- Satan and Heinrich -
Lucifer, Sabu, Peter, Lao, and Shiri were on their way to Sangmara to pick up Yvere. After the group left, Satan had Elijah training with another demon, Dimitri with Poseidon, and himself with Heinrich.
Satan and Heinrich were in a gigantic open area. Poseidon, Dimitri, Elijah, and the demon training Elijah were small dots in the distance. Satan, looking severely bored as he rested his cheek on his fist, spoke in a disinterested tone.
"So because your mana reserves are abysmal we'll be focusing more on efficiency, interference, and counter-tactics."
"Okay," Heinrich responded respectfully.
Satan sighed. "Riiiight, well anyways..."
Multiple illusory posts of different colors popped up all around Heinrich.
"We'll be training interference first," Satan put his hand out. "Tell me the exact distance of each post, you have five minutes."
"Um," Heinrich hesitated.
"Problem?" Satan asked.
"No," Heinrich shook his head. "I'm sure you know what you're doing."
Satan let out a deep sigh. 'So boring...'
After five minutes Heinrich gave Satan his approximations of the posts' distances. Numbers appeared above the posts showing their distance.
"Off and slow," Satan insulted. "You need to understand that your pathetic trickle of mana means you only have this type of training as an option. If you can't be more accurate and faster you'll be a waste of a unit on the battlefield."
"You're right..." Heinrich agreed.
Satan groaned in his mind, 'So BORING!'
Satan and Heinrich repeated the process of Satan creating illusory posts all around Heinrich while Heinrich had less and less time to approximate the distance of each post.
"Congrats," Satan said sarcastically. "You can almost guess the distance correctly of stationary targets in a controlled environment."
"Thank you," Heinrich responded sincerely.
Satan grimaced. "Excuse me?"
Heinrich looked down at his hands. "I thought it was hopeless for me to improve in any reasonable amount of time. I wasted my opportunities in this world but you've proven to me that I do have options. Sincerely, thank you."
Satan grumbled, "This is step one of five-hundred. Don't thank me until you actually accomplish something meaningful."
"Yes sir," Heinrich nodded.
'UGGGHHHH!' Satan groaned in his head.
- Dimitri and Poseidon -
"Ready?" Poseidon asked.
"Yes," Dimitri readied himself.
Poseidon threw a small black cloud into the sky. The cloud stopped and started swelling. Poseidon began explaining to Dimitri.
"Try to grab as many individual raindrops as you can. Water magic is the second most simple of the basic affinities right after healing magic."
Dimitri stared up at the swelling dark cloud. "Healing magic isn't THAT simple."
Poseidon snapped his fingers. "Regardless, the main way to improve is learning how to more precisely control large amounts of water."
Rain started to pour out of the cloud. Dimitri did his best to control as many water droplets as he could but was only able to manage a small amount of the total rain. Dimitri was soaked and clearly frustrated with his attempt.
"Is this really the only way?"
Poseidon sighed. "No, it's just that the alternatives are far more dangerous."
"You mean dueling?" Dimitri narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not good at holding back, okay?" Poseidon insisted. "I'm tasked with teaching you so I decided to go with a safer option."
"Fuck the safer option," Dimitri pulled the water off of his body. "How about this; we duel but you use one finger. If I win, you use two. So on so forth until I can get to a point where I can fight you on somewhat even terms."
Poseidon shook his head. "I respect the optimism but you need to understand that you will never be a proper match for me or any god of my strength. You're trying to reach the peak of a mountain that's constantly expanding. You need to accept the reality of your weakness."
"No," Dimitri rejected. "I can accept that I'll never be as strong as you but I refuse to accept not trying. Can you humor me at the very least?"
Poseidon thought about what would happen to him if he were to accidentally hurt Dimitri. He spoke carefully.
"I can't risk hurting you. We'll try your idea so long as you understand that I hold full right to change the training back to a safer option."
"Fine," Dimitri agreed. "Just so you know, I trained my hand-to-hand with Lao. I'm more than used to being injured in training."
- Elijah -
Elijah and a female demon were catching and shooting a single bolt of lightning. Each time one caught it and shot it back they would increase the pace. Eventually, Elijah wasn't able to catch the bolt in time and was shot in the arm.
"Fuck!" Elijah rubbed his smoking arm.
Another demon walked over to Elijah and healed the burn. There was a wince of pain from Elijah but a quick recovery as he clapped his hands together.
"Let's keep going."
"You're not Lucifer," The healing demon said with a sigh. "I've healed more than enough to know how painful a healed burn wound is. Don't try to show off to us. We'll be taking a five-minute break to wait for the phantom pain to wear off."
Elijah was going to retort but the pain in his arm stopped him. What the healer had said was true. He was in agony.
'How the hell does Lucifer deal with this?' Elijah wondered. 'I can understand having a high pain tolerance but this feels like actual torture.'
- Lucifer, Gwyn, and Lucius -
Lucifer's group arrived in Sangmara. Shiri was frequently stopped by vampires asking to buy some of his blood and hair before Lucifer split off to go speak with Gwyn and Lucius. As Lucifer walked into the castle he noticed how empty the halls were. Had he not guessed what was happening to Yvere, he would have been more suspicious.
He met with Gwyn and Lucius in the castle but the three didn't stay inside. The three went to a large open area with clear lines of sight in every direction. Gwyn and Lucius's eyes seemed to dart around as they continuously checked for any potential eavesdroppers.
"Can we just get to the point?" Lucifer sighed.
Gwyn glared at Lucifer. "Have you forgotten the severity of this information? What it means to our kind? Sorry if our want to be careful is annoying to you but we don't all go around discussing forbidden topics like it's the weather."
Lucifer matched Gwyn's glare. "The main reason Yvere is on my team is because of what we're discussing. You practically begged me to let her join, all because of your own curiosities, so I think I'm perfectly justified in my irritation."
"Let's not fight over this again," Lucius tried reasoning. "I think Lucifer has a point with wanting to get this out of the way quickly."
"Could be a few more years or a few more months, depending on her blood intake," Gwyn said.
Lucius tried avoiding eye contact with Lucifer as he spoke. "Believe me when I say that I never expected this to actually turn out how it did. I was hoping it wouldn't work so our kind could finally bury this destructive knowledge."
"You knew it would work," Lucifer dismissed. "You're living proof that it works, both of you."
Lucius turned his head away. While Gwyn was doing her best to make an amicable expression, Lucius was trying to hide the guilt he felt.
Lucifer sighed, "You two got what you wanted, so I guess that's all that matters."
"Please," Gwyn rolled her eyes. "Sorry for forcing you to take a vampire with healing magic on your adventures. Sorry for the massive help she's been to you and your team."
Lucifer took step towards Gwyn. "Yvere has been essential to the team and we all owe her a great deal," He took another step forward. "BUT, you don't seem to properly understand the dangers that come with what I do. If she had died what would you have done? Find some other random vampire with healing magic all so you could prove the bloodr-"
Gwyn roared, "NOT ANOTHER WORD!"
Lucius seemed to flinch at Gwyn's anger while Lucifer stayed stalwart and continued staring her down.
"Bloodrite?" Lucifer asked casually.
Gwyn stomped forward and grabbed Lucifer's collar. "It occurs to me that you and I have never properly tested each other in a duel. Care to back up this flippant arrogance of yours?"
Lucifer placed his hand on Gwyn's arm. "Bloodrite or no bloodrite," He clenched his hand, causing visible pain to Gwyn. "That duel goes the same way it always would."
Lucius squeezed his hand on Lucifer's shoulder. "Let's not start unnecessary battles. I'm sorry for our using of you and Yvere this way but please try to understand our perspective on this," He moved his hand off, prompting Lucifer to do the same with Gwyn. "Gwyn and I won't rule forever given how the world works."
Lucius looked at Gwyn who was now rubbing her wrist. "Our history is more civil war than not, all because of that awful prophecy. I just want you to imagine living through war after war with your own kind, all over the belief that something does or does not exist, only to never get a clear answer, until one day the opportunity to find that answer appears."
"You had other options," Lucifer said.
"They died," Gwyn retorted.
"So you see my problem then?" Lucifer snapped back.
"You-"
Lucius interrupted Gwyn. "Lucifer what's going on with your eyes? I've been trying to ignore it but THAT is very different from what it was the last time we saw you."
"Apparently I'm turning into a demon," Lucifer grumbled. "These also changed," He said, conjuring his black wings.
"Well that's fascinating and we should talk more about it at the castle," Lucius started walking Lucifer away. "We'll have the rest of your team gathered so we can have a nice meal and discuss what this demonization means."
Gwyn went to speak but Lucius whipped his head around and gave her a look that begged her not to.