Hespera laughed, the sound rich, amused, and absolutely unapologetic as Rias's frustration reached critical levels.
She really did enjoy messing with the crimson-haired princess.
"Alright, alright, calm down before you combust, Gremory~" she teased, waving a lazy hand. "I'll be nice and drop the mystery act. Frankly, I'm getting bored of it anyway. And besides..."
Her smirk widened, something sharp, something dangerous flickering behind her heterochromatic gaze.
"It's about time you all learned exactly why I'm getting involved in your little Phenex problem."
The air shifted.
Subtle, but unmistakable.
It wasn't power, nor pressure—it was the weight of inevitability.
Hespera rose from her seat, her presence unfolding ever so slightly, like a predator stretching after a long slumber. She walked some distance away from the table, then turned to face them.
She placed a hand over her chest and gave them a mockingly elegant bow.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly."
Her next words shattered reality.
"I am Hespera Eveningstar—twin sister to Lucifer Morningstar, and first daughter of the Biblical God."
The moment her last words left her lips, twelve magnificent, breathtaking wings unfurled from her back—an undeniable testament to her divine and infernal lineage.
Gasps ripped through the room.
Six wings on her right—pristine, angelic silvery-white wings, yet unlike any other divine wings seen before. Magenta Phoenix embers wreathed them, drifting like soft, slow-falling ash, constantly consuming and rebirthing themselves in an eternal cycle.
Six wings on her left—dark and draconic. Feathers of blackened void interwoven with scales steeped in abyssal purple, shimmering like liquid night. Chaos and destruction intertwined.
An embodiment of contradiction. A force beyond mere labels of angel or demon.
The sheer weight of her presence sent a ripple through the fabric of the Underworld itself.
It was impossible, no unthinkable, that a creatute of this magnitude—angel, dragon, and phoenix, could possibly exist.
Venelana sucked in a breath, her composure faltering for the first time in years.
Zeoticus gripped the table, knuckles white.
Grayfia, the ever-stoic Queen, was frozen.
Sirzechs? His eyes burned with an intensity not seen in centuries. 'Rias was correct in her assumption—this is not someone we should ever make an enemy of.' His mind worked quickly, piecing together strategies, contingencies, paths forward. 'If she was anything like her twin, she would be anyone's worst nightmare to cross.'
But there was something else, something that made him pause. The way Hespera watched his sister. The way her gaze lingered.
And more importantly…the way Rias watched her. 'Hmm...Was not expecting that.'
Rias staggered backward, eyes wide, locked onto Hespera as if witnessing a divine revelation.
Her breath hitched, her fingers trembled—only slightly, but enough.
And in her gaze, buried beneath the disbelief, beneath the shock, there was heat. An attraction bordering on reverence.
A spark that hadn't existed just minutes ago.
Hespera tilted her head, her smirk widening ever so slightly.
'Oh? Well, well… now that's interesting. I knew she had a thing for those with power, but this? Hehe… I can't deny, I don't dislike this outcome.'
A slow, deliberate chuckle spilled from Hespera's lips, shattering the thick silence that had swallowed the room whole.
"Cat got your tongue, Princess?"
Rias snapped violently back to reality. Her body flared with heat, her mind racing to process the words and the way Hespera said them.
That arrogance. That confidence. That irritating, intoxicating, infuriating tone. Rias scowled, her nails biting into her palm as she tried—tried so damn hard— to ignore the way her traitorous eyes roamed.
The curves. The poise. The sheer command of presence Hespera held over everyone in the room.
Rias snapped her gaze away, cursing inwardly. 'No. Absolutely not. You can't go down that path, Rias.'
'No matter how—'
Her eyes traced the curves of the girl's hips.
'—tempting it is.'
Ophis, who had remained utterly silent until now, shattered the tension with all the weight of a falling star.
Her voice—soft, yet absolute—cut through the thick atmosphere like a blade.
"Explain more. Fewer complications in the future," she commanded. A statement of inevitability.
Hespera sighed, loud and dramatic, tilting her head back like an overworked performer burdened with an audience that just didn't get it.
"Fiiine." She drawled, letting her arms fall lazily to her sides. "Since you insist, Mother~"
Then, with a smirk, she let her gaze lazily sweep across the room, taking in the stunned expressions, the uncertainty, the barely-contained curiosity.
"I suppose I should start by answering all those burning little questions of yours."
She flicked a hand in the air, casual, unconcerned. "I know you have them."
She took a step forward, amusement glimmering in her heterochromatic eyes.
"So? Who wants to go first?"
For a moment, no one spoke. No one moved.
The weight of Hespera's words still hung thick in the air, suffocating yet tantalizing, like a forbidden truth waiting to be unraveled.
Venelana Gremory, ever the composed matriarch, was the first to recover. With deliberate care, she set her wine glass down—this time ensuring it wouldn't crack beneath the weight of her grip—before fixing Hespera with a gaze as sharp as a blade honed over centuries.
"Let's start with the obvious." Her voice was smooth, measured, yet the undercurrent of authority was undeniable. "You claim to be the twin sister of Lucifer Morningstar, yet no scripture, no historical records, not even whispers among the oldest beings in the Underworld mention your existence. How is that possible?"
Hespera grinned. "Ah~ An excellent question, dear matron~"
She sauntered forward, her steps slow, deliberate—not just walking but commanding the space around her. The wings at her back shifted ever so slightly, the white magenta-embered feathers sending tiny sparks dancing through the air, while her scaled demon wings flexed, the dark sheen of blackish-purple rippling like liquid shadow.
She stopped just before the table, leaning in, placing her hands flat against its polished surface. The move wasn't aggressive, but it wasn't submissive either. It was a statement.
"Simple." Her voice dropped, taking on a rich, velvety smoothness, tinged with something darker—something dangerous.
"I was erased."
The room froze. A weighty silence settled over the grand hall, pressing against its occupants like an unspoken force.
Then—
"Erased?" Sirzechs finally spoke, his tone unreadable, though his piercing blue eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Hespera tilted her head, resting her chin against her palm. "Mhm~ But not in the way you're thinking."
She straightened, gesturing lazily with a flick of her wrist, as though the very concept of her erasure was nothing more than an amusing anecdote.
"See, dear old Dad—" She deliberately let the words settle, watching with thinly veiled amusement as Grayfia stiffened, Zeoticus' grip tightened around his steepled fingers, and Rias' blue eyes widened ever so slightly.
"—knew that my twin, that crazy moron that he was, had planned to fuse our very souls into one being for more power. He actually thought that if he succeeded, he could stand against our father. The idiot seriously underestimated Dad."
Her smirk widened, as if recalling an old joke.
"In response, Father put me to sleep. Not just hidden—sealed. Locked away in a chamber so forbidden that even Heaven's Seraphim weren't allowed near it. And the one assigned to guard that seal?" She let out a low, amused chuckle. "One of the Thrones."
That struck a nerve.
Sirzechs' brows lifted, while Grayfia—who had remained stone-faced even in the presence of Ophis—tensed. It wasn't often the Throne angels were mentioned, for they were a rank outside of the traditional hierarchy. Higher than Seraphim. Keepers of divine order in ways mortals and devils alike couldn't comprehend.
The weight of that revelation was not lost on them.
Hespera leaned in again, her gaze flashing with something both smug and cruel.
"So, to make sure Luci dropped his grand little plan, Father decided just hiding my existence wasn't enough. He rewrote reality itself. Stripped me from history, memory, and time."
She tapped a single finger against her temple. 'I shouldn't mention that by doing that, had essentially weakened him to the point that it made it possible for Lucifer to kill Him. I'm pretty sure that the knowledge that the biblical God is dead, is still unknown.'
"But He didn't erase me completely." A sharp, knowing glint flickered in her mismatched eyes as she continued. "He couldn't. I was his contingency plan."
The room stilled.
"You see, as Luci's twin—his other half—I was the only one truly capable of keeping him in check. Call it a built-in failsafe. A chain around his neck. If Luci ever spiraled too far out of control, I would be the one meant to rein him in."
Hespera sighed dramatically, rolling her shoulders as if the weight of ancient, cosmic decisions were nothing more than a mild inconvenience.
"So instead of destroying me, He chose the next best option—He made everyone forget. And since my dear twin bit the dust in his little war against Dad, well..." She waved a hand, voice dripping with mock indifference. "Let's just say he's probably rotting away in some heavenly prison cell after his reincarnation."
A beat. A slow, agonizing beat.
The air in the grand hall grew thick—dense with unspoken tension.
"…Reincarnation?"
Sirzechs' voice cut through the silence like a blade. His sharp blue eyes narrowed, the casual elegance he usually carried taut with something else.
"What do you mean, reincarnation?" His voice remained steady, controlled, but there was an undeniable edge beneath it.
"King Lucifer is dead."
A pregnant silence stretched across the grand hall. Every being in the room—every devil, every presence of power—held their breath as if the very fabric of reality was waiting for the answer to Sirzechs' question.
Hespera?
She grinned.
Not a smirk. Not a tease.
A slow, razor-sharp grin—one that sent a ripple of unease down Rias' spine, one that made even Grayfia's fingers twitch ever so slightly at her side.
Then, she laughed.
Low, rich, and absolutely delighted.
"You say that as if Luci can actually die."
Sirzechs' gaze hardened. "Elaborate."
Hespera tilted her head, arms folding beneath her chest, her entire stance dripping with unbothered confidence.
"Come on, Lucifer is my twin. We were born together, our existences split from the same divine essence—one soul in two bodies."
She leaned forward just slightly, her voice dipping into something lower.
"If I'm alive…"
She let the words drag out, watching as understanding dawned on them.
Sirzechs' eyes widened just barely.
Grayfia's usually unshakable mask faltered.
Venelana's fingers tightened around her wine glass.
Rias, even in her growing attraction, felt a cold wave of realization settle over her skin.
Hespera's smirk widened.
"Then so is he." She gestured to herself—to her very being—her mismatched wings spreading slightly behind her.
"You can't kill one without killing the other. That's how it's always been."
A flick of her wrist, and she continued, voice casual as if discussing the weather.
"But see, there's one problem." She lifted a single finger. "The little experiments one of my dear brothers did on me?"
Her eyes darkened, glowing with something deep and ancient. "They made me unkillable."
Silence.
Sirzechs blinked. "What?"
Hespera sighed dramatically, rolling her neck. "Honestly, I should thank him. He made me into a creature that can't truly be erased. Ever. Permanently, anyway."
She stretched, letting the weight of her words sink in before lazily meeting Sirzechs' sharp gaze.
"Go on." She gestured airily with one hand. "Ask your next question."
Sirzechs inhaled, schooling his features back into their usual serene elegance—but there was a sharpness beneath it now. A wariness.
"Which Fallen Angel did experiments on you?" His voice was smooth, calm—but too measured. "And I'm going to assume… it has something to do with your 'sharing DNA with the Phenex Clan,' as you so casually put it?"
Hespera laughed. A full, rich, utterly delighted laugh, her head tilting back ever so slightly as if she'd just heard the most hilarious joke in existence.
"Oh, Sirzechs," she purred, her voice dripping with mockery and amusement. "And here I thought you were supposed to be the smart one in the family."
His jaw ticked, making Hespera's smirk widened.
"Who else?" she drawled, drawing out the words like she was savoring them.
"Who else but the leader of the Grigori himself—Azazel?"
Everyone's faces paled. What Fun~