Through the door made of glowing-runes, Demeter passed into the plane beyond, Ophelia and Despair quickly trailed.
In the distant land past a rippling sea of shadow, a vast city on fire took shape. There was a thick, viscous fog obscuring parts of it, but the sections that remained clear were alight with bright, dancing crimson flames. Towers of red stone brick and wooden posts crumbled to nothing but ash, leaving the remnant landscape behind. And even though a blank and endless foggy sky remained above, flaming rubble still cascaded downwards from the heavens like rain.
'Is this… Leiden? No, there aren't any such seascapes beyond its walls. Then Lindgram? Neither there, nor the City of Deepslate, only its channel between it and the northern north. Is this the waking world?'
Ophelia suddenly touched his face, grimacing. It was flesh!
'It is a real space! But where are we?'
In Lumière's mind abyss, they were nothing more than specters. Lumière could interact with them as if they had bodies, but they wouldn't be able to materialise as if they were truly people. That was why Lumière had to use 'illusion' to mask their appearances over himself! If they were able to materialise, this world they had arrived in was very real!
"Is this your doing, or the door's?" Ophelia inquired of the figure wearing a top hat.
Demeter stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, the grass nestling against his boots as he smiled warmly.
"This… this is 'Heaven'."
Ophelia and Despair had looks of shock and indignation on their face. "Huh?"
"Sorry, sorry. It was just a little joke of mine. This world is little Sinner's inheritance, this is his domain. He hoped that one of his Beacons would find this place, it is integral to his plan. Perhaps it isn't important yet, I'm not quite sure, but it will become key. For now, it is simply the place that the fragments of 'Lumière Croft' have scattered. His willingness to destroy himself for his goals caused what was left of him to shatter, and even if you gather up his pieces and build him back together, he might not be the same."
"He was counting on that 'inalienable destiny'." Despair murmured. "He surely thought that he would either be alive to destroy the world, or that the Phantoms he obsesses over would be caught in its destruction even if he remained dead. There was no downside to his recklessness, only his death…"
"But the 'door' took him here instead. It was not just a step of little Sinner's plan, but also a safeguard. While 'Heresy' was the key that unlocked the door, it could also be a blade that killed the entrant. So the 'door' itself was also meant to whisk away, in whatever entirety it could, that entrant before they could completely die. If it were just plain craziness, Lumière himself might have been transported here in a conscious state. But his actions were too hard on his very being. In the end, this was all that the 'door' could manage."
"What?"
Demeter turned to face the two personae, rather, looking straight past them, as if they were hollow and opaque. Their gazes followed his, spotting what sat behind them. It was a sprawling landscape in comparison to the burning city, a field of emerald grass waving in the gentle, cold wind. Large-stalked sunflowers posed in patches of gold, like dawn defying the sky of smog. In the center of the field, there was an altar of marble with a pedestal lying in the center. It held up a still-beating heart, an endless source of blood pouring down the intricate designs of the altar.
It was a beautiful sight. Neither Ophelia nor Despair had ever seen something quite like it. Although, not forgetting their circumstances, that wasn't much of a surprise.
"Is this world really real?"
"If the world we reside in is a world of Lies, then this is a world of Truths… ha, a 'True World'." Demeter chuckled.
"A True World? Is this one of the Former Worlds destroyed by the Primordial Sins?" Despair wondered.
"It's something like that, perhaps. Although, this world was destroyed by Lord Sinner himself. If you can locate and placate his guardian dog here, you might be able to ask it more questions. It is far more knowledgeable about the matter than I."
"His dog?"
Demeter pointed out towards the vast city that was obscured by fog. "He was the one that set the city on fire. Although, whether or not it burns out is up to chance. There are definitely peculiarities surrounding that city. But there's no purpose in exploring it, that's not your task."
Demeter reached down towards the pedestal of marble in the center of the field of sunflowers, picking up the beating heart that lay on its surface, bloodied.
"When you manage to pick up Lumière's pieces, it's unlikely he'll be 'Lumière' at all. Something important shall be missing, and your task will be to replace it."
"How can we act in a supplementary manner?"
"Fuse with Lumière Croft, kill yourself for his sake. That is what you can do if you wish for him to be revived. Both of you, either of you. It does not matter. Certainly, if you both die, the better the outcome will be, but without either of you making this choice, it certainly won't be enough."
"This is why you said our deaths would be inevitable, isn't it?"
Demeter nodded. "If you assume that the 'existence' of 'Lumière Croft' has been overwritten by the monster he has become, then you are retrieving the 'evidence' that he existed at all. But a 'story' is not life, life is life. Just because you tell a tale does not mean it was lived. You are the existing experiences of Lumière Croft. You have lived his tale to a minor extent, and that is exactly what is needed for his true revival. In the end, no matter who fuses with him, he will not be wholly himself. He may even be more equivalent to a 'persona' like you two. But that is just the outcome of his own choices."
Ophelia and Despair both looked towards each other, grimacing.
Which one of them was to die?