- Lucifer, Izanami, Izanagi, Death -
In the open field where Susano'o and Shiri had fought, and then later Xiao's squad had massacred Susano'o's soldiers, Lucifer was just sitting down opposite a one-handed Izanami and Izanagi. Death was already seated to the side, his hand gripped around his scythe.
"Before we begin," Izanagi started, "I find it imperative that I officially apologi-"
"No no no," Lucifer sat down with a grumble. "I'm not here for apologies or politics," He leaned in and clasped his hands. "We have an exceptionally long conversation ahead of us-- one that doesn't need to be detoured by emotions."
Death grumbled but didn't speak.
"First thing," Lucifer began, "full explanations of your abilities."
Izanagi and Izanami seemed surprised as they both glanced at one another. They had both been certain Lucifer was going to ask why they did what they did first.
"Problem?" Death glared.
"No!" Izanagi jolted. "The spear allows me to use all basic affinities. The movement of the spear itself is not required but does assist in control. Once I fully activate the spear's power I am granted further control of the affinities with certain pre-set abilities."
Lucifer blinked and shook his head. "'Pre-set abilities'? You mean incants?"
"Exactly," Izanagi nodded nervously. "I haven't heard that term in some time and from what I understand of the human world it seems the word "pre-set" is more well-known."
Lucifer cleared his throat. "Alright," He pulled out a book and pen and slid them over to Izanagi and Izanami. "Xiao will be asking you similar questions and will want your answers recorded. Unlike Xiao, I don't personally feel like recording what's said so I'm going to have you write down any information given. It should go without saying, write down exactly what you tell me without exception. Xiao will compare the two notes afterwords."
Izanami took the book and pen. "I'll write for the both of us."
"You do have better handwriting," Izanagi chuckled.
Lucifer sighed, "Is that all in regards to the spear?"
"The spear will also return to the user that activated it as denoted by a green ring around the wrist," Izanami answered as she started to quickly write down everything that had been said. "Severing the spot with the green ring will not remove this ability."
'Fast,' Death and Lucifer both thought.
"What about your "sight"?" Lucifer asked Izanagi.
Izanagi explained, revealing no new information.
"Now you," Lucifer briefly glared at Izanami.
Izanami stopped writing for a moment. She took a breath and then spoke calmly and clearly.
"I can absorb energy with my left hand and release it with my right. There are limits, as you saw in our fight. Once I fully activate my power my skin begins to rot but my entire body is able to absorb and release."
Lucifer raised an eyebrow. "Why does your skin rot?"
"You tell me," Izanami spoke under her breath.
"What was that?" Death asked with widening eyes.
Lucifer put his hand up to Death. "It's related to Shintoism, or more specifically the story of Izanami-no-Mikoto. I'll just assume the rotting is S.D.T. related and move on."
Lucifer went down a long list of beings he wanted to know the abilities of while Izanagi and Izanami did their bests to answer. After a lengthy series of questions, Lucifer finally moved on to questioning Izanagi and Izanami's reasons for the betrayal.
"A choice of statistical outcome," Izanagi tried to speak confidently. "Nothing more, I swear."
"I assumed as much," Lucifer scratched his cheek. "What I need from you now is for you to swear not to rely on your future-sight magic from here on out. Both of you, Amaterasu included, will be given back the right to both hands since you'll most likely need them for the damage control to come."
Izanagi and Izanami's eyes went wide. They looked to Death for confirmation. Death nodded with a grimace.
Lucifer continued, "But you have to swear to me that you won't rely on your "sight" from now on. If the paths led you to the choice of betrayal once, it could very well happen again. So," he widened his eyes, "look me in the eyes, and swear."
Izanami seemed nervous, catching Death's attention. Izanagi thought nothing of what Lucifer was asking and looked deep into Lucifer's eyes. Time seemed to stop for a moment as Lucifer saw deep into Izanagi's mind. The image of thousands, to millions, to trillions of paths laid out in front of Lucifer with Izanagi standing at the beginning of all of them. Izanagi's thoughts played in Lucifer's mind.
'To forsake these paths, this magic...finally. Finally, I have my reason to leave this burden behind.'
Lucifer's hands started to turn red as his fingers dug into the table. Lucifer bit down on his lip, puncturing the skin and stopping the red from spreading further.
"Lucifer!" Death tapped Lucifer on the shoulder.
Lucifer snapped out of what he was seeing. His breathing was ragged as he kept his sight line on Izanagi's chest.
"G-good," Lucifer confirmed. "While I don't trust you with my back, I can at least spare your lives without worry."
"What was that?" Death asked.
Lucifer scratched one eye. "Nothing new," He stood up. "You two can give Death the rest of the agreed-upon information. One last thing," he wiped the blood from his mouth. "Xiao will be far less agreeable when he has his turn for questioning. I recommend you two ready your patience for that, otherwise, a fight will start, and all of this will have been pointless."
"Lucifer," Death said.
Lucifer ignored Death and walked away.
- Lucifer and Devil -
Lucifer was sitting alone, his wings wrapped around his body. His arms were wrapped around his knees, his head balancing on his kneecaps as he spoke to Devil in his mind.
'Last chance,' Lucifer started to tap one foot. 'Tell me more about your reality, what you experienced in your life. Work with me properly instead of trying to take control or I will deal with you.'
Devil laughed, 'And exactly how do you plan on dealing with me? The way I see it, time is your weakness.'
Lucifer's foot started tapping more rapidly. 'Are you afraid to die, Samael?'
'DON'T CALL ME THAT!' Devil shouted with bitter hatred.
'Are you afraid to die?' Lucifer repeated. 'Dying must horrify you. You think as ruler of Hell that you're above it, but you aren't.'
Devil spoke with a threatening growl, 'Go ahead then, failure. Kill me. Your struggling is the only part of this cursed relationship that I actually enjoy. So please, attempt to kill me. I can only imagine how your world of weaklings will manage that. If Kronos was anything to go by, then I have no worries about dying.'
'So be it,' Lucifer's wings opened and he stood up.
- Lucifer and Xiao -
A few days had passed since the conflict. Xiao's interrogation of Izanagi and Izanami ended with a serviceable level of amiability, much to Xiao's surprise. Lucifer had asked Xiao to join him for a private conversation in the camp once Xiao was ready.
"What's this about?" Xiao asked as he sat down at the table.
Lucifer was careful to avoid eye contact with Xiao. "What do you know of archdemon contracts giving full strength while not burning mana?"
Xiao sat back slowly, letting out a long sigh as he pulled out a smoke. He held the smoke out to Lucifer. Once the smoke was lit, he took a long drag and exhaled the smoke slowly.
"What are you willing to trade for it?"
Lucifer rolled his eyes. "The human you fought, the one with the skin that mimicked stone? I know what his ability is."
Xiao's eyes narrowed as he leaned in. "And you didn't think to share that information with me before this?"
Lucifer scoffed, "I didn't know he had the ability until you mentioned stone skin."
Xiao closed his eyes and sighed. He leaned back and opened his eyes, looking at the light snowfall that was starting.
Lucifer spoke before Xiao could, "The information I have is ancient-tier forbidden, just so you know."
Xiao chuckled, "Yeah yeah, I agree to the trade. Go on then."
Lucifer spoke in a serious tone that alerted Xiao. "It's Gaia's ability. Gaia has an arbiter class ability that grants the holder healing magic and stone skin."
Xiao stopped mid-inhale on his smoke and coughed. "You're," he coughed a few more times, "sure about this?"
"Absolutely," Lucifer sounded defeated. "If the man you fought wasn't a full-blooded human, then maybe. Otherwise, there's no other possibility."
Xiao put his smoke down on the table and rubbed his face. "A fucking World Council leader. Of all things..." He stopped rubbing his face and looked down at his unfinished smoke. "How did you get this information?"
Lucifer grinned briefly. "I won the information off of Zeus in a game. We bet one question--whoever could drink more won. Gaia had always shown an open distaste for angels so I decided to use my question on her. The only beings in the world that know her abilities for certain are Titans and Zeus."
Xiao picked up his smoke, "Why would Zeus agree to a drinking game with an archangel?"
"He didn't know," Lucifer admitted. "There was less information on archangel immunities back then."
Xiao finished his smoke and exhaled through his nose. "I can't promise that my information is going to match yours."
"It's fine," Lucifer accepted.
Xiao's arms went black as he began to explain. "It happened during a failed mission. Lina, Sig, and I got trapped. All we could do was be defensive while we waited for reinforcements. We were so deep in the mission's territory that it was going to take at least a few weeks for help to arrive. I had run out of sugar and Lina's herbs. My cravings were driving me insane," He stopped tapping his finger. "That's when it happened."
Xiao continued, "My contract activated on its own. Full strength without the mana depletion--I was certain that I had lost my mind. After that mission was over and I shared my story with Zac and Mary, Mary had a theory she wanted to test. She called it the "Seven Sins Theory." Zac was able to accomplish the same thing I had after testing Mary's theory."
Lucifer rested his cheek on the back of his hand. "Wrath, gluttony, lust, vanity, envy, greed, sloth. The problem with that theory is that there are more than seven archdemons. But still, if Mary's theory has worked twice..."
Xiao made a weird expression. "Peter's contract makes him impotent, which could be considered lust in this circumstance. What did you two do exactly during your fight with Izanami?"
Lucifer sighed, "He told me he loved me as he prepared to die fighting for me."
"Figures," Xiao groaned. "Whatever's going on here doesn't exactly seem fair."
Lucifer leaned back. "Would you prefer to have Peter's contract?"
Xiao pulled out a smoke. "Not unless there's a plant that can counter it."