Creed didn’t think he could be more impressed.
He was wrong.
After redith was officially accepted into the squad, complete with Tierra giving her a gentle pat on the head like a saintly big sister and Lilith smirking like a smug queen who’d found a new favorite pet, the air settled into a calm buzz.
The room still shimred faintly with magical particles from the girls’ return, and every breath Creed took slled like ozone and silver dew, as if the universe had personally sprayed the training hall with a "Welco Back, Badasses" fragrance.
But just as he was soaking it all in, smiling to himself and thinking how cool everything had turned out, Lilith turned to him with a flick of her knee-length hair and dropped a bomb.
"Oh right," she said casually, voice like silk soaked in thunder. "We’re at the peak of Silver now."
Creed blinked.
"Wait. Peak of, like, stage five Silver?"
Both won nodded in unison. Lilith stretched, her now-massive bat-like wings casting a flickering purple glow against the walls, while Tierra adjusted her sleek silver ponytail like it was nothing.
They didn’t brag. They didn’t smirk or gloat. They just... confird it. As if telling soone they drank water that morning.
anwhile, Creed just stood there at Stage 1 Silver, feeling like a loaf of burnt bread in a gourt bakery.
"Damn," he muttered under his breath. "I’m literally getting carried by my summons."
"No matter what," Tierra said softly, "you’re still our master. But yes, in combat, we would be the ones carrying you now."
Lilith snorted, trying not to laugh.
Creed rubbed his forehead, half-laughing, half-crying on the inside.
As if that wasn’t enough, Lilith stepped closer and tapped two fingers against her temple. Instantly, a beautiful violet glow burst to life.
The activation of her sigil.
But it was not just in her irises this ti, but curling out across the sides of her face in intricate lines, like glowing lightning tattoos weaving from her eyes to her temples.
The patterns sparkled like ancient runes blessed by the heavens. Tierra followed suit a mont later, activating her own sigil.
Hers was a gleaming silver lattice of light, like threads of glass woven into her skin, radiating quiet authority and the unnerving calm of soone who could bend space like origami.
Creed’s jaw almost unhinged. The power they emanated at that mont sent a shiver down his spine.
"Okay, okay, stop! Ti out. What even is that?! I’ve always wanted to ask this—what’s the difference between a Path and a Sigil?
"You’ve both got these glowing tattoo-thingies that make you look like divine bosses, while I’ve just been comprehending like a sweaty monk in a basent!"
Lilith and Tierra exchanged a quick glance. Then, Tierra stepped forward to explain. She clasped her hands behind her back, her voice calm but laced with passion for the truth.
"A Path," she began, "is sothing one comprehends. Through training, ditation, life experience... you push your understanding of a concept—like lightning, wind, space—until it becos deep enough to affect the world. The deeper your comprehension, the more reality listens to you."
Creed nodded along. That part he got. His Path of Killing and his Paths of Freedom and the Mountain were exactly that.
"But a Sigil," Lilith cut in, "is bestowed. You don’t earn it by grinding. The universe gives it to you when it thinks you’re worthy, like a crown given to a chosen ruler."
Tierra continued, "With a Path, you understand the laws. With a Sigil, you have authority over them. It’s like the difference between knowing how fire works... and being the god of fire."
Creed’s eyes widened. "That’s insane. Are you saying, wait, no. Show ."
Lilith smiled like soone about to win a bet.
"Gladly. Try to hit with your lightning. Use your strongest lightning technique, and use your strongest intent."
He didn’t need to be told twice. With a smirk and a dramatic spin, because of course he needed flair, Creed snapped his fingers and summoned three Thunderclap Orbs, each one buzzing with angry purple energy.
They hovered in the air, popping and crackling like miniature storms.
Then, he thrust his hand forward.
"Go!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The orbs zipped forward like bullets, only to stop midair. Not blocked. Not resisted.
They turned.
They slowed down, spun midair like excited puppies, and floated over to Lilith, crackling happily as they buzzed around her like fireflies around a lantern.
One even nuzzled her cheek like it wanted a cuddle.
"...What."
Lilith didn’t say anything. She just winked.
Creed’s jaw dropped again. "I made those! They’re mine!"
"Nope," Lilith said sweetly, petting one of the orbs. "They belong to lightning. And lightning belongs to ."
Tierra stepped in again. "A Path could never do that. At most, if your comprehension is stronger than soone else’s, you can suppress or resist their attack.
"But a Sigil... grants you dominion. It allows you to seize control of your elent even when soone else is using it."
Creed sat down.
Not because he was tired.
Because his ego needed a mont to recover.
"And that’s not all," Lilith added, eyes gleaming. "With the Sigil active, we don’t need to ’comprehend’ arts or paths at all. Every casual attack we make with our elent is as strong or even stronger than a top-tier art. It’s like cheating, honestly."
"Of course, you are cheating," Creed muttered happily, flopping onto his back like he just won a lotto. "No wonder you look like you walked out of a cosmic romance novel with stats."
Lilith nudged him with her foot and giggled.
But then, just as Creed was contemplating throwing a party to celebrate his impending rise to success through his beautiful girls, Tierra’s tone shifted.
"Still," she said softly, her expression growing serious, "the most important part of the shedding... was this."
"We’ve gained access," Tierra whispered, "to our true forms."
Creed sat up slowly.
"True... forms?"
His chest tightened, not from anxiety or fear, but from pride.
Whatever was coming next...
He had a feeling it was going to be legendary.
He was eager to see this ’form’ of theirs!
Lilith and Tierra stood side by side in the middle of the training hall. The air around them shimred as they closed their eyes, lifting their hands slowly as their sigils pulsed once with radiant light.
The violet glow in Lilith’s temple markings deepened, and the silvery web etched across Tierra’s face shimred like it was woven from starlight itself.
Then, their bodies began to blur, but not like teleportation or speed movent. This was different. Their forms didn’t vanish, they simply shifted.
Translucent waves peeled from their skin, like reality was parting around them. Their flesh shimred, flickered... and then, impossibly, beca dreamlike.
Their edges softened, turned hazy. Their hair floated in slow motion, like they were underwater. Their eyes glowed faintly with impossible colors, violet and silver mixing like galaxies colliding.
Creed gasped and staggered back a step.
Lilith’s now-ethereal form was breathtaking. Her long hair rippled in every direction like strands of smoke trapped in a soft wind.
Her wings had transford, glowing softly and moving more like emotion than flesh. She seed less like a person and more like a living desire made visible; beautiful, dangerous, untouchable.
Her aura wasn’t just seductive anymore. It commanded attention. Her smile looked like sothing stolen from a dream, and her voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Tierra’s true form was just as stunning in a totally different way. Her silver hair now shimred like liquid moonlight, falling in strands of translucent silk.
Her feet no longer touched the ground. Space around her rippled gently, like gravity itself was rethinking its job.
Her expression was serene, but there was power in it, a calm certainty that she could crush mountains without blinking. Even her scent was ethereal now, like fresh snow drifting through a quiet dream.
"This," Lilith said, her voice echoing inside Creed’s thoughts, "is our true form."
Creed opened his mouth to say sothing cool and composed like, "Amazing."
Instead, what ca out was: "WHAT?!"
He stumbled back another step, clutching his head. He could feel them, not just see them, but feel them inside his mind.
It wasn’t intrusive, not like soone digging into his thoughts, but more like he was sharing a space with them.
Their presence drifted through his emotions, brushing past his focus, teasing the edges of his attention. He caught himself thinking things he hadn’t ant to. Dreamy things. Strange things. Intense things!
"W-Wait, are you in my head right now?!"
Tierra smiled calmly, her voice gentle but layered with sothing vast.
"Not deeply. But yes... the true form of a succubus exists partially in the dreamscape. We can enter thoughts, walk into the dreams of others, influence their emotions, and even interfere with their mories if needed."
Lilith chuckled. "Or just make soone insanely turned on, if we feel like it."
"Lilith!" Tierra hissed, trying not to laugh.
"What?" Lilith shrugged, wings fluttering innocently. "You know it’s true. Our True Forms can basically weaponize desire. We don’t just manipulate people’s minds, we control what they feel.
"And unlike most ntal attacks, it doesn’t matter how strong your ntal defenses are... everyone dreams. Everyone feels."
Creed just stared, overwheld.
They weren’t just beautiful anymore. They weren’t just strong.
They were monsters.
Terrifying, dreamy, dangerously perfect monsters that could walk into soone’s mind and rewrite the script.
"...You’re both insane," Creed muttered. "Do you realize what this ans?"
He looked at his hands like they were holding gold bars. "I have two summons who can weaponize lust, manipulate dreams, control emotions and still blow stuff up with lightning and space?"
Lilith and Tierra nodded slowly.
Creed began pacing dramatically, hands in his hair. "This is unreal. I have gold-level summons now. GOLD. You two are basically at least Stage 1 of the Gold level now, right?"
"Yes," Tierra confird, soft and matter-of-fact. "Our power levels has already gone past the starting point of Gold."
Creed fell to his knees and raised his arms to the heavens. "YES! I AM IMMORTAL! Who’s going to ss with now?! I’ve got nightmare queens as bodyguards!"
Lilith tilted her head. "Had he started again?"
"I guess," Tierra replied, smiling.
Creed took a deep breath and finally cald down, standing up straight again.
But as the energy settled, and their dreamlike auras gently faded back to their normal Silver-level forms, another thought bubbled up in Creed’s mind.
One that had been bothering him ever since their consciousnesses had connected during their deep state before the shedding.
That woman.
That thing.
He rembered the chilling scene in their shared ntal space; the towering woman wrapped in endless black chains, her power so imnse it seed to drown the very concept of thought.
Her beauty had been terrifying, unnatural. Majestic like a goddess and terrifying like the abyss.
He had to know.
"Hey," he said, more serious now. "Back when we linked minds in the unexplored rift... I saw a woman. She was chained up. Her presence... it was unreal. She didn’t look like you two. She was... bigger. Stronger. Terrifying. Who was that?"
Suddenly, the air dropped ten degrees.
Lilith and Tierra froze.
The joy faded from their faces.
"Creed," Lilith said slowly, her tone a complete shift from playful to serious. "You should not ask about her."
"Why?" Creed frowned. "Is she your mother or sothing?"
"No," Tierra said softly, her eyes dimming. "She is... sothing else. Sothing beyond us."
Creed’s curiosity burned hotter. "Then who is she? Why was she in your mind?"
Lilith leaned in slightly, her voice barely a whisper. "Because she was sealed in us and we in her. But we are not allowed to speak of her."
Tierra nodded. "Not here. Not anywhere. You don’t understand, Creed. If we speak of her na... if we even whisper her identity... she will notice."
Creed’s heart skipped a beat.
"Wait. You an no matter where she is in the universe—"
"She will hear it," Tierra confird. "And if she notices you... she does not forget."
For once, Creed was silent.
That wasn’t just power.
That was cosmic horror.
That was sothing the universe itself bowed to.
He took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. I won’t ask again."
Lilith smiled gently. "Good. We want you alive."
"Yeah, well," Creed muttered, hands on his hips, "I want alive too."
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