Chaos’s Daughter: Sweet But Psycho

Chapter 50: The Orb of Liquefied Thunder

Hespera descended the grand staircase, rolling out her shoulders as if shedding the last traces of indulgence. The estate’s air crackled softly, already sensing the shift in her intent.

Ophis stood where she had been before, cross-legged on the velvet lounge, calmly reading a novel that read: "How to Make tasty Macarons Without Blowing Anything Up". Her gaze lifted as Hespera approached, blinking once as if studying her aura.

"You're glowing," Ophis observed flatly, though there was the faintest lift at the corner of her mouth.

"I had… stress to burn," Hespera replied with a languid stretch of her arms, her lips curling in lazy amusement. She flicked her braid back over her shoulder and arched a brow. "Ready to go ruin someone’s week?"

Before Ophis could answer, another pulse of void-threaded energy shimmered in the air.

Nyx emerged through the swirling remnants of shadow and starlight, her posture casual, her midnight hair rippling like a living veil. She regarded Ophis with faint curiosity, then Hespera with a predatory smile.

"Going somewhere without me, Starlight?" Nyx purred, her voice soft as silk but sharp as a dagger.

Hespera didn’t even blink.

"Like I would stop you."

Nyx’s smirk widened as she drifted closer, walking just a little too gracefully around them both like a moon orbiting a collapsing star.

Ophis, for her part, simply lifted her book again, reading calmly.

"She’s harmless," the Infinity Dragon muttered.

Hespera snorted. "You say that like I don’t attract every dangerous bitch in the universe."

With a flick of her wrist, Hespera opened a rippled violet portal, its edges humming with spatial tension.

On the other side waited the Gremory estate.

She turned to glance back at Nyx and Ophis, lifting her hand dramatically.

"Let’s go pluck some fallen angel's feathers."

And without another word, she stepped through the portal, her two terrifying companions gliding after her like shadows cast by something far bigger than Olympus ever dared to imagine.

The portal peeled open with a low hum, depositing Hespera, Ophis, and Nyx right at the edge of the grand dining hall—and what a scene they walked into.

Lightning crackled through the air, bright arcs snapping from wall to ceiling, barely missing a sweating Baraqiel who was zig-zagging frantically across the open space like a man trying to survive a divine lightning storm.

"You left us!"

"I was protecting you—!"

"With abandonment?!"

"Akeno, please—!"

Akeno, standing barefoot in the center of the room with her hair wild and her aura flaring, launched another bolt that nearly singed Baraqiel’s hair clean off his head. Her expression was somewhere between tears and wrath, her hands trembling but relentless.

All the while, the Gremory family, Rias’s peerage, and a very tired-looking Sirzechs sat comfortably around the edge of the room, watching like it was the most chaotic family soap opera they’d ever seen.

Grayfia stood at the far side with a tray of drinks, her face flat as a marble statue.

"Twenty demonic coins on Akeno frying him," Kiba whispered.

"Thirty that she ignores him after," Gasper mumbled through his fingers.

Rias facepalmed, muttering something about needing stronger wards.

Akeno let loose another bolt, and Baraqiel ducked, rolling behind a couch for cover.

That’s when the portal snapped closed behind Hespera.

The entire room shifted.

The air grew dense.

The wards of the estate tightened.

And one by one, every pair of eyes turned toward her.

Toward Ophis, reading casually beside her.

And toward Nyx, who waved cheekily like she was greeting neighbors across a fence.

Akeno froze mid-throw, chest heaving.

Baraqiel peeked up over the couch, eyes widening as if Death herself had materialized.

"Oh," Hespera purred, placing a hand on her hip, her heterochromatic gaze sweeping the room. "Did I miss the fireworks?"

Hespera exhaled softly through her nose.

Enough.

She didn’t move.

She didn’t speak.

She simply let go—just a sliver of the gravity curling beneath her skin.

The temperature shifted first—the air becoming thicker, heavier, like the atmosphere itself had been replaced with pure pressure. Every breath became just a little harder to take.

Then came the hum—deep and low, vibrating through bone and blood, bypassing the ears entirely and pressing straight into the nervous system. A quiet, overwhelming presence that rippled through the floor, up the walls, into the very foundation of the estate.

The light dimmed, shadows stretching unnaturally as if trying to crawl away.

Akeno’s lightning fizzled out mid-throw, crackling harmlessly into vapor as her knees buckled, sweat breaking across her skin as her magic refused to respond.

Baraqiel collapsed onto all fours, gasping like he’d just run ten miles underwater, his wings flickering with panic.

Rias’s peerage froze, eyes wide, backs stiff.

Gasper let out a tiny squeak and collapsed into his box.

Even Sirzechs, for all his power, had to plant his hand on the armrest of his chair to keep himself upright, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

No one could move.

Except for Ophis, who flipped to another page of her cook book without a care in the world.

And Nyx, who looked downright giddy, biting her lip like she was watching her favorite drama unfold.

Hespera tilted her head, her smile razor-sharp and deceptively sweet.

"Now," she purred, "shall we have a civilized conversation?"

Baraqiel nodded frantically, still struggling to breathe.

Akeno’s lips trembled, but she lowered her hands, swallowing the knot in her throat.

The pressure lifted, but not completely.

Hespera walked forward, her boots the only sound in the silent room.

She stopped directly in front of Baraqiel, looking down at him like a queen observing a kneeling traitor.

"Stand up," she ordered softly.

Baraqiel’s shaking hands gripped the floor, struggling to push himself upright under the suffocating weight of her lingering aura.

"I—"

He coughed, swallowing the breath that refused to come easily. "I… was only… trying to protect her…"

Hespera didn’t blink. Didn’t even flinch.

Her lips curled ever so slightly.

"I didn’t ask for your excuses. I no longer much care why you choose to be a deadbeat father."

She leaned in, voice dropping to a velvet whisper that shredded the last of his composure.

"I am only to ask you once… where it is."

Baraqiel’s breath hitched, confusion flashing in his watery eyes.

"…W-Where what is…?"

Her gaze darkened like the collapsing edge of a star.

"The Orb of Liquefied Thunder," she breathed, her words slicing through the room like a blade.

The Orb of Liquefied Thunder was a crystalline, floating sphere no larger than an apple, swirling with concentrated elemental lightning—not energy, not plasma, but thunder itself, distilled into a semi-liquid state through lost alchemical techniques and divine intervention.

It hummed with the rage of a thousand storms, bound within primal glass formed from the sands of Mount Olympus itself.

In the wrong hands, it could level cities.

In the right hands… it could reshape weather, bend lightning to will, or amplify divine authority over storm-based phenomena.

It had been entrusted to Baraqiel long ago—hidden, protected, sealed away.

Or so she’d been told.

Baraqiel paled. He knew exactly what she meant now.

"It… it’s safe—"

"I’ll decide that," she interrupted coldly.

Her eyes narrowed, glowing faintly, the air crackling just enough to make his halo flicker dangerously.

"Where. Is. It?"

Baraqiel swallowed hard, panic flickering across his face.

"It’s… it’s still secured in Heaven. The vault under the Seraphim chambers. I swear," he lied through his teeth, voice cracking under the weight of her presence.

Hespera’s lips twitched. Not into a smile. Into something far colder.

"Liar."

Before Baraqiel could draw another breath—

CRACK.

Her foot slammed into his gut with brutal, unnatural force.

The air ripped apart with the impact as his body was launched backward like a ragdoll, crashing through the first wall with a spray of stone dust—

then the next—

and the next—

until his body bounced across the far hall, crumpling into a pile of debris.

The entire mansion shook, a few chandeliers swaying ominously overhead.

The room stood frozen again.

No one dared breathe.

Nyx let out a low, whistling hum, clearly entertained. "Ooooh, that’s gonna bruise."

Ophis nodded.

Hespera lowered her foot, rolling her neck casually as if she hadn’t just sent a Seraph-level Fallen Angel through multiple walls.

"You get one more chance, Bachy." Her voice turned low, dangerous. "Lie to me again, and you’ll spend the rest of eternity inside the Orb you stole."

For a long moment, there was only dust and the low hum of unsettled magic rippling through the air.

Then—

Coughing.

Baraqiel staggered back through the wreckage, one hand clutching his ribs, blood staining the corner of his mouth. His wings flickered unevenly, one dragging slightly behind him as he fought to stay upright.

But he did stand. Barely.

His head hung low, shame crawling over his skin like a second set of chains.

"…I…" He coughed again, swallowing pain and broken pride. "…I don’t have it anymore."

Hespera’s fingers twitched.

The room seemed to grow colder.

Baraqiel raised his head just enough to meet her glowing gaze—defeated, but honest this time.

"It… it was stolen," he rasped. "Months ago."

Gasps rippled through the onlookers.

"Who?" Hespera demanded, her voice like grinding stone.

Baraqiel shook his head slowly, his face contorted in misery.

"I… I never saw them. Only… only what they left behind."

He fumbled at his side, pulling out a small scrap of scorched cloth, trembling as he held it out.

Hespera took a single step forward and snatched it from his hand.

She turned it over slowly between her fingers.

And her expression darkened.

Stitched onto the ruined cloth was a single, ancient rune. One belonging to a very old, very dangerous faction.

The Vatican.

Hespera’s grip tightened on the scrap as she turned to face the onlookers, her expression somewhere between fury and disappointment.

She held the cloth up for all to see.

"Recognize this?" she asked coldly.

Silence.

Only Ophis and Nyx showed faint recognition in their gazes—Ophis narrowing her eyes slightly, Nyx tilting her head in quiet amusement.

Hespera let the tension hang for just a moment longer before answering herself.

"The Vatican," she spat. "The Order of the Eternal Spear."

Gasps rippled again. Rias covered her mouth. Kiba’s fists clenched at his sides.

Hespera stepped forward, pacing like a predator.

"A secret branch of the Church so deep it isn’t even acknowledged by Heaven anymore. They answer to no one—not Michael, not Gabriel… not even the Seraphim Council."

Her eyes swept the room, daring anyone to interrupt.

"They hoard divine relics, reforge forbidden weapons, and bend scripture to justify their obsession with power. They’ll kill devils, angels, humans… it doesn’t matter. If they deem it a threat to their 'Holy Balance,' they’ll burn it all."

Baraqiel collapsed to his knees again, gasping softly.

"They… they came for the orb… and I let them take it…"

Hespera turned toward him, but instead of fury, there was only… calculated intent.

"We’ll handle that next."

She snapped her fingers, summoning a ripple of magenta flame into the air.

A new portal spiraled open—this one humming with the light of Heaven’s threshold.

She turned to Ophis and Nyx.

"We’re going to ask Gabriel for assistance. She has someone on the inside."

~?~

The magenta portal snapped open above the clouds.

Warm, suffocating divine light poured over them as they stepped through, but Hespera walked unfazed, her stride arrogant as ever.

The pearly gates shimmered open as if sensing her intent.

And there—standing with her usual air-headed serenity, a hand raised as though greeting an old friend at a tea party—was Gabriel.

"Ah~ Big sister~ Welcome back to Heaven~!"

Her smile was bright. Blinding. Dangerously genuine.

As if she hadn’t heard Hespera had just murdered half of Olympus.

"It’s been sooo long, ne? Did you come to pray? Or… are you finally here to accept my invitation to try Gabriel’s Holy Sweets~?"

Nyx snorted softly behind Hespera, clearly entertained. Ophis simply blinked in flat acknowledgment, as if used to the sunshine incarnate that was the Archangel of Water.

Hespera pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing as if physically wounded by the woman's endless optimism.

"No, airhead," she deadpanned. "I’m here because your ‘Holy Balance’ psychos stole something that I really need."

Gabriel tilted her head, lips parting in a tiny "Ohhh~. So that’s why Michael-sama was pacing earlier! I thought something big happened~"

She tapped her chin with her finger before abruptly perking up, clapping her hands together like she’d just remembered something important.

"Ah~ right! Griselda-chan! She told me those naughty Vatican people have been extra suspicious lately. She even took in a cute little nun they tried to get rid of~."

Gabriel turned and waved her hand in the air, summoning a glowing sigil. The holographic form of Griselda Quarta appeared in mid-prayer.

"Griselda’s our best eyes in their underground faction~. She’s hiding a sweet girl named Asia Argento~. They tried to kill her… but I won’t let them~."

Gabriel’s voice never dropped from that airy, melodic tone—but there was something decidedly sharp behind her words now, like poison in honey.

"You wanna meet them~?"