"Don't take her seriously… she doesn't understand human feelings very well yet," Dante said, stroking Lilith's hair as she kept her head down. "I'm not human…" she murmured. Lilith truly wasn't… Not currently, but long ago, before humans even populated the world, she had been born from the Father of Humanity.
"Really? I didn't know Devil May Cry," Dante said, trying to make the woman look at him. After all… he needed to see something… "Come on, look at me. I'm sure you know Vex is wrong, don't you?" Dante asked. "Alright, think a bit… I need to resolve something." Dante said, shifting his attention to Voralith and Sara, and of course, Lyrianna as well.
"How is she?" Dante asked, seeing her body twitching and trembling. "We don't know… she seemed fine, but after we brought her here… she's like this," Sara said. Dante immediately understood what was happening… Not with Lyrianna. Damn, he wasn't a doctor! He understood how Sara felt; the look of defeat was on her face, and Dante didn't like it at all.
This was the worst expression Dante had seen on Sara's angelic face. In fact, even when she was crucified on the Demon Tree, Dante hadn't seen such a defeated, upset, disappointed, and above all, sad expression. But something caught Dante's attention besides Sara… It was Lyrianna.
Despite being as beautiful as Sara, this woman seemed… something more than just a mere mother… for some reason, he felt that sensation…
Yes, the same feeling Dante always gets when he meets a woman he likes, that same strange tingling that runs through his body and knots in his throat, making him want to find out more about her… "Don't tell me…" he murmured, searching his memories for many things from his past lives, but he… "Nothing?" He questioned.
In this brief search, he had already checked about Tsukoyomi and Amaterasu, but for some reason, this immense sensation came from Lyrianna… "This isn't the time for that," he concluded, crouching next to Sara as Morgana appeared beside him.
"Do you have any medical knowledge? I'm sure I saw an Archangel healing her completely…" Dante murmured. He tried to analyze, but there was nothing unusual… except for one thing, one damn thing… "Damn… make it something simpler… don't make me do this again," he thought, without saying it aloud to avoid alarming Sara, who remained focused and worried.
"Give me a minute," Morgana said, crouching down and taking Lyrianna's hand, allowing her mana to flow through her body, checking all the small points to ensure her condition.
The seconds of waiting felt like eternities, but finally, Morgana opened her eyes, her face showing an expression of relief mixed with concern. "It looks like she… lost her magic core," she said, still holding Lyrianna's hand. "Something… exploded her core and scattered the mana fragments all over her chest." Morgana said. Dante frowned, trying to remember if he had heard of something similar.
"Morgana, can you remove it?" he asked.
He was only pretending not to know what was happening. In reality, Lyrianna had her core obliterated by Asmodeus himself. He thought he had removed her completely without harm, but it seemed he had failed… "Damn… I don't want to deal with this like this…" he thought.
She shook her head slowly. "It's not that simple. We need more information about the origin of this rupture. It could be dangerous to tamper with it without fully understanding what we're dealing with," Morgana concluded. But Dante… "I already know what happened…" he murmured.
"That damned angel didn't give her a new core. He knew the healing wouldn't last long… And left it for you to solve," Lilith's voice cut in, now recovered from what Vex had said to her. "And you knew this all along?" Sara asked, knowing Lilith had been there with them for a long time but had not said a word.
Lilith took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to explain. "I knew something was wrong," she admitted, her face dark. "But I wasn't sure of the extent of the damage until now. I needed to be certain…" she murmured. "Unlike you, I only know how to use demonic magic. If I touched her, I might kill her, so I waited for you to check her condition." Lilith said.
Despite Sara's anger, using her virtue, she concluded that Lilith was speaking nothing but the truth, which surprised her.
"I wasn't sure if it was the same problem," Lilith said, her voice low. "And I didn't want to alarm anyone without being certain. I thought the Archangel had managed to fix it."
"But now we know he didn't," Lilith interrupted, her tone serious. "We need to act quickly."
Morgana was still holding Lyrianna's hand, her concern evident. "Without the magic core, her body is in constant decay. We need to find a definitive solution to restore or replace the core."
"There is no such thing," Lilith said, staring at Dante. "If you want to save her, you only have this option." Lilith said, speaking to the only one who could understand what she meant. The women in the room fell silent, especially Voralith, Eldrax, and Vex, who, despite being there, had not said much.
Voralith understood what was happening and already had an idea, but she stayed quiet as Dante had been assessing her since his arrival.
"So we only have this option," Dante murmured, more to himself than to the others. He turned to the group, his face serious. "I don't think this sh—" Sara, still trying to process everything, interrupted Dante. "What do you mean by 'this option,' Dante?"
Dante looked at Sara, hesitating to say what Lilith meant. "She's suggesting… transforming Lyrianna into a demon." He didn't want to worsen the situation, but lying to Sara wasn't something he would do.
Lilith nodded slowly. "It's the only way to save her life. As a demon progenitor, I can use my powers to transform Lyrianna into a demon, rebuilding her body. This will restore her magic core in a new form, but the change will be irreversible unless there is a living Human Progenitor, which… well, we know doesn't exist."
Sara went pale. "T-Turn her into a demon? She's my mother!" Sara stammered, unable to believe what they were saying. It wasn't that she hated demons—her own husband was something close to that—but her mother… the person she had known since she was… what, one day old? She was so afraid of losing her… of losing the mother she knew.
Morgana, still holding Lyrianna's hand, looked at Lilith with a wary expression. "Is there any risk? Transforming her might save her life, but it could also condemn her to an existence she never chose." Morgana said. She had seen many cases of witches who had turned into demons without knowing and regretted not having had a choice.
Dante took a deep breath, his mind racing with the implications and distant thoughts now occupying his mind. "But it's this or watch her die," he said, his voice heavy with resignation. "I don't think we'll have any choice… I could try turning her into a vampire as well, but it wouldn't be much different. The situation is almost the same," Dante said, but Lilith corrected him.
"It's not the same. The destroyed core is corrupted by demonic energy. When vampire essence mixes with it… she could turn into a complete monster with corrupted lineage." She concluded, then presenting the options… "We have no other choice." Dante concluded. It was really hard to see a future for that situation; was that the only solution? Well… apparently, yes.
Dante looked at Sara with regret. He was beginning to blame himself. "I should have been more careful. Damn it!" he said, punching a wall with a force that exploded it. "If I had stopped thinking only about myself, I could have foreseen all this crap." He growled. "It's too late now," Voralith said, approaching him.
"There's no use in regretting it now; it wasn't something that could have been predicted." She said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Sara, she's your mother… You decide. But I think it's better to be quick; the spasms are getting worse…" Lilith said, speaking directly to her for the first time, something she hadn't done before. After all… A Demon Goddess and a Celestial Virtue were not a good combination…
Sara's mind was overwhelmed with various insecurities and fears, but one thing she was certain of… She couldn't imagine a world without her mother, just as she couldn't imagine a world without Dante. It was a complicated situation, but… she would rather accept this than see her mother leave…
"I don't want to lose another important person… Not after being abandoned by my father and my husband dying once… a third loss will make me fall completely…" She thought. She knew her Virtue was almost transforming; how could it not? Her control over celestial energy was already compromised. Worse, she had been captured precisely because she couldn't fight properly.
"If it's the only way to save her, then so be it," Sara said, her voice trembling but firm. "I can't lose my mother, or anyone else." She said, completely serious and focused. "Let's do it."