Chapter 208: Truth

The doors slammed shut.

Every lock inside the Leonidus mansion clacked at once—iron bolts, arcane sigils, enchanted seals. Catherine didn’t blink as faint runes lit the walls in a soft red glow, pulsing like a heartbeat.

"Done," she whispered.

Aiden’s golden eyes flickered with something dark. Too dark. The Saintess stepped back instinctively, her breath catching like a trapped bird.

The seven women exchanged a single look—battle-ready, poised, sharpened.

The air thickened.

Then—

The floor trembled.

Aiden’s head snapped to the left. His ears twitched—an instinct that wasn’t human.

"...they’re here," he murmured.

The Saintess froze. "Who is—"

Her words died.

Shadows pooled at the corners of the ceiling. Not normal shadows. These ones crawled—layered, liquid, alive.

Sabrina hissed. "Teleportation sigils."

Catherine’s smile thinned. "So they dare."

Eve drew a dagger seemingly from thin air. "Let them come."

Akidna grabbed a spear from beneath the dining table.

Tanya cracked her knuckles again—except this time, the sound was louder. Bone against bone. War.

Flora and Luna moved together, hair floating as mana thrummed around them.

Aiden placed a hand in front of the Saintess.

"Stay behind me."

She obeyed without thinking.

The shadows bloomed.

One by one—

Assassins fell from the ceiling.

Silent. Masked. Cloaked in black mana.

Twenty.

Thirty.

More than thirty.

The Saintess gasped.

The women smiled. They all smiled.

And Aiden...

Aiden’s aura exploded.

[Arina’s Skill used]

[Copying....]

[Copying Done, Aros’s Aura Explosion Copied]

A golden-black vortex unfurled from his body, sweeping across the hall like a storm. The chandeliers rattled violently. The windows warped under the pressure. The tapestries flapped wildly as though caught in a hurricane.

His hair shifted—turning silver-white, strands floating like weightless silk. His pupils sharpened vertically, glowing like molten amber. Veins of faint luminescent ink curled across his throat and collarbone.

The women stepped back as the Saintess trembled.

Not because she feared him—

But because she felt something inside her respond.

An echo.

A whisper.

A pulse.

As if her own soul recognized him. Like it needed him.

Aiden took one step forward and afraid of his next move, the assassins attacked.

The first assassin lunged for the Saintess. Aiden didn’t move—just flicked a finger.

A line of force—silent, sharp—cut through the air.

The assassin split in two.

His body hit the floor in two pieces.

The Saintess gasped.

"L..lucifer—"

He didn’t hear her.

He was changing.

Another assassin threw a spear. Aiden caught it midair, crushed it into dust, and sent the particles backward in a deadly wave that pierced five attackers’ chests.

Sabrina smirked. "and here I thought he was only terrifying in bed...."

Catherine glanced at the Saintess. "He always was...."

But then—

Something snapped inside him.

His aura surged again—wild, unrestrained. The walls groaned. The floorboards buckled under his feet.

[Lilith wants more... Lilith says let’s make it more entertaining...]

His wings began to form—shadows unfolding from his back like the beginnings of night itself.

But it wasn’t a full transformation.

It was worse.

Half-transformed. Half-sealed. Half-feral.

Aiden clenched his jaw, breathing raggedly.

"fucking bitch, Not... now..."

His fingers dug into his chest, trying to stop the power from breaking through. But the more he suppressed it, the more violent it became.

His voice dropped lower, distorted.

"Get... away..."

The Saintess took a trembling step closer. "lucifer—"

"BACK!"

The power burst outward.

Every candle in the mansion extinguished at once.

Darkness swallowed the room—except for Aiden’s burning golden eyes.

The assassins charged in the darkness—

And Aiden descended into them like a falling star.

What followed was not a battle.

It was slaughter.

Bodies fell. Shadows fled. Stone cracked. Paintings shredded. Blood hissed when it touched Aiden’s aura.

He moved like a nightmare.

Silent.

Precise.

Beautiful.

Terrifying.

The Saintess stared—not breathing, not blinking.

That was not a demon.

Not an angel.

Not anything her scripture ever dared describe.

Her heart trembled in her chest like it was trying to flee.

But she couldn’t look away.

He was protecting her.

For her.

Only her.

But then—

Aiden stumbled.

Just a fraction.

But it was enough.

His aura spiked uncontrollably, the glow turning from gold to a dangerous red-black.

His wings—half-shadow, half-energy—flared violently.

The ground cracked in a spiderweb beneath him. Flora knew this feeling, this aura, the time when he was quaking and turned into his godly incubus form.

Flora shouted, "He’s losing control!"

Luna added, "He’ll break the mansion!"

Akinda eyes narrowed. "He’ll break himself."

The Saintess realized something horrifying—

Aiden wasn’t fighting the assassins.

He was fighting his own transformation.

[Lilith is laughing ever so loudly]

And he was losing.

He was going feral.

His breaths were ragged, pained, animalistic.

His hand clawed at his own chest, tearing skin.

He growled—a low, resonant, inhuman sound that chilled the Saintess to the bones.

She stepped toward him.

The women shouted.

"Stay back!"

"He’ll dangerous!"

"He’s not Aiden right now!"

But she didn’t stop.

Her hand trembled violently as she reached up to his face.

His aura lashed out, cracking the marble floor.

He bared his teeth, eyes burning red.

The Saintess whispered—

"...aiden...lucifer, whoever may you be...."

Her fingers brushed his cheek.

The world stilled.

His aura recoiled instantly, collapsing inward like a dying flame. The red drained from his eyes. His wings flickered, unstable, then vanished entirely.

He knelt.

Breathing hard.

Sweating.

Shaking.

But human again.

[Lilith says, fuck this saintess woman]

The room exhaled.

The women stared. Surprised even.

The mansion stopped cracking.

Aiden lifted his head slowly, eyes locking with hers—still glowing faintly gold.

"...Why..." his voice broke, "Why did you help?, I’m a.."

She swallowed, terrified yet drawn closer, her hand still cupping his cheek.

"I—I don’t know," she whispered.

"But when you changed... something inside me reacted."

Aiden’s breath hitched.

The Saintess’s voice dropped to a trembling whisper.

"luci..Aiden... am I... attracted to you?"

The women froze.

Aiden froze.

The air froze.

For a moment, the only sound was the faint drip of blood from the assassins.

Aiden slowly stood, still holding her hand to his cheek.

His voice was low. Careful. Almost reverent.

"...No."

He stepped closer.

"But whatever you are..."

His fingers slid over her wrist—gentle, cautious, afraid to break her.

"...it isn’t human."

Her heart stopped.

The women stared, stunned.

Aiden leaned down, voice barely audible, hot against her ear.

"And it’s waking up."

Her pulse thundered.

Her knees weakened.

Her breath hitched.

And then—

From somewhere deep within the mansion...

A second seal broke.

A golden shockwave burst from the floor beneath them—holy light, divine and wrong at the same time.

Aiden’s eyes widened.

The Saintess collapsed forward into his arms, glowing faintly.

He caught her instantly, cradling her as though she were made of glass.

Her eyes fluttered open, glowing softly—pure gold.

"Aiden..." she whispered, voice layered with something ancient.

"Don’t lie to me. Not anymore."

Aiden’s breath trembled.

Her aura pulsed against his, warm and terrifying.

And for the first time—

the predator inside Aiden felt fear.

She wasn’t just awakening.

She was remembering.

He held her tighter.

Too tight.

And yet not enough.

The women stared at her in awe.

And fear.

Aiden whispered—

"...Saintess... what are you?" he asked, as this was never in the plot.

Her eyes glowed brighter.

She smiled faintly.

"I think...i...i think we are some how the same..."

The mansion lights flickered.

The seal beneath the floor hummed.

Something ancient stirred in her blood.

And Aiden realized—

The real danger

was only now beginning.

Silence crushed the hall.

Aiden held the Saintess in his arms, her body glowing with an otherworldly light that danced across her skin like living gold.

The assassins lay scattered around them like discarded shadows.

The women watched—not breathing, not moving—as the glow intensified.

Catherine whispered, "This aura... it’s not ...divine."

Sabrina’s grip on her dagger tightened. "No. It’s older."

Tanya stepped forward, fists trembling. "Aiden, is she—"

Aiden didn’t answer.

He couldn’t.

Because the woman in his arms—

the one he had fiercely protected, the one who had calmed his feral transformation with a single touch—

was now radiating a power that dwarfed his own. An aura, ever so familiar with incubus....like a succubus.

A power that made his half-incubus instincts recoil in want.

His chest tightened with a foreign sensation—

fear, awe, desire, dread, longing, all tangled into one unbearable tension.

Her eyes opened.

Still gold.

Still glowing.

But not the soft glow of divinity.

No.

This light pulsed like a heartbeat.

Alive. Ancient. Claiming.

Her gaze found Aiden’s instantly—like she had been born knowing where he was.

"Aiden," she whispered, and the sound pierced his soul like a command.

His breath caught.

Her hand—delicate, trembling, warm—pressed against his chest.

Not in fear.

In recognition.

In ownership.

And something inside him shattered.

The floor beneath the mansion trembled.

The last remaining assassin—one who had been pretending to be dead—leaped up, aiming a dagger straight for the Saintess’s throat.

He didn’t reach her.

He evaporated midair.

Not burned.

Not frozen.

Not sliced.

Erased.

A sphere of golden light pulsed from the Saintess’s body, and where it touched him, existence simply vanished.

The women gasped.

Flora stepped back so fast she hit the wall.

Luna nearly dropped her spellbook.

Sabrina cursed under her breath.

Catherine swallowed hard.

Aiden pulled her closer, chest tightening.

"That wasn’t holy magic," Eve whispered, voice cracking.

"That was..."

She cut herself off, fear widening her eyes.

Aiden finished the sentence for her—quietly, painfully.

[Familiar species detected]

"...succubus...high succubus."

The Saintess blinked, confused—as if waking from a dream.

The glow faded from her eyes.

Her breathing steadied.

She looked down at her hands, trembling.

"I... I didn’t mean to—"

Aiden cupped her cheek gently, stopping her.

His voice—low, rough, intimate—shook her entire body.

"You’re awakening. You can’t control it yet...the powers you had, they were not holy from the beginning...the charm of a leader, the magnetism of followers...you always had it but never awakened it..."

Her throat tightened.

"then...... what am I?"

Catherine swallowed. "We were hoping you could tell us."

Tanya stepped forward, fists clenched. "Because whatever that was—nothing human can do it."

The Saintess’s voice broke. "I—I’m a saintess...God’s chosen...."

Her glow flickered with her emotions.

Aiden felt the shift—felt the surge building again.

’i can’t tell her yet, there is no god, there whole religion is based on sham. That’s why it’s too easily corrupt....’