126 Chapter 5
A blank room with countless chairs made from painted white oak. Arranged them in a massive circle and faced towards a stool in the centre.
Lucifer sat on the stool the next moment, after the black light engulfed him. He looked around with an inquisitive glance.
He could see familiar and nostalgic faces in all the seats that surrounded him.
Of course he could! They were his past lives!
His face passed by the various people. Some lives were more vibrant than others; a warrior, priest, judge, traitor. Lucifer lived countless lives as a devil and human. He wondered why they brought him to this place.
'I remember that black light…'
'I remember that black light…'
The words he thought echoed around the white room in various voices and tones. He placed his hands over his ears to mask the sound as it became louder each moment that passed and became unable to think.
With that happening, Lucifer found himself surrounded by millions of people in this white expanse filled with a solemn feeling. Their eyes watched him with disdain, hope, fear, anger, and delight. These were the lives before him, where he failed.
One of his past lives wearing a pastor's robe bearing an upside down cross on each side.
"May the holy father forgive our betrayal. The first deceiver returns to our midst!"
"Praise be!"
"Praise be!"
The various lives cheered out, which caused him to feel confused.
'Did I offend them? I really cannot remember!'
Lucifer tried to stand up and confront them. However, his body froze still and remained pinned down by something beyond his power.
He tried to contact the system of Lanza for help with this situation.
The system didn't respond.
Lanza didn't answer.
His various links to the women vanished.
Sweat filled Lucifer's face as his thoughts faded into black.
A constant chant of voices began.
Dang!
Dang!
Dang!
The giant white tower in the distance rang out and resounded inside his ears, but he was helpless as the loud noise assaulted his mind endlessly.
"We bring for the accursed Lucifer, the vile devil, that ruined our chances for happiness! Our cursed fate because we became his vessel!"
"Amen!"
"Amen!"
"Come on guys, we had fun, right?"
"Hey Adolfo! Our run was pretty epic, right? We almost…"
"SILENCE! Foul Devil, do not profane these halls!"
Since these guys refused to allow him to speak, he decided to just count sheep in his mind and try to sleep. This religious speech reminded him of his father and the bitter memories of his past.
The bells and chanting stopped. He felt their judging gazes all focus in sync.
He used all of his willpower to withstand the painful feeling inside his chest.
"Why? I always respected your choices, never bent your desires!"
Once again, the priest read his book that condemned him as evil, all his actions as profanity and blasphemy.
The priest held his hands in the air, his prayer restarted. A white light shone down upon him like a spotlight, which caused Lucifer to shudder.
"What are you going to summon Rafaela or Michael down to judge me? We've done this… I lose. Why repeat the past over again!"
It looked like a kaleidoscope, as golden lights and white lights fused together in a spiral.
'This reminds me of Sundays in the past, brothers. Why did you all enjoy talking about such mundane things every single Sunday?'
The priest gave a loud cough as his body shuddered, seemingly unable to endure the powerful holy essence.
"Lucifer, the unrepenting and vile devil. We shall give you one chance. Turn back and accept the bindings of our illustrious father!"
Unfortunately, even though the words sounded sweet and filled with promise, his intention was to yet again limit Lucifer to bind himself willingly with the laws of this universe.
'Do you think I am stupid! The whole point of this is to break free!'
Clearly, this priest would never cease as he shook the sceptre in his hand, which caused the bells and chanting to resume.
Lucifer looked at the priest in his rapture, his eyes bleeding tears of blood from the intense pressure as the spotlight covered his body.
"Repent!"
"Repent!"
The sound intensified, causing more blood and putrified pus to ooze from his pores and orifices. No matter how hard he tried to stay focused, his eyes darted and blurred from the assault of both physical and sonic torture.
'%^$£$#!'
His thoughts now became jumbled, like corrupted data, unable to make sense of his own thoughts. The priest's condemnation of himself intensified. Golden lights bombarded his body. Now bathed in red blood and black fluids.
"O' Lord! We shall purify this Devil, he shall willingly accept thy holy path!"
"O' Lord! We shall purify this Devil, he shall willingly accept thy holy path!"
Lucifer's head rocked, no longer able to make sense of who he was, why he existed, what he wanted.
'Holy path? Father?'
Suddenly, the moment he considered accepting this priest's verse and follow his father's way. A woman flashed before his eyes, someone they took from him.
— A vague memory flashed before Lucifer, in the city of Fairfax.
Lucian Silva sat in the dark, his step-father yet to pay the bills, shivering in the freezing cold winter. The woman he called mother kissed his cheek and left.
'This is?'
The boy felt his body shiver in the cold in the darkness.
Suddenly, a warm body wrapped around him and set him ablaze. As if her existence caused embers to ignite a wildfire, forcing colour and heat returned to the boy's lifeless eyes.
"Sylvia…"
"Sylvia…"
"I'm here whenever you need me. Don't worry, big sister will take care of all the bad things."
Sylvia smiled bitterly as she rested her tired face on his shoulder. Her body clung to the boy, that smelt like cigarettes and cheap wine.
"Un, father said I will start working at mom's store in spring… That I don't need to visit school."
These words repeated in her mind repeatedly. Sometimes she wished to save her brother from hell.
However, she was afraid of the unknown. Until she heard these words.
The next scene was that night of terror and shame when he ran to escape from his bloody sister, his mother's flesh and blood dripping down her face and body.
"Lucian, sister needs to go far away. I hope you will come find me soon… Your sister will be lonely without you by her side! Hehe, don't worry, those monsters won't hurt you any longer."
Lucifer bit his bloody lips that lacked any skin as he winced in pain, light returned to his eyes that lacked pupils and colour. Power filled his broken bones and damaged muscles.
"Ah… I'm coming, Sylvia, not their way, our way… No matter who judges us wrong! I won't let you be lonely anymore…"
A few minutes passed after he lost his mind. Shock filled the priest's face, along with the countless past versions of Lucifer.
"You…! You will lose everything if you go against his path! All the power, the glory! As it is in heaven! He shall condemn you! Devil!"
"Amen!"
"Ame…"
"FUCK YOUR AMEN!"
Shatter!
Lucifer jumped up, his desire to see his sister follow by the images of his beloved women. He first treated this life as a game like all others.
No life before this did he truly fall for the mortal women. They were like expensive toys bought for Christmas to be played with and used.
This life was different, something changed no! He felt everything changed from the moment Sylvia became a goddess just to save the 'Human' Lucian.
'To think of the very race I despised and mocked. The reason for my fall. Would be the reason I could finally break free from the divine grasp…'
"Humans… Let's try to learn more, accept their impurities, the bits I don't like. I can change with power!"
There was a sense of delight in the priest's eyes, yet soon turned to condemnation and judgment as he restarted his prayer to his noble lord.
"Know this Lucifer! You will lose everything that you took for granted! Thy lord's generosity is not endless!"
Lucifer looked towards the countless eyes of his past lives, no they were just avatars for games he played. Mere useless abandoned saves that were useless.
"Then take it all. Even if I have to start from the beginning, I will fight my way to the top!"
[Error!]
[System Error!]
[Blasphemer detected!]
[Purging!]
[System Sucessfully Unistalled!]
Shatter!
Once again, a loud noise of something shattering sounded. The chains that bound him seemed to lose the reason to exist and shattered into dust, fading into nothing.
"Ugk!"
Black blood oozed from his lips, the skin on his body cracked and tore apart. His eyes turned black and seeped a tar like substance.
"This is your last chance! The lord can return everything! Love you eternally as his beloved son! Accept this now, Lucifer! You have no other choice!"
The priest bellowed as the golden light devoured countless numbers of his past avatars. Lucifer discovered his body felt empty, like he just took a massive shit and felt 10Kg lighter.
"Lucifer…"
He watched the gold light as it obliterated everything that he achieved, attained and gained in the past several hundred millennia.
'It's become silent in my head… A little lonely, like that winter night with Sylvia and mother…'
Finaly, all that remained in the blank room was the priest that condemned him the most. His first reincarnation and the most heretic priest ever to exist.
"Haha! I knew you would get my true meaning! Those dumb angels tried to pull a fast one, using your sisters and Lanza to bring you back as their puppet!"
Lucifer, when he lived as this priest, spread the word of Satan and created the story of a great deceiver.
"You almost had me going there… Old friend? Kinda strange to call myself friend…"
He watched as the priest, with a slightly plump waist, chuckled and gave a deep bow, then knelt before him.
"My eternal lord, this humble servant shall return to the abyss first. I await your grand return and pray for the day I meet you as my true self!"
The Priest's eyes filled with deep reverence and awe. He lowered his body and gladly accepted the baptism of the golden light as it tore his body apart.
"I pray to thy lord Satan! Lucifer, lord of dusk!"
"A~ Men!"
Poof!
Lucifer looked forlorn as the golden light faded and vanished, leaving a room devoid of sound, people, and light.
"Once again, alone in a dark, cold room. Haha!"
His brothers seemed to want to destroy him here. Those bastards used his beloved sisters. Twisted his adorable angel to serve their cause.
Unfortunately, they failed, no worse than failed.
He could feel it, something beyond their control, beyond the system that was monitored.
A black and white orb fused with his heart and formed an unknown source of power.
Lucifer had become a unique existence, second to only his father in the entire universe, maybe even surpass him with time.
"It kinda feels like I started a New Game+ run."
(AN: A New Game Plus, also New Game+ (NG+), is an unlockable video game mode available in some video games that allows the player to start a new game after they finish it at least once. This allows them to carry over items, levels, experience and other bonus features and sometimes offers a harder difficulty.)