The mental powers the golden mask possessed were startling. When he attended the procedures, strange changes arose in the Demon Palace. The power systems largely came to a halt. Considering the amount of energy required to support this structure, the mask’s psychic numbers must be astronomical.
Attacked on one side by the mask and on the other by an evil spirit, Sayaka was definitely losing ground. Yet she didn’t complain, and neither did Mephisto interfere.
Sayaka intended to ferret out the mask’s true intentions. When she made this clear on the first day of the experiment, the mask made a promise.
The experiment was being conducted on the terrace where they viewed the moon. The phantasmal night and the lamp fires of the capital of Babylon glimmered in the distance. Sayaka sat on a chair. The mask thrust out his hands. Sayaka fell into a trance.
“Semiramis,” he said.
“Yes,” Sayaka said. Her answer came with unusual alacrity.
“Do you understand. It is I. Nebuchadnezzar.”
“Yes.”
“My dream is at last in my grasp.” His voice trembled with joy. His eyes glowed with a blood-red glee.
Perhaps that was when he noticed something strange happening on the green-covered terrace. The fountains of water muddied and oozed. From all across Demon City flowed a white substance like a low-lying fog, disappearing into the openings at the base of Demon Palace Babylon.
A deep growl—not a voice, not a reverberation—echoed through the night air, the city groaning in pain.
“Do you remember? I built this city and these gardens for you. I beheaded a hundred thousand for your sake, trampled a million more underfoot. All that death and destruction to succor the power you possess, to unbind it and bring to pass miracles of such unspeakable evil, and bring the whole world under my control. You reveled in the blood of the slaughter, and in your joy released your powers. Remember. Remember what happened.”
“I remember. I remember. How could we ever forget? I moved mountains and shaped continents. I formed rivers and caused the rain to fall. I drowned the forces of the enemy and guided the flaming stars down to scorch their cities. Ah, I can hear it even now—the screams as they died, with curses of hatred and venom on their tongues. I am the immortal queen, the woman who consumes the energy of the dead and their angry spirits and lives forever. And yet—and yet—why—”
“Semulia,” said the masked lord, his body shaking with anger. “That wandering warrior who appears always and out of nowhere. He killed you. He killed me. Your power proved fruitless in the face of his abilities. Such frighteningly refined skills. But he is no longer part of this world. Rather, however he may still be part of it, he will be too late this time. Now the world is ours. King Nebuchadnezzar and Queen Semiramis of the great and terrible Babylon. In this most evil city in the world, compared to which Sodom and Gomorrah were mere shadows, you shall drink its eternal energies to your heart’s content, and take hold of reincarnation and immortal life. That is why I chose this place.”
The mask threw back his head and laughed. As did Sayaka, her face suffused with evil rarely seen.
The mask turned to Mephisto. “The promise has been fulfilled. Now the process of reincarnation should be plain. You may go.”
“Not quite yet,” Mephisto softly said, revealing neither in his beautiful visage nor in the depths of his soul the slightest surprise at their appalling pasts and horrifying goals.
“Hoh. What else, then?”
“I have beheld the shape and form of your reincarnation. I need nothing more from you. Now if you would eradicate that woman and restore Sayaka-chan.”
“What are you—”
The eyes in the golden mask focused on Mephisto like a pair of lasers. Mephisto looked back at him. The contest was resolved in an instant, without a sound, with no smoke or fire. The mask reeled, slumped against the stone parapets of the terrace.
“Have you seen it? Mephisto’s evil eye?” the black-clad figure calmly said.
He was wrapped in fire. The flames swept backward, engulfing his cape as it spread out like the wings of a giant black bird of prey, and scattered across the terrace.
“You should have been seared down to your bones. I would expect no less from Doctor Faustus, that most uncommon of wizards.” Only her voice was different. Fixing her glowing eyes on Mephisto, she got up from the chair. “The desires I told to you in the library will now be fulfilled.”
Sayaka smiled seductively. Her disheveled silk gown slipped from her round shoulders, showing the tops of her breasts. And parted around her legs, exposing the tops of her thighs. Her captivating presence now would make the most sober of eyewitnesses doubt that she had ever been that innocent young woman.
This was not Sayaka. This was the incarnation of evil reincarnated inside her, having pushed her righteous soul down into the darkness. Semiramis, the queen of ancient Mesopotamia, once all but erased from history. For all his strengths and resources, could Mephisto hold his own when this demoness unleashed her powers?
“Such beauty should be consecrated to none other than me. Receive the kiss of my mouth and be on your way to destruction.”
The white and wicked hands coiled around Mephisto’s neck and pulled him to her. Their lips overlapped. A groaning sound seeped out from where their mouths met.
Ah, but what fate awaited the Demon Physician? Sucking on his lips in ecstasy, Semiramis smiled her bewitching smile. She poured strength into her pale hands. Her hands trembled. A moment later, her hands around his throat, Semiramis threw her head back.
“W-what are you doing, bitch!” she cried out with the mien of a monster. That this was Sayaka underneath alone made the appearance a hundred times worse than any “normal” woman. “No. Not her. Not her alone. Y-you—who are you?”
Rivulets of sweat streamed down Sayaka’s cheeks. Her eyes opened wide, eyes devoid of pupils.
“I know. You—you are—”
Sayaka/Semiramis whirled around, focusing her empty eyes on a sturdy figure standing on the edge of the terrace. From those same pair of lips came a pair of sounds, loathing and joy combined.
“Semulia!”
“Kyoya-san!”