His name was Noxim. Vyne's father, that is.

Noxim was the spitting image of his father, the only difference was that his hair wasn't pure white but a pale blond. It was also clear Vyne had inherited his facial features from his father and coloring from his mother.

He had hundreds upon hundreds of years to live with no end in sight, but the angels had come for him.

It was when he had left Tartarus and was alone save for some measly Demon Lord's guarding him. He saw the angels coming and he knew he had to send word, so he sent one of them back to Tartarus to tell his father that three archangels and a Seraphim had engaged him.

"Just go," he told the Demon Lords. "You'll die for no reason if you stay here. Go!"

They obeyed wordlessly. It wasn't as if they had known Noxim for long, so they wouldn't hesitate to leave him if ordered to do so.

"Now then," Noxim exhaled. "I'll make a glorious last stand here. Not that anyone is watching... Ha-ha."

He knew he was going to die. It'd be more surprising if he lived. Noxim had many regrets in his life, but if he had to die here, he was taking one of these arrogant bastards with him!

The archangels lowered themselves while the Seraph glowed brilliantly. Two wings covered its face, two to hide its feet, and two to fly with. In the dark sky, it was shining brighter than the distant stars and seemed to pull all light towards itself. Towards the glory of God.

Noxim smiled bitterly. To think these fools would be the ones to end him. Individually, he was stronger than each of them. But the archangel’s strength was in their numbers, they were weaker than demon’s of Noxim’s caliber, but, they overpowered the demons when they were in teams.

"Demon Noxim, Son of Lucifer, by our God's decree, you shall be eradicated!" Archangel Michael roared.

“All right!” Noxim shouted back. “Come at me.” He pulled out his vampiric sword. It worked by converting his blood into sheer power, which greatly supplemented his already existing strength.

Noxim was a top-tier swordsman, he was worlds above his son. If his opponents had been regular angels and not archangels, he would have survived, without a doubt.

The Archangel Michael, likewise, unsheathed his weapon, he spread out his wings and pointed his golden sword at Noxim. “May God’s Judgement fall upon you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Noxim snorted.

Behind Michael, Uriel begun preparing a spell while Gabriel lifted his bow, an arrow ready to shoot.

“Three versus one... you guys have no shame.” Noxim tapped his sword on his shoulder, his countenance depicting that he was amused by this entire situation.

“Silence, demon!”

Noxim spun his blade before gripping it tightly with both hands. He launched himself at Michael, their blades collided and the earth rumbled and shook. A fan-shaped area of destruction was created, but the two’s shining blades didn’t stop moving.

Upon each collision, there was a roar and another crater was formed.

It was clear to see that Noxim was winning against Michael, but Michael wasn’t the only archangel there.

Uriel released「 Divine Magic: God’s Hammer」. A spell that reached the upper limits of the Myth rank and couldn’t be compared to the spells the humans used in terms of strength.

A shimmering spear of light raced towards Noxim, who turned to block the spell with his sword. Noxim used his sword to redirect the spell, a very high-classed technique that could lead to his death with a single misstep.「 Holy Magic: God’s Hammer」was sent in the opposite direction of Noxim, where it slammed into the ground and completely obliterated a large portion of the earth. The sky lit up for a few moments before it returned to darkness.

Noxim didn’t have a second of reprieve because Michael charged at him once again.

He couldn’t even retreat in hopes of survival, Gabriel was releasing arrows that weren’t shot with the intention to harm Noxim, but rather, to keep him exactly where they wanted him.

I feel like a sheep being herded, Noxim thought to himself as he danced out of the way of Uriel’s attack and parried Michael’s sword.

They were exerting pressure on him that he had never felt before. Even in his spars with his father, he never felt this way.

Noxim gritted his teeth together when arrows impaled him in the back and in his thigh. Since it was imbued in Gabriel's「 Divine Magic: Holy Blessing」, Noxim's body couldn't heal the wound.

"Damn," he muttered as he tore the arrows out of his back and thigh. “That hurt.”

Michael smirked arrogantly at the panting Noxim. "Demon, there is no need for you to suffer. Our lord is merciful, just surrender and it will end quickly."

"Eh... How about no?" Noxim shot a ray of black mana out from his palm, the shot tore through Michael’s stomach and left a gaping hole.

Michael gasped in surprise, clutching his hand over his wound as his golden blood oozed out and slicked his fingers. “You... you scum!”

Similar to Noxim, Michael’s body was physically incapable of healing itself from「 Demonic Poisoning」, so it’d be a permanent wound until he had his body purified with the「 Sacred Waters」.

Not even Uriel’s healing abilities could Michael’s injury.

“Aiya, your suit is getting stained.” Noxim chuckled, the white suit that Michael wore was now sullied by Michael’s blood.

Michael’s pale face grew paler, a thin sheen of sweat coating his forehead. Since Noxim was stronger than Michael, his attack had more of a negative effect on Michael than Gabriel’s did on Noxim’s body. Also, the「 Demonic Poisoning」had a leech-like effect in that it drained the life-force of whoever had been touched by its virulent nature.

“Brother Michael,” Uriel’s soothing voice came. “Withdraw, Brother Gabriel and I will be enough to deal with this corrupted soul.”

Michael nodded his head and began to step back.

“As if I’d let you,” Noxim growled and used a minor teleportation skill to appear behind Michael and stab him. Noxim had aimed for Michael’s heart, but the archangel had moved fast enough so that Noxim’s blade barely missed Michael’s right lung.

Gabriel and Uriel both attacked Noxim, forcing him to put distance between himself and Michael. But the archangel had collapsed to the ground and was breathing weakly, he was bleeding profusely.

“I’m getting rusty,” Noxim muttered to himself. “Eh?”

He noticed that he felt an intense pain, a searing one in his heart. “Could it be that I... already?”

Noxim turned his head slowly, his eyes falling upon the Seraph high in the sky with a single finger pointed at Noxim.

“Cheating... bastard,” Noxim spoke as he hacked up blue blood, before falling down, dead.

Uriel descended from the air, rushing over to the Archangel Michael. “Brother Gabriel, assist me! We must quickly bring him to our「Sacred Waters」so that he is not lost.”

The two archangels picked up their fallen companion and supported his body, lifting him up into the sky with their mighty wings and flying off.

The Seraphim remained there for a few moments. Its covered face was tilted down in the direction of Noxim, it then turned its head and pointed at something in the sky.

There was a cracking sound, and the connection was broken.

...

Lucifer rewatched the scene of his son’s murder. One of the fleeing Demon Lords had sent a familiar to record what happened so that it could be shown to Lucifer for proof.

Lucifer could only feel the same pain in his heart that Noxim felt upon his death. He clutched his hands into fists, exhaling slowly.

Today was the day.

A week had passed since Laufeia had gained refuge in the fortress of the Dragon-ranked menace. Satan had offered to go along with Lucifer to retrieve Laufeia, Belial and Leviathan had wanted to go, too... but leaving Tartarus without the Four Princes of Hell was too good of an opportunity for the angel’s to strike.

Lucifer could feel the regret already, in his blind rage, he had ordered her execution.

But it was too late. It wasn’t as if he could retract the death sentence and say that he didn’t mean it. The only way it could be released was if Laufeia asked for his forgiveness... still, even with that, she’d be imprisoned for a few decades.

The others had known this, they were all laughing at him.

Satan, Belial, and Leviathan knew that this would happen. They had volunteered, mockingly, to help him. But this was only because they wanted to see the prideful and gloriously wise Lucifer admit his own mistake. To them, this was nothing more than an entertaining game.

“Laufeia, if only you hadn’t forced me into this situation,” Lucifer murmured.

He could only blame her cowardice. She was worried about the lives of others, but what about the life of her son? Of their daughter-in-law? Noxim had done nothing, his wife, Ray, had done nothing.

In fact, Noxim had only taken the lives of a handful of people, he had always been surprisingly gentle when it came to killing. And Ray was by no means a fighter!

It was only to their son that he had shown coldness, perhaps that had been one of his regrets upon death. Their treatment of Vyne had been mere selfishness on their part.

We want him to be strong.

That was their only reason. Both of them adamantly believed that absolute power could only be reached when one cared about nothing when there was nothing to drag them down.

Lucifer closed his eyes, remembering the times that all of them had been together.

That boy had never smiled.

Ah, truly, that was Noxim’s only regret upon his death. He never let Vyne experience happiness.

Lucifer decided that he would not only avenge his son but to also show his grandson the emotions he never got experience.

It was all for Noxim’s sake. It was all for Ray’s sake.

It was for their sake that he would take away his own joy.

I'll try to get out at least another chapter today, but there aren't any guarantees that'll come out. It should come out, though... probably.