CELESTIA: The Presence of Neverland
Chapter 5 — The Judgment of Fire
The wind in the forest blew like a wail of pain.
The trees twisted, warped by the heat and flames of the catastrophe. Cadets screamed, scattered, some sinking into panic, others frozen with fear, unable to move.
Amid this chaos, Zayn had stopped.
His eyes were wide open.
His breath was ragged.
His heart pounded like a war drum.
In front of him... Yojuro.
But it was no longer Yojuro.
A red and black aura enveloped his body, rippling like living flames. A halo of fire floated above his head, dancing as if mocking the laws of nature. His eyes, incandescent red, burned with cruelty and arrogance. A diabolical, cold, cruel smile stretched across his face, twisting Yojuro's familiar features into an infernal silhouette.
Lucifer. The vessel. The master.
"Baraka..." he said, his voice a sharp echo, caressing fear like something alive.
"Today, I will teach you Hell."
Baraka sneered, sinister. Black, glistening snakes erupted from his arms and chest, writhing in the air like a stream of liquid steel.
"Organic Pillar!" he screamed.
The snakes lunged at Lucifer.
But Lucifer... dodged.
He moved with superhuman fluidity. His strikes, precise and violent, turned each snake to dust at the slightest touch. Then, in a lightning-fast motion, he teleported behind Baraka and drove a titanic punch into the Djinn's chest, sending him flying through several trees like a broken wooden toy.
The trees shattered under the impact.
Fire began licking the canopy.
Baraka got back up, spitting pieces of smoke and blood.
He unleashed his snakes again.
Lucifer raised his head, his diabolical smile widening further. With a lightning strike to the chin, he broke Baraka's defense. The Djinn tried to parry the next blow...
But Lucifer tore off his hands with inhuman strength, chaining a series of brutal strikes. Then black and white flames licked Baraka's face, burning his flesh with a cruel laugh.
His coat was ripped away.
The Djinn was thrown against a tree... which shattered like crystal under the flames.
Lucifer murmured:
"Hellfire..."
A flame burst from his hand.
The flame's effect: ice.
Baraka was instantly imprisoned in black and blue frost, frozen like a statue.
But the Djinn, through sheer will, broke the ice.
Lucifer didn't slow down. He continued his assault, striking, burning, crushing, his movements too fast for the human eye. He smiled, savoring the chaos.
"It's so... fun..." he murmured, and the forest around him erupted entirely in flame, illuminating the ashes of what had been, only minutes before, a peaceful place.
Zayn, trembling, clenched his fists. Tears ran down his cheeks as he took in the full scope of Lucifer's power. Around him, students fled in panic, running through the burning forest.
Baraka, still alive, spat blood, choking on the smoke.
Lucifer approached, each step burning the ground beneath his feet, flames licking the air around him.
"Finison..." he said, his voice resonating like a thunderclap.
"The Sun of Engwinthan."
A miniature sun appeared between his hands, burning with white and black fire, radiating an unbearable heat.
He slammed Baraka to the ground.
The impact caused a massive explosion. The miniature sun burst, reducing nearly half the forest to ashes, leaving an oppressive silence in its wake.
Baraka screamed.
Fire consumed his body. The flames licked his skin, turning him into a charred, motionless, dead specter.
Lucifer laughed.
His laughter tore through the silence, a diabolical and triumphant sound.
Then... everything changed.
The red in his eyes dissipated.
The black flame went out.
Yojuro's body regained control.
He collapsed, unconscious.
Zayn ran to him, his tears mixing with sweat and dust, his breath broken.
Around them, the world was nothing but a nightmare of fire, ashes, and silence.
And at the center, amid this chaos... a new weight had just settled on Zayn's heart.
The power of Lucifer.
The fragility of humanity.
The truth of fire.
---
Zayn didn't remember carrying Yojuro on his back. He didn't remember the walk either — the charred forest, the portal sealed behind them by Paladins who'd arrived too late, the stretcher ride to the castle gates. All of it had faded somewhere between the moment Baraka stopped burning and the moment the Academy's great doors opened before him.
What he remembered was the weight.
Yojuro, light as a child on his back, and yet so heavy that Zayn had, more than once, thought his legs would give out.
What he also remembered was the silence of the hallways, where pale-faced students stepped aside as he passed without a word, where even the statues seemed to hold their breath.
And what he remembered most of all was Eothe.
His smile, in the moment his eyes closed.
That last word, barely murmured: *glad*.
Zayn still didn't understand what his friend had meant by it. Glad about what? To have experienced this trip, this academy, this train, this watch that radiated energy? Glad to have had, if only for a day, a friend willing to swear he'd stay alive as a witness to his legend?
He would never get the answer.
And that absence of an answer weighed heavier than any battle.
In front of the infirmary doors, Zayn stopped. He looked at Yojuro, still unconscious in his arms, his face pale, almost peaceful despite everything his body had just endured.
"You'd better wake up," he murmured. "Because I've still got a ton of stupid stories to tell you, and I refuse to do that alone."
He pushed the door open with his foot.
And somewhere, very far away, beyond the castle towers, beyond even the charred forest still smoking under the moon...
Something had sensed what had just happened.
Something had begun, patiently, counting the seconds.