The capital has always a mess ever since she was born.
But to Tom, it was her home.
She'd grown up running through these streets, dodging the guards, bargaining with street vendors, pickpocketing when business were bad, and getting into a few too many scrapes for her own good. She didn't mind it though. The hustle kept her sharp, and in a city like this, you needed to be sharp.
A tomboy, they'd call her.
Too rough around the edges to be a proper lady, too proud to care what anyone thought. She didn't mind the label since it suited her just fine.
Tom had seen all kinds of people in her line of work.
Loud tourists, clueless nobles, shady merchants—and she could read them all like a book.
That's what made her good at her job.
She wasn't one of those doe-eyed kids who thought they could save the world. No, she was just trying to make a living. A scrappy teen, one foot in the muck of the streets, the other somewhere just high enough to keep herself afloat.
His client today, though.
He was different.
"What would I do if I had the power to change…?"
Tom blinked, caught off guard by Devil's question, her playful demeanor blurred, "Why do you ask? Are you plan to do something about it?"
"Hmm, perhaps."
"Hmmm…" she looked at the skies in wonder.
Yep, he was different.
Appearance aside, he gave her this ancient air he couldn't properly understand. He was not like human or octopus headed man, nor undead she had once guide. He was… more—It makes her a bit scared, like she was actually dealing with something even more horrible in a ugly plastic bag. But at the same time, she was drawn to his uniqueness.
That's why she took time to think about his question.
Maybe it's just his curiousity, maybe her answer won't mean a thing, but she got this mysterious feelings that her answer will decide something big.
"Hmm, I don't know~ Lemme think along the way!"
"Sure." he replied plainly.
Tom picked her breath then continued her tour.
She spent an hour walking around the garden, greeting several familiar faces before climbed and reached the rooftop of the tallest building in capital. It was hot so there are nobody above, but it's not important. What mattered was the view they got from there.
"This," she said, gesturing toward the edge of the rooftop, "is the best spot in the whole city."
She gazed to the palace in the distance, its spires shining in the sun like teeth. "Ahh, I always feel sick whenever I saw it; Where the big shots live. The ministers, the royals, all of 'em."
Devil Prime stepped closer to the edge, his nonexistent eyes scanning the horizon.
"Good view."
"Right?" she continued while fanning herself, " I bet it'll be better if the government really cared and start something like green project or whatever, but they don't care about the rest of us,"
Tom went on, leaning on the wall. "Up here, it's easy to forget what's down there. But trust me, mister, it's nothing but rot. The Demonland's a sinking ship, and those guys are the ones drilling the holes."
You seem to not afraid of them tho?
"Like, why I kept mocking them since earlier?" she chuckled, "Well I said it, they don't care."
"I see, why do you stay here? Human continent may be a good option since you don't hate them."
"Why do I stay?" she snorted, crossing her arms. "Why does anyone stay? We don't all have the luxury of leaving, you know. Some of us have to deal with this crap because it's all we've got."
"I see…"
For a long time they stuck in silence, staring at the bustling, dying capital of the Demonland.
It was Tom who broke the silence. After all she was a professional, she couldn't let the atmosphere turned awkward, it'll ruin her reputation.
"I haven't answered the question before, right?"
"You did."
Tom tilted her head to him, then smirked. "Well, I think we should go back to the old ways. You know, before the war. People always saying that it was good back then, but of course I don't know myself. But I guess it'll be nice to experience life in the old days."
"Good.." Devil smiled deeply, "I like your answer."
Tom not sure, but she felt suddenly uncomfortable. It was if the horrible peeked out of the plastic bag.
"Last question. Do you like it soft, hard, or bloody?"
"Huh? You mean like the change? Hard way I guess," she answered without thinking, "People are so drained they numb to everything these days, I think it'd be good to give everyone a tight slap and wake 'em up!"
"Then it will be done in hard way!"
What just happened?
Tom couldn't be sure, but right now, she was standing with blank expression atop the statue of Babel king, the national monument. No, she was not on the statue but something different, a dark surface unbelievably ancient. Prime's last words echoes behind her ears—
"Watch carefully, I will restore the demon order!"
—Tom screamed her lungs out.
But obviously was not because of what he said, but more from the fact that she was now hundred meters above ground. Right there. So small that nobody will saw her, and even if they did, who will cared?
"MISTERRRR!!!"
But Devil Prime paid her no mind.
He was already aloft, rising higher and higher, his form slow and deliberate as he pierced through the air like a blade that ascended toward the heavens. The winds howled around him, a mere whisper compared to the what he promised to comes next.
"They've erased my name," he muttered, his voice like ice cracking beneath immense pressure.
His words, though soft, carried the weight of an ancient wrath. The clouds parted as he broke through their gray embrace, the vast expanse of the crimson sky opening before him.
"But soon… oh, so soon… they will remember."
As the last shreds of cloud gave way to endless blue, Devil Prime came to a stop. His form was accentuated by the vastness of boundless red. His back facing the sun, he gazed at the earth below, a dying society unaware of the reckoning it was about to face.
He lifted his head and opened his mouth so wide even his mouth cracked as if his face was glass.
With a sharp crack of his face, the air shivered.
And it was no ordinary mouth.
It was a rift, a well to the sea of stars, an endless nebulae that defied comprehension. From within that beautiful pond, he drew something—small, at first, barely noticeable—yet it pulsed with a brightness so intense that it threatened to blind the world.
A pure, radiant white.
The speck of white suspended between his fingers like a delicate ball of light.
And then, it changed.
The light, once pure, turned dark.
A deep, oppressive blackness slowly bloomed from the core as its come in contact with the world, its glow swallowed by an infinite shadow. The white fire turned to a violent, unnatural dark, its light fading entirely.
The skies dimmed, the sun's rays recoiling as if in fear.
"It's time to remind the world of the name that once made Heaven tremble!"
With a single push, gentle yet laden with unimaginable power, he sent the dot of blackness upward. It glinted ominously against the brilliance of the sun. The sphere seemed to drink in the light, growing denser, darker, as if it were the seed of night itself.
"Ruinous Moon."
His voice reverberated in the heaven and earth.