New Chapter in Highest Tier (May 2021)

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Archdemon Empress Luna

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It was an eye of solid black without distinction between pupil, iris, and white, appearing like a ragged hole—an endless void.

Luna thought she was holding her breath from the creepy sight.

Heartbeat racing, Luna lost the ability to speak.

All her muscles went rigid, triggering her fight and flight response, but she remained there, crouched in front of the door to Princess Ourania's bedchamber with her left eye pressed to the keyhole, determined to see this through and figure out what this creature was.

Because it was sure as hell didn't seem human.

Perhaps, this was the one Apollyon's mother had been talking to.

It wasn't there before, but for some reason, it had chosen to reveal itself.

Luna and the dark eye stared at each other for a few seconds before she watched the fine rim of silver around the creature's iris glowed in the dark.

'Apollyon. There is a strange creature—'

'Let me see.'

'Wait.' Luna's eyebrows knitted in confusion. 'I'm trying to figure out what it was.'

There were no scuffles of feet that should have been there.

Only deafening silence.

Behind its dark background, the creature's eye floated backward from her point of view until it grew larger, and she finally saw its true form.

Her stomach dropped.

Luna fought a scream, trying to escape from her throat.

'Your face have been exposed too many times to our enemies.' Apollyon told her sharply. 'Move, beloved, and let me handle it.'

Luna stepped aside as Apollyon peeked through the keyhole.

'Wife.'

Luna prompted. 'Did you see it?'

Apollyon replied. 'There was nothing there except my mother.'

She shuffled back a step or two in disbelief.

Why can't her husband see it?

Not even a blind person could see how horrible it looked.

'No, it's there, Apollyon.' Luna insisted that she almost said her words out loud instead of communicating to him in her mind.

Covering her mouth with a palm to remind herself to shut up, Luna projected her words to him through telepathy. 'I saw it with my one eye.'

Luna squeezed Apollyon's forearm and pushed him to the side. 'I swear it's there, Apollyon. Let me take over.'

Hand flying to her chest, Luna was surprised to find that it was no longer there.

Apollyon's mother replaced her vision.

With curtains closed, Princess Ourania sat in a world of isolation.

There were no paintings around her private bedchamber.

It was a hall of mirrors with her reflections are her only companions in her own sanctuary--her own version of heaven.

All this time, Luna thought Princess Ourania had been talking to herself, reassuring herself of false truths.

The mirrors can't lie, but her obsession did, indulging her with images she wanted to see.

Then, the creature came into view as it stood in front of the keyhole once again, wearing that small smile that was quite smug.

It was a monster with a beautiful maiden's face with smooth lavender skin in a body of a bird-of-prey with white eagle wings and long claws on their hands.

The creature had deep obsidian eyes that it felt like you are pulled into this infinite dark void when you stare at it for too long.

Narrowing her eyes at it, Luna took a moment to scan her brain from all the ancient texts she had read when she used to be Artemis' warrior maiden to figure out what it was.

When her memory finally caught that specific page from a particular book, she realized it was a harpy.

As if the harpy saw the dark realization in her eyes, its lips curved upwards in amusement as it stretched its large eagle wings, reveling in her fear and feeding off of it.

Luna saw its lips move, but she couldn't hear a thing--as if a vacuum sucked all the sounds in the bedchamber.

Squinting, Luna attempted to read the woman's lips on the harpy's face.

'Nobody can see me except the people who have ties to the Underworld.' It mouthed.

'Underworld?' Luna's mouth fell open in shock. 'Can Luna see the harpy because of the Mark the Triple Moon Goddess imprinted on her chest?

"Is someone there, Celaeno?" Apollyon's mother called out, and that was the only sound revealed to them from the moment they arrived there.

'Oh my goddess!'

Princess Ourania can see this harpy?

Why?

How?

As far as Luna knew, Harpies were destructive wind spirits known to be 'snatchers,' abducting evildoers and torturing them to on their way to the Underworld to bring them to the Erinyes—the three goddesses of vengeance and retribution.

They were employed as instruments to torment the guilty.

Luna remembered Apollyon telling her that his mother just disappeared, thinking that she had died from his hands when he turned into a monster.

When a person mysteriously vanished from a Realm out-of-the-blue, there could be a chance that harpies took them to punish them.

But for what?

What did Apollyon's mother do to be involved with a harpy?

What did she do in the Underworld that Princess Ourania had a harpy familiar by her side?

Now, Luna was certain that Queen Titania and King Oberon weren't aware of this creature prowling in their daughter's bedchamber as if it belonged here.

Harpies were known to be vicious, cruel, and violent, but this harpy was calm, flashing Luna a secret smile as if they were sharing some twisted joke.

Luna began to panic when Princess Ourania got off the couch and began to move towards the door.

She backed away in quick, jerky steps away from the door and whispered to Apollyon. "We must go."

Apollyon grabbed her by the waist and teleported to some random place in the Summer Castle.

The melodic rainbow of harmony in the atmosphere seemed like they landed into an ongoing celebration with the gayest of ambiance.

Apollyon and Luna heard the ringing laughter of future victories.

Her sensitive smell could already scent the sweet aroma of good bread and wine as the great hall doors opened.