Chapter 40 Training begins II
Mammon woke her at dawn. Again.
“Do these demons ever sleep?” Lilith muttered, dragging herself out of bed.
“Not when there’s work to do,” Mammon called through the door. “And we have a lot of work, little Seraph.”
She found him in a different part of the palace. Not a training ground. A room full of stuff. Weapons. Supplies. Random objects scattered everywhere.
“What is this?”
“Resource management,” Mammon said. He was leaning against a table, still favouring his injured ribs. “My brothers are teaching you how to fight. I’m teaching you how to survive.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Not even close.” He gestured to the mess. “Fighting is easy. Any idiot with a sword can fight. Surviving? That takes strategy. Planning. Knowing when to spend your energy and when to conserve it.”
He picked up a small dagger and tossed it to her.
She caught it. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Survive.” He smiled. “I’m going to attack you. Continuously. For the next hour. You can’t use your shields. You can’t use your power. Just that dagger and whatever else you can find in this room.”
“That’s insane.”
“That’s reality. What happens when you’ve burned through all your power? When your shields are gone and you’re exhausted? You improvise. You survive.” His eyes gleamed. “Now. Ready?”
“No”
He moved. Fast. Not as fast as Cain but fast enough.
Lilith dodged. Barely. Grabbed a chair and threw it.
Mammon deflected it easily and kept coming.
She ran, grabbed a length of chain from the table, and swung it wildly.
It actually connected and wrapped around his arm.
“Good!” Mammon said, his grin feral. “Use everything. Nothing is beneath you when you’re trying to stay alive.”
They went like that for an hour. Mammon attacking. Lilith improvising. Using furniture. Weapons. Random objects. Anything she could grab. By the end, she was exhausted. But she had survived.
“Excellent,” Mammon said. He was not even breathing hard despite his injury. “Tomorrow we work on energy conservation. How to fight for hours instead of minutes. But today?” He helped her up. “Today you learned that survival isn’t pretty. It’s messy. Desperate. And absolutely necessary.”
“I feel like I got hit by a wagon.”
“You look like it too.” His smile softened. “Go rest. You’ve earned it.”
Beelzebub found her in the dining hall, eating lunch like she was dying of starvation.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“Starving. Mammon tried to kill me for an hour.”
“He does that.” Beelzebub sat across from her. “Eat more. You’ll need it.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m teaching you absorption. How to take in energy from your surroundings. From food. From life itself.” His eyes were dark. Hungry. “How to sustain yourself when there’s nothing left.”
After lunch, he took her to the gardens. Green. Alive. Growing.
“Sit,” he said.
She sat.
“Close your eyes. Feel the life around you. The plants. The earth. The air. Everything is energy. Everything can feed you.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It is. But it’s also survival.” His voice was quiet. Serious. “When you’ve burned through everything, when there’s nothing left inside you, you pull from outside. From the world. From whatever’s around you.”
“That sounds like stealing.”
“It’s borrowing. The world replenishes. You just need to know how to ask.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Now breathe. Feel the energy around you. Don’t take it. Just feel it.”
Lilith tried. At first nothing. Then something. A pulse. A rhythm. Life moving through everything.
“I feel it,” she whispered.
“Good. Now pull. Just a little. Like sipping water instead of drowning.”
She pulled. Energy trickled into her. Warm. Alive. Her exhaustion eased slightly.
“That’s it,” Beelzebub said. “That’s exactly it. Now hold it. Let it settle. Don’t burn it immediately.”
They practiced for two hours. Pulling energy. Holding it. Releasing it slowly instead of all at once. By the end, Lilith felt less exhausted than she had all day.
“You’re a natural,” Beelzebub said. “Most people pull too hard. Take too much. Hurt themselves. But you?” He smiled. “You listen. That’s rare.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Tomorrow we work on recovery mid combat. But today you did well.”
Asmodeus found her in the late afternoon. She was sitting in the courtyard, trying not to fall asleep.
“Tired?” he asked.
“Exhausted.”
“Good. Tired people have fewer defenses.” His smile was sharp. Dangerous. “That’s when my lesson matters most.”
He sat beside her. Close. His presence was a lot. Heat and want and something that made her skin prickle.
“I’m teaching you seduction,” he said.
“What?”
“Not literal seduction. Psychological warfare. How to read people. Understand what they want. Use that against them.” His eyes held hers. “Everyone wants something. If you know what that is, you control them.”
“That’s manipulative.”
“That’s survival. You think enemies will fight fair? They’ll use every advantage. Every weakness. Every desire.” He leaned closer. “So you learn to do it first.”
“How?”
“By watching. Listening. Paying attention to things people don’t say.” He studied her. “What do you think I want right now?”
Lilith looked at him. Really looked. “To make me uncomfortable.”
“Why?”
“Because uncomfortable people reveal things. They react. They show their hand.”
His smile widened. “Excellent. You’re learning already.”
They spent two hours talking. Asmodeus asking questions. Lilith learning to read between words. To see patterns. To understand subtext.
“You’re better at this than you think,” he said finally. “You read people naturally. You just don’t trust yourself.”
“I’m not good at manipulation.”
“You’re not cruel. That’s different. You can read people without hurting them. That’s a gift.” He stood. “Tomorrow we work on confidence. How to project power even when you’re terrified. But today you learned that knowledge is a weapon. Use it wisely.”
Belphegor found her at sunset. She was half asleep on a bench.
“Don’t fall asleep yet,” he said quietly. “My turn.”
“I can barely move.”
“Perfect. You don’t need to move for what I’m teaching you.” He sat beside her. “I’m teaching you patience. Observation. How to wait for the right moment instead of forcing it.”
“That doesn’t sound like training.”
“It’s the hardest training of all.”
They sat in silence for an hour. Watching the sunset. Watching the guards change shifts. Watching life move around them.
“What am I supposed to be learning?” Lilith finally asked.
“Everything. The patterns. The rhythms. How people move when they think no one’s watching.” He pointed. “See that guard? He favors his left leg. Injured. See how the others compensate? They’re protecting him.”
Lilith looked and saw it.
“That’s observation,” Belphegor said. “Most people rush. They miss details. They act before they understand. But if you wait, if you watch, you see everything.”
“This is boring.”
“This is essential.” His smile was slight. “Sometimes the best action is inaction.”
Sera found her collapsed in her chambers.
“Five brothers?” Sera said. “In one day? You’re actually insane.”
“Maybe,” Lilith said weakly. “But I learned so much. Too much. My brain hurts.”
“What did you learn?”
“Survival. Energy. Reading people. Patience.” She closed her eyes. “And that I’m more tired than I thought possible.”
“Sleep,” Sera said gently. “Tomorrow you start the rotation again. Azrael’s offensive training.”
“Can’t wait,” Lilith mumbled.
She was asleep before Sera left the room. Tomorrow would be harder. But tonight she had survived five teachers in one day. And that felt like victory enough.