Chapter 480: Stella in Forgotten Abyss

Time didn’t exist in the Forgotten Abyss.

Seven months… or maybe seven years… or seven centuries. For any other creature, the line between one day and the next would have been completely erased. But for Stella, the passage of time was marked by something much simpler: absence.

Absence of sweets.

Absence of the sarcastic laughter she used to provoke in Virgil.

Absence of the warm touch, of stolen moments amidst the chaos.

And now, in the midst of that pulsating void, the absence began to turn into anger.

She sat on the edge of a floating rock, her legs dangling toward the nothingness that opened up below. The “sky” of the Abyss was a veil of darkness cut by slits of light that never stayed in place, as if they were alive, breathing. The wind carried fragmented voices—echoes of people who never existed, or who had been forgotten so long ago that not even hell itself remembered them anymore.

Stella chewed on a piece of black stone, breaking it with her sharp teeth as if it were caramel. She spat the fragments out in frustration.

“This isn’t even a little sweet…” she muttered, her eyes narrowed, her pupils dancing with shades of purple and blue. “Seven months… seven months without a bullet, without a cake, without anything! This is torture! I’m going to go mad!”

She kicked a stone, which flew into the void and disappeared before it could even echo.

The Abyss never responded.

The Abyss never changed.

The Abyss just… waited.

Stella, however, didn’t have the same patience.

She stood, her long black hair whipping through the ethereal air. Her skin glowed with strange reflections, as if absorbing some of that living darkness. Her body was more defined, more marked, as if her own hunger had made her even more lethal. Her wings, once ornamental, were now larger, tearing the space around them with each opening.

“Vergil…” she said, biting her lip hard. The name came out as a moan, a mixture of desire and anger. “I want my husband… I want you now… Where are you, huh?!”

The darkness shuddered as if it had heard, but no answer came.

This only inflamed her fury.

“You left me here! Alone! Hungry, without sweets, with nothing to do but stare into space and listen to the voices of damned people who should have died already! What do you think I am, huh? A saint?! You know damn well I’m not!”

She laughed to herself, a dry, nervous laugh. Her hands trembled, but not from fear. It was pure impatience.

“I want sugar, I want your blood, I want your lips, I want all hell to burn just to entertain me for a minute!”

With each word, the ground beneath her crumbled into fragments, as if the Abyss were reacting to her explosion. The stones fell silently, swallowed by nothingness. But Stella remained afloat, sustained only by her own fury and the power that seemed to grow as her frustration grew.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

What remained was longing.

That bitter longing, burning hotter than any inferno.

Stella wasn’t one to admit weakness, but when she thought of Vergil… it was inevitable. She remembered the cold way he said her name, the times he’d cup her chin to command respect, and even the rare moments when a discreet smile escaped him. For her, it was more addictive than any candy.

And now… there was none of that.

“I can’t take it anymore…” she murmured, hugging herself. Her eyes glistened, and for the first time in months, a hot tear fell. But before it even reached her chin, it evaporated and turned to smoke.

The Abyss seemed to mock her.

She lifted her face, staring at the black horizon.

“If you think you’ll destroy me, you’re mistaken! I am Stella!” she screamed, her voice echoing like thunder in the void. “I am the wife of Virgil Lucifer, I am stronger than this damned hole! You will not turn me into a forgotten shadow!”

The veins in her forehead throbbed, and the energy in her body manifested in arcane circles that swirled beneath her feet, ancient symbols even she didn’t understand. The power exploded in waves, each pushing the Abyss back, creating space, creating form.

It was as if reality itself trembled before her obstinacy.

“And I will get out of here! Even if I have to tear the fabric of hell with my own nails!”

The words were more than screams—they were promises.

But after the fury, a bitter calm returned. Stella took a deep breath, trying to contain the pounding pulse that nearly tore through her skin.

“Vergil… I miss you…” she said softly, as if confessing a sin. “You can’t imagine how much I miss you…”

The silence returned, heavy.

She sat back down on the edge of the floating rock, hugging her knees. Her eyes wandered through the formless void, and for the first time, she allowed herself to be honest with herself.

The truth was, it wasn’t just the lack of sweets. It wasn’t just boredom. It was loneliness. A loneliness so thick it seemed to have a taste—a bitter, metallic taste that clung to the tongue and heart.

“Why is this place so lonely?” she asked the void. “And why… why does this loneliness hurt so much?”

The voices in the wind didn’t answer. But deep down, Stella knew. The Abyss was made for this. To consume, not bodies, but souls. To bring even the most powerful to their knees before emptiness itself.

She laughed again, but this time the sound was weak, almost broken.

“But I won’t fall… not yet.”

Stella raised her hand, and a small blue spark glowed between her fingers. A spark of power, her only companion for seven months. She twirled it, shaping it into a sweet, a rudimentary sweet made of pure energy. She popped it into her mouth, savoring the emptiness.

“One day… I’ll get out of here. And when I do… I want all the sweets in the world. And my husband too. I’ll wipe this forest off the map… Fuck this territory!!”