Shadow Monarch Hero: Viridian (SMH: Deku rewrite)

The Lord of Hell

"Shouldn't we have let them see Atric before we went past them?" Izuku asked as he followed on Merix's heels. He was still recovering from the emotional rollercoaster, but he seemed to be in better shape than Merix himself, who was shambling in a stupor.

The question seemed to snap him out of it for a moment. "Uhh... no."

"The Tenebris and Lux have very specific customs for their dead. The Lux are perhaps more... emotionless about it." Quorra expanded on her husband's answer. "But both species... destroy their dead."

"Destroy?" Izuku asked. "Like cremation?"

"No. We were raised in war. No time to mourn, no time to scatter or bury any remains. Using magic, we completely deconstruct their bodies. Down to such nothingness that it cannot even be seen."

"Molecular deconstruction?" Momo piped up. "That sounds... powerful."

Quorra shook her head. "It is not quick, and it can only be done on a perfectly still creature. In other words, it can only be performed on the dead. But it's more potent than even the Particle Storm."

"Besides..." Merix muttered. "Atric was in pain, they wouldn't want to remember him anyways."

"You don't remember your dead?"

"It's... complicated. Like she said, we grew up not expecting the demon or angel next to us to be alive the next day. The fact that we're still alive after all this time is... well it's insane. It's a probability that cannot be calculated."

Quorra nodded. "The longer we live, the stronger we get, and the more of a target we become to the other side. Myself and Merix are amongst the strongest of our kind. But like the rest of our kind, we are expendable."

Merix scoffed. "Not even the nobility are excluded. I was blaming them... all this time... But they don't feel good about it either... They just wanted to end it all. All this pain..."

Izuku exchanged a worried glance with Momo, concerned for Merix's mental health, but she shook her head. She knew he was fine... well... he was stable enough to not compromise the team.

"They still did something wrong, though." Izuku pointed out. "I'm not saying you should never forgive them, just that you should know that your animosity towards them isn't unfounded. You have a right to feel the way you do."

"I... see... You sound like you have experience in dealing with one who wronged you..."

Izuku and Momo practically barked out a laugh. "Yeah, you could say I've had some... troubles with one person in particular."

"Would you... tell me of them? We do have 50 more Floors to traverse before reaching the Demon King. And with all of the remaining Tenebris behind us, it would do well to talk."

"Oh jeez... where do I even start?"

*******

"And that is where we are today." Izuku finished, glancing at Merix with concern. Not because of anything serious. It was just that he was appalled that the tales of Bakugo managed to keep him occupied for 49 of the 50 Floors. His face was contorted into an ugly shape, even by demonic standards.

Even though they had been running through the tunnels and caverns for the sake of time, it had still been a couple of hours.

"Well... I suppose Yaoyorozu truly was correct... More suffering condensed into a shorter life..."

"Things haven't been all bad though," Izuku responded, exchanging a small smile with his Raiding Partner, his Empress.

"No," Merix agreed, doing the same with his wife. But soon after, the memory of his daughter surfaced in his mind, and his focus was once more on the task at hand, the task right at their face.