The void, which until now had been absolute and impenetrable, suddenly trembled under the impact of two entirely alien voices vibrating through the nothingness.
One sounded like the soft, crystal-clear chime of silver bells layered over the whisper of a warm breeze.
The other struck Julian’s consciousness with a heavy, dominant force - dripping with outright brazen freedom and a deep tone that tolerated absolutely zero defiance.
“Do you honestly think I’m going to blindly obey your rigid rules just because you hold that holier-than-thou title of Goddess? You actually believe all of existence revolves around your tedious little mandates?” The second voice laughed, wild and arrogant confidence pulsing through her words.
“You know perfectly well who you’re talking to, and you know damn well that as the Demon Queen, I couldn't care less about your imaginary laws.”
“But I can’t simply allow you to stride into Purgatory as if it were your personal pantry, snatch the first soul you lay eyes on, and turn it into your next little plaything,” the first voice sighed.
In her delicate tone lay a boundless exhaustion, as though she had rehashed this exact argument a thousand times before.
“And why on earth not?” came the sharp, cheeky retort.
A heavy silence settled over the void. The Goddess was visibly at a loss as to where to even begin explaining such fundamental, self-evident concepts to someone who simply ignored the entire fabric of the universe.
“Because it disrupts the natural cycle of reincarnation! A soul must first be cleansed of all its memories, regrets, and former life, washed through the river of oblivion, and mapped onto a new path. Yet you want to barge in, seize something that doesn't belong to you, and fling it into the middle of your latest selfish whim!” the Goddess explained frantically, though the Demon Queen merely offered an amused, dismissive snort in return.
“Oh dear, perish the thought! Because the world will surely crumble if I help myself to one tiny, useless scrap of consciousness that’s just sitting here rotting in the dark anyway,” she drawled carelessly.
“I simply feel like having a little fun. I’m bored, and you’re throwing a whole dramatic fit as if I set fire to your holy palace or something.”
Hearing these two clashing voices, Julian felt his consciousness - numb for what felt like eons - suddenly explode in a wave of wild, near-manic impulse.
After so long spent in absolute nothingness, this noise was his sole lifeline in the middle of a vast ocean.
“Hello?! Please, my ladies - can you hear me?! Can I please ask you to get me out of here?! Anything, just get me out of this hell!” he shrieked with the full force of his spiritual entity, forcing both mighty beings to fall silent for a fraction of a second, clearly caught off guard by the sudden outburst.
“Incredible... Did this soul actually manage to retain full consciousness in a place like this?” the Goddess murmured, stunned that anyone could survive here without losing their mind.
The Demon Queen remained silent for a long moment, as if contemplating something deeply.
Then, a massive smile bloomed across her face - unseen by Julian - and a heartbeat later, the space around him collapsed in the blink of an eye.
Before he could even register what was happening, a powerful, terrifying force "grabbed" him effortlessly, coiling around his frail soul like an invisible, scalding hand.
Oh shit... She could crush me with a single flicker of thought.
I’m literally like a grain of sand to her, about to be ground into dust... Julian panicked, feeling his entire survival hanging by a thread.
“Hey! Don't you dare do anything to that soul! It may have miraculously endured here, but it still needs to serve its time undergoing purification!” the horrified Goddess cried out, attempting to intervene.
But the Demon Queen ignored her high-pitched protest entirely.
Instead, she drew her presence down right alongside the trembling Julian, speaking with a seductive smirk laced with the scent of blood, power, and brazen dominance.
“Little one... do you want to escape this nasty, boring place?” she asked softly.
Hidden in her voice was a promise of freedom so potent it sent a violent, bone-deep shiver of ecstasy through the boy's battered soul at the mere thought that this nightmare was finally coming to an end.
Julian was on the verge of screaming an instant, desperate yes with everything he had, when the Goddess reappeared before them, shaking her head fiercely in a bid to block this insanity.
“You cannot do this! Returning to the physical world without purification breaks the laws of the higher order! The entire soul matrix relies on a balance you are not permitted to shatter for your own amusement!” she tried to reason gravely, rattling off the convoluted rules of cosmic mechanics.
“I don't give a damn about any of that,” the Demon Queen cut her off brazenly, waving a dismissive hand.
“And besides, shouldn't a choice like that belong to this specific soul, rather than you and your boring little rulebook? Right, little one? What do you think?”
“Yes! Yes, please, I want to escape as fast as possible! Get me out of here, I can’t take another minute in this place!” Julian declared instantly.
A surge of hatred welled up within him toward the Goddess, who, in the name of abstract, rigid regulations, was content to heartlessly abandon him in this horrific void for another few millennia.
“See? He wants to come with me, so your blathering doesn't mean a thing,” the Demon Queen chuckled.
Yet the Goddess continued to shake her head adamantly, raising her voice to cite codes that no ordinary mortal could hope to comprehend.
This Goddess is just some unhinged bureaucrat who'd rather watch me go insane as long as her paperwork stays neat, Julian realized in a flash.
He decided to shamelessly throw his weight behind the side offering immediate salvation.
“This lady is completely right!” he chimed in loudly, kissing up to the Demon Queen without the slightest hesitation.
“Free will ought to be paramount! If I’m giving my full consent and begging to leave, why cling to artificial restrictions that just waste time? Her logical thinking makes the most sense here!”
Both powerful entities fell silent for a moment, visibly taken aback by the fury and cunning with which a tiny, terrified soul had begun constructing legal arguments in its own favor.
Then, the Demon Queen burst into a loud, ringing laugh, utterly delighted by his attitude.
“Look at him!” she cackled, poking at Julian's invisible form. “Unlike you, he actually has a head on his shoulders and knows what's good for him, instead of quoting musty old statutes at me!”
The Goddess let out a heavy sigh, looking at the demon ruler before her with deep resignation and unease.
“Are you truly set on doing this?” she asked seriously.
“You intend to place a completely foreign, human soul into that specific body - the one you created yourself not long ago?”
“And won't that be absolutely marvelous and hilarious?” the Demon Queen shot back instantly, her tone brimming with downright hedonistic glee.
“I can already picture the faces on all those foolish subjects and nobles when they lay eyes on their beloved, pure prince - and discover what actually became of his body! It’s going to be a glorious spectacle!”
The Goddess knitted her brows tightly, turning her anxious gaze directly toward Julian’s soul, still held firmly in the demoness's grip.
“Human... are you truly certain you want to go with her?” she warned. “This woman is boundless in her arrogance, manipulative, shameless, hedonistic, haughty, calculating, and wildly capricious.”
“Oh, thank you ever so much for the lovely compliments, gorgeous!” the Demon Queen chimed in with a bright, sly grin, completely unbothered by the criticism.
“She is truly selfish to the core, and regards the subjugation of others as entirely natural,” the Goddess continued unperturbed, brushing past the arrogant interjections.
“Life by her side will not be the least bit easy for you. And the moment she grows bored of you, or you cease to entertain her, she will toss you into the deepest depths of hell without batting an eye.”
Arrogant? Capricious? Total annihilation in a couple of years?
Who the hell cares?!
Anything is better than rotting in this pitch-black, silent abyss for eternity! flashed furiously through Julian’s mind.
He wasn't about to get picky when his salvation was on the line.
“I don't care!” Julian answered without a second thought, his voice ringing firm and resolute.
“As long as she drags me out of this godforsaken hell I’m stuck rotting in, I don't have the slightest problem surrendering my soul to the Demon Queen herself!”
“Attaboy! I like you a lot, cutie!” the demoness laughed out loud, clearly thrilled by his ruthless pragmatism. She then looked down on the Goddess with absolute superiority.
“Now shoo, shoo! You’ve got nothing left to do here, and you’re ruining my mood with all your nagging!”
“Remember that you are crossing a line from which there will be no return...” the Goddess tried once more, adopting a menacing tone, but the Demon Queen merely waved her off with a dismissive flick of her wrist.
“Yeah, yeah, run along, party pooper,” she muttered carelessly, turning her back on her.
Amused, she began poking her finger into Julian’s captured soul, treating the gravity of the whole situation like a funny little game.
Seeing that all rational arguments were falling on deaf ears and that the demoness was ignoring her completely, the Goddess released a long, heavy sigh of frustration.
Her radiant form slowly began to dissolve into the shadows, until at last she vanished entirely, leaving the two of them alone in the deep, timeless void.