Astrid looked down at him. Her eyes held the crushing weight of a collapsing galaxy. Her silver hair floated around her head as if underwater.
"My children stand at those gates," Astrid repeated. "Do not slaughter them, Lucifer of Obsidian."
Lucifer rested his hand on his sword hilt. He did not bow. In his past life, he had seen gods turn their backs on humanity.
He knew what they were. They were not infallible creators. They were incredibly powerful beings with their own agendas, flaws, and blind spots.
"They are Dark Elves," Lucifer said coldly. He pointed at the frozen archers on the bone walls. "They serve the Cult of Decay. They guard the necromancers rotting this world. They are my enemy."
"They are victims," Astrid pleaded. She lowered herself, floating until she was eye-level with Lucifer. "Look closer, Regressor."
Astrid raised a glowing finger. She sent a pulse of starlight across the chasm. The light hit the frozen Dark Elves on the wall. It illuminated their bodies like an X-ray.
Lucifer narrowed his eyes.
Beneath their dark, corrupted skin, Lucifer saw their mana veins. The veins were not naturally black. They were silver, but a thick, parasitic green sludge choked them.
A magical tether, thin as a spider's silk, connected the back of each elf's neck to the towering black citadel in the center of the island.
"They are Star-Kissed Elves," Astrid explained. Sorrow dripped from her words. "A century ago, the Cult of Decay ambushed their hidden sanctuary.
The necromancers dragged my children into the dark. They corrupted their starlight with necrotic sludge. They broke their minds and chained their souls to the Altar of Decay.
They are prisoners trapped inside their own bodies."
Lucifer studied the glowing green tethers. He analyzed the magic.
"Mind-control tethers," Lucifer noted. "Tied directly to the Cult Leader's altar. If the Altar is destroyed, the tethers snap. The necrotic sludge loses its anchor."
"Yes," Astrid said eagerly. "You see the truth. If you kill the Cult Leader and shatter the Altar, my children will be free. The darkness will fade from their skin. They will be Star-Kissed once more."
Lucifer looked away from the fortress. He looked back at the Goddess. His face was a mask of stone.
"That changes my tactical approach," Lucifer stated flatly. "A frontal assault is simple. We shoot them, cross the bridge, and burn the fortress.
Sparing the guards requires infiltration. It requires my troops to hold their fire while taking fire. It increases the risk to my soldiers. It increases the risk to me."
Astrid stared at him. She looked genuinely shocked.
"You hesitate?" she asked, her voice rising in disbelief. "I am a Goddess. I am asking you to show mercy to innocent souls, and you calculate the risk?"
"I calculate everything," Lucifer replied. He stepped closer to the divine projection. The Warlord aura radiating from his body pushed against her starlight.
He was tiny compared to her, but his presence did not yield. "I have seen the end of the world, Astrid. Mercy does not win wars. Power wins wars. If I risk my people to save yours, I expect compensation."
Silence fell over the frozen cavern.
Gods were rarely spoken to this way. Mortals groveled. Mortals prayed. Mortals did not negotiate terms.
Astrid's eyes flared with a sudden, brilliant light. Anger flashed across her divine features. The cavern trembled slightly, threatening to break the temporal stasis.
Lucifer did not blink. He stood tall, his hand resting casually on his blade. He knew she had no other choice. If she could save them herself, she wouldn't be begging a mortal to do it.
The divine laws prevented gods from directly striking the mortal plane without massive consequences.
"You are ruthless," Astrid whispered. The anger faded, replaced by weary acceptance.
"I am a Warlord," Lucifer corrected. "What is the price of your children's lives?"
Astrid sighed. A shower of silver sparks fell from her lips. "If you spare the Star-Kissed Elves. If you break their chains and return them to the light... I will grant you my Divine Favor."
[System Alert: Divine Quest Offered!]
[Quest: The Starweaver's Plea]
[Objective: Infiltrate the Cult of Decay Stronghold. Destroy the Altar of Decay without killing the brainwashed Star-Kissed Elves.]
[Reward: Divine Blessing of the Starweaver, +50,000 EXP, Absolute Loyalty of the Star-Kissed Faction.]
[Failure: Hostility with the Goddess Astrid.]
Lucifer read the prompt. It was a massive reward. A Divine Blessing was a permanent, reality-bending buff. In his past life, entire kingdoms went to war just for a fraction of a god's favor.
"I accept your terms," Lucifer said.
Astrid reached out. She pressed her glowing, starlight finger against Lucifer's forehead.
"Seal the pact, Regressor," Astrid commanded. "Do not fail me. Their souls have suffered long enough."
A jolt of pure, freezing energy shot through Lucifer's skull. The system interface flashed bright gold.
[Divine Quest Accepted!]
The massive projection of Astrid began to dissolve. The starlight turned into mist, fading away into the toxic green air of the cavern.
Time snapped back into place.
The toxic bubbles popped loudly on the lake's surface. The green fire roared in the braziers.
Elara finished her sentence without missing a beat. "....my fire can burn away their poison."
Lucifer immediately raised his hand, cutting her off. "Hold your fire."
Elara stopped. She looked at him in confusion. The Cryo-Vanguards behind them instantly lowered their rifles, waiting for the next command.
"The tactical objective has changed," Lucifer announced. He turned to face his army. His voice carried the absolute authority of a Tier 2 Warlord.
"The Elves on the walls are brainwashed prisoners. They are tethered to the Cult's main altar. We are not going to kill them."
Elara blinked. She looked at the bone fortress, then back at Lucifer. "Not kill them? Lucifer, they are standing guard with poisoned arrows.
If we charge the bridge, they will loose a volley. How do we take a fortress without killing the guards?"
"We don't charge the bridge," Lucifer said.
He stepped up to the cliff's edge. He looked down at the bubbling, toxic green lake. The water was lethal. A single drop would melt bone.
But the darkness hovering over the lake was thick and absolute. The green braziers on the fortress walls only illuminated a few dozen yards. Everything else was pitched in shadow.
Lucifer turned to Elara. "You possess the Veil of the Void, do you not?"
Elara's golden eyes widened. "Yes. It is a stealth ability from my time in the Abyss. It wraps the user in absolute darkness, hiding them from sight and magical detection. But it only covers a small radius. I cannot cloak an entire army."
"You don't need to," Lucifer said. He unhooked the Zephyr's Grace Emblem from his belt. "You only need to cloak us."
He looked at the Cryo-Vanguard Captain. "Captain. Set your men up along the cliff edge. Find cover behind these stalagmites.
I want every rifle aimed at the fortress courtyard. When I give the signal, you fire at the necromancers. Only the necromancers. If you shoot a Star-Kissed Elf, you will answer to me."
The Captain slammed his fist against his chest armor. "Understood, Warlord!"
The one hundred snipers immediately scattered. They moved like ghosts, finding perfect vantage points along the high cliff.
They mounted their heavy ice-rifles on the rock formations, dialing in their scopes.
Elara walked up to Lucifer. She looked down at the lethal drop, then across the chasm to the fortress walls.
"We are infiltrating," Elara realized. A sharp smile touched her lips. "Just the two of us."
"Just the two of us," Lucifer agreed. "We bypass the outer walls. We locate the Cult Leader. We destroy the Altar of Decay. The moment the altar shatters, the mind-control tethers break. The Elves will stop fighting."
"And if we are spotted before we reach the altar?" Elara asked.
"Then we run faster," Lucifer replied.
He stepped closer to Elara. He reached out and placed his hand on her silver pauldron. The Warlord's aura wrapped around her, synchronizing with her divine energy.
"Activate the Veil," Lucifer commanded.
Elara closed her eyes. She drew on the dark energy buried deep within her soul. Her silver wings folded tightly against her back.
A thick, inky black mist began to pour from her armor. It swirled around them, expanding outward until it formed a perfect, light-absorbing dome. Inside the dome, Lucifer could see perfectly.
From the outside, they looked like an empty patch of shadow.
"The Veil is active," Elara whispered. Her voice sounded muffled, trapped within the bubble of darkness.
"Keep it tight," Lucifer said. "We jump on three."
They stood at the very edge of the cliff. Below them, the toxic lake bubbled. Across the chasm, the bone gates loomed. The dark elves patrolled the walls, completely unaware of the shadow gathering across the cavern.
"One," Lucifer counted.
He channeled mana into his legs.
"Two."
Elara bent her knees, preparing to launch.
"Three. Jump."
They leapt off the cliff together.
The Veil of the Void moved with them. They plummeted through the damp cavern air. Lucifer activated the Zephyr's Grace Emblem mid-fall.
The burst of god-like speed propelled them forward, turning their downward fall into a massive, horizontal leap across the chasm.
They shot over the toxic green lake like a bullet wrapped in shadow.
The dark elves on the wall did not look up. The Veil absorbed the sound of the wind. It absorbed the magical signature of the Zephyr Emblem. They were entirely invisible.
Lucifer and Elara slammed into the outer bone wall of the fortress.
Lucifer drove his sword into the porous bone to catch himself. Elara drove her spear in right beside him. They hung vertically against the massive ribcage wall, shrouded in absolute darkness.
A dark elf archer walked along the rampart directly above them. The elf's boots scraped against the bone. He stopped right over Lucifer's head, staring out across the bridge. He saw nothing.
Lucifer looked at Elara inside the shadow dome. He gave her a single nod.
The infiltration had begun.