She Belongs To The Devil

Adeline was already nervous because of the setting. And Azriel was going to make her even more anxious. He began to circle Adeline while giving her the final scenario of the test in a spooky voice.

"Assume that you are in the middle of a battle."

The moment he said that, Adeline began to see countless soldiers around her. Some were wearing the battle uniform of Wyverndale while some were wearing different sets of uniforms. Adeline could hear the battle cries, the clashing of swords, and the firing of arrows. They were fighting against each other mercilessly. She could feel the tension of the real war.

"On your left side, a fire demon is wreaking havoc on hundreds of your soldiers."

She turned to her left and to her surprise, a huge and scary-looking demon had cornered hundreds of her soldiers and was spewing fires from his mouth at her soldiers. The scene was too gut-wrenching for Adeline. Her soldiers were being burnt alive by that fire. They were crying and were running around to escape from the fire but there was nowhere to escape.

Adeline clutched her fist tightly and was trying her best not to run towards her soldiers to defend them. She was constantly chanting in her mind that none of it was real.

"And on your right, Lilith is seconds away from stabbing Theodore in his heart with her sword that was forged in the hellfire."

Adeline inhaled sharply and turned to her right. She covered her mouth when she saw the pitiful state of Theodore. He had already been beaten to a pulp. He had bruises and open wounds all over his body. He was covered in blood, sweat, and dirt. And there was a Demoness in front of him, wielding a sword that was painted with blood, most probably Theodore\'s.

Lilith gave out a shrieking battle cry and lunged towards Theodore, her sword aimed for his heart. This scene was playing out in slow-motion, which was torturing Adeline even more.

Azriel then stopped in front of Adeline and said while glancing at her hands, "On your hand, you have a divine arrow that was bestowed to you by God himself."

Adeline tore off her gaze from Theodore and looked down at her hands. In one hand she was holding a bow, while in the other, she was holding an arrow that had a design that she had never seen before in her life. The arrowhead looked more like a trident with a blade in the shape of a crescent moon attached in the middle.

And Azriel further explained, "The divine arrow has the power to kill even the strongest of the strong being from Hell. So my question is, who would you kill, the fire demon that is burning your soldiers alive or the Demoness who is about to kill Theodore?"

Adeline was trying her best not to break down given the surrounding she was in. She took a look at Theodore and then at the soldiers. She had never been in such a great dilemma in her life before.

The choice that Azriel had presented her with was not something that she could choose from. Neither she could be selfish enough to save Theodore and shove those hundreds of soldiers to their death, nor could she be benevolent enough to save the soldiers while sacrificing the love of her life.

Seeing her standing there motionless, Azriel nudged her verbally, "You won\'t have the luxury to waste this much time in the real battlefield. Everyone would have been dead by now if all of this was real."

Adeline took a deep breath in and scolded herself inwardly. "Get a grip of yourself, Adeline. This is the last hurdle that you have to cross to get to the throne. Remember, this is not real. The Deity is just trying to get to your head. He is just trying to get you to let your emotions cloud your judgment."

Though the chance of this exact replica of the battle happening in the future was almost zero, similar kinds of situations and dilemmas would constantly arise in the real battlefields. The choices wouldn\'t always be between the right and the wrong, it would be between the right and the right.

So she was not angry at the Deity for putting her through this tough and cruel situation. She knew that the road to the throne was not that easy. And she knew that this would be her life from now on, choosing among the most difficult choices, and making decisions that would affect the lives of others.

Adeline mounted the divine arrow in her bow and instead of answering by speaking, she was going to answer it by doing. She glanced at Theodore once again. The sword was nearing his heart already. She aimed at Lilith and stretched the string of her bow. Then she turned around and shot the divine arrow at the Fire Demon.

In an instant, the fire Demon was struck by that arrow right in the chest, turning him into a pile of ashes.

Adeline heard a heart-wrenching scream of Theodore from behind her. She dropped the bow to the ground and a drop of tear trickled down her cheek and landed on her chest. She didn\'t dare to look behind her because no matter whether all of this was real or fake, she did not want to see the end of Theodore.

Azriel raised his brows and nodded his head. "I see. But you still have to give me the reason why you did that. Why didn\'t you save Theodore? I thought you loved him. Was that all fake love?"

And out of nowhere, Adeline glared her eyes at the Deity and yelled, not caring he was the Deity, "You don\'t have the right to call my love towards him a fake. If there ever arose a need then I would happily die in his stead."

Azriel was not done provoking Adeline yet, so he mocked her, "Then why did you let him die just a while ago? I think you did that for the greed of the throne. And I think you would have done that for real just to get the throne."

Adeline was now furious at the Deity for running his mouth wildly. She stared the Deity right in his eyes and shouted again, "How can you even say such things? Is it your hobby to hurt others?"

"I would never trade Theodore for anything, not even the throne. I chose to kill the fire demon instead because I know Theodore is not someone that weak who need protection from a human. In real life, Theodore is invincible. He is the Devil Prince and he would never be defeated by some Demoness, no matter whether she wielded a sword forged in hellfire or a sword dipped in holy water."

She pointed in the direction where the soldiers were and gave the reasoning to her earlier action, "The soldiers, on the other hand, would not be able to defend themselves when facing such a formidable enemy from Hell. That is why I decided to use the divine arrow to finish off that demon."

Azriel finally looked satisfied by Adeline\'s answer. "You assessed the situation very nicely." And he said while pointing his jaw in the direction where Theodore was and ordered, "Look."

Adeline was reluctant to see Theodore so Azriel asked again, "Trust me. Take a look."

Adeline slowly turned her head towards Theodore and she was relieved to see that the fake Theodore was still alive. He was holding the blade of the sword with both of his hands and was resisting the attack. He had given out the cry earlier because of the cuts on his palms.

Until now, no matter how much pain she felt and no matter how anxious she was, Adeline was putting on her brave face. And now that the test was finally over, Adeline\'s knees gave out and she fell to the ground.. She stared at the fake Theodore fading away with everything else.