerful and deadly powers, there was a price to using them that was kept a secret within the royal family.

Lucifer would find his arms or legs turn into a dusty gray color and that he could no longer move his legs or arms at all. He would be semi- paralyzed in his arms or legs for anywhere from a few hours to days to even weeks in the most extreme cases.

As for her father….using his blood-related abilities took a toll on his sanity and mental well-being. He was once a kind and gentle man but the ability he possessed slowly ruined him and he grew more and more crazier by the day.

What was Lilith supposed to do about her own father once she confronted him was something she didn't want to have to face. Her father committed a lot of crimes and shedded a lot of blood in his insane and bloody war he started and he needed to face the consequences of his actions but…this wasn't him.

Her father wasn't a mad man.

"Oh father, what a tragedy this is. For both you and all of us."

…

Lilith realized that the butterflies were indeed made of her own flesh and blood and that she could summon as many butterflies as she liked but the more butterflies she created, the more of her blood and flesh she had to sacrifice was needed.

The butterflies fluttered and danced in the air as the she made more and more of them 

Black and gold butterflies flying freely in the air.

Now it was time to take action.