Setting up a brand-new Battleworld takes some time, and in this period, Owen and Lucifer Morningstar, who need to devote themselves entirely to the task, have already assembled their offices and laboratories.
Lucifer literally excavated his palace from Hell and suspended it above the New Earth in Battleworld, transforming it into a floating island in the cosmos.
The palace of Satan still wielded an ancient aura, tinged with the dust of the past, the deep-colored walls reflecting layers of candle holders, bearing a profound loneliness.
On the first day after the move, they received an unexpected guest - Shiller.
Standing in front of the entrance, Shiller folded his umbrella. Lucifer stood aside within the door, observing the celestial glow casting a hazy halo around Shiller's figure.
"It seems you've found Walter Disney." Lucifer's tone revealed some smugness, "I presume now you partially understand my feelings. Dealing with an all-knowing, omnipotent, and superior being isn't easy."
"You are such a person to me." Shiller followed Lucifer through the long hallway, his somewhat deep voice oscillating through the extraordinarily spacious space, its echoes resonating like palpable vibrations.
They turned left at the end of the hallway, passing by a series of towering gothic stained glass windows. Their footsteps echoed rhythmically like fingers dancing on a piano keyboard.
After pushing open the doors of the drawing room, a completely different style was revealed. It bore the essence of a robust English manor, with a deep red carpet the hue of dried blood, and to the right, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves jammed with various antiquated books. On the left, a large black fireplace burned with an even more robust flame than a regular household.
The gothic dome stretched out into the distance, guarding the light that streamed in from the windows on the peak, like petals of a flower. They both sat down on the heavy yet cushioned single-seater sofas positioned in front of the window. Lucifer poured a glass of wine for Shiller, presenting it to him with a smile that seemed to carry an apology.
Shiller put his umbrella aside, and as he picked up the wine glass, hesitated before finally speaking, "You should know I didn't come today to coerce the truth from you."
"Of course, if I don't want to speak, nobody can force me to, not even God."
"How has God been recently?"
"Did Walter tell you that all of this nonsense is God's doing?" Lucifer replied as he sat down on his own seat, taking a sip of wine, "God hasn't been doing well lately. Gabriel has been hiding from him. It seems he is stuck in another quagmire."
"I have reservations about you describing yourself as a 'quagmire'." Shiller retorted sharply, "Gabriel can be considered a pit, but you are a whole swamp."
"Indeed, because we are both arrogant," Lucifer nodded slightly as he replied, "Arrogance, arrogance, arrogance; why shouldn't it be considered the chief of the seven deadly sins?"
"In retrospect, this matter seems related to you too." Shiller suddenly softened his tone and added, "I sincerely hope you are not going to tell me that you are the ultimate perpetrator of all these matters, otherwise, I'll have Bruce post the diary God kept about you as a child up on Heaven's announcement board."
"Oh, come on," Lucifer raised his hands and answered, "You said you weren't here to interrogate me, you're just about to put the knife to my throat!"
Yet Shiller still focused on him and responded, "This proves that you actually do not behave as you have shown, and are not indifferent towards his love and sacrifices. You cannot simply disregard and trample upon them."
"Nobody can," Lucifer also turned to gaze at Shiller, his tone gaining an aggressive edge, "and neither can you, can you?"
Shiller looked away, raised the wine glass to his lips, and took a sip of the cool liquid before going silent.
Lucifer deflated like a punctured balloon, falling into silence without even the process of losing air abruptly.
"You want to hear your story, his story, but in the end, I have to tell you my story."
A long while later, Lucifer finally opened his mouth, "Everything originates from an error, an absolute error."
"I was the first light of God's creation. After my birth, God and I spent some carefree days in Eden."
"Back then, I was his child, and he was my father, and in my world, this relationship was everything; this was my entirety."
"Until one day, he told me about a destiny that I had to fulfill. He had finished his work, and I would have my duties. I was meant to become the first Angel."
"Back then, I didn't even know what an Angel was. He informed me that an Angel has their own duties and a destiny that they must fulfill. This was the first time he forcefully asked me to do something."
"At that time, an emotion sprouted within my heart gradually took control of me, an emotion we now refer to as arrogance."
Lucifer sighed lightly, "Or maybe, that was my true essence. I loved my father, but I didn't believe in God, and the biggest arrogance is 'disbelief'."
"So when he started wanting me to regard him as God, as an all-supreme deity, I chose disbelief, I chose to leave Eden."
At this juncture, Lucifer closed his eyes. His eyelashes fluttered slightly as if he was recalling something. He then continued, "On the day I left, he stood behind me and said that destiny is inescapable, and you will ultimately become what you're destined to be."
Lucifer took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and looked at Shiller, "You're familiar with what happened next."
Shiller remained silent, simply focusing his gaze on him, while Lucifer continued the narration.
"I arrived in the world, landing in a narrow alleyway, and saw a young boy appear before me. I told him, 'Child, don't be afraid'."
It wasn't until this moment that Shiller slightly furrowed his brows, realizing something. Lucifer looked at him and gently nodded.
"Yes, this is the first thing an angel said to a human in the bible - 'Child, don't be scared."
"I realized that everything was irretrievable." Lucifer's hand, resting on the armrest, gradually tightened, whitening at the knuckles. "I realized my fate couldn't be changed, that I was destined to become an angel, and I would lose my father and serve the high and mighty God for the rest of my life."
"I reject all of that, forever."
Lucifer's narration was interspersed with heavy breaths, suggesting that recalling these events was still painful for him.
What happened next was beyond Shiller's expectations.
"I chose to disperse my consciousness, return to the first ray of creation, and henceforth, the world would no longer have Lucifer Morningstar. There would be no first child of God, no first angel."
Shiller's pupils contracted slightly as he stared straight at Lucifer, suddenly realizing the depth of his arrogance—representing both arrogance and original sin as a fallen angel.
If God allowed fate to take Lucifer's father, then he would take God's son first.
Shiller could not help but ask, "Then what?"
Lucifer tightened his lips and said, "God regretted it, and he made a concession."
Turning his head, he looked up at Shiller and continued, "He took the soul of the boy entwined with my fate and sent him to another world, an incredibly distant world."
Shiller's hand clenched onto the armrest.
"Maybe you have wondered countless times why you have so many talents beyond ordinary people—powers that are not like those of the human race. Your ability to foresee danger, your overly sharp senses, and even your capability to entirely reshape the structure of your own mind."
"It wasn't because you were particularly lucky or unlucky." Lucifer tilted his body towards Shiller, looking him in the eye. "You come from a powerful universe that has these powers. It makes you incompatible with the weaker universe."
Shiller slowly loosened his grip.
He had thought about this question countless times. The science of the universe of his previous life couldn't explain the source of his powers.
No one in that world had supernatural abilities like him, and these abilities themselves seemed to belong to a universe where superheroes existed. In a universe filled with ordinary people, he felt out of place."
"God is even more powerful than you may think, He is the embodiment of the faith of billions." Lucifer shook his head and said, "All races and civilizations that believe in a single God believe in Him. God is just one of His aliases."
"So, the universe you encountered me in is where I truly come from." Shiller looked at Lucifer and said, "It is a universe with a higher level of power, packed with superhuman beings. I was once one of them."
Lucifer slowly nodded, then averted his gaze. "But you should know that your original body, devoid of a soul, is tantamount to being dead. I didn't want to kill an innocent child like that."
Shiller had a vague premonition, and Lucifer, seemingly embarrassed, cleared his throat and said, "I pulled the soul of someone who had just died to reincarnate in this body."
"So, I didn't lie." Lucifer spread his hands in his defense, "Both of you are my old friends."
Shiller slowly narrowed his eyes, his face expressing clearly, "Your attempt to downplay things is really poor."
After coughing a couple of times, Lucifer sat in discomfort for some time. Realizing that he couldn't change the subject, he said a bit resentfully, "I don't know where he got such a strong sense of resentment from. I didn't cause his country to collapse. Was there any need to latch onto my wing and not let go?"
Shiller also coughed quietly, effectively hiding his urge to laugh. He knew that the scene back then wasn't as romantic as it seemed.
As said by Lucifer before, when he'd come to earth for the first time, he'd met a young boy who had pulled out one of his feathers without a second thought.
Now it seems there were no other thoughts, just intense resentment that killed gods and buddhas alike.
According to earlier clues, Shiller committed suicide after the collapse of the Soviet Union, shooting himself after hearing a broadcast about the collapse.
That's just like Lucifer, Shiller thought. Any other angel wouldn't have been able to endure such strong resentment.
"So I say it was a complete mistake."
Unexpectedly, Lucifer sighed again, "It was just the beginning. I might disappoint you, but honestly, I didn't want to be friends with him. I had no other choice."
Shiller looked at Lucifer, whose face depicted a complex expression. After a moment of silence, he said, "He was... I don't know how to describe him. He was a Soviet scientist, do you understand?"
Lucifer said in a slightly panicked tone, "When he discovered that there were actual angels in this world, his first reaction wasn't to believe in God but to figure out why angels existed in the world. He wanted to know the principle of the existence of angels."
"I could have simply ignored him and walked away, but he stole one of my feathers, and it was from the most prominent place on my wing. I had to cooperate with his research, I had no other choice!"