Trapped in the darkness, an endless abyss filled with suffering and cold, Luce tried to hold on to his life even though he couldn't move from his position. There were also blazing hellfire beneath him that seems to endlessly burn the sinful souls in that river of abysmal fire. But, the time went by quickly and the flames of hell was now nothing but a warmer for him, never knowing how long was he in here or was he really trapped at all.
The conflicting thoughts boggled Luce's mind as he watched the souls below his waist perish from the never-ending punishment of the place they were all in. "This is all fake", he thought.
He stood there, trapped inside an unbreakable ice prison that ceased his movements, but someone mysteriously came close to him, basking on flames that seemed to never hurt this person.
"Tch, so this is your punishment for all you've done?! I expected more, to be honest.", the man shrugged and clicked his tongue.
Beneath Luce, he saw the mysterious man, covered with brown fur up his face clicked his tongue as he check out the ice prison. He's carrying his long staff upon his shoulders while he tapped his blunt weapon on the ice.
"Wooh! This is solid, man!.. I guess five will be enough.", he said. Then the man hopped away from the ice, wielded his staff by his hands, spinning it five times around his body and threw it up in the air.
"Five? What is he up to?", Luce's eyes followed the spinning staff in the air and saw the man do a flip as he kicked the staff towards the ice.
"This man is strong!", Luce thought. Then his extremely cold prison rumbled, resisting the power of the staff.
The staff, however, managed to pierce the ice! Then, cracking sounds came after, covering the whole ice wall full of cracks.
"Hahaha! Nice!.. Now then, let's welcome the guest of honor!", The man laughed heartily with open arms, watching the ice break in front of him.
Luce's entire body collapsed on the floor, the power was gone due to a long time of restriction. He shook his head to let the remaining ice on his body fall to the floor.
Adjusting from the new environment he was in, Luce found the person who helped him clapping while walking towards him. He tried to stand up to show his gratitude but, his body would not listen to him.
"Don't try to stand up for a while and rest first. Your body was in there for a long time.", the man helped him sit up.
"How long have I been there? What about my family, did you see them?", Luce asked the furry man immediately, his golden eyes looked straight at him with wild fire on his eyes.
"I feel like all this was just an illusion or some of those dreams I've been seeing before I passed out. There's definitely no reason why I would be in this hell-like place together with a beast-kin.", Luce thought.
The furry man looked a bit confused on what Luce asked and said, "You don't even know why you're here? Maaan, that's lame!", frustration can be seen on his face.
But suddenly, he flinched and pondered for a bit, "Did this guy lost his memories? What a sad life...". He then patted Luce's shoulder gently while sighing.
"What an unlucky man you are. Fortunately for you, I'm here... Don't worry, I'll take of you from now on.", he said, smiling at Luce.
"Wait, what?!", Luce did not understand the man's intentions and felt irritated but then, he felt a burning sensation on his back, making him groan in pain.
The man watched Luce roll on the ground while trying to reach the part where it hurt so much. It's almost like, he can feel Luce's pain.
"What is this pain?! My back hurts so much!", Luce thought, pounding his fists on the ground.
Then, the man finally helped Luce ease the pain, striking his back head to make him sleep, "Sorry about that, you have to sleep for now.", he said.
Before passing out, Luce stared at the furry face of the man in front of his eyes, his vision becoming blurry, and blurry, until he closed his eyes.
A while has passed, but Luce still struggled to know why he was seeing things that never happened to him. He knew that something was amiss here, being trapped in a void, only filled with dreams.
And now, Luce found himself seating on a throne, staring at the people that he never met before, but he felt like he has always been with them.
"HAHAHA!! Come on, Belphegor, do it!", a fat man said while he was eating happily on his seat. Luce didn't know why but, he seemed to know his name, Mammon.
While on the other side of the hall, a man named Belphegor furiously throwing his fists on a young man that was holding Belphegor's crown.
Azazel dodged the fists coming at him while the audience laughed at the two. There were many people at that big hall, Luce noted, but there were seven thrones that seemed to stand out and Luce currently sat on one of those.
Luce looked at them with sullen eyes, he was getting bored.
'Do you remember now?'
Luce flinched as he heard a voice on his mind so suddenly. The place he was in, suddenly becoming dark all-over again.
"Who are you?! What do you want?!", Luce shouted. His voice echoed, bouncing against different angles of the place he was in.
"MUHAHAHAHA!!! How the mighty has fallen... All you've seen was previously yours, yet you can't even remember your own memories.", The same voice laughed at Luce, full of mockery.
Confused, Luce to ponder about all the things that happened to him after the ritual that the Emperor did. "All of this doesn't makes sense... I don't even know that there's a devil inside my head after that tragedy.", Luce thought.
"Oh... Look at you, calling me a devil when you're the greatest sinner of all. I'm simply an ant in front of you, yet here you are, trapped in this dominion that the beast god created. I wonder if he would recognize your new form now, Luce.", the voice lingered around Luce's ears, trying to mock him for no reason at all and seems to be enjoying itself.
"What is your purpose here? Why are you trying to tell this now when it looks like you have so much time?"
A hand-shaped smoke touched Luce's cheeks, while the voice laughed at him and sighed. "Why, you say..? Because you're unworthy to me now, seeing you be defeated by a mere mortal despite having the power of the stars with you..!", the voice became irritated.
"You are too proud, Luce... letting your guard down against the humans that you've trusted, just like your past life. Your greatest sin made you unworthy to ascend, unless you forcefully break the seal that traps you in here."
Luce felt gloomy all of a sudden, hearing the voice had said. They were all true, it felt like the voice watched all of it happened.
"So, what's going to happen to me? If you will punish me, please let me see my son first. I don't want him to grow up never meeting his father.", Luce was sad when he remembered the time when he had to disguise himself as a demon soldier when he took his friend's children, Feng and Mizu, out of the Sanctuary once to let Duke Levi meet the children of his dead son.
"Don't worry about dying, because you're gonna live..."
Luce was glad that he is going to live, he almost kneeled on the floor.
"However, your son, Luke, will be my vessel. And you have to remember your past self, Luce. Five years... you have to remember it all, because we have no time. The stars are aligning, enraged by what the humans did to their vessels."
"I'll be trapped in this void for five years?", Luce almost laughed crazily, thinking about the painful memories he witnessed in an uncountable time.
"I'll let you say your goodbyes to your family. Then, let us leave ourselves to fate.", the voice's tone was serious. He felt sympathy for Luce.
Nevertheless, it hoped that the chains of fate shall be broken with this. Going with the right tracks are simple, but going against it have unpredictable consequences. Only the ones with no fates shall create their own paths and reach the stars.
Despite Luce being one of those beings that has no fates, his soul was so tormented that it needed time to recuperate. And the beings in charge have no time to wait for him. He was simply a failed candidate to rebel against the stars once again and will continue to be like that, unless he recovers his full strength that was virtually impossible at the current situation.
"Tell me... where did you come from? Why do I feel like we are both connected?", Luce asked the one that lingers in the shadows.
There was silence for a moment after Luce asked the person talking to him. He guessed that it was thinking of some lies to deceive him. "I won't let you have your way with me and my family! You dare threaten my child... I'll remove that mask of yours.", Luce thought furiously, determined that he has a chance to fight this being in the darkness.
"I am no one... and I am everything. I hide with you, but I am also the one who finds you. I'm with the stars that were fated to go back to their rightful place, but I can not, or shall not be permitted to go back if I'm not with my fated owner.", the voice sounded lonely, but at the same time mysterious.
Luce wondered about the words that the voice said and could not find out what's the meaning behind its words. He stayed vigilant and waited for attacks to come, but there's no attacks that rushed towards him.
He checked his belongings if there were some things that were with him but now have vanished. Except for his clothes and head artifact, the only one that was missing was his formless artifact 'Behemoth Whiskers' that he painstakingly refined to the best way he can use it.
Luce gasped, surprised to see his thread-like weapon was missing from his possession. Soon after, the voice in the darkness laughed in an uncontrolled tone. It sounded like a shriek than a cry as the disturbing laughing lasted for ten seconds that felt like a minute for Luce.
"So, you figured it out, huh? I'd have to thank the foolish golden flea that fully awoken me just recently. You must have also felt that you became seemingly strong when you 'used' me. But my power influenced your full star path form, making you more... aggressive, I think.", the voice said.
Luce was dumbfounded and just stared at the void, contemplating what it said to him. He tried to deny the facts, but that was the truth. He did actually became stronger as he beaten Lumiere, who was significantly stronger than him, to the ground.
"However, your wouldn't be needing to use me anymore, as I have found a more suitable vessel... and that is your son. Five years... that's the most time I can give you. Ready yourself for the backlash when the time has come for me to part with you, and be together with my fated owner.", the voice casually said, like there's no weight to it at all.
But, for Luce, who was not willing to let his son suffer, he clenched his fists and stared back at the darkness, "You think I will let you do what you want?! You're gonna stay here until I said so!", he said furiously, his eyes burning with anger.
"Muhahahaha! It's not up to you if I want to leave here. I can leave as long as I want to!", the voice mocked Luce with a sinister laugh.
He cannot stand this mockery anymore, and so he used his gracia to make the stronger restriction, blocking what's lingering inside here from leaving, to not let it harm Luke.
As soon as Luce completed forming the restriction, a sudden surge of force bombarded it repeatedly, while the darkness itself crackled purple and golden lightnings like it was extremely angry. "This is futile, Luce! I can escape here anytime I want, there's no need for you to restrict me here!" The voice said, but Luce was not sure if it was panicking or not.
"Then do it... I dare you." Luce mocked it. Then Luce turned his head up, preparing to live this void. There was only silence inside the restriction that he made so he thought that the being inside must have gave up and so Luce left the space.
But as soon as Luce left the void, the darkness formed into that of a human, he was tall with a look of a seasoned warrior, his hair was all white with a baleful black aura. His tattered black robe reaching his heels made his face looked sinister even more as he curled up his lips and showed his white teeth that seems to be the only light in this void, "I'll be waiting here until it's time for me to come out."
Then he started to uncontrollably giggle as he muttered, "Tick... tock... tick... tock..."