Chapter: The Apathetic Heir
Chapter: 01
(The Apathetic Heir)
I stepped out of the office building and let out a long sigh. My feet moved on their own, my eyes drooping as I didn't bother to give way to my surroundings; by now, I knew them by heart.
That soul-aching tiredness pervaded my soul. Today had been a long day. Well, then again, every day had felt long lately. Life hadn't been what I was expecting, not that I could even find it in myself to care.
The office building loomed behind me, its fluorescent lights still burning through the windows like rows of unblinking eyes.
I barely noticed when I bumped into a woman on the sidewalk. She turned her head, her mouth opening as her eyes glared at me, a shout escaping her lips, which was probably an insult, but the words slid right off.
I muttered a quick apology out of habit and kept walking. All I wanted was to get home. I had no plans beyond that. No friends waiting. No family expecting a call.
Just an empty apartment with a bed that was slightly too firm and a mostly empty fridge. I preferred it that way, since it meant I could at least fall asleep without disturbance.
Now that was a happy thought.
Sleep.
To close my eyes and forget about work, forget about the emails waiting for me tomorrow, forget about my manager's passive-aggressive comments, and forget about the coworkers who were mostly a pain in my ass.
Sleep. Wake up. Repeat.
That was my life now. That was all it had been for years. I'd tried to pull myself out of it, but alone, the odds felt insurmountable. I was just a human with no standing or a rich family to back me.
Any change I could make would require a massive group of people, and naturally, I was a loner.
The air bit into my skin. Enough that it slipped through my jacket and sank deep into my bones. Strangely, I was almost grateful for it. It was the only thing keeping me awake. Without it, I might have collapsed onto a park bench and slept until morning.
That hadn't felt great last time, and the homeless man trying to mug me hadn't made for a pleasant sight.
At least the streets were mostly empty at this hour.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
I squinted at the bright screen.
1:47 AM.
Below the time sat a small calendar notification.
I stared at it for a second, then shook my head, a light flickering overhead.
Oh, right, it was my birthday.
I had completely forgotten.
Damn.
Happy birthday to me.
I guess that made me twenty-four years old today.
I shoved the phone back into my pocket and kept walking. Maybe I'd buy myself something small, a slice of cake or one of those overpriced coffees that tasted slightly better.
Yeah. That sounded nice.
I yawned and rubbed my eyes.
The crosswalk light turned green.
I stepped off the curb without looking, my mind already drifting toward the warm embrace of my bed and the few hours of sleep that stood between me and another shift.
Then my fist burned.
I blinked in surprise, the haze of tiredness fading just enough for the heat to register.
Looking down dully, I found golden markings searing themselves into the surface of my flesh, line after line writing itself across my skin as if some unseen hand was branding me in slow motion.
A frown pulled at my features. A flicker of incredulity broke through the apathy that had settled over me a long time ago.
What?
The sheer impossibility of it briefly gave me pause.
Then I turned, and a different set of lights blinded me, headlights, far too close and far too bright to be anything but a problem. There was a brief, strange moment where I registered the car hurtling toward me.
I didn't have much time to register. Many emotions flashed through me, followed by a massive surge of energy that shook my body just before impact. I felt my bones shatter. I felt my body crumple like paper.
I felt something vital inside me stop.
My body flew through the air, with a surprising lack of pain as my world spun. Before the edges of my vision turned dark. My last thought, absurdly, was that I never got that birthday cake.
Just like that, I was all but sure I had died.
Whichwas why I was confused when the sensation of my eyelids returned. My eyes flickered open, and I took a moment to check my surroundings in pure confusion.
Well… This didn't look like a pavement.
A quick look around showed me nothing but an endless grey plain. It wasn't exactly grey. It was more like every trace of colour had been drained from the world.
Then my last memories came rushing back.
A hint of panic at the impossibility of it tried making itself known. Everywhere I looked, I only found that same colour. So much so that had I not had a body, I'd have been unsure if I was even moving my eyes.
It was the only source of colour and went against my theory of being blind.
The lack of sound was equally unnerving.
I managed to push that panic down for cold logic.
And at the end of a thinking session.
I arrived at one conclusion.
Unless I was seriously hallucinating, would it be stupid of me to call this death? Then, furthermore, had I finally died after a boring life? Now stuck in an endless grey plane of existence?
Even stranger was that for the first time in years, I felt something close to peace at the revelation. That meant alarm clocks. No emails. No manager breathing down my neck. No bills piling up on the kitchen counter, I could barely afford.
No endless, grinding exhaustion that had settled deep into my bones and never left.
All at the cheap cost of existing.
Swirling images vaguely formed, indents in the grey expanse I knew as my mind, purely trying to fill in the void.
At least I had no family that would miss me.
That meant no strings left behind.
I'd made peace with that years ago, somewhere between the missed birthdays and the holidays I spent alone. To them, I had always been an afterthought, the eldest child who somehow mattered the least.
By the end, I was just going through the motions.
That was probably why I wasn't flailing around.
My emotions had dulled to the point that not much really touched me anymore. When you went past being tired over the course of a period that couldn't be healthy, you developed a weird mental shield.
Even dying hadn't felt all that bad in the end. I wouldn't want to go through it again, but as far as final moments went, it could have been a great deal worse.
I opened my eyes again.
The grey void stared back.
That did leave the question. Where exactly was I?
I tried to move, my hand coming up to meet my careful gaze. Sure enough, I could move freely, and my body didn't look any different. Even proving to be the only colour in the dull reality I had found myself in.
That led to my next problem: there was no ground beneath my feet, no sky above my head. Just grey in every direction, stretching into infinity.
So what followed was my attempt at floating, which proved… fruitful? I couldn't actually tell if I was moving. It felt like I should, so with nothing else to do, I tried moving for what felt like hours.
Or maybe minutes.
It was hard to tell without any sign of hunger or thirst. Then there was this energy I felt. An energy I hadn't felt in a long time. That sense of apathy remained mostly because it had become part of my personality by now, but I almost felt adventurous and excited…
Except that was no good now.
After a while, I stopped.
Not because I had arrived anywhere, but because something unsettling had slowly worked its way to the surface of my thoughts. Nothing had changed.
The grey void looked exactly as it had when I had started walking, offering no landmarks, no variation, no shift in tone or texture to suggest I had covered any ground at all.
For all I knew, I had travelled miles or I hadn't moved an inch. I felt the first faint flicker of something stir in my chest. Then I gave up, letting myself fall onto my back, or what I was choosing to perceive as my back.
Of course, I had to have gained some energy when there was nothing to do.
If I'd known I was going to die, I'd have taken a few days off at least.
My hand came back to raise my gaze.
A lack of golden markings that should have burnt into my skin.
Had I seriously hallucinated that?
Sleep deprivation was a real thing, but I had learned a few tricks from an old insomniac coworker of mine. I shouldn't have been at that level for a few more hours at least.
My lips pursed.
What exactly was I meant to do now?
I could relax… but for how long? Years? A hundred years? Perhaps Eternity? If that was so, there was no point in relaxing.
My thoughts were cut short by the abrupt appearance of a tiny spec. Noticeable in the sea of grey because it possesses a golden dot, the only other source of colour in this place.
It was faint. So faint that for a moment I was certain I had imagined it, conjured up by a mind starved of anything to look at. But as I focused, squinting into the void, I could barely make it out in the distance.
Had that been there when I had woken up?
I stared in consideration.
Should I try to approach the mysterious orb?
I wasn't sure I even wanted to.
The choice was taken out of my hands, a shiver passing through me as it noticed me.
I wasn't sure how to even explain that statement.
One moment it was still, then I felt as if it had locked onto me. A feeling that couldn't be explained in so many words. The sphere that had been distant one moment suddenly began moving toward me.
Faster than anything had any right to move. The massive ball of energy hurtled across the void.
I probably should be moving.
But again, what else was there to do? Float infinitely in whatever place this was.
That validity in that decision became slightly hard to follow through at the sight of the rapidly expanding sphere of colour. The small dot had come to consume half of my vision, making me feel like a grain of salt in front of a skyscraper.
For a moment, nothing happened.
The sphere had stopped in its place.
I'd stopped questioning what was even happening purely because theorising was pointless.
An alien? A god?
Then it opened up, the surface of the golden orb giving way to thousands of golden lines, all of which instantly began surrounding me, stopping just short of my chest and extending something.
A tendril. A thread of pure light that reached out and touched me, right over my heart. Then it pushed inside.
Finally, my mouth opened at the overwhelming feeling. There was no pain. Just a sudden, overwhelming sense of power, like something vast was trying to fit itself into a space far too small.
My vision went white
. My thoughts scattered. For a moment, I wasn't myself anymore. I was something else.
And then it was over.
I blinked.
The void was still grey. I was still standing, and that planet-sized orb I had just found myself on had vanished.
Was this going to keep happening?
A screen flickered into existence before my eyes.
[You have been selected to be chosen for the system.]
"…"
"Mhm," I said disinterestedly.
So I've gone insane?
There were worse ways to live.
If I were truly in a void, then going crazy could prove good-
Then my mind exploded.
Knowledge was crammed into my head as the concept of the large orb that had just melded with my soul spread through my mind. The absurd and outright nonsensical system, one that would have taken no end of explanation, became accepted as fact.
D-damn.
I unclenched my teeth.
The knowledge flickered through my mind.
A system that would allow me to grow, with levels, but primarily feats that could be achieved in return for random spins. These spins could grant me anything, a godly ability or a rusty sword that was one hint away from shattering.
That was essentially the main gist of what was floating through my head. I'd also be transported to a familiar world that shouldn't exist by all reasoning.
A part of me was glad this had been stuffed into my head as an undeniable fact, or I doubt I would have believed it, because seriously, what the hell?
For a moment, I was fully aware. The cold apathy had vanished, replaced by pure shock.
Light flashed.
A wheel formed in front of me without warning, gold-rimmed and humming with quiet light, slotted into the grey expanse like it had been waiting for me to be ready.
[Allocating selection points…]
Numbers began to flicker across its face.
Faster than I could track. One hundred. Three hundred. Eight hundred. Two thousand.
The wheel spun so fast that the values blurred into a continuous rolling smear of light, with glimpses of figures registering only when one happened to land squarely in front of me for a fraction of a second.
I watched it without much expression.
The knowledge in my head supplied the obvious. This was the foundation. Everything else I would build in this new life would be paid for from whatever number this wheel decided I deserved.
The wheel slowed.
The numbers resolved into something I could read.
Two hundred. Eight hundred. Twelve hundred. Three thousand. The figures climbed and fell and climbed again, the wheel taking its time as it dragged toward whatever it had decided on.
Then it stopped.
[5000 SP allocated.]
A small huff of air escaped me.
I had no idea where on the scale that number sat, but the orb's knowledge gave me a quiet impression that it was more than I had any right to.
Apparently, a boring life was good for one thing.
A screen formed.
The list expanded before me, each option already understood without me having to read the descriptions. The knowledge sat in my head neat and complete, courtesy of whatever the orb had crammed into me.
So… I wasn't going to be a human?
{Races available}
[Common races]
Human - 250 SP
Human (Sacred gear Welder) - 500 SP
[Uncommon Races]
Angel - 2500 SP
Fallen Angel - 1500 SP
Reincarnated Devil - 500 SP
Pureblood Devil - 2000 SP
Yokai - 500 SP
Rare yokai - 700 SP
[Rare Races]
Demigod - 5000 SP
[Legendary Races]
God - 10000 SP
Dragon - 15000 SP
[Mythical Races] Dragon God - 50000 SP
[Random?] - 750 SP
A small smile pulled at the corner of my mouth at the sheer obscene variety of it.
The world I was going to form in my mind.
The world of Dragons and Gods itself.
That made Human an instant no, even with the slim chance of rolling a Longinus sacred gear. I hadn't survived twenty-four years of being human to do another lap of it.
The price gap between Angel and Fallen Angel only made me pause for half a second before the answer surfaced from the knowledge sitting behind my eyes.
An Angel wouldn't be too bad, but that felt beyond restricting. Then, being a Fallen Angel also didn't feel like a good idea. Reincarnated Devil was off the table without further thought. No matter how prettily they dressed it up,
Evil Pieces meant ownership, and ownership meant a leash. I had spent enough of my last life with a noose around my neck. The Pureblood option, though. My eyes lingered there for a moment before moving along.
I would come back to it, but it would be sloppy to choose without checking everything else first. Yokai, I dismissed almost immediately.
Overrated animal people with marginally better strength than humans. While I could find myself as something stronger, I could also become a rabbit-person. The Rare Yokai option held a touch more appeal, and the knowledge supplied the difference without my having to ask.
A normal yokai was a monkey, a tiger, something common and forgettable. A rare yokai was a kitsune or a nekoshou.
Still not what I wanted.
Demigod had its appeal. I could see the benefits of having a godly parent. It was certainly a choice, but the drawbacks couldn't be ignored. Half-human meant half-leashed, and whichever god ended up listed as my parent would expect a return on the investment.
I had no interest in trading one corporate overlord for a divine one.
God and Dragon…
No.
It wouldn't do well to linger on that.
I'd gotten a good draw.
I knew that pull had been truly random, and 5000 points was hardly common, judging by the flickering numbers.
Then there was the random option, sitting at the bottom of the list with its modest 750 SP price tag. A spin for a higher race at a discount, with the understood risk that the wheel could just as easily land on something worse than what I would have picked.
I weighed it for a moment longer.
Basically, it was a completely random draw.
Though the thought that I could get something on the higher end just as easily as I could become a human felt pretty easy. Why live a new life at all if the plan was to play it as carefully as I had played the last one?
The random had a chance of putting me somewhere far above my budget. The downside was a slightly worse race that the gamer system would let me grow out of, regardless.
It would just take longer.
Fuck it.
I selected Random.
[Race selected - Devil]
It came without preamble, the screen appearing instantly after I selected my option.
That wasn't bad…
I'd had my eye on it.
I hadn't landed in the godly tier, but I had also kept a respectable chunk of my points. A pureblood devil for below half of the price the Pureblood option would have cost me outright.
[SP remaining - 4250]
Random - free
Phenex - 2250
Sitri - 1950
Bael - 4000
Gremory – 2000
Bune - 2500
Zagan - 2750
Dantalion - 2600
Glasya-Labolas - 2600
Malphas - 1700
Valac - 1900
Malthus - 2000
Decarabia - 2300
Shax - 1850
Naberius - 2200
Asmodeus - 14150
Beelzebub - 14550
Leviathan - 14350
Lucifer - 20000
[More…]
The list kept going past the edge of my vision.
The names registered, along with their gifts, as my eyes passed over them, the orb's knowledge laying out each clan's bloodline abilities without me needing to think about it.
Bael's Power of Destruction tugged at me first. The instinctive grab for the most obvious choice. That would take up all my points, but it would be more than worth it.
I stopped my hand before I could press it. There was no point in being hasty when I had options.
The original Satan bloodlines sat at the bottom of the list with their absurd price tags. They were all so far out of my range that the twenty thousand price tag was almost insulting, considering I only had four thousand two hundred and fifty to my name.
Then there was the random.
All of the devil houses were expensive.
Could I pull it off again?
Most of these houses would give me something invaluable. I wouldn't mind that Bael bloodline, though.
The decision made me hesitate.
Then I shrugged.
The random had landed me a Pureblood Devil at a discount. Pressing my luck again was reckless, but I had not exactly built a life on careful decisions paying off. And even without a dramatic bloodline, the gamer system would eventually carry me to the same heights.
The random had the upside, and the downside felt manageable.
I picked it.
The screen shifted, and I felt a wave of incredulity.
"What did I get?" I asked.
[You'll see once you generate your status.]
[Now onto your skill selection.]
[Fighter] [Ranger] [Support] [Mage] [Rogue] [Special-Locked]
The choice barely required thinking about.
Especially since I already knew this had been coming.
The system was giving me a freebie.
Something I was grateful for.
While I would get draws for certain feats, a vague description I still wasn't sure about, there was a good chance I either couldn't generate a lot of those feats, or I wouldn't get anything outright strong.
The knowledge in my head laid out what each path would feed me down the line, and there was only one I had any interest in.
Magic.
Who in their right mind got handed a second life and chose to swing a sword?
I selected Mage.
[Elementalist] [Druid] [Summoner] [Necromancer] [Healer] [Illusionist] [Priest]
A slightly slower decision this time, but only slightly.
Healer and Illusionist were both weak enough that I dismissed them out of hand. Priest was funny in concept, a devil priest. The mental image was almost worth selecting to see what kind of complications it would create down the line.
Almost.
I liked the idea of being on speaking terms with my own race, and antagonising the church and Heaven before I had even started seemed like an exceptionally stupid opening move. Pissing off Michael felt like a problem better saved for later.
Druid had the same problem in reverse. A devil pulling power from nature was funny in concept, weak in practice. Summoner and Necromancer made me pause longer than the rest.
Both had appeal in the long run, but the knowledge in my head told me what they would mean in the short term. Reliance on summons and corpses to fight my battles for me.
I had no interest in being the kind of mage who needed a wall of bodies between himself and the enemy.
Not yet, at least.
Once I had enough strength of my own, I could revisit the option, and the system would let me pick up additional skill classes down the line.
That left one.
Elementalist.
Choose an element.
[Fire] [Wind] [Water] [Earth] [?]
The basic four.
All deadly enough in trained hands, none of them especially exciting to look at.
I should be getting imagination magic anyway, right? That was a thing. If the choice came down to those four, I would have picked Fire and called it a day. The question mark, though.
The knowledge in my head supplied the answer before I had to ask.
The random selection would spin for a far broader range of elements than the four basics, including, presumably, the strange and rare ones that did not appear on any standard menu.
I weighed it for a moment.
Then I sighed.
Did I have a gambling problem?
Perhaps this was the cause of leading such a boring life. I'm sure I'd have other things to fall back on, and the fact that my system was based around gacha spins that were earned through feats, I'd say this wasn't too much of an issue.
Picking one of the standard elements would be doubling up on a capability I already have. Picking the random gave me a chance at something imagination magic could never touch.
I pressed the question mark.
[Spinning Element]
Elements flashed past my vision faster than I could parse them, each one with its own emblem and name. A gacha wheel had appeared from nothing, spinning in a blur of colour.
Solar Manipulation. Foxfire. Time.
Names I would not have called elements at all if pressed slid through the wheel one after another.
My pulse picked up despite myself.
So this was the catalogue.
Every element in existence, lined up on the wheel.
Eventually, it slowed.
Then stopped.
Skill Gained
[Lava Manipulation] {Novice}
The destructive element of lava, a mix between earth and fire that allows the user to both defend and destroy. Widely considered one of the most dangerous elements, once mastered, the user can attack their foes with the power of a natural disaster. Bringing an unstoppable destruction to anyone who dares to get in the user's path.
[Passive Effect: Cost reduction to all lava manipulation usage]
Not bad at all.
Defence and offence in one element. Better than any of the basic four would have given me, and only a mild disappointment because I had glimpsed some of the more exotic options sliding past on the wheel.
Still, Lava was nothing to complain about.
I wondered idly how far I could push it once I had time to train with it properly.
[Nearly done now, onto the next part since a name and body have been generated for you.]
[SP remaining - 4250]
Background
Common Servant - 100 SP
Rare Servant - 250 SP
Legendary Servant – 1500 SP
Basic House - 50 SP
Basic Castle - 1000 SP
Hidden Legendary Castle – 1500 SP
Common Familiar – 300 SP
Uncommon Familiar – 500 SP
Legendary Familiar – 1000 SP
Family heirloom - 250 SP
Legendary weapon - 2000 SP
More…
My eyes paused over the options.
This would be my last chance to get these points.
After that, I wouldn't be gaining anything for free beyond this selection. It was still hard to wrap my head around the fact that this would determine the course of my life.
It was worth picking carefully then. The knowledge in my head laid out what each option meant with its usual quiet thoroughness. The Hidden Legendary Castle would give me somewhere to operate from that nobody knew existed, a base that didn't appear on any map and couldn't be stumbled across by accident.
The legendary part alone meant this wasn't going to be some 'last heir of a broken pillar clan.' Type situation.
I paused.
Actually, it could totally still do that.
I was glad I hadn't spent all my points on the prior options. To be safe, a Legendary Familiar would give me a companion I would not have to pay for in negotiation or risk later on.
Both felt like clear picks. I made them, then padded out the rest with a few smaller selections that felt sensible. A legendary weapon had crossed my mind, but the knowledge supplied the obvious truth.
Weapons could be stolen.
I nodded once, satisfied, and the system moved me along.
The last part.
[Would you like to accept a trait in exchange for a free spin?]
Tempting.
Truthfully, I didn't know how hard it would be to achieve these things since that was the only way to get some draw. It couldn't hurt to try now, right? What would I even get?
My mind supplied me.
Perks.
Guaranteed perks.
Unlike the truly random draw.
That made it easier.
"Why not?"
[Trait gained]
[Reckless] [Minor]
You are prone to making reckless decisions. You are easy to perform any reckless deeds.
That could be a problem.
[Free spin awarded. Rolling…]
[Perk gained]
[Magical Prodigy] [Epic]
You are a prodigy in using the art of magic. All magical skills rank up faster.
Not bad, and not as bad as I had braced for.
A manageable downside and a clean upside.
The rankings certainly looked good in comparison.
The knowledge in my head filled in the rest. Every trait I accepted would earn me another spin on the wheel. Every spin carried its own weight of chance. The perks came from the spin, not the trade itself, which meant the trade could, in theory, give me nothing at all.
Or it could give me something absurd.
I pressed yes again.
[Trait gained]
[Prideful] [Intermediate]
You have the sin of pride. You kneel to no one.
[Free spin awarded. Rolling…]
[Perk gained]
[Lady Luck's blessing] [Major]
You are blessed by luck herself. Any luck-based rewards will be in your favour.
I paused.
I'd been hesitant to try much luck any further truthfully.
So far, my luck had been insane. I didn't know if there was some karma system that was operating in my favour for the shit draw I must have gotten in my prior life, but this went beyond that…
A major luck-based charm, with a system whose biggest feature was based on luck.
[Trait gained]
[Pain Tolerance] (Intermediate)
All pain you experience is doubled in its intensity.
[Free spin awarded. Rolling…]
[Perk gained]
[Prodigy] [Epic]
[Alert: Due to having the perks [Magical Prodigy] and [Prodigy], the perk has evolved into [Prodigious Birth]
[Prodigious Birth] [Legendary]
You are a monster among prodigies and can learn anything quickly.
The first trait made me frown.
It felt simple, but then again, besides the drain of having my soul drained. I hadn't experienced much physical pain. That ranking also made me slightly wary. For a relatively simple trait, it was ranked on the same level as prideful.
That was also washed away at the sight of the legendary-tiered perk. The original Magical Prodigy had only worked on magical classes, which would have left every non-magical skill struggling to keep up.
The evolution worked across the board and made me a quicker learner, besides.
I imagine it would help.
Lady Luck's blessing was already earning its keep.
Again.
[Trait gained]
[Fiery Temper] (Minor)
You'll find things that could be considered annoying, Annoyances trigger an explosive rage in you.
[Free spin awarded. Rolling…]
[Perk gained]
[The Devil's Charm] [Minor]
You have the charm of the devil himself. Charisma stat is massively boosted.
Strangely fitting.
Again.
[Trait gained]
[Divine Retribution] [Supreme]
Someone from your bloodline has somehow pissed off a god to the point of wanting your head. Better try to stay away from them. This god will be actively hunting you.
[Free spin awarded. Rolling…]
[Perk gained]
[Golden Tongue] [Minor]
You have a way with words that makes it easier for people to accept them.
"…"
That was probably enough.
Being a devil was probably enough to annoy a lot of gods, but actively being hunted down by a God felt a bit much. The perks had been generous so far, every spin landing somewhere useful thanks to Lady Luck pulling her weight behind the scenes.
The traits could stack faster than I could shake them off, and some rolls down the line would land on something I could not use.
Better to stop while I was ahead.
Relatively speaking, considering I just got a supreme-ranked trait for a minor perk.
[Lastly, the wheel of fortune.]
I paused.
Wait.
[Name: Raziel Lucifer
Race: Pureblood Devil
Rank: D
Physique: E (Middle)
Spirit: D (High)
Regen: F (High)
Charisma: A (High)]
Lucifer?!
[The wheel of fortune allows you to gain one essence at random. Good luck.]
Hold on a second.
[Spinning the wheel of fortune…]
[Essence gained]
[Essence - The Broker]
[The broker]
Allows the user to make any sort of deal without a contract. With the shake of a hand, the user can bargain for anything the other party has to offer, this both includes things such as souls or abilities.
Well.
I'll be damned.
The shock of landing such an absurd ability briefly drew my attention away from the larger, more important fact.
Somewhere along the line, I had apparently been given the Lucifer bloodline without paying the eye-watering price tag attached to it.
I barely had time to widen my eyes before the void around me split open into a black hole, swallowing me whole and pulling me through into somewhere new.
-{Lucifer}-
A colossal throne of polished metal, gleaming like obsidian, dominated the vast hall, its imposing structure lined with golden accents. Along with intimidating spikes that jutted up behind it. Managing to cover that part of the long hall in its entirety.
Seated upon it was a man with hair as silver as moonlight, the silken strands flowing over his shoulders and catching the light with a faint, metallic sheen. His glowing golden eyes burned with an intense, otherworldly light as he frowned deeply in displeasure, features tightening as he reviewed his choices.
The man, or rather, devil, was currently thinking about the newborn child he had miraculously spawned with Lilith.
It wasn't planned.
Or perhaps better said, it shouldn't have happened at all.
Lilith couldn't have children.
She'd given it up.
Lucifer glanced at his wife.
The normally cold and absent devil was staring down with a look of obsessive, all-consuming love that bordered on something almost feral. Her purple eyes, which had turned so cold after her fall from Heaven, now fixed on her son with a hunger that was equal parts devotion and possession.
He knew why.
He couldn't stop the feeling of adoration from bursting forward.
Rizevim, despite what many presumed, wasn't their son. He was a weapon created from their own blood. He hadn't been made with love or the thought that he was their son.
This was different.
Was it Father's doing?
Lucifer pursed his lips.
It would be a masterful move.
Even now, he could feel it. The love of having a true child. He hadn't been able to prepare either; the birth had been so quick.
Adorable eyes blearily stared back.
Lilith tightened her hug.
It didn't help that Lilith had always sought love, that he knew. Adam had been a lousy choice. In her eyes, merely looking for something more than that had gotten her banished. He had already been getting tired of this war. The war with his father had gone on for centuries, with no progress.
The consequences were starting to weigh on him. His siblings, who had been at his side for so long, died because of this war. A mistake he had come to regret deeply, now that his anger had started to cool.
Now, the first devil that was not created by Lilith's magic but instead made naturally through Lilith's womb.
Unlike with Rizevim, the first time he had laid eyes on his true son, it had been enough to snap him out of his anger. Seeing his son had made him feel an overwhelming amount of care and fatherly affection he had never felt before.
How could this have happened?
With that love came a deep fear, the fear that this war would reach him and the fallen angels would try to harm his son in their next raid. So he had made a decision.
A hard one for him and Lilith, but one that would keep him safe anyway.
Per a secret request, the House of Dantalion had created a complex and extremely expensive ward formation that dilated time around a massive castle he had built just for his son.
It was part of the plan.
Lucifer didn't know if the devils would win.
How could they?
His father was immensely powerful.
This war would only end one way.
So he planned to seal his son inside the castle, using time dilation to slow time within, while the outside world raced ahead, so that when this war finally ended, he might still have the honour of raising him without missing the years of his childhood.
That had been Lilith's only request, or more the demand that he would have to obey, lest she not agree with the plan.
It would be a long while before he could see his son again, but he was certain it would all work out in the end. His son would not be alone. He had already decided on who would serve him.
"Gremailia, come here." He commanded the young Lucifuge Heir in front of him.
She appeared no older than eighteen, yet Gremailia radiated beauty far beyond what was expected of someone her age. Her reputation as one of the most sought-after young women in the Underworld was rightly deserved.
The Devil Heir possessed a voluptuous hourglass figure with lush, generous curves. Her lips were plush and full. While her piercing cold silver eyes gleamed with a blank look that would intimidate many.
"You will be given a mission of utmost importance. Lilith and I have decided to have a child. Due to safety reasons concerning his well-being, we will be putting him into a warded formation that will accelerate time outside, so when the war is over, Lilith and I will be able to raise him ourselves." Lucifer said calmly, while his eyes locked onto her own, as if looking for any sign of hesitation.
"You are from this day to become his personal maid, be honoured little Lucifuge, for you will serve the Heir of the Lucifer house."
Gremailia's expression of shock quickly smoothed out into a calm smile.
The social standing of this move wasn't lost on him.
The Lucifuge were, no doubt, the closest of the six houses of Lucifer, but they had contenders in the form of house Nebiros and house Satanachia.
"Yes, my lord, I will not fail you." The maid said resolutely.
"I know you won't." Lucifer praised.
She stood slightly straighter.
"Lucius Satanachia will be accompanying you."
Two of his six houses. It was a loss for the current war effort, but it was for the best.
The maid paused, her eyes going back to deathly cold as she restrained her anger with ease, much to Lucifer's amusement.
Stepping out from the side came a handsome butler who radiated a powerful dark aura.
Lucius Satanachia. The Lucifuge and Satanachia had a rivalry over the favour of Lucifer.
"My lord, it would be an honour to serve the heir of Lucifer." He said calmly, with a slight smirk at Gremailia.
"Yes, I expect it would be," Lucifer commented with no end of amusement.
Lilith sent him a glare.
Lucifer promptly pretended she didn't exist.
More for his sake.
"Now prepare your belongings and be back here in 4 hours. I would rather go sooner, but Lilith is hesitant to let go of our son." Lucifer said with a slight smile at the thought of Lilith and his son.
"Yes, my lord!"
"Yes, Lord Lucifer."
"Lord Lucifer, if I could be so bold as to ask for the name of the young Heir." She said with a challenging look towards Lucius.
"A good question." Lucifer considered.
His birth had so preoccupied them that it somehow hadn't come around.
"Our son's name is Raziel." He stated proudly with a boom as if reality had trembled at the name.
Lilith pursed her lips.
He probably should have discussed it first, though.
-END-