- Lucifer and Elijah -
(After the match with Death)
Everyone else had left to train in different parts of the castle while Lucifer stayed behind with Elijah.
Lucifer was sitting down in a chair. His left arm was placed on a table, being healed by one of the castle's healer while talking to Elijah about the neutral zone they were heading to.
Neutral zones are small pieces of territory unclaimed by its neighbors that exist either as a means of separation from two races that don't want to border one another or as an eternal battlefield.
"It should be peaceful there," Lucifer said.
"You really need to stop using the words should and peaceful together." Elijah joked while looking away from Lucifer.
The healer was fixing a compound fracture in Lucifer's arm.
"I know I shouldn't invite dramatic irony, but I don't want to let things like superstition control my actions."
Setting the bone back into place was going quicker than normal. The healer was astounded by Lucifer's pain tolerance.
'Can you even feel pain?' The healer and Elijah wondered.
Elijah didn't have a weak stomach for injuries, but watching the healer move the bone back into place was giving him sympathy pains. He rubbed his arm and decided to ask about the match.
"You and Death are something else. I think seeing you two fight might give me a bias about what's normal."
Lucifer knew that Elijah's only exposure to battles in this world was shooting Cytus in the leg.
'I should give him a more realistic idea of what a battle would be like and make sure he understands what typical skill actually is.'
"Don't take anything you saw between me and Death as normal," Lucifer informed. "Do you remember the four classes of magic ability?"
Elijah went over them in his head, trying to make sure he didn't forget something so simple.
"Basic, advanced, master, and world." Elijah was careful not to say it like a question.
Lucifer looked over at the healer who was almost finished fixing his arm.
"Good. Now, what separates the classes of healer?" Lucifer asked.
Elijah wasn't sure of the answer but gave his best guess.
"Basics heal cuts. Advanced heal bones. Master's regrow destroyed parts. World-class is a master who can defend themselves." Elijah was unsure of his answer until he saw Lucifer's disappointed look.
"The distinction between advanced and master is where the ability to defend one's self comes in. Healing magic is the easiest to be considered advanced in, but the second hardest to be world-class." Lucifer corrected.
Lucifer's arm was now fully healed. He lifted it up and conjured some fire around his hand temporarily.
"Back to new. Thank you. What's your name?" Lucifer asked the healer.
"Jean, sir." The guard answered.
"Thank you, Jean."
Lucifer decided to stand up and walk to the burned training ground behind him. There were mages fixing it, so he stayed outside of the area.
"The four classes of magic have lots of different fancy names depending on where you go in this world, but it's important not to solely focus on ranks."
Lucifer decided to use his own magic as an example.
"Look at my magic and what's it capable of." He pointed his hand to the scorched ground. "As impressive as that may seem, in a battle every part of you needs to be working together."
Lucifer was debating in his head whether he should bring up Cytus or not.
'I don't think Elijah has any trauma, so I should be fine to mention it.'
"Take Cytus for example." Lucifer started.
Elijah looked surprised to hear the name but could guess why Lucifer would bring him up.
"Cytus has master tier lightning magic and the ability to fly. Now it can't use those two skills together and it thankfully was beaten by all of you, but you can imagine how differently things would have gone if it was capable of using both at the same time."
Elijah didn't see much of Cytus using his wings, but it wasn't hard for him to know the value of aerial movement paired with destructive capabilities.
"Magic, the classes of those magic, and your combat prowess determine your rank in this world. There's a popular saying, "Even humans can be gods" that is often used to motivate someone to train harder."
Elijah was familiar with the gods' ranking system and had read about the saying beforehand. He was curious about the ranks of his team members but knew it was rude to ask.
Lucifer wanted to get into the world rankings of the different gods but figured it wasn't relevant to Elijah.
'He knows to be respectful. I can trust him not to mouth off.'
Lucifer was thinking about past reborn he had given contracts to. How some of them lost their lives because of impatience, and others from being rude to an ill-tempered god. The thoughts started angering him so he pushed them out of his mind.
"We're going to train your weaponry for now. I don't want you burning any more mana today. I'll go get Sabu."
Lucifer watched Sabu and Elijah practice for a little while before going to check on Heinrich. He was the only one who had been openly against continuing on this mission. He found Heinrich in the garden of the castle. It was lit by various lamp poles, one of which Heinrich was leaning against.
"I just wanted to make sure you were still ok with being on this mission. You can stay here until we come back if you're having second thoughts."
Heinrich looked up at Lucifer and back down at the ground. He lifted a stone from the dirt and levitated it around his hand while following it with his eyes.
"I don't deserve your kindness. I never will. I told you before that I wanted to stay, and that will hold true for every part of this mission."
Lucifer knew he had to be careful with his words here.
"If you want to talk about it I'll listen. I've gotten more than enough training today."
Heinrich dropped the stone and looked up at Lucifer.
"There's nothing to say that you don't already know. I've been thinking about how Elijah will feel when he finds out, and it made me feel disgusted with myself again."
There was a brief moment of silence. Lucifer thought it was best not to speak his mind immediately so it didn't seem like he had rehearsed what to say.
"You can tell him when you're ready. We all have a past filled with regrets, and I'm not comparing, I'm just making sure you understand. You've done a lot, and even if you feel like your penance is never enough that doesn't mean others won't, someday."
Heinrich made a small grin before returning to a frown.
- Death -
It was sunrise and time for the group to leave Sangmara. Death was outside before everyone else, thinking about his fight with Lucifer and wondering what was going through his friend's head.
'The look Lucifer was giving me...he must have been picturing Cytus as we fought.'
Death was waiting by the uništi when Lucius came up to him.
"I'm not selling him to you." Death groaned.
"I'm not here for that," Lucius assured.
Lucius walked up to the uništi and placed his hand on it. He started to feed it his mana until its eye sockets glowed orange.
"Just wanted to help..." Lucius hesitated. He looked nervous to continue. "...and ask you to be careful." Lucius finished.
Death didn't know how to respond to what he was hearing. He had been told to be careful before, but that was usually before a duel he would have with grim. Even then, the warning wasn't meant for his well-being.
"Why are you saying that Lucius?"
"I've obviously heard of this human resistance and now Cytus, and it all has me worried," Lucius looked down. "I know my age and experience can't compare to yours, but something about what's going on has me filled with anxiety." He said, scratching the side of the uništi. "You really should name him."
"I did, but then the entire species got labeled with the same name."
Lucius snickered.
"How about Hrom? I don't think any creature can match his sound, except maybe Sleipnir," He looked up with excitement.
Death had been offered many nicknames in the past for his uništi, but he always turned them down. He liked the name uništi, but seeing Lucius's excitement after his nervousness convinced him.
"That's a good name. I'll go with that, just don't expect him to respond."
Lucius smiled and gave Death a hug, lifting him off the ground again. Death waited until Lucius dropped him this time and watched as the King went back into his castle.
'You never did look at me the same after the Lycan hunt. You're not the only one who's gotten a bad feeling. Maybe my experiences have numbed me to this side of the world.'
Death jumped onto Hrom.
"Hrom, sometimes I wish your kind had emotions."
Death scratched the top of Hrom's head.
"It's for the best that you don't though."
- Lucifer -
Lucifer walked out with the others who were all holding black boxes. He looked at Death.
"They're always so insistent about parting gifts." Lucifer sighed.
"I'm sure Yvere's happy to get a refill." Death joked.
Lucifer loaded the black box onto the cart and climbed in.
"I always make sure she brings plenty of blood," Lucifer said.
Gwyn, Lucius, and the group came out to the front of the gate, each member holding their own black box. One by one they handed Lucifer their boxes.
Gwyn and Lucius gave their goodbyes to everyone and asked them to visit more often whenever possible.
Once the goodbyes were finished and everyone was done loading the cart Lao and Yvere climbed onto their uništi. Sabu, Peter, Heinrich, and Elijah got into their cart and the group was off.
Lucifer made sure to wave goodbye to Gwyn and Lucius as his cart went through the doors.
'Why does Lucius look sad? Is he upset that we didn't have a match?' Lucifer wondered briefly.
Lucifer didn't give too much thought to how Lucius looked and instead decided to refocus on what comes next.
'Cytus. Lycans. Unknown.'
Lucifer repeated the thought, thinking about what each problem was going to entail.
- Cytus -
(Sometime after the group leaves Sangmara)
"That man's voice sounds familiar, I think. It's hard to tell exactly where I would have heard it."
Cytus was running his hand along his body picturing the one responsible for each piece of past damage.
His hand went over his ribs.
'Peter.'
His hand felt his throat.
'Lao.'
He felt his face.
'Yvere.'
Cytus was getting angrier as he remembered the damage he suffered.
'The only one who didn't hurt me was you Heinrich. So I'll leave you for last.'
Someone opened the door to Cytus's room, shining a sliver of light in before quickly closing it.
"It's time to finish your healing." The soft female voice whispered.
'It's about time.'
Cytus was at the end of his patience with his situation. So the thought of being able to finally move out of the dark room he had been in was making him jittery. The last of his injuries were healed. He wanted to put a bolt through the head of the healer in front of him but knew it wasn't the time or place.
"Where's the man. Go grab him and tell him I'm ready." Cytus ordered.
"He already knows. You can leave to meet him now."
Cytus jumped out of the bed and walked through the door. The man was waiting for him on the other side. The man stood over him by two inches and was covered in a black veil.
"Still not letting me see your face?" Cytus scoffed.
"You will see it when the time is right. Now, let's get you a change of clothes and discuss what we do next."